Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vegas favors the Vikings in 9 games -- will they be right?

Episode Date: May 19, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom discover that Westgate Sportsbook has lines for every Vikings game on the 2021 schedule. They are favored in 9 games, underdogs 7 times and a pick 'em once. Would a 9-7-1 record mean major changes? Matthew and Sam also go through all the games. Should Cleveland be favored in Minnesota? Are the Vikings getting too much respect in the Dallas game? Should the Vikings get more respect in Arizona? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Sam Ekstrom. And Sam and I literally just walked off the golf course and it was an interesting experience. I did the worst thing that I could possibly do, which is have my best hole that I've had in a long time in May, which means the whole rest of the summer I probably cannot top this par five birdie that I had today

and and that's that's going to be hell for me Sam I'm going to be chasing it all summer long I am not trying to humble brag because the rest of the outing was not that great for me but this one hole now I'm going to think every par five well I mean I should be birdieing this thing right all summer long and it won't happen again yeah that's golf i mean you gave me a thrill because i was standing behind your second shot and for a brief moment in time as it hung up in the wind i thought that is right at the pin you might have a double eagle albatross sir and you know landed a little right little short you two putted for birdie but for that brief moment in time you and i got to to envision what that moment would have been like pretty special right it's like the titanic music in my head whatever i don't know how

it goes but you know like watching it as it went toward the pin so it ends up a little bit right i tap it next to the hole tap it in get a birdie and then i won't do that again all summer long and uh so i'll be chasing that one you and and I played with Brian Murphy, who's surprisingly good at golf. So he's uninvited for the rest of the year. I wanted to, and this is the thing too, Brian Murphy, here's your transition. Murphy wants to gamble and I had to buy him lunch last time. So we did not gamble today because he's better than we are. So speaking of gambling, the westgate superbook

or westgate whatever it is sportsbook has put out its nfl superbook where it has odds on every single nfl game this year now sam before we started i already told you how many games the vikings are favored by westgate Sportsbook, but how many would you have guessed that they would have been favored if I didn't tell you? Well, I think the, you know, the favoritism generally is going to fit the win total that Vegas has set, which I believe for the Vikings is eight and a half, nine range. So I would have guessed nine-ish which is you know as i know now the answer but i think it probably would have been projecting a 500 to slightly above 500 season so i i want to talk about um some of these games and the lines on them because i always think it's

fascinating to think about what a purely objective system of being right about sports results says about your team. That's always interesting to me because you could say, oh, well, you know, you're too deep in the weeds or you're too critical or you're not critical enough about reporters or about fans. But when it's Vegas, they're doing it for the money, man. They are the most motivated people to try and get these right. But yet still some of the lines are very interesting and worth discussing. But let me ask you this question first. If the Vikings went nine, seven and one, which, hey, Kirk Cousins has two ties in his career.

If they went nine, seven and one, thanks, Daniel Carlson. What, what, what would that mean to you if that ended up being the result of the Vikings season? I think that's the end of Kirk. I think that's like if we're in the beginning of the end right now, that pushes us like past the apex. Like we are in the end of the end. I think we're in the closing stages because that is another quintessential Kirk with the Vikings season. Eight or nine wins. That's kind of the average, right around the 500 mark. That's Kirk's career. And I think that pushes us closer to Kellen Mond or whoever comes next. But especially the tie. I mean, that's just too perfect, right? That is too, like, on the book as being what Kirk Cousins is kind of as a quarterback.

And I guess we don't know for sure how that 9-7-1 comes about, but it's kind of hilarious. And it's more relatable because it's not 10-7, it's not 9-8, one of the new fangled records. No, it's 9- parentheses and one i also think that that would be move on from kirk because what that would mean is that is a peak of 10 wins even when they gave you a shot at another one and and regardless of how much you want to value or put all of the win-loss record on cousins which we know is not entirely fair ever, especially last year. It's not fair to say you were 7-9, but if they were an average defense, you're probably 9-7 or 10-6, right?

