Jordan Addison practices, Aaron Jones says he is 'in his prime'

[Music] [Music] regulator Mount up we're coming [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey everybody welcome to another episode of purple Insider Matthew caller here and it is a game week for the Minnesota Vikings so I have returned from the Vikings locker room where we had a really good chat with Aaron Jones that I want to talk a lot about we have some updates from practice as far as injuries go they don't have to put out an official injury report until Wednesday but did make a sign significant observation today plus the Vikings lost jiren Hall talk about that and a football power index maybe that uh the Vikings don't want to see and at 7:30 so about a half hour from now Manny Hill will return to the show and Manny and I will be back in hot routes mode and just to preview that we're just going to talk about what we're excited for for football that is going to be the whole conversation for an hour with myself and Manny Hill and of course I want you guys very much involved as well your questions your comments your thoughts we will be answering them all throughout the next hour and a half or so so we are back once Manny arrives on the scene for a weekly basis to Mondays and Thursday nights Live on YouTube uh you know that football season is here so let's start with my notes from TCO performance center in the Vikings today and then we'll get to Manny in a little bit and if you got some questions or comments throw them in the I'll start answering them and then when Manny comes in we'll all have a good conversation so let's jump right into it Jordan Addison was at practice today that does not mean he's locked dead in 100% to play this week it just means that Jordan Addison was at practice today he did not look like he was doing a lot but when the season starts we don't watch the whole practice anymore as reporters we go out for the warm-up section and the individual drills and then we go back inside they practice because they're doing their game planning everything else it's only open to the team during practice so I can't tell you how much Jordan Addison was able to do and since the official injury report doesn't come out until Wednesday that we're not sure about whether he's going to be listed as limited or a full participant in practice but what you can say is the fact that he had a uniform on and pants and he was and stretching is a very good sign for Jordan Addison toward potentially playing in week one against the New York Giants and if he were to have the ankle injury and not miss any time at all that would be a big win for the Vikings that have not gotten many good injury updates throughout this training camp but in this case it would be a very good one for Jordan Addison so a plus sign for him potentially toward playing in week one to be out on the practice field today on the negative side for the Vikings from practice jayen Naylor was working out off to the side so he was not looking like he was going to participate in practice and jayen Naylor with his injury history certainly makes you raise an eyebrow at that because if it was somebody else you might say all right well let's see on Wednesday let's not talk too much about this because sometimes guys need a day off when they're banged up or or they tweak something or whatever but with Jaylen Naylor this is always the concern is with his injuries and his potential availability not sounding the alarm yet Wednesday will tell us a lot more toward Jaylen Naylor's status and we haven't heard anything that would indicate so far that he won't be able to play but the fact that he was not looking like he was working with the rest of the group a little bit concerning something to keep an eye on with Jaylen Naylor but also think that this year is going to be just in general different from a wide receiver three h perspective because in the past the most recent past it was it was KJ Osborne's job it was just all KJ Osborne and uh he was wide receiver three we didn't see too many other people mixing in and that's over the last three seasons but now they have other guys that are going to mix in I think for different roles so somebody like Trent sherfield I would guess that he's going to be someone who's out there at times when they want to run the football a little bit more uh Brandon Powell is an underneath wide receiver three type and if Jaylen Naylor cannot play then you might see a little more of Tristian Jackson who's a similar type of downfield maybe a third down and long type receiver that you're throwing in there and I also feel like they're going to use a lot of two tight ends with Josh Oliver and Johnny Mt and they want either to have that advantage of the opposing team in nickel when they're in their big Personnel or they want to have opportunities to throw the ball out of that big Personnel if the other team goes with their multiple linebackers they have three linebackers out there in more of a base package and it's not just going to be hey it's jayen Naylor's job he's wide receiver three he's going to get 80 targets I I never thought it would be that way but after a very good training camp you want Naylor to carry on with that especially being a downfield threat that he is so that's something to very much keep an eye on for Wednesday when we go uh back out there for their next practice and that's when they will release the injury report so we get an idea of Naylor's chances to play at that point uh we talked to Aaron Jones today always a pleasure to talk to Aaron Jones one of the best guys in front of the cameras and microphones that you're going to find as a veteran player and he went into great detail about signing with the Vikings and how from the outset of the moment that he signed with them he said they gave him cards with plans for making sure that he could stay as healthy as possible and he really wanted that to go to a team that he felt like was going to work with his body that is on the older side he's aware of the running back curve and he named off a bunch of running backs from the past even going back to EMT Smith who had beaten the age Cur curve so that is on Aaron Jones's mind and he's aware of it but he talked he called it prehab uh doing things to try to make sure that he was going to be in the best possible shape and he said he feels like he's in his prime which last year the last five games of the Season certainly looked like it and we asked him what was the difference between those last five games and he said he was 100% And when he's at 100% that's what Aaron Jones looks like playing football and I thought thought that that was really something notable when he was talking about them having a plan versus he didn't want to say the Packers didn't have a plan for him physically but he also mentioned just his usage during training camp and how it was somewhat limited didn't practice a whole heck of a lot didn't play in the preseason games for good reason because you want to have him play for 17 games so I mean I I think that Vikings are trying everything they can here to give Aaron Jones a better chance to play the entire season and he's going to be entering at close to 100% if he's not 100% at the beginning of the season and this is a edge that the Vikings can potentially get just by having individual plans for players and health is such a big deal in the NFL and so we'll see I mean my expectation is still very high for Aaron Jones he came across as incredibly confident in where his body is I think it was also Adrien Peterson who Once Upon a Time predicted he would play another 10 years or something in the NFL but Aaron Jones said he wants to play another eight years in the NFL I don't know about that that might uh be one of the oldest running backs we've ever had in the NFL if that's the case but just from the way that he was discussing it with us it seems that Aaron Jones feels very good about where his body is at and when it comes to that split of carries having Ty Chandler there and he also talked about trying to bring Tai Chandler along and somebody that he feels like is very explosive I think he said he's got the juice which we've seen before from Tai Chandler so having those two mix in maybe it's a 6040 type of split could also help get the most out of Aaron Jones um so an interesting conversation with him and I I think he's a real Swingman to this season because if the Vikings can run the football better and behind the scenes I'm absolutely certain this has been a major priority for them because they know that there's gonna have to be a little bit of Shanahan kubak style building the passing game off the Run looking for play action deep shots which get set up by handing the ball to Aaron Jones and get set up by having big Personnel at times in the game but the other team has to be worried that you're going to do something with it if you don't run successfully but you have two tight ends out there then you just have two guys who aren't that much of a threat to catch the ball down the field but if you can as we saw uh with the Vikings in say like 2019 when they had Irv Smith as a rookie and Kyle Rudolph you saw teams really struggle to deal with Delvin cook in the backfield the play action game off the big Personnel so if you can make it work from a run game perspective then it can be pretty good I think that's what they want to do with Aaron Jones and knowing that there are some limitations compared to Kirk Cousins that Sam darnold has he's going to be a big deal for the team this season all right jiren hall all of you jiren Hall fans I'm sorry but you're going to have to exchange your jerseys for somebody else who is who took his number I think Will reard hey that's not bad so if you had the jiren hall 16 you could just put some tape over it that says will rard uh I'm kidding but jiren Hall's a Seahawk and I'm not sure what went into jiren Hall's thinking the Vikings said that they wanted to bring jiren Hall back having four quarterbacks who you know three of them know the offense makes sense they had to use four quarterbacks last year but I think that if you were upset that jiren Hall is signing somewhere else I don't know what to tell you that this wasn't somebody who was at all in the mix or the running for a future starting quarterback and I was pretty skeptical that he could be even a future backup quarterback because he had never really shown that and even when he was in the preseason game the last play that he played in preseason he took a huge hit and you were concerned that jiren Hall was never going to be able to play at the speed of the NFL and that it it was going to be potentially um dangerous for him to be out there considering the way he got hurt against the Falcons the hits he took when he was out there for the Packers so the best of luck to jiren Hall in his future because the way he handled the whole situation was very good and he was somebody that worked professionally and represented the franchise well and was good in the locker room and all those things but it's not it's not something you should be worried about don't lose any sleep about jiren Hall signing with another team because I don't think he was ever in this team's plans even the backup quarterback for next season I just can't see it because usually that role to go along with JJ McCarthy would have been a proven backup somebody who started a lot of games I don't know if it'll be Mullins or someone else but it will be a veteran it's not just going to be a guy who has barely played and when he has it's it's been him getting whacked a lot by the opposing team so uh again good good for jiren Hall maybe he gets another chance to be a backup somewhere else and develops a little bit more but a new start for him with the Seattle Seahawks and have to include this one because it's hot this is something that we could go on TV and we could yell at each other about this is one of those those debate show topics ESPN's football power index that's extra football with more power in a form of an index simulated the season and found that the Vikings are drafting number one overall I understand why a simulation would come up with something like this because if you plug in Sam darnold's past history into a simulation you would probab probably not get the greatest results out of that however uh did Sam darnold's teams even draft number one at any point I mean I don't even know if that ever happened he had a seven- win season where he went seven and six as a starter with a Jets he went eight and nine with the Carolina Panthers I mean I think it's a pretty tough sell to me that a team would this much talent with Justin Jefferson and I'm sure that the NFC North is also a factor as well but with Brian Flores Kevin oconnell the The Supporting Cast we just talked about Aaron Jones the offensive line that has two very good tackles an experience Center there's just way too many good veteran players here to say that they're going to pick number one uh I can get to well all right they are going to miss the playoffs or they could even have a tough season considering the schedule but number one overall draft pick uh I I don't know about that football power index that would take catastrophe after catastrophe after catastrophe and well the Vikings have had that in the past this franchise has just not been in that position in order to get there you have to have everything go wrong and there is a scenario where it could happen and that scenario is Nick Mullins if Sam darnold were to get hurt and they had to play Nick Mullins over a very extended period of time over 10 games or something like that and they had nothing else except for him and Brett rippen then I suppose it could happen that's usually what happens to a team that ends up drafting number one is often times they get their quarterback hurt or in the case of Carolina that gave their pick to the Chicago they had drafted a quarterback the year before and he was extremely bad along with their roster that had been tanking before and had been horrendous I don't think the Vikings are in that spot I mean when you go just through the players that they have on the defensive side uh the the grenard van GLE Harrison Smith even Stefan Gilmore had a really good season last year last in the league I mean we're talking about maybe three or four wins all season long to get to the number one spot just can't see that happening uh and uh some of you were online last night and saw me say and I'll say it again that in this scenario uh somebody brought up the idea of the Vikings drafting another quarterback that is not going to happen uh from what they saw from JJ McCarthy I think that JJ McCarthy was had he not torn his biscus going to go to Cleveland and make his case for starting in week one and if wasn't going to start in week one then it was going to be early in the season as soon as Sam darnold Hits some stumbling blocks he was going to start they loved what they saw from JJ McCarthy they believe he is the future franchise quarterback that they're going to build around that the draft evaluations whether shadur Sanders or somebody else Carson guy from Georgia whoever is better as a prospect does not matter because JJ mcth has done it in a real NFL setting so no matter where they end up drafting in fact if it was that high if everything went completely to hell and they didn't fire the coaching staff uh and the general manager and that would be a thing if they drafted number one and the wils want them to win then that might be the case because that's just the nature of the Beast I still wouldn't think that was a good idea but it might be uh something that happens if they're that bad it's going to feel like really really really terrible if that ended up being the case but if that were to happen then the Vikings could do the trade down