Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What do we want to see from JJ McCarthy in 2025? And picking the schedule

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Brian Murphy and Manny Hill about what they are most interested to find out about the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hey, everybody, welcome to a very special Purple Insider Roundtable. Matthew Collar here with you, as always, and joining me, former Pioneer Press columnist and contributor to the Purple Insider newsletter, Brian Murphy, and former colleague of mine of 1,500 ESPN, Mani Hill, fellas, we are back. We did some of these roundtables after the season. season, breaking down all of the wreckage and previewing the off season. And you know what? We had a lot of fun.

So I wanted to do them again. And this is kind of Monday morning, Murph now, but only it's going to be in the evening during the live stream. So welcome gentlemen. And the theme of tonight, which you can play along in the comment section, as well as ask your questions as well, the theme of this evening is what can't we wait to see from the 2025 Minnesota Vikings and the NFL season, as it is just getting kicked off as we are live here. So let me start right out with Brian. Welcome to the 2025 Minnesota Vikings season.

Here's what I want to know for you guys to just start the discussion. Obviously, the answer is J.J. McCarthy and then everything else with finding out. But what is it specifically, Merv, that you want to find out about J.J. McCarthy? Not just, is he, good. That's going to take a long time to figure out. But Monday night, Chicago Bears, what do you want to find out? I want to find out how he's going to react when he gets hit the first time, maybe an unblocked edge rusher or maybe a linebacker he didn't see coming or a blind side hit. I want to see if he has a three and out, whether it's the first series or the next series or both series, how he responds. Heaven forbid, there's a pick in the first,

possession because Twitter may melt down. I want to see how he handles adversity. I want to see how he handles being in the Big Boy League, because as much as he may have done this preseason that he was robbed from last year, nobody's hitting in practice. Nobody's really going at the speed, the noise, the intensity. Look, he played big games at Michigan. He played in front of 100,000 people. He won a national championship game. There might even be a bigger audience than what they're going to have Monday night or at least similarly. So he can handle big moments. I want to know how he's going to handle getting knocked to the turf by an NFL lineman. I want to know how he's going to handle, again, a dropped pass, something going wrong, a play not coming in on time, something he has

to work off script on. You know, when these guys are uncomfortable, when they're challenged, you know, any locker room, you know, it's the NFL is a hard business. When you're winning, it feels great. When you're losing, it's miserable. I want to see how he handles it. adversity because if you can't handle adversity in the NFL, no matter what position, what your record is, what your job is, it's coming. You don't know when or how, but you know it's coming. So I'd like to see how he kind of rides with that. How about you, Manning? What do you want to see? I want to see if he can get off to a fast start. You know, I think, you know, historically we've seen Kevin O'Connell's at times, you know, I think particularly during

the Kirk Cousins era, where we would see the Vikings, you know, take that opening possession and maybe go down the field and get a touchdown, get off to a pretty good start. And to kind of piggyback off of Merv's point, you know, how does he handle adversity? You know, can he get off to a good start that will allow him to get into a rhythm with the offense? You know, he hasn't played in a real meaningful football game since that national championship game against Washington. It's been a couple of preseason games over the last two years. So I'm looking to see, you know, how much rust there actually is from real, you know, serious game action. And can he, you know, shake that rust early on and get off to a really good start?

And I think if he can, if they take that opening possession and go down, even if they just get a field goal, you know, I think that will really kind of get the juices flowing with him. He can settle in, get comfortable with the offense. And, you know, we'll see how things go after that. But I'm looking for him to get off to a good start and see how he can kind of settle in and how quickly he's able to do that. I think for me it's kind of a two part. It's not just how J.J. McCarthy plays exactly, but how it feels with him as the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. And I know that's a little bit on the nebulous side. But does it feel like the operation is working as fluently as it looked at the end of training camp, which means that he looks like. he is in total control of the offense and okay if there's an incompletion on first down all right back at it second down now he's targeting hockinson he's targeting jefferson okay something bad

happens it's third and long just every play in and play out acting like as you said murf that nothing is shaking him up nothing looks too big for him or over his head or he's not looking around and his teammates for answers on plays or as the the game plays out sort of understanding the situational stuff, which I think is one of the reasons you draft J.J. McCarthy is because he was good at that stuff in college. When they talk about someone being a winner, it's not that you have some sort of magical aura around you. It's usually because you're calm under pressure, but also usually you're completely in control. And I remember Kevin O'Connell saying something like this about toughness and the way it's defined in the NFL is usually

just like do guys get hit and not get injured or something, but I think his definition was, can you have a bad play and then get right back to it? Can it be play after play after play after play? Because I think the defenses hate quarterbacks like that. They hate quarterbacks who never get rattled are always in control, that get the play in, that are up at the line of scrimmage with 15 seconds left to go in the play clock because they've gotten the play call in. And those are little tiny details, and we'd much rather have Josh Allen throwing the ball 75 yards down the field for a touchdown or something. But in reality, when you're out there running 70 plays of offense, how efficient you are at running that operation often determines how the game ends up

going. Well, and it's, again, it's more, and how are his teammates going to react to him as well. I mean, they're all, they've all said, you know, look, we're going to do everything we can. We're going to bend over backwards to make them feel comfortable. We like, you know, the quotes you hear out of camp. It's always about how he takes command. There's a collective sense of everybody wants him to succeed. Obviously, it's in everyone's self-interest. I mean, if you're a high-priced free agent or a defensive star, you want your quarterback to succeed.

You obviously want your job to become easier. So seeing how his teammates kind of react to him and how his night's going, look, they're playing the Chicago Bears. They have their own issues to deal with with a new, new head coach, second year quarterback, is he? Is he not the one? High expectations there. So the mood swings in that stadium could be interesting on a Monday night, first game,

where there's so much brand new for both teams. So how are they going? How are each team's units, each team's head coaches? It's also Ben Johnson's first game as a head coach. So how's he going to handle sort of the caldron of having to manage the entire. higher sideline. I know that took out a lot of guardrail, but I'm, there's so much to, it's, it does start with McCarthy, but there's so much to unpack Monday night with both clubs that are going to have long range implications for the division as well, which I'm sure

we'll get into. But it's, it's interesting. There's been, you know, we just haven't had the hype for a quarterback, at least in my lifetime here. You know, there was a lot of hype for Dante Culpepper, but he didn't get hurt right away. So he had a good rookie year. year. They made the NFC championship game, or maybe it was his second year, but when he was the first year as a starter. This, we've had 18 months of buildup. So it's really, really going to be, I just would caution people not to overreact in the Arch Manning realm, where, you know, first series, first quarter, this guy's not going to amount to anything. I mean, the catastrophizing that was online last week, I'm dreading Vikings fans going down that rabbit hole. If it

doesn't look good Monday night. Murph, I can promise you that there is no stop in that train from going off the tracks if it doesn't look good right away. But, man, you know, I don't remember a time where we've had an opener where both teams felt as much pressure as these two teams, even if it was a division opener, you're like, well, you're going to face them later on in the season and it's not great to lose or whatever for whichever team or it's great to win, but, you know, that doesn't define your season. and this feels like a major momentum builder for both teams.

And how about this one? I want your answer on this one, Manning, because we're talking about the handling of J.J. McCarthy as well. The over under on Fanduel right now for past attempts for McCarthy is 31.5. Do you think that it is good or bad if he's throwing over 30 passes in this game? Well, I guess it kind of depends on how the game plays out because in theory, I guess you would think if he's throwing the ball 31 times or more, it might be possible that they're behind and that they're trying to come back.

