Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the Falcons go after Kirk Cousins or Justin Fields? CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso answers

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso about the Atlanta Falcons' QB options, which come down to Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields, it seems... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Perval Insider. Matthew Collar here along with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso. One more before I fly out. We got to get as many podcasts as we can here in Indianapolis for sure. Well, why don't we start out with this, Chris? We did it yesterday. We'll do it again. What's the buzz? What are you talking to people about? It doesn't have to be like, oh, last time you were in your bag with the, oh, well. I got a lot in the first night. Yeah, you were vibing. But what about talking to people about doesn't have to be like oh your last time you were in your bag with the oh well i got a lot in the first night yeah you were that's true you were you were vibing but uh what about talking to other people if you if you don't got anything i got some stuff from last i didn't really get much what i've been really trying to work and i haven't gotten anything

specific was why a lot of other people outside of me are so low on chop Robinson from Penn state because on film, he looks like the exact type of address that you want in today's NFL. He's bendy. He's burst is elite, um, productive for two years. He's not even 22 yet, but like Daniel Jeremiah has him graded at like 24.

He hasn't ranked at 25 PFFs way lower on him. And these are people that I respect. So I'm like, what am I seeing wrong? What's the deal with him maybe some character or off-field stuff that's really all that i got last night but no one was willing to be as confident as they were about jj mccarthy being off the board before the vikings at number 11 yeah uh well with chop robinson he was one where when you watch him with penn State, a super explosive player, which is a great starting point. And somebody that I look at at number 42 for the Minnesota Vikings as maybe he's there.

Is he worth picking? But I also think that defensive ends, I feel like you have to draft them higher. It's sort of like that Adafi Owe thing where, oh well you know he's got all these physical tools and we'll take him at 20 something and we'll just develop them i think those players it's worked for the vikings a couple times historically like with everson griffin or with daniel hunter daniel hunter's name always comes up with tools guys who have you know whatever something you really like physically but don't have something else it didn't have the production uh i don't know what chop robinson's production was it good it was pretty good yeah okay so it's a little bit of a different story but usually if the league doesn't

think the guy is elite elite and i know this bothers you when i say the league but uh that's fine you know what i mean if everybody and the consensus like he's not that high usually they don't turn into a superstar unless they were a high pick i think that that's like one of those random positional things that i've kind of come to think and with danelle hunter it's like don't chase outliers because that's what he was and i think when you same thing with josh allen that every erratic decent athlete that's above six two it's oh he's the next josh allen or could he be the next josh allen he's another outlier patrick mahomes i think is as well so that could be like what I was trying to track down last night

was what's the deal with him, but maybe what you just pointed out is just as simple as that. I'll tell you what I was talking to people about last night, and this was more reporters than it was the league, but just about Chicago and what Chicago is going to do. I have totally locked it in that they are drafting Caleb Williams. I'm going to stick with that. Nothing that I've heard around here would even make me question it for a moment, but let's talk about their options a little bit with Justin

Fields because that was more of the subject is who wants Justin Fields and the team that gets brought up as Atlanta. And of course I have have already put Kirk Cousins on Atlanta, making the argument for Justin Fields versus Kirk Cousins in Atlanta. So let us have this conversation. Let's do it. I think Kirk is a better fit for the Atlanta Falcons because they are in a win now type of situation. They need competent quarterback play to get the ball to their playmakers. And they don't need someone who can't see where to throw the football and then scrambles. And then you end up with Kyle Pitts having 48 catches again. You need someone.

Look at the receivers and their numbers with Kirk Cousins. Go back to Deshaun Jackson. Go to Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson. You're going to find thousand yards records, whatever, because the man does not run. So he's throwing it to you. And that, that is what they should be looking for. And especially with someone who would have instant familiarity with the offense in Atlanta. Can you make a case for Justin Fields for me? Because who I was talking to last night was saying like, oh, I think Fields being a playmaker and if you put everything around him,

you could have something special there. Do you see that? How do you see Fields versus Kirk in Atlanta? I mostly agree with you. And I think, which I probably just stopped you short of what you were going to say, that Zach Robinson being the offensive coordinator there, being from the Kyle Shanahan, Kevin O'Connell tree, you would think would lean into Kirk Cousins. The one kind of thing I'll say about Justin Fields that would maybe make sense or could be something new is what I've talked about, that I want to see a big-time athlete in this Kyle Shanahan coaching tree,

whether that's in Minnesota with even someone like Drake May or it's Justin Fields in Atlanta with Zach Robinson. That would really be the only thing that I could say that Justin Fields would be like, well, hey, I'm a better athlete. You can do design run game stuff. You can do more, a little more outside of the pocket, although Kirk is pretty good on the bootleg action. And I think to your first point, the NFC South is not very good.

