Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings acquired Cam Akers and the Bears' organization melted down

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings acquiring RB Cam Akers from the Rams and what our expectations for him should be. Plus Kevin O'Connell played coy about Dalton Risner, Marcus Davenport didn't practice and Justin Fields's time in Chicago is probably over soon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of purple insider, Matthew collar here and the Vikings added another player. This is like March. This has been a fun little break where you get a guard and now another running back. And maybe another question about why it took this long to get another running back, but maybe we don't have to go down that road. So thank you all for waiting past the usual time, which is usually around eight o'clock when we go live on YouTube. If you're listening on the podcast feed, that does not matter to you what time it is,

but I had to push back going live a little bit to go to the Minnesota links playoff game. Cause I have linked season tickets and in the playoffs and you'll never believe what happened a minnesota sports team had a disappointing playoff result i know i know you're all shocked this is maybe even shocked more shocking than what justin field said today to the media in chicago terrifying terrifying news i won't become a trend though though, I don't think. I think this is probably the one and only playoff disappointment in Minnesota sports, and we'll be fine from here. There won't be any more.

It was kind of a typical season, and the Lynx have kind of become Vikings-y, actually, a little bit, where they have enough talent to be fun and interesting, but maybe not enough to go deep in the playoffs and also maybe not bad enough to draft high. So I think there are maybe some correlations there anyway. Well, let's get into it with Cam Akers. So I have spent my other time while not attending the Lynx game doing just enough research to feel comfortable with having a take on Cam Akers, which is I'm not really sure what the heck happened with Cam Akers and the Los Angeles Rams.

That's my take. So when I look at how he performed last year, he was OK. He scored seven touchdowns. He averaged four point two yards to, graded well by PFF. In 2021, had some injuries, didn't play well. 2020, he was all right, 846 yards, 4.5 yards a carry. And there must be a personality issue between Sean McVay and Cam Akers or some sort of problem with how they're connecting with what

they want to do on offense or something behind the scenes that would cause the Rams to not want Cam Akers to be their running back. Now this year it has been a total disaster. He's carried the ball 22 times and gained just 29 yards. So I don't know what it is. And I've looked around, and I haven't seen anything really definitive aside from McVay's kind of had it with Cam Akers, and so now the Vikings are acquiring him. If you're looking at his age and his previous production, he's 24 years old. His previous production is okay.

For his career, 3.9 yards of carry. Not great, but you know, some of that's probably this year having his struggles and the last season was okay. And I would say that it's not like you acquired the next Jerome Bettis or Steven Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams. But here's the thing, the Vikings running game and their running situation is absolutely miserable. or Steven Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams. But here's the thing. The Vikings running game and their running situation is absolutely miserable at this point. I mean, they have run for 69 yards on the season. And the offensive line has been problematic. There's no question about that.

But also, when you look at how Alexander Madison has performed through two games, it has not been inspiring either. And I really liked the way that Jeremiah Searles put it on our show, which go back and check that out. If you missed it, Jeremiah said, it looks different from where Madison had played before, where he had been as a running back before this year, it has not looked like what I expected it to look like based on what we saw from the time he was drafted, even until last year, where I thought he was a fairly effective running back. And maybe some of it is the defensive lines they've faced. Probably a lot of it. Some of it is the injuries. It's very hard to get five people working in unison together when the left tackle is out, who is an unbelievable football player and the center is out, who is one of the better run blocking centers in the league.

So I think that that has caused a good amount of it. And I would not just look at what Madison's done through two weeks and go, all right, we're out on Madison. He can't play or whatever. Find somebody else. I think that we need to give a little more time, especially when they're playing a Chargers team that is uninspiring, to Alexander Madison. Give more of a chance, more of a sample size.

I mean, we saw in past years, even when Delvin Cook was at his peak, if they played a defensive line that was as good as Tampa Bay or as good as Philadelphia, we routinely saw this team struggle because of the offensive line to move the football on the ground. So I don't think it's just been Madison. I think it's been some Madison, but the thing is that there's no, like, let's go to the lefty for a little bit of change up with this team with ty chandler they hinted strongly throughout the training camp and otas and so forth that they weren't really all in on ty chandler as a complete running back and they put him out there he had a little bit of pass block issues against the eagles and then they took back out. So he's barely played any plays.

He is very quick and maybe that's, maybe that's wrong. Like maybe they should give him more of a chance because he's so fast, but they also need him to understand where to run, how to block all those things. And just, it felt like from all the comments that they made, all right, they don't really trust him to be that guy. And Kenny Wong Wu nowhere to be found. I mean, he's on IR. I know. And maybe he'll come back at some point. But that's still a multi-week injury from now to come back to. And Kevin O'Connell said something like, hopefully we get him back at some point this year, which did not sound very inspiring for when Kenny Wong will, will be back. Not only that Kenny Wong was essentially never really run in an NFL game. Anyway, a handful of carries in games at all for Kenny Wong. So there's nobody that is experienced or trustworthy miles Gaskin. They picked up from Miami, but we're talking about kind of just the guy there. And so with this opportunity to get cam acres for literally nothing, I mean a 2026 draft pick swap. I mean, what is that? Like,

here's, here's some lint I found in my pocket. Would you like it for this running back? So you get them for nothing. And I think that we were looking at this situation throughout all of training camp saying, all right, does it make sense to bring in Kareem hunt? Does it make sense to call Lenny four net? Does it make sense? Like anybody to come in and be the backup running back. And it always did make sense to bring in someone else. And so they finally do as they're sitting here at Owen too. And I've got to wonder about the guard and the running back position. Both of these not happening until they were staring at Owen too,

is a little odd. Because as soon as Wong Wu got hurt, you had to figure I mean, they started bringing in guys for tryouts for workouts. And the same thing goes for the offensive line. As soon as it didn't look good in the summer they're bringing in dalton reisner for a visit and yet so far you know it took so long to get around to actually signing these guys and i don't is you know is it the difference between two and oh and oh and two very likely no but maybe with the offensive line right maybe a strip sack for example that happens in the first game maybe that changes things maybe a little more time to

throw here there i don't know so maybe regrettable for them to have not made these moves when we could see that these moves needed to be made so you you do have to wonder, like, was Kevin O'Connell interested in these players and the front office did not want to sign them and wanted to give younger players a chance? Was it internal politics that caused this? Because they understood the issue enough to bring in players for tryouts, but did not make the action to sign these players or, or obviously trade for a cam acres. So that's a little odd to me. And I, and I don't really fully understand what it was that took so long for either one of these guys. And with Reisner,

the idea of like, well, his money becomes guaranteed. Okay. Well, he's going to play the rest of the year, right? Unless he gets hurt. So what nickels and dimes are we talking about here? And that option was on the table to restructure Brian O'Neal anytime they wanted to all summer long. So I think that there's some deserved criticism of taking this long to fill these spots. And hey, mix in a pass rusher too,

because Marcus Davenport today on the injury report, not great, not great at all for Davenport, not practicing with the ankle injury, which it's usually Friday, Thursday, Friday, where we start to get the idea of someone's going to play or not, not Wednesday, but they had a long break and then he's not practicing. That's not a really good sign for Marcus Davenport for this weekend. And you're talking about the DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones show again. So maybe four weeks from now, they can find an edge rusher. I don't know.

