Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Would you rather be the Jets or the Vikings for the next five years?

Episode Date: November 14, 2020

Matthew Coller connects with New York Daily news football writer Charles McDonald to talk about tanking and whether the Vikings would have been better off if they went the route of the New York Jets and tried to end up in last place. How does this QB class play out? Who will be better in five years, the Vikings, Jets or Giants? Is tanking really a viable strategy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop, from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button.

That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill.

Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. I'm Taneo Blumicare. I'm Lisa Leslie. And we're very excited to tell you about our new podcast with Blue Wire, Front and Center. Lisa and I are breaking down what's going on in our lives, in the world, and keeping it 100. We're also learning from amazing guests as well, like Emmanuel Acho.

People that show love to me, I forever got their back. Vivica A. Fox. If the foundation isn't right, then the rest of it's going to go wrong from there. And more. Subscribe to Front and Center today. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me, the four-verts man himself, Charles McDonald. What is up, Charles?

Nothing much, you know. Just finished watching the Jets almost lose their shot at Trevor Lawrence last night against the Patriots, but they found a way to really hunker down and lose that game at the end of it, even though the Patriots also did their best to lose that game, too. So I'm sure that's what we're going to get into today. But, you know, we're 0-9 and we're careening towards Trevor Lawrence, which is exactly what Jets fans want. Exactly.

So you have the luck of getting hired by the New York Daily News just in time to cover two of the National Football League's absolute most abysmal franchises that are floundering and yet in position to potentially draft quarterbacks. Now, I'll get your take on the Giants and whether that's actually going to happen, but at least with the New York Jets, it's an interesting discussion. And you like the Falcons as well, so you can really relate to where the Minnesota Vikings are. It's an interesting discussion to talk about whether you would rather be the Falcons or the Vikings or the New York Jets,

because you can go down the list of all the problems with the New York Jets. Their coach is probably 32nd out of 32. They can't pressure the quarterback. They can't cover. They have Frank Gore as a running back. They have no receivers outside of maybe Denzel Mims showed some flashes. But, like, it's a bare cupboard. And yet you are in position to draft a generational-type prospect,

whereas the Vikings have a lot more talent, a lot more star players, and yet are in a position to have to hope they can build up everything around Kirk Cousins. But let me ask you, since you cover the Jets and they are as bad as advertised, who would you rather be for not just, of course, this year, but going forward? Would you rather be the team in position to draft number one or the team with a lot of parts already in place that you just have to add to? Well, I think a lot of people would just say let's go number one because when you look at what the Jets have,

they have what's likely going to be the number one pick because I think Monday versus the Patriots is probably their best chance to win a game this season, and they kind of fell flat towards the end. You're probably going to have the number one pick. You're going to have a boatload of cap space. You're going to have the pick from the Jamal Adams trade, which so far looks like a huge win for the Jets to get to ship them off for two first-round picks.

You're going to have a lot of assets. But with the Jets, you have to – one thing that people don't consider is it's not just like you're rebuilding a franchise on Madden and you're going to have these players, you're going to have the picks. All you need to do is just make that right. The ownership matters a lot. And I don't know if there's a more dysfunctional ownership group in the league than the Jets.

I mean, Woody Johnson has literally been an absentee owner since Trump was elected because he's been over in England being ambassador for the team. And Christopher Johnson has – which is just a ridiculous thing. Right. Like what kind of sentence is that? Right. Of course it's the Jets that are involved in something like that. So his brother Christopher Johnson has been around basically running the team,

and obviously that has not been successful so far. I mean, they picked Adam Gase to be their head coach over a lot more qualified candidates like Eric Biennium, perhaps, who Jets fans think is going to come to New York after the Jets decided that Adam Gase was a better coaching prospect than him. I think you might want to pump your brakes on that one, Jets fans. But, you know, the ownership just keeps making bad decisions. And right now, they're not even in a spot where they want to rip the Band-Aid off because

Woody's not here. He's literally not in the state so they're just going to keep this thing rolling but like in a vacuum like if i can just take the situations it's always more fun to think about like a moldable ball of clay like the jets like where you can really do anything you want with it because they have like two good players so far with Makai Becton and Quinnen Williams and maybe Denzel Mims gets there down the road because he's a pretty promising talent. But, you know, at the same time, it's also easier said than done because the Vikings have pieces in place. Like it wouldn't take – if you can make like some savvy cap moves,

it wouldn't take that long to get the Vikings back into a competitive spot where you're starting from scratch with the Jets. I think it's just more about what you want. And the ownership thing is a really serious part of the equation that needs to be added in. But, you know, I think it's kind of hard to say first overall pick, top 20 pick, plus another first round pick, plus both of the cap base in a year where a lot of teams are going to be hurting for cap space with a decreased salary cap ceiling.

