Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - YEESH: Aaron Jones to IR, Cam Akers is back (Part 2)

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.

T6. Hawk is paid like a top three tight end. He's not a top three tight end. I want to, I just want to see a little more than that. We're two games into this. And I think for some reason, you guys have traded Hawkinson's last year as if he was just horrific. And I don't really think that about last year for him. I don't think he was the same as he was having missed half the season. but he ended up with 46 catches 519 yards and a PFF grade that was only four points lower than the year before. So I don't think it was that bad last year. I haven't liked what I've seen, but is that because McCarthy isn't seeing him and isn't getting him the ball? And it can be really hard to get in a rhythm as a wide receiver when the ball never comes to you. It can be difficult if you're one of those guys. let's see Pridam

sorry if I got that wrong what you will get if you go with Wentz and lose in the playoffs yeah I mean that's that's a fair question like what happens and he says people need patience

like what happens if you stick with Wentz and you get into the first round and then you lose and you end up with another season that goes 10 and 7, 9 and 8, first round out, you're not a serious contender. Yeah, that's a circle of hell that the Vikings have lived in that they don't want to live in. And they took a shot with all this to not live in that.

They tried to build a roster that does not live in that hell. But what they didn't factor for is the quarterback after two weeks getting hurt and potentially being out for four weeks and maybe much more. I still think that the process of this was the right thing to do to go with the younger quarterback and the cheaper quarterback. And if you franchise tag Sam Darnold, it's really, really tough to build a roster that's good enough and actually compete with the big boys. The roster player for player, win healthy, competes with almost any team in the league.

it's not healthy and the quarterback through two games didn't has not played well enough to give you confidence that this is going anywhere but it's only two games it's just the issue is just getting injured that's the big issue is not being out there if he was still in there i'd probably be saying guys it's one game and we're going to have to be a little more patient uh the duke of purr says did it look so disjointed in training camp? Well, not really, no. There were days. There were days.

And probably a lot of times where I said, hey, there's going to be some times where there are going to be quarters, halves, games, where it looks bad. But you're going to have to kind of just not panic as a franchise and not panic as you guys, Vikings fans either. I mean, I mean, you're just going to have to work your way through it. And now they don't get a chance to work their way through it. That's what they really needed here was to find out, but also to give him more time.

Because in camp we saw and in the first game we saw at times what J.J. McCarthy is capable of doing with his physical skill. And when he's finding receivers, when he's getting in a rhythm, when he gets past protection, which I assume eventually he'll get from the less tackle position, I think that getting a couple of hits, early there, sped him way up. But I wasn't ready to jump ship and say that the season was over and that, hey, whatever, because he did look good in camp. But there were ups and downs, as there are with young quarterbacks. Steve says, blame the fans for the Vikings not resigning Darnold.

No, I'm not going to do that. I think that the fans would have been wholeheartedly against it. I remember saying that I would probably be a little more. defensive of that move because of the lack of experience of McCarthy and because Darnell played so well and it's hard to throw out a 14 win season quarterback and all those things. So I think I would have been a little more on board with it than most people, but the main consensus, yes, from the fans was don't do that, go with McCarthy, but fans don't make

the decision. The decision was made by the franchise and it was based on the history of this league recently. there are 15 examples that we could come up with of teams that built stacked rosters heck the Miami Dolphins had a had a crack at it when they stacked up their roster and traded for Tyreek Hill with Tua and they put so much around him he's not even a great quarterback and they put so much around him he was good I mentioned the Jared golf the Jalen Hertz with his before he signed his big contract and they put 50 million void years on it or whatever but even on his rookie contract he

makes the Super Bowl. Brock Purdy does. Like, this is a proven method. And those guys had bad games as well. Those young quarterbacks had bad games. Brock Purdy had bad games. And they fought their way through it because they had a really good roster. Brock Purdy had a bad game here against the Vikings.

It wasn't very good at all. They kept going. They fought through it. And that team ended up being really good. And that was a logical path for this team to take. and not every quarterback in today's game has needed a ton of experience before. So I think we would all defend the idea of going with McCarthy. And I would have defended it still of him fighting through it.

You know, the idea of a shadow benching. I would have been against the shadow benching. I keep playing him. There's only one way he's going to get better is to keep playing him. Not that I think that it was. I think that it was an injury and you don't want him to be playing injured. but I would have been against taking him out even if that was a conversation

because this is the right way to do it. It's the right way to build in the NFC to try to go compete for a championship. And there's an injury and there's not much you can do. And that's the helpless part of it because when something goes wrong, whether it's in a game or whether it's with a decision or if it's a draft pick that didn't work out,

what does everybody jump to is who can we blame? Who can we get after? whose fault was it who should be fired i don't know if there's anybody for this situation that we can blame other than you know maybe there's a little bit too much that was put on his plate too early for the falcons game i think there's people we can blame for the falcons game some play calling some decisions how much you're putting on the quarterback that we could do for that game but for the situation you can blame whoever tackled J.J. McCarthy. Aaron says during, oh, shoot, I missed that about training camp during training

camp. He had ups and downs during training camp, and he had issues with accuracy during training camp, but he also played very well at times during camp. And it just doesn't give you all the answers. It gives you a snapshot of where a guy's at in an off season. But it doesn't just, tell you everything. Camp is a hard thing to figure out because in some ways, you could say, well, I watched Justin's school in camp and it wasn't very good. And then it wasn't very good. And I watched JJ McCarthy every throw. We wrote down every throw. We analyzed every throw. And when you looked at the totality of it, it felt like he had put them in a position where he could play the spot. And I remember saying that I,

Look, I don't think it's going to look absolutely horrible. And it did the other night for one game. But I thought that there was a floor that he had set by his camp performance. And then you get out there at full speed and it just looks different. Let's see. Nathan says Derisaw has been out since week eight last year. Darnold won some games and our line is better this year, even with the injuries. I don't think it's better right now with Juergens in.

I think it was better with Ryan Kelly. I don't think, I think that Cam Robinson was a lot better than Justin's school, not at the end against the Rams, but just overall. But Sam Darnold is a really good quarterback. You saw that last week when he beat the Steelers. He's a very talented and very experienced quarterback in the perfect situation. He also had Jordan Addison for most of the year. There was a game or two that he was out. But he had the, you know, the AFC South helped a lot.

but Sam Darnold was, what, 27, 28 years old. He was a guy that knew what he was doing as an NFL quarterback. He had played in many, many games. And if you actually watched Darnold in Carolina in 2022, which of course no one should have, but he had good games. And if you saw any of the games, he came in as a backup, he had good games against San Francisco.

Like he had developed. But what did Sam Darnold look like early in his career? Well, you know, sometimes it was up. Sometimes it was down. It was, you know, it, the inexperience hurt Sam Darnold from being thrown in the fire early with the Jets. He had some injuries. He got behind because of some injuries. It's hard being a young quarterback in the NFL.

It's hard being a veteran. Look, Mahomes doesn't even look that good. Patrick Mahomes does not look good in two years. That's the best quarterback of the generation. It's hard to play quarterback right now. There are not too many QBs in the NFL who are dominated because defenses have, really come along. Defenses have figured out a lot of ways to deal with these great quarterbacks, not Josh Allen. There's no stop in that man. But I mean, even like Matthew Stafford

has 543 yards passing in his first two weeks. He's the highest graded PFF quarterback. That's what's that? Like 200 and something yards a game? It's not even spectacular. Three touchdowns. It's not like you go out there in this league. And anybody is just lighting it up for. insane numbers right now. Actually, really funny. Russell Wilson and Daniel Jones have the most passing yards. Justin Herbert actually is lighting it up. Herbert has been insanely good.

And Goff put up 50 and Prescott played really well. It's not impossible, but there's just not, there's a lot of very bad quarterback play in the league because I think defenses are really, really good right now. So it's not easy for a young quarterback to just come in. Pennix was struggling at times the other night. I thought he played okay, but, you know, he was struggling the other night as well against the Vikings defense.

Dino says missing Van Ginkle, a big time. I mean, it's a second team all pro from last year. Abe says I'll still ride with JJ, and he's experienced. That's why we drafted him. If we give up on rookie QBs immediately, we will never develop one. I am with you on that. I'm with you on that. The only trouble is that if you,

you win games with Wentz and then you go back to McCarthy and you don't win games. Then you end up going back to Wentz and then where are you at? Right. Then you're in this position where you're looking around and going where are, what do we have here? Bobby says Darnel with better protection would have been great. I don't disagree with that. I mean, when he had time to throw, he was really, really good. I have never blamed Sam Darnold for the Rams game.

