Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Who's the best comparison for Sam Darnold?

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about who the best comparison for Sam Darnold might be if it works out and if it doesn't work out  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collard here live on YouTube and welcome everybody. It's officially summertime where we do fun, sometimes goofy stuff, but a lot of times it's looking back in history and taking some time to breathe from the news cycle. So as of right now, no news. Maybe by the time I finish a podcast, but I don't think that actually applies in the middle of the summer. So we can all turn off the notifications from Adam Schefter on our phones and hope that the police blotter doesn't show up with anything regarding the Minnesota Vikings. But I enjoy this time of year because I'm not breaking down matchups. I'm not breaking down draft prospects. And usually everybody's

pretty chill. So we're going to have a chill conversation about Sam Darnold. Here's what I've done. I have spent the last 20 minutes in deep preparation for this show, going through every quarterback I could find that started off their career as a quarterback, pretty tough, and then found it somewhere else. That's what I'm doing and trying to look for any comparisons I can to Sam Darnold. And here's what inspired me to do this. One, why not? Two is that I've done several podcasts recently with fantasy know fantasy football people want to bring me on a New York Giants podcast that wanted to bring me on doing the same thing I'm doing like let's just talk about random stuff so they have me on their show and every single time the person

who is talking to me about the Vikings their question, so is Sam Darnold really going to do this? Is he going to pull like a classic Vikings thing here and step in and play really well with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and so forth? Is he really going to turn around? And almost every one of these people, maybe they're being polite, I don't know, says, you know, I think I could see it.

And so I've been asking people myself, you know, that I know around the NFL or whatever i've been asking people myself uh you know that i know around the nfl or whatever like what do people think of sam darnold and almost everyone that i've spoken with and some jets fans even uh that i know everyone thinks yeah i could see it it's not crazy it's not the wildest thing it seems more likely than even what happened with geno smith that sam darnold could have a turnaround now this could end up blowing up in all of our faces by about week three if things don't go well for Sam Darnold but considering that he is QB one at the moment and that will start

training camp presumably with him as the starting quarterback going through for week one as JJ McCarthy develops behind him. Well, there is always that chance that with this offense, he could put up pretty good numbers and he could make this team competitive. And if you don't think that it's possible, I'd like to present you with Case Keenum's numbers before he came to Minnesota. I certainly never would have expected that he would have put up the season that he had. I understand that was the number one defense in the NFL, but even Case Keenum played very well that season under the right circumstances. The Vikings have had pretty much everybody do that outside of Josh Dobbs after those two weeks, didn't play so well after that. And then of course,

you know, Nick Mullins lost those games, but actually didn't play that bad. He just had a few unfortunate interceptions and a tush push that didn't work. But if he had, he had a QB sneak that works, they went in, in Cincinnati. If he doesn't throw the ball directly to the guy for Detroit, then they win that game because Justin Jefferson was wide open. Like, I don't think it's the craziest thing of all time. And the reason for saying that is that there are a lot of examples through the years. So I made a list and here's what I want to do. I'm going to go through the list of all the examples I came up with. And then I want you guys to tell me which ones you

think actually are maybe reflective of what Sam Darnold could be for the Minnesota Vikings. And then we'll talk quarterbacks for a little while. We can talk about anything else after that. It is a pretty much wide open night for me here. A rainy day, not a whole lot to do. So I've got time to talk Minnesota Vikings football with you guys. So here's the list. It's quite a few guys. We'll start off with Carson Palmer in Arizona. Now I know Carson Palmer showed flashes and had a season or two there as a young quarterback in Cincinnati that was reflective of someone who could be a franchise quarterback. So Sam Darnold didn't really do that to the same level as Carson Palmer, but it was an utter failure in Cincinnati for

Carson Palmer. He ends up going to the Raiders. Not so good. Ends up in Arizona lands with an elite receiver that many people called the best receiver in the league at the time. And Larry Fitzgerald, and then goes to the NFC championship with the Arizona Cardinals. So there's one Carson Palmer, another guy with freakish arm talent who had a tendency to turn the ball over too much. That one's not too crazy. Here's one I absolutely love. And these are totally random. These are in no sort of order. So don't expect one. Uh, Jake Plummer in Denver, there was no evidence whatsoever that Jake Plummer could be a good

starting quarterback. Also, I just found out today from a friend that Jake Plummer could be a good starting quarterback. Also, I just found out today from a friend that Jake Plummer does not have the word Jake anywhere in his name. His name is like Jason Steven Plummer. I'd love to know how it ended up Jake. Maybe someone can find that out. Jake the Snake. He goes to Denver, wins 13 games and kind of a run first offense. Stopped getting sacked so much, had some good wide receivers, but especially good coaching from our friend Gary Kubiak. Mike Shanahan turned it around there in Denver after having a putrid start to his career with a totally incompetent Cardinals franchise. Now I threw this one out there just to upset people.

Chris Chandler in Atlanta. I'm just saying that Chris Chandler had bounced around. He went to Tampa Bay. He was in, I think, Arizona too. There were a few different teams that he had played for, was never much of a winning quarterback, and then had that one big year. It was just kind of one crazy pop-up insane season,

but it is true that he had started out his career without almost any success whatsoever, found the right team, and then you guys know what happened in that season. I will move off that quickly so you all don't run away from the show and bring up a Vikings example. Jeff George, here is a guy who was a top pick

from the Indianapolis Colts who was as bad as anyone has ever been as a first pick. And if you go back and look at those teams, who exactly, and this is a long time ago, but who exactly was Jeff George supposed to throw to? He got sacked 60 times in a season. They were so bad. He goes to Atlanta, revitalizes his career to some extent. But then in Minnesota with Randy Moss, Chris Carter, he was fantastic and won a playoff game. And then I know got behind against the Rams in that second round game, but still put up big numbers in that game against St. Louis. So Jeff George, a huge armed guy who had too many sacks, too many turnovers, and then he shows up in Minnesota and does his

thing. I also think Sam Darnold has a better personal reputation than maybe Jeff George did at the time. Another throw way back. Trust me, I'll get to more recent examples soon. So if you're under the age of 35, be patient and learn something. Vinny Testaverde threw, I think, like 40 interceptions for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers one year. As a young player, he was a top overall draft pick. Enormous arm. He bounces around. Had a little bit of a run with Cleveland where he showed some signs.

Maybe you could call that the Carolina Panthers for Sam Darnold. Goes to New York. Wins 12 games. Unfortunately, tears his Achilles. And that was kind of it after that for Vinny Testaverde. for Sam Darnold, goes to New York, wins 12 games, unfortunately tears his Achilles, and that was kind of it after that for Vinny Testaverde, but he had that revitalization where he showed he could actually do it. Kerry Collins in New York.

