Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings make no trades at the deadline -- did they do the right thing?

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings staying put at the trade deadline. How good are they now without any additions? Should they have spent more draft capital for another player? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome into the Purple Insider trade deadline special in which we will talk about such moves that the Minnesota Vikings made as... Well, they didn't actually make any moves. So that will be the main topic of discussion for this late afternoon and I figured probably a good time to jump on live right after the deadline ended so you guys can watch coverage of maybe another event that's going on today in America. But no moves for the Vikings as we saw only a handful of moves around the NFL. I think that probably the fact that there were a lot of trades in recent weeks leading up to the deadline played a role in the deadline being less explosive than we thought. There were a couple notable NFC North moves that I want to talk about. The Dallas Cowboys decided that they are all in on this

season, no matter how far they fall behind in the race and no matter how injured their quarterback is. But that was really about it. And Washington decided to make a big move in acquiring Marshawn Lattimore. That was maybe the biggest of the entire day for them making an addition, as they have also made a case as one of the best teams in the NFC around young quarterback Jaden Daniels. But for the Vikings, I think if we're looking for an explanation for why they did not make a move after we had all those great discussions and all those great ideas, it's probably a couple of reasons. I mean, number one, they did not expect their left tackle to get injured for the season and have to use draft

capital to go out and acquire Cam Robinson. So if you were thinking about, well, Hey, what's the, what's the big move that they made? It's probably the fact that they went out and got a starting left tackle and use some draft capital for that and also acquired Cam Akers. So even though it didn't happen today, they did make two additions to this team that could be part of it. And when you look at the draft capital that they have to use, they couldn't really dip into much 2026 late round stuff because it's already spoken for with those two trades. And as far as the 2025 draft, the first round pick would have been very valuable to them. And the two fifth

round picks may have not been enough for some teams, or they might've decided that it was too much to ask for some teams. I also couldn't help but wonder if the first trade of the day may have thrown things off a little bit, because one of the trends of this draft season had been that the prices were dirt cheap. No inflation here, folks. Honestly, the trades around the league had just not cost very much to bring in players, including Cam Robinson. I was surprised when they were able to acquire Cam Robinson for so little, but Jonathan Mingo went for a fourth round pick and maybe that caused some other teams to start asking for more for players that they wanted to move on from. Another part of it might've been just that the teams that should

be doing the selling, some of them are not all that smart talking about maybe the Tennessee Titans, for example, a team that should have been at least moving Sebastian Joseph day for something. And instead they decide to stick with it. I never thought that Dexter Lawrence or Jeffrey Simmons were going to be sold off. But when you even think about the New York giants, another team that should be selling,

well, they've got people in their building that are trying to save jobs. And even though they have moved the trade deadline back and back and back to help facilitate more trades, there are still teams that are saying, we have to have a good second half of our season to make sure that we don't get fired. And that is always the dynamic that is hard to factor in when we're talking about, should the Vikings have made a trade? Well, the other side of that might be a team saying, we can't give up this guy because if we do, then we're talking about finishing the season two and 15 or whatever.

And I don't think that general managers who are on the hot seat are always thinking in terms of, well, we've got the long-term here. We've got to get more draft capital for 2026. They might be thinking, if I give away these players, I'm not going to be here in 2026. Because I think when we evaluate the Vikings not doing anything, we also have to do it through the prism of the entire NFL. And there just weren't very many moves today. A handful of acquisitions from teams. Zedarius Smith goes to the Detroit Lions as everyone expected. I guess they couldn't pull off my move, which was to try to trade for Zedarius Smith to take them away from the Detroit Lions.

That was my idea. But I guess the Vikings didn't do that. So that's the big trade for today. The Jonathan Mingo trade to Dallas. That's a player that Carolina had had absolutely enough of after drafting him just last year and not somebody that the Vikings would have gone after. Even look at the new England Patriots. They had been sitting KJ Osborne and not playing him, and they still didn't trade him away. I don't understand this logic of why you wouldn't just give him for anything, literally anything,

conditional seven, three years from now, because they're not going to keep KJ Osborne into the future. But whatever it is, the sellers stopped selling when we arrived at the trade deadline. A lot of the players go through anybody's list, go through my list, go through Alec Lewis's list, go through anybody who made the, who should the Vikings trade for list. Look at all those players. 99% of them did not get moved at this deadline. So it may have just been that the teams that we expected to be giving away everything left and right, and honestly doing the right thing for their teams. And this, this was what I didn't see coming.

I thought that we had reached a point in the NFL where football teams were approaching the deadline similar to hockey and baseball and basketball, where if you ain't going to use it, let somebody else have it. We see this in the NHL all the time. They get to the trade deadline. A guy's going to be an unrestricted free agent. So the team will just go, whatever. We'll just call somebody up from the AHL. We'll get a mid round draft pick, go have that guy for a couple months. Best of luck to you. It just doesn't work that way in the NFL outside of a handful of situations. Go through the unrestricted free agents for next year. Almost none of them got moved. I don't know why. I don't know why the New England Patriots would not be looking to deal off four or five players. They dealt off Josh Uche to the

Kansas City Chiefs a couple of weeks ago. And that's what I mean about it's been a slow trickle of a deadline. If all these things happened at the deadline with DeAndre Hopkins, Devontae Adams, if they all happened today, and even Cam Akers and Cam Robinson, if it all happened today, we would be talking about what an eventful deadline it was. So that's maybe changed a little bit of our perception of this as well. But I also think that it comes down to no surprise that some of the franchises that have one or two wins are not good at this. Credit to the New Orleans Saints for moving Marshawn Lattimore.

That's a player who's been with them for a long time. I don't know if contract-wise the Vikings could have been able to take on someone like Marshawn Lattimore. That's another thing that has to be considered here too, is that in the NFL, one of the things that makes it harder is you can't just trade for dudes. You have to stay underneath the salary cap while you're doing it. So it often includes these trades. Hey, you've got to take this much salary for this to work. Okay. We want more draft capital. Then if we're taking this salary, there's just more moving parts to this, but I still cannot really wrap my head around

some teams not wanting to part ways with their players that are not going to help them really that much right now or into the future. It's just not going to happen. And Joey points out that even Marshawn Lattimore, the price to get him was a bunch of draft picks the Vikings don't have. The Washington team that has been tanking for like a decade, they have draft capital stacked up to be able to make some moves. But I think that the main cause was not the Vikings not trying so much as it was other teams not selling. And the evidence is they didn't sell them to anybody else. I don't know if there was any move around the league that you look at. And if you've got one, let me know from today where you go, Hey, why didn't the Vikings get that guy? All the names.

I mean, we thought the Raiders might move people. I love the idea of getting Adam Butler. Who's a hulking nose tackle to pair with Harrison Phillips and create more of a rotation. He didn't get traded. The Raiders didn't move on from anybody. Someone explain it to me. Like I'm five, why the Raiders wouldn't be trading people, but they weren't, they didn't. And there were almost no teams that were in the bottom barrel of this league who were just selling off parts credit to Carolina for doing it. But there aren't too many others that were actually doing that today. So I thought of course, just like many of you, that the Vikings could use another defensive tackle.

By the way, some of you talk about Harrison Phillips. He played the best game of the season, I thought, against Indianapolis. So I think that he's having a pretty decent season this year and he's a valuable player for them. But I thought that one of the reasons was that he only played 31 snaps. Having a rotation is really helpful for that defensive tackle position but if the Tennessee Titans are not going to move someone like Sebastian Joseph Day what are you supposed to do uh Cody says we could have got JC Horn no you couldn't have clearly not clearly not the, that they didn't trade JC horn to anybody.

They are keeping their talent. Tennessee didn't trade Jeffrey Simmons to anybody. There's no move that you can find where you say, oh, well, they traded X player to Y team. And the Viking should have done that trade for that guy at that price. If you've got one, tell me. But teams just didn't trade players. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that. I'm very surprised by it. And I thought that the Vikings really could have used defensive tackle.

I thought they really could have used another cornerback, somebody who could help them with, again, more of a rotation, someone they could put in to play a little bit more man coverage when they have to. I thought they did a little bit more man coverage when they have to. I thought they did a little more rotating the other day with the corners, but still there wasn't a corner traded outside of Lattimore. So it isn't like there were a bunch of corners available and the Vikings just didn't pony up and make the move. I mean, aside from that, yeah, Trey White got traded. I don't know when the last time Trey White was good. And the Rams are in the mix, but they're a team that

clearly had no use for Tredavious White and he's had all those injuries. So I don't know if that's something the Vikings even would have considered versus the guys that they have as their backups. And that's another part of it too, is that if you're going to make a trade, then you have to acquire somebody who's better than the players that you have at your backup positions, or it's just a waste of time. So there's a, there's a level to this, right? So the players that they have as their backups are guys like at the defensive tackle position, Taki Taimani's a level to this, right? So the players that they have as their backups are guys like at the defensive tackle position, Taki Taimani's a little banged up, but he's in there. You also have Jalen Redman, who's been a nice rotational player that I could see playing

a little bit more as we go forward, made the team out of camp. We haven't seen Levi Drake Rodriguez yet, but that's kind of your backup defensive tackle group. If there was someone available like a Sebastian Joseph Day or, of course, the star names, but they weren't. They just weren't made available at the bargain bin type of prices that I expected to happen. I really thought that we had moved past this as a league being stubborn. But the other thing is, too, that you have to consider some owners how about jerry jones making a trade for a bust wide receiver for a fairly significant draft pick for what reason with his quarterback out i think that

there's owners around the league mark davis may have been one of them robert craft may have been one of them i mean robert craft may have seen the Patriots play some competitive football lately and said, you know what, actually let's stay on this path. Let's not sell off everything and see if we could do something magical and get back in this race with Drake May. I think that owners sometimes think that way. And again, if, if the whole league had been fire sailing and there was a yard sale and the Vikings just walked by the yard sale and went, ah, forget about it, then I would have a lot more criticism of this because I thought they needed some additions to really solidify this team. But the fact that nobody else did it, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to tell them to do if those teams were

not actually really selling at prices that the Vikings had enough draft capital to afford. I mean, it's kind of clear from the trades for Cam Akers and Cam Robinson that the Vikings did not want to trade away their 2025 draft capital. what little they have. And they'll get some comp picks that are thrown in, I'm sure as well to that amount of picks, but they have the first, they have the two fifths and they might not have wanted to, or they may have felt that those fifths were too valuable for some of the things that the, that other teams wanted. So we will hear from Kevin O'Connell tomorrow and we'll see what he has to say. I don't know if Kweisi Adafo-Mensa will say anything about this or have a press conference to talk about acquiring Akers, Robinson, or anything like that.

