Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings and 49ers first joint practice featured lots of offensive highlights

Episode Date: August 18, 2022

Matthew Coller gives his observations about the Vikings and 49ers joint practice and then answers fan questions, including several big picture topics, including the timeline for the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and it is joint practice season. I also saw on Twitter that we are 25 days away as I'm recording this. Obviously, on Wednesday after the first joint practice between the Vikings and 49ers, 25 days away from kickoff between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. So we are getting close, and another box to check is these joint practices between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. So we are getting close and another box to check is these joint practices between the Vikings and the 49ers. And where I stood today was entirely watching every 11 on 11 rep of the offense. So I'm going to give you some things that I took away from that.

And we have some, I think, developments going on on the offensive side of things. So we'll get to that in just a second. But first, from the press conferences today, Kirk Cousins returned from missing the last five days with COVID. And he talked about how he kind of got lucky with the timing where he didn't have to miss significant practice time. If I had to miss five days and you were to be strategic about which five, we probably picked a pretty good five. The Thursday practice days and you were to be strategic about which five we probably

picked a pretty good five the Thursday practice would have been great to be a part of but Friday was lighter Saturday was a travel day Sunday would have been at most you know only a half dozen plays and then and then Monday was off day so it worked out pretty well from that standpoint. Cousins was not limited at all in practice said he was feeling feeling fine. He was going to jump right back out there and that he did. And he discussed kind of what you get out of these joint practices. I know there are some players who feel like it's a lot of extra work that they have to put in going against another team. And I can say that it was by far the most physical practice that the Minnesota Vikings have had all year. There was a lot of hitting, not live tackling.

The Vikings not doing that. But there was a lot of contact and a lot of very high-speed reps that would be reflective of an actual game. But Cousins talked about what he can get personally out of going up against the 49ers defense. I just think when you can go against a different scheme, teammates or players you're less familiar with, there just is a lot of familiarity after OTAs and after training. It's 15 weeks together of practice before you actually get to your first game when you talk about the nine weeks of OTAs,

the six weeks of training camp and preseason. So there's just a lot of familiarity by the end. And you know that, you know, for the 17 games, you won't have that. And so you, you want to go against something different. And that's where I think it's really valuable to have these practices. And Kevin strategically wants to make sure that we get a lot out of these two days. Now, I'm not sure how much to look into this just yet, because I don't think that the competition is finished for the backup quarterback but the first quarterback out there in practice to take second team reps

was Kellen Mond also toward the end of practice we saw Kellen Mond get a two-minute drill of which he delivered on and drove the team into field goal position but but we saw him get a two minute drill, but Sean Manion not get a two minute drill. We only really saw the second team offensive line. Didn't see a lot of, I guess what you would call the third team offensive line reps, some guys mixing in and out. We'll talk a little more about that in a second, but Wes Phillips, the Vikings offensive coordinator, he gave an answer to what he liked about Kellen

Mond's performance against the Raiders. You know, the thing that I liked about Kellen was there was some resiliency there. There was a couple plays he probably liked to have back or maybe would have liked to have let go and thrown into a window. And you know what? He just kept playing. There was no flinch. There was no blink.

He just kept playing and ended up making a great throw on a fourth down and leading us down for a touchdown. And really giving us a chance at the end of that game, that last drive, we got the ball with about six and a half minutes to go, and we scored in about two minutes there. So it gave us a chance to potentially get a stop and have a chance to win the game. So we'll have to see how that one plays out. Out of the two, Mond and Mannion, I thought that it was a little back and forth at the start of practice,

but Mond finished quite strong with that two-minute drill. Mannion also had a goal line rep that was pretty good where he dropped one in the bucket to Elber Wilson for a touchdown. Kellen Mond couldn't get the ball into the end zone. So it's kind of this back and forth of both of them having some moments. Kellen Mond made a very strong throw to Amir Smith-Marset that was exactly what would get you drafted as a quarterback where he just let it rip and it was

right on the money great play by smith marset probably like a 15 yard out route or something like that where he made the play and you could go oh wow okay that's a big moment but then during a goal line rep he basically spiked one into the ground on a pass that should have come out of the backfield like a swing pass to the running back. So there's just ups and downs with both of these two. But the tie is going to go to the younger player. It's probably not going to go to Mannion. I would assume that Kellen Mond is going to start against San Francisco.

