Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings are going to beat the Bears... right?

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

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Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider inside TCO Performance Center. Matthew Collard here. It is another Raggetts Roundtable. Will Raggetts has returned to us, though he is very sad about the Minnesota Twins, but otherwise ready to lead the Roundtable. And of course, Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. And we are just getting done learning that Dan Jacinta did not like his nickname. And that is the big breaking news we have here today is I never saw it coming. They brought Dan Jacinta back.

I thought, okay, well, hot sauce has returned. But Matt Daniels informed us that we can no longer call him hot sauce. And it's a difficult day here inside the building. Yeah, it's peak, like, one and four stuff. We got Thursday mornings, we got the coordinators and Wes Phillips and Brian Flores. And the most entertaining part was Matt Daniels telling us that Dan Chisina does not like his nickname.

So do not call Dan Chisina hot sauce, and everything will be good. Yeah, that is the angle you needed to the Justin Jefferson hamstring injury that no one knew that you needed, but you needed it. That's true, yeah. And it was a big roster week this week with Sean Mannion returning and Dan Chesena as well. Did you guys have nicknames? You ever had a nickname?

I don't know that I've never known you guys by a nickname. Not really. People just call me Raggetts, like my last name, because it's more interesting than my first name. Yeah, Kramer's my last name, so it's always just been K it's always just been it's a good like dude thing just use the last names instead all right well we'll get into the football talk then let's no one has a nickname let's talk about i think we have to talk about kind of the big story here which is life after justin jefferson not after just jefferson but without justin jefferson for at

least four games sounds like there's a possibility could be more than four games, a somewhat significant hamstring injury. I guess there's two elements to it. There's the short term. How does the offense change right now? Who needs to step up? What does it look like without Jefferson for the first time since he came into the league? And then we can get into the long term as well of what this could mean for this season and for the future but i think starting short term like do we think obviously the vikings offense is going to change because so much of it has been built around jefferson and the coverage that he dictates and

all these things but how much does it change really what do they kind of have to do to overcome losing one of the best receivers in football yeah i just think some of the concepts that were used to spring other guys open are going to have to change when it's K.J. Osborne or Jordan Addison in that X role, in that split-end role. K.J. said it was him who stepped into that role at the end of the game on Sunday. I do think with a whole week to game plan, you could see Addison in more of a featured role in some moments, but none of those guys are going to dictate the coverage that Justin does. And it was interesting to hear TJ Hawkinson say yesterday that this could be more like my Detroit days when I was back in blue in terms of drawing now the safety over the top, the extra coverage, I think playing off of Hawkinson potentially, if they can get him going early in a game and force that kind of coverage could help,

but it's just going to have to come from all these hands and it's going to have to come from, do they go to more too tight end personnel and really try to lean on the running game against a Bears defense that can be vulnerable do they try to as KO likes to say so many times O'Connell reinvent themselves even though they never do and they lead the league in past attempts can they somehow morph into more of a balanced team I think those are some of the biggest ways you could see a change outside of the target shares being Addison Osborne and those guys calling him KO not a nickname those are just the letters in his name like there's a bar for nicknames but I watched back the game very closely looking at Jordan

Addison and I was really impressed with what I saw in the way that he got off the line of scrimmage because you know what everybody's going to do to him they're going to say you're 170 pounds we're going to press you we're going to be physical with you and there was an in-breaking route that maybe went for eight yards so nothing super memorable where he was pressed up and whoever the corner was was really physical with him and he swatted the guy's hands away broke out of the other route and was open for a completion and then there's another one on i think it was maybe a fourth down or third and long where he has to run down the sideline so way broke out of the other route and was open for a completion and then there's another one on i think it was maybe a fourth down or third and long where he has to run down the sideline so he's up against the boundary like this is the hardest thing to do for a receiver he kind of breaks in

snaps it back out he's on time with kirk cousins i mean there was some high level stuff going on with the way that jordan addison played and to me like, well, he's got the talent as a first round draft pick. And yeah, I don't know whose role takes what role in the offense and so forth. Maybe they want Addison to stay with where he's at and have Osborne, the more experienced player, make an adjustment. But this is not a football team that has one wide receiver. And while they have acted like it at times with Justin Jefferson especially over the last few years last year I would have said much more that's kind of the case but it isn't now and that's why you draft Jordan Addison in part is because you never feel like you are left

without someone who can beat man coverage with KJ Osborne a lot of times it has to be a little bit schemed up and if he gets the ball in his hands, that guy can get moving. Right. And he's a problem with the ball in his hands, but Addison is a never not open type of player. And I'm very interested to see how that kind of plays out now. But I think that the expectation still should be that your passing game functions properly, even without Justin Jefferson, because that's why like you built the team this way. That's why you didn't draft a corner. That's why you drafted him instead, because you wanted to have that as an option in case you lost Justin Jefferson. Yeah, I think that's really the maybe silver lining of this whole thing

is we get a chance to see Jordan Addison now and everything that they have planned for him, their vision for what he can be in this offense, evaluate him as really kind of the feature guy. And KJ Osborne is going to be an every down player because he's good run blocker. He's a reliable, good hands for the most part, things like that. But yeah, I think the most impressive thing is what you brought up with Addison early on. You saw on the tape, if the corners could get their hands on him and jam him, he could get thrown off his route. And that affects the timing of the offense. And that affects your ability to get open before Kirk Cousins is getting sacked.

