Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings Netflix movie proposals and whether the Chicago Bears curse is a thing

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

Former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles opens the show with a discussion about the new Netflix movie that has Kevin James playing Sean Payton and what the Vikings comparison would be. Jeremiah and Matthew Coller talk about whether the Vikings are cursed in Chicago and what that means for their key matchup with the Chicago Bears. Jeremiah tells the story of the crazy 2016 Vikings game in Chicago in which Zimmer hurt his eye. They also talk about the playoff race and the outlook for the Vikings down the stretch and whether we should expect them to make the playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TD Insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD. Ready for you. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider Magic Collar here along with Jeremiah Searles for another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard that will not be on Tuesday morning. But here we are, Jeremiah. We have a playoff race that is on, and we have also other things to talk about, COVID outbreaks and such that are ruining all sports. That's happening, so that's super fun.

It's a thing. talk about covid outbreaks and such that are ruining all sports that's happening so that's super fun thing uh that's why i wanted to start out with a much more uh fun topic which is that sean payton has kevin james playing him in a netflix show um did you watch the trailer for this i i haven't watched the trailer for it yet but i've had multiple people text me about it um i am currently been watching high school tape because i work again for the radio network and i have signing day tomorrow and it's like watching just i mean i just rather stab myself under the fingernails with little needles than watch these high school players so no i haven't watched it but man i'm gonna just sit down one night and with a big tub of popcorn and just watch this because it's just going to be a train wreck.

And I can't wait. Okay. First of all, sorry to all the parents who are signing with Nebraska that you hated watching their children play. I hate watching all high school. I've told this to my co-host. Until you make the two deep, I don't care who you are. You mean nothing to me. like this quick soapbox moment signing day has gotten blown way out of proportion high school recruiting has gotten bland way out of proportion it's all stupid and i hate it and

i may be old and i might just be a 30 year old guy that just hates everything get off my lawn but what happened to the days where like you called the coach and you're like hey i'm coming to school there and the coach was like cool love that and you hung up and then you just showed up one day and you just went to work and eventually you showed up on the field now you got hat grabbing ceremonies and dudes i mean freaking what was kelly down there's dancing with those stupid little like spinning i hate it i hate it all so much matt like it just makes my blood boil to listen about high school recruiting but nevertheless we're on our way it doesn't exactly have a uh frozen tundra-y you know old-timey

football type of feel to it exactly when someone's picking a hat out of three hats and and i saw the brian kelly thing i, that is one grotesque human being. It's just. Down here in Louisiana with my family. It's like, didn't you just come from. Okay. Yeah. Sure thing,

dude. Yeah. There, there are people. I can't wait until 2028 when Brian Kelly gets hired in the NFL and then is fired after one year. And this cycle just keeps happening over and over again. Right. You just can't escape it, dude. You can't escape the Kelly cycle.

It's just the worst. Just I mean, the college coach cycle in general, you sort of get to the you scam your way to the top. And then eventually, I mean, correctly recruit your way to the top. And then eventually some goofball NFL team with owners who don't have a clue is like you know i've got the real answer are there hundreds of coaches who are qualified in the nfl presently yes does this man have any proof that he's good at scheming or handling grown-ups no however i did see him win in college or was on TV once. And so I think we should give him tens of millions of dollars. These, the galaxy brain Jaguars and Panthers just hiring these complete fools who have no idea what they're doing.

It's just the best. It's like, this is the thing. This is, don't you agree though, that this is the thing that the, I don't think that the Wilfs would do. I think they're like more pragmatic than this. I would agree. Smart. I don't think that the wilfs would do i think they're like more pragmatic than this i would agree smart i don't think they would um but that's the thing that everyone is afraid of when we talk about the hey do you want to change coaches and all those things is that they'll see someone on tv that sounds good or something it'd be like we should hire jimmy johnson something totally insane

you're always worried about that yeah i mean that's always like did you just a great sphere because you're always like fire the coach but it's like well what if like what if we get the next uh i'm trying to think like lincoln riley just all of a sudden leaves usc like i'm going to the vikings we're gonna make here the football mecca like everywhere he goes did you see that where he came out with the trojans thing and like he's like we're gonna make the football mecca and all the oklahoma players got underneath in the comments were like he told us this last week and like it's just incredible right it's just amazing how these dudes turn out and do it but i do i know the wills i've met them i think that they have a little bit more of a football football background um that they would they would know better now i

might eat my words and i really hope i don't have to but i do think that the, they would know better. Now I might eat my words and I really hope I don't have to, but I do think that the Wills would know better than to go find some college guy who sat in 16 year old houses and told them that they're the best thing since sliced bread are now dealing with 30 year old men with families and trying to tell them to defend their resume against each other. Uh, yeah, I mean, I do want, i would say to lincoln riley i'll give you 80 bucks if you can tell me where mecca is like yes you have no idea i guarantee you have no idea where that is or what that means but uh anyhow sounds good buzzwords dude buzzwords i will say you know i could have uh given the credit though to cliff kingsbury had he not completely botched the game the other night against the Rams from a coaching situation.