He put up better numbers overall. He played better football. And then he's coming off and taking these first, second team reps. So that's kind of your backup quarterback update. As far as the first team goes, we have an answer to who the right guard of the Minnesota Vikings is. And that would be Ed Ingram. Not that this should come as any bit of a surprise after what we saw in the preseason game, Jesse Davis, even in only two drives looked like he struggled and Ingram just had a very, very good game was one of the highest

rated players by PFF that they had looked very comfortable out there. And he took all of the first team reps. It's the first time we've seen that happen that he took every one of the first team reps and that pretty much solidifies it unless something goes very wrong he's going to be locked into that also chris reed who was making things kind of interesting at the center position he has not practiced in several days he was out there today but he was not practicing and he had an arm sleeve on i don't know if that means it's an arm injury or not we have have not gotten an announcement, but he is not practicing still, which kind of makes it clear that Garrett Bradbury is going to be the center unless there is some sort of

big change or unless they surprise us all and go out and get somebody else. But if the first team offensive line is only going to take one or two drives in the next game and then maybe none at all in the game after that then it doesn't seem super likely that there will be a change at center if there was going to be then it would have had to take chris reed playing every day not getting hurt and then day after day after day stacking really really good practices at center putting pressure on Bradbury but this injury presumed injury maybe takes him out of that so as far as the first team went we're still seeing BC Johnson and Amir Smith-Marset as the only receivers that are mixing in now today on the second team slightly notable that Tristan Jackson did not participate in the 11 on 11s and Jalen Naylor was the one that took

what seemed to be all of his reps. Naylor had one really nice catch. He's the sixth round pick still very much competition going on for what I think is that last wide receiver spot. It'll make a big difference. What happens against San Francisco in this next practice and then in the preseason game. And as far as the offense went, uh, first, well, you could tell that Kirk Cousins was fired up because on a third down in, let's say, six or seven, he found Adam Thielen over the middle and let out a, you bleepin' like that. So he wanted to let everybody know that he was jacked up for this practice and happy to be back for football.

And the internet has lost its mind over this comment because several reporters who were standing there tweeted out that, you know, he was that excited about it. But I mean, there's nothing really to make of that other than I think that these practices are really meaningful to these players. When you go up against another team and there's a lot of juice out there, there was not a fight today, but there was kind of an almost scuffle when Smith-Marset made a really nice catch and then kind of went after somebody else and had to be held back by an offensive lineman, that kind of thing.

But these practices, they get pretty rough and pretty exciting. Every rep matters a lot to them. And I think that that was, you know, cousins kind of showing that like, let's go, let's hit, let's have a good practice here. And overall they did. I mean, Justin Jefferson was absolutely phenomenal. There's not, you know, anything that he can do that would surprise you when it comes to Justin Jefferson, but he still makes great plays. I mean, he lined up in the backfield on one play and did like a swing route over the middle and, uh, or whatever you call it, kind of, you know, came over the middle of the field, made a catch that would

have been a big play. So they're lining him up in a little different spots there. I don't know how much that ends up happening in the regular season, but it's been done before where you line up a wide receiver in the backfield and then, you know, throw a pass over the middle. Percy Harvin would have done stuff like that. And Jefferson is just making play after play after play out there. I mean, down the field, over the middle, whatever it is. And Thielen has looked very, very good as well. And those two carried that over and it was effective on offense when throwing to those two guys. But in the way that it's been for most of these practices, there was that one miscue by Cousins. And hard to say from the sideline whose fault it was or was the ball supposed to go here or there.

But he threw a pretty bad interception that looked like a misunderstanding or mistiming on something. It was going toward Delvin Cook and actually kind of down the field, which is surprising to see Delvin Cook going down the field in a wide receiver position. But something was not quite right there and there was an interception. And several different times I've seen cousins go over to the quarterback coach, Chris O'Hara, and discuss something after a sequence that they're out there. Or go over to Thielen and Jefferson. And if you remember when Thielen and Cousins got into it on the sideline and Cousins was motioning with his hands and stuff, it's like a less argumentative way of doing that.

Like they're not yelling at each other, but they're going over different routes and things doing that. Like they're, they're not yelling at each other, but there's still, they're going over different routes and things like that. So you can see that progress still has to be made. And yet also they're very much on the same page with Jefferson and Thielen and toward the end of practice. I mean, there's just things on a daily basis that Jefferson is doing that it's the same stuff that Stefan digs used to do to opposing wide receivers, where he just made a great play, basically shrugging off a cornerback, grabbing the ball, going down the field and setting them up for a quote game winning field goal. I mean, it's a joint practice, so let's not go crazy, but a very good final drive for the Vikings there in their first joint practice.

So I guess you would say probably like a B plus performance out of their offense. And everyone also at this moment, and I'm not jinxing anything is still healthy on both sides after this practice. So far as I know, we'll see tomorrow, but so far as I know, nobody went down, nobody got hurt when they were practicing very physically. And that's another thing that you take away that can be on the plus side for them. So we sorted some things out as far as the right guard situation. And it just seems like there's progress being made with the offense. And this is a good barometer for where they're at.

There's still things to solve, but progress being made. So that's kind of where we're at for the first joint practice. Of course, we'll have more on that and a discussion with Kyle Madsen, who is from 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. And I want to talk about the once Kirk Cousins to San Francisco rumors, Trey Lance today. First time I've seen him up close in person. And my observation is, wow, is Trey Lance a big human being? This is a big giant man who's going to be playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. I'm not surprised that considering his athleticism and you look at his size and his arm strength that they would want him. I'm going to watch more of Trey Lance tomorrow. I mostly stuck to the offense today.

