Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Where are the Vikings in NFC Power Rankings? (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Matthew Coller gives his NFC Power rankings. Are the Vikings a top-five team in the NFC? Plus Adrian Peterson named to the Vikings ring of honor and the Vikings signed another tryout player from rookie minicamp. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider 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 presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here. And this is the night that you've all been waiting for the Purple Insider show when I reveal my latest NFC power rankings. Yeah, I spent some time working on it and I've got my list and I have absolutely no confidence in it. So I'm very curious to see what you guys think of the new list. I did one before the draft. Now, after the draft. And I'm going to keep doing them. and try to have as much fun as I can and see how it ends up playing out

because we've never done power rankings before on the show. So I decided now is a good time to do it, but mostly focused just on the national football conference, which is the most relevant to the Minnesota Vikings. Also, Adrian Peterson, ring of honor, the Vikings add a UDFA. And I've had some additional thoughts about the general manager search that I wanted to toss out there. But also, you guys, anything.

on the table. It is May 11th. If you've got football questions, Vikings questions, NFL questions, whatever you guys want to talk about, we can. The Minnesota Wild playing a little bit, uh, I will probably, you know, maybe go a little bit past that depending on how, uh, many questions we get in the comment section. But, you know, plenty of time here leading up to the game to have a good discussion about football.

So why don't we begin with the NFC power rankings. I'll take you through my. thought process for each one. Why I could be right, why I could be wrong. And we'll get reactions to that. Then we'll go from there. So here we go. All right.

Here is the new list. It begins out the same as the last list and probably the same as everyone that I will do for this entire offseason, which is the Los Angeles Rams number one. They have the MVP quarterback. They have still a group of weapons, the best coach possibly in the entire national Football League, a stacked defense, which they stacked up even more with their defensive backs. I am not going to penalize the Los Angeles Rams for not spending a draft pick on, say, like Mackay Lemon or somebody else in the first round, because I don't think that anybody else

via the draft surpassed the Los Angeles Rams. But I do think they may have missed out on an opportunity for a win now type of play. in order to draft Ty Simpson. I have no idea how the Ty Simpson thing is going to work out. I didn't view him as a first round draft pick. I did not view him the same as somebody like Jordan Love. So, you know, just Jordan Love, for example, is what? 6 foot 4, 230 pounds with a huge arm.

I looked to me like he was the type of franchise quarterback athlete when the Green Bay Packers drafted him. I was shocked even when the Packers did it. and didn't draft a wide receiver for Aaron Rogers, but at least it made sense as a developmental prospect. I'm not sure Ty Simpson makes as much sense. Still, the Rams top to bottom, best roster in the National Football League.

I think even overall, including AFC teams, I just think they're the number one team. So the Seattle Seahawks are next. They didn't lose a ton off of their team overall, and they did draft Judarian Price, which I'm very interested to see, a guy who was not even an RB, in college ends up now as an RB1 in the NFL.

I don't know. We've seen that happen a couple of times. There was the, she wasn't, Nick Chubb. I think Nick Chubb was the example of that, where it was Sony Michelle, Nick Chubb, and Chubb ends up going later than Michelle, and then turns out to be the better running back. I don't know if Jerry and Price could be better than Jeremiah Love,

but he's certainly set up to have success. And I think the Seahawks probably view it as a run scheme and an offensive line thing that drove their success with Ken Walker. But they're rolling the dice for a team that wants to run first. Still, they didn't lose a lot. They're pretty stacked. They lost maybe a guy off of their secondary, but top to bottom,

a team that is a lot of players in its prime, a lot of young players on rookie contracts. So the Seattle Seahawks run it back. I think are the number two teams. I think the Rams added enough in the secondary to be considered number one. but you can kind of flip-flop them either way. Now, here is the biggest difference from my last power ranking. And I was looking through and I was trying to find it and I didn't put it in the headline.

The last time I did it, so I couldn't find my old list. So if anybody has it or remembers what I had in the first one, I'll do better in finding it next time or keeping track of this one. Putting it in the headline is really the key. But the Philadelphia Eagles were a little down on my list. last time. Not off the list, not way down, but more in the middle because I thought, all right, they've got a good amount of drama there and a roster that is a little creaky and it just feels like this might be the time that they're sliding a little toward the edge. And we knew that they were

likely to trade A.J. Brown. So what are they going to do there, right? Good luck Eagles figuring this stuff out. Well, Howie Roseman strikes again, acquires Jonathan Grenard, who I think will probably have 11 sacks this year. Considering who he's playing with, the fact they're going to have Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis in the middle, I think he's got a good chance for double digit sacks. That is something that they did not have before and was my main issue with trading Jonathan Grenard. It wasn't so much that they traded him.

It was that they traded him to a team that was a little bit down at that position. And that was the only position they were down at. And now you help them out. So they've got a double digit sack potential. guy that helps a lot. And if they are going to trade AJ Brown, well, they drafted Mackay Lemon. And no draft pick is a guarantee, but they also took Eli Stowers. So they loaded up on weapons to be able to make this move and then still be in good shape with their weapons. And wide receivers are one of the positions that tends to translate fairly quickly. Another thing that's

pretty important here is the Eagles hired Sean Mannion. And I know that's a first time offensive coordinator, but this is a guy who comes from the world of Gary Kubiak when Mike Zimmer was here and Kevin Stefansky and then played for Kevin O'Connell. That's based in the Rams system. Then goes to Green Bay with Matt LaFleur. Like there's a really good lineage there. And I also have talked to Sean many times. And that is a really, really smart football guy who I think is going to have a much better plan for Jalen Hertz than they had last year where they did not have a very good offensive coordinator at all. So I bumped the Philadelphia Eagles all the way up to number three.

I know that everyone would love them to fall off the side of the mountain. I just don't think that's going to happen this year. Number four is San Francisco. I slid them down a little bit. Well, one, they lost Joanne Jennings to the Minnesota Vikings. They add Dizond stribling, but I don't know how ready he's going to be. He looked more like a project to me and a lot of other people, which I think is why it was so shocking that they took him.

The Brandon Ayuk situation seems like that is just completely gone. There's some age, you know, situation there with just the entire team with George Kittle and Trent Williams. Oh, by the way, I should mention that later on the show, Kyle Madsen, who covers the San Francisco 49ers, will join the show to talk about Joanne Jennings. So you guys requested, hey, can you get a guest from San Francisco to talk about why the 49ers didn't resign Joanne Jennings? I have that coming up for you a little bit later. So the 49ers get benefit of the doubt. They're still a great team. They were still in the divisional round.

Their quarterback kind of proved himself last year. And I think they will still be right there in the mix. But maybe just not quite as good as the Eagles. I just slid them down a little bit because I didn't think that they got as many impact players in the draft as I expected. Now, this is a little different. I have reordered the NFC North, and this might irritate some people, but I have put the Green Bay Packers at fifth in the power ranking. So we have Rams, Seahawks, Eagles, 49ers, and the Packers are fifth.

And the reason the Packers are fifth is because they are not that volatile, that I have a very good sense. I did not feel like the Green Bay Packers made massive improvements anywhere. I didn't think that they drafted players that, wow, this is going to change all of Green Bay history right here. Next, Reggie White and Leroy Butler. No, I didn't think that. But I do think that there is stable as it gets.