So but they don't all fail. The Arizona Cardinals are pretty good. Helps that your number one overall draft pick quarterback does everything and you signed all the best receivers. But I should say that Cliff Kingsbury adapting from last year has been good and impressive. So not every single one of these guys fails, but most, but most do. Yeah. Most do. Well, here's the thing. Cliff Kingsbury played in the NFL, but also couldn't recruit that great in college because

his teams were horrible around Patrick Mahomes. So like, maybe that's the secret is if they're not that good in college. Anyway, I want to know from you though, on this Netflix show or this Netflix movie about Sean Payton, which is preposterous. OK, like let's talk about like this would be like taking Brian Kelly and, you know, the kid that died on his watch because he made him go up in the wind and all that sort of stuff. It'd be like making a cute movie around that it's just like guys sean payton was not suspended for a year because of a clerical paperwork error okay kill the head was what he was suspended for all right paying players to harm other players this is not cute um the whole thing is ridiculous though it's got kids getting hit in the butt with footballs and puking and sean payton then learns to love his child it's so bad it's so bad so i wanted to ask

you if they were going to make a netflix movie about something viking involved what would it be oh dude easy the love boat the love boat would number one be just how that all like happened from the beginning to the end you could make a whole series on it like I think that if they did a Netflix like making the love boat like it would be Vikings fans would just go nuts to watch that it have to be that it have to be on minnetonka waters one night in minnetonka like uh there's a good story that my friend jed zolgad who was covering the love boat at the time tells about going to a high schooler's house and knocking on their door and asking if like they could talk to them about having worked on the love boat and um you know witnessed it all yeah

so seen it with his eyes the double-sided things and everything i was gonna say well that might be netflix or pornhub but you know either way well that's if the vikings create an only fans account then that'll get that can get released from the vikes only fans account how yeah how but how it all led up to that and then there were like i think actual trial there was like an actual yeah yeah like it could be a like 10 part series like maybe we just maybe we're in the wrong business matt if i remember we didn't get the documentary business here yes uh fred smooth i think is still just proud of it he's like i don't know man what do you do you got him you could have him in his chair like they did

all the last dance he's sitting there legs crossed like yeah i did that you want to hear more about it it's like do i yeah right do we want to know more no the wikipedia if you have kids do not let them wikipedia that thing no that's stuff you need to talk to them about man to man uh so my pick was going to be Eyes on Chicago about what happened in 2016 with Mike Zimmer harming his eye in Chicago and Norv Turner quitting. And there's no real like a close second sort of fun angle to it. It would just be like everything that led up to that night where the season completely turned the wrong direction in 2016. And somehow Mike Zimmer comes out of Chicago that night without an offensive coordinator or an eye. And just that season in general of Zimmer having surgery on his eye,

the person hanging from the truss in the, at the end of the season, the plane going off of the runway in green Bay i mean the kitties don't forget about the kitties the headless kitties oh yes yes of course the uh fat cats getting slaughtered and so forth i mean that's like it's like the sick cousin of ted lasso or whatever whatever the opposite of ted lasso is was that season i mean quick story about the eye thing like i'll never forget when he came in and he was like fellas can't coach you this week might lose my eye and we're all just sitting there like what he's like doctor told me if i yell too much eyeballs just gonna pop right on out we're all sitting there like two minutes like

at first we thought he was kidding but then we're like oh no he's like dead serious like he legitimately was told like if you yell and scream and get all like zimmery like like your eyeballs just gonna go like just seen from hercules where there's like passing it around at the bottom with the witches like that's all we could picture and so he was like so tore up about i was like coach dude go take care of your eye man like all of us were just like this isn't worth you like getting up like we can handle this we can granted we didn't beat the cowboys but we almost did but it like briefer went in there but yeah dude when he came in and told us all about his eye we all thought he was joking but very real he did like yell to the point of almost blowing an eye which uh inspired conspiracy theories as well about i don't know if you are

aware of those but uh reddit uh so forth which could be um investigated by the netflix movie yes the different conspiracy theories that he had gotten in a fight with norv and uh you know things like that people put two and two together though here's the thing zimmer claimed after the game that he had poked his eye with the play card which i'm certain that that happened i could be wrong you know how you sometimes think like he definitely said this right and then that's not the exact quote so maybe i'm wrong about that but i swear he claimed that there was some like silly thing that happened. Like I poked my eye with a play card or whatever.

