Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - VIKINGS SCHEDULE RELEASED -- let's pick the games

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

The Minnesota Vikings' schedule dropped on Wednesday (along with the rest of the NFL)... Matthew Coller goes game by game breaking down whether he thinks the Vikings will win and the compelling storylines for each contest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, a very special episode where we pick the schedule. This is one of my favorite episodes every single year because the picks always turn out to be 100% accurate. I've never, ever missed a pick that I made right after the schedule comes out. So there's a lot of pressure on me and I just implore you not to go back and research or look back at any articles or listen to any podcasts where I picked the schedule in previous years.

Just believe me that I got them all exactly right. So if you are here now, then you are very lucky because you're going to get to find out exactly what's going to happen in this Minnesota Vikings season. So I've got the entire schedule loaded up for the Vikings. I've got game by game. I'm going to pick them just one by one. Going to talk about the biggest storylines that there are for each game. I just finished up writing an article about the biggest storylines, the most difficult challenges that the Vikings will face along the way, and then a final record prediction as we must have on schedule release day. And I saw a handful of people today being like, oh, it's just a schedule. What's the

big deal? What do you mean it was the big deal? It's the middle of May, and our next big thing that's going to happen is probably the Justin Jefferson contract. But after that, it'll be summertime, and there will be less news, and we can kick things around. So this is our last opportunity until, like I said, Jefferson signs, to really have like a big party. So let's have a party. So what I'm going to do

is i'm going to go through uh all the games just one by one i'm going to give you my pick and give you what i think and go through some uh different thoughts storylines and so forth and what i would love from you guys is to get the reaction so i'll make the pick i'll talk about it i'll look at your comments we'll go through them and uh we'll have a good time. And I got plenty of time because Cavaliers Celtics, not really the best series. So I'm looking forward to the game later tonight. And then I don't really want to talk about what happened to the Wolves last night. So we've got all evening to just pick NFL games. It doesn't get any better than that for some nice springtime conversation. So why don't we jump right into this Viking schedule? I'll just give

you my, my big overarching thought is, uh, well, I already knew that the teams they were playing. So I kind of figured that it was actually going to be a little bit tricky with this slate, but I think that there's a soft part in the middle where they've got a chance to get themselves in the running for the playoffs. So that's my tease before we dive in. But I like this idea from Red Star Minnesota. With the picks, you have to say who the starting quarterback is and when the switch happens. I like that. I like that a lot. That is definitely going to be a storyline as we go along. So feel free to drop in what you guys think is going to happen in each game.

And, you know, just we'll go through it kind of together here. And Reconnected jumps in with 17 and 0, baby. Of course, that's what my picks are going to be. Why did you have to ruin it that I was just going to pick a win for every single game? 17 and 0 for the Vikings. So, all right, well, why don't we dive right into it and just start off with what I'm trying to think of a worse opening game that has happened to the Minnesota Vikings since I've been covering the team. At Tennessee in 2016, turned out to be a fine game for Sean Hill and the Vikings, but not a whole lot of juice to that one. At the New York Giants to begin the season for the Minnesota Vikings.

In a way, you almost hope that J.J. McCarthy is not starting because it's at the Giants. I mean, this is one of the least interesting teams in the entire NFL. And I don't believe that Daniel Jones has the Vikings number. I think he had Ed Donatell's number. So imagine Daniel Jones's face. He gets the schedule. He looks at it. He goes, oh, Vikings. Oh yeah. He does the Rudy Gobert money sign? Yeah, I'm getting another extension. And then they go, Daniel, it's actually Brian Flores is their defensive coordinator. Oh, no. I thought it was Ed Donatell still. We're going to lose.

So I'm interested in Malik neighbors against the Vikings. We get our first look at the Vikings defense. But this is just not the sizzle of opening week that anybody was maybe hoping for. Like, you know, in 2022, it was Packers Vikings week one, U.S. Bank Stadium, new coach, new offensive system. We had all sorts of things to talk about. This one is, it's going to be, you know, the third broadcast team and so forth. And look, the Giants just didn't get a whole lot better. I saw that Hard Knocks announced today that they're doing a Giants off season. And with

the amount of talent that they lost, Darren Waller might be retiring and Saquon Barkley is now a Philadelphia Eagle. So this is just not a team that you would have circled on the schedule as i can't wait to see what the giants look like on the other side of the coin it's one of the least challenging games on the entire schedule but people go back and forth about that about week one in the opener of would you rather play a team that you think you can beat and that isn't that good and start off one and oh and then hey off we're going on the season gives you a little bit of a cushion to begin the year but then there's the other side of this where you could argue look this is the New York Giants if you lose that game the next four games are really tough remember last year we actually did this last year it was

the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and that one at the time may have not seemed much more juicy than this at the Lions but I remember having this very conversation out at TCO Performance Center picking the games with I think Will Raggettsgetts, and we were talking and going, you know what? If they lose in week one, this could actually be really bad for them because the schedule after that starts to get pretty hairy. And so I feel the same way about this game against the New York Giants that, yeah, it looks like one where you should just go into New York and you should get a win because it's not a great team. And then you just, you know, go forward from there. But, you know, then they lose the game against the Bucs and then things fell apart.

The same thing could happen here. You go, you get a disappointing loss, and then the next games after that are really, really tricky. But I don't have a whole lot more to say. I don't know if you guys do about Vikings-Giants. This one, you know, I mean, we could try to stretch it into a revenge game for the 2022 playoffs, but that's about the best that I can really do. So the next game, this is a juicy one. This is a little bit of a revenge

game for the opposing team. The San Francisco 49ers come to us.S. Bank Stadium and the 49ers are, I'm sure, wanting to get a little bit of revenge from last year. I don't know if they have revenge games for every single loss that they've ever had, but it was a really notable game for the Vikings last year. We thought that it was actually going to be a turning point in the season when they beat the San Francisco 49ers. It nearly was had Kirk Cousins Achilles not popped the very next week, but with the 49ers coming to town, that one will have a lot of storylines. It's a super stack team. I was looking at BetMGM today, but there's all sorts of different gambling websites just to see who the Super Bowl favorites are, and it's the 49 of different gambling websites just to see who the Superbowl favorites are. And it's the 49ers. So the Superbowl favorites coming to town in a week two.

And Oh, by the way, a red star asked about who the quarterback is. I will say as far as projecting this, that week one going to New York is Sam Darnold. It'll be a return to his original market in New York and he is starting and they win. So he will start in week two. I'll go with every, every game. We'll say who's starting a quarterback. And I am going to project for this one folks that the Vikings do not win against the San Francisco 49ers. I like this from CJ, Sam Darnold throws four touchdowns and four interceptions against the Niners. Well, you know, I guess, see, this is where I really enjoy the revenge game narratives. I think they're fun. They're funny sometimes.

Sometimes a random player going to play his former team and it's like, hey, it's a T.Y. McGill revenge game or whatever the guy's name was, who was on the Vikings as a practice squad guy and then played for the 49ers. But this one with Sam Darnold, they know him extremely well. And it's not revenge for Sam Darnold. It's like a thank you, like a thank you game for Darnold. Thank you for reinvigorating my career and giving me a chance to start for the Vikings. So this one though, they know Darnold inside and out. They are a super stacked team. And I think that they get the win so long as they're healthy, which they were not last year

when they faced off with the Vikings. So we begin the season one and one for the Vikings here. And the next game is another very difficult opponent in the Houston Texans. Now, this one has lots of funny revenge game narratives. It's more like lots of threads that are tied together between the Vikings and the Houston Texans. From Daniil Hunter to Jonathan Grenard to Blake Cashman, Stephon Diggs is a Houston Texan. If you've wrapped your brain around that one so far, the last time that Stefan Diggs

played against the Minnesota Vikings was in Buffalo, 2022. The Vikings got that insane win, which made everybody forget that Diggs went for 12 and 128. So you can bet that he's going to be up for that one against the Vikings corners. You also have Blake Cashman. You have the 23rd overall pick, which helped turn into Stefan Diggs, but also helped turn into Dallas Turner. There's a lot of ties suddenly against the Houston Texans. This is a great team going into 2024. They have the quarterback. They have a really good coach. They have Daniel Hunter against Brian O'Neill should be some kind of matchup. Hope everyone's healthy for that because that's two great players going at it who know each other so well. I think the Texans are the better team. I

