Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Which Vikings should have a chip on their shoulder? How should they use Dalvin Cook?

Episode Date: May 22, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic run down NFL headlines and Vikings storylines, including which players should have a chip on their shoulder, whether Vikings OTA stories will come to fruition i.e. Justin Jefferson taking on the Cooper Kupp role, Dalvin Cook catching more passes, Za'Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter becoming a top edge rushing duo or Irv Smith Jr. emerging as a top tight end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with WCCO Radio's Paul Hodorwanek. Paul, we do not have any breaking news to break down. We won't see another OTA practice until Tuesday, which there's been a surprising number of headlines that have come out from last week's OTA practice. A friend texted me and said, hey, do you think that like Kellen Mond is taking the next step? I read somewhere that he's having a great spring. And I was like, what? We saw one OTA practice where they basically did a walkthrough,

and the veteran players have only been there for a week. How could he be having a great spring? But that is OTA headlines for you. So I've got a question related to that. But save for a long analysis of the OTA practice, in which I think I saw Kellen Mond throw like four passes, I've got some questions for you, Paul. So are you prepared to do some hot routes here?

Matt, I'm so excited to do some hot routes. It's been way too long. I feel like this is the needed return. My just Google Doc for all our questions just has in all caps, hot routes returns with a bunch of flame emojis. I am ready to go. I am excited.

We could even play the music. I don't even know if it's here anymore, but- I've got it. Okay, good. Yeah, oh, I'm ready. So here it is. There's news in the NFL today, and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how.

Hot Rock Style with our spin on football headlines with a mix of Frozen Tundra's Neck Roll and Grass Stained Jersey. Manny Hill. That was the shortened version that we, I think, initially did for YouTube. There is a longer version, but Manny Hill the best with his Hot Routes intro. So I'm just going to jump right into it. So what I do here, if you're not super familiar, is I peruse the headlines, including involving Vikings, and then write five. I actually have six questions relating to NFL headlines. So let's start off right here. Matt Corral says that the chip on

his shoulder is bigger after he dropped in the draft. So the chip is so big, he can't even throw the ball and he was forced to retire. No, I'm i'm just kidding he's not to retire but uh there's no reason for matt corral to actually have a chip on his shoulder because he wasn't a first round prospect like i mean good for you though like take that mentality that's totally fine shouldn't be super hard to win that job as a starter in carolina unless they trade for Baker Mayfield. If they trade for Baker Mayfield, then he's just, his whole body is a chip.

Yes. It's not just on the shoulder anymore. It's like move to the clavicle. Uh, anyway, so who in the NFL should really a rookie third rounder should not really, you know, I don't know,

but who in the NFL should really have a chip on their shoulder after last year headed into this year due to various disrespect or needing to bounce back or however you interpret the question? Who do you think in the NFL should have a chip on the shoulder heading into this year? Yeah, well, to be honest, if the Panthers go out and get Baker Mayfield, it's going to be a battle of the chips. It's going to be a massive battle of who has a bigger chip on their shoulder, who can win that job. I think Baker is a perfect one for this, just because of what has gone down with him in Cleveland.

Heading into last year, after the way they performed in the playoffs, winning one game, I think I remember, and Baker played well in the playoffs, it was like, okay, 2021, Cleveland can actually do some stuff. They could maybe make it to the conference championship game. Baker has played well. They're rounding out that roster. And then it goes really, really badly. And part of it was because of an injury. And now they've thrown him to the side. And so I don't know what quarterback he is more of the last year quarterback or the

quarterback we saw glimpses of in the playoffs, but he's a former first overall pick. He had that team, a team that had been atrocious for so long. He's the quarterback that has brought them to the only limited amounts of success that they had. and then they just cast him off aside. I want to see him, what he looks like, with a fully healthy shoulder, and it's a contract year for him. Those are just built-in chips right away. He's trying to prove that he can be worth another big contract on his second year. So I think wherever he ends up, he's going to have a chip,

and he's going to have a chip just based on the way the browns handled that situation with deshaun watson uh i think anywhere he goes whether he's in cleveland for the first couple weeks however badly that could go or if he gets traded he has to be one of the you know one of the top guys on this list in terms of chips and just motivation to go out and prove some people wrong and motivation to go get some more money because he's made a lot of it. But I'm sure, I'm sure he could want, he wants a little bit more. So Baker Mayfield is such a interesting subject for me because I think that he is generally a jerk, uh, that he seems to really struggle with handling the criticism that you take as a quarterback. And that has been the case from day one. There were things that he did in college that NFL teams really ignored when he was coming out

