Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What's next for the Vikings after JJ McCarthy injury? A roundtable

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Manny Hill and Brian Murphy about the next steps for the Vikings following JJ McCarthy's injury. Do we think Carson Wentz can pull a Sam Darnold. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And this is another roundtable, Matthew Collar of Manny Hill and Brian Murphy. We will be here every Monday night, no matter who the starting quarterback on Sunday is or was. And that is what we will be reacting to here this evening along with talking about what is next. for the Minnesota Vikings as they get ready to play the Cincinnati Bengals with Carson Wentz at quarterback. So why don't we just begin this way with Manny? You are a historian of the Minnesota Vikings. So I feel like you can appreciate how often this has happened to the Vikings that they have a promising young quarterback and something goes sideways and it ends up

with a journeyman as their starter and only God knows what is coming next. So, manny give me your reaction to j j mccarthy spraining high sprain for his ankle and now it is carson wents time in minnesota that's crazy man it just feels like this never fails with this position and this franchise he just it's like they just can't escape it they can't get away from it um you you think about you go all the way back to uh brand johnson getting injured one year and Randall Cunningham having to come in and and play for him. I think it was 97 and then 98 Brad Johnson got hurt again. Randall Cunningham came in and actually played great and obviously they had the big year, the 15 and one year with Randy Moss and everything. Then you think about

Dante getting hurt in 2005 and you go to Teddy Bridgewater in 2016. I mean, it's just it just seems never ending. And the guy that replaced Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford, the next year having a great game against the New Orleans Saints to start the season. And then all of a sudden, oh, Sam's not going to play. He's got a knee problem and enter Case Keenum. It just never, it never fails. And this is just adds to the long list of really unfortunate injury circumstances for a promising young quarterback that the Vikings have a really, have a lot of really high hopes for. And now we're going to see what happens with Carson Wentz going forward here for at least the next few weeks. And, you know, depending on how he plays and how the team does is really going to, you know, shape the landscape of what happens the rest of this season and possibly big picture going forward for this franchise.

Well, I think that we need to talk about other parts of that game and other things that went wrong and other things that are happening around this team because of the number of injuries and how that could impact. Carson Wentz's performance and where that's all going to go. But Murph, how do you think this plays out? I mean, earlier in my emergency podcast, I ran through about 15 different scenarios that I came up with of how this thing ends up getting from point A to point B. And then I turned it off and I went to my Twitter and I saw someone said, well, clearly Max Brosmer is the Brock Purdy of this situation. So maybe Max Brosmer becoming their franchise quarter.

is the only way that this could end. But where do you think we go from here, Murph? Well, we go from here just to Sunday and see if they can survive because it's the Jake Browning Carson Wentz matchup we were all dreaming of, right? But what worries me most is not so much McCarthy, his injury, is the injury prone? What's this going to do to his development? I wonder what's going to happen if Carson Wentz throws for three scores and 350 yards with no turnovers. What are we going to be talking about Monday morning?

And it may not be a quarterback controversy per se. But I don't think the Vikings are in control of where this is headed. And I don't know if they can get back in control into they can get their own. offense figured out no matter who's quarterbacking, but these are some thorny political things that are coming down the road. If Wentz turns out to be more than just serviceable and he gets them into Europe with a couple more wins, what are we going to be talking about as McCarthy's recovering and getting ready to play? So this is the challenge that I'm having, Manny, as I go through the schedule and we were going to plan on maybe picking the schedule Thursday, but now we're picking

the schedule tonight. Of course, we have to do it the same way we have in our last couple of roundtables. And I'm really interested to see what you think now. But if you go through these next couple of games, they're all extremely winnable. The Cincinnati Bengals, even at fuller strength as a roster, but without their quarterback, coming to U.S. Bank Stadium, it's Jake Browning starting. Browning, we know, is capable of winning a football game and making some good plays. And we saw it in 2021. But against this defense, even at three-quarters strength, this defense, that's not a team that can run the ball. It's not the Falcons offense. It's not Penix. It's not Bejohn Robinson. This is a very winnable game for the Minnesota Vikings.

In fact, it was a very winnable game against Atlanta if they had gotten three plays out of their quarterback, which I think that Carson Wentz is at least capable of delivering the to Justin Jefferson delivering the football to T.J. Hawkinson. When you look at his career, I mean, he's got a lot of ups and downs for sure, but it's not like he hasn't put up 27 touchdown, seven picks, a run in his career where he was 25 and 15 with a 98.3 quarterback rating. Like this guy has played a lot of quarterback in the league. And I don't think he's going to stand in there and just get sack time and time again. I think he's going to set protections. I think he is going to be able to run the offense.

in a more competent way. So if they win this game, and then you're talking about Pittsburgh, where Aaron Rogers looked the old version of Aaron Rogers against this Vikings defense, and then the Cleveland Browns, who are last time I checked, the Cleveland Browns,

and you might be facing Dylan Gabriel or Brian Seip or whoever, Eric Zeyer, Kelly Holcomb, and whatever number of other quarterbacks in Cleveland. I mean, you can go 3 and O in this stretch. And if they go through, you know in this stretch, then you come back home after the buy against Philadelphia. That doesn't sound favorable to start J.J. McCarthy for the first time since he looks so terrible in week two. And then four days later, you go out to play the Los Angeles Chargers.

The next time I could see it making sense for him to play football would be at Ford Field against the Detroit Lions, who by the way, are still pretty darn good football team. That's what I'm struggling with here, Manny, is if Wence plays well, I'm not sure when the next time we see J.J. McCarthy is. Yeah, I mean, because even when JJ gets back and he's healthy and he's ready to go, if Carson Wentz has been lighting it up and you're winning games and you're in a position to really compete for a playoff spot or dare I say, even the division, if some of the other pieces around this team starts to get healthy, they're getting Jordan Addison back here in a couple of weeks. He'll be ready to go for that, for that Pittsburgh game after serving

the suspension, you know, if they're playing well and Carson Wentz is rolling, how do you justify going away from him to put J.J. McCarthy back in when J.J. McCarthy really wasn't playing that well before he got injured in the first place. Like, how do you really kind of justify doing that? So, yeah, that's going to be a very, very difficult position for KOC and the staff and the organization to be in. Now, if, Carson Wentz stinks up the joint and they're in a bad position, you know, standings-wise, then I think it actually makes that decision a lot easier. When J.J. McCarthy is ready to go, you put them back in there because now the,

the viewpoint of where this team is headed is a little bit different at that point because now it's like you're putting him back in. You're still going to try and win as many games as possible, but it would be a much taller order to try and get back into playoff contingent. and now it's more about, all right, let's get JJ back healthy, get him back out there and continue with this development process with him. So these next handful of games are really going to decide, I think at least for this season,

