Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - WIDE RIGHT!!! Chiefs, Lions are going to Championship Sunday

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Matthew Coller reacts to the Buffalo Bills missing wide right to fall to the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit's rebuild coming to fruition with an appearance in the NFC Championship next week Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Reacting to one of the great football games that any of us has ever watched between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. Another instant classic between those two teams that ends the same way it always ends for the Buffalo Bills. And of course, it had to be wide right. It had to be a callback to Scott Norwood missing a field goal

to lose the Super Bowl in 1990. And Tyler Bass will go down in history having missed a field goal that would have tied the game against the Kansas City Chiefs. And of course, Patrick Mahomes, who was mostly unstoppable throughout the day, still would have been getting the ball back with a chance for Kansas City to go win that game anyway. But to lose it on a wide right field goal of all things, of all things that seemed to be going in Buffalo's way at the end of that game. Nicole Hardman reaches out just like Justin Jefferson did. If you all remember in week two against the Philadelphia Eagles, ball gets knocked out

of his hands. It goes out of the back of the end zone. It saves the bills from being down. So then the bills, after screwing up a fake punt, they get another chance and there's a miss and there's a drop by Stefan Diggs who might have played his last game as a Buffalo Bill depending on what happens this offseason but there was some tension there last offseason drops a ball that went 63 yards through the air that Josh Allen threw they finally get down there it's third down in nine Allen drops back he throws instead of to Stephon Diggs,

incomplete toward the middle of the field, setting up a field goal. And then his kicker goes wide right and just put this one on the mantle of all-time greats Buffalo losses. I mean, the fact that he had an open receiver underneath, that they had had all the bounces that had gone their way, Josh Allen fumbled and it went off the hands of Kansas City and was picked up by the Bills saving the drive.

It just thought that this was going to be the time. This was going to be the one where it all went wrong for Kansas City. Think about Kansas City's season and how many times it appeared that it was going to be over that, that the receivers were going to drop all the passes that my homes wasn't going to be able to do it all the game against the Raiders earlier this year, where they lost to a no Connell. And he didn't even pass the ball in the second half. The chiefs are done. It's over there. There's going to be new contenders in the AFC until they can rebuild their team. And patrick mahomes plays one of the greatest playoff games ever played by a quarterback there was a graphic at one point that he had completed more 20 yard passes than he had

incompletions the mahomes just came to play so did josh allen it was a wonderful unbelievable battle of two of the best quarterbacks of the generation, arguably the two best quarterbacks in the league. Although after this, I don't know who you could argue belongs right there other than the guy that Patrick Mahomes is going to play, which is Lamar Jackson. It was crazy play after crazy play. Great throws all over the place. Exciting back and forth.

Madness that led up to the moments. A timeout used by Buffalo that they probably regret. All these things came together for their kicker to go wide right and miss their best opportunity. I mean, Buffalo, this team from top to bottom in the second half of the season showed that they were good enough to be a Super Bowl team and Kansas City going on the road for the first time in Patrick Mahomes career and his playoff career, which by the way, Mahomes has never not played in the AFC championship since he became a starter. I think that's probably connected to quarterback

wins, but I don't know. So with Patrick Mahomes, this looked like it might be the time. They just don't have the weapons. They're going to the cold, the Buffalo, the receivers aren't that great. And throughout the day, the receivers made some plays and Travis Kelsey, who had struggled throughout the season and he had gotten injured early in the year against the Vikings. Kelsey also came to play and we had limited shots, I think of Taylor Swift. So everybody survived one of the best football games that you're ever going to see. But the connection here is very clear to the team that I cover, the Minnesota Vikings, and what we just saw, other than, of course, I'm from Buffalo, but these teams come so close. And they give you every reason to believe. And then right at the last minute, find some stunning way.

I mean, it was a 44-yard field goal, which in today's NFL is really quite makeable. And now they did have the kicker analyst. Was that Jay Feeley? Talking about how, hey, it might not be that easy to kick this field goal if it was going to be a little farther out, but that one was very makeable. And when he kicked it,

it looked like it was headed toward the middle. And then it just took a hard right turn. And the Buffalo Bills, after winning their division four straight years with an unstoppable quarterback who can find a way to do anything. I mean, that team and they were, their one receiver is hurt. They're missing another receiver. Stefan Diggs was either banged up or is just not the same version of Stefan Diggs that he was a couple of years ago. And Josh Allen is finding ways his tight end also Dawson Knox, who's a very good player, is banged up.

And no matter what seemed to happen throughout that game, Josh Allen found a way over and over and over and over again, including a really nice play call that led to a fourth down conversion. He gets them set up. This drive is about to be legendary. It's about to go down in all time. Buffalo bills. Lore is the time that they finally slayed the dragon and beat the Kansas city chiefs. And Alan throws incomplete on third and down in a third, a third and nine. And then

it goes wide, right? And what an unbelievable gut punch. Oh my gosh. uh to anyone who's asking about my friends and family uh it's going to be a very tough time for them in buffalo and the minute it happened my phone as you would imagine lit up with text after text after text after text and i know that all of you guys who listen you know for vikings content you can all relate to this gut-wrenching feeling. And think about the last two days. Now, I know you don't have any feelings toward the Packers and the missed field goal, but very makeable field goals

missing to cost teams playoff games. Wow. I mean, we got everything we could have hoped for from Divisional Weekend, three extremely compelling games. I do want to talk about the Detroit Lions going to the NFC championship to play San Francisco playing a Detroit team that's trying to reach the Super Bowl that is making the NFC Championship for only the second time ever in their history. Just an incredible, incredible weekend

these last two days of football, but it could not have ended with any more of a gut punch than what just happened. And throughout the game, I'm probably thinking all the same things that you guys are thinking in connection to the Vikings. I mean, Kansas city and Buffalo with all of Buffalo's injuries, they, neither one of these teams has a perfect 53 man roster and there's no one way to win in football. It's, there's not a, if you do this, then you will win. Right. But the two ways that are the most common are having the best roster

in the league, the best playmakers, the best coaches, or just the best quarterbacks. And what we saw was, you know, when we look at the NFC versus the AFC, we have both of those things in the NFC, we're going to have two totally stacked teams that have built and built and built over years that have very good quarterbacks. And look, Brock Purdy didn't have a good game, but he is very talented and he had an MVP caliber season. Jared Goff, once again, this is one, I don't really care if the playoffs confirm my previous opinions or not, because I can't predict what's going to happen

when it comes to the playoffs. But Jared Goff certainly earned today the belief that he is a franchise quarterback. And you really saw it. Tampa Bay threw everything they could at him. And in the biggest moment, they need him to complete a third down and long and Jared Goff fires it in there. And then you see from the other side of things, you have your good quarterbacks with great rosters, and then you have your all world all time freak show. And the way I was describing it earlier was just this is

peyton manning versus tom brady except for both dudes are fast as hell and they make plays out of structure and make all sorts of crazy plays the throw that uh josh allen had rolling to his left to the end zone uh it just it was incredible incredible. And then even his, maybe his best throw ends up as an incompletion. And when you have one of those guys, then you can be there every single year, even if your receivers don't catch everything, even if your team gets banged up and walking away from last night, I was reminded of Kweisi Adafo Mensah saying that he wants a team so good that they can overcome adversity. And we've seen that from everybody who's here in the final four, which is to be so good you can overcome a bad Brock Purdy game.

