Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the Vikings 'QB competition' show up in OTAs? (Part 2)

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.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Bitter Bruce would love to hear if McCarthy has vastly improved his ability to throw different speeds and layering. I was stunned to see how much the drop percentages went up with McCarthy at quarterback. And that was a main reason. I also think that, you know, rhythm is such a big thing in all sports. I was talking about tennis and golf. I mean, any of you who are decent golfers, do you understand this? I mean, if you get in a rhythm, you can start.

reel and off pars one after the next. But if you hit one in the woods and then one 350 and then, you know, hit the top of the ball and roll it along the fairway and then chip it right on to the green, you have no idea what's coming next. And I think that's a hard place to be in all sports. If you play basketball with someone and they're a point guard and one pass to you in the corner is way up over your head and one is way down at your feet and then one is right on or it's thrown a thousand miles an hour.

It's harder to catch and shoot that, right? Even if you're a great shooter. So I think that it wasn't just that he threw it too hard. I think it was the erratic nature of it just in general. The timing wasn't quite right. The location wasn't all that great. The velocity was then coming in at 100 miles an hour every time. It is something Jefferson talked about working on McCarthy with.

I think so much of that is timing. I think that most of these plays are timed. out to the number of drop, hitch, throw. And if you do it with the right timing, you shouldn't have to rip it. But to your point, yeah, I mean, do we get some more of those throws? Does it look a little bit softer, a little bit more touch, a little bit more craft to it during these OTAs in minicamp? And if we, you know, we see six total practices from him.

We're not going to have the answer at the end of the day, but we might have a, like, oh, boy, I mean, he had a lot of the. those completions where he did put touch on the ball. And it's hard to compare because there were some last year during training camp. And then when it got into the game, it kind of went back to, and that's why you need more and more and more because just to stick with golf analogies, I'm playing this week at some point, like 90 degrees out, like I'm ready. But just to stick with golf analogies, it's the same sort of thing of like, if you go to

the range once every once in a while and you know, okay, I got it. I got it. Like, that's not going to translate to the actual course. It usually has to be more and more, more time. You have to go to the range every day. You have to have whatever, thousands of hours on tasks. So how much has the work that he's done in this offseason helped him improve that? I think we can at least get a feeling for it.

That's the best we'll be able to do here. Mr. Mayor, I don't think it's completely impossible that McCarthy was not KOC approved. He can be called the QB killer all he would. wants, but the team couldn't leave the 24 draft empty handed no matter what KOC saw in him. So this is my thing. I will always say this about what happened in 2024 with the draft with J.J. McCarthy. If it doesn't work out in the end, is the people who were there will not tell the real story of what happened and who was on board and who wasn't.

And the people on the outside are always going to wonder exactly who said what and who believe what and everything else, always. But I believe what they said at the time, which was Quasi Adafo Mensa said that there were quarterbacks in that draft who would be more like guys who could drive your success for many years and you could pay them and they're going to be great. That's your Caleb Williams, your Drake May and your Jaden Daniels. And there were guys in that draft that you're going to have to build the whole thing around them and make sure you have a stout of a roster as you could possibly.

have and as much support. And I think that was Michael Pennix, J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix. And so far, you know, Bo Nix is the only one that's worked out of that group. But I think that that was the way that they viewed it. I also will kind of always wonder, did they actually want Pennix? And they were shocked that he was taken by Atlanta. We'll never really get that answer. But COC told, I think it was Albert Breer about going to Michigan and sitting down with

J.J. McCarthy. and, you know, those two clicking on the whiteboard and everything else. And then I was there when KOC called them the franchise quarterback in Cleveland. I mean, if anybody is going back and saying, well, no, no, I wasn't the one who, they're just, I just don't believe you. You'd make a draft pick of a quarterback and you know that you might not be able to trade up for Drake May and you, I mean, at least must have a sense for what your order is after that. If you're going to make the draft pick, if you're going to spend the 10th pick,

if you're even going to move up a spot just in case to secure your guy, then you're all responsible, you're all in. And if it goes wrong, it's on everybody. It's not just on one person. And this idea, and I've seen it flowed it like, well, you know, maybe it was Quasi pushing for them to get rid of it. But the same thing goes for this. If you are going to get rid of a quarterback who wins 14 games and throws 35 touchdowns,

you cannot tell me that the only guy involved was the GM. Really? because your coach just won coach of the year working every single day on him. And who was Sam Darnold's biggest advocate for coming to Minnesota, Kevin O'Connell? So it's pretty hard to believe any of this stuff. They're all responsible. It's one of the biggest gaffs in NFL history. Then they're all responsible for it.

And that's why you have to start Kyler Murray, honestly, is because if you run back out there again with J.J. McCarthy and it doesn't work. I mean, it's, I don't know how you ever recover from that, right? So they need to recover from that this year. There's a lot of pressure on. I think the summer softens everything. It's like, oh, well, you know, McCarthy won some games down the street. Like, well, yeah, go back to how you felt after the Ravens game, after the Bears game, right?

Go back to the injury. Like, how did you feel when it was the Packers game and another injury? Did you feel like this was going the right way or that it was going to need a lot more time? So it kind of evens out everything like, oh, yeah, I guess Seattle did win the Super Bowl. Like I'll remember how you felt when they won the Super Bowl. So they need that. They definitely need that. But to your point, it's like the pressure is on everybody.

And if Rob Brzezinski stays on as the general manager, now I'm not saying that he was responsible for the quarterback position. But if you're keeping that whole thing kind of together, well, everybody in the front office was there for that too. So everyone has a lot of pressure to win this year. Joker, am I missing something? Do we either have to trade Grenard or extend him? Couldn't we have just done nothing? Even if he held out of training camp, he still would have played for us. Yeah, you're correct.

