Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What does a Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl tell us about the Vikings

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic talk about the heartbreaking ending to the Chiefs-Bengals game, why the Eagles' route to the Super Bowl was way easier. We take a look at how the teams playing in the Super Bowl were constructed and what it says about the Minnesota Vikings' offseason and direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hey everybody, welcome to Championship Sunday podcast. Matthew Collar and Paul Hodwanek here, and we just got done watching the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals, and I can't shake the feeling to start the show, Paul, about Joseph Osai

and how he will now go down in history as making one of the biggest blunders ever. Now, of course, Mahomes was about to get a first down anyway, but they had no timeouts left. And what you could tell from the field goal by Harrison Butker is it really got knocked down by the wind. So his range was going to be limited. In fact, I mean, if they don't get literally about 15 yards on the next play, at least 10 to 15 yards on the next play, He would not have been able to make a field goal, but instead as Mahomes is going out of bounds, Joseph Osai takes it one or two steps too far, which is really unfortunate because he had a great game. And I don't even know, like I can't even imagine when you're chasing him in that moment, thinking anything I have to do to

get him out of bounds and make sure I saved the game. But it was just a little bit too late. And the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl. The tale of two games today, Paul. I mean, the first one could not have made you more sad about football just in general. And then the second game, gripping all the way to the end. Crazy stuff. Referees involved. People wanted blocks in the back on the punt return by sky more uh the chiefs somehow got two different possessions when it didn't seem like the refs blew the whistle late and then apparently they did and it was a a really crazy game joe burrow and patrick mahomes the defenses for both teams played great. I mean, just an incredible game. And now we have a Super Bowl that is going to be played between the two number one seeds in Kansas City and

Philadelphia. So last year, after we had convinced ourselves that anything was possible in the playoffs because a couple of four seeds went, the NFL turned right back around and went, aha, not so much true. So we're going to talk about both of the games and, of course, what it all means to the Minnesota Vikings as well. But your reaction, Paul, to the Chiefs and Bengals ending? Yeah, I mean, I think that Patrick Mahomes play, the five-yard scramble that gets him the first down, is just kind of emblematic of that entire game,

which is just seemingly Patrick Mahomes pulling a play out of nowhere, kind of that he didn't run at all today, really. And then the one time he needed to run, he did, he got the first down and obviously the penalty. And then obviously the penalties are kind of a story of that second half. I think nine from the Bengals for 80 something yards, I believe. So just backbreaking penalties at very bad times for the Bengals. I think those fans are surely going to have some issues with some of the refereeing that happened late in that game. Some probably fair, some not so fair. That last penalty was just a really, really boneheaded play by Osai there. That is a really, really tough one in the moment as you're not sure how far he's going to try to run for.

Is he going for out of bounds? That one's always super tough. But I think, I mean, overwhelmingly, my takeaway just has to be Patrick Mahomes and just like the unstoppable force that he is. Last week on this podcast, I said the Bengals were going to make the Super Bowl. I just didn't think after a week that his ankle would be that much better. From the guy that we saw, like barely being able to hand off balls in that last week's game, that win that they had. And so for him to come out and one, just be able to play on it,

like after the ankle had stiffened up all week, he's able to kind of get treatment on it and give it a go. And then to not only do that, but to go 29 for 43, for 300-plus yards, for a couple touchdowns, make some ridiculous throws, like that one to Marquez Valdez, Scantling, that was a touchdown, several others. He's just an amazing, amazing quarterback, and it's not anything new, but just when we see it in the biggest moments when he's facing an injury like that against a defense that was playing

really, really well the past couple weeks in the Bengals, facing a quarterback like Joe Burrow, and with your receivers, a couple of them go down. You just, the like magnitude and just Patrick Mahomes is just an amazing, amazing quarterback. And we didn't learn that today. We've known that. But every time he reinforces it in a massive, massive game like this, it's just, it's amazing to watch. And it's kind of just, you're kind of sit there starstruck at what he's able to do, you know, anytime we end up in one of these games. I mean, think about it this way that Patrick Mahomes has been on championship weekend playing five straight years. He's been at home, I believe every single time and he's lost twice and won three times.

Both times he lost was in overtime and again, Cincinnati last year, they even had a chance where they were one play away to possibly win that game. And I think there was maybe a couple of calls that were strange in the time that they lost to New England in 2018. So it feels very much like a Tom Brady situation where year in and year out, it's going to be, if you're going to get to the Super Bowl, you're going to have to go through Patrick Mahomes. But I think a lot of people were in your camp in believing that Patrick Mahomes' ankle was just going to be too restrictive for him. And there were times during the game where it looked that way. I mean, where there were some bad throws. And I don't know if the ankle played into him fumbling the ball, but they were driving in a way that they could have just put the game away.

And he ends up having kind of a crazy fumble. But, you know, then after that, it seemed to rattle them a little bit. They didn't get going. There were some bad throws that went into the turf and so forth, but then they found a way to come through at the end. And we all criticized Andy Reed's punt decision. And I think think rightfully so I would have rather have trusted Patrick Mahomes to get eight yards than to punt it back to Joe Burrow but Chris Jones makes an incredible play and and the offensive line finally got Burrow and that sort of reminded me of what happened in the Super Bowl last year where and they did everything they could to revamp that offensive line in the offseason but there was a lot of injuries there and at some of the biggest times during this game the offensive

lines weaknesses ended up falling prey to the Kansas City defensive line which is extremely good and I mean last week against Buffalo Buffalo does not have Vaughn Miller it wasn't quite as good of an office or of a defensive line but but also I think the slow, the snow and the conditions slowed down the pass rush against Cincinnati. Whereas this time it was Kansas city playing at their home place, getting after Burrow and causing some problems. But I mean, overall, like you can't really have any complaints about both quarterbacks. I think that Joe Burrow throwing the bomb that got tipped and intercepted was maybe like getting into his bag a little too much, trusting himself a little too much. But at the same time, he made a fourth down and six throw into double coverage to your best wide receiver, as opposed to saying, no, I instantly dismissed that I could throw it toward Justin Jefferson, as Kirk Cousins said, after fourth and eight. And it's impossible not to have that come up into people's minds. But I just thought both quarterbacks sort of showed

the standard that's going to be set for, I don't know how long in the AFC, because we just saw Trevor Lawrence and he's only scratching the surface. Justin Herbert is going to be there as well. I mean, they were up 27 points and probably should have been playing in divisional weekend as well. And the AFC is just so stacked, but yet it still is going to go through Patrick Mahomes. And I mean, really the Kansas city chiefs as well should be very proud of how they built their football team because they let Tyreek Hill go. They trusted in a lot of their draft picks and their draft picks had to make plays today. Pacheco made a great run there where he broke a couple of tackles and gained big yardage

for them. You know, them. They just had to have players step up, George Korloftis, their nickel corner McDuffie. They drafted players who were able to come in and contribute right away, which I think has helped them create more of a full team around Mahomes than maybe some people thought. I mean, there was even discussion about can they win the division? Can they be as good? but they had to hit on a few of those things it is Mahomes everything is always Mahomes they even had receivers getting hurt and going down Hardman and Tony going down and they're just continuing to find ways Kelsey was playing at maybe half speed because of his back injury and was not as dominant as he normally is and yet it's just everything that you could throw down in front of Mahomes.

