Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What would the Vikings record be with other QBs? Why haven't they been able to put together an offensive line?

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

Former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles talks about what he saw on tape between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions and why the Vikings chose to mess with the offensive line again. We talk about why the Vikings have been incapable of putting together a good offensive line for the entirety of the Mike Zimmer era and break down how other quarterbacks would perform under the same circumstances as Kirk Cousins. What does Jeremiah think the Vikings' final record will be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's that sound you hear coming from the trenches? It's former Minnesota Viking offensive lineman Jeremiah Searles. It's time for the Tuesday Morning Left Guard show on Purple Insider. They're too strong, my dog! You're too strong! Hello and welcome to another Tuesday Morning Left Guard. It is not Tuesday morning in which we are recording this. Matthew Collar and Jeremiah Searles. So it's really kind of meta, the name of what it's become this year.

No, I'm just picking on you, Jeremiah. You needed some time to mentally process you had to go to a dark place and you had to think deep and get over what you saw on tape in order to be able to talk about it i had to let the moon cleanse my crystals my chakras to make sure that i didn't bring any bad energy to this podcast because when i was i didn't actually get to watch the game live but i was following it i actually text you and i was like hey um i don't want to do this i can't believe this actually happened like i'm watching this game back as i re-watch the tape and it's like did we not want to win or did the lions really not want to win but did they just kind

of like oh we might actually be able to do this and then the last second they're like because my first initial thing is like i have never seen a quarterback in the nfl get two delay of game penalties in the two minute drill and the first one he just wore too like my favorite part was jared goff he goes he's like it's like kind of done he just tells him he's like just stop like he just stops everyone like up delay games like yeah it's all right of done. He just tells him, he's like, just stop. He just stops everyone. They're like, oh, delay game. He's like, yeah, it's all right. We'll figure it out. We'll just keep rocking it. Like even the commentator, like this is just unacceptable.

This whole game was just unacceptable. There was nothing acceptable about this game. Like we all watch this game. Everyone who watched this game that's a Vikings fan walked away from that going, that's three hours of my life. I'm never going to get back. And I just watched it again. I'm like, well I it's

infuriating to watch because week in and week out this team is the most inconsistent team in the NFL that that's kind of where I'm at with them they're they're hot they're cold they're up they're down but you can't win football games being inconsistent and this team has to be the most inconsistent team in the entire NFL well I mean two weeks ago they beat the green Bay Packers. Yeah. Yep. Through the roof. Yep. Chuck in the rock all over the yard, game winning drives, uh, us bank stadium, all excited again and everyone, you know, all those things. But, um, that, you know, I think that what it comes down to is when you have the weaknesses that they have and that you know they've made their own bed with a lot of them and then some of it is bad breaks i mean christian derisaw getting

hurt which oh people want to know what you think about the offensive line combination um but uh but you know christian derisaw getting hurt just kind of a random thing if you don't have eric kendricks you usually are bad on defense because he is the heart and soul of the defense. You can't pressure the quarterback. This is a thing that we kind of predicted that. And we said, if there's one path to the Lions winning, it's, you can't pressure Jared Goff. And he actually throws it down the field, which in the first half he did. And that's how you lose. But more than anything, I think if you look at all the teams that are 500 or below in the NFL, every single one, you'll be like, they won that one game?

Or how did they lose to that other team? Like, we're still in our horse blinders, Vikings, everything, whatever else. We don't go through, like, the Eagles schedule. But I bet if you went through the Eagles schedule or Washington, didn't Washington beat Tampa Bay a couple of weeks ago? Like this is just what it means to be like this, I think. And that's who they've been for a long time. Well, this is like the seventh circle of hell, dude.

Like there's just, there's nothing fun about this. Like you just can, you constantly like work yourself up to thinking you might be something, and then you just show up on Sunday wearing your purple and gold, and you're all excited, and then you just get kicked in the balls for three hours. And you're just like, come on.

When I look at it, and again, I try and take off my fan cap and put my objective hat on, but we're real objective journalists here. But you look at the, and we're going to start with it. We're going to go to the offensive line. It's where you begin, right? It's where the whole thing goes.

You got Smurf 1 and Smurf 2 in there and Garrett Bradbury and Mason Cole, the best signing we had in the offseason. And then you put your other Smurf, Udo, and you're like, hey, I know you've been playing right guard. Cool. It's a really good skill set but you're gonna go start at left tackle and you expect like you expect him to be like yes sir and he's gonna go out there and he did exactly what I thought he was gonna do he got beat off the edge he jumped off sides twice then the first time was just like okay and then the second time

was just miraculous like he just like looked around like it was everyone else's fault that's my favorite when the one guy that jumps outside looks at everyone else like well you idiots didn't move fast enough it's like no that's your fault so you put out here ezra cleveland got beat like a drum the only person that had a really good game again was brian o'neill uh-huh and and that's kind of where it comes now you watch brian o'neill you're like yeah really good hits people with his hand set square no one really gets around him everyone else you know it's kind of like hold your breath, cross your fingers, and hope you cross your eyes before something bad happens.

