Latest / The Skol Hop / Somewhat Dry January, NFL Wildcard Awards, What’s Next for the Vikings | TSH Ep. 122

Transcript

Somewhat Dry January, NFL Wildcard Awards, What’s Next for the Vikings | TSH Ep. 122 · The Skol Hop

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome in to another episode
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of this Goalhob. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a couple of dudes from Iowa. We like drinking beer
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and talking about the Vikings.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do. And we opened up the show talking
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: about Super wild Card Weekend, which is kind of technically
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: still going on, but unfortunately the Bears won a playoff game,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: which means, by our own rules, we had to take
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: a shot of Jepson's Malort.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We did that, and that was the only alcohol we
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: had because we actually tried a really new and good
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and a beer kind of in the spirit of Dry
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: January from Big Growth.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, even though we're kind of doing dry January,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: but obviously the molort kind of blew that away. Anyways too.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: We also spent a good portion of the episode talking
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: about where the Vikings can go from here into the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: future now that the twenty twenty five season is over.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the future definitely seems bright, but I think we're
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: going to see a lot of changeover and it'll be
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: interesting to see where the Vikings go. Absolutely so, if
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you're ready for episode one of the school hop, grab
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: your favorite beverage and join us school cool. All right,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: We're gonna give just a quick shout out to That's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Badass wood Art. They made this awesome little piece right here.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: If you're not watching us, you should be watching us,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: But if you're just listening, what I'm holding in my
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: hand is a piece of wood art that says skull
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and in the middle of the o is the outline
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of the state of Minnesota. And it's made by That's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Badass wood Art, and it's it's pretty awesome. Yeah, and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: we're getting our very own custom piece that's gonna look
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: like this.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Yep, any episode now it'll be up there.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: It'll look like our logo, the School Hop logo. So
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: we're excited about that. And you can get excited about
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: That's Badass wood Art too by going to their website
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and if you enter our promo code Scholl Hop SKO
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: l h op all one word, you'll get ten percent
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: off any and all orders. Yeah, and they do like
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: more than just sports stuff, right, like pop culture, and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: there's a bunch of stuff in their store, so.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Even custom pieces too.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I think I've said before. The next piece I'm gonna
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: order for myself is the The disgusting act is what
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: it's called on the website. It may feature a prominent
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: former Vikings wide receiver performing what has been noted as
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a disgusting act on television. It's pretty funny.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I saw Randy Moss was on and the like,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the ESPN pregame shows on Sunday before the games,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and they all go around and you know, ask like, Okay,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: who do you predict who's gonna win? And they were
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: predicting the Packers Bears game, and Randy Moscow's no, I can't.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I can't in good faith give my vote to the Packers.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: They find me ten thousand dollars or something like that,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: The league find you ten thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, he
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: went with the Bears and he was right.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so so is that. But yeah, thank you.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: That's badass. Wood Art. Go ahead and use that promo code, guys,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: and let us know, send us, send us photos. If
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you do order something, comment with it or tweet at
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: us and let us know they're pretty cool.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Speaking of the Bears, yeah, I think you made this
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: claim that we were gonna do this every time the Bears.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it was you. I think
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: you mentioned it.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Are we like, is this like every time the Bears win,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: period or just in the playoffs?
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I think we mentioned anytime, god forbid the Vikings lose
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: to the Bears or any Bears playoff victory. We are
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: going to, as the skullhop take a shot of Jepsum's alert,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: which we have now. We've done this once on the
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: show before we had Front of the show Forrest with
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: us the first time, and you know, I don't remember
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: hating it. I didn't like it, but I don't remember
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: hating it. I'm actually kind of looking forward to this.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Don't smell it and you on.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: My face, so I apologize for the germs. Do you
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: want to smell it? No? I feel like smelling it
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: like makes it a little easier to pal it, I
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: think so.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: No, I just I just take, you know, as a surprise.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: It's a surprise, but yeah, we'll do a shot. We'll
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: honor this. It's kind of a physical manifestation of our
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: dislike for the Bears, and whenever the Bears lose, we
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: just won't take a shot of alert. Yeah. Also comment,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: let us know if you've tried milort, if you like malort,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I'm still kind of on the fence. I'm still in
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the in the category of I don't like Malort, but
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I I think I could be swayed.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I don't like it, but I'll do a shot of it.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Did you see the guy on TikTok all of December
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: that had purchased like the Malort Advent calendar. Yes, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: did see that, and I was doing this whole bit Alort.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: He's like, all right, here's day three of me trying
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: this calendar and trying to guess what it is, just
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: off taste and smell. And the joke was that they
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: have all Alort.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: They were the little like shooters, weren't they.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: That was pretty funny. But uh, yeah, ev, I think
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: we just shoot it school school.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that'll hit you.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: There's a burn.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: It seriously tastes like dandelions. It tastes like flowers.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm not really really sour.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: It's very sour, very bitter.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I'm not there yet. But I think given enough chances,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: which hopefully we don't get because I'm not drinking alert
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: on my own, you know, like it's strictly on this podcast,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: And uh, I think given enough opportunities, I could come
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: around to milort, but I'm still not there yet. It's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: still a punishment.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: But uh yeah, school, well we have some beer. I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: think that would be a good way for us to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: move on from I'm.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Still like, yeah, it's still it's still burning, like it's
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: kind of still building up inside here.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But you brought the beer I did, and we're taking
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Of a detour, a little bit way, yeah, in a
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: healthy way, healthier way.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: So it is January, and there is the popular phenomenon
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: known as dry January something. Obviously I'm not participating fully
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent in dry January. You just just took
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: a few seconds ago witnessed me taking a shot of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: liquor here. But I'm doing kind of a modified version
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of dry January. I'm definitely one that you know, I'm
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: at least a twelve pack a weekend, and you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: if we go out, I might get a beer with dinner,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and so I was thinking like it might be good
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: just to kind of cut back. So I'm doing what
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: would they call it, like a damp January. I very
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: much enjoy having the typical two to three beers we
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: have while we record on Monday nights for this podcast.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: So I think the agreement I made is that I'll
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: kind of tone it down and do more like one
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: or two for the month of January during the podcast,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: and then that'll be it for my consumption throughout the month.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: So kind of my own version of a dry January.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So the in the nature of that are one of
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: our favorite breweries, Big Grove out of Iowa City. This
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: just like within this week, they released a new version
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: of their popular eddie and it's called the Zero Eddie,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: and it's along the lines of their their IPA line
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: of the eddies and the Royal Eddy and the Easy Eddy,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: all the eddies that they have. This is just one more.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: It's a non alcoholic hazy IPA. If you've ever tried
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: an a beer, you can you can kind of attest
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: that there are some that taste pretty good, there are
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: some that are like, all right, this is okay, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: lots of them are not great. You have not had
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: the Zero Eddy yet, have you?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I have not, so I'm excited to try it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I tried it just the other day for the first time.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: With Front of the show Forest He is also doing
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: a dry January. I think more dry than my version
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: of dry January. But he brought over a few of
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: these zero eddies, and I gotta say they're pretty good.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Didn't you say when you walked into my house? He said,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: if you were to hand me this and just a
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: regular eddie, I may not be able to tell the difference.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I didn't say, like taste testing. If you were taste
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: testing him right next to each other, you'd definitely be
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: able to tell there was a difference. But if someone
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: just like you know, you go to the bar and
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: they pour you a beer in a glass and you
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: just say, hey, surprise me. If they handed you this
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: in a glass, you might not be able to notice.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Maybe eventually, but like it's it wouldn't be immediately noticeable.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I think we just.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Let's try it out. We'll give it the old Austin
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: poor here.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: So one thing about na beers is it's kind of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: hard for them to have solid head retention. And I've
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: noticed with the zero eddie they did a really good
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: job of making sure that it kept a solid, solid
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: head at least for a little while. It's not as
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: as solid as a head retention as like an easy eddie,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: but it's definitely out there it's something that they put
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of time and attention into. You can tell
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: it's still very hazy looking. You're not seeing through it,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: only a little bit of lights coming through. It looks
