Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Which decade would the Vikings have won the most Super Bowls with an elite QB?

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Manny Hill joins Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom to talk about five key questions regarding famed What Coulda Beens in Vikings history, starting with how many Super Bowls the Vikings would have with an elite QB and which decade they would have been the strongest. Also they talk about running back-related What Coulda Beens, the season that should haunt the Vikings the most and other teams that compete with the same amount of What Coulda Beens as the Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here and it is time for a very special Hot Routes Roundtable What Could Have Been style. As we continue What Could Have Been week, Sam Ekstrom here, also my former co-worker, Manny Hill. What is going on, Manny? What's going on, fellas? You know me.

You know I love doing some Hot Routes. We're texting each other a few weeks back, and what was like the last thing I said to you? I said, just let me know the next time you want to do some hot routes let me know exactly i just i sent out the bad signal i think if i text you a football and the fire emoji you know that that means it is time for hot routes so i've got five questions for you guys and we can just take them wherever you want to take them uh and we can get right into it first we got to play the hot routes intro that was created by you manny and is so brilliant

there's news in the nfl today and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how. Hot Rouse style. Earl! Johnny! With our spin on football headlines with a mix of frozen tundras. Let's be a cold weather team. Neck rolls. I can't move! And grass-stained jerseys.

The good old-fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game. Okay, all right, now we are good to go. Now we are in the mood for hot routes five questions related to what could have been with the minnesota vikings here's the first question guys what era 80s 90s 2000s 2010s or 2020s would the vikings have the most trips to the super bowl had they had a top five quarterback during that time? Sam, I will let you begin. My gut says 90s because the Dennis Green Vikings, you know,

pre-Randy Moss were still very good. They were, you know, a divisional round qualifier in 97. They were a playoff team in 96 94 93 92 and you know doing it with um guys by the name of Gannon and Moon who are not bad quarterbacks Brad Johnson were they top five quarterbacks certainly not um but there were good like bones to that team their offenses were always really good and it felt like they could have really gotten kind of over the top with a top five quarterback and then in the in the year where it all came together 1998 where you could argue they legitimately did have a top five quarterback

for that one season and obviously a number one offense they should have won that super bowl so i would have a tendency to say the 90s. I'm curious what Manny Hill, the historian with a mind like a steel trap, thinks about it. Yeah, you know what, Sam? I thought about the 90s, too, because I was thinking about all those years with Moon and Brad Johnson and Rich Gannon and Jim McMahon one year in 93. They made the playoffs with him. But I was debating this and I ended up coming up with it seems like a cop-out answer

but I ended up thinking of the 2010s just because of you think about how good the defenses have been for the most part during the Mike Zimmer era that started in 2014 there was never really a point where Teddy was ever a top

five quarterback in the league. And maybe eventually, if not for the knee injury, maybe he would have gotten to that point. But, you know, he never did get to that point. And you just think about how good those defenses were. And then I thought about 2012, Leslie Frazier goes 10 and 6 and makes the playoffs with Christian Ponder as his starting quarterback. Now, Adrian Peterson was the catalyst for all of that. He ran for almost 2100 yards, won the league MVP and everything. But you just think about if you take out Christian Ponder and you put in a top five quarterback on that team, which was not really a bad team. It wasn't a great defense, but it was a defense that could get you by if your offense was prolific enough.

So I just think about Leslie Frazier finding a way to go 10 and six with nothing but a running game and a bad quarterback and a defense that was sort of middle of the pack. You know, if you'd slot in a top five quarterback into that team you know who knows who knows what would have happened there so i'll go with the 2010s i think that both are very good answers but neither one of you even raised an eyebrow that i included 2020s to suggest that if the vikings get a top five quarterback in the next decade, where they can go with Justin Jefferson. That was like the trick part of the question. I probably wouldn't pick it necessarily, but the fact that Justin Jefferson is here makes it kind of interesting.

I think there's a great case for the nineties, two thousands and 2010s. The thing about the 2000 to 2010, just because you guys discussed the other two, is you have Randy Moss very much in his prime. When you did have an elite top five quarterback in Dante Culpepper, they went to an NFC championship. They were very good. The defenses were not that great. They were still in the Vikings are very cheap era. So maybe they never would have built a team, a complete team.

