Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: How will the Vikings rebuild their defensive line? (and Super Bowl takes)

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles break down the different approaches for the Vikings along the defensive line if Danielle Hunter is part of the 2021 roster and if he's traded. What would they do in free agency? Would they draft someone in the first round? Plus a Super Bowl version of love to see it, hate to see it in which Jeremiah talks about being sad about his Bills losing and his favorite Super Bowl memory growing up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone. Before we get into the show, just wanted to remind you that we've got a Jared Allen signed jersey giveaway from Fan HQ going on over on Twitter. If you go to my Twitter page, at Matthew Collar, that's C-O-L-L-E-R, you retweet the post about the Jared Allen signed jersey.

Follow me if you don't already, and follow at Fan HQ. That's it, and you're registered to win. Fan HQ, by the way, is your headquarters for officially licensed sports apparel, authentic memorabilia, and autograph appearances. If it came from HQ, then it's authentic. All right, let's get to the show. Let's go. Welcome to another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard. Matthew Collar here along with former Minnesota Vikings and former Buffalo Bill, a sad former Buffalo Bill.

Jeremiah Searles. What is up, Jeremiah? Your team's just let you down, man. I mean, my teams have just been brutal. I got the Huskers falling apart at the seams right now. The Bills just couldn't pull it off in the old AFC Championship there. And the Vikings, well, they did the same thing I did. They sat at home and watched.

So it's just been a tough January, Matt. And I just had to shovel about 17 inches of snow off of my driveway the last two days. So I know you Minnesotans are like, oh, that's just a Tuesday. But down here in Lincoln, that's not normal. You know, where I grew up in Buffalo, there was a lot more snow than there is in the Midwest. Here, the biggest thing that kills you is everything ices over and it never, ever melts. So the same ice that's there at Thanksgiving will be there in May when it finally disappears. But I have a driveway in a great spot for plows to fill it with all the snow from the entire street. So I feel you.

It's a dangerous act sometimes getting out there and trying to clear snow. So it's been a little bit rough for you. I want to talk about the Bills a little bit with you and love to see it hate to see it i've got some super bowl questions for you but i want to start out with what i wrote about at purple insider today which was the defensive line and i've got some breaking news for you jeremiah the numbers on the defensive line were bad when i started don't say I know when I started to really investigate all of the final numbers and put them together it really struck me how many players that had previous experience with this team that they had a chance to evaluate that they put on the

field and played 600 plus snaps and gave them very, very little. Jaleel Johnson was 71st out of 71 defensive tackles. Jalen Holmes, zero sacks after moving back to defensive end. I mean, this thing, this thing needs a lot of work. So I want you to tell me from two different scenarios. One scenario is Hunter stays. One scenario is Hunter goes. How do they get this defensive line back to where it was a couple of years ago,

just even in 2019? Start with if Hunter stays, what should be their route to get it back to being very good? Yeah, so if Hunter stays, the biggest thing is making sure Pierce is back, right? You solidify that nose tackle position, the guy that can eat up the double double teams the guy that can push the pocket in the middle on pass correction and then the number one concern is you got to go get yourself a badass three technique you got to find a guy that can play the run i'm not saying you got to find aaron donald but you need to find a guy that can play the run and push the passer at the exact same time i mean there's a lot of guys around the league i think of a guy like jonathan from the Redskins, right?

He's a really solid three technique. I think of a guy, even a guy who's very underrated is Anderson from the Jets, who's up there who doesn't do anything flashy, but he pressures a quarterback because that was just a big black hole on the Vikings defensive line. I mean, it didn't matter if it was Jaleel Johnson. It didn't matter if it was Shavar Stephan. It did not matter who was playing three technique. They seemed to get run at a lot.

So you go find another three technique to plug in there, and then you've got to make Afadi another rotation guy. And I don't know if that's meaning that you've got to find someone that's a starter full-time in free agency, or you spend a second or third round pick in the draft and say, hope he works. But I think it showed that Afadi was proven that he was going to be a good rotation a guy now could he make the jump to full-time starter and he didn't this year and

he had every opportunity to do that this year I think he's still an asset to the defensive line if you leave him in that rotational third down kind of like the old B-Rob at the end of his career type role um and then you go find another guy that's an every down starter so i think that you got to replace two guys two complete starters on there if hunter stays and then go from there yeah the pass rush numbers for afadi were okay they weren't like a complete train wreck where he had zero sacks and zero pressures or anything like that but against the run specifically he was thrown around and i think it says that he needs to be a guy who is rotating and, like you said, lining up over guards and just being able to pin his ears back and go after the quarterback

as opposed to being asked to play every down. But he's an RFA. They should resign him. And I agree that there are no questions really left to ask about him. He's 27 years old. Like, that is what it's going to be. But it doesn't mean he can't contribute like we saw in 2019. Now, crazy stat for you, and everyone who listens knows my appreciation for Tom Johnson.

