Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Wait, Micah Parsons' injury was real? (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the news from ESPN's Adam Schefter that Micah Parsons' back injury needed treatment and his status for Week 1 isn't clear. Plus Arif Hasan joins the show to talk Parsons and answers pressing Vikings 2025 questions. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

VA Viking says with the addition of Thielen, I think Naylor could return kicks or punts, possibly, possibly did not like the way he returned a punt last year against Green Bay. That's for sure. That is definitely for sure. I'm not sure that that's in his skill set or not. They've done some work with him back there. I wouldn't want that to happen. I would not want one of your receivers that matter.

to be back there, kick returning. I would not want that. Let's see. Dylan says, has the team asked or pressured you in any way to start calling Jefferson Jets? So that Jay, there has not been internal, that's a funny question. There has not been internal pressure. I will never call Justin Jefferson Jets. That's for fans.

That's for him. That's for his teammates. That's for his coaches. I tend to, when it comes to nicknames, I'm just going to call the guys by their name most of the time, and I'm going to continue that trend with Justin. But for a long time, I called them JJ. So that is, you know, just to shorten it up,

even in an article or something, I might just write JJ just because, just, you know, hey, throw, you know, darn old, throw it to JJ. But can't do that anymore. Can't do that anymore. That's too bad. Yeah, but no internal pressure. There's not actually ever been any internal pressure.

Just to tell you guys the complete 100% truth, the Minnesota Vikings have never pressured any of us to say anything ever. So definitely not that. Say or do anything. They have, though, helped us with pronunciations from time to time. That can be a little bit of, you know, aviante Collins, aviante Collins, Brian Osamoa is what we understood, and then it was changed to Brian Osamwa.

That's as much pressure as we get internally. Blowfish is impressed with the gopher's freshman quarterback. I did see some of the game, and he looked pretty good. That was against my University of Buffalo Bulls, though. So I don't know if we can judge yet. I like the turn. It's really interesting that PJ Fleck has seemed like a better fit for today's universe. of college football when it changed over the last couple years

than he was the previous one. Like hype and motivation and all these sorts of things that seem to click with this generation of players. They've done a good job. They got a lot of talent on that team. Blowfish says media still pushing Rogers being ambiguous with his retirement plans to play next season. He wants to be available to replace McCarthy.

We'll see if he can get past week one because he wasn't able to do that a couple of years ago. I'm intrigued mildly by Rogers. I put a bunch of things, maybe this is a show topic at some point, is I put a bunch of things into a category of make me care. This is always been my thought process. You guys know this about like undrafted free agents. They bring in 37 of them.

I look at the guys. I look at their background and I go, okay, make me care. just for just for an example Elijah Williams I remember when they signed Elijah Williams I mentioned it on the show and I was like oh it's guys got a lot of production and then it was like all right

let's let's get back to talking about Javon Hargrave right but then made me care I feel that way about a lot of stuff in the NFL this year maybe you guys too you can throw those in your comments if you want of like who's got to make you care the bears to me are the ultimate make me care team if they beat the Vikings week one and Caleb Williams is awesome okay you've

got my attention. The same thing for, you know, I think a lot of teams in the league, including the Steelers, because I have the Steelers as a eight or nine win team that's occasionally good, has a nasty defense, and that's probably not going to be enough. And a lot of it sounds just like the Jets last year. Man, their defense is so good. Okay, that's great. But Rogers is not the same version of himself. And the team is falling apart from the inside. And okay. But, Jets were not a team to care about. I think Pittsburgh's better run, better coached. They can make the playoffs with, you know, Mason Rudolph,

and they can have a winning record with Duck Hodges or 500 or whatever it was. So, all right, well, you know, Kenny Pickett a couple of years. They can do that. So they deserve more of the benefit of the doubt than the pathetic Jets. But make me care about you as a contender. Like, let me, let me check in on Rogers after six weeks, see where he's at. because if they win week one in a very winnable game, you know it's going to be Rogers is back.

He's newly committed. Like, this is his year, all that sort of stuff. I want to wait till I get to that point. Jay says Bengals Vikings week three will be a big game for the Vikings. We have history of losing to the Bengals and the offense had the most points this year. It will. It will. That might be the first kind of shootout type attempt.

although, you know, Atlanta, too, this defense, we're going to find out within the first three weeks where this defense really is for the Vikings. Week one, if you go and you bash Caleb Williams face in, you know, intercept Michael Pennix a couple times and beat the Falcons and then play Cincinnati and hold them under 30, then you've got a pretty darn good defense to start with. If Caleb Williams thrives and then Pennix comes in and uses all of his weapons and they run the ball well, and all that, and then you play Cincinnati and Burrow lights you up in U.S. Bank State, but you're going to feel a lot different about that defense's high end and their potential to stop top teams. So it's, yeah, these first three weeks are going to tell us a ton. Dusty says Shanahan could be surprised hot seat coach, aging roster with a lot of bloated contracts if he misses the playoffs. I agree with you. I think Shanahan has been one of the best coaches in the

NFL over the last 10 years, but what do we say? It's not football season until someone says it's a what have you done for me lately league. But that's how windows work. They extended their window. They extended their window for several years where they could win a Super Bowl potentially. They didn't get it done. But when you get four or five shots at potentially winning a Super Bowl, you got a great

head coach. that doesn't mean that, you know, you want to stay on that path when you've had to rebuild it and they seem to refuse to rebuild it. So, John, really, really not buying into the Sam Darnold hype, I guess. I mean, I don't know. Would Darnold and KOC beat geniuses if they were on the Browns last year? Well, if he could play Darnold and not Dishon Watson, I think the Browns would have been pretty good last year, but I don't know. I mean, you could say that from any, any coach.

If they had the worst team in the league, would they be any good? Like, no, probably not. Probably not. Bill Belichick when he lost Tom Brady wasn't a genius. But I also think that every single thing that Sam Darnold did last year was not fake. It was certainly assisted by having Justin Jefferson and the coaching and the weapons that he had. But those throws that Darnold made were not made up. It wasn't Case Keenham. It wasn't, you just threw the ball up into the atmosphere and then they ran the ball most of the time.

He put a lot on his shoulders and made a lot of plays. I think he can be a very good quarterback for Seattle, but I don't have him as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. And I also think that just in general, like, I mean, you should want Sam Darnold for this. That was a really, really entertaining season and a great performance that he put on even though knowing that he wasn't going to have a future in Minnesota. So J. Deasy says Jeff Okuda is this year's Darnold.

