Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the Vikings 'QB competition' show up in OTAs? (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Matthew Coller breaks down the start of the Minnesota Vikings spring program, including OTAs and minicamp, by the biggest storylines. That starts with the quarterback position and what we might be able to learn about Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy over the next four weeks. That and more from other positions that could matter long term. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul on this Memorial Day. Before we get into the show, just want to say my deepest thank you to all of you on this Memorial Day who have served our country. Much appreciated. We have a lot of listeners, people in the audience that have connections either through family or are in the military currently. So shout out to all of you. Can't thank you enough for your service. And what better way to celebrate America than football and talking football in May, right? Yes.

So the Minnesota Vikings spring program is about to begin. And I'll tell you guys how this works. And then we'll dive into the biggest storylines, which, yes, are highlighted by the quarterback position. So I'll just tell you that we get one day each of OTAs and then we usually see all of the mini-camp. So the next two weeks, there will be OTAs. We'll be out there on Wednesday and then one day next week. And then usually it's three mini-camp practices. And then sometimes there's an additional OTA, which is oftentimes not exactly mandatory. And you'll usually have younger

players showing up, but it's not often the veterans. We'll just have to see how that goes. So in total, the media, including myself, will be out there for about four or five practices. So I just want to give all disclaimers to understand that we are not going to resolve every one of these storylines in the next four to five open practices. I promise you we're not. And Kevin O'Connell generally, historically, has not treated these practices with a ton of intensity, meaning he wants to keep everybody healthy and make sure that nobody is coming off of a mini camp injury when they're trying to get ready for training camp and trying to get their bodies. to 100% to start the very long haul. So those are your disclaimers. But of course, since we'll be there,

Dane Mizatani from the Pioneer Press and I will have podcasts right after from TCO Performance Center, breaking down what we saw, what we learned. And usually the best part to tell you the truth is that we get to hear from everybody. We get to hear from Kevin O'Connell. We will likely hear from the quarterbacks at some point and a lot of other players as well. And we can learn a lot from the spring program. but it's not as intense as training camp and we won't have the answers to everything by the end of the spring and into the summer. And as you guys have learned, we don't always even have all the answers until they actually get on the field for week one and start playing football.

But nonetheless, that doesn't mean we can't break down all the storylines and all the things that I will be looking for out there. And in comment section, interested in what you guys would like to know about or hero. about from TCO Performance Center as we get into this interesting portion of the offseason where sometimes things do develop. So I don't want to say, oh, there's nothing going on. I've always viewed it as it sets the stage for training camp is what OTAs and minicamp really do. So let's get into the storylines where we begin, of course, with the quarterback competition.

That's how I'd like to say it. I've been calling it the quarterback situation, which I think. think is more applicable than quarterback competition, but I think it's also, if you want to say it with a question mark, quarterback competition, that's, that's an okay way to put it. But what can we really learn from the quarterback situation or competition over the next couple of weeks of these spring practices? Well, we could see the distribution of reps, but that could be a little bit on the tricky side because they usually have a lot of different wide receivers rotating.

The last thing that you want to do is to say, Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson, why don't you go run 100,000 routes in this spring practice as hard as you possibly can, right? So you want to keep it limited. I mean, this is a real marathon, especially with 17 games, and the Vikings are supposed to be in the playoffs. And, you know, so you're talking about many months of football, you do not want to to start putting wear and tear on anybody's body in June, right? But still, you want to start getting something going in terms of chemistry.

And you want the quarterbacks to also get involved with a lot of different wide receivers, because as we've seen through the years, you never really know who's going to end up on the field, who will develop, who will get some sort of instant chemistry with your quarterback. So the rep distribution is pretty hard to figure out, right? I mean, in mini camp and OTAs when J.J. McCarthy and Sam Darnold were battling it out, we saw in even the mini camps and OTAs that Sam Darnold would take every rep with Justin Jefferson. I don't know if J.J. McCarthy threw Jefferson a football the entire spring that year in 2024. So how often do we see the top wide receivers with each quarterback might be? a little bit of a way to figure that out because usually there's not 11 on 11s.

And if there are the offensive defensive lines are not really doing anything, kind of just standing there playing Patty Cake because, again, it's OTAs. Like, it's the learning phase that O'Connell called it last year a passing camp. Like, that's what they're trying to do here is lock in their passing game. But there will maybe be enough by the end of mini camp that we see to get some feeling for, okay, did Kyler Murray take 90% of the dropbacks when Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson were in there with, let's just say, the starting offensive line, if that's how it's going, if they're doing 11 on 11 stuff, which is not that often during a camp like this. So we want to be a little bit careful about saying, oh, that was definitely a first team rep. Because sometimes you might have Justin Jefferson and he's in there with, I don't know, Miles Price.

And you go, well, what is this? It's just a drill, right? And even versus the defense can be a little bit hard to figure out. But will we get a sense for first team, second team, who's taking the majority of the reps, really with the top wide receivers? That will be the one thing we can really look for in terms of competition or situation or whatever you guys want to call this, what we have here with Kyler Murray and J.J. McCr. McCarthy. What I'll be looking for most with Kyler Murray throughout, well, first, I mean, to make sure that he is in attendance for the OTAs because technically OTAs are not mandatory. Now, the Vikings have had terrific attendance in everything since Kevin O'Connell got here and

really even going back to Mike Zimmer. I don't remember too many guys just skipping OTAs unless they had a contract situation, which will be worth looking at if there's nobody or if there's anybody missing if it's Brian O'Neill, I would be very surprised if someone like O'Neill or Cashman wasn't there just because they don't have a contract for next year. But it has happened before in the past. Defon Diggs missed a day when he was maybe having some trouble and Kyle Rudolph missed a couple days when Barr, I think also when they were looking for contract extension. So that does happen.