I have always blamed Sam Darnold for the Lions game. The Rams game, they just had no, he had no chance, no protection, no quick game, no run game. Nobody helped him out at all. They also got kind of a bad call there where they recovered a fumble and there were some momentum plays. Not that he played well, but I just thought the line was so catastrophic. There was nothing you could really do there.

But you're still in that same position where J.J. McCarthy has had some clean pockets, but he's also had a lot of pressure that has come his way as well. David said his KOC spoiled by having three of veteran quarterbacks his first three years of coaching. That is a, that's a discussion. I mean, spoiled is a little, maybe I wouldn't use that word when you have Darnold, who had been really bad before, but spoiled in the way that they can handle a lot. Yes, that I would agree with that even we've made that Mullen's comparison, but Mullen's could handle a lot mentally, and he could,

throw the ball to the right place. It's just that it wasn't actually, it didn't actually arrive there very fast. And sometimes it went way too far. Sometimes it went way too short. Sometimes it went way behind a guy. But he could throw it to the right spot. And this is built for a veteran quarterback to have to do a lot. And that's why I use that empty protection situation to point that out is that that's, that is not a spot, not a spot where you want to be putting your young quarterback out there when the defensive line is feasting with no extra protection, just, hey, go out and figure out that protection on the fly. Remember when Bo Nix had 62 yards?

Well, yeah, that's, and that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying about they were going to have to work through some of those tough games because all of these young quarterbacks have had these tough times. It's, but now they can't. now they can't. Madden 11, I think it's way too early to call McCarthy a bust. People just, you know, can we just get rid of the word bust? I guess so, ugh, it's just so, like every situation is different if something works or doesn't

work out. And every time, it's kind of like the Dallas Turner thing, who I thought as a pass rusher played well the other night and as an edge setter had a very tough time. That's where, you know, that strength in the offseason. and it, you know, looks like he put on some weight and everything else. But he's still going to have work to do when it comes to the setting edges and stuff like that to be playing 50 or 60 snaps. I didn't think he had a terrible night, especially rushing the passer,

but he's still going to be a work in progress. But last year, the guy doesn't play for two weeks and he's a bust. And it's two games in for J.J. McCarthy. And people are saying he's a bust. Like, what in the world? I mean, quarterbacks, how many have we seen them,

have injuries, have issues, whatever might be early on, and then fight through it and become good quarterbacks. Way too early is an understatement. I wouldn't even begin to go there with that. Kurt says,

did you notice the losses that we get under KOC? Our teams look sloppy, like they don't know what they're doing versus just being beat by a good team. Well, they haven't had that many losses under KOC. I guess does that go for every, team who loses games though where it looks sloppy. Can we also say Atlanta might actually be a good

team? I mean, they have a coach who played really well. Or I'm sorry, who's coached really well in the past defensively. And they drafted a bunch of players who look good on defense. They also might like deserve some of the credit on the other side. But you're all, when you watch every single moment of your own team, then, yeah, you're going to say, like, here's all their mistakes, because I, you know, you don't watch every minute of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Super unknown. What are your thoughts on Ingram, Bradbury, and Ezra Cleveland having the good PFF grades through the first couple weeks?

I mean, we've, we've been through that. We've seen that before. We've seen those guys have good grades before. We kind of know who they are. look, those PFF grades are analyzed so closely for one game. Donovan Jackson was one of the best guards in the league last week. He's one of the worst guards this week. Two games is not going to give you the answers.

He wasn't an MVP offensive lineman last week and then clueless this week. That's not really how it works. But, yeah, it's, I mean, it's funny that somebody on the internet pointed that out. but, you know, let's see. Freaker by the speaker, imagine if the Vikings invested in the lines in the draft over the years instead of two wide receivers not playing well. You're spinning there because they invested a first round draft pick in Donovan Jackson, a first round pick in Dallas Turner.

They also, I mean, the offensive line. at one point was built entirely out of first and second round draft picks. So I don't know about that. Also, Jordan Edison's not playing. That's true technically. Jordan Edison's a really good player, though. Nick Inside Out, I think you reintroduce McCarthy a quarter at a time, let Wentz build a lead and then bring him in when he's ready.

Hard to do. Very hard to do. Because if he blows the lead, then what? You put him in in the fourth quarter of a game you're winning. Like, everyone's going to be like, what are you doing like that would look that would look clownish you're trying to win games and in an NFL building you're just trying to win okay it doesn't you're trying to play the best person to win that game this week and that's how they have to approach it uh duke of purr with a super

chat thank you um if wence is less than okay and the vikings are win either two or three of the next three games then you bring back j j to start right like you can win in spite of him so your talking about a situation where Carson Wentz plays pretty bad and then wins games. That reminds me of the case Keenham where Keenham was not playing all that well in 2017 early on. He had that crazy game against the bucks and then he had some real grinded out, ugly games through a couple of interceptions against Washington and Simmer wanted to pull him, it seemed like, but you know, it would have been really hard to put Teddy Bridgewater in after going through the catastrophic injury and they had that conversation and

all that sort of stuff. But he was grinding out the victories and they decided to keep going with him. I think if Wence gets on a winning streak, even if he's not playing great, you have to just keep going. I mean, the level that Wence needs to get to be better is extremely low. They're the worst passing team in the NFL right now. So it's very, very low to get to the level of looking competent. If Wentz throws for 250 yards, a touchdown and two picks and they lose,

that'll look great compared to what it's looked like these last two weeks. Enemy cap says J.J. McCarthy absolutely has to play this year, but because of the schedule and how poorly he played in the first two games, Wence will finish out the season. That's a scenario. That is a scenario that is not unrealistic. that because they're here to win games, because the veterans on the team are here to win games,

you can't go into the final couple of weeks in the hunt. Like this team was in the hunt in 23 when they were starting Dobbs and Mullins. Like they're probably going to be in the hunt. You can't be going in the hunt and then be like, you know, let's just play the kid. Got to see what we're all about. You can't do that. Not to these number of players who came here for,

a team that was going to compete for a championship, especially if they get healthy, then they could be one of those kind of dangerous playoff teams that maybe started with some bumps along the way. The other, I mean, it's not even crazy to think about if they won the next couple of games, and then you're sitting there just like right in the middle of the race with Green Bay and Detroit with Wentzak quarterback.

It's not crazy considering what they have around the quarterback. Super unknowns is KOC's preference. is clearly experienced quarterbacks. Why not follow the Rams blueprint or even last year's blueprint? Well, you know, it's just so easy to say right now. Well, just why didn't they just go with an experienced quarterback? Why didn't they just keep darnold? Why didn't they just get Aaron Rogers?

Because it looks bad right now. Although, you know, they have wents for a reason to come in and play for these situations. The idea was, and I don't think you could say through two weeks that it failed. They're one and one. And in one of the games, McCarthy, I will say the first half of the game, it was ugly, but I didn't think he played anywhere near as bad as the Falcons game. I thought that his decision making in the Chicago game was pretty decent and that he got some bad breaks and that Jefferson drops two passes and you go, okay, well, those passes should have been

completed. And I saw Kevin Cole put it out there that his expected points added. He was one of the worst in the league in terms of how much he lost. due to drops in a couple of those scenarios that were there, the Thielen pass in the first game. Like, if he played that way against Atlanta, they win the game. So it wasn't catastrophic.

