Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings Galaxy Brain and Alex Clancy of Locked on Arizona Cardinals

Episode Date: October 29, 2022

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fan questions and previews Vikings-Cardinals with Alex Clancy of Locked on Arizona Cardinals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. So welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here as always. And we've got some fans-only questions to get to.

And also later on in the show, a conversation with Alex Clancy of Locked On Arizona Cardinals. And naturally, we preview the game, talk about Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray and the long-term situation with the Cardinals and so forth. So we will get to that momentarily. But first, some great emails to read and tweets. So let me get to those. Let me start out with a somewhat long email, but bear with me or bear with Alex, actually. He says, I heard the Kevin Cole interview, excellent analysis as always,

and had a question that came up in light of the concept of the adjusted win-loss record. Do you think that Kwesi is the type of GM that values those metrics and analytics? I hesitate to even use that word, but what I really mean is, does he seem like the GM that will look beyond the record and make the prudent decisions to make the Vikings a long-term sustainable winner we went back and forth on Twitter about GMs this week and I think that Howie Roseman is the perfect example he isn't afraid to go get a veteran when his team is in a position to win like acquiring Robert Quinn last week but he was also smart enough to tear it down, draft Devontae Smith,

and not try to double down when the roster need reconstructing. My biggest hope for Kweisi is that he uses those underlying metrics to help understand the roster and the roster in light of the rest of the league and understand sometimes it's okay to take a step back to take three steps forward. My biggest fear is he's an aw shucks, let's get thoughtful email, and thank you so much for that. We have to start out with, you can't really tell the owners of the football team that you're not going to do what they want you to do. So the NFL works just like your job, which is the boss has the power and the owner has the power to veto your good ideas. And that's not to say for sure that Kweisi Adafo-Mento wanted to tear down a lot of parts of this roster. But I think that's very possible.

And the owners wanted to be, quote, super competitive. And hey, they are super competitive at the moment. So it's actually worked out to this point the way that Mark Wilf dreamed it up. But if your ownership says, look, you can't tear it down because we think you can win. There isn't really an option to just be like, Hey man, but what if like, those are the billionaire owners who foot all the bills and employ you. Uh, and I think that some of the moves that happen around the NFL that are the most confusing are also maybe the most connected to owners or connected to owners that believe in somebody in the organization that they are right all the time.

Say the ownership in Houston with Jack Easterby, that they decided this former team chaplain knew what he was doing about building an NFL roster. And then they just found out that he didn't. How about that? Right. Can you imagine the number of people inside that organization who were screaming at the top of their lungs what are we doing what are we doing and then you know hey here's uh jack easterby getting fired a couple of years later so that does happen now the wilfs i think are not an insane ownership group like maybe the McNairs in Houston. There's a difference

there. They might be much more reasonable and especially if some of the moves that Kweisi made come to fruition and work out well and they have this competitive quality season that they can maybe trust him farther and farther as they go along, as they prove that they deserve to be trusted, the head coach and the front office together when it comes to these decisions. I also think that like right now, when you're looking at the landscape and the five and one star, if they win on Sunday, there's a great argument for despite what the adjusted wins loss should be still taking a shot at it because of the, of how things are in the NFC, right? I think there's a very strong case. And if you

listen to the last podcast, I pleaded with the Vikings to try to win when they have a chance and said, just go for it because this might be your year after this. And this is only a hunch, but this is not sources or anything else like this i think that they do understand that after this year that they are going to have to do some retooling and they're going to have to look at the quarterback position and its long-term prospects they're going to have to look at some of these older players and find ways to replace them, which might be a year in the interim where they do have to take a step back, which doesn't mean lose a ton because the Packers probably are going to take a massive step back without Rodgers at some point.

And then you're just kind of in a race of the rebuilds. I do think that after this year, they understand. And I mean, that's where it gets difficult though, because if they win 12 games, is ownership going to understand at that point? So I don't know. I mean, yeah, it's a really interesting dynamic because as I was getting halfway through saying they understand that this roster needs a reset, I was reminded of 2019 to 2020. They won a playoff game and changed their entire course after beating the New Orleans Saints, which I suppose could happen this year. Like maybe the initial course was, let's see how competitive we can be,

especially with maybe the Packers looking a little more vulnerable without Devontae Adams. And then after that, all right, now we're going to have to take a step back. But if you win 11 or 12 games and you're winning the division, then it wouldn't surprise me if they try to run it all back again and make a lot of the same moves. We are really far away away from that.

And it wasn't exactly your question. Your question is, do they have a GM who is going to think about the big picture? I mean, that's why he's here, I believe, is that he's supposed to be somebody who, yes, looks at the big picture and tries to hack the system. That's why he's here. I'm not saying that I know for sure whether he's going to pull it off

in the same way that Howie Roseman has pulled it off so brilliantly for Philadelphia. And as you mentioned, they're going to have a top draft pick next year. I mean, what? Like they're the best team in the NFC and they will have another high draft pick because of their trades. I mean, that's really remarkable to think about. So we haven't seen evidence yet of Kweisi Adafomenta doing the same things, but I do think until he went completely silent after the USA Today piece, he showed a lot of his cards that he does have a bigger picture view on this thing and probably understands right now that with the numbers they're putting up, they can't win a Super Bowl or it would be unprecedented almost to be this mediocre on offense and on defense and to go that deep in the playoffs.

It just doesn't happen. Usually mediocre, lucky teams, they end up like Philadelphia last year was honestly a mediocre, lucky team that got into the playoffs based on their schedule and some things going their way. So I think they know that that's the case right now and how much they can improve it is an important element of that, whether it's through trades, coaching, however they can apply that. But I think that winning a lot this year for the long-term does present some interesting circumstances that they're going to have to face and some conversations that might be kind of tough between ownership and the GM. And I don't know how much power Kweisi Adafo-Mensa is ever going to be given because I think it was really important to them that this was not a dictatorship, that it was much more of that, you know, cumulative effort. And I think that they

lived up to that and how that ends up playing out. I really have no idea. I mean, I really don't know. My point is that I think that Kweisi Adafomenta has talked in the way that you described someone who's looking at the future and not just saying, oh, cause we won last year. We'll win again. But there's just not a whole lot you can do. If the ownership says, Hey, Kirk just won 12 games. I don't care what his stats were.

Run this thing back. You got to do what your boss says. So it kind of comes down to that. And somebody, I think it was Zach Lowe, who's a podcast I really love on the NBA. I remember him saying that the best GMs are the ones who can convince ownership not to do crazy stuff or can or can nudge ownership in the right direction all the time and have that communication with ownership and that trust of ownership. That that's what maybe the best general managers have. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensa kind of has a year to earn that. So it's a great question.