But that could also mean that it's just a tight game. And Kevin O'Connell wants J.J. McCarthy to make plays with his arm and throw the ball down the field. I mean, Kevin O'Connell is a quarterback himself. He likes to throw the football. So I don't know, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing if McCarthy's throwing the ball that much. if we look at the box score at the end of the game and he's thrown 25 passes, that might also be a good thing too because it means that they got off to a good start, got off to a big lead,

and we're able to really kind of control the game the rest of the way, lean on the running game to kind of run the clock out a little bit. So, you know, I think it just kind of depends on how that game plays out. If McCarthy's throwing the ball 50 times, that likely means that they were down, you know, 28 to 10 in the fourth quarter. And he's just, you know, he's getting a lot of numbers in garbage time like we saw with another former quarterback here many times.

Won't mention his name anymore. But, yeah, I think it's really just going to depend on how the game plays out because we do know that this head coach does like to throw the ball a lot. And, you know, it's very possible that this game is a tightly contested game because it's a road game. Now, you know, I think the Vikings are the better team and that they should win this game. but it's a road game. It's Chicago. The bears are no slouch. They're very talented with a talented young quarterback. So we could be looking up at the fourth quarter of this game and it's one possession game or tied. And that's going to be a situation where J.J. McCarthy, I think it's going to be relied on to throw the ball quite a bit. From a, I mean, 31, 31 attempts don't bother

me. How many completions are there? Is he, is he 12 for 31 or is he 26 for 31? And when are those passes thrown? Fourth quarter or first half? Well, I think that the attempt numbers do tell a story, though, because as Manny said, I mean, if you're behind, then it's not great to be throwing more than 30 passes or if they're winning and they're throwing over 30 passes. That's a great thing for this team. That means that Kevin O'Connell is leaning into McCarthy right away and saying, I don't care if you are in your first season as a starter, like go after it and beat the Chicago Bears with your arm and we will help you with the run game. And that's the way that he's done it before.

That's the way that he did it ultimately with Sam Darnold was the run game's going to support you, but Darnold, you got to win it with your arm. And I think that is going to be Kevin O'Connell's philosophy. If he throws 16 passes and goes, you know, maybe 12 for 16 and they win, I don't know, 17, 13 or something, that will also tell a story that there is a lack of trust there and that he wants to slowly ramp up. I tend to lean with Kevin O'Connell a lot more toward that he's going to push the chips toward the middle of the table and then get ahead and start running Jordan Mason a lot more

after that. Now, when it comes to the bigger picture of J.J. McCarthy 2025, what is your answer to that? Because we're looking at Monday and we're saying, what's it going to look like and what are we going to take away? What can't we wait to see? but for the bigger picture of J.J. McCarthy, Murph, what do you want to understand about him as this season goes along? 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 overlooking some of the best candidates.

It's tough. But what is not tough is using ZipRecruiter for your hiring needs. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates for you and fast. And right now you could try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. It's just so easy that you have to try it. You can use their smart technology that finds great candidates for you, or you can use the invite to apply button that allows you to reach out to your favorite candidates. There's a lot of ways that you can make ZipRecruiter, your best recruiting tool.

Ditch the other hiring sites, let ZipRecruiter find what your looking for that needle in a haystack, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate within the first day. So try it for free at this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com slash audio. Again, that is ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Well, I want to understand that he, again, he could bounce back from a tough start. If it doesn't go as well as they had hoped, and maybe they do win 13 to 12. on a late field goal, and he is 11 for 15 with two picks. I don't think that's catastrophizing.

I think you make some adjustments. Maybe you slow play it a little bit. I like the idea of McCarthy or O'Connell, if he recognizes early in this game, you know, we may have something with JJ right now. Let's step on the gas and not play it conservatively because we might be able to walk out of here or backpedal out of here with a 17-13 win.

Let's go for the jugular early because that's kind of the team we want to be. That's going to be, you know, that's going to be the fun dynamic to watch how much slack does O'Connell give McCarthy during a game, during a drive, during the critical drive, during a red zone possession, during a fourth quarter drive, then when he's playing from behind early in the season, a division, you know, how is he going to set McCarthy up the best for success? because, you know, this is also a team that is that spent, that is designed and probably expects to win 11 or 12 games coming off of last season. I'm curious, though, if the fan base, the locker room, the front office, the coaching staff would be disappointed with a 9 and 8 finish with ostensibly a rookie quarterback. We kind of talked about that last year. The expectations for the Vikings might be a little bit higher as a club than they are from a

And is that okay? Can you have dueling expectations? Can you develop and protect your quarterback while going and win 11 and 12 games in the toughest division in the NFL and have success in January, which, oh, by the way, KOC is on the clock for. So a lot of competing interests. But really, if McCarthy isn't supported and feeling confident and playing well, I don't think anything else matters. It's all going to crumble because it's not just about this year. It's about the future and it's about the money you've invested on the other side of that ball. If he's a guy that's only going to get you nine wins and that doesn't get you win, how do we evaluate that season if he's still developing? I think that's a great question,

Murph. And I think, Mandy, that that would be a pretty big disappointment. I mean, if they win nine and it's a crazy division and it's nine, 10 with the Packers and 11 with the Lions and the Vikings get in the playoffs and they've got just as good of a chance as anyone, okay, well, that's going to be interpret it differently. But if you go nine and eight and then you go to Philly and get blasted or something in the first round, I don't think that's what anybody signed up for. And, you know, the number one team in cash spending this year, this off season, the Wilf ownership spent more cash than anybody else. I don't think they did that to win nine games and just be okay. I think they did that to get similar results to last year. And the reality is they're not

playing the AFC South of this year like they did last year. You know, the schedule is tougher. They've got, you know, they've got the AFC North. You got Joe Burrow that you're going to have to go up against. You've got Lamar Jackson, you know, I don't, I'm not expecting much out of Aaron Rogers this year with the Steelers, but that's still a really good defensive team that might give you some trouble, especially with a young quarterback. And so you still have the teams in your division that have all, in theory. I mean, certainly Detroit is Detroit.

The Packers, I think, have gotten significant. better by adding Micah Parsons to that already really good defense. And the Bears, you know, weren't a very good team last year, but the belief is that with their young talent, that they're going to be a better football team, a tougher team to beat than they were a year ago. So the schedule is going to be tougher. And, you know, so 14 and three is, I don't think a 14 and 3 is very likely to repeat itself this year. So you're going to have to find ways to win the games that you're supposed to win. And, you know, you just see where the chips may lay at the end of the day.

Like you said, if they finish 9 and 8 and they make the playoffs great, but if they finish 9 and 8 because they lost a game, you know, to the Giants late in the season that they shouldn't have lost because, you know, McCarthy has a bad game or something like that. That's going to be a moment where people look back on and say, come on, this is not what we signed up for. That's a game that you're supposed to win. And if you had won that game, you would be in the playoffs or,

you would have a higher seed and a better matchup that's more favorable for you. So it's, it's, you know, this is, there's a lot of pressure on this team, and they're going to have to really deliver, especially late in the year. And real quick, lest anyone forget, the last two starting quarterback performances by Sam Darnel left an awful bitter taste in the mouth for fans and observers that have had to chew on that for nine months. So it's, you know, it, you did win 14 games, but your quarterback essentially prevented you from winning the game to win the division and then couldn't get it done in the playoffs and literally look like a deer in the headlights.

So if McCarthy stumbles, it sort of piggybacks off of that, which is this is a roster now that may be carrying its quarterback as opposed to a quarterback carrying its team. A Fandul question of the day, by the way. 31 and a half attempts is the over under for J.J. McCarthy? Is that too hot, too cold, or just right for you? Is that too many, not enough or right on the money for Monday night against the Chicago Bears? And Mani, I redirected you. And reminder, you guys throw in your questions, comments.

