Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will Lewis Cine start for Harrison Smith? Plus former Lion Glover Quin

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Matthew Coller talks about Harrison Smith being out for Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions and hints that they are going to play special teamer Josh Metellus over first-round pick Lewis Cine. Should there be concerns about Cine if he isn't playing over Metellus? Plus former Lion Glover Quin joins to analyze the matchup and comment on Cine not winning the job. And Matthew answers plenty of fan questions in between. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. We've got some fans-only questions to answer. I got a bunch after last week. Gonna try to get through a lot today. Also a conversation with Glover Quinn, former Detroit Lion. He joined the show as well, so we'll get to that in a little bit. But first, let's start off with the big news of the day from TCO Performance Center which is that Harrison Smith will be out with a concussion against the Detroit Lions which likely means that Josh Metellus is going to play over Louis Scene or at least that's the feeling that we got after asking Kevin O'Connell about who was going to replace Harrison Smith.

He heaped praise upon Josh Metellus, said that the coaches were consistently telling him that Metellus was having good practices. And as far as Louis Seen goes, well, there hasn't been much evidence so far that he's ready to go. He got in only a tiny bit against the Philadelphia Eagles but Metellus was the one who came in initially for Harrison Smith which kind of tipped their hand as to the depth chart so it is possible that Louisine could start but I have a feeling that it might be Josh Metellus who gets the majority of the work which will mean that he's going to have to go out there with Cam Bynum and two relatively inexperienced safeties against a Detroit passing game that's improved. They have one of the best wide receivers in the game in Amon Ross St. Brown. You would assume that the

safeties are going to be pretty involved as far as covering Amon Ross St. Brown. And the other thing is too, that the U S bank stadium noise does make communication very challenging. So Josh Metellus and or Louis scene, maybe they'll have some combination of both of them depending on situation and look, but it seems like Metellus is going to get the call, which of course does raise a little bit of a red flag. I wouldn't entirely put it all the way up and wave it around, but maybe, uh, maybe I'm like a quarter of the way there on Lewis scene. And I also, in my interview that we'll play later with Glover Quinn asked him his opinion. Cause Quinn was a safety himself about the first round pick not playing that much or not being far ahead.

And again, this could change on game day where they could end up using him more than I expect. It just seems that Metellus is higher on the depth chart. And, you know, what will last few days for someone like Mike Zimmer, who is criticized often for not playing rookies. But if rookies aren't ready, there isn't much you can do. I mean, you have to win right now. You can't just throw them out there. And this is not a team that took the approach that they were just going to throw guys into the deep end and let them figure it out. They kept Harrison Smith. They didn't trade him away. They, you know,

they chose to sign defensive players who were veterans to have a good defense this year and not to have a bunch of guys trying to figure it out and trying to learn on the fly. So they have to go with whoever has been the better player in training camp and in practice. And if that's Metellus, then they have to go with Metellus. And I think that there's going to be an opportunity for Lewis Seen because of his physical ability to be that next guy up as we go along in the season. That two games in is not time to call this thing and to say,

hey, Kweisi Adafomensa blew the draft and look what they did here. Because a lot of rookies struggle early on. A lot of rookies don't get in right away and then end up turning into good players. It's very hard to be patient with that to find out, but usually it takes time. So we've seen different examples of this. I mean, one of them was Laquan Treadwell was not good right away and never became good, but Brian O'Neill didn't start right away. And then it has turned out to be an excellent player.

And when Brian O'Neill got here, he weighed maybe 25 pounds less than what he weighs right now. And he developed and he had been a tight end before. And so it took him a little while to become the tackle that he became. So, you know, I don't want to say don't freak out because it definitely raises an eyebrow when there's three other safeties that are higher on the depth chart than the guy you took in the first round that was supposed to be ready because he came from Georgia. But I also don't want to declare this over in any way when we've got a long way to go before knowing if Lewis scene is going to be the future in the secondary. But it just seems as far as the depth at that position, that it looks a little bit different. Now feeling like Lewis scene is not going to be the one that

takes over there for Harrison Smith. And if that changes and he gets to play a lot and has a great game, then we'll change our feeling on it. But as of right now, the way the coaching staff talked about Josh Metellus and how they handled Harrison Smith going out during a game seems to indicate that he's going to be the guy for Sunday. And that leaves a pretty major weakness in this defense. You know, Harrison Smith did not have the best game against the Philadelphia Eagles. I still consider him one of the best safeties in the entire NFL. He was fantastic in week one against Green Bay. He has an incredible sixth sense for football, moves around all the time, is great at deceiving

quarterbacks, can still, and we'll see if they do this with him later in the season when he returns, but can still get after the quarterback if he's asked to blitz. He can cover one-on-one. I mean, Harrison Smith is still a big, big piece of this defense, even though he's not maybe the MVP level that he was in 2017. So this is a big loss and something the Vikings defense will be asked to overcome. And if we were critical of one element of the Vikings defense all off season and throughout training camp, it was depth.

And so far the depth outside of maybe DJ Wanham with a couple sacks doesn't look too good on the defensive line. It hasn't produced all that well. And the linebacker position hasn't been tested, but now the secondary will be a little bit here. And also, also Andrew Booth Jr. He's out as well, which is another like, Hey, now you're asking Cam Dantzler to really step up and bounce back from making a big mistake against Philly and giving up the long touchdown. Or we might see more of a Caleb Evans who was subbed in for him late in the game.

This is going to be a thing to keep an eye on as we go along. And they're going up against an offense that's produced a lot of points. 35 points a game. That's a lot. And Detroit is a tough test, even at home, for the Vikings. So if Metellus plays well, then you might see him continue to be Harrison Smith's backup. If they rotate them and Louis seen plays well, maybe this is his emergence and he's got a chance here. How they handle it will be one of those things that

now goes to the top of the list of things to watch between the Vikings and the Detroit Lions. So let's get to a few of your questions before the conversation with Glover Quinn. And if I don't get to enough of them, I'll answer questions even after we'll make it one big, giant, epic episode that you can listen to with your college football. So I'll answer a few, we'll get to the interview and then we'll answer some after. Let's start out with Chris via email. Says, I enjoyed you wondering, is it the scheme or is it players? When I'm trying to analyze the Monday night meltdown, I certainly had the same question. Two particularly frustrating plays that are emblematic of this for me.

These plays both on third down incompletions to Irv Smith. On both incompletions, the defender seems to be in perfect position to make the play. On the telecast Aikman implied that when Irv Smith gets a one-on-one like that he needs to win it so I suppose my question is who is at fault on a play like this is Irv at fault for not getting more separation or did Kirk make a poor read is there no other Viking that has more separation than Irv is O'Connell's scheme predictable? And maybe that's at fault.

The Eagles seem to know what we were doing. Or do we need to give the defenders credit for making a play? I get so frustrated with the offense's inability to scheme someone open in these high leverage situations. Week one, when receivers were running free all day, gave me some hope. But Monday night was a return to bad Kirk or perhaps bad scheme that we all know so well. Hope you can distill a question from my rant. Yeah. So I think that there's points to be probably made all over this. With the fact that Irv Smith has to get open, he does.

He does have to get open. If he's got a one-on-one opportunity, that is your job as an undersized tight end is to be able to either box out a safety or to get away from a linebacker. That's why you get someone like Irv Smith Jr. Even on the day he was drafted, he brought that up on his initial conference call was, this is my talent. I can box out safeties and make catches, or I can run away from linebackers. And I think it was defensive backs both times that were able to knock the ball down and gain some leverage on him on those plays and create pass breakups.