But anyway, assuming that Kyler Murray is there and is participating in all of the events, instant signs of chemistry will be something that we're looking for because Justin Jefferson is a little bit unique in the way he runs his routes that has not given most quarterbacks any issues at all. But getting on the same page did take a little while for Sam Darnold. There was, oh yeah, the Jefferson, right? Jefferson did not come to OTAs when he was negotiating his contract the second year. They did it two different years. And then when he got there at minicamp, he and Sam Darnold had to ramp up a little bit.

it took a little while into training camp. So Kyla Murray, how does it look when he throws a football to Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hawkinson or Jordan Addison? Because if the Minnesota Vikings are going anywhere, Kyla Murray is going to have to throw footballs to those guys successfully. And we saw what happens when that is not effective last year is the offense really, really struggles. And even though I think that the running game can improve, this is a team that will have to rely on the top 10.

passing offense. If they don't have it, they're probably not making the playoffs considering their division. And that's making it bigger than it is for OTAs. But what you would like to see is just that the timing clicks pretty quickly, even in something like this. And I will go back to previous experience with Kirk Cousins in 2018 when he really was not adapting very well to the offense and was kind of thrown it all over the place. and one of the more memorable things that Kirk ever did as a Viking quarterback for me

was he got so flustered in that mini camp that he threw the ball into the road out at TCO Performance Center. And those of us, whoever questioned how far Kirk could throw a football, we saw it there because it's a long way out to the road and he whipped it all the way over the gate. So, you know, we don't want to see that from Kyler Murray. You don't want to see signs of frustration. and Sam Darnold, there were some anticipation throws and throws into certain windows right away that we started to get that hint of like, okay, I mean, there's something here with this guy and his arm and his talent that I'm sure if you go back to mini camp breakdowns that we did in 2024,

that we were talking about that quite a bit. So can we pick up any hints of that chemistry from him? And then we're also looking for improvement from J.J. McCarthy. Now, that is going to be a little bit dicey to try to pick apart. But one of the things that we've always seen from McCarthy, even when he was practicing well last year during training camp, is the inconsistency when it comes to his throwing. And you can go back to whatever part of J.J. McCarthy's very young career. And that's something that if you listen to any post whatever podcast, we're talking about it.

Last year during training camp, I thought it got better and better. I will always be convinced that if he had not gotten hurt in week two, he would have bounced back, he would have beat Cincinnati, he would have picked up some confidence, and maybe things go a little bit of a different way. But he's had all offseason to work on this. I don't expect that he's throwing the ball differently because I don't think his throwing motion was that far off. I think it just needed to be refined. And I also am interested to see how often he can connect with Jefferson out there in these practices because those two have been doing work off to the side during the off season. So they've been Jefferson joked that it was a an undisclosed location that that he was

getting together with j.J. McCarthy and throwing together and working on, you know, when the ball's got to come out, when he's getting out of his break, some of the stuff that they didn't really get last year during training camp and hurt them all season long. So are we seeing a little bit more refined J.J. McCarthy? you could say, hey, didn't you guys say that he had a very good training camp and he did. Like he got better and better throughout last year's training camp. And that's why these things do come with the caveats of, well, look, you know, we're not going to get to the end of the spring and say he's fixed or he's terrible.

We're going to probably say, we'll have to wait and see until training camp and where this ends up going. But in general, I think you can pick up on when players have made gains. So I'll give you just some examples of like KJ Osborne or Jalen Naylor, guys like that. We have seen this before, cornerbacks, wide receivers, quarterbacks when they have been getting better or when they are a good fit. Sometimes you see a little flash of that right away. Is Kyler Murray getting it right away? Is J.J. McCarthy connecting with receivers consistently or still struggling with the accuracy when they get out there and start running at what?

maybe 68% call it. Not anywhere close to game speed, but still, like they're moving out there and they're running their plays. And does the ball come out in time and, you know, things like that that we'll all be looking for. And, you know, the thing is about the quarterback situation in general is that the onus is on J.J. McCarthy to prove that he has improved. So we clearly know, based on their histories,

that there is no similarity between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy. Kyle and Murray has had very high highs in his career. He's had stretches where people talked about him as the MVP. He's taking a team to the playoffs. He has been in Pro Bowls. He has had very good seasons in his career where J.J. McCarthy last year was nowhere close to the level of a starting quarterback who can take a team to the postseason or that is going to be the reason they did.

get there if you want to get into that. Like, of course, yes, you could get to the playoffs if you're Kyle Bowler for the Ravens, if you have the best defense. But you know what I mean, like drive a team to the postseason that we didn't see that last year. So the proof is really on J.J. McCarthy to come and show that there are these improvements and that things should be interesting in training camp. Because if over these weeks, it's nowhere close.

Kyler Murray is way out in front. he's completing every pass. McCarthy still airmailing it and struggling with timing and the offense and everything else. And I know it's only been a couple months for him to get on the practice field and work on these things. But those are really important months for improvement when you are at a young age as a quarterback. So if he still looks way behind, then they're going to start training camp with Kyler Murray and not even think twice about who the starting quarterback is. Whereas if he's extremely sharp and they're kind of going back and forth, then things could be a little bit more interesting. Of course,

Murray came here to be the starting quarterback. Of course, he came here to prove narratives wrong about him and to win with these great talented wide receivers and this coach, who was coach of the year in 2024. So I don't expect that there's much of a world where J.J. McCarthy could be so much better than Kyler Murray because he's already a top 12 quarterback. But can you have us talking about it? Can you have us talking about at any point in the spring, hey, J.J. McCarthy looks like he's really connecting with a lot of wide receivers. His timing looks really good. His accuracy looks like it's improved. He's more consistent. Can he have us talking about those things? So that's how I view the quarterback competition or quarterback

situation is can JJ have, have us walking out of these practices saying, okay. And that's not anything that we're going to judge his entire career off of or what training camp's going to be like or his season. And one thing that Vikings fans know better than anyone is that anything can happen at the quarterback position. Anything is on the table. If Case Keatom can go to the NFC championship, then anything is possible, as Kevin Garnett said. So we won't decide all those things now, but it's all about hints when it comes to OTAs and mini camp. So I got a couple other things that I want to look at and jump in the comments here. What's on your mind?