Or be so good you can overcome a mediocre defense in Detroit's, you know, from Detroit's perspective. Be so good you can overcome lots of injuries if you're Buffalo. They were missing linebackers. They were missing receivers. Everybody was banged up. They were throwing the guys that I hadn't heard of. And if you're Kansas city, I mean, have my homes. That's the model, uh, have my homes as a guy who can make plays at any given time. And then the other thing is too, they have stacked up their defense, but it didn't matter for most of that game that Kansas City's defense was really good. They did make some key run stops late in the game, but it was mostly just Mahomes. This is the AFC. The AFC in the future is still going to be these guys.

They're not old, by the way. I believe what Mahomes is 28. Josh Allen is 27. Lamar is 27 and then you have all these other quarterbacks coming up still I think Trevor Lawrence is very good they need to improve their team CJ Stroud as we saw was right there on the cusp there is going to be competition for a long time but these two they have just taken it to a totally different level. And Alexander brings up Joe Burrow. We can't forget Joe Burrow is here as well. And Cincinnati on that side. I mean, just the quarterbacks in the AFC.

But for Buffalo, I know that everybody in Viking land is feeling that pain. Because you have been there many times. You have seen the same things happen. You've seen Gary Anderson. You've seen Blair same things happen. You've seen Gary Anderson. You've seen Blair Walsh. And you know what it's like to be this team that has great players and Hall of Famers and all pros and to be so close and then have it just disappear. And I don't know if this one hurts more than the 13 seconds or not, but it has to feel

like it for Buffalo. Maybe it's right there on the same level or not. I mean, I don't know. The 13 seconds seemed like it was also an error from the coach that stuck with them for quite some time. This is simply a very makeable field goal that ends up going the wrong way and the wrong way in relation to Buffalo Bills history, which is wide, right? I mean the same exact Scott Norwood kick from nearly the same distance. I mean, wasn't Scott Norwood, maybe 47 and this one was 44 and it just slips through their hands. And you know you're right. Horse feathers that Stefan digs did not help in this game. And, you know, you're right, horse feathers that Stefan Diggs did not help in this game. And I wonder how banged up he was

or just how banged up he's been over the years. If there's something there that he's started to kind of slip a little or if the connection was not there in the same way as it was in previous years with Josh Allen, I don't know. But that being off really hurt them tonight because there were just a few times where if those two connected,

then it would have been different. Andreas says, who will win their Super Bowl first, Buffalo or the Vikings? Right now, Buffalo has the edge just because of the franchise quarterback. Well, they're certainly much closer. I mean, they've won their division four years in a row. And when it comes to Josh Allen, just look at the quarterbacks over the last 30 years, how many great quarterbacks there were. Because Tom Brady won so many Super Bowls, I mean, if you were Drew Brees, you got one in. If you were Aaron

Rogers, you got one in. I mean, even going back, Brett Favre only gets one. A lot of times, even the great quarterbacks, Dan Marino never got there. That might be Josh Allen. He might never get there. And that team's going to have a lot to work on because they're going to have to restock their receivers. They're going to have to figure out a way to keep their defense together, add more depth to their defense, and are they going to trust their coach going forward after some controversies involving him this year? I would assume so, but this one wasn't really coaching-related at all.

You're right there. You just need a field goal, and then we're either going to overtime or it's going to be you know Kansas City getting one last drive and Alexander brings up that Buffalo is way over the salary cap this was it man I mean they they were going for it over the last couple of years they made moves like bringing in Vaughn Miller they drafted for right now and they just could not get there and finish that game off or at least tie that game up but they're in position to go score a touchdown they had plenty of time and they're set up with first down and 10 in potential scoring position and just couldn't figure it out couldn't

hit one pass and maybe that lack of trust between digs and josh Allen that seemed to be festering throughout the season. Maybe it was there on that last play. Maybe he made the right read and didn't make the right throw. Maybe it's Josh Allen being a little bit too aggressive as opposed to that check down. It's something that I really like about Jared Goff is that he makes those short passes when they need to be made. And maybe Josh Allen just didn't do it in the right spot. But wow. I mean, a wide open Stefan Diggs streaking over the middle on third and nine. If he catches it, he's getting the first down.

They're looking at, I don't know, 20-yard line with a minute and a half to go. They could score and pretty much put the game on ice. And instead, wow, they are going or staying home as Kansas City goes to Baltimore. And Jason says, Josh Allen is this generation's Philip Rivers. It feels that way. And so if you go way back in history of the NFL, Marty Schottenheimer was the coach of Cleveland

and then the coach of Kansas City. And this man was tortured by John Elway. John Elway had the drive against him. The earnest binder fumble came against him. And then later, uh, John Elway repeatedly tortured Kansas city over and over in the division. When Marty Schottenheimer was there, that's how it feels with my homes and the Buffalo bills. It feels like the, you know, if you are Phil Mickelson and tiger woods always is there winning those tournaments and you're finishing second over and over and over and over again, that is exactly what has happened to the Buffalo bills. Despite having an incredible quarterback, a great team, uh, Chad says, you know, is it time

to switch up the head coach in Buffalo? I don't think so. I mean, they've done nothing but win. If the biggest thing you do wrong is put yourself right on the doorstep of winning all these games because of your great quarterback play, mostly good defense, good roster building, everything, and it just keeps going wrong to the greatest player of a generation. I don't know. I mean, whose fault is that really? Whose fault is that really? And this time it was a kicker and it was the wind or whatever reason. I don't know why it went to the

right. Maybe he just choked. Maybe he felt the weight of many, many years of Buffalo football on his shoulders as that thing went wide to the right. But this one goes under the lore, the all time, the most crushing and horrendous defeats that live in the DNA of the souls of the people of Buffalo that I know other fan bases like Minnesota feels as well. And what's the takeaway other than you guys can relate. You guys know exactly what this is like to see your team right there and believe it's their moment and then let it slip through their hands. It's going to be a very difficult, like a lot of you guys are saying it's going to be a very difficult year for Buffalo to come back from this.

Because when you come so far and through the middle of the season, it looked like a disaster. And then they got it together. They galvanized. They played incredible football all the way to this point. And even on that drive, they got some good breaks. They converted a fourth down. They picked up a fumble that Josh Allen had. And it just had this feeling

that there was the momentum coming but you know i i kind of go back to the last bills game when they won to get here and at the end of the game this same kicker kind of shanked one and i wondered all right like against pittsburgh is there something off with the kicker, the kicker and the holder? Remember, they also had a kick blocked in that game. Is there something going on with the kicker? And wide right it went. So there was indeed. And now it'll be Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. If you want some encouragement, the last three quarterbacks remaining, Allen, who played unbelievable today, had 15 plays that made you say,

holy bleep, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. None of these guys were the first quarterback taken. And so as the Vikings will unlikely draft the first quarterback off the board, that's something to think about is that it's not always the first quarterback taken. There was something else I was thinking about as well. And you him. Goff is brilliant from the pocket. Absolutely, absolutely brilliant. And he showed it today. He was fantastic getting the ball to his playmakers. He was Drew Brees-esque in the way that he was distributing the football, getting it to different playmakers. They have a great offense. They have great receivers. Usually that has to be the case in order to be here. They have a great offensive line, and bringing that up, I think, is right for Detroit. But they've got a pocket quarterback who uses his arm strength and his decision-making to win. And Brock Purdy, he's got some playmaker to him,

but mostly it's a distributor. It's playing point guard it's getting the ball into the hands of debo samuel who if he has is going to be a different story than it was for san francisco getting it to brandon iuk doesn't matter how fast it gets there doesn't matter if it's perfect it just needs to get to the right place that's what he does right and then on the other side in the afc you have dudes who came here from Mars, aliens, guys who make no sense, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and then we could throw Josh Allen in here as well. I mean, these are the three best quarterbacks in the NFL. We're the AFC at the end,