I'll get to a couple of your questions in just a moment. But I redirected you, Mani, and didn't get back to your bigger picture feelings. For me, what I want to learn about J.J. McCarthy, it's pretty straightforward. It's not complicated. It's not deep in the weeds. It's more or less, if he's given everything that he could possibly, imagine to work with the line, the coaching, the receivers, the defense, how far can he take a team? Because I think that we get so caught up sometimes in the QB wins discussion, how much

is the quarterback's fault, how much is not the fault, what's the context, who's the coach, did he have any weapons, all that stuff? But what we know from recent NFC history, go back to 2018, you have Jared Goff on his rookie contract. He makes the Super Bowl. before Jimmy Garoppolo was expensive. He makes the Super Bowl. You see it with Jalen Hertz reaching the Super Bowl in his third season. And then you see Brock Purdy get there. And even Russell Wilson.

Russell Wilson, right. That's where I think was the first real example of like, oh yeah, a young quarterback with the stack team can really do this. And the NFC has just been a wide open, Wild West type of race of who has the best roster from top to bottom. the Rams had to sell out their next couple of seasons in order to get that with Matthew Stafford, but the Vikings haven't had to do that.

So if you've got everything you can get, I don't think you set it at, oh, if he doesn't win the Super Bowl, he's a bust or something, but am I going to believe with this in his rookie contract with this type of setup that he can go into the playoffs as a serious contender? I mean, that's really the story of the 2025 season. But what is it for you, Manning? I you know I'm kind of just looking at to kind of continue on with how much more difficult the schedule is this year I'm wondering you know to your point about you know how far can he take a team some of these matchups with some of these great quarterbacks these guys you know Joe Burrell for as good as we believe the Vikings defense is going to be and I think it's going to be a really really strong unit again like it was last year I think maybe even better. you know, Joe Burrell's going to get some points, man. He's going to move the ball with those receivers and that play, Collar and Zach Taylor,

they're going to move the ball and they're going to put some points on the board. Lamar Jackson is going to put some points on the board. Can J.J. McCarthy, even at this young age, without a ton of experience, you know, match those guys blow for blow and compete and, you know, keep the Vikings in those kind of games. and can you find a way to steal one of those games? You know, would you get Philadelphia coming into U.S. Bank Stadium? When you get Baltimore coming into U.S. Bank Stadium,

those two teams are going to be favored against the Vikings in all likelihood. Can you find a way to maybe steal one of those games? And I think that from a big picture standpoint, you know, if we see McCarthy go toe to toe with the elite quarterbacks in this league, I think it's going to be a really, really good sign that this guy has the goods to be able to take this team a long way. I just want to piggyback real quick. Mani, you said earlier too, they don't have the AFC South to kick around anymore.

Don't forget, when Donald was struggling the most, he was able to drag victories out of Jacksonville on four field goals or five field goals. He was able to squeak out a win at home against the Colts. They went down to Nashville and took care of Tennessee because everybody takes care of Tennessee. So they don't have that anymore. I was just scrolling the schedule again, reminding my. myself, other than the Giants, I don't see a layup in there at all. I mean, some teams won't reach their expectations. Maybe Cleveland, maybe the Browns, too. I'm sorry, I didn't see the

London games. Yeah, the Browns. But what you would normally think would be a layup, you know, once against Chicago or once against an off NFC team. I mean, maybe Dallas if they're struggling, but that's a hell of a roster, too. They're going to be relevant. So I just, there's no, there's no soft spot for McCarthy to get well like Darnold did last year. Rich says, I think they should start out vanilla, then gradually get the jitters out. I could see O'Connell feeling exactly the opposite way. Let's start out with a 60-yard touchdown attempt, throwing a bomb against the bears. And then if you got to deal with the jitters, you'll deal with it.

I do think that we've seen O'Connell put together some very crafty opening scripts that have longer drives, easy completions, take advantage of the defense, not knowing what they're going to see tendency wise, personnel wise, all those things right away off the bat. I think it helped both Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold to get off to hot starts in a lot of games during their era there. So I think it'll be kind of a mix of that. Skywalking McCarthy says, what would make this year a success or a failure? I think failing to win a playoff game would be the cutoff for me where it's a failure. And I just have to 100% agree. guys. I mean, I think that it's a little bit cart before the horse to be talking about winning in the

playoffs on September 4th as we are broadcasting during the first game of the NFL season. But at the same time, at the same time, I just can't help but agree. If you walk out of this year without a playoff win with the players that you have and the coach that you have that has gotten you to that point a couple of times and tease the fan base with great regular seasons, if you don't have a playoff win after this it's a disappointment it doesn't mean blow up the franchise fire o'connell get rid of j j mccarthy it means that you fell short of the expectations that we set yeah and only three is no way to start a playoff career if you're a head coach yeah i remember back as a kid when danny green was coaching the viking and he lost his first couple of playoff games and i remember it was the

third playoff game that he lost against the bears at home to Steve Walsh. When Steve Walsh came into the Metroome and blew them out, that was when the heat really started to pile up on Denny where it was like, is this guy just a regular season coach that is not going to have any success in the playoffs? And, you know, Danny eventually got to a couple of NFC title games and the rest is history there. But yeah, it was after that third playoff loss in a row that the heat really started to kind of pick up on Denny, and I can imagine a similar situation with O'Connell where people are going to start looking at them. They don't get a playoff win this year.

It's like, okay, come on. We know you got a young quarterback starting for the first time this year, but come on, your own three in the playoffs now, man. Like, let's go here. And he was now coached in those two losses to the Rams and the Giants as well. I mean, it clearly, you know, I mean, they had a Rams team on the ropes playing neutral because their houses were burning down and they were run out of the building. and then you were hosting Daniel Jones and the Giants at home.

So those are your, it's like it feels like 0 and 2 slash 0 and 4, just the way they lost those games. Quite a stat from Skywalking McCarthy. Maybe a little bit of randomness in this one, but no coach has ever started 0. And three in the playoffs and went on to win a Super Bowl. I don't, I don't know if that's a predictive number,

especially because of you have a wild card. You have seven teams make the playoffs. So it's very plausible that coaches could make the playoffs. more often go 0 and 3. But I get what you're saying that if you can't win in the playoffs after a couple of years with a team where you've had a lot of regular season success, it does start to raise an eyebrow of whether you'll be able to do it.

And it just leaves you with an empty feeling. You know, we've talked about it. We did a roundtable right after the playoff game and it was like, this was a good season. But why does no one feel like this was a good season? Because you got your tails kicked by the Los Angeles Rams in Glendale. If you walk away with that season, again, where it's a regular season success and nothing in the playoffs, you don't get that at least one burst of, wow, what could be here in the playoffs, then it has not been enough. But let's move to the other parts of the roster beyond just J.J. McCarthy. Somebody take me somewhere. Like I feel like I've spent, let's see, May, June, July talking about what I can't wait to see, but I haven't had you gentlemen on the show recently. Murph, where do you want to do?

take me elsewhere on this Vikings roster or coaching staff for what you can't wait to see in 2025. I, you know, look, I'm never one to say, I can't wait to see how the guard play turns out. I've never been that guy. But I mean, let's be honest. I mean, that's where they struggled last year. They invested a ton on the offensive line. It's a veteran group. There's a lot of leaders. You might fill us in a little bit on what Dara saw has been going through this week practice wise. but I just feel like with a second year young quarterback that may be relying on, you know, his flank being protected a little bit more early on. I mean, there's going to be a lot of pressure on that unit.

There's going to be a lot of pressure on that unit not only to protect him, but also to, you know, if they are going to run the ball more, those holes got to be open by somebody. So, and they face a ton of defensive talent this year. It was a 14 win schedule. So they're playing the heavy hitters, including the Eagles. including Baltimore, including Washington. I mean, they are going to be challenged on a weekly basis to keep their quarterback upright.