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: like a hazy ipa.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: And it smells like a beer too.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it smells like a nice hazy ipa. Like
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: if you hadn't had an easy yeddy in a while
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and someone handed this to you, you might definitely think, oh, yeah,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: thanks for the eddie, you know, like, thank you for
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the easy eddy. So I'm just excited to get your opinion. Obviously,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I've had it recently and I really like it. But
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: school School, I think the milort is still it's still
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: in there, in there, but it's good, Like I can
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: taste the I can taste the hazy happiness of it all. Yeah,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I can drink a few of these. Yeah, I mean, wait,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: zero five percent Yeah, and it says less than point
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: or zero point five percent, so yeah, so there's still
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: probably you know, anywhere up to point zero five percent
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: alcohol in here. So it's not one hundred percent, you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: completely non alcoholic, but enough that they can legally put
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: that non alcoholic phrase on there. There's really nothing on
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the can describing it other than it says zero eddy
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: non alcoholic hazy ipa. So it is what it is.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: If if you're thinking about kind of cutting back or
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: even just trying an NA that you've never tried before,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: this one's pretty new and as far as I'm concerned,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: it's it's one of the better ones out there.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: On the market. Yeah, it is good, for.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Sure, absolutely, So I'm looking forward to the next few
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: and it's still gonna scratch that itch. So yeah, if
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: you're looking to cut back but you still want to
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: go through the motions and enjoy a nice hazy ipa,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: this is definitely one on there. Thank you Big Grow
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: for Bruins. Such a good It's still a beer, It's
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: just a non alcoholic beer.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Yep. So yeah, let's talk wild Card weekend. The Vikings
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: didn't play, but we can still do Roses, Thorns, game balls,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the whole nine yards.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: We want to Did we talk about it last episode
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: or the one before that? There was I forget was
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: it a score North person that kind of outlined how
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: close in hindsight how close the Vikings were.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: It was that kickoff return against the Bears that they
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: allowed that kind of was the lynchpin of it all.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Had that not happened and they beat the Bears in
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: that game and then they won all the games that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: they won. At the end of the season, the Vikings
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: are in the playoffs and the Packers aren't, and it
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: could have been between. It could could have very well
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: been a Vikings Bears playoff game, absolutely yeah, instead of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: a Packers Bears game.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: And you can't know exactly how things would have unfolded,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: but yeah, like you said, I if the Vikings hadn't
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: have let that Devin DuVernay long kickoff return happen, which
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: ultimately ended up in points, I don't know if it
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: was a touchdown or you know, at least points. If
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: they had held that drive to no points or whatever
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: and then won that game, and then everything else in
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the season happened the same exact way that it did
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: for the Vikings, you know, the five game winning streak
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: and everything, then yeah, they're they're very well could have
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: been that Packer Vikings game, could have been four. You know,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: they could have been playing for that final seed in
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: the NFC playoffs. And that's just how close it is.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: You never really know, like you move this one puzzle
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: piece and boom, it's all different. Didn't the NFL, or
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: like ESPN Fantasy do some commercial a few years ago
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: where like it looked like an NFL game and then
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: it like zoomed into you know, and running back and
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: he's like, this isn't just a four yard game. This
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: is the rest of the season. If I make this
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: four yard game, it's a first down, we go on
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: to win, and then we make the playoffs. It's kind
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: of like the domino effect or the butterfly effect. Like, so,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: they weren't too far off, even with such a frustrating
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: season for the most part, but they didn't make it.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: You can't what if your way all the way, you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: to giving themselves a playoff spot. They just didn't make
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: it flat out. But other teams did. And that's that's
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: where we are right now. Currently, the Steelers are in halftime.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: I didn't see the score. Seven six Pittsburgh is up. Okay,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: are you sure? Because I thought the the Texans had
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: scored that touchdown.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Sorry, you're right, I haven't seven Houston over Pittsburgh. Therefore,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I had them my wires crossed, no worries.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I figured we could kind of go through our
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: normal format here we give like roses and thorns in
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the game ball to somebody. So so far, Yes, there's
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: still one more half of wild Card weekend of a
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: wild Card weekend game to be played, but so far
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: throughout all of wild Card weekend, Evan, what's your rose
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: for this Super wild Card Weekend?
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's the fact that the Eagles lost, and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: they lost at home. Right, they were playing in Philly
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: last night. I'm pretty sure they were.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I think you're right, and they.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Lost despite the Niners losing George Kittle to an Achilles.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: It looks like so yeah, I just think, you know,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: none of us Vikings fans like the Eagles. It was
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit there's some redemption there of like, okay,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: good they didn't make it.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, for me, it's the Eagles fans. Yes, I
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: don't necessarily have a huge issue with most of their players.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Their coach is kind of a giant d bag, and
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: then that one big dude that isn't a coach, but
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: he's apparently abound yeah dom. He seems like a massive
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: personification of all the terrible Eagles fans out there. So
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the coach and that one guy are huge d bags
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and then all the fans in my opinion, and can
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: just eat sand or whatever. But like as far as
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: the rest of the teams, like whatever, Like Saiquon Bark
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: seems like a really good dude. For Jalen Hurts kind
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: of seems like quietly eccentric, so like I probably wouldn't
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: hang out with him, but he wouldn't hang out with me,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So I mean it's fine. But yeah, for the fan,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: for their Eagles fans, I'm really glad they lost.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I saw a funny meme after the Eagles lost that
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: said something like, yeah, there's a Philadelphia City employee who's
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: equally sad that the Eagles lost, but also equally happy
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that he doesn't have to grease four hundred and sixty
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: eight lightholes in the next couple of weeks.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the city probably made that purchase already, Like,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: what did they grease the poles last night? Just in
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: just some creation of the game. Maybe it still was
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: worth it because people would have rioted anyways. But yeah,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: that's a good rose v that the Eagles lost. I
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: didn't even really think about that. I was thinking more
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: close to close to the Vikings.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But which is your rose?
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Is you know, anytime the Packers lose, that's a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: good day, especially in the playoffs. Are you kidding me?
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: That's great, which I know makes me seem and I
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: am really petty. But you know, the old phrase is,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: you know, my favorite teams are the Vikings and whoever
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: is beating the Packers. And I think if you were
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: to ask the average Packer fan, their hated team isn't
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the Vikings. And that's fine. But if you really look
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: at the NFC North, for the last couple of decades,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: the Bears have tried a little bit. They've had a
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: couple of seasons here and there, and as of late,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: the Lions have decided they're good even though they suck
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and the Lions fans are the worst fans in all
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: of sports. Lions fans are the absolute worst fans in
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: all of sports. You guys suck. But yeah, it's the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: NFC North. Other than a couple of weird seasons, has
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: been a battle of the Packers and the Vikings. And yes,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: admittedly it's probably been mostly the Packers that have. They
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: probably edged out the Vikings a little bit.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: You know, the Aaron Er Aaron Rodgers years that were.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Brett Faviars too, I mean, but even then,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: like the late nineties, yeah, Brett Favre was elite and
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: they obviously they won a Super Bowl and what ninety six,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: but like the Vikings were right up there to ninety eight,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: and you know, the year two thousand, it was a
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: decent juggernaut time in the NFC North between the Vikings
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: and the Packers. And again, the Lions have been awful
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: and Lions fans are the absolute freaking worst cesspool of
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: a group of fan hood in all of sports. Just
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: to just to throw that out there again, obnoxious. I'm
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: just remembering that time you said something like I'm not
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: concerned about Lions fan or the Lions at all, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: then their fans just ripped apart our TikTok with you
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: saying that, which I mean it was good engagement, but
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: it just proved that Lions fans are the worst cesspool
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: collection of garbage in all of fan hood.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: We don't need to talk about the Lions because they
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: didn't make the playoffs.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: They didn't, just like the Vikings. But uh, yeah, my Rose,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: if I haven't said it yet, it's that the Packers lost,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: So that's that's always a good time when the when
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: the Packers lose, I'm here.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: For your thorn is closely connected.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe so I guess I'll go right into that my thorn,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: which it was going to be one or the other.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: But my thorn is that the Bears won. I did
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: end up watching the game.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I turned it off after I went to bed because
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I thought the Packers were going to win.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I think everybody did, we all did. But I ended
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: up watching the game with friend of the show Forest.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: We have a running joke that my basement has a
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: projector screen and anytime, whether it's his team, whether the
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Bears or Michigan Wolverines or my team, you know, the
