Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What the heck, Super Bowl? Plus Carson Wentz, Sam Darnold rumors and Justin Jefferson ROY snub

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to the post-Super Bowl of Purple Insider, brought to you by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here, along with Paul Hodowanek. And Paul, I'm just crushed. I'm just very sad. I'm upset. All I ever hoped for in these games is that they're good.

They're entertaining. They're interesting. They're fascinating. They open the door to great post-game analysis for folks like ourselves. And the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers did exactly the opposite of that. A complete tail whooping by the Tampa Bay Bucs over the Kansas City Chiefs, especially in the trenches, which we will discuss. And Tom Brady solidifies himself even more so as the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. And now we'll see if he decides to, you know, ride the horse off into the sunset or continue playing or whatever he's going to do. But I would put this, Paul, among the most disappointing Super Bowls in the history of my

lifetime because of the matchup. A lot of times when it was disappointing, it was, well, Cary Collins against the Ravens. Darn, it wasn't that good. Or Rex Grossman didn't put up a good fight against Indy but when it comes to this matchup it was supposed to be a heavyweight fight and it turned out that the injuries on the offensive line and just a heap of mistakes by kansas city end up costing them the super bowl so the bucks are the champions and here we are your reaction. Yeah, it was a little sad watching it. It's hard when something has such a big effect like the offensive line play and it's because of injuries. And so you don't get to see these teams at 100 percent, but you never get to see teams at 100 percent in the playoffs.

That's just not how football works. So that's that's not an excuse. But boy, was it tough watching Mahomes run for his life. I kept I kept waiting for the drive to be like, oh, this is when the Chiefs are going to make their comeback. Like, I even had hope down 22, and then it was never going to happen. Mahomes throws that just, like, just otherworldly pass where he's, like, freeze frame, like, in the middle of the air, and then it hits the guy's face mask and drops that's pretty much what happened to the Chiefs all game long but yeah it was it was just a tough watch because you you like seeing close games um this is one of the biggest

blowouts I've I've definitely watched as as a football fan up there with the the Broncos Seahawks from a few years ago but yeah just, just disappointment. But at the same time, like Tom Brady now has seven Super Bowls like that is incredible. It's incredible what he was able to do with this team in a COVID year. And that defense was scary good tonight. Actually, this kind of reminds me of Cam Newton versus Peyton Manning. Two great quarterbacks. The up-and-comer versus the older guy. One team has a great defense.

The other team does not have a good offensive line. Coincidentally, Mike Remmers playing out of position in both Super Bowls. He got destroyed by Vaughn Miller, who won the MVP, and you could give both defensive ends the MVP in this one. We know that Mike Remmers is an average and okay right tackle. He is not a good left tackle, and he proved not to be a good guard for the Minnesota Vikings either, and that is the key thing that everyone is going to take away from this, and here's what I want to say about it.

Don't connect this to the Vikings. Like, whatever you just saw there, do not connect to the Vikings because Patrick Mahomes is not anything like your quarterback. And the Vikings had a healthy offensive line all season long. The difference between the Vikings offensive line and what we saw here today was actually massive. Riley Reif is a good player. Brian O'Neill is a great player. You have a first-round pick. You have a second-round pick.

What we saw here was a guard playing right tackle, backup guard might have been a backup center I mean their tackles are normally Mitchell Schwartz and uh Fisher the first round pick I mean you're talking about two usually pretty solid tackles you go from solid to beyond awful to face Shaq Barrett who led the league in sacks, Jason Pierre-Paul, who's really good, Indomitian Sioux, who's a dominant player, and Vida Vey, who's a dominant player. And then they rotate other guys who are good. They have blitzing linebackers. They cover extremely well. I mean, this was, to me, sort of, you go back and you pull out everything and you go, well, who's the best team from top to bottom and healthiest, the Bucs were very healthy. Who's the best team?

It's the Tampa Bay Bucs, and they won the Super Bowl. And how you usually win the Super Bowl is being great at everything. We want to say, well, you've got to do this and you've got to do that. But what it usually comes down to is the Bucs were great at everything. Tom Brady is not going to be talked about as the reason they won the Super Bowl. He had 130 quarterback rating. Like, I think he also is the reason they won the Super Bowl. Kansas City could not stop him. And Andy Reid on his side, usually when he comes out of a bye week or having two weeks, his offenses are amazing. But in this

case, they covered so well that there weren't easy quick passes against Buffalo, if you remember. Mahomes didn't complete a single pass over 20 yards, and they put up a ton of points, but Tampa Bay took all that stuff away. Travis Kelsey did not have a good game. He fell on the turf. He was covered extremely well by their two great linebackers. I mean, it was just a marvelous performance by the entire Bucs defense, by Todd Bowles, the defensive coordinator. This is just not something that I want to say, well, see Vikings, you need to draft a tackle in the first round because look what happened to Mahomes. No, I'm not going to go there. Mahomes reached the Super Bowl with a

pretty poor offensive line, but there's only so many guys you can lose before you get to the point where it's a great team versus a great team and one team doesn't have their offensive line and the other team does I mean this is like if you went to the NBA finals and you had to play it without LeBron or something well maybe it's not that big or no there's a comparison LeBron when he was playing with the Cavs versus the Warriors where the Warriors were the complete team and the Cavs were just bad and they had injured players Kevin Love got hurt one year for the whole playoffs I mean stuff like that where even the greatest player cannot overcome losing everybody around him when you're also playing the greatest player of all

