Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings sign Za'Darius Smith -- an emergency podcast

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom break down what the signing of Za'Darius Smith means for the Minnesota Vikings and talk about a surprising Rick Spielman quote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to an emergency podcast. The Minnesota Vikings have signed Zedarius Smith, someone who has tormented them over the years as a member of the Green Bay Packers, and now presumably will have a chance to torment the Green Bay Packers back as a member of the Vikings. So Matthew Collar, Sam Ekstrom here to react to this signing. The Vikings, Sam, are somehow, and I guess we'll find out how soon, creating enough space to sign a dude who was an elite pass rusher two years ago and last year dealt with some injury issues. And now it appears, and this is not a hundred percent, that they are going to pair him with Daniil Hunter to create one of the best pass rushing duos in the NFL. Your reaction to the Vikings signing Zedarius Smith?

It's the latest in this line of former Packers playing for the Vikings, first of all, going back to Greg Jennings, Ryan Longwell, Brett Favre, Darren Sharper, Robert Ferguson. It's a long list, and it's curious that this keeps happening. This is a really, really tremendous value signing, even at this number. And I know people are anchoring and saying, well, look at what Baltimore was going to pay him, and the Vikings are paying so much more, $14 million a year. But, I mean, that's what Daniil Hunter agreed to on average. And the consensus was that, wow, Daniil is playing way below what he's worth. I mean, you can make the same argument for Zedarius Smith. He is a little bit older. He's 29, but his last two healthy seasons, 25 combined sacks, and in 2019, number two edge rusher in football behind TJ Watt per PFF.

That's pretty unbelievable. And not only that, he's an instant 3-4 fit. He's an outside linebacker that can play all over that second level, right outside, left outside. He'll move around. And obviously, Vikings fans have seen him up close. They see how good he is and presumably still has plenty left in the tank if this injury thing checks out. And if Vikings fans are willing to put faith in Daniil Hunter being healthy off of a couple surgeries, you know, there's no reason why you can't put faith in Z'Darrius Smith being healthy

off of a back surgery that kept him from all but 18 snaps last year. So there's a little rust for sure. This coaching staff will have to take it a little easy on him up front. But this is a big signing. Now, I, for one, would have preferred to see a $14 million investment at cornerback. But this is, I think, the next best position on defense to, to make that investment. So where's the money coming from?

I think the only person to look at is Daniel. And if this is an Ngakwe thing where, Oh, we're desperate, we're going to lose this guy or we're going to trade this guy, you know, and a couple of years ago it was, Oh,

Daniel hunters hurt. Well, the bottom line is if they think they don it was, oh, Daniel Hunter's hurt. Well, the bottom line is if they think they don't, they're not going to have Neil, and this is sort of the desperation move, you know, it looks a little different. It looks more like this was desperate money. Desperate money is never money well spent. And you aren't, you still are in a similar predicament where you're pretty shallow on that defensive line. So I think the plan with Daniil will change the lens through which I look at this. Are they building a legitimate monster on the defensive line, or is this just a one-for-one trade-off where they're getting rid of Daniil and they're bringing in someone comparable? So I think that

the final verdict has yet to be determined. And that's why in my little intro, I was hedging on a couple of different things. I mean, there's a lot of hedging that has to be done here with Z'Darrius Smith. In 2019, he was one of the most impressive players in the entire NFL. He moved all over the place on the defensive line. He rushed from inside. He rushed from outside. He would play linebackers sometimes. And he was an absolute nightmare. He demolished the Minnesota Vikings every time they played. But yet last year, he's dealing with that injury that's keeping him out for most of

the entire season. And that has to play a role of why his price tag is what it is. Because if he was 100% healthy last year and played the way that he did in 2019, we'd be talking $25 million a year for somebody that impactful. And clearly the issue with the injury brings down the price tag and the Vikings are rolling the dice here that he's able to come back to 100%. I mean, modern medicine gives you a pretty good chance at that, but also I'm not a, what was a back injury? I'm, you know, I'm, I'm not able to say with a back injury, how much it could impact Zedaria Smith's future. So if we assume that he's going to be a hundred percent, it could be like you said,

an incredible value signing for what this person can bring to the Vikings defense versus what they're having to pay for him. But you're right to bring up, like, is this a, okay, we're going to replace Daniil Hunter? Or is this a, we're going to him with Daniil Hunter, now they have to mess around with Daniil's contract in terms of converting that roster bonus into, is it just regular bonus, I think, or base salary? I forget exactly which one you convert it into to create all the cap space. But that would create enough to fit Z'Darrius Smith if they were to do that. And of course, there's ramifications down the road for doing so, but they've kind of thrown those to the wind anyway. The other angle would be that they trade away Daniil Hunter now that this roster bonus has kicked in and they just

