Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: What happened to the Vikings' offense vs. Tampa Bay? And unique Stefon Diggs perspective

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins Matthew Coller to break down the All-22 film and figure out what went wrong for the offense against the Bucs, especially in key situations. How the offensive line issues and Tampa's coverage forced bad plays and what they can fix over the final three games. Plus Jeremiah talks about playing with Stefon Diggs and what his comments to ESPN meant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, welcome to Tuesday Morning Left Guard. Matthew Collar, along with former NFL offensive lineman Jeremiah Thurls. One of his former teams is doing great. The other one of his former teams, you know, it was a struggle on Sunday for the Minnesota Vikings offensive line. And I think for the second straight week, I have to say, since you just watched the tape, Jeremiah, you okay? No. No, it wasn't good at all i just want to get on here one time and be like man that was cool that was fun to watch like i was excited when i finished that film i don't think i've had one of those this year maybe one i'm trying to think i'm really am i mean this is what week 14 now so 14 of these

what was that week one I don't know well when they when they beat the Packers yeah when they beat the Packers that was good that was good that was good but there's like that might be it and it's just like I'm getting to the point where I'm watching and I'm just like why why like why can't this just freaking stop? And, I mean, the answer is because we're just not very good. The thing that always comes up every week is when teams run twists or stunts or any of that stuff, little defensive line games. Little old TTs, DTs, NTs, the three mans. Which, you know, I mean, you see every week, every team, every defense does these things

where you have one guy rush the one way and then another guy circles back around him. You can spot it on TV when you're watching. And I can tell you who can't spot it is the left guard of this NFL team. It is remarkable how much they have been whipped on these on a week-to-week basis. And on the first drive, the Vikings are driving down, and they're rolling, and they get to a third down, and it is pretty much a basic stunt. And Dakota Dozier goes right along with his guy, and then here comes Shaq Barrett walking to the quarterback.

And at one point, I sent you the still photograph. Dakota Dozier has his arms around Kirk Cousins as well, and I don't think that that's how that's supposed to work. So it just seems like at this point, this can't be solved. This is something that they're going to get beaten on every single week. So here, for the coach speak and the technical speak of how you defeat this, I'm going to kind of try and walk you through this. So there's one way to defeat twist games. There's the penetrator and there's the looper, right? So when it's a TE, that means tackle end,

that means the defensive tackle that's lined up over the guard is going to run directly at the tackle's inside shoulder and try and pick him and turn his shoulder so that he can't come back on. You have to, what is called flatten the penetrator. Every offensive line coach has screamed this no less than a million times, flatten the penetrator, which means you have to hit him with your hands and you have to stop him from getting to that shoulder.

And then if you flatten the penetrator, you then have to snap him over to your buddy and settle back with depth that's how you stop the stunt very simple to talk about much harder to do when you don't use your hands which Dakota Dozier must forget he has hands you can use them you're allowed to punch people in the National Football League. But he likes to use the flippers, the 1970s electric football man, and try and push them across. And Riley Reif really has no choice unless he straight vertical sets, which you can do. But when we're under center, you're not going to straight vertical set as a tackle because you're just going to get bull

rushed to death. If you do, you're going to set a little bit on an angle so that's how you stop the te when you stop the et it's the exact same thing for the tackle right you have to flatten down the penetrator so that he doesn't get to your guard's hip but the thing that's screwing us on the ets and more ezra cleveland the dakota dozer is ezra cleveland likes to jump set everything and he has to be more and he's young he has to be more, and he's young, he has to be more aware, hey, third and longs, second and longs, obvious passing situations, end of half, end of game. I can't just jump set this guy.

I need to settle with a little bit of depth too to make sure my tackle and I are on the same level. Because you see it in the fourth quarter, you see Ezra got Sue on him, so obviously you want to get your hands on him, and he just jump sets him, and Sue just kind of sits there, hugs him, waits a second, and then just loops around as the DN smashes down into him. Now, granted, Rashad Hill has to flatten the penetrator a little bit better, but you have to see it as a guard and get back off the football.

And it just, when you are all on different levels and you're not working together, it's a recipe for disaster. And I think I said this four or five weeks ago, like we opened Pandora's box against whatever team ran stunts to death on us. Carolina. Yes, it was Carolina. They just stunted us to death. And we are going to continue to see it every week.

