Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - When should we expect the Vikings' offense to figure things out?

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fans questions, including how patient we should be with the struggles of the Vikings' offense, who the face of the franchise is, revisiting whether we'd take Derek Carr or Kirk Cousins in a big game and what's happening with Ed Donatell's defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. This is a fans-only podcast, and it has been a while since we have cracked open a Diet Dr. Pepper to go along with an entire fans-only pod. So I've got lots of questions from the Lions game, looking forward to the Saints game, and some really interesting stuff here in the file. And, uh, just looking forward for the rest of the week, we'll have a full hardcore breakdown with Will Raggetts of sports illustrated. Then my friend, Peter Carline, who is a journalist over in England is going to check in from Vikings practice. Jonathan Harrison, who works as a producer here with purple insider. He is making the trip over to England. Uh, Jonathan, if you guys don't know him works for the Minnesota United, huge, huge soccer fan. And it was his dream to make this trip over there. He's going to go to a soccer game. He's going to visit, uh, the Manchester

United stadium. So he's going to be checking in as well. He's also going to be a part of the post game podcast. I'm very excited about that. And also, um, if you guys haven't checked out the hot routes podcast yet, and it's with a Z hot routes, um, Jonathan co-host that with me as well. So we recorded an episode earlier this week with Jace Frederick, go find that wherever you get your podcast. We decided to make it into its own entity. I know if you've listened for a long time, then you are familiar with what hot routes is, with how that style works of five questions. Only this looks at the entire league. So go find that, download that. It's just once a week.

But I really wanted to do more stuff involving the rest of the NFL as well, because I just have a good time talking football. So that's where we decided to put it. So let's open the Diet Dr. Pepper and this magical world of questions that we have here for a fans only pod. All right. Our first one comes from at David D. Westman on Twitter says, so after the Lions game, I made three predictions to friends that called me crazy,

but tends to make sense with Kwesi Adafo Mensah. One, Irv Smith will be traded with Johnny Munt and Ben Ellefson performing like they are and getting any value before the rookie contract is over. And you have no intention of signing an injury, the riddled tight end back. Number two, Harrison Smith will be traded to the bills because the offer will be too good to pass up,

and the cap savings alone from the performances by Bynum and Metellus with scenes still developing. And number three, Delvin Cook will be traded to shred the contract, extend Madison, and obtain the highest value you can for Cook right now, like the Rams or 49ers question mark. Well, okay. So are these, let's see. I mean, the first one in season trading away Irv Smith would have to be in a position where everything has gone all the way down the toilet by the time we reached the trade deadline. And I have a really tough time seeing that happening.

Like after getting the win against Detroit, it just kind of changes the math about where this team is going to be midway through the season. You're two and one right now. Even if you split the next two games and have one of them be disappointing, let's all do this one together.

If you lose to New Orleans, it's two and two if you win against chicago it's three and two you lose against miami you are a 500 football team going into the bye week and then after that i think the week after is the trade deadline is this team going to say let's get rid of irv smith jr someone who can help. And I do expect Irv to get better as the season goes along. Like, I don't know if it's, if there's any way to quantify how challenging this must be for Irv Smith to come back from an entire year off and miss all of training camp. And then we just expect to snap our fingers and have him look exactly the same. But I do think as the season goes along,

he's going to fit in better. We're going to see some of that burst come back. And the best way, and I've probably made the comparison before, but the best way I can compare it is Latavius Murray when he missed all of training camp after signing here in 2017, that he didn't have any jolt

or any violence to his running at all, any burst. And then all of a sudden it just came back in week four or five. And then it was there for the rest of the season. And he was a big part of the team. So I think that bailing on Irv Smith, I get what you're saying is they're not going to extend him a long-term, but bailing on any weapon on a team that is struggling right now offensively would not make a whole lot of sense so i would be very surprised by that unless something went completely sideways with irv smith jr but even when you look at the snap counts he's still being used a lot even though johnny munt and ben ellison have been options. I do think that it's going to prevail

Irv Smith long-term, but I understand why people have been disappointed so far. You've heard for years about this next level of Irv Smith that has not come to fruition. And here's me saying, well, be patient. Just wait a little while longer, even though you've kind of been waiting for it the entire time, but I just am not ready to judge his season yet. Now, if we were to get to that Miami game and all of a sudden it's Johnny Munt and Ben Ellefson playing a lot more, then you might be onto something craziness. I think with all three of these, we have to go craziness levels. yeah your craziness level is probably in the yellow here but definitely not in the red um but i just can't see it i think they have to let the whole thing play out with irv smith jr before bailing on him midway through the year and then what if