Eventually, he would have had to play. And Kevin O'Connell would have been answering questions every single day about Jonathan Grenard. No, there was no, do you have to do X or Y? I think what that came down to, and keep in mind, like, I didn't love the idea because I really think that Jonathan Grenard's a great football player. I really believe in pressures telling a better story than Sacks. He was still top 20 in pass rush win rate. I think what it came down to was just an economics, straight up economics decision, which is if you move on from Jonathan Grenard, then you get a lot back.

a lot of cap space over the next two years, two draft picks that are in the top 100, which this team has been terribly, terribly missing in recent years and the added benefit of Dallas Turner getting a path to play the position he's supposed to play. I mean, if you spend as much as you did on Dallas Turner in the draft and he's still sitting behind two other guys in year three, that's not great for you. If you believe in him, that's not great for you because the rookie contract does not just apply to the quarterback. If you have an edge rusher who gets double-digit sacks on a rookie contract, you are saving $30 million over what you have to pay that guy or $20 million

over what you have to pay that guy when he gets expensive. So they've slowly developed Dallas Turner the way they didn't slowly develop J.J. McCarthy. And now it's time. I think that was a big part of it. And look, Renard has had injuries over the years. He's pushing 30. He plays through a lot of stuff. I see, I see why I don't love, but I think that you can see why when you get a Joanne Jennings signing for one. Like, there you go. There's one player who already is, you wouldn't have. If you just kept him on his normal contract, and I think that was part of it too, is what Rob Brzezinski, if we start to kind of bring in everything and put it all together from what we've heard, when Brzezinski said he wanted to keep the powder dry, meaning not spend money they didn't have to

signed free agents early in free agency. I think we saw that come together with Joanne Jennings here, and we might see even more of that. So if you end up with Joanne Jennings, another free agent, let's just say Leonard Floyd for the heck of it, Juan Jennings, Leonard Floyd, a couple of veterans, a couple of top 100 draft picks, and Dallas Turner getting his opportunity. It outweighs just having Jonathan Grenard. But would I rather have seen him still on the team?

Yeah. I mean, yes, I think so. but that's a lot to get back in return that goes beyond just, well, just two third round draft picks. It's $34 million in cap space over two years. Mr. Mayor, QB killer is easy when it's Will Levis and you have a quarterback under contract to 113 games the previous year. It's different when you don't have anyone except for an unproven Darnold. I'm not sure I'm connecting the dots there and what we're talking about.

talking about last year son of beavers murray has to show up if it is indeed a battle for qb1 yeah i mean he's got a not only does he have to be there for the non-mandatory parts but also it has to look the part for sure it's just that when i have watched him and talk to people in arizona it just doesn't seem like there is any chance he doesn't look like the part in Minnesota because the guy is very, very accurate throwing the football. So in a seven-on-seven scenario, and we're talking about someone who won the Heisman, who was the best Texas football player, who's a top 10 most accurate quarterback since 2020, like the guy knows how to throw a football, even if there are times in real games where he's

frustrated his coaches by turning down certain throws for scrambles or has tried to do too much. and makes a mistake, turn over, whatever it might be. The accuracy is something that has been pretty darn consistent with Kyler Murray over the years. So I expect that he shows up if it's anything less than that in these seven-on-sevins and, you know, these unpadded practices, you would be like, what? Because even Sam Darnold and definitely someone like Kirk Cousins or Sam Bradford, they all had no issue whatsoever as veteran players coming into these seven-on-seven OTA mini camp type camps and just looking great.

So I expect that, you know, to be the case. Norse forces Addison and Murray have been working together as well this offseason, which every sign and Blake Cashman the other day talked about this. Cashman was on with Jim Rome and he talked about Kyler going to a wild game with them and that he's been getting to know his teammates and he put out on his Instagram, his workouts and everything. I mean, Kyler is checking every single box. of what you'd expect from someone who's preparing to be QB1 and preparing to change a narrative.

I think that a lot of, I mean, when you think about when these things came from with Kyler, it's really pretty far in the past when it comes to, well, is he going to work as hard or was giving him all the money the wrong thing to do or whatever it might be? That stuff went away with Jonathan Gannon and Drew Petzing as his coaches. It seemed to exist a lot with Cliff Kingsbury, who I'll tell you, going back a few months now when I talked to Alex Clancy after they just signed. Alex Clancy is a podcaster who covers Arizona. I mean, he said that, you know, Cliff Kingsbury was a glorified gym teacher was the way, the exact way he described it. So not somebody who was really coaching, Kyler, the way that he maybe needed to be coached early in his career.

It reminds me of what happened with Caleb Williams, where. Caleb Williams gets, well, maybe we're going to do that Tyler Dunnpiece was really revealing. Maybe we're going to do half of his college offense and half of an NFL offense. You're like, what? You can't do that at this level. So when they ran a real offense and he connected well with Jonathan Gannon and Josh Weinfuss of ESPN told me that they would go to each other's houses and watch film together and everything else, I mean, it just seems like this is an adult, Kyler Murray, who understands what's happening here.

So I expect, yeah, I expect them to be there, but I expect him to be very ready to do this as well and on point with the receivers from day one. Mr. Mayor, we could have kept Jonathan Granard. I think they felt the cap space and draft capital was better than risking him refusing to play. He would have had to play eventually to get his game checks. But here's what ends up happening sometimes is when a player is not happy with their contract situation, that hamstring. Right? Like, I'm not too happy and, you know, it's a little raw this Sunday. I think I'm not going to play. And I'm not saying Grinard would have done that.

But if he didn't show up at any point through all of training camp, not just can you, I'm not saying fake injuries, but you can say you're not going to play through injuries. And the other thing that is that you have a better chance of getting injured. If you don't participate in all of training camp, the, I mean, this is like the Dorel Rivas thing for many years ago. but he came, if you remember, Revis had this big fight with, what the Jets, and he came out in like the first week, you could pull the hamster. I mean, if you're not getting into shape, your risk of injury is higher.

