Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - YEESH: Aaron Jones to IR, Cam Akers is back (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the latest injury update from the Vikings: Aaron Jones going on IR. The Vikings sign Cam Akers back. They also add Desmond Ridder. Plus Jeremiah Sirles and Maggie Robinson join. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And, you know, the number of times that I made a joke about Cam Acres coming back, it had to happen, right? Cam Acres was destined to be a Minnesota Viking again. You guys who will follow the Vikings your entire life, is there any third stint that you guys can think of? Is there like a kicker who came back or whatever? Third stints I've had trouble with. There's been plenty of second stints, but trying to find a third stint player.

You know, Gus Farrot came back. Brad Johnson came back. We're sitting here looking at Adam Thielen. Marcus Sherrill came back once upon a time. But three times for Cam Acres now, who rejoins the Minnesota Vikings after the Vikings put Aaron Jones on IR. So a little bit of a tough last couple of days. We're going to break that all down here on another Purple Insider episode presented by Fandul.

Let me get you the Fandul question of the day right off the bat. With all of these injuries that have happened and with J.J. McCarthy down, Fandul now has the Vikings plus 184 to make the playoffs. And to put that in context, nine teams are higher on Fandul and the NFC to make the playoffs than the Vikings. Is that an overreaction? Do you think that Fandul, they're overreacting, Vegas lines overreacting to the Vikings quarterback situation to bump them down to now be favored to not make the playoffs? Let me know what you think. Also, we'll get your questions, comments, reactions. The last couple of shows, there was just so much that we were throwing at each other in the roundtable last night and trying to break down every scenario that we finally had a chance.

to take a deep breath and let's break down the news today, the conversation we had with Wes Phillips that had one thing that really stood out to me, your questions and comments, and then at about 7.30 tonight, Jeremiah Searle joins Maggie Robinson will try to lighten things up a little bit toward the end of the show as well. So here's the breakdown on Aaron Jones. It's a hamstring injury. Him going on IR means that it is a serious hamstring injury for him. And the first takeaway is that even though if you want to be that person and you want to say, told you so, they have an old team, they were bound to get injured, I get that reaction. I definitely get that reaction. And throughout the off season, the reason that I didn't

want to talk about the possibility that all these older players, veteran players, could get injured was because you never really know. I mean, last year, with Aaron Jones. The man runs the ball 255 times. He's over 1,000 yards. He has 51 catches. He looks great. And why would I think that that would change? But a lot of these things are random. But there's another side of it too where you could say, look, when you see that contract and it's really a two-year contract and you look at the history of running backs in the NFL and Aaron Jones hates this. I hate it as an enjoyer of historic running

backs who played till they were over 30 years old. You know, the Adrian Peterson's the Tiki Barbers. There's lots of guys who did it and still had success. It's the most annoying thing when you listen to a fantasy podcast. And the hosts are like, stay away from that

running back. He just turned 29. He's ancient. He's on the brink of death. Put him in a nursing home. That's so annoying. It's so annoying. And we did that whole thing last year with Aaron Jones and well, he's got this injury history in the past and they think that they can create a plan for him and all that sort of stuff. And what they were banking on, though, unfortunately, was Aaron Jones being an outlier. Now, they go and get Jordan Mason because

they wanted to at least mitigate that effect. And there's another part too that Aaron Jones in the locker room is a very important piece to this team, uh, that his, positive energy, his experience, all of that stuff is important. You can't write off even as a running back. He had a couple good runs the other night, but being able to catch the ball out of the backfield and how much they projected that to mean to a young quarterback. So also look at the other options outside of Aaron Jones. The best running back option in free agency, while they got him in a trade,

an RFA, Jordan Mason, by far the best running back option to get in, free agency slash trade this off season. The next best was Naji Harris, who then did something to his eye on July 4th, playing around with bottle rockets or something, and was never a very good running back to begin with for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So you looked at the free agent options, and you go, well, we know Aaron Jones. He means a lot. He's great at catching the ball, great at pass protection, average four and a half yards

of carry last year. When Derisaw was in there, he was averaging over five yards of carry. Bring him back. And they rolled the dice and they lost. And now he's on IR and you're going to miss a significant portion of the season. And, you know, Paul mentions Ty Johnson. There were a couple other running backs that you could make a case for. I think, let's see, there was Giovante Williams who ended up with the Dallas Cowboys, some other good running back ended up with, Now, I'm, forget, RICO Dowdell, ended up with Carolina. So, you know, there was a couple of other options that they could have gone with. None of them looked as good as what Aaron Jones brought to the table.

But when you look at the percentages, it was a coin flip. Is he going to get hurt because he is on the older side and he is coming off of a 255 carry season? This one to some extent was foreseeable. And yet, I also understand why they wanted him back so bad. Sadly, if you're around Aaron Jones, you understand how special he is as a person in the locker room. And I know you could say, well, is that worth $10 million? Like, but no, I mean, he's also special at catching the football. There are very few players who can line up at wide receiver.

And they did this a couple of times over the last few games, but you could put on the field at receiver with Mason out there. There's very few receivers who could go or running backs who could go down the field. He can make plays in space and was still in a fact. of running back with the ball in his hands. And it seemed like the burst wasn't quite where it was last year in these first couple of games. But then the hamstring injury hits. So again, you take that risk and you lost.

And they also took the risk with Ryan Kelly, where they knew his injury history. And you look at the way Ryan Kelly played in these first two games in the snaps that he was in. And he's fantastic. Just fantastic. You haven't seen center play like that in a really long. long time in Minnesota. I mean, Jeff Christie, Matt Burke, like, it's been a long time since they had center play like that. Joe Berger was pretty good. But this was top notch. And he's leading

your young quarterback. And it's a big deal. Like to have somebody like that leading your young quarterback, but they knew the risk when they signed him that he could get hurt again. And he did now with a concussion. And he hasn't been placed on IR. So we'll see what they think of his possibility of coming back soon and then there's other injuries to guys on this team that did not have really i mean they've had some history like andrew van ginkle some history like blake cashman some history but not totally unusual this jones one though it comes up and it bites them with the realities of running backs in the NFL over the last 20 years is when they get toward this age oftentimes they end up on the shelf like erin jones here if he comes back

in a few weeks. Maybe you get them back to full strength, and they've got the duo. But the only silver lining is that Jordan Mason is the better running back. Jordan Mason, I think, was the guy that everybody on the internet in the press box, if they're watching in space, they were yelling to play Jordan Mason more. Everybody, I think, who watched the game the other night, wanted more Jordan Mason. and I know that, you know, West Phillips was a little bit antsy around that question today, but I'm sure there were some people in the coaching box who were saying it's first and two, Jordan Mason time.