move him to another team, get draft picks back and build the defense around Z'Darrius Smith. If they do that, then I guess I've got questions because everything that they've done so far has said, we want to be a good team this year or ownership wants us to be a good team this year, which I have to later read you a quote from Rick Spielman that, that he gave about name dropping ownership. But at very least where they're set up to be right now is you

brought everybody back. So if you're adding Zedaria Smith to go along with Daniel Hunter and then Harrison Phillips and Delvin Tomlinson on the defensive line, you've created yourself a pretty solid defensive line, probably the best one that they've had since 2019 when everything kind of came apart there. But I also think that it is fair to bring up the Yannick and Gakwe thing, that they traded for Yannick and Gakwe to sort of take Hunter's spot. We thought they were going to pair him with Hunter when we did those emergency podcasts. We went like, oh, Hunter will come back and it'll be one of the best duos in the league. And then it wasn't because Hunter didn't come back.

So that is yet to be determined exactly how that plays out. I think that the position they're in though, it's probably, Hmm. Is it, is it better to just stick with Hunter and Sedarius Smith and see what happens and then try to extend Hunter after next year or trade Hunter after next year. Because if Hunter has a great season in 2022, then you could trade him for a lot more if you want to move on from him, or you could just give him the extension and know that he's going to be healthy in the future. So I think I'd be much more supportive at this point in the game with everything that they've done previously of making this a really,

really great pass rushing duo and a very good defensive line. And that could really help Ed Donatel start to improve this defense. Yeah. It's kind of the model that the San Francisco 49ers used when, when Quasey was there, build that defensive lineup, super, super strong. And if teams can do one thing spectacularly well, that's pretty helpful to, if you want to have a dominant pass rush, I'm not talking top 12, I'm talking top three. Like if you want to have a really good pass rush, that can wreck a lot of games that can change a couple of games a year where teams just are completely overmatched

or if you are really really good at like pass blocking you know that that's huge if you have really really good coverage corners and if the Vikings have decided we're gonna have really really good edge rushers I I like that like I respect that I still question other areas but at least this defense which still has numerous holes to fill, like several corners, not sure about safety, not sure about all the defensive tackles. I think that this is a good move, assuming that it is a pairing, and that would fit in line with what Quasey did in San Francisco. Daniil, though, I'm not sure that even restructuring 26 and getting that number down,

I'm not sure you can find $14 million to clear in a restructure. Maybe you can. Maybe Rob Brzezinski is a wizard. But it does sort of force the Vikings' hand because, remember, they can't be done. They still need to do other stuff too, probably lower budget stuff. But is this going to force them to do more irresponsible financial things? Dalvin Cook's contract is ripe for like kicking money down the road.

They could clear up a lot of money that way. But do you want to do that? Do you want to clear up money with a running back who's kind of hitting that threshold that makes you nervous? So again, what are the consequences going to be of this signing? I think that I can stand here today and say, this is good. This is mostly good for the Minnesota Vikings. This is a player that probably will be strong into his age 32 season, which is what he signed through. And they've improved their defense as of this moment. If Daniil gets dealt, then I'd want to see the price tag. And if he gets dealt for a ton, if it's a King's ransom,

I can probably still sit here and say, this is a good thing because now you've still got a really good pass rusher and a bunch of assets. And they haven't done any asset accumulation this offseason. Like this new regime has come in and people have gotten excited about what they can do with draft picks. And they haven't added any, despite having these veteran assets that all seemed pretty tradable. They've acquired nothing. So if they did go out and get a bunch for Daniil Hunter, then I can kind of see the logic there. It still, though, makes you question how good this defense can actually be. Yeah, there's kind of a yin and a yang to this conversation with Z'Darrius Smith, because the upside of this is that Z'Darrius Smith can be at his best an incredibly impactful

player who's versatile and powerful and kind of a unique person when it comes to this position. He's not just somebody that rushes off the edge like a Yannick Ngakwe. He can move all over the field and do a lot of different things well. And I think he is a total mismatch if you put him over a guard where he can overpower them, but yet he's quick enough and skilled enough to be tackles off of the edge. And it gives this chess piece for Ed Donatel to use. And this is a guy also who worked with Mike Pettin, who is now on the coaching staff,

