Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings sign a linebacker, Kupp signs in Seattle, Rodgers watch continues

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about the latest from free agency, including the Seahawks landing Cooper Kupp, the Vikings bringing back Eric Wilson and having Rondale Moore in for a visit and the Rodgers stuff not going away.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here and we've got free agent movement and that was my promise. I said, Hey, if we've got some things that are news and that there's things that affect the Minnesota Vikings, then Hey, I'll pop on on Friday night and I know maybe last night I made it sound like I have better things to do I absolutely don't. I hit some golf balls in the backyard today and enjoyed the nice weather but it's gonna turn nasty again so we'll still be staying inside and waiting for the latest on the Minnesota Vikings. So here is the latest indeed Cooper Cup has a new home. It is not Minnesota.

So I'm interested in your guys' reactions to that. I was joking around on Twitter that, you know, if Cooper cup had signed with the Vikings, then a lot of people would have been super excited. Oh, Cooper cup is here. That's what I always wanted. But the minute he signs with someone else, it's like, well, that was too much. That was too much. Even if it had been the same

Contract that's how we all react to free agency And I was even guilty of that the other day where Grady Jarrett signs for a big number and I go well You know that's too much and then Jonathan Allen signs for a bigger number and you're like no, that's good Although maybe those two things aren't exactly the same The point is just that I think through the last couple of days with Cooper Cup watch, we all made the case and thought about how Cooper Cup might fit with the Minnesota Vikings, but instead he signs

a three year, $45 million deal to go play with Sam Darnold in Seattle. And the three years 45, we always have to make the warning. Let's see what the contract really looks like before we go crazy. And that goes for all contracts that get signed in free agency.

But we see that number, that's the one that sticks in the noggin and it's a lot for Cooper Cup. Multiple years is a lot for Cooper Cup. Now I'm guessing, I haven't seen the contract yet as far as the actual details, but I'm guessing it's going to be much more of a two year type of contract with Seattle

that had the Vikings done this, had the Vikings decided to go get Cooper Cup at three years 45, and it was much more like two and the first year was cheap I think everybody would have been okay with it and we all would have said hey that fits really well with Jefferson and Addison and he could play in the slot and he could be a possession receiver and all those things that's what we would have said about it instead he ends up deciding to go to another team.

And I think probably the Vikings brass did look at his demands and think maybe that is a little much for a guy that's had injuries and has not played at the same level that he was a couple of years ago when he was truly one of the best players in the entire NFL. There are other wide receivers in the world who can play this role. It is not the end of the off season. The Vikings didn't fail. Whoever their quarterback is going to be because they missed out on Cooper cup. It falls, I think under the category of, well, that would have been nice for the offense. And that would have been a fun addition in an off season where a lot of big

names have shown up in Minnesota and Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and And that would have been a fun addition in an off season where a lot of big names have shown up in Minnesota and Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and Will fries became a big name in our lives because he's an interior offensive lineman. So it would have added another jolt of energy into the off season of, wow, another weapon in Minnesota. When you look at his production, uh it was pretty good sixty seven catches and he was i think thirty fifth among starting wide receivers by pff. Which is not at all terrible and there's concerns about the injury which sounds like a lot of the players that the vikings already signed so i know there's gonna be some, well, you know, he's been injured and everything else. Once he signs with someone else. But I think everybody would have enjoyed if Cooper cup was becoming a Minnesota Viking, but, uh, what are your emotions?

Are you sad? And what do you want them to do now? That, uh, Cooper cup is off the table. There are still receivers that are out there and one of them. And, uh, I will give you, uh, all the credit Rhino man, 44 Rhino man. I was trying to think of who it was, who was it in the chat that was shouting out Rondale Moore? I was like, man, somebody was mentioned it.

I didn't really get to it. And today the Vikings brought in Rondale Moore. So 44 Rhino man, you get to own that one today. You called that one, the Vikings interested in Rondale Moore as they bring him in and looking at Moore's numbers. Now he got hurt last year, did not have a chance to play for the Atlanta Falcons, but the previous couple of seasons after being a fairly high draft pick second rounder, he came onto the scene really well with Arizona

had 54 catches 435 yards and then kind of drifted off a little bit there and explosive undersized type of player who has only averaged 8.9 yards per reception over his career. Hasn't had a ton of catches, but really does define exactly where I've been on this position, which is somebody who can catch the ball and run somebody who's quick and open underneath. Like that's the target type of player. And you know, Rhino man was talking about Rondale more. I kind of wasn't sure where he stood in his recovery. Is he coming back?

Like what I hadn't seen anybody bring him up as far as interest. And then the Vikings bring him in for a visit, presumably because they need to see what his health situation is like. Does he still have the quickness? Does he still have the explosiveness? I think Rondale more, if they were to sign him is a nice signing because he does have the things that I was talking about. They don't need somebody who is going to be a top notch wide receiver for huge

money or to overspend necessarily, which it would have been on Cooper cup to overspend to get this position locked down where you can run a screen and the guy can catch it and go and get a first down like easy completions yards after catch, run or reverse with the guy. The Vikings just don't really have that guy. So Rondale Moore might fit that bill. But when I tell you who Rondale Moore kind of reminds me of on paper, maybe it's a little less exciting. And that's Brandon Powell, Brandon Powell, who was fine for the Vikings, but an undersized guy with some explosiveness and Powell was a good punt returner once upon a time, but

didn't really do much last year in terms of punt returning. Maybe there could be a slight upgrade, but the reason I bring up Powell is because the Vikings had this type of player and he just wasn't used at all last year. Brandon Powell was not injured. He was in the lineup and they never put him in the game. They never threw screens to him. They never ran reverses. So if you're going to sign Rondale Moore, at which the Vikings are just having him in

for a visit right now, but the point is if you're going to have Rondale Moore at which the Vikings are just having him in for a visit right now. But the point is, if you're going to have Rondale Moore, who is, I think, a quicker version of Brandon Powell, you have to use them. You have to have an idea of how to use them. And I agree, Seth, that, you know, when it comes to his athleticism, he is a better athlete for sure than Brandon Powell, but the differences are kind of negligible when you look at their receiving numbers, yards per catch, stuff like that over their careers. More is only a really short yardage type of wide receiver where he's catching 50 passes and still not getting to a hundred yards.

I mean, again, like I'm okay with this and I have been for this type of player. It's just that are they going to really find a way to use that player or would they prefer somebody who is more of a route runner who is more of a possession player? Uh, general soreness more over Powell at the tush push. I don't know. I think they're about the same size. Rondale Moore is listed at five, seven, one 80. Let me look up Brandon Powell.

I understand that more is quicker and he's a second round draft pick. Powell actually weighs one more pound and is one inch bigger. So if the fact that they never really had a package for Brandon Powell or threw him quick screens or did anything like that. And the fact that they are kind of similar on paper does make you wonder, is that going to be something you want to do? But if the offense,

assuming and we'll get to it, assuming it's JJ McCarthy, I think with JJ McCarthy, you want more of an underneath passing game with not only Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, but other options as well. Where with Sam Darnold, it was really deep down the field, deep down the field. They developed a little better underneath stuff as they went along in the season, but they never had this as part of it. It was almost exclusively Darnold's going to drop back and they're going to look deep first. But again, if that's what they're going to do with McCarthy, then Rondale Moore is probably not a really good fit. And maybe the guy to look at instead would be Keenan Allen. I think Keenan

Allen is a similar wide receiver to Cooper Cup and could be a lot less expensive than Cooper Cup. If Keen and Alan wants to keep playing or has any interest in coming to Minnesota, usually he likes playing against the Vikings rather than playing for them because he just crushes them. But it's a similar type of profile of someone who's not the fastest, great hands, still a good route runner, so much experience.

So if they're looking for a Rondell Moore type, there's another guy, Elijah Moore, who played for Cleveland, who was also this type of guy, underneath, explosive. I think he's only 26 years old. That might be somebody they look at too. So we'll just keep our eyes out for number three-ish type wide receivers. I don't like exactly putting that label on depth receivers

when they're so different. So someone like Rondale Moore is very different from a Jalen Naylor, they would presumably mix and match and rotate and things like that. So if you're talking about, you know, getting yards after catch screens reverses, this little hybrid type of player. That's what Rondale more can be. And maybe they see something more

in him. Am I right? Probably not. Uh, okay. The Vikings also signed Eric Wilson. Now back in 2020, I wrote a long profile of Eric Wilson and just how dynamic he was as a player. Even when he was growing up as a kid in high school, I interviewed his high school coach for the story back in 2020. I tweeted it if you want to check it out where he did everything in high school football. And then he went to college and he did everything in college football. He's a safety. He's a linebacker. He was very well trained at multiple positions and was willing to come in and

be an impact player on special teams for the Vikings in that 2019. I have to look up when his first year with the Vikings was, but he became a very helpful player for the Vikings under Mike Zimmer. And I think that this is exactly what they needed. He's been really good with Green Bay the last couple of years for this type of role. Yeah that's right twenty twenty Eric Wilson played a thousand snaps wow i forgot about that blitzer was good coverage had three interceptions that year. I did not remember him playing a thousand snaps but he was better in the role where he filled in and that's what he'll be here with green Bay. He was a good pass rusher last year.