And it is, you go 9-8 and you're hosting a home playoff game. And who knows what's going to happen with Baker Mayfield. If he's off the box and they're suddenly looking for a quarterback again, it's totally wide open. Like the worst division in football very easily, or about as easy as it's going to be to be able to take that division. So if that's what the Falcons are hoping for and just saying hey look let's like go one game above 500 you go with kirk cousins all day and i think that in that division you have a chance to even be better than

that with kirk cousins and if i'm kirk i'm also looking at that going is new orleans gonna come get me is carolina gonna come get me? Is Carolina going to come get me? And I mean, by if I'm Atlanta, are they going to catch the division is, you know, Tampa Bay is just not in a good situation. And even Baker Mayfield,

there's an argument to go somewhere else because I just don't know how Tampa Bay is winning anything going forward. That nine and eight and one playoff win is the peak of Tampa Bay probably for years to come. If Baker Mayfield goes back there, maybe it's 8-9, maybe it's 7-10. I don't see their roster without Mike Evans

and then now Shaq Barrett is gone. The cap situation, just being really competitive at any point, whereas Atlanta has hit on a lot of these draft picks and just needs someone to throw the freaking ball he more said that rey more said if they had better quarterback play i wouldn't be standing here this podium as the coach coach of the falcons so and i think that's totally true you watch the falcons there were times where last year they were

teetering on oh could they win the division and oh a bad game from desmond ritter and then it's taylor heineke and they can't really move the football. The defense made some plays. Jesse Bates had a great year. And again, no one really put them in ever in that serious NFC contender realm, but the quarterback play really held them back from a very winnable NFC South last season. All right, so if we both think that Atlanta's a better spot

for either Kirk or honestly Baker, right? Yeah. Yeah. There's just been so connected with Zach Robinson. Yeah. He's been so connected back to the Bucks that there hasn't been a lot of consideration of him going somewhere else. But if I'm Zach Robinson and I'm familiar with him and if we assume that he likes him, but if that's the case, then that would also make sense for Atlanta. I think Kirk's probably a better pick for them. But Mayfield also, if they want that win now,

quarterback who's going to help them right away, more so than Fields. And the argument with Fields, oh, well, if you just run some bootlegs with them, if you just make it simple, if you just get... It's too much. I just don't buy it. I just don't believe it. I think there is so much jumping all the time with players that have severe flaws to blame coaches because we have a handful of examples historically where coaches have helped

players sort of mitigate some of their issues. But we have watched so much Justin Fields where it's spectacular or terrible. And maybe you can even that out a little. But if you're telling me that he's like a Drake London away or a Kyle Pitts away or a few more play actions away from being a special quarterback, I just don't believe you. I just don't see that. I think he's probably the 20th best quarterback in the league, and he could probably be a little better. But if he was going to be great, what they had this year in Chicago was pretty good. And, of course course the offensive coordinator always gets blamed anytime the quarterback doesn't perform uh to his maximum and maybe

luke gets he does suck at his job i don't know for sure but what i do know is there's open guys that you see on tape that justin fields doesn't find because he can't see and i don't know how that's changing and i also don't think that that's a Rams-style, Zach Robinson-style type of quarterback. I mean, maybe, okay, they're not all the same. McVay's people aren't all the same. But I just don't see that as being the fit. So where does Justin Fields fit,

and how much can they get for Justin Fields? The Raiders are a team that seem like need a quarterback. They're picking after the Vikings. It feels like they'll probably say that they're doing their due diligence on this quarterback class in the draft, but how realistic is it if you're thinking, hey, maybe the Vikings would have to move up and they might not even get the quarterback that they want at 11. The Raiders at 13. The Broncos are there at 12. It feels like the Raiders might be like, look, unless we trade the farm, we're not going to be able to get all the way to the quarterback that we want.

