Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - VIKINGS SCHEDULE IS HERE (let's pick every game) (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

The Minnesota Vikings released their schedule on Thursday night. Matthew Coller analyzes every game, the schedule's best and worst parts, the potential road trips and key factors to each game. 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. How can you have us at one and two to, uh, to start the season? Well, that's, I mean, just based on the fact that they have two road games and going to Soldier Field is always tough for the Vikings. I think KOC's done a good job at Soldier Field in recent years. They've won there, but it's never easy with a team especially that, you know, has an entire offseason to prepare for those first couple weeks. And then the Tampa Bay one just feels to me like maybe that's a lot.

let down game, but they have the same over under as the Vikings. I feel like it's a very similar football team overall in Tampa and Minnesota. And it's at Tampa after two NFC North games. This is something that I have come to buy into over the years, which is if you have these really emotional or really physical games and then you have to go on the road, even against a lesser opponent, it's super hard to come away with wins. So that's kind of why I decided to go that way. But I know, that a lot of you wanted 18 wins here in a 17 game season and you wanted to have every single one be a, you know, a victory. But I can't do it that way just yet. We got to see them start playing some actual football. And then we can start to decide what we're, you know, going to see from the

Vikings. And that's why we do the bit. And we'll get Manny in here hopefully next week to pick the schedule and we'll do it once a month up until the season. And then once we get into the season, we'll do it every single week. That's why we do it, because we're always kind of constantly reassessing what we think of this team based on the latest information. I think based on their off season that, and to go along with their division and the schedule overall, that they're a team that should be in the playoffs. I ranked them, power ranked them six the other day. But if you think that they're going to have Kyler Murray as their quarterback and a lot of question marks on the defensive side and it's going to be a smooth and easy ride to 13. Oh, they won't let you down. They won't go

to Tampa Bay and having a very even Tampa Bay team at home go off against you and win a game or something like what? I mean, there's really only the occasional season that goes absolutely perfectly. But usually it is a roller coaster on the way there, especially when you have a quarterback that is not Josh Allen, is not Patrick Mahomes, is not Lamar Jackson. Even those teams have their letdown games and disappointments and so forth. But, I mean, I don't think that 10 and 7 is a bad record for this team. I think it's about where they should be. Aaron, if we go 10 and 7 and JJ is riding the pine, I will be livid.

I guarantee you, JJ can get this team to 10 and 7 based on his play down the stretch next year. I don't know about that based on his play last year. I mean, down the stretch. They played a Packers team that wasn't trying, Washington that had the worst defense in the league, or Dallas who fired their defensive coordinator. I don't know, man. Like, I think this, if the JJ who played last year was playing this schedule,

I would have picked him to win seven or eight games. Because I think that that defense last year was really good and had tons of veterans. And we can't not factor that Harry's, Harrison Smith is maybe not going to be here. And that version of Harrison Smith was huge for them. Trying to replace that is going to be pretty tough. And also, you lose, look, between Hargrave, Allen, and Jonathan Grenard, that's like

a hundred quarterback pressures that went out the door. That matters. I mean, we treated Allen and Hargrave, like they didn't even play for the team last year. They played every game. And in a lot of games down the stretch, they were really good. And the defense won a lot of those games down. the stretch. So I think the defense has got a lot, lot more question marks than it did for last year. And there's a lot of questions there. But if you're talking about going 10 and 7,

being in the playoffs and maybe the hardest division of football and being livid that Kyler Murray's starting, we're just really not on the same page there. My assumption is that Murray's starting through this entire thing and that maybe McCarthy's in a couple games kind of baked into the final record. We need a pie chart. That's a great name. Thank you. it's not an exciting prediction, but it's an accurate one, I think. My favorite game on the schedule is the game AP will be honored for the Ring of Honor. Yeah, I don't know. Did they announce what game that's going to be?

But yeah, that's going to be something to look forward to. I mean, the home slate is, it's just fantastic. Like if you're a season ticket holder, if you're going to U.S. Bank Stadium, and you're talking about starting off with the Green Bay Packers, facing off with the Buffalo Bills on Monday night football, finishing the season with the Chicago Bears. I mean, that's just, that's just outstanding content. Joker, Week 18, the Bears, if it means something, is going to be my favorite.