It's not the perfect answer for me because I don't know for sure how that's year to earn that. So it's a great question. It's not the perfect answer for me because I don't know for sure how that's going to play out. I do think that the guy in charge thinks that way, whether he's going to be able to direct the ownership, the real decision makers that way

is yet to be seen. But hey, look, if you have to find out about this scenario because your team won 12 games that's that's not bad you can do worse than that right you can do worse than that so it's it's yeah it's an interesting situation what this all means to the big picture in the long term of this team uh this one comes from Antoine via email when the Vikings traded with the lions in the 2022 draft. Many fans thought the lions had given up their first round pick in 2023,

right? Like when the initial trade was announced, you thought, okay, if they're moving up that much, they have to be giving up a first, but of course they did not. Uh,

if that did happen, how much house money would the Vikings be sitting on right now? Bryce young, CJ Stroud as Kirk's successor or Anthony Richardson? Yep. I have nothing to add to that, really. I mean, that's absolutely true that if they had gotten a first round pick from the next season, which so often has happened for trades of that magnitude for a team moving up that far. Usually it comes along with a next year's first, and it seems like they predetermined that they were going to trade down. And they ended up in a position where nobody would move with them because they weren't moving up for a quarterback.

So when nobody would move for them, they ended up having to just take the highest offer because they had already made that call. And I don't know if that's going to end up being a mistake for taking that offer. If there wasn't a first round offer on the table, well, then you can't invent one because it was a unique type of draft that didn't have a quarterback that was getting everybody excited about trading up. Although, I mean, heck the saints did it once with what Marcus Davenport, they traded the next

year's first four. So some teams do get crazy, but you've got to think that they worked the phones that night to try as hard as they could. And it also might've been a situation where people around the league were saying, Hey, rookie, I'm not going to let you win this trade for the general manager. I mean, Rick Spielman, uh, for the criticism that he has been rightly given, uh, he had a lot of relationships around the league and he could pull off a draft date trade if he wanted one at any given time, because he had so many relationships with everyone around the league that he could do that. And the Christian Derrissaw trade is such an excellent example. And what a huge victory that has been in that trade for Derrissaw. Moving down, still getting the player that you wanted,

still getting a franchise left tackle. You know, the Mac Jones conversation we've had before, but just in what they ended up doing, getting a left tackle and additional draft capital is a home run. And so in this situation, maybe if that is someone else who has more experience, more connections around the league, more trust, more, I help you, you help me favors of the past, things like that. Maybe they do get a next year's first.

The fact that they didn't. Yeah. I mean, they would have been right sitting on a pot of gold if they had been able to pull that off right now because they would have been able to draft at the top. And instead, the Detroit Lions are going to take one of those players that you mentioned. Although the Lions had to know where they because I have a lot of respect for what the Lions have done. And I think they've put a lot of players in positions in the future that

are important at wide receiver, at pass rusher, at cornerback, that they're going to be good eventually, probably will need a new coach and they're going to need a different quarterback. And they're going to get one in next year's draft, almost their pick of the litter, because I don't see them turning it around and getting a ton of wins and ending up in the playoff race after they've started off so far down. And I think that Brad Holmes knows that there was a chance this could happen and would not have given up the next year's first because of that was also aware of where Jared Goff stands, also aware of the quarterback class, and it just wasn't going to happen but had they

gotten the traditional value for moving up that far yes the vikings would have been staring in the face a potential top draft pick to draft their future quarterback and a roster that has produced a good number of wins um yeah that would have been a pretty good situation but i think that's the missing piece there is detroit would have never a pretty good situation. But I think that's the missing piece there is Detroit would have never done it because they understood their situation. But yeah, when they draft Bryce Young or whoever at the top of the draft, that will be worth thinking about. And also just all the time spent,

and we more or less joked about it this offseason, I thought they would be better. We mostly were sarcastically talking about the restoration of the Roar, but I did not figure them to be a team that would be drafting in the top three or four. I would still say it's going to work out better for them though, that the longer rebuild where you can stack up the roster works out better than just going to the bottom in the first year. And this is the Trevor Lawrence thing. Like the Jaguars tank and they go all the way down, and the roster has nothing on it, and they pick Trevor Lawrence.

And then they bring in the worst coach possible. But that roster was also horrific last year. And they've tried to improve it, but they've only improved it to a point. I think Doug Peterson is a good coach. They've only improved it to a point. And now you're a couple years into that rookie contract now there's a ton of pressure to hit on draft picks now there's a ton of pressure to take a huge step forward within the next this the rest of this year and then next year because

then you're talking about do you give Trevor Lawrence a contract extension or not and it just gets very dicey very fast and this the timeline thing is so delicate like haven't we seen that in the last few years in the NFL it's just so delicate Miami handled it pretty well they went to the bottom they tanked for Tua they got Tua they didn't necessarily start him right away they eased him in and then they've been able to build the roster make the big trade for Tyreek Hill. And they're still a very competitive team if they can get healthy and they have Tua playing and not Skylar Thompson and Teddy.

They're not maybe a Super Bowl contender in the AFC. If they were in the NFC, they might've been. They should be a playoff team though. And they've got a winning record over the last couple of years because they timed it right with their roster and their young quarterback. Jacksonville didn't. Detroit, I think will. And that's something a little scary for Vikings fans. I think, you know, Chicago is an example of a team that totally botched it.

They tried to draft a quarterback to save people's jobs that never works. And then now Justin Fields is playing with a very bad roster and trying to develop and they might get to the end of the year and still not really know whether Justin Fields can play or not and be forced to give him another year to find out. And then it's three years into his rookie deal and you're still saying, oh, we're going to find out. We're going to find out, which is the most Sam Darnold thing I've ever heard. On to our next question here. This is from Brent via email. For your fans only or only fans. No, no, no.

Fans only. Only fans. Something very different than this. But if you participate, more power to you. But this, this is fans only. Non-football related question. I'm curious what you mean when you say galaxy brain as a lifelong vikings fan in minnesota i have not heard the term used outside of your podcast is this a term often

used in new york and buffalo i'm at the risk of dating myself 45 and considered a might be a pop culture reference or a meme of some sort i Googled the term and it led to more confusion. Something about having increasing levels of brain size. This might be the best fans only email that's ever been sent to the show. This is a high bar. There was even a reference to it being an insult to those who believe they are smarter than they truly are. I also found, of course, a meme where the meme topic gets increasingly ridiculous and the brain gets bigger. When I listen to the context and how you use it, I'm led to believe that your uses is more like next level thinking or playing 3D chess. But now I'm thinking it's more like the meme.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, you covered a lot of ground there. Yeah. lot of ground there yeah it's uh there are some very funny memes involving like as the thinking and the logic gets crazier the brain gets bigger and then explodes and i think of that for nfl teams all the time where they outsmart themselves trying to be super genius and that's the galaxy brain like where it's i don't even i don't even know like how to put this like like maybe dan campbell going for all the fourth downs where it would be like your first brain is we shouldn't really go for that

many fourth downs and then you're like excited brain in the second meme or bigger brain is we should go for the right fourth downs. And then your galaxy brain is we should go for all the fourth downs. Right. And so the galaxy brain means essentially to me, you've sort of outsmarted yourself. You've gone too far trying to be super genius. And then it ended up with negative results. And so then we make fun of ourselves when we come up with these ideas. Cause when I say like, maybe they should just run 45 times a game. Like I'm being galaxy brain because the regular brain is maybe they should mix the run in the past. The next level to that

is like Mike Zimmer. We need to run all the time. And then my galaxy brain is run 45 times a game. So it's like where you've gone one step too far with it. Hopefully that is cleared up for you. Matt via email with the next question. Let's see. Only if you do another fans only before Sunday. Well, here we are. On a scale of one to only Udo,

how bad are the replacement linemen for the Cardinals this week? The answer is very bad. Yeah, that's the answer. So the injury report, Max Garcia is out. He's not great to begin with. Rodney Hudson is out. He's really great. And DJ Humphries is questionable. That is three of their offensive linemen. DJ Humphries is a great player and not, not just good. He's a really good player he's like the christian derisaw of the cardinals um he's one of the better pass blockers in the league yeah i mean i believe billy price plays for this team and that's not great because he's struggled for pretty much his entire career

uh let's see justin pew is out for the season so there's what four guys that are either out or on the injury report. Sean Harlow, who is the, um, not related to the rapper. Now that I see I'm, I'm youthful. I'm,