Teams are going to put in more and more stunts until we show that we can stop it. And by the looks of that, I'm not sure we can. Here's what I don't get about that is that these guys have been playing together. I mean, they have had four of the five guys healthy all season long. And Ezra Cleveland, I know, had a little break a couple games in there where he got hurt with his ankle. But for the most part, he's played a lot of reps now. And there are times on the tape where you just think,

is this your first day together? I mean, that's what you would expect. Like in 2016 when it was a different offensive line every single week, I think that there were some of the same issues where there would be guys looking at each other, wait a minute, what happened? Why didn't you get that guy? Why didn't I get that guy? But that shouldn't be an issue here.

And I know that Ezra Cleveland is playing out of position, but he seemed to make some good progress early on. But then it seems like as the NFL will tend to do, they figured out some things and those things really cropped up. I mean, this was a setback for him. I thought PFF gave him eight pressures that were on him, which is a lot. And after that, that drops him into the bottom 10 in the entire NFL among guards in terms of pressure rate allowed.

So at one point we're saying, hey, you know, it's going really well at right guard and he's doing all right. But eventually, if you got a weakness, they're going to figure it out. And the other thing, too, is if you have talent, which Tampa Bay has a ton of talent on that defensive line. And here we are again talking about the Achilles heel of the Minnesota Vikings when they play a talented defensive line that these teams have no problems getting after the quarterback. Absolutely. And I think this can all go back to what we talked about last week and every week,

even when you were still like, playoffs! That when the Vikings play their absolute best, they are an average football team. And when they don't play their very best and they play against a team that is coming off a loss and fighting for their playoff hopes still, they don't really, they can't compete when it comes to that. Unless they are firing on all cylinders all across the board, when they come up against an equal caliber of talent team or even a little bit more caliber of talent team, they really struggle.

And I think we're seeing that more and more. Granted, we have a lot of pieces missing, especially on defense. But, I mean, up front, there's really – I don't think – I think we've hit our ceiling for this offensive line for 2020. I don't think we're going to see another jump taken by this group. I think that what we see out of these guys right now is what we're going to see throughout the rest of the year. And that's scary because there's some good talent still coming up

on the rest of this that we'll be playing against here. I mean, it's not like we're going up to play some slappies here the rest of the year. There's some good guys coming up. So that worries me a little bit because I just don't see it getting any better, Matt. Yeah, Chicago and New Orleans. Chicago does have some weaknesses in their past defense. But it's not the front. Right, it's not on the front.

Exactly. I watched them dismantle Cincinnati this week it was right it was yeah and and the thing was in the first game Khalil Mack still annihilated them as he does and really the Vikings offense got going once Hakeem Hicks went out of the game and the big plays often came on third down and long where this team generally struggles and I would expect Chicago to have a better plan against the Vikings on third and long now I wanted to ask you because that was to me the story of the game as much or more than the kicker or as much or more than the referees was every time you got an opportunity

to score it was a sack it was a setback and I think that you know people say well you lost you know nine points from Dan Bailey's field goals. I say you lost 21 points by not scoring touchdowns. Correct. And I want to know your opinion on the quarterback, the offensive line, the play caller. How do we parse these things out? It is another feature of Kirk Cousins' game that he doesn't have a lot of escapability, and he will just take that key sack at the worst time.

He has taken, here's a number for you you he's only dropped back on third and long third and seven or more 66 times this year and he's been sacked on 11 of them that is an extremely high percentage of getting sacked on on your drop backs on on third and long or in any situation so i want to know as you watch it in a game like this how do you parse that out? Because there were times where I went, I don't know where Kirk was supposed to deliver the ball. Somebody's not giving him answers either. Yeah, I mean, well, a lot of times they were just covered up. I think at least three of the sacks that I watched,

they were just covered up. There was just nowhere to go with the football, good coverage on the back ends, coverage sack. And then the other three were guys getting beat and not allowing enough time for the play to develop. The one that really blows my mind, and I sent you the video, I watched it no less than a dozen times trying to figure out what the hell was going on, was the second down sack at the beginning of the fourth quarter when they drive down there.

And it was the worst sequence of Viking football to date this year right yes first down first and goal from what the four or something like that and you have a play action they blitz off the edge throw it away cool second down the second down play it looks like 11 guys running 11 different things you have Justin Jefferson on the left side, the lone receiver running to go block the safety at about 75% speed. Okay. Then you got the three receiver side on the right. And those three literally all run into each other as they come off the ball.