But it just seems like the teams that are at the bottom are at the bottom for a reason because they consistently make very bad decisions. And if they're making bad decisions by not selling, I'm not sure how the Vikings were supposed to be buying if it was either not for sale or if it was too pricey. And just to stick with the yard sale comparison, I'm sure we've all done this, right? You see a yard sale, you go by and you go, oh, okay, I'll stop it. Maybe this person's got some interesting stuff. And then you pick up a stuffed bear and you go,

$11 for a stuffed bear that you bought in 1992? No, I don't think so. I think I'm good. The Vikings may have run into that situation. But even to circle back to the point about the players you acquire have to be better than what you have on your bench. Think about the cornerback position for the Vikings. It is shaky. I think the three starters overall have done a very good job. This defense is still one of the best in the league and were great when it came to the other night

against the Indianapolis Colts. Just a phenomenal defensive performance, and the corners did a good job. I was just watching the all-22 back and the interception Byron Murphy had. He ran the route for the receiver, jumped in front of it. I mean, these guys have made plays.

They've picked the ball off, and overall, the Vikings are doing a good job against the posing teams passing games, except for Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford. But aside from that, they've had a really good season. When you look at the backup corners, it's a Caleb Evans. It's Fabian Morrow. Morrow has been in the league for a very long time and he's been an average player. And Caleb Evans for three quarters of last season was maybe a little below average player, but serviceable for not at the end of the year, of course, but for two thirds of the season last year, you have to be able to buy someone who's better than that. Once the New York Jets won against the Houston Texans, they weren't going to sell DJ Reed to you. And if they were, they were probably

going to want a little bit too much. So I guess I am a bit surprised that the NFL didn't move more players. In that case, if I knew they weren't going to sell as much as they didn't, then I would have figured the Vikings wouldn't be involved. And we also have to consider that Cam Akers and Cam Robinson are two trade deadline deals. They just didn't happen today. Maybe the Vikings would have given higher prices for a defensive tackle or for a corner if they hadn't had to scramble and replace their starting left tackle and Robinson did a good job and that's the other thing we need to mention too is just overall when it comes to the two players that they traded for huge contributors in a win

against Indianapolis already and these two guys could play huge roles so we could say oh they didn't do anything at the deadline, but well, we're going to see a lot of cam acres and we're certainly going to see a lot of cam Robinson and cam Robinson may have saved the offense for the rest of the season. So those are deals that will make a big difference. They're just not quite that one extra piece to the defense that we were expecting. There is another part of this too, that maybe they felt like as well as Dallas Turner played the other night, that's kind of an addition to the defense as they go forward and rotate him in

more often. They might feel that someone like Jalen Redman can play more and that could be a addition to the defense and that they didn't necessarily have to go out and make a move as far as excitement, as far as hype energy. No, it's not the day that I thought that it might be for the Minnesota Vikings. I certainly woke up wondering, is, is Quasey going to do some wild today? Is Kweisi going to send off that first round pick and bring somebody big back? But I don't believe that during this entire draft season, again, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe that there was a first round draft pick that was traded anywhere in the

entire draft season. So that's another thing that is just not really happening uh in the nfl and cody mentions on the offensive line as far as the center position which center got traded today though i mean that's the thing who's trading their starting center that's going to be an upgrade on garrett bradbury and the other thing is too it's just let me mention again I brought this up last night, the play that Garrett Bradbury got steamrolled, he got tripped by his own teammate. Ed Ingram did not get out on the protection that was being shifted to the right side and he stepped on his foot and that's what happened. I don't know that they showed that on the broadcast, but the all 22 shows that very clearly. I think Bradbury was a difference maker in the run game the other night and has been for years, and he is a really good leader, and he's always going to struggle against bigger defensive tackles. That's not a huge, huge issue to me. The right guard situation is a little bit more, but they have Dalton Reisner who they can bring in. I think that we've often just been

in so much of a mode of just yelling offensive line that we're not giving this offensive line enough credit for being good this year. They've been a good offensive line this year. They're not Detroit and they're not the 93 Dallas Cowboys, but certainly have given enough time to Sam Darnold to throw the ball. And we know he holds onto the ball too long. Uh, and they have been effective in the run blocking. The Vikings are a pretty solid run team overall in terms of yards per carry. Um, so I don't know that there was another offensive line move to be made that would have been an upgrade on what they have or on rise there. Once again, it has to be the next guy down has to be worse. And Dalton Reisner is a fairly high bar to meet for trading for an offensive lineman.

He's a guy who started a lot of games and up north says would have Lattimore would have been the best one. They didn't have the draft capital to trade for Lattimore. If he went for a third, fourth and sixth, they just didn't have that to be able to give away. Of course, Lattimore would have been good. But as far as have it, you have to have the draft capital. So the things that were required for the Vikings to make a big move today, those things were

not met. You have to have the right draft capital that other teams are going to want. The Vikings were short on that. And you also have to have teams that going to want. The Vikings were short on that. And you also have to have teams that were actually selling and the sellers, I don't know, didn't pick up their phones today. We're busy voting. I truly do not understand some of these franchises. Guys, I'll see a lot of criticisms about the Vikings. And of course, that's what I do here as well. But when you look at the way that some of these franchises around the NFL are run, look at some of the two

and seven teams, it blows your mind. How many bad teams are out there? How about Indy? Shouldn't Indy be selling? That team's bad. I didn't think that that team was any good. They're not selling. Bizarre. I think it was bizarre. Other teams in other leagues are just better at figuring out when they're beat and looking on to the future. But that is something that still is not entirely happening in the NFL as we saw today. So that's probably the reason, or at least makes a lot of sense to me as the reason the Vikings didn't make a trade is just the prices suddenly went up at the end or teams were trying to squeeze enough out or owners at the last minute said, we want to stay in this

race. We don't want to bail. And some of the teams that might've been the biggest sellers, they won, they decided to stay in the race. I mean, even think of a team like Arizona. If Arizona had lost to Chicago, maybe they're moving somebody, but they win. So now they feel good about themselves. They're not making those moves and we carry on. So I got two more things to talk about as far as moves go, or I guess three that were big moves today that could have some impact

on the Vikings. And the biggest one, of course, was Z'Darrius Smith going to the Detroit Lions. Z'Darrius Smith has been banged up throughout his career. He was when he was a Viking, but he's real good. And the Detroit Lions, we knew that they were not going to do nothing, that the lions were going to find a way to get a pass rusher somehow. And they did that with Zedarius Smith. That's not a great thing for the Vikings. These two teams will play each other late in the year. And I guess the best the Vikings can hope for is that Zedarius is banged up by then, but I think we all know and have a lot of respect for how talented Zedarius Smith is as a pass rusher. So that's a huge move for the Detroit Lions to solidify their defense. And honestly, their defense has been pretty good overall this season. Aiden Hutchinson was a huge

reason he's not Aiden Hutchinson, but he is at least even in the family of very, very good pass rushers in the NFL. So that was a solid move by the Detroit lions to be able to pick up Zedaria Smith and a team when they're all in and they're looking at potentially having a chance to go race for a Superbowl. That's the type of move that you make. So, um, you know, maybe the, I always thought it would be funny. Uh, no, is it Aries Smith is not whatever. And I mean, he is a really, really excellent player. I mean, we don't have to, some people, every time I bring up the lions, you just get real mad, but the dairy Smith was an absolute beast and you know it. Uh, yeah. Uh, Ron, I was also wondering about Delvin Tomlinson. That's another

guy. I don't understand why Cleveland wouldn't move, but maybe there's contract stuff that makes that hard for him or Denzel Ward or any of the names from Cleveland. I look at Cleveland as another one of these clown show teams, though. Is there any worse franchise in all of professional sports than the Cleveland Browns. And they're sitting there holding onto stuff. What? Why? Just some senseless stuff today from other teams. If I'm doing the Cleveland Browns post-trade deadline thing, I'm going, the only player you move was Z'Darrius Smith. What is it that you think you're doing here? Is Jameis Winston going to bring you back to the playoffs? What is going on?

So I don't really understand it. I'm sure lots of phone calls were made, but not a whole lot of moves end up being made. The one that was very interesting is in Green Bay, where they move Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And also the Steelers acquire Mike Williams as well so that's funny K-Mac says Z'Darrius Smith doesn't scare me week 18 now that may be true but I would direct you and I know it's a little while ago to the end of the season in 2019 where Z'Darrius Smith completely annihilated an entire Minnesota Vikings team.

I just wouldn't shortchange one of the better players in the league over the last five to seven years. But anyway, just when it comes to the Packers, though, moving Preston Smith, he's a guy that's given the Vikings a lot of problems over the years. And I'm curious, I haven't read the reason why they decided to move Preston Smith and why they acted seemingly with a little bit more of a long-term view than all of these clown teams that did not. That's what was odd to me is, okay, you're not going to keep Preston Smith long-term. I understand why you'd be moving him to use Lucas Van Ness more.

He was their top draft pick. Hey, imagine a defensive player who develops over a couple years. I don't know if they've been patient over there or not, but when it comes to Preston Smith, that's a guy that the Vikings don't want to see. And to not have him on the Green Bay Packers is, I think, a bonus for the Vikings of trade deadline day that he ends up being moved. And it may have been a demand from Preston Smith.

