Latest / The Skol Hop / Another Mystery Beer, Vikings 2024 Schedule Scenarios, Current Vikings that weren’t helped by the Draft | TSH Ep. 39

Transcript

Another Mystery Beer, Vikings 2024 Schedule Scenarios, Current Vikings that weren’t helped by the Draft | TSH Ep. 39 · The Skol Hop

• 0:26
  All right, Hey Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the School.
• 0:30
  I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes that like talking
• 0:34
  about the Vikings and drinking good beer. Yeah, we do it. I'm
• 0:37
  excited to get in that beer. But first, let me just say thank
• 0:41
  you to our sponsor, Big Top Ventures. We're brought to you today by
• 0:44
  Big Top Ventures. They can get you the lowest rate possible on several all
• 0:50
  inclusive, all inclusive resorts in Mexico or Jamaica. If you're interested in that,
• 0:56
  go ahead and reach out to them, send them an email, tell
• 0:59
  them you're interested in all inclusive in Mexico or Jamaica. Their email, I
• 1:03
  think we usually put it put it right on the screen there, but I'll
• 1:06
  read it out. It's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. That
• 1:11
  is Big Top Ventures LC at gmail dot com. And they'll hook you up.
• 1:15
  So yeah, thanks, Big Top Ventures. You can also find their
• 1:17
  email in the description of our podcast, so wherever you're listening or watching,
• 1:23
  that should be in the description box below as well. So you said send
• 1:27
  them an email if that's something you're interested in. Yeah, something I'll be
• 1:30
  doing well a trip. I'll be going through them in just over a month,
• 1:36
  and I can't wait. It's exciting. Yeah. What else is exciting
• 1:40
  is we've got these mystery beers here. Yeah, something that you started for
• 1:44
  us last week. Well, let's be clear, it's an idea that I
• 1:47
  still that I saw on TikTok, but I'm sure people have been doing it
• 1:49
  forever. Yep. But yeah, I liked it last week. I had
• 1:53
  a lot of fun with it. Yeah. Yeah, we got to enjoy
• 1:56
  a good sour. Where was that one from Great Revival Revivalist? We had
• 2:00
  their peach Wrangler, I think is what they called. It was delicious.
• 2:05
  It was delicious and not one that I probably would have reached for. I
• 2:08
  would have never purposely reached for it if not for our show. Yeah,
• 2:13
  this one that I've got for us today. I have followed your lead.
• 2:16
  It's wrapped in tinfoil to disguise the brewery and the specific beer that we have
• 2:24
  here tonight. This is one we have reached for before. This is actually
• 2:29
  this is a monumental moment in school hop history. This is the first time
• 2:32
  to my knowledge, and we've kept a pretty good record here that we've doubled
• 2:38
  back on a beer. Okay, the first time we've doubled back on a
• 2:42
  beer. So we've had up till this point thirty eight different beers. Is
• 2:47
  that including because we've had at least one episode to where we had two different
• 2:52
  beers. That's true. I think we might have had two episodes where we've
• 2:55
  done so maybe we're up to like forty two or forty three individual Anyways,
• 3:00
  regardless, this is the first time since we've started the show that we are
• 3:06
  going to have the same beer again. But I wanted to do it that
• 3:08
  way because I wanted to see if you could identify it. Oh man,
• 3:13
  I'm excited. I can't wait. Might I say last week I was kind
• 3:16
  of tooting my own horn a little bit by my my tinfoil job. I
• 3:22
  hope you're not critiquing mine. No, that's not good. You knocked me
• 3:24
  out of the water on this, Like, yeah, sure mine was more
• 3:28
  smooth, but yours is like more secure. You you didn't well on the
• 3:34
  tin foil. I did a base layer and then I was like, this
• 3:37
  is gonna fall off another layer and I really like crunched it down to make
• 3:43
  sure that it wasn't going to come off. Yeah, so even on the
• 3:45
  bottom, like you were worried last week about the bottom, and I'm like,
• 3:47
  yeah, well there's nothing on the bottom, sure, but yeah,
• 3:52
  to be safe. So I am critiquing you, but saying that you did
• 3:54
  a much better job than I did last week. So thank school, Thank
• 3:59
  you school. Well, we should crack these open and pour them up.
• 4:02
  Yeah, and I want to see what you think. All right, I
• 4:04
  can't wait. It's a beer that we've had on the school hop and you
• 4:10
  have your laptop so you could pull up our list. I'm not gonna You're
• 4:13
  not gonna. I'm not gonna, right, I'm gonna try to keep this
• 4:15
  as on the top of my head as possible. All right, So I'm
• 4:19
  excited. You ready, I'm I'm I'm ready. I've been wanting to ask
• 4:23
  questions, but I'm like, no, I'm just gonna wait. Let's do
• 4:26
  the poor, okay, and then I'll answer your questions after the poor.
• 4:29
  I wonder if I can get it just off the poor, typical Austin poor.
• 4:39
  You know what, pretty hard. You gotta live it, okay,
• 4:44
  all right, Well, let's just uh here's if you're watching on YouTube or
• 4:53
  wherever you can see. Yeah, for those that aren't watching and just listening,
• 4:59
  can you just yeah, So this is not like a hazy ipa or
• 5:02
  a light sider or anything like that. This is a dark beer. Would
• 5:06
  you expect anything differently from me? No, Although I can't tell if it's
• 5:11
  like a dark dark beer or if it's just like a nice heavy amber.
• 5:15
  I'm gonna lean just looking at it. I haven't tried it. I tried
• 5:16
  to cheat and lick off the can a little bit, but I couldn't get
• 5:20
  anything off that. I'm gonna guess it's a pretty dark amber knowing you,
• 5:26
  okay, just by looking at it, I may totally go back on that
• 5:30
  here in a second. Give it a good smell. Hmm. Oh man,
• 5:36
  it definitely smells familiar. See, I'm kind of like, I know
• 5:41
  what it is, but I'm I'm trying to put myself in your shoes.
• 5:46
  Yeah, like if you didn't know what it was, and it's kind of
• 5:47
  fun. Like I haven't I haven't taken a sip of it yet, and
• 5:50
  I haven't had this beer since we had it the last time on the show.
• 5:55
  All right, well, let's scull it up and let's give this a
• 5:58
  try. That was a good one. It's definitely just as good as I
• 6:04
  remember it being. Oh, single speed, tipsy cow, Tip the cow
• 6:12
  is. Have we had that one on the show? I think we have.
• 6:16
  We have not had that one on the show. We've had a single
• 6:18
  Speed, but we haven't had tip the cow. Okay, Tip the Cow
• 6:21
  is like really coffee heavy, like they use sidecar coffee in the brew There's
• 6:29
  no coffee in this. This is not a coffee beer. Oh so it's
• 6:31
  not a stout. It's not a stout. Nope. Oh man, I
• 6:40
  jumped in on that. I was super confident you were. That's all right,
• 6:43
  though, I appreciate the the willingness to just jump right in. So
• 6:49
  Forrest and I we were asking questions about the brewery location. Yeah, I
• 6:55
  should probably start doing that. You could ask some of these questions. Have
• 6:58
  you and I attended this brewery together? We have not not together have to
• 7:02
  your knowledge, have either of us attended this To my knowledge, you have,
• 7:08
  but I have not. Okay, I'm pretty sure, all right,
• 7:12
  based on our previous conversations. Okay, is this a des Moin area brewery?
• 7:17
  It's oh, that's a good question. Hang on, they may have
• 7:23
  other locations, Yes, I'm thinking, like, if you think of this
• 7:27
  brewery, your first thought, would it be in the Des Moin area.
• 7:30
  I don't think so. Okay, no, actually no, I don't think.
• 7:35
  Oh no, they have a taproom in Des Moines, just on a
• 7:39
  quick Google search. But it's not. It doesn't originate in Des Moines.
• 7:44
  They've expanded to Des Moines. Okay, all right, this is not Big
• 7:51
  Grove, is it. It is a Big Grove. Okay, it's a
• 7:55
  Big Grove beer. About the overall color of the beer, oh, I
• 8:07
  think when we first poured this beer, we commented on how good it looked
• 8:11
  in these glasses because it looked like a football. Yeah. Is there a
• 8:16
  mascot associated with this beer? There is? Did we give our own a
• 8:20
  little nudge of a name to this mascot? Yes? All right, this
• 8:26
  is Big Groves Birch the Bear. Although I like Birch the brown Bear a
• 8:31
  lot better, so Big Grove please consider changing that name Birch the brown Bear.
• 8:35
  Birch the brown Bear. It's a brown ale, or make a variation
• 8:37
  that like adds a coffee flavor to this and then name that the brown bear
• 8:43
  or something. That's a good idea too. Although this, don't change the
• 8:46
  beer. If you do good, I guess, make a variation and then
• 8:50
  say Birch the brown Bear, Birch the Bear. The name is good,
• 8:54
  the beer is great. I like this one a lot, and I'm really
• 8:56
  proud of myself. You did help me a lot with the with the brewery.
• 9:03
  But yeah, I don't know if I've had this outside of the last
• 9:05
  time we tried it on the episode either. Yeah, it's a good one
• 9:09
  though. I saw it on the shelf and I'm like, hey, we're
• 9:11
  gonna do that one to. You made a good decision. If Austin can
• 9:13
  guess it, Yeah, there you go. Well it didn't take you that
• 9:16
  long. Took you. I don't know, a couple of minutes. I
• 9:20
  did totally whiff on my first guess when I thought I was pretty confident.
• 9:24
  It's not a bad guess though. I think the only thing that I that
• 9:26
  would have caused me to say it's not as stout is it just doesn't have
• 9:31
  the creamy, like foamy head to it that a stout typically has. And
• 9:35
  we had those series of No Coast stouts yep, which like that was the
• 9:41
  most stouts per capita in a week or whatever. Nitro beers for the No
• 9:46
  Coast. True, but they were like nitro stouts. Yeah yeah, right,
• 9:50
  So anyways, like I really kind of was into stouts there for a
• 9:54
  few weeks and I still like them, yeah, even though they're not my
• 9:58
  go to. We're also in in the springtime of year where you're more looking
• 10:03
  for a lighter beer at this point, right, yeah, other than the
• 10:07
  stouts. This, uh, the spurch, the bear I feel like would
• 10:11
  hit no matter what. There he is. There's Birch the brown bear.
• 10:16
  He's coming out of hibernation. It's springtime. He is ready to go.
• 10:22
  Well, it's a fun game and it's, you know, a fun little
• 10:26
  tradition. Maybe this is a new wrinkle. That's how we do it every
• 10:30
  week. I'm okay with that. I like it because plus it gives us
• 10:35
  an opportunity to name other breweries if we gets it wrong, Like we probably
• 10:39
  wouldn't have said Single Speed today if I didn't completely whiff on my guess that's
• 10:43
  true, and truth be told, we like Single Speed. Oh yeah,
• 10:46
  oh yeah. Actually I looked at one of their beers on the shelf before
• 10:50
  grabbing this one. So maybe next time, Single Speed. Maybe next time.