It's just kind of odd to me. But as far as acres goes, the personality issue or whatever it is that is causing his problem, how he's playing with the Rams to want to get rid of him, certainly raises a red flag. Like how good could this be if that's a team that is getting rid of him and sending him here. But at the same time, his track record is decent enough to say that's kind of what a backup running back looks like. And it's someone who's played before. It's someone who has at least enough familiarity with Kevin O'Connell to think that he could step in and be trusted to be the backup running back. So there's no criticism to be had about the actual move. When you look around, you go, okay, well, the Browns signed Kareem Hunt. Go look at Kareem Hunt's performance last year. And then, you know, I don't know one of the nfl insiders putting it out there like kareem hunts lost some weight like okay great but he's also like 28 or 29 and you know i

mean i don't know that i ever thought that that was a good idea for the vikings to bring in kareem hunt so if you were giving me the choice if you had laid out all the possible running backs who can you pick from when kenny wong will went down here's a whole list pick a card i mean cam makers probably would have been the one i would have picked out of leonard fournette out of kareem hunt whatever bringing delvin back somebody brought up you know i don't know like i think that it's probably the best that they could have done somebody who is not out of their prime who's not into that sort of age of death for running backs and who has played pretty well by his pff grade his yards touchdowns yards

per carry when he's been healthy you just have to wonder and and you know kevin o'connell was never will never say this to us when we ask, but what's the deal? Why is he here? Why would a team give up on him the way that they did? And I guess maybe we'll find that out. But in the best-case scenario, Cam Akers runs for what? Like 450 yards and a couple of touchdowns and gives him four yards to carry and is at least solid and serviceable behind Alexander Madison. And I think that's about the best you're going to do, but this,

I mean, this is a passing offense and it's going to remain a passing offense first and foremost. And I think Kevin O'Connell has never truly understood where the running game should fit in. So he just keeps passing and I don't hate it. Like I think, I mean, leaning into the passing game and Kirk cousins was, I thought a good idea, like, Oh, four or five years ago. And I we've seen it, you know, pay dividends last year. And I think that cousins is playing better football through these first two games. The weapons are even better. There's no like Laquan Treadwell, number three receiver,

the number three or two, a receiver is KJ Osborne is pretty darn good. And the tight end is dynamic. I was watching the other night, the all 22 TJ Hawkinson runs this kind of out and in pattern turns around a safety and he's got a wide open catch like, okay, well,

I don't know. Vikings tight ends of the past. How many could do that in space? They've got all the weapons to throw the ball over the place. They need a competent running game. If they ever get ahead in a game and have to run out, you know, run some clock and pound away at the opponent and they, they need pass blocking. They need something to have play action passes off of,

but that's about it. Everybody knows what they're going to do and they can do it well. And they need pass blocking. They need something to have play action passes off of. But that's about it. Everybody knows what they're going to do, and they can do it well. So it's not like a huge impact move, but I think it makes sense to have someone who's actually played a lot of NFL football before, not Ty Chandler, who's backing up Alexander Madison. So it's fine. It's interesting, I think, more than anything, more than the actual guys, although Reisner could have a legitimate impact, more of an impact than Akers, I think.

But it's interesting enough that they're doing it, like that they were looking at what they had through two games and possibly saying, that division is not that good, and it certainly is not. The Packers lost a close game to a bleh Falcons team. We'll get to the Bears. It's on fire. Soldier Field is burning down and crashing into Lake Michigan. So they're going to stink. And then the Lions, and they gave up 37 points to Seattle. They're still Detroit's defense until proven otherwise. So based on the way the Vikings can pass the ball,

which they are fourth in passing EPA through two weeks, which is really good. And I don't know if you guys, how many of you are readers of the, the sub stack, the purple insider sub stack, but I posted a chart there that showed just how Kevin O'Connell and Kirk Cousins have been working so well in conjunction where receivers are open and Cousins is throwing the ball accurately. It's just that he needs to not get strips act multiple times. So I don't know how important it is to have cam acres or not have cam acres. If he can pass block a little, that would be helpful. I didn't check. I can pull this up here on pff and see what they think of his blocking um oh well you know actually last year his pass blocking was okay he only allowed two pressures well he only actually passed block 38 times so he wasn't doing it a lot

but decently graded last year last two years so maybe he can do that a little bit but i mean this is this this offense is not going to live or die on cam makers or Alexander Madison or miles Gaskin or Moweldy more or Artros pinner or any other running back David Palmer. It's going to live and die on the passing game. So it's, it's, it's only interesting to me that I'm wondering about the conversations that go into a move like this, where they're saying, add, don't subtract, don't leave it as it is, don't natural tank, which, you know,

like just let it be and let it fall apart. Go get players who can help you now and potentially later. I mean, Dalton Reiser's not old and Cam Akers is not old either. So they continue to kind of try to find those players. They also continue to kind of pick up somebody else's discarded players, which is kind of interesting as well as that strategy has not worked so far.

I don't call Byron Murphy a discarded player, by the way. I think Byron Murphy was like a $10 million corner. He's legit, like a legit signing. Davenport though, maybe more so. And certainly your Jalen raggers, your loss Ross black locks. And now it feels the same way with a cam acres. If one of them hits, we'll call it very smart. Usually they don't. So we'll see how this plays out and how quick they can get in. Also, I wanted to mention before I get to your questions, comments that Kevin O'Connell kind of played coy on a lot of things today regarding Dalton Reisner that where he's playing,

not clear. We're going to see how things work out when he's playing, not clear. But that sounds like this week. And, you know, O'Connell was talking about, well,, well, he's with a lot of veteran players out there, but his system in Denver wasn't the same. So he was kind of hedging on whether he expects him to play. But I thought the most interesting thing that Kevin O'Connell said was a question

that he refused to answer, which was, why did you do this? Like, why did you sign Dalton Reiser? What was the thought process? Was it, and I think maybe it was Ben Gessling phrased it, did you do this like why did you sign dalton reiser what was the thought process was it and i think uh maybe as ben gesling phrased it like so was it just the injuries or the depth to kind of be like oh or someone who's not good uh and he said well i don't want to get into that which is pretty rare uh for kevin o'connell who usually is fine with explaining or giving some sort of explanation. And that stuck out to me. I don't know what the thinking was. I think I know. And we're going to find out if it's just the right guard isn't good and we need to replace him. But is it going to be

like a depth thing? Is it going to be a left guard? Is it going to be a center? Like, I don't know. We'll find out. My bet would go on right guard. Oh, and let's talk about Justin Fields for a second. It's over friends. It's over. It's over. Here's how you know it's over everything that happened today. I mean, it's melting. It's every bust player, especially like a quarterback, but they have their it's over moment. It may have been for Lewis seen the other night when Theo Jackson came off the bench, when Sam Darnold got caught on national TV on the hot mic saying, I'm seeing ghosts. It was like, oh man, this guy's played way too long to be saying I'm seeing ghosts out there. And you know, it's kind of over and everybody knew it at that time. And it goes for, I mean,