You're like, what? You don't you don't like detach a retina by poking. But I guess I could understand the amount he would have been yelling that night against the horrendous Chicago Bears beating the Vikings, which I guess is a good transition here into the next thing. But that would be that would be my selection. And anybody who wants to tweet me theirs of what they should make a Netflix movie about Vikings related in the Zimmer era, feel free.

But Chicago, what the hell? I mean, you have been there. We have looked this up. We have done the numbers. We have done the numbers. We have done the investigation. It is truly beyond comprehension how the Chicago Bears could beat the Vikings as many times as they did when the Vikings were significantly better as many times as they were. So explain. I mean, the number one is the Bears, although a terrible football team at times, have always had good defensive lines. They have good players on their defensive lines if you were to say over the past decade for the vikings what is the

achilles heel it's been mediocre to poor offensive lines so when you get the clash like this right and you've got body parts flying everywhere nobody knows's happening. Train wrecks on both sides. You just look at it at the line of scrimmage piece. And if you look, even going back to the 2016, like what happened? Pernell McPhee just decided to run over TJ Clemmings and Jake Long the entire game. That's just what he did. And then you fast forward to when we played them again at the end of the season, we handled Pernell McPhee didn't play. Leonard Floyd didn't play.

We were able to just focus on Akeem Hicks and Eddie Goldman, and we beat them. And when you look at it, it's always been the edge rushers that have gotten after the Vikings and kind of not letting the things get going. And so I think that's the common denominator. And then some way somehow they find a way to run the football on the vikings and i don't know if it's scheme i don't know if it's that coach has zimmer's number for defensively but it always seems like all of a sudden they're

running back has like oh well another hundred yard game by the running back against the vikings like those two things in tandem are what always make the bears beat the vikings when they do that's right the game that we're talking about in 2016 it was uh i think like a 70 yard run or something to start the game howard right yeah jordan howard may have actually been a 69 yard run i'm not joking uh but uh yeah jordan howard he demolished uh the vikings and then you know david montgomery last year in that key game at u.s bank stadium just ran all over them it randomly the bears switched to like an outside zone type of run scheme which they usually they love can you explain this to me this is a tangent and we'll get back to this i promise but i just need someone to confirm that it's insane how often teams will line up in the shotgun on fourth and one or or whatever and

hand the ball off and go one yard or zero yards or something like shotgun handoffs do nothing am i missing something it's like the worst running scheme ever arizona did it the other night against los angeles in a key fourth down like what what uh you saw this in the minnesota nebraska game where it's like at the goal line, shotgun, handoff, no yards. All of a sudden, Chicago figured out that under center and wide zone stuff would work. And then they just ate the Vikings alive last year. But normally the Chicago team is really bad about like their run scheme. And those things just seem super basic.

It's like there's only three things that you can even do out of the shotgun when you're running the ball, as opposed to under center where you can have a out of the shotgun when you're running the ball, as opposed to under center where you can have a lot of different things going on. So I don't know. Like it just, I don't really understand it. You know, a lot of it is these, these quarterbacks come in from college and they're like, some of them never taken an under center snap. I mean, literally some of these guys, I mean, I know talking to,

especially you talk about Kyler Murray, like how many times was he under centered Oklahoma? I mean, I don't know if one time yeah and so you start trying to force these guys into things that they're not comfortable with and it happened in nebraska so i don't know i know you guys don't follow but the next week we had a first and goal from the one at home and adrian martinez lines up under center and the whole crowd's like yeah let's go snaps fumbles it it's like because you can practice those moments but once it becomes game time like those are critical situations critical moments and everything speeds up everything's faster and if they're not comfortable

with it then it's gonna be a dumpster fire and so regardless i mean i think that's why you see a lot of these teams with younger quarters backs, especially going into that shotgun, because that's just what the quarterback is comfortable with. And you're trying to kind of excuse me. You're trying to kind of cater to them in that front. I agree with you. It's so stupid. The running back can't get ahead of steam. Right.

