Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Darnold-Jefferson connection is heating up in Vikings camp

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Matthew Coller chats with Vikings fans about the impressive connection between Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson and why things seem to be trending more toward Darnold starting. Are we back to thinking he could take a big leap in his career? What's the realistic high end? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, home from practice at TCO Performance Center, where today we also got a chance to talk with Matt Daniels a little bit more about the kickoff and, of course, J.J. McCarthy as well. And the most interesting thing about J.J. McCarthy was that he talked about how he bounced back from bad practices. And, well, he's going to have another one that he needs to bounce back from because today was pretty rough. But I want to begin by giving you a scouting report on a particular player who stood out to me. He's tall. He's lanky. He's got huge hands and he could catch just about anything. If it's up over his head, he rises up to grab it. If it's outside the framework of where you'd normally expect a human being to catch a football, this guy finds a way to bring it in.

If it's behind him, he turns around, grabs it. If the cornerback is grabbing him as he's running his route, he shakes it off and makes the play. If he doesn't see the ball all the way until the very last second, this Minnesotaiking wide receiver finds it identifies it snatches it out of the air no matter what happens this wide receiver has emerged in training camp as maybe one of the best training camp players that i have seen it has been an incredible meteoric rise in training camp for Justin Jefferson. He Justin Jefferson is at it again.

Folks today was the fourth straight practice. Third straight. I think for him, cause he missed Saturday. The days are confusing me now. No yesterday. He missed yesterday, but he was back.

So either three or four straight days now for Justin Jefferson making mind-blowing catches, roasting cornerbacks, and you can be snarky if you want about the cornerbacks, but he is leaving a trail of them behind him in the dust, making play after play. There were no less than three to four eye-popping plays. I saw the Vikings just tweeted out a bunch of them. And it was just one of those practices where you are reminded that the best players in the world are on a totally different level than anybody else. There are so many receivers who come through year after year, undrafted free agents, seventh rounders, and they throw them out there and they hope maybe this guy can fill out a role.

Maybe this guy can make the team. Maybe he'll do some special teams and be wide receiver three or four. And there's one of one Justin Jefferson. And what is so fascinating to watch is this man operate at training camp, because if he skipped the entire training camp, if he had been doing that and negotiating his deal, we wouldn't have cared. We would have said, oh, you know, it's fine. He'll get out there and he'll be all right.

Last year, if he had taken veteran days and things like that, or it pretended he had an inner ear issue and sat out during the negotiation. Nobody would have cared or said anything about it other than, you know, your typical whatever about the contract. But as far as no one would have projected him to be worse, he doesn't have to do this. And yet he does every year now just annihilating the competition. And it was another great day for Justin Jefferson and how this relates to the biggest story out of the Minnesota Vikings is that every one of those passes

today to Justin Jefferson, a touchdown on the run where he had to make a sliding diving catch a corner type of route where he rose up and made the play on a perfect throw from Darnold one that was right in front of me where he shook off a corner spun around and caught it kind of back shoulder style they've all come from Sam Darnold every single pass that Justin Jefferson has caught in 11 on 11s has come from the same quarterback. And now that they have stacked days, we always talk about stacking days, putting together day after day of this connection with the most important player of the Minnesota Vikings offense is the guy that they drafted to be the bridge quarterback.

I'm sorry, the guy they signed to be the bridge quarterback, Sam Darnold, not the guy that they drafted in the first round who has been continuously working with the second team still. And this is pushing us farther and farther down the road of Sam Darnold starting week one and going from there. And today, as I was watching Sam Darnold deliver on-time passes to Justin Jefferson and knowing his background and how few great wide receivers he's ever had. I think DJ Moore is good, but go through the other ones outside of that. The Jameson Crowders, the Robbie Andersons, the Baxton Brerioses, and those guys, there's never been anybody like this that Sam Darnold has gotten to work with. I would even

say last year as he had a very good preseason and then when he got in, he looked good for San Francisco. There's nobody like this. Brandon Ayuk's going to make a lot of money. He's not Justin Jefferson. Debo Samuel's a really good player. He's not Justin Jefferson. The way that Jefferson can make everything right, all it requires is the quarterback to push the ball in his direction and to do it on time generally and to do it in his vicinity. way that Sam Darnold has played with Justin Jefferson over this last week has not just been where I thought it would be, which is ups and downs through training camp. It's been nothing short of outstanding. And that does, I think, reopen the door to having that conversation about what Sam Darnold could do for an entire season with Justin Jefferson.

For the most part, we have moved over to JJ McCarthy and the daily reports on him after the competition was seeming a little bit more neck and neck after the first few days. And McCarthy was practicing against the first team defense a lot early in camp, which also made you wonder, all right, are they doing that because they eventually want him with the ones Kevin O'Connell had insinuated that JJ McCarthy would start working with the ones that has not happened almost at all outside of just a couple of reps. So Darnold is extending his lead in the competition, which was already there because he had been the starter since day one, since he arrived and JJ McCarthy arrived, Sam Darnold had been QB one and there was never a practice where

he wasn't. But what I wondered about is when we got into the dog days of camp, which are also the time where the offense is installed and it's practicing what they know and not just learning the offense, but calling real plays and adding the reads to it, adding tweets to it, whatever they're going to do with the line of scrimmage. We're starting to get to the point where everyone's comfortable with what they're doing. And the more comfort Sam Darnold has, the better practices he has seemingly had. And especially when he is highlighting Justin Jefferson and even the day that Jefferson was out he was working the ball to wide receiver one at the time Jordan Addison but

today was an intense practice it went later into the day and we ended up just seeing a lot of highlight caliber plays between Darnold and Jefferson so why don So why don't we talk about it for a minute and jump in the comments section, questions, comments. If Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson, put it this way, if they have a connection that is as good as it's been so far in training camp over the last four to five practices, where they have been hooking up regularly over and over, and we know this offense is built for Justin Jefferson and they build the chemistry and they feel comfortable with each other.

And Sam Darnold does the thing that maybe Jefferson wanted Kirk cousins to do a little more often, which is just put the ball up in his direction. Even if he's covered, Hey, he's one-on-one doesn't matter. We're just going to throw it up. Even if he's covered, there's a safety over the top. Let's just throw it up. Give him a chance. Of course.

Yeah. That will lead to a few more interceptions, but what are our expectations? If I tell you that Jefferson and Darnold are starting to build something here in training camp, which. Okay. One day it's good. All right. That's good.

Two days in a row. Okay. which, okay, one day it's good. All right, that's good. Two days in a row, okay. But now when we're talking about a week's worth of practices over the last four that have been intense, where these two keep connecting over and over and over again, I mean, I don't know what the completion percentage of him throwing the ball at Jefferson is. I don't know how many have even hit the ground when he's thrown it toward Jefferson in these last four days.

So what would your expectation be then of Sam Darnold? If he has chemistry with Justin Jefferson, the arm to make the throws and is willing to put it up. But we also know from watching Sam Darnold, the potential downsides, though he has cleaned up the mistakes in recent days. What do we think he could do for a season over the entire year? Because at this moment, it is pointing heavily toward Sam Darnold as QB1 to start week one. And then we don't know after that because JJ McCarthy has done a really good job in camp, had a very difficult practice today, not many completions through one interception, but then another one that was actually even worse that did not get picked off. You'll never guess Theo Jackson once again was in the middle of

everything. He always is. I believe it was Metellus who picked off a pretty rough pass that he threw. Maybe it was in seven on seven, but in 11s, there was another one that easily should have been picked. It just was not clicking with wide receivers, with the offense in the same way that he has in some other practices. It was a pretty rough one. And so as Darnold puts together practice after practice that have gone very well, then we get closer to well it looks like sam

darnold uh is going to be qb1 that's where it's trending heavily now so if he does well with jefferson what type of season can he have i'll tell you where my bar would be and you guys can react to that and then we could talk about uh some other things that happened today but i mean this was really the main thing was how those two look together grenard didn't practice today not sure on that i guess we'll find out tomorrow from kevin o'connell haven't seen gabriel murphy i believe he got banged up maybe two days ago uh which is unfortunate if he can't play in the preseason game because he's a guy that has put himself on the the watch list uh those are the main things that came from practice today. Thayer Thomas made some catches that were impressive. Jashon Jones continues to impress me on a daily basis

with a lot of receptions that were on the passes that were complete from J.J. McCarthy. So those are some guys definitely to watch as we get into the preseason game on Saturday. And of course, anything that you want to throw in there that you are looking for on Saturday in, uh, I was talking to, to Will Raggetts earlier for a podcast. I mean, he said maybe the highest rated preseason, uh, TV, uh, ratings ever for a Vikings preseason game. I think he's probably right. So here's my expectation.

If Sam Darnold comes out week one and is right on point with Justin Jefferson and they're playing well together and he looks like he has in practice, we have to factor everything that has happened before for Sam Darnold. We can't just say, well, I mean, it look, if Sam Darnold we can't just say well I mean it look if Sam Darnold was 21 years old and he looked this way we'd be saying the sky is the absolute limit but we know from his playing time that there are limitations to Sam Darnold and sometimes that's reacting to defenses sometimes that's trying to do too much which he did talk about was something he was trying not to do, which is, oh man, I got to make a crazy play. And there was one today where he should have thrown it away.

