Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Unfettered optimism? (part 2)

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Matthew Coller continues the conversation with Vikings fans about what they are excited about for this season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 All right. Let's get back to your questions. You've left a lot of comments, so I'm sorry if I have scrolled by them and miss them. I'm going to do the best I can to catch up, talk for a few more minutes. Now I got an article to write about Aaron Jones. Got to go work on that as well. Mike says, if you predict nine and eight for the Vikings, what is the division record? I

think it would be huge if we went three and three. Yeah, that is kind of what they have to have. It's hard to find nine and eight without giving them three and three and about the division. Those are the games that think about all the years where the Vikings were a much better team than Chicago, but the familiarity at this point in the division, these coaches have been here over multiple seasons. So the Vikings coaching staff knows the lions coaching staff knows the Packers coaching staff knows Chicago. And that brings those games closer together to the point where when you're starting Nick Mullins, you still have a shot to beat Detroit twice last year. I think it's just because the teams know what each other does really well and what each other's weaknesses are. And they become

very exciting games when that happens. Three and three is still hard though. When you have the way that the Packers played on offense, the number of receivers they have when the lions are as stacked as they are, but can you get even two against Caleb Williams or rookie quarterback against Brian Flores? His defense is an edge to Brian Flores, his defense. And we saw last year when guys were inexperienced quarterbacks were inexperienced going up against brian flores they had a lot of problems sean says uh keep in mind is when teams are running their own schedule gauntlet before playing us especially uh running the nfc north gauntlet yeah and when we try to factor in the schedule if you were even doing simulation, trying to figure out who has the harder schedule, a lot of times what we do is just plug in Vegas expectations and then say, all right, well,

the schedule is based on preseason expectations, but then Vegas is half wrong with all of their expectations anyway. And what you're talking about is the other teams have to go through tough games as well. And you never know how somebody's going to come in here. And it was brought up at some point in the comments about last year with San Francisco, Debo Samuel, I think it was him, right? Was not playing. He was out and McCaffrey was banged up. You just don't know what a team is going to look like when you actually face them. So right now it looks tough. That might change. It might still, or it might look different. We just don't know yet. And that could be a factor in terms of how their season goes.

And a lot of the, whether it's nine and eight or whether it's six and 11, or whether they shock us and win 12 or something, a lot of it has to do with that stuff how the other team schedules play out in 2017 we tend to forget that Anthony Barr hurt Aaron Rodgers and they won two games against the Packers for free because they didn't have Aaron Rodgers and they likely would have lost those games had they had them and they faced some other quarterbacks that weren't too good and it helped them get to the number one defense you don't have to apologize for it if that's how you get there, but you need things to go your way in order to get to this nine and eight record that we're talking about.

Vikings fan says, if the Vikings go to the postseason with Sam Darnold and he looks good, do we do an extension with Darnold or McCarthy for 2025? It would still be McCarthy. You make the playoffs at nine and eight. Darnold throws 21 touchdowns, 12 picks, 3,800 yards. You're still going to McCarthy after that, but you would be very happy with Darnold. If they make the playoffs, it's more of a belief in what they're going to be with McCarthy than it is the conversation about keeping Sam Darnold. It's if you could take this guy and make him into a playoff quarterback when his previous quarterback rating for his career was

78, you have a lot of belief in what you're going to do with the franchise quarterback, JJ McCarthy. And I think that it was trending toward in training camp. Had McCarthy gone to Cleveland and taken first team reps, I don't think it was going to be week one for McCarthy, but it was trending toward McCarthy's going to be ready to go faster than people thought he was going to be. That's how pleased they were with what J.J. McCarthy was doing. And you can already see some elements of JJ McCarthy's game that are better than Sam Darnold. I think he sees the field better than Sam Darnold does.

He could be a better decision maker, which was one of the things that everyone liked about him coming out than Sam Darnold. There is a little more leadership type moxie with McCarthy as well. And definitely playmaking, getting outside and making plays. Darnold has the wow ones, but McCarthy, I think, can do it a little more consistently. So if you could take Darnold to the playoffs,

you could do even better in the future with McCarthy. I think that's reasonable to think. So that would be the biggest takeaway from that. Not, hey, let's keep Darnold around. If Darnold goes 35 touchdowns, six interceptions, is in the running for MVP around. If Darnold goes 35 touchdowns, six interceptions is in the