He's always been a good pass rusher. He's always been a solid run defender except for that year in 2020 where they had nothing at defensive tackle. Wilson is almost made in a box for Brian Flores to be this type of role player and I think he's a pretty significant upgrade over Kamu Grougé Hill. I know he's not the biggest guy, but Grougé Hill was particularly small for a linebacker position really by weight and I think that the more Grougy Hill played, the more he was exposed when Blake Cashman was out.

So they ultimately had to end up playing Josh Mattel is as a linebacker instead of Grouchy Hill. I don't think that they want to do that again, where they have to. If Cashman goes down, they have to move Josh Mattel us into a different position and force him to play linebacker. He's a guy who can play linebacker But you really want him in that hybrid role where he's just fantastic and is a major impact player You don't want him having to fill in at

215 pounds and try to play the same job as Blake Cashman. Well now Eric Wilson can do that So this is one of those signings where in March 14th, we go, Oh yeah, I remember Eric Wilson. Like he was a cool player, I guess. But then down the road, a Blake Cashman's got a leg injury is going to be out for three weeks or something. And here comes Eric Wilson and you know what kind of performance he can give you that it's well above average for a backup.

So, uh, yeah, Jameen Davis. Wow. Remember the Jameen Davis era that was extremely brief. This is a much better insurance policy. And this is where, when we go across the roster, this is where the Vikings, I think, can really make a lot of progress from last year. Some folks have asked, Hey, what are they going to do with the rest of that cap space? And we'll get to it. But like, if it's not the thing, you know, at quarterback,

there's a lot of opportunity to fill in nice pieces. Maybe another running back, maybe a Rondell Moore, maybe another cornerback who's proven, maybe another safety who can be a little bit dynamic and mix and match, or even compete with Theo Jackson, maybe another pass rusher on the outside to take Patrick Jones spot ish or compete with Dallas Turner in case Turner doesn't work out. If there are spots on this roster where last year, if someone got hurt, the drop off was pretty significant.

And I think corner is the place to really look here for another depth player. I would like to see them go get someone like Mike Hilton, who is a former Cincinnati Bangalore. He's over 30 years old, but he could still play. And Isaiah Rogers is kind of this as well. Like they now have this ability to fill in all those spaces and actually create a little bit of competition, not to mention guard where they could go get another guard to compete with Blake Brandle and they can draft one and they can have multiple of these players. And I remember, I may have brought this up at some point on the show, hearing Greg Rosenthal, NFL network, NFL.com

does the great podcast. He said that his theory was if you want to really compete for a Super Bowl, you have to have 40 good players. I was like 40 good players. Wow. I mean, of course this is relative to quarterback play and all that, but I thought that's a lot. I mean, there's only 22 guys that start, but then when you start to go through the teams like San Francisco in the past, like Philadelphia this year, you go, you know what? That's actually kind of right because you need rotational players. You need backup players who can fill in for guys who get injured and not have this huge drop off.

Let's see. Does Rondale more replace Jalen Naylor? I don't think he replaces Jalen Naylor. I think that he adds another dynamic. So last year, if Naylor was coming off the field, it was Trent Sherfield. And everybody likes Trent Sherfield, what he brought in special teams, the toughness,

you don't see wide receivers blocking like Trent Sherfield, but he didn't scare anybody. I mean, if he's on the field, the other team basically doesn't have to worry about him. Maybe they'll put someone on him to cover him. But other than that, they knew the ball was very rarely going to him. What Rondale more would bring is if he is on the field, then all the

sudden you have somebody who can scare you a little bit. And we saw with the Vikings that what do you have an 80 yard touchdown against the Vikings in 2021? You have to know where Rondale Moore is if you're the other team, because you know that this guy runs a four, three, you know how explosive, how quick, how dynamic he can be. That's something they would bring

where Naylor is still more of the wide receiver three. He's probably gonna play more than Rondale Moore, but if Rondale Moore uh, he's probably going to play more than Rondale more. But if Rondale more signs, like they've got to sign them first, they only brought him in for a visit. But if they do sign him, then I think that's how that will kind of work out. Uh, so let's get to your comments here and questions. That's kind of the update of the day, what we got going on. And I'll talk about the Rogers thing in a minute. Uh, general soreness has a lot of Vikings fans excited for McCarthy based off one quarter of preseason football.

Um, not exactly general soreness, not exactly. So number one, I was able to watch every single practice open to the media last year, OTAs, mini camp, training camp. it to the media last year, OTAs, mini camp, training camp. And I think that all of our reports from training camp on JJ McCarthy have played into why Vikings fans are excited as well. But when the head coach comes out and says he's our franchise quarterback and he means it, and I've reported this before, he meant it, it was not some sort of like Pat him on the back, make him feel better

because he just had surgery. Kevin O'Connell meant it when he said that about JJ McCarthy and how he feels about what McCarthy showed him in that training camp. So that's part of it. Uh, and the pre-season game, you can even go back and find my video with Dane Mizutani after the pre-seasonseason game where I talked about how it really confirmed everything that we saw in practice. It confirmed how he handled situations, how we bounced back, the arm strength that you saw, the vision for the middle of the field that you saw. Now that doesn't

mean that JJ McCarthy is going to win the Super Bowl in his first year. It doesn't mean he's going to be the best quarterback in the league, but I can tell you this. I have watched, I don't know, how many over the years, my first training camp was 2017. So how many training camp practices do you think I've watched? I mean, it's at least like what, 20 per year. Every year since 2017, I've been at every single one of them. I've seen a lot of quarterback play. I've seen a lot of quarterback play.

I've seen a lot of Kirk, but I've also seen Sean Mannion, Kellan Mond, Taylor Heinecke, all the other quarterbacks that the Vikings have had Sam Bradford, which was one heck of a show. And I think I've got a pretty good baseline for what a quarterback is supposed to look like in training camp and what it's not supposed to look like. And what I could tell you about McCarthy is that he was in command. He was comfortable with the offense. He greatly improved his throwing ability and he was a playmaker even in a practice setting. You can tell that. And then he confirmed that in the preseason game. They also drafted him 10th overall,

which is a part of this as well. Like that speaks to the talent that he has. And you just watched Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, get the most out of a quarterback in Sam Darnold that no one ever had before, which should also add to the level of confidence. It matters that when you bring in guys to the Vikings to play quarterback,

you get good performances from Kirk Cousins, good performances. I mean, heck, they got the most out of Nick Mullins. He almost won three games for them. Dobbs is a little bit weirder of a debate because it was great at first. And then he was supposed to play the real offense. They needed to do something a little different. That was a little more complicated, but I don't think we can base any. I don't think we can base the KOC analysis on Dobbs rather than Sam

Darnold and those two were neck and neck in a training camp. McCarthy was on the way. So all of those things play into why Vikings fans are ready for JJ McCarthy. Not only that, but let's think about the history of this team. Let's think about how rarely Vikings fans have been able to get excited for a potential franchise quarterback. How many times has this happened? Teddy Bridgewater was one and Dante Culpepper was another one.

Christian Ponder had a minute in 2012 when he beats the Packers at Metrodome. That's really it for Christian Ponder and anybody thinking that he could be the guy. And I mean, he was good in that game, but that's about it. Right? How many times have fans had that? And so with Darnold leaving and you draft that and you set them up

with all these things, I don't think we can be too critical of Vikings fans who want that guy to play quarterback, who you drafted to play quarterback rather than the other guy. And, uh, Rhino man says Rogers is single-handedly ruining an off season that I have been waiting for for years. KOC in this nonsense. Yeah. So I agree with you completely that this has become the vibe for most Vikings fans is that this couldn't be more exciting for where you're at. I mean, if you just, just objectively think about like any franchise, any franchise in the NFL that

has a drafted quarterback in the top 10 who showed a lot in their first look at them like preseason training camp who showed a lot top 10 quarterback and then goes out and spends a ton of money and has superstar players at big positions like wide receiver in Jefferson Jonathan Granada and edge rusher wide receiver in Jefferson, Jonathan Granada and edge rusher, Christian Darasaw. And then you add all these complimentary pieces and free agency, big names, guys with great histories and I know there's skepticism that's deserved, but just hang with me. Any team that did that, everybody around the league would be talking about, right?

As wow, okay, like they are really stacking up around that young kid and here they go Any team that did that would get that kind of treatment and yet it feels like the discussion so I did a radio hit today In the industry we call it a hit an appearance today on What used to be CBS radio? I don't know what it's called now and Let's see. I think I answered six questions and five of them were about Aaron Rodgers. That's exactly what this has become is just Rogers watch. It's taken away the hype. And I know that some people have brought this up that maybe the Vikings are not making anyone available with the free agents and stuff because they're worried about questions about Aaron Rodgers. I don't have an explanation for you when it comes to that.

I know that's been brought up, but if that's the case, wow, like wow, this is taking away from an off season. That's really exciting because you don't even get to introduce the free agents you have. I don't know that no one has told me that, but I've seen it brought up by some other people that that might be a theory and I hope that's not the case. But also the Vikings could, if they wanted to,

come out and say Diana Rossini, hey, stop pushing this. It's over, it's JJ McCarthy, stop bringing this up. And I saw today, she doubled down, tripled down on this. The Vikings are interested in Rogers. She went on an appearance in Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh and she's, and she told Steelers fans that you should count on Aaron Rogers being a Viking or that that was where it was leaning. I mean, she is quite convinced that this is very, very real.