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Hawkeyes or the Vikings, whatever, he and I are taking
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: in the football game at that basement home theater screen
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: that I have, it's just awful. It's an instant our
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: favorite team's gonna lose. So he was really happy that
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: the curse has been broken. The curse of my basement
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: has been broken. I still think, you know, it's it
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: can still be there for his favorite teams. But yeah,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: my thorn is that the Bears won. I figured they would.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I think I said as much on the episode last
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: week that the Bears would beat out the Packers. I don't.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know unless there's suddenly the team of Destiny.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I don't really know how deep they're gonna go. I
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: think do they play the Rams in this next week's matchup.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I might be wrong on that, but I think that's
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: how it's working. I think the Rams have it. Even
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: though the Rams kind of looked fallible against the Panthers,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: but I think that was more on the Panthers looking
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: good than the Rams looking bad. But yeah, if I
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: had to pick any thorn other than the Vikings didn't
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: make the playoffs, it was that the Bears one.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Well, that's my thorn, is that the Vikings weren't playing.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: And I do that all the time. I'm sorry, I
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: didn't even read your thorn before. I just said I thinkbliminal, like.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: You just read it and then you internalize it. But
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: we're all thinking it, right, Like, sure, we can root
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: against the Packers, and we can be happy for the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Bears because they you know, they don't often get to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: experience moments like this, and we know a lot of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Bears fans because where we live, Yeah, we are in
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: bear in Bear Country. But it was a little frustrating,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: especially for the reasons we just mentioned a few minutes
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: ago about how close the Vikings were. In hindsight, you know,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it didn't feel like the Vikings were close most of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the season. It just felt like, well, let's just throw
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in the towel. And I was even saying for a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: few weeks They're like, just tank and get the draft
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: pick and get the better schedule and let's move on,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: you know. But it always sucks when your team isn't
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: playing you have to watch other teams. So that's my thorn.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm not over it yet, but as
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: far as the playoffs go, I think I'm ready to
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: be entertained. This wild Card weekend, for the most part,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: most every game was pretty good. I think the game
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: between the Patriots and the Chargers was probably the biggest
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: dud of them, and even that wasn't like a terrible
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: watcher is just the most boring of all of them.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: But yeah, every other game seemed to come down to
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: the wire. The Bears tried to make, you know, make
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: it a Packer blowout on them, but they came back
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: and made it a really cool entertaining game to watch
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: as a football fan. But yeah, I think I'm over
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: the fact that the Vikings aren't in it anymore. This
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: year was just not the year. They wouldn't have won
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: a playoff game even if they had etched their way
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: in unless for some reason JJ McCarthy had figured something out.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: But when he got a guy that takes himself out
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: of a you know, the final game of the season,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: you know, almost quits on the team, that's that's probably
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: not gonna happen this year. Had the Vikings and Packers
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: played for that seven seed in that last week, Yeah,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: maybe he doesn't take himself out, but I don't. You
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: can't really bank on.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: That you're gonna hold onto that like into next season.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: It's like big thing your QB one. I get your
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: hand hurt. I get it. But also and he said,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: I had to make a grown man decision to pull
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: myself out of the game. But QB one, that's not
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: the The grown man decision is to eke it out
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: and do what Carson Wentz did earlier in the season
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: and basically, you know, be a sacrifice on the field,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: come to the sideline and just be broken down and
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: like you know, resorting to you know, muted tears because
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: you're in such pain. Like I'm not rooting for people
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: to be in pain, but if you're a QB one
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: in the NFL, like boohoo, your hand hurts like my
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: hand is hurt before too, But like QB one QB
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: one in the NFL, it sends such a message when
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: you pull yourself out of game, when you quit on
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: the game. So yes, I am gonna I'm gonna hold
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: on to that, just like my opinion of Linesman, which
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I almost went into again, but I'm not going to.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I know how I will have to end this right now.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of hearing it. Who gets your game ball?
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I am interested in that.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So for all of wild Card weekend, Super wild
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Card weekend, maybe there were more deserving players than who
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give it to. But after his game
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: against the Eagles and the way that he ended the
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: game pretty much with almost an interception but definitely a
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: tipped ball to call game, I think former Vikings linebacker
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: current forty nine Ers linebacker Eric Kendricks is the most
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: deserving of my game ball. Yes, there's some homer aspect
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: to that decision. I'm always I've always been a fan
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: of Eric Kendricks. It's fun to see him still out there.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I think he's like thirty three or thirty four at
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: this point, which man, that's ancient Evan, that's definitely not
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: almost as old as we are right now, but yeah,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: still out there. I think for the most part, he
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: played a really good game, and I think he was
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: a practice squad player up until that game, or even
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: like during that game. But I'm pretty sure he's on
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: the fifty three now for the Niners. But yeah, it
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: was a good story and I'm almost rooting for the
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Niners now just because of Eric Hendricks.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: He had ten tackles, only one behind Garrett Walla who
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: had eleven and led both teams, so like he was
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: up there, he had more tackles than any single Eagle
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: player had. So yeah, that's a good game ball to give.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give mine to Josh Allen.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Ok.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: And I know the Bills didn't play a flawless game
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and the Jags were in it, and if not for
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: that interception at the end of the game, you know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence and the Jags were kind of in it
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and looked like they might do it. But Josh Allen
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: threw for one ran for two touchdowns. If that doesn't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: scream MVP to you, Like three touchdowns by yourself, that's impressive.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Didn't throw an interception, he took one sack. That's a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: heck of a game in the playoffs on the road.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Granted you're playing in Florida where it's nice.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but still it's away. I mean, yeah, most of
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: the fans are not cheering.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: For you, and the Bills will now go to Denver. Like,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: I think the Bills have one of the toughest roads
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: because they're the six seed and they're going to be
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: on the road probably until the super Bowl if they
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: make it that far.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's like it was officially announced and
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: something we could, you know, confirm if we did one
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: minute of research. But I'm pretty sure they announced there
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: will never be another football game at the or the
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Bill's current stadium Highmark. Are they going immediately next season
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: to their new stadium or they believe they have like
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: a kind of like the Vikings did like a couple
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: buffer years somewhere else. I don't know.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: My understanding is they're going right into the new one. Okay,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: because they built it like right across the parking lot
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: from their current one.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: That's cool. I like when teams open up new I
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: like when they do new uniforms and new stadiums, and like,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: because stadiums it means it's like a shrine to foot,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: even if it is for another team. Like, I think
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: it's pretty cool to see a brand new football stadium.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I still think even though this was the conclusion of
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: the tenth season at us Bank Stadium for the Vikings,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: it is still one of the most elite football stadiums
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: in the NFL and one of the coolest sports venues
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: I've ever been to.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Off the top of my head, I can't really think
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: of any better. Sure, you could probably name one or
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: two that I might be like, oh, yeah, they're they're
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: they're at least as good as us Bank Stadium. But
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: man us Bank is still after ten years, like still
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: really good.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that was that was Super wild Card Weekend.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: As things sit right now, it's halftime of the final
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: game of Wildcard Weekend, Texan Steelers. They're about to start
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: the second half, or I think they may have just
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: done kickoff of the second half, and it's a close game,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: one that I think the Texans very well could win.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: The Steelers are in the playoffs right now, mostly because
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: of a miss kick for the Ravens, which is why
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Jim Harbaugh is an available coach. But yeah, that's where
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: things sit. I think, well, you know, from here on
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: out until the end of the Super Bowl, will kind
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: of give our updated opinions of the games as they
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: go on. But then we're going to focus right back
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: on the Vikings.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Speaking of which, Yeah, you shared a good article that
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at again here from Vikings Territory. Did friend
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: of the show Dustin right.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Know that one was I'm going to butcher his name
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: just because I've never heard it spoken out loud, but
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's a Lee sideki. I definitely follow him
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: on Twitter, and you know he's a good Twitter follow.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know his exact handle right now, but we
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: will link this article in our show notes. It's more
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: of an opinionated based article from a Lee kind of
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: giving out, well, what's the title.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Where the Vikings go from here?