• 10:54
  I'm not gonna. I guess this is my turn next time, so
• 10:56
  a wink. Although it would be interesting now since I totally whiffed on my
• 11:01
  guests with the tip the cow, to try this right next to the tip
• 11:05
  to cow, tip the cow and see how wrong I totally was, I'm
• 11:09
  guessing it would be a pretty different wear drastic difference. Yeah, but both
• 11:15
  are still good in their own right. So good stuff, and thanks to
• 11:20
  Big Grove for making good beer. We appreciate it, and hopefully someday I'll
• 11:24
  make my way out to Big Grove. I mean, let's go off topic
• 11:30
  a little bit. We are planning a skull hop brew hop tour this summer
• 11:35
  for Iowa breweries, and I mean we've kind of talked about some of the
• 11:39
  breweries we want to hit up, and Big Grove is definitely on that list.
• 11:43
  But let's just say it right now. If you are associated with or
• 11:48
  are an Iowa brewery and you think it'd be cool to have us come in
• 11:50
  and try the beers and post up some content on the podcast or YouTube or
• 11:56
  anywhere, let us know we I was not that big of a state.
• 12:01
  We are open to driving almost anywhere, especially if it means beers at the
• 12:07
  end of the destination. So we're still finalizing our brew tour locations and let
• 12:13
  us know if you want us to be there. Yeah, we'll definitely,
• 12:16
  uh, we'll definitely be listening, absolutely, and we might just show up
• 12:18
  anyways, even if you don't ask us. Yeah, yeah, so during
• 12:22
  business hours and be paying patrons. But still yes, yes, of course.
• 12:28
  But yeah, that's coming up. That's uh, we're playing in this
• 12:31
  summer yep, so July ish timeframe. Yeah, we're looking ahead to that,
• 12:35
  so I'm excited. Yeah, and uh, yeah, we're gonna we're
• 12:39
  gonna do that to kind of celebrate a big milestone in school hop history.
• 12:45
  Yeah. Today though this is episode thirty nine, it is, we've got
• 12:52
  the we can kind of debate maybe on who the best Viking to where thirty
• 12:58
  nine is. I think I think the two of us would remember Hossein Abdullah
• 13:05
  a little bit more than the other guy, who probably is the best Viking
• 13:09
  to wear thirty nine. But yeah, we've got most recently channed in Sullivan
• 13:13
  in Koc's first year pretty forgetful year in Minnesota, and he only lasted the
• 13:22
  one year in Minnesota. I don't know where he is now. I want
• 13:24
  to say maybe the Jets or something before that. The last guy to consistently
• 13:28
  wear thirty nine was Hosein Abdullah, which there's a kind of fun story about
• 13:33
  him, interesting story I don't know about fun, which I'll get to here
• 13:37
  in a minute. And then Carl Lee from the eighties and nineties. And
• 13:41
  Carl Lee made a couple of Pro Bowls, three Pro Bowls, and a
• 13:45
  first team All Pro in nineteen eighty eight. So Carl Lee is probably arguably
• 13:50
  the best. Yeah, and I remember hearing his name, like, my
• 13:54
  family have been Vikings fans going all the way back to the sixties and seventies.
• 13:58
  So yeah, but I mean to be fair, his Vikings tenure only
• 14:03
  overlapped with our lives for as many as three seasons, uh maybe two.
• 14:11
  Yeah we were babies, yes, yeah, so we were toddlers at best.
• 14:15
  Yeah, So we haven't seen him play. And it's unfortunate that sometimes
• 14:18
  even these guys that make one, two, three Pro Bowls in their career,
• 14:22
  after they're done for a long time, like once you hit the next
• 14:26
  era, they those guys are still easy to forget unless you're like the die
• 14:31
  hard you were watching them. They were your favorite player or family member,
• 14:35
  you know, or just because so many so many players cycle in and out
• 14:41
  every year. Uh. But yeah, that's those are the only names I
• 14:43
  had written down, Chane and Sullivan, Hussein Odullah, and Carl Lee.
• 14:48
  As far as thirty nine number, well, we'll go with the Carl Lee.
• 14:52
  Yeah. I think it's a pretty pretty easy to see that Carl Lee
• 14:56
  was the best to wear thirty nine. Although Saint Abdullah and I'm probably pronouncing
• 15:01
  his first name wrong, I apologize. I'm pretty sure it was his rookie
• 15:07
  year. He was a later round draft pick. His rookie year, training
• 15:13
  camp overlapped with the time of Ramadan for him, something he observes. I
• 15:20
  think he has a brother who also played in the NFL around the same time
• 15:24
  he did, And in his rookie year he was in training camp, which
• 15:28
  I mean as you can imagine an elite, you know, professional level athlete
• 15:35
  during July, you know, July and August having to exert a lot of
• 15:39
  energy fighting for your job, for your life. It's not like he was
• 15:43
  a multiple time MVP that had no worries about his roster spot. In Ramadan.
• 15:50
  You're restricted on the times and types of calories you're able to take in
• 15:54
  in the times of day, and he was kind of I don't know about
• 15:58
  keeping it a secret, but he wasn't making a lot of noise about,
• 16:02
  Hey, I'm not able to drink water right now or whatever. You know,
• 16:06
  I can't I can't consume the calories to replenish what I'm putting out on
• 16:11
  this NFL training camp. And he made the team, and then it came
• 16:15
  out. He kind of told people like, yeah, that was that was
• 16:18
  really tough, Like I had to figure out when I can eat and stuff,
• 16:22
  and the team was like whoa. So the next year, the team
• 16:26
  nutritionists like worked with him and they came up with a plan. Because it's
• 16:29
  not that and I'm so ignorant on all of Ramadan and stuff like that,
• 16:33
  but it's not that you can't eat during that time. It's restricted on the
• 16:37
  timeframe that you can and what you can. But I'm pretty sure the team
• 16:40
  nutritionists worked with him and came up with a plan for him to be fully
• 16:45
  good to go throughout training camp in the early part of the season, which
• 16:48
  is pretty cool. And I've always remembered that story when I've heard his name
• 16:52
  every once in a while. Through the years. Yeah, and honestly,
• 16:55
  i'd never heard that story. Yeah, so that's pretty cool and pretty cool
• 16:57
  that he followed through on his religious beliefs to you know, endure all of
• 17:03
  that, especially during an NFL training camp, which has to be one of
• 17:07
  the more rigorous physical periods of anybody's life, let alone, and that's when
• 17:12
  you can chug gatorade and you know, consume all the calories you need.
• 17:15
  Yeah. Anyways, so yeah, interesting stuff, good stuff. Well,
• 17:22
  later this week, the NFL schedule is coming out, and that's kind of
• 17:26
  a big deal. And something that's interested me about how the league chooses to
• 17:30
  go about doing that is they're never really super clear about when it's going to
• 17:37
  be. They always say like, it's going to come out in the first
• 17:41
  couple of weeks of May, and then like I always go back, like,
• 17:45
  okay, well, last year it came out on this day in May,
• 17:48
  and it was a Thursday. So it's got to be the first Thursday
• 17:51
  in May, or it's got to be the second Thursday in May. I
• 17:53
  was even I was driving down the road. I was listening to our local,
• 17:59
  like ESPN affiliate radio station, because that's typically what I listened to in
• 18:03
  the car and there was an advertisement for the NFL schedule, and I like
• 18:07
  perked up and I'm like, oh, maybe they're gonna say when the date
• 18:11
  is yeah, and then they said coming in the early part of May,
• 18:15
  and I'm like, oh my gosh, come on, like can you just
• 18:18
  tell us? So anyways, I found out I think it was like yesterday
• 18:22
  or today that it was going to be this week and it's going to be
• 18:26
  this Thursday. That is that even official, Like just people are pretty confident,
• 18:30
  like I don't I don't think i've seen And I'm not saying you're wrong,
• 18:33
  You're probably absolutely right, But I don't think i've seen the NFL come
• 18:37
  out and say, hey, get ready because at this time on NFL Network,
• 18:41
  we're gonna release the schedule, you know what I mean. Like,
• 18:45
  And that may be the case. Maybe they haven't. I just missed it.
• 18:47
  Now now I'm second guessing it and looking at it. But usually that's
• 18:51
  the kind of story when a lot of like Adam Schefter and those type of
• 18:57
  people start saying like, oh, yeah, we could see a schedule sometime
• 19:03
  this week, Like usually that's because they've heard something yeah, and they've been
• 19:07
  told something but not been told not to tell every detail. So everything on
• 19:12
  like the NFL's website says coming in May, they're very vague about it.
• 19:17
  Intentionally, we're going to operate under the assumption that it's either this Thursday or
• 19:22
  next Thursday, because they typically do it on a Thursday, and we're recording
• 19:26
  right now on Monday, the sixth of May. So yeah, honestly,
• 19:30
  like this could be something that between us saying these words right now and whenever
• 19:37
  you're listening to our podcast in the next couple of days, you already know,
• 19:41
  like maybe they will have already announced, like, yes, officially it
• 19:44
  will be Thursday, whatever that day is, the the ninth or Friday.
• 19:49
  From the rumblings we're seeing on Twitter and stuff, I'd agree with you.
• 19:53
  I would assume this week we'll at least have a date of when this schedule
• 19:57
  will be announced. But what we might know beforehand is when the Vikings play
• 20:03
  in London. They usually announced those games in times earlier than the whole schedule.
• 20:11
  You may not know this. Weirdly, Dustin Baker is really good at
• 20:15
  getting details of the schedule, and he'll know a day or even the morning
• 20:21
  before they officially announced, So keep an eye on Dustin Baker on Twitter and
• 20:25
  stuff, so he's usually a good resource for all of that. But we
• 20:29
  do know the opponents. Yeah, and I've got them pulled up here,
• 20:32
  and I think they are in seemingly alphabetical order. Okay, I'm more or
• 20:40
  less. So this is from fb schedules dot Com twenty twenty four Vikings schedule.
• 20:49
  So obviously we know that the Vikings will have a home in a way
• 20:55
  series against their divisional foes. So the Bear, Lions, Packed and Bears
• 21:00
  every year, it always happens. I guess this site doesn't specify which teams
• 21:07
  they'll play at home and which teams they'll play on the road. Here,
• 21:14
  Yeah, here's a better list. Okay, So yeah, their home opponents,
• 21:18
  Yeah, you have it alreatten out for us. I didn't even know.
• 21:22
  I didn't know where you were going, so I wasn't gonna stop here.
• 21:23
  But their home opponents obviously Bears, Packers, and Lines. And then
• 21:26
  they'll also also host apparently I can't talk right now, the Cardinals, Texans,
• 21:34
  Colts, forty nine, Ers, Falcons, and Jets. So with
• 21:40
  the odd number of games in the season, you'll notice they have more home
• 21:44
  games than away games. This coming year, they also will be the quote
• 21:48
  unquote home team for their London games, so that kind of evens out how
• 21:52
  many games will be played at US Bank Stadium and away from US Bank Stadium.