Tom Johnson never – come on. Tell me Tom Johnson's not the man. He was the man. Tom Johnson was so great. I mean, first, his personality was awesome because he looked like he wanted to fight you, just like the way he stood there at his locker. And then you'd go talk to him, and he'd give you, like, really great information, some teaching points and things like that.

I'd be like, this is great. You're the man. But here's why I like Tom Johnson so much. He got after the passer. It wasn't just that he was a good interview. He never had a year under 30 pressures and this year shamar stefan plus jaleel johnson was 16 so tom johnson was doubly as effective in his average year from what their two defensive tackles were getting

after the passer and and that's they need to find somebody like that but the issue is if it's not Christian Barmore there's nobody else in the first round on any mocks that I see of interior defensive linemen and the free agent pool big shocker here Jeremiah teams don't let these guys go if you get a Chris Jones or an Aaron Donald or anybody who is awesome at that position, you keep them. They don't leave. Right. So looking through the free agent list, it's a little tough there. And looking through who they have on the roster to develop, it's a bare cupboard. I think they basically have to find another Tom Johnson who comes from wherever,

kind of deep in the free agency pool, a late-round guy who emerges and surprises them because you just are going to have a really tough time getting your hands on anybody in free agency. I think that another thing, and we know the Vikings love to do it, is you draft a bigger defensive end and move them into three technique, which doesn't always work, but there are guys that in college, I think if a guy like Gostis played at Georgia Tech, got drafted to the, or Derek Wolf that went to the Broncos, that the scheme fit, they ran a 3-4, but they're big enough to play that three technique position,

maybe not 600, 700 snaps a year, but 400, 450, where they can do some effective things. And in an obvious run situations, you have a Shamar Stephan, you have a Michael Pierce that you put in. But I think that that's not a terrible way to go um is to look for these schools that run this 3-4 scheme in college where they're big defensive ends but really they're playing like a fourth technique right over the tackle so you slide them one gap down doesn't make a ton of difference there and i think there's some teams in the nfl too that run that 3-4 where they're listed as defensive

ends but you can make them defensive tackles fairly easy. Did not work so far for James Lynch. That's a thing that they're trying to do. A little on the light side for that, getting picked up and moving. You've still got to be at least 265, 270. I mean, if you're under 275, best of luck. One of my favorite things about James Lynch was that his initial weight listing at Baylor was like 250 or something. And then it became 280 or 290. And I did not see a 290 pound human being when he was playing this year.

There is nothing more fraudulent in sports than player weight listings. I mean, I've stood close enough to that, the scale that's in the middle of the locker and be like, oh, okay, you weigh about 15 to 20 pounds less or more sometimes than that says on your weight list. Yeah, I couldn't come up with too many really good options for them, though. Tyrone Crawford, Shelby Harris, Malik Collins. What do you think about Solomon Thomas? I mean, he would be like a reclamation project. Yeah, I don't like Solomon Thomas. He's too small. Yeah.

I think he's too small. You're going to run into the same issues. He can rush the passer, but, I mean, the problem is if we can't stop anybody on the run, we can't rush the passer. I think that's a big reason, too. You saw the sack numbers being down this year is we let the people run all over us for a lot of the time. So the third downs were third and fours, third and threes, not the third and 11s, third and 12s that we're used to seeing with this defense, which really does help ratchet up pressure numbers.

So this actually might be the best strategy for the Vikings. And I don't know how much I would love it, but in terms of getting talent out there is to get another giant guy who stuffs the run and then have Afadi Adenabo play on those third down and longs. Not a bad idea. So not Shamar Steffen who's okay against it. I mean a huge guy. I mean two giant nose tackles that are both 330 pounds,

and you put them both in the middle, and you say, be fat, guys. I mean, I really think that this is an effective strategy if you can't do the other thing. If you don't have a three technique who's going to get 30, 40, 50 pressures in a season, your best option is to sign the fattest guy he can and just completely clog up that middle. You better have another defensive end that can pass for us besides Hunter then. Right. And we're going to get there. You can't just have Hunter rolling and then two big boy Volkswagen's sitting in the middle

and then the guy just rolls out of the pocket every time. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. And that's the other thing is, now the guy that I have my eye on here is Ryan Kerrigan. I think Ryan Kerrigan is exactly a B-Rob type where – well, sorry, I just did the – You're doing it.