one of those tight ends gets hurt and you're just left with nothing you're left with ben ellison to run the whole show uh Harrison Smith traded to the Bills. I think it's, if I'm not mistaken, it's pretty hard to trade Harrison Smith at this moment. And if you mean in season, that is probably not going to happen unless the Vikings completely fall apart, because that would be a white flag moment. Trading Irv Smith, if he was struggling big time and did not fit the offense is one of those things where you could go, okay, I get it. They're just not using him. So you might as well move on Harrison Smith. If you trade him, you're saying we're giving up on

the season. And I know that, uh, Mattel has played well and that they have seen waiting in the wings. And so they have too many safeties at the moment. But Harrison Smith is still, in my mind, a game-changing player where Metellus and Bynum are survive-type players. At this moment, I mean, you know, Cam Bynum could improve and Louis Seane could be the game-changer eventually. But you would have to have things fall apart.

You'd have to lose the next several games and be at a point where everything is miserable and you have teams calling, trying to pick at your bones and take anything that you can possibly take. But Harrison Smith's contract is also just not set up to be traded. I wouldn't be surprised if they looked at it and said, we just want Harrison Smith to retire a Viking end of story. Um, the way that they did that contract and that extension initially was bizarre. If you recall that conversation that signing him to a deal to make him one of the most expensive safeties in the league was shocking at the time when we had expected much more of a reasonable short-term deal,

which makes it hard for any other team. And also think about, like, you have to consider the salary cap of the bills right now. Could they figure out a way to afford that? I think that would be really tough. But Buffalo, I mean, they should be in the market for a safety. It's just, I don't think that it is a good idea unless you're completely out of the race early to start thinking about trading a player like that. When you've set the expectation across the board of making the playoffs. And as far as trading Delvin cook,

no one is trading for Delvin cook. I mean, it's like that simple. Um, it's really that simple. Now at the end of the year, now, if you're talking about Harrison Smith at the end of the year, that might be different though. I will say that that might be different. If you are talking about get to the end of this year and say, we've got a bunch of safeties, let's shop him in the off season. Now that is plausible, but the rule on the show at the moment is that we're not going to talk a lot about the off season until we have to. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think that as far as Delvin cook goes, no one is trading for Delvin cook. It would be really, really shocking if they did. He has been injured. He has not had the same jolts that he used to have. Um, the performance has been just okay for the last couple of years.

He was good against Detroit, but that was the first game this year where it looked like, oh, okay, maybe some shades of Delvin Cook, but still no real big explosive runs on a consistent basis. And when you feel like if Alexander Madison has to play, that's totally fine. Yeah. I mean, that's going to be a hard player to trade again, the contract and so forth at the end of this season, it's also going to be a hard player to trade. Again, the contract and so forth. At the end of this season, it's also going to be hard to trade. Because teams just don't trade for running backs, especially ones that have been around and have been beaten up. Smart teams don't.

The Rams and the 49ers, I think that they lean toward being smart teams. The 49ers have maybe put a little too much into running backs in recent years, as far as draft capital, Trey Sermon, for example. But moving on from Cook feels inevitable after this year in the form of just cutting him and going forth. I think that everyone also knows that when you look at your roster and say, well, we've got this player that we should be able to trade, but everybody knows that you're going to move on. A lot of times the league is like, nope, we're not offering anything. And that's how Amari Cooper ends up being traded for a fifth round pick. But as far as an in-season trade for Delvin Cook, it goes under that same category that if you trade one of the key players on the team, even if the juice isn't still there the same way that it was, you're still sending a message to the whole team. Like, yeah, white flag, our season is over. And if that's the case,

if they lose the new Orleans, lose the Chicago, lose to Miami, it's going to feel really bad. It's going to feel like the season is more or less over and you're definitely not a contender at that point. And then you start shopping everything. But that's basically sounds like your prediction is that they're going to get to that point and they're going to feel like they are in a position to sell everything. I don't think that will happen because I think that they should win both of these two games coming up. And if they went one and one, I wouldn't be shocked. And then probably a loss to Miami, who's a very strong team. And you go into the second half of the season thinking that you're right there in the playoff race. That is my expectation. But there is a scenario where, yes, phone calls would have to be made and phone calls

would have to be received about veteran players here because the Vikings do have quite a few of them. But I think the Detroit win, at least in my mind, took that possibility off the table. So crazy? No, you're not completely crazy. Football conversation is often about who can we trade and so forth. But I think this year is not going to be that year yet. So I hope that answers the question.

All right. Next question comes from Brett via email says, enjoy the podcast. It helps keep my home team biases and expectations in check with your realist points on the team. Well, thank you. I appreciate the daily episodes. Listen to it every day on my way to work. I really am glad when I hear that, that it becomes sort of part of your daily routine. That's awesome.