Looking at the tape against the Chiefs, there were moments where that still happened. But there were also moments that, like you mentioned, where he was able to do that and beat it. And Kevin O'Connell mentioned it this week. He's really kind of getting better at some of that release stuff and being able to counter what the corners want to do with you when you're a young receiver you're an undersized receiver so I'm excited to watch that to see you know I think they're going to move them around as well that's a good way to kind of avoid some of that you can scheme up some ways to avoid press but yeah I think you just got to let them loose I mean the stat line didn't look crazy it was like six catches for 64 yards but two catches on fourth down, a catch on third down, a touchdown where Kirk Cousins trusted him to get open and through

with anticipation. So I think you see that connection coming along and I'm just, yeah, I'm excited to watch and see what he looks like in this Justin Jefferson-less offense. Yeah. And Kevin O'Connell said after the game that Addison's day should have been even bigger, quite honestly. And that's a reference to Kirk Cousins, I think missing him on some moments where he was open downfield, even on plays where they gained first downs to other guys, they could have had bigger plays to him. And I think it's gonna be interesting in Chicago because I think the Bears defense is just what they, the doctor ordered for them because this Bears defense doesn't get a ton of pressure. Uh, they're not good in those kinds of critical key passing down moments of forcing the issue on quarterbacks.

And Kirk, to me, has been part of what's been holding them back on offense a little bit here. And without Justin Jefferson, having a clean, confident Kirk back there is going to help them just as much as anything. Do you guys want to talk about TJ Hawkinson? Because it's becoming a thing. I think we have to. And once something becomes a thing, then every single drop pass, every single play where something's not perfect, then becomes someone on the internet's going to screen grab it and send it out.

And this sort of thing, the momentum builds with the player, especially when your team is one and four. No one cares, and no one would remember those drops at all if they had won the game against Kansas City. It'd be like, oh, who cares? But when you have some key drops in a game like that, then it becomes the center of attention. And I think what the discussion is, is are they regretting what they decided to do this offseason? Personally, I think that's going way too far. That's a massive overreaction. And I never expected him to be Tony Gonzalez. I never thought the TJ

Hawkinson had these unbelievable mitts like we used to see from Kyle Rudolph, who just had incredible hands. I think Rudolph went like three years with one drop. You just got used to that. But I think Hawkinson is more of a freight train type of player, like get the ball in his hands and get him moving. Then he is a contested catch, rise up over someone and moss them type of player, like get the ball in his hands and get a move in. Then he is a contested catch rise up over someone and Moss them type of player. But the fact that he has not been as effective as maybe you would have expected, he's still averaging under 10 yards of catch, which could be done by running backs. So how are you guys feeling about him going into this game? Yeah, it's one of those things where generally with any discussion or take or whatever, I fall somewhere in the middle.

I think it's a real thing that we have to discuss that they would tell you and he would tell you he hasn't played as well as he would like to so far. It's not that there have been these egregious wide-open drops. These are contested catch situations. We saw him do that last year in that first Giants game, go up over a guy and catch a touchdown. I think maybe people expected that he would be better in those situations than he has been this year.

Each one on its own has not been super awful. They vary in their degrees of difficulty. I thought the first one on that third down after the Chiefs scored was a really tough one. Just the timing wasn't there. But there were two more later in the game where you're like, I want my tight end that I'm paying this amount of money to, to make at least one of those plays,

just the aggregate of not having really done it even once this year. I mean, maybe there's one I'm forgetting, but it's been a lot of short stuff for him is where he's kind of had his catches this season. So I just fall somewhere in the middle. I think like, it's a real thing. He would tell you, he wants to play better. He wants to make these catches. I think he's capable of it, but like, he's also still a valuable player even when he's not coming down with these

because he is kind of not unique, but his skillset as a tight end, like he's, he's a little bit shifty. He has some, some Twitch to him, which you don't often see. Kyle Rudolph did not have a whole lot of Twitch to him, especially later in his career. TJ Hockinson, we've seen like, he can get open a line from the slot he's not a true inline tight end and I think they're really going to have to lean on him especially without Justin Jefferson kind of in the middle of the field and then try to still generate some explosives with him yeah I think TJ needs to to play better obviously like you guys are talking about with these catches but