And it looks like three raccoons in a wool sock trying to fight their way out. And then you have Dowson Cook who is doing a play action, but then you have Kirk Cousins who's throwing a bubble screen and you have the entire offensive line blocking inside zone. And it, it's mind blowing that at the most critical point of the game, you're going to score to cut it to,

I think that would have cut it to probably seven, right? Or two, right? I think that would have cut it to two at or two. I think that would have cut it to two at that point. And nobody knows what's going on. Like we talked about this last week. How does that happen?

I'm banging on things. That shouldn't happen anymore, right? And so that's a sack in right there. That's not on Cousins. That's on everyone. That's on the whole offense not knowing what's going on. And then you get to the third down again, and they run a T.E. on the right side, and they smash down into Ezra Cleveland, and Rashad Hill doesn't flatten the penetrator, and then they destroy Kirk Cousins.

And now what was first and four on the four-yard line is fourth and forever kicking a 40-some-yard field goal. So you want to blame Dan Bailey? Sure. He does need to shoulder some blame. But that's the kind of crap that you can't do against playoff-caliber teams and expect to win. So I don't understand it, man.

There's some certain sacks where you're like, okay, I'm going to wear it. But this team is too talented on the edge to have receivers not get open. And there was some times, I mean, Kirk missed some throws now. Like Jefferson was open early in the game that he didn't feed him to. And I can kind of see a little, for the first time, I saw a little diva in Jefferson where he wasn't getting the football. And so that 75% on the backside of the runs or that 75% on that backside route where he's probably not the first option. I saw that 75% on that backside route where he's

probably not the first option. I saw a little bit of that this game for the first time this year. We should, because I do want to ask you about Stefan Diggs comments at some point. So instead of Devo, did we, maybe we saw a little Diggs and hey, this has been, this has been my whole point. If you don't throw him the football jefferson's gonna have the same reaction as every receiver who's ever not been thrown the football

enough that's ever played football this is the thing about vikings fans and digs acting like this is brand new about wide receivers and football i just watched a video on youtube of to talking with randy moss which was really cool, honestly. But guess what they're talking about? Donovan McNabb wasn't throwing me the ball on these certain plays. But like, of course, this is wide receivers. This is how they are. But I think that that was a major storyline, too, was I took away why in the world are you not on the same page for one at this point in the game I mean this is week what 14 14 so you will never be on the same page if you are not on the same page by now but the other thing is you can't let other teams shut down Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen it's just not a

thing that should be able to happen in the year 2020 receivers who dominate the game they find ways to get them the ball. I mean, every team, every week, they're doing it. You don't think every team is game planning for Tyreek Hill, right? I mean, or Stephon Diggs or any of that. Like, okay, they're finding a way, so you have to find a way. And your run was established. That's the big thing you talk about.

Oh, we've got to establish the run to set up this and this and this. Well, you establish the run, and you still couldn't get Jefferson the ball enough, in my opinion. I don't know if you saw something that the defense was doing that was taking him away, or was it just Kirk not looking in his direction? I don't, again, I think it was the lack of play action. First of all, there was nowhere near the amount of play action that we're used to seeing out of this football team. For whatever reason reason we got under center and just ran straight drop back instead of the big play action huge crossovers like i just didn't see it as much as i mean there was games that we opened the game like four straight play action passes right and that's where

jefferson excels because he can run away from guys streaking across the field. So I think that, A, that was part of it. B, there was a few he just missed. But a lot of it, too, was when Kirk gets pressured early up the middle, his vision becomes much shorter. And he starts to look less down the field and more for quick answers. And that's why you saw more checkdowns of C.J. Hamm. You saw more of conklin right i mean conklin had i think he had like four or five catches this game maybe more i mean he should not

have more catches than jefferson ever period end of story i don't care if you have to force it to jefferson like just find ways to get the football in his hands i mean i've seen the guys deandre hopkins makes catches with four people all over him all the time because Kyler Murray's just like outlet bam and I don't know if Kirk Cousins doesn't have that comfortability factor with him yet I feel like he should but I do think that because he had pressure on him early because he got sacked six times because McClendon would lift Garrett Bradbury up out of his shoes and set him down into Kirk Cousins lap that that played a big factor into it too. But it struggled. I wanted to see Jefferson get creative in maybe, not Jefferson,

more Kubiak, I guess, in creative how to get the ball into Jefferson's hands. Quick screens, slants, end around, just something to get him going a little bit, to give him that moxie and a little bit to get that open piece. But that just didn't happen, and it can't happen. When you have a guy like that, if you want a great example, go re-watch Sunday Night Football last night because they knew where the ball was going. Everyone in the freaking country watching that game knew where the ball was going.

