Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings will host the 2028 NFL draft! (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about two interesting news items regarding the Minnesota Vikings. First that they will host the NFL Draft in 2028 and that they will play host to the Baltimore Ravens for joint practices. Do you like that Minneapolis is going to host the draft? Will joint practices determine the QB competition or will it be over by then? Also, Matthew ranks the Vikings toughest QBs on the schedule. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by FanDule. Matthew Collar here, and we got some very interesting Minnesota Vikings news. I have decided boldly to rank some stuff, and Aaron Rogers is back. So we've got a lot to talk about, but we've also got a lot of room, a lot of space. And sadly, I know that you guys don't have to get to a Minnesota Wilder, Minnesota Timberwolves game because they were both eliminated so we could go on as long as we want with asking Vikings questions. I guess Vikings, you are up next now for the major men's teams. And off we go because I think I'm okay counting out the Minnesota Twins as a contender at this

moment. I guess we'll see if they prove that wrong throughout the summer. But anyway, questions, comments, thoughts, feelings, and reactions to what we're going to talk about. here. Welcome to just about anything that's on your mind. The Vikings will be starting. OTAs and not too long and mini camps and so forth. So we'll have some news from those things. But for right now, we can just sit back and enjoy talking about the National Football League. So let's jump right into it. The biggest news of the day for the Minnesota Vikings is that ESPN sources tell Adam Schaefter, the 2008 NFL draft will be awarded to Minneapolis. at this week's league meetings, the NFL's fan engagement and major events committees

have been, they have fan engagement and major events committees. Lots of committees working for the NFL have been working with the city and the Vikings on plans for the 2028 drafts. So there you have it. The Vikings who have wanted to do this for a really long time is my understanding. I think the Wilfs have always believed that US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis is a great place to host just about anything. The Super Bowl outside of it being a little bit cold for some of the national riders that got stuck outside.

The Super Bowl worked out pretty flawlessly in Minneapolis. And now they will host one of the biggest events on the NFL calendar in the draft. So here is the question that I have for you is, are you excited about this? Do you care? Do you want to go to a draft? Have you ever been to a draft? I mean, every draft that we've seen, it was right down the road in Green Bay. This year it's in Pittsburgh.

They show Vikings fans. I'm assuming they're not paid actors. They show Vikings fans and the horns and everything else there. I am really curious. So if you've gone and you're listening to the show and in the comment section, jump in and tell me what it's like about attending the draft, I'm assuming that in 2008 I'll probably be doing a live show. I don't know if we could work it out any way to do it downtown somewhere or something

like that to do the live show as the draft is going on. I think it's a very exciting event. And this is where I've changed a lot over the years. Because if you had asked me like maybe 10 years ago when I was just taking the job covering the Vikings, how do you feel about the draft draft night? I probably would have told you it blows my mind that so many people are interested in the reading of names. And then when they started holding these huge events and, you know, you know, getting Detroit involved in Green Bay and Pittsburgh and, you know, having, you know, all these fans come and so forth, I thought, you people are nuts.

Why are you going and standing outside or whatever? I guess I assume they'll be inside at U.S. Bank Stadium. Maybe not. I don't know what the setup's going to be, but either way, standing around listening for names. That's what I would have thought years ago. But the way that the draft has become its own singular, Super Bowl of the off season and the lead up to it, the interest in it, the amount that we have

fun with it in the lead up now here on the show, I'm very excited for this. And I think that Minneapolis will do a great job with it. But I also really am impressed with the presentation that the NFL has put on over the years. And I know that last year, maybe the broadcasts, I guess that got behind the picks and, you know, people don't always love the analysis of this. this broadcaster, that broadcaster, whatever it may be. But if you just look from what the NFL has done about how they do the entire thing,

it looks like it's going to be a lot of good fun and entertainment for people who show up. And now with the fact that we have so much information about the draft, everyone knows every player, every mock, where guys are supposed to go. So it's real life drama. It's a stage show that they have created for every single year. It's like Broadway for football nuts. And I am very interested to see how it turns out in Minnesota. But it has sold me completely on the excitement of that night.

And I would have said before, I would never attend a draft. Are you out of your mind? I have no idea why anyone would do that. And now I have switched sides to that and can't wait for 2008 when the Vikings get to host the draft. So any takes on that. or if you've had a chance to go. I'm very interested in just what that's like for people. I imagine you meet a lot of other people and there's, you know, things going on.

I mean, in the Super Bowl, you just walk through downtown and it was all sorts of, like, music, and there was the Super Bowl thing where you could go in and see the trophy and see, I saw how a football was made. So the NFL has understood how to create a whole party around every, event that it has, and I imagine they would do the same thing for downtown Minneapolis. Also, in terms of announcements today, the Minnesota Vikings announced that they will be holding joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens before their August 22nd preseason game. So the 19th and the 20th, the Baltimore Ravens will be coming to TCO Performance Center.

And look, last year, the Vikings had a very good joint practice against the, the New England Patriots. They outperform the Patriots. And I'm going to connect with Chad Graff from the athletic, you know, former Vikings beat reporter now covers the Patriots later on this week. And I'm sure we'll joke around a little bit about our reactions from the joint practices where the Vikings were clearly the better team and then the Patriots ended up in the Super Bowl. We always have to put disclaimers on stuff like this that practices do not predict the

entire season. training camps don't predict the entire season. All we can say is that J.J. McCarthy completed a heck of a lot of passes against the Patriots and looked really good in those joint practices. And then, as we know, stumbled in the regular season. But still, they mean a lot to Kevin O'Connell. And he treats the joint practices like that's his real preseason. Just like real preseason games back when Mike Zimmer used to play his starters for the first half,

they didn't predict the season either. Well, neither to two practices. But it adds a great intensity to have another team around a lot of energy goes into those two practices. It feels like the true dress rehearsal, which used to be considered the third preseason game. But now the third preseason game is for guys who are going to be in the UFL or leaving the profession.

And the joint practices are for the starters that, you know, get going, you know, in week one. So what I'm really interested to see just about the Baltimore Ravens in general is I've seen the Vikings play against Lamar Jackson. They did last year and he was kind of banged up. But what does he look like up close? You know, we've gotten to see Drake May up close and see his physical skill, which was on display last summer and gotten to see Trey Lance when it wasn't going so good against the Vikings.

And the joint practices are always interesting. and there's always something that happens that ends up being very memorable, even if, again, it doesn't predict the entire regular season. When you're looking for those flashes and things to hang on to for J.J. McCarthy, that joint practice is one of them that he performed so well in that environment. And I know the games means so much more, but we have seen it. It's not like a Kellynmond situation where it was not there at all. It was never there.

there were no flashes. This is a little bit different. So my thing is, what will it look like at the quarterback position by the time they reach joint practices? And if they are having a true quarterback competition, this will tell us the answer to who won the quarterback competition because they're not going to have the joint practices. They're not going to have their most important two days of the off season for Kevin O'Connell where they're switching back and forth.

for first team reps. They're going to give the starting quarterback the opportunity to go against the other team starters. And even last year, there was a little game planning that went back and forth between Mike Vrable and the defense and Kevin O'Connell, then game planning after the first day of practice. And McCarthy performed better after that. So they put a lot of work into the joint practices. They're not having the competition go on then.