Well, that's interesting. Yeah, the Reclamation Project. I mean, maybe like he certainly looked, he certainly looked that way. He certainly looked the part in training camp, Jeff Okuda, where he was pretty good. Rob says last year, Morrow had 100 snaps at CB4. I think he would be option six or seven. behind. I don't think Tavier Thomas is a corner. I think he is a special teamer only. I don't

think Jay Ward is a corner. I think that McLeather in his next man up and then probably Morrow. Those other guys, Jay Ward has never played corner for the Vikings at all. I mean, like, not this year, not last year in training camp. We've only seen him at safety. Tavier Thomas is a special teamer. I can't see them playing him unless it was a panic type of situation. Mama says, is Jerry Jones reasoning for them not being able to stop the run valid for trading Micah Parsons? Not really, no. I mean, two things can be, well, things can have shades of truth but not have validity, right? Micah Parsons is a pass rusher.

There's no question about it. His PFF history as a run defender is average. And he sells out to try to get the quarterback. and that's what a lot of past rushers do. He's not an elite run-stopping edge rusher. That is a fact. But, and also Dallas has been horrific at stopping the run. Horrific.

They drafted, what, Maisie Smith, and they've tried a bunch of different stuff in the interior. They've just been awful at stopping the run. Is that a reason to trade one of the five to seven best players that aren't quarterbacks in the NFL? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. what's dante hall doing right oh goodness i've got uh i've got a greyhound dog playing around here next to me sorry if you guys are hearing that he's he's screwer oh i know i know he threw his toy

over here there you go okay that might be time to uh bring on the erif hasan interview because i think uh the greyhound here mr buddy is in need of going outside i'm getting that sense from him so I will check back and answer, he's going crazy down here. I'll check back. And also, Arif, you'll hear on the interview, had some dog interaction as well during our conversation. So why don't I first tell you guys about another sponsor of the show. The episode today here brought to you by Denise At Tova and our team at Tova QDRO and retirement valuators. If you guys are like me and your only knowledge of the lives of lawyers and judges is based on watching

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and also that you'd like to get yourself that settlement lab. So thanks very much for Denise, for her great support of the show. I'm going to let out this animal. And here is myself and Arif Hassan discussing Micah Parsons and the biggest questions facing the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management position where you have to hire people and it can be such a headache. You have to sort through all sorts of resumes of people who aren't qualified and you end up

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So that's where you're going to have to begin. This is going to be impossible. To make dog puns in a football conversation, I don't think should be all that challenging. I just made it. Come on. I just made one. You got to pay more attention. Impossible.

Come on. What am I? What? Paul. Oh, possible. Okay. All right. See?

Well, we're off the rails already, and it's only been 40 seconds. So, uh, a reef, here's where I really wanted to begin, if not for all of that, which was, uh, A, so the Packers got Micah Parsons. And I've also got a game for you a little later. We're going to have fun with Vikings questions for 2025, but you wrote about Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Packers and, uh, how about the news that the back injury was real? That was pretty. That was nuts to me.

I was like, wait, hold on. Never saw it coming. I thought it was like a T.J. Hawkinson inner inner thing. Yeah. Anyway, so I guess hold ins are only so real. But let's assume that they fuse whatever L4 and L5 back together. And it's just he's Micah Parsons going forward. Right.

Right. I don't think that the backers make this trade if he was just completely broken and couldn't play football anymore. Right. So let's assume that he's still good at football. What you wrote about over at wide left was the, value of one player being acquired by a team. So how much does Michael Parsons change things for you? Certainly changed it in the betting market, but how much does he change things for you with the NFC North? I think it changes things a lot. So I don't know if I would, hold on. Sorry about that.

No, I don't know if I would react as strongly as the market did. They made the Pappers the favorites to win the division. I don't know if I'm there yet. But I think that it does speak to kind of the nature of the player that he is because one of the Packers' biggest problems has been the past rush. They've been always trying to like find some way around that, right? You know, adding Devon for Wyatt, they got Lucas Van Ness. And Rishon and Gary just never materialized into the player that he was always almost going to become, right? Like he's about to break out or you take a look at this like four-game sample. He was fantastic. And it just never materialized. Well, now you've got a player that has the ability to provide instant

pass rush in a way that I think not a ton of other players can do, which opens up a lot of options in terms of alignment, coverage, fronts, and stuff like that. We talk a little bit about like Zadariah Smith, another former Packer who has the ability to like rush from the B gap and spin and stuff like that. And it's like that, but on steroids, not to make any accusations. But, like, there's so much more that Michael Parsons can do and he can line up in that A gap on first and 10 and actually make a huge difference, both as a run defender and as a pass rusher. And you can drop him into coverage. And it's not like, you know, when the Vikings dropped Neil Hunter into coverage, which more often than not was fine, it worked. But, like,

he's not a coverage defender. That's just, he just has to be good enough for the disguise to work. Parsons is good at coverage, which you could just be a linebacker. And so there's a lot more versatility that you can provide. And that, I think, kind of supercharges the Packers defense in a way that you wouldn't get with a ton of other players. They've been a very, I want to call them a static defense, but somewhat predictable defense after the first second of the snap. And that has been an issue for them. And people have been able to exploit it, throw away from Xavier McKinney and stuff like that. And now I just don't think that's going to be the case.

I think they can be a lot more versatile. just like Jeff Halfley was at Boston College before he joined the Packers. So there's a lot here that really helps the Packers out a lot. I think so too. And I know that Vikings fans don't want to hear that about how much one player can impact. But, you know, it's funny because I was at the Anthony Barr retirement press conference earlier. And I was, I know, right? I was thinking about how Anthony Barr affected the game in some ways that you can't really quantify or put a PFF grade on,

which, of course, Micah Parsons has insane every number that you can find. But there was even trickle-down effects of, with Anthony Barr, for example, like his ability to rush the passer or his ability against tight ends with his size and things like that, his communication ability. And there are trickle-down effects to certain players. It's not that Barr was Parsons. They're two very different guys. But it kind of allows other people to be the best version of themselves.

So just for example, with those. old teams with the Vikings, Xavier Rhodes, if he could guard Antonio Brown for the entire game, then you can help Trey Wayans all game long. If you can leave Christian Derisaw alone one-on-one with edge rushers, then you can help Brian O'Neill with Josh Oliver on the other side, or you can provide some help into the middle and the interior. It's just there is impacts. And with Micah Parsons, Rashon Gary, I don't know how you're double team in him at any point. There's so much attention and the fact that he can line up into different spots, I think makes it a huge difference there.