So the fact that they replace Aaron Jones and his snaps with a running back who is very effective and very talented means that the drop off doesn't necessarily have to be significant with Jordan Mason. And this is the depth that they haven't had at this position or lots of other positions in years past. They can run the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals. They can run the ball against the Pittsburgh Steelers who haven't had the defense that everybody expected them to have. They can run the ball against Cleveland probably over the next couple of games. And then, you know, they've got a chance to continue to move the offense. So the fact that they were able to go out and get Jordan Mason and didn't just rely on Aaron Jones really,

them out in this situation. And what else bails them out is that Cam Acres just doesn't mind the state of Minnesota, but must be it's maybe is it too hot for them in the summer? It's a little sweltering. It does, it is pretty uncomfortable when it gets to 95 degrees with 100% humidity. Maybe Cam was like, you know what? I'll wait and I'll end up back with you guys in the fall. I'm kidding, but not really because Cam Acres is here again.

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and gained almost three yards after contact. He could catch the ball a little bit out of the backfield if you ask him to. Cam Acres is a guy that hasn't really seemed to fit with other teams, but for whatever reason has fit with this team. So if you need over the next four weeks or however long Aaron Jones is out, Cam Acres to step in and help a little bit, then you've got that. But what you lose is the passing game for Aaron Jones. That is what is really, really going to hurt is it was clear that they wanted to get Jones

out into space, get them at wide receiver sometimes, which I've kind of made fun of in years past because coaches always say, yeah, we want our guy at wide receiver who plays running back, but then we wouldn't ever really see it. Jones is the rarity that can actually do that. K-makers cannot do that. Jordan Mason cannot do that. Now, I am actually a little bit intrigued to see if Xavier Scott gets on the field.

Xavier Scott was one of those guys who was a pre-season darling, but I don't think it was a total fluke. I mean, he made the 53. Xavier Scott has a background as a wide receiver and runs hard and is a pretty big guy, and we kind of know this about running backs that sometimes they just randomly pop up based on what you have around them, the scheme, the situation, the passing game.

And maybe we see a little bit of Xavier Scott because Cam Acres, even though he probably kept his team issues issued iPad, I think he's going to have to learn once again on the fly, the offense. The last year that they brought him in, yes, last year, they didn't throw him right in. I think it took maybe two weeks before he got in. Now, this time around, he's going to have to be active right away. But Xavier Scott might be RB2 coming into the game with the guy that actually has some experience. So I'm a little bit intrigued to see how much they use Mason.

I would not be too concerned, though, with Jordan Mason as a total, total workhorse for this team that plays 85% of the snaps, carries the ball 25 times. This guy's young. He hasn't had a ton of workload in his past. Just lean on him. Lean on Jordan Mason as RB1. Go a little bit old school if you have to with Jordan Mason this week against the Cincinnati Bengals. There's really no other option. Just to talk about the bigger picture of this, how many injuries have happened.

I still will maintain that it is an unpredictable thing, even if you have some guys with injury histories. because you can also look at veteran players like Harrison Smith, I know, has missed the first couple games of the season with a health issue, but Harrison Smith has stayed healthy throughout his career as he's gone into his elder 30s. And there's plenty of players that you can look at that know how to manage their bodies better than young players and they get hurt less and they have fewer soft tissue injuries and things like that. But I think that they knew the risk that they were taking with this roster. And I think they also saw it as kind of a hack,

a kind of a way to get really good players a little bit cheaper because Javon Hargrave is coming off of an injury. So you don't have to pay as much. Aaron Jones, the season he had was based on what running backs are making these days. The season he had was probably worth more, but there's an injury history there. And there's the age curve issue there. So you get them and then you pray.

And apparently the Vikings prayers were not answered by the football guys. here, the injury gods, because this is how it's gone at the beginning of the season. The silver lining for them is that they do have depth in a lot of positions. Eric Wilson is able to step in Dallas Turner, who we can talk about the last two days. We didn't get a lot of time to really discuss Dallas Turner's performance, but I've been going back and intermittently in between acquisitions and injuries and everything else, looking at different plays from the game. and so we can talk about that as well, but sometimes you guys know this, sometimes you just get hit with the injury bug.

And there's not a whole lot you can do. They had an older team in 2022. They stayed healthy. They had an older team last year. They stayed healthy. And then this year they have not been able to. And maybe if they get Derisaw back, they really could have used Jordan Addison these last couple weeks. If they get Cashman off of IR as soon as he can come back, then you have a linebacking group with pretty good depth.

If you get Van Ginkle back this week, then you feel good about that position. And the bigger point here is, even though they have been hit over the head with injuries. And the worst one is Ryan Kelly because a concussion leaves his future unclear. And Michael Juergens is playing in his first ever start. That's a tough ask. And all of you who said to me, I'm worried about the backup. center, you end up being right. And I didn't disagree with you. I just wondered who was going to be a better backup center that they were going to find than a guy that they drafted and developed.

So Juergens now has a lot on his plate. They badly need Christian Derasaw back, but will he actually be ready to come back in this game? It feels like they need you yesterday. Christian Derasaw out there at left tackle, but you understand why they're taking it slow. because this is a long-term player who's going to be on your team for the next five, seven years. That's the expectation. So you don't want to mess that up early in one season. And I'm sure that he personally does not want to mess that up either as somebody who wants to have a really long career. But they need them back.