I also think Kirk needs to stop throwing as high as he has on some of these. Kirk sailed a pass over Jefferson on a bubble screen that ruined a play, had a couple high passes to Hawkinson. We've seen it throughout the year where that kind of creeps up on him for whatever reason. And frankly, Kevin O'Connell in this offense needs to find a way to make Hawkinson a featured piece in the red zone. If you struggle scoring touchdowns in the red zone,

you have a 6'5", 6' tight end. What are you doing not throwing to him in the back of the end zone, just high up where only he can get it. I don't understand how that is not more of a part of what they're doing. And I think you've got a lot of weapons on this offense and it's easy to argue, well, why isn't the ball going here or there, but his skillset, his size, I understand he's not Kyle Rudolph, but you can still use him in some ways to put the ball up over a linebacker or something like that. The sad part is it's not going to get easier for him now

without Justin Jefferson, as Hawkinson mentioned earlier this week. But I do think that if he finishes the season with a bunch of catches for eight yards, then it wasn't a success. Because we were just talking with Alec Lewis in the media room about just the, you know, is he worth it versus an average tight end that you would pay $2 million. And so far the answer has been not really that this year, I mean, not eight yards to catch. I mean, you, you need more of a downfield. Now, of course, if he doesn't drop a couple of those, then he's not averaging eight yards to catch. then it would have been a 20 yard gain on one of them where they end up going three

and out and there has been a couple of comments by him and kind of kirk cousins or kevin o'connell about them not being on the same page which i think is really odd considering that last year they were instantly on the same page so is the football not being thrown in places that we expected from cousins, which I think does bring us to a bit of a discussion about cousins last week. When you go back and watch that game, this is, he just was not playing on time. There's a lot of balls that were not as accurate as that we normally expect. And that is not a great defense. It wasn't like he was pressured all day long. It wasn't like, oh, well, they hit Kirk early and threw him off. That wasn't the case. And I just wondered, like, is there something happening or is this just our typical, oh, the Kirk roller coaster? Because it has seemed just

a millisecond slower than it was last year with some of the times where the ball's coming out and so forth. I don't know if that's what you guys have observed or if I'm just having recency bias coming off that game. I think it's a little of both, but I think it's a real thing. I mean, the most glaring example was the pass to KJ Osborne and over the middle of the field that could have been a touchdown. Perhaps the timing wasn't there. KJ ended up almost ducking at the football because he looked up and it was already kind of behind his head. It just been kind of ball placement things timing it's not really what you want to see when there's been so much talk this whole offseason about oh year two in this offense year two in this offense we're going to feel really comfortable and and be kind of firing in all cylinders and there have been times where

they've looked really good I mean you still look at the yards per play metrics and they're right up there like they've been efficient moving the ball they've had some explosives justin jefferson obviously the main reason for that but there's just been certain things where yeah they don't look perfectly in sync i don't and i don't think like i've had people or seen people say like oh maybe tj hackinson shouldn't have uh had an ear infection in training camp and they should have got more reps and maybe they should play in the preseason like you go back to last year and yeah you're right they looked great right away in that washington game when he had been there for like 72 hours in the building. So I don't think it's really that I just think whatever it is and with them not being on the same page,

they got to figure it out. And a lot of the blame does have to go to Kirk Cousins and kind of not putting the ball in places where TJ Hawkinson has a manageable opportunity there. It's on both ends because he's got to come down with some of these, but it's also not purely on him. Yeah. And I do think we've seen pressure affect Kirk throughout his career here, obviously, but we're seeing it this year in a way that I think is causing him to get the ball out quicker unnecessarily at times,

or at times he's evading and rushing out of a pocket. He doesn't need to run from, and it's just extending and breaking down plays. And I thought the offensive line played really good on Sunday against Kansas City. And a lot of the hits that Kirk compiled were unblocked pressures where they got him to throw hot, where he needs to get the ball out. And then he's not doing it for whatever reason because of whatever he's seeing downfield. There was one play there at the – I think it was in the second or third quarter

where it was a four-yard catch by Hawkinson like you guys were talking about, but Addison is coming open on a little option route underneath, and the blitz was coming from that side. So right where Addison's coming, the blitz is vacating that spot, and Kirk, instead of reading that, standing confidently and throwing into that area, evades to the other side of the field where Hawkinson's like triple covered in the flat for four yards, even though Cam Makers picked to the other side of the field where Hawkinson's like triple covered in the flat for four yards, even though Cam Makers picked up the blitz, the pocket was there, and he could have had a big play to Addison who shook a guy to get open. Those are the examples of things where you're looking at this and saying this guy's 34 years old. We can't be dealing with this if you're

an offense. If he doesn't trust that to be there in terms of the pocket, the protection, the offensive line, that's a problem for everybody, including TJ. Make Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, part of your game day. Order online during our Pizza Pizza pregame one hour before NFL games and get ready for some football and fun. Choose your favorite Little Caesars pizza or pick the toppings you crave. Either way, you win. And speaking of winning, everyone scores with convenient delivery or our in-store pizza portal pickup.

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That's prizepicks.com slash purple with the code purple. Daily Fantasy Sports made easy. Well, it pinged in my mind about him getting another trainer this year and talking about how well man i should have done this a long time ago this was a really smart move and i guess partly i thought about the netflix documentary and how boy they really chronicled all the times he was crushed last season and that kj play that you mentioned, the reason he speeds up, as it seems, the read and throws it right behind his head when he's not looking and isn't supposed to be like the route. It looks like on tape is where he sort of sells it to break up field and then snaps it back inside. So you wouldn't have your head around because I saw, of course, you know, Twitter or whatever.

But it's like he's got to get his head around. But when you actually watch the route, like that's not how it's run. That got to get his head around. But when you actually watch the route, that's not how it's run. That's not the timing of it. All these things have landmarks, places, technique. And KJ was doing what he was supposed to be doing. But Kirk felt the pressure from his right side. And it wasn't actually there. It was just that O'Neal got pushed back initially, sort of took that initial push.