time a quarterback and a phenomenal, complete top-to-bottom defense? Yeah, I was just going through the next-gen stats as you were talking there. Shaq Barrett had eight pressures. If I totaled them all up, they had 23 on the night, and I just looked at the PFF numbers. The Vikings didn't allow that many pressures in a game at any point this season they got close they're up 17 or 18 a couple times so it's decently close but yeah those were the backups doing that against an all all level defensive front so the comparison is probably not there and mahomes was like he only got sacked three times out of that and he was just making

magic happen so i you can't relate kurt or kurt cousins to patrick mahomes i think it would be doing a disservice to the chiefs to be relating their offensive line to the minnesota offensive line because they were just battered that's if you had dakota dozers lined up like across the offensive line because you have no depth like that that is what we saw today it's not brian o'neill and riley reef it's a it's a it's a whole different picture now that's not to say that the vikings don't need to improve i just want to say that when it comes to these two teams they from top to bottom even the chiefs defense in terms of talent on a different level than the vikings but the bucks were the better team even

when you look at their points for points points against, where they ranked this year. The Bucs were higher in points for. They were higher in points against than Kansas City. And this is why it's hard to win two years in a row, because it is hard for guys to play all the way through the end of the Super Bowl last year, come back, play all the way through again, and stay healthy. And that's what they weren't able to do. But also, the Chiefs just did not play a very Chiefs-ian game. I mean, normally they are much more locked in. They are not committing bad penalties.

Some of them were certainly questionable from the referees, but they committed penalties a lot early in that game that gave Tom Brady second chances. And before Gronk's touchdown, I think it was where they lined up offside on the field goal and I said out loud you can't give Tom Brady second chances and this is Atlanta did this when they were up 28 to 3 and they decide to pass the ball and they commit a penalty and they take themselves out of field goal position it's like if you open the door for the best player in the history of the game he's gonna beat you this. This goes for all of them. This goes for Michael Jordan. This goes for

LeBron. You can't just leave the door open for Brady. And that's what they did. It wasn't just about how they got beat on the offensive line. They also didn't run the ball at all. And they got behind because of their mistakes and were not able to run the ball. So they couldn't neutralize the pass rush. They couldn't use their play action. And even then you mentioned they were still in the game with a chance and a guy lets a ball bounce off of his face mask and that, you know, Tyree kill having the same thing happen. It was just like, they weren't a focused football team in this game. And Tampa Bay was on point from start to finish. And so I, but I will make a Vikings point. You tell me if you agree. That when I look at the Tampa Bay roster,

I see a lot of players that they saw as veterans who they brought in. And I don't endorse Antonio Brown as a human being. But Antonio Brown makes a couple of nice catches. Jason Pierre-Paul is older and is a little bit expensive, but he's an older veteran player and he's dominating in this game. And Dominick Nsou, again, a little expensive, not crazy expensive, a veteran player dominating in this game. And I think that that is a huge thing when it comes to the Vikings and how they have to rebuild is finding veteran players who know what they're doing to fill out the roster and not just

relying entirely on development for every position and they're going to have to find a way to do that when it comes to the salary cap and then you do have to hit on draft picks all over the field is players who were hits as draft picks what a game by the linebacker white tonight um and then they have a veteran levante david those two were fantastic antoine winfield jr gets an interception sometimes that's just luck but you gotta hit on those draft picks chris godwin did not have a huge impact in this game but was a third round pick he helps them get there they've got a couple of offensive linemen that ended up being hits like tristan werfs so you know i think it's it's if you're going to make it about the Vikings at all, it says, A, how important it is to hit on those draft picks, and B, that grabbing multiple proven players off the free agent market, even if they're a little older and not as good Vikings are away from that sort of level because they haven't exactly done great in either of those aspects. Yes, they've hit on Justin Jefferson.

That's step one, but they've got to hit on some of those other picks. Ezra Cleveland has to turn into something for that to work. Cameron Dantzler has to do that. You can't waste fourth round picks on defensive linemen year after year and have those not pan out like the Bucs. They drafted Antoine Winfield and they drafted Chris Godwin and they drafted those offensive linemen that were up there up front. And then they also got the guys in the back end. So the Vikings are kind of missing a little bit of both. And it's not exactly the year that you'd be able to go and sign some free agents for a decent bulk of money. And it's, they, they just don't, they haven't shown the track record to be able to draft those,

just the like the quantity of those quality players. They've been able to hit on some of these guys that are turned into really good players. Eric Kendricks, obviously really good player. Dalvin Cook's a really good player. Justin Jefferson's a really good player. They obviously have an eye for the talent, but yeah, tonight shows along with not having someone like Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, we're also missing some things around the edges. And that's what it, you know, came down to in a lot of ways. I should also even mention Leonard Fournette, a guy that, you know, was one of the

biggest busts in history. And they said, sure, why not? Come on over. Another veteran player. And hey, if the guy gives you anything, then you you know you're good and that's exactly what he did he gave them a couple of big runs that's all they needed they convinced Gronk to come back and this is where the Vikings are in a tough position in comparison when you bring Tom Brady to your team everyone's like you know what I think I will sign in Tampa Bay for exactly this reason. There's some guys now that get rings like Indomitian Sioux, who's been around a very long time, and he gets a ring here. Jason Pierre-Paul gets a ring. Gronk gets another ring for coming to the Tampa Bay Bucs to play with Tom Brady.