He was rolling out to his left and just kind of flung it down the sideline. It fell incomplete, but it was not a pass that he should have thrown to a receiver. Maybe he did it just because it's practice. Maybe he did it because he's Sam Darnold. There are limitations to what he's going to do. The ceiling becomes a little more limited when you're talking about a guy who started as many games as he had. But I think of it as the absolute best version would be what we saw from Geno Smith last

year, not even maybe two years ago, but probably last year where there were some ups and downs. There were some pretty rough games. I thought two years ago, Gino Smith was honestly fantastic. Uh, but the last year there were teams solved them a little bit more. I had a little more bumps along the way, but still had a good season overall still comes out with a record that is put you right in the hunt for the playoff race. And I think that the most reasonable expectation of Sam Darnold, if he ends up playing the entire season and he has good chemistry with Justin Jefferson is that he throws for a lot of yards. I mean, 4,200 yards, something like that. Could be more than that. Justin Jefferson ends up with 1,300 to 1,500 receiving, handful of touchdowns.

We know that other guys get touchdowns a lot with this offense. And that in week 17 and 18, they are going into those games talking about, can Sam Darnold take a team to the playoffs? If this chemistry continues with Jefferson, then the Baker Mayfield season from last year is not out of the question at all.

And how did Baker Mayfield do it? And it wasn't perfect the entire way. That's for sure. He did it with Mike Evans. He kept throwing the ball to Mike Evans over and over and over and over again. And that's what we've seen in camp from Darnold with Jefferson recently is Jefferson, Jefferson, Jefferson, uh, over and over again. And it's also just a reminder. Yeah.

This is why you paid Justin Jefferson because Sam Darnold right now looks like a quality starting NFL quarterback in these practices. This is not me making a guarantee. Vikings reporter guarantees Sam Darnold will be the next Case Keenum or something like that, or Jeff George. That's not what's happening. It's not a guarantee of that. A reasonable outcome would be that he plays a couple of weeks and then they go to McCarthy. But in the case that he can consistently push the ball to Justin Jefferson, who has been such a high percentage of this offense, even with Kirk Cousins and take the occasional risk that maybe Cousins didn't have the occasional scramble that maybe Cousins didn't, then you could have a successful season with Sam Darnold starting.

And if you were to ask me, which you guys can in the comments, what I think is maybe the most likely outcome of this season based on right now, today's practice, what I saw, I think it's probably that. The range of outcomes is crazy. I couldn't even do a pie chart because there's so many of them. If I was trying, I would have to have like seven or eight different options of the way this could go. So it's only 15%, this 10%, that 20%, that, but the highest percentage right now that I would give after today's practice,

maybe it'll change tomorrow when I talk to you guys, if he throws three picks or something, but after today's practice, the estimation I would give of his season would be something like that. Something like Sam Darnold ends up playing a lot. If not the entire year ends up winning some games eight or nine gets them in the hunt, and whether they make the playoffs comes down to the rest of the NFC. That's the way he's played. That's the way he has looked as a quarterback during this training camp. And I will tell you the truth. I was very impressed by his arm in mini camp and his arm in the first few days of camp because he's a former top draft pick and he's got a great arm. But what I had expected was, all right, once the pads come on, this is going

to get a lot uglier. And at first it did the first, maybe two practices were pretty mid, if not bad. The first one with pads on, he threw a couple of picks. He looked a little bit shaky. And since then, I would say each one was a B plus or better since those first couple of padded practices. My expectation was that he was going to look a little more lost in there, that he was going to look a little more frustrated with Brian Flores' defense. I haven't seen that from Sam Darnold. I have not seen him going up against Flores' defense and looking like off kilter and confused and throwing the ball away

and taking sacks and so forth. There's negative plays. This is not Patrick Mahomes in training camp. This isn't every single play. He's just ripping throws to people over and over but it's been much better than I thought it was going to look after that first padded practice and I wanted to hold off a little bit after there were two in a row maybe three in a row that had gone really well but now when we've gotten to four, maybe even five, if you stretch

it out a little bit, it's time to say it like Sam Darnold, if he ends up blocking in the job, which I think he's very close at this point, would have a good season this year. If he ends up playing and if he ends up working the ball to Justin Jefferson in the way that he has most recently, it could, it could be a career revamping season for Sam Darnold, not a guarantee, but the odds of that after these last four days of practice and seeing those two work together, the raw talent that is there and the ability for Jefferson to just make everything work. I mean, there was even another one where he blew past somebody and the ball drops right in on him. Uh, it was something Darnold mentioned that was very important to him working the ball down the field this year.

And receivers are open as they usually are. It will be more difficult when they go up against teams that are game planning for them. It's just and yes, Bob, I know that the cornerbacks are hurt, but Justin Jefferson, that doesn't matter. With Justin Jefferson, one cornerback is hurt. One. One guy. Makai Blackman is hurt. And Fabian Morrow has been in the league for 10 years.

Caleb Evans has been in the league for three years. Byron Murphy Jr. has been in the league for five years. I mean, these aren't just randos that they pulled up from the UDFA market. Fabian Morrow played them last year. I think he was in that game against the Broncos. These are, these are guys who start in the league that, and it is while ones versus ones too, that early on, it was a lot of ones versus twos. This is ones versus ones. There's nothing bogus about Justin Jefferson blowing by NFL corners and making plays. This is something he does all the time.

What I wanted to see is the timing of these throws and the placement of these throws and the confidence of Sam Darnold in directing the football toward Justin Jefferson. And it's been very good over these last four days. If that ends up working out, I think they could win games and they could be very competitive with this duo. And by the end of the year, we might be talking about, we might be talking about, hey, how much is Sam Darnold going to get paid somewhere else? And someone else said to me today, this was how good it was looking today with him and

Jefferson. So what would he have to do for the Vikings to tag him? What would he have to do for the Vikings to stick with him for another year? That's how it was looking today. I know, as Mike Zimmer once said, getting a little high on the oats here. It was just a practice. But the padded practices with the offense and defense installed, these are the best look that you're going to get at this team better than a preseason game

where it's one third of the team or one fourth of the team. Now, I guess it can't be one fourth where it's half the team out there. So I think that what's happened with Justin Jefferson, this is something we've seen before when he played with Nick Mullins, he was open all the time as well it's also not like we have no sample of him playing with someone other than kirk we do have it's small but we do have it and we've seen it uh and that points you in the direction toward it's not you're not a psycho if you say to your friends at the water cooler or in the Slack chat, hey, you know, the Sam Darnold thing sounds like it might be working so far. It is it is working so far. And this might be why Kevin O'Connell believed in Sam Darnold to bring him here and told people that that he talked to about Sam Darnold, that he really thinks he could turn his career around here. It wasn't just let's grab whoever they wanted him for this reason. And it's paying off at this

moment or looks like it could pay off in them having a competitive season. And if they miss the playoffs and go nine and eight and have Sam Darnold as a starting quarterback and Jefferson ends up with 1400 yards. There's a lot of entertainment value into that season. And then you also allow JJ McCarthy to continue to develop. And that was the other part of today too, is just a reminder that JJ McCarthy is still coming along and there will be steps up and back and up and back. JJ McCarthy, I am not taking away from what we've seen so far as much as I am just saying that Darnold has continued to stand out. Because this is exactly what I thought would happen with JJ McCarthy. He's been more accurate than I expected. He's run the offense pretty well, confidently gets the guys lined up and is leading the team and is handling everything

very maturely. But at the same time, he's 21 still. And every once in a while, there's a practice where you're like, okay, yep, he's still 21. That still happens. And we're not going to react like it's the Boston media or something and declare him to be a total bust after one bad practice. But I think we're seeing the difference between someone who's done this for many years and someone who is just starting to do this. So there you go. Thoughts reactions. I became more convinced than ever today that Sam Darnold could do this. He could do the thing that Gus Farratt did, that Jeff George did, that Randall Cunningham. Well, Cunningham was great before that, but you know what I mean.

Jim McMahon banged up, came in here, threw it to wide receivers, and it worked out. And then most recently, Case Keenum years ago, I don't think it's an NFC championship team with Sam Darnold. I'm not going crazy after this, just saying that when it looks this good for this long with that connection, you can win games that way. And then they get Hockinson back and we go from there. So that's where it is at the moment. Things change on a daily basis with this. And yeah, Bob, we'll see how it works out against the Cleveland Browns for next week

in the joint practices, because I mean, that might be the best defense in the entire NFL. I'm sure that's why Kevin O'Connell wanted to practice against them, is that they are one of the best, if not the best and most talented in the NFL. Uh, I don't know how many reps Miles Garrett and Christian Darasau are going to go at it, but Holy moly, that is some kind of matchup with those two. Uh, that, that'll be really interesting. The D line versus the Vikings offensive line. Uh, they got good corners, everything, a Wusu Coromoa is there everything uh they have it may as far as the outcomes go it may still end up being what we originally would have guessed which is that

darnold starts the season has some ups and downs they go to mccarthy when he has some downs but as far as the way it looks right now from this body of work, it looks more like Darnold could make them very competitive on offense. And even if he has those, the occasional three pick game, uh, have more success than failure because of his connection with Justin Jefferson. That's the takeaway today. And it could change, uh, quite a bit, but today was the day that I walked off the practice field and said, okay, I'm going to say it. It's time. It needs to be said that this is looking pretty good.

