Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Winning expectations for the Vikings? (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Matthew Coller continues his conversation with Vikings fans about Week 1, including where the bar is set for expectations for this season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob says, uh, where do you think the Vikings defense will rank this season with Flores' second year with the team? So this is a hard question because last year they overachieved and ended up with pretty good numbers defensively. And I think that some of that also had to deal with, they played some quarterbacks who were really bad. Aiden O'Connell was really bad and scored zero points. And that helped, that helped even out the lions. It helped even out the Cincinnati game, uh, where they did have some tough moments there this year. They've got a lot of very good opponents where if they ranked, let's just say they ranked 12th. That's where I'll

put them. If they ranked 12th, but they play this bunch of teams. And if they're playing healthy quarterbacks on a weekly basis, 12th would be good. 12th means you're going to win some games because of your defense and you're very solid. And the bar isn't that high to get in the playoff race. I was looking at Tampa Bay last year and where they ranked. And I think it was something like 18th in offense and ninth in defense. Can you be that? Yeah, I think they can, but there is an issue with the schedule as it compares to last year but if some quarterbacks get hurt then it will be a lot easier i think if brian flores is playing a team that has a backup quarterback or a young quarterback your chances to win skyrocket versus playing and this is not a hot take but it especially skyrockets with him because of the way he plays and how rarely you see that

in the NFL. So if you are another team and you're preparing on a weekly basis for this, that, and the other thing, and then you see Flores' defense is totally different and you're not an experienced quarterback who's seen it before, it's a nightmare for you as opposed to you know maybe if it's just a regular type of typical scheme um so it might depend on just how many backup quarterbacks do they end up facing throughout the year of where they rank but i would put them right now somewhere around the range maybe it's a normal amount of backup quarterbacks two or three throughout the season somewhere like 12th anybody disagree with that is that is that is that too high, too low? Uh, dances fantasy question of the day.

How many yards and touchdowns does Jefferson have this year? Well, that sounds like a time to remind you that the show presented by underdog fantasy, and you can use the promo code purple. Uh, uh, thank you, Dan. I appreciate that. And, um, to answer your question, I want to go very high with Justin Jefferson still. He's going to get the football a lot. Sam Darnold trusts him throughout training camp. We've seen that over and over again.

And he's going to push the ball to him. He pushed the ball to DJ Moore. DJ Moore had a ton of catches at the end of that 2022 season. Kevin O'Connell may try to adapt some routes to get Jefferson open underneath to get the ball in his hands to make sure that he's involved early and often. So I'm going to say that Jefferson ends up with 1,475 yards. Touchdowns is hard. Everybody guards him in the red zone. Six, seven touchdowns. I'm not going to go crazy on the touchdowns, but I'll go with a 1,475 yards. Uh, bad bow can, uh, says, can you bring up

practice squad guys week to week, uh, without putting them through waivers? You can now, yes, you can elevate, uh, practice squad guys, squad guys three times, I believe. And so if it's Miles Gaskin, they'll elevate him. And then I would guess they'll elevate him again and elevate him again and then look for a place to put him on the 53 if they like what they've seen from Gaskin as another back that can just help them on special teams and so forth. It's kind of a little bit of a cheat code that they used here with miles Gaskin and only keeping the two running backs and CJ ham

on the roster, though you think of it because they have a fullback, that's an extra spot. Most teams would just have another running back there and might not even have four running backs on the active roster. It's only really a story because the Vikings use ham. So it ends up being two, but yes, they, they can. And that's been a great change for the NFL, uh, allows teams to put guys there on the, on the practice squad and still use them, allows veterans to be on the practice squad. It's that was a great change, uh, especially for players keeping jobs, but also just the depth we used to happen is if you'd have 10 guys on the practice squad, someone gets hurt and you just don't have anybody at that position. You have to go out and sign somebody off of nothing as opposed to someone's on

the team that can probably do that job. DJ Willie G. I think we need to keep this real. Nine and eight is a successful season. I believe Mr. Willie that you are being real. I agree with that. gee i think we need to keep this real nine and eight is a successful season i i believe mr willie that you are being real i agree with that i think that is being real anything higher than that is something when extremely right it's 2022 levels of going right although i feel like the karma meter for this team has to swing back at some point.