If say call pepper had continued to be a top five quarterback, or if they had, you know, somehow landed on somebody else, the fact that Favre shows up and plays like a top five quarterback, they're one play away from going to the super bowl. You could kind of say, well,

they did go to two NFC championships during that era, which is different than the other ones so maybe there's a case to be made for that and maybe even this if you have a top five quarterback that whole time during moss like do we end up maybe not because of the way drafts work and stuff but like do we end up with peterson moss like more crossover between those two yeah i i don't know i mean i don't know how that would work out in terms of our, what could have been, but it just, it always makes you wonder like how everything just falls differently.

If you have a top five quarterback instead of bad years, then you still have like pretty good years. I do like the nineties as an answer, but they also did have prolific passing games at times during the nineties. And it just never seemed to ever get it there. Like they would have these good offenses, and at times with Moon, they had an amazing passing game, but they just couldn't really build the defense. And so that's why I lean a little toward your answer, Manny,

because it was really the first time. They were known as a team with a bad defense for a really long time throughout their history. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, you just think about how good the defense got. Because Leslie Frazier's last year in 2013, the defense was terrible. They were bad. And when you have a defensive-minded head coach and your defense is like 28th or 29th in the league

or whatever it was that year, you know, guy's going to get fired. But then you step in, you know, you insert Mike Zimmer and everything just immediately changed right away. You saw an extreme improvement on the defense in Zimmer's first year. They didn't make the playoffs. They went, you know, seven and nine. But that was a rookie Teddy Bridgewater and Matt Castle

starting at quarterback for you that whole season. And we saw great improvement from the defense from the previous year with Leslie Frazier. And then, you know, we really saw things sort of take off at that point from 2015 on. And man, if you just think about like if you insert, you know, a Tom Brady type or a Patrick Mahomes type on any of those teams you just have to wonder how far how far they would have gone if they would have gone a lot further I like that you brought up the 2000s as well caller because the early Childress defenses were phenomenal led by Mike Tomlin one of of those years, those like Williams wall, the run defense, run defenses were spectacular. Antoine Winfield was in his prime, like the 06, 07, 08. If they'd had any semblance of quarterback play. And even with Adrian Peterson,

they still were, you know, just struggling to be in the playoff hunt because their quarterbacks were some trio of Brad Johnson, Gus Farratt, and, you know, young Tavares Jackson. It was not a healthy quarterback room. I want to say Kelly Holcomb might've gotten a start in there, Manny. I'm sure you remember that one. Oh yeah. I remember the game in Kansas City where he overthrew Vasanti Shanker. Yes. I'll never forget it. Yeah. So I think that's a sneaky one caller and i i like you know thinking about the recent decade too i mean uh basically every zimmer team since 2015 if if the quarterback play had been that good they're probably on the verge of a super bowl it's a good point um

in classic vikings irony that they have these great offenses with Dante Culpepper and the defenses couldn't stop anything. And then as soon as Culpepper gets hurt and leaves, they build up the defense to be pretty good. And it's just, you know, the, the one thing about that and that era, along with the Zimmer era is, I mean, that's how the Patriots did it, right? It's like you had these elite defenses or these very highly talented defenses, elite quarterback, and then you could just go year after year. And I don't know if Zimmer is as good of a coach as Bill Belichick, but when you have a top five quarterback, you tend to get a little overrated sometimes as a head coach. All right, next question for you guys, next hot route, which, what could have been vikings fans obsess over that you don't really understand so i put out a tweet that sort of started this whole idea running where i said like to fans give me your sort of favorite vikings what could have been and it got a ton of response and i appreciate that but some of them made me go, huh? I don't really understand that. I'll give you mine in a second.

Manny, why don't you go first on this one? The what could have been that you hear from fans where you go, I'm sorry, guys. I just don't think that's a what could have been. So I don't know if a lot of fans per se have obsessed over this, but I know it's something that has been talked about. And for me, it's the Vikings not drafting Aaron Rodgers in 2005. And that one, I just don't understand because Dante was coming off a 2004 season where he was an MVP candidate. I mean, Peyton Manning ended up winning the MVP

that year almost unanimously. And I think Michael Vick got the other vote, got the other first place vote that year. But Dante, you look at Dante's numbers and the way he performed that year. He was unbelievable. I mean, he threw for forty eight hundred yards, thirty nine touchdowns. I think he ran for another like seven hundred yards and a bunch of touchdowns as well from that position. And he did all of that with Randy Moss limping around with a hamstring injury for half that season. And then they go into Green Bay and win the playoff game. So Dante was coming off of that great season.

