Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What could convince us that Jim Harbaugh is a good idea? And a mock Harbaugh press conference?

Episode Date: February 2, 2022

Matthew Coller and Jeremiah Sirles get together to talk about Jim Harbaugh visiting the Minnesota Vikings and the likelihood that he becomes the next head coach. How can we break this down without being hot take artists? Why Jeremiah thinks it will work and what the path is toward it working. Whether Harbaugh would want Kirk Cousins and Jeremiah pretends to be Harbaugh for a mock press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, along with Jeremiah Searles for, of course course kind of Tuesday morning left guard on Wednesday and you know Jeremiah as we record this anything is possible as Kevin Garnett once said at the moment we are recording this we are on full-on Jim Harbaugh watch so here's the way I want to do this is let's talk about if it happens or if it doesn't happen because that's the only way to cover all of our bases and also just based on history as soon as i publish this something will happen 100 the second we close this out the second we say all right guys see you next time i'm gonna get a little pop-up ding on my phone from espn that's like vikings have either a concluded

interview or b gotten the interview done and welcome to the harbaugh era of minnesota viking football as we stand at this moment it's actually just become super funny like john u bacon when you texted me last week yes that someone named john u bacon was reporting that jim harbaugh was a head coaching candidate for the vikings i was like yeah and uh reggie hamburger also is saying it. I'm like, what are you, who the hell are you talking about? You're right.

I mean, what? And then, and now John U Bacon, who is an actual writer, has become the leader in reporting here. And he's been giving percentage chances it happens. And now he's got it at 80-20 as we stand. I mean, this has already become dramatic and he's not even here yet it's exactly what we wanted it's exactly what everyone in minnesota

land wanted like if you could swing the pendulum from mike zimmer all the way over to jim harbaugh like everyone's like yeah do it we're so tired of what happened over there for like bringing it on but there's always that one. Be careful what you wish for. Now, I think Jim Harbaugh is an excellent football coach. He did some amazing things in the NFL too. But you talk about a character who is just all ball all the time. That is Jim Harbaugh. I mean, I've heard stories from guys that played with him in college, guys that played with him in the NFL. Like, I don't know if you could find a more like he rubs his hands together a lot. He just kind of sits at the mic and like he's just so wound

like so differently than anybody else that I've ever heard of I want to have a beer with Jim Harbaugh I think that would be just an incredible time he is uh remarkably intense which I think burns people out um you know I think that the thing that i might be a little hesitant on with jim harbaugh aside from the things with the gm from san francisco which are hard to parse out because it's like who's it's sort of like spielman versus zimmer where it's like whose fault was it really oh both of you yeah it was probably that way in san francisco was it trent bulky was it jim harbaugh? Yes, it was. And Mr. Bacon is reporting that Jed York, who owns the 49ers, has not spoken highly of Jim Harbaugh since.

And then there's also reports that some people who are minority owners, which apparently the Vikings have minority owners, didn't know that before, that there's some trepidation there along with Jim Harbaugh. So that's kind of like where we stand. But I think that when you're talking about all the pros and cons, the biggest pro is the zap of energy that immediately comes into your organization. I think that there's other cons that we haven't really fleshed out because it's mostly been about him and Trent Bulkey and whether he's going to take over the team from Kwesi Adafo Mensah. And then all of a sudden you've just got like it's Harbaugh land and everything

else is just that he's just been out of it for a little while. And I wonder about that as well. So maybe you could just give me your, your full Harbaugh take on whether this is a good idea. You know, I think it is a good idea and here's why here's why you know you we we our last podcast we talked about about quasi being the analytics guy right like full he's big analytics big into numbers i know everyone's like well don't brand him that but he's a finance guy that's that's kind of his background right i'm not branding was that but that is a big background to his you need someone to balance that out a little bit with a guy that's had a ton of actual real football experience,

both at the college level when it comes to getting and drafting guys out of college into the NFL, but also at the NFL level, which he's handled a lot of different things in the NFL when he was with the Niners, right? I mean, three NFC championships, a Super Bowl appearance. I mean, that's kind of what you want from a guy who's been there where you want to go. And so I think that the two of those guys could work really well together. I really do. Now, I also could be absolutely plutonic and could just blow up everything, but I think that those two guys are the two that really have to mesh.