So it's hard to look at it and say, oh, well, you know, if they had been better on defense, they would have won way more games when they previously had good defenses and didn't win way more games. So I agree with you that 9-7-1 would mean, all right, we've got to find a way to get past that. And that means creating more cap space and trying to get the same level of quarterback play only for a lot cheaper would be the next step. I think 9-7-1 would indicate that you were going in the right direction from 7-9. It would mean an improvement in defense. Your offense probably stays the same, but you just

don't have that extra juice, whether it's from the quarterback or the roster, to get past some of the better teams, which is this cycle that we've been sitting in for a while. Now about the general manager and the head coach. A 9-7-1 season, I don't know if that's it for Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman. There is a lot of pressure on both of them, I think, this year to be very good and to get into the playoffs and to succeed in the playoffs. At the same time, if it played out the way that the sportsbook says it's going to play out if it just was to a t right down to the tie that would mean what it would mean that they lose the games that are important they win the games they're supposed to win this has been who the vikings are of the last few years and how about this that i yelled this to you on the golf course today that i yelled at you to shut up i

know i know you hit a good drive after i think so Well, that's what you get for golfing with me. Not that it matters. I think it helps you. I think it helps to distract you. Anyway, so Cousins against the Detroit Lions the last three years under Matt Patricia, a complete joke of a team, 6-0 over the last three years. Against everyone else, he's below.500. And you could say this for the franchise or for Kirk cousins.

That means every big game you've pretty much lost almost across the board. You are a sub 500 team. When not playing the joke of your division, not where you want to be over the last three years. So if that's the case for this year, I don't know whether they move on from Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, but I think if they, I think that they would want to give them one more shot with a different quarterback,

but you'd also be going on like eight years of kind of the same thing. So I'm not really sure what nine, seven and one would do for the head coach and general manager. Yeah, I don't either. And it still goes, it comes down to how do you get there? Is your defense fantastic with Mike Zimmer sort of engineering it? Cause that's motivation to keep him around. Was Clint Kubiak the root reason why the offense didn't succeed? You know, did, did Kirk have a better season? You know, did people get hurt? Did the offensive line fall apart? The rookies didn't work out.

There is nuance that has to be taken into account. And I think we know by now that Kirk is not the type of quarterback that's going to overcome sort of those nuances that go against him. So to me, that is still reason to move on from Kirk if he can't overcome issues. I don't know if it's enough reason to move on from your coach. I tend to think that Zimmer's not going to get an extension at 9-7-1. And I don't know if he's the one you want ushering in a new quarterback. We haven't had this for a while, like, you know, since Teddy, really. And that was very early in Zimmer's career. So I'm going to give you the IDK on that one.

And I want to sort of circle back because I don't want to lose this. Some of these early season lines that you pointed out to me on Westgate are kind of interesting. Now, have you looked at the individual games? That was my next plan. Okay, go for it. Yeah, I wanted to go through a few of them. Yeah, yeah. So let's do that because I'm also with you.

I don't know. And I think what the Wilfs would have to hear at 9-7-1, because that, you might be in playoffs, you might not. In the NFC this year, you probably make it at 9-7-1, but that's likely a seven seed and at best a six seed. And how is that better? The best you've done as an organization since bringing in Kirk Cousins is a six seed. And so a six and a seven, I mean, is that going to say to the ownership? Oh yeah. You're, you're right on the right track. I mean, maybe, and depending on how

it looks for sure, but I don't know. I mean, if they wanted to say, we're going to have a different quarterback and we're going to have an offensive coach and that's how we're going to do this. Then I guess if they went nine, seven-1, who could really blame them? You wouldn't say, oh, Zimmer, you're a terrible coach. No one thinks that. Zimmer sets you at a bar, just like Mike Tomlin does in Pittsburgh and a lot of the other good coaches. Ron Rivera does this too. He sets you at a bar of being a good team and a competitive team. You're never, even last year when they struggled, you're never going to be garbage with Mike Zimmer as your coach. But the question they'll have to ask is if they go nine, seven and one,

can we do better than that with an offensive coach or something of the like? So anyway, all right. The first, first week, whatever Cincinnati Vikings are favored. Yeah.