And they said, Hey, let's get something for you. Uh, maybe after losing to the lions, they felt like, okay, we're a good team, but, uh, we're still too flawed to really make an argument for being a super Bowl team. So we should think long-term. It also could be that the Packers don't have owners and they know what they can move on from and what they can't. That could be another part of it. James says the Browns released Quentin Jefferson. Is he an option? Could be. Yeah, he's Jefferson. What also could be yeah he's Jefferson what also could be as far as moving Preston Smith that you get to carry over your salary cap I really don't I really don't know I really don't know I maybe he had just lost his job he's a guy that has given the Vikings lots of problems but sometimes guys

get hurt they fall off they lose their jobs if I the Packers, I don't know if I would have done that move, but it is a bonus for the Vikings. When it comes to Quinton Jefferson, yeah, he's been that type of guy for years as that rotational type of rusher, and he might be an option. The Vikings did make moves today, by the way. They had to bring back John Parker Romo, who actually kicked really well in the off season, but was not on the same level of Will Reichard and they let him go. And they also signed a long snapper as well. So we'll, we'll do a bigger breakdown of that some other time of the new long snapper, maybe after I get a chance to talk with him, but and then Marshawn Lattimore going to Washington

is a great move for Washington. They're in a position where they need secondary, but they're a highly competitive team. They made a lot of moves this off season to majorly upgrade that roster. They've got a great young quarterback. You could spend a little draft capital. And the reason junk buster that the Vikings couldn't get Lattimore is they didn't have the draft capital to match what Washington traded for him. They just didn't. Third, fourth, and a sixth, the Vikings don't have those things. And I don't think that two-fifths adds up to a third, fourth, and a sixth.

They gave up a good amount, but they've got a ton of draft capital to do it, and the Vikings just aren't in that spot. So now Washington to me looks like a pretty serious and legitimate contender with the emerging star young quarterback of this recent draft class, good coaching, complete roster. And I think what we should do is talk about now that the trade deadline is over and I'll get to some of your guys' comments. I'll scroll back up and get to some of your comments here. I think what we should do though, is compare now teams in the NFC. We know what the Vikings are going to be. We've got a big sample size and we know that they're not adding anything more other than Cam Robinson and Cam Akers. It's very clear they're behind the Detroit Lions. Everybody is, Everybody might be in the entire league.

Kansas City keeps winning one-score games, and I think they will continue to do that. But Detroit hasn't even needed a lot of one-score games as good as they have been recently, so Detroit is the best team in the NFC. But after that, if you're making the comparison, the Vikings' only two losses are by a total of 12 points to two quarterbacks that have been to the Super Bowl, and they just dismantled largely the Indianapolis Colts. If you look at any of the stats that are not the final score, it was a dismantling yardage, the number of plays, the number of first downs, the success rate of their plays,

the expected points added of their play, all those things. They were a way, way better football team than the Colts. The upcoming schedule matters to this as well for the Vikings. The previous wins that they have still matter and how closely they played Detroit. Very, very close argument between them and Washington. I think the Vikings have a better defense than Washington and at least a quarterback with more experience. Darnold may not be proven over full seasons as being this good, although his sample size of good play is growing. If you go back to 2022, his quarterback rating is over a hundred now since 2022. So there's even that little extended sample size of Darnold playing well. You'd have to give a little bit of the edge there. The Vikings with a little bit better playmakers, a little bit better

running backs. The offensive line for Washington's quite good. They're probably neck and neck, right? Philadelphia, I'm not really sure what to do with. They've won three in a row and they just beat Jacksonville. Saquon Barkley is jumping backward over people, but I don't trust Nick Sirianni to keep that train going. Their offensive line has been good though. Still, even after losing Jason Kelsey kelsey this last year their offensive line is still cooking their defense is pretty flawed but the eagles they blew that game against

atlanta if they hadn't done that they've got an argument for being right there probably another neck and neck team with the vikings not perfect i don't think they made any moves today either by the way they're not perfect they're pretty good they're talented but they've got some flaws as well and they've got some questions as well I think there's that second tier so it's Lions and then it's Washington Vikings and Philadelphia right there together I'm not sure whether to put Green Bay there because I just don't know if Green Bay is going to have their quarterback healthy for the rest of the season, or if he's going to be dragging around his legs and not playing at the same level that he was able to play at last year. Green Bay probably belongs one notch down from that second tier. And then you have the whole

NFC West. I think I would give the most credit maybe to the Cardinals, but the Rams, as you saw, are still a good team if they get their receivers back and Puka Nakua continues to play and doesn't get thrown out of a game. I'm sure some of you said, why couldn't he get thrown out of the game against the Vikings? They probably would have won that one, but Seattle is still capable of being decent. I think Chicago has fallen out of the conversation. So the Vikings remain a high second tier team, but the first tier is only one team. That's how I look at it. I don't know if there's any trade of a veteran journeyman defensive tackle or a cornerback that another team was willing to discard that would

have moved me from that. Uh, they would have had to have made a really big move in order to do that. Um, and those moves were just not out there today. Those were made, uh, earlier. So, um, your reaction, your thoughts, continue the comments here about the Vikings not doing anything at the trade deadline. Let's see. Cody says we can't get a new right guard or a better center. Really? I assume the really is like a really? The better right guard is on the bench.

Ed Ingram graded fairly well with pass blocking the other night. I did mention that he tripped his own center. There was also on the trick play, in space, he might be the worst guard in the league in space. On the trick play, he's one block away from busting that thing for 20 more yards and just gets too far out ahead, doesn't see it, and it ends up being just barely a first down. But they do have another guy, and that's the whole point.

As far as centers, you've got to tell me who. Who would you have traded for? How would you have upgraded? How do you implement a center into an offense when it is such an IQ position, it's such a knowledge position? I think that Garrett Bradbury is fine at that position. I don't think he's an above average pass blocker or ever will be, but I also think that he has not been a negative, net negative, because he's been a good run blocker for this offense. I just don't know

that there was opportunity to do something else at the offensive line position. And I didn't see any offensive linemen moved. Let's see. Blowfish says, I hope they at least made loads of calls because they are very much behind the top teams in the NFL. I feel they treaded water today, whereas other teams got better. Which other teams got a lot better? I mean, Washington's move for Lattimore, that wasn't one that the Vikings could have matched.

But as far as what other teams got better today, there were, I mean, Detroit got better with Zedaria Smith. That move had been in the works for weeks and Pittsburgh can clearly say that Pittsburgh got better. And would I have traded for Zedaria Smith to keep them away from the Lions? Yes, but they were going to do something there there had to there has to be a move there has to be a player that you can point to to show me this guy moved and the vikings should have done it for that guy because if everybody didn't buy any of these players or none of these teams were able to sell these players that's what makes the argument so hard of, well, they should have done something. They

should have done something. And as far as being very much behind the other great teams in the league, I just don't see that. I just don't see that. They've had one of the most difficult schedules in the entire NFL so far, and they're six and two. I mean, can we look at point differential? Can I get it up on my app here in front of me? I try not to Google things during the show because I don't want to hurt the internet connection. Let me see. Can we get point differential?

Where are the Vikings right now after the other night? Let's take a look. In the NFC, point differential. We've got Washington at plus 74, Detroit at 110, and the Vikings at 59. Those are your top three in terms of point differential right now in the entire conference. They're ahead of Philadelphia. They're ahead of San Francisco. Gosh, the NFC West is weird where San Francisco actually has the best point differential there.

They're ahead of green Bay. They're ahead of Chicago. They're ahead of Tampa Bay. They're ahead of Atlanta. I mean, if that's a good metric for you, I think it is. DVOA is another one that people like to use, and the Vikings are up at the top of the league in that one as well, because that factors opponent strength. So I don't look at it as, well, when you say the top teams are far ahead of them, okay, Kansas City has the best quarterback alive. I don't know what to do about that. Uh, then Buffalo has the second best quarterback alive. Okay. Those teams belong. Uh, the third best quarterback alive, if not second is Lamar Jackson. He might be the best. Those, those three

teams are untouchable to teams like the Vikings because they just have the all-time great quarterbacks of the era. You're not going to get into their ballpark. But in your own conference, you have played the Lions to a two-point game where if you convert one more first down, you win the game against the Detroit Lions. And that's one of the two losses. The other one's on Thursday night football. You've played dominant games otherwise.

I have a tough time saying that there are so many teams ahead of them i i'm and i have a tough time saying that one more move would have put them over the top i think it would have solidified those positions if those moves were there to be made but they just weren't they just turned out i I was wrong. I thought they would be. I thought they would be going into the trade deadline. I thought it was going to be a bonanza and that every team was throwing their junk out on the lawn and saying, pick through it and take what you need. And I thought the Vikings would be right there to give up a fifth,

give up a, you know, whatever next year's conditional or something, seventh round, what do they got left for conditionals? They just, that opportunity never arose. Steve says, I wonder if the value for rental players is still being figured out since it's a relatively new concept in the NFL by make some teams more hesitant. Yeah. I think a lot of those trades, those rental type of trades and those, you know, we're getting rid of guy X. They just happened before the deadline. When we got to the final day,

maybe all the guys that were going to go already went that, that could be, that could be part of it. Uh, Trey white, Jake brings up Trey white. Uh, Preston Smith, of course was never getting traded to the Vikings, but, um, Trey white, it does Trey white have anything left? I mean, that that's my point about Fabian Morrow and Caleb Evans. These are not star players, but they are guys who I think I would take over whatever's left of Trey white right now. That seems like an emergency type of thing. Joey says it's crazy to see teams like the Panthers and Titans that think they're going to be competitive soon. Well, the Panthers made the best trade of the day moving on from Jonathan Mingo. And as far as JC Horn, he's pretty young. I could see why they would want to just extend him in the off season

and not trade him. And I don't know if the Vikings were ever willing to give up a pick for somebody who does have a bit of an injury history. I still like that idea, but that would have been a hard deal maybe to pull off, but the Panthers not moving Jadavion Clowney. That was another idea that popped into my head. I'm not sure what he's doing for them. And then the Titans, I just don't understand at all, at all. I mean, Titans have to be, I mean, I guess when we rank the worst franchises in football, nobody can top the Cleveland Browns. They are the worst franchise in football. The Jets got to be fairly close, but where are the Titans in this list? The team that gave away Derrick Henry and AJ Brown. I mean, that it's, that's a, that's a pretty rough team right there. So I guess they must be looking

at it. Like they think they can turn it around. This is the team that went out and signed a bunch of guys. They signed Tony Pollard. They signed Kelvin Ridley. They brought in a bunch of talent like they were going to be good and not even close. When we talk about franchise competence, sometimes I see in the comments section, oh, this team is incompetent. They don't know what they're doing. Like, whoa, look around. Look around at the Tennessee Titans. But that's a player, Sebastian Joseph Day, that the Vikings would have had some familiarity with. I think he had been with the Rams and what are you keeping him for? If you're Tennessee, my, my annoyance today at the trade deadline is directed at the silliness of teams holding onto players. They didn't need, uh, Mike

says, uh, did suddenly needing a kicker and long snapper affect the moves? I don't think so. Because those are just two positions that they were going to go out and sign. Those weren't two positions where they had to get rid of everything or anything at all. They just put those guys on IR, so it created the roster positions. Wouldn't have made any impact there at all. So I don't think so. My guess is just that when they went to the market today, probably feeling like, all right, well, there's got to be some moves to be made here, some acquisitions to solidify some positions. And then these teams just said, we're not giving away our players for nothing. And also all these things go through ownership

and there may be some ownerships that still think that their teams can get back in it when they actually have no chance. Dennis says, Andrew Booth is available. I know he was waved by the Cowboys today. Definitely his fault of their defense is that bad. But yeah, Andrew Booth is just not worked out. Didn't work out here, didn't work out there. And that's another thing about the Vikings. It's not like we've seen the players they've moved on from exactly thriving elsewhere.

