Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The NFC might actually set up really well for the Vikings next year (plus best Super Bowl QB matchups ever)

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

Matthew Coller goes forward in time and finds out that the Vikings made the 2021 NFC Championship. He returns to the present day to inform Judd Zulgad that the Vikings will be winners but tasks Mr. Zulgad with figuring out exactly how Mike Zimmer's club made it there. The best answer: The NFC fell apart. Matthew and Judd talk about how the seas are parting in the NFC. Plus what we learned from championship weekend and the best Super Bowl QB matchups ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone. Before we get into the show, just wanted to remind you that we've got a Jared Allen signed jersey giveaway from Fan HQ going on over on Twitter. If you go to my Twitter page, at Matthew Collar, that's C-O-L-L-E-R, you retweet the post about the Jared Allen signed jersey. Follow me if you don't already, and follow at Fan HQ. That's it, and you're registered to win.

Fan HQ, by the way, is your headquarters for officially licensed sports apparel, authentic memorabilia, and autograph appearances. If it came from HQ, then it's authentic. All right, let's get to the show. Welcome to another episode of Football Insider. Matthew Collard here, and joining me is Judge Zolgad. What is up, Zolgad? I am doing well, you.

And by the way, yesterday, five football day. Five football day yesterday. How much fun was that? Five footballs out of five footballs for yesterday. Oh, yeah. My living room filled with footballs, and then every time football happened, I just threw them up in the air. There was a tight end with number 49 who was out there laying blocks, and it was a very, very, very footbally day.

I have a few questions for you pertaining to the Vikings. And then I want us to talk about great all time quarterback matchups in the Superbowl, because I present you with one of the greatest quarterback matchups, Patrick Mahomes against Tom Brady of all time. So we'll talk about your top three, my top three in our lifetimes of quarterback matchups but something i asked our friend eric eager a few weeks ago on the podcast

he had some really good answers and so i want to see what you think about this if i were to come back in time and say judd i've been to the future. It's the future one year ahead from today. And here's what I discovered. The Minnesota Vikings are playing on championship weekend, Judd. I want you to tell me how that would have happened. Like, Judd, I just went one year ahead. I don't know how it happened. Tell me what would have happened. And now I'm back from the future.

Okay, I love this question. So if this is a year from now now and you have seen you have seen into then and said the vikings are playing to me it starts with this and not surprising it's a zolgadian negative turned positive vikings fan the conference isn't good the conference is eminently down it is it's down um look the Packers went in as a favorite on Sunday the Packers didn't look good in their loss to the Vikings in Green Bay but for a lot of the last portion of the year including in the playoff game against the Rams looked really good right and then the Packers got beat by the Bucks who are a team, but certainly not a great team. So my first response is that the Vikings have put together a good enough,

not great roster that a year from now, they are the team that takes advantage of the fact that I think this conference is going to be down for a couple of years now. And I think as it's down, it'll start to get higher draft picks. And as is ordinarily the case. That usually changes things a little bit. But that's not going to happen overnight. And so my first response would be that the Vikings, who could come back next year and be a solid team,

they ain't going to be great, but they could be solid, took advantage of that fact to make the conference title game much in the way that the Green Bay Packers did this season. That's my first response. So let me just go through this because there's a potential of Aaron Rodgers leaving. And the way he sounded in his post-game press conference was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Aaron, what? Excuse me? Because it really sounded. And when I recorded yesterday, i hadn't read his exact quotes

yet and then i got done recording it was like oh aaron made it sound like this might be the end there might be i think he used the word finality to his time in green bay and he does have a 37 million dollar cap hit for next year and they're 25 million dollars over the cap so if you're adding up the math there and they drafted a first-round pick, it would seem crazy to me that they would let him go. But I think that that might be part of the formula, that Aaron Rodgers isn't there anymore. If we were going to rank NFC quarterbacks with Matt Sadaford

and Aaron Rodgers out of the mix. Andrew Brees and maybe Tom Brady. If the Bucs win this Super Bowl, Tom Brady walks away, right? And he goes into, I don't know, a modeling career. I mean, like, where are his cousins? Russell Wilson is clearly number one. Yep. And then what? I mean, if Dak Prescott plays with Dallas, like, who's next?