think they're closer to being a winner right now than the Minnesota Vikings. So I am going to go with a one and two start for the Minnesota Vikings. And you know, I think, hold on one second here. Okay. Make sure I got this right. Yeah. One and two. You know, I think that if that's the way that they begin the season, that it wouldn't be a huge surprise with how difficult this start to the year is because I mean you're facing two of the teams that I think most people would say are legitimate Super Bowl contenders if you're just ranking and not from a gambling perspective because I didn't look up where the Texans ranked but if you were just ranking teams that people are most excited about for 2024 I think the Houston Texans are at the very top of the

list. They're also the team that you kind of look over at and you go, you know what? I think that that team with their young quarterback is proof that if you do it right, you can succeed with a young quarterback right away. Stroud was more accomplished in college as far as he threw a lot more passes, but he came out pretty young and he was known as being a highly intellectual, highly mature player. He threw the football better, more accurately than J.J. McCarthy,

but you get the point, right? He was mature-wise ready to play in the NFL. So you can kind of point to them if the Vikings lose in week two and go, hey, you know, they're on their way. but we could be in the same spot at some point. But I think that's going to be a very tough game for the Vikings, particularly with D'Amico Ryans as their defensive coordinator, they have stacked up their defense. And so this is not just a one dimensional, Hey, it's CJ Stroud game. And and like there's a big advantage of quarterback no

matter who starts but just for clarification i'll say sam darnold is still starting at this point i will also say that sam darnold is going to go down in week four to lambeau field and pull off a lambeau field victory that's right i am projecting a Lambeau field victory for the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Darnold here to keep his job at two and two. And look, Lambeau is a tough place to play for the Vikings, but it's way less tough. If you get it in week four, the, the, in previous years, you guys remember the cleats Vikings wore the wrongats, slipped and slid over the field and lost in 2022. But a lot of times they've been going to Lambeau Field over the years when it's January 2021. You all remember the Sean Mannion game in 2021.

And I just think it's a different story when you're going to Lambeau field in, uh, what, what would this be? Is this still September, maybe early October in the fall time? Um, not quite enough to make it a beautiful drive down there across the state, but far enough into the fall to think that I'll probably hit a deer. So I'll look forward to that drive to Lambeau field, but in any picking of the schedule, you have to pick hot a couple times, right? And I'm going to go hot with this one and say that the ever hot and cold Sam Darnold pulls off something crazy with Green Bay.

Wouldn't be surprised if Green Bay at the beginning of the season oscillates a little bit before they get into their rhythm as well. And then people start questioning Jordan Love. Is he really good? We'll find out. So that's what I'm going to have happening to begin the season. Two and two.

Now the Vikings go over to London. This one is really hard to pick because first of all, London is weird in general. I think the last time they went to London, the double doink, it was a crazy game with the saints. Uh, Louis scene got hurt, got his foot stuck in the turf. So we don't know what the status of the turf is going to be. When you go over to London, there's the time change. Almost every one of these games is a mess.

I can't remember ever watching a London game and being like, wow, what a laser show. There's probably one or two over the years that have been really exciting, back and forth, high scoring contests, but usually they're kind of slop fests. And I think that a slop fest probably benefits the New York Jets. But here's the question that I have. What does Aaron Rodgers look like in week five of the NFL season? And does Aaron Rodgers believe that England is a country? That is a thing that we have to consider. Does Aaron Rodgers believe that to fly, you have to go around a round earth

or does he think it is a flat earth and maybe he's going to be too afraid to clear the ocean? Hard to say with Aaron Rodgers. Oh, also he's a million years old and he's coming off an Achilles injury. And I don't know what Aaron Rodgers is going to look like because he's been doing weird things to his body for several years and he's old. So is he going to be a great, well-rested Aaron Rodgers who's whipping the ball all over the place? Or is he going to just be a shell of himself like Peyton Manning 2015 or something like that?

And they'll still have a good defense. They still have Robert Sala, I think is a very solid defensive head coach. We'll see about whether he's a good overall coach. I think last year was pretty unfair to him where they were trying to give Zach Wilson every opportunity. But these London games, everyone, the Vikings played it. I mean, they played Deshaun Kaiser in London a few years ago in 2017. This, yeah, this is very possible that at that point, Rodgers could be kidnapped by demonic UFOs, Red Star.

Yeah, that's a great point. That could be right. CJ asks, serious question, if Darnold plays well until JJ is ready, would he be a realistic trade candidate? Really depends on how the season is going, I think. Because if it's going okay for him and someone gets hurt elsewhere, but it's time to play McCarthy, then I think the answer is yes. And that actually might go for Aaron Jones as well. Oh, this is good. See light. He probably doesn't have a passport because he's imagining

there are no countries. I feel free to drop in all of your Aaron Rogers jokes about his conspiracy theories. Uh, but, uh, yeah, uh, the mid season, Sam Bradford, I could see it. Yep. I could definitely see there will be quarterback injuries for sure. There will be one team that's good. Like Cleveland was last year that has their quarterback at her that could be interested in Darnold. And so I will say though, at this point, Sam Darnold is still the starting quarterback. And I'm going to say he gets his revenge game against the New York Jets. I don't think anybody's still there from when Sam Darnold was drafted high by the Jets. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.

It was a long time ago. But I say the Vikings win this game because I am not very confident in Aaron Rodgers being good. I'm, this is one where I would really be interested to see sauce Gardner versus Justin Jefferson. Again, that's a pretty good matchup. Vikings offense jets defense defenses are hard to maintain year after year after year. So they may not be as good as they were a couple of years ago.

But I'm going to say on this one that the Vikings get a win because they're just more stable and the Jets are a bleep show and they'll just have a reason why they don't win. Now, this right here is where the bye week comes in. So if the Vikings are three and two in this scenario, then Sam Darnold, what, uh, Oh, this is good. How's the Hiawaska in the UK? That's a, that's say you guys are good. You guys are good. Um, Jolly Rogers best days are long past. Yes. I think so too. I I'm very skeptical about how he's going to play. I just, at some point, he wasn't even good in 2022.

And then he comes out last year and gets hurt immediately with one of the most difficult injuries you can have. Then he lies constantly about himself coming back and claims, oh yeah, no, I'm going to be totally good with the Achilles to come back. That was never going to be true. Then he says, well, if we were in the playoffs, I would have. Come on, man. We've seen that injury happen to much younger players who aren't able to come back.

So now we are long removed. The last time Aaron Rodgers played good football was 2021. I like this. Sign Anthony Barr to a one-day contract to freak out Rodgers. I like that. So with so much uncertainty about how Rogers is actually going to play, wouldn't even be surprised if he physically doesn't make it to week five. And then I did find out today in my deep research about this game,

who their backup quarterback is. It's Tyrod Taylor. I don't, I don't think he's going to be as bad as the other backup quarterbacks that they had last year, but that's not anybody who scares you. This is good. Our tinfoil hats, one of the new approved helmets. See, I'm proud of you guys. That's good. I like all that.