100%. Yep, 100%. That game, Caleb Williams, potentially Kyler Murray or whoever's starting, but Kyler Murray would be a very exciting matchup. Ben Johnson and KOC have been going to battle in Detroit. And then, and Brian Flores, of course, you know, and in Minnesota. those guys, offensive guru coaches leading the way on each side. Defenses that could be potentially flawed by week 18 when teams are banged up and everything.

That one, it sort of screams play for the division right there or play for a playoff spot. Because I see the bears regressing a little bit. It might be whoever wins this game gets the final wild card spot or something like that. D.T. Poet similarities of 2026 to 2022 and 2017. What are the similarities? I mean, there's maybe a similarity to 2024 that you have a quarterback that was kind of left for dead by the NFL and ignored by the NFL and treated as if he wasn't very good. Murray has a much better track record than Sam Darnold. So there's that.

But we have to remember in 2022, they won every single last second game to the point where it was setting records and tying records. for comebacks and stuff like that, I don't know that that season will ever be repeated for how often that happens. And in 2024, they didn't just play a bad AFC South. They played a horrendous AFC South, and they went undefeated against the NFC South. I mean, that's going to, or I'm sorry,

AFC South. I don't know if I said NFC there. AFC South in 2024, and they just won all those games. I don't have them doing that against the divisions that they're playing this year. I think that the NFC self has, some plucky teams, uh, that the Falcons, I mean, the Falcons, if Michael Penix plays well and they have weapons and so forth, or it's, you know, Tua, if it's two, uh, they'll probably beat his brains

in, but if it's, you know, Michael Penix, like, they've got a chance to hit on some big plays and get some big runs for Bejohn Robinson and you make a couple mistakes and you lose the game. That's how we factor in the letdown game, but none of those teams are a joke, right? They're all questionable in the NFC South, but I can't just say, say, hey, they're going to win all four games. Normally, without the locked in letdown game, if you want me to like talk about it that way, like other than the must have letdown game, I would have had it at 11 and then beating the Falcons there and going three and one against the South.

I think that is the expectation that they go three and one against the South. But if they have one slip up there, then you end up at two and two. Bob, our quarterback room of JJ's the backups in good shape. me, I agree with that. D.T. Poet, the last two times, oh, that's what's in common is that they didn't have to travel west of the Rocky Mountains. I did not know that. That's an interesting factoid. Son of Beavers, I could see the Vikings starting three and oh and three, not a huge fan of the week six by week. It's just early. It's just early. I only think that it's beneficial because of who

they play after that. But I do think that it's not favorable. It's not easy. It's not ideal. you want it to be a little later. I think maybe week 10 would probably be the best because you've played half a season. You get your break. You go down the stretch, play your tough games, healthy.

But the fact that you come out of the by week against a super physical team in Indianapolis and then have your murderers row stretch, I think it's okay. I think it's okay. But it does sort of lend itself to it's week 13 or 14 and you're dragging a little bit. But that is an interesting factoid

about them not having to travel. all the way west. Joker, where's the annual trip to Seattle? Well, they didn't finish first in the division, so not there. Joker, commies,

Colts are letdown game potential. I'm assuming that the commanders are going to be good, but not great. I think the commanders are a 10-win type of team with their ceiling because they've improved

and they have better coaching and they get Jane Daniels back, but I don't see a perfect, team there. There's a lot of shortcomings that they have. They don't have a ton of awesome weapons. Their secondary still has a lot of question marks about it. They went out and got a Meek Robertson to start and he was really bad last year for the Detroit Lions. So there's still question marks there, but I think they will be a competitive team. It's just, it's hard to ignore what we saw Jaden Daniels against Brian Flores last year. He seemed totally lost against that defense. So I don't have that as a

down game because I think the commanders will be pretty good. Colts for sure could be. I mean, if Daniel Jones comes back and he's moving around like her cousins out there and somehow they lose to him, then that would be a letdown game. Yeah. 11 games inside. Didn't think of that, but that's an interesting factoid about the schedule as well. Purple Kool-A, did you see how bad the Lions beat us up and down the field in the first seed game. Losing wasn't a letdown per se, but the way we did it was. Oh, so yeah. Okay, well, I mean, that was a letdown game, but not by the definition that I'm using. It was a massive letdown, yes. And they played not like a 14 win football team that day.