So there's kind of your takeaway from practice, and we'll have more as we go along, of course, and then coverage of the game on Saturday as usual. So, all right, we've got lots of fans-only questions to get to, so why don't we jump right into those? So let's get right into those questions, we'll start with at a Huckles one fans only minor annoyance of the show. I assume that's how you're labeling yourself because I said you could call yourself friend

of the show or whatever you want. Minor annoyance of the show. Not at all. Huckles, you are not a annoyance at all of the show. And this is an interesting question. Pie chart of how long the Kweisi slash KOC era lasts. One to two years, three to five years, five plus years, et cetera. I don't think it will be one to two years, almost no matter what. Like when you have a focus on getting more people involved in the front office and when you have the collaborative type of effort and a coach who's more positive, it's just going to buy you more time.

Like Mike Zimmer, had Mike Zimmer had the disposition of a Tony Dungy or a Marvin Lewis or, you know, somebody who's considered more of a player's coach or more of an even keeled guy. I think that he's still or more of an even-keeled guy, I think that he's still the coach of this team. The thing that the Wilfs clearly did not like is how many unhappy people there were working inside TCO Performance Center and how many times they ended up on pro football talk with some crazy thing that he said or some wack you know, wacky controversy or whatever else it might've been. I think that the, how they looked on the public face, how they were being talked about was a big deal.

So in order to be gone after one or two years, it would have to take some kind of meltdowns like that. And I just don't see Kweisi Adafo-Mensa or Kevin O'Connell being that type that's going to have that issue. I mean, you would really have to botch this. Also, I would assume that Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and ownership worked out a plan for more than just this year. Clearly, they all agreed on, or at very least, ownership said, this is how we want it. And Kweisi said, okay, I can execute that. They agreed on trying to at very least ownership said, this is how we want it. And Kweisi said, okay, I can execute that. They agreed on trying to win this year. So the way that we should all judge

them is harshly for this year. You should win. Look at this roster. Like you have a lot of good players. You chose to spend a lot of money to keep your good players. You should win. You stuck with the quarterback. You didn't cut bait. You didn't draft anyone. You didn't even make any sort of progress toward a future quarterback. That's how you should be judged for this year. But that doesn't mean that we should be calling for firings if this doesn't work out. I mean, it has to be. Let's see how it plays out over a couple of years.

So two would be really shocking or anything underneath that. That would mean like major scandal or something. I mean, it's just, okay. Like that's unlikely that it would be that now the history of the game would suggest three to five years is just the way it goes. Like look around the league and find me how many teams will have or have had their coach for more than three to five years. So you got Buffalo with Sean McDermott. He's going to be there probably a lot longer after what he's accomplished so far. Although you never know. Like you're always one meltdown year away from just getting fired.

Belichick has essentially a lifetime contract. John Harbaugh is probably deserving of that. Mike Tomlin is deserving of that. And that's about it I mean there are just not that many coaches around the league Sean Payton isn't coaching anymore Bruce Arians isn't coaching anymore just not that many coaches around the league who have unbelievably good job security to the point where they couldn't make a change within three to five years so if I had to put, you know,

the, the chips down here and say definitively, which one am I betting on? And if I get it wrong, I lose whatever dollars, uh, three to five is kind of how I would go because that's just life in the NFL. That's the most likely and the most probable with the patients of the Wilfs. You could see five plus, but where I swing back the other way and they seem less patient now is with four-year contracts. I assume that they have linked the coach and the GM together. It was reported that the GM has a four-year contract. If that is the case, then they want to see major progress in four years. want and what they're probably looking at here is a roster being transitioned from the older veterans to a fresh young roster with guys that they've drafted

the lewis scenes and andrew booths and brian osmola's and so forth and the young offensive line that they generally have christian derisaw they want to see it transitioned into the next wave and very likely the next quarterback and that's where it comes in where I could be sold on five because if you have cousins for one or maybe two more years I mean you're talking about him getting into his late 30s at that point it's hard to see him playing much past into his late 30s so at some point you're getting a different quarterback and how that works out will likely determine whether it's three to five or five plus is what the next quarterback does. Uh, if this year they go to the NFC championship, then I would probably

pick five plus because normally, uh, if you, you know, you get a lot of leverage, uh, against the team in that way, or you buy yourself a lot of goodwill, but even then, even then Mike Zimmer, 2017 goes to the NFC championship, 18, 19, 20, 21. You're gone. Didn't last five more years after going to an NFC championship. I think the answer is always in the middle there. I would go 75% to that middle just because that's life when there's a ton of pressure on coaches. And oftentimes if you're talking about more than five years,

