Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings offseason predictions!!!!! (Part 2)

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Matthew Coller gives his 3 levels of Vikings offseason predictions and then Brian Murphy and Manny Hill join to add theirs as well. 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. All right, so make sure you answer that Fandul question of the day, which is the two smallest lines for this upcoming weekend are Bears Packers and Bill's Jaguars. Both are separated by 1.5 points with the Packers and Bill's favored. what's your favorite matchup of the weekend uh it is time see let me reload here uh it is time to get to our round table if oh there we go we got manny in there all right okay so uh let me let me get manny and murph in here and then we can begin our roundtable which happens every monday and this should be an interesting one because i have asked these two gentlemen to do their

own predictions for the off season. So it just takes a second. Let me get in there. Hi, Mani. How are you? Um, quite well. How are you? Oh, you know, I mean, you know, I, last night's game, you and I were texting throughout the game. Holy cow. It was so, it was so incredible. It was so breathtaking. And I just thought, I just can't, I would not have believed that if the Vikings played defense the way they did this year and they kicked the way they did this year, that we would be sit home watching other people play in the playoffs so that i'm i'm feeling a tad blue after that uh murph what's going on my friend how are you if you can hear me murph can you hear me okay murph's just uh staring i think you're muted murph are you muted i think murph muted

okay well hopefully murf no can't hear me murf can't see me all right can you hear me uh That I'm not sure, but it's odd to see him staring into nothingness. So I'm going to close out Murph for a second here and then we'll get deeper into it. But, Manny, I made three different levels of predictions in terms of the Vikings off season. I started with Captain Obvious, then spicy, then bold. I would like you to start with your Captain Obvious Vikings prediction. and then we can get into the different levels of that and go from there. So let's start out with like,

what is your most obvious Vikings offseason prediction? That they're going to sign or trade for a quarterback in the offseason to compete with J.J. McCarthy. Simply because that's, it's obviously the biggest glaring need on this team right now is the quarterback position because it just, just simply wasn't good enough in 2025. And when you look at how everything else played out with the team, the way the defense played,

especially when everybody got healthy in the second half of the year, the way Will Riker kicked the football, with Vikings' history of kickers letting them down to have a season like Will Riker did, and you don't even make the playoffs, it just feels like kind of a waste. And so with everything else performing as well as it did during the season and to get really subpar quarterback play for pretty much the entire year,

say for a couple of games against some bad defenses, it's the biggest glaring need that you have to address. Even if you are going in with the hope that J.J. McCarthy would take the position by the horns and win it and improve and play really, well in 2026, you can't guarantee that, you can't bank on that. And so going and getting a veteran to push him, compete with them, and a guy that can legitimately win the job if McCarthy underperforms in the off season to give yourself a chance to win, that's going to be the number one, the number one thing

and the most obvious decision, move, whatever you want to call it, they're going to have to do. Okay, I heard Murph clear his throat, so we must have you locked in here, Murph. Thank you. Yes. Good evening. To get on here. Yep. How are you, my friend? Um, exhausted, relieved, uh, ready to move forward. Okay. I think that's fair enough. Are you talking about life in general or the Vikings?

Well, I wasn't sure which you were talking about. I assumed that the Minnesota Vikings, uh, but it exhausted of having the same analysis of McCarthy each week it felt like, which was, we would get moments of him that you really like and you go, okay, like, this seems to be something. And then there's an injury. And then there's a game or a throw or a celebration into the end zone or a taunting or whatever it might be that makes you go or a comment from Kevin O'Connell that makes you go, okay, how are we feeling about this? And then, you know, I saw, and I'll talk to Jeremiah Searle about this when we do our show tomorrow because he's,

play in the league and he's been through injuries in games and stuff like that. But I saw Lieber talking about it and I thought his comments were spot on where he was talking about coming out of the game in, you know, mid drive and then doing this entire song and dance on the sideline, you know, it just speaks to me of the immaturity of J.J. McCarthy. And I don't mean that in a way of like immaturity he's street racing or something. Like I don't mean it that way or that he's a bad team. made or a bad person or anything like that. I just mean that you could tell that he has not been around the block in the NFL, almost

like if you take courses in how to speak Spanish and then go to Mexico and start talking the language. Like you may know some of the words or a lot of the words, but you're not quite fluent. And that was a moment of, I just don't know that, you know, guys in the NFL handle something the way that he did yesterday. And I could see the, you know, Lieber getting worked up. I watched the video from KFAN this morning. So that whole event, it was like, Murph, we just couldn't get through it with him throwing

for 400 yards, four touchdowns, and then all go home, which feels so J.J. McCarthy. Right. I didn't expect him to do that even against a sad sack, or not a sad sack, but a, you know, a defense that was playing it like a walkthrough. I think the table stakes right now for J.J. McCarthy are, we've been saying all along, competency, right? competent quarterback play in relation to NFL performances, in relation to production, footwork, in relation to hitting receivers on coming out of the break, giving them a chance to

beat a defender, reading things going. All of that we've been talking about for the first time yesterday, I feel like we need to understand if J.J. McCarthy is a professional. And I know that sounds old manish and I know that sounds, you know, no fun league and all of that. But I would advise him to read the room. And I don't see him reading the room. I don't think no people around him have admonished him to read the room. I get the impression O'Connell has had some of those moments, including on the sideline yesterday after the taunting call, after the gritty on the third, three yard line walking in in Dallas.

And yeah, this kind of overly dramatic, let's wrap the hand in towel and just kind of, you know, brohugging the veterans. and it just, it doesn't feel like an NFL quarterback to me. And I don't know how to describe that without becoming an old curmudgeon. But it's not about J.J. McCarthy having fun or having command or getting everybody to buy in and being a leader in terms of his demeanor on the sideline. This is very immature stuff. And it's, it's convenient to say, well, he's 22 years old. well yeah but he's also a professional quarterback who's heading into now his third season so i you know

let's let's let's not we need to take the bubble wrap off of this guy so my prediction going forward is just like manny said not only a veteran quarterback but a veteran quarterback that is going to make him earn the job a veteran quarterback that is very capable of coming in on week one if it doesn't look good or if it's oh and two and it doesn't feel good and you know capable of playing 14 to 15 games. That's the only determining factor I've been able to come up with after this season is he can't be trusted with the keys to the car anymore. I think that's obvious.