could get a lot of their draft Capital back and then help build around JJ McCarthy so there you go there is no chance whatsoever zero that JJ McCarthy will not be their guy starting for next season and if you see that anywhere then I just reject it just reject it what they saw from him was a dream scenario from JJ McCarthy and that's just the facts um that's just what was actually happening at TCO performance center I don't know what else is happening on the internet but that's what was actually going on there but I don't think that they will uh draft number one I think and we were talking about this today because uh we have these Walks from the media center up to the practice field and the media center to locker rooms you kind of walk and walk and talk and we were talking today about like what we all think the record is going to be like what do you think it's going to be what do you think it's going to be and it was like 9 and8 9 and8 9 and8 9 and8 everybody kind of thinks it's going to be 9 and8 because even teams that have terrible Seasons but have a halfway decent coach the Giants included I think dble is a halfway decent coach even they finished with six last year playing Tommy DeVito even the Jets who I think have a halfway decent coach and Robert Salah they finished they they won seven last year finished seven and 10 with playing Zack Wilson and I think Tim boil started a game uh the the Vikings last year they started what one and four and then lost their quarterback mid-season still won seven games I I just would have it would have to be so so bad H and darnold would have to be hurt in order for that to happen and who can ever predict quarterback injuries as you all know so that's kind of I just thought that was something that I saw rolling in in the ticker and uh on the internet as well I figured I would toss that out there that I just I have a really tough time thinking that's going to happen but then again maybe no one ever thinks their teams that they cover is going to be the number one pick I don't know uh so let me scroll back to the top I'll start answering some questions about 10 minutes from now Manny Hill will join and uh yeah we'll keep answering your questions but also uh talk about the things we are most pumped about for the Vikings 2024 season or fascinated by and I would love to hear yours what's Your Number One your most fascinated by you most want to find out from 2024 Vikings are otherwise but of course we'll do a lot of Vikings stuff uh one in 16 uh chocolate thunder says I mean that's before Zimmer took over 2013 they it was about as bad of a season you could have it was Matt Castle and Christian Ponder I think as the quarterbacks and they ended up with five if you have talent and you're trying usually you end up with at least five uh let's see Hamza says how big of an upgrade do you think Aaron Jones is from Alexander Madison seems like everybody was mentioning how good Jones looked in training camp can Jones be a huge differen maker absolutely uh this is a player who has steamrolled the Vikings in recent years and you've seen it I mean he's he is powerful Shifty smart versatile this is a superstar running back that the issue is not even how he's played recently it's just whether he could stay healthy and if he does to even some extent and isn't trying to fight through a bunch of injuries and they can mix Tai Chandler in there to take a little bit off of his plate then you are talking about a huge upgrade from Aaron Jones uh to Alexander Madison and I still think that Madison could have been better than he was last year had they blocked it up and had they had an identity for their run game I I think that's something that they can't just roll the ball out and say Aaron Jones save our butts in the running game it has to be more well planned than it was last year and I was a little bit surprised that they didn't make a change at the Run game coordinator position because it just didn't make sense to me watching it the it looked like it didn't fit the blocking of the offensive lineman like the blocking talents that they have especially Bradberry if you're asking Bradberry to just go straight forward is that really his thing or is it moving is it getting out his Mobility as a lineman has always been his strength uh he put on some weight this year I guess but I still think it's his ability to get out and to move H to reach blocks stuff like that the tackles are the best players you have and yet it didn't seem like much was headed toward them on the outsides so they have to improve schematically or nobody is going to be able to overcome terrible blocking but you're talking about a guy who has one of the best yards per carry marks ever not just pretty good but five yards a carry is one of the best ever and last year he was still somewhere around four and a half 4.6 um I think he will be a massive upgrade as as long as he continues to play and that's one of the reasons that talking about them being tremendously bad is just hard to see if you have so much talent with your receivers and in the back field and their offensive line at least has strengths to it uh Andrew says I'm willing to wager ,000 that Sam darnold is a top 10 statistical quarterback this season if you give me some odds I'll even wager thousands that he will be top five okay Andrew uh I don't bet with people aside from milkshakes so how about a milkshake what are we talking about statistical what does statistical mean I don't think that Sam darnold's going to to be a top 10 statistical quarterback I don't think he has to be for this team to make the playoffs I think he's got to be more like top 20 for this team to make the playoffs because of their defense and if we're talking about PFF grade are we talking about qbr we talking about quarterback rating he might not end up with a great quarterback rating because he doesn't complete the highest percentage of his passes I don't think Sam darnold is great at the easy stuff uh all the time I mean the checkdowns the slant route over the middle deciding whe whether he should throw that or not throw that into traffic sometimes he waits too long to throw it or doesn't see it the way that he's supposed to see it uh for quarterbacks that complete higher percentages like Kur cousins it's usually they're very good with anticipation and accuracy and that's not really his thing and quarterback rating usually rewards touchdown passes and completion percentage well I don't know many touchdown passes he's going to throw and I certainly don't think he's going to be one of the highest completion percentage quarterbacks and usually with PFF the more accurate you are and sometimes it really rewards conservative quarterbacks that just throw completions with that's one of the big problems with that PFF system it loved Andy Dalton I think with the Saints a couple years ago because he just took everything underneath and he didn't really have negative plays but he didn't really have positive plays so it said he was pretty good even though he wasn't moving the needle well with Sam darnold the big plays and the big negative plays sometimes that's going to come out in the wash uh maybe yardage could rack up quite a bit but I do think that they want to run a a lot of play action stuff and build off the Run game so I I don't think that he's going to be top 10 statistical quarterback but I do think that he can be in the top 20 and he could be a quality starter and keep them in a lot of football games that's a best case scenario it would be pretty shocking if he turned it around but if someone else wants to make a bet with you for $1,000 uh well uh I guess they can just reach out to Andrew uh oh gosh says jiren Hall is the Tyler th pen of this generation certainly is yep certainly is uh quarterbacks like that they work hard and they become fan favorites they have good preseason games and then you remember after watching one quarter of real action oh yeah it's not the preseason it's not playing against Philly's third stringers and the game I think was just too fast for jiren Hall when it was really being played out there and that's probably why the Vikings decided they needed to get somebody else Zummer Kev says I want to vomit every time I hear a number three wide receiver to be honest with you drives me crazy it's something that you guys talk about I feel like we've got a bunch of them that makes you want to vomit wow uh so number three receiver here's where I agree with you is that it can be multiple people and a lot of times what you have is two or three wide receivers that do different things and you use them for different situations and sometimes you try to throw the other team off by putting in a guy that doesn't usually run block and then running so the other team thinks oh well this guy's in he doesn't run block and then oh they ran or this guy's just a run blocker and then there's an example of this the touchdown that JJ McCarthy threw to Trent sherfield where he looks like he's gonna block if you go back and watch that play he's like I'm gonna block you and because it's Trent sherfield they thought oh he must be blocking and then he just ran by the guy wide openen touchdown that's one of his roles and what he can do Tristian Jackson's a different guy Brandon Powell's a different guy but the point that I'm making with the wide receiver three thing is that there clearly was one over the last few years and that was KJ Osborne there was no question who the top outside receivers are with Jefferson and Addison last year and then KJ Osborne is the number three uh you could call him whatever the XYZ you know you could use those or the the flanker and the what's the other ones nobody ever uses those old terms anymore but it's not the case now they need somebody to step up though and maybe it's jayen Naylor and maybe it's Trent sherfield or Tristian Jackson someone has to be that guy because that position does get a lot of Targets in this offense uh Daniel says we need some guard talk all I can tell you is this and this is actually quite important is the Vikings offensive line is healthy that's a big deal they don't have any injuries preseason going into the start of the year and I tend to think that a lot of success or failure on the offensive line has to do with just health and last year some of you were shocked when the Vikings had a pretty good PFF grade for pass blocking some of that is Josh Oliver's good at it um CJ ham is good at it and PFF counts the entire unit uh Kurt Cousins wasn't pressured that much though and part of it was they had no injuries on that offensive line passed I think the third week or something and they were healthy the rest of the way Ezra Cleveland got banged up but they wanted Ryner to play anyway and they were healthy and that's going to be a big deal for this year because you go one level down uh Ryner is on IR currently Blake brandle has already been a backup for his career the backup center Dan feny you don't want him to play an extended amount of time but that's a A plus coming out of training camp is really you go across the roster and they are mostly healthy outside of the big injuries that they had JJ McCarthy and maai Blackman sha Griffin back at practice today looked like he was going to participate fully so now they have a secondary that's healthy they have an offensive line that's healthy and if your starters are playing there then you're in good shape and once again and this is why I've always been for Kevin oconnell not playing the starters in preseason is once again he's coming out of the preseason into week one without any real serious injuries other than the ones that happened at total random the meniscus the ACL aside from that though healthy and we'll see with Jaylen Naylor uh angel dust says over under 15 interceptions for darnold I will go under just because it's hard to throw 15 interceptions not too many guys throw even darnold in his career hasn't been throwing 15 interceptions a year now if Kevin oconnell is pushing the gas pedal down and having him throw all the time then I guess that could be the case he could end up with uh 15 or more interceptions I might go a little bit under that 12 13 but you go 15 or higher and you've had a lot of picks at that point that means you're throwing numerous games of multiple interceptions and it's going to get pretty rough but I I don't think that's a crazy over under though if he plays all 17 games and he is Sam darnold and he's gonna play recklessly at times uh but I would go a little bit under that I think um Mike says is Aaron Jones on the Harrison Smith veteran Wellness Plan yes he is yes he is and you'll see this from Stefan Gilmore Gilmore didn't practice at all until he got here obviously at the end of the summer and now he's just gonna play because these veteran guys they know what they're doing if you've been around long enough you know how to pick up on a defense you know how to keep yourself healthy Aaron Jones did not need a ton of reps in order to be ready to play for the uh the Vikings all right you guys speaking of ready you guys ready for this here he is Emanuel Hill Manny Hill what is going on my friend let me put on my headphones so I can hear you it is hot routes time with Manny Hill every Monday and Thursday night you can keep asking questions comments reacting to the things that we're saying but uh Manny I am extremely excited to have you back to talk about the biggest subject in the National Football League especially everything Minnesota Vikings so how are you doing sir great to have you it's football season man I'm pumped I'm excited um I'm ready to go I mean we've I've already kind of gotten an appetizer with the college football season getting going the last couple of weekends and now the NFL starting this week it's uh it's it's it's a great time to be alive I love this time of year Well we were just talking Manny about uh the football power index having the Vikings drafting number one overall next season I have a a pretty tough time seeing that happen uh but I'm just reacting to people's questions comments so why why don't we uh why don't we have some conversation with the fans here and then we could talk about things that we're most pumped about you made a list I made a list for the Vikings in the 2024 season Mike says did uh you make your official guest at the team record I'm going with seven- 10 Manny mine is nine and8 is my official record I'm not changing it from the night that I picked the schedule uh nothing has happened that has changed this roster so significantly I mean Makai Blackman is a starter who got hurt they brought in Gilmore but aside from that they're running out the whole team that I thought that they would be running out and I think that they can get to that 500 Mark with this team what what do you think what's your official Vikings record prediction yeah I was kind of on that fence of like an eight n n and eight type of um type of season if everybody can I think stay healthy and and I think if what we expect to see out of this defense I think this is a a defense that showed a lot of improvement last year under Brian Flores and I think with the additions that they made in free agency um I think we should see a defense that's even better and you know maybe hopefully everybody stays healthy enough down the stretch of the Season where they're not you know we're not seeing a lot of um you know a lot of big plays given up like we saw late in the season last year that kind of hurt them uh when they started going up against some some better quarterbacks late in the year um but yeah I mean I'm really excited to see how this defense turns out and I think with the guys that they brought in it should be improved from last year and um and man Sam darnold If he if if Sam darnold can be as good as I think that he can be in this system with these