Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings fan questions, a Super Bowl roundtable and former Bengal Solomon Wilcots joins

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom are joined by Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune to talk about some fan questions, including whether Kevin O'Connell offers fresh opportunity for the draft picks who were underappreciated by Mike Zimmer and when we might expect a Kirk Cousins trade if it's going to happen. Plus former Cincinnati Bengal and Minnesota Viking Solomon Wilcots joins from Radio Row in Los Angeles to preview the Super Bowl and talk about Joe Burrow comparisons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to a Super Bowl special here on Purple Insider Special Roundtable. Matthew Collar, Sam Ekstrom, and joining us from the Star Tribune is Andrew Kramer. It's a Super Bowl special! Football! What's up, Andrew? Hey, I love that introduction. Thank you. Always good to be on with you guys. I just wrote it. Just freestyle. It's crazy. It just came to me. So here's what I want to do, guys. I've got some great questions from Vikings fans about Vikings things that I feel like we should start out with first, and then we can get into just general Super Bowll ridiculousness.

Cause there's, there's no way we could break down anything else with this matchup after two weeks. So it needs to be absurd or it isn't any fun. But I want to talk about some of these things that, that people are asking from the Friday mailbag, because people send a lot of great questions and And I know you do a mailbag too, Andrew. And I am always amazed that people still have great questions after they've asked me questions every single week.

Like I fully expect every week for no one to have anything. You just be like, stop, stop answering questions. Especially after a loss to the previous winless lions and people still kind of fire at you. And you're just like, man, the passion, it burns it burns strong it really does i am always amazed by this uh but let me start out with um just asking about something that that caught my eye about what the next regime is going to think of certain players and this is beyond kirk cousins because i've spent the whole week on kirk cousins and i'm sure people are exhausted of me trading him for random people. But everybody else, like this roster, and I think specifically of the players that Mike

Zimmer wanted nothing to do with, like the Wyatt Davis, Kellen Mond, like this draft class, Patrick Jones, we saw hardly any of this draft class play. And I just wonder what you think of, like, if a new regime is coming in and looking at this roster, if there are players that they would look at here that they would say, you know what, maybe there's something more there or like, who does this benefit the most that Kevin O'Connell and whoever else is coming in?

Yeah, I would, I would start with the younger players, right? I mean, that's where you got to start. You mentioned Wyatt Davis and Kellen Mahn. That's two guys from the rookie class last year. Really anybody from the rookie classes or draft classes the last few years because that was the coaching staff that took, what was it, four games to get Eric Kendricks in the lineup, two games to get Justin Jefferson in the lineup,

a month to get Stefan Diggs in the lineup. A lot of guys were in camp. You saw, and even us as layman observers, we're like, yeah, Stefan Diggs in the lineup. A lot of guys were in camp. You saw, and even us as layman observers, we're like, yeah, Stefan Diggs is good at football. And it took him a month to get in there. So I'm not saying Wyatt Davis is blowing people away in camp that way last year, but giving people chances early can really help build confidence. Brian O'Neill is another instance of that. Somebody who took an injury and was really the fourth tackle after a rough start with the Jaguars in some joint practices.

So I guess I would start with those draft picks. I think Chaz Surratt, certainly another one with Anthony Barr potentially moving on here. You could go up and down, I think, those draft picks. But Sam, I would have to just say the young guys. Yeah, 100%. And I'd add Christian Derusaw to that list too, a player they might've been a little bit slow on who probably needed to be in there earlier over the guy that they had. But I think that the best way to approach this,

if this staff is going to rebuild responsibly and maybe not chase wins in the first year is, and also they don't have a lot of resources to go sign guys. So I think you have to have confidence that, all right, Cameron Bynum can be the guy. And if there are growing pains, there's growing pains. Same can be said for someone like Chaz Surratt or Blake Lynch. Same can be said for, you DuJour or the James Lynch or Wyatt Davis. And you can use in-house options to fill spots without the need to go after a one-year deal and block somebody like Cameron Dantzler from getting much needed reps. So I think that it's going to be a younger lineup next year and that's how it should be. And if it doesn't mean wins in year one, that's okay. Because in this timeline, I think you have to identify, okay, who is cheap and talented that can be part of this thing?

And if you're not, if you're not talented, you don't fit, well, then you're not going to be part of the plan in 2023. But I think 2022, you can kind of use as an evaluation year for some of these guys that might be something like, I still wonder if, if Irv Smith had been healthy, would this team have ever utilized KJ Osborne? Cause they wouldn't have been in those three receiver sets as much. Like there just wouldn't have been as much reason to have him on the field. Would he still be buried? there could be some untapped potential there that we don't even really realize you know i really didn't want to buy fully into the mike zimmer can't stand young players because i thought that some of the time they were right in bringing along guys slowly i mean justin jefferson had covid and then he got behind a little bit in that

first camp and so you could understand why. And he played. It wasn't like he wasn't on the field. He just didn't start it outside receiver until week three. They didn't have him sitting on the bench until week 10. And then finally he explodes. I mean, it took two weeks. But this year there were some real smoking guns with that.

And the biggest one for me was Cam Dantzler. Brashad Breeland from week one was awful. It just, it was not working from week one. I mean, Andre Patterson gave us a dissertation on how he was doing their technique wrong. And, and yet they kept running them out there week after week after week. And then when you look at the final numbers on Dantzler versus Brashad Breeland, like you just, well, I won't make any more hairline jokes, but like you just tear out your eyebrows thinking about how crazy it was by the numbers to play. They played about the same number of snaps and Dantzler was worlds

better. He made a couple of mistakes in key spots that cost them at the end of games. But aside from that, a far better corner than Bashad Breeland. It's like, why didn't Mike Zimmer trust Dantzler more when it was clear that one player was better than the other? Yeah, and it was, I remember that was Jamar Chase's kind of arrival on the NFL scene, right? Was that touchdown right before halftime that was Bashad kind of came up holding the shoulder

that he had been kind of nursing that entire offseason. I think it was the shoulder anyway. But he was, you're right, Bashad's signing that happened in June after they'd already gotten a long look or tried to get long looks at Dancer in the offseason. That was Zimmer and Spielman reacting to, oh, this guy's got a pulled hammy now or quad. It was an injured quad, I think, in the spring. And, oh, boy, now we need to go in and bring this guy, a super unreliable veteran who, yes, had been available for a lot of games, but the results were about as high and low

as you could possibly get. And the Vikings had just basically just the lows. And didn't his first pick come against Roethlisberger and then he was cut like right after that? It was just incredible. I think he had one against, didn't Sam Darnold throw one right to him? Oh, that's right.

That's right. My bad. How could we forget? How could we forget? How could we forget? Like the first play of the game or something like that. And yeah, and it was a good play. And then that was like one of the only good plays that we saw from him. Still a bizarre release, by the way.

Like we still don't know, I think, because it was very much a he said, he said with, you know, Breland having his version of events, the Vikings having their version of events, and we never really got to the bottom of it. And I think that the news came at a time when we couldn't ask Mike Zimmer about it and then it got past us and we never found out. So anyway, maybe Mike Zimmer will tell all in his inevitable, you know, reappearance interview, which I assume, Matthew, we're going to book here on Purple Insider.

Is that where he's going to resurface? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Mike really wants to do local media after his relationship with us, which is so funny because it was entirely one-sided, where we were like, okay, Mike, you give us a lot of actual insight into stuff,

whether you're doing it on purpose or just mad about something and ranting. And so I always felt like from our perspective, I could deal with grouchiness to get a lot of insight into what was going on. He would routinely get mad at us for thinking that we didn't know what we were talking about. And so he would then explain everything. And it was great. It was like one time with Trey Waynes, he sat there on the golf cart in the summer

and gave us this whole breakdown of the technique that Trey Waynes needed to improve to be a better starting corner. And it was like, this is great. How would I know this otherwise? Nobody could tell me this except for him. I don't expect we're going to get that from Kevin O'Connell. So we never had any real problem with that, but he always took the questions as if they were like insults.