He like hopped back a little bit to anchor himself, which is really good on his part that he never gets bowled over. But Kirk just sort of felt that and was like, nope, getting rid of it. And I wonder about the accumulation of the car crash hits from last year. If that started to kind of play into, I really don't want to break my ribs again. And that is not to say that he's intentionally doing that, but i think it's just if anyone's ever been in a car crash i got rear-ended one time and the next time you pull up to a stop sign you're like looking in the back you know what i mean like there's a natural impact that's happening that doesn't mean i think he's playing bad or having a horrible season or

anything there's just these sort of micro moments that have made me wonder if that's kind of played into some of the offensive inconsistency yeah like. Like, I don't, I don't want to use the phrase seeing ghosts or anything, but there's been, there's been some of that where the pass protection this year, early in the season, Ed Ingram was still losing some of those one-on-one pass protection reps. I thought he played one of his best games against the chiefs. The whole line played really well. Chris Jones just roasted Ezra Cleveland off the line at one point to the point where it was like, I don't even know if Ezra was like doing the wrong thing or something. But for the most part, they held up well. They've given Kirk time. He has to be able to kind of sit in there, trust his routes, trust the concepts,

trust what's going to develop downfield and find it. And you're right. There were some moments on tape of taking the underneath stuff when maybe there was a chance for an explosive. I don't think it's been a huge issue this year, but all these little things with the offense, because the margin for error is really small when you're turning it over so much and your defense is getting beat,

like these little timing things and Kirk and TJ and KJ and Alex Madison has a few drops. Like these things just make it really hard to sustain offense and to score the points that you're going to have to when your defense is still a little bit short on, on talent. I think all these little things add up to, to into the,

this off season where Kirk is going to be a free agent and those contract negotiations that the team and Kirk went through once again, last year, that didn't come to a deal. I don't see how Kirk is playing his way into a much bigger deal right now. And if he doesn't have Jefferson for a few weeks. Yeah, I just it seems like this marriage, Kirk and the Vikings could be coming to an end, especially if this continues. This I mean, this this time without Jefferson is really going to be a huge test.

Like for everybody and for Kevin O'Connell as a play caller for Kirk Cousins for Jordan Addison for KJ Asmore TJ like everybody has to take on a lot more when you lose a guy who draws so much gravity and is so good at what he does so I'm curious it could go well and we're like oh Addison looks great and TJ's stepping up and making these catches now and Kirk's trust and everything or it could go not so great and TJ stepping up and making these catches now and Kirk's trust and everything, or it could go not so great. And I wouldn't be too surprised either way. Well, I wrote an article today that I called the Kirk cousins last stand like this. This is his last opportunity to change the, I don't, I don't like the word narrative because it implies that whatever is not true, it's true that they've won one playoff game. And, but the, and I guess I

would say the discussion or the fact of the matter, the fact of the matter is that not beating the giants last year took a 13 win season and sort of tossed it in the same closet as the other ones that failed. And now you're one in four and you are very close to throw in this season in that same closet of the failed Kirk Cousins era seasons. And I'm not even sure we can even call 2019 a success. I mean, one playoff win, but we were talking about the coach potentially being fired going into the last week of that season. And one great Kyle Rudolph catch in a coin flip in overtime in New Orleans changes that and makes it look a little more successful. But ultimately, this is it. overtime in new orleans changes that and makes it look a little more successful but ultimately

this is it like these i mean it could be over sunday for for the opportunities of kirk cousins to say my time there had success and not that i think that this is going to be an nfc championship team but the standard is pretty high for what we would have to see this year for it to be that. But at very least, if Kirk Cousins turned this around and got them into the playoffs, went from one and four to the playoffs, I would really respect it because it's not a great team. I mean, they have what, three turnovers they've caused this year. It's not a great team. And he would have to play like a franchise quarterback. I don't think it changes the future, but I would really respect it if he sort of dug in and found a way to get past the New Orleans, the Atlanta, pull an upset against San Francisco, whatever it's going to take to get back in the playoffs. Because otherwise, when he does exit stage left, I think we're all going to go, well, what were you doing six years ago?

Because that kind of flew by in a flash with not a whole lot that was memorable. I like it. This is what the roundtable is for, getting fired up. I'm with you. This is another. They had a test, a kind of back-against-the-wall moment going to Carolina, and they won that game, and Kirk played pretty well in spurts there. They didn't have to pass the ball a whole lot.