So, I mean, you would be talking about distraction is tough because it's not like he's doing it on purpose, but it would be a constant conversation throughout training camp of, is he going to show up? Is he not going to show up? And you know he's going to show up ready, as in physically ready, but is he going to be able to be on the field? Is he going to be at 100% to start the season? Or is he not going to be in the same shape that he would be? If you went through, you know, an exhaustive training camp like everybody else, there's just all those little things that you kind of factor in and go,

well, what about $34 million in cap space and two third round picks? I'm defending it even if I don't love it. But I do want to see. And I, this is the big thing is I do want to see what Dallas Turner can do in that role, where he could play every single game. And I think Turner is kind of. And maybe this is the wrong name to use, but so far in his career, sort of Yanik and Gakway-ish, where, man, the guy's flashes would be crazy, but then on a down-to-down basis, you need more consistency.

How are we supposed to know if he can be consistent if he's got to play Van Ginkl's role this week, rotate in that week, play Gernard's role the next week, like, just give him a job and let him play and see what happens. Is this somebody that you want to talk extension with next year or not? that's what you need to get a sense for this season. Can he really handle being that guy? Or do you need, or is he just okay? And you need somebody else. That's going to be a question they have to answer.

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details, restrictions, and important safety information. Plains Media, which is more likely to be a Viking in 2027, Addison or Murray. Addison will be a Viking, I think, I don't want to say guaranteed because you never know what happens after 2 a.m. or whatever. But I think, I mean, Addison is much, much higher because on his fifth, they at least have his fifth year option for 2007. So you could trade him on his fifth year option to someone else. George Pickens was not a first round draft. pick so he didn't have a fifth round option, but it was the same sort of deal where he was going into the last year of his contract. So Pittsburgh traded him away. They were done with George

Pickens. We're going to give you to Dallas Cowboys. And the Vikings could do that with Addison if they're tired of him. If he underperforms and they're concerned about off-field stuff impacting his on-field performance, absolutely. Or if there's other off-field issues and they just say, I've had enough. We can find another wide receiver too. Okay. Let's move on. We'll just draft someone else, that could happen. But I mean, KOC's love for Addison is high. And I also think that Addison and Murray are going to play well together. This is a route running freak. This is someone who can make contested catches. This is the type of quarterback who can throw it accurately enough to where it's like walking up and handed it to you. So I think that Addison should thrive in this environment. If he

doesn't, then that question is still there. Murray is a total coin flip. I mean, if we're doing right now, percentage chance, and this is something we should keep going back to constantly, and maybe I'll ask like every guest to get their take. But if we're doing this like, what's the percentage chance, Kyler Murray, is the Vikings quarterback in 2007? I got it at 50-50 right now. I could completely see it. And I will see where that meter goes because I could totally see it. It's not even hard to envision. The guy was actually better than Arizona and their bum franchise. And he clicks with Jefferson. He clicks with KOC.

He becomes a leader all of a sudden. And wow, they're in the playoffs with 12 wins. That did not sound unreasonable coming out of my face. But if you told me that he got banged up and he was erratic and kind of frustrating and maybe didn't really take responsibility when things went wrong and they finish 8 and 9 and they, okay, thanks for the memories, but that's going to be, like, that wouldn't shock me either based on his history. Norris Force, if Kyler looks good, strong possibility McCarthy is traded before the season.

I don't know if you want to do that. I mean, Carson Wentz is a fine backup quarterback, but Carson Wentz played five games and left in a sling. I mean, like, what are we talking about? KOC, I think, wants to have three quarterbacks who he knows he can play. I don't think he wants to put out another undrafted free agent or Max Brosmer or Jaron Hall or anybody else like that. If you were going to trade him and then pick up another veteran, maybe you would do that.

But even then, like J.J. McCarthy at very least, mostly knows your offense. You kind of know the things that he does well, the things that he doesn't do well. It would have to be a very miserable situation. But even if it is, look at Indianapolis and Anthony Richardson. That is a miserable situation, and Richardson is just on the team because that's, you're under contract. There's nothing you can do. So even if he loses the QB2 job, which would be pretty bleak, I still don't see it because if he loses a quarterback competition to Carson Wentz, who's making that trade?

Probably nobody. And that's where Indianapolis is. That's why it's on McCarthy to prove he could be QB2. And then if he does, then, well, yeah, you're not trading him. because you need to leave the door open that he could still be your guy. It's such a volatile position that there have been a lot of quarterbacks through history where you're just not really sure until X number of games. And then you go, okay, I think this guy can play.

It's not always evident right away in the NFL. So I think they need to slow play as much as possible rather than it would only be the case if he was a distraction. if J.J. McCarthy, which I don't think is going to happen, if he was going on social media and posting, trade me. If he was, you remember in, well, people of a certain age will remember in Seinfeld where he ran on the field, George Costanza in the body suit, or he dragged the Yankees trophies around the parking lot. If that was what J.J. McCarthy was doing, then maybe you're, you're trading him. I think otherwise you just want to ride this out and see where you're at. Mr. Mayor, probably Addison, answering that question about which one is more likely to be here.

Because if Murray is on the team in 27, Addison is absolutely on the team also. Yeah. Murray being there means that they are competing and Addison would be on his fifth year option. Right. And the fifth year option is just not that expensive. It really isn't. It's like, is it 18 million, I think, or somewhere in that ballpark? 17, 18 million, which is not too bad for a number two wide receiver for a one-year contract.