I would not suspect. I would figure that whoever the quarterback is will be. be the quarterback for the first team reps for the joint practice. So it is a marker potentially. Now, if Kyler Murray comes out in week one of training camp, it takes every single first team rep and never looks back, then we will not be talking about the quarterback competition on August 20th on day two of the joint practices. And I think that that is a fairly likely outcome. But if J.J. McCarthy has a great spring and they feel like, yeah, we want to see him do it out and they're swapping back and forth first team reps all summer long.

You know that Kevin O'Connell's not really going to have them resolve it in preseason games, but maybe there could be some of that in preseason games. And then this right here would be the spot where you really have to make a decision because you're preparing for week one with these practices with the Baltimore Ravens. And it'll be a little weird with the Ravens being led by somebody else other than John Harbaugh. I'll be just very curious to see what that organization looks like. And at this time of year, just always looking forward to things that might be meaningful into the future for the Vikings. So those joint practices, of course, I will be there for them on August 19th and 20th.

And we'll see what we have then. But I don't think just because last year did not turn out the way it was supposed to turn out, even though McCarthy had a great joint practice. I don't think it means nothing just because of that. But I am going to vow right now to you guys. And you can check me in the comments if I break my rules that I will not make too much of it because I probably did last year. So a couple other things here. I'll get you a Fandul question of the day.

So speaking of the quarterback competition, Fandul has released odds on the Vikings quarterback competition. Right now, Kyler Murray's minus 1,000 to start week one. J.J. McCarthy plus 600 and Carson Wentz is plus 7,000. You never know, with a couple guys with injury histories, I guess. But here's what I want to know where you stand on this. Because the idea of a quarterback competition, we've bandied it about a little bit on the show. I don't think that there's any real arguments that are going on out there.

I don't see the internet going to war every single day of Murray versus J.J. McCarthy. I think there's a handful of people who are kind of hanging on. but it doesn't really make common sense that they would sign Murray unless they wanted him to be the starting quarterback and the odds are reflective of that. But, you know, plus 600 is not that far out, still giving J.J. McCarthy some credit. So here's my fan dual question of the day. You probably fall into two categories with this idea of the quarterback competition between Murray and McCarthy. Have you either become a intrigued with Kyler Murray to the point where you're good with him starting? or B, you want to see a true competition.

So have you spent the year? And look, if you've listened to me a lot, then you probably are falling into category number A because, number A, because I've watched a lot of the film because I've done the data breakdowns. I've brought it to you guys, the numbers on Kyler Murray and the film analysis that I've done on Kyler Murray. and the strengths and weaknesses are certainly there, but I think that there's a lot more potential for Kyler than is being talked about around the NFL. You see it a little bit. There was somebody on TV that mentioned the other day

that they feel like, you know, ESPN, one of their shows, that they feel like Murray is going to play his best football in Minnesota. And that's exactly how I feel. And I really feel that he was let down by his supporting cast in his franchise and that the talent is through the roof, the motivation. I heard Blake Cashman on Jim Rome show today talking about how Murray went to the Minnesota Wild game with everybody and has been connecting with his teammates. There's always been this kind of fascination with Kyler's personality because he doesn't have a typical walks around

like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning kind of demeanor to him. But I don't think that that it means he's a bad teammate. So he's kind of making those connections early on right now. But in terms of his actual performance, what he's had, the coaching, the franchise, the receivers, the running games, it's basically never come together entirely. The closest it came was 2021, but it's never all been on point at the same time. And the Vikings have the best chance that he's ever had, I think, by a mile to bring it all together around Kyler Murray. So if you've listened to me talk about that and sort of gather all the evidence together, you might fall into category B. but I'd be curious to hear from some people about the argument for wanting to see a true competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy.

So that is your fan duel question of the day. Either A, you are intrigued enough with Kyler to be excited about him being the Vikings quarterback or B, you want to see a true competition. And then there's always a few of you who just think nothing will ever work ever. And I didn't put that in there. So that's not in the fan dual question of the day. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline, or if you're studying every actor and athlete you see of a certain age to see how they're handling their hair loss,

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but Aaron Rogers is back, my friends. Isn't that what we all needed in our life? We needed Aaron, not really. We didn't really need more Aaron Rogers. He signs a one-year deal officially today with the Pittsburgh Steelers to come back. And the reason that I included this in the rundown is, one, I'm going to include some more around the NFL stuff and the rundowns just in general because it's May.

And it will then be June and then it will be early July, which means that, you know, there's no football games or not a lot of practices going on. So we're going to talk about other stuff. But it did come to my mind with Aaron Rogers. Do you remember last year? Like remember 365 days ago where right now I was sitting in the same chair talking about should the Vikings get Aaron Rogers? Is this real?

Is this report real? How close are they to actually getting Aaron Rogers? and not playing J.J. McCarthy. And I have to wonder a little bit, you can throw this in the comments if you have a thought on this too, is what it actually would have looked like if Aaron Rogers had played for the Vikings last year. Because mid-late way through the season

when Pittsburgh was en route to making the playoffs and the Vikings were starting out their season four and eight, I probably at one point cracked a little and said, I mean, why didn't you just get Aaron Rogers? I'm sure that I did because the quarterback performance was so poor and it was so frustrating to watch J.J. McCarthy go through it and Carson Wentz get injured and Max Brosmert, not ready to play in the NFL. And it's just like, man, if they just had Rogers, they would be this, this, this and this. And I think at the end of the day, Rogers against the Houston Texans

pretty much made it clear to us that he doesn't have the physical skill anymore to lead a team. deep into the playoffs. And it would have been really difficult for Rogers, even as good as the Vikings were last year as a supporting cast, to take them any deeper than the divisional round. And they end up with the 18th overall pick. They end up with, you know, I mean, think about how this ends up going, like a quarterback competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy.

But what happens if Rogers played for the Vikings last year, won two more games for them and they win 11 because I mean he he was an averageish quarterback last year probably a little below average but with below average play and the Vikings defense they at least get to 10 but maybe they get to 11 so if they get to 11 wins with Aaron Rogers last year he and Jefferson click pretty well he's still slinging it all right I don't know if they would have been able to protect him that's one thing with all the O line injuries that they had but he was getting rid of the ball super quick and the defense turned a corner in the second half of the season turned out to be great. So let's say that you win 10 games and get into the playoffs with

Aaron Rogers and you don't really go anywhere in the postseason. Maybe you win one. Maybe you get eliminated in the wild card round. Like, how would we feel right now? Because I think that the excitement level, because Roger stayed healthy for the entire year last year. So that would have meant J.J. McCarthy on the bench. If they were winning, then McCarthy would have been on the sideline developing. And right now, we would be talking about, okay, it's time to turn things over to J.J. McCarthy. Here we go off into the future.