And the majority of the times, I mean, the fact that Kirk was able to get the ball off as much as he was was pretty impressive because they like to rush five. The Lions are like, you know what? We're just going to line up in a bare front and just put everyone on one-on-one matchups and see who can beat us. It's the simplest pressure of all time when you have an offensive line and just put everyone on one-on-one matchups and see who can beat us. It's the simplest pressure of all time when you have an offensive line that you know cannot win one-on-one matchups. And then all of a sudden they throw a couple of twist games

in there and oh boy, oh boy, the world got set on fire. And it's just, it's ugly. It's an ugly thing to watch. It's not a good thing to see. And there's no answer unless Darasau comes back. And even then it's like, okay, well, do you leave Mason Cole in or do you put our boy number one penalty? What's that mean? And back in the, I don't think you can put, I don't think you can put him back in. If you, if you already made the move with Mason Cole,

when Darasau comes back, I think you got to put him on the bench. Oh yeah. I definitely think so. The thing is about derisaw doesn't seem like he's gonna come back against pittsburgh so this could be another team that has the most leading sacks in the entire nfl yeah that's that's probably a good idea so how do you think they came to the conclusion that this was a the plan um because here's my thought and we just really got no explanation. And Mike

Zimmer even today said, Oh, I thought they did. Okay. Um, they did not do okay, but I don't know, maybe he's just, he really just picks and chooses the moments that he wants to heave somebody under the bus. If you say, yes, we completely made the wrong decision, moving the guy from right guard to left tackle. Then what kind of happens there is it sounds like an excuse for Kirk Cousins. And it also really, you don't want to alienate your offensive line coach. That's a really bad plan. And that's happened before at times. So, you know, maybe he's learned some lessons that he didn't want to do that, but how do you think, since we couldn't get an answer, they came to the conclusion that this was the right way to go? My theory is that they felt like Ole Udo would be better in the run game

than Rashad Hill because Rashad is just very poor in run blocking. And also the last time he played against the Lions, that was against Trey Flowers, who's actually very good. But it was a struggle. He didn't play very well in that game against the Lions when he and Derrissaw mixed in and out. And I wonder if that was the last taste left in Zimmer's mouth. And he thought, I want something different.

Or the offensive line coach had been watching practice and said, like, Rashad's kind of checked out after we benched him. I mean, there's a bunch of reasons it could be. It still seems like kind of a classic thing to do of like, let's do this over here and this over there. And that'll do it the number one thing for me is they just don't trust rashad hill like rashad hill should if that's where they're at with him then cut it like and i i'm not saying that in a mean way of like i think he should lose his job but if you're not going to be willing to put your backup swing tackle in it swing tackle when a guy gets hurt but you're willing to take your starting right guard who you've already moved from tackle and bump him back over then you've

lost complete faith and trust in that guy and you got to move on go sign another tackle off the street like if that's really where you're at with it because moving a guy mid-season from guard who started to tackle it just doesn't make any, especially when you look at the fact that they really didn't run the ball to his side a whole lot. It wasn't like they were like, hey, we're going to put the right guard who's a row greater over their left tackle, and we're going to run left the whole time. And I'll say Madison had a good game.

I think Alexander Madison, he played well, and there was some holes to hit, but a lot of that was him creating chicken salad out of chicken. I mean, it's just kind of how that goes. He was able to create that. And so the other piece is if in practice, Rashad maybe just couldn't put it all together this week. I mean, and again, it's hard for me to say that because he's played so much football.

Like this isn't like a rookie, right? This isn't like an undrafted free agent rookie who's your swing tackle who you're kind of like i just i don't know if i like he started the season he started playoff games like he's done so there's there's something going on there with rashad hill obviously is the big one but my my other key thing is maybe they wanted to see what mason cole looked like at right guard and this was the best way for them to do that that they felt like hey maybe this is looked like at right guard, and this was the best way for them to do that. That they felt like, hey, maybe this is our best five, right? Because offensive line coaches and head coaches trick themselves into this all the time.

If we just put the best five on the field, it doesn't matter if they're the most talented five. It's the best five. It's like, yeah, but if this Yahoo's the best five at right guard, doesn't mean he's going to be the best five at left tackle. And I feel like they might have talked themselves into that of like, this is our best five group. We got to find a way to get these five guys on the field.

And I don't think it'll change come Thursday night. I don't think it can change in a matter of four days when you're talking about the only thing that could happen is you take Rashad Hill and put him back at left tackle and Udo back to the bench. That's the only logical move that can happen between now and Thursday night. But that also admits that you screwed it up.