Joker, we saw immaculate vibes to end the season, but Sam Darnold hadn't won the Super Bowl yet. Isn't that going to be back of everyone's mind every day this season? It's unprecedented negative aura. I have trouble believing that a team with these guys is going to wear that. Now, if it starts to go badly early in the season, that, yes. But if, I mean, when we talk about like getting into the mix here and, yeah, being back every day for practice, I mean, these guys move on from everything. It's like, I remember with Brian O'Neill just specifically, that guy was so emotional when Kirk Cousins got hurt. And, I mean, he just, he wanted Kirk back.

And that was his guy. And he was, this is my quarterback and everything. and then they moved on to Sam Darnold and he said, well, that's business. And he blocked for Sam Darnold. And that was his guy. Like they, they're trained to do that.

Like, that's what the pros do. They move on. So that was last year. This is this year. That's all you're going to hear. If anyone asks like, hey,

you guys still thinking about Darnold winning the Super Bowl, it's going to be like, what, when? Huh? Years ago. That's, when was that? That's just how they are.

They have to focus on what's ahead of them. But I think if you start, you start getting into the season. And let's say Sam Darnold's really good again in Seattle. And you have, you know, Kyler's struggling. McCarthy has to go in. It doesn't go well. And then it's going to feel like, you know, it's slipping on KOC.

It will. If that's what happens, then we will go back to if you only had Sam Darnold, you should have kept Sam Darnold. And because that's, that's how, you know, we're going to think about it is that's the guy that you ended up letting go. I was laughing the other day when I saw people talking about quarterback rankings. You know, just can't wait for that quarterback ranking season and where Sam Darnold's going to rank.

I'm like, what does the guy have to do to get a top quarterback ranking after winning 14 games and then the Super Bowl and playing great in both seasons? I don't know. Can't wait for him to be 17th on everybody's list again. Just keep pumping Justin Herbert until the wheels fall off. Son of beavers, do you think they will add any depth at edge after June 1st? Yes, I do. I do.

There's at least four or five players out there with experience in a 3-4 type of system that I think could be reasonable backups. I believe Jihad Ward's even out there. I don't know what that relationship was like with Brian Flores or the locker room when Jihad War was here, but he was effective in 2024 playing in a certain type of role. I mentioned Floyd. I mentioned Kyle Van Noy. There's a couple more. I think that's one of the main things they need to acquire.

I just don't think you can go into this with Bo Richter, Chaz Chambliss. I liked what I saw from Tyler Batty last year. Tyler Batty looks like a guy who could be a rotational defensive lineman, but I mean, that's, you don't want one person to go down and then they have to start. And I wouldn't want to ask that of Jake Golda either. Even if Andrew Van Ginkle goes down, you don't want Goldie. day to do that. The one thing I do wonder about outside linebacker is Eric Wilson last year actually played

a lot of outside linebacker, like a surprising amount of outside linebacker at times last year rotating over to that side lining up at that position. So it looked like there was only one linebacker, but he would be at outside linebacker. Do they view? I mean, Eric is only like 220 pounds. So, but do they view him to 230 as somebody who can just. play that position if they needed to for a full game. I would not be in favor of that. But if you play a three, four, it's just different. It's very different than what we think of as

your, you know, outside or like edge rusher. But Wilson is not really fit to rush against tackles time and time again. It's much more like stunts and stuff. You can't do that for whole games. So I think, yes, I think that they will be hunting and will try to track down and sign an outside linebacker. But it might, it might be now. or it might be through training camp or on cut down day. It doesn't necessarily have to be right now. Do you think that any of our backs has a chance to break a thousand yards rushing? I mean, I think Jordan Mason, it's easy to forget that Jordan Mason averaged 4.8 yards per carry last year.

I mean, overall, Jordan Mason brought you exactly what you were hoping for last season. I thought they didn't utilize him at all in the passing game, which it's not like he's Mr. her hands, but he's not Larry centers out there, Tony Richardson or Ampley. But, uh, you know, he can catch the ball, at least on screens or something to get him moving in the past game a little more. And maybe they could figure out ways to keep him on the field and passing downs. That was kind of the issue. But as far as an actual runner, I could see it.

I think they want to dial back Aaron Jones. But in an ideal world, maybe you end up with like 875 for Jordan Mason. in 500 yards from Aaron Jones and 250 from Demand Claiborne and a handful from Xavier Scott. And like, and that's what you got. But I wouldn't be shocked if they kind of looked at that free agent market and said, is there a guy we could bring in for a million bucks? I mean, Rashad White was the one. I was like, man, I sure you don't want to bring in Rashad White? I think he got paid $2 million.

So whoever's still out there, they're not going to get a big contract. Is it worth it bringing just one more veteran in? Quick reminder that Fandul question of the day is confidence level. So the Vikings bumped up a little bit from plus 600 to plus 500 on Fandul. Confidence level that they won't be last. Where is your conference level in that? I think which is telling just about maybe how volatile you think this thing is going to be. Purple Kool-Aid Bobby Wagner is out there.

Maybe at some point he'll accept the rotational role. I don't know. I don't know what Bobby Wagner is thinking. I think if I'm Bobby Wagner, I'm probably like, hey, I want to play. Like, I want to be the guy still. I don't know if that's still in there with Bobby Wagner, but maybe. I mean, there's random veterans who have shown up in Minnesota over the years that you never see coming.

So that would be a little surprise. I wonder if Wagner is in a situation. And I don't want to say that this is what Harrison Smith is doing, but it kind of feels a little like it. Like, is Wagner in a spot where I'll just wait and see what happens where where Wagner could say, I'll wait till a team gets a linebacker injured in week eight, and then I'll go play the rest of the season, rather than having to go through the training camp and everything else. You might do that or might latch on with a team right before training camp. We'll see.