I'm too youthful for Brent. We'll see if I'm too youthful with that reference to the rapper. Sean Harlow is the backup center. He is super bad. Um, he's given up 13 pressures on 144 passing plays and has a 27 grade. That is as bad as you will ever find for pass block. Like that makes Garrett Bradbury look legitimately good.

I mean it like that's, that is you should be playing in the USFL type of numbers. I'm going to look at what their offensive line was for the last game and just see who was playing. Yeah. Billy Price was playing who, I mean, he's on his third team now after being a first round pick a will. Hernandez has good pass blocking numbers.

How about that? That was a guy who we talked about a lot at one point. Kelvin Beecham is a good player. Let's see. Josh Jones played only a couple of snaps. Remember him? He was a big discussion at one point, um, for the Vikings,

uh, out of Houston. He played five snaps. So I honestly, I don't know what their offensive line is going to look like. Cody Ford plays for this team. Another guy that we talked about a lot, offensive line,

you out of Oklahoma. Um, so I, I don't see Harlow playing in the last game against new Orleans, um, which would make a lot of sense. It looks like Billy price is going to start at center for them. And then will Hernandez at right guard beach him at right tackle Humphries if he's healthy. And then Cody Ford at left guard. Uh, that's not a good offensive line. It's like, there's been worse, but worse but yeah i mean this is the second straight

opportunity for the vikings to take advantage of an offensive line that's really banged up that's kind of bottom line here is i i don't think that's a horrific group but it's not a great group either um you know two former high draft picks of the Giants that aren't there anymore. You know, another fairly high draft pick of the Bills who's not there anymore. Like this is a ragtag 2016 Vikings-ish group that Z'Darrius Smith, well, it depends because their tackles are pretty good. So they may line up Z'Darrius Smith over the middle. This could be a big game for Delvin Tomlinson, possibly. There's going to be opportunities for interior rush, but that's not really the Vikings' strength. So that's a battle

to watch, but it's not a good situation for them with their offensive line, for sure. That's a big advantage for the Vikings. All right, this comes from at CJ McCauley. if there's an off-season buyer for Kirk and Mac Jones is suddenly available for a mid-round pick, who says no? Yeah, I have a really, really, really tough time if the Vikings win 11 or 12 games, thinking that they would move Kirk Cousins for Mac Jones. Because, you know, you might turn it around and the Patriots might have a good season. Still, I don't think that they're entirely left for dead after what happened in Chicago, but it's not going to be an easy ride for them. The Patriots would also be completely foolish to give up on Mac Jones.

Like this happens. This happens often where somebody who is a decent quarterback has a good start with the right situation, the right schedule, whatever it might be. And then things get a little harder or your team goes out of its way to hire Matt Patricia as your offense coordinator. That could also be a problem too. And Mac Jones still has the golden ticket. I've also taken a look at next year and the cap situation for the Patriots. As much as they botched a bunch of moves in the past, their cap situation is pretty favorable for next year,

and they could sign players and still have a chance to put a good roster around Mac Jones. So they need to make sure that they don't overly manipulate Mac Jones, but it doesn't really matter. I mean, he's on the rookie deal. Like, this is the thing. In the era of player empowerment. It only applies to some. It does not apply to all.

And if you're a guy who's on his rookie contract, there's not a whole lot you can do. You can't really hold out. You can't really demand trades because the team could just say, like with Elijah Moore with the Jets, too bad. You're on your rookie deal. You play for us. So either play or quit football. They're usually going rookie deal. You play for us. So either player quit football. They're usually going to play because it's worth billions of dollars. And so I, I, I think it would

be foolish for the Patriots. Bailey's app. He's not really an option. Nice little backup quarterback. Maybe like case Keenum at the absolute best, but not really an option where they could just move along. So yeah, I, I, I don't think that that's really going to be a potential option that they would look at. Um, yeah. And I just, I'm really having a tough time unless cousins falls off the face of the earth and somehow ends up with a 82 quarterback rating and he's the 28th best quarterback by PFF. And yet they still win 11 games. Then you're probably looking at trying to move on,

but cousins has some form of no trade clause. It's just not going to be very easy to do something like that, to move on from cousins. I mean, the more likely thing seems that he'll play pretty well up and down as usual. They'll get 11 wins and they'll end up bringing him back for one more year and potentially draft a quarterback. I mean, I think that's, or, or wait to the end of 2023 to draft a quarterback. That's kind of how it

looks right now. I, and if, if Mack Jones is available, you almost want to hesitate there because that means the Patriots really see something as not great. If that ends up being the case. Folks, I'm seeing that Liquid Death is starting to catch on. Some of you have even sent me tweets of displays in the store. But for those of you who do not understand why there are tall boy cans in the water aisle, allow me to introduce you to Liquid Death Water. It's a new brand of mountain water, and they also have sparkling water options as well. You guys would not think that anything

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Okay, this comes from, let's see, let's see, at uh at max browse on twitter two random questions for you do players who have been on the team for a while like harrison smith and eric kendricks know the beat reporters well at this point for example do they remember your name and joke around with you a bit uh number two i know this is not football, but what did you think about the end of Better Call Saul? Okay. First, yes, yes. We've all known these guys for a long time. We are part of the scene at this point for those who have been on the team for the entire time that I've covered them.

I don't know that they know everyone on a first-name basis. I think they probably do at this point that they've been around long enough that, you know, they've, I mean, the team sends out a organization-wide email with all of our articles every day. So if you've opened that email, you've seen who writes for who,

what everyone's saying and so forth. I'm sure some players read it more than others. Same with some coaches, some front office people. But then, you know, you can put faces to names at some point. For guys who we've been asking questions for a long time, like Kendricks and Harrison Smith. I mean, I remember Ben Gessling and I went out to an event that Eric Kendricks was doing, and we chatted with him and his brother for probably 20 minutes after and things like that. So you do get to run into these guys and follow their

journey, you know, run into them in different situations. I mean, in, you know, whatever it might be off the field or off season events or whatever, there was one year, I think it was between 2016 and 2017 that there was some fan festival that we went to. A couple of us went to and talk to some of these guys. Yeah. You get, you get to know them after a while. Uh, there's always a very clear line between being sort of colleagues in a way, like in the same universe and knowing each other and being able to have casual, you know, small talk or something like that. And like, we're not friends. Like no one thinks that we're friends and that's part of being professional. Like no, no one thinks that we're buddies, like Eric Hendricks or Harrison Smith. Like these guys are millionaires who have their own lives.