So I'd love to hear how you thought training camp went with that unit as far as cohesion and chemistry and, and again, the Darosaw factor. Darisaw was not practicing today. So it's kind of a wait and see. But it was a no practice, not limited. If he had been limited, I would have said, well, still pretty good chance he plays. But no practice on a Thursday, even on a. a Monday night game that certainly raises the question of whether we're going to see

just in school in there for week one, which, you know, is not what anybody wants for J.J. McCarthy, but the bears also don't have Derek Thomas or Lawrence Taylor. I mean, they, they don't really have outside of Montez sweat, anybody that notable is, as a rusher. Grady Jared, notable, but not in his prime anymore. And sweat usually rushes over the right tackle. So I think that if you're going to get through a game, it's probably this one with another guy there at left tackle. But Burf, I think the answer is that it's got the potential. That's what I see. It's got the potential to be a top five to seven offensive line. And then what I want to know, Manny, is what does a Vikings offense look like? Think about all the good offenses

that we've covered over the years. I mean, go back. 2016 is a good offense. 2017 is a good offense. Nineteen was, I would say, a very good offense. We've seen it a few times here with KOC. But what we haven't seen is a tape to tape start to finish really good offensive line performances, spurts moments, 2023. I thought they had their moments at times last year at the beginning of the season. It was pretty good. How good can this be if the offensive line is legitimately one of the five best? Yeah, I think those questions of every time. they make a personnel move or somebody's asking you on Twitter, can he play guard? I think those questions are probably going away, at least for a while, now that it seems

like they've got, you know, Will Fry's a veteran, really good guard in there. And then Donovan Jackson, a guy who's, they got in the first round of the draft, who has a lot of potential to be very good. And obviously, if Ryan Kelly can stay healthy, the interior of the offensive line, it looks like it's really solidified for the first time. I think since Steve Hutchinson was playing guard for this team. I mean, it's been a really, really long time since we kind of, you know, and there's some question marks maybe a little bit early on with Donovan Jackson

just because he's a rookie, not a lot of experience and all that, etc., etc. But this is the first time in a really long time where I've looked at, you know, from left tackle all the way, you know, from Darrasaw, all the way to O'Neill, where it's like, okay, we got a really good overall solid five starters. If everybody can stay healthy, Darisaw can get off to a good start this year coming off the injury last year. This is the first time in a long time. I've been able to look at that unit and say, not really that worried as long as everybody

can stay healthy. Yeah. And, you know, Dan brings up Will Fry's not much coming out about him in training camp. I think that's because it's very hard to evaluate a guard in training camp. The early part, too, he was just coming back from his injury. But just in general, this is one of the best front sevens in the NFL. So if we are like, wow, McCarthy was under pressure. The other team's probably not going to have Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave and all the blitzes that Brian Flores does.

So if our expectations are the defense is going to be elite on the interior at rushing the passer, It's pretty hard to be like, how dare you, Will Fries get beat by, oh, one of the best pass rushers inside of the last 10 years in either Hargrave or Allen. So I can't tell you exactly what he's going to be other than that he's a big dude and he plays with a lot of violence. And we've seen that in camp. But I don't think it's going to be perfect with Donovan Jackson still learning and developing. But overall, if it's not perfect, if it's an A at the tackles and it's an A at center, if Ryan Kelly could stay healthy. and then it's even a B minus at the guards, that's going to be really good. I'm going to take this in another direction, though, and it's kind of a heel turn for me

because I have been very, I think, not annoyed, but call it beaten down by the discussions of Quasi Adolph-Menz's drafting. It just is all the time, and it's, hey, did you guys know that 2022, they, you know, blew the entire draft and all that. But I'll tell you, I have sort of. of stayed on this, like, we don't really know yet for the 2023, 2024 class, the 24 and 25 class. We don't really know. We're just getting going with those. I want to know at the end of this season, are we looking at it with a bit of a different tune? Because Donovan Jackson's a key

piece for the future, because Dallas Turner's a key piece for the future. And I know everyone will say O'Connell drafted J.J. McCarthy, they'll be right. But, you know, the franchise drafted J.J. McCarthy. So how do we feel about that? And then, you know, other guys, they don't necessarily, for me, have to be drafted. Like Theo Jackson was a sixth rounder that they picked up off someone's practice squad, but the young group of this team put it that way instead. How do we feel like, because the main narrative on this team, Murph, is they're older, they're veterans. There's a bunch of guys who are on their last legs like Adam Thielen, the two defensive tackles that I mentioned, Ryan Kelly, is there a next wave for this team that sort of emerges during this year?

Because if they do, and I just had a good conversation today with Levi Drake Rodriguez, apparently he ate 20 eggs per day to gain weight to play a defensive tackle position that he's going to take over some of Harrison Phillips role, which that's a lot. That's a lot there. But guys like him, if they emerge, then how strong is this roster? because we've been adding up the roster talent just based on what we know, Murph. Yeah, well, I think Dallas Turner sort of the litmus test on Quasi a bit. I want to see what he can do because there was a sense that he was either overmatched, overwhelmed,

or not in the best position to do what he was doing in college last year. And how much more are they going to put on his shoulders? How much more of a pathway is he going to have to being kind of a game record that he used to be? And that's why, you know, he was picked up. So that to me is like, yes, if this, if this doesn't go places, this is an aging defense, an expensive defense, it's not going to stay together that long. There's going to be an injury component to this. There always is. We were talking on the offensive line, 17 games, you know that five-man unit is not going.

I think Philly was able to start all five most of their season last year. And guess what? They ended up hosting Lombardi. So health plays a major factor. And when you have an older roster, when you're relying on veterans, that you're paying a lot of money to and that depth now three drafts in that's where that's where the front office really makes its money is more so on depth than star players because it's it's not a set in stone 53 man roster it's an evolving elastic 53 man roster that can blow through 65 bodies

so when that you know practice squad sinee when theo jackson comes out on a big play i mean you know it's third down is this the moment you need to have confidence that if your starter isn't there, or if one of your veterans just needs a down off because it's a hurry up offense, that whoever you're plugging in there is not going to cost you the game. That's where I think front offices really do earn their stripes is with depth. It's not the big splashy contract and who they're able to attract and maybe steal in the draft. It's who the people are that no one knows that are going to have to backfill in key situations and not fold under pressure because they were a sixth round pick picked off.

somebody's, uh, practice squad. So I'd like to see, you know, because we've seen where the depth has been an issue. Um, sometimes it's been bad luck with injuries, but sometimes it's been paper thin debt. So where is the depth going to be in week 11? And where's the confidence going to be in sort of the B squad players to come in and actually do a squad work? Mani, take us somewhere else. That was mine. I am actually curious about the young core of this team and finding out. And I totally agree with you, Murph, that Dallas Turner has said all the right things this off season. I talked to him the other day. And I think that his growth has been really evident, but it's not truly evident until they're out there playing national football league football games.

And I'm sure that we'll judge his entire draft stock based on what happens on Monday night as we do with all of this stuff. But just in terms of the entire season, we're going to know a lot more about that draft pick and whether it was worth it or not to spend what they did to get Dallas Turner. I think that's one of the biggest learning about that guy through 2025 that matters a lot for their future. But man, he takes us somewhere completely else that you're looking for 2025 and comment section, you do the same. Well, I'm going to look at the defense specifically and like I said earlier, I think it's going to be a really, really good unit. I think with with the money they spent on the two defensive tackles, it better be.

But one thing specifically I'm going to look for with the defense this year is after you've traded away Harrison Phillips, what's your defense going to look like against opposing teams running games? You know, Harrison Phillips was a pretty good guy that you kind of plug in there and that sort of that nose tackle position that, you know, Jalen Redmond kind of figures to step in and fill in those shoes. you don't have that guy anymore in theory right now on paper at least and you know Jonathan Allen and Jvon Hargrave didn't exactly have pretty they didn't exactly have good PFF grades against the run last year on their respective teams so you know and that was something that even when they signed those guys we were thinking okay well neither one of them did really good against the run they're both really good pass rushers and we've been talking so much about you know getting getting a more effective pass rush from your your interior defensive lineman, but those guys weren't too good against the run.