The only silver lining, though, is that, okay, the offensive linemen are always hard to replace. And there is a part of me that wonders about Blake Brandl and maybe should he have gone back to tackle. that might be hard to ask just in school he's also out so now you're talking about potentially Walter rouse another guy that they've developed I think he's had a couple of good training camps maybe a little slow this year and then took off and was pretty good in training camp but again somebody who's never really played before there aren't too many teams that have good offensive line depth show me the great backup left tackles show me the great backup centers but in positions where there is depth, at least the Vikings have it to be able to survive

these next few games. They have running backs, they have linebackers, they have an outside linebacker, and there shouldn't be any excuse, even with some of the injuries for not beating the Cincinnati Bengals with Jake Browning, for not going overseas and taking at least one out of two, but probably really need two out of two over these next two games. There's no doubt, though, like this is one of those Cs. where you rolled the dice, it came up snake guys, and everybody got hurt, and maybe they will be, at some point, a much healthier team than they are at the beginning

of the season. The other thought I had was, they better be, because when you get into that tough part of the schedule, it is impossible to play those really good teams if you have half of your roster. So get it out of the way now. I know that's not a coaching point. Like, you can't, that's the only thing they can hope for. is that it gets out of the way now and some of these absences will be over with

by the time they're coming out of the buy and playing some really, really tough teams. So there you go, Aaron Jones to IR. Camakers can still play and has been a great fit here with the Vikings. He's still got some acceleration. I think that probably other teams haven't loved the injury history there.

I don't think that he has the quickest right to left anymore. Like he's going to have to be a straight kind of downhill type of runner, but he's somebody that they can at least somewhat rely on and will know the offense and can step in and did a pretty good job last year, had some explosive runs, had the best play of the game in that game against Detroit and actually gave them a chance to hang around in that game with an explosive run. I don't know why, what was he with the Saints, why they decided, you know, they didn't want him or whatever, but if he's what he was last year, that at least is somebody that can

step in and be fairly effective just to spell occasionally Jordan Mason, but these next few weeks are Jordan Mason all the way. So last night, I didn't answer like a lot of questions on the show when we went live. It was mostly our roundtable with Brian Murphy and Mani Hill. After this, go back and check that out. It's a really good conversation. So now happy to answer your questions. Oh, and the one thing I wanted to bring up because there's going to be this conversation, that just exists in the air about J.J. McCarthy, when is he going to come back? How bad was it really? Whose fault was it anyway? Like, that's back. The whose fault was it anyway? Can he come back and bounce back from some of these issues, et cetera? And I think that

not necessarily on purpose, like West Phillips shined some light onto some of the issue with J.J. McCarthy, which is he was talking about the quick game. Alec Lewis asked him about the quick game and he said something to the effect of if you're going to have it the quarterback has to be very good at throwing it before it presents itself being on time throwing to spots and that's stuff that takes a lot of experience even if you go back and watch a young drew breeze game for the and and to me he was like an all time great quick game quarterback if you go back and watch him in san diego his decisions aren't that quick. And what I've wondered about in the last few days is how do you develop this quarterback with a team that's this good, with a team with this high of expectations,

and a quarterback that needs to play a lot of football. And the answer might just have to be that you live and die with him in the second half of the season when he comes back. But that's a hard thing to do if you win with Carson Wentz, who seems to have a skill set that would fit really well with Kevin O'Connell. So that is the big challenge to me. So, that is the big challenge to me is that I think what we saw from J.J. McCarthy in different spurts was all the things that we expected from him when we talked about him having a good training camp where it was and a lot there were a lot up and down days, by the way, in training camp, which we also talked about. But as he came to develop throughout camp, it was good velocity on the football. He's improving

when it comes to his touch. He's improving when it comes to his timing and his rhythm and the offense and all those things and looks like a guy who's got the tools to be an NFL starting quarterback. We saw all that in these two games in tiny spurts. You know, West Phillips highlighted the throw to Jalen Naylor where he toe taps. It's a great throw. It's in rhythm. It's hitch, make the right decision. Bang, you got a 20-yard play. It's exactly what it's supposed to be. The throw to Naylor at the end of the first half in Chicago, the throw to Jefferson along the sidelines, some of the scrambles, like you've seen all the stuff that's there, that the pieces are there, the arm's strength is there, the physical ability to run, the leadership I think

we saw, the toughness I think we saw, it's all there. But how do you get him on the field to play if he's injured for all of last season and he's injured now this season? And when you start to do the math, what is, I mean, if he misses four games, if he misses the max that was reported, four games four out of 17 is still missing what is that like 30% of the season math people you can help me with that missing 30% of the season is really hard after missing 100% so out of a total of 36 games the best he could do is 34 34 games the best he could do right now is 13 that's that's just tough that's just tough to develop and to improve and that's why coming out of the falcons game my feeling was let him fight through it, let him play through it, work on it, coach it better,

use more easy buttons, get more, you know, do whatever it takes there. And now they don't even have the opportunity to do that with a high ankle sprain. Then he's got to come back from a high ankle sprain. So they are in a tough spot of trying to just figure out how to develop this quarterback on the fly. And it's amazing how one thing can happen, just one tackle. And then all the sudden it's kind of disarray for where this position is at for the Minnesota Vikings. Didn't see that coming walking out of U.S. Bank Stadium the other night. So let me get to your questions, comments. I'm a little far behind already because I've been, you know, chattering, but we'll try to

catch up here. And then Searle's coming up around 730, Maggie Robinson, after that. I also, for tomorrow night, have Sam Monson, we talked today and had a really good conversation as well, and we'll have that for you tomorrow night. So let's begin with Digital Plains Media. he says Matthew percent chance. McCarthy comes back and plays well versus Philly after the by week. I'll hang up and listen. I'll go with a 40% chance that he comes back. Plays well, you know, we'll have to see about that. Philadelphia is good. Philadelphia is not untouchable.

If you watched Milton Williams at all the other day against Miami, oh my goodness. Milton Williams worth the money for New England, but he's not in Philadelphia anymore. It's not an ideal. place to start. It is at home to get back on the field. A biweek gives them the at least time to get healthy. To me, the percent chance really depends on what their record is. If they lose in London to Cleveland, if they lose this week to Jake Browning and the Cincinnati Bengals, and we're talking about a two and three football team that looks like now it's just going to have to scrap and claw to even be on the end the hunt graphic, you got to play J.J. McCarthy. And you got to find the heck out, whether this guy can play.