What would you like us to be looking for? Because as we do these post practice podcasts, Dane and I, which you'll see on Wednesday late afternoon, Wednesday after we record it, is really trying to answer questions that you guys have, whether it's something at the podium, something on the field or someone coming off the field of the player to talk to. So I'm very interested in what you guys would like to see. So let me look at a couple other storylines here, and then we'll get to your comments,

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which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. prescription required see website for full details restrictions and important safety information uh okay next thing uh is uh the new gm like when are we getting a new general manager would be the first thing and then what does that new gm do see this is i'm looking at it in terms of storylines over the next four weeks really is what when this is going on not just wednesday but over the next four weeks so i imagine within the next four weeks they want to get a general manager in here in fact i would think that they would want to do it by June so they can at least have conversations about what are we doing after June 1st? Are you making additions? Are you talking extensions like

kind of out of the frying pan and into the fire for whomever the general manager will be? So assuming that a new GM is on the way, uh, what will this new general manager do? Whether that's Prisinski or whoever else, what is their first move? Is it going to be, contract extensions. And I'm going to offer up some advice to the Vikings, see if you can get Isaiah Rogers on a contract extension because he was really good last year, top 20 by PFF, and I know he had his ups and downs, but the highs are part of Isaiah Rogers game. I don't expect him to have the Cincinnati game ever again, but in terms of being explosive

and making plays, I think there's more where that came from. I think that they were overall short on opportunities last year. year because teams were just running against them so much. But if you could slow down the run a little bit, play from ahead a little bit, somebody like Isaiah Rogers could have a big year. And I would want to get him extended earlier than later because if you wait it out and he has a big season, then you're talking about probably paying him a lot more than you want to. But the big names are Cashman and O'Neill for me.

Are you going to sign? Van Ginkle can also be tossed into this as well. but are you going to sign either one of those guys to a contract extension? These are important players, key positions, but there's also an argument to not do it for any of these guys, whether it's O'Neill, Cashman, or Van Ginkle, there's an argument to not do it because of age and injury history. And regardless of how great they've been during their careers as Vikings, you have to play the economics game of that. Will a new GM come in, extend these players to keep them around? or will he wait and see?

And we do see spring extension sometimes. Jefferson was, but through the years we've had different ones during June, right? I don't think all of them have come before training camp, especially during KOC and KWC. It was a little less predictable than it was with Rick Spielman, where it was always like we're kicking off training camp with a big extension, right? So this could be a little different. Do we see those negotiations start to kick up during this time?

What about additions from the free agent pool? I think, you know, we've gone over this a handful of times, but I would throw out there the guard position. There's probably three or four guys that they could use as deep depth at the guard spot because they don't have any experience there now. Outside linebacker, I think is absolutely vital. Leaving Jake Golda is the only backup for your outside linebackers other than undrafted free agents seems very risky to me.

So can you get a Kyle Van Neuer or Leonard Floyd to show up? running back I would even throw out there. I mean, there's a couple of running backs out there that are still on the free agent market. Najee Harris, Antonio Gibson is kind of an interesting one who had his moments with the New England Patriots and is kind of a running back slash receiver. Maybe you, you know, throw something in there at the running back position with a free agent. But I think across the board, they've added a couple of defensive tackles that are deep on the depth chart. Will they add someone more of significance is a question during this spring? this is kind of a time to do it rather than waiting till right before training camp and then the person has to get onboarded with no, you know, OTAs or camp.

So after June 1st is the time to do it. And what will we learn during this time from the new GM's introduction? I mean, we're going to have a press conference. We're going to hear from that person and we're going to get a sense for what their vision is for this team. So what will we learn? That is a big storyline that should be going on through OTAs and minicamp. and I got to say it's easily the first time we've ever talked about something like that at this time of year. What's this person who's going to have a massive impact on the future going to be talking about during OTAs is that's a new one.

So those are some of the storylines surrounding the GM that could crop up during this time. How about the rookies? So we're not going to see Caleb Banks more likely than not do anything out in the field. It's, I suppose it's possible, but it just the store or the timeline that we've been given seems like it's much more he's going to be ready for training camp with the foot. But will we get an update? I'm sure we will on Caleb Banks and just where he stands in that recovery. So Kevin O'Connell told us during rookie minicamp that he, yep, he's on point, no issues, very happy with where he's at. So we'll look for another health update.

Any setbacks? on track for getting back in training camp or could we see him do, I mean, maybe anything during this time of year. We'll be looking for that, the first round pick. Also, curious about Jake Golda and where he's going to be or what he's going to be doing. Again, with the lack of 11-on-11s in these camps, can we really get a good idea of, is he an inside or is he an outside linebacker? But maybe, I mean, if you watch like the 7-on-7s, is he playing on the inside, is he

playing on the outside, just to get a little bit of a feel of where they want him for a starting point. Because I mentioned the lack of depth at outside linebacker, is he going to be there? Is he going to be trying different positions? Or do they view him right off the bat as much more of an Eric Wilson backup? And then they're going to build on that foundation. That's kind of how I expected to happen. And KOC has kind of hinted that a little bit. But I'm very curious to see him get out there and move around and just see what it looks like. Because from his college tape, Gold Day has great athleticism, very, very good in space, which is great for kind of a seven-on-seven type of scenario. So how does he look at the NFL level?