Okay. The second week, I found it interesting that Arizona is a three and a half point favorite, which I am learning more about how Vegas works. This basically means that these two teams are pretty equal, except for Arizona is at home. So I don't know if that stuck out to you or not, but I agree with that. I think that the Vikings and Cardinals are pretty similar teams. Yeah, I was just struck that the lines would indicate that

Vegas thinks the Vikings are six points better against Cincinnati than against Arizona. And maybe that means I'm more optimistic about Cincinnati than I should be, because I feel like with a pretty nice draft class, they've got a lot of momentum with that organization. With Burrow coming back, he'll probably be playing week one. And if he is, I think that line probably comes back a little closer to a pick them. But again, I'm kind of bearish on Arizona. Like I didn't like the way they faded last year. I'm not totally bought in on Cliff Kingsbury like you. So I feel like that. No, you gave me an odd look there. Not like me. No, no. I'm out on Cliff Kingsbury.

No, no. You misinterpreted me. I'm saying, like you, I am out on Cliff Kingsbury. That was my intention. Oh, okay. See, I thought you meant you're not out on Cliff Kingsbury. No, I agree with you about Cliff Kingsbury. He's not amazing yet. Maybe he'll prove that he is.

But, yeah, I felt like that was an interesting flip from a three-point favorite against Cincinnati to a three-and-a-half-point underdog in Arizona. That struck me as interesting. And the week one results could influence that a lot. Week one is hard with Cincinnati because they really have to prove it before I can believe that they're going to be any sort of competitive team right that's probably why it is where it is if we're not even 100% sure certain that Joe Burrow is going to start with his health situation even if

he does it's kind of like a leap of faith a little bit trajectories of teams would indicate that you know your second year with a rookie quarterback contract a high draft pick wide receiver they should take a step forward how much better they are though i thought that was kind of fair um but arizona yes you and i are on the same page and not buying into cliff kingsbury and so i think that that's fair to say yes the home field advantage matters but you guys aren't that different of a team we'll see what kind of factor like jj watt is there i don't know if that's a complete game changer or not he's still good but he's got an injury history he's not the same player that he was before where you'd like move a line for jj watt

that might have been the case when he was a defensive mvp level player now the the two home games and i won't go through every single one of these, but the two home games, Seattle, the Vikings are slightly favored by one and a half, and then they are underdogs to the Cleveland Browns. I mean, is Vegas being like a little harsh on Seattle here? They still have Russell Wilson as their quarterback. They went 12-4 last year and maybe a little bit aggressive on the Browns. Now, you know that I like Cleveland and Kevin Stefanski, Kevin Stefanski revenge game. I picked the Browns to win this game. But I just, I thought it was kind of interesting that they seem to think the Browns are going to

be a better team or a more formidable foe than the Seattle Seahawks. That struck me too. That's why I wanted to get to this because do they is Vegas taking into account like the games that are happening prior do they think Seattle's gonna be 0-2 because they do have some tough games like Indianapolis on the road okay I could see them losing that then the Titans back at home at at Lumen Field maybe the Titans have a good running game, but I still, I have a hard time believing that, you know, Seattle in sort of like a climate controlled place, it's not like weather is going to be a factor for Russell Wilson, that Minnesota would be favored there, especially with Minnesota coming off two road games. And Vegas thinks Minnesota is going to be one and one.