it's really going to play a huge role in how this season ends up in what direction they go. And normally, Murph, I would be saying under almost any circumstances with any other team, I would be going, okay, well, there's no chance that Carson Went, comes off the bench and plays well and et cetera, et cetera. But this is a team that just last year had Sam Darnold win 14 games for them. Also, they were within one Nick Mullins throw, one fumble by Alexander Madison of making

and a botched push against the Bengals of making the playoffs with Josh Dobbs and Jake Browning and Nick Mullins in 2003. I mean, we've seen them take quarterbacks like that. this and succeed with them already and keep them in games. So I don't think it's totally unrealistic. Not only that, but they won a game and came close to winning a game last night within one, if they get one touchdown, even if Naylor catches that one at the end of the game, I think that they probably end up winning it, that they're right in these games,

even with poor quarterback play. It doesn't take Carson Wentz looking like Sam Darnold last year to get this team in position to win some games, considering the offenses that they're going to face the next three weeks, Murth. Well, yeah, and that's what they decided to do when they went with McCarthy, was say, we're going to surround him and swaddle him with playmakers, great play calling, a swarming defense, a veteran offense of the line. This was going to allow McCarthy to grow into his role, stay out of the way, develop, and potentially be a passenger almost on a playoff team. So Wentz's stepping into a position that to me feels like he's set up

260, notwithstanding the fact that he's been in the building for only three weeks. So there's that. But he has played a lot of games. He's not going to be relied upon. on to take over a game, if he does rate, McCarthy wasn't supposed to do that. What they were counting on was competent quarterback play, growing confidence, and having McCarthy experience, go through adversity, and develop through all kinds of difficult situations. But if he can't complete passes to open receivers, can't hang on the ball.

If he looks completely overwhelmed by NFL football right now, this may be, I don't want to see a blessing in disguise because it never is. This is a convenient way for them to hit pause backfill with a proven veteran. And if they can get into I'm over and get him healthy, where you want to put him in a situation, to respond to the playoffs that this is becoming, that's going to be an awfully difficult decision to make

that has ramifications way beyond 2025. Well, and that's what I couldn't help go there, Murph, when you talk about the ramifications. Right, yeah, you have to because you start to wonder that if Wentz keeps them in the playoff race and is playing well, and then you have this veteran team, if it was a team of all young guys then you could say all right well you know let's just go back

to the young kid and whatever we ride through it hell or high water and just live or die with whatever happens but when you have jvonne hargrave and jonathan allen who took you know so much money to be here and all these guys that they added uh ryan kelly's banged up will fry signed here veteran players uh and you know when they talked up this entire thing about we're going to seriously compete for the Super Bowl and everything else. And we just want to make, you know, good on what happened last year at the playoffs. And they were talking this off season like the season starts at the playoffs. And if you then turn it back over to a young quarterback and it looks like it did against the Atlanta Falcons,

then I think everybody in the locker room is going to be looking around going, what are we doing here? Like this team should be trying to fight all the way to the end. And Wentz gives them at the way that it's looked the last two weeks, Wentz gives them a better chance to win than J.J. McCarthy does at this very moment based on what he's done before in his career. But that also puts you in a really tough spot. Mani, I'll give you a historical reference that I covered once upon a time. The Buffalo Bills benched E.J. Manuel. And I know this is not a shadow benching. Okay.

I saw that a thousand times. We can identify the injury. I've seen soft benching too. Soft bench. Whatever you want to put it, like we can see the injury. happen on tape. So I don't know what else we're supposed to do there. But E.J. Manuel was benched for Kyle Orton once upon a time. And Orton got the bills close to the playoffs. They didn't make it. And then everyone looked around and went, well, what do you do now? Because your young quarterback didn't get any experience playing and you missed the playoffs. I think they're in a really tricky spot here for when to make this decision. And if anything, they need to get McCarthy back they need whence not to play well, but yet with the construction of the team, they need

whence to play well. Well, and on top of that, when you think big picture for the sake of JJ McCarthy, this is a guy who has not really played a lot of football. And, you know, over the last couple of years, you have the two years as a starter at Michigan. But in the last year and a half, he's played two, you know, since the national championship game, he's played two meaningful games of football and that was the last two weeks he hasn't done anything outside of that and so when you're trying to you know hit your wagon to a 22 year old who you invested a high first round draft pick on who you have a lot of big plans and and hopes high hopes for it just it behooves him to be able to get out onto the field and play and continue to develop because you look

around at some of the other young quarterbacks in the league who are not getting opportunities to play because of injuries or whatever the case may be. Anthony Richardson comes to mind right away when I think about a situation like this where, you know, he didn't, he was a guy that didn't play that much, even in college, at Florida. He didn't play that much. And then he gets drafted very high because of the physical tools and the athleticism and all the numbers and the combine and everything. And then he gets to Indianapolis and he's getting hurt he's not able to find a

consistent rhythm in his development and now with the way Daniel Jones is playing for that team right now it just seems like Anthony Richardson's time in Indianapolis might be over and they might be moving on now I'm not ready to go there with JJ McCarthy yet but this does really

kind of throw a wrench into especially if Carson Wentz plays really well and you're compelled to stick with Carson Wentz for the rest of this year what kind of impact is that have on J.J. McCarthy big picture wise from his development. And, you know, that's, that's going to be a really, really, really peculiar situation for them to be in. I mean, Collar, you even said these veterans didn't sign here to play wet nurse for someone else's NFL future when theirs is

dwindling. I mean, the stakes are high for so many people in this situation that is kind of spiraling here. It's, it's going to be fascinating to watch. I just wonder where there's so many potholes for O'Connell and the locker room to step into here in the next few weeks. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, right, is that O'Connell ends up in a very tricky situation because there's no world where he doesn't want J.J. McCarthy to get back in there and play. And they want to be able to find out. But it almost feels like if you're finding out, that means that Wentz was so bad that your season is over and you're not really competing for the playoffs, which you can't have either. And then, and I want to, like, after I say this, then I want to, like, pull the e-break and bring us back to this football game that's going to happen this week, right?

Because once you start getting like, hey, what about 2027? Then what do they do? And then is, right? It's like, hold on, hold on, everybody. But I will say that it does put them in a precarious situation because if Wentz ends up playing the majority of the year, the rest of the year, let's say that the last week of the season, they're in the seventh spot. they're locked in and the week doesn't matter. And McCarthy plays, then that will be three games since he was drafted. If it works out that way that Wentz keeps them in the playoff race and that they make it and all that sort of stuff, they want to be in the playoffs for sure. The Wilf's did not spend this much money to be sitting home and watching the Green Bay Packers in Detroit Lions in the postseason and not their team.

