Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings make no trades at the deadline (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Matthew Coller reviews the NFL trade deadline's biggest deals and talks about the outlook for every position now that the Vikings did not make any moves. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Let's see. Surly Viking says you consistently blamed the D and excuse the offense for injuries. Those injuries existed on both sides. So, well, you know, I think that injuries impacted both sides. That doesn't mean that they should have lost the games that they lost or that they're beyond criticism for losing those games like they're four and four and if you are what your record says you are uh then i think when you lose 37 to 10 we're not going to come off that and

be like oh everything was fine um you know i the the defense against jalen hurts allowed a perfect quarterback rating and it was almost that against justin herber uh he's he stood in there and made play after player receivers were wide open um so the the offense's injuries were different because it was a quarterback. I mean, you have a backup quarterback. Again, go around the league and look and tell me how many on any given year backup quarterbacks are winning more than half of their games. The answer is not that many. And then you're playing with a wounded backup quarterback, but that doesn't mean you should be giving up 70 yard touchdowns to Devante Smith or 50 yard touchdowns to A.J. Brown or like that's or even what they did

against Detroit. They had a great defensive game plan. They still gave up 24 points because they gave up huge plays in the secondary. It didn't tackle that well in the secondary. I've said before, like coverage is the big thing. And they haven't really had a lot of injuries in the secondary. Harrison Smith not playing. I think impacted them a bit and maybe even a lot. But, you know, I think on the offensive side, when you were short offensive tackles and the center and the quarterback, okay, like now you're talking about some of the most important positions in the sport all missing at the same time. I mean, I, don't know that's a lot to ask uh team money says minka for a fourth rounder would have been

nothing did minka fitzpatrick get traded uh i didn't see him on the list of people who got traded maybe if that was their price tag i don't know what they think about uh fitzpatrick and his fit he was a good player i don't know if he's a good player anymore i mean when was the last time that minka fitzpatrick i mean he got traded let's see i mean it seems like he was a guy that was touted very high early in his career. He's still been good. Still been good the last couple years. Yeah, I just missed a lot of tackles this year.

It looks like by his numbers, he's been pretty good. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't, I don't, with Miami, there's a lot of players that they didn't move. They didn't do the full tear down like the Jets did. They didn't trade Jalen Waddle. They didn't trade Devon A. Chan. Like, they decided that they didn't want to go all the way down that path, which if they're not doing that,

then maybe you'd have to make them an offer. They can't refuse it. And the Vikings didn't want to do that. Had they done it for Fitzpatrick, I don't know what his contract is right off my head. But I think we would have said, like, that's a good move for them to have a dynamic piece. So I'm not sure what Miami situation was.

They traded Jalen Phillips, but then they sort of stopped there and didn't, you know, trade the farm and everybody else. But Miami, I mean, is that a, yeah, I don't know. Is that a team that ever really makes a ton of sense these days? I'm not sure that they do. But if Fitzpatrick had been on the table, make a Fitzpatrick for a fourth round pick,

then I would have said, yeah, that's a move that you can make, especially if he was under contract for multiple years. That I would say you could make. So, surly Vikings says you all bashed Ivan Pace, I assume you mean that by IVP. performance, but never accounted for trying to adapt with injured defense, especially AVG. Dallas Turner is not my pick. I wish we acquired Jared. Well, yeah, okay. I mean, we're not going to get into that one. But as far as Ivan Pace, I think that Pace has to

play a certain way under a certain set of circumstances to be good. And this goes for a lot of players in the NFL. And Pace contributed the other day with one quarterback pressure and played a handful of snaps, but you're seeing how much more dynamic Eric Wilson is. Like, Wilson can just do more things than Pace. Pace is kind of a, if he's out there, he's basically a pass rusher. He's not really a run stuffer. He's not really going to be dropped back in coverage. I think early in his career, he did really well against some offensive line,

but now they know how to target him a little bit better in the run game. And really, the biggest thing for Pace was when they had beastly, beastly large men just ramming into offensive linemen and holding them up or moving them, Pace can hit those gaps. And he's got explosiveness and he's kind of a wolverine. He's like kind of crazy and in a good way. And that all that stuff made him a fit in the last couple years. But this year, it's just different

with what they're doing on the D-line. And I really was impressed by the way Levi Drake did a good job of being that big body guy. But Wilson is just a good player. So I think that's a major part of that as far as like the young players that have or have not worked out yet. Just your average Vikes fans as I remember when Vikings fans were calling to Neil Hunter a bust. I don't know about that. I don't I don't think that happened. I mean, maybe like internet's, who knows? Like everyone's saying something on the internet, but Hunter had, I think, six sacks his first year. By year two, he was fantastic. I

because I got here in year two for Daniel Hunter, and we were talking about him as a star already. So I don't know that that actually happened. But when it comes to Dallas Turner briefly, because I just going down that road is more frustrating to talk about than anything. I do think that you're talking about progress for him, but not the type of progress that we were looking for coming out of training camp. And I also think that that role in particular,

If he was just in one situation where it's a more basic defense and you are out on the edge, rushing the passer, and that's your main thing to do, then he might be better in terms of his numbers. But that role in this offense, or I'm sorry, in this defense was built for Andrew Van Ginkle. So you're trying to do as much of the Van Ginkle stuff as you can. And I also think that there is another level to where he has to. to get stronger and be able to set the edge and be able to learn technique on that. It's not just a strength thing. It's also a technical thing. It's also a feel thing that takes reps.