I especially appreciate your long episodes as I have a commute and always listen to the end. That's great. My question involves a podcast from a couple weeks ago where you and Kalen Kaler discussed which quarterback you would want to win one game. The options were Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, Kirk Cousins, and Derek Carr. Both of you picked Derek Carr. I was wondering if you would change your answer given the start the Raiders have had to the season 0-3. If I remember correctly,

you tend to ascribe to the thought that wins should be considered a quarterback statistic, which makes picking Derek Carr a little more interesting since he has a career losing record of 57-37. I'm not saying the Cousins should be the choice either, and while some may call me a Kirk apologist, I recognize his flaws after Sunday's game and given appearance in the super bowl. I wonder if golf would be a better choice. Would love to hear your thoughts if you have the time. Yes. Well, I do have the time. Yeah. I mean, that's a good one. Like winning one game seat with a Derek Carr. Here's what it was based on. Derek Carr is a more physically gifted quarterback than Kirk Cousins.

I think he's a better athlete and I think he has a stronger arm. And I think that that gives you a little more of a possibility of having one of those great games where you just light up a really good team. I think Derek Carr is more capable of that. I think the higher end of Derek Carr has shown that he's more capable. He has a 12 win season last year, one double digit games. He finished third in the MVP race in 2016, which I didn't remember, but looking at it now, like, wow, that actually is a thing that happened. So the higher end of Derek Carr, when he had a really good team was a little bit higher, but in, in all honesty, we are talking about guys that are very, very similar. And when you bring up the win loss record, I'm not saying that you should throw out

win loss, uh, certain seasons to make it work or whatever. But Derek Carr did play as a rookie where Kirk cousins did not and went three and 13, or maybe it was his second year, but his first year starting, he went three and 13. You can throw out rookie win loss records a hundred percent of the time. And I think the way that you use QB wins is you look at how the team performed with the quarterback, and then you have to ask yourself, how did that happen? Why did that happen? That's my point about QB wins. I mean, if quarterback wins were something we should never look at,

then we're going to be way more confused. We're going to be looking at things that are like, uh, you know, all these numbers and everything else, PFF grades, completion percentage over expected. But what are we really trying to learn? We're not trying to learn who can have the best box score. We're trying to learn who can win, right? Like the correlation between PFF grades and completion percentage over expected is about 50% with like, if you have a certain number of 50%, you're going to win that correlation of winning games. There's no other position that has anything like that.

Like if you have a great PFF grade as a tackle, do you win? Like, I don't know. The correlation is probably not at all that tackles have great games all the time where their team loses. But when a quarterback puts up a great PFF grade or a great ESPN QBR, like more likely than not, you're going to win, right? So I think that everything points to the quarterback and how he plays has the most command over whether you win or not of anything in all of sports, except for individual sports.

That doesn't mean that nothing else mattered or that every loss that a quarterback has was all their fault. I think it's a lot of straw man arguments. So when I look at Derek Carr beyond his first season, he's 54 and 60. What's that sound like? It sounds like 500. And, and I would bet that by the end of this year, Derek Carr's team is eight and nine or nine and eight, because that's who he is too. And he's very up and down also, uh, just like Kirk Cousins is they're remarkably similar like that. I, the edge was only that. I think that car has a little more capability of rocketing a ball into coverage for a big play than Cousins does. And that's really it or running for a first down or escaping the pocket and making a playoff schedule that he has a little bit more capability, but we're really talking about guys

who are very similar. I mean, one, one year, uh, he ran for 140 yards and three touchdowns had 16 rushing first downs. Like that's a little better than Kirk usually does. We're really not talking about, um, massive differences between the quarterbacks. It was only that, um, that I, that I think the arm strength is a little bigger when it comes to car Jared golf. yeah, I mean, I've always kind of leaned toward being a Goff apologist, and I don't disagree. I just think that all of them kind of have the same issue, which is why I love the question, is that when things don't go their way, and Derek Carr is a great example. The year that it did, he won 12 games, which is a really good number, and his team, had he not gotten hurt, had a chance to go deep in the playoffs that year. When things went horribly wrong two years later, they won four games.

And that's a little more of the variance than what you see from Kirk Cousins during his career. So it would kind of be betting on the higher end of that, of the Derek Carr. But, you know, there are other statistics that are not as good for Derek Carr. His quarterback rating the last couple of years, their QBRs is kind of similar. Their PFF grades are kind of similar, but Kirk's might be a little bit higher.