Blowfish says, I still think Delvin Tomlinson would have been available. Obviously not because he's a good player and somebody would have wanted to get him. There's contract considerations when it comes to all this stuff. And maybe they would have been asking them to keep some of the salary and they didn't want to keep some of the salary. The Jags were willing to do that. The Jags gave away Cam Robinson for basically nothing to the Vikings and kept some salary. That might've been something that they wanted in a deal for someone like Delvin Tomlinson. And it just, just didn't, didn't work out. Uh, Dak says, uh, I get trying to build a perfect team, but you will never have top three guys at every position.

Some guys need to be okay to decent. Uh, well, I've always believed this too. I've always believed that, uh, that you're only as good as your weaknesses. And as we look over the roster, I think we know what those are. They are not going to have great interior pressure. I still thought the other night that Indianapolis blocked them up pretty good, and it took a while to create pressure. They had a couple of free runners at Flacco, but for the most part, he had time to throw, and that was still concerning. He

was just bad, but he had some time to throw back there, and the coverage gives up those underneath routes into the middle. They still did that against Indianapolis. And there were several bend don't break type of drives. But I also don't think that there is a such thing in the NFL as a flawless defense. And I don't think that there was anybody they could have brought in to make them flawless. I would have liked to have seen them get an extra corner. I would have liked to have seen them get a pass rushing defensive tackle. Nobody that meets that criteria got traded today. Clearly, there just wasn't enough guys available, or the prices were not what the Vikings either could match or wanted to match

because they're keeping some draft capital for the future. Maybe they said, we're not moving 20-25 picks, and that was part of a breaking point of some sort of deal. But as far as the overall defense, does it give you a chance to win? It does. It's going to have its weaknesses. Those will show up again at times, I'm sure throughout the season when they play good offenses like Arizona, Seattle, Atlanta, the Packers, the Lions, their weaknesses are going to show up. They have to outscore teams on offense and now they have a complete offense to be able to do it. But I think if you go through every roster of those teams that are not the Lions,

there's always those things that are on the roster that we're going to call weaknesses. Every team has them. Every team is going to have some imperfections, and the Vikings clearly do. But I don't think that that means, well, it's over, they can't contend, and so forth. I really don't think that not making a move for one more player today would have really changed that. Now, if they had left the left tackle position without acquiring somebody, then that could have significantly impacted the outlook of the season.

But the fact that they got Robinson allowed them to stay on this track to still be a competitive team. Junkbuster says, do you believe Dallas Turner will get more playing time? I think it'll probably be around what he got the other night. Uh, and he only interestingly out of his 26 snaps, he only was rushing the passer on 11 of them. And he also dropped in coverage on six of them, which might give you a bit of a hint. And I was talking with, uh, Kevin Seifert the other day in the media room about Dallas Turner. And I think this is an interesting thought that he had, which was it's possible that he is viewed as being the Andrew Van Ginkle type of player

that can play a bunch of different spots and brings a ton of value that way long-term and not just an edge rusher who comes off the edge and tries to get 10 sacks. And even the way that Flores has talked about sacks, he said today something about, Hey, you play a thousand snaps and you get 10 sacks. And that's what everybody looks at. He may just have a different vision for Dallas Turner as more of a can drop back at coverage, stop the run rush, like an all around outside linebacker type of player, like a Dante Hightower, as opposed to just a pure edge rusher, which may limit the amount of snaps that he could be on the field for because doing everything Van Ginkle is asked to do is really tough. But if he gets 20 to 25 snaps per game and he gets his chances to rush.

And the other night there's a play that kind of goes unnoticed because it's a short run, but Turner grabs a guy and I'm going to include this in my film study in the newsletter, by the way, purpleinsider.com go sign up. He grabs a guy, a pulling guard, and throws him out of the way and makes a tackle on a run play. You see the strength that he has. You see the quickness when he came as a free runner off the edge. He looked like a cornerback. He got to the quarterback so quickly. There was also a play where he dropped back in zone coverage, took away a route that Joe Flacco wanted to throw and he had to throw it out of bounds. So he did some very good things in this game as an all-around player. But we might not just have enough room here on this roster at that position with Dan Ginkle,

Grenard, to be able to take on that role. Like what Patrick Jones does might be a little bit different from what they envisioned for Dallas Turner. But the overall big, big picture, I do think that, uh, yes, um, Dallas Turner will continue to get playing time. Uh, Joey says, I wonder what Kweisi's plan is because there are still quite a few holes in the roster yet. We have such few draft picks. This year's free agency is kind of mediocre too, aside from a few players. Well, you know, I agree with that, that the free agency coming up for next year is not filled with a bunch of superstars.

When you look at who's under contract and who you have to build around, a lot of the most valuable positions outside of corner are in pretty good shape. They will get Makai Blackman back next year, which will help, but Grenard's going to be here. Cashman, Van Ginkle, Phillips, Metellus, maybe we'll see about Bynum. We'll see about Smith, but they're going to have those core players. And then on the offensive side, Jefferson, Addison, Hawkinson, Derrissaw, and presumably McCarthy, but maybe Darnold if they go deep in the playoffs. So yeah, I mean, I think that the plan is probably going to be to try to fill in those spots and also develop players. I mean, we're not counting any of the players that they may be able to develop, a Gabriel Murphy, a Dwight McClothern, guys like that who aren't getting playing time now, Levi Drake

Rodriguez. But we've seen over the last couple of years that they can develop players into these positions. I forgot Ivan Pace. He's under contract as well. So all that cap space, you don't have to make these trades now, by the way, off season trades are also available. So if they go into next year and there's a team that is looking to move a star player, they might be willing to do that to, uh, next year. Uh, let's see. Crone. Oh, so fi, I'm sorry if I mispronounced, uh, they are waving the white flag to the lions.

It's their year. Well, you see, you know, I think about, uh, the all in Rams, the never go full Rams, that, that whole thing, were they not the four C they were the four seed, right? That year that they were able to go deep in the playoffs. Um, the way I look at the playoffs is if you can be one of those top four seeds, you've got a chance. And if the number one seed is the Lions, the Vikings have played the Lions many times and every single game seems to be very close against the Detroit Lions. Even when Nick Mullins was their starting quarterback, if you are going to Detroit in a playoff game with a chance to go to whatever the NFC championship,

I don't know how it would shake out. But if you're going to Detroit with a chance to go to the NFC championship, you don't feel like that's a team that has just steamrolled you time and time again. Every one of those games has come down to a driver to a player to, and if that's the position that you're in, I definitely don't look at it like you're in a white flag type of position. I think this was much more of the market that a lot of the players who are going to be moved got moved already. Just like Cam Robinson, they got moved already. It was a slow burn type of trade deadline.

And then they today went looking for rentals likely, and then we're not able to find them. Uh, Zoomer Kev points out fourth in DVOA for the Vikings as an overall team. So DVOA, uh, an analytic statistic that factors in your, uh, the game situation and also factors in your opponent has the Vikings still as a top five team. Uh, I, I certainly, I certainly would have certainly would have preferred to see the Vikings make an addition. But aside from that, I don't know who it was that they were going to get that got moved. And Steven says, have you not seen what the Steelers did today? We just aren't buying. But the Steelers bought a wide receiver and an edge rusher.

Those were two things the Vikings were not looking for. Tell me what defensive tackle, tell me what cornerback, tell me what positions that they needed, which guys got moved that the Vikings could have had. That's the problem I'm having. Like I said, leading up to this, you guys heard me. I said, Hey, if there's a big swing, go take it. Hey, if there's a rental corner, go get him. If there's a rental defensive tackle, go get him. Trade the fifth round pick if you had to. Those guys just weren't moved today.

And they weren't moved to anybody. And, you know, Allen says our GM is an idiot. The team is six and two and top five by DVOA. Your quarterback costs $10 million and has a top five quarterback rating in the league. Your defense is ranked number one by DVOA. Who built this? God? Amazing. Why did they wait till the last minute? They didn't. They made two trades last two weeks. Pay attention. What are we doing here? And they filled key positions. They're allowing, did you see Cam Akers the other night? Did you see Cam Robinson? They traded for him. They just didn't do it today. They needed a left tackle

desperately. They may have been willing to pay more for some other position if Christian Derrissaw hadn't gotten hurt. And Aaron Jones needed a break. The other night was perfect, but he needed a break. And they got Cam Akers, someone they could trust. I noticed the other night they had Cam Akers on a play blocking interior to try to help Ed Ingram and Garrett Bradbury. That's the kind of toughness that Cam Akers brings because usually they only do that with Aaron Jones or with especially CJ Hamm. They got a good player to help them.