I think I would go the jets but you know you still can't feel too good about how that's going to turn out and this is a key point here when it comes to tanking a lot of vikings fans wanted to see the vikings trade off everything that wasn't nailed down and a lot of vikings fans are looking at kirk cousins and saying how can we get out from under Kirk Cousins and so forth? But one thing to just keep in mind about tanking, of which I generally promote and enjoy and think works, and I think it's working in Miami where people think, oh, you'll be bad for a decade. No, no, you won't. Not if you get cap space.

Then you just get Byron Jones and you're good. But you can also get caught into Cleveland area, where if you pick the wrong quarterback, which they have on multiple occasions, and I'm not sure they even picked the right one now, then your rebuild gets stunted. So even if you have the cap space to sign their version of Sheldon Richardson, and even if you draft those other players high, like Miles Garrett,

and they turn out to be good, if you miss on your top quarterback prospect, then it doesn't turn out the way that you think. And you can just get stuck in this rut of being bad for a very, very long time. So there's this, with Kirk Cousins, you're going to be 8-8 when you're bad or 7-9 when you're bad. And you're going to be 10-6 when you're good. So there's that sort of limited ceiling and high floor. But the ceiling of Trevor Lawrence might be you win a Super Bowl. The floor might be that you're bad for 10 years.

I mean, it's just so much rest on one guy and then the ability to still build around him, because I think we see that now more than ever, that it's not just on the arm of the quarterback if your franchise is dysfunctional so it's a it's a really interesting kind of push and pull of do you want to guarantee that you're going to be in the mix and kind of roll the dice or do you roll the dice and hope that it comes up uh your way and you end up great yeah i think you know you just have to make that dice roll and the jets are in a position where they really don't have a choice. It's funny with the Jets because the Jets were not planning on taking this year. That was not in their cards once the season started.

But obviously, once you trade Jamal Adams and C.J. Mosley decides to opt out, and then you have all these injuries at receivers to start the year. Last night versus the Patriots, that was the first time they had Mims, Crowder, and Perryman on the field together, and it made a difference for them because they were actually able to move the ball and score a little bit. But once you get all these issues compounding on each other, you know, by week five, week six, you know, like Jets fans know very quickly,

okay, this is not a team that's going to go very far, so let's just bottom out. And luckily, I mean, they've just simply been bad enough to do that. I mean, I could go in forever about how you lose 24 to nothing to Miami, and Miami doesn't get a third down conversion until there's two minutes left in the game. Or the next week you follow it up with four yards in the half of football versus Buffalo. One, two, three, four yards. Like, that's not a joke or a typo or anything like that.

It's crazy. I mean, this team is really bad. And I think one interesting piece of that is, you know, people go, will Trevor Lawrence pull an Eli Manning or something if the Jets decide? I don't think that's going to happen whatsoever. Like people thought the same thing was going to happen with Burrow. And I mean, just think about it. Like if you're a kid who is 22 years old and literally any NFL team says,

we pick you to play and we're going to give you, you know, $40 million over five years to play quarterback. Okay. Like I'm there. I'm there with you. And then we'll figure this out as we go. So, you know, I think Trevor Lawrence is going to be a New York Jet unless the Jets

somehow just manage to win some games, which I don't think is very likely or very possible for them. So, you know, we'll see what happens. But I think that if they can just get, like, another maybe another receiver in there,

because Beckman's going to be star like that guy's absolutely amazing when adam gaze is not trying to kill him by putting him back on the field with injuries uh you know like you have some pieces on offense now you just kind of need to take the next step like who's going to guide this and who's going to be the quarterback which i'm i'm expecting it's going to be lawrence it's always odd to me to try to pin down what i mean by saying like it's not as hard as you think once you've got that guy there if you know what you're doing and trading away jamal adams is actually a really good move it kind of reminds me of the dolphins trade away mika fitzpatrick it's like we're not really ready to win so we're just kind of wasting you so maybe you should just go

somewhere else and give us draft picks and we'll just get another one of you when you matter. And I think the Vikings actually made some mistakes in that area. Like Delvin Cook couldn't be better. Right now he's the MVP of the team by far, leads the league in rushing, and you're 3-5. And, yeah, some games we're close, right? And one of them he doesn't play and you lose in. The other one he's hurt for a half and you lose in.