That's the thing. I don't know. I mean, if you go through the East, if Dak comes back and he's healthy, and is he back in Dallas, which I don't know, I like him. But, I mean, the last time I saw Dak on a football field, his foot was turned sideways, which I can't discount as, oh, no big deal. Your foot's sideways. You're a football player right um if i go through the south is is matt ryan going to come back now with a new coach and have a big year i don't know i mean he was great now three years ago yeah 2016

and so but he doesn't strike me as being great now right um the north the north if, if Aaron is gone and Stafford's gone, which looks like it almost for certain is going to take place, then Cousins is the best QB in the division. We don't even know who the Bears quarterback is going to be. I mean, I like Kyler Murray probably more, and I think he's going to be one year more mature, and I like him. I like Russell Wilson, butson but cousins is probably top realistically what top four at least let me give you the irony of that by the way is that the vikings

play the nfc west next year so they play four good quarterbacks i don't know what's going to happen with jared goff i assume he's going to stay with the rams unless something really crazy happens there but and the same with garoppolo let me assume he's going to stay there I think San Francisco will bounce back with Jimmy Garoppolo and they'll be a Super Bowl contending team I think they had everything go wrong for them especially Garoppolo getting hurt but they bounce back with Matthew Stafford oh or Deshaun Watson now that's over yeah right Deshaun Watson. Oh, well, then it's over. Deshaun Watson could end up in the NFC still. Most of the teams that are getting tied to him are in the AFC.

But if you're the Texans, do you want to give an AFC team Deshaun Watson? Like, maybe not. Right. So if he goes to San Francisco, then this changes the formula quite a bit. And he is number one. And Russell Wilson may be one and one a uh and then after that there's a big drop off i agree on kyler murray i wouldn't overreact to his second half of his season he's playing hurt and to the point where he couldn't even play in their biggest game because he was injured and um also we saw this from baker mayfield like the sophomore slump

everybody kind of figures you out a little bit i I still think that team's going to be good. But if Brady's not around anymore in Tampa Bay and walks away, then they've got to find a new quarterback. And like you said, Atlanta, I love their offensive system that they're going to put in with Arthur Smith, but I'm not certain that Matt Stafford can get that job done. You know, Teddy Bridgewater at this point in his career with that team is not better than Kirk Cousins. So you have very few huge threats. You have a lot of Kirk Cousins caliber players, but not people where you say, oh, there's Mahomes. Sorry, you're screwed.

So I think that's part of it. Now the other part of it would be, in my mind, righting the wrongs of the last offseason. So instead of, hey, man, we've developed this guy for three years. He's totally ready to start a defensive tackle. Or Shamar, we'll just move him positions. Or, you know, we'll just, oh, Jalen Holmes, he was a defensive tackle. Let's make him a defensive end. Let's move around. Like all these things that they did that hurt their chances of making the playoffs in the last offseason. They are a double-down team on certain things, that's for sure.

But I also think that their front office is smart enough to realize maybe that wasn't the exact right approach. So I would say that's part two. Part one is you probably can have a top five offense and maybe top three offense in the conference if certain people leave the conference. But then part two has to be on the defensive side don't make the same mistake twice yeah and and you also can't i mean we know

for a fact that zimmer is a very good defensive coach like he's proven that but you can't give him and he can't accept what he took like chris Chris Jones cannot be playing cornerback at any point. I don't care if you've got 75 guys and they all get hurt. Chris Jones cannot be next man up. I think he can do the job. No, he can't. And I don't think this defense disintegrated so badly and was so poor that it's not like they need,

that's not like they're going to come back as the top defense in the league. They need to be just decent. Here's my question though. Do you think that there is any chance because here's the equation to the Vikings for 2021 that I've been thinking about. And I think I know the answer, but I'd be curious what you think about this. Do you think there's any way that Mike says, you know what, I don't know what I don't know. And offensively, I'm a mess.