And this is a spot where the Vikings, coming off a 7-9 season, they're not in a position to overpay people to come here, and they don't really have a good case for, hey, veteran player, you should come here. They did have that case in 2018, and that's how they got Sheldon Richardson, and I thought that signing worked out great. But this year, I think they have to even go to the next level

of getting sort of that second wave of free agents. But still, I think what we see is that when the chips are down, a lot of times it's these veteran players and these veteran teams who come through. And so the Vikings have to get back to that. But again, comparing these two teams to the Vikings, it's like really a different planet from where they're at right now because they're just both such complete teams. And it took took you know just injuries wiping out the entire Chiefs offensive line for this not to be good were there any other

observations that you had specifically from the Super Bowl I wanted this episode to be all about the Super Bowl but it was just so miserable that I've got a bunch of really interesting things that probably are better to talk about than this that came out through the weekend. Well, now that we just kind of said the Vikings are a long way away, I still would point out there are a lot of things that Vikings fans can say and take from this game that we can put towards what the Vikings can do, like we just talked about. But Tom Brady only was pressured five times. So the people clamoring for an offensive line, you're not wrong. We're just saying the situations aren't exactly the same.

There's a little bit different in what the Chiefs went through and what the Vikings went through, but that doesn't mean you like, can survive off a bad offensive line. We saw that today, Mahomes, and the greatness that, that he possesses still couldn't get anything done. So yes, of course you need the offensive line. The Vikings have a lot of the weapons that both teams had, like they've got guys that stack up with those players. It's around the edges of these teams that make the Super Bowl teams when guys go down, when people are hurt, or just veterans that can step up that have been there

before. That's where they're lacking but I I don't want to say the Vikings fans who are saying well the Vikings need an offensive line or like this shows they need an offensive line they're not wrong it's just probably not the game to point that out hey I want to take a second to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics and I really mean it when I say friends they are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and they reached out wanting to support this show. And I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for perishable, non-perishable, and fragile freight from source to door. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they're the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America.

And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They could ship perishable, non-perishable, oversized, or fragile goods, and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk, overperform, and go the extra mile for your company. No, no, no. Yeah, I'm not saying that they're wrong for suggesting that they should try to have a better offensive line and i've been saying lean into the kirk and do everything you can to help out the quarterback that you have and how he plays i am curious if you have it in front of you what the time to throw from snap to throw was for each quarterback because this is where i would love to give some credit to the tampa coverage and also to Tom Brady, because Brady is so good at getting the ball out.

And I think when you look at his offensive lines historically, like remember Nate Solder, how like Nate Solder was this guy, oh yeah, he's got to get him as the top tackle, total bust. And this has happened a bunch of times for them. Even Josh Klein was a great player for the New England Patriots, and then he goes to another team, he's not so good, and then he comes here and he's not so good. And I see it with some of the checkdowns and things that he perfectly makes

these decisions and analyzes these blitzes, and I think that so much of that also comes back to him. Yeah, his time to throw is 2.27. So he's just rifling rifling him out and like we said with the defense that Tampa had or put out there like Tom Brady didn't have to do that much but he did a lot for this team especially in the first half they were they were really good and maybe that I mean we didn't really talk about it much but he now has seven Super Bowls and he's just amazing and the fact that it happened this year, like I wanted the Chiefs to win because I love Mahomes.

But like at some point, you just got to like understand we're in like greatness. Like I don't think someone might not win seven Super Bowls again ever. And the guy that might do it, who has the best chance that we've ever seen probably, was on the other side. And his team just got obliterated and this it was just a fantastic performance by Brady a fantastic season by him and puts him into

perspective like just how amazing he is he's going to a new team he's doing this in this year of all years and it was just incredible there are so many reasons to not really like Tom Brady. One of them is that he's made this kind of boring because he's always winning Super Bowls. And through, I mean, just your lifetime and my lifetime watching football since I was in what, high school, the guy has just been winning all the Super Bowls all the time. There was a section where he was out of it for a few years, but for the most part it's just been Brady Brady Brady all the time and that is a little annoying and I can understand why the smugness of the Patriots would have driven you nuts but now that he's won one with another team

I think you just have to sort of tip your cap and say we watched the greatest quarterback in the history of this sport. There really isn't any debate at this point. I mean, you can credit the defensive line, but they put up 31 points and didn't even have to score in the fourth quarter. That's Tom Brady being absolutely dominant. And I mean, the same goes for how he played in the second half of the year. And this is another point, too, about winning the Super Bowl is they went 11 and 5 this year but that they didn't play like an 11 and 5 team down the stretch after they came out of the bye

which just figures they played the Vikings but really after that game that was a turn for them and they seemed to master their offense and be a dominant team after that so you know you're right you kind of have to appreciate that you're watched the greatest quarterback of all time. I just wish that we watched him in a duel. Same thing where it felt like with Cam Newton, where you just, Cam Newton's team fumbled the ball and they dropped passes and just the offensive line couldn't block anyone. I feel the same way for Mahomes here. Like, yeah, when you have the two absolute best teams, any advantage is going to be a