And the most predictable and Michael Parsons will come back. And they should be somewhere in that 10-11 win range. And I know that that is like, well, you're not really maybe picking the team with the highest potential upside. But I am picking the team that I feel pretty darn safe is going to be. right there in the mix for the playoff race has a good chance to win the division just by being the same Green Bay Packers under LaFleur as they've been for a number of years now. And I also think that if Jordan Love is healthy the entire time, if Micah Parsons comes back to 100%, they were 9-3-1 when Michael Parsons and Christian Watson got hurt, Matthew Golden could

take another step. This is not to say that I have any confidence in what the NFC North is going to do because all of these teams could win the division and they could all finish in fourth. But I think the Packers are the one that I feel the safest about predicting after free agency and the draft and the dust is settled. So I'm going to go five Green Bay Packers and six is Minnesota Vikings. Now, there's two reasons for that. I mean, number one, adding Joanne Jennings, I look around at this office and go, it is

complete around Kyler Murray. There is not other than center. There's a question there, but at least we've seen Blake Brandel, play pretty well. There are not really a lot of questions on this offense. Health is always going to be an issue for the offensive line, but they went out and they vastly improved their depth by getting Ryan Van Damark, drafting Caleb Tiernan. They, I think, have improved their run game with a new fullback and Daman Claybourne

and Frank Smith and also getting maybe an upgrade at the offensive line coach, which I think has been lacking there in the run game, specifically creativity and success. there and they kept it together where you have Jefferson, Addison, Hawkinson, Aaron Jones. It is a team full of veteran players on offense, a veteran quarterback coming in that I think has a better chance to succeed. And I wrote about this today of Purple Insider.com football, if you want to check that out, that the Vikings have done everything you could possibly do to evaluate Kyler Murray, that they've given him all you could possibly give Murray now that they've signed Joanne Jennings.

and yes, I did bump him up because I think that a lot of teams are about their weaknesses, and I felt like wide receiver depth was a weakness for the Vikings. Now I feel like they've solidified it with someone who is arguably a wide receiver too, normally in the NFL. It's a big signing for me, and I've bumped the Vikings up to number six. Another reason is, and I'll get to this with the lions and bears, I don't think that they did as much as I expected them to do. this off season.

And now that we kind of have the full picture, there's a lot of me there for me. But number seven, so the Vikings are six. Number seven on my NFC power ranking list is the Washington Commanders of Washington. And this one may come across as bold. But I am expecting a big bounce back from Jaden Daniels. And if you look at the commanders,

they added Durante Jones on defense. They drafted Sunny Stiles. They have been one of the most active teams, I believe they either signed or spent more money than anyone else in the entire NFL in free agency, which does not always correlate, but they've stocked up, they've made coaching improvements, they moved on from Cliff Kingsbury to bring in David Blow. And now Jaden Daniels is back healthy. And this team with Dan Quinn was in the NFC championship two years ago.

And I think that they are being forgotten about a little bit in the NFC discussion just because last year they weren't as good. they have all the signals to me of a team that bounces back. So they're seventh. I've got the Chicago Bears 8th, and I want to just stop here and reiterate how the power rankings work. You have to put them in order 1 through 16. But if I was doing a tiers list with this power ranking, it would still be the number one and two teams are in a clear number one and two.

I would actually have the 49ers, Eagles, probably in a number one. like a 1A sort of tier. Like they're not quite those teams, but I think that they're very legit. And then from number five to about number nine or 10, it's very, very close. You could see any possible order. So I do want to make that clear. But I've got the Commander 7th. The Bears are 8th.

I just thought the Bears would get a pass rush. I would have thought that going into this offseason, the number one thing on the Chicago Bears mind would be go get pass rushers. They did not do it. They drafted Dylan Thineman, who I think is good, but they had Kevin Byard last year getting picks left and right. And Nashan Wright getting picks left and right. I don't know if they can repeat that with their defense.

So if they don't get interceptions all over the place next year and lead the league and turnovers again, they're just going to be a bad defense. I was looking over their depth chart going, they didn't improve it all here. So their offense then has to be that much better. Caleb Williams can get more accurate, but I don't know that it can be insanely more accurate right from the jump.

I think their offense can still be really, really good overall, but they did lose an extra wide receiver in DJ Moore. They also, surprisingly, did not get a big running back edition, which was another thing that I fully expected the Chicago Bears to do, which was try to make a massive improvement, take a big jump at the running back position. They really didn't. So some of their weaknesses that got them last year, year and then they finished every game with a last second field goal, last second crazy throw,

whatever. There's regression possibilities there all over with the Chicago Bears. But there's also the chance that year two of Ben Johnson's offense, Caleb Williams just takes a big old step forward and the NFC is in lots of trouble because we saw it last year. He is that talented. Number nine, I have the Detroit Lions. Now, if you were watching a few weeks ago, you probably would say, wait a minute, Didn't you have the Detroit Lions as the number one team in the NFC North?

And now you have them as fourth. Yes, welcome to the NFC North, everyone. Because the Lions similarly just did not improve very much in the offseason. I did also expect them to try to take a big swing, to go trade for a Max Crosby, to really shock us. And they didn't. And, well, I think that Blake Miller, their draft pick is going to be ultimately a pretty solid player. I liked his draft profile. I thought, hey, if the Vikings are looking for a Brian O'Neill replacement, this guy

kind of has some similar markers to his game. He's very athletic. But right away, I'm not sure. And their replacement at center, I'm not sure. And the replacement at Offensive Coordinator, I like him much more than what they had last year. That's Drew Petting instead of John Morton, but I'm not so sure. So I could see the Lions being just a very similar team. They didn't make huge improvements in the secondary either.

They lost some players. I don't know. They lost DJ Reeder. It has the possibility of you guys just missed your window. And if you get one or two players hurt, you're not the same anymore. Or if golf isn't golf last year was phenomenal. And they missed the playoffs. And I just don't feel like they got that much better.

So they have dropped to number nine because the last time we did this, some of it was projecting still on what are they going to do? I think the Vikings may have not signed Kyler Murray yet. I don't remember when I did the last one. But some of it was, I think they're going to do this. I think they're going to make a trade. I think they're going to have a big game-changing draft pick. And it just didn't really happen. Number 10 is the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, I could see the Dallas Cowboys because they're getting rid of Matt Eberfluse, which is a winning model. And they added a lot of talent on defense. Now, it wasn't crazy. It wasn't like they went wild in free agency. and I think Cowboys fans were frustrated that they didn't do more, but they added in the draft a bunch of talent. Malachi Lawrence and Caleb Downs could be excellent for them right away,

especially Caleb Downs. And I think they've moved on from some of the guys that were dragging them down. Doesn't mean they're going to be incredible on defense, but they might be serviceable with a new defensive coordinator. And nobody knows how much a new defensive coordinator matters as much as the Minnesota Vikings, where they didn't improve that much from 2022 to 2020. 23 roster-wise, but the D was way better.

And I could see that in Big D in Dallas with a new defensive coordinator making a big difference. So I see them as a playoff contender. I have the Carolina Panthers as the best team in the NFC South is the 11th best in the NFC overall. And I'm going to roll with that. I just don't have a lot of respect for the NFC South. At all of these teams, they've got some stuff to like.

They've got some players to like. I think New Orleans made a big jump. I've got them at number 12. Carolina spent some of the most money in the NFL. They are actually, I think, at the very bottom of the league in terms of cap space, because they spent a ton in free agency. They, I thought, drafted some very interesting players. Lee Hunter was one of them.