So that's a team that I think makes some sense. But what you just pointed out with Justin Fields, I agree with a lot of it. And he's not, for as much as he's athletic and he's young and was a former first-round pick, which I think certainly carries its weight throughout a player of it. And he's not for as much as he's athletic and he's young and was a former first round pick, which I think certainly carries its weight throughout a player's career. I mean, Blaine Gabbert has been in the NFL for like over a decade now because he was a first round pick incorrectly. Beyond that, I don't really know what Justin Fields could hang his hat on to say, look, like there should be every team that needs a quarterback coming to get me.

And I'll just very quickly say on your last point on coaches get blamed all the time it's like rolling out the red carpet for me i'll do like a quick rant i am the biggest believer that coaching in the nfl yes there's times where there's a developmental great story orion tannahill resurgence i'm the biggest believer that coaches the vast majority of them are really at the mercy of the quality of the players that they have. And I'll give an example close to home for me. Brian Dable was a, I don't want to say a nobody coach. He was in New England, technically has some Super Bowl rings, is the offensive coordinator like pre-Alex Smith, pre-Andy Reid in Kansas City with with the browns and was like it was

like laughable when the bills hired him it was like what are they doing this guy's from buffalo are they just hiring him because he's a local guy and then he gets josh allen and then suddenly in like overnight in like a year or two he is an offensive genius and it's like he is the most highly sought after head coaching candidate he goes with the giants and yes they got to the playoffs with daniel jones obviously beat the vikings but then this past year daniel jones which i don't think he's very good either he gets hurt and it's oh are they gonna fire brian dable because he has tommy devito and tyrod taylor and the quarterback situation is terrible he's a prime example and you can go run through so many in your head. Dan Quinn with the commanders is another one. So I agree with you that it's the players way more

than the coaches in the scheme, but it just, I think maybe easier sometimes say, Oh, bad scheme. Let's fire the offensive coordinator. It's you can do that. You don't have to worry about dead cap or anything like that. So I totally agree on Justin Fields. And that's not to say that all coaches are good. There are some terrible coaches, but Arthur Smith would be an example of this. And this was not a man who was fit for a head coaching job. So be clear, that's a leadership position. Yes, different than coordinators. Exactly.

But that's a guy that when he's in Tennessee, they get their Henry there, they get some receivers, they get an offensive line. And then he runs a bunch of play actions and pumps up ryan tannahill and then you think well he's the whisperer he can take but ryan tannahill was pretty good in miami yeah he wasn't terrible and then you gave him a good circumstance and he was better and you only threw the ball 300 times a year and you made sure that the guys were wide open and and trying to decide which coaches are to blame and how much is one of the biggest challenges of analyzing football, period. But when you watch Justin Fields struggle to find the receivers he's supposed to deliver the ball to over and over and over and over and over again,

even when he has better wide receivers and he was in hell playing against brian flores both times uh and it just like that's not to me when i last year's defense was a great litmus test for quarterbacks because jared goff patrick mahomes they had no problem with it like justin herbert no problem justin herbert completed like 90 of his passes in a game no problem and yet the bad quarterbacks had a lot of struggles against it because it was a lot of scheme stuff that was messing with you but if you're jared goff and you id that stuff because you've been around for a while you're finding people you're getting open receivers because the vikings just didn't have a great roster and that was telling to me still about fields if he was going to be great he would be that next step already i think if you are the

raiders though you're looking for some excitement there you're looking for competent play and you probably are making the same argument that teams make all the time we were eight nine with bad quarterback play if we just if we just if we just they might be right though i mean they might be right enough that they could get to 10-7, and that would be a huge win for them. Every franchise is in a different place where the Raiders just need to get a playoff game. This was so long.

When was their last playoff game? I think they haven't hosted a home playoff game since you and I were in high school. Rich Gannon? Yeah, literally Rich Gannon. How old is Rich gannon now so in his 50s uh yeah what about pittsburgh what's your thought about about pittsburgh quarterback situation yeah it's that's one that i've thought for kirk cousins i've i mean just

because everything that you pointed out with kirk cousins i think is and it was the case during his career during his time in minnesota and maybe that extends that you just know what you're getting with Justin Fields. You there's kind of this enigmatic element to it. Like, Oh, could we get a thousand yard rusher? And could he be at 25 better with Kirk Cousins? You know what you're getting. And he probably like is pitching that to teams. They're like, look, we're going to get these stats, this completion percentage, this amount of throws in the middle of the field, blah, blah, blah. So I've sent in some mocks where I've had to include trades. I've sent Kirk Cousins of the Steelers and then see how that ripple effect goes. I think Justin Fields, that could make sense because with Kenny Pickett, they haven't