Correct. You made the wrong decision. We don't like doing that. We don't like doing that. And that happened, and actually Sam Ekstrom brought this up after the game. That happened in 2017 where they made the wrong decision moving Mike Remmers to left guard.

I'm sure that this makes an eye twitch for you. And I'm sorry for that. But it was so memorable. This I've called it like their galaxy braining with the offensive line. But it was just so memorable of like, oh, we'll just move the right tackle the left guard. Sure. He's never played there before, but like, it'll be fine. And then it failed against the Saints in the Minneapolis Miracle game. Like Keenan was under pressure the entire game. It didn't work.

And they just went back to it in Philly. And then Philly had a monstrous defensive line that made them pay. And it's just a thing that they've done over and over and over and over again. Let's move this guy's position. Let's slide this guy over here and slide that over there and it just seems like in a beautiful mind when he walks in and there's all the newspaper clippings everywhere and red drawings it's just like that's how we're going to set up the offensive line i want i want this answer from you okay this team has not had by pro football focus standards an above average pass blocking team ever in the mike zimmer era it's like a voodoo doll was shaking over a zimmer when he came in and like ah you will have good defenses but never this offensive line why do you think this is because it has haunted them like almost no other franchise and we're still

going into games going what are they doing why is this guy what like why do you think it is you know i think the easy one to say is the amount of coordinators that we've had the amount of schemes that have run through there you've never let the same group of guys grow and develop under one scheme um so you mean you i go back even to the 2017 when i was there i don't think there's anyone left from that offensive line in there so i mean that was five years ago four years ago if i can't freaking count but and then you say okay well then we had pat schirmer we had norv then you had um d filippo and then you had stefanski and then now you're back to kubiak then the other like so you're saying you've had more coordinators than you have years of how this goes so that's one way of saying that pass protection is not congruent

right you don't have everything every offseason going back watching the tape making sure everything looks the same then the other piece is you just miss on draft picks. And that's going to be the one we harp on it all the time. But you look at the teams that grow good offensive lines. They have offensive lines that are on rookie deals that are performing well. Go back to Carolina when Cam Newton was winning the Super Bowl, right? They got Andrew Norwell, an undrafted free agent rookie who they developed into an all-pro. Ryan Khalil, an all-pro center. Trey Turner, who they drafted in the fourth round, turned into an all-pro ryan khalil an all-pro center trey turner who they drafted in

the fourth round turned into an all-pro daryl williams like these dudes weren't like first second round draft picks but they were able to develop them by having the same coach coach john matzko who i was with who's an unbelievable offensive line coach who has had the same guys for three four years and were able to develop them through the system turned into a great offensive line right you look at dallas now they spent a bunch of first-round picks and hit on all those, and we've done that once with Bradbury, and we missed. Now you go to Derrissaw, and I think that he's going to be a really good player. He's just, again, when you're hurt at the beginning of the year,

and then you come back, your body's not really ready for that, and you're going to get dinged. It just happens. And so that's the second piece is you miss on the draft picks. And then the third piece is when you throw the ball the way that we throw the ball, you're not built to pass protect the deep drop back pass, right? We're built for the play actions. We're built for the quick game because that's the way that we built the offensive line.

Well, when you're playing against a team like the Lions and you fall behind 20 to 6 you're playing against guys you fall behind like you have to completely abandon what your identity is in the past game which then automatically puts your offensive line behind and really in the last three years that's what's happened it's been the last thing i just mentioned that happens more often than not but then you put the combination of all three of those things together and you find yourself with the below average offensive line pass blocking great and for me that's the three factors that really kind of play into this whole voodoo doll thing as you say well there's another part of it too that is uh do you have a guess where the vikings rank in terms of cap space spent on the offensive line i'm gonna guess dead last stead last. It's stead last. It's stead last. Yeah.

And now I don't think it is fundamentally wrong to build an offensive line through the draft. The problem is that if you are flying without any sort of parachute and a draft pick doesn't hit, then you just sink to the ground and die. And that's what's happened here. It's like, I mean, well, think about this. So I just want to run through some things here because this is something I've been thinking about a lot. So Xavier Woods has been an okay player for them, but not a particularly moving signing. Okay. He's had good games, bad games, right?