That's funny. Folks, we all have smartphones and we know that they are pretty amazing, but they can also be amazingly distracting, especially when we're around other people. So U.S. Cellular wants us to reset our relationship with our phones by putting down our phones for five. That's right. A company that sells phones wants us to put down our phones and see what we can find. Learn more at uscellular.com slash built for us. That's uscellular.com slash built for us. So they have the bye week. And if now, if I am wrong, which again is not possible when picking the schedule, but if I am wrong and the Vikings have a really tough run

and they don't get a big win against Green Bay and they don't beat Aaron Rodgers because somehow a darkness retreat has shocked him back into the right mindset and he throws for 430 yards, this is it. This is a great bi-week place for where J.J.arthy could start the way that i have it playing out with a three and two beginning to the season i think sam darnold

would stay in here and just keep playing until whatever the wheels come off but if they do not start off very well then this could be where JJ McCarthy begins. It's also altogether possible. And this is why the next few months are going to be so interesting into OTAs, which we're going to get a look at next week and then mini camp. And then we'll sort of have an idea where McCarthy stands going into camp every day. And camp's going to be interesting. They're going to go to Cleveland and have joint practices. So, so like compelling for a summer for this quarterback situation. I wouldn't be shocked if all of this was just JJ McCarthy starting, but that beginning to the season, that's pretty rough. And I might rather have Darnold start that off instead of McCarthy coming in as a rookie and trying to do battle with some

of the best teams in the league, take a team over to London, play a great defense, might just rather give him some time there, but coming out of the bye week. And now Joe says you you'd like to have a worse team coming out of the bye week. I agree with that. I understand where you're coming from that. This is the lions. my only counterpoint would be their defense hasn't been good at any point during aaron glenn we keep being told that aaron glenn is a good defensive coordinator in detroit and they have improved this offseason a couple of cornerbacks carlton davis terry and arnold but they also signed marcus davenport as like a big part of their offseason so i'm not convinced that this

would be the toughest defense. I don't think that they're very confusing. It doesn't seem like opposing quarterbacks are ever totally bamboozled back there by the Detroit lions defense. It seems like if you're going to lose to Detroit, it's because one dude wrecks the game and that's Aiden Hutchinson. I will go with a loss to the Detroit Lions here that I think that they are going to be as good as advertised. They're going to be right back at the top of the NFC North. I don't see any reason to believe that there's going to be a massive fall off for Detroit. Everybody's happy. They all got their contracts this off season. they brought back their offensive

coordinator and this is where things start to get a little bit interesting for the sam darnold jj mccarthy projection if it goes the way that i've kind of worked it out because now you're sitting at three and three and you are going to los angeles to face the los the Los Angeles Rams in what is going to be not a revenge game, but a feel good game. I'm very interested here in whether Vikings fans go to LA and this might, the difference might be if JJ McCarthy is starting or not, because over the last few years, what we've seen is any game on the West coast vikings fans treat it like a prince concert they are there it is purple it was purple in vegas maybe 70 it was purple when they played the chargers both times i mean so will it still be though if it's sam darnold starting if they're

three and three uh it's not late into the winter yet. So it's not terrible weather that you're trying to necessarily escape. Eric says, I think JJ will be in earlier, like game three, very possible. That's the thing about projecting this schedule, Eric, is I don't even know when JJ McCarthy's gonna play. I mean, that's really hard to figure out, but kind of makes it fun to add that

extra layer of just, you know, like, no, you're right. Good counterpoint, Joe, that Josh Dobbs started in Vegas, but everybody didn't know that he was going to start in Vegas when they booked their trip. And when you, you booked your trip to Vegas the day after or the day that the schedule came out, you didn't know that it was going to be a three nothing game months later. And that's why I said, that's why you have to listen to me because I predict all this stuff on the day the schedule comes out. So I should have told everybody that, but they didn't listen that Josh Dobbs is going to be starting. But that's why. So this time, I don't know whether it's going to be a completely purple stadium or not. Either way,

I am going to pick the Vikings to lose at the Los Angeles Rams because I think they're a good team. And this might be Matthew Stafford's last year in the NFL. He looked really good last year, though. I thought he played some of his best football. They have two terrific wide receivers, not one. They also ran the football well last year. They're building their defense back up. It's a good team.

And even if you have a little more home field advantage than usual, Sean McVay has proven himself to be one of the best coaches in the league of the last decade. I don't think it's an easy matchup. It's a little bit more of a mature team in some places than the Vikings decide that they're going to go to Sam Darnold because I think it's either this week or the week before the bye week is mixed in where there is the trade deadline. That's another part too. This is true going back to the Lions game that their interior defensive line is a mismatch. It is now that they got DJ Reader. That is absolutely true. JP says, JJ is sitting out all season and I'm all for it. I think everybody would be. I don't think that anybody, sorry, we don't talk about the Vegas game is exactly right. Now let's just not, let's just not bring that game up and try to erase that from our memories. I like that. I like that angle, but to your point, you know, Detroit has improved for sure on the defensive side.

I just think that if you're talking about a schematic defense to go, all right, it's your first start kid. Can you figure out this defense? Detroit's probably one of the easier teams. Like you're not facing the version of Brian Flores over there. C light says, I went to the chargers game rivers last, uh, last season in LA yet. So it must've been, is that 19? Um, when they played in the soccer stadium, uh, was, uh, there was 75% purple. Yeah. I remember I was there at the soccer stadium

and it was crazy because you couldn't find chargers fans. Uh, okay. Good point by Ken short week doubt. He would start his first game. That's that's true. Coming out of the bi-week makes so much more sense than necessarily, um, you know, playing on a short week. That's a good point. Uh, digit says throwing arc on his ball. That touch is going to take much longer than week three. Well, you know, I don't, I don't think that JJ McCarthy's touch on the ball has to be perfect in order for him to play. I actually think it's okay. If he starts and throws an interception right into a linebackers face, he throws the ball so hard, right into a linebacker, it sticks in their helmet and they run it for a touchdown in the

most Vikings way to lose a game of all time. Right. But that's okay. What it is for me is more of, are you really ready to run the offense? Are you ready to get everybody lined up in and out of the huddle? You know, Dan Orlovsky and Chase Daniel have been like rap battling with videos showing how hard it is for rookies and how much they have to learn about just the basics of an NFL offense. If he's ready though, to do the operation and to get people lined up and he's in command and the other players believe he can do it. I'm okay with him whipping a ball. That's going to fly into the stands or throwing it through somebody, you know, and that's okay. You can learn that stuff on the

fly. It's kind of like, I think Joe Burrow's first year, people were a little concerned about how he threw the football. I think it was maybe not enough velocity or some of his deep balls fluttered or whatever. It's like, that's not, that's not the concern. You can learn to do that. You can improve on how you're throwing those deep balls. You can't be ready unless you can get everyone on the same page with the offense. And it doesn't seem like Kevin O'Connell is going to design his offense specifically for JJ McCarthy. It's going to be his offense and both quarterbacks are going to learn it. And I'm fine with that. So you can tweak and tailor a little bit, but I think he's going to want McCarthy to know the whole offense by the time he starts. Anyhow, loss against the Rams. They go to three and four here

and we start talking about, is it time, whatever. And the next week they come back home and play the Indianapolis Colts. And here's another example, by the way, the Colts, when they drafted Anthony Richardson, it just shows you that we can try to predict things all we want. Everybody thought Anthony Richardson should sit a year. That was the analysis a hundred times over. And yet the start of week one total command. Yeah. He threw some wild footballs and so forth, but he was getting them in winning positions in his first few games. Let's see. I assume this is most, Oh, most likely Joe, most likely games for him to start week one out of the gates out of the bi-week week nine.

So yes, I was going to talk about that right here against the Colts 11 against the Titans week 13 against the Cardinals. So Richardson knew the offense and learned it quickly and was a leader out there. And so they said, look, if he throws a couple of balls that bounce off the turf and hit someone in the legs, oh, well, like let's let it, let's just let him cook. And he did learn himself about maybe some risks that he took with his body that he's not that much bigger than everyone. But the point just being that we all think McCarthy should sit until we see him in training camp and then maybe he'll look a lot better than we expect. I don't know.

Or maybe we'll come out of camp thinking he's going to need the entire season. I'm not sure. This is a good spot potentially for him to start, though. I say that they will beat the Indianapolis Colts and I'm going to tell you the truth. I have no idea what the Colts are going to look like by week eight of this season. I was a big believer last year in Anthony Richardson and thought that he was going in a great way with that team before he got injured. They have a good front office. They build good rosters, got some receivers,

but it's us bank stadium, Anthony Richardson's first time there. And part of this is that Brian Flores versus young quarterbacks is advantage Vikings. So a lot of times with the other team as a young quarterback kind of leaned toward Brian Flores has the edge here vikings go to four and four bouncing around 500 we'll assume it's with sam darnold still but this would be a good spot for uh jj mccarthy to start the following week they go play at jacksonville and former purple insider uh what do we call him intern paul employee paul hodowanek he now lives in the jacksonville area working for pgatour.com this is a great golf date for me this is a great this is a great trip right here jacksonville florida it's going to be the weather's turning it's not

going to be particularly great i didn't write down the day i don't know the exact date here but we're late into the season so yes professional, professional Paul, right? From intern Paul to professional Paul, I'm going down there a couple of days early. We'll do some pods. We'll play some golf. I'm really excited about the timing of this trip, but I'm not excited necessarily about the results. I'll tell you why. Because I always have to put in one letdown game, one game that I think everybody else is saying they're going to win, but I think that they might lose. And I am going to go with this one. Jacksonville could be a good team. They have a good coach. They have a good quarterback. They're pretty mid in every other way. They don't have a great, what, offensive line,

the defense. They keep trying to improve and saying they're improving, but they don't have a great what offensive line the defense they keep trying to improve and saying they're improving but they don't really got there but i'm gonna say and i put it in a little asterisk here the letdown game that every year there is a letdown game that the vikings have where we go what happened there how did you lose that game this is the one that they're supposed to win they're coming off a win they're 500 they're feeling great and they're supposed to win. They're coming off a win. They're 500. They're feeling great. And they will lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I have no explanation for it other than maybe Trevor Lawrence has a great game. Maybe the football bounces off somebody's face mask for a touchdown like it did against the Chargers.