Does it not? The karma meter has gone strong against the Vikings last year with all the fumbles that they had last year. Some of the injuries, they had a quarterback injury last year that maybe it goes back the other way. And then even with JJ McCarthy, that the other team fumbles this time, or they recover it this time. Maybe that, maybe that'll happen.

Jared, I think the Vikings are one to two point favorites is fine. The line has moved towards them as well. Seen quite a few betting guys thinking otherwise though, seen five or six on the under six and a half wins. I just don't see it that way. I mean, none of us can ever predict if a quarterback gets hurt. And if Sam Darnold tears his freaking meniscus in week one, then okay, they're going to win fewer than six and a half games. Didn't Nick Mullins win four with San Francisco or something? I mean, to, to win fewer than seven takes a very bad season. And I just think that

they shouldn't have a very bad season. If they do, there's going to be a lot of ramifications, but here's the teams that won fewer than seven games last year. Uh, new England, Tennessee, the Chargers, the Commanders, Giants, Panthers, and Cardinals. Just a real quick run through. Cardinals were tanking and had their quarterback out for half the year. Panthers accidentally tanked, but had no talent whatsoever and a rookie quarterback who played horribly and shouldn't have been playing the commanders what else you have to say there uh the giants they lost their quarterback and still found a way to six as and they just had no offensive line at all uh chargers were a mess also justin herbert got hurt who else else? Tennessee starting a rookie quarterback, Ryan Tannehill's

meltdown, and then Will Levis. That's hard to win. And then just everything with the New England Patriots. Catastrophes. Teams that were in the middling ballpark, the Jets lost their quarterback, still won seven. The Colts got to nine with Gardner Minshew. How about the Broncos? The Broncos won eight games last year. Do you guys think the Broncos were good? Of course they weren't, but they found their way to eight. So did the Raiders. So that's, that's more of my logic. The bears last year were not a good team. Uh, the Falcons were not a good team. They fired their coach. They got to seven that's that's really my logic is i mean it has to go really bad really bad in order to get to less than six let's see reconnected if the vikings exceed expectations any chance koc is extended during

the season i still think they should extend them tomorrow and make sure they're staying with this plan going forward and not judging it on this year. And I thought maybe this week we would get one of those surprise everyone. We changed our minds, but not so far with Mike McDaniel getting extended in the same timeline as O'Connell. That even makes it look more glaring that they haven't done it yet. Even though the guy's records are basically the same through two years, Mike McDaniels have playoff wins. Uh, but you like where it's going with that. I would take them where the dolphins are and I would take where the Vikings are with KOC, but I don't know. Usually this organization

doesn't do stuff like that. They don't negotiate in the middle of the season. It would have to be going great to do it in the middle of the season. Conrad says, got here late. Well, that's unacceptable, Conrad. But you can actually go back and watch the rest of the show if you want. So can I ask, is Jalen Naylor going to the first game healthy? I am really worried in capitals. Conrad, we know you love your capitals.

Do I yell? You are really worried. Uh, because I just read about his limited practice today. Uh, I think really worried in screaming capitals might be only if he was not practicing at all, less worried. If someone is limited on Wednesday, that to me says there is a decent chance that player plays. If you are out completely Wednesday, it's not great. If you're out completely Thursday, it's almost a lock that you're not playing. Uh, if you're limited, then there's a, then there's a shot. Um, but as far as a Jalen Naylor goes, I would not be really worried about Jalen Naylor not playing because they have other guys that can do it. Uh, and if your entire offense is contingent on your number three wide receiver, who's mainly a

deep threat, then it's not great. But I think that they're not, they're not entirely contingent on that. And I became throughout training camp, a Trent Shurfield enjoyer because it's a physical game out there, my friends. And when a dude plays at that position with a little bit of edge, I'll tell you how I really used to like was robert woods played with edge i thought if i'm remembering correct jake reed played with a little bit of this a little nasty to you as a wide receiver i think trench surefield brings that he can be that guy brandon powell can be that guy nobody can just replace and act like jordan addison or justin jefferson but you can replace and act like a number three wide receiver. Um, so really worried

is too much. Uh, I still think that they're in a good place with him to be able to play. And Addison looks like he's going in a good spot. Uh, I think really the issue with Jalen Naylor is where you'd be concerned is, is this going to happen all the time? Or is this going to be just this week? He's got a little ankle tweak. He's fine. He's moving on. Or is this going to be just this week he's got a little ankle tweak he's fine he's moving on or is it going to be every week it's something new with Naylor because of his history it has to be brought up Rob says over under last year's 20.2 points per game this year for the Vikings hmm uh that sounds about right but I think I would probably go a little bit, a little bit over that for 20. How many total points did they score last year?