I do agree with this, Hunter, that the Panthers should have traded Adam Thielen. I don't know what his health is, but I do agree with that. They should have taken just about anything. The Panthers should have sold more. I mean, Jadavion Clowney, Adam Thielen, I don't know why they wouldn't have sold a little bit more, but it's remarkable to me to be talking about a disappointing trade deadline. It's disappointing to me. There's 200 people watching right now. It would have been a thousand if they made a big trade, very disappointing. It was a lot of fun to talk about. It would have been a heck of a lot of fun to be talking about. And I know that some of you want distraction from politics today. That's what I'm here for. Oh, I would have done a four

hour podcast for you if they had made a bunch of trades. So that would have been a lot of entertainment, but don't let your disappointment lose sight of the bigger picture that the football team is six and two. When was the last time they were six and two? Was it 2022? But their point differential was not like this. And before that, what, 2017, where they reeled off the four straight wins? I mean, sometimes I think that there are people who get so tunnel visioned into GM mode that like, are we looking at the same season right now? This is the quality of team

that I've been asking for forever. How many times have I been saying on the show, you know, they're just not really there. They're just a middling team. There's not a real to real to that level of the contending teams. And this year by a lot of the numbers, the point differential, the DVO, a, the things that tell us about team, they are in that conversation for the best teams in the league. I wouldn't pick them for the Super Bowl over Kansas city, Buffalo, Baltimore, Detroit. But aside from that, do you think Atlanta's better?

Washington just got better, but maybe neck and neck. I might pick Philly over them, but I don't know. If they had to go to Philly, I would be concerned. But it feels like a pretty good job to be six and two at the moment. I think that it just, it just was a different market than we all expected. And we are to blame as well, myself and everybody else who writes articles. Here's who the Vikings could trade for,

because I thought, and I'm sure the athletic and ESPN and everybody else also thought, yeah, there should be guys available. Surprisingly, they weren't. And I don't know why. And I'll be very interested to see some insiders reporting on this. If Adam Schefter or Ian Rappaport, let me know if someone has tweeted anything about this. It's shocking that the number of horrific football

teams in the NFL we're not clearing cap space for the future we're not gaining any draft capital they could get a hold of you mentioned Adam Thielen if he's healthy why is he still a Panther the only thing I could think of maybe for them would be Bryce Young if they want to just give him a chance because he's been playing the last couple of weeks much better, that might be a thing. But I mean, Jadavion Clowney for them was the point. What is Jadavion Clowney doing for them? There's a lot of those situations around the league that I'm shrugging my shoulders at after today. Joey says, I have no clue what this team is going to do at defensive tackle and corner. We need long-term solutions at those positions.

We aren't going to find those solutions in free agency. The draft is a gamble. Well, everything does and doesn't work, right? I mean, it's hard to find star edge rushers in free agency, and they got Jonathan Grenard. And we were saying, well, how are they going to fill for Daniil Hunter if they don't resign him? And then they did. And as far as corner goes, I don't like the carousel of veterans either. That may be a position they have to draft. It's pretty clear that in Brian Flores' defense, he doesn't think of defensive tackle like I do about guys who could get to the quarterback.

It's much more about stuffing those gaps and not allowing opposing teams to run. If I did ask Brian Flores about this today, I was kind of curious about defensive tackle and he was talking about how when it comes to the defensive tackle position, the fact that guys, a lot of teams play the two deep puts more pressure on them to stop the run. That may be a big part of it. So, uh, Peter says they will not be able to

stop the running game of top teams. Did we watch the, was the game the other night too late for you? I mean, they just shut down Jonathan Taylor. I don't, what are we talking about here? This is a commitment to mediocrity, typical Minnesota sports franchise. Why are we, what? I don't, what? I'm at a loss here. I'm at a loss here.

They're six and two. How many teams are, how many teams have six wins? Let me call up the standings again. How How many teams have six wins? Let me call up the standings again. How many teams even have six wins? Let's see. Detroit, Minnesota. Green Bay has another loss. Atlanta, Philly, Washington.

That's the NFC teams that have six. So you are right there among the top teams in the NFC. Not getting a backup corner for overpaying when none of them were moved in the league is not a commitment to mediocrity. I, I don't know. I, are we just saying things that we've always said because it feels good because you wanted to trade today. That's kind of what it, that's kind of what it's like. I i i really think some of you just like moves more than uh you know anything else uh let's see it's sideways says you could go all in at the trade deadline if you have a rookie quarterback you know you can win with as for our uh system is as good as we believe jj

can be it hasn't been proven yet going all in too soon uh yeah so for me that the all-in type of thing the all-in type of thing was um if they were going to get someone who could be part of the future right that was the thing is if they could make a trade for jeffrey simmons who was unavailable and all the reporters said not available don't call the The Titans are moving in. Okay. So not available at all. If there was that move to be made, then okay, that's all in on now and later. But there wasn't a move to be made there.

Trading a fifth for a fill-in corner, I don't think would have been an all-in type of move it would rob them of a little additional capital that they could maybe use in trades later or that they can draft developmental players later as far as the mccarthy thing you have to be in on the mccarthy plan if that's what they're going to do, because I don't really see another way out of this. I don't see the ability to pay Sam Darnold and then be able to fill the rest of the roster out. I do see the ability to have JJ McCarthy there in terms of long-term,, as far as this season, I don't see any significant harm of not getting an additional player if they weren't going to be better than a Caleb Evans and Fabian Morrow. I think that when we threw out all these names that did not get moved today, by the way, tons of names of players who didn't get moved.

A guest the other day on the show mentioned Buda Baker, but Arizona was not going to trade Buda Baker after they won. That wasn't going to happen. It really may have changed this last week. The landscape of who was selling could have been it. So if there weren't any players that were moved today that would have made the Vikings better, the only thing I could do is shrug my shoulders.

Let's see. Tommy says, are we going to look into Quentin Jefferson? They should. Yeah, they should. With Taki Taimani banged up, and I don't know how hurt Taimani is, but with him banged up and not being able to play, I do think that they should look into a guy

who gets cut like that. I'm sure that he got cut for a reason, but I also think that, uh, he might have at least a history as a fill-in type of player. Um, I guess what, what I have to be a little bit cautious of, I think probably is responding too much to the people who just like to yell about Minnesota sports and don't really have a point. So maybe I need to be better at that. That's my post trade deadline. What do they call it? What's the January? What's the thing everybody does in the new year, your new year's resolution, post trade deadline resolution will be to try to avoid some of that discussion of when when you start bringing up all minnesota sports just suck forever and we always do the wrong thing that's not really

a part of the discussion i think uh funny i shot you 99 can't believe quisi didn't trade for Patrick Mahomes. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Let's see. Mike says, sounds like there are a lot of people hurting in the world, bringing their mania into something that should be a simple pleasure in life. Maybe that's it too. Maybe that's it too.

Yeah, I think that we are all responsible for the hype of the trade deadline because I thought that they were going to make a move because I thought other teams were going to trade people away. But here's the thing that I, that I really don't get is a random user here says this team is a long way away from being great. I just, I'm not sure what the perspective is here. Is this, are they, when you talk about great, are they the 49ers from 1988? Like, no. Are they the Dallas Cowboys, 1993? No, they are probably not as good as the 98

Vikings. Nope, definitely not. But the NFL today, the world that we live in with 32 football teams is that there's no team in the NFL. We can go through them. I've got time. I'm going live early today. I've got time. We can go through all the teams and look at how they all have weaknesses. If there was a way for the Vikings today to shore up any and all weaknesses and to trade for Charles Haley or to sign Reggie White, if they were able to do those things that teams didn't in the nineties, how about, Hey, when the Cowboys went and got Dion Sanders, Whoa, if the Vikings could get

prime Dion Sanders today for two fifths, they probably would have done it. But the world that we live in is that, and that's funny. They don't have a playoff quarterback. How do you know he hasn't been in the playoffs yet? I guess we'll have to find out when he makes the playoffs. But as far as just the parody of the league, and when we go through and look at all these teams, if you're in Kansas City right now, are you thinking, well, we're untouchable? You have the best quarterback in the league,

but they're still flawed. They almost lost to Tampa Bay last night. And if Tampa Bay goes for two, maybe they do. and they almost lost to the Raiders the week before and how about Buffalo has to go out and get Amari Cooper but they're looking at their top draft pick receiver going I don't know if he's that good and uh but Josh Allen's kind of doing everything and their defense is still surviving but they're asking questions over there. Washington had to go give up a bunch of draft capital for a corner who used to be good. But is Marshawn Lattimore a shutdown guy for them now? I don't know.

Their defense is still pretty weak and they have a young quarterback. Green Bay's got to be talking about how flawed they are with a quarterback who's banged up and they're not perfect. they lost to the vikings they lost to the lions so they're looking at their team with some question marks that's just the nfl in 2024 and what you want to be going into the playoffs this is i've looked at this okay so i have the answer here and now after after I tell you, then you have to answer to me, could the Vikings be this 12 wins is usually the bar for a team to go to the Super Bowl. Very few teams. Now it's been 11 in the past. It might be 12 now because there's 17 games,

but 11 to 12 games is the bar for teams to go to the Super Bowl. Very rarely do teams go to the Super Bowl if they have fewer than 11 wins. So if you're 10, 9, 8, it's happened, but it doesn't happen that much. The other one is a plus 100 point differential. If you get to a plus 100 point differential or somewhere in that ballpark, 90 plus, then you've got a pretty good chance. And you have to be a top 10 team in terms of passing expected points added. Very rarely do teams that are outside the top 10 end up going deep into the playoffs. And one more I got for you, because I looked at this not too long ago

at what the average NFL team is that goes to the Superbowl. Usually teams that go to the Superbowl hold their opponents under a 90 quarterback rating passing wise. And DVOA is a pretty good predictor as well of some of this stuff, but that's across the board. Can the Vikings get to 12 wins? They can. There's a path there. Is it going to happen for sure? I don't know, but there's a path there. Can they be a defense that holds opposing quarterbacks under a 90 quarterback rating? They probably can. So far they've done that and the opposing quarterbacks coming up, maybe not so impressive. Can they be a team that is top 10 in passing expected points added? Well, right now they have the fourth highest rated quarterback in the league and they

