Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings don't have any tight ends to play against Tampa Bay ft ESPN's Courtney Cronin

Episode Date: December 10, 2020

With Irv Smith Jr. out and Kyle Rudolph missing from practice, who will play tight end for the Vikings? Is Tom Brady washed or will the Vikings' defense struggle to contain the Bucs' offense? What will we learn about the Vikings' offense when they face a stacked defense in Tampa Bay? Plus what does Eric Wilson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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came the expectation and with that came the pressure. New episodes of American Prodigy drop Tuesdays from Blue Wire Podcasts. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. And Courtney, pie chart right off the start. Who plays tight end? Percentages that anyone outside of Tyler Conklin plays tight end. Kyle Rudolph, not at practice. You were out there. Irv Smith is still hurt. Brandon Dillon is on IR. Is it Bucky Hodges? Is it Blake Bell?

Is it Cole Hickatini? Whom is playing tight end for the Vikings? Well, it could be Jake Vargas, right? The fullback. Isn't a fullback basically like a tight end, right? I guess. Sometimes. Brian O'Neal played tight end at one point before he was converted into a tackle

so that's an option if you want to like unconvert him um and get rashad hill to play right that's a great idea i i have done this on madden before where you just take a player and change in positions and then throw them in there so that means that it can happen in real life um but in all nikea grippen stew, wasn't he around at one point? He was on the practice squad, and I think he just got signed or released somewhere I thought I saw earlier this week. So, I mean, that's good. They have to sign somebody.

Like, that's what this boils down to. One is the loneliest number was playing in my head when I'm watching the two fullbacks have to come over and do tight end blocking drills with Tyler Conklin because they couldn't do their running back stuff. Because otherwise, Tyler wouldn't have anybody to play with. He'd be all by himself. No friends. I guess it would have to be CJ Hamm plays tight end and the other guy plays the guy

in the practice squad. He plays fullback. Right? I mean, isn't that the thing that makes the most sense? Because if you sign somebody today, they have to go through COVID protocol, and how do you even get them ready to play in a football game by now? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, unless they had somebody that they already brought in for workouts

earlier in the week, knowing this was a thing. If you look at the waiver wire, I'm sure they had somebody in because, I mean, they're decimated the position. Like, first off, let me say this. I don't think Irv Smith is playing again in 2020. I checked in on that last week. I think that there is need for concern that whatever's going on with his back, you know, whatever's been hindering him the last few weeks,

I don't think it's something that's there. I think it's something that's probably more serious than, than has been, you know, relayed to us or anything like that. So I would not be surprised if he sits out the rest of the year. That does not shock me at all. I don't know what happened with Kyle Rudolph. I remember he got like slammed onto the ground at the end of the game,

but we'd have no indication as of right now kind of, like, what's going on there if that's something that's going to keep him out for Sunday. But, man, they are thin at that position. And that's something that, you know, in the absence of Adam Thielen and even, like, as of late, they've relied on the tight ends in the intermediate passing game a lot. And it's been important. So, you know, Tyler Conklin has his opportunity to become

I guess tight end one this week he'll get all of Rudolph's targets Rudolph getting all of Herb's targets that type thing yeah um Tyler Conklin I think is a fine number three tight end but asking him to play 65 snaps is going to be a pretty big task so it will be interesting to see how Gary Kubiak works around this. That's just my guess is that they bump up the practice squad fullback and C.J. Hamm takes the tight end stuff because C.J. Hamm can, I think. In terms of being a blocker or even just kind of sneaking out into the flat, he lines up a tight end a handful of times per game anyway,

so I don't think it would be a huge change for him if he had to play 20 or 30 snaps, but it is fundamental to this offense to use multiple tight ends. They even, over the last few weeks, have been using spread looks with multiple tight ends to kind of get the other team to put in an extra linebacker and then go, oh wait, now they're spreading everything out on us, and that's been a Kubiak tweak, maybe a little too much of Kirk out of the shotgun, I think. But, you know, it was noticeable starting, I think, in the Chicago game when they began to do that. And then now they're out of tight ends.