And from a even broader sense of reef, I just thought when you looked at the Packers roster was like, well, that guy's okay. Oh, that guy's pretty good. Oh, he's been all right. But there was no one that made you think this guy is going to be a reason you go and play for a championship. And now they have one. I don't know if they have enough to compete for a championship, but they at least have

that one guy who can drag you, who can kind of win a game by himself. at times. Yeah, no, absolutely. And obviously, we're both more familiar with the Vikings than with the Cowboys. But I think Anthony Barr is a really great example of what kind of the network or downfield effects of that can be. There are two elements of Anthony Barr's play that I thought made him such a special element to the Zimmer defense that I think might kind of help people understand how much one player can do. One, even as his numbers as a pass rusher went down, his like, blitz pressure rate went down with it didn't matter because what ended up happening is that opponents just assumed he was going to blitz and assumed that that was going to be a threat and because of that they always

assigned a blocker of some sort whether it was a tight end or a running back or even just a guard to block him and a lot of times he just wouldn't like he just dropped off the coverage fine whatever but that created one-on-one pass rushing opportunities for everybody else and so you could rush four and only be blocked by four which is crazy it's such a huge advantage and the second one is that his athleticism to get down to the sideline answered the most common response to Zimmer's favorite look, the double-a-gap look, you throw screens against that because you've no idea how the protection is going to shake out. So you just don't bother with that. You know there's seven, six defenders at the line of scrimmage. So you know there's just not as many tacklers to get to

the screen. So you throw a screen, and if Anthony Barr can get to that, you know, screen receiver one yard down the field, that eliminates the most common response. And so it makes the whole defense more effective, even though he didn't have to be the best player on the defense. And now you take that kind of guy, we'll have different network effects, right? We'll have different downfield effects because he does some things. And also he's the best player on a defense. Like that is, I think, remarkable and outstanding. And I think we're going to see, you know, a player like Xavier McKinney, you know,

get more like all pro votes or look like a better player, even though he's not really going to change necessarily, just because, hey, one great way to beat Packers to throw away from Xavier McKinney, or when he's deep down field, which he's really good at, you throw over the middle. And it's kind of harder to do that when one of your pass rushers can turn into like Fred Warner, just on a snap if you need it. So yeah, the effects of one player pretty rarely create kind of this, this whole element that changes the nature of the defense. But in some cases, absolutely do and can alter the dynamic. Like I think a lot of the film that a lot of people have built over the Packers over the past year about what that defense was going to look like,

a lot of that's not going to be very helpful because I think if I'm Jeff Halfley, I'm like, screw that, right? I'm going to do all I've got, I've got a week to install a whole new defense and I can do it. I'm going to absolutely, you know, manipulate all of these offenses and make sure that they don't know what they're looking at and punish them for it. Plus, I mean, the Packers were like 24th in pressure rate or whatever, like just on a bear, even if you don't do anything special with them, which you should. But if you don't, they're going to start being one of the better patchwork units in the lead. And I think where Parsons really benefits them is that he can rush toward anyone as well. Like you mentioned him dropping back, but he can line up in different

spots. He can rush over the guard. He can, they can do stunts with him to get him the matchup that they want. And it's not like he is a pure edge rusher that just needs to be bending. And it's him versus derisaw the whole game and that's the only thing it's going to be i mean it's kind of like i mean they wouldn't really do this a ton but every once in a while san francisco would just put nick bosa on the other side or put him over the guard and you'd be like oh what is he doing there but not a lot i mean he was kind of it's him versus your right tackle and they were trying to win that matchup but in this situation it's oh he might be attacking donovan jackson 10 times in a game with the way that they can just sort of have an undefined where he lines up

and things like that. I was looking through his career. And two years ago when he had his best season, he lined up as a regular linebacker over a hundred times, which means several times a game. You're like, where is? Oh, he's right in front of me if I'm the quarterback. So then the bigger picture question is, this has been my take on it, Areef, has been, well, the Minnesota Vikings built their team.

to play against good teams that have good players that go to all pros and lead playoff teams and think about who they had in mind when they built this team. The Los Angeles Rams who have Jared Verst and all those guys on the D-line, that's who they were thinking of. So they should be built to be able to handle this. It doesn't change my expectation for the North, but I think it's a three-team race that I could see any of the three teams finishing first, second, third, and I could definitely see all three teams.

and obviously I'm referring to Detroit and not Chicago. Right. Feel free to prove it Chicago, but you're going to have you won't fool me. But not unless Chad Hutchinson plays the Vikings, then they're in trouble. But, you know, just in general, those three teams to me, when you put them down on paper are about as even as it gets. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that's the case.

Obviously, a lot depends on, like, how good JJ McCarthy actually is and all that. But I think fundamentally, this is, I mean, the NFC North is wide open. I was taking a look at a couple of my colleagues, like season predictions, which like, I don't know, who knows, right? But almost all of them had three NFC North teams in the playoffs, right? And I think that tells you a lot about the way that we've been evaluating all of these teams. There's a lot of respect for actually all three coaches, Matt LaFlor, Kevin O'Connell, Dan. I just think that it's really difficult to really see how the season is going to play out. and having players like Michael Parsons,

Christian Dara Soh, Aden Hutchinson, like having all of them in the division really, I think, alters the landscape for how the division plays out and how we can expect this to go. I don't think I would be surprised by any of those three winning, any of those three ending third.

It's going to be a pretty fascinating watch in a way that, like, a lot of these other divisions run the league just aren't. Right. There's, when you go AFC North, like there's no scenario that you can talk yourself into where the Cleveland Browns are one of the best teams in that division. Whereas this, everybody except I just can't get there with the Bears until they make me get

there, but any combination of these three. And there's also enough intrigue when it comes to the questions, which is what we're going to get to here for each team. I mean, Detroit's changing coordinators. And Jordan Love to me has not taken the next step. And Drew McGarry was on the show the other day and pointed out, Like, is he going to be like 32 and people will still be talking about like, but next year, you know, he could take the next step. But the steps that he's already made have put them in the playoffs multiple times.