I know he showed more flashes in Carolina than Sam Darnold did in New York or Carolina, but came back to the New York Giants. Great team, good coaching, good running game, good defense. They had a lot to work with there. And there was a 41 donut that got mixed in for Kerry Collins, took that team to the Super Bowl. Here is applicable, maybe not a high draft pick. So not all these guys are high draft picks, but a lot of them started in one place, didn't work out and then had success elsewhere. Trent Green, one of those guys, started in Washington, went to St. Louis, ended up the

whole thing with Kurt Warner. He shows up in Kansas City with a tremendous supporting cast, great offense. Trent Green has a 13-win season in Kansas City. I included Steve Berline in Carolina because Steve Berline was a lot of fun. He never really took that team anywhere, but he was a mid round draft pick. I believe Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Cardinals struggled, had maybe a decent season, went to Carolina, played much, much better with that team. And was that before Jake Delone ended up taking them places? I think it was. So I just threw it out there just to show that we give love to all journeyman quarterbacks, maybe not applicable

to Sam Darnold. The next guy is though, Gino Smith. Nobody was worse in New York. I would say that Sam Darnold was better in New York than Gino Smith. He goes, sits on the bench for the New York Giants for a while, is the backup in Seattle, finally gets his opportunity and plays extremely well for the Seattle Seahawks over the last two years. Not a Super Bowl champion caliber, but good. Very good quarterbacking for the last two years. Obvious one, Baker Mayfield. It's being thrown around all the time. Baker Mayfield did not have as much, or I'm sorry, Sam Darnold did not have as much success as Baker Mayfield early in their careers. So Mayfield had a pretty good first season, pretty good when Kevin Stefanski showed up, played a great playoff game

against Kansas City that he deserved to win, and then goes to Carolina, kind of last-minute acquisition before training camp. He's behind from the start. Matt rules a disaster. Starts one and six. Ends up as a backup for the Rams. Has this game where he gets thrown out there without really knowing the playbook. Wins in Josh Dobbs-like style.

Kind of saved his career. Goes to Tampa Bay. Wins that job. Last year, wins a playoff game. That one, I still think that Darnold is farther away because we know that Mayfield could win a playoff game and Darnold hasn't really come close to sniffing one. Still another player who had bounced around, kind of been left for dead,

and then ends up revitalizing it. How about Sam Bradford in Minnesota? St. Louis Rams top top overall draft pick offensive player of the year in his first season, but it never really clicked the way they thought it was going to where it's different as he had the injuries. Sam Darnold has not had any injuries that hasn't been the cause, but still, even when he was playing, it wasn't very good. Goes to Philadelphia, show some signs is, ends up with the Vikings in 2016. If they could have run the ball or blocked at all, they probably win 12 games in 2016. And then

2017, if Sam Bradford is their quarterback, I mean, who knows what that could have been for 2017 based on what we saw in the first game against New Orleans in 2017 with Bradford but a guy who had never really clicked for and never really showed that top end talent that got him drafted number one and then suddenly comes to Minnesota with the receiver starts gunning it around putting up huge numbers and did he set the Vikings I think he set the completion percentage record a lot of checkdowns there, but the Vikings, maybe quarterback rating record. He was good in 16. Just needed someone to play left or right tackle.

Okay. Now this one I think is pretty comparable. Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee. Very tough goal of it. Adam Gase connection there. Very tough goal of it in Miami. He also there. Very tough goal of it in Miami. He also had an injury there, but it was never really that great. Showed flashes from time to time.

One year, I believe he got him into the playoffs, but his numbers weren't particularly good. And he was thought of to be pretty mediocre and actually was not brought to Tennessee as the starter. He competed with Marcus Mariota. They bench Mariota, put in Ryan Tannehill, and he ends up taking them to the playoffs. Played really, really well there for several seasons in an effective play action run first offense. That won't be what this is, most likely. Still, nonetheless, a guy who was a high draft pick that did not work out in Miami and ended up turning out to be good.

His numbers efficiency wise were very good. Didn't really throw a ton of passes, but was effective. And they also had AJ Brown when he was there, a top wide receiver. How about Rich Gannon? You had to know Rich would show up here in Minnesota, ups and downs as the Vikings quarterback many years later ends up with the Raiders takes them to the Super Bowl you know about that one Steve Young probably shouldn't get brought up here because yeah Tampa Bay Tampa Bay was a complete mess San Francisco's

the greatest supporting cast possibly of all time so there there is that. But Steve Young, still a guy who started off really bad with his career and turned it around. Drew Brees, another one. It wasn't super bad in San Diego, but it was really good in New Orleans. I don't see much comparison to them as players, but Brees did struggle at times with the San Diego Chargers and then ends up turning it around. So there is the list. I considered throwing Trent Dilfer in Baltimore there, but that just felt wrong. But it's kind of true though, right?

Like Trent, why not? Trent Dilfer in Baltimore. Trent Dilfer was a top draft pick of Tampa Bay, could never really get them anywhere. And then goes to the Baltimore Ravens is the ultimate game manager. I don't expect that to be Sam Darnold, but they had a great supporting cast, even some good receiving weapons for him, got the job done with possibly the greatest defense outside of the 85 bears to ever step on a field. So, uh, there you go. There's your list. Now, what I want from you guys is tell me which one of these players that I named that would actually make sense for a comparison for Sam Darnold.

I named a ton of players. If you're just joining, I'll run through the list really quick, and then you can tell me who you think may remind you of Sam Darnold. Carson Palmer, Jake Plummer, Chris Chandler, a bit of a stretch, but I was trolling Jeff George, Vinny Testaverde, Carrie Collins, Trent green, Steve beer line, just for the vibes, Gino Smith, Baker Mayfield, Sam Bradford, Drew Brees, Ryan Tannehill, Steve Young, Rich Gannon, and Trent Dilfer.

I'll tell you my favorites that I think are the most like him. And that is probably Jake Plummer with the Denver Broncos, Jeff George, because I could see it being a lot of fun, but maybe not necessarily good enough. And Gino Smith, because Gino Smith was just so bad. There was no evidence really at all that Gino Smith because Gino Smith was just so bad there was no evidence really at all that Gino Smith could play and he was so bad he was a punch line completely for the New York Jets and then he is a backup which is the same thing that happened to Sam Darnold and when you look at the Seattle Seahawks what do they they have? A very positive minded head coach, Pete Carroll, kind of reminds you of Kevin O'Connell in some ways, only O'Connell's way younger than Pete Carroll, but the same sort of good culture,

upbeat, supportive of the players type of deal. And also really good wide receivers, DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, couldn't ask for much better there for Geno Smith to step in. And that is a tendency of all of our overachieving quarterbacks, is that they almost always have the great supporting cast around them. And of course, if you guys think of any other examples, then feel free to throw them out there. Daniel says Trent Dilfer, the most carried quarterback ever. That is probably true, that he's certainly out there. Daniel says Trent Dilfer, the most carried quarterback ever. That is probably

true that he's certainly up there. At least the fact that his defense carried him. I'm sure there are other examples of quarterbacks. How about Washington, Mark Rippon, where the supporting cast, and this is going back to the 1991 season, so bear with me, everybody. But the supporting cast around Mark Rippon could make a pretty strong case that Brock Purdy was that guy last year. I mean, has there been anyone more carried and Purdy was good. And you guys know I give Purdy his credit because you don't have to apologize or give back the, you know, the Superbowl appearance because your quarterback was helped. But when we look at that team, insanely stacked, insanely stacked for Brock Purdy last year, and even Jimmy Garoppolo, the same kind of thing.

Both of those guys being able to go to the Super Bowl and both of them having a chance to win it with a lot of the same cast of characters around them. So, you know, I mean, just carried by a defense Trent Dilfer, that's for sure, but carried by a complete supporting cast, the San Francisco quarterbacks recently have a case on that one. Matt says Gino Smith is the most recent Gino Smith, I think is most recent and very applicable when it comes to just the path in general, going to be a backup quarterback and kind of have to take your medicine a little bit there and be egoless in a way. And that's Sam Darnold last

year. He was not given that job. He had to go out to San Francisco and compete for that job and beat out a guy that the organization drafted with the top draft pick number three overall for a Trey Lance. I mean, so they traded three firsts or two at a pick swap. Thank gosh that we're away from that conversation these days, but however you view it, trade all those draft picks up for a Trey Lance. And then you got to go out into that situation and try to beat him out for the spot and sam darnold was willing to do that and then sat on the sidelines ready if he needed to go in from all accounts learned a lot from having actual good coaching from kyle shanahan brian greasy's their offensive uh quarterback coach i think out there former nfl quarterback, Brian Greasy, a really good situation for Sam Darnold, similar to how Gino Smith was able to sit in Seattle and learn behind Russell Wilson or develop behind

Russell Wilson and then finally got his chance to get in. There are some similarities there. I agree with Eric. I think my favorite pick is Jake Plummer, in part because of the wild nature that the guy played with and the arm talent and the risk-taking. I think Jake Plummer, in his first year in Denver, led the NFL in interceptions, so he was willing to take a lot of risks. He took a lot of sacks in Arizona. They had a poor offensive line.