It'd be like, uh, Mike, so should you play Ezra Cleveland over Drew Samia? And it'd be like, you guys don't understand guards. And it would just be like, okay.

I mean, yeah. Is that a no? Like, his defensiveness thinking he was being attacked when we were asking questions, it was like both helpful in that he would reveal a bunch of information and also frustrating. It's like, we're not attacking you. The job is to actually show up in this room and ask you these questions. Yeah.

And clearly he wore so much on his sleeve with his emotions. Right. And I think no matter what you asked him, that could kind of pour out. And sometimes you looked at him and you thought this, what I'm getting back from you, the grouchiness, the anger, it's not about what I just asked. Mike, what is it? You want to be a therapist. Mike, what is it really about? What is this really about? Your childhood? It's about something. It wasn't about the fact that yeah we question you know ezra cleveland or whatever right is this about your kind of candor from ed donatel maybe he'll be the new zimmer oh man uh you know what i do think it's smart though and a lot of

people asked about this so this is another friday mailbag thing i think it's smart to bring in an old dude who's your defensive coordinator if you're a young first-time coach, get a guy who's been around the block, knows what he's talking about. He's actually, even though he's, I think 65 that Vic Fangio's defense is really cutting edge. And it's the one that everybody's copying. So everyone's copying the McVay offense and the Fangio defense. and now you're bringing them together. And also just people who have been around the league for a long time and seen a lot of things. I think there's a lot of value in that still that sometimes we look at older people in, I mean, maybe this is any business, but football and like, ah, that guy's old. He doesn't know what he's doing. And yet,

you know, Bill Belichick is still doing things that are ahead of the rest of the league that, you know, he's older. So that doesn't necessarily have to mean, oh, they're bringing in this old guy defensive coordinator. He won't know what he's doing. Yeah, and I think it's to be expected a little bit, or it should be from fans when you bring in a 40-year-old general manager who's doing this for the first time, a 36-year-old head coach

who's doing this for the first time, that you-year-old head coach who's doing this for the first time, that you need some kind of veteran lieutenants or assistants around you that if it's not going to be Andre Patterson, which was always a pipe dream, I think, from fans or anybody who thought he was going to stick around because of his relationship with Zimmer, you were going to bring in somebody like him, Ed Donatel, somebody who had that experience, has been around. And if you're going to change your defense, whatever, as long as it matches and vibes with what Kevin O'Connell wants to see out of his team, that had to be expected.

And I don't think it's the same thing as offense. I think there's a conversation to be had about experience teaching you some things over seeing every iteration of offense over decades and knowing that a lot of these things are going to come back. Right now, you're seeing the younger offensive coaches do well, the Andy Reeds and Bruce Arians excluded, but you're seeing this kind of new wave of young offensive minds. And I think people think, oh, you've got to have that on defense. Well, no, it's not just Brandon Staley. He's learning from a lot of guys that are still around and still doing this very, very well. Yeah, and it seems like defense isn't – there's not really a progressive way to do it per se. There's still – I don't think anyone is saying,

well, the 3-4 is what all the modern teams are doing. That's not really true. There are trends. The double-A gap was trendy for a while. Mike Zimmer claims that he invented it. The cover two is sorry i i can't i couldn't believe he said he invented it like you so clearly didn't like i watch lots of games from the early 90s and they were loading up the a gaps before that it's called the mug look like yeah so i mean he used it a lot and he deserved credit

for the way that he used it but it was Mike, you didn't come up with that. It's like, what if I melted some wax? I didn't invent the crayon. OK, I don't I don't know. Like this is that was such a weird guy. Anyway, go ahead. Yeah. No, I mean, I like I think I read that that Donatello was a big cover one guy. He would kind of like to clog the middle of the field, probably like safety in the box. That kind of sounds like what the Vikings would do with Harrison Smith.

So maybe that's what they'll see in the future. But yeah, defense is still a bit more cyclical. And I don't know, maybe the big innovation is still yet to be figured out defensively. But to me, it kind of feels like the Wild West where anyone from any era can kind of come in and it's very personnel dependent. Doesn't it feel like if you've got bad corners or bad ends, you probably can't just scheme your way to a good defense. You need talent on that side of the ball. Whereas an offense, if you have a couple talented guys in the right spots spots that can really go a long

way yeah i was just gonna say i think the the uh innovation on defense has more been just turning positions right positionless players these more whether it's an isaiah simmons or somebody coming out that can play this linebacker safety kind of hybrid role that you need to really just it's born out of necessity of matching up with these offenses. And usually, I mean, look at Seattle's a great example. Everyone wanted to copy Seattle's defense. They had Cam Chancellor and Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner and a great defensive line, Michael Bennett and Cliff Averill and all these guys.

They're like, I think that might have been why it was so good that they just had all these great players. You know, Mike Zimmer's a great example. I don't have any doubts about Mike Zimmer's acumen of coaching defense and understanding defense, but weird how when his shutdown corner no longer shut down the number one receiver from the other team that they weren't as good. Or when Everson Griffin slipped or Daniel Hunter got hurt, like it's the, you know, what, what did Pat Schirmer say to us? Like the Jimmy's and Joe's and not the X's and O's. I mean, a lot of times that's the case. There's what, what did Pat Schirmer say to us? Like the Jimmy's and Joe's and not the X's and O's.

I mean, a lot of times that's the case. There's no person who can push a button. So I would say you want to be modern in terms of understanding what offenses are doing and how you need to stop them from doing it. But it's usually, can you build a bunch of good players and then you'll have a chance. How about this? This is a good question here. I think if the Vikings start to consider trading Kirk Cousins and I've made fun of all the reports already on the show, Andrew, I took care of that. But if you want to carry on,

you certainly can. I just want to know from the insiders when Rick Spielman is taking over as president of operations for football. That's all I want to know from the insider reporters who claimed that. I just want to know when that's happening. Oh, sorry. When he's staying in Minnesota and then getting promoted because that was the whole thing. That's all I want to know from those people who claim that they're so dialed in. That's all I want to know. When is Rick coming back to take that position? Anyway, Donatello was hired. I also heard there was like three different favorites to land that job. So yeah, JFK jr. Is going to reappear and reinstate Rick Spielman. I think that's how it's going to, how it is going to reappear and reinstate rick spielman i think

that's how it's gonna how it's gonna go you know what's really you know what's really clear the wilfs just don't leak a lot of stuff like that that's the reality is that sometimes there are ownerships and people in front offices that are pretty good at not showing their cards to everybody not everyone is jerry jones doing a weekly. So a lot of times if you're picking up something like that, like what's being claimed about how Kevin O'Connell feels about Kirk Cousins, like where is that coming from? It's like the John Eubacon thing. Like, okay, no one in Minnesota is saying this.

So it's just John Harbaugh telling Mr. Eubacon. Nor is anybody in the organization running around doing damage control for Jerry Jones. I think people miss. That's where a lot of info comes from out of Dallas is a lot of people running around saying, Hey, Jerry meant this, or we're really not doing this. Jerry kind of meant that because he just fires off with his Johnny Walker blue. Right. Exactly.