just about everybody, you know, Josh Rosen goes to Miami and I forget what game it was, but it was like, you know, three for 13 for 12 yards or something. You know what I mean? Like there's always those sort of bad game moments and sometimes they come in other ways too. I'm sure there was a, I can't remember it exactly, but there was a very defensive, like Christian Ponder, uh, press conference that I think people talk about for it very defensive like Christian Ponder press conference that I think people talk about for it being over with Christian Ponder. And in my memory, there was when I was

covering Buffalo, EJ Manuel, the moment that we knew it was over was in preseason. He was talking all about how it was the coach's fault. It was the previous coach's fault, which sounds familiar with Fields. And then he lost the number two job to Matt Castle, who you guys remember. So he lost the number one job to Tyrod Taylor, but also lost the number two job to Matt Castle. And he was in the fourth quarter of a preseason game, shushing the crowd after a touchdown. It was like, that's over. It's over. We lost them

fields. If you didn't see it, which I'm sure you did, but if you didn't see it, essentially blamed the coaching staff for the bears for his failures and his struggles this year as a passer and suggested that he needed to be more himself and not try to follow their all their rules which if if the bears did what i think that they did it's actually pretty clever which would be to install a system that requires justin fields to truly play quarterback not like what the giants did last year for daniel jones it was, we're going to run, we're going to have you run and then throw some short passes and don't screw up. But if they did that for Justin Fields, that's not a way to win the Superbowl.

That's not a way to really compete. So he had to prove that he could truly play a complete game as a quarterback. And it looks like with the lack of design runs, that's what they were trying to get him to do. And he's, his body's rejecting it. Apparently he can't possibly play the actual position. And then he said that. So he says what he says about the coaching and then he pulls the reporters over after realizing must be on social media is getting torched. And then he accuses the reporters of taking him out of context. It's on video, man. Like, we can really look at the whole thing. And when you say coaching is what's holding you back, and then say, you took me out of context.

No one believes you, Justin Fields. So that is a pretty, pretty rough situation for them. Their defensive coordinator then quits. I don't know the situation there, but that's something you don't expect in week two to see or week three for Adam Schefter alert pop up and say a defensive coordinator has quit. So they are in tragic circumstances at the moment. And this only enhances the Vikings argument to sign players and try to be better. You're not scared of the Packers. The Lions haven't given you a true reason to be afraid of them at the moment. So yeah, you could see why the Vikings would want to push as

hard as they can and to, you know, to win this game, of course, but just to enhance the roster in places where they are short. So Chicago though, it's, you know, it's funny because you would think from me, I'm always talking about the next year's draft draft quarterback, go to the bottom, everything else with Chicago. They decided not to pick number one. Maybe they were never sold on Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, CJ Stroud. And that's why they said, let's just see with Justin Fields.

Let's really see. Let's really be sure. And I can respect that. I can respect that trading out of the first pick, getting a receiver, getting some more draft capital and finding out for sure that Justin Fields wasn't the guy, because if you trade him away, he's great. You draft the bust. Everyone gets fired.

They might get fired anyway. I don't know. But normally I would say what a great position they're in, but man, I don't know. It's like, they just keep doing the same thing and it keeps blowing up in their face and it's gotta be just, you know, randomness. They haven't actually drafted that many quarterbacks that high like him. It's like Cade McNown and then who, you know, they always kind of hunted for quarterbacks like Kyle Orton or, you know, Jay Cutler and so forth. So, you know, it's not like their historic luck would have anything to do with the next quarterback, but yeesh, it has been, it has been so bad for them. And it's just, it's hard to argue that it's a great thing for that organization to be as bad as they are this year

when they were supposed to have taken a pretty big step forward. But now it looks like, I don't know who their backup quarterback is. Jim McMahon? Is it Moses Moreno or Henry Burris or Eric Kramer? Steve Walsh? Steve Walsh, he's in town here. He can go get to Chicago fast to play quarterback for them. I'm not sure that Fields is going to make it through the season.

I mean, it's really looking like he's collapsing. And something that really sticks out to me is just how much resilience and how much mental toughness it takes to be a quarterback. And I think what you saw today was kind of field showing you everything that that's there. It's not physical. I think it's entirely, he can't see things and process things well. And then he's got no, no resilience, no next level. And maybe, you know, maybe he'll still prove us wrong and we'll laugh at this, but this

felt like the moment, this felt like the moment for them. So very interesting that the Bears' whole timeline gets set back another year. And maybe it'll be a blessing for them. I don't know. Because maybe they won't have a Daniel Jones moment where they pay him and then they're totally locked into that and kind of screwed for years to come. So, all right. Let me get into your questions.

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All right, let's get into your guys' comments here. First of all, Daniel says, the NFC North is fun. Fun is a way to put it. I might say insane. I mean, at least in previous years, it was like, all right, the Packers,

they know what they're doing. They're all set. They're competing for the super bowl and everybody else is hitting each other with pool toys. But now it's all four teams who are just a calamity. And there's plenty of time for somebody to separate themselves, but it looks like David Bakhtiari is not going to play on turf. Well, that helps the Vikings at least for one game. And Aaron Jones is banged up. Christian

Watson hasn't played. Jordan Love to me looks competent. We'll see if there's anything more there, but there's still, I mean, it's two games. So there's a lot more to go for him and a lot to figure out tendency wise and everything else. But it's really the Lions. And can the Vikings win this week and get this thing going? But there, there is a part of me that thinks the Vikings will lose this week and then somehow beat Kansas city in San Francisco and become the, whatever it is, fifth team since 1980 to go. Oh, and three and make the playoffs just because Vikings, that's my only explanation and the NFC North, uh, Scott, nice to see you. Scott says the Viking strategy, all off season

at running back and offensive line. Hope is a strategy. The Viking strategy now, nevermind. How do we fix this on the fly? Yeah. I mean, that's the biggest thing for me is did we not know what was going on at those two positions that's the odd thing i i think both moves are good i've got no criticisms about bringing in a guy who kevin o'connell is familiar with and at least you know last last year had some success um on the ground i mean it's you know it's not like he was running for five yards of carry but uh he still graded well he still you know had seven touchdowns ran for 700 something yards like not not bad not great but like nfl average okay and then all of a sudden his team wants out

but oh well all right that's fine you need somebody but you needed somebody several weeks ago and it was right there for you and And the same thing for Dalton. To me, Dalton risers much worse because he was in the building on August 1st, blank check, whatever you want to get paid, whatever position you want to play. Actually,

you got pretty much any guard spot open. So come to Minnesota and play and not doing it. I don't know. Maybe, maybe Reisner will say maybe someone else it's that, but no one's really saying what the thinking there was, but it's confusing to me. It is confusing to me. Uh, Ozzie Vike says buying all cheap players and hoping for a miracle. Yeah. I mean, they've done a lot of that. They kind of have done a lot of

that now with, with Reisner, I look at him a little bit differently because of his track record. And there isn't, as far as I know, some strange reason that he was out of a job. Maybe he just wanted more money or was waiting for the right situation or thought the Vikings were going to sign him weeks ago. Like, I don't, I don't know. But with acres, it's much more mysterious what's been going on between him and McVay and how he would end up on the trade block after being a guy who was pretty successful for them just last season. That's, that's a little bit odd, but, so I don't think they're praying for a miracle guard because I mean, Reisner has a pretty good track record and probably not for acres either, because how much are they really going to ask him to do?