Chris Brazel was one of them. But still, I don't see them being in the same ballpark as some of these more proven teams with Bryce Young, a quarterback. And the Saints, I think Tyler Shuck is a wild card, very much. much a wild card in the NFC. If Shuck takes some huge step and is absolutely amazing, well, then great. They're going to be the winners of that division because they have a pretty solid roster elsewhere.

And they added Travis ETN to the backfield. And they added Jordan Tyson at wide receiver. So, like, they are, I think, improving. And I think they're doing it the right way. Kellen Moore impresses me as a coach. He got a lot out of Spencer Rattler and Tyler Schuck last year. I just don't think they're there yet. Shuck needs to be really good.

They need to take one more step. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline, or if you're studying every actor and athlete you see of a certain age to see how they're handling their hair loss, well, maybe it's time to get yourself a solution instead of obsessing over what's happening on your dome. I present you with that solution. It's called Hymns. Hymns brings expert care.

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Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidal and finesteroide. Featured products include compound drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required, see website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. Number 13 is the Giants, another team that I believe will be much. much better than they were last year. But it's really hard to say that they can play with the Philadelphia Eagles, even Washington at this point.

They have talent. And they've drafted high a lot. And they got two more high draft picks. I feel like the Giants will be the team to watch in 2007 to take like a big step forward. Maybe the Eagles start to slide back. Maybe the Cowboys, you know, Dax getting older. They slide back after that from being in the middle to bad. I don't know.

but the Giants have all the bones of the foundation of a team that is tanked accidentally for a long time. And now they've got all these draft picks that have built up over the years. They have to find out if Jackson Dart can play and they have to rebuild their defense after last year was a total debacle defensively. They should be much more competitive. I'm just not sure that they are competitive enough to get more than maybe seven wins as a really young team. and then next year, if it all comes together, if Jackson Dart takes another big step, then they could be better.

But for now, not getting the benefit of doubt. I am very low on Tampa Bay. I think that they had one of the worst off seasons of any team in the entire NFL. I've got them at being 14th, the Falcons, 15th, who may have matched that for having some of the worst offseason in the league. They're going to do the Tua thing. Maybe Pennix comes back at some point. Zero confidence in the Atlanta Falcons being a good,

team and Arizona at 16 is the team that really desperately wants to rank number 16th. So in the comments, your reactions, where am I right? Where am I wrong? That's what I want from you in the comment section. I'll get back to you guys on that in just a couple minutes. But that's what I want to know. Right or wrong? Where am I right or wrong about the Vikings being number six?

Am I right or wrong about where any other team in the NFC North is? Agree, disagree. Tell me how you feel. Uh, the biggest news in Vikings land today was that Adrian Peterson will be named to the ring of honor in one of the least shocking developments in the history of the national football league. He will be eligible for the Hall of Fame next year and he will go into the Hall of Fame easily in his first time. And if he doesn't, then it is a travesty. Well, Adrian Peterson, I think in Minnesota specifically, is going to always be. a person that when his name comes up, there's debates and there's conversations and there were

things along the way that were not happy events regarding Adrian Peterson. And, you know, I don't have to go into all the details of that. You guys know it. You guys lived it. But if we are judging Adrian Peterson on the highs of his career, there is high as any player who's ever existed at the position in the entire NFL. His 2007 season is iconic. His longevity is shocking. I mean, when you actually go through how few running backs get into their 30s and succeed, it's unbelievable how Adrian not only did it for the Vikings in 2015 to get up to the top of the NFL and rushing, but then after the injury in 2017, no way, injury in 2016, sorry, then he comes back in 2017.

It doesn't work out with the Saints. And he still has some effective years after that, where he's averaging four plus yards per carry. But at his height, as good as it's ever been. And, you know, when I first got here, I'll tell you this, 2016, I first arrived. And I was like, this is, this is kind of crazy. Like Adrian Peterson, the way that he's continued to perform at this level is nuts.

And I was very surprised because I was. was doing radio back then at the amount of debate that existed around Adrian Peterson. I kind of assumed that all fans would just have been behind him. And I know that when child abuse is involved, that's a different conversation. That's a different amount of emotion that goes into it. But my assumption was that everyone had sort of moved on by then and that Adrian was the hero and that was it. And I was kind of wrong about that because people, when I got here, really wanted to fight about Adrian Peterson that, you know, some didn't feel like he was a complete enough all around back, receiving, blocking. There's the fumbles in the game against New Orleans and the NFC championship. So with Adrian, it's always been, I would just say a little bit on the complicated side.

But in terms of the success of the player, in terms of how much he deserves to be in the ring of honor, Yeah, I mean, you just can't really reach much higher highs than that. You have your Randy Moss and your Carl Eller and your Alan Page. I mean, those are the guys who are just untouchable in Vikings history. And right below that is Adrian Peterson. So congratulations to him. If you haven't gotten a chance to see the video, it's very cool because John Randall is involved. And John Randall's genuine joy is just so great.

So great to see. And one more news item for you. The Vikings signed another tryout player. And this is linebacker Bengali Camara, who is from Kansas. He, you're not going to believe this, was a multiple player on defense, played on the D-line as a pass rusher, played in the box as a linebacker. I know, stunning stuff. Had a good number of quarterback pressures graded very high by PFF as a pass rusher and also made a lot of run stops as well. But he did have one downside this year when playing for Kansas, which is that he missed a ton of tackles.

31% mistackle percentage, which usually says, well, sometimes it means a guy can't tackle, but sometimes it means that he was in the backfield a lot and was missing the tackle and not finishing plays. But this is somebody you're signing off of a tryout. So there's going to be something that, you know, you don't exactly love. He did play a lot at Pitt, spent a little time at South Carolina and then on to Kansas because it's college football now and that's how it works. So a well-traveled player here, Bengali Camara, who will be one to watch, these players make it sometimes. Yeah, that's why we pointed out is that sometimes these guys who are the tryout players, they stand out, the coaches fall in love with them and then they end up on special teams or they end up playing a role and surprising us like Elijah Williams did. last year or Chad Beebe in the past or, you know, whoever else.

That one guy who wore 19, forget what his name was, but, you know, there's been, there's been some good stories over the years of trial players. So we will track Bengali Camara along with everyone else. And that means the Vikings roster is at 90, by the way, if you are keeping your spreadsheets at home. Okay, so let's get into your thoughts, the power rankings. If you have, if you want to have a discussion about Adrian Peterson, just a little quick reminder that on Thursday, the schedule is going to come out and immediately after it comes out,

we're going to go live. Me and Mani, breaking down every single game, Mani will pick the schedule, I will pick the schedule, we'll come out with our final records that we officially think the Vikings are going to end up with and, you know, then we'll go from there. I was going to mention a Fandual question of the day. The Philadelphia Eagles are plus 950 to win the NFC. and I just put them as the third best team in the NFC. How do you feel about the Eagles after they acquired Jonathan Grenard?

You scared of the Eagles? You're confident they're going to fall off or not be that good? Where do we stand with them after now they have Jonathan Granard? Because I bumped them up and they drafted McKay Lemon. I bumped them up and we'll see what happens with the AJ Brown situation. Okay. Let's get into the fan chat. Skull Shadow says, I can't say I've ever understood power rankings.