He got the year that, you know, he had a setback, but he had the year of development behind Aaron Rogers. And I think the excitement levels surrounding the Minnesota Vikings would be through the roof because even though you had your dream delayed a little bit to have the rookie quarterback contract is also, is Kwayzee like still? here is quaysi adafo menza still here if they had executed this plan to get rogers and play him for a season and then turn things over to j j mccarthy or would they still have said it's dysfunctional inside the front office or you know i guess they didn't technically use the word

dysfunctional but all the reporting that we did functional would not be my description um so just like would he still be here and would everyone be waiting including quacy to see how it played out with J.J. McCarthy. I mean, that's really fascinating to think about what might have happened if Rogers was the quarterback for the Vikings. And I think what we would have been saying if they went 10 and 7 and they lost in the wild card round with Rogers is that was a waste of time. We should have been finding out about J.J. McCarthy.

What's another 10-win season to the Minnesota Vikings, right? And, I mean, honestly, they did find out a lot about J.J. McCarthy. They found out how far away he was from being a starting quarterback what they needed to do toward the end of last year with changing the offense around to make it easier for him to run and so forth. They found out about his risk taking his propensity for turnovers and sacks, but also they did see some flashes of things that he did well down the stretch, the Dallas game, the Detroit game. But they knew exactly where he was at because of that.

I think now how much farther would he have been along though from a technical perspective to start? Like what were what would his odds be of having success? Would they even have gone to get Kyler Murray? Probably not, right? I don't think there's any chance they're talking about Kyler Murray. So Rogers not ending up with the Vikings has this very interesting butterfly effect of where we've landed with Murray who has a chance to become the Vikings long term quarterback or at least, you know, I don't know, five. years into the future if he performs really well this year. It's a fascinating decision.

It's one of those that you know in the moment that, okay, whatever you decide here, it's going to take you down two paths. Like, you've come to the fork in the road and you're either Rogersing or you're not. And the Rogers thing would have probably been overall pretty crazy. And following that along week to week would have been nuts. And just seeing how he responded to everything would have been fascinating. and the ups and downs that he had last year. But at the end of the day, it would have been a cool journey,

but you didn't really get anywhere. It would have been like walking around the park in a circle and going back to your car. Like, you just didn't really gain any ground. Everyone just got older. And there was value in you, the ground that you gained last year was knowing exactly where J.J. McCarthy stands going into this year. You would have known nothing about that. But in the other universe, in the ultimate.

alternate Rogers verse, you would have had J.J. McCarthy developing so much more all of the things that he needed to do to be a starting quarterback, which may have increased his odds of actually succeeding once he got in. So here's a question for you. Would it have been better if they signed Rogers? If you think of it from those terms, because I may have just kind of convinced myself that it might have been. Now, look, if Murray's phenomenal, then no, it would not have been better because they don't end up on Murray under this scenario. But having J.J. McCarthy behind the scenes working every day on throwing technique, having

him work on getting just better and better, running the offense, really mastering what it means to be an NFL quarterback, and then improving his ability to just straight up throw and get on the same page with receivers from an entire. year and then another training camp now to work on it, it would have given McCarthy better odds to step right into the NFL. And I don't think, in my opinion, that J.J. McCarthy is going to be an NFL failure, long term, but it was a failure last year to throw him right into the mix. That's, that's an interesting one.

Interested in your takes there. And last thing, before I get to your questions and comments, I ranked all the Vikings opposing quarterbacks in terms of degree of difficulty. So I'm going to give you my list and you can tell me if you like it or not. So here's my list for Vikings opposing quarterbacks now that the schedule is out. Number one is a shocker. It is Josh Allen at the top of the list. I don't think that has any explanation.

The last time he was here, he jumped over Anthony Barr. And after that, he's just been a great quarterback in the NFL. There's been some bumps, but he is as good as it gets. Drake May is number two, runner up to the MVP. I know that there were schedule related reasons that he was in that MVP running, but you take a team to the Super Bowl in year two, you get to be very high on this list. So I put Jordan Love 3 and Jared Goff four, not because I think that Love is better than Goff.

I think that Goff is actually better. Here's a crazy stat for you. I mean, Jared Goff has now five straight seasons of top five offenses. I mean, when is the last time the Vikings had a top five offense? Seriously, is it FARV? I honestly don't even know. It must be, right? Was the last time they had a top five offense?

He's done it 2021 through 2025. So I would have him if you were doing an all quarterback ranking higher. But I think that what happened last year and the fact that they don't have Ben Johnson and they don't have Frank Reg now, I think that golf versus the Vikings is just more human. So I put love ahead. of him because I think he's more physically gifted. Five is Brock Purdy. Brock has lost both games at U.S.

Bank Stadium against the Vikings and played his butt off. Thrown for a ton of yards, made a ton of plays. He has become, I think, a really good quarterback in the NFL, and he is not easy to beat, and they have the best offensive mind in the league. Six, I have as Caleb Williams. We know that it's been up or down versus the Vikings, but he's had three good performances overall out of four games versus the Vikings. in his career. He's a pain in the butt to play against. He runs you all over the field.

So he is number six. Number seven is Jaden Daniels, who I'm assuming is going to bounce back and not look like he did last year against the Vikings with a new offensive coordinator and being presumably just healthy. And, but they have not added a ton of weapons to their offense, which would be a little concerning. I would have him higher because of that. I mean, NFC championship just two years ago. But I think he still belongs very high on this list. Baker Mayfield is number eight. Which Baker do you get? Do you get the crazy, excellent Baker that's the first eight games of last year, or the Baker that goes two and seven down the stretch and they miss the postseason?

Nobody knows. Number nine, Daniel Jones, I think, is kind of a product of his run game last year, an offensive line and even some receivers, but still showed that he could be dangerous on a given week. Number 10 is Bryce Young, the ultimate game manager, has never. really put up big numbers, even though he's made a lot of progress, still only average 6.3 yards per attempt, but there's so much uncertainty for the rest of the list. This is where it kind of turns.

The first nine guys are pretty proven and you know what they are. And then 10, Bryce Young, I still don't feel like I have a great feeling for Bryce Young. Tyler Shuck is number 11. I don't know what Tyler Shuck is at all. He's only played, what, nine games last year? It was pretty good. And is he anything more than that? I don't know.

12 is Malik Willis, who I think is more talented than a lot of the other guys at the bottom of the list. But he's playing for the Miami Dolphins. So that's why he's number 12. They have done nothing to help him with the weapons other than keep Devin A. Chan, sorry, Devon A. Chan. 13 is Gino Smith. I'm not really buying a total bounce back.

I do think the jets are massively improved. And he has his ups and downs. But he is into his 30s now coming off a year where he got hit 55 times. This is pretty tough. And 14th is the Falcons with either Michael Pennix Jr. Or Tua as the quarterback. So there is your opposing quarterback list. Now, what is on your mind?

Let's, why don't we jump right in to your questions, comments, thoughts, feelings? Anything that's on your mind doesn't have to be stuff that I've thrown out there. What are you guys thinking for tonight? So let's get into it. All right, we'll start off with. the BD 97, who says, why would Chad Alexander pull out of an interview for a promotion? Oh, that's a good question. You know, I probably should have had that in the rundown, too.