Like, I am a mess. I am going to go get an OC who I'm not going to meddle with him. I'm not going to instruct him that I love to run. I do, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut um because the vikings offense statistically put up a really good year but if you watched it there was way more there that they didn't use and if you got the right oc to run this thing the defense now if they're top 10 it's fine instead of top five do you think there's any way that there is a come to jesus with zim about that because i think the one way that the vikings could get

really competitive and really good in a hurry is if they take the offensive ingredients and use them right and i don't mean well look at where we rank statistically. I mean, you're scoring points because they have that in them. They don't utilize it. I don't know. I don't have the answer. I can't close the door to it because Zimmer has done such a good job in his past of adjusting on defense and his biggest mentor. I don't know if I've mentioned this maybe five times before, but his biggest mentor, Bill Parcells, is the ultimate chameleon when it comes to being a head coach and changing philosophies on the fly. Mike Zimmer has not been that. I mean, Mike Zimmer, since day one, has wanted to run the football,

get just enough out of his quarterback, hey, get me a third and sixth conversion and so I can go back to running the football because he believes strongly, and I don't disagree with him on turnovers, but he believes strongly the turnovers sort of tell the story. If you're running, you're not turning the ball over. But I think the way we need to look at these things now is punts and even field goals are turnovers against great teams. And we saw that with Buffalo kicking a field goal,

with Green Bay kicking a field goal. It's like we may talk about some of these quarterbacks as being on the level of kirk cousins but if they're playing a more modern game than you a more aggressive game than you they're going for it on fourth down their score they're trying to score touchdowns and not kicking 24 yard field goals then you're playing from behind and if they're throwing on first down and you're running on first down um then again you're playing from behind. And if they're throwing on first down and you're running on first down, then, again, you're playing from behind the sticks right from the very beginning. And we saw it this year, I think, many times where, okay, we're going to take the field goal or something,

and then the other team goes and scores a touchdown. And when you get into games against good teams, and this was like Buffalo, I couldn't believe it the other night, kicking a field goal. It's like they're gonna score man like they're the best thing you can hope for is that you score a touchdown and then they have to kick a field goal uh because they're playing from ahead the kansas city chiefs the good offenses are not going to sit around and let you win games you know 17 to 14 or something like that i i think even one of the crazy things is when you look at all the statistics even from 2017 they've even changed since then quarterback rating yards

per attempt all these things everything is up and uh it sort of concerned me when zimmer said i think next year the scoring will go back down a little it's like you better hope so man and i don't think so no and and the one thing about the the uh the bucks packers game that if it if it was going to be consistent where mike would have a case but it's not going to be is and i don't know why but those officials when it came to pis held the flags i mean mean, the Tyler Johnson one. It was prison rules. Yeah, but that's Mike's game. Like if Mike was told flat out, you know what, we don't care anymore.

We're not calling those things. And he could tell his corners, grab everybody, haul them down, mug them, don't care what you do, then Mike wins. But you know as well as I do that that's not going to be the case and and that's why i i hear a you know a bunch of folks today saying well look at the bucks defensively and the bucks played a very nice game but how much were they helped by the fact that you said it was prison rules yeah right if that game is called as an ordinary game they're getting flags uh the the pick that aaron threw late in the first half that's a holding

penalty yeah so like there's no way that that flies so if your point is well the vikings can accomplish what they want because of what the buccaneers did in the conference title game my comeback is you would have to bank on the rules basically being we don't care what you do to receivers which is never going to be the case so yeah i just i really think that the vikings have an opportunity but they have to play their cards right and they have to be smart and i don't know if they have the ability um as far as what they're going to discuss to make the transition because i do think if mike says look i'm a defensive guy we're going to come back and we're going to have a great D again. And that's what we're going to do. And Dalvin's going to get 7,000 carries.