just got their Pro Bowl tight end back. So I think that they can do that. They've got a chance here. And I don't think by not adding one defensive tackle or one corner that they blew it. Had they added Jadavian Clowney or had they added, I mean, DJ Reed would have been a pipe dream that would have given them a better chance for sure. And it would have made them a better team. And if any of those teams had been selling those guys and the Vikings didn't get them, I would be losing my mind. I would be saying, well, why couldn't you make that same move? But I can't find one of those today. I just can't find a move that anybody made that I would have said, why didn't the Vikings make that move? And we've been talking for an

hour and no one has put one in the, in the chat that the Vikings could have made Marshawn Lattimore. They didn't have the draft capital for that. Not to match what, what Washington has because Washington's been losing forever. So that, that I think is the, uh, the, the best thing, uh, stop, stop reading nonsense posts as well. You got them. You're you gotta read some though you gotta read some uh aaron says uh surprised the panthers dolphins raiders titans weren't selling more calais campbell i forgot about calais campbell why what are the miami dolphins waiting for why wouldn't they move calais campbell that's my whole point why wouldn't they move calais campbell that's my whole point why wouldn't they move calais

campbell i have no idea it's it's just a little bit befuddling today because i thought we were going to have some more trades to move on to uh stop reading the nonsense posts is good matt but i can't stop them forever man uh the other thing too is that there's some nonsense posts but there's also some things that i don't agree with that a lot of people are saying. So I try to address like when people are saying, oh, they're stuck in mediocrity and stuff. And I go, well, let me show you the evidence of this six and two football team does not point to mediocrity right now. Now, if they go down and lose the Jacksonville, that argument goes out the window. But as of right now, as I always follow

the numbers, I don't think mediocrity is it. I think people just got used to saying mediocrity with the Minnesota Vikings because that's been the case for a long time. Anyway, after year one, I'm sure Kwesi is even more aware of making sure he gets value and must not have been out there today. Yeah, nobody made the trades. That's really the thing is that nobody made these moves. And I think that probably owners got involved, general managers trying to protect their jobs. And that's the thing that we can never really factor in. Also the LOL factor.

So I know enough people in the league by now over the years it really really matters to people inside nfl buildings what it looks like to the outside world you would be surprised because they always tell you we don't care what they're saying outside this building. Oh, they do. You know why? Because owners watch TV. Owners have social media and what no GM wants is to be the team that made the move where they just said, what was that team doing? Right? No team wants to be the move. Dallas doesn't care. Jerry's going to do what he wants and he runs the team so he can do this, but no team, the dolphins, if they move Calais Campbell for a conditional seventh in 2026, their local media, their fans, national media is going to say what they gave

away a good player for nothing. I think they're afraid of that. Also, if, if jobs are on the line, then coordinators and coaches, they don't want these guys to get moved. And you also have to sell it to the, uh, the rest of the league. Uh, let's see. Okay. I saw an Adam Schefter thing and just thought, well, maybe they forgot about a Vikings trade. They didn't, it was a safety signing with the 49ers. Um, so maybe there is something else out there to be done if a player like Quinton Jefferson, the defensive tackle could be had. I don't know, but it looks like the Vikings are what they are. And as we go forward, they're going to have to prove by the

fact that they didn't make a move, that they are strong enough. And they're going to have to carry on some of the things that they did the other night to mitigate the weaknesses that they are strong enough and they're going to have to carry on some of the things that they did the other night to mitigate the weaknesses that they have and i certainly have questions just like probably you guys do of can sam darnold protect the ball well enough to go deep in the playoffs can the defense continue to live on takeaways which they kind of have in some ways, not the other night, but some ways can, can the corners cover well enough to when they face great receivers, be able to slow them down. Could they win a shootout in Detroit or with green Bay, which they sort of did, but you know, can they do that again? Or with Washington, it's a great scoring

offense, great scoring offense. Uh, there's a long way long way to go and still a lot to find out about this team. I just don't think that my opinion really changes of them today, other than to think that because they weren't able to get a defensive tackle or corner, that the margins are a little thinner than if they had. And they still have some players who have experience as backups at corner. And they still have some guys that are rotating in and doing a decent job like Jalen Redman or Taki Taimani

in defensive tackle, but they need to rotate more because they can't just have Harrison Phillips out there all the time. I think what we can say about the Vikings on this deadline day is that we know exactly what it's going to take for them to get to that 12 wins and for them to go into the playoffs with a serious

chance for them to go on the road to Atlanta and win a game there and go to the divisional round with a chance to get to the NFC championship. I think we know. I think we know what things could go right and get them there. And I think we know what things could go wrong and have them not win 12 games or have them not get deep into the playoffs. Injuries is always one of them. But the wrong matchup is a part of it as well. They are a team that has enough talent to be in the conversation and enough weaknesses

for something to take them apart and i'm not sure if there was a move to be made that was going to change that today and that may have been part of the discussion for the vikings but as far as looking at they're not getting players today and again they did acquire two players at the trade deadline or in the last couple of weeks, but in terms of not getting players today, we just now have the answer. We know exactly what they are as a roster, who has to stay healthy, what has to go right. And we also know that an injured kicker just screams game losing field goal. I'm kidding but but i'm kind of not like backup long snapper the last time jeff overbaugh went the wrong way caused the minneapolis miracle look it

up if you don't know what i'm talking about uh zoomer kev says is the deadline still too early i'd bet a lot of these teams are still delusional yeah let me look let me look let me use my trusty standings here again i mean there's there's some mediocre teams that had a good case that they can't win anything that are going to keep trying new orleans lived in reality a little but they probably could have moved more guys carolina same thing lived in reality a little the new york giants they're trying to save bacon right they're trying to save their butts and the same with Dallas they're never going to give up New England I just don't get is New England doing this because they've played better the last couple of weeks and they just want to give Drake May every chance to win I that's got to be it right Miami make it make sense they must think you I think your point is probably correct it's probably

correct at two and six miami maybe they think well you know if we reel off three or four wins we're right back in it i bet that's it let's see joey says bad teams want unrealistic offers for players that probably don't even want to be on the team anymore they must have been otherwise uh they would have moved more guys than they did uh dave says uh no move by the vikings makes sense injuries happen every week derisaw will the thrill at least a depth move uh well i mean just with derisaw getting hurt that probably ended that probably ended any chance that they could have gone out and got a rental right there uh anthony says i need another championship prediction i've got chiefs or bills lions or or niners or for the nfc and afc championships yeah chiefs and bills lions and niners but do

you mean that the cowboys aren't going to the super bowl like was my preseason pick it's become a bit at this point that I curse every team that I think is going to make the Super Bowl. I just thought that Dallas, everybody was talking about how bad they were going to be, and I thought, I don't know, maybe they'll have a top offense again. Totally wrong. But as of right now, you still think the Niners, well, they're getting McCaffrey back, and I would not count them out,

but their road to the Superbowl would be very hard if it came to, uh, if they, if they ended up being more of a 500 type of team, Washington belongs in the discussion. It might be Washington. I don't know. It's lions versus whoever. And that's not a guarantee. They could always lose a game, but that, that would be the i might go i might go ravens versus bills maybe the chiefs keep messing around and eventually find out that could be it uh dave says even any decent o-line guard could have helped i need names who got moved nobody uh and i I just would like to see Reisner playing at right guard. And I think that would solidify a lot of things. Kib East.

We didn't have much left to give. We need those picks. I think six and two, no trading was the right call. Fair enough. At least this does give us a draft show. Let's be honest. You guys wanted a draft show in April. So we'll have one for the first round,

but only the first round second night. I'll just be chilling unless they do something. Then day three, we'll be on two conference calls. Although I guess round three could be maybe the, the comp pick, I suppose for draft night, Mike says,

I think this team has implemented change, even if it's been a little slow during the season. What happened to teams hitting their stride to play into the postseason? This last week was really big, really, really big when it comes to can they fix what ails them? Indianapolis is not a good team, but they're also not a horrible team. And the fact that the Vikings did all the things that they said they were going to do leading into the game gave me much more confidence that they can be that 11 or 12 win team

when they reach the playoffs. The fact that they did deal with some of the easy answers that the last two teams found against them. The fact that they did stop with some of the easy answers that the last two teams found against them. The fact that they did stop the run against Jonathan Taylor was very impressive. That was a really good running team, and that's a great running back. As all Gopher fans know how good the Wisconsin running back is, but it's also a good offensive line, and they were able to stuff that it looked like they used a lot of three defensive tackles in those gaps making sure that there weren't many opportunities for him to run up the middle and so they did a good job fixing some of the run issues and then on offense the biggest thing for me was I I felt like we're about to find out how self-aware Kevin O'Connell is, because if they keep getting these delay of games of false

starts and they don't change the play calls, how quick they're getting in and out of the huddle, then I'm going to think there's always going to be a cap on the offense. Cause that stuff's always going to happen. And the fact that they went into that mini buy and they got out of the huddle quickly, they had none of those penalties instead of putting three people in motion in a really weird formation. One guy was in motion and then they ran the play and they let their playmakers beat the corners and the safeties of the Colts and they succeeded. And Darnold, I'm not sure what more, I know the mistakes are going to happen, but I'm not sure what more we can ask of Sam Darnold with a top five quarterback rating in the league. But Darnold, the thing about

Darnold is when we talk about, can this team win? Can it really win? He's always going to be a question, but with, with Darnold, some of the throws he makes, they really even the scales. Okay. He made a big mistake, but also he made a throw to TJ Hawkinson. I didn't even realize this when it happened in the game where DeForest Buckner is in his view and he drops down sidearm and whips it around him for a 19 yard gain to Hawkinson, the throw down the sideline, the throw to Addison. He's running full speed back and he makes that throw. These are arm talent plays that we haven't seen from a quarterback here. Plays where it looks like the other team has done something to blow it up.

And then, I mean, when was the last time some of these throws were made in Minnesota? Oh, nine. I mean, Bradford had some sick ones. Probably Bradford had some sick ones. But aside from that, there hasn't been arm talent like this, which I think does raise the potential ceiling for what this team could be because you do have this explosive passing game. And if they could shore up some of the sacks for sure, but they shored up the offense. I mean, coming out of that game, just felt a lot better about

the operation on both sides. And as you're talking about what they're going to be when they get down the stretch, to be able to fix those problems, it gives them a better chance. There's no guarantee. I don't know what the season's going to bring. The kicker just got hurt. Who would have thought?