And she is an NFL insider. There are other people like Adam Schefter, who seems very convinced. This is not a real thing, but here's the thing. There's one person who could very easily tell us all anytime he wants. Anytime he wants. Kevin O'Connell has gone on about 15 podcasts, a bunch of national shows, all these other things this off season, anytime he wants to, he can go on a show. He can go do a press conference

What whenever wherever and say hey, it's not a real thing. I'm not really going after Aaron Rodgers So even though I have been of the mind that this is not going to happen The fact that we continue to go day after day and nobody comes out and tells us this isn't happening I mean, do you guys remember when the Falcons were getting connected to lamar jackson and i told somebody you can leak it to an insider anytime you want they got all those peoples numbers i promise you. Anytime you want you can come out and say hey diana let's just chill here that's not really happening. Let's just chill here. That's not really happening. And I'm sure that she would pass along that information and they haven't done it.

So the longer we go along, I have not been buying into the idea that this is going to happen. I have been completely wholly against it. I think it is a horrible idea. I think we already went through this with a quarterback who wasn't good enough to win, which Rodgers is not anymore. We went through an expensive quarterback who's not good enough to win for many years and who also sometimes became a circus otherwise, but not anywhere close to the level of Aaron Rodgers. But there was always kind of something going on with Kirk Cousins. And this is like 10 times worse than that.

Not to mention the guy has won 13 of his last 34 games. He was the 14th best quarterback by PFF this year. That's not what you're looking for if you're trying to chase the Super Bowl. And then there was another report today that said, well, Rogers is not going to take a cheap deal to do it. And I just thought you're going to do this again. You're going to look at the way that young quarterbacks have played in the NFL over the last couple of years. Jaden Daniels is in the NFC championship.

Brock Purdy is in the Super Bowl. That's a year one. That's a year two. Jared Goff had the number one offense in the NFL in 2017 as a second year quarterback who barely got any experience his first year. And it was a horrible experience when he did. Lots of quarterbacks who are set up with terrific situations that are young have success right away your super bowl odds will change in vegas i'm sure if rogers comes here they will not change to me They will not change to me in fact they might go down to me i think they'd be worse. If they get erin rogers and all football people can tell me all you can still spin it okay show me the winds. Show me the wins. You played for Matt LaFleur.

You didn't play for some joke. Malfer is a great coach. He's in the playoffs every year. When was the last time the Packers really struggled, didn't make the playoffs? Oh, yeah. When Aaron Rodgers was bad in 2022 and then he was bad with the Jets. I don't get it. I don't get it. But the longer we go and the longer nobody says anything the more it's going to live and continue to be a thing

the onus is on them and I will say that sometimes in the past they have not addressed These types of things so Justin Jefferson rumors. They never came out and said, hey, you guys all got this wrong with Justin Jefferson. They never did that. They would always say, well, you know, we want Justin here and that kind of thing. But in this case, it is not a hard thing at all

to have JJ McCarthy, who I think, I mean, I don't know if he's on vacation now or whatever, but at least he seems to spend a lot of time around that facility Can he pop down to an interview room and tell somebody? I don't care who it doesn't have to be me. I don't have to be in the room Can it be kevin o'connell go on go on whatever show you want? He was on ryan fitzpatrick's podcast go back with him and tell him it's not happening But instead it continues to live which makes me think And it probably makes a lot of you think that it's potentially a real thing.

So if they don't dispel this at some point and it doesn't happen, I guess I'm going to think, well, could you just not work it out or was it never a thing? And you just let everybody get strung along or what, like what happened there? he gets strung along or what like what happened there but I just could not think of a worse idea for 2025 than bringing in somebody who just has a reputation of tearing organizations apart and when he was the greatest years ago four years five years plus ago and remember remember, I mean, he also didn't exactly save Mike McCarthy's job either. So the team fell apart around him once and then fell apart around him again. It had to be rebuilt around Jordan love. And then the jets fell apart around him.

I don't and, and, and what do we, when did Rogers win the Superbowl 14 years ago? I mean, did he not have good teams in Green Bay where he had opportunities? He won MVPs. He didn't do it. I don't know how in the world you think that this guy gives you a better opportunity than even what Sam Darnold would have given you last year. Sam Darnold was a better quarterback than Aaron Rogers last year, period. So if you wanted to, if you're not ready to go to McCarthy, then you should have tried harder with Sam Darnold because he knows the offense and you could give him a guard or two. And instead he goes out the door and you want to sign the deal with the devil.

I don't get it. Or at least that's how it's coming off until somebody says it's not happening. So that's kind of where we're at. So I'll take your questions, comments, but that's the rant for tonight because this is just not going away and they're not making it. And they have every opportunity to do it. I mean, my goodness, you could point a phone at yourself and just go, Hey guys, we're very excited about JJ McCarthy is our quarterback. Number one,

back to you take two seconds. And all this would go away and they haven't done it so we continue to talk about it and it continues to take away from all the other stuff which by the way it'll take away from everything for an entire year of your lives until they go eight and nine and they miss the playoffs with Rogers and then everyone goes oh I guess it didn't work I guess the person who did the same thing to two other franchises, the last time he started, I guess he did it to us. Shocking.

That's what will happen. Maybe you make the playoffs, you get booted out. When, when is the last time the guy was a good playoff quarterback, by the way? I mean, it just blows my mind that we're even talking about this. It was always to me, like a meme, like a joke, like something that we were like, oh, yeah when Rogers becomes a Viking and Maybe they don't want to do it because they don't want to disrespect Rogers because he's one of the greatest Quarterbacks ever and if that's the case then that's fine, but there's other ways that you could go about that There are other ways that you could go about letting the world know if it wasn't true

But instead we continue to just sit and wait so That's it. That's the Rogers portion of the show And I just hope in the coming days that we get some sort of indication that I never have to do this again Because it's this thing that's kind of been like this gnat in the ear Rogers could come here Rogers could come here and you're like, get out of here. And it's still there, still buzzing around until somebody says it's not.

So onto your questions and your comments. Son of a beaver says I would like to see cam acres back. Very likable player. I have no issue with Cam Akers returning, but I still think it has to go along with a running back being drafted. Maybe that's in the third round. With that compensation pick, I think the first round is a stretch,

but I mean, okay, it's fine if you bring back somebody else like Akers and he's there in the backfield, but what you're looking for is somebody who could really be this team's running back for years to come and has explosiveness playmaking can make the most of the advantage with Jefferson and not trying to patchwork. It still seems even as good as Aaron Jones is, it still seems patchworked. You'd like to see a solution through the JJ McCarthy era in the backfield. You'd like to have this kind of thing.

Like think about the great offenses that have Marshall Falk and Kurt Warner and Isaac Bruce and Torrey Holt. You'd like to have the same sort of thing where you would have quarterback, running back, solidified, two wide receivers, and they could build with each other rather than, well, we'll see if Aaron Jones lasts another year. Reconnected says, how big of a priority should we put on drafting

a receiver some, it kind of depends on what they do next. I mean, if they sign Rondale more, if they add somebody else, if they go and get, uh, you know, Keenan Allen or whatever, then probably it's less. I still like this idea. I was taken by surprise by it when Chris Trapasso brought it up the other night on the show, the CBS Sports Draft Analyst. I was surprised. I was like, really? You think that's an idea? But then I thought, I mean, it's not a terrible idea

because Addison's got two years left on his contract. If he plays really well, it's going to be a massive payday for him. And do you want to do that? And plus just the concept of three deep is always very attractive. You're never going to talk me out of more wide receivers. So you just, yeah, you're just never, never going to talk me out of that. Uh, Blowfish says, uh, Vikings probably waiting for Joe Flacco, but want to sign him after the comp pick in 2026

won't be affected. Yeah, that's not till May. I mean, if you're going to get a backup quarterback, just go get one. Those comp, I mean, what are you talking about for a comp pick for Joe Flacco? Is it a $6 million contract? That can't be significant. You're not going to be losing much. And if they're, if this was like the Shaq Griffin thing like I don't think that they sit up there and go. Oh my gosh, we could lose a seventh round compic or something. We just can't sign this player. We need I think they will just sign him if they need him. Maybe they're waiting on a decision from Joe Flacco.

He was visiting with the Giants. I think. Son of a Beaver says is Bradbury still on the team? He is. It was a pretty pretty clear indication that they want to trade Bradbury and that he's not getting any attention when the insider reporters all put out at the same time. That Bradbury is like open for trade, like the Vikings will release him if he's not traded, give us anything right kind of thing, which, you know, I guess play the game, but he for now is still on the team.

I suspect that he will be released. Maybe the Vikings can get a conditional seven former or a sixth or something. They were able to trade at Ingram, but I think that at least with that Ingram, they didn't necessarily have to, they could have kept him with Garrett Bradbury. They have to, they have to move on from, um, Garrett Bradbury after getting Ryan Kelly, uh, Kerpluppy, is it possible? KoC and Kwesi are arguing, uh, that's the thing about this whole situation, isn't it? Is that when they don't address it and it continues to be reported by someone who

clearly has aligned to Rogers that it's possible and that they're talking about it and that could happen, then everybody's imaginations run wild when you don't put any facts out there with it. And you don't come out and say, this isn't happening. That's what happens is that everybody draws their own conclusions. And it very well could be that Rogers is telling everybody this because he wants to be in Minnesota. This has kind of been my theory all along.