This is another one where, yes, this is two one and four teams, but this is like a playoff game. It's a survival mode type of game. You have to win this because if you lose and you're coming home and you're playing the best team in football, the 49ers who have just looked absolutely dominant on both sides, like the season's over. And that's how we were going to feel if they, if they lost to the Panthers,

which by the way, they came kind of close to doing. So if, if they can't go to Chicago and this is a team that ranks 31st in EPA per play allowed on defense only ahead of the Broncos, it's a team that prior to last week against the Commanders hadn't done a whole lot in offense, and you're getting all the Chicago radio shows talking about is the Justin Fields thing just a miss, a bust. You have to be able to go win this game. With that said, without Justin Jefferson in a play soldier field

where the Vikings always seem to have some trouble, I don't see it being a kind of smooth ride for them. It's going to be tough. So it's going to really, as it always does, it's going to fall on Kirk Cousins' shoulders to lead them and find a way to get this done without number 18. Yeah, this is quite the crossroads for the Vikings and the Bears because two years ago it was both teams talking to Ryan Poles who is now Chicago's GM who Chicago hired just before the Vikings had a chance to hire

him and then they go with Kweise Adolfo Mensah shortly after that so this is a crossroads game of okay if you lose to the Bears you're basically saying the Bears tear down and rebuild has happened quicker, at least in that one microcosm of a game has happened quicker to a success point for them than it has for you. Cause now you're going in the opposite direction at one in five, if you somehow drop this game. And by the way, the Vikings wanted Justin Fields the year that he ended up going to Chicago. So if he looks good against a Brian Flores defense, and they look like they're turning the ship around and ascending while you're going the other direction, it's going to feel pretty bad at the, at the seller of the NFC North. Yeah. And then there is a discussion. I think that if you pulled the fan base and you asked,

would you rather they lose this game? There's always going to be a big portion of the fans that say never, never, never root against my team. But I think there would be a big portion of the fans that say never never never root against my team but i think there would be a high percentage that said you know what for it to be over and for us to know and looking at the next draft class and all those logical arguments and again i'm not saying you should ever root against your team like you don't have to do that uh but there's also an element of just factually speaking losing this game would put an end to any of that whole hey what if they come back and end up seven and ten which would be my prediction right now by the way that they win this game and they end up seven and ten and that's not a great outcome for you because then you don't get your pick of the

litter of the quarterbacks or you're having to give up a lot of draft capital to move up to get the potential quarterback and i think that over the years especially since the philly process thing happened with the 76ers i just think fans have become really aware of timelines and really aware that sometimes having it come to an end is not a bad thing kind of reminds me when z Zimmer lost to the winless lions. It was like, okay, Zimmer's fired. Now we can all talk about like, that was it. Now it's over. Now we all know, and we can move on. There is some element to this game. And again, like I'm not saying, Hey, they should throw the game or whatever, anything like that. It's just, if they, there's no more argument, there's no more, well well we should keep daniel hunter around or we

should keep kj or whatever it's it's full fire sale this is a real pivot point in the season yeah it's another swing moment we talked about this heading into carolina like if you win this game we'll be back talking about okay you're probably going to lose to the 49ers but the schedule really opens up after that they've got a chance to maybe crawl back into a fight for a seven seed and we can evaluate um things like that if they lose this game the discussion has to just shift to long term like okay it is now it's over you're not crawling out of this although it would be really like vikingsy to lose this game and then like stun the world on monday night against the 6 and 0 49ers but i don't think that's going to happen with how good that team is on both sides of the ball i

don't think there's really any chance of that happening. But yeah, if they lose this game, we have to talk about a possible reset. I guess the question is, do we trust this team to and maybe starting all the way top with ownership to kind of recognize when a ship has sailed here and recognize that it would be beneficial to bottom out? You're not going to blatantly tank. And I don't know if there's any possibility of Kirk Cousins being like, yeah, I'll waive my no trade clause because I think he likes it here and his family and being in this offense that he knows. And I don't know if he wants to go learn an offense on the fly in New York or Atlanta or somewhere. But you could trade Denny Hunter.

You could trade K.J. Osborne. You could trade Jordan Hicks. You could see what you can get for some of the guys who are on expiring contracts at the very least. Yeah. You mentioned a couple of the hurdles to clearing house. Let's say they lose this game, go one in five, and you're looking at the trade deadline being like, you could be one in six, one in seven at that point. But there's a couple tailored suits with the last name Wilf that you also have to convince, especially when it comes to Kirk Cousins. I imagine also when it comes to Daniil Hunter

and some of the major pieces on this team, they have to be the ones convinced that, okay, this is what's best for our franchise long-term. And I do think it would have to be a 1-6, 1-7 type scenario. It would have to include losing this game at Chicago. If there's any life to this team, if they beat Chicago, if they beat Green Bay and they're 3-5, and you're looking at this team, I don't think that the Wilfs are considering tearing it down. I think they're going to have every delusion that this team could still

somehow turn it around. Kirk did a good job of deflecting any attention to the question yesterday of whether or not he'd waive his no trade clause. But I do imagine if there was a Brock Purdy injury somehow, not that anybody roots for those kinds of things, but I do imagine that there is a scenario where Kirk would wave it. If for instance, his old buddy, Kyle Shanahan came calling. I think that's the only scenario is if the Vikings injure Brock Purdy and then Kirk changes jerseys mid game. So on the Wilf element, I get a lot of questions about this all the time. I think they already agreed to this uh i think by

letting go adam thielen delvin cook in years past they just kept paying these people sure but i don't mean just this off season where they cleared house with this roster and they didn't pay anyone like delvin tomlinson they didn't overpay anybody to keep them around they could have cut they could have let kirk go that that is definitely part of it and that's the competitive rebuild element i agree but i think they agreed to this on day one like when they hired quesia da fomenta it was we're going to compete this year and then a lot of these players are going to be gone and then we're going to keep kirk and we're going to hang around and then we're going to draft a quarterback the next year and at some point there's going to be a dip in your play.