But that kind of goes along with the territory. If Delvin Cook is playing for Kansas City, he matters a lot. If he's playing for a team that's likely to go 6-10 or 7-9, you've kind of wasted the cheapest year of Delvin Cook and now you've got to pay way more for it later. And then also he'll probably fade because that's how running backs work. It's like these equations that you're constantly having to do when you're in this spot where you also have to play the salary cap game and that's where i think maybe if you're a vikings fan the most jealousy of the jets is not that you're jealous of many things but it's that they have so much salary cap space to play with and the vikings are kind of pinned in so how much better can you really get you better hope that just draft picks work out and another point that you made about the money free agents will come when people are like oh nobody will sign there

they're terrible and then Byron Jones signs with Miami oh yeah you got the money 82 million dollars right exactly you got the money you'll pony up and maybe uh if there's a different coach there now on the Giants side um this could be relevant for the Vikings because how many teams draft ahead of them might matter to whether they can draft a quarterback or not. Are they sticking with Daniel Jones, Danny Turnovers, or whatever they're calling now? You know, I don't know because Joe Judge is one of those coaches, like, he'll never say anything bad about one of his players publicly.

But before the season and even like when he got hired one thing he stressed i mean every time you talk to him he's stressing i don't want a team that's gonna make mistakes i don't want a team that's gonna turn the ball over well look what you have like and i think you know my my read of what the giants have done this year is like this can be a team that's probably winning the NFC East without all these turnovers. Like if you just had a guy who's turning the ball over at like a league average rate, instead of one or two turnovers a game,

and those turnovers are going to be backbreaking. You know, this, this division is very winnable for them. Like I think the defense has kind of outperformed what people thought was possible of them. Not that they're great, but you add some pieces in the secondary, you already had a pretty good interior defensive line. You can give some teams some trouble, like we saw them do with the Rams and the Bucs for part of that game on Monday night last week.

I mean, they got pieces there, but the quarterback situation is just so turbulent that they can't really get anything going. And the frustrating thing, I think, for Giants fans is, like, you see Daniel Jones play, and he'll make, like, these crazy, like, deep throws down the field. Or he'll throw, like, last week versus the Bucs, he had a perfect fade route to Deion Lewis, who was being covered by Devin White, of all people,

in the back of the end zone. It just perfectly fell into his arms. And then he'll fumble the ball twice with a crazy interception. And it's like, well, I want to like this, but there's too many red flags for me to. So I think, you know, if they're sitting at the top of the draft and they're like the third pick or the fourth pick, and if they have a new GM, like if Joe Judge is able to get Dave Gellman out of there, and then he doesn't really have an attachment to Daniel Jones, I don't really see how you don't take a quarterback

because if you're going to be authentic to yourself and be Joe Judge and you're going to say that turnovers are a huge backbreaker for us, then we can't have this guy who has, like, broken the record for turnovers through however many games he's had in his career. Like, he's putting James Winston to shame, which is crazy. And it's 2020. I mean, quarterbacks in the 90s and the 80s used to throw picks like crazy. It's fun watching old games from the 80s because the guy will just throw it right to the safety.

You're like, what happened there, guy? You know, 20 interceptions was not uncommon at all. Now if you throw 20, you're, like, the worst player in the league. With Daniel Jones, it reminds me of like when ryan fitzpatrick is really doing his peak ryan fitzpatrick thing where he just throwing bombs down the field make it plays and then whatever the worst time is to turn the ball over he will do that um but that's not a guy that anyone ever invests in as a first round pick and thinks oh he's going to be our guy and the fallacy that coaches can get into and i think tampa bay

got into for a while with james winston is like oh if only we correct whatever if we get him glasses then it'll be able to do it or whatever it was the laser surgery then he won't throw interceptions or if we get him a different coach then he won't throw interceptions like dude if you throw picks you're gonna throw picks He threw picks in college. So did Daniel Jones. It's like when we watch these college guys, I've been doing a thing on the internet of, you know, tweeting out college highlights. But the thing I love about Justin Fields and Zach Wilson is that they just don't turn it over. Like, you don't see those bad throws.