They didn't have too much for weapons. Maybe Rob Moore was there, Frank Sanders,. They didn't have too much for weapons. Maybe Rob Moore was there, Frank Sanders, but they didn't have too much for weapons. Again, if you're 35 to 45 years old, this is a real show for you. But Jake Plummer goes to Denver and they end up shaping his game around the play action offense, simplified things a little bit for him, I think, and made it much easier than when he was in Arizona. And the pressure was just off. It wasn't the same type of pressure as being that top draft pick and even in Carolina. And I wonder how this psychologically, maybe I'll have to ask somebody for an article or something

psychologically impacts Sam Darnold that when he was traded for in Carolina, they gave up a lot. And so he was supposed to save their bacon and he was supposed to be the franchise guy in New York. Then he was supposed to go in Carolina where he was following Cam Newton. So the, you know, things had kind of gone sour there and they had had some bad quarterback play. They were looking to him, save us. Whereas now, this is a no-pressure situation in some ways where it's like he knows he's not going to be the franchise quarterback here. More likely than not, just go play. Almost like somebody brought this up once about Alex Smith, that in the year that the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes,

Alex Smith led the league in quarterback rating and just went off that year and threw the ball down the field more because he knew he wasn't sticking around. So, hey, pressure's off. Let's go. There is some pressure, though, I would say on Darnold because if it doesn't work out here, you know what every team in the league is going to say, which is, look, you couldn't make it work with Justin Jefferson.

You ain't making it work with anybody else. Daniel says, I'd say Jeff George, most comparable career wise. The arm talent is part of it. Jeff George probably had the strongest arm. I mean, maybe of all time or way up there for pure arm strength, but same sort of deal where the player was drafted based on their tools and not necessarily entirely the college production, but just, Hey, you got this crazy wild arm. So go out there and do everything in New York, throwing to Robbie Anderson and Jamison Crowder and a bunch of guys I've never heard of. Sorry to those two average receivers who I keep bringing up, but think about how far away those guys are from Justin Jefferson.

It's a very big gap. And even Robbie Anderson himself, I saw on a podcast, not that long ago said he thought that Sam Darnold never really got a chance to develop. And if he had that, he thought he could be pretty good. That seems to be a sentiment from everybody. I don't hear anyone talking about Sam Darnold as if he's just irredeemable and there's no way this could actually work. So, uh, what about Bob says, I would love to comment, but I don't know enough about Sam Darnold as he's been too bad to watch Seattle. I mean, at times that's true that he has

been too bad to watch. And at other times in his career he's been a lot of fun to watch um so yeah that's the thing is that you know there's a lot of uh quarterbacks in the league that vikings fans wouldn't be watching every single week including sam darnold but you know the story uh you know what happened in new york and you've probably seen the highlights and the lowlights uh lee says Gino makes sense, but Jeff George was 10 times more talented. I don't think that's true, Lee. I don't think he was 10 times more talented. Sam Darnold was a number three overall draft pick that his team traded up for. And no, he doesn't throw the ball quite as hard as Jeff George. Jeff George probably throws it

as hard as anyone ever has, but that's not everything. Jeff George probably throws it as hard as anyone ever has, but that's not everything. Jeff George was not the athlete that Sam Darnold is. Darnold scrambles, makes plays, escapes. You talk about not watching him, Bob, but I watched him because it's my job. So I spent a lot of time watching his tape and his raw talent is extremely high.

And if you watch the only a highlight reel of Sam Darnold, what did they just get Brett Favre? I mean, it's kind of wild actually how that guy has not turned out when you see the high level of his plays. There's one that stuck out to me. I may have mentioned it before, but there was a play for Carolina with DJ Moore where he got pressured and DJ Moore was running a deep post and he couldn't step into the throw at all. And this is where it's Jeff George-like. And he just kind of plants

and flicks the ball with his wrist, goes 45 yards in the air, drops in the bucket to DJ Moore. It's one of those eye popping type of plays for Sam Darnold that is all talent. And when you see his size, he's not as quite as big as Jeff George, but he's a big guy who you could see the huge shoulders could put torque on the ball. He's extremely talented. That's not been the issue. The issue is the seeing ghost thing, unfortunately has been real, which means not

identifying defenses the right way, uh, forcing it into places. It shouldn't go trying way too hard to scramble around and make plays. Uh, this could be an issue for Caleb Williams as well with the Chicago bears, but I saw way too many instances of Sam Darnold running around, running around, trying to look for something where you just go, maybe you should just throw the ball at bounce. Maybe you should just check down, go on to the next play. And they've talked about that a little bit about, Hey, you know, Sam, why don't you just play point guard? They love that reference. Kirk cousins used to use it, but Kirk kind of did play like that. Just get it to the, where the playmakers are. Well, you want a little

more than that from Sam Darnold, but I think that that meter was pushed too far to, Hey, my team's not good. And I got to do something crazy. Uh, that Sam Darnold might not feel as much pressure with the Vikings to do that. Uh, Tony says 30 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, higher, lower, given Darnold starts all season. I would go your interception number is pretty good, maybe a little lower, and I would go a little lower than 30 touchdowns. 30 touchdowns is going to put you pretty high in the NFL at the end of the year. I can look this up and see how many guys threw 30 touchdowns last year. We don't have quite the passing league that we once expected for guys just throwing 45 touchdowns all

the time. And I'm going to check here in a second when this loads, uh, how many guys had 30 touchdowns? Cause I feel like it takes a lot to get 30 touchdowns in the NFL. Still these days, uh, it doesn't take as much to get 4,000 yards passing, but I would go under, I'd go maybe like 25 or something like that. Give me the stats page pro football reference. And we will figure this out because I want to say that 30 touchdowns sounds fairly reasonable. If he starts the whole season, like that, you're in a good place with that, but then, okay. Four guys. Yeah. That's what I thought four guys through 30 touchdowns last season. If only four guys through 30 touchdowns last season,

that's a lot to ask from Sam Darnold. So I might go with like 23. That's where I would go. Scott says fairly comparable predicting how Darnold will do this year as it would be predicting how well any rookie would do in year one. I'm not sure I totally agree with that because we do have a sample size of performance from him before. So it's not completely unpredictable. And I mean the good stuff too. With a rookie, you don't know if it's ever going to be even remotely good. It could just

be Tim Tebow or Paxton Lynch or something where there's just nothing. That could happen with a rookie where with Sam Darnold, there have been stretches of his career. And I know this is a abomination to statistical analysis, but allow me to do it anyway. In his last, whatever number of starts, seven starts, his quarterback rating is like a 91. That's okay. That's pretty decent. That if you had, if he finished the year, played a full season

with a 91 quarterback rating for the Vikings, probably would be brought down by the interceptions. They could win nine games. They could be in the mix for a playoff spot. If he ended up giving them quarterback play like that. And he did that in a place largely in Carolina. And then that one game in San Francisco, he did that largely with not a lot to work with. And now he does have a lot to work with in Minnesota. And that's where I do keep going back to those Mullins games where they're this close to winning the Nick Mullins games. And it like, even if Darnold plays similarly and throws for 400 yards and four interceptions, it could be pretty entertaining all season long.