And now you trade away, you know, probably your best, you know, guy to stop the run on your defensive line. Now what are you going to, you know, what's that going to look like now? Because if teams are able to run the ball on this defense, that means they're going to be able to control the clock, especially if you've got a team like Baltimore who comes in with Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson in that run game, Philadelphia that comes in with Sequin and that offensive line. You're going to be going up against teams that really like to utilize the running game to control the clock.

And that means it's going to be less time that J.J. McCarthy and Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and Jordan Addison are going to be on the field. And that's going to be, it's going to make things more challenging for you to be able to put points on the board to compete against those high powered offenses. Just on the schedule alone. And since the day it came out, it was like, oh, well, that's a lot of good teams right. there. But, you know, when you talk specifically about the running games of those teams, it can be hard year to year to project running games, but it's not hard to project if Lamar Jackson's going to run in Baltimore. It's not hard to project if Jaden Daniels or Jalen Hertz in Philadelphia, if they're going to be able to run. And then, you know, we'll be surprised along the way at times. But if they struggle with that, that is something that's very hard to fix on the fly.

I mean, you can adapt to, and this was Flores in 2023, where he realized pretty early on, oh, I better blitz like every play because otherwise I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. There isn't really an answer there. I mean, you can put another guy in the box, but they usually do have three safeties on the field. They like to load up the box more than other teams do. There isn't a trade you can make for some elite run stuffing nose tackle in the middle of the season. Usually those guys belong good teams. so your bets here have to work. And I think that just to take it off of that,

it's really which bets are going to work because they're making a bet on Jeff Okuda. They're making a bet on Jalen Redmond, a bet on Levi Drake Rodriguez, some guys that are not really that proven. Even Isaiah Rogers, Theo Jackson, I mentioned. And the offense made a bet on a guard in the first round. And they made a bet on a running back

that San Francisco was willing to part ways with. And they're making a bet on Adam Thielen coming back. And Jalen Naylor stepping. up and so forth, how many of these are going to pay off. I think there's a good chance that a lot of them do, but if you let teams run you over, then it's going to make it a lot harder. So let me take a pivot here because Murph, we have a little tradition on this show that usually was Monday nights, but we're going to move it to Thursday nights.

And usually this roundtable is supposed to be on Monday nights, but it couldn't be this week because of the preview element and next week we'll figure that out and everything else but it's called manny picks the schedule every week manny picks every game of the schedule now uh this can go on for a really long time when there's 17 games to pick so here's what i want to do i want manny you to pick the game i'm going to go through it you're going to pick the game and murph you get two sentences to react to manny's pick okay so just for time's sake so we can wrap it up with a conversation about the super bowl and who we how we see it playing out in the rest the NFL, but we're going to rapid fire.

Mani picks the schedule post training camp and preseason, pre-week one edition. So we get it on paper, that's starting point. So are you ready, Murph? Of course. Okay. All right, you get two sentences. All right, Mani. Do I get any commas and dashes, hyphen, clauses?

I didn't say paragraphs. I said sentences. Mani, the Vikings open week one against the Chicago Bears. at Soldier Field, how do you think they perform in this game? Is it a win? Yes, I will take the Vikings to win week one. I like the idea of a week one win, but I do like the idea of a 13 to 12, 17, 13 kind of a win that maybe is a little more carried by the defense. So, and don't be upset by that. That was a run on sentence and one short one. There you go. Right on time in the comments.

Man, he better pick the schedule tonight. So there you go. This is, this is, this is for the people. Okay, one and no. I think we all agree on that one. Week two at home against Michael Pennix and the Atlanta Falcons, Manning. I think the Falcons would be good this year, but I'm going to take the Vikings to go to 2 and O in the season and win this game at home. Yeah, not a bad home opener for them. I think Pennix is on the rise, but not quite in week two at US Bank Stadium. Okay, 2 and 0 Cincinnati Bengals week three. They finally get a noon start where the yellow morning shows won't have an island game to react to about J.J. McCarthy. What do you got? I, this, this one's going to be tough with Burrow and

that high powered offense and they got Trey Hendrickson back. And so he's going to help a defense that's a little soft. I'm going to take Cincinnati to win this one and give the Vikings their first loss. Antoine said it was a long sentence. We'll give him commas. We'll give him a breath at least. So two and one, two and one, losing to Joe Burrow at home, Murph. Yeah, I think Joe Burrough's on a mission this year. He's angry. He's disappointed.

And they were my Super Bowl pick out of the AFC last year. I'm going to double down this year and say it's finally Joe Burroughs time. And they are going, it'll be a great game. Joe Burrow wins. Week four, they head to Dublin, Ireland to face Aaron Rogers. They cannot escape this man, whether it's ruined. that he's going to be here, whether it's the Packers, whether it's the Jets last year, and now the Steelers, we just must have Aaron Rogers in our lives, but to the Vikings

beat him, man. Yes, they do. It's a really tough Steelers defense, but I think Aaron Rogers is cooked, and I think the Vikings win. I think the Vikings win too, and I think Rogers is on the slow decline that may not get him, that may see him retire by October. Maybe, I mean, look, last time he went overseas and played, the Vikings. People got fired afterward. Who knows? Who knows? No, I can't see Pittsburgh doing the same,

but maybe that will take their season one way or the other. We do have to factor in that Pittsburgh is going to have a great defense. Playing them not in Pittsburgh, though, I think is a big edge for the Vikings. On to week five, they pick up the operation. They slide it over to another part of Europe and play the Cleveland Browns. We don't need to waste any time here. This is a win. yeah i think they're going to take down joe van winkle uh rip van winkle very fine or rip van rip van flaco i don't know i just think it's going to be it'd be a nice european sweep okay four and one i think is what the vikings need to be at the by week if they're less than that it's going to get a little bit dicey in the second half of the season they open up week seven

at u.s bank stadium with a week of rest coming back from london with the Philadelphia Eagles. I think the Vikings will play well in this game, but I think the Eagles will have too much firepower and win. Vikings never do really well against the Eagles. Granted, it's at home, but they're a champion that doesn't look like they're fading. Hey, Linvall Joseph once intercepted a pass. In fact, now that Carson Wentz is here,

I should ask Carson Wentz about that, about throwing an interception pick six to maybe he doesn't want to be asked about that. but I would be curious what it was like to turn around and realize that a 340 pound man was running away from your entire franchise into the end zone. But you're right, Murph, I think that's, well, they did beat them in 19 where they didn't cover Stefan Diggs. So, you know, at home is an advantage. I don't think Jalen Hertz has played at U.S. Bank Stadium.

But fair enough, fair enough. So they go from that game out to play the Los Angeles Chargers. They are four and two going to play L.A. on Thursday night football. This is a hard one to predict. I'll give him a win here. It's tough, you know, going west on a Thursday night. I will give him a win as well,

but I just don't know how that Harbaugh-Herbert relationship's going to last. Or will it keep? And you know what? I've already said two sentences. I'm not even going to untangle the third one there. is, is it just the Harbaugh spike that ultimately fades many times or from last year? Or is it legit? They also had Rishon Slater get serious injuries out for the season.

Their offensive line on the interior looking a little shaky, that was something that I was thinking was going to make this game hard for the Vikings. And we also don't know. They're going to run a lot what O'Mary and Hampton is. So five and two start, then they go from out west to, Ford freaking field that is now a house of horrors, really, in the KOC era at Ford Field. I don't believe that he has a win there since taking over as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Does he get his first win there in week nine, man?