He does have to figure out a way to box those guys out because you're talking about decent throws from Kirk Cousins. I didn't think that those throws were bad. I thought that they were in the general area of Irv Smith, accurate on time, and that he needs to find a way to make a play. I mean, when you think about why quarterbacks liked working with Kyle Rudolph, except for Kirk, which was a little strange. But before that, Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford, Case Keenum, one of the reasons is you could kind of always throw it in his direction. And he had such incredibly long arms, huge hands, and a giant body that he would catch it. I mean, his catch percentage, and I know it was a lot of

short throws, but they were just like this. His catch percentage was extremely high. On a play like that, it's your goal as a play caller. You understand this is not college football. You're not going to be able to just push a button and somebody's running 20 yards wide open. That does not happen very often in the NFL just based on the scheme or the play call.

What you're looking to do is get a favorable matchup. So if I told you that your tight end, who is supposed to be an emerging star, and we need to give a little time to, because of the circumstances, but who's supposed to be an emerging star. If you dial him up on third down and relatively short, and you've got him one-on-one with a defensive back, your expectation is that he's going to win that. And I think that it wasn't wrong for Kirk Cousins to expect that either. There is another part of this though, that comes down to when it's third downs is Kirk Cousins and his mobility and his ability to take risks and throw tight window throws and things like that. That's just not really who he is. And I think it's one of the reasons, and I was looking this up the other night, that the Vikings have the 13th most punts since 2018.

And they have really relied on being a big play offense, hitting on explosive plays to succeed on drives that they are not generally an offense that methodically marches down the field. They usually kind of hit big plays to score. And, uh, you know, I think that that was sort of evidenced in a play like that, where, you know, maybe Irv is blanketed pretty good and a quarterback with some running ability, like Jalen hurts takes off and gets the first down because it's all man coverage. It looks like around the field, which means that no one is paying attention to the quarterback. That is the other advantage for the defense. When you have a quarterback that is not mobile

is the fact that you're able to just defend everybody. You never have to worry about him taking off. And you also never really have to worry about those jump balls down the field or taking that shot to somebody that's going to whiz in between two defenders. You just don't see that very much. So if you cover well, you're probably going to succeed. So it's kind of a little bit of everything. I don't know if I want to blame the scheme if you create a favorable matchup on those plays, but it also is hard to discern whether it was players or plays all the time. I tend to lean

toward players because most of these schemes on paper will work. Now, if it's Matt Patricia's defense, okay, that's a pretty bad one. If it's Matt Nagy's offense, that's pretty bad. Why am I naming mats that can't do their job? But, you know, I think those are extreme examples of guys who didn't really get it. But I don't think Kevin O'Connell should fall in that category. So you have to execute those plays that they were there to be made. And it needed to either be a catch from Irv Smith Jr. to box that guy out or Kirk Cousins needed to take off and run for a first down

or make a tighter window throw somewhere else. Like, yeah, I mean, whose fault it is can sometimes also be multiple people or sometimes it can be give the Eagles credit or sometimes it can be just a Eagles credit, or sometimes it can be just a, this guy doesn't have the skill to make that play that needs to be made right there, which is, I think one of the reasons the Vikings offense is very much up and down since Kirk cousins arrived. Uh, all right. Onto the next question. This is a Jason via email. I was on team blow it up and rebuild last offseason what's the

odds of them blowing it up this offseason it seems like one year in on a short deal for quesia da flamenza makes that outcome extremely unlikely because he will be thinking short term to keep his job all this based on my pessimistic view that they are getting seven to nine wins this season. Okay. So I joked around about this in the Friday mailbag, if any of you are subscribers, but anytime the off season comes up and we're one day away from the week three game, like we're still in September, my brain just goes, like, just do it. Really? Do I have to try to guess Uh, look, I, your view that it's going to be seven to nine wins has to be proven wrong by them. Like that's what this roster has produced

with a lot of the same pieces over the last few years. And the onus is on them to show you that you're wrong. Right. And I feel the same way about my prediction. Like I went with 10 and they have to prove to me that they're better than 10 for this season. And I w and I wouldn't change that after two weeks. Um, I think that they've shown everything they have in the first two weeks, their ability to be really good and their ability to have some serious stinkers. And I think there'll be more good than stinkers based on their schedule and they'll get 10 wins. I could be wrong. It could end up seven, just like you said, but as far as what they'll do next off season at this moment, I truly have no idea. I couldn't begin to guess because I don't

know how everyone played. I mean, if, if you are talking about a seven win season where Kirk cousins melts in the second half, but a lot of other people play well, then they might not blow it up. They might just make a change of quarterback and I don't know, get Jimmy Garoppolo. Like, I don't know, or draft someone or whatever, depending on where they stand in the draft and lots of different options. If Kirk Cousins plays great, but they have defensive injuries and they end up with the seventh best offense in the league, but they just lose some shootouts at the end of games and get nine wins.

Is that a blow it up situation? Like, I don't know. This could go a lot of different directions. I also don't know what ownership is telling Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. It might be a spot where they are reading and reacting, or they might already have the answer now. They might already know based on the price tag and the age and the need for another extension after this year for Kirk Cousins, because he's only under contract for one more year, that they're going to go a different direction anyway. And then they're evaluating these veteran players and they may need to take a serious step back after this year if it doesn't work.

But we are so far from that being decided that it is super hard for me to say at this moment. It's kind of the constant question that we'll start to be able to answer as we go along to try to project what the long-term view of this team is. But at this moment, I feel like we have to live in today a little bit, right? The off season is so long for the NFL. They're playing the Lions. They could go two and one. And if they go two and one, they can win the next two games and be four and one. And you guys will be, you know, drawing up NFC championship banners

and stuff already. So, uh, it's a, it's a long season and I'd like to see it play out, but I want to give you a guess and I want to give you an answer. I just don't really have that right now. I think that it's dependent on a lot of things. Um, okay. Uh, this comes from Patrick via the email. Patrick says, The broadcast view of football games can be really frustrating because I often can't tell why something is or isn't working unless the announcers decide to show us something with the telestrator. So having watched the all 22 for two games so far,

give us a pie chart of what percentage of the offensive struggles against the Eagles were running different concepts from the Packers game and those not working or running the same concepts as the Packers game, but the Eagles not busting coverages left and right like the Packers did and Kirk after dark versus Kirk at daylight. Okay. So I think that it's probably the game situation is also part of it. Like the fact that they got behind right away is part of it. And I don't know that this team is really able to do that, like able to play from behind in that way. I don't know that they did vastly different concepts,

but I think the Eagles played a very different defense. So I would go a larger percentage, a much larger percentage to be that the Eagles played really well on defense and played the exact right kind of defense. They weren't playing in these zones that allowed Justin Jefferson to get so open. They were running a lot of man coverage and just saying, Hey, you got to beat us one-on-one. And the Vikings weren't able to do that. And when cousins took some risks, um, you know, they were intercepted, but I did see some plays that stuck out to me where they did play some zone and Justin Jefferson was running a little bit free, but it would have asked for, you know, Kirk cousins to find him on

maybe something that wasn't the right read. And that's like when you see clips of the film tweeted out, I usually have more questions than answers. In fact, I'm going to talk about this when I run the interview with Glover Quinn in a minute here with him about watching film and how tricky it can be. Cause we love to say, Oh, the quarterback missed this wide open receiver, but if it wasn't the right read at the right time, it's going to be very, very hard to see it. Like these guys don't have, you know, um, spider eyes don't don't eyes have, you know, spiders have like a million eyes or whatever. Like it's not like that, uh, flies in particular, I think can see that's why they're so hard to catch. Uh, quarterbacks are not like that. They're going from read to read to read.