So I, yeah. And his party yacht where he makes the draft picks from, but let's say, okay. So if the Vikings start to consider trading cousins, this is a question from Twitter. Should they wait for teams to call them or should they be attacking the phones trying to get all the QB and needy teams to put in their offers? How do you think Andrew, that the Vikings will approach this? Because remember, I think this situation is actually comparable to Philly when they had Sam Bradford last year of his contract. They definitely didn't want to extend

him and they had drafted Carson Wentz. Bradford had a hilarious one day holdout and then they waited and got a first round pick. But I don't know. I mean, last year we saw quarterbacks traded pretty early. So what's the timeline for this, you think? I think too, just to start with what we know, and I think what was reported about Kevin O'Connell being a Kirk Cousins supporter, I think that that's how Kevin O'Connell should play it, regardless of what the truth is. Even if the truth is somewhere in the middle where he thinks I like him, but maybe we don't build a roster around a $45 million Kirk Cousins. I think that this is kind of going as expected so far. You should embrace him because you don't know how the Wilfs necessarily or Quacey wanted to go with him before you took the job.

And now that you get in the building, you can formulate that plan moving forward and you should keep every option open. And I, that's a good allegory and a good comparison to draw to Sam Bradford, because when you look at kind of where they're at in their careers, Kirk is more durable. Kirk doesn't have that giant injury risk hanging over his head. However, that contract might as well be an albatross in today's NFL right now. And unless these salary caps are going to start jumping 20 million every year, I don't know how you can fit Kirk in into your three-year, four-year, five-year window when you're trying to kind of rebuild how this team is moving forward.

So if I'm the Vikings, if I'm Kwesi, I'm keeping every option open. I'm letting everybody know I love this guy. But hey, you know, I'm new here. I'm open to anything. Let's see what you have willing to offer. And if a team comes along with the right kind of value play for you, and you can offload $35 million and go ahead and take your next quarterback or make that play for your next quarterback, whether it's in this draft or the next draft, I think you absolutely have to

do it. They are at a point right now where if you don't 100% believe in Kirk to be your guy, signing him to another deal is going to weigh you down the same way that the last one did. And I just, I don't see how you can talk yourself out of that. Yeah. And those that listen to this show, there's my dog. Dog pun. Know that I am team trade 100%, but I could see this also playing out a little bit like Zach Taylor's first year in Cincinnati, where, you know, and we've probably all like looking looked into his path and what he did after leaving the Bay and year one for him in Cincinnati was like kind of a stealth tank with Dalton.

It was like, well, we're just going to ride it out with Andy Dalton and a bad roster. And Dalton knows he's a lame duck. And he went two and11 and the Bengals were horrible and that actually helped yield Joe Burrow because they were so bad and if Cousins does stay then I think that's going to happen because the contract is still going to be so large that it's going to be really tough to add to this roster at all. So it would be expensive quarterback who might feel a little disenchanted or unwanted roster would be terrible around him. I mean,

I guess the offense could, could be fine still with the talent they have, but again, what's the defense going to do is the offensive line going to be any better? Probably not. So I could see that being the Vikings version of, well, we'll keep you on board for one more year or maybe we'll give you this extension.

But we're still looking to trade you first opportunity. I think if Cousins stays, this team, it's hard to imagine a path where there's anything better than last year and more likely that things would just go right off the tracks. And for me, they're not horrific enough to go to and whatever with cousins so they would go seven and ten or they would go eight and nine or if things went their way they would go nine and eight and what's the point in that is the way i think of it is the if because also if you just let kirk walk in free agency after that you get nothing back and even if you have to take some dead cap space and you sign, who knows, James Winston or something to a one-year deal, and he's your bridge quarterback, and then you draft someone,

will you still get something back from whoever you're trading for? Now, I don't really fully know. Brad Spielberg for PFF thinks they can get a first-round pick because there's nothing like quarterback desperation. Even if it's a second-round second round picks are starters brian o'neill irv smith these guys are second round picks delvin cook is a second round pick like you could get good players there to me if you're not doing that now and your plan is to ultimately move on what is the point of delaying the inevitable here i think there's a misnomer a little bit, though, too, of you need to be bad to get your top quarterback.

You need to be in that 2-14 number one overall hole to get him. That's not true. The Chiefs traded up to go get Patrick Mahomes. The Bills, I think, jumped up at least a little bit, didn't they, to get their guy? I think you've seen some instances where they can jump from middle of the packs to top 10. If you have conviction about somebody,

go get them. And that's how you lose jobs, but that's also how you maintain job security and win Superbowls. If you're the Kansas city chiefs, for instance, and you want to move on from Alex Smith. I know there's only one Patrick Mahomes. It's you don't want to chase kind of rainbows like that,

but I think there is an instance where you can be competitive this year and still turn around and try to make the play for your future. And if you're the Vikings, though, you need to convince yourself if you're keeping Kirk that this roster is when you can win with right away. And I think we might all agree here that that's that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't know how you can look through the next few months and say we're going to go out there and build a contender right away because the past regime just tried to do that and failed pretty miserably. Yeah. You really shouldn't tank when you have Justin Jefferson. I mean, you just like, that's not good for him. It's not, it's not good for Christian Derrissaw or Brian O'Neill or any of the players who matter for the future. It, so you need to have a bridge quarterback. It's just,

why would it be one who can get you a second-round pick when it could be one you could sign for $10 million? And if you're talking about the teams that traded up, I mean, you really have to be ready with the rest of your roster, like with San Francisco trading up for Lance or Kansas City or Buffalo. These teams were getting there with their roster, although I don't think Buffalo traded the farm if they did move up for Allen. But if you're Kansas City, that team was in the playoffs.

They were good already, and they just wanted that extra piece. The Vikings really are not in a position where they can just be trading off assets for the future. You could argue this offense is, but yeah, the rest of the team, yeah. Yeah, I think it's interesting too that you know both of these two big decision makers o'connell from the rams and quasi from the browns i know they were only in those places for two years but organizationally the browns built what they have which is a pretty solid foundation now through amassing as many high picks as possible. The Rams did it by giving them away

and trying to get tangible assets instead of the sort of theoretical assets in draft capital. And they got to this place in different ways. And the Rams just poured all their resources into star power. And the Browns just wanted to take as many swings as possible at you know top 100 or top 50 draft picks and they both kind of worked i'm not saying cleveland is the rams like cleveland is competitive they're not a super bowl team but i think that they're both bringing in some unique ideas of how you can build this thing um which i'm sure will be a topic of discussion you know the vikings decided that they are just gonna like take all their swings on day three of the draft and try to hit that way

you know so there's there's kind of a lot of different ways to um is skin the cat is that the the saying i'm looking for different ways to skin a cat don't love it's weird yeah don't love it um yeah is that 2022 safe can we do i don't think that's yeah you might need to edit that out i'm gonna get the yeah who was the first person that like came up with that it just sounded like icky coming out of my mouth who yeah who did all this to find out the different ways to yeah yeah sounds like a dwight shrewd reference right dwight shrewd would know well what a transition into uh super bowl show i forget the song already um oh that was it that was it preview in the super bowl

um okay so i want to ask you first and, we got to do silly prop bets because like, what would anything be without silly prop bets? But no, please tell me your favorite Superbowl ever. The one that you think like, that's the best, that was the best one for you. Selfishly, it's hard not to immediately go to the one that the only one that I've been to, which was at U.S. Bank where it was Eagles, Patriots, I was working it. But that was also that set the all time record for yardage. I think it's set the same thing for points, maybe. But just phenomenal. And for it to end on a defensive play where Fletcher Cox, I think, is the one that hits Tom Brady there at the end. When I was in college, I got to watch a lot of

Packers fans, them beat the Steelers, I think it college, I got to watch a lot of Packers fans, them beat the Steelers. I think it was. And so there were a lot of Vikings fans mixed with Packers fans. That was, that was a lot of fun watching that one. Yeah. I would,

I would have to go with those two. What about you, Sam? Man, Superbowl. Like, so this was supposed to be the coolest Superbowl for me. It was the Rams