But then again, you know, Rogers has, I think he's got some beef with Adam Schefter, like shocking that he would have a beef with someone. But you start to come up with stuff like that. I think he's got some beef with Adam Schefter like shocking that he would have a beef with someone but You start to come up with stuff like that. Like wait a minute Does Quacey want to go to K you know and KOC wants to do this and whatever like I have no idea I have no idea what those conversations are another weird thing about this to me is That every report is while the Vikings are talking it over. I mean, do they not know this was happening Do they not know this was happening? Did they not know this was a possibility?

Like how many hours does it take to talk about it? So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Sue says with plenty of cap space and the team being conscious about comp picks, you guys love the comp picks. There might be a big trade coming. I don't know if there's a big trade coming.

I mean, I look there could be, I guess, but I look at the roster and I'm like, I mean, they're in a really good spot right now to look at this second wave of free agency and bring in Eric Wilson type players at about five or six different positions. Take flyers on guys, go and get players who have some reason to think they have upside.

I saw Dallas assigned every single former first rounder. They could still spend their money on that. The thing about trying to make a trade for the Vikings is, well, who's available at this point to make a trade with? Like who's on the block? Is there anybody out there? Cause I don't know, Maybe you've got an idea. I don't as far as who to trade for.

But the other thing is draft capital. They need to keep their draft capital. They can't be giving up big time draft capital. I guess if they're yeah, all in and that kind of thing, then you go all in. But when you talk about like this roster and its longer term health and stability, they need more pillar players who are young.

They need Dallas Turner to work out for one. They need some other players like Mackay Blackman to develop and become a at least complimentary cornerback to Byron Murphy Jr. And they also need some guys in the future who they draft a guard or a receiver or an interior pass rusher. Like they need these players to be on rookie contracts and young and good for the longer term future of the franchise. Because Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave are kind of two year stop gaps. They're not like a hey, find the next Dexter Lawrence who you can keep for a really long time You usually have to get those through the Jets

when it comes to Rogers and just Okay, so Twitter people think that it's a Diana and her agency are pushing it I don't know. Look, I don't know when it comes to that. I don't know because I don't know. Look, I don't know when it comes to that. I don't know because that's hard to try to track down who's agents telling who, what, who wants this kind of thing. And I don't want to disrespect any of the reporters. They share the information they get. And it clearly has not always come to fruition when it comes to the Vikings. And that's been very frustrating for me, but I don't want to say this person, well, she's dead wrong. She's making it up.

She's doing it for this and that. And then have Rogers come here. Then like, I'm not going to do that. Right. Because it seems like it's plausible. And if it was not plausible and it was never happening, then there would be some sort of evidence of this, some sort of answer to some question from the team, from the coach, from JJ McCarthy out in front of

us or anybody, crazy at awful Mensa to tell us that it's not happening. And nobody has done that. So if they want to, they absolutely can. We're available. You guys know I'm around. I live 10 minutes from the facility. I'll be right out there. Or if they want to put it out on a podcast, or if they want to put it on

their own Vikings entertainment stuff, introducing JJ McCarthy's QB one, anytime you can, anytime they want to get this out of here. So, uh, when they do that, then we'll know, and then we'll be able to talk about that. If they do that in the near future and it becomes very apparent that Air Rogers is not coming here, then we'll have that discussion of, all right, what happened with all those reports, what happened to the interest? Because if the Vikings wanted him, he'd be here, right? That's the other thing you might argue too, is that he clearly wants the Vikings.

So that's why we go back and forth, right? If the Vikings really wanted him, wouldn't he be here? He clearly wants to be with this team and not the Steelers and the Giants. So this whole information game, who's saying what, all this sort of stuff. It could go away in an instant if they just said something. But since they haven't, we continue to wonder, is this something that they're really going to do? And if they do, I think I saw Seth Kaplan on Twitter put out a poll

from where is Seth from one of the news stations? I'm sorry, Seth. I know this, but I don't remember it right now. And he got a ton of votes about whether people would want Rogers back or not, or Rogers to sign or not. And it was like 80% of Vikings fans want JJ McCarthy. Everybody wants that because that's more logical.

It's more logical to go with the kid that they really like and not somebody who has failed two franchises in the last five years and just shows no sign of ever being the player that he was before. Bob says, please know Rogers, a Superbowl win would have an asterisk. Well, look, you know, I mean, I don't know about that. My thing is that because, you know, you've waited so long for it, you take it how you're going to get it, but you're not getting it it's just not happening.

He has had plenty of opportunity to win since twenty twenty one and he is not done it the packers were good team they didn't make the playoffs he melted down. The jets when he was brought there was a jet are all in for a Bowl. They have all this good stuff. And then what? Nothing. Five and 12. It's not like it was nine and eight. And you go, well, you know, if they had KOC, it was five and 12. It was horrible.

It just is, yeah, it's just, I don't know. I guess I'm gonna have to work myself off of that with your guys' questions and comments because I it's it's Put aside all the other stuff some people who really like what Rogers has to say Politically will kind of defend stuff like this and some people who don't like what Rogers has to say politically Will bring that up as part of it. We all know it's a circus one way or the other, right? But for me, it's about the football. I'm willing to put up with a lot of stuff.

If it comes to actually winning football games and being the right thing for the organization, it's very hard based on any recent evidence to convince me of this with him. Uh, Dan desperately trying to get Rogers off of the conversation says, what do you think about signing a San de Samuel Jr.? I feel like we still have a bigger signing in us. It's possible they're running out of bigger signings after Cooper Cup went to Seattle, but a San de Samuel Jr.

doesn't really fit the mold of a Flores corner. Usually those guys are tough, nasty. I don't think that's him has a pretty high miss tackle rates kind of undersized. But as far as projects go, I would be interested. And this is what the second wave of free agency offers you is the first wave goes by and it's that game of musical chairs. Everybody gets a seat and somebody like a Sante Samuel Jr. Is going wait, where do, what team do I go? And then he's got a kind of bet

on himself on like a one year deal for 5 million bucks or something, just to have a job. The Vikings could be a team that would pick up somebody like that. And I think that's a good idea. Ron says more interested in Dobbins than Akers. I don't disagree with that. The injury history for both of those players is not good, but still, J.K. Dobbins was explosive last year, and it might be another situation where once again, everybody's got their running backs, and Dobbins is going, wait, where do I go?

And you say, well, do you want to be part of a duo? And maybe he does. Mike says, does the Eric Wilson move the needle much? Not today. It does not move the needle much today. But think of this, my friend. Let's just say that you're in week six and Ivan Pace Jr. gets hit in the thigh

and he's gonna be out for four weeks. Oh man, what do you do now? He's out for four weeks. That's one of your key Blitzer guys. Well, here comes Eric Wilson for four weeks and he's pretty good at that job. He did it for the Packers last year. He did it for the Vikings. I mean, this is a player who has legitimate starting ability, but is really good as a

fill-in and last year when they had similar injuries, they didn't have an answer at linebacker. So he doesn't move the needle today, but it's one of those that you could really easily see with linebackers who get banged up, being a really nice and important move. I think he's a good player. I mean, he's last year played 556 snaps,

65.8 PFF grade, which is a very solid grade, had nine quarterback pressures, good, well, he missed a few tackles because he is undersized, fine as a coverage guy for the most part in his career. I think he's a really good fill-in. If he's starting a thousand snaps,

it's gonna be a problem, but I think he's a really good fill-in. Thank you for the super chats. Uh, it's hektates. I think I heck eight. I'm sorry. I screw up names constantly on this, but thank you for the super chat. Uh, surprise big trade.

You would like to see. I would love if we drafted Ali Gordon the second, you're going to have to tell me why you like Ali Gordon the second so much. I don't know much about him at this point, but as far as a big, so it's always funny when someone says like, tell me about a surprise. I'm like, I then how is it a surprise? Uh, but that's nitpicky as far as trades go. I'm struggling.

I mean, if you guys have trade proposals, tell me, but a lot of that stuff seems to have been sorted out. I can't think of a player who is disgruntled or on the trade block right now, where it would be the Vikings wanting to go out and trade their first round pick from 2026 or draft capital from the future to try to get player X. I mean, somebody like Cooper Cup was on the block.

Nobody made a trade for him. They kind of waited that out. I, a surprise trade. I don't know what position would they even do it for at this point. I mean, wide receiver, maybe there's always an angry wide receiver out there. No one's trading their left guards.

Corners, is there a corner on the market? I don't know. I'm struggling. Punter,, punter. Uh, Sam says any idea how high the team is on Juergens is a future center. We need to solve that in the next year or two. Uh, I can say this about Juergens. I have not asked about him, uh, to anybody. And I'm sure that that will come up as we go forward into training camp now. But the fact that he was on the active roster over Dan Feeney on some game days, I think tells you a lot. I think that tells you that they are happy with Juergens. Now, what is the upside?

Can he be a long-term starter? That I don't know if they thought that he was going to be able to plug and play this year, he would already be the starter and they wouldn't have gotten Ryan Kelly. But as far as down the road, maybe, maybe down the road. I don't know. He's a guy that we're going to be looking closer at this year in training camp of just how he handles the reps, because with Ryan Kelly's injury history, there's a decent chance that Juergens could end up playing.