And it's very easy to circle the guy who's open if he didn't see him, but it, you know, the plays work a certain way. So I would give much more to be, but also, uh, see Kirk after dark versus Kirk in daylight is Kirk versus good teams. Kirk,

not versus good teams. Philadelphia is a good team. They might be a great team based on the talent they have. And it's always just been a fact of life that Kirk Cousins versus teams with really aggressive defense and a lot of talent and cornerbacks who stick on receivers. He has not won a lot of games against those types of teams. Interior offensive lines that struggle with pass blocking have not stopped a lot of teams from pressuring Cous cousins in that way uh the you know communication between the offensive line might not have been great on some of the

blitzes i think it's a factor of a lot of different things so i'm not sure the exact percentage but i would probably give like 50 or 60 percent to just the eagles being good and maybe 30% to Kirk Cousins after dark, but really referring to versus good teams and having to overcome that. And the Vikings in recent years have just not been able to do it. All right, one more and we'll get to the Glover Quinn interview. This comes from Terry R or maybe hard to say exactly where the, whether it's a middle initial or this is your last name. So Terry R, we'll just call it that.

Having watched Delvin Cook in training camp, do you think he still possesses the home run breakaway speed we're accustomed to seeing? So far this year, he's looked like a bruising Leroy Horde, three yards and a cloud of dust, which is concerning. No, I think it is concerning. I do. And the statistics, and this just shows you the level of analytics that we have now,

they do back this up. So there's tracking data that shows the max speed for a player and how fast they're getting up to that speed and how quick they're getting up to that speed and so forth. And, uh, Eric eager, our friend formerly of PFF, he's now left for, uh, Sumer sports, um, which, you know, look that up. It's a pretty cool thing. Uh, but anyway, he tweeted this out that the speed has gone down for Delvin cook. And that is not terribly surprising considering the mileage and considering this is the life of a running back. I also think they haven't run blocked that well over the first couple of weeks. And you also have to keep running with Delvin Cook in order one of those big home runs you're talking about, but I don't think the days are ever coming back of him just getting the ball and exploding and going 75 yards for a touchdown. If he's going to do it, maybe against the lions is a team to do it against because

they're not that great defensively. Um, but I think that that version just probably isn't there anymore. And Delvin cook is going to be very dependent on what is going on around him. So do you block it perfectly because that the lightning quick juke shaken tacklers looking untackleable. We haven't really seen that since 2020 and maybe the very beginning, the very first week in Cincinnati and into the start of the Arizona game in week two of last year. But then he got his ankle hurt in that game. We haven't really seen it since then. And so I don't know that it's ever coming back. That doesn't mean he can't be an effective running back, but it's kind of like with Ezekiel Elliott, where at one time Ezekiel Elliott was this unbelievable, unstoppable force.

And then he became a guy, a very expensive guy. And I think that's kind of where we're at with Delvin cook at this moment. Okay. So let's go to the Glover Quinn interview. And then after we'll continue to answer more fans only questions make this an epic epic episode that you can spend all weekend leading up to the lions game listening to but here's glover quinn all right now we welcome into the show uh a top 100 player at one point in the nfl a former detroit lion also a former Houston Texan, Glover Quinn.

What is up, Glover? How are you? I'm doing good, man. How are you? I am doing well. It's sort of interesting that you were recently in the NFL, making plays against the Vikings, and now you have taken on the podcast world. How is that going for you? Oh, man, it's been fantastic, actually. I retired about four seasons ago. I retired after the uh 2018 season that was my last year and so took a couple years where i really wasn't podcast and i

had started my own little thing during covid but i really didn't call it podcast and i just thought it was like a youtube channel um and then you know I kind of just took a little break from it, you know, got a little space. Um, and so then when the opportunity came this year to, you know, collaborate with the Believe Network and do a podcast, um, you know, focusing that'd be kind of cool. So it's been good for me to connect again, get back closer, pay more attention to what's going on. So it's been fun. How different is it for you when you are watching the game as you do now versus from a player's eyes when you're grinding tape all the time? I know some players have talked about like when they watch a game like Monday night football,

they just chill and they don't think about it at all. And other players will be like, I wonder what, you know, what was that coverage or whatever else trying to see it on TV, but it's hard to see on TV. I guess, I guess I wonder how much your view of the game has changed now that you

are, you're one of us. You know, my view has, you know, I kind of try to say it from both both angles right and most of the time if you're watching a game with someone you know you find yourself probably explaining things more so than just watching the game right you kind of talking to them about what just

happened because they feel like oh he should have made that play and you're like well this is kind of what they were doing so it's gonna be a tough play to make. Can he make it? Sure. But is it tough? Yeah, that's a tough play to make. Or this is what was supposed to happen on that play right there. They tried to do this. And look, this is what they did. So when you're watching a game with someone, that's kind of what it's like. When you're watching it by yourself, I try to just enjoy the game. A lot of times when things happen, you kind of know what happened. You may not know exactly what coverage they were in or this or that, but you kind of know, okay, well, the corner lost leverage, so the runner got outside. You know what? He must have bid on a double move. Why else would

someone be that wide open, right? So somebody had bad eyes. It was a miscommunication. Something like that happened. You can see, oh, they were in quarters right there because the safety was supposed to be underneath. Corner didn't get over the top, and he just split them. You kind of know those things just from watching it. You don't have to see the whole entire coverage

because you've seen so much of it. So during the podcast, though, now I have to pay attention to what's really going on offensively and defensively, right? To talk about the O-line, the protection and the quarterback and his reads and the running backs and the D-line. Are they getting pressure and the linebackers? How are they coming downhill? And the secondary and all those different things. So I have to look at the lines games a little different and then their opponents. I try to look at them a little different because we have to talk about those

guys coming up as we preview for the next show. So it's, it's a little different. You know, if I'm just watching a random game, I'm just kind of chilling and watching the game and, you know, enjoying the art of our players. I feel like when people who don't have your trained eyes watch coverages, that might be the hardest thing to figure out because you always want to blame the person who's closest. But I was even watching debates between people on Twitter of former players and coaches when Cam Bynum looked like he was the one that got beat on Jalen Hurts' 53-yard touchdown.

But also it may have been the cornerback who was supposed to carry the wide receiver. Again, it feels like that's always the most challenging because we see a guy near them and go, well, that guy must have gotten roasted. But there's a lot more complicated things going on. And the other thing is that motions, bunch formations, like the communication in the secondary is just like ever increasing, it seems. Right. And that's the thing that most people don't know or understand and you know when you're playing at home it's

very difficult for a defense because the the crowd is really loud to try to distract the opposing offense that makes it difficult more difficult for your own team to communicate defensively so it's a lot of hand signals is understanding, you know, who I'm working with, you know, communication, verbal and nonverbal, right? A lot of it is nonverbal because you can't hear someone. You have to know what's going on and be able to see it and communicate at the same time. So it makes it difficult. So that's why you see offense to do a lot of motions and stuff like that, because nowadays a lot of defenses play double coverages where they may be in a certain coverage if they come out in this type of formation. But if they come out in this type

of formation, we want to be in a different coverage. And so they may come out one way and you check and you're in your coverage. And all of a sudden one guy motions and change the whole coverage. And if one person doesn't get it, that's why you may see a guy running wide open, right? So you motion, you snap the ball while he's in the middle of a motion. So now has he got all the way to the other side yet? Or is he still in the middle? What's the gray area for the defense? And when they change communication, when they change a strength, when do they change whatever. And you try to create all that commute, confusion and commotion from an offensive standpoint to the defense. So it makes it very difficult. You know what I'm saying? And so when you see guys running

wide open, a lot of times, yes, there's going to be a safety or somebody that's running it. And they're going to be close in the picture because most of the time there's a safety always deep, either in cover two, either in cover three or cover four or cover one. You're going to be close in the picture because most of the time there's a safety always deep either in cover two either in cover three or cover four or cover one you're going to have safeties that are deep some type of way or another um and you know if they're trying to make a play then obviously they're going to be the ones that's chasing you may see a corner and if you see a corner chasing well then yeah he's probably was in quarters or he was in some type of man to man and he just got beat most of the time they don't they're not chasing and cover three unless they just got bad eyes and cover two they're playing up close to the flats so you don't really see them chasing and cover two well