weapons um I think this is a team that can be in the mix for a playoff spot maybe not necessarily get in but they'll be in the conversation late in the season I think so too but a lot of it does hinge on what Daniel says here if darnold does really bad I could see top 10 and that is the hard thing here because I wrote a a very large article it kind of got away from me usually you try to keep articles to 1500 words or something it's a pretty quality read I think I was like a 4,000 um so I just I kept Gathering and Gathering uh information but it's crazy how bad this man's offensive lines were in his past we focus on the receivers because he's got Jefferson but the Vikings do have two good tackles they can block it up better way better than what Sam darnold has had before and that's really been his main issue is when he gets pressured if you can lower that pressure percentage even a bit by just having a more competent offensive line I think you could get a better performance out of him and that's not even to mention that that the career of Justin Jefferson anytime a quarterback mostly per cousins and a little Nick Mullins but anytime a quarterback hucked a pig skin in the direction of Justin Jefferson the quarterback rating on throws his way is2 for his career which is what Aaron rogers's was in 2021 when he won MVP that we cannot understate what that's going to mean I think that Jefferson uh has even more potential downfield for deep stuff than he did with Kirt cousins because darnold throws a pretty good deep Ball but also is more willing to take those risks uh as well there's no denying it though if he stinks then it's gonna go badly and uh cup of Joe mama I I love the nicknames these people have uh if we get a top six pick who would your main priority be my main priority Manny is not talking about the draft as long as I possibly can but I will still answer this question just because your name is cupo Joe Mama it's defensive tackle and corner for me it's outstandingly those two positions you agree yeah 100% I mean I think you know getting Stefon Gilmore was was really good for the secondary that you know was really kind of banged up uh this off season and you know I think you're just kind of hoping that that unit the at least with the corners can just hold on for most of the season because I think they're pretty solid everywhere else on defense and if you can get a young guy in and that can be a a high impact player Young player next year then that would be great you mentioned defensive tackle I mean you and I have been talking about you know the the interior of the defensive line being able to apply more pressure in the passing game um that's kind of something that this defense has really even under Brian Flores last year was kind of missing we didn't really see a lot of that and certainly was missing under at donil two years ago so that is something I think we'd be looking at but with you I don't want to think about the draft yet I want to see how these 17 games go first to see you know where they'll be picking in the first round next year and and you know maybe if things go well enough we could be talking about a team that gets into the playoffs and and you know that'll be fun I think playoff football is uh is is fun and with what they did in the off season I think that should be the goal is to try and make the playoffs even if it's going to be tough sledding along the way um I'm I'm just really excited for what this season is going to look like for this team for sure they have yeah they have way too much talent to think about the draft at this point and that's why with a football power index I mean I respect Seth Walder a lot from ESPN the analytics person but all of it whether it's Vegas whether it's this it's all guesses and it's all wrong all the time which is why we watch I I I like to do and I haven't put it out there yet I got to put it out there this week I usually do 50 bold predictions going into the season and I think I've written like 30 but I haven't filled out the rest of it but I'll get it out I promise and I always go back and look and some of them are super right like I think I predicted the exact week that Desmond Ritter would be benched or something like stuff like that but I remember two years ago when I did it I said the Seattle Seahawks are gonna draft number one Gino Smith is their quarterback he's absolutely horrible I have no idea why they're playing him and he made the playoffs at nine and eight and then you go back and look can you go oh right because they ran the ball pretty well their receivers are excellent and their coaching was good and I think that the Vikings have a lot of those same signals and the same thing with Baker Mayfield uh you saw the Cleveland Browns even despite having Joe flacko who gave them competent play make the playoffs it's not impossible if you have other talent and uh a head coach who is good and I think the Vikings have a head coach who reaches a threshold of good I'm not saying he's great this is a thing you missed this during the six months we haven't been doing regular shows Manny but Brian Flores was adamant that we don't Crown players who haven't done anything yet so I'm not crowning I'm not crowning Kevin okell okay he's gotta win some playoff games but I think when you have a baseline for oconnell and Flor is we know that it's not an Urban Meyer we know it's not a Matt Patricia we know that this is somebody who I think moves the needle in a positive direction and when you have that it shouldn't be that hard to have a competitive season uh digits says uh the schedule is beyond nuts this year I'm sticking with eight wins it's its order is beyond nuts the beginning but then the middle is not nuts and then the end is kind of nuts how much do you factor a schedule Manny because last year I was thinking about all the times they play played like a backup quarterback remember when Tyson bent played you just you the schedule is determined by how healthy the opposing quarterbacks are on your schedule so right now it looks pretty nasty by week two it might look different 100% I mean you know they've got you know you got the Houston Texans coming to town on week three I mean knock on wood I I wouldn't root for this to happen because I really like him but if if something happens to CJ strad between now and then that that completely changes I mean you look at that matchup right now at first thought you're thinking yeah the Texans might be f in that game and they probably should be I mean they're a team that has one of the best young quarterbacks in the league they're a playoff team from a year ago they've got you know they've they've improved they they've upgraded in the receiving core with Stefon Diggs you know they got denil Hunter now on on the defensive side of the ball as well so on paper you kind of look at that game and think yeah that's going to be a tough game for the Vikings but if something happens to CJ stra between now and then again not rooting for that that changes everything for that game so I think I think you just have to kind of let these things play out and you just you just kind of see what happens I I mean you know week week eight against the Los Angeles Rams I mean that's figures to be a tough matchup are the Rams going to be healthy by then who knows you know we we just kind of see how we'll see how things sort of play out the rest of the way but that's why they play these games because you don't win or lose in a season according to how your schedule is set up before the season starts you right right you have to play these games to see how things uh to see how things turn out and I have the exact same opinion looking at it on paper though I mean it is a it is a a bear but speaking of bears you don't you don't know what Caleb Williams looks like by middle of the Season you don't know what any of these teams uh so I can't quite go on that yet I think having the hardest four teams or five game stretch I I guess between the Texans game and the Rams game is that five games there is really really hard and it is in the beginning of the Season you'd rather have it in the later part of the Season where maybe a quarterback is injured last year I just had ESPN's kayin Kaylor on the show the other day and we were talking about how something she had some stat that like 65 quarterbacks played last year and four of them played for the Vikings if you were doing the opposing schedule last year you would have said well you know the Vikings and Kirks playing and I looked at Mike sand and his opposing quarterback schedule piece based on the quarterback tiers and I think the fight Vikings were 14th as far as opposing quarterback schedule it was not as high as I expected it to be uh so we'll see I'm not saying that the schedule difficulty is fake news or anything but it's just hard to figure out in our position uh right now Daniel says my number one fa thing I'm fascinated by is do we improve as an offensive line Kirk was a statue took pressure badly uh more mobile and Young quarterback the ironic part of that is that Under Pressure Kirk Cousins statistically way better historically than Sam darnold but Sam darnold can run away and he does have Mobility to his game and a playmaking element that has resulted in some of the most insane highlight plays over the last five years have come from Sam darnold running away also some of the most boneheaded plays so I'm of I'm of two minds here Manny I do think that when Dexter Lawrence inevitably comes at him when the New York Giants play the Minnesota Vikings darnold will scramble away and we'll all go oh yeah you don't have to check down if you can scoot but then he'll also fumble and throw interceptions that that Kirk would not have thrown it's the ying and the Yang of quarterback play is figuring out how to deal with that type of pressure but the interior of the offensive line will be a major determining Factor here still even with a more mobile quarterback 100% and you've got you know you've got guys in there that you just kind of have you kind of have some question marks about and you just kind of Wonder like all right can they hold up can they stay healthy can they you know grow and improve over the course of the season and then it's it's gonna come down to Sam darnold I think just being able to make some plays getting outside of the pocket extending some plays he's got a really really strong arm so he can really make the throws down the field it's going to come down to him being able to do that and to just try and limit the the boneheaded inter CS you want more big good plays than uh than turnovers and and that's why I think it's really going to be fascinating to watch how this plays out with him because he's never been in a situation like this where he's had these kind of weapons this kind of a head coach that's really gonna lean into his skill set um I mean it's just Adam gays and Matt rule to to to Kevin okono and you know there's a Kyle Shanahan stop in there as well along the way last year even though Sam didn't play that much but it's i' I've seen enough from Kevin okono in in his first two seasons that head coach to know that he's a better Coach than Adam Gaye was like I don't think that's it's that's a pretty man coming in with flames here yeah I mean you know and Matt rule too I mean it it was just I I don't think you know I mean it it's easy to kind of make fun of Sam darnold and to say like yeah there's there was a lot of bad stuff there but you got to also factor in the situations that he was in those first couple years and the funny you know as soon as Matt rule was gone out of Carolina and I think it was Steve wils that took over Sam Darnell actually started playing a little bit better he started playing well so I I think you know I think that year in San Francisco I think really helped for helped him as well and um now I'm just really excited to see how much that really helped him and you know you couple him with with the weapons and the system I I think it has a chance to be really good but he's got a he does have to limit some of the mistakes that we've seen him make over the years I became a little bit of a darnold truther after Gathering as many stats as I could and I was pulling from NFL nextg all the PFF stuff and one of the ones that just sort of made my eyes pop out of my head was that Carolina didn't have a ton of other quarterbacks that played during darnold's two years there it was Baker Mayfield Cam Newton showed up for a minute PJ Walker and that was really it and those guys combined and that's not an impressive group but it's three guys who have played in the league they went 4 and 12 and darnold went eight and nine and their quarterback rating was under 70 and his was closer to 80 that's again not saying that he's going to be Joe Montana here but it does just suggest how bad the situation is because if you look at San Francisco's quarterbacks even Nick Mullins had big numbers in San Francisco Jimmy Garoppolo was a star quarterback in San Francisco and then someone who I think is very good Brock perie becomes MVP level and we know that the circumstances push the needle with quarterbacks the real question for me Isn't whether that's going to happen here it's just how much it's going to happen and just to tie that back in if the offensive line is good it's going to happen more the more clean Pockets you could give Sam darnold his arm Talent is outrageous if he can throw the ball from clean Pockets he's going to be good but I think that they have to play a little bit differently than they've played before and they have to be more malleable than they were when Josh dobs was in h that's not a good sample to pull from because he showed up in the middle of the season and this is the true challenge for oconnell Is that he has now an entire spring and summer to design this off and curate it for this man's skills so can you identify this man's skills what you have on the team Aaron Jones Tai Chandler that's a much better backfield and work to your strengths there rather than just plug and play into your offense and do it your way we're gonna see how that plays out because this is the first real look we're going to get at that uh Janet says most excited to see how good the pass rush is with grenard Van GLE Turner and some more experienced quarterbacks it is the sad state of last year's Corners Manny that they are significantly upgraded with sha Griffin who is bounced around and Stefan Gilmore who is our age actually he's in our age bracket somebody a friend of mine who is in his early 20s mentioned not knowing what the Matrix was or not having seen it or something and I was like but Stefan Gilmore's still around he knows what the Matrix is because he was watching it in high school like we were anyway a grenard van gingle Turner versus Hunter wanam I think is also an upgrade just like Gilmore Griffin and Byron Murphy is an upgrade over Murphy and Evans and uh Mattel is always playing the slot right I I think that the Personnel on defense is being overlooked for how much better it is now yeah you know going with the corners first I think Byron Murphy Jr moving in SL into the slot is a spot like that like that's I think that's a better spot for him versus having to be on the outside and I think we'll get you know I think we'll start seeing more out of him I think we'll start seeing him play better I mean he wasn't terrible last year but it was he was just kind of meth last year it seemed like but I think he was in a position where he was being asked to do something that might not be best suited for him in that particular situation it had to be that way because they didn't really have a lot of better options U Brian Flores last year but I think now you kind of you you put Griffin in there and you put Gilmore in there and now it allows everybody to kind of fit