Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Cousins-Mond dynamic, Jerry Burns and the Vikings' schedule with PFF's Eric Eager

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

Matthew Coller poses the question to PFF's Eric Eager: What if the Vikings traded Kirk Cousins now rather than letting the 2021 season play out and they turned things over to Kellen Mond for this year? It sounds crazy but Justin Jefferson's comments made it feel like the team is ready to move on, so why not pull off the band aid now? (It's just a thought experiment, Cousins fans, withhold your rage). Plus Eric shares his thoughts on the passing of Jerry Burns and why he was ahead of his time and Eric answers whether the Vikings have a mathematically tough schedule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop, from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button.

That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind when you want to hit the reset button reach for the beer that is made to chill get coors light in the new look delivered straight to your door with drizzly or instacart coors brewing company golden colorado and as always

celebrate Please celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here as always, and joining me for the first time post-draft, Dr. Eric Eager from Pro Football Focus and the PFF Forecast Podcast. What is up, Eric? How are you? I'm doing great. I had a meeting today for work and they're like, well, are you still recovering from Vegas? And as you know, Matthew, the schedule came out, so like I'm making sure all the systems are up, right? I've been up later the last two nights than I was in Vegas. I feel like either that's accomplishment or just me being lame. But, yeah, man, I think the official start of the offseason is today.

Yes, it feels that way, unless Aaron Rodgers gets traded, and then all of a sudden it's going to feel like, um, they're all in off season panic mode as well. It's like, take a, take a little breath. The funny thing is, is that I don't gamble and I don't drink. And yet I still love Las Vegas.

Like there's nothing like Las Vegas. I know that our friends at blue wire are building a podcast studio there. And so I'm like, you know, Hey, I know I cover the Vikings in Minnesota, but if you just wanted to relocate me to the Vegas studio, I think I would be okay with that. It's one of my favorite places on earth. Yeah, it was fun. I actually was asked to be on a Vegas

TV show to talk gambling with George. And I got to say, our compadres were so bad that like, we didn't stay long enough to like like, make it on the show. There's, like, a thing called Stadium Swim at the Circus Sportsbook. And then there's, like, a TV show that they have on the Vegas Sports Information Network. And I got to say, like, instead of just chilling out watching sports next to a humongous pool, some of my friends misbehaved, let's just say. Okay. I will not ask for details because of the saying like i don't think you can ask for details that's as far as you could take it so i have a question for you and we're going to get into some jerry burns discussion because he passed away uh as well as now that we've got the schedule set what should we think of this vikings

team versus its schedule and how tough is it by the numbers? I asked Will Raggett on the Friday roundtable that we just recorded to do it by feelings, how he feels about the schedule. You're going to have to do it by math. Now I'm going to ask this question and it is just, I want to preface it. I'm going to need a second. This is just a question. It's just something that came to my mind that I needed to ask someone else. This is not – so I'm just asking people to understand that this is just a hypothetical thought. You don't have to shut off the podcast because you're angry with me because I mentioned this, okay? But it came to mind when I was watching Justin Jefferson talk about the future of the Vikings at quarterback and talking about Joe Burrow's swagger, that maybe the Vikings should trade Kirk Cousins now.

And again, again, this is just a thought. It's just a thought experiment. Okay. It's a hypothetical. It's a hypothetical. This is a podcast. Okay. It's things we do here.

Tell me what you think though. Here, let me just, let me set it up. Let me set it up. I'll let you go as long as you want to go, but me just let me set it up let me set it up I'll let you go as long as you want to go but I just want to full set up my thinking when you're done with somebody you're kind of done with them and with the Philadelphia Eagles when they drafted Jalen Hurts at a kind of a similar spot like mid-second and early third are not that different they were kind of done and instead they just played it out last season and whether

they had made the playoffs or not probably wouldn't have really even mattered for how they felt about him uh joe flacco when they drafted lamar jackson it's kind of like well we're sort of done with you joe flacco and even if joe flacco could have still played better or wentz gets traded for what a first round pick i mean you when you're done with a quarterback and you signal it this clearly or at least you're thinking about being done would it be better to rip off the band-aid play a young player and do the Sam Bradford thing of trading away the guy for a future first round pick and playing your guy and taking some lumps but then knowing whether you have a quarterback for the future in Kellen Mond after this year or is that just stupid and it's okay if that's just stupid I can hear people say

what are you what are you talking about I want to win this year so okay reaction look I am the biggest hater of the Kirk Cousins contract you'll see. I said that I think he's a good quarterback. I think the contract is terrible. There are, in the NFC currently, there's not that many good teams. Not that many elite teams. Tampa's the one elite team in the NFC right now. Green Bay could be trading away their quarterback. There is a chance if Kirk has, let's say, his third consecutive, like, you know,