He's stepping laterally to go forward. And you have no push at the point of attack because you got guys in two point stances versus just getting under and sneaking it or even just a fullback dive the old school dive um is so much more but the for whatever reason the the bears going to that outside zone scheme i think has a lot to do with the fact that they felt like they could attack our edges without daniel hunter um last year And then you look at this year, like our edge defenders aren't great against the run. And so again, it goes back to Nagy and his brilliant galaxy mind of what he's either really

good or he's terrible of saying, okay, that's a weakness. Let's attack that. And we have yet to show that we can stop it against them. So I would expect more of the same from that running game this week of attack our edges, attack our DNsns attack our outside linebackers especially if bar's not a hundred percent right run it at it how many times does he want to take on an offensive tackle an offensive guard over and over and over again before he breaks a little bit right um i think so that's a big piece of that outside zone scheme that has tore us up a couple years yeah i think the advantage of running out

of the shotgun is usually just getting the light box. So if it's a run situation, then you're probably not getting the light box and it sort of negates what you want to do there. But I think it's a legitimate advantage that the Vikings Titans, 49ers Rams have quarterbacks who can line up under center. And you see it all the time where defenses are used to facing shotgun all the time and then these long bootlegs and play actions that sometimes if there's one little hesitation somebody's open 50 yards down the field and the Vikings and those teams have taken advantage of it uh over the last couple of years and I think they'll be able to do that against Chicago also um I want to talk to you about Justin Fields. I mean, the Vikings made a very lukewarm offer to try to trade up to get Justin Fields. It has not gone well in his first season.

I really think this is a bad situation that he's in. Their offensive line is bad. Their running game is bad. Their receivers are mostly bad. robinson just sort of fell off the face of the earth yeah and uh he also you know may not have been really ready to be thrown in when he was but andy dalton got hurt you have conflict between ownership and naggy so you know reportedly over when he's supposed to play and all these things i think it's been a very bad situation i wonder what you make though of him from a talent perspective. And if this is going to be a classic Zimmer demolishes a rookie quarterback, or if you're concerned that Justin Fields finds a way. You know, I thought coming into this draft that, but behind Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields was the number two quarterback. I thought that watching

him play the way he operated at Ohio state, the way he was able to look and read defenses, not just number one read and go, unlike Zach Wilson, in my opinion. I think Zach Wilson, for me, was very much just like, hey, there's one guy, throw it to him. I still think he has a really high ceiling when it comes to what he's going to be able to do in the NFL. I think that, again, you nailed it. The pieces around him aren't great.

And I think they went the route that we talked about the Vikings not going, of like, hey, build around, not the quarterback. They went, okay, we're going to get the quarterback, and then maybe we'll start building around him. The problem is that that doesn't work for young guys because they're not ready to step into an elite ready, like the NFL, if they don't have pieces around them that the focal point's not on them. And when you're on a bad football team, you're usually playing from behind.

So that means you're usually throwing the football a lot. And so for him, he's just trying to make the best out of a bad situation. I do think he'll have a good career in the NFL if he can get the right pieces put around him. But I do see this as one of those of the ricky quarterback going against a complex scheme that zimmer's going to dial up and try and get them behind the sticks and if they can't run football get them into those third and longs and force him to throw you a couple and because he will he's shown that he will if he has to read coverages for too long or if he gets under pressure the thing that makes him special though is he is pretty good getting out of the pocket

and run with his legs he's pretty good at extending plays, keeping his eyes downfield and running. And so I think that you'll see more of that from him this weekend versus him just sitting back there trying to make something happen. I think as the season's gotten longer, he's went from trying to scramble around and make an unbelievable throw down the field to let's just eat four yards and live to find another day, which is get him growing, developing um into a better player and so he that's one thing to keep an eye out for him is his run game his ability to run the football when things break down versus just kind of running around scrambling back there folks have you ever thought about taking a bike to work but figure it's too far or that the hills are too steep or heck who wants to show up to work covered in sweat well that's why you need to check out the electric cruiser bike from my friends at boogie bikes the

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basket as well by the way there is no risk within the first 15 days you can try a boogie bike and boogie bikes have an industry-leading five-year warranty as well. Again, go to boogiebikes.com. Check them out today. Fields under pressure this year, 43% of the time. Is that a stat? Oh, what does that stat mean? What does it mean? So 43% of the time, he is under pressure, which is a lot. That is a lot, a lot.