I'm going to say no until they show me otherwise that they can win in Detroit, which five years ago, I never thought I would utter that sentence. Yeah, I don't, I don't see this as a win yet. At least not yet until they show me that they can actually go in there and do it. Yeah, I think that window is slamming shut on the lions. And they're going to go, they're going to be so all in this year. And again, the Vikings have struggled against Dan Campbell lately. KOC's got to get his gamble on.

So five and three as they face Lamar Jackson, also his first trip ever to U.S. Bank Stadium. If I'm not mistaken, the last time they played the Ravens would have been Joe Flacko in 2007. I think was the last time that the Ravens. Well, they had, they had the one where they were in Baltimore. Yes, but the last, I'm sorry, at U.S. Bank Stadium. Oh, got, got, yeah. In 21, they faced, and that was a miserable, bizarre. A messy game.

Very strange. Yeah, gnarly game. But at U.S. Bank Stadium, I mean, as a five and three football team, can they pull off an upset here against the Mighty Raven? I'm going to say no. Baltimore, I think, is another team that's, on a mission this year and a lot, a lot, a lot of things to prove. So I'm going to say the Ravens come in and take care of business.

I'm going to say they're going to pull this upset off. And I think it might be McCarthy's finest performance to date just because he's going to rise to the occasion. It'll be tight. But I do think they are going to upset Baltimore. Oh, I like that call. I think that when you have the Eagles and Baltimore, two preseason favorites, both coming to U.S. Bank Stadium, that they win one of those.

one of those teams won't be quite as good as we think one of those will have a quarterback injury one of those quarterbacks won to us bank stadium i think about last year with now i know they won both of these games but san francisco and houston kind of felt the same way we were talking well these are two great teams and great quarterbacks and great coaches and all that stuff and that stadium when you go over the years this is the 10th season being played, however that works. But, you know, 2016, so I think this is this, whatever, 9th, 10th season, whatever it is. But through its history, there's enough of a sample size to show, in my opinion, that it has an impact, as long as you have the players, which they do.

So I understand the pick. So that puts them at, are we now five and four? Is that what the five? According to Mani, I have them at six and three. You have them six and three. Okay. Chicago at home, Mandy. I will take the Vikings winning this game and sweeping the Chicago Bears.

Yeah, if the Bears are going to beat the Vikings, it's going to be Monday night. I don't see them coming into U.S. Bank Stadium later in toward November and winning. I think by that time, what we're really going to know is how good is Caleb Williams really with Ben Johnson. I have a lot of skepticism about that relationship and about Caleb Williams ever being different from what we saw last year. but he is a young quarterback. He is supremely talented. By the middle of the season, we're really going to know. This one, it's picking this.

This is why we pick every week because picking this today, we're like, I don't know, I don't know. But by the time that we pick it as the next game coming up, we're going to know way, way more. So, Manny has now six and five at Green Bay. J.J. McCarthy, this is going to be special. Waiting until week 12 kind of stinks, but it's also kind of awesome because it's Lambo. and it's late November. I haven't thought about the schedule a lot since it was released. But now that I see this,

thinking about making that drive down with the leaves changing colors and everything, the frost on the grass walking up to Lambo, J.J. McCarthy's first ever started there. It's Green Bay, it ain't Augusta. It's pretty damn cool, Murph. You got to, even Vikings fans have to admit that walking up to Lambert is pretty cool. Yes, they do. Yeah, you mean the same like,

Look, you mean the same Vikings fans that stand outside and cook their little sausages with the Packers fans and are like, oh, we win today. Hey. It's not, it's not the masters, okay? We don't need the tinkling of the piano. Oh, oh, we do. Lambo in November. The azaleas are of bloom.

The sausages, they smell of moist. Okay, uh, manny, uh, whatever. Help us. Is that a win? Anything. Uh, so I actually. think this is the game where we look at J.J. McCarthy and we kind of raise the eyebrows like, oh, okay, it has arrived. And I think the Vikings go into Lambo and they win for a second

consecutive year. See, I think that's the fairy tale version. I think he gets his signature win against Baltimore and struggles in his first kind of showdown in the, the cauldron. can j jay mccarthy bring home the green and yellow cheese jacket uh from the cold november the november mud of lambofield michael arthur's running after j j mccarthy in slow motion via NFL films i mean that's really coming out manny should be doing this in the john facenda voice but maybe we'll work on that as we go forward so now they are sitting at manny as them at seven and five as they go out to Seattle and play Sam Darnold and the Seahawks

if their offensive line doesn't get Sam Darnold hurt by them. Tall order. Are we into December yet? This is November 30th. Okay, so essentially. It'll be raining in Seattle. Yeah, I figured as much.

I'll call this a win as well. I don't, I'm not sure. I mean, I think Sam Darnold's going to have a nice year, but I'm not sure Seattle's going to be all that. good. I think this is a win, but I think Darnold may outplay McCarthy. I think that back to back against the Packers and Seahawks is hard to go 2 and O, even if the Seahawks are just okay. Last year,

the Vikings walked out of that game, kind of lucky that they pulled it off at the end with a crazy play by Sam Darnold. And every one of them went, oh man, our communication was really tested in that game and ultimately it kind of imploded at Ford Field later in the season. So it'll be an incredible test. These are two of the hardest places to play in the entire NFL. I still think that Seattle ranks up there because that's not a team stadium you take over

as an opposing fan base. Like you'll get purple fans out there. You're not taking over Seattle most of the time, especially if they're good, if they're bad. They have one of the widest ranges of outcomes. If you told me Seattle 1 5, I'd be like, oh, yeah, well, that's too bad about Darnold. If you told me they won 12, I'd be like, oh, Darnold was really. real. It was legit. And both of those things could happen. So now, man, you've got them eight and five, correct? After winning that game. And now it is Jaden Daniels at home against the Vikings. I think you have made in five. Is that right? I have eight fingers. I think eight and four. Eight and four. Okay. Okay. Because we're through 13 weeks and we had to buy. Gotcha. Yeah. I'm only, I've only been keeping the wins on my fingers. Not the losses. I don't have enough fingers. Somebody else should have been doing that. Washington. I'm going to call this a win.

I think Washington's going to be good, but we might see a little slight sophomore slump from Jaden Daniels. Maybe regress just a tad, not completely fall off the face of the earth, but I'm going to call this a win for the Vikings at home. Nine and four start. Wow. I don't want to regret this,

but I do believe there is a sophomore slump. I think it's going to be a tougher year for Daniel. for Daniel, I just feel like this is maybe the game where it's December, it's U.S. Bank Stadium. Granted, he walked into Detroit last year and won his playoff game, but I think this is where maybe he's going to be tested from a noise standpoint the most he's ever been tested. And this feels like a defensive win.

I think Jaden Daniels is really good, really, really good. I think that Jaden Daniels will be the regression-proof quarterback. kind of like Josh Allen was, and it might be overreacting to one year. Go look at that year. That was the type of year that superstar quarterbacks have. And I don't think anything bothers him, including U.S. Bank Stadium. I don't know if I would go with a win there. Maybe Washington didn't do a crazy amount in the offseason, but they did acquire a top-notch

left tackle, which will be a big deal for them. But you've got them now at 9-4, Manny headed to Dallas. as we speak, Dallas as a three-point lead against Philadelphia, so they're hanging in that game. Dallas may implode by this point or they may have, maybe Jerry had a point. I don't know about Micah Parsons. Maybe we overrated one player getting traded week 15 at Dallas. I think the Dallas Cowboys are going to be an all bark and no bite football team this year. I just don't. What else is new? especially after you trade away one of the great defensive players in this league I just in an inexperienced head coach guys never been a head coach before

I just don't think this is going to be a particularly good year and I'm going to take the Vikings winning down in Jerry World I had the Vikings pegged to win this game before Dallas trade in Parsons so I feel like it's one of those games that Dallas is going to be mailing it in by then it's also the road trip game for the St. Paul Dads without wives journey. So for those that are a fan of the travel pieces, that's where we're going to be. And I think we're going to get a tour of Jerry's world. Oh, I can't wait for that now, especially with all the drama for this year. And we're going to find out if they overcome it or not. I think they're just a little too light on defense to handle all the weapons that the Vikings have for this one. This is

one when you start with the schedule. You think Dallas just has not been the same team as they were a few years ago. And it should be a win. Mani, one thing you haven't done here that has been a rule in the past is pick the shocking upset. The letdown game is that, are you foregoing the let down game in our first run? Oh, it's coming. Or is the letdown game next here at New York because you have not gone with one yet. Yeah, I kind of forgot about the, the letdown game element. I can't pick it as the giants. I mean, if the giants are the let down game, man, like, you know, I could see going into Dallas and losing and that being the let down game, uh, you know, maybe going into Seattle or the Chargers or something like that,

I, if you're losing to the Giants, even at MetLife, you got problems, man. That team is awful and they're going to be awful again. That's a win. Yeah, if the Vikings lose at home to the Giants, they need to walk into the locker room at US Bank Stadium and not walk back out. It's on the road.