• 21:56
  And as of right now, they haven't announced who their opponent or the
• 22:00
  Dayton time or anything for that London game. They've only said the Vikings will
• 22:04
  play and that'll be at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, not Wembley, which I
• 22:11
  think the Hotspur Stadium. I might be wrong on this, but I think
• 22:14
  that's the one that was built with specifically, like obviously soccer in mind first
• 22:22
  and foremost, but we'll go with soccer. You don't need that debate on
• 22:26
  this show. But obviously I think the NFL had a hand in making some
• 22:33
  decisions on how that stadium was built, specifications and everything like that. So
• 22:37
  it's more not that Wembley isn't a good stadium for actual football, but I
• 22:47
  think the Hotspur Stadium is like more fine tuned for football. Yeah, and
• 22:52
  the away games obviously Bears, Packers and Lions again, but then they go
• 22:57
  to Jacksonville for the Jaguars, LA for the Rams, Seattle for the Seahawks,
• 23:03
  Tennessee for the Titans and East Rutherford, New Jersey for the Giants.
• 23:10
  I appreciate the specificity of the location there for that team, Yeah, because
• 23:15
  it is kind of misleading for both teams that claim to be from New York.
• 23:22
  Yeah. I think there's only one New York team and there's three that
• 23:25
  claim to be from New York. It's also a weird stance for you and
• 23:27
  I to take because we're not a fan of any of those teams. But
• 23:33
  you know, geographically, I mean, it's not like the Vikings say that
• 23:37
  they're the I don't know, Northern Country Vikings are the Minnesota Vikings, so
• 23:41
  they can claim anywhere in the state. That's right, that's right. Well,
• 23:45
  let's do this. Let's make some predictions here, way too early,
• 23:52
  predictions, way too early, And I mean, I mean, we're basing
• 23:53
  this on not a whole lot of being Homer. We're just a couple of
• 24:00
  dudes from Iowa that like drinking beer and talking about the Vikings. So we've
• 24:04
  got nothing to lose here, and don't take our predictions or opinions seriously.
• 24:11
  We're not going to concrete. I'm not going to hold you to whatever record
• 24:14
  you say. You're not gonna do the same for me. But those of
• 24:17
  you out there, you know, if you know something or if you think
• 24:21
  something different, drop a comment down below, let us know what you think.
• 24:25
  And yeah, we want to know your guys' thoughts too. We'll we'll
• 24:27
  have to be slaves to the outcome when it comes out, either this week
• 24:33
  or next week. Yeah. So all that being said, we haven't actually
• 24:36
  talked about this, so this is a little bit of an on air production
• 24:38
  meeting. But I'd assume you'll have the same thought process I do. I
• 24:44
  think it was episode three where we went through game by game, we made
• 24:49
  our predictions for each game. We even had our wives and kids make predictions,
• 24:55
  and we flipped a coin to see what the coin said would happen for
• 24:57
  this previous twenty twenty three season. And I'd assume we're going to do the
• 25:03
  same. That was a lot of fun and I'm playing that episode did pretty
• 25:07
  well. I'm planning on it. Yeah. Yeah, So we'll have a
• 25:10
  more thought out roster season prediction in a few episodes, definitely after the schedule's
• 25:18
  released. So and we'll flip the coin, yeah, just like we did
• 25:22
  the last time too. I thought that was fun, and I was hopeful
• 25:26
  the coin would be more right than it was. Yeah, the coin was
• 25:29
  very favorable. The coin, if I remember right, had the Vikings making
• 25:33
  it all the way to the NFC Championship game yep, and then they lost
• 25:36
  and then they lost, which you know what, I'd prefer what actually happened,
• 25:41
  because if they had lost in the NFC Championship game, they don't have
• 25:44
  a high end first round quarterback right now probably probably, and a high end
• 25:48
  first round edge defender right right. So anyways, that's coming, probably in
• 25:56
  the next couple of weeks. We will have that episode one. We have
• 26:00
  the actual schedule in front of us, but now we don't. We only
• 26:03
  have the opponents both home and away, and the fact that they're going to
• 26:07
  play a game in London at our disposal. So I want you to predict
• 26:14
  who the Vikings play for their home opener. Ooh, and do they open
• 26:19
  the season at home or do they open the season on the road. Let's
• 26:23
  start there, all right, So kind of a shot in the dark.
• 26:27
  So one thing I remember about last season that I was pretty excited for and
• 26:33
  it didn't end up mattering, was that they didn't have any cold games no
• 26:37
  cold weather games between their home games at US Bank Stadium and their away games
• 26:41
  being timed out to be in nice, nicer locations than you know, the
• 26:48
  Arctic tundra. I remember being excited about that in the preseason, that they
• 26:52
  wouldn't have to worry about a snow game. That would be really fun.
• 26:56
  And looking at the away teams, obviously we have the other NFC North teams,
• 27:02
  which the Bears and the Packers would be the candidates for a cold game
• 27:06
  away, and then the other away teams, I mean the Jaguars, that's
• 27:14
  not going to be a cold game. The Rams that's in La at most
• 27:17
  that might be a raining game. But aren't they Is that a roofed stadium.
• 27:21
  It's enclosed above, but it's like open air kind of on the side.
• 27:26
  So if I stadium is okay, so not rainy at all, definitely
• 27:27
  not cold. Seahawks that's going to be rainy and loud. Titans would be
• 27:33
  weird if it was. If it was a cold or snowy game, and
• 27:37
  the Giants very well could be a ton draig ten See it can get cold,
• 27:42
  yeah in November and December. Yeah, you don't typically see the foot
• 27:47
  of snow on the ground. No, but I mean it could be thirty
• 27:51
  degrees in flurries. Yeah, all right, So I guess I'll finally get
• 27:55
  to an answer to your question first home game. I think the Vikings.
• 28:02
  The NFL is gonna want the Vikings to either host Kirk Cousins early in the
• 28:10
  season or host that game in London to really mix up the or dust up
• 28:15
  the excitement and the storylines across the world. So my guess, honestly,
• 28:22
  my guess is that the Vikings will face the Falcons in London, and that'll
• 28:27
  be answer my question. That'll be late in the season. I was trying
• 28:30
  to say they might host the Falcons in their first home game, but I
• 28:36
  think it's probably going to be a divisional game. I think they're gonna love
• 28:38
  the idea of a Caleb Williams JJ McCarthy if JJ's even starting at that point,
• 28:45
  which that's a whole different conversation, but they would love for that matchup
• 28:51
  to be early in the season, and I think US Bank Stadium is going
• 28:52
  to be a great spot for that. So I'll say a Bears home opener.
• 28:56
  And outside of that, that's interesting because they haven't played the Bears super
• 29:03
  early. Yeah, I feel like in the last couple of seasons. So
• 29:06
  last season they played the Bears in Week six and that was at Chicago,
• 29:11
  and then they played them again at home week twelve. And we went to
• 29:15
  a game two seasons ago at home against the Bears in week seventeen or was
• 29:21
  that still a seventeen week season two years ago? Oh? Yeah, that
• 29:26
  was that meaningless game. It was my first game at US Bank Stadium.
• 29:30
  Well, I forgot because I know the year after that we went to the
• 29:34
  season ending regular season ending game against the Bears in Chicago. So they went
• 29:38
  two straight years ending the season against the Bears, just one in Minnesota.
• 29:44
  And and so that's why I say, like, it's interesting that you would
• 29:48
  say that they're going to start the season with the Bears. Yeah, I
• 29:52
  think you could be onto something. I like the idea of a possible rookie
• 29:56
  v rookie matchup. Obviously, I mean, unless something crazy happens between now
• 30:03
  and September. Caleb Williams is the bona fide starter. Oh yeah, I
• 30:07
  don't know. In Chicago, Caleb Willet. They're gonna do the thing with
• 30:10
  Caleb Williams that I know. The Vikings won't do. Kayleb Williams is the
• 30:15
  current QB one for the Bears, no matter what anybody says, like he's
• 30:18
  gonna quote unquote compete for the job. No, he is the QB one.
• 30:22
  He's been the QB one since January. You know, like Tyson Bagent
• 30:27
  takes take a seat. Yeah, yeah, but we're not Bears podcasts.
• 30:33
  So yeah. I think it'll be a home opener against the Bears, and
• 30:37
  I hope it'll be in a way. The first away game will be against
• 30:41
  the Giants, just to get that up North New York game out of the
• 30:45
  way earlier in the season so you don't have to worry about the cold weather.
• 30:48
  It's fair. That's my hope. I guess I could. There's no
• 30:52
  way to predict this. What do you think? What? I actually think
• 30:55
  they won't start at home? Are you gonna get some beers? I am,
• 30:59
  yeah, do it, do it. I don't think they'll start at
• 31:00
  home. I think they're gonna start on the road, and that's just based
• 31:08
  off of the fact that they started at US Bank Stadium this year. And
• 31:15
  I'd like to think that the league tries to keep it somewhat fair, mix
• 31:19
  it up a little bit so that teams aren't always having the advantage. So
• 31:25
  let's look at the away games here quick. You have the three divisional games
• 31:29
  Bears, Lions, Packers, Jags, Rams, Seahawks, Titans, Giants.
• 31:33
  I'm gonna say, hmm, I haven't given a ton of thought to
• 31:38
  this. I'll say they start on the road at Green Bay. I'm gonna
• 31:45
  say they start on the road at Green Bay. I'm basing that on very
• 31:49
  little other than I think the league likes those Vikings Packers rivalry games. I'll
• 31:59
  never forget. It was the day my daughter was born, or the day
• 32:01
  after my daughter was born, my first, my oldest daughter was born.
• 32:06
  I was in the hospital and I watched the season opener. It was actually
• 32:10
  the first game. It was this game right here in this panorama, Oh,
• 32:15
  Vikings Packers first game at us Bank Stadium. I watched that from the
• 32:19
  hospital, holding my newborn daughter in my arms, September of twenty seventeen.
• 32:25
  So I'll win for the Vikings if I remember correctly. Yes, yes they
• 32:30
  won. So I think they start on the road at Lambeau. And for
• 32:36
  no other reason than it's a divisional game and the league seems to like those
• 32:39
  divisional games to bookend the season at the front end and the back end.
• 32:45
  But the second part of my question was do they start at home or away?
• 32:50
  I say away against the Packers the home opener. I like your thought.
• 32:57
  I think the home opener is against the Falcons, and I don't think
• 33:00
  it comes until two or three weeks into the season. I could see it
• 33:05
  being a week two. I could even see it being a week three,
• 33:08
  okay, having a little bit of a road trip before an early season homecoming.