So just Kirk Cousins, who is pressured relatively a lot, is in the low 30s. In the worst years from the Vikings offensive line, it's more toward the upper 30s. So if you're over 40, that means it's going really badly. A lot of times it's quarterback stat though, because, you know, funny enough, Sam Bradford's pressure numbers were not that high in 2016 because he just got rid of the ball. He threw it for four yards to Kyle Rudolph over and over and over again. So it's really getting rid of the football. And I think that what is really hard for young quarterbacks to learn, everyone wants the most athletic guy and everything else, but when to run, when to escape, when to just throw the ball away, he's only averaging 5.3 yards per attempt under pressure, one touchdown, five interceptions, a 40 PFF grade under pressure. I mean, I'm sure that Mike Zimmer knows all of these things.

When he is blitzed, his numbers are very bad also. So, I mean, this is kind of one of those games where you expect that there will be a lot of different looks, a lot of mixed coverages, a lot of blitzes against Justin Fields. And I think he's going to have to make a couple of spectacular plays to even make things interesting. But what opens the door always is the corners really can't cover anybody. And it's always a possibility for that to happen where the opposing quarterback, even Cooper Rush or someone like that, can make big plays. Yeah, I mean, you want to go there, we can go there. Man, our corner play is just disastrous.

I mean, Breland, I think they said like oh breland's sick on the sideline and then he comes back in and instantly gets beat for a touchdown he's laying there like oh i'm sick i was like that's a db move that's a classic xavier rhodes move like oh i got beat my hamstring like i just i really the combination of lack of pass rush and very below average DB play is going to be a big issue down the stretch here. We've kind of been able to mix and match of, oh, well, Everson was getting some pressure and then Watts was starting to get a little, he did a little bit better. We're starting to, and then now he's kind of got neutralized because they were like,

oh, we kind of have to pay attention to this guy now. And then Davlin Thompson, just big pusher, road grader, like doesn't get to the quarterback. These quarterbacks are having the extra second. And when you have the extra second, even if you're an all pro corner, that's hard to do. And when you're talking about these guys that are less than all pros, less than average, less than most, they're not going to be able to cover for that extra second. And Harrison can only make up so much ground. He can only be the eraser for so much.

And he's done it for so many years that you're really seeing he's being stretched thin. He's almost trying to do too much when you watch the tape, he's trying to be everywhere and it works a lot of the time, but there's other times where he just can't do it. And so this, this lack of pass rush and lack of coverage is going to lose the vikings football games down the stretch yeah and it already has for sure

now a question for you when it comes to coaches and the nfl what percentage when things go wrong is my talent are we doing pie chart you can do a pie chart here um what percentage this is only a two two-part pie chart though okay is how you're coached how it's schemed and just sheer talent um because uh well i'll tell you for me well actually you'd say first are we going by position here or just in general well Well, I mean, I guess I'm alluding to – Because it does matter. It does matter. I think that makes a difference.

I'm alluding to the corners in Mike Zimmer. This is a common question that I get is, like, how much of it is his fault that the Vikings have not had good cornerback play in several years? And part of it is that Mike Hughes and Jeff Gladney both went bust. I mean, you drafted two first round corners. One of them may end up in jail soon. And the other is in Kansas City because they strangely traded him away,

but thought that the injuries were going to be too much. You bust on two first round corners, then you're forced to scramble. And I don't know, like how often are teams just plucking guys off the bottom of the barrel? And then all of a sudden they get competent play? That seems pretty rare, but you've been a part of this. So if it's different from position to position, go that way or just explain. Yeah, so it is very much different position to position. And the skill position is one in which that you either have it in the NFL, you don't. And what I mean by that is like when you're a receiver or a corner or a DB,

like you have the athletic gifts, the speed, the range, the ball skills to either be really good in the NFL or you just don't. There's not a lot of, in my opinion, development physically between the wide receivers and the DB position. I think that those guys that come into college or come out of college into the NFL, ready to play are the ones that are going to be really good down the stretch. I mean, Trayvon Trayvon digs, right?

Very off, very, not, not very often. Do you hear of a corner that got drafted in the seventh that now is an all pro, right? I mean,

that's just not often now versus you flip that and you look at o-line d-line tight ends the physical development of those players are two three four years down the road in their nfl careers are when they really blossom into their final play and i think that's because when you're talking about speed and agility it is what it is but when you talk about strength and power and techniques of combating strength and power, that's still developing in the NFL. There's no way to develop that technique or that skill set unless you're in the NFL. You can run really fast all the time.