One thing I do think, though, is that Lawrence has now played enough football in his career that he would be a little more comfortable with what Brian Flores could throw his way. Doug Peterson, a good game planner. That's the best I could do, but I just needed a letdown game and no CJ spoiler. I was not going to make it against the Cardinals. That would be a really bad one. So I'm going to call this the letdown game, but if you're picking the schedule, there's a few opportunities. I think if they are four and five, now this was brought up earlier by Joe, but this is a possible position right here for JJ McCarthy to start your four and five. If you lost to the Jaguars, that means probably Sam Darnold's wheels are coming off a little bit and, or maybe a lot bits with multiple interceptions and you go to Tennessee,

you're playing a not scary football team with a new coach that is probably going to draft in the top five next year. Will Levis. And here's a question for you as they go to Tennessee. And I think this is a good spot for McCarthy to play if he's not already in the game. But here's a question for you. Does this count as a revenge game? Because the Minnesota Vikings had a chance to draft Will Levis and they needed a quarterback. We all knew that they needed a quarterback and they decided, no, we are not going to draft Will Levis. We are going to pick Jordan Addison. Great decision, I think, by the way. We're going to wait until next season and take J.J. McCarthy. And that's exactly what they did. Maybe they didn't know it was going to be McCarthy. But does it count? Is Will Levis trying to get revenge against the Minnesota Vikings?

Who will write the narrative? They passed on him. Now he's out for his revenge and i will say that you know tennessee has gotten some receivers in the mix that might help will levis a bit they got a new offensive line coach that might help i just think this team is going to be kind of tough to watch and i will say that the vikings go into tennessee one of the saddest arenas in pro sports and get a win against the Titans. So yeah, I think that there's a really good chance that, you know, they beat the Titans here. Yes. Some of you pointing out the noon games. Oh yeah. Look, schedule your stuff for the afternoon on Sundays, because you're going to have a lot of noon games here with this team and this, this run of games. Oh, putrid. I mean, Colts, Jaguars, Titans at Jags at Titans. Nobody wants this. Nobody wants this. They should have

buried it on Netflixflix or whatever because nobody wanted this uh let's see uh we'll let this is okay good point cj he gets a revenge game against 90 of the league that way that's true but not 90 of the league was looking for a quarterback so obviously right and the vikings definitely were uh flick, I don't think KOC and Flores let the team get below 500. Well, they could get below 500 at some point in the season. I mean, that already happened last year with the backup quarterback situation. So I don't think it's impossible that they can dip below 500, but I do agree with your general premise that coaching in this league if you have a very good coaching staff you will hang around if you have a bad coaching staff and things go wrong you will sink to the

bottom of the ocean and if you have a great coaching staff i think they could take an average team and get them into the playoffs so i think this is probably if we were ranking all coaching staffs including flores with with Kevin O'Connell, the assistants that they have McCown, it's probably above average. I wouldn't want to say just yet that they are like an elite coaching staff. I think Flores is an elite defensive coordinator, but let's say, let's say a well above average and the team will fight for him. So, you know, but is it a revenge game? Probably not. No, I don't think so. Just not drafting a guy's not a revenge game. Uh, we'll, we'll maybe try

on that one. Now this one is tough because I've always had a rule that I don't pick the Vikings at soldier field, but this rule has gone awry in recent years. I know I may have said that I've never gotten a pick wrong. That may have been a lie because the last few years I have picked the Vikings to lose at soldier field. They came very close to losing the Tyson Bajan, but they won the previous year. The bears were tanking and they played help me out here.

Gosh, who was the quarterback that they played? Tim Boyle and Nathan Peterman. So they won that game. And also, you know, Justin Fields has not been very good. So they have been winning recently at Soldier Field, but I think that ends here. And they lose at Soldier Field to go to five and six

and are very disappointed to have lost to Matt Eberflus's defense there. But that's the thing about the Bears is they have a pretty darn good defense. And we saw this knockdown drag out game last year with the Vikings and the Bears. They brought everybody back. Jalen Johnson is back. They added to that defense. And honestly, Caleb Williams would have to be pretty bad to not play as well as Justin Fields. The guy threw for 2,600 yards. Like, he was bad.

So if Caleb Williams is even a shade better than Justin Fields, the Bears are going to be a more difficult matchup. I think that they have, you know, maybe like 500 potential, the Bears, that they won't be a more difficult matchup. I think that they have, uh, you know, maybe like 500 potential, the bears that they won't be a great team, but they will be a tough matchup at home. And as CJ points out at Jags at Titans at bears,

it's not the easiest end of the road trip to go play a division foe at their place with a really, I don't know if Eber Flus is a good head coach. He certainly is a good defensive coordinator and defensive mind. And if this is JJ McCarthy, this could be pretty tough. If it's Sam Darnold, this could be pretty tough. Joe says my prediction is seven and 10 and not in a negative way. Darnold starts two and five somewhat tough schedule. Then McCarthy against the Colts and goes 500 the in a negative way. Darnold starts two and five, somewhat tough schedule. Then McCarthy against the Colts and goes 500 the rest of the way while having promise.

That would be a pretty ideal situation for the Vikings. I think if that happened with McCarthy coming in and playing well, I think maybe I'm a shade more. Well, we'll see. We'll see where I stand. I might be a shade more optimistic. Preston says seven and 10 against this schedule, probably best case scenario,

unless the Vikings are better than we think. Well, I think that there are, there are a lot of games on this schedule that I think are just coin flip at this moment. If Sam Darnold can play, or if JJ McCarthy is ready, I'm still looking at some games like the Jaguars or like the Jets as we just need more information, I think, for this game. But I think it's fair to pick the Vikings to lose at Soldier Field against the Bears to have them go five and six. Now they play the Cardinals. No letdown game here, but it certainly is a candidate. It is a candidate letdown game for the Vikings against the Cardinals. I'm also quite intrigued by the Cardinals because what they're doing,

I want to coin the term, the Detroit tank. You know how you eat like a Chicago hot dog? There's like certain places that are known for their kind of thing what Detroit did was so interesting and you'll see very often they tanked around a good quarterback oh uh Jason points out Cowboys and Falcons November 3rd wherever that game is is where I want to be Zimmer might bring back bounty cake that That's funny. That's funny. We'll see if Kirk's Achilles holds up for then back to the Cardinals, the Detroit tank, a good quarterback. They tore down the whole roster around Kyler Murray and they add Marvin Harrison jr. They've had an off

season. That's been pretty quiet. Nobody thinks they're any good. But would you be terribly shocked that if they end up being like more of a mid team, that they start to kind of show that momentum that Detroit did in 2022? Because they've had so many draft picks. They've had so many players move out and refresh the roster that I think there's a lot of motivated guys there. And I don't know about their coach yet. Last year, I thought at times that they played pretty hard, but they just had no talent. So they're pulling a Detroit tank, which makes them a little scarier than maybe we think. But

I still say that the Vikings will win. Leonard says, I'm hoping KOC can coach us out of these letdown games. I don't know, man. There's a lot. That's like saying, I hope that Matt Daniels can coach out of the kicking troubles. Like, I don't know, like maybe, but or kickers missing, missing big kicks. I do have an article coming out next week on Will Reichard, by the way, though, interesting, uh, interesting stuff from him, but anyway, we're going to go with the, uh, the Cardinals, uh, the Vikings getting a win here. And, uh, yeah, I think so too. Joe, Joe says enough assets and influx of talent and a good enough quarterback where they shouldn't be a dumpster fire. Yes. Yep. Yep. I agree. I'll still take a Vikings win. US Bank Stadium, home field advantage. I don't think that this one will be as easy as we initially believed. Red Star says,

I have a weird idea based on nothing other than hope, but I think Darnold will play well enough to make the switch harder than expected. Not saying Pro Bowl. Oh, anyone can actually make the Pro Bowl, so maybe he could, but above average play. If you get enough people to drop out of the Pro Bowl, you can get that little star by your name on Pro Football Reference. But when it comes to the quarterback situation, there is such a wide range of possibilities. All the way from J.J. McCarthy starts week one. And we never talk about Sam Darnold all the way to Sam Darnold has them in the playoff hunt because he's played really well. And I could see both of them happening. Uh, Sam case Keenum Darnold, like, look, I, I would have told you, and I probably did all the way back then, 2017.