And then it was against the Falcons, where it was just unplayable. But if you're talking about two games, one of them you come out with a win, and he plays pretty well. The next game is pretty bad. That's nowhere near enough for me to say, well, he,

KOC can't coach a young quarterback. I don't know. I think he's put a lot on his plate, but I don't think we can make that determination. L.D. says, does Brosmer seem more capable than JJ from the little that we've seen? Yeah, I mean, look, I don't want to ever write anything off because Tom Brady and Brock Purdy and these situations have happened sometimes

where a quarterback that you never expect, even like Kurt Warner, comes out of nowhere and becomes great. And then you go, what in the world did I just see? So it does happen. If Max Brosmer played that game instead of J.J. McCarthy, he probably would have done better because he is 24 years old. He's played a ton of football over his career in college, ton of football. And he gets the ball out pretty quickly.

he processes really fast and he's not in a learning phase as much of his career he is but he isn't like not at 24 years old he's much more of a developed quarterback but i i don't think you can really go there with the undrafted free agent and start saying well what if this guy is the guy i think you know probably not as much as i really like brosmer McCarthy is your franchise quarterback that you have to lean into and do everything you can to find out uh nano joe did you watch the all 22 were receivers open yes they were yeah they were they were uh there were opportunities now there were other times on the all 22 where i did say you got to give just in school some help if you're going to run a straight drop back you can't just have him one on one jalen walker just

destroyed him on one rush uh you got to get the protection call right whoever is responsible for that you got to get it right and i know i promised jeremy as Searles, that's coming up shortly. But, you know, Searles breaks down some of the offensive line stuff. But, yes, there were receivers that were there. They were there. They were there to win the game. And that's what was so tough.

I think for everybody to analyze this game was that the opportunities were there. And especially when it comes to down the sideline to Jalen Naylor, that's a ball that You just float it up there and he's there and he runs it 50 yards or into the end zone. And you've got a chance to win the game. There's five, six plays that are just blatantly left out there on the field from J.J. McCarthy. There was no silver lining to it. Chicago had silver lining, not only that he won, but also that it wasn't as bad as it looked. Like when we went back to the tape, this was.

This was as bad as it looked. Bobby says compare Brosmer's release time to JJ. It makes a big difference. Yeah, look, I don't want to, I don't want to be critical about Max Brosmer because I like a lot that Max Brosmer does. I think he'll play in the NFL for a long time. And I think he sees the field well. I think his brain is fast.

I think his eyes are fast. I think his technique is good. Like, I like a lot about him. J.J. McCarthy is a much more physically gifted player who needs more work, who can do a lot of the same things. but in the real games is not the preseason. I mean, we saw Brozmer do it in the fourth quarters of preseason games, fourth, third preseason game.

And that's me, again, fully buying into Brosmer as a quarterback that I really, really like. But I don't know that if you throw him in there against the Atlanta Falcons who were killing it that night, that it's going to be different. So, let's see. Kurt, thank you for the super chat. really appreciate that. Purple Insider makes even a terrible scenario to start the season, an entertaining rabbit hole. Well, thank you, Kurt. That is a great compliment. I really appreciate

that. And I know, I know this is tough for everybody. I do really appreciate the respectfulness of the chat. I think you guys have done a really good job of that. I was a little afraid of it last night and was trying not to look because I just thought this is going to get ugly. And now we're having the conversation here, I think pretty, pretty rationally about where they're at. And I do appreciate that. If you haven't answered the Fandul question of the day, Vikings are plus 184 to make the playoffs and nine teams have a higher odds or better odds to make the playoffs on Fanduel. Do you think that's an overreaction from Fanduel or do you think that they're dead on?

And this is a team that is now not likely to make the postseason after what has transpired. So, let's see. Roads scold, do you think the fact that JJ is slight will increase the propensity for injury? You know, okay, so when you compare him to Darnold or Wentz, those guys are enormous dudes and they've had injuries in their career. Enormous. Carson Wentz is humongous. He's had injuries. Sam Darnold is a big dude he had injuries last year he had to leave a couple of games i think he was probably playing through uh something with his ankle or foot and his hand last year remember he had the tape but they would never really say anything about it and they just kind of moved on but i'm sure that

he had something a sprain or whatever in his thumb that impacted his accuracy down the stretch at times getting injured and playing quarterback you know burrows out daniels is out fields is out like it just happens but I don't think he's that slight I think he's pretty big it's just I think this one is bad luck I mean he's running away from a guy

going to the sideline and somebody falls on the exact same play happened with Patrick Mahomes when he played the Super Bowl with the high ankle sprain the same kind of play where he's running out of bounds

that somebody falls on the back of his legs Ryan says the irony of the wen's situation is classic Vikings, the Jefferson Rager connection, the flip of the full situation for a redemption run, good old Minnesota sports. Yeah, what would you do if it didn't have some irony mixed in, right, Ryan? You're absolutely right. So I want to get to the conversation with Jeremiah Searles because I think he answers some

questions that you guys have when it comes to just the offensive line and JJ. and his observations as a former player, the play calling, and he's got some really good insight on that. So if I didn't get to some of the questions that you guys have asked, I apologize for that. But I do want to make sure that I bring you this conversation because it's really good, really insightful with a guy who has been there through it all. That is for sure.

Jeremiah, you know, the 2016 season and all those things. But I'll answer a couple more and then we'll get there. Mr. Mayor says really hard to feel optimistic right now about this team. 50% of the roster injured, the rest have been playing poorly and the young quarterback of the future earned the 33rd quarterback in the league ranking. You know, that's, I think, been the hardest part for everybody, even for myself. And, you know, we talk about this sometimes in the show. You guys will ask me about, you know, being a journalist and managing all this sort of stuff.

but it is it's whiplash it's shocking and i got a few messages from people who were like man you kind of yesterday in the emergency podcast he kind of went like all the way down the road of this just not working out at all and i thought how can you not how can you not talk about every possible thing that happens now and to go from inside the chicago locker room where that was really special where Aaron Jones is talking about J.J. McCarthy saying, where would you guys rather be? This is awesome. And let's go make a play. And everybody was just amped for J.J. McCarthy. And everybody's buying in. And it's just so much excitement for the entire week. And I know he probably didn't deserve the NFC player of the week and all

that. But I mean, just such a moment for the kid, right? In his hometown. And then he shows at the with the arm strength and the athleticism and all the things that he did so well to a week later you're talking about yeah he's like the worst quarterback in the league he can't play he's a bust he'll never play again like who would have ever guessed even i would have guessed it could have gone bad he had a kid in the middle of the week that's probably pretty tough to do he it was a short week of preparation he's inexperienced like all those i wouldn't have been shocked if you told me that Atlanta won the game and he didn't play well, but now to be in this spot where it's hard to see when you bring him back in. It's hard to see where he gets these reps. It's hard to see

even getting to the end of the season and have answers. Then again, we're talking about Vikings football. Can you really predict it? The only thing you could do is just see how it plays out. But it's, it's shocking for everybody. And I think that's, you know, some of the reason why, you know, certain people, fans in the chat are just kind of wanting to throw up their hands. It's just not going to work. And others are saying it's still fine. And it's really somewhere in the middle, right? It's probably somewhere in the middle where it's not fine.

But it's also not, hey, it's over. The franchise quarterback idea is dead. And now Carson Wentz is your future. I don't think that we're there either. Jack says J.J. McCarthy needs time. Give him till possibly year three. And if he isn't good time to find another quarterback, that's probably how this has to go, is yes, you want to make the playoffs this year. And this would be the year that he gets, J.J. McCarthy would get to practice behind the scenes. It's possible he gets in for an injury week or something as they have the veteran quarterback continue to play. And then you're trying to make your decision on that information. information, or you could just say the minute that it looks like your playoff odds are less than 50%, you just have to go McCarthy all the way. And that might be how I would approach it. The second that your playoff odds are a long shot, you got to go McCarthy the rest of the way.

They could also just win the next two games of play McCarthy in London and go on from there. You're balancing trying to win and trying to learn about a young quarterback. It is a hard thing to do. But I don't think that we should look back and say they screwed it up. What were they thinking? KOC has no idea how to teach a quarterback. They built a bad roster. We know those things aren't true.

We know those things aren't true. We've walked through all these moves. We've watched training camp and how talented the roster looked. nobody would have expected you'd start the season two weeks in and be without this much talent and then be asking a young quarterback to be in there needing to be a great version of himself to win like he would have had to have been the other night. So it's not easy, my friends. It is not easy.

But you guys are used to it, not your first time ever having been whiplashed by the Minnesota Vikings. So let's get to that Searle's conversation. Jeremiah Searle's former Vikings offensive linemen to try to bring some levity and insight to the situation. Here we go. Folks, there's no way to prepare yourself for hair loss when it happens and you either end up frustrated or in denial. But I promise you that there is help and it is simple and easy through hymns. You could take the next step with confidence, access treatments that are made with clinically proven ingredients like finestried and monoxidil to stop hair loss. regrow hair within three to six months, no waiting rooms, no hoops, just ingredients with

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based on studies of topical oral monocodil and finestoride, prescription required, see the website for important safety information. Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and Jeremiah Searle's joining for another episode of Tuesday morning left guard. And, you know, I just want to thank you, Jeremiah, for last week where you said, hey, this is finally fun. We've been through a lot of tough times with the old quarterback position.