Tough last play. Tough last play. Yep. Yep. Yep. A little more on Dancer probably, but okay. So Bashad Breeland has a 46. This is sort of what does that mean? But it has a 46 coverage grade. So that's well below average. Mackenzie Alexander, another free agent signing

has a 44 coverage grade. 60 is not really great. So he has 44. the guys that they signed have just not been impact players on the defensive side Delvin Tomlinson is a good player he is at 400 snaps so far this year oh I also I wrote I have my little notes the first time he made a positive play there was 240 left in the third quarter because I was like oh he showed up I was like there he is there's the guy that when he signed him everyone was like yes that man whoa everything's fixed three minutes to the 40 he finally had a tfl and i was like that's unacceptable if you're gonna be that guy and here's the thing about a nose tackle that you're moving positions and doesn't really rush the passer is that he doesn't really rush the passer uh he has been on, let's see, 50 or 47 more. I should just sing the song.

What does that mean? What does that mean? I mean, since we're talking stats here of these guys, these free agents, I mean, Delvin Tomlinson has rushed the passer 50 more times than he's been in against the run because it's 2021. And so when you go through these numbers of free agents, Everson Griffin was good when he was in, but he's not in now. Steven Weatherly, another guy they signed and spent some money on, a couple million dollars.

They traded him away kind of mysteriously and then got injuries and other such. These are the players that they brought in. Sheldon Richardson, his overall grade for this year from PFF, 59. So like an average replacement level player for this year. They didn't spend any of this on the offensive line. They said Cole. We traded for him. Traded for him.

But there wasn't a veteran guard to put in. There wasn't a veteran. Well, I mean, Rash rashad hill was brought back so i guess there was that but there wasn't a starter that was brought in there were some guys who were out there in the free agent market that costs kind of the same as some of the players we just named that haven't been any better than joe whoever that you could have signed or drafted and developed and put in there that's playing right now. So I think that that is almost always been the issue that when you're cheap, you're cheap. You buy a, you know, a cheap car, it drives like a cheap car. And even if you try to, you know, like take some, I don't know how to fill in this comparison, but like, even if you try to

draft guys, if they end up falling apart and they turn into a lemming, then what, what do you have? You have an offensive line that looks like this. And here's, there's the point I want to tie this back into it. That's a question. So I think that both of our explanations are like combining to make this exactly why but um how much do we look at that and say man kirk has been kind of screwed here because i'm i'm always i have like a meter that i hit with that where i'm like yeah kind of true yeah pretty true for sure but like let's not go into the red on that one let's not go too far as he heaves the ball up to justin jefferson and the guy freaking grows wings and flies over some idiot defensive tackle or defensive back with no chance right like let's not go too far with that but i think that i think that kirk

at the end of this contract should look at his friends and be like hey guys why do you think they never got me off it's blind like what's the deal with that but also like why why doesn't he walk in there and be like listen this is what needs to happen i mean pulling air pulling and rogers right that's like if you don't if you don't sign randall cobb i'm not coming back and they did like kirk has power kirk has leverage and i mean shoot they signed his best friend tom compton and they could go in the rebutt buddies together it got me cut i'm not bitter about it anyways but i mean go in there and say have a voice and i mean i know teams that do i've been on teams i mean when i was in san diego phil rivers had a voice in free agency yeah he had a voice and how he wanted to help build his team around like kirk's been in the league long enough kirk's been on the vikings long enough

that i feel like he could have a voice to go in there and say, Hey, here's what we need. And here's what we got to do. And I do wonder how much of this you can put on the fact that George Payton left. You know, I think that George Payton did a lot of the cap and a lot of the maneuvering and was able.

And then I don't know if he saw the writing on the wall and he was kind of like, Hmm, I'm out. Or like Denver just gave him a really good deal but I do when I look at the way this team's built especially this year there is kind of a drastic difference between how the team was built in the prior years and this year with just the depth and and how quality the depth is and the quality of players that got brought in and so I do wonder how much of George Payton's difference makes in that but i to tie that back to the kirk cousins thing like i do think that when we go back and look at it and go okay where would we be without kirk cousins like where if we would have had if we have some other

gardner minshu right we got minshu back there are we even close to what we can pull off with kirk cousins i don't know maybe because he can run around. But, I mean, Kirk is, by the numbers, one of the better tight ends, top half. We'll say top maybe third in the NFL. And so you're kind of wasting talent in that. But the Vikings really just never been able to kind of put it all together. They always seem to have two-thirds of the pie or five-eighths of the pie, and then the other ones are just completely terrible, and they've just never been able to put it all together in the last three years four years really you said tight ends instead of quarterback i don't know if you know

you said that oh did i yes i mean kirk at tight end i think would struggle yeah quarterbacks quarterbacks there's sorry there there are some quarter get them worked up man i had to watch that film again tebow could have played tight end, but not so much. Yeah, he didn't play preseason. Yeah. And according to some people, he was cut for being too Christian. I don't know, man. I don't know.

