Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: A love to see it, hate to see it recap of the Vikings' season

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Vikings Jeremiah Sirles talk decide to pass on breaking down the Vikings-Saints film and elect to do the entire show with the "love to see it, hate to see it" game. They talk about how far the Vikings need to go, which players showed they have potential, where the question marks are and the coach/QB get "hate to see it" breakdowns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Check out the description box to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. Hello, welcome to Tuesday Morning Left Guard, which is actually showing up in your feed on Wednesday morning. Because one of the two of us, I will not point any fingers on this podcast. It's not what we do in this room, in this podcast. We point the thumb. We'll point the finger that points the wrong way at Jeremiah Searle's former Viking for Wednesday morning left guard this time. Well, I suppose that you didn't do anything worse than what the Vikings did on tape against the New Orleans Saints on Christmas Day, Jeremiah. So how are you? I'm good. I'm good. It feels like that Vikings game was a very long time ago. It feels like that game was like a year ago, mostly because I watched some good football

on Sunday. Yeah, cleanse the palate. I re-watched the tape on Friday so I could get the poop – or on Saturday, excuse me, so I could get the poop taste out of my mouth before the going forward with the week. So re-watched it so I'm not as angry right now. We had a – the reason we were late is I had to have – we had an ultrasound for our baby girl today, so my bad. I forgot to schedule that. Terrible excuse. Terrible excuse. Totally lame.

You wonder what's terrible about it? I couldn't go because of COVID, so I had to FaceTime. I had to FaceTime the ultrasound and the doctor appointment and just sit there like, oh, cool. All right. This is neat. So that sucked. But yeah, this is neat. So that sucked. But, yeah, everything's good.

Baby's healthy. Mommy's healthy. So March 21st, baby girl Searle's coming in. That's awesome. That's great. So, okay, you get a pass for today. The Vikings do not get a pass for giving up 52 points. But we are also not going to break down a bunch of plays because you know how we joked about the left guard

being the Winnebago parked outside your house it's winnebago's parked on every side of the house i mean it's an rv lot just it's just an rv lot it's just an rv lot which is beaten down rv it's trailer park boys just uh real quick though so we're gonna dedicate the entire episode to our love to see it hate to see a bit in almost a season in review because the offseason has begun, everyone. You can watch Lions and Vikings. You can read Purple Insider's recap of Lions and Vikings. And you know what? I am going to do a freaking film study post next week just because I love all of you about Vikings and Lions and maybe don't like myself or something.

I will do that for everyone. But for this purpose, I think we need to do season in review, love to see it, hate to see it. So I'm just going to start out here with the most obvious love to see it. So we can save the obsessing over the Winnebago's for a little later. The love to see it is Justin Jefferson's season. Not just okay, not just good, not just showed signs for the future. Unreal season to the point where we're legitimately mad that he's not getting the ball more often and that he doesn't have 140 targets. And just to add a little stat to that, he has a 50-50 split between throws under 10 yards and throws over 10 yards, which I think needs to change because the elite receivers have

usually more throws underneath because they're just being targeted all the time. So when you get to the end of the year and you're talking about Randy Moss records and you're being upset that he isn't the entire centerpiece of the offense for a rookie, that rookie is special and you love to see absolutely i i mean i think that he's all the way in what is it orange is that the highest or red i think is the red do we decide red he's red he's hot he's hot he's super hot like i tell my son hot hot he's hot and so like he's great right and that's awesome to see him i love to see it is all the drama all the nonsense that went on with Riley Reif preseason about we're going to cut you,

we're going to trade you, take less money. And he just said, all right, I'll take less money. Let me do my thing. And he balled this year. He's not going to go to the Pro Bowl or anything like that, but he was solid this year. I mean, I don't think he had huge sack numbers. I don't think he had a lot of holding penalties. He really helped run the football. I really liked the way Riley Reif handled himself this year. He was what we call a true pro professional. He didn't make noise in the media. He didn't make noise in the locker room.

He just showed up to work every day and didn't miss a game, I don't think, and was just a grinder throughout the whole season and probably set himself up to get paid again. So I want you to guess how many sacks Riley Reif allowed this season. I'm going to guess under 10. I mean, I'm going to say maybe like five. One. Uno. I thought so.

