J.J. McCarthy out for season, trust Cowboys to get CeeDee deal done for Week 1? l FIRST THINGS FIRST

I felt like the Vikings had two awful options one was do the shortterm better thing which is trim the meniscus get him back on the field this year but have before he takes a real NFL snap potentially shorten his career you know weaken his Mobility later in his career or do what they ended up doing which is or what the doctor ended up doing I should say it's not like the Vikings necessarily told him to do this but which is do the smarter long-term thing which is repairing the manisa is but that's four to 6 months and they just said it I mean he's out for the year and I am not a Sam darnold believer and it's just a it's just such a gut punch for fans of a team that I I think the viking fans Greg and speak to this obviously better than me but didn't expect this team this year to be contending like they said okay we're probably taking a step back but the whole idea behind the season was we have a first round pick at quarterback for the first time since Christian Ponder and a first round pick we believe in at quarterback probably for the first time since Dante call Pepper and now we're going to get to see what he can be and now it's all on hold and so you know it's a huge bummer and I just don't know where you go from here if you're Minnesota well you go to Sam darnold because that's all you got right now and they weren't expecting him clearly to be the wire to wire meaning start the year and finish the year as a starting quarterback into your point the expectation was to allow this young kid JJ mccarth to develop to see the game to learn a little bit more to but yet to get exposed this year and continue this idea of we have our guy we're going to allow him to mature because we have pieces around him that suggests that he could be very good very early and he doesn't have to shoulder everything typically when young guys first round draft quarter first round quarterbacks that are drafted to a team they're going to a a difficulty situation that was not the case in this in this moment for the Vikings and so I think that's what's so disappointing we didn't we've never seen as a Michigan fan even with Jim Harbaugh as his quarterback or head coach we never saw the full potential of who JJ McCarthy could potentially be as a passer this was going to be our first exposure to that with Kevin oano as his head coach and play caller and so we don't get to see that it's been put on hold for a year which is unfortunate cuz he's a great kid and they really like where the trajectory of his Direction was headed yeah this is really difficult organizationally because it's not like the Aaron roders Jordan love situation where when you have Aaron roders you know that you're going to be able to compete at a high level and then if you have to bring in Jordan love you you feel like you have a candidate that can that can you know if you're in the mix that can can help you uh continue along that pathway and he had time to develop here you had a very shortterm answer and and and you hoped it gave him time to see a little bit of what's happening and then get into play now you don't you don't even have that aspect of it and you don't you you really don't know what you have going in next year you don't know whether he's truly the answer or not the answer you don't know any more information than you did coming out of the draft Yeah granted you get some work with them in in the classroom it's just it's just different and it's hard to plan moving forward all right so I have two questions the first question is not for someone on the set do we are we positive that the Vikings have their first round pick next year Josh that was a question for you just I just thought of it and I wanted to make sure before launched into this conversation that they still had their first round pick so the the Vikings this I thought they traded two seconds to move up back into the first this year and they do have their first round pick next year okay I check me on that Josh but I think they do right Josh okay so the question is this are they trying to win this year no no I mean not not win-win but I me mean like oh good good news we got eight wins like what is this or are we just trying to take our foot off the gas a little bit I think J Jefferson uh you're feeling a little bit sore I don't think you can throw away a year especially when you think you have the only reason in the NFL to tank and no one really does it but is if I understand but is if you are targeting a quarterback I think the Vikings are still hoping we have the quarterback and if you're not drafting a quarterback the difference between the fourth number one and use it as trade yeah but I don't think they're bad enough for that I don't think they're I I I don't think they're bad enough no they're nowhere near bad enough because offensively they have talent they have a really good opportunity offensively pending the quarterback play and now their quarterback s but well Sam darnold now finally has an opportunity in his defense to be put Around Talent that's in front of him behind him all around him and so he with the Jets with the Panthers that wasn't the case and now he has a situation where he can make the best of it we'll see what that best looks like and Sam darnold got a decent contract they there's obviously some belief in the organization that Sam Darnell can come in and and help him win games and In fairness to Sam if you look at his last his last stretch in Carolina he was 4-2 and he did have a 92 quarterback rating and Baker was there and and they pulled him and it didn't work out for either guy now Baker's gone on and done really good things and got another big contract maybe maybe Sam has an opportunity since this is his team to to have that same Baker trajectory so I don't so I I know there is hope for that I know you know you you mentioned that yesterday initially I think the darnold numbers for his career speak for themselves I don't think he and we can I just don't think he is a starting caliber quarterback in this league it doesn't get much worse than that across the board you're right the most recent thing we saw was the best so that would give you the glimmer of hope that is not the question I thought you were going to ask Wilds well I have another I have several oh okay because I if I may I follow I'm you know I'm one of a few hundred people that follow Kevin Wilds on social media I put this one out and into the my kid but coach doesn't which