problem. And it definitely was for Kansas City. So I've got a bunch of things, and I just kind of want to throw them out there and we can talk about them. A lot of reports that came out over the weekend of pretty big relevance here. Usually the NFL does not like too many other storylines, like with the Super Bowl, but this lead-up has included a huge trade and then a ton of other, like, hot stove type of rumors. So the first one is that Carson Wentz is going to be traded soon,

and I suppose that could even be happening by the time people are listening to this podcast on Monday because it seems like it's really getting aggressive, and the team that's being discussed for Carson Wentz is in the old division the Chicago Bears the price tag is allegedly a first round pick and a player and then another maybe fifth round draft pick or something like that for Carson Wentz to Chicago your thoughts Paul uh I think I speak for all Vikings fans that would love the Bears to do that deal, to give up a first-round pick, to give up a fifth-round pick, to give up a player, and then get Carson Wentz back.

I think he's probably better than what we saw this past year from him, but it's not like he's going to a situation like if he went to the Colts. I'd see maybe a little bit more bright bright things for him because they have the offensive line in place they have weapons in place for him the Bears do not exactly have the the weapons in place they do not have the offensive line in place you're then trading away a first round pick which I don't see the Bears being more than what they were this year for the next couple years so that pick's probably going to be in the teens or lower um yeah i i i don't get it from the bears perspective because it seems like a lateral move

and if it is if it is helping your team you're only improving it marginally i believe uh i don't know how much salary cap uh the eagles would be responsible for the bears would be responsible for but the bears would really have to be responsible for very little of it for me to feel good about this trade because if it's coming with a big cap figure like i don't see how they improve at all from where they were under mr briskey i think that wentz is much closer to who he was in 2018 and 2019 than he is on the two seasons that bookend that. He's not the 11-2 quarterback that was in the MVP race. Again, that team reminded me of the Bucs, where the best way to win the Super Bowl is to be great at everything.

And the Philadelphia team that he played for, great offensive line, great defensive line, good secondary, good receivers, good coaching. They don't have all that in Chicago. Offensive line, great defensive line, good secondary, good receivers, good coaching, good, you know, right? They don't have all that in Chicago. They have a good defense, but no longer an amazing defense. They were kind of middle of the pack last year with a few great players. And their playmakers, we don't know if Allen Robinson is coming back to Chicago. Maybe they franchise tag Allen Robinson to make sure he comes back. But then, right, how do you fit all these things under their salary cap, which is not in a great situation either.

They didn't have a very good offensive line in Chicago last year, and that really takes down. This is the similar to Kirk Cousins thing where when you have a quarterback who hangs on to the ball, you have to have a great offensive line. It can't just be good or okay. It has to be great. And I feel that way about Philadelphia and Carson Wentz. He hangs onto the ball forever and he takes a lot of sacks. I think

he led the league in sacks this year and only played 12 games. Yeah, he takes a lot of sacks and he fumbles all the time. And I don't know how much bigger of an upgrade that is over just keeping Mitch Trubisky for another year. If I'm Chicago and you look at all the other options, Bridgewater always made sense to me for Chicago because he kind of plays that don't turn the ball over, protect the ball, just, you know, kind of move the sticks, get a field goal kind of offense that would have worked for them, I think. And Trubisky is not ever going to be great, but at least when he was running that rollout and bootleg offense, he showed some signs for them and beat the Vikings and played really well against the Vikings.

I would prefer that and not giving up the first round pick. This just reeks of absolute desperation from Chicago. So this is really interesting to me because you have the Packers who are going to take one more shot at it with Rodgers and try to keep everything in place and then you have the Vikings that are trying to retool more likely than not just fill in the holes with free agency and with the draft and you have Chicago that's desperately all in potentially if they do make this trade and then Detroit who's like full rebuild everybody give us first-round draft picks for Matt Stafford.

And it's an interesting place to be in, but I think it's funny that we can sort of LOL Bears, but they have kind of owned the Vikings in the recent years under sort of in the Kirk Cousins era. But, yeah, I mean, it just screams Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace desperate. Yeah, it really just depends how you view what their window is to be a good team, because as presently constructed with Khalil Mack, assuming they're going to try to sign Allen Robinson with some of the aging guys they have

on that defense, like Akeem Hicks, some of the guys in the secondary, plus just kind of the age of their offense and kind of the pieces around there. This is what you do when you keep a GM and coach in place that are fearing for their jobs and are on a last-ditch effort. They're going to go make these types of desperation moves. It's not to the level that the Vikings went to when they re-signed Kirk and they did the Yannick and Gawkway trade and all that but that was coming from a place of Zimmer and Spielman feeling like they needed to prove

themselves and to make some win now risky probably not super smart but we kind of need these to work out so we're going to roll the dice because we're not going to probably be here to feel the effects of this when the team really would start to feel the effects of that type of contract, that loss of draft capital. That's what it feels like with the bears. If they're signing Wentz, it's Nagy and it's, it's them saying, okay, we need a quarterback because our, our jobs are going to be lost if we run it back with Mitch Trubisky another year, but then you're going to lose the first round pick.