One sack allowed and only seven quarterback hits. There are nine guys in the NFL ahead of him who did not allow a sack, and that includes, like, Ronnie Stanley only playing 300 snaps and Taylor LeJuan only playing 200. So there are only a handful of guys who allowed fewer sacks than Riley Reif this year. I mean, that is because Dakota Dozier was taking all the sacks allowed from him. But in all seriousness, I mean, I think that they need to consider re-signing Riley Reif or extending him because he's technically under contract,

but they can't go forward with that contract. The professionalism that he showed is why everyone has respect for him. As Dwayne Haskins has taught us. Not everyone has the idea of professionalism, but I mean, I think you couldn't have asked for a more solid left tackle season. He was healthy the whole year. And if you're not sure about Ezra Cleveland, then I think that you have to try to extend him. Yeah, because you're not going to find a cheaper option if you're looking to upgrade, quote, upgrade, air quotes. You're not going to find a cheaper option because if you need to if you're looking to upgrade quote upgrade air quotes you're really you're not going to find a cheaper option because if you're going to look for a guy that's better

in your eyes than him it's going to cost you money left tackles cost you money it's just a fact so i think they absolutely need to look to extend him um and let him do his thing again and basically i think he probably i'm looking like a two-year extension, right? Rework next year, one more year, and then you can kind of like front load that extension so you could have like kind of a dropout clause year three. Like here's some of your money back that we took from you for no reason, basically. I'm just going to go back and forth between love to see it and hate to see it. It's called balanced journalism, Jeremiah. Hate to see it is Ezra Cleveland play right guard this year as much as he did

and really struggle. I mean, in the run game, I thought he did a good job. He showed his athleticism. At first, he kind of was making his way through, but once they got some tape on him, it was really ugly. And I will give him credit because the guy played through an injury against Chicago. He had to face Hakeem Hicks.

He got worked last week against Cam Jordan to the point where you were like worried about his safety. I mean, I really mean it. Like the kid got whipped and he kept coming back every week and he didn't give up and he didn't pull like a Drew Samil where you looked at him on the sideline and said, someone take this guy out of the game. This guy cannot play in the NFL. I didn't feel that way, but I felt like I don't think that this experiment was a good idea. I think you would have rather kept him on the bench or kept him on the left side if you were going to play him guard and not switch him over to that side because he has allowed

the most sacks and I think the fourth most pressures over the last three weeks when they've actually played some good defenses. And it just has not turned out to be a great situation. And I don't know how much he can take from this to next year to grow into the player they want him to be. And I don't even know where they're going to play him. I agree. I think that he didn't get it.

I also don't think he got a full fair shake. I think he got put in a no-win situation or a hard-to-win situation. The coaches didn't do the best job giving him the best opportunity to succeed, which is what they should have done. If he like hey you're gonna play only right guard start him let him do it like take let him take a whole season take your lumps understand it but let him be the guy this well we don't know we're gonna bounce you around we're gonna end the year with no off season kind of figure it out like that's just not fair to the kids so i don't think you got a fair shake i think i'm gonna give him one more year before i i hit the full eject button on him but i have a very

sneaky suspicion that there will be another position change coming for him based off of what they're going to do at left guard and what they're going on so my hate to see it is you let a guy who is now starting in the n for the New York Jets, Pat Eflin, just walk off your team. And you just cut him. When you know you have problems with depth, you know you have issues at the guard center position, you have a proven veteran who's going to make money next year

off of the performances he's doing for the Jets right now. Pat's playing good football. I know no one's watching the Jets, but he's playing pretty damn good football up there. And you just told him to get out. And that's a guy that in my mind has done everything you've asked him. Came in, started as a rookie at center. He comes in, he moves to guard next year because you say, hey, drafted another center in the first round. And then he moves to the other side to play the other guard because the other guard's incompetent.

And then you're like, hey, I know you got hurt. Bye. I just think they handled that really poorly. I think that they shouldn't handle that players that way. If a player puts his heart and soul in that team for you, he's earned the right to play even if he does get injured. So I think they handled that poorly, and they should not have let Pat leave the team. Let me expand on that just a little,

because I think a lot of people would go like, and did you really hate to see it? I mean, it didn't really matter. And that's true, but these things do resonate in the locker room. I mean, when you're talking about two guys who,

I mean, Elf line, everyone knows in the locker room, how much the guy's been through over the last couple of years, right? Threes that he went through in 2017, the position changes, all that sort of stuff. And I couple of years, the degrees that he went through in 2017, the position changes, all that sort of stuff.

And I don't think anyone would argue that it went great. But players respect other guys who kind of tough it out and keep battling through those types of things. And so you have a captain in Riley Reif who is the ultimate professional and then another guy who gave everything he could for you. And, you know, they're not treated well. And these are also linemen I think there's like a really particular respect for the way linemen carry themselves in general and when you mistreat them as an organization it just doesn't sit well with

anybody I think and really since 2017 I have felt like there have been too many instances of this and even going back to I remember with uh Teddy and the tolling his contract thing, and there have been just a number of these that have sort of built up where it's little culture issues or little distrust issues that have happened where when you ask kind of what's the difference, I think that that's part of the difference, and that definitely falls under a hate to see it. Yes, absolutely. I'll say you'll love to see it that Eric Hendricks played at an all-pro level until he got hurt. And you have a top three linebacker in the NFL that deserved a Pro Bowl, deserved an all-pro, and just had a tough break at the end of the season. But for all the nonsense that was happening around Eric Hendricks this year, I mean, you had corners who didn't know where they were going.