I think in these interviews, when those two guys are talking, it's so much about the chemistry of what those two guys can create. And I think that if they can create a – like you came out and said, there's a coach that I can work hard for, there's a coach that I can work with. And I think that if that's really the case between these two, then they could build something really special here, especially with the pieces that are already here. You look at what he did in San Francisco, what he's done in Michigan,

how he's still an identity of a physical run-the-ball guy, but he's also adapted and he's changed, right? He saw a square peg round hole when he got to Michigan, how he's still an identity of a physical run the ball guy, but he's also adapted and he's changed, right? He saw a square peg round hole when he got to Michigan and he changed the whole thing. And look, they were at the CFP playoffs this year. And I know it's different. I know it's apples and oranges, colleges to NFL, but the bones are still there. And he has the experience. It's not like he's a first time college coach coming to the NFL. He's not Urban Meyer. He's not Matt Rule, right? He's done both and he's been successful at both. So I think he would come in and be a great compliment to what you said and you nailed it on the first part. X's and O's aside, the energy that he would bring to the city

of Minneapolis would be insane. And half of that is winning over the fan base and he'd win them over in his first press conference with, man, we're going to, we're just going to be physical. We're going to run the ball. Like he just he just, he, he's a football guy. Minnesota's full of football people. And so not only would be great for the offense and for the organization, but he'd great for the city. Like a lot of pieces fit really well here in my mind. I think that there's a lot of different things that happen in sports where you can be skeptical,

but also see a world where it works really well. I mean, and that's where Harbaugh falls for me is see a world where it works really well. I mean, and that's where Harbaugh falls for me is like, I'll give you an example. When the Vikings traded Stefan Diggs, I was very skeptical. They could find another good wide receiver like that. Stefan Diggs is an incredibly hard person to replace. And so my take when that happened was good luck to you. And they were one draft pick away, one Eagles draft pick away from ending up with Jalen Rager instead of Justin Jefferson. And the same thing goes for the Rams. I was skeptical about the Rams and bringing in Matthew Stafford and having that be the sort of be all end all.

And they are 10 points down in the fourth quarter, but they end up overcoming that and getting to the Superbowl. So I feel the same way here. Like there's a world to me where Harbaugh comes in and either tries to fix cousins or doesn't pick the right quarterback. And then everybody starts blaming each other. And this thing just goes nuclear, like you said, but there's also a world where Harbaugh picks the right quarterback in the draft or find some secret sauce with cousins. I don't see it, but let's say he's like, I'm team Sam Howell. And then they're like, okay. And so they, they just give Harbaugh the keys to build everything around Sam Howell. And then all of a sudden you're the Bengals or something, and you've just built everything around your quarterback and you have success.

And I guess that's, what's hard about it is because my Twitter feed is 99 just flaming takes one way or the other don't do this you'll ruin the whole franchise or if you don't do this you'll ruin the whole franchise and I kind of like um like the Andre the giant uh meme if you've seen that where he's sort of like trying to hold off everybody yeah that's kind of how I feel the last couple days yeah that's completely right. He's a very polarizing figure, not just for his football, but just because of who he is. But I do think that the pros outweigh the cons with him

in this world that we're in right now. Like you said, the off the field stuff is maybe stuff we're not even privy to and all that stuff could make a decision in this. But at the same time, I feel like with the hire of the GM and the younger guy as the GM, you need that older kind of – like I talked about in the last podcast. You need kind of that guy that's been around the block a few times at the helm of the team.

I'm not saying that he's not going to have final say, but you give him a lot of power in building this roster the way he wants to do it. And if Jim comes in there and he lays out his five-year, seven-year plan of what this thing can look like, and you can actually see it, right? You can visually see, okay, here's what we're going to do down the road with players, with drafting, and this is our philosophy, and all that aligns with his view too. It would be a really good thing. Now, the one thing he's going to have to be really careful of

is the NFL is a little bit different even though when he was last in it. It's a different world now. It's not the same world as when Cap and him were running crazy back in 2013, 2014. And they're like, it is different now. The kids are different. The players are different. It's a little – and so he has to be – but I think that with him being in college,

he's seen that difference already. He's seen the difference in just the players in the college level. So he is a little bit more well-versed in a younger football team and how to get the best out of his younger players because he's not far removed from that at the college level, which you're kind of seeing these younger coaches have a lot of success because they can connect with the younger players versus the old heads. And know jim's an old head but he's been with the young guys and so i think that again it makes a lot of sense to me why he would want to get back into the

nfl the other piece that's been very interesting to me is why has michigan been so quiet right i mean if i'm michigan i'm like hello jim um hello we just went to the college football playoff like why are you leaving us we were gonna but then again they'd be like oh'd be like, oh, you were going to fire me last year, right? Like, you gave me a pay cut. Like, F you guys, I'm out. And so I just think that there's a lot of things where if he really wanted to stay in Michigan, he could have silenced all this so quick. I think he really wants this job.