On the road, it's that meant like better. I thought it was a home game. I don't know. I thought it was a home game. I don't care where it is. If they, if they lose to the. Giants, they're not legitimate. So it's not a letdown game to me.

It just feels like a, you know, not showing up game. I'm going to toss it out there since you've now got them at 12 and 4, which is pretty wild, man. But this is why, again, this is why we do it. We get the baseline and then we see where it takes us. Last year, you went everywhere from 15 wins to, I think, nine wins after they lost or barely beat the Jaguars in that game. But I will defend the Giants as a. potential letdown game in one way, two ways.

They have a great defensive line, which always has the capability in any NFL game to surprise you. Here's the second way. And I know it's preseason. Jackson Dart looked pretty awesome. If Jackson Dart doesn't play half the season and then comes in when they're, I don't know, four and six or something. And he looks great and he looks ready and he's the next really good first round pick

quarterback, that could be a totally different feeling with Malik neighbors there and some other parts of that team. So I'm leaving the door open for Jackson Dart just coming in and potentially being really good by the time they face them. It's so hard to project out right now. And they do have a D-line. You never know what the O line of the Vikings will look like by then. I would say if you're going to pick an upset game that's a letdown, one of the problems with that with this schedule is that there's not a lot of opportunities. It's Pittsburgh, it's Cleveland, It's maybe the Chargers, but the Chargers won 11 games that were in the playoffs last year. You kind of might have to pick this game as your let down game because there's not too many chances.

Two more, Manny. You've got them at 12 going into the final two weeks, the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium. I'm going to say what I said before about the at Detroit game until they actually beat the Lions. I'm just not going to, I'm not going to pick them to beat the Lions. Last year, just first game was great, but that, the way they laid an egg in Detroit last year just kind of makes me feel like the Lions have their number right now. And until they show me otherwise, I'm going to pick Detroit. I think vengeance finally comes for KLC.

I think this is going to be the biggest game of the season. It's on Christmas Day. It's going to be, it's going to be a knife fight, and I'm going to give it to the Vikings. I think they're going to split with Detroit. Detroit is being called, it's almost like when we get to this point, so many people have said so many things that you could say, people are saying about anything. But it feels like the most popular opinion in NFL analysis is that Detroit won't be good.

I just can't go there yet. I just can't go there until they're actually not good. I know the reasons and every analyst has thrown it out there, why? But you're telling me a team with a quarterback who consistent, leads teams to the tops of divisions with weapons that are elite. They still have the offensive tackles that are very good with a defense that's improved, a D-line that gets Aidan Hutchinson back. It's hard to tell me this team's just going to be not good at all or is going to

slide out of the playoffs. So I'm still giving a lot of respect to Detroit. But I do think that they will split this one. Green Bay Packers, Manny, you have put the Vikings bar where the ceiling is for this year. I did not expect this from you for this year, but you are thinking because earlier today, this is why we do this, because earlier today, and this is why I tell you to never think about it until I ask you, because you were like, man, this schedule, I don't know. And then we picked the games of you're looking 14 wins in the face here.

That's crazy. I'll take the Packers to win this game because only because I do think the Vikings and Packers are going to split. and I picked the Vikings to win at Lambo earlier. So I'll take the Packers to win this game in week 18 to, I think that would put them at 12 and 5. Yeah, I have them splitting with Green Bay, too. I think they're going to win at home.

And the stakes are going to be enormous that final weekend. So I think I have him at about 11 and 6. I think I got him at 11 and 6 too because I got them losing to Detroit. Oh, right. You had them losing to Detroit. Right. That's right. So that I might be a game.

I might be 10 and 7 then. I didn't keep track of them all, but I think I was one loss ahead of you. Okay. So, all right, Mani, I was giving you a hard time. I was giving you a hard time there. But I think you landed ultimately on the place where I expect them to be, which is 11 wins. You ended up with 11. I thought you had 12.

Why does this always happen? So you've got them losing the last two games over the year. I see, okay, right. No, no, no, I thought you got to 12. Oh, boy. Why does this always happen? Who was counting at home? I have been losing to Cincinnati, Philly, Detroit, Baltimore, and then Detroit again, and then Green Bay.

Oh, and then Green Bay, okay, so 11. All right, we've counted it correctly. All right. And Antoine, I think, was counting along with us there. So thank you, Antoine in the comments for confirming 11 and 6. I was the person who made a 54-man roster earlier this year, but Addison was getting suspended so that bailed me out of my mathematical mistake 11 and 6 i've got them losing five home games yeah that's kind of crazy yeah i'll love to work on that okay 11 gave for a minute there

though i i was feeling like oh boy manny has really gone off the top home schedule though it's a tough home schedule yeah all right i think we all would agree 11 gets you to the playoffs 11 gives you a chance to be a serious team with this schedule and would be a successful season for J.J. McCarthy in the regular season. Now, here's what I want to end on, my friends, and the National Football League season has kicked off this evening with the Eagles and Giants, where are we at, or at Eagles and Cowboys, I mean. And they're approaching half-time to tight game there between those two teams. So I want to know from you guys, the number one thing on your mind as week one, the Sunday schedule, arrives on our.

doorsteps. What are you thinking about more than anything, not regarding the Vikings, just the National Football League that you can't wait to find out. That is the theme of tonight show. We will begin with Manny here. So I have it in the back of my mind that the Chiefs will not make it back to the Super Bowl this year. And when that does not happen, who between Baltimore and Buffalo, the two teams that have been sort of chasing after, you know, the two quarterbacks that have been chasing after Patrick Mahomes and can't seemingly get past Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, which one of those guys comes out of the AFC if it's not going to be Kansas City again. That's the thing that I'm really fascinated to find out because we are, I mean, Josh, Josh and Lamar both just amazing. And we all know that. But we are kind of getting to the point with both of them where it's like, right, we know how great you are.

But when do you finally, you know, get over that hump? We've seen so many quarterbacks over the years be great, but never, you know, some never even get to the Super Bowl. Or they make like the one appearance like Dan Marino did in the second year and never make it back. Can, you know, Lamar and or Josh, you know, kind of get over that hump and represent. their teams in the Super Bowl, because we know how great they are, but can they kind of take that next step and solidify themselves as all-time great, great, great, great quarterbacks? So I threw up three fingers because you left out Joe Burrell, the three guys that are chasing in the AFC.