They scored 344 points last year, which was kind of in the same ballpark as Tampa Bay, Seattle, a little bit less than Seattle. Yeah. I think that they should, they should be able to do a little bit more this year than that. I mean, they were playing with Dobbs, Jaron Hall. They had some really bad games mixed in with those guys a little bit more than that. Uh, let's see. Suck. My kiss says, uh, is that a song? Isn't there a song like that or an album? Uh, I do think the expectation should be to win this suck. My kiss is after I said the first two words, you all went, but, um, this is an interesting question of how much the expectation should be to win because as much as you could look at next year and go, Hey, draft, you mentioned the defensive tackles. You mentioned the corners

draft. One of those dudes, there's a guy who made a play for Georgia that I've thought about for a week and a half, a corner. Yeah. Him get one of those. That'll help high draft pick would be really nice for this team in its build for going forward, but they have put a lot into this, into this roster. This isn't a team that's torn it down. We're not talking about young players that are playing for the first time. And well, I guess we'll see what happens with these young players. We are talking about a lot of veteran talent here that should have the expectation to win. I agree with that. Win the Superbowl. Okay. That's too much. They're not there yet, but Kevin O'Connell, Brian Flores, you guys are supposed to be good coaches and you are, you should win. And I'm, I'm with the Wilfs nowfs now i wasn't in 2022 but i'm with them now go win

be in the playoff race be in that conversation you should be there as long as darnold is largely healthy for the entire season yes of course you should go into the season going compete for the playoffs otherwise there will be a lot more questions if they do win six games or they do win five games to go wow that was horrible all right can you really do this can you go from winning five games to competing for a Super Bowl okay I don't know uh but if they win eight well all right you're gonna feel like all right it's a fine season if they win nine a little more toward the that was a good job coaching and any more right, it's a fine season. If they win nine, a little more toward the, that was a good job coaching. And any more than that, it's a great job coaching.

So you can evaluate it one way to do it. And I have a friend who works now in the, in the NHL works for a team as their analytics guy. And he created this metric to evaluate coaches based on preseason expectation over a long period of time. And what he found was that there were certain coaches who almost always were above preseason expectation. And think of Andy Reid for this.

There was a number that maybe it was last year was the first time that he went under his number for preseason, which is insane since he's gotten to Kansas city. Good coaches will consistently push the needle in the right direction. Not always because quarterback injuries happen, but usually that's the case. So you should expect your coaches, but we have to grade on a curve here because it's darn old and it's a roster that isn't full yet. So great on that curve of what your winning expectations are. But I like that thought.

Alex, feel like the defensive line depth is kind of flown under the radar. It's Harrison Phillips, who's decent against the run and a bunch of cast offs. Well, some cast offs and some guys who have not been cast at all, uh, Taki, Ty, Imani and Levi Drake, Rodriguez, and Jalen Redman. These are guys who have won jobs over cast offs over veteran players like Jonah Williams or a draft pick like Jaqueline Roy. And there's something to be said for that. If you're going into a camp where you're facing in these battles, guys with more experience and then winning the job. So I'm intrigued by the depth. And if there's something there with Levi Drake Rodriguez,

Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery. Yep. Those guys are not people that are normally thought of as, as being locked great veteran starters. Tillery just adds an enough for this to work, but work is as far as I would go because Phillips is a good player for his career. He just, I think got worn out last year and had some bad games that brought down his PFF grade, but he had normally been in the top 20, usually by PFF grade. And largely because of his, uh, run block or run stopping. If you can mix and match just a little bit with Tillery and get a little bit of pressure, just even a little bit of pressure from that spot, then it's an upgrade.