He needs more education. He needs more adults with him behind the wheel. And if he can't prove that early on that he's not going to be capable of doing that, then he sits and we move forward. And maybe he's done, maybe he's not. But he needs to go win this job this year or it's never going to be. is. You know, what I thought about yesterday with the taunting call and then the handling of the whole thing. And just in case you didn't see what Ben Lieber said, he said, I don't love the

theatrics of it. I don't love the optics of it. There's so much drama surrounding that. You don't need to place a towel over your hand. It's not melting. There's not a bone sticking out. It's not disfigured. It's not harming anybody by looking at it. I think that he's got a lot to learn about the body language, the behavior, the outward optics of how things look. And, And it feels to me, guys, like if I'm Kevin O'Connell, and I've heard him talk about this, about quarterbacks and what he respects the most of quarterbacks, is that they get to the huddle and they run the play, and then they run the next play, and then they run the next play, no matter what happens, no matter what the game situation is, that's what he views his leadership and

toughness. And he has talked about this before, I don't think it's jumping around like crazy. I don't think it's calling yourself nine. I don't think it's getting a taunting penalty. You know, I, I mean, I think we all like his exuberance and his energy, but there is a level to that where it comes across as, dude, you've got a job to do here that's hard enough when it's not this other performative type of stuff. And it's such a small thing because you feel like, how would I even explain to someone

who didn't understand football, why high-fiving all the veterans coming off the field just looked so, you know, I don't know, like this isn't Friday night. brough like if you're in the middle of a series too i mean if you're but if you're and it i agree with you murf there's no way to not sound like a jerk about this and that's why i'm glad that leber went there because like this guy was been there this guy's played and he's played with far and he's played with the best so and i and rivers like he's played with the some of the goats and like to just be like oh high five guys with my left hand on the side like these guys they're going to the sideline to get ready for the next series man like what are we doing here if your hand

is injured go get treatment and see if you can get back in the game or say you on the bench and let Max Brosmer play, they don't need a cheerleader. Like, and there's a lot of the stuff that seems like, hey, were you kind of trained for this by watching, like, football movies? And there's a wild card part of him that seems like O'Connell just can't wrangle him to play the position the way he wants him to play it, whether it's, you know, he said this on the Vikings entertainment. He said that sometimes he comes to the sideline.

said, oh, I scouted this guy, and that's why I threw this ball that wasn't in the game plan. You're like, just run the play. This is stuff that they have said, not, I'm just coming up with it. That makes it hard to figure out. It doesn't mean he can't be a good quarterback. It makes it hard to figure out, can they get on the same page? And can he learn and develop the way that O'Connell wants him to learn and develop, which gets to the next layer of predictions, because we start with the obvious one that they need to go get another quarterback. Now, earlier the show, fellas, I laid out three levels, Captain Obvious quarterback, spicy quarterback, and bold quarterback. And those guys were Mack Jones, to me, is the most obvious type of guy, where

sure, he could come in and play, but, you know, McCarthy should beat him in a competition if there's anything there. Gino Smith has won a lot of games over the last couple years, not last year, obviously, but with a good organization in Seattle, big arm, great thrower of the football, all that sort of stuff. But, you know, McCarthy, again, should probably beat him out if he's your franchise guy. If he's not, you can actually get to the playoffs with Gino. We've seen that in Seattle.

And then the bold is obviously like Lamar Jackson, but, you know, I'm still not sold on that actually happening. So the bold is Kyler Murray. Maney, give me which one you would predict that the Vikings do and then which one you like the most. I predict that it's going to be something more along the, mac jones type of route where it's going to be because i feel like that might be the easiest to attain because you know it's not a superstar type of guy that a bunch of teams are going to be

now maybe mac jones for a handful of quarterback starving teams that we're going to see this offseason might be a top target because he's very capable of going out and starting a full season But, you know, I don't imagine that somebody like a Mac Jones is going to cost you a ton of money. You know, if the 49ers are going to hang on to him, obviously it's going to cost you some draft capital. But I think it's, it seems the most likely type of scenario because it seems like the most feasible, one that you could probably put together. So that's kind of my prediction. I'm with you, though, and I texted this with you when we were texting last night during the Raven Steelers game. I think Kyler Murray kind of makes the most sense in the situation because I'm just not sure.

It's not that I don't think that J.J. McCarthy can eventually be good. I just don't know if this coaching staff and this front office and the veterans that are on this team that are still very good. and in their primes. I don't know if they have two, three, four, five, six years to wait for J.J. McCarthy to grow up and mature as just a professional quarterback that you can rely on to show up week in and week out, lead this team, be productive on the field, and take this team to where everybody is aspiring for them to be, which is getting to a level where you're competing for a Super Bowl.

And the things that we saw during the game yesterday, the lowering your shoulder into a defensive back as you're going out of bounds and then getting the taunting penalty and stuff like that. And even going back to the situation in Dallas where he's gritting to the end zone when they had told him during the week, hey, don't do that and you go and do it anyway.

All of that stuff may seem innocent. And, you know, as isolated incidents, but when it starts to pile up and when you look at, you know, what is on the line for this organization and this coaching staff, you don't have time to let this, oh, just let JJ be JJ. And he'll, he'll grow up and he'll figure it out eventually. I don't think this team has, has time to wait for that light to sort of click on for him. So to me, I think the best route is to go and get a quarterback that. is established, that we've seen perform well before, that may not be perfect, but you know that he's capable of starting a full season and being productive with the weapons that you have, the situation that you're putting them in. And Kyler Murray in that situation, I think makes

the most sense. I don't want to give away all my Kyler Murray stats because I'm going to do a huge deep dive. The Arizona Cardinals under Jonathan Gannon with Kyler Murray, I believe I had them at 13 and 17, which is not great. But without him, they were 2 and 19. So just shows you a little bit about what the Arizona Cardinals have been as a franchise, probably one of the bottom five franchises in the entire NFL. Just to speak to your point of, hey, this guy isn't perfect. But if I recall, Sam Darnold wasn't either.