But Burrell's already kind of gotten over that hump. Well, because he's gone to the Super Bowl, but he still doesn't have a trophy, and I know we meet him, but it still feels like these three guys, yes, it is the two that haven't been there, but the three, I think they're all aiming for. for him. It's just a fascinating, it's a fascinating time in the AFC to be a quarterback. And then you do wonder, because I brought up, I brought up Marino, you do kind of wonder, is Burrow going to be the guy that got to the Super Bowl early in his career and then never makes it back and puts up all these great numbers and makes it to the Hall of Fame, but doesn't

get, get that coveted ring. Murph, was that yours or you got a different one? No, no, no, that was just piggyback in. I, I, look, as much as the Aaron Rogers saga has really grinded me over the last several years. I'm kind of curious to see how it really is going to end because, you know, Pittsburgh hasn't won a playoff game in nine years, but they haven't had a below 500 season in, you know, 20 or however long Tomlin's been running the show. Will this marriage work? And if it goes bad, you know, it didn't necessarily go bad for Rogers the first year in New York because he played three games, three snaps. Last year it went bad and he got people fired. What's going to happen if it goes bad in Pittsburgh? Because that's not a place that

really tolerates a lot of drama, although they did sign up for this. So it's kind of like that waiting for a car wreck. I don't know what's going to happen in Pittsburgh, but I just don't have a sense it's going to end well for Rogers, Tomlin, or the Steelers. For me, it is the national football conference because when I look at the NFC, I mean, Philly just scored a touchdown here and I think we could end up with the second half blowout. We'll, we'll see. But Dallas's defense that we were just giving a hard time to for that game has not shown up here in the first half. But imagine if they had maybe one of the best players in the league, if that would have helped. According to Jerry, the answer is no. But the NFC, when you start to go through division by division,

You could see two teams from the NFC East, three teams from the NFC North, probably three teams from the West, at least two from the South, Atlanta and Tampa Bay, all competing seriously for the Super Bowl. I think Tampa Bay is a really good football team. They lost their OC, but, I mean, they are as good of a roster as anybody else. Atlanta has stacked up. And, you know, you got to think if Atlanta had had the Kirk Cousins version of, say, 2019 last year, they're a pretty serious team. team going down the stretch. And now with a young quarterback, they've drafted along the D-line, they've helped themselves. There are so many teams that you can make an argument for that almost nothing would surprise me at this point in the NFC. And I also think that as hard as

the NFC North schedule is, when you actually get to the playoffs, again, this is six months from now, you can look around and go, all right, who is Superman in the NFC? Nobody. That you should go into the playoffs in the best case scenario for the Vikings, feeling like nobody's Superman, you can beat anybody in the postseason and you have just as good of a chance as anybody in the playoffs. And I think that that makes it super interesting because also there's a bunch of teams in the NFC where you could see the bottom falling out. I mean, Detroit, there is a scenario where it does. Chicago, I mean, if this doesn't work with Ben Johnson, it is just hell there.

San Francisco, I mean, I see a lot of people picking San Francisco to still be San Francisco, but What if it's not? There's a lot, a lot, a lot to be answered in the NFC that I think is way more wide open than it is in the AFC. But gentlemen, this discussion was tremendous and just a preview of what we will be doing every week. We're going to have to figure out next week with the schedule because I don't even give me a couple days to figure out

when I'm flying in and flying out of Soldier Field. And then we could go from there. We'll figure it out might be next Thursday as well. The plan in normal weeks is to have every Monday night a roundtable reaction to the game. And then on Thursday, Manny will pick the schedule. But I don't know, Merv, I think you did a great job here of reacting within two sentences to Manny's picks and picking along as well. So great job, gentlemen. I appreciate you both.

So we're at, what are you at again, Manny? You're at 11 and 6 and I'm at 10 and 7. All right. Are we writing these, are we, you know, putting this to memory? 11 has been my number kind of from day one at the beginning of the schedule release. I haven't changed it. That was my barometer for how I felt about J.J. McCarthy in camp. I thought if he pushes me down or up, then something has really happened that I didn't expect.

And he met my expectations, I think. And now we'll see if he meets everyone else's going forward against Chicago. I know, finally. Merv, Manny, go watch some football, my friends. All right, guys. You got it. Thanks, guys. All right.

Two of the best gentlemen that I know, Brian Murphy and Mani Hill, I wanted to toss it out there if you guys have questions. So today, real quick, as far as headlines go from TCO Performance Center, I can't say that there was a lot of new information we learned, but I'll give you a couple of things. I mean, number one is that Christian Derisaw was not practicing. And I had expected, after the way Kevin O'Connell talked, talked about Derisaw that he would have been listed as limited.

I just thought that it's a guarantee that he's going to be limited for today's practice, but not practicing at all really puts week one in question. And if he doesn't practice the rest of the week, of course, he's not going to play at all. But even if he's just limited, it's not a full participant, don't do it. It's one game. They, look, they played David Questenberry last year in the game against Chicago, and they survived. So survive the game with Justin. school there. That's why you signed him is if you needed that one extra week for him to go play

against the Chicago Bears. Do not risk Christian Derisaw. And the way O'Connell talked the other day, I think a few of you said in the comments, just the way he's talking sounds like they're going to be ultra cautious and they should. If it ends up 15 or 16 games of Derisaw, that's way better than one against Chicago and then missing one and then setback and then another injury. But that was not the news I think people wanted to hear. Also, for all of you freaks who are super interested in the punt returning situation, I'm saying freaks in an endearing way that you know every single corner of this roster and are interested in Miles Price.

Well, Matt Daniels talking about him as the return, both kick and punt returner, which was on the depth chart, but wasn't something I necessarily saw coming with the way that they had handled the preseason and he doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of experience as a kick returner. So that suddenly becomes a little bit under the white hot light. Jason says that Gessling, Ben Gessling said it was a planned day off for Derisaw. Right. And still, though, a planned day off leading up to a game day does not really point the

arrow in the direction of him playing. usually you wouldn't have that on a day like that. What does this become? This becomes like a Wednesday practice, I guess, right? For Monday night football, sort of the simulated Wednesday practice. Now, you can miss that day because you still have some more time, but it doesn't really bode well potentially for him to play on Monday.

I'm not guaranteeing it. I'm saying he still could, but it just feels like the way O'Connell talked, not practicing today, that maybe they're going to take this one, a little bit on the lighter side. Look, if he plays, that's great for them. And that means that they are fully convinced

that he is back and ready to go. It's just as far as today, not even being limited, not even doing anything at practice, doesn't, like I said, point the arrow toward him potentially playing. But we'll see. It's hard to guess from behind the scenes

because we don't know their plan to get somebody ready to play. But thank you for the information there. So anything else on your, your guys mind as we get the NFL season started today. We all were at either 10 or 11 wins. I like chicken. We'll just call you chicken. 10, 6 and 1. That's funny. I've seen a few of those. I have been present at a tie that happened. So maybe. Here's how things are going to go, though, otherwise. So the plan is to, for me, to have Courtney Cronin's interview posted rather than play it now during

the, you know, first game of the NFL where everybody's watching that. So the interview with Courtney Cronin will be posted and up tomorrow morning on the YouTube page. Make sure you go check that out. Also have a conversation coming tomorrow with Kalin Kaler from ESPN and Andrew Kramer with our hardcore preview is on the way on Saturday. just with the whole schedule being bumped around a little bit. So there is a lot of football to come your way. So keep an eye out for that Courtney Cronin interview. I know you guys have been asking for it.

We were finally able to get together this afternoon. So I'll have that ready to go for you in the AM. And hey, go enjoy your football, guys. It is back. And it looks like we got a good game going on, at least in the first half, to see where this all goes. So I appreciate you guys. You know the deal.

the newsletter, all that sort of stuff. And we're almost there. The speculation has almost been brought to an end. So thanks. And hey, if you get a second, the links are playing later tonight. My wife is calling the game as always. They're playing the Aces. So if you're a WNBA person, check out that app.

That's where she's calling the game. A little promo for the wife. Okay. Thanks, everybody. Catch you all later. Football.