It's really all about the records of the teams at the end. Well, so the idea with the power rankings is we're not going to know what the Philadelphia Eagles or Minnesota Vikings record is until January. So until then, in fact, they don't even kick off a football until September. So that is May right now, it's a way of framing a conversation is really. what power rankings are. And the conversation is, who's good in the NFC and who is bad in the NFC and who is mid in the NFC, right?

That's the real discussion is how do we, it sort of dives in to the fundamental, how do we really feel about these teams. That's what the power ranking is. It's a jumping off point to have a conversation about all the teams that are playing football. And I get a little bit, you know, like, oh, power ranking. right here we go with power rankings again it's just the in the season i actually think that there are a lot of fun in the off season but in the season it ends up being the standings most of the time so that i'm not in love with but um that's kind of the point that's why we're doing it right here the vikings

made a big signing in joan jennings their draft is over where do we think they stand and i had them at sixth but i could be talked into different ways of looking about at that uh jay what rookie impressed me the most at rookie minicamp. You know, I did mention the other day that it's not the most aggressive practice. I should say, I should have just said, you know, Bengali Camara was the guy. I knew it all along. I could, I could see it from the sideline that they were, no, I couldn't, actually. Demand Claiborne was the guy that stood out to me the most, actually. That, I would say him, his movement skill, his quickness, his speed, that jumped out to me by far the most. But it's not a full practice.

It's not, I mean, think about, think about how many training camp practices we get to see. And we still end up wrong about players sometimes. This is one mini camp workout where they're judging how well they do drills and stuff. So it's a little bit tricky. Marcus Sanders was another guy. Wait, I have my list here from Georgia State. It was it Sanders? Yeah, Marcus Sanders Jr. also kind of popped out to me as a UDFA.

this year from Georgia Southern and Marcus Allen from North Carolina. Those were the undrafted free agents that kind of popped out. But there's not a whole lot you could see like Dominique Orange is just doing drills. Like, wow, man, he's big. You know, so. Jokers says lions are ninth, but you still have them as the best chance to win in the north. That fourth place schedule is a joke.

Yeah. So that, yeah, that's an interesting thing about the power ranking, right? is is it what is the real goal is it to say who I think is really that strong or what I think their record will be it's not a record prediction they could be my fourth team and actually end up with a better record than somebody else right and because exactly what you're saying their schedule and strength of schedule I know I saw the NFL put out a graphic of like here's the strength of schedule rank it's it's not it's really truly not what teams records were last year don't make a whole heck of a lot of difference because there's always worse to first

all the time. And I've tried, I did this last year where I tried three different methods of strength of schedule. I tried one where NFL.com just eyeballed it and they did it for years going back. I did one where it was the, uh, use it. We're going to use the markets. That's the way to do it. That wasn't correlating very well. And then I did the last years and that wasn't correlating very well. but I do think that the lions playing the fourth place schedule, there is history in that because we discussed that when the Vikings beat them on Christmas day, that there is history.

If you get that fourth place schedule, it does help you a lot. So I could see an outcome where I still don't think the lions are all that great when we get to the end of the day. And there's still fourth in the NFC North in my power rankings, but they have the second best record. It's really, here's how I look at it is, a power ranking should be the Super Bowl.

It should be, does your team have a chance to win a Super Bowl? You're all competing for one prize or the NFC championship, just for example. Like, it's the top of the conference. If we're answering the question with every single team more of, who do I think could I could see making the NFC championship? I'm just not sure I could put the lines there. I just don't think that they have enough on defense or that they made enough improvements. anywhere, especially on the offensive line.

They're going to move a tackle and then they're going to play a rookie tackle. And then they signed a center who's just kind of a guy. Like that is not inspiring. And their pass rush is not inspiring. And their secondary still has its issues, especially with injuries. So I think that the fourth place schedule might bump them up and they might actually not be as good. So that, but I'm glad you said that because they do have the best odds on Fanduel to win the division right now and I think that that schedule plays into it.

Yes, Jay, just to be clear, the power ranking is for me. Yeah, that's, that's a new thing that I'm trying. I want to keep going back to it, like doing it now, pulling it back out in like a few weeks or having somebody else comment on a new one or something like that based on whatever changes, training camp, you know, we'll do stuff like that. Hans has the, will one objective NFL media, media member pick the Vikings anywhere, but last in the north. Oh, that's a great question because they're still, they were going into the draft, they were plus 550 on Fanduil to win the division. Now they're plus 600. So ever so slightly less

confidence in them somehow after the draft. Maybe it's because they didn't get a player that would move the needle, but then they did after and that didn't change anything. So I don't know. But to your point, no, I do not think that we will see anyone seriously pick the Vikings to win the division. I go back to 2024 with that and did a lot of people pick the Vikings to win the division? No, in fact, they were mostly ranked as being terrible. Most people had them as like the 27th best team in the entire league. Most of them had losing the division by a mile and didn't factor enough what the free agency

would mean. And I feel like that's going to happen here that the other three teams just feel safer. You feel safer because the lions have had some consistent success. You feel safer with the Bears because they match one of those teams that just gets better and better. It doesn't always work that way. But that's how it works that way in like the national media mind. I mean, there's so many national media people, by the way. It's like hundreds of them.

So, yeah, I don't know. Like who thinks in what way. But it really feels like this is kind of how if you go years, a year if a team is pretty young or has a young quarterback and they succeed, then the very next year, everyone will just say they're the best. And that's Washington. Last year, everybody had Washington, and I probably did too. All the way at the top of the division, they're the best, watch out for them. They're going to take over the league, et cetera, et cetera. They got Debo Samuel. They traded for Laramie Tunsel. And it didn't work out that way. Now, Chicago has a quarterback

that if he takes another step, the guy can be an absolute monster. He can be like the Josh Allen step that everybody talks about all the time. He's got that in him. So, yeah, there's a lot of, I think, expectation that he does take that next step. But if Caleb Williams is exactly the same quarterback, they do not have as much success. Because those takeaways on defense were ludicrous, the number of interceptions that they had, many against the Vikings. but the number of picks they had alone, the number of late games that they won,

they blocked a field goal to win a game, they threw a Hail Mary to win a game, like all this different stuff happened that is going to be hard for them to repeat. And, you know, their defensive coordinator didn't really move me too much last year, Dennis Allen, and then they didn't give him more to work with. Dylan Thineman just replaces guys who are already playing super well at that position. And he might be good right away, but what Byard had a bunch of interceptions. And so you're asking him to like hold up this defense that was very vulnerable last year. And I'm just, I mean, completely shocked that they didn't find any real extra help on the defensive line.

So they have regression written all over them. Now, the, the Packers, they are well coached by Matt LaFleur. And I know every time I bring a Packers person on here, they just want to slap him in the mouth or whatever. but he's good every single year. I think Love actually was better last year than before, but then had the issues at wide receiver. Micah Parsons is going to come back. They're going to be a good team.

They almost always are. But I don't think anybody will make the jump to say Kyler Murray's good because I also think that when it comes to trying to cover 32 teams, and I don't blame anybody for this, but I think perception just rules the day. Group thinking perception. We see the same people. The draft is like this too.