So I didn't get that. I think that tells me that Cleveland is getting a ton of credit. Now, in the overall article, Collar, what does Vegas project Cleveland as against the spread? Oh, I don't remember. We should look that up. I don't have that right here. Because if Cleveland is getting favored in a pretty tough place to play against a team like the Vikings that's kind of just above the 500 500 mark then they're probably getting a lot of credit in a lot of places yeah I just had to go through with this and manually add up every single game for the Vikings so it doesn't have like every team's projected record um but I noticed that I think Kansas City is favored in like 16 out of 17 games so some of these things probably won't come to fruition exactly but I know

that Cleveland in just general over-unders is getting a ton of attention. I think that they might be like a 10, 10.5. I mean, Vegas is really buying Cleveland. I am buying Cleveland as well. But, you know, coming to U.S. Bank Stadium, there's going to be fans there. I don't know. I thought that that one was more fair than Seattle. I actually would have thought that it would have been the other way around, that

Seattle, with their recent history against the Vikings, would have been favored and then Cleveland not favored as the more unproven type of team. And so I guess I'd be interested to see what Seattle's win-loss totals are from Vegas, because I would go the over without even knowing that just look who your quarterback is. Look who your top receivers are. You're going to be good. I think with Seattle, I don't trust any of the other NFC West teams. I don't trust San Francisco with Jimmy Garoppolo slash Trey Lance. I really am not high on the Los Angeles Rams and, you know, Arizona. We just talked about how we question them.

So I think Seattle, I would still pick them to win that division. And I would pick them probably to beat the Vikings. Real quick, I just tallied up the Browns. I think if I did it right, Vegas has them 13-2-2. Oh, my God. That is way too aggressive. That's way too aggressive. That is pretty aggressive.

Yeah, Baker Mayfield, and if we figure that the quarterback is what determines these the most, Baker Mayfield had a good season last year. He had like a 95 quarterback rating. I mean, it's not like this is Patrick Mahomes here, Aaron Rodgers MVP. I think they can be good, but they're getting a little too much credit. Now, the one that fans were the most upset about with these lines was the pick-em at Carolina, which basically suggests that Vegas thinks that the Vikings are three points better than Carolina,

so it's a pick-em by going on the road. I don't know what we're supposed to think of Carolina. My projection is that Carolina's terrible again and that they're going to finish last in their division and everyone's going to be looking at Matt Rule and saying, you got a seven-year contract or six-year contract? Were they on drugs? But I don't think Vegas can really strongly say,

one way or the other, with a new quarterback in town and not knowing what Sam Darnold will do. This one will be different by the time we get there. My guess is that by the time we get there, the Vikings will be favored. Real quick note, Seattle, 9-7-1 projected. 9-7-1. I'll go over. Over, 100%.

Has Russell Wilson ever won less than 10 games? I don't think he has. Yeah, I don't think so. And he certainly never lost to the Vikings, which is why it's interesting the Vikings are favored. But you brought up the Week 6 game. Like, how are the Panthers getting more respect than the Bengals, like by three points too, with a quarterback that's done nothing

and a coach that's had his credibility undermined, and they lost, like, their second-best offensive weapon in Curtis Samuel. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, like I said on a previous show, I believe they got to have that draft class, like all those second year defensive players come around and play way better. Like Derek Brown has to be a force on the inside, but I'm sure Carolina is well below the 500 mark in the Vegas projection. I would guess 6, 10, and 1 range with the 1 being against the Vikings. I mean, that's a strange one to me. That is pretty strange.

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Go to SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. I just think that sometimes, and this might not be true for Cincinnati, maybe being that they're Cincinnati, no one's going to give them any respect, that sometimes when a team has been all the way down at the bottom, and this does bear out. Our buddy Eric Eager did a statistical study on this. The teams at the bottom are likely, and this sort of stands to reason,

to bounce back within the next couple of years. It doesn't always happen, Cleveland and the New York Jets, but it usually does. And so I think Vegas is probably leaning on that a little like, oh, okay. They're the team that drafted a bunch of players and they should be bouncing back and so forth. I just don't believe in Matt Rule at all. Maybe these coaches should go by Matthew instead of Matt, and then they wouldn't be so bad. Is there- Five, 10, and two. Panthers is five, 10, and two. Any legendary NFL coach

named Matt nope gotta go by Matthew it's just a better choice so are there any other maths they've tried someone's gonna have to inform me on this I don't know I don't know Matt Matt might be more of a uh journeyman backup quarterback name like Matt Moore but people will love this content I'm gonna go to pro football reference and I'm gonna love this content. I'm going to go to Pro Football Reference, and I'm going to type in Matt, and under Executives, one of the great executives of all time, Matt Millen. Oh, wow. Yeah. This is exactly my point.