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's kind of talking of and I think
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: it was posted yesterday, the day before and it's just
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: kind of talking about, all right, the playoffs are gone,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the Vikings missed it, and it basically outlines three things that,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: regardless of what they do, these three things are what
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the Vikings kind of should focus on. And I figured
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: we could kind of list out the three things and
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: kind of go from there real quick. The first thing
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: they talk about is JJ McCarthy's trajectory, and then it
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: talks about the cost cutting of veterans that the Vikings
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: could do to kind of manipulate the cap and get
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: under the cap. I think they're about they're almost fifty
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: million dollars over the cap as things sit right now
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: for next season, so they got to do something. They
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: got to move some stuff around. And then there's a
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: couple more things they talk about kind of looking at
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: the draft class, a little bit, some free agent targets
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: that the Vikings could kind of look at, and then
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: a little bit of coaching and what could happen, specifically
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: if Brian Flores moves on for a different job, what
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: the Vikings could do. So I guess let's just dive
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: in Evan. First thing they talk about, JJ McCarthy, Ali
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: in the article doesn't necessarily say his opinion of like, oh,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: they need to get rid of JJ McCarthy right away
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: and trade for or signed the best option you know,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: immediately available. Just do it right now. But he doesn't
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: also say like, oh, they have to stick with them
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent. That he just kind of says like,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: all right, here's here's how that could look. Basically says like, yeah,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: JJ showed some improvement late in the season. He did
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: miss the Christmas game, but in the last five wins,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: JJ for the most of them, had a good hand
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: in all of those, which I didn't do this on purpose,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: but he missed the most of the second half for
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: the last game because of his bad hand. But that's
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: the other thing. He frequently hampered by injuries. He missed
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: a lot of the season due to injury, and you
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: could argue a game or two whether or not there
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: was actually an injury or if there was more like, hey,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: this is convenient, let's see what we have in Max Brosmer.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: And then in the article, Alee just kind of says
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: like if health concerns and performance concerns kind of persist
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: through next season, then the Vikings should be looking to
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: move on and take the franchise in another direction, Evan,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: based off all that, what is your biggest concern for
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: JJ McCarthy specifically heading into the twenty twenty six season.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I think it has to be the injury thing, right,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Like you saw the improvement. You saw him go from
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: kind of this like almost lucky son of a gun
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: in the first couple of games, you know, that.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: First game, because the second game was the Falcons game,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: where he looked absolutely horrible.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Right, But you saw him go from that to you know,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: being fairly competent. And I know, like the mechanics, the mechanics,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the mechanics, that was all the rage there for a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: few weeks in the middle of the season. He had
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: all those wild throws and he's flinging his leg off
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: to the side. And we also heard all the soundbites
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: of how they were simplifying the game plan, dumbing it
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: down to make it easier for him to digest and
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: make it easier for him to look out over center
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and see what he needed to see to be effective.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And I think he showed progress that way. So I
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: think in terms of learning the game and adjusting to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the speed of the game in the NFL, he did Okay,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: he didn't. It's not an A plus, it's not a
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: probably not even a B plus. It's probably like a
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: C minus. But he did okay, He did okay enough
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: to pass. The injuries are what's concerning to me. He
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: missed an entire season, Like, it doesn't even feel like
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: he missed an entire season because we had Sam Darnold
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and we were so distracted with him that it was
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: just like, oh, yeah, we have that kid. But it
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: still felt like he was very much in college and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: not on the team, and so this felt like his
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: rookie year even though it wasn't. And this was hampered
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: by injury too. So I think that's my major concern
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: if I'm Kevin O'Connell, is what's the longevity of this kid? Like, sure,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I can mold him, shape him, get him game ready,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: but if he's hurt, he can't play. Yeah, And that's
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: where I really think they're gonna have to find a
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: quality backup. I know, late last week, Kirk Cousins restructured
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: his deal the Falcons, and everybody was like, Oh, this,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the writing's on the wall. Kirk is coming back. He's
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: gonna fill that spot. And I don't know, if it's
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a guy like that, necessarily, I think you try to
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: target a younger guy. If you bring in a guy
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: like Kirk Cousins, you're just gonna you're gonna pay an
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: exorbitant amount of money to get back up service, you know,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: like you're you're not gonna get a You're not gonna
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: get great quarterback play. And b we've seen this happen
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: before in the league, where the backup comes in and
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: takes the job, like Tom Brady did it right from
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Drew blood Bloodsoe, and you know, once Bledsoe got hurt,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Tom Brady comes in and he never let go after that,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Bloodsoe had to leave go find another job. It was
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: kind of the same in Kansas City. You had Alex
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Smith get hurt and who came in for him. It
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, it wasn't Mahomes. I feel like
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the somebody between Mahomes and Smith.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was Smith. He got injured, but.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he tore his leg up, which was awful. But yeah, anyways,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: like we've seen that happen time and time again where
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: it's just the young guy comes in and so I
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: think the Vikings need to target a younger backup who
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: has potential, not the Carson Wentz, not the Kirk Cousins,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: not the not even the Aaron Rodgers. I know that
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: that was a huge talker for a while. I don't care.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: If he's healthy and you know, let's say he loses
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: tonight and doesn't win a Super Bowl this year and
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: he gets a wild hair that he wants to come
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: back next year, I just don't care. Nope, young, lots
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: of potential, and somebody that could be that like Kickstarter
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: that the franchise needs to take him out. If JJ
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: McCarthy isn't.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: That Yeah, yeah, you mentioned Kirk Cousins. I'm I'm a
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: fan of Cousins.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: The main person.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a good I was definitely a fan of
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Cousins the Viking, and you know, at the time, I
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: was kind of my main preference when his era was
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: ending was you know, let Cousins walk and draft a guy.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: But I also wouldn't have, you know, been super pissed
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: if they had, you know, tried to run it back
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: with Cousins at the time in twenty twenty four, it
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: would have been but I the Cousin's era is done,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: let him go. Wherever he wants to go, some team
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: will take him easily and start him, maybe to be
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: a bridge quarterback for a rookie that they're gonna draft here.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: When he came in for Michael Pennix this year, he
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: looked fine, but not like world beating. His stats were,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: you know, every game was in the one hundred to
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: two hundred passing yards with one or two touchdowns, like solid,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: you know for you know, a regular guy to come in,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: but not something you want to you know, better your
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: team with. So yeah, I mean my thoughts on JJ
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: McCarthy just to kind of go back, is, you know,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: I think he was showing improvement. And yes, it was
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: against the Commanders and the or was it against the Giants. Yeah,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: the Giants is when he missed half the game because
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: of that initial hand injury too with the Cowboys, and
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: he was starting to look pretty good against the Packers
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: in the last game until he pulled himself out. And yes,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: that was against a Packers team that was sitting so
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: many players and they didn't really care to you know,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: win or anything. But it doesn't change the fact that
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: McCarthy was still making some decent passes and still looking good.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: So I think I've said it before. I might have
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: said it last week. I'm I'm definitely as far as
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six goes for me, I'm okay with them
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: running it back JJ McCarthy giving him this. I mean
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: they say year three for the quarterback, which, yeah, he
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: was injured his whole first year, but this is going
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: to be year three for him. I'm okay with them
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: keeping him as QB one. I'm not one that's sitting
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: here saying, you know, they have to trade for Joe
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Burrow or they have to do everything they can to
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: replace JJ McCarthy with you know, an MVP or even
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Pro Bowl level quarterback. I mean, you drafted him. You
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: need to give him a chance, even if it's not
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: looking good at first. I am also okay if they
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: try to bring in you know, competent competition, if they
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: if they do pay for someone like a Malik Willis,
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: if it's if financially he makes sense, and I'm talking
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: like fifteen million dollars if they can figure that out,
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: not forty million dollars. You know, if they can bring
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: in a guy at that level where it's like, okay,
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe he can compete but it's not an
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: obvious replacement level player. You know, if JJ has to
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: go through an off season and win the job or
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: keep the job in a competition, I think that's good.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: There's something to be said about that. But yeah, I'm
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: okay if they run into next season with JJ starting
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Game one and going from there, because I think there
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: is stuff to see. I think even though his mechanics
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: are weird, I mean, you can always fix that or
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: you can work around that. I mean, one of the
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: best plays Caleb Williams had in the playoff game against
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: the Packers was this like desperation run to the sideline
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: throw off of his you know, front foot or whatever,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: and he kind of skipped into it and he threw
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: a beautiful ball to I forget who was Roma Doomsay
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: or Colson Loveland. It was to the sideline, but like
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: they immediately praised him, and then they showed the replay