The roster is going to age out and maybe if Wentz like he's a reclamation project and he's decent like in those in 2018-2019 he's like decent okay maybe you're nine and seven maybe you're ten and six but where does that really get you and then you've set yourself back Wentz's cap hit is over 30 million for the next three years. And I'm not sure that team with Wentz, even if he does play better than maybe we expect, if they're going to beat Green Bay in the next two years, if they're going to beat the Vikings in the next two years. And so you kind of have to assess where your window is. Like the Lions clearly understood with Matt Stafford, even Matt Stafford playing healthy with our whole team. we're not at that upper echelon. Like we're going to get bad and it's going to get worse before it gets better,

but we're committed to that future. The Bears feel like they're in that area where they don't really know where to go. And I always favor just kind of blow it up because I don't see the peak of ever getting to a point like tonight with a Bears team in the next few years or one that we, or even in the next few years or one that we or even in the playoffs past like the divisional round so I would not I would not support the the move as as a independent um reporter as a Vikings fan I would support it but not not as somebody just looking at this objectively right Vikings fans are like please give up your first round pick for a

quarterback that's really not very good and I looked it up last three years since 2018, Carson Wentz has a lower quarterback rating than Ryan Fitzpatrick. So they would be better off getting Gardner Minshew or Ryan Fitzpatrick as a bridge quarterback to whoever is going to be next than they would. But it didn't work out with Nick Foles being that bridge quarterback. So they are, you know, trying a different route and trading for someone very expensive. What I think it says, if we want to relate it to the Vikings, and I've maybe made this point before, but when you are constantly as an ownership,

putting all the pressure on a coach and a general manager to win next year, you're really playing with fire and you're just asking them to trade for Yannick Ngakwe. You're just asking them to trade for Carson Wentz or to sign Cousins to an extension or a number of other things. When you say, you guys better do this. You guys better win. If you feel that way, if you feel like if they don't win the next year, they're fired, just fire them and then start anew.

Because that's exactly what Detroit did. They fired their GM. They fired their coach. And now they can take a smarter route that's more of a long-term vision. And who knew we'd be talking about the Lions being smarter than people, but they have now a general manager who built the team this way before, and I think it's the right route for them. And so, you know, Chicago's kind of doing the same thing as the Vikings,

only the Vikings have a solidified quarterback. also we have to bring this up if Carson Wentz is bringing a first round pick ah it's not just Matt Stafford whose reputation is super high and probably much higher in the league than it should be this is Carson Wentz coming off of a horror show of a season in which by the way there were reports that he wasn't getting along with his quarterback coach and his head coach and his teammates and all these things there have been multiple years where Carson Wentz has been reported as kind of a selfish player if he's still bringing a first I mean you gotta turn the phone on loud ringer right I mean if anybody calls it just seems like there's phone calls going to every team about quarterbacks yeah I don't know if I I don't know

when the Mike Zimmer comments came out um it was a couple days ago where it said Kirk is our quarterback I'm not sure who he told that to I think it was NFL.com or something like that um it's probably what you gotta to say at this point. But it's not like Zimmer and Kirk have the best relationship. So I'm sure Zimmer is, you know, at least somewhat open to the possibility. But yeah, the market seems bloated right now. And it's a little confusing to me that like Goff, it was almost like we kind of have to attach a pick maybe for Goff or something.

And then for Wentz, they're not going to attach anything. I guess maybe that's just where they look at those two quarterbacks, how much dead money that the Eagles are going to be taking on as opposed to what the Rams are taking on, which is still a little bit of dead cap. But yeah, you have to think Cousins has a much better, probably a much better track record than Carson Wentz, at least over a period of time. Wentz just had that one great season. But yeah, it does make you think you got to be, you got to be at least listen, because if that's what they're throwing out for

Carson Wentz, like what, what does San Francisco throw out for Kirk Cousins? That's the destination that keeps getting pushed what would they do what would even maybe like the Colts do because they're on a tight window like any of those teams they're a little bit of a smarter organization both both the 49ers and Colts are so I don't know if they do something like that as opposed to where the Bears are at but yeah it it definitely gets it gets you thinking um last year at the combine I said to Rick Spielman, has Stefan Diggs asked you to be traded or shown interest in being traded? And he looked at me and said, no, he is not.

And, uh, usually by the way, if Rick is, um, I don't know, I don't want to say telling the truth. Cause that sounds weird. Like I, I don't like in sports accusing people of being liars because you know, they can't say everything that's out there. So I don't want to do that. But normally the way he answers questions like that is i'm keeping those things internal or i'm not going to talk about those things so when he said no i was like so yes and and that's exactly

how it played out and it feels the same way with josh rosen josh rosen's our quarterback for now uh and anybody can be traded for the right price so speaking of that that transitions into another adam schefter report that the carolina panthers in one of the most foolish and this just makes me think this organization's not going to improve like crazy things that they tried to do was trade their eighth overall pick and teddy Bridgewater for Matt Stafford, which why? Your roster is a joke, Carolina. You have four years to go, three years to go before you're any good. And Bridgewater is the perfect transition quarterback.

Even your coach signed a six-year contract. Like there's no pressure to win right now. There's pressure to be like 500. And yet they try to trade for Matt Stafford, to win right now. There's pressure to be like 500. And yet they try to trade for Matt Stafford, a win now quarterback. Doesn't make a bit of sense. But if they make that phone call to the Vikings, this is not about Bridgewater and the love for Bridgewater here. And my appreciation for Teddy of what he was headed toward as a Viking.