We see it's a lot of follow the leader. It's a lot of, well, my perception is that Kyler Murray is not a good quarterback and has not been a good quarterback. I mean, some people would tell you that he hasn't been a good quarterback since 2021. Those people are wrong because 2024 he was, but no one cared. And if you're covering 32 teams, I don't know how much you care about how good Kyler Murray was in 2024. Or did you watch the first five games of last season where they easily could have beat Sam? San Francisco, if somebody who was drafted very highly could catch a football or you, right, they're not going to do that.

They're making their power rankings and firing it up. And I don't think that they're looking anywhere past whatever their most recent perception on Kyler Murray is. So or just even looking into how freaking awful that franchise is in Arizona. But that's not how it works. It's like, have you, it's, have you won and are you, this is, this, went this way with Sam Darnold. have you won and are you awesome right now most recently last year no then you suck like it's

that's pretty much that's pretty much how it goes so i'll be interested to see if there is anyone that's a little bold when it comes to that if someone does say hey can you look at this viking's offense it is way better than anything keiler has ever had before and also his coaching is way better you might not love k o c you might think that he's not a good play caller and and okay there's definitely some points to be made, but you can't tell me he's not better than Cliff Kingsbury or Jonathan Gannon. You can't tell me that. So I don't know. But I think to your question, I do not think anyone will pick them to win the division. And, you know, as I said, that the last couple times they've won it, no one picked them to win the division either. A joker, Green Bay is tough

because by far their best players on offense and defense are coming off of midseason ACL tears. There's no greatness, if there's no greatness there if Parsons and Kraft aren't being difference makers. I mean, that's absolutely true. I 100% agree with you. I never know what to do with that when it comes to how's a guy going to return from an ACL injury. I mean, Delvin Cook was amazing coming back from his ACL. T.J. Hawkinson obviously struggled more and so did Christian Darrasaw.

But that it just can't be ignored that last year they literally lost their two best players in the middle of the year. And that was a major part of their falloff. But Tucker Kraft became a star at the middle of last season. I also think Jacobs was playing really banged up. And they didn't make as much of noise as I thought they would on the O line. That I believed that they were going to make a big push and they didn't really. But I mean, Micah Parsons is just on such a different level that if he comes back strong

and if Kraft comes back strong, they can win the division. I don't think there's any doubt. about that. This ranking is hilarious, John says. Well, that's good, but feel free to tell me why. Purple Purgatory says by week four, the Vikings will be top five. I mean, top five in the NFC for the Vikings would not surprise me very much at all if by the first four weeks of the season, everyone said, oh, right. Justin Jefferson. I mean, if Jefferson by the first four weeks of the season had, I don't know, 600 yards. Would you be surprised?

I mean, Kyler has his shortcomings, but his shortcoming is not throwing to the best receiver on the team. We've seen that. I ran through the data on that that just showed other, I don't think you could call Marvin Harrison the best receiver on the team. But it was Michael Wilson was the only one that he had kind of struggled, throwing to good wide receivers. Trey McBride was their number one receiver,

and he was great throwing to him. He was great throwing to D'Andre Hopkins. So I think with, the connection here and the fact that they do have three wide receivers, the expectation should be pretty high. And it wouldn't surprise me, depending on how the schedule plays out, if they were quickly a team where everyone said,

oh, we need to put them much higher in our power rankings. JP says, just saw the other day there's a supplemental draft this summer. Any thoughts on whether the Vikings have a shot at any interesting prospects? So the supplemental draft, I have not seen anything official on the supplemental draft. JP that they're actually going to do it.

So the only reason that they would do it would be for Brandon Sorsby. Brandon Sorsby, if you haven't been following the Cincinnati quarterback who was discovered to have been gambling on his own team when he was at Indiana and also gambling on a bunch of other crazy stuff. But I think it's the Indiana part that is likely to get him suspended for the entire year. So what you can do in college is if you've missed the draft. but then change your mind, you can enter the supplemental draft. So every team gets a shot at picking you and I believe how it works.

And the reason I say I believe and you'll have to look up the official rules here is it almost never happens. Not anymore. Back in the day, it used to happen, but it does not happen anymore. There was a USFL back in the day, et cetera. It doesn't happen anymore. Bernie Kosar could have become the Vikings quarterback, by the way. If you go look up that story, there was a supplemental draft.

when Bernie Kosar came out and, you know, yada, yada. So if somebody, if SORSB decides, I'm going to be suspended for all of next year in college football, I'm, I should come out in the NFL. He can enter the supplemental draft and someone can use a draft pick that would cost them for the next year. So if you used a second round draft pick, you don't get a second round draft pick for the next year. You're essentially using your next year's pick.

I think this is how it works. I don't believe they've even done one. since 2019. And if someone is interested in Sorsby and thinks that he could be a franchise quarterback, then they will use a supplemental pick on him. I am not convinced that this is actually going to happen. I don't think he's that good for one. He's been talked up, but I saw him play a few times, didn't really see it.

Seems like the reviews are kind of mixed. The other thing is, too, I mean, the guy was gambling on his own team. Are you sure that you want to bring him into your team? right now without any proof that that's going to change with that behavior. So I'm not, I'm not fully convinced. But it's really the whole supplemental draft thing is entirely about him. Vikings draft brain.

The Vikings should be fourth in the NFC and likely in the 10 to 16 range. This is too much purple Kool-Aid to assume that Kyler is going to click when he lost his job to Berset is a concern. So he did not lose his job to Berset. He was benched so they could tank. That's what that that's what happened. my understanding is from talking to enough people in Arizona that Jonathan Gannon wanted him to return to the starting lineup and he was not allowed to have him return to the starting lineup because they kept losing games with Jacoby percent and they

were trying to get the number three over all draft pick which they did and they still are by the way if you watch their off season they still are trying to get another high draft pick so no he is not worse than Jacoby percent but uh Kyler though I think it is more confidence. Now, purple, I put them sixth. Okay, so purple Kool-Aid, like, and I said that the difference between number five and number 10 is very, very small. So if I have them at six and you have them at 10, that we're actually not that different

from where we think that they should be. I think that it's very squished in the middle with the NFC. But the reason I have them at, and they shouldn't be in the 16 range because then you're saying that they're going to be worse than the air. Arizona Cardinals when they won nine games last year with some of the worst quarterback play in the league. I think the reason that I have more confidence in the Kyler thing working than other people is that I've done a lot of work on it. I mean, I've watched a lot of games for Kyler Murray and I've looked at a lot of data and I've

talked to a lot of people and all I keep coming back to is this should work. That doesn't mean I put them number one. It doesn't mean I put them over the Rams. It doesn't mean I put them over the Seahawks or the 49ers or the Eagles or these teams that have proven to be the best of the best in the NFC over multiple years. But I do think that they're going to be a lot more in the mix than they're getting credit for by some folks. I also felt this way about Sam Darnold. And I believe I picked them to win 10 games in 2024. And that was three and a half more games than Vegas expected and they won 14.

So it's not a matter of purple Kool-Aid. And we go over the the shortcomings of this team and the question marks and the volatility, the center position, the offensive line health, Christian Darrasaw. They now have some young players on the defensive side. How are they going to hold up over an entire season? All those types of things. But if Kyler is healthy, this guy is incredibly accurate, a remarkable playmaker. The Vikings have a favorable schedule.

they have more home games than away. Like, there's, there's a lot that I like there for this team to be able to get to 10 wins. So it's not. I mean, purple Kool-Aid would be if I put them like three, which I, which I didn't. Vikings draft brain, you know who else look great at camp last year. He wore number nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I get it.