If he just spells Alexander Madison effectively, okay. If you're relying on him to be the guy, okay, maybe that's a little more risky. But I don't know that they're looking for him to save the backfield, but more have another option. Okay, it's not working for Madison today. Try something else. They don't really have that right now. Uh, Joel asks, does the cam acres signing mean that Kenny's injury is more serious? Ty Chandler hasn't grasped the playbook and or miles Gaskin isn't the back they thought they were getting. Well,

miles Gaskin was, I mean, a guy who was let go by Miami. I mean, he hadn't been good since 2020, just, just the guy, just someone who has played in the league with some experience, but I don't think that they've ever really expected Miles Gaskin to be more than just in case of emergency, we need someone on the roster who's played some football before. But to your point, yeah, I mean, it sounded like from the start of the season when they put him on IR, it sounded like it was pretty serious with Wong Wu's injury. And now, yeah, it does look like I don't know when he's coming back or what's going on there. But, you know, it was a very odd thing.

I mean, because it seemed like when he got hurt, they didn't talk about it as if it was going to be this like super long-term injury. And yet that's what it has become. And I'm not sure. I mean, we have not gotten a real update on him,

but maybe that's a thing to ask now that they brought in Cam Akers. But Wong was on IR, so he's already going to be out quite a while. T. Kubler says, Akers has had a horrible career so far for a second-round running back. You know, I just don't think that's true. Horrible is, I think, a mischaracterization of what he's been so far in his career. I think it's been unspectacular what he's been so far in his career.

I think it's been unspectacular is probably the way I would put it. But I mean, even when we go back to last year, and I know sometimes you guys get on me about PFF grades and everything else, but if you watched every play of cam acres, let me know. I don't think you did. They did. So I'm going to take a look at what they have to say. So I'm looking at, you know, by the run grade for, from PFF and cam acres was in the top 30. So that means that he was not amazing. He was not Josh Jacobs last year, Christian McCaffrey, Tony Pollard, Derek Henry, like those are their top graded running backs, but a starting caliber running back last year. And then something went wrong and I don't know what it is. I don't, but I also think that there are some concepts that are sort of considered modern that I don't always really buy into. And one of them is the dumpster dive for, Hey, this player was a second round

pick and wasn't that good. And now we'll make them good. But I think that acres was decent and it's not like Ross Blacklock who was never good or Jalen Rager, who was never good. So it's a little bit different. I also don't believe in positionless football either, but that's a whole other thing. Michael says forgetting him for nothing. And this is a no brainer with the KOC familiarity. I wouldn't be surprised if he's active Sunday, even yeah, possible, possible. There's probably a lot of the similar things for the offense and it is possible that he could come right in and that, that that would at least provide them a little bit of depth starting right away.

I think Reisner will probably play right away, or at least that's their hope. It's not easy to do. It's not impossible, as we saw from TJ Hawkinson. And you are absolutely right that the price was literally nothing. So if you were getting Leonard Fournette off free agency, Kareem Hunt off free agency, or this guy for a swap of 2026 picks, I mean, yeah. So either way, it would have been just the price of having him on the team is the price. So it's hard to argue at this stage in the game that you could get someone who has a better background than acres.

What is the real impact though? Yet to be seen. Maybe he'll surprise us. Maybe he'll turn out to be more of a player, but I think that they also want to put a little pressure on Alexander Madison. I mean, I don't think it's been a good start to the season for him.

I think they also want to have somebody else who they could say, all right, it's not working for you today. Somebody else give it a try. So 44 Rhino Man says, from The Athletic, change their scheme to include more gap concepts away from the mid-zone they were running.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Did The Athletic write about that? Yeah, I don't know. That looks like it might be the case where they are doing a little more pulling and stuff like that. I just feel like, you know,

when Madison was having his success, he was running a lot of the outside zone, which they just don't do very much. And I think he was drafted in part because he was good at that. He has, I think good patience as a runner sometimes, or used to when they were run blocking better. Whatever it's doing now, he's not seeing it or he's not believing in it. And it hasn't been

very good. Jordan says, I think this is more of a move that is about everyone except Madison. Well, I can't, I mean, it can't be not about Madison at all because he hasn't run well. I mean, that's the thing. It's not like he has been fantastic. He's been Barry Sanders in the backfield, dodging all the guys who are coming through. It's not something like that. It's been the offensive line has not played well,

but he hasn't made it better. And that's been my observation looking at the tape. That's the statistical like rushing yards over expected. So I think that's very much the case. Is Chris Reed real? Yeah, he's hurt. Yeah. Chris Reed got hurt away from the facility. I don't know what happened, but it was a non football injury and he has not practiced since then. So Jeff says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Vikings are panicking. I mean, it is panicking acquiring two players for almost nothing. I don't know. I mean, I think what they're trying to do is they're trying to look at the NFC and the NFC North and say, nine wins might win the division based on these other teams. We've got a couple of

weaknesses and it costs nothing to fix them. Now they were weaknesses before and they should have known that. I don't think these are panicked moves. Panicked move is trading a fourth for Chris Herndon. Okay. So we can, we can separate. This costs nothing. This, if is trading a fourth for Chris Herndon. Okay. So we can, we can separate. This costs nothing. This, if they traded a fourth for cam acres, I'd be yelling. I'd be like, this is insane. What are they doing? What are you, why would you trade that much? They traded nothing. They try. I got a can of diet, Dr. Pepper here as always take a little sip. Yeah. I paid more for this than the Vikings paidings paid for cam acres delicious so that's the difference

that's the difference between a panic move and reisner was a free agent so none of these things had any like negative consequences potentially down the road they didn't give up any capital and i see no downside when the player is young and has had some success in the past. So I kind of look at it that way. Is Davenport real? 44 Rhino man asked. Now that's a better question. He played four snaps last week, must've re-aggravated his ankle because he is not practicing now. And look, I mean, one of the things that we said throughout the off season, I was watching davenport in camp on a daily basis and i must say i was impressed i was looking at this guy going wow i mean how like this guy's movement skills for being 260 pounds it was like a throwback for me a little bit because defensive ends don't weigh 260 270 anymore mostly because they can't move like that if they do and so his raw skill is is