running for MVP and they have reached the NFC championship game, then things will get more tricky. I don't know that that's going to happen, but Vikings history is weird, man. So you never know. A test account says, what are your thoughts on the cornerback room? How huge of a signing is Gilmore? What about the run defense? I remember how the Eagles ran down their throats last year. Yeah, all good questions. The cornerback room is, I don't think it's that volatile actually, because we have huge sample sizes on these corners that are going to play the most. It was volatile if they were going to run out Andrew Booth Jr. and Caleb Evans. Instead, when you have Gilmore, Griffin, and Murphy, we understand based on what they've

been recently, what they should be if they remain healthy. Gilmore still has it. He was in the top 10 PFF grade last year in man coverage. He is a really elite athlete when he came out in the NFL. It's a lot like Patrick Peterson. When he came out in the draft, he was a top pick partly because he was an unreal athlete, which there's still some of that there. And then you add the experience that he has and he can make plays on the football. He gets interceptions. He gets PBUs. He's going to be better than a Caleb Evans was going to be. I don't even think it should be close. And what I found very interesting historically was that if corners got to this age, they usually perform pretty well because if you were 33 and you

weren't playing well, teams moved on. So the fact that teams are still bringing in Stefan Gilmore speaks to his chances of being good. Shaq Griffin has had a lot of ups and downs after getting off to a good start to his career, but he is a decent man corner. Maybe they could do that a little more. And Murphy's the same sort of deal where there's ups and downs. These aren't elite corners. There is a ceiling on the cornerback group. It's not going to dominate, but competent based on they're not going to make mental errors constantly. I mean, at least we know that, that they're going to be in the right places. And I think all three of them can make plays on the football, but especially

Gilmore should be better run defense. Yeah. They got run over in that game, but then it didn't really happen on a weekly basis. I think their run defense was fine last year. Overall, Harrison Phillips got worn down. Jonathan Bullard got worn down. And the one thing about that is that it's deeper now with this group of defensive tackles slash three, four DNs. It is deeper, but also you don't have to Neil Hunter and you don't have Jordan Hicks, who was a really good run defending linebacker. It could be a little weaker this year. That Eagles game was crazy, but overall, I think I don't have it in front of me. Statistically. I think that they were a pretty good run defense and I would expect that again, but I wouldn't be surprised

if there's a little bit of a drop off. If you're playing Vin Ginkle has been good at it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of a drop off. If you're playing, Van Ginkle has been good at it, but not Grenard. I don't expect Turner to be that great at it. Cashman is not on the same level as a Jordan Hicks was. So there will be some give and take to this. All right, let me scroll. Let me scroll. Rich says, give us your hot take on McCarthy when he comes back. Do you mean like when he comes back uh do you mean like when he

comes back as in when he will return or like what he's going to look like uh because when he's going to return is easy he's not coming back this year he's done for the season he's on ir they didn't put him with a designation to return they may have been able to do that if they wanted to but you think about would it have been a good idea to have him rehab the whole season and then start week 18 or something? What is that makes sense? Or just have him focus on doing what he needs to do to understand offense, understand what it's going to be like on a weekly basis, study Sam Darnold, study defenses, all those things. And then when he comes

back, he could just focus on getting that footwork back and getting the muscle memory back going to the point where he is coming back in 2025, ready to be that guy. And I think it's a setback and it's unfortunate and it's not better that he can't play because he would have been in this season. I'm certain of it. It's just, it's not the worst thing in the world. As far as what he's going to be when he comes back. I mean, quarterbacks with no sample size, it's hard to know. I think he's going to be good right away in 2025. The team that they're going to be able to put around him, they could spend money on some guards.

He is going to have the same receivers with Addison and Jefferson. They can add to that group if they want. We'll see what the backfield looks like. Kevin O'Connell, we'll see how he does with Sam Darnold. But I think that JJ McCarthy is going to be a good NFL quarterback on a playoff competing team right away, uh, based on the sample size of seeing him this summer. Uh, Curtis says, do you think we found a long-term kicker in training camp? Yes. Actual games are different in training camp. Will Reichard put on a show and he's the best kicker that I've seen in training camp since starting to cover the NFL. He's had the best camp of any kicker I've seen. And I'm not even sure it was close.