Joker says, I know how we can win the Super Bowl, but I need Purple Insiders help. You have to ask the new GM and the Vikings brass questions that include the quote, Quasi said, never go full Rams. That's funny. Yeah. that's, you know, with Quasi, he had a few of those that I don't think it helped his case very much. When we look at what is the sort of era defined by, it'll be memorable quotes like competitive rebuild, never go full Rams, whatever it was he said about Kirk Cousins. At the end of the day, with the moves that were made under Quasi Adolfo Mensa, regardless of whether they believed in him for the future or whether the Wilf's liked the way that the front office was being.

run by him. They have put themselves in a position to win 14 games and still, even after last year, have a nine-win season that was a calamity. And then here we are with them going into a season once again where I think all of us could see how this roster could come together and make it work. So roster-wise, it was far from disastrous with him at the helm. I think it was a lot of other stuff that was. was more projecting into the future. And also with Quasi, I think when he was at the podium,

there was always a desire from him to have everyone understand what he thought. And what you have to realize, and, you know, I never had a chance to say this to him, because I'm not going to like tell him how to do his press conferences, but had he asked, I probably would have said, you don't really have to answer the questions directly if you don't want to. And so, like, you don't have to have us understand. I think he had actually mattered to him that the people in the room and the fans understood where he was coming from and the thought processes and things like that, which would sometimes come out in a jumbled way. Like, it wasn't always crystal clear and sometimes would result in quotes that you were like, probably shouldn't have revealed that. The one with

Jordan Addison where he said, hey, 99% of the time, he's great. But that other 1% of the time, you're like, that is not what you should say. Like, I. I love that quote as a journalist, but as if you were advising him, you'd be like, dude, that's not the line. That's not the line. You should say, we're going to keep that internal. We're not going to talk about that in the public. We're going to deal with it behind the scenes and thanks for your interest.

That's kind of how. So he, I think, but I really believe the reason was that he wanted everybody to understand where they were coming from. The Aaron Rogers press conference was that way too. You're like, you don't have to answer. You are not on the witness. to stand. You don't have to answer all the questions with the whole truth and nothing but the truth, man. It's good for us, but you don't have to do that. And I think there were probably

times where other people in the front office were like, why'd you say that? Why did you tell everyone everything that we did? Um, so anyway, that's just going back to the never go full Rams. That that'll be, that'll be part of how we remember Quasi Adafel Mensa is one that they built a 14 win team, but then the other is that they let a quarterback go, failed to have another plan for the quarterback situation, decided to actually go full Rams with that offseason, had it blow up in their face in a lot of ways, and that was that. So they really needed to take a more methodical approach. And that's what you want to see from the next GM.

Like, learn from the last guy that, okay, Mike Zimmer once said, rancher Mike Zimmer once said, don't get too high on your oats. which is a horse term. Uh, and I think the Vikings got so freaking high on their oats after 2004 that they were arrogant enough to believe that they could just coach anyone to be a great quarterback. And I also think that they thought, well, this,

we are so good that a lot of the rules of this game don't apply to us about overspending and about asset management and drive, building through the draft. Like we're, we're bigger, we're better than the rules. Like these, these are the things that have been sort of proven not to works and we're going to do them and it blew up in their face so which was an interesting off season to cover because it was like yeah this is exciting to see a team really push all the chips to the middle of the table but are these the right players to spend the dollars on and it's very risky and when you push all the chips to the middle of the table and it comes up not your number you end up back in san francisco so something for the next general manager to keep in mind. Purple Kool-Aid says Sneed or Kenny Moore in their secondary.

Yeah, I mean, Kenny Moore is a veteran slot guy. Depends on kind of sometimes we've seen this, that Brian Flores will just really like somebody and we're kind of like, oh, yeah, like Isaiah Rogers. He was a backup for the Eagles. Sure, right? And then the guy starts and plays a thousand snaps. Eric Wilson. Yeah, we love Eric Wilson. Yeah, it's a good special teamer, great, great leader.

Yeah, everybody likes Eric Wilson. And then he plays like 700 snaps and gets 37 pressures. Okay. That might be James Pierre. They might view James Pierre as being that guy that they've identified on another team that they want a much bigger role. But Kenny Moore is a proven veteran who could play in the nickel. That would be good for them to give him a little more versatility. Purple Kool-Aid Chad B-B never did a thing. Not true, not true, but if you listen to the reporter hype, you would have thought he was a six-year starter. Not true.

He had a big catch against Green Bay in 2019, right? Game at Lambo, where the Vikings got down 20 points. He had a big play in that game. Not true that he never did anything. Had a, I think a fourth-down conversion was his first catch, a little out-rout. I forget who was against. So he had some plays.

One of the reasons, that someone like Chad Beebe gets talked about like that is number one, you know, an underdog story is always great. Football would not be what it is without underdog stories. So Chad Beebe was a great one. The other thing is I think the guy could actually play. I think he was actually an NFL caliber wide receiver. He just could not stay healthy.

And he had some bad luck. There was one, I think he was blocked. Someone was blocked into him or something against the Raiders where he got hurt. That's going to take its toll. And the other thing is that when you have a Diggs and Thielen, we already knew that those guys were great. And so we were always looking for who's the next Jarius ride, who's the next wide receiver three. It was like in training camp, especially Diggs, would be doing stuff out there that was just disgusting. I mean, he was like mossing people, running by people.