I get it. I look, last year, also, by the way, let's not rewrite history. Because there's shows that you can go back and watch of the ups and downs of JJ. McCarthy. And I also didn't know, and neither did you, that he was going to get hurt in week two. Because the first night that he played, there was some promise there. But, you know, where it's really hard to improve and get consistent is when you get injured four different times during a season.

It's very, very difficult to get into a groove, to lock into the offense, to make strides from a technical perspective. So if you had told me during training camp that McCarthy was going to get hurt in week two and miss five weeks, I would have said, oh, this is about to go bad. Because it took him half a training camp. And again, these are shows you can go back and watch. Go back, watch my recap of the night practice. It was horrible. So I don't think there was, I do remember saying I don't think this is going to go awful.

And it did. But I also didn't know he was going to get hurt in week too. So we don't know, we don't know just from training camp what's going to happen. And if we did, it's kind of like the draft. If those draft analysts were really great at predicting the draft, it wouldn't be as fun. It wouldn't be as interesting if I could tell you in camp how good every team was going to be. But I do think that with J.J. McCarthy, there's some context like he did look good in practice. COC and the other players said it quite a bit.

But it's not games and it's not playing through injuries and all those sorts of things. So purple purgatory is good with the top 10. Vikings draft brain who's really on my butt here tonight says translation. Matthew Collar thinks that Murray has a better ability to carry the Vikings than Daniels, Gough, Williams, Prescott, even though neither KOC or Murray have playoff wins. See, you know, when you say it like that, then you're putting a lot of words in my mouth that I didn't say. I think that the Minnesota Vikings have, if you compare them to those teams, have in terms of defense, the best defensive coordinator in the entire NFL. You can dispute that if you want, but I think the results speak for themselves that I'd at least put Brian Flores in the top five.

The Vikings agreed by making him the highest paid defensive coordinator in the league. So there's a lot of factoring into that. Also, this same motif happened just two years ago with Kevin O'Connell, where he picked up a veteran. and quarterback that people like you thought was terrible, and he won 14 games with him. They had a favorable schedule. I also expect them to have a favorable schedule this year. The Detroit Lions seemed to be sliding down the slippery slope a little bit of a team that peaked, and you should have familiarity with that, Mr. Draft Brain, because the Vikings did

it a few years ago, where they peaked in 2017 and then bumbled around in the middle and could never get back to it because they got older and expensive. and stuff like that, which is kind of happening to the Lions. Could they have a great year because of their schedule and because of golf and everything? Also, I didn't say that Murray has a better chance of carrying the Vikings. I didn't say that. You said that. I didn't say that.

I don't know why you're saying things I didn't say. Kyler Murray, who has been a similarly ranked quarterback, not by me, but NFL executives as Jared Goff or as Dak Prescott, executives and coaches, not me. So not what I think, but what the people in the league think, Murray has been similarly ranked throughout his career to those quarterbacks. And I think his offensive setup with the coaching and with the offensive line, if they're healthy, with the depth that they built from the offensive line. And then with the wide receivers that are by far the best he's ever had in his career. So it's also not a power ranking of confidence. I didn't rank each little guy by how confident I am that they end up ranking there.

Now, I could do that, and maybe I need to add that for people like yourself. But I think that when it comes to NFC North, the confidence should be very low of where we think these teams are going to go because they're all so similar. They all have really good quarterbacks who have had peak seasons that are very, very good, including Kyler Murray, and they all have their shortcomings. They've had injuries or they're older or they just, you know, drafted a right tackle to start, for example, like Detroit. So there's a lot of nuance in the conversation. But if you're just going to go, ha ha, no playoff wins, you're an idiot. I mean, I just don't think that's a very good argument. So, uh, Dan's as New York Giants with the top notch head coach, an easier schedule would crack the top 10.

Vikings above Dallas, but below the Bears and Packers. To be the man, you must beat the man. Well, I don't know that either. I mean, the Bears, yeah, I guess like until proven otherwise, except for the thing is, that these teams, they bounce up and down all the time in the NFC North now. It isn't just like put Brett Favre or Aaron Rogers at the top and then see where everybody else is. Every year it's up and down, up and down for this division, right? It doesn't have a, it feels like it has a different winner every single year now.

So there's that. But I can buy that. I can buy them being still below the Bears and Packers because there is more stability there at the quarterback position for sure. And with the Giants, I think that you make a really good point. I thought I was considering what the Giants were last year, I thought I was giving them a lot of credit on this power ranking. But you're being fair that if Jackson Dart takes a big step, I think he's got to prove he could stay healthy for me to believe that they can be more than a seven or eight win team because he plays so out of control sometimes that he gets injured a lot. What do you have like three concussions last year alone?

and I also think that the youth on the team is probably not there yet. Like, neighbors can come back and be very good, but I don't think they're deep at receiver. Their offensive line is going to be a little bit young with Maui Noah, stepping into a different position. We saw some immaturity last year from Abdul Carter. They traded away Dexter Lawrence. I'm not there on them being anything more than maybe third in the east, but I think they'll have massive improvements under John Harbaugh.

JP would have had the Vikings at seven or eight. six is fair. Skoll, Shadow, Adrian was the most explosive, violent runner of the football during his era. Everything else about him can be debated. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's absolutely true. It's never a comfortable conversation about Adrian Peterson because of that, because they didn't succeed a lot other than when Brett Farve was here, which speaks to the running back position during his entire time.

Is that the only playoff win that they had was 2009? Is that right? I think that is right. So that, you know, it was kind of the far of more taking the front seat and Adrian taking the backseat as the centerpiece of the team. Now, that's not his fault. It's just one of those, it's hard to drive an entire team as a running back. He was the most explosive violent runner, had a highlight reel that you could put up against anybody, statistics that you could put up against anybody.

I think receiving when it comes to running backs is a little overrated. He would drop some balls sometimes, but he would catch checkdowns and run them, you know, whatever. Like, there's not a lot of guys that are Christian McCaffrey or Marshall Falk that really move the needle that way. And pass protection, yes, there's limitations there. But that feels a little bit on the nitpicky side. They had Chester Taylor.

I'm not saying, like, he wasn't, you know, didn't struggle at it. or also didn't struggle with sometimes with the, you know, famine, famine feast, the explosive runs, but then the negative runs. But I think that when you stack up Adrian against all the running backs in history, you don't have to get down too many running backs before you get to him. There are, it's, it's, there are other guys that have more complete resumes than Adrian Peterson. But in terms of peak, how good was he at his absolute best? Yeah, it's hard to find too many people that were better than he was.

I did see that the NFL is slowly trickling out the schedule, and it's going to be Giants and Cowboys in week one, Sunday night football. And yay, more Cowboys. They just will never stop. But you guys remember, if you've been watching the show for a while, Maggie Robinson, who interned on the show, She had worked in the NFL office. And one of the things that she mentioned was when they put together the schedule, it's this super arduous process.

And it's just crazy how they do it and takes a long time and tons of details and everything else. And it's very cool. But they make no bones about it. Dallas brings the biggest audience and they're going to get the audience. And they should be a relevant team this year. But them going for John Harbaugh, New York versus Dallas, shouldn't be a shot. to anybody. So yeah, you're still going to get a lot of Cowboys for sure. Joker, does PFF like the new commander's defense? I have no idea what PFF or whatever is left of

PFF thinks about it. And I don't know how we would even use the data to decide what a defense is going to be. One thing that I've learned over the years for sure is that defenses are probably the least predictive thing or predictable thing in the NFL. You can sure predict quarterbacks from one year to the next, not flawlessly, but pretty well when it comes to the best or what might undo them. But the commanders, you look at, they went out and made a bunch of free agent moves last year. They got a bunch of new guys.