Even Carlson had a messy camp, which is one of the reasons that they cut him was that his training camp was not all that great. But as far as what Reichert has done so far, he is on a different level than all the other kickers, the Greg Josephs, the Kai Forbaths, even Dan Bailey did not really wow you in a training camp. And Will Reichert has wowed us in training camp. That doesn't mean a thing because they're going to play the real games, but I do think they have their kicker. If he's going to be Justin Tucker, that's what's hard to say. If he's going to kick 30 field goals this year, does he make 27 or 24? I mean, who knows, right? That's the difference between a great, great kicker and an average kicker. Is he going to make 20? Probably not. But is it going to be 24? Is it going to be 27? That I'm not sure. I lean toward he's going to be one of the maybe top 10 kickers in the league,

but this is only off of practice. And maybe just seeing anyone kick really good. He gave like, whoa, okay, you got some. I don't know. Digit says to get your future quarterback and star defensive end in the draft says worlds about Casey re-up I'm sold on a KOC. Yeah.

Giving them extensions is something that I'm for just because I want them to be able to see this through. We have to see the plan totally come to fruition and they have to win games before we really know they've got to get to the playoffs. They've got to compete for super playoffs. They've got to compete for Super Bowls. That all has to happen. But if we talk about how they executed this entire thing roster-wise and all the areas that they are improved from last year and where they were two years ago and having someone like McCarthy, at this moment, it looks like they got the right pick with J.J. McCarthy.

We'll see what Dallas Turner becomes. Not crowning. We don't crown here. We'll see what Dallas Turner becomes not crowning. We don't crown here. We'll see what Dallas Turner becomes, but I've been sold on the overall approach, but the hard part comes next. It's the easier part to take it, take things out the older guys, and then draft someone high and start the rebuilding process with some big signings.

But getting from that, Hey, you're a team that's kind of in the middle and is interesting with your future young quarterback to, Hey, you're an actual Superbowl contender. That's a hard jump to make and they won't be a success until they do it. So when I talk about defending Kwesi Adafomento's moves from the people who are like, do you remember the one draft that went wrong? Like that's, that's a different discussion from how we will ultimately determine this thing, which is whether they win playoff games, but it doesn't take too much actual effort to look at the entire context and the entire picture of what they've been doing here to see that they're in a good spot now to eventually get there. But they have to get there

in order for this to be a success. It doesn't mean Super Bowl, but it means they have to have built a serious contender next year, 2026, beyond that, in order for everything that they've done to be successful. Getting what they got early returns from J.J. McCarthy helps ease that a lot. Because if he looked really bad in training camp, or he just didn't seem to be acting professional or something like that, if that's how it had gone instead of how it did go, which was the best case scenario, then we might have a little more, okay, what are they going to do here? But the plan becomes very clear when J.J. McCarthy looked as good as he did. Janet says Aaron Jones is going to be the difference maker to help Darnold take this team to the playoffs.

Very well could be. And if Aaron Jones is a top 10 running back in yards per attempt and total yards, they have a great chance to be in the playoffs. He is a driver of an offense. And you saw the way Jordan Love played off of him. It's not likely a coincidence that Jordan Love played as well as he did, as Aaron Jones was playing as well as he did last year for the Packers. Dystopian Utopia, good to see you, says,

if the defense gets to top 10 territory, this team could surprise a lot of people. I agree with that. If you go into each game feeling like, hey, this other team is better on paper and has higher expectations and is just considered a super bowl contender like the three or four or five teams that they play to start the season after the giants if you have a top 10 defense then every week you go into that game think about the raiders last year what did they finish with eight wins at who was playing quarterback but they had a good defense if you have a good defense you have a good shot on a weekly basis to play with anybody.

It just lowers the offensive ceiling of the other team. It means you don't have to necessarily score 30 points to beat them. Buster says the top 10 defense would be refreshing. Yeah. I mean, so 18 and 19 defenses were good. They were not great, but they were good.

2020, 2021, 2022 were a nightmare. And then last year for a minute there, they were flirting with top five to seven, and then it fell apart at the end of the season and they end up being average. Even average was refreshing in comparison to what they were, uh, you know, two, three years ago. And that just, it shows you how tough it can be know, two, three years ago. And that just, it shows you how tough it can be to rebuild that defensive roster. And that's why the signings that they made this season, all being multi-year contracts, was important,

because they have to keep some of these players together for multiple seasons. Let's see. Derek says, someone's website rated Darnold 32 among starting quarterbacks only because, uh, there couldn't be 33. I'll give him a chance because we have no choice. Here's what I would say to look back at. And I'm not saying he won't be the 32nd rank quarterback. He might, he might go out and throw 17 picks and eight touchdowns. And this is a nightmare. I don't think that's going to happen, but it's in the range of possibilities.