I mean, at his best in his career, he's one of the best wide receivers in the entire NFL. hell. But we already knew that. He had already done the Minneapolis miracle thing. So it's like, okay, yeah. Well, he just caught a 50-yard pass from Kirk Cousins in practice. Okay, whatever. What's Chad Beebe doing? Because that's like the thing we don't know is always more interesting to talk about

than the thing we're already pretty settled on. If I come and recap every practice with, dude, can you believe how good the best players are? It's not really great content, right? Is that height? I'm just going to go with height or oh oh high times high times okay what's up with all the recent dL signings defensive line signings uh rolling the dice on a few veteran players who um might be able to be depth for them because like Isaiah Loudermilk and Eric Johnson are two a little bit different

guys but both of them fit the profile of how this team wants to play I mean loud Louder Milk is a 3-4 defensive end. He is 6'4, 300 pounds, and he's kind of like your Caleb Banks look-alike. So you want someone who could be a backup there. What I think is that they want to have a very open competition in that room. Just everybody's going to have to kind of prove their worth. What you want is Caleb Banks starting day one, 3-4 defensive end, three-tech to 4-I if you want to get super serious.

and use that space and blast forward to play 30 plays a game. That's what you're looking for from Caleb Banks. But if it doesn't happen right away or his recovery is slowed at all, you want somebody else who's played football in the NFL before. And Johnson's kind of a thicker guy who was supposed to have some pass rushability. He didn't really get there. It's been a little bit of a development project for the Indianapolis Colts. Just kind of didn't work out.

So I think they're looking for your Jonathan Bulls. types where if things go wrong on the D-line, this guy can definitely play football. But is he going to be a star? Is he going to move the needle? No. But they need veteran depth because they have nothing but youth there. Even like Taki Taimanani has barely ever played. And Ty Ingram Dawkins has barely ever played.

I don't, do they see Tyler Batty as a three-four defensive end? But still, not much work. So they needed guys who have actually been on an NFL field before. and if they lose if they lose their jobs in training camp that's probably a good thing if they cut these guys then they're good with what they have but if not you know they need to put some guys in the practice squad and have NFL players who have been in the league before actually play uh joker says when how and what do we go full rams can be fluid but ideally something like trade for talent around the deadline 27 draft bleep them picks do every re-extructure restructure and

to get cap space really depends on what's happening. So to your point, considering how up in the air of the future is, if you got to the deadline and you are seven and one, deadline's week nine now, right? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. You're seven and one. Oh boy.

Like, it's, this team is really freaking good. And there is a player on the trade block that is a, I don't know. I don't want to say Miles Garrett, but let's just say Miles Garrett for the heck of it. Miles Garrett is on the trade block and you are seven and one. Kyler Murray is in the MVP race.

Brian Flores defense is coming along. Caleb Banks has been a freaking beast. Everyone's healthy. You're feeling great. Would you do something crazy at that point? Maybe. Maybe you would at that point because this is the end of the road. In terms of the age of a lot of these players, you're looking for a refresh into the future.

I mean, the Miles Garrett thing, like, don't get into details. Just like, think of big player name X. Maybe it's Max Crosby trade as the Raiders are still a stumbling franchise. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I think that you get involved there. Yeah. And I thought this in 2024 too. Like, maybe you get involved in a big trade here because who knows how many opportunities

you get to take this swing. So, you know, look, if Rob Brzezinski is the GM, they might be a little more cautious to do something like that. But I also think that you can look at the roster and evaluate and go, man, you know, you have O'Neill is only so many years and Cashman and Byron Murphy is expensive and Aaron Jones. And if all these guys are playing kind of peak, they're playing really, really well in the middle of the season. Let's say that the NFC North isn't as strong as we think it's going to be. Like there is a scenario there where you would do something like that. I don't think it's their, I don't think it's their main idea, but you also do have to take every chance you can to win when you get those opportunities.

So yeah, like there's a there's a situation. It's kind of narrow, but there's a scenario that's definitely there. Otherwise, you're probably going to get to a trade deadline and look around and go, well, what can we get for, you know, fourth rounder or something? Can you bring in a role player? Can you bring in someone whose contract is expiring and shore up a weakness, that kind of thing? then maybe you consider doing it. If you're six and two, if you're five and three, maybe to make sure you get over the edge to the playoffs.

But I really think it's only the scenario where you are absolutely crushing it. Kyler is totally dominating. Your team is fantastic. Your Super Bowl favorites at that point. Then you make a move like that. Then you go full Rams. Yeah. Tyson, how do you feel about a Jalen Hertz comp upside for J.J.

McCarthy, both seen as winners who are limited. passing and struggle with passes over the middle while having good athletic profile. You know, I'm not sure that I really see it. I see what you're getting at, like that Jalen Hertz does have some limitations as a passer. But overall, I mean, last year didn't have a good season as a passer. He has been at times in his career a good passer. The thing about Jalen Hertz, though, is that he came out of college as a prolific running quarterback, not just a, hey, he can scramble when it's called upon. And that raises your floor

wildly in the NFL. And he's so much more than the tush pushes when he's at his best. His deep passing has also been fantastic throughout his career. That's really helped him. You know, you mentioned not throwing to the middle, but the sideline stuff, the deep throws to Devante Smith, to AJ Brown have been nothing short of great. I could see, though, what you're saying along a similar or path of what comes into the NFL, and if you look at Jalen Hertz's first year, as a passer, it's not that great. It's not great at all. And as a runner, it was really good, though.

And that's the difference right there is that as a runner, Hertz is so good early in his career that you're going to win games because of that and allow time to develop. But as a passer, could you get to a point where it's much more passable and then make some plays as a runner. Yeah, I just, I don't, I just that the running part of it is so good for Hertz. It's, it's a little bit hard to see. And I think Hertz is backed off a little bit of that as he's taking some injuries and he's got a Super Bowl ring and everything else. But earlier in his career, he was taken off and he was gaining a ton of yard. They were running a lot of designed runs with him. So it just makes, and this is the same for Kyler, where it does raise the floor of Kyler. If he's a good

passer and not flawless, you can still win a lot of games because of his running if you have a good defense and so forth. But I see what you're saying with the development path that Hertz took. He was not thought of as a great passer coming out. He still had a lot more experience coming out than McCarthy, though. Norse Force says Toronto Armstead podcast has an amazing interview with new Vikings assistant Frank Smith. Yeah, somebody pointed that out to me the other day and I got to find it.

and give it a listen because multiple people have pointed that out to me. I think that that's, I mean, the Vikings didn't make a ton of moves, but it's probably their best move other than Kyler Murray is to hire Frank Smith, just to bring in somebody with new ideas for the run game because that's what they've really been missing over the years. Purple Kool-A, the NFC North is hard because you can be an eight or nine-win team and finish last like we saw last year. Right, yeah.