You had frustrated safeties. You had defensive linemen who just were getting pushed back 10 to 15 yards on some plays. And Eric Hendricks, not only that, but also the Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee and somebody who gave his heart to the community as well, which I think is meaningful on an even different level. And I've known Eric like you have for a long time, and it was something that I would chat with him about sort of off the record, in the corner locker room, just shooting the breeze or whatever,

and to see him use his voice publicly and then continue to play at an all-pro level. Like, utmost respect for Eric Hendricks as a true superstar in the NFL. Absolutely, and I'll tell you this is an ultimate locker room guy too i mean the dude is an all-time dude he's there for you you knew you could call him for anything he wanted to like so that was a great one this is a okay it's kind of a love to see but also kind of a hate to see it's a blend the emergence of irv smith and conklin because you you love to see it, but then it's also like, does this mean Rudy's gone? And so it's just weird.

You'd love to see new emerging tight ends, new weapons in the offense. They got going, catching balls. But it's like, is this now a way of phasing Rudy out and saying, hey, thank you again for all you've done, but you're expensive and we have younger guys, cheaper guys that we're going to go with, right? So it's a love to see it that way, but it would be a hate to see it because I would hate to see Kyle Rudolph leave the Twin Cities. I don't know if they would try and do something where it's like, hey, we got to take a pay

cut or you got to, and Kyle might do that towards some, I'm assuming he's on the back end of his career. I don't know how much longer he wants to play. But it's like I really can't imagine. He's like the Tom Brady of going to some other team where it's like I can't imagine him not in purple. And so seeing the emergence of those guys has been exciting, but it does make me sad thinking that Rudy might not be there much longer. Yeah.

To add to that, he is going to end on IR if this is it, which really stinks. And, you know, the other part of it, too, is I'm going to feel like for the last three years, his quarterback just never really wanted to throw it to him. And that relationship, I don't know if Kirk ever really understood that you could just throw it at him. And there was a quote, I think you mentioned it about, yeah, he's like thrown to a mattress or whatever, which I never really quite got the metaphor, but he didn't treat it like that. He didn't treat it like they would run these plays where it'd be a little five-yard hitch or something just past the sticks on third and three, and he wouldn't throw it.

There's a linebacker there. Sorry, not going to throw it. And I don't know. I think that maybe a couple of these years and for the price that they paid Kyle Rudolph he just was underused and you know he didn't publicly complain about it or anything like that but when you're using the guy to block way more than to catch the ball over these last couple of seasons I feel like there was a lot left out there to go along with the way that it's going to end so yeah I agree that is more of a you hate to see it, but he could also, if he ends up going somewhere, maybe to a contender to get another shot,

and we'll talk about whether we think that this team can be a contender in 2021. Well, that goes to you hate to see it. I'm going to say this for you hate to see it. You hate to see it that there are so many things by the end of the year that you're still not really on solid ground about, which I know is vague, but I'll point to particular. The cornerbacks, Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler, have shown flashes, but you hate to see that you're not really sure what you have there. Gladney struggled a lot. He is toward the bottom of the league in quarterback rating allowed.

His tackling was the thing to write home about not against the Saints it wasn't and uh Dantzler got hurt at the end of the Saints game that's three injuries over a year for a guy that weighs like 160 pounds so maybe a little more than that but I mean he is very slender yeah right when you see a guy get hurt like that so I think you go into next year with Mike Hughes missed the year. That goes under the hate to see it. And these other corners, you just don't really know. And Holton Hill ends up getting cut. That I mean, you're looking at what the NFL is going to at the cornerback position is big body corners that can run with these receivers. I mean, a play that comes to mind is Julio Jones chest bumping Dantzler, I believe it was, out of the end zone and then just sticking his foot in the ground and catching an out route at the pylon and kind of looking back at him like,

shoo fly, don't bother me. And you watch Devontae Adams do it. And you just, you go down the list of these, I mean, you look every week at these receivers and you're like, these are big boys. I mean, DK, Matt calf, and you got to be able to body these dudes at the liner. It's not going to work. And we don't have that guy.

And as much as Rhodes may have struggled at times, he could match up with those kind of guys because Xavier was a bigger body and so I think that that will be something that Zimmer goes out and looks for whether it be a draft free agency in some way shape or form it's just a bigger corner that can hold up against some of these guys because those guys tore us apart this year so the cornerback position if you want to talk about another position my I'll do hate to see it not on solid ground is our defensive line. And, I mean, everyone thinks like, oh, we'll get Hunter back and we'll be okay.