This is great. That was really a thing to say when you're around the Minnesota Vikings, isn't it? as a guy who watched the 2016 season play out, a guy who was at a practice where Teddy Bridgewater suddenly had his career altered by an injury, you were the one that was stepping out on the limb and saying, this is so much fun. This is great. Why don't you just go to a baseball game and say, hey, this game's moving on fast. There won't be any rain in the forecast, right? Jinksie Jinkserson is now what you will be referred to. What do we do now, Jeremiah? What do we do now? No, I mean, it's, it's one of those things where as you're watching it, you're like, this can't, like, this is okay, this is bad, right? This is bad, but it'll be fine. And then all of a sudden, you get the news like, and JJ's hurt. And you're like, okay. Like, are we really doing this? Are we really? What it is is we use all of our health karma up in 2024. Every ounce of health karma that the Minnesota Vikings have accumulated over years of bad injuries all got used up in 2024. And now it's just like, hey, I got to start over. You got to start from the bottom. You left tackle?

not playing your center brain oh your backup left tackle brain oh your franchise quarterback ankle it's just one of those things where it seems like injuries are contagious like and i don't know why but sometimes it just feels like injuries are contagious and that somewhat feels like where we're going with this and i just really hope it's not the case for the entire year and i know there's the discussion of well you know they signed older players and stuff but blake cashman's not old Andrew Van Ginkle was healthy all of last year. Ryan Kelly, I mean, a concussion. That's just a really bad break for a guy who was playing awesome football too.

I thought he was really playing well in these first two games. And now he's had several of them in his career and you're concerned about where that's going in the future. And it's also anybody who has ever wondered, I don't know how many fans have ever said, why would they pay a left tackle? But if you've ever had that thought, like it's just another fat guy. I think that we were reminded. Actually, I think Vikings fans have been fairly blessed since the Clemmings era. Riley Reef was solid, not perfect, but solid.

And then Derisov follows him up and has been a monster beast for the entire time. And these last couple of weeks show you how hard it is to play quarterback in the National Football League without Christian Darasaw. Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing when Trent Richard or Trent Williams got hurt in San Francisco and the wheels kind of fell off for Brock Purdy there. If you don't feel comfortable on your blind side, you're constantly, your first read's not where's the route? It's a quick, it's a quick glimpse to my left going, did he get beat? Am I okay?

Now I can get back to the route tree. And with a young quarterback that's already struggling with timing, already was struggling with getting the ball out, and then you're constantly getting pressure from the left tackle position. And then now de-coordinators are sensing that, right? There was a little bit of blood in the water after the Chicago game. And then they really came after that left side this week. early and often. Stunts, twists, blitz. They tested Donovan Jackson and Justin's school a lot

early in this game and it got home. And when things like that get home, you open, I think I text you like Pandora's box has been opened on the left side of the line now. They will week in and week out now get tested. Can they pick these things up? And until they do and they put on tape that if you stunt, we'll pick it up, they're going to keep getting tested on that left side, especially with Walter Rouse in there now. It reminded me of exactly what it looked like with the Rams game last year for the Vikings and mostly really the end of the season where we saw the Cardinals last year beat that left side by using a lot of stuff like delay blitzes and stunts and twists and then the Rams just threw it all at that when it

was Cam Robinson and Blake Brando because they knew they couldn't handle it. And it was very clear that they were in over their heads in that game against the Falcons and Rahim Morris, no dummy. Like knows what he's doing with defense. They also know how KOC wants to play offensively. That's a guy who has a lot of experience with that McVeigh offense, having been out there with the Los Angeles Rams, and it was a perfect storm for pressuring J.J. McCarthy. But let's talk about the big issue at hand here, which is Carson Wentz taking over for J.J. McCarthy after this ankle injury. Now, there is the, is it a soft benching part of it? And I think everybody had that thought. I think that it's an injury that would take a quarterback out

for a couple weeks, but you especially don't want to rush him back in there if Darisaw is not going to be back or just at all. Like he was struggling so much that you wouldn't want him with any sort of injury trying to play versus Carson Wentz, who can probably get this offense back on track. So let's let's talk about the McCarthy part of it first and then we'll get into Wentz. What did you identify with your NFL player brain as you were watching J.J. McCarthy struggle against the Falcons? yeah you know what i witnessed with him is i'm giving the kid grace he's young and anyone that wants to fight me and say that he's not a rookie my address you can find it come to the house the dudes

a freaking rookie i don't care that he was in the NFL for a year or not until you take live bullet reps against the team that can hit you kill you put you in the dirt you're still a rookie and what i saw from him was his processing speed just isn't there yet right and that's it's okay it's going to happen right i played with josh allen when he was a rookie his processing speed wasn't there yet either and we were terrible we went six and ten it happens but he needs to have better answers and as i watched i'm going okay there's a couple things here that are not making a ton of sense to me i get kevin o'connell wanting to say i have full faith in j jay mccarthy and i'm going to let him go out here and i'm going to let him get the reins and go but it felt almost like you threw him in the deep end of

the pool without any floaties on and then held his head under water a little bit and said, keep throwing it. You're okay. You'll make it to shore eventually. It just felt like he was forcing the issue a lot with J.J. McCarthy. And I think J.J. felt that pressure. Hey, we're not running the football. Kevin's calling past plays. I got to hit the plays down the field. I got to keep doing, doing, doing. And for a young player that's still trying to figure out his way in the NFL with all that added stuff to it, I just think that he's really in his own head right now trying to do a little bit too much. And then also, dude, every ball does not have to be a thousand miles per

an hour and put a hole through the back of your receiver. Touch passes are a thing in this league. And I think it just takes time to develop those type of touch things because Josh was the same way. Josh wanted to use that cannon and put the ball wherever he could, faith in the arm. That gets you in trouble in this league a lot more than it helps you. So a few different thoughts on that.

I mean, one is that West Phillips said last week about the offense that we can't dial it back because he needs to have all the answers to be able to win. And that's the same answer they gave when we talked about with Josh Dobbs, dialing it back when Dobbs was new to the offense and also like not very good. And, you know, I mean, he was like three and nine or something as a starter. Pasture not, baby. What a time to be alive. The past or not. It was a great run. It was a great run of two weeks where we talked about him as the bridge quarterback. But ultimately, he was asked to do a little bit too much. And it was the same sort of look it was the same sort of i'm not really sure and then oh the throw is a little bit

late and then just a jefferson is coughing up blood on the sideline because the throw was a little late and a little inaccurate and i just i think that that's okay if your philosophy as a head coach is the quarterback better be able to do every single thing but you can't start someone who's never played before then and throw him into the deep end then you need a veteran quarterback. Then you need two years of development. This is something that you need much longer to because in training camp, I felt like he was getting a lot of the stuff that they were asking him to do. I thought that I was seeing touch passes. I thought that the timing was pretty good. But as you said, it's just not the same. It's just not the same as when someone can suplex you

into the ground legally as opposed to tapping you and being like, sacked you. Like it's just not, I could do that. I'd be like, oh, oh, he sacked me. Who cares? But that's, that's not how this works here and that pressure two and a half seconds in practice probably feels okay two and a half seconds with 70,000 people watching Sunday night football and two first round picks coming after you. It's just a different story. And I think if when they bring back J.J. McCarthy, it needs to be a different philosophy. But I just don't think that they have that different philosophy in their bag. If they did, they would have used it. It's what we talk about all the time. Kevin O'Connell can't change his stripes. And that's okay. It's won them a lot of football

games. It's made him coach of the year. You can't ask a guy to be like, hey, all the stuff that gave you the success and puts you in the position that you are right now, you need to change. Right. Like, that's not a fair thing to ask Kevin. But I will say the greats in this league, Andy Reid, Bill Belichick, they can adapt with what they have. Right. It's not square pay ground hole. Right. It's okay. We have certain pieces that we can't just open the whole toy box here. and just let it go. We have to build, develop the box before we let everything go. And I just, he needs to rely, JJ has to be able to rely on other pieces around him to shoulder the load, right? And I'm going to use Daniel Jones as an example here. When Daniel Jones