So they want that. But if that happens, then are you going 2026? Thanks for the memories, Carson Wentz. J.J's our guy. They can't, not alone. They would need to have Wentz come back and have a quarterback competition or sign somebody else like Indianapolis did with Daniel Jones and then have a QB competition during training camp. And you never want to be in that spot where you're asking your first round draft pick

who you thought was the franchise QB to then be in a competition. That is what happened in San Francisco, ironically enough, with Brock Purdy. and he ends up winning it, but that, I mean, that means, you know, sort of all bets are off. But I do want to, I do want to stop there because Edwin asked a very reasonable question on a day where reason is sort of out of the window is, can Carson Wentz play behind this offensive line? Like, do we, what do, what do we even, what do we even expect, Manny from Carson Wentz? Because, you know, Scott said, you guys are drinking the purple Kool-Aid thinking that Wentz can take them somewhere.

I'm drinking the, this is the history of the Vikings Kool-Aid that they've been able to pull off stuff like this plenty of times before. I'll also, you guys want a conspiracy, I think Carson Wentz had the playbook the whole summer. I'm not reporting that. I just, that's my, that, I won't go down the secret benching, but I, I wouldn't be shocked if maybe on the dark web, he was able to download a few Vikings plays as he was sitting at home as Sam Howell was throwing the ball and hitting fans in the stands or whatever

throughout the summer. So also everybody, thank your lucky stars. It's not Sam Howell, who we're talking about starting this week. And it's a guy who's won a lot. Can they win? Can they win with Carson Wentz

with the way that things played out against Atlanta? Well, I think there's a couple factors you have to take into consideration here. Now, obviously the offense in these first two games, save for a fourth quarter in Soldier Field has been pretty much abysmal. I mean, they got three touchdowns in the fourth quarter last week. And outside of that, the other seven quarters,

they've managed 12 total points in the way of four field goals by Will Reichert. So it's been a pretty bad stretch for this offense. But I think when you factor in, okay, they're going to get Jordan Addison back here. I think that's going to help because it's going to kind of have a domino effect in sort of the receiver pecking order of where everybody is at. So there's not as much pressure on Jalen Naylor to be a big part of the offense anymore.

Also, I mean, my goodness, whenever, maybe, hopefully it'll be this week, whenever they can get Christian Derrissaw back in at left tackle. It's imperative because this, I mean, Walter Rouse, I think, did okay when he came in except for that holding play. Yep. the just in school situation is just, that's just not it. That's just not going to work. So I think getting those two guys back, I think, can really help things with the offense. And I think, you know, we've kind of talked about this before with Kevin O'Connell is,

you got to find a way to kind of lean into this running game a little bit more because we saw it in the fourth quarter at Soldier Field when they started to establish that run. game a little bit, that helped J.J. McCarthy be able to, you know, have more success in the passing game. And I think Carson Wentz is another one of those guys where even though he's a veteran and he's started a lot of games, he's another one of those guys that I think could really benefit from having a strong, solid running attack. And that means you got to lean into Aaron Jones and you just really got a lead into Jordan Mason. I mean, what did you trade for this guy for if you're not really going to utilize him the way he should be used. So I think that they can have success if all of those factors kind of come into play.

You get Darrasaw back, you get Addison back, and then you kind of lean into the running game a little bit more. And also, caller, where is T.J. Hawkinson? Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, so that's where to me it feels like, all right, they have pieces to make this work. And maybe with Carson Wentz, even though he's, say for 2017, when he was an MVP candidate, has been, you know, largely just kind of an okay quarterback.

But if you give him the infrastructure that this team has, he can have some success. And this team can win some games, especially these next three with Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. I fully agree with you. Sorry, Murph. I just fully agree that Carson Wentz will not succeed unless Christian Derisaw is back. the left tackle position is paid what it's paid for a reason and it's been the school of sack over there at left tackle that I was just I was twitching remembering T.J. Clemmings at left tackle

with Sam Bradford where I know McCarthy struggled. I know he held on the ball too long. I know he messed up some protections, but there were at least two to three sacks where Justin School had no part of the guy and he just ran right by him and the one in the red zone was really crushing for the entire game. But, you know, Murph, you go ahead and follow up on what man he was talking about. I was just thinking, as Vikings fans, just think this way. Yes, the left tackle situation, the offensive line with the injuries and the upheaval. Do you think Carson Wentz drops the ball in the red zone and ultimately throws it away? Does Carson Wentz fumble the fourth down sneak, snap, does Carson Wentz overthrow Jalen Naylor down the sideline? Now, if you say no to at least

two of those questions, the Vikings may have won last night. So I think the floor is so low that the ceiling for Wentz should be pretty low. And it mainly is going to come down to can that offensive line, get its act together technically and physically to just get them to a base level so they can move the ball. And I agree. I think a healthy dose of Jordan Mason would be nice. It's probably going to be required at this point. So I just, O'Connell's going to have to get creative and he did it a couple years ago with the quarterback carousel. So I have no doubt that he can patch together a game plan that is sufficient enough to put them in a position to score enough points that the defense can do its job and they will be able to grind out some wins. We can get into

this later in the season tonight or later in the season. I talked about it a lot last year. the physical and mental goal that was taken and put on that defense last year when Arnold was been struggling, I think cost them against Detroit and L.A. later because they were worn down and just not able to pull the rabbit out of the hat like Flores had been able to have them do for so long last season. So we're only two weeks in and the defense has already been run over rough shot because the offense can move the ball. What is going to happen Sunday going forward? And what impact is this unbalanced scattershot performance going to have on the club in December and January?

So let me just take a little bit of a detour here with the discussion because I want to go back to what the main conversation was coming out of last. night's game. And I mean, usually it's just our nature to go forward, forward, forward with the NFL and like, okay, he's hurt what's next to move on, you know, and so forth. But how much of that game last night, Manny, did you section off to, well, that was play calling that was not using Mason enough who for the record average 3.3 yards per carry. So it wasn't like he was dominate he should it should have been more as a bad holding call on uh i mean it was a bad holding on walter rouse that it that play should have worked but nonetheless it's not like they just pounded their face in versus it was j j mccarthy and maybe somewhat of the fourth quarter

impacted by an ankle injury but it was him just not being ready for this um because i know that everyone likes to question play calling it's football fans favorite thing when the plays don't work they must have been stupid, but when you talk about, I think that there's some smoking guns here with it being J.J. McCarthy's inexperience. One is you mentioned Hawkinson. There is absolutely no way T.J. Hawkinson's not part of this game plan. There's no way he's not an outlet. There's no way that he's not a guy that they want to lean on. And yet the ball is almost not coming his way. And the one play where it kind of went through his hands, McCarthy stares him down. The defender jumps on that ball. And I think that it's really hard to look at the success they've had in the past