And Kirk Cousins wasn't either. And I mean, wouldn't we have all, wouldn't we chunk, and they're a very different player, but wouldn't we chunk Kyler Murray and Kirk Cousins? into the same, like the Kirk Cousins that was here, not the one after he ripped his Achilles, they'd be in the same, like, hey, this guy was around 500 when his team is just okay, and that's exactly what Kyler Murray has been. Murph, which level would you like to predict and which one do you like? Is it the Mack Jones level of this guy's more of a backup, but if he has to save your

bacon, he might be able to, or is it the washed up starter, Gino Smith, who could at least make it fun, but McCarthy should beat him out. Or, hey, it's just another starting quarterback. And it's really like a Indianapolis situation. And I say Murray, but it could also be Daniel Jones. Like if he was like this, it doesn't have to be Murray, but it's like that level of bold. Where are you at with that? Yeah, I'm thinking they should do more bold. I think we had a similar discussion last week where we're kind of ranking, where would we put your ideal backup situation. And we didn't want to bang the red panic button on Kyler Murray. because, you know, he's got baggage in Arizona and what is this really going to say about McCarthy

and what is it going to say about you as an organization that you're just saying, no, we're going to this direction now because we screwed up. They're not going to say that, but that's what it indicates. I think, you know, if you really want to save face and you really think you can make J.J. McCarthy, and I can't believe I'm saying this, at best a professional, at best a competent quarterback, then as a regime and a head coach, you have to have him on that. the roster next year and you have to have him compete i don't mean on the roster you have to have him competing yeah for the starting job you can't have kailer murray come in and be the guy right um

i also think though that what i've seen over the last couple of weeks has really said to me you know i don't think they need to be delicate about this anymore not only with mccarty's ego as far as i'm concerned gets no special treatment anymore but also the notion that what does it say about us if we go out and get more of a hired gun, does that mean we have to publicly acknowledge the McCarthy mistake? No, because McCarthy can still maybe work his way through figuring out not taking on defenders for an extra yard on the sideline when you're already injury prone and then getting up in another defender's face

as if, you know, it's the Super Bowl. And that's where the read the room comes in. So the bold one, I don't think this would happen. I thought it might happen last year and I was not. happy about it at all, Aaron Rogers. And I say that because I thought he was going to be toxic in the locker room and a toxic influence on McCarthy. He might actually still be that. I'm not sure I care. He has been able to kind of reestablish himself after two lost years in New York. He seems to have found a place in Pittsburgh. He had another moment last night. He may or may not

get another moment in the playoffs. They may move on from Mike Tomlin. He's always the hired gun. Maybe they try to make this work one time here. What does that do? do, that upends everything we know about the Vikings quarterback situation, which wouldn't be the first time they've ever done that, not even in recent years. So I like the idea of bold now because it really says, we're not going to wait around anymore. If he can find his way to professionalism, competency, reliable, durable starter, playoff, if he can keep doing that throughout the year, I'm all in. If he's 0 and 2 and there's more junk and there's more bang.

up stuff and he was average in preseason and it was a coin toss between whoever they bring in and him, I'm kind of at least moving on quickly. So the bold move maybe doesn't water down, you know, what you might get. I mean, could Mack Jones win you 10 to 12 games, depending on what the roster looks like? Does Brian Flores come back? We have all that too. But if you're just looking for another nine or 10 win season, I think you can find, you could bring Mac Jones in for that. Maybe McCarthy gets you a few of them. If you're looking at 11, 12, 13 and getting back into the mix, you've got to go bold. Maybe it's Murray and maybe it's a trade for Jones and maybe it's Lamar Jackson,

you know, or Joe Burrow, because for some reason they seem to be available. So something that I think about a lot is the way that the Vikings got here was with the Super Bowl in mind. And we talked about this a lot in the off season. And all of us were wrong about how this year played out because I think we all thought based on what we'd seen from McCarthy that he could play at that competent level and that they could build a roster this strong.

I would still say I went through the other rosters that are in the playoffs, the NFC. The only ones that I could come up with, they're clearly stronger, but then the Vikings are the Rams and the Seahawks, and that's it. And the Vikings have a better kicker than the Rams, so they might even be better than them,

except for the position that matters the most. And if you took, and here's the test for that, give the Vikings Matthew Stafford, how many wins do they have? uh 14 right that right so like give give them give them sam darnold but with this with this roster with the roster with all the money that they spent how many wins they have it's probably 12 it's probably 13 right so uh that shows you how strong the rest of the roster is and why did they do that to try to win a super bowl because when they got here the biggest complaint was that the

team had settled into being mid if you go out and get mac jones then you are pretty well staying settled into mid and you've just become a different version of the Zimmer and Spielman regime except for everyone's happy as opposed to everyone being enraged. But that doesn't matter at all when you're 8 and 9 or 9 and 8,

like who cares if you're happy or not? Like it just doesn't make any difference to the people that are paying to show up to the games whether you're Kumbaya in the locker room. So, you know, I think that they do want to avoid being that position again where when they took over, that was the issue. So that to me says that you have to explore all of those options.

And as I said, I said this last week, you're not the Minnesota McCarthy's. Like you were this year, but you're not anymore. You are the Minnesota Vikings franchise that's trying to win a Super Bowl. And when you look at the rest of the NFC North, it's good, but it's failable. It's not flawless. And, you know, Chicago's had everything go right, but they might not next year. and Green Bay is just still kind of above average, but not phenomenal. Detroit has slipped.