I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment. But I do think they have the personnel offensively to be dynamic if they wanted to be. But also part of that comes back to a very simple question. Are you willing to put games in Kirk's hands and the head coach is not and my case is if this is your guy then you got to see you got to see you can't you can't have back-to-back games out of a bye where he averages 17 pass attempts per game like you just can't right right and uh you know letting him letting him go off from the very beginning and throw the ball down the field to Justin Jefferson. I think these are not massive changes, though, on the offensive side. It's get some speed.

Scottie Miller, real fast. Switch your philosophy a little bit, that kind of thing. It's not massive to at least be a player in the NFC next year. It's not going to have to be some crazy, how will they ever get players. You've got Jefferson. Right. Like he's there. But on the defensive side, the Bucs, the thing about the Bucs,

it's not no one would ever say you don't need defense to win or your defense to show up. It's that you can't just rely on them to win you games. And even, I mean, Aaron Rodgers is still in a position to tie that game. His coach just took that opportunity away from him for some reason that I'll never understand. But Tampa Bay, all they needed was a couple of plays. And I think that's what even Kansas City has. Kansas City against Buffalo.

A couple of big sacks. A big interception to put the dagger in the Bills. The Bills moved the ball through a lot of that game, but it was a big stop here or there. So you need a couple of really talented players and a lot of really decent players. I think Tampa Bay has exactly that. They have superstars.

I mean, JPP is still playing incredibly well. Shaq Barrett, I thought he might be a one-year wonder. He's not. He's really good. The interior guys are good. So they've got a great defensive line. But they gave up a lot of passing yards there in Rogers. They just needed to make a couple of key plays.

If you have a Vikings defense that really only has like one or two superstar, even three superstar players, and then a lot of bottom of the barrel replacement level players i don't see how you consistently make those big stops yeah i know and i think you're right and the problem too is is this from the vikings standpoint uh if cousins had had even close to the second half that brady did which was not good which which was terrible. The Vikings panic. He is not allowed to throw the ball. Dalvin carries the ball, and it starts to go. I mean, that's the one thing that we have seen about this league is if you're going to be successful,

you have to be, I think, willing to put the game in your quarterback's hand. And look, that's why on fourth down, how Matt matt lafleur does not go for it i don't know like you have a hall of fame the one player that you have the marquee guy you you basically said i prefer my defense try and stop the buccaneers that's about as stupid a thing as you could possibly say but i think that if we had seen the packers go for it on fourth down and even if they fail that process is correct which is I've got a quarterback I trust him right and this all comes down to to trust but but KC and the Bills to me that is that game was the because the Bills are pretty good it was the

1990 Pistons as the Bills, right? Playing the 2017 Warriors. And it's like you are literally pounding the ball inside to Bill Lambeer for layups. And then KC with Curry gets the ball back and like, that was really cute. Here's a 40-yard touchdown. Yeah, you mean with the field goal decision, right? Yes, yes. The field goals are like pounding the ball inside to Bill Lambeer. He's going to take it to the rack and get you two points.

And then Curry's going to come right back down, Mahomes, and you're going to get a huge play. I want to remind you about our friends at SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping at SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. There's so many great designs, including Chuck Foreman spin doctor shirts, skull hats, straight cash homie shirts, and much, much more.

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Code Purple Insider for free shipping. I also think that, and I'm sorry to bring this up and have the memories go through your head. I also think that this was the Bills 0 for 27 three-point game, that when they couldn't throw to their top guy, and Cole Beasley apparently had an injury that he was dealing with, they just didn't have more answers for that. TJ Yeldon is their running back, and so they were trying to, like, throw to him, and he made some decent plays.

But it's not like when you play the greatest teams, you have to have a lot of answers and it can't just be kind of one. And it can't just be your quarterback runs around and then throws it somewhere. You know what I mean? It's just, that's not going to work when you play the best of the best when they do the same thing you do only twice as good. Exactly right. Yeah. I mean, they're going up and down the field, like,

Hey, no problem. Right. And you're like, Oh, i wonder if we can get in a field goal position right and the bills honestly have only one great player on defense so that's something that they need to get a couple of more you know stout players but i don't think they'll be back i think that that was their case keenum year and they're going to be destined to be just okay from now on because that AFC is a bear. I think Stefan Diggs, as far as what he wanted, is in a perfect place. Stefan Diggs, in my opinion, will never make a Super Bowl as a Buffalo Bill. I don't think they're going to go. I think Mahomes will block them, and I think something else will come up.