I think it's, I think the real answer to the question is that it's a trick question. It's that if you're going to win big games against good teams, you probably have to do better than all of those quarterbacks, unless you have an unbelievable roster that that's the only way to win with those quarterbacks. Because Jared Goff with a horrible roster was horrible. Jared Goff with a roster that's decent. He's back folks. And with a roster that was unbelievable and a great offensive coach

and Jared Goff was in the Superbowl. And I think that with cousins, um, you know, that's always felt like a possibility that he could have a golf esque season, but then every time they've had a good supporting cast, there's always kind of a, a fatal flaw there with his ups and downs and maybe golf is a little less up and down. But yeah, that's, it's more of a telling question about these mid pack quarterbacks who have just enough weaknesses, but just enough strengths to think about as like for the future. Like if that's how you feel, if you're saying, who would you want to have in these, in a big game between those four? And you're saying, well, well, I don't know which one. Well, that's kind of telling. Right. Um, but if you picked Kirk, like, I'm not going to criticize you, but if you're using like a game winning drive against Detroit, the year that Carr won 12, he had seven game winning drives. But it's not a great stat or a great way to really look at it because that means they were down a lot. And just like Detroit.

So what you're always doing with the QB win stat is trying to figure out what it actually means in relation to how the guy played. What does he need to win? What does Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen need to win? Probably a lot less, right? And then you use the other statistics to reverse engineer. Why did that happen? And you have to start there. So, uh, anyway, great, great email. Really appreciate it, Brett. This one comes from Stefan by email. So when do you think the offense starts to click? I know that nobody played in the preseason and I'm sure that it'll take time. But when are you going to look at this team and say, yep, this is the offense or yep, this isn't anything special. That is a great question, Stefan. I, I, I don't know. I mean,

what is the, um, that whole, I'll know it when I see it kind of thing. There is a, an element of that, but I think that by the by week, you really have to know who you are as a football team because week one, they're running a lot of motions and stuff. They go against the zone defense with green Bay. They light it up. They take total advantage. They shred apart that defense. They have an amazing day. And then the last two games, it has looked like they don't really know who they are. And last game, using tight ends and fullbacks to throw the ball to and running bootlegs and handing off in a lot of situations that the previous coaching staff would have handed off, well, that's maybe trying something a little bit different

and trying to stay a little more true to the run game and play off it. And they do talk about marrying that run and pass game, but it does feel like they're just kind of calling plays at this moment and seeing what sticks. And it doesn't feel like there is a conduciveness to the offense that you're going to need to go on a run in the second half of the season. You could certainly give yourself a great cushion by starting the year four and one. It's very plausible at this point. If they were to do that and have no offensive identity really yet, that would be a great place. But that's my marker, that bye week. Because if they go into that realistically at three and three, which is, I think, the most sort of conservative estimate. I mean, expectation wise, it should be better based on who they're playing.

Maybe one win better, but even just the most reasonable slow start to the, you know, to the Philadelphia game. And then maybe you make a mistake or have a crazy performance by somebody or whatever for new Orleans or for Chicago. And you end up three and three at that by coming out of that. Well, that's when things do get a little bit harder schedule wise. There's still flaws in those teams, but you have to face, you know, Kyler Murray and Bill Belichick on a short week, and Josh Allen and Dak Prescott slash Micah Parsons, there will be some hard games for them in the second half.

They need to know who they are by that point. And if they come out of that bye and put up 18 points against the Cardinals and lose, and they still are kind of looking around at each other, then I'm going to wonder what happened there because they'll have two weeks to prepare for a defense that is pretty horrendous in Arizona. That will be a very, very telling game. That's a great question. And when I started the answer, I was like, I have no idea. Uh, but then I think I landed on an answer. I think that's a really good bar to set. So there should be some patience still, and also keep London in mind. Cousins could throw for 400

yards, which he once did. They could have a tough day on offense, which teams have over there in London. It is maybe not the best game to completely evaluate your team because of the bizarre circumstances. So I'm going to need a few more weeks, but, um, that is a really good question. Okay. This next one comes from Jackie via email says, who would you say is currently the face of the Vikings franchise? Who do you think it should be? And why? I mean, it's Justin Jefferson, Justin Jefferson, JJ, Justin Jefferson. And that's why when it's two weeks without getting in the football, there's a lot of anxiousness because he is truly the face of the franchise as long as he's here.

And I don't want to fear monger and talk about his future contract and say, Justin Jefferson's going to leave if he has under 1500 yards or something like that, um, money talks. And a lot of times these deals do get done. I mean, even DK Metcalf who knew his team was going to have to take a step back and play Gino Smith at quarterback. He was still willing to sign a contract that got him a lot of money. Justin Jefferson, though, after this year is going to want to be the highest paid wide receiver in the entire NFL. And he is going to want the numbers to back up the idea that he's the best receiver in the NFL.