No, not at all, not even a little bit. Until you address the interior of this offensive line, and Michael Pierce coming back next year will help, but until you get a dominant three technique, this defensive line is really going to struggle. I mean, you could look and be like, okay, Afadi didn't take the jump he thought he was going to take this year or wanted him to take. We didn't know if he was even capable of taking the jump

that we all wanted him to take, right? He flashed last year as kind of the fourth man rotation in there. I can get some sacks when I don't play a full game. And he just didn't flash this year in that position as the guy, the starter taking over for Everson, right? So not what you want out of him. You miss Hunter. You freaking absolutely swing for the fences and miss on the trade

with Ngokwe, right? You just completely miss on that one. And so you're just – that room is in shambles. Jaleel Johnson, I love the guy, but my goodness, dude, you either got to get some lead in your pencil or do something because you're really struggling out there. And it's not a knock on the guy. I like Jaleel a lot, but his tape has not been ideal for a three technique.

And it's run or pass. And so you're looking at this defensive line going, where do we start? Do we go get young guys? Do we go get veterans? Do we draft guys? Because even Holmes at times doesn't look great. He flashed it. You thought he was taking a jump,

but he took a huge step back towards the end of the year. So I don't think that this defensive line, with the addition of Hunter and Pierce, is going to take a big turn and just turn a huge corner, right? It's going to take the emergence of some guys like maybe Lynch or maybe Watts. It's going to take someone to make a huge jump next year. But I just don't see it from the growth potential of these guys this year.

There is nobody on the defensive line that I would bet on. No. Not a single guy. Except for Hunter. Well, of course, yeah. I mean, Hunter and Pierce, when they come back, those are very good NFL players. They're proven veterans. One of them is a superstar, yeah.

But the guys this year that they all laid bets on, and this goes under this plays right off of that to my, you hate, wait, do I have you love to see it? Okay. I'll get to this one later. But just playing off of that real quick, a stat for you from 2016 to 2019, the Vikings drafted 17 defensive players. Not a single one of them is good or here. Like, I mean, Trey Waynes is pretty good, but he's not here. And Mackenzie Alexander is okay, but he's not here.

And the rest of them have all gone the route of a Jalen Holmes, Jaleel Johnson. Like, you know what? To add to yours, there's no magic finger to wave as a coach. There's no coach who has the secret formula that can suddenly just wave a magic wand and jaleel johnson can play that's not how it works daniel hunter is great because of daniel hunter so anyway that's uh just the point to be made there um in terms of you love to see it a healthy season for delvin cook and a great season uh one of the best seasons in vikings history by a running back it is not

delvin's cook's fault that they are obsessed with delvin cook he does the job that he's asked to do and uh he showed remarkable durability this year he got his ass kicked at times throughout games and he bounced back and he came back in and and he fought hard all the way through and was even fighting hard all the way at the end of the new Orleans game. And huge respect for Dalvin Cook and staying healthy for him this year. We'll see where it goes from here because of his usage. It's always tough to do it a couple years in a row. But that was the big question. Can he stay healthy?

Can he stay healthy? He proved it. He proved he could have a really, really great running back season. Yeah, I mean, the worry is the Christian McCaffrey effect, right? So everyone's going to be like, should we draft alvin cook number one overall next year and then christian mccaffrey that came off this huge usage year just fell apart at the seams this year right his body just couldn't keep up with it so that is an absolute huge worry you look at guys in the past that have had this type of usage todd gurley comes to mind and you're just like these dudes

the nfl is so physical man it's really hard for these guys year in and year out to be able to just maintain the workload that you're going to be giving to them but it's also this catch-22 like hey we just gave you a bunch of money so like we're gonna ride this horse till it dies it's just a matter of does it die when you're making a playoff run like it did for Todd Gurley, right? So we're on love to see it, right? Yes, correct. Okay. My love to see it is I really do think that this team kind of really banded together a little bit through the injuries.

It didn't look like there was a lot of just coming apart on the sideline at each other. And it very easily in years like this, there's super easy to just come absolutely unglued at the seams. And I think that it goes all the way back to me, even like Anthony bar taking less money to stay here than it go to the jets, right? Because there is something special you talked about in your book about what the locker room is and what this place has been.

Now there's been a lot of turnover, but there is a still core group of guys on that defense that is very close and very much together. And even on the offense, there's still a couple guys that are still close together. And so I think that those bonds are kind of what really held this season from completely going off the rails and being a four-win season, right? I mean, that was a very real possibility. And so I think that, that my love to see is that this team stayed together through it all.

Now you're starting to see it unravel a little bit here at the end guys getting after each other, but through the most part, I thought this team did a really nice job of banding together and holding together inside that locker room. Want to remind you to go to soda stick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspired goods. There are many great designs.