had Sequin Barclay, he was able to share, hey, 26, you take the load here, I'm going to do what I need to do. And it got him paid a lot of money and he won a playoff game. All of a sudden, you remove Saquan Barkley and say, Daniel Jones, you're the guy, baby, you're going to chuck it all over the yard, you're going to go. Things kind of filtered and didn't go that well. Now look at Daniel Jones with, hey, I have Jonathan Taylor. I have other things around me. I don't have to be the guy. That's where you need to build a young quarterback. When you build and you draft a young quarterback, usually first round quarterbacks are drafted to save the franchise. Right, hey, come in. We are a desperate need of anything. You just come in. We'll turn this thing

around. We'll go. JJ's walking into a unique situation where he's not here to saved the franchise he's here not to crash the car and for seven of the eight quarters that he's played he's wrecked the car in spectacular fashion and so if that's the case and you're the parent of the guy driving the car take the keys away a little bit and say hey here's the here's the bike let's ride the bike first right let's ride the go cart first and then we'll develop you into the car i think that that's where this probably was going to head if jajan mccarthy was still the starting quarterback at least i hope that's where it was going to head and that's where kevin o'connell was going to want to go i'm not convinced that it was but that's how i would

look at this and go, okay, we did too much, right? We did too much. Back it up, back it up, back it up. But I also don't know if that's in Kevin Connell's DNA or not. I think that there's some smoking guns here to it not being. One is trying to throw the ball on third and short at the goal line with a great play that should be a touchdown. But if you draw up a play that your quarterback is not able to execute, is it a great play? A little bit of a tree fall in the forest type of thing.

Like, is it a great play if you can't do it? Now, if O'Connell expects his quarterback to take a snap, okay, I'm not saying he's asking too much there, but, you know, maybe just Jordan Mason. Here's the football. Try three times to run in the end zone from two yards. And if you fail with that, everyone should be very sad with themselves. But here's the other one is there are 15 quarterbacks who have thrown more screens in the first two weeks than J.J. McCarthy. We love screens. We love screens on this show so much. He is tied. with Lamar Jackson and Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff, these veteran quarterbacks with six screens. The guys who have thrown, Trevor Lawrence has thrown 16 of them. Like, Bo Nix has thrown 11 of them. He's looked pretty bad these first couple of games. Josh Allen, MVP of the league, has thrown more screens.

Baker Mayfield has thrown at the point just being, like, is the easy button stuff there? I haven't seen it succeed. And here's where the real issue is with McCarthy. short passing game from zero to nine yards has been atrocious. He has a 33 PFF grade, 3.4 yards per attempt. And that to me is the evidence you need for the timing of a quick game is not there with J.J. McCarthy.

So you either play someone else or you figure out how to not have to ask him to do that. The quick three step, I see it, I throw it. Like that's, we saw Kirk do that pretty well in his career. we did not see Sam Darnold do that all that well. And we are not seeing J.J. McCarthy do it all that well. But when you've only thrown seven passes behind the line of scrimmage in two games with this young of a quarterback, I mean, I'm going back to Jake Browning with Cincinnati when he had to take over for Burrow. It's kind of all they did was deep shots to those good receivers. And then the screens and runs kind of did that with Jordan Love early in his career with Matt LaFleur.

I just don't think that's who O'Connell is. I don't think it's a philosophy, which means it's going to be really hard for McCarthy to run. which kind of brings us to the next level of the conversation, which is how long are we going to see Carson Wentz? Because Schefter's out here saying two to four weeks, but is it going to be two to four weeks or is it going to be longer than that? I don't think it'll be longer than that. But the thing that worries me the most is young quarterbacks,

especially rookies, they usually suck in the first part of the year. Like historically speaking, right, C.J. Stroud was kind of the anomaly that just took the league by storm and now he's regressed in his second and third year, if you ask me. But you kind of see this shift of these young quarterbacks, first five games, first six games in the league, just an eye-opening moment, right? Hey, those dudes literally are giants that run really fast and the windows are a lot smaller than I remember the margin for air. Oh, that 42nd clock matters now. Like, there's just a lot that goes. So usually those first five weeks, you're growing pains. And then you start to see guys, the good ones, start to grow later

in October, November, December. This problem is this pushes that growth period back into late October, into early November, when the game start to really matter a whole lot more. You can't win the division in September, but you sure as shit can lose it. Like, it can be out of your grasp really quickly. And so now you're saying, okay, one in one here with McCarthy. Now he's going to sit the bench for two weeks, four weeks, whatever it is. Well, now we're just pushing that growth period back to if he comes back.

And you're never really 100% healthy when you come back from an injury in season. Like you don't ever feel like you did before the injury. It's just managing the pain. So now you're saying on top of the ankle, his mobility might be a little bit limited and he's still speeding up. You're pushing the growth of this guy back further and further. And that's where you have to decide if Carson Wentz has success, do we go back to what our master plan is of grow J.J. McCarthy? or do the veterans on this roster like Jonathan Allen, Hargrave, Brian O'Neill, like these dudes are feeling they're looking around going,

I don't have two years for us to figure this out. We need to win right now. That's where you have to start going. Okay, where do we go from here? Do we redshirt him a little bit here? You only played in two games. We can still redshirt him. Or is it, hey, this is our guy.

All our chips are in this basket. We're putting them back out there. So this is where the tree of scenarios that you start following down, like the if then type of situation. because if they win the next three games, which is extremely plausible, considering the quarterbacks that they're facing, then you end up sitting there at four and one coming back from London to face the Philadelphia Eagles at home.

And I just don't see how you could say, hey, I hope that ankles healed up. Here are the Eagles with one of the hardest defenses schematically to face against a team that's got a great defensive line. Jalen Carter, I mean, if he's facing off with Donovan Jackson, that could be a homicide right there. And Jackson certainly got welcome to the NFL a little bit more in week two than he did in week one.

But that, I mean, that goes for anybody. Like any offensive lineman who faces Jalen Carter is going to walk out of that arena feeling pretty bad about themselves. Is that the environment that you want McCarthy to come back to? But then you play the Chargers in a short week. And is that the environment you want him to come back to with a limited game plan? And then you go to Detroit where Sam Donald freaked out at Ford Field because of that atmosphere.

That's a division game. And I also think that the locker room is a huge factor here because there are a lot of players who came here with the idea of competing for a Super Bowl. That's what they were sold on and not to spend their entire season trying to help someone become the best versions of themselves eventually. And that becomes for Kevin O'Connell,

something he's going to have to really manage the rest of the way because at the same time, for the betterment of the long-term, franchise, you need to find out if J.J. McCarthy can play. And I can't tell you that after two games. No, and no one can't. No one can tell you if J.J. McCarthy is going to be a dude in this league or not, right? We talked about the it factor and he had that piece. And yes, I still think that's in there. But if you have the it factor, but you lack the overall talent to be able to do it on a week and week out basis, that's a bigger problem. There's plenty of dudes in this league

that have that drive and that fight and that everything to it. But the talent just doesn't develop into what you wanted to be. I'll put Trevor Lawrence in that category. Right. Like there's times Trevor Lawrence has incredible moments, but there's times we're like, oh, you leave a lot to be desired here. Now he's making $55 million, so they'll pay those dudes. But I agree with you. When, when is the right time to bring JJ back? Is it when he's fully healthy? Is it when Carson finally stumbles? Because he will, right? I don't think, I mean, that's another the big what if is that Carson is what we hope Carson can be the best version of himself or is he the one that lost 30 to nothing against the Denver Broncos in week 18 last year. I don't know. no, he's been on the couch all summer. He's been on the couch all training camp. He hasn't had the reps that makes me feel like, oh, I feel good about Carson Wentz coming in this game and operating. I think he's going to operate better than J.J. McCarthy just based off the ability to, he's played in this league. At one point, he was looking like a rising star in this league, and then he never really came back from the ACL injury. So there's signs pointed

there, but I agree with you, man. And it's not that the locker room's giving up on J.J. McCarthy. I don't, I don't want that to be the narrative. I don't want the, we don't want the, we don't want the kid thing. That's not what it'll be. It's just a this is a win now leak. It always has been. It always will be. And if you're a head coach, you can't put the development of a young quarterback above the other 52 guys on the roster. You just can't do it. You'll get upset. You'll have chasms in the locker room. You'll have fights. You'll have guys not happy. You'll have a bunch of media questions. You have to eventually do what is for the betterment of the 52 guys, not the quarterback position. But at the same time, you have to go, but is this guy our