They played like a poor team. But I would still argue that that Jaguars game, because people were coming out of that Jags game. And this is why it was not a loss, but I remember the live stream. I remember the comments. I remember somebody tweeting out that the Vikings should sign Ryan T's. Hannahill and get rid of Sam Darnold right there on the spot because he was so bad against the Jaguars. So sometimes the letdown game can be a win, I guess. Mom of the Falcons game last year was such a letdown game. It was a big one. Yeah, I think we realized

how bad McCarthy was and how long the season was going to be. You know, I didn't know what to think after that game. And I got a lot of emails about it. And some of them said I was too harsh. And some said I wasn't harsh enough. So I don't remember exactly what I said. but I remember the response being very split on that game because McCarthy had one of the worst games that we have ever seen a Vikings quarterback play in against Atlanta. That was Spurgeon win level. That was Josh Freeman level. And it's very disturbing. So I think that that week, it wasn't so much that because that was, oh, man, like, this is this, this is not going to just be a roller coaster.

This is going to be like the, at the six flags where I was growing up, they had one called the Superman. And if you didn't hook yourself in right, you could fall out and it happened a couple times. So it was like that. Like, oh, this isn't just the, this is the Superman roller coaster with J.J. McCarthy. And it kind of turned out to be a little bit like that. But I think seeing the low end was so low, you did get the sense for, oh, I don't, I don't really know how this team is truly going to compete. in the NFC. That was a big letdown. I mean, last year was a lot of letdowns, but that was the letdown game because I don't think anybody thought, at least in Minnesota, that Atlanta should be

a team that could overpower you the way that they did and then it happened. And that's why we bake it in. Folks, you guys know that I'm a hat guy. I've always been that way because I sunburn easily and my wife likes how it looks. But if you find yourself wearing hats these days to cover up your thinning hair or receding hairline, well, maybe it's time to take some action rather than try to hide away from the world. Luckily, that action is very easy to take. Just try hymns. They make it so simple for you with 100% online access to personalized treatment plans that put your goals first. They use doctor-trusted, clinically proven ingredients like Phenestriide and Monoxidil that can stop further hair loss and regrow hair within as little

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Kyler has a no trade clause. Well, you know, I was just, I'm just saying. I mean, well, look, he would waive his no trade clause if you were going to bench him for J.J. McCarthy. So that doesn't really matter. Yeah, thoughts on the early buy. Don't love, but at least it works out to where you're getting prepared to play the most difficult.

It's not only difficult because of the teams you face. the travel is very difficult through that as well because you have to go to Detroit. You have to go to Lambo. You have to go to Mexico. Like there's a lot going on there in those next five games after the by week. So it's placed well within your schedule. It's just a little bit on the early side. Your mama going to live for the quarterback drama.

We'll see if they are. Life at scale. I have no question, but I just want to say that, oh, thank you. I do a good job at this. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Not always the case when I make predictions that everybody thinks I do a good job at this, but I am enjoying it.

This is always one of my favorite shows to do because I feel like after the draft, there's so much debate and so much conversation. And then we kind of get into this lull. And it's like, all right, what's next? What's next? What's going to give us some boost for energy for football in the schedule? So I have my article coming out, Purple Insider.

to football tomorrow morning, break it down the games, key factors. And I will also do another piece for Monday about the quarterback matchups, which should be very interesting as well. But, you know, the thing about a 17 game schedule is like the number of permutations, the number of different things that can happen in a 17 game schedule is absolutely nuts. So that's why I think it's so fun to try to look at, well, what do we think of them? What's our perceptions of these teams? What do they have going for them?

what are they going to be saying about facing the Vikings? And should you win that game theoretically, or is that one that you might be a little concerned about theoretically? Joker, only the third year since the Blair Walsh missed that we aren't taking a trip to Seattle. Wow. You guys are on top of it with the factoids tonight. That I didn't realize either. I did not go to Seattle last year for obvious reasons,

but I did in 2024. And it was a really enjoyable experience. The game was great, and the city is great, too. Dan, going to need a strong run game versus New England and the Jets. Run the ball, KOC. Yes, that's something to think about there, too, is late in the season, down the stretch. You do have to make two trips to the east. New England was one of the hardest games for me to pick, because not that I think that