career year, I guess, that he could approach being worth the contract. However, these things, these stonks, anybody who has any Bitcoin will tell you, these things just don't go up all the time, right? So, like, Kirk is, like, the biggest trap of all time. If he plays great next year, they're going back to the table for another deal, right? The Kellan Mon thing's over, all that kind of stuff. And at some point, the stock's got to come crashing down, and this franchise is going to feel it hard, right? The way in which this team becomes great, like Super Bowl caliber,

is to do what literally every single team other than the Patriots, and now the Patriots are even doing it, have done over the past, you know, since 2011, which the new CBA, which is to draft a quarterback, surround him with great talent, and hope he gets over a bar that's far shorter than your bar for your quarterback, Kirk Cousins. I think getting rid of him early allows for that to happen more quickly. It's going to come at the expense of what a lot of fans want, which is meaningful games in December. Maybe. Mon could also be great.

I remember when Tony Romo got hurt in Seattle in the preseason of 2016 and everybody thought the sky was falling. And Dak Prescott did just fine, thank you very much. So I'm with you. The money is kind of weird, right? Like, they're going to have to incur a huge cost, but, like, those are basically sunk at this point. Yeah, I don't, I don't mind it at all.

Here's my thing. When the Philadelphia Eagles traded Sam Bradford and decided to start Carson Wentz, who might not be that different of a prospect than Kellen Mond, even though their draft status is way different. Now, knowing what we know about Carson Wentz, like that he is flawed, has some accuracy issues, can win games when everything is good around him, that if you were to trade away your version of Sam Bradford, like the Eagles just decided that Bradford was not going to be their guy going

forward. And they would have had a better season. That Philadelphia Eagles team that went, I think, what, 7-9 or 8-8 with Carson Wentz their first year, they were good. They had a ton of talent. The last year before that, Sam Bradford had some really good games down the stretch. But they didn't talk themselves into it and say, well, you know, his second half of the season, and we have heard this from Rick Spielman several times, is the second half of Kirk's season was really who this from rick spielman several times is the second half of kirk's season was really who he is but it kirk is exactly who he is and if his contract wasn't what it was i absolutely believe the vikings could go somewhere with kirk

cousins but the thing is that here's part of my thinking they could be a very serious contender if all the boxes get checked and everything goes right. But if a couple of things go wrong, this could be a house of cards. So if you're saying, what are the odds that Kellen Mond could play pretty well right away? I don't know. Maybe they're not super great, but there's some odds. What are the odds that you go to the Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins? Well, it's possible, but it's not super high based on his history and the strength of the team and some of the issues that they have.

So I guess I would be saying it would make for a very big splash and it would be very controversial if they were to do something like that. But I think that there is a case for it. And now, if I believed that the whole team and the whole organization was still behind cousins and they drafted mon just to be a backup and just to see what you have then i would go oh well you know okay this is crazy what are you even thinking but when justin jefferson the franchise player now the face of the minnesota vikings now says yeah i don't know maybe we're thinking about moving on from k. I don't know. Whatever.

I mean, that to me does not scream this guy has command of the whole team. Like this says, if it goes sideways, it could go really sideways because even the superstar player and the franchise player and the voice and face of the team now, Justin Jefferson, is saying, yeah, I don't know. I guess we wanted a better quarterback. Like in an interview on television. So yeah, I guess that's what I was thinking of, like rip the bandaid off. But I know that Vikings fans, they don't want steps back. And last year, they didn't want steps back and they took them anyway. And then they didn't want the full step back when they got to one and five, they still wanted to fight for the playoffs and got to 7-9, drafted 14th,

and missed out on Justin Fields. So it just – They didn't even want to lose week 17. Like I brought that – and, again, this tells you how like process versus results oriented. I know that if they would have lost week 17, they would have moved up one spot. But going into the day, you didn't know that if they would have lost week 17 they would have moved up one spot but going into the day you didn't know that right so you still made a choice to win a game that could have cost you

what amounted to like six spots right there was an outside chance they could pick in the top 10 and they would have gotten fields but like vikings fans don't even want to entertain that i mean yeah it's rough and and i don't know if the Wilfs do either. Like, they appear to be a team, you know, the Dalvin Cook signing was very much a, if we're ever on Monday Night Football, we need a face to attach next to the banner on Monday Night Football, and it can't be Kirk Cousins. So, you know, we just traded Diggs, like, all that kind of stuff. So, like, they're very much in this, like, let's tread water as long as possible.

Let's catch a, you know, a lightning in a bottle. But I'll tell you, we're going to talk about the late Jerry Burns, Matthew, and he's the last guy, the last guy to coach the Vikings to two playoff victories in the same year. Like, we talk about the Vikings catching lightning in a bottle is them winning one playoff game. That was in 1987. They lost the NFC Championship game that year on my second birthday. They're not – this isn't a team with storied long-term success.