Patriots Super Bowl four years ago. I was in Vegas for it. I was there for a concert in the Super Bowl and it was going to be really fun. And you realize when you're in Vegas that to be at a legit Vegas Super Bowl party, like a sports book, you need to have like a reservation or you need to pay an absurd cover charge. Like it was not what I, I thought it was kind of just open floor. Like everyone would just would wander in. That's not the case. So the only like kind of way to watch the game, my wife and I found that wasn't like either super expensive or crowded or off limits was like an outdoor amphitheater type thing but in February Las Vegas is not that warm so it was like 50 so it wasn't actually so that might have turned out

to be the least enjoyable viewing and also it was a crappy game horrible game 13 to 3 um I going back to what Andrew said watching actually the the Packers Superbowl run, like 11 years ago, I was also, I was in college at the time watching all of my Packers fan buddies, like live that run was actually kind of wild. Um, and cool for them. Like, you know, it's fun to watch people really happy about sports results. Um, I don't have any other good super bowl stories though i mean i watched a wardrobe malfunction like 15 years ago with my parents in the room how awkward was that terrible never want to think about it again we all are of a certain age where

that would have been very awkward around our parents yeah yeah luckily i was i was at a i worked at a mcdonald's and all the guys from mcdonald's got together had a super bowl party so we were all like was that a nipple but we didn't have twitter to like confirm so it's not like whoever was calling the game came back it wasn't like john mann kid well you got the you know and then boom and there it is areola you know like that that was that didn't happen. So we weren't sure. And there was no real way to check.

Like, let me go to MySpace and see if anyone, whatever you used to do with MySpace with that. It didn't turn into a tenacting commercial. Tough act in tenacting. It really wasn't until I think it really wasn't even until I think the newspaper came out that there was an article about what happened. And so I was like, okay, I did see what I thought I saw. You know, there were a lot of Super Bowls when I was growing up that were just horrendous. I mean, listen to these scores. The Bills were beaten 37-24, 52-17, and 30-13 in three straight.

And then the 49ers over the Chargers, this is 95, was 49-26. Cowboys-Steelers wasn't very good in 96. And then Packers and Patriots wasn't all that good in 97. So it wasn't really even until 98 where Packers and Broncos was really good. And even then, the stretch after that was still kind of bad. You had the Titans one, and this is what I was going to bring up where Kevin Dyson reaches out the ball. That was an incredible Superbowl. Steve McNair was one of my favorite players of all time. You know, the Rams with their emergence as this incredible, you know,

offensive juggernaut to win the Superbowl.er comes out of nowhere like all of that was just majestic uh but there were a lot of really bad super bowls between like 1990 and 2004 i think the first madden with a player on the cover was oh one eddie george uh right around that time too that was one of my favorite favorite games because of in part because of that team mad no one that was mine too i I feel like basically the Brady era, when Brady was in a third of these games in his career, half of them, whatever it was, a lot of them were really good. The ones he lost were certainly all dramatic

and multiple of the ones that he won were last second field goals. It was like sort of having this heel who was always in the game just added to the spectacle because he was either making absurd comebacks you know to disappoint franchises like the panthers and the falcons um or teams were bringing their a game to try to beat him and there there weren't a lot of clunkers like in in any of those brady super bowls, they were all, I think, decided by like one possession with the exception of the crappy one that I saw in Vegas.

Because Brady's not in it, are you guys as out on this? Because Rodgers isn't in it? Because we don't have those main storylines we normally do. Are you guys as out on this matchup as everybody else seems to be? What do you mean? Just like not excited? Yeah, I mean, everywhere I seem to look,

there's a lot of just kind of, at least among, you know, sports talk shows, national radio shows, whatever, a lot of just kind of like, ah, Bengals Rams. Like what do you do with that kind of thing? I understand like the industry is self-driven to prop these things up and find interesting things to talk about. But I think because there aren't the kind of big quarterbacks of the past, I love it personally. I'm really looking forward to this game.

I'm finally looking forward to not watching Tom Brady play in a Super Bowl. I want to see the next generation finally take over in what should be, in my opinion, a golden age of quarterback play here with Mahomes and all these young guys. I want to see it take hold. And I thought the Super Bowl might have already been before. I thought it was going to be that Kansas City Buffalo game. And I'm just looking forward to seeing Joe Burrow and seeing if he can do it. I think Burrow's place in history, if he wins here, is super interesting, especially since they are the extreme underdog.

And I think most people believe that the Rams are going to win this game. That makes it interesting. Also, just like you're saying, when I was growing up, it was Steve Young, Joe Montana, Jim Kelly, John Elway, Dan Marino. The league was stacked with these amazing quarterbacks. And then the next generation has Roethlisberger, Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees. And so they've got theirs. And now here's the next one. It's finally arrived. And after so long of those other guys dominating

and Joe Burrow basically emerged in this playoffs as earning a spot in that conversation. And maybe you could talk about, well, look, Ryan Tannehill kind of intercepted his way to get Joe Burrow into that spot. But just, I mean, it's hard to make the Super Bowl, especially as a quarterback in your second year and what he did throughout the regular season.

It's incredible to see all these guys kind of emerge at once. And for me to Sam, I really like seeing that it's it's Stafford, too, in the storyline of him trying to get his first. Yeah, no doubt. And I kind of get the sense that for Stafford, this might be his shot. This might not be sustainable with as expensive as the Rams roster is and could get. The stars kind of aligned for them. And the NFC isn't going to be as barren at the quarterback position forever. So I don't know if the Rams can confidently say, oh, we'll be back. Whereas the Bengals are ahead of schedule. I've probably explained this on the podcast before, but their cap space is unbelievable.

They're going to get better next year. Burrow's on the rookie deal. They've got two young wide receivers that are excellent and are probably going to get better. I mean, that team is, I think they're the future. I think the Rams are trying to, you know, take advantage of, I would say this window that McVay inherited probably won't last forever unless they can find creative ways to keep it open.

So for Stafford, it's kind of like, can he get it done? And for Burrow, is this his, like, first Super Bowl like Brady where he kind of came out of nowhere and got that win, I think in his second season. And Burrow's kind of trying to launch his dynastic trajectory. You know what it feels like to me, sorry, Andrew, is just that with a quarterback like Stafford, you probably get one shot in a career. And I feel this way about cousins that if he's going to make a super bowl, there will probably be one year that it kind of comes together and it happens like that's not going to

be next year with the Minnesota Vikings, which is why we talk about the trade and everything else. But with quarterbacks like that, that exist in the middle space, Derek Carr will probably have one chance. Jake Cutler had one chance. Jake Plummer, like you could go through all of the past where guys that exist in that 500 realm, they usually get a shot somewhere thrown in there where their team is great. And if you have a guy who's really good, like Matt Ryan, he gets five shots where he goes into the playoffs with a legit chance. And if you have Aaron Rodgers, you get 10 shots and maybe you win one or maybe you win zero, but you know, you have chance after chance. And I mean, a, this is why you try to draft the quarterback that gets 10 shots, but think about how many quarterbacks in the AFC might get that

kind of thing where they go into the playoffs for 10 years, Lamar Jackson and, you know, Burrow and Holmes and Allen and Herbert. I mean, it's really amazing to think about. But with Stafford, I totally agree with your point that this is truly it for Matt Stafford. It would be shocking if he ever made another Super Bowl other than this one. Yeah, I saw Les Snead, the Rams GM, quoted somewhere saying that they feel like they were built to contend for years.

And I would love to have that optimism about anything in my life because I just don't see how that's possible. The Bengals though, Sam, I have to push back on that because I think their path is so hard every year that you cannot give up nine sacks the way you did in the playoff game and win. Like that's a one out of 100 kind of thing for them to win that game. And they won so many games with like three points or less or one score or less. I'm not saying it's fluky, but they have just landed on the right side of the coin so many times this year, including the playoffs, that I'm wondering with Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, all these quarterbacks, a lot of the good ones, great ones, seemingly being in that AFC.