And Cincinnati was a good team and they were ahead in that game, even though he had the craziest turnovers. I mean, he was laying down. Remember this, Nick? We would just wash out everything from the bad games from last year. We don't talk about them. But you remember when Nick Mullins

was almost laying down on the ground and then just tossed it to the Bengals player for no reason in the red zone? It's gotta be better than that, right? And yet they almost won that game. I shot you 99 said, did you think about adding Jared Goff to the list? I did not because Jared Goff was really good in Los Angeles, went to the Super Bowl, ran a number one and number two offense. I thought Sam or that Jared Goff would be good in Detroit. And he, he was, I I've always felt like Jared Goff has been underappreciated and part of it just being that his

own team bailed on him and decided to go get Matthew Stafford because they wanted to do some different things on offense than Jared Goff was capable of. But I was kind of a Jared Goff defender and I think he's grown a lot as a quarterback since he's gotten to Detroit. So he is better than he was. But if you're capable of running the number one offense in the league, that's not something we've seen from Sam Darnold. It is a guy who went to another place and was good, but he was good before. So it's not shocking that Jared Goff had that happen. Had Jared Goff only played his rookie season and then sat on the bench, then went to Detroit and played great. Then he would end up belonging

on this list. Uh, Daniel says Sam Darnold fumbles and picks were a problem. Hoping KOC can clean his game up. They were most certainly now he did reduce it. And this is why we're dealing with only stretches of good Sam Darnold play. I think I'm going to do an article on this, looking at the, some of the stretches of Sam Darnold play. That's been good because his turnover worthy plays were down in that last stretch with Carolina from where they were, which was abominable in New York and early Carolina. Because in the early New York and Carolina years, he was consistently among the five worst players in terms of turnover-worthy plays.

That can't happen here or you're going to lose a lot of football games. But the fumbles and picks were a problem at USC. They're a problem early in his career and they'll probably be a problem here. It's just how much. Can you reduce them by at least enough percentage to be competitive is the answer, because the high-end stuff is pretty good from Sam Darnold. It's just those turnovers really have hurt his career a ton. And I don't know if you can reduce them enough for it to make him a franchise quarterback,

but for one year, you're looking for him to throw fewer picks and fewer fumbles and fewer sacks with a lot of help around him. Can you do it? That's the question. Rich Gannon-ish? Yeah, I think where Rich Gannon thrived, I thought, was the change in the league and the change in situation where when Rich Gannon came into the league,

offenses were very much run on first down, run on second down, have an 11-step drop and throw it down the field on third down. And I don't know that that really fit Rich Gannon, but by the time he gets to the Raiders, of course they had great wide receivers and a great offensive line, but there's John Gruden running the West coast stuff, the West coast stuff that had helped Randall Cunningham put up better numbers at one point. And Rich Gannon was much better at doing the play a point guard type of thing, not trying to scramble around and make plays like he did in Minnesota, not trying to push the ball down the field all the time, but just hit the back foot, let the ball go. This isn't a West coast offense in my mind. I just don't think that those things

really exist anymore. I think every team has their own specific scheme, which is a Frankenstein of lots of different things that are influences that there isn't just a, Hey, this is a Kubiak. This is a Shanahan. This is a whatever, uh, that even those offenses, they have their basic principles, but then they just add an ad because there's so much more data. There's so much more film. There's so much more, uh, advanced players in terms of what they know when they arrive at the NFL. So you can do a lot more stuff than you used to be able to do. So there's no like clear West coast anymore.

I don't think, but when it comes to the way rich, rich Gannon played, he was a much better fit for that short and quick passing game. And maybe Sam Darnold is just a better fit here. Schematically that he was trying to do too much early in his career. short and quick passing game. And maybe Sam Darnold is just a better fit here schematically that he was trying to do too much early in his career. What about Bob says, I just want JJ McCarthy to be so good that we never really know if Sam Darnold is good, bad, or ugly. Well, that's

true, but I'm willing to take my time and find out. I mean, yeah, ideally you would rather just have JJ McCarthy win the job and all of this conversation about Jake Plummer and Carson Palmer and Rich Gannon, as much as I love it to the depths of my soul, you would prefer that we never actually find out because JJ McCarthy just dominates Sam Darnold and training camp, takes the job, takes him to the Super Bowl, raises Lombardi's trophy and says, I'm only a rookie. What's next? But I think if we're being realistic, that probably isn't going to be the case. The case is going to be that J. J. McCarthy is the backup quarterback and Sam Darnold's going to start. And we may end up seeing Sam Darnold for an entire season rather than, you know, JJ McCarthy playing or not. I mean, I don't, I don't really know yet, but I do think that is realistic to think that Sam Darnold could play quite a bit.

Mike says the video, the Rams attempting to trade up to 10 shows McCarthy fit in McVay Shanahan KOC system and Darnold definitely in that mold as well I'm not sure the connection I mean do you think the Rams were trading up for McCarthy I think they were trying to trade up for Brock Bowers weren't they wasn't that the thing I don't think it was for McCarthy but I do think he's a fit yeah I mean he's he's got the mobility he can throw on the run but he's got the arm strength to throw into tight windows. And when you look at Matthew Stafford early in his career, he was very young. He had a huge arm, couldn't really control the football, was thrown all over the place. He didn't have a good supporting cast like the Vikings do.

But the arm strength is something that clearly Kevin O'Connell believes that they need more of if they're going to run everything that he's going to run. But I don't believe that the Rams were trying to trade up to get J.J. McCarthy. I think it was, they were looking for, they know that Matthew Stafford's got a year or two left and they're going to try to do it again. They're going to try to just go out and win the Super Bowl again with Stafford, take that one last chance. Uh, flip stars, 55 says who, who watched the jets and Panthers games? Well, uh, not me a whole lot until I needed to, when the Vikings got Sam Darnold, but that's why I'm here. And, uh, you know, you do what you do

is so I, you rely on me to do the stupidest thing, like go back and watch every Sam Darnold game, which that's, you know, what I've been doing. And there's a lot of good. There's a lot of bad. I mean, it's, it's more bad than good. But also when I watch Sam Darnold from his time in Carolina, I just don't see anything that looks like what the Vikings have or even what the Vikings do, but especially what they have. The offensive line in Carolina wasn't good. The running game wasn't good,

which Aaron Jones should increase that. One receiver was good and he threw that receiver all the time. You look at DJ Moore's stats when Sam Darnold was there, he's going to pump the ball to Justin Jefferson. You can guarantee that, but the rest of it, it was kind of a mess and they were trying, it was actually kind of funny. They were trying to run a lot of quick game with Sam Darnold, get it out of his hands, quick, get it to look for the yards after catch. And a lot of times he would take the snap and he would get somebody in a quick pass and they would just get tackled. And it's like, okay, well, there's not a whole lot to do there with Terrace Marshall, who's not a yards after catch receiver or pretty much anyone else.

If he checked down, I forget who his running back was. It wasn't a good scene. Checked down, that wasn't going anywhere. How about a screen game that exists this year for the Vikings? So I can buy when I watch Sam Darnold's previous games that there's enough there to get him to the next level. But the next level is a starting quarterback who could get you to nine and eight, which is really what they're looking for for this season. They want to be in the playoffs. They want to be

competitive and Darnold could potentially get them there. Uh, if it starts out badly, then he won't, but that's what they're looking for for this season as they develop McCarthy, but they don't want to waste everyone's time. You have way too many good players to not be trying to compete for the playoffs. Uh, what about Bob says brain is 90% for NFL quarterbacks pie chart of success. If Jeff George, Jay Cutler, Sam Darnold had Tom Brady's brain power and determination, they would be hall of fame. Armed talent gets you picked in the first round. Yeah. I mean, I, I mostly agree with that.