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Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. Another part of it is they never get to really see each other in the locker room. This is also true. Also, we don't get to go in the locker room to see how that thing looks. So maybe that's part of it is we just, the reporters haven't been in there to see any issues that have been going on. But aside from that, no, you know what I think it is? They had tone setters for the culture like Delvin Cook and Eric Hendricks

and Harrison Smith and Riley Reif, guys like that who have been around. And then the rest are unproven players. So those are the guys you follow. When you have ultimate professional players who are leading the locker room, even when you're struggling, then I think you're still going to follow those guys. That if you're an unproven player, you're not going to go against the guys who have made all pros. And in Harrison Smith's case, I think might have an argument for the Hall of Fame one day. So, I mean, that's a little bit of what I think it is, especially because they don't

necessarily have a coach that is going to pat anybody on the back. And, you know, that goes to my hate to see it. Hate to see it is that every time the Buffalo Bills play, Mike Zimmer gets dunked on. I mean, just, it's the truth, man. Every time they play, it's like, oh, yeah, Diggs was exactly right, wasn't he? And then, you know, Zimmer at the end of the year couldn't help himself but say our team is bad or our defense is bad. And, look, I respect his honesty and his bluntness as much as anybody, but I also know that when you say things like that,

it kind of puts a target on your back like well hey uh somebody didn't coach him up either and he you know came out a few days later and said I didn't have him ready but that that's that's already far gone from what you said right after the game and this is sort of typical of of Zimmer to do and so I think that when it comes to you hate to see it it's like all you had to had to do was get the bus into the garage at the end here. If you went 7-9, everybody would go, hey, you know what, Zimmer? You kept them fighting. On to 20-21.

But then you allow 52 points and you say our defense is bad and it's the worst I've ever had. It's just like, okay, well, pressure's on now, man. It's on you to fix it. I'm going to throw that under you hate to see it, that Zimmer thought he could just coach up a lot of these players. I also think that a lot of decisions that get made are made because of Mike Zimmer, that he has a lot of control over the roster. And so he's got a lot to own, and he's not usually a guy that likes to own it.

So I'm going to put that under you hate to see it. Well, if we're going to talk about things that he doesn't pat on the back or he doesn't help out very much, you hate to see it well if we're going to talk about things that he doesn't pat on the back or he doesn't help out very much you hate to see it mr bailey mr dan i think you send him packing right you send him on his merry way and you try again right scorch earth in the kicking room again and just try again and it's getting old man it's getting hard to watch it's getting to the point where anytime so but i'll say this every kicker in the nfl is really struggling right now besides justin tucker like justin tucker just like free bam automatic picking right but then i mean you watch guys like cody parky and you watch even crosby missed one the

other night you're just like okay but it just just seems like Dan Bailey doesn't have it. Whatever it is, like the clutch moment, walk out there and hammer it home. I mean, it just has been missing since, I don't know, I can't even name the last good kicker that didn't have issues. Like didn't have a, like. Ryan Longwell, I think, would probably. Doesn't, nope. Don't even know.

And so, like, that's something that you hate to see, and you're just waiting to get fixed because I feel like, and I tell people this all the time, like, people don't understand, like, kickers are actually the biggest tone setter on the team. And stay with me on this. I know. Okay. So, say you score a touchdown, right?

You score a touchdown, and you say you have a 13-play drive, and you go score a touchdown, and the kicker misses the extra point, it's the most deflating thing on a sideline. The players that scored the touchdown that are on the sideline here, the, oh, and everyone's like, oh, he missed. You've got to be kidding me. And it gives the defense a little bit of juice, right? It gives the, like, all right, hey, only six points now instead of the seven.

It's a very minuscule thing but it's very true like kickers are very tone setters and one of my best friends in college was a kicker and he used to tell we used to give him back dude don't miss like it's and he'd look at the old line and we all try and be like i'm gonna kill you but it's just like it really is and so when you have a guy it can really be a tone setter for an entire team because it also is kind of a panicky, oh, gosh, what are we going to do type of thing when they're running out there. Instead of a, here we go, let's knock this thing through, it's kind of like, oh, is he going to make it, is he not? And that uneasy feeling, it can creep through everyone's minds at every time.

Not only that, but these are guys who can set the tone for where you get the ball, or if you kick it to, say, Cordero Patterson, and then he runs for a touchdown. Never again. Things like that. They were doing squibs to Patterson the next time. They're like, can you not kick it out of the back of the end zone, or is that not a thing you can do?

Kick it out of bounds. I will say this about a, you love to see it, that the team went through the season with no major COVID issues. Despite several teams they played, especially the Tennessee Titans, trying to give them COVID by not telling anybody that they had it in their building and playing the Vikings. expected no less from this team because you just knew that Zimmer would kill someone with an ax if they, if they had to miss games because of it and cost them to lose. But I really think that, you know, when it comes to the hard nose disciplinarian and all that sort of thing,

something like this is not something to mess around with again, Dwayne Haskins and others and, and, and the Denver Broncos quarterback room, like what are you guys doing? I mean, you're forcing a wide receiver to play quarterback for a game because you can't keep your masks on? I mean, what kind of discipline is that and leadership? And no surprise, Haskins is gone.