I don't know that that ever returns. I mean, we're talking about a guy who went through a catastrophic injury. Alex Smith was not close to the same quarterback that he was before when he was playing this year for Washington. But if you're making the case, it's right there for you. The eighth overall pick, the 14th overall pick, you get a quarterback who your coach likes a lot and wants to play the game that you're going to play. I mean, with Cousins, he's the expensive quarterback that

you don't use like an expensive quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater would be the opposite of that. He would be the less expensive, for now, quarterback, but also somebody you're not locked into. And after this year, they could do whatever they wanted with Teddy Bridgewater. They could keep him, they could cut him, they could move on, they could trade him to somebody else, you know, with his contract. So I'm not saying that this is a thing that's going to happen. I am saying that if you thought to yourself, huh, wonder if they do that for Kirk? You're not crazy are not crazy and also I think just as an aside I watched a lot of Bridgewater play last year just out of pure curiosity from him coming back and that is such a bad team it's such a bad team they had a good offense and he operated it

well in some games not as well in other games and they probably could have won a few more with some better performances at the end of games by Bridgewater. He clearly, at this point, does not have the physical skills to carry a team. But if he's your transition quarterback and you're only going to have him throw 450 times, don't hate it. Don't hate it from where they are as a complete organization. And with the 8th and the 14th overall pick, what does that scream?

Trade up. That screams trade up. So I'm just saying it's not insane. I don't see it coming at all. If that was on the table, I would take it in a heartbeat if I were the Vikings. I'm not sure if that's controversial or not in my head. It doesn't seem to be, only because now you have eight and 14. You have Teddy, who Zimmer Zimmer likes as you mentioned they run the style that Bridgewater can play well in which is what Zimmer wants to do anyways maybe not the way they should be playing but it's the

way that they want to play um and if it doesn't work and Teddy's not that great like it's the one person that you could bring here and people would not be that mad if he's not playing that great because it's Teddy Bridgewater. And so it'd be a good, like your fans would like it. The ownership, that's probably one of the guys they would be okay having come back. Like we've felt that Spielman and Zimmer are kind of married at the hip to cousins. If they said, okay, well now we're going to go back and we're going to get Bridgewater, who everyone loved and was the darling of this team and who we thought was going to be the quarterback for 15 years.

We're going to bring him back. And then we're also going to have two of the top 15 picks that we can trade up for a quarterback if we want to. We can pick guys, we can pick an offensive lineman and we can pick a defensive lineman and we can go and try to retool and do whatever you want. We can take someone with the eighth pick and trade that 14th pick back, get a second rounder back for the Yannick Ngakwe thing, get more flexibility.

Like so much opens up when you have that and opens up so many different routes you can take. You can take the rebuilding route with Teddy as kind of the bridge quarterback for you. You can try to add things around him. And I don't know if that was on the table. I'm not sure about you, but if that was on the table for the Vikings, I would take it. Yeah. The reason it's interesting to me is not that I think that Teddy Bridgewater at this point

in his career is a better quarterback than Kirk Cousins. I think it would be about this. If you don't believe that you could be a Super Bowl contender with Kirk Cousins next year, and you don't believe, it's sort of like if and then, one of those, like choose your own adventure. If you're choosing your own adventure and you say, it says, do you think that Kirk Cousins is a long-term quarterback? And you circle no. And it says, do you think you're going to win the Super Bowl next year? And you circle no. Then this move makes a lot of sense because how much different are you

in terms of record even if Bridgewater plays for this team last year how much different is the record they beat the teams they were supposed to be the one game that they pulled an upset was Delvin Cook running for 200 yards against Green Bay and Cousins throwing 17 times or something and the rest of the time it was teams like Carolina, like Jacksonville that they were supposed to be. You could give them a better receiver than anyone Carolina has. And actually you could probably give them a better office of line. Their office of line was a disaster. And maybe even a system that's quarterback friendly as well.

So he ranked last year 20th in quarterback rating. He was, or do I, yeah, no, I've got this right. 20th in quarterback rating. And he was I yeah no I've got this right 20th and quarterback rating and he was kind of in the ballpark of where Jared Goff was where Matt Ryan Ben Roethlisberger Kyler Murray like right in that ballpark not too far behind Baker Mayfield in that statistical area the key was last year an average quarterback and the Vikings sort of make Kirk Cousins into an average quarterback by only having him throw when they really need him to throw. So, yeah, I mean, if you do think you can win the Super Bowl next year, then no, of course you don't make this trade.

It really depends on what they think of their timeline of whether they would do it. And, again, it's not reported that Bridgewater and any discussion with the Vikings. It's just that Carolina was looking to upgrade a quarterback. See, hey, hey, Carolina, remember that game winning drive Kirk Cousins led? Do you remember that? So it's not about Kirk. I just want to make that clear. I'm not saying that Kirk is worse than Teddy or anything like that. At this point in their careers and after what we saw, Kirk would be the more talented quarterback. It's really about the timeline and the value. If Carson Wentz is bringing first round picks. All right.

Another thing I wanted to mention was Sam Darnold. They're taking calls about Sam Darnold with the Wentz thing. And he's going to get a first round pick. I assume this is out of the Vikings price range but if it wasn't to be the backup for Kirk and maybe the yeah I don't know I can't make it work I want to try to make it work but I can't really make it work yeah I don't know what I haven't seen the specific reports about what he would garner um in terms of a pick uh definitely not giving up a first round pick for Darnold um at least I wouldn't for this team reports about what he would garner in terms of a pick.