• 33:15
  I don't know how common that is in the NFL scheduling world. I'm
• 33:20
  sure there are some statistics out there that we could find to either support or
• 33:23
  deny that. But I like your thought of an early season matchup against Kirk
• 33:31
  Cousins to really stir the pot. I don't disagree with you that perhaps they
• 33:35
  play them in London as well. Yeah, but those London games. To
• 33:39
  me, the Saints game was a little different in twenty twenty two, but
• 33:45
  the Browns in twenty seventeen and the Steelers in twenty thirteen, there was seemingly
• 33:50
  no like that's true logical rivalry or any sort of like connection between the teams.
• 33:57
  It was just like God let's just pick a couple of teams and it
• 34:00
  works in the schedule. We'll send them across the pond and they'll go play
• 34:04
  and it'll be great. I wonder how much goes into those London games if
• 34:07
  they look at like, oh, statistically, the Browns do really good for
• 34:14
  whatever reason in London, Like you know, I wonder if they look at
• 34:17
  that, or if it's just a timing thing. That would be an interesting
• 34:22
  thing to see their decision making process for how they decide that there is And
• 34:27
  maybe we can post this in the description below. There's a really cool YouTube
• 34:30
  video that I think the NFL put out, okay, kind of documenting the
• 34:37
  process that their team takes to making the schedule, and they kind of I'll
• 34:42
  have to share it with you, and you should watch it, and those
• 34:44
  of you at home you should watch it too. It is fascinating. It
• 34:46
  was one of those things that I think I was like home sick and I
• 34:50
  was really bored. Yeah, and so I'm just like flipping through YouTube on
• 34:52
  the TV and I came across like how the NFL schedule is made, and
• 34:58
  I was just captiva by all of it. They went into the history and
• 35:02
  there was a guy I don't remember his name, but historically he had always
• 35:08
  made the schedules for the NFL, and he he had these little like you
• 35:14
  know those like circular key tag like they're like labels that you put on like
• 35:19
  oh yeah, yeah. So he had these little circular key ring tabs for
• 35:23
  each team and it was like, you know, the Vikings and the Jets
• 35:30
  and the whatever. And then he had this huge board with nails on it
• 35:37
  and it was like it was a grid. It was like home team,
• 35:40
  away team. I'm probably getting this horribly wrong because I've not seen this in
• 35:45
  a while. We're all going to watch back that video, yeah, and
• 35:47
  you can correct all the things that I am getting wrong in my distription here.
• 35:52
  But he took those little key ring things and hung them on nails and
• 35:55
  he would just step back and analyze, and then he would say, Nope,
• 35:59
  that game doesn't work, and he would take that game off and move
• 36:01
  it here, and he would take this game and move it up here.
• 36:05
  And it was this month's long process of just agonizing over every single game in
• 36:12
  the NFL schedule until he had figured it out, and then it was like,
• 36:15
  okay, this is it. And then it was published and then it
• 36:19
  became official, and then they played the games and that was it. And
• 36:22
  it's much less simplistic than that. Now they have I mean, they're using
• 36:29
  computers and technology, and there's a team of people. It's like, you
• 36:32
  know, at least I think like eight or nine or ten people involved in
• 36:37
  the process, and they like they generate thousands of iterations of the schedule each
• 36:45
  and every week, and then they come together and they talk about things like
• 36:47
  what are the storylines? Yea, what can what should we do on Monday
• 36:52
  night here? And who's going to play in the Thanksgiving game? And it's
• 36:55
  I don't know, it was kind of mind boggling to see all of that.
• 37:00
  So we'll definitely link to that. I'll find it and I'll put it
• 37:04
  in. Maybe it's not on YouTube, maybe it's like a Netflix thing,
• 37:07
  Sure it's somewhere. Yeah, either way, we'll find it and we'll post
• 37:09
  it in the description below and I'll send it to you as well, because
• 37:14
  it's certainly worth watching. But there's a lot that goes into it, and
• 37:17
  it's a months long process. I think even to just determine, like the
• 37:24
  formula for who plays who, I think that took a while to really come
• 37:29
  up with, because it seemed like for a while it was just kind of
• 37:30
  a crapshoot, so to speak, other than the divisional games. Well,
• 37:36
  and I know, as far as that goes, there's certain rules like if
• 37:39
  you go on the Viking's website right now, or if you google like Vikings
• 37:44
  future opponents on their website Vikings dot com. Yeah, there's a page that
• 37:49
  lists out even though they don't have the full details of the schedule, they
• 37:52
  have listed out everything they know about future opponents up through twenty twenty six and
• 37:58
  maybe even beyond that, just because they know, like, okay, here
• 38:01
  are the rules. Obviously, rule number one, you play your divisional opponents
• 38:05
  twice a year, and then they know like the next few years every division
• 38:09
  plays each other, and they know how that formula works. And then there's
• 38:14
  the whole thing where every year it's determined if you're the where you rank in
• 38:17
  your division, if your first, third, second, fourth, whatever,
• 38:21
  then you play that same ranked team throughout the other divisions. There's a whole
• 38:25
  bunch of formulas so well, and so like just looking at the Vikings opponent
• 38:30
  this year, I know we're taking kind of a tea engine. No,
• 38:31
  this is good. I'm interested in this. But so the Vikings will play
• 38:36
  and I think the NFC North plays the AFC South the Jags, the Colts,
• 38:43
  the Texans, and the Titans. Are they all in the AFC South
• 38:47
  yep. And then they also play the NFC West, the Cardinals, the
• 38:52
  Rams, the Seahawks, and the Niners. Right. So I believe by
• 38:59
  division you're matched up with other divisions, and so you have to play teams
• 39:04
  from those divisions. And then there's also some like this team finished similar to
• 39:10
  you in the other conference, and so you play them. And so who
• 39:15
  would that be for the Vikings. I think that's where you're getting the Falcons
• 39:19
  this year, and maybe the Jets as well. Okay, and that closes
• 39:23
  out. It's basically the schedule. So that's why you'll see towards the end
• 39:28
  of the year you'll see people reporters tweet out like, oh, there you
• 39:32
  go. That's it. We know at least the finalized opponents for next year,
• 39:37
  because I say on the Vikings website you can look up through the next
• 39:40
  couple of years who their opponents will be. They also can't know who's going
• 39:45
  to finish in what's placed in their divisions, So they're only going to tell
• 39:47
  you what they know right now, which is the handful of I think they
• 39:52
  like the division versus division opponents. That's like the NFC North versus AFC South
• 39:57
  or whatever. Those are pretty well like laid out and there's a pattern to
• 40:00
  it, and it just reiterates over and over again. So every however many
• 40:06
  years, the NFC North will then, you know, whatever it is,
• 40:09
  four years from now or five years from now, they'll play the AFC South
• 40:13
  again. Yeah, that's why you can. You could probably go through and
• 40:15
  figure out how many times the Vikings are guaranteed to play the Patriots in the
• 40:22
  next thirty years, you know, like based off of those rules that I'm
• 40:27
  not I don't know off the top of my head, right and that number
• 40:29
  could fluctuate again based on if those two teams finish similarly in their respective conferences,
• 40:35
  then they'll be matched up again. So anyways, there is a rhyme
• 40:39
  to the reason behind what they're doing. But I feel like that's only more
• 40:44
  recent. I feel like even as kids, and maybe we just didn't pay
• 40:46
  attention to it as much. That's probably more likely. I also feel like
• 40:51
  it was maybe just underdeveloped though, like, yeah, it's more developed and
• 40:54
  it's more concrete now than it has been previously. Well all of that too.
• 41:00
  You have other factors that you might not normally think of, like I
• 41:04
  mean, just the fact that the Giants and the Jets share a stadium,
• 41:08
  as well as the Rams and the Chargers, So obviously those teams can't host
• 41:15
  a home game that week at the same time or even the same day.
• 41:20
  Really logistically that wouldn't work. So like US Bank Stadium, for example,
• 41:24
  hosts the Minnesota high school state football. Yeah, so that's got to be
• 41:28
  a factor in the scheduling. I know, the Chiefs share a parking lot
• 41:35
  and a whole like little mini city with the Royals, so I'm sure there's
• 41:42
  some bit in their formula that, hey, the Chiefs and the Royals probably
• 41:45
  shouldn't have a game at the same time or even like where traffic is coming
• 41:51
  and going because they it's the same parking lot, Like Royals fans tailgate in
• 41:54
  the same parking lot of the Chiefs fans tailgate. And then you get like
• 42:00
  crap, like is Taylor Swift gonna have this tour and is planning I mean,
• 42:05
  it sounds like a joke, but like, we can't have a Vikings
• 42:07
  game when she's planning on being at US Bank Stadium, And I'm sure those
• 42:10
  things are planned out far enough ahead of time and too like sure, I
• 42:15
  mean, well, then you have those situations where like the dome collapses on
• 42:20
  the Metro Dome and you're like, oh, what do we do? And
• 42:23
  then they ship the whole team off to Detroit and they end up playing in
• 42:28
  an otherwise empty Ford Field, which was actually it worked out pretty well.
• 42:32
  Yeah, but so, I mean, that's well. And even the year
• 42:37
  that I think it was the same year the Vikings had to play later a
• 42:39
  couple of games later, had to basically d snow TCF Bank Stadium, a
• 42:46
  non NFL venue that was already closed up for the season. So I'm sure
• 42:52
  that, however, far down on the list of backup plans that was already
• 42:55
  on the list of backup plans, Like okay, TCF Bank Stadium is a
• 43:00
  disaster backup for the Vikings, and that's got to be a contingent in every
• 43:05
  area, like, oh crap, if we can't at least the first thing
• 43:07
  we're gonna look at is this college stadium for this NFL. If a hurricane
• 43:12
  rips through Miami and the Dolphins have to go somewhere else last season, Like
• 43:16
  yeah, yeah, I'm I'm glad that that is not my responsibility. Yeah,
• 43:22
  there's there's a lot that goes into it, and truthfully, that documentary
• 43:27
  that I watched kind of unpacks it all. And it's been a few years
• 43:30
  since I've watched it, but it's well worth a watch for you, and
• 43:34
  I'll watch for anybody out there listening to us. Yeah, I'm excited now,
• 43:37
  Like, yeah, let me know what that is. I'll look it
• 43:38
  up. And it is kind of overwhelming to sit here and think about,
• 43:43
  like, oh, man, like what would I do in this situation?
• 43:45
  And yeah, I am glad that it's it's not my job. Let's talk
• 43:50
  about this because we've talked about now home opener and first game of the season,
• 43:57
  right, Let's talk about those divisional games and more specifically, let's talk
• 44:04
  about the end of the season, because the NFL seemingly lately loves to push
• 44:08
  those divisional rivalries to the end of the season. In fact, this season,
• 44:14
  to just kind of briefly recap the twenty three season, Yes, the
• 44:16
  Vikings played the Lions, the Packers, and the Lions Week sixteen, seventeen
• 44:21
  eighteen. So they played the Lions twice in two weeks, lost both of
• 44:27
  them, and played the Packers at home and also lost. So what's your
• 44:34
  prediction there end of the season slash divisional games? Do we see any of
• 44:38
  those at all or none at all? And if we do see some,
• 44:45
  who is it? Well, I think you're guaranteed to play one of those
• 44:49
  three teams the Lion, Spars, or Packers at the end of the season.