Mike Vrable drama is going to have anything to do with anything, but I do think what we see from teams that go to the Super Bowl is that the following year they sometimes run out of gas. And we saw that from the New England, or from the, well, the Patriots didn't often win back to backs when they had even Tom Brady, but the Eagles in 2022 to 2023, where remember that they started out 23,

very well, they might have won eight or nine games in a row to start the season. And then it looked like they just got exhausted. And they stumbled down the stretch. They lost in the playoffs to Tampa Bay. that year. So there was a little thing that pinged in my mind of New England did go to the Super Bowl. They deserve benefit of the doubt here. They have the freaky giant quarterback. He is going to face Brian Flores, but man, he's faced about just about any defense by now and he's got such a

great skill set and everything else. But what if that team just kind of runs out of gas at the end of the season and they end up being kind of okay. We do see a regression after teams go to the Super Bowl every year. So that one gave me a lot of pause as I was picking it. But I just, I just kind of couldn't go against the team that had went, you know, gone to the Super Bowl last year. Uh, purple Kool-A, just wait until Kyler has a bad game in October and November and everyone will make the new call of duty jokes. Is there a new call of duty coming out?

Uh, no, I'm just kidding. With Kyler, you can absolutely bet in my scenario that the debates are going to be crazy. because there are still a lot of people that are holding on to the J.J. McCarthy thing. And I don't think that you should let go of it in terms of thinking he could be an NFL quarterback and a starting quarterback. Or you can also think chaos theory, we never know when he's going to get in, what it's going to look like. He's got a chance to turn it around like Bryce Young did or other quarterbacks have. But there's also like a next level Viking fan who I don't even know what to do with

those folks who are super committed to the idea that J.J. McCarthy is still their starting quarterback and you can't tell them anything different because they're living in a fantasy land. I don't know what to do with those folks. But those fantasy landers, if they're five and six, you can 100% bet that they're going to want him in. The first step for J.J. McCarthy is beating out Carson Wentz to be QB two in week one, though. That's got to happen first before we could start talking about when is he going to play and should they bench Kyler for him. But if they, If this scenario plays out and they got to five and six, I don't believe that they would bench Kyler Murray unless he was playing horribly.

But I do believe that a very high percentage of Vikings fans would say bail on the season now. It's all over. It didn't work with Murray. It's time to see what you have in J.J. McCarthy. And honestly, if they did start five and six, I might not think you're crazy for saying that. Even though I have them going 10 and 7 because they just got that big hunk of home game. three out of the last four at the end.

And I think that this is a team that could close a season strong again, make the playoffs. Kyler has been up and down in his entire career. It's a little bit of a myth that he has played so much better early in seasons than late. I kind of did a comparison on that. But his team is not won a lot late. This is a little bit different of a team. But yes, if they play it that way, if that's how it plays out where it's super rocky in the middle of the season, there's going to be a lot of should they just,

go to J.J. McCarthy. Greg, 11 wins they beat Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay was a little bit, call it Galaxy Brain on my part, but I was just thinking so much of you face two NFC North teams, you have to go to Soldier Field, fly back to Minnesota, back down to Tampa Bay. It'll probably be 170,000 degrees in Tampa Bay at that point. And Tampa Bay played them really tough in 2023 against Flores' defense. So, I don't know. Like that, that was,

I was thinking they're not going to sweep the NFC self. And the overrunner surprised me a little bit with Tampa Bay. And I looked at their depth chart and thought, they can, they can have big games. And Baker is definitely one of those early season type guys when he's healthy. Because last year when they collapsed, he was doing great.

Remember, there were MVP Baker Mayfield conversations through like eight weeks last year. And then he got hurt and it all came apart. I think it was that Rams game where they, had to put in Teddy Bridgewater, that's where he got hurt. But he has the capability of being as hot as anybody in the NFL. Mark says we got a lot of primetime games. NFL must think we're going to be good.

You know what the NFL probably thinks is you're going to be interesting. I mean, look, you're playing in Mexico City. They want that one highlighted. You're playing Buffalo. That's national TV more because of Buffalo. But I do think that the Kyler Murray storyline, quarterback drama, it 100% puts to in the limelight. So yeah, I mean, good, interesting, has a big audience.

I think there's a lot of Vikings fans in the world, a great stadium to watch a game, to film a game on a night game. So, yeah, I mean, look, every NFC North team has a good chance to be right there. And so does this team. And the way I've got it playing out, if you flip one result and it's 11 and 7, then you're pretty good, or 11 and 6. I mean, how funny is the NFL? where I think if I had come up with 11 and 6, a lot of people would be like,

um, dude, that's right on. But then I go 10 and 7. It's like, I don't know, man, you're hating. And they got to bench Kyler. So, uh, I don't know. Davis says, Murray in 2024 was 12th and EPA per play 13th by PFF. Darnold was 13th in EPA per play in 12th by PFF. Crude analysis, but 2024 Murray could go a long way in 2026 if the defense doesn't regress

too much. So this is a great point. And they will not have to lean on Kyler Murray as much as they did in 2024 with Sam Darnold. Look, overall, I think this is going to work. But there's a lot of teams that they're playing that also I think it's going to work for them. I don't think Green Bay is easy. I don't think Detroit's easy. I don't think Chicago's easy.