The opportunity is still there in the NFC with proper quarterback play, and that's why the bold decision does make sense. And here's the other way to frame that. As we talk about, well, can you get to the Super Bowl? The amount that J.J. McCarthy would have to improve as a quarterback in one off season to get you to that point where you're justifying Brian O'Neill's time, Jonathan Granard's time, Andrew Van Ginkle's time, Blake Cashman's time, all these guys who are veteran players,

that is a big improvement. I use the expected points added stat where he was negative, I didn't check it after yesterday, but he was negative 44 going into this game, which means an average quarterback, they would have scored 44 more points. But to get to Super Bowl level, this team, after scoring 16 yesterday,

about 120 more points is what they would need. not 40, 120 more. So can you get there? That is a very, very difficult task for J.J. McCarthy. Now, the rest of the roster, there is one. There's other players who have other storylines. I asked you guys, you know, before the show, hey, you know, come up with some bold predictions, some thoughts, some feelings on where they will go.

Mani, take it anywhere you want or if you want a wild card. I can give you one of my spicy takes from earlier. but take this wherever you want in terms of predictions. I think, and it's, this is maybe a cop-out because I don't have a specific player in mind. But I think that somebody on this roster, a key player on this roster is going to end up getting cut because of, and I think it's going to be purely for financial reasons, because this team is kind of up. against it with the cap going into this offseason. Now they can do some restructures and, you know, that happens every year with a team that's trying to compete. They're moving some money around, kicking money down the road and everything, try and keep guys and open up cap space.

But I think somebody's going to get cut that all three of us on this show right now are going to raise our eyebrows and be like, oh, okay, what does this mean going forward? So I don't know who that is. I don't even know who I couldn't even name like five potential candidates for that. But that's kind of my prediction is that somebody's going to be not on this team in 2026 that we're not expecting to not be on this team in 2026. So my captain obvious ones, maybe they're not captain obvious. We're Hawkinson, Aaron Jones, and Javan Hargrave, but those seem to be like ones that we wouldn't be totally shocked by. I think what you're talking about is maybe along the lines of a Jordan.

Addison trade could be shocking to everybody. Not that I think that they will. That's why I put it under the bold category, but I also don't think it's impossible. Like his struggles with drops, the off-field stuff, that seems to me, at least within the realm of possibility and the way Jalen Naylor played like a star this year, not totally insane, but that comes along with its own cap challenges that, you know, Addison is cheap next year. Naylor, you'd have to pay a significant amount of money.

to stick around because he's going to have a lot of interest in free agency. But I think if you're looking at one player and saying, hey, maybe that could happen. It's probably him. Where would you like to go, Murph? I'm sorry, I was going to, you stole it from me. No, I really do think you should consider trading Jordan Addison for a couple of reasons. You may need to, you may have to part ways with the blue chip type player. I don't know the finances like you do.

But what I saw this season were, you know, untimely drops. We know about the off-season stuff. And let's not forget the off-season. I'm not talking about the driving. I'm talking about waking up late in London and not being there for a walk-through and things like that. And Jalen Naylor really did emerge. And if you're going to, you know,

we talked about all the lack of chemistry between, you know, Justin Jefferson and J.J. McCarthy. He seems to have kind of a locker buddy with Jalen Naylor. And if you think his progression is on a track and he's a little more professional and you're going to have to move a blue chip, maybe that makes Addison expendable. Again, not knowing the cap hit and the skill set,

look, we know what Jordan Addison can do. We've seen what he can do, and he's a great threat and a tandem to pair with Jefferson. But, you know, if your confidence in him isn't as strong, if Naylor and McCarthy seem to be connecting in some ways, maybe it's Naylor and Jefferson that are the better Batman and Robin in this scenario. And that's probably if you're, or if you're going to make a move for a Daniel Jones or, you know, whatever, whoever you're going to make a move for quarterback wise for a mid-level or a bold move, you know, you're going to have to throw in a talented prospect. I think Addison could fit that bill.

A smaller prediction, though, I really do believe they're going to move heaven and earth to keep Ryan Flores. I mean, you keep hearing chatter. The Raiders are now open. You know, that's kind of the bold move they would make. You know, the Giants, you know, I just feel like, even though he's suing them, I just feel like there are opportunities that are kind of popping up. They're going to be really difficult to navigate. But if you, Mani had mentioned this too last week.

If you're floating at like a co-associate head coach or you're getting him with O'Connell in the decision-making roles a little bit more and you're able to run back a good chunk of that defense and be aggressive again, I think, you know, Flores might be able to finally put together his big, big, juicy stake of leverage and really get the job that he wants if his litigation is settled. So those are the two that I'm going with. All right. Let me get a quick ad read in here. And then we will talk more about Brian Flores and make our predictions for his very near future. But first, talking about the near future, it's 2026, my friends. And I'm sure that if you are hiring for your company, that you've got some new

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include compound drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription is required. See website for full details, restrictions and important safety information. So, Manny, I want your prediction for Brian Flores and where he ends up. I think he is going to be the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. It just seems to make a lot of sense. now they've got to they've got to figure out who's going to play quarterback for them and you know that front office they're going to have the number one overall pick so you know Fernando Mendoza Dante Moore maybe I don't I don't know we'll see how that kind of plays out but I think with the Tom Brady connection there it seems to make a lot of sense it's a it's a heritage franchise you know a franchise with a lot of history. Now, recent history hasn't been great. But again, to your point that you made a lot about with him and, you know, potentially going to Dallas as a defensive coordinator, turns that defense around and it's the Dallas Cowboys. There's a lot of eyes on that. What if you become the

head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders and you turn things around there and you turn them over the next few years into a Super Bowl contender because you figure out the quarterback position, your strength this defense and you turn that defense into, you know, a great, a great, you know, unit that leads the national football league. And all of a sudden, the Raiders are contending for Super Bowls. And they're in one of the most popular cities markets in the world in Las Vegas. There's going to be so many eyes on that as well. And, you know, when you think about the Raiders, there's an opportunity here where if they play their cards right, they get the right coach, get the quarterback,

start to build this roster a little bit more, that division with older head coaches in that division, I mean, Kansas City, they still have Mahomes, obviously, but what is their next couple of years going to look like? You know, Denver seems to have a window right now with Bo Nix, but how much better does Bo Nix actually get? How much longer is Sean Payton really want to coach? coach. And then the Chargers are kind of a team that is good and they're well coached by Jim Harbaugh,

but what's the actual ceiling on that type of team? So if you're the Raiders and you play your cards right, you can have a chance to really do this the right way and suddenly find yourself into some serious contention. Again, if you do, if you play your cards right, and I think that's a big opportunity for Brian Flores to take a swing at that. So Murph, you've said that you think that the Wilf's go, I don't know, sell a couple of real estate things and try to keep Brian Flores. Give me, I want you to break it down into, into percentages, though. Percentage chance that he's back in Minnesota as the D.C., percentage chance that he's somewhere else as a D.C., percentage chance that he's a head coach anywhere.