So that's enough to at least determine what his floor is going to be. And then with the Vikings, I mean, we're going to get to these questions, but it really comes down to McCarthy, the age of the players, the health. And can it all kind of stay glued together? because we have seen seasons with a lot of hype that did not stay glued together. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that, again, you take a look at kind of the division breakdown. You take a look at kind of the person to person. Like, you see, like, Jared Goff and you understand, like, hey, he's a really talented

quarterback. He's done a lot here. He's finally earned, like, so much respect for those peers that he's like a top 50s, and he'll pop up another guy. But we know that he's limited in some ways, too, right? And so we know that, you know, he can play an offense. it's really well, when it's scripted well, when the leads are there for him, we'll see what happens when the coordinator change kind of changes the way that he's, that he's looking at

these offenses, are looking at these defenses and figuring out kind of what his progressions are. But you know that he's got a ceiling and he's got a floor. And with Jordan Love, I think it's kind of both are a lot wider, right? That, you know, in a single game, Jordan Love can put together some of the words performance you've ever seen and some of the most outstanding performances you've seen. We saw that again in the playoffs with him. And generally speaking, the Packers were like, I think, eighth in EPA last year or something like that. They're a top 10-ish offense generally. And so you expect that.

And again, with McCarthy, you know kind of like what that ceiling could look like. You've got a pretty good idea of how that plays out in a world where everything kind of comes together. You've got a pretty good idea of how that plays out when it doesn't. So there's a wide range of outcomes just from the quarterbacks alone. In seeing kind of how stacked the rest of these rosters are, you know that if one of these quarterbacks hits a streak of pretty it doesn't have great pretty good play the rest of the roster of healthy is going to take whichever team that ends up being you know all the way maybe even to the top seat but certainly you know to win the division and get some pretty favorable matches in playoffs yeah

and that's why my micha parsons take overall was kind of like well welcome to the superstar party green bay packers the detroit minnesota have been here and i don't think chicago at this moment has anyone i mean jalen johnson maybe would be put in that category but i mean I mean, like, megastar, Jefferson, Hutchinson, like, that is Tamir Gibbs, totally next level type of top 10 players. Multiple players that have competed for either offensive or defensive player of the year in each of those three teams. Like, I like Jalen Johnson a lot. He's really good, but that's not the category. He's in, that's not yet.

Right. And, yeah, and that's another part of why they have to prove it. Plus, their camp seemed kind of insane. So here's what I did, Reef. I put together 10 questions for 2025, the biggest 10 questions for the Minnesota Vikings 2025. But the thing is, there's no way we have enough time to get through 10 questions. So what I want you to do is I want you to decide, I'm going to read you the question and you could play or pass. You can either take the question or you can say, you know what, go on to the

next one and we'll get something else going. So let's start with this. the biggest question, I think, is pretty obvious, which is how far can J.J. McCarthy take the Minnesota Vikings. Do you want to play with that, or you want to go to the next question? It'd be so funny to pass on this one. I don't know that I would reasonably project him to take the Vikings all the way to the Super Bowl. But, like, I think that, you know, everything kind of falls the right way. He has, like, a C.J. Sprout type season with this, I mean, because that Texans roster,

you know, Stride's rookie year was, like, very good. With this roster, if he has a season like that, that to me is a team contending to make the championship round, right? Contending to win the conference. Again, that's the high-level, you know, 95th percentile outcome. I don't want to say that that's the best. But we're asking how far can he take this Vikings team, one that has one of the best players at offensive tackle,

the best player at wide receiver, a very good receiving group, and possibly, again, another top. three, maybe top one defense. I mean, how far can you take a team like that? Pretty far. So I think that kind of at the maximal level, yeah, that's a team that has the ability to contend all the way for the NFC championship. So I came up with an answer to this question midway through the, you know, June or something

as we're kicking around all sorts of random different stuff of, well, how good would J.J. McCarthy have to be this year to get to the outcome that we're talking about? And I can never say win the Super Bowl because, look, this franchise has had so many great teams that just, you know, we'll see if they get to that, you know, range. But if you reach the divisional round, I think that's a pretty darn successful season. That means you're one step away from the NFC championship. Everybody gets A grades at that point if you can reach the divisional round and then let, you know, football Jesus take the wheel from there. But when it comes to McCarthy, the answer I came up with is he has to be the 11th best quarterback in the league. with this team, with this group of weapons, because when I envision the 11th best quarterback,

I see someone who is good enough to get a lot done, good enough to be a playmaker, good enough to make all the throws, but is not going to be Lamar Jackson, where just by having Lamar Jackson puts you within striking range of the Super Bowl every single year, or Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, I see it as he has to be that second tier type of quarterback, because I think if it's beyond that, then I'm not sure he'll be able to do everything they need him to do to be great within this offense with Jefferson and Maximize Addison and Hawkinson and all those weapons. So that's kind of been my answer. Where would where would you put it? Like how good he has to be. I love it. It is so specific. But I like that. It is. It puts him in kind of

that range. In my opinion, just below Justin Herbert, but I am way higher on him than most people. But, like, the Matthew, healthy Matthew Stafford, you know, the way some people rank Jordan Love, puts him in that range, like, below Justin Herbert, maybe below Jalen Hertz. But in the kind of Matthew Stafford, there's not like a ton of quarterbacks that kind of occupy this area. Maybe Jared Goff, actually, you know, this area where it's like, yeah, no, this is, that's a quarterback that can take you really far. You're not going to, you know, look at that team and say, that guy's drive. the wins, but he might get a couple of fourth quarter comebacks. And so, you know, you understand that he's a critical component with their success. I think that, yeah, I would, like, if I were to pick

a rank, probably I would have picked something like 12 or 13, and that's not meaningfully different than what you chose. So yeah, yeah, I like that answer. I did come up with it somewhat analytically. I went through the playoffs last year with three different catch-all statistics, PFF grade, ESPN's QBR, and then quarterback rating. And I took the averages of all of the those and then put it together to come up with 11th. And that's, that's why. So the average quarterback that made the playoffs was 11th by all those metrics jammed into a pot. If he's an average playoff quarterback, they've got just as good of a chance as pretty much anyone. So

the next question is how will J.J. McCarthy be viewed when 2025 is over. Would you like to play on that one? No, pass. Okay. That sounds good. How will Kevin O'Connell handle J.J. McCarthy. Kid gloves or all-in? Oh, man. He's an all-in kind of guy, I think. I think that part of the reason that he wanted a bridge quarterback in the first place before he was kind of forced into it is because he wants quarterbacks to take on a significant role within the offense, you know, changing plays at the line, calling protection, stuff like that. But also, like, he puts a lot cognitively on quarterbacks, which is like crazy, considering his, like, most famous, like, quarterback coaching success. is Joshua Dobbs story where he didn't have the ability to put anything on that guy. This is not me calling Joshua Dobbs dumb. But like you understand, like he just showed up that day. He was a, he was an astronaut. I do think that the Sam Darnold story superseded the Josh Jobs, you know.