It was going to number 14, our beloved good friend, Stefan Diggs. And it didn't matter that they knew. They just kept plugging away to him. Got a great holiday deal to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER15, you can get 15% off your purchases during this holiday season when you buy two items or more. Go to SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. So many great designs, especially the holiday sweaters.

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Numbers, analytics, data, football. We got them. Play actions on Sunday. The Vikings were, I'm sorry, Kirk Cousins was 12 for 13 passing with 125 yards when he did not use play action, 50% completion percentage, and 4.2 yards per attempt. Now some of that is being down in the game for sure. But early on, as you mentioned, it wasn't used a whole heck of a lot. And they were running and running and running,

and Troy Aikman is just flipping out about their possession and I'll look at a run and look at a run it's great and you have six points I mean it's just you know they didn't use it that much early on and they weren't able to hit on the explosive plays and it's another point about relying on explosive plays especially when you have an offensive line that is prone to having people run through it. Right. So, I mean, I guess, I guess I wonder what the big picture takeaway here is from this type of game, because we have another, you're one of your reporter friends that you love when you were playing, asked about measuring sticks and so forth when playing the Tampa Bay Bucs. And, you know, I just, I guess it does make sense, though,

even though it's a tremendous cliche. Like, you played the good team, and the same thing happened to you is every time you have a measuring stick game, pretty much over the last couple of years with Cousins, with these offensive lines and this quarterback and star-wide receivers, it's just, it is on repeat every time they play a team with a good defensive line and my question is how do you change that from being your fate every time you play a team with a good d line because i think they would have plans to be good next year but it's going to be the same thing if they don't

change something you've skull search for a left tackle in the first round there it is there there it is left tackle has been maybe the best position online i agree so you either extend riley reef which i don't necessarily know how the relationship between reef and the front office is after the basically saying hey take a pay cut or we're cutting you right so worth it so i mean essentially i don't know how great that relationship is but you still have to draft a tackle or you're going to have to pay Brian O'Neal with money you find somewhere, right? I mean, you need to draft quality offensive linemen or because you don't have the money to go buy a good offensive lineman.

You can go buy an average offensive lineman, but you're not going to be able to be breaking the bank to get a good offensive lineman right now with the cap space that you have. And the cap really actually going down is going to be interesting of how that all works. But, I mean, you have to start developing staples, right? Riley Reif has been a staple at offensive line. He's really been the only one.

He's the only one still there from when I was there. Rashad Hill, I guess, but, I mean, he's a backup, right? He is. Unless you think he can develop into a starter, they're probably going to send him packing down the road here too, would be my guess, because I think someone else might see him as a starter. Hard to say. I can see it, yeah. I absolutely can see someone saying, you know what, he's played a lot of football. I thought, by the way, shout out Rashad Hill. I thought he did a really nice job in his heavy package with no Rudolph and those guys coming and playing tight end.

He was a big reason why that run game was actually getting rolling early on. He was getting guys out on the edge. He was mismatching against some linebackers. So shout out to my guy, Rashad Hill. But going back to your original question, you have to draft some early offensive linemen. Spend early picks on offensive linemen that are above six foot tall, and it'll help you down the long run, right?

Develop those guys. Find them one position, stick them there. Keep Ezra Cleveland at right guard. I think it was very apparent they want him to play guard when O'Neal and Rashad got hurt. They moved our guy Dozier to tackle before they moved Ezra to tackle, right? So it's apparent they want him to play guard would be my guess. Leave him there. Go get a decent guy that you think can get you through a year at left guard in free agency, right?

And draft a guy to develop there in the second or third round for one year and then hand him the keys to the car. And I think that's what you got to do because you're stuck with Bradbury for another couple of years. You spent a first round pick on him. He ain't going nowhere. But all the other pieces around him there are fixes but i don't see anyone being a huge fix within one year from right now i also feel like it might be banging

my head and vikings fans heads up against the wall to say that delvin cook is phenomenal but your obsession with him is a little much uh that it's great to be able to dominate entire drives with Delvin Cook in the running game and hand off and hand off, throw a screen pass. But when your first two drives, I think are pretty much all the same player over and over and over again. I mean, yeah, you're wearing him down. We've talked about that. That's a problem,