you're really looking at full roster turnover at that point. Very few players who are on the team right now will also be on the team five plus years from now. So how did all of that go? It's almost impossible to look that far in the future. Ideally from their standpoint, those two guys, and this is their plan, will come up with processes in place to where the front office people feel like they are appreciated and that they are collaborating and that they are valuable because that clearly mattered to the Wilfs that the roster and the, the play of the team will be successful enough to where you're not having these headlines come out all the time. The coach will be stable enough to not get bad headlines all the time. But if you move on from cousins and you pick the wrong

quarterback, everyone will be fired. That's football. It's just football. Like look, look across the league at all the coaches, figure out what correlated with them getting fired. Most of the time, 90% of the time, it's the team either drafted or acquired a quarterback that didn't work out and then you're fired. And that's how it goes. It's a, it's the team either drafted or acquired a quarterback that didn't work out and then you're fired and that's how it goes it's uh it's a game that requires a lot of luck i mean bill belichick is the ultimate example i bet that guy is a genius i have no doubt about that i doubt anybody has ever worked harder in football but the guy had tom brady i mean you just like that's it man if uh if kirk cousins Kirk cousins and Kevin O'Connell become the best friends of all time and cousins

wins an MVP and all of a sudden they're in the NFC championship and they signed cousins up for an extension and he does it again and you're back in the playoffs. Yeah. Okay. Right. That's possible. If they trade cousins, draft a quarterback and he's phenomenal and he becomes justin jefferson's best friend of all time and jefferson wants an extension and this dynamic

young superstar next justin herbert josh allen patrick mahomes whatever is constantly competing for the playoffs so you're talked about as a super bowl favorite year after year then oh man five years plus for sure a lot of times these things teeter they teeter like on the carson wentz baker mayfield you know you draft a quarterback the guy has some success but then you're not sure whether to pay him there's so many ways this could go it's the most interesting, you know, a number of years here is where the quarterback position and where the coach and GM go along with that and how they build around that and refresh this roster. So a great question. I would definitely go three to five years for right now, but feel free to prove me wrong or whatever, right? Like this, uh, this fan base has, has wanted a stable and successful quarterback

coach combination for, I don't know how long, and they haven't really gotten it. And, uh, there's a chance now and it could happen. So yeah, I'll go with the middle one there. That's a great question. All right. Uh, next question comes from Tom via email. Hi, Matthew. When you're watching a game with no Vikings interest, you mean like Colts bills, Nick Foles versus case Keenum preseason. Is that what you mean, Tom? Because yes, I was watching that game and many others. Some, someone named Bryce Perkins is starting quarterback for the Rams. Now we know we've gone full preseason when I'm watching someone named Bryce Perkins play quarterback for the Rams. And I'm like,

should the Vikings trade for him? Maybe. Okay. That's not your question. Okay. So when you're watching a game with no Vikings interest, how much can you enjoy it as a fan of the game versus analyzing as a journalist?

Or are these pretty much the same for you? Quick note. I've been a subscriber from day one and we'll continue to subscribe as long as you're doing purple insider. Well, thank you so much. That's friend of the show status. We need like a, like a ding or something like ding Tom friend of the show status. Thanks so much for that. Uh, really appreciate all the support from day one. I There's no turning it off. There is absolutely no turning it off. Like this is, it goes deeper than, Hey, I'm going to be objective about the team that I cover. I just, I like to just sort of live how it is, right?

Like with everything. I watched the WNBA a lot season ticket holder for the links, but look when the Lynx missed the playoffs, I'm very interested in talking about why, right? Or when the Atlanta Dream missed the playoffs and I watched a bunch of their games and they have the number one pick. I'm not saying, all right, go Dream. I'm really, I really want you to win. I'm saying, let's see what this number one pick has and why is she only shooting 37%? And that's interesting because they might get

the lottery pick. And if they get this pick, then that's going to happen. It's just how my brain is programmed. I don't know why that is. It's always been this way. When I would get the Madden games, I wouldn't pick the team that I, where I lived, I wouldn't pick the team where I lived. I wouldn't pick the Buffalo Bills. I never really rooted for teams growing up. I wanted to pick a bad team and rebuild them the best I could through free agency in the draft, which included tanking. And we're talking about Madden 2004, right? Way back in the day when the games honestly were better than they are now.

If you're old, you know what I'm saying. ESPN 2K5, they just put a little more heart into those games then. The point just being that it's just kind of always who I've been. I've never really been someone to root for a team. And it was probably because the teams were so bad where I grew up and I had so little in terms of pro sports. Like you guys are just swimming in Minnesota sports here with NBA, NFL, major league baseball. Like we had the bills and the Buffalo Sabres did not get good until, well, they were good when I was like 13 with Dominic Haschuk, but they didn't

really get good again. Their, their owner, it's crazy story. Their owner got arrested. They thought the team was going to move. Uh, it was, I don't know, embezzlement or something. And then they came back and played well. And that was really fun. But, uh, it wasn't long after that, that I was covering them and not rooting for them either. So it's always kind of been who I am. And like, that's not at all to disparage people who root hardcore for their teams or anything like that, who even who do jobs like this. Like if you're, I know a football reporter in Buffalo, who's a huge New York Yankees fan. And if you follow him on Twitter, oh my gosh, he's going off constantly about the Yankees. That doesn't mean he's a bad journalist or anything.