I'm not calling him Joe Montana, but it's looking better than you would have expected. And now joint practices will come up. I don't know if we're going to see Sam Darnold at all in the preseason. We may, we may not. If we don't, then we really know. I mean, if, if Darnold doesn't play, uh, Preston, is there anything official? No, no, not yet. Uh, tomorrow. And guess what? We'll do another show on it tomorrow. Uh, but, uh, Kevin O'Connell said that he is going to announce, it's going to tell the players what's going to happen. He's going to announce to us, uh, potentially the quarterback plan. At least I got that impression that that's what he was going to

do tomorrow is to tell us what the quarterback plan is. So then I will bring it back to you, of course. But if Darnold doesn't play, then he's set. It's his job. If Darnold plays a little, it might still be pretty set. If Darnold plays a lot, then it isn't. If Darnold's out there for the entire first quarter, first quarter and a half or something like that, well, then that tells you that maybe I'm overreacting. But if he takes one series or if he doesn't play at all, doesn't even dress, then Kevin O'Connell is treating him treating him 100 the same way as he would qb1 so there you go a big day a big stretch for the vikings bridge quarterback who looks more and more every day like he will be doing some bridging between uh kirk cousins and jj mccarthy

uh freedom thinkers says i heard thayer thomas had a hell of a day today yeah he was out there doing it uh i think thayer thomas has put his name on the map if you're asking two receivers that i really want to see thayer thomas and joshua jones are those two guys for this preseason game because it always comes down to proving it in the preseason when it's wide receivers. Yeah. You can make catches. If you're the depth guy though, you can make catches in practice, but you should, even on a Kevin O'Connell team where they don't care that much about the preseason, you should still be making plays, uh, on the, on the preseason field as well. Uh, and, uh, also, you know, you guys get to get your first look at some of these guys you haven't seen joshua jones you've only heard his name a bunch of times uh maybe you saw a

little of thayer thomas last year but i think he's progressed and he's made some plays so uh sloth says what i'm hearing is that 15 years from now justin jefferson will induct sam darnold into the hall of fame well um cra um, crazier things have happened. Uh, how old was Steve young when it clicked for Steve young? And maybe it also may have clicked in part because he had Jerry rice and one of the greatest coaches of all time and Roger Craig and John Taylor and so forth,

uh, that might've also helped him. And then Tara Lowens came along. It makes a difference and it's not it would not be the first quarterback ever I'm not saying he's Steve Young it would not be the first quarterback ever to have it click in in their mid-20s after someone had gotten rid of them the odds are not great if we're doing, it's still a major underdog for him to have a great season. It's just that there's those percentages are spread out over four or five different outcomes.

There's the crazy outcome, which you're describing, which is Sam Darnold is not just Gino Smith. He's even better than that. He's he's some he's on a completely different level than he's ever been. He's a new man and he's a star well that's not a high percentage it's like a two percent type of thing there's a next level down where someone says in a meeting before a playoff game is this guy going to be our quarterback next year too that's still like a five percent type of thing. But the next level down from that is a nine and eight, eight, nine season where Darnold has 25 touchdowns and 13 picks and throws for a bunch of yards to Jefferson. And there's wild games every week. That's becoming more likely in my mind than it was before, because I would have given the highest odds even a week ago to Sam Darnold plays five games.

And then JJ McCarthy comes in. Now I think I'm giving it a little more to Sam Darnold is competitive on a weekend and week out basis because of this thing he's got going on with Justin Jefferson. That's that's just where we're at right now. Brian says, has anyone asked KOC about what he has seen in terms of growth from Sam Darnold so far? I don't remember if that question specifically has been asked that way, but he has talked

about Sam Darnold a number of times about how and Darnold, they both kind of said the same thing about him, which is if he learns to just operate the offense and not try to do too much, then he can have success. And he has on a number of occasions in this pre-season or these practices leading up to the first pre-season game, he's throwing check downs when something is not there. He is playing it a little safer. And then every once in a while, he really goes for it with his arm. But that's what they've talked about is his growth is mainly in getting it into his head that he doesn't have to be the franchise quarterback,

the top draft pick every single time he goes out. That he doesn't have to take a team that's losing all the time because of Adam Gase and try to make crazy plays. But that doesn't erase that that happened, that those numbers happen, that those bad games happen. And that's why the farthest I would really want to go is something like competing at the end of the year for a playoff spot for that last wildcard spot because there's just too much history of games that are total no-shows we saw three quarters of one against caroline in 2021 2018 it was it was a total no-show from him we've seen too much of that to know that like that's a that's

in the bag and that will happen x number of times but But we also called it the Kirk coaster. I mean, this happens to a lot of quarterbacks. There are very few that are just totally consistent the whole time. I think Darnold will have more downs than maybe some of the better starting quarterbacks, which would put him in that middle range. But the difference oftentimes between a starter who's in the back end versus a starter who's in the back end versus a starter who's in the middle range is really supporting cast offense.

Schedule is going to be pretty tough, but what he's got around him, Andre said, I'm more worried about opposing defenses against Darnell. Well, that's certainly true, Andre. And we can only, we can only know what we know right now. I can only tell you what I know at this very second, walking off a very good practice for Sam Darnold. And I can say to you that something's happening there. There's a connection there that is budding between Jefferson and Darnold. And when that happens, there's potential.

And I can't help, but keep going back to the Mullins thing. He just kept throwing to Jefferson and it just kept working. And if you don't throw four interceptions a game, you got a chance to win, or you got a chance for some high entertainment value, which could happen. Where this could get a little hairy is if they lose some games

close and they are two and four or three and five, and it would make total sense to just turn it over to McCarthy. But Justin Jefferson is crushing it and leading the league in receiving or something because Darnold keeps throwing to him all the time. And then, okay, is Jefferson really going to want to change if it's working out for him or, you know, I don't know. There's so many different things that can happen. But today was the day where I wanted to flip the switch or put out the puff of white smoke. It might be happening with Sam Darnold, you know, but it's only, it's only to that level. You know, I like

to do the meters to kind of really let you know where I stand on something. It's in the yellow with him. It's not in the orange. It's definitely not in the red. I'm not coming out of their 11th practice and saying, this is going to be an all-pro season for this quarterback. I'm more in the yellow of, I think we should talk about, especially because of McCarthy's

lack of first team reps. I think we should talk about Sam Darnold starting and what the expectation for him is and what he could be this season for them. And my answer is could be, could be there on a weekly basis because he has the talent to do it. He could also, and likely will frustrate the ever-loving heck out of you from time to time because we know that that's there jefferson just has a way of making things a lot easier than any other receiver in the league and that's why he's the highest paid

they didn't do that for funsies they did that because he makes quarterbacks a heck of a lot better than they actually are. Evan says, I want to believe in Sam and JJ's ability to elevate. I assume you mean Jefferson to elevate the game. But I think that it's entirely possible. Jefferson has a record year and Sam does average and we go eight, nine, nine, eight. Yeah. I mean, but if if I think about it this way if sam darnold started the entire season and they went to detroit on the final week of the season and we were saying

you win and you're in and sam darnold's got the pressure on his back justin jefferson's already got 1500 yards continuing on his historic pace to start a career and all that that to me is a very successful growth season now to some of you it might not be a success unless jj mccarthy plays to me jj mccarthy continuing to develop i don't need that rushed that's okay with me if you do what you said you were going to do, which is be competitive with Sam Darnold as the bridge quarterback, it's why they signed him. Uh, Joshua says, Darnold is a rental. Whatever happens this year, he's not resigning. This is J max team, a hundred percent or JJ Mac. Uh, Oh, I I'm aware of that. Although 100%, there is nothing that is 100% in football ever.

And here's how I know Brock Purdy is the franchise quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. The guy was the last pick in the draft. The third pick in the draft is a backup for the Cowboys. Now we get over things fast because there's always something else. That's one of the craziest things that's ever happened ever in sports is for Brock Purdy to take that job. Almost as crazy as Tom Brady doing the same thing once upon a time. We can never.

Kurt Warner showed up from the indoor football league in the Iowa Storm Chasers or something and ended up winning a Super Bowl. You can never say that we know for sure something is a hundred percent, but in terms of likelihood of outcome, yeah, a rental, a bridge quarterback, we call these things for a reason. You know what it could be is a Ryan Fitzpatrick type of season where Tua was on the bench, Fitzpatrick was winning. But I mean, I think at this, in this team, they wouldn't push Tua onto the field because maybe that was an ownership decision or something that they had to play

Tua at some point but here the owners the GM the head coach seemed to be on the same page but if it is a Ryan Fitzpatrick type of season where you're in games and they're developing the court of the other quarterback on the bench behind watching Sam Darnold. And by the way, Sam Darnold's a great guy for, uh, JJ McCarthy to work with. I mean, he's been through a lot in the NFL. He's seen numerous different offenses. He handles himself as a pro. And if he were to watch him go through the rollercoaster, that is the NFL that would help him prepare for the following season. I've never had any issue with that. And that percentage chance

grows by the day of potentially happening. So the fact that we have many different outcomes makes it never endingly interesting to talk about. But that's how I feel today. Things can possibly change. Matt says, is Darnold a reckless as reckless as Mullins, but with a better arm, probably lots of touchdowns, lots of picks. Well, no, no one's as reckless as Mullins. Mullins is legitimately the most reckless quarterback in the entire NFL. The only quarterback that is on his

level. And this is statistically speaking is Jamis Winston. I'm not even kidding. Like they are, they are one in two when it's like the turnover worthy play rate, the interception rate. I think over the last 17 games for Nick Mullins, he has something like 24 picks. It's it's wild, but also averages eight yards per attempt. No, Sam Darnold is not like that at that level. His turnover worthy play rates was high and was in many of the seasons that he started top five. Darnold's was, but Nick Mullins was like blowing the competition out of the water. The thing is that was interesting to look into was those, the last section of games that Darnold played.

And so I even threw in his preseason performances, which I know is not fair to do, but just to look at his turnover worthy play rate since 2022, just in the most recent sample. So I took 2022 with Carolina, preseason with San Francisco, and the two appearances with San Francisco, or at least the game that he started and the game that he came in for Purdy. And his turnover-worthy play rate was reduced significantly.