That appears to me to be the way that it was set up from the outset of when they hired Kweisi Adafomensa. Now, maybe it changed a little bit with Kirk because he won 13 games. It's really hard to get rid of a quarterback if he wins 13 games and they have a Netflix documentary about him, but they didn't extend him. And I think in the past they would have extended him if this wasn't already part of kind of the agreed upon layout for the future. They were willing to extend him for, it would have been through this year and next year.

The team, the team was Kirk wanted through then what's the additional year, 2025. That's what Kirk won. And so it's interesting of how yeah i think kirk maybe played his way back into their plans like you're talking about but i i wonder how willing the wilfs would be at this point to accept that this is a true like dip and rebuild and turnaround if they again if they're three and five or whatever entering that trade yeah if you're one and seven it's hard to really dress that up in any way and not accept the reality of that. I think you're right though,

that if they win this game, big, they go to the green Bay and they win that. And you're kind of hanging around. They're going to have every inclination to try to find a way to get back into this thing and, and want that to be the path. But I mean,

Adolfo Mensah obviously knows there was a quote from him this off season where he's like, you know, we're, we're, we're trying to compete're he's just kind of describing the competitive rebuild and he said you know it tearing it down it's this this way of doing it is riskier than doing a full tear down he he knows that like that's not a secret to anybody if you bottom out especially with this year's quarterback class like that that looks really good but there are these factors that it's just it's not as easy as just saying all right let's go 3 and 14 this year like you can't just kind of will that into existence because you still have a quarterback unless you find a way to convince him that the

grass would be greener somewhere else for the second half of this of this season uh you still have a quarterback who's probably going to prevent you from winning anything less than six or seven games. Purple Insider is brought to you by BetterHelp. Friends, have you ever had times where you felt like your brain is getting in the way? Maybe your brain is racing and you can't fall asleep or you can't slow down negative, intrusive thoughts. And you know you should look for help, but you haven't brought yourself to do it yet. Well, therapy can help you figure out what's holding you back so you can work for yourself rather than working against yourself. Therapy can be as simple as finding training methods for yourself to learn positive skills to improve your everyday mental health. It isn't just for people who have gone through especially

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to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash insider. I agree three and five, they keep fighting. I do agree with that based on the schedule going after that because you could get back to 500 even without being perfect going into that final section of the season where you will probably lose to Cincinnati and Detroit. It's really easy to sell, right?

When you say if we had a league average number of turnovers, if a couple fumbles that were on the field bounced into our hands, if a catcher to hear they're like every single loss they've had, where we go back to one play, two play, three plays, they're like top five and yards per play. The defense, the blitzing hasn't really worked a ton. That's also kind of because they play Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes. Like there have been some encouraging signs on that front especially with

marcus davenport back like you can talk yourself into it but the reality is they're one and four things are not going to get easier right away at least and i don't know i don't know where you go put it on the gravestone of all minnesota sports if only not for that one thing that prevented them from winning they would have won and that one thing that prevented them from winning they would have won and that's how that's how championships are celebrated in minnesota honestly that's the banner i saw this after the twins game i'll never get used to this i will never get used to this boy what a great season it was huh what it was lose losing and what how many was it four games four games four games in the second round is a great season when you won like 80 something.

They won their first series since 2002. Matthew, I will never understand the standard. Maybe it's just a response to never winning anything that you have to grip on to just about anything. Anyhow, losing this game would actually send you in a direction where you think that the standard might be a bit higher than hopefully we come back from one in four to get in the playoff race but uh you guys think they're gonna win um i almost want to be bold and and say no like it just seems like this season they've found ways to to lose game i mean they have it doesn't seem like that that's what has happened and i just i can't really shake the feeling that that might happen again.

This Bears team was a total disaster through four weeks. They had a Thursday night game where it just, things kind of seemed to click. And DJ Moore had 230 receiving yards. And Justin Fields looked confident throwing the ball downfield, which has been an issue. And the run game has been pretty solid. And now defensively, they've been absolutely atrocious,

but they're getting back some pieces that have been injured in their secondary. Eddie Jackson, Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon. I believe all three could be back this week. So you're not going to go there. And I think this is a different level of challenge than the Panthers, who are maybe truly the worst team in the league with a really, really green quarterback. Fields is not developed into what they wanted him to, but he still has shown at times that he can make plays.

And we've seen it against his Vikings team. He can make plays with his legs, too, and be a threat in that regard. So I don't know. I might pick the Bears in this one. I want to be bold and predict a multi-score Vikings win. For the first time in a decade? Because I am one of the world-renowned most Justin Field haters. I just don't think he's that great of a quarterback.