into the spot where they're probably going to be at their best and you know Gilmore's 34 years old but I but I think he's there's enough tread left on that on those tires to where he's he's still has this you know he still has the the smarts and the and the veteran Savvy that has made him a great player over the years so I think that's really going to help help a lot um I'm with you on the on the on the edge rushers the thing I love about this particular situation is you're not they are not GNA have to rely on one guy to do all of the beastly pass rushing work it felt like I mean DJ wam was was okay at times last year but it really it was like denal Hunter or bus like if denil Hunter isn't getting any pressure off the edge then the defense was going to get they were going to get gashed a lot and I think when you throw in this three-headed monster van genko granard and then especially for Dallas Turner because he now there's no pressure on him to step in as a rookie and okay you know Dallas we you know you're first round pick we traded up to get you now as a rookie step in there and give us 14 and a half sacks like that they don't they don't need that from him because van gko is going to have a role Renard's going to have a role these are guys that have been in the league for a few years now and have been productive um and now it's kind of like I think whatever they get out of Dallas Turner is going to be a bonus it's going to be a A plus and I think that's really good for him coming out of the gate because there's not going to be a lot of pressure on him so I it it's going to be fun I I'm I'm with the commenter I think this defense is going to be um really really fun to watch uh because I think it's starting to really kind of shape into Brian flores's Vision as well and I think that's going to be really important and with Van GLE he has been a little banged up in his career so a lot of the players like even granard as well they come along with a bit of that asterisk of they have to play and they have to be healthy I don't think people know how good Andrew van GLE is because he has not been a double digit sack guy and he's played for the Miami Dolphins so I don't know how many Miami Dolphins games you were looking at one of their outside linebackers for but this is a guy who's been way up there by PFF and when I went back and looked at him after they signed him like whoa this dude is all over the field they line him up in different spots but he makes plays he even in training camp he was getting sacks and interceptions he is an all-around type of player that's one of the reasons you believe in Brian Flores is he identified this guy as a fifth round draft pick out of Wisconson and he just starts making plays that's who they brought in here is someone who can do multiple things can get after the passer he's quick he could bend around the edge he's a smart player that's something that they just didn't really have up there last year it's DJ wanam was the extreme Poor Man's version of that who could sack Justin Fields if he was hanging around the pocket for four seconds but uh van gingle makes makes plays and I'm excited to see just where he lines up and how they work this combination I think that's what Janet was talking about too is how they work that combination of those three guys it is more versatile than denal Hunter who's really just a lineup on the the left defensive end and that's it uh Zumer Kev League Most interested I tossed it out there for folks for most interested stuff because we've got our lists lack of teams with answers at quarterback and limited quarterback options in the draft in free agency are this many teams going to be content to be the 2021 Vikings so who who are we talking about who doesn't have answers at quarterback uh right now because I always think Manny that it feels like at the beginning of a season everybody's got it figured out and then four weeks into the year we go uhoh there's a bunch of teams that don't Cleveland uh I just pulling up my list of NFL teams Cleveland is definitely stuck from what I saw from deshun Watson I don't think that that's going to change from what it's been over the last few years Pittsburgh Steelers oh can you imagine they're talking themselves into in Pittsburgh because they always do and their fan base is insane Russell Wilson and just Fields but it's not a good scene we'll see about Tennessee I'm curious about will Levis since the Vikings passed on him and he showed some flashes last year showed some flashes of bad last year there's a couple the Giants are another team that doesn't have a future quarterback I don't think it's Daniel Jones they're trying to grind out a playoff appearance so they can keep their jobs with Daniel Jones you talk about this is why it was so important that they drafted McCarthy Manny because we just Zumer kev's point about the 2021 Vikings we felt hopeless it was just the what you're not winning the Super Bowl with that team and the future you're not drafting a quarterback because you weren't bad enough and what and what is this and I think that if you're a team like the Giants you have to be saying what is this they don't have a great team around their quarterback but if they were to get a good quarterback with Malik neighbors and their defense they could start they have a good left tackle they could start building but with Daniel Jones in that contract they can't even do that I think a team that maybe I'll be proven wrong about this that doesn't have an answer at quarterback is Seattle with Gino Smith imagine if the Vikings didn't have McCarthy and it was just darnold that's where Seattle kind of is he's good but he's not good enough he's supposed to be a filler while they could get someone else but he played too good in one year to be that and they don't really have an answer going into the future either Carolina I'm super interested in Bryce young I'm jumping the uh I'm jumping the gun a little there for our lists but I am super interested in that how about New Orleans Tampa Bay with Baker are they actually winning anything there that it's just this is a good point it's a it's a reminder that this spot right here the Vikings are in is one of the better positions to be in for the future with the Young quarterback that they were able to draft you know I'll throw Las Vegas in there as well know with mchu I mean he's not a long-term answer he's another guy that's just kind of a stop Gap guy um and I don't think Aiden OK conell is is the future there either I mean he couldn't even win the job out of Camp uh this year so um yeah I mean the Vikings are in a good spot like you said I mean that's why when you get when you get into a draft class like the 20124 draft class of quarterbacks if you're in need of one you got to take one you just you just have to and and try and build around that guy because otherwise you end up like the New York Giants I mean the the Giants the in a lot of ways the Vikings are kind of responsible for the Giants being where they're at right now because Daniel Jones bleeped around and won a playoff game at US Bank Stadium and got himself paid um and the Giants stupidly gave him that contract and now they're kind of in no man's land with him because you know know you don't really think that he's good and you know he's getting paid a lot of money so like do you do you want to do you want to continue to invest in him I don't know what the situation is as far as like can they get out of that contract or what you know or how soon they can get out of that contract but again like next year too it's like all right well what does this quarterback class look like next year I mean we know shador Sanders is probably going to get taken pretty high outside of him I mean we're gonna have to he lives if he survives with that offensive line yeah by the way I not too and and I you know I love me some coach Prime but him saying that his offensive line did a great job protecting shador against North Dakota State I I I kind of wonder if we were watching the same game that coach was watching smashed yeah uh Stefan Gilmore is old enough to remember when Deion Sanders was the coolest person on the planet that's that's a thing I I always say this about him like I don't think he's doing a good job or and I think the press conferences are a clown show but but it's Dion man it's Dion he was the coolest person uh let me just stop real quick before we move on and I I love what we're doing here answering the questions when we started doing this last year as a live show Manny we probably had a dozen people and some of them were my parents watching and now we have a big audience watching us so welcome everybody if you don't know Manny hill we work together 1500 ESPN for a long time he produced for Patrick royy one of my best friends huge W guy as well and we're gonna be doing the show together Monday and Thursday nights and I wasn't sure about uh whether you know we'd be doing the the answering questions and stuff but you guys are so good at this I love this I love this format of doing it so keep throwing your questions in the comment section uh do have a couple of AD reads for us Manny as as always and so far your internet's doing a great job so shout out to your internet that was a a joke from last year for those of you just joining uh that Manny would freeze once per show but I have to remind everyone uh and there is an interactive element by the way to the ad read so stay don't don't zone out on me Manny but I have to rewind uh remind everyone that US Cellular noticed the way that we use our phones has gotten ironic we try to put our phones down for dinner but the menu is on a QR code that is ironic we hit like on social media posts we don't like ironic which is why US Cellular created us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less that's ironic so let's find us again with us mode from US Cellular visit uscellular.com built for us to get started Also Manny Underdog fantasy is now a sponsor of this show which is fantastic F they are the easiest place to play fantasy sports also the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry you got to check out the pick them it's easy to play you pick between two and eight stats for your favorite players choose whether they'll go higher or lower and you can win up to 20 times your money going five for five use the promo code purple I'll tell you guys a secret if we get to 500 people that use the promo code purple I get a little bonus so if you could that would be awesome over at Underdog fantasy uh promo code purple claim your special pick firsttime deposit offer up to a th000 in bonus cash so Manny a couple of pick thems for Sunday let me throw I we'll do some more uh on uh Thursday night because there's a bunch of them for this game let me just throw one at you right now since we're talking about Underdog fantasy attempts and completions and yards for Mr Sam darnold the higher or lower numbers are 20 and a half for completions 33 and a half for attempts and 244 and a half for yards would you go higher or lower than 2433 with 244 for Sam darnold against the Giants I go lower on completions I will go I'll go higher on attempts because I KC loves to as you say push the pass button a lot um and I'll go I'll go higher in yards as well I think he's gonna hit a lot of I don't think he's gonna complete a ton of passes but I think there's going to be a lot of deep deep passes to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison uh to make some big plays so you're thinking a little bit of a lower completion percentage there I will I'm going to go lower on everything I I think that darnold's going to end up with something like 200 15 yards on 16 for 28 passing and if that's the case if they don't need to throw 33 times they're going to win another stat from doing way too much Sam darnold research when Sam darnold threw 35 passes or more in his career he was two and 14 and crazy thing is Kirt cousins was I think 10- six or something when he did it under KOC because he threw so much with Kirt cousins all the time and I mean that's because he's playing from behind it's not where you want to be with darnold you you don't want to be making him throw uh 35 passes he was the he was the rich Co Tite Jets when he threw that many passes my goodness yes exactly uh Mike says it's so hard to know what this team will look like feels like an all new defense new quarterback brings a question about the offense what if we are actually good what if they're actually good Manny then great right yeah right great uh what okay put it put it this way uh because there's limitations to how much you can write in the comment box what are the chances they're actually good I think there's a decent chance I honestly think there's a decent chance I mean I I think that the the weapons Sam darnold has talent I think this this this defense has talent I think there's a chance that this team can really compete and be really good I'm not putting them in the NFC champ ionship game by any stretch of the imagination certainly not doing that but I think there is a chance that they can compete well enough win enough games and get into the playoffs what they do after that I don't I don't think we'll see much out outside of that but I think that there's enough here to to make you think I mean they lost kurk cousins you know what a like I guess 40% of the way into the season last year the Packers gameer got hurt what was that was that like week that week eight week eight yeah week eight so about halfway through the season yeah so about halfway through the year they lost Kirk and they were in the conversation with Josh dobs and Nick Mullins playing quarterback for them I mean things kind of fell apart at the end but you know those first couple of games they they kept themselves in the conversation and so I think with you know you factor in Sam darnold being here now going through an entire off season going through an entire training camp um you know I think Sam can have an opportunity to play kind of free because he doesn't have JJ McCarthy looking over his shoulder and he do's not a lot of pressure on him it is kind of like all right Sam here you go 17 games you're GNA play and if you're as long as you're healthy I mean don't throw 30 interceptions like jamus Winston but you know if you play at least competently you're going to play this entire season um um and I think that's going to help with Sam as well I I just I think if they can kind of weather this storm of these early tough games get off to a good start against a bad team in the Giants at least in theory a bad team in the Giants this coming Sunday and then hang in there for these first five six games if you're around 500 then I think you've got I think you've got a shot to really contend and get yourself in the playoff conversation Sean says are you surprised that the Vikings are so undervalued in the rankings uh no I'm not surprised because everything with Vegas over unders everything with predictions is always going to come back to number 14 and anybody who is trying to talk themselves into darnold and I've got all the stats and somebody else uh Sean tweeted that the Jets line rankings from PFF were 28th 30th uh there was one year Carolina was 31st and the Vikings preseason offensive line ranking for PFF was was 11th I mean even just having good tackles is something he's never had before and you can get talked into that but at the end of the day if you're the predictor you're the power ranker you're Vegas whatever you're going to look at the stats that he's put up in his career and say I just don't see how this team is supposed to be good and it's hard to get over that with even with everything else that we have been talking about for this entire show where I think that they're going to be better than that you think they're