And you just ride it out unless, unless it looks so bad that you just can't play him. You just ride it out. And you have him play against Lamar and you have him play against Hertz and you have a play against Herbert and all those, all those great players and teams and tough venues and everything else. Because you know what? If he's going to be a great NFL quarterback, he's going to have to beat those people someday.

There's no way around it. There's no easy way of, well, you just kind of keep him over here and play him against the Bears every time or something. There's no way to do that. You're going to have to beat the Lamar Jackson's of the world if you want to be a great quarterback. So I think if they're a two and three or worse, then you just play them. If they're three and two, that's the hardest part.

That would depend entirely on are they three and two with Wentz has a 64 quarterback rating? Well, then fine, go back. But if Carson Wentz wins the next three games and I'm just using QB rating because, you know, whatever, there's a bunch of metrics you could look at, but let's just use QB rating for the heck of it. like if he has a 95 quarterback rating he's completing 62% of his passes he's got five touchdowns one pick and they're three and oh you got to keep playing cars and wents because as long as

you're in the playoff race you got to keep playing the starting quarterback who's winning games uh jacob said uh want to say anyone who's blaming you for setting expectations too high is insane you painted a realistic picture of what to expect uh never changed thank you jacob that is very kind of view. I think that the hard part throughout training camp this year is trying to see something that isn't real football and then project it onto real football. It's looking at a training camp situation where they're doing the best they can to send stuff at J.J. McCarthy and to have him run the entire offense the way they want to run it and simulate down to a T. And I know that I wanted him to play more in preseason i saw a lot of that why didn't he play more in preseason i don't blame you

for that take uh don't necessarily disagree with that take but you get into the joint practices and he plays really really well in the joint practices and we come out of that and go well that's as close as you're going to get but there is no way to simulate it and i like you know i i like to play guitar you guys know that think about this up in my home office i can shred it man i'll play just about anything up in my home office with nobody around, maybe my wife and dog are listening in the other room. But is that playing in front of U.S. Bank Stadium? Absolutely not. And I can tell you, I'd be a much worse player out in front of U.S. Bank Stadium or at Soldier Field with a crowd of 70,000. Anybody who plays guitar with Taylor Swift or with some big pop act, I promise

you that person is elite because that is a totally different story. And it's the same with this. is different when you're out there with real people and there's no way to simulate it. And so I think throughout what I tried to convey was I think there's going to be bumps along the way. I like a lot of stuff he's doing. And I think it's going to work. And I didn't really change that after Atlanta until he got hurt. But I can't guarantee you anything. And I also think that healthy, this roster's really good. They're not healthy. And I will say that the biggest concern was stopping the run and now that remains the biggest concern

and I guess we will go back to a Harrison Phillips trade and probably look at that and go at some point if they continue to struggle against the run like that was kind of your run guy and that's why it was a surprising trade though I don't necessarily think the interior was the worst part of that

the run issue I think setting the edge talk about Dallas Turner was a big problem there but there's a lot of different things when it comes to the training camp and setting expectations, this was a major part of their timeline was to build this roster this way. And they brought in a lot of talented players. And they're one and one, by the way.

They're not 0.2. The season's not over. I still think they could be pretty good. But I don't think I came in every night like, hey, guys, he's perfect. He's flawless. He's going to be the goat. Like, don't worry.

There's nothing to worry about it. It's like, well, every once in a while, he throws a football, it doesn't make any sense. It just flies over everybody. I mean, we, we did talk about that stuff. It's just that the first impression was so good in Chicago and you built up and you built up and you built up for this. And I think I talked about it a little bit was this concept, this, the myth of McCarthy, like the concept of McCarthy was very strong, was this is the guy, the start of the era, the franchise quarterback you've been waiting for for such a long time. That I also.

did talk about quite a bit because of the history of this team. So, I mean, that's another thing that built up to the excitement. And then the first game, he comes out and plays great in the fourth quarter and wins. I don't blame anybody for getting excited about this. And I don't think one bad game against Atlanta should have washed that all the way. It's just that now everything's so much more complicated. It's not that I don't think McCarthy could be a good quarterback. But when you start to get into realistic scenarios, it's not hard to see one where he doesn't play again.

this year where they're in the playoffs and whence is the guy it's it's not hard to see that or it's not hard to see another scenario where he's in over his head for this season and then they're next year having a quarterback competition because the NFL moves fast so that's that's just the realities of the league but i i don't think i would change any way that i covered individual practices or came back and talked with you guys it's just that in some ways things have not gone the way that they expected injuries are definitely one of them. Cody says, has anyone asked Kevin about so many deep balls,

really wondering why he insisted on calling deep plays with a rookie? The problem, I think there is, and that's what I was alluding to with Quick Game, is that it's very hard for an inexperienced quarterback to throw Quick Game with the timing that it takes. And now, Jeremiah and I are going to talk about this a little later, but about, like, I agree with you in general that there has to be more easy buttons for him.

But when you look at his short passing, he is 8 for 15 short passing for 51 yards, which is 3.4 yards per attempt and has two turnover worthy plays in the short passing game. It's actually not something that I think fits super well with his skill set at the moment. I think actually the best passes for J.J. McCarthy are 15 to 25 yards where put all of your might into a throw actually makes sense. But the touch passes, the short stuff that has a lot to do with reading multiple parts of the defense and coverage and then fitting it into spaces. I don't know if that's the best fit for him right now.

And I think that that showed in the last couple games. Jay says Jones is on IR for how long? That we don't know. That we don't know. four weeks is the minimum and then we'll see after that but not sure as far as the fan duel question of the day which is the vikis are plus 184 to make the playoffs nine teams have better odds to make the postseason Brett says not an overreaction to move them down like that I shot you 99 I need to do a deep deep dive on hamstring injuries

cashman was just running and pull the hammy yeah I don't I don't understand hammies and know if any team did how about baseball how often does that happen where they just as if you've ever had one you kind of understand how almost weird it is so this happened to me one time and it's funny because i was playing catch with my wife like we were just we had baseball gloves just playing catch and she kind of threw one up over my head and i went back and i kind of like really ran for it and i just like pull the hammy like i i don't know like uh i jog all the time i stretch i like sometimes it just happens. There's not a whole lot you could do about it. You know,

Justin Jefferson, guy who's in peak condition, you can't get better than that. Poles a hammy. I don't think there's any answer for any training staff. If you just sort of wave a magic wand of the Tyler Williams, and I think the, look, I think the Vikings are as good as it gets.