And when, I mean, just imagine, and this is why I could see Jefferson going for 150 against New Orleans is imagine his frustration at all the tweets about how Jeff Okuda shut him down. I mean, that's not something you want too much of from Justin Jefferson. And that goes to Kirk Cousins and it goes to Kevin O'Connell because we know Jefferson, when given the opportunity, is going to make plays on the ball, is going to get open, because he has a huge sample size of doing that. But now defenses are doing something they've never done before with Jefferson. I mean, playing him super physical at the line and saying,

not only beat this guy, but also beat a safety over the top, and we're going to demand that Irv Smith and that Adam Thielen and KJ Osborne beat us and not Justin Jefferson, there has to be an answer because again, he is the hands down without question face of this franchise going forward. He's the one thing. And I don't mean to overstate this. He's the one thing that makes you feel like you've got a future. Because if they didn't have Justin Jefferson, you are lost in the woods here. The idea of Justin Jefferson is that you could move on from cousins if you have to and bring in another quarterback and give him Justin Jefferson. And you could put him on the marquee for the next five years. If you're signing him to an extension and everybody's happy and going forward. And that's

why that even early in the season, you're saying answers need to be found and everybody's happy and going forward. And that's why that even early in the season, you're saying answers need to be found and they need to be found quickly because there is no other answer to that. I mean, you could say Daniil Hunter, but you know, will Daniil Hunter be here long-term? Not really sure. Aside from that, everybody else is on the older side. Zedarius Smith, Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen, Delvin Cook is on the older side. Zedarius Smith, Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen. Delvin Cook is on the older side for a running back. He was probably the face of the franchise. And it's not Kirk Cousins.

Because if it was, they would have signed him to a much longer contract. That Cousins is a year-to-year type of player for this team at this moment. And has never really taken on that. I want to be the face of the franchise because he's always been on those short-term contracts, which creates that conversation of what are they going to do next at quarterback? And a lot of people, including on Kirk's side, as my understanding thought he was getting traded this off season after everything went down. So when it's that tenuous, a quarterback, that guy can't be your face. It has to be Justin Jefferson.

And I do think that, you know, don't panic after two games. There have been other two game stretches where he didn't get huge numbers and then bounced back and was marvelous. So I think they'll find some answers here this week against new Orleans. Good question. This comes from at

DTP KLL on Twitter. Would you be shocked to learn that after three weeks, Garrett Bradbury is the sixth ranked center in the NFL and third ranked center in the NFC. So yeah, Jeremiah Searles and I talked about this a little bit that his past blocking numbers are still mid pack. Um, and that we've always known that he was good when it came to running. Like that's never been a question, the run blocking and the screen blocking from Garrett Bradbury. But yeah, I mean, it's three weeks. It is a very small sample size. There's a long way to go. Offensive linemen get banged up as the season goes along and so forth. So I don't think that it's time to quite jump for joy. There also is a rookie on the line that opposing teams might be attacking that could be causing some of this. Um, but I think it's, it's also totally

plausible that in the fourth season, somebody can start to get it together. Now that did not look like it would be the case very much in training camp. In fact, so much to the point where it seemed the team was getting nervous and they talked about wanting to have competition, but Chris Reed was not healthy in training camp to provide competition. And Austin Schlottman was much more of a backup type of guy. So when they were talking that way, you could tell they were kind of wondering, is this going to work out or not?

So far it mostly has, and he's been solid. And this was always the thing with Bradbury is if he can be solid, if he can be average, decent, then they're going to have a pretty decent player on their hands, like a good player because he is so good when it comes to the running game. But there's a long way to go. I mean, if you remember last year, and by the way, right now, those small sample PFF

grades, Mason Cole is grading as one of the best in the league. This happens a lot with PFF grades where through two weeks, Mitch Trubisky is grading well by PFF. They must be clueless. It's like, folks, there's a lot of games. There's a lot of snaps. I mean, I know that you want the numbers and what they're saying about someone, but it really needs to be over a bigger sample of time. And last year, a Garrett Bradbury had a nice little run after he was benched. And we thought that they had found something. And then it slid off after that and went back to what it was. If Garrett Bradbury sustains this very level of play, the Vikings will have themselves a solid offensive line this year.

I think you can say that, that they will for this year if he sustains this level of play. It's very important that he does and that that isn't an opportunity for defenses to just attack him and create pressure up the middle. Because Kirk Cousins has not been pressured to the point so far this year where it has hindered him all that much. I think a little bit on the blitzes in Philadelphia for sure, but not on a down to down basis has it started to hinder him. And if Bradbury is this guy the rest of the year, then he's not a hindrance. Like then he's, he's's not perfect he's not like the next whoever but he is um he's at least solid he's not jeff christie but he's solid uh all right on to our next question here uh this is from justin i think it's important to note the donatel defense is created to be a defense where

the whole team is ahead by a touchdown or two scores. Right now, the offense for the Vikings is leading the defense down in the first half of games by going three and out. I haven't checked. Just curious what the time of possession for the Vikings comes out to at this point. Let's see. You know, it's funny. I've never really looked at time of possession stats other than in an individual game. So I could look it up, but I think we know what we're going to find largely that Detroit and Philadelphia had the ball more than the Vikings. That's not quite the way I would look at it. I think what you're saying about the three and outs is a big deal. Scoring percentage where the Vikings are 21st is pretty telling. They're 21st on the percentage of drives where they're producing points so far, field goal or a touchdown.