He found a way to do it. And I mean, how many different ways can you talk about the man's greatness? I mean, it sort of feels like after Michael Jordan won a bunch where you're just like, well, what do we even talk about here?

Do we talk about who the next Mahomes is? Because that's, that ends up being the discussion when the guy is in the Superbowl year after year. But, you know, I'm not going to complain about it because he is the most entertaining player in the sport. And now he gets two weeks to heal up. And I also had one other thought at the end of that game, which was, thank goodness there is two weeks because everybody is coming out of these championship games completely gassed but I think that overall you look at this matchup Philadelphia and Kansas City you just couldn't have asked for better it

is it doesn't feel random it doesn't feel lucky it even though there was luck involved in both victories it feels like the two best teams in the NFL are going to play for the Super Bowl you don't always get that I think it's going to make for one heck of a matchup. Yeah, somehow the 49ers eat that game out and Purdy wasn't able to play. And it's San Francisco's fourth string quarterback in a Super Bowl that just wouldn't quite feel right about the Super Bowl. It's oftentimes why this conference championship week, at least for me, is often like my favorite week of the playoffs because you have these two just behemoth matchups almost all the time. And just a lot of times, a lot of these amazing quarterbacks in these,

in these really, really good games. And obviously we got kind of one stinker at the, at the early game, not because of, you know, Brock Purdy's injury, but yeah,

it is kind of rewarding to, to come to the end of a season and know like, Hey, like whoever wins that game, like truly is crowned like the best team of this year. And it's going to be absolutely deserved no matter which team it is. And it's just, again,

with like the Mahomes thing, it's just like, he got no help from their running game. I think they had one successful run on first down. They, they averaged like 2.1 yards per carry. And so for him to be on that ankle ankle and do that without any semblance of a running game is just rather remarkable.

And then the Eagles just kind of ran through the NFC. They got some nice, you know, playing the Giants in the second round, I would say, is a favorable matchup for them. And then playing the 49ers and they're, you know, already third string, seventh round quarterback gets hurt. You have to throw Josh Johnson in there. Like that's about kind of as easy a hand as you can get dealt but I think even without that withstanding that team was the best team in the NFC by far compared to all those other teams I think maybe I guess you can make a case for the 49ers but I think through and through just throughout the entire season being consistent and just where they are health-wise that's the best team so now we get two weeks to dig into that matchup and kind of consider all that is that and

just the fact that the Eagles are in the Super Bowl again, five years after they last made it and a new head coach and a new quarterback and basically a whole new system in that. And the amount of turnaround that they had from that season to this season is rather remarkable. So there's just, there's so many storylines for this game, but yeah, you're right. It's, it's the two best teams that are, that are meeting here and that is fulfilling in itself. Yeah, and let's talk about the Eagles and 49ers game because I do think that the Eagles made their case in the regular season for being the best team in the NFC and maybe even by a good margin. But what a disappointment. I mean, I thought this is going to be a great matchup. And even though it's Brock Purdy and he's a seventh round draft pick. And oftentimes, as we saw from Case Keenum,

when you have the magical story, it doesn't always turn out to be, you know, something that takes you all the way that eventually that guy might have that luck run out or whatever it might be. But with Brock Purdy, my feeling was it's a little bit different because I didn't think it was kind of just lucky or something like that. I thought it was entirely that he was just a tremendous fit with that offense and he was operating it at a high level and he can make some plays and things like that. And for him to go out right away and they don't have any other options other than Josh Johnson. Like it was just over right at that moment when he got hurt, if it had been Jimmy Garoppolo coming off the bench, which was probably a week away with Jimmy Garoppolo and his foot

injury. If he had been active for this game, then that would have been one heck of a storyline of Jimmy Garoppolo coming off the bench. But Josh Johnson, I mean, he basically just got there a few weeks ago. He's played on a million different teams. He wasn't prepared to play one of the best defenses in the NFL that led the entire league in sacks and has this unbelievable defensive line where you have like Indomitian Sioux and Linval Joseph are depth players on this amazing defensive line. So they just asked too much of Josh Johnson. And then he gets hurt.

It wasn't even over with him in the game that their defense was playing well enough that it was possible that Josh Johnson could have kind of gotten in a rhythm and thrown some screen passes. Christian McCaffrey running over people for a big gain. And it was like, oh, this is not really over yet. And then when his head hits the turf,

I felt bad for him too, because what a moment for him after the journey that he's been on, where he played in the UFL back in the day, the XFL, he's been on every NFL team and then to get a chance and only to get hurt. And then the discussion is, is it just going to be Brock Purdy handing off, or is it going to be, you know, Christian McCaffrey trying to play quarterback like that? That was just a miserable football watching experience. And it's sort of funny because, you know, I see a lot of this and it's in the comment section as well. People like, you know, though the NFL is rigged, they wanted Mahomes in the Superbowl. Well, I wish they rigged up a better NFC championship game. If they had rigged that or fixed that, it would have been a lot more fun

because that was just unhappy of a viewing experience. I just wanted to really see those two teams go at it. And when Purdy went out, it was like, oh, well, this is basically just over and Philadelphia gets to walk in to the Super Bowl kind of for free. And this is why, though, you play for the number one seed and what the number one seed means now that there's only one of them. Philadelphia got to sit at home and wait for the Giants, who played a very long and physical game against the Vikings.

And then the Giants came in kind of banged up and so forth, and they are at least more physically exhausted having gone on the road to Minnesota and then on the road to Philadelphia. And then they just crushed them. And then San Francisco has one thing go wrong. And now you're in the Superbowl. Like that's how you kind of have that massive advantage by being the number one seed.

And, you know, I think we even saw that from Kansas City and they're going to talk about that forever, by the way, with the AFC and the way things played out with the AFC and just how, you know, Kansas City ended up getting the number one seed and not Buffalo. And I'm sure Buffalo thought that they should have been playing in this game. But I think on the NFC side, you can say Philadelphia got lucky breaks to be there. And you would absolutely be right, because I think San Francisco was the best matchup for them from top to bottom.