But the actual defense and how it's played and who that role was built for makes it really hard to just say, hey, drop in and be Andrew Van Ginkle. Now I actually think this will be a lot better for Dallas Turner where I wouldn't expect them to play 14 snaps all the time, although we might see, you know, Eric Willis and playing in that outside linebacker spot more and him rotating in, it might be better for him to just be a situational pass rusher for now. And it's also possible that it won't work out. I don't know.

I think that clearly he could be on the field playing defense, but that's life with the draft. So it doesn't always work out. So, but I don't think there's a Danielle Hunter comparison there with him. He is still very young, though. He is still very young. Zoom or K.O. let me just get a reminder about that

Fandul question of the day, which is the Vikings are four and a half point underdogs against the Ravens. Over under is 47.5 after lax week's defensive performance, how many points do they have to hold Lamar Jackson to have a chance to win that game? Or do you think that they can hold

Lamar Jackson to win that game? So, um, uh, a truck it says the Rams went eight straight years trading away first round picks. Yeah, that's still, I guess it still does happen from time to time.

But I don't, I don't think we should shy away or tell crazy people in the NFL to stop being crazy. Stop doing nuts things. That would be boring. Zoom or K.O. Did Sam Darnold get better? I believe that the answer is probably yes, that he did improve by being here with the Vikings. And I think confidence is a huge deal for a quarterback like that. He leaves Minnesota and goes to Seattle thinking,

I could take a team to the playoffs. I can make this throw. Believing in yourself is a huge deal. If you've got that kind of talent. If you believe in yourself, it stink. It doesn't matter. But if you believe in yourself and you're a super freak with your arm, then, well, that's good, I think.

So confidence, I mean, even when I see Sam on TV or whatever, I'm like, this dude is QB1. Like, he's acting like it. When he first got to Minnesota, he was very, you know, very quiet. very, you know, kind of reserved. I'm not saying in the locker room, just, you know, in front of the media and stuff. I think he sort of understood his role and didn't start coming out of his shell until maybe midway through the season as they started to win a lot of games. But he gets to Seattle and he's on TV with like Andrew Whitworth and Ryan Fitzpatrick. It just looks like very

comfortable. I'm the man, Sam Darnold. I'm QB1. I think that's helped. I also think that the Kubiak system for Sam Darnold is just perfect. I mean, this thing, this thing really hit its peak, one of its peaks in the late 90s with John Elway, when he was older in his career and they built everything off the run, play action, and then Elway's arm was still there and was throwing rockets, and they reduced the number of passes, got a lot more play actions, built everything off the run for Elway, and he just took off and had great seasons. super efficient seasons, even as one of the great quarterbacks in history, I think it looks similar where they're doing a lot to build off the run. They're using some bigger personnel. He's got this

great connection with his number one wide receiver. And that offense just works really well for a guy who's big armed, but also is not maybe the best with decision making sometimes. And he threw a bad pick the other night too, but his decision making, standing there in the shotgun and having to pick apart a bunch of different stuff is not always perfect and set protections and all that. And I'm sure the Vikings are going to try to blitz the heck out of them because of that. But if you get him run and play action all the time, I'm actually curious with Darnold, what his play action percentage is because and what his numbers are because last year he crushed play action.

He was one of the best in the league running play action last year. In fact, I think he was second best in the entire NFL. So what percentage is he running it? okay so he's seventh in terms of how much he's running oh this is crazy this is crazy he's seventh in the percentage he's averaging 14 yards per attempt when running play action and has a hundred and thirty one point seven quarterback rating uh prescott and stafford are the only guys ahead of him so yeah that's i think that's what it is is the the system is just i think it was a good fit for the vikings and him and i think it's an amazing fit for seattle that's building off of their run game with Kenneth Walker, right? So I think that's the explanation. And I think he's just good. I think he's just a really good player.

I think he's a really good quarterback that is following a path that's not unique to the NFL. There are 10 guys that I could easily name off the top of my head who started off their career is not so good and had a ton of talent and then turned out to be really good NFL quarterbacks. Rich Gannon was one that's probably the, I talked to Rich Gannon last year about Sam Darnold. and Gannon told me that he had talked to Darnold about how he did it, how he went from a mediocre quarterback early in his career to an MVP. So that path was always kind of there, always in the air for him for Darnold.

And I remember last year when I was doing my due diligence, I talked to some people with other teams that he had been on. And everyone said, they love this guy in the building. they really like his teammates liked him and they they bought into him and they wanted it for him. They felt like he had been a pro, you know, the entire time and they just, they felt like they let him down. That's what I kept hearing about Darnold because I wrote a story last year about like how you, how you end up believing in Sam Darnel before the season and that was kind of part of it. So, yeah, I mean, I think that he's always been a very, very, very talented player.

who needed the right coaching and who needed the right situation. And I think he improved a ton while he was here. Two dog dad says, I can't wait to see KOC get the play calls in late and blow a bunch of red zone opportunities. He blows all the momentum out of drives when it feels like we get in the red zone. Well, you know, the Eagles game for sure. I don't know that you can complain about the red zone play calling against Detroit. I believe they went three for five.

one of them was when McCarthy took a big sack that I think it was a 14-yard sack that put them back out of the red zone and they had to kick a long field goal, if I'm not mistaken. McCarthy ran one in. The two play calls down for the first two touchdowns were fantastic, rolling to the right, throwing back across into the middle of the field, and then the little jump ball, one-handed catch for Justin Jefferson. Those were good play calls. I think the red zone has been an issue at times because it feels like they don't trust their running game to just slam into the end zone. You'd like to see that. But I also think, too, that, well, backup quarterbacks break people's brains. Carson Wentz was the number one reason they did not score in the red zone against the Philadelphia Eagles.