easily. Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, in whatever order you want, those are the three best. I don't think anybody can be rated higher than mahomes but these are the three best quarterbacks and when you watch them play one thing is very very clear playmaking off schedule things go wrong they make it right and all of them have done that in spades in order to get here. And Loaded Guitars asks, what do you think the Vikings organization learned this weekend? Well, the number one thing should be, because we've talked a lot about Buffalo here to start the show, because it just ended and it was a huge tragedy and everything else. Detroit's in the NFC championship game. I mean, that's what they learned. I mean, of course the Packers were this close to facing them. And that, you know, Jordan Love throws across his body Favre style and they're not

facing the Packers, but they were really close. And through three quarters, they had San Francisco on the ropes. These are the teams that you have to compete with for the next, I don't know how many years. Where are these teams going is a question. Where's green Bay going? Where's Detroit going? Is Detroit more likely to be like this for years or like a one hit wonder? I would say more likely to be like this for years, because when you look at the players that were central to Detroit winning against Tampa Bay to reach championship weekend and who also played a role in beating the Rams. Who are we talking about? We're talking about Jared Goff, who I believe is not 30 years old yet, so he's got plenty of prime to go.

Aminra Saint-Brown, superstar wide receiver, one of the best. I mean, he catches that ball, and this now feels many hours ago, catches the ball on third down and long where they need to get a first down and drags two defenders for a first down. What a great wide receiver Aminra St. Brown is. They've got other weapons. Jamison Williams. Hey, there's a familiar name. He started to show up over and over again down the stretch. So that guy's probably going to continue to improve. He's just getting his feet underneath him after the ACL and after the issue with the gambling. But as the season went along, all of a sudden he was there. Sam Laporta could be a top

five tight end already. I think he is. Penne Sewell. What a monster he was today. Had an argument for the best player on the field, Penny Sewell. Guess what? Just drafted a couple years ago. Frank Ragnow, he was getting the post-game interview. He was so good. Another guy who's in his prime. And on their defensive side, did you see Aiden Hutchinson?

Again, a megastar. And here's the thing about defensive ends who rush the passer. They do it every single year. That's not a position that flies up and down. And so Detroit can go into this off season. And as of this moment, have more cap space than the Vikings, and they can spend to continue to improve on the defensive side on a team that has already reached the NFC championship. If you're looking at that and saying anything less than, we have a lot of work to do and it's not happening around our 36-year-old quarterback who's going to be expensive.

If there's any other reaction, I don't know what it is. I don't know how you could look at what happened and be like, yeah, all right, we should have been right there with him. No, you're not right there with him. You're not close to being right there with them. Uh, not Detroit, not San Francisco. And in the regular season, that's fine. You played a close game or two against Detroit. You beat San Francisco one night when they didn't have Debo Samuel. That's great. Uh, but that does not equate to playing on their level to get to this point in playoff football. And also you're losing players from last year anyway.

The other thing is too, that you have to learn is that, you know, Detroit, if you go back three years, Detroit is such a mess. Three years ago, Dan Campbell takes over, go back three years, Detroit is such a mess. Three years ago, Dan Campbell takes over. Go back and look. Search it. It'll be fun. If you type in Dan Campbell introductory press conference into Twitter, just take a look at some reactions.

People are saying this guy's a fool, has no idea what he's doing. Look at this dweeb. This guy's nuts. He's going to be fired in a year well the reason he's not fired is because well one he's got a really good offensive coordinator but is because they spent a ton of draft capital high draft capital where jameer gibbs got criticized as a pick rightfully all of you who understand uh positional value yeah but you know what even if he hadn't worked out they had a bunch of other picks they had two other guys in the well they had another

guy in the first round two other guys in the second round a couple of them have worked out laporta brian branch is a good player because they stocked up draft picks by moving everything that they could out of there to get draft capital and rebuild their roster. They took a long-term vision and it ended up paying off in huge dividends. The same thing goes for the Green Bay Packers drafting Jordan Love, taking a long-term vision, not spending huge dollars to bring back Devontae Adams because they knew that at some point that this was all going to come to an end and they needed to draft receivers. So they drafted a bunch of receivers, Christian Watson, Jaden Reed, and develop some players drafted some tight ends. And now here it's

starting to come to fruition. But if you were to bet, which way does green Bay go? Probably not down from here with their quarterback who just started playing like an all-world quarterback in the second half of the year. Made a big mistake at the end of the game. But is that guy going anywhere? Probably not. That's the big takeaway is that when you look at Detroit, you see a team whose general manager took over, had a clear clear vision and executed that vision now the vikings

in the competitive rebuild it's muddy just in itself just in trying to say competitive rebuild is kind of like huh and the general manager has had to explain it about three or four different times at the podium to us because nobody really quite understands what it means. But I think we saw going back to last off season that tearing parts of it down and trying to rebuild them is possible. If you hit on a player like Ivan Pace, you make some signings like Byron Murphy to fill up the team. But what you really need is stars. You really need a deep team filled with really, really good players in order to get on the level as Detroit, on the level as San Francisco. And that usually does not happen unless you draft them.

Or you can make a trade for them because you have so much cap space and draft capital built up, which the Vikings once again do not. The Vikings have two, two top 100 draft picks, two. The Lions have four this year. That's what it does to tear down. You can call it whatever you want to call it, but fully rebuilding long-term vision has come to fruition and created history for the Detroit Lions. One of the reasons that they always struggled, I think, with Matthew Stafford, they were always hoping that one more signing, one coaching change, whatever, was going to do it, and they were flailing around Stafford. It's ironic that they move on from Stafford,

but he's the key piece in them finally taking the right approach. It's very simple. All I learned from Mahomes and Josh Allen is one, you get that guy in the draft. It's the only way you get them. You got to take them in the first round, but if you get them, oh my God, you are playing for something all the time. If you get them, I don't know if it's Bo Nix. I don't know if it's JJ McCarthy. I don't know if it's Jaden Daniels, but there might be one of them. And I'm going to reach myself, my hand in the mystery bag and take one and hope, because look at where these teams are at when they hit the lottery.

And they weren't even the first quarterbacks taken. Look at what happened to them. And when Kansas city traded up, there's another one go back and look a lot of draft analysts i don't know about this i don't know about this trade up for my homes alex smith's pretty good okay i don't know about this drafting a quarterback and tearing down for the bills they've got tyrod taylor trust me trust me nobody tried to well actually me on that one about Tyrod Taylor.

