Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will Ragatz thinks Sam Darnold's confidence is key for Vikings

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Matthew Coller and SI on Vikes reporter Will Ragatz talk about Sam Darnold's fascinating start to the season and which teams are better than the Vikings in the NFC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, and yes, it is a porch podcast that unfortunately is a tad windy in the background, but we're doing okay. Will Raggett's SI on Vikings here with me on the porch. And it is a beautiful day to talk about some football. How you been, Will? How you doing? Good. It's been a fun start to the season. I think obviously when J.J JJ McCarthy got hurt, that kind of put a damper on the whole outlook and a lot of the stuff we were talking about this summer, but I don't know that anybody outside of Kevin O'Connell saw that this, this Sam Darnold start

coming. And I mean, the defense, there's a lot we can talk about. It's been a really intriguing start to the season for the Vikings. I think the best place to start for us here is the question that everybody probably has on their minds, which is, is this going to keep working? And I don't have a good answer to that because over the years we have had things that fool you. We've had Case Keenum, who I thought was going to fall off the map in the second half of the season in 2017 and never did. And then we've had Dobbs Mania, which did indeed fall off the face of the earth pretty quickly after a couple of tough games. So what do you think? Sam Darnold, how do we figure it out?

I think the question is more, how do we even go about having the conversation about where this is going to go with Sam Darnold. Yeah, to me there are a lot of signs that, you know, I don't think it's going to be smooth all year. I think there's going to be some ups and downs, but I'm not worried about this being a Dobbs thing where it just falls apart because Josh Dobbs is a journeyman veteran and, you know, he's got some skills, but he's probably destined to be a backup for the rest of his career. And maybe he'll start again at some point. But, you know, Sam Darnold has started a lot of games in the NFL and hasn't always gone well. But he's learned a lot.

And he came into the league with the pedigree of being a top three draft pick and having all the arm talent in the world and the size and a lot of those prototypical traits. So that marriage with Kevin O'Connell that has gone so well thus far, to me it looks like this could be sustainable. It's all going to be about his decision-making, of course, but I tend to feel like this is something that they can keep up, at least something close to what we've seen so far. And then, I mean, for me more broadly,

I suddenly think the floor of this team is maybe nine and eight. And, and that might sound crazy given our expectations just a couple of weeks ago before the season. But to me, the defense is what, is what raises the floor. They're going to be in every game with this Brian Flores defense, these veterans, the versatility, the experience. And then it's all up to Sam Darnold to kind of determine the ceiling. Well, the floor being 9-8 has to also mean that Sam Darnold remains healthy. That includes health to Darnold and other key players like Justin Jefferson. But another part of that, when we talk about which parts of Sam Darnold's start

will keep going, which parts will not keep going. And I think the pass protection, as long as the tackles are healthy, can keep going. And there will be game wreckers who give them problems, especially on the interior, which we know they can't handle. But they got the best guy in the league out of the way in the first week in Dexter Lawrence. But Kenny Clark is still to come. There are other teams that have them, but not really to that caliber, and they survived getting beaten and getting some pressure with Sam Darnold.

And then to play the way that they did against Nick Bosa in the 49ers pass rush, I think because of who the opponent is, that's where you start to talk about it being sustainable more than if it had been almost anybody else. I mean, even if this is the Detroit Lions, even if this is some division opponent or a halfway decent good team, the Tampa Bay Bucs, it's not the 49ers. I mean, they just bring in a little bit of a different aura to them and the amount of talent that they bring in to beat them that way

and for him to play that way against them, that you are willing to take a much bigger leap out onto that, hey, maybe this could be good, than you normally would be. I don't know how much that influences you, but I keep going back to the talent of the team that they just beat and saying that does matter a lot to me. Yeah, and they almost won that game a lot more comfortably than they did had Aaron Jones not fumbled at the goal line and you just mentioned Dexter Lawrence and I mean the

Vikings have probably survived two of the top five individual defensive performances in the league through two weeks from from Dexter Lawrence and Fred Warner who was just absolutely unbelievable in that game on Sunday Aiden Hutchinson think, had four and a half sacks, so he's got to be in there as well. But, I mean, that's two just unbelievable defensive performances that you were able to overcome and, you know, not let that completely wreck the game. And, yeah, the offensive line, I think what we've seen from these tackles,

not just this year but the last few years, is that they're going to be able to hold up even against the best of the best. And you got off to a really tough start. Even those Giants edge rushers are no slouches, and they completely took them out of the game. And, you know, Nick Bosa did what Nick Bosa's going to do, and he got home for a couple sacks, one of which was kind of a cleanup sack. But even this week, I mean, it it's another really really tough test against the

texans defensive line daniel hunter will anderson uh some other guys that they've got who were just all over caleb williams on sunday night but as long as the interior can hold up and they have to be really encouraged by what they've seen from blake brandel uh so far left guard it's it's week to week going to come down to, I think, if that can continue, but also Garrett Bradbury and Ed Ingram. And Bradbury was much better in this game. Ingram was at least a little better than he was going against Dexter Lawrence in week one. So if that can continue, I mean, the 49ers, as good as they are, only pressured Darnold, I think it was, nine of 31 dropbacks. If you can be around that rate, and that'll be tough to do against the Texans,