And then we'll see what those other guys could do. I mean, Levi Drake, Rodriguez could be interesting right away in a third down package. So just more things to work with than they had last year. But that doesn't mean it's ready. That doesn't mean it's fully set or an excellent unit. That's still probably the 20-something ranked unit in the NFL. Phil says, if Kevin keeps a balanced play calling, Sam won't have to be great to win. If he goes back to being pass heavy, it will be musical chairs, a quarterback again. I tend to agree with you, Phil. If they're in a spot where they're asking Sam Darnold to throw

40 passes, then it's probably not a good position. You know, the comparison that I have not made that I really should make is Ryan Tannehill with Tennessee. Ryan Tannehill, big arm, when he was asked to be the guy in Miami with bad coaching, including Adam Gacy was bad. And when he was given good coaching that built off a really good running back and a couple of good wide receivers in high efficiency passes, uh, put up good numbers in one games. And he didn't throw a ton of passes

that actually might be as comparable or more than Baker or a Gino Smith is Ryan Tannehill. Because like Darnold Tannehill's overall numbers were not very good, but he had had moments enough for a team to believe in him and give him a chance. And, and in Tennessee, he was pretty good. So maybe there's something like that. I, you know, that might be one I need to think about more. Uh, suck. My kiss says, uh, JJ McCarthy got injured. Okay. But they had plenty of time to think about who they were going to bring in as a bridge quarterback and chose Darnold. And they have built this defense, uh, free pass for Casey and KOC. No. Yeah. I'm, I'm saying no. But the thing is that when you, when you talk about a free pass, is it a free pass in terms of fired? um, I wouldn't want to go there. I would not want to go to fire everybody

and totally revamp this regime when they haven't gotten a chance to see it all the way through. That's been the most important thing to me. Uh, of course you're evaluating everything on how this works out. I think you have to do it on a curve because of the timeline and because it's headed in the right direction. But there's consequences to losing that don't have to be fired. That could be just more pressure into the future and less patience into the future. SETI079 says, are you worried about the Giants giant speed on offense a little bit um because of the vikings corners and we are looking at a stefan gilmore who has not practiced much really at all

they have some players like wandale robinson who i'm intrigued by jalen hyatt who i'm intrigued by hasn't been brought up really at all. And Malik neighbors obviously is a freak. So they actually have probably the best group of guys receiver wise around Daniel Jones. And I'm known for doing this. I think at this point of saying I give quarterback X more credit than others, but at least you guys are probably in the same bucket with Daniel Jones because he beat the Vikings in a playoff game. I go back and look at his receivers and go, Oh my gosh, how bad is this guy's receivers been over the years?

So yes, I would say it is a concern to have Malik neighbors of course but wandale robinson jalen hyatt and darius slayton that's not the worst group i've ever seen of wide receivers can he actually get them the ball make plays he did a little bit against the vikings you know maybe he will again but that's going to be kind of interesting folks u.s cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic.

Which is why US Cellular created Us Mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started um lee says uh pff says the vikings have the third most difficult schedule this year that is uh why i think vegas is so low on them i've seen different things different versions of the schedule rankings uh i i looked at the quarterback tiers and they did a thing about

how difficult the viking schedule is and uh or well they did everybody like how different how difficult the quarterback schedule is they did every team and while they did everybody, like how different, how difficult the quarterback schedule is. They did every team and the Vikings were somewhere in the middle of quarterback tier schedules, uh, which is maybe the most telling thing. But when you do a schedule, who's got the hardest schedule, how do you know what somebody is going to look like in week nine or who's going to be healthy in week nine. Sometimes you can have a much easier schedule than it looks like, even just because of when you play those teams. So that, that one's, um, that one's a little bit, a little bit tougher. Uh, Sam says, can you give me

a three player touchdown parlay? Whew. It's a lot to ask for me. I don't, I don't want to have your fate as a gambler in my hands here with a three player touchdown parlay, but I'll do it anyway, just for you. How about, um, how about we go Aaron Jones. Let's see. Darius Slayton. I'll say there's going to be a lot of tension on Malik neighbors and. Jordan Addison. If he, if he plays, I assume he's going to play because there'll be just paying so much attention to Jefferson.