And Aaron Rodgers, even though there were a lot of people that thought maybe he would have been the number one overall pick by the Niners, he wasn't. They took Alex Smith. And then Aaron just plummeted down to the 20s where the Packers finally took him. And I think when you look at the Vikings' perspective, you have this quarterback who would come off a tremendous season.

And, you know, they had just traded Randy Moss in the offseason. They got the seventh pick in the draft. The Vikings, when you look at that draft, which ended up being terrible because they got nothing out of any of those picks but would you look at the approach of that draft it was actually pretty sound you had two first round picks you use your top first round pick to try and replace Randy Moss it was a bad decision because Troy Williamson wasn't any good, couldn't catch the football. And then you took Erasmus James at I think it was 18 with your own pick that you had. And that was that was a sound thought because, OK, you're trying to improve the defense.

You're trying to get a guy that can be a pass rusher off the edge for you. And it just didn't work out because Erasmus James just wasn't very good. He wasn't very productive for you. And then they had some other picks later on that just didn't that just didn't work out because Erasmus James just wasn't very good. He wasn't very productive for you. And then they had some other picks later on that just didn't pan out at all. But that approach that they had, I think, was really sound. And, I mean, let's be honest. If everybody knew that Aaron Rodgers was going to be this, he would have been the top pick in the draft.

The Niners would have taken him. So that's the one that I think people kind of talk about with the Vikings, like, oh, they should have took Rodgers in 05. And I'm like, well, if you go back and put yourself in their shoes at that time, you can kind of understand why they didn't. I like that, Manny. Do you want to hear mine? Yeah, go ahead.

Okay. So in 2009, NFC Championship, before the 12 men in a huddle, 12 men in the huddle, Vikings are at the Saints 38 yard line in a tie game. And I think Vikings fans have convinced themselves that if not for the 12 men in the huddle penalty, that they're going to the Super Bowl for sure. Like 100% lock. They're going to the Super Bowl for sure. Like 100% lock, they are going to the Super Bowl. That's a 56-yard field goal if they don't get any more yards. You know what Ryan Longwell's long is in his career? And it's a long career. 55 yards. He's never made a 56-yard field goal in his career. Now, up to that point, as a Viking, he was 9 of 14 from 50 and beyond. And again, he's never kicked a field goal that long. So at best,

considering the distance, what's at stake, I think we're talking about a coin flip, that Ryan Longwell makes that field goal. If he doesn't, the game's going to overtime and you could very well have the exact same result. So I know people want to give Longwell the credit. He was a popular figure here, but I'm not convinced that that kick is good. And people play the what if game as if it was a chip shot. I mean, we've seen actual chip shots get missed. Blair Walsh and gary anderson this is a 56 yard field goal hey if kai can do it from 52 then ryan longwell my thing is always like if he actually checked down to bernard barry and would he have gotten the first down

like he was wide open but you know like how much he would have gotten yards toward the field goal which would have helped. Right. I don't know if there's all 22 of that yet where you could really see, because one thing with all 22 film is you can really see sometimes how deceived we are by the TV angle where it's like, oh, that guy was wide open. Then you look at the ultimate and you're like, oh, no, there was a safety coming right there. That's why he didn't throw it or something like that. I've always wondered what that play looked like on tape and how much room he actually had. Same thing with Favre running. There was like in the Packers NFC championship game where everyone assumed Rodgers could run. But then when you looked at another angle, you go, he really couldn't have,

I'll give you guys two of mine. Those are both tremendous. Greg Childs is number one i have covered many a training camp okay and i've seen many a fourth round pick flash for a week or a preseason game and just become mostly nothing i mean bc johnson had a great preseason and even came in and did some stuff but really didn't become a whole heck of a lot there's this idea that that Greg Childs was like going to become the next great Vikings wide receiver. Had he not, whatever, torn both his ACLs or something. And with all respect to him, cause that's a tough break and he probably would have made the team. I mean, if the guy becomes a Jarius Wright in his career, then great. Right.

And he's a fourth rounder who became something ever. And I got this answer so many times in the Twitter thread. I was like, what? Like, did Greg Childs become a Monstar during that training camp? I was like, what did he do? I wasn't there for that. But like, what did he do to all you people to make you think the guy was going to be like the next Stefan Diggs or Randy Moss or something?