And it's too bad for someone like Brandon Dillon, who Mike Zimmer has liked quite a bit over the last couple of years, been on the practice squad and then um you know now misses his opportunity because he ends up getting hurt but that will be a really interesting change especially in the run game which um as we know they are not going to ease off no matter what no absolutely not and i mean if if that was in any indication this morning and speaking with alvin cook where he's like, I feel great. I can go run 30, have 38 more touches. How about 40?

How about 44? Like, you know, don't give Mike Zimmer that idea because that's probably what's going to happen. And when you look at the frequency of how many times they're using multiple tight end sets to be able to aid in the run game, I mean, the blocking is huge. I mean, we've talked about Kyle Rudolph and, you know, when Irv Smith was healthy and, like, where their target share was going.

But, like, their primary role this year, at least, because Dalvin Cook has been so dynamic, is as blockers. So, you know, that's something that when the Vikings are trying to figure out what their situation is going to be if Rudolph can't go this week, and I've already told you I don't think Irv Smith is like how are they going to be able to to compensate for that because that role that those three guys have the three tight ends on the active roster it's not small at all and you're not talking about an opponent that will be easy to go against without your tight ends you're talking about a team that has two of the best linebackers in the NFL in Tampa Bay.

I mean, this is a completely different level of defense from anything that they have faced in recent weeks. And I might even want to say that this is a different level of defense than Chicago. Chicago is more reputation than what they really are at this point, I think. Did Matt Stafford just throw for 400 yards on their defense last week? The Vikings put up 19 points, I think. Could have done a lot better than that. But Tampa Bay is legit in a lot of areas. Their defense overall, just a grade by PFF, is sixth best in the NFL.

The only defenses that are graded higher, Pittsburgh, Washington, LA, Denver, and New Orleans. So I think that this is, this is a big deal. And especially in the pass protection, I mean, Tampa Bay PFF grades them as the seventh best in, in pass rush. And this is a Vikings team that got sacked four times by the Jaguars last week. Yeah. And think about how many times they blitz too. Like that's's the that's the part that when I think of like bringing in extra blockers and guys to pick up blitzes um you know Kirk was blitzed 30 33 percent of the time I think on his drop back since week 12 um that's a lot like that's you know one of the highest rates that we've seen just in that stretch like and even

Mike Zimmer was talking about it and you know, just the frequency and the increase in it. And they're expecting that from Todd Bowles just because Tampa Bay blitzes all the time. Like he's going to see five, six rushers a lot. And it's like, how do you compensate for that if you don't have Kyle Rudolph there to chip somebody potentially, or even, you know, having your fullbacks role change which he might be playing tight end like who knows um that's something i would be concerned

about just given how like aggressive their defense is in sending extra rushers in um i think it's good that they face that quite a bit these last two weeks but i i mean even asking kirk cousins about it today i don't know if that's something that you like you anticipate it for sure but like does that mean anything's going to change I don't know I mean your protection better hold up otherwise he's going to be sacked five or six times uh you know this game so it's interesting you said to Delvin Cook something about the defensive ends and he kind of did and he's not blocking a defensive end yeah I was like I thought yeah but well yeah but the interesting part is that Jason Pierre-Paul does line up at linebackers sometimes yes especially in pass rush situations so I mean I guess technically if you were the running back

and you're assessing the defense you're probably counting him as a linebacker but sure that's fine but he's not like that's what I was getting at. He's not. Like, very obvious there. Right. I've got it right here that he's lined up 244 times a right outside linebacker, 90 a left outside linebacker out of his near 700 snaps. And so, I mean, this is a guy who's 275 pounds.

We've seen him get pressures. We've seen him pick off passes. PFF does their sacks a little different, but they give him nine sacks for this year. And he's also got a couple of interceptions, a couple of forced fumbles. I mean, I just look at this and I think that Adam Thielen defined it quite well. This is a defense full of all-stars. It is on the offensive side too, but there is so much more talent here that's why i like the next couple of games that they have to play because we're going to find out whether it's truth or lie like are you really better are you really good because if you are your offense will probably

have to drag you a um to a victory and b you're going to have to beat two of the better defenses in the nfl because it just starts with jason Pierre-Paul, but they've got great players across the board, and especially Levante David as linebacker is incredible, and last week they were letting Joe Sjobert do things to them, so that's where I'm really interested. How much can you correct, and will you still lean on the same things if you're Gary Kubiak, or are you going to change something to rely on Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, which you should all the time anyway? Yeah. I mean, like, think about that last game, too.