He missed open throws. He was laid on some opportunities. And maybe trusting him too much was on KOC. So, yeah, I do think that the red zone has been something that has been costly at times. And when you throw all the time in the red zone, you're going to have more variance. If you run all the time, you probably are a little more reliable than, you know, throwing three passes most of the time. So I do think that. But also, I mean, the COC play calling thing has become a meme.

It's become a trope. And it's honestly, like, pretty ridiculous. Like, yes, yes. the nitpicks because you watch every single game for the last four years and you know every little nuance of things that he might do where there are mistakes. And yeah, they should have run three times and wound the clock all the way down and kick the field goal. That's absolutely true. But the overall bigger picture is that in the two games where they had full time to prepare for J.J. McCarthy, they end up finding ways to win. The late game play calling was terrific in both

those games. They found a way to win late game against Cleveland. They won a lot of games with Darnold. They won a lot of games with Kirk Cousins. I mean, it doesn't look to, it doesn't look to me like they're sitting there struggling with the quarterbacks to find open receivers and make plays and things. And yet every week, it seems like, why can't he call plays? It just, I've never bought into the idea that he's bad at it. I think that he has a certain philosophy that will result sometimes in like long sections of time in a game where you're punting or where you are going to have more sacks

and you are going to have more turnovers. And I do think that there's tweaks to that that you can make that probably he probably is who he is. But when you see McCarthy having as many open opportunities as he did in that game, it's really hard to sell me on, okay, he doesn't know what he's doing. A fan duel question of the day answers

mostly in the same ballpark, 24 for BM, 21 for Lucas. KMAX is 27 and bloody soups as 27. I think if you allow 27 to the Ravens, you probably lose. 24 says, is Drew has 24. Bob has 17. I think if you allow 17, you win. Mad Rad is 24.

I would probably be in the range of about 21. I think if you allow more than 21 points to the Ravens, and you get in some sort of shootout with them, it's going to be difficult. So let's see. Mama says how many picks do we have for next year's draft? I do have the answer to that somewhere. Kevin Sefert, I think, tweeted it out earlier.

Let me see if I can find it. I think it's a normal amount of picks. And then, you know, the other part of it is the comp picks. which I'm not sure where they stand with that at this moment. Because there's some things that with Daniel Jones, I'm not sure what the, like the trigger for that is. Anyway, someone will send me a note on it, I'm sure. So Seafurt says they've got a one, two, three, five, six, and three sevens.

So first three rounds, they don't have a fourth and then three sevens. And the darn old third rounder should be pretty locked in. So if you get two threes, one, two, threes, that's in a pretty good spot for that. And then in this case, you know, maybe you are talking about making some trades and trying to acquire more draft capital at some point. You know, I know trade down is going to make everyone freak out. So I won't talk about that. But, you know, that is a thing that's on the table.

Nick's got 23 points. Jason's got 24. I think 24 is the max, as we saw against the Lions. But this defense for the Ravens played pretty well against Chicago and is a little bit better, I think, than they looked a few weeks ago. Let's see. Justin says, honestly believe Ryan Kelly will be back in the action. I hope he's okay.

Same here. Same here. Ryan Kelly is starting to work out this week on the side field is what Kevin O'Connell said. So that makes me nervous. It makes me nervous. There are, there's only a handful of guys, you know, that have come into the Vikings where you're just wowed by them.

Patrick Peterson was that. Ryan Kelly is that. You're just wowed by Ryan Kelly. His performance, number one, but also getting to just be in scrums with him. We haven't had long conversations or anything since he's gotten here, but just be in scrums with him, listen to him, talk ball, and his breadth of knowledge is insane. I think just one of the smartest players that has played in the league over the last decade and just a pros pro that you could see why they would take the injury risk. It's very easy after he gets hurt to say, oh, yeah, you shouldn't have done it because he got hurt.

But when you meet Ryan Kelly and you talk to him and you see the leadership traits that he has where he can guide someone like J.J. McCarthy, you're like, yeah, I get why they took that risk. And if he is going to come back, you really hope that they do the extreme to due diligence with that. Richard says in three months when it's Daniel Jones versus Sam Darlane, the Super Bowl, how much fun will that be? yeah, well, I guess the QB whisperer, then, you know, you could call them that because he whispered them right into the Super Bowl with other teams. You know, I don't think, I don't think that the Colts are going to do that. I think they strike me as a team that has had a lot of really favorable situations with their schedule so far. Don't they have two wins against the Titans? They've shown some weaknesses against Denver against the Steelers.

But I think that in a position like that, when things have been down so bad for so long, you make that type of move. I would even say that for the Vikings when they traded for T.J. Hawkinson. It's like the last couple of years were freaking miserable. They make the move. Try to make a play for this goal for it. And sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind a little bit. And I think that that's what they did in trading for Sauce Gardner there. I still think that we saw the guy that's going to the Super Bowl play.

in the Buffalo, Kansas City game. And I think that that's Josh Allen. I mean, Buffalo, I think, is the strongest team in the NFL still. Kansas City is still competitive. They were competitive in that game. But they won't have almost guaranteed looking at Kansas City schedule. I mean, they're not even a lock for the playoffs, but they won't have a home field advantage.