And they just got hurt. And their defensive coordinator had no idea what he was doing. And it was just a whole mess. And Jane Daniels got hurt, which made it even tougher. So I'm not really sure, but I do know that they've invested now a lot on that side. And Durante Jones is really good at what he does. And I wouldn't be surprised if Durante, just like Brian Flores, quickly turns around the Washington defense, which is one of the reasons.

And again, this is really me projecting a lot of stuff, not just looking at last year and saying, well, they were this last year, so they're not that good. It's more of I'm trying to project what the spending, the return. turn of Jaden Daniels and the hiring of Durante Jones are going to do for Washington. And I think they could be a good team that maybe last year it just, you know, it didn't happen for them because of injuries and so forth. Edwin, third and Jouan bumps up the Vikings. Look, I mean, when it comes to Joanne Jennings, it matters to me.

This is a reason that I moved him up, a main reason. I think, yeah, getting defensive tackles in the draft helps a little extra depth here. or there, the new fullback moves you up at least one spot if you draft a fullback in the purple insider power rankings. But really, Joanne Jennings being as effective as a wide receiver as he has been in his career is the main reason that I moved him up because I think he's better overall than Jalen Naylor. Nailer was good at one thing. And I think he'll have success with the Raiders, but this is somebody who brings an element that the Vikings have not had on their offense and is perfect for Kyler Murray. Now, see, Ray, this is that, this is, we, this is, we can be better than this.

We can be better than this on the Purple Insider show. Ray says, don't get the Murray. Yes, he's cheap, but he's not a winner. Do you guys know what you said about Sam Darnold last year? You said, you got to get rid of Sam Darnold. He's not a winner. Do you know how many quarterbacks have been called not a winner and then one. I mean, Peyton Manning would be one of them, right? Probably the most famous example for me, the most notable example is that Manning had a bunch of losses in the playoffs where he was bad or struggled. And it was like, well, you know, he's a good regular season quarterback, just can't get it done. Sam Darnold, he's just a one-year wonder, but he's not a winner. You get him in those playoff games, he's going to melt down. Well, did he melt down in the NFC championship game?

Now, you can always, here's the other thing about this. If you say someone's not a winner, What you can do is just wait till they lose in the playoffs as 31 teams do and then say, yeah, he's not a winner. See, I told you. So I guess if the Vikings don't win the Super Bowl, you're right and I'm wrong. Murray's not a winner. But I don't think it works that way. I don't think it works that way when we're talking about NFL analysis. I think that usually teams are the ones that go deep into the playoffs and win the Super Bowl, not just quarterbacks.

Now, Mahomes at times dragged his team there. Tom Brady at times dragged his team there. The two best quarterbacks in the history of the last 25 years in the NFL. Yeah, yeah, you can make that case. But Brock Purdy or Jalen Hertz or Jimmy Garoppolo or Matthew Stafford, I don't know. Like, I don't think that those quarterbacks just do it all by themselves. I think supporting cast, especially in the NFC,

look at the NFC right now. It's a lot of quarterbacks who rank 10th to 15th. It's a lot of quarterbacks that you'd put in the same tier. You would have, Caleb Williams has a crazy high ceiling, but is he a top five quarterback in the NFL right now? I'm not so sure. Dak Prescott has had his ups and downs. Jared Goff has had his ups and downs.

Jalen Hertz has had his ups and downs. So what does it usually come down to of being a winner? It's whether your team is a winner. Just like with Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold lost against the Rams because his team got outplayed, and he didn't play well. But he won the Super Bowl because he played well and his team was amazing. So I just I just don't really think that that's the right approach. Joker, I have a fan duel bet on the Eagles winning the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I mean, look, after one player shouldn't really move the needle unless it's a quarterback. but a lot of times it's about the weaknesses that you have and will they get you? And if Jonathan Grenard is the best version of Jonathan Grenard, if he's the Gernard from two years ago, then that was a major weakness for the Eagles. And now I can't get them. And they add lemon, they add stowers, they add these guys who could step in right away and have a lot of success. They just handled their offseason really well. And then they hire a good offensive coordinator, I think, or a good,

mind to be an offensive coordinator. Certainly not a guarantee, but the Eagles do deserve some benefit of the doubt based on the way that they've continued to stay successful. And the improvement at offensive coordinator and along the defensive line there with Grenard just says to me, how can I put after the success they've had and the additions they made other teams who aren't as proven above them? uh, Benjamin,

let's look back at last year's power rankings and compare how these so-called experts actually did. Power rankings are just for conversational content in the off season, keep up the great work. Thank you, Benjamin. Well, yeah, no,

and I don't, look, I don't take it. I said, like, hey, arguments for and against, like,

what, what do we think of my list? And as I'm making the list, I'm going, I hate the list. Right. Like, I'm getting so frustrated.

I wrote it and rewrote it and wrote it again. I was like, what's my, what's my, what's my, ethos. I started to look internally. What's my ethos? And that's why I came up with chances to make the NFC championship game are kind of the lens that I put this through. Who's actually the strongest? Not who I think's going to have the best record or whatever.

It's who I think are really truly Super Bowl contenders. And where the Vikings are or the lions or the bears is just on the outside looking into that. And a lot of it is looking at teams better case scenarios, maybe, maybe their 90th percentile outcomes, because we don't know what's going to go wrong. Three teams could lose their quarterback in the first week. We don't know that. So in May, we're just looking at, well, all right, not best, best case scenario where the Vikings win 14 games like they did a couple years ago.

But in a good case scenario, where Kyler Murray is the best Kyler's ever been, or the best he's capable of being right now, Jefferson bounces back. Addison bounces back, Hawkinson bounces back, the offensive line health is better, the run game is better, the defense is still really good, where does that put you?

14, no. Does it put you at 10? 11? On the outside, looking in at the best teams to go to the NFC championship? Yeah, I think so. That's where I would have it.

Scott, no you're doing the schedule breakdown on Thursday, but as of now, how many wins would you take the Vikings to get, I think, 11? do it once a month. Okay, Dennis, good deal. Good deal.

We'll do it once a month. Yes, love that for NFC rankings. Now, I won't, yeah, every week would probably be too aggressive, but because I couldn't change enough, but once a month. And what I'll try to do is not look back at my previous ranking. I'll just make it based on what I think. I'll totally forget about it in a month. That's a great idea.

Thank you, Dennis. How many wins do I have them? Well, that's what I'm interested to find out for myself when I pick the schedule. is how many wins, because I don't want to set a target number. Right now, the Vikings over under on Fanduil is eight and a half. So I would have them going over. That means at least nine wins, but can we look at a schedule. And I truly, I do not do this until I actually get the real schedule.

And then I just go. Win, loss, win loss. Like off my first impression, first instinct, I don't like to spend too much time, like, really thinking about it, breaking it down. Like, let's just see what I really think. So at the moment, as you see from them being sixth on the power rankings, I think they've done a really good job this offseason. I think they could even continue to add a little bit more and get into a good spot with this roster to be right there with everybody else. And then they need things to go their way.