I think he really wants back into the NFL in a big way to prove that he can do it again. Yeah, and that's what someone told me the other day, is that it was really not a matter of Harbaugh wanting the Vikings. It was a matter of the Vikings wanting Harbaugh. And you certainly, if he wants you, you have to fly him in and you have to have that conversation and see where everybody stands, especially since Kwesi and Harbaugh have history with the same organization. I don't know how much to connect that exactly.

I think it's a bit of a stretch. A football researcher with the head coach of the team, I don't know how much to connect that exactly. I think it's a bit of a stretch, a football researcher with the head coach of the team. I don't know how much they're crossing paths because I know I heard that from other people of like, well, he was there. He must have known how it was going on. Like, ah, I don't know. That's yeah. I mean, that might be like saying the special team or on the practice squad knows what the quarterback is dealing with. But, you know, it is an interesting pairing with those two because of how intense Harbaugh is and how much you know that he's going to want control. And something that stuck with me, and I don't mean roster control,

and I want to get into that a little bit. Something that stuck with me was, coincidentally, Jim Rome said about Jim Harbaugh that like, even though he has all this success, no one seems unhappy to see him leave. And that's with the Michigan thing where it's like, are they trying desperately to keep him by offering him, uh, you know, as much as it costs to build the big house? It doesn't seem like that's really the case. They're like, okay, national signing day.

You're going for an interview. All right. We're not, we're not going to bend into whatever demand. That's a little bit weird to me that they're not doing that with the fact that they just had success, which means potentially tired of Jim Harbaugh. But I actually think this may be a hot take. You tell me if they hire Jim Harbaugh, they should give him roster control. I think they should let him decide because otherwise he's just going to end up with it anyway, or trying to get it or being problematic with complaints that he has against the person who has it. I think it's

a much better idea to say you have it because what that, what that usually comes down to is the 52nd and 53rd guy on the roster that you end up with a bunch of complaints about or which veterans to sign, but you're going to fight over that anyway you might as well just let him take it if you're going to bring in Harbaugh you have to go full Harbaugh you can't go half Harbaugh I've always said that and I think that if you do you make it very public that that is the true like right be if I'm crazy I'm going hey here's what we're doing we're bringing Jim Harbaugh he's gonna help have a control over final roster cuts over and just make it very public so that way it's kind of like you give the guy enough rope that he can hang himself with it or he can just kind of swing around, right?

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. I'll be really interested to, if this does happen, did they back the Brinks truck up to Harbaugh or was Harbaugh really wanting them and willing to kind of do the team friendly, as we say, deal? I don't think that he's going to take, I mean, not bad money. He's going to take good money, but that'll be really interesting to you to see how much he's asking for versus how much we're willing to pay, especially a guy coming from college into the NFL. Now we've seen rule and

urban make a ton of money coming from college into the NFL, but again, little different situation. I like the idea of go full Harbaugh and let's see if it can work in today's football era. Right. And I think it can. And I think those two, I, I keep coming back to this, but I just think those two can be completely just lighten it on fire or just oil and water.

And I, no one's going to know until it actually happens, right? That's the hard thing. And that's where I think the polarizing piece comes, but you definitely go full Harbaugh and you just, you give him as much slack as he wants. You let him do it the way he wants,

but you've got to just make sure you just kind of need to be bumpers for him. Right. If you're playing bowler bowling, you just have bumpers up and that's, that's where crazy behavior bumpers, keep them inside the lines, right? Hey,

don't go to full galaxy brain. As we like to say on this show, keep it between the lines, but stick to your formula and let's make this thing work. Now. I want to talk about the other people that potentially by the time you're listening to this, the Vikings will have passed up on or will have chosen. Not really sure. But something that I was fiddling around with, one of the hardest things to do when you're trying

to form an opinion is just to gather information because there's just so much like there's, okay, what worked in the past? What didn't work in the past? When you're trying to talk about drafting quarterbacks, when you yell Peyton Manning, they yelled Jamarcus Russell. And then you just stare at each other. Like, yeah, I guess either one of those things could happen. It's sort of the same way. Cause here you could yell Rex Ryan and someone else could yell Pete Carroll.

Like Pete Carroll was somewhat successful in the NFL in his first stint. And then went to college to USC, had great success there, maybe by buying SUVs for all the players possibly, but then goes to Seattle. And what happened? Everyone was like, come on, Pete Carroll, you kidding me? That guy. And then he gets the right quarterback. They build the roster around a great defense.