And I don't think that's a thing that ever changes with these guys. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And, you know, that kind of reminds me of something interesting back by, like, tanking conversation that we were having with the Dolphins last year is, you remember last year, obviously, like, they traded for Josh Rosen, and people were like, oh, my God, this guy, he can be the quarterback for the future and all the other crap. So he starts off the season, I mean, the guy's just terrible. Like, at some point, you've got to acknowledge that you can't play.

And that's what happened with the Dolphins where, you know, I know from my own talking to people that the Dolphins players were like, dude, I understand that this is a transition year for us. And a lot of us probably won't be here next year. But you're kind of doing a disservice to us by putting Rosen out on the field because, like, why should I go risk my health for someone who gives us absolutely no shot to win a game? It's just not fair.

And you'll lose people along the way. Like, if you make this so clear that we're not – like, we don't care about your safety, we don't care about all this other stuff, and Dominic Fox made this point too about taking – I think it's a little extreme where, you know, like you just straight up don't care about all this other stuff and Dominic Fox made this point too about taking I think it's a little extreme where you just straight up don't care but I think it's always good for

the mental health of an organization to at least try to put together a winning effort so when you see these guys where the mistakes start to compound over and over and over and over again it's kind of hard to just keep putting your faith in them as another player, that this is going to be someone that can lead us to promised land,

and also someone where it's worth me risking my health to go fight for this person. Beyond the money, it's got to be worth my time to hurt myself doing this. I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. For all of you hunters out there, Soda Stick has some very cool hunting gear available that you need to check out, including their Mick Golden Light Hunting Club hats that our pal Jeremiah Searles has been wearing lately on his excursions. All their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it.

We're going to also hook you up with free shipping on your next order. Use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That is SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, original Minnesota sports-inspired goods, code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. There's another point, too, about just being able to evaluate who can play and i so i thought josh rosen would be good back i mean so did i i'll uh i'll take the old takes exposed on that i thought that he i liked him better than baker and you know baker's been no great shakes but the way things are working out right now um you know of course you and i talked about Lamar.

We both like Lamar. But I thought Josh Allen would be terrible. He mostly was terrible. And then all of a sudden, Stephon Diggs makes people way better at football. I'm watching highlights of Josh Allen. I'm like, I recognize that from such quarterbacks as Case Keenum throwing to wide open Stephon Diggs. But that's another conversation. But when it comes to someone like Rosen, he's so poor that you can't even figure out if his receivers can play or if his tight ends can play

or if his offensive line. The guy couldn't process anything. He would be standing back there looking at open receivers and route combinations that they should teach you in high school, and he was just standing there with the ball and not getting rid of it. So how do you even know if your offensive lineman's good when he has to protect for four or five seconds because the guy won't throw the ball? So I think there's a key point to be made there. But with the Giants, they kind of have a little cake and eat it too. Like their quarterback throws enough picks for them to look like a horrible team, but they have

enough talent to not be a horrible team. They could be someone that if you're Zach Wilson and they're going to draft you, that you could come in pretty quick. And I think it's actually a way better spot than the New York Jets. Oh, yeah. I think the Giants are a great situation for a new quarterback. I don't remember if I talked about this with you for the season or something, but my assessment of the Giants was, you know, this, to me, like when you look at all the players,

this looks like a very average football team because, you know, they got some weapons on offense, but they don't have a pass rush. Their offensive line's okay, but they got some guys on defensive line. Like, you know, like it's just an average football team, and I wanted to see how far the coaching could take that. But I feel like I don't really have an answer for that still because Daniel Jones has turned the ball over so much. Like I, I, I mean, I know it's fun to make fun of like Joe judge, like the football hard stuff,

but like guys on the team, like actually really bought into that stuff. Like, like they like him. I think it shows with how hard they play because last year with the giants, especially when it was getting close to the end of Pat Shermer's tenure, I mean, they weren't really out here, like, going as hard as they probably could have. And I think that they knew that and just kind of got a little stale. But the thing that gives me hope about the Giants is Joe Judge has kind of

got this program figured out where the guys are buying in. And if they're not, like Golden Tate, you just won't play. And I think that actually the Golden Tate mention was kind of reasonable based on everything that had happened with him, like, posting all that stuff and his wife going off. Like, dude, you're a 32-year-old receiver. Sorry you're not getting the ball a lot. I'd rather throw the dairy slate every time.