and they got the most out of Z'Darrius Smith. When he was in Baltimore, he was a terrific player. He just kind of went under the radar there and really emerged as a star in Green Bay. And so that's the upside is, look, you've been kind of running out, you know, Everson Griffin at the end of his career and hoping that the DJ Wanham experiment worked and drafting other guys in the third and fourth round that haven't worked. And you've talked about this, that they continue to make that same mistake over and over of just drafting these guys in the third or fourth round, hoping they would become the next Daniil. And so what Kweisi Adafo-Mensah here is saying is that they're probably not going to be. So let's get this absolute monster of a pass rusher and bring him in. That's the upside. The downside is that

he is 29 years old. And I know there are some players who have come back from major injuries, Vaughn Miller, including, that have played really well into their thirties. And edge rusher is not a position where you go, Oh, he's 29, but coming off of an injury, getting into the later twenties and you've set yourself up for a three-year contract here that I'm assuming is going to have the lowest cap hit in the first year. Since we're doing the same things we've always done. That's probably how they're going to do it is it's going to have this low cap hit in the first year. Then it's going to go way up and way up. And then by that third year, you can get rid of first year then it's going to go way up and way up and then by that third year you can get rid of him but it's going to cost you down the road that's my expectation

i haven't seen the entire contract yet but that's kind of how they have to do this to make it work and that sets you up for some of the same potential uh pitfalls that they've run into with these other players that when they signed them we we went like, oh yeah, okay, I get it. But then later we go, oh, okay, he's on dead cap. And the Vikings right now, I think are 10th in the league in the amount of dead cap that they're dealing with. And that's something that you really don't want down the road. Back to the other side of liking it and thinking it's good would be that it's not a one-year deal. If it was a one-year deal, then you would go, okay, I mean, Super Bowl or bust, like what? But with a three-year deal, you have time to revamp a lot of these other pieces

and fill up this defense to be good, not only improved, but like actually good in 2023, should everything work out. The Daniil piece is just the thing that's resting over this entire deal so if we kind of try to separate those two of like let's not even consider the Daniil part the potential upside of Z'Darrius Smith is improvement right away but then being a centerpiece to a defense that can add a bunch of things presumably a corner now in the draft if they're drafting for need as they used to and of things, presumably a corner now in the draft. If they're drafting for need, as they used to, and they probably will again, a corner kind of shoots to the top of the list

now that they've filled up these defensive line spots. I do think, Sam, though, that defensive line in the NFL will not in itself take you to the playoffs or win you a bunch of games by itself. But when you do get into the playoffs, that's the only way to stop great quarterbacks, I think. And we saw that from Tampa Bay against Patrick Mahomes. We saw that from the Los Angeles Rams against Joe Burrow. If Kweisi Adafo-Mento, one of his main beliefs is that we have to stack this defensive

line and get after the passer all the time, because when crunch time comes, that's the only way to win against great quarterbacks. I agree with him. And I, and I think from that perspective, Zedaria Smith adds a ton to this team, assuming that he's the player that he was a year ago. Yeah. And, you know, let's be honest too, that it's going to be hard was a year ago. Yeah. And, you know, let's be honest too,

that it's going to be hard to stack it a whole lot more than, than what they've done here, because now they've got a Harrison Phillips on a pretty big deal. Dalvin Tomlinson only has one year left, but it's a big one year, expensive one year. Daniil extremely expensive and Zedaria Smith, extremely expensive.

So this is, you know, there's a lot of money poured into this group right now. And if Daniil restructures after this season, let's say, and gets what he believes he's worth, that's going to prohibit other defensive spending. Let's be honest about that, especially if Kirk is still on the books as well. So they're pouring a lot into this defensive line with the belief, presumably, that that's going to aid them defensively. And I wouldn't be surprised if they pour a fairly high draft pick into it as well and just get someone in the pipeline, because the pipeline is not really all that good. I mean, it's Willekes. It's Janarius Robinson off an injury.

It's Patrick Jones, who was kind of swimming last year and didn't do a whole lot. So there's, you know, this is a strengthener of one area. But again, you rob Peter to pay Paul. Are they going to have much to fill out other positions this year and into the future? It's going to be a little tougher. I've been looking a little more at PFF war as that becomes more mainstream, great tool. And what they tell you is high level cornerback play is worth about twice what high level defensive line play or defensive end play is. defensive lines, even less, um, even a high level safety play, which I would not have thought this is more valuable than high level defensive end play.

So that's just interesting. It just gives you a little better idea of positional value. Um, but you're right. You're right. How many times have we seen defensive lines just wreck opposing quarterbacks in, in the playoffs? That's really when they come to play. You know, I think the coaches tighten up the rotation. They've got their horses out there for more snaps, just going at people over and over. And a lot of times, you know, the other quarterback is dropping back 45 times a game.