had that improvisation ability. They have some good receivers that were seemingly very frustrated. Although for all the points that you made about Fields missing open guys, that was kind of a problem for Kenny Pickett as well. But that's another team that after Ben Roethlisberger, like you just pointed out with the Raiders, certainly totally different franchise the last 30 years, but needs excitement at the quarterback spot. It's been really lacking, and it's been holding a team back that's been elite on defense, has made the playoffs, but just once they get there, it's like, whoa, your quarterback situation is not even on the same stratosphere as

the other team that you're playing. So I think that could certainly be a possibility as well. There will be suitors for Justin Fields, but I think there will be very risky propositions for all those teams. Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network? I did not make this up. It is an actual thing. And U.S. Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days. You can try out U.S. Cellular wherever you have that spotty service, like on your commute to work, that one spot in your house where your service dips. Test drive U.S. Cellular at your kid's school on parent teacher night okay maybe still pay attention but by all means make sure you test it it's as easy as doing

a little boop boop boop on your phone that was me getting the app to try it out i know great sound effects there test drive us cellular award-winning network for 30 days us cellular built for us terms apply awards based on open signal independent data visit us cellular.com for details and anybody who gets them also has the hedge and draft a quarterback in the middle rounds or have a that would be smart short-term long-term plan because that might just not work out. And if there's one area where I don't fully trust Mike Tomlin, it is to do the best for his quarterback. Of course, players.

When he had Ben Roethlisberger, it was fine and so forth. But I actually think in this situation with the Matt Canada thing, that was the exception to what we were just talking about that their offense was so lost in the woods that they're probably wondering if we give Kenny Pickett the right guy and what they're going to find out is the answer is no that he will be better but he's not going to be great and you know Kenny Pickett reminds me of his EJ manual where you could squint and see it when he was coming out and once you actually saw him plague oh okay that's not good enough that's a backup that's just it's just a backup that he's

an nfl quarterback but he's not going to move the needle he's not going to win you a championship and so does pittsburgh view it as we need to find a high ceiling guy like justin fields or does mike tomlin actually start to feel the pressure and want a Kirk Cousins because what these guys as we know default to when they feel the pressure is Kirk yeah because we know exactly what type of performance he's going to give you where with most quarterbacks there's a lot of other questions uh I think that he's worth a third round pick or a not i mean a second historically has been the mark for like a sam darnold but just with his age his yeah and you're gonna have to pay him if we're talking about kirk you're not no no i i'm talking about uh fields which is a third round pick for fields right like what like what is the what is the price tag maybe a maybe a second but i would almost if i'm

a team not really totally convinced that that's a good idea to give up a second for Justin Fields. I mean, I guess if you were in a situation like Pittsburgh, like the Raiders, where your quarterback play has been so horrific, maybe you're willing to do that because you also have a roster that's in pretty good shape. But the idea that was floated earlier this off season, that it would be a first to me is preposterous. There's no chance it's going to be a first. If you look at some of those Sam Darnold and Carson Wentz, they were like multiple day two picks and they had conditions. So I think with fields, whether it's he needs to, it's play, it's performance incentives, like he needs to reach

3,700 yards passing or whatever the case may be, or with Fields, because he has been injured, is it that Carson Wentz, he needs to play 75% of the snaps. I could see that around three and then around four. That could become another round three if you make the playoffs and he throws for 4,000 yards, something like that. He's not going to throw for 4,000 yards. I don't think that's going to happen almost anywhere. Yesterday, when we sat down with, I don't know what day everyone's listening to this.

There was a day in Indianapolis where we sat down with Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah. And we did a full breakdown, beat writer breakdown of that. So you can go find that podcast. But there was something specific pertaining to quarterbacks and scouting them that I wanted to read to you, Chris, that Kevin O'Connell said, because he laid out, I asked him directly about adjusting his offense to a quarterback and whether he'd rather find someone that fits him or just find a guy and fit him to that player. And I honestly think that both philosophies make sense on a lot of levels. You've built an offense over a career.

Why would you go get someone that can't run it? But then there's all offenses these days should be flexible. This isn't, hey, we're just running boots or we're just running power or whatever. You're right. This is every offense is mixtures of 100 different offenses that have come before it. So O'Connell in that conversation laid out his kind of non-negotiables for quarterbacks. Now I will give a cliche warning.