offensively and with quarterbacks and say, well, I guess this year, KOC decided to use the bad plays. Last year for Darnold, because he loved him so much, he used all the good plays, but I don't know how you interpreted that part of last night's game. Well, another play that stands out to me last night and, you know, to kind of piggyback off of Murphs. earlier point about, you know, what things have gone differently if Carson Wentz were actually playing last night versus J.J. McCarthy is the strip sack in the fourth quarter where I can't remember who it was that that got the strip sack for Atlanta. But that guy just, I mean, it wasn't even, I mean, Brian O'Neill didn't even look at him. But that was not Brian O'Neill being

bad. That was J.J. McCarthy not making the right protection check at the line to make sure. that Brian O'Neill picked up that guy and, you know, you have to wonder if that's Carson Wentz, if he's, you know, just because he's started 80 plus games in the NFL, if he can have a better understanding of that situation and that coverage that's happening on the defense, that he can make that check and make sure that that play is protected and then the strip sack doesn't happen and who knows, you know, what happens the rest of the game. So yeah, I mean, I think I think a lot of what happened last night fell on just the

the overall inexperience of J.J. McCarthy and you know, and look, he got banged up. You know, he had the injury. He kept playing and that may have played a role in maybe the last interception. I don't know. The deep pass that he missed on Nailer,

I don't know how much of that had to do with it. But I think it was just This kid's 22 years old. He has not played a lot of football. And I think it was just the typical young quarterback that doesn't have a lot of experience. And remember, we talked in the offseason when we were still trying to figure out

if they're going to bring Sam Darnold back or not. And I said it. I said, I know everybody wants to see J.J. McCarthy in 2025, but he doesn't necessarily have to play yet if he's not necessarily ready. The hype train showed everybody and everything that we saw in training camp was that he was ready for this.

But now that we've seen eight quarters of this, it appears that he's not ready yet. And that's kind of the situation that they're in. And it's a tough spot. I did see last night that I was to blame for hyping up McCarthy in training camp for last night's performance. So sorry for coming in and doing

a show every single day with every detail of camp and for him looking ready by the end of camp and then not being ready when he actually got out there. I'll try my best to have my crystal ball in the future and know exactly what's going to happen. But you know, Murf, I think there's a psychological element here when it comes to evaluating what happened and the COC part of it. For me, they do this in scientific experiments. They call it a control where it tells you something, in more of a static type of environment or gives you a comparative. And I think that her cousin's success with this system, even Nick Mullins to some extent having them in games

and definitely Sam Darnold is a control. I think it's a huge sample size of KOC winning football games with different quarterbacks having success in a lot of different ways to be able to tell us when J.J. McCarthy can't run the system that the system does work. That doesn't mean KOC did everything right. but I think that a lot of fans just need it to be KOC's fault because it's so much harder if it's J.J. McCarthy's fault. It's so much worse if it's J.J. McCarthy's fault. That means

that he's in over his head at this moment. That means the future is in question. That means the season is in question and whether he comes back and all those things. It's so much better if KOC just used the bad plays on him and that was what cost them to lose that football game and use the bad plays in the first half. I don't think that that was the case. I thought there were five, six different opportunities. I also want to point this out. Mike Rand had a great stat about J.J. McCarthy getting rid of the football.

Like he was pressured a lot, but he also was the fourth slowest in the NFL through two weeks of getting rid of the football. And the three ahead of him are running quarterbacks. That's a sure sign of a guy who is a young and an experienced quarterback. And after two games, there's nobody who's going to say the guy can't play in this league. But as we're evaluating last night, I had my own qualms with some stuff that happened and some play calls. You get the ball at first and two. You give it to Jordan freaking Mason. My God. Why did you get him? But aside from that, aside from that, though,

I think the execution of the offense with McCarthy was a J.J. McCarthy issue. Oh, I totally agree. I mean, he doesn't pass the look test right now. I mean, he looks overwhelmed. And we kind of, and I'm guilty of this too, writing last week about him coming through the adversity of a horrible start in his first NFL start in his hometown stadium. The bears are, you know, look like they're on the rise and score on the first drive and the Vikings can't do anything. They couldn't convert third downs, the turnovers. And yet he pulls the rabbit out of the hat in the fourth quarter. you see the sideline erupt and it it's easy to close ranks around the narrative that hey this is just him learning and these are the glimpses we're going to see but eight quarters is a pretty good

snapshot of things and seven of them have been deplorable i mean it's not competent quarterback play and if you can't get competent quarterback you're not even going to get to the game manager level. And, you know, there are only so many pep talks McCarthy can give on the sideline after another three-and-out or a ghastly turnover or it falls on deaf ears, especially in a veteran group. So I don't want to be, you don't want to see him put in a position to fail, but he's the number 10 overall pick and you put every tip in the middle of the table. There's only so much white glove handling you can do anymore. But, But the tension that pulls against that is you have a well-compensated veteran roster that wants to win yesterday.

So balancing McCarthy's physical, psychological development against the high stakes that this roster has been constructed with and what this roster of players expects to do, I don't know. know how those two things can co-exist in a struggling season. Yeah, I think when it comes to McCarthy in his return, how much they weigh what it looked like before the return will be very interesting to see because O'Connell has leaned on this, hey, it's all 11 and he has refused to criticize J.J. McCarthy and he said, hey, you know, he's made some good, but I totally agree. You don't want to call him out. But I also think that the sheer lack of any critique in the press conferences also is a little

bit telling as well because he doesn't want to go down that road at all. He doesn't want to get into, hey, maybe he had this guy or maybe he had that guy where he's done that with his other quarterbacks before. And the kid gloves kind of handling, it does make a lot of sense. But I think it also tells us just how bad that that looks on tape. and that's with all understanding that the left tackle is getting killed and the center was the backup

and there's lots of reasons why the stuff went wrong but the execution, even getting the play in and getting lined up and snapping the football multiple times, you can't even snap the football and hold on to it. That, to me, is you're in over your head at this moment, which is not shocking. And when you're talking about it,

someone who's played so little football. And the unfortunate part of J.J. McCarthy and this timeline is that he almost needed to be on a team that wasn't this good. And they could just play him and play him and play him and develop him and not be asked. And we, you know, we ask kind of over and over to KOC to McCarthy, to veteran players. Like, is it, is it okay to have a young quarterback like this with expectations that are sky high for a roster this expensive? And everyone's like, oh, no, it's great. He's actually 30 and a 22 year old's body.

Well, that's, oh, he won at Michigan. and oh, he wanted, whatever, there's nothing that prepares you for the National Football League and what that was like for J.J. McCarthy. Now, that doesn't mean that the tools aren't there and that there weren't, you know, five or six throws and two or three scrambles. But at this moment, all it is is tools. And that's a bet they're going to have to make on at some point, whether to bring him back or not. I mean, maybe the scenario where he comes back ends up being that Wentz is a little bit of up, a little bit of down, and you're sort of in the middle by the time you get to the Detroit game

and you just decide, well, why don't we just give it a shot? But that decision, I don't think is going to be very easy. Let me get to that point, too, is that no matter what, how healthy he is when he gets back, the status of the team, Wences play the record, this is still going to be several weeks, well, he's not on the practice field, much like his meniscus there. So not only is it the game development that has been put on hold, it's the overall development. Yeah, he can be in the meetings.