It's just, I mean, that's, that's great for him to have something that like he can separate those two things. I just never can. If I'm watching a random baseball game and they pull the pitcher at the wrong time, I'm just like, what are you doing? Like, you know, just, I cannot wait to go on Twitter and question you. Like, I don't know. It just, it just is what it is.

So you can't take that out of my blood that I'm just not going to necessarily root for anybody. I'm just going to watch the game and question authority. I think that's it. Or enjoy great players. That's another part of it is that one thing, if you're a fan of the Vikings, that you probably have trouble with fully maybe appreciating would be like Aaron Rodgers' greatness.

Okay. And I bet a bunch of you just like got nauseous. And I get that. See, for me, I've seen Aaron Rodgers do such unbelievable things against the Vikings that I think this is amazing. This is just amazing. Like, and we need to talk about how amazing this is. That's, that's what I feel when I watch Aaron Rodgers. I think you guys feel probably things that are more ragey. So there's a, there's a benefit and there's probably a drawback that I don't have like, you know, if you're a fan and your team has the Minneapolis miracle, you experienced that

different than me. For me that night was, what am I going to do about this? Right? How am I going to cover this? And, and that doesn't mean I'm heartless. It just is to say that that's where my focus was. How am I going to write about this? How am I going to talk about this? What questions am I going to ask the coach and the players? And I don't get that like moment that you have where you're hugging your family and you're celebrating outside your house or something in the middle of winter and yelling with your neighbors, or you're in the stands and you get to tell people forever you were there. So there's, there's the, you know, there's the good and the bad. Whenever anybody asks like younger people who want to get into the business about

this, it's like, I hope you understand that that's part of it that you kind of have to give away. Like, you know, the, there's a lot of things that are wonderful about it, and I couldn't love it more covering the NFL. But the one thing you have to be okay with giving away is that when you're covering a game and something amazing happens, like that's work for you. So that's your job that you have to go do. So you can bring people closer to that moment. Like, it's, that's your job that you have to go do. Um, so you can bring people closer to that moment. Like it's not about you. It's about fans coming closer to that moment through you,

through the questions you ask, through the stories you tell from the locker room and all those things. Um, so that's, uh, probably too long of an answer when I've been trying to do these quicker, but I appreciate the question. It's really good one. All right. On to the next question here. Let's see. What is this for from Thomas via email? What is the effect on the Viking salary cap? If Troy die, Kellen Mond, Wyatt Davis, and or Chaz Surratt are cut. And I also believe that Garrett Bradbury is guaranteed. Is that right? Well, let's look it up, Thomas. Let's find out. I don't think that it will be very significant, but the wonderful people at over the cap, Jason Fitzgerald specifically who invented over the cap.com invaluable when it comes to covering this team, because I can answer that question. So let's pull it up here. So,

you know, when it comes to those third round picks, Wyatt Davis is making a million dollars this year. If you cut them, it's 680,000 dead cap. It's about the same for all of these guys. If you were to cut Chaz Surratt, 755,000, the cap space saved is very little 425, 384. Like you're not getting much out of it if you cut anybody from last year's draft that has not been good i mean they were all drafted in the same round so it's all about the same kellen mond is going to make a million bucks you create 300k if you cut them so all together if they were to cut the entire third round of 2021, which doesn't seem impossible at this point, the cap hits the dead cap. Isn't all that much, maybe, you know, 2 million bucks all

said and done. And you maybe save a million. It gets, it's just not. Yeah. It's it you're not gaining anything, but you're not losing a whole lot either. You're basically just standing pat. If they need to cut any of those guys, they'll cut any of those guys. I mean, that's just kind of how it is. But I don't think Patrick Jones is going anywhere. Chaz Surratt seems like that experiment might be over. They might try to sign him back to the practice squad, but if you're a third-round pick,

do you really want to sign back to the practice squad? And the Wyatt Davis thing? I don't know. It just a complete failure to launch there. It just never happened. There was never anything there and there remains nothing there. And I don't know. I don't know why.