But I wasn't really shocked by it. Yeah, so if you didn't hear, Chad Alexander, who was one of the Vikings GM candidates, the AGM of the Los Angeles Chargers, formerly worked in his background with the Baltimore Ravens. He decided that he did not want to be in the running for the Vikings general manager position. So, Chad Alexander has not announced or said why he decided to pull out. But, you know, we can speculate on a couple of potential reasons. The number one reason might be the structure that the Vikings are looking for. It might be that he feels like even he wants to wait and see what other opportunities are there next year.

He might not think that he has a great chance to get this job. so he just decided to kind of remove his name early from that. But I don't know. I mean, I think if you kind of go down, you know, tinfoil hatland, you could say, well, does he feel like he has to share the power and things? But all that stuff is relevant. Like the way that the whiffs are going to go about this and what they're going to tell candidates is going to dictate those candidates' interest in the Vikings position.

Because if you're somebody like that and you're working for a very high profile franchise that's got a franchise quarterback and is having success and you're thought of as kind of next man up as a GM candidate. I mean, you want to make sure that you're picking the right position because you don't get multiple shots at this. Like the odds that Quasi Adolfo Mensa becomes a GM again are not very high. The example I like to use is Thomas Demetrov, who was a really good general manager for the Atlanta Falcons and has not gotten a sniff of another opportunity.

I did a story a couple weeks ago with Doug Whaley, former Buffalo Bills GM and worked for Pittsburgh, and overall did a good job in Buffalo, got them back to relevancy, got them back to the playoffs when they had been horrible. He gets let go after they make a coaching change and then McDermott wants to work with his guy who ultimately fired him. Strange. And Whaley, you would have thought just by the fact that he had turned around a franchise that had gotten itself into position to be. relevant and back in the playoffs, that he would have gotten another sniff. Never. No, he's working with the UFL now. So if you're Chad Alexander, and this is just not any information I have about

why he decided to take his name out of the running for the Vikings, I think that you want to make sure it's a great fit for you and it's a great structure for you. And if there's questions about who has final say, decision making, something like that, it might influence your reason to do it or not do it. But that's all I can throw out there because I don't know if that's why Chad Alexander pulled his name out of it. Or if he decided that he wasn't ready for it or if he just wants to stay with the Chargers because he likes that position. I don't know. But there probably is a reason.

And there's only so many reasons that you could come up with that someone would pull out of that position. So that is interesting. A. P. Carlin, bold idea. Let's take the number one pick for 2028. Yeah. So you mean like try to, oh, tank. Yes, okay, is a typo. Let's tank for the number one pick in 2020. Well, as it relates to GM candidates, you know that one thing the general manager candidates for this Viking's job are going to be told is that you're not going to have the number one pick or you won't be the general manager for very long, which I, think for a lot of you and for me has always been, I mean, for a lot of you, people will just say, look, man, like, tank, let's do this. For me, it's a little more delicate than that, because when you have a certain level of coach, when you have a certain level of wide receiver and the money that you spend on the roster, it's way easier for us to say, dude, just go get the number one pick, put anyone

in it, quarterback, lose, man. Like, that's way easier to do than it actually is when you have all these players who are good. And yeah, you can say, well, get rid of them all. But Jefferson is the guy that you can't really get rid of or you really don't want to because he is still one of the best, if not the best wide receiver in the NFL. And he's somebody that you want to be your Larry Fitzgerald, tape to tape, play his entire career here, go in the ring of honor, all that sort of stuff. and that outcome is hard to achieve. If you have a season where you go 2 and 15 or something and you tear every part of the roster apart and then lose.

And if you're Kevin O'Connell, you're not surviving that. So you're going to fight tooth and nail all the way to the end. It's one of those things that's a lot easier to do on a video game. And it's why, you know, your Cleveland's and Arizona's and Jets and Raiders, these teams that have been perpetual jokes, they end up there at the top. Now, you know, the teams that tanked, some of them have turned it around pretty quick.

Chicago, Detroit, like, I will always believe that that's going to be the best place to get the top talent, but this team is not going to buy into it. We'll be interested to see where they do end up drafting in 2020, but I would guess that trading away the first round pick for somebody is probably off the table for that. Joker says, sounds like they didn't consult ESPN or anyone involved in TV with the decision. and now what the commercials play during the Packers picks. Oh, that's funny. That's funny.

Yeah. So, I mean, that did happen last year. And it does seem to have happened a few times where the Vikings were on the board. They would go to the commercials and so forth. So I, you guys will get to see your pick for sure. You'll get a big presentation with your pick being the home team in 2028. And maybe they will do that. Maybe they will go and cover up the Packers picks.

I don't know, probably not. But I think Minneapolis is a great place to do this. I have no idea what the setup is going to be like. Is it going to be inside U.S. Bank Stadium or is it going to be more of an outdoor setup somewhere downtown? And I'm not really sure where that's going to be. Like, do they shut down a street? I don't know.

Like, that whole situation is pretty fascinating. I mean, they didn't do it inside of other stadiums. I think it's always just been a downtown. town setup. And I know I saw some people saying, well, how is this possible and where are they going to put it? I mean, they obviously have an idea. I don't think that they decided on this today and then went, oh, man, where are we going to put it? But I'm very intrigued to see how that ends up working out and a little, a little bit concerned about the weather. I mean, maybe it would be cool if it was inside US Bank Stadium. I don't know the logistics or how you go about that, but indoors for

does tend to make more sense for stuff. But I'll be curious to see. The BD 97. Yes, excited, never been to a draft. And you're moving to the area. Oh, cool. From Arizona to here. Just for the summer.

I would like to take my son to the experience and experience it as Minnesota Vikings fans. Well, that's cool. And I think that as for fans, this thing has been really well orchestrated. Now, the people who are there on day three, just mingling around in the sixth round, there I'm kind of like, okay, man, go home. They are drafting players who never played football before and had some sort of great

international combine in the seventh round. So you can just kind of call it a day. But the energy of that first night is crazy. And I imagine that everybody who's in the stands or whatever it is, the setup, who is witnessing this, that between, you know, the music and Roger Goodell is there and the players are there and everybody, you know, walking out and stuff and all the fan bases gathering together, it's got to be a pretty cool event. So I am figuring that a lot of people will have a really good time doing it unless it's

four degrees, which you never know. I suppose it could be. Joker, the draft is a cool event. All the fans, teams getting together is special. Doesn't happen often will be a great time in Minnesota. I think the same thing. Swat says we'd love to make the trip from California to Minnesota. I assume you mean for the draft.

Would rather go to a Super Bowl? Obviously, yes. Mike, I guess you've been, said the drafts are cool. You meet a lot of weird people. Yeah. The people who dress up in the full Ragnar type of look with the horns and everything else, respect because you're clearly very serious about this. And we would not have the degree of the sports.

success and as much fun as we have if people weren't crazy about it. But also that's, yeah, that's a lot, that's a lot much when people do that. But you're only doing it once. It's like it's sort of, it's a stage show and it's Halloween kind of all at the same time. And when the Super Bowl was here, you could go downtown and that was very cold that week. But you could go from place to place. Like they had all these, I don't know what's call them huts, houses. warm areas to go in and out of to see lots of different stuff.