It was more into an average ballpark in that sample. That's a small sample. It is cherry picking that sample. Yes. But if he does that here and throws to Jefferson a lot, you have yourself a competitive season. Grateful dad, 78. The run game will be important for Darnold. It will because in 2022, Darnold ran,

I think 37% play action rate, which was one of the highest in the league in those handful of starts. I think it was six total starts that he had at the end of 2022. And so they were using the run to set up the pass a lot. Now I haven't seen them doing a million play actions. Like this isn't going to be one of those wide bootleg type of systems, but that those are the types of things that Sam Darnold needs to succeed is easy buttons in an offense. Like, as you're mentioning, this was something else I looked at with Darnold, where, how did he perform versus the rest of the NFL on third and second and long

obvious passing situations where he'd be trying to make a play versus more favorable 50 50. And no surprise, he was about the worst quarterback in the league when he was having to try to do it all himself on third and long second and long, but more average when it came to those more favorable situations. So your point I think is completely correct that if you can create favorable spots for him, if you can hit on screens, which they have been working on a lot, if you can hit with Justin Jefferson and click with him on a weekly basis, you can put together good quarterback play. Great is likely not on the table. Good would not be the craziest thing I've ever seen. And I, and having seen it in front of me, I think I've said this to you guys before about training camps in my experience of

training camps is you get a sense for things. You get hints about things. You walk away from a camp and you go, all right, I think I got a feel for this team is I got, I got a feel for how comfortable Kirk cousins is. I have a feel for the offensive line, the defense, what can happen. And sometimes we're shocked during the season. But even last year, just for example, we came out with a sense like

Metellus and pace, like these guys, we had no idea going in, but I think they're going to be guys this year. And then they turned out to be, uh, there have been other times where, you know, something happened or looked better or worse than it was going to, and it turned out okay or different, but a lot of times it's a feel thing and right now the feel thing on uh sam darnold is it feels like he's running a pretty good operation as their starting quarterback in camp can you carry that over or are we going to go to new york and he's gonna throw three picks and we're gonna talk about jj mccarthy right away. I mean, I don't really know. Uh, Brian says maybe there's a pie chart exercise for Sam Darnold after the first five games, chances in the top third middle or

bottom third and quarterback rating. Oh, that's a good one. I like that, Brian. I like that pie chart suggestions are always welcome, but you gotta make sure you get the, uh, the framing correct. This is where he did a great job. Brian is you gave the three options makes, makes it pretty easy for me to say this, this, and this percentage, if it gets too convoluted, then it can be very difficult.

So I would guess that the chance he is in the top third after five games is probably only about 10%. Top third would be top 10 he's a guy that has too many interceptions to be in the top 10 and like that that kills quarterback rating in the middle third though from what i've seen so far and i know they're playing some hard teams and tough defenses. I would probably go middle third is like 50% and then 40% would be bottom third. So yeah, I'd go 50, 10 and 40% because there is that, there is a still coin flips chance about that. He would end up just not playing all that well, making too many mistakes.

And what I've seen in camp doesn't end up just not playing all that well, making too many mistakes. And what I've seen in camp doesn't end up carrying over. But my point is a lot of times it does. And certainly Jefferson carries over to the field. That's where I, if it wasn't Jefferson, if it was just whoever, if this was Bobby Wade, I would be like, okay, well, it's just camp guys. So let's not, let's not be talking about this as a real thing, but it's not Bobby Wade. Sorry to him for the drive by there, but it's Justin Jefferson. Uh, Sean says, uh, I'm curious if Darnold is anticipating where JJ is going or just throwing, uh, to an open JJ. The other thing is he hitting in stride. JJ doesn't have to slow down.

Well, that's the thing is, that's why it's been so impressive. Two of his throws today were dropped. One was dropped in the bucket where you throw it up over the guy and he just runs into it. And some of his deep balls have been that way. And I think the Vikings tweeted out a couple of these

if you want to see them. So you can verify that these all happen uh but they tweet out you know the daily highlights and so forth but it has been with darnold this is the wild thing about sam darnold is he can do all the arm things that we talk about. He can throw with anticipation. He can drop it in the bucket. He can let it rip and put it on a guy. It's always just been this matter of too many picks, too many sacks,

too many games where he goes seven for 24 and where it just seems like they've completely solved him. That's really the difference is that the downs have been so far down with him. Even in Carolina, we had the better stretch. One of the games was just absolutely terrible. And we're going to see that. That's why I'm not saying he looks like a franchise quarterback or somebody they should be extending and trading JJ McCarthy. If I want to take Skip Bayless's position on FS1, then maybe I'll try that.

But that's we're not quite there. We're maybe at the point where I'm saying, you know, the ups of this could be pretty good and there will be the downs. But there's been a lot more ups than downs in camp. Jordan says, curious, how close would you say flores is calling uh his defense to what you typically see on sundays is he really um uh min maxing mccarthy all that often i i'm not sure what you mean by like min maxing um but uh do you mean like is he calling the real defense that he would face if he was going against JJ McCarthy? Yes. And no, they're calling their defensive scheme. They are not game planning. Those are two different things. If you are facing off with CJ Stroud, but then going up against Kirk cousins, those are two different conversations although those offenses are

similar i should have picked something way different uh but you know what i mean if you're going up against the giants and then the 49ers those are two very very different offenses so you will mix in different plays that are part of your scheme and you will have details so this player against that player here's what we're going to do for that specific matchup. It all becomes matchups. Here's how we're going to stop Christian McCaffrey. Here's how we're going to stop Nico Collins. Like that becomes the game to game, but this is the scheme. And as far as what you're asking about him calling it, McCarthy even mentioned that he's exhausted at all the different looks.

And maybe that's what happened today is that they turned up the looks on J.J. McCarthy and made it a difficult practice. I mean, Flores Flores frustrated Kirk early in this camp. He frustrated Darnold and he is certainly frustrated McCarthy. And sometimes when I think that they're saying at the podium like well that that old Flores man he is defense sometimes I think they're saying can you let us just run a play here without sending all this crazy stuff but that's what he does and he makes it very difficult on the quarterbacks uh so McCarthy has gotten the full breadth of what they do in training camp. Clearly, though,

they're not going to be game planning for McCarthy based on tendencies. They have all these pages of data where they look through of personnel packages and success rates for going to this guy or doing this thing. Like there's there's a lot that goes into the game planning that's different, but this is the scheme. This is definitely the scheme. Evan says, I think we missed the playoffs because the NFC North is so good, but I also think Sam would have to lead a playoff run

to get tagged. There's no question about it. The bar is unbelievably high to have any further conversation than the one we're having right now. The conversation we're having right now is, Hey, this could be pretty entertaining between Darnold and Justin Jefferson. And you know what? It might look like the Nick Mullins show only maybe slightly fewer interceptions, but it might look similar. It might be, Hey, they're kind of

throwing it all over the place, but they're making mistakes and the games are all over. You know, they're, they're pretty wild and they get, you know, big numbers and stuff, or maybe there's one week where it's just horrible and you don't understand it at all. What the heck happened? Uh, we haven't seen too many games in recent years that are just over early that might happen uh or you know there might be games where we haven't seen a quarterback make crazy tight window throws and scramble and but we might see that too uh it's all going to be very new from what we see but nobody's pushing this to the point of hey there's a real chance they don't play McCarthy. No, no, no. McCarthy is the future.

He is the franchise quarterback going forward. And he's had a good camp. And they should be happy with where he's come. They should be happy with how he leads the offense and his teammates. And the highlight real plays that he's made and the talent that he has. They should be very pleased. And I said this the other day. I would stick with it is like, look, there is, I think a good chance that McCarthy would be fine. If you had to start him that, that he wouldn't be a disaster by any means. But now that we're

seeing Darnold start to extend what I think is the lead in the competition. If there ever was one or solidify this QB one role over the last few practices, then we start to turn our attention back to, all right, it's starting to look more and more like Sam Darnold. So what does that mean? What type of season, what type of expectations, when is he, you know, what type of numbers? And I enjoy that conversation as well uh evan says if sam and other starters don't play do they play in the other preseason games uh this would be the one because they are definitely not playing in the next one the next one is going to come after the joint practices and nobody from the first team ever plays in that one after the joint practices

because they get the bleep beat out of them in the joint practices. And then the last one. So, no, this is the one. If Darnold is going to play a lot, it's going to be this one. Wade says, I'm a California-based Vikings fan. I made it to my first practice today. Hey, you picked a great day, man. It was very pleasant out there.

Couldn't find you out on the field. We're reporters for practice. I was, it was very pleasant out there. Uh, couldn't find you out on the field, uh, where reporters for practice, I was probably underneath you. Uh, so the, the place that I usually stand is, uh, there's the stands with the fans, uh, behind me. And there's a track that goes around the field, uh, and it goes right in front of the stands. And that is generally the best place to see the plays, but it's also where we can get a little shade on sunny days. So I stand there and there's a lot of friends and family members who are walking around there. But that's where I usually stand because I feel like I can see the plays develop pretty well from there. It's worked out kind of over the years, but especially when it's really sunny, there's not a lot of shade. So I can get a little bit if I stand next to the stands,

but you see, you know, you could see, can you tell which side of my face faces the sun right here where it's beet red? Um, but you know, it's, it's, it's a great view. It's incredible to see Justin Jefferson. Uh, if you could see where all the weeds were, if you've seen any of my pictures on Twitter, where there's a bunch of weeds that go and they kind of stop the football from scooting away. I'm behind those. That's where I was. Man Juice says year two and three has always been the standard for JJ McCarthy.