but it's also just the year 2020, where offenses need to be, how you beat other teams, and also in this game in particular, almost not really taking into consideration who you're playing. I mean, you're playing as Tom Brady. You're going to have to score a lot of points. Your defense had, actually, I'll have you guess, how many pressures do you think that the defense, all together and and even including times where two guys got pressure on the same play how many you think it was three okay you saw that then you must you saw that okay i looked it up because i was curious i looked it up i was like watching the tape and i was like good god he's standing like a statue back there yeah like he looked like

an old man standing back there playing catch with his son like that's what he looked like. They just couldn't get to him. You want to catch, Dad? And you want to know why? Because they spent a first-round pick on Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa who is playing phenomenal football for them right now. Well, look, you and I have no disagreements on the offensive line's importance, especially as they go play a Chicago team that had Nick Foles for a while. And Nick Foles, when he had an unbelievable offensive line in 2017,

suddenly looked majestic. And even your guy Josh Allen looks pretty good behind a very good offensive line there in Buffalo. There's no question in my mind that that's correct. It's just that Kirk Cousins is the third highest pressured quarterback in the league, and he's always that every single year. And with their offensive line, it's always a problem at left guard, and it's always a problem with handing off and running too much with Mike Zimmer.

And it ties into what Stefan Diggs said, that he wanted to go somewhere where that wasn't the philosophy, is essentially what he told ESPN. And he said that no one would listen to him when he was trying to say, look, we're going to have to throw the ball to win against these better teams. And it just seems like you're stuck in a place that Mike Zimmer doesn't want to move, that Gary Kubiak doesn't want to move. And I don't know what to do about that. For the next three years, am I supposed to do every other podcast about how they run too much i mean like i don't know but it when you get in a game like that you

have to score touchdowns and you tried field goals and i i wrote down on this this is a um what is it like a letterhead letter yep yeah it's a letter um that's what they call them now and i wrote down every prove it game that the vikings have had since kirk cousins has been here and i came up with 16 of them and they've won four right and you can't tell me the 2018 and 2019 teams were in transition or not great they were great so or at least really good they were good how do you solve that that's the problem i want to know for 2021 this year okay tell me about hunter tell me about, okay, tell me about Hunter. Tell me about Pierce again.

Tell me about the young corners. Tell me this, this, this, this, this. How do you solve the letter? There it is, hitting the microphone. How do you solve that? Solve it for me. I can't, dude, because I don't think anyone can. I don't think George Payton and Rick Spielman don't sleep at night

trying to solve that problem because you look at what the team is, you look at the cap space, and you look at the fact that their head coach has got extended. There's nothing on the foreseeable horizon that's like, that's going to be the change, right? Everything is kind of, like you said, stuck. So until something drastic happens, which I don't know what that is. Again, if you know, tweet me, tell me, because I'd love to know. But it looks like it's going to be a lot more of the same and hoping for a better result,

which, if I'm not mistaken, is the definition of insanity. So it could be interesting to see if there's a huge offensive change again. Does Kubiak move on? Do they bring someone in? But you saw what happened when they brought in an offensive coordinator that wanted to throw the football. Old Mr. DeFilippo there didn't last real long with old Mike Zimmer saying, hey, run the football. And he's like, no, we're going to throw it. And eventually, at the end of the day, head coach has the final say. You want to say, go back to another guy who liked to throw the football a little too

much, Mr. Norv Turner. So there is a reason that these, you think that he hires these offensive coordinators that are just run heavy? No, no, no. There is an overbearing hand from the head coach, which is fine. When you have HC on your hat, you have the right to do these things of this is my philosophy for the team. You have to then conform your offense to my philosophy. And I think that's a lot of what's going on. And until he can hire an offensive corner that's going to be all right with slinging the rock and catching the heat from him, I don't see a lot changing. The definition of insanity from the dictionary is the state of being seriously

mentally ill or madness, extreme foolishness or irrationality. I think extreme foolishness is focusing solely on the run on second and ten. Like, extreme foolishness is four catches in a big game for Justin Jefferson. That is the change. That is the change. To me, it's not even that complicated. It's don't repeat the same mistake you made with the guy who wanted to get traded last time with the guy you have now, because he's unstoppable.

I just, he, Jefferson has so much talent. I think he's unstoppable and you don't have to have them only run routes, 20 yards down the field. And if you change just that part of it and say, you know what? The last guy wanted to trade. How about we make sure this guy doesn't. I think that gets you a lot farther. And I think I actually think you can win with Kirk in big games. I agree.