They're not even – like, you know tampa's won two super bowls since then and they were a laughingstock during most of the vikings time with them in the nfc central it yeah at some point you got to sort of reevaluate your path towards this elusive championship don't you right and this is like a fundamental show belief. At Purple Insider, we believe that you should look through everything through the lens of the Super Bowl and not just having okay seasons. I mean, should I have a disclaimer on that every time we start the show? If you're a first listening to this podcast, I'll allow you. If you're a first listener to this podcast, we hang no banner except for Super Bowl.

I wouldn't even hang a NFC championship. Like, we won the NFC championship game banner. I would not, like, but win seven and nine in a season where you had no pass rush, your corners couldn't cover me or you, and the offensive line had Drew Samia starting at it. Like, by the way, that's your own choice, too. But, like, I just – aren't Vikings fans, like, just over with this? Like, do they not see that?

Like, take a step back. Like, I don't even want to make this about Cousins the player, right? It's not about Cousins the player. It's about the most important thing in the NFL right now is having Patrick Mahomes or having Aaron Rodgers, having Tom Brady. And all of us, you included, me included, will tell you that's a pipe dream, right? That's luck. That's lucking into it, right, 100%.

But you can get awfully damn close to where the Kansas City Chiefs are, the Bucs are, the Packers are, by drafting what amounts to okay at the position. Like, Carson Wentz is so bad that they're trading him for peanuts later on. Jared Goff, the Rams are paying him money to play for Detroit, right? And paying Detroit first-round picks for him to play for Detroit, right? And paying Detroit first round picks for him to play for Detroit. And those guys on their rookie deal are good enough to take teams to the Super Bowl. This is a very important point with why I had this thought was, I don't know Kellen Mond. I mean, I haven't seen him yet throw a mini camp practice throw yet but here's what i do know is that i

think today more than anything the difference between the very very good quarterbacks and i i'll just take my homes and rogers out of this but very good quarterbacks and the very mediocre quarterbacks is thin and what ultimately determines where you're going is strength of team here's what you could give someone else is a really good strength of team to start with and to build with and go forward with you get to immediately give your rookie quarterback contract to justin jefferson and adam thielen and delvin cook and irv smith jr i think that's a really great setup and now an offensive line that's actually built so you can wait a year and have this happen anyway, or you can do it now. And, you know, I think it would actually make for a really fascinating season.

It's going to go either way. Like if they somehow listened to this podcast and said, you know what, that's a great idea. We're going to trade tomorrow to Denver or whoever, you know. Like it would make for a super fascinating season to see how this whole thing played out in sort of a transition of eras in a way um no i don't think there is any percentage chance it's going to happen because mike zimmer wants to keep his job and rick spielman wants to keep his job but they're in a weird place because here's the other thing you avoid if you were to do this because you you avoid kirk cousins playing just well enough to make it a hard decision.

If Kirk Cousins has 100 quarterback rating and they go 10-7 and they lose in the first round of the playoffs or they win in the first round of the playoffs, maybe it doesn't make a difference, like then what? Do you assign him to the extension? Do you still trade him? Like what do you do in that case? But also that's the most likely scenario

so you sort of save yourself from yourself like think about if they had made the decision we're not going to extend him no matter what happens in the 2019 playoffs where would we be right now in a in a very different spot than where we are so you sort of save yourself from being talked into it's almost like this when and i've been making relationship comparisons for a while here with this situation. It is though. It's like they're marrying a QB. Yes,

exactly. Here's, so here's the comparison is you don't pick up the phone when her name pops up, right? Like she's going to try to get you back and the name shows up on your phone and you can either click cancel or you can accept the phone call. If you accept the phone call is 50, 50 shots.

She gets you back. So I don't know. I think you'd be, you'd be sacrificing maybe a season or maybe not. Maybe it does turn out to be like the Dallas thing. It's it's, I just thought it was a fun, I thought it was an interesting thought experiment. That's all. Yeah.

My, myself included. I mean, I think the, the thing thing is like I'm not trying to get all philosophical with people here but I'm gonna I'm gonna at least try a second there's no such thing as like failure in the NFL right there is success and learning and like the problem with the Kirk Cousins era is they've learned almost nothing you know like like i i think about and again i hate to like bring up kansas city but like they're the model franchise in the nfl so deal with it it's like they the the alex smith era taught them a lot right they they were 12 and 4 and a two seed they just realized tyree kill could be a player tra. Travis Kelsey emerged as the best tight end in football.

They found that Eric Fisher could finally play, Mitchell Schwartz, all that. And Alex Smith was just not enough. He was good enough to get them in that basin where they figured everything out. It's like with Kirk, it's like there's so much still left unknown, right? Like, Kirk has been fine. Like, in fact, the last two years, I think Kirk has been good. But, like, how much have we really learned about the Vikings? Well, if you don't have a defense, you can't win.