That's a lot to ask for offensive lines. So this could be a game changer against a quarterback like aaron rogers that you're gonna have to face twice a year or um you know having to chase around justin fields a couple times a year so uh it it is a i'm not saying it's a bad move whatsoever still i think it's it's good and you can't have it all so this was an attainable player this is a value proposition because of his injury you're getting getting him at a good price. And I respect that process.

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Not that one player on the defense. We've seen this. They've had good players on defense, but it's really more about your weaknesses than it is about your strengths. But Smith is quite the impact player when he's at 100%. And if they're keeping Daniil Hunter, that's, you know, they only got a half season of him last year. If you were to get a full season of him for next year, that's a pretty big improvement from what they were forced to run out there for the second half of the season at defensive end. But not being

able to cover anyone is the problem that is going to cause you the most issues in terms of how many points you give up. And this is what we saw last year, that Mike Zimmer was able to scheme up all sorts of sacks and pressures and things like that, but they couldn't cover anybody. And Mackenzie Alexander is getting roasted on blitzes one-on-one, and then you're just giving up touchdowns and you know it does help from the fact that these guys can rush the passer one-on-one themselves and create pressure just off the edges or wherever they line up zadarius smith without needing to send all those blitzes but the fact of the matter was when it came down to the crunch time moments of last year and they lost all these close games it was often a corner is getting beat by some great wide receiver and we've talked about this about how there's just great receivers all over the NFL

and there's great offensive schemes and quarterbacks and everything else that you're going to have to face and so they find ways to get the football into playmakers hands isn't this kind of the Rams thing a little bit is and everyone's copying everything the rams do is moving top receivers around moving them to the slot putting them in motion getting them the ball quickly making plays like these are things that you know you really need corners to be able to cover man to man like i remember adam thielen saying this of like what it often comes down to in in big situations to win games is can you as a receiver beat your corner one on one.

And right now they don't have any and they don't have any money to spend. And so that was going to be my question for you is like, what else do we think in terms of dominoes are falling? I think we should do a Daniel is here. Daniel is not here because I guess the minute that Sunday went by and the roster bonus thing kicked in, I was like, I guess he's here. Daniel is not here because I guess the minute that Sunday went by and the roster bonus thing kicked in, I was like, I guess he's here. But then there was even kind of a rumor that Cleveland was still calling them about Daniel Hunter. I think this came from Jeremy Fowler

and it was like, oh, wait, this could still happen that they could still move Daniel Hunter. So I guess I didn't even really think of that as a possibility. So it doesn't have anything left to give yeah no I know well and but but look I mean the prices are not good I mean Robert Woods is getting traded for a sixth round draft pick Amari Cooper's getting traded for a fifth these are great players uh but Robert Woods coming off an injury this contract's not that great like this is what people don't give you first second round draft picks for players who are expensive and used to be injured and i don't know i yeah i was seeing people talk about like could you trade with the giants to get the seventh overall pick for daniel like no like what and that's just not how this works like leverage is a thing um but let's let's

do the if daniel is here and let's just say they're sort of squeaking around the edges, how much can they improve this team beyond what they have or other potential moves that they can make if they've decided this is it, they're going to keep both of these rushers? Yeah, the numbers are struggling to add up in my head because they had 1.3 million dollars of cap space last night let's say that the year one cap hit is 10 12 like i i don't know how much it can be or how low it can get for a 42 million dollar three-year deal let's say it's 10 just for a round number so that puts them nine in the hole. So you restructure Daniil if he's here.

And I think you have to clear money that way, but then you have to clear money somewhere else too because you have A, a draft class to sign, which people usually ballpark at what, five to 7 million. And then you're going to need to give out a bunch of veteran minimum deals, $1 million deals, and somehow figure out who's going to defend receivers. I wrote about this for the website today. You can check out the article, but there is a supply and demand issue

right now with cornerbacks. There's just way more of them than the league needs. And that does depress their values. And there are occasionally some steals that you can get. Um, you know, last year, uh, Robert Alford and Razul Douglas were top 50 cornerbacks. They signed for less than $1.3 million. So like you could have fit them in under what the cap space was last night. Uh, there are still seven corners available from last year's top 50. Kevin King, Stephon Gilmore, Jimmy Smith, AJ Boye, Alford, Desmond Trufant, Dante Dion. Some of those guys are probably trying to hold out for money that is just not there. They're just not going to get. And if the Vikings can wait this out, and this does feel kind of a lot like you know Bashad Breland

and Mackenzie Alexander they waited on those guys a while especially Breland which came down to the very last second before the season got him dirt cheap um so that has to be what the Vikings are planning to fill out that secondary and maybe a trade Matthew like maybe a trade for someone in the Mason Cole vein to help with that offensive line. Because who are they rolling with right now at the offensive line? Who's your who's your starters? Who is your your right guard at this point? I guess it has to be only Udo at this point or Davis or Wyatt Davis.