Did you watch him try and crack back on that? That's that inside zone read. We came back and just kind of fell into the defensive end. That's why he got cut. Yeah. I mean, someone asked me that once someone who is not in football in another sport they were like do you think tim tebow is only not on the team because he's openly christian i'm like have you talked to football players like i think there's

quite a few who are religious correct all of them i mean very high percent so anyway it's one of the weirdest things i've ever seen uh anyhow that's just going down a road i don't need to go down but um uh as far as quarterbacks go it's actually a really interesting question is where would they be because there's this like um spectrum of that like where would they be let's let's play this game like where would they be with someone like daniel jones like someone like well below average but not completely without talent how much different is it than five and seven and then where would they be with another average quarterback who maybe plays differently

i don't know derrick car seems like he plays exactly the same but maybe just yeah like some plays a little differently he's got a bigger arm. And where would they be with Patrick Mahomes? Like the best of the best. And answer those. Cause I'm going to think about it for a second. Cause I I'm curious what you think. Folks, it's that time again, where you're doing your online shopping for the holidays

and look, if you want free shipping, I can help you out with that. For all of your Minnesota sports inspired goods, use the promo code purple insider. When you go to soda stick.com, that is S O T A S T I C K.com. You can get their North state beanie, their Adam Thielen autograph shirts, Marcus Foligno fan club design for all of you hockey fans out there. the one i always mention because it's the best one the randy moss disgusting act you can put that on a hoodie shirt or almost anything else and plus anything you want with skull on it soda stick has it again that's s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com perfect for gifts and you can get that shipping free by using the code purple insider. You know, I think, I think with Patrick Mahomes, we probably probably flip it.

We're probably seven and five. I think we're, we're seven and five. I think he's able to make a miraculous thing. The dude has a golden horseshoe halfway out his ass. So, I mean, that helps. And then you go with daniel jones and he kirk's been pretty good about not turning the ball over a ton this year daniel jones is awful it turned the ball over so i'm gonna say we're three win three win team with daniel jones um and then we go with derrick carr and we're exactly where we are we're five and seven i think that

that's kind of how i look at it and once you answer this i'm going to flip it back to you and say where are we if we have the patriots offensive line where are we if we have the jets offensive line and where are we if we have the kansas city chiefs offensive line yeah okay. Okay. So with Daniel Jones, I think they probably are. I like three. I think that's right. There are some of these games that he he's definitely good enough to have played well in. And with the receivers, you can always win games. I think with almost any quarterback. And you saw that up close with case Keenum, that if you have play actions, a running game, they haven't had so much this year, but those receivers are going to make you right more than they're going to make

you wrong. So I think you're still winning some games, but there have been enough. Green Bay is a good example where Cousins was phenomenal and he wins that game for you just by being great. And I don't think Daniel Jones does that great point about the turnovers. The dude has a fumble or a pick like every single game. That's hard to overcome. Cousins has been tremendous when it comes to not turning the ball over in,

in the fashion and the level of sort of like late career breeze, right. In terms of not turning it over with Derek Carr, I would say it's exactly the same. It's probably five and seven. It might be six and six because he is a little more willing sometimes to throw it down the field and i don't want to judge exactly their record this year i think they were a good team and then a player murdered someone and their coach was fired for horrendously

racist emails i mean i you just can't really overcome stuff like that. But I also don't think Derek Carr is some vastly different quarterback than Kirk Cousins. In fact, I looked up who has the most yards when playing from behind over the last two years in the NFL. What quarterbacks is Derek Carr and Kirk Cousins? Yeah, that's about right. If they're playing from behind, they put up a bigger numbers and that kind of thing. So very similar. Those are quarterbacks who are exactly what the roster is.

I think Ryan Tannehill is mostly this way too. They are what their roster is. It's a reflection of your roster as your quarterback. Mahomes, I'm going to give him better than that. I think they're like nine wins right now. You think? Oh yeah. I mean, these are all close games.

They haven't lost a single game close. That's fair. Here's the difference between the Vikings and Kansas City. Kansas City is number one in third down conversion percentage. The Vikings are, I think 24th, like that's quarterback. That's just quarterback making plays,

especially since they have one receiver and one tight end. And then the other dude drops every pass. Like Pringle, Pringle, Pringle can't catch a cold. Pringle cans for fingers. Like what is the deal, dude?