If you were a person whose job it was to power rank stuff, first of all, may God have mercy on your soul. That sounds horrible. By the way, I just, I could not do that. I could not be a guy whose job it was to power rank quarterbacks and football teams. That just sounds so boring, but that's a, that doesn't matter. I, I like what reporting on stuff and talking with you guys. I don't know how people power rank things, but anyway,

where would you put Sam Darnold? I mean, you, I wouldn't necessarily 32 because we have to consider the context here, but I probably wouldn't have him in the top 15, 17, because you have to go based on his history. If you're looking at it from our perspective, then you could see a little bit clearer what Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson can do for a quarterback. But also if you're the power ranking man, and that's what you do, then if you put Sam Darnold as the 15th best quarterback,

because you think that Jefferson's going to help him, then everybody on the internet is going to roast you for putting him too high because his stats are so bad in the past. So you put them 32nd, but go back and look at wherever they ranked power ranked quarterbacks from last year. I mean, tell me if it matches up with what actually happened. Where did they have Baker last year? Where did they have Baker last year? Where did they have Stroud last year? This is, this is why I say like,

I can't wait to play the games because then we start to find all this stuff out. And it's not just guessing anymore. Folks, U S cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone

company wanting people to use their phones less? Ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. Sean says, we saw Brando play only one drive in the preseason for people who saw practices. How did you value his play? Yeah, I thought the joint practices were tough on everybody because Cleveland has an unbelievable defense and their defensive line is just absolute monsters. That was tough to get a read on. The second day they were much

better. Brandel, we have 500 snaps of him playing in the league and what i've seen from him of playing those games and he hasn't played left guard and then combined with the practices that we've watched he can play and i think a mediocre level so think about the levels that we've seen through the years josh klein was the mediocre guard and below him was the Dakota Dozier that it was a rough ride and you never knew what was going to happen. And below that is the TJ Clemmings, the Drew Samia, the watch your neck because that guy can't block anything. We already know that Brandel is not that guy, that he's better than a Dakota Dozier, that he's better than a Drew Samia. Is he in the range of that Josh Klein? That's where I think he'll be, which is a guy who mostly does his job and sometimes he doesn't and you can work around

it. It's not catastrophic. He's never been catastrophic in 500 snaps but is it going to be a needle mover where you're saying well this dude is just plowing people and he is way above average he's not a good enough athlete for that uh he's big but he's he's not the the dudes who end up with 90 pff grades that are just body movers and never get beat are usually Trent Williams or Christian Derrissaw or Quentin Nelson, the freak athletes, but everybody else is in that middle range. When you look at PFF grades, it's remarkable how few great guards there are, how few are really needle movers. Can you get competent in there? Can you communicate with each other? These last couple of years, it's felt like, and Reisner did a good job with this, I thought,

last year in Pass Pro. But it was, can you guys work with each other on a stunt or on a blitz? That was a problem in 2022. And that got better last year and was probably one of the reasons that they graded well by PFF, because they did do a better job. And they also do have Reisner in their back pocket. If Brando doesn't work out, Reisner does one thing well, but that one thing is important. And that's pass protect.

Matthew says who on the defensive interior could probably surprise or break out. In your opinion, who could you see exceeding expectations or making a jump on the interior of the defensive line? Specifically, Jerry Tillery is the guy who has caught my eye quite a bit in training camp. He's a massive dude. And when mixed with Harrison Phillips, who remember when he signed, he had a good history as a run stopper. I thought that that combination looked pretty good to me with even when they played their base package and they had Jonathan Bullard, Harrison Phillips, and Jerry Tillery, when they played their base package and they had Jonathan Bullard, Harrison Phillips, and Jerry Tillery that they played off each other pretty well. And one thing that they do is create lanes for blitzers against Cleveland. We just saw some wide open blitzers where it's Jonathan Bullard or Harrison Phillips

moving a body, taking the guard and turning him to create that lane or pushing him a certain direction. They're pretty good at that lane or pushing him a certain direction. They're pretty good at that. And Tillery can beat people. He's a really good athlete. That's why he was a first round pick. And if he gives them what he gave the Raiders last year, which was situational rushing, he could be better than we expect. It could be a little bit of a swing player in there. Not he's not Chris Jones. He's notaron donald but they didn't have this player at all last year uh as far as who i could see making the jump or exceeding expectations that's on the defense there's just so many veterans who do you go with there i don't know if there is one