Like we don't, uh, try to be, you know, pales with them, but we, yeah, I mean, uh, we'll say hello and, and be cordial and everything else and things like that at this point. Yeah. And that's what's been really kind of interesting is that there's so many players over the last couple of years because of COVID when we weren't in the locker room who have never had us there before and had a little bit of shock. Like, oh, wow, there's people with TV cameras and there's people coming up to me in the locker room and asking me questions and stuff. It's, it's been a bit of an odd dynamic for some and for others, it's old hat for people that we've interviewed, you know, hundreds of times. So yeah, I mean the, the, the, there's probably six or seven of us who have been doing this for quite a long time now, long enough to have seen most of guys careers like Ben, Andrew, Mark Craig,

those guys. Um, you know, so, so you do get to know them a bit in that way for sure. And the end of better call Saul. Oh man. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Just perfect. And I am the person who totally hates on the end of shows, the Sopranos, the wire, or who maybe hates on like gets disappointed. I get disappointed when a show doesn't really end perfectly. Like remember fresh Prince Will Smith standing alone in the house. Perfect ending. Uh, I thought better call Saul was the best ending to any of these epic type of shows that I have ever witnessed. Just a flawless way. Smoking the cigarette and they make the cigarette lit up in color while everything else is black

and white. I don't think I'm ruining anything there. I'm trying not to spoil. So hopefully I didn't. No, I didn't. No, I didn't spoil anything there. It's just, it's just great. That's the, that's the, I'm sure there's a lot of people who have not watched it, but wrapping things up the way that they did and what it said about Saul Goodman

slash Jimmy just, yeah. I mean, it's, it's my favorite show and it just, yeah, it landed, it landed. I'm just trying not to say anything that would give it away, but it landed, put it that way. So hopefully that answers your questions. Okay. Let's do one more before we get to Alex. Uh, let me motor around um let's see okay this comes from david uh via email a person from your old stomping grounds that will remain anonymous let's call him jay zolgad or if that's too obvious judd z predicted odell beckham signing with the vikings now i loved Z, but my first reaction was with what cap space. Am I correct? Is there some reconstruction, uh, Reese? Yeah. Restructuring that the Vikings could do to free up some money to sign OBJ, which would inevitably cause certain fans to declare that the salary cap is fake. Yes. The salary cap, if it was fake, the Vikings would have a better team and, uh, but, uh, yeah, no, there's, there's two major

things they can do. The first thing is they can extend Delvin Tomlinson right now. I believe his contract is scheduled to actually run out because of void years. That's something they want to do. He is a good player. He's a very good player. Uh, so they should do that. Um, whether they do it now or later, it doesn't matter necessarily, but you have to get him to agree to it. So that's the big thing, but you could reduce, uh, his, you know, cap hit that way. And the other thing would be doing a conversion, the whole base salary to bonus thing or bonus to base salary. And you could do that with Brian O'Neill. And I think, I think Ben said it was three and a half million or something like that. Three million bucks.

It really depends on what the bids are for Odell Beckham. Those two things could create enough to make a reasonable offer. And if you're seven and one after the next two weeks, that's what Odell's going to be looking for is how do I get to a team that has a chance to go win the Superbowl? And if the Rams continue to struggle and they're out of the playoff race, no matter how much they want him back, he's not going. If he can't go potentially win a Superbowl, uh, if I'm Odell Beckham, I mean, what a rare position to be in, to just be a front running dude who can pick wherever you want to go. And almost anybody will take him after what he did last year. I mean, his reputation was completely,

um, completely fixed after what he did last year. I think the Vikings are a legit, uh, suitor potentially for Odell Beckham. If they can do some of those things with the cap, I believe that they could do enough to make a competitive offer because we're talking half a season here. So you sign them to what, like 5 million for half a season, or maybe he wants more than that. And if he wants more than that, and it's really about money for him and not just how much of a contender you are, then you might end up being out of luck. But the Justin Jefferson, the Patrick Peterson connections are pretty strong. The Kevin O'Connell connection is pretty strong. I would call it semi-realistic semi-realistic. And this, this J Zolgad lunatic, uh, for once might not be totally crazy. I don't

know. So great questions, guys. Let me see if, is there one more? Is there one I'm making this like a really Epic pod here, but you know, I'm just trying to get in as many as i can um let's see let's see let's see uh from from luke okay it's a good one from luke fans only question for you is it possible the lack of offense and bad quarterback play so far this year around the league is particularly due to the Sean McVay model. It seems more like teams are running plays specifically for their number one wide receivers and using other receivers only to get the number one guy open rather than running a legit route,

eliminating some of the quarterback's options. That's a good question that I can't really say for sure without a deep study of how some of these other offenses that aren't working are playing. But I think that, you know, the reason that offense is down is probably not as complicated as we like to make it. And I do think that defenses have figured some things out. Kirk Cousins said as much, and I agree with him defenses. It's not just too high. It's also, he mentioned pattern matching, which is like, think of it this way. If the receiver leaves his route takes off to his left, then they're going to switch like in basketball. If he goes to his right, you're

going to play on him, right? If there's two guys on one side of the field. And so there's all sorts of details that go into what different patterns look like. And the Vikings totally got the dolphins on one of these where brakes and broke outward. And the defender went right to the middle of the field, expecting that's where Jefferson was going to be. And his outbreaking route was wide open. He ran for like 20 yards. So you can mess with these a little bit, but you know, the intricacies of pattern matching and of too high and things like that has made it more difficult. But again, I don't think it's as complicated as we're making it. I think it's really the quarterbacks that the quarterbacks in this league right now, let's, let's pull it up. Let's pull it up. The highest graded quarterbacks by PFF with at least 20% of the snaps. Um, let's see, we have Josh Allen makes sense. Patrick Mahomes. okay. Andy Dalton. Geno Smith.

Jalen Hurts. Lamar Jackson. Joe Burrow. Still great. Still great. Kirk. Tom Brady. Tua.

Rogers. Jacoby Brissett. Mitch Trubisky. Davis Mills. Daniel Jones. Kyler Murray. Justin Herbert, who's been very disappointing. Ryan Tannehill.