I remember this after week four, the Vikings lost to, it was a week four? I think it was week four. They lost to Detroit and they lost Delvin Cook to an ACL injury. And I thought, this thing is over. I mean, they're just not going anywhere. What a miserable season. And I will never forget that I had a conversation with my boss, Brad Lane at the time at 1500 ESPN.

And we had a conversation about whether I should go on the road to cover the game at Chicago in 2017. And we agreed that the team was going nowhere with Case Keenum. And we said like, yeah, why spend the budget to go? Maybe we'll go to the combine instead with this budget or something or owners meetings or something we shouldn't go to soldier field then keenum comes in at halftime leads the comeback and then they or yeah i think it was a comeback or at least leads them to victory and they go on to go 13 and 3 that's how unpredictable football can be uh because i never would have seen it coming so it would it be terribly shocking to me after witnessing that if Sam Darnold played really well and had them at 6-6

and we didn't hear from McCarthy in the first year? Like, no. What if Darnold wins Comeback Player of the Year and takes the Vikings to the playoffs? What happens to the JJ timetable? That's a good question, something that I'm very curious if we ever get into trying to like, would they, there has to be a bar where he could play so good that they wouldn't move on. There also has to be a behind the scenes bar of so much concern for McCarthy that they would not

want to move on. I think he would have to be absolutely fantastic for them to ever have that conversation of not moving on. Like if he did exactly what Baker Mayfield did last year for Tampa, bye-bye nine and eight season made the playoffs, won a playoff game. Hey, thanks for the memories. Really appreciate you, but it's JJ McCarthy time. That's they would have to probably win double digit games. He would probably have to throw 35 touchdowns. I mean, it would have to be really good for Sam Darnold to make an argument because they're trying to avoid

having to pay a quarterback again. And here's Baker Mayfield has this one, like pretty good year. And I liked how Baker played last year, but it wasn't great. It was just pretty good. And the guy's like a $40 million quarterback. And so that's how it works. You're trying to avoid that. So if you think that

someone is not going to be anything else other than that top, top notch, you can't pay them because the, the advantage for JJ McCarthy and his contract is absolutely enormous. So let's not get too far off track. Let me circle back to Falcons. I'm going to go win. Come on, come on the Kirk cousins ish revenge game. Or how about Michael Penix is starting for the Atlanta Falcons. It's rookie versus rookie. You know, maybe, Hey, how about this? Maybe the revenge game is the Vikings trying to get revenge against the Falcons for stealing the quarterback they wanted. You ever think of that?

I'm just kidding. I'm mostly kidding. Partly kidding. It's possible that Michael Penix plays this game. I mean, we always think we know what's going to happen. But assuming that he doesn't, yes, Kirk will be coming to u.s bank stadium and i have a good amount of confidence in brian floris that he is going to make life difficult there is nobody that knows kirk cousins better than this team his strengths and of course his weaknesses as well

so i will go with the vikings getting a win and going to seven and six and at that point then we will be talking about hey this surprising Vikings playoff team well let's find out as we go to our next games here in a second but uh this Falcons team they are being talked about as having one of the easiest schedules in the league they play play in a very easy division. Does that mean that they're going to be actually good? Because I'm a little more hesitant on that. I don't know that their defense is great. And yeah, Joe, I mean, I'm with you here. If they had drafted Roma Dunzey, I'd be pretty scared. Drake London looks like a pretty good receiver. People are talking about Kyle Pitts as if he's great. I don't know if he is yet.

Bijan Robinson, he looked okay to me. Did not look like a megastar to me last year. Maybe he'll take a step. Their offensive line is pretty good. But, you know, we've also seen Kirk Cousins too. Here's another thing. We have seen Cousins get a little anxious, a little overwhelmed

by some moments at times maybe there will be some of that i don't know uh so i'll pick the vikings for this one but you know i wouldn't be shocked if uh the falcons are a little farther along and they end up getting the win here but i'll go seven and six for the vikings now they will play the chicago bears at home and tell me, is this a little too much purple Kool-Aid to split with the Chicago Bears and go with a victory for the Vikings to go to eight and six? I think some of you are probably thinking that that's a little too optimistic based on this schedule. Because I had them surviving the early part and getting that win against the Packers. I'll tell you the truth, because what I try to do is I try to kind of

speed run to use an internet term, the schedule. When I pick it, I just kind of go, all right, first thought when loss, when law, like without, I'm not breaking it down fully. I'm just picking it. I just go through it. And when I got to this point, I went, is that too much? Is that too aggressive to have them at eight and six? I think splitting with a team that's pretty equal and each team wins at home, part of this is going with the young quarterback thing in Brian Flores, where when Flores is playing a young quarterback, I want to lean a little bit toward him on defense.

And with Caleb Williams, first time at U.S. Bank Stadium, facing Brian Flores in the noise. He struggled in college when he was under pressure, giving him a lot of different looks. And I think the Vikings can get a win here. But this is pretty far along down the road of we don't really know what they're going to look like by week 14 we don't know who's going to be their starting quarterback if it is still sam darnold then you are looking at trying to make

a run uh down the stretch to the playoff so this i mean vikings bears has so often in their history been this like okay it's randy moss versus chad hutchinson or something can't wait uh and that's been a lot of the matchups jay cutler made things kind of interesting for a little while there but not really all of a sudden if this game and this is, I believe the Monday night football game, this is Monday night football. If it's JJ McCarthy, Caleb Williams, Monday night football, and the Vikings are in the playoff race. And so are the bears. I mean, this could be the most exciting game we've had in a really long time. Uh, that that's what I was thinking about today that Monday night football McCarthy versus Caleb Williams, two rookies going at it,

maybe potentially for playoff position. That could be good. I don't know that they'll be here at this point. I really don't. I think just going through, I was giving a lot of credit to the defense. I was giving a lot of credit to how much Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are going to help whoever is playing quarterback. I'm giving a lot of credit to maybe the luck gods swinging the other way because last year they were so unlucky and usually it just kind of bounces back and forth, right? So they're super lucky in 22. They were unlucky last year. Maybe they'll get the fumbles this year. I don't know. That's how I'm getting them to eight and six to win the Bears game at home. But yes, it could be a presence as you know, painting the picture there.

Like there, there have been times that through the years that I've walked into whatever stadium, us bank stadium, Lambeau, where it's just like, there's so much energy in that place and it's awesome. And there's no way to replicate it when you, I think, you know,

the game that was like, this was Thanksgiving. The last time I really felt this way, Thanksgiving, 2022 Vikings Patriots, the Patriots were still hanging around and it was a huge game for the Vikings to bounce back against the Cowboys. Of course, we didn't know where that thing would tumble down to. Eventually, it felt like a huge game. Like, they need this one. Kenny Wongwu gets the kick return for touchdown. Ed Donatell's defense makes Mac Jones look like the best quarterback of all time. And they're throwing haymakers at each other back and forth.

Daniil Hunter gets a key sack at the end of the game. The place goes absolutely bananas. Like that was the last time at US Bank Stadium where it was that you can sort of whatever, cut it with a knife. You can just feel the energy shooting through it. It could be that way for that game with the Bears if it is meaningful.