i feel like this is a great place to start with this game between the vikings and the lions and i'll definitely ask you about some that you were involved with recently as we go along but the vikings are trying to put in all those things that you just described to mess with defenses, a lot of the motions and things like that. Philadelphia, especially in the second half, when they knew the Vikings had to throw, they just started blitzing. They just started sending a lot of cover zeros and things like that. And when Kirk Cousins was blitzed, the numbers were not good at all. He averaged 1.8 yards per attempt when he was blitzed. And I notice on film that Detroit has been very aggressive so far in blitzing a lot. I guess I wonder what you make of that

sort of that matchup here of the Vikings knowing that they're going to have to make some adjustments versus a Detroit defense that wants to be aggressive in blitz. Right. And it's a copycat league, right? So obviously the Lions saw what the Eagles did to Minnesota on Monday night, so I would be prepared if I was the Vikings for the blitz, for pressures. Kirk Cousins didn't seem to handle it very well. You called out his numbers just then. Didn't seem to handle it very well through a couple interceptions. Should have had more things like that, right?

Kirk Cousins is not a very mobile quarterback. The Lions tried to pressure Jalen Hurts week one, and he broke out on us on a couple of runs where guys getting upfield, getting out of your lanes, and Jalen Hurts was able to break free and pick up a few crucial first downs to keep the chains moving, right? He was able to do that, obviously, this next game as well. So Kirk Cousins is not as mobile the same way as you probably saw last week. If you watch that game, the Lions were able to pressure Carson Wentz because he's not as mobile as a Jalen Hurts. And so they were able to get to him, get him flushed to get a couple of sacks on

him. I think Aiden Hutchinson had three in the first half, right? So we had a safety in there off a sack force fumble. So they were able to get to him early in the game. And so I think they're going to take that same momentum and go right into this next game. Obviously, Kirk Cousins didn't handle it well. So the line, I mean, the lines are going to blitz and the Vikings are going to have to pick it up. And, you know, if they don't get it fixed quickly, like I said, it's a copycat league so they will see it every week until they show that they can pick it up and to Kirk Cousins show that he can stand in the pocket and deliver passes accurately with the blitz in his face yeah and I think that uh it's going to be a lot of um Kevin O'Connell

having to adjust as being a head coach for the first time but also taking on the play calling duties which he didn't do in Los Angeles and he was very self-critical about not getting the ball to Delvin cook enough. And I wonder what you think about the lions defense, because this is a unit that has given up some points in these first couple of games, but also there's like, there's vibes with this lions defense too, which is really, I think a really interesting factor. And I'm sure you get asked a lot about it a lot, but I kind of need your opinion on this it's like Aaron Glenn who's thought of as a rising star as a coach scheming this thing up and a team that has a lot of enthusiasm for what they're doing and belief that they can you know it's cliche to say like prove people wrong but really like show that they

are a different team from what they've been in the last few years and I think this is a little scary for the Vikings than the under the Matt Patricia era it was like oh Vikings Lions like 350 yards four touchdowns for Kirk and we move on to the next week I don't think it's like that anymore right I think it's going to be very different you know I think back to my time with coach Caldwell and we would play the Vikings it was a very different story, right? So you go through the Matt Patricia era and yes, it was like that. It's going to be a long day for those guys, anybody, you know, when you're playing with the Lions, right? You're going to have a great day, record-breaking days. And now the defense that they have, Aaron Glenn, they're a lot different. I want to see more turnovers from that group. I think they play defense.

They have to play it by committee. And when I say by committee, I don't think they have that one guy that can just literally take over the game. I think they have potential guys, right? I think Aiden Hutchinson can be dominant, but he's still a rookie. So we can't expect him to be a T.J. Watt or, you know, Aaron Donald that just can, you know, wreck the whole game from start to finish. Right. I don't think they have anybody at the linebacker core. That's a, you know, and I don't want to throw these names around lightly, but that's like a Ray Lewis or, you know, Brian Nerlark or somebody that, you know what, they're going to disrupt your

whole entire game plan. right? I don't think they have that shutdown, lockdown corner like we saw in Darius Slay last weekend, right? I don't think they, well, this past Monday, I don't think they have that. So it has to work hand in hand. They got to get good coverage on the back end to give the rush time to get there. The rush got to get there so the quarterback doesn't have as much time to go at the younger secondary. And the linebackers got to be good in the run game. They got to be good in the blitz game, bringing pressure, and they got to be good in the coverage game. And I think they're understanding that and they're playing that way. I think the linebackers and the D-line

are doing a great job stopping the run and getting after the passer and I think the secondary like I said I would like to see more turnovers being more opportunistic hopefully Kirk Cousin gives them a couple opportunities and they can turn those you know plays into turnovers and get our offense back to ball okay so during your career you faced off with a lot of elite wide receivers uh Stefan Diggs you guys had to game plan for if you're in the room game planning against justin jefferson what does that conversation look like well i mean you just have to understand that he you know he's going to be all over the place right they're going to have him on the left side and have him on the right side they're going to have him in a slot they're going to have him on the outside they're going to motion him they're going to you have to understand

they're trying to get him the ball right adam thielen is a guy that has had a lot of success in this league, right? He still can make plays, but he's more of a possession guy. He's going to beat you underneath, get first downs for you, big corner routes and things like that. Justin Jefferson is a guy that's going to get over the top, but he also can work underneath, work across the middle and make big plays. He can turn a short game into a long game, right? So those are things that we understand about them. So understanding that, that goes into your game plan as to how you want to play those guys, right? Yes. Can Adam Thielen beat you deep? Sure. But that's really not his game anymore, right? He's really working the underneath stuff and keeping the chains moving. Got great hands. He

can block. He get in there and does a lot of dirty work. So the guy that's going to take us up top, the guy that they're using to try to make the big plays is going to be Justin Jefferson. That's just what it's going to be. So we've got to always know where he's at and know what he can do from these different positions. What type of routes do he run from the slot? What type of routes are he running when he's on the outside? What type of routes are he running when he's in the bunch and they're doing different things with him? What are they trying to do with him? That's exactly how you, those are the conversation that you're having, right? If we got a double team on him, okay, if he's in a slot, do we want to double team him with the front side safety and force him outside? Or do we want to double team

him with the backside safety and catch him trying to go across the middle, right? What is he doing from what position? And that will determine how we want to play him. Do we feel like we want to just have a guy over the top and have a corner down on him, pressing him, making it hard for him off the line? Well, you might say, well, he got good releases. Okay, well, we don't want to play him like that. You looked at Darius Slate. I don't know if I seen D Darius Slate press him very many times last week. He played off coverage, but they were blitzing. So they gave him an opportunity to see Kirk, see Justin, and see, okay,

he's throwing the ball, and I can go and make a play on the ball. A lot of times you get caught and pressed. Man, you don't get to see the quarterback. You don't get to see the ball. And now you're letting a good receiver kind of run and give you late hands and things like that to where you can't make a play. So if you're going to be blitzing him, you have to play off to give the blitz time to get there and give you a little vision on the ball as well. So these would

be all the things that we're talking about when we're talking about Justin Jefferson. How do we want to play him in man to man? Is he the guy we want to favor to the outside or do we want to play him inside hard? How do you want to play him? And that's going to be based off what you've seen on film and what they're trying to do with him. That is a tremendous breakdown. And it was interesting. I think that pressing Justin Jefferson was initially something that when he came out of college, people wondered, oh, can you just press him because he played in the slot so much in LSU?