The only thing that maybe Philadelphia had as better is Jalen Hurts. And then it just disappears. It was like, what? Huh? Now I have to do chores around the house because the rest of this game doesn't really matter. Yeah. And I mean, it was 3.8 yards per play for the Eagles offense to 3.6 for the, for the 49ers offense. So just both defenses kind of going at it. I think the difference was they, the Eagles were able to run the ball and the 49ers were just not able to do that as well. And also Jalen Hurts was pressured, I think only four times, according to next gen stats, Josh Johnson was pressured 11 times,

which was 73% of his dropbacks. So just a lot of credit to the Eagles kind of in the trenches there for both teams, because if Josh Johnson had a little bit more time, maybe he can make a few plays. And I think it's time to throw was 2.8 or so, so a little longer, but not, you know, something that can't be withstood from that offense, especially with the playmakers that you have there. So I think the Eagles defense does deserve some credit in that,

even though they are going against Josh Johnson, like some of those underlying numbers still pointed to them being pretty dominant up front. So it's funny because the Eagles, I think had the 32nd ranked schedule by football outsiders. They did not have a hard schedule when you, you know, no matter what you slice, where you slice it. Like if you look at the regular season, it's like their best win is maybe like in hindsight, like week one to the Lions. Or is it like beating the Cowboys with Cooper Rush in that kind of crazy game that you had there?

Like it's it's kind of a weird thing going through their schedule, but I think we talk about this a lot of times, like making it to the Superbowl is as much about being skilled and, but it's also just about, are you hurt or are you injured? Like the healthiest teams often make it there unless you're Patrick Mahomes, like the healthiest teams normally make it there. And the Eagles were darn near healthy along most of that team throughout the entire season. And then obviously in that big game, you see the disparity between the Eagles and the 49ers. You saw the difference in coaching in terms of just when to challenge, when to go for

it. Shanahan had a couple miscues there right at the beginning of the game when it was still up for grabs. The Eagles didn't. So there's just a lot of ways you look at that Eagles team. You say they are super, super sound. And although they haven't necessarily needed to prove themselves, it's kind of been the story of the NFC so far. So I'm excited to see that Superbowl game, because in a lot of ways, that's the first time

they will truly be tested. We thought they were going to be tested this week in San Francisco. We never saw it. I'm still pretty confident that they're the number one team in the NFC. But they're surely not the most battle tested team. Kansas city could have that title. If the Bengals went through, they would have that title. Anyested team. Kansas City could have that title. If the Bengals went through, they would have that title. Any number of AFC teams would have that title. That's not where we're at with the Eagles, so that also adds some intrigue because you're going to the Super Bowl, and you still haven't seen the Eagles just kind of wallop a good team

or really kind of concretely beat a good team when that team was kind of at full strength. Like the 49ers weren't at full strength when they beat them. Cowboys weren't at full strength when they beat them. I mean, they beat the Vikings pretty handedly, but I'm not, I think we saw in the playoffs, that was a little bit of a house of cards there for Minnesota as well. So it's, it's interesting in that we have that and it doesn't feel like they're so like totally proven. That's not something we would normally say headed into a Superbowl. Folks, you've heard me talk about liquid death and I'm glad to see that some of

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even when you go back to last year, you could do this with any team. And this is where I know that people are going to talk about the referees and some of the calls that were made in the Kansas City game. But with any team that makes the Super Bowl, you're going to have some things go your way. One way or the other, you're going to have to have a schedule or health or a matchup or whatever it's going to be. I mean, last year, the Rams had the dropped interception by San Francisco, where Stafford kind of just heaved the ball up. And if the guy picks it off, the game is essentially over. And instead, he drops it and they go down and win. And even then, I mean, they're a couple of plays away from

Cincinnati. Winning the Super Bowl in the actual game was played so closely that that's kind of how the NFL mostly is. But Philadelphia did have kind of especially easy playoff circumstances where usually by the time you get to the Super Bowl, you're just like, wow, both of these teams are just so beat up in these crazy matchups. And you look at the Kansas City side, what Patrick Mahomes had to go through to beat the Jaguars and how wild that was. And then in this game where both teams are just throwing haymakers at each other to get there and players are leaving the field and everybody's just beaten up by the very end of it. Had they gone to overtime,

it's like, who's going to survive overtime with the way that they've gone at each other? And that's just not the case in Philadelphia like by the third quarter Philadelphia could have taken Jalen Hurts out of the game but what I would say for Philly though is if we go through their roster show me the weak points in that roster I mean they didn't just do a good job in the regular season and get lucky in the playoffs they bludgeoned people I mean they had an incredible point differential they won won what, 14 games and a couple of the other games that they didn't win, they had a backup quarterback in because Jalen Hertz got banged up. So I want to give them full credit. I also want to give them full credit for

the way that they built their team. That if you're trying to make an off-season comparison to where the Vikings stand, it's not that hard to look at a Philadelphia team that after 2019 had gone, what, nine and seven for two straight years, was looking at mediocrity, and they essentially did nothing to get better into 2020. They let the natural tank happen, and they went down to a 4-11-1 team team and they decide to go with Jalen Hurts after that. They trade away Carson Wentz. They change coaches. They just kind of said, you know what, we're going to draft high here. We're going to stack up the draft capital and so forth, and then go forward with this quarterback on a rookie contract in Jalen Hurts, and they were able to stack up

this roster. You always have to hit on draft picks. There's no way around that. You can't just draft badly year after year and then hope and pray. Even the Los Angeles Rams, who said, bleep them picks, they only did that after they had already hit on a bunch of picks that made them a great football team, and then they went all in. But Philadelphia, I mean, Devontae Smith, questionable but incredible catch that he had, which, by the way, I think that just should be a catch in general, but it would have been overturned had they looked at it. Still, Smith is a great player who they drafted high. They've built that offensive line to handle a defensive line of the San Francisco 49ers,

which is another thing that the Vikings have spent a ton of draft capital on their offensive line, and we still are looking at it going, the right guard situation, very questionable. Left guard allowed the third most pressures in the league. Center is a free agent after having his first good year out of four, and you still feel like that offensive line is empty in the interior, whereas the Eagles, their offensive line can take on anybody in the league, and if there's a reason to pick them against Kansas City, it's probably that, that they can give Jalen Hurts,

he can run for as much as he wants, design run plays, QB sneaks on second and one. They even decided to do that today. Or he can stand back there and find his open receivers. They also understood the moment when it was time to trade for A.J. Brown, who's been one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. I think that Vikings fans do not want to hear it at all about Philadelphia because they beat them 38 to 7. And I really thought it was going to be 38 to7 at the end of that game,

again, just to rub salt in the wounds. And so I think the Vikings fans can have a reasonable beef against the Philadelphia Eagles fan base for throwing beers at them and abusing them in 2017 on the road in the NFC Championship game. Not exactly a friendly environment, but when you look at the premier team for how it was built, and I went back and looked, you can bet I did, to the reactions to the Jalen Hurts draft pick in the second round, where a lot of draft experts gave them D minus for the pick. How are they going to use him? Do they think he's, I can't tell you the number of draft experts who compared Jalen