Yeah. And after what Courtney said on the podcast podcast yesterday i guess i'm not expecting wyatt davis she said that um that she was told by a couple of people within the vikings that they didn't see wyatt davis at all as a starting type of player and we got no indication of that last year i guess blake brandle could also be the starter he played ahead of wyatt davis when there was an opportunity now i will say one thing I'll say about Oli Udo in that situation is when your goal is to win right away and it's make the playoffs or everybody's fired, which it was last year, playing a developmental tackle at guard is just absurd. I think that's just, come on guys. You thought that was going to be a thing that could work.

However, and this is where it's so tricky to evaluate everything that they do. I wouldn't be against playing Ole Udo there for another year. If they had taken a longer term type of tact and said like, okay, well, let's find out if this guy can develop. Because one thing we know about offensive line is that they get better as they go along. If there's something there, like if a guy is no good, Dakota Dozier has no like raw skill. He's just not going to ever be a starting player, but only Udo does have some raw skill. He's got some really freakish athletic ability and personality wise.

I think we were all impressed by him. It's just that he held all the time. And is that something that can work out? And so I think that in some ways, with where they're standing right now, they almost have to dance the line cap-wise of letting some players just be developmental guys and on the field, like Cam Bynum, for example. There's no replacing a safety at this point, I don't think,

with any money that you have, if you keep both of these guys with Daniel and Zedaria Smith. And in a way, if you're playing both sides of the, we're developing people and we're trying to win now, you might as well see if Ole Udo can develop into a very good guard because he has the raw talent to do it. And if he doesn't by the end of this year, okay, then that guy's just not really a guard because otherwise I don't really see what the option is. The other thing that they could do,

I think is cut Garrett Bradbury and they could look for somebody else at center. People keep bringing up JC Treader, but he's probably going to want money from someone. Right. And you don't have it. Now that conversation does change if they move on from Daniil Hunter and create cap space. If you've got over the cap up, you're going to have to tell me what that would be if they were to trade him away. And maybe there's a June 1st designation or something. I'm not sure. But at that point,

you could start filling other spots and the cornerbacks i've always thought that it wasn't a bad strategy to get like three corners at a million and a half or two million a piece and just let them fight it out uh and and see who comes out on top last year the problem was they signed guys and said you have to start because we have nothing else so if you have something else players that you've drafted, players that you've developed, and they're battling it out with veteran corners, okay, that's fine. Cheap veteran corners because, like you said,

there are guys out there. But if you're saying we're rolling with this guy and that's our only option, that's pretty dicey. So how much do they create? Do you have that up of if they were- A trade would create 14 million oh funny the same amount per year that that's a darius is worth now if they trade him though if they trade hunter i mean because that was the other scenario we wanted to talk about um i then it's kind of like what what are you doing um right i mean isn't it like our oh are you trying to

i'm not really sure if you trade right right i mean don't you kind of feel like kind of right back to square one where we were before this if they trade hunter yes oh totally i mean depends what you get in return but yeah you're roster wise you you're and and financially, you're still in a pickle both ways. So that yeah. And that would leave the fans pretty sour as well. And probably even like, you know, give them one ounce of hope after this kind of disappointing offseason and then boom, rip it away. That that wouldn't be fun. And we are going to hear from the general manager wednesday morning so so there might be some answers either given there or that come out you know before that or maybe they're waiting for any moves until after that happens so they don't have to address it um you want to play

a fun game we want to play where's the dead money because i'm looking at the dead money right now okay where's the dead money where's that well okay family feud style there are nine answers on the board all right eight answers sorry eight zach davidson yes correct he's seventh seventh on the board 226 000 that is funny because that's what happens when you draft a player and you cut him and then you bring him back he's got dead cap and he's on your team. Yeah. Well, Kyle Rudolph, for sure. Number three, 2.9 dead. Let's see.

Anthony Barr. Anthony Barr, 10.8 million dead dollars. Ouch. Number one answer. Sheldon Richardson. Yes. Number five answer. 1.2 million and change.

Okay. Now I've run out of answers. Gosh, I can't think of who else they had on multi-year deals who they had to release. Okay. You're going to have to give me the rest. Okay. The other team is going to steal. Michael Pierce.