They're a little, a little bit on the cliche side, but I want to know, I want to hear like yours and your reaction. So here's what he said. Got the quote from yesterday. He said, any NFL quarterback who's going to sustain a long career in this league has

to be accurate. They have to be able to process information. They have to have a certain baseline level of toughness to play the position because we ask them to not only do mentally hard things, but it's a physically hard position with what happens on each Sunday. That is his non-negotiable.

So he's looking for accuracy, processing. And he talked about toughness multiple times which you can really roll your eyes but i find this to be a huge huge huge thing mentally tough physically tough this is how kirk cousins has survived in the league with his mental and physical toughness so those are kevin o'connell's non-negotiables that match anybody for you with the top it sounds like drake may honestly i mean drake may stayed at north carolina the offensive line was not great he lost josh downs uh his really good slot receiver who had a great rookie uh year in indianapolis and took a lot of hits last year

and the offensive line was not great and the defense wasn't good and he was in some holes early in games because the defense was just a complete porous unit that was allowing a lot of touchdowns and a lot of points a lot of yards um took hits outside the pocket in the pocket and never really seemed to bat an eye and and wasn't someone that missed a lot of games was durable um and i think i mean it's pretty hard to to pinpoint the mental toughness for someone but i think think Drake May kind of fits that mold in that he's accurate at all three levels and not in a Bo Nix style. And I feel like I'm always bashing Bo Nix in every podcast,

but not in a super screen-heavy offense. Maybe, again, and I think I said in the first podcast here that the North Carolina system was not Kevin O'Connell complex, but throws at all three levels throughout every game. It sounds a lot like Drake May. And to that, to his point, it sounds like a very, I don't want to say cliched answer, but the perfect answer for someone that comes from that Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, because you could take what he said there. And it's like, oh, that's kind of Brock Purdy, like Brock Purdy. Like he, even as the last pick you could take what he said there. And it's like, Oh, that's kind of Brock Purdy.

Like Brock Purdy, like he, even as the last pick in the draft, he was accurate. He processes really well and he's tough. He's this little dude. He takes a bunch of hits and he does create outside the pocket a little bit more than people expect and gets right back up again. I mean, he obviously got hurt in the NFC title game last or two years ago, but beyond that, he takes a lot of big hits from guys much bigger than him so it kind of it's not surprising that those are his non-negotiables because i think from that

sean mcveigh kyle shanahan tree it's a system that if you do those things you're going to get high level results at the quarterback spot we also understand that at this point if you are being considered to be drafted to be the min Vikings franchise quarterback, you probably have a strong arm. It's not. They're not. They need that. Pulling out some random Mac quarterback. Dan LaFever, I saw, came up the other day.

Yeah, everybody's favorite Dan LaFever. Sorry, Dan LaFever. I don't know what you're doing these days. Bears, right? Yeah, I think so. But he was one of those where early draft Twitter loved this guy. Like, yeah, he can't throw the where early draft Twitter loved this guy. Like, yeah, I can't throw the ball hard enough folks.

And that's just fails. Remember him? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's always one. Even that, uh, Jake Hayner,

there's always a guy that Jake from was another one that he's for work. Like, have you seen his arm? Anyway, the point is that if a guy is being considered as a first round pick, he's got the arm. Yes. And he's probably got physical traits that allow him to be a first round pick and considered for this league what it comes down to so often is the makeup of the person we've seen that like even justin fields is an

example of this where i think that fields gets down on himself i don't confidence is low confidence struggles i don't think he's that resilient uh even when you saw him kind of blaming the coaching where I think that Fields gets down on himself. Confidence is low. Confidence struggles. I don't think he's that resilient. Even when you saw him kind of blaming the coaching and then trying to walk it back. And Baker Mayfield took years to get over who Baker Mayfield was and finally act like a professional when he was in Tampa Bay. And it's just a very hard job.

The pressure of the job, the anxiety of the job, all that. They tell these guys, and I don't know if I would say this to them if I was a coach. They're like, hey, when the ball's in your hands, that's everybody's careers and lives and everything, which sounds like a lot of pressure. And if you're like, okay, cool, I mean, then you might have it. But that would scare the heck out of me. And he's totally right. We were just talking about how many people are geniuses because of a quarterback in Kansas city and how many people are idiots. How many people got fired because of EJ manual. Sorry, EJ great guy. But if you draft

the wrong quarterback, we know this, that it's going down. So I think that O'Connell, what he's focused on in these meetings is really the guy. He wants to understand the character. Now, I'll give you a Kweisi Adafo-Menta quote. He said, we've been paying attention to this draft class for a couple years. Oh? And said, it was good to meet them in person and see a lot of the stuff we saw on tape was true, and that's not always the case. We thought they were really bright. Eyeball emojis?