Like, Shaquille Barrett had two interceptions in that – who did they play in Kansas City, the game before the bye? I mean, their defense – like, you could go down the list and keep naming guys. I mean, it's – on the back end, too, like, the high praise that Antoine Winfield's already gotten this year and how well he's played and I mean it's amazing um so yeah like how do you correct it from a week ago well first off the dumb mistakes like in the penalties and all that costly stuff like error-free football I guess is that the right answer because it seems kind of impossible with this team because you've got so many

young guys that are still trying to find their footing and just trying to keep their head above water that it's like, you know, take the penalties, take the mistakes in stride, just don't give up another touchdown. Chris Boyd. Like those type things. And so I don't know. I mean, I have not picked this game yet to date, but it is, I mean, and I thought kind of looking at this, like, how are we going to be able to judge what Tampa Bay's offense looks like thinking that they had more than a week now

with the bye to try to fix some of the issues that they have with the deep passing game? And will they look that much different? They don't use a lot of motion at the snap. Like, pre-snap motion is one thing. Motion at the snap is completely different because that throws a lot of defenses off, and they use so few of it. Like, maybe we see more of that because they can pick apart this young defense

and try to get guys out of position and all of that. I don't know, but I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to have the Vikings winning this game. And I honestly think a lot of it is going to have to do more with how Tampa Bay's defense is playing than how its offense is playing with Tom Brady. So Tampa Bay has been kind of one of those teams that is up and down. They're 7-5, and they're talked about as inconsistent, and I think that that's right. But the big picture on them, even though they've lost the last two games,

and like you said, they played close with Kansas City, they're still a plus 64 point differential. They're still one of the – that is third best in the entire NFC. And when you go up and down, especially on the defensive side, I have a tough time saying – when you're talking about picking the game, I have a tough time saying, oh,'re talking about picking the game, I have a tough time saying, oh, yeah, the Vikings can hang with this team. Because talent-wise, they're just better, especially on the defensive side.

Like, the Vikings have big holes. I don't see big holes from this team. I mean, William Golston is one of the best pass rushers on the interior in the NFL. They still have Indomitian Sioux who is not even talked about very much pretty good he's actually had a pretty good year for as quiet as it's been right I mean he can still play for sure and then they have a good secondary with Antoine Winfield Jr. as you mentioned but he's not the only one out there and I and that much talent to me is going to be tough to overcome in part because because of the Vikings' weaknesses. And what I just fail to understand, after watching Dakota Dozier play left guard again

last week against the Jaguars, and a lot of the pressures that got to Kirk Cousins were on him. There was one that our buddy Jeremiah Searles broke down where it was just a basic, what they call coffeehouse blitz, where the linebacker hesitated and then blows right by Dakota Dozier. There's another one where they run a little stunt. It's three on three, and yet they go after Dozier, and he's in the guys in the backfield in two seconds. I mean, it's just teams are attacking Dozier and Bradbury all the time here,

and even though Brett Jones is not that effective as a run blocker, I see no way that they could protect Kirk Cousins, aside from rolling him out half the time or more, or having him get rid of the ball really quickly to Delvin Cook or to Justin Jefferson underneath, because the interior pass rush, this is usually the formula for do the Vikings win this game, check yes or no. It's usually no if they have players like this.