And that kind of gives you an idea. Actually, no, I think I might know where to find this. Let me take a look. Let me see if I can get this up here. The time of possession for the Vikings so far. I think it might be somewhere on football reference. Let me pull it up. But yeah, so let's might be somewhere on football reference. Let me pull it up. But, uh, yeah. So

let's see plays per drive. How about that? That'll work plays and time per drive. Neither one are good. This doesn't surprise you. I sure it doesn't. They are 21st in plays per drive and they are 26th in time per drive. So that kind of gives you your indication that you are right. And I completely agree with you that offense impacts defense. And if you have a bend, don't break defense that is asking the other team, hey, can you complete seven passes in a row to get down here and score which actually did work at times against Detroit because they couldn't convert on some of the third downs and the Vikings made some big stops and on the fourth down at the end but it is much more of a play from ahead type of defense every defense is but this isn't an attack defense. That's going to get you a strip sack or, or

blitz the quarterback and try to get an interception, but also give up a big play. This is not what they're going for. They're going for being where you're supposed to be making tackles short of the sticks. How many fourth and ones were there the other day, making tackles short of the sticks, which they did a pretty good job of. And I I'm, I'm willing at this moment to be patient with the defense and say that through these few games, they have done enough to only give up at this moment, the ninth most points in the league. And they've given up a lot of yards, and they've given up a lot of time of possession, and they've given up a lot of plays, but they have been what they've played to be, which is that.

But they are assisted by the fact that Philadelphia and Detroit got super conservative when they got the lead. Had they both kept the gas pedal down, which I think may have been just as much of an error for Detroit as the fourth down call, which was just not continuing to be aggressive through the air, right on first down first, second, third down because the Vikings weren't stopping them. But I think that in general, that statement is just always true that it's easier to play defense when your team is up by two scores. But when you come out

as an offense, after giving up a long touchdown and go three and out, that defense is winded and it's right back on the field. And this is a defense that's going to have to spend a lot of time on the field because they're not just going to go here. Here's a sack three and out. Here's a pick. It's going to be a lot of completion completion completion and then you hope to get a run stop and then you get a punt or something like that underneath it's a product of how they have to play based on their roster i don't think based on the roster they can be much more aggressive uh than than that and and that sort of speaks to another question that I got here from at McGillis one on Twitter is Ed Donatell horrific, or are the Vikings players horrific on defense? You must pick one.

I would pick the players. I wouldn't be that aggressive in saying horrific. What I would say is flawed that especially if they're playing against the New Orleans Saints with only Daniil Hunter because Zedaria Smith is banged up and did not practice today. If that is the case, they have to cover. They have to stay behind people because no one's getting after the quarterback. The numbers are concerning with the defensive lineman, not named Daniel Hunter and Zedaria Smith when it comes to the pass rush and Hunter has graded well by PFF, but he has not produced a ton of pressures. One has to probably lead to the other eventually,

but at this moment, I mean, you need those pressures really from that one person and you need it all the time because if it's not, then quarterbacks are going to have time to sit back there and throw the ball around. And if they have time to throw, what you want to do is limit how far they can throw it. That's really the theory. But what this relies upon is no coverage busts, like what happened in Philadelphia. If you have a coverage bust and you give up a big play, it's really crushing to the concept of not giving up big plays in the bend. Don't break. And that's why Ben don't break is pretty tough, but I don't, I am going to defend Ed Donatello's choice here and how he's going about this defense until I have a reason really not to.

But I look at the players that they have and they're asking Eric Hendricks to make a lot of plays in coverage, which he has so far in my mind. And you're asking Jordan Hicks to be pretty solid, at least to my eye, he has been. Not all pro, but he's been where he's supposed to be. You're asking the safeties to be good. I think they largely have been maybe not so as much in Philadelphia, but they largely have been all right. And you're trying your best to protect the corners because even in the game against Detroit, when you saw the corners get singled up, it's just not a great situation.

So I am going to, at this moment, defend the way that they're playing defense and say to the offense, you might have fewer snaps. And this has been brought up multiple occasions by Kevin O'Connell. Well, we only had this number of snaps. So that's why someone didn't get the ball.