Yeah. I mean, it's, that's a huge deal for how you process information and the decision-making is a big deal. Also, some people freak out under pressure and other people are calm under pressure. Tom Brady mostly didn't seem to feel it very much, even when it was in the Superbowl, but comparing him to Jeff George and Jay Cutler, I don't look at it that way with Sam Darnold because Jeff George and Jay Cutler both seem to take it for granted that they were that great and seem to go out there and just like, I'm going to, I'm just going to ball out and throw it

wherever I got to throw it and see what happens. Sam Darnold comes across as somebody with a lot of humility that understands where he's been and doesn't have that entitlement element to him. Even when he's being asked about the guy who was drafted to eventually replace him, there's a difference there. Also, the league is different now from when it was with Jeff George and Jay Cutler. So much more was on the quarterback's shoulders then. There was so much less, I think, designed to just give the answers to the quarterback or make life easier on the quarterback than there was then. But of course, you're right that it's not just arm talent. We shouldn't downplay Tom Brady's arm talent, though.

Tom Brady's arm talent was maybe when he first started in the league, it was, you know, so, so he didn't push the ball. They played very conservative. They had great defenses, but later in his career,

when he had Randy Moss, for example, even when he was in Tampa Bay, the arm talent was absolutely elite. It was nothing short of elite at the peak of his career, but it did take a while. It's a good example of a guy who did take years and started to peak with his arm talent and brain coming together around this sort of age. Uh, flips says, uh, Darnold is talented. I believe

he has a higher chance of winning a Superbowl than cousins will ever have. I wouldn't go that far. I would not go that far. So both of them don't have a very high chance of winning a Super Bowl than Cousins will ever have, I wouldn't go that far. I would not go that far. So both of them don't have a very high chance of winning a Super Bowl because of who else is in the league. But I mean, there's no question that Darnold has more raw talent than Kirk Cousins, but Kirk Cousins to get into the range of being the eighth to 12th or 14th best quarterback on a given year, you have to be very good. And Cousins was way better, way, way better than Sam Darnold has ever been in his career. So let's not go that far to be talking about him as if he's a lot better than Kirk Cousins. Now, if he has a year like that and proves it, then okay, then we can say that, but because he's going to have a similar sporting cast to what Kirk Cousins had.

But I don't think that we can start going that far because as Bob was just saying about the brain part of it, and also Kirk Cousins, a very accurate quarterback, that's been an issue for Sam Darnold. So it's brain, but it's also accuracy as well. And Cousins had both of them. He just didn't have a super arm, didn't have playmaking ability. And he had a kryptonite. There was an answer for Kirk Cousins when things went wrong. But I mean, if he is able to come into this offense and throw for 4,500 yards and 30 touchdowns

and a hundred quarterback rating and stuff. You're going to be through the roof if he ever performs anything like what Kirk cousins was doing. So let's not go nuts. Uh, Lee says Sam Darnold had a 66.3 PFF grade completed 58.6% of his passes his final year in Carolina. A big leap is needed for him. I of course agree with the facts there that there is a big leap that is necessary, but how big, I mean, when we're talking about playing for Matt rule, although he didn't play as much for Matt rule that year because rule got fired and then he played for someone else at the end of the season, but you're right. I mean, when you talk about, he's been a bottom third type of quarterback and that's even complimentary, even when he was at his best and the accuracy being as inconsistent as it was, you're right with the completion percentage

that Kirk Cousins is a 70% type of completion quarterback. Whereas Sam Darnold has not been there. You're looking for some bigger, you know, bigger throws, you know, down the field for Sam Darnold, potentially more into traffic, which gets him into trouble. Uh, and sometimes also results in something awesome, but how big of a leap to be a success here? Uh, it doesn't need to be a leap that gets into the NFC championship necessarily, or is one of the best seasons in the NFL for any quarterback. If that BFF grade was 74 and he completed 63% of his passes with 23 touchdowns and 10 picks or something and got them to nine wins, it's a pretty big success. It could be a very fun season for the Vikings in that way. And the roster could come along and feel like you're in a position to take that next step

after that. Uh, but if he has similar numbers to those, then it's not going to be that much of a success. And you probably move on in the middle of the season at some point to JJ McCarthy. Uh, Scott says McCarthy could, and probably would start week one with cleveland koc's offense is far more complex well i don't know i mean yeah maybe um with with cleveland you're right that kevin stefanski i think does like to run run play action off of that but there's no NFL offense that a rookie is just going to go yep I got it all of them are really hard all of them have a lot going on that is difficult for someone to learn who's never played in the NFL before and didn't have something all that complex at Michigan the way that he described it McCarthy me, I asked him what the biggest difference

was, I think, or how different it was between Michigan and the Vikings. And he just said, there's just so much more. There's so many more plays that you have to have the footwork exactly down than there was in Michigan, which is the same for Cleveland. I mean, I think maybe it's a little similar or a little simpler, probably a little easier. You can protect the quarterback a little bit more, but it's still the NFL. You still have all sorts of reads. You have to go through, you have to know multiple plays in the huddle. Sometimes you got to operate the whole line of scrimmage thing, changing protections, getting all the footwork timed up. Uh, you really can't just run play

actions, bootleg out and find somebody, uh, like it's, you know, 1998 exactly. So I think, I think it would be hard for him anywhere and that's fine. It's totally fine to, um, you know, just take his time and compete for the job during training camp and try to develop as much as he can for now. And then we'll see what happens with Sam Darnold. I shot you 99. Do you think that the team would be willing to go through the quarterback carousel again,

like last year, disregarding injuries, if it gets bad at the quarterback position or do they power through with Darnold? This is a great question. I don't know the answer. And if you find out the answer, then it's probably not gone that great for Sam Darnold? This is a great question. I don't know the answer. And if you find out the answer, then it's probably not gone that great for Sam Darnold. Then we're not talking about him becoming Carson Palmer, but there's no way it's not a roller coaster though. So I think that this

is a realistic scenario for them. Say they start off where there's some decent times, and then there's a dip over three straight games where you go oh and three and he's got a 58 quarterback rating in those three games do you stick with him in practice it's easy to say stick with him until McCarthy is really ready no matter how it feels but when you're actually trying to do it in the moment, a lot harder, right? In reality than it is. And we saw that last year, realistically, they should not have gone back to Jaron Hall. All of us were fine with it though. I was fine with it. I thought, well, if Kevin O'Connell thinks he's ready, then off to Jaron Hall we go. But Kevin O'Connell thought he was ready. And then

about four plays in, he was not ready. It was very clear. Jaron Hall was not ready. Well, we got hurt the first time. And then the second time it looked quite bad. They should have just stuck with Nick Mullins. It was a national TV game in hindsight, of course. But that's the type of pressure that everyone feels when the quarterback doesn't play well. When Nick Mullins throws four picks, we all go, oh my gosh, you can't do this again. You've got to go to somebody else. Then they go to somebody else.