Drew Locke ain't going to be the quarterback of the Broncos either. So, you know, I think it says a lot about the players they have, the leadership they have, and just like a really good effort from them to try and keep it out of the building. I think Thielen had to miss a game. And of course, that's not to say that, you know, if someone got it, that they're, that they did anything wrong. I mean, you could get it at random, but I think that in terms of not having any spreads, not having any major issues, they did a great job and you do love to see it. Absolutely. And I think it's, again, it goes back

to the Testament, like you said, the culture of the locker room of, hey, we're all going to do the right things off the field, which usually leads to success on the field. Not always, not always, but usually does. I'd love to see it is, and I'm sad he's hurt, but C.J. Hamm playing an elite level again. I mean, the fullback doesn't get a ton of love all the time, and there's only like four of them in the league, so they just kind of rotate pro bowls. But I think that he's still a huge part of why the running game is successful and I know he he had some injuries that he's been fighting through so his levels I know PFF didn't have him very good

the last couple games but I mean he is a hammer right and he loves I think Dalvin really enjoys following him and he's really athletic to be able to get out of the backfield and at times throw the football too and he can make guys miss and so he's been a big part of this offense. I think Kubiak uses him in the right way, and I think that that's one of the reasons that they were successful in the run game and Dalvin had the year he did. I think that there's even more a little meat on that bone to put him in motion a little more. I'm not saying give him the ball a ton, but the times that he got the ball,

he was pretty good. I think that he could actually, because of his skill set, lean a little bit even more toward how they use Kyle Juszczyk. I mean, not the full Juszczyk because that guy's really special. But I thought, yeah, I mean, he had a great year blocking. And I think they could even do more as a weapon and a mismatch. And to give you indicators on coverages and things like that, I thought that Stefanski did a little more of that than they did this year. But, yeah, I mean, you love when a fullback plays well. I asked CJ once if he would wear a neck roll for me, and he said no.

But I disagree with that. I think he should wear a neck roll because he's a fullback. There's only like seven of them left. Come on, man. I would love to wear a neck roll. Right? Why did you? Do they have them?

It's key. Dude, you literally stare at your feet. I remember when Fusco – I never considered that. When Brandon Fusco had his, he would like turtle-like to try and see. His neck would be like, I'm not turtling enough for the turtle club. Like it was horrible. I was like, dude, I don't know how you can like look pre-snap at anything.

Vintage, man. It's vintage. That's why. It's like, who wants to drive a car from the 70s for gas mileage? No, you drive it. It's not safe, right? It's terrible for the environment, but it looks really cool. That's a reason to wear neck rolls.

We're on Hate to See It. I hate to see that if the Vikings win this game in Week 17 and Kirk Cousins plays, his record for his career will be exactly 500. And I just look. I mean, you could debate QB wins all you want. I mean, a lot of people will say don't ever look at it. Don't ever look at QB wins. I think that that's probably not right since that guy has the most control over whether you win or lose.

Quarterback performance will be a predictor of everything, including who goes to the Super Bowl. I may have mentioned this to you before or after we started recording, but the last 10 teams to go to the Super Bowl, top five and expected points added through the pass. I mean, look, if you play great quarterback, you've got a great chance to win. And with Cousins, it was another Cousins coaster. It was another, well, started off really poor, lost some games,

threw some terrible picks against this team and lost. Oh, didn't finish a couple of drives. And, whoa, man, the Lions, he just killed them. And so I think that Kirk got the short end of the stick in a lot of ways this year. He played good enough football to probably win 10 games or something like that. But at the end of the day when we're a hundred starts plus into a career and somebody is 500 as a quarterback there you know some other quarterbacks with big samples like this that are like 500 quarterbacks

I'm looking it up right now like Jake Plummer 69 and 67 for his career Andy Dalton 73 and 65 Jay Cutler 74 and 79 I mean these guys are kind of in the same mark brunel 78 and 73 boomer assayas and is actually below 500 this might be this might be hard to do but i'm curious what what was his record when he came to the vikings uh well okay so one thing with because what's he a 500 record when he got to the Vikings? Because, like, if it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, if it waddles like a duck, it's probably a duck. So the one thing that I would give him is some of his early starts

you can kind of throw out. I mean, he went, like, one in seven over two years as a backup. So throw that out. Right, as a starter. As a starter with football team. What were we calling them? You were calling them the you were calling the generals the red wolves red wolves he was 24 23 and one after becoming a full-time starter so that's 500

records and as a minnesota viking 24 21 and one which is about a 500 record walks like a duck talks like a duck and and again i don't necessarily know if it's fair to blame Kirk Cousins for this more than to blame the Vikings for paying Kirk Cousins like he wasn't a 500 quarterback. I don't know. That's just me. Well, okay, my hate to see it. There might be some more on the other side, but we're going to move on because I don't want to bash Cousins too much.