Charles Demings is a guy that I'll be watching very closely during the OTAs in minicamp because, well, he is a fifth round pick. He's a great athlete. I mean, one of the best athletes in the NFL Combine this year. And he played at Stephen F. Austin, so he's not going to get talked about, a whole heck of a lot. and FCS players were just flat out ignored. I was looking into this earlier. There were no FCS players that were taken in the first three rounds, which is the first time that's happened since 1978.

So Demings would not get a lot of attention from NFL teams. So the Vikings pick him. I think he is a higher upside type of player, even though he's in the fifth round because of where he comes from. And there's still development to go. But this is the type of scenario. where you see OTAs in minicamp where someone like Demings can flash a little bit and make that first impression that we've seen some other guys make through the years during this camp.

Any signs from DeMond Claiborne would be interesting. I mentioned how much he stood out in rookie minicamp, but they're not exactly handing off and going, you know, NFL films. Like, there's not a lot of that in minicamp. But, you know, can we get a at least a sense for him, you know, how he moves out there with other NFL players around him. A rookie minicamp was like, draft that guy.

But, you know, how does it look when the other guys are out there? And the biggest thing here is UDFA receivers and corners. UDFA receivers and corners can make a very strong first impression here. And there have been guys through the years who have made the team where we were kind of like standing, oftentimes we stand on this hill and kind of look down on the practice field. We'll be standing out there being like,

are we are we sit are we really looking at each other saying the chat bb looks good and we were and he made the team several times uh bc johnson it was a seventh round draft pick but another guy that stood out in the ota mini camp and we really got this the sign of first uh jump from a kj osborne from a jelan naler do we see that from someone like ty feldon uh is another thing as well but if you're an undrafted free agent. If you're Dylan Bell, for example, or Marcus Sanders from Georgia Southern, you can shine in this camp because it's a lot of, I beat you or I know the offense well enough to get open, catch the football. So we'll be looking very closely at that. And also Marcus Allen is another guy that stood out to me during rookie minicamp from North Carolina. He is a corner, just, you know,

good movement skill where you kind of, when you're at rookie minicamp, you can kind of point out like, yeah, most of these guys just don't move at all like an NFL player and Alan stood out to me. So that'll be another guy that I keep an eye on. Also, and my last one here before I get to your questions, comments, and thoughts is early signs. And I mean the earliest of signs. Like, let's not get ahead of ourselves, folks. This is the summer. Okay.

Like, we're taking this slow. It's not as intense as training camp. I don't even, look, look how poorly my face did today when getting a little bit of sun. I'm not even like prepared yet to be outside for long practices. So we're taking it early here slow. But depth wide receiver is wide open. Ty Felton. Can he prove that he belongs in some role behind Joanne Jennings?

And look, these guys, they've all been injured at one time or another. Jennings has been banged up a little. And Jefferson has had a thing or two. And Addison's had a thing or two. So Ty Felton's got to be ready. And anybody else, it is wide open there. Miles Price. I mentioned Marcus Sanders, Dylan Bell. There's going to be guys.

Dante Fleming was a guy who last year stood out in practice a lot with Max Brosmer and made some plays in preseason games, got really good speed. So is he somebody that they could keep on the roster? I mean, it's, I mean, Jay Sean Jones has been around for now three years. Is this the year that he finally kind of breaks through and makes it? So depth wide receiver is really interesting. depth corner as well because you have, you know, Demings, but then there's Zemaya Vaughn, who was a guy we talked about a lot last year, but never really got on the field and was

on the practice squad. Dwight McLeathern is still here, year after year. Dwight McClothern is still here. Is there anybody that can kind of come for those spots and start to make an impression in minicamp? Backup interior offensive line is on the list of a position battle, even though in this camp, you're not going to solve that. Safety, though, what are they going to do at safety? Harrison Smith has not signed. It's not here. So will they have, you know,

Theo Jackson and Jay Ward playing together? Will it be Josh Mattelis and one of those two? Will we get a sense for where it stands? And I just wrote punter even though we don't see them kick a lot during these camps. But I don't care. I am keeping a very freaking close eye on that punting competition. I think Johnny Hecker is going to be in good shape. But Brett Thorson, I don't know.

I mean, he punted the heck out of the ball in college. So if he can hold, maybe we'll be keeping an eye on that. But I don't know how much I'll learn from from this camp. Anyway, quick, uh, fan dual question of the day, by the way. And then we will get to, uh, the fan chat. Fan dual question of the day is this. The Vikings after the schedule was released, their line moved ever so slightly on fan duel.

And they are now plus 500 in, uh, to win the division. So they had been plus 600, but now they're plus 500. They're still last four out of four teams, but it's very close between them and Chicago's plus 320. Here's what I'm getting at. Where's your confidence after the schedule released and you know they've got Joanne Jennings and you have a pretty darn good sense for this team? Where's your confidence that they can, let's just say, outperform where the Fandual folks have them? So are you super confident that they will not be the worst team in the,

the NFC North, or are you still got to see it first before you can say that they're going to be better than that? Because that's where they are right now in the odds, but how confident are you that they could be much better than that? All right. So let me get to your comments. And then any questions that are on your mind. So it doesn't have to be OTAs, minicamp, it could just be roster, NFL, whatever, whatever

you're thinking about football, happy to answer. anything that you're thinking about. So let us jump right in. We'll start with JP. Says, don't think there's a real competition. If there is, it'll end before minicamp. I hope JJ can take this year to develop behind the scenes and win the QB2 job and be good just in case Kyler goes down. That's kind of how I see it, JP, in the, in fact, the ideal world.