Yeah. And I think that that's going to be the formula to having Kirk on the move more, changing where he's throwing the ball, where he's releasing it from probably a lot more play action than, I mean, he actually had quite a bit of it against Jacksonville, but more than the average, at least that they've been using, especially on those early downs early in the game, to be able to get him away from it,

roll him the opposite side of Jason Pierre Paul, roll him wherever Ndamukong Suh isn't. And it's hard because it kind of feels like the way that they blitz, like they're blitzing just under 40% of their defensive snaps. Like it comes at you from all angles, and it comes at you all the time. And that's why, like, I was curious this morning, I asked Kirk about it, just like, can you get in a rhythm when you have seen the blitz so much

these last few weeks? And he's been particularly good against it, which I think is a really good sign, at least just of how he's been able to get the ball out quickly and been able to not turn the ball over. He had 121.2 passer rating with 16 to 26 for 183 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in the last two games against Jacksonville and Carolina. So I think that that's good and everything,

but can you carry that same sort of like you're under pressure the second the ball snapped if you're getting in a drop back game where you're having him in shotgun? Like, I don't know. I feel like you have to put him in a situation where he's going to boot his way down to, you know, the end zone every time, or at least like significantly, because that's, you know, that's how he's, that's what he's good at. And if you're trying to put him in a situation to not fail here,

given how good this pass rush is, I think it's probably your best option. Now on the other side of the ball, there is a fella that has owned the Vikings anytime he's ever played them. And that is Tom Brady. At least, you know, well, I mean, he's really owned everybody all the time, but they are one of like the four teams like that he's faced in his career that he's beaten every season. Got a great holiday deal to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER15,

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Brady didn't even have to do a lot. They scored multiple touchdowns with their fullback, believe the last time that he faced them but they're also dealing with inconsistency on their offense Brady has great grades by PFF and he has decent statistics he's thrown a lot of touchdowns and he's throwing the ball downfield a lot but also getting it out quickly which I think is a classic Brady type of thing to do. And yet there just seems to be friction between Brady and Bruce Arians offense. And Arians has made a couple of comments that were just downright baffling this year. You know, he'll say like, oh, I don't think Brady's really getting the offense or he didn't see something.

But like, I don't know why he's doing it. I don't get it. But no, I mean, it's pretty amazing too, because there was such a big thing made about, you know, I mean, hell, you've read the book. This is supposed to be the quarterback whisperer. Right. Yeah.

He's yelling instead of whispering. And I, I just, I don't, you know, the way that I look at it, I think that they're in like a really tough spot right now because if they don't get their offense figured out like this, this time around against the Vikings, it's probably over for them. At least like in terms of deep Super Bowl threat. Like if the Vikings win this game, they jump up into the sixth seed and Tampa goes to seven. If Tampa Bay wins, though, I mean, they're still squarely in the playoff picture because they'd be eight and five.

I'm wondering what we're going to see that's if anything's gonna look that much different coming out of the bye for Tampa Bay like that's probably that the worst news the Vikings could have gotten when they you know saw the schedule and all that's like okay whatever was going on in Tampa good or bad uh they have a whole week to game plan around it or fix it or do whatever they have to do and that's what i'm really curious about like how different um if at all uh or at least like how much better does that offense look in tampa bay because there's a lot of deep balls like they were one of 19 on past attempts of 20 plus yards heading into the game that they played against kansas city um and on sets on that sund it was the after-America's Game of the Week or whatever it was, they were 4-7.

So they clearly had improved before the bye, even though that game was a loss. But, you know, I'm really wondering, like, how – when Tom Brady talks about, like, the wealth of, like, the talent, like he's got Chris Godwin. I mean, he's got the – or not Chris Godwin. Chris Godwin had the pins in his fingers. he's got Chris Godwin I mean he's got the not Chris Godwin Chris Godwin the pins in his fingers I don't know I assume he's not playing I don't know maybe uh but he's got Mike Evans he's got Antonio Brown he's got all these pass catching threats yet you know when they've all played in games they're one in three all of like the all

of the depth of his receivers uh which I think is a really interesting stat because it's like you would think it would be easy in a way to, you know, spread the ball around. You have that many options, but it's just not. So I wonder, like, how are they going to take advantage of that? Well, there's a little guy named Rob – not little, but there's a guy named Rob Gronkowski. Huge guy, yeah. And there might not be an Eric Kendricks playing defense for the Vikings this week.