that have become problematic later. It's obvious that his camp loves to leak stuff to certain reporters and then claim that the reporters are making it up after they themselves leaked it to them. I don't know that he's a guy that you would really want as your franchise quarterback, but I've sort of gone back and forth on him because if the Vikings had made the trade that Baker thought was going to happen, which was him for Kirk Cousins to Cleveland, then I think that it would have been a good move for the Vikings to stay competitive, but also not be locked into this player and make a lot of cap

space by making that trade. And then if Baker plays absolutely amazing, then you go, oh, well, he just, you know, sort of Ryan Tannehill where it was an unfair break or he tried to play through the injury. But there's another part of me that says, I just wouldn't want that guy's drama because that's all it's ever been for him, whether it was in Oklahoma or at pretty much every moment of his NFL career has just been dramatic. But if he goes to Carolina and they actually have some decent receivers, like they're not a complete joke on offense and that division is not that hard outside of Tampa Bay, that could actually work for him.

And he could use the chip on the shoulder to get Carolina back into the playoffs if that's what they decide to do it was funny that there were reports that like Carolina didn't want him and he didn't want Carolina maybe Jimmy Garoppolo ends up going there now Jimmy Garoppolo is the first one that came to mind for me that's a guy who literally has an injured shoulder so that's a problem problem. Sure. Two NFC championships. One time he gets to the Super Bowl. He's a safety catching an errant Matt Stafford pass away from going to two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.

And the only person who ever gets credit is Kyle Shanahan. It's really remarkable that any time Kyle Shanahan has had any other quarterback play, he does not win like CJ Bathard or Nick Mullins. Trey Lance, I think went what maybe one and O or one and one, but clearly didn't like blow them away or he would have been their starting quarterback. And still they have not been able to trade Jimmy Garoppolo. But if Trey Lance is not good and Jimmy Garoppolo goes somewhere else and takes the team to the playoffs, it'll be like, you guys were just so critical all the time of the things that Jimmy Garoppolo could not do that.

You ignored the things that he was great at. And I do think in terms of executing Shanahan's offense, he was absolutely brilliant in doing it, except for just had some moments where you really shake your head. But I think that Jimmy Garoppolo has a great case for having a chip chip on his shoulder. You know, I also think to staying in that same division, because I guess this really is kind of a quarterback thing. Like, I don't know, is there a left guard that has a chip on the shoulder? Well, we'll get to Vikings with this, but Kyler Murray like goes 11 and 6 fades a bit down

the stretch has a very poor performance in the playoffs don't think he was that well coached in the playoffs loses DeAndre Hopkins but goes 11 and 6 and has his team right there again this is another team that was drafting number one overall just a couple years ago and then is winning 11 games which reaches that threshold of what makes you a potential Super Bowl contender. And it's just like Arizona stinks, Kyler Murray, just not good enough, all these things. I think he's got reason to try to take that team to another level to prove that he really is worth the number one overall pick and worth the huge contract that he wants. Yeah, because he's gotten his character kind of questioned, what type of leader he is the last few weeks,

and who knows what kind of camp that's coming out of, if that's the Cardinals trying to lower his price tag or lower his leverage a little bit. It's always hard to know where these things are coming out, how truthful they are, but I think he's a great one. I think even, this is to a lesser extent, but Lamar Jackson, I mean, he goes from winning an MVP to now kind of being able being considered, where are you? Are you the best quarterback in that division? Are you the third best quarterback in that division? Like he's,

he's suddenly gotten his and that whole team question a little bit just after how he played last year. But I agree with Jimmy Garoppolo. I mean, you make the Superbowl, you make the conference championship and you may just be like a vessel for which Kyle Shanahan can run his offense through. Maybe you're nothing special, but there's a lot of lesser quarterbacks that couldn't have done that. I'm not sure the Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins, if he's put in that exact same situation, if they make it to a Super Bowl, if they make it to a conference championship like that. And then even going back to the Baker Mayfield point, he was in 2020 the eighth best quarterback according to pff so he's all these guys have shown to be top 10 quarterbacks at one point or another in their career and now all of them are being doubted a little bit and that's when when any of the lesser to an extent of kyler murray but jimmy garoppolo baker mayfield when

like the falcons are taking Marcus Mariota and starting him instead of going and getting one of those guys, it's like, they're not on the same tier. Like Baker Mayfield, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jimmy Garoppolo is probably on his own, but Baker Mayfield is still above those guys. Like, like there's some disrespect. It feels like from the league in terms of just not wanting to bring one of these guys in. And I know the contract is a big, is a big, big part of that. And maybe their a big, is a big, big part of that. And maybe their off field presence is a big, big part of that.