The cream of the crop, everyone I've ever talked to has said this as good as it gets for training staff. But you're not magic. You can't just make Aaron Jones five years younger. Nick says Fandul, not an overreaction. Injury bug avoided us last year. This year, we're getting all of them.

Yeah, that's definitely true. Let's see. Nathan says situation is pretty grim. Vegas isn't going to peddle hope. And I agree with that. The folks at Fandul, they understand you get to the backup quarterback. Your chances of making the postseason goes down. Hunter says Cam Acres and KOC is proof that love isn't dead.

Yeah, I got a tech. from a friend of like, do you think my, my wife will ever love me as much as KOC loves KM Akers? He is always available that helps. He's a warrior, though, Cam Acres. I mean, he is one of the toughest guys you're ever going to run into. So if you're going to find

that guy who's on the street who you could bring in, I mean, you can't do much better than that, but it still is tough to lose Aaron Jones. Jay says, let's stay positive, 10 and 7. I don't think 10 and 7 is insane. I think that what fans are,

Candle is suggesting is probably fair to drop them out of the playoffs when you get to the spot. I think it was Hunter who said, are we doomed? That I don't know because it's a hard thing to figure out when you have a team like this that historically, when they've gone to their backup, it's been great for them. It's comical how many times it's happened in history where even last year, I think J.J. McCarthy probably wouldn't have ended up starting but if he did, you know, you've got Sam Darnold there. Like Sam Darnal wasn't the guy that anyone wanted to start. Just like it wasn't Case Keenom was not the guy that anybody wanted to start or you go back even, you know, much before that.

I would even throw Gus Farrat the one year where he came back and he was supposed to be Tavares's backup. And he ends up as a guy who's taking them to a playoff game. And I know they probably should have started him in that playoff game. And then before that, Cunningham, nobody wanted Jeff George to. start once upon a time he ends up taking them to the playoffs and having a great year i mean it's uh it has happened so many times throughout viking's history that it would not be a shock if they made their way to the playoffs with cars and wents and if he played pretty well it wouldn't be a shock based on his skill set either or his experience either it's got a huge arm he's a huge

dude like what what usually works out with kOC big arm right being able to throw the football down the field, he can do that. So I don't think all hope is lost for a 10-win, 11-win season, but it will really tell us these next three games where this thing is going. That is what we're going to find out. The next three games will tell us, I think the direction this is going to go. Brosmer season says, feel like the Vikings need to rebuild if the next two seasons don't work out.

And this one is already off to a bad start, right? I mean, I wouldn't go too far on trying to figure out the big picture when we don't even know what the next three weeks is going to look like at the quarterback position. Because of all the different scenarios, there's one where McCarthy just comes back, plays really well in the second half of the season. They make the playoffs and then you go from there. That's, if we're doing pie charts of scenarios, I mean, that's definitely one of them. Is it the favorite? Probably not. But it's one of them that he comes back, gets it together, gets experience, gets confidence. You've never been.

I mean, we talk about a roller coaster, but this is whiplash with the last two weeks and where we've gone from that. But I don't think that I can see the bigger picture yet with this team. They're getting Addison back. They're getting Derisaw back eventually. And that's going to help them a lot. They'll get Cashman back. They'll get Van Ginkle back. They'll get all this talent back and maybe be the team that they are supposed to be in the second half of the season.

I mean, two games is just so, so little. um you know jay said about the like did i agree with quacy signing the veteran players uh in the off season and you know i did i did a lot i did a lot but also with the caveat that we talked about the risk right i mean because i remember talking about this when esPN gave them bad grades for the signings and my argument was that I get that in a vacuum, but in the bigger context of things, you're trying to build this deep and talented and veteran roster around the rookie quarterback contract because this has worked.

And you don't have to go too far to look. My favorite example of this was the Los Angeles Rams, the first time with Jared Gough in 2017, where they brought in a bunch of veteran players, the Robert Woods, the Sammy Watkins, the Andrew Whitworth. There was, I don't know, it was a half dozen of them, that they brought in for veteran players around Jared Goff. But the difference is that they just were healthy.

And Jared Goff was healthy. And they were able to have a great season that year. But they kept their guys on the field when they signed those veteran players. When they're healthy and it works, then you're the genius GM who spent the money the right way. If there's some injuries, then you're a dope. and like that's the coin you flip but also that's what you do in this scenario i mean think about san francisco san francisco traded for christian mcalfrey with a what was it a first round

pick they were they were crazy right i mean i thought they were i thought what are you training for a running back for you guys always have great running backs that guy's injured all the time and whatever and then he almost wins MVP maybe he did offensive player the year and they go to the Super Bowl and you go, I don't know, you know, like, it's just, it's, this is what you do normally when you get in this scenario, but you don't expect your quarterback to get hurt in the second week. So I'm, I'm sorry, the comments are moving a little, little fast for me. I'll try to keep, keep up here.

Yo, MTV wraps. Oh, no, I missed that one. They disappear on me if I let them sit too long. So I, I'm appreciative. but I'm usually not struggling. I'm struggling a little bit today. Hunter says the only thing you can do about the injury bug is have a Hall of Fame quarterback. That's true that when you end up with the injury bug around the quarterback that doesn't

have a lot of experience, there's not much you can do. But I would say that's not an excuse for this next couple weeks because they still have more talent than these teams. Kurt says the easiest answer is to pound the rock with Mason, go over the top in the past game. KOC likes to get cute. are times where I would agree with the getting of the cute. Yep, I think so. I think we can look at probably these first two games, maybe five or six examples of that. The one that I think bugs me the most. Two of them are at the goal line on first down and then going in an empty

protection on first down where you're already getting killed by the other team's pass rush and they're doing a great job of getting home and then you have an empty protection. It's just to me that was putting too much on the quarterback, too big of a risk, and it did not end up paying off for them. But you're right, though, with Carson Wentz. Like, he's going to have to push the ball down the field. If there's a guy to do it, it's probably Carson Wentz. But he does have a tendency to hang on to the ball a little bit, and that could be problematic, considering where they're at with their offensive line. Kurt adds that, you know, the line is so bad right now, trying to make sure that the ship doesn't take on too much water. That's where they really need