So, I mean, if I'm Tampa Bay, that's where I'm going. Regardless of whether you fix the pass game issues or if you're still no risk it, no biscuit, the whole thing, if that's the case, then I'm going to be trying to pick apart the middle part of this defense because that's Eric Wilson, who, you know, very respectable. He's done an incredible job this year, but without Eric Hendricks, like, I think that that's going to be what they feast on. Yeah, without Eric Hendricks, they're just a different team and they're not good to begin with on the defensive side. I mean, this is already a team that's just sort of trying to come together a little bit.

And I know Mike Zimmer is leaning into the, hey, notice those cornerbacks are better, but they are better against Mike Glennon, who throws it right to you sometimes. But they also struggled at times against Mike Glennon. They also struggled at times against Teddy Bridgewater and against Andy Dalton because they can't pressure the quarterback. And I don't see how that changes. So when you now are asking linebackers to cover longer, and this happened against even Jacksonville at the end of the game when I was going back and watching, I noticed that

they went after Todd Davis at the end of the game because Eric Hendricks isn't in there. Eric Hendricks can run with any wide receiver in the NFL almost. And Todd Davis cannot because he was a guy that was just picked up off the waiver wire at the beginning of the season because they've had injuries. And I would say so far, and this is not a judgment on what this guy will become, but in terms of disappointing performances, Troy Dye has not looked like a guy who belongs as a starter or a regular player on the NFL field at this moment, at least to my eye. He hasn't been very good at tackling. He really kind of dives into the play actions and things like that and doesn't quite seem to know where he's supposed to be. At least that's how it looks to me. And he's definitely not like a vicious tackler. You would prefer to have him against the team that runs two tight ends and runs bigger wide receivers and goes down the field because he can run with them.

But it's pretty clear from the fact that they played Todd Davis instead of Troy Dye where they feel like these guys stand. Yeah, I agree. And I mean, there's so much made that Troy Dye is going to be great in coverage he's going to be just like Anthony Barr was early and I don't think that we've seen that pan out um I'm not really sure why I mean obviously he was on IR um for a bulk of like the middle portion of the season and his development's probably been slowed but it just hasn't hit completely of like any of the defensive rookies I mean you know of all the fourth round picks he's probably the most least least impressive I guess just I mean it's not like a bad thing I'm not saying it's gonna always be like that but you know he hasn't panned

out and and it's just crazy to me when you think about the trajectory of this season and where things were going to go at the linebacking core was supposed to be the strength of this defense and just how quickly that all fell apart um and if you don't have an eric kendricks how much worse that unit is without like without him i mean even having kendricks um you know not last game but like before that i mean they've i mean it looks like a solid group and you know that they're going to be able to overcome anything because you can have kendrick's find somebody on a seam route and follow that receiver all the way down the field like he did with devonta adams like he is just a swiss army knife he's great but you don't have that i mean

wilson's looked i mean he's had a really season. Like I give him a lot of credit for the role that he's played and going from three to one. And I think he very well be the star. I mean, he even said it like his role is going to change again. Like it changed last week when Kendricks was out and that he like learned within what, like 30 minutes before the game was starting because of the injury and warm ups. Like there's so much on his plate if he's switching from you know inside linebacker and a middle linebacker and playing different roles and calling the

defense but it's still like his run support hasn't been as good as I think that it could you know we you know maybe we're hoping for from Eric Wilson I mean still really good in coverage but that's a problem and if they're going to run Ronald Jones the way that, you know, they have in the past and they're actually trying to establish a run because they learn that, oh, that's what happens. Like if you, you know, if you want to win games, you have to run the ball a little bit. Unlike what they did on that Monday night game against the Rams, then that could, that could not be good. It might not be great.

No. In fact, the Jaguars tight ends were having no problem with the Vikings last week, which is – Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so that ends up being a concern. Especially the defensive line. Now, on the matter of Eric Wilson, because he has been so good this year, I feel like we need an updated take here about where Anthony Barr stands. I still think that Eric Wilson ends up as a free

agent and Anthony Barr stays, especially with the news that came out that the salary cap might not go down as much. We were thinking about 185. There's been reports that it might be more 190, 195. And that to me would be for them enough of an excuse to say, oh, well, then we should keep Anthony Barr then. And especially when the head coach has such an influence over what they do, it just seems like I'd be very surprised if Eric Wilson isn't playing somewhere else and whoever gets him will have a very good linebacker. But I just have a really tough time seeing them say, okay, well, we love Eric Wilson, so we're going to sign him and goodbye, Anthony Barr.