And then his first game starting against Tennessee, he roasts guys off the line. He's like, I don't think that's right. I don't think you're going to be able to do that. Now, something that's been a conversation here is that Delvin Cook just didn't get the ball and they really got away from the run game. It's been a huge part of Kirk Cousins' success to run and run play action. From a safety perspective, I feel like play action really is difficult for linebackers and safeties. When a team is running the ball well against your defense, how much does that change things for you as far as trying to do your job in coverage? When you can run the ball, it just makes everything so much more difficult

from a defensive standpoint because you can't stop the run with just the front four. When I say just the front four, you can't stop the run with just the front four, right? When you say, and I say just the front four, you can't stop the run with just the D line, right? So now the linebackers are obviously a part of the run game, right? But when I say that, that means on passing downs or on just normal downs, I got to do more to get my linebackers involved, right? I got to send them on blitzes to try to stop the run because we're either not seeing it fast enough from a linebacker standpoint or the D-line is opening up holes and I got to get my linebackers to come downhill faster. So we're sending blitzes. Well, when I start sending blitzes, that opens up things in the pass game, right? So if the D-line can stop the run and you

feel confident in that, well, now your linebackers are playing over the top and they're coming downhill making plays, but they don't have to be as aggressive on play action because they know the D line is going to take care of that. And so that doesn't work with those tight ends coming across the middle and these play action pop passes that they're trying to throw nowadays. So when you can run the ball, it puts a huge strain on the defense from a play calling standpoint, from play calling standpoint, from an execution standpoint, because no one likes to sit there and let the offense just run the ball down your throat. You want to get up there and you want to stop them because you know you have

zero chance if they can run the ball whenever they want to and throw the ball whenever they want to. And if you can run the ball whenever you want to, that's going to open up the throws whenever they want to. So you got to do a great job of taking the way to run game early. And if you feel like you can stop it with just your D line, just your front seven, then it's going to make things so much easier for you on the back end. Yeah. And I think an important part of that for the Vikings is getting it going early and reminding everyone that Delvin Cook is still good, because I think that if they can't run against opposing teams, front fours, they're going to be like, okay, well, it's not a threat anymore. In 2019,

2020, when he was talked about as MVP through the first seven, eight weeks, you saw linebackers just diving at him and then, you know, receivers can run wherever they want after that. We just haven't seen that really in the last two years, but especially at the beginning of the season on the Lions offensive side. How about this for a comparison? Jared Goff and Matt Schaub. You like that guy that you played with right back in the day with Houston? I think a similar guy, right? Like if things are not good with your team and he doesn't have the right receivers, it's going to be a rough ride.

But Amin Ross St. Brown, Andre Johnson. OK, I don't want to give him quite Andre Johnson right right right but what an emergence though from Amon Ross St. Brown caught the touchdown last year at the end of the game to beat the Vikings and now he's started the season looking like a superstar yes he's been playing phenomenal I mean had a big game last week a bunch of catches yards touchdowns he's been playing phenomenal um I think he tied the NFL record with eight consecutive games with eight or more catches. So that's impressive in itself. I think it's a good comparison with Jared Goff and Matt Schaub. Obviously, Matt Schaub, in my opinion, lived off of the running game. When he had success

in Houston, we had Arian Foster in the backfield. We had good tight ends. We had Owen Daniels. We had good receivers. We had Kevin Walters and Andre Johnson and Jacoby Jones and Andre Davis, all these guys, David Anderson. And so when we could run the football, that opens up the play action. That opens up the crossing routes and the deep crossers and the big passes and big plays. It opens all that stuff up when you can run the ball. So I think Aaron Foster had a run in there where he was a leading rusher and running for 1,500 plus yards and all these different things, right? You have a bunch of success. So when you look at Jared Goff, when they can get DeAndre Swift going, when they can get Jamal Williams going, they can get that running game going, then that's going to open up things in a play-action game because you're going to get

those linebackers coming up to try to stop that run. And then you're going to get Amon St. Brown coming across the middle. You're going to get DJ Chark. You're going to get TJ Hawkinson involved. You're going to get all these guys involved. And now you have the defense in your palm of your hands. You can do whatever you want to do with them because now you're also throwing the ball to DeAndre Swift out of the backfield. You saw last week he catch a pass out of the backfield. There's no one close to him. He's able to fall on the ground, catch the ball, get up,

and still run for a touchdown. So when you can run the ball and when they have to respect that run game, it's going to open up so many more things. And it's going to make it a lot easier for Jared Goff in the play action and even in the drop back game. And it's the same way, I think, with Kirk Cousins. If they can run the ball with Delvin Cook, it just makes it so much easier for them. It makes it harder on the defense because not only do you have to worry about Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson, you got to account for Delvin Cook as well. And that just makes it that much harder.

Yeah, I feel like we are maybe sounding like dudes from 2009 with the way we're talking about football. But I think these quarterbacks do need that. And that it's sort of shown when the times that they've been relied upon to do everything that they do need that help. It's not like Mahomes where you could just ask him to run around and make plays all the time or with Josh Allen. I guess my question for you is, are you buying the hot start to the offense? Do you think that it's sustainable week in and week out?

Because I think last week we saw some of the weaknesses that do exist in the Vikings defense. You know, for the Lions, I do like their offense. I mean, their O-line is built for this, and they haven't even had their starting center, right guard, or left guard, I think. You know, those guys have been out. So the O-line is a huge part of that. And when you got an offensive line like that, it makes it easier to run the ball. It makes you want to stick with the run.

But also, your defense got to play a part in that. Keeping points off the board defensively allows you to stay with that running game longer. If it's not working early in the game, you stick with it and you stick with it and you just wear those guys down. So in the second half, those three yard runs turn into six yard runs and 10 yard runs, and you start to really impose your will. So they're built up front to dominate like that. So they're going to try to stick with that. They got big running backs. DeAndre Swift, he's a bigger guy, stocky, explosive guy. You got Jamal Williams, another big running back. He's been, I think, in the NFC North his whole career, starting out in Green Bay or at some point like

that. So these guys understand what it's going to be like, and I think they come prepared each and every week to tote the mail. And like I said, that opens up things for those other wide receivers. And so the Vikings, they have some issues, right? They have some issues, but I think the one thing we're going to see is, is it the quarterbacks that are tough for these guys to defend? Because you look at the first week, Aaron Rodgers is a great quarterback, but he's not running as much as he used to. And it's why receivers didn't do much. And once the Vikings get up on him, it's tough because they're one dimensional, right? But then you look last week, Jalen Hurts is a different type of quarterback. He's mobile. He can scramble. He can keep plays open. He can do things that

these other quarterbacks aren't doing. So will the Dolphins, well not Dolphins, will the Vikings defense show different this week against Jared Goff, who is probably more like an Aaron Rodgers from a mobility standpoint. He's probably not trying to beat you like a Jalen Hurts with his feet, but he can move if he need to, but you don't go into the game feeling like Jared Goff is going to kill you with his feet, right? So will they play different? Will their pass rush come alive and be able to get some sacks and pressure on Jared Goff?

Or will we see what we saw last week? And if they play that same way i think the lions have a fourth game in a row where they're putting up 35 plus points so uh i won't ask you who you think's gonna win i mean there's a picture of you behind you in a lion's jersey so i think i know who you think will win but let me ask you this how like how what would the feeling be in detroit do you think with the fans with former players like yourself to see them bounce back after having so many bad years if they were able to win this game uh would everybody put on the old wayne font starter jackets at that point uh is the restore the roar tattoo gonna you know be a thing in in det. It feels like this would be a huge win for Detroit of kind of taking that step

forward to show that they're for real. I think this will be a huge win for them. You know, they'll get to 1-0 in the division. They'll get to 2-1, be probably the first time they've been over 500 in the last three years, right? I don't know if they've been over 500 since Matt Patricia got there in 2018, right? Maybe they have.