Hope that Sam takes the reins. Yeah, I agree with you. And once you see a couple of reports that McCarthy's had good practices, then all of a sudden, especially when there's some fan videos out there, there's always a jump to, whoa, McCarthy looks great in practice.

He's got to get out there. He's got to play. Sam who? Never heard of him but i don't think that kevin o'connell quesadilla fomenta mark wilf justin jefferson i don't think any of them looked at it that way and i'm also sure that when jefferson got a few catches in minicamp from sam darnold he went this guy can throw the ball uh that's that's coming in pretty hot so uh last night 85 says darnold has always had the arm talent uh most of the mistakes he makes can be fixed we'll see because there's

i think of it like they used to talk about this thing called panic point in hockey i don't know if any of you are hockey people but when i used to cover hockey and i would talk to scouts because i covered the minor league so scouts would around. They would talk about with defensemen because turnover is a huge deal for defensemen. They would talk about panicking. And I don't know if Darnold can truly improve the panic point to where he's just going to revert to, uh, well, this is what I do. I just flip it up for grabs, or I just throw it over the middle to a place where it's not supposed to go. Or if you can change the fact that maybe there's an ability to scheme for him in some ways for

other teams, like that's probably out there. The scouting reports, the data, all that stuff, they know every single weakness to a quarterback's game and they're going to try to put them under pressure. They're going to try to limit the easy things that he could do and the deep shots down the field to make him complete pass after pass after pass. I'm sure of that. So how it goes after that will be the determining factor of how much he has improved or not, or whether, as you said, those weaknesses can be fixed. I do believe that his weaknesses have been improved upon in his last 17 starts, his last 18 starts, whatever it was that he has

been better. Well, I wouldn't go, I shouldn't go back that far. His last seven starts have looked way better than they did before. And when I looked at the numbers and I watched both 2021 and then 2022, and then when he played in San Francisco, it looked like a different person in some ways because 2021 was so bad for them as an offense. After he started out, that was a crazy season. He started out the first three games. He was actually awesome. And then everyone figured out their offense and defenses just knew exactly what they were going to do.

Matt Rule is a college coach, my friends. Kevin O'Connell is an NFL coach and Justin Jefferson is the best receiver in the NFL. It's very different. Rule was in and out of this league. He showed up and was there for like, what, a year and a half or something? Two years? And they signed him to this massive contract and gave him all that money and he was just gone?

Like, that's the coaching that this guy has had. What about Bob says, my already high esteem for KOC would go up if he could get Sam Darnold to the playoffs while molding McCarthy into a 15 year starter, 15 year starter would be something, but maybe just let's give them the first five and see what happens. I think it's plausible to compete for the playoffs, to be in the hunt, to be there in the final three weeks where we're talking about, well, they need this team to lose and that team to win. And how's Darnold going to play? And he's been up and down and whatever that would make for, that would make for a fun ending to the season. It's wild how much different that notion feels. Then if I told you that last year, then you would have gone.

Yeah. You know, same old, same old thing. But somebody said this today on one of the chats i've done like five podcasts today so i'm delusional or delirious or whatever uh somebody said that this should be called a building year instead of a rebuilding year and i kind of like that like build it because it doesn't feel like rebuilding because they tore it down mostly last year but building if you have Sam Darnold start the season, to me, you're still building with JJ McCarthy because every bit of experience for a rookie on the sideline in practice, watching Sam Darnold go through the ups and downs, living through that, practicing, pretending to be the other team on the scout team.

All that stuff is just positive experience for someone. And then McCarthy could go into the next season. And of course, everyone's going to want to see him. I'm going to want to see him. You're going to want to see him. The minute Darnold has a bad game, we're going to ask, is it JJ time? Of course. But if he ends up, you know, saying on the sideline, because they're

competing for a playoff spot, I still think that that's, that's moving this in very much the right direction. That's what makes it an interesting season. Uh, man juice has, has, uh, jets improved this year. Well, no, I mean, I'm sure maybe he would tell you some detail that he's improved in kirk cousins said this really well about justin jefferson it's not necessarily getting better he's the best receiver in the nfl it's about continuing to be the best receiver in the nfl and this is what really stood out to me when justin jefferson first got here i remember this this was early in purple insider history 2020 and he was starting to come alive and somebody in a comment section said what why are you so obsessed with this jefferson it was like three four games in or two or three

games in why are you obsessed with this jefferson and i think it was because what we had seen start to develop in practice and then him going out there and and doing it once he got a chance to start there was a drive to him that just seemed different to me there were there was a a demand to be great but also the high end of what he could do how he could escape how he could create separation how he could make contested catches how he could track the ball it was just different like this looks like a superstar to me and i after the season compared him to julio jones on someone else's podcast and got destroyed by all the atlanta fans he's just as good as Julio Jones now. And it's been that way

because he has this drive. So you go out to training camp, it's year four, four, right? Three, four, whatever it is. You're five. I don't know what year it is for Jefferson. 2020, 2021, 2022, 20. Oh, it is a year five. Sorry about that. It's year five. And every single year in training camp after the very first year where he had COVID and it slowed it down a little bit for the start, every single year in training camp after that, it has been like a man on a mission to destroy everything in his path. And he's at it again, but he's at it with a different quarterback, which changes the conversation. But so he hasn't gotten better, but he's the same astonishing talent that I can't believe the Vikings keep getting every time they,

uh, they go out and get a receiver, you know, Randy Moss and, and digs and D Lynn, and then this, but he is, he is very digs like in the way that he, uh, crushes his own cornerbacks in practice. Maxwell says, as someone who regularly attends NFL practices and sees up close, are there still times where a play or feat of athleticism takes your breath away? Oh, absolutely, man. Absolutely. Twice today with Justin Jefferson. The one I got to see with Jefferson today.

So I was describing where I stand. There's like a video board that the team uses to look back at the replay of the play and i'm kind of behind that and i have an angle where i could see all the you know things develop and i happened to be in a spot where jefferson was coming in my direction and i could see the corner grabbing him from behind, knowing that he had just gotten roasted and was in trouble and how Jefferson shrugged him off while turning back, finding the football, letting it just gently rest into his hands. You don't know how hard it is to easily catch a ball.

Like we see this all the time with NFL guys in camps where they catch it, but you know, it bobbles around a little, it just, it just glides into the hands for Justin Jefferson. And so, yes, like that's an example of just going like, Whoa, he leaped up for one the other day. I mean, he's the one that the most of any player I've ever covered where you watch in training camp and in practice to just go, I can't believe this. I can't believe the catches this guy makes. I can't believe how he just runs past people. Uh, so yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I'd have to be, uh, I'd have to be dead inside for that not to be the case. And really with the quarterbacks, it's been a lot of it. And,

and McCarthy is part of this too. I don't want to shortchange him because Darnell led his maybe fourth really good practice in a row and shortchange McCarthy and what his physical talent is and what we've seen from him. There's a couple of throws with JJ McCarthy where the ball moves so fast. I mean, it's like a Nolan Ryan fastball coming in there and just sticks to a guy and you go, whoa, there's a, yeah, there's a lot of times where we're standing on the sidelines and we're talking and watching practice and taking notes and we go, whoa, that was some kind of play.

Actually, weirdly, AJ Green, the third had an incredible interception today. Oh, it happens all the time. It's sports, man. Grateful dad, 78 practicing much play action. Yep. I don't think they're practicing it to the point where I'd say the offense is going to be completely different. But a lot of the plays that they have that they want to go downfield are mixed in with

some play action element. I just don't think they could run them as effectively with alexander madison i think the statistics don't tell the right story all the time when it comes to play action and the running game you could still succeed and be efficient with the play action if you are uh maybe devoid of a running game like their statistics can still be good for a quarterback, but the number of opportunities to actually do it is much higher when you have a good running game. So you're not just doing it on first and 10, you're doing it on second and four because your running back has gotten you a good carry.

And you're more confident in doing it even second and 10 because the other offense has to pay attention to your running game. What about Bob says, maybe if McCarthy had real reps with jefferson he would look like a ball or two you got to earn them right though that's the thing of course yeah anybody who practices with justin jefferson's going to look great but he's not going to get those until they're earned and what it looks like to me now and this is why i talked about this the other day about how this week was going to be big for me and my sense for where this thing is. And again, I could still be wrong

and McCarthy could still swoop in and take this job. But the fact that Darnold is still getting all those reps with Jefferson and they're building on this, that's where you start to go, all right, I think that these two things, uh, or, or, or this, this thing between them is happening. And I think it's pushing Darnold into a more solidified spot as QB one and McCarthy will throw to Jefferson

down the road when he starts, whenever it is, I am a little surprised there hasn't been more of attempts to get him some throws with Jefferson because he told us that he had only thrown a couple of passes to him, even in mini camp. And we've, I don't think we've seen him throw a single pass to him outside of maybe a seven on seven. Uh, so far in this camp, I thought there would be more of that to start that wheel rolling, but Kevin O'Connell now he is splitting the difference between developing Darnold and playing McCarthy. But once it's time to really get ready for that season and we are closing in on it fast, it's going to be about QB one soon enough. So I would guess after the joint practices,

it'll be much more about him, but I am very curious about how they mix up those reps. And if we do see McCarthy there as well, it's, it's not over. I'm not declaring it. I had a conversation with Will Raggetts. It's going to come up later tonight on the YouTube channel, um, about this where it's just like, I, we can't declare it, but it's trending much more that way when it's still Darnold throwing to Jefferson. Because if you want McCarthy to be your quarterback, you got to get him throwing the ball to Jefferson

at some point. And I mean, right now, he will be long-term, no doubt about it. Twiggy says, gotta say you are a top tier journalist. I appreciate that, Twiggy says, uh, gotta say you are a top tier journalist. I appreciate that Twiggy. I, I don't know you, but, uh, that, that makes me happy to hear. So I'm going to assume that you are a very wise person for a comment like that. Um, but I appreciate it.