I think it's actually better for JJ McCarthy to lock in the QB2. two job, have to prepare for every single game like he's going to play, be behind Kyler, be ready when Kyler. I think, I don't want to say inevitably, because he's played full seasons, but he's also had seasons where just 2021, for example, he went nine and five as a starter. He had a couple games where he was banged up and Colt McCoy had to come in and go two and one as a starter. So it's happened before with Kyler.

And that was actually what was supposed to happen last year with Jacoby Burst, until they intentionally benched him to go to the bottom. and draft Jeremiah Love. And now somehow Jacoby Brissette wants more money after going one and 11. But that's someone else's podcast. I don't quite fully understand that. But I guess if they're planning on having them be a QB1, maybe, you know, I don't know what you're not really holding out with a lot of leverage when they have

two other quarterbacks there that will probably perform just about the same. But anyway, point being that Kyler has been banged up in his career. So if J.J. McCarthy comes into mini camp, looks really, really good this spring over the times that we see him. They have more practices than we get to see, but we get to see a good chunk. So I think it's, uh, what, two, five, usually five or six practices. So let's just say he impresses everybody. They really love how he looks.

He goes into training camp and does really well throughout the entire camp. I still think you're starting Kyler Murray based on his track record and the high end of Kyler Murray and look, I mean, putting his career up against Jared Goff has had downs in his career and Caleb Williams really struggled and even struggled at times last year. And Jordan Love has had ups and downs in his career. You're putting them against those guys where you think in any given season, Kyler Murray could be the best of the lot of this group based on just his past. And I was looking this up again yesterday that his since 2020, Kyler Murray's on target percentage. So accurate throws is the ninth best in the NFL. He's going to get the ball to his open wide receivers

and he's going to make plays. And the last time he played a full season, he ran for 500 yards and like, you're going to win with him. My favorite stat, I got, I'm going to have to double check this one or look it up again, is that I think that, uh, they won like 8% of their games that Kyler hasn't played in in Arizona over his career. So it's pretty and Colt McCoy had two of them in that 2021 season. So anyway, not the point. It's just that, you know, Kyler is at a very, very different spot in his career, which matches up really well with where this roster is and where this coach is. This coach needs to win. This roster needs to win. This quarterback needs to win. And he's 28 and he's been around the block and he's ready to go. You'd much rather see J.J. McCarthy learn,

be ready. And then we'll see where it goes from there because he's still under contract. And sometimes people will say, like, they got to find out about McCarthy. Well, one, they found out a lot about McCarthy last year. So you can't throw out 10 starts and four injuries and say, well, we still don't know anything about him. Like, no, we know a heck of a lot about him, actually. We know how far away he is. If he played much, much better, he would have still been like the 20th best quarterback in

the league last year. So we know where he's got to go. It's just how long that takes to get there. is a total mystery with any player, but he is under contract still. So you don't have to, this rookie contract just creates so much panic. And it's not just fans or media. It's also teams. But I mean, Jordan Love took the three years to develop, then turned out to be really good.

And then they figured it out with his contract. And they've been competitive every single year. It doesn't have to. And he signed his deal when everybody was getting 50 million where that's really been, reined in by the NFL over the last couple of years. Daniel Jones didn't get there. Sam Darnold didn't get there. Baker Mayfield didn't get there.

So it doesn't have to be this. If he does, if we don't know everything about J.J. McCarthy by the end of this year, then it is just over for the franchise. Like, that's, it doesn't work like that. And this is why I like to watch a lot of old games and stuff and go back in history. Because before the rookie quarterback contract became such a thing. and it is important and we banged the drum for it. And I thought it was right to try to go to J.J. McCarthy in the long-term plan when Kirk was here and everything.

I thought that was the right idea to try to get the young quarterback on the rookie contract. But the landscape has changed to where it's not a death knell to your chances of building a good team. And we've seen that. I mean, San Francisco was in the divisional round with Brock Purdy under contract. Jalen Hertz won the Super Bowl with a big contract. Sam Darnold, the second contract. Matthew Stafford. So it doesn't have to destroy your franchise anymore.

My point is that if McCarthy was to, let's say that Murray is just okay. And McCarthy really shows some stuff and they decide what we're going to do is let Murray go and have McCarthy as part of a quarterback competition with someone next year because we really like what we saw. And then it works out. Well, you can sign him to a long term contract after that. It's just there's so much rush now to have all of the answers right away. And there's so many quarterbacks throughout history where you didn't have the answers right away.

That was the first comment, by the way. I'll try to speed it up a little bit more to get through more of your comments. I'm really thrilled that so many of you want to talk football tonight, by the way. I was thinking about, because I didn't do a show, you know, Saturday or Sunday. I was like, well, we'll wait until Monday and we'll see if anybody wants to jump in on the live show. And here you guys are. So I'm very happy about that. uh digital planes media says i think it's best for mccarthy and the team if he sat the bench for

one season full season of being healthy and working on his game behind the scenes and away from the media and social media man you hit the nail on the head with that like having a no pressure environment to get himself um i i think settled in the things that he needs to improve and more and more and more practice is all just throws i mean this is like i think about this all the time with mccarthy and just how little opportunity from the time he left high school to just throw the football to receivers running routes. It is less than almost anybody in the National Football League right now. It's incredibly less than most of the people in his draft class, Caleb Williams threw twice

as many passes, Pennix and Knicks through three times as many passes. And then in his first year, he doesn't even get to 250 for attempts. There's just, this is very rare that a quarterback is this. experience still going into year three, but you can't accelerate it just by hoping, right? And then they tried that last year. I mean, they really did last year. They tried to accelerate where he was in his development by kind of hoping and believing too much in themselves and the supporting cast and not anticipating that, hey, they could