Well, yeah, but that's true about, like, that's not specific to Minnesota. You know, you found out Justin Jefferson was great. Yeah, you also found out Stephon Diggs was great, too, and he ended up wanting to leave because he didn't like playing with Kirk. You know, Justin Jefferson, his replacement, looks like he's ho-hum on the situation as well, by the way. So, like, how much of this is really – like, how much of this do we really need to, you know, be – really need to worry about here?

Like, I think this is a – this is a situation where the Vikings are very much stagnant and making this move would work out. Now, do you want to play it out the way that Philly did? I think you kind of do. I think you want to wait. You look at Denver, let's say. Denver swings and misses at Aaron Rodgers. They want to compete in the AFC West.

You wait, wait, and wait. Unfortunately for them, they have Bridgewater. It might be another situation where Bridgewater gets injured, and then the team trades a starter to replace him. The hard part now is there aren't that many teams that are sort of stuck here with just the one quarterback. The unique situation with Minnesota was they had Sean Hill smoking cigarettes and trying to be the backup quarterback when that opportunity hit.

Like, you know, who's the team the Vikings could flip Cousins to shy of a team that gets an injured quarterback? Washington. Like, does he go back? Did they call him Kirk this time? Yeah, probably not, though. I mean, they came to mind for – well, how about this? How about Miami? Like, I mean, they came to mind for, well, how about this? How about Miami?

I mean, if they were not sold on Tua and they just didn't say anything about it this whole time, how about Philly? I mean, if Philly decides, you know, this Jalen Hurts thing, it was sort of smoke and mirrors. We don't really want to have the pain of taking a step back. That might be an interesting one. Philly and the Vikings have traded before. I don't know. But this question is still going to come up for next year. I just wonder when it comes to answering this question,

I am treating the 2021 season like it's going to have all the answers for us. But there's also a scenario where you get to the end of it. And I think that some subscribers to the website have very astutely asked this question of like, but what if it's just okay? Like you sticking with Zimmer, you sticking with Kirk? Like, are you just trying to lower his salary cap on a short-term extension? What if he doesn't want to sign one? I mean, what if, we have not talked about this at all because Kirk is not like Aaron Rodgers who needs everybody to know what his inner thinkings are.

But what if Kirk said the moment they draft the Kelmon, I'm done. And if you think, oh, it's only a third-round pick, okay, go review Aaron Rodgers – or not Aaron Rodgers. Go review Ben Roethlisberger's thoughts on Mason Rudolph being drafted, right? So if you think that Kirk Cousins was totally fine with this and it's lost on him completely what Justin Jefferson said, well, no, he pays attention. I can promise you that.

So what if he said in his own mind or to his agent or whatever, I'm under contract, I'm going to play, but this is it. Like I'm not staying here. And then he does play really well. And then he does win 13 games. And then he says, nope, not renegotiating the contract. $45 million cap hit, baby. You made your own bed by drafting somebody else and taking jabs at me by comparing Kellen

Mond to Teddy Bridgewater, which I just thought, I mean, that is, they are good at passive aggressive here. But I mean, you know, they are good at passive aggressive here, but I mean, you know, like, like what if that's the case, then, then what, like, then do you feel great about this, or do you feel like, well, we would have rather won, you know, nine or ten games with Kellen Mond than 13 with Kirk Cousins or something, right, like there's, there's so many of these situations that you could sort of just forego having this final countdown and, and just go forward with the way that you clearly want to go forward.

But I think the holdup is for fans who are listening to this, like annoyed with me, the holdup would be they're really excited about the season and they want it to be good and they want to have fun games and they want to win games. And for, and for Mike Zimmer mike zimmer and rick spielman if you drafted kellen mond and traded kirk cousins and then went five and how many 12 yikes that right like then yikes then you're probably then you're probably talking about you know someone else coaching

right and and i don't know man like, I just don't know if you can. I just don't know. I just don't know what's like, it's gonna be really hard for that. Like, the problem is, I think is, is, again, that they're just simply not, it doesn't seem like they're willing to sort of allow the team to take a step back. You know what I'm saying? And that, I think, is going to be to their detriment. You know, like the fans. Like, you know, the fans just don't seem willing to let the team take a step back and get better, you know, get worse on the way to them getting better, which is unfortunate. Folks, if you are pumped up about how the Vikings did in the draft and now the schedule's out, it is a great time to get yourself a Skull Flag or Bud Grant shirt.

And, of course, there's much, much more. If you go to Sotastick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, check them all out. And if you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping on all your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. And if you're ready for the summer months, we're going to have hockey playoffs, so you can get your Dollar Bill krill shirts. And if you're a golfer, you have to see the Minnesota golf hats. They are classic. All of SodaStix apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies.