That's weird. The other one receiver related is drafting Michael Thomas instead of Laquan Treadwell. Michael Thomas was drafted a lot later than Laquan Treadwell. And all signs pointed toward Treadwell being good. Like the process wasn't bad. It wasn't like, Oh, what were you thinking? This is kind of Manny along the same lines. It's like, you could almost say what if they drafted every player who was available. If you're doing the Michael Thomas thing, nobody in

the league thought Michael Thomas would be this good. I guess you even have to wonder if Michael Thomas even is this good because he played with Drew Brees for so long. So I've never really latched onto, wow, if they had gotten Michael Thomas, then they would have just won all these more games or something like, ah, yeah, I don't know. I mean, they should have just tried to get a better wide receiver three than Laquan Treadwell. Anyway, a follow-up comments, Manny. Yeah. The, the Treadwell thing is hilarious to me because, well, number one, I remember being a, you know, when I was producing the ride with Royce at the old 1500 ESPN at the time, I remember picking Laquan Treadwell to be the offensive rookie of the year.

Like that's how high I was on him. Yeah, just absolutely nailed that one right out of the ballpark. But, yeah, I just remember thinking that he was going to be tremendous. And he's coming out of the SEC. He's super productive for multiple years at Ole Miss. He's torching Nick Saban's defense. You know, I'm sitting here thinking, oh, this kid's amazing. And he's he's big. He's got these huge hands and he's he's super athletic. He's not very fast, but he's he's got these huge hands and he's he's super athletic he's not very fast but he's he's got the great size and you know talk so much about the catch radius with him and everything but it just didn't uh it just didn't work out it turned out to be he was uh awful really really bad yeah real bad yep not good at all but a current jaguar so it's hanging around the league uh okay love your

answers guys on to the next question here on hot routes what could have been addition give me a what could have been involving a running back i will let you go first sam what if the vikings had used mike boone oh come on like at all no i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm come on But seriously, seriously, I'm not kidding at all. Let it go. I will never let it go. Robert Smith, why'd you retire, man? I mean, coming off arguably his best season in 2000,

he was 28 years old. He was a pro bowler. 5.2 yards per carry, 1,500 yards, NFC championship. And, uh you know he must have known something because after robert smith left the vikings they went in the tank for for a handful of years and uh and you know mike tice took a while to get them kind of back on the tracks but robert smith knew something and and maybe he was even ahead of the game on CTE. He said, I'm taking a lot of hits. I'm going to get out of here.

They just rushed me 295 times in the year 2000, and he hung it up very early. Folks, if you are pumped up about how the Vikings did in the draft and now the schedule's out, it is a great time to get yourself a Skull Flag or Bud grant shirt and of course there's much much more if you go to sodastick.com s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com check them all out and if you use the promo code purple insider you can get free shipping on all your original minnesota sports inspired goods and if you're ready for the summer months, and if you're a golfer, you have to see the Minnesota golf hats.

They are classic. All of Soda Sticks apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. Follow them at SodaStickCo on Twitter. Go to SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Hey everyone. Summer is here and you're trying to get out on the golf course,

but if you're like us here at purple insiders, spending all day golfing isn't always an option. That's why you need to check out birdie golf in Woodbury. I'll give you an example. My wife is new to golf and she's intimidated by the big courses, but at birdie golf, she could come and play without the pressure. You can make golf a family experience at birdie golf, bring the kids still get all of your swings in. They have eight of the world's best golf simulators where you can sharpen your

swing and still have a great time. I've heard from several listeners to the show who have tried out birdie golf and absolutely loved it. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights. And every time Sam and I show up at Birdie Golf to record our podcast, we always get the boneless wings. Make golf a night out. It's the perfect place to hold parties, events, fundraisers,

and even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury. Just a short drive away from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro at birdiegolf.com, B-I-R-D-I golf.com. Call 651-998-2200 today, and I'll see you there. So mine, as I had two of these, one was a Vikings running back,

and one was just a running back in general. The running back in general, for me, I mean, this was an easy one. It's Barry Sanders for me. It's walking away after 10 years at the age of 30, just in the middle of his prime, best running back in the game at that point, and, you know, between him and probably Terrell Davis. I mean, he's, what, 1,500 yards away from passing Walter Payton for number one on the all time list with still plenty of tread left on the tire. That's the one where I just would have loved. And plus, he's like my favorite football player of all time.