4 million dead. Michael Pierce. Yeah. Okay. I forgot. Jeff Gladney, member of the Cardinals now. 2.7 million dead. And Britton Colquitt, $716,000 dead. Drew Samia was the number nine answer, 184.

Okay, I will not criticize them at all for having dead cap for Drew Samia. Okay? Or Britton Colquitt. Those are totally fine. Those were not created by ridiculous contracts like the Anthony Barr one was. Anthony Barr's like 9 million, right? 10.8 was his dead number. Oh my gosh.

That is wild. Let me get to this Rick Spielman quote. Now you're going to have to forgive the tenses and things like this. We know from transcribing Rick Spielman that it could be a little all over the place where he'll talk about something as me or as you, or as we like it becomes very, very tricky with the way he kind of talks, but I'll just give you the basics of this, that it comes from the 33rd team, which I believe is run by Mike Tannenbaum, who's the former GM of the Miami dolphins. So it's kind of like a think tank for former football people. Joe Banner is involved.

He was the president of the Philadelphia Eagles. So they try to give like a GM's perspective on a bunch of stuff. So they did this thing about like GM's and forming an off season plan. And what Rick Spielman told them was, he said, I think the biggest mistake that I make is to get caught up in it, especially nowadays with all the pressure from outside and your fans, and even your owners are tied up in it. Player X is out there. He can feel like he's a big signing. It'll draw seats in. I assume he means people in seats, but if you're not in alignment with your coaching staff, that's where you can make some of your biggest mistakes. That was Rick Spielman.

I mean, there's no between the lines of that. Rick is saying, Rick is saying right there, and this is written down on the 33rd team. You could go see it. Basically that the owners wanted players who could put butts in seats and the coaching staff wasn't on board. I mean, Rick Spielman right there saying, wow. I mean, that, that somebody said that to me this morning. I was like, wow.

Okay. The things that we've talked about and wondered about brought to fruition by one Rick Spielman. And, you know, some of the mentions that I got, some of the responses were like, okay, why didn't you mention that while you were here? But who can do that? What GM could be like, yeah, actually Yannickanni kagakwe the owners made a straight for him there's nothing we could do and when they signed zadari smith today it's kind of like oh is that uh butts in seats type of move not that i'm against i didn't think it's horrible or anything but it's the same

sort of feel of they get caught up in wanting a star player. Is this about the Kirk extension? Is this about trades that they made? I mean, I would love more details from Rick Spielman, but he's also up for the job in Pittsburgh as a GM. And boy, if he goes to Pittsburgh and is the GM and starts doing really smart stuff, we're going to know, right? I mean, I don't know that.

I think that's pretty darn telling that rick spielman is trying to say i was caught in the middle between owners who wanted me to do one thing and mike zimmer who wanted me to do another and gosh that makes a lot of things make sense that didn't make sense if that is the case you never like to be the middleman middleman is a stressful place to be when you're getting tugged at in multiple directions by very strong-willed people. And if Spielman gets that job, it'll be telling, too, to see who follows him. If personnel people are leaving the Vikings to join Rick Spielman's staff for better titles or better money, if there's an exodus, that might tell you that we were viewing things incorrectly or we didn't have all the information. Because why would we? We can't know the inner

workings here. But I remember seeing some video that came out when they drafted Laquan Treadwell from the War Room. And it seemed like everybody was very concerned with how the fans were looking. There was like a self-consciousness. They said something like, oh, like pan the cameras over. Like we want to see the fans. And I felt like that was kind of a classic, like catering to fans draft pick and maybe explains why they always drafted for need at positions that fans were upset about, except for offensive line. They didn't do a whole lot of that. But yeah, I think that it's a pretty interesting quote. And wow, who thought Rick Spielman would kind of go guns blazing into this

offseason, throwing everybody under the bus in the most passive-aggressive fashion. It's kind of wild how he got ahead of all of that to absolve himself of responsibility, whether that's good business or not on his part or true or not. He is the one who looks more sympathetic, I guess, because of that. Not sure I want to go all the way there and say that he's like a victim in all this, but the ownership bit seems to have more legs than we might've said a year ago. Folks, the hockey and basketball teams here in town are headed down the stretch toward the playoffs

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I mean, honestly, like we were always given the perception. And one of the things is that they don't talk and they don't say a whole lot publicly which makes it as i've always said very hard to figure out how much their fingers are on the pulse or the button and in one way they seem to not know that mike zimmer's environment inside the room was toxic so you thought well do they have any idea what's going on but also to your point if their whole thing is to excite the fan base, I went through this in Buffalo when they signed Mario Williams. It was the same sort of thing. Like the best day of the year was signing Mario Williams. And then they went six and 10,

I think, or eight and eight or whatever it was, but I think it was six and 10. And it felt very much like they want to win the off season. They want to get people excited to buy tickets. And that this isn't really like a prudent move because Mario Williams was a little on the older side and it was very, very expensive. I think it was the first hundred million dollar NFL contract.