But like, but yeah, like I think that you take a look at like the way, for example, like Kirk Cousins talked about the offense when he first came in and he was like, yeah, I have to break the way that I go through. progressions because I have to, you know, change my timing and hold on to that first read for a little bit longer because that first read is going to be an explosive play. And you're just kind of understanding that because the offense kind of hunts for explosives, which for some reason, I feel like that's not the reputation it has, which I don't know, they led the league in explosive plays. Right. Right. But they hunt for explosives. And that's obviously tough to do.

If it was easy, a ton of teams would do it. It's really difficult. It's much more convenient to, like, be a Shanahan McVeigh-style coordinator and just press the easy button a million times a game. And, you know, that produces some very efficient and effective offenses. It's won in Super Bowl. It's got to, like, three or four of them, right? But I think that the way this offense works, the way that Kevin O'Connell, you know, conceives of offensive football, it requires the quarterback to be aware of where those explosives might be, to be aware of how to change plays, to understand that, like, the protections

are on them in ways that are just, like, not true. I think he's just not wired to do the kind of the Madden controller thing. But a lot of the other Shanahan style offensive coordinators seem to enjoy it. So what I would like to see from him is a little bit from bucket A and a little bit from bucket B. You don't have to be Matthew Stafford, 2021, throwing for 5,100 yards and leading the NFL and interceptions and pushing it down the field and throwing to Cooper Cup 750 million times. you don't have to throw 700 passes if you're J.J. McCarthy, but I also don't think you have to dink and dunk and only use play action and treat him with kid gloves. And I keep going back to,

I think we talk about McCarthy this way sometimes like let him manage the game. And I've done this as well, like me, you know, let him play Alex Smith. And I think they'll be in the playoffs. And I think that that's true. And that's not even an insult because Alex Smith won a bleep ton of games in his career and was a few plays away from reaching a Super Bowl early in his career with a great team. So if he does that, I'm not going to be against it. But I think that there is a, there is a no when to push the gas pedal down, depending on the looks that you're getting, the game situation, and also reading how J.J. McCarthy looks. And this is where I think he actually did miss the boat a little bit with Josh Dobbs, which was Dobbs looked confident in the first

couple of games, well, other than the crazy game, but then he looked pretty confident against New Orleans. And then it was starting to get a little shaky and opposing team started to figure some things out. And then it was really shaky against Chicago. And he just kept being like, pass more. I think that's the way to do it in that game. And that one really sticks in my brain because I thought, this is the one you have to treat Josh Dobbs like he's a backup quarterback. And you're still pushing it. And that happened with Nick Mullins at times as well. And so if you do that with J.J. McCarthy, and you could even, you could even make this case for the playoff game and week 18, too. It was just like, we're throwing with Sam Darnold like he is,

you know, Justin Herbert or something. And he just wasn't in those circumstances. And there wasn't like a switch that they could flip. And I think they built the roster this offseason to have a switch. Do you want to push it or pull it, whatever you do with a switch, uh, or not? Would you like, because for me, even, anything that you do with a switch to turn it on. When it clap, clap on, clap off.

Jordan Mason, right? Like how that's what I would like to see from him. I think this is going to take a lot more feel to deal with a quarterback of this lack of experience. Because there might be some days where it's great and it's all working. And there might be other days where it's not, but you have answers for that. Yeah.

No, I think that that's the appropriate, you know, approach here. I just don't know if Kevin O'Connell is wired that way, which, like, you know, anytime, like, you take a coach as well respected to Kevin O'Connell with the history of results that he has, and you're like, I don't know that he coaches this particular aspect the right way. You do have to take a step back and be like, am I wrong here? That guy knows way more about coaching. But I think that that's fair, right? Like, I think we can both say he's an outstanding, this ordinary coach, especially in the offensive side of the ball. And, hey, this is probably an area where maybe he has to do a little bit more about the way that he approaches young quarterbacks or quarterbacks were struggling with quarterbacks who don't really have the full range of tools that you expect a starting quarterback to have. And I think that, you know, for a young player in his first year's starter, you do want to

just at some times be like, hey, look, we're not going to get an explosive. They're running like quarters the whole game. And they're trying to like tricky with the way the safeties are aligned. And we just have to get a couple of yards here. We'll run the ball a bit. We'll, you know, throw some slants, you know, we've got some really fast receivers, so one of those slants might turn into an explosive, but we'll let the explosives find us instead of the other way around. And that would probably be an appropriate approach in some of the games. It would have been a great approach in some of these Sam Donald games. Even, even like the Jacksonville Jaguars game, that would have been outstanding, right? Because Jacksonville didn't do anything that they were

doing on film earlier, and Donald just collapsed, right? And so just, you know, just letting the game kind of come to you a little bit would have been appropriate and it would have been kind of a nice way to, you know, keep this guy's confidence up, which was, it turns out, in shorter supply than we had hoped. So, right. Yeah. Yeah, I think that you're right. I just, I don't think without, you know, a little bit further evidence that that's, is going to be how he approaches it. Well, and there have been plenty of coaches who have been this way. I have kind of comped him, Kevin O'Connell to Bruce Ariens, where it's a lot of the no risk and no biscuit, no biscuit. I'm all about the QB and I'm just going to put it on you and go figure it out, kid, which could result in some. really, I mean, that's what it was with Donald, some really spectacular moments and then some very head scratching ones, but the ultimate results were fantastic overall. And so I think that O'Connell, there's got to be a part of him that if he hears this conversation, he would be like,

I don't know, guys, I won 14 games last year. I'm 31 and 11 with my starting quarterback. But J.J. McCarthy is a new guy. It's a new season. And I think you have to handle each one of those situations individually. And also, I mean, even Darnold's struggle with the number of pre-stamp motions. At one point, Justin Jefferson went to O'Connell and said, dude, let me just win my matchup. It'll be fine. Like, you don't have to motion me every single time.

You don't have to put that much on Sam. So there might be a little bit of, like, let me play with the new toy. But the point on McCarthy was, it's a five-star recruit. It's a first-round draft pick. It's, he's been through an entire year of seeing the NFL from the inside and learning the NFL, I don't think that it has to be treated like a 20-year-old for Michigan. Like, it's just been a long time since the world has seen J.J. McCarthy. He's a lot different than he was when he walked off the field in December 2020,

as a national champion. Let me move on to the next question. And once again, you can play or you can pass. What will the target distribution look like for the Vikings weapons? You want that one? No. Okay. What does the backfield look like?