People there thought he was really good. And he was a top 10 quarterback by PFF in 2017 when the Bills decided to move on. You can do it. You can do it. But you won't get the big prize unless you put your hand in the mystery bag. And the Vikings, I think from that, you have to take that away. That even if you get a decent quarterback, you can win with them. You can compete with them in the NFC still for now until freaks show up here

in the NFC. You've got a chance to have Brock Purdy-esque throwing to Justin Jefferson and at least compete. That's if it only kind of works out. And if it really works out, then the worst thing that's happening to you is your kicker missing wide right in front of all of America in a huge, massive playoff home game against the greatest quarterback ever. And if that's the worst fate you suffer, then oh, well. And you know what? If you fail, if you draft the wrong guy, well, Buffalo drafted the wrong guy and EJ Manuel. And eventually they drafted the right guy because you got to keep trying. And so that's, I mean, that's the lesson there, but really playmaking mobility. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. And even if Jared Goff has gotten

there without it, I think that's a really unique case. That's a guy who was drafted number one overall because of his arm talent. And I'm still not convinced that he can actually beat San Francisco, but what did we see from most of the other quarterbacks, arm talent, mobility, special skills that you only get from guys who are drafted in the first round. Most of the time, I know Brock Purdy was not. So that's kind of what I would take away. And I apologize. That was a very long answer, but it was a lot of me watching football thinking, how do you get there? How do you get there? It's what everybody's fan base is thinking. How does the team that I cover go from where they are today with their roster,

with their quarterback situation, with their GM, with their roster, with their quarterback situation, with their GM, with their coach, with their franchise to be so tortured in the playoffs, to be playing the best quarterback ever and have a kick to tie it at 27, 27. That's where you're trying to be. And they have a long, long way to go until they get there. Hamza says, Matt, I think other than the first three quarterbacks, Caleb Drake and Daniels Bonix is the most playmaking ability and extending plays and escaping pressure. Penix is like a left-handed Kirk and JJ McCarthy is raw. Well here, so here's something that sort of has stuck in my craw a little bit. I don't even know what a craw is, but it has bugged me a little bit over the years, is anybody who doesn't run is called Kirk. I don't think that's true.

And I certainly don't think it's ever been true for Jared Goff. I have never thought that Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins have been similar, other than they don't run. End of story. I think they play a lot differently. Number one, the football travels way faster out of Jared Goff's hand than it does Kirk Cousins. Number two,

I saw a great stat from NFL Next Gen that Jared Goff was the least sacked quarterback when he was blitzed. The man gets rid of the football. He sees everything. He's got great vision and in the pocket and he completes passes everywhere. He distributes brilliantly and he does it more on a week to week basis than the Kirk roller coaster. So I think he's a better decision maker. I think he gets rid of the ball much more often rather than taking sacks. And he's got a much stronger arm to fit it into tighter windows to where he doesn't have to throw with the same level of anticipation as Kirk Cousins. And I think that's a big difference. And there's a reason why the guy was drafted number one. So when we look at Penix,

what is Penix skill? His skill is not just accuracy, which is pretty good, but it's really that he's got a cannon. It's that he doesn't take sacks and he's got a monster cannon. So I think a better comp for Penix is actually Jared Goff. And when you bring up Bo Nix, I'm with you on Bo Nix. I think Bo Nix is more of a playmaker. And I think he does more things under pressure to escape, but also has the arm talent to push the ball down the field. And if you were asking me right now, Bo Nix or Michael Pennix, I would probably take Bo Nix by a hair, but I like his playmaking a little bit more. So I agree with you there. And JJ McCarthy, I'm not really sure. I mean, you're right. Raw is right. It's probably going to take an entire year. At the same time,

maybe you should get a Gardner Minshew and take a year because are you close to what we just saw? We saw some great football, by the way. Great football these last two days. Jared TG says, I don't see much reason for Detroit to fall off hard. Biggest risk of that happening is when Ben Johnson leaves. Yep. Yep. I totally agree with that. Plenty of future hope for that team as long as they keep building. That's a hundred percent, right? That you do have to have a bit of a concern. If you're Detroit, that Ben Johnson will get a head coaching job and you end up like Philadelphia where it's not the same, but look at the age of their playmakers. They're they're young. They're just, they got LaPorta St. Brown Williams. Reynolds is a veteran, but he's not that old.

So they've got everybody. And Kalief Raymond is on that team. He hasn't even been playing because he's been banged up, but he's on that team as well. But those, the core pieces are very young. And on the offensive line, their best player, Penesul, young dude, not going anywhere. So they have so much to build on

for the next offensive coordinator. Phil says Chicago will be a problem post-draft. Hard to disagree with that. I mean, I don't love Chicago's franchise overall necessarily the way that they're, well, you got Kevin Warren coming in there now, the way they've been run is Matt Eberflus a good enough coach. He is good enough to have a good defense. And if they draft Caleb Williams and he develops into the next guy who does this stuff, then once again, you're chasing from behind and chasing from behind. So there is an answer. There is an answer for this, for the Vikings, but it's only one answer, which is just to

draft a quarterback and take a long-term view. Because if you feel like you are right there, then you are wrong if you're Minnesota. And Scott appreciates the factoids all week long about the Vikings in the playoffs. The Lions have two playoff wins in eight days. The Vikings have two playoff wins in 14 years. I'm just going to let that one sit for a second.

That is absolutely wild. Absolutely wild that that has happened. Yeah. And Nick says the Lions are loaded with great players on rookie contracts. They'll extend golf this off season. And they and so this is the thing about when it comes to Kirk and the expensive contract and so forth it's never been impossible to win with an expensive quarterback it's only impossible if the other players are also expensive and in the vikings case justin jefferson and christian derisaw in the coming years and derisaw maybe a little bit more down the road but justin jefferson's about to be very expensive and because you haven't drafted key players, that means other players who are expensive

have to be brought in to take those spots. And then if somebody turns out to be a bus, like Marcus Davenport is assigning, it kills you as much as drafting a bust player. And you're hoping and relying on everyone staying healthy. Like the Vikings, they got rid of their trainer and you never know what goes on behind the scenes. But I thought, oh yeah, you got hit by the injury bug and then get away, you know, get rid of your trainer. So that just like, just like clockwork with NFL teams, sort of like if a baseball team doesn't hit for a month, they fire the hitting coach. But if you get hit with the injury bug and you're a thin team that's just spent a bunch on free agents, well, what happens? We've seen that before. 2021, we saw that. And you usually don't get

there anyway. There's really only one route and it's not an easy route. It takes time and it takes work. Detroit just didn't get there yesterday. They didn't decide, oh, well, we just want to rebuild. So poof, it's going to happen. There were some mistakes that they made. There were some signings that didn't necessarily work. Some of the corners have not turned out when they were hoping they would turn around the defense. Every draft pick hasn't been a home run.

And yet when you have a million draft picks and a gazillion dollars of cap space, you can make mistakes and it still ends up working out for you. The same with Chicago and chase Claypool. It's a horrible trade. And yet look where they are because one mistake doesn't ruin you as it has for the Vikings. And so long,

uh, Marty says, not a Zimmer guy, but Zimmer knew that no one was going to be able to build a championship caliber team paying Kirk that much of the cap. Kirk's demand for short-term high cap hit deals. Well, that is a very key point, Marty. I totally agree with you that if you were to sign something like a five-year whatever type of contract and try to really push it down the road and so forth. But he was never willing to do that. He wanted all that guaranteed money, which meant huge cap

hits. And right from the start, 2018, 19 and 20 huge cap hits. And it's very hard to work around them. Uh, you know, the way that the Rams did it with Matthew Stafford was to have him have a smaller cap hit for this year because they structured the contract differently. Let's see. Marley says they also hired someone who knew how to evaluate talent. Vikings hired a number cruncher with no talent evaluation experience who punted an entire draft class away. Well, one thing I would say about that is that that sort of doesn't acknowledge how anything works in football. So the general manager does technically have the draft picks on his name, but it is an effort of an entire organization to make the draft picks.

And something that can't be forgotten with the draft gone wrong in 2022 is that Ed Donatel was the defensive coordinator. And what happens is you usually have a bunch of players who fit the defensive coordinator and the offensive coordinator and the scheme that you want. And you pick from those players. Is it any surprise that Kevin O'Connell's favorite receiver, Jordan Addison, turned out to be good? He fits with what O'Connell wants to do. They got the ball to him. And Brian Flores is quarterback. Makai Blackman worked out for him.