• 44:52
  I think that's almost a guarantee that, like you just laid out,
• 44:55
  the NFL loves to do those. They like to kind of maybe spre one
• 45:00
  divisional game in the early part of the season, but then really back ended
• 45:05
  those divisional games. So I think, yeah, you're pretty much guaranteed week
• 45:09
  seven or week eighteen, it's going to be against one of those two or
• 45:13
  one of those three. Yeah, And the whole question is who and where?
• 45:17
  I mean what. The Vikings closed out on the road last two games
• 45:22
  last year, right, they were home against the Lions week sixteen, home
• 45:27
  against the Packers week seventeen, at Detroit week eighteen. Yeah, Well,
• 45:30
  in the whole away home thing last year was really interesting because They didn't have
• 45:36
  a back to back either home or away until Week eleven and week twelve.
• 45:40
  Other than that, it was just either or they ping punked home away,
• 45:44
  home away. Yeah. And then even after the two week road trip to
• 45:49
  Green Bay and then to Atlanta, it was home away, home by and
• 45:54
  then they had another two game road trip, two game homestand the only home
• 46:00
  stand yeah the whole season before ending at Detroit. Yeah. So I don't
• 46:06
  think it's crazy to think they could close out the season with multiple home games
• 46:14
  against divisional opponents. I guess that's as that's as detailed as I'm comfortable getting
• 46:19
  that. It will be a week seventeen week eighteen home stand, obviously against
• 46:23
  divisional opponents. Do you think two games back to back just against statistically to
• 46:29
  change it up from last year? How realistic would it be to be the
• 46:32
  same exact scenario as last year. Honestly, I maybe disagree a little bit.
• 46:37
  I think the Vikings won't be as good as they were. I mean,
• 46:44
  before Kirk Cousins got injured last year, the Vikings were a playoff bound
• 46:47
  team with a handful of primetime games. Yep, I think I don't think
• 46:54
  we'll see the Vikings playing in primetime season, yeah, nor really at all
• 47:00
  through the season. Maybe a Thursday night game. I think that's the low
• 47:05
  hanging fruit for primetime games, when every team gets a Thursday night game.
• 47:08
  Yeah, so we'll see one of those for sure, Probably not more than
• 47:13
  that. And I would guess maybe like a few Sunday or Monday night games,
• 47:17
  not a ton. We're gonna mostly be playing on Sunday afternoons. I
• 47:21
  guess that's fine with me. That's great for me too. But all of
• 47:24
  that to say, I think I think they won't put those divisional games or
• 47:32
  they won't like backload those. Maybe one maybe like Week seventeen or eighteen,
• 47:37
  we'll see one of the three divisional teams. But I think the schedule makers
• 47:42
  will kind of look at the Vikings this season and say, well, they're
• 47:45
  gonna be pretty mid this year. Fair, They're going to be, you
• 47:51
  know, a six to seven, maybe an eight win team. It's not
• 47:54
  really gonna make or break their playoff push. They might not even be in
• 47:59
  play playoff contention even from the get go. Probably not. So, you
• 48:04
  know, I don't know that they'll they'll put all of that out there for
• 48:09
  the Vikings. Yeah, that's my prediction. Yeah, they're not. I
• 48:14
  agree with you. They're not walking into the season as a highly touted,
• 48:19
  big ticket, primetime valued team. I mean just maybe if you factor in
• 48:24
  that they've got, you know, one of the young, top drafted quarterbacks.
• 48:31
  But honestly, by week five, we may know like, oh crap,
• 48:35
  JJ McCarthy was the worst mistake the Vikings I've ever made. I don't
• 48:37
  I don't expect that to happen. I don't expect him to be playing by
• 48:40
  week five anyways. But yeah, you're you're absolutely right. They're they're not
• 48:45
  high on the radar of supposed to be good NFL teams. I would imagine
• 48:50
  if we looked up their odds right now, if they're available for winning the
• 48:52
  super Bowl, they're probably twenty five or worse. You know, as far
• 48:59
  as teams making the super Bowl, which I know is super fun to hear
• 49:02
  when you're listening to a Vikings podcast and you're a fan as well, So
• 49:06
  keep listening. Prove us wrong, Vikings, Yes, prove us wrong,
• 49:09
  And as JJ said, prove them right. He's going to prove Vikings right
• 49:14
  for picking him. But yeah, that's probably a good thought to have there
• 49:17
  of one other totally meaningless prediction that like doesn't really affect. It does factor
• 49:24
  in a little bit, but it's certainly not the biggest factor in terms of
• 49:29
  the NFL schedule or a specific team schedule. But where do you predict the
• 49:32
  bye to land for the Vikings? I think they're going to get an early
• 49:37
  buy early by. Yeah, so I guess. I don't know if they
• 49:42
  switched it up. It's a range, like what do you think, I
• 49:45
  think you're looking pregame range for where the bye sits week four through seven,
• 49:51
  one of the or four through six. One of those three weeks is probably
• 49:53
  going to be when you're seeing the bye, just because it was such a
• 49:57
  late by last year, and I feel like it's been a late by the
• 50:00
  last few years. I know last year is what thirteen? Yeah, yeah,
• 50:02
  week thirteen, Yeah, I think yeah, it's probably we're probably due
• 50:07
  for an early buy. What about you? I think in a little bit
• 50:12
  later. Okay, for no other reason than to just disagree, Sure,
• 50:16
  that's fine, stir the pod a little bit, but I'll go I'll go
• 50:20
  seven eight, nine. Yeah, I'll go week seven, eight or nine.
• 50:22
  I do think the placement of the bye week could factor into when the
• 50:29
  Vikings start thinking about putting JJ in. So I'm still of the mindset Sam
• 50:34
  Darnold is QB one until he and it can't be that he loses the job.
• 50:40
  It's got to be that for JJ's development, it has to be that
• 50:45
  McCarthy wins the job, at least for me to feel good about it.
• 50:50
  And we'll never know because we're not in practice and we're not in the meeting,
• 50:52
  so we don't know what's going to exactly go behind Koc's mindset. But
• 50:55
  I don't want it to be. Oh, JJ is only starting because last
• 51:00
  week Sam Donald threw three interceptions. But all that to say, if the
• 51:06
  Vikings win their first few games and their bye week is week six, and
• 51:14
  you know, they've won a couple more than they've lost, but Sam Donald's
• 51:17
  just not wowing everybody, there could be like a perfect time to be like,
• 51:23
  you know what, this season we might do something. Sam Donald's not
• 51:30
  wowing everybody, Well, let's throw JJ in there. There's that perfect transition
• 51:35
  period where we can just get him ready. We know he's got, you
• 51:37
  know, the bye week to get ready and then the whole week leading up
• 51:40
  to the game. I think that could factor in. Still, I'm still
• 51:45
  hoping the Vikings play this super smart and super overly cautious and almost just let
• 51:51
  Donald outside of injury or thirty interceptions, keep the job. Well, that's
• 51:59
  an interesting point to make, and it's an interesting segue to kind of our
• 52:05
  final segment that we've got planned. Yeah, didn't even playing that, I
• 52:07
  know, but it works out perfectly. So you sent me this article earlier
• 52:12
  today and I was able to read through it. The title of the article
• 52:15
  is four Vikings Losers of the Draft, written by friend of the show,
• 52:21
  Dustin Baker, and as always great content, and Dustin has identified four players,
• 52:30
  will say, three specific players in one particular group of players as the
• 52:34
  fourth player that are on the hot seat and could potentially be disappointed by the
• 52:43
  Vikings decisions in the draft when it comes to their ability to play for the
• 52:51
  Vikings. So all these guys, their lot on the team was altered.
• 52:57
  It was directly altered by picks excuse me, that the Vikings made in the
• 53:00
  draft. So so yeah, just to go through them, I want to
• 53:05
  hear your thoughts. The first one that Dustin listed out, obviously we were
• 53:08
  just talking about him, Sam Darnald. I kind of laid out what I
• 53:12
  was thinking about it. And you know, before we segued, you read
• 53:15
  the article, but like just in your thought process, why, specifically for
• 53:21
  Sam Darnald was the draft making his life harder? Well, obviously Sam Darnald
• 53:29
  walked into Egan with a different mindset than Kirk Cousins walked into Atlanta, and
• 53:37
  weirdly they're in a very similar situation right right, But that's the point I'm
• 53:40
  trying to make, I guess, is that Kirk Cousins walked into Atlanta thinking
• 53:45
  I will be the guy. They're not going to draft a quarterback because they
• 53:49
  signed me in free agency. They're going to spend their draft picks and they've
• 53:52
  got a good one on an offensive weapon for me to throw to or whatever
• 54:00
  and it'll be great. And then the Falcons turn around and drafts Michael PENNOCKX
• 54:04
  and it's one of these just like dumbfounded, Like everybody outside of Atlanta is
• 54:09
  like, what were you guys yanking? Why did you do that? And
• 54:14
  Michael Pennox wasn't even that thought of that highly to go. I mean,
• 54:20
  that was the shock of the draft that sent shock waves through the NFL.
• 54:24
  For sure, when they picked him up. So all of that to say,
• 54:29
  I think Sam Darnold knows his role, he knows his spot, he
• 54:34
  knows that he's making what ten million dollars for a season, and he knows
• 54:39
  that he's the quote unquote bridge quarterback. I think he knew it was coming,
• 54:47
  and I don't think he's disappointed. I don't think he's sitting at home
• 54:52
  saying, woe is me? Why did I sign this contract. I think
• 54:55
  he's probably thinking to himself, like, this is the lead man, this
• 55:00
  is how it works. And I knew what I was getting myself into.
• 55:02
  I knew that they were going to draft somebody, and I'm going to do
• 55:08
  my best. I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna try to prove myself and
• 55:12
  we'll see what happened. So maybe to some extent, I would maybe slightly
• 55:17
  disagree with Dustin's assessment that he's a loser in the draft. I think maybe
• 55:23
  he knew and oh yeah, yeah, I think Dustin would agree with you
• 55:27
  on that mindset. I think he'll embrace that. I don't like. I
• 55:30
  don't know, we're just we'll have to ask him. Shooting the breeze here,
• 55:34
  But I mean, yeah, I don't know. I have a hard
• 55:37
  time believing that he's, you know, really bent out of shape about this,
• 55:42
  and yeah, yeah, I don't think it's going to affect his performance
• 55:45
  that much. But obviously, when a team drafts a guy and they work
• 55:50
  hard to get the guy that they wanted. And it's been clear from all
• 55:53
  of the videos, all of the behind the scenes, all of the KOC
• 55:59
  like I watched even the like JJ and Dallas Turner coming to Egan and walking
• 56:06
  the facility and walking into Koc's office for the first time and dapping up Quacy
• 56:12
  and everything like, like, there's some excitement around JJ McCarthy in that building,
• 56:16
  and that's refreshing and that's fun. And I'm sure Sam is maybe a
• 56:22
  little like you still have me. I'm here, like you know, but
• 56:28
  I don't know. I don't know that i'd call him a loser. I
• 56:30
  would call him a very competitive option at quarterback. Yeah, and to some
• 56:37
  extent, he's got the leg up because he's got the experience, he's played
• 56:40
  elsewhere, and he was there first, right sometimes, well I was here
• 56:45
  first, so I don't know, I'll see what happens. I agree with
• 56:49
  you. I think he knew the second, the Vikings became an option for
• 56:53
  him to sign that. Oh this year, I can I have the opportunity
• 56:58
  to come in as QB one with a rookie. We've known since this time
• 57:05
  last year the Vikings were going to draft a rookie quarterback in the first round.