Is it 1A or 1B for the Vikings backfield? I think, I mean, I think that you'll get like 60% of the running back touches given to Aaron Jones. I almost a Delvin put there, given to Aaron Jones. And then Jordan Mason is going to take up like another 30%. And then you're just going to have like random like, hey, wow, C.J. Hamm is healthy back on the team. Let's get McCarrie, right? Or whatever, right? Like you'll, you'll let Xavier, Scott, I don't know, but you'll end up with a couple of others,

you know, assuming that everyone's healthy. But it seems like the Vikings really like this drive-by-drive approach as opposed to kind of a situational approach. Like, you know, if you handle this situationally, you would, you know, have Aaron Jones handle it, you know, between the 20s, and then once you got into the red zone, Jordan Mason will take some more roles, maybe on some third downs you've had Jordan Mason in there to pass protect or Xavier Scott to catch. But, you know, they tend to seem to like drive-by-drive.

And so you have these running backs that, depending on how long these drives are, can radically change in the touch distribution from game to game to game. But I think by the end of the year, it's going to be 60, 65%. And then Jordan Mason is going to come in once every three drives or so and handle the load there. But, you know, it's ultimately a good thing because Aaron Jones, in low touch situations, is remarkably efficient. He's a very good running back. But you just can't rely on him to be kind of an every day. down every carry guy, like, you know, the running backs that we, we had become used to for longer than most of the rest of the NFL because that Adrian Giersson and Delvin Cook.

So I just, I don't know that that's going to be the possibility. Well, I think they could mix in Moweldi Moore, maybe Rock Thomas. Mike Boone could be tossed. Oh, I love Mike Boone. Mike Asiata could, or Matt Oscea. Yeah, Matt Oscea. There was a Mike Osceada, though. So let's move forward from that.

Here's what I think could happen. I think that ideally you're right that they would want Aaron Jones to get a little bit more because he's more dynamic that he can be a weapon out of the backfield and not just a swing pass guy, not just a screen guy, but legitimately go down the field. We saw multiple big explosive plays to Aaron Jones downfield during camp, including in the joint practices where, you know, the other team's really trying and like, wow, he can really do this uh at the same time jordan mason is younger and he's violent and i would like to see them have some tendency breakers when it comes to this i would like to see them actually occasionally run on second

down and not just always have that be a play action yeah how bad it has to be for two eggheads to be like you got to run on second down right more right like it's it's the analytically right thing to do to not run on second down because you don't want third down but every once in a while you have to do it or the other team will know exactly what you're doing and they'll send all of their pressures. I would like to see a mix of those two subbing in and out of the backfield circumstantially as well. As you mentioned, I mean, I don't want to see Aaron Jones pounding into 300 pound dudes flying over the line of scrimmage on third and one. I want to see Jordan Mason back there. And I also want to see some swing passes to him. I want to see him part of the passing game

because that's not something that will be expected. I could see it being closer to a little bit of a 50-50 because I also think Mason's going to have some games where you just can't take him out because he is that big, that violent. If he's running over another team, it might be a little bit of a McKinnon and Latavius Murray type of thing to stick with random where it was like, all right, there we go. It's working. It's working for you today. You're the guy. It's working for you today. You're the guy. I like that. I like the McKinn and Murray kind of, especially because that one just kind of emerged because Adrian Peterson wasn't available. Right. But, and Delvin, well, Delvin, right? Delvin got hurt. That was how that one.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was Asiata and McKinnon. Yeah. Right. And there was no hot hand that that year. The following year was cooked, right. But yeah, no, I think that that makes a fair amount of sense. Again, that is what I'd prefer. I just, I don't see it. Again, I'd love to be proven wrong. I think it does make sense to kind of do the drive-by-drive stuff because there is a lot of, like, you know what's happening you know are we feeling kind of the the way that these blocks are developing can we establish a sense of timing so these offensive line the running backs can be in sync you know we've got guys that can catch the ball even though they're bigger guys at jordan mason we've got guys that can run between the tackles even though they're smaller like erin jones right like i understand

like why you would do it and also what benefits that provides especially because like you know having a running back in there doesn't give you a tell but i think that's just a problem to be solved You can manage that. You bring someone in on third and one that typically likes to run up the middle, or is very good at least running up the middle that does it do up really well for a play action, which is like, who doesn't love play action more on third and one than Kevin O'Connell, right? So, like, you know, that's, I think you get to access some things by producing tendencies that you can break. And I think that a little bit more circumstantial play, a little bit more scenario-specific play

would be good for the Vikings. But I kind of understand, like, why they tend to avoid it. Okay. The last question you can't pass on it. It's, I think the most pressing question for the Minnesota Vikings organization that is not what is J.J. McCarthy for the future. I mean, that's the number one thing we're all finding out. Is he good enough to take you there? What's he going to be for this franchise? Number two for biggest questions is can Kevin O'Connell winning the playoffs? And it is a really long way from here. It's a long journey to get to the postseason. And yet, When you get hired to do the thing that your predecessor wasn't doing, which is to get you into the playoffs, get playoff wins, and you get two bites at the apple and you get out-coached in both of those games, including one huge disappointment at home.

And then you win 14 games. You win coach of the year. Everyone says that you're the quarterback whisperer, and they talk about you as an elite coach, kind of has to happen. And it's a weird timeline to be on because it's a first year quarterback, but it's a veteran team that's ready for this. And I think it's a coach that's ready for this.

We've seen a lot of coaches who are new and young and they have great success in the regular season. It happened to McVeigh in his first year. They had the number one offense and then they went and was it, who did they lose to? Was it Atlanta maybe that they lost to in that first year? Whoever it was that it would make sense it was Atlanta, because I remember Atlanta taking the Packers out, right?

Like that, which is nuts now that I think about it. Yeah, I don't remember the playoff bracket. it for that year. But the point just being that McVeigh struggled early, LaFleur still hasn't really had much success in the playoffs himself. And not to make any apologies for that, but it's sort of typical. Andy Reid would get criticized early in his career for having great regular season teams and not getting over the hump. I think once you get your second contract as a head coach, any excuse is off the table.

It's not, oh, Kirk can't come up with the big play because he was checking down because he can't run and Ezra Cleveland got beat and all that sort of stuff. Like the excuses are off the table. Oh, well, you didn't have a good enough interior line. So they got their faces punched in in Glendale, Arizona. I, you just, that's not the case anymore. They've invested on every single level of this team like crazy. It is time to get it done in the players.