have guys get hurt. Like, if the Vikings were completely healthy last year and the Packers, you know, Packers fans and Lions fans would probably say the same thing, but just, you know, stay with me. I mean, they probably win 11 or 12 games. Even with J.J. McCarthy struggling at times because you'd have your left tackle blocking. That's going to help. You'd have your center who was all pro, was just fantastic. Ryan Kelly, amazing player, right? And they didn't have a lot of that stuff. But the reality is that's how the NFL works. It's just that someone like that is not necessarily equipped at their point in their career to be able to maneuver through a bunch of

of injuries, weakness on defense that we didn't expect him to have early in the season, and all sorts of stuff like that. And then multiple stops and starts along the way. It really feels like a hard reset is a good thing for him where you are working on it behind the scenes. And I've had people, you know, send me notes and say, well, you can't get better if you're not playing. And I think, well, that is just not true in any skill at all, right? Like if you're, I mean, let's let's think of a golf. right can you not get better by practicing every day on the range or in putting and yeah you got to go play tournaments for sure but if you're not ready to play tournaments you're not going to keep up

with the rest of the people in the tournament you need to be hitting balls you need to be practicing your putting practicing and practicing and practicing if if that wasn't the case then why would even the best players in the world spend so much freaking time practicing It's it's any skill that you talk about. I mean, how many balls a day do you think Novak Djokovic hits still, right? He's still playing, isn't he? I don't know a lot about tennis. But if you're going to play against the best tennis players, then, yeah, you need to play

actual games. But if you're not ready to play actual games, if you're not able to keep up, then what do you do? You work on your game behind the scenes. So I think the practice can learn a lot, especially with timing, because you're in this practice setting and you're maybe running the scout team or whatever, but you can work on those throws time and time and time again, receivers coming out of their breaks, anticipation with windows, and you can have conversations after practice.

I wrote a story once about throwing after practice and how Kirk used to do it, even in year whatever it was at the time, year eight or nine in the league, Kirk would still be one of the last guys off the field throwing after practice. So I asked Kirk and I asked Sean Mannion and I asked, I don't know, a couple of people, maybe quarterback coach, whoever it was at the time just for this story. I think that was maybe 22, 20, yeah, maybe something like that. And I was just asking it, like, why do they do that? And they were talking about like with someone like Kirk, you never know when another receiver

is going to have to get bumped up because of an injury. so you want to have familiarity with them. And it's always just this constant process of trying to master every little tiny detail that they would do. So I think that practice like that, spending time after working one-on-one, that was another thing, right? You could work a little more one-on-one with the quarterbacks coaches. It's all helpful toward getting better. And if it wasn't, then I don't know if we would see so many success stories of guys

who did have that practice time without the pressure that you're talking about. JP, I know this isn't the topic, but really curious about the GM hire. I like Rob, but if he'll stay, even if not made the GM, if they, oh, I see, yeah, will he stay? I would suspect that he would, yeah. I mean, Rob Brissetsky is one of the best in the league at what he does, and he has so much experience. And oftentimes, like, even if you are moving on from people in the front office in certain

key positions to bring in your own people, a lot of times. a lot of times there's certain folks that you already know. I mean, if you're someone who worked for the Los Angeles Rams, you're probably familiar with Rob Brzezinski already. These, just like in any sort of world where it's competitive or even just, you know, your colleagues, if you're in whatever company in one city, but you know who's good in another city,

if it was the office, it's like, who's good in Stanford, versus who's good in whatever, wherever they were. You know what I'm saying. So, like, people are very familiar with who he is and what he does. So I'd imagine that you want a person like that in your front office, plus the amount of trust that he has with the rest of the front office and so forth.

And if you're Rob, I don't think that you're just taking your ball and going home. He's been here for way too long that, I mean, well, it'd be disappointing. I'm sure if he did not get a president position or a GM position. and I don't think he's going to say, you know what? Screw you guys. I'm out. I'm taking off my helmet with horns on it and I'm thrown into Lake Minnetonka and I'm booking it out of here. I just can't see him doing that.

But, you know, when you're talking about like Tisley or McKay, Nolan Tisley and John McKay, Tisley is from Seattle. McKay is from Los Angeles. The thing that I like about both of them is that they come from the premier organizations in the NFC, and you can idea farm from these guys, even if you're not making these totally wild overhauls. You're not firing everyone in the entire front office. We know the Wilfs are not going to want them to do that, that they like a lot of the people they've had in place for a long time.

But you can bring in new ways of thinking. And the directives come from the general manager. It's just like wherever you work. People would be shocked, I think, to find out how much of the NFL is the, same as a corporate office. It's the same as the office where as something comes down from the, the big bosses, and that would be your ownership. And this is what we want is our directives.

This is how we want to play. This is what we want to do. And the executives are setting the agendas. And look, the GM's going to come in and say, after meeting with coaches and everything else, to the scouts, to the college director of scouting, to the pro personnel. This is what we're looking for. And here's the new ideas that I'm going to bring to the table. This might be a reason, you know, to have Rob and someone else.

Two hires might be better than one is to have new ideas, fresh ideas brought into the organization, but with the stability that the Wulfs really like. So those guys, even though they're not, when you say young, like they're not 20, but they're up and coming guys over the last 10 years, which I think is a fresh perspective. from, you know, Rob, who's been around a really long time. So you kind of hit in the middle. It's like a fresh perspective on player evaluations, scouting, because that's the world they come from,

from the best teams at scouting and team building and so forth in the NFL. So, yeah, I like those ideas as well. I mean, Reed Burkhard also, we shouldn't short change Denver for what they've been able to do. Denver was mediocre as heck for a long time. And George Payton, remember, he left pretty much after. the Vikings had built their really good teams that were sustained for a long time. Then he goes to Denver and what have they done? They've built really good teams and through the defensive side a lot, which is what, you know,

he did under Mike Zimmer. So that's where Reid Burckhardt comes from. So I like the idea of having somebody who is and Burckhart was with the Vikings, but someone from another organization that's had a lot of success. So I like that idea. Mama says the competition will be between Wentz and McCarthy. for QB2. I think overall that's true.