They've been playing paying attention to the draft class for years he says hmm maybe they had kind of earmarked this offseason is like this is the end of the kirk era that they like had the extension like we talked about when they first like when this new regime came in they could have been like uh all right our first year let's tank they did not do that they made the playoffs they lost it was disappointing but it was like hey we still made the playoffs we still hosted a playoff game um so maybe that's after that moment or when they were in the middle of that first offseason and like hey we're not going to just take this new head coach and this new gm and

be like let's go 3 and 14 and just like get the first pick and get a quarterback. Maybe it was after that, that they're like, yeah, we're trying to win every game technically that the 2024 offseason, that's the one. So let's look at these sophomores and juniors that are playing. And fortunately for them, I mean, sometimes you can just be a new GM and a new head coach and you can look forward two years and the quarterback class has Kenny Pickett or as EJ Manuel and that's it um fortunately for the Vikings it's a very good quarterback class at the top in the first round I feel really bad about EJ Manuel I mean he was he's a class guy and he just didn't work out and we've mentioned him as a bust like four times and so I'm sorry for that. I think that is a good observation that

everything has brought us here has pointed to them drafting a quarterback this year. The way that they handled Kirk initially, the way that they handled Kirk last year, and I know for a fact that they wanted to do an extension with Kirk last year, but they wanted to do a short extension with Kirk, which still would have led us here. They did not want to do the three or four years and lock them in. They wanted one or two. They wanted the shortest term possible for him last year when they negotiated that.

And that's why it didn't happen. And that still would have pointed to potentially drafting a quarterback here but my question is what is it that you guys saw that you liked so much about this particular group and i've said i've said this a few times about like when we talk about mccarthy and nicks and pennix i like all of them for different reasons i mean this isn't one where you're really trying to and that that ryan nasib geno smith draft was very much like can you maybe like i don't know and the same thing with the malik willis and so forth we were trying so hard to talk ourselves into desmond ritter and all that these are guys who threw 40 freaking touchdowns

and completed 70 of their passes and we're saying well that wasn't good enough boat nicks why didn't you do it a different way or penix what's wrong with your knees you loser but like if you look at his arm and his production and the statistics on these guys it's a it's a really good class so i could see how they would have thought that earlier and what it sounds like from their comments and i have no reason to think that's not true is that o'connell want to see what the heck these guys are made of. Like what's what's in the old heart. And it just feels like they thought there's some sharp quarterbacks here, whether that means they're going to draft one or not. I don't know, but at least that is the response that I felt like we got from those guys. And I think that it was honest. Yeah. So what you've told me about the kind of the dynamic between Kevin

O'Connell and Kwesi Adolfo Mensah is of course, just because of their backgrounds, Kwesi is the analytical kind of 30,000 foot view guy. And Kevin O'Connell wants to, again, hear what these guys have to say, how they process. So they kind of have a two layer and it's probably good to have both to not just have, Hey, we're only going to be eyeball scouts or we're only going to be analytics guys. So I think that's actually a good dynamic. And everything that you said kind of like made me laugh a little bit because it made me think of every year, whether it's a quarterback, whatever first round, usually they say this. And sometimes later, like any team, a team picks let's i'll just use the bills because i have more of those

uh picks in my head they pick gregory russo at the end of the first round in 2021 and then all the social media stuff is oh we loved him we had him he was the only guy for us and every team does it it makes sense it's an easy sell to fans but what quacey said and everything that you mentioned that this is kind of it seems like this aligned with the talk of a short Kirk extension but still this would have led to this year being the quarterback year it's very reasonable and I think it happens all the time but we don't hear about it that a team likes like multiple guys and they're like hey let's like diversify here like let's figure out a plan where we, how our roster makeup will be, our overall

philosophy will be if we land Drake May, if we land Caleb Williams. I mean, no one knew going into this year, maybe Caleb Williams has that tank of a season after a big Heisman year and suddenly he's in the mix at 11. I mean, who knows? So I think it's very reasonable that a year or even two ago, the Vikings were like, we kind of like all these guys. And then they watched Jane Daniels ascend and we're like, Oh, there's another guy in the mix.