It doesn't matter if there's someone there. You can cone drills, flip your hips all the time. You cannot mimic the development piece of the front seven and so i think that for a db it's it's a lot of you want to put it on zimmer not developing and i think it's 90 talent and 10 development you want to talk about offensive line play you want to about defensive line like i'd say you could almost flip it. Or no, I'd say 75-25, right? Like 75% talent, you have it. And then 25% is what makes you that elite player

of the development piece. I mean, Daniil Hunter's a great example. You have a guy that got drafted middle of the rounds that's not an all-pro. You see it all the time with guys like Michael Bennett, right? Michael Bennett for the Seahawks was, I don't believe he was a first rounder. I mean, he was kind of, I think he was undrafted if I'm, if I'm recalled and he able to develop and learn and grow into what one point in time was an all pro. And so those stories you see all the time. And so if we want to lay the

blame, blame, it's the fact that these corners just are not very physically gifted in the ability to match up with wide receivers in the nfl on a week-in week-out basis okay i'm looking up where michael bennett was drafted or if he was undrafted yep 2009 yeah i don't know about you guys but i've gotten very good in my life at admitting when I need some help. If you are struggling to figure out how to navigate workers' compensation and disability laws, I've got a team that can lend you a hand. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer are dedicated and experienced disability attorneys, so if you find yourself on your company's injury report, Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer Law can help you understand your rights

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So make sure to go to their website, yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. That is yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. This has been an attorney advertisement for Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer. So I think that with offensive line, offensive line coach is the one who has the most impact on his team. And I think the Patriots, no surprise, have had the best or one of the best of all time for a long time. And we saw all sorts of guys, and I'm sure it was helped by Brady getting rid of the ball quickly and setting protections.

That's got to be a big deal. But they consistently outperformed what they had for talent along the offensive line. And that's something to be a big deal, but they consistently outperformed what they had for talent along the offensive line. And that's something that is a big deal. And that's when, you know, Rick Denison decides he's not getting vaccinated and everything else. And you go like, okay, well, I know that the other guy, Phil Rauscher was working, you know, with these guys before, but Denison has done it for a really long time, especially with the run blocking and has these details down to, you know, the centimeter and that can matter for you. I don't know if, I mean, Zimmer might ask too much of them. That's the only thing that I could think in terms of

scheme affecting cornerbacks. I think scheme affects quarterbacks a ton. Like if you've got it right, you can really help. If you've got it way wrong, you're Trevor Lawrence. But there's a big difference there, I think with scheme. But with corner, I think if you're, if you're asking them to too often be one on one, or, you know, sometimes the techniques can be pretty complicated. You know, I mean, Zimmer was talking the other day about, well, in this situation, you have to play, you know sometimes the techniques can be pretty complicated uh you know i mean zimmer was talking the other day about well in this situation you have to play you know this way and this alignment and you can't be outside leverage on this specific down and distance and everything i was like there's a lot to ask there but also it's bashad breland like he's been in the nfl for a while man i mean

you should be you know getting these things down by now you've been here since minicamp so you should be able to master them, but you're just not that good, which is why no one paid you. And the same thing for Mackenzie Alexander. I think he was a fine player, but the whole league didn't think so. $900,000. Like the league looked at him and said, no, I don't think so. And then that's what you've gotten for results. You get what you pay for just like anything else. And you know, if you have first round picks that hit, I bet it looks a lot different. It sure looked a lot different with two first round picks in Rhodes and Waynes. And then a guy who's 38 in the NFL, still Terrence Newman, who knows everything about everything or captain Munderland, who was a proven NFL player. Like they're playing the same way. Why it look different the guys aren't as good i i

really think that that's more about what it is but i i wanted your perspective because you've been there yeah i mean and you can even look at there's case studies all over like example wyatt teller i played with wyatt teller in buffalo he's now one of the highest paid guards plays for the browns now dude was just struggling I mean couldn't get it right and we had Juan Castillo was our line coach and he was a great coach for veterans wasn't a great coach for young guys and it was a really young room and so he was really struggling he was not picking up concepts he was really and he was kind of checking out and but physically one of the most gifted human beings I'd ever been around in my entire life and so watching them cut

him and he was like a fourth round pick they just said you know what you're not working see ya he gets picked up by Bill Callahan one of the greatest offensive line coaches in the league you mean you saw it in Dallas and to watch his development it really shows you that offensive linemen are not really hitting peak until their fourth or fifth year. And versus I look at like Patrick Sertain for the Broncos, right? He's kind of having a pro bowl caliber year for them. I mean, and is there really that much difference between offensive line, defensive line and corners? Yes. The answer is yes. And so that's kind of my take on the whole thing is the talent level in the DB room is just really subpar.