And if they, I mean, that would be for a team that's got some serious weaknesses to run through the playoffs would be, pretty surprising. I still think Buffalo is going to end up at the top of their division, home playoff games, and are going to be the best team in the league. So when there is still Kansas City in the air, when Buffalo is out there, you know, I don't know if Indianapolis has as good of a chance as those teams based on who's there. But you never know. I mean, Rex Grossman made a Super Bowl. Nick Foles made a Super Bowl. Like these things happen. So I respect that they win all in. And Seattle's good, man. Seattle is good. They've got a good defensive line. If they get a

better performance out of some of their corners, but they did really well the other night. And their offensive line can be spotty, which would be maybe my biggest concern is can they get into situations in a game where they can't run all those play actions and then have Sam Darnold win it while he's in the pocket with a spotty offensive line that I don't know. But they were, they did play well against Washington, but you get in a matchup with maybe the Rams. That's why I would probably pick the Rams right now or the Eagles to go to the Super Bowl. But Seattle's in that conversation, that's for sure. Drew says, can the defense stop Derek Henry?

They can if Derek Henry, let me see. Derek Henry's had some real ups and downs this year. And I wonder if there's any trends. I guess we'll be looking for those. He's only averaging 4.9 yards of carry. He did play well against Miami, but Miami's atrocious. He had a good game against the Rams a couple weeks ago, or is that the Chargers? Oh, Chargers.

a couple. It must have been the Chargers, right? Let me see. No, Rams. Yeah, Rams. It just said L.A. But Rams a couple weeks ago. But he's also had some down games. 2.1 yards per carry against Cleveland, 2.2 against Houston, 3.4 against Chicago. Didn't play that well against the Bears. So he's been a lot more hit or miss than he has been in the past. This is crazy. Last year, his PFF grade was 94. He averaged six yards to carry. This year, it's 59. And his mistackle. forced is way down.

So he's not been the unstoppable force that he was in the past. I also think their offensive line is not that great. I'll have to take a look here. Just starting the preparation for this team. But where are they run blocking wise, Baltimore? Okay. They're in the fringe of the top 10. So they're okay.

But they're not dominating in the same way on the ground as they were. I think it's really about big plays. Like if you give up big plays to Derek Henry, he's still got crazy speed for a guy that's that big. What we saw last week that the plan against Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery was really good, put Jalen Redmond at defensive end as a real true three, four type of system. That was something to see. They really played a three four last week in a lot of a lot of situations. So Redmond and then having, you know, Hargrave in there running some run blitzes where you're just sending

guys into gaps like they had a good plan and look they've played sequan barclay and jemir gibbs and haven't gotten beat by either one so there at least should be some confidence that's there let's see um let's see yeah the uh just your average vikes fans that the viking stopped barclay so the defense they're capable they're capable of doing it uh josh says surprise you didn't mention Tyreek Wullen as a defensive back possibility. I mean, it just doesn't seem like he is. It doesn't seem like he is a defensive back possibility because he's on a team that's chasing the Super Bowl and he, even though he hasn't played well this year, he's out there playing a lot of snaps for them. And if you're a team that's trying to chase a Super Bowl, lopping off a player

like that who's a starter, I mean, it would be pretty risky. You usually don't see teams like that sell that are as in good of shape as the Seattle Seahawks are. Brett, thank you so much for the Super Chat. I really appreciate that. I'm glad that I'm helping your shift go by quicker. Really appreciate it. Love, love that a lot of you watch or listen in different circumstances, right? Like different time zones sometimes, different parts of the world.

So just can't thank all of you enough and really appreciate all the support. People ask the best way to support the program here. That's one. The Super Chat is great. Signing up for Purpleinsider. Football, even if you sign up for free is great. and just watching. Watching is awesome.

Just watching is the best. Those Google ads, watch them. Don't skip them. That'll help too. I know that's a tough task. But let's see. Scott says, what are your thoughts on the Vikings not making any moves?

I was hoping that they could get secondary help. So I did not think going into today. And this sort of tells you where I was at mentally with the Vikings and making moves. I went to lunch in St. Paul. I just, like, did not think that this, it wasn't one of those things where I, like, free agency, where I just chain myself to this chair in front of this microphone and wait.

Like, oh, give me the signings. Or the draft where you're watching every move, like they could make a trade at any time, something could happen. I just, the way that KOC talked about it the other day, the draft capital that they have and probably don't want to spend, my expectation was that if there was any move, it was going to be a small one, that it was going to be somebody that was just depth at some position. They may have a plan with Gilmore or Asante Samuel Jr.