And again, we talked about it in the last podcast that it's, you have to have literally on draft day of like eight contingency plans for what happens, how many quarterbacks are gone. Can we trade up who falls to us? So I think we, it kind of gets lost in the weeds after the draft that, cj stroud was the only guy the texans wanted and it was always going to be

this guy like the draft day movie where i don't think i mean that probably happens but i think also it's smart for a team to say yeah we we kind of like all these guys or or more than just one i guess to have contingency plans yeah which is if you can't trade up for drake may then who's our guy and where are we picking that guy uh that's if of course kirk cousins is not the quarterback if he is there still remains a possibility that they draft one of these quarterbacks which is why we are so focused on it one last thing from you, Chris. Bill Belichick is now on TV. Congrats, Bill. And he said that Jaden Daniels was his top quarterback in the draft.

Now, I saw some people questioning, like, oh, well, they were in the midst of the season, and you wouldn't have been analyzing quarterbacks. You might doubt Bill Belichick. Bill's watching film. Bill's watching film. He was paying attention. Well, he probably thought Bill Belichick probably thought film he was paying to tell well he probably thought bill belichick probably thought that he was gonna keep his job yeah he probably never would have thought like they're actually gonna get rid of me he probably was preparing for which quarterback

i'm gonna make my franchise qb and so he said daniels was top on his list and we've talked about potential questions about daniels but when we look at all the upside of the top three, I think all three are franchise quarterback caliber players. And when Belichick says it, he's not always right. Of course, in this drafting, isn't always right. It carries a little more weight for sure. Is there an argument for Jaden Daniels as the top quarterback? Because we don't know it's Caleb Williams. We always, we assume, and I've been assuming, we never know until we actually get there. Is there a argument for Daniels over Williams? I think so. And if Bill Belichick at what, 70 years old can learn from mistakes that he picked Mac Jones, who was like the polar opposite

of Jaden Daniels just in 2021 and was like, I thought that he was a franchise guy to replace Tom Brady. And of course not be the next Tom Brady, but be competent enough. And he was not. And again, if he can change his mind and change his philosophy, then for me being a little lower on Jaden Daniels, I should be able to do the same. And I think because of the athleticism, the downfield touch, you look at the numbers, they're all through the roof. The receivers receivers were great but really you could say like an argument that yes he had Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr. who are going to be first round picks at wide receiver but in the NFL you're not it's not like you're going to try to give him bad receivers

you're going to try to have him like a pretty good number one a pretty good number two um and he again fits that mold where early on for as much as we both don't really like that sometimes he kind of in a justin fields-esque way doesn't pull the trigger and just runs i have also seen firsthand that early on and i think i mentioned this josh allen in his rookie season he was not anywhere remotely close to the passer that he was, but he ran, picked up some first downs, build his confidence. I can do it in this league. Deshaun Watson did that. Russell Wilson did that. You can look at a lot of the mobile quarterbacks that usually in year one, they do take a fair amount of sacks, but they're usually pretty good runners. And it kind of helps them as they kind of get used to the breakneck speed of the NFL. So even if that is a flaw that maybe Bill Belichick

saw, maybe he's like, hey, look, in year one, when we're not going to be that good offensively with our receivers, we'll just let Jane Daniels run a little bit and hopefully he doesn't get hurt because then by year two, we can spend more money at receiver, invest, pick a Jordan Addison type guy in the first round to build around the young quarterback. I think because of his athleticism and the arm stuff, there's maybe a team or two or three out there that actually like Jaden Daniels more than Caleb Williams. Well, and you know,

what matters a lot to these teams is just what we were talking about with Kevin O'Connell is the personality. And I don't know how real anything is with Caleb Williams and personality and so forth, but you know, who knows is them. Yeah. They would have a sense for this. And I have not really gotten a good feeling myself for that. I mean, I, I watched a little bit of Drake May and, uh, I w I mean, like some of his games where he had things tough and came back and found a way to win and things like that. But as far as how he thinks the game and so forth i saw drake may did a film breakdown of his

own film with maybe underdog fantasies their content and that like that's cool to see the way that he processes things and breaks down his own film and so forth but i also think that any guy can probably do that and make it hope you know that and also do it to people from the outside and make it look good like that that's not the same as talking with an nfl coach about that but the resilience the character the leadership elements like if jayden daniels is higher on people's lists for those things we just talked about i mean that is so important and after after covering kirk it's the biggest thing i take away is how much success has to do with who you

are because kirk's obsessive work ethic and his ability to shut out all criticism and noise and stuff i mean you'll see him have a bad game and get destroyed all over the internet all over tv and then the next game he comes out and throws four touchdowns it's like really impressive and his work ethic his his ability to help the coaching staff with the game plan and then all like all that stuff his knowledge is understanding what he's got is what you if you put in jayden daniel's body of the best quarterback ever so like they're gonna they're to look for all that stuff and signs of that from these people.