on defense aside from well obviously dallas turner is a rookie so can he make a jump mid season? Maybe that the extra receivers, uh, the, the Tristan Jackson, Trent Shurfield, Jalen Naylor, somebody, one of those three guys step up. If one of those three guys steps up, then, uh, they'll have a much better passing game. If one of them does break out, I just don't know which one. I kind of think Shurfield is going to play more than we think that he might be out there a lot. Derek says, Darnold has talent. He just gets jittery and makes bad choices when pressured quick passing game would benefit

him. Although KOC doesn't have a lot of quick hitters, right? And that's what we're talking about with the adjustment. So where Kirk cousins was great was if somebody runs a 15 yard pattern, break it across the middle, and it needs a little bit of anticipation and accuracy and good timing right out of the break. He throws it out in front of the guy, runs into the ball and catches it. He was good at that. He was very good at that. I don't know that that's Darnold's thing exactly. Is he going to live on swing passes to Aaron Jones

and bombs to Justin Jefferson? You gotta be more than that, but I don't know that it's going to be the same sort of timing stuff. Quick hitters. Can, can he do that? Well, uh, Carolina tried that and it worked okay with him. I mean, that was really Carolina's strategy in 2022 when he was better was it was, it was short, it was short. And then it was, here we go deep down the field. They might do it somewhat more that way than they would have with Kirk. Uh, Todd says, I can't wait to see your unfettered optimism shattered by what this team actually is. Whoa. Unfettered optimism. That is the first time anyone has described me that way. Uh, once the inevitable injuries hit, this team will collapse

like a house of cards. Well, Todd, you are the life of the party here. But, uh, when you say unfettered optimism, as Manny and I talk about a team, maybe getting to nine and eight, it's sort of funny, right? I think that they have a lot of things going for them on this roster. And I also think that the injuries, uh, last year had that effect more than they should this year. So just even if you go position by position, of course, if you lose Jefferson, of course, if you lose Addison at any point or the offensive tackles, it's tough. You have to have your star players that goes for everyone.

But even having a Dallas Turner as your third pass rusher and not having to play Patrick Jones all the time, even Jihad Ward has some history of playing a lot in the NFL. Having Jerry Tillery is an extra guy in the interior. Kamu Grugier-Hill has played a lot in the NFL at linebacker. You're not having to call Anthony Barr. Fabian Morrow, they bring him in as a veteran guy who's played a lot of football. The safety position, having Theo Jackson emerge.

I think that the depth of this team is better than it was last year. It's not, nobody, nobody, we've said this, nobody's crowning anybody. And unfettered optimism is more of what we're trying to figure out is what's the path to them being a playoff team and how likely is it that Sam Darnold could have this year that a lot of people think he can have, including NFL executives and Mike Sandoz, QB tears piece. I did a whole podcast on how people in the league think he could be a third tier, which is good.

A third tier quarterback. If things go right with O'Connell. So I don't think it's quite unfettered. There's, there's fettering. There's fettering to the optimism. I don't even know what, what fettering is. Maybe that's, maybe there's fettering to the optimism i don't even know what what fettering is maybe that's maybe it's bad i don't know it sounds like it sounds like you want your optimism with no fettering so i'm fettering the optimism put it that way

mike says uh most excited for the franchise as a whole feels like all the pieces top to bottom are coming together and that's what is interesting about this season the most is when you get to the end of it do you still say that do you still feel that way that the pieces are starting to come together is that the case in week 17 will you still make statement? I'm sure we'll be around to talk about it. We can have that discussion. Do we feel like the pieces are there to go into the future and have this team be a legitimate contender? Because I don't think it takes a lot of effort to see that off in the distance.

You don't have to have, what is the thing that looks into space? You look down into it. What is that called? You don't have to have, uh, what, what is the thing that looks into space? You know, you look down into it. What is that called? You don't have to have one of those. You don't have to see into space to figure out why this team could be very good into the future. Let's see if we still feel that way, because if Darnold plays well, then we're going to believe more in O'Connell. And if other players emerge, let younger players, uh, who they've drafted they've drafted, Ivan Pace, Jordan Addison has another good season or even takes a step forward. I didn't mention him as a step forward guy, but he could be.