Hurts to Taysom Hill. They were like, oh, well, he's just going to be a Taysom Hill for them. I don't understand why they drafted him. He's a borderline running back. He can't throw the ball. And instead, they built around him. He developed over a couple of years, which is allowed by the way. And now he's in the super bowl with

them so i i look at them and say from an objective perspective and i know vikings fans again it's it's kind of is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth to hear it but no team has built themselves smarter and better i think than the philadelphia eagles yeah and it's they have one thing in common with the rams and that they have one thing in common with the Rams and that they have a lot of flexibility, but they also push a lot of the chips in the table for this year. They had the surrounding roster that was required to, or for that to be a smart move to kind of push it all in. Like if the Vikings pushed it all in again this year, I think you would say, Hey man, the surrounding roster that you have around this, it's probably not good

enough to add one or two pieces and be right there but the eagles were so then they went out and got chauncey garner johnson in the secondary they went and got james bradbury in the secondary in the middle of the season when they couldn't stop the run and they were struggling up the middle they said yeah let's just sign in dominican sue linval joseph and robert quinn like let's let's just do that because one we have the cap space because we have a rookie quarterback and we have kind of some flexibility there, but also we understand this is a moment where we can go in and capture it. And so I think in one aspect, that is kind of the second year in a row of the Rams doing this. And now the Eagles doing this in kind of pushing their chips forward when it's kind of like reasonable and like a good opportunity for

them to do so. But I think where that could get misconstrued is for a team like the Vikings to say, well, look at these two NFC teams just pushed everything in. You got to have the surrounding infrastructure around that to be able to do that. You already, you know, have a Devonta Smith that you're building on. So when you add AJ Brown, you have two good weapons and you have this strong offensive line that you've already built. You have this strong defensive line and you just are, you know, a slot cornerback away and some depth along the defensive line away to go and do those things and kind of push everything forward. So I think that can be a double-edged sword, but I do think it's

interesting for the teams that don't have a Mahomes, that don't have a Burrow, where they're able to kind of slow play it. These NFC teams still are saying, you know, we see an opportunity, we're going to get aggressive here. But both those teams really did have the surrounding infrastructure for that to make sense and for it to be a smart gamble rather than, you know, say the Vikings tried to do that this next year like that. It's probably wouldn't have the same results because you just don't have the surrounding, you haven't drafted well enough. You don't have the surrounding roster talent. You haven't found those gems in free agency like the Eagles did with like a Darius Slay per se. Like you haven't done all those things. You haven't put in that groundwork to

be able to take that flashy kind of next step towards the Superbowl. And I think we're just seeing two different ways to build a team in the Superbowl here, but two like really strong, like this is how like other teams around the NFL should try to build their rosters. One of these two ways, and both of them are very difficult. You either have to hit on the quarterback or you have to hit on every other piece around it, but it is just kind of the winning formula at this point in the NFL. Well, and even with Patrick Mahomes, when the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes, they received a lot of criticism for trading a future first round pick up on a team that had just gone 12 and four, but they knew that Alex Smith

and his contract that was pending as well, which was also part of this was going to be too expensive. And it was like paying Alex Smith was just not a really good investment when he wasn't a quarterback that could take you to the next level. So the Eagles have done this twice where they bailed on Sam Bradford after he had played pretty well for a season there. And they drafted Carson Wentz and built around that. Now, I know Nick Foles got them to the Super Bowl, but they wouldn't have had home field advantage if not for Wentz behind an amazing team. And remember, I mean, they went out and signed guys the same way. They signed Chris Long, who was a great player for them.

They brought in, I think, who was the corner who got an interception against the Vikings? Patrick Robinson, I think was the guy's name, that he was a veteran that had been around for eight years or something. Torrey Smith caught a touchdown. Elshon Jeffrey. This is the same story. The Eagles did the same exact thing. And now that Hertz has gone to a Super Bowl, they're going to have to have that conversation of whether they sign him. And I'm sure they will now that he's taken them to the Super Bowl. But it's the same sort of discussion where it's like this thing is what teams often have to do. And when you look at Cincinnati, who was maybe a dude pushing another dude three seconds too late.

No, a half a second, a quarter of a second too late, out of bounds. They were that close to potentially getting a kickoff scoring, going to the Super Bowl even themselves. Look at the things that they have done around Joe Burrow. They drafted a receiver high to go with their other good receiver. That's another thing that has to be brought up as well. Jamar Chase, having two receivers, having having three receivers becomes much more difficult to cover, but also they got here in part because they were able to build the defense. They were able to rebuild their

offensive line, which got banged up by the playoffs. And that happens. And that's the bad luck element. If they have a full offensive line, they probably win this game. And that's, that is the, you gotta have everything go right for you. But one of the reasons that they're there is because they were able to spend the money to go out, sign offensive linemen, sign players on the defensive side. Mike Hilton got burned on a touchdown. That was an amazing throw by Patrick Mahomes, but he's another guy that they brought in from the outside and spent money with. So it's like, you know, this drum we've been banging for so long. And then you kind of look at where we are and you go, well, those first Superbowls by Mahomes were all when he was cheap, but now he's like the full fledged freakish version of Patrick Mahomes. And then even then that in order to work around his contract,

they had to hit on a lot of draft picks in order to get to where they are. So I think what we've seen here is a lot of things about team building and what can get you to this place. And I think that the teams that did it, the smartest are being rewarded and Cincinnati like that close, but also, you know, I think Kansas city understanding to what they could give away in Tyree kill and valuing that properly.

And that's mistake that the Vikings have made many times. You know, the, if you're talking about someone like Daniil Hunter, where it's like the Vikings have just believed in years past that they could not live without players. Delvin Cook had a bad year. I mean, by all the metrics, he did not have a good year at all. And when they signed him, I think we all knew, hey, two years from now, this is gonna look pretty bad.

But it was like, we can't live without him. Last year, it was Anthony Barr. The year before, it was Kyle Rudolph. We can't live without him. We just absolutely have to spend too much money. And then you get to a point where you can't fill out an entire full roster because you've mismanaged and you've overpaid people. And I think that that did get rewarded in this Super Bowl, a lot of savvy front office

decisions. Yeah. And I mean, and just some lucky ones too. Like if you think about the chiefs in their secondary there towards the end, it's Trent McDuffie is one of your top cornerbacks. He's a first round pick. Then on the opposite side, you have Jalen Watson who came in for a luxurious need. He's a seventh round pick. And their third cornerback is Joshua Williams. He's a fourth round pick all this year. They're all rookies. They're playing three different rookie cornerbacks.