You will love it. Follow them at SodaStixCo on Twitter. printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. Follow them at SodaStickCo on Twitter. Go to SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Hey everyone, anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf. And that's why we have partnered with Birdie Golf in Woodbury. Birdie Golf is hands down the best indoor golf experience you will ever have. There are eight of the world's best golf simulators

where you can sharpen your swing and luckily for us, never lose the ball. But it's not just for hardcore golfers. Birdie Golf is for everyone. Bring the family, play arcade-style games while dining on great food in an upscale and comfortable environment. They have private bays for social distancing, a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio, and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights and the best boneless wings in the metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro,

and at birdiegolf.com. Or you can call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Yeah, so anyway, I'll stop there. I just found it to be an interesting discussion about where they stand. And if Justin Jefferson hadn't said what he said on Colin Coward's show, I probably never would have thought about it because I would have felt like, well, there's still a chance that Kirk Cousins is the long-term quarterback, and I suppose there is, but it feels a lot less like that when your franchise centerpiece going forward is saying,

yeah, well, Joe Burrow, man, at least he's got the swagger. I'm like, what? Yeah. Okay. Even one of the things about being a reporter is that no matter what is out there, there will always be someone who says nothing to see here okay like there's people doing this to the green bay reporters and i'm sort of casually watching just like you guys you guys are inventing this rogers stuff as rogers

doesn't speak publicly on it or whatever you know and so i thought wow justin jefferson's comments here were so strong you can't even say there's nothing to see here. So let's talk about Jerry Burns. You are probably a lot better at talking about Jerry Burns than I am, because all I know about Jerry Burns is that he was an innovator and an offensive wizard, and through his history, they were great at passing the football and ahead of their time with their passing attack, which I think, you know, he maybe doesn't get anywhere near the credit that he should because he's overshadowed by Bud Grant, overshadowed by Fran Tarkenton, but, and even other coaches of the era like Bill Walsh and things like that for offensive innovators, but belongs in the annals of great all-time offensive coaches in football?

Yeah, I think you said it well. And there's – unfortunately, I think for him, almost his, like, darkest hours were head coaching the Vikings at the very end, right, because you look at him, he has two Super Bowl rings with Vince Lombardi as an assistant. Then he's the head coach of the University of Iowa. Then he coaches 18 years as the offensive coordinator for Bud Grant, gets passed over for Les Steckle, and they go 3-13.

Then, you know, Bud comes back, coaches them to 9-7, or 7-9, I can't remember. And then he takes over six years, nine games above.500, three playoff appearances, an NFC Championship game, a division title, like a really innovative guy. And as you said, I think, you know, obviously Bill Walsh gets a lot more of the credit, but you're talking about one of the inventors of the West Coast offense. You know, talk about Sammy White, Ahmad Rashad, Anthony Carter,

eventually Chris Carter. You know, you had all these, like, Steve Jordan, Cameron Jordan's dad. You know, you had, you know, you have all these great players that played for him. You had Pro Bowl, he made a Pro Bowl season out of your guy, Tommy Kramer. He made a Pro Bowl season out of Wade Wilson. You know, he was the one who started Rich Gannon's career. So an amazing story, an amazing coach, one of the best press conferences of all time after a Rams game that they won

by kicking seven field goals in regulation, having to grind out of safety in overtime. And, you know, just an amazing coach. And then the funniest thing is I think one of the key reasons he was so good at coaching offense, it sort of demonstrated the dysfunction of the Minnesota Vikings. When they ended up trading for Herschel Walker, Walker was like an eye back, like a, you know, be in the eye.

And, you know, their 1988 season where they went 11-5, they were a couple loss away from the one seed. They're leading Russia at 380 yards the whole season. And they thought, okay, the running back is the next thing. And they go and get Walker. They trade away the future for a running back who didn't fit their scheme at all. And Jerry, unfortunately, very stubborn,

did not incorporate Herschel into the offense. It was a complete bust, and it ultimately ended their run. Even though you look back his last season, that team had Dolman, Gary Zimmerman, Randall McDaniel, Chris Carter, John Randall. You had five Hall of Famers just off the top of my head. Tom Moore was the offensive coordinator who is now of Indianapolis Colts fame. Randall McDaniel, Chris Carter, John Randall, five Hall of Famers just off the top of my head. Tom Moore was the offensive coordinator who is now of Indianapolis Colts fame. Monty Kiffin was the defensive coordinator who was the Tampa 2.

That was one of the amazing instances in Vikings history where I think Burns, much like nowadays, much like Cousins, very competent at what he does, but surrounded by something that was just a little off. And I think that's ultimately how I remember him. But he was, I mean, a very, very good coach. So fascinating to the Wade Wilson and Tommy Kramer, like who's playing quarterback this week. Benching quarterbacks used to happen all the time.