And there were people playing music and whatever else. It was a good time. It's really a festival type of situation that I'm sure that they'll do a good job with. And it will be a lot of fun. But there will also be a lot of weird people. Kit, haven't been to the draft itself, but it was fun when it was hosted in Chicago, lots of cool events and attractions in the city in the week or so. before the first round. Yeah, right. And that's what I mean is that when it's happening,

it's like the city kind of galvanizes to create a lot of different stuff to get people down into the area. And look, every single city is going to overstate how many people were there. There was a thing I watched in Pittsburgh where if you went to day one and day two, you were two people. You were two different. So they said, well, this number of people showed up, but you're one person. and you showed up twice, but they counted you, right? So I got, you know, sometimes those numbers can be a little bit inflated. And I think that some of the drafts have come short, maybe of expectation on hotel sales and how many fans were coming in and everything's like that. Because they try to pump it up as much as possible.

But I do think that they will put a ton of effort into making it someplace that people from Minnesota, from Minneapolis, St. Paul and around the state want to come. and see just for the pomp and circumstance of the entire thing. The is that RAF cave. This has never been to a draft. Now I can go to a draft. Yeah, well, there you go, right? Like that why would you go all the way to Green Bay? Who would want to make that drive anytime?

But, you know, not to go to Lambo, right? You're going to save your trips to go to Lambo. Pittsburgh's pretty far away. Not the best flight situations. Like, this is your opportunity if your Vikings fans to see what the draft is like. And I really think that the draft has just become something that people are so knowledgeable about. And that's what amazes me doing the show every single year is I'll say, you know, well, I'm trying to do a draft sim and I'm into the fourth round. And I'm not sure.

And you guys will be jumping in the comments being like, well, why aren't you taking this guy, you dope? Because people are so knowledgeable about the draft that when the names are revealed, it is dramatic. it is surprising, shocking, interesting, every single time now. And I think maybe years ago, where if you were sort of casual about it, maybe you heard Mel Kiper on TV, maybe you grabbed a draft magazine,

Pro Football Weekly or something. But now, I mean, you are inundated with so much draft coverage that everybody has opinions on it and thoughts and feelings. So when you show up there, it's a totally different experience than if they had held this, you know, 25 years ago.

uh, Jeremiah says, uh, agree on the Super Bowl parade, but, uh, exciting that the cities get to host a draft. Well,

of course, yeah, the Super Bowl parade is something that, you know, not cannot be replicated by anything. Cannot be replicated by holding a Super Bowl. Can't be replicated by a concert, a draft.

Nothing would ever match that. And, uh, maybe someday for you folks. Uh, but you're going to come from North Dakota or you can. That's, that's cool.

Um, the BD 97, says, iron sharpens iron. I assume you are referring to the joint practices, having a good franchise in here. KOC was in love with watching Drake May. Yes, that's true. Jeremiah, if I, if I do a live show in some way,

and I'd have to figure out how to do that from the actual draft from the events, then yes, I will see what I can do about having fans stop by for that. I'll do my best. It will be Carson Wentz. You guys are funny. The BD 97, those practices should have been a sign of things to come for McCarthy. Well, the thing about the joint practices is that it is a more aggressive version of the practices. They are very physical.

And the teams are trying their best to plan for each other a little bit. But there is nothing that ever is going to indicate what. NFL football is going to be like, right? And McCarthy could look good in practice, but that's not the same as walking out in front of 70,000 people with how many people watching the noise, the pressure, all that sort of stuff. It's just a totally different experience. I mean, it's sort of singing in the shower versus singing on stage.

It's like, yeah, it's great that you can do it practicing at home, but it's not the same, even if you get another team in there. and those practices, they are meaningful to KOC. They are meaningful for looking at different things, how you're using players or who you want to make your last cut or, I don't know, did they trade Harrison Phillips in part because of, you know, things that they saw there. I'm not sure.

But decisions get made based on those joint practices, but it's not an NFL game in the regular season. Those guys are out of practice. They're not able to kill you. and the complexity of things that you have to know, you don't get another rep. Like if, okay, we drop back, oh, well, we kind of messed it up. We'll just try it again.

Well, that doesn't, in the real game, you get destroyed by a defensive end. So you can take things out of the joint practices, but we shouldn't have equated so much as we did. And I am admitting guilt. I am on the stand saying, Your Honor, I'm guilty of doing this, of making that into a projection

for what would happen with J.J. McCarthy. And then it just wasn't. It was a very rough first three quarters of his season. And then it was an unbelievably rough second week. And we saw more of what McCarthy looked like as it went along. And maybe it would have gotten there a lot quicker had he not gotten hurt in week two and could have just progressed and led the team overseas against Pittsburgh and Cleveland. And maybe you win two.

Or, you know, you split those. Maybe you play well in one of them. get some confidence going to come back with, but that just is not how it ended up playing out. And that's the hard part about something like a practice in general or a joint practice is how are you supposed to know when someone's going to get hurt in the season? If you told me before the year joint practices, training camp or not or whatever, if you said, yeah, McCarthy's going to miss five weeks after getting hurt in week two,

I would have said, uh-oh, that's really bad because that would be the worst scenario is that he has to be shelved for a really long time and then lose all the momentum that he built up and the confidence from training camp and then start at square one over again and then gets hurt again and then has to start at square one over again. Like that's one of the main reasons.

I think he struggled so much. And when you haven't played back to back to back to back games, I mean, it adds up. It is the Battle of Attrition thing is absolutely real, mentally, emotionally, physically, all those things. I mean, it's really tough to play a game against the Packers. And if he had gone to Seattle, I mean, my God, he might have not played football again after that. If he had gone to Seattle.

But he didn't play against Seattle. But you play that Green Bay game and they just stop your face into the ground, which happens to every quarterback ever in the NFL. But that's a hard thing when you have not built up many reps. And I don't mean from a concussion standpoint. I just mean from a physical beating type of standpoint. Anybody with a concussion should not be playing until they're completely ready. But you understand what I'm saying is like NFL quarterbacks who are veterans. They know how to avoid certain hits.

And they also build up their body and their tolerance and they build up their knowledge. So every week isn't, you know, climbing up this huge mountain of information because they know so much of it from playing in the NFL. before. So I think that that really, really hurt it. And that's why, you know, if you told me that he stayed healthy, and if that had happened in a different universe, if he stayed healthy, then I would have said he would have had a much better season through those few weeks. But that really, that really ended up setting him back big time and kind of made the whole training camp irrelevant because he managed that training camp pretty well. They had Jefferson out. They were playing Lucky Jackson, who I see now in the UFL. And Lucky's

a great dude so i hope it works out for him but he's not justin jefferson or anywhere close and you know he did a good job in that training camp but it was all negated when you had to sit down for five weeks and couldn't really do anything because of an ankle injury so uh you're right that you know those practices probably should have been a sign of things to come for mccarthy and just didn't work out that way uh joker says really boggles my mind that real people actually believe Kyler signed with the Vikings to sit on the bench behind the 42nd rated quarterback. Well, you know, Joker, I'm on the same page with you. Just overall with Kyler Murray signed here to completely change what people think about

Kyler Murray. That's why he's here that even just, you know, the little bit that you hear is the motivation factor is through the roof with Kyler. I've always heard this about him. This was even before he was on the radar for the Vikings. and one of the reasons that I was intrigued is that he is extremely competitive. And even when he gets made fun of for, oh, well, he video games or whatever. And I've kind of gone on that rant before because crazy, lots of athletes play video games.