You let him throw to Justin Jefferson all the time. Yeah, I mean, do what Josh Allen did, right? Get Justin Jefferson, have him be the first one to 100 catches like Stephon Diggs. They've literally thrown him the football a hundred times. Do that with Justin Jefferson. There's nothing wrong with that. No one's going to get mad at you if Justin Jefferson's the first receiver to 100 catches, right?

No one's going to be like, wow, that's a bad stat. Except for maybe Zimmer because he's like, well, Dalvin didn't touch it 100 times yet. Right. And that might be two games. That might be the issue. I mean, but again, throw a slant to him. Throw a bubble screen.

Throw a hook. It doesn't have to be the home run hitters every time i think you nailed it on that and i'm sorry to like just you know belabor the point with this but i think it's an overarching philosophical issue as you go forward when it comes to this franchise changing player that you acquired by pure draft luck that everybody else was like i don't know we'll take a guy with 30 catches from TCU. Great. So don't mess it up because then you're going to end up in the same spot. Was there anything else on the tape that you watched that maybe didn't hurt you inside that you wanted to bring up or point out?

No. No, it mostly hurt. It mostly just hurt. it mostly just hurt it mostly just hurt so i know that you are a stefan diggs fan absolutely love it a huge stefan diggs fan and i just wanted you to talk about being his teammate because sometimes i get frustrated because alex boone and i used to talk about it and i think that there's a perception when someone's mad on the sideline and throws their helmet that they are diva, selfish, all these types of things. Everyone that I've asked about this has said, yeah, I mean, sometimes it's too much.

But would you rather have it be not enough? Because the guys who are not enough are usually not in the league very long. So maybe you could just explain the Stefan Diggs teammate thing. Yeah, so I actually grew – I say this. I kind of grew up with Stefan Diggs. So when I got traded to the Vikings week one of 2015, we went out to San Francisco and got our teeth kicked in the first week. And I was inactive and digs was inactive

and i can remember us we didn't know each other from adam but we both kind of looked at each other like whoa what is what are we getting ourselves into here and digs is i can remember him being like i'm gonna help us win these football games like i need to be active and he sure enough a couple games later was active he started kind of getting in a mojo and and he was very unselfish and he just really focused on wanting the team to win at that point I mean you gotta remember this kid was a fifth round pick out of Maryland that was injured the whole time right this wasn't a first round pick this wasn't a guy that had it all handed to him like he battled through a ton and so I remember watching him grow up that year and understanding

it and getting to the next year was when he really start to become a superstar. And, yeah, he's a fiery competitor, but I think that there is a time where emotions boil over and some guys have a little bit harder time putting a lid on that than others. I mean, I watched Alex Boone throw his helmet on the sideline, right? I mean, I literally had to pull Alex Boone away from official because he called him an FEP word, right? Like, I was like, Boone, that's too much, right? That's too much.

And so, of course, there's times when digs are too much. But I would 100% agree. I'd rather have the guy that has too much than the guy that sits on the sideline with the blank stare on his face like, eh, well, my check's still cleared, right? There's definitely those guys in the NFL. And I've talked to a lot of guys in Buffalo that say digs is one of the hardest working, most unselfish players, including Josh Allen, who loves the guy. And so as a teammate, I loved Stefan.

I mean, me and him were actually fairly close. We had good friends. I still talk to him every now and then just to say, hey, good luck. I shot him a text last night. Like, he's a great guy. And did it get a little ugly there at the end in Minnesota? Yeah, because if you're a fiery competitor and you're paid as one of the highest paid receivers and then you feel like your voice isn't being heard, you're going to get upset.

Anyone's going to get upset because they feel like they've earned the right to have their voice heard. And when it's not, of course you're going to want to try and go somewhere else. So I don't think that it was by malintent or by like anger towards the Vikings but more just like hey I know what we can do to help us win but you're not listening to me so I guess I'm just gonna go somewhere else and it got blown out a little bit more proportion than that but I think at the end of the line it was just the fact that he wanted to win so bad and they knew that they weren't listening to him to help him win. So he needed to get out and get a change for his own career sake. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over.

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Don't forget to use promo code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag. That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I think if he hadn't missed the practices, then this would be looked at differently, which probably by the way, his quarterback one player of the month, the next month after he skipped those practices, I'm just saying that, you know, people have said, well, he hurt the team by missing the practices and sending a message like, well, I don't think that that was actually the result. But I, this my theory, that Diggs was always a little bit uncomfortable when he was in front of us or when he was trying to speak publicly.