You're banging. Football. Yeah, get fired up. But I think his role kind of diminished because they drafted all these guys in Washington, and so he didn't really have that big role on football team last year, but I think he's the perfect kind of fit of a veteran who would be affordable, and then you can draft the guy. Yeah, I like Kerrigan. He brings a lot.

I mean, he's getting up there to the edge of his career, so I don't necessarily know can you look at him and say, hey, can you be a full-time starter at defensive end for us? Because I think that's what we are in the market for is a guy that can play, I mean, majority, 85%, 80% of the snaps of a game, right? That's too much for him. Yeah. And I think that's too much for Ryan Kerrigan. So you can say, okay, we're going to do that and then draft the guy that can spell him,

but you better spend a high draft pick on a guy like that then. And there's a lot of positions that you're looking at, like, we need high draft picks here. And so, I mean, I don't necessarily know if that's the one you're going to go spend a second first round pick on or whatever it might be., I don't necessarily know if that's the one you're going to go spend a second first-round pick on or whatever it might be. So I don't love it. I think that's great if you can get him in low veteran and you can use him as that guy to rotate in there. But, man, I'd have to take a bigger peek at the free agent market for a guy that could be a legit full-time starter

at defensive end and not cost us $50 million. Right. Well, this is the problem. So my list of those guys were Justin Houston, Kerrigan, Alden Smith, Alex Okafor, Marcus Golden. I mean, these are not great players. These are kind of rotational type of guys. And then you would presumably have to draft one in the first round,

Gregory Russo maybe, or Quiddy Pay if he's available. And you put those guys in a rotation where they're kind of working in and out. Because if this is the Hunter scenario where he stays, that means he's going to make a lot of money, so you can't afford to throw a ton of cash at that position. But you also can't say, hey, Gregory Russo, go handle that whole thing and play 80% of snaps in the NFL right away. That's not going to work for you either. But in terms of the not-Hunter situation, there are some names who are out there in the free agent market.

Melvin Ingram, Olivier Vernon, Carl Lawson, Shaq Barrett, Romeo Aguara. You have some guys who are among that upper tier who will get you. Shaq Barrett really impressed me the other day. So if they do decide to move Hunter, you can replace it in free agency. I think this would hurt for fans to see Daniil Hunter go, but he's got a lot of value if they're going to trade him, and there are other dudes who can fill this position. You could probably get two of them for the price of what Hunter wants. Right, and I think that if that's really,

if Hunter's going to put him between a rock and a hard place, I think the Vikings have to make a decision to move on because if you pay Hunter what he's going to want I mean you're not looking at zero cap room to fill a lot of needs this would be one thing if it's like we have to keep Hunter because we just made it to the AFC champion or NFC championship and like we got to just keep everyone that we can it's like we won six games or seven games or whatever it was. And we got a lot of issues and a lot of spots. Like we can't afford to just throw this money all at one person,

even if he really is the face of the defense. I mean, you got Harrison. I saw some of them saying, we're going to make Anthony Barr a rush end. Don't do that. Don't, don't do that. Please don't do that. That comes up all the time. Every off season.

That's a really waste of a talent to just say, hey, you, just go rush the passer. He can do too many things on the back end. Anyway, sorry, sidetracked. But I think that if you're going to cut Hunter, you have to at least get a first-round pick for him at minimum. I mean, I'm talking first-round pick and maybe some cash too. Like first-round pick plus some to help fill that void of whatever you're going to have to eat to then go sign someone else. But teams will pay for it, but I'm trying to think of teams that are like that's the missing piece for them. Sometimes it's more like I need a wide receiver or I need a quarterback.

It's hard, I think, for teams to justify unless it's Khalil Mack, right? And no offense to Dill Hunter, but he's not Khalil Mack. He's close. He's in that class, but Khalil's still just a different type of player. The one team I could think of that might consider this would be Indianapolis, who has the cap space. Now they're going to have to figure out their quarterback situation, so that might end up being.

DeForest Buckner and Daniil Hunter on the same defensive line. They have right now $64 million in cap space. There are only a few teams that could do something like it watson i mean yeah well um that in the division though so they're not going to do that um but the patriots also have 57 million dollars in cap space so there are some teams um that could do it but there are not a lot of teams that could do it and that's the problem it's not like you can create this big bidding war if the salary cap was going way up after this year then you probably could but the top defensive end and this is the report that hunter wants to be paid like the top defensive end the top guy makes 27 mil a year i mean there's no like fiddling with the cap to make

that not really expensive it's not like oh yeah well with the cap to make that not really expensive. It's not like, oh yeah, well year one, we'll make it. No, it doesn't really work that way when the guy wants 27 mil a year. So it is a difficult spot. If he goes, you can chase big fish and I would still put defensive end at the top of the list for them to draft because you want to create that bookend type of situation. I would also say as a little aside, if you trade Hunter, it's sort of like, oh, maybe you could have used the Anikin Gakwe. That's a joke. I'm kidding.