So if one guy doesn't have it, he's coming out of the game. The other guy's coming in. And the Wade Wilson 1987 season is – the reason I love it for Jerry Burns is because it was his, right? Like they had so much success with Bud Grant and, you know, Jerry Burns is operating these incredible offenses run by Fran Tarkington with a lot of checkdowns to Chuck Foreman in the backfield, which I think was, if you go back and watch those old passing games,

it's often like, and they launched another deep bomb down the field that was overthrown and intercepted for the 28th interception of Joe Namath's season. They were doing these things and you know here they are using a lot of the shorting shorter passing game out of the backfield to the running backs which really succeeded quite well and then Wade Wilson by the time you get to the the late 80s he's throwing the ball deep he's just letting it loose all the time which I think is great too that they had created this downfield passing attack that was really hard to stop with Wade Wilson but he got to own that.

He got to own this great season where maybe if a guy doesn't drop a pass, then you're in the Super Bowl. And it is classic Vikings to be able to say, you know, if they had gotten there, they probably do beat the Denver Broncos who weren't that great. But I just think that that's great for his career that he has that, that that is his. He owns that. No one overshadows that. Absolutely. And I think, you know, I thought they did it their own way back then.

They were always – it's kind of like now, right? It's kind of like now where if you don't have Montana, if you don't have Elway, if you don't have – eventually it was Aikman, you know, you weren't competing, right? You weren't competing long-term. Jim Kelly, Warren Moon. Like there were a lot of quarterbacks that were kind of in that tier. And to see sort of Burns, and Burns had the quickest hook, right? You watch these games on TV and Wade goes 0 for 3 on the first drive.

They throw in Gannon or Tommy Kramer. And it was a real fun throwback. quickest hook, right? You watch these games on TV, and Wade goes 0-3 on the first drive. They throw in Gannon or Tommy Kramer, and it was a real fun throwback, and, you know, I thought the innovation was, like, Tommy Kramer is the one that started the first playoff game in 87, and then Wilson took over because he was weaker and, like, took him to the NFC title game, and, you know, you forget that because, like, it was so commonplace for him to sort of go, you know, with the hot hand, you know, all the time. So, you know, a fun, you know, obviously, and I, and the, the episode of the show where you interviewed Patrick about, about,

about him was, was amazing. And I think the stories that, that a lot of folks have, you know, are sort of in the, in the minefield of, of, you know, sports journalism, I think the stories that a lot of folks have are sort of in the minefield of sports journalism, I think. Yeah, I'm very jealous of anybody who covered Jerry Burns. And like you said, the episode with Patrick Royce where he named his five favorite Vikings to cover all the time and I allowed coaches so he could tell Jerry Burns stories and they did not disappoint. That was a couple of months ago, so you can go back and find it if you want. But, and I tweeted it out also, that's probably an easier way to go find it, but super fun, super fun that episode. So 94 years old, a great football life for Jerry Burns. Now you make an interesting point that I wanted to tie back into our original discussion

because it's so classic Vikings to have like two or three quarterbacks or not have you know certainty at that position and I was just thinking as you were talking about how like there's there's fear about not having cousins because you know cousins is good and you know you're going to have a good offense and there are a lot of people who suffered through Tavares Jackson and Christian Ponder just these miserable offenses so now it's now it's good and you could throw touchdowns that are deep down the field to Justin Jefferson it's exciting but I was looking this up the other day team quarterback ratings in the Mike Zimmer era. And the Vikings were like seventh of all franchises for quarterback rating. And think about all the quarterbacks that came through.

Teddy Bridgewater was a 32nd overall pick. So not even an elite prospect. And he wins 11 games. And Sam Bradford comes in and has like a Pro Bowl caliber type of season. Played really well in 2016 with this receiving core and this you know head coach and then here comes case keenum off the bench goes 13 and three season and then here comes kirk and he sets career highs it's like in a way i almost want to be like hey if any fan base should not be afraid of saying let the supporting cast guide your next quarterback. It should be this one, right? Like, it almost doesn't feel right to have so much certainty with a quarterback. Yeah, I mean, Bridgewater's six games over.500 as a starter,

despite, I think, what we'll say, not playing that. I mean, he played well, good football player, you know, had a lot of potential, but wasn't, like, not as, he wasn't as good or as efficient as Cousins, but like per dollar very much worth, you know, what they, what they gave to him. Yeah. And even Bradford, like in a pinch did a good enough job. I felt, you know, they would have, you know, had got some better luck and some, you know, other players didn't get injured in 2016. They're probably in the playoffs. That, you know, it's so weird because, again, like, you know, you're seeing it right now

in Kansas City. Like, you know, the solution to having all, you know, four of your five offensive linemen hurt in the Super Bowl is not to sign the best offensive lineman at the highest price everywhere across your roster. It's to, you know, sort of find a medium solution. The Vikings, you know, the solution to your quarterback melting down in the NFC title game is not to

go find the most expensive one, but that's the one, that's what they did. And they're, they're sort of, you know, seeing the leakinesses of that sort of worldview here. Unfortunately, as, as they sort of climb into this, you know, next decade hereinesses of that sort of worldview here, unfortunately, as they sort of climb into this, you know, next decade here. But we'll see. I mean, I'm excited for Mond. I will say for Vikings fans, I know I haven't spoken about him so much on this show.