And he's also a very good chess player too, which if he was just that, it would be how interesting. He's so good at chess. But all this stuff is like competition junkie type of stuff. and this is somebody who is considered the best quarterback in the state of Texas to ever play high school football there in the high school football state of Texas. He is a super competitor. But, and I think that that led to some of the stuff with him on the sideline and him with Cliff Kingsbury and everything else, which I didn't see with Jonathan Gannon, by the way. I've watched now every game since 2024.

And I haven't seen any of that, like the body language stuff. And maybe if there was an incident, it wasn't on the tape. Maybe it was like in a post game or something, but under Gannon and Drew Petsing, I think he really got along with them quite well. So it may have been just a, you wear out your welcome with somebody like Cliff Kingsbury eventually or miscommunication that we're all trying to read body language on the sideline when we don't know what's actually being said, whatever it might be. The point is that Kyler Murray, yes, he signed here with the full intent to prove everyone

wrong about Kyler Murray and to take this Vikings team into the playoffs to show he can win in the playoffs to basically do what Sam Darnold did for the Seattle Seahawks last year. I don't know if they have enough to get deep into the postseason with Murray, but certainly offensively, weapons wise, coaching wise, now that they have started to take the running game more seriously this offseason, offensive line wise, if it stays healthy, they can be serious with Kyler Murray and that's why he's here. So yes, you're exactly right. And not to mention that it's also better for J.J. McCarthy to get the development time.

So that's why I've continued to stay. I don't think that we're going to be going back and forth in training camp with first team reps. I think it's going to be Kyler's show and then see where it goes from there. And if he's banged up, JJ better be ready. And J.J. better show that he knows the offense just as well as Carson Went because no more excuses. You're in year three. There is no more excuses. for J.J. McCarthy. It's not, I'm young. It's not, oh, I'm just learning. I got to, you know,

whatever. It's, no, you have to know the offense just as well as a veteran like Carson Wentz in year three in the NFL. And he's got to show that. So that those are two, they're just people in two different worlds. It's Kyler Murray, this veteran quarterback who's had some great seasons. I'm not, not all pro, but pro bowl caliber seasons really good in the NFL, top 15. And then there's a quarterback who's just getting to the point in his career where there are serious expectations for him to know what he's doing out there and to be able to throw the football accurately and so forth. So that's just two, two very different wavelengths for those quarterbacks. And that's why similar to you, I just don't see it as being a situation where it would be a

competition, not to even mention the KOC part of it, where he's getting one of the more accurate quarterbacks in the entire NFL, which would seem to pull. play to his favor. Swats says, what's your thoughts on Max Bredison now that you've seen him in person? So, I mean, it was only rookie minicamp. So I can't say that I saw a lot of Max Bredesen. I wasn't really looking for him. Usually in rookie minicamp, you're watching wide receivers and corners.

And that's it. Because the offensive linemen are doing drills, the defensive linemen are doing drills. And if I told you that I was capable of watching a guy do a drill with a bag and knew whether he was good or not, I would be a liar. I'm not. I'm just not that, I'm just not that good. I'm sorry. I'm not a coach. I can't go back and watch it a million times and figure out the small detail of whatever they're doing. But I can watch wide receivers and corners move around and figure out pretty well, is there anything there? So those are the guys I was, I was watching. And, Demon Claybourne, running routes and catching the ball was pretty impressive too. So I didn't see a lot of

Max Bredison. And I don't know that I'll get a huge sense for him. really in OTAs in mini-camp what he's going to look like because the physical play is not going to be there. They're not in pads. They're not hitting. But I think from watching his games back, which I have watched through highlight reels of him and plays he was involved with and stuff, he just reminds me a lot of David Morgan. He's a very physical guy who can catch the ball if you throw it to him and he's open. So it's not like he can't catch it at all. And he can get some yards after catch and so forth, but he is going to seek out physical contact. And he really has this way about just like latching on when he gets there.

So I'm actually thinking that Bredesen is going to play a fairly big role. And I'm talking like 15 to 20 percent of the snaps. I'm not talking about, you know, 80 percent that we're going to go back to 1997 or something. But it gives the Vikings just this little extra spice to their offense because everyone is just having this, you know, freak out over how the Rams use three tight ends. But if you have Josh Oliver, T.J. Hawkinson and Max Bredesen in the backfield, that's basically like having 13 personnel. It's just having instead 22. And no one, I guess if you, you know, you don't run it all the time is going to give you a huge

amount of praise. But being multiple, I think is the toughest thing in the NFL to face as a defense. You line up and you don't know going into a game, are they going to have the fullback on the field for five plays or 25 plays? They're going to have Josh Oliver out there. It might be matchup to match up. It allows you to play in multiple different ways. I think when you have a Bredesen. So it's a lot for a guy right away.

And he may have to do some pass protection. That's not going to be easy for him because he could deal with the physical contact, but the mental part of it could be tough. everything I've heard about Breedison, though, is that all that stuff, I mean, checks a lot of boxes. So I am very interested, of course, in seeing how it plays out with him on the offense. Joker says a guy on Reddit charted QB throws with no pressure and throwing to an open receiver. McCarthy was 43 out of 43 in completion percentage. That's way too much work for a stat that already exists, which is kind of funny for the Reddit guy.

Now, I mean, watching football and charting it is a good time, but that's a completion percentage over expected, really would have done that for him. And what completion percentage over expected is exactly what you just described, which is the distance between a receiver and a defender in the tracking data, because all the guys have the tracking things in their pads, will present a possibility of that being a completion based on all other throws with that distance from the defender. So if you run a slant route and you are five yards ahead of the guy, your completion percentage is probably 80%, right?

If you miss that throw, that would be on the negative side, right? If you have two feet of separation from your defender in the back of the end zone and you throw the perfect ball and the guy goes up and makes a grab in the back of the end zone for a touchdown, the completion percentage might have been 30% and you hit it. so that's 100% for you. That's how it works. Completion percentage over expected. And McCarthy was at the bottom of the league.

Yeah. I mean, look, we don't have to really relitigate it. I see people trying to do it now and then like, well, no, it was better than you think. No, no, it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't. Like the numbers, the numbers don't go away. It's really about how far it can go from here.

There's no question what it was. It's what it can be. and what it can be with McCarthy with proper technique improvement, which he's still young and you can do, and we've seen other guys do it. But I think that really timing is the main thing. And training camp probably did set him back in some ways not having the timing with Justin Jefferson.

Timing is a very hard thing to go from college to the NFL because you can't wait for guys to get open. It's got to be bang and then bang. Like hit the foot, ball is out. if it's not you're too late and you got to do something else and that's a hard thing to grasp in a practice in a joint practice you only grasp that when you're actually out there uh and the thing is with mccarthy he's a good playmaker but he's not murray and he's not cam newton and he's not josh allen so it wasn't like he could be that uh behind when it came to the timing and then

just make something happen and get 15 yards anyway he did it occasionally but not enough uh to even out how inaccurate he was. So, yeah, I mean, whether you're a Reddit guy who's tracking a million different things or just any number that you look at, the quarterback rating being the same through 10 games as Christian Ponder is very concerning. So he's got to prove that all those numbers were because of circumstances last year and not who he's really going to be. And he's young enough to have that opportunity to do it.