So we are going to keep an eye on that, but he must have impressed them. He must have impressed them quite a bit because otherwise Dan Feeney, who's a veteran and has been around a long time, would have been active on those game days. And instead it was Juergens. So that it's often, you know, I try to read what they do and rather than what they say,

like what they do with the roster, who's active, who gets bumped up. It's always something to pay attention to because they don't do it randomly. Brent says Darnold with Cup, who would have guessed? Yeah, it's a strange combination. At the end of last season, if we had told you Sam Darnold be playing with Cooper Cup, you would have thought, oh, they traded Stafford. Right. That's what I would have thought.

LaVon Affair USA. If cam Scadaboo is there in the third, uh, poor man's Nick Chubb. Yeah. Scadaboo is going to be an interesting evaluation for teams. Do they look at him as being not long speed enough? His explosiveness is clearly there. He is a football player. Like he is a football player. He could throw the there. He is a football player. Like he is a football player. He could throw the ball. He could catch the ball.

He's very natural athlete and not just a runner. But when it comes to the elusiveness, the break and tackles, all that stuff, he is pretty special when it comes to all that stuff. So I like him as a prospect and maybe he'll fall in the same way as Cooper de Jean because he plays a position that white dudes usually don't play. I don't, I mean, I actually don't know why Cooper de Jean fell, but, uh, if that was the reason then, Hey, cam scataboo, maybe he's your guy. Uh, John says Rogers is cooked. Darnold is a mirage.

He had more than KOC credit to JJ Addison Hockinson. He won't have that in Seattle. Even with Cupp, Seattle picks the first round quarterback the next two years, Skoll McCarthy. I don't agree that he was a mirage because I watched every play. He had a bad offensive line for the second half of the season after Darasaw went out. he did not have much of a running game.

Jordan Addison was inconsistent. TJ Hawkinson was not the same. He had to make a ton of plays out of structure, a ton of plays in the red zone, a bunch of huge moments, game winning drives, all that stuff. I think Sam Darnold is just a good quarterback in the NFL. But if you're making the argument that the receivers are better here than they are in Seattle, of course, because Justin Jefferson is the best.

And if you're making the argument that the coaching is better, then I have to agree since I've seen both guys call plays and there is nitpicking about KOC's play calling, but we can all agree he gets the most out of quarterbacks. I don't know that that was the case with Clint Kubiak unless, you know, maybe he's improved since the first time he was trying it. Uh, their offensive line does have some struggles, but I think it'll be good. I think that he'll be just about as good as Gino Smith was for them, which is can get them to nine or 10 wins can have some really impressive ups

We'll have some very poor downs and that's who Sam Darnold is gonna be That's the same Darnold we saw if they have a tough schedule He's gonna have a tough time repeating what he did this year. I would not qualify them as a mirage I think if we're talking about a mirage it was more of of case. Keenum was a mirage. Like that was a guy just getting screen passes that turned into 50 yard touchdowns, throwing the ball up for grabs where he shouldn't have and having it come down. Miracle play. That was much more of a, Hey, this guy's a one year wonder. Sam Darnold was a top draft pick and played like it and has been good at football since

2022 since he got rid of Matt Ruhl. So I don't think we have to talk down about Sam Darnold to be thinking that JJ McCarthy is good for this team's future. Sam Darnold was very good. I don't think that they're going to be a Super Bowl contender with Sam Darnold right away. They would need to have some things go really right for them. Are they waiting for Kirk Cuss is to get cut from Atlanta.

My gosh. What this is what's happening to our brains. Teddy Bridgewater for number two. I don't think Teddy's even playing. I think that Teddy is done playing. He just came back with Detroit because there was a chance that they could win the Super Bowl and they wanted him there because they loved him. And you guys know how that is.

And he got into a playoff game, but no, I mean, I think they can have a regular backup quarterback like Cooper rush. Cooper rush is the guy that I think that they should go get now, but there are a lot of these backup quarterbacks that are coming off of, uh, the, uh, the, the board, there aren't that many backup quarterbacks who are still left. There's enough for the Vikings to get one. You only really need one.

So Cooper Rush would be my guy as of right now. Mike says, crazy season has begun. Colin Cowhert suggesting the Vikings have the worst roster in the NFC North. Sorry to say I clicked on it. I think that's the Packers. Wouldn't we agree? I think the Packers probably do. Um, or Chicago. Chicago has been loading up though. It's probably Chicago is still the worst roster, but they're improving and you know, they've got young players

there obviously that they have to prove it. Like Roma Dunze, who just was kind of a guy last year. But if he takes a step forward, the offense works still have a great defense though i think the packers probably have more talent than them i mean the nfc north has a ton of talent. Just in general is a seth caplan from channel nine thank you sorry to seth i forgot. Which channel was but it was a good poll to put it out there and just to show I thought it was accurate. I thought it was accurate that nobody wants this. This is not what anybody wants them to do among Vikings fans, except for people who, I don't know, are really nostalgic. People who haven't watched football in four years. It just doesn't make any sense. The only way that you could get around

to why they might do it is just because if they think that his recovery is not on point. And that's why when I came back from the combine and they had said, well, he's over 200 pounds and he is in good shape and all that. And he's ready to start the off season program. My assumption was that was them telling us, all right, JJ McCarthy is good to go. Don't worry about it. He's all set and he's going to play.

That's what I assumed that that was going to be, but maybe they were lying. I don't know. Like all these things you go into the forcing us down rabbit holes that we wouldn't need to get into. Uh, and when it comes to McCarthy, we don't know his recovery, but based on everything that we've heard in this off season, there's nothing to make me think that his recovery hasn't gone well. That would be the only reason that I would say yes to it. And I still wouldn't necessarily want that to happen

because then you got Aaron Rodgers on your hands and you're not going to win. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of reasons not to do it. I mean, you know, talking about like the ownership and they are not necessarily the types to want someone like Rogers, but at the same time, they're also kind of obsessed with the Packers. Like you can talk yourself into that kind of thing. Uh, Chris says who's the best fit for wide receiver between Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore and Keenan Allen. Elijah Moore is a lot younger than those two

guys. Didn't like what I saw from Amari Cooper last year in Buffalo, but he looked pretty toast. Uh, and I like the Keenan Allen idea Keenan Allen's a lot more solid of an idea for a One year type of player for that position I like Keenan Allen a lot if you're looking for someone that has more long-term upside Elijah Moore would be that guy But he's just never really shown it that guy, but he's just never really shown it. Kyler wants Caleb Johnson trade back, snag him in the second. I I'm a big Caleb Johnson person. That's that's what I've been talking about for a while because I feel like he

really has great hands is big enough to pass protect and is somebody who can run over guys, but also has more quickness than long speed necessarily. I really like him a lot Oh, Ali Gordon is the running back from Oklahoma State. Okay All right. Yeah, I mean I'll take a look into him because there's so many running backs that there's been a few that I've focused on a lot But I haven't gotten to Gordon I'm mostly focused on the ones that are kind of the most talked about right now for the Vikings But they could end up waiting till day three for a running back. They tried to do that with Ty Chandler, though. I would not necessarily

Cosine Rhino man says Brad Spielberger pointed out the fries deal could easily end up as a two-year $35 million contract they have an out after year three Yeah, so that's why it's always a good idea. And we never can really do that because it happens. We got to react and there's emergency podcasts and it's like, Whoa, uh, you know, I got to get on and we've got to talk about it and whoa, let's look at that price. But then the price is not always the price. In fact,

it's almost never the price. And that was the case for Byron Murphy, Jr. I mean, I had that immediate reaction to wow, 22 a year. And then when you actually look at it, you go, oh, OK, so it's kind of the same contract as Charvarius Ward got only two years younger. That seems fine. It's it's a bit of a shell game. And Jonathan Allen, whoa, three years for John. Oh, it's actually two.

And it happens a lot. But yeah, that's an interesting note. Thank you for that with Will Fries. That two years, 35 million is still kind of a lot if it ends up turning out that way. But maybe that gives them some negotiation for an extension. I liked that it was a longer deal because he is a younger free agent for that position.

And it just would like to see them solidify that long term. Euthanasia yikes says, there's gotta be a better YouTube name than that, right? What if you're a Vikings, what if the Vikings even sign a backup quarterback? If McCarthy goes down for the season anyway, why not just roll out Brett Ripon and get a higher draft pick or the Vikings? Not that high on Brett Ripon. I think that they like Brett Ripon. I do.

There was some mention of having a discussion about him as potentially being QB two. I don't remember when that happened. When that was mentioned about Brett and QB two, they do like him. I mean, they bring him up constantly. So maybe he is the backup quarterback. I don't know. He's played a little in the league. It's fine.

I would just prefer that them have someone who's played before. Right. Like someone who's been like Cooper cup or I'm sorry, Cooper rush. Cooper rush is nine and five as a starter in his career. He's been good. Uh, Sean says, why not Cousins as a backup? I mean, why Cousins as a backup? Did we see Cousins? Like, we really go on name recognition only, right? Did we see him last year? It looked horrendous. That's not the Kirk cousins that you last saw.

He couldn't put any muster behind the football at all and then he said oh I've got a I got an arm injury actually you know how he is he's going to go out in the media and he's going to let everybody know Kirk's fine, Kirk's fine that's not an idea that's not an idea. No and not only that but it once again becomes a circus it becomes like oh they brought Kirk in and could Kirk started McCarthy. This is why Cooper rush is perfect. Cooper rush is one games as a starter on a good team. And he will never ever be talked about. That is the goal is that the backup quarterback should be available and potentially succeed. Oh, you're a mega death guy. Okay. I was going to, it's pretty dark though. It's a pretty dark name.