marvelous and they were moving him around it was kind of interesting right they're going to do something a little different but one of the things is and and look i'm not calling out anybody or anything like that uh i'm i'm only pointing out that in his past, he did not play full seasons. And so there were injury issues in the past. And it had to be part of the expectation. And if you were going into the season with Wanaman Jones, like you did last year, you had to know what you were getting if he wasn't going to be able to play. So that's the thing is when i look at all these

weaknesses if you want i was actually okay with them not fixing them let's see who can play and if they can't they can't it's going to be a little rough ride oh well but you know now they're fixing them and we knew they were weaknesses before so that that i think is where the criticism could come uh jordan says we still have no tackle. I couldn't agree with you more. They have a run stuffing three tech in Harrison Phillips and another run stuffing three tech in Jonathan Bullard and Kyrus Tonga, who looked like he was going to be the Jerry ball of the program, but has not been so far. He's barely played really. And and when he has it hasn't been all that successful so they really do not have a traditional nose tackle and that's very tough it's like the year the vikings tried to switch shamar stefan over to a nose tackle if you're not 330 at least you're

probably getting pushed around at that point because those guys go up against people like like 330 all the time so they can handle somebody who's 305 and and phillips has done a fine job i mean he's he's really had a lot on his plate i think uh jordan says if we beat the chargers trade for a pass rusher all in baby no but you might want to find one i mean if you could find one like this that's all right like if you can find one in free, if you could find one like this, that's all right. Like if you can find one in free agency, if you can find one on the trade market for nothing. Okay. That's perfect.

All in baby is not where they should be going for this season because one pass rusher is not going to fix this whole thing. Jeff says bailing out a rusty boat, let her sink and let's get a shiny new one i yeah this is where this is where you have to wonder like is there is there some frustration from kevin o'connell because he doesn't he doesn't want it to sink and when you look at this passing game you go this is a premier passing game but you know who this team looks like actually right now they kind of look like last year's detroit Lions where they passed the ball all over the place,

but the defense couldn't stop anything. And the other weaknesses on the team held them back from being like really good, but they threw the ball like crazy. So it's, I think to O'Connell, got to be frustrating to be looking at, well, okay, you don't have running back depth or a running back has been good at all. Your offensive line is not picking up certain blitzes and things like that. So Kirk's getting hit and pressured. And I think they're trying to fix these things just to do enough to potentially compete for the division. But to your point, there is no argument that if this thing goes sideways and they go 7-10 or 6-11,

that means there's a draft pick there in a year where there's some pretty good quarterbacks. I just can't get there yet, though, in my brain. I need more of a sample size of this team because I could very well see us talking about going into Kansas City at 2-2. And if they're 2-2, then we're not talking drafts. We're just not. I mean, the season is very much on at that point. If you go into Kansas City at 1-3, then maybe. And if you come out of Kansas City at 1-4, then definitely.

We're starting to have all those discussions about, like you said, let it sink. Daniel said, feels like they saw the North after this weekend, felt like they had a second chance to win the division and rewrite a stubborn move to not have a true backup plan at running back and O-line. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Stubborn might be the right word that they, you know,

didn't have those things done. I would agree with that. Like, I don't know if that's how the decision got made or not, but I mean, even when you go back to like 2020 is a good example where they trade away Yannick and Gawkway, but they kept the rest of the roster together when they could have traded other people away. And they did it in part because they got a win in green bay that convinced them that they could still compete for a playoff spot in the nfc after beating green bay oh we've got an easy schedule we'll just win a couple games to play catch up and you know we kind of know how this ended up this ended up going uh tim says have you talked

to draft scout if she plans on breaking down the bears when we play them this year oh yeah this ended up going. Tim says, have you talked to Draft Scout if she plans on breaking down the Bears when we play them this year? Oh, yeah, absolutely. You mean Courtney Cronin of ESPN. She will 100% be on the show before they play the Bears, for sure. I chatted with her today a little bit

about what's going on, but she's a little busy. She's a little busy with the Chicago Bears just falling completely into the lake. So, but she'll be on before the bears game and we'll see where both these teams are at before then. Clark G Clarko says, someone answered the question is cam acres good. Well, if cam acres was great, he'd still be on the ramps. So that's one thing that we can pretty definitively say. I'm just basing on his two full seasons that he's played 2020 and 2022,

where he was, I would say a competent, fairly quality rotational running back. And that's about the farthest I could go. Yeah. And, and Jason asked about his past blocking and very, very small samples of his past blocking was not asked to pass block a ton

when he did last year, he was, uh, okay. By the PFF metrics. Um, uh, Tim, Tim wants the tank four and 13 season draft, the top quarterback. It's isn't that hard, Tim, you're, you're talking about Vikings. It's always that hard to do that for the Vikings. They couldn't suck for luck. And you know, here we are. Ken wants to bring in a Keem Hicks. Let me see how a Keem Hicks played last year. I mean, this is, this is the thing with, with buying up everybody that, you know, is still out there in week two, where you have to wonder what, and Akeem Hicks is as great as any player has been in years, but last year he had nine pressures on 442 snaps and a 61 PFF grade, which is just about average, uh, graded terribly as a tackler. I don't know, man. I mean, he hasn't, he's played one year over

500 snaps since 2018. I mean, and, and look in 2018, Akeem Hicks was as dominant as any player, but what is really left there? Um, you know, maybe they, maybe they do need something, some, someone after what we saw in the defensive line, but I don't know. It doesn't seem like that would really change their fate compared to what they have right now. Jordan says fields is taking that next step, becoming a true bears quarterback. It's great. It's crazy. It is crazy. Just how many of those guys they have not had to work out for them is, is unbelievable. Them and the jets. Uh, JP says, does Davenport have snap incentives in his contract? Good question. I don't know that he does. Uh, I haven't, I haven't looked or I haven't seen it reported if he does it's possible,

but I don't think so. I think that his incentives, if I remember right, were based on injury, maybe. I can't remember exactly what it was. There was a little bit of renegotiation in that contract. I'll have to see if somebody knows. Let's see. Tulu wants Hunter, KJ Osborne, and Smith traded. So it's a little soon. Let's see how it plays out like this week's gonna change our minds a lot isn't it i think it really is i mean totally totally get it where you lose a game like philadelphia you look at those stats for oh and two you go wow that doesn't seem to bode very well but what are the stats for two and two i know what they are it's if nfl operations put out a chart a couple years ago that showed the possibility of making the playoffs in a 17 game season with each of the records now team strength matters a lot there but you know the vikings have a good passing game they probably think they're a pretty decent

team so that was putting it at 42 if you get to two and two so that's why the stats are always weird to me like if you're two and two what difference does it make if you went oh and two, one and one to two, right? Like, I don't know. Those stats are strange. But if they make it to two and two, and then you probably make it to three and three at that point because you got Kansas City and Chicago and who knows who's playing quarterback for Chicago at that point.