And all of a sudden that team is a Superbowl team. But in Buffalo, I was there when they hired Rex Ryan and it was the same stuff. around a great defense and all of a sudden that team is a super bowl team but in buffalo i was there when they hired rex ryan and it was it was the same stuff it was rex took the jets with mark sanchez imagine what he can do with us and then he did nothing with them i mean he was a seven and nine eight and a type of coach and that's why it's so hard to figure out because a lot of the low-key hires of people we never heard of. I remember being like, oh, come on, Titans. You're seriously hiring Mike Vrabel.

Like, get out. I mean, the same thing. I still don't know who the Eagles head coach is. Like a lot of times these understated hires can often be a good hire. And Sean McDermott is a good example of that in buffalo where it was like did did the townspeople hold a parade like no for sean mcdermott probably no one even knew who he was so there's a with patrick graham raheem morris kevin o'connell there's a part of me that says sometimes the guy that you never heard of the fact that he's even here tells you something

and it might be a good choice even though it does not energize the fan base the same way a flashy hire does yeah you're absolutely right and with those young guys though you become you have to then as quasi take more control of everything else when you hire a young i think the key is hiring a young coach and not trying to throw too much at him and saying like hey especially first-time head coaches, right? Like, hey, here's control of the game. Here's control of practice. But like, we're going to collaborate on everything else.

And a lot of that will depend on how much Quazy wants to do. How much control does he actually want to have? I mean, he hasn't publicly come out and said, I will do this. I will do that with control. But I think a lot of it, those are probably why there's a nine-hour interview the other day talking about how the relationship besides the x's and o's will work how he views the internal workings of his office and if that's the case i love the fact that he's having those conversations which i would hope that every gm would have with hiring a head coach because then

you set the standard from the word go versus oh we'll figure it out like we'll figure cut day we'll figure out who's going to have the final say of those last five spots. No, you lay it all out there. And so if you do go with O'Connell or you do go with those other couple guys, I think you as the GM are saying, I'm taking way more ownership and control of this roster versus you go with Harbaugh. You're saying, okay, I can take a little bit more of a step back, maybe try and get my house in order, my front office house in order a little bit more so that we can be ready

for veteran free agency and going through with all that stuff versus the true roster control stuff of the last minute cut downs or who we're bringing in for workouts and all those things of letting him have a little bit more control. But it's just going to depend what what quasi wants i mean it can be it can be as bad as it was down in the texans when oh gosh what was his name uh head coach jack used to be oh you mean uh david cully no no no the one that got fired and now bill o'brien yeah i mean it versus it can go bill o'brien status where the dude just has monopoly control over the entire organization and has a gun to everyone's head right i think that's every gm's nightmare And when you give so much control to the head coach that he basically is the GM, which he was down there, but you know, that can get a really out of control too. So it's gotta be a good mix in that.

But I think when you come with the young coaches, you're right. It brings, it brings excitement. It brings new stuff to the roster. It might be a little unnerving, right? Oh, I don't know if this is going to work. I think when you go with the Harbaugh side of it, you're really betting that in two years we could be contenders, right? Yeah. And that's exactly what I was going to ask you about because I've sort of bucketed the different candidates into, if you hire Patrick

Graham, who I think is 45, Raheem Morris is 43, and Kevin O'Connell is a little younger than that. So these guys, and all of them are relatively new. Raheem Morris had a and Kevin O'Connell's a little younger than that so these guys and all of them are relatively new Raheem Morris had a three-year stint with the Bucks as a head coach and has been assistant head coach two of these guys have been assistant head coaches so that's some good experience there but I've kind of bucketed into if it's Harbaugh the timeline is you better be like right there next year and trending toward you could win a super bowl the year after that whereas with the other candidates you could see more of a long-term approach like we use the analogy of like driving through ohio to get out to la um i don't know that it necessarily has to be that way but i i also feel like there's no way it can't, right? Like, do you agree with that?

I mean, there's just no way you could tell Harbaugh, look, come on in. And what we're going to do is take the long approach. We got to slowly rebuild this team through the draft. We're going to move out some veteran players. Like if you tell Jim Harbaugh, we're going to move out Harrison Smith, which there's a really good argument to do.