That might be what you have to work with this year, is fewer snaps, because your defense is going to be on the field a lot. Um, but it is when you're trying to pick it apart, like whose fault is it anyway, that kind of thing. Um, not always easy to do. Uh, all right, this comes from Peter. It's the token Brit back again for a fans-only question. Firstly, for anyone coming to the UK for the game, then welcome and remember to speak with the King's English here. Yeah, good luck, my friend. If you ask for a bag of chips, you'll be directed to a fish and chip shop. Ask for a biscuit and you'll be offered what you would call a cookie.

And lastly, we say Zed, not Z. I don't know what that means. Uh, let's see. I hope you enjoy your stay, uh, and are treated properly. Yeah. Well, yes. Anyone who's making that trip. I hope you have a lot of fun. So my question, Matthew is what is your view on the international series games? Do you ever see it leading to franchises outside the U S I think it would be hard logistically for a whole season, as opposed to just a couple of games as it is now. All I want to know for sure is that the super bowl always stays stateside. Yeah. They cannot take the super bowl somewhere else. I think there would be a lot of outrage for that. And I like

the international series. Okay. I don't know who cares about it other than Roger Goodell. Like, yeah, Hey, you're the UK fan. So I'm sure you're pumped and have a great time at the game, but is there a lot of people in your country that care? And maybe there are, maybe there are, maybe there are, and maybe there are good crowds there and it's very exciting for those people. My friend in Britain said that Germany is actually bigger on the NFL as a country than England is. So, you know, maybe that's a place that they're going to focus more often. But just based on how big of a thing it is to get this football team over there and back. I think it's impossible to have that any team over there all the time. Just, just impossible. I don't know how it would possibly work. And they tried NFL Europe. They could try to bring it back and give opportunities for players.

Remember there was actually a kind of a cool thing where guys who were on practice squads could play in NFL Europe. And so they'd play during that season and then come back over to their teams. That was fun. I remember watching some Rhine fire games back in the day, but I just can't see it. It's just so difficult. If you're like, what are the Rams never going to play that team? Cause you have to go from LA what all the way over or to New York first and then over. I mean, it just, it just seems logistically completely impossible to be sending teams over there week after week after week. It's something that the Vikings had to plan for for months to figure out how they were going to do this, how they were going to work the sleep

schedule, all those other things. That's too difficult. As far as do I like it? I mean, it seems like there's a growing number of fans in general in Europe for the NFL. And for those folks, I bet it's awesome. It's like, I get to go see this in person because it's a real challenge. I think with the time difference to be an NFL fan over there, and I don't know exactly how that works, but I think it is. And, uh, being able to have an actual game in your backyard is awesome. And I don't mind that the teams have to go through it once every once in a while. I think they should divvy it up a little, maybe better. It seems like the same teams get picked all the time to go over. I could be off on that. That's just my, my feeling on it, but yeah, no, I mean, I've got nothing against it.

I just think that it can't be a thing that you're asking someone to do all the time. All right. Let's see. This one comes from, uh, at new who Babu on Twitter, Matthew, keep up the excellent work. I know it's early for NFL draft talk. Here we go. Here we go. An off season question. I saved it for late in the show. Uh, but since cousin won't change and can't change, I've been flirting with quarterback

draft prospects and I do not blame you for that, sir. I really don't. Uh, I've heard about Kansas Kansas quarterback Jalen Daniels today. Should I start tracking him and hope the Vikings get lucky? Or is it just September and the Vikings just got whooped by the Eagles? Obviously, he sent this before the Detroit game. Okay, so yeah, like the offseason element of it, because it is September, I am entirely in the mode of game to game to game. And I'll just

tell you the truth about my Saturdays. I have football games on. I am not draft scouting. Like that happens later. That, that happens later. What's usually happening on Saturdays is I've got my head in a story, uh, or I'm trying to like do anything I can around the house because through the rest of the week, I'm just very busy with all of this. And there's things to be done. I'm even dog sitting this week, this weekend. So I'm not sitting in front of the TV, like charting draftable quarterbacks for the Vikings. I do that at the end of the season when I start interviewing draft people and learning

about these guys and everything else. So I guess my question or my answer would just be enjoy the ride. There will be plenty of time for draft season. The college football season and is over what like Thanksgiving and the bowl season early in the year. And you've got months, months before they draft anyone. Just enjoy college football on Saturdays. Relax. I mean, stressing yourself out about the Vikings on Saturdays when you've already got to do that on Sunday, that's just a lot much for me, but I'm intrigued by a couple guys. I mean, I've watched a lot of CJ Stroud, a lot of Bryce Young, and I really like a lot of things about Anthony Richardson. I've brought that name up a few times. I don't know if some of these other guys, I haven't seen Will Levis, but he's getting attention. I don't know. I would just suggest