Darisaw back. Yo MTV Raps says Jordan Addison being gone had a bigger impact than I imagine, which is why I hope we can resign him when the time comes. Jordan Addison was the best receiver in training camp. He's one of the best, I would say he was top five player in training camp. Maybe Grenard was number one, but he was right there in training camp. And not having him for three weeks has been a major issue. for them. Will says, what's your

feeling on Hawkinson? You know, T.J. Hawkinson, at least from what I've seen so far, it feels like it does not have

something there that was there before the injury. And a lot of times when it comes to injuries, especially in ACL, we sort of on the outside treat it like mad

where we go, well, it says three weeks on my little Madden injured player and that means he'll come back in three weeks and his ratings will just be perfect. And I mean, I don't know if they do this. I haven't played the recent Madden's over the last few years. I'm still playing Madden O'4, but they probably should have guys that are impacted in some ways by whatever injury they had in different attributes because that's real life. At the same time, I would have to look back specifically at Hawkinson because if,

just feels like is McCarthy not finding the middle of the field? When you look at the spray chart where he's thrown the ball, and I saw some people pointing this out, it's like a lot to the right side of the field. And it's not been a lot to the middle of the field. I think I can pull this up. How often he's thrown to the middle of the field six times in the intermediate areas in the first two games, four times short to the middle of the field,

four in two games. That's where T.J. Hawkinson lives. that's 10 attempts to the short middle or intermediate middle part of the field for McCarthy and actually the intermediate, you know, middle of the field. Well, actually, no, I'm sorry, I misread that. Only two, only two passes to the intermediate. That means from 10 to 20 yards. Only two passes there and only four passes short.

There is no way that with T.J. Hawkinson on this team that they don't have plays for the short middle of the field, not in an offense that did a great job of that with Kirk Cousins. Brett says, why are you giving up on McCarthy after two games? I am not. I am not giving up on McCarthy after two games. What I try to lay out and is not really settled very well with Vikings fans, and I get it, but just based on history and how this league works, there's a quarterback in year three in Indianapolis watching.

Daniel Jones. There is a quarterback in San Francisco who got a couple of starts. Actually, I think had an amazing win against the Bears to open his career. If I remember it, right? Like in the rain, Trey Lance. And he got hurt. And we spent an entire offseason being like, well, you know, Trey Lance could come back. And then he doesn't win a QB competition. Purdy out plays him. And Darnold out plays him. And then he's gone. And how many years did he, was he there? Three? I mean, we're at year two for J.J. McCarthy, these things happen fast. That doesn't mean that I think that's going to happen or it has the highest odds to happen or that I think they should give up on him or I think they wasted the draft pick or I think he's a bust or any of that. But if the guy

doesn't play, you can't find out. And they're not in a spot where they can just sort of wait and wait and wait and wait and play them and play them. Like they're not Carolina. Carolina is in a position where nobody thinks that team's going to win anything and they're not in their timeline ready to win. So they can just keep playing Bryce Young. Honestly, Chicago is a little bit in that spot as much as we're making fun of them and as much as we're, you know, watching Caleb Williams and saying nothing's different. They can play Caleb Williams for the whole season and they can find out what they really have in Caleb Williams get a big enough sample because they weren't going to win anything anyway. No matter how many people power ranked them as the second best team in

the cut division and gave them their offseason championship or whatever, that sort of stuff. They weren't going to win this year, Chicago. So they could let it play out and they could find out. That's not how the Vikings played this. The Vikings played this to win right now. And they have a roster that's built. And I think it was Quasi told maybe Albert Breer that they have a three-year window. I still look at it as a little more two and then things get pretty murky.

So nobody is giving up on J.J. McCarthy, but if you don't acknowledge the realities of this situation and the possibilities that Carson Wentz could play really well and they could just not go back to him and then next year you're talking about a QB competition, well, that's kind of ignoring recent history and how fast these things move because you get to year three. I mean, then you're talking about not too much time left on that rookie quarterback contract. So I don't think that this is all going to happen to where Wentz starts the rest of the year and where he takes them to the playoffs and we never hear J.J. McCarthy's name again. It's just that stuff like this does happen when that quarterback continually gets hurt and never gets a chance to be better. I think he's got the tools for it. I think he's got the work ethic.

I think he's got the demeanor. I think that the locker room bought into him and was ready to keep supporting him going forward into this week. but then you have another stoppage where you're talking about him watching and trying to learn from the sideline and not playing when he's a guy that has to be playing. So T6 says the good news is Carson can't do much worse than JJ. Well, also, also you have to admit that based on what we saw from Sam Darnold last year, Carson Wentz gives them a better chance to win right now.

He just does. Like his experience, he's a 500 career quarterback who's won a lot of games in the past and has thrown 27 touchdowns, seven picks the last time he started an entire season and got nine wins for his team that was not as good of a team as this. So he actually does give you probably a better chance to win than a quarterback who's still very much feeling things out. And that's part of the issue is if Wentz has a bad game, then everyone's going to want McCarthy back in or two.

bad games in a row. And if you're like, no, I'll be patient. Like last year, people wanted to sign Ryan Tannhill midway through the Jacksonville game with Sam Darnold. Like, this is a league that doesn't have a lot of patience. So it's a, it's a very rocky situation for this franchise to manage now. Carlin said that Jones looked slow. Didn't look like he had the same jolt. Yep, I agree with that. There wasn't the same jolt that was there as was the case. last year where he looked very quick. BK says Philly line didn't need Milton or doesn't need Milton. No, I mean, they have a good defense.