but against most other teams, they don't have that kind of talent on the front. So if you can keep Darnold clean like that, I feel like with O'Connell running the show and game planning each week and the talent, they're going to get back Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson at some point. I don't see why this can't continue being a top 12 or so offense in the league. The fact that they were able to lead that key drive without any of their top three wide receiving options, Jefferson Addison or TJ Hawkinson, that was maybe the most impressive thing Sam Darnold has done

so far through these couple of games. Do you find Darnold to be interesting? And I don't mean interesting in his press conferences. He goes out of his way not to be. And I fully respect that. I know that he does not want to throw anybody under the bus. He doesn't want to give some big quote that ends up all over the Internet. And I respect that he is trying to be

uninteresting but as a quarterback in in general i we always are attracted to the reclamation project or the clamation project i don't know what the right use of that but there's nothing to reclaim i mean he's never had had a good career with any other team. So the fact that O'Connell has this opportunity and his connection to Darnold is probably more interesting than Darnold himself, who seems like a fairly straightforward type of person, but that might help him in this if he doesn't have emotional ups and downs and he's not flying off the handle. I just wonder what you think of the circumstance as far as how intriguing it is to follow along with somebody coming from where they came from to now have this opportunity to look like this. Yeah, I think the quarterback journey phrase that Kevin O'Connell loves to use is really a fascinating one with Darnold. And you're right that he doesn't let us in super introspectively in his press conferences.

He's a few times this year talked about how playing quarterback, you can feel like the world's closing in on you both on the field, off the field. How he's learned a lot over the course of his career. And I think the fact that he has looked the way he has specifically i think the poise and the confidence that you know you never know what's going through somebody's head but just body language wise and the execution the throws he's making the decisions he's making he looks confident you don't throw that ball to justin jefferson two weeks in, really, he's thrown a deep ball to Justin Jefferson standing on his own goal line.

And that takes confidence. Like, to throw that back shoulder ball to Jalen Naylor, who's your new wide receiver one for this drive, where three defenders are there and it's third down, like, that's a confident throw. Anticipation and putting it where only Naylor can get it. So he has looked like he is ready for this moment, 27 years old. And it's also, like you touched on,

fascinating the way that he is a vessel for Kevin O'Connell's offensive mind and his quarterback guru and how, I mean, we both saw Kevin O'Connell getting a little emotional after the game. On Sunday, talking about Sam Darnold, you have to think that he's maybe thinking back to some of his own quarterback experience and quarterback journey and just how happy he is that he and the Vikings infrastructure are able to provide this opportunity for Darnold to show who he can be. And he hasn't had that really throughout his career, And he's, he's making the most of it right now. Yeah. I think that you frame that really nicely because I think about Sam Darnold's confidence and I asked O'Connell about it and

he kind of wanted nothing to do with the question, which, uh, you know, I understand why he doesn't really want to go there because then once you start talking about his confidence, then you have to address what happened before. And nobody wants to talk about what happened before at all. It's just here and now. And I get that. I respect that. But what happened before matters so much to what happens now and how we evaluate it and how we think about it and how we frame it. And Sam Darnold's confidence is a massive deal for his success because I was going back and watching as one does some rookie tape from Sam Darnold with the New

York jets. And somebody described him. I think it was the quarterback tears thing from a, not T E A R S, but yeah, T I E R S for Mike Sando. And he was talking about some executive jittery was the word that they used for Sam Darnold through two weeks. I have not seen or felt like there is a jittery version of Sam

Darnold here with the Vikings. And what makes me think that is back foot ball out. Like you just, I've talked about this in camp. You know what this this looks like it's when something is going on time it's guy drops back does his hitch throws the ball and when that's happening and there's completions you go okay something's good here and when there's uh uh jittery bouncing around that's when you know something is wrong and to hit so many throws as he has and then also be pretty definitive when he decided to run and pretty aggressive when he decided to run that's where his confidence just seems like it's so high to me and that that's where it's showing up because i did want to look at a not confident sam donald that's why i was going back and saying can i see a difference and the answer is oh my gosh yes absolutely i could see the difference from other parts in his career yeah you're you're very right about that is one of the easiest way for ways for someone who doesn't

know the play call doesn't know the design doesn't know all the intricacies of it to to measure confidence and measure the execution of an offense is are you dropping back getting to the top of your your drop maybe hitching once or twice, whatever the timing of the route concept is, and letting it rip. And, again, that's tough when you're watching a TV copy with quarterbacks and you don't know if they're pulling it down. Is that because they're not decisive enough? Is that because nobody's open? What's the deal?