It is what it is. And if you can't, like, fall in line with things that at least make sense, then you just won't play. And that makes sense. And you have Evan Ingram. You got Sterling Shepard. You got Darius Slayton. You're going to get Saquon back next year, another year of Andrew Thomas,

who, you know, has been shaky, but his good plays are really good. So, like, you know that there's potential there. Like, if you can just find someone, like, Zach Wilson, like, if he's there, whenever the Giants pick at, like, five or six or what have you, if they get to that point, I think that that's such an easy trigger pull. And then you get him in there, and you already have the basis for, like, a pretty good offense. Like, we've seen Sterling Shepard have good games.

We've seen Darius Slayton have good games. You know, say, Kwon's elite. elite like all you're really missing is all you're really missing to be average is a quarterback that doesn't turn the ball over and they don't have that right now so let's play a fun game here i know that um you and i both have the same enjoyment for draft twitter and we like to make fun of it sometimes um but uh let's let's talk about like the best fits here for some of these teams, because you know, the, okay, the Jets, Trevor Lawrence is the best fit. I'm not sure that there's really even a conversation with Justin Fields,

but if you are the Vikings, if you are the Giants, how do you just perceive which quarterbacks would be best going where? And you can include any, any of the other teams that are horrible, like Washington's horrible. They obviously, hey, good thing you passed up on Tua, right? Like good thing you got that defensive end because defensive ends are so hard to find as opposed to quarterbacks. Good thing you just said, no,

we don't want to have Tua with the number two overall pick. Side note, someone was talking on twitter about uh yeah people were talking about trading up for two uh with the vikings and like yeah that would have been actually great for them so yeah but a great move yeah right so anyway uh anyway well just the quarterback class though what makes it really interesting for all these teams being awful and needing quarterbacks is there are a lot of damn quarterbacks who look really good in this draft class yeah i mean lawrence is obviously the big one fields is gonna be number two overall uh whoever gets that pick i mean i'm looking like jacksonville right now but it's gonna be lawrence fields one two and then uh you got the riser zach wilson from byu and i remember i was talking to my

friend richard johnson uh who has a show called Thinking Out Loud on ESPN. He covers college football. He was telling me, like, at the start of the season, like, yo, you need to watch this kid, Zach Wilson. And I turned it on. It's so much fun. So much fun. It's like everything – it's like – it's almost like watching Johnny Manziel,

like, that likes to play in structure and has a stronger arm. Like, he's not just going to bail out the pocket. Maybe he's not as dynamic a runner, but, like, he can do the similar types of things where maybe he's not going to outrun you, but in the short area he can make you a miss, which is fun. I mean, and, like, when you just look at the physical talent and throws he's able to make, I mean, I watched that entire BYU-Boise State game last Friday.

I mean, the guy is just dropping dimes, like, all over the field, on the run, throwing the heaters to the sideline on comeback routes. Like, if you're going for, like, an upside swing that you've seen play this year, I think Zach Wilson's your guy. And then Trey Lance. Like, I haven't seen too much of Trey Lance from North Dakota State, but honestly, it's such a weird thing for him with me because I look at the stats

that he has as a sophomore. It's like 42 touchdowns, zero turnovers. I mean, who does that? What is that? It's something I should be like, wow, that's amazing, but it's like, that's so good. I got a few questions about it. I'm excited to dive into his

tape, but if you're one of these teams, if you need a guy to start right away, you got two in Lawrence and Fields. If you need another guy to probably will start right away, but maybe that's more long-term play, Zach Wilson. Then

if you're a team that can afford to just have a guy sit on the bench for two seasons, maybe you take Trey Lance. I think if the Falcons ended up going like six and ten or seven and nine and popping Trey Lance like the 12th pick like I'd be fine with that even though I haven't seen him play just because it'd be a situation where he can come and sit for two years and then figure it out on his own but it's kind of like no matter what stage you are in your franchise's progression there's a guy for you in the first round yeah yeah no i'm glad you interpreted it that way because that's kind of along the lines i was thinking is like um someone like zach wilson would be such a great fit for the giants because they

have young weapons that he can throw to and um if they could get you know kind of creative around i love the way he executes play action stuff it's just like it looks yeah it looks like nfl play action stuff even though he's got you know four or five seconds to throw and won't in the nfl and those those tweets are my favorite oh he's got all that time to throw like yeah are you seeing the throws right and also like duh like of course you want to throw in the nfl like it's not really an interesting point. Well, no one's ever overcome it. So, like, no one's ever made the NFL, actually. There are no players in the NFL. It's just, sorry, it's just, like, funniest, like, criticism. Well, he's not going to be able to do that in the NFL.