Yeah. And the thing is that like it is, it is like an unfair league, right? Like, it is, I'm not going to say it's worse, but it is kind of a little bit of a curse to keep on producing these teams that overperform, right? Like, I don't think anyone would expect it to fight because we had 14 games last year. Or I think even make the playoffs, like, Sam Donald, are you kidding me? And it's a credit to O'Connell that they even got to the playoffs. But, you know, you do it every year and then you don't make, you know, you don't create a

playoff win or anything like that. Like, Marvin Lewis is always going to be remembered for not winning playoff games, constantly making the playoffs and not winning playoff games. And no one really thinks of Marvin Lewis as this, like, really great around outstanding coach, even though he coached some of, you know, the better teams that we've seen, especially given the constraints, you know, the ownership give the Bengals, right? And so I think that that's just kind of the way that you end up getting remembered. I mean, even Zimmer's remembered as a playoff loser. He has playoff wins. He has multiple playoff wins, right? And he's remembered kind of

as a playoff loser, right? And so that's just kind of the nature of taking on this job is that you get evaluated by unfair, somewhat unfair circumstances. And so I think that, yeah, that's going to be kind of the primary question. It doesn't even have to be this year, but if he doesn't win this year, it kind of produces, you know, our expectation for next year, where the talking points will all be. Can he win in the playoffs? Can he get it done? And, you know, the way people talk about it is sometimes funny, right? Because Lamar Jackson wasn't winning in the playoffs, you know, the first two years in the league. People are like, well, I'm not talking about it now, But next year, people are going to be asking if you can win in it.

It's like, well, by doing that, you are saying it. Like, you are just, you know, asking if you can win in the playoffs, but you're just removing yourself from criticism, very, very brave of you. And I think that's what's going to happen here is I think that you're right. Like, at some point people are going to be like, all of these excuses, man. Like, if you're building up these expectations of your ability to beat these other teams and you don't beat those other teams, then you're not, you're not as good as people claim that you are. And you take a look at some of these, like, you know, big moments in these games, like,

okay, yeah, Kirk Cousins checked it down on, like, fourth and 15 or whatever it was. And there was pressure on the play. And it's like, well, what were you doing for the other 58 minutes of the game? Right. Against the Giants, right? That you needed that fourth and 15. I think it's fair to, like, maybe it's unfair to point to a specific moment, but it's fair to point to this whole game and just be like, hey, you got caved in by the lions multiple times.

Right. There has to be a solution. And if there's not a solution, then we'll find someone else. Because against all odds, despite this being kind of some of the worst draft that we've ever seen, these are amazing rosters. And you're not getting it done. So that wouldn't happen this year. It wouldn't happen next year. But it would start creating kind of these concerns.

And Andy Reid himself would say it was probably a good thing that he left Philadelphia. Again, it sounded like the resignation slash firing was mutual, whatever. he himself said it was like a good thing and it kind of reset and allowed him to be you know the coach that he was which ended up winning a number of Super Bowls you know it's interesting because you mentioned us as you know analytical nerds and that kind of thing demanding more second down runs and i i feel a little bit the same way because when you try to pin it down with the playoffs it's very hard to come up with anything more than well usually the best team wins who has the best record and if they don't probably some random stuff happened and

playoffs everyone like enjoy it uh so how can you judge a coach based on that when the larger sample is this guy winning all the time and yet that's life that's that's football it matters the most where you finish and when you're playing the best teams and toughest games and it's great to win against chicago and soldier field because some coaches couldn't do that in viking's history but what where it's really going to matter is where you'll ultimately be judged. Sorry, that's unfair. It's like, it's unfair that a boxing match, they can only fight once and not in a seven game series, but that's life.

They put the belt on the guy who's still standing. And that's kind of the same way it is in the playoffs. Before you go, Arif, give me one, just one of your offseason takes. Nobody believes in you with this take, but this is your take and you're riding it through 2025. okay i think i wasn't prepared for this so i didn't know this was but it's still another question yeah no i know there was going to be questions yeah no i figured it out i think my hottest take is that Trevor lawrence will legitimately be a good quarterback who's going to put together a season

that people will respect i like it's the take which i think is it's fair but it's also i think it feels hot for a lot of people no that's okay yeah i think that's a fair take i mean he's got some better coaching definitely a better offensive system than with Doug Peterson more modern at least with Liam Cohen. And I think that was in my bold predictions that I wrote in June and never think about again till I pulled them out in December and look how silly I was. But I think I had something similar to like they've got, you know, a great receiver. They've added another receiver very high in the draft. I assume he's going to play a lot of receiver. So maybe we see this magical version that hasn't been there before.

But even historically, quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence have at least one year where they kind of break out of being just okay, right? And no one can explain it. And then the next year it's gone. But that's what it is. So, okay, I like it. You have picked the, the Jaguars to be something.

I was thinking, put it like that, man. When I said hot, everyone's mind went to, what's a reef going to say about the Jags? That's what everybody said. Yeah, the biggest market he, in the NFL. I could not have picked the more explosive team to talk about. Can't wait until we go back again.

Arif Hassan wide left dot football is the site over on substand. Go sign up. It is a great, great football writing. You've added to your team there as well. So you got stuff coming out all the time. And I can't wait to see what you have to say about this 2025 season. So thank you so much for your time, my dog. Yeah, man. That's that's all me.

put enough dog ones in there. No, you didn't. You didn't. It was rough. Goodbye. I'm doing. Bye. I'm done. Peace. Harifasan there on the show. One of my good friends and does great stuff. Wide left out football. Great football writing there. If you want to check it out, I during that conversation did have a chance to take the dog

outside. So we're all good from that perspective as well. And if you guys, don't forget, make sure you answer the fan dual. question of the day, which is, what is your favorite game? It is week one, folks. It has arrived. The lead up, the build up to actual football is here. I want to know your favorite matchup for me. It's Buffalo and Baltimore. The bills are one and a half point favorite on Fanduel. And that's the one Sunday night football. I'm flying out Monday to Chicago. So that means all of Sunday, plaster myself to the couch, get to watch every single game. And then Sunday night football actually was going to probably go live after the day of games and then watch Sunday night football while chatting with you about the day of games on Sunday.