You're the worst. He wasn't a good fit, but like, ah, now you got none. You thought you had two. I mean, if they trade the new Hunter, do they go full fire sale and just start trading away and saying like, hey, if we can get rid of Daniil, let's see if we can get rid of Anthony or let's get rid of Harry or Rudy. I mean, there's a lot of things that can happen here if they let that one domino fall. That is really the linchpin to the entire offseason. I agree.

Because there's a good case for both ways. I mean, there's a good case for, hey, let's keep the great players here and build around them because the NFC is so rocky for next year with great quarterbacks leaving. Matt Stafford is going to go. Drew Brees is going to retire. Brady might win the Super Bowl and walk away. So you've got this open door. Who knows even what's going on with Rodgers? So you've got this open door potentially to walk through if you're the Vikings to win.

But at the same time, man, there's a lot of draft capital and there's a lot of holes that you need to fill. And there's a lot of cap space you could make and a lot of good free agents that there are very few teams that can really spend like crazy in free agency. So it's like how maddened do you want to make this off season but the one thing is that's very different to keep in mind like you said this is not hey we got to keep the 2017 team together this team's already been broken up so you don't really need to have like oh we've got to keep this piece in that piece um now speaking you mentioned uh kyle rudolph he did an interview with ben lever in which he kind of let a little bit of it out. I don't want to say he let it all out, but he let some of it out about his role and his situation, his contract.

And after listening to that, I don't think there's any doubt where this one stands. I think Kyle Rudolph's career as a Minnesota Viking is going to come to an end. They'll probably release him and make $5 million in cap space. But I don't, I don't see this going any other way. I don't, it sucks to not even think about Rudy and purple. That, that one, that one's one of those ones that you look at and you're just kind of like, that's, it's not right.

It's kind of like watching Tom Brady in red this year instead of Patriots. You're just like, that's not right. But if anyone's earned the right to say how they truly feel and how they really felt about this year, it's Rudy. And so to hear him say some of those things and to look at what he said and to think, man, he's probably gone, I think it's a safe assumption. He's always been a team guy. I mean, he's never raised any issues.

And so this is really the first time you kind of heard him push back a little bit. And I don't think he's ready to hang up the cleats. I think he's going to go and he's going to probably kind of do a Gronkowski chase a ring type thing because he's good enough that with the right fit, he could still be a 50 to 60 catches type of guy a year. I really do believe that because of the stuff that he can do. And if, man, you lose Rudy off that, you're looking at now, Irv Smith and Conklin of like, okay, boys, it's time to grow up.

Like, it's time to grow up now. There's no more playing around and sitting behind Rudy's shadow. Like, you've got to grow up now because the tight end needs to be a huge part of this offense. And they both came along well at the end of last year, but you still, you don't just replace a guy like Kyle like Kyle Rudolph you know we found that this year about how many guys you went oh well you know hey Xavier Rose isn't here anymore that's okay another guy will fill in and uh not great um you know Trey Waynes people gave Trey Waynes a hard time and no he was not

Stephon Gilmore or Deion Sanders but but it was like, you know, league average is really good and really valuable. And so when you compare that to Jeff Gladney, who was in the bottom five in quarterback rating when targeted, there's a big difference there. And the same goes for, hey, well, Everson, you know, he wasn't the same Everson. So Ifadi will be able to do the same. Turns out not so much. And I feel the same way with irv smith he'll

have the opportunity to take that big step forward and he's got a very unique skill set where he could be a weapon but it's not like a deadlock guarantee that because this year we saw at the beginning of the year no show then he's got an injury and then at the end of the year he comes on and plays really well it's like you know if you're going to be really good, it's 16 games of this. And that was the thing with Rudolph is every single week you knew exactly what he was going to give you. The thing that I'll just never quite get is why Kirk Cousins wouldn't throw him the ball more. I'll just never get it. Like, I don't think it was scheme.

I think it's just a Kirk thing that he really never trusted a guy who wasn't open, like that is open when he's not open yeah I mean I think Rudy's one of those guys that he was never going to create five yards of separation with a guy but he was going to box a guy out and you throw the ball in the right spot Rudy's going to catch it and that's just how he was that's how he always was and so I yeah I don't know if it was just the rapport of him and Kirk never really got on there but I mean you go back to 2016 season I know we're talking five years ago, but, I mean, Sam Bradford literally just plugged that dude in the ball over and over and over and over again, and it did pretty well for us.