The long snapper got hurt, huh? That's only the second time I've ever seen the long snapper get hurt, but sometimes stuff happens. It just still seems like coming out of that game. They are in a much better position that one game really had the potential to swing the entire feeling of the season. And that,

and that did it for me in the positive way had they lost, I think it would have been a real catastrophe. Hunter says, I think all of us are disappointed in how the trade deadline played out. Some of us are dealing with that in an interesting way. Yeah, yeah. I think we talked about this after the loss to the Rams, that there is a pent up frustration of Minnesota sports fans that implements or infiltrates, I should say, every single conversation that's ever had about anything. When we break down a single win or a loss,

what the team is doing big picture wise, I think that it's a very comfortable place for people to just say that the Minnesota sports team did everything wrong. And it must be hard for those people to watch the wolves right now because they're doing everything right. But things have, things have not been great for a long time in terms of how the Vikings have been built. And the last time that they did a smart build, like good front office coaching together, building a team was when Mike Zimmer first got here, and that was a long time ago. And I think what the smart part is, because Eddie says here, you need to build your team through the draft. Well, that's the funny thing is that the Vikings

have built some really key pieces through the draft, just not as many of them from Quasey because he's only on his third draft. But when we think about it, it's going to be pretty important probably to have JJ McCarthy, Justin Jefferson, Brian O'Neill, Christian Derrissaw, Bradbury, I know frustrates people, but he's the starting center for a long time. On the other side, you have a player like Ivan Pace, Josh Metellus, Cam Bynum, Harrison Smith. I know it was a long time ago, still drafted player. There's a lot of players on this team who were drafted, who are the key pieces.

And there are players who are on the next wave, Dallas Turner, Dwight McClother might be one of those guys. Gabriel Murphy might be one of those guys. We've seen Taki Taimani play. We've seen, right, There's, there's guys who, Oh, Blake Brandel. Also you're starting left guard through the draft as well. It's, it's not exactly the same though, as someone like Detroit, but they filled in the rest with free agency. So over the years, they have veteran players who have been drafted, maybe not even by

this team. I should mention Jordan Addison as well. Jalen Naylor as well. So they have, they do have a lot of players who are drafted that are playing right now. It doesn't feel like they have a lot of players that are the future guys at some of the key positions like corner. That is an answer that they're going to have to figure out is how do you fill out that spot? Is it a trade? Is it a first round pick next year, which they kept available? But largely the way that they have built this team, this last off season was to go out and get day one free agents.

They should be able to spend a lot in the future or make a trade for a key player in the future. How they've done it recently is by creating a ton of cap space to allow flexibility to do whatever the heck they want to do. Like go out and get Cashman, Grenard, Van Ginkle. That is a huge bunch of players. And to be able to keep Jefferson and Derrissaw, that's where they've spent their money. And O'Neill, there's a lot of money in him as well. So they've done it that way by setting up their salary cap to be in great position with JJ McCarthy. They will not be playing a million young players. It's going to be

a lot more veterans, which I think works for Brian Flores, but there's no one perfect way to build the team because San Francisco, they went and traded for guys. The Eagles went and traded for guys. Even Washington, look at Washington. Washington signed a bunch of dudes. They're throwing to Zach Ertz. He's still in the league. They're throwing him passes. I mean, Washington did a lot of their damage by signing people this off season to fill out their team and their seven and two. There's no one perfect way to do this. And I think the biggest thing is that they've put themselves in position right now to over the rest of this season, prove that they are a true contender right now. And what happens next off season, there's probably going to be

a lot of things to talk about. I'll be here next March. But in the short term on trade deadline day, we have to ask, was there something that they could have done that somebody else did, a player that was moved that would have changed the Vikings fate? And there wasn't. And I've got questions for the Dolphins

about Calais Campbell. Why? What's the purpose of keeping him? But they didn't move him. If they had moved him for a conditional fifth round pick to another team that was a contender, I would have said, uh, Vikings, that was your guy, but they didn't. Uh, Mike says, I trust that KAM, Kwesi Daffo Mensah worked the phones the best he could realistically. Not every week

weakness could be fixed. Maybe some of the development players can get more run. Now, that is a good point that they do have a couple of players that we might start to see. Richard said, I'm curious to hear if they tried. I'm sure that they tried as far as working the phones, but the teams that were supposed to sell just didn't sell. Aaron says the draft is in green Bay next year. Will you go?

I have not thought about that one yet, Aaron. I'm going to say actually, probably I do better just sitting here and talking to you guys than I would go in there. It'd be fun to go for a night to just see all the pomp and circumstance but i don't know if that's really good for uh for content like trying to find a place to podcast and what i get out of that i mean i guess i might be able to interview the first round pick maybe that's it zoomer kev comp draft pick night will be peak purple insiders peak viewership yeah that's uh the one rule for all new people to the show

is don't ask about comp picks because I don't know until they're announced. Speaking of which, though, speaking of the business stuff, let me remind you guys that I've got to silence my phone so I can tell you about

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we used to see big separations within divisions, but there's more parity now. We're halfway through the season. The 50-50 team still believe they have a chance. That's true. That's true. That they're just it's so much harder to get farther away from your competition so kansas city is undefeated

and i'll check there what's what's their point differential it can't be that much right kansas city's point different oh my gosh Is it the same as the Vikings? It is. Yep. They actually, Kansas city is undefeated and they are three points worse in point differential than the Vikings. That's the league. The league is close. And there's a, there's a lot of, there's a lot of close games. There's a lot of teams that could have been like the Bengals, a much better team if one call doesn't go against them or doesn't go for them. So that's where we're at when it comes to the Vikings. And we look at the roster and we go, okay, it's not going to be a perfect roster, but

almost any team you face is not going to be that. I guess we have a little news here. The Patriots claiming Tyrese Robinson from the Vikings practice squad. Tyrese had a good preseason, I thought, as a pass protector. I mean, you know, when you lose a practice squad guy, it's possible that he could develop into something, but I don't think it's ever too big of a concern. We talked about Kyle Hinton once upon a time, Vidarian Lowe once upon a time. There's always going to be these weaknesses, though. Tyson says we'll get killed on quick slants. There's always going to be these weaknesses.

You're never just going to have no weakness at all. And if there was a player today that they could have traded for that would have been able to stop all quick slants at corner, then I'm sure they would have gone out and tried to get them. But I don't know who that was. They're going to have weaknesses. And the NFL is really just about how you paint over those that might be having to protect the football on offense. I mean, I think that's really what it is that the Vikings can be a great team. If they have long drives, like they did the other night, they use Hockinson Addison in the quick game and then hit Jefferson down the field. They run the football well and consistently with both Akers and Jones. And they do not have catastrophic mistakes.

There's going to be some, but you can't have them at the volume that Sam Darnold has this year. If you do that, you have a chance to be as good as anybody. Now, there's maybe one team that I would say is clearly better. But we know what factors are going to get in the way. And also Blake Cashman's health is going to be a huge deal. Uh, Wendell says maybe the last four games, they will bring in Levi Rodriguez with the high motor and some fresh legs. Yeah. I'll be curious to see if players get developed and that there's, uh, some of those guys that we haven't talked about at all who start to emerge toward

the end of the season. That could be something that we see. I think that someone like Levi Drake Rodriguez probably needs a whole year of development and is someone to look forward to for the future. That's the thing. They have quite a few of those guys on the defensive side where you go, Hey, you know, Theo Jackson might play a big role next year. Uh, they, um, might use Dwight McClother next year, Mackay Blackman coming back. So there are guys for the future. Levi Drake Rodriguez is one of them. I just don't know if he's going to work his way into a key role or not this year. Uh, but you know, we'll see. I mean, one of the things is that they've been able to stay healthy. And if they have a few injuries, then we might see more of those young players. Dak says, some of y'all hate Quasey because of 2022. The team is good. Quasey is great at trades.

2023 draft looked really, really good with limited players. 2024 is one we're already excited about yeah i think uh when it comes to the general manager one thing is that every single one of us including this guy pointing to myself for those of you listening on audio who we we love to play armchair gm and on draft night, 2022, I was not super happy with the draft. I didn't like the idea of trading out of that pick and moving down. I didn't like the positional value of Lewis scene. I thought he'd be a lot better player, but I didn't like the positional value. But there's also moves that they didn't make that I thought they should, that wouldn't have worked out. I wanted them to pick Jameson Williams. That hasn't really worked out for Detroit all that well. Maybe it will, if he could stay out of trouble for like four weeks in a row, but that wouldn't have been a

great pick. Some of you wanted Kenyon green, the guard at that position, or Jordan Davis is not a huge difference making player for Philadelphia. He's good, but he's not like life changing. And it's, it's one of the best and also one of the most frustrating parts of the sport is how much fun it is to play armchair GM and talk about all the different moves. There's so many players, there's so many dynamics, there's trades, there's all these things you can do. And so I think that that's a big part of it is when the vikings don't make a move and we thought they should then the armchair gm mode goes and i bounce back and forth between i like doing all that stuff myself and also let's be realistic here

it says to me hey how come you couldn't get your hands on calais campbell what the heck or why is the guard position still being talked about? What the heck? But also Campbell wasn't moved and neither was Clowney and neither was DJ Reed and neither was Nate Hobbs and neither was all these guys that we brought up that just weren't moved. But as far as the long-term picture of the team,

if that's a discussion today, I think that they've set themselves up to have a lot of core players that drive wins in place for a long time. Jefferson is at the top of that. Hockinson, we saw his impact the other night. Derisaw is another one. And on the defensive side, Grenard, what a difference-making player. We'll see Cashman here probably for quite some time. They've got all the pieces to build

around with JJ McCarthy into the future because they fixed their salary cap situation. And they've also created an environment where players want to sign and that matters. So they will have an opportunity to be good into the future. It was a balance a little bit of today. Do you want to really overpay to pry somebody away from another team in order to be a percentage point better for this year? And they seem to have decided not to. And also other teams decided not to give away their players for nothing weird though, because Cam Robinson was traded for nothing to the Vikings. And then other teams said, no, we're not nothing to the Vikings. And then other teams said, no, we're not going to do that. It's just odd. I really need to get some explanations on

this. Uh, albino slug. We have albino squirrels in our neighborhood. Does everybody else have those white squirrels? Uh, let's see. Uh, I'm happy they didn't do much today after Darisaw went down, our season kind of went with it. They could still make noise, but they are going into the right direction, but it's not a Superbowl team. Well, I don't, I mean,