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That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. So, Barr has the third highest cap hit on the team in 2021. It's $15.5 million, which, you know, I think they're automatically headed towards having to restructure him or do something for some cap relief no matter what happens. So what could that be? Well, they could do him like they did with Kendricks. They have the automatic conversion clause where they can just, like,

convert his base salary into a signing bonus and just essentially kick the thing down the road even more. I'm with you. I don't think Eric Wilson's on this roster. You can't pay three linebackers. Like, what year is this? 1980? No, you can't do that.

You're not playing your base defense all the time. And unless you want to convert one of them to a cornerback, it's just not going to happen. I think Wilson's probably in like a really good position to go make like eight or nine million a year somewhere else and it's a remarkable story for a guy who was an undrafted free agent literally got onto this roster in the in the 2017 preseason because he was balling on special teams um and I do think that he, it's going to be a hard decision though, for the Vikings. Like this isn't one that they're going to look at and be like, well,

like we love Barr regardless. Like the guy's coming off a pectoral injury, like a tear, and he had to have surgery. So what, you know, for me, I think the Vikings are going to want to look at, is there any, what's his market coming off of that injury? Is there any potential chance that we could trade him um to keep eric wilson because there's not been that much drop off between bar and kendrick's and in wilson and kendrick's and i think that that's a really good sign just showing that like your draft picks have you've hit on some of them and especially with a linebacker who you

found um in undrafted free agency it's worked but I just I can't see a way that they're able to pay him next year it's also because like let's bring this back to you know reality they've got to potentially pay Daniel Hunter and figure out what they're doing there like that would be your priority when you're talking about finances not a third linebacker assuming Anthony Barr comes back to the to the version version of him that you, that you loved, but I don't know. I'm really curious to see what Barr's trademark it is. I don't think there is much of one for somebody coming off an injury like that, but we shall see,

because we knew that this was going to happen when they got to 2021, that it's like, okay, cap it is $15.5 million for a linebacker who doesn't rush the passer. This is, this is going to be something that you're going to have to restructure. That's the way that they structured the contract to begin with. So, yeah, that's going to be a really interesting offseason. I'm actually kind of, like, already looking forward to, first off, draft season. But also, you know, I have to draft scout.

It's going to keep me through these long winters. But, like like also what they're gonna do with their roster there's so many moves that they could make with like some of the guys who are either pending free agents or guys they might just want to move on from if i'm the vikings i check with the jets and say you still interested were you still willing williams you you want to like you want to do anything with him? Oh, wait, you don't have a job? Okay, sorry. Problem number. Oh, wow, you really set him up there.

Got him roasted. But, yeah, I mean, their GM probably stays. Their coaching staff won't, of course. That's why it's funny that they fired Greg Williams. It's like, you guys are all fired, too, real soon. So, I guess, you know, blame it on crazy Greg. It's great because if you're Greg Williams, you're still getting paid for the next four games. Right, and you don't have to watch your defense be garbage.

Yeah, that's a good idea. I have a fun game for you based on Tom Brady at the end here, but let me just ask you a couple of quick sort of like, are you buying that kind of thing? Are you buying that Cam Dantzler good now at football? Like, is early in the season? Not so much. And then injury, and then since he's come back, he's played really well, and he was PFF's top corner last week. But again, the Jags asterisk. Are you buying that Cam Dantzler is good? Absolutely not. Like, I mean, what reason do I have to? Like, he had the first interception of

any cornerback this year on the Vikings. Like, great. That's awesome. Who I have to? Like, he had the first interception of any cornerback this year on the Vikings. Like, great. That's awesome. Who was it against? Like, I think that we need to keep, when we're talking about, oh, wow, this guy was great. Like, who are they doing this against? I mean, this is the Kirk Cousins argument that we have every single time we talk about this team. Like, back-to-back game-winning drives.