You go, you got to go back to the other guy. And you don't want that. You don't want that with Sam Darnold, where you run into a scenario that he doesn't play well for a couple of games. You throw in McCarthy. He's not ready. Then you have to go back to Darnold. What you want to do is go to JJ McCarthy when it's time to go to JJ McCarthy forever. So you're, you might have to power through. Uh, you definitely might have to power through. Uh, Caleb says, I love your show, but how can you talk this much about practice i wasn't necessarily talking about practice today but how do i talk this much that's what i do that's my profession i've been doing it since let's see my first internship in radio was 2010 and then I was in radio from about 2010. I got hired after that until 2020. So

10 years of that. And then an additional now four years of podcasting. So that's how, because it's what I do and I don't have any other hobbies. So what else would I do other than talk about football with you guys? And actually the real reason is because you guys want to talk about football all the time. If you guys didn't want to talk about football and nobody showed up for the live stream, I would, you know, I wouldn't do it, but you guys want to talk ball. So that's why we're here. Um, let's see. Skull Viking says rich Gannon. No, I say Randall Cunningham. I can't get on board with Randall Cunningham. Randall Cunningham with the Philadelphia Eagles was one of the great quarterbacks of the 1980s. One of the most exciting players ever won a lot of regular season games, didn't have a ton of success in the

playoffs, but he had a marvelous career in the NFL before he retired and then came back. He was also way older than Sam Darnold. Usually when we're talking about these guys, we're looking for, Hey, was it somebody that in the midst of their prime came back into a starting role and then had success after having struggles before? So when you have the, the Carrie Collins, for example, play to Carolina, didn't really show much. Had that one they went to the nfc championship wasn't a great quarterback disappears comes back re-emerges with the new york and then he's a different guy that's what we're kind of looking for more so than i didn't really connect randall cunningham uh he did have his best year as a passer with the the vikings and randy moss in 1998 but he was really

good before if you if you go back to 80s, he's one of the best. If you're naming the best 80s quarterbacks, he's probably in your top five, at least. Mike says, excited to see what Kevin could do with Sam and the whole McCown part of the story makes it more intriguing. That's right. I think that Kevin O'Connell, and this is something that he has to delicately weave,

and I think he's done a really good job so far, is he has a quarterback reclamation project that coaches love. I mean, what's better than that? Kevin Stefanski ended up as a head coach because of it. Pat Shermer ended up as a head coach because of it eventually. So, or I guess Shermer right after Case Keenum, but Kevin Stefanski ends up as a head coach because of it eventually. So, or I guess Schirmer right after Case Keenum, but Kevin Stefanski ends up as the OC eventually after a disastrous year,

but emerged as the quarterback coach during the Case Keenum run. Really, when you can be part of a quarterback reclamation project, you know what that means and what everyone's going to say about it. Even look how much credit Kevin O'Connell got for two weeks of Josh Dobbs last year. So if he can take a guy's career and say, you know what?

You've been wronged, my brother. Let me show you how to do it, how to play quarterback. I can put you in the right positions. I don't know why I took on like a Southern accent there. You could put in the right positions. I give you the great receivers and here you go. Here's the career you always dreamed of. He wants to put his focus into winning games and into Sam Darnold and into the reclamation

project because it would be great for him as a former quarterback. And he's mentioned this before, who feels like he was let down a little bit by the league and didn't get much of an opportunity to develop himself as a quarterback in the league. He would love to do it for someone else, I think for Kevin O'Connell. And also he would love to not have two losing seasons in a row because if he has, and this is just reality, right? All of us could sit here and go, who really cares if it's nine wins or seven wins or six wins? If they look like they're ready to go big time in 2025, that's very easy to say.

However, when it happens similar to this quarterback thing, that was a great question earlier. If you win seven games and then it's seven and 10, seven and 10, two years without the playoffs, I don't think the Wilfs are going to be super thrilled. And you go into 2025 with a lot of pressure. If you make the playoffs and you're kind of the plucky team, remember how this was Detroit, or they just missed the playoffs at nine and eight, but winning record, or even Philadelphia with Jalen hurts, uh, where they made the playoffs, they got crushed in the playoffs, but they still got a lot of credit. They still got a lot of, Hey, what a season for them. They overachieved. So the over under six and a half for the Vikings. If you win eight, you've overachieved. If you win nine, you've overachieved. And then you go into the next season feeling like, all right, well, everybody's got their job security. The team is in good place.

Now it's JJ McCarthy's first first year and we can look forward into that timeline if you win five or six games it's gonna feel pretty pretty rough and there's gonna be a lot of pressure and i know all of you you can all say hey i won't be critical it's sam darnold if it doesn't work you know i still think they're in a good spot just wait till they lose that third game in a row you're gonna run to social to social media and be like, fire O'Connell. I know it. That's football. Richard says Sammy is not one dimensional.

Like many of those comparisons are Sammy. Are we calling him Sammy? You're just calling him. I'm not calling him Sammy. Sam has major talent that when combined with skilled, I assume you mean players. Vikings is a killer combo. Could be, could is a killer combo. Could be, could be a killer combo. I mean, when you say one dimensional, um, yeah, I mean, I don't know that Sam Darnold

is multi-dimensional. Uh, I think that he has some playmaking elements to his game. He can work the ball down the field with his arm talent, but he has really struggled with consistency, accuracy, reading defenses and the mistakes. And we can't blame everything on the teams that he played for because he didn't elevate those either. He didn't make worse teams better. And this is kind of how I think of quarterbacks in general. Like for example, this is how I tier quarterbacks. You know, they always do first tier, second tier, third tier. The way I look at it is if you, let's just say that we gave everyone an eight win roster. This is a, this is an eight win roster. Some good, some bad. The 2021 Vikings is an eight win type of roster. Got some real good players, got some real bad players. Go, go after it. Patrick Mahomes still can win the Super

Bowl. So could Tom Brady. So could Peyton Manning. And there's about five, seven of those guys in history that you could give them an average roster and they could win the Super Bowl, but those guys are in. And the next level down is your really great quarterback that when given the right circumstances can win the Super Bowl. So that's your drew breeze. For example, I don't even think he's of the level that you could give him a terrible team because when the saints were terrible, he didn't make the playoffs. So that's your drew breeze all time. Great. The level down from that's your Eli Manning. If everything breaks right, he can win the super bowl for you. And then below that is kind of your Kirk type of quarterback that puts up good numbers would need an act of God to win the super bowl below that is kind of your Kirk type of quarterback that puts up good numbers,

would need an act of God to win the Super Bowl. Below that is 95% of quarterbacks, I think, where they could be pushed one direction or other by what's there. So if they have a 13-win roster, they could potentially, if everything goes right, maximize that roster. But if it's not good, if it's a five win roster, you're going to, you're going to be a disaster. So what kind of roster is this for Sam Darnold? This is probably a nine win type of roster is Sam Darnold in that category below

Kirk cousins that if he's given a nine win roster can win nine games. I think of him as being a guy who wins a little less than what the team actually is. So if it's an eight win team, he wins seven or six, but this might be a little bit better than that. If this team had a third tier quarterback, the way I laid it out, they're a Superbowl contender. Maybe if they had the Eli Manning level, Phillip Rivers level type of quarterback, right? I mean, the, the one that's just above Kirk cousins, they probably are. So I think it's, I think it's a situation where you're going to find out, can Darnold be that in that tier of quarterbacks that can give you what the roster is reflective of. And if he can, I mean, you can earn a lot of money being that that's kind of what

Gino Smith has been the last couple of years. Uh. Scott says, can't compare Kirk to Sam's past. Kirk had Kirk had extremely better coaches and supporting cast. Yeah. But I mean, Kirk's always been better than Darnold. There was never a time where he was, I know he struggled a little bit in Washington to start his career, but as soon as he got the starting job in 2015, he was massively better than Sam Darnold's ever been. I know he had a good team around him, but his ability to process, throw with anticipation, accuracy, run the line of scrimmage, all those things. They've just been all those really important parts of the position have been quite a bit better than Darnold.