Bailey Zappi. Derek Carr. Also very disappointing. Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kenny Pickett. Matt Stafford is having a very bad year. He's down at 26th. So some of the guys, Russell Wilson is 30th. Matt Ryan is 32nd. I mean, some of these guys that you would expect to at least be decent to good like Herbert Tannehill Garoppolo Stafford like they've just had bad starts to the year and all of them you can point to a certain reason why like Garoppolo didn't play in the offseason because he thought he was getting traded Derek Carr changed coaches change systems he's having to now that might be the case that they're trying to

force the ball too much to Devante Adams I don't know Ryan Tannehill has lost a lot of his weapons Justin Herbert's playing with a broken lung or whatever I mean there's just a lot of different circumstances that have played into why a lot of good quarterbacks Russell Wilson playing hurt playing with a bad coach Matt Ryan is just completely shot like i think those are the real reasons that offense is down because the dudes who have driven offense for a lot of years are just fading either age or circumstance this year and that's you know rogers and brady too those guys are good for 40 to 50 touchdowns normally and mvp candidacies normally and this year they're just bad because they're old and their teams aren't good. So it's probably, it's, it's probably just more, you know, the ebbs and flows of the NFL

when you have a bunch of great quarterbacks at one point, and then suddenly you don't. And that's where we're at right now. Cause I think in general, offensive schemes are always adapting and, and they do sort of follow the leader, but I think that general, offensive schemes are always adapting and they do sort of follow the leader. But I think that the Rams offense should work for a lot of people and that concept should work, but not if Matt Stafford's arm is hurt, not if Jimmy Garoppolo isn't sharp because he didn't practice all year. You know what I mean?

So interesting question though. I don't know that that's really the most obvious explanation has been mentioned enough that it's just the quarterbacks. Uh, and, and it's, and it's not anything that they did to change. Like, I don't think that Russell Wilson changed. I think he just got old and injured and then is not a good fit. All right. It was fun.

Lots of great questions as always. So we have Alex Clancy coming up here from locked on and then we'll see on the other side of vikings and cardinals thanks for listening folks i know you've heard me talk about soda stick for a long time now but i'm telling you you have to start following them on social media for new fresh gear they are releasing all the time of course they have the classics like the Moss Moon design and the Metrodome shirts and hoodies. But as the local teams go along in their seasons,

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Alex Clancy second appearance on the show. The first one resulted in a missed field goal by the Vikings that lost the game last year and was, I think, maybe the difference between them making the playoffs. So what a time they had last season. And now they play again with the Arizona Cardinals, weirdly in a similar position as the Vikings were last year, just sort of scraping and crawling, and everyone knows they're not good, and the Vikings, as you know, 5-1. So, Alex, what's the feeling?

Let's start with that. Let's start with our feelings. How do you feel about the Arizona Cardinals? Oh, I don't know. I mean, like, that's supposed to be an easy question to answer, you know? It's supposed to be – see, the thing is, and this is what I've been struggling with all year. Like there are some peaks, you know, DeAndre Hopkins being back,

them getting a good win, I guess, kind of ugly, but a good win on Thursday Night Football after an embarrassing loss to Seattle in week five. When you – the only thing that's worse than having a problem is not knowing why there's a problem or not knowing the root of that problem and a lot of times that's what we're struggling with here in the valley where it's like we don't know what the hell is wrong like you don't know you don't know what's broken you don't know what needs to be fixed i'm talking primarily on the offensive

side of the ball because the defense has played well. The defense has given up less than 23 points a game, aside from week one against Kansas City, and then the garbage time on Thursday night. Like, they've played well, especially with not having any pieces added this offseason, really. We don't know what's wrong with the offense, and the offense is supposed to be the strength, and it isn't. And that's kind of where we're at.

And at three and four, they could easily be one and five. Sorry, yeah, they could easily be one in five or easily sorry yeah they could easily be one and what is it two and five they can easily be two and five um but yeah three and four they're lucky to be where they're at and we've seen enough to maybe have some promise for the future okay so you just said you can't explain this but i'm gonna ask you to explain it anyway because it makes no sense to me whatsoever how kyler murray could average 5.9 yards per attempt i mean that's kent graham man that that's uh i mean that is some bad quarterback play right there that is not that's john skelton that's not kyler murray come on i i don't understand where the deep threat went from this offense when that's supposed to be Kyler Murray's biggest strength.

Yeah. You know, I'll give the the excuse reason. First, the offensive line hasn't been healthy, so he hasn't had as much time. And yes, Kyler Murray maybe needs a little more time in the pocket to read the progressions. Maybe, you know, and I don't think that's And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. But when it comes to like being able to have an offense where you can have big play capability and you can move the ball down the field, it's a problem. I don't know why.

It's not all game plan. I'm not going to put this all on cliff. I won't. But some of it's on cliff to where it's a all game plan. I'm not going to put this all on cliff. I won't, but some of it's on cliff to where it's a lot of dump downs. It's a lot of run five yards, turn around. It's a lot of those, um, whether it be to get a first down or not. And that, I mean, I think there's just a bunch of different things going into it. Um, one of which is Kyler Murray, not reading his progressions well enough this far into the season. Well, so this is an interesting question to me because at times when I've watched Kyler Murray,

I've just been incredibly impressed. I mean, he is a wow play machine at times. And against the Vikings last year, that was certainly the case. I mean, there was a third down or might've even actually been a fourth down where the Vikings sent a big blitz after him. And he just took a couple steps back and launched the ball. And they created a big play from that. I mean, his escapability, there were times where Daniil Hunter was coming after him, one of the fastest defensive ends in the league, and he was running away from him. And yet every time I've seen them this year or looked at any even highlights, they're like, here's a three-yard pass. Here's a six-yard pass. And I wonder if this goes in part, and maybe I'm

wrong, to the shift in the way defenses are playing in the NFL. It seems a lot of defenses have gone to this. We're not going to let anybody get behind us. We're not going to let these play actions kill us down the field and feel free to dink and dunk. And a five foot nine quarterback is not exactly what you expect. It's not Tom Brady at six foot four who can just deliver little bullets over the middle of the field. And also you don't have a Gronkowski.

You have an Ertz who's one third of the speed of a Gronk. Like there just seems to be like this shift in the way defenses are playing that i think has had a specific impact on a number of quarterbacks who relied on the deep ball including both of the quarterbacks playing in this football game yeah it's interesting it's a good way to look at it i mean and i've i tweeted this out a few days ago like i think we're starting to see the eclipse of defenses catching up to offenses like this is where you're putting your glasses on when you're looking at the eclipse, because we're seeing it. The defense is finally catching up.

A lot of money is being put in defenses as it has been, but even more so now. Offensive linemen aren't being as developed enough in college coming out after a couple of years. Like there's, yeah. I mean, it's, there's, there's no longer this huge grand Canyon disparity between offense and defense. And I think you're right. I also think that with Kyler Murray specifically, this is not – I'm tough on Cliff Kingsbury. I am.

I don't think he ever should have been hired. I think he's in over his head. I think those things – and it's not his fault, but that's where we are. I don't think he's developing kyler murray like he needs to be as a head coach the reason why he was brought in was to develop kyler murray and kyler murray needs coaching like he's exemplary at his craft and i'm not sure exactly how you worded it i call him the oh my god moments from kyler murray where it's like okay many quarterbacks don't have one of those a year and he has 30.

Okay. The potency of those, oh my God moments, the massaging of that, that's coaching and the coaching. He's doing it on his own. In my opinion, he's doing it on his own. He's trying to learn on his own. He's got a great trainer, Steven Baku. I've had him on the podcast a couple of times. Great dude, but he's not a head. He's not an NFL head coach. And I think i think that's the thing everything that we're talking about whether it be going through progressions or him kind of regressing with not throwing the ball down the field anymore um with the defense adjusting all of those things need to be maneuverable you need to be able to maneuver around and that is coaching that scheme that's game plan and i don't think he has somebody calling the plays and coaching him that is at the level that some other young exemplary quarterbacks have.