Like, that could be in the cards as well for why they didn't trade for a corner. And the corners that were traded were underwhelming. Every single year, we have huge hype for the trade deadline. And the Jets selling was very exciting for those who acquired Jets. But aside from that, I mean, when you look at the totality of a couple of days of trading, it's just it's just not like the NHL trade deadline sometimes baseball could be this way where whole franchises shift on the deadline it's more exciting than it used to be it used to be don't even bother it was in like week six or something teams were still very much in it but we

haven't seen outside of the jets a lot of teams even in the last couple years just say you know what everything that's not nailed down it is gone come shop my friends and if teams were asking for decent prices for average or below average players, not something that you'd want them to do. I do think, though, that they could have maybe gone for something, but they might have another plan. It just, if you're talking about a Michael Carter or someone, I don't know how much that moves the needle versus Fabian Morrow, who knows the defense, and trying to bring someone in to learn it really quick and then throw them out there might be tough. So they've developed some younger players for cornerback depth. They must buy into that. They must buy into that. They

believe in their safety depth with let's not forget j ward played well early in the season two so you know i i wouldn't go crazy over it i would have liked to have seen something maybe there's something up their sleeve but i'm not going to flip a table uh boone says is there a different head of pro scouting versus college scouting yes uh there is with the recent poor draft track record is there any validity to trading picks for players well there is uh always validity to trading picks for players, because you're talking about proven commodities versus just, and I think I went over this the other day with the actual percentages of hits. We think they're way higher than they actually are. If you're drafting 30 second overall and taking Lewis scene, it's basically a coin flip that

the guy turns out to be even a starter. Like, it's in our brains, every single draft pick, because we hear so much about them, they get hyped up, they have a big press conference, Mel Kuyper, if he could get over Shadur, Sanders, not being picked, gives you the big, this guy's the greatest pick that's ever happened. You get all these, you know, hype trained people tweeting out, highlights, everything else. But the reality is, like, all of them are past the top 10 picks are 50% and dropping fast. And by the time you even get to the end of the second round, the back half of the second round, you are talking about probably a 20 to 30% chance that the guy even becomes a starter.

like that's how that's how this works so you if you're going to hit on them you just have to have a lot of a lot of draft picks usually but you know when we talk about this is why I never want to slam scouts and stuff for the Vikings they scout hundreds of players they pick five you're like out of scouts they don't know what they're doing like well I don't know how many did they nail out of a hundred that they actually scouted how about scouting Levi Drake Rodriguez I wrote an article about that um you know on I think a few days after the draft the guy who scouted Levi Drake and, you know, pounded the table for him. And that's a great pick. Whoever scouted Will Reichard, which I think I knew that at one point. But that's a good job. You got a great kicker out of it. It's hard to draft kicker. They blow that a lot.

And I remember the scout. Gosh, I wish I could remember who it was for the Vikings. We talked to him after that draft pick of Will Reichard. And he was talking about how every time they brought in an Alabama player, he would go ask that player, hey, what do you think of Will Reichard? And like, how does he fit in the locker? I'm like, they're doing tons of diligence on hundreds of players throughout a year. And you pick seven of them.

And we're supposed to say, like, those guys don't know what they're doing. I don't, I don't buy that. I don't buy that really at all. I think that that's a tiny, tiny sampling. And look, they scouted Donovan Jackson, and he looks to me like a rising player. So I don't know. It's hard when it comes to that. But the pro, I mean, the pro part of it is there's more sample size.

And so, yes, it is in that way, like, trading picks for players, it is safer. But you also get, there's a reason someone's trading them to you. So there are injury histories. There are salary cap hits. And that's another part of it is if there was no salary cap, you could be the Dodgers and trade for whoever the hell you want, but you can't really do that in this situation. You cannot just, like, trade for whoever. And that's part of why, like, yeah, trading picks for players is good.

but then like T.J. Hawkinson's a great example. If you draft a second round tight end and he turns out to be as good as T.J. Hawkinson, then he is cheap for four years. But if you trade a second round pick for T.J. Hawkinson, he is good and you're sure of it, but he's expensive very soon after that. And that's the tradeoff that you make for having more confidence. Let's see. Book of Awesome says, is it coincidence that they finally play with the lead and Hargrave suddenly looks better.

It is absolutely one gazillion percent, not a coincidence, my friend, at all. No, but I also think they had a good plan for him. I mean, I think that where he was really good was overpowering and matchups. I mean, matchups matter a lot. He just overpowered the interior of the Lions D-line. But if we go and look at Javon Hargrave this year, I mean, it should be no surprise that he gets seven quarterback pressures against Shepard. Chicago where it was a competitive game the entire time and then they're playing with the lead

at the end where he made some dominant plays. He gets four pressures against Cleveland where it's a 50-50 game and he's chasing the quarterback at times. And then he gets two pressures including a sack and plays really well against the run against Detroit where they're playing from the lead. So yeah, I mean, those are his best games and his worst game is Philadelphia where they're playing from behind and that's where they barely put him on the field. So, you know, I do think that that's a big, big factor. He played 39 snaps in this game that he has to be kind of a circumstantial type of player at this point, his career, which is not unusual for somebody.

And for the money, you know, they paid him like $15 million a year. For the money, that's kind of what you're expecting to get for that. It's a rotational type of player. And that's what he's been so far. And I think anybody who's in that type of role, can be one week, great, and another week, you don't see him. Let's see. A. Truckin says Levi Drake Rodriguez is good development too. Oh, no question. No question. That's been very impressive. Let me pull up Levi's numbers. He really has shown a lot. I think he went into the

off season. So I talked to him in like week two maybe. And he went into the off season with a plan to put on more weight, become more powerful, and be more of a nose tackle type. He actually didn't play, wow, I thought he actually played more against Detroit. He only played a handful of snaps. The previous week, he played 40, but he made impacts on those snaps. He had two pressures, did block the extra point. Overall, he's had a very good season, I think. And there's more there.