But we watch so many of these young quarterbacks who are struggling, and it's like Bryce Young Caleb Williams so far I think Zach Wilson the last few years and it's they get to the drop and they don't they don't look decisive and and they don't look like they trust what they're seeing and then they have to dance around a little bit and pull it down and and try to run and and yeah there was so much of that with Darnold early in his career as well and we just haven't seen a lot of it so far and that's a really really encouraging sign I think there's been a few balls in both games that um he's kind of put in harm's way a little bit there was there were a couple in this game there was obviously the interception which

was a great play by Fred Warner um he had one that was kind of deflected in the end zone looking for Jalen Naylor um the other one early on where Justin Jefferson's like head got yanked off and they didn't call it but uh there were a couple defenders right there but for the most part it's been decisive he's been you know going to his first or second read a lot which is good and um and then when he has to yeah he pulled down he scrambled a few times in this game and I think that's a real asset for the Vikings that Kirk Cousins pre or post Achilles uh did not bring as much so it's been all positive for the most part for darnold um only one of the two interceptions he's thrown so far has really been his fault and if he can keep being decisive and taking care of the ball i think this vikings offense is going

to continue to be able to move the football especially with their their newfound run game uh well the newfound run game is something i want to talk to you about but just with uh darnold i keep going back and forth a little bit with myself is this something that i want to happen or that i'm seeing happening which is important to assess because we as analysts as reporters we want good stories and with sam darn. And I think that this did happen a little bit with Josh Dobbs, where it's like, gosh, this is such a good story. Yeah.

And even if we saw some things that maybe might not work perfectly with Dobbs and it is not a fair comparison, but it just happened. It's the most recent thing from last year and how quickly the wheels came off. And also Sam Darnold is such a better fit as a quarterback than dobbs i think he would have had to have changed around his offense more for dobbs to to work with the scrambling element where sam darnold's a pocket quarterback who can

take off occasionally but that's they're not having to implement some sort of navy offense for uh you know the quarterback it's really you can just run what you want to run, and they were together for the entire time. So that's not really fair. But I do try to press the brakes a little bit at times and say, I've always been such a journeyman quarterback enjoyer. I mean, it's a bit on the show, but it's not a bit. It's so cool that Josh McCown's here.

All those guys, those Ryan Fitzpatrick, friend Sage Rosenfels of the show, guys like that who fought to have careers and battled and found their way, they're great stories, and they're unique people. And I feel like we can get caught up a little, which leads me into this question. Try to check yourself a little bit on Darnold,

and tell me what, if it's not going to sustain, what happened. If it isn't going to be a week-in and week-out thing. 2-0 puts them in a position to fight for a playoff spot, but if it's not going to be week-in and week-out, and if it is going to go sour at points, if not way downhill, how would that have to happen? I think it just would come back to, first of all, decision-making. And I think maybe you start to see some balls continue to be –

he's thrown one interception each of the first two games. Again, only one really his fault. But some bad decisions where maybe he suddenly doesn't trust what he's seeing as much. I think, you know, Jordan Addison's absence lingering could be a factor. And, well, I guess to me the biggest thing would be if it starts to go bad, like if he has a bad game this weekend against the Texans, which is entirely possible because of how good that defense is with D'Amico Ryan's coaching it.

Their front is incredible. Derek Stingley is a great corner. They got that rookie Kamari Lassiter who, who picked off Caleb Williams on Sunday, Jalen Petrie, the safety, like it's a really good defense. If he doesn't play well in that game,

the confidence thing is going to be put to the test. And Kevin O'Connell talks about it a lot. Like the culture, the culture thing that he talks about so much matters when there's adversity and that's when it's really tested I think the same is true for an individual player's confidence especially a quarterback especially someone like Sam Darnold where you might start to think oh no here here we go again and he's had good two three game stretches before I mean even with the Jets certainly certainly with the Panthers, I think in 2021 and 2022,

he's had a couple solid stretches, and he just has never been able to sustain it for four, five, six games. So if it starts to go south, that's where it's really going to have to, the poise and the confidence, those are going to have to be there for him to be able to bounce back and to his credit in a in an even smaller like sample within individual games we've seen that he bounced back um a couple times against the giants and and he certainly did it against the 49ers and in that drive when it's 20 to 14 and you don't have i mean you got brandon powell and tristanistan Jackson and Trent Shurfield on the field.

And I started to think, oh, they're losing 21-20. Like, I think we all had that thought. And they faced three third downs and he converted all of them. And so that was a really good example of Darnold, at least, like, from the outside, did not seem to be feeling be feeling oh this is where it could go wrong like getting a little jittery and he has to be able to do that in a broader game to game sample if things start to get a little shaky which they probably will at some point folks us cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which

is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started that's exactly what i was thinking about and i thought about it many times throughout the kirk years and i thought about it last night as i was watching kirk cousins pull off a wild 2022 vikings-ish victory against the philadelphia eagles uh definitely had some flashbacks there wait a minute teams melting down and kirk taking advantage at the end oh where have i seen this before but think about the way that kirk cousins was talked about this week by the national media and break it down practice

tape of him running bootlegs and talking about their their offense and he can't move and he's dusted and Penix has to play and all these things which I don't even think are crazy overreactions to what we saw in week one and Kirk Cousins comes out and he plays well and the other team makes a mistake and he wins the game and you go that right there is his cheat code that is the best thing of his entire game other than you know he's an accurate passer but he just seems to have this horse blinder thing that i respect so much and i don't know if sam darnold has that because that hasn't been the case in the past but is it his confidence that fell apart after three or four games