And then, of course, we've got Thursday. Did I see there's a Friday game? What the NFL taking over every single day of our lives? And college football was kind of doing the same thing. There was Thursday, Friday, and then Bill Belichick's tar heels are playing tonight. So your favorite matchup of week one, the one that's got your interest, or maybe even just most intriguing, I'm interested to hear as our fan duel question of the day. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what Areef had to say. Texans and Rams is a good nomination, I think.

Texans defense, Rams offense. And I was looking today, somebody asked for my predictions, right? Like, I have any chance of ever getting anything right when it comes to the Super Bowl. championship, whatever. And when I got to the NFC, I was like, Philly, no, the ramp, no, Washington, I mean, so wide open in the NFC, so wide open in the NFC north. The AFC feels like it's a little more decided, but once we think that we've got everything resolved in the NFL, it proves to us that we very much do not.

But I like that game. I like Houston versus the Los Angeles Rams. phenomenal defenses that one playoff games last year by beating the heck out of the other team's offensive line. And I think we're probably some of the inspiration for the Minnesota Vikings to handle their offseason the way that they did. But I did want to, you know, circle back to a ref and I's conversation about Kevin O'Connell in two different areas. One is where he pushes down on the aggressiveness and where he backs off of the gas pedal. with J.J. McCarthy, I don't know what the answer is going to be. A reef was pretty confident that

it's going to be aggressiveness. I think that at the beginning of the season, we might see a little bit more of Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason and a little bit more of the play action bootleg game and a little more of the underneath stuff to stay on the field and keep long drives going. because as much as Kevin O'Connell hunts explosives, as Areef was talking about, with everything there's a give and take, if you are a team in the NBA that does nothing but shoot threes, and that's your big thing we shoot threes all the time, well, you end up like that Houston Rockets team that missed 27 threes and ended up losing in the Western Conference final because of that, right? Sometimes that happens where you could go super hot or cold. And I felt like

that was the Vikings offense a lot of times last year, where it was hot or cold. If they got turnovers in the games, which we have to remember, they got a ton of turnovers, ton of sacks last year. But, you know, they would take advantage of it and they would hit big plays, a 97 yard touchdown, you know, explosive plays left and right, long passing, all that stuff. But then you would get into other times. And I'll give you an example, the Thursday night game that they lost to the Rams. I felt like they just didn't stay on the field.

and then they got worn out as the game went along. Their offense and defense or their defense got worn out as the game and then went on. And the offense wasn't consistent enough to wear out the Rams defense. Of course, the Rams got to face mask in the game and not give the Vikings a final chance to, you know, go win that game. But as it played out, there were too many three and outs. And through the whole season, I felt that way. And even when you look at their scoring percentage, so how many drives you got versus how often you scored. It wasn't as high as their actual scoring was, which to me would say that they

were getting a lot of, you know, big plays. So, and they were having to also sometimes, you know, punt and they turned the ball over a bit and they were getting sacked too much. I think there's some of that with J.J. McCarthy that you can take away the extremes. The, hey, it's not working. You're going three and out, three and out, three and out. But also, maybe even if you end up punting, you're having an eight play drive where you've got the ball for three or four minutes and then, all right, well, it didn't work out or you kicked a field goal. That was the extreme of that is the 2015 Vikings where it felt like they just wanted to settle for a field goal every single time.

And they didn't want to have any sort of, you know, turnover or anything else. They played so safe and they ran so much. That's never going to be Kevin O'Connell. And that was the 2019 Vikings in a lot of ways, too, where it was playoff. action shots down the field, but otherwise, run Delvin Cook all the time, don't turn the ball over. And you can win a lot of football games just by doing that. Like, that's Alex Smith, Kansas City. That's Pittsburgh over the last few years. I think that if you take the, all right, not like all of the all in, but some of it. And you take some of the downfield passing, the play

action downfield passing and then take some of it from what chaos he's never been which is more of a grounded pound type of coach and just a little bit from you know you bring it in from one area bring it up from another area get the sliders closer together if you you used to play the old men's i don't know if they have this anymore where you'd set your sliders for your win your run pass ratio for your offense and with you know connell it's not so much about the ratio from last year, but really the, like, explosives versus possession, explosives way up, possession down, and it kind of works like that, right? So I think that they do need to stay on the field for longer drives, and they do need to work

both Mason and Aaron Jones, and they need to work Hawkinson underneath and hit the occasional shot down the field, but it plays more to McCarthy strengths, I think, to have a good intermediate passing game. Clearly, downfield passing is successful. If you can hit shots down the field, if you get a 20-yard play, your chances of scoring go way up. That's obvious, right? Everybody with a brain would know that that if you get explosive plays, you have a better chance. But also, I think if you get to the fourth quarter and the other teams had the ball for 10 more minutes than you, it's pretty tough. It is pretty tough for your defense. And as the season went along, I thought the Vikings defense did get worn down last year.

And they were not the same version, even though they didn't have major injuries. They were not the same version in the middle, late part of the season as they were early in the year. So I think that, you know, with McCarthy, he can throw the ball down the field. He can hit deeper shots. But I don't think that some of those throws that are 25 yards where you have to put it up over a linebacker and right in front of a safety, I don't think that's really the throw for him. So if they do play more of a possession game, that's going to, I think, play to

his strengths. That's how he came up in the game with Michigan. And I'm not saying he'll be Michigan-style J.J. McCarthy that only throws a handful of passes. It's just that a slightly safer approach is not a bad idea to then start to find out. Like, what, what do you really have with J.J. McCarthy? How comfortable is he really with throws X, Y, and Z? But I don't, I don't know that's that's how it works in my head but i don't know how kevin o'connell wants it to work o'connell might be like i drafted this guy in the first round and we are throwing the dang football and here we go and we'll run when we're ahead and maybe that's how he's going to approach it that will be very very interesting to find that out so that is what i got for you tonight again if you're

rewatching this fan dual question of the day make sure you jump in the comments your favorite game from week one that's not the Vikings and the Bears, the one that has your interest. Tomorrow night, Jeremiah Searles and Tuesday morning left guard will return for its fifth season of former Viking Jeremiah Searle on the show and what is shaping up to maybe be our most fascinating season. I hope that it is. So we will talk to you all tomorrow night. Thanks for joining.

Thanks for the great questions and comments. we will see y'all then our first day out at tcel performance center by the way wednesday is when we will hear from kevin o'connell j j mccarthy and we'll have a breakdown of that on the show and then guests and Courtney cronan will be here and it's going to be great man it's going to be great lots of good football talk tonight and we will see you tomorrow football