Well, somebody did. Patrick Mahomes, they said the same thing. So, anyway, tell me this to finish this up really enjoyed the conversation as always charles year 2025 we're still going to be here uh earth exists earth exists um you you may have a gray beard by then uh because of what we're going through but um who's who's better who's had the better last five years? Or who has reached the farthest point in the National Football League? The Vikings, the Falcons, the Giants, or the Jets?

And I only throw Falcons in there because you love them. Well, see, I think in 2025, realistically, I don't think the Falcons are going to be in the quarterback market in this draft. It's fun when they start off 0-5 or whatever. It's fun to think that. But I think everyone who does watch them, they're not as bad as the Jets. You're not going to be in that situation.

But I think by 2025, Matt Ryan and Julio are probably gone. They'll probably be sitting in a real rebuild. So I think I'll cross them off the list. Man, this is crazy, but I think I might go with the Jets. Just because, look, you already got your franchise left tackle in spot. All you have to do is just make sure he's riding out at the end of this year and can make it to the next coaching staff, and you're good to the next decade.

I mean, Becton, I have my questions about Becton coming out, riding out at the end of this year can make us the next coaching staff. And you're good to the next decade. I mean, Becton, I had my question about Becton coming out, and even in training camp, like, he was getting dusted by guys like Jordan Jenkins and Terrell Basham. And then, like, a week before week one, it just clicked for him. And he was mowing through dudes at practice, and it honestly has completely translated to the field. So you got left tackle, defensive tackle in Quinton Williams, Mims, who I think, like, has the potential to be a legit number one receiver.

I mean, every time that he's played over the past two weeks, it's not about the stats. Like, you got to go watch the film and just see. It's easy for a big guy to sink and get through cuts and catch the ball on high point and even run after the catch. Like, he's kind of a special receiver, like, when it comes to all that stuff that fell in a class that was just really good.

I mean, you guys have seen Justin Jefferson's ball. Like, to me, Mims going to the second round was not a slight on him, just more of the reality of how many good receivers there were. And then, you know, if you can get Lawrence to go along with that, like, you can have a core quarterback, left tackle, receiver, defensive tackle, and then even a couple solid starters in the back has gone, like to see how this gets better. Like there's a strong sexual death chance where like, you know, if we draft Trevor Lawrence and boo-hoo, like he's going to suck here too. And I mean, maybe.

And I honestly respect that you get what your organization actually is at its core. I can respect that. But if you're telling me in five years I can have Trevor Lawrence, Bacai Beckton, Denzel Mims, and Quentin Williams as the core of my team and we haven't had to pay them yet, like I'm feeling pretty good about that. That reminds me of the Vikings can't draft a quarterback until they get a guard. You're like, yeah, well, I guess.

If you want to believe that, that's fine with you. They do need someone to play guard in the future, but your quarterback could also move when people come right at him uh depending on who you get so it's the interesting thing to me like just sorry to cut you off there but uh we you know or not we but like a lot of fans like they'll think you know well if we put into if we put trevor lawrence to this bad situation then he and we before we get like a guard or a tight end or something like that, then he's going to struggle. Well,

I'll tell you what's harder than finding a guard or a tight end, a damn quarterback. And if you have one that good staring at the face, you pull the trigger every time and figure out what's going on. you know, I, I kind of feel bad for Sam Donald. Cause I think he's a really nice guy.

And I honestly think that in a different situation, there's a spot where he actually pans out to be a pretty damn good quarterback but that's not here and I think that it's just time to accept that and move on for for the sake of both parties even though sports took a break your business didn't you have to keep moving and that means hiring is more important than ever indeed is here to help indeed.com is the number one job site in the world because Indeed gets you the best people fast. Unlike other sites,

Indeed gets you full control and payment flexibility over your hiring. You only pay for what you need. You can pause your account at any time and there are no long-term contracts. Plus, Indeed provides powerful tools to make your search that much easier, like sponsored jobs, which are shown to be three and a half times more likely to result in a hire. And with 73% of online job seekers visiting Indeed each month, Indeed is going to get you the important hire that you need, just like they have for over 3 million businesses. Right now, Indeed is offering our listeners a free $75 credit to boost your job post,

which means more quality candidates will see it fast. Try Indeed with $75 credit at Indeed.com slash BlueWire. This is their best offer available anywhere. Go right now, Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid through December 31st. You might not be at a game this year, but you can still be in on the action with BetOnline. BetOnline is going the extra mile to make sure you can get in on every possible chance to win this season.