And the pieces largely stay in place. And then you can add 40 or $50 million of spending and a young quarterback to the mix. Again, it's not that hard to see. Like you don't need a PhD to figure out that a lot of teams have used this exact same strategy. But if a lot goes wrong, then we might not feel the same by the end of the season. Oh gosh, says thinking about doing fantasy football this year do you have any recommendations on what apps to use why yes i do our friends at underdog fantasy and remember that promo code purple and if enough of you use it uh i get a bonus so there you go underdog fantasy sponsor of the show uh i gotta figure out maybe i can come up with something some sort of reward for signing up and using the promo code purple but i gotta

think of something that wouldn't bankrupt me to give you if you sign up uh let's see. Derek says, uh, Brock Purdy will show his Mr. Irrelevant level skillset. Finally, his, the car he's driving needs maintenance. Well, it's not the same as last year. The running back is a year older, Christian McCaffrey coming off of an incredible MVP caliber season, uh, running backs after seasons where they carry the bleep out of the ball. Not always historically great. Right. season running backs after seasons where they carry the bleep out of the ball not always historically great right after that and this whole thing with Brandon Ayuk I mean he he misses all

training camp is he going to start slow because he missed training camp some guys who have sat out will pull hamstrings and stuff like that like we don't know what their health is going to be like after going to the Super Bowl that. That's such a long journey. And sometimes teams come out flat after that. Dystopian utopia says Rogers is going to suck. Jets will implode as usual. It's a pretty safe. It's pretty safe.

Jets guess historically is that that's what's going to happen. I have a family member who is a jets fan. And I probably mentioned this on the show before that in the middle of the summer last year, after they signed Aaron Rogers emailed me and said, Aaron Rogers will get hurt. And we're going to be horrible next year. This is in June.

And then week one, he gets hurt. I'm like, what? And I, I sent him an email back. How the heck did you know? And he just said, like, 50 years of watching the Jets.

So you guys aren't the only ones that do that. You guys do it with kickers. Jets fans do it with quarterbacks, I guess. Matt says, best rookie head coach. Let me look at my football team list and think who would be the best. Gerard Mayo. Gerard Mayo might be a good coach, but I don't think that team's going to be very good.

Who else are the new coaches in the league? Harbaugh, he's not a rookie, but new coach. Is it just me or is there not a ton of them? Tennessee, Brian Callahan. How about that? How about Tennessee? Tennessee might be one of those teams where we all just go,

what? They're going to be what? They're going to be terrible. They're going to draft number one. And then they totally surprise us because their coach is good. Uh, coming from that offense in Cincinnati, I like Zach Taylor a lot as a coach. He could be, I think pretty good there. If, if, if we'll let us can play. I don't know if we'll let us can play, but they added a lot of talent to that team this off season. And it could be just the overlooked team.

Maybe like the bucks were last year, a little bit, the overlooked team that no one cares about. And you go, wait a minute, they're in the playoff race. Indianapolis was a little bit that way last year. Who else is new? Washington's got a new coach. You can't go down from where they were. Cannot go down from their previous coach. Ron Rivera was just all sorts of washed. So it should

be better there, but Dan Quinn's not a rookie coach. They're just, there's not that many. There's not that many brand new coaches in the NFL this year. Dave Canales, Carolina. I would nominate Carolina. Raheem Mostert, or not Raheem Moster or not Raheem Moster. That's a running back. Raheem Morris is, has coached before in the league, but not in a long time in Atlanta could be pretty good. I like a Canalis in Carolina because when you're that bad, and then you add a bunch of players, Deontay Johnson's maybe one of the most underrated players in the league for wide receivers. And when you add, um, offensive line, I mean, that's what, that's what Bryce Young really

needed. You need an offensive line. Last year, their offensive line was so atrocious. If I saw a clip that was going viral today where it's a Patriots fan and he's saying in the classic Patriots, you know, Boston accent, you know, we need to get an offensive line before we get a quarterback. I'm not going to make fun of the guy and try the accent, but now I don't agree with that. If you draft number three, you got to get Drake may, but wait until you have an offensive line to play him.

Having an offensive line in front of your rookie quarterback is such a big deal. And the Vikings being able to at least put something in front of Darnold is such a big deal. And the Vikings being able to at least put something in front of Darnold that's competent with good tackle play is really important because the top thing that these young quarterbacks have to adjust to is how fast the game is. And even with someone like Justin Fields, there was that whole scenario. What if the Vikings had picked Justin Fields? And my thought was, well, he might've figured out how to get rid of the ball a little bit better because he was just holding onto it. They had a bad offensive line the whole time and it was getting him banged up and

young quarterbacks and bad offensive lines are such a terrible combination. And it was last year with Bryce young, it'll be better this year. And even if they won seven games, that would be so much better than where they were last season. So I think they can do that. At least be competitive. It's not a great division. Anthony says Rams are a fun long shot. Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, Justin Jefferson, more wide receivers are his MVP favorites are your MVP favorites. So Stafford had a great season last year, not as statistically great as some before, but he played really well from what I saw. If Allen gets the bills to 12 wins again or something, he could win MVP. I don't think that a wide receiver is going to win MVP.