Is he going to be okay with that? If you tell that, but if you tell that to Patrick Graham, who's a more of an analytical type of guy, does he say, or even Raheem Morris, who's in LA, where they moved out some of their expensive defensive backs and brought in other people, what's the reaction? I mean, these are the things that they have to go through in the meetings, but it just doesn't seem logical to me that Harbaugh would be like, oh yeah, I mean, we can move on from Daniil Hunter if you need to. Like what? Like that's not, that's not what he's going to want. That is where maybe of all the things that you could be concerned about, that would be probably at the top of my

list is that I've been looking at this from crazy standpoint of there will be tough decisions to be made. And suddenly it's like, you can't really make any of those tough decisions if you bring in Harbaugh. Whereas maybe with the other guys you could. No, I think you're absolutely right. I think if you hire Harbaugh, you understand, hey, we need to win in two or three years. We need to be in NFC championships in the next two or three years. And even if that's not the conversation they have, it will be the wilson all them understand that that the optics of this hire whether they believe it or not will be if it's jim harbaugh it's time to win now and i think

jim will come in and say okay well here's what i want to do here's my vision but again it goes back to our previous it depends how much keys the car quasi wants to hand over there right i mean if he says hey here's what we're doing here's the guys that we have to have conversations about are you open to that and he says yes then that he's already said the president can say yes but again it's just you could say yes then you give him 51 and then he's like i lied right that could absolutely happen 100 but i i think that with the younger guys the rebuild is the real thing but as we as we've talked about if you look at some of these other teams that are getting new head coaches they are so much farther away talent wise than the vikings are they just really are i mean you go through the vikings roster i know we did this on the offensive side it's so much better than the giants it's it's so much better than the texans it's so

much better than all these teams that fired their head coaches that i feel like that's why the hardball conversation is even happening right it's it's even happening because they see that and they see that there's still opportunity to win without just scorch earthing the whole thing and that for me is one of the only reason that really makes sense for Jim Harbaugh to come in right now what do you think that Jim Harbaugh will think about Kirk Cousins? I think Jim Harbaugh wants a mobile quarterback. I really do. I mean, if you look at the history of he had,

and I don't mean like Lamar Jackson mobile. I mean, like even the dude he has now in Michigan, he likes to mix in McCarthy who could run a little bit more and do that piece of it. I think it's McCarron, McCower, whatever his name is, the starting quarterback for Michigan right now. He's even running around a little bit. I think he's smart enough to look around and go, okay, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, these dudes can move.

They can run. I think he's going to want to get that type of guy in to run the type of offense that he's going to want to get that type of guy in to run the type of offense that he's going to want to run. The RPOs, the CJ Hamm probably won't have a home here anymore, which is extremely upsetting for me. But, you know, I just think that he's going to want to get a quarterback to be able to implement his system.

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And you should check it out. Just go to HelloFresh.com slash Insider16 and use the code Insider16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts that's hellofresh.com insider 16 for up to 16 meals free and three free gifts again hellofresh.com uh i i don't know man like uh harbaugh one of the one of the fights that they had was over the fullback no i was going to question the CJ Hamm part. I thought you said Kirk. I was like, really? Defending Kirk, Matthew?

No, not necessarily that, but the CJ Hamm, because that was one of the reported back and forths with Trent Bulkey was over the fullback, but always team fullback on this show. Always. I do think it's a great weapon. I think if you're overusing it, you're a fool, but if you're not using it, you might be foolish too. On the matter of Kirk, I tend to agree with you when Jim Harbaugh played in the NFL himself, he would run around. He was one of the running

quarterbacks of the day, which, you know, old I am. Yes. But like, but that's what he did. I mean, he was running around, he was making plays and making that switch from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick. And Smith wasn't a bad athlete either, but Kaepernick was a true running quarterback. And that element that you have there, he also coached Andrew Luck. So I don't know. That was more of a pocket quarterback, but with some mobility. Luck would run. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He definitely had mobility and athleticism, definitely, for sure. I think that it's got to be more attractive to him to just be able to pick that guy my question for you would be would you say to harbaugh look dude we have analytics up the rear that say this this this this this about these quarterbacks or would you say we will analytics the hell out of everything else except this this is your call you go uh run to the senior bowl right now fly right down to the senior bowl start watching carson strong and all these other guys that are down there uh whatever their name who is it uh kenny pickett is it riddler is the

guy's name from cincinnati so you got you know these guys in the draft you go down there you start watching them and you pick a guy and we'll go with that guy. Matt Corral. Matt Corral. That is who I would want if I'm Jim Harbaugh. I think the way that he runs the offense and the big bodied, he can throw the ball really well. I think he fits a Jim Harbaugh offense really well. I also think that where the Vikings pick, he'd probably still be there. You know, I think some of these other guys, unless you're going to sell the farm and trade up, which we don't really have a lot to sell i think that he's the kind of guy that could still be around at that point but i think that you you're right he says hey if jim gets his job hey go marry yourself to a quarterback right intertwine

yourself with this guy much like zimmer and cousins did right they intertwine their own fates but hey if we can draft guy high like Matt Corral and then, and then, and then crazy goes, but Kirk kind of has to stick around for a year or else we're all really screwed money wise, right? That makes sense. And then you have the Patrick Mahomes kind of Allah plan where he sits for a year, he learns, and maybe he gets in if Kirk's got backup issues or whatever it might be, let him sit for a year, look what it's like in the NFL, learn the Harbaugh system, learn the NFL way, and then you implement them year two. You seem to see guys have a little bit more success in that realm versus just throwing them to the fire like Justin Fields this year. Herbert's the same example.