Just watching him as a kid. And I just look back and just wonder, man, Barry, if you would have just like played like two or three more years you know you would have started to decline a little bit just because you were just getting gonna get older but man you know how many yards would he have finished with if he had just played like two or three more seasons and retired at maybe like 33 years old what do you have gotten you know what do you have still ended up with more yards than than what Emmett ultimately finished up with I think so probably um yeah that would have been that would have been amazing to see if he would have just hung on hung around for a couple more years and the Vikings specific one I thought about is like what could have been what what could Adrian Peterson have been if he was just more consistent at catching the ball out of the back field and not fumbling so much and not dropping passes often because a lot of times you would

see the Vikings try to dump off passes to him and he would just drop it it's like Adrian just catch the ball catch the ball so you just kind of wonder how much more dynamic for as amazing as Adrian was just as a pure running back how much more dynamic would he have been if he had just been much more of a factor in the passing game too? I think that's a great one. The Barry Sanders, I still remember as a kid having a Barry Sanders Jersey. And when he retired, I just thought it was like a fake story. It's just like, Oh no, he's, he's going to come back guys.

He's not going to stay. And then he just, he never did. like, oh, no, he's he's going to come back, guys. He's not going to stay. And then he just he never did. And we missed out on a lot of great running, especially since Barry didn't take the hits that a lot of other running backs did. He sort of went down easy a lot of times. And I think that that helped sustain him even through, you know, how good he was through into his late twenties. The thing about Robert Smith, Sam, that's interesting is now that we know what we know about running back usage, it looks like a smart decision because so often guys will be great up until that point till they're 27, 28. And then, I mean, at that point, it's like being an old race horse where you just put out the pasture and you just fade. And then everyone talks about how sad it was in the end. There's, there's that for sure. And there's a lot of running backs who had injuries through their

careers that you, we could go, what could have been Bo Jackson, Gail Sayers are the two ones that come to mind. Like Bo Jackson looked like he was still just learning how to really play football and was unstoppable. And then he has the hip thing, which now we probably could have come back and continued to play with the Vikings. I was going to go. What if Adrian Peterson could catch the ball? So I'm glad that you brought that up, Manny. The other one is I said, related to a running back on purpose because the Herschel Walker trade, what if they did not do the Herschel Walker trade? Or how about even just what if they hadn't thought that running backs were so damn important I mean the running backs from the 90s for the Vikings are great amp Lee's catching passes

and you have Terry Allen was really good in the 90s he had one great season where he kind of dragged their offense I mean running backs were more valuable back then for sure because passing games would total like 3,000 yards in a year It was just that you could have a lot of different people who were good at it. And then the one that's in the weeds is what if David Palmer played today and they used them all over the field instead of being a guy who just occasionally popped in and out? He, I mean, I don't want to say he'd be quite Christian McCaffrey, but I think he'd be like that type of player. Somebody who's really explosive with the ball and they would have used them a lot of different ways unless he was with Mike Zimmer.

Then he would have just been a kicker Turner. Sorry, I had to do it. OK, on the next question. Great answers there, guys. What non-NFC championship Vikings season do you think about the most for what could have been manny go ahead uh this was an easy one for me 2015 if you know that you win the nfc north you've got a playoff game at home against the seattle seahawks and i i look at the way the playoffs sort of shaped out i mean the panthers represented the nfC in the Super Bowl that year.

If the Vikings would have won that game against Seattle, they would have gone to Arizona. And the Packers, who had beaten Washington in wildcard weekend, would have had to be the ones to go to Carolina because they were the lower seeded team and Carolina was the number one seed. And I just have this weird feeling that if the Vikings would have had a chance to go to Arizona, they would have had a decent chance at winning that game and going onto the NFC championship game. Now, would they have beaten Carolina? If the Panthers had beaten the Packers in the second round, I don't know. That would have been tough. That, that, that Panthers team in 2015 was a buzzsaw, but you know, I just can't help but to wonder, you know, how things would have shaped out if the Vikings would have had a chance to advance further.

And we're never going to find out only because Blair Walsh missed a freaking 27-yard field goal. Yeah, that's a good one, Manny. I've thought about that too. But you know what? In retrospect, I'm glad that he shanked it because it meant we got to see Packers Cardinals the next week with the Hail Mary to Janice. I'm glad we weren't robbed of that experience. and three Vikings. They start six and oh, and that offense was good enough if it had made the playoffs to go the distance. I think they were first in overall yards. They were first in passing touchdowns, fourth in passing yards, first in average drive length, second in third down percentage. And they could rush the ball too. were fourth and rushing yards so that offense was insanely good and the week before the uh the nathan pool catch in and the meltdown in arizona they hung 45 on a really good chiefs team like they played their best game of the year um on a saturday afternoon week 16 againstC. And then they've got the lead, obviously,