going to be better than that it would surprise me if if darnold didn't have his moments throughout this year and didn't win games you talk about the end of last year they are winning in Denver and Madison fumbles they are winning in Denver and courland Sutton catches a punt off the arm of Russell Wilson in the back of the end zone for a touchdown Cincinnati T Higgins makes the most absurd catch and scores touchdown in Randy Moss fashion in part because Makai Blackman started celebrating thinking his teammate had caught it and and and they blow a tush push twice because I guess they thought Brandon Powell was the right guy to push the tush but I I don't understand any of that but they they should have won that game and then uh even Detroit Justin Jefferson is running wide open and all Nick Mullins has to do is just Loft it out in front of him and they score a touchdown they win that game these are games with quarterbacks that are worse than Sam darnold and they were able to win in Atlanta they're able to win big against New Orleans that's pretty convincing to me that you can play with other teams in the playoff race it doesn't mean like you said they're going to the NFC Championship but I think you can be in the conversation a lot more uh than what some people are predicting oh uh where is my article oh I I'm sorry I'll just I'll just plug the newsletter that thank you digits uh if you go over to purple insider.com or actually even if you type in purple insider. foot I bought that uh you could go over there and that's where you can sign up for the newsletter and you can see my articles but I left the Sam darnold one completely free so you don't have to sign up or pay for it you can just go and check it out purple insider.com and give that a read uh but I dug into everything I could possibly find looked in looked back at every quote from Jefferson from oconnell from darnold and talked to three different analysts about it so did uh my deep research on that Wade says if darnold plays 17 games over under for him 4,000 yards 30 touchdowns 20 interceptions 62% completion percentage what does Manny think wait does it Manny's been here for one show and uh Wade is done with me asking these questions he only wants this from you Manny so what do you think for each one of those numbers uh okay yards 4,000 yards I'll say over because I don't think it's that it's not as hard to throw for 4,000 yards in the NFL anymore as it used to be um if this was 1995 I would probably say under you just didn't see it that much um 30 touchdowns I think is a little bit aggressive I will so I'll say less there um and I think he'll throw less than 20 interceptions 20 interceptions in 2024 in the NFL is a lot I mean if you're throwing 20 picks I mean now we did see we did see jamus Winston throw 30 just a handful of years ago but um I think if you're throwing 20 or more interceptions in today's NFL you're just flat out bad and I don't think Sam darnold with these weapons with this team and this system is going to be that bad so I I would say you know 41 4200 yards 25 touchdowns and maybe like 13 interceptions I think that's good uh there were only I think four guys who threw 30 plus touchdowns last year so I don't think that's gonna happen 20 interceptions also as you said that takes a rare Bad season this is not 1996 Stefan Gilmore is old enough to remember when quarterbacks threw 20 interceptions sometimes but most uh younger people are not because it doesn't happen Much Anymore 62 is a great number for his completion percentage that's very close the other ones are easy easier if he stays healthy should go over over 4,000 yards but even if it was 3,800 3600 and it was a much more 18 touchdowns nine interceptions they run the ball more hit on a few deep shots you could still be in the conversation I think uh Manny we still have a lot of uh questions from people but I want to get to our list I don't want to let that get away from us uh you're here until 8:30 I do I go Marathon style so I'll probably stay even after you go you have another job I don't I just sit here and answer football questions so um let's talk about your list and we could go back and forth on this things that we are most excited for for the Vikings 2024 season and the overall NFL 2024 season and I did figure out how to play some music underneath this so I could also uh try to do that if I can get a okay let me turn it down a little how's that you want this for for a for a ranking bit here let's do it I love it okay all right let's go all right you go first okay well we kind of hinted at this earlier we we we mentioned this earlier um I'm really excited about the Vikings defense and what it's going to look like they spent a they spent a lot of money in the offseason getting grenard and bringing in Van GLE Blake hashman as well former Gopher for a lot of the local folks who have followed goer football like myself um I think this defense is going to be pretty good I think they've got a a pretty good chance of being top 10 if they can stay healthy and um you know and and play to their full ability and like I mentioned before there's not a lot of pressure on Dallas Turner to be just like a beast out of the gate now if he is and we saw some signs of it in the preseason then great that's awesome then maybe this defense can be top five um but I think this this is a unit that I think if they if everybody stays healthy um they can avoid the catastrophic injuries this is a unit I think that can be pretty good and depending on how Sam darnold plays it might be a unit that has to kind of carry this team along this season to kind of remain relevant in the playoff hunt I am going to go other side of the ball coaching which would be Kevin oconnell and how he adjusts and adapts the offense we've been talking about it quite a bit here on the show and I just really want to see how it's different is it going to be a little bit more like what Gary kubak would do with this team or is he just gonna have no risk it no biscuit Bruce Aran style whatever Sam darnold Huck it down the field let's find out uh how what you could do with that arm I mean you could talk about it all you want you could see it in training camp and how it's playing out but will it actually be something different than it's been before or will we end up with a little bit of square peg round hole like we did last year with h Josh dos that it just didn't seem like there was an adjustment that they could really make and I'm going to pair that with just Sam darnold's arm even if it goes bad you're going to see things from his arm that you haven't seen in quite some time because case keenum's arm pretty me Teddy Bridgewater's arm pretty me Sam Bradford's arm a lot a lot more like this but this is even crazier because Sam Bradford would throw from the pocket he could roll out a little bit but with Sam darnold he can be running that way and just flip and turn the other way and throw it kind of what people have been talking about with you know Caleb Williams and Patrick Mahomes he can do those things with his arm and it's pretty fun to watch so I'm gonna I'm going to connect those to just the offensive scheme and how it's adjusted to darnold and darnold's freakish arm what's next on your list next on my list Vikings related as well will rard man let's see this let's see this kicking game man I mean the kicking the kicking game for the Vikings has historically really going all the way back to Gary Anderson in 1998 when he was perfect during the regular season it kind of feels like ever since he missed a very Infamous kick in a certain game against a certain team at the Metrodome um it's just been a kind of a roller coaster of a ride with Vikings kickers really ever since then and Will rer was great in the preseason and he was really good at Alabama now let's see if it just Carries On And if the Vikings are finally found their Justin Tucker their guy that's just going to be their kicker for the next decade because he's really good and he makes as many kicks as possible um I I I want to see it it you know they may have had that with Daniel Carlson seven or six years ago whenever it was and then Mike Zimmer just decided no he's got to go because he missed a couple of kicks early in the season um so I I I'm excited to see how real will record does and you know if he misses a couple kicks this year let's just let's just ride this out with him let's just see how it goes let's not panic be patient he's young let's just see how it plays out but I'm excited to see how the kicking game goes this year shows how died in the wool you really are Manny you go right to the kicker uh I'm gonna toss this out there you know we've been talking about the schedule but I like this is crazy you'll never believe it I like good football players and I like good footb I get to see CJ stad I get to see what Jordan Love's going to be the San Francisco offense the lions are really good this schedule has a lot of fun on it Matthew Stafford in person is really something because talk about armed Talent it's ridiculous I'm looking forward to the players that they're going to play the Star talent that the Vikings are going to go up against this year is phenomenal Caleb Williams I can't wait to see what Caleb Williams looks like I show up at the stadium on Sundays often thinking about I'm really interested like last year against Kansas City Patrick Mahomes in person I hadn't seen him before in person because it was who was it that started it wasn't Chad hone Matt Moore yeah Matt Moore started in 2019 yep the uh botched punt Tyreek Hill thing and the game-winning field goal all that in 2019 so I hadn't seen Mahomes before and I'm like this is awesome let's let's you know let's see what Mahomes looks like like I've got that feeling big time for week two and CJ St or week three and CJ strad haven't seen him in person let's go I very very much excited to see flores's defense versus some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL uh did you have more for Vikings or what do you got for around the league well just to picky back off of your schedule thing also one game you didn't mention December 8th the Atlanta Falcons come to town oh yes yes I hadn't thought too much about that yet but uh no I am much more interested in Dallas and Atlanta that's who I'm interested in that I'm I don't know what you're talking about I'm excited to see Michael penck play and come to us yeah right yeah we'll see we'll see that's that is on my list I'll spoil that the rookie quarterbacks in general is uh is on my list so what do you got for around the league yeah uh around the league yeah I I had that as well some of the young quarterbacks that are going to get a chance to play the the rookies I mean Caleb Williams is going to play Bo Nicks W his starting job in Denver um so those those young guys getting a chance to play and the year two guys you mentioned CJ Stroud Anthony Richardson coming back now for the Colts you know how healthy is he going to be you know is there going to be some growth and development with him you know all the things that we're hearing with Anthony Richardson is is you know we know the physical tools are there it's just you know his his his mind is there he's got a really sharp mind in terms of decision making and everything there's just some questions about you know accuracy and and ball placement and stuff like that curious to see like how that kind of progresses now as he comes into his year his his sophomore year coming off of that injury um and I think Shane siken is a I think he's a hell of a head coach um having the Colts in the mix like that with gardener muu last year uh was was pretty impressive so Anthony Richardson coming back for a year or two is going to be um really exciting so all the young quarterbacks that are getting opportunities to play un fortunately we're not going to see JJ McCarthy here locally but I think all of the young guys um getting a chance to play is gonna be really interesting I know he's not starting week one but I do think we're gonna see Drake Bay at some point this season it might be late late in the year um but the young guys I think we're going to see quite a few young quarterbacks playing this year it may be sac religious Manny but I'm excited about the Dallas Cowboys I want to see what it looks like Zimmer that defense Micah Parsons the drama it's either going to be that they are great and I picked them to go to the Super Bowl by the way I'm riding that all the way to hell I don't care I have Texans and cowboys for the Super Bowl and I'm curious about what you have uh is your prediction as well but I want to see if they can overcome all this drama what Mike's defense looks like there if this is finally the year they've been so good in the regular season and that it just hasn't happened in the postseason does it turn into a drama fest and McCarthy is fired or do they blow right past it and they're one of the best teams in the league because that's reflective of their talent and just in general what team that we think is going to be good goes down because Dallas also falls into this category as well people are going to laugh at if they go three and six and fire their coach they're going be like didn't you pick them for the Super Bowl well that Happ to me last year with the Bengals burrow got hurt and I'm like well and There Goes My Super Bowl prediction right away uh but I've never got one right ever in my entire life and that's why they play the games Manny but what team do you think that everyone thinks is going to be great and just totally bombs because I I was thinking about San Francisco for this if Brock perie regresses big time Philadelphia if it implodes with their coach which it kind of seems like it might with Nick serani and the other one might be Buffalo no Stefon Diggs their coach is a little uh on edge maybe uh after playoff failures and they've had to rebuild and retool a lot of things there they're kind of in transition is there one that comes to mind for you yeah Philadelphia comes to mind for sure I I just with all the drama we heard about with Nick serani and and Jaylen Herz you know that that relationship being awkward fractured whatever you want to call it it it does raise some some uh some question marks you know some some veteran leaders that have been kind of Staples with that team over the years are not there they retired you know Fletcher Cox isn't there anymore Jason Kelce retired as well th those are guys that were like glue guys leaders in the locker room um terrific players on the field obviously but you know guys behind the scenes that really kind of held teams together and those guys aren't aren't there anymore so now it really does kind of fall on all on Jaylen Herz and Nick Nick serani to kind of keep that thing going and bounce back from their meltdown last year um you know another team that I'm thinking about just because I don't I think we're kind of Assuming he's going to be the Aaron Rogers of old but I'm I'm curious about the New York Jets you know Aaron's coming off of a you know pretty significant injury an injury that we saw that we're going to see Kurt Cousins come back from as well I think you know we we're kind of assuming that Aaron roggers is just gonna come back and be Aaron Rodgers because he I don't know got ey on some iasa or something in the offseason or I don't know was on some Island whoever knows what whatever the hell he was doing but um Aaron Rogers is 40 years old and he's coming off of a significant injury the off season was kind of weird cuz he was like not showing up and they were like there was this talk about like well they unexcused absences and you know the communication between him and Robert Salah Robert Salah is a guy that I I really like I think he's a good coach but if his quarterback is just kind of marching to the beat