when he hit a down stride? Or did his team's fall apart? Was it injuries? Was it offensive line? Was it that schemes got figured out? Everybody was so high on Joe Brady for a minute there, and then all of a sudden I think everyone figured that out. I don't know that they're going to figure out Kevin O'Connell because we've seen him go through an entire season with a good offense

before when he's had his starting quarterback. But that thing about his mentality and seeing how he deals with times that go down, because that's where he has stayed down over multiple weeks. And that's when, if he does struggle, you turn turn on the tv someone's going to be saying same old sam darnold someone will say that if he has a bad game against the houston texans and he has to be able to work his way through it and i will tell you what can help him work his way through it well first of all the offensive line it's been pretty good so far the gentlemen now gentlemens in the backfield a Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler. Do you believe that Kevin O'Connell has figured out how to run the football in the National Football League, or do you think it's just been two pretty decent weeks, and who knows?

I tend to lean more towards the former. I think what we've seen looks repeatable from the Vikings. It hasn't been, like like juicing their yards per carry stats on on huge plays I think their longest run of the season is probably the the 25 yarder that Ty Chandler had against the 49ers and it's just both running backs have looked good I think the it's kind of a perfect thing that you know offenses love to have where you have two guys who you can maybe it's a 1a 1b with Jones and Chandler but Chandler being a little bit of a bigger back and and showing now the sample size that we have from the stretch run of last season

and now what he did against the 49ers ripping off eight yards of carry and it always has hasn't made that much sense to me that the vikings have been this bad at running the football because you look at the personnel and you're like all of these offensive linemen were drafted to run zone schemes like because they're athletic and they're good run blockers garrett bradbury is one of the best at you know reaching defensive tackles and getting out in the second level and um ed ingram they drafted because he can do that christian derisaw is just a freak athlete and in whatever he's doing brian o'neill like the dude has like a 100th percentile 40 yard dash for an offensive lineman like so does and so does

bradbury these guys ezra cleveland's not here anymore but he was in that mold too where these are the ultimate athletes for the offensive line to run the wide zone and to get out there in space and make those blocks. And then they brought in Josh Oliver last year, who was one of the best run-blocking tight ends in the league. Johnny Munt can do it too a little bit. And they've got C.J. Hamm. They have a fullback. Not that many teams still have a fullback.

And so it was surprising to me. And that's told me that a lot of it came down to the running back, the player who was actually carrying the ball. And I just think that that has been upgraded so much this year. Obviously Aaron Jones didn't have a huge game on the ground, at least. I think he led the team in receptions against the 49ers. But to have Jones, to have have Chandler you feel pretty good that at least one if not both of those guys is gonna have a pretty efficient game any any Sunday

that you go out there with with the blockers that the Vikings have and I do think there's also something to your point of O'Connell's in year three now um as the head coach as the the offensive play caller and kind of figuring out what works and what doesn't from a from a run game standpoint and it looks good so far we'll see if they can keep it up there was a play in particular that i was really impressed by when ty chandler was in the game in that big long 14 play drive and he just ran for a first down they put josh oliver over there and then it was derisaw and brandel and they just eliminated everything in their path yeah and i think that the combination between christian derisaw and blake brandel is so much meat it's so much human these are two of the

biggest dudes massive yeah literally two of the biggest dudes on earth yeah and you're talking six foot six he was a tackle at Oregon State. I wondered about would he really be able to run block because he's so tall, but he's also so wide. He actually reminds me of kind of Rashad Hill. Remember him with the big wide shoulders? And then Christian Derrissaw, you know how big he is. And then adding Oliver to that is a 270-pound dude that is darn near an

offensive lineman in general. And I don't think too many teams are built to face that much man. I really don't. Like that many linebackers, that many defensive tackles that they're going to put in the game. And they had another one that was similar to that in the first game that Aaron Jones had a big explosive off of. You have to run to the right just enough to be able to set up running behind those two guys but that i think is the part where i would say it is a little more sustainable because you are talking about so much size and run blocking ability and look they bought into brandle from the beginning it seemed they were all in on this guy's going to be our left guard and it has

paid off especially in the run game. That is a major part of it. Having two guys that can do it is a part of it. And I'm not ready to fully declare, sorry, Alexander Madison, it was you, but to some extent, and Reisner, you know, Reisner isn't the greatest run blocker, so maybe Ingram's a little better there.

I think that it all ties back into Darnold, and it all has to play into Darnold's success. So it can't have a game where they just get eliminated in the run game, because I think that's been a major reason why he's been able to thrive. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's just such an important thing for any team. Last night, the Falcons, I think what really helped Kirk was how efficiently they were able to run the ball from under center with Bijan Robinson and that opened a lot of things up for them through the air later in the game and it's it's been the same way for the Vikings there was another run

I was watching some of the tape and Garrett Bradbury and Blake Brandel like had a combo block on this defensive tackle and just drove him like six yards out of the play and Ty Chandler burst up the middle for for 10 yards or whatever it was and yeah I think the Reisner point matters too because you know he was a huge upgrade over like the the Ed Ingram or whoever bar at Ezra Cleveland as as a pass protector but the run game stuff I got the sense um just from from watching the film at times and from you know hearing other people talk about it like his run blocking wasn't a major strength and and that can be like with pass protection that can be kind of a weak link thing um where if one guy's not really doing well in that area it can be tough for everybody else to to kind of open up those

holes and i think everybody's been on the same page this year what they've been doing really well is is opening holes and giving the running backs choices and I think both Chandler and Jones bring a lot of vision to the position where they're gonna know if it's a stretch run like I got to be patient on this so I can cut back into the hole or this is when it's time for me to bounce it and they both have the speed and the and the burst to bounce those runs to the outside. We saw Jones do that several times in the opener. The big Ty Chandler 25-yard run, he bounced to the outside.