I get it and all that. But he's not getting the reps. And he didn't get a ton of reps for nine months. So it's it's another speed bump that just creates all kinds of other blowback here. Right. And that's exactly why the Trey Lance comparison and the Anthony Richardson comparison come up is because those guys, I think, are, both talented quarterbacks and had a chance to be very good in this league. It didn't play. And when people bring up, I know with Josh Allen for his accuracy issues and how he got it resolved,

when Josh Allen started in 2018, that team was garbage and they had no expectations of winning. They had a new coach. And they were slowly building that thing over a couple of seasons. It's not really comparable. And even someone like Lamar Jackson, who came in relatively raw as a passer, he came in with this other tool that was so freakish that he and a great organization, a team that won a ton with Joe Flacco, you know, in the playoffs and it won a Super Bowl, just a different sort of timeline than the Vikings are working with right now. So all these things have to be cooked in the pot of when you decide to bring J.J. McCarthy back. And I thought it was also kind of interesting that, you know, when O'Connell announces it,

it sort of sounds like it might be just a one week tweak type of thing. And then Schaefter comes out, well, two to four. And then it's a lot more vague. And it was, oh, it's an ankle sprain, but it's a high ankle sprain, which is, I think we all know at this point, you hear high ankle sprain. You go, well, that might. Usually dread it's the next word. Right, because that that lingers and it might be longer and it's a harder thing to, to resolve.

And, you know, there's a lot of just complications with this issue. So let me take a quick, just quick pause. for our sponsor and then I got a fan dual question for you guys and then let's pick the schedule because what else can we do under scenarios such as this other than have manny picked the schedule but I want to remind you guys that there is no good way to prepare yourself for hair loss when it happens to you it can be frustrating you can end up being in denial and but I promise you there's help and it's simple and easy through hymns you can take the next step with confidence access treatments made with clinically proven ingredients and regrow hair within three

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slash purple insider. That's hymns.com slash purple insider for your free online visit hymns.com slash purple insider. Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxidil and finestriide prescription required see the website for important safety information fellas earlier today i threw out a fan duel question of the day that was how many starts does carson wents make i'm going to set a line here the line is 3.5 manny does carson wents make more or less than 3.5 starts this season i'm going to say more Man, Murph, where would you put the line? Maybe I put it too low. Where would you put it?

Yeah, I'm looking at now that it's two to four, maybe more high ankle, I think it may just injury-wise get it to four, maybe five. And then whatever Wences is, I'm going to say over. Okay. So did I set the line too low? Should we put it at? Okay. How about if I reset the line based on the betting responses,

is if I reset the line at 5.5, where would you go, Manning? I'm still going to say more, probably not much more, but I'm going to say more because I think Carson Wentz is going to play fairly well. And I think it's going to be a tough decision for them. By the time JJ is ready to come back and play, I think Wentz is going to be playing well enough to where they're not going to rush JJ back out there when they maybe don't, don't need to. Murph, would you go over under 5.5?

I'm trying to download the schedule quickly. Help me out after Europe. They have Baltimore. Don't, don't guess. Just let me tell you. They have the Eagles at home, chargers on the road, lions on the road, ravens at home after Europe. I'm going to go push on 5.5. But I, I see this bleeding into that murderers row of teams. and it's just so impossible to say right now without specifics on his medical condition and getting one glimpse of what Wentz can do. If those pictures become a little clearer, I think that number will be perhaps higher. If Wentz plays well Sunday and it's a high ankle sprain, we may get into six or seven.

All right. In the comments, let me know. Would you go over or under? question of the day, 5.5 starts for Carson Wentz. All right, let's get into picking this schedule. We do it every single week, no matter what happens. And last week, I think many held strong with 11 wins. And you know, the funny thing is too, is after last night's game at the end of the podcast, even though I had expressed a lot of issues and concerns, I still said, you know, I still think 11 is fair for them. I walked out of U.S. Bank Stadium thinking I still like a lot

about this team. The defense was really good in a lot of ways. Yes, I have concerns about the run defense, but that happens when you're on the field all night. And their pressure was good and their coverage was good. And I think that Addison coming back and Derisaw coming back, those are all world players that you're missing. So I think this team will still be good. And then you get there this afternoon and you go, okay, now what do I think the expectation is? And I haven't, I feel like my brain's been spinning all day, and I haven't even really thought about what the expectation should be now that Carson Wentz is in for J.J. McCarthy. So let's start it off. Mani, Vikings and Bengals this weekend. Do the Vikings with Wentz pull it off? I think they do. But I think it's

imperative that Christian Darisol play in this game. Yeah. Because Cincinnati's defense is, while it's not great, they still have Trey Hendrickson. And he's fantastic. And if it's just in school or Walter Rouse, that could be a problem. So, but I do, I do get a sense that Derrissau is going to be ready to go. And if he's out there, I like the Vikings chances to come away with a win. So I'll take, I'll take the Vikings in this one. Murph. Yeah, I like their chances with this defense better than in 2023 when Browning shredded him in Cincinnati.

But this should not be a game. Carson Wentz is dependent on to win. Right. Okay. So we'll go two and one for each of you. Then the Vikings go overseas and play Aaron Rogers, who looked his age against the Seattle Seahawks, 8.30 in the morning.

So even if it goes bad, you can just watch football the rest of the day. Win or loss, Manning. I'm going to say win here because not only does Aaron Rogers look old and washed, Pittsburgh's defense doesn't look that great either. They haven't looked that good. first couple of games, you know, so I'm going to take the Vikings to win this one and improve the three and one. I don't think the year, the two game Europe's swing is as bad as it might

have felt when the schedule come out in terms of a hassle. This may be an escape. I don't like the way Rogers is playing. I had that pegged as a win because of the Vikings defense all along. All the people who bought those playing tickets to fly over and see Carson Wentz. Uh, sorry. I'm guessing they're going to see a few more things than Carson Went in Dublin. I hope so. I hope, uh, everybody has a nice, safe and fun trip because Rogers Wentz was not exactly on your bingo card, but, uh, all right. So the Vikings, despite the issues, get to three and one. And then they face the Browns. I'm going to take it. You both have wins against the Browns. And we could just move that to four and one. Nobody's objecting. So let's move to the second half of the schedule. Now, I think that you have to say win-loss and who's the starting quarterback is the Vikings play the Eagles at home on October 19th with a four-and-one record. I'm going to say this is still Carson Wentz starting, and I'm going to take Philadelphia to win the game. I'm guessing Wins will still be in there, and Wence, McCarthy, Tarkenden, it doesn't matter.