So that's, that's why I think it's interesting, the Fanduel question of the day of, like, what's your confidence level? The Vikings won't be last when they're, they're plus 500. So they're moving closer to the other teams in, on the Fandual lines. But it shouldn't be super high because you can have a good team and still finish last. Raidon says, when will you be able to gauge, demand Claiborne's pass blocking abilities? Camp probably a little bit. I mean, it's hard to really know until they play in a game. But camp, you can at least see did they get to the right person?

Because they will block in camp. They're just not crushing each other like it would be in real games. But most of past blocking for a running back is just getting to the right spot, seeing the right person. Does he have fast eyes when it comes to identifying which guy is rushing? from where and then getting to the right spot. But he is not super heavy, which doesn't have to mean he's bad at pass blocking, but it's not easy to do. I also think that teams throw so much at these guys at the Vikings specifically.

They're in trying to deal with Justin Jefferson, stunts, twists, stuff like that, simulated pressures that it's a heavy load to carry on a running back when you're a rookie. But training camp will tell us a lot more. I mean, that was where you could really see the signs of, I don't know if Jordan Mason's really getting it, or Ty Chandler, what is happening? So, yeah, I think camp, maybe a little bit here, but I don't know how many 11-on-11 blitzes

we're going to see in mini-camp. Might not be that many. Joker, maybe at some point we can get a punting expert. Sure, we should do that for the competition. Norris Forrecy expecting rookies to start. right away. You know, Caleb Banks, Dominic Orange, for sure. Gold Day, probably not.

I think that's really, I mean, Max Bredison, start, like, I don't know if he'll start the game first play, but he's going to play a lot. Those would be the guys that'll get the most snaps, I would assume is Caleb Banks, Dominic Orange, and Max Breddison, unless I'm missing someone. Well, we'll see. Actually, Jacoby Thomas, you know, I mentioned that safety spot. And I really should have said Jacoby Thomas, because a third round pick could be in the mix to play.

We've got Jay Ward and Theo Jackson. They've developed. Then those guys are former, well, Jackson was drafted by another team, but they're former draft picks who have developed here in this defense. But if Jacoby Thomas gets it quickly, and I think you guys are really going to like Jacobi Thomas if it clicks for him. I've just been listening to some interviews by him and, you know, doing some research and very bright player.

I could see why they clicked with him, very driven. You know, another one of these Anthony Harris, Josh, tell us, Jacoby Thomas, like these high IQ aggressive type guys that just seem to click a lot. So he should be in that mix as well for a potential starter. Mama, very curious how Kyler will look in this offense. Yeah, I'm interested to see of just like how much they want to adjust the offense. Like, do we see things that we haven't seen before? So do we see like pistol?

We haven't really seen very much if any pistol. formation. So do we see that kind of thing with Kyler? Do we see he doesn't really do a lot of design runs these days. It's mostly almost all scrambling that his yards come from. Is there something with that moving the pocket, moving him, knowing that he's got that kind of quickness. But I think you'd be really surprised. I think everyone would be really surprised because the Kyler Murray in your head is truly from five years ago. I mean, how many, I would love to know the answer to this question. How many national TV games did the Arizona Cardinals have from 2023 to present? Is it five? If we don't count Thursday night football, is it two? I mean, they just have not been

a relevant team. The whole group that got them to relevancy in 2021 just fell apart. You know, they lose the Andre Hopkins. They don't draft his replacement correctly. They tried, but they didn't. You know, they have a couple inexperienced coaches and stuff like that. It's just it. But in 2024 and early 2025, he played in an offense that's not that different from COCs. When I was watching the, uh, the, all 22 back and I did two different film pieces on the newsletter, Purple insider dot football, make sure you check it out if you get a chance,

two different film pieces that I did there. And I show a lot of this stuff. Like this is something that KOC does. This is something that KOC does. Here's him running a bootleg. under center off of a play action where he's rolling out like Kirk Cousins. They did that stuff. They put in a real offense for him and he was able to run it.

So I don't think it's going to be crazy different from what it's been before. But yeah, I am too. I'm interested to see how the timing comes along and a lot of it is based on throwing into windows. Is he going to believe in those windows? That was something Kirk took a while. Tyson, what overall, if you were madden, would you give the rookies if they had to step in and play right away. So allow me to give a small rant, just a tiny little, because I've got the Madden games

behind me here, the old Madden games. They used to grade players badly. They used to grade a rookie, a 62. A 62 guy, you could play with them in the game. Now you won't even find a 62. That's like the worst free agent. They give everybody, everybody's a 75. Everybody, it's just, it bugs me. because I think that they don't want to get called out on social media. Oh, why did you give me this bad Madden rating? And they don't want fans complaining. Oh, well, you know, this guy doesn't deserve to be a 68, whatever. They used to give guys terrible grades.

Anyway, not the point. So if we were doing the old grading system, the real Madden grading system and not the everyone gets a trophy Madden grading system, which is existing now, I would probably go Caleb Banks something like, something like a 71, right? off the bat. And remember, I'm saying the old scale where backups were like 50s and average starters were 75 and great players were 90s. And there was an actual difference. So I couldn't just put in anybody at any position and have the same result, which is what I can do now. Anyway, you struck a nerve, Tyson, sorry. So in the old system. So I would say like an, like a little bit below

average just because he's going to have to make gains. But in the game, as you know, players develop and develop and develop. So I would start off with a very high, like speed rating for a defensive tackle. Strength would be like way up. But awareness, things like that, that would be down because he has to learn. He's got to come a long way. Dominique Orange would probably be like a 68. Same sort of deal where strength would be way up.