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: and the announcers were like, yeah, it was a terrible form,
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: but like, hey, he'd put the ball exactly where he
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: needed to go. So if JJ has terrible form but
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: he gets the ball exactly where it needs to go,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: isn't the job done by then? Anyways? So as of
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: JJ right now, for me, I'm okay with him still
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: being QB one. And then even though yea, even if
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: he has to earn it, let him earn it, and
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: if he loses it, then that's how the cards play too,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: you know, Let's let Kyler Murray play if that's who
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: they really want or something like that. Like, but yeah,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: I'm okay with them keeping him in.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I think they're gonna pay too much for a guy
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: like Kyler. I think it's gotta be like the only
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: starter that I could see. The previous starter I should say,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the Vikings bringing in would be Will Levis, and that's
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: just because he's coming off an injury and he'll be
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: somewhat cheap, and he doesn't really have the track record
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to prove that he's, you know, an elite level quarterback.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: He's okay. I think he.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Almost beat the Vikings was even as late as you know,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty four season last season. So there's something there.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: We have gotten, something that I'll consider almost a little
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: bit more than a rumor that the Vikings might be
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: interested in Kyler Murray and that they might pursue that
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit harder than you would anticipate at this
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: at this stage, but I think that would still require
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: a trade and then taking on, you know, either a
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: restructured deal or at least a more expensive deal than
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: you have right now with your current backup. But yeah,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Ultimately, I don't have any control over that,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: which is fine. Nobody, no Vikings fans, including myself, want
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: me to be making any decisions for the roster. As
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: much as I say Quasi needs to be gone, you know,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: he's still probably more apt to build an NFL roster
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: than I ever will be, and I'm I have no
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: problem saying that. But yeah, I think the way things
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: sit right now, it would almost be dumb to not
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: bring in somebody who's probably more you know, able to
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: play quarterback than Max Brosmer. But at this point, Brozmer
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: is a practice squad level guy that may have the
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: potential to be a QB two in the future, but
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's there yet.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Well, let's keep the GM hat on because we're gonna
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: have to probably get rid of some players because the
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Vikings are forty six million dollars over the cap, and
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I think that one that's just crazy. And number two
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: I'm ready to get rid of most of them. Honestly,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: You've got some of them listed out here from the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Vikings Territory article. TJ. Howkinson, Jonathan Allen, Aaron Jones, Javon Hargrave,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Ryan Kelly. They're all newer acquisitions. TJ's been around the longest,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: followed by Aaron Jones, and then the rest of them
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: were all brought in this.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Last stuff season.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: But I think you can save a lot of money
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: by getting them off of your payroll. And if you
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: do it the right way, you know that post June
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: first cut is usually more beneficial, Yeah to teams, so
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: spread it out. I'm thinking that's the route that the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Vikings go with a couple of these guys. Anyways, just
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: to build the cap back up to a manageable point
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: forty six million seems unmanageable to me. But again, we're
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: not we're not making those decisions. But let's talk about
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: TJ for a minute.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a I am a fan of TJ. Hockinson.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: I think most of that is because I'm an Iowahawkeyes fan.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Before that really cheap shot from Kirby Joseph. Yeah, and
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: the worst team in the league, maybe the dirtiest team
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: in the league, the Lions, with the worst fan basic
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: the league. Before that that cheap shot, TJ. Hockinson was
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: still you know, up to par with being one of
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: the better tight ends in the league. I don't know
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: if he's ever been the tight end because there's always
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: been you know, Gronkowski and then you know, even like
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Mark Andrews and Baltimore and Travis Kelce. If you want
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: to say he's one of the better ones, there's always
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: been Tucker Kraft right now for the Packers, there's always been,
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: you know, probably a better tight end than t J. Hockinson.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: But when he was before that injury, he was elite,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: you know, Pro Bowl level player worthy of. I think
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: the contract that he's currently under, which I forget the
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: total of his contract, but it's not really that important now.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: So they're saying if they cut him with a post
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: June one designation, which basically means you spread that dead
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: money hit between twenty twenty six and then twenty twenty
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: seven rather than taking it all in twenty twenty six.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Just doing that would save you, if this article is right,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: sixteen million dollars on the cap. So that puts you
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: right at thirty right there. I agree it makes financial
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: sense to move on from TJ. Hockinson. And I even
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: think in the article it says like a restructure might
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: be possible. I tweeted earlier today. TJ. Hockinson is the
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: kind of player that if he were currently on another
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: team and about to be a free agent, he'd be
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: on those lists that these articles put out all the time,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: like here's free agents the Vikings might be interested in. Like,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: he would absolutely be one of those guys. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah,
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: he's coming off. You know, he was really good but
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: then got injured and he's kind of warming up still.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: But he might be cheap, so let's get him in Minnesota.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: And Vikings fans would be excited about that, So why
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: not just you know, restructure his deal. He's got to
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: be smart enough to know, like, yeah, probably not going
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: to get more elsewhere, so let's stay here. I like Minnesota.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: It's nice here, Let's stay here. So I'm hoping TJ.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: Hockinson is still a Viking after this year, but I
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: definitely understand, you know, business wise, if he's not.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think I'm just thinking purely from number standpoint,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: like at some point you have to make some moves.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: And I also feel like Quacy's better in free agency anyways.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: And the league has become so dependent on this free
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: agency cycle. There aren't very many teams that just simply
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: draft and develop and don't play the free agency game.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Like there are these big, splashy moves that happen all
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the time. And I think the Vikings should be sellers
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit here so that they can be buyers later,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: you know. And I think they've got a good core.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Josh Oliver proved that he's a good tight end. I
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: don't know that the Vikings need a tight end necessarily. Yeah,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I mean there's that other what was it sims or whatever,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: And he played several snaps when we were at that
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: game against the Packers, So it's not like the Vikings
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: don't have any depth at that position. They do. And
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I think you can always draft one, you can always
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: go out and get another one in free agency. I'm
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: not trying to say that I don't like TJ. Howkinson,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: but I think the productivity that we saw out of
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: him post that Kirby Joseph injury really sidelined his career,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: not totally taked it, but definitely you know, hit it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: in the knee. Yeah, for the back of a better term.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I will say too. Part of his production on
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: the stat sheet this year was definitely affected by the
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: help that the offensive line needed. They the Vikings took TJ. Hockinson,
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: whose contract and you know, former game tape puts him
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: out there as like an elite past catching like playmaking
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: tight end, almost wide receiver three. I think for a
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: while front of the show, Dustin was basically calling, you know, TJ.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: Hockinson wide receiver three, you know, almost functionally, But twenty
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: twenty five necessitated more block help no matter who the
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: tight end was, Like Kevin O'Connell needed that tight end
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: to be in there to help with Christian Darisaw if
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: he was in there after that injury, which apparently there
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: was some kind of Yeah, his injury needed more help
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: to heal and like his initial repair, this is Christian Darsaw.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: The initial repair to his leg and knee may you know,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: have been one of those situations where the repair could
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: have been done better, I guess, But apparently in the
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: future once he's fully healthy, Like it's not like a
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: long term concern, but either way, this year that left
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: side needed some help from a tight end in blocking.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: And then there was even times where Brian O'Neal was
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: banged up a little bit this season, so that right
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: side needed help in blocking. We witnessed it firsthand on
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: a couple of times when JJ McCarthy would run out
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: of the pocket and he ran for a couple of touchdowns,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: and at least once or twice we saw JJ McCarthy
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: runs straight into the end zone right behind a solid
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: block of TJ Hockinson. So I think it just this
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: year needed TJ Hockinson to be more of a blocking
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: tight end for the Vikings. And regardless of your health,
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: if that's what's asked of you and that's the game plan,
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: you're not gonna have a thousand yards receiving as a
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: tight end. You're not going to get more than I
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: think he only got two or three touchdowns, but there
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: were flashes there. So hopefully for my fanhood, they figure
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: out a way to keep him at a good number
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: and not know mortgage the future because of a tight
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: end that I like, you know, who.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: On that list do you think is most likely gone?
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Like who's Who's as good as gone as at this point.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: So let's refresh here really quick. That list you're talking
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: about from the article you read it off a few
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: minutes ago, but it's TJ. Hockinson, defensive tackle, Jonathan Allen,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: running back Aaron Jones, another defensive tackle, Javon Hargrave, senter
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Ryan Kelly, and then they also list right tackle right
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: tackle Brian O'Neil, but they kind of list him and
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: say more so that he should be extended or restructured
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: because he's going into the final year of his contract
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: and that's why his his cap number is so high
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: at like twenty three million dollars. But if I had
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: to look at that list like you said, and pick
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: who'd you say the most likely I want back?