I really do. And I see, I see the, the, the compliments and things like that in the comment section. I usually don't put them on the screen, there's a question here but i appreciate all of you uh for watching for following along for having fun with this for debating for asking questions the support throughout this training camp as it always is but i feel like this year i can feel the excitement from you guys has just been phenomenal and i can't thank you enough so thank you for saying that twiggy uh i could hear you talk about vikings ball all day also how are mcglothern and rodriguez looking uh both of them are put it under the category of making noise and now levi drake

rodriguez is on his fourth practice in a row maybe fifth of getting first team reps. It was whichever one Jonathan Bullard took off for a veteran day. So maybe four after that, that he has taken first team reps. He has been a part of a pass rush package, and this is really what they were looking for. I mean, with Jerry Tillery out, it's been Levi Drake Rodriguez over and over. Uh, and they were looking in Jerry Tillery for somebody who could be this rotational pass rusher. But if Levi Drake Rodriguez can prove to them that he can also do this, it gives them definitely more depth and more guys who can actually get after

the passer. McLaughlin, I feel like has shown that he can track wide receivers who are on the second team. Can he actually play against top tier wide receivers? There's not been a lot of reps of him versus Addison and Jefferson, but that's what you face in the league. You face Nico Collins, you face Stefan Diggs. What I would say about McLaughlin is he's put his name on the map. Both players, that's probably it. They've both put his name on the map, both players. That's probably it. They've both put their names on the map.

And right now, if I'm making a 53, which I probably will after the first preseason game, and we will definitely talk about it. Then McLaughlin and Rodriguez would both be on it right now. Uh, let me just take a couple more questions and comments because I have to write and I'm a little gassed today.

There's a lot of content on the, uh, on the YouTube page. Uh, it's been a really fun day of a lot of podcasts, but I'm also starting to lose my voice a bit. We can't have that. We got joint practices next week. I gotta be strong. Uh, Evan says, uh, we're looking at week seven versus the lions as a possible game for mccarthy to start are we looking week nine versus the colts now or do you think sam

plays the entire year i don't know i really don't because if they were to survive those first handful of games and go into the lions game at 500 record. Is it week seven? Yeah, because, yeah, week six. So that would be what they would have had played five games. So if they're two and three or three and two, I think I'm thinking about that correctly. Then you're sticking with Darnold.

If he's playing well and you're right there in the mix and you're going to play a big game against uh the lions and if he's playing well then you go for it but if you're one and four and there's just been a lot of struggles and more downs than ups then you're talking about mccarthy and if you push it back i don't think that what kevin o'connell wants to do is be week to week on this. That is maybe important for him. The way that he's talked is he doesn't want every single week or any bad game Darnold has, and he will get asked and he will get unhappy. But I don't think he wants that.

I don't think he wants this in the locker room. Is it going to happen? Are we playing JJ or what's going to go on? That is the reality when you draft a quarterback though, that that conversation hovers over you and it very well could result in it being the middle of the season where, oh, well the magic ran out, or it could be the beginning of the season because the schedule is so tough and there wasn't the magic that we've seen in practice so far with Jefferson and Sam Darnold.

The range of outcomes is very wide, and the three that you laid out are probably 33%, 33%, 33% right now. 33% that McCarthy is playing by week seven, 33% that he's in a few weeks later, 33% he plays the entire year. It just, and then the additional 0.9 wasn't it 33 and a third or something would add up uh well you know what i mean the additional one percent i guess what i'm looking for uh goes to anything can happen um he might start week one still i'm not that low on it

but my point is that all those outcomes are on the table. And that's what makes this season different than any season we've covered before. Freddie, what week do you expect Hawkinson to play? I think that game against the Lions is a good pick, but it might be before the way that they've talked about him week three, week four sounds not crazy, but if he doesn't, I mean, we've still got some time left here in training camp and then the lead up of practices to the season we still have a whole month if he gets on the practice field and actually does some stuff within the next three weeks then i think that he could get on the field in the first two weeks of the season or three weeks, then, you know, maybe he can be

right in the lineup pretty quickly, but otherwise, uh, it's going to take a while. It, this is just a very tough injury for him with the timeline and having to wait for the surgery and all that. And he hasn't done anything that would insinuate he's going to get on the practice field soon, but maybe if he does in the next two to three weeks, that could accelerate the timeline. Uh, last King 85 fans can be selfish in reality. I don't want to see JJ until he's a hundred percent ready. Yeah. Um, maybe selfish is not the word I would use overly excited, overly exuberant. I mean, we've talked about the draft and picking a quarterback and making him your franchise guy i mean we've talked about it so many times we've talked about it so many times over all those years with kirk we talked about it in 2020 let's see 2020 yeah right should they

draft quarterback and then 2021 they even made a phone call about Justin Fields. And then 2022, Kevin O'Connell gets here. Like we went through this year after year. You drafted a guy, man. Can I see him play? I got to wait even longer. So I understand that. It's just the practical thing might be to wait till he's ready. What about Bob says, I think if Brock Purdy was on the other 31 teams,

he's probably a backup at best. He was the definition of lightning in a bottle uh first i don't agree at all i don't agree at all i don't think that a guy who is capable of having an mvp caliber season and going to the super bowl and is within one throw of winning the super bowl is just some case keenum it's just not the case. Uh, I think that Brock Purdy is basically, if he had gone to Alabama, then he would be Tua. I think that him and Tua are very similar type of players where, yeah, there's a lot of system elements to that, but also Jimmy Garoppolo never played as well as Brock Purdy. And he was a second round draft pick. I think, see, I just say throw all the draft status in the garbage. I think, see, I just say throw all the

draft status in the garbage. I don't give a bleep where somebody was drafted after they're here. I throw that out and I just watch guys play NFL football. I think so much of the Brock Purdy stuff is just where he was drafted. I don't care. The greatest player to ever play was a sixth round pick. And so that made me not care at all about where someone's drafted. If Brock Purdy played for the Minnesota Vikings, is he quite as good as he was with San Francisco? I don't know, but there's a lot of teams that have good wide receivers. Like they're not the only ones. There's a lot of teams that have good offenses. If he played for the Detroit lions with their line, their receivers, their coordinator,

would he be pretty good? Uh, I think so. I mean, I, we are way too quick. It's one of the most frustrating things in sports. We are way too quick to just be like, no, no, he it's, it's something else. It's some, it's the, it's the coaching. It's the system. It's the scheme or whatever. I don't know. I'm not declaring him as a guy that if he gets paid $70 million a year, that he's going to be okay. But I think that acting like he's just some bum who fell ass

backwards into this situation in San Francisco and then just lucked his way to the Superbowl is kind of absurd. It's like the Vikings have had how many quarterbacks and how many great teams over their whole history and never done this. What Brock Purdy did last year. I'm going to I'm going to give him credit for being a really good quarterback. If he plays 31. No, it's the same as everybody else. If Jalen Hurts played for the worst team in the league, he wouldn't be as good.

Obviously. Is there any quarterback outside of mahomes and alan maybe we say stroud here who is completely team proof who could take any team no matter how bad or any coach no matter how bad and just make them great no but there's probably more like 10 teams where brock purdy would have thrived and maybe there's another five where he's at least a serviceable starter and he did land with the best team but it's not like if anybody could play quarterback there trey lance would be playing quarterback there sam darnold would have played quarterback there they're more talented than brock purdy in the draft per the draft but knowing an offense, putting touch on the football, being accurate,

making the right plays, scrambling, those things, those matter. And I think, by the way, I think he'll regress this year because in history, very few quarterbacks have not regret or have not regressed after being as good as they've been. My point is just, it drives me crazy when guys play really well at the quarterback position and then they get this narrative that they're actually no good because they're not as tall as whatever, or they're not as strong as whoever like, well, Josh Allen played a lot better after he got Stefan Diggs. In fact, Patrick Mahomes last year, they had a pretty mediocre offense.