following week to week until the Vikings make you not like as far as cousins future, it seems like at this moment that this is going to be the last year, but things change, things change really fast in the NFL. So that's kind of how I'm approaching it. Like, sure. If you, if you want to watch Jalen Daniels decide for yourself, like, do I think he's a draftable quarterback or not? But I don't know. I don't know the list right now. I mean, I've just been so into all of this. Okay. Let me find here one more question. I've got a few still kind of kicking around here. Let's see here. Okay. This is a funny one real quick. A couple of, couple of funny ones I can answer quickly. And then one that's a little more serious from at Dempdorf. Why aren't their goal line packages that involve 350 pound defensive linemen on offense, trying to smash

through the offensive line. It has happened. It has happened. The Vikings tried it once with Linval Joseph, and I think he got hurt. If I'm not mistaken, I think the Vikings tried it once with Linval Joseph, and he got hurt. That's a major reason why. The other thing is that they don't carry the ball very often. So when you give a guy who, if one of the things they do before a game, they throw the ball around, and they don't like catch it at all. I mean, the defensive lineman and offensive lineman will be getting warmed up, kind of moseying around the field. And they'll be tossing footballs to each other and they can't catch them. They just drop them.

That's not their job. And you're asking somebody to go way beyond what their job is. If you're talking about touching the ball and as far as blocking, there's techniques to blocking and defensive linemen don't know them. And so if you said, Hey, uh, you know, Delvin Tomlinson, go block another guy. That's pretty hard to do. I think that William Perry was a really unique type of character. And that was also the eighties. But yeah, the reason you don't see it anymore is because it's, it's probably dangerous for the player and also really risks a fumble. That's another part of it.

That's a good question, though. That's a fun question. From Sam via email, which Viking will be the first to score their first career touchdown? Ben Ellefson, Johnny Munt, or Brian O'Neill? I'll go Johnny Munt. I will go Johnny Munt. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go Johnny Munt. I think go Johnny Munt. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go Johnny Munt.

I think that, like, I think they like him. I think they like him. He seems to understand the offense. He catches the ball when it comes his way. And you could see, like, a little play action where everybody else is covered and Kirk dumps it down to Johnny Munt. But Ellefson, I mean, there's a reason why Ellefson won a job and not Zach Davidson. He catches the ball. You saw it last week that he's a guy who is where he's supposed to be.

The Brian O'Neill thing, always one of my funniest favorite, like mini camp moments was when they were using Brian O'Neill to catch passes. And I made a bet with Chips, Chips Goggins, an over under 0.5 touchdowns for Brian O'Neill in 2018. And Chip took the over. I've never cashed in on that bet. I really should. All right. This is from CJ via email says, let's say the Packers have an off, but not terrible year losing the division. But they're winning. But their home game. Let's see. Losing the division, but they're winning, uh, but their home game, let's see, losing the division, but winning their home game against the Vikings. Let's even say the Vikings win their wild card home game. Is anyone confident they'll go on the road and win in the playoffs?

Not until they prove that they can, they haven't done anything at the moment to prove that they can, and that is on them to do that the rest of the season. I'm very willing to be patient with this team and see where it goes because Kevin O'Connell is three games in, and they're three games in in the offense, and it's looked good in one of the three. And they've got several weeks here to get it together and a long stretch in the second half to figure it out and to make it become what they foresaw it becoming when they got here.

And if that's the case, it's still going to be hard to believe that they won't run into a great defense that has one of those days against the Vikings offense that we've seen so many times that we saw in San Francisco. Yeah, that's kind of how I would expect it to go, that they could win a wildcard week game. But when you play harder defenses, if you run into Philadelphia again with all the talent they have, it's going to be really tricky. The thing is, though, about the playoffs, the one door I would leave open is look around the NFC. Tell me who's got the scariness. Dallas might Dallas might, but if you avoid two of those teams in the first two weeks, like just the way the cookie crumbles can matter. Cincinnati got to the Superbowl. They played a beat up Tennessee team that got a bad performance out of their quarterback. And before that, or after that, which one was it?

Before they played the Raiders and Derek Carr had a chance to win the game at the end and didn't do it. And they end up in the Super Bowl. It just it just worked out that way that they needed basically one big win. And Kansas City got discombobulated and they won. I'm not talking you into the Vikings going to the Super Bowl. All I'm saying is that this is kind of a question you'll have to ask me later in the season, because I think I'll feel differently about the team. Right now, I'm figuring out what they can be, and they don't look anything close to a team that goes all the way through the playoffs right now. That can change change a lot can change um but with the quarterback they have it is very much on

him to prove that anything is going to be different for this year and uh that starts in new orleans in london so i've got still some other questions to answer we'll work those in throughout the next couple of weeks and uh go from there But thank you all for such great questions. A really fun episode here. Hope you all enjoyed it and we will catch you next time.