They have George Karloftis, another rookie on along the defensive line. So even for the Chiefs to do that, they had to hit on kind of all these picks. And so it just reinforces like, man, you got to hit on those picks more often than not. And even if you're the Chiefs, like that's a super, super thin margin. Like maybe you don't get that tipped interception there at the end on Burrow. If you don't hit on those picks, if that's Andrew Booth who gets hurt and then you're relying on a practice squad guy or something like maybe they get that ball or that's a Caleb Evans

in the fourth round instead of Joshua Williams. Like, how does that go? Like, those are just these thin margin things. And these things, frankly, in the fourth round, seventh round of the draft that you just, they're coin flips. You're just taking a shot. And the Chiefs, for whatever reason, have either really, really been able to evaluate talent and knew they could get Jalen Watson in the seventh round to be a key player for them, or they just got a little lucky. And so I think if we're kind of continuing that analogy of even the best teams, even the teams with Patrick Mahomes still has to hit on some of these kind of long shots to be able to

get there. And they did. And that doesn't mean they didn't have smart moves that helped them get there like the Tyreek Hill trade, but it, it just encompasses how difficult it is to do this. And especially if you're the chiefs to continue to do this year after year, after year, where you're now five, six years in a row, you're doing this. It requires you to hit on all these cornerbacks in the draft, even when you have the best quarterback in the history of football, potentially. Like it's, it's so hard to continually do this over and over again. And so I think that's what you're seeing from the chiefs and we'll see if the Eagles can do it, but it's just so many small aspects of team building that just stack on top of each other. And when you put it in that perspective,

you just look at a lot of the teams, the Vikings are included, but there's so many teams in the NFL. And you just say, you feel like there are a lot of steps away from getting to that level, but really it might just mean one draft class where you go crazy. Like the Seahawks turned around their season, but largely because they picked two tackles in the draft that ended up being really, really good. And they picked two cornerbacks in this year's draft that are really, really good. And now they're looking up. So it's, it can be as quick as one draft, but it's just, it emphasizes, you know, how often these things do come down to coin flips and also just the difficulty of building a team, whether you have a quarterback like Mahomes or you have a quarterback like Hertz, or you have a quarterback

like Cousins, it's just very, very difficult. And it just takes stacking all these smart decisions and these good decisions on top of each other to be able to get to this point in the season. Okay, so I agree with everything you said. And I think everything you said right there was dead on and smart. But also, can you watch this weekend and say, oh yeah, you can get to the Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins? I don't know that you can. I mean, the throw from Burrow on fourth down, the plays that Patrick Mahomes had to make, even running on the busted ankle, but he later as the game went on and throughout this season that it raises the floor of your offense when you have a quarterback who has enough running power to get first downs on any short yardage situation. That team was doing QB sneaks sometimes this year on fourth and three or whatever

because they trusted his power, but also, I mean, can make plays out of structure, can run for first downs anytime something breaks down. And I mean, we've just seen it through Patrick Mahomes' entire career, the creativity. And no one is him. No one is as good as him. There's no question about that at being creative and doing crazy stuff like that. But, you know, you look back even to last year's Super Bowl, and I know it's not the best way to do this is just to reach the Super Bowl. But Stafford absolutely peaked where

it came together with a great team and great offense, but also had to make a no-look throw into coverage that was one of the great throws in NFL history in order to win. And the things that we've seen Mahomes over the years have to do in order to win. The things that Burrow had to do in order to get close to winning in this game. They're just above the physical capabilities of the Vikings quarterback. And his price is as high or higher or five times as high as some of them. And, you know, Hertz did not throw the ball well early in that game. And by the way, San Francisco has got an amazing defense. So that does happen, but he didn't throw the ball that well early in the game yet. They're still able to move

the football at times against an incredible San Francisco 49ers defense. And I have no doubt that, you know, when they play in the Superbowl Kansas City, Jalen Hurts will be able to make plays. It makes their running game more dangerous. They have good running backs and a great offensive line. But when you run those option plays and RPOs and things like that, then it just makes it hellacious on linebackers and defensive linemen. Because you know that Jalen Hurts can take off and go for a 50-yard run at any time. And that's been the way the NFL is going, playmakers, physical. It's kind of always been the NFL, though,

is guys who could make plays out of structure and things like that. But I just don't know how you could ever watch and be like, oh, yeah, the kind of pocket quarterback who has to have everything go right and, by the the way won't throw into double coverage no matter what even with the season on the line like those things uh just make it really difficult to believe you could go all the way through the playoffs the only way has ever been if they had philadelphia's draw had they been the number one seed but what happened they had a chance at that and they blew

some games and no showed in some games, Green Bay most notably. They're just never going to get a season that's like that unless they have money to build a team that can be that good. So I think we agree on that point. And it's a point that has kind of been made over and over again. So let me ask you about San Francisco though, and what you think they do with their quarterback situation. I am just going to say it over and over that. I think Vikings fans love the idea of Trey Lance. I think I would love the idea of Trey Lance.

Very interesting. I have no idea why San Francisco would give you Trey Lance. And also, if you look at their cap situation next year, the idea of trading Kirk for Lance, it's just not possible. Like they, they could not afford to have Kirk cousins on that team. If they do it somehow, then I'll take it back, obviously. But I just think it's, it's super implausible. I see no reason why they would give someone they love to an NFC team that might end up playing you. And then you have a very tight window even then on Trey Lance's rookie contract.

So for a lot of reasons, it doesn't work for me. But do you think that they go back to Lance or stick with Purdy? And of course, I think we know that Jimmy Garoppolo with all of his injuries is going to be gone. But I don't know that the decision is super easy for them. Yeah, I think it's one they can kind of probably take into training camp potentially i don't know why you don't try to have these guys compete with each other uh lance and purdy for the starting job and kind of see what you have obviously trey lance was the third overall pick for a reason he has all those

high quality traits and i don't think you need to be in a rush to trade one of them i think maybe if a team like the vikings or someone else gets desperate and wants to offer you a bunch for trey lance i think you have to consider it just based on where he is with his contract and the fact that he hasn't played much like you have kind of you know you have two more seasons plus the fifth year option to figure it out but he starts to get a little bit more expensive uh in that time and you gotta you kind of have a short window to figure out if you're ready for that and you want to commit to him long term and then pretty also for three years basically at a million dollars every year so that's a nice spot to be in so i don't really see them operating