And anybody who at the time was like, I don't really know about this, got just absolutely lambasted by the fans because they were really excited about it. Now, I've always said that fans are very smart about this team, not all of them, but the majority of fans we hear from want the team to take the smartest routes, no matter what it is. And the majority of people that we hear from understand the salary cap these days. That was not the case when the Mario Williams things happened. They understand how the cap works. They understand the landscape of sports meaning like how you build winners over time and they've seen teams do this and i just wanted to read you a couple of tweets from jason fitzgerald of over the cap.com who by the way has uh no no side he's a jets fan so he doesn't care at all about the vikings uh and

sigmund bloom who's a very smart fantasy writer they go back and forth here uh jason over the cap uh is that is him on twitter otc said no idea what the structure of zadaria smith's new contract is with the vikings but talk about going in circles with this roster and then sigmund bloom replied with push from above maybe delusional expectations they can compete compete with Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles Rams levels. And that's just kind of like you're completely unbiased. These guys aren't covering this team type of view on this move is it sounds all very familiar. And when Kweisi Adafo Mensah's moves look like Rick Spielman's, I think there's a pretty

similar thing about them because I'm not sure how much else is similar about Kweisi Adafo Mensah and Rick Spielman's. I think there's a pretty similar thing about them because I'm not sure how much else is similar about Kweisi Adafo Mensah and Rick Spielman. And that's what, you know, we're going to talk to him on Wednesday, but I mean, what is he going to say, right? Like, oh, well, the owners made me do it. So I don't know.

And I do think that this is something that's sort of just been, it's just been hovering around of like, do they, do they care more about a playoff appearance or do they believe that if you just get in, you can go on a hot run, which has not really been proven to be true. Usually there's a threshold to, to win the super bowl. It's about 12 or 13 wins, but are those the beliefs and are the moves shaping those? And now if that's the case, if you're dealing with an ownership that has a certain edict for what you have

to be, then all of a sudden like a lot of things come into view that makes sense. Like trading for a kicker slash punter trading for Chris Herndon. It's just like, well, none of it made sense at the time. But if the, if the thing is you have to make the playoffs,

you have to fill these spots. You have to go make some deal to get somebody to fill Daniel Hunter's spot in 2020. We've got to bounce back to the top after losing all these players. Then those would be the types of moves that you would make. And I guess I wonder if Rick Spielman was reading our articles criticizing him about some of these moves and going like, yeah, I thought the same thing. Cause I mean, I know that other people in the organization were, I don't know about him specifically because he was calling the shots, but like, I know that there were other people in the organization who were reading stuff like that from local national media and going like, yep. Yeah. I don't know. What do you want from us? And so it's a, it's a

really interesting turn. Think about the heel turns that we've sort of had here like mike zimmer i think was really appreciated by a lot of fans and then things came out where they went like oh okay so that was actually kind of bad and even two months ago i would have said hey you've got you've got owners that keep the hands off and they're gonna let quesia daful mensa do what he needs to do? And with that Spielman quote combined with the moves they've made, it just doesn't really feel like that's the case. And so now Kweisi has to really do this dance that's very delicate of rebuild the roster while keeping them happy and staying competitive. And I think what we've seen, it's not super easy to do. Yeah. um it it's a little bit underestimating of vikings fans to say that they need flashy signings to go to games yes they they've been going to games for 25 years selling out that stadium uh so i don't know what the concern is on that and that it's this is not

jacksonville i mean this this is a loyal fan base that showed up at uh the metrodome when they were going 3 and 13 and has always supported this group so i mean i know going back to the 90s they dealt with blackouts but this is is different now i mean this is the ticket in town so to think that they need to do stuff like that to create buzz around the franchise. I don't think that's true at all. And I'll say that we interact with a number of our subscribers. We have some calls set up for some of them who support us. And they all kind of want what's best for the team long term. Nobody is asking for Band-Aids or quick fixes.