Matt LaFleur, Matt Patricia, Matt Nagy. Matt LaFleur is a good coach. Yeah. Matt Nagy, you know, people, like, think Matt Nagy is terrible. I think it's good what Matt Nagy has done for Chicago. He often beats the Vikings with what he's had. They gave him Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky last year, and they made the playoffs.

So I don't think he – sometimes I feel like they act like he just doesn't know what he's doing at all. And yet his team has been competitive every year where he's there without a good quarterback. So anyway, that's total aside. The pivotal game, in my opinion, of the entire season has the Vikings favored, which is Sunday night football Vikings and Dallas Cowboys,

but only favored by two. Are you buying early Dallas Cowboys, but only favored by two. Are you buying early Dallas Cowboys stock? No. Because this would suggest that the Cowboys are a little better than the Vikings. Yeah, I'm kind of lukewarm on the Cowboys, and I feel like that's deserved based on what they've done the last four years. Since the Prescott rookie year, they haven't won more than 10 games. Prescott obviously coming off injury.

I don't know if the offensive line is trustworthy again, and they're trying to rebuild that defense. But I'm underwhelmed by Elliott last couple of years. I think their receiving core is awesome. But I think they have weaknesses on that team. And they're overpaying their running back. They drafted a linebacker first round, which is not an awesome positional value and I've got my doubts I still need to to see Prescott like have kind of kind of back up his rookie season because he

hasn't necessarily done it yet even though I really like him as a player and I think he's really good I don't know if it's been coaching in large measure, and I still don't trust the coach they have now. I don't know if I love McCarthy, so I am not buying the Cowboys stock. But we mentioned today on the golf course, that Sunday night game feels very much to me like 2018 Viking Saints. It was the rematch of the Miracle game. It might have been coming off a bye.

I can't remember for sure, but I think the Vikings were like 5-3-1, and it was really a pivot point of the season because they lost. Thielen had a big fumble. Cousins and Diggs had a big communication, which was kind of foreshadowing for the rest of that year. Had to pick six. They had like an eight-minute drive in the fourth quarter for a meaningless garbage time touchdown it was very synonymous for the 2018 Vikings and it sent them spiraling John DiFilippo was not employed much longer after that the Cowboys game this year feels very much the same because after that you're going into that four or five on the road stretch um you you hope

to be coming into that game like four and two or five and one. So it's going to be a gigantic game on a national stage that you can't afford to lose because you need to bank up wins before that brutal road stretch. So I point to that as one of the big pivot points of the season. Hmm. That just sort of popped into my head of like when you're playing always these 8-8, aside from the 13-3. But even then, when you're playing these sort of middling seasons, you get that with every single season. But even in 2017, the pivot point of the season was in Chicago when Case Keenum came off the bench.

If they don't win that game, I'm sure that they still have a good season. But they end up with home field and two weeks off because of that, because of Harrison Smith getting the interception at the end of the game in 2017. a huge game and that sends the whole thing tumbling down and by the same token in 2019 when they went to new york after everything was burning to the ground after truth to all rumors which remains my reaction if anyone follows me on twitter my reaction um is my twitter picture to stefan digg saying there's truth to all rumors like the minute he he said it, that's my face. So you and Mike Max. Yes. Somebody else was videotaping it from the side and I was in the background of the picture and that's when he said it. And me and Max looked at him like, what? And so that's the, yeah, that's that picture. But it's always interesting to think about. And if I were picking one game to be that, I agree that it would be this Dallas game. So I'm

looking through the rest of the lines and they're kind of like what you would think. I don't know what to do with Green Bay. The Vikings are favored at home. They're not favored on the road. We just don't, we just don't know. I mean, if Aaron Rodgers comes back, then the Vikings will probably be underdogs. Pittsburgh Steelers is an interesting one. This is one where I think the Vikings, and this is just my not belief in the Pittsburgh