Jeremiah rather have Kyler be the day one starter and no competition. and JJ sit and learn from Murray and Carson Wentz? I mean, I think that's very fair. I do. I think that that's very fair because Kyla Murray's on a one-year contract and J.J. McCarthy is not there yet. And patience is never a bad thing with the quarterback position. Last year, I was a little surprised when they did it because I thought this is the boldest move

that any team is pretty much ever made at the quarterback position to walk away from a 14-game winner 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns as great as Sam Darnold was in 2024. For somebody who's never played before is very risky and very bold. And it put McCarthy in a position where, especially with no other quarterback there, with no Daniel Jones, with no Aaron Rogers. It put him in a position where it's all on you, dude. Everything, all the weight of this entire thing is on you. and then when he did struggle, it kind of fell apart in the middle of the season.

He was not able to dig himself out of that hole in the middle of the year. And it just kept getting worse. And they just kept sinking farther. Whereas if you can have time to develop and be healthy and be active, not standing over there with a clipboard while your knee is recovering, but really be engaged on a weekly basis through practice, I think you can get a lot better. And, you know, people have used the Josh Allen example.

I don't know that I would go with that because he, was playing and he was healthy, but I would go with Malik Willis. When Malik Willis played for the Tennessee Titans, it was laughably bad. He had no idea what he was doing. And when he came back for Green Bay, the first time, he was okay. And he ran a lot and they threw screens and stuff. And then when he came back the second time, he was excellent. So I think there's a lot of proof to show you that quarterbacks, when they get time,

his backups can improve. Gino is that. Baker Mayfield has been on the record talking about his. time as a backup quarterback and how it helped him reset. Sam Darnold helped him reset. This does not have to be the apocalypse of somebody's career when they don't play for a year, especially when you're this young. So I'm not disagreeing with that at all.

The BD 97, if I was a betting man, I'd place the money on Wence to win it if there was a competition. Well, you know, both guys could get hurt, I suppose. I mean, Wendt came back. to be a backup quarterback and a mentor to McCarthy, which I think is a good thing. But if, you know, he doesn't, if JJ doesn't beat out Wentz, and that means he probably just hasn't mastered the offense the way they need him to do it. And that's because Carson Wentz is going to know it.

Wentz will know it inside and out with no problem. He came in and executed the offense after he wasn't even here in training camp fairly well. So he's going to know it. You have to meet that standard now. There's no more you're young. And that's how it goes in the NFL. There's no more, hey, well, you're just figuring it out. You're just developing not when it comes to the offense.

When it comes to throwing the football, yes, there is more of a show progress, show progress, keep getting better with that. But when it comes to going to the line of scrimmage and being able to get everyone lined up with every motion, everything else, you got to know it by now. And if he hasn't have that locked in from day one of training camp, he won't be the backup quarterback. Joker, Kyler Murray only doesn't start if he's not healthy.

Gazincad, Ben Lieber pounding that plus 7,000. Yeah, was that, that was earlier this offseason that Ben said he thought that maybe Wentz would be the starter. I mean, I think it was made pretty clear by Kevin O'Connell at the owner's meetings. That's not, you know, going to be the case. And, I mean, I think Wentz coming back is a really big thing for them because when it comes to just the injuries that these other two quarterbacks have had, let's say that, you know, Murray's banged up,

McCarthy goes in, he gets hurt, like, you got to be ready. And you never know what kind of circus can ensue with Vikings quarterbacks. So I like that. I also like that he's here for McCarthy. You know, Wentz, I mean, he's been through it all, man. He's been at the top of the mountain. He's been at the bottom. He's been a backup on a championship caliber team in Kansas City.

He's been a starter. Like, he's done it all. uh, D.O.D. Uh, true competition. I, um, so you, you want to see a true competition. Kit also says definitely want to see a true competition. JJ making the leap is certainly the best, if less likely scenario. Kyler has potential, but will command 35 plus million if he wins. Let them both prove it. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think that from the Vikings perspective, and this is why a lot of people are saying it's a competition is that philosophically it's ideal to just, hey, why would you not have a quarterback competition if neither one of these guys is proven? The thing is that one of them

really kind of is to much more of a level, not a championship ring. You wouldn't have him. If he had a championship ring, he would still be an Arizona cardinal. So he's flawed for sure, but is just on such a different level with his full seasons that he's played before. than what J.J. McCarsthey showed last year. But there's no reason for the Vikings to lock it in early to just say, all right, JJ, you know, don't even bother showing up to practice. You're not QB1, whatever. I think competitive environment is actually the right approach to this of you want to feel like

Kyler is being pushed. You want to feel like J.J. McCarthy is trying to chase him down and is on his heels as he goes forward. Yes, you do want Kyler Murray to prove that he could be the. starting quarterback of the Vikings. As far as the money goes, well, one, they manage their salary cap nicely to be able to handle it. And I think that says a little bit of something about trying to look forward for the Vikings and

maybe project Kyler Murray as their guy. But the other thing is that the way that the cap works now, it's just not as daunting to have to pay Kyler Murray and then build the rest of your roster. And I also think that looking at the potential hires for GM, they're looking at it as building through the draft the next time anyway. Yes, it would be better for J.J. McCarthy for about a year or two to be, but it ends up being a little bit less when you're unlikely to have to pay the full amount, right? So when you have a Daniel Jones, when you have a Sam Darnold contract,

when you have a Baker Mayfield, these are teams that have won around expensive quarterbacks, but not that expensive. The middle class of the NFL for quarterbacks is here. Dax's getting 60, Darnold's getting 30-something, and also the way that these contracts are structured now, it's rarely what it looks like in terms of average annual values. So I'm not so terrified of that happening.

But to your point, would it be better overall in the big picture if J.J. McCarthy became the franchise quarterback that you expected him to be when you drafted him? yes, yes, it would. There's no doubt about that. And if it gets interesting, if we're going into joint practices saying, I wonder how they're going to distribute the reps.

Well, that'll be very different than what we expect, but probably a lot better for the franchise that they feel like they've got something there in J.J. McCarthy. And if you were to win the competition, I don't know. I mean, I guess you probably trade Kyler Murray somewhere else and then you're getting draft capital for that. And who the heck knows, right? That's the Sam Bradford Carson Wentz situation from Philadelphia with Sam Bradford ending up as a Viking. The one thing that we should always know with quarterbacks is that we never know.

We just never know how it's going to play out. And it's surprised us so many times. So you shouldn't, yeah, you shouldn't count out McCarthy and say that it's over. And the Vikings should present it as more of a true competition. But I still lean much more toward this is Kyler Murray's show. and there's a lot that points to him being the best version of himself here. Fetchwater says all in on Kyler Murray, but curious to see JJ's improvement. I mean, you can absolutely live in both of those worlds.