So I think that he's going to go, again, ring chasing somewhere. He's probably got one or two years left in him would be my guess, and he's going to go give it hell somewhere else. But that's going to be really hard when they finally say goodbye to him because of how – mainly, I mean, what he's done in that community. I mean, what he's done in the city of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota, the children's hospital,

all of that. I mean, Rudy does so much off the field. It's incredible. Want to remind you about our friends at soda stick. If you use the promo code purple insider, you can get free shipping at soda stick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspired goods.

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Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Yeah, he's been just a staple of the organization for such a long time and seen them go through the ups and downs. So now it's kind of like the whole organization. Lots of people. just a staple of the organization for such a long time and seen them go through the ups and downs. So now it's kind of like the whole organization. Lots of people, George Payton is gone and Rudolph and most of the defensive guys, and it's just a completely new day in a lot of ways for this team.

So I want to switch gears, though, and just get your thoughts on what happened with the championship games and specifically what happened to your Buffalo Bills. We kicked field goals. Yeah, I knew it. Yeah, I knew that you would be on the same page with me on this. Like, what are you doing? You can't kick field goals against Mahomes. I know.

And at the game, even I was like, points are points. I understand that. But, like, against this team, it's just really hard. And, I mean, a lot of it, too. I mean, Josh Allen even said at the end of the game, like, we settled for field goals. And that's not just saying that the coach did. I mean, the players know that we didn't take advantage of our opportunities and score touchdowns. Like, when a player says we settled for field goals, the player is taking onus on himself of we didn't execute well enough in the red zone to score touchdowns.

Right. And I think people saw that quote and were like, oh, Josh is yelling at Sean. It's like, no, no, no, no. Like Josh very much understands where he was at because I promise you there was not a place in the NFL that I went over more situational football than the Buffalo Bills. Sean McDermott will make sure every player on every one of his teams knows exactly what his philosophy is,

knows exactly how he wants to do his things in the red zone high red low red like that's his gig able to so they had a plan and I'm sure that there's a reason that they kicked those field goals as far as what they thought they were gonna be able to do on defense and whatnot but I mean watching that game man Mahomes is just another level it's just you're watching him live and in person and it's one thing when you're on television when you're there and you're looking at the guy I got to go to the game, luckily. And I'm like, this guy just does incredible things that no one can ever do. I mean, Milano's got this dude draped around the waist for a sack,

and he's falling down and just zips it to Kelsey for a first down. And that's literally, I think that was the play where I was like, we're going to lose this game. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's just no way. How do you defend that? I said to my wife while watching that exact play, I know what you're talking about,

and I said, there's only five human beings in all of sports who ever do stuff like this. Like Randy Moss, Michael Jordan, Barry Sanders. Like there is LeBron James. Like there are only a handful of people who do things when you watch where you're like, that just broke my brain. Steph Curry is another one where you're like, how did you just dribble behind your back and then throw it from 40 feet away from the basket and it goes in? I don't get it.

And that's Patrick Mahomes. And I don't know how you stop it. These players, they're just, I mean, they dominate eras. And that's exactly what he's doing. Yeah, I mean, you've got to think of guys i mean you watch it what he does and you're like this dude's only in year four i think like you know i mean it's not like you're like watching the greatness of rogers you're watching like and you're like dude oh finally thank goodness he's dude like no this dude's just getting started like this dude

is going to like mean if he comes and wins another super bowl this year they'll start talking about will he catch tom Brady, right? Like that's the conversation that'll happen. But, I mean, I think a lot of it too is the weapons that Andy Reid has surrounded him with. I mean, you've got Tyree Kill and Nicole Hardman who dropped an early touchdown early in the game too. I mean, that game could have got way more out of control than it did. But if I want to flip gears and look at Josh Allen and the Bills, I think people didn't understand how much Zach Moss getting hurt really eliminated the run game for the Buffalo Bills.

Devin Singletary, I mean, he drops that third down conversion against the Blitz, which is a huge turning point in that game. They get the ball, they go down, score and take the lead. And then after that, you saw TJ Yeldon come in. But you're talking about your third string running back at that point in the AFC championship, right? I mean, if you don't have all your weapons firing when you can, and Breland did a really nice job on Diggs.

I mean, Diggs didn't have the big game that he usually has. And Chris Jones, as much as I thought the both guards, Feliciano and Ike Bucker, played really well, you can only hold that guy down for so long. And they schemed blitzes really well at the Buffalo Bills. Oh, yeah. They had really good answers all year, but it seemed like Josh May got a little rattled early in the game,

and he just didn't quite have the answers that he usually did against the blitz. I was watching the defense a lot, like pre-snap, their communication on the motions and things like that, and there was one particular play where the linebacker followed a running back in motion, which is usually an indicator for the quarterback. Like, oh, okay, it's going to be man coverage. And then that linebacker followed a running back in motion, which is usually an indicator for the quarterback. Like, oh, okay, it's going to be man coverage. And then that linebacker blitzed.