Steelers. On Thursday night football, Vikings are only two and a half point favorites, which I think should be more. But I guess we're so deep in the season at this point that, you know, who knows? It'll be different than what it is now. If I was projecting it right now, I think the Vikings will be much better than the Steelers because I have the Steelers being a bad team. I don't know if you feel as strongly. I think they're like a 7-10 type of team where Roethlisberger is just bad. Their defense isn't as good as it was last year.

This whole, I saw on the internet, was mad at Cam Hayward for saying he wants Najee Harris to tote the rock. Never stop saying tote the rock, everyone. Love that. But I don't think they're good. I think the Vikings should be favored by a lot at home for that game yeah I think we talked about this on the schedule release show on WCCO it feels like Pittsburgh's hanging on one year too long I mean they've gone 17 seasons now I think without being under 500 so they don't know what it's like to have a losing

team and I can see where they would convince themselves that, you know, the 11-0 version of last year's group is the reality and the one in five finishes is kind of the exception. But I think it might be reversed. I think that might have kind of exposed them for who they really were. I think Roethlisberger is in his absolute twilight. I don't know what he has left and his massive pay cut would reflect that. And the fact that they kind of bent over backwards to make sure that, you know, they, they kept them around, tells you that they're going to go down, you know, with him and probably play him all 17 games, no matter, you know,

how it's going. And that makes sense. He deserves that. They don't want to Eli Manning it where they like bench him for who, who did Eli Manning get benched for like inexplicably a couple years ago Gino Smith or something yeah yeah yeah couldn't believe that I think Pittsburgh's gonna run the string out with Roethlisberger and you're right it might be 5 and 12 6 and 11 7 and 10 kind of year but as I said on the schedule release show it's Thursday night you know it's Roethlisberger he's gonna have he's gonna have some magic at some point this year and it's Thursday and it's wacky and and I would be nervous about it to be honest with you I Tomlin is one of those baseline coaches that you brought up who's gonna have a somewhat competitive team

no matter what especially on the defensive side of the ball the ball. So I can't give that one in 10 to Minnesota yet. That would be a stupid one to lose, though, if Pittsburgh is bad, because, I mean, then you go into the divisional gauntlet, where I believe you have Chicago, Green Bay, Chicago, kind of the end of the year. So that would be a horrible, horrible game to lose at home on Thursday. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics.

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them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. I will give you this, that every year the Vikings of their existence, there's one game where we think, oh, you're good, yeah, that one. And when they go to play Pittsburgh or with their home to play Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh might at that time be a below 500 team. And we'll all be saying, oh, this is, you know, the Vikings, the momentum they need is winning this game and then going into the final

stretch. And then, you know, I mean, it would be very sort of Vikings ish to have that one, only a one point underdog on the road at soldier field, Vegas. Come on. Google Vikings at soldier field, Vegas. Come on. Google Vikings at Soldier Field, Vegas. Come on. Yeah, seriously. I mean, if you're going to make them seven-point underdogs at Baltimore and San Francisco, then they need to be at least 12-point underdogs

at Soldier Field because they've got way worse mojo there. Are you buying – I am buying that Baltimore will be really good still. I don't think that's changing. I think Rashad Bateman helps them a lot. San Francisco, though, I just don't know what to think. And this is why even these lines right here, why it's fun to discuss what we think if this happened, but it's hard to figure out because, like,

how good is Justin Fields by the time you go to play Chicago is a question we won't know the answer to. Is Aaron Rodgers the quarterback by the time you play the Green Bay Packers? We don't know the answer to that. All we know is that the Lions are probably not going to be very good. And beyond that, it's like we don't even know the quarterback situations. And the same thing goes for San Francisco, where I think it's reasonable to believe that Jimmy Garoppolo could still be the quarterback of San Francisco and they might be a good team right neck and neck with Seattle for that division