But I think, yeah, there's a couple of quarterbacks who haven't had the best seasons lately, but they're still better than a lot of the things that teams are throwing out there. And so I think they in the right scenario, if they get a chance, they could really kind of show off and can kind of do this.

You know, the stereotypical prove the doubters wrong. We'll get some crazy I.G. posts from some of them later in the season if they go on to start. And I think that if you haven't proven that you're a star or a starter in the league yet, you don't get to say chip on your shoulder. So that kind of goes for Matt Corral, but also for people like Tua, Daniel Jones, Jalen Hurts. Like if you haven't really shown that you can take a team anywhere, then you're locked. And you're right. Yeah, right. Right. Exactly. But I think I think that's a I think that's a pretty good list of people that deserve to have chips on their shoulders.

Now, with the Vikings, if you can't say kirk cousins because come on i mean that the man has just been he's been paid he's been given you know off at new offensive coordinators all the time they basically hired a new coach just for him in kevin o'connell you can't say kirk cousins deserves to have a chip on his shoulder. But who on the Vikings could make that case? I think Garrett Bradbury could just for getting dragged by fans, by the team. They obviously didn't pick up his option, which I don't think for a center at any point, if you're just average, that you should be picking up that option just because it's a little bit more than you should probably be paying.

But I think he's got to be on the list in terms of former first round pick that just hasn't lived up to the expectations and it feels like they're either situating themselves to move on for him or next year challenge him with someone so i think he maybe less chip but just he needs to have a good year he needs to really have he should have some motivation to be able to be worth a second contract to be able to stay in a situation with the vikings where he could you know continue to be a starter like this is a good situation for him he's got two bookend tackles now it seems like he's getting more help in the guard situation so like this should be a spot he wants to try to stay but to do that he's gonna have to play well so i think there's a chip there might even be a chip with like patrick peterson just because he got so little

money in free agency uh you know it from his camp it sounds like he could have had more but he loves minnesota i don't know if i buy that i think that was probably what he was worth uh and so i would say he's another guy he didn't get much on a one-year deal. If he has any aspirations of playing more than just this year, I'm sure he has a chip on his shoulder to prove to people he's worth more than he is. Yeah. Patrick Peterson was on my list. Zedarius Smith is maybe at the top for me because the Green Bay Packers didn't make the effort to keep him. It would have been hard for them to keep him considering where their salary cap situation is, but maybe they could have worked something out. He was not paid that much to become a Minnesota Viking. His contract is one of the ultimate paper tiger sort of contracts where it looks like something that it absolutely isn't. It looks way bigger than it is. And for him to

not get the money from Baltimore, who seems like they just bailed on that. Now that might've been because of a physical, we don't know that. And nobody said that, but deals falling through at the very last second, when you've gone there for a physical, makes you wonder about,

you know, what happened there. But Zedaria Smith, I think someone who was a superstar in the league and then his team just across the border decides to let him go is at the top of my list. Maybe Daniil Hunter to some extent, but people questioning you because of serious injuries, I don't think is really like the haters that you're trying to prove wrong. That's just kind of fair, like in football when someone racks up a lot of injuries. But yeah, I think,

I think probably Zedaria Smith would be my pick. And I don't know that anybody else is really getting questioned. Like maybe, maybe Irv Smith, like after last year what happened to him and the two years before where they stuck with Kyle Rudolph and didn't make him tight end number one. So now he's going into this contract year. He's got a little extra motivation but um i think that's that's probably a pretty good list and then let's never say chip on the shoulder again because we've said it enough time yes for this okay next question uh which one of these very very early storylines of around the vikings will actually come to fruition delvin cook will catch way more passes. Justin Jefferson will put up Cooper Cup numbers.

Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter will be the best pass rushing duo in the league, or Irv Smith Jr. will be the top NFL mismatched tight end. These are the storylines that are percolating out of OTAs. Everybody's saying Irv Smith's going to take that next step. And the other day, Z'Darrius Smith said, hey, we could be one of the best duos in the league. Which one of these things actually happens? I don't know if any of them necessarily happen to the fullest extent,

but the guy out of this list I feel confident in or really think has an opportunity is Irv Smith. Tight ends really take several years to develop. If you look through the history of really good tight ends, they aren't thriving in the first year, even the second year. And it's usually that back half of that rookie contract where you really start to see kind of the gains there.