I mean, they're throwing them swing passes. Like, Oh, Nope. I think my homes is probably winning some of those games because especially with these weapons. I mean,

these are vastly better than just Tyree kill and Travis Kelsey. I think having Jefferson Thielen, KJ Osborne cook out of of the backfield, like there's a lot more there to work with. And their offensive line, I don't know that it's been great this year, Kansas City. Do you think so? I think it's better than ours. And the only reason I say that is the tackle play. I think Orlando Brown's a very, very good left tackle. Andrew Wiley's pretty good right tackle when you look at it but i mean i still go back and forth i'm not convinced who the best offensive line in football

is this year um i want to say the titans but it's really they're all just built the same and they just handed the ball to the horse back there and you can kind of see once the horse is not really fully going like that they've kind of fallen off a touch uh you talk about indy's o-line still is really really good yes with those guys and so but for me it's like if you put one of those great offensive lines i know i gave you the jets they're terrible but i mean even if you put the tennessee titans offensive line in front of kirk cousins and you put them up there i mean you talk about lawan at left tackle and all pro brett jones at center Like, I think this is a nine-win team with that offensive line. And I know I'm talking about, like, complete hypothetical here

and taking five guys out, five new guys in. But even if you take half of that offensive line for the Titans and put them in for us, like, I think we get two more wins. Because Kirk, as good as he's been, is even better when he's not under pressure. And his pressure rating is through the roof. I mean, he's always under pressure, especially with some of these offensive – or these last few games that I've watched. And you're just kind of like, man, he could be much better.

And, again, it goes all the way back to we just haven't built around that piece yet. That is Ben Jones at center, not Brett Jones at center. Brett Jones. Brett Jones is our buddy that they never played. That's the buddy that they hated. The squatty buddy, yes. The squatty buddy. Why does he is round?

The Searles fact check. That should be the end of the show. It's been a long day. Ben Jones, not Brett Jones. Yeah, you've been traveling. I woke up in Reno at 4 a.m. this morning. I mean, that sounds like a Bender story. It's not working.

Like things have gotten low if you're you know i just yeah it's not a great place it's kind of a rough neighborhood searles really needs the podcast money otherwise he would have skipped it uh but uh well it's your question to your question i think with another bad offensive line they're in the same spot uh because they're bad right and if they're in the same spot because they're bad. And if they could run block really well, like they had at least last year, I thought was solid. And 2019, I thought they were legitimately good at run blocking. They are not that this year. And so I think that they're on par with just the teams that are in the bottom five in offensive line play.

And I'd have to watch a lot more to understand the nuances there and injuries and everything else, but like put them there with the number one offensive line in the league. I think, I think if you have, tell me if you agree with this, I think if you have the 12th best offensive line to the 23rd offensive line, let's say somewhere in there, you're all about the same and you can win with that. And it's not going to be perfect. And the werewolves, so to speak, will get you sometimes. And you probably won't win because of it. If you get though from maybe top, maybe like fifth to 12th, you're, you're doing things that other people can't do. But if you're top five, it's like, it's not quite like having a great quarterback, but it's almost like it. It means you can kick somebody's ass anytime you want to.

And that is something that I've just never had the pleasure of covering here. And it's very hard to do. That means five guys probably have to stay healthy. It means first round picks, second round picks better be home runs, not just doubles. And they're solid players. You got, you know, it's very hard to do. And that's why every year it's almost somebody different at the top of the league in the PFF rankings and things like that.

But that's something that you could say, if Cousins had that, I would go with, if anybody has that, that's how Dak Prescott goes 13-3 as a rookie. You can do special stuff if you have that and I think if they did they'd have probably eight wins right now if they had the number one offensive line in the NFL yeah I agree with you and and that's where sometimes I look and think I get play the what-if game right that's what we get to do when we're terrible we play the what-if game how could this how could this this be this? How could this be that? And you know, I just don't think it's ever going to change under the Zimmer regime. I really don't. I don't think that this is

something that he's prioritized. I don't think this is something he wants to prioritize anymore. And that's fine. It's his prerogative, man, his team, right? When you, when you got HBC on your head, have ball coach, like you do what you want to do, man. And it's proven this isn't where you, he wants to spend the money on the defense. And so I don't know, unless we just start pulling the Cowboys move and like every first round pick is an offensive lineman for the next three years, we're going to be digging ourselves out of a hole. Cause we will not be able to go buy one here next year or two.

Yep. Unless they move on from the quarterback in some kind of trade. Uh, but yeah, I think it's an interesting thought experiment to wonder. And here's where it comes back to this simulation. We live in where the same decision makers make the same decisions all the time and they have the same results is there is a universe where they go into the off season and they say, look, I know we don't have much to rebuild your defense. This of course, is if Mike Zimmer is not pulling the strings and is not like the head coach. And you just say,

we're going to rank 20th or something in defense. There's nothing we can do about that. However, we can get this guy, this guy, this guy on the offensive line. We can stack this thing up and give ourselves the chance. They hit on a number three wide receiver finally on KJ Osborne. That's worked out well for them. But even that wasn't like a full investment going D.D. Westbrook. That's the one thing that I wonder if you, it's like pull lever A or pull lever B. Lever A is rebuild Zimmer's defense. Lever B is, hey, just go all in on your offense and admit it that you're not going to be able to rebuild the defense in a year. And everyone knows what lever they pull, but what would have happened

if they pulled the other lever? Because all these games are like a few plays away on offense that just don't happen. But then you always circle back to with the quarterback, make it happen anyway. I don't know, but at least we would have found out we've just never been given an opportunity to find out yeah and especially i mean it's you said earlier like it's 2021 man the offensive world rules the nfl the throw the ball over the yard and i mean unless you're playing the bills and you only have to throw the ball three times to win a game which my god you're gonna have a quarterback that just rips the rock around the receivers are too good the athletes on the edges are too good and you have to kind of you're going to have a quarterback that just rips the rock around. The receivers are too good. The athletes on the edges are too good. And you have to kind of, you're seeing the teams go all in on offense to go win it all.