at the time that the Vikings go to play them so I just think is there any other one that that one the minus seven at San Francisco really stuck out because I thought well tell me what San Francisco you're facing at that point is it Trey Lance San Francisco where he's learning how to take a snap under center? Or is it the San Francisco with Jimmy Garoppolo? Were there any others that stuck out to you on the Westgate sportsbook here? Not particularly. Let me address those two that you just brought up. I kind of love San Francisco this year because I don't

think a lot of people are going to take into account just how much bad injury luck they had last year and still went seven to nine. And people are going to overlook Garoppolo because he's a depreciating asset and he's been involved in trade talks. I just think that Shanahan's a good coach. And I think that Garoppolo is like a fine quarterback to win you football games, not phenomenal, kind of Kirk-like a little bit, better than Kirk in a few ways, worse than him in other ways, probably a little more end-of-game swagger though, which I appreciate. And they're going to get so much back. It's going to be unbelievable. I like San Francisco a lot. Baltimore worries me because I'm still waiting for Jackson to sort of suffer that first big injury.

I don't wish harm upon him. I don't. He's better for the league when he's healthy. I just worry about that happening. Hope it doesn't. I love that offensive line that they've kind of added to with Villanueva and Ben Cleveland, the big fella playing guard. I think that's going to be awesome.

So I like Baltimore a lot, and that, I think, is just a tough place to play. Vikings have some ghosts there as well for whatever reason because they play there once every eight years, but they're seemingly cursed. But I think those are the two biggest lines. I don't think there's more than seven anywhere else on the schedule, home or away. Oh, actually, I take that back.

Detroit. Detroit. Detroit is minus eight or eight and a half at home. Dan Campbell wants to own a lion, an actual lion. Like for the team, right? Like a pet lion. Yeah. I think he was kidding, but I'm not 100% sure he was kidding.

I don't know. I think he was kidding, but I'm not 100% sure he was kidding. I don't know. I think he's probably serious. This week there are no OTAs that are open to us, but next week there will be. Just real quick before we wrap up, and this will be a further discussion with Brad Spielberger when we talk to him for PFF. Think Daniil Hunter is going to be there?

No. I also say no. I would wager a sizable amount of money at Westgate on that one. I think the Vikings will have similar attendance to what we've been seeing around the league, which sounds like around 70. I mean, there's about 30 already that are kind of in that rookie, you know, that either rookie boat or like the fledgling, like second year player that are probably locks. And then you're going to have a lot of the fringe guys there too. I think of, of the 10 to 20 that don't show up, probably a lot of veterans,

which they're, they're probably pretty secure. Now there will be a couple that are interesting. Like we might point to, I'm trying to think of a good example, but, you know, if someone like Ezra Cleveland didn't show up, that would seem a little strange to me. If someone like, oh, gosh, Troy Dye, you know, like those guys that feel like they have a place on the team but need a lot of work, I think that would be interesting and a little bit puzzling. But I suspect that a lot are there. Not Daniil. For sure not Daniil. And probably not Brian O'Neill, you know, because of his contract negotiations, too. No, that's a good point.

Or maybe he's doing the Anthony Barr and he's going to get insurance before he works out that contract. That is a deadlock for me. Put this down, Westgate. The first day of training camp, Brian O'Neill announces his new contract extension. That is a deadlock for me. Put this down, Westgate. The first day of training camp, Brian O'Neill announces his new contract extension. That will happen. So, all right, Sam, good stuff. Enjoyed this.

And, you know, this week is kind of for fun discussions because we will have OTAs to talk about the next three weeks after that. And then we've got minicamp as well. So a lot to discuss with the Vikings still. So I appreciate appreciate your time and uh and i enjoyed golf today it's good it was a little windy out there we were playing next to a firing range which was weird and i've never done that before but uh it's a good time yeah it was i pictured oh just cut it off cut it off after that cut it off after your dog in the back all right