And the NFC South teams are a little more plucky than they've been. Stafansky taking over is a wild card with Atlanta and Baker's hot and cold. if you catch them on the wrong day, you're going to give up 400. So even Carolina was in the playoffs last year and greatly improved their defense. I mean, I don't think it's an easy ride when you have to play the team that went to the Super Bowl on the road and then the best quarterback in the NFL. There's a lot of potholes there to get you to like a 12, 13 win season. But if they get 2024 Kyler Murray quarterback play, which was en route to that 12th EPA per play, it was a roller coaster because he's was insanely good in a couple of games and very bad in a couple games.

But if he's the 12th best quarterback in the league, 10 and 7 or 11 and 6 is where you should be, the defense regressing, it's just hard not to see that happening unless they get some really, really good breaks with opposing quarterback's health. If you play six backup quarterbacks, then yeah, Brian Flores defense might rank top three. But if you play a lot of healthy quarterbacks and you have to go, golf twice, Williams twice, Love, Alan, May. There's just a lot there. If Shuck gets better, if, you know, Bryce Young is in a good place,

Baker, you know, as we said, can get really hot and have crazy games and threw for 4,500 yards of 41 touchdowns two years ago. So I think it's going to be a tougher ride for their defense as they kind of adjust into being a little bit younger on the D-line. Because right now, we're talking about Dallas Turner. not a lot of experience. Caleb Banks, no experience. Dominic Orange, no experience. Levi-Drake Rodriguez, not a lot of experience. Even Jalen Redmond has one season of really actually playing, so that's not much either. Very inexperienced front seven. Jake Golda will probably mix in,

and the safety position right now, outside of Mattelis, who's more of the big nickel, there's no experience there either for Theo Jackson or Jay Ward or Jacoby Thomas. There's a lot of teaching learning curve that might have to go on here during this season. I think Flores deserves our benefit of the doubt. But I don't know if we can look at this group and say, well, last year they were this, so they should just be that again because there is a lot of things that change with no Granard, Hargrave, Allen, or Harrison Smith. Joker's got a 10-game minimum.

Now, Joker, just the other day, you were saying that the Vikings not trading for Dexter Lawrence meant that life was over and that they were never going to escape the middle and they should just move the franchise to Montana. So now you get the schedule out and you're super pumped. I'm just giving you a hard time. But like 10 games is a fair. What I'm shooting for here is not the absolute best case scenario, but also not the absolute worst case scenario.

I mean, the worst case scenario, they win seven because they get quarterback injuries and Carson Wentz starts eight games or something and it just goes off the rails. But because we've seen that happen already and they won seven. games in 2023. I actually think that O'Connell has shown us the full spectrum of O'Connell. It's really, can you win in the playoffs? He's shown us that he can push a team past that middle of 10 or 11 wins into competing for division, competing for conference.

But he's also shown that when things go wrong at the quarterback position, there's so much in this offense that relies on QB. They're trying to mitigate that to some extent. but is Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason and, you know, Demand Claiborne really going to do that right away with the running game? I don't know about that. So, you know, I think that we have seen the entire spectrum and where I shot with this. And I didn't do it on purpose.

I mean, I just kind of went game by game. I didn't like plot it out and make spreadsheets and run a thousand AI simulations or something. I just went game to game and said, how do I feel like this will play out? and ended up in the middle of what we've seen from KOC. It's kind of dead in the middle where seven is the worst season we've seen and 14 is the best. But yeah, I mean, 10 minimum, if Kyler Murray plays like that, if he plays like 2024 and what, I forget who in the comments was talking about this earlier, just about the, you know, ranking 12th and 12th in EPA and whatever,

then you can win potentially more than that. I think he probably has to be a little better, though. because I top five defense is going to be a stretch with who you play the division you play in. If they played in a division with like three rebuilding teams, then I might say, yeah, they can rank in the top five. It's going to take a lot to get there. I did see the Gazincad, the schedule release video, funny with Will Reichert at the beginning of the Vikings video. The Vikings are not a team that like goes after other teams. they did a nice job with theirs,

but everybody likes the team that sort of takes jabs and shots at everybody. They're not that. The Chargers did a very good job with theirs, though. I agree. Purple Kool-Aid favorite game outside of Buffalo is Washington at home. Durante Jones comes back. You get a chance to test your defense against Daniels. Brian has eight and nine at the end of the season.