They have a very good defense. Bobby says you think KOC correcting JJ's stance in camp had any effect like learning to right, left handed. That's the NFL, though, is that you have to learn a lot of new stuff. You have to learn a lot of things that you have to do different in the NFL from college. Because if you want to see someone come in and try to run their college offense, well, then, you know, that's what you end up with Caleb Williams, where they tried to run the college offense of Caleb Williams. And it ended up being like not good enough for the NFL. So you have to have NFL level technical stuff, including your stance, including your steps and your timing and all that stuff where college gives you a lot of leeway.

college gives you people wide open all over the field. You just have to get it to them and you're probably going to succeed. And McCarthy was able to do that at Michigan, a lot of favorable situations. But, you know, he was good at ripping it in there. There's just a much greater level of detail at the NFL level. Kurt says, can you imagine being one and four and spending that much money in free agency because you can't draft? I'm not sure that, well, okay, so, I mean, I guess you could say the drafting part of it, you know, that we don't need to get into that. But, you know, the, if they go one and four and spend this much money, it's happened before.

Let's see. Oh, man. This is, it's moving too quickly for me. I'm trying to keep up. So if I miss your comment, I'm sorry about that. But, like, if they end up one and four, it will be because they had a lot of things go wrong with. injuries and because they made the wrong bet at the quarterback position in going with J.J. McCarthy. It's, I don't think it's a matter of building a roster that's strong

enough. It was building a roster that didn't stay healthy. That's, that's what happened here so far to the rest of the roster. And by the way, I mean, the rest of the roster, well, I think Justin Jefferson could still play. The offensive line has been banged up, though. The defense gave up 12 points into the fourth quarter. I don't know what more you could actually ask from them for the defense to do. The run stopping was a problem, but they gave them a chance to win the game, and they were not able to do that on offense. They were not able to hold up their end of the bargain on offense. So I don't know if they didn't build a strong enough team. They certainly didn't build one that could stay healthy, but that's a really hard thing to predict. I don't think

it has a lot to do with the drafting necessarily that would have caused it. It would have been just injuries. Unless you think all the younger players stay healthy, but I don't know if they do. Adam says with the super chat, fair to judge the team's leadership for giving McCarthy the job this off season. No, no, because every single one of you, every single one of you would have said give McCarthy the job. I know. Here's how I know, because I've been doing this long enough to have been live in Glendale, Arizona, looking at the chat then after they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. And I remember coming in here and talking about from time to time about the idea of bringing back Sam Darnold and the chat would light up wanting to come to the house with pitchforks.

Every time I said, well, they might bring back Sam Darnold. It would just go crazy. Nobody wanted that. I don't think that you can question the process of drafting a quarterback and developing him throughout the off season and then putting him in the game with a stacked roster around him. I think it's hard to predict that you're going to not have your left tackle ready when it looked like maybe he was going to be ready or that, gosh, I mean, I don't know, it's hard to find left tackles, but the left tackle was as bad as it could possibly be.

I don't know if you could predict that McCarthy, based on his camp, was going to struggle that much against the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know that you could have expected, you know, Andrew Van Ginkle and Blake Cashman are two of the best in the league to be down. And no surprise, you're not tackling as well when you don't have those two guys in there. So, yeah, I mean, like once we're here and McCarthy is injured, then it is pretty easy to say, well, I guess you screwed it up. I'm not even sure they screwed it up yet, though,

because McCarthy could very reasonably come back in and have it click and play. well and they can compete for the playoffs. I mean, that's on the table. Like, that hasn't we can't start saying who, who are we supposed to shoot the arrows at when they did everything that you wanted them to do this off season and have just truly had bad breaks? And I was not ready to write off J.J. McCarthy after a bad game. And I went through it the other night. I looked at, I looked at all the worst games since 2000 that quarterbacks have played for the Minnesota of Vikings. And I found a lot of good names who had really, really bad games. And I think we all agree. Kirk Cousins was a very good quarterback. Dante Culpepper, Brad Johnson, those guys were

very good quarterbacks. They had bad games. And I still felt like they would find things and they would correct things with McCarthy. It's just now we don't know exactly where this is going with him because of his injury. But as far as the process of drafting a quarterback at year two, starting him, spending all the money in free agency, like I look at these other teams and it's worked. It's worked a lot of times. And going with him was the entire organization's decision to go with him

and develop him over this offseason and then ride out through the ups and downs that were inevitable to happen. And that's the one thing I would say is that there's just no ever preparing yourself truly for what it looks like when a young quarterback struggles because it always looks bad. It is looked. I mean, even with Bo Nix, I'm sure there's some people in Denver being like, what is going on with? He's still an inexperienced quarterback. I'm sure that Michael Pennix will have some games. And he had some moments the other night that were pretty tough.

And that that's just how it goes. C.J. Stroud is having some tough moments. Jaden Daniels is having some tough moments. This is a very hard leak. You know, Lamar Jackson, it wasn't easy for him in his first year. Second year came out and, you know, went crazy. But Josh Allen took three years. Like, it's, there's just not too many examples where they just walk in and just run over the NFL.

So I didn't expect that. But I think him looking as bad as he did was very jarring. very jarring probably for everybody i don't think anybody in the front office or anybody in the coaching staff would have expected it to go that badly in that game uh let's see enemy cap says uh let's say wents looks okayish and wins two of the next three is the front office going to feel comfortable throwing let's rather the coaching staff McCarthy back in there against the eagles chargers lions then ravens for me that's a very tough ask it's a very tough ask if you're three and two and i think that what that would have to depend on is just how he's able to play. How does Carson Wentz play?

Because if Carson Wentz plays really well and they lose a game to Pittsburgh like 28 to 27 or something in Dublin, all right. I mean, that's pretty good. If he's two and one and they're three and two and he's played well. he is running the offense and he's hitting explosives and Jefferson, we don't have to send anybody to jail because Jefferson has 10 catches and all that sort of stuff. If, if that is how it goes, then he's probably going to stay in as the starter because of how difficult that next run is going to be. But really, it's just hard to know. Let's get a Fandul question of the day, more of your answers. Overreaction to it being plus 184 to make the playoffs not. teams with better odds than the Vikings.

Is that an overreaction? That's the Fandu question of the day. And also want to remind you and allow me to just make a joke here that if you've been tearing your hair out and maybe need some hair solutions because of the Minnesota Vikings. Okay, I'm just kidding. Let me restart. Let me restart. Okay.

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information. It is quite a time here, quite a time to be having this conversation. Let me get back on track, and I've got the conversation with Jeremiah Searle's waiting in the wings, but but you guys are kind of on a role here. Sean says when do we have to start having a serious conversation about Hawkinson, tight end is supposed to be a young quarterback's best friend and his butterfingers on Sunday continue to pour trend since the knee injury. I don't disagree. And I have a great respect for T.J. Hawkinson.