So the numbers actually bear this out. The studies on this that have been done have found that offensive linemen do not reach their peak performance until year four. Whereas corners and receivers and several other positions, it's year two. Running backs is year one often, like right away. You're who you are and who you're going to be. And there isn't much of a development curve there in general. So that's interesting. It sort of matches up with your experience. Let me ask you something before we get to love to see it.

Hate to see it is you're worried about the bears. You're worried about soldier field. Are you looking at this one and saying, look, come on, the bears are so bad and their coach is bad and the organization's going to fire them. The team's bailing on their coach, rookie quarterback. It feels more 2017 Bears-ish where they're just not scary. And they're even less scary on defense because Khalil Mack is not there. Akeem Hicks has been banged up. Eddie Goldman has COVID. I just, I just can't see where the curse is so strong

that it overtakes how bad they are. They might be, if they play the Lions on a neutral field, it might be like an even pick-up because I think that both teams are that bad. Yeah, but we lost to the Lions. That is true. If that's your logic, then there's a little asterisk on there like L Vikings.

I mean, I agree with you. I think that this is a week where you look and you go, okay, we're coming off a strong performance in the first half. We found a way to win, right? At the end of the day, L's W's. Only thing that matters, how we got there, sure, we can talk about it, but that's what our jobs are talked about all week. They don't care. They got the W coming off of the team that had the W and found a way to

absolutely piss it away against the Packers and find a way to lose, which is what the bears are good at. Like that's what they're good at. And so by that stat alone of us finding ways to win and then finding ways to lose recently, put that on alone of us finding ways to win and them finding ways to lose recently, put that on top of everything. If they're banged up, rookie quarterback Zimmer has a great track record against rookie quarterbacks. This does feel like the Vikings get in there

and kind of just roll their way through the Chicago Bears. That being said, anything can happen with these guys, man. I mean, we're over there talking about Flo Rida at halftime and how happy we were. And then I'm sitting there watching South Dakota with my buddy. We were fessing, and I'm going, dude, we're going to lose this football game. He's like, there's no way. I was like, I'm telling you, we might lose this football game

with the way that things go. And then once Kirk threw the pick and they ran it back, he looked at me and goes, you really might lose this football game. And so there's no telling. There's no telling with these guys but i think that if we take care of the football and and not throw interceptions and give them life i think fields is going to give us a couple turnovers and we should be able to beat this team what the line has to be close to nine or ten right uh i don't think so no i'll i'll look'd be surprised. I'll pull it up. What are your thoughts?

I'll pull it up. I would be surprised. Yeah, well, look, you're absolutely right that when you have a defense that's so flawed, as the Vikings is. Vikings are only three. Sorry about that. Yeah, it's Soldier Field, man. Division game, it's all baked into it.

But, you know, when they are as flawed as they are as a defense, anything becomes possible. Uh, if it becomes possible for backup quarterbacks to beat you for Jared Goff to lead game winning drives against you. So that is altogether a thing that can happen. And would it be the most shocking thing ever if they lost it? No, they, they lost to Chadad hutchinson once there um you know they gave up i think 45 points to kyle orton once there i mean the crazy things happen the game in 2016 is just like this completely lost chicago team that comes in and plays the game of their lives it does happen but their roster is so beat up and so bad i just still have a tough time and the way i look at it is

well you should just theme roll if you don't well then we know what's happening yeah then we don't have to talk about weather changes are coming we know they are right and i think that at this point the vikings book like you said it's written right like when things go bad we know exactly where we're going to point. And it's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expect a different result. If they go off the rails and we lose this football game, there's no real fixing it.

I think the only way to fix it is you burn it down and try and start over. Love to see it. Hate to see see it where do you want to start um i i could go with you go you you you start us off here well i'll just go hate to see it is pass interference and whatever the definition of it is did not exist in the buffalo and tampa bay game now buffalo didn't have to get down 24 to 3 and hope that refs would help them against the Tom Brady team. They're not going to help you when Tom Brady's on the other side, but digs was tackled. And then Brady was inaccurate really in the second half of that game makes a bad throw. It's nowhere close to catchable. The guy, you know,

as a little contact, it's a flag, it's third down. It's a huge first down Tampa Bay goes on to win that game. And it's, it's, you know, become, I think more frustrating than ever because teams are passing more teams are being aggressive. They're pushing the ball down the field and you just on a weekly basis would love to understand what the heck pass interference is. And I think the NFL was on the right track, trying to have it be reviewable. They just botched the execution of it and didn't give it any time and just bailed. Just said, well, you know, didn't work. It would be like if you started a business and then after the first month, you weren't in the black, you just said, ah, it didn't work. Shut it down. Like that's what they