from like a position of weakness i think they can make this a position of strength and i think as teams get more and more desperate and as teams maybe talk themselves out of any of these quarterbacks in the draft i think their position only strength strengthens. And so I don't under, I don't really see why you would try actively to get rid of them unless someone really wants to blow you away with something. For me, I entered training camp with Purdy and Lance on the roster. You let Garoppolo go wherever he wants to go and you just see which one is best there like if Purdy is the backup there I don't think that's blowing anyone away I don't think he's asking for a trade like he was whatever six or seven and oh in with a kind of a god squad around him in a lot of respects I think you can have him sit and if Lance sucks then you have this guy that you know is proven that can come in and you can win with like I I don't see it as you they got to get rid of one of these guys at all. I think other teams, quarterback needy teams,

would like that to be the case. They'd like to take a chance on Trey Lance. But if I'm the 49ers, I don't know if I've seen enough to just, you can say Brock Purdy's your starter, but I don't think that means you get rid of any other competition. And so I just think you go in with both of them, you battle it out if Purdy wins, great. And then you can kind of explore Lance options. And I don't think it's going to diminish his value all that much if Purdy beats him out I

think still people will be tantalized by the talent and you just go from there I think the wait and see is their best approach and you wait for other teams to get desperate and maybe just maybe you've seen the value of having several options on your team that you feel like you can win with and it seems like every year a Shan, big player on a Shanahan team goes down. So maybe a quarterback goes down again and then they're better suited to handle that. So I really don't think they need to make any drastic moves. I think you stand pat, you let Garoppolo go where he wants

and you just kind of take this thing, you know, as it comes at the start of training camp. I guess the only reason to trade Trey Lance is if you know something. And like Arizona knew something with Josh Rosen that despite all the reasons to make excuses for Josh Rosen, they knew that, you know, he was just not good. And so they fleeced the Miami Dolphins for a second round draft pick. They've had him in the building for now.

This is two full years. If they know, well, he can't pick up on the offense or whatever. I mean, he's only played five games, so who knows? But if they know that there's major, major issues with him being their starting quarterback, then it makes a lot of sense to move on from him and just get maybe a veteran backup quarterback for Brock Purdy. But otherwise, if somebody is only going to offer you a second round pick or a third round pick for Lance, thinking that you have to trade him, you might as well just say, no,

thank you. We will just hold on to him just in case Brock Purdy gets hurt again. And I think that when it comes to Brock Purdy, he's already had like three injuries, including today, but he was also dealing with a wrist. And I think he had a rib thing that not every player is durable enough to take tons of hits. He's not the biggest guy. And I've got to wonder if that plays into their decision that they might say like, yeah, Brock Purdy is going to be our guy because we love the way he played. We love the way he operated the offense, but I don't know how you could not be worried about the fact that he got hurt and all

of your quarterbacks got hurt they'd probably be best suited to go into next year with purdy lance and a veteran quarterback and maybe you just sit them sit one on game day although just real quick side note they used to have a rule where you could have a third quarterback dressed and if your quarterback got hurt that guy could go in and play and that rule has gone away and i have no idea why it just seems like a no downside rule that they should have brought back because today was a laughing stock and at least you would have had a quarterback who could come in it kind of reminded me of um i think that happened in an nfc championship game with chicago Chicago when Jay Cutler got hurt and maybe Todd

Collins also got hurt. And I think it was like Caleb Haney season or something, whoever it was. I forget how it went exactly, but they used to have this. And I don't know why they still don't have it. Why you couldn't have your practice squad quarterback be just available. Almost like an emergency goalie, like the Oilers had to pull that guy into play. Like the same thing kind of happens because if Brock Purdy had gotten hurt again or whatever, I mean, you're talking about a running back or a fullback playing quarterback, and that's just a joke. So they should bring that back.

But circling back to your point, they are not in a position of strength to trade Trey Lance, so they don't really have to do it. And it could be kind of a sunk cost thing unless someone blows them away. And unless they are totally committed to Brock Purdy, but I don't think that this is a great fit idea for the Vikings. And I also don't think that it's like something that San Francisco would want to do to give you Trey Lance for almost nothing. And then what have to meet Trey Lance in the playoffs?

Potentially you're really helping out the Vikings. I think that when we talk about the Vikings future at quarterback, I think it's, it's pretty simple. I mean that this year you have a lot of needs. You need corners. You need receivers probably for the future. If Adam Thielen is not going to be here long term which he's obviously not going to be here maybe more than one more year uh so you need a

receiver you need a center you need a defensive tackle if delvin thomason leaves you need two linebackers like there's a lot of stuff uh but there's no more pressing need than a future at quarterback and i think after this year this was the best you were ever going to do in terms of luck and situation and it still didn't go past the first round and if there's anything that we're taking away here it probably should be that and you know even the even the jalen hurts or i'm sorry even the trey lance thing sort of says something about this that that gives you so much flexibility when you have a cheap quarterback situation. And I know Garoppolo is still on their books, but it, and also hitting

in the draft, which they did, but it gives you so much flexibility that they even made a mistake on their quarterback. And another person was able to step in because their roster was so good. And they also drafted premium positions time and time again. They drafted Debo Samuel and he's great. And they were like, how about another one? Brandon Ayuk, right? And with Bosa drafting him at the top of the draft, which by the way, took a reset year for them when their quarterback got hurt and they didn't play well. And they got this guy at the top of the draft. Like all of these things are just pervasive through all the teams that end up playing at the end. They usually have superstars that were drafted high. Usually you can look back a couple of years unless it's Kansas City and find a bad year that helped them rebuild and so forth. And it's sort of like take note Vikings of a lot of the things going on here.

So I want to read you a comment and get your reaction. This one's from Todd in the comment section here. Why is it every year we're watching other teams in the playoffs makes me sick knowing how far away we really are, obviously referring to the Vikings. How far away are they really in your mind, Paul, after watching this weekend? I mean, I think a considerable amount, and I think just talking through it, when they just have to start hitting on more draft picks, they need a young pipeline of players that they can feel comfortable kind of bringing up here.

Like, I think you look at the defense, one of the oldest defenses in the league, and you say, where do you feel comfortable just letting a guy go and feeling like someone can step in and kind of perform at a solid rate like is it Brian Asamoah is that like the only like spot that you can go along like and say hey if we lose Jordan Hicks like I think we're gonna be all right because we've seen enough from Brian Asamoah to say hey he can be our starter moving forward like you wanted you hoped this year was that year for some cornerbacks and maybe next year you felt good about the secondary, but Lewis scene gets hurt and Andrew Booth gets hurt and Caleb Evans gets hurt.

And so that's unfortunate. And the fact that they get hurt, some of them had injury issues though, in the past. So some of that needs to be a little bit like foreseen, like maybe you could have expected Andrew Booth who's been hurt at all points of his career to maybe get hurt. Now, some, you know, Lewis scenes was kind of a freak injury that you don't expect, but now you're left with a point where you say, can we get rid of Patrick Peterson? Because do we know who else is behind him? Do we feel comfortable with any of those guys?