He is smart. He's a good talker. But in front of the media, there's a little bit of discomfort there. And especially when he was trying to explain why he missed the practices. First, he says he's sick. Then he says there's truth to all rumors. And then it's just like, what is going on with you, man? And there was this enigmaticness to him, I think, in the public eye.

Thank you, writer. That when I would chat with him in the locker room and I would see the way he interacted with other people in the locker room, I didn't get that from him, but I did when the lights were on and in front of the media and so forth. And I think that his inability to express publicly what some of his frustrations were made it harder because it opened up just the door for everyone to just decide what they thought it was.

You know, like, oh, I guess he's just Terrell Owens because, like, that's how receivers are. You know, and it's like that's not really fair because he's not Terrell Owens, he's Stephon Diggs. And I also wanted to make this point, and just in my experience talking with players, I think every player would love to adjust the sliders on their own usage. Like Jeremiah Searles would love to say,

I should be the one starting at right guard in this situation. Or Brett Jones would love to say, shouldn't I be in it? You think Brett Jones' family is watching this left guard and going like, what? But Brett Jones is not a $17 million a year superstar who caught the Minneapolis Miracle play. Like one guy actually has some control over his situation and another guy really doesn't. And so that's another part of it too,

that to be upset with Diggs is fair if you're a fan because you want him to be on your team and you want him to be catching those, those balls for you and not from Josh Allen. But I think that holding it against someone and calling them a selfish player because they want to adjust their own situation to their liking is a little unfair. Because when I worked at McDonald's, I asked to work in the back instead of the front. I was adjusting my own situation at McDonald's. And when I worked in radio, I wanted to be instead of a reporter, I wanted to have my own show.

So, you know, right? So, like, everybody always does this. But if a football player does it and if it becomes public, then he's a diva. He's selfish. I think that's unfair. I completely agree. and if it becomes public, then he's a diva. He's selfish. I think that's unfair. I completely agree. You've got to remember, this is our profession, too. So this is our livelihood.

Yeah, we're making millions of dollars at some point in time, or some guys are. I never did. But it is. Sometimes professional decisions are hard. And what I think is people don't understand is at any moment, the upper management for teams can make that exact same decision for you. They can say, nope, you know what, we think someone else is better. Cut. Bye. See ya. And so it never gets looked at from that perspective of sometimes the player

really does have to look out for himself. And if he thinks, man, like, I want to play for my next contract, I don't think I can play for my next contract here because of what's happening. Or I don't like there's disdain. There's friction between upper management. I mean, there's so much that goes on to this that people don't see behind the scenes that it's crazy, right? I mean, it really is.

I could write a book on all the crap that I've seen where you think you know one, you think you trust someone, and before you know it, the rug's pulled out on you. And so it just happens over and over and over again. It's a business. It's business decisions. But because it is football and people get a nice glimpse into our lives now, especially with social media and the way that players build their brands, it almost feels as times people think that it's personal when a lot of times it's not personal. It's just business. Like it really is just business, but at times it flirts with the line. There is, I mean, the truth to all rumors like that stuff, like it flirts with the line of personal and business. And I think that the good players know how to keep it separate and understand like, Hey, no, these are our business dealings. This is our personal dealings, but sometimes those lines blur. And that's when it can start to look really ugly from the outside in. Well, I'm glad you could help with

this perspective because it's a story with Diggs that I feel like I've been working on for years, whether it's talking to people off the record or Diggs himself or covering all those things. My Twitter profile picture is me at the Diggs press conference when he said, truth's all rumors. That's why I like it so much because it's such an infamous moment. And, you know, this is a complicated situation with a guy who's at the center of the Minneapolis miracle, which makes it even tougher for fans. And they want to move on also from this, and they want to feel like, well, we did all right here and got Jefferson.

You did. Yeah, absolutely. But it's also fascinating how it came to be and what the perception of it is versus what I believe to be the reality from reporting on it. So I'm glad that you could kind of help out with that perspective. Also he's, he's extremely good. He is. He's so good. That game against, that's the number one defense in the league.

And it's just like anyway so uh before we wrap up love to see it hate to see it i'm gonna give you my love to see it first all right i actually wrote it on the on the letter on the letter yep our friend alex boone trying out with the baltimore ravens love to see it love to see it one of the best guys, absolutely crazy person for trying to get back into the NFL. Insane, a nut, one of the largest and scariest human beings you'll ever meet in person. He's large compared to you, and you're huge. Yeah, he's a big guy. But when I started working with Boone, I thought, like, oh, this guy's just going to be crazy.