But Louis Seen and Andrew Booth Jr. were drafted to play in very different systems than what Brian Flores does. Flores wants aggressive corners who are good tacklers. Well, Andrew Booth Jr. is more of a finesse corner whose best trait is tracking receivers in the middle of routes. And Louis seen as a deep safety, which is really necessary. And I'm not saying it would have worked out anyway, but it's really necessary for a Donatello or Vic Fangio system. Think about Eddie Jackson in Chicago. So they drafted players who weren't going to be a fit. And then, you know, they've got a guard, they've got a running back out of it, but to just point at the GM after one bus draft and say, you don't know how to evaluate talent. It sort of misunderstands

that he's not the one that's evaluating the talent. That's the scouting department. That's the coaching. And then he ultimately makes the decision and we put it on him and he deserves that because he's leading the entire group. But to it on him and he deserves that because he's leading the entire group but to just say he doesn't know talent because he's a numbers guy is just not really understanding how anything works so um that and i think what quacey adafo is there to do is to lead the organization in a collaborative manner and i don't mean to sound like them but but I mean, in terms of like listening to his scouts, gathering their information, gathering the coach's information and what they want and trying to pick out the groceries for them to make the

meal. And that if you think it's just Kwesi type in type, type, type numbers into his computer and then like plucking players who we watched on YouTube. Like that's not how it works. And not only that, but Kwesi actually went against the numbers in his first draft. He went against the numbers in his trade down, which a lot of models did not like. He also went against the numbers in positional value because he was drafting for need to try to fill desperate spots. And what do we make of that? Well, that's what happens when you have Kirk is you have to win now. So we need a safety, which they thought they did. We need a corner. We need a guard. Let's throw them in right away. And what happened? It didn't end up working out. So there's a lot that goes into that.

I think that just insulting the guy in charge is really not like hitting the nail on the head there. But what Kweisi D'Affomente is here to do is to execute a vision in the same way that we've seen from Green Bay and from Detroit. And the vision is competitive rebuild. The vision is compete in 2022, take away a lot of parts, get a lot of young players in there in 2023. It was supposed to be get to the playoffs, but your quarterback got hurt. And then in 2024, I'm assuming this was the vision from the beginning based on them not extending Kirk was to draft a quarterback and use the cap space to rebuild around them. So let's see it. And look, if they don't do that, then you'll hear a lot more criticism from me about the general manager and the vision and everything they're doing.

But if we're going to say doesn't evaluate talent correctly, well, we're going to have to work on that because that's not really how the process goes. And also, you can't just ignore that they drafted an awesome wide receiver that matters a lot to the future and found an undrafted linebacker who was literally the best highest graded rookie linebacker in the league this year. And Makai Blackman was the fourth highest cornerback. So we can't throw that out. Another thing too, is he's made 14 draft picks. Rick Spielman made like 80. I mean i mean we're gonna have to give it a little more time folks if you've been listening to the show then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year just go to prizepicks.com slash purple use the code purple

for a first deposit match up to 100 and let me tell you how it works. If you haven't heard us talk about it enough yet, or you haven't tried it yet, very simple. There are yardage totals on prize picks. You either pick more or less and boom, each week has been a roller coaster ride of fun. And the best part is that when I have a bad week, I didn't lose much. It doesn't cost much to play. You can turn 10 bucks into 250 very easily. And if things go sideways for you, you're not out a whole heck of a lot of money. That is prizepix.com slash purple, just more or less on yardage totals. And you are in prizepix.com slash purple, the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. Loaded Guitar says, after we get a quarterback, we need to build from the trenches out.

So the trenches are a thing to talk about here as well. Because if you compare something that can't be ignored is even with the Kansas City Chiefs, whose offensive line has been a little bit spotty at the tackle position, their guard and center positions are really good. And in their biggest moments in this game, of course it was Mahomes. All over the field, it's Mahomes. But Isaiah Pacheco is slamming through the middle of that line and making some plays behind the guards and

center. They were able to run the ball. Green Bay was able to run the ball. Detroit got a couple of huge runs off with Jameer Gibbs. Having a complete offense with a complete offensive line that can also run block and not just pass block is a big deal. And on the defensive line side, every team that's left has superstars rushing the passer. The Detroit lions do not have a great defense overall, but that one guy, Aiden Hutchinson is a whole defense on himself. I mean, he is unbelievable. He's better than Daniil Hunter. He's probably a top five player at his position already. So how do you get that? How do you get a Nick Bosa?

Well, usually you got to draft those guys pretty high, but you got to have them. So, uh, Chad says, is there any way to gain more draft picks before April? Um, I, yeah, I don't even think they're going to have comp picks. I don't think, uh,. Not really other than a trade, but who do you trade? Of course, I'm sure the chat will say Justin Jefferson, but let's say they don't. So what are you going to trade? Brian O'Neill? He's got a huge cap hit. He's coming off of his worst year because he had a lot of struggles down the stretch injury related. Of course, you're not trading Christian Derrissaw.

He's not even 25 years old yet, so you're not doing that. Who do you have to trade? The only way to get more draft capital, you guys aren't going to want to hear it, it's to trade down is the only way to get more draft capital. And I don't know that you really love that. I don't know that you really love that the last time that they did it, as judging by the other person's comment there. From Clifford, in reality, there are only six quarterbacks

that are worth these mega contracts. Other than that, keep turning the position over until you get one. So, yeah, that's why I look at it as in there's two different ways to do it, which is if you have an expensive quarterback who is really, really good, like Jared Goff, but maybe not Mahomes, then you are going to have to hit on like seven other draft picks. Sam Bradford with the Vikings was one of the highest paid and cap hit quarterbacks in 2017, but the Vikings hit on a bunch of draft picks right before that. Anthony Barr, Trey Wayans, Eric Kendrick, Stefan Diggs, Daniil Hunter. It's the only way that, and Delvin Cook that year as well, although he got hurt early in the season, but the point just being that you can do it with an expensive quarterback, but you can only do it if you nail a bunch of draft picks.

And in the Vikings' recent history, they've nailed a few, and they've nailed them really good, which is Justin Jefferson and Christian Derusov. But they have not hit on a bevy of them. And also, since Quasey got here, they haven't had the draft picks. They spent one of them on the second rounder on TJ Hawkinson. Good trade, really good player. That matters, too, to using the assets that you have to get a star player at 95 catches. Can't ignore that. You know, I always get the like, well, actually, you know, whatever.

But like that's that's the use of an asset to go out and get somebody who is a star player, a Pro Bowl player for your team. That's better than just drafting some rando in the second round, especially if you don't believe in yourself. I don't know if he does or not, but you have to hit on a bunch of inexpensive players. Well, the Vikings are going to have some expensive players soon. And the only way to do it is going to be to have an inexpensive quarterback like $800,000 Brock Purdy. Uh, Dan says, roll the dice on a quarterback. Uh, the least likely outcome is that you are stuck in the mushy middle every year. It either works or not. I am okay with that risk better than the same milk toast result every year. Yeah, I think. And you

know what? The biggest thing that I took away from this weekend and nobody enjoys more than me sitting and watching football. I'm sure there are people who enjoy it just as much many of you, but nobody enjoys it more. And I got a rocking chair right next to me. I'm pushing on it right now. You can't see it, but it's right here. I just bought it. And I got a TV over there and I sat in the rocking chair and I rocked back and forth and I watched football. It was great. I had about 11 of these diet, Dr. Peppers. Oh, I had a great time, but you know what my biggest takeaway was? I don't want to be here in the divisional round every year, year after year, after year, talking to you guys about other teams games. I would much rather be covering

the minnesota vikings going out to san francisco for the nfc championship game or something that's where that's where my mind is at is how do they get there because that's where i'd want to be i imagine you know the reporters who are covering the game the fans who are going to the game and the atmosphere and that's what that's what, that's what everybody, that's where everybody wants to be. It's where the fans want to be. I mean, I am still tense from what happened at the end of that Buffalo game. It's been 50 minutes of talking to you guys. I feel like it's been five. That's how, that's how jacked up we get about football. And yet what I'm missing is I'd love to be booking my travel in the postseason to go cover these games. And so I can't help but think as I watch all of it, how far away they are, how they get there, what the plan should be, and how they can look like these teams who are there.