Try to get it to add up to 100. Yeah, okay. There's some zeros. That's an even number, right? I, you know, I'm going to go in the, that he's coming back, you know, maybe 30%, 35% of third. Maybe a little bit less to an, I think if he's going to be a defensive coordinator, it's going to be here. I think the one thing, it'll be tough for the wills to overcome or come over the top on with an offer, you know, either as a contract or here's a, here's a slew of condos on the Jersey shore. I think it's going to be more difficult if he gets a head coaching opportunity.

And the Raiders as well, obviously there's a ton of steam out there today, being driven by Tom Brady, people associated with Tom Brady, people in contact with people who know Tom Brady, that he and Brian Flores have had a really good relationship. You know, Flores tried to get him down to Miami. He was his D.C. back in the day when Brady was wrapping up. So there is that connection. And there's the, you know, they have the number one overall pick. They have Max Crosby, which, by the way, that front office is going to do, have to do some. some serious damage control to convince him that they're on the right track after how they kind of just shoved him aside at the end of the season and not play. So there's that intrigue,

and it's also the Raiders. And if any team for the last 45, 50 years has been sticking its thumb in the eye of the NFL on anything litigation-wise, it's the Raiders. And they would be the kind of bold head coach. They were the first coach to hire an African-American head coach. Art Shell 35 years ago. Like it's, you know, Mark Davis's old man sued the league several times to move to L.A. To get out of certain deals, it would be just like the Raiders to say, you know what? He's the hottest ticket in town. We've got something converging here with the number overall, number one overall pick.

It's Vegas. It's hot. It's young. It's sexy. So as far as this is our moment, I don't care what the mayor of family thinks because they're suing him. We're going to go this way. So I would say if he's going to be a head coach, it's going to be in Vegas. If he's going to be a D.C., it'll still be in Minnesota.

That is true that if you're suing the league, the Raiders say, come on in, join us. Like, we've done this a few times. Or if you're already in jail or have been to, you know, if you're hanging out at biker bars. I mean, the Raiders take all comers. Yes, that is, that is quite true. I also think that it is worth saying time and time again, not just that he knows Brady, but I believe that they share philosophies of a little bit of yesteryear in the NFL. And I only mean like about 15 years ago, but the league is overhauled quite a bit.

And even the way that coaches coach, which is a little bit more toward the everyone is so wonderful and we're going to be a little more on the positive side. The Kevin O'Connell is more of the positive type of modern coach that everyone's falling along with, which I don't personally mind. but Flores, I think, comes with a edge to him and an accountability factor to him that not everyone is comfortable with, which is why we've seen some of the younger players, I think, not survive here. I think he sets of extremely high standard, but with his defenses in Miami, he got there through the worst defense in the league, two years later, they're elite, gets to the Minnesota Vikings, one year later, they're average, two years later, they're elite.

I mean, this is a pattern that is undeniable. of him building it in his vision. You mentioned Max Crosby. Max Crosby's on the older side, but you could trade him for, what, a first round pick to a desperate team? I'm sure that you could. If you are Flores and you adopt the number one quarterback,

and that'll be a big question, I'm sure, but you take on the number one quarterback, you hand that to Brian Dable, who's, you know, formerly of the Patriots land, bring him in to handle the quarterback. So that was one of the issues in Miami, is they didn't really have someone in charge of the offense.

They had like co-offensive coordinators, which is ludicrous. So it was a little bit of a circus there. But I think that that fits the best of anything. And then the Dallas thing, I like 30% because I think that I'm a little closer to 50. Because, you know, if he doesn't get one of these head coaching jobs, if it's not the Raiders, it's hard to see it happening. So I think there's only one team that makes complete sense for me. And then the Dallas thing makes sense too.

So that's enough to maybe split at 25, 25, and 50% he comes back. There will be a lot of allure of the Vikings building. And if you look around this defense, okay, Harrison Smith is probably going to retire. But who else are you losing, really? I mean, you've got the defense in your vision. Maybe Hargraves not back. But other than that, it's the defense of your vision. And even one shout out we should give to Flores and the front office for getting the guy is Isaiah

Rogers who finished the season as a top 20 cornerback by PFF, like 920 something snaps for this team. That's a great signing. That's an A plus signing. That's the best PFF grade for a corner for the Vikings, I think since Xavier Rhodes, maybe, or even Terrence Newman might have had one of those years. So he's got all his guys. It might be just come down to the Wills have to make that happen. Where else shall we go with this? I can give you guys another. a couple of my predictions and you can react to them. And then I want to get some thoughts on, let me give you my, well, let's see here, my draft predictions.

And this is a little farther down the road because we're already skipping over free agency. I'm not expecting it to be the most exciting free agency. In fact, I threw out the name Alohi Gilman. So if, if that's where we're at with that, that's a safety for the Ravens. It's not going to be one of those free agencies, I think, for the Vikings. But, Manny, what would you? like to see them do in terms of a draft strategy for this year? They have drafted, even though people don't act like it, successfully in the first round, several years in a row with Jordan

Addison, Dallas Turner, who had by the end of the season, the accumulation, a very good season. And then Donovan Jackson, who I was just talking with Will Fries and Brian O'Neill today, they're raving about Donovan Jackson's performance this year. Where do you think that they should go? offense, defense, trade up, trade down, like sitting here right now, what would you like to see them do in the draft? A couple different angles that they could go. I think it kind of depends on maybe other moves that they might make. I mean, you guys mentioned potentially trading Jordan Addison.