And maybe I'm just trying to speak it into existence because I like covering those games. Out to Seattle disappointment after a huge win against the Chicago bears, the NFL at large talking about, well, these Vikings, man, they're overachieving. They're better than we thought. And this week, they're going to really show it against Seattle. And then they lose because this is just kind of how 500 teams play. And I think that's what the Vikings ultimately will be is around a 500 team fighting for a playoff spot. Seattle is, I don't think that

they're a great team, but they're very much a 500 team and they have the home field advantage. If it is McCarthy, that's not going to be easy. They've got playmakers all over the field part of this can be about you know the receivers are good if you went through all right who's going to have receivers that are going to cause the Vikings problems Seattle might be one of those teams that does that they're just a little bit farther along as a complete team than the Vikings and the home field uh is is definitely a thing. Preston, why did the Vikings always have to go to Seattle? They did come here, I think in 2021, right? That it looked like it was a season saving win when they beat the tar out of Seattle in 2021. Kirk

played great in that game. Some baffling defensive scheme by Pete Carroll, maybe a little sign that the end was near. And every other time, since I've covered the team, they've gone to Seattle. And I think this year might be the year that I actually go out there. Uh, it's not the cheapest flight. So a lot of times I've kind of said, you know, I'll stick to my Chicago, my green Bay, but I might go out there this year for a road trip. That's another thing I did want to bring up before the end of the show is just like best road trips. Uh, some of the games that stand out from that perspective. So we'll go through that. All right. So a disappointing loss in Seattle to a team that's competing for the playoffs out there. And now it is Packers. This one, I don't know what to do with. so I'll tell you what I wrote down initially but it doesn't

make sense and maybe maybe I'll maybe I was just being ridiculous here uh oh yeah yeah I'll be traveling uh Preston I'll be traveling every year I'm always doing it uh last year I think I set the purple inside purple insider record for the most road trips. I went to owners meetings, combine green Bay, Vegas, Chicago. Where else did I go? Philadelphia. So yeah, well definitely, definitely. I I'm a hundred percent. Well, we'll talk about it, which games are the best road trips, but I'll definitely be in for LA again. Always go out to LA because I have family out there. So, uh, yeah, maybe, maybe we will set another record. Depends on how much you guys like and favorite the videos. So I can get more of that sweet YouTube revenue. That's more road trips. I'm

just saying, just saying sign up for the newsletter over purpleinsider.com. That always helps the more support, the more road trips. So this is Packers. I wrote down when, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I was just excited for the, uh, just excited for the schedule release. I guess I wrote down when to go to nine and seven, if they are nine and seven playing the Packers or beating the Packers at home, we are going to feel like this team is really on its way that by 2025, they are going to be a legitimate contender. If this happens that there's no other way to look at it. Like this would be a spectacular season for them considering where they're at to make a pit stop on other way to look at it. This would be a spectacular season for them, considering where they're at,

to make a pit stop on the way to what they're really trying to be. And that pit stop is you're going into the final week of the season at 9-7 after beating Green Bay. I probably should have made this a loss, just to tell you the truth, one of the two. I should have made it either a loss at Lambeau or a loss at us bank stadium but i wanted to throw this scenario in there like if they would have another one of

those big games walking into the stadium and that's that's the thing about the end of this schedule is you know they go from that just putrid jaguars colts titans but the end of the season I mean home home home out to Seattle home that's a good stretch if they've got a chance to be a playoff team so I wrote down win maybe it's too much maybe it's a little bit uh too on the enthusiastic side that they could beat Green Bay at home to have a chance to go to the playoffs and then wrap up the season at 9-8 with a, I just, I didn't write down the result, but you understand it, a loss to the Detroit Lions.

Let me fix that. Loss to go to 9-8. The Detroit Lions will be playing for playoff position and they will beat the Vikings so they finish off the season at nine and eight. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back real quick and I'm going to look at the best road trips. And I want you guys to put in the comment section, what you think if the Vikings go nine and eight, if, if this is how the season plays out, if how I just projected it, and I don't know what the quarterback thing, I don't know, like who's going to play

and when nine and eight season, how would we feel about that? First reaction from Preston is regardless of who the Vikings beat to get to nine and eight would mean the future looks bright. I agree. I think this would be a really good outcome and uh cj says uh nine and eight just about the ceiling with this schedule quarterback situation strength of the division i agree maybe that's how i was kind of looking at it is like this could be a good scenario drew is not so high on this says it's not good nine Nine and eight's not good. Well, I think that there's nine and eight

and there's nine and eight, right? There's nine and eight with Kirk Cousins where you go, supposed to be more than that. There's nine and eight with a team of veterans that you pay a bunch of money and go, supposed to be more than that. And then there's nine and eight with a team that's in transition and headed upward

where I think it's going to be a, you know, a much better outcome than if you were just kind of going back to, oh, well, you know, whatever nine and eight type of season. Um, uh, yeah, all those Packers, uh, new receivers gelling at once. Well, that's what happened last year. Yeah. At the end of the season, Leonard says very bright. Uh, Joe says nine and eight with a rookie quarterback, a lot more fun than nine and eight with a rookie quarterback a lot more fun than nine and eight with kirk that's kind of along the lines of what i was thinking is that nine a nine and eight season would be i think one of the most fun that we've had in quite some time 2022 is really fun so no doubt about that but as far as the last five six years it would rank up there because it

would be quite a wild ride of ups and downs and we would learn a lot about the team and it would rank up there because it would be quite a wild ride of ups and downs. And we would learn a lot about the team and it would look like they were going in the right direction. Sean says, I'd be stoked if we went nine and eight bright future, especially if JJ starts and looks strong at the end of the year. Agree with that. Leonard says lots of excitement with cap space and continue to add good players. Yep. They definitely do. Matt says,

I'm with you that Flores is going to run a great defense this year. However, I think you're overestimating that O'Connell can get a run game going. This offense is going to struggle. Yeah, I don't know. I mean that you could be right. I,

with Aaron Jones in the mix, I am giving them more credit as a running team. And I also give a lot of credit to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison for what they can do for a quarterback. So that is where, if I'm giving like a lot of credit, that's probably where it's at. I also think that they could be a top 10 defense. If, if they're, I don't even need to be completely healthy, but if they're healthy ish, they could be a top 10 defense. If they're, I don't even need to be completely healthy, but if they're healthy-ish, they could be a top 10 defense.

This is a tough schedule, but they do face young quarterbacks here and there. That's where I am probably giving a lot of the nine and eight credit is on the defensive side. That Packers game at the end of the year or the one at Lambeau, I should probably just coin flip those because they usually do split and I should go eight and nine, but I just did it right off the

top, right off the dome with no hesitation, came up with nine and eight. So I think that's, it's worth kind of reacting to as maybe a best case scenario. Bill says nine and eight would be amazing. Flo would need to be at his best. Yeah, I mean, you're right. They have to have a really great defense. I am not sure about the running game and whether it's going to turn around. I would say that it's, you know, it's got to be better, right?

It has to be better with Aaron Jones than it was the last two years. The passing game will probably be less effective. But I also think they went seven and 10 last year and half the season was played with Josh Dobbs and with Nick Mullins. And they were this close to winning with Mullins in two games against Detroit. So I should be giving them a little more credit. Shouldn't I? Uh, let's see. Uh, the Tim, Tim Bobber love that, Uh, like to be looking at the future instead of closing a window. Yeah. And that's what this year will feel like regardless of how

it works out. But if it's nine and eight, then, uh, it would really feel like that. What about Bob? I still think the roster is super untalented on defense. I wouldn't go super untalented. I would say that, so the depth is nothing like 10 years ago. We'll take a lot of Flores Fugazi to make it work. So last year they finished what? I mean, 12th and they did fall apart at the end when they had some injuries and that's always going to happen. You're always going to have injuries, but I think if you could make a chicken salad out of chicken bleep last year with a lot of holes on the defense that they should at

least be mid-pack or better and could potentially be better than that if they stay healthy because i don't think we can underrate last year hicks got hurt toward the end of the season, but also, you know, it was on the older side, limitations there. Adding a linebacker like Blake Cashman, another year for Ivan Pace. They have improved the cornerback group a little bit, and they've definitely improved the overall pass rush. Even in the interior, they were playing Jonathan Bullard every play. Now they've stacked up a few more guys. They may not be huge difference makers, but they're average players and they could be a little bit better.