How about that? I don't know what that does for you, but there you go because you asked and because you're here taking the time to watch the show and ask a question. Thank you for doing that. Uh, let's see. Okay. Uh, SETI says the giants Vikings game will come down to which offensive line pass protection holds up as so often is the case in the NFL. Uh, no disagreement there. It's really more specifically whose game wrecker wrecks the other team's game. Is it Grenard? Does Dallas Turner do something? Is it Van Ginkle? Is it Lawrence? Is it Burns? Whichever one of those guys becomes unblockable it could be the one the team that wins but there's a lot of there's all sorts of factors that go into it all kinds of different

things um daniel says giants 24 21 uh let's see you guys are talking for some reason about other shows that you like and don't like so i'll just leave that to you guys to have that conversation uh txyu if the vikings go oh and 17 they should draft travis hunter number one boy if they go on 17 those live chats are going to be wild uh if they end up with the top draft pick and have a chance at Travis Hunter, is he playing receiver? Is he playing corner? There's a lot more earning potential at wide receiver, and he really looks special at wide receiver.

My guess is that he leans in that direction. But if he's playing corner, then maybe at the top of the draft, he looks like a special, special talent. And sometimes it's a little bit frustrating to watch on Saturdays when Shadur Sanders and Travis Hunter are playing for the rest of that team, which doesn't really seem like it's very good to me. Not sure that it's the best coach, but it's definitely not the best recruited team that is out there. Up north says, didn't the Wilfs already say they are not resigning? Que si da flamenca KOC till after the year.

That was what Mark Wilf said that they were not having that conversation right now. That was the way that Mark Wilf put it to us is that they weren't talking extension right now. And I would guess that means not until, uh, not until next year that after this season that they would have that. And what they, what they might want to decide on is, is it going to be if they win 10 or 11 games and they just kick butt all season long, Darnold's really good. They're rolling along great defense. It'll be an easy choice for a long-term extension for more years, whatever it is, sign them up. Same with Flores, whatever it costs. If you win six or seven, then they might just want to wait and see a little bit. I think that they should try to get

them signed up to a three-year extension to give them enough time, both of them to work this out and see how they can build around JJ McCarthy. That's really the question here. How can you build around JJ McCarthy? And they can't answer that today. They can answer that deep into the future. Oh yeah. Red hot chili peppers. Yeah, that's right. For the song suck deep into the future. Oh yeah. Red hot chili peppers. Yeah, that's right. For the song suck my kiss. Yeah. Thank you. Um, but you can't, you can't find out today how they're going to build around the most important player of the future. Right? So let's find that out first and then talk about firing people. If this was an urban Meyer situation or Matt Patricia or Joe judge. And the coach was just crazy and was abusing people,

kicking the kicker, had no idea who played for the other teams, whatever, right? All the stuff that came out about those types of coaches. Okay. But we already have a sample size to know that O'Connell's not nuts and has a good locker room, good leadership group,

all that stuff that he's been able to form. So that right there is a baseline enough to say, well, I don't want to have the discussion about if they have a bad season, they're firing the coach and going out and doing another coach search. What it really would be is how much pressure is on going into 2025. Is it going to be a short-term extension where they're still kind of evaluating year to year, or is it going to be, all right, we're locked in. This is who we're going forward with. I think that's the difference. And I think that's okay. If the Wilfs want to do it that way, just personally, I think I don't like the idea of people coaching for their jobs or GMing for their jobs, especially coaching for their jobs. Maybe coaches always feel that way,

but GMing for your job is not a good idea because then you end up trading a fourth for Chris Herndon because you're just desperate. Uh, just a Superbowl Vike. there's talk that jj mccarthy may come back week 17 or 18 i can shut that down for you right now he cannot come back week 18 or not uh 17 or 18 he can't so there shouldn't be talk if there's talk tell whoever's talking to stop talking he can't he's on season ending ir he's not playing this year nope't do it. And just by the way that his injury works, well, he will be recovered by then. But do you want his first NFL start to be coming off of missing 15 weeks?

I wouldn't want that. I would rather have him just go through to next year. And I actually did think it was interesting that Kevin O'Connell laid out his plan to have JJ McCarthy in his office, going over stuff, going over the scheme, going over the, the why to plays that he's going to meet with him every single week and he knows how important jj mccarthy is to this thing that's a great idea by the way alex says have you seen jerry tillery's pff grades they're awful at this point i have looked at so many freaking stats in the off season that i could probably tell you off the top of my head every player's career pff grade what What I could tell you is that Jerry Tillery's PFF grade from last year was 67 point something

and that he had, I believe, 27 pressures, 25 pressures, and that the majority of those pressures came on third down pass rushes. And if Jerry Tillery plays this season and has a 67 PFF grade and ends up with 20 something pressures and the majority come on third downs, then he's been a good signing for them. They did not have that last year at all. If he ends up having his previous PFF grades, which were, as you said, awful for a very bad chargers team, then that's going to be a failure as simple as that. It's going to be, it will be, but they're signing him off what they saw last year, much more than years before that. I think that it looked pretty good in training