Like his PFF grade is solid, 66.3, it's decent. But I think there's more on the bone there from where you've seen. the high-end plays, the power that he's displayed. And there were some rush plans that were really good with him, where he's got to take a guy and just drive them back in a direction to allow the linebackers to rush. And those plays don't get rewarded a lot by PFF. And so there are flaws when it comes to that system

or there are things that we need to understand about it, where if a Levi Drake Rodriguez lines up over the center, he snaps it. Levi rushes to the left and just pushes that guy to the left to create a big lane. He's not going to get some huge great because it's not a splash play. But that's a really good job by Levi Drake, which is why you need to use numbers and your brain and your eyeballs and, you know,

all that sort of stuff. I shot you 99. Do you think the Vikings are in a weird spot of win now and developing McCarthy? It feels like that's a fork in the road. Yeah, I do think that that is the case that they are. And they were always going to be going into this year. But the development, when you have a guy who is like him, who has those traits that we saw against the Lions, the development can also go along with winning. Like, this was, you know, Bo Nix is the most obvious guy to bring up for last year.

But they were on a team in Denver that expected to win. They had the MVP on defense, great defense there, and a coach in Sean Payton, who was not there to develop. players and hang around for the long, long term and all that, right? So they had a young quarterback and he had his moments where it was down and he had his moments that were up and eventually turns a corner halfway through that season

and plays pretty well. But you can be a team with a win now roster and a young quarterback and that, you know, San Francisco and Philadelphia made the Super Bowl with that and the Rams made a Super Bowl with Jared golf in his third year. Not saying that this Vikings team after

one win against Detroit is that. Is there. But, you know, I do think that you can be in that world where you're expecting to win week in and week out by elevating that young quarterback. And in a perfect world scenario, he would have been healthy this entire time. They would have dealt with some of the rockiness and fought their way through it. And the rest of the way, I think what you're looking for with McCarthy is for the defense to give you a chance where you don't have to score 27 points like our Fandul question of the day. You don't have to score 27 points a game. You're looking. for McCarthy to continue to build on what he's clearly shown in the couple of wins that

he's had. And if he does, and there are more touch passes and there are lessons that he learns along the way, that there's a corner to potentially be turned with him too. That's the best world scenario to where you're going down the stretch. You're going into those last two games, feeling like this is a different player than what you had in week one against Chicago or week two against Atlanta. So it is a unique place to be, but it, but it's also a place that's yielded a lot of success in the past when you do have that contract. And even look, I mean, Jordan Love, who we talk about all the time, like when he got his most success, he was still, he hadn't signed that big contract yet. So there's been a lot of young quarterbacks. And Jordan Love won a playoff game was very close to winning another. And the first eight games of his career as a starter were pretty bad. So it's not totally unique for, this to happen. BM says extend

Kwaysey for not panic trading today. Yeah, no, I agree. I think panic trading today off of one win would have been an overreaction to do that. Just staying the course is the best way to go here for this roster overall. Drew says have this gut feeling on Brosmer

that of doing great things for the Vikings. Unfortunately, KOC had his chance and blew it. I mean, I, what, against the chart? I don't think that Brozmer's coming into that game with the two backup tackles getting destroyed that would have gone any different. So, um, you know, his, his judda prima don't. Sorry, that hit me out of nowhere.

We're just rolling along on scouting and stuff like that. His judda prima, uh, no, he's not. Judd is one of the best people of all time. Every single person who knows Judd on a personal level will tell you that. Truly, truly, one of my best friends. Just a A plus human being. It's really funny to think that, though. No, he's not.

Zoomer K.O. says, so if we beat the Ravens, we're going to the NFC championship game, maybe, look, I don't know. Look at this race right now. Let me pull up the standings here. I mean, this, this is crazy. Like, this could go in so many ways. And the season feels like it's been really, really long. And actually, there's more games to be played than have been played so far.

And think about that. Like, that seems like an obvious statement. But, like, just think to process that in your brain right now that there are more games to go than we have played. And it feels like I'm a thousand years old just this year because of all the things that have happened. But if we look at this race right now in the NFC, I mean, the Vikings are, I believe, in 10th place. And you have a lot of contenders that are, you know, ahead of them right now, all three teams in the NFC North. The Eagles are going to win their division going away. So that's not, I don't think that the Cowboys, Commanders, or Giants.

I think they're out of the conversation. So let's put it in this way. Like, who's in the conversation with the Vikings? So we can count out the Cowboys. Cowboys, Commanders, and Giants. We can count out the Saints. I do not want to throw the Falcons in the garbage in this discussion, but they might be at three and five.

So let's count them out, too. Let's count out the Saints. Let's count out the Falcons. Let's count out the Cardinals, even though you could kind of see it-ish with Jacoby Brissette. But that's a tough, I mean, when you have three, six-win teams there. So who's in the discussion with the Vikings right now? If we don't have to talk about the Eagles because they're going to win their division,

they're not racing with the Vikings. So we've got the Packers, Lions, Bears, bucks, Panthers, Falcons is six, Seahawks is seven, Rams, and 49ers. So that's nine teams that are really competing with the Vikings for seven spots. And the Vikings will be the 10th. So that's 10 teams that are really competing for seven spots.