Okay, Brian, you're going to have to explain why you think that. Mama, we're going to, you think if they would have drafted. did Penix instead of McCarthy if he was still on the board. That I feel like is kind of an old, you know, throwback conversation, but you do wonder how it might have been different. If that's what they would have done, we'll never know and they'll never tell anybody which guy they had higher on their board.

But we're sitting here with Pennix with a torn ACL and McCarthy as QB two or three. And that's the draft, right? That's just always in forever. If there's five quarterbacks that are drafted, there's probably two or three that don't work out the way you think. Norse force. Minnesota has always struggled on the West Coast. Moving the game to San Francisco to a neutral side is good.

I agree with that. Purple Kool-Aid. Yeah, sorry I brought up the Josh Freeman game as a nightmare. Mr. Mayor just wanted us to have a top 10 offense for the first time in the KOC era. Shouldn't be that much of an ask to be in the top third of the league once every five years. Yeah, the, the 2024 offense overall was. good, but the fact that they had no running game whatsoever, and that's what's always forgotten and it always kind of stuck in my craw a little bit about Sam Darnold catching all of the

blame when they got to the goal line several different times against the Detroit Lions and had to throw four pass attempts because they couldn't get two yards on the ground. This should be on paper the most complete offense that they've had in terms of passing and running and a quarterback who can execute and a quarterback who can scramble. If they end up in the top 10, if they're 10th in offense and 10th in defense, where does that put them? Probably 10 or 11 wins. And I think that's totally fair for where they should be.

Gazinc had, what's the Fandul over under win total? Eight and a half for the Vikings. I would go over on that. Not just because I picked them to win 10, but just in general, I think that they have enough on both sides of the ball, enough with coaching, enough with a quarterback who has never had anything like this in terms of his setup to take them to another level and clear that over under. At the Patriots Thursday night football.

So that's even, you know, another one. You're right. Yeah, I should have highlighted that where the national TV games are. But the Thursday night football is another reason to kind of go with the Patriots. They get to stay home. You have to travel. That has not worked for the Vikings. They lost.

Think about the rain. game and the Chargers game where they had to play a tough matchup. It's not that tough of a matchup against Carolina, but still, like, you have to play, then travel. It could be, I guess Carolina is going to have a much better defense if those guys stay healthy. Jalen Phillips, Devin Lloyd, Derek Brown, J.C. Horn. They've stockpiled some draft picks who were pretty good over the last couple years. Mike Jackson was really good for them.

So it could be a more physical game, and they run the ball a lot. Carolina. So if you have like a knockdown dragout game against Carolina, they beat the Packers last year. And if you end up with, and they actually played really tough against the Rams and almost beat them in the playoffs. So they're not a joke. If you have one of those types of games and it's one of those, I don't know, goes on for three and a half hour things and then have to pack it all up, go play a really good team who's been chilling at home. That's just hard. So that was baked into it. I should have mentioned that that was part of that, picking the Patriots. Joe says it seems like Dar esau's health might make a big difference in how many games they win.

No doubt, Joe, I think that they did a really good job of getting not one, but two backup offensive tackles to maybe be able to take his place a lot better than Justin's school could last year. And I think Van der Mark is an ascending player. I don't think he's a superstar out there, but he can play and showed that. And the Tiernan is somebody who I think if he had a little longer arms, have been one of the higher tackles taken. Maybe he's a second round type of tackle. So they've done much better there at that position. But there's no replacing what Christian Derisaw is.

And that's when we talk about the questions across the board that when I'm picking the games, I'm assuming that out of, let's say I have 10 different questions about the roster. How is it going to be at center? Ken Derisaw and O'Neill stay healthy. What's the young defensive tackle is going to do? what's the inexperienced secondary at the safety position going to do, etc. That's not 10, but, you know, can they have, like, can Demand Claiborne, you know, get into the mix as a gamebreaker?

Can Aaron Jones stay healthy? Can Jordan Mason fit with this new run scheme, et cetera? Like all those questions. Where's Juan Jennings at? Is he a free agent at this point of the year for a reason or is he a breakout player? Assuming that five of those things go your way and five don't, that's where you get into like a 10-win type of season. Because if Derisaw is down for half the year or something, you're in some trouble.