Mahomes, though, with more. Oh, I see what you're saying with Mahomes. With more wide receivers, Mahomes has a great more, Oh, I see what you're saying with Mahomes with more wide receivers. Mahomes has a great chance to bounce back to a huge statistical season. Rams are, are a team that you would be, I think not shocked if they were one of those surprised like, Whoa, Oh, the Rams won 12 again. Anytime a team has a coach that is as good as Sean McVay and a quarterback on Stafford's level, who I think has become a much better decision maker. It's almost like as his speed and mobility has reduced, he's become a better complete

quarterback because he's relying more on making the right decisions as opposed to, hey, I've got the arm talent. Hey, I can scramble. And that's how he took all those sacks all the time. I used to view Stafford and Cousins as similar caliber type of quarterbacks who were really flawed. Now they were played different, but they were flawed, but they could have their great moments and they could have their down moments.

And the down moments of Matthew Stafford over the last couple years have reduced uh well he's been in la and hey maybe there's a coach who used to be in la that could reduce some wild play of sam darnell i don't know maybe uh jared says i simmed a madden season last night set darnold as the starter even though the computer wanted JJ to start. Everyone wanted JJ to start, even the computer. He threw for around 3,100 yards, 23 touchdowns, 16 picks, and they went 8-9. I could see it. More yards than that for me, but I could see it. That's not a crazy season to project from Sam Darnold for Madden,

and 8-9 is not a crazy record. It will be a success. If we're talking about the last couple of weeks, playoff scenarios, that means a lot of things will have gone right for everybody. Steven says the Vikings have beaten the 49ers the last four times in Minnesota. And I,

and I've been to all four. Do I go to week two? I think you have to it's analytics, Steven, you have to go and just Viking San Francisco. What an awesome matchup of uniforms and players, the star talent, the amount of pro bowlers on the field with the 49ers,

the Vikings. I mean, it's, it's, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. It's good football. I'm, I'm pumped for that.

Uh, Steven says, how do we feel about Kenny Wong? We're not passing his physical. I was not shocked. I was a little surprised. I would say that, but he had this back injury last year and he, you know, sometimes guys who are that fast are like that, that they just get hurt. And that may have been a factor for why they released him is that they were concerned with this new kickoff.

Because one thing that I've heard about the new kickoff and observed is it's safer for some people and not for others. And I think the kick returner, it's not safer. The kick returner is getting blasted a lot of times. If people break through and they're hitting the guy, he's trying to hit a, he's trying to go this way and he's trying to hit a hole, but somebody can blindside him. Um, I think Malik Knowles may have gotten hurt on this kick returning.

I've seen some other guys get hurt, some other returners. And if you have someone that doesn't have a toughness element, it might hurt you now with the return, as opposed to it being a track play before, which is what Kenny Wong was good at. That may have all gone into it. Rob says, Brando looked decent in the Raiders and Lions game. I assume you mean from

last year. Strong missed the timing a bit, should improve with practice. Vikings outrushed the Raiders and Lions in those games. Yeah, there was a few plays in the Raiders game where I went, you know, there was a time where he was pulling and he just completely whiffed on the guy. He is not the most agile person because he's humongous and he was a tackle. And I, I think that there's a limitation on how good he could be, but solid would be good. And I've, I've said this many times on the show over the years, and I strongly believe it. Average is great. Blake Brandel's not going to get you to the Superbowl, but you need them to be average because bad will kill you. How much bad you have on your team is often what determines your record. You got to have greatness always to go to the Superbowl,

but it's also about the weakest points as much as it is about the strongest points. So don't be the weakest point. Uh, Isaac says they'll finish seven and 10 could see it. A lot has to go right there. Uh, Thaddeus points out that fetters are chains and restraints. So my alleged optimism was very fettered. I mean, if I'm talking about nine and eight, that's a fettering. That's very restrained. That's not unfettered as far as the optimism go. I feel like that's this whole conversation we're all having is we're all restraining from saying, oh man, Darnold is going to win MVP and he's going to go to the Superbowl

and it's going to be unreal. If we were in some markets, this Vikings fans, I think are very good at being realistic with things because you've been punched in the face so many times, but there are some fan bases who would hear nothing except for that, right? They would be convinced fully that they're going to the super bowl. Pittsburgh is like this. They're convinced there that Russell Wilson is going to take them there. And if it's not him, it's Justin Fields. So I actually think the fettering has been fantastic. You guys have been very realistic.