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: No, who's who's gone?
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: Oh? Okay, who do you think is?
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Basically the writing's on the wall, they're not coming back.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: You know, I know who you're gonna say.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think I don't know specifically the numbers.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if they list it in the article,
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: but I think you know my mantras always don't pay
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: running backs.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: I knew you were going to say that.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: I want to preface this from the day Aaron Jones signed,
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: I had this mindset. You could go back to whatever
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: episode of The Skull Hop and hear me. I think
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I even told on the show front of the show
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: Dustin like, I'm not really expecting too much from Aaron Jones,
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: and to his credit, he has blown my expectations out
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: of the water. Yeah. Yeah, So he's been on the
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: team for two seasons now. Last year, his first season
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, he didn't miss any games. He missed
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: some time in some games, but he never missed a game,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: which that alone was impressive. He got like eleven hundred
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: yards rushing. He blew my expectations out of the water,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: and he was definitely one of the pieces of why
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: the team was, you know, as good as they were
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: last year and even this year. Yeah, I think he
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: had a pretty long stint on ir ended up being
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: more than the four games minimum. I don't know, was
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: it like seven games. But and when he came back,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: you know, even towards the end of the season, he
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: was still not bad. Like he still had at least
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: one game where it's like, man, I think he had
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: like ninety plus yards in a game, and you know,
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: the last few games of the season. He was still
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: a force to be reckoned with and a good, solid
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: contributor on offense. But I think he's gonna make something
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: like ten million dollars in twenty twenty six. I don't
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: know how much of that is recoupable if you were
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: to get rid of him, But running backs are just yes,
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: the best of the best running backs are irreplaceable. Look
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: at prime Adrian Peterson, look at you know, James Cook
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: right now in Buffalo, look at CMC in San Francisco.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: But Aaron Jones, He's He's not in that category right now.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: He's in the better than average category. He's good. He's
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: still good, and even if the Vikings get rid of him,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: his career is not over. But I think running back
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: is one that you should be able to replace because
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: you already have Jordan Mason there, and if you give
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: Jordan Mason a good tandem running back, maybe a first
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: round rookie even or a cheaper free agent, I think
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: Aaron Jones might be one of the easier ones to
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: replace on that list.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I think I said it. I don't know, probably five
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: or six episodes now, but Jeremiah Love is a really
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: interesting prospect that running back for the Vikings. And I
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: don't know that he'll fall that far for draft, yeah,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: from Notre Dame. I feel like he'll go probably within
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: the first ten picks if I had to guess, But boy,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: he would be an awesome get for the Vikings for
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: all the reasons you just said. He'd be a good
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: tandem with Jordan Mason, and you know, he'd have time
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: to grow and develop. He wouldn't have to be the
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: premiere back, you know he's he wouldn't have to be
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: your you know, your every down back, your bell cow
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: getting you know all the carries and you know, all
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the yards every game. So that's definitely a wish list
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: item for me going into the draft is man, if
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: the Vikings can either not give up a ton to
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: work their way up a few picks to go get him,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: or if he falls all the way to eighteen where
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: they are, that would be huge, ye. And then then
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: you don't have to pay Aaron Jones ten million dollars
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: and there's another big chunk of change that you save
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: towards the cap, and you know you can either pay
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: some of these guys that are worth keeping, like maybe TJ.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like you did give some good reasons
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: to pay TJ.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Or at least keep him, not necessarily pay him.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, but I mean you're still gonna have to
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: pay him something you're not gonna pay.
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, play for free yep.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: But like Ryan Kelly, he had a good season.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: I think unfortunately, I think he might be done though. Yeah,
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: sorry to cut you off.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: There, but I think actually I was thinking more of
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Will Fries. Oh okay, yeah, I think Will Fries had
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: a pretty solid season, but he's not up for now.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: He signed like an eighty eight million dollar contract last
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: year and it was like a five year deal and
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: he's only one into it. And I'm a fan of
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: wilf Fries. Sure you could probably tell me like, oh,
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: he whiffed on this, but for my level of football watching,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: I think Will Fries was a positive force on that
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Vikings offensive line. And I don't think you were trying
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: to say anything other but.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: No, So let's talk because I kind of already went
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: down that route, but let's go fully down the path
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: of draft and free agency. If you're quasy, what's the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: first phone call you're making to either a potential draft
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: candidate or be a top free agency get that you
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: really want to go after.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm going to kind of flip the script
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: on something I've been publicly against recently. And this isn't
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: necessarily like a free agent move, but it's more a
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: move to gain draft capital and cap space. I'm to
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: the point now that you could convince me if the
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Viking's got a good enough trade deal from another team,
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: I think you could move on from Jonathan Grenard. I
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: like him as a Viking. I still think he's you.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: I think I said it a few weeks ago. You
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: can't you can't overvalue how good a good edge rusher
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: is into day's NFL. It's, you know, one of the
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: most important positions you can have. And Grenard is really
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: good when healthy, and honestly, this year was he was
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: a little banged up, but most of the time he's
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: been healthy. But when you do have, you know, the
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: seventeenth overall pick from twenty twenty four starting to turn
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: it on a little bit in Dallas Turner right behind
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: Jonathan Gernard, it kind of gives you the wiggle room
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: and the ability to say, hey, if a team is
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: offering us a requisite deal and I don't know what
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: that would be is that, you know, do they need
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: a first round pick to move on from Gnard? Maybe?
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: I think with the right team and the right deal,
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: they could get a first round pick, definitely, at least
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: a second or third. They could probably get a package
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: of decent picks for him, which would help you with draft,
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: which I think the Vikings have. I think they have
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: seven picks, but three of them are seventh round picks.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: You know, they've got the first three and then it's
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: kind of sprinkled in for the next four through seven.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: But if you can move on from Grenard and get
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: you know, a few decent picks in return while saving
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: that draft capital, that would be good. Other than that,
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: in the draft, I mean, running back help would be nice,
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: especially if they do move on from Aaron Jones. They
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: would almost need to look to the draft for running
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: back help. The only, admittedly the only real running back
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: I know that's draftable is the is love from Mary,
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: my love from Notre Dame. I am not a draft
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: expert and definitely not one that has enough opinion in
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: January to be able to say, like, oh, here's my
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: guy in the third round. He's a sleeper. Look for him,
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: like I'm a very casual draft fan, but usually by
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: the time we get into April, I'm like, well, they
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: could do this, this or this, and I'd be okay
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: with it, but nothing beforehand. And if Ryan Kelly is
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: truly done, I don't I don't know if the Vikings
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: maybe they're super happy with Michael Jurgens, Maybe Blake Brandell
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: is a really good option. But either way, they're gonna
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: have to bolster that offensive line and probably get a
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: starter level player, whether it's in the first round or
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: they luck out with a late round pick, or they
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: signed somebody in free agency. Yeah, running back, center, and
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: then you know, we could always make the argument for
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: quarterback as well. What do you think? What are your
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: thoughts on free agency draft? You know, trading away players,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: trading four players. What do you think.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I think on offense? Anyways, the two biggest position groups
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: you need to target our quarterback and running back, especially
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: if Aaron Jones is gone, and I think you let
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: him go with just the injuries and his age. You know,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: you like him as a guy, you wish him well.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe he gets another one year deal somewhere else, rides
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: off into the sunset. Who knows, But I think you
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: really target those two. You've got a pretty star studded
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: cast otherwise on offense, if you can keep your offensive
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: line healthy and they can get some chemistry together and
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: they can figure out how to work with JJ, you know,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I think you're going to see a pretty explosive Vikings offense.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: And then I think on the other side is that secondary.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Your defense needs safeties. Specifically, Harrison Smith is going to
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: leave huge shoes to fill, gigantic shoes to fill, And
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: that's not.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: What I'm still in that. I haven't emotionally coped with
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: that one yet.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the riding's on the wall, but I'm not.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: It's not hyperbole, like those are some of the biggest
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: shoes to fill in the league.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: He is one of the greatest Vikings in team history.