Like, I just wrote an article about it. Like, his expectations are a moving target because it's like, do this, do that. Okay. Well, I did it. I did do this. And I did that. I led two game winning drives and back-to-back weeks and I've thrown three touchdowns and 300 yards and no interceptions in four games this year. Well, who'd you do it against? Like that's those type of arguments. So I look at it kind of the same way with the young defensive players. And, you know, with Dancer coming back, I think it's a great sign where he's going.

But am I willing to be like, this guy is awesome and he's figured it out since he got back against Dallas in Week 11? Probably not. Like, I, you know, I think that he had a good game against Carolina. He had a pass defended. He had four tackles, one of which was for loss and this is not a defense that has a lot of tackles for loss at least not recently um but no i mean like i i'm not ready to crown any of them to be quite honest with you jeff gladney him chris boyd like none of these corners i just think it's all still a work in progress and you know when you

have a day like that it's like okay something caught on great can it continue for the next week I think that's how you have to like look at it real quick super funny that Kirk gets a game-winning drive for that I mean he plays probably his worst game of the season worst graded by PFF second worst by QBR and he hands off a bunch of times to Delvin after Glennon throws a pick. That just shows you how ludicrous the game-winning drive statistic really is that he rewarded with it. Wow, I guess he had one of those game-winning drives.

Great job. Like he did nothing. He just hands off a bunch of times and they couldn't stop Delvin. That's true. He didn't turn the ball over though. I mean, literally, that's how we have to, except for the pick six, that's how we have to look at this quarterback and what he's done. And, like, that's, you know, it brings into question, like, really,

with the whole 38 touches, the joke. Like, I had somebody ask me on Twitter earlier being like, wait, is this like another Fallon Tonight Show prank? Like, him being like 38 touches, like, I can have 38 more. No, that's real. Kirk's opportunity these next four weeks to flip the script is very real because what was it coming out of the bye? Cannot put the ball in his hands,

ask him to do the least to win games, run it through Dalvin Cook. Well, at some point you're going to have to look at yourself and be like, it's not working with Dalvin. Like, just because teams are scheming, it's not anything on the player other than he has done his job and he's a little worn down, whether he wants to admit it or not. But like, Tampa Bay is going to stop the run. That's obvious. Look at their stats. Look at where they rank right now. So this is a chance for Kirk to take a shoulder a heavier load and show if he can actually do it like that's what legitimizes all of the hype of the numbers that you've seen the last few weeks because it's such a conundrum because it's like

who did he do it against that always has to be the first question asked because otherwise they they're like empty calories they're just big numbers yeah and I didn't even think he was remotely good against Jacksonville I mean I thought uh he okay so maybe you say that the interception the one interception is on Delvin okay fine but even the rest of the game I mean there were a lot of rushed throws there were two passes that could have easily been picked sixes there were missed opportunities out there and you could say it was this, that, or the other thing, but it's just classic Cousins having that upstretch against certain teams and then even disappointing you against a very poor team. So it will be interesting to see what he could do against a good defense. I think we go into it saying we kind of already know, but Tampa Bay

has enough flaws to maybe not be sure how he's going to perform for this one. The only other one for buy or sell that I was going to ask is just Justin Jefferson, Offensive Player of the Year. To me, it seems obvious unless Justin Herbert completely dominates the rest of the way. I don't see anybody else even in the conversation. That's what bothers me, though, because, like, you know, with Justin Herbert, like, has he done great things this year? Has he, you know, led a really crappy team? Sure. And he's had, like, I don't know what the exact, like, statistical, like, mark, threshold he's reached.

But he's played really well for a rookie. But your team's still 2-9. Like, shouldn't Offensive Rookie of the Year be kind of looked at as, like, Offensive year slash mvp like you know justin jefferson has helped his team win games can you imagine if they would have targeted him more than twice in the first half like how different the course of that jacksonville game might have been like if the guy is helping you like an active part in helping you win and it's not just an individual performance um i think that's got away more and of course like justin herbert you know the the chargers are you know nothing to scream home about on offense i get that but um two and nine your team's two and nine i just feel

like that's it just kind of wouldn't feel right you know what i mean like and i think justin justin jefferson's earned it like it is hard to do what he did in 12 games as a rookie. It's the reason it's only been done four other times, to cross the 1,000-yard threshold. I think when you've got a case for being a top-five receiver in the entire NFL, the top five really at any position, that puts you in that echelon. I mean, if Herbert finishes the year with some ups and some downs, he's maybe the 20th best quarterback in the league,