Even if Ryan Vandemark is good, it's no replacing that. It hurts your offense. If Brandl struggles at center, you don't have any other answer. If Caleb Banks and Dominic Orange are too inexperienced and they're having trouble against O-lines, teams will run over you. So there's all these things that are potholes, that if they dodge those potholes, they could be really, really good. But if they hit those potholes, if Murray gets hurt, if Murray's super inconsistent and doesn't connect with Jefferson the way we expect, it's a volatile team with a pretty darn big upside.

But also there's another world where out of those 10 big questions I have sounds like a list for a show that maybe seven of them don't go their way. And then you end up, you know, not feeling anywhere near as confidence as confident. Goblin graphics, 11 wins. I mean, I was a 10, and that's with a letdown game. So 11 is where I was initially, and then I thought, well, I better add one that's a shocker. Joker, after last season, Minnesota McCarthy fans were in a total state of denial and delusion, but Minnesota Vikings fans completely crashed out. It was totally valid to crash out.

I.M.O. Yeah, there's, this kind of happened with Kirk a little bit with the McCarthy thing, where it's like, you know, there were really loyal people to Kirk Cousins and there's really loyal people to J.J. McCarthy. And I think that with quarterbacks, there will always be a faction that holds out hope. And just to demonstrate that, there were real people in Chicago who thought that Justin Fields was going to get them a first round draft pick back in a trade after they picked Caleb Williams. They got like a fifth or something. It's like, what universe have you been living in that you think? think Justin Fields is is like this.

So there will always be people that bought the jersey all in. And look, you had every reason to last year. If you were that person last year, if you were buying the jersey, if you were all in on McCarthy, you shouldn't feel like a fool because that's what the team told you to do with their actions. I remember talking about this. Like there's a lot of signal of how high they must be on J.J. McCarthy when they are letting Sam Darnel go, which turned out to be insane.

and then also not bringing in any sort of reasonable backup quarterback. Like they are all in, folks. This is wild. And it just, they got burned on it. That doesn't mean McCarthy's career is over, though. I think that it's the other thing is you just, when you're trying to find a little common ground with the conversation, if somebody's a really big McCarthy person, my argument is this is going to be good for him.

Let's say that they start out, I don't know, four and two, something like that. Murray gets hurt and he's going to be out for four weeks with a broken hand. Okay. Well, this is your chance, J.J. McCarthy, to take all that development time and then put it to action. It's not that hard to see Kyler Murray having to miss some time during a season. I mean, in 2021, his best year, he still only played 14 games. So you need to have somebody who's ready to go. But he's got to prove that he's going to be ready to go first throughout the training camp and everything else that he can really be trusted to be cute.

be to because they brought back Carson Wentz for a reason. Dave's as Mark Craig would always predict 8 and 8 every year. Just it's impossible to foresee. Oh, there's no question it's impossible to foresee. I mean, that's why this is so much fun for me. I don't know if everybody sees it that way of like, hey, let's predict. There are some people who just want you to pick 14 and 3 because they're jacked up about the schedule coming out.

And I used to work with a guy. when I worked at a grocery store when I was in college, and we were all big sports people. So we spent all of our shifts just arguing about sports. And there was a guy that every year the schedule came out, he would post on our backboard in the break room. He would post his Ws and else. And it would always be like 13 and 3 for the Buffalo Bills with Trent Edwards starting a quarterback or something. So there's always going to be that person who as soon as it comes out, they're so excited, there's so much belief. so much like, hey, let the season get here, the schedules out that wants it to be the 14 and

three season. And if you pick it loss, it's like, no way they lose that game. But I also think that's part of the fun is going through different ways it could go, how it could play out, like what it would take, what it would mean, which I think is a good place to kind of end the conversation is what the Joker says here. It's a quintessential Vikings offseason in the most derogatory way possible. will win 10 to 13 games and losing the divisional round, then make the wrong decision at QB.

Okay, so you didn't lose your extreme cynicism in a couple of days just because you can't wait to watch the schedule play out. But look, I think that if they went 10 and 7, here's your scenario where you could still feel pretty darn good about the way that it plays out at 10 and 7. would be they win down the stretch. The way I have it playing out is they win down the stretch because they have home games. They get into the playoffs.