Definitely not giving up a first-round pick for Darnold. At least I wouldn't for this team. Maybe for a different team in a different scenario, you'd do that. But for this team with the holes that they have, you can't be giving up a first-round pick for a guy that you don't know could come in and replace Kirk Cousins or to get some draft capital back. They don't have their second rounder, so then you'd say, okay, are you giving your third rounder? But then do you want your gap in picks to be from the first pick and then into the fourth round?

Like, and it all kind of depends what his value is. If it's, if it's far off, then yes, I'd take him. Or if he was a free agent and you had to pay him a little bit above backup money to come in and incentivize him to come here. And maybe he takes over for Kirk after you trade him and do something. Yes. But if you're giving up something of value for the Vikings specifically, I don't see it as for just league wide.

It's intriguing. He's an intriguing fit. It's the betting on leaving Adam Gase theory and how that could turn out. And that probably has some merit, but we haven't seen any great play out of him where you feel good betting a high pick in mortgaging that future to bring a guy in who definitely isn't better than kirk cousins right now and may never be better than kirk cousins at any point hey everyone we're in the full swing of winter now and soda stick has you covered if you're a hockey fan check out the North State Icon

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SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspiredinspired goods. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping it still lands under the category of if you're the vikings and you don't think that kirk is the answer and you don't think you're winning the super bowl anytime

soon then you do it to take a shot but the price is probably going to be too high and i don't think that they would take kirk cousins rather than zach wil Wilson or Justin Fields. If you're the Jets, that would be really foolish. Unless their general manager is desperate too and thinks, I need a quarterback that can get me to 9-7 to be keeping my job, at least from next year, then okay, maybe you could see it. Would I trade Cousins straight up for Sam Darnold? Maybe, maybe. I'm always considering just the future through the eyes

of this organization. Not because I think Darnold is better or would even be better, but he has a high ceiling and is not expensive. And when you give me those two things, I would have to think about it. I probably, I don't know. I'm not sure that I, it's just that, that where, where Kirk stands with this team, it's just not an efficient use of your salary cap with the way that they use them. And so when you offer me someone young and interesting, I'm kind of like, uh, not crazy, but probably far more unrealistic than the Bridgewater thing. Two more notes I have for you relating to the Vikings. One is Jared Allen did not get in the Hall of Fame. I don't like when people say so-and-so was snubbed for the Hall of Fame

because then you have to tell me who didn't deserve it. And when I look at the people who they put in, Allen Fanica, we need more guards in the Hall of Fame. I mean, honestly, they've been snubbing offensive linemen for a long time. And Charles Woodson, all-time great player. John Lynch, all-time great player. Just unfortunate for Jared Allen. But I think that, I mean, he'll get in.

Jared Allen will get in. He's one of the greatest sackers of all time. And it might just take him a few years, though. I mean, there's such a backlog for these NFL players. At some point, they need to do, and I think this was even bandied about, but like 10 or 12 or 14 guys or 20 guys or something to get in, to just get rid of the backlog of players who are absolutely deserving. There's 53 guys on every roster. There's 32 teams.

There's going to be a lot of hall of famers and they only let in a couple at a time. And you leave a lot of people. I mean, Leroy Butler, I mean, that guy was amazing. You leave in a lot of really good people waiting foroy Butler I mean that guy was amazing you're leaving a lot of really good people waiting for the Hall of Fame and it just gets worse and worse every year yeah I I don't get too worked up about if they're making it especially early on if it's a player like Jared Allen where you feel like he's going to get in at some point um and he just it's not his year yet and I don't want it to get to the point with the NBA.

I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the NBA Hall of Fame, but it's a joke of who gets let into the NBA Hall of Fame. And so I'm fine with it being exclusive. It's supposed to be the greatest players of all time. It's not supposed to include thousands and thousands and thousands of players. So do I think Jared Allen deserves it? Probably, yeah. Am I just getting crazy upset because he didn't get in this year with'd rather this be exclusive and we have a couple guys that you're like man they really should have gotten in I'd rather it be that way then they look at and say we shouldn't let these 10 20 guys in so I'm cool with it being a little bit more exclusive than maybe it should be right now. If you have, let's say you only let in the Hall of Fame guys who are a 10 out of 10, like Kelvin Johnson, or a 9 out of 10, like John Lynch, there's a lot of 9 out of 10s who are sitting out there.

I mean, Peyton Manning is the 10 out of 10. He's going in. Kelvin Johnson, he's going in. 10 out of 10 guys who absolutely were above the game. But the Jared Allens, when you try to compare, there are many Jared Allens who are right there. And I think that level of guy belongs in, or at least there needs to be a lot of guys put in

to just clear out that backlog a little bit. Because there's so many who have just been waiting for a really long time. And you don't want a situation where Jared Allen is 68 years old by the time he gets into the Hall of Fame. You're like, wait, so now when he's 68, he's a Hall of Famer, but he wasn't when he was 38. So that, you know, it's unfortunate for him. I think he will eventually get in. Last note.