Every once in a while it happens. It's like if it can happen to Laquan Treadwell, who had this spectacular college career and then couldn't catch a thing for the Vikings. Well, then it can happen to third round picks or, or, or any other round. And that's just how it goes sometimes. But yeah, it's essentially inconsequential if that ends up happening. Uh, let's go to, this would be Steve via email this is steve from beijing okay what's up steve from beijing i love when we hear from people around the world that's amazing uh let's see listen to the podcast while exercising great to hear about my hometown team awesome let's see uh

rather than talk about what the vikings should do, I'd like you to talk about what you think they are doing. Put yourself in Kweisi's shoes, guess the direction given to him by ownership, and articulate a strategy for meeting that direction. For example, my guess is that he was directed to develop a competitive rebuild strategy based on achieving a wild card this year, 11 wins in 2023, reach the NFCc championship in 2024 or 2025 putting them in the best position for super bowl appearances i think that in order to pursue a competitive rebuild he has to keep kirk until they have a clear replacement quickly

rebuild the defense to respectability infuse energy with new systems and culture and pursue a deliberate succession plan approach based on those targets. What's Casey strategy, particularly focused on the deliberate succession planning for all positions, not just quarterback. Ooh. Okay. Steve, you worked out for a long time to come up with that question. That was very specific. Uh, all right. One by one. So I don't think that your guess is right. I don't, I don't think it's exactly right. I think it's like ballpark, right? But not exactly because here's the wrench in all this, that if they were to go nine and eight or eight and nine this year, based on Kwesi Adafo-Mensah's comments to USA Today, where he

essentially said Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback, but it's usually the great quarterbacks that win the Superbowl, which, you know, breaking news, like John Elway wins, Peyton Manning wins, Patrick Mahomes wins, Tom Brady wins. Like, yeah, right. So breaking news from Kweisi Adafo-Mensah there. But there is something to read into that quote, which is when you say that your quarterback is good, but the great ones win the Super Bowl. You know, the other thing is that the cheap ones go to the Super Bowl or go deep in the playoffs or get 11 to 12 win seasons. The Carson Wentzes of the world. I throw Baker Mayfield in here too, a guy who's not a great quarterback, but won 11 games and is

a Chad Henney run away from the AFC championship when they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. You know, Chad Henney ran for a late first down, maybe Kevin Stefanski shouldn't have punted, et cetera, et cetera. But even a cheap Baker Mayfield puts you in that position. That makes me think that Kweisi has the plan to succeed from Kirk Cousins within the next two years. And the plan is to not take apart the roster enough to where you could ever be horrendous, but it will be to move out some of the players that you have to move out eventually within the next year or two to be able to do that. I don't know that you can say they expect X like 10 wins this year, 11, the next year NFC championship the year after that.

I don't know that even they view it as that linearly from point a of being eight, nine to point B just straight up to the NFC championship, like three, four years from now. I, if I had to guess, I would say they understand that there's going to be some rocky moments here, particularly if they have to move on from cousins after this year, if it's an eight and nine season, he's okay. He's going to be expensive next year. Uh, You can work around the no trade, I'm sure for, you know, whatever it might be. And then you're going to draft someone. Well, there's going to be when you draft someone, a learning curve that is just natural. There has to be. It's, you never see a rookie quarterback in the Superbowl for a reason because they're never

ready to take a team to the super bowl right away they have to be planning around that get a bunch of draft picks to develop this year get as much as they can out of you know christian derrissaw and justin jefferson's rookie contract so you're staying competitive now but you're going to slowly have to move out the old and bring in the new that's just how it will have to be here. So they'll have to make a decision on Daniil Hunter, Kendricks, Thielen. These players cannot stay here forever. You can't take them with you. At some point, there has to be a plan to dip back a little bit for a year with a rookie quarterback or be in the right position to get a quarterback who is unhappy

with their team and ends up coming here. Those are really the two options. So I don't know that I could say in X year, it's got to be this in Y year. It's got to be that more. It's you have to bring in your Lewis scene to replace your Harrison Smith. You've got to find after Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter pass rushers. There has to be another receiver who comes in to replace Thielen, right? And you're building this offensive line, but you still need a position or two on the offensive line. All these moving parts that they have to manage with the hope that the strongest and youngest your roster is, is when you have a quarterback on a rookie contract, or you can have a lot of stars

on rookie contracts to drop a veteran expensive quarterback in from another team. That I would guess is the way that Kweisi Adafo-Metz is looking at it. And I, and I know that you might be saying, well, that's your plan. And maybe I'm projecting my plan on their plan, but it would be unrealistic in my mind to say, all right, well, this year you should make the playoffs and win 11 games. And the next year you win more than that. And the next year you win more than that. That doesn't seem to be exactly how Kweisi Adafomensa thinks. You have to more of be making progress toward the Superbowl. And even if that means taking a step back at certain positions, giving chances to other guys, moving out veterans, that has to be done at some point. I think that the contract that we alluded to before tells a lot by the fourth year of the

contract, they should be going into that season saying, all right, we're a legitimate contender. We're getting talked about as a contender. I think by the fourth year that that's what should be happening. That means either, either cousins has been amazing and they've locked them up for a long term and he's going to be a quarterback here for the rest of his career, or they've moved on from him after this year or next year, drafted someone else, and then they're in position to go forward. But it's a very complex and difficult question because, you know, going for it this year and not starting that rebuild, put them in a spot where they have to thread

a pretty tight needle. And if they get one shot at drafting a quarterback, they've got to make that work or they have to have timing really work in their favor and have some quarterback really want to come play with Justin Jefferson. It's a great question, Steve. Really appreciate you listening. Uh, I don't know if I have the perfect answer for what they want exactly, but I think that it's pretty much all around when the roster is about to get too old, they're trying to refresh it or have people coming up to be next in line after that.