future, do we have to start figuring other things out? It's why the head ball coach makes the money he has. It's why those dudes, the buck stops with them. It's not a fun position to find yourself in week two of the season. And the other scenario is that if Carson Wentz does not play well and they lose two out of three here, then you're talking about all this money spent, this whole season that was pumped up to be this thing that they had reached for for three years. And then it's on the brink and you're saying hey j j would you mind just like saving the whole season for us you know like that's that's a lot to ask you well you know but it'll be it'll be fine look you're only playing the eagles and they won the super bowl last year i mean my goodness like suddenly it's

crazy in this league how fast life can sneak up on you and how the twists and turns happen because if mccarthy was going into these next three games after the way he played against Atlanta. I think we would have been sitting here saying, all right, let's break down what went wrong. Let's talk about how they're going to fix it. But we still think they can fix it. I said after the game, I still think this is a double digit win team. They just need to figure some things out with J.J. McCarthy. But now it feels like everything is on the table. We don't have any idea what's going to happen. And I was going to ask you, Fandul question of the day here is on Fandual right now, nine teams have a better chance or better odds to make

the playoffs than the Minnesota Vikings, I'm sure this has been adjusted in part from the recent results and injury. Is that fair? Like, do you think it's fair that nine other teams have a better odds to make the playoffs than the Vikings? I do because the NFC is, there's some really talented teams in the NFC. I mean, you look across the whole thing of it and then you're going, okay, well, the easy way into the playoffs is win your division. Probably, I mean, watching what Green Bay is done, watching what Detroit did to Chicago, tough road to hoe. Not impossible, right? But tough road to hoe based off the two offensive performances that we saw. I mean, I don't even think we ran 100 plays yet this year, Matt.

I mean, that's unheard of for an offense in the National Football League to not get 50 to 65 plays a game. Like, that is just kind of industry standard. And so you're looking at that going, okay, they're probably not going to win their division. Are we certain that with this quarterback problem, they're even a top seven, eight team in the NFC? There's a lot of really talented teams that are not going to win their division. I mean, shoot, the whole NFC West. is two and oh or one and one, right? So you're saying, okay, maybe there's the teams we're going to come out

where the Rams are healthy with that Stafford. I think it's a very fair thing to say right now, just based off of the rest, the status of the rest of the league, we get out of our Minnesota bubble and you look across the league and see teams like Seattle taking the next step and their evolution of who they are. Carolina shows some life against Arizona. Tampa goes down and beats Houston.

I mean, there's just a lot of teams in the NFC that I think are way ahead of where the Vikings are at this current moment. Again, we'll reassess this in November, but the path on which the rest of the teams are versus the rocky roller coaster that the Vikings are writing right now, I think that's a very fair assessment. I think that if they can get to four and one, and even three and two, it's not over, over. No. If you go one and two in these next three games, say goodnight to 2025. And I guess we'll start our draft analysis in October. Just I threw up in my mouth right now talking about that after such an interesting and entertaining off season where they made so many moves that I thought were the right thing to do.

So this next run is very pivotal because if you get to, if you get to four and one, then the whole rest of the way you need to go six and seven and you can make the playoffs. If I'm doing my math right there. If you need 10 wins to at least get a shot and look, if you get a 10 win season and don't make the playoffs, then well, it's. bad break. But to get to double digits, so these next three games become enormous for them in order to actually make this work. So let's talk about some of the other things on the roster going on because it's just been so much focus on this singular issue, which is now the biggest thing facing the franchise for today, for the rest of the season, for the future. So it really is that big, this injury for McCarthy coming off that performance. And, you know, the other part

of it, too, Jeremiah, is just how it looked in the last thing we saw. and how much that impacts decisions because if the last thing we saw before he got hurt was Chicago, we'd be like, oh, well, two to four weeks, he'll be back. It's fine. Like, to get him back out there. The last thing we saw was him not looking like an NFL starting quarterback. And that makes it a lot harder for reintegration. But the offensive line is problematic. What did you see outside of just like hammering away at Justin's school? I always feel bad when that happens. Like, there's, he's trying. There's nothing you could do there. He's Imagine how bad guys who aren't playing in the league are at left tackle.

But, and how good Derisaw is and how much money he's worth. He should ask for a restructured contract. Before he'd been stepping on the field. Before I come back, what if we just, what if we just made a fake tree company and gave me like 10 more million? Or maybe that's only the NBA and the Patriots. You can Google that one with Brady. But anyway, so what else offensive line wise was causing them issues? Yeah, you know, when Kelly went out, the communication was really bad up front.

You saw, like, I can remember very specifically an inside zone play to the left where we leave the front side linebacker completely unblocked. That's a communication error, right? That's a we pointed the wrong guy or Donovan didn't get the call or Juergens just had a straight up mental error because it was his first time playing in the National Football League. And listen, dude, I've been there. It's not an easy thing to all of a sudden be like, hey, you've never played center. it's Sunday night football we're down we got to go score get your butt in there and let's make sure everyone's on the same page oh by the way there's a rookie next to you right so make sure you help him along as well it's it's it that for me is the bigger issue than the left tackle right

daresaw we'll be back is it this week is it next week like that that position at one point in time we'll be like okay I feel good about that the bigger issue I see is the center position Michael Juergens taking the helm there with Carson Wentz who makes the calls who's in control what are we doing who's on what plate right if i'm guessing it's going to be listen michael you walk up there and you call the protection by the letter of the law right you don't get to flip you don't get to see fun things you don't get to chase goes if it's three by one protection and we're going left you go up there and say mike left we're going here and then carson can change you from there so you're talking about the communication standpoint having to be very much streamlined with the

center position the right side of the line i feel like has been a bright spot i feel like will and Brian O'Neill's playing at a great level. They gave him that sack the other night. I don't know if I can necessarily give that. It was kind of a tweener on an empty situation there where he kind of squeezed and then didn't come back out late. But I do truly believe that if Ryan Kelly's in there, we turn that protection to that guy.

So there's just certain things that look like there. But the communication, the free runners, and the mis IDs are the biggest things that are hurting this run game and this past protection game. But they're like you said, all that's fixable. right besides the left tackle getting physically beat at times and donovan being a rookie and going to take his lumps and going to be the growth curve is going to be just there just like it is for j j mccarthy i feel okay about where this is going to miss anywhere from three weeks plus because this is his fourth concussion right if he's going to continue to miss multiple weeks here i worry about the center position for the offensive line and the folks who in the off season were concerned about the backup center like this This is your day. But at the same time, there's not a lot of good backup centers in the NFL.

It's not like they're just bouncing around. You've developed this guy for a year. And that's the best you can do in a lot of, I mean, there was only, there's also only so much money to give free agents. Like, why don't we get like four more guys? It's like, they spent every dime to build up this team. You have to have some young players step up. And now it's time for Michael Jurgens.

He's a very bright guy. But maybe a week of preparation. will help him and maybe working a little bit with Kelly behind the scenes as much as that could be possible will help him. But there's only so much you can do. And that's why Ryan Kelly has been paid what he's been paid and why he was drafted in the first round. He was phenomenal in these couple of games. So missing him is a massive drop off that now is maybe part of the reason that you want Carson Wentz in there, even if JJ wasn't injured. Like you can't have somebody who doesn't understand how to flip protections if it was relying solely on

Ryan Kelly if now the center doesn't really understand it either at that level on the strips act that you were referring to we asked West Phillips about it today his answer was basically that wasn't what was supposed to happen and maybe maybe you can explain that and I know that you don't know every single call and protection like you're not in that room but kind of how that's supposed to work and how someone could end up just completely free running yeah so it's It's an empty protection, right? So does everyone remember the Anthony Richardson preseason where he got smoked off the edge because he didn't see the hot protection? It's similar to that.