against Arizona. I'm sure everybody knows what happens. Touchdown onside kick, touchdown as time expires. Vikings lose. They miss the playoffs. They watch Green Bay go instead. If they win that game, if Nathan Poole doesn't make the catch and get pushed out that offense could have gone on a run because they were next level good and that was still Randy Moss remember you know that was Moss it was Culpepper it was uh it was Kelly Campbell it was they had they had a Nate Burleson I believe was on that team there were some really good weapons that never got to uh got to make a playoff push those teams in general have a lot of what could have been because the offense was so explosive,

and whether it was bad defense or a bad break there. And that, I mean, that has to be, in terms of your win percentage, you see this all the time, a team had a 98% chance to win. I mean, that one must be, considering who was on the field, the all-time, like 99.9% continuous chance to win it's josh freaking mccown he takes a sack i think on a third down and then has to convert a fourth down to continue the drive going i mean that is one of the most i think improbable games in nfl history yeah that 03 team guys is like one of the most mind-boggling teams, Vikings teams of all time.

Because to Sam's point, the offense was so good. And, you know, they lost a ton of close games that year. And they lost to some bad teams, too. I think they lost to the four worst teams in the league that year record-wise, including Arizona. They lost to a bad Giants team. They lost to a bad Chargers team, a bad Raiders team that year. And you'd think, man, if they would have just put it all together because they had the team that was good enough to put it all together.

They just couldn't close the deal on a lot of those games. And if they would have found a way to do that with that offense, to Sam's point, I mean, mean man they could have really gone some places i'm gonna go with 1999 because 1998 you go 15 and one you bring back everybody the offense is you know it's three deep and here's conningham coming off of this unbelievable historic season at the time some of the numbers that he put up are regular numbers now for the top 10 quarterbacks. Not then they weren't. I mean, it was only him really who had put up numbers like that. Randy Moss, just historic all time great season. And so you're going into year two thinking like this

should just happen again. And Cunningham is just washed just all kind of all of a sudden he can't play anymore so here comes freaking jeff george with this bizarre career he's a top draft pick he's got the strongest arm of all time but he's horrible in indianapolis he sort of revamps himself under june jones in atlanta but then they get tired of him he ends up here as a backup because jeff ge George just never wants to quit playing football. And he's just throwing the most lasery lasers you have ever seen in your life. The highlight reel of Jeff George passes to Randy Moss makes zero sense. Like watching with your eyes, it's like, what? Like I'm still to this day have never seen anyone throw a football harder. And in the game where they beat Dallas in the playoffs

like they are playing so far back on Randy Moss I've never seen anything like it there's two guys who are just playing like 50 yards back on Randy Moss and and they get a win but then I think that's the one where they go up against the Rams it's kind of a score fest but they just couldn't hold them down and I guess I think about that team all the time because of how much fun Jeff George was to watch play. You always knew that there was a bubble that was going to burst with Jeff George, but it's so entertaining. I would almost rather watch back those Jeff George games than a lot of the other ones where they've had better seasons. But I always think like, man, if Jeff George could have just kept it going a little longer, they were good enough to reach a Super Bowl, but they run into another, you know, historically great team in the Rams.

The juxtaposition between Cunningham and George is really good because Cunningham would throw it as high as he possibly could and hope that it just traveled a long ways. Whereas George was throwing it at eye level, 40 yards down the field. Like Cunningham was winding up, man. He was getting everything he could to get it in the air, and it worked. But then the George line drives, I agree. Some of like the most underrated Vikings highlights out there because people don't talk a lot about the 99 team because of the 98 and the 2000 kind of sandwiched around it.

But 99, that was a sneaky, interesting year. I love it. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do.

Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America, and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. There was one play, I think it was the playoff game against the Cowboys, where Jeff George rolls out to the left of his opposite side and he's almost backpedaling and

he just lets it rip, just throws this laser to Randy Moss, almost sort of across his body if you will, because he rolls to his left and Randy Moss is streaking down the right side of the field. And George just throws this absolute bullet on a dime and hits Moss in the end zone. And I'm like, Oh my God, this guy. Yeah. To your point, like Jeff George was so much fun to watch, just throwing the football with that quick release, throwing it on a dime.