And so obviously that got taken away from Irv Smith. We didn't see what that looks like, but he has all the athletic traits to be able to do it. And yeah, in his two other years, he had around, I think like 40 catches per year, but he was still sharing the load with Kyle Rudolph. He's truly going to be the go-to tight end in this offense. They didn't really at any point address that number two spot obviously they let Tyler Conklin walk uh so I think he has just out of this list like the biggest jump to take I don't know if he ends up being the top mismatch tight end I mean he's going against Kyle Pitts Travis Kelsey TJ Hawkinson uh many other names that are escaping, George Kittle, like many, like lots of guys

there. But I think he can be a top five-ish tight end in terms of what they do with him. And we saw how much Kirk liked Powell Rudolph in the red zone. I think Irv could be a strong red zone candidate as well. So that's where I went. Yeah, I think that that's right. That Irv Smith, I mean, even if he plays exactly the same as Tyler Conklin did last year, you would say, okay, well, Irv emerged as a very good tight end in the NFL.

I think that setting the bar of him being George Kittle or Travis Kelsey is a little bit too high and saying that he should be one of the three or five best tight ends in the NFL. You're really looking for him to just create some mismatches, just make some big plays. But I also think that if that was really there, then they probably would have moved on from Kyle Rudolph after like one year and not kept bringing back Kyle Rudolph with Irv Smith. He was sort of the pseudo third wide receiver in, what, 2019 and 2020. And when he did get a chance to be the number one tight end in late 2020, he played well. It just seems unfair to say automatically,

oh, he's back, he should be this. But I do think that he has a unique skill set, and I think he's a decent enough blocker to hold his own, to be able to play all three downs. And also, if we're judging what they do and not just what they say, like this one, they didn't bring in anybody else. Like they didn't draft anybody really until the seventh round. They didn't bring any free agents.

They did not fill out the tight end room with other guys who can catch the ball. So they are really leaning heavily on Irv Smith. The Justin Jefferson Cooper Cup thing to me is a little bit like, don't change too much about Justin Jefferson. He's off to one of the best starts of any wide receiver in NFL history. Like, yes, I do think there are games where it could be more consistent and there's an area specifically where I'm really intrigued by the difference between Cooper cup and just a Jefferson in terms of average depth of target. So how far your quarterback through the ball to get it to the receiver is enormous. 13.3 for Justin Jefferson and 8.6

for Cooper cup. That's like top of the league for average depth of target versus like mid bottom for Cooper Cup. That Cooper Cup is a short pass wide receiver who lines up in the slot 65% of the time. Like Justin Jefferson was only a couple hundred yards short of Cooper Cup last year. I think if you're trying too hard to make him into that receiver, you're also leaving out that just the Jefferson is a big play monster and goes down the field and can beat people one-on-one. And also that, you know, Kirk Cousins, one of his biggest strengths is throwing the ball accurately deep down the field. So I don't think that you want

to mess around with that one too much. The Delvin cook thing. Uh, I don't know if I mentioned this out louder yet. Uh, uh, but somebody said, this is the will Anthony bar become a pure pass rusher question. Will Delvin cook become a receiver? I, I don't know. I think they could do better in the screen game. Yeah. Um, Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter could be the best pass rush duo in the NFL if both stay healthy and play at their peak of their powers. So we don't know what Z'Darrius Smith is going to look like after not playing for a whole year last year. I would say that that one is possible, that both of them have the talent that if they play the way that they each did in 2019, that they could be right up there both in the top 15 or 20 at their position in quarterback pressures. I think that one is in the realm of possibility more so

than them vastly changing what Jefferson does or vastly changing what Delvin Cook does. Yeah. On the Delvin Cook one, I went back and just looked at how many targets the Rams running backs had all of last year. They had 76 combined among the three guys. Dalvin Cook had 49 by himself. So maybe you say more of that distribution goes to Dalvin Cook, but I also think like Alexander Madison could catch balls. Kenny Wong could catch balls. So, I mean, 50 targets for Dalvin Cook isn't like top of the league, but it's not atrocious either. So even if that goes up to like 60 targets, uh, I think that's a little bit of an improvement. Um, but not so crazy that he's

suddenly top five in the league and catching balls, I think. And especially as he continues to get older and older, like you should be using him a little bit less and less trying to make him more effective in the touches you do get. So I don't, I don't know if you should be stressing volume with him as much as you're stressing, trying to get him in the right situations at the right time to make big plays. Because if you, I know we're going to get to a running back question later,

but he's still PFF did that perfectly blocked run play analysis. He was like top three in yards per attempt when perfectly blocked so he still has the capabilities to be that home run hitter and if you're stressing using him more and more that's just gonna uh lessen his you know effectiveness and his efficiency so i think even if he you know he might see a marginal increase but i don't think he's gonna see a ton and then on the justin jefferson point i meanupps stats were absurd last year, 145 catches, nearly 2000 yards, 191 targets, 16 touchdowns. That's an absurd workload. And Justin Jefferson could certainly do that. But even if Kevin O'Connell's offense puts him in the, like a bill gives him the ability to do that.