did. And these are game altering things that you could just take a look at and fix but they didn't and the bills lost the game yeah i i'm gonna have to go with my my love to see it it's gonna be the all the people that are talking about that aaron rogers look like i thought that that was hysterical i don't know why i i have seen the memes for that thing and it's been it's been cracking me up because man if you haven't seen it and you've been living under a rock if you haven't like that dude is one billion percent aaron rogers twin like you can't convince me otherwise that is 100 aaron rogers twin and i thought that was really funny and then my easy hate to see it um very much like you talked about is covid kind of rear and it's ugly head at playoff time.

I think that right now you're starting to see tip of the iceberg a little bit with guys testing positive and close contact and all that stuff, and it could not be happening at a worse time because it's going to implicate and affect playoff football, and it's going to suck. You're going to have teams that are really good and had a hell of a season that all of a sudden it's like hey star receiver you're at the end and your three offensive linemen are out because they've close contact and you only have one shot at this

thing it's not like they're gonna reschedule entire playoff games and so hate to see that starting to rear its ugly head again yeah the other hate to see it was just the number of quarterbacks who've gotten hurt this year has been a hate to see it was just the number of quarterbacks who have gotten hurt this year. It's been a hate to see it. It's really brought down the overall level of play. Lamar Jackson getting hurt. James Winston in New Orleans. So then they're, you know, fiddling around with Trevor Simeon and with, you know, Taysom Hill. And it just seems like there's been a lot of quarterbacks hurt this year where that was not the case last season. And it's just, you know, we've seen a lot of backup quarterbacks out there which is just not what you want um i don't even know if i have a love to see it but i'll just

throw this one out there i really enjoy watching patrick mahomes play football and and for a four or five week stretch it was just miserable and i was like what is going on with this this is like andy fix what's happened here uh and then the game they played against the raiders was vintage mahomes just shredding somebody's face and i i think it's better and more fun the nfl is when this guy is on a totally different level than everybody else and he's doing things that don't even make physical sense i really enjoy watching that and if kansas city is back and he's doing that the rest of the way, good. Look out. Good for me.

Look out, AFC. Yeah, look out, AFC, because they're the scariest team to beat versus Kyler Murray doesn't know how to run a two-minute drill at the end of the game. So I hate to watch his offensive linemen think that he's going to spike the football, and then they just don't block anybody, and he just gets a walk-off sack. Like, that sucked.

That sucked to see a good football game. That was a really fun football game to watch, and so horribly poorly. Did you ever play against Aaron Donald? Did you ever line up against him? I didn't actually play that game, and I'm not upset about it, but we played them in 2017 and we just double teamed him the entire game like the whole the whole game plan sperano's plan was just we're just gonna double team like run game yep pass game great we're just gonna try and beat the piss out of him double team

wise and we were able to which was fun but no he's a scary human he is a scary human 15 pressures what does that stat mean It means holy MF. That is insane. First play of the game, he just bench presses Max Garcia. Like, that's, oh, buddy. First play of the game. The only time I've seen that happen was against Pat Eflin. We're playing the Cincinnati Bengals. That's right.

And Geno Atkins. We told him all week, we're like, here's what he does. Lines up in a three, and he's going to loop at you. Sit your butt down. And we just, boom, hop, hop, hop, sack. We're like, oh, he does lines up in a three and he's gonna loop at you sit your butt down and we just boom hop hop hop sack like oh buddy we tried to warn you we tried uh but aaron donald against garrett bradbury mason cole and ezra cleveland will be something to witness in person in a few weeks so we'll see uh well thank you for your time as always tuesday morning left guard will carry on

as we go down the stretch and we will have a ton to talk about whether the vikings are cursed in chicago or not um jeremiah so thank you for your time and enjoy the the recruiting announcements can't wait have a great time look it's like the draft okay nobody really knows who's going to be good but you just say he could be great and everyone likes you we have a guy named the coldest who is committed to us no that guy yeah i remember him from the internet like when he he was i think he's gonna commit we're not a hundred percent but i was told to do some research on him in case he does his name is literally the coldest Crawford and I refuse to use that name for him I will just call him Crawford no I'm sorry love the kid I'm sure he's

a great kid but I just can't I just can't yeah I feel like um there's like little Jordan Humphrey is a place for the Saints and like points for creativity but maybe a little a little too much uh the coldest yeah the coldest baby anyway i'll see you next week i'll see you next week