And then timeout the quarterback correctly. That's what I think that they're going for. All right. Let's see here. A fan's only question from a Jason J Engler. If the Vikings backup quarterbacks are struggling, are we going to get a fair assessment of all the backup positions in the preseason? Yeah, I think, um, the answer is probably yes. Now that we've seen that some of the receivers may come out of their breaks open and they've run the right route and done the right read, but the quarterback isn't delivering it like Mannion or Kellen Mond. But I think that as long as they're competent enough to give us a look that that's really what their job is here. And I would probably give them a B on doing that during the game.

Certainly not an A. Sean Mannion took a couple sacks. There were some inaccurate passes or to the wrong reads by Kellen Mond. Mannion was not exactly pushing it down the field, but ran a few play actions. I think the offensive line you could get a really good look at, and they can get chemistry together. The second team offensive line looked good. The quarterbacks are holding the ball though. Not that your starter's not going to hold the ball, but they're really holding the ball a lot in preseason. As long as they're putting it in

the ballpark of the receivers in the general span of which they're supposed to let it go, you should see guys making plays. We saw Albert Wilson catch a touchdown. Tristan Jackson made a few plays. That's all you're really looking for. Most of the positions, by the way, are set. That's another thing. So I do think that going into it, maybe this was a little bit of a concern with the depth receivers,

but I think that we're really talking about maybe only one or two position spots and, and most of these guys are going to be working with Kirk cousins anyway. So yeah, I think it's a good question, but not something that I would be awfully concerned about after seeing them look relatively competent in the first preseason game. Uh, let's go to, let's see. Canicos John here on Twitter with 17 games versus 16 now and a chance to go to 18. When does the roster size expand? Uh, let's see. Um, well, you know, I, I don't know that it's going to, I think that it's probably going to stay around where it is that one of the ways around this is that they put in those IR rules. So guys can come back off IR. It used to be that if someone went on injured reserve, they had to be finished for the season. So if you wanted to create a new roster

spot, you had to end somebody's season. Now you can come back in a few weeks. I think, what is it, three weeks now that you can come back off IR? That's a game changer. That's like a 15-day DL. So I don't think they're going to have to add roster spots. And also those practice squad call-ups and send-downs are great. That means players can get a chance. They don't have to go through waivers. They don't have to go to other teams. Those COVID rules actually played out really in the favor of, you know, these NFL teams and players to get more opportunities. So that's a good, it's a good question, but I don't think that that's going to happen. Possibly that might be maybe in the next CBA, but that's far down the road that the players could say, Hey,

if we're going to do 18 games, then we need 55 roster spots as opposed to 53. That is very possible. Uh, and I, I guess I wouldn't be super shocked if that happens, but no time soon, the adjustments that they've made, I think have pretty much covered all the bases there. As far as the size of the roster uh this comes from at shush smith on twitter this may not be a popular opinion but i would much rather see koc try every backup slash project guard on the roster at center this year before overpaying for an older vet like jc treader i would love to see them throw the younger guys in the fire when bradbury fails.

At best, we find a starter. At worst, we clean house in these question mark players after this season. All right. Another question, if there's any vets on the roster that will see their performance drop off a cliff this season, any rookies that become legitimate starters? The first part of that, I get where you're coming from, but I think you'd regret that once you saw it. I mean, because in theory, I get where you're coming from. Like try somebody else. See if you find a starter.

Hey, once upon a time, uh, what was it? Joe, uh, Joe Berger was a backup, kind of a random backup. And he became a good interior lineman by winning a job and getting a shot. The guy has to win the job though, because if you're not better at pass blocking than Bradbury, it's going to be worse. And we've always heard this from fans. I've always heard this my entire career, no matter what I've been covering, it can't be worse than player X. And then sometimes it is like, I mean, it can't be worse than Dakota Dozier at guard. And then it's only Udo's like, I, I think it actually might be, um, a guy who's never played it before. It's just as bad or maybe worse. Like, yeah, it can be just as bad or worse if you throw someone