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's definitely on the list. I'm not saying
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: he's the greatest Viking, but he's definitely on the list.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: Put him on the old Vikings team.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: So I think the Vikings need help with cornerbacks too.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: And that was something we said going into the season,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and it never really got better throughout the season. Yeah,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: they played okay, and when Harrison Smith finally turned it
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: on there at the end. He was fun to watch,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: and Byron Murphy did Okay, he didn't have an outstanding season,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't like, you know, teams were throwing on
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: him left and right and he was giving up all
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: these huge plays.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think at some point, you know into the season,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: midway through the season, you mentioned something about Byron Murphy
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: like he's not really doing anything. But then I it
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: kind of I was agreeing with you, but then it
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: kind of dawned on me, like it's actually, yeah. It
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: kind of also means like they're not thrown at him
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: too much. We're not saying, oh, he gave up all
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: these yards. We're just saying, oh, he doesn't have all
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: these picks. Like Byron Murphy earned the right to to
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: not get a bunch of stats this past season. I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: think it was a good thing. Again, you could, you know,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: the eagle eyed fan could tell me, you know, his
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: stats were actually pretty terrible and he was awful because
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: of this, which sure, whatever, But from my casual fan
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: hood watching here, I think Byron Murphy actually did pretty good.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: But outside of that, like you said, DB's not really much.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: I mean a few of them got fired like Isaiah Rodgers.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: He had that crazy, awesome game against the Bengals, but
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: then he had some rough spots too. I'd want him back,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: but which I think he is under contract for twenty
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: twenty six. But like he wasn't perfect. Jay Ward I
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: think got some more playing time this year, but that
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: was mostly because other guys just weren't up to snuff.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: So there's one thing we haven't talked about yet, and
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I think we can kind of round out our discussion
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: for today. We've talked about it before, but coaching. Obviously,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Brian Flores is very much in the mix for these
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: head coaching jobs and we're in for I think a
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: historic NFL coaching cycle here. There's a lot of openings.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of big names. John Harbaugh getting
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: fired was kind of a shock.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was I didn't expect that.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: And Brian Flores has just been quietly leading one of
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: the league's best defenses in Minnesota for the last handful
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: of years, and you know he wants that opportunity. But
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: we've also kind of seen it as Vikings fans that
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: he's not going to leave unless the opportunity is right,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: and I think that really limits his options. So I
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: think it's going to be interesting to see what happens
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: with him, and I think that will be that will
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: be news whenever that happens. Either he stays and signs
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: an extension with Minnesota or he leaves to take a
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: head coaching job somewhere else. What do you think will happen?
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: What's most likely with b Flow?
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll start with what I want to happen. I
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: want him to stay with the Vikings.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, I'll do.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: We've kind of heard again rumblings that there may have
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: been some kind of a personnel issue that may have
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: happened involving Flores and other people within the Vikings organization.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: But apparently that wasn't enough to you know, blow everything up.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: But even with that, I think that the team probably
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: still wants him back. It sounds like cooc is still
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: in his corner and wants Brian Flores back. So I
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: still am of the mindset that Flores is not going
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: to leave the Vikings for a lateral move. I think
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: the Vikings if Flores doesn't get a head coaching job,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: he will end up with a contract as the defensive
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: coordinator of the Vikings, which it is running out like
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: you just said at the end of this season. And
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: one thing I also haven't really heard is I think
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: we've only officially heard that he's interviewing for one team.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: So far, the only thing I've seen official is that
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: is he intering with the ravensn he either has interviewed
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: with him or plans to. I think they've announced. I
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: think that's the only like official one that's been announced.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: I think I saw somebody tweet that he is currently
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: like the Vegas betting favorite to land the Las Vegas
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: Raiders job as of like yesterday, but they mentioned like
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: it's not even official that he's been you know, they've
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: requested to interview him. So like, there's still a lot
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: of unknowns there, and I don't think as even though
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: there's what seven head coaching openings, seven or eight, no
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: one's been hired yet.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: Granted it's still wild card weekend, it's still pretty early,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure when the first hire usually happens,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: but I feel like usually there's at least somebody hired
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: by now, and I may be wrong on that, but
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: it seems like it's getting pretty deep for no vacancy
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: to be filled yet there's been I think Matt Ryan
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: officially took that football operations job with with the Falcons,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: but they still need a GM and a coach. I
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: think there's been one or two other gms that have
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: been hired, but no head coaches. So I think unless
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: this lawsuit's not a big deal and some teams like, yeah,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: we do want Brian Flores, I think he'll end up
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: being back with the Vikings for at least one more year,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: hopefully more, but never know. He might get a head
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: coaching job, which he seems to be, at least as
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: a coach, well deserving of. So yeah, I'm hoping he's back,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: and I don't think he would leave for a defensive
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: coordinator job. What do you think? Do you want him back?
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think all Vikings fans want him back.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: He's been arguably the best defensive coach we've had since
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer. But I think I'm predicting right now Arizona.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: You think the Cardinals will hire him?
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: That's where he's gonna go. I think I know he's,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the the betting favorite to go to Vegas.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know that he wants to go to an
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: organization that's got a lot of issues like Vegas does,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: and Vegas is so interesting, not just because of where
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: it is geographically, but the market itself is so warped.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: You know, nobody lives in Vegas. Everybody visits Vegas, but
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: they don't live there. And there was even drama with
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: the Oakland As moving to Vegas. They couldn't get the copyright,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: they couldn't get the trademark for athletics.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Vegas athletics or whatever.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: So I think it's just stuff like that that I
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: could see a guy like Brian Flores being like, no,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: I don't want all that. Arizona seems like it's ready
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: to go, Like they're not going to be a playoff
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: team next season if he's the head coach, probably, but
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: it seems like Kyler's kind of on his way out.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: They've got a decent foundation there. He can kind of
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: can choose who stays, who goes, with both players and coaches,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: he'd have a lot of flexibility. Arizona's really nice all
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: the time. It's you know, very temperate, and it's definitely
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: not as cold as Minnesota. So I could see all
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: those things being reasons why Brian Flores is like, yeah,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: we can give Arizona a shot, and he also doesn't.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: I don't think he has any vendetta against that particular
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: organization in the NFL.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: So yeah, maybe So in that scenario, if Flora's were
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: to leave for Arizona or any head coaching job, can
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: you think of and this would be a difficult question
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: for me too, can you think of who might be
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: a good defensive coordinator? I ask because the former, the
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: now most recent Arizona head coach is it Gannon. He
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: was a Vikings defensive assistant on the coaching staff. I
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: don't know if he did like linebackers or DB's just
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: you know, a handful of years ago, and then he
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: moved to to Philly to be their DC and then
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: head coach in Arizona. But there's a few guys out there.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: I think is his name Dorante Moore or Derante something?
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, Dorant? I think it's Jones Jo current Vikings, current
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: vikingsive assistant coach.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: I read something this week that said that they should
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: promote within because it would leave a lot of continuity
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: with the defense, and I tend to agree with that.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: You know, if you can even be seventy percent as
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: good as Brian Flores's defense. If it's if it's that
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: versus fifty percent is good with anybody else outside of
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: the organization, well, then you promote the inside guy and
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe bring in someone else. Maybe you bring
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: in not again and not a like head coach caliber
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: type of guy, but you bring in someone else to
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: you know, help under that. But yeah, I'd be interested
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: in seeing that, Okay about you?