He got thrown in because Taylor got hurt, but he didn't start right away, which then you can kind of shake a guy. I think that's the plan I would go with if I'm Jimim harbaugh i go draft my quarterback in the first round i stick with kirk this year because we kind of cap hell and dead money if we can't offload him type of thing and then we plan for year two being okay your guy now jim you now get to make this bed and lay in it so if they trade kirk at this moment they only have to take on 10 million of dead cap and it is 35 million goes to the other team which they may have to do some finagling well only in comparison to what you make right now they're 13 million over the cap so you get yourself with a little bit of space rework some contracts sign some people and i also like the idea of a bridge quarterback whether it's

gardner minshu or i really like the idea of of Marcus Mariota, because then you can draft someone who's similar to him, create a system for both of them. Like, are you listening, Jim? There's a plan here that that's the thing that when it comes to liking or not liking the move, it's like, I am only seeing 5% of what we need to know to know whether you're going to like it or not. And that makes for really interesting conversation, but it doesn't make it easy to come up with a definitive take because the path that you just laid out, I mean, that seems like it would be great. Like Harbaugh picks his guy, you get a bridge quarterback in, they start building it together. They signed some veteran players that are more of like the five-year deal as opposed to the one-year deal.

So these are guys you can build with. Like that all sounds like a path. And I think that's the clear thing that if they hire Harbaugh or have already hired Harbaugh, as you listen to this, that we want to hear that I'm going to be really listening for in the first press conference. Because Kwezi Adolfo Mensah's, his press conference was so much about his background that Adolfo Mensah really, you know, wasn't asked about what he thinks of the roster,

which is okay because he's a very unique guy. And, you know, we'll talk about that with him at the combine and stuff, but like, that's where I don't have any feel of what he thinks. And maybe we can get more of a feel of what Harbaugh thinks, or at least in short order, we'll start seeing moves that tell us what they think. And then we'll know much better. Is this the right way to go or not? Yeah. And I think that goes, that goes

for whoever they hire, right? I mean, I think that that goes for when you're listening to this, if Harbaugh or one of XZ candidates are that's gonna be the number one question on everyone's minds is okay who has control over what what do you think of what we have what do you what's the number one target in the on the wall and free agency what's the number one target on the wall in the draft like those are all questions that come with new regimes regardless of who's the head coach and I think with Kwesi not addressing that in his first press conference as much is because he's kind of waiting to see who the head coach is so they can kind of be united front together on that.

I mean, nothing could be worse than him coming out and saying, here's what I think of this and that and the other thing. Higher head coach in the first press conference, the other coach is like, well, you know, I like this over that. And that's just starting off with a nightmare. So I think it was a pretty calculated move by him to not touch on a lot of that stuff until he had all his pieces in place on the coaching staff. And then they can come as a united front, sit there together with the purple in hand

and the Gatorades on the wall and say, here's what we believe. Here's what we think. And starting this off very much as we're all on the same page. We're all in this together, regardless of Harbaugh or connell whoever they all just united start there from the beginning okay let's uh do a little thing here i want you to pretend you are jim harbaugh giving your first press conference okay so i'll be a reporter guy this would be very hard for me be regular reporter guy sitting there um uh excuse me jim uh you're taking over a team with uh that that's law i wish people could see what you're doing right now that's uh been sub 500 the last couple of years uh what is your plan to get this franchise back to prominence well you know i

really think it starts i think it starts with the offense right okay i'll stop the bit i i'm if i'm if i'm i'm going hey you know it really starts with the offense. Okay, I'll stop the bit. If I'm going, hey, you know, it really starts with the offense. This is an offensive league. This is a league where you need to score points. This is a league where you need to throw up big numbers in order to win football games. And so we're going to start on the offense. We're going to address the offensive line. I've come from places that have had very good offensive lines.