Yep. You can absolutely live in both of those worlds, which is, if you look at Kyler Murray's career, even recently, even his last 22 games, just watch those. Don't even look at the best season he had. Just look at those. is not hard to see why Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, why they could work with Kyler Murray and have him have a lot of success. You can also see the flaws and there's no doubt about that and there will be times where

everyone is frustrated with Kyler Murray. There's going to be a turnover on a play where he's trying to do something special. There's going to be maybe a checkdown or getting rid of a ball quick where someone's breaking wide open and that's going to frustrate people. but this dude just has a very, very high level of talent. And I was on Bucky Brooks show the other day. He had me on his show. And he said, and remember Bucky is a former scout that he felt like just from a raw talent perspective,

not even like stats or anything else like that, but just from a scouts, raw talent perspective, he said that he thinks that Kyler Murray is more talented than Sam Darnold. Now, I just, I think they're very different because Darnold's not. not really a runner, is a playmaker out of structure, but Murray's running. And, you know, Darnold for his arm strength is accurate, but can be a little bit inaccurate. Murray takes less sacks than Sam Darnold did with the Vikings. But I think that that kind of tells you where, like the, the world that he lives in, the air that Kyler Murray breathes as an actual talent.

So I think that's the right place to be for Vikings fans is, yeah, I mean, you could absolutely see this working. But then that doesn't mean you have to throw out J.J. McCarthy because we don't have to live in the debate show universe. Like, that's just not something that we like have to do, you know, right? We don't we don't have to just like, oh, well, you either love this guy and hate this guy or whatever. Like, it's just, we don't have to do that. You really don't. Uh, digital planes media, should the Vikings try to draft Brendan Sorsby in the supplemental draft? That's going to be a no for me, dog. Uh, dude betting on his own team.

That's, no, no. I mean, and Brendan Sorsby, so I watched probably two games of him this year. And somebody that I know is a talk host in Cincinnati also, and I've been following him talking about this Sorsby thing. There's been some discussion about Sorsby as if, while this guy's the first round draft pick and like you could get a steal by going through the supplemental draft. I just didn't really see that. I mean, that's been the discussion.

And I know that nobody loves hyping up quarterbacks quite like the draft universe. It worked with, you know, Ty Simpson went in the first round. I didn't think he would. I don't see one of those super prospects in Sorsby. I think if he was Cam Newton, then you might go, okay, well, look, yeah, we'll just clean up the gambling. part, but I mean, gambling on your own team is if you do it in, uh, the NFL, I imagine there has to be, I don't know.

I've never looked at the rules. You've got to be done for life, right? Or something. I mean, Isaiah Rogers had the whole thing with him where someone else was using his account. He got suspended for a year. But if this dude comes to the NFL and does this, then he's never going to play in the league at all. I, I just, it's probably going to be a big distraction because it's a big.

story. You've already got a quarterback competition going on or at least a new quarterback. I just don't think the juice is worth the squeeze with Brendan Sorsby. And I'm not even fully convinced they're going to do the supplemental drafting because it rarely happens. And he's suing, I think, to play in college football or something. I don't know. I'm just not in. I'm just not in. Gizincad, I like Aaron Rogers in the NFL because it means there's still a player older than me. Yeah, I feel that, my friend. I definitely feel that.

Chris Thomason, who covers Denver now, used to cover the Vikings, told me that one time. Because I said, man, you know, getting up toward 4-0, starting to feel a little creaky. And he's like, you're not old until you're older

than every player in the league. So I am not older than every player in the league, which means I am still fresh and youthful. SWAT, I could see Murray starting the first half of the season and doing well then falling off, allowing McCarthy to come in and ball out the rest of the season. That would create a very, difficult scenario for Kevin O'Connell because, I mean, Sam Darnold had a dip for a couple

weeks and then finished super well. If Kyler Murray starts out the season six and two and loses a couple of games, you're going to hear it. People will want J.J. McCarthy, but, and especially if he plays poorly, and when he plays poorly, it can often go off the rails. It can be really rough with him historically. but is that really the right way to approach it if someone has, you know, has this background and and you don't really know what McCarthy's going to bring?

I think that they would have to be at the out of the playoffs level. Like, think about where they were last year, four and eight. I think that's where they would have to be. That's how I see it playing out is Murray starts week one. As long as he's healthy, he's the quarterback, unless it completely goes into a place we don't expect it to. if they are two and four, two and five, and it's just going horribly and you have to make a change. But this guy, this guy kept the Arizona Cardinals in 2024 right in the race.

He won twice as many games as Jacoby Brissette did last year and should have won another one. If Marvin Harrison could catch a ball against San Francisco, they should have been three and two. But, I mean, man, which I know you could say for some JJ games as well. but like this, you know, Murray has kept Arizona in seasons before where they didn't really deserve to be as an actual football team. So it's hard to see him not being good enough to keep the Vikings in the playoff race. I'll probably keep making this comparison throughout the summer. He's, he's like Kirk in a lot of ways, Murray, where it's, and that's like a compliment and

not. And also acknowledging the weaknesses of his game, where when he's. hot, it's crazy and he's incredible. And then when he goes cold, it doesn't make any sense to you. And the ups and downs drive you nuts. That's what he's been so far in his career. And I think if Kirk had been Arizona's quarterback at 2024, they probably win eight games, just like he did with Atlanta.

So it's evening that out. And KOC was able to even that out with Kirk. The same thing goes for the leadership, the personality, stuff like that, which O'Connell is as good of a communicator as exists in the NFL. so can he get more out of him from that perspective than was ever there before in Arizona. Rach, if JJ doesn't win the quarterback competition, I think there's a real chance he'll be traded. I believe a lot of the, this is a real quarterback competition. Smoke is the team trying to maintain his trade value.

I think that that is a reasonable viewpoint. And if they got to a place where, I mean, I don't know. It's like trading them away. It would kind of have to be bad, I think, in order to do that. Like just not a good situation in general with unhappiness or, you know, discomfort or whatever within the quarterback room. I'm not sure. Everything points to so far, J.J. McCarthy has been a good teammate to, you know, since he

arrived in Minnesota. But, you know, I think if you're in the, say, Anthony Richardson seat where it just looks like the team has moved on, maybe you go to them and say, it's better if you trade me. If he loses out the QB2 job, you might have a point. But I also think it's going to be in the back of KOC's mind of why would I trade my QB3 when I might need him and I've needed him a couple of times before, it would have to be a pretty good offer. Now, if a team that's expecting to be good and win were to get their quarterback injured in

training camp slash preseason and they came to you and said, Just like when, you know, the Vikings trade a first for Sam Bradford, which now seems kind of crazy. If you were super desperate and you come to the Vikings ago, we'll give you a second and a 2028 fourth when you host the draft for J.J. McCarthy and he's your QB3. Then you have to think about doing it. So you might be on to something there, but I don't think it's too rational to be done with him when you don't see how he comes back. like to see if there's a freshman year, sophomore year type of jump from him in maturity and his throwing and his knowledge of the offense, you have to find that out first. But you're right, though, if you find out that you don't really like where it stands,

then a trade becomes possible. So I'm not going to dismiss that possibility.