And Allen was like, what? Like, that just doesn't happen. And I think that Spagnuolo is like the low-key MVP of Kansas City. I mean, of course, it takes Mahomes and they score all the time. But I mean, in so so many games even against San Francisco the adjustments they made in the Super Bowl last year since he's come in there their defense it's like if your defense is even average you're probably going to win a lot with Mahomes but they're above average because of who's dialing up the plays and especially like Tyron Matthew is a

factor every single game and I think that's in part because of Steve Spagnuolo. Yeah, I agree. And I think that this is, you look at one of this defense, and this isn't going to surprise me if one of these, if this team becomes the team that people are like, I'll take pay cuts and I'll stay. You know what I mean? Because they have the opportunity to be that special where a lot of these guys have made a lot of money already in their career.

Now, if you're going to make it on your first contract, obviously you've got to go get what's yours. But if you're going to be on your second contract of a veteran player, yeah, I'll take a small amount of D if we're going to keep playing for AFC Championships and Super Bowls every year, and I've got the freaking super Superman behind me and Patrick Mahomes here, right? But one thing to really pay attention to in the Super Bowls,

they'll be playing with two backup tackles. Eric Fisher tearing his Achilles is not a really good thing. And you want to talk about a defensive line that can get after the pass rusher now? Tampa Bay. I mean, Pierre Paul, Sue, Golston. I mean, the list is pretty ridiculous. Shaq Barrett of how these dudes can get after the quarterback. And Vita Vea was a huge difference maker for them.

He played a ton. He pushed the pocket back. Yeah, I think that it's not going to be a blowout because of that. It's not going to be easy for Patrick Mahomes. I think it kind of will look like last year where the 49ers were beating the heck out of him mostly throughout that game, and it'll be on Andy Reid to kind of scheme up opportunities. I thought it was amazing that Mahomes never had to throw the ball over 20 yards in the air. Like he didn't have a single completion over 20 yards and just pick them apart and pick them apart. I mean, how do you stop a team that can do anything? Before we get to a

couple of questions I have about the Super Bowl, Rodgers, how much longer is Rodgers a Packer after this, you think? I mean, unless they don't want to pay him anymore, they have no reason to move him. I mean, the dude's going to be the MVP. The year he had, I mean he unless they don't want to pay him anymore they have no reason to move him I mean the dude's gonna be the MVP I did the year he had I mean he struggled against Tampa Bay but I mean there's a couple missed assignments in that game you talk about the Singletary one in the Bills game I mean the Alan Lazard missing the pick on Levante David for the Devante Adams touchdown in the corner it's a huge mental error it's a four-point play there and it's amazing when you talk about playoffs and especially championships like every little detail makes the difference I mean you can say about every game but it seems to get ramped up in the playoffs where both teams are so good

that the one missed assignment or the one missed opportunity can usually make the difference in the entire game and sometimes you really can pinpoint it to one play it's crazy when you look at it but I think if Rodgers wants to keep playing green bay finds a way to keep him there now if rogers is like i just i can't do this anymore tom brady's in the nfc now like he's gonna play at least 64 i'm out um then they move on and they go with the first round pick of who they took last year but i can't see him wanting to leave with the team that they have there and the ability to go back to where they're at again next year, which I think they could.

I would also be stunned. It would be shocking. I don't see them as a team that gets back there, though. You don't? No, I think that things get harder. Like when you look at their cap situation, how much they're paying a couple of people, you're going to have to let decent players go.

I don't know. I mean, when you don't draft well, like in this playoffs, A.J. Dillon was the only guy from their draft who played for them. Like when you don't draft well, it doesn't catch up with you right away, but it does down the road, as we've seen from the Vikings. Like 2019, their drafting from 2016 didn't matter. This year it did. And I think that will catch up with the Packers.

They'll be good. Like, it's not they're going to fall apart and go 4-12, but I don't think they go 13-3. I think it's more like a 10-6 type of situation. Asking Rodgers to be the MVP again, you know, pretty tough, because age catches up with most people that are not named Tom Brady. So let's do a love to see it, hate to see it, all Super Bowl edition here. I'm just going to start with love to see it when it is a elite

quarterback versus elite quarterback. And we're going to see throwing the ball all over the place, two of the best passing offenses, defensive lines who can get after the passer. So there's going to be pressure. It's going to be difficult. Like just broadly, the matchup, I think is amazing. I think it's about as good as you could have asked for for a Super Bowl matchup. I love to see that the fact that Tom Brady, as much as I hate to say it, basically told Bill Belichick, I don't need you, and I'm proving it. Right? I mean, he really is. He's saying, Bill, you didn't need you, and I'm proving it. Right? I mean, he really is.