means he didn't see this it I mean it was just minutes after this news was announced if I was the Vikings I'd trade for M Jones Sam gar is not a qb1 for 177 games he's not okay well neither is ma Jones but when MC Jones plays the full season we make to make it to the playoffs okay why did he not play full seasons because he got pinched for his own poor play it's not but which is I'm glad though reasons that if we're we take over in one segment from believing in Sam darnold and maybe Sam darnold feels great us Pats fans can agree ma Jones is also not a qb7 games and he wrote we went to the playoffs we did I I mean why we went to the playoffs he did go to the Pro Bowl too he went to the Pro Bowl gritt did oh him and Justin Jefferson gritty off I know why you want him out of there okay I know support me I have another question though just a serious one copycat League we always talk about copycat League uh schematically I think there's a little bit of a copycat league on deciding who to pay play you know pay your Blindside uh tackle now we're going to overpay for quarterbacks and right now it feels like we in the pay a lot for a top tier wide receiver for sure if this doesn't go well and it's like oh we're paying Justin Jefferson Kings Ransom and right now he's not tilting the scale of us winning games with with Sam Dar here do you think that could change so I don't look at it that way I and this is where I I I I don't like but I understand quarterback wins I and reflexively have like an anaphylactic reaction to wide receiver wins defensive tackle wins you are paying Justin Jefferson because he raises your ceiling so dramatically but he a wide receiver can't set your floor and so like so I just I think that even if the Vikings were to go two and5 this year in my the way I look at football it would not be a commentary on Justin Jefferson's value I also think the Vikings would not be most teams wouldn't say we want to have the highest paid receiver in the league and pair him with bad quarterback play the Vikings thought they were pairing him with their franchise quarterback who they just drafted and and it's so difficult for wide receivers if they were a bad quarterback situation it's hard to shine look at Randy Moss that the Raiders gave him away to New England and then you know once he was there the eye popping numbers he put up yeah sorry Greg I didn't want to take money out of wide receiver's pocket do you trust for the Cowboys to get this done this is the one where I think you're Jerry Jones trying to time media Cycles Theory could be correct okay I think the reason dak's not done is because they don't want to commit to Dak for the next four years that's why I think he's not done I think CD is not done because the Cowboys do business poorly but are always planning to get this done there are three big-time wide receivers that are unsigned two of them I I know what's happening Jamar Chase is unsigned because the Bengals are notoriously Thrifty franchise and they except for four jok burrow the guaranteeing money past year one he's signing guys early is just something they don't do got it Brandon auk is not signed because the Niners are like man can we have the highest paid Edge the highest paid DT the highest paid left tackle the highest paid tight end highest paid running back and two $25 million a year receivers maybe not like that's why he's not signed there's no reason for CI lamb not to be signed he is the only thing you fear the I shouldn't say thing I apologize the only person you fear on their offense as from a skill position standpoint he has he's coming off his best year he's healthy all and by the way because he's on a fifth year option with a cap it of 18 million bucks when they give him I know the NFL Cap's weird if they give him 30 million a year his cap hit for this year almost assuredly would go down so even though his salary would go up and so I I'm very very confident the Cowboys are signing CD lamb I don't don't feel that way about Micah this year because they didn't sign CD after three years and I don't feel that way about Dak because I think they're treating Dak like Mike McCarthy approve it year and it's fine if you leave but I think CD is getting done okay Greg we gave you a little assignment in the production office on like if you're are you worried at all about cidd getting um being 100% of ready to step in and seamlessly transition into the game are you worried at all about CD's ability to just ramp up I'm not terribly worried but if I were to be worried and I were to list some of the things that would be concerning this would be my list look a little bit like this professional list maker yeah for sure a lot of pressure on you bud I wouldn't say I'm a professional list maker but there's three things that would be anybody bit concerning bit concerning when you think about a receiver that it's Miss time and if we can show the list at number three for me timing issues the reason why I have this on here is because the expectation going into this season right away is for he and Dak Prescott to pick up right where they left off we saw him have to your point one of the best seasons in franchise history the expectation is for him he and Dak to move right along doing that same thing as week one presents if he's not in Camp there's no there's no sense of man I I expected him to do that you you got to work through some Kinks I'm not saying it will take a long time but this is something to watch at number two it would be me mentality and I know someone would like why why would his mentality be different well I we don't know we don't know where his space is right now in his head space but when he gets back in that locker room you know the first thing everybody's going to start talking about his money his money you know what else they're going to talk about like man why were they playing with your money why would and at some point CD lamb is going to either engaged with it and he's going to almost revert back to the space that he's in right now after he paid which is probably frustration because the media is going to talk to him about it what took it so long all these different things are going to come up which is going to prevent him from just truly focusing unless he nips it and says I don't want to talk about that I'm here now this is moving forward we'll see where his mentality is number one clearly conditioning and coach this is probably head coaches position coaches and players alike number one concern when you are missing time and there's no way to