So you got, you know, Todd Collins playing quarterback for Chicago at that point. So you got, you know, Todd Collins playing quarterback for Chicago. You make it to three and three and you're right there in the mix and you've certainly got a chance. So I really want to see how it goes this week. If they beat the chargers, then we're continuing to talk very much playoffs division, all of that stuff and if they lose this week then what you just said those trade questions i can't hold them all i can't be held responsible for how many trade questions you guys are going to have the next time we do one of these uh michael says with acres familiarity with koc chance he plays this weekend even if limited i think it's pretty good um i think it's pretty good oh someone asked about who they were getting rid of. Did they announce anybody? I'm going to look here.

No, they didn't announce anybody. And they haven't announced anybody to IR. So I would think that there's a subsequent move that's coming. I'll have to wait for that, what that's going to be. So yeah, it's a big one for having that conversation. But to your point about Akers, I think that he could play this week, yes, with the familiarity. Yeah, T. Kubler says the Lions are decimated with injuries. Yeah, that's them being the Lions. That's what you didn't factor in was that they're the Lions.

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happy with that are you sure i would have been fine with it. Who would be upset about that? I mean, if they restructured Brian O'Neill and they were in a spot where they could get a starting guard and have him ready to play for $9 million on a one-year contract, okay. I mean, it sort of reminds me of the Jefferson thing. If that's the reason, it sort of reminds me of the Jefferson thing. Where it's like, well, you know, it doesn't quite meet our price. I think. I don't know. I don't know what the negotiations are like. But why didn't that get done?

Because Jefferson wanted a little bit more than you wanted to give him? I mean, the same thing goes for here. You cost yourself two weeks of having us watch this interior offensive line because it was a couple more million when you restructured O'Neal and made $9 million? I don't know. If that was the reason, I don't like that reason. I don't think that's a good reason.

Pay a starting guard for $8 or $9 million or whatever? Okay. That sounds good. That sounds like a good idea, actually. So if that's why they didn't do it, I don't think that's a great reason. Uh, sloth says, how do you think we plan to cover Keenan Allen and Mike Williams? Well, one thing is they can't have, uh, any communication mistakes like they did. I looked back at it there, that long touchdown. It looked like a Caleb Evans just got roasted, but he didn't. He seemed to be waiting for something coverage wise and then realized no one was back there and then accelerated. But I think that he was playing a different coverage and expected to have help. And then he didn't. So that's what happened. Because when he is on the coaches film, you kind of see stuff that you don't pick up on. And he looked back and kind

of went like, what, what happened there? So there was a miscommunication, but I actually think that the secondary through two games has been, I think above what I expected. I think they've been quite good. Um, haven't had any issues with how Byron Murphy's played. Yeah. Evans had that one play happened to him, but I think he's run pretty well with these wide receivers. They played kind of a zone type of thing or a shell type of thing more than I would have expected against the Eagles trying to keep everything in front of them. But other than that big pass, which was a miscommunication in the one where Devante Smith just losted, you know, Theo Jackson. I mean, it was, it was like a lot of short passes that weren't working. A couple of sacks, a couple of coverage sacks. I think they've actually done pretty well there. I have a lot of respect for Keenan Allen though. I think that I think Keenan Allen is, is a really good, really good wide receiver.

I like this from Ricky cam Peterson acres. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, look, this is the team that Adrian Peterson sent the, um, set the record for, um, sorry, sorry for the, uh, the audio issue. Is that, uh, has that been fixed? I hope that that was fixed. Sorry for the, the audio crackling. I'm just seeing that as you guys said, audio is better. Sorry for that. Sometimes the internet just, I don't know, hits a pothole or something. So my apologies that that happened, but it seems like it happened like 20 minutes ago.

So I'm, but I am sorry about that. Daniel says NFC North might be last year's AFC South and need a nine and eight record to make the playoffs. It's possible. I mean, we are pretty far away from really knowing what this is going to look like, but I think that that has to influence their thinking, right? That the NFC North just doesn't look that dangerous. I have not been impressed by Jameer Gibbs. Jack Campbell has not been the solution, nor would I expect a rookie to be, but they drafted him to be that for Detroit did.

And they look the same as last year. They honestly look the same as last year. I don't see any differences and we'll see how that defense comes along, but I think they look very similar and their defensive coordinator might not be good. I don't know. Everyone talks very highly of Aaron Glenn, but I haven't seen it yet. Their offense is pretty dangerous. Golf is still golf. I mean, yeah. Is it, is it crazy to think nine and eight wins this thing?

Like I don't think it is. So even if, I mean, if they don't win, it's going to be pretty tough argument to make because then you have to go nine and five the rest of the way. And that's not easy to do, especially when you got so many road games, the rest of the way, the Vikings only have eight home games and they will have played, you know, now, uh, two of them. So they have to play all the rest on the road. What six, it'll be six, uh, at home and eight on the road from here on out. And then they got to go nine and five in those games with a very spotty defense and still some holes.

Like, I don't know. That sounds pretty hard if they lose this game, but that does not. It still doesn't mean it's over. It's weird to say, because I've always believed like you go to all in three game over. It doesn't have to be, but it'll change the way we talk about it though. Jordan says, Justin Herbert defenders sound like her cousins defenders. Who do we trust them or our lying eyes? Yeah. I mean, with both quarterbacks and actually probably 90% of quarterbacks,

like everyone agrees that my homes, Alan Burrow are amazing. And then there's probably some other ones we'd all agree that you would take. And then there's a lot of unproven and there's a lot of mediocre, right? And the ones who get debated the most are the Jared Goff, the Kirk Cousins, the Jimmy Garoppolo and so forth. And I think Herbert is closer to that discussion than, than people talk about. Maybe there's like a Dak Prescott thing where some of you probably think Kirk Cousins is better than Dak Prescott. Some of you probably think Dak Prescott's better than Kirk Cousins. There's a, there's always a debate over these quarterbacks who are really good, but not the best. And that's, I think where Herbert lands in that type of tier. If we were doing tiers, it'd be like my homes as his own.

Cause nobody's as good as him. It's not close. And then there's like the mega star franchise, $60 million, whatever it's going to be quarterback. I don't think Herbert's there. I don't think he's in the Allen and burrow tier. I think he got put there,

but I don't think he's there. I think he's on the next level down with the Dak Prescott, which you could still win with, but it's not quite the same. So, you know, uh, that's kind of how I think of it. I don't think that he's like a total game changer. Uh, Sue says, uh, don't know if this team can make it beyond the second round of the playoffs. Oh, I promise you they can't. I mean, I promise you they can't, there is no way you go into the playoffs with this defensive line and win games. Just not going to happen. I mean, this, this

season is really about what do you have at the end? I mean, they're trying to make the playoffs. They want to win every week and they have a really good passing game that could win in any week. But it's really about when you get to the end of the rainbow, what kind of roster do you have? to win every week and they have a really good passing game that could win in any week. But it's really about when you get to the end of the rainbow, what kind of roster you have, who's going to be here longterm? What do you got? What does this look like? What's the status of the organization as you go into next year's draft and everything else.