He's going to tell me I don't know anything about football because he's played and all this stuff. And that's what you think? I never expected him to be such a great teammate to me as co-hosts on the radio. And he immediately texted me back when I said congratulations and all that stuff. So he's just another guy that the perception from the outside was way different than the Alex Boone that you and I know. And I hope he ends up on the Ravens because that would be such a super cool story. I do know the head coach. I know the O-line coach of the Ravens, and that could be interesting.

It's always interesting with Boone. Are you kidding? I know. I know it is. Okay, so my love to see it is the look on Mike Zimmer's face. Anytime Dan Bailey has to cross the white line, like anytime in like, you know, that the camera always pans to him too.

And you, he has the mask on, but Dan, even the glasses, but you can still see the disdain that he has for that man is almost comical. And I feel bad. I like Dan. I've met him once.

Good kid. Guy. Not kid. But, I mean, you just know it. Literally, I think Mike Zimmer would almost rather take a safety and or punt than have to put him out there to kick a field goal. And it was very apparent last week when it was fourth and one from the one-yard line. He's like, nope, run it. Like, it's just the disdain.

It's kind of a sarcastic love to see it, but at the same time, he's done it to every single kicker that's been here. So at one point, you've just got to be like, Zim, just love up on the guy. Would you, please? Just a little hug? I can't see it. I can't see it. For some reason, I can't see it.

Your hate to see it is that CBS Sports, or at least mine is, tweeted out that Mitch Trubisky has a higher career winning percentage than Deshaun Watson. Just stop it. I have defended QB wins before. Like, look, this guy has the ball in his hands. Stop it. Don't ever do that again.

Are you kidding me? Deshaun Watson has the worst team in the whole world, and he competes with them. And Mitch Trubisky, he'll probably beat the Vikings because it's the Vikings and you never know. But, I mean, stop it. Stop it with stats like that. You ruin it for people who try to analyze the statistics in earnest

and care about the statistics and the story that they tell, and then you tweet that out. Come on, CBS Sports. Help me out. You hate to see it for me this week is no Wednesday afternoon football. I mean, I kind of got accustomed to a little Wednesday afternoon football. You get to see it here and there. And then my last hate to see it is that poor dude for Florida.

Oh, yeah. Decided to throw a cleat and throw his team right out of the college football playoff is just, oh, man. Because I do think Florida had a chance. I think Florida did. I mean, granted, LSU played the best football they could have played of all time, right? And Florida had a chance to be up there.

But you just, come on, dude. You can't do dumb stuff like that. It's just not going to work. You know what reminded me? I was briefly a baseball umpire just like for, you know, a couple of summers just throwing some extra cash. And there's a rule that if you throw your glove up in the air on a home run that's going over your head and it hits it i think it's like a triple or something or a grand slam it's something i forget what it is there's some extreme penalty for if you throw the your glove up and it hits

the ball and knocks it down and i just thought of this exact thing like what if you had asked me what's the penalty for throwing a shoe i'd be like i don't know is that a penalty throwing a shoe who throws a shoe i mean the best was the referee like personal foul at sports like contact throwing an opponent's shoe 20 yards down the field like just it's like what like no one even knew how to say anything that and collinsworth is losing his mind on Sunday Night Football. He's slowly turning into Steve Madden, or John Madden. Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, it's getting, like, I don't know if you saw my tweet last night

where he was like, it's just amazing. You watch the offensive line's feet. They just keep moving, and then they move them forward in order to block the guy. It's just, it's tremendous. It's like, as opposed not pulling over their feet. I don't know. I love John Madden because I grew up with him.

I get exactly what you're saying. I love it. And he's got – you know, Collinsworth's even got that little grindiness in his voice now that he's sort of developing. He's like, you know, look at him. Oh, man. Chris Collinsworth was so nice to me when I visited PFF offices, though. I can't make fun of him at all. He's the best.

I mean, he's losing it. Anyway, well, this was great. I really appreciate your perspective, as always. And I feel like I have to apologize at the end of each episode for making you watch the tape. It's like, I'm sorry. Well, you know, maybe this week. Maybe this week will be the week where I can't say it. No, probably not.

I just don't want to throw up every time I finish. This is literally where you could say you're not paying me enough to watch this tape. And that would be absolutely true. I need a stipend. Like I'm going to have to double it. All right, man. Tuesday morning left guard. It's always a time have to double it. All right, man. Uh,

Tuesday morning, left guard. It's always a time. Thanks. See you next week.