Poss possibly emulate being in pads in practicing I've never met a player maybe Tom Brady I don't know who has in the off season taking a practice schedule or a training cap schedule and their pads and helmets and said you know what let me go and let me go and simulate what it's going to look like when I get back because I'm not there yet I've never met a player do it I've never known of a player doing that instagam videos so the first thing coaches tend to do when a player comes back and he hasn't been on the field and they haven't seen the level of conditioning is we're going to be cautious with him and so leading if this leads into right before week one you better believe it's going to be hard for them to just say CD go huh yeah first of all it's so nice to get a list like that I KN thank you so refreshing it's so refreshing thank you and yeah it was clean it was thank you for that um and and I do I do agree going into the season if it if it's that close you're going to be worried about how good a shape he is and then how much should you play him because what you don't want to do is you go in you play him a lot and then he gets some sort of soft tissue injury which is realistic and it is it's hard to simulate having the helmet on having the pads on being hit again and you're going to be so excited to play him you know as much as you can and he's going to be excited to to justify the money he was just given that you you almost have to pull back the reins to make sure you get the most out of them as you possibly can hold on Coach can I interrupt you quickly playing the Browns it's 1717 in the late in the third quarter are is who's monitoring that like uh you know CD can you come out please we have you on a pitch count well what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to go in before it gets to the third quarter like you're going to have to give him some some breaks some space in there otherwise yeah it could be 1717 he goes in pulls a hamstring and then he's out for the next 3 weeks or four weeks and now you're going to be kicking yourself so so it's it's there's going to have to be some discussion between him the head coach the training staff the everybody's kind of what's the best plan to maximize now all that being said CD at at 50% of the Reps is much better than whoever the next guy is that's going to take his so two things real quick I know we have to move on Dust I apologize one is last year we had two star players hold out into right before week one and into week one in Chris Jones and Nick Bosa the distinction I would draw as far as their ability to produce is I look at the pass rushers as very not as from a conditioning standpoint necessarily but as far as being need to be on the same page with your teammate very differently than wide receiver the other thing that I just wanted to throw out there was I Greg it was um begrudgingly say a great list with one minor tweak you said pick up exactly where they left off my other concern with Dallas is CD and Dak did not leave off in a good the last game they played together cidd was upset snap one frustration and so I think it would have been good for them they were great all year and then that playoff game it was weird from the very beginning so I do think it would oddly be good not oddly but it would have been good for them to get some reps on the field together prior to a game that counts to kind of move that the Packer game whatever the hell was going on there further help you get over those hurt feelings million I have hurt feelings he has $150 million I'm good yeah come here D give me a hug making money Cowboys and the Steelers so better bet over 10 and a half wins or under 10 and a half wins i' but grudgingly go over because they are a great home team they are a great division team team and they have eight games of their schedule against Washington the Giants and the NFC South and so when you look at who they've been I think we can show it to you at home and in the division the last couple years they have been a thoroughly dominant team if we can't show it to you they're 16 and one or that's division so I was going to say home the last three years in the division they fifth their best division team in football now that's something of an indictment on the Giants in Washington but it is what it is and then we can show you what they've been at home home the last couple years that's where the 16-1 is so I just think the Dallas Cowboys are going they're going to win seven home games yeah and so uh I mean because they get nine I think the NFC this year is the conference that gets nine of them and so I just I would say despite all of The Oddities of the off season it doesn't speak to will they be a playoff I'm sorry will they perform in the playoffs but I think they'll win 11 games they lost eight free agents which is third most in in franchise history including All Pro Center All Pro left tackle they lost a running back who averaged four yards a carry replac that him with a guy who averaged 3.5 yards a carry their three best players are all having contract disputes the quarterback's on a one-ear contract the defensive coordinators on a one-year contract and there's a lot of uh other noise going on for a season where they were going all in so I agree with all could be problematic I but you so you think that but so you would bet the under right now I would bet the under because I also think that Philly who had a bunch of problems proactively went out and addressed him problem in the secondary drafted a bunch of Corners changed the defensive and they they got saquan Barkley they they tried to fix the problems where Dallas has just been moving pieces around and guys golf ride with oh yeah and then you know you had a good quarterback in Washington and correct I'm I'm with Coach I'm with Coach on this I would bet the under really yeah absolutely and I would just look at the other two teams not even Philly I look at the commanders and look at the Giants if we're sitting here making it seem like they didn't improve at all then we're we're we're kidding ourselves like the Giants have improved especially on the defensive side of the ball we'll see what Daniel Jones look like 40 to nothing against the Giants even if one got worse and one improved Nick seriously it was like you were at in front of oh they they remade the whole offensive line it's like you were out there blocking for Daniel Jones true thanks for watching subscribe here to get more from the show and to check out clips from other shows on FM best one