I think that that's totally correct. I mean, one of the problems with college coaches, and I think we saw it with Matt Rule as well, is that they tend to think that their systems work because in a college football season, you could just play the same system every single week. But in the NFL, it's really week to week game planning. And then it's adapting everything you have. There's a level of detail in the NFL from the best offensive coaches that goes to another level than college. And I don't even think it's remotely close. And it feels like it's a college type of offense. And it has been. And even when they've come out of the gate and this didn't happen this year, but in previous years and been very impressive, it's usually something that opposing teams catch up to. And the other thing is, too, that anytime DeAndre Hopkins has been out, and of course he's back now, it just looks like they don't know what to do. So the answer is entirely throw the ball to DeAndre Hopkins, and he's good enough to beat people and make things happen.

But when it comes to take these weapons and scheme for them i think you're seeing cliff kingsbury be behind and we're not even seeing him be a guy that's in command of the ship like sometimes you kind of have that with coaches hey i'm not a scheme guy i'm a culture guy i'm get everybody believe in me guy well we saw from last week with kyler murray yelling at him to calm down on the sidelines that I don't even know that that's the case either that there's a lot of respect there I think you're just looking at inferior coaching that's really hard to overcome in the NFL yeah for sure he's he's outgrown Cliff Kingsbury he's outgrown his agent also in my opinion I think

that was a Travis Shamok or even offseason when it came to how things went down. It's hard. It's frustrating to watch because a lot is loosely defined. Some of the fan base is turning on Kyler Murray as if he's not the guy. He's pouting on the sidelines. He's not a leader. It's like so many of these absolute statements are just like, we're not in his head. We're not in the locker room in a buddy system wearing one of those green leashes that bad

parents put on their kids. We're not doing that, but watch with your eyes and not with the numbers about what's going on and why things happen at certain times and why things falter at other times. And it's the same trends. It's the same constants with the Arizona Cardinals and with Cliff Kingsbury. It's bad timeouts, bad penalties, and not converting field goals into touchdowns. Like it's the same stuff. And it's third and medium go routes.

That's it. Death taxes, throw the ball 20 yards down the field. Well and it's third and medium go routes. That's it. Death taxes, throw the ball 20 yards down the field. Well, it's Kyler Murray, and that's the first option. You're going to find the guy in a matchup that you want to exploit, and instead of just having Zachary run five yards and turn around and move the ball down the field, they go for the gusto, and it's just like it's the same stuff that we've seen since 2019, and that's what's frustrating, and that's why it's like, you know what?

What is Cliff Kingsbury doing to elevate this talent? And you look at the other side, and Vance Joseph, that's all he's doing with the lack of talent that he has, comparatively speaking, because they negated any thought of adding to the defense this offseason. And when you look at the third down percentage, it is putrid. It's not the way that they've performed on third down 28th in the NFL, which I mean, I don't know, like, who do you put that on more of the scheme or the quarterback?

But in this case, I mean, it seems like it's it's the scheme. And I think that, you know, with Kingsbury, the hard thing for maybe their ownership and the fans and everything else is that they went from being so horrendous. I mean, the Josh Rosen, this team has nothing to work with to making consistent strides that it was hard to say. And I think if you were looking closely, you could see it, but it was hard to say like, oh, Kingsbury, you know, he's not a good coach when you're making strides. And last year through three quarters of the season, Arizona deserved to be in the Superbowl conversation and then suddenly fell off the side of that cliff. And in part of that, you know, DeAndre Hopkins has just always been central to this. But I think that that's what's made it difficult to say, and I'm sure for even their franchise in extending the GM and head coach to be able to say like, oh, they're actually a problem

when you've been making these consistent steps. It's Stockholm syndrome is what we have here in Phoenix. Just like, oh, the front office knows what they're doing. The Arizona Cardinals, I don't say very many smart things, Mr. Matthew, but one of the smartest things that I've ever said is the Arizona Cardinals are run like they've won 10 Super Bowls. We got this. We've done it before.

Trust the system. Everything works. Legitimately, legitimately, they are one of, if not the worst, most losingest franchises in the history of football. Okay? And they still run their company, their franchise, like they know what they're doing. Like nothing changes.

It's the definition of insanity. I've said that a lot. Doing the same thing, expecting different results. I tweeted out right when the Cliff Kingsbury and Steve Keim got their extensions. I said, Kyler Murray should request a trade today. Like, fresh start, get out. Ain't nothing going to change here. But the thing is, as you mentioned, like, things are on paper getting better every year.

2018, they scored less points per game than the 2008 Detroit Lions who went 0-16. So that was the doldrums borderline relegation if it was possible. And then 2019, it's like, oh, they're getting better, but they were so far behind. They gave everybody else a 25-mile lead in the marathon. So just because they're making strides

doesn't mean they're not as far behind as they were. They're creeping up, but starting 7-0 and 10-2 and unceremoniously removing themselves from the second half of the NFL season in the playoffs is like... So that's why it's like I'd much rather have the Cardinals start 3-4 and get to 10 wins somehow because it shows resolve. You know, it shows like you're not getting a head start here by getting all the bounces like some team is in 2022 so far. And, you know, like you're actually showing that you have the intestinal fortitude and mental capacity, mental strength to get through this and win games you're supposed to win and stay in the playoff. I'm hoping Hollywood Brown comes back mid-December. to get through this and win games you're supposed to win and stay in the playoff hunt, hoping Hollywood Brown comes back mid-December.

And then this offense is off and running if you can get DeAndre Hopkins and Hollywood Brown on the field at the same time. Well, and that is what I think the Vikings should be a little concerned about. In fact, when I saw Kyler Murray yell at Cliff Kingsbury, I thought, I don't think that's good for the Vikings because if Kyler Murray is saying the,

you know, I'm the captain now and we're going to do this my way, I'm in control or whatever. If he has to just kind of take things over from Cliff Kingsbury, I think that's actually the best thing for the Cardinals and it makes them a little bit dangerous. And when you look at this Vikings defense and what happened to them versus an elite wide receiver, Tyree kill last week, Tyree kill went off, was totally unguardable. And he's really the only, if I'm adding this up right in my brain, the only elite receiver they faced outside of AJ Brown. And they got smashed by the Philadelphia Eagles that they faced. So AJ Brown didn't have a huge game, but Philly was way up that whole game and then Tyree Kill goes nuts now they face a number one receiver who I also noticed was playing in the slot a lot last

week which is where all the damage has been done so as much as we spent the first 15 minutes destroying the Arizona Cardinals talking about what a mess they are with their management and how they've built the roster and and how they're coached. I think this is a little bit of a scary team for the Vikings to play with a playmaking quarterback and an elite wide receiver. It's a perfect litmus test for both teams. Like it, like dictionary definition, perfect litmus test in week eight.