And we've been here many times, unfortunately. At least last year did have a playoff game. Didn't work out. Jared says, I like what the Vikings have been doing. They need to keep building and not get ahead of themselves. Don't worry about winning eight games instead of six. Don't worry about drafting players and maximizing them. And this is why I like you guys.

You guys are very sharp, you listeners to the show. And I appreciate the comment section. People complain about comment sections. 95% of the time, you guys are right right on it and that's right on it don't worry about eight versus six and you're not talking to quesadilla fomenta there i think you're talking to mark and ziggy will don't worry about eight versus six what they what but what did they do this year they still worried about eight versus six. I mean, you get to the trade deadline. Kirk has just popped his Achilles. Teams are calling about Daniil Hunter and you're telling him no. How? Why? Don't we look back at that now? And, you know, I think I was okay with it at the

time. Like, hey, well, you know, they're going to try to compete and maybe they didn't get the offer they wanted. I regret if I wasn't adamant enough about how much they should have traded to Neil Hunter. I should have been because now you get there and you look at this roster and you go, wait a minute, there's nothing here. And the Neil Hunter is probably going to leave anyway. And you could have had a second round draft pick. That could be a star. That could be Sam Laporta. That could be Brian branch. What are you doing here? That could be Christian Watson. There's lots of second rounders who have become good players and you kept him for what? And Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said that guys in the locker room wanted to keep fighting. Well,

congratulations. When do they not? When do football players ever say, you know what I want to do with this season? I want to give up. I was probably too forgiving because even trading for Josh Dobbs and getting those two wins and not now you're not drafting top five. And instead we're talking about 11. And instead of talking about Jaden Daniels, we're talking about trading up for Jaden Daniels. Instead of talking about Drake May, we're talking about no chance. We're talking about Bo Nix, which may end up working out I'm not sure but that's not where you should have been after Kirk got injured because it was over then it was completely over then and they tried to keep it going and trade for a quarterback and gosh I mean if they would have traded we got

during the season well what if they traded for Flacco? I mean, right now, tell me that that would have mattered. You would have what? Probably gotten the playoffs. Maybe the patients that we've seen to this point. Uh, well, you know, the thing is about being fired is if you stick with Kirk and I've got a few people I could point to, uh, you get fired. And if you draft the wrong guy, a quarterback, you get fired. So what do you want to do? Nothing. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Like pick one, pick one. And yet, you know what, if you pick the wrong guy and guess what, the guy who picked DJ manual got fired. And so we'll quasi it off. I meant to have you picked the wrong guy, but you know, if you go eight and nine next year, after giving Kirk cousins, whatever number of millions of dollars, you will also probably get fired. I mean, how many years?

Think about how ugly it started to get with Kwesi and Kevin O'Connell and the public opinion surrounding them and the Wilfs not going down to the locker room after the loss against the Packers. Think about how tense it started to get. And this was a free season. This was like, oh, Kirk went down. There's nothing left to see here. Right? yet it's still that's football that's how that's how it gets uh people

start pointing fingers and you think well kevin o'connell's got a great culture for now but if you miss the playoffs again i don't know whose culture survives missing multiple seasons of playoffs in the nfl and oh and what owners say oh yeah let's just keep going in this direction this is totally I don't know whose culture survives missing multiple seasons of playoffs in the NFL. And what owners say, oh, yeah, let's just keep going in this direction. This is totally fine. I mean, I don't think too many. So if you draft quarterback and he ends up being a bus, yeah, you'll be out. But if you do the same thing over and over again, you'll also, uh, you know, uh, be out as well. So, uh, Marty says golf has had a top five offense for the last five years. Is that a still a game manager? No, uh, I don't know who said it

was a game manager. That's not what he is to me. Uh, he is a taller drew breeze without quite the precision and maybe does more dumb stuff, he is a is a tremendous tremendous passer uh matthew dan marino played in the 1985 super bowl i did i say he never played in one i meant he never won one if i said he never played in one i meant he never won but similar to josh allen the way that dan marino was there over and over and over and over again and he just 90 i mean 94 should have been dan marino's year he was right there and it didn't work out and it's felt that way for josh allen time and time and time again um man juice boy that's tough says would there be a worthy quarterback willing to play here two years while we draft and train under them? You know, I think that two years is probably too many for having to develop somebody. But if it's one year, then there's a handful of guys that will be available for starting quarterbacks.

Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew. I would guess that Baker Mayfield ends up coming back. But yeah, Andy Dalton, Andy Dalton is always a great pick for this because he can get you to be competitive. You're not really going to win anything, but you're also not going to win anything with Kirk cousins either. So you might as well just have that player there in the locker room and helping develop your guy. that's the approach that they probably have to take if that player is not ready. But more likely than not, you just want that guy to step in. I know that it's worked to develop guys over a couple of years, but it's also worked if they're ready to just put them in and figure it out. And my thing would be this. If you can't survive without Kirk Cousins, why are you here for Kevin O'Connell?

Why are you here? If you can't draft and develop a quarterback and create a system for him, then what are you doing here? Then why not just have some defensive coach? If you can't overcome a young quarterback and figure out how to meld your offense around him, Bobby Sloak figured out how to do it. I mean, there's a lot of other people who have. So figure it out.

Figure out which quarterback will fit for you. Figure out how to mold around it. There's really no excuses and no reason to go back to the same thing over and over again. And it just really had to hit hard this weekend. How tough the track is going to be for the Vikings going forward. And also you just can't miss it where these other teams are at. So Mike says the Vikings were one score away from their worst nightmare. Packers and Lions title game, by the way,

players on both lines and Packers. Now I have experience in multiple playoff games. You're right, Mike. And look, it's a, that's fine. Divisions are hard.

Football's hard. It's hard to win. So you got put in a tough division for the future, but you have to act accordingly. And this is where I would say the one way to justify that the Viking, what the Vikings did in 2022 would be that the division was very bad. And so they looked at it and said, why tank when we could cruise to a division win here? And they did.

And we could be in the dance and we could compete. I understand it. Maybe it wouldn't have been my approach, but I understand why they would look at it. Maybe it wouldn't have been my approach, but I understand why they would look at it. But if you're going to let that determine how you went about the off season, then you have to let this determine it too. And realize what Mike just said, the Packers got to multiple playoff games. Their quarterback got playoff experience. They have lots of young players, young receivers. They have a really good coach. Their coach is better than your coach. And in Detroit, is there any argument? Their coach is better than your coach. He's in the NFC championship. I mean, you got an uphill battle here. So how are you going to, how are you going to get there? How are you going to pull even? Uh, Alexander says lions hire intern Haley and they

make it to the championship game coincidence. Let's not forget that intern Haley, and for those who are newer to the show, Haley English was an intern for me. And she did analytics content for Purple Insider, co-host of the podcast sometimes. And she went to intern in the analytics department for the Detroit Lions and joined them. And now she is with a franchise. She'll get a ring if they pull it off, which is really, really cool for us. She's brilliant. She's a star.