So Skull Vikings says, how do you feel about the over under on 6.5? I would go with the over, but I also am not a betting advice person. Okay. Because I'm, I'm not a gambler because it, I've just seen so many things over the years go completely the wrong way when it comes to what I think. And that was my joke of like, I've never gotten a game wrong. Like, I mean, we all get things wrong constantly. So don't say, Hey, Matt said it's over 6.5. So I should go with it. If you were, if you gave me a hundred dollars of your money and said, what should I put it down on? Or, or, or you said I had to put it down on one or the other, I would go with the over. And a major part of that is last year that they were still able to find ways to win some football

games. And look, they're this close to beating Denver. You know, they're this close. They're this close to being at least a nine and 18. They're one throw from Nick Mullins to a wide open, just to Jefferson away from beating the Detroit Lions, staying in the playoff race. So if they could be at that point, then I think that this year they can at least be a little better than that or at the same bar unless of course sam darno plays terribly jj mccarthy doesn't know what he's doing like that's a world now in our previous world it was so much easier to predict what kirk cousins would do now it's it's a lot harder uh digit says any of these average 50 50 teams that have strong

interior d-line push leaves the vikings in trouble that's true i didn't look at it uh through that lens so much but you're absolutely right about that so let me do this uh continue to give your reactions here phil says i think the defense is much improved over last year let's not forget that the offense turned the ball over often and with samold, they still might. But I don't think anybody could fumble more than they did last year. That was insane. I just think that Justin Jefferson, if he's paired with Darnold or if it's McCarthy starting, has a significant impact

on what the quarterback can do. Now, there's always the guy might be incompetent and there's nothing he can do, whoever's starting, but that's an important piece to how many games you can win. David says this team has much more or as much or much more talent than middling teams. I like their process and structure more than others. A lot of it will come down to offensive line, defensive line, quarterback improvement. I can actually breathe now. Yes. Uh, digits says I like Cashman. I agree. Uh, Preston, what three quarterbacks are they keeping? I would guess that it is, uh, JJ McCarthy, Nick Mullins, and Sam Darnold. I would think Nick Mullins is a good guy to have around

in that room. And then Jaron Hall will be maybe practice squad or nothing at all. So let me go back. I promised I was going to look at best road trips here. So number one, right off the bat, Giants road trip is, it's a no. That's a no for me, dog. Probably not doing that one. It is week one. Okay. Here's my promise. If McCarthy starts, I'll go to New York. If it's Darnold, probably not. It's just, that's an expensive one for a game that is not really high on my list of best games at Packers. I will go of course, but it's not really a road trip at Rams.

I enjoyed going to SoFi stadium. The last time that I went, I got super lost both going in and going out, especially going out though. Totally lost inside that stadium. Maybe we'll do better next time. I don't remember how I got in or out, so maybe I won't do better. LA is always a great trip.

I mean, it's LA. Like there's lots to do there and you can't go wrong. So LA would be, of course, very high. Jaguars is number one on my list. I mentioned it when we talked about that game. That's a golf trip right there. That's a weekend trip. You know, Florida's Florida, but going down there for the game, it's the Jaguars. So that doesn't have the juice that it might for another team. But if you're talking about the weather, the state, the golf potential, if that's what you like to do, that's a good trip. Tennessee is a no for me. I've never been

to Nashville though. So I would like to go to Nashville at some point. Chicago, obviously the usual Seattle is a good trip. How cold is Seattle? I don't know this in like December. Can anybody tell me, does anybody live in Seattle? So if I was ranking them, it's Jaguars one Rams to Seattle three. Obviously this is non-division and giants four. And then of course you got the London trip. That one,

I got to, I got to rank very high too. I don't think I'm going to London. I don't think so. I haven't been to London for any of the games so far. So I don't know a stadium with the best press box food. Green Bay is really good. Green Bay at any time you want, and this is dangerous at any time you want, you can get a broad, any, any moment of the game. They're just there and they're good so uh they're good san francisco though san francisco playoff game blew everything away what best spread i've ever seen absolutely tremendous

uh lee says cousins averaged 38 attempts a game i think o'connell is making a big mistake if he asked the same of darnold and mccarthy so that's something I was actually looking into yesterday about how rookie quarterbacks were treated, what they looked like on paper, how their offenses were designed and so forth. And it was really fascinating because Justin Herbert was a guy that was supposed to sit for a while and Tyrod Taylor started that season. And then when Herbert went in, they didn't run the ball well, and he threw the ball like 40 times game and he was okay. He actually had a really good rookie season with good receivers and so forth. It's it's, it's hard. Uh, go, go fund me. I don't need to go fund me. I don't need to go fund me to travel more. We we've got the budget to travel. I'm just saying

that if you want to support the cause, then signing up for the newsletter or just watching this or listening to it actually helps. So I appreciate all the support. Just watching, just commenting, all that. That's support for what I'm doing. And if you happen to tell a friend, that would be great. Or if you happen to push the like button, that would be great. That's, that's the way to do it. Cold and wet Preston says of Seattle. Not great. Yeah.

Not ideal. Go to Nashville. You get a cowboy hat. Now I won't be getting a cowboy hat. Um, yeah, I mean, Nashville, Nashville like could be fun, but it's the titans do i want to go to that one phil i think darnold's going to surprise he's been treated like the invisible man since the draft yeah he has poor sam darnold i bring him up on the show he's like oh yeah that guy they have that they have another guy uh sean says i lived in washington for eight years it depends on the wind the rain isn't bad unless you're getting gnarly wind off the puget sound and it can be rough i went to seattle once and uh so how about this quick story since we're like an hour into the show uh i was almost something else media wise and not minnesota vik Back in 2015, I had a job interview

to work at a radio station in Seattle. So I flew out to Seattle middle of the summer. It was great, really enjoyed it. Went to the Puget sound. I did the air test and they took me to a Mariners game and they were the home of the Mariners. So I met Dave Sims, who was their play-by-play guy. Super nice guy, sat behind home plate. They kind of rolled out the red carpet and it was great. So, but then it just turned out that there were other people that they liked for the job. Somebody was more local. They went with that person.

No big deal. Ended up in Minnesota, 1500 ESPN. That's how I ended up doing this. Uh, but almost, almost Seattle. I think I was going to be a talk show host and Seattle Mariners pre and post game, almost a different world folks. It's crazy where the world could take you. Didn't the chargers puncture the lung of Tyra? Yeah, they did. They punctured his lung and he then couldn't play and they played Herbert and everyone said, oh, it's too soon. You know, it's too soon to play Herbert. And then he was great. That's what I mean by you never know. Like sometimes you sit

somebody and you don't need to, or sometimes they needed longer to sit. You really don't know until they play. How long have I had the Purple Insider on YouTube? So a few years ago, because I initially started after I began Purple Insider in 2020. Pandemic, radio station blown up. Most of you guys know the story. So I started the Purple Insider podcast then. And I thought, foolishly, not knowing the internet, I thought that if I put it on video, that people wouldn't listen on the podcast feed. And the podcast feed is where I had sponsors and stuff.

So I was like, no, I don't want the video side. But then I was encouraged by some folks who know more about the interwebs than I do, that, hey, those audiences actually don't cross over as much as you think. So you should put it on YouTube. So then I bought a very small webcam and I was in my old house without studio and I pointed at myself and it wasn't great. And over the last maybe year, I put a lot of effort into this.