I don't think so. So I think it would be a huge, huge win for those guys. And it's just to continue to build on what we've seen and heard from them from the offseason through OTAs, through the draft, through hard knocks, all these different things. Dan Campbell has done a great job of coming in there and getting that culture back to what it's supposed to be. Family, fun, and football. Holding guys accountable, but letting everybody know, hey, we're going to be tough. We're going to be gritty. We're going to play the game the way the game is supposed to be played, and we're going to have a good time way the game is supposed to be played and we're going to have a good time doing it and i think players feed off of that he got a great staff a bunch of a lot of

ex-nfl players so the environment is good there and winning just only makes it better winning just creates more excitement winning gets the the fans more excited the former players want to come back and he's welcoming guys back. He want guys back in the building. You've seen I've been back. Tully's been back. I think my guy Tahir Whitehead just went back, retired. Like, he wants guys back in the building,

and I think that's shaping up really well for the Lions. And so going to Minnesota, I think they're in Minnesota this week. Yeah, going to Minnesota and getting a big win on the road. I think that'd be huge for those guys going forward. Okay. So when people ask me, what's the craziest game that I've ever covered covering the Vikings? Number one is the Minneapolis miracle. No question about it. Number two is 2016 Vikings lions, where the Vikings score a late touchdown on an end around to their tight end Rhett Ellison and then Matt Stafford makes an unbelievable throw and Matt Prater who is not of this world like now everybody's kicking 60 plus Matt Prater made 58 on that day look like a chip shot is unreal Golden Tate throws a guy runs into the the end zone. I mean, one of the wildest games. Is that your favorite Viking-Lion matchup ever?

I mean, that was a fun game. I think that was one of the first years that we actually played. I think that was the first year that we played in the new stadium in Minnesota because I think 2013, that was the last year we played in the dome in Minnesota and then 2014-2015 we played outside at the University of Minnesota if I'm not mistaken and then 2016 would have been the first year that we played in the stadium and it was an incredible environment probably one of the most fun games I ever played, and I thought the Vikings fans were phenomenal. The environment was great, the school chant, it had me excited, and I didn't even play for the Vikings. So that's kind of how

they done it, and it was a beautiful thing, and it was just a great game. It was a great game from both sides, good defense, good offense. Like you said guys you know scored that touchdown on the tight end in the round and then Matthew Stafford comes back I think he hit Andre Roberts across the middle with an incredible pass an incredible catch and we get Prater out there to kick the field goal and then we come back I think in overtime and Golden Tate catches a pass and makes a guy miss runs down the sideline flips flips in the end zone. Harrison Smith comes over and hit him, but it was a little too late. Just an epic game.

Big win for us, but it was just a fun overall game. I will say that one, even the one in 2017, it was pretty good and epic as well. I think I ended that one on you guys with a punch-out fumble from Adam Thielen. At the end of the game, we recovered it, and I think we were able to take a knee and run out the clock for that one. So just some great games in Minnesota. Man, I loved playing there. It was just a great environment, great stadium too.

And I know that Harrison, by the way, has a great respect for your game. He would mention that from time to time, just in interviews leading up to Vikings-Lions. And he has an injury that he might not play. And I just wanted to get one last opinion from you on this. Lewis seen their first round pick has not been playing first team reps. It's been Cam Bynum, who was a fourth round pick, converted corner. I wonder about just your opinion on a rookie safety that was kind of earmarked for that position and then didn't win the job out of camp. And I guess

what your thought is on it, because from a reporter perspective, it's like, well, how much should we be talking about this? That a rookie doesn't win that job right away at the safety position. Now you had to grind as a fourth round pick, right? So you had to grind to get your spot. You weren't a first rounder who came right in, but the development and I guess development curve, learning curve of that position, I wonder what your opinion on that is. Well, when you see something like that, you do have to wonder why, right? They drafted a guy to play a position and he doesn't win a job. That's tough. You have to wonder, is it a physical thing? Is it a mental thing? Sometimes the mental aspect of the game

slows guys down. So their ability, their physical ability can't take over because they're having to think too much. And so I think we have to really look at that portion of it to see why is he not out there? Is he making a bunch of mental mistakes in practice to where the coaches don't feel comfortable putting him out there? Yeah, he needs to learn. He needs to develop. Yeah, he got the talent, but he just needs to learn, needs to develop. Like you said, for me, I was a fourth rounder, so I did have to work hard to crack the lineup and to stay in the lineup. So it's very difficult. But if they draft him, they believe in him, they just may not feel like he's ready. And sometimes that is concerning, given that he's a safety, he's a defensive back, right? Maybe if he's a quarterback, you're like, okay, well, they're taking this time with him.

But a safety-skilled guy, somebody like that, you would think he could crack that lineup and get in there. So you will have to just see why he's not out there. Maybe it's a mental thing, or maybe he's been dealing with some injuries and he can't get up to speed or something like that. It used to be with Mike Zimmer, he would just tell us because he was old school and he felt like rookies didn't deserve the respect of being covered for in the media. Kevin O'Connell's taking a little more modern approach to not

being quite as forthright about that. So if Harrison Smith doesn't play though, that could be a massive factor in this game. And I'm not sure whether it would be their seven or former sixth rounder, Josh Metellus, or if it would be Louis seen, it might be his debut as a starter. So that will be a thing to watch, especially for someone like yourself who knows the position quite well. Uh, Glover Quinn, you are a great player to watch. I have to say, I covered quite a few of games that you were in, and I know you were always a factor in those games, but very cool to see you make this transition into the podcast world with the believe, uh network so great to talk with you man really appreciate all of your time man no problem man thank you for having me and uh we'll see how the game going

hopefully we can get back on uh sometime later in the future all right before we wrap up let's answer a few more fan questions here and And I apologize to anybody whose question comes at 50 something minutes into the podcast. If you didn't make it here, I'm sorry for that. But I wanted to get through a lot of these and make sure they were on the show before the Vikings played their next game. And I'm trying to do the best I can to get as many questions in as I possibly can. Okay. So from Dan on Twitter, does Kevin O'Connell know CJ Ham is a decent blitz picker upper?

Those last two blitzes on the goal line were entirely predictable when Kevin O'Connell came out without a fullback or a tight end on the line. Yeah, that's right. And that's why they got cover zero is because and cover zero, uh, is that just means a dude on a dude, like there's a corner covering a receiver and a corner covering receiver and a linebacker on a tight end or whatever, if, if they're split out and not in line and then they just send everybody else. So you cover one-on-one all the receiving options and blitz everyone else, which ends up if it's five receivers out, it ends up as a six on five with the offensive line. So you end up six rushers, five offensive linemen, and the quarterback

needs to take care of one of them. And the quarterback did not take care of one of them. He threw the ball away for an interception, but that may make them think a little differently about just how they use their personnel in this situation because they want to run a lot of empty. But if Kirk Cousins doesn't react well to those blitzes, then they're going to have to add additional blockers back there. And, you know, that was something that they tried to do a lot. I know Kyle Rudolph didn't enjoy it and mentioned at one point on a podcast that he didn't enjoy that he was staying into blocks sometimes

and passing situations. And C.J. Hamm is really, really good at picking up blitzes. There's no doubt about that. But also the way that they want to run some of these schemes is to have five receivers going out and to really challenge the secondary to cover all of them. And the response sometimes can be to send everybody. So we'll see if the lions do it. But I think it's two different approaches. Like there's the approach of sending three receivers out and having everyone block and try to give Kirk Cousins as much time as possible,

which Gary Kubiak did a lot. And then there's the other approach of putting a bunch of wide receivers out there and saying, if you guys zero blitz, then we're just going to throw to an open receiver or a guy one-on-one, which often can be Justin Jefferson. You just throw it up and have Jefferson go get it. So not all blitzes are built equally. There's a lot of different types of blitzes and those all out type engage eight, I think is what the Madden term is. It's sort of a similar thing as the cover zero, but yeah, I mean, I think that they may have to adjust some of these things as they go along. And this is part of the process and why it's difficult for a new coach to come in because you have to figure out the nuances

of strengths and weaknesses of every player that you have. And I wouldn't be shocked if we do see at some points, CJ ham in the game or tight end staying in line to pick up extra blitzers or whatever it might be. If teams continue to take advantage of that. So that's a good point. Let's see. At I see you too ugly on Twitter. Talk me into wide receivers outside of Justin Jefferson being good. Media before the season claimed we had a deep wide receiver group,

but so far in two games, feeling looks like you can't get much separation anymore. KJ Osborne looks like just the guy and not the future star that some claimed. If Thielen isn't creating separation, Kirk isn't throwing to him. And if KJ is just an average third wide receiver, then Kirk isn't throwing to him either. LOL. So it's JJ or it's check down and punt.