I think awareness would be higher. Speed would be quite a ways down. Just like an average player at nose tackle, which I think could be really good. for them. But as you're saying, as rookies, these are first days. Bredesen would be a 99, obviously, since he's a fullback. No, seriously, though, I would give him benefit of the doubt, probably like a 75. Well, it's gold day is somebody that I might go in the upper 60s as well. Like, every one of these guys coming in has to show that they can do it where the skills

are going to be good. But that awareness rating, we don't know how aware they're really going to be how like locked into the NFL they're going to be. So I'd probably be in that ballpark for a lot of them. The one that would be interesting would be like Chuck Demings, where you'd give him like 90. That would be my kind of Madden player. Madden 0405. Somebody who you get was 94 speed and then you just develop him over a couple of years

and then he's an all pro. That's a fun question. Thank you. Fair enough point from Purple Kool-Aid on Jacoby Brissette that he has to stand behind their offensive. line for double digit games. Yeah, it's not a great situation in Arizona overall. That's, that could be pretty rough. Mama, hopefully 1,500 yards from Jefferson. If it's a lot less than that, then it's a problem. It needs to be in that ballpark. Ron's still in wait and see with the

quarterback situation, both have had their share of injuries. Yeah, that's right. I mean, that's, and that goes back to why you don't just say, guys, obviously Kyler's the starter. What? Did you see JJ last year? I mean, you don't want to do that because then at some point, You know, you might have to play up. I mean, you want to talk about a team that handled something like that really well. From, you know, like outside perspective was Carolina with Bryce Young, where even behind the scenes, there was a report from ESPN's reporter that they were getting phone calls that they were considering trading away Bryce Young. And yet that was never really out there when it happened.

They didn't let that get out when it was actually going on. That was way after that it kind of came out that they were getting phone calls. and considering trading him. And their coach, Dave Canales in the media, was always very complimentary and, like, patient and everything else. You never saw him say, like, man, I just, I'd rather play Andy Dalton. This guy's brutal. Like, you never saw him crack like that.

And I expect kind of this, we saw some cracks last year from KOC in the middle of the season. But I think at this time of year, I expect him to just toe the line and, you know, we'll see what we see. That's why we're going to look for. what does it actually look like on the practice field? Because, well, they, you know, want to have a certain message, you got to have the, you got to practice the way you're going to practice with what your real plans are.

So, we'll see. Joker at Purple Insider Headquarters, there is one room that contains a single locked briefcase sitting on display. It contains the stopwatch purchase to measure the punt hang time. That's very clever of you. I, you know, a lot of these, I'm just trusting you guys when I start reading your comment, but because you're good commenters, and I had no idea where that was going. But, you know, I also, you finished your comment by saying, I hope I need it soon.

I hope I do too. I hope I do too. I mean, you got to admit, Ryan Wright turned out to be pretty darn good. And free agency, that was, I think we started the free agency show by saying, look, don't over, don't underappreciate that this guy was one of the best punters in the entire league last year. So if Brett Thorson can do it, then they need him to do it. And Johnny Hecker has only been okay in the last few years. Bitter Bruce, very optimistic about being well above eight and a half wins.

Murray will be even better than Darnold. Mark it down in ink. Okay, well, Darnold was amazing. So I don't know that you have to put it that high as far as the bar goes. But if he was even, here's what you want the difference to be with Darnold and Kyler Murray. What Darnold never got enough credit for was that they couldn't run the ball or pass protect. And he still put up the numbers that he put up and won the games they won.

He won a game where David Questenberry was playing left tackle and threw for like 350 in that game. That was Chicago. I mean, Cam Robinson was very bad as a Minnesota Viking. They couldn't run the ball at all once he got here and Darisaw was out. And yet, he had to carry the offense. week after week after week after week after week in order to get them. I mean, think about that Arizona game.

He struggled a little bit and they almost blew it in that game and probably should have lost if Jonathan Gannon had made a good decision and he brings them back and wins the game. I mean, they just, they couldn't really lean on the run game at all. It was just, it was the Sam Darnold show every week. And the defense in the second half of that season was not that great. It was good, but it wasn't like top five. It didn't carry them. It was only pretty good.

I think, I remember looking at this. like DVOA or whatever it might have been, EPA, in the second half of that season, they were like 15th, which still good, but it was the Sam Darnold show. This is what you do not want for Kyler Murray. You do not want Kyler Murray to have to be the whole show. Okay, so this is Kyler in the last three years, Joker. Is this the stat in the last three years? This is the stat that I was looking for earlier, which is Kyler's 13 and 17 in the last, that must be the last, three years, right? And then the Cardinals without him are two and 19. So that's, I mean, that's like a 40% winning percentage versus 10%. Yeah. So, I mean, that tells a story. If, if this was,

like, think about San Francisco, where San Francisco has had a couple of different quarterbacks who were flawed and good and they won all the time. Anyone else playing for the Cardinals has turned into what? The worst. quarterback in the NFL? I mean, Jacobi Brissette, oh man, well, you know, Brissette played better

within the offense. He won one game. I don't care if he played better within the offense. Great. His checkdowns were marvelous. But I think that stat is as telling about Kyler Murray

in the Arizona Cardinals as anything I've ever heard. 13 and 17, not a great record. It's a little below 500. Not good. Versus 2 and 19 anytime he's out with the same exact team. And look,

Jacoby Brissette is a legitimate backup quarterback, so it's not like they were playing, you know, Max Hall and John Skelton. I mean, this is like real guys, and that was their record. Yeah. Yikes.