Do we feel comfortable with any of those guys along the defensive line? Like it's, they've put themselves in a tough position because they've kind of leaned towards the competitive side of that competitive rebuild this year. And not only this year, but in the last couple of years with Zimmer. And so you just say, man, it's going to take us hitting on one of these drafts to really feel like we're a step away. And so I think they're at least, you know, one of these really, really top tier drafts away from feeling like, Hey, we can have a chance. And that's, you know, much easier said than done in terms of, can you get starters in the first round and not only in the first and second round, but can you find a fifth round starter or a seventh round starter or something like that? You can make work.

I think this team is probably that away from feeling like they can challenge some of these teams because they just don't have the overall roster talent. I don't know how you can look at the Chiefs, Bengals, 49ers, Eagles, all their defenses played really, really well this week. And you just look at the Vikings unit and you say that's they're so, so far away from that. So even if you remove the quarterback aspect of it, they just have a lot of work to do in terms of rebuilding this roster with youth. Like it's good this year when you kind of make a run and some of these veterans that area Smith, Patrick Peterson are having career years in kind of later points of their career. But now that the season's over and you have to decide, like, can we bank on that continuing? It's just a hard bet to say Zedaria Smith is going to do that again

or Patrick Peterson is going to be, what, the number two graded PFF corner again. Like, those are hard bets to continue to make and stack year over year over year. And you'd feel better if you had a replacement for Peterson and you had a replacement for Zedaria Smith. And right now, the best thing you have for those guys is just kind of hopes, hopes and dreams

that DJ Wanham can turn into a better player, that Andrew Booth can get healthy and that a Caleb Evans can get healthy and that Duke Shelley can somehow kind of like improve. Like those are all hard, hard bets that you're having to make. And so I think when you look at it, you just say, man, they need a rejuvenation of talent. And that's at least one draft where you're coming out with several starters that you feel really, really good about. And that

hasn't been the case the last couple of years. They've hit on big ones. They've hit on Justin Jefferson and Christian Derrissaw. Those are massive, massive, really important, really good draft picks that they hit on. but you also need just the quality depth and they've been very boomer bust in that aspect it's either justin jefferson or it's you know someone that's cut two weeks later like they haven't had a lot of that in between and that in between is what you're seeing flash on the kansas city roster you're seeing that flash on the bangles roster so they just really need to shore up their depth with any sort of solid draft, which they've kind of been absent from the last couple of years. And I think I would feel incredibly different about where this team stands.

Had they hit on draft picks outside of Derrissaw and Jefferson, because let's even try to rank their best draft picks beyond those guys. And you just like Ezra Cleveland is a good run blocker like I mean really that and so a lot of this is not a bed that Kweisi Adafo Mensah made himself we don't know what's going to happen with the draft class from this year it's not promising at the moment because I think the injuries are pretty scary when guys get severely hurt in their first year and that can throw off everything like maybe Louis scene was on the path to greatness but then now it's like a big setback to have that uh terrible leg injury and caleb evans with the concussions and i i thought he showed some flashes andrew booth has been hurt for his whole life so it's kind of hard to predict that he's going to be good but you know that could

happen but they cut basically the whole 2021 draft class outside of Cam Bynum, who didn't play all that well. I die? Who's just been here and is like run his rookie contract out and is not going to be here. I mean, there weren't any players that I looked at that were on special teams that I thought, okay, all right, next man up. And, you know, I think that that's why it does. I'm going to, I'm going to steal your word. Like rejuvenation season is what we should be calling this because that's what they really need. And when you go back and look just a couple of years ago, the 2020 season. All right. So Kansas city was still amazing. How about the other teams that we're playing today? I mean, Cincinnati horrendous course, uh, San Francisco. I think that was a year that Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt. They were horrendous. I believe that was a Nick Mullins starting season. Philadelphia took their

big step back 2020. When we talk about rejuvenation season, which is good. I like when PR departments and things come up with the different phrasings for stuff to try to soften it, but that's what we're doing here but you know tanking and rebuilding they all sound so terrible but rejuvenation now that's different that but that's the whole point right that like it wasn't long ago it was two seasons ago that these teams were all terrible and now they're here playing on this weekend and philadelphia like that was the turning point for them in getting back to the NFC championship and onto the Superbowl was that reset season where they decided to move

on from Wentz and it sort of made it official and where they were able to draft high and stack that draft capital. Like that's that year. And nobody likes that. But you know, one thing that Kevin O'Connell says all the time is be honest with yourself and i guess i would say to them like watch what you just saw be honest with yourself how far away even this year were you but how about projecting to next year this year i think you'd have a pretty tough time beating any of these teams or competing with them based on the fact that you couldn't beat the giants at home so you're not really in their ballpark, not even close. But at least you had 13 wins.

You could make somewhat of an argument. But for next year, tell me how you get better. Tell me how you're going to have a better situation next year. What, just a defensive coordinator? Like, okay, that's hard to believe. And certainly they could do better with a defensive coordinator. But you're going to be replacing, once again, like six players on a defense. What are these teams also have that have good defenses?

Usually they've either gotten a bunch of veteran players that they've spent a ton of money on like Trey Hendrickson, for example, or they've played together for a few years. And that's partly like something with San Francisco, that they have this defense that they add a piece here or there. But a lot of it is Fred Warner's been there. Nick Bosa's been there. These guys are in their prime. They're not 32 years old just trying to hang on to it. So if you're looking at it, you're thinking about like, how could you get to this level?

There really isn't a path in one year. And that's where they need to be honest with themselves and take a true competitive rebuild. And I think that, you know, you could have looked at these teams anyway, that were playing today and already said that, but then when you watch them and you see the talent on the field, you see the defenses and how well they played, even San Francisco, I thought played about as hard as you possibly could on defense. There's just no way to look at that and say the Vikings are, are somewhere close to that. So let's let's, let's end on this though, Paul,

let's talk about the actual Superbowl and our first impressions. And then, you know, on the show, we'll talk about it as we go forward, of course, but your first impressions of a chiefs and Eagles Superbowl. Yeah.

Well, I, last week I mistakenly doubted Patrick Mahomes. I will not be doing that again this week, I don't think. Another two weeks for him to just kind of rest that ankle. I think I'm going to have a hard time picking against him in that team, especially as we kind of talked about with the Eagles. I think they clearly showed they are a very, very talented roster

and a very, very talented team, but they haven't played a caliber really of the Chiefs where they're firing on all cylinders and have a Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey healthy so as long as those two guys are there I'm gonna have a hard time picking against Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes and that means what two that would mean if they win two Super Bowls and Mahomes is like first seven seasons or eight seasons, which is just on a historic pace already. Uh, and so it's, it's, it's really incredible. So I think I know you didn't ask for a pick, but that's kind of where my head's leaning is just the chiefs. And I will doubt them at my own peril. And I will not be doing that, uh, this week because I think just remarkably, remarkably remarkably it was just incredible how well he played today and I think he was something like um he completed all his passes when he was flushed

out of the pocket when he was on the run or when he held the ball for more than four seconds and so like all the plays you wouldn't think he would make with that ankle he was perfect or like close to perfect on all those opportunities when he was flushed out when he had to hold on to the ball all the times when you thought that ankle out, when he had to hold on to the ball, all the times when you thought that ankle would become like, you know, the thing that held him back, he just kind of continued to push through. So I will not be picking against Patrick Mahomes. I will not do it.