Trevor Lawrence. Yep. I think something else will block them, and I think something else will come up. Trevor Lawrence. Yep. I think something else will stop them. But I have never, I don't think, gotten the feeling that I do when there is no situation that I see Mahomes in, Matthew, where I think he might be screwed. Yeah, no, never. Hardman fumbled that ball at, what, the two. They punch it in to go up nine rip. I mean, ordinarily, you'd be thinking, oh, my God,

that's a great start on the road for Buffalo. They're in trouble. I wonder if the opposing team's in trouble. Mahomes walks to where Hardman is, like, in full pout, right? He's all P.O.'d. And you can basically see he just says, don't worry about it. It's fine. Yeah.

But, I mean, there was no, like, yeah, we're going to do this. It was just sort of like this, oh, that's not a problem. Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen it because it's not being cocky. Like, it's not being a jerk. It's basically this whole thing of, oh, 9-0, huh? Right, right. We're going to score.

Yeah. He did the same thing in the Super Bowl. There was a really awesome NFL Films, like, mic'd up thing of Patrick Mahomes through the whole Super Bowl where they were losing in the fourth quarter, and Tyreek Hill was really upset. And he just walked over to Tyreek Hill. Like, Hill was distraught on the sideline.

And he walked up to him, and he was just like, hey, I'm going to need a big play from you here. So, come on, let's go. And it was just, like, the calmest thing mean it's like mahomes is just built in a lab and not only from the perspective of his athleticism and his arm strength but his personality too it's just perfect it's like he's never shaken even when he's hurt he doesn't look like he's hurt and can keep playing i mean he he can make throws from any angle he never takes sacks how many times was it like oh oh okay uh wow did you see his starting

offensive line by the way mike remmers was at left tackle yeah yeah mike remmers we didn't like him at right tackle it's it's unbelievable they don't have a single guy i think starting in the super bowl that was picked above the seventh round i think i mean it's amazing tackle if you wanted to like if you if you wanted to paint a scenario where i would say oh you're screwed for sure yeah you know it'd be like tj clemmings i know Mike Rammers. No. Yeah. Yeah. It's it is. But the fact that he never like there's never any I think we might be in trouble. It's just such a weird year. It's fun to watch, but it's just weird. Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, it really does. The only player I've ever seen like this in all of sports is Jordan.

I mean, is the only player I've ever watched where there was like an inevitable factor of no matter what you do to this guy, he's going to come through and he's going to beat you. And yet the thing that's crazy is it took Jordan years to kind of develop that. And then he gets into the nineties with my homes. It was from the very beginning. He should have even beaten Brady the first time they played it,

if not for some very bizarre calls. So like, man, it is, uh, if you're a Vikings fan, the one silver lining you have is the NFC, that you are not in the AFC. You're right. No, you'd have no hope. And I agree with you that Buffalo won't be back. I saw a lot of people in my Twitter feed, Bill's fans, saying, hey, you know, we'll just get back there next year,

and then we've got to win that game. Like, no, you won't. No, you won't. Because you'll have to pay Josh Allen soon. And then you run into the same barrel of problems that everyone else has with expensive quarterbacks. He's also flawed and he's been flawed. And we know this, that you can pump a quarterback up for a year, but long-term it doesn't happen. We saw it with Case Keenum. We saw it with Nick Foles. And I'm not saying he's Case Keenum or Nick Foles. He's more talented. He moves around well.

But he still has shortcomings that show up, just like Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Jimmy Garoppolo, any of these other guys in the biggest games. And I just – I can't see it. I can't see it because they had everything go right for them. Now everyone knows exactly how they're going to play and how to stop them. And he'll be on a list of, let's say, five guys who opposing teams will spend the entire spring and summer scheming to stop. Yep. They're going to find a way to stop the run. Like, so he does a great job because he can run.