Can you make it from there? If we just quick speed run through the other teams that they're competing with, with the packers i think are still a very good team but they're flawed um do they have maybe too big of a lead on the vikings right now probably but losing tucker craft is a big deal i still think they're going to win a lot of games and they probably end up with 11 wins or something and uh Detroit still very very good we're not calling detroit washed or terrible or something after that so i think that those two teams are playoff teams the bears i am not buying very much they have a negative point

differential. So I'm really not buying the five and three bears. Every one of their games has had to be at the end. It's the 2022 Viking stuff that will eventually run out, I think, in the season for them for Chicago, because especially their defense is really underwhelming. Caleb is too up and down. So let's just say that I think they have a chance at chasing the bears. The Panthers are a team that is shown really that they can run the football, very, very up and down, though, on a week to week basis they're losing 40 to 14 or something and then they're beating the packers like who knows what they are probably a 500 team so i would put them in also the same category that you could chase uh i would say the hardest is really in the nfc west they need the 49ers to fall off and they need

to be able to chase probably down somebody in the division because i'm not sure that seattle or the rams is are going to fall off so if you kind of go through the whole exercise the eagles are a lock the buccaneers are not a total lock but they've got a big lead there so let's call the bucks a lock there and then you have did I count the bucks initially maybe I didn't count the bucks initially so really but you have let's say the bucks are going to win that it's the panthers it's the rams it's the 49ers the lions and you probably got to beat the bears so it's a handful of teams and who knows where this race is going to take us because jaden daniels gets hurt and all of a sudden like they're out of it um injuries

can play a role, ups and downs of teams. Somebody gets hot, somebody gets cold. I think there's a real race there. And looking at how good the NFC West teams are, how good the Packers and the Lions overall are, they might win 10 games. And maybe there's a tiebreaker in there somewhere that the Vikings have to get. But I think what this week did was it said it's not off the table. It's not off the table, especially when you're talking about a schedule that is not that hard now. I mean, the Ravens are good, and you don't want to wash them out.

The Bears, it's a division game. The Packers, it's a division game, and Seattle's going to be tough. But when you're talking about the last part of it, outside of the final two games, there's that mushy part where they get the giants and the Cowboys in Washington, where if you can win those three games,

I mean, think about it from that mathematical perspective. There's nine left. If you can win three there to get to 10, you would need three more wins. It's possible. It's not impossible. Three wins against good teams the rest of the way. It's possible.

Let's see. Zumer K.O. Did you listen to Tom Brady talk about JJ learning to make three types of throws as he compared him to Happy Gilmore, who only hit the long ball? I did see that on Twitter that Tom Brady had said that. And I know the Vikings talk about this. They have some sort of coding for it, ABC, one, two, three, I don't know, something like that.

Maybe it's one, two, three. Like the rocket, the one with touch and the one with a lot of touch, I don't know. I forget, this was explained to me at some point, but they kind of have like a way of thinking about it. He knows it. I think the biggest thing with J.J. McCarthy that stands out to me is if you asked him about, hey, what did you think of this, that, or the other thing? He's always going to go first to where it can be better. Where can I improve?

That's a J.J. McCarthy thing. And that mentality of him, even having the self-awareness after a huge win where they just celebrated the heck out of him in the locker room and all that. And he still comes into the post-game press conference and says, man, I got a, I got a chill on some of those rollout throws. I can't be whipping it 100 miles an hour. like the inertia is taking me that way and I just can't be doing that, said there was a lot of meat on the boat.

Like he is an improvement type of person that understands exactly what you're talking about that Tom Brady said. Reminder one more time of that Fanduil question of the day. The Vikings four and a half point underdogs and the over under is 47 and a half. How many points do they need to keep the Ravens to have a chance to win the game? Is the Fanduil question of the day? let's see son of beavers do i think jeff okuda should be put on i are like r krean kelly and then go sign asante samuel junior i think depends on what they think of

uh asante samuel junior health wise uh jeff okuda like this goes in the category of please don't make me talk about injuries anymore that's already been uh enough of a problem but uh you know with okuda i do think they need to think long term about that for him. He needs to think long term about that. Anytime, if you ask me about a concussion, just standard answer for me is give it more time. I am always against bringing guys back too soon when it comes to concussions. Yep. Absolutely always, always going to tell you more time. I are, all that sort of stuff. Zumer K.O. says, uh, I'd like, Eric Wilson, I'd like to apologize. I was unfamiliar with your game. Was he even familiar with his game? Yeah. Actually, there is a, there is a video.

on Vikings.com on the YouTube where I'm on there talking about the free agency with Tatum Everett and maybe Dane and we're talking about free agency. And I said, hey, don't forget about Eric Wilson. It's a pretty good player. He was good for the Packers last year. He's just a good football player. He's not a perfect linebacker and you can't have guards flying out there and hitting him, you know, with the other team up by 27 points. But he's a playmaker and he's strong. So I think he's also violent and fearless. Like, this is an undrafted free agent who's made it. Son of Beaver's got 24 points for the question of the day.

I think that's probably right. That's probably the max. 24 is probably the max that you can overcome because it's not a great defense that the Ravens have. I would say that's a max. KFT, I'm not sure that the offensive lines performance is all because of offensive philosophy. other teams have run heavy intermediate passing and do okay protecting the quarterback. This is a thing that I've spent a lot of time with or talking about, thinking about with the Kubiak system.