He got a nice block from Jalen Naylor. They both have that burst. They have the vision, and they just – I don't know that it's going to be one of the best running games in the league, but if you can just be decent in that area and continue what they've done these first two weeks, that would be such a massive improvement from basically abandoning the run game entirely over the last two seasons

because it was so inefficient. Where do you think the defense is going to rank at the end of the 2024 National Football League season presented by Roger Goodell? That is something I've been thinking about because they, I don't want to get carried away on this defense, but I'm so tempted to get carried away on this defense because the names, I mean, you just go up and down the line and all of their additions. Is there a single player that they brought in this off season who hasn't played well so far?

I think Shaq Griffin's just been, like, fine. But everybody else, I mean, nobody's thrown at Stephon Gilmore. The three dudes who they signed early, Cashman, Grenard, Van Ginkle, basically the Hunter, Wanham, Jordan Hicks replacement trio, have been incredible. And more than I even anticipated in the most optimistic outlook so far, and it's still early, but, man, this defense was 11th in defensive DVOA last year in year one under Flores.

Right now they're second through two games, which is such a small sample size that it doesn't really matter. But, like, I think they've probably finished top six, top seven. I just don't think that's at all crazy to say because of how many playmakers they have. And yes, they gave up over 400 yards of offense against the 49ers. That is the 49ers who do that to most teams. But it's just been the consistency of kind of havoc plays, like tackles for loss or no gain, pass breakups, sacks, takeaways. Like they've done that a lot. And it's been it hasn't been just one guy. It's been up and down

their ass. I mean, Jihad Ward is like I think he's second on the team in pressures. Like all these dudes they brought in have just have just fit in so nicely and hit the ground running and have made so much sense for what Brian Flores wants to do. So it's not going to be perfect. I think CJ Stroud is going to be a arguably tougher challenge than the 49ers just because of how special I think he is as a quarterback. But I don't know. I don't think I'm getting carried away to say that this looks like a pretty clear cut top 10 defense with a chance to be top five. It does.

There's going to be challenges that are on the way that give us a clearer picture about that because I can't help but think about how none of the weaknesses have really been exposed. And what I will say about DVOA, though, is it's the football outsider stat. Aaron Schatz invented it. And what it's supposed to do is tell you that that 400 yards was kind of bogus like you're ahead in the game they're trailing the whole time and of course you're going to give up yards when you're trailing because you're fine with a 15 yard completion if it runs 30 seconds off the clock which is what they were doing late in the game so even that's that they were able to hold them from doing anything special when the game was really close,

and they were able to make a lot of key plays at key times. But if you talk about their upcoming opponents, it's a lot of very good quarterbacks. Do you think Jordan Love's going to be back yet? I don't really know. I lean towards, I think there was an Ian Rapoport thing that was like he's aiming for week five. Oh, okay.

All right, well, I guess for week five. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I guess we'll see. We'll see. But even Matt LaFleur is still very dangerous, as he showed this week. So as you go forward, though, let's even assume that Jordan Love is out. You're still talking about this week is Stroud. Then after that, we'll see with the Packers offense, but it's a good offense. Aaron Rodgers after that, we'll see what his Achilles looks like,

but he looked okay in these first couple games and could get stronger. Then you go Jared Goff. Then you go Matthew Stafford. That stretch right there will tell us what we need to know, and if they are still considered a top defense after that stretch, after that it certainly opens up because then you're talking about rookie Caleb Williams who does not look ready for this. You're talking about Trevor Lawrence, who's still struggling.

Richardson, Levis. Will Levis. Then all of a sudden, you are looking at something completely different where they could get into a groove week in and week out. Is there a weakness you're concerned about? I don't know. I think the run defense was a little bit maybe alarming against the 49ers. It might just be that that's a really, really good team at running the ball with Kyle Shanahan and Trent Williams, George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk.