Matt and Diana says, I have noticed that things in football can be ironic. Yes. Just like you as cellular asking you not to use your phone because of us mode. That's the joke. What could be ironic in our game versus the giants? Ooh, that's a good question. What would be an ironic thing to happen in the game against the giants?

First thing that comes to mind, because we were talking about Wong Wu is that the game is entirely determined on kick returns. We go through all this stuff. We talk about how are they going to block the defensive tackle and the matchup of malik neighbors against stefan gilmore and then the game ends up 10 to 3 and it's one on a kick return that would be ironic if truly truly because i like to use the word ironic as of what it means, which is unexpected because I like, I, I wasn't sure about the unfettered, but I know what ironic is and ironic means unexpected. The unexpected

outcome is that it's a freaking shootout that Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold are just firing left and right. It's 320 yards, three touchdowns against 298 yards, four touchdowns. No picks from either guy. Jefferson and Malik neighbors combined for the most yards for two opposing receivers in history. And we've got ourselves a 43 to 38 game between Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones. Now that would be ironic. Let's see. Let me, let me scroll a little bit more. We have a well cleared the two hour mark. That's how excited you guys are about football and still big, big audience here. Really, really appreciate that. Preston, any comments about Hall signing in Seattle? Yeah. At the beginning of the show, I talked about it a little bit.

And it's just, and I mean this with all respect to Jaron Hall. It's okay. It's all right. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. Is my camera out of focus? Did you mean mine or Manny's? I can't tell by looking at myself,

Preston says my camera's out of focus. You have to let me know if it is or, uh, it's, uh, I, I, I try,

but I'm not an expert in that, in the, in the audio video I've tried to be, try to bring you the best i can uh let's see anthony says rookie quarterbacks need a running game if we can grow and expand our run game this season oh no that's a good point this is a good point in terms of how we oh 41-0 that yes the ironic result brett is 41- yes 100 against the giants that that's the right answer you you went on that one uh as far as the running game if if they they can put together a good uh running game

that would be big for the future even if you know you're not going to have aaron jones forever that would be really big for the future because that means they are capable of doing it. And so far, we've thought that they were not really capable of doing it. And that over the last two years. Let's see. Okay. So it seems to be focused on the mic. Really?

So is it? Am I not close enough you think if i got a little closer would that that do it am i clearer now if i'm a little closer i've been kind of just sitting back so maybe i had said it earlier to be like this this looks looks clear on my end maybe maybe that's a little better why didn't you guys tell me earlier is that is that better that's better okay better. Why didn't you guys tell me earlier? Is that, is that better? That's better. Okay. So I had it set. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. This one, that's a good feedback. Okay. I'll, I will make this my spot because I tend to, when we're, when we're just talking football, I tend to kind of kick

my feet back and lean back. And I never think that the camera might be not adjusting or something. Uh, anyway, so yeah, yeah. Preston letting me know two hours and 12 minutes into the show. I'm going to need you to be there promptly when we start next time to check the, uh, the AV anyway. Uh, I I've, I've finally reached the, uh, the bottom of the, the, the comment section. You guys are great tonight. Absolutely phenomenal. I can sense your excitement just like I hope you can sense mine because we finally got football. It's been a really, really long offseason. Great to have Manny back in the mix. Keep in mind the lineup that we have going forward here.

Jeremiah Searles and I, we usually record in the middle of the day Tuesday and then run it on YouTube later on in the evening. Brian Murphy is up right now on the YouTube page and let's see, Wednesday, we'll do another chat Wednesday evening, Thursday. I'm going to be doing a show with Andrew Kramer again. That's awesome. We did that last year where we previewed the game. Manny's coming on Thursday as well. We'll get other guests that we'll mix in. It's going to be great. So thank you all so much for watching slash listening. And I look forward to doing this leading up to the game. We'll get some hardcore analysis into the game. We'll get injury report on Wednesday. That will provide a lot. Jeremiah Searles returns to the show. I know a lot of you want to grill him on what he thinks of JJ McCarthy because he didn't want the Vikings to draft them. So lots to do here. And I'll just put Hunter up on the screen

there. Football is so back. I agree. Thanks everybody for the really fun chat tonight, and we will catch you all very soon. You know what it is football.