So when you run a five-man protection, you can only block five. And so in this situation, the center, the left guard, and the left tackle were sliding left. So the three-man slide was going to the left. What that means is the right guard and the right tackle have to protect inside out. So they have to protect the A gap and the B-gap are the number one priorities in their protection. So obviously Will Fries, he sticks on the three technique, boom, his job's done. As Brian O'Neill sets, he watches that linebacker that's stacked over that three technique, take two steps forward. And as a tackle, as your rules, if that linebacker looks like he's coming into that B gap with bad intentions, that's where you have to say, okay, I have to jump in here and protect him.

Well, what happened was he took two steps forward and then as the back free released, he also released with the back. well, Brian had already committed to protecting the B gap. And by the time he tried to turn back out, that D.N was already by him, right? So it's a tweener thing where you as a quarterback have to know where your hots are. And as a tackle, you either have to kind of commit or be able to put yourself in a position to get back out

and at least get a hand on that guy. So it really, it's on both of them, right? It's on the quarterback and it's on Brian O'Neill. But it is just one of those plays. It's a football play, right? Sometimes those guys are paid a lot of money there too. Sometimes those guys make plays, right? And that was a good call.

against that protection specifically. So, yeah, it was just based on the fact, like if there's a running back in there and it's a six-man protection, that never happens. But it, again, it was an empty protection. Usually offensive coordinators like empty protection because it makes the defense declare what they have to do, which tells the quarterback, okay, this is the zone scheme,

this is the man scheme. I have my answers. But you kind of live in the die by the sword too when you only have five blockers if they send six. Here's my trouble. For that entire night, the Atlanta Falcons, are kicking their ass up front from the start of the game every moment, every drive, they're winning that battle.

That's why they drafted two guys in the first round. And if Chicago could beat you up front sometimes with that current roster situation, then certainly Atlanta, more talented team could as well. Their coach is good. They're sending a lot of stuff at you. And you texted right for the beginning when Donovan Jackson didn't quite get around on a stunt, like they're going to attack them that way. it's first in 10, and there's an empty protection.

And this is where we get into what we were talking about. But also, I want to hear you talk about play calling because I think it's the easiest thing in the world when a game goes wrong for everybody to be like, play caller must have been his fault. What a fool. If I was calling plays, it would have been much better. And we fall into that trap as media as well, sometimes, where it's just fully on the result and not based on, was it a good play or not. but I think when you get to something like that, you're like, I don't know if that's the situation you want to have there with the linemen

you have and the quarterback you have just standing there. What have you said before? Like butt naked with nobody there to help you. No Aaron Jones. Naked in front of the zombies. I mean, that's, that's a lot to ask. That's what Matt Stafford does. They don't, they don't even let Jared Gough do that a whole lot.

Like there's a lot of quarterbacks to the league or not an empty very often unless it's like a panic situation. How did you feel, as you were watching, about the play calling issue? Yeah, I think my biggest issue with the play calling is it's not simple, right? If I have a young quarterback, and especially a young quarterback who the first eight quarters of his career are struggling, I'm going to go to the seven quarters, excuse me, I'm going to go to the kiss method. Keep it simple, stupid, right? Keep it simple. Don't have, okay, if I'm an empty, I have to know where my route is and I have to know where my hot is, right?

just let him think about, hey, protection is set. If they send six, I'm protected. I'll be able to get the ball away. It's just putting a lot on his plate. And we talked about it. That's Kevin O'Connell's thing, right? I got to have all the tools at my disposal to call the game plan that I need. I just don't agree with it with a young quarterback.

And he's been maybe still thinking, hey, Kirk Cousins could do it. Sam Darnold could do it. Josh Downs could do it. Like, Dobbs could do it. Like, these dudes could all do it. Why can't J.J. McCarthy do it? it. Well, JJ's proved to us that he's not there yet. I'm not saying he can't do it. He can't do it right now. So if he can't do it right now, let's not add another thing to his play call,

snap cadence, formation, motion. Is it empty? Am I hot? Am I not hot? Like, just one more thing on his plate can be a half a second to a second of processing speed, which in the NFL is a difference between ball out and dead. Like two to three seconds is ball out and dead. Like two to three seconds is ball out and dead. And there was so many times in that game where I saw J.J. go, should I run it? No, I shouldn't. And then by that point, boom, the sacks there or the play's there. And so I just, I worry a little bit from the play calling standpoint of, are we just asking him to do too much? And that also goes to the fact that I thought Jordan Mason forgot to get off the bus or was late to the game or something where he didn't exist in the first quarter. Like, he started your comeback against the Chicago

Bears. Why wouldn't you just say, let's start with this dude. And pick right back up where we left off. I think that there's just a little bit of Kevin O'Connell looking himself in the mirror and doing the old point of thumb, not the finger, and going, how can I help this offense get back on track? Yeah, I mean, I think that it's one of those common sense things, like whether you've played in the NFL or you're just watching casually and you see the quarterback looking in over his head. There has to be an element of how do you get that back on track?

And we've talked about it a lot, you know, you run play actions, you, you throw in a couple of tight ends, which I think Josh Oliver's really banged up and was trying to play. And they probably would have used them more, but you get some stuff to get that guy in a rhythm of completing passes. And the commonality with this team since O'Connell got here is it's really, it seems really hard to do to just get the ball in the hands of Justin Jefferson, get the ball in the hands of even an Adam Thielen, even if you gain five yards on a completion. six yards on a completion, a screen, whatever it might be. I think the average yards per screen completion is something like six. And I'm, you know, they're not all like that, but although they did drop one that should have been a big play. And that was brutal as well. It's definitely not all KOC.

It's definitely not all JJ. It was kind of everybody with this. And I think that's the struggle for O'Connell. And I would totally get it if I was him. If you're looking back at the tape and you're like, guys wide open in the end zone and we drop. the fumble or we drop the snap what you want me to call a different play the guy's wide open i got you a wide open guy um but at the same time i think that there's the truth is somewhere in the

middle of that it's you can get those guys open but if you can't find him so i kind of go back to that um i also think this is one of the first times that i watched kevin o'connell be a human and allow his emotion to overrule his coaching at times and it happens we're all emotional human beans. I mean, it's, it's a hard thing to win in the national football league. It's a hard thing to play in the national football league. It's a hard thing to coach in the national football league. And after JJ misses that third in one pass, the deep shot to Naylor, that again, right play call, the wrong play call, the dude was open. Yeah, right? The dude was open. You hit that play call. You're right back in this game. You're moving forward. And I saw the emotion of him

getting upset, right? Like physically, like, angsty and angry. And then there's like, oh, just pun it. right and i'm sure that's one of those things where he's looking back on i i let my emotion overrule my logic at that point i should have went for it on that fourth down they needed to they needed to i should have went for it and i do think that that what played an element in this game of all the things you just mentioned the dropped the drop snap like i think emotionally it wore on kevin o'connell through this game and he allowed that emotion to overrule logic and you can't do that as a head coach you can't now he hasn't done it in a long time i don't anticipate him doing it again, but it is just part of the human

element of the football game. And so I hope he learns from that. He's played in the National League. He knows what it means. But this was the first time I saw the chink in the armor of Kevin O'Connell allowing his emotion from his frustration of where the offense was to overrule something that should have been a no-brainer coaching decision.

Yep. And I think 70,000 were feeling that at that moment because Naylor catches it. I don't know if he goes all the way, but he's getting, he's getting, the name is speedy. I mean, he's getting 50 plus yards. and you're kind of back in it. But at that point, even if he, even if that happens, like to get, it's not like you win.

Like, there's been so much struggles throughout the game. But I can understand from a coaching perspective, when you keep drawing up open plays and your quarterback can't convert it, how frustrating that would end up being. Let's get to, uh, love to see it, hate to see it. I'm going to start with love to see it all of collegiate football on Saturday. It was just one of those days where you paste yourself to the couch and every game, just brings you everything you hoped it would give you. Tennessee and Georgia was magical. The Notre Dame game was absolutely insane. And then while the Gopher's game was a little bit

of a rough watch. But everything throughout that day was just sheer entertainment. And I felt like we're really back now once this happens in college football. Yeah. I mean, you've got Vanderbilt beating up on South Carolina. That was a fantastic game to watch. You know, you're just looking through it. And it's just giving you hope for, like, doing a weekend into these conference games, it's going to be fun. Like, I can't wait for Big Ten play starts this week. We got Michigan here at Nebraska. Like, that's going to be an electric game going forward there. My love to see it.