Sounds like every other year since we signed kirk cousins what do you think um well yeah i mean 2018 cousins threw to his both wide receivers a lot with adam thielen and then 2020 was pretty much the same where he threw to adam feeling quite a bit last year i felt like he did too but it was a lot more short passes. It's a pretty big concern. Trying to talk you into that might be a little difficult. With KJ Osborne, last year, he was a pure slot receiver and he was really effective out of the slot. And he had some great plays where they got him the ball in space and he was able to make plays with the football. I think it's his natural ability, maybe his best ability, is with the ball in his hands on quicker throws and making defenders miss

and getting yards after catch. Some of his biggest plays were like that. I remember a third and, I don't know, 18 or something in week one against Cincinnati where they threw a short pass to Osborne. He dodged a couple of tacklers. I think that's his strength. And it goes to kind of figuring that out for Kevin O'Connell and everybody wants the football and the offensive coordinator slash head coach is going to have to figure out how to do that because I don't think it's like the Rams where you can focus entirely on Cooper cup or on Justin Jefferson in this case, that there does have to be other options. And that's what Odell Beckham gave the Rams.

And it looks like the Rams are struggling a little bit without that. But to your point, is Adam Thielen going to be able to create separation in the same ways that he did before? Maybe not. His hands are still really excellent, but there have been other receivers like Larry Fitzgerald and Quan Bolden who were never the quickest guys. And when they lost a step, they were still very effective on underneath stuff. And I think that they just have to adjust to that, that he is not going to be exactly the same type of option as maybe he was in the past

and figure out how to kind of get him going. But also Kevin O'Connell did say after the game that he had plans to get Kirk Cousins going and it didn't happen. And the ball didn't get there, which maybe speaks to your point that Cousins won't throw it unless there is some pretty clear separation. I also put this kind of, like I said earlier with Louis seen on under the things to watch category. Like I don't want to declare Adam Thielen done with and that he's washed and they're not going to be able to get him the ball and so forth because it would not surprise me if he came out and got eight catches against Detroit that has a little bit of a weaker

secondary. And if they don't rush the passerers effectively, it would not surprise me. I think in training camp, it was worth telling the world that KJ Osborne and Adam Thielen looked really good, but it's not a guarantee that everything will work out great with those two guys and an offense that is centric toward the number one receiver. But where you are completely correct is that this offense so far has been either Justin Jefferson or check down. And that is evidenced in the a dot, the average depth of target Kirk cousins, second to last through two weeks in the NFL, an average depth of target. So he has not been throwing it downfield at all outside of a handful of passes

to Justin Jefferson. That has to change. It has to, whether it's going to Thielen or if it's Irv Smith down the field more or whatever it might be, it can't just be deep to Justin Jefferson and check down to everybody else or this offense won't be very good. Great question. Good observation there. This one comes from The Purple Plague on Twitter. Fans only question this loss to the Eagles. Feels like what can happen when we're leaning into the Kirk. It felt different for me. It felt like Kirk made throws that he previously would have checked down. Also, the Eagles played better.

I don't know about that. I mean, the average depth of target really kind of tells that story that he has not been pushing the ball down the field. We have seen him have multiple interception games. 2020, he had what the most interceptions in the league through five or six weeks. So it does happen with Kirk Cousins at times where he has these sort of bouts with turnovers. I don't think that they were aggressive plays. I think they were just bad plays and certainly the Eagles did play better where you're right about leaning into the Kirk is those five wide receiver sets and things like that. I, I, I

definitely think that those things are more lean into the Kirk shotgun, four wides, tight end, or three, three wides running back, tight end, stuff like that. And not having extra blockers and not running as many play actions, which I think Kevin O'Connell admitted that he has to do, but that it looked very D Filippo ish of leaning into Kirk, but with D Filippo, there were great games that cousins played. And then there were very poor games. And I think the poor games, sometimes if you're going to lean into the Kirk, and you're going to throw it all over the yard, and you're not going to establish the run in finger quotes,

then you have to also live with the variance that comes along with that. And the idea of the lean into the Kirk that I've talked about for a long time now is really that you're hoping the dice roll your way. It's a bet that is going to have major ups and downs. But what you hope for is that you work your way through the downs and you hit more of the ups of his good days, as opposed to if you limit what Cousins is allowed to do, you're looking for more middling performance. But so far it has not resulted in them being more aggressive or pushing the ball downfield more often. That, that has just not been a result over these first couple of weeks. And it kind of makes you think whether you're the lean into the Kirk coach or whether you're the,

let's put bubble wrap around him with the scheme, you get maybe the same player in a lot of ways. Um, so yeah, I don't know if there's a better way I can explain that. Uh, this one comes from at Demp Dolph on Twitter says I am a Scottish Vikings fan. Well, welcome. Welcome. I randomly saw a report that quoted in an article today which said minneapolis has the best airport in america as someone who travels for work what are your top three and bottom three american airports oh well msp is my favorite and i'm not saying that for a home bias it really is um i think it's things are easy to find there There's a lot to eat. There's tons of restaurants. It's very clean.

It's very wide open. I always feel like I've got room that if I need to do some work or something, I can find some space. I enjoy this airport a lot. See, I was just in Philly. I kind of like Philly. I've gone there a number of times. I think that's another one where it's easy.

Chicago is my least favorite. Chicago is just Mad Max. It's a million people all the time everywhere. I have not found the food in Chicago to be as good. Maybe there are people who travel as well who can point me in the direction of the good food in Chicago, but I've struggled at times to find something that I really wanted there. You'd think that it would be a little easier. I'm not a big sit down in a restaurant airport guy because I'm always worried about my flight leaving without me or something, which did happen once

when I was in Philadelphia's airport. I misunderstood when the plane was taking off, which is, you know, kind of typical of me and traveling. But, uh, yeah, I mean, Chicago to me is always like, uh, deep breaths. You requires a lot of patience. It's always so, so busy. Uh, Atlanta is so gigantic that I find it difficult. And LAX is dead last for me. I mean, I hope that they, in the years to come, figure out something to do with the traffic at LAX when people come to pick you up or if you want an Uber or however you're approaching that, it's just not close to LA. It's not that close to LA. Like it's not right downtown. It takes a little drive out of there to get where you're going. And I mean, it is, it is close, but it's like, it feels like it's a

hundred miles away from downtown when you have to drive the way you have to drive to get in and out of there is what I mean. Uh, that one is the most frustrating airport by far. And you have to walk a gazillion miles in order to get out of there from where you usually land. So that's, that would be my least favorite. Um, yeah, I feel like I've been in quite a few. I enjoyed Phoenix the one time I was there. Uh, a lot of them are kind of the same. Charlotte's a nice little airport that you pop in and out of, you know, there's not a huge variance of them, but MSP goes all the way at the top of the list. I think we're very proud of our MSP and I agree best airport in America. Uh, all right, let's see here. We'll try to get in a couple of more. This one comes from at Chris Graywin on Twitter.