Michigan just won the offensive line of the year award in college football. In San Francisco, we had amazing offensive lines and it led to success. So we're going to address the offensive line first, get that taken care of. And then the next thing we're going to have to figure out what to do with the quarterback position. We love Kirk, but you know, this is a business decisions, money, all that's going to come into it. We'll see what we can find in the draft. And then you flip to the other side of what our defensive has. We're going to have to, pieces are going to be leaving, pieces are going to be coming in, but I think we're going to come into it we'll see what we can find in the draft and then you flip to the other side of what our defensive has we're going to have to pieces are going to be leaving pieces are going to be coming in but i think we're going to hire a really good defensive coordinator make sure you can come in mirror the image of quasi and i here and make sure that we just continue to move this thing forward i see the vikings being able to go and compete here not just in two years but i see

us having a shot at doing some really good things next year but in two three years i expect us to be going to Super Bowls. Folks, we've got an even better offer to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, one word, you can get 15% off your purchase. That's right. At SodaStick.com, your place for Minnesota sports-inspired apparel. You can get 15% off just by using the code purple insider i've told you about all the great football designs but they've added a few more including the axe is back for

minnesota football fans you can get that on a shirt on a hat and also randy moss is the goat the purple people eaters bud grant designs for the old school fan plus the hockey and basketball teams are both actually exciting this year and soda stick has you covered there as well go to soda stick that.com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com and use the code purple insider for 15 off uh wait are those khakis you're wearing right now? Um, so, so Jim, uh, what, what do you make of reports that, uh, you haven't gotten along with people in some of your previous locations, whether it be at Michigan or, uh, San Francisco with Trent Balky and some of the reports that even Jed York has been trying to keep you from getting a head coaching job.

You know, I understand I can be tough to work with. I'm an intense guy. I love football. Football's in my DNA. It's one of those things that if we're not winning, I'm not happy and nobody's happy. And, you know, I think that's kind of how it is in certain places. And that's just the ultimate competitor in me,

playing football, coaching football at the highest level. And I think it's something I need to work on, but it's something that Quaze and I have addressed in our 12-, 13-hour interview. And we're all on the same page here. I think that I've learned, I've grown from having to go back to college and now I'm excited to be back in the NFL, very thankful for Michigan, but you know, the NFL is where I belong. It's where I love. It's where I can really see us having a ton of success. So who gets Jim the power if you and Quasey disagree? Do you win out because you have the experience? I think the two of us are going to work hand in hand in that. I

think that he's going to be a guy that I rely a lot on in building this roster, but also I do have a ton of experience in the NFL. We would have worked together back in San Francisco, in case you guys forgot. But I think that we'll be able to work really well together and lean on each other here. But I think that he trusts me to make a lot of decisions with the roster and what we want to build this football team around, just like I'm going to trust him with the cap space and being able to handle bringing the right kind of guys in here

that fit our vision. So I think it's going to be a really good hand-in-hand relationship here. Man, you are good at this. You're solid. I'm built. I'm built. Yeah. That's right.

For somebody who didn't get a lot of interviews, except for maybe me walking over and needing an explanation on some offensive line stuff. That's pretty good. I, if, if Jim Harbaugh gives that press conference, that will be the most excited Vikings fans are since what head into Philadelphia

in 2017 or maybe maybe the day that Cousins is signed I think there was a lot of good one yeah I think I think probably excitement level of when Cousins got signed after the hoopla of the Cousins sweepstakes the Vikings won it right I think and everyone saw the writing on the wall that this could be the one final move so yeah I think that's probably a good excitement point. All right. Well, we'll see what happens is if as soon as I publish this, then it happens or doesn't. We'll find out. But let's do some love to see it. Hate to see it. I love to see it. A Super Bowl that I didn't expect to happen. Right. I do. I do. I don't like that every year.

I think that if you get the two best teams that go to the Superbowl, that's great. Like it was last year, Kansas city and Tampa Bay. I want eight out of 10 in a decade to be the best teams in the league during the regular season. But if some random crazy stuff happens once or twice a decade, and the Bengals end up facing the Rams, two teams that were what four seeds, You love to see it. You love to see a mix up. And I also think that it makes everybody else go, Hey, if we're the four seat, we could do this just like the Bengals and Rams. So it sort of adds that extra as you're struggling in the regular season. Like if we can only get hot, like the Bengals or something, that element to it. I love

this matchup. I love to see the fact that this might be the best postseason that I've ever watched. I mean, I think that the postseason football games between the divisional and the conference championship round have just been absolutely edge of your seat, hanging on every type of play type of games. And that's what makes the NFL king. I think I saw it was like 49 million viewers average for both games.