I don't see how that could be the start of a run for him. They might be looking back at this chance and being like, it's not going to be his only chance, but looking back at this and being like, boy, it's, it was a lot harder to get back here than we thought. Yeah, no, I mean, your point stands though. I do think that a, I think they improve that roster and that protection B I think burrow is the type of quarterback that is going to continuously put you in contention and continuously be clutch at the end of games and win more close games than not. Like, I think he puts you there. Um, and I think the division, you know, with the exception of Baltimore, who probably stays competitive,

you know, I, I think they're probably going to be one or two in that division for a long time. Um, and yeah, it will come down to like, you know, who's health, like which quarterback is healthy, which roster is healthy. Mahomes is always going to be in the mix. You know, and Josh Allen seems like he's got that, that franchise in an amazing place. So are the Bengals guarantees? No, but I think that they are playoff contenders with a really good quarterback. And I think they're right there going forward with probably more talent around Burrow, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Andrew, let me ask you a question.

Which quarterback in the NFL right now do you think wins multiple Super Bowls the rest of their career? Because right now, let's see. So, I mean, after Roethlisberger goes, he has two, right? Eli Manning had two. Brady is gone.

Does anyone in the NFL have multiple Super Bowls? They don't, right? So are you asking me, does Mahomes win one more? Are you saying would he have to win two more to qualify? You're saying from here on out, win multiple. From here on out to any of these guys. Garoppolo has multiple, doesn't he? Right?

Yeah, he's technically. Oh, right. Yeah, okay. I was going to say, like, huh, what? Oh, as a Right. Yeah. He's technically. Oh, right. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say like, huh? What?

Oh, as a backup. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I would include my homes in this. I mean, I think that we,

his contract, it's like, he's not totally infallible as we saw. I think they need to learn how to counter a lot of what they're running into. It just, my home seems to be impatient in that, that, that their offensive system seems to be impatient lot of what they're running into. It just, my home seems to be impatient and that, that,

that their offensive system seems to be impatient with how little they ran the ball, for instance, in their playoff loss to Cincinnati. I think they can learn and get better and counter things. It's just, yeah. Are you always going to be healthy?

Like Sam talked about, it comes down to that so much. I have a hard time watching the end of that game against Buffalo, Kansas city, where everybody leaves wanting just the rules to be changed. Like that game was so great, obviously, not thinking Josh Allen is not going to keep doing this. So I would pick Josh Allen right now because I think he seems built for Buffalo. He seems built for playing outdoors in a way that we saw Aaron Rodgers not really seem to be, at least at this age. And I think Josh Allen is at that ripe age where you've got a team now that you can make a run. And his division is truly bad.

I don't I'm not huge on Mac Jones. I don't think the Patriots outside of their running game are going to be much to worry about. So I really think it's Buffalo and Josh Allen. Yeah, I mean, we're going to see pretty soon what his salary will do to that roster because they've done an impeccable job of building it up. And they kind of backloaded it where his cap hit is still pretty reasonable this year and they can still have a good roster. And then it skyrockets in 2023. And that's when, you know, it's kind of the paradigm of whenever a team is this good for a couple of years, players are going to get paid, want to get paid, and they're going to lose some talent.

So to see if they can sustain it and if Allen can sustain it with maybe a little less talent around him, I think he can. I mean, he is so durable, too, and tough as a runner. That whole element of his game, I think, really blossomed this season where he can just plow through people in that Kansas City game, just willing himself to get first downs with some crazy Houdini escapes. And like every week we're seeing a young quarterback emerge and we're legitimately posing the question, is he the next big thing? Is it Allen? No, wait, it's Burrow. Who is it? Last year, two years ago was Lamar Jackson. So they're all kind of in that mix, just jockeying back and forth.

It's really fun to be in the AFC as a fan. And if you're like one of those teams that doesn't have the quarterback, you're just wondering, what do we do? We're screwed. And how quick we forget about Kyler Murray and how quickly he wants to forget about the Cardinals, I guess. Yeah. Just stop it. Follow us back, Kyler, on Instagram, please. Okay. Let me ask this and then we'll real quick after this, we'll do um you know a couple of stupid props but i want you guys to make your 2023 super bowl pick right now okay i'll give you a second to think about it i gotta look at the nfc and remember who's in the nfc

is anyone good enough in the nfc because i i know who i'm picking the afc but i'm picking the los angeles chargers in the afc not just herbert but also cap space they have room to improve their team and i think that as we've seen like okay mahomes goes burrow goes that we're gonna see either alan or herbert so i'll just shoot my shot on justin herbert um daniel jones, I mean, Trey Lance, year two. Do we go Trey Lance, year two? San Francisco makes the Super Bowl next year. Gosh, the NFC is so hard. I know it's like, it's easy to pick who you're not picking. Like Matt Rule is not making it. Dallas just seems to have something about them where they can never get there. Yeah, I got to go. I got to go. Bill's 49ers. I think that's going to be my pick because I'm a huge Trey Lance fan, not just because he's from Marshall, Minnesota and NDSU and all that, but

I think he just fits that system. And I've always been a huge Kyle Shanahan fan as well. So and then what I just got done saying about Buffalo. I thought about Dark Horse. Cleveland could be really good for a while. Everything Sam just laid out about what they've done to rebuild over there. If they find the quarterback that's not named Baker Mayfield, I like their chances. That's the Chris Berman special, Andrew. I think Berman had the tradition every year he would pick Bill's 49ers. Did he really? I'm pretty sure that's a thing. I had no idea.

Actually, that's genuine. I really think that could happen. Berman is massively popular in Buffalo because of this. You're right. I'm right about this caller. It was Bill's 49ers. I don't know about 49ers. I know that he would pick the Bills all the time,

and then he would – I forget exactly. Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, no, I looked it up. I think I'm right. It's Bill's 49ers every year. Not a bad pick. Somebody needs to fill that gap. We haven't seen Berman on TV in a while.

He's on ESPN+. You got to pay to see Berman now. See, I'm a man of the people. I'm making that pick for free. Yeah. I mean, if you don't pay to see the highlights on NFL primetime, I don't know where else you get them. No one else has them.

You know the Rams might end up being back. I'm looking know where else you get them. No one else has them. You know the Rams might end up being back. I'm looking at the NFC right now and I'm just like, oh man, if Aaron Rodgers plays for the Broncos, the Rams could be back. And then it'll sort of take away what I was saying about Stafford in his one shot. But yeah, I think I'm going to pick San

Francisco from the NFC right now. So how about you, Sam? I'm going to, just because i want to say the name i'm gonna go commanders come on they're gonna they're gonna find a quarterback command some respect for yourself they've got a good coach commanders and uh dolphins oh dolphins raiders i like that i like that right I like that. Raiders. Okay. Yeah. The Raiders are just there and they're an appealing market for people to play.

I think, I mean, they're coming off a 10 and seven season too. I, I, again, I think they need to upgrade a quarterback, but I just think that they,

they have enough there that I could see them making a run two years from now. Okay. Sorry. I put this all the way until the end, despite teasing it like seven times and going longer than expected. But would you guys bet on the first play of the game being a runner pass with,

let me just ask you some of these and whether you would actually bet this. Oh, I would, I would a hundred percent bet a pass. And I would actually bet this. I don't know what the money is that you would get on that, but I would actually bet that. It's minus 128 for a rush and plus 104 for a pass. Oh, I get the dollar.

Oh, yeah, I would take that. So there's a great handicapper in this market, a Mike Gell fan. He's been betting on sports and and horses for years and you know an old radio host and i've heard him talk about this um one of the most foolproof bets is taking the first rush of the game yardage under like the line is almost always three and a half yards i think and on it And the under has hit like an absurd rate. So if you can find that line somewhere, like first rush under. That's not just Vikings games?