He's running. So he does a great job because he can run. He does a great job because if he looks downfield and does not see a thing, he can take off and he's big and fast enough that he can get yards. They'll find a way to stop that. Well, the answer is Steve Spagnuolo, not the best freaking defensive coordinator, too, by the way. Oh, he's very good. He's not a good head coach, but he's a really good coordinator. he and Bowles are both really good yep and what did they do they had a spy on the defensive line and they rushed from the outside with the blitzers so he couldn't run up

the middle because they had a spy and he couldn't run to the outside because they were blitzing the outside every time it was brilliant it was they were changing their coverages was one time, and we could get to our, you know, favorite quarterback matchups in a second. But there was one time where they had a guy in motion, and the linebacker showed, oh, I'm going in motion with this guy. I must be playing man coverage. And then he blitzed. And Allen went, oh, what?

Like, that's sort of a classic read for a quarterback is when they follow the guy in motion. It's man coverage. And Spagnuolo is like, no, it's not. And that's where I love it so much in the best levels, the deep in the playoffs is like this is everything. They are throwing everything at you and the true talent. And the smart ones will change things drastically and they they won't care quick story so in 2008 the vikings made the playoffs and that was the year that tavara started they went on to gus barrett got the job and got and you know what i will defend my guy gus i thought he played well

he brought stability okay so then gus got hurt he broke the transverse process in his back in detroit and tavar jackson stepped back in in december in arizona and that was right at the cardinals i think it clinched their first playoff berth since since and i'm not joking 1974 or five and so they spent the entire week drinking and smoking dope so they were just completely didn't give a crap and tavaris lit them up and childress on the sideline was like, oh, my God, this is the Tavares I drafted. It's going to be great. And so Tavares started the rest of that year. In the last regular season game, the Vikings played, I believe it was the Giants,

and I believe Spagnuolo was the D.C. in New York at that time. And so he did a bunch of stuff, like blitzing and stuff. And Tavares was just lost completely lost and I said you got to start Gus in the playoff game because they're going to play Philadelphia who is DC was the late Jim Johnson yeah who spags who spags was a disciple of and Jim Johnson loved to blitz and he loved it and he took one look at that Giants film and was like, oh, this is going to be fun. And the Vikings lost, and Tavares was a mess. And so that's what the good defensive coordinators do that. They make schematic changes, and they know every weakness.

And this is what makes Mahomes so great. What's the weakness? It doesn't matter. Like you can't exploit it. You can't find it. Here's the thing. Here's the crazy thing about that game, Judd. Sean McDermott had the right strategy.

He had the right strategy. They played their safeties way back, and they said, you know what? We are not giving up the big play. And Mahomes didn't throw a single ball over 20 yards that was completed. Didn't matter. He just lit them up and lit them up and lit them up and took what they could give them and then got the ball to playmakers. run the reverse they run the creative stuff in the end zone there really is no weakness and uh even it's funny about this with Mahomes even with Brady

when he kept making Super Bowls you always felt like yeah you could kind of get to him you can you could kind of make things difficult on Brady he's's not perfect. Mahomes, I don't feel that way. I feel like I don't know what the answer is, and it's fun to watch. So let me ask you this now. So I asked you to make up your list of your three favorite QB versus QB Super Bowls of your lifetime watching the National Football League, Judd. So why don't you tell me your list of your three favorite quarterback-quarterback matchups

because Mahomes Brady has got to be up there. To be fair, this is very, very tough because I started to watch the Super Bowl around 79. So this is all, as we've talked about before, an old person. Yes. So this is very difficult because you were asking me to pick three out of many and and yes there was a period probably mid 80s to the early 90s where the where the games themselves were not good and were one-sided scores so i can immediately start by taking those out but i'm going to give you the three that i looked forward to the most and i'm going to it's tough because i'm not going