You're talking about a player who had a combined 10 throwaways and sacks last year. Very good at the stuff Kirk is not very good at. But you're talking about a guy who's 14 of 57 throwing the ball outside the hash marks past 10 yards. He doesn't have the accuracy or the arm strength that Cousins has. So what you're trying to do then, if you're going to insert him for Cousins, is the offensive line is going to get bailed out a little bit. The quarterback back there is better at dealing with pressure. He's better at avoiding the big negatives. He also didn't throw a lot of interceptions last year.

Not a lot of turnover-worthy plays, but not a lot of big-time throws. He had fewer than, I think, 12 maybe was the number last year. But can you handle that? I think you can if you can build a defense with the residual money. You can if Justin Jefferson remains brilliant. You can if the offensive line gets a little bit better and Dalvin Cook is still sort of the bell cow of your offense. I think they can get by with Kellen Mond, and what it also gives them is freedom.

Like the big thing, the reason this Kellen Mond thing is so offensive is because the Cousins contract gave them no freedom to examine the QB position at all. Guys like you and me were clamoring for Teddy in 2018. The reason we wanted to clamor for Teddy was it gave you out. If Teddy sucked, you move on. If Teddy was great, then you come back to the table. But with Cousins, you were married to Cousins, and you come back to the table. But like with cousins, you were married to cousins and, and you still are. And, and that's why it was so offensive that they went out on a date with this

other guy. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Um, so, uh, let's see the sack thing. I wanted to mention the sack thing real quick before I ask you about the schedule, because Jared Goff is an interesting one to look at for a guy who is, does not have great box car stats or box score stats, but he, um, does not get sacked a whole lot. I think it was like maybe 23 times all of last year, 22 the year before. I'm sure some of that is McVay, but not getting sacked will help you win football games. Like almost just as much as not having, well, you're not going to fumble a lot if you don't get sacked. And even an interception here or there on a deep pass or something is not as harmful as getting sacked and having to punt.

And the number of drives that got ruined last year with sacks is one of those like low key Kirk things that I think that Mike Zimmer sort of worn down on. And with the Kellen Mond, everything you described is exactly what Mike Zimmer wants. I don't even think that it would worry him that much if it wasn't super explosive, as long as it wasn't turning the ball over all the time, which they certainly did last year. One of the worst teams in the league with turnovers. So schedule tough or not?

I think we saw it as a middle-of-the-pack schedule from our numbers. It doesn't start out the easiest, right? So you go two road games, one here in Cincinnati, one in Arizona. The Arizona one might be tough because I think Cliff is good enough in an offseason to, like, scheme things up and be somewhat unique. And then he sort of fades away as the season progresses, you know? Um, and then you get two home games, but against two really tough teams. I think Seattle, you know, is, I mean, when's the last time the Vikings have beaten the Seahawks?

And, you know, Cleveland, I think, is one of the up-and-coming teams in the NFL. So, you know, it's going to be tough. I mean, I think you said to me prior, if they start 0-2, it might be really hard for them. I could still see them starting 2-2, 3-1, and then you get an easier stretch where you go home to Detroit at Carolina, although Carolina is the team that gave them fits last year. You know, and then the middle of the season, depending upon what Rogers does,

you have Cowboys, Ravens, Chargers, Packers. I don't think they're going to be favored in any of those games, followed by the Niners. So five games in the middle there where they might be underdogs in all five of them. So, you know, again, it depends upon what you think of the Vikings. If you think the Vikings are a good football team, then, you know, going to Los Angeles Chargers shouldn't be that big of a task.

You know, going to San Francisco and facing that team should be – if you think – if you're more like me and you think the Vikings are kind of an eight-win team, eight-and-a-half-win team, like, there are stretches of the schedule that aren't particularly favorable. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics.

And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688, extension 232,

to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. I got them at 10-7. What do you think? Too much? Too little? Right? Just right?

I'm trying to think. I mean, here's a couple bad beats for the Vikings, okay? Both Bears games are late in the year. Yeah, yeah. So you're getting, regardless of what happens to the Bears, if the Bears are good, then that's not great. If the Bears are bad but Justin Fields is sort of like in that Justin Herbert situation where they win four games down the stretch and sort of spoil things a few times, right, then it's still not good. You know, the only benefit of having the Bears at the end of the season is if Justin Fields is terrible, and I don't think he is, right?

Going to Green Bay January 2nd, I don't like, right? That's not good. So the last three, and then Rams are a home game. The last four games are tough. You count Steelers, too. I agree with Vegas. I mean, if I gunned to my head, now that the number is sort of skewed a little bit, I would go under eight.5 for them.

But this is one of those years where I bet the Vikings to win the division at 5-1. I thought that was a great number. It's now 2.5-1. So I'm sitting on the sideline betting the Vikings this year. I'm not taking a huge position. I think that the market really does understand that they're an average team now.