I thought Jordan Mason was super impressive. I called him Marshawn Mason in my article. The first guy almost never took him down, and that was a very impressive performance by him. But I want to see more, I think, from the run defense. And, you know, they've got Harrison Phillips up front, but the defensive tackle position coming into the year was you could point to as probably the most obvious weakness,

just from a roster on paper perspective. Um, and the fact that I think Tillery has been solid so far, uh, I mean, Bullard is still kind of just a guy and he, I think he had consecutive offside penalties in that game, but they've even gotten some,

some good stuff from, uh, from Taki Taimani and we'll see if maybe Levi Drake Rodriguez gets off the the healthy scratch list at some point but that to me is it remains kind of an unknown area where I need to see more um I do I really do think I mean Ivan Pace and Blake Cashman are quite the duo at inside linebacker and and so that's encouraging as far as the run defense goes but yeah the the fact that the 49ers were able to move the ball to the extent that they did i think the vikings themselves will tell you defensively that there there are some things that they'll want to clean up there there

were some times where debo samuel or uh george kittle or whoever we're pretty open um but for the most part i mean b, Brian Flores schemes, just Brock Purdy said it after the game, the scheme is crazy. They have eight guys at the line of scrimmage and double mug a gap look, and then they drop into some cover two or cover four, just all these different crazy things they do that disguise things and, and make the picture muddy. Like her cousins once said it just it looks sustainable to me and we'll see i'm sure some weaknesses will pop up i don't think anybody since the start of the season has really gotten hurt defensively maybe maybe dallas turner um but i mean dallas

turner doesn't look like he he doesn't he he might be a luxury this year if he plays well if pat jones is able to kind of keep doing this um in a contract you're not getting two sacks like he doesn't he might be a luxury this year if he plays well if Pat Jones is able to kind of keep doing this in a contract you're not getting two sacks every game but but being reliable as the number three outside linebacker so they have to stay healthy but once you get past the 49ers and the Texans like yeah you're gonna get the Lions and Ben Johnson's offense a couple times but that's two of the toughest tests of the season is what we just saw and what we're about to see this weekend.

Sorry, suddenly the sun went behind a cloud and the wind whipped up there. So that's such as things we face. Adversity on a porch podcast, so hopefully that sounds okay for everybody. But as far as the defense goes, I think we're still in find-out-a-little-bit mode, and health is going to be a big issue. I think really the health comes down to the cornerback position, where if you needed a linebacker to play Kamu Grugier-Hill for a couple games, I think you're okay.

At defensive tackle, now that Taki Taimani has kind of emerged as someone they could play, Jonah Williams, they have some depth there of just guys who could handle the position. Corner is not a spot that they have guys who can handle the position. I mean, we saw with Caleb Evans last year that teams will take advantage of him. Fabian Morrow's behind him, but he's been a healthy scratch, so clearly they would prefer a Caleb Evans get in instead of Fabian Morrow's behind him, but he's been a healthy scratch, so clearly they would prefer a Caleb Evans get in instead of Fabian Morrow. That means you're really at a point where you need Stephon Gilmore,

you need even Shaq Griffin, and I think Byron Murphy's been okay through his first couple of games, at least serviceable, as he's mostly been since he's been here. But the next step down, especially the nickel corner position, there is no one who could play nickel outside of really it's josh metellus if byron murphy were to get hurt so keeping an eye on the health of this defense which right now looks extremely good but that's where i wondered that's where last year they did hit some some bumps yeah i was gonna i was gonna ask like in that vein and i think i know

who your answer is from what you just said, but who would be the one player that they most can't afford to have get hurt on D? Is it Stephon Gilmore? I think it might be Stephon Gilmore just because of what the next level down is, but I also was tempted to say Andrew Van Ginkle. I was thinking Van Ginkle and Grenard as well because just the unprovenness of Turner and how I'm not sure that we're going to continue to see this from Pat Jones and how important the outside linebacker position is.

I had Patrick Jones at 36 sacks this year. I don't know if that's on pace for. That's like when someone hits three homers in the first two games or something. I think it's 34. Oh, sorry. Yeah, whatever. 36 after the first two games or something. I think it's 34. Well, oh, sorry. Yeah, whatever. 36 after the first round of the playoffs. Right, exactly.

That's what I meant. I was including preseason sacks. I don't think he played in the preseason. It doesn't matter. You went to a better college than I did. Anyway, here's what I want to ask you. I want to do a little better or worse. I'm going to give you some other teams in the national football league

presented by Roger Goodell and his referees that call penalties when someone does a celebration. Still, I can't believe we're doing that in 2024. And it was irritating to watch, but anyway, I want to give you other NFC teams and I want you to tell me whether you think the Vikings are better or worse than that team. And I am not allowing you to say I think they're the same. Okay.

San Francisco 49ers. Do you think that they are, after beating them, a better team this year? And the whole idea is better record, better potential to win the Super Bowl than the 49ers. No, I don't. Assuming that they get Christian McCcafree back at some point i think that's a better football team still um and you know it didn't it didn't look like it for much of the game but it was it was in minneapolis i i do think the mcafree thing really matters more than any other running back in the NFL. So I will still give the nod to the defending NFC champions.

How about the New Orleans Saints who have pounded their first two opponents? You know what I was just thinking about recently? If you go on NFL Twitter, Saints Twitter, it just kind of popped onto my feed, they love Clint Kubiak. And why wouldn't you? He's modernized their offense. They're actually using motion and play action and all these cool things now. And they've scored 40-plus in two straight games. They just absolutely torched Mike Zimmer.