And I suppose if there is any actual credibility to the stuff with Caleb Williams, then that might not turn anybody off to not draft him, but to be from who's number one. Well, I think all of that makes a lot of sense. And, and we've talked that it makes sense that Kevin O'Connell wants to see that side of it.

And this might be revisionist history. It just made me think of back to the 2018 draft class. And it's another Bill story that now if you walk around these halls here and you talk to anyone and it's, oh, in the 2018 class, like the difference in personality between Josh Rosen and Josh Allen was like night and day. And you were in Buffalo. I was, it was so many people were like, they wanted Josh Rosen and he seemed to be as clean cut and just the, the, the high floor quarterback that was going to be good right away. Josh was the wild card, but the bills have come out and said it, that Josh Allen, his leadership, his ability to take criticism and say, Hey, look like you're watching film with a, with a GM that might draft you. and we're watching all your interceptions.

Josh was able to just take that in and say, yeah, look, I need to do this a lot better. That was bad. I don't know any specifics that I've heard about what was wrong with Josh Rosen, but it's kind of been a, oh, that was obvious that the Bills were no way going to even come near. They would have traded back instead of picking josh rosen so because with caleb williams we have a little kyler murray-ish like he wants a stake in the team he might not i mean there's not the threat of leaving to go to the mlb but like there's a little bit of that with caleb williams that i think that does make it a little somewhat intriguing although i i am kind of where you're at um that i do think the bears

will just pick him but we could if caleb williams doesn't work out in chicago i think that's in four years we'll be sitting here at the combine be like oh it was just it was because caleb williams didn't have the mental makeup to be able to withstand all the pressure and the criticism that comes with being not only just a quarterback but the number one overall pick in a draft and i have had people tell me that they feel like that's real okay yeah if they were in the draft room with him uh or they if whatever you want to call it when they meet here that's the first question is hey what happened in some of these games and it wasn't just the one where he was like sobbing in the stands after losing to washington and again like no one's anti crying, but you,

if you're the leader of the team, you should go shake the hand of the other quarterback and lead your team back into the locker room rather than, you know, kind of losing it. But it was also like sulking on the bench and stuff like that, where he, you know, it just,

you're going to look at that and go, all right, what, what is that? Is that because if that happens in the NFL, if you are just, and we've seen this from fields where if you just check out because it's not going well, I mean, it's just not going to be good for you.

You're going to get crushed very quickly. And this was kind of Jay Cutler's career throughout where the way that he responded to struggles was not to keep fighting. It was to kind of sulk on the sideline and people always questioned him because of that and he probably could have been an elite quarterback and instead he was just okay and then that was probably the difference so um anyway well how this plays out and whether there's actual like merit to the idea someone else could be number one maybe we'll get a sense of as we go forward um and see what happens there but uh i want to

say because this is the last podcast. No, I might have one more, but the last podcast we're doing before I fly out. So just thank you for all the great knowledge and insight. But we're going to keep going with the Chris Trapasso draft show all the way through the draft and to respond to what the Minnesota Vikings do all the way through the free agency to get your reactions to how that changes people's draft board. So this is just the beginning, man. This is like, it's kind of like with NASCAR where they have the Daytona 500.

That's this. And then we've still got a whole race to run. Yeah, for sure. And a lot of mock Sims or like draft Sims where we're going to run through those. And I have to commend you for being the guy that in the final one last year, you, I went Nolan Smith and you went Jordan Edison and Jordan Edison had a great, not only was just picked by the Vikings because you're,

I mean, this is purple insider. He had a great season. So it's going to be a really fun next, what? Two months until we get to the NFL draft. Yep. Put that one in the,

in the intro. It's going to be fun before the NFL draft draft yep uh put that one in the in the intro it's gonna be fun before the nfl draft best intro in all podcasts all right uh thanks everybody for watching and uh next podcast you hear with us it'll be our first draft sim together of the year i promise we'll see you next time