I'm not sure he has a quarterback that's necessarily gonna force feed him like that I think we've seen Kirk Cousins is the type of guy he's gonna follow his progressions till the bitter end he'll throw that CJ Hamm wheel he'll throw the Treadwell deep ball he'll throw the like Alexander Hollins pass that doesn't need to be thrown to him like these are the things Kirk Cousins does. Matt, Matthew Stafford's much more like, oh, there's Cooper cup. I'm going to chuck it and see if he can catch it. Like that is much more in the DNA of Matt Stafford. That is not in the DNA of Kirk Cousins.

So I don't know if you're ever going to see such a weighted distribution to one guy with Kirk Cousins as your quarterback, because he's going to follow the offense. If Justin Jefferson's covered one-on-one, he's going to look to see if someone else is open before he goes back to Justin Jefferson. So I just don't know if you're ever going to see that dominant amount of workload for a Kirk Cousins wide receiver. I mean, still, Justin Jefferson had like 145 targets. So we're not talking about a massive, massive drop-off, but I don't know if you're ever

going to get that at like extreme, extreme workload, just because of the characteristics that Kirk Cousins has as a quarterback. Well, in the previous regime offensively, and I think rightfully so went for explosive plays. Like that's what Mike Zimmer wanted. That's what Gary Kubiak's longtime thing was, was create easy, short completions and then look for a big bomb. And Justin Jefferson was so effective in doing that, that maybe you do see his average depth of target go down. Maybe you do see his total targets change. But it would be surprising to me if his yardage total topped 1600 yards. If it does, well, then they've really done something right. But I also think you're playing with fire a little bit if you're saying, all right,

let's really switch around the role of someone who has challenged Randy Moss records in his first two seasons. I don't know that that's a really, that's like the galaxy brain thing that we talk about. All right, next question for you does pertain to Delvin Cook. Bill Barnwell, VSPN, wrote about how Christian McCaffrey, Zeke Elliott, Derrick Henry, and Elvin Kamara, and wrote about whether they're still great running backs or if they're washed. And which of these guys do you think are washed of those four? And will Delvin Cook be in next year's Barnwell column about washed running backs. Yeah, I think the name that sticks out to me in that list is

Zeke Elliott. Just if I go back to that perfectly blocked run play analysis, if I remember correctly, Zeke was very low on that list. He wasn't even the highest Cowboys running back. So Tony Pollard was converting on those. And then in the non-perfectly blocked run plays, he was right there, like pretty average in terms of pretty much every running back. The best they can do is like four yards. Zeke was at like just over three yards. So not, he's not at hitting the home runs when they're presented to him. And I think that shows his speed is probably dropped off. His vision is probably dropped off. He can still bowl through there and get a few yards when he needs to, but that top end speed that made him so enticing, the top end catching ability and the acceleration and just what made him really great, I don't know is necessarily

there. Christian McCaffrey might be washed just because of the injuries. I mean, that's just kind of what happens to these running backs is whether or not the talent falls off is one thing, whether or not their body falls off is just kind of a eventuality for most of these running backs. So Zeke feels like the one where his body necessarily hasn't completely broken, but he seems to be regressing. So that would be the one I go to in terms of washed. But McCaffrey has to prove he can play more than like I think it was like 25 percent of snaps the last two years or something like that. He just hasn't been on the field. So Zeke was the one I went to right away.

I think Derek Henry still in his older years could still be effective just because how big he is he might not be as effective but I think he could still ram through some people and Alvin Kamara that one felt more like his situation was letting him down um than who he was and maybe his previous situation was almost overrating what he can do because of Drew Brees. And so I don't know if necessarily he's washed. He might just be kind of moving into a new, into a different phase of how he's used and how effective he'll be. But I don't know if that necessarily fits the term washed. And then for Dalvin, I think he's so reliant on his speed. So if any of that goes away, he suddenly goes into this category, I think. And so if he's in reliant on his speed so if any of that goes away he suddenly goes into this category i

think and so if he's in next year's column i feel like it's more because he got injured than his talent fell off like i think for him it's going to be if the injury bug bites him too many times that's at least my perspective and it certainly could because i mean the last couple years anytime he falls down weirdly i I'm always holding my breath. And I think the fans are too. When you're in the stadium, you can kind of feel it. Like if he takes a second to get up, it's like, oh, no, he's just that type of player.