It's they could not be playing a better team to really see where both of them are because Vikings should beat the Cardinals by 10 points. You know, it should be comfortable victory. Dalvin Cook should run rough shot. You know, Justin Jefferson should have 10 catches for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Like, I mean, should with that is a little bit loosely defined, but Adam Thielen's a terror. Like I don't, he's still, he's 34. However the hell old he is. He's still a terror. He's still one of the best red zone and goal-to-go threats that we've seen in the NFL in the last 20 years with the potency that he's had with Kirk Cousins. Now, if the Cardinals can win in week eight,

the whole script is flipped for them for the rest of the season. Not that this is going to catapult them to Super Bowl lore, but three and five and four-4 are vastly different, especially with the NFC West being such a muck box that it is. So it is a true – I agree with you. Like, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen. And, like, last year, that was one of the best games, like, for the Cardinals to win that game going down – or was it 21-3 or something?

Like, they were down, and then they ended up taking the lead at halftime, I think. That was one of the most fun games the NFL had on its slate last year. So if there's 100 points scored, awesome, because we're fans of football. But I have no idea, Matt. I have no idea what's going to happen. I have no idea how to even project or predict what's going to happen because we have no idea what these two teams well and that's kind of what these teams are like there's a lot of teams in the NFL and

welcome Chicago to the club where they can look great one week and look like the worst team in the NFL the next week and the Vikings have done that but they've gotten away with their wins. Like against Miami, they punted 10 times. You can't do much worse than that, right? I mean, unless Drew Stanton is starting a quarterback, you're not punting 10 times. But yet, they still came away with a win because Miami's playing not only a third-string quarterback, then a second-string quarterback, then a backup left tackle, and they had injuries in the game. So sometimes how these things play out can be kind of crazy. But I feel like these two teams

are closer than their records would appear. And I want to ask you about the defensive side, because it would seem that the Vikings with a bye week to prepare, that they've been able to rip apart their offense with the coaching staff, look through everything, and try to figure out what's next, that that would be a very favorable situation for the Vikings, plus being at home. The numbers are not reflective in terms of points allowed from the Cardinals' defense, but you feel like it's been better. What does the Cardinals' defense bring to the table?

Stability. Something that the Cardinals' offense hasn't. So you're right. They've given up a whole bunch of points i think you've given 176 points like that's a lot compared to the rest of the nfl and this is weird now because you have to do math with who's been on damn buys and not and stuff and it's points per game but it's skewed because like one bad game would do so the cardinals lost to the chiefs in a buzzsaw situation where none of their defense played in the regular in the preseason except for Marco Wilson and Zayvon Collins and I think Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are gonna win the Super Bowl this year like everybody's talking about everybody else I'm like look at what's in front of you man so that was a

huge just like prove it game for Patrick Mahomes like look bros and gals I'm still the king like he still is even though he's not getting talked about a lot. Then through week two through week six, 23 points or less. If you have a defense that gives up 23 points or less in five games in a row, you should at least be three and two. And the Cardinals weren't. So, like, so the thing is that the defense has been the more stable side of the football with less talent. Zayvon Collins really emerging as the green dot guy. It's a second year. He's

playing all the snaps. Byron Murphy's emerging as a CB1 vet. Nobody really expected this. He was on the Christian Kirk journey, fourth year, second round pick. Let's see if he can earn that second contract. Nobody was going to pay Christian Kirk the amount of money that Jacksonville did, but that's not the point. He didn't deserve the money from the Cardinals because they didn't use him right. Byron Murphy, CB1. The only thing with that is we saw this last year through the first half of the year, and then he kind of fell off. The only difference is the pass rush isn't there this year like it was last year to make a cornerback job easier. He's going to be up against Justin Jefferson, you'd think. Pray, hope that he keeps him under 100 yards and a touchdown.

Buda Baker and Jalen Thompson, two of the best safeties in the NFL on the same team. And the pass rush has gotten a little bit better every week. Zach Allen from the interior really learning from J.J. Watt. And Zach Allen's healthy finally. And then you have Cam Thomas from San Diego State, the third-round pick. He's had a couple sacks. Like he's starting

to kind of like oh if this dude can be the face of this pass rush may have something cooking here in the valley but it's really a faceless pass rush and that's the thing that worries me the most because if kirky baby can have tea parties in the backfield he's going to pick any defensive part no that's completely correct is that the way that cousins plays has generally fluctuated with is he pressured or not this year has been a little bit different though because there have been a lot of times where he sat in the pocket and hasn't exactly seemed like he knows where to go with the football which again is kind of like are they going to solve that in the bye week and look very closely at what's worked and what hasn't worked uh i wonder about just the way that the running game plays into this for both teams because there

would have been many years in the past where i would have said i don't even talk about the running game what difference does it make it's running it's football it's 2020 whatever but now arizona seems to be running the ball effectively. The Vikings have been very inconsistent with it, where every once in a while it's a boom run from, you know, Delvin Cook, but he hasn't been consistent on a play-to-play basis. And it's kind of weird to talk about a team that has DeAndre Hopkins, a team that has Jefferson, two highly paid quarterbacks, and yet I really feel like the team that runs the ball effectively

is going to have a huge advantage in this game. Yeah, I agree with you. You know, because it's clock control for sure. That's one thing. James Conner's been hurt. You know, Benjamin and sixth round pick Keontae Ingram out of USC carried the weight last week against New Orleans. But New Orleans defense is just, they're ravaged with injuries.

The whole team is like, it's just, that's not a litmus test game for the Cardinals. But you know, Benjamin has really emerged as a guy you know out of Arizona State everybody's rooting for him they thought he would go in the fifth round the side was going to the sixth round then they was kind of like a a courtesy pick in the seventh when he was there and he's really been a guy you know he's been a guy that the only thing that you need from a running back room is some sort of consistency to be able to get first downs. Like that's it to be able to set up the play action. Like that's the goal.

And I think the difference between the Cardinals and the Vikings is the Vikings went since Kirk Cudds has been there has been a run first offense. That's what it's been. And now with the new regime was Zimmer out. It's like, Oh, now we can huck it. We don't know how to do that.

It's always been Dalvin cook setting up the play action for everything else. And now Justin Jefferson is being a wide receiver one. It's like, oh, now we can huck it. We don't know how to do that. It's always been Dalvin Cook setting up the play action for everything else. And now Justin Jefferson is being a wide receiver one. It's like, well, you got to feed the kid. And then like all this stuff, it's kind of like a identity crisis. With the Cardinals, it hasn't really been. It's just they haven't really been executing. But with James Conner out, it's more like, okay, whoever's hot, give them the rock and let's roll. And that's something, it's very Elijah Mitchell-ish, very Elijah Mitchell-ish that the Cardinals really haven't ever, they've never hit on late round picks, let alone early round picks. So this is something they're just kind of like, oh, look who we got here.

Just gave James Conner 20 mil. Can you trade him? Like that's the question I'm having in my head now. But you're right. The run game, as the run game goes, the Cardinals have gone so far this year. And likewise for Minnesota, I would assume. You mean paying a running back didn't work out? I can't believe it. I just, uh, it's never, it's never worked. Right. Like, has it ever worked? I mean, right off the top of my head, I think like so far Delvin cook is the high end of this.