of his own drum like he has forever um I kind of wonder if there's going to be if that's going to come to a head and if that team that has a lot of pressure on it if they're going to be able to to maintain that and and really compete on paper they should be terrific they should be winning that division um you know between them and Miami I think but I think we got to see it play out first probably the widest variance of any team in the league could win four games and have it completely fall apart and Salah loses the team and everything else or uh they could end up being in the AFC Championship game because Aaron Rogers shocks us all and wins another MVP of 40 imagine being 40 also gosh someone would have to be ancient to be in that range of age uh I would never I'll throw one last one for me and then I just want your Super Bowl prediction since I've put the worst one out there as mine you have to do better harba does Conor stallion show up at the sidelines somewhere is he like wearing the Su is this is Conor stallions like this on the sideline somewhere just trying to steal or whatever steal whatever he could steal I guess what what Ridiculousness shall follow Jim Harbaugh is what I want to know and the other thing is too if they win and they make the playoffs and the Vikings don't watch out for the Harbaugh people they were very serious yeah during the hiring process about Jim Harbaugh and even when he got hired back to the Chargers I did a show and 60% of the audience was yelling that they should have hired Harbaugh so that that's one I'm going to be watching very closely that's one of the more we talk about wide variants I don't think that roster's got a lot of wide variants but knowing Jim Harbaugh he could just get them to the playoffs or it could be a complete disaster so who's your Super Bowl pick before you go Manny um I'm gonna go with the Baltimore Ravens I think Lamar Jackson and Company I think they get over the hump I don't think Lamar is going to win the MVP again this year here but I think that team is going to finally get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl um you know what Matthew I think the Detroit Lions are gonna go you're the second guest of the day who's picked the Lions you won't be surprised that our friend Brian Murphy Lions as well he had to so lions in the Super Bowl would really be something Lions Ravens and I'll pick the Ravens to win it okay I like that I I'll pick uh I'll pick the Texans to beat the Cowboys in the Super Bowl because you just never look the Chiefs will probably make it I and one of us should just pick the Chiefs but how could you pick the Chiefs the other team murf picked Cincinnati which I think is a really good team that last year had the group to do it and then burrow got hurt and they still won a lot of games with Jake Browning it also could be someone like la like not the Chargers but the Rams they got there before they've built that team pukaa and Cooper cup have not really been healthy at the same time if they can get to that point they've got a running game now the NFC is wide open there's nobody I think that there will be some regression with San Francisco and there's nobody that is just the clear cut NFC you are the team that that is going to be the BigTime favorite like there is in the AFC with Kansas City Cincinnati Buffalo still gets that treatment in Vegas so we have to mention them as well and then Houston that's kind of the the big group along with Baltimore there it could be any one of those teams though going to the Super Bowl so uh Manny this is good man this is good to be back with the hot routes every Monday and Thursday Manny Hill is going to join me it'll be the same format as it was tonight I will start out the show a little bit earlier go through some of the notes from TCO performance center then Manny will come on we'll have our topics we'll answer your questions did you enjoy answering questions Manny I I I love this format of people jumping in and talking with us making it a whole kind of group effort here I love it I love to hear from from the listeners and the viewers and get their perspective and just talking football I mean it's uh this is fun man I can't wait looking forward to Thursday and looking forward to uh every Monday as well and thank you very much for that comment I appreciate that people are loving it people are loving it some people wanted to know where you were I was like what am I I'm not going to make you come back in June and uh when when you have a life but during football season you have no life other than football I know that so I will see you on Thursday night I'm Gonna Keep uh answering some questions here for probably another half an hour or so and uh we'll we'll carry on but hot routes with Manny Hill Monday Thursday night and we'll be doing it we'll be starting around well I'll I think I'm going to start around 7 and then you're going to pop in 7:30 so what people started doing last year once we got rolling with the show was turn on the TV for the Monday and Thursday games watching watching the TV listening to us it's a great plan for you so thanks again Manny you and I will talk on Thursday night appreciate it man all right see you guys Manny Hill everybody that is a man who loves his football Monday and Thursday night I am so happy to be back with Manny Hill uh all right let's get back to your questions you've left a lot of comments so I'm sorry if I have scrolled by them and missed them I'm going to do the best I can to catch up talk for a few more minutes then I got an article to write about Aaron Jones got to go work on that as well uh Mike says if you predict nine and eight for the Vikings what is the division record I think it would be huge if we went three and three yeah that is kind of what they have to have it's hard to find nine and eight without giving them three and three and about the division those are the games that think about all the years where the Vikings were a much better te team than Chicago but the familiarity at this point in the division these coaches have been here over multiple Seasons so the Vikings coaching staff knows the Lions coaching staff knows the Packers coaching staff knows Chicago and that brings those games closer together to the point where when you're starting Nick Mullins you still have a shot to beat Detroit twice last year I think it's just because the teams know what each other does really well and what each other's weaknesses are and they become very exciting games when that happens three and three is still hard though when you have the way that the Packers played on offense the number of receivers they have when the lions are as stacked as they are but can you get even two against Caleb Williams a rookie quarterback against Brian flores's defense is an edge to Brian flores's defense and we saw last year when guys were inexperienced quarterbacks were inexperienced going up against Brian Flores they had a lot of problems uh Sean says uh keep in mind is when teams are running their own schedule Gauntlet before playing us especially uh running the NFC North Gauntlet yeah and when we try to factor in the schedule if you were even doing a simulation trying to figure out who has the harder schedule a lot of times what we do is just plug in Vegas expectations and then say all right well the schedule is based on preseason expectations but then Vegas is half wrong with all of their expectations anyway and what you're talking about is the other teams have to go through tough games as well and you never know how somebody's going to come in here and it was brought up at some point in the comments about last year with San Francisco Debo Samuel I think it was him right was not playing he was out and mcaffrey was banged up you just don't know what a team is going to look like when you actually face them so right now it looks tough that might change it might still or it might look different we just don't know yet and that could be a factor in terms of how their season goes and a lot of the whether it's nine and eight or whether it's six and 11 or whether they shock us and win 12 or something a lot of it has to do with that stuff how the other team schedules play out in 2017 we tend to forget that Anthony Bar hurt Aaron Rodgers and they won two games against the Packers for free because they didn't have Aaron Rodgers and they likely would have lost lost those games had they had them and they faced some other quarterbacks that weren't too good and it helped them get to the number one defense you don't have to apologize for it if that's how you get there but you need things to go your way in order to get to this nine and8 record that we're talking about uh Vikings fan says if uh Vikings go to the postseason with Sam darnold and he looks good do we do an extension with darnold or McCarthy for 2025 it would still be McCarthy you make the playoffs at nine and eight darnold throws 21 touchdowns 12 picks 3,800 yards you're still going to McCarthy after that but you would be very happy with darnold if they make the playoffs it's more of a belief in what they're going to be with McCarthy than it is the conversation about keeping Sam darnold it's if you could take this guy and make him into a playoff quarterback when his previous quarterback rating for his career was 78 you have a lot of belief what you're going to do with the franchise quarterback JJ McCarthy and I think that it was trending toward in training camp had McCarthy gone to Cleveland and taken first team reps I I don't think it was going to be week one for McCarthy but it was trending toward McCarthy's gonna be ready to go faster than people thought he was going to be that's how pleased they were with what JJ McCarthy was doing and you can already see some elements of JJ McCarthy's game that better than Sam darnold I think he sees the field better than Sam darnold does he could be a better decision maker which was one of the things that everyone liked about him coming out than Sam darnold there is a little more leadership type Moxy with McCarthy as well and definitely uh playmaking getting outside and making plays darnold has the wow ones but McCarthy I think can do it a little more consistently so if you could take darnold to the playoffs you could do even better in the future with McCarthy I think that's reasonable to think so that that would be the biggest takeaway from that not hey let's keep darnold around if darnold goes 35 touchdowns six interceptions is in the running for MVP and they have reached the NFC championship game then things will get more tricky I don't know that that's gonna happen but Vikings history is weird man so you never know uh test account says uh what are your thoughts on the cornerback room how huge of a signing is Gilmore what about the run defense I remember how the Eagles ran down their throats last year yeah all good questions the cornerback room is I don't think it's that volatile actually because we have huge sample sizes on these Corners that are going to play the most it was volatile if they were gonna run out Andrew Booth Jr and a Caleb Evans instead when you have Gilmore Griffin and Murphy we understand based on what they've been recently what they should be if they remain healthy Gilmore still has it he was in the top 10 PFF grade last year in man coverage he is a really Elite athlete when he came out in the NFL it's a lot like Patrick Peterson when he came out in the draft he was a top pick partly because he was an unreal athlete which it's there's still some of that there and then you add the experience that he has and he can make plays on the football he gets interceptions he gets pbus uh he's going to be better than a Caleb Evans was going to be I don't even think it should be close and what I found very interesting historically was that if Corners got to this age they usually perform pretty well because if you were 33 and you weren't playing well teams moved on so the fact that teams are still bringing in Stefan Gilmore speaks to his chances of being good uh Shaq Griffin has had a lot of ups and downs after getting off to a good start to his career but I he is a decent man Corner maybe they could do that a little more and Murphy's the same sort of deal where there's ups and downs these aren't Elite Corners there is a ceiling on the cornerback group it's not going to dominate but competent based on they're not going to make mental errors constantly uh I mean at least we know that that they're going to be in the right places and I think all three of them can make plays on the football but especially Gilmore should be better uh run defense yeah they got run over in that game but then it didn't really happen on a weekly basis I think their run defense was fine last year overall uh Harrison Phillips got worn down Jonathan Bullard got worn down and the one thing about that is that it's deeper now with this group of defensive tackles slash three4 DNS it is deeper but also you don't have denil Hunter and you don't have Jordan Hicks who is a really good run defending linebacker it could be a little weaker this year that Eagles game was crazy but overall I think I don't have it in front of me statistically think that they were a pretty good run defense and I would expect that again but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of a drop off if you're playing van gingle has been good at it but not grenard I don't expect uh Turner to be that great at it Cashman is not on the same level as Jordan Hicks was so there will be some give and take uh to this all right let me scroll let me scroll uh Rich says give us your hot take on McCarthy when he comes back uh do you mean like when when he comes back as in when he will return or like what he's going to look like uh because when he's going to return is easy he's not coming back this year he's done for the season he's on IR they didn't put him with a designation to return they may have been able to do that if they wanted to but you think about would it have been a good idea to have him rehab the whole season and then start week 18 or something what is that make sense or just have him focus on doing what he needs to do to to understand offense understand what it's going to be like on a weekly basis study Sam darnold study defenses all those things and then when he comes back he could just focus on getting that footwork back and getting the muscle memory back going to the point where he is coming back in 2025 ready to be that guy and I think it's a setback and it's unfortunate and it's not better that he can't play because he would have been in this season I'm certain of and it's just it's not the worst thing in the world as far as what he's going to be when he comes back I mean quarterbacks with no sample size hard to know I think he's going to be good right away in 2025 that the team that they're going to be able to put around him they could spend money on some guards uh he is gonna have the same receivers with Addison and Jefferson they can add to that group if they want we'll see what the Back Field looks like Kevin oconnell we'll see how he does with Sam darnold but I think that JJ McCarthy is going to be a good NFL quarterback on a playoff competing team right away based on the sample size of seeing him this Summer uh Curtis says do you think we found a long-term kicker in training camp yes actual games are different in training camp will rard put on a show and he's the best kicker that I've seen in training camp since starting to cover the NFL he's had the best of any kicker I've seen and I'm not even sure it was close even Carlson had a messy Camp which is one of the reasons that they cut him was that his training camp was not all that great but uh as far as what rard has done so far he is on a different level than all the other kickers the Greg Joseph's the kai for baths even