Philadelphia's going to win this game. I disagree with that. if prime fran targitin is in they win that football game but i don't think that that's going to happen so the vikings are four and two now chargers short week on the road what do we think manny i'm gonna take oh this is tough i'm gonna i'm gonna say went is still starting and i'll give the vikings the win i'll give them a win merv I'm not giving them anything. I thought that was a coin toss, but going West on a Thursday night coming off the Eagles game,

it may be Wence, but I think the chargers are going to come through. And this is where the questions are going to start really heating up if McCarthy's healed. All right, man, you got him at five and two. Murphy got him four and three on to four field November 2nd. And in my opinion, if it doesn't go that great for Carson Wentz, this is the game to bring back J.J. The lion's defense, it is a lion's den there at Ford Field. The lion's defense, not special to me, at least from what I've seen so far in these first couple games.

And it's a little bit better than a three-day thing where you're going out to play against the Chargers with a limited game plan. Manny, who's starting and do they win? I'm going to say J.J. McCarthy is back at this point and he's playing. But boy, the Lions feel like. they may have gotten their mojo back a little bit. I still have some questions about their defense, too, like you call her, but that team is just really hard to be in that stadium with that noise.

And I think if that's J.J. McCarthy coming back in his first start in, what, at that point, a month and a half, I think it might be a little tough, and I'll give Detroit the win. Yeah, throwing him to the Lions literally. I don't know what kind of damage or expectations you should have for that, but I don't see them succeeding in Detroit just because of the way Detroit rebounded yesterday. All right. So you've got the manny then at five and three and Murph at four and four. Is that right? Is that where you're right? Okay. Ravens at home on November 9th, maybe my first chance to see Lamar Jackson at U.S. Bank Stadium, although the way

quarterbacks are getting hurt. I don't want to make any guarantees. Boy, Baltimore, even in the loss of Buffalo to start the year, that offense and Lamar is just, they're cooking right now. Another 41 points against the Browns yesterday. I think it's just going to be too much and I'm going to give Baltimore the win. Even though the Vikings, I think the Vikings will play well, but I think it's just going to be too much Lamar, too much King Henry and Baltimore is going to end up winning the game. So is that now, is that at five and four. I've got them at five and four.

Five and four, okay. Yeah, I'm going to get them back to five and four because I think this may be their last stand in terms of like trying to write the ship. Again, we're projecting here, but I have the sense that they're going to be due. If they're an underdog at home, I think they'll be due to kind of maybe surprise people.

And this will be the week. Okay. So we've got five and four and five and four for you two guys. the Bears come to U.S. Bank Stadium. Tyson Bajent will be starting for a benched Caleb Williams. I'm only a little bit. The Bears come to town. I mean, anything could be the case at that point.

Just Ben Johnson's face was something to see against the Lions yesterday. But do the Vikings pull off a W at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Bears on November 16th? I think they do. I think McCarthy is still starting at this. point, having taken over, taken back over for Wince. The Bears just, they look terrible. Their defense is awful right now. And I think at this point was when J.J. McCarthy is really going to start to kind of find his groove a little bit and seeing a familiar defense that he saw in his first start. And he's going to play really well in the Vikings end up winning the game

pretty handily. I think it's a get well game for McCarthy and the Vikings. And if they're going to have a lot of momentum off of Baltimore. This could be a springboard. Okay, six and four for both of you. Vikings at Packers Lambo Field. This is a tough one. Yeah, Green Bay looks like the best team in the NFC right now, if not the best team of the league.

Yeah, this is going to be tough. I think Green Bay wins this one. Yeah, Green Bay's looked too good through two weeks for me to think the Vikings sneak out of there. All right, six and five. to Seattle for the revenge game for Sam Darnold, who had quite a journey in yesterday's contest, a couple of interceptions, a couple of crazy scrambles, a couple of crazy plays. I went like, I recognize that version of Sam Darnold in a victory.

Seattle doesn't look like a bad football team. They don't look like maybe a Super Bowl contender either. Seattle's a tough place to play. Do the Vikings stay ahead of 500, Manny, or drop to 500? I think this is going to be a coin flip game. In Seattle can be a tough place to play, although the Vikings won there last year with Sam Darnold. I'm going to give,

oh, this is hard. All right. I won't spend too much time. I'll give the Vikings a win. Okay, seven and five. I'm going to give them a win. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be rainy.

It may be a field goal game. McCarthy will not win. in Seattle, but he won't help the Viking Blues. I mean, this one screams three Sam Darnold picks because Brian Flores knows exactly what he can't see on the football field. Vikings commanders, Jaden Daniels, is banged up as well after getting demolished by the Green Bay Packers.

Fought his butt off in that game, but it was pretty rough for the commanders, which I think all of their weaknesses as a team overall, still on display. Maybe didn't do as much in the off season as they should have around Jaden Daniels, the 7 and 5 Vikings hosting the commanders on December 7. Yeah, where is Terry McLaurin right now? I mean, he held out for the new contract. And since he's played these first couple of games, he just really hasn't been all that productive. I wonder if they're going to find a way to get that going by then. I'll give the Vikings the win at home. I think

Washington is still pretty good, maybe not quite as good as I thought they were going to be going into the year. And I think the Vikings being at home, I think we'll be able to handle that and come away with a win. It'll be a close game, though. Eight and five. Yeah, I had the Vikings beating Washington last week, all of these new developments. I think it'll be a closer game, but the home field, I think will prevail for them. Okay, out to Dallas, both of you have them at eight and five. So neither one of you is sounding the alarms and calling this season over because of J.J. McCarthy's injury.

But I will say that Dallas Cowboys offense with George Pickens in it and Dak Prescott may be on a bit of a warpath after last year looking a little more dangerous than maybe we expected do the Vikings win in Jerry World. Yeah, the first couple times I picked the Vikings to win both times. I think I'm going to go a letdown route here and I think I'm going to take Dallas to win this game now. I'm actually picking a letdown game here because I still don't think the Cowboys are that good of a team but they do have a very high-powered offense. I think their defense is terrible.

But I think, you know, it being a road game for the Vikings, you know, I think that this is a game that can be pretty tough for them with that high-powered offense in Dallas and the Cowboys win. I had this trip to win. for a while, just watching Jerry Jones mess up to Mike Carson's situation. But now I haven't watching Dallas a couple times. I think they're going to pull one out. And I think, as Mani said, I think the Viking will have a letdown in Biggie.

Okay. So eight and six. And we're not that far removed from Dallas rolling them at US Bank Stadium. Well, right. And I mean, I think that Dak Prescott is probably as well fit to pick a part a defense like this that blitzes a lot. People don't like to give Dak Prescott credit for anything because he's

the Cowboys quarterback and we should just always hate the Cowboys and everything about them if you're not the Cowboys. But Dak Prescott is a super high IQ quarterback who I think gives you a chance every week. And that's what he did last week against a good Giants defense.