I think he's just an athlete playing that position right now and still is with a lot of great athletes around him, which helps. But this Vikings team does stuff. They do stuff to screw up games. So how can I sit there and say confidently that they're going to put away a Bears team that can score in one play in 80 yards? So I think the Vikings will win. I just think it's going to be another one where fans are,

you know, biting their fingernails until the final seconds. The Justin Fields thing is very difficult to peg because he will play so bad and you'll think, okay, well, this is over. There's no reason to even talk about. Oh,

and now he plays amazing. Like that. And that happens from time to time. The concern I would have is the Vikings don't sack the quarterback very well. They did sack Bryce young a number of times aside from that game. Yes. It's Herbert.

Yes. It's the homes, but they don't make life that difficult Justin Fields gets sacked a lot though he does he does that is true was it 2021 there's a game where it was still Zimmer and they went to Chicago and like DJ Wanham sacked him three times and he just he looked kind of lost back there I think like you look at the Vikings stats and they're blitzing like 55 percent of the time the easily the highest rate in the league and the results haven't really been there you look at the Vikings stats and they're blitzing like 55 percent of the time the easily the highest rate in the league and the results haven't really been there you look at the QBR and things like

that when they've blitzed they don't have any interceptions they have some sacks but like their sack rate on blitzes is lower than you know the league average sack rate when blitzing this is a week where I think some of those numbers could possibly go back in the other direction because it did look good against Bryce Young like when you have a quarterback who isn't really ready for it and doesn't have all these hot answers kind of dialed in the way Herbert and Mahomes do, it looked good. And Harrison Smith had three sacks and they forced the, you know, they scored a defensive touchdown. And I don't think like, I think it's a lot of risk reward with the Vikings approach. And there may be times where they get burned and you leave a rush lane for fields to escape or,

you know, your cornerback situation's a little iffy with a caleb evans maybe not available this week if mckay blackman gets beat deep or something like that but i think you can force some negatives as well so this is a good week for brian flores to lean into what he's leaned into every week yeah the thing with fields versus bryce young and they both get sacked a lot is that fields can run away uh i don't think Bryce Young is NFL fast at all. I mean, we saw a few times he would try to be like, I'm scrambling and then just get caught because NFL players are insanely athletic. But with Justin Fields, we saw it last year when this guy accelerates, he goes. So even though I think they can mix

things up coverage wise, blitz wise wise they are at home so he can adjust protections a little bit better than say if it was at US Bank Stadium but I just think the athletic element is something that they haven't really faced outside of Jalen Hurts this year and I think that he can beat them in ways that other quarterbacks haven't if their blitzes like do fool him and cause problems and dj moore i mean keenan allen ripped this team apart dj moore is a beast and there's i think a scenario where dj moore goes off against this team and they lose yeah we talk about another like we talked about hawkinson talk about guys who've been a little disappointing i think byron murphy jr hasn't really stood out in a lot of positive ways.

I think he's been fine. I think he's pretty clearly the best cornerback on this team. Evans has showed flashes. But there's just been, like, you just look at last week, he gets beat on a slant inside by Rasheed Rice, who's like an undrafted rookie or a late-round rookie. Murphy and a couple other guys were really, really deep off of Travis Kelsey on the second touchdown in the third quarter. So, so yeah this secondary has definitely left a lot to be

desired and it's the bears are good enough with fields and more i think to possibly expose some of that yeah byron murphy has not been as disruptive as i think we thought he was going to be when he comes over from arizona and had some pretty good years and most recently 2021 um i just don't know what chicago and more. And I think when you compare him to Allen and with Herbert, I imagine some of those throws he was making were sidearms. It was against the blitz, the pressure with the guy literally in his face with a millisecond to make it. I think this offense in Chicago is incredibly capable of making the Vikings look silly. I just would bet on Brian Flores going into this game against a quarterback who we have not seen yet master coverages,

master pre-snap identifications and readings and setting protections. And this offensive line for the Bears has been a sieve for most of the year. So I think we're going to see, you know, probably kind of a jailbreak game where you see more blitzes. And yeah, maybe they end up springing one. But overall, I still feel confident that the Vikings have the upper hand um at least on defense and they've been close right i mean flores talked about it a little this morning like they blitzed on that play he wasn't talking about specific plays but they blitzed on the play where the ball went through caleb evans hands and it was a josh palmer touchdown they sent five or six there they blitzed on the third and 18 last week where if

cam bynum just goes for a pbu instead of a pick, or just at least times his jump a little better, that looks good for the Blitz. It's just the plays have been there. They haven't made them. And that's why the numbers when you're Blitzing don't look as good. There were times where maybe they Blitzed a little too much and they gave Herbert just a layup. But they're close to really making some disruptive things happen with the Blitz. It's just Mah homes and Herbert have, have been able to find answers and the Vikings defense hasn't made some of

the plays that have been there. There's just no quarterback that you could convince me that this defense couldn't make look good. And even, even with Bryce young, they controlled the ball 40 minutes out of that game because as bad as he was playing, they still completed short passes and got first downs and kept the sticks moving and if Bryce Young finishes a couple drives we might be talking about a winless team right now and yeah he gets the strip sack and so forth it's just that that world exists no matter what when you can't sack the quarterback and when you