There are other ways to protect the quarterback. Quick game is definitely it. I don't think that there's a better system than the Shanahan Kubiak style to protect the quarterback. I don't think there's better. And this is coming from cover. covering Gary Kubiak, it's also coming from spending a lot of time, well, and Clint and Clint Kubiak as well, as Office of Coordinator, and also spending a lot of time with Sage Rosenfelds,

who played for Gary Kubiak, just talking football about that system. Because sometimes I'll just text Sage, like, charts and stuff that are showing, you know, play actions and the bootlegs and stuff, which he played there in the, with the Texans and love that stuff. And I think that those systems do extremely well to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands. And especially when Clint Kubiak was here, Kirk Cousin said, I think his lowest sack percentage of his career. So I believe that that is a Clint Kubiak type of thing. And even with you know, Jimmy Garapolo, they were trying to avoid hits. They were booting him using a lot of play action, building off the run, all that stuff. I think it's, I think it's the best for avoiding

big hits for your quarterback. And Sam Darnel is proving that now. I also think that one of the reasons that it does is that it makes things very, very definitive on where you go with the football. The reads are right there for you. It's not a ton of complications. And complications can be great if the guys get open, you get the right look and the right read and you make the throw. Complications can also cause sacks. And I shouldn't, we shouldn't totally overlooked that McCarthy got sacked five times. Like, that's too many. Three, three max is what you should be. And, you know, one of them is him scrambling out of bounds. So call it four. but he shouldn't be taking that many sacks.

So, you know, you want him to have some of the same stuff. This is not exactly a Shanahan system. There are some bones of it. And I think that where KOC can even believe in himself more is play actions and screens, which that system is really, really good. And what they've done with Smith Najibah is great. I think that there is some evidence in Jamar Chase and Smith the Jigba as just keep throwing it to the number one guy.

and they've been able to do that over and over and over and put up huge offensive. So sometimes it doesn't have to be as hard as it seems. And I think that the Kubiak offense proves that. Why didn't the commanders sell? I don't know the answer to that question. Maybe when you have a veteran team, you feel like you need to stay in the race.

But I don't know. Any team that's got three wins or less right now should be selling. but, you know, maybe, maybe just the prices, I don't know. You know, you're talking about going for Mika Fitzpatrick. I don't know why Miami didn't trade it. They should, sometimes, sometimes it's about pride. Like if, if you have, let's say you have Mika Fitzpatrick and three teams call up and say, how about a fifth?

Like, nah, I just can't do it. I'm just going to look too stupid. Like, that is, that's a real thing. Now, I don't think that you should do anything that way, but that is a real thing inside of front office. It's like, I'm going to look. look dumb if I trade Minka Fitzpatrick after the big deal to send Jalen Ramsey to the Steelers and all that. I'm just going to look like a fool. Now, the current GM didn't make

that move, so I don't get it, but that's, that's a thing. That's definitely a thing. If your offers are so bad, you'd rather just not even do it. I don't agree with that philosophy, but I think that happens. Scott, what's your confidence you can make the playoffs? One through 10, given we don't suffer serious injuries. I'm going to go four. I would be, slightly higher than the actual playoff odds by about 10% because they have their full team. And they didn't have that earlier. So a lot of the data that that would be based on their percentages to make it would not include how much better they've been when they have their full team.

At the same time, I went through all those teams. Somebody's got a falter. Like maybe it's the 49ers and they slip because they've had so many injuries or maybe it's Detroit. And they just fall off the face of the earth. And they end up being the regression team that we thought they might be. I think it will be Chicago that ultimately the Vikings will have a better record than Chicago. I think that's going to happen at the end of the year.

But there's a lot of teams to get over. So it's not impossible, but that is a big part of it. So it's at least the door is open now. At least it's a season again. And there's a long way to go. let's see susan says chaos he almost never brings up a mistake that a player made mentioned in discussing how great j j mccarthy's press is passed to naler to ice the game was uh the darnold had missed a similar pass in weeks oh yeah yeah right he did mention that

well i think that that stuck with him from last year because they were so close to beating detroit at home and it really was if i remember it's kind of a maybe a route that jordan Madison wanted back or something like that. But maybe there was also a play call that could have been a run or two in there. I forget exactly how that played out. But yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, the third and four, right, they throw it in completion. They give them more time, which again shows you he's going to put the ball in the

quarterback's hands and whether we end up liking it or not ends up being based on the results. But yes, you're right. I remember that play at the end of the Lions game that cost them. They were one first down away from closing it out. and he was able to make it. I think that probably just stuck with him all year. Let's see. Sorry you guys are talking about just more.

But yeah, no, it's been, okay, so I finally did reach the bottom. Oh, yes, I did say yesterday, that Cincinnati should be illegal in most states. I love watching Cincinnati. Well, great chat, guys. For a long conversation about doing nothing at the trade deadline, this was robust and productive. So good stuff.

I have to admit that the questions and comments seem a little less enraged than last week because of the win against Detroit. So we'll see what happens going forward. But a lot of stuff to dive into tomorrow, I'm scheduled to have a conversation with Steve Palazolo, record a podcast there, and I'm really interested to get his perspective on this NFC race and where the Vikings go from here.

Steve's got a great mind for front offices and things like that. So we will dive into that. Make sure you look out for that. Of course, the live show will react to everything KOC says in his press conference, JJ McCarthy. We'll get some clips from that to start off tomorrow's show. So a lot, a lot, a lot coming your way. this week and, of course, the hardcore preview with Andrew Kramer.

It's going to be a fun and busy week leading up to Vikings and Ravens that is all of a sudden relevant. Every single game now means a lot for J.J. McCarthy and this team. So make sure you answer if you didn't in the comments, if you're rewatching, the Fandul question of the day, which is the Vikings and Ravens over, under is 47.5. How many points do the Vikings need to hold the Ravens to in order to have a chance? And we will catch you all next time.

Thanks for your time. Football.