You know, if you move on from Jordan Addison, you get some draft capital back for him, you know, I don't think you can go wrong with drafting another wide receiver. You know, if you're going to, you're going to trade away Jordan Addison and then you might lose Jalen Naylor to free agency, you might have to invest that first round pick into a wide receiver just to take, you know, keep some pressure off of Justin Jefferson. So that's a route that they could go. I think for as well as Isaiah Rogers played, you know, Byron Murphy Jr. had kind of an up and down year. I don't think you can go wrong with taking a corner in that particular situation. And also with the potential departure of Harrison Smith, you know, you might have to look at the safety position, too, to bring in somebody that's young and can, you know, can play and contribute right away to this defense. And I know if I mentioned the safety position, people are always going to immediately, they're going to think Lou is seen.

But that was a different situation four years ago when that draft pick was made. So Brian Flores wasn't even around for that. So, but yeah, I think the two that make the most sense to me are wide receiver if you do move on from Madison or I don't think you can go wrong with defensive back in some capacity. What do you think of Murph? I think there's no shortage of secondary depth. And if anything taught us that with the harshness of NFL injuries this year, it felt like the teams that really took it were the ones that either lost their offensive line or their tackles. or lost their cornerbacks. I'm thinking of the Chargers.

I'm thinking of the Lions specifically. Maybe even a little bit of Green Bay, but they managed to get in. But I'm thinking you can never have enough depth in the secondary. What do they pick at 18th? Is that where they're at right now? 18th, the best, worst team out there. I just feel like, you know, if you're going to do safety,

you know, Harrison Smith brought so much institutional knowledge from the league and also the division and just, you know, in the room that Flores could make essentially make them an assistant coach on the field. So if you're looking to replace that quickly, that may have to be a free agency acquisition. I'm only speaking philosophically here. No idea what the money situation is. And again, if you're moving Addison, you need a receiver. If you're thinking you want a proven veteran to kind of take the reins from Harrison Smith,

then you may have to acquire that or trade in a different kind of scenario with your capital. but I think drafting corners, drafting receivers, you can't go wrong with that. And maybe not in the first round, but if you want to move on from T.J. Hawkinson, I mean, it seems like tight ends are a dime a dozen now coming out of college. Good, young, talented guys. And maybe you can get a little bit more capital by moving Hawkinson. And again, it's all a big shell game, right? So which move comes first?

How much money is it going to cost? Where are the holes on the back end of that deal? That's probably going to dictate that much. I don't think, I mean, there's a few positions that are not the most likely, but also not insane. Like defensive tackle is certainly not insane. I'm looking at a couple of centers that are graded pretty highly. And I think the Vikings were drafting right around this same exact spot when they took Garrett Bradbury, which I know did not turn out to be a great, great pick.

But the guy also played center for them every year for, you know, multiple seasons. So I would call that a hit overall for how many games he started and he's still starting on a 13. win team yeah no matter who wins there's going to be somebody we can look at it be like oh that's a bad look um because they could have just kept Bradbury and he I anyway there were things that worked and things that didn't there's a review show in there somewhere for us uh in the near future I also think that you draft for not the next season but two seasons down the road so if you're looking at the cornerback position Isaiah Rogers will be a free agent after next year.

If you're already paying Byron Murphy Jr., and Rogers is going to be a free agent, then you draft a first round corner to ultimately take over for Isaiah Rogers. Plus, they were so freaking lucky at that position. That position gets injured all the time. Those guys played every snap, and Jeff Okuda goes out. The next man up was Fabian Moreau, who is 30-something years old. And the next man up after that, they can't even look at that guy. Dwight McCluther.

they're not even interested at all and putting him on the field. So they lucked out what's the chances that you get between those 2,000 snaps for next year. I've got corner at the top of the list. But there's bold options, as you said, Manny. I mean, what they have to really decide this offseason is how spicy and bold do we want to get? How much do we want to change this? Because the roster was good enough to win with. So do you really want to start shuffling around different trade this guy, move on from that guy,

draft that guy, replace this with that. I don't know that they're really in a position to do that. The one thing that has come up, and I do not think that this happens, but at least it's sort of in the air, would be firing Quasi at Aflmenza. I mean, they're supposed to talk to us later this week, so I assume if he's there, that it's going to go forward. Like, that would have to happen pretty soon. I don't think that it's necessary.

they made one decision now you could pick apart while they overpaid for this guy and they paid for that guy and so forth but they made one catastrophic decision that cost them the 2025 season by misunderstanding where j j mccarthy was and in my opinion overvaluing i mean the seahawks won the conference and paid sam darnold so it's not impossible to pay a quarterback and be here. The Jacksonville Jaguars paid Trevor Lawrence, and they're here. It's not impossible. They made it sound like it was impossible.

Well, if you keep Sam, you just have to shut down your franchise. I mean, for one year, you can move money and make some of this stuff happen. So anyway, they make one catastrophic decision. They all did it together. The Wilves did it. Quasi did it. Kevin O'Connell did it. Right?