And then it's a, you know, the friends we made along the way for a lot, because unless they are trading for some star defensive tackle or defensive end for that matter, I don't know how you could win multiple playoff games when another team could just run for 250 yards against you anytime they want. So, uh, Tim says, why are we talking about the playoffs and tanking? Yeah. Isn't that right? I mean, isn't that just the Vikings right there? Why are we talking about playoffs and tanking? Cause that's where this team's at. Truly Tim, this team is between the playoffs and tanking. It's wild. I know they are in between. If they win this game, they probably win a Carolina. They probably get to three and three

by the time they're playing San Francisco. And we'll see where it goes from there. San Francisco probably wins, but we'll see if they lose this game. I mean, okay. You probably still be Carolina, but then you're one in four and you're looking at maybe being like two and five. Then you're talking about tanking. Isn't that crazy? That's football. When you're in the middle all the time when you are a middling team that's how it is all the time at the beginning of the season you lose a couple games you're that close to tanking you win a couple games you're that close to making the playoffs so it's weird it's it's an it's an odd

it's an odd place to be in the middle and that that's where this team loves to be. Mark says, why can't we get Leonard Fournette or Delvin Cook? Well, Delvin Cook plays for the Jets and is very bad. And Leonard Fournette, I don't know. I guess, I don't know. He hasn't been good in a long time. He had kind of that one little run with Tampa Bay. It was a little bit of a blip, but I don't know. I don't think that he's anybody that I would really want to consider.

I'd rather have Cam Akers, who's young. Sean says, when you look at the odds of 0-2 teams making the playoffs, take out the teams that were crappy and expected to lose, what are the odds when good teams go 0-2? Yeah, that's the thing. So that's a hard thing to say because it's like, well, who was good or crappy? Right.

I don't know. But the odds aren't the same for every team is my point is the Arizona Cardinals have no chance. They are zero. The Vikings are not zero. So when you hear, all right, well, only 11% of teams or there's an 11% chance. All right. Well, the Vikings are probably one in three at this point.

I mean, one in three chance is probably like 33. If I were just to put a number on it based on how strong I think they are, their schedule, the rest of the way, I'd say like 33% chance. And what's going to happen this week? That's what I'd give them to make the playoffs. Maybe even a little bit more. And the Cardinals, I'd give zero. So every team is different. People love stats like that. Broadcasts love stats like that. It's very simple, very easy to understand. Hey, you're screwed.

Right. But you just, there's 17 of these, like there's time. And so that's my point about two and two as well is if you get to two and two then the bigger broader odds say it's 40 all right well that was just two weeks ago you just get two wins and then you're 40 from like nothing it's never made sense to me it's more of a factoid than anything is like how many teams have actually done it but it is hard to recover when you start oh and two because then you have to go at least nine and6 to be a coin flip for it. That's the thing. So that's the hard thing.

If you have a good rest of the way and go 9-6, you're still not a shoo-in. I think that's where it gets hard. So anyway, let's see. Jordan says Keenan Allen is your favorite wide receivers, favorite wide receiver. He's good. Yeah. He's legit. He's a great route runner. Yeah. He's a good player. Tim says Addison is going to blow this, uh, blow up game three. I, I agree with you. I don't think the chargers can stop anybody. And if, and if they do, then you were never really good enough. Anyway, that's how,

that's how I look at it. This chargers team stinks on defense. And if they find answers and you don't win this game, then you were just never really going to compete. It was just never going to happen. So, uh, 44 Rhino man says, I can't remember the last time so much pressure to have to win a game so early for the Vikings. Yeah. In 2021 would, I mean, it wasn't that long ago when they were going against Seattle, I think early in the season, they may have been one in three Seattle. If I'm remembering,

didn't Seattle come to Minnesota for the first time, like ever. And they beat the brakes off. I think that was the last time. I think this game goes that way. The exact same way. The Seattle had a terrible defense. Russell Wilson, you know, still playing pretty well at the time, but not as great as before. And I think that they just ran them out of the building on offense, if I remembering correctly so yeah it happens I mean when you have a bad start to the season this seems similar to 2021 where they had a missed field goal on the week two and a fumble on week one and things there was a really weird Browns game

where they had a touchdown called back or or something or the Browns were able to get another chance at it so kind of bad luck hit them all at once that's exactly what has happened so far and how they get out of it you know i guess we're going to see because in 2021 at one point i think they got to like six and five in 2021 but then ran out of gas at the end of that season. And also, you know, didn't have their quarterback for the biggest game of the year, which, uh, you know, kind of hurt. So, uh, Sean says NFC's top team might be only 12 and five or 13 and four only, um, Dallas and Philadelphia and San Francisco have tough schedules. Yeah. I think that what we're seeing is it already kind of break into tiers of these teams where it's in my mind, very clear,

the one and two in the NFC. And it's not even close. It's San Francisco and Dallas. I'm not sure if it's that order or not, but I know you could say, well, Dallas is playing bad teams, but they're crushing them. Like that's pretty telling as much as it is beating good teams. So, all right, those two teams are the best. And then Philadelphia is like a little bit of a notch down. They've got a lot of players hurt. I don't think the offense is quite as good as it was last year because they lost their offensive coordinator. I think that matters. So I'm going to put them just like a slight tear down. Their secondary is not good at the moment with all those injuries. So how they heal up, I don't know, but like there's them.

And then you got your Detroit, you know, Minnesota's in this mix. Seattle's in this mix of teams where you could definitely see it or you could definitely see it going sideways. And then there's the rest. I don't even know where to put like Washington. They got a great win, but I'm like, I just can't really trust them. Jamie says, what's the sense of winning the division? Let's see, winning the division and stalling out in the playoffs.

Wouldn't it be better to get a decent draft pick? Yeah, I mean, so that's a hard one because they set out their goals to make the playoffs and to win the division, right? That was their goal. And they're treating it that way by going and getting reinforcements here. They're treating their goal is to make the playoffs. And it's hard for anyone to say, Hey, don't accomplish your goal, actually lose. But I think we all know that if they do fail and come short of the playoffs, the more they fail, the better the draft pick they get, the more chance they have to get their quarterback. Like we all know that, but I think that that's not really a discussion we can have yet about like, Oh, well, should they be trading Kirk? Should they be training?

You know what I mean? Stuff like that. Like, I don't, I don't think that's really a conversation we can have until we know where they are at in the middle of the season or before the trade deadline. And then we can say, all right, clearly this is a good team and look at them go, or what it's bad. It's gone sideways. The season's over, you know, that kind of thing. So, and you know, Deontay brings us up nine or 10 games might win the division. And then you got another crowd and like, they're going to have to consider that. Now that now I think you know we can all say look you know you win the division it's bad and you're gonna draft high but I I don't I don't see it that way I mean I I think that when you have a veteran quarterback that's the decision you made to run back her cousins you have the greatest receiver on earth

you got a superstar at left and right tackle. You got a young star wide receiver coming up. It's just hard for me to say like, Oh yeah, you know, it's better if they lose. I don't think, I don't think it's better like necessarily. And I, and I also think, you know, so sloth says hot take, but winning the division is good. I mean, you win the division, you get a home playoff game and then we see where it all goes. I have a very tough time, very, very tough time seeing this team go anywhere in the playoffs. That's so far away, though. It's so far away. Last year, the San Francisco 49ers go into the NFC Championship game. The quarterback gets his arm hurt, and they lose.