Speaking of the Giants, so eight and six headed down the stretch here, the Vikings go to East Rutherford. and does it come down to whether Russell Wilson's balloons fall from the air into Malik neighbor's hands? Because I don't think I've ever seen so many moonballs, so many prayers come true until the end of the game, as happened for Russell Wilson in that contest. I'm going to say the Vikings win this game. This feels like a situation, even though Russell Wilson was, he was great yesterday. This feels like a situation where it's going to be late in the year,

and I think it's possible that Jackson Dart is starting this game, and at that point it feels like the wheels have really come off for the New York Giants, and they're playing pretty poorly. And I think the Vikings will go into MetLife Stadium and win the game. Yeah, I think Jackson Darts at the helm by then, and he's going to absorb like seven sacks from a Flores defense. nine and six as they go into the final two games hosting Detroit and Green Bay. How do we see these two games playing out, Manny?

I'm going to take, I think they're going to split these games. I think they'll beat Detroit at home and then lose to Green Bay in the last game of the season. I totally agree. I think they'll redeem themselves against Detroit. It's going to set up that monster game against the ultimate rival in week 17. and Jordan Love's going to dagger him at U.S. Bank Stadium. I think that your guys both picking 10 and 7 only reducing by one win based on what happened today is a little shocking to me because I thought.

Well, can I defend myself when you're done? Yes, you can. I thought that there would be a lot more of these picks that would go sideways for this Vikings team. And, yeah, I mean, I'm seeing the comments section wondering why they're not. you know, it's, it's just hard to figure because when we've seen the worst case scenario at the quarterback position play out, which was McCarthy getting hurt last year, which was Kirk getting hurt before, the seasons did not come to an end. And I go back to the 23 season

and just how flawed that team was on defense, it wasn't that great. They had no running game whatsoever and still found a way to be right there in a bunch of games where they just needed maybe one thing, T. Higgins not to Randy Moss them or, you know, whatever else, or Mullins to throw it to a wide open Jefferson. With this coaching staff, they have fought a lot, even when they had the really bad start to the season in 2023 and we thought that the season was over, they got back to 500 and they upset some teams. They upset the San Francisco 49ers who ultimately went to the Super Bowl that year. And they didn't have just a Jefferson that night when they won that game. So they have found ways to work through a lot of these problems and we have a

sample size to look through that. But I don't know if I can get there to double digit wins on this day because when you talk about J.J. McCarthy coming back. What does that even look like when he comes back? If he comes back. How do you progress and get better when you can't even practice because of an ankle injury? And that might be several weeks of not even practicing, which is what he really needs to do is to get more and more and more reps of playing football. And then I'm supposed to buy that he comes back against the Ravens and comes back against the Lions and the Chargers, you know, these teams and then finds ways to win.

I mean, that's pretty tough right now. And as much as I think Carson Wentz can be a little Sam Darnoldish, there's not much of a recent record to suggest that. I mean, he got benched in 22, missed the playoffs in 21. For me right now, I'd probably have them much more at like nine or eight. I didn't get into whether, you know, we had McCarthy Peg to come back after the buy and I was at the Detroit game in November or whatever. We didn't really get into whether he might get benched during that and whence comes back at certain points. We didn't say which quarterback was going to author all 10 of these victories.

So maybe qualify a little bit. But the point I was going to make is this, would you rather have a marginalized over the hill, past glory kind of Carson Wentz guy running the offense right now for the incompetent seven quarters that he saw McCarthy running? And which would you rather have for the development of McCarthy, for the fate of the franchise, of course it's McCarthy. for the day-to-day in that locker room, maybe it's a coin flip. And that's where we get into quarterback controversy. And if Carson Wentz is playing, and I guarantee you, there will be games where it's hard to watch with Carson Wentz as well. If he's playing, and it's against the Ravens, and the Ravens get up 21 to 3, and he's still on the field. I mean, you know that it's going to be JJ Chance.

People are going to want JJ back. And this is the thing that they wanted to avoid by moving on from Sam Darnold and not franchise tagging him is not being in a position where J.J. McCarthy is the darling that everyone wants to see play if they decide to stick with Carson Wentz. It also, it's very difficult timeline-wise, because you need to find out if McCarthy can really play. I was not ready to call it a career on J.J. McCarthy after last night, what I thought was, yeah, that's what it looks like sometimes. Go look at Bo Nix last year. Even J.D. Daniels. even C.J. Stroud, like, that's what it looks like sometimes when somebody hasn't played a lot of football.

You need to find out. But as you have this roster that you've built and the expectations and all the money that was given through extensions for the coach, the general manager and everybody else, I mean, if I'm, if I'm the owners of this team, I'm not saying like, oh, well, you know, let's just get them right back in there and find out if Wentz is playing well enough to keep them in the race for the playoffs. Well, and I think the other part of this, too, and you hit on it with the way that this roster has been built, I think regardless of it's if it's Carson Wentz or J.J. McCarthy, hopefully playing better in the second half of the season. This team needs to be healthy if they're going to compete. I mean, they need to have Andrew Van Ginkle out there. They need to, I mean, we saw Jonathan Grenard get a little bit banged up in the game last night. They need him to be out there. They need the two sort of. both, you know, Hargrave and Alan, they're both very good, but they're, you know, they're 30 plus years old. They need those guys to remain healthy for the rest of the season, for the defense to hold up.

Harrison Smith, is he going to, you know, where is he at in terms of his situation? Is he going to come back? They need the offense. They need, you know, they need Ryan Kelly to stay healthy, you know? I mean, even if Darisaw is back, if they don't have Ryan Kelly, that's going to have a huge impact on what they're able to do offensively as well. So this is all, everything is going to depend on obviously how the quarterbacks play and who's playing, but the rest of this roster is going to have to stay as healthy as possible too. Let's wrap up by talking about our feelings, guys, something every once in a while I like to do on the show because we do so much hardcore football.

The wind out of the sales today is how it felt for me. I spent a lot of time this offseason talking about the rookie quarterback contract, the roster build, all these things that they've worked toward. And I think overall their process was right to build the team this way. I think they did a lot of things in the off season that they were supposed to do. And even coming out of week one, I felt like, oh, the interior D-line pressure. Oh, they ran the ball at key moments with Jordan Mason. and actually made a difference.