I did it last week and it made me look like a fool. So I will be picking the Chiefs. And I just think that's kind of my overwhelming thought right now is I think he's going to win MVP this season. It's deserved. And we're seeing that even with an injury, like how incredible he is. And I think it kind of took an injury for us to really, really appreciate what he's doing out there. And so I think he wins another Superbowl and just kind of continues his track to potentially being one of the greatest, greatest ever when he, when he hangs it up. Yeah, I think that Philadelphia has a better roster from number

two until 53, but I don't think that they have better at number one. The one thing I would say, though, is that when Patrick Mahomes did lose the Super Bowl, it came because of a dominating defensive line performance. And you're talking about going against the deepest defensive line in the NFL. I mean, Linval Joseph out there eating up blocks and just like, Hey, good for him, by the way, going to the Superbowl. That guy was part of the 2017 team for the Vikings that gave his whole heart to that team. And he gets to go to the Superbowl. That's awesome. But, uh, you know, like an unsung hero kind of thing. He was a great player that had the respect of everyone. That's very cool to see. But when he and Indomitian Sioux and Robert Quinn,

these guys are your depth on the defensive line, that's dangerous. And I do not think Kansas City has a great offensive line. I think they have a competent offensive line, way more competent than it was when they lost with Mike Remmers starting at left tackle to Tampa Bay. But still, it's not great. And Mahomes was pressured quite a bit and they couldn't run almost at all. And so there are issues there with that matchup. And it's the

only way that you're going to cause problems for him. I also will pick against Patrick Mahomes when he's retired and wearing a hall of fame jacket. That, that rule really worked well for me picking Tom Brady year in and year out to go to the Super Bowl and win. And I'm going to now apply that rule to Patrick Mahomes because he's basically the new Brady, where every year you can expect he's in the AFC championship or the Super Bowl. And I do think that their quality of competition was higher. But also, I mean, if you want to talk about which team had an easier route and is more rested, Philadelphia had to play like two halves in the entire playoffs.

Whereas there's a lot of people banged up that will be able to get healthier when they get to the Super Bowl. But Philadelphia, I mean, no problems at all. I think another point is depth on defense. Like Philadelphia just has so much of it. And that really helps. Somebody gets banged up, then they've kind of got a next man that they were able to go out and get. So I think this is a closer matchup or a very close matchup.

I think Kansas city will probably be favored and I will also pick Kansas city to win. But I mean, I like it. I just think you're talking about the best team in the AFC and the NFC from day one of the season. And that's okay with me. Like a lot of times it does end up being random and you look at it and go like, I don't know, like, was this the best we could do for a Superbowl? I will not feel that way. Uh, when the Superbowl comes around with these two teams, uh, real quick, just wanted to respond to a few of the comments, uh, from Brian's horror corner. I don't even want to know

what the, does that mean you're a cornerback? Um, but just the vikings uh need more dominant on the line of scrimmage uh and i think that you know that has just been such a forever issue for them with the interior the offensive line and i've always wondered like how much why is it that no guard can ever be good with kirk cousins like is it it's not lack of investment or like what is it why is that because they've spent draft picks way too many draft picks. And I wanted to add that as well, that when we talk about those teams drafting, one of the things with the Vikings, because another question in the comments is about the scouting. And as far as I know, their scouting department stayed the same. I don't think that

they got rid of a bunch of scouts, but those guys aren't responsible for which players you pick. And I have no doubts that they scouted Louis seen and he looked great because I watched Louis seen from Georgia and tell me one person who thought, Oh no, that guy stinks. Like, no, it was amazing. Like on that Georgia defense, uh, drafting is random. That's been proven a million times. There was a great story in the athletic about soccer and scouting in soccer and how random that is. Baseball, it's always like this. You never know who can really play in the pros. But when you draft out of your first number of picks, a safety, a guard, and a linebacker,

you are really limiting what you can get out of those picks, even if they're good. And then you are in such dire straits with your money that you say, Hey guard, who's probably a developmental player, uh, who you overdrafted, uh, yeah, go out there and play every game. I mean, that's just a, that's just a losing bet when you're trying to do that, when you need everything to be going right. So I do think that, uh, they need to they need to be better when it comes to the trenches and the offensive line is a huge deal for philadelphia but i also think that you know when just like the look at the stars that you drafted it's like jefferson receiver darisaw tackle like are you feeling me here and uh you know instead they looked at you know oh guard we

need to draft a guy because we need a starter and they made this some of the same mistakes that spielman's regime made drafting non-premium positions overdrafting them trading down too far and trading yourself right out of star positions i don't know who wouldn't bring up at this moment that jameson williams was kind of there And if you're looking forward saying, all right, well, now you kind of are stuck with one receiver and the Bengals and the Eagles, like in the 49ers, they all have multiple great playmakers. So there's a lot of things to look at that. It's, it's more of the bets you make in the draft than it is. Can you scout? Because I guarantee you, if you went through Philadelphia and San Francisco and you went through their drafts and you went through their draft boards,

you would have, you'd probably laugh hysterically at some of the bad picks that they made. One team who's in the Superbowl pick Jalen Rager over Justin Jefferson. I mean, that just, it shows you. And then they made a great pick with Devante Smith. It just shows you how difficult it is to scout and draft. But if you take two swings at the wide receiver and one of them becomes great, you've got something that's going to drive value for you big time. Yeah. And it's brought up Kyle Hamilton was there.

And of course, he had a good season as well. But that all kind of goes into that drafting and team building. So anyway, well, we've been doing this for a while. And it's great because what a weekend overall. What a season overall. One of the craziest seasons that I can ever remember. And I mean, just my entire time watching football. But in the end of the day, we have two great teams that make for an incredible Super Bowl matchup.

So I am thankful for that. And we will continue to discuss all things Vikings offseason. Maybe we'll get a defensive coordinator pick at some point here soon and lots of other things happening as well. So Paul Hodowanek, thank you very much for your time. All of you who listened or watched on YouTube, your commenters, everybody appreciate it. Hope you had a good weekend. I ate some chicken wings and I hope you did the same and we will have a good time leading up

to the Superbowl. Thanks everybody.