i don't think i'm going to get to the 2000s here so i'm going to start i got you covered on those for my good all right january 21st 1979 i give you terry bradshaw against roger stavell oh yeah super bowl 13 i this this might have been my first one uh that i actually sat down and watched and it i mean that's just an epic old school concussions didn't matter super bowl matchup i mean bradshaw about at the end starbucks same exact thing uh final steelers 35 cowboys 31 but that what that was a classic right like you are you're a kid and you're like i can't wait you're 10 years old or so i can't wait for the super bowl so that's my first one uh my second one i am let's see here i'm gonna go to january 20th 1985 super

bowl 19 a one-sided game but joe mont Montana and the Niners against Dan Marino and the Dolphins. 38-16, but tell me that's not a classic and Marino doesn't get back. And Marino was unbelievable, too. I mean, to start his career, like nobody has been better. How good would Dan Marino be now? Like you could take a lot of qbs and put them back in time or but just with what marine everything about the way he played to me seems to fit better into today's game than then and back then it was great but i'm just saying he's the one

guy i would love to transport in time at that age and put in today's game so dan early in his career had more athleticism than like he does now he could actually move around and had pocket presence i'll give you the craziest stat i've ever heard that would make dan marino be an unbelievable quarterback in today's game his sack percentage led the nfl in sack percentage for his first let's see from 83 to 89 first seven years in the league, he had the lowest sack percentage. This guy never got sacked.

For his whole career, he was sacked on 3.1% of dropbacks. I mean, that would kill today because the defensive ends are just so great at getting after you, and the receivers are so great at getting open, you can't really mug them outside of that one game we watch. I mean, the accuracy, the ball velocity, the big time throws. I mean, yeah, I think he is a top three quarterback in the league if he's playing today. I mean, yeah, he was great. So anyway, that is my second quarterback Super Bowl matchup. My last one is I'm going to leave you with a game that was played January 25th I believe it was 1999

and or I'm sorry 98 my bad Super Bowl 32 John Elway Brett Favre yes Broncos 31 Packers heavily favored 24 um that that was was QB who had been to the big game numerous times finally won one against Favre who was trying to win his second at the time had won fairly recently to that season three consecutive I believe MVP awards Elway Favre gunslinger central so that I mean truly in my lifetime of watching the sport the best that I had kind of seen and had it go well I mean I had seen Jim Kelly versus Troy Aikman but you know that that didn't turn out that great and then it was but then it was Stan Humphreys lost and Neil O'Donnell and and even like Drew Bledsoe was good and that was sort of fun. But it was like decidedly one guy was better than the other.

So really that 98 Broncos Packers was the first one for me that was holy bleep. What a put it on the marquee matchup. Now, for me, I had that one on my list. So I'll pick one other one but titans and rams steve there against kurt warner kurt warner at the height of his powers greatest show on turf steve mcnair was one of my favorite players to watch you talk about players who would translate to today how about if they weren't running eddie george on first and second down all the time right oh great steve mcnair And the finish of that game was so fun.

So great. I mean, inches away. Even though I was a little salty because of the music city miracle, was a little salty, but still love Steve McNair. And that was an incredible matchup. That is, for me, at the very top. I will also throw out there, clearly Rex Grossman. No, I'm just kidding. No, not the very top. I will also throw out there. Clearly Rex, no, I'm just kidding. Not, no, not Rex.

Big Ben versus Kurt Warner again was actually one of the Kurt Warner. I really enjoyed watching him play like the ultimate pocket quarterback who was accurate down the field and his career redemption, where he had come back from the horrible times with the Giants. Big Ben obviously was at that time an elite quarterback. And then the very next year, which was Drew Brees against Peyton Manning. I mean, it doesn't get any better than Drew Brees, Peyton Manning. Yes. So we have been hashtag blessed with some pretty good quarterback matchups.