Let me just say, I thought overall he had a good year. I agree. A good total season. A Cousins year. A Kirk Cousins good year. Right. A good, by his standards, one of his higher graded years, one of his higher statistical years, but it was a Kirk Cousins year,

and he's going to end up 500 after 100 games. So I just, you know, you hate to see that. So, okay, go ahead. Yes. Okay. 500 after 100 games so i've just you know you hate to see that so okay go ahead okay my hate to see it is anthony harris not stepping up to the franchise tag and saying f you you should have paid me and going and getting the pay now you could say that's a love to see it on spielman's part right so you could say it but i think it's a more hate to see it because i wanted amp to

succeed really bad i thought he had a a really, really good year last year. I don't know if it's because of the lack of pass rush that he didn't have quite the good year. But his tackling seems to have fallen off, especially got highlighted this last week against the Saints. He just wasn't the same player that we saw in 2019 that everyone was saying, pay this man. Everyone's saying, let this man walk, from what I'm looking, is like, Rick, get him out of the building, which I don't necessarily know if you need even more turnover on the back end of that defense,

but you hate to see him not take that jump that you thought he could take because I really thought he was primed to be the next great safety tandem with Harrison Smith back there, where those two could be a staple for the next three to four years on that defense. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, part of it is variance, that interceptions come and go for guys. You know, there was the one year Xavier led the league, and then the next year he had, what, two or three?

You know, I mean, that's part of it. And I think you're exactly right that when you have Everson Griffin and you have Linval Joseph, by the way, real quick, Linval finished with more QB pressures. He is not a pass rusher, more QB pressures than Shamar Stephan and Jaleel Johnson combined. Just a point there. And you know,

but when you have the pass rush with Daniel Hunter and Everson Griffin, it does help. It does make everything a lot better. Most all pro corners have-pro defensive linemen. Just saying. Yeah. There's no question that they play off of each other. So last one for me on the you love to see it.

I'll end on a snarky positive note is it's over. I mean, I don't mean just this season because there were a lot of fun ups and downs to follow. But, you know, mostly though angry fans. This was my first year of Purple Insider. And I'm just so happy that all the people who are Vikings fans came in and supported the show, came in and supported the website. And I just wish for better for you. Like I really thought that this would be like a 10 or 11 win team and we'd be covered playoffs.

And I'd be like, come everyone celebrate this fun season with us. And here, you know, you know, six and 10 or seven and nine is just like the, the last. So I love to see that it's over.

We can get into the off season. Cause this off season is super, super fascinating. And I'm just sorry that everyone had to go through losses to Dallas and Mitch Trubisky and things like that. So you love to see the end 2020. Go to hell 2020. It's over. If we're going to go to snarky, snarky loves to see it.

My love to see it is the delusional Viking fan that thinks we're not that far away from being back to 13-3. Now, we're not far away from being 500, but we are light years away from being 13-3 and looking at the Saints and the Packers and the Rams and these teams that are legit, we are a long way away from that. I know we have injuries. I know we have our own set of issues. But you can look at a team's overall being and be like, they're close. And you look at the Vikings overall right now, even input Kendricks,

input Barr, input Rudy back in, like, we're not close. We've got a lot of issues that we've got to clean up this offseason and the problem with that is even with you go get guys in the offseasons it's still a higher form of gambling it's still a higher form of we're going to pay this guy a bunch of money and really hope he works out for the best the way we are but to see people that are getting upset at guys that are saying like guys we're just not good, and we're going to be fine once everyone gets back, like, take a step back and really objectively look at this team and compare them to other teams in the NFL

that are in similar positions and say which teams are close and which teams are farther apart. Because you look, there's a lot of teams that are 9-7. There's a lot of teams that are going to be 6-10. And you can look at those teams and be like, okay, this team is primed and ready to take the jump to a 10-win team next year. And I don't see that for the Vikings. And I don't know what necessarily could make that. Is it a coaching change?

Is it a bunch of personnel changes? But I don't see as like the quick fix, one guy here, two guys here away. We've got a lot of work and it might be a two or three year, quote, rebuild before you start seeing what we really hope to see in purple again. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site, according to Comscore.

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Just to tack on to that, you know, I think there's been a lot of comparing of 2014 and how, you know, they went 7- a lot of comparing of 2014 and how you know they went seven to nine and then turned it around to 2015 i think this year was more like 2013 where you were the worst defense in the league and had a lot to do and then got to like more reasonable of a team the next year i think you're more in that position i i agree but that desperation though makes things pretty interesting and that's what i'm thinking for the offseason is when there's some people looking at this season going, we're a ways away in a lot of places, and there's hot seats and there's pressure and all those things,

that means some really crazy things can happen. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to tell me, before we wrap up, I want you to just tell me who you think's going to be in the super bowl right now i i think it's going to be a packers bills super bowl wow i think i think here and here's why i say that if you look at their trajectory of the end of the season everyone talks about playoff form right got to get in playoff form the bills are trending up they've had three primetime games against the Steelers, against the Patriots, and they had one other one.