camp against the Browns when we actually saw him go against another team. This is not me saying it looked great. This wasn't Aaron Donald Tillery. I just think that he, when, when he was drafted, he was a first round pick and he was expected to just play every snap and be great and be a driving force player. But I think of it like Alexander Madison and maybe KJ Osborne, but Madison is instructive that certain players like Alexander Madison fit really well into certain roles. And if you try to bump them up the role, it's a Peter principle where the Peter principle is the idea that people in businesses get elevated until they're incompetent, until they're over their head in their role. And so you get managers that are over their head in their role. And so

you get managers that are over their head in their role who are really good in their previous role. In fact, the office is really about this. Michael Scott is over his head as a manager, but it was a great salesperson. He's the Peter principle. That's Madison. That's probably Tillery who had a certain level in the NFL is an effective player. Patrick Jones is this. I believe if I'm trying to quote PFF grades off the top of my head, it was something like a 62 PFF grade in 2022. It was like a 37 last year

because he was asked to play 600 plus snaps and he was in over his head. That's the idea with what they're asking Tillery to do. And I don't know if it's going to be game changing, but I think it could be better than it was last year. Just a Super Bowl, Vike. I'm intrigued with what the offense can do with Darnold, but I'm excited and pumped to see what the defense can do.

Do you think offhand the Vikings will be top 10 or top five, if not top five, top five would be insane with this schedule. That would be crazy. If they were that, that means it's, it's gone unbelievably well. And it's one of the biggest stories in football. If with this schedule, they were that good on defense. Top 10 is not out of the picture. Borderline top 10 is not out of the picture borderline top 10 they would have to have at least one corner who we could say is a superstar in order to put them in the top five they're not there yet they're not there with the interior i'm defending jerry tillery in his role but this isn't a defensive tackle unit that is changing the game which i think you need to be great, or at least one guy.

Horn fan. Do you think Gabe Murphy will be an instant starter when he comes off IR? Not a starter. The starters are Van Ginkle, Grenard, and then Dallas Turner's next man up after that. Jahad Ward would probably play in front of him murphy's a undrafted free agent i mean they liked him and but he'll make the team uh it's just someone they're gonna develop and maybe he ends up with a role toward the middle or end of the season but not someone who's gonna take away any snaps from ginnard or van ginkel. They get some injuries though. He could be in there. Let's see. TXYU, Dallas Turner should have near 10 sacks this season. Quick and strong off the edge. The next Dwight Freeney. Doesn't remind me of Dwight Freeney. Dwight Freeney was huge. I think. Wasn't he big? Wasn't Dwight Freeney big? How big was Dwight Freeney? I remember him being big. Maybe I was just small. Let me see. Dwight Freeney.

Let's get a heightened weight on him. 268. Yeah. 268. Uh, not tall, but thick 270 pounds. That's not Dallas Turner. Uh, I think he's got Vaughn Miller's size and vibes. That's a very high, very high mark to reach. I think five and a half, six sacks would be a good year for Turner because of the other guys that they're going to bring along the other guys or that they're going to bring along Turner behind the other guys. So he won't be playing enough snap snaps to get 10 sacks. Uh, but if he gets five and a half and they're in key situations, then you're in pretty good shape. Uh, Rob with a, a big element to this game. Don't forget the giants are wearing their hideous throwback uniforms. I am not aware of these uniforms.

Am I going to like them? Cause they're old and you think they're hideous? Because I like things like that because the old. So if it's the creamsicles with Tampa Bay, I like it. If it's the Seattle Seahawks throwbacks, I like it because that's what they were wearing when I was a kid. So are these Giants ones going to look cool or are they really bad? I guess I'll find out. Josh, you think Kwesi will regret letting Jared Hall go could have been a competent backup on the cheap. Apparently not. Uh, apparently he could not have been a competent backup,

uh, according to them or they would have kept him. And I'm not sure that he could be either. I think the game was too fast for him. Uh, and he's quite small. He's not a great athlete at this level. Doesn't have good arm strength at this level. No, I don't think quarterbacks like this, you almost ever regret giving up on. Really good guy. I think that he'll be a coach somewhere at some point. He may bounce around teams because they like him as a practice squad type. But I think a lot of you wanted to really like something there with Jaron Hall that wasn't actually there. And he did a good job in the preseason helping with the evaluations, but this is not something that I think they'll ever think about again with Jaron Hall. No disrespect.