Dan Bailey did not really wow you in a training camp and will rard has wowed Us in training camp that doesn't mean thing because they're going to play the real games but I do think they have uh their kicker if he's going to be Justin Tucker that's what's hard to say if he's gonna kick 30 field goals this year does he make 27 or 24 I mean who knows right that's the difference between a great great kicker and an average kicker is is gonna make 20 probably not but is it going to be 24 is it going to be 27 that I'm not sure I lean toward he's going to be one of the maybe top 10 kickers in the league but this is only off of practice and maybe just seeing anyone kick really good you get like whoa okay you got some I don't know uh digit says uh to get your future quarterback and star defensive end in the draft uh says worlds about quacy reup I'm sold on KOC yeah giving them extensions is something that I'm for just because I want them to be able to see this through uh we have to see the plan totally come to fruition and they have to win games before we really know they've got to get to the playoffs they've got to compete for Super Bowls that that all has to happen but if we talk about how they executed this entire thing roster wise and all the areas that they are improved from last year and where they were two years ago and having someone like McCarthy at this moment it looks like they got the right pick with JJ McCarthy we'll see what Dallas Turner becomes not crowning we don't Crown here uh we'll see what Dallas Turner becomes but I've been sold on the overall approach but the hard part comes next it's the easier part to take it take things out the older guys and then draft someone high and start the rebuilding process with some big signings but getting from that hey you're a team that's kind of in the middle and is interesting with your future Young quarterback to hey you're an actual Super Bowl Contender that's a hard jump to make and they won't be a success until they do it so when I talk about defending quo's moves from the people who are like do you remember the one draft that went wrong like that's that's a different discussion from how we will ultimately determine this thing which is whether they win playoff games but it doesn't take too much actual effort to look at the entire context and the entire picture of what they've been doing here to see that they're in a good spot now to eventually get there but they have to get there in order for this to be a success it doesn't mean Super Bowl but it means they have to have built a serious Contender next year 2026 beyond that in order for everything that they've done to be successful getting what they got early returns from JJ McCarthy helps ease that a lot because if he looked really bad in training camp or he just did seem to be acting professional or something like that if that's how it had gone instead of how it did go which was the best case scenario then we might have a little more okay uh what are they gonna do here but the plan becomes very clear when JJ McCarthy is looked as good as he did uh Janet says Aaron Jones is going to be the differen maker to help darnold take this team to the playoffs very well could be and if Aaron Jones is a top 10 running back in yards per attempt in total yards they have a great chance to be in the playoffs uh he is a driver of an offense and you saw the way Jordan love played off of him it's not likely a coincidence that Jordan love played as well as he did as Aaron Jones was playing as well as he did last year for the Packers uh dystopian Utopia good to see you uh says uh if the defense gets to top 10 territory this team could surprise a lot of people I agree with that if you go into each game feel like hey this other team is better on paper and has higher expectations and is just considered a Super Bowl Contender like the three or four or five teams that they play to start the season after the Giants if you have a top 10 defense then every week you go into that game think about the Raiders last year what did they finish with eight wins who was playing quarterback but they had a good defense if you have a good defense you have a good shot on a weekly basis to play with any body it just lowers the offensive ceiling of the other team it means you don't have to necessarily score 30 points to beat them um Buster says the top 10 defense would be refreshing yeah I mean so 18 and 19 defenses were good they were not great but they were good 2020 2021 2022 were a nightmare and then last year for a minute there they were flirting with top five to seven and then it fell AP part at the end of the season and they end up being average even average was refreshing in comparison to what they were uh you know two three years ago and that just it shows you how tough it can be to to rebuild that defensive roster and that's why the signings that they made this season all being multi-year contracts was important because they have to keep some of these players together uh for you know multiple Seasons uh let's see Derek says uh someone's website rated darnold 32 among starting quarterbacks only because uh there couldn't be 33 I'll give him a chance because we have no choice here's what I would say to look back at and I'm not saying he won't be the 32nd ranked quarterback he might he might go out and throw 17 picks and eight touchdowns and this is a nightmare I don't think that's gonna happen but it's in the range of possibilities if you were a person whose job it was to power rank stuff first of all may God have mercy on your soul that sounds horrible by the way I just I could not do that I could not be a guy whose job it was to power rank quarterbacks and football teams that just sounds so boring but that's a that doesn't matter I I like what reporting on stuff and talking with you guys I don't know how people power rank things but anyway where would you put Sam darnold I mean you I wouldn't have necessarily 32 because we have to consider the context here but I probably wouldn't have him in the top 15 17 because you have to go based on his history if you're looking at it from our perspective then you could see a little bit clearer what Kevin oconnell and Justin Jefferson can do for a quarterback but also if you're the power ranking man and that's what you do then if you put Sam darnold as the 15th best quarterback because you think that Jefferson's gonna help him then everybody on the internet's gonna roast you for putting him too high because his stats are so bad in the past so you put him 32 but go back and look at wherever they ranked power ranked quarterbacks from last year I mean tell me if it matches up with what actually happened where did they have Baker last year where did they have stad last year this is this is why I say like I can't wait to play the games because then we start to find all this stuff out and it's not just guessing anymore uh Sean says uh we saw brandle play only one drive in the preseason for people who saw practices uh how did you value his play yeah I thought the uh joint practices were tough on everybody because Cleveland has an unbelievable defense and their defensive line is just absolute monsters that was tough to get a read on the second day they were much better brandle we have 500 snaps of him playing in the league and what I've seen from him of playing those games and he hasn't played left guard and then combined with the practices that we've watched he can play at I think a Medi level so think about the levels that we've seen through the years Josh Klein was the mediocre guard and Below him was the Dakota doer that it was a rough ride and you never knew it was gonna happen and below that is the TJ clemmings the drew seama the watch your neck because that guy can't block anything we already know that brandle is not that guy that he's better than a Dakota doer that he's better than Drew Sama is he in the range of that Josh Klein that's where I think he'll be which is a guy who mostly does his job and sometimes he doesn't and you can work around it it's not catastrophic he's never been catastrophic in 500 snaps but is it going to be a needle mover where you're saying well this dude is just plowing people and he is way above average he's not a good enough athlete for that uh he's big but he's he's not the the dudes who end up with 90 PFF grades that are just body movers and never get beat are usually Trent Williams or Christian derasa or Quint Nelson the freak athletes but everybody else is in that middle range when you look at PFF grades it's remarkable how few great guards there are how few are really needle movers can you get competent in there can you communicate with each other these last couple years it's felt like and Ryner did a good job with this I thought last year and past Pro but it was can can you guys work with each other on a on a stunt or on a blitz that was a problem in 2022 and that got better last year and was probably one of the reasons that they graded well by PFF because they did do a better job and they also do have Ryner in their back pocket if brandle doesn't work out Ryner does one thing well but that one thing is important and that's pass protect U Matthew says who on the defensive interior could probably surprise or break out in your opinion who could you see exceeding expectations or making a jump on the interior of the defensive line specifically Jerry Tillery is the guy who has caught my eye quite a bit in training camp he's a massive dude and when mixed with Harrison Phillips who remember when he signed he had a a good history as a run stopper I thought that that combination looked pretty good to me uh with even when they played their base package and they had Jonathan Bullard Harrison Philip and Jerry Tiller that they played off each other pretty well and one thing that they do is create lanes for blitzers uh against Cleveland we just saw some wide openen blitzers where it's Jonathan Bullard or Harrison Phillips moving a a body taking the guard and turning him to create that lane or pushing him a certain direction they're they're pretty good at that and Tillery can beat people he's a really good athlete that's why he was a first round pick and if he gives them what he gave the Raiders last year which was situational rushing he could be better than we expect it could be a little bit of a swing player in there not he's not Chris Jones he's not Aaron Donald but they didn't have this player at all last year uh as far as who I could see making the jump or exceeding expectations that's on the defense there's just so many veterans who do you go with there I don't know if there is one on defense aside from well obviously Dallas Turner is a rookie so can he make a jump midseason maybe that the extra receivers uh the the Tristian Jackson Trent sherfield Jaylen Naylor somebody one of those three guys step up if one of those three guys steps up then uh they'll have a much better passing game if one of them does break out I just don't know which one I kind of think sherfield is gonna play more than we think that he might be out there a lot uh Derek says darnold Has Talent he just gets jittery and makes bad choices when pressured quick passing game would benefit him although KOC doesn't a lot of quick hitters right and that's what we're talking about with the adjustment so where Kirk Cousins was great was if somebody runs a 15 yard pattern breaking across the middle and it needs a little bit of anticipation and accuracy and good timing right out of the break he throws it out in front of the guy runs into the ball and catches it he was good at that he was very good at that I don't know that that's darnold's thing exactly uh is he going to live on swing passes to Aaron Jones and bombs to Justin Jefferson you got to be more than that but I don't know that it's going to be the same sort of timing stuff quick hitters can can he do that well uh Carolina tried that and it worked okay with him I mean that was really Carolina's strategy in 2022 when he was better was it was it was short it was short and then it was here we go deep down the field they might do it somewhat more that way than they would have with Kirk uh Todd says I can't wait to see your unfettered optimism Shattered by what this team actually is whoa unfettered optimism that is the first time anyone has described me that way uh once the inevitable injuries hit this team will collapse like a house of cards well Todd you are the life of the party here but uh when you say unfettered optimism as Manny and I talk about a team maybe getting to nine and eight it's sort of funny right I think that they have a lot of things going for him on this roster and I also think that the injuries uh last year had that effect more than they should this year so just even if you go position by position of course if you lose Jefferson of course if you lose Addison at any point or the offensive tackles it's tough you have to have your star players that goes for everyone but even having a Dallas Turner as your third pass rusher and not having to play Patrick Jones all the time even Jihad ward has some history of playing a lot in the NFL having Jerry tiller is an extra guy on the interior kamu gr Hill has played a lot in the NFL at linebacker you're not having to call Anthony Bar Fabian marrow they they bring him in as a veteran guy who's played a lot of football uh the safety position having Theo Jackson emerge I think that the depth of this team is better than it was last year it's not nobody nobody we've said this nobody's crowning any body and unfettered optimism is more of what we're trying to figure out is what's the path to them being a playoff team and How likely is it that Sam darnold could have this year that a lot of people think he can have including NFL Executives and Mike Sandos QB tiers piece I did a whole podcast on how people in the league think he could be a third tier which is good a third tier quarterback if things go right with with oconnell so I don't think it's quite unfettered there's there's fettering there's fettering to the optimism I don't even know what what fettering is maybe that's maybe it's bad I don't know it sounds like it sounds like you want your optimism with no fettering so I'm fettering the optimism put it that way Mike says uh most excited for the franchise as a whole feels like all the pieces top to bottom are coming together and that's what is interesting about this season the most is when you get to the end of it do you still say that do you still feel that way that the pieces are starting to come together is that the case in week 17 will you still make that statement uh I'm sure we'll we'll be around to talk about it and we can have that discussion do we feel like the pieces are there to go into the future and have this team be a legitimate Contender because I don't think it takes a lot of effort to see that off in the distance you don't have to have uh what what is the thing that looks into space you know you look down into it what is that called you don't have to have one of those you don't have to see into space to figure out why this team could be very good into the Future Let's see if we still feel that way because if darnold plays well then we're g to believe more in oconnell and if other players emerge let younger players uh who they've drafted Ivan Pace if Jordan Addison has another good season or even takes a step forward I didn't mention him as a step forward guy but he could be um and the pieces largely stay in place and then you can add 40 or $50 millionar of spending and a Young quarterback to the mix again it's not that hard to see like you don't need a PhD to figure out that a lot of teams have used this this exact same strategy but if a lot goes wrong then we might not feel the same by the end of the season um oh gosh says uh thinking about doing fantasy football