He was – that was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. He just has such a weird career. And he would – the thing that you mentioned there that's so true, and I was watching a Falcons game the other day where he did this, is that George could throw off platform. Like you think of these guys with rocket arms of like, Oh, he's big, he's slow. He must have to just like step into it. He could be moving to his left or right and just flick his wrist and it would

go faster than most people can when they wind up crazy. He was like my homes, except he just didn't have the mobility that Patrick Mahomes has, but it was, it was the same sort of thing where you watch Patrick Mahomes just sort of throw it from these sort of weird arm angles. And he's just sort of doing it with like this flick of the wrist and it just it just goes 50 yards on a beam and it was the same thing but Jeff George the only difference is Jeff George just was more more so of a statue than Patrick Mahomes obviously is right and he had personality problems I think yes he did Interpersonal issues and so forth.

But in terms of if we're just ranking all-time arm talent quarterbacks, Jeff George is among the elite ever. All right, final Hot Routes question. Really have loved the discussion here. This is why we do Hot Routes, guys. It never fails. Three teams that are comparable in their number of what could have beens to the Minnesota Vikings. Sam, do you want to go first here? I forget the order. Yeah, I won't go all three. I'll leave, you know, one or two.

I think I feel like Buffalo is the obvious answer. And maybe Collar will let you speak to that because you're Buffalo guy. I think like the last decade of Packers football has been insanely what if like think of all the good teams that they've had and how little they have to show for it. Like thank goodness for like the legacy of Rodgers that he has the one Super Bowl because they've had so many whiffs in the playoffs with unbelievable teams and the way they've lost too. I think Rogers got like strip sacked and then the ball went off his foot into a Cardinals player's arms one year and they lost in overtime. There was the other game against Arizona with the Hail Mary to send it to overtime.

And then Fitzgerald beats them in OT. There was the blown lead at Seattle. And the 15-1 team was hosting the Giants, I think, in the divisional round and lost. And I might just be scratching the surface. I mean, they've had a handful of teams that made it super far, you know, hosting games like last year against the Bucs. They blow that as well. I mean, there's a decade there of Green Bay heartbreak and no one's going to feel bad for Green Bay because they had Rodgers and they've had all the Super Bowls, but it's been pretty rough. If you're like living and dying with the Packers, they've had about five playoff heartbreaks that a lot of teams will never have in their franchise's history.

And I can just hear the Vikings fans wiping their tears for for them right now after you said that go ahead man yeah another another team too to sam's point sort of piggybacking off of the packers another team i was thinking about was the saints i mean you just think about you know ever since you know the saints beat the vikings in the 09 nfc championship game and what you know went on to win the Super Bowl, they've had nothing but playoff heartbreak ever since then. I mean, you go back to the Alex Smith game where, you know, I think they call it the catch three in San Francisco where Alex Smith hits Vernon Davis in the end zone.

In that playoff game, you had the beast mode touchdown where he's breaking like 12 tackles to get to the end zone when they had to play a seven and nine Seattle team in Seattle because the Seahawks have won their terrible division and shouldn't have been hosting a playoff game but that's neither here nor there and then you just think about the the non-pass interference call a couple of years ago against the Rams in the NFC title game you know so many of the one playoff game in Seattle, I think that some people forget about.

I think that was like, I think it was like 2013, where the Saints had a chance to try and go for a Hail Mary. And Marcus Colston like does like the forward, he catches the ball and does like a forward lateral instead of just turning around and stepping out of bounds to give Drew Brees a chance for a Hail Mary. He like throws a forward pass and like, yeah, there it is. Game over.

So there's stuff like that. And, and just, I just think, you know, I mean, hell, let's go to the them losing an overtime to the Vikings two years ago in the playoffs with the touchdown to Kyle Rudolph at the end. Minneapolis miracle too. Yeah. Minneapolis miracle. Yeah, absolutely.

So yeah, the saints are right up there too. I think just when it comes to to playoff heartbreak again you can just see the Vikings fans just white completely wiping away their tears as we hear about us talking about the Packers and the Saints having heartbreak just crushed right now but even like Drew Brees went seven to nine, eight and eight for a couple of years there where their defenses were historically awful. And even that sort of qualifies to me where it's like you wasted some of the best quarterback play in history because you couldn't stop anyone. And you kept running back. Rob Ryan is your defensive coordinator. And, you know, you kind of you kind of made your own bed there but i mean that it's almost hard to do to be so bad where drew breeze can be that could and you're still not a great team uh i'll give you a couple nominations just to speak about buffalo for a second uh the four

superbowls of course the norwood miss of course what could have been if they even were more aggressive on the drive to set up norwood with a slightly shorter field goal, maybe it goes in instead of just wide, right? The Frank Y check the forward pass. That was a clear forward pass. And I will never believe anything otherwise because he threw it forward. And then Kevin Dyson caught it. That's clearly what happens.