I can't remember who it was. And they just – 49ers. The 49ers. And they just went to work, right? They just all – I mean, I love that they rubbed. I mean, love it, love it that they rubbed the Patriots' nose in it, right? They were like, hey, Josh Allen needs to go score a touchdown

to break the all-time passing record. Sure. And so I think the Bills are trending up in a big way. The Chiefs are trending down a little bit. They don't look like what we're used to seeing from the Chiefs, and I think a lot of that is the fact that their running game is kind of nonexistent. And when Mahomes isn't firing on all cylinders like he has in the last few weeks, now

trust me, I could be eating my words and they could go hang a 50-burger on the first round. Absolutely. They have that mentality. They have that ability. But I just haven't seen that from them like you're used to seeing from them. It's almost like they peaked really about the halfway point of the season and kind of haven't been able to maintain

that versus the Bills kind of steadily taking their lumps, growing from it, taking their lumps, growing from it, and now really putting a strong playoff performance together where the bills are probably going to rest starters next week. Yeah.

The last time that happened. And so I honestly think they might even just give them a quarter just to keep them in playoff shape. Right. But I think the bills are the best team in the AFC right now, and that's not my bias because I am partial to the Bills. Like, I truly believe that. And then Aaron Rodgers is just having such an unbelievable year.

I mean, no one can stop the Devontae Adams-Aaron Rodgers connection by no one. It doesn't matter. I saw a tweet earlier that was like, I think you could throw to him on every play and it would be a completion. I mean, that's what Buffalo does with Diggs. Right, and it's so true. So that defense means Z'Darrius Smith, Preston Smith, and those dudes just eating it up.

I mean, Kenny Clark's an unbelievable player for them. And so they've really got the formula there on the front end of the defensive line and the offensive lines, getting Aaron Jones and then this Dillon kid really rolling here right before the playoffs. I think that those are the two best teams in football right now. I will also say the Packers, which I know it goes back on something that I said earlier this year when they got run over a couple times.

I thought they're just too soft, but their defense has gone the opposite way. I mean, they've played really tough. And I agree with you that, you know, their offense has become pretty much unstoppable with what Matt LaFleur has done for Aaron Rodgers. And he's really gotten it. But I'm going to go Kansas City because of the week off. I just think it's such a huge deal. Like one team gets it now, you get that week off. And I remember last week, or not last week last year the Vikings

arriving uh in San Francisco and I remember how I felt as a reporter just having to travel and and the week that you go through everything else I was gassed as a reporter going back to back weeks on the road if somebody has to do that um it's going to be really tough but even just traveling to a place they'll have some fans in the stands probably but their place in the weather them fresh I think that it's almost a testament to how amazing they are that they've won the games that they haven't played perfectly you know to still win against Atlanta when you didn't play well for a lot of the game I think it says how strong they are so So I'm still going to pick them. I'm going to go like, you know, an old school, a way throwback Packers Chiefs.

But, you know, we'll see. Seven teams in the playoffs. It'll be fun. This was fun. This was a lot better than breaking down like three techniques being thrown down the field, right? Absolutely. My question, I got a question for you. Yeah.

Who wins the NFC West? Well, I mean, Seattle's going to win the NFC West, right? No, not the NFC West. The playoff spot, you mean? Yes, the playoff spot. Blazing hot Trubisky, I think, right? Do you think? Yeah, well, I mean, is Green Bay even going to play their starters? Do they have to?

I wouldn't. Why wouldn't? You can't lock up the one seed, is Green Bay even going to play their starters? Do they have to? I wouldn't. Why wouldn't? You can't lock up the one seed, right? Or do you have it locked up? Have they locked up the one seed is the question. Dude, I was watching Andrew Siciliano talk about it on the Reds' own channel, and I was like, I don't understand. Yeah, I know.

I need Steve Karnacki here right now to help us with this. But if that's the case that they're set with the number one seed and they play backups against Chicago, I think Chicago wins. Kyler Murray's beat up. Jared Goff's not even going to play. I think, I mean, how bad is that going to feel for, so it's going to be two, I mean, two out of those three teams will make it, Chicago, Arizona, and Los Angeles. Whoever is on the outside is going to have regrets. I mean, Chicago was, what, 5-1 at one point, and if they fall out of it, regrets.

Arizona was in the driver's seat. Los Angeles was a lock for the playoffs. It's been a bleep show, and I'm just going to throw it out there. Someday you'll just take the best teams with the best records and put them in the playoffs. Someday. Someday we'll see. One day. Who cares if it's we'll see. We can hope.

One day. Who cares if it's AFC or NFC? Anyway. We can hope. This has been a really fun season. I mean, we'll be here next week again, but, you know. Yeah. Who cares?

Whatever. Lions pack. Lions. By the way, if they win, I think I missed the one or two games there on my prediction. Let's do that next week. Let's go over and see how I did on my prediction. Okay, that's what we should do.

We should talk about things that we thought were going to play out. And we can preview playoffs because we'll know it by then. So, Jeremiah, great stuff as always. And I have loved, loved, loved your work and all the response that people have had to it. So we're going to keep going through the playoffs, but just wanted to say that. And a happy new year to you, sir. You as well, buddy. See you next year.