And we know that Carson Wentz is not going to take a ton of reps in the preseason and training camp. I'd like to see J.J. McCarthy play full halves of preseason games because I expect we're not going to see much Kyler Murray, that it will work very similar to the way that it did with Sam Darnold. Darnold started one preseason game. He played one drive and that was enough.

And I think Kirk did that. One year, Kirk got sick and was not. able to play. That was against Vegas in 2022. And I think in 23, he played one series. And that was it. I was like, all right, no more Kirk, not going to get him hurt here. Uh, so I would expect that from Kyla Murray. I do not think that we're going to see him out there throwing 20, 30, 40 passes in the preseason. I'd love to see J.J. McCarthy get a lot of work there. But if it's a struggle, you know what you have in Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz doesn't have to practice a single time and can be a fine backup quarterback as he showed last year. I think,

It's really crazy to say because Wentz was frustrating as heck sometimes. But I think Wentz is one of the better backup quarterbacks in the league. I did this a couple years ago. I assume it hasn't changed much. The win percentage for backup quarterbacks is like 30% if they play. So, you know, even going two and three is right around that. It's a little better than that. If he had gotten one more win against Philadelphia, one throw away,

then, man, like three, what did he play? He played five, five games. games, right? So, I mean, three out of five would have been great. That's what you know what you have in Carson Wentz. You know exactly what you have in Carson Wentz. So you know where the bar is for J.J. McCarthy to beat. And where Wentz is excellent is knowing the offense and knowing how to run it. I mean, it's just not a coincidence that last year, Wence came in and Justin Jefferson had his three biggest games with Carson Wentz. And that's just knowing the office. It's a signal that you know the offense. That's when we make the jokes about Nick Mullins, well, Nick Mullins' biggest strength

was knowing stuff. It wasn't accuracy and it wasn't arm strength. It was he could run. I mean, this guy, two different times just came off the bench, right, and had to throw a pass or didn't have to, but Kevin O'Connell called the pass. And he was ready to go. That Chicago game, 2004, he comes off the bench, Nick Mullins, this is, comes off the bench and throws a completion on a third down when Sam Darnel went down with an ankle issue, and then Darnold comes back in, plays amazing, wins the game, but it's like, that dude was ready for anything. That's what you have to be as a backup. And we know Wence is the same way, but is McCarthy that way?

Is he ready enough to come in at any given time? That's what he has to prove. Mr. Mayor, there is no quarterback competition, just doesn't benefit the team to say Kyler is the starter. I agree with that. And also, you know, if you're Kevin O'Connell and man, like he's really good at this kind of thing, is you're kind of walking a delicate dance because what you want is to have the full confidence of Kyla Murray that you're my guy, you're a starter.

You might be the starter for the future. And I believe in you and like, let's go. We can win the division and everything outright. Like, that's what you want from Kyler Murray. That you want KOC and Kyler Murray. to have the same thing with Sam Darno where it was like, let's prove the world wrong. And I think they really galvanized on that point with O'Connell and Sam Darnold.

Let's show everybody that your past does not define your future. And I think the same thing with Kyler Murray. Everything I've heard from Murray is that he's very, very motivated to show that what happened in Arizona is not who he is. It's not who is legacy, if you will, is going to be in the NFL. and especially the way that it ended in Arizona. And so if you have a coach who is very motivated to prove that what happened last year is not the passing offense that Kevin O'Connell runs on the field and a quarterback who is super talented that is highly motivated to show that the narratives are wrong about him, that's a really good combination, I think. But then where does J.J. McCarthy fit in that?

because McCarthy also has every reason to show last year was not him. But if you're O'Connell, you need Kyla Murray to come here and win games for you because he is the more proven and better quarterback. But with J.J. McCarthy, you also don't want him to just go off to the side and be angry that the team gave up on him. So how do you keep him engaged, keep the quarterback room close and working toward a common goal because you might need any of those guys at any time. I think that's not an easy thing to do,

but probably this is where, you know, some people will, you know, kind of make jokes or whatever about O'Connell and, you know, his culture and that kind of thing. But it's like, this comes in handy when you have a dicey, tricky kind of situation here to be able to navigate through because you might still have J.J. McCarthy as your long-term quarterback

someday. So you don't want to just be like, JJ, can you just go stand in the corner or will I work with Kyler? So I think that that's part of the reason to not, and, you know, chaos he's going to get asked about it, and I'll be interested in his answer,

but I think his answer is going to be, yeah, I don't think I have, is it week one? I don't think I have to name a starter. Let's go practice and see where we're at every day. That's the right approach from O'Connell. P. Gulloch, how Dallas Turner shows up, knowing he's got more of a primary role now. Yeah, I mean, I think that's more of a training camp thing,

but for sure, something that I, I'm, I guarantee this is a good point that we'll talk with Dallas Turner and just getting his reaction to that. I mean, Dallas last year showed me a lot in terms of his personality because you just, you never know with young players. You never have any idea. They could come out of college with the most, this guy is the highest character, hardest worker, best human of all time. And then the minute they get in the NFL, they're either overwhelmed or frustrated or scared or they don't, they got millions. of dollars and they don't care anymore because they bought themselves a new Lamborghini happens all the time. So Dallas Turner his first year, you're like, okay, me, seems to be getting it,

but there's some signs that I don't really know. And then last year shows up to training camp after working out with Grenard, which I thought was huge. And then Grenard told me last year, I wrote about this. Grinard told me last year that he believes in Dallas Turner. And this was not like a, do you believe in Dallas Turner? Yeah, I guess I believe in Dallas Turner. No, it wasn't that way. It was like a genuine conversation we were having. But he was insistent that Dallas Turner is on his way and that he believes in him.