The triumph rate there. But I don't think that the process overall, of building a roster has been so bad that, oh, you got to get rid of them. I think that if you're doing it, you'd be doing it to change the power structure. And for me, you would be getting a general manager who you then say, you're in charge now of the roster and the coaches are not going to tell you who to go get. That's the only reason to change it for me because I think the coaches have been running the roster and then, you know, make the grocery list, go get the,

groceries for the last couple years, and that's work to bring in a ton of talent on this football team. So even like even drafting a guard is such a coach move because we need a guard. It's not an efficiency move. That would have been making the trade with the Atlanta Falcons and moving down and picking your guard in the second round instead or something. So I think the way that it's working is okay and that they should all ride this out together through 2026 and make that the crescendo of it either works or it doesn't, the Kevin O'Connell, Quasi Adolfo Menza era. That's how, that's my opinion. How do you feel about that, Manning? Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, to your point about the way that they built the rest of the roster, despite the quarterback

mishap from last off season, you know, it's, it's, they've done a pretty good job. I mean, There's a lot of really good players on this team and a lot of really good players who are right smack in the middle of their prime. You're getting the best football out of these guys. So I think that part of it has been really sound. And the reality is we could speculate about what they're going to do with the quarterback position. If they figure it out one way or the other, if J.J. McCarthy makes a huge leap and becomes the starting. quarterback and the franchise quarterback that they envisioned him to be a year ago at this time, or if they make a trade for, you know, a Mac Jones or, you know, they find a way to get

Kyler Murray, they make a big swing and get Joe Burrow and bring him in there or Lamar Jackson and it works and they win 12 or 13 games and they go to the NFC championship game or, dare I say, even the Super Bowl next year, then everything's going to be fine. And everybody's going to be happy and everybody's going to be able to keep their jobs so really to me i i think to to kick crazy to the curb because of a massive decision that everybody was on board with doing i think would be kind of a cop out on their part and i could i can see it happening to your point where that might be just a decision that the wolf's decide to make and and sort of revamp the power structure of the team. But again, you're, you're in a lot of ways. One decision derailed a

2025 season. One decision could send the 2026 season right in the direction that you want it to go. Obviously, you have to get it right. And I think with the potential for that, whatever they do, potentially being the right move, if it works out, I think that I think it would be, you know, a a potential mistake to hit a panic button and say, well, we've got to get this guy out because of one decision that pretty much everybody in a position of power was on board with a year ago. You know, let me make a metaphor. If you've ever written it out with a Netflix show

or Amazon Prime show or Apple, whatever show, or whoever wants to sponsor my show, if you've ever written it out through multiple seasons where you have a storyline that you can't stand, say that we're in season four, right now of a Netflix show, right? We've gotten the introduction to all the characters. That was 2022.

We had some rocky moments, but at least it was kind of exciting. All right, I want to keep watching. We got a great season that said, okay, that's Sopranos Season 4 right there. Last year for the Vikings, that was super fun. Maybe the ending wasn't anybody wanted. And then this year was a bad season with a bad storyline, which is, you know, J.J. McCarthy in the quarterback situation. I don't think you're quitting the show.

I think you're saying, let me, let me give it one more season to show me that I should keep watching, whatever it is, a Netflix show that we're watching. I want to see one more season of this. And then if it works, then I'll stick with the show. And if it doesn't, I'm going to go watch something else. That's how I view it. At the same time, Murph, there are consequences. I'm also a show quitter, by the way.

If I don't like where something's going, I just, I just, I don't have time for this. I quit madmen. I quit, what was the Kevin Spacey one? House of cards. You got to invest. Now, I'm a quitter. When it comes to that, I'm absolutely a quitter. But, well, if you want me to piggyback on your show running metaphor here, I would say this is what, we're going into season four or five, five.

This is around the time where if the ratings start going down and there's fewer viewers and the content's getting stale and the characters are drying up, you kill one of them all. So are you it sounds like you're saying Quasi's done at the end of the week and we're going to have a new set no I I what here's many hit it right on the head. There is no way you can make Quazy the scapego for this. This was an organizational decision. I don't know who said what in what room at what time. Maybe it was last January when the Wills were reevaluating and or in March where they somebody somebody pushed the chips all in now I'm. I'm. I think it was a collective decision, so I'm not sure how that really flies if you're going to, because then you have to, to me, you've got to fire both or not. And if it's collectively how the front office is structured right now, if it's collectively an assessment of his draft and player personnel moves, I don't think they're that bad. I mean, there's nitpicking that can be done, but I don't think it would be productive

to scapegoat him right now. The other thing you mentioned, you've mentioned extensively, collar and written about and talked about this was a two-year plan with McCarthy these two guys all three of these guys are attached at the hip right in some ways so you can't gut them right now and i still think there's potential for McCarthy there is potential it's a ton of work i don't think the roster the front office or the fan base in fact i know they don't have the patience for that ton of work so if you can turn it around quickly and get it up to competent level you might be able to survive that with another hired gun in place.

And just to kind of wrap, I mean, look, Joe Schoen of the New York Giants is 7 and 27 and just got his job extended today. I mean, if he can survive that long, I think Quasi's in a fine position right here to at least continue this through next year. And as the old saying goes, I think it's a military saying, you went metaphor. I'm going to go metaphor here. I think it's military. Success has a million fathers.

Failure is an orphan. Right now, nobody is going to be able to take that hit alone. I mean, it's a collective decision. So I'd be shocked if at the end of the week, they let him go. Well, even when you talk about like the drafting that always comes up, it is an organizational decision to trade away your draft picks to try to win now. I mean, even the T.J. Hawkinson move, which looked midway through 2023, like, wow, they nailed that.

Ultimately, they paid a lot of money for a tight end that didn't produce a whole lack of a lot. the last two years and gave away a second round draft pick because they were, hey, we're all in, it's 13 wins. And I don't blame them for that. You get a shot to win 13 and go into the playoffs and host at home. You should make all in moves. But they did it last year too. You go out and trade for Cam Robinson.

They did it in 2023 where you don't trade away Danielle Hunter when you could get a second round draft pick and you try to ride it out. You trade for Josh Dobbs. I mean, these are things that are being not only pushed, I'm sure, from the coaching staff, we can win, we can win, but also signed off from the owners when you're doing stuff like that. And if your entire plan was we're not going to stack comp picks, we're not going to draft in the seventh round seven times like Rick Spielman wanted to do, we're going to use that to get real

players to help us right now. Well, at the end of the day, you're probably not going to go, wow, they nailed all those draft picks. Although I will say, I will say that in the light of day, Levi Drake Rodriguez is pretty good. Will Reichard, oh my God, is the best person, the best human being. I was talking with Andrew DePaul about this. I'm like, is he the best human being to ever kick a football? I mean, seriously.