this year do you have any recommendations on what apps to use well yes I do our friends at Underdog fantasy and remember that promo code purple and if enough of you use it uh I get a bonus so there you go Underdog fantasy sponsor of the show uh I got a fix fure out maybe I can come up with something some sort of reward for signing up and using the promo code purple but I got to think of something that wouldn't bankrupt me to give you if you sign up uh let's see um Derek says uh Brock pie will show his Mr Irrelevant level skill set finally his the car he's driving needs maintenance well it's not the same as last year the running back is a year older Christian mcaffrey coming off of an incredible MVP caliber season running backs after Seasons where they carry the bleep out of the ball not always historically great right after that and this whole thing with Brandon auk how I mean he he misses all of training camp is he gonna start slow because he missed training camp some guys who have sat out will pull ham strings and stuff like that like we don't know what their health is g to be like after going to the Super Bowl that's such a long journey and sometimes teams come out flat after that uh dystopia and Utopia says Rogers is going to suck Jets will implode as usual it's a pretty safe it's pretty safe Jets guess historically is that that's what's uh going to happen I have a family member who is a Jets fan and I probably mentioned this on the show before that in the middle of the summer last year after they signed Aaron roggers emailed me and said Aaron Rogers will get hurt and we're going to be horrible next year this is in June and then week one he gets hurt I'm like what and I I sent an email back said how the heck did you know and he just said like 50 years of watching the Jets so you guys aren't the only ones that do that you guys do it with kickers Jets fans do it with quarterbacks I guess uh Matt says best rookie head coach let me look at my football team list and think who would be the best jod Mayo jod Mayo might be a good coach but but I don't think that team's going to be very good who else are the new coaches in the league Harbaugh he's not a rookie but new coach is it just me or is there not a ton of them Tennessee Brian Callahan how about that how about Tennessee Tennessee might be one of those teams where we all just go what they're gonna be terrible they're gonna draft number one and then they totally surprise us because their coach is good uh coming from that offense in Cincinnati I like Zack Taylor a lot as a coach he could be I I think pretty good there if if if Will Levis could play I don't know if Levis can play but they added a lot of talent to that team this off season and it could be just the overlooked team maybe like the Bucks were last year a little bit the overlooked team that no one cares about and you go wait a minute they're in the playoff race Indianapolis was a little bit that way last year who else is new Washington's got a new coach you can't go down from where they cannot go down from their previous coach Ron Rivera was just all sorts of washed so it should be better there but Dan Quinn's not a rookie coach there just there's not that many there's not that many brand new coaches in the NFL this year uh Dave Canalis Carolina I would nominate I would nominate Carolina Raheem moer or not Raheem moer that's a running back Raheem Morris is has coached before in the league but not in a long time in Atlanta could be pretty good I like uh Canalis in Carolina because when you're that bad and then you add a bunch of players Deontay Johnson's maybe one of the most underrated players in the league for wide receivers and when you add uh offensive line I mean that's what that's what Bryce young really needed he need an offensive line last year their offensive line was so atrocious if I saw a clip that was going viral today where it's a Patriots fan and he's saying in the classic Patriots you know Boston accent you know we need to get an offensive line before we get a quarterback I'm not going to make fun of the guy and do try the accent but now I I don't agree with that if you're draft number three you got to get Drake may but wait till you have an offensive line to play him having an offensive line in front of your rookie quarterback is such a big deal and the Vikings being able to at least put something in front of darnold that's competent with good tackle play is really important because the top thing that these young quarterbacks have to adjust to is how fast the game is and even with someone like Justin Fields there was that whole scenario what if the Vikings had picked Justin fields and my thought was well he might have figured out how to get rid of the ball a little bit better because he was just holding on to it they had a bad offensive line the whole time and it was getting him banged up and young quarterbacks and bad offensive lines are such a terrible combination and it was last year with Bryce young it'll be better this year uh and even if they won seven games that would be so much better than where they were last season so I think they can do that at least be competitive it's not a great division Anthony says Rams are a fun long shot Matthew Stafford Josh Allen Justin Jefferson uh more wide receivers oh are his MVP favorites are your MVP favorites so Stafford had a great season last year not as statistically great as some before but he played really well from what I saw if Allen gets the bills to 12 wins again or something he could win MVP um I don't think that a wide receiver is going to win MVP momes though with more oh I see what you're saying with Mahomes with more wide receivers momes uh has a a great chance to bounce back to a huge statistical season Rams are are a team that you would be uh I think not shocked if they were one of those surprised like whoa oh the Rams won 12 again anytime a team has a coach that is as good as Shawn McVey and a quarterback on Stafford's level who I think has become a much better decision maker it's almost like as his speed and Mobility has reduced he's become a better complete quarterback because he's relying more on making the right decisions as opposed to hey I've got the arm Talent hey I can scramble and that's how he took all those sacks all the time I used to view Stafford and cousins as similar caliber type of quarterbacks who were really flawed now they were played different but they were flawed but they could have their Great Moments and they could have their down moments and the down moments of Matthew Stafford over the last couple years have reduced uh while he's been in LA and hey maybe there's a coach who used to be in La that could reduce some Wild play of Sam darnold I don't know maybe uh Jared says I simmed the a Madden Season last night set darnold is the starter even though the computer wanted JJ to start everyone wanted JJ to start even the computer uh he threw for around 3100 yards 23 touchdowns 16 Picks and they went eight N I could see it more yards than that for me but I could see it that's not a crazy season to project from Sam darnold for Madden and eight- n's not a crazy record it will be a success if we're talking about the last couple weeks Playoff scenarios that means a lot of things will have gone right for everybody uh Stephen says the Vikings have beaten the 49ers the last four times in Minnesota and I and I've been to all four do I go to week two I think you have to it's analytics Stephen you have to go and just biking San Francisco what an awesome matchup of uniforms and players the star Talent the amount of pro bowlers on the field with the 49ers the Vikings I mean it's it's it's good stuff it's good stuff it's good football I'm I'm pumped for that uh Stephen says how do we feel about Ken wongo not passing his physical I was not shocked I was a little surprised I would say that but he had this back injury last year and he you sometimes guys who are that fast are like that that they just get hurt uh and that may have been a factor for why they released him is that they were concerned with this new kickoff because one thing that I've heard about the new kickoff and observed is it's safer for some people and not for others and I think the kick returner it's not safer the kick returner is getting blasted a lot of times if people break through and they're hitting the guy like he's trying to hit a he's trying to go this way and he's trying to hit a hole but somebody can Blindside him um I think Malik nolles may have gotten hurt on this uh kick returning there I've seen some other guys get hurt some other returners and if you have someone that doesn't have a toughness element it might hurt you now with the return as opposed to it being a track play before which is what Kenny Wong was good at that may have all gone into it uh Rob says brandle looked decent in the Raiders and Lions game I assume you mean from last year uh strong missed the timing a bit should improve with practice uh Vikings outrush the Raiders and lions in those games yeah there was a few plays in the in the Raiders game where I went uh you know there was a um a time where he was pulling and he just completely whiffed on the guy he is not the most agile person because he's humongous and he was a tackle and I I I think that there's a limitation on how good he could be but solid would be good and i' I've said this many times on the show over the years and I strongly believe it average is great Blake brand is not going to get you to the Super Bowl but you need him to be average because bad will kill you how much bad you have on your team is often what determines your record uh you got to have greatness always to go to the Super Bowl but it's also about the weakest points as much as it is about the strongest points so don't be the weakest Point uh Isaac says they'll finish seven and 10 could see it a lot has to go right there uh Fus points out that feds are chains and restraints so my alleged optimism was very fettered I mean if I'm talking about nine and eight that's that's a fettering that's very restrained that's not unfettered as far as the optimism go I feel like that's this whole conversation we're all having is we're all restraining from saying oh man darnold is gonna win MVP and he's going to go to the Super Bowl and it's going to be unreal if we were in some markets this Vikings fans I think are very good at being realistic with things because you've been punched in the face so many times but there are some fan bases who would hear nothing except for that right they would be convinced fully that they're going to the Super Bowl Pittsburgh is like this they they're convinced there that Russell Wilson is gonna take them there and if it's not him it's Justin Fields so I I actually think the fettering has been fantastic you guys have been uh very realistic uh Matt and Diana says I have notice that things in football can be ironic yes just like US Cellular asking you not to use your phone because of us mode that's the joke uh what could be ironic in our game versus the Giants oh that's a good question what would be an ironic thing to happen in the game against the Giants first thing that comes to mind because we were talking about Wong wo is that the game is entirely determent on kick returns we go through all this stuff we talk about well how are they going to block the defensive tackle and the matchup of Malik neighbors against Stefan Gilmore and then the game ends up 10 to3 and it's one on a kick return that would be ironic if truly truly because I like to use the word ironic as of what it means which is unexpected because I like I I wasn't sure about the unfettered but I know what ironic is and ironic means unexpected the unexpected outcome is that it's a freaking shootout that Daniel Jones and Sam darnold are just firing left and right it's 320 yards three touchdowns against 298 yards four touchdowns no picks from either guy Jefferson and Malik neighbors combin for the most yards for two opposing receivers in history and we've got ourselves a 43-38 game between Sam darnold and Daniel Jones now that would be ironic uh let's see let me let me scroll a little bit more we have uh well cleared the twoh hour mark That's how excited you guys are about football and still big big audience here really really appreciate that uh Preston any comments about Hall signing in Seattle yeah at the beginning of the show I talked about it a little bit and it's just and I mean this with all respect to jiren Hall it it it's okay okay it's all right it's not a big deal it's not a big deal is my camera out of focus what did you mean M or Manny's um if it I can't I'm I can't tell by looking at myself Preston says my camera's out of focus you have to let me know if it is or uh it's uh I I I try but I'm not an expert in that in the in the audio video I've tried to be tried to bring you the best I can uh let's see Anthony says rookie quarterbacks need a running game if we can grow and expand our Run game this season oh no that's a good point this a good point in terms of how we oh 41-0 that yes the ironic result Brett is 41-0 yes 100% against the Giants that that's the right answer you you win on that one uh as far as the running game if if they they can put together a good uh running game that would be big for the future even if you know you're not going to have Aaron Jones forever that would be really big for the future because that means they are capable of doing it and so far we've thought that they were not really capable of doing it uh and that over the last uh two years let's see okay so uh it seems to be focused on the mic really so is it am I not close enough you think if I got a little closer would that would that do it am I clearer now if I'm a little closer I've been kind of just sitting back so maybe I had set it earlier to be like this this looks looks clear on my end may maybe that's a little better why didn't you guys tell me earlier is that is that better that's better okay so I had it set okay I appreciate that this what that's that's good feedback okay I'll I will make this my spot because I tend to when we're when we're just talking football I tend to kind of kick my feet back and lean back and I never think that the camera might be not adjusting or something uh anyway so yeah yeah Preston letting me know two hours and 12 minutes into the show I'm gonna need you to be there promptly when we start next time to check the uh the AV anyway uh I I've I've finally reached the uh the bottom of the the the comments section you guys are great tonight absolutely phenomenal I can sense your excitement just like I hope you could sense mine because we finally got football it's been a really really long off season great to have Manny back in the mix uh keep in mind the lineup that we have going forward here Jeremiah surles and I we usually record in the middle of the day Tuesday and then run it on YouTube later on in the evening Brian Murphy is up right now on the YouTube page and let's see Wednesday we'll do another chat Wednesday evening uh Thursday I'm gonna be doing a show with Andrew Kramer again that's awesome we did that last year where we previewed the game Manny's coming on Thursday as well we'll get other guests that we mix in it's gonna be great so thank you all so much for watching listening and I look forward to doing this leading up to the game we'll get some hardcore analysis into the game uh we'll get injury report on Wednesday that will provide a lot uh Jeremiah Sirles returns to the show I know a lot of you want to grill him on what he thinks of JJ McCarthy because he didn't want the Vikings to draft him so lots to do here and uh I'll just put Hunter up on on the screen there football is so back I agree thanks everybody for the really fun chat tonight and we will catch you all very soon you know what it is football