That doesn't mean Darnold can't do something much better than he's ever done. It's just we shouldn't be setting the bar at what Kirk has done. That's top, at times in his career, top 10 quarterback play. And I think that's probably too far to ask Sam Darnold for this year. Let's see. Evan says, do we move on from Darnold if he sucks? Or do we keep him and learn from last year and get a higher draft pick assuming McCarthy isn't ready oh I see do you mean like in the middle of the season would they

like would they trade him if he went one in five or one in six would they trade him is that what you mean it really depends on JJ McCarthy if they think that JJ McCarthy is ready to play then they will play him but I have a really tough time believing that they could go one in five and then not put in JJ McCarthy, because at that point you have to change something. That means the quarterback has played extremely badly unless you've lost like last year where cousins played fairly well early in the season and they heaved footballs out of the back of the end zone, trying to score touchdowns and stuff and fumbled all over the place. So it really depends on what it looks like. There is a situation where they're very happy with McCarthy. Darnold has played. Okay. Maybe

they're two and four and a team comes like, Hey, can we give you a second round draft pick for Sam Darnold? Maybe. Uh, and Casey Daffo Mensah has alluded to the fact that you can get more draft capital aaron jones is a guy i think of uh is you know being somebody that if they're struggling at the deadline that they could trade away as well uh what about bob says now that jefferson's deal is done what is quesadilla working on now other than day-to-day roster scrolling for former first round talented player dumps. Yeah, maybe that's true. Contract extension for Derrissaw, I think, is next year after the season ends.

This one won't be, at least I don't suspect, will be talked about too much over this summer. Derrissaw's got to put another year in. He's got to stay healthy for the year. Jefferson is a truly unique situation. It almost never happens after three seasons that you start negotiating. He's got to stay healthy for the year. Jefferson is a truly unique situation. It almost never happens after three seasons that you start negotiating. It's only when a guy has 500 more yards in his first few seasons or whatever than Randy

Moss did. What was that stat they tweeted out today? Something about, oh, before age 25 that he has more yards than Randy Moss. I mean, that's the bar if it's not a quarterback for negotiating after three years. So I doubt that they really get going on Derrissaw's extension right now. And if you're Derrissaw, you want to play great and get that money next year. Look how much the cap goes up every year. You want Amazon and Netflix money next year. You don't want to do it now. So I don't don't think that, uh, looking at the free agents,

they do tryouts and stuff or, uh, workouts where they'll have players come in and give them a look, but maybe that would have ended in mini camp if they were going to sign anyone. Uh, right now, Kwesi Adafo-Mensah should be just vacationing with everybody else because once the season starts it goes crazy uh from how much work is required the roster stuff uh they have to work out mccarthy's contract i know that that was out there as kind of a thing so they got to do that um they got to work that out so yeah i mean right now though it's there's not a whole lot going on everybody goes on vacation in the league uh huge boy says in 2017, Kirk had as bad of a supporting cast as Darnold ever had injuries on the offensive line.

No running game. James Crowder was the QB one. He threw for 4,100 yards, 33 total touchdowns, 14 picks. Yeah. That's 17 season. Um, he played pretty mediocre football overall that year. They went seven and nine. I remember, uh, Jay Gruden saying our record is reflective of our quarterback play, which was something that concerned me about the Vikings signing Kirk cousins. But that's what I mean is, you know, when you have Kirk cousins, you can guarantee that what your roster is, is how many wins you'll probably get. So that roster was a seven or six win roster for Washington.

And he got him to about that point through for a good amount of yards, good amount of touchdowns, all those things, certainly competent quarterback play. But in order to be a playoff team and take anybody anywhere else, Kirk needed much better than that. He couldn't take a seven win, eight win team or six win team in Washington that was bad in 2017 and then elevate them. He couldn't take a seven win, eight win team or six win team in Washington that was bad in 2017 and then elevate them. That wasn't who he was. But with Sam Darnold, you're right that when he's had teams that bad, they haven't won many games. I think they seven and six and one year and four and two with Carolina is probably pretty comparable to that 17, but not at the same level as Kirk. I mean, I just don't think that there

should be a discussion between the two. One guy has pro bowls and lots of big numbers over his career. And the other guy is a reclamation project. That's kind of just a hope for one season where we've seen it come together at times before for other quarterbacks in the past, but he didn't play at the same level as Kirk Cousins really at any point in his career for an extended stretch. Uh, Anthony says, call me crazy, but I think Darnold is going to surprise people this year. I predict 10 and I assume you mean seven as opposed to 10 and three, uh, with a possible playoff berth. Um, yeah. Oh, 10 and seven. Yes, you corrected that, But yeah, 10 and 10 and seven,

I think is totally reasonable for Sam Darnold or nine and eight. They do have a difficult schedule, at least how I feel about it right now, but that could change. Quarterbacks get hurt. Teams change throughout a year. Last year, I remember thinking, you know what? New England's going to bounce back this year. Nope, no, no, no, That did not happen. So there's a lot of teams on the schedule where we might go. Yeah. You know, this one's going to be a tough game. That one's going to be a tough game. Then they lose their quarterback week one to an Achilles injury like last year with Aaron Rogers. And who knows? Aaron Rogers could decide that he wants to go join Greenpeace or something before week one and disappear and they're going to play Boomer Esiason or something a quarterback yeah I don't know right um the the degree of difficulty for the schedule will be determined as we go along but

uh I think that the interesting part of Sam Darnold is that everybody who looks at it, and this isn't just us like too close to the situation or you're a Vikings fan. So you got the purple glasses or whatever. No, no, no. This is people in other places that have nothing to do with this team that I talked to about the Vikings. And everyone says, you know, I could kind of, I could see it though. It's not, Oh man, you're in trouble. Like I, so I was on this giants podcast and they said, what do you think of the giants? And I was like, probably going to have to have a different quarterback. If you're going to win anything, right? I mean, that's just how we all feel about the giants. Uh, so it's interesting to me that you have to believe in something that you've never really seen before with Darnold. And yet there's enough talent and sample sizes

of him doing it from time to time. And of this group of receivers, coaches, elevating talent, even on the defensive side, what we saw from Brian Flores last year that you can buy it and not feel like a fool. Um, how about Brad Johnson? A little bit different. I think, I mean, he did win the super bowl in Tampa Bay, but he was a good quarterback with the Vikings got kind of injured a lot with the Vikings. Sam Bay, but he was a good quarterback with the Vikings got kind of injured a lot with the Vikings. Sam Darnold was not a good quarterback at any time with the New York jets. Uh, so that's kind of the difference there with Brad Johnson, but the supporting cast raising him up, uh, Keenan McCardle there was, it was Joey Galloway, a receiver for the bucks and

the defense and all that. Huge Boy says, Josh McCown and KOC have never developed any quarterback. No clue why they have a reputation when the young quarterbacks they worked with are Manziel, Haskins, Goff, Bryce Young, and Sam Darnold. You casually sort of mentioned Jared Goff, who was really good. So I don't know. So the thing about that is, well, Dwayne Haskins, let's be honest, the circumstances, we never got to find out what was going to happen there. He ended up getting let go because of skipping out on the

COVID stuff. And clearly, I mean, some of the guys you mentioned there, do they sound like Sam Darnold? I mean, Johnny Manziel, Dwayne Haskins, Bryce Young is about a third of his size, and we still really actually don't know what Bryce Young is going to be yet. So that's not determined. I think it's, it's pretty unfair to look at these two who don't have a ton of experience at this at all, and then say, well, they can't do it because of Johnny Manziel. I don't know about that. And also Kevin O'Connell wasn't the head coach and neither, neither. I don't think Josh McCown had the situation that he has with the head

coach here. The Carolina Panthers. Do you think that last year's Carolina Panthers roster looks like this year's Minnesota Vikings roster? Because if you do, I just suggest you call those back up and take a quick look at them. Carolina had about the worst roster I've ever seen last year. And the Vikings have a good roster on the offensive side.