And so I think that's when he might regress to that wash category. What do you think? Well, I think answering the last question first, that this is something Kevinvin o'connell has to be very aware of is just how much mike zimmer rode delvin cook it's sort of funny that we make a lot of the zimmer criticism about kirk cousins kirk cousins set career highs with mike zimmer um and and let's not say he did everything right. Of course he didn't. But if there's somebody who has a beef, it should be Delvin cook. Like, man, will you give me a rest?

We have other players on this football team. They were, they had Mike Boone who was really fast and average, like five yards to carry when he got in the game. Nah, sorry, Mike Boone. And the same thing with Kenny Wong will last year where when cook was healthy, they refused to put Kenny Wong on the field, maybe three snaps a game. And I think Kevin O'Connell would be very wise to look at Kenny Wong and say,

this is special, special speed for somebody who is in their youth where that's that four, three only lasts for so long. Also like, let's get this guy, the football, let's use them in a lot of different ways and, and get Delvin cook 17 carries a game instead of 25 and start to mix it up. Um,

I would be a little less high on the idea of using Madison a ton, but Wong will, I think is really a special talent in terms of his speed that you have to find ways to use to avoid Delvin cook, ending up on that wash list. Just try to take some of the workload down. And if you look first halves versus second halves of seasons for Delvin Cook every single year, it's a drop off in the second half of the year because they are grinding him into the ground. And then he inevitably will have some injury he's trying to play through toward the end of the year. As far as the list goes, I think Derrick Henry actually probably is washed. Now he only, he averaged 4.3 yards to carry last

year, but this is somebody that, I mean, you talk about writing Delvin Cook, like Derrick Henry. I mean, they Sean Alexander, this guy for early two thousands football fans. You remember how great Sean Alexander was for just a short period of time and then uh basically disappeared larry johnson was the same way he's one of the better running backs in the league then all of a sudden was just out uh he may be big and that certainly helps but time kind of comes for everybody and i think that you only get so many carries as an nfl running back and they used all of them with Derrick Henry in the first couple of years McCaffrey you can't trust him at all I agree with Kamara that using him in the

receiving game like that's not something that's going to fade and that they actually managed him pretty well but last year he was just their whole offense that was the only thing they could do they actually got some wide receivers this year but Zeke Elliott is the washediest of the washed when your backup running back Tony Pollard is vastly better than you are uh then I think it's time to call that one with Zeke and that's one of the now we talk about Kirk all the time and his cap hit and look there's only two quarterbacks in the league who have higher cap hits than Kirk Cousins so just keep that in in mind. That's that is a justified criticism, but Delvin cook. I mean, paying a running back, it has not worked for a lot of people. It did not work for Christian McCaffrey. It has not worked for Zeke Elliott, even getting a decent season out of cook last year. But now this year to justify

his cap hit, the guy's got to basically play at an MVP level to justify what you're paying. Delvin Cook. And the fact that you have other running backs who are good, that becomes very questionable in the fact that they did that. And it also tells you like of the running backs that have gotten a big contract, Dalvin Cook has ended up better than most of them. And it's still kind of a iffy and probably a shouldn't have done that proposition. So it just tells you, even when you get success, like you have gotten from Dalvin Cook in the last few years, and he's been more successful than ZK since he got his contract and Christian McCaffrey, since he got his contract, it's still kind of a coin flip at best of whether

you should have done that. And so that just tells you how good you have to be to perform for that running back contract. Okay. Next question. I was thinking the other day during a fans only pod, somebody asked about the close losses and how strange last season was with the vaccination stuff with Kirk Cousins early in the year and some of the other players, Everson Griffin's off field issue, Delvin Cook and the accusations against him. Like a lot of things happened.

And then just all of those games that came down to the very last play. What are the top three weirdest seasons since I moved here, which is 2016? So essentially the most of the Mike Zimmer era, how would you rank the weirdest seasons and where would you put 2021 of the last, what is that? Is that six, six or seven? I actually want you to do this one first, just because you've been so enthralled day to day. I want to hear your expertise before I lay out my list. Just because you're have very much followed more of the daily grind and have a little bit more background on maybe some of the nuttiness that has happened. So I want to hear your rankings first. Well, 2016 is far and away number one. I mean,