It's just kind of the fact of the matter. Not very many guys are Brock Purdy. There's a lot of guys that just sort of bounce around. Uh, Oh gosh, says crazy. How everyone's saying Sam's going to throw four to five picks. Like he's, uh, like he's going to be in the game after three picks, uh, four or five picks. Whoa. I don't know who's saying that that would be great. Has he even ever thrown five picks in a game? I don't think so. Uh, Garrett says over under three and a half rushing touchdowns for darnold i will go with the over i think he likes to run when he was in carolina he liked to run uh he's got some wheels to him he can scramble uh let's see yeah you guys are rolling you've

pointed out yeah this has been a long stream you guys are rolling i didn't even notice i was planning on an hour and a half, but we went a little longer than that. Suck my kiss says, this has really been your night. Suck my kiss says, I'm wondering why our schedule is so difficult this year. How do they determine difficulty of schedules each year? I thought it was why wins and losses.

Some of it is, but you rotate divisions this year. They just ended up with the afc south which has the texans in it and the league put the texans at the front of the schedule they also ended up with the nfc west which is very good i think all the teams are are competitive there even arizona is going to be better so you play certain divisions and then the rest are determined by first place, second, third, fourth. And they were third place last year. So they play other teams that were in third place. Like, is that the New York jets? That's how you end up with the jets. So that's how it's figured

out. If you want more details, you have to go to someone else because I think the formula is kind of crazy, but that's the basis of it. Uh, let's see. First name, last name. How likely is a Mullins extension could be a better option for QB too. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. I mean, I don't, I just, when it comes to Jared Hall, Nick Mullins, backup quarterbacks, man, they, they bounce around, people sign them and they rarely help you. So Nick Mullins is a great guy to have in the locker room. I love, I love that he plays like no one's watching the guy has guts, toughness, ton of toughness, ton of football IQ. I mean, all these backup quarterbacks, if a guy stays in the league,

like Nick Mullins is QB too much respect there. Yeah. I agree with, Oh gosh, he's got, he's got a dog in him. So maybe, maybe he'll be the backup, but as, as per always, if JJ McCarthy's the starter and the backup has to play well, then, uh, then another season is not in good shape. So I'm not really, um, too concerned almost ever with who the backup is. Uh, J H, when I see the schedule, I could see the potentially starting one in six or Oh, and seven, what games other than the giants will they be favored during their first seven games? What would happen if that were to occur? So they will not be favored more likely than not in most of those games. Luckily, Las Vegas succeeds on teams who aren't favored winning. So that's not some sort of death knell to your

team's chances. I think of it like this, Francisco Houston Green Bay what are your percentage chances of winning those games probably 40 45 against the Packers 40 against the other teams but you're at home maybe it's 42 you just have to win one of those three if you beat the Giants three and math people could figure this out what's your odds of hitting once on three things that are 42%. It's probably decent, right? Somebody who's good at math, figure that out for me. So I think they could get to two and two to start the season and then you're going to be okay. After that, then we start to get into guys get hurt, who you're playing, how they're playing at the time. They come out of the bi-week. The divisional games are a little bit better of a chance,

but to your point, if they were to have a start like that, I think you got to start selling pieces that there's no other option. They have to start selling pieces after that. You would have to try to move Aaron Jones. If he's healthy, try to move Harrison Phillips or KM Bynum if you're not going to keep them, then you got to start looking for trades. They could turn the season around to the point of being competitive as in maybe six wins from there. But if you've gotten to that low, it's going to be a really, really long road back. Is it really 69%? Because that would be funny if it is.

But I think you're just saying that cause it's funny. And it was, uh, David says I have more optimism for this team and its cultivation and development since before 2017. Oh, it's not 69%. That's too bad. That would have been a remarkable, uh, you know, confluence of numbers to come up with, with that beautiful number right there. But I guess it didn't make much sense to me because I gave even numbers anyway. Yeah. Um, I, I think that there have been very few teams. So imagine, I think of this sometimes imagine if you are 18 year old Viking fan, right? And you were a little kid now in 2017. And when the last time they rebuilt this team, you probably don't remember it because they were in that mode from 2015 all the way until literally last year. Got to win, got to win, got to win, got to win. There was no step back.