And I think he told the Philly media or another interview, the same thing, that he is very excited for Turner. So those two jelling says a lot because Jonathan Grenard sets a very high standard for character for NFL players. work ethic, leadership, toughness, I mean, drive. Look how many snaps that guy played. He played through a pretty bad injury last year until they finally shut him down and I guaranteed he didn't want to. So if that's a guy you're buying into and then we saw him get bigger. That was a big thing in training camp last year, stronger and grow throughout the season.

But yeah, no, that's a good point. That's a great one to talk about is catching Dallas Turner at some point, having a conversation with him and just seeing his reaction to now having this very clear path to becoming the star that they wanted him to be. Scamping around competition with the Pinocchio emoji. Yeah, I don't think a lot of you are really buying it and you're probably right. But I will say that if you're Kevin O'Connell, you should be prepared for just about anything because the NFL has already thrown at you everything over the first four years.

at the quarterback position. You have at first, Kirk Cousins in 2022, not really getting the offense and getting frustrated and then Kirk kind of turns a corner, wins a bunch of crazy games in the end, has a great start to 2023, tears his Achilles, you do the dobs. I mean, my goodness, it has been a journey at the quarterback position. So you never want to count anything out that could happen along the way at the quarterback spot. And that's why they convinced Carson Wentz to come back.

Mr. Mayor, Kyler could easily be hit by a bus is the first one you go with there. Tear his Achilles or decide he wants to retire and sell handcrafted necklaces. That's funny. In any of those cases, it would hurt the team to have said J.J. McCarthy is clearly number two. That's that is, that's well done. That's well said, Mr. Mayor. You're exactly right. If he decides to quit and sell handcrafted necklaces, then he can go on house hunters.

Because that always seems to be a job that earns people a million dollars. budget for their houses. But if he does that, then yes, JJ better be ready. Digital planes media, even if Kyler got hit by a bus, I still think he wins over McCarthy. Okay, that's funny.

Joker, say I'm the new GM. K.L. wants to draft quarterback in the top 10, and I have graded as a second rounder. How should the situation be handled? Who gets their way? Just a random scenario. Yeah, just a random scenario, huh? It is an interesting one.

because at this moment, I don't know the answer to that. And will we know the answer to that even after we get to know who the next general manager is? The quarterback situation for the next GM is front and center. It's the number one thing. Are you going to keep Kyler Murray? Are you looking to draft a quarterback next year? Are you looking to even do this thing where some quarterback always seems to come available that can win with your team? It's like a year to year thing.

and if Kyler Murray plays well, but he doesn't win the Super Bowl, I mean, are you looking at someone like Baker Mayfield, who I believe his contract is up after this year? And I don't know if they've had extension talks or not, but they didn't extend him, at least as of this moment, I'm pretty sure. So, like, is it someone like that where there's always, with these contracts, has become very interesting. Like, there's always guys that are Russell Wilson or now Kyler,

who are kind of coming off the contract, going trying to win somewhere else. it's a new universe than it was even five or six years ago where we didn't really see this happening. So you never know who could become available. Joe Burrow after this year, right? But to your scenario, I would assume that one of the jobs of the next general manager is to be a check and balance. And that is the thing that I would like to see most, no matter who is in charge, no matter how the structure goes, you have to have checks and balance. because coaches are not front office people. They in this case are very good evaluators.

I think that Brian Flores is as great of an evaluator as I have been around. I think Mike Zimmer was overall very, very good. And then they kind of got desperate and drafted corners that didn't work out and stuff. But, you know, Zimmer, how many players played for Zimmer and then went somewhere else and performed really well, right? So I think that he was very good at evaluating fits. Flores has been unbelievable at evaluating fits for his defense. And O'Connell has been good at it at a lot of positions, but also maybe a little bit

desperate at some positions at the guard spot paying $18 million a year for Will Fries or if you look at, you know, quarterback and, you know, being desperate to draft your franchise guy. And I'm not saying they shouldn't have drafted McCarthy or he wasn't worthy of that draft pick. I think every quarterback, we saw this from Tyson. Simpson, every quarterback is going to go higher than they should, you know, most of the time, just based on, like, how good of a football player, because it's worth so much more.

So I don't know about, like, if, if you're the GM and you are evaluating a quarterback as a second round draft pick and your coach is saying that, hey, I need this guy, he's great. I would prefer that the general manager in the entire front office and scouting staff went out in that point. but there were probably instances that the check and balance was actually KOC before. Because I think, you know, Quasi probably is being a little more, at least analytics thoughtful. We put it that way. I don't know if driven would be the right word, but thoughtful, like understood analytics really well.

Probably wanted to take some swings at quarterbacks that KOC sort of rejected. So you want them to be on the same page. But if they're not, the GM is supposed to be the one because it's not just him. It's his entire, it's the scouting staff. It's the director of college scouting. And if they're all sitting there saying, we just don't see it with this guy, but the coach says, well, I love him. Then the answer should be, then we'll draft him in the second.

We'll draft him where we have him on our board. And that's what Rob Brzezinski said that really stuck out to me at the combine. He said that the biggest thing was for them, that they stay to their board and that they don't reach on somebody just because you need it. You don't talk yourself into it. You don't see it through rose color glasses. Objectively, this guy is not a first round draft pick, so we're not taking him there. You want the GM or whoever's making the decisions to have the cachet to say, I'm sorry, I know you want this guy.

And you're going to hate me if he turns out to be good, but we just don't see it. That's what I would like to see. But how the distribution of power works out is very interesting.