So there's context to all that. And if that's your sample size, hey, one guy who had a Coke problem, another guy clearly had some personality issues. And Jared Goff's great. And that's it. Well, that's what we're judging off of. I don't think it really works that way. That's like if a baseball team drafted 47 rounds of prospects and 45 of them failed

and two of them became great. You'd be like, well, it's a lot of failure. Well, that's how it works. Most quarterbacks are not successes. I don't think that really proves anything about what they can do here. And let's not forget when you have the best receiver in the world, it's a pretty big factor. Lee says, do you believe the McCarthy signing bonus holdout rumor? Hard to see what leverage McCarthy has a good live stream tonight. Thank you, Lee. Really appreciate that. Appreciate you

participating. Do I believe that he wants his signing bonus to be paid in full? I do. And also it's not unprecedented at all that the full signing bonus is paid out. This has happened in numerous occasions with quarterbacks in the NFL. There's a lot of recent quarterbacks who have gotten this fully paid out signing bonus. So the Vikings might just have to bite the bullet. Yeah. The leverage issue is difficult because the Vikings really just have to bite the bullet. Like, yeah, the leverage issue is difficult because the Vikings really want to get him into training camp. And he, I would also say, really wants to get into training camp. Is he going to take humongous fines for not showing up at training camp? Not likely. I don't think that would be a very good move to just get fined

every single day while you wait for a signing bonus. It's not like you're getting fined and then getting paid more. You're getting paid the same. It's just when you get the money. That's what really the debate is. The Vikings will probably just give it to him and just get him out there. It shouldn't be that controversial.

That's why the whole idea that he's planning to hold out. I think we're a little premature here. We got June 17th, so there's 40-something days left before they have to work this out. I believe they will, just like with the Jefferson contract. They'll work it out. J.J. McCarthy's not going to be doing the Joey Bosa in 2016, where he sat out for basically the entire training camp. If he does, then that would be very stupid uh

for him and his agency to do that so they'll all get it figured out i think before training camp if he misses a day it's fine uh digit says with the koc scheme jj and ja routes and a strong arm of sam i think you will do fairly well yeah Yeah, I agree. I think a seven or nine win roster, tough schedule. Yeah. We'll see. And we'll see on the schedule. I mean, generally, I think it will be tough, but it's not unreasonable to look at this supporting cast and go, yeah, I could see. And going back to our original, is it quite as good as Randy Moss, Chris Carter giving Jeff George new life? I'm not sure about that. Is it as good as Kerry Collins in New York? Possibly. Is it good as Gino Smith? I definitely think so. I think it's very similar to Gino Smith where it's the two

great receivers. There's some limitations otherwise, but it's a good positive coaching staff that is going to put their belief into a guy and see what he can do. So, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll see when it comes to Darnold, but I think the Gino Smith example actually makes the most sense out of all the ones that I brought up. And that's why you could see it because we have at least a bunch of examples where this has happened before. Um, let's see. What about Bob says, uh, your rookie kicker evaluation got some steam by the aggregators. Glad Mike Zimmer isn't here to detail his or derail his career. Uh, that's, that's true. Um, that's, it is a good thing. It is a good thing. It is a good thing. And everything that I hear about Matt Daniels and know about Matt Daniels

from interviewing him weekly over the last couple of seasons, I feel like he is a really good fit for a kicker. Somebody who's going to communicate a lot with the kicker, who's put a lot of work into understanding kickers, and they don't have a head coach who's insane. So there will be some patients. They certainly had more patients than I would have expected when it came to, um, you know, uh, Greg Joseph, I thought there were a few times where they might move on from him, but they decided to believe in him. So it's historically better, I think, to stick with one guy and see what happens than it is to chase your tail and just go out and get a bunch of kickers. Um, but you know, there's no guarantee. I said what I saw

from practice, which is why you tune into the show, which is that Will Reichard looked awesome. I mean, I'm not guaranteeing that he's going to be Morton Anderson and go into the hall of fame, but he just looks really talented as a kicker. You could see why he was drafted in order to use draft capital on a kicker. A team has to really buy in and he's got a heck of a leg, very impressive stuff from him. But you know, I saw the responses were, we've got a kicker now, finally, for the first time ever, not really for the first time ever, you know, Ryan Longwell was pretty good. In fact, like Blair Walsh had his moments. And then the one really bad kick the kicking that there was the one year of Dan Bailey. I don't know. I got to look this up. I would be curious about where the Vikings

rank in recent years, like since the Blair Walsh thing, where they rank in field goal percentage, if it's decent, if it's good, it's probably just below average but all of you have been damaged as human beings by kickers so you're very desperate to get a good one matt says how do you expect koc to balance workload during preseason even though darnold is the starter he still probably plays some snaps i would suspect so likely just not that many, maybe in the first two games, we see him, uh, maybe getting two series and then that's it. Or maybe just the first one he gets a series. And then that's it. Uh, they just do not value the preseason at all. It's all about the joint practices for them. They treat those like the preseason games. Uh, Scott says, I don't think you can get fined if

you don't have a contract yet. I mean, if you don't show up for training camp and you're on the roster, is that, I mean, rookie holdouts, they don't exist anymore because you could get fined, right? Like that's why the rookie holdout doesn't, isn't a thing, isn't it? I'll have to check on the rule on that, but I don't, I don't think if you're a rookie, you could just be like, nah, I'm not coming. I don't have a contract. I'm not coming. You can't find me. I'm pretty sure that's what eliminated rookie holdouts and negotiations other than the rookie contracts. But, uh, wasn't it in the most recent CBA that if you don't show up now, the fine is significant. I could be wrong. CBAba is complicated but i don't think you could just skip without being fine uh jim says i use chat gt gpt to get uh uh to get the five guys with 30 passes

uh or more uh okay is that a you're a bot jim uh that's great there's four of them so your bot got it wrong um but that's we haven't had too many bots show up that's or are you not a bot because uh then you were talking about cj ham pass blocking well how about this so are are you a real person jim or does like the bots care about the fullback blocking this is curious how about that that he's the best pass blocker and lead blocker you're right is that was that from chat gpt or is that i don't i don't know uh anyway that's strange scott says uh is cj ham a possible camp casualty hard to justify paying him that much for 120 snaps the special teams element is huge. The leadership element is

huge for CJ Hamm, but with Aaron Jones, it is harder to find the fit because last year he was a big pass blocking presence and you could see that changing. And I don't think he was the same impact run blocker. They just didn't use them that much as a run blocker. And I'm not certain that they figured out how to scheme him as a run blocker. So maybe that's an emphasis for this year. So anyway, this is a fun chat. What I'm going to do is have these from time to time. And usually I'll make a list to start out with, and then we'll break it all down.

Steven asked Mr. Mankato leader. It's a good question. Who is the Mr. Mankato leader? It's a good question. Who is the Mr. Mankato leader? We didn't usually like wide receivers are good picks. Will Reichardt could be that. Sixth round draft pick. He could be Mr. Mankato. It's going to be a lot of receivers that have a chance here.

Jashon Jones, Malik Knowles. If any of them does anything, then they have a shot at being Mr. Mankato. Going to have to think about that. Who would it be? Gabriel Murphy, UDFA, chance there. Dwight McLeathern is a good one. Cornerback. You get a pick or something in the preseason, could be.

It's a lot of candidates. There'll be an article. There'll be, actually, there'll be a podcast before camp where we'll run through the Mr. Mankato favorites for sure so lots still to come uh this week gonna have an interview with a jaguars writer just why not right to talk about vikings jaguars which is a long time from now and yet you'll still like it so i'm gonna do that tomorrow and lots to come so make sure you're joining these chats whenever they pop up and of course uh send me emails if you want question answered go to um purpleinsider.com is a good place to do that and we'll we'll carry on

here in the summer and have a good time so thanks again everybody for joining we'll talk soon football