So it's a pretty dark name to come in and like talk about backup quarterback. You have to admit that. Uh, Sean, you're saying I didn't, I didn't read your whole point. Uh, he would only cost a few million. He knows the system yet. He's terrible now. Like he can system yet. He's terrible now. Like he can't play. That's the problem.

It's knowing the system doesn't matter. He can't throw the ball anymore. I mean, we saw the game against the Vikings, right? That ball is moving two miles an hour because he has a repaired Achilles that's never coming back. Those things don't grow back. Not only that, why would you want that attention? And he's going to look for a starting spot too.

You know Kirk, he's not coming back as a backup. He's gonna go look for a starting spot. But yeah, Cooper Rush, again, he's won nine of his 14 starts on a good team. You could definitely do that. And then Brett Ripon is fine. Pro Bowl quarterback Tyler Huntley, that's tremendous. And true.

And Pro Bowl just Tyler Huntley. That's tremendous and true. And Pro Bowl just needs to stop. You should only get Pro Bowl next to your name if you were the first selection, not if you were like the time Teddy made it. I mean, come on. Rhino man wants Samuel Jr. Brands sure if Cooper Rush Marcus May. I don't know about Sheriff, like maybe that deal that our love for him may have to be let go eventually,

because he is a right guard. He's never played left guard before and fries his right guard. So now there you go. Also, yeah, Cooper Rush would be one of those guys that has the you know, he beat the Vikings in a game, the Cooper Rush game. And I remember being in U.S. Bank Stadium and said, you're just your team just lost Cooper Rush. And it turned out that he won a lot of games and was actually pretty good.

He even kind of kept Dallas in the mix last year from completely falling off the edge of the cliff. He's had a good journey as a quarterback. I think he was was he a UFL, XFL, whatever guy or something like that, I think, and he ends up playing in the NFL and doing pretty well. So, yeah, I mean, I think that there are still good options for backup quarterback. They should sign one. They should do a press conference. They should tell us they're not going after Rogers and let everyone be happy

again and not imprisoned by this conversation. But it's hard to say how much more we will be in the future if they sign Rogers then Kyle Slaughter season. Yeah, I Kyle makes content now, doesn't he? He was not a fan of mine and we made fun of him. So, you know, that's how it goes, I guess. But hey, he was he was QB one in his own mind, though.

At least there was that. But yeah, I mean, if you can't beat him, sign him is great for Cooper Rush. I agree. I mean, even like a drew lock or something like he's a pretty good vibes guy. I don't know somebody there's still plenty of backup quarterbacks who are still out there. somebody there's still plenty of backup quarterbacks who are still out there. Jamis I'm not into for the same reason as I was praising Cooper Rush is that you're never going to hear anything from Cooper Rush. You're always hearing stuff from Jamis. I don't really want a part of that. Even if watching him throw the ball is fun. That's just not my thing.

Why need a backup when you can build a team great enough to not have your quarterback get killed? That's true, but as we know, JJ McCarthy got hurt, not even getting killed. He was just running, I think, and then his knee did a thing. So you guys know, Teddy was a non-contact, but if they were, like say they were a seven and two football team and JJ McCarthy gets hurt, Cooper rush comes in, they need him for four weeks.

You can win two of those games and you can leave that being a nine and four football team, right? That's why I like him as a backup quarterback. Plus his experience is just tremendous to work with JJ McCarthy. Um, so, I mean, I know that everybody's always, you know, interested in the backup quarterback position. I want as little to do with that as possible. Like as little to do with us talking about the backup, no quarterback competition in camp. That's what I didn't like about the

Daniel Jones thing is it still left the door open for, is this going to be a quarterback competition is, is Daniel Jones going to be the guy we want? Like, I don't want any of that. So, uh, Nick says, yeah, case kingdom. Hey, why not? I don't think he would come back here. Someone pitched to me today. Hey, what about bringing back digs? I was like, I don't think digs is coming back here.

Nick says, what running backs in the draft? Would you be okay with a 24? 24 is very aggressive when it comes to the running back position. But if they did it based on the roster now, which is pretty well stocked. O'Mary and Hampton, I know Chris Paso, who is my go to guy for draft analysis, is not as high on him as a first round pick. He's pretty beastly, though.

I think that, you know, that combination with what the Vikings have would be really something to watch. I also like Trevion Henderson. Anytime I see the explosive and elusive rates and things like that come up, it's always Ashton Gentry. And then right there with Trevion Henderson, I like Henderson's receiving ability, his explosiveness, his ability in space.

I think he's a guy you could throw a swing pass to and get a 50 yard touchdown. And there's not too many of those. So I do think Gentie is probably going high, but Hampton might be there, might even drop past the first. We might overstate how much the world loves running backs because we did not see them get overpaid this off season.

Where was, oh, general soreness, uh, where, uh, were you at the practice where Teddy's knee exploded? Care to share the details of that? Serial happening. Yeah, it was surreal. So here's, here's what happened for me. So in, uh, I want to say the beginning of August. Yeah.

Must've been the beginning of August, yeah, must have been the beginning of August in 2016. I applied for a job at 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities to cover the Minnesota Vikings. And two to three days later, I had a couple of interviews and two to three days after that I had the job and they said, can you be here in two weeks? I was like, oh, okay. I guess I'm moving to Minnesota from Buffalo in two weeks. So we scrambled like crazy, me and the wife and the dog,

and we loaded up the truck and we took off for Minnesota. I think we stopped in Madison. A friend of mine lives in Madison. We stopped in Madison and then we came to Minnesota and we get to an apartment complex that we had rented an apartment without ever seeing it or ever having been to the state of Minnesota. And we pull up the truck next to where we have this hill that we had to go down into

a bottom apartment. And as we're loading stuff and it is about a hundred degrees and I did not realize that Minnesota is a lot hotter than Buffalo. It was crazy hot sweating like crazy and I get a message from a co-worker of mine in Buffalo and he says What the hell is going on with Teddy Bridgewater right now? And I was like, what do you mean? What happened? And he's like go to go to Twitter go to Twitter So I'm like, okay

so I open up Twitter and I look at Ben Gessling and whoever else was there, Matt Vensel is covering the team at the time. And I'm seeing ambulance. I'm seeing players are really upset. And all of a sudden, I'm like, what the heck? I just got here. What is going on? And then, of course, it turns out the injury is that serious. And Teddy was concerned for the leg.

And then I think two. Now it must have been maybe one week after that couple of days after that. So then I cover the preseason game. Rick Spielman talks in the press box as Sean Hills, our guy, where we have a lot of confidence in Sean Hill. So that's all that's a blur. And then I go out to the fair for the first time and I go on the air with Patrick Royce and just as I'm getting on the air, just meeting Patrick Royce, which is an experience in itself. You know what a great guy Pat is.

And so I meet Pat and I'm going on the air with him and they just trade for Sam Bradford as I'm out there. Like talk about a whirlwind of arriving in Minnesota. That's what it was like. So I was not at the actual practice, but I was just arriving in Minnesota. And I said to, I said to Ben Gessling, I was like, man, this is insane.

Like, wow, to have this happen, this is so crazy. And he's like, I don't know, man, stuff like this happens all the time. I was like, what do you mean stuff like this? This that can't be true It was true. Do you remember the 2016 season? Starts with Teddy's leg and then ends with a protester dangling from the top of the stadium Which I don't know how many of you actually saw because I think they tried to keep it off TV Maybe you saw pictures, but I saw the person dangling that.

That was crazy. Zimmer's eye popping out. That was crazy. Norv quitting. That is one of the weirdest years that I have ever seen in my life. I think 2010 is not going to be topped for like the roof collapsing and far and all that 2016 is close. I think Steve Deberg for quarterback to wrong answers for quarterback to are good.

Uh, Josh McCown for QB to I like that. Uh, Ron is on board with Travion Henderson. Sam likes Henderson. I really, to me, it's the big play. It's the big explosive play where Travion Henderson is really special. And that's why I like him a lot. Thank you press and i'm glad you enjoyed that story that was quite. An introduction to minnesota vikings football but there's a there's a new woman covering the vikings for the star tribune and last year when they lost in the playoffs I said.

Last year when they lost in the playoffs. I said, well, now you're here. Now you're a Viking reporter. You're not officially a Viking reporter until they have a 13 or 14 win season and then completely melt down in the postseason. So she is now official and not planning to have her on the show at some point, I hear pretty soon. What was the story behind North quitting? We've never really found out. I did ask Zimmer one time. I can't remember what happened.

Zimmer was on an interview with somebody else and they asked him about norve and they said, well, you know, you fired some offensive coordinators or something and Zimmer was like, hey, norve quit. I didn't fire him. So then the next day I said to Zimmer, I was like, you want to get some off your chest? You want to tell us what happened with Norv? And he said, I'll, I'll, I'll save it for the book. Well, I guess if he's retiring, we haven't heard that officially, but if he retires, then he'll, you know, he'll tell us about the book. I did write a book about

2017 in the Minneapolis miracle. I read, or I wrote about all the things that led to it. Making of a Miracle is that book on Amazon. That was my first attempt at a book. And I enjoyed writing that. It's a lot smaller than the other one. Football is a numbers game. That was more of a journalistic endeavor. This was kind of a lot of storytelling of what it was like behind the scenes in 2017.