Yeah. And I don't think it's been as good. Yeah. I mean, there, there are very few examples in the modern era of running backs getting paid. I mean, if Derek Henry is great for the rest of this year, then you would say yes, maybe, but he wasn't last year and got banged up. Uh, so it's a very risky proposition and that, and that one surprised me. Like James Connors, the ultimate running back who plays for 14 teams on one year contracts over his career. So to sign him to a bigger deal, didn't make a lot of sense. I did want to circle back about Zach Allen, by the way, the times that I've watched Arizona, I have been super impressed. And this is the one Achilles heel of the Vikings. When the other team has a good interior defensive lineman

who is Zach Allen exactly because there's a lot of guys who we've never heard of or didn't know a lot about and then all of a sudden blew up the interior of the Vikings O-line kind of happened a little bit last week against Miami and I think it it remains their biggest concern is when the other team has a dude in the middle. Yeah. So Zach Allen, and I've talked about this a lot recently, is like, this is perfect timing for Zach Allen to be around J.J. Watt. Because as a rookie, third round Boston College, it's like, what can a 32-year-old really teach a 22-year-old? You could teach, show up to work, do things like that.

It's more theory-based on how to build a successful career. Now that Zach Allen's in his fourth year and he's healthy, this is when J.J. Watt can really, it's like teaching somebody after having their driver's license for two years, how to be a better driver and not being the driver instructor on the right with the wheel and the brake, trying to make sure that kid doesn't kill anybody. You know, like it's very different.

And you're really starting to see the fruits of the labor here. You see them on the sidelines. Like you can't help but look and see a JJ Watt light in Zach Allen because you're right. Like he's a terror on the inside. He's a terror on the inside. He's so much faster than he should be for his size. And he's very,

very consistent and consistency is a thing that Cardinals have been missing from the, from the defensive line position. A lot of it's just injury ravaged. So the last handful of years, but yeah, Zach Allen is, he is a borderline terror.

Who's going to get paid. He's going to, he's going to, the Cardinals better give him a second contract because he's not going to get 60 mil guaranteed. It's going to be very team friendly. And he's a guy that could really wreak havoc for offensive lines for years to come if he can stay healthy. And he has so far this season. Yeah. He leads the team in pressures and has stood out the several times I've seen the Cardinals play. So that is something that the Vikings really need to be concerned about because that's one thing that has always destroyed their offense and that has not changed

this year. So real quick, I have a little game for you or a little trivia for you, but I want to, I mean, who do you think wins the football game? Minnesota. You got to ask that, right? Yeah. Minnesota. Like I don't, I don't, I don't trust it yet. I don't trust it yet. Now, if Kyler Murray can leverage how angry he was with his inferior head coach last week, with the extra time, with DeAndre Hopkins back, you know, who knows? Who knows? But I do think Minnesota will win. Like, it's just, you know, PTSD from last year, where it was just like they did whatever they wanted. Kirk Cousins, I think he threw three first quarter

touchdowns or it was two and then one really early in the second quarter. It's like, oh, damn it. It's this Kirk? Okay, well, it's going to be a long day. And then the defense was able, Rondell Moore had a broken defense, long touchdown catch and run. But I do

think Minnesota's going to win. I think it's going to be a little bit more high scoring, but I think it's gonna be a little bit more high scoring but i think it's gonna be like 27 20 27 17 minnesota and so this is the the big question for me is like you've talked about what arizona is doing well on defense and if they are better than their numbers imply they've got a decent chance but if they are what their numbers say they are that version is going to get crushed by cousins like historically if you want to know whether the vikings are going to win or lose a football game just look at where the other defense ranks and points allowed how they play against the pass that usually determines it because cousins demolishes the bad teams and usually struggles

against the good teams but that's why i bring up the interior rush that that can kind of even things out like it did against miami i'm going to pick the Vikings for this one as well, but I think it's these two teams are so middling in their actual talent and statistical performance that it's got to be like on a final field goal, but maybe Greg Joseph totally redeems himself at the end. So here's my question for you. Kyler murray is one of only nine quarterbacks in arizona cardinals history slash phoenix cardinals history i maybe slash st louis cardinals history i'm not sure uh to ever have more than 10 wins so they've only had nine quarterbacks to ever do it uh i will not include lamar McCann or Charlie Johnson or Neil Lomax or Jim Hart,

because those guys played a long time ago. Who is the rest of the list? They've all played since at least, I think at least 1997. So who's the rest of the list? How many are there? Let's see. I think I gave you four. And Kyler. Yeah, and then Kyler. So there's four more. One, two, three, four.

Can you guess who the other four double-digit win quarterbacks are other than Kyler and the super old school guys? Two are easy. Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer. Kevin Cobb. That's a great guess, but he has six. What? They traded so much for him.

Um, Jake Plummer. Jake Plummer is correct. He went 30 and 52 and then went to Denver and won, I think, 13 games in a season. Who the hell am I missing? I loved playing with Jake Plummer on like Madden 98. He had great ratings. Yeah. He's a big dude.

Good dude too. It's not John Skelton. It's not, but it's close eight and nine. I mean, I should know this and I just don't. Okay. The reason I came up with this is because there is a Viking Cardinal

connection. It's an old school one. It goes back a little ways to the early two thousands, but there is a connection here. This man eliminated the Vikings from the playoffs one year with a magical throw to the back of the end zone. I. Josh McCown.

Oh my goodness gracious. How do I not know Josh McCownccown sweet mother one of his 10 wins in 2003 eliminated the vikings from the playoffs he was larry fitzgerald's quarterback when he was a rookie what a dummy i am uh you don't have to be too hard on yourself because there's a lot of other potentials steve beer line yeah won nine games Yeah. I was going to say him, but I thought he was outside of that. Also hilariously. I interviewed Steve Berlin for a totally non-related to the Cardinals article. And he ranted off the air or off the recorder about the Cardinals switching to buddy Ryan while he was still the quarterback and how that messed everything up. Cause I was

like, Hey, I didn't know you played for a buddy Ryan or whatever. And he was like, Oh, it was terrible. So anyway, that's kind of, that's kind of funny when you have like the random interaction, Drew Stanton went nine and four. Good for you, Drew Stanton, Matt liner, seven and 10. And then it gets ugly after that Kent Graham, Chris Chandler, Jay Schroeder, Tom Tupo, a player that comes up on the show all the time, Dave Craig, Boomer Esiason, three and five, Josh Rosen, Jeff Blake. What a history, my friend. Yeah.

Magical. Yeah, if you ever want some fun reading, just Google touchdown pass. Quarterbacks who threw Larry Fitzgerald touchdown passes. And if you ever tell me he's not a top five receiver ever, and you look at that list, shame on you. No one in Minnesota is going to argue with Larry Fitzgerald praise. That is for sure. So Alex, great stuff. The locked on Arizona Cardinals podcast and at Clancy's corner on Twitter,

you are, you're a great follow. I enjoy following you, especially for some of the rants. And I'm like, it's a nice window into what's going on with that team. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.