• 57:07
  You know, so Sam Donald, he knew before he signed on the
• 57:10
  dotted line or even agreed, he's gonna come in b QB one until he's
• 57:15
  no longer QB one. And I think that lights some kind of fire under
• 57:21
  anybody, whether you know your situation before we walk into it or not.
• 57:24
  He is trying to he's got that leg up, he's got the five step
• 57:29
  head start, and he's gonna do everything he can to keep the lead in
• 57:34
  that race until either he loses it or JJ just he can't run faster than
• 57:39
  JJ. But he knew that and he signed up for that. And oh,
• 57:45
  by the way, you also are going to get paid ten million dollars
• 57:47
  for your efforts this year. It's not a bad gig. Yeah, it's
• 57:52
  a good gig. I think this was a personal business decision for Sam Donald
• 57:59
  to sign with a Viking is knowing that it's a sweet situation. If you
• 58:01
  think you have what it takes to make the next step to do what Baker
• 58:07
  Mayfield did a year ago today this you know, a year ago when Baker
• 58:12
  Mayfield he bounced around. He had been you know, the high number one
• 58:17
  draft pick for the Browns with a little success, but then lost They lost
• 58:22
  confidence in him, and he bounced around. I think Baker and Sam Donald
• 58:25
  are teammates in Carolina. Baker bounced from Where did he go? It was
• 58:31
  Cleveland and then I know he played for the Rams for a little bit,
• 58:36
  and then Carolina and then was that it then Tampa Bay. So I think
• 58:42
  Sam, not Dust Sam Donald. He's trying to revive his career with the
• 58:47
  best case scenario of well, best case scenario of like winning every game and
• 58:52
  being the Vikings savior and leading them to the super Bowl and earning that crazy
• 58:59
  contract, which and let me imagine, let me be clear, I would
• 59:02
  be totally on board with that. I don't care at all that yeah,
• 59:08
  he's currently quarterback one. If that's the result, we will be singing Quacy's
• 59:15
  praises all day long, like how did you get a guy so cheap?
• 59:17
  And that was amazing? And I mean Baker in Tampa didn't have a bad
• 59:22
  season, and he led them to the player a one hundred million dollar contract
• 59:24
  or ninety or whatever he got, Like he revived his career and who knows
• 59:30
  next year he could turn out to be garbage or he really did revive his
• 59:34
  career and finally got into a good situation. He's going to be good in
• 59:36
  Tampa for ten years, you know. And who knows? That could be
• 59:39
  Sam Donald could be I think, man, can you imagine us sitting in
• 59:46
  these chairs after a year where Sam Donald and Dustin Bakers said this before too,
• 59:52
  It would be the most Viking thing for Sam Donald to just light it
• 59:55
  up and be too good to bench. And then it's like, well,
• 59:59
  what do you do now? You just had a guy in theory lead you
• 1:00:02
  deep in the playoffs or take you to the super Bowl or do something crazy.
• 1:00:08
  It's like, we can't let Sam Darnold go after doing all that crazy
• 1:00:13
  stuff, Like what do you do? That's a good problem to have a
• 1:00:15
  year from now. Well, and I think the good news for the Vikings
• 1:00:19
  is, yeah, maybe maybe Sam comes out and just kills it. He's
• 1:00:22
  amazing. He has a Baker Mayfield year in twenty four and they have to
• 1:00:28
  make a decision like that. Well, JJ McCarthy's still going to be on
• 1:00:30
  his rookie contract, so that's not a big deal. Yeah, and other
• 1:00:36
  teams have proven that it's effective to let that young guy sit. I mean,
• 1:00:40
  Jordan Love looked pretty good after coming out. Aaron Rodgers is proof of
• 1:00:45
  that. And it's not just the Packers that have done that. Yeah,
• 1:00:49
  I jump done that too, but I don't know. I wouldn't be at
• 1:00:53
  all disappointed. Winning games is always good for the team, not the name
• 1:00:59
  on the back of the So now I mean we're maybe getting a little ahead
• 1:01:04
  of ourselves. Oh yeah, absolutely, maybe putting the cart before the horse.
• 1:01:07
  And we haven't seen a lick of football from either of these guys in
• 1:01:09
  a Vikings uniform yet, So there's so much to be determined. We've got
• 1:01:15
  all off season to really dissect all of that, but we have really quick
• 1:01:19
  before we move on. We have kind of seen this, that hypothetical situation
• 1:01:24
  play out a little bit for the Vikings in recent memory. A very young
• 1:01:30
  and up and coming quarterback had a devastating injury that was clear he wasn't gonna
• 1:01:37
  play that year in Teddy Bridgewater and out of nowhere, the Vikings traded for
• 1:01:43
  what I think is still really good trade, Sam Bradford, and he didn't
• 1:01:46
  start that first game because he'd been on the team for like a week.
• 1:01:50
  But then Sam Bradford came in and was playing really well. His one full
• 1:01:53
  year with the Vikings, he set the single season it's now broken, but
• 1:01:58
  the single season record for poletion percentage. The Viking started off with a five
• 1:02:02
  and oh record, And I'll never forget. I was listening to The Power
• 1:02:07
  Trip in the midst of that five and oh run, and one of them,
• 1:02:12
  one of the three guys on the Power Trip said, like, what
• 1:02:14
  do we do if, like Sam Bradford is good and like leads us to
• 1:02:19
  a super Bowl? Like, what do we do? And one of the
• 1:02:22
  other guys, Corey Cove, was like, Well, if he wins us
• 1:02:24
  the super Bowl, you sign him to a lucrative contract and he's your quarterback
• 1:02:29
  from now on. Who cares about Teddy Bridgewater? Like yeah, at the
• 1:02:32
  time, we knew Teddy would probably come back and play and have a longer
• 1:02:36
  career with the Vikings. But if a guy leads you to the super Bowl,
• 1:02:38
  like he's your guy. So we've kind of seen it. Obviously didn't
• 1:02:45
  play out that way with Sam Bradford and the Vikings, mostly because his knees
• 1:02:49
  are made of tissue paper. But we've kind of seen that kind of scenario
• 1:02:53
  start to play out a little bit and it was really exciting and really fun.
• 1:02:57
  Yeah. But yeah, I think Sam Dartle he knows what he's doing.
• 1:03:00
  He's trying to play for his career. So we spent a lot of
• 1:03:02
  time talking about Sam Darnold. I still disagree. I don't think he's a
• 1:03:06
  loser of the draft. I think he knows what he's getting into. I
• 1:03:09
  would say he is how should we put it, maybe an equal opportunity quarterback.
• 1:03:19
  Yeah, he's fighting for his life, but he would have been fighting
• 1:03:21
  for his life if his backup was Tyler Tigpen. Yeah, and not a
• 1:03:25
  top ten rookie quarterback. Now, the next guy on the list I think
• 1:03:30
  is truly the biggest loser in the draft. You're a loser, and that's
• 1:03:35
  not a loser in the derogatory sense, but it's I think the riding on
• 1:03:40
  the wall is that Nick Mullins won't be in a Vikings uniform. Yeah,
• 1:03:45
  I think it's down to Nick Mullens or Jared Hall. I think just contract
• 1:03:49
  wise, it's going to be Nick Mullens gone. Maybe both, but probably
• 1:03:52
  for sure Nick Mullins. Yes, hopefully via a trade. I'd love it
• 1:03:55
  if the Vikings could get yeah, a sixth or a seventh round pick,
• 1:04:00
  or even a swap, you know. Yeah, he would be a great
• 1:04:02
  trade option and the Vikings could get something for him. Maybe not a ton,
• 1:04:09
  yeah you think so. Something. But in terms of a future with
• 1:04:16
  the Purple team, Nick Mullens has to know that his days are numbered and
• 1:04:24
  probably won't be wearing our favorite team's jersey this fall. Yeah. That being
• 1:04:30
  said, I don't think his NFL and his NFL career is done by any
• 1:04:33
  means. He can still throw four hundred yards ye, three to four interceptions,
• 1:04:39
  but still four hundred yards. I mean he maybe one year behind Sam
• 1:04:44
  Donald in that. Maybe Sam Donald he's coming into a situation that he's trying
• 1:04:48
  to jumpstart his career again. Maybe Nick Mullens is looking at his Sam Donald's
• 1:04:55
  quote unquote forty nine ers yere where he can kind of go in. No,
• 1:04:59
  he's a backup with the potential of flashing when he does get on the
• 1:05:02
  field and getting a bridge quarterback contract the next year or even this coming year.
• 1:05:08
  I don't know. And to be fair, Nick Mullens has proven that
• 1:05:12
  he can he can play right. Unfortunately, the mistakes outweigh the successes most
• 1:05:20
  of the time, and that's frustrating as a fan. And you want those
• 1:05:25
  interceptions to go away. And you've said, like kind of famously now on
• 1:05:30
  our podcast that you know, if he throws two, you don't give a
• 1:05:35
  guy the chance to even throw three. You see them, Well, my
• 1:05:39
  rule is you don't let him throw four. You don't let him throw all
• 1:05:41
  right, Well I was off by one. It's still two is not much
• 1:05:45
  better than three, right, But I mean there were plenty of times this
• 1:05:48
  season, several that I can think of, where the Vikings just kept riding
• 1:05:54
  with him and he didn't have a lot of options. They didn't but I
• 1:05:57
  mean, he just kept throwing picks and it was just frustrating. And then
• 1:06:01
  we lost all these games and there was where there was this like tiny glimmer
• 1:06:06
  of hope it just got squashed out. And yeah, it wasn't fun.
• 1:06:13
  It wasn't fun to watch. So I think honestly he's number one in terms
• 1:06:17
  of who had the worst yeah in the draft, and maybe Dustin's list isn't
• 1:06:23
  meant to be taken numerically. Not sure what his intent was that way,
• 1:06:27
  but I think he tops my list of biggest losers in the draft because he's
• 1:06:32
  not going to be a Viking. If I had to guess yeah moving forward.
• 1:06:35
  I've also said too, and I'll stand by it. The number two
• 1:06:42
  at any position is a definitive position. A quarterback two is an actual position.