He's saying, Bill, you didn't want to let me do my thing, and I love the quote from Bruce Arians during the game where he was like, I let Tom Brady coach. He came from a place that didn't let him do that. It's like, dog shot, heads down, shots fired across the field. Right? But I think I love that, again, it's watching the elites, and I know people get tired of them, but I'm actually excited to watch Tom Brady in the Super Bowl for someone not named the New England Patriots.

I was tired of watching the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and I'm excited to watch Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahomes. I think that seeing him be elite even away from Bill Belichick is exactly what he wanted to do, exactly what he wanted to prove, and if he wins it, he definitely rides off into the sunset. The great part is that there was a report that came out about Brady's exit a while back. And part of it was that a lot of the coaching staff for the Patriots

thought that Brady's success was largely the scheme, and then he just kind of had to execute it. That's not how it works, my friends. That is not how it works. Is it not amazing? This is my perception as a reporter, but you can tell me as a player, how often coaches think it's them. I mean, like I'm not saying they're not brilliant

and they don't understand the schemes or how to teach the techniques and all those things that players have to execute, but it's not you. It's never you. It's always the Jimmy and Joe and not the X's and O's. Always, 100% out of 100. Yeah, I mean, you can scheme up the best blitz or the best play known to man, but if you've got someone out there and you don't have 11 guys that can execute it, it don't matter.

It don't matter what it looks like on paper. I mean, every good coach I've ever been around is like, I can't take the rep for you. Like, why do you think I yell at you on the sideline if you mess it up? Because I know you have to do it right. Right. And then when you have a guy like Tom Brady, who's an elite guy, he always, and then you start labeling, well, he's just a game manager. That eats at those dudes. Because he's like, I'm not a game manager. I'm a game guy. I'm a difference maker. I'm a star around me in the scouting report. We have to take this guy away or he will destroy us. And you're seeing that happen with Tom Brady.

In no way, shape, or form is he ever or will be a game manager. You could say Peyton Manning turned into a game manager in Denver at the end of his career there when they won the Super Bowl because he did. But I have not seen one thing from Tom Brady this year that's like, nope, this dude's just don't turn the ball over, stay within the scheme. This dude's firing that pigskin. It's third one, and they bomb one to the freaking end zone, and he drops it in the bucket, dude.

He is an incredible talent. I mean, I'm going to be sad when he retires. I mean, I will. Just not watching how cool it is to watch him do Tom Brady things is super fun. Most deep passes in the NFL this year, over 20 yards. That's not game manager. Well, remember when he had, like, none of them to start with, and everyone's like, he's done.

He's done. It's over. And then he just came out the second half of the year and just lit it up. And, I mean, we always look at things now through the lens of wins above replacement. They had a replacement-level quarterback last year, Jameis Winston, and they went 7-9. And now they've got Tom Brady and they're in the Superbowl. Like there's the difference between a,

how much over replacement is he can take a seven to 19, put them in the Superbowl is what Tom Brady can do. So yeah, I don't think that's a, I don't think that's a game manager or a system quarterback when you have the capability to do that. I hate to see it is that Bill's fans as loyal and as wonderful as they are and uh you um joined their traditions of jumping through a table before the game they get to go home sad again and it's the afc is going to be a bear going forward it's going to be really tough for them things get harder from here people

want to get paid josh allen's going to have to get paid. And, I mean, I'm happy for my friends in Buffalo who had a fun season, but my dad was already rationalizing at the end of the game of like, well, you know, I mean, we've got a lot to build on. This was a fun year. And I'm like, I don't know, man. Hate to see a team missing their one shot is the way I would put it. Their one shot?