it's not even close to me that actually rivaled 2010 for the craziest recent Viking season. And that's not just coming from me. That's coming from like Brian Robison, who's here said it's not quite a roof collapsing, but it's starting to approach that with all the crazy things that happened, starting with Teddy Bridgewater's leg imploding, Norv Turner quitting, Mike Zimmer missing a game because of an eyeball, a protester hanging from the roof. The plane went off the runway in Green Bay and the team was literally stuck on the runway in Green Bay in 2016. So I would put that one far and away. Number one, I debated over the next one because like, do I include 2017 is a weird season because Aaron Rogers got her, a backup quarterback took them to the NFC championship and then lost to another backup quarterback. That's pretty crazy on its face. But I actually went 2018 for the craziest season just because of

like having to fire an offensive coordinator. They brought in Kirk Cousins with so many high expectations. And then you have the Everson Griffin thing, the Buffalo game where you lose to a team that had been beaten by 40 points, like two weeks in a row coming into your house. So many crazy games that year, the game in Los Angeles where they gave up a perfect passer rating to Jared Goff. That was very dramatic throughout that season. And then I'm, I would put 2021 next,

but I debated even putting it in 2021 is the second craziest season that I've covered. So, you know, 2020 actually wasn't that weird, even though it had all the COVID stuff. That was weird for everybody. So I sort of factored that in.

But that was kind of they started off bad and they just were bad. Like that was it. That was the whole season. They just were never all that good. So I guess how would you how would you put that? Yeah, I think 2016 has to be right there. I think I give more credence to 2017. And just, I think when you look back 10 years from now and you go, wait,

who took the Vikings to an NFC championship game? I think just every year after, that's just going to continue to get weirder and weirder and weirder. So maybe not the week in, week out, just like daily musings that were weird and funny and just like different i think that one is just like i remember watching more as a fan there and just being like how are we doing this every week like what is happening like case keenum's continuing to play well like they're continuing to winning winning games and then obviously if the mirror yeah i mean you have all

that so like all that was just nutty and like like, I just think 20 years from now, you're going to say, wait, Nick Foles and Case Keenum met in an NFC championship game. Like we go throughout history. And I remember after that year, it was, oh, do you actually not need a good quarterback to make the conference championship game or the Superbowl? No, you do. You very much do. Like the wackiest it's got since then was like

Stafford versus Garoppolo. Basically, we just got every other time. It's just put up Hall of Fame quarterbacks against each other in those, you know, the final two game, those final three games of the season in the conference championship in the Super Bowl. So I think just when we look back, that one's just going to be so nutty and how it happened and every all the like dominoes that it took to get to that point. Yeah, 2017, I think, deserves an extra shout out. But just in terms of wackiness and weird things happening, I think your list is pretty comprehensive. I thought 2021 was very wild in how it went down. I think they had had just a little bit more success,

I think it would have added to it because now they don't make the playoffs. It's slightly forgetful. But yeah, I would shout out 2017 and maybe throw it somewhere in the top three there, but I think your list is pretty good. I think I put 2018 over 2017 because they just melted down. And they melted down so much because Mike Zimmer could not stand the fact that John DeFilippo wanted to throw the ball all the time and and so

they beat the New York Jets that year in this hideous ugly awful game where Sam Darnold can't play football and they pound the heck out of the Jets it's something like 37 to 16 is the final score and mike zimmer is infuriated that they didn't run the ball enough and it just starts to create this friction between those two that culminates in one of the biggest offensive no-shows i've ever seen in my life and remember i grew up watching the bills uh first who missed the playoffs for 20 years but that that offensive performance in seattle was an abomination and then they fired john d filippo but it all sort of starts that trickle down um at that point and also kirk cousins sort of hadn't gotten savvy to what he could and couldn't say in front of the

media yet so there were a lot of people being really alienated by kirk cousins comments about how things weren't his fault and stuff like that and then i mean i think that the ending you're playing the Chicago bears, they're benching starters. They don't care if they win or lose halfway through that game because they're already locked into their playoff spot and you just can't get over the top. And then Cousins comes out at the end and says, Oh, it's not a big deal. We got next year. Like what? Uh, so yeah, that one, that one I think was very tense. Like the tension is probably what made it, but weirdness case Keenum alone, case Keenum nearly got cut in training camp for Tara, for, for Taylor Heineke, like Taylor Heineke and case Keenum going that first game.

I remember Zimmer saying like, yeah, it's gets neck and neck for the backup quarterback position. And Keenum ends up leading him to 13 and three. So maybe that does. And he's just never been good before or since. Right. It was just the one year. It just happened to be that year.

Everything went his way that year. But also kind of weird how everybody who's ever had these great wide receivers just keeps putting up good numbers for the Vikings. It's almost like maybe it shouldn't cost $35 million to get a quarterback who could throw to the best receivers in the league. I don't know. It's just been a theory out there. Okay, so I wrote two other questions, but let's say we only have time for one.