Right. I mean, look at the Rams, right. They go sign OBJ there. They signed Vaughn Miller, but like they're focusing, they go get Stafford in the off season. Like they understand to win. You gotta be able to sling it around the yard to win football games this year or this in the NFL.

What is today's NFL? And I feel like Zimmerimmer's still like we can win games 10 to 7 it's what we do like it's just not how it works anymore man and your defense is not going to be able to be what it used to be with as many guys that have gotten poached off with i mean the corners that you're playing with i mean you're just getting old we talked about a couple weeks ago your defense just getting old man like a rebuild is going to start from fresh new guys. Then you look around, you're fresh new guys, and we don't have them on this team. You mean watching James Lynch get double teamed and pushed back?

I sent you a video of where the running back was not touched for eight yards, dude. Everyone went on a free ride on the Gray Train Express and just got pushed no white t's in the club bounced out of there and that's when i was like yep this is a problem how ugly i thought i was watching our boy rush though oh so gross i was watching our boy jaleel johnson again dude i was like man this is this is tough this is just tough to watch uh before we get to love to see it hate to see it here is a quick

stat to just back what you're saying the current rankings of points allowed what does that stat mean uh vikings are 25th but the teams in 17th 18th 19th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 26th and 27th have more wins than the vikings so it, I know that people have sent me like, how are you supposed to win with this defense and everything else? And like, that's true to some extent offense does impact defense, but also like these other teams are giving up points and they're still finding ways to win because they have good offenses. And if you're right in the game, then you could have a chance to win it as they have had for all these games. Right. And to back that stat kind of real quick and again, I don't have in front of me, but we have to be one of the worst in the leagues on points after turnovers.

Like we have to be close. I mean, you talk about when you go on an offense, like it's almost if you're going to talk about like, yeah, you're throwing the ball over the yard, like turnovers are going to happen and the reason those teams that are giving up points are winning is because they're take advantage of the turnovers like me even if it's just one turnover game so then you go steal a possession from the other team's offense and now you win by 10 or you win by 7 because you stole that possession we are just not great of having to like steal the ball and steal the possession and go down score i know we had the one at the other we've got the ball in the 15 yeah we better score like with the dancer pick we go three and out or maybe one first down it's like those are the kind of things that when you don't go all in on your offense you're basically just like all right good job defense get ready to get back out there in three plays like and that's the other piece of this all too

that's the piece of the puzzle there's a lot of bad pieces to the puzzle dude it's just you can't really put your finger on just one sam extram here wondering if you're stuck on your company's injury report in an unfortunate situation like that it's good to have someone in your corner that's where kemet sanford and kramer law can help you understand your rights under minnesota's workers compensation laws there's enough uncertainty in our lives nowadays that the last thing you want is to feel helpless if you wind up in a bad situation after a workplace injury. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer will fight for you if there's been a wrongfully denied work comp claim so you can get the benefits you deserve.

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The website is yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com, where you can find a phone number to get a free consultation. This is an attorney advertisement from Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer, yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. Did you ever used to watch the NFL film season reca season recaps you ever see any of those so good you can look them up anywhere like on youtube and they always have uh like funny little names even when the team is horrendous it'll just be like future is bright and it'll be the lions 2008 recap and there's the the big voice guy the ones in the 90s are amazing the big voice guy would be like the detroit lions may have not have won any games this year but they set the foundation

for the future that you know a quarterback dan orlovsky showed that he can extend a hundred yard field by running backwards you know it's it's so so great they're just like classic but i was thinking of this one because they have all these like cutesy names and they they used to be they used to be a little more aggressive with the name so it might be like your team was asked this year or something but that it's not like that anymore but if you were naming the season i feel like it's just season of regrets there's just so like from offseason to individual games to moments to throws you didn't make to whatever. Like, it's just there's so many regrets to get to this place because you feel like in a way it was inevitable

and in another way it didn't have to happen. You know what I mean? So it's just like the season of regrets. The Vikings played the most close games ever in history and found a way not to win a lot of them. The season that could have been. The season that could have been. So love to see it, hate to see it before we wrap up.