• 1:06:48
  It's not just the guy behind the quarterback one. Nick Mullins thrives when
• 1:06:53
  he can be the first option after the first guy gets injured. Like we've
• 1:07:01
  seen Nick Mullens, his career is built on coming in mid game after the
• 1:07:06
  first guy got a concussion or something or couldn't play, and Nick Mullens he
• 1:07:11
  he can kind of turn it on out of nowhere, off the bench and
• 1:07:13
  throw a bunch of yards and maybe do something special. He's a really good
• 1:07:17
  quarterback too, and maybe that's where he finds his career. Unfortunately, the
• 1:07:23
  Vikings have four quarterbacks and he's not the best option at QB two. That's
• 1:07:29
  either gonna be Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy, and the other one is gonna
• 1:07:33
  be QB one. Yeah, yep, so yeah, I agree with you
• 1:07:36
  there. I mean, honestly, the Chiefs could probably use a QB two.
• 1:07:41
  They don't need somebody to come in and compete for the job. But
• 1:07:44
  if Pat Mahomes breaks his arm, you need somebody to come in and try
• 1:07:47
  to salvage a game. Or if he sprains his ankle and has to come
• 1:07:51
  out for a couple of plays, Yeah, it is probably more likely.
• 1:07:54
  And I don't know who the Chiefs have it QB two, but yeah,
• 1:07:58
  I'm just thinking, like, you need a guy he's best served for a
• 1:08:00
  team with an established starter. Well, we can move quickly through these other
• 1:08:04
  two here. I think those first two are definitely the most talk worthy talking
• 1:08:11
  points there. But Andrew van Ginkel was a surprising name that I saw on
• 1:08:15
  the list because I thought to myself, well, he's a new acquisition and
• 1:08:20
  kind of a new toy for Flores to play with on the defense. But
• 1:08:25
  then I read Dustin's can a paragraph description on why this might be a loser,
• 1:08:31
  and it made sense to me, and I can understand the train of
• 1:08:34
  thought here that well, signing Dallas Turner really complicates things at that edge.
• 1:08:41
  Rush position, and I could see that, and I could see how he
• 1:08:45
  could be the odd man out in that OLB edge rush position. Yeah,
• 1:08:50
  that's kind of a gray area. And I think even we had a debate
• 1:08:56
  like last week or two weeks ago about as Flora's running a four to three
• 1:09:00
  three four, and where do these guys fit in that, and how do
• 1:09:03
  we define what the Vikings are doing defensively? But yeah, I don't know
• 1:09:10
  it could make sense to me. I don't know that he's gonna be leaving
• 1:09:14
  anytime. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I think he'll be
• 1:09:16
  a Viking at least this year. Yeah. I think he signed like a
• 1:09:19
  three year come for three years, kind of pretty decent money too, not
• 1:09:24
  I mean it would be. I don't think he's in danger of being cut.
• 1:09:28
  I just think he went from the indisputed starter or heavy heavy heavy rotation
• 1:09:36
  guy, if not the starter with Dallas Turner coming in. I think that's
• 1:09:41
  still the plan beginning of the season until, like I said with JJ,
• 1:09:45
  until he wins a job, until Dallas Turner comes in and starts demanding just
• 1:09:49
  through his play more and more plays, Andrew Van Ginkel, he's gonna be
• 1:09:55
  the one to lose his snaps to an up and coming guy that nobody thought
• 1:10:00
  the Vikings would get an edge rusher, an elite edge rusher in the first
• 1:10:05
  round of the draft. He may have been one of the most surprised,
• 1:10:09
  Like, Oh, they just drafted a guy that's gonna take some snaps away
• 1:10:13
  from me. I didn't expect that. I'm not a quarterback. I knew
• 1:10:15
  they were gonna try to get a quarterback. Well, I think that's an
• 1:10:17
  interesting position to talk about because I think rookies in that position, I think
• 1:10:25
  the margin for error is wider, especially highly touted first round rookies. Yeah,
• 1:10:31
  you get a little your leash. We've talked about that leash for every
• 1:10:34
  player. Your leash is pretty long. If you're a first round rookie,
• 1:10:38
  in a first round rookie edge rusher, I can get that position. Like
• 1:10:43
  your job is to line up and beat your man and get to the quarterback
• 1:10:47
  and wreck some plays as best you can. That's your job, right,
• 1:10:50
  Like you are not the You're not the cornerback of the safety that has to
• 1:10:56
  analyze and read the eyes of the quarterback and follow the ball and if you
• 1:11:00
  make one false move, boom touchdown. And now you're on the bench,
• 1:11:03
  and I think you'd agree not to oversimplify simplify any position on the field.
• 1:11:09
  But I know what you're saying, like, if you can just be the
• 1:11:12
  pin your yours back guy, which in the best case scenario, that's what
• 1:11:15
  those outside linebackers, those edge rushers are, there's more to it. We
• 1:11:20
  know that. Yeah, sure it's not just run at the quarterback, but
• 1:11:25
  yeah, I mean it's it's not like you have to be a JJ and
• 1:11:28
  make sure you don't throw an interception, like, yeah, you just I
• 1:11:31
  think the quarterback position, over any position, is the most complex, and
• 1:11:38
  you have to be mentally, physically and emotionally capable to handle whatever comes your
• 1:11:45
  way. And so I think the margin for error there is much thinner than
• 1:11:49
  an edge rush. And I would even say that edge rush position is even
• 1:11:54
  more different than a safety or a cornerback. Yeah, I agree, who
• 1:11:57
  could blow coverage and give up a touchdown or even a wide receiver You run
• 1:12:01
  the wrong route and you give up a pick, and it's your fault that
• 1:12:04
  the ball was picked off, not the quarterbacks, because he was expecting you
• 1:12:08
  to be there and you weren't because you didn't make the right move or you
• 1:12:11
  didn't run the right route or whatever. I don't know. I think those
• 1:12:14
  guys they are the pin your years back type of guys. That's what their
• 1:12:18
  coaches expect them to be. That's how they design the defense. And I
• 1:12:23
  think Flora has more than anything, more than anyone else in the league,
• 1:12:28
  designs his defense to be that kind of in your face aggressive, kind of
• 1:12:33
  like Nazi blitzkrieg type of assault on you, like we're just gonna keep coming
• 1:12:39
  at you all day, and we're going to keep coming at you from all
• 1:12:42
  sorts of different angles and looks like I don't know Andrew van Ginkel coming back
• 1:12:49
  to his name, Yes, I could see how he'd be more of a
• 1:12:55
  rotational guy in this new reality with Dallas Turner being drafted. But even then,
• 1:13:05
  like that's a good thing, Yeah, to have a guy like that
• 1:13:10
  and to like, Yep, he's already proven to be pretty successful and man,
• 1:13:15
  if he comes in in relief of anybody, he's gonna be fresh,
• 1:13:18
  he's gonna be ready to go, and that defense probably isn't gonna miss a
• 1:13:23
  beat with him on the field. And one thing that is in Van Ginkle's
• 1:13:27
  favor is he has already been a Flores player, Yes, and he wouldn't
• 1:13:32
  be with the Vikings right now if Flores thought anything negative about him or his
• 1:13:36
  play. Like Flores is was probably the one that's like, hey, that
• 1:13:41
  guy, I'd be pretty happy if you signed that guy, like, or
• 1:13:45
  you're gonna sign that guy because he's what I need in my defense. So
• 1:13:47
  that's one thing that's in his favor already. So it'll be an interesting it
• 1:13:53
  only made the defense better, agreed, But he probably I can see why
• 1:13:57
  he's on this list of just appointed players after the draft. So the last
• 1:14:02
  one here that Dustin has is the veteran defensive backs. There are currently seventeen
• 1:14:09
  guys on the roster and only according to Dustin, only about ten to twelve.
• 1:14:14
  Yeah, will make the team. And that's a realistic expect Yeah,
• 1:14:15
  and that includes obviously your cornerbacks, your safeties, all those guys in the
• 1:14:21
  defensive backfield. I mean, you're talking Harrison Smith, who's getting a little
• 1:14:28
  bit older. You're talking Lewis Seene, who has been a major disappointment on
• 1:14:31
  the field in his career. Granted he's had a devastating injury, but still
• 1:14:36
  you're talking in a Caleb Evans, who I mean, he's shown flashes,
• 1:14:41
  but he's also shown flashes of being pretty disappointing at times. So there's probably
• 1:14:48
  seven five to seven guys in that list of players that just numbers wise,
• 1:14:55
  are not going to make the team. That's going to be a very competitive
• 1:14:59
  position, just all of the defensive backfield. And I think they only drafted
• 1:15:04
  one guy right the I forget his name, it's probably right there, Kyrie
• 1:15:13
  Jackson. Yeah, I think he was the only one drafted. But there's
• 1:15:15
  a few undrafted guys and obviously some guys that have been drafted in the last
• 1:15:18
  few years, jay Ward, Caleb Evans, Lewis En. Yeah, there's
• 1:15:25
  gonna be some tight competitions and some tough decisions. Some of those guys might
• 1:15:30
  not make the Vikings, but they'll get picked up on other teams. Who's
• 1:15:32
  the first man out? Do you think? Man, So you have this
• 1:15:35
  list up here, you can peak, I mean, yeah, I'm trying
• 1:15:41
  to peak. They signed a couple of guys in free agency, AJ Green,
• 1:15:48
  Joe Wan Williams. Joe Wan Williams might be one of the first guys
• 1:15:51
  out, just because he bounced up and down between the practice squad last year.
• 1:15:57
  I think THEO Jackson has a little bit more more stability than the casual
• 1:16:02
  fan might think, just because he was I think the first free agent the
• 1:16:06
  Viking signed this year, so they obviously like him, and he was playing
• 1:16:12
  over Lewis scene very early in the season. Yeah, we might see a
• 1:16:16
  surprise. I would consider a Caleb Evans a surprise cut for me, but
• 1:16:23
  only slightly. So we're going to see some of those, and honestly,
• 1:16:27
  I think the biggest surprise would be a Harrison Smith if for some reason,
• 1:16:31
  and I don't expect this to happen, but if for some reason he just
• 1:16:34
  gets out played in training camp and loses the job, it would be slightly
• 1:16:43
  shocking, but not fall off your chair shocking to see him. I think
• 1:16:46
  if that happens, I would expect him to just throw in the towel and
• 1:16:50
  be done. Well. I think it would be a very and I don't
• 1:16:53
  again, I don't expect this, but I think it would be a very
• 1:16:57
  personal conversation, and it would be one where they don't just bring him in
• 1:17:00
  and say hey, bring your playbook, Hey we cut you sorry. It
• 1:17:02
  would be like, hey, this is why you are a legacy player.