They don't always turn out great, though. And this one, what do you think? I mean, I do think that Tampa Bay has the defensive line to make a difference and if there's any chance that's how they do it personally personally i was pulling for rogers and the packers against mahomes as chiefs a uh a rematch of super bowl one the rogers thing to me because he had such a great year like the brady stuff is intriguing um but so here's the weird thing do you feel in watching brady now and it's incredible 43 incredible career but do you feel like i feel like from

snap to snap he can like throw an old school, hey, that's Brady. And then the next ball just sort of like sails or it's very weird. So ideally, if I could have painted the picture, I would go Packers-Chiefs. I think this is going to be fun. But I feel like Brady is on a tightrope of football right now. And the tightrope is I'm still really pretty good. I'm not great, but I'm still pretty good. But I'm teetering at times to being really washed up.

And so it's an interesting dynamic. So if I had had my choice, though, I 100% take Rodgers, Mahomes, because I think that that would have been just so much fun to watch those two right now go head-to-head head and I don't know how much longer Rodgers is going to be in the class of what we saw this season yeah the number one offense for the Packers um I mean it that would have been a I think a better matchup because I actually think that the Packers were the better team and they just blew it and they blew it. They should go home.

Not feeling like the bills get to go home and be like, well, you know, my homes, but that's play so poorly though, Matthew, I don't understand how the Packers defense, like what was your plan?

Yeah, I know. And, and now they're talking about, you know, firing their defensive coordinator and all that sort of stuff. But that's the thing is they, it really feels like they blew it. You gave up the huge touchdown at the end of the half.

That is unacceptable. You get a couple of interceptions on tip balls or like floating throws by Brady. You don't take advantage of them. You take the ball out of the quarterback's hands at the end. I mean, you gave the game away rather than you having it just be, be beaten. And that makes me lean pretty heavily toward the chiefs. Like if you had to get there like the bucks it sort of was like the bills and why i thought the chiefs would

win is because the bills kind of had to hand it to him a little bit lamar throws a pick rivers doesn't finish off the game like you kind of squeaked by and kansas city won't let you do that um in this case you squeaked by tampa bay to get there. Kansas City's going for that fourth down, man. They're getting it, right? Of course they are, yeah. Yeah. It very much feels like you're Jordan versus, you know, Barkley or versus Malone or something where you're like, yeah, those Jazz,

they're good. And it'll be fun to see how they lose to the best player. Yeah, you're exactly right. And, look, i think the chiefs would beat the bucks or the packers so it's not like i think that the packers would have beaten the chiefs but i the matchup of quarterbacks to me there was more attractive yep i'd just be curious to see it but look the packers flat out deserved to lose that game they did they just deserve to and i don't understand. I just,

I don't get it. I don't get it, but it comes, but I just keep coming back to one thing. I don't think the conference is that good. I just don't. And I think you're right. That is one of the reasons and it's like the perfect place to end the show is one of the reasons why the Vikings should have some regrets for this year. Not saying they would have been here under any circumstances to the Super Bowl, but, you know, they did beat the Packers. I mean, just saying that. How about win the Titans game? Don't get blown out by the Falcons.

Right. The conference was weak. You played right with Tampa Bay and Green Bay, and the second time you played them, you should have regrets. And if Rodgers does come back, but things have changed in Green Bay in 2021, you're going to be in a division with a Packers team that might be dropping off. But more importantly, the Lions with Dan Campbell and the Bears. Are the Bears going to run this thing back?

I mean, if you look at the North next season, tell me that that thing might not be wide open right and this is a reason for the vikings to be aggressive and you might as well if right i mean if this is kind of make or break for zimmer and spielman you might as well go out putting the standard at making championship weekend again and nothing else and if it takes uh you know kind of going all in on some things not not a Yanni Gengakwe trade, but, I mean, the offense is what I'm talking about. If it takes, like, hey, this is our one ticket, then, you know, maybe they should do it.

Judd, this was really fun. I'm glad we could get together. It's been great, and I'm glad that I could take you back to the 1979 Super Bowl. As only you could. That's true. I did have a Royce-y appearance recently. Oh, okay. I beat Ben.

Yes, exactly right. Thanks, Ben. Talk to you.