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I just because I saw the tweet,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: I think Gannon might be a good filler for a
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: defensive coordinator. Who was the most recent Dead Lanta head
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: coach was that Raheem Morris I saw, which I knew,
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: but I had forgotten that Morris and Kevin O'Connell were
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: the defensive and offensive coordinators in with the Rams when
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: they won the Super Bowl a few years ago, right
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: before O'Connell came to Minnesota. So that might be a
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: good fit if Morris doesn't get a head coaching job
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: somewhere else. Mostly in my opinion, I think if the
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: Vikings were to lose out on Flora's, which I hope
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: doesn't happen, I don't think, you know, all would be lost.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: I think even if it took a year, or two
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: to mesh and get everything figured out in the system.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: I think there's still good defensive coordinator names out there,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: and I think Kevin O'Connell and Minnesota is a good
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: enough spot that they can be a good place for
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: someone that may have options to choose Minnesota to be
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: a defensive coordinator there. So I think ultimately it will
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: end up being okay. But I definitely my plan A,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: my hope, you know, hope A, is for Flores to
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: continue in Minnesota.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Regardless of what happens, I think we could be in
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: for another big kind of apple cart upset like we
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: were last year. Like there was a lot of movement
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: last year and here we are and doesn't look like
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: a lot is going to stay the same. And I
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: think that's fairly typical of NFL teams these days. You know,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: guys move on, Guys retire, guys, you know, want more money,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: find green or grass elsewhere. But it just seems like
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: the Vikings are in this cycle right now or there's
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: just there's not gonna be a lot of continuity year
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: to year. There's gonna be a lot of turnover. There's
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: a good core right like justin Jefferson's not going anywhere.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: We're grateful for that. You know, Dallas Turner really made
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: a name for himself. I don't think he's going anywhere,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: at least while he's still on his rookie contract. Andrew Vankinkol,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Blake Cashman, you know, some of those core guys, they're
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: not going anywhere. We don't have to worry about them,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: at least for now.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, at least for this coming season.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: But I still think a lot of those other guys
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: could be, you know, caught up in this mix up
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Yeah, we're sitting here
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: January twelfth. By the time the Vikings kick off on
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: their first game here early September, there's a potential there's
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of like like potential blow up storylines that
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: could happen this offseason for the Vikings. You're talking. Yeah,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: you mentioned Justin Jefferson and how he's not going anywhere,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: but like there could be like they could do something
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: as extreme as trade for Joe Burrow or like as
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: crazy as sign Jim Harbaugh's their defensive coordinator. You know,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: like there's a list of those things that could be
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: crazy enough that they just might happen, or you know,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: they keep JJ McCarthy as QB one and they don't
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: make any free agent moves or restructures or re signings
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: or trades or anything, and they just try to running back.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: But I think the thing that makes me think the
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: most that there might be some at least one big
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: move at least once this offseason. We're gonna be like, whoa, hey,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: this is kind of crazy. Whatever it is. The reason
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: for that is, I mean, you're coming off a rough season,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: and yes, Kevin O'Connell and Quacy duffamensa their extensions are
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: about to kick in for the twenty twenty sixth season,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: but they could still like be coaching or GMing for
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: their futures. So there could be that desperation of like, yeah,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: I have a few more deals left on my deal,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: but if JJ McCarthy doesn't work out, I'm stuck with him,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: so we need to come up with another plan, you know,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: or something like that. So there could be at least
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: one move that's like, oh, Quacy's doing this because he's
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: trying to make the big splash to say hey, look
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: I am a good GM, or Koc's going to make
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: one higher or one you know, player decision because it's like, oh, yep,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: he's doing that because he's coaching for his job now,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: So there could be something like that happen, and it's
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: kind of exciting whether or not you're here for it,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: whether or not you or I agree with whatever big
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: splash may or may not happen, like, it's still going
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: to be exciting. The worst thing is to sit here
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: and be like they didn't do anything like that would
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: be so boring.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll have plenty to talk about from now until September. Like,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: I'm very confident of that. We've been doing this podcast
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: for almost three years now. I don't see any shortage
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: of topics to talk about and vikings related from now
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: until the season, and then when the season starts we
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: get to just look ahead and recap each game.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah, May will be the start of our fourth
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: year doing the Crazy Gas which is awesome.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, would you oh?
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: I say oh, because I just watched Aaron Rodgers get
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: just get stripsacked and then the Saints big boy picked
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: it or Saints, so the Texans picked it up and
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: ranted in for a touchdown to make it sixteen to
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: six in the fourth quarter. That was crazy.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: That is crazy.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: Anyways, here I am recapping her live, you know, announcing
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: a game that anybody listening will This game's been done
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: for two days by then, so I will.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: Say, because we don't know the outcome of the game
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: at this point, never count out Aaron Rodgers.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: Never count them out. But there's eleven minutes and twenty
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: three seconds left and they're about to be down by
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: eleven points. Which what was the turning point for the Bears?
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: How far down were they? Like eleven points with some minutes.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: I went to bed when it was twenty one to three. Yeah,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: but when the Bears they that was halftime. But then
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: at one point, Michael is it Michael Golden he had
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: scored a touchdown to make it like an eleven point
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: game in the fourth quarter, I'm pretty sure. So the
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: Bears came back. So, like you said, never count out
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers. If anybody can do it, even at forty
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: something years old, I think Rogers can.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, well, never count out Big Grove.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: They made they made a zero eddie beer. That's probably
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: just as good as a an.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: Easy eddie, Yeah, I would say, so, it's definitely in
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: that category. Yeah, what do you think, I mean, did
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: you think about it at all? If someone had handed
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: this to you, do you think you would have immediately
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: been like, hey, well this is good, but like there's
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: something different, Like.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Would you have picked noticed something different? You can tell
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: that there's no alcohol in it, and typically like an
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: easy eddie or I forget all the different variations of
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: eddie that they oh there's a handfolio, but I feel
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: like there all like they're that hazy ipa. But you
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: can you can feel the booziness in it, not in
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: a bad way, not in a like oh you better
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: not have that on your breath going somewhere else, you know,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: but just in a like, oh, yeah, that's that's beer,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: you know, And this this doesn't quite have that, not
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: in a bad.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: Way at all.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: You said it earlier. It definitely scratches the itch, especially
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: if you're trying to cut back on on drinking real beer.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I'll replace a real beer with this any
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: day of the week.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're right. I think an easy eddie
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: is about a six percent beer. So there's a big
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: difference between a six percent beer and a beer that's
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: you know, as much as zer point five percent, So yeah,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 2: there's a big difference there, And I guarantee if I
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: had them side by side, I would immediately be able
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: to tell like, oh yeah, this is the the full Eddie,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: you know, this is the easy Eddie and this one's
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: a zero Eddie. But as far as flavor goes, and
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: someone who very much, easy Eddie is one of my
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: favorite beers. It's in my favorite category of beers. It's
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: probably one that I have, you know, most often, among
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: like a craft beer, this zero Eddie still it does
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: it for me. It's still you know, there's not any
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: alcohol content, so I'm not getting that buzz, which that's
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: one thing. But if I mean, I would I have
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: one of these any day. I'm really impressed with the
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: level of quality that Big Grove was still able to
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: get with this while still not having any alcohol content,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: you know, any worthy alcohol content at all. So Big Grove,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: good job. I really like it.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good beer for sure. Where can people find us
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: they're looking to get more skull Hop in their life.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: We are everywhere on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, our
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: website theskool Hop dot com. We've got an email address
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: if you want to reach out to us. I think
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: we still have a sticker flying around here if you
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: want one. The School Hop at gmail dot com. YouTube
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: definitely check out our YouTube if you want to see
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: our beautiful faces here. We post every episode video on
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: YouTube and it's the same audio. But I think there's
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: some value in watching this. You know, throw us on
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: while you're cooking dinner or something. So we're out there,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: and definitely give us a comment on YouTube, Tweet us
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: on you know X or Twitter. We're everywhere. If you
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: google the School Hop you will find us.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: I promise. The way you said everything or everywhere reminded
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: me of Nate Bargatsy. Everything, all of it?
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: What is that from?
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: It's from those little sketches he did as George Washington.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, where there.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: I think the first one was all about how we'll
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: choose our own systems of weights and measures, and then
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: the next one is all about like food, and how
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: we'll have a name for food when it's an animal,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: and then we'll have a different name for it when
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: it's food. Everything, all of it. I think that was
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: like in response to like what's in a hot dog?
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, everything, all of it.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: I'm a sucker for a good nay Bargetzi bit. I
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: think he's been on SNL at least two or three times,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: so yeah.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: It's pretty fine. Well, I thought we covered as much
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: as we could really in a short time with everything
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: kind of on the horizon for the Vikings, and we
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: got to drink a pretty good beer.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Well we did it absolutely, listener, go ahead and go
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: check out again. We'll put it in the show notes.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: That Viking's territory article again, it's titled where the Vikings
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: go from here after twenty twenty five? Check it out
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: Alis Sidiki And again, I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 2: He did a really good job with that article. It's
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: definitely an opinion based article with some fact as the
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: basis of it. But I enjoyed it, and that's obviously
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: why we kind of based our whole episode today on it.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: It's a good snapshot of where the Vikings could go
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: this year. Uh. Loved the beer, Evan. I'm glad you
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: liked it too, at least to some extent.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: For me.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: It's a good n a beer. Uh, But yeah, Evan,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: great beer, really great conversation.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe best episode yet.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe school m activity at.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: At at at at at at