else in there and you should have a really good idea. It's, it's, it's hard to say because you're not getting to see it. You're not getting to see it on TV and I'm only seeing it from the sideline, but the, the practices when they are at their most competitive, the coaches can really figure out like if you've ever coached like a, a high school team or something, you know, from watching your team practice, who can play. And if you're them and you're watching Chris Reed struggle to even snap it to the quarterbacks, you can't just say, well, let's just give it a try and see if he's better than Bradbury. No, you might cost yourself the playoffs because your guy is snapping it all over the place. If they had taken the approach of we're

going to completely rebuild this team. I would agree with you, but they didn't. So unless JC Treader does have a serious back injury that he can't play, you know, I know people are super tired of this coming up, but seeing that Joel Batonio, I think it was the offensive lineman for, is that his name for the Browns? He said that he thinks that Treader doesn't have a job because he's the NFL PA president. That wouldn't shock me if that was the case. If that is the only thing holding him back from being here and being a major upgrade, they should just do it.

They should just get somebody who's better. There's no one else in free agency who's going to be better at this point in the game than Bradbury. So it's basically him or nobody. And then you should let the Bradbury thing play out. If you have to bench him, you have to bench him. If Chris Reed comes back, he didn't play in the preseason game. He's been banged up.

But if he comes back and plays great at center against San Francisco, then maybe we're going to talk about that. What, how they evaluated in practice in practice is the difference to me. If they evaluated as Reed has just been better and he's going to start, that's fine. But I don't think just because someone's unproven, it's a better idea because they have had good offenses still with Garrett Bradbury. He hasn't ruined their entire offense. He's just made it harder for

them in certain situations where he gets bowled over that are important, but they've still scored points. It's not like it's going to ruin the whole season. And so even if, I mean, if you put someone else in there and it's worse and it does ruin the season, well, that's not good. Then, then you're ruining a lot of people's year because you put in somebody who couldn't play. So I am not quite with you on that one. Are there any vets on the roster who will see their performance drop off a cliff? That's really hard to know. Um, as far as rookies who are going to be legitimate stars, I haven't seen anything yet from anyone that suggests legitimate star, uh, but starter soon, maybe we're not there yet with anybody though, because if you look at the preseason game scene played a lot, played over 30 snaps,

Andrew Booth Jr. played over 30 snaps. Neither one of those guys gets first team reps. Ingram has worked into some first team reps, but didn't play with the starters at all in the preseason game. I think the way he played, he will earn a chance to do that. And especially Jesse Davis. I didn't mention him when I went through the PFF grades the other day, but it was not good. It was not good at all with his pass blocking. I think Ingram is going to win his job star though. I don't know. And who's the other one? Asamoah. Asamoah is a very intriguing player based on the way he tracks the football, runs people down, his speed, his quickness, his dedication, all that stuff. Yeah. I think that Asamoah is an interesting player star. I don't know, but to circle back

to the veteran dropping off, Thielen's had a great camp, hard to evaluate Patrick Peterson. Exactly. He'd be the one I would be most concerned about. Harrison Smith is probably not falling off anytime soon because his game is so much based on intelligence that I can't see him just forgetting how to play. And I mean, that's, you just don't have a ton of other veterans. Like Delvin cook is always a possibility based on injury, based on health, always a possibility. But so far, all of them have been healthy. Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter, everybody's been healthy in camp. If somebody's battling something that would make me concerned about a fall off. But at the moment, everybody

is healthy. And so it's hard to say if there are nuances to it. Like I'll give an example. Sometimes we just don't even know like what they're talking about behind the scenes. When the Vikings cut Brian Robison in 2018, I was shocked. I thought he looked okay in practice. Not like amazing, but I thought he looked fine. He kind of looked like a veteran player. Maybe he was taking it easy sometimes, or maybe he had fallen off. I don't know.

And then they decided they needed to Sean Bauer more. They got, okay. That was kind of a mistake because they seemed to love Bauer. He never really got a chance because everyone was healthy for the most part. Steven Weatherly stepped up that year, but I thought they could have used B Rob in the locker room. So maybe miss that human element a little bit, but I didn't see him in practice falling off the edge of the earth. And then suddenly he was cut like, oh, okay. So there might be something with one of these veteran players where behind the scenes, they're going, I don't know if that guy's still got it.

It's hard to see in practice. If a veteran player, particularly because these guys don't always give 110 in practice. You're not like going to go crazy. If you've been around the league for a long time, you're not going to go nuts and start like, you know, playing like your hair is on fire and camp and then get yourself hurt or worn down by the end of the year.

That is makes it difficult to tell, but yeah, there's, I mean, just generally based on age, some red flags around guys. I think the, the biggest thing here is that we can tell the Adam Thielen looks really great. So I really appreciate all the questions and comments from all of you. This one kind of a,

a lot of bigger picture stuff on the direction and so forth. We haven't really gotten into that as much recently. So thank you for all of those questions. And again, purpleinsider.com and on Twitter at Matthew Collar, feel free to send those questions anytime. And I am happy to answer them and we will all talk again soon. Thanks everybody.