Listen to a recent pod and heard you talk about Chicago and moving on from fields. If you're quasi, what would have to be the offer you were willing to give up to get fields as a flyer for the guy who takes over for Kirk after he hypothetically finishes the year with identical 2021 stats. I don't see a situation where they just get rid of Fields because he isn't expensive. What they would do is give Fields competition if they were going to make that decision right away. It's, I think even after two years, a little questionable. So I'll give you an example. Josh Allen took a big step forward in year two

and showed that he could get the team to the playoffs and had great running stats and his throwing wasn't that bad, but he grew. Sam Darnold also grew in year two and then regressed massively the year after that. So it's still not entirely clear after two years what someone's going to be. Tua might be a good example of this as well, that Tua has taken that step forward this year. Possibly. It's only been two weeks, but possibly. After two years of mediocrity, I don't know that you can say about Justin Fields, okay, he's a bust. It didn't work out. But if you're Chicago, are you willing to be confident

enough to trade him to the Minnesota Vikings? No, I don't think you are. If you're trading Justin Fields away, let's say that some veteran quarterback wants to play for you. I don't know who let's say, I don't know. Let's say a Cooper rush is amazing. They're trading Dak Prescott and they're going to trade him to the bears. So they're moving on from Justin Fields. Are you trading him to the Vikings where he could end up becoming a star and haunting you forever? Like, I don't know. Just like the jets traded Sam Darnold to Carolina. They just want to be sure that if the guy becomes a star, he does it somewhere else.

I don't think that that's very, like a very reasonable scenario. If fields doesn't play this well, though, or well this year, though, there's some pretty big concerns. Uh, and if he doesn't make any progress at all throughout the season, and if they're trying to run mostly and having him throw 11 passes in games that they're losing, like those are huge, huge red flags already for Justin fields and his progress throughout the season is really going to matter. But even after two years, I'm not entirely sure that you can say, I know what this quarterback is. If that were possible for the Vikings. Yeah. Maybe you would go for it for

not a very high draft pick a second rounder, a third rounder. But even then, like, do you want to take the risk that you're confident that, you know, you can make him succeed, but they wouldn't trade him within the division. That's just not going to happen. Uh, all right. This from, uh, let's see, never res Louise. Uh, do we have to do this? It appears that Kirk is so limited, especially when comparing him to quarterbacks who can make it happen by throwing and running. Why not trade him and draft picks for Lamar Jackson right now? Wow. Folks, if you made it this far, you just got to hear that. And that's exciting for you. Do I have to say anything about that? Like Lamar Jackson's not going to be

traded, right? The Baltimore Ravens that? Like Lamar Jackson's not going to be traded, right? The Baltimore Ravens are not trading Lamar Jackson. If they do, it could be one of the biggest gaffes in like football history. If you trade Lamar Jackson, we are so galaxy brained and twisted dystopian money bald that we tend to think that all teams should pay no players. This is like the questions I get about Justin Jefferson. Should they trade Justin Jefferson for draft picks? Like, no, what, why? No, you pay the good players and you replace the replaceable players. That's how you win. And then you get the timeline and then you get the rookie quarterback contract and, or the mobile quarterback or the mega star or whatever. Lamar Jackson's one of the guys you pay. Uh, your team wins a lot more games than it loses

with Lamar Jackson. And that I don't think is just because of his rookie contract. He has not always had the best supporting cast there. They have had injuries. They have had some difficult seasons that he's worked his way through and he throws the ball better. It seems every single year. And I think he's become a decent pocket quarterback to go along with a great running quarterback. It's just that Lamar Jackson does not have representation and seems like he is pushing to get Deshaun Watson's contract, which is fair. I mean, he set the market. That's what he's pushing to get Deshaun Watson's contract, which is fair. I mean, he set the market.

That's what he's pushing for. And Baltimore is like a little questionable on that. And Lamar's long-term health and long-term running ability are a question. But I think of it this way. Like if he still runs well into his late twenties and then he starts to fall off. Well, you're going to take that because through this contract, he would still be one of the more effective complete players in the game. I don't know how you could possibly move on from him if they did. Yeah. You jump in line with,

I don't know, 18 other teams, 20 other teams that start making deals potentially for offering deals for Lamar Jackson. But I don't think there's any real chance of that. Um, but that's a, you know, fun one to think about, I guess. Uh, let's see. Let's see. Is that it? Is that what we got for now that aren't kind of a answer it whenever type of questions. I mean, although the Lamar Jackson stuff and that's certainly answer it forever. All right, one more. This from Cole Trickle on Twitter because he calls himself Cole Trickle. And if you know, you know,

then you probably grew up in the nineties and you know Tom Cruise and you know the movie that Cole Trickle represents. So let's see. Hey, Collar, been a fan of the pod since the beginning. Thank you very much. Was hoping you'd be able to talk about the fact that randy moss the freaking goat has not had his number retired

in minnesota it makes absolutely zero sense any way we can get in quacey's ear so we can get this pushed up the ladder and get the goat's number retired there's no reason why a guy named irv smith who can't catch a pass that's right in his bread basket should be wearing his number. Yeah, you know what? I'm going to tell you the truth. Like in comparison to the other players who are retired with their numbers. Randy Moss is right there. No question about it.

So by that measure, someone like Chris Carter, for example, has his number retired. Then Randy Moss should too. And those are two of the best of all time, two gold jacket guys. And if one's going to have his number retired, then why wouldn't the other one? But I don't like number retirements in football. I just don't. I think that football is not like baseball in this way. For one, you can't just give out a million different numbers or basketball where you've

got 12 players, but a hundred numbers to choose from or 99. Let's see. No, I guess it would be a hundred because you could use zero. So you have a hundred numbers to choose from in basketball and 12 players. If you retire 15 of those, sure, it's fine. If you're in the NFL, you've got 53 players and they're only restricted to a certain amount of numbers. You can only do so many of these before you just start running out of numbers. And you could say,

well, okay, all right. Well, but we're doing it for Randy Moss. That's an exception. I agree with you, but Justin Jefferson, what if he ends up, then you retire in 1980, 84. I agree with you, but you know, Justin Jefferson, what if he ends up, then you retire in 1980, 84. I mean, you're starting to get to where like, what are the receivers going to wear? Uh, I also think football's like this football is not, I love the history of football, but it's not baseball with its obsession with history. It's like next man up kind of thing. Plus there's a, and I wrote about this actually when Randy Moss went into the hall of fame, there is a super bizarre history of the number 84 in Minnesota. And I kind of love it.

Like Randy Moss came in, got 18. Did I say 19 for Jefferson? I'm an 18. Of course. Randy Moss came in with 18 and switches to 84. And there was Eric Goliford who had the one play he caught for a touchdown against the Packers. And then there was a strange conspiracy theory that he had come

off the bench to catch it, that Packers fans were on. Um, you know, there's, I don't know. I kind of like that. Anybody can still have it. The Bucky Hodges thing has always made me laugh when he said he wanted to be legendary and then got cut. Um, so, you know, I don't know. I, I, I don't really get, uh, super upset about things like that, but I think it will happen eventually that they'll have the big ceremony and Randy will come back again and everything. It'll, it'll happen eventually, but I don't know. I kind of like when something has a weird history, like the number 84. So, uh, Vikings lions folks, it should be a very interesting game and a very, uh, maybe even game that comes down to the wire. We haven't had one yet. So we'll see if you made it this far, I appreciate you so greatly for spending all of your time with me as I screw around with

already strange trade offers and, uh, so forth. Um, but that's, that's what happens when they lose because people sort of see the writing on the wall. I think like, Oh, that's a lot of things that could keep going wrong, but we are a long, long way from anything being decided. So, uh, it's a week to week league folks. That's how we're going to take it for now. All right. We'll talk to you later.