There was no retool. How can we look toward the future? It was just got to win, got to win, got to win. And now, uh, I think that there is more of this vision. Will it come to fruition? That's what we're going to see. But there is more of a vision since there, like there was when Mike Zimmer took over quite some time ago, but that's how long ago it was. We're going all the way back 10 years. The last time that they've had a season like this, which I would equate to a 2014 or 15.

Two more questions. And then I'm out of voice for tonight. Bad bow. What position do the Vikings still need to address? I mean this year or like now it's that that's over, but you mean if they're talking about the total roster build in the future, it's, it's very, very clear, uh, very clear. It's it's defensive tackle and corner are the positions and guard. Everybody needs, everybody needs guards, but defensive tackle and corner. If you get stars at those positions, then you're talking about a very, very dangerous defense with linebackers, outside linebackers. But until you're there, I don't think you can be great without great

corners and defensive tackles. A horn fan says, I thought you were an analytics guy. Aren't you good at math? No, actually terrible. I actually am terrible at math. Yep. But there's a little bit of a difference between being an analytics person and being a mathematician. So what I do is I utilize the work of mathematicians to use it in context with what I know about reporting on football. Just for example, I texted a very talented mathematician earlier today,

and I said, how do I find out how often the Vikings use 21 personnel? And he sent me back an answer for an article because someone else wrote a program that could take that data and put it together. But I can't. The highest level of math I took is whatever was in high school. I took stats one and two in community college. I'm not a mathematician. I am a journalist who studies analytics.

Two different things. So there you go. All right. Okay, real quick, all right. Two. Okay. Real quick, real quick. Uh, let's see, uh, Dorian, a common question that comes up on the show. If Darnold is decent and not amazing, could he be retained as QB too? If he is, Hmm. I think he would go to a place where he could compete for a spot. There's always going to be that in the league. There's always going to be a team that has a quarterback competition. You're not always going to be set. Uh, the Raiders, Darnold's better than those Raiders quarterbacks, right? He would have been competing there. Uh, let's see, be honest. TXYU, I am always honest with you guys.

Two hours and one minute and seven seconds of straight-up honesty with you guys. And counting. You saw both McCarthy and Kirk practice. Who looked better? Kirk, obviously. I mean, come on. Kirk was one of the five most highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL.

I mean, he's a great practice quarterback. He could hit deep shots, deliver the ball on time, run the offense, run the two minute. I mean, he's one of the best statistical quarterbacks. I mean, top 10, 12 of the last decade. I mean, Kirk, it was never about whether Kirk was good. Everybody knew Kirk was good. It was whether you could be enough around him with his contract to get over the top and compete for a Superbowl, which they could not. But Kirk is a really good quarterback, especially really good in practice. McCarthy though, more raw talent, no question about it. More arm strength, more mobility. And one thing that was similar to them is a command two minute drill command.

You saw it with McCarthy. Even when he failed, you saw it getting guys lined up being in charge. That's what you saw. But Kirk, I mean, he was a guy that could just run a whole offense. He was good. Okay. That's funny. All right.

Let's end on this. Since now I'm officially out of voice. I did. Let's see. I did WCCO radio. I did North Dakota radio. I did a Giants podcast. I did X Dakota radio. I did a Giants podcast. I did XM radio today.

I did the fantasy football show. And now two hours with you guys live. And I still got to write two articles. How excited am I for football, guys? Nobody could ever say this guy isn't ready for week one. So I'm ending with this. Be honest, who is better, Jaron Hall or John David Booty? That's good.

That's good. Oh, gosh, that's good. There you go. I'll let the world decide that. Thanks so much, everybody. I need to go drink some tea or something. Actually, you know what? I've got a better choice. It's diet Dr. Pepper. That's what I need to have. And, uh, I'm going to go write some stuff about this football team. Let's go. So thanks everybody

for another super, super fun chat. And we will be doing this again tomorrow night, me and Manny tomorrow night, Thursday night conversation Vikings. I'll be out at their locker room. I'm going to slip in some golf in the morning, and we'll talk to you guys later. Football, everybody. We're here. We're almost here. Let's go.