can't cause turnovers because you have no playmakers except for daniel hunter and harrison smith and even at that point it's been a little inconsistent with both of those guys this year it's just or there's only so much daniel can do but there's really only been one game where harrison smith's been a difference maker and no one else is a playmaker. There was last year, at least Zedaria Smith would step up and sack a guy or Patrick Peterson would pick off a pass or somehow Duke Shelley, but that right. That happened a lot. And that isn't happening for me. That means that there's always a scenario where Justin Fields has a great game because you can't cause these guys not to, I will still pick them to win with

a lot of hesitation. Like the vibes are very different. The bears are saying, see, we're ready to prove the world wrong. And this Vikings team, I don't know. How can you feel good if you're in that locker room going into this game without Justin Jefferson? I don't know. I don't know what you're really lean on. That's a good question. Yeah, the vibes are different. You're catching Chicago. If it's possible to catch Chicago at the quote-unquote wrong time, this is the wrong time. Coming off of eight touchdowns in two games for Justin Fields, everybody talking about him like, see, see, we knew he was the Jalen Hurts of 2023, even though he's not. All of those different things. It is the vibes are very different. I still feel like though that soldier field is going to be pretty quiet.

If the Vikings somehow get off to the first hot start, they've had all season because they have scored three points in the first quarter all year. They got on the board though. They hadn't scored a single point in the first quarter in four, four games, which is just so wild because last year I found myself like thinking the one thing you can set your watch to with this Vikings team

is they're going to score a touchdown on the opening play because they're going to have some awesome first opening script for the first drive and have all these play actions, the screen pass, and just marrying everything really well. And then it'll fall apart for two quarters after that before they figure it out again in the fourth. But yeah, three points in five games in the first quarter. That's not not gonna do it

this week against the bears you gotta you gotta find a way to start fast you guys like chicago what's your favorite part of chicago i love chicago i uh i went to school about 45 minutes north of there i will not i will not say i went to school in chicago that's right i was near chicago in the great uh city of evanston um but yeah chicago is awesome the chicago people take that very seriously if you're from one of those suburbs it's a little way you're not chicago yeah that's i mean we do that here too when people say i'm from minneapolis and i'm like oh like what neighborhood and they're like actually i'm from hopkins or whatever i'm like shut up i think that i think that's true kind of in a lot of cities but you're right it's a big thing in chicago because they have so much suburb area

and like chicagoland yeah i always like these trips, you know, getting to stay at least near the stadium and getting to walk through there. It's, it's very unique having that right on Lake Michigan. I mean, it's, it's such a crime that the stadium is such a dump because it is such a, such a beautiful location right there on the water. But yeah, I always love these trips, even though something always goes wrong for the Vikings.

And it's about to be like how the 49ers are in san francisco yeah right they're gonna move this thing away from because santa clara is just not that close it's much closer to san jose which is where i flew out of in 2019 that is going to be unfortunate i really love walking to the stadium it's going to be a fall day i think the weather is going to be unfortunate. I really love walking to the stadium. It's going to be a fall day. I think the weather is going to be garbage. It's like perfect for football. And it's also when it's October, there's been a few times we've gone there in October.

It's really spooky. And you walk out of there, it's dark. You have to walk through a weird tunnel or underpass or something. And you're like, what's going on here? And the leaves and the lake and just the whole, it's very, it's a Dick Butkus football, you know, they're going to be honoring him. It's, it is going to be an extremely football experience, even if the football is gnarly at times, but I'm looking forward to,

I mean, something weird is going to happen. We know it's, it's the Vikings and the bears deadlock. And it's not the pet, the bears of the past where like in 2019, they just dominated the line of scrimmage and the Vikings had no chance. I think this will be a wacky game. The stadium does stink and the press box is terrible. But to have that view of from where we sit of the skyline, it's pretty cool. Also, I do want to apologize to everyone from Hopkins. I had nothing against you. I love all the great people of Minnesota. You told them to shut up. That was rude. It was a hypothetical of one person.

And that exact conversation has happened to me many times, not specifically with Hopkins, but how often are you having this discussion? Well, this was like a, like in Chicago, especially thing like, Oh, I'm from Minneapolis. Like, no, you're not really. But I knew about the Chicago. I'm actually from Minneapolis. So I like get to be annoying about that. I think you're very defensive about this for sure. But I knew about that with Chicago, that people who say they're from Chicago, you got to check.

Are you really or not? But whatever. It's a thing in Naperville. It's a thing in Minneapolis. Kylie, my wife, she'll she's from South Minneapolis. So if people are from Roseville or from Bloomington, they are not from Minneapolis. So it's a thing. OK, that's fine. Where do I, you got, I don't want to talk about where I live, but like, uh, where do I fall into this? I think I'm, I don't want to, you don't want to give out

your address. I think I'm very, but I think I'm, I think I'm close. If you're close, I can allow it. If I can jog to the city line. uh Kylie would say you're not um but but you know what you can argue that with her okay well she's not invited the next time we have lunch uh anyway well we'll see what happens it's a Vikings Bears game after Friday the 13th so only God knows uh Will and Andrew thank you so much for doing this. And, we will talk to you after bears and Vikings from somewhere. It's not a great press box situation for postgame pods, but we will make it happen no matter what. Everyone who's still dialed in to the one in four versus one in four,

uh, pre game pods. We, we love you. Yeah. Thank you. Football.