So the music city miracle is a little tough. The only reason I might not put Buffalo on my list though, is because they absolutely made their own bed for two decades of garbage football. Like that was their fault. They had bad GMs. They had a dysfunctional front office, dysfunctional owner who was in his latter years and put bad people in charge. They drafted horribly. They made stupid decisions. They drafted running backs who were hurt in the first round. I mean, it was like you earned every bit of that. So for almost 20 years, there's no, what could have been for Buffalo. It's just like, you were awful and you

made your bet. So that one, I might not put them there over the chargers who I would put right on an even plane with the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, they have some great teams. I forget who it was, but there's like a dropped interception or an interception, a fumble against Tom Brady. Do you remember this in the playoffs? I think somebody picked off Brady. I think it was Quentin Jammer, right? I think it was Quentin Jammer, yeah.

So, I mean, they have so many of these. They have the missed field goals by Nate Kading, and there was another kicker that they had that missed a key field goal. They had a great quarterback for a long, long time, and they just could never get there because they always had one of these just complete botched jobs in the playoffs. So I would put them there. And the other team that I would name would be the Atlanta Falcons.

I mean, there's a lot of what could have been in terms of you had great players a lot and so many good seasons and you're very often competitive, but they also deserve a nomination for blowing a 28-3 lead. I mean, just what could have been if you handed off a couple more times and didn't take a holding call and get moved out of field goal position? So I think that there's kind of like a, a big four or five there that, that does, you know, Cleveland, I put under the same category as Buffalo's like, are you a, what could have been team? Are you just bad? It's just, I'm going to go just bad. So anyway, well, Manny, this has been incredibly fun as hot routes always are.

And I appreciate you coming by. How about we give our, our final, what could have been thoughts as this closes out? what could have been weak? I'll just start and you guys can think of what you want to say. It's one of the reasons that I enjoy the job is this franchise in particular. People asked me after the whole Score North thing, they asked, like, why did you stay? Why didn't you go try to get another job? The reason is that I love covering this team and I mean, and love Minnesota and wanted to be here, but this, I couldn't stop

doing this job. There's always something new that's happening. That is absolutely fascinating that we will be able to talk about for years and years and years and years, just like we did here today. We could do this next year. We could do it the year after. And we would have only scratched the surface in a whole week of what could have been Minnesota Vikings football. So I appreciate everyone who's listened to these episodes. I've so much enjoyed doing them. So final thoughts, Manny and then Sam. Yeah, I think just it's an amazing topic to talk about,

particularly with this team because, you know, and I was doing some looking at the numbers before we went on here. And the Vikings, I was reminded that the Vikings have more post years, you know, there's been a few blips on the radar of like bad teams that went like, you know, four and twelve, three and thirteen, things like that. But for the most part, the Vikings have always been a very competitive franchise that has gone to the postseason a lot of times and had opportunities to win championships and go on deep runs. And it's always just like one or two things that you look at and you just say, if they had just done this, or if they had just called this play, or if that guy hadn't fumbled, or if that guy hadn't missed that field goal, then who knows what could have happened. So yeah, I think when you're talking about this franchise in particular, it's just, it's an, it's an amazing topic to discuss because there's just so many different, different examples that you can use. Like Manny alluded to, you can play the what if game at such

a micro level. And I am a firm believer in the butterfly effect. I think that even like the smallest of events in a football game can change the course of that game. And I think a game can change the course of a season and a season can change the course of an organization. Like Matthew and I were kind of playing forward in a previous podcast. What if Teddy Bridgewater doesn't blow out his knee? You know, is he still around today? Are people getting frustrated with Teddy Bridgewater doesn't blow out his knee. You know, is he still around today? Are people getting frustrated with Teddy Bridgewater because he's not winning a Super Bowl? Like, what's happening if he doesn't have that injury? And you can play that out in so many different ways with, you know, play calling, one bounce going a different way, one officiating call going a different way. And it makes for for pretty good theater. So I'll echo Matthew's point and say

it, it really is kind of the ultimate reality show when so much rides on every play with a 16 game now 17 game season. Um, it all just feels like it means something. And, uh, and that makes it pretty fascinating to cover. And I'll just wrap by saying, I can't wait to see which ones are next in the 2020 season. So we'll transition after this, you know, after this week into looking at training camp and all those things, but it was super fun to do this theme week. Appreciate you Manny and Sam, and we will catch you next time on purple insider.