They were better when they had Tyree kill. So even, even the best are impacted by those types of things. I don't know. It's a, it's not a criticism I enjoy very much. Uh, and he doesn't, cause he doesn't have to apologize for it. He doesn't have to give it back. He doesn't have to give back the fact that he went to the Superbowl last year because you don't think he was actually good uh taylor says i still feel like we should have gotten sam howell instead of sam darnold

instead of having a clear number one veteran we could have had two inexperienced quarterbacks and a legitimate competition no i don't i don't agree with that i think sam howell's probably just bad uh i mean he threw a million interceptions last year and just didn't look like a competent quarterback. And I was more of a Sam Howell believer than even Kenny Pickett or even Malik Willis. I didn't like those guys all that much. And, you know, Sam Howell at least started some games. But with Darnold, the reason that I like an experienced guy is because he has been through it and he knows

how to play in a Shanahan offense, which takes a lot of work mentally, which matters. It's not just how tall you are, where you were drafted mentally is a huge part of it. So the fact that he was able to learn that and convince the coaching staff, he should be the backup quarterback and that they could trust him says a lot about his capacity how much he's learned over the years but how he acts on a daily basis as a veteran quarterback who started many games that's a great example for jj mccarthy sam howell doesn't know a whole lot about that i mean having played just one season and been very bad also it's not like i bet i don't know this exactly what the age gap is. I bet it's not even that much. Darnold started so early in his career. He was 20 that he might be

two years older than Sam Howell at this point. I, someone will have to look that up. Um, but you know, Darnold is still a guy that you could look at as having potential upside, probably a lot more than Sam Howell because his physical talent is so much higher. you know, Darnold is still a guy that you could look at as having potential upside, probably a lot more than Sam Howell because his physical talent is so much higher. Uh, so I was, when I wrote my thing, naming quarterbacks that they could get for a bridge quarterback, uh, he was one of the guys that was at the top of the list for me because the rest of them had no potential. Uh, the, the, the Jacoby Brissettes of the world the ryan tannahills uh let's see the bread basket official what should we rename mr mancato now that it's not in mancato uh it's mr mancato it will be mr mancato forever in my mind because that's where it's more about the

essence of the mancato than it is the location of the Mankato. It is about the Adam Thielen going from an absolute nobody to one of the best receivers in the league by standing out in Mankato, standing out in training camp. Mike says, do you really think Darnold will be able to play in time and read defenses enough for the system? Not just deep balls. Mike says, do you really think Darnold will be able to play in time and read defenses enough for the system? Not just deep balls. That's what we've seen recently is it's not just deep balls.

Now there have been deep balls that have been impressive, but just the time and time again, completing passes, throwing the check downs when it's there scrambling, when he's supposed to, it hasn't been perfect there's been bad reps and there's been throwaways or inaccurate throws here or there but if it was only a couple deep balls we all just went wow deep ball uh then i would say yeah i mean it doesn't look like a real offense but it's looked like a real offense uh with jefferson can he play in time and read defenses? That's something that can he do it all the time? Can he do it week in and week out? Like, can he do it for a week against one team? Can he do it for a stretch? Can he do it for 17 games in a row or at least let's say 12 of those games? Can he

do it? That's really the question that he would have to answer. I do know that his coach is better than any coach he's had before, where he's been a starter and actually getting guys open and making it easier for him to make his reads. That's the best I could do there. But I think that a guy like Darnold has never really seen the field all that well,

that he doesn't have the Tom Brady field vision or the Brock Purdy field vision. If he had those guys eyes, then he would be the best quarterback in the league. That's, that's what the homes is. My homes is a combination of Brady's brain and Darnold's talent. And you get an unstoppable human being who wins all the Super Bowls. So I don't think it's ever going to be like that, but can you kind of curated enough for what works for him to get the ball to Jefferson and give him things that he can read and identify and understand

that? Well, O'Connell is the best chance to do it. Flick says last season, we had a lot of turnovers but showed up uh that showed up out of nowhere then the team played well down the stretch till injuries were too much to overcome yeah the beginning of the season was a mess when it came to that yeah with the turnovers and i think if you're trying to make an argument that you know this year could be just as good or better then then it probably starts there. It was a historic rate for a while of the turnovers. And that's why I've never felt like no matter who starts that it's just going to be a wreck of a season. I've never felt that way. Brett, do you think that fights breaking out at Lions, or what do you think of fights breaking out

at Lions-Giants joint practice? Do you think the Vikings and Browns will have similar results? Seems like Dan Campbell needs to get his house in order. Yeah, the team definitely takes on the personality of the coach sometimes. I think that fights in practice are the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life.

I think I understand why they happen because imagine it's 95 degrees and somebody's across from you pushing you and poking you and smacking you for an hour and a half. You're going to get pretty teed off. And there was pushing and shoving last year against the Titans. But I mean, to start throwing swings at people, trying to injure people going after, I mean, just what are you doing? And Mike Zimmer was very serious about that. Anybody who got into the pushing and shoving got thrown out of these practices. So I haven't seen a melee. Uh, there's been a couple of pushing and shoving couple of fights.

I think Jalen Redman got thrown out of practice the other day for getting into it a little bit too much at the end of practice. It looked like he got sent into the locker room early. They are usually very strong in their messaging that they don't want to see any of that. Dan Campbell might be a guy who does want to see a little bit of it. Loves the aggression

I just think it's dumb you need people to be very smart when it comes to their health and that is not very smart Jim says uh if Darnold has a dominant receiver then the team will be fun to watch well he certainly has one of those if darnold gets the ball to to them yeah i mean if he gets the ball to his dominant receivers he has them and when hockinson comes back he'll have another one he just has to get it there that's why you can buy into the idea that it will work is that he has them for the first time he has them. Uh, let's see. Sorry. Some of you guys are funny with the, with the pie chart ideas, a pie chart of the likelihood that my wife leaves me. It's very high. Well, that's not how a pie

chart works. See, that was my, that was my point, Scotty. It was not how, that's not how it works. You can't just do, you have to have options. You have to have, she leaves you and comes back to you. She leaves you and marries the mailman. She doesn't ever leave you. Give me options and then I'll give you the pie chart. Oh gosh, says Sam is the perfect quarterback for this year. He has upside to maybe do something

with this team and turn his career around if he doesn't it's not like we put resources into yeah i'll tell you man that was one of the dumbest things that i have seen written or said this offseason is when people would talk about why why did they sign Darnold? He's not that good. Why did they pay him all that money? It was like, what? They paid him $10 million. The top quarterbacks make 50. What? This seems like the lowest investment you could possibly make in a guy to, and in the worst case scenario for that signing is that he was a really good backup. What? This was the last move you should be criticizing. That, yeah, that was weird when people didn't understand what they're doing. It's right there. They're getting a guy with upside

potentially who has flashed before in the league as a high draft pick, who probably will not be the long-term quarterback because you're drafting one in the first round. And I thought that it made much more sense than a Jacoby Brissett who could probably play like three games. Oh, uh, oh, me. Oh, I see. Uh, sorry. From earlier min maxinging is minimum pass rush and maximum pass rush. Now I gotcha. Now I gotcha. Thanks for clarifying that. McCarthy's or what about Bob says McCarthy said he's looking forward to facing a vanilla defense against the Raiders. Yes. Yeah, I know. And I think that it's going to be good for him to just see what it looks like to actually be out there,

to have the experience to go against another team. Although he says it's going to be vanilla. Antonio Pierce might be kind of crazy himself, right? He's got a little bit of that. I'm going to send some blitzes at J.J. McCarthy, potentially. I don't know. He could be that way. He wants to win the game, I think.

He comes across like a guy that really wants to win that game. We'll see. But McCarthy, it's going to be a reprieve for him. I think you always want it this way. You want your defensive coordinator to make life hard on your quarterback. And then when he gets out there and he gets the opportunity to go up against another team. He eases his way into that. They used to have six games in the preseason when there were four, the fourth preseason game was only the, the only one where you didn't play starters back in the day. So there used to be a lot more of the, the lead up and the reps that somebody could get against good competition.

But now it's a lot harder to do so, which is why they do the joint practices. Oh gosh says i almost want sam next year as well so we can compare his growth to mccarthy's growth throughout the season and offseason yeah i think the best case scenario for sam darnold is that once he's done playing here, some other team says, that's exactly what we need. He did a great job for those Vikings. We want that guy. Let's give him a two-year contract.

If he ends up signing with the team, whatever X who's going to draft a quarterback next year, maybe it's the Raiders because they were so impressed with the way he handled it for the Vikings. That means that he did a good job in Minnesota. Jazz Heard says, Does KOC's offense unlock Sam's game and we make a legitimate run to playoff spot? If I were to guess right now, I think that's very possible. It would probably be my guess at how this goes,

which is that Darnold plays well enough to be in a conversation week in and week out about where you stand. Think about what the Colts did last year. So Richardson got hurt early. Gardner Minshew came in, played well, had a good defense. It wasn't great. It wasn't perfect, but in the last game of the season, they're playing for their playoff lives. That's what I think could happen if he plays the whole season. Uh, let's see. Let me get a few, a few more, uh, questions in before I call it a night because I'm running out of voice and, uh, I didn diet dr pepper down here tonight that is a see that tells you where my head's at that tells you about the focus oh and you know what the guy asking if his wife was going to leave happened before nine o'clock i shouldn't have read the comment until after nine that's when we're allowed to get weird here uh sean says aaron

jones is a key addition that was lacking last year hope kc uses him like the packers did in the playoffs that is among all the things to see one of the most interesting to me going into the season is just what role he plays is he centerpiece because this is something we cannot figure out in training camp because aaron jones doesn't practice enough rightfully they want to keep him healthy going into the season but i can't look at the way they're practicing oh man this is going to be jones's team because he's not doing a lot of practicing and they throw all the time anyway but can kevin o'connell stick with aaron jones can he use him out of the backfield on swing passes and screens it does look like they're working a lot on screens i don't know compared to how much in the past but you can't understate how unsuccessful alexander madison was last year

i mean it was stunning from what we had seen from that player before the drop passes the missed opportunities to cut between blocks running up the back of of his guards. Aaron Jones should be a lot better than that. And that opens up potential for the offense. Mike says we're talking about practice, not a game. McCarthy is our chance, and it's all about getting things ready for him. And Darnold was the only choice with a little unknown potential. Yeah, I agree. I agree with all that.