• 1:17:09
  But for that to happen, it would take a surprise one of these guys
• 1:17:13
  to just beat him out. And they've already said, Harrison Smith, they're
• 1:17:15
  going to be cognizant of his his snaps in each game and how much they
• 1:17:20
  use him. And we're talking about a guy who's what thirty four. It's
• 1:17:25
  football anciently, right, Yeah, but like this guy still has like seventy
• 1:17:29
  years left of his life. But I mean, if if it came down
• 1:17:32
  to that and they're like, we can't, we can't let go of this
• 1:17:36
  other guy because he's doing better than Harrison Smith, Like that's what it would
• 1:17:41
  have to be. Somebody makes it impossible to cut themselves and Harrison Smith,
• 1:17:46
  as much as he love his name and his legacy, that's how it would
• 1:17:49
  happen. Is he's just not yeah, not up there. Well, he's
• 1:17:55
  at the top of this list in terms of defensive backs, he's number one,
• 1:18:00
  and I don't know if that's in any sort of intentional order. Well,
• 1:18:04
  if you look at the other guys at the top of the list,
• 1:18:06
  one is Harrison Smith, and then cam Bine them and then Josh mattellis tho
• 1:18:11
  was that that top even six, even Byron Murphy and Makai Blackman. I
• 1:18:15
  mean, they were very influential on the defensive secondary this last season. So
• 1:18:21
  I read that list that Dustin listed out in order of importance. That's kind
• 1:18:28
  of a routine draft depth chart almost. So if I was reading that correctly,
• 1:18:32
  then oh I went too far. Then his first out would be somebody
• 1:18:39
  like aj Green, so he has listed at seventeen. I like, how
• 1:18:44
  you this is a way sidetrack, but you, uh, you swiped one
• 1:18:48
  way and I this is a point of contention for me, man, because
• 1:18:54
  I think that a track pad should if you swipe down on the page should
• 1:19:00
  go down, and if you swipe up, the page should go up.
• 1:19:03
  It's like a touchscreen, dude, I think, how would you how would
• 1:19:06
  you swipe it if you were touching the screen. I don't know. There's
• 1:19:09
  just something in my brain that switches when I am on a laptop versus when
• 1:19:14
  I'm on my phone. That's fine, but that's it's just funny that you
• 1:19:17
  would reach over and touch my computers. I'm not trying to way get too
• 1:19:23
  far away from my mic. If you're watching this is this is Peak podcast
• 1:19:27
  right here? Yeah, yeah, we're awkward. It's fine, that's okay,
• 1:19:30
  it is what it is. Yeah, I definitely think I mean obviously
• 1:19:34
  not even like an opinion, but just a fact of the matter is there
• 1:19:39
  will have to be some cuts made. There will have to be changes of
• 1:19:46
  some nature. Maybe it's not even a cut, but there can't be seventeen
• 1:19:51
  defensive backs on a team. Just can't happen. And something we haven't even
• 1:19:56
  said yet that as much as you wouldn't want it to be, but is
• 1:20:00
  absolutely a factor in all of this is the financials. Yeah, maybe somebody,
• 1:20:05
  like I'm just picking a name out here, maybe Lewis Cene can't be
• 1:20:12
  cut this year just because then you're eating a bunch of money from a first
• 1:20:15
  round picks contract, don't. I don't know that that's the case, but
• 1:20:18
  like, yeah, maybe that's we're just looking at it from a place standpoint.
• 1:20:23
  But yeah, I mean, theoretically contracts will factor into that. Theoretically,
• 1:20:28
  the Vikings have already eaten a lot of his contract because he hasn't played
• 1:20:31
  at all. Yeah, I think back in that specific scenario, I think
• 1:20:35
  back to Lakwan tread will Yea his last year with the Vikings. The Vikings
• 1:20:43
  cut him either in training camp or you know, at final cutdowns are pretty
• 1:20:46
  early in the season, and then there were injuries and needs at the wide
• 1:20:50
  receiver position and LaQuan Treadwill was still on the street and they signed him again.
• 1:20:57
  And part of the reason they signed him again was obviously they needed bodies
• 1:21:00
  in the room for wide receivers, but also like that he didn't cost any
• 1:21:04
  more. He had already been paid that money and apparently, and it kind
• 1:21:09
  of surprised me when they signed him again, like that was just they were
• 1:21:14
  already paying him so he could just come back and still it kind of didn't
• 1:21:18
  know how that worked. It was probably like a bad deal for him because
• 1:21:21
  like he could have just been sitting on the couch and still earning that money,
• 1:21:26
  but then his job was like, actually, no, you can come
• 1:21:28
  back and you're not gonna get paid, where he could have gone and signed
• 1:21:30
  with another team and made the Vikings money plus well, and that's a whole
• 1:21:34
  like offset language. And I don't I don't know anything about what his situation
• 1:21:39
  was, but yeah, I know I can speak to because I'm a teacher
• 1:21:43
  and I know how it works. In teacher world. A lot of people
• 1:21:45
  that teach in Iowa, where we live, they'll teach until they hit their
• 1:21:49
  their pension number, and then they'll retire, and then they'll go across the
• 1:21:55
  river and they'll teach in Illinois. Yeah, and they'll draw on their pension
• 1:21:58
  in Iowa, and they'll take make a salary from Illinois and they'll kind of
• 1:22:01
  double dip. As much as a cesspool of a state, Illinois is,
• 1:22:06
  being a teacher over there is not the worst. They get paid more.
• 1:22:12
  They get paid more, and their retirement seems to be a little bit better.
• 1:22:15
  Though. I'm not super complaining about Iowas teachers because I joke with my
• 1:22:21
  wife, you know, about forty percent of our maybe maybe thirty percent of
• 1:22:26
  our household income is teacher salary. Some of some of your income comes from
• 1:22:31
  that. And yeah, yeah, one percent of mine does give My wife
• 1:22:36
  and I are both teachers, so we're definitely caught up in that world.
• 1:22:41
  But you guys are saints. I couldn't do it anyways. Yeah, definitely
• 1:22:45
  going to be interesting to see how uh these free agent acquisitions and these draft
• 1:22:53
  picks uh meld together and create that final fifty three man roster. Yeah,
• 1:22:59
  and that'll be a tough for us for sure. Yeah, I can't wait
• 1:23:01
  for that, and I can't wait to see who ends up on the list,
• 1:23:05
  and to some extent, as bad as it seems, I can't wait
• 1:23:10
  to see who ends up off that list because there are some names that I
• 1:23:12
  hope end up not on that list. No offense to the human beings behind
• 1:23:16
  those names, and I wish them well. But anyways, there's a lot
• 1:23:20
  of a lot of hope and a lot of expectation in the Vikings future.
• 1:23:25
  Maybe not immediately, maybe not this season, but with the draft, with
• 1:23:30
  some of these free agent acquisitions, some good times ahead hopefully. Yeah,
• 1:23:33
  and we say it, this season is going to lower expectations almost a crapshoot.
• 1:23:39
  It's almost like a red shirt, like, yeah, you just want
• 1:23:41
  to see exciting things. I'm a total hipocrite because I'm going to be super
• 1:23:45
  pissed after every loss and every interception. I'm still going to be just as
• 1:23:49
  mad burn it down. No, but yeah, it'll be a fun season
• 1:23:57
  and hopefully better than we expect. Yeah. Yep, Well we should probably
• 1:24:01
  wrap it up because we get get at Rambling and yeah, I mean you
• 1:24:05
  can get a few beers in us and I forgot we were chatting there for
• 1:24:09
  a second. That's the beauty of this thing. I mean, we just
• 1:24:14
  we started doing this, drinking good beer, having conversations about football and the
• 1:24:18
  Vikings, and and here we've had our own beer made, and we've talked
• 1:24:23
  to Dustin Baker on the show a handful of times. And hopefully some some
• 1:24:28
  more cool and exciting things in the future. Oh yeah, we've got some
• 1:24:30
  things planned. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. Well, we should
• 1:24:34
  wrap things up here. We should let people know where they can find us
• 1:24:38
  exactly anywhere social media wise, the skull Hop. Just google us, you'll
• 1:24:43
  find us our website. We need to update, it's been a minute since
• 1:24:45
  we've touched that. But socials anywhere, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit,
• 1:24:56
  email theskooll Hop at gmail dot com. Just yeah, we're out here.
• 1:25:00
  Come come talk to us. Leave us a review. Actually, that
• 1:25:02
  would be really nice if you left us a review and subscribe to us on
• 1:25:06
  really anywhere you're watching or listening to us. We'll even take the bad comments,
• 1:25:11
  like we had. We had a kind of a negative one of our
• 1:25:13
  first negative comments this last week. Our last episode was the most viewed episode
• 1:25:17
  of an actual podcast we've had on YouTube, and I think it's got one
• 1:25:23
  comment that says this sucks. But hey, we appreciate you, whoever you
• 1:25:28
  are. Yeah. Yeah, and the fact that you at least watched to
• 1:25:31
  form an opinion on whether or not you liked what we do. Yeah,
• 1:25:34
  I appreciate the time that it took to do that. I laughed. I
• 1:25:36
  sent a screenshot to you. Yes, I actually laughed out loud. That
• 1:25:40
  was hilarious. I appreciated your response to them too, because oh yeah,
• 1:25:44
  hey, they gave us a view. It's just another view. So let
• 1:25:45
  us know if you were the one that commented that, how do we do
• 1:25:48
  this time? Did we still suck? And if we did, that's okay.
• 1:25:53
  Yeah, let us know how we could improve. I mean, yeah,
• 1:25:56
  we'll take constructive criticism real quick. Before we're done. We've already given
• 1:26:00
  an opinion on this beer on the show What did you think tonight? I
• 1:26:04
  now that I've had this twice, this might have to become a regular thing,
• 1:26:10
  like a staple in my beer consumption life. It's really good. I
• 1:26:16
  love the the malty flavors. I'm just reading the description on the back of
• 1:26:21
  the can. I'll just read it for you. Birch is back with big
• 1:26:27
  flavors of hazel nut and bittersweet chocolate with a sweet but crisp body. Birch
• 1:26:31
  may have gone to the big forest in the sky, but Iowa's first mascot
• 1:26:35
  will never be forgotten. In Birch, we trust. Yeah. I like
• 1:26:40
  it and it's good, and I like the hazel nut definitely resonates with me.
• 1:26:46
  I'm a big coffee drinker and that's why I was thinking. I like
• 1:26:49
  hazelnut coffee, and I can taste the bittersweet chocolate in there too. It's
• 1:26:56
  just really good all around. And obviously brown, red amber, anything kind
• 1:27:02
  of in that category I'm going to reach for nine times out of ten.
• 1:27:08
  And I know episode art. I know exactly what I'm gonna post because last
• 1:27:13
  time was a big grove. I took a selfie with Birch. There you
• 1:27:15
  go, so there we go. All right, man, it's been a
• 1:27:18
  good episode, indeed it has until next time. School School. That was
• 1:27:30
  a good episode. Hey Vikings fans Evan here from the School Hop, and
• 1:27:50
  we just wanted to say thank you again so much for listening to the School
• 1:27:55
  Hop, and we also wanted to take one more opportunity to let you know
• 1:27:58
  that this episode of the school hopp has been brought to you by Big Top
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  Ventures. If you're considering taking an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica,
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  reach out to our friends at Big Top Ventures at Big Top Ventures llcat
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