And that's why I kind of wonder about when the quarterback has only thrown six passes to the middle of the field per the PFF data, what that's about and him not bringing in that ball also I think had to do with the defensive back was just right there and ready for that play and does that have to do with J.J. McCarthy

staring down where he's going with the football because somebody asked about that last week and I said, I don't really know. It's hard to say sometimes on the tape. The tape wasn't that bad with that. I thought that this time he was staring down a lot of guys. and I thought he was staring down somebody on that play, being T.J. Hawkinson, just he's going

exactly where he's looking and they know. And when you stare down receivers, opposing defenses wait on it, they train for that. They're ready for it. And that seemed to be a problem the other night. Hawkinson doesn't look like he has quite the same burst, though. He was pretty quick before. And it just hasn't had the same confidence either from him. that we have expected over the years of him being a Pro Bowl caliber player. And I'm not sure what to say about that, though, because I wouldn't be surprised either if Carson Wentz came out and leaned heavily on Hawkinson and just threw him the ball and, you know, move the ball effectively and et cetera, et cetera.

He goes back to being a Pro Bowl caliber player. I think we're going to have to wait and find that out. Enemy can't cap still believe McCarthy could be a good QB. And then I lost the comment. I'm doing a bad job of this. I think that J.J. McCarthy, in order to still be a good QB, because I think what you were alluding to is like 2026 and going forward, if that's going to happen, if McCarthy's still going to be a good quarterback,

I think that he needs to be in the game this year, that he needs to be back playing for at least half the season so they know what they're working with. and they know how much he has to learn in order to get better. And the really unfortunate part of that is that the most likely scenarios are either Wence plays great and Bacarthe doesn't get back in or Wence doesn't play great and the season is pretty lost and you end up with a 2010-ish majorly hyped up season that's kind of down the drain and you're playing for just the development of J.J. McCarthy the rest of the way.

And those two options are not what was expected for this team. That's where the realities of this are pretty tough. And maybe it does end up, you know, somebody mentioned the Gus and T. Jack season where you're playing Gus Ferrat and then trying to get Jackson back in and you're kind of going back and forth. You got a little bit of a quarterback controversy. And, you know, Brett says, Wence just has to go win to stay the starter. If he stumbles, they'll go back to McCarthy. And, right, I agree. That's the thing that makes the most sense is for them to see how Carson Wence is performing

and then go back to McCarthy if he struggles. But if he struggles with the schedule they have, you're probably out of this playoff race in the division that they are playing in and in the conference that they're playing in. The South has two teams you could see making it. The West has at least two teams, maybe three. Mac Jones was able to win a game for the 49ers. I mean, they look like a team that could still grind out a playoff appearance. The Rams certainly do. Seattle looks pretty good. The other day with Sam Darnold. So it won't be easy to just end up, you know, Jim NFL says, like, you know, eight, nine. Like, it's pretty easy to see an eight, nine type of season.

and if that's what they end up with, then you're kind of just bouncing up and down of, well, you're in it, you're not in it, you're, you guys have been through that in many seasons. And then when do you play McCarthy? And if you bring him in and then he plays poorly, do you pull him out? And then it's reminding me of 2023,

where you're trying Jaron Hall. And we all agree, yeah, give Jaron Hall a shot. And then it looks bad. You're like, get him out of there. And it's like, that's where it gets so difficult. because nobody really knows exactly how this is going to play out. But I think that you're right that if Wence goes on a winning streak, you just keep playing Wence.

And if he does not, then you go back to McCarthy and you see what you got. Madden 11, where is Oliver been? Oliver had an ankle injury. And I think that that has really slowed him down because they could have used him way more in the game the other night. And they also had Nick Venet out there, I think. and Ben Euresec a little. I think that he's grinding through a pretty difficult injury.

Abe says this is four games in a row. We've had really the same story. Quarterbacks look frozen and shook. McCarthy didn't do great, but this is the reality. Darnold also really struggled. I don't think that we can link them together, that we can link the end of last season with the start of this season.

Just so different. It's a different team. You're playing the Rams. You're playing the Lions, two teams. competing for the Super Bowl last year. These opponents were not quite as good as that. But I don't, I don't totally disagree that the recent sample size of this offense has looked like the quarterback is just getting chased around.

Looks like he doesn't quite know where to go with the football, whether it was Darnold, who did miss a number of passes against Detroit, but then just got sacked and sacked and sacked. And then it happens again. Like, has there been something solved? that's kind of hard to say with just four games. But I think that the four games do have some things in common. They don't have very many screens that hit.

They don't have a running game that dominated. They don't have a ton of easy play action passes. It's been a lot of out of the shotgun and it's been a lot of, I mean, there was a play action. They ran against the Rams where they got murdered. So that, you know, that happened. But there hasn't been a lot of easy button stuff for the quarter. in those last couple games.

I don't want to go all the way down that road, though, because the games before that, like this is why in statistics, you're always hesitant to make arbitrary endpoints because if you go back to the Falcons game, you last year, you go back to the Packers game. They, you know, the quarterback played extremely well. But there is, there is a moment, though,

where I think that a team specifically last year, figured out something against this offense that maybe hasn't totally been resolved yet. And that would be the Arizona Cardinals game. In the Cardinals game, they forced the Vikings to try to sort through a lot of different rushers coming from different spots, blitzers, delayed blitzes, stunts, and the Falcons got free runners on Sam Darnold, and he just made plays out of it. or their corners fell down. And he just did an incredible job against the Packers getting ahead in that game.

But they got some QB hits as well. And they got some pressures. So I do think that there may have been something in that game that everybody started looking at of, well, this is how you kind of deal with this more downfield offense and how you deal with some of the blocking schemes. And especially if they're going to run empties and have the running back go out and not stay in to give extra protection. or have the tight end. I mean, everybody knows with Hawkinson. If he's in the game, he's going out for a pass.

He's not staying in to help block. So you got five on five if you're sending an extra rusher. Like there are some tendencies here. T6, Hawk is paid like a top three tight end. He's not a top three tight end.