I think it's their one shot. I think they got it. I think they got two more years. So obviously the recipe for success right now is winning with a quarterback on a rookie contract, right? I think you can extend Josh Allen into the point where next year he's still not a huge cap hit, but Diggs is still there. You've got the offensive linemen that are now going to need to get paid

deon dawkins has already paid the big question mark is where if you look at the defense if you look at the bills i think that you got to ask what was the difference in this game as to why they couldn't win and the answer is because they couldn't get to patrick mahomes without the run without the right yep and so i think if you're looking at again what do they need to fix i think that they they need to go get a good pass rusher because that division now i mean you're looking at again what do they need to fix I think that they they need to go get a good pass rusher because that division now I mean you're talking you've got Tua or maybe Deshaun Watson in Miami um New England will rebuild whether it's Cam Newton or or it's no one else and then the Jets are now they've got I don't know maybe a good team they have talent it's just like

who's calling the shots who's at the helm there will make the difference. So I think that, again, yeah, now that you're the first place in the division, you kind of see it like the Vikings in 2018. Like your schedule now is very, very hard. You're now playing the elites every single week, and it's tough. So I agree. I don't think that next year you'll have the 13-3 team like they did this year, but I still think this is a 10- 11 win team for the next couple of years

who can get into the playoffs and then do some damage. I think that a 10 win team is probably right. I'm not saying that they have reached the 2019 Vikings where they're about to let everybody go. They have the pieces that will stay in place. It's just you almost lost two playoff games at home where Rivers had the ball, the chance to beat you lamar jackson gave you a free interception like you kind of got away with some things and a lot of

things broke your way this year you played ben roethlisberger at the right time and he gave you a pick six and it's just it's very hard to go 13 and three and it's not like i think they're trash it's just that it's like we see this with even good teams where we go oh yeah they'll be right back and then the next year they're just okay and they get beaten the first round or the second It's just that it's like we see this with even good teams where we go, oh, yeah, they'll be right back. And then the next year they're just OK. And they get beat in the first round or the second round by somebody great because you're not a two seed anymore. You're a six seed, something like that. And I just think that's kind of how the league ends up working.

And so I guess hate to see it, Bills fans who think they're going to be 13-3 next year. What's your hate to see it? I think my hate to see it is the two weeks before the Super Bowl. I know I mentioned it last week, but I already am tired of it. It's like, dude, we should just be playing this weekend to get it over with. Let's move on in life. The two-week build-up thing just gets it

nauseam, where you're just like, I can't talk about it anymore, to where you're just ready for it to be over instead of excited for it to start. I think that's a good way to put it. But I do think that this is going to be a really fun game. I just hate the fact that I have to wait to see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good one.

That's a good one. Last one before we wrap up. I'll just say this, that love to see it is usually, and I hope they do this again, NFL Network in the week before the Super Bowl will play all the old Super Bowl recaps that are amazing. They're like, Bautstar against, you know, like, Jan Stennerud kicked the first field goal in Super Bowl history

for the Kansas City Chiefs. And I love watching them whenever I can. So I love to see those. And I was going to ask you, what is your favorite Super Bowl? Favorite Super Bowl that you ever watched? My favorite Super Bowl is going to have to be when the Broncos won it in, what was that, 98? 99?

The first one, whatever the first one was. Because I can remember my father crying, like just so happy, so much excitement, and like out in the street, just like, ah, just yelling. And I got to go to the Super Bowl parade and sit on dad's shoulders. Oh, that's awesome. Like that will always and forever be one of my favorite memories of them winning that game and just how excited everything was in Denver and how cool everything was.

Just being a kid and not really understanding the gravity of it all at that point, but just how neat it really was of like, cool, this is just something that happens all the time, right? Then they do it again, and you're like, oh, this is easy. As you get older, you can start to really appreciate what that team did and what that Broncos team looked like with going and beating, I think it was the Packers? Let's see, it was Falcons and then Packers?

Falcons, then Packers. Yeah. Like, yeah, so I can just, I just remember that very vividly. But what about you? For me, it's probably the, even though the Bills had some bad luck in that particular playoffs and a forward pass by the Tennessee Titans but my favorite football game just straight up like incredible drama from start to finish was Tennessee and uh the St. Louis Rams yeah great love both quarterbacks love both offenses the defenses were filled with

great players um it was just it was such a battle like team, I mean, that was a tough, violent team. Javon Kurse was at the peak of his powers. And then the way that it ended, a guy reaching out to the one-yard line. I mean, you just can't ask for any more of a dramatic game with so many great players. So that one is my favorite that I kind of keep going back to all the time. But that's in part because, you know, my dad is a Bills fan and has never had a chance to cry at a Super Bowl victory. So there's that part. Well, Jeremiah, great stuff, man.

I think it's snowing outside. You're going to have to go back outside. We're getting three more inches tomorrow. I'm not excited about it. Good luck with that. All right, thanks for your time. And next week we will, I mean, we'll get hardcore. Let's do it.

And maybe Matt Stafford will be traded by then. We'll see. He's going to the Steelers. Really? You think so? I got him going to Denver. Steelers. Roethlisberger out.

He goes in there, just hucks it. We'll talk about it next week. That'll be next week. All right. Thanks, man. Later. Football.