Hate to see it. The college football committee being spineless pieces. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. Georgia, Alabama should be playing in the first round again. You should not give them a chance to play for the finals again just because you don't want a rematch. it i know it everyone knows that georgia alabama should be playing in the first round again you should not give them a chance to play for the finals again just because you don't want to

rematch no one gives a they lost they've got blown out michigan took care of business beat ohio state goes in there trounces iowa michigan should be one alabama two georgia three cincinnati four i am looking forward to georgia and al and Alabama playing probably right yes and that's the thing they're gonna play make them play each other in the first round like they're gonna play inevitably don't give them both a shot at the title again like and it's not I would be more okay with it if Georgia didn't get the break speed off of them yeah but this mighty Georgia team hasn't let up 14 points got ran out of the sec championship so you're gonna reward them by like uh well you can play them again in the second round like you

don't have to play them again right away like they should absolutely have to play them again right away yeah the way that they got uh just demolished just dragged up and down the field i still can't wait for when that inevitably happens that they play each other again because they are the two best teams. Georgia just needs their quarterback not to be trashed. He's terrible. He's very bad. I hadn't really seen much Georgia this year.

And watching that game, it's like, this is the guy who got them to be this good, huh? Oh. I mean, if they had Bryce Young behind that team, wow. Georgia. And you don't have like anyone better there's not any transfer portal unhappy backup at like ohio state to grab or i don't know well there is now that one that one dude that was gonna make millions of dollars in nil deals just hit the eject button like six months in oh yeah the dude with the hair yeah the dude with the dude with the hair um so i'm gonna say that i love to see it a team wins with three passes i'm sorry it's just

it's hilarious it's amazing it's something that i have done on madden before just screwing around is just like let's see if i can win the whole game without throwing or whatever like it's you know you get bored on a Saturday or something. Belichick, of course, gets to wear the Genius cap because the other team's kicker missed and they dropped some passes and stuff. But it's just the funniest thing. And it's only Belichick who would do something like this.

And if you don't love that, I don't know what's wrong with you. My love to see it is adrian pearson still scoring touchdowns in the nfl dude like sign a guy for a week it's like oh you're on the one yard line adrian you want to score again for another franchise like sure and just you'd love to see but you got to know there's some dude that's just been grinding on the practice squad for like two and a half years finally gets elevated to the active roster they're like hey we're gonna need you to play this week because you know we brought adrian in here but he hasn't been here very long he's probably not gonna know everything so we're just gonna work and it's like get on the one yard like this is your moment you just see adrian trouts out there you tap on the

head and you're just like damn it dude like this is my moment like they just keep letting adrian score touchdowns man just love to see it right your family's watching and everything else oh timmy's gonna score a touchdown like nope wait uh hey teams hate to see it as team still signing adrian peterson though for me like your love to see it as my hate to see it like what how are the pro scouts are golfing like they're like oh uh they texted and said they need a running back um adrian adrian pierce it looks great on tape like back to my nine iron are you guys working there's not some xfl dude who is quicker at this point um who knows uh so uh let me just just before like you what what's their final record going to be the vikings you think oh gosh um 11 no no no no that's wrong that way that's not how that works

what did you do in rena yeah no i'm saying 11 losses oh 11 losses yeah i'm saying 11 law 11 11 wins no 11 losses i'm gonna go there six and eleven so you think this whole thing just kind of goes off i think it all kind of goes off the rails here thielen's out for a while that ankle injury looked pretty serious like i don't see him come back for a while this could be a really really ugly game on thursday night i mean you're talking tj watt cameron hayward like these dudes are legit best front in the nfl going against a completely reworked offensive line and they're just gonna pin their ears back and go especially if i think cook said he was gonna play if not like he's still not gonna be 100 so i mean you can't just feed him and be like we got to run

the ball with cook like you can't i mean you can do the one two with madison but i can see this thing coming off the rails here towards the end of the year especially at bar and and those guys aren't all back like i don't know if we'll be full strength again by the time the year ends also like playing delvin hurt has just never worked no uh-uh if they lose this one against pittsburgh it's gonna be like in goodfellas when Layla's playing in the background. And if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I mean. So it's going to be ugly. Well, you are in for the rest of the season, though.

No doubt. We're here. We're in for it, baby. We're here. We're riding it out to the end. So we'll get together again next week and we'll see what we can come up with. So good stuff from you, baby. We're here. We're riding it out to the end. So we'll get together again next week and we'll see what we can come up with. So good stuff from you, though. I mean, it's

that's the thing. We have no control over how they perform. We don't, but we will always bring it. And we always bring the heat, man control. We can control. Yes. We're thermostats, not thermometers. There's a little coach speak for you. Wow. How about that? That's a good place to end. So thanks for your time as

always. And we'll talk again soon.