So you pick second to last one or last one. Which one do you like? I want the last one. I think we added the last one. Okay. Okay. last one okay okay uh former jaguars kicker josh lambeau is suing the jacksonville jaguars for a hostile workplace because he got kicked by urban meyer i mean first of all yeah i mean go ahead right like you shouldn't be kicked at work i mean i know it's football there are limits to that if

a coach maybe like puts some hands on you and shakes your pads or something or yells in your face like oh yeah football i think you're crossing lines when you get kicked by somebody you deserve uh some uh compensation for that but uh either way if you were to sue someone in the nfl for something it doesn't have to make sense, but you are suing them because you want to be compensated for what they have done wrong. Who would you sue? Yeah, I actually found a good legal term that I could also use for this. I'm suing just the past like 10 years of Chargers teams for false pretense. Just every year, man, every year we get excited i know you're very much on the bandwagon this of all the years this feels like the one to jump on but especially if they don't do anything this

year i mean the the legal definition is false representations concerning past or present facts that are made with the intent to defraud i I just feel like the Chargers are defrauding us every single year with their roster. Oh, they're built so well. Look at what they can do. They now have Justin Herbert. They have an analytics head coach. This is going to be their year. Khalil Mack, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, just we're going to do great. And then they have some absolutely horrendous kicker that kicks them out of three games. And they miss the playoffs by one game. Or they go 13-3 in a Philip Rivers year and then immediately lose after getting the bye or whatever. It's just, it's so Chargers.

And every year we get super jacked up. I'm jacked up for them this year. I feel like they could be really good. We get another Justin Herbert is the next coming of jesus like season like that could happen but it also might not and if we don't get it this year like we have to have some serious serious conversations about suing the chargers for getting fans hopes up and just dropping them and i think they get a pass slightly because they don't have any fans right now so no one like no one is on twitter like getting super mad at them because they're

just a los angeles team that like not a ton of people care about now that they're out of san diego we need to have some serious conversations about the chargers especially if this year doesn't go well so i would sue them for false pretense i like it so many times they were supposed to be the team and they could never quite get over the top. I am going to sue the Washington Commanders on multiple counts for defamation. They have defamed football. They have defamed the good name of Joe Gibbs, who once made that franchise exceptional and tremendous and won a Super Bowl for the first time with a black quarterback.

The Commanders were much better as Washington football team. So they have defamed even the cool name of Washington football team, which I ended up really liking. They have defamed good players throughout the years. Ron Rivera, even working for Daniel Snyder, should sue for defamation. It is such an abomination of a franchise.

And finally, there's buzz that the other owners could kick out Daniel Snyder. No surprise that it comes only after it turned out that Daniel Snyder was stealing money from them, which, wow, of all the things you need to do as an NFL owner, like you don't have enough money. That's the problem. You need to take more. What? Like that, that just,

that just shows you that you're like, you're a dirt bag. Like that's, that's it. That's end of story. So if they boot out Daniel Snyder, that would be good. But if they don't,

I will sue for defaming the good name of the NFL. And there's probably some actual defamation to be had in that organization too that we don't know about so yeah well there's lots yeah there's lots of other things cheerleader related things that he could be also sued for and probably has been um but you know they they finally got away from their bad name that they had and they get football team and then they go to something super cornball can you do anything right anything Washington football team which they will be until they earn their commander's name until they're in command of the NFC East I will call them Washington football team yeah and because this is a Vikings podcast I would also say

I would sue the right my younger self would sue the Vikings for emotional distress. Just throughout the years, even the older fans, just, you know, obviously many, many collapses, emotional distress.

If I can't do the whole team, I'll just do the special teams unit too, if I can. So I think there's, there's something there too. There's probably false imprisonment that you could sue the Vikings for for a lot of fans. And do I make the Kirk joke of, like, taking the mutton? Okay, no, no, no, I won't do it.

I won't do it. He's played okay at times. No laundering. There's no racketeering happening. Racketeer. Kirk Cousins racketeer. Well, I mean, maybe there could be something against his agent for, like like whatever nefarious thing that he has done to force this franchise to continue to pay him these contracts. Maybe there's something there.

Good stuff, Paul. This is a lot of fun. And we'll be we'll be doing this more questions ripped from the headlines as the Law and Order shows say. So we'll continue and we'll have more fans only. We'll have another ota practice brett coleman uh famed youtuber is on the show playing talk me into later uh on monday so good stuff paul thanks for your time