But yeah, I know. Like maybe Zimmer, he's going gonna write it with Mark Craig. Like that's the only reporter he still talks to for Minnesota. So someday he's gonna write the tell-all book, but I don't think it's gonna be as shocking as we think. My understanding of the North thing was that it was just over a disagreement

because what happened that year was when Bradford got to town, Pat Shermer essentially had to kind of take over with the West Coast stuff because he had worked with Pat Shermer before. And so it was a lot of Pat Shermer's ideas of getting the ball out quick underneath stuff. And you remember how many quick completions went to Kyle Rudolph. And then when they got to Philadelphia after they were five and oh, they came out of the buy, they went back to Norves deep drop stuff and essentially changed the whole offense up.

And then they did it in Chicago and got beat that night by Purnell McPhee and just, you know, TJ Clemmings and all that. And I think there was a disagreement between Zimmer and Norv over what to do there to get the ball out of Bradford's hands and going back to some of the Shermer stuff. And then Norv just said, you know what, I quit. And then what was funny was Norv went to Carolina and implemented a bunch of the short stuff and ended up having one of Cam Newton's best years there. And I think Cam ended up getting hurt, but was playing really well with Norv. So kind of funny how that worked, but that was just nuts though. You wake up and then the offensive coordinator like they're five and

two and the offensive coordinator is just gone. What's going on here? It was crazy. That was a crazy season and Zimmer coaching in Jacksonville with the eye patch. How about the Adrian Peterson stuff that year? Adrian Peterson. Oh yeah, how about, oh my gosh, yeah, Blair Walsh.

How about the first kick of the season in Tennessee, if it was the first kick or second kick that goes like a thousand yards wide, remember that? Yeah, Zimmer tell all, no thanks. Yeah, Zimmer told all all the time. What are we talking about? There's no tell all, it's all no thanks. Yeah, it's not Zimmer told all all the time. What are we talking about? There's no tell all it's all the stuff he already said. But the the the number of games that they lost close.

It's just so many crazy things that happened that year. It was, yeah, quite the introduction. Pay for a book by Zimmer and Chris Thomas. And yeah, I never understood that beef either from Zimmer's perspective, like why he was so disrespectful to him. Everybody always wanted to know, like, what's his problem with this guy? We didn't know. It was like, I don't know. He had something he didn't like.

So, yeah, we don't talk about Blair Walsh. Yep. So Dan says, which current NFC North coach do you think could be fired? Could be a while. Yeah. Uh, Ben Johnson. We'll see a Chicago coach. You can never give them more than about two years. It's a, it's a, if Ben Johnson's good, it's the best coach division.

It's probably the best division overall. Really? Truly. It is a beast of a division division and maybe that's why there's the whole Rogers thing is like well you know McCarthy but but if you're afraid to play good football teams then what are you doing here that would be my thought if if you're afraid to go play against other good NFC North teams with JJ McCarthy then why'd you draft him he's gonna have to play good teams

eventually you're gonna have to get him in eventually. Go play him now. Don't screw around. Nick says random thought that twenty nineteen playoff when his awesome moment, but actually set the franchise back a couple of years. Yeah, I've talked about that, Nick. And I completely agree with you that think about the the tumble down effect of that if they don't win that playoff game Zimmer is fired and They probably draft a quarterback and if you look at the 20 not probably they very likely don't extend Kirk

And they draft a quarterback and if you look at the quarterbacks in that draft go through them They all turned out to be good Jalen hurts Jordan love to a Herbert. Am I missing somebody? I mean, they've all turned out to be good quarterbacks if they drafted one in that 2020 draft and instead, but they did get Justin Jefferson, of course, in that draft and maybe they would have got them anyway, maybe they would have

traded digs anyway, like a lot of things happen after that, who knows, but you're right. I mean, I do agree with you that it took all these years. And this is why the Rogers conversation is so freaking frustrating because think about what we've been talking about since then. The team living in reality, getting the cap space, getting the rookie quarterback, tearing down the old, bringing in the new, even if the new are veterans bringing in a new roster that is more complete and could win

around a young quarterback. That's what we've been talking about for years. That's what looked like was the plan when they got here. It's I was thinking about this early. I'm like, this is, this is, I would call it my plan. It's not my plan. It's all of our plan. It's all Vikings fans who are smart, know this, right?

They've known it forever. You've known it since 2018. You've known that the expensive middle and quarterback ain't gonna get it done. This is the way. And finally they've reached it and can't this just happen? Why isn't it happening? And maybe all of this will be for nothing i do know i do know.

That when it came to the jefferson stuff. That there was a lot of frustration behind the scenes from people with the vikings about everybody out there starting jefferson rumors what they felt it was better not to come out and try to combat them. And so they didn't. And if you recall, they didn't. And I don't recall even Kevin O'Connell coming out and saying anything about the whole J Glazer report. Although that could have been his own agent. I don't know. But with the Jefferson thing, that's maybe comparable where there was, I mean, go back

and look at mock drafts last year. Half of them have somebody trading for Jeff, Justin Jefferson was absurd. I remember last year I Googled like Justin Jefferson trade and every team's blog and articles, everything else was coming up with Jefferson trades, TV talking head debates. It was like, this is not happening. What are we talking about here? And then there's some Malik neighbors thing that was nonsense. Well, what are we doing? And the Vikings never

came out and they never said this is BS or whatever. But I think in this instance for JJ McCarthy, if he's your guy, it's probably time. We shouldn't do this for weeks and weeks. We shouldn't have to keep doing this. If they're not really talking about Aaron Rogers, they should put it to bed and say that McCarthy is their guy. That would be my advice. So, uh, Ron thinks that Campbell, Dan Campbell could get fired if the coordinator, yeah, the coordinators might be, they might be.

Ham Darnold is, wow, the coordinators might be. They might be. Ham Darnold is. Wow, that's quite a name. I thought euthanasia was tough, but Ham Darnold is dead is that's quite a mess. Let's see as upfront as they are as an organization, say exactly what they're going to do. It's weird that they don't come out and shut down the nonsense. If it is nonsense. Yeah, right. But they didn't.

They didn't with Jefferson. That's the only thing. And maybe Prest nonsense. Yeah, right. But they didn't, they didn't with Jefferson. That's the only thing. And maybe Preston, you're right. Maybe it will be over by Monday and we won't have to talk about this anymore. But that is the only example that I can think of, which would be just that the Jefferson stuff ran wild in the media and it never really impacted anything

that was going on behind the scenes. It's just that the combination of their quiet and this has led to the speculation continuing and one reporter who is clearly connected with Aaron Rodgers is banging this drum and is not backing off of her reporting. And so we have to take it seriously. But is not backing off of her reporting and so we have to take it seriously. But just for all of our sanity, just do the thing that you're supposed to do. Just do the thing that you're supposed to do. This was the plan. Everybody agreed this was a good plan.

And really, truly, I am I am ready. I am ready on the day that they finally rolled J.J. McCarthy out there as QB one for the first, I don't know what it is, whatever practice. I mean, I'm ready to talk about, wow, what a job quasi a da Fomenta and Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores have done leading this team to this point with McCarthy and this roster that they're giving them. My goodness. We've seen this win.

We've seen this win in the NFL. We've seen it win with Hertz. What was its third year for Hertz in the Super Bowl? We've seen it work with Brock Purdy with his second year. I mean, teams that have built rosters like this with quarterbacks that are cheap, it works. Do it, just do it. So I don't know, once it happens,

we can give a heck of a lot of credit to the leadership. But until then, we have to wait and go, well, hang on. I might have to think they're suddenly insane. So hold on before I can praise them and before I can talk about what a great job they did setting this team up. I have to leave open the possibility that they might have lost the frickin minds. I mean, that's didn't I didn't see that coming. I got to tell open the possibility that they might have lost their freaking minds. I mean, that's didn't I didn't see that coming. I got to tell you the truth.

Didn't see that coming. Did not see that coming. So, son of a beavers. Why do you think Cam Robinson is still a free agent? My guess would be that Cam Robinson likely was looking for a lot of money and teams likely watched him play. And there's a maybe a gap there.

That's what it is. I think there's a gap there. So headless Norseman says, talk about what you want. This isn't a story until something happens, but that's not that's not how my job works. Norseman, it's just not how my job works. If the entire Vikings fan base is all time. Think about what when you go to work on Monday, if there's no resolution to this, you go to work on Monday and your Viking fan friend is there.

What are they going to talk to you about? Are they going to say, you know, I really think it left guard, which, Hey, look, I like let the, I know you guys love left guard. I know maybe your friend might even talk to you about comp picks, but what's most likely it's probably going to be like, is this Roger's thing real? So if all of you are talking about it, then I talk about it. That doesn't mean it's the only thing we've discussed backup, running back other backup quarterback options, Rondale more, the Eric Wilson signing

Cooper cup, all those things. So we've discussed a lot in an hour and a half of live streaming, which I've really had a lot of fun with. Thank you guys. I'm glad I came on tonight and had this conversation, but can't ignore it. When there's a very big reporter banging this drum that this is going to happen and then all the other reporters are staying quiet and the team is staying quiet. It's just something that we have to try to parse through and that's what we do. No, Cam Robinson is not a guard. That's not something they could do. He just, he's a terrible run blocker. He's huge.