No, no. This is Super Bowl. Super Bowl games. I guess people, maybe like you said, people are anticipating the rush maybe because the rush is favored to be the first play hammer the under on the yardage i think they i think if cincinnati's got the ball they pass and also the rams are not good at running so that could also be a thing how about the largest lead of the game being over under 14 and a half i would would not take that. No,

I don't. You got to give us the odds on these. Oh, sorry. It's not significant. It's plus 100 for the over minus one 30. Okay. So it's straight up.

No, I wouldn't take that. No, I wouldn't touch it. I wouldn't touch it just because we're probably not going to get, you know, a Seahawks Broncos Superbowl, but you never know.

The only thing is that Super Bowls do love comebacks. And so the Bengals got down to the Chiefs, came back. All they have to do is go down for more than two touchdowns for a second. But that's a lot. Yeah, if it was 13 and a half, I think I might actually take it. This one I love. How many players will attempt to pass during the game and it's over under 2.5 and it's a minus 190 under and plus 155 over. I want to say I take

the over all day. Someone's throwing a pass. It's probably a punter. Someone's punters throwing a pass here. Yeah. There's going to be a guy that you've never heard of. It's a backup long snapper. He was a star quarterback at some town in oregon and he's gonna come out and throw a touchdown and we're gonna know his story like malcolm butler who you know the nick foals and the philly special all that yeah trey burton throwing the pass to nick foals thank you trey burton i i guess we didn't remember his name because i got a huge contract because of that huge contract um yeah i'm gonna commandeer this now caller who do we think is gonna have the first

touchdown this is one of my one of my favorites because the odds are insane like if you get the right guy um for example kendall blanton plus 1600 i think that would be my bet. I think people are sleeping on Kendall Blanton. As they so often have. Potentially the first or the starting tight end for the Rams. But who do you go for first touchdown? It's going to be whoever Stafford throws the pick six to from his own goal line. So it's going to be. So Cincinnati Bengals defense is plus 3000. throws the pick six to from his own goal line. So it's going to be.

So Cincinnati Bengals defense is plus 3000. So Andrew's a hundred dollar bet turns into $3,000. You are common ready to drop bombs. I would lay that down. I mean, the most obvious one is like Jamar chase, right? I mean,

no, I was going to say like a running, I was gonna say mixing or acres. I just figured that once you get into the red zone these coaches are gonna that's when they'll pucker up they're not gonna pucker up right out of the gate it's gonna be like kyle shanahan typically right when you get in the red zone just run run run run run and and see if you can get it in i think mcveigh has one of the higher run rates in the red zone but that's a good nugget with with mixin though i just think too like i don't know if i don't trust trust burrow they should trust burrow but i could see zach taylor being like let's hand it off the the beauty of that and that's why i love this bet is because

you can take a common like player like mixin or chase and odds are still really good it's plus 700 for mixin it's plus 800 for chase it's plus 750 for acres so. It's plus 800 for Chase. It's plus 750 for Acres. So you can take a, even Cup is plus 500. So a big name can still get you pretty good return. All right. So just real quick to wrap, who do we think wins the football game, Andrew? I think it's the Rams. I think Stafford finally gets it done. My jokes aside on his pick six to open the game, he does do these weird things and compounds the errors,

which I think is the most concerning thing with him. One usually turns into two or three, but from what I've seen from Cincinnati's offensive line and from what I've seen from the Rams defensive line, we both got to watch them in person this year against the Vikings. I don't know how it's not going to be Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd, Von Miller, all over Joe Burrow. I think Joe Burrow is going to need to be superhuman to win this game. And I think Stafford is just going to have to be good enough. And I think that'll, that'll do it. I think Burrow will be superhuman.

I think he's going to score a touchdown and do the icky shuffle. I think that he's going to be smoking a victory cigar after the game. I think that Joe Burrow is going to get legend status from this Super Bowl victory. I am picking the Rams, but I looked this up last night. Just since 2018, Stafford has nine pick sixes. It's not just you. That's a lot. That's just in the regular season because, obviously obviously you didn't play much in the playoffs,

but right. That's insane. Pick sixes. That is, that is insane. That has to be like twice as much as anybody else. Yeah. And almost two more to Anthony bar.

Yeah, that's right. Well, Andrew, great stuff. Great to have you on the show as always. And I appreciate all the time here. This has been a super fun Superbowl special special thank you so much for having me on guys i appreciate i'm singing andrew please sorry no great great great stuff you do obviously tremendous work um at the

star tribune and people should listen to your show as well access vikings and um that's the name of the show right you looked at me funny oh no that's yeah that's the name of the show, right? You looked at me funny. Oh, no, that's the name of the show. No, my dog was barking. So I'm just trying to make sure you guys couldn't hear it. Far for the course on this show. Okay, good. People looking at me funny and dogs barking. That's the show. All right, Andrew, thanks for your time, man.

Thanks, Sam, as well. Save 15% at SodaStick.com by using the promo code purple insider at checkout that's s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com for your minnesota sports inspired hats hoodies shirts use the promo code purple insider at sodastick.com joining me on the show a former cincinnati bengal a former minnesota viking as well and a broadcaster you all know, Solomon Wilcots, making your second appearance here on the show with me. What's up, Solomon? How are you? Hey, man, I'm doing great and good to be with you.

You are on Radio Row right now, correct? Oh, yeah. And, man, there's a buzz in the building now. You know, on Monday it starts off a little chilled. Tuesday it starts to bump up a little bit. Wednesday, okay, this in the building now. You know, on Monday, it starts off a little chilled. Tuesday, it starts to bump up a little bit. Wednesday, okay, this is the Super Bowl. Thursday, Friday, man, oh, bedlam.

It's crazy. Madhouse. Yeah, when the Super Bowl was in Minnesota, it was at the Mall of America, so we were broadcasting out there. And my story from there was we were so packed and tight that Terrell Davis almost ended my life with an elbow by, as he was walking by me, he had to dodge somebody else. So he kind of made a quick Terrell Davis move. And if I hadn't had the quick Twitch, Solomon, I would have gotten hit with the elbow from trial Davis. So that was my, that was my radio roast story from the super bowl. You wouldn't have been the first.

So I got, I got a lot to talk with you about. And also you're working with something very cool on a heart monitor that I want to discuss with you as well, because it's a very interesting thing that you're doing. But first I have to ask you, what is more nerve wracking? Is it to play in an NFL playoff game or the Super Bowl, or is it to broadcast a big game? As you're preparing, what made you more nervous? I think broadcasting, one, made me more nervous. Not that I was nervous because I really wasn't, but you're –

listen, if you're playing, that's something you've been doing since you were a kid, right? And you tend to have just more hours of this reservoir of knowledge and information that allows you to do your job. And when you're a player, say as a defensive back, my job is to handle the passing offense from the opposing team. And so that information may be boiled down to like about that much from the neck up mentally.

But then there's this physical thing that you have to bring to the table, right? So physical preparation, there's mental preparation. When you're preparing to call a game, it's all mental. You can't go out there and tackle someone. You can't go out and hit someone. And they don't give you a script. They don't tell you what plays they're going to run. Like in the NFL, you show up to call a game and you're asked to know so much, but nobody

tells you what plays they're going to run. They don't let you in on what their strategy is and what they're going to do. You have to be able to pick up on these nuances in real time, Matt. So when you're calling the game, reporting on a game, you don't know what's going to happen. But you have to be so focused that you got to be prepared for everything. And that's very difficult to do. And you got to I mean, you're paying attention to the office, the defense, the special teams, kicking game. Whereas as a player, the scope of your focus is much more narrow.