And I was thinking back, like, what a shift in perception that is. Because Vikings Twitter hated Clint Kubiak in, what was it, 2021 was his coordinator season? If we could only find the person responsible for Clint Kubiak being now better. Mike Zimmer, the guy he just destroyed on Sunday. I searched my own Twitter handle, which is at Will Raggetts, by the way, and then the name Clint Kubiak. And I had some tweet from the end of the 21 season where I was like,

this is not – Clint Kubiak is terrible. This is not working. And everyone in the comments was agreeing, like, yeah, he's got to go. He's got to go. And he did go, predictably. But credit to him. And I had another tweet that was like he had gotten interviewed for some job. I think maybe it was with the Broncos and Hackett or something or the Jets. I don't even remember. But I was like, good had gotten interviewed for some job. I think maybe it was with the Broncos and Hackett or something, or the Jets.

I don't even remember. But I was like, good for Clint Kubiak. I'm curious to see how his career goes now that he's no longer with Mike Zimmer. And boy, it has gone really well for Clint Kubiak. And so that's just been an interesting anecdote. I'll be excited to continue to see if the Saints can keep it up. I still haven't answered the question, though. I think the Vikings are better than the Saints.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. That one, so I said that you can't say the same. I want to say the same, which is Derek Carr is also a guy through his career who's gotten blazing hot at times and then always tended to regress a little bit. So I don't want to go fully into, oh oh my gosh, the Saints are Super Bowl contenders, but they certainly looked like it through the first two weeks. And their win, as impressive as the Vikings was,

theirs was even more impressive over a team that I do consider a Super Bowl contender. I'm wondering about, is Dallas not as good as we thought? Because one of the two data points for the Saints is against, by far, the worst team in the league, the Carolina Panthers. So I don't know. If Dallas is actually good, then that is an unbelievable ass-kicking by the New Orleans Saints. But I'm now a little bit like, which way was it in that game?

Was that the Saints being dominant, or was that the Cowboys having some issues? I'm now a little bit like, which way was it in that game? Was that the Saints being dominant, or was that the Cowboys having some issues? So I think it was probably the Cowboys having issues, but I don't want to downplay that the Saints might be pretty good. I think the way the Saints have played and how much they beat their opponent by, I might give them the slight edge. Also, Derek Carr has been a good quarterback for a long time. Sam Darnold has been a good quarterback the last two games and those are two different things for me is trying to pick which team is better so I probably would lean Saints by a little bit

uh but if we say Vikings or Cowboys I'm still gonna go Cowboys here okay because I don't want to overreact to week two this is the difficult thing is we're saying well you know all these vikings things from two weeks are sustainable but i also want to go that maybe they just laid an egg in that game and they weren't ready for what they were going to throw at them zimmer maybe zimmer thought clint kubiak was running the 2021 offense if clint kubiak was allowed to cook in 2021 do the vikings just go deep in the playoffs I mean that was a very talented team that's what got them fired is that there was so much talent across the board and Clint Kubiak is being told to run the ball over and over and over again and just seemed to

not have any confidence in his second half play calling I'm sorry to circle back to that but it's so astounding to see someone have such a great performance i still would not say the vikings are better than the cowboys yet i think i'll give it to the cowboys as well but i'm i'm another another week of a vikings win and the cowboys lost away from from flipping it um i just think that like you said i think we give them the track record. Dak Prescott was really, really good last year. They still have all the pieces on defense with Parsons and Diggs and all those guys. So I'll still give the Cowboys that for now.

Okay, what would be the team that you would have the Vikings over that maybe would be unexpected? I mean, because I was thinking about we could run down all these teams. Seattle might be a shade better than the Vikings, but similar in the way that they have. I think the clear-cut ones that are above the Vikings, I just gave it to the 49ers and we gave the Cowboys. I think we still put the Eagles and the Lions above the Vikings as well.

But I think those are the only clear-cut ones the conversations are the saints the buccaneers who have looked really good and have such a parallel of the highly drafted 2018 quarterback who's on his fourth team and is now just blossoming and 2024 baker mayfield like is, if J.J. McCarthy didn't exist, the Vikings would hope 2025 Sam Darnold could turn into. And then, yeah, the Seahawks, the Jordan Love Packers, if he's healthy. I think you can really have debates with all of those, and that's in that 5- to seven five to eight wild card team

range where to me suddenly that's that's my expectation for the Vikings is to be right in this playoff picture I would probably put the Vikings over most of those teams um I think I put them over Seattle I I put them over the Saints I believe yeah I said that um two minutes ago um the toughest ones for me I think would be Tampa and a healthy Green Bay and I think I might give the nod to those teams over the Vikings but it's close yeah I mean even with Baker Mayfield he's talked about as the same way as Darnold he's lumped into that but he's had much he had success with the Browns he was not a disaster. Right, exactly. He took the Browns to the playoffs. He won a playoff game. So it's not totally mind blowing that he would be able to do this and then sustain it. He's got a

good team, has a good defensive coach. There's a cluster. They're in the cluster. It's a second tier cluster right now. And if they beat the Texans, I'm ready to put them in the first-tier cluster ahead of a bunch of other teams. Let me throw one factor that the Vikings have going for them at you before we call it a porch pod. It's been very nice out here, by the way. It feels lovely. Beautiful September day. The Vikings have this no-one-believed-in-us thing that's real because no one did.