We knew that. Everybody who listened to the show knew how smart Haley was. So I'm not surprised. I don't know if she did it, but she's had a hand in it. She's had a role in a team that's going to an NFC Championship game. I could not be more thrilled for Haley. All I did was text her a bunch of exclamation points in footballs when she got it. I'm so excited for her.

So shout out to Haley English in the Lions department. And also, I'm sorry, she was also the one that used analytics to identify Ivan Pace Jr. as the secret superstar of the draft, and she was right about that too. So she may end up being on a pretty good track in the nfl and hopefully she remembers us when that happens um so uh let me see here lots of lots of really good comments still i've been ranting and i have let them get a little bit too far as i often do anthony says we need talent evaluators and scouts who actually

know how to see good linemen on both sides. We usually are good at picking out with skilled positions players, but not so much in the trenches. I mean, is it any coincidence that the best player they have in the trenches was a first round draft pick Christian Derrison and they take swings at the others. Now Garrett Bradbury is a first round draft pick, Christian Derrissaw. And they take swings at the others. Now, Garrett Bradbury is a first rounder. They've taken swings at the others that haven't worked out. But the other great guy is a second rounder. I mean, they've invested on the line.

But how much money is on the line? Is there any coincidence that, yeah, the first rounder with the investment has worked out? And who have they signed? Who have they signed? Who have they been able to bring in with big money? Was Dalton Reisner the most money they've ever spent on the offensive line and free agency since Kirk got here? That can't be true. Is that Riley Reif other than now, but they signed him before Kirk got here. So is that right? Like 5 million bucks or whatever on Dalton Reisner? I forget what it was. It wasn't

that much. He might be because they were patchworking it, patchworking it, patchworking it. It's going to take money to invest on the offensive line and on the defensive line. It has to take investment there too. You can't not draft anyone on the D line for nine straight drafts or whatever it's been. And be like oh yeah we'll just develop the next everson griffin usually doesn't work that way usually you have to pay him a ton of money trade for him and pay a ton of money or draft him super high aiden hutchinson and nick bosa didn't come out of nowhere uh and then you can i mean you can fill in the rest with some savvy signings i mean i like what the ravens have done with savvy signings, but look at their players,

Rokon Smith, they paid him a bunch of money. Kyle Hamilton, it's come up a few times that they drafted him in the first round. So, I mean, it's usually not as complicated as we make it seem. So what would a reasonable free agent salary look like for the Vikings for a quarterback. Well, Baker Mayfield only made $1 million this year. Probably like 10. If it's Gardner Minshew, probably like 10. Jacoby Brissett, 10 million. It's probably not that much. Maybe you do it over two years or something like that.

But Roger says definitely defensive line needs to get stronger in the trenches and more physical. They don't even have any players right now, man. They literally don't have any players. Under contract is Harrison Phillips and Patrick Jones. They don't even have players. It's not just getting stronger. It's getting human beings. It's just getting human beings that exist.

But if you're, I mean, if you're Daniel Hunter, are you coming back? Why would you, why would you come back to this roster where you're just going to get double, triple, quadruple teamed and you know, have to battle through that and not win again. I mean, if I'm Hunter and I'm watching this and I know that Hunter told me on locker clean out day that he was going to go to the Texans game against the Browns. I mean, if I'm Hunter and I'm watching this and I know that Hunter told me on locker clean out day that he was going to go to the Texans game against the Browns. I mean, if you watch the Texans play and you're Daniel Hunter, are you like, Oh, I want to go back to Minnesota. No. I mean, you're like, I want to join one of these teams. One of these teams that reminds me of 2017. And if Hunter goes, Harrison Smith goes, you don't have anything left to work with at all.

So, you know, I mean, I agree, Christian, that Hunter would be good for building around on the defense. That is true. But what's hard about that is how expensive it's going to be. And if you're building an entire defense, it's just not easy to spend a huge amount of dollars on one player. That's what makes the whole thing tricky, just in general. Benjamin says, with the NFC North, two out of top four teams in the NFC on the rise, and the Bears holding two of the top picks, including number one, we are closer to dropping in the division than rising.

It's actually pretty dire. It doesn't have to be. Just come back to this thing. Like if you try to play for next year, if you try to say, look, we're, we're going to chase the Superbowl next year, you're going to open in Vegas as an over under of seven and a half games. That's just the facts. If the Vikings try to sign a bunch of players and bring back Kirk, that's what you're going to open. And you're going to hope as they always have to, that you just kind of prove everybody wrong or have everything random go, right. It's only dire. If you let it be, uh, if you execute the plan all the way through, then it doesn't have to be dire. It can be

a situation where you are doing the same thing as your competitors did, which was to lay out from point A to point B. How are we going to go from an old team with a bad culture and older players and expensive guys and cap screwed to younger players, cap healthy, better culture, point A, point B, legitimately competitive at the end of point B. They've started on that way. And to your point earlier, I'll defend drafts going wrong because everyone has them go wrong in the whole league sometimes. The teams that are playing in the championship weekend have all had draft picks go wrong, all of them. But you do have to hit on draft picks.

And that is one. And usually the way to hit on draft picks is to have more high draft picks. So you have to gather those high draft picks. How do you get them? Do you get them by having Josh Dobbs win you two freaking pointless games in the middle of the season? Do you win them by keeping a defensive end who's going to get a bunch of sacks and help you on defense and leave anyway? No. So that wasn't great that even the things that they needed the most, they did not execute going to get those things. And the answer is probably next year to have a tough season, to have a rookie in there

doing everything he can, but probably not enough and have a defense that's struggling and a schedule. Honestly, if you looked at it, it's not very easy and to win six games and to draft high and to go from there. And then you go into the next season and put a lot of money into it. And if they did that, I would be all for it. I mean, I w I would be a hundred percent behind it. If they decided next year, Hey, look at what Detroit did. Look at what Chicago did. We don't have to do that extreme, but they took long-term and they got there quicker than most people

thought they would championship weekend, Detroit lions guys. And you could say, nobody saw it coming, but we all did, right? Everybody who's here watching right now, if you're here watching me and you listen to this show, you knew Detroit was coming because you saw what they were doing the whole time. You saw the timeline, you saw the strategy because you saw what they were doing the whole time. You saw the timeline. You saw the strategy. You saw how they were building the pieces. And with the high draft capital that they were building the pieces to get here, I don't think they'll beat San Francisco. San Francisco is a much longer built project, but I mean, this, this is how you do it. This is how you get here. Most of the time

they had to have even San Francisco a couple of bad years where they drafted some really good players at the top. So, you know, Mark says I would draft defense and sign a stopgap. Quarterback looking to draft next year, maybe Chedur Sanders from Colorado. You know, if it was me, I would probably agree with you, Mark, which is to go all the way down and allow life to take its course in the NFC North and try to pick the top quarterback for next year. But I don't think they're quite in the position to be there because they still have a lot of good pieces on offense and can have a competitive team.

So I, I think I would rather just get started today on the quarterback. And if it goes horribly wrong, if you draft Bo Nix and you hate him and it goes horribly wrong, you do it again. Just do what Arizona did. Just do it again. Melanie says, based on what you're saying, and I don't disagree, we should trade Jefferson and bank the draft picks. So the way I look at it is this. And I think that the playoffs has pushed more people toward this because of what I'm saying, which is let's name the players on the roster. Oh, wait, there aren't many. So I get it.