Well, the other thing too is maybe you don't really have as much of a sense for how many people are watching when you're playing because it's sort of just you against another guy. But the internet will always let you know that people are watching if you're broadcasting games. I mean, poor Chris Collinsworth, who you know so well. You know, a couple of years ago, it was RPOs or play actions, and the internet was going crazy of whether he was calling one thing or another. It was like, okay, everybody, this is hard to figure out at full speed real time.

It's not like he has the all 22. So I think that's an interesting element that's sort of come along too is that everybody watches it and tweets you about everything you say. And just because they tweeted don't make them right. And just because they took a shot at Chris doesn't make him wrong. You know, he does get to spend a lot of time with coaches watching tape, and they're describing here's what we call play action. Here's what we call an RPO because here's our nuance to it, right?

Trust me. Chris Collinsworth, that's right. I'm going to say it. He knows more than what some guy on Twitter knows sitting in his basement. He says, well, I watched the tape too. Yeah, but did you talk to the coach? Did the coach tell you that this is how they see it?

How they view it? Chris Collinsworth has been around the game a long time he really has and he's got good sources he does spend time with players and coaches so you know I think we've gotten to a place in our world where everybody has an opinion but that doesn't mean it's an informed opinion uh Chrisinsworth is sharing his opinion during the game but his is an informed opinion because he's been in meetings with tom brady he's been in meetings with bill belichick he's actually it's an informed opinion but just but everybody wants to like weigh in and make the other you we have this game of one-up smithship make the other guy

look bad i'm smarter than you you're not, you know, Chris Collinsworth is the authority. And if you think you know more than, how about you go call a Super Bowl game? How about you get NBC to hire you? But that's the thing. Most people think, well, maybe they should. No, they shouldn't. No, they shouldn't.

Yeah, well, I mean, just on, on Collinsworth in general, I think that maybe people don't realize how hard he works to do a broadcast and how much goes into it. And I think that, I mean, you can speak to this, just the effort. And my wife is a play by play broadcaster. And so like the amount that goes into it, just to do one game of preparation to feel like you're comfortable doing it is, is really a lot. And, you know, also the other thing, sometimes there's crazy stuff that happens. Sometimes a guy, you know,

falls into somebody's butt and fumbles and you have to figure out what's going on in a snap of a fingers. It's, it's a, it's a really challenging thing. Oh, that's right, Matt. And I can tell you, I, you know, I work closely with Chris Collins where he, he puts a lot of time in there. He spends a lot of his own resources as part of his own research, okay, to be on top of everything. The fact is is that the NFL is a live event. It's not – every step's not pre-choreographed.

This is not like going to see a Broadway play where every time you go to the play, the lines are the same. The places on the stage and their marks are all the same and they're acting it out live. The NFL, it's a competition. It's something where two teams are going to do whatever the heck they want to one another real time. OK, and Chris Collinsworth has to figure that out. He spends all week trying to figure out what are the odds or what are the probabilities of them doing multiple things at any given moment in time.

Final two minutes on the clock, no timeouts left. He spent a lot of time trying to – he's right more than he is wrong. None of us are right on every single thing that we say and do, but he is a first rate analyst at the highest level. And there are very few who have done it better or who are as good. And that just means you've got to give him the respect for the good job that he does. Yeah, no, I agree with you, Solomon. But now how about speaking of, I mean, Chris Collinsworth and you.

Bengals, am I right? Like, is every person in Radio Row that you're going on with, are they just going, Bengals, Solomon, Bengals, you're Bengals, here they are. And they're looking at me like I'm half crazy because I'm mad because I have, you know, maybe an ounce of belief that the Bengals might actually win the Super Bowl because they act like the Bengals in the Super Bowl don't even belong in the same sentence. Right. Right. You know, it's like I can't believe it. Well, Anthony Munoz right here, he would tell you. That he went to two Super Bowls in the 80s. Now they lost them both, but it came down to a razor's edge, right? Both games.

Chris Collinsworth, tell you the same thing. He was on both the 81 team and the 88 team. And so for many of us, it's been a long time, obviously, for Bengals fans and people who live in Cincinnati. But this team is for real. They're legit. They've come from behind to win in some games against some very good teams. fans and people who live in Cincinnati, but this team is for real. They're legit. They've come from behind the win and some games against some very good teams.

The defense has ended every playoff game with an interception, right? Closing out against Derek Carr, Tannehill and Mahomes. They shut down a Chiefs offense in the second half, not just in one game this year, in two games this year. And they got a quarterback who's an outlier. This guy is all that and more in terms of what we expected. And he's good for our league. So I don't look at the Rams as this unbeatable team, right? I've seen the Tennessee Titans destroy them in a sunday night game you know i've seen them

give up four turnovers in a divisional game to the tampa bay buccaneers nearly lost the game i saw the quarterback throw potential interceptions two weeks in a row against the rams and the 49ers the 49ers defensive back didn't catch it. So tell me, when did the Rams all of a sudden become this unbeatable Goliath? And when did all of a sudden this Bengals become this poor man, underdog that no possible way they could win? What are they even doing here kind of a team? That just goes to show you how we all tend to embellish, right, and reinforce our own beliefs with more hyperbole with more sizzle.

Tends to lead us to, you know, kind of far away from what really is happening here in this game. Well, that's an interesting point because when the Rams played the Vikings, Matt Stafford through three interceptions and you know, he's always capable of that. And I mean, that's always a thing with him is that he takes risks and sometimes tries to make a play, but you have to be impressed as a former defensive back yourself with the secondary of the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, it's just been remarkable, especially

you mentioned the second half of that game against Kansas city. I mean, what is it about that group? I mean, I think that people are just finding out what a good player Jesse game against Kansas city. I mean, what is it about that group? I mean, I think that people are just finding out what a good player Jesse Bates is, but I mean, aside from that, it's not like it's, you've got a bunch of Darrell Revis's or a Jalen Ramsey who's out there. It just seems like a group that they've kind of put together and had the right mix. Yeah. They, you know, they did draft Jesse Bates. He's from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Same high school as our good friend Rod Woodson, Hall of Famer. 70-plus career interceptions. Very close friends. Jesse Bates can on the phone with him just about before every game. Okay? That's a mentor of Jesse Bates. Don't be surprised that he's a good football player because he's wearing bingo stripes.

Okay. So you've got Vaughn Bell came over as free agent. Mike Hilton, formerly with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay. Very productive player. You got Yadobi Awuze, former Dallas Cowboy. Trey Hedrickson had already played over a thousand snaps with the New Orleans Saints and now comes over is their leading pass rusher Sam Hubbard was a guy who had been drafted

Jermaine Pratt drafted Luke Wilson both linebackers drafted so they built this defense between drafted players three agent players it's been a really good mix. But to your point, the secondary, again, they finished off every single game in the postseason with an interception. They know how to close out games, okay? They know how to make big plays when they need it most. This team is not just all about Joe Burrow. The Bengals bring a team that plays a complementary style that are all help offense defense special teams by way of a rookie field goal kicker that's made four field goals in each

of their three postseason games averaging 12 points a game in the postseason and as you look deeper and deeper at this team i I'm telling you right now, I don't even know how they're the underdog. In my mind, they should be the favorite. But maybe I'm just, you know, maybe I'm just not seeing. I don't. No, I think that the Rams defensive line is pretty scary. That's probably the biggest mismatch there is the offensive line of the

Bengals and the defensive line of the Rams. I want to ask you, though, about Joe Burrow, because it's so interesting how he kind of emerges as this, you know, kind of one year wonder at LSU. And then he comes in the number one overall pick. And here we are just a couple of years later. I mean, talk about a quick rebuild. But here he is emerging as one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. Any similarities between Joe Burrow and Boomer Esiason, by the way?