And I think that's a pretty fair cross-section of people. So I agree with that. And I think that seeing how this all evolves now, are they ever going to green light a rebuild? Or is it always going to be trying to rebuild on the margins? That's going to be the thing to watch now in the next couple of years. I agree. And the last thing I wanted to say was after you and I and me and Courtney recorded a podcast yesterday, of course, right? Matt Ryan got traded. And I was thinking about this because I got a bunch of tweets about this and it's a good observation because they signed Marcus Mariota, Atlanta did. And people were like, Atlanta did what you said. Like, is Atlanta listening to the Purple Insider podcast? I'm like, they really did. I mean, they traded their expensive quarterback.

They are going to take an absolute punch in the face this year for trading their quarterback because Matt Ryan's dead cap hit is crazy. They don't have a great roster. And they're essentially saying, look, we don't want to be horrible. So let's get Marcus Mariota and bring back Cordero Patterson and try to play for the playoffs. But also we need to take a long term view on this because Matt Ryan was just not our long term quarterback. And now Atlanta is in the driver's seat to draft a quarterback, which I mean, at this point, you would just put big money on Malik Willis going to the Atlanta Falcons. The other team that did the same thing is Seattle where Russell Wilson went six and eight as a starter last year because their team was absolutely terrible. And we saw how bad their roster was. The Vikings lit them up and they took this step back and now they are in kind of the driver's seat to draft a quarterback as well. So you'd put like uh matt corral or something to them i don't i don't know who the second

quarterback will be kenny pickett but they're going to do this and the vikings are sitting here doing this play the middle type of dance and even though they've gotten better today and we'll see what happens with hunter but you know they've gotten better today for sure. It's like, are you kind of putting yourself in the same spot that Atlanta and Seattle have been the last few years where it's just your roster faded from a time where it was once very, very, very good and you were kind of in denial about it.

And I don't know if it's about the fans and if it's about butts and seats, because like you said, they sold out the place in week 18 to watch the bears. They didn't cheer, but they were there. Uh, and, um, you know, I also wonder if it's just, you know, these people don't want to show up. The Wilfs don't want to show up to their own stadium and watch bad football. And they don't want to be embarrassed by, you know, bad football. But I think that the teams that have tried this to try to just like,

hang on as they were sliding down the mountain have, have had a pretty tough goal of it. And so, you know, this is a, this is a task that's been made. I think much tougher for quasi Adolfo Mensah to maneuver the future. And if he's able to do it, it will be, be very impressive. However, I did want to say one more thing and you give me your reaction to this. I'm also not willing to let one more thing and you give me your reaction to this. I'm also not willing to let Rick Spielman off the hook for what happened, because even if this was the edict, those weren't the right ways to go about it. And I would not let Kweisi Adafo-Mensah

off the hook either. You have to work within the confines of what you're given and you have to succeed. And if you don't, you're fired and we criticize you. Like that's the harsh reality of how it is. I'm not going to apologize for every move and be like, ah, ownership did it until someone says ownership did it. Then you made the moves you made. And, uh, we have to look at them as such. This is the Adolfo Mensah and O'Connell era. And it's going to be judged by what those guys are able to do within the parameters of what they're given. Yeah. I think that's a pretty dangerous world to live in if you've got pushy ownership and they are kind of letting a GM run wild with the orders to say, all right, get this guy at whatever cost, you know, and then you end up overpaying,

whether that's salary or draft pick compensation for X player. That kind of is what Rick Spielman did toward the end. A lot of overpaying. I wouldn't say that Adafo Mensah has fallen into that yet. I mean, I think that what would the deals we have seen have been fair and we haven't really seen him negotiate an extension yet, except for the Cousins year, which was kind of, there wasn't a whole lot of wiggle room in a one-year extension. So that kind of is what it is. But yeah, it's yet to be determined. However, he is unfortunately an easy target. If ownership wants to have control, it's pretty easy, I think, for them to have a vice grip on a first-time, very young general manager who is a little bit non-traditional. I think that it probably bodes well for the Wilfs that Adolfo Mintz is not coming in with a ton of equity.

He's not coming in probably, you know, wanting to do my way or the highway. He is going to listen to what they have to say. So I'm not saying you have to panic, but I mean, that is someone who is going to be a little easier to have control over than a 20, like John Spitek, who would have been a veteran in the position. You want to collaborate with people who have good ideas, is my thought, if you're doing the collaboration. Like us here at Purple Insider. We get Murph involved. We get intern Paul, professional Paul, I should say.

I mean, we collaborate and we come up with good content. Do you have dinner plans, Matthew? Because they're introducing Smith in about three hours. Oh, okay. How about that? All right. Well, we'll be there then. Well, thanks for your time, Sam, and thank you all for listening to this emergency pod. We will pod again right after Kweisi Adafo

Mensah talks and have a ton to discuss with all of you. We'll talk to you later here on Purple Insider.