Whereas I think in 18 and then 20, they thought the Vikings were like a bird, you know, an up and comer in the NFC. I just didn't see that. I think that the market's really taking a play and wait and see approach on them. And I'm doing the same.

I'm also taking a wait and see approach on Aaron Rogers and whether he plays football for the green Bay Packers. So that bet could pay off really well for you if Rodgers does not play, and then we end up maybe even with an NFC East type of situation where no one is great but someone wins it. So, Eric, as always, I love the PFF Forecast podcast with you and George Hurry. And you guys did your Strongest Schedules, Weakest schedules weakest schedules podcast i already listened to that yesterday it wasn't up in the podcast feed yet but i was so interested to listen that i on

my jog played it on youtube in my pocket so that's that tells you the passion for the pff forecast podcast it's amazing i thought like we had i'm looking right now at the periscope is at 55,000 views it's like all for a schedule release I know like it's at 9 eastern and yeah that's the thing man I think that that's great I think that's great you know especially for Vikings fans if they have you and and your network and um you know the the fact of the matter is people love football and I don't think and and last offseason at this time it almost got into it almost got taken away from us so I think people are extra at pulling it close to them uh this time of year and and um you know we have four months till the regular season so I'm looking forward to spending

that time and sort of really you know uh watching some WNBA which starts tomorrow uh you know I uh kind of relaxing a little bit here that's right that's right so who's uh who's your WNBA, which starts tomorrow. You know, kind of relaxing a little bit here. That's right. That's right. So who's your WNBA pick? I am wearing my WNBA hoodie as we do this. And my wife is going to be calling the Lynx opener on CBS Sports Network. So I'm really excited about that.

I actually think not even being Homer as a Lynx season ticket holder, but I think they're going to be really good. I really do. I think Seattle and then Vegas and then the Lynx and then everybody else. Even Vegas, Los Angeles, McCautry, which is going to hurt them. They do get Kelsey Plum and Liz Cambage back. But that, you know, yeah, it's going to be a great year. I think, you know, what's great about that league is there's no shortage of great players,

and you get sort of competitiveness every night. You also get – this sounds weird, but, like, the game hasn't devolved into the two-outcome game as much as the NBA has. So you do get kind of a – like, the mid-range jump shot has value. The three obviously has value, which is awesome. Like, it's a fun game. They're also over in two hours, which is a nice, like, contrast to baseball, which is twice as long and half as entertaining. So, yeah, I'm excited.

The team I like this year, I bet them at 10-1 to win it all, is the Chicago Sky. I like – Cordy VanderSloot's like my favorite player in the league. Allie Quigley's great. They get Candice Parker. They've always been like kind of on the precipice of being decent over the past few years. James Wade I feel like is a good coach. And, you know, they've kind of missed – you know, Vandersloot's that sort

of superstar that is a little too erratic. And so I think if you bring Parker in there, sort of steadies things, and they'll never have a three- or four-game losing streak the way they have in previous seasons. So that's the one I like. I think that they're about as likely to win the title as the Lynx, but I think that they have a little bit more superstardom, even though the Lynx last season were supposed to be awful, and Cheryl Reeve did what she

does and made them competitive as she always does. I think it's great. It's a great summer diversion from the regular sports that all kind of suck this time. Yeah. No Bubbles is

great. I have my own little, what are they calling it, my own little pod. They've created little season ticket holder pods. So I have my two-person pod. And Manny Hill is going to go with me to the opener. So it's great. I'm excited. The only time you and I went, this was pre-pandemic,

but you and I went, I got to meet Sloan. It was the first time I've ever met the play-by-play person of a game after going to the game, I felt so privileged. And she, she, by the way, like, I'm not just saying this because she's your wife, but she's amazing at the play by play. Very, very good. And, you know, obviously for somebody like me who, I mean, you're the reason I got into women's basketball. Like the only reason,

you know, like I don't know any of the players. So like having actual like announcers is a way bigger value in a lesser known sport like that than something like football. Yeah. I would, I'd advise this for anybody, for anybody, for the WNBA, for the summer, especially since you're twins. Hey, yikes. With the twins.

They're not, they haven't been in forever. Not good. Not good. So they won the world series during jerry burns's last year's the vikings oh my god that's how long ago renee tassone is not coming through that door everybody just no chili davis whereas whereas renee tassone was just like some triple a player i don't know because i i won't go into it but i i was in college in rochester new york rochester red wings so they had all these guys like trevor plouffe was coming up and they were like oh I won't go into it, but I was in college in Rochester, New York, Rochester Red Wings.

So they had all these guys like Trevor Ploof was coming up and they were like, oh, he's the next whatever. And, you know, it went the way it goes. So, Eric, thanks for your time. Really appreciate it, man. And when you come up here to Minnesota, we'll go to a Lynx game. Awesome. Can't wait.