That's a great question, Matt. I like it because as soon as you said it, I had to chuckle because, yeah, yeah. Why do you think Boomer even loves this guy? Boomer Esiason, I think, is one of the more underrated leaders in our sport i mean phenomenal leader really a-list uh quarterback in the leadership department his ability to get other guys to believe in him his ability to get other guys in the huddle to believe in one another. His ability to get guys going in the same direction. Boomer would get your attention. Now, if you were a guy who weren't rowing in the same direction,

now he could rein you in with the best of them. And what I love about him, the guy was willing to take the slings and arrows, okay, so that the other guys didn't have to. He understood that some guys couldn't walk the razor's edge. Maybe they'd get cut. But he was willing to use the equity he had to make sure that the needs of the players and the team were met, okay? He was our union leader.

He was our leader on the field. He was our leader in the huddle. He was our leader in the locker room. And for that, I, you know, I always admired him and still do to be honest with you. Cause he's still that same guy. Joe Burrow's the same kind of guy. Unapologetic as a leader. That's what Boomer is. Joe Burrow's the same way. And, and in that sense, I think Boomer took some of the hits for this franchise

because the ownership was not believing that a player should have that kind of empowerment ever. Because of what Boomer has gone through during his days in Cincinnati, and I would love to see someone do a story on this, because of what Kenny Anderson, former league MVP, had to go through, what Boomer Siazin, a former league MVP, had to go through, what Carson Palmer had to go through. I think the Bengals organization has been forever changed. They now know that there needs to be some player empowerment.

This is a quarterback that we need to be doing everything we can for him to go out and win for us. I really believe this team learned that with a quarterback like Boomer Esaias. I think he tried to teach them that. I think he tried to show them that. I think after all these years, they really do get it now. And Joe Burrow is reaping the benefit from that. He really is. And so the planets have aligned. If it works out, then Joe Burrow gets more empowerment, right? And after them giving him the player he wanted in the draft in the form of Jamar Chase. Maybe now they go out and say, okay, Joe, what else do you need?

Right. You know, maybe the Packers should have listened to Aaron Rodgers when he was campaigning for say, Justin Jefferson or something. I don't know that maybe it works out. Okay. To listen to your quarterback sometimes. Right. I want to fit in a Viking question because you were on the 91 Vikings and I just pulled up that defensive line for the 91 Vikings. You had all men. I mean, John Randall. I mean, what would you keep going? Yeah. No, no. No. Go was there. I mean, there was. That's right. Those guys were great players. You could make an argument. Henry Thomas is one of the most underrated players in NFL history. I think there is no doubt we in fact, we thought he was the guy going to the Hall of Fame, not John Randall.

And we knew John Randall was good. That's how good Henry Thomas was. Right. And then some personalities there, too, between Dolman and and John Randall. Maybe maybe Henry Thomas needed to be understated there. But I guess I just wonder what it was like to play for Jerry Burns too because, you know, I think he's really so highly regarded in Minnesota for, you know, there's many, many years of coaching before he was the head coach. I love Burns. And every player will tell you that.

Burns, he wasn't afraid to come into the locker room. Hey, guys, we're thinking about doing this. We're thinking about doing this. What do you want to do? What do you guys want to do? And he was like, okay, that's what we're doing. And not to our detriment. You know, he was the leader.

He ran the team. But he was a player's coach in a way that, man, he really empowered us to go out and do and play well. It was by far the most talented team I ever played on. You go look at it. I think we had, what, four or five Hall of Famers on that team. Gary Zimmerman, you know, was on that team, Hall of Famer. Chris Carter's on that team, Hall of Famer.

You could have, you know, Randall McDaniel's on that team, Hall of Famer. And you already – Randall McDaniels on that team. Hall of Famer. And you already mentioned Chris Doman and John Randall. Both – I mean, that's five guys right there. And as far as I'm concerned, if you were to put Anthony Carter in the mix, okay, was there any receiver in the league better than Anthony Carter? Was there any tight end better than Steve Jordan? I wouldn't have taken another

tight end over Steve Jordan. Okay? His son's going to be in the Hall of Fame. I can tell you that. Cameron Jordan. It was one of the great teams I had ever played on. Herschel Walker was on those teams. Joey Browner was on those teams.

I mean, the list just goes on and on. But Burns, he was fun. He was great. He was tough. But I consider the Vikings one of the great organizations in the National Football League with a proud tradition. As you know, Bud Grant was still around, always still around. Always looking so good, too.

The guy doesn't age. I mean, phenomenal. And think about the great players that organization has given us, right? So, no, the Vikings are a special organization. It's a very special city that's near and dear to my heart. I love Minneapolis. I think the people there are some of the best people you could ever be around. They always treated us with just wonderful love and just great generosity. We come back and we do certain team building things. And then we do this event where we ride around on ski mobiles, snowmobiles, different cities. And the fans still love us.

I'm like, you know, this is just over the top, you know, but I think it speaks to the people of that region. I just think they're some of the best people we have in our country. Yeah, I appreciate that. And also, I mean, just the loyalty of Vikings fans. I feel it here every day with what I do. It's an incredibly dialed-in fan base, and I know you did work with pro football

focus before and the Vikings fans are one of the most subscribed fan bases to PFF because I think that they want to be a knowledgeable fan base, which is really smart people. Let's face it. If only you had had a better stadium to play in back in the day, then maybe your knees would have saved a year. But before I let you go, because I know you're picking the Bengals. Tell me if I'm wrong. You're picking the Bengals. So I don't have to ask your pick. But I want you to tell me about what you're doing now working with BioHeart.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. And I'm going to show you this because as we speak, you know, this is a heart monitor and BioHeart is a state-of-the-art heart monitor that has continuing monitoring surveillance, right? It's a source of understanding what's going on with your heart. If you've experienced any kind of cardiac event, whether it's just, you know, an irregular heartbeat or whether it was a mild heart attack, you need to monitor your heart health, your cardiac health. And this is the app. I have it on my phone and you can see it's almost like an EKG. I'm wearing the heart monitor right now. It's a very lightweight device. It was invented. And the architect and the inventor is a guy by the name of Wacos Al-Siddiq.

Phenomenal device. You download the app. It stores a lot of information. You can record it and share that information with your doctor because most cardiac events usually occur in the morning, right? And your doctor's going to ask you, okay, what were you experiencing? But this is a way to document those experiences and share that data with your doctor so that you can have a proper diagnosis and can get better healthcare. So you don't need a prescription. All you got to do is go to www.biotricity.com or go to amazon.com. It's a phenomenal consumer product. It's not that expensive.

Go ahead and get it because I'm telling you right now, if you had a family member or a loved one, you're concerned about them, you want them to have this device so that they can continue to have good healthcare. Yeah. And that's spelled biotricity, which is T-R-I-C-I-T-Y. And just real quick, a broadcaster here in town, Jim Peterson, who does the Minnesota Timberwolves, he had a heart attack and was kind of like, should I go to the doctor or whatever? So I'm not really sure if there's something happening here.

Ultimately, he did and it saved his life. If he had something like this, he probably could have had data there to tell him, yeah, man, you need to go sooner. Yeah. So this is, it's a phenomenal device. It does everything from retrospective snapshots and data streaming of your cardiac data. It's very important that you can continue to monitor your cardiac health, right? And then be able to document it and share that information with your physician. And that's what the bio heart monitor is going to help you do. Technology, man. Well, it's really cool that you're working with them and hopefully that helps some people out because anything we can do to make sure people pay attention to their heart health is good. Solomon Wilkots, former Bengal, former Viking, tremendous, tremendous broadcaster.

An honor to have you on the show, sir. And I hope we can do it again soon. Have fun out there in LA, man. You know what, Matt? Hey, I always enjoy coming on with you. Do great work. And thank you for having me, okay?