McCarthy is the chance to compete for a super bowl in the future more likely than not darnold might be the present to compete for a playoff spot this year and develop mccarthy the right way all that works for me skull vikings does flores have enough good defensive backs? Defensive backs? Yes. Cornerbacks? Maybe. Good enough for what? I mean, good enough to have the best defense in the league? No. Good enough to compete on a weekly basis? Maybe. San Francisco, Houston, Green Bay. Green Bay doesn't have an elite receiver, but they they have good receivers as we saw from last year yeah I don't know I think it will be tough I don't think that it will be uh impossible for this defense to have good weeks because they can rush with four but I do think

that it's going to be problematic at times there's just with unless a caleb evans takes a big step now that is the one thing that we have not mentioned is that caleb evans is still taking first team reps he's gotten a lot of work during this training camp fabian morrow's out there but it will be shaq griffin i think or if they like what they've seen from a caleb evans maybe he ends up playing just as much or more than Shaq Griffin. If that happens, cause he is the one guy that we could say other than Dwight McClothern and Andrew Ruth jr. Is just not in this discussion at all.

Evans is the one guy we can say, you know what? Uh, this guy actually has some upside still. And if that upside comes together then maybe there's a little more there than i think or maybe if byron murphy not being on the outside and is in the slot a little more that helps maybe if shaq griffin is a little healthier all of this comes down to the all those things kind of have to be at least in the medium outcome, the median outcome in order for this to work. Because if Griffin doesn't play because he's hurt or doesn't play well, a Caleb Evans doesn't

progress. Byron Murphy has to play on the outside all the time. Fabian Morrow is washed. You can end up with a 2020. It's going to be better than 2020, but that same feeling of the cornerback group as maybe, I guess just last year where you can win. And sometimes you just can't guard the other team's wide receivers. Jared,

I know you don't play the new Madden, but you loosely understand what it is. Yes, I do loosely understand what Madden is. What are a few teams beside the Vikings? You would be fun to build. I think the Raiders are a sneaky one. Uh, what are a few teams beside the Vikings? You would be fun to build. I think the Raiders are a sneaky one. Oh, I agree with that. I do agree with that, that not having a quarterback, you could sim the season and then draft quarterback the next year.

You know, who would be a team that I might pick that sounds like not that fun, but I kind of like the challenge is could I make Trevor Lawrence an elite quarterback by building around him? Could I find the wide receivers? Could I find the offensive line? Could I rebuild that team? Because that team feels like a failure. Lawrence has talent enough to be better

than what he's been. And they just don't have a great team. I mean, maybe he's got some more shortcomings than we thought when he was coming out. Carolina's another one. Always, you and I are thinking the same way about Madden's though. And I still play Madden. I just haven't played the recent ones. I still play, you know, 05.

Because it's a great game. And it has the training camp stuff that I like. So I still play that from time to time. But Carolina would be a team I'd rebuild. They have a young quarterback. You always got to pick a team with either a young quarterback or no quarterbacks. You could draft yours.

But a team that's all the way at the bottom, rebuild them to the top. If you pick the Chiefs, you're a dweeb. That would be a good one. The Giants, what I would do with the giants would be here's what i would do with the giants i would of course just bench daniel jones and i would look for a quarterback who's never gotten a chance in the nfl he's been around how about you ever heard of the CFL guy, Nathan Rourke, or who is that? Like, was there a guy named Colton something a few years ago, a guy that I've only ever seen in preseason. I would pick up somebody like that. Somebody like a Taylor Heineke for Washington a

couple of years ago, I would pick up a dude like that and try to will our way to him having a great season. That's how I like to play Madden. It's got to be an underdog. It cannot be somebody who's like a favorite or a star quarterback at all. No way. Let's see. O-E-L is the name, I guess.

I want meaningful football this season for the Vikings, not just the transition year. Well, you and the owner are on the same page. What about Bob says not buying the Darnold hype? See, why do we got to do this? Why do we got to call? I spent an hour and a half talking about a potential reasonable outcome for Sam Darnold based on seeing him every day at

training camp practice what's happening with Justin Jefferson the past number of starts that he's had that have shown the potential to win some games and play better I think he has a 90 quarterback rating since the start of 2022. we're talking about what the possible outcome is and I'm setting the bar at being in the playoff race at the end. And then you just whittle it down to hype. What, what that, what,

what, what am I here for? I'm here. I'm here for nuance. I'm here for details. If you want horse crap, you can watch a lot of television where they call it the hype. That's not what you're here for.

You're here for the specifics about what this could be and why. And I feel like I laid that out pretty well. He's had some very good practices. Don't ask me. Ask every person who was there. Read every report from today's practice. Everyone will tell you that it's been very good recently. How old is 23? Darnold's 27.

Okay, so there's a little bit of a gap there. Yeah, there's a gap there for sure, Darnold. And yet at the same time, quarterbacks, 27, if you're a running back, is the middle of your career or old. 27, if you're Sam Darnold, still feels like it's not old at all um pie chart of kinds of pie i like that that's good uh the couch coach club i've always thought third wide receiver

has been a significant problem over a decade no well it i mean kj osborne in 2021 and 2022 was good if you're looking for jake, then yes, I agree with you there. Can Jalen Naylor emerge as an elite wide receiver three? Is that a thing? Can you be an elite wide receiver three if you're not Jake Reed? Probably. I think Jalen Naylor can potentially be effective

in a position where he's rotating with Brandon Powell. If he caught 35 passes for 450 yards, that'd be really good. Elite makes it sound like it's going to be three deep and it's just not, not feasible. Uh, that's, that's hard to achieve. It's hard enough to get to really hard to get three, uh, juror were 39. I'm sick of hearing about how these quarterbacks have had these kinds of weapons you guys talked about all year. And they have been more or less the same. I'm not sure what you mean. Um, I don't know what you mean by that. Sam Darnold in his career have, it's just a fact. And that is what I do here. We do the fact thing and it's a fact go through the receivers. I've done this.

I've looked at them, the coaches and receivers that Sam Darnold has had from ages 20 to 26 before 25, before he went to San Francisco and only started the one game were atrocious outside of DJ more atrocious. it's just it's just a fact also it's just the fact that Justin Jefferson when he played with Nick Mullins got him to 400 yards a game over two games just a fact uh what time is Kevin O'Connell speaking with reporters probably like one o'clock tomorrow somewhere somewhere around that, somewhere around that ballpark.

Roberto says, do you think we don't get a hard knocks because of the Brian Flores lawsuit? No, I don't think that is the case. I think they did not get hard knocks because Justin Jefferson and Kevin or Kevin, her cousins both did NFL film stuff in in those features the receiver and the quarterback thing so asking them to do another thing would be a lot uh let's see let's see i've gone much farther than my voice needed to here um uh yeah you're right sloth says uh collar says he's tired and rips off another 100 plus minutes live stream yeah that's that is true well you guys keep uh asking good questions and making

good comments so what am i supposed to do just keep answering questions usually so what i do i got my my comment section on the right here i got my mouse and once it won't scroll anymore that's when i know the comments have slowed and it's kind of time to slow it down and you know uh that's when i usually call it a day so if i keep scrolling and there's more comments and more comments then i just keep answering him uh jaron hall josh dobbs nick mullins never had these kind of weapons but nick mullins threw for a million yards i mean nick mullins played about as well as nick mullins could have ever played jaron hall what yeah i don't know man that's that one's a that's a confusing comment. And Josh Dobbs barely played with Justin Jefferson.

Do we not remember that? I mean, I don't know. Anyway, also, are those guys comparable to Sam Darnold in talent? I don't think so. Anyway, so look, we're almost there, folks. We're almost to a preseason game. It's going to be super fun. Saturday afternoon, Dane Mizutani and I will be there.

Tomorrow, we should find out something about the quarterback situation. If I had to guess, I'll put it on record now, an hour and 43 minutes in, that I think that Sam Darnold will start and he will play two series, if not one, two or three series, and then they will go to McCarthy. He'll play the first half and the rest will be handled by Mullins and Hall. That's my guess. I could be wrong. So after we find that out, then I'll do another live stream tomorrow night and have another hour and 45 minutes with all of you kind folks answering questions and talking.

Because I think there's just so much interest and so much energy for this season. It's been really fun to talk to you guys every single night. So, yes, this was a little longer than I did expect to go. But that's because you guys are so great. So, I appreciate that very much. And check out the newsletter, purpleinsider.com. Oh, you know what? Let me.

I forgot the ad reads. Do mind you guys mind why don't you politely hang around for a second while i do the ad reads because i can get rolling and totally forget to do them and then i have let down sponsors and i can't do that i can't let the sponsors. So let me tell you guys before I go, US Cellular, notice that the way that we use our phones has gotten to be ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That is ironic. We hit like on the social posts

that we don't actually like. That is ironic, which is why US Cellular created Us Mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less. Ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones less is ironic. Let's find us again with UsMode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. And later this month, guys, I'll be going out to to circa in las vegas and we will be talking

about their circa million and circa survivor contest the million contest you pick five teams against the spread every week winner takes home a million bucks and the survivor contest you pick one team straight up to win each week if you go 20 and 0 or the last person standing you become a millionaire last year four winners took over $2 million home and it costs $1,000 to enter and you have to go out to Nevada to do so. So if you're stopping in on a flight or you got a connection, go out there and stop

in either Las Vegas, Henderson, or Reno and you have to do it before the season starts. Circlasvegas.com, me and Murph are going to be out there August 22nd and 23rd. It's great. You're right. I know. Oh, gosh. This tells you everything that you need to know is that the people stayed here for the

ad reads at the end of the show because I forgot to do them in the middle of the show. So thank you, everyone. I appreciate all of you. Take care. And we all of you take care and we will see you tomorrow night and then we will finally get there. And yes, actually for future reference, maybe if you guys can remind me during the live stream, like halfway through, Hey buddy, do the ad read. That would be helpful. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Football.