Like, so, okay, you got that. You found Jalen Redmond, an undrafted free agency. You used the draft pick to get Jordan Mason, a young running back who had almost no tread on his tires and clearly is going to be here for multiple seasons. And then Donovan Jackson, I think can be a star in the league. Addison has been a successful pick. overall. Naylor became a successful pick. Like, it's in the light of day not as horrific as people maybe make it sound.

But anyway, let me just turn before we wrap up into the, the Fandul question of the day, my friends, is the two smallest lines for this week are the Bears and Packers and Bills and Jaguars, one and a half points, and the Packers and the Bills are favored. your favorite matchup of this weekend. Let's just end on that with the Fanduil question of the day. I can run down them if you want me to do that. The favorite matchup in the playoffs this weekend.

Do you want me to go through them? By your way, Manny. I'm going to go with Bills and Jaguars. That's the one that I'm like getting my popcorn out for, man. I mean, that that is Josh Allen. sort of a one-man band this year for the bills and that terrific Jaguars defense and just the job that Liam Cohen has done with that team. Just think about this. This is a Jaguars team that just a few years ago was a total joke in the NFL because Urban Meyer was coaching them.

I mean, last year they were a total joke. Yeah, yeah, honestly, yeah. And the fact that they Well, nothing. The fact that they've gotten to this point is, is pretty, pretty incredible. The job that Liam Cohn has done and the, the improvement that Trevor Lawrence, I think, has made this year. I think has been, has been getting the Kobe Myers to kind of help with that offense. It's been fun and it's been fun to watch. And the Buffalo Bills just, we talked about this collar, this is the, this is the year. If the bills are going to do it, there's no Mahomes, there's no Lamar, there's no Joe Burrow blocking Josh Allen from sort of fulfilling his destiny that everybody thinks that he is supposed to be able to achieve.

If it's not going to happen this time for the Buffalo Bills, when the hell is it? And I can't wait to see how it plays out. What do you got, Murph? Do you want me to give you mind first, let you think? You know, I, no, no, I love it. I love the idea of the bills finally fulfilling their destiny. I think we all do. The game, though, that I'm really kind of getting the popcorn ready for is,

I believe, the late game on Sunday. It's the 49ers at the Eagles. I just feel like here's a couple of old warrior teams of the NFC have overcome a lot. Both teams this year, a lot of self-doubt, a lot of self-inflicted doubt, a lot of drama, a lot of injuries. And yet, I feel like this is probably going to be the hardest, maybe the most physical game and maybe the closest game.

And anybody, you know, any team that goes into Philadelphia in January, it's always a circus. I just, I really admire what Kyle Shanahan's been able to do. And he may get a few shoutouts for Coach of the Year. It might be Bravels going away, but I just feel like Shanahan has always dealt a really crappy set of circumstances

throughout the season, whether it's injuries, personnel, feuds, just stuff that most 10 NFL coaches just don't have don't survive sometimes he doesn't survive he thrives and i just i love that they're doing it with purdy although i know he's banged up i just i love that's philadelphia as much as i don't like per se the eagles in general i like how they persevere so i'm kind of looking for like it's this old school nfc clash uh that i think is really going to come down to physical play and and and probably a late mistake i became quite familiar

with what it's like in January, in Philadelphia, in 2017. When I recall going on the radio with Jud Zulgad and warning Vikings fans, like I, as an East Coaster originally, I said, don't do it. Do not wear your horns. Do not bring your little galah horns. Do not dress in toe to toe purple with your Randy Moss. Just don't do it. Just wear jeans in a jacket and just go into the game.

No, no, no, no, no, no. they didn't. And it was a violent atmosphere that night in Philadelphia. But I will say a home playoff game in Philadelphia. They have the craziest fans in the NFL. It feels like walking back into the 90s because you just don't have this atmosphere anymore. Everything's become like family friendly and that's so much better for society. And it's so much better for people who bring their kids to games and everything. But there's a little bit of me every time I go there. I'm like, oh, this is, this is football. This is walking into the Lions Den here.

This is why we watch Fight Club every time it comes on. That's, that's right. You don't want to admit it, but it's primal. You know it's wrong, but there's a little bit of it's like, oh, man, this is crazy. They also smack the press box, like the people who sit in front of it, they like whack the right in front of the press box. So, you know, the game's going on and it's a big moment. And that's like they're making noise by smashing, you know, the, on the press box.

so it's kind of crazy. But anyway, I love that one. I feel like we've left out a pretty key matchup here, and that is Packers and Bears. I just didn't want to be a cliche. I don't mind being a cliche here. This one, I want to paste myself to the couch for all three and a half hours or whatever it takes.

Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears, they're one and a half point favorites on Fandul. The other game that you mentioned, the Eagles are favored by four and a half on Fandul over the San Francisco 49ers at home. there's every one of these could go any direction probably except for rams at panthers but the panthers did beat the rams this year and you just never know bryce young is either great or terrible and he's at home which is so stupid hey how the turntables though right like last year the rams benefit from this and then now irony is not dead in the national football league manny hill brian murphy great stuff all year long reacting to games, breaking it down, what it means. We had to fight through some rough football throughout this season to get to the end.

So I appreciate you guys very much with the roundtables throughout this entire year. And thank you for just letting me cathartically unload every week's worth of angst and what if. And this team is just, it's relentless in its ability to confound and entertain. all at the same time. Like few other franchises in sports can really do. Sounds like a Netflix series. Yeah, it does, right. Well, that's, I was thinking about this last night when I, when we're,

when I'm watching the Ravens Steelers of why would anyone watch television? Why would anyone watch movies? This is the most compelling thing that I could ever possibly think of. So that fourth quarter alone. Insane. It was amazing. Amazing. This is why we love football.

And NBC nailed the coverage with all of their angles. I mean, just because I felt like they captured every narrative and reaction at the exact right moments. Absolutely. It was incredible. So the playoffs, who knows what is to come next and especially the Vikings off season, we will be on top of it for sure. So thanks so much, guys. And we'll talk to you later. Football.

Football.