Like, right? San Francisco was probably better than Philly last year at that point. But things happen. So I'm not doing the, Hey, anything can happen. Like, I think everybody knows where we're at at this point with, with this situation. It's if they get it turned around and going and rolling, they're passing offenses so good that it could win them a lot of games and you want to make the playoffs and yeah i mean i i agree with you renee that making the playoffs would be good experience for young players unless they get destroyed i guess uh but i think more than anything it's when i look at this next year's draft it's a little bit different in my mind from last year where last year there were three guys and those three guys were going to the top five and you were not getting them unless you were in the top five or you could trade to the top five this year at this moment.

And we're only a couple of weeks in, there's a projected like five first round quarterbacks. And in the past, when there's been five first round quarterbacks, there's always been a distribution. So there's been, you know, a couple at the top and then like Mac Jones is in the middle, when there's been five first-round quarterbacks, there's always been a distribution. So there's been a couple at the top, and then Mac Jones is in the middle, or Lamar Jackson falls to the back, or Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are kind of in the middle.

There's a wide range of where these things could end up. And I don't think you're ever going to be bad enough, no matter what you do, unless Kirk goes out this week and never plays again to be in the Caleb Williams discussion. So count him out. But then there's, there's all these other quarterbacks as well. So if that's that, if that's what you're thinking about mainly is the future, I don't think you have to really fear being a decent team because I mean, fields is a weird example to use because of his day today.

Yikes. But the Bears got Fields after they were okay. Like, they were a good team, right? Like, they, I think, were drafting 20th or whatever happened before the season before. But they were drafting, like, 20th, weren't they? And they traded up to get Fields. So this would be the time that you'd do it. So I don't know.

I mean, one of the hardest things about talking it. So I don't know. I mean, one of the hardest things about talking about the future for me is always, I'm excited about this game. And, you know, I think it was Tim earlier who said something like, Hey, why are we talking about tanking the playoffs? It's like, well, that's because where the, where this team is at. But I think that we got to wait until we actually have to talk about it to talk about it. And for now, this is a really interesting game. And it could be the most exciting game of your life. I don't know. I mean, this one could be bananas, and it usually is with the Vikings.

So I think this is a pendulum game. I mean, this could swing them in a lot of ways. Nathan says, I remember when we were debating whether we would rather be in the Chicago situation versus the Vikings competitive rebuild. Do not speak too soon. My friend did not speak too soon. Chicago goes three and 14 and drafts Caleb Williams. And I don't know, uh, things might look and then spends $50 million in cap space.

And I don't know, it can look a little bit different very fast. So, um, you know, we'll see. But the, the thing about the Vikings is drafting quarterback is that you have the bones already in place, which is very hard to do. Most of the time, most of the time we talk about the bears, they win three games, they draft Caleb Williams, and he's coming to an organization that's just totally decimated. And they're horrible. I look at the Texans. They can't protect CJ Stroud. He looked good, but they can't protect him. Well, that's not going to be the case for the Vikings where they've got tackles, they've got receivers, they've got a coach, like they've got things in place. So yeah, but I still think that what we're talking about right there, you're speaking too

soon. We are very much in analyzing over four or five years, the rebuild versus the competitive rebuild. And that's not over because in the analysis, in the room, in the whatever room Ryan Poles is in, when they made the decision to stick with Fields, part of that discussion had to be, hey, if it goes sideways, we probably draft super high and take a quarterback, right? It had to be. And then we don't have to pay fields. And then we have even more money to spend for like four more years.

So let's end on this one. Uh, Deontay, uh, first Deontay, this could happen. Uh, looks like JJ could go over 2000 yards.

I'm not going to laugh at that. That doesn't look very possible. That does look very possible. Uh, sloth says pie chart, blowout, win, blowout, loss, close, win, close loss. I'm going to throw out both the blowouts. I'm going to give both the blowouts about a 5% chance of, I mean, it just doesn't happen. Okay. I'll get, I'll actually give, I'll give the blowouts. These two teams play the closest games. I saw a stat that Herbert plays like 70% of his games close. So does Kirk. So those let's give 10% each one out of 10 chance of each.

So I'll go 20% dedicated there. And then I'll split it right down the middle with close win and close loss. This is not a hot take, but is this not the ultimate sort of like 50-50 coin flip game? I mean, I'm going to go with the Vikings with a win, but would you be surprised by a missed field goal at the end? Would you be surprised by a pick six or something crazy happens? So anyway, I don't necessarily agree with this Rhino man. NIL has changed the game. Don't assume players will leave for the NFL.

If you're going to be a top draft pick, you're probably coming to the NFL. And when it comes to sponsorships, it's not like those sponsorships end when people get to the NFL. If you sign with Gatorade, they aren't just like, oh, you were the fifth pick in the draft? Hit the road. We're going to spend that on somebody else in college. Like I, I think it has changed the game for everybody else. If you're a second round pick prospect, if you're a third round pick, maybe you stay and try to up your draft status or something for one more year. And you're earning good money in the NFL is no guarantee.

You're talking about as a fifth round pick, a seventh round pick. If you're going to go in the top 10, I don't think that's even a factor because you're making way more as a top draft pick. So if it's Caleb Williams, if it's Drake May, whoever, I mean, I understand what you're saying. I don't completely disagree, but I think when you're talking about big time players,

but I don't know. I mean, Shadur Sanders might stay. I don't know. He might stay. It's always possible. But I think at least as of right now, we're talking about a good number of draft pick quarterbacks who are expected to be in this draft. So anyway, is this game of pick them? I haven't looked at the odds. Jordan says Vegas usually doesn't make NFL games pick them. This game is an exception. I haven't looked at the line, but yeah, I think it is. I think it is.

All right. Exciting times, right? Exciting times. It is never, this is why we love the NFL season. You know, I spend all off season July, you know, through training camp, just going, all right, let's get to the season because once it happens, it's on and there's stuff every single day. And that's why we're here every single day. So tomorrow night, it's going to be special. Manny Hill will be in studio right here at my house in the studio basement. So he's going to be live for an episode of Hot Route. So you guys want to be here for that. That's going to be eight o'clock tomorrow night right here on the YouTube page. Or if you're listening in the podcast feed, well, thanks for listening, but you know, you can listen to it anytime. So anyway, thank you guys so much. I mean, it's 10 o'clock at night. Well, after 10 o'clock at night, we got several hundred of you watching and listening here.

That's, that's what makes it great. That's what makes it great for me. And I'm just really enjoyed every single time we do this. So make sure you're keeping an eye on the page every night and we'll be here all the time i think it's friday's the only night that i'm not going live because we go live on sundays after the game dane mizzitani from the pioneer press keep an eye out for tomorrow actually the uh we're gonna have like the hardcore x's and o's breakdown with will raggetts with andrew kramer this is the show

of the viking Reporter, so make sure you're checking it all out. Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you soon. Football.