But 11, I will say this to your number. 11's a good number. 11 is a good number for this team. You have to take some leaps of faith, of sure, on Kyler Murray, because, I mean, we just don't know what he's really going to look like as a Minnesota Vikings quarterback. My research, my thought process is that this is going to work. But, I mean, I don't really know, just like no one else really knows how it's going to go. And if you went forward in the future, Marty McFly and came back in the DeLorean and said, no, actually, J.J. McCart, he started 11 games this year. I'd be like, oh, okay, well, all right.

Because a lot of stuff's on the table. Now, I mean, I talked about this the other night. I don't think there's a competition. And I'll continue to not think that until I see split reps, first team reps in training camp. I'm not going to think until then that there's a real competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy. But, you know, I do see, though, an outcome that is fairly likely based on everyone's past and a projection based on Flora's past, based on Murses, based on KOCs, where they are about at the mark you're laying out at 11 wins. And I just don't think their schedule is going to be that hard. Joker, did you see Ruben Bain and Bucks camp?

You know, one of my favorite things is when people tweet warm-up reps in rookie mini-camps and then they go, man, this guy. It's like, they're just warming up, guys. I mean, we just talked about how hard it is to figure out things from a training camp, from 12 training camp practices or whatever we get to see, whatever number, 12, 15, and it's still hard to figure yourself out with how players are really going to do. But, you know, yeah, certainly a rep of a guy running around a bag. I think Bain will be good, by the way.

I like Rubin Bain a ton. I was surprised he dropped as far as he did. So I shouldn't have said the entire Bucks off season was terrible, but losing Mike Evans pretty rough. Baker was not the same guy last year. But Ruben Bay is a great draft pick for them. Love that. Purple Tears.

Which teams does Detroit get that we won't? Oh, man. On the spot here, I mean, I have to look at last year's standings and their schedule and opponents. I don't know. You have to look that up. But it's a fourth place schedule. So it would be the teams and the other divisions that were in fourth place.

So, for example, they get Arizona, you get San Francisco. That's the difference. That's a big difference. So that's one of them for sure. It's, you know, look, it was an exciting minus five yards passing game or whatever it was for Max Brosmer. But winning on Christmas Day did make the path a little bit more difficult, more likely than not for the Vikings this year. Matt says you mentioned the other day how Jennings compares to receivers, the Vikings have had over the years.

Do you think he compares closely to Hawkinson or does he cut into his snaps this year? I don't think that he will cut into Hawkinson snaps because I think that Hawkinson's going to be on the field a lot. But I do think there is some comparison there where you're talking about a guy who's 6 foot 3, 215 pounds, probably runs about the same 40 as a lot of tight ends and has to get into the right places to catch the ball, break tackles, use his. contested catchability's got really, really good hands, go up and get it, box people out, like a lot of the same things.

It's kind of like a small tight end, yes, but it's just more of a, it's like a poor man's version of Anquan Bolden or Larry Fitzgerald in the later stages of their careers. Well, I shouldn't even say a poor man's version. It's like a young man's version is what it is. A young man's version of what those guys did. They kind of come to mind just because they were playing like a big slot type of position. and I'm sure there's other players in the league. This is what Robert Woods was doing later in his career for the Rams

was kind of playing this. He's tough and he's not the fastest, but he makes plays. And where I think that Joanne Jennings can really be big. So he's called third in Joanne for one reason because a lot of times the attention goes to other receivers and he's there to make a play. The other area where I think the Vikings have struggled is the Red Zone. they have not been able to get the ball consistently to Jefferson, which makes sense,

because so many people are just putting their attention on Jefferson, but they open up opportunities for other players. And Jalen Naylor was just not that guy. Jalen Naylor was not that guy that was going to slam into a linebacker, create a little space for himself, and then just go up and get a ball. That wasn't him. And it is Joanne Jennings. So I think that's where the biggest area, like a tight end, that he could take advantage of.

I'll get to the interview with Kyle Madsen, who covers the 49ers later, but he made a similar comparison to you. It's like having another tight end who's just like good. Weatherby says, I prefer the Vikings be ranked bad. They seem to play better in those seasons. Well, that's, that is the, what would you call it? Like the ping ponging up and down, the roller coastering that is the Minnesota Vikings. You're exactly right.

Because when people do expectations or Vegas does expectations, or power rankers do expectations, it usually is based on last year. It is, I mean, if you're talking about a totally different quarterback taking over this operation, it has totally different viewpoint of everybody, totally different expectations, totally different roles,

totally different offense, like everything is different when you have Kyler Murray versus that, like everything last year with Wentz and McCarthy trying to learn how to play football and Brosmer just getting sacked all the things. time. Like, this is very, very different. But no one knows really what to think of it. And they can't get last year out of their head. They also probably can't get last year for Kyler Murray out of their head. But that's the same to me as saying, like, well, Sam Darnel was bad with Carolina. Well, yeah, but Carolina was really bad. And having looked at, I mean, I've looked, I've watched,

I think, how many games is it? Five, 22. So all of 2024 and all of 2025 for Kyler Murray. and there are shortcomings that show up repeatedly with Kyler that I don't think you can mitigate all of them. And no one should take me putting a power ranking as number six as saying, look, Kyler's going to win MVP this year. Okay, that's not where I'm going with this. But when I watched how much his receiver struggled and how much he was forced to put the ball in Trey McBride's hands because he was the guy he could trust to get open, I'm like, okay, well, that's going to be different. We know that's going to be different. And when I look at, Now, his offensive line actually in 2024 was pretty good.

But last year was not. A lot of free runners, a lot of miscommunications on the offensive line. So he had to make a lot of plays there. You could see, though, why there's inconsistency. And this is what wouldn't shock me. Earlier, it was like 11 wins was thrown out there. 10 is a pretty good number for this team. Why it wouldn't shock me is because Murray, every season, and you see it in 24,

you see it in a little bit in 25. every season has these spikes because a lot of his success is reliant on making spectacular plays. And we know this from receivers. You can't count on receivers just making spectacular catches all the time. The guys who have the most consistent success are the receivers who just beat people off the line of scrimmage. That's the guy who has the most success consistently. So there will be inconsistent elements to Murray. But the idea is that you could probably smooth them out with more.

multiple wide receivers for, I mean, where would Joanne Jennings have ranked? Joanne Jennings might be the third best wide receiver the guy has had in his career, and he's the number three wide receiver here. I mean, late stage, JJ Green was okay. And Michael Wilson's pretty good. I like Michael Wilson. I mean, is he better than Jennings? Maybe about the same.

Probably a little better right now. He's younger. I mean, it's DeAndre Hopkins. and late Larry Fitzgerald, again, just like AJ Green, can't really put them up there. Truly, Joanne Jennings might be the third best wide receiver that he's had in his career. And that's wide receiver three. So I think it's fair to give some benefit of the doubt that he can get there. Oh, you've got the Lions opponents.

So the only two good non-NFC North opponents are the Bills and the Patriots. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. But the, I mean, the Vikings do have a lot of that. It's just that they have, yeah, I mentioned the Cardinals. Oh, the other one was the, the Titans must be, right? The, oh, man. Oh, man.

Yeah. The Vikings getting nine home games. The Vikings getting, um, the NFC South, the, the dolphins, the jets. Another reason for me to think that it could potentially work.