It's true. Whereas Philadelphia, can you not see it all over everybody's face, the pressure that is facing Nick Sirianni? And with Dallas, same kind of deal. If you don't do it this year, well, Dak Prescott's about to make $60 million. I don't know how you're doing it in the future if you can't do it this year. There's other teams that are coming in the future, maybe Washington maybe chicago down the road if their quarterbacks end up clicking and there's a couple of teams that have i feel like san francisco is even one of them as well

so much pressure on them where i and detroit is the same way if you don't win this year and you're detroit then everyone's gonna go oh, we missed our chance with that freaking fourth down that Dan Campbell called. This is a Vikings team that doesn't feel any of that because the discussion was mostly out for another year. And I wonder how that factors in to the rest of the year where it's belief in themselves could just grow and grow, and maybe they can be the surprise kind of Detroit Lions team that they were last year maybe not quite to that extent but there's something that matters there with the outside

forces beyond just who are your linebackers who's your quarterback that kind of thing yeah I always wonder how much like you know the narratives and the stuff that we talk about matters inside a locker room I think this team has believed in themselves really since they started building it in the spring. They've said that over and over, and I tend to believe it. But it doesn't hurt to have some of that bulletin board material and have that chip on your shoulder and that nobody believes in us. Let's go prove it each week.

And, yeah, at least the way we've looked at it to your shoulder and that nobody believes in us let's go prove it each week uh and yeah they like at least the way we've looked at it and and the country looked at it like vikings weren't expected to do anything this year mccarthy went down and it's like oh darnold's got to play and it's almost like they're just kind of playing with house money and they can play free and and and go out there and and over time if they keep winning, you know, the expectations will rise and maybe the pressure rises. But, again, I just don't know how much that matters on a specific Sunday with the teams going out there and so much of the focus is on, you know,

X's and O's and the game plan and winning your assignment and just winning a football game. But, yeah, to me, the biggest thing the Vikings have going for them, and this is beyond even what I think is a really talented roster, it's just the coaching. I don't know that another team in football has a coaching duo on the level of Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores. And there's probably a few that,

there's definitely a few that are at least in that conversation. But I think O'Connell's one of the best offensive coaches in football um game plans play calls he probably shouldn't dial up a Ty Chandler pass uh in the red zone of a one score game and four minutes left that was a little that was a little bizarre but um I think he's I think he's great at what he does and then I think I mean the quarterback element as well of just coaching that position. And then Brian Flores, I think, is pretty clearly a top five defensive coach. And just, again, game plan, schemes, complexity, play calling. That's a big reason why I think the Vikings floor is pretty high this year.

I think they're going to be in basically every game. We will see. Oh, man, it is set up. The two wins, though, have set up for discussions that I wasn't even necessarily mentally ready for because I thought they would beat the Giants. And I said last week, well, nothing really changes, but it's good to whoop

somebody but this was going to be such a much better measuring stick and they went past the measuring stick and went to not only did you play with san francisco which i still would have thought was a really good sign but you ran over san francisco and played their style of a physical and violent game which also is a product of the players that Brian Flores has brought in. And he even said today, talked about how they got together in the off season, collaborated on their picks for who they wanted in free agency. And we're able to bring in so many guys that just fit exactly what he wants

that I agree with that. As long as you have good coaching, you should be in it going forward, which should make some very exciting times for us, I think, and Vikings fans as we go forward. It's really fun that it doesn't light up this week. Yeah, definitely not. We just beat the 49ers.

Now we get the Bears at home. No, you've got the Houston Texans who look like a very, very, very good football team. Granted, they beat the Colts by two and the Bears by six, which aren't the most impressive results, but just you watch them play, and that's a team that's going to give you a lot of problems this week. Stroud and Nico Collins on offense, the other weapons that they have, and we get to talk all kinds of revenge games.

Oh, yeah, the revenge games. Daniel Hunter and Diggs and Grenard and Blake Cashman I mean up and down and then defensively like they just have they look like the Vikings in a lot of ways defensive they just have dudes on dudes on dudes depth versatility pressure um so yeah I'm a great coach I think a really great coach great coach I'm on both sides of the ball I think Slowik's good on offense and demico ryan's who i would have been perfectly i would have fully endorsed the vikings hiring him a couple years ago uh i think he's a great coach it's it's gonna be another fun one and if they can win that i mean just continues to the the bandwagon is just gonna start to continue continue to grow here a little bit yeah to have them matching up with a team like this and not feel like they are overwhelmed and should be major underdogs,

even just go back and look what people thought for percentage chances to win these games or opening lines for these types of games, I imagine that's changed a lot just over these two weeks. And they're home underdogs again. They get to point to that in the locker room and get fired up about it. Will, I'm fired up about the fact that you were able to stop by the porch. Yeah. Thanks for coming over, man.

This was great. Beautiful day. And hopefully everything worked out for everybody listening wise because it worked out great for us chilling here on the porch. So thanks so much, everybody, for listening slash watching. And we'll talk to you all soon. Football, Will. Football. I was going to say, man, say it.

Say it. We're back. We're back.