Draft picks. That's how you're going to get there. I was just saying that the thing about trading Jefferson is you also, in order to get somewhere great, need truly great players and not just good players. And you already have one with Justin Jefferson and he's not old. He's not even close to old. He's very young and can be amazing for eight more years. So based on that, I don't think it's got to be an eight year rebuild. I think it's much more of a one. It's much more of a next year's really hard on you.

And then the following season, you're planning on being right there with the rest of the division. So don't bail on Jefferson for draft picks at the moment. I don't think that would be a good idea. And the other thing is, if that time ever comes, someone will give you those draft picks with Jefferson. If you ever get to a spot where you feel like, well, we need to do this or he wants to be traded, it'll be there. But I, I just can't get around to that spot.

He's just way too good. You can have a setback year with a great player and then get back up faster because of him. And everything in the league is about setting up that quarterback for success. Are you setting up the quarterback for success by moving on from Jefferson? I, I, I struggle to see that, but I understand more why everyone would be watching the playoffs and going, these teams have so many good players. That's how you get there. Uh, Alexander says, are you going to

question firing KOC if he wins four games next year? Uh, I think that if your plan is to have a dip and come out of that dip quickly, then you don't fire Kevin O'Connell if they struggle next year. And I wouldn't, I would ride that out because we've seen that he's competent as a coach. And then the expectations would be higher for him to bring it out of it. I mean, Detroit did not fire Dan Campbell when they were winless through 11 weeks or whatever. And one in six to start the following season, they wrote it out with him. San Francisco did not fire Kyle Shanahan when they won four games and six games in two out of three years. They stuck with it. Even going back, how about Cincinnati sticking with Marvin Lewis for many

years? And they built contenders twice under Marvin Lewis because they understood how timelines work. The Vikings have struggled to understand how timelines work in the recent past. That's what we're urging them here to do every night is to figure that out. Jim says we need a tank year since they were stupid and didn't tank after winning that stupid San Francisco game. You mean in 2019 and now we miss out on top three quarterbacks. So just run with Mullins draft the best defensive tackle or best available. And that's, it's not a bad plan. The only reason that I like the plan of drafting a quarterback this year is because I look at the numbers on the three potential guys that are not at the top, not Daniels, May or Williams.

And they're all really, really good. And I, and I know Sanders is going to come out, but I'm not sure what else is going to come out. So it's like, are you putting all your eggs in the sugar Sanders basket when there's three guys right now that could be good? I also like the idea of taking shots at two instead of one, if you have to, right? If you draft one this year and then you hate him, then you could draft another one next year. And if you put it all into next year, then you're risking, well, what if we don't get that guy? What if there aren't those guys? And then we're just

kicking it down the road over and over and over and over again. And that's not what I'm looking to do. I'm, I'm very comfortable taking multiple shots at, uh, the quarterback position if I have to. Um, what about Bob says the Wilfs would have to have a difficult conversation with Kweisi and KOC that would allow them to take a step back. The Wilfs will never do that. Allow the team to be not competitive, not happening. The Wilfs, I agree, will not go for the full plan that we were just talking about, which would be all the way to the bottom. Try to get the guy back up. However, Josh Allen was a field goal away today. And this is where I go back to because I'm very familiar with the situation.

That's where I was before I moved to Minnesota to cover the Vikings is in Buffalo with Tyrod Taylor, right before they drafted Josh Allen. That's where I was. That was, I was the bills pre and post game host. Can you imagine if I was there tonight, buddy? And, you know, I did that was I was the bills pre and post game host can you imagine if I was there tonight buddy uh and you know I did reporting and I covered the team sometimes and stuff like that as a reporter so I was really immersed in all things bills at that time and it's easy to kind of forget where they were but they were a competitive team. They were eight wins, eight wins, nine wins. That's where they were. And they made the playoffs in 2017. And the step back was drafting a

quarterback and winning six. But yet everyone I knew in Buffalo was very excited about where that was going because they could see it coming together. If next season was a competitive season and you win six or seven games and you're in a lot of games and Bo Nix is good for you and your team plays hard for their coach and it looks like it's coming together, but you're not great. You guys would be thrilled because that's what my friends at Buffalo where they knew it was coming that Josh Allen and that team was going to be able to build this type of team that's playing in divisional weekend and has a drive to beat Patrick Mahomes. They had that vision.

And that's where the Vikings want to be at some point. Let's see. So we've been going for quite a while here, and I've had a great time talking with you guys. But there's going to be a lot more to come going forward. Manny and I are going to be on the show tomorrow doing our thing. And Jeremiah is always going to be back. I have heard that Courtney Cronin at some point will emerge as well for a show.

So we've got a lot to do. It suddenly hit me that the voice is kind of running a little, little thin here at the end of the show. Cause I've been doing this for a while. So yeah, you guys, you guys great, great reactions here. And I'll just give

some final thoughts, uh, that of course, yes. Um, what the Vikings watched this week should tell you this weekend should tell you how far away you are and how to get there and look at the plot that these other franchises have laid out to get there and say, that could be us. And then the other takeaway is what an amazing weekend of football. I mean, the Baltimore game wasn't much other than watching Lamar Jackson be great. Every other game was great and major credit. Can I just give this major credit to Baker Mayfield? He has turned around his career in Tampa Bay. He was a mature leader who gave everything he had. And that last pass is an amazing play for the guy to intercept it.

But what a great job by Baker Mayfield. You can't help but think here's a guy who was signed for 1.7 million, dropped into a good franchise, who has good receivers, a good offense, a good offensive coordinator, and was able to lead them to a place where the Vikings usually haven't lived. And I have a lot of respect for the way he handled himself and the way he grew up over the last couple of years from where he was in Cleveland. And I think that Baker Mayfield could have a very good rest of his career. So I was very, very impressed with that. Detroit, I mean, now it's official. They've made it. You get the championship weekend, you have made it. And on the other side, I feel for all the people in Buffalo who put so much heart and soul into this. You guys know how this is. They put so much into

this. They go out there, they shovel their stadium and you know, they year after year, after year, keep coming back and it goes wide, right. And man, that is gut wrenching, absolutely gut wrenching for Buffalo. And I do feel for them, Is Baker Mayfield a possibility for the Vikings? I think he's probably going to end up back at Tampa Bay because of how well they played this year with him. And I imagine how much he enjoyed playing for them. But if Tampa Bay wants to go a different route, I'd be surprised. But if they do, then yeah, I think Baker Mayfield would actually be

the perfect kind of bridge quarterback to stay competitive and also draft someone. Jim asked, when does Chris Trapasso show up? Oh, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming. Probably right after the Super Bowl. Usually we get together for kind of a senior bowl recap. I'm actually going to have a senior bowl.

What do you call it when you send a reporter out on a mission? What is it called? A correspondent. We're going to have a senior bowl correspondent. There's another reporter. I know who's going down to the senior bowl. He's going to cover Pennix. Bo Nick's going to come on the show from Alabama. So that's going to be cool. But Chris Trapasso from CBS sports, our draft analyst for the show will again, be doing a weekly show. He will be traveling to the combine with me and doing shows out there. There is so much to come here on the show. And I'm so,

so happy that all of you were able to join following this incredible weekend of football. I hope that you continue to come back to the channel, go to purple insider.com. If you want to see kind of all that we do here. And I just can't, can't tell you how much I appreciate everybody coming by to join to talk ball after this totally crazy day.

So we'll get into all the other stuff. We'll get into all the other draft stuff as we go forward. But for tonight, incredible, incredible football. And on to championship weekend, which will have just a boatload of storylines when we get there. So thanks, everybody, for watching. Take care and take a deep breath after this day of football. It was ridiculous. See y'all later.