They win in the playoffs. And then you go into the divisional round saying, who knows? If you go into the divisional round and you're facing a team where you're going, anything could happen here, our team versus their team. There's a chance you could go to the NFC championship. The prognosticators are picking coin flip type of game. And let's say it's your scenario and you lose on a last second. field goal to the Rams or something.

Let's just say that that's how it ends up playing out. There is no way you can't say that that was a fun season, an entertaining season, you know, good for them. But I also understand, too, that there is a exhaustion, and I certainly know it from watching the Minnesota Wild that has set in in Vikings land of, hey, like, where's the breakthrough? What's the thing that can happen that can break you through? but the one thing that I would maybe mention is that so much falls into who you play and how

they're playing and what their health is. And Seattle was a great, great example of this. Seattle gets this crazy, wacky, two-point conversion play that leads to a big comeback on a Thursday night that leads to them winning a division, winning the conference, and then they end up, you know, going to the NFC. championship game having barely had to play because San Francisco was so beat up. They eliminated them in the first quarter of the game and just sat around in the sidelines laughing. So by the time they reached the NFC championship game, they're super healthy.

They're really well rested. It's the same with like the Patriots where they should have been beaten by the Texans. The Texans were a better team. In fact, a Texans Seahawks Super Bowl would have been amazing. Or how about the Denver Broncos? New England gets to play Jared Stidham. I mean, sometimes it just goes your way. So it's not all the time and the Vikings are proof of that.

But if you have a 10 and 7 season, you win in the wild card round and you're going into the divisional round and we're all saying, hey, you don't know here. They can win this game. Then they've put themselves in a position to be different than it has been in years past. Then it won't feel just completely stuck in the middle, I think. that's really the goal for me for this Vikings team is can we go into that divisional round where we're breaking this game down and going I don't know it's a coin flip they could go and they could win you know they're just as good as the team they're going to face the way the two

teams are playing now then you've put yourself in a real position to be a serious contender we'll see if that ends up happening but I don't think 10 and 7 has to mean oh it's just me oh they're going to make the wrong decision to quarterback like I don't know but I will say the 10 and seven does make it harder. If Kyler is like 14th best in the league and they're 10 and 7, then you're going, all right, do you build around Kyler with hopefully a mid-tier contract and then the next GM drafts his butt off or do you move on from Kyler and draft a quarterback, but it's probably going to be like quarterback four or five or you have to trade huge assets up?

They have put themselves in a tough spot. um joker fan duel question of the day 10 plus win 10 plus games is plus 190 and to win 12 plus 50 to win plus 14 is plus 2,000 okay uh that's some some good fan dueling research there uh joker i mean 10 plus at plus 190 i think i would do for this team i would not go 12 and i would not go 14 with any team i wouldn't go 14 with the bills but 12 still feels like a lot with this schedule and this division. The division doesn't have a single bad team, at least as of right now. So that's where I think that's how I end up with 10, by the way.

I just had to split every game. You can't give them two free wins against Chicago or Detroit like you could a couple of years ago. So anyway, well, as I mentioned, this is always one of my favorite shows of the year. I love breaking down the schedule. I'm glad that we could get together and do it. It gets your feedback and have a really fun conversation here. So thank you guys so much for joining. Mani Hill will for sure be on soon to pick his own version of the schedule too.

So we're going to have a lot of fun with this. I'm going to have a lot of questions to answer for some off, you know, questions to get emailed or DM to me. They've stockpiled. So I've got to get to those live shows when there's any breaking news. We've got a GM search that's ongoing. I do not know when they're going to name a GM, but it will definitely be in the coming week.

So still a lot to get to, oh, yeah, OTAs, minicamp, who's taking the Rapsic quarterback. All those things are all on the way. So I appreciate you guys having this really fun conversation and definitely some more rankings coming up. You guys really seem to enjoy the power rankings. So I might power rank other stuff. I might power rank all the time in the off season.

because it's a lot of fun. So thanks so much for watching tonight in our special schedule release show. And I will talk to you guys all very soon. Maybe if there's news or maybe just if I feel like talking football with you guys, we'll see. But usually the schedule, I should say that normally the schedule is probably going to be. And there will be,

I might do some traveling a little bit in the off season and stuff. But trying to stick with, you know, Monday and Wednesday at least and then probably Thursday, too. So I'm aiming for three days a week. Sometimes, you know, different news comes up and it'll be a Tuesday or whatever. But Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, around 7 or 730 is my main aim for the offseason. So I hope to see you there. Thanks, everybody again.

And football.