Like that is wild. So I love to see that quick other. Love to see it. That Jackson and Brittany Mahomes can sit their happy asses at home and get off Tik TOK. Cause they are my least favorite people of all time. Just throwing that out there. Not a hater,

not a hater at all. They deserve everything they get. Wow. Yeah. I don't know much about his wife, but Jackson Mahomes, just brutal, just brutal. She's no better.

The world where we create these random celebrity people who aren't celebrities for any reason. This person made four second videos of themselves doing stupid crap, and now they have 10 million followers and they're a billionaire. You're like. Because their cousin of their friend plays in the NFL. Every once in a while, flip to the music video channel. MTV actually has another channel that does the music videos. And I'll be like, who's this person? My wife would be like, oh, that was a TikTok star.

I'm like, oh, that's why she can't sing. Right? Like, this is really bad. I know I'm old. Stop. Hate to see it. Washington. Commanders.

I mean, people are pointing this out that it's like, what? Go commies. Is that how you. I wanted to be the admirals. I thought the admirals would have been a good football name. Washington admirals. I mean, it's just better than commanders. Commanders.

So my friend sent me. My friend works in the nhl where they have some pretty bad names but he sent like the ones that were on their slack channel uh muskrats octopi werewolves bats i went with wombats uh all of those are better octopi would have been better than commanders and then they put out uniforms that look like they're straight out of the xfl and you're like what happened here what was the problem with washington football team i really want to know i know what the problem with the other one was what's the problem with washington football team i thought it sounded cool i thought it sounded kind of like a um like a soccer club like an old soccer club

their uniforms actually looks pretty cool like what is the issue here why did you have to go commanders and people will say this oh you'll get used to them that is not true i have never got used to what the tampa bay bucks did with their uniforms and there's a lot of teams that i'll never get used to this This stinks. This is bad. Yeah, and my hate to see it's going to have to be the GM of the Miami Dolphins offering $100,000, allegedly, to the owner, excuse me, the owner offering $100,000 to Brian Flores for each game he throws. That's just, you can't do that. And, I mean, especially if this is true i mean if this

isn't true whatever but i that's a pretty bold allegation to to throw out there if you don't have proof behind it but that's just that's just a bad look for for the entire nfl for the organization for that's just not a good optics to have and man that's just that's just gross what i said is you should have just hired urban Meyer. You don't have to pay him anything extra. He'll lose for you. He'll lose every day. You got to find someone not under the bill Belichick tree to do that.

That's the thing. You hired somebody who's too good. And then you should have never given him Ryan Fitzpatrick. Cause we know this, the Fitz magic is real. He will win you six to six to eight games. 100 would you do that that's bad dude that is bad funniest part to me is that steven ross was right he like joe burrow was the top pick he was right should have tanked should have been worse oh man that is i hate to see and just you know look the whole thing uh it's very flores thing is not great.

Right. I feel bad for him because now we know what happens next to his career. And we've seen that with Colin Kaepernick and it's gross. And, uh, also there are so many black coaching candidates that are as qualified or more qualified who have not gotten their opportunities. This goes back forever.

And then he gets fired and David Cully gets fired after one year with Houston where they actually played pretty good football. And they're like, to what, hire Josh McCown? What the hell is wrong with you people? But, I mean, we're talking about owners who are owners. And it's, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's ever going to be a perfect solution. But, man, I mean, what a bad situation.

And Brian Flores is pretty much just sacrificing his career here to make a point, which sucks for him. Why should anyone have to do that just to get a fair interview with the New York Giants? I agree. I agree. And I think he's a hell of a coach. I mean, I can't believe Miami let him go.

I mean, it makes sense now. They're winning too many football games. But, I mean, what he was able to do for them, and I talked to my partner, Zach Zenner, and the agency played for him and was like, dude, he was nails when I was down there. He was only down there for like nine days, but he was like, it was great to play for him.

He was detail-oriented. And so it's hard for me to believe that he's not going to be able to get a head coaching job, and it just sucks that this is what has to happen. But it's kind of the world we live in at the moment which is an idea which is an ideal but hopefully it all gets on the track eventually i wish there was a different route for him to make this point and not have to you know basically have his career go down the drain because now who's who's going to hire him after this has happened so um yeah that that's that, that's just not, that's just not great anyway. Well,

love to see it. The Superbowl is going to happen next week. So we'll get together before then. That's just typical football, right? Like, oh man, the worst thing in the world happened that the league did,

but the Superbowl is on the way. And I always feel uncomfortable about all that. But anyway, thank you for your time. Tremendous press conference. You won the press conference. Thank you. Great job.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we will talk next week to preview Super Bowl and talk about a new head coach. Absolutely. Football. Football.