And I don't know if you watch the post game Sunday night football coverage, but when they're introducing Parker Romo to Leonard Floyd and they're like, hey, do you know who this guy is? He's like, oh, yeah, that's Sequin Barclay. They're like, oh, do you know who this guy is? He's like, I don't have any idea who this guy is. And he's like, oh, yeah, this dude just hit five field goals in the game. He's like, oh, Leonard Floyd, nice to meet you. Like, it just goes to show you that sometimes these kickers, they don't know anyone on the team. They're the bastard children that no one really wants until you want to hoist them on your shoulder.

But most of the time, you want to put them in the closet. Like, I just thought that that was so funny from Parker Roma there, going back to Matt Prater with Josh Allen. We're like, he said he was shown him pictures of his kid playing. And he's like, I'm going to give you everything I have. It's like, who's this old man they let in from the street? right like i just find it so funny that like the kickers are starting to become more and more like oh yeah you guys really aren't actually part of this team until they really need you are you i was actually going to include parker romos and love to see it because that guy's a great

kicker like we saw it last year he was great in training camp and he was called i mean they don't win 14 games without parkeromo he had a game winning kick was at arizona and he hit five field goals against jacksville and a very memorable football game that was and when he lined up to kick one from i think it was 50 that was kind of a dagger i was like he's probably going to make this like this guy knows what he's doing so good for him i like to see some guy who has just kept with it finding away now here's a speaking of kickers i was going to throw a love to see it and hate to see it do you get to the point where kickers are so good and they're kicking from so long where you're like stop it like this is too much like brandon obrie kicking a 64 yarder

and looking good from 70 i'm like like, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this. Yeah. Like, you don't have to do anything to get a field goal now. You just like fall. They should just like do a full back dive three times to kick a field goal. I mean, it just, I don't know, it's a little bit silly. They need to, what's in those K balls at this point? This is nuts.

Someone used to kick a 50 yard field goal and you'd be like, oh, whoa. That guy now it's like 50 yards. It's just chip shot. I mean, I remember watching that Dallas game going as soon as it hit the star. I was like, oh, this game's over. like it literally is like oh they crossed the 50 this game well that's not going to be so great anymore but i mean they're weapons if you're not like 85% from 50 anymore you can't kick in the NFL and now they i think i was talking about week one they like change the rules where you can break in these kicking balls now during the week it used to be you could only get the kicking balls like three hours before the game and so they're just going to continue to make eventually i think they're going to make the goalpost smaller like i don't know these dudes are getting so much better the kicking specialist camp from getting younger and younger and getting more and more talented. I mean, I don't, I wouldn't be shocked if in three to five years the goalposts kind of

shrink in like the arena football league, right? Where it's just like straight up and down. It's like a 10 yard window you got to hit in there. So yeah, I love, I mean, Brandon Aubrey, what a weapon. He's going to be great. But also just put so much pressure. I mean, Young Way, Koo has a rough first week. And they're like, oh, we're bringing a guy on practice squad to see if he's going to push you.

You're going to see a lot more kicker revolutions in the NFL as we move forward here, too. What's your hate to see it? My hate to see it is Mike McDaniel's demise in real time. I mean, from the way he's talking about impressors, the way the team is freaking out on the sidelines, I mean, you start the game, you start the game, I mean, over the last two weeks with turnovers, like to open your first series of the game is turnovers,

and then you never really get yourself back on track. I am concerned about the Miami Dolphins and Mike McDaniel making it to October, if I'm being honest. I think that's, he's actually taken over maybe for Kevin Stafansky for most likely coach to get fired. At least we all knew that Cleveland was going to be terrible when they were starting Joe Flacko. But I think there were a much higher expectations for Miami to be a competent team along the same lines. The New York Jets are who we thought they were and them just getting run out of the building after there was a little bit. This is always so hard.

This is like this little bit of, oh, like maybe they. found something with Justin, no, and he got hurt again because he hangs out of the ball forever. And sadly, he will remain Justin Fields. I also think, I hate to see it wise, watching the Monday night doubleheader. I don't know how you feel about that. As a man with kids, maybe he just wanted to get to bed. But the Texans, I mean, just after such a great start with C.J. Stroud have just kind of bumbled around. And DeNeil Hunter, oh my God, the Euro step that he put on like the sack he's great their defense is great they got lots of tools and they just can't really figure it out and i don't know what's wrong i don't know if it's strout i don't know if it's

the line i don't know if it's the coordinator again but i was really excited about where cj strow was going to go and now i kind of hate to see that it's just not going anywhere yeah i mean i remember after his rookie year i was like dude this dude's going to be an MVP in the next two to three years i mean he just he saw the field he dealt it he got the ball out he saw the vision i think a lot of it is the offensive line play. You lose, you trade away Laramie Tunsell, you trade a Kenyon Green, right? Your center ends up going somewhere else. You've now got rookie at left tackle and Arionte, who's, I think, going to be a really good player, but still a rookie, right? It's just, it's hard to watch that offense. And it's like, yeah,

Joe Mixon will be back eventually, but Chubb's not a slap. Like, he's older now, but they just have no rhythm offensively. And that defense is so good. I mean, Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter, might be one of the best tandem rush duos in the NFL when they're both playing lights out like that hundred sacks for you know hunter golf clap for him congratulations your terrorizing tackles everywhere i feel bad for the texans i thought they were going to turn the corner and maybe win the south this year and again right i mean the south's been kind of a nightmare but i think my last hate to see it's going to say i'm going to stay in the south i'm not sure trevor lawrence and liam cohen like each other i mean there's that interaction

of literally trevor giving him the wave off when leam's like hit him in the chest right and then they're asking him on the post game. How's your relationship? And he's like, it's fine. He's a competitive guy. That I think is going to cause some serious issues down in Jacksonville between Liam Cohn and Trevor Lawrence. I was thinking about how, well, here's this, maybe a sarcastic love or love or I don't know which one, Ben Johnson, but the same sort of deal of can some of these offensive freak boys also know how to work with human beings or do they spend all their time in a locked room with one light and they're just drawing on napkins like this is this is my bootleg concept that no one will ever figure out ben jonson i'll throw to the tackle then no one will

ever see pene sool with an end around coming and you're like but if you ever talk to another person that's a question uh and the the bears just getting run completely out of detroit just a reminder the Detroit Lions were not going to have one bad game be like, we give up, we quit. But I don't know what the Bears are supposed to do. And the same thing with Jacksonville. I don't know what you're supposed to do. When you draft

a quarterback who's just good enough to give you hope and is actually not great, I don't know who's supposed to coach him, like what you're supposed to do there. Because with Trevor Lawrence, guys, there's not another level to this. He is who he is. He's pretty good at times and he's pretty bad at times and

shrugs. And I think the same thing is going to go for Caleb Williams. And that to me is you just cycle in new coaches time after time. Yeah, because unfortunately the way it works is that player, the coach is more expendable than the first number one overall pick. And then when you double down and you pay him a large scale contract, he's not going anywhere, right? You can try and figure it out. And the coach is a little bit handicapped and handcuffed to that player. It's, it's going to be really interesting. Did you see Ben Johnson after the game like defending Dan Campbell to the death? They're like, were you upset that they went for it on that fourth time he's like it's who they were that's who they always

have been it's like oh buddy you're not there anymore you it's okay to be like yeah though he should have done that but he just i think he still has a lot of respect for dan campbell in that realm there but yeah i don't i feel bad for ben jonson because caleb williams just it's he's not it he's not it and i know it we can you can call him a bust or not but what he's shown in the sample size that he has given he does not show that he has what it takes to be a quarterback in the national football and uh jaregov five studies still out there doing it uh okay well we'll see what happens going forward we're going to uh maybe hope for some more love to see it says we go forward but you know what we'll be here no matter what that has been proven from us throughout history and we'll

just have to see how it goes i i don't think anybody knows where this bus is taking us from now on jeremiah we just know that we're going to be on it and we have no control so uh see you next week i won't be here next week i'm going out cunning i'm going out cunning but i will be back the following week because it always happened whenever i leave to go elk cunning something wild happens it always so i'm probably going to come back from the woods and you'd be like dude carson wents MVP i'm like MVP talk you're like he threw for 500 yards like oh okay sounds good or it's like dude jordan mason 250 on the ground like oh sweet can't wait to watch this happen okay two weeks from now then we will be back in action thanks for your time as always

football.