15th best quarterback in the league this year just on his sheer performance. Justin Jefferson will be a top five wide receiver in a league with all sorts of great wide receivers. So, yeah, I think it's Jefferson hands down if he even mildly continues what he's doing. All right, let's end on this. I have a game for you. Is this Tom Brady fact true from his Wikipedia? Yeah, so I went through Tom Brady's Wikipedia

and I pulled some things, but I also made up some things. And so I need you to tell me true or false about Tom Brady. Okay, so here's my first question. My first wiki Tom Brady fact, and you tell me if it's true or false. When he began his career, he was the fourth string quarterback for the Patriots. Most people think he's just the backup, but he was actually the fourth stringer behind journeyman legend John Freeze and Kansas State's Michael Bishop along with Drew Bledsoe. Is that true or false? I know that like what was I think that that sounds more like his Michigan days. I'm going to go ahead and say that that's false. That is actually true. He was he was behind Michael Bishop, K-state legend and john free's uh longtime

journeyman um tom brady has two middle names is that true or false false that's true so you know his name is thomas edward patrick brady jr that is tom brady's name pick one you don't need that many you're not even southern like you can't have the whole double name thing okay uh I think you're just upset you got that wrong so oh for two Tom Brady's only tattoo on his entire body is of a generic football helmet on his ankle absolutely not he doesn't have a tattoo no he doesn't no he does not that is false you're one for two uh Tom guy won't like, sugar into his body. You think he's going to put ink? Yeah, you're right.

But I also thought if anything he was going to have as a tattoo, it would be a generic football helmet. So I just thought, you know, okay. Next question. Tom Brady grew up both a Celtics and a Lakers fan. That's a tough one because you grew up in California. No, false. That is true.

You are one for four. Tom Brady. Why is he a Celtics fan? I don't know because it's like classic Tom Brady. I'm sure he loved the Cowboys. Oh, no, he loved the 49ers. So if the 49ers are dominating Celtics, Lakers, he's one of those people. If, like, you grew up in the 90s and you loved Jeter and the Cowboys, like, yeah, that's basically what Tom Brady was.

No shocker. Tom Brady and TB12 partnered with a startup called Purple Carrot that made TB12 meals for people. True. That is true. Yes, he did have something. I had to do something. There's your Vikings connection, I guess. So you are two for six.

Tom Brady once had a pet python. No, absolutely not. He's too dangerous. Did not. Absolutely not. Nope, he did not. Tom Brady sent a Christmas card a couple of years ago to Mo Lewis. If you remember, Mo Lewis was the one that knocked out Drew Bledsoe,

and that one made the rounds on the Internet. It's true. No, no, he didn't do that. He was such a savage move. I was hoping that was true. Thanks, Mo Lewis, for getting me on the field, that. But then. That's such a savage move. I was hoping that was true. Thanks, Mo Lewis, for getting me on the field, brother. Appreciate you. Last one.

Tom Brady was once. You know the story of Adam Thielen, how he interned to be a dentist or something. Yes. Tom Brady interned at the most Tom Brady place ever, Merrill Lynch. Is that true or false? That's false. No, that's true. Ugh!

I hate this game. How did he have time? So the only ones you got right were that he partnered with a meal kit startup, Purple Carrot, and did not have a python. And the tattoo. And the tattoo, that's right. The effort that counts, I guess guess when it comes to tom brady was i at three of three of nine three of six yeah you were uh slightly better than a vikings kicker oh womp womp all right well uh great stuff as always i think i'm gonna bring back

wikipedia facts about the opposing quarterback i like this game as much as I stink at it. This is a thing we could do on the regular. So, all right. Well, great stuff as always, Courtney. And we will get together again soon, no matter what happens, as we watch from Tampa Bay this time. But when the Vikings are in the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, we'll be there. Oh, yes.