I, I can never say that a team is a Superbowl team. Cause how can you, even the Detroit lions, the best team in the NFL, they still lost the game to Tampa. They still almost lost to the Vikings. Nobody's perfect. The number one seeds don't

always go to the Super Bowl and don't always win so nobody ever goes in with a great chance even the one seeds might have a 25 or 30 chance to go but I don't agree with you saying that the season went down after Derrissaw did because of Cam Robinson. That's a good player. And he was very good in this game. He gave them all sorts of better chances to win in that game than they would have if they had played Questenberry or if they had tried to move Blake Brandel over there. Robinson's a good player. He has been good for four years and you saw it right away with him being able to slow people down with basically no prep. Uh, and he'll get a little more familiar as he goes forward, but that's a good player. You can, as you saw the other night, they had

that in my opinion, their most complete offensive game of the year against Indianapolis. It was high percentage completions, long drives, success running and passing. Pass protection was good overall, except for a guy getting tripped in the strip sack. But overall, 33% pressure rate, which is pretty good for Sam Darnold. You can still operate the offense with Cam Robinson. And if we're talking about what they did at the trade deadline, I mean, getting Cam Robinson is a massive move to keep the season on track. If Darasol was out and they had to play a backup, I would say, yeah, you're right. They can't go anywhere without him, but Robinson's a legit starter. The Sin family says, why didn't we trade for Dexter Lawrence or a star? Did anyone in the

NFL trade for Dexter Lawrence or a star? Just doesn't happen that much. Doesn't happen that much. Receivers begging to be traded is really the only times we ever see the stars get moved and occasionally defensive ends. I mean, Lattimore is close, kind of used to be a star and maybe now is just closer to a guy. The reason they didn't trade for Dexter Lawrence is because the New York Giants aren't trading Dexter Lawrence. They don't plan on being bad for the next 10 years. Dexter Lawrence is probably a top five defensive player in the entire league. I mean, geez. So Wendell says, who are the top three free agents you're hoping for? Yeah, there's six and two. So I have no idea. Just I've not looked at free agents for next year because there's six and two. I'm not there yet. We'll have plenty of time for that.

I promise. There's a whole month dedicated to free agency. Before the season, I did a kind of tongue-in-cheek mock free agency for 2025 based on the way they had corrected their situation. And I didn't want to do a way too early mock draft because they don't have any picks. So you can look back at that. Purpleinsider.com. You have to scroll back a ways, but you can find it. But I mean, I'm just not thinking about the free agents for next year

on a team that is in position to, I mean, potentially win the next three, four games and be right there. Everybody loves the offseason, but live in the moment, my friends. Live in the moment. Let's see. Richard says, Darnie. Now, we're not calling him Darnie. Darnold takes the boys to the Super Bowl.

No J.J. McCarthy. Stop talking about unproven, played good against what turned out to be horrible teams in the preseason. So the thing about J.J. McCarthy is that the Vikings inside the building, I can tell you this, fully believe in JJ McCarthy as their future franchise quarterback. They didn't just see him against the Raiders in preseason like you did. They saw him every single day from the time that he arrived to the time he got hurt, how he practiced, how he improved. And I had a chance myself to see him in practice every day during training camp and also fully understand why the Vikings believe in JJ McCarthy as their future quarterback. You don't have to be

critical or down on Sam Darnold to also look at JJ McCarthy and say, this guy has a chance to be their future franchise quarterback. And over the next four or five years build around him with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson and Derrissaw and be in a great position. Those two things are not really related. It's not this guy versus that guy. It's Sam Darnold's their quarterback right now. He's playing some of the best quarterback in the entire NFL by all the statistics and does have some weaknesses and some mistakes, but he absolutely has played great football this season to get them to six and two and their future plan as of right now would still

also be to play JJ McCarthy as their franchise quarterback into the future. Uh, let's see. Uh, Rick tick says, uh, looks like free agency is the next alternative for the Vikings to fix the O-line D-line secondary. Like this year, next year will be another playoff one and done. Yeah, I know. I know the season's over and next season's over too. Great. Good to hear.

Did I, did I misread that one? I just don't understand. Uh, yes, they will use their money that they have created in cap space to fill out the roster next year as they did this year. Like when they got lots of starters who have helped them get to 6-2. Very glad that in 2022, Omega, Flash, that you knew exactly what players were going to be great. That's great for you.

I'm glad that you should have done the draft. Every single person knew that the best player from the draft was going to be the best player. It's amazing. Evan says all these teams that ended up not selling could be selling after the season is over and coaches, GMs, and owners that weren't trying to save their jobs will be fired. That's true. That is true.

That might be another reason to hang on, the draft capital is if an opportunity arises to trade the first for another player, there might be new ownership groups that at some point, or our new leadership groups that are looking to move on from some of the players that they have that are too expensive or whatever it might be. David says, any injury updates on the special teams? Yes, there is. John Parker Romo has been brought back. Will Reichert to IR. They also signed a long snapper and those guys are going to have to play for the next four weeks because Andrew DiPaola went to IR as well. And they have to hope that Will Reichert is back to a hundred percent when he returns because he was really, really good until he got banged up.

And John Parker Romo can kick, though. I've seen him kick. They're not bringing in somebody who is just going to fall on his face, I think. He was kind of neck and neck with Reichert on some of the kicks, but Reichert is just kind of a freak show. So it's not going to be as good, but can you survive four weeks? That's what they're hoping to do here. Ross says, I'm with you. The only move Vikings really should have been in was Lattimore. Uh, if the trades aren't there, uh, they aren't there.

They just didn't have the draft capital to trade for him. That's really all they could have done. So, um, Derek says, hope McCarthy comes back with some muscle added to the frame. He actually did that. He gained probably 20 pounds from the time that he finished in Michigan to the time he was playing in the preseason. He was a lot bigger. that when we get there. We'll have plenty of time to talk about JJ McCarthy when we're not talking about a six and two team that's top three or four in their conference. So bottom line is I was very surprised by today. I thought that a lot of teams would be selling. I thought that the NFL had gotten smarter about their front offices and about timelines and that the Vikings were going to be a beneficiary of that. I thought that they were going to be able to give up a fifth round pick and get a difference making player and difference making players just didn't get moved. And it was disappointing for everybody.

I sat there and refreshed and refreshed and refreshed, just like everybody else waiting, trade somebody, acquire somebody what's going on. And nothing happened, but nothing really happened around the league outside of Pittsburgh made two moves for players that the Vikings would not have been in on. And the Cowboys made an insane move. Okay. That's something again, the Vikings weren't a part of and Washington traded a lot for a veteran corner that the Vikings couldn't have matched. End of story. Overall, the last few weeks were pretty fun with trades trickling in and the Vikings made two very good trades, just not at the deadline today

to get Robinson and Akers. And now we go forward and each week is going to be a different feeling on this team, as we really know from the last couple of weeks but they have a chance as good as anybody in the nfc outside of one team to make this very interesting as we go down the stretch into the playoffs and i don't think not acquiring someone today ruined their chances acquiring someone would have helped and if they had gotten a big time player it really would have helped. And if they had gotten a big time player, it really would have helped. But those guys just didn't become available. All the names that we threw out there. And so we are left kind of shrugging because it's not like a lot of teams

got a lot better. The Lions helped themselves. The commanders helped themselves. Everything else is mostly the same in the NFC. And here we go. Jacksonville, Tennessee, Chicago. Opportunities for the Vikings to win a lot of games here going forward. They have to do it. And if they don't, maybe we will look back at this and say, ah, they were just one player away. Jackie says our ceiling is second round divisional team this season. I was hoping to strike while the iron is hot this season as there are no guarantees we'll be six and two

at the halfway mark no i i agree uh that i thought that was a good idea too to try to go out and add someone i didn't realize that there wouldn't be any opportunity there and that these goofballs who have two win teams would be clutching on to their veteran players. I just don't get it. I just don't get it. And that's really my biggest takeaway is not even about the Vikings. It's about the Dolphins.

What are you doing? What is it that you're using a 38-year-old Calais Campbell for? That seems like a good place to end the show. Just me yelling at the Miami dolphins. So anyway, no, uh, good chat though. I think a lot of people, anytime that they are disappointed when there was hype are going to be frustrated. I think there are questions about where this team is going to go in the future to build around what they have and how they're going to work it out with limited assets as far as the

draft goes, but with a lot in terms of cap space, how are they going to figure it out? But as of tomorrow, we go right back into, it is the Jaguars. I'm not flying to Jacksonville for nothing, folks. I'm going there to cover an important game for the Vikings to take care of business and stay on track of having a highly competitive season where they could go down the stretch and have a chance to fight in the playoffs. You may reasonably, Jackie, think that it's a second round divisional team. I might make that bet right now that that is probably it. But also, I don't know. Two point difference between them and the Detroit Lions. I don't know the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. Were they the four seed? I mean, the playoffs bring a lot of madness, get there with 12 wins, have a hundred point differential,

have a top 10 passing game and let's roll the football out and see what happens. But you got to get there first. There's a long way to go. And of course we'll be here to cover it all. So thank you all for joining. Thanks again. If you missed the, uh, the, the threshold that purple insider crossed of 10,000, uh, very, very happy to get to 10,000 subscribers. And thank you so much. If you haven't subscribed, please do.

Uh, also some of you discovering the newsletter newsletter you could go to purple insider.football or purpleinsider.com both will take you there to sign up if you want to all my writing stuff on that side um so i appreciate all the support i wish this was more fun for you i wish this was more fun for me today but forth we go uh with a team that's been as competitive this year as they have been in a long time. So thanks everybody again. And we'll talk to you all tomorrow. Jeremiah Searles, we move back. Jeremiah Searles, Tuesday morning left guard because we usually record before when the trade deadline was going to be up. So we're going to record tomorrow. I'll look forward to that. So thanks again, everybody. Take care and football.