From game spreads to totals to team and player and coaching props, BetOnline gives you more options to wager than anywhere else. You can get in on their season opening bonuses today and start off wagering on wins, division championships, and futures all day, every day. Head to BetOnline today and take advantage of all the great sign-up bonuses. Don't forget to use the promo code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag. That's BLUEWIRE, all one word,

BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I guess if, you know what, I guess after watching Joe Flacco, my brain moved on from Sam Darnold and his existence no longer meant anything to me. But I should ask you before we actually wrap up, just like, is that something the Vikings should look into? I mean, if they don't draft a quarterback, if they end up drafting 17th, all the quarterbacks go, all right, well, there's nobody there that you want to spend a first rounder on. The Vikings don't have their second because of Yannick Ngakwe. Whoops. But they do have third round picks. And I mean, I don't know who's offering that much

for Sam Darnold considering where they're at. In the Josh Rosen type scenario, do you think he just has the skill and it's been a poor situation? Or is there something fundamental there too? Like we talked about the interceptions. Like that's kind of a big problem for him. Turnovers always get worse. So is that worth a roll of the dice there? I think it's definitely worth a roll of the dice because at that point,

I don't think it would cost too much to pry him from the Jets. And the thing with Darnold is his trade value is diminished because we all know it's over there. Like, you don't have to throw a big pick to get him back. And, man, it's so frustrating because, like, I look at the stats and I know, objectively speaking, his statistics are terrible. Like, when you look at how he's performed when he came in the league, outside of, like, maybe, like, four or five games, he hasn't had, like, great statistical success. But when I watch him play, I just see a guy that really could have flourished in a different situation.

I mean, there aren't that many guys that can, you know, are big like that, can shrug off pass rushers, and accurately fire balls down the field on the move. You just kind of have to get that Jay Cutler out of you. And I think that that's possible. I just think that I wouldn't be willing to punt on the talent yet. And he's still young. He's younger than Lamar Jackson. He's younger than Joe Burrow. I mean, I don't think the book's closed on him yet.

And for me, it's different in a way that I felt about Josh Rosen. It's kind of funny because I did not like Sam Donald as a prospect coming out, and I did like Josh Rosen as a prospect coming out. But Sam Donald has done something that Josh Rosen never did. He's shown that he at least belongs in the NFL. And I think if you're a team like Minnesota or Indianapolis, wink, wink, on that one, then maybe you pull the trigger on that and you say, all right, come sit here and learn for a little bit,

and then we'll think about giving you the keys if you show us that you're trustworthy enough for that. And depending on where this goes from a coaching staff perspective, I think the Vikings offer any other quarterback about the best situation you can have going forward. They run a lot of play action that gets guys wide open. I mean, Kirk Cousins has not had to make a lot of tough throws in recent weeks when they've won. So that's good for somebody like Sam Darnold, who's had to do it all. And then the other point is just that they're going to give you wide receivers,

at very least, even if Adam Thielen slips in the future. Jefferson and Irv Smith are foundational pieces to go forward with that any quarterback, I think, could have more success than they would have elsewhere. And this is a side point about paying Kirk Cousins again. But anyway, so it's an intriguing idea that we haven't talked about a lot on the show for the future of quarterback at the vikings uh but i think maybe we'll be worth looking into more if they're in the middle of that first round where you're not getting those quarterbacks so

uh charles mcdonald always a great conversation at four verts on twitter the goat twitter handle of course and uh as always man happy to see you rolling along as a, as a New York writer, even if you have to do it from home, just like me. Heck of a second year on the beat for you is just like, Oh, remember when you used to go cover games? Like, nah, you can't, you got our practices or be in the locker room. Can't do that anymore. Yeah. This year has been an adventure to say the very least. At least we have football. I remember the last time you were saying, hey,

I can't wait until that 2021 season when it returns. Well, I'm still here, but for different reasons now, because I would like to go back and talk to these guys and stuff like that. But I don't even know if we're going to get that next year at this rate. Yeah, no, I know. I feel the same way. So great to catch up with you, man. We'll do it again.

For sure.