At least it's not the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is an even worse monstrosity. Right, yeah. What do you even do with that? I think they're in a good spot, thefl yes i i agree with you right you don't let everybody in who tied their shoes correctly like the nba and um you don't keep everybody out who dominate an entire era i mean don't we know by now that's that's my thing with those guys i despise barry bonds but don't we know doesn't everybody know doesn doesn't everybody have Google? It's like, if he goes into Hall of Fame and you Google him and you find out that he cheated,

you're going to be like, I don't like that guy. There you go. But I mean, he hit the most home runs of all time. So he kind of deserves to be in, but that's a whole nother. And if you're against them being in, I don't care, by the way. Like this is, this is one of the topics where I just go, I don't care. However you feel is Like this is one of the topics where I just go, I don't care. However you feel is fine. I hate listening to it on Sports Talk Radio because I'm like, I don't care. Because if Barry Bonds has to suffer consequences for being a disgusting, gross, cheating a-hole, that's fine. I don't care.

It doesn't bother me. It doesn't keep me up at night that Barry Bonds is victimized by his own cheating. Sorry, Barry. But, you know, he probably should be in. Anyway, speaking of victimized, Justin Jefferson does not win the Offensive Rookie of the Year. And I believe in objective analysis, as do you, Paul. It's part of our business here, Purple Insider.

I can't make an objective case for why Justin Herbert deserved to win over Justin Jefferson. Justin Herbert had a nice year for a rookie quarterback. He was solid. He threw for a lot of yards, but this year offense was crazy. So, you know, there is that. He was good. He had some exciting games. He had some bad games. Justin Jefferson was a truly dominant player, even if you take away the totals, like the yardage total. Of course, passing was more this year than it was in 1998 when Randy Moss was doing it, or when Anquan Bolden was doing it. Passing was more successful now. But when you compare him by the PFF numbers to the other guys, the greats, he was one of the five best receivers in the NFL.

Justin Herbert was a nice, good rookie quarterback. Jefferson dominated his position across the league. I just feel like those are two different things. Yeah, I kind of look at it like the Super Bowl MVP debate, which is always like, it's always usually a quarterback, and it's probably most deservedly going to be a quarterback it's in their ball the ball's in their hands the most often they have the most influence about how a game goes and so most of the time they should be the the Super Bowl MVP and they are the Super Bowl MVP it's probably similar for rookie of the year again you're you got the ball in your hands a lot uh but But then there's some instances where maybe the quarterbacks weren't that great,

like in the Super Bowl, they weren't that great. And you have to look to give it somewhere else. This felt like one of the years where you had a really easy excuse. You say the Chargers were horrific, like they were not a good football team. Justin Herbert had a solid year, sure. His numbers are good. But as every year, passing numbers are inflated, inflated, inflated. And that's just the way the game is played now.

That's how it's being officiated. It's how plays are being called. It's everything. And then when you have someone who breaks the rookie receiving record and he's got all these touchdowns and he's in the same vein as Randy Moss, who, by the way, was picked as a rookie of the year in 1998. Like, those are the times when you give it to someone else and you give it to a guy in Justin Jefferson who just was amazing.

So I get that quarterbacks are mostly going to get it and they probably should, but this felt like a year where you didn't have a dominant quarterback performance to give it to, really, and you didn't have a dominant quarterback performance to give it to really. And you had one in a wide receiver spot and, and in the margin was crazy. Like he only got like nine out of the 50 votes or whatever it was like, it wasn't even close. And it wasn't even tie goes to the winner because neither,

neither team won. I mean, they both went seven and nine. Nothing. It's nothing against Justin Herbert. He was just, he was a mid-pack quarterback this year in a year where quarterbacking has never been easier. The numbers that people put up, I was just pulling this up. I mean, the quarterback ratings that led the league this year, 121 led the league and there were 10 guys over 100 quarterback rating. I mean, this was the easiest year with no fans on road games, with the shortened offseason, all those things. It was the easiest year to ever come in and play quarterback.

And, you know, maybe that says it was the easiest year to play receiver too. But if we just compare who was better at their position for this year, probably Justin Jefferson with no ill will toward Justin Herbert. I saw the Chargers tweeting about the Vikings fans attacking. Like, look, I mean, if you're a Vikings fan, you're probably jealous of how exciting that was to have Justin Herbert come in and kind of re-energize your franchise that was looking a little down. And now you kind of have a fun direction that you can go to see where it

works out with Justin Herbert. I'm still skeptical, by the way, still a little skeptical when you have a really high quarterback rating under pressure. I think we saw this with Mahomes. It's always going to regress. I mean, it did with Lamar Jackson. Even Mahomes under pressure is not a great quarterback. So Herbert was for a small sample size. And I don't think that that continues, but we'll see anyway. So a snubbing happened to Justin Jefferson and that's how it goes. But I think, you know, he'll get over it. He'll be okay. He'll be fine. I won't get over how sad this Superbowl was though, Paul. So I, I do want to say, and maybe I said this before, but just has been super fun to have you react to games with me all season long,

where we were sometimes freaking out over the Vikings losses or in complete disbelief over some of their wins this year. We had a great time breaking it down. You did a great job. And I mean, we will continue. We're not done. You'll come on, do some hot routes. We'll have some fun. But I just wanted to say it was really fun breaking down games, and now we are officially in off-season mode. So tomorrow the episode is going to be with Mike Renner, and guess what? We're going to talk draft.

I mean, it is that season now. So great job all season long, Paul. Thanks for your help, man. Of course. Thanks, Matt.