The interior line was really good in the first game of the year, and it looked all to me like it should look. And you went, yeah, there was some tough moments, but JJ didn't fall apart and didn't go cry in his cheerios. And, you know, so, okay, didn't look like Caleb Williams melting down or anything. Okay, it's all on track. It all looked like it was on track in a training camp with the way the roster looked and the way that McCarthy was developing and coming along.

and to have this happen, and maybe it will be two to four weeks, and maybe he will come back in when they get to the Eagles game, and maybe he'll look like a new man, and he'll just dominate the Eagles, and they'll never look back ever again. I mean, it's all possible in Viking land, right? But it's just extremely disappointing. It's extremely disappointing because over the last few months,

I mean, the chats have been great, the responses, the fan, the conversation, has been great. Coming out of the Chicago game and breaking that down, it was some of the most fun that we've had in a long time as just a discussion platform here. And to have this happen just one week later and now the chat is on fire and nobody's being disrespectful or anything, but I don't blame anybody for thinking about next year's draft pick, how many, you know, they should tank, they should trade everything that's not nailed it like I don't know they're not tanking and I don't want to ever hear that word here's what I'm saying Murph I don't blame anybody for this response I don't blame anybody for this response with how

exciting it was to see McCarthy get out there how much build up in months and months and months and months whatever your angry lashing out responses as Vikings fans I do not blame you like you're not being crazy I really don't think I mean maybe people who are saying fire KOC that's pretty crazy but aside from that aside from that you could hire Ben Johnson I guess right um but you know other other than the extreme extremes i it's a day to lash out i think of frustration because this was the one that was supposed to work yeah but you know don't be so naive i mean the NFL is merciless the vikings aren't the first team to have them monopoly on misery or have their young quarterback go down i'd be more concerned

about how he looked in seven out of the eight quarters, then the high ankle sprain and the political mess that may be awaiting because you get him healthy again, no matter what the circumstances are, he couldn't complete passes, he couldn't hang on to the football, he couldn't get a call in, he couldn't take a snap.

That, I don't feel like that's the gods cursing, Vikings fans. I think that's an inexperienced quarterback getting exposed. And maybe Carson Wentz is the tourniquet you need right now from all of that lashing out. Perhaps not. I mean, we got all excited about the pastor not and all the circus from a couple of years ago and how fun that was. At the end of the day, it was a mess. But you can't, you can't expect McCarthy to carry a team. What everybody wanted was to see some competent play. And I felt like there was a really bad regression

from the fourth quarter into last night. And I don't know what that looks like in six weeks when he comes back out. Yeah, because I think I agree with them of 100%, because I think that if, if J.J. McCarthy, I mean, it's devastating either way, this injury. But if J.J. McCarthy had been playing well in these.

first two games and the Vikings were two and oh and he had this injury yeah it would be tough and difficult but the mindset is okay well high ankle sprained he's out two to four weeks so he'll be back and ready to go and pick up right where he left off against Philadelphia on October 19th and we'll still be feeling really good about it but the fact that he has played poorly for majority of these first two starts say for the fourth quarter against Chicago that is kind of makes this a double whammy because it's like this kid needs to play and he needs to develop, you know, by getting on the field and getting reps in practice. And he especially needs it now because so far what we've seen these first couple of weeks has not been good.

And so he needs this development even more so than he would if he had been playing very well the first couple of games of the season. A friend of mine who is a lifelong Vikings follower did point out to me that Dante Colpepper in his first couple starts through, I think, one touchdown and four interceptions. Three picks against Miami a week, too, I remember. And I don't want to judge J.J. McCarthy on these two games entirely. And knowing what they've done with quarterbacks in the past, I still think that J.J. McCarthy, I don't want to call it. I don't want to be anywhere close to calling it. It has a really good chance to come back and get it together and lead the team. And he's got all the intangible elements, but if it's going to be a Jake Locker situation where he's a

great guy and everybody loves him, but he does not on the field enough to learn how to throw a football, it's not going to work. And I think of all the things, so this, this season in the vacuum of 2025, it's probably not the worst thing in the entire world that they're going to play the better quarterback on the roster right now, right here. But for the long term, you needed to come out of 2025, I thought with a playoff win and being absolutely sure McCarthy is your guy. And now if four to six weeks is what I think it is ends up being sucked down a tube, that makes it a hell of a lot harder to find out whether this is actually your quarterback or not, especially if Wence is keeping you in the playoff race and keeping J.J. McCarthy on the

sideline. And then you're talking about at the end of the season, oh, while they've lost two in a row and do you go to McCarthy and all this sort of stuff, that is a night. Mayor scenario and to Matt in the comments said, feels like a playoff loss last night. It absolutely does because usually what happens with playoff losses is everybody gets so amped up and they're so ready and they're so hyped and they're in love with the team and everybody's ready to go and then you just get punched right in the freaking mouth. Well, that's what happened to Vikings fans. You guys know the feeling.

You've had it happen many times. You had it happened in that August day with Teddy Bridgewater when the reports came from over there in Eden Prairie at Winter Park. You've had it happen when Sam Bradford put together one of the best football games I've ever seen by a quarterback and then wasn't practicing the next day and didn't play again the rest of the season. This is not new for all of you. You are a resilient fan base. Also, imagine having Joe Burrow and he never stays healthy and he's that good and they can't ever build a defense and you should be competing for Super Bowls right there with Josh Allen and it doesn't happen. So you're not the only ones who have something to be pretty sad about

today. So what we'll do is what we always do. We go forth and we find out. And I did, I did make the joke, but it's not really a joke based on history. I said today, my instant reaction was, so Carson Wins leads them to the NFC championship, right? It's just history, guys. And if we do live in a simulation, which there are YouTube channels that have plenty of, you know, about how we live in a simulation. If that's true, then I will see you in January in Philadelphia as Carson Wentz attempts to take the Vikings to the Super Bowl. It's just another bump.

Okay, Morpheus. Yeah, I know, right? It's just another bump in the Vikings historic road that you guys have gone through. And I feel most bad today for the fans. I mean, that is the story of all stories. If it's Carson Wentz in Philadelphia in the NFC championship game. But I truly, I truly do.

I truly do feel the most bad for the fans. And J.J. McCarthy. I mean, the guy has put in so much work to be here. He's gone through so much. He wants this so badly. In my experience, everything you hear about him and his teammates is genuine and just how much he cares, how hard he works, how hard he's willing to fight. I mean, the fact that he kept in that game and battled through it and tried to play all the way to the end, even though he was dealing with a high ankle sprain. think it does actually make some bad throws, make a little more sense toward the end of the game,

but that you just, you hate it for him and you hate it for Vikings fans who have waited for this for so long. But as you said, Murph, it is the nature of the National Football League and we can only wait and see what happens next. Mani Hill, Brian Murphy, every Monday night, truly hell or high water. We will be here. What will happen next week? What in the heck will happen next week? We will be here. So I appreciate all of you guys watching and listening. And remember the Fanduil question of the day for the comment section for those rewatching or if you're still hanging out now would be over under 5.5 starts for Carson Wentz this season. Thanks everybody for watching and listening. And we'll see you. We'll see all week long leading up

to Carson Wentz's first Viking start just as we all expected. Take care everybody.