So now it looks like this where it's bright and we got the picture behind and the flags and everything. And but if you are listening on the audio version, I appreciate you there because that's still very important to the operation. But it just turns out that it's different audiences. So there's kind of the long story short. Let's see. They banned Diet Dr. Pepper in

Washington due to artificial sweeteners. They did. Is that true? I got one right now. Is that true? That would be weird. But I, but I do remember that New York city did something like they wouldn't serve glasses of soda that were bigger than this tiny little like four ounces or whatever you got like one of those those those uh those like weed uh what are they called or like where they chop up a bunch of weeds and grass and you drink it it was like that size of uh i would never obviously but it was like that size of a cup when i went to new y city. I was like, where's the rest of my soda. If I go to a place, I like to get the, you know, the bucket size. So I wouldn't be surprised if they did something weird like that, but they can't keep me away from the diet, Dr. Pepper. Anyway,

we've gotten far away now from the Viking schedule. Now it's summertime. It's not even past nine o'clock guys. You're not supposed to go crazy until after nine o'clock at least. But, uh, the point just being that, um, you know, I, I think that, uh, this schedule allows for the possibility of this team to be in the playoff hunt. That's how I look at it. And if things go even relatively right for them with their coaching staff, with their talent, they should be there. They should be there. It's, it's not easy. And I think that a lot of you are being very realistic and Preston, I don't know if nine and eight gets them into the playoffs. Kind of depends on the year looking around the NFC. It's a lot stronger than it was like two

years ago. There's a lot of teams that consider themselves on the rise and that might be the determining factor. I had them winning some games in the NFC North might be hard to win these games in the NFC North to split with Chicago, to beat green Bay, you know, and so forth. Uh, but I think that they have enough games that are winnable that should put them in a position to be at least having that discussion down the stretch. If they get decent quarterback play, it'll be fascinating whether it's a guarantee though. I don't know. And I think, you know, Daniel says six or seven wins, depending on who starts a quarterback. I, if you think they're going to win six games, I'm not going to tell you you're a fool or you're crazy because I could see that with the strength of the division, the teams that they are going on the road to play at the Rams at Seattle. That's

not easy. Like I put Jacksonville as the letdown game. Jacksonville was nine and eight last year. Like they might be a good team. It's not an easy schedule. So, you know, I, I think that um this schedule allows for a wide range the ceiling is probably something like 10 wins the floor could be almost anything because we just don't know how the quarterback's going to play and until we get really a sense of that and i did this mostly thinking sam darnold would be playing they can be a nine and 18 with Sam Darnold. He went eight, nine in Carolina. He looked pretty good with the 49ers. I don't think he's a laughingstock.

I think he's a pretty good quarterback, not a great one, but a pretty good one that under the right circumstances can have you in that race. If JJ McCarthy starts the whole time, it's going to be harder to be in the playoff race because there is a learning curve and there is steeper ups and downs. I was even looking at CJ Stroud last year. He had a three-game stretch where he was absolutely terrible. And he had one of the best rookie seasons that we've seen in a long time. So you do have to ride the wave. But if you think it's six or seven wins, I don't think you're being overly negative or overly critical. You might just be a little more realistic than I am where

I'm sitting here today in May thinking, yeah, I think they could be around 500 or better. CJ says six or seven wins would be okay if JJ and Turner look like stars, top 10 pick and on top of cap space would make 2025 look great. You guys, I think, are being as realistic as you can be about the outlook for next season. That it's really about where we end as a franchise in 2024 and where they begin in 2025 than necessarily what the final record is. And Phil says exactly that, not worried about wins, more focused on gaining long-term building blocks. Right. It's where you feel like you are as a franchise by the end of 2024 season and going into 2025 more than it is what is the win total. Now, the other side of that coin is if the

win total is four that's pretty bad like it can't be four i think we all agree that it's got to be like six six is the everyone would go tough year but all right could be going in the right direction if it's four then that's not great if it's, then it's going to feel like you're really going the right way. Juan asks, when's the JJ breakout game, Indiana? Yeah, we were talking about that a little along the way. And there's a couple of games that you could identify as the JJ McCarthy game. The number one on my list is coming out of the bye week against Detroit. If he sits to start or if they play terrible to start, if they go, if they lose to the giants and it goes tumbling down

to Owen for, it might be just time to get them in there. But Indianapolis was another one. Tennessee was another one on the list. The first one was coming out of the buy though. Daniel says this season is about the first real year of Kweisi. No more sorting out Spielman's roster mistakes. Yeah, I agree that they've got them to the point where with Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, where it's his roster and now his job really begins, which is build a real winner. That's where it begins. He's torn it down. He's gotten his young quarterback. Now build a winner. Is this Jerick says schedule looks rough right now that it's all laid out. See one or two wins versus green Bay, win in Seattle, win in Jacksonville. Don't see two more, maybe three past that. I had a few more past that, but they are a lot of 50-50 ones.

Of course, the Giants is one that they should win in the division. I always think they can win. Jets in London is a winnable game to me right now. If Aaron Rodgers at that point has 14 touchdowns, one interception, and is averaging 300 yards passing a game that i will change my mind very much uh but colts is winnable titans cardinals yeah i think that i mean even the falcons like let's not act like the falcons are some fantastic franchise at this moment um mccarthy shouldn't play this year jamie says six wins. It's all up to him. It's all up to

McCarthy. If he's ready, then, then play them, uh, four wins that becomes more and more valuable. Yeah. Four wins does put you in a high draft position, but trust me, I don't think, and I know that would be great. I don't think you want four wins. Four wins is going to feel terrible. Four wins is going to feel like the wheels are off. This team is going nowhere. It's because a lot has to go wrong to be that bad. I mean, people have to get hurt. There's disgruntled receivers.

There's pets. Heads are falling off. Like you got to have everything go wrong to win four in this league. Think about what a new England win last year. Did they win four? Like that's how bad you have to be to win four. You're looking at a little bit more than that. David says, uh, Vikings remind me of Tampa last year in a variety of ways. Uh, this is not the Norris division. If our, uh, first three picks, uh, hit then look out. I also like the addition of Jake's, uh, I assume you mean JJ's attitude.

Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, as far as his attitude goes, I think he's taking the right approach right off the bat. Looks like somebody that is going to be able to manage the stress of the NFL because he's already been in an environment that had a lot of stress last season. And not everybody has that in college college but as far as Tampa last year so Tampa was kind of weirdly they were sort of on the downslope a little bit last year but they overachieved because Baker played well I thought they might be a top five draft pick team

but as far as the Baker playing well and Darnold connection. Baker was a backup the year before and then played well with what top wide receivers. I could see that. CJ says, hear me out. JJ wins in Detroit to make the playoffs and then beats the lions again, instant heel to Michigan fans. Now that's one heck of a scenario right there as definitely one.

Yeah. If they were able to do that that then that would really be something so anyway well you know uh i think uh it's a it's a fun schedule with a lot to talk about and we will definitely continue to break it down one of the things that i've done each off season i want to continue to do is find other beat reporters to bring on the show from games that the vik Vikings are going to play at some point during the season break them down I am expected to have a very special guest on the show tomorrow so keep an eye out for that um you guests can always fall through so I don't want to say who it is first but it's pretty exciting for tomorrow so keep an an eye out for that. But this was really

fun. This is one of the things that I really look forward to every year. They drop that schedule. We get to pick it. We know what it's going to look like. And then we break it down. No, it's not, it's not Courtney. It's, I don't want to say better than that because no one's better than Courtney, but it's a bigger name than that. So I'll just leave it at that. I'm just like, not until it's over. Well, I want to announce who I'm going to have on the show because things can always fall through. So this is a good point.

Joe is a, why, why don't baseball beat reporters do a schedule prediction when they release the schedule, right? They should, they should go, you know,

game by game, series by series. Dan's thinking nine and eight, 10 and seven. I'm in that ballpark. So we'll see how it goes. It is not Fred Smoot. Your guesses are terrific though. It's not, it's not Kevin O'Connell either, but, um, we'll just, we'll just make sure that it happens, but keep an eye out for that. So thanks everybody for joining. This was a lot of fun. I'm going to go watch some more basketball and enjoy. Look, I advise pick the W's and L's keep track of it and go through the season. Hey, what did I think on the first day?

And it's, it's a, it's a fun exercise, I think. So we'll do it a few more times. No, not Teddy Bridgewater someday. I'd love to have Teddy on the show. I really never got to cover Teddy too much, only a little bit there at the end of 2017. So thank you so much again, everybody for watching. This was really fun. And we will talk to you extremely soon. There's OTAs coming up, more shows as always every day. This train does not slow down. It just becomes more ridiculous as the summer goes along,

but we've got OTAs. We've got mini camps going on and suddenly those things are a big deal. So we will talk to you all very soon. Football. Football.