He's super tall. Can't really get down. So yeah, just, I think Cam Robinson is going to get a very small contract somewhere else because he played so poorly down the stretch and it's tough for him because he had to come in and teams figured out pretty quickly that. Couldn't really get a dual block going with Blake Brando and figured out that if you sent stunts and twists at him, he had problems with it. And once that happened, it kind of went downhill.

But that's the that's what's on tape. What's on tape is Cam Robinson really struggling at the end of last year. It's not somebody you're going to, you know. Put a lot into JP says, uh, Diana Rossini has said that she has a sense that McCarthy isn't as far along as previously stated. Also the Vikings are leading toward pursuing Rogers. Her gut says he ends up with the Vikings.

Yeah. I saw that. What do you want me to say? Adam Schefter said on a report the other night, JJ McCarthy's their guy. I saw Paul Allen tweet JJ McCarthy's their guy. I saw Paul Allen tweet. JJ McCarthy's the guy. I don't know. We got everybody throwing rocks at each other, I guess, or all throwing rocks at Diana Rossini, where she seems to be the only one who is on this Hill banging the drum, but she's also a major reporter for the athletic and very clearly has a direct

line to what's going on with Rogers, or at least from his perspective or his agent's perspective or whatever. So we have to take it seriously. Have we talked about Justin school? No, not not much. Last night I did. Yeah, last night I did. Good job.

Like getting a swing tackle. There you go. That's the Justin school and it is pronounced school, by the way, but that might have to change. Yeah, I don't know. Like McCarthy in terms of his far along. That's the weird thing too is because Kevin O'Connell went out of his way. He didn't even have to tell us that JJ was in line to start the off season program. And all of us were told by people that he's up over 200 pounds and all that stuff. And it's like, well, yeah.

And now, Bob, I don't think I don't think a reporter like her is trolling. I don't think that like that's the thing is what I don't like to see is, well, she's making it up. Well, she's getting information from somewhere. I don't she's not making it up. But her her sounding fairly definitive, this is happening and no one else is a weird thing. It's a weird thing. How often all these people clearly get the same text messages, right? They all are clearly on the same group chats with all the agents and the teams because Cooper cup signs

with Seattle and you get nine of the same people all sending the same exact tweet. How about earlier with the Cincinnati Bengals that it was just the copy and paste from the agent for about five different porters at the exact same moment. So to have one reporter out on an island with something like this is very weird. It's very unusual. You don't see this very often where it's one person. I don't know.

I thought it was also usually P.A. doesn't come out and tweet stuff either. But the fact that he did. Was interesting, too, I don't know, but people always assume Paul like is the, you know, the insider, and sometimes that's hard on him, too, because because you know, he's the voice and he speculates with the rest of us. So then sometimes his speculation becomes news and I think that's hard for him. So yeah, I don't I don't know. But he he put it out there basically like Jeff McCarthy is the quarterback.

So I don't know. I don't know. I sit here night after night just going. Can this be over, please? Uh, Jonathan Bullard definitely not coming back. I don't know if he's coming back. He might. They like Jonathan Bullard.

And sensing things is not information. That's true. That's that is true. Absolutely true. That is true. Yeah, Binky, I understand. I just don't like and because you did the super chat, I'll put it on there anyway. Uh, but I don't love this.

Like she's the one that said they were trading McCarthy to keep Donald. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. Yeah. Um, I can like the super chats. Uh, okay. I'll do that as well. I don't want to make this about somebody else's reporting.

I don't know what her information is. I don't like to trash other people's reporting. I've been just as frustrated as you guys with the industrial complex of insiders. This one is different because of how different the reporting is from those people. Usually it's about the same. That's why it's so different is one person continues to say the same thing

while nobody else does. So who's right? And the Vikings won't come out and say that someone is wrong. I don't know. So yeah. And Preston, she reports what she's being told. Well, I mean, I don't know. Like, that's the thing is like, yeah, but whoon, she reports what she's being told. Well, I mean, I don't know. Like that's the thing is like, yeah, but who's telling who what and trying to parse through all this.

I didn't want, I don't want this. You don't want this. We don't need this. We've gone through this so much. But if it comes to fruition, then you'll have to take it back. Like when it comes to all that stuff, it's not being said for no reason.

It's not being said for no reason. It's not being said for no reason. It's being said because some information is being sent her way that this is possible. And until they come out with McCarthy and KOC shaking hands, QB1 and HC, then it lives. Because you don't think that KOC has Diana Rossini's phone number.

You don't think that he could easily just say, stop saying this, that we're not thinking about it or does KOC just tell everybody, yeah, we're thinking about it. I wondered about that with the darn old thing. Does does KOC just tell every insider like, yeah, we love that guy because that also seems to be the case too, that we go back to delvin tomlinson Or how they were gonna do right by delvin cook. I forget who reported that like no, they're gonna cut delvin cook What are we talking about here or they're oh they could keep feeling at the right number. No, they what no even with sam darnold it was like

Coming out of the combine. Oh, well, they could do that but Kevin o'connell and the vikings clearly tell these people, we love our players. We love that player. We could do that even whether it's realistic or not. So, I mean, we'll see. But anyway, I think there's a lot to still happen here for the Vikings and there's truth to all. Yes, yes. And it's a,, I who said it's not about the super chats. It's what the super chats represent. Love that.

Love that there is truth to all rumors. So there is some truth I'm sure to this and we'll all just have to wait and see whether it plays out. But you know, anyway, so I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to turn anything more into an argument over somebody else and how they do their job. I'm not her editor. I don't want to. Yeah, I don't want to turn anything more into an argument over somebody else and how they do their job. I'm not her editor. I don't work there. It's not something I like to do with colleagues and people that I know around

the league and everything else. There's reason to think this. And I know Mike Silver and Mike Silver went to Cal and he knows Aaron Rogers. And I don't like, right. We could play this game all day long with those folks, but instead, instead, I think we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm just saying it's strange when you have one person on an island like this. Where's Quacey's extension?

We haven't got. Yeah, we haven't gotten into that in a while. Where is anybody with the Vikings is a great question. Maybe that's another thing they're trying to avoid answering. I have no idea. It's been it's been different it has been different guys the combine was different and this not rolling out any of the free agents so far is different and I just don't really have answers for you about what's happening, but

We'll just wait. We will just wait and see what happens. That's And as far as the extension goes, yeah, for crazy, that full medicine now, they have been pretty busy, right? And it is only May. No, it is only March 14th. So we haven't even reached the owners meetings or any of that is Bradbury trade still an option. It is, but I don't think it's going to happen when every team

knows you got to get rid of a guy, usually just have to get rid of a guy. Somebody should do it though. I mean, it's not like he costs a lot. Why are the Vikings holding on to 30 million cap space? Well, they still have a lot to do. I mean, yeah, it could be for Rogers, but they still have a lot of positions to fill out. And here's the other thing too. You're going to have to get used to living in a world where they have cap space because what you can do is you can carry over cap space. So think about

this. You sign some of these big deals. You have lower cap hits this year, but you carry over cap space to the next year. Right. And yeah, I mean, maybe, maybe something is brewing when it comes to a bigger move, or maybe they just know they need to fill out the roster. They need to make, I mean maybe maybe something is brewing when it comes to a bigger move Or maybe they just know they need to fill out the roster they need to make I don't know at least what four or five more signings of guys a backup quarterback is gonna cost you five to ten million dollars somewhere in that range and then You know you you kind of go from there and you end up with maybe 20 million and then you sign your draft class and then you got like 15.

And then if you need to make a move later on, you can. So I think that what they're doing probably now is they're going to fill out the rest of the roster and then carry over the cap space to next year, which makes some of these big cap hits for next year, like Jonathan Allen, Byron Murphy, a lot more manageable because they'll have that cap space in the future. That's just my guess. Matt, any chance they can make a trade for someone with a bigger contract? Yeah, I don't know.

Like, I kind of need names. You know, when people bring up sauce gardener, I'm like, I don't think Aaron Glenn wants to get rid of his best corner when he's a man corner defense. I mean, there could be somebody who's up for a big extension or something. They don't want to sign, but I don't know. So yeah, I, I do feel like, um, I do feel like we've gotten into the, like, this is now about you guys arguing about a reporter and their stuff, and I don't

want to do that. So we'll see what comes up. I will be around throughout the weekend dealing with severe weather changes from summertime to wintertime and a day and 24 hours. But I will be making sure that I am ready to rock and roll if there is any big Vikings news. But I thought, yeah, Cooper Cup finding a home,

that's good enough. And the fact that the Rogers thing won't go away. So we'll see where this all goes from here. But I really appreciate everybody's time. Great chat, as always. Thank you guys for the questions, comments, thoughtful discussion on Rogers and all that sort of stuff. So thanks everybody for the time

and we will see you very soon. I'm just not sure when we'll see the next news, right? Maybe Sunday night is probably kind of, you know, prepare us for next week and then we'll go from there. So thanks everybody as always. Hey, check out the Friday Mailbag, purpleinsider.football. If you want to support the show further, go over there and

check out the newsletter. So thank you everybody and we'll talk to you soon. Football.