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Purple People Eaters: Preview Vikings vs. Chicago Bears! Season Record Predictions! Roster Depth! · The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings fans, Welcome back to the Purple People Eaters Podcast.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: He's Aaron, I'm Chris, and we're here to talk about
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: our beloved Minnesota Vikings. Another season is upon us and.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: A lot of positivity going around, some question marks, especially
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: at at quarterback, in cornerback JJ McCarthy in his first
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: year as a starter.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: What is the ceiling? Can Koc scheme him open a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: bunch of stuff like he has for inexperience, unproven or
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: quarterbacks that you thought that were done like Donald, Like
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I said, cornerbacks, do we have enough of them on
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the roster? Just how much will we run this year?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: You know, Koc has been early pass happy, but maybe
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: that was just a product of, hey, this is what
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: we got, We're gonna do that. And then you know,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: we made a bunch of trades, like four trades in
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a short amount of time. We'll kind of give our
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: thoughts that the whole kind of right up right before
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the season starts, the preseason, the themes the players are
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: kind of like Max making the team that type of thing,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and then we'll we'll give our predictions on what we
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: think of the season record will be. And of course
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we'll get into the first game of the season, Monday
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Night football. I actually haven't talked to Aaron about this,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: but I believe we might be on the same page
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: when it comes to this. The early season schedule, for
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a variety of reasons, is a little strange with the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: two euro trips and forcing us to take an early buy.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: We'll get into that, we'll get I got a little
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: rant on that, but you know, it is what it is.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And then yeah, so we'll preview and predict the first
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: game against Chicago on Monday night, and then per usual,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: we end the show talking Gopher football. The Gophers dig
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: it off, you know, to a one to know start.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So far, they have a big game coming up, not
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: this week but next week, so yeah, we'll talk a
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: little Gopher football as well. If this's your first time
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: listening to the Purple People Leaders Podcast, Welcome. You can
• 2:35
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• 2:41
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• 3:01
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• 3:47
  Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and bring in my co host Aaron
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: first and foremost, Aaron, how are you doing, sir? On
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: this fine fall day. Like I said, fall is in
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the weather, it's in the air. I mean that cold
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: air is starting to come. So that tells you one thing.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Football is here, my friend.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Here we are again, back at the beginning of another season. Chris.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been I've been well.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: After Labor Day, things kind of speed up and you
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: get back into fall swing of things. So it's been
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: a little bit busy, but we got everything we want. Chris.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: We've been saying a lot of things throughout the course
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: of this podcast, and it seems like now we sort
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: of have everything we want. We got offensive line fixed
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: somewhat barring injuries and how a rookie plays and whatnot.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: We got a rookie quarterback on a rookie scale contract.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: We've got our defense floors year three. So it's all
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: kind of lined up for us.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: We don't have a.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Lot to say anymore. Defensive line I didn't mention that
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: has been short up a bit too. So a lot
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: of our major complaints have on paper been dealt with.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: But we'll see how it goes. I mean it's on
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: paper now. And there's some some things that we surprised us,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I would say in the off season Chris Harrison trade,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: and then you know also quarterback woman song, which we'll
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: get into.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: But I'm excited about it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: You know, Jaj McCarthy Game one.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Let's go, Yeah, man, I'm really excited about it. And
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you know, the Bears obviously a rival. It's kind of
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: fun to to, you know, start the season that way. Well,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: first and foremost, I might as well just get right
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: on my rant. Okay, this schedule. Okay, Like I understand
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings draw well in Europe, that's all fine
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and dandy, but the keyword is there Minannesota, United States. Like,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: why in the world do we have have to play
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: back to back games overseas? Now? I know. The first
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: thing I always hear is well, we're gonna have a
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: major advantage in that second week because that team's gonna
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be coming over. That's fine, Okay, great, but we are
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: forced to take an early buy. Okay, we have a
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Monday night game, meaning we know what that means. That's
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a short week, right, so we got a short week,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we got we got back to back euro games, and
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: then we have to we have to take our bye.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I mean soon though there'll be eighteen games, who knows,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: you know, with some of we might be a twenty
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to twenty two games and ten years who knows, right,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: But I complain about it because there's never been a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: team that's played two games in Europe. And for people
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: that will say, well, the back to back, and it's yeah,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: what else are they gonna do? Have us go there
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: twice at two different parts of the season that they
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: didn't give us a favor. You know, people are acting like, hey, yeah,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: but no, no buds, dude, it's bullshit. It's never happened.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So that just clearly tells you it's bullshit and they
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: better never We never ever, unless we're talking about twenty
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: six games or something, we should never ever have to
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: do two games in one season. Again, it's never been done.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Let's see. I guess we're the guinea pig. I was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: just gonna say that, Why are we always the guinea pig.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: It's just it's a fucking joke, dude, Like what and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: who knows maybe because of a weird three week injuries
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: or something or some you know, maybe the early buy
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: will help us somehow, because you never know with your
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: bye I guess, but you always want it mid to late.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: That's just kind of given. And to have to go
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: back to back, Aaron, it's just like, are you serious?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Like what are we doing here? You know? I don't
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I just I don't get it, man. It's just I
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: don't want to hear anything about Oh that second week, bro,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: we're gonna have a major advantage, yeah, but then we
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: gotta come back and take it early. By it just
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: pissed me off when I saw that erin. It pissed
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: me off. When I saw that schedule. I couldn't believe it. Yeah,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm pissed off. I'm just it's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: it's curious, you know.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I was like, that's never been done before, Like you mentioned,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: to have the two weeks over there and advantage or
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: no advantage. I mean, it's really not that much of
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: an advantage. You're away from your home for two weeks.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: You could get sour, every things can happen.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: And yeah, exactly, there's only die is just the really
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: by is my main issue?
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Yes, for injuries and things like that during the course
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: of the season, and now you get that out of
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: the way so early that that last leg of games
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: is in double digits, and you know that's talk about
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: a long season. Not to mention, you went to Europe
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: for two and you started on Monday night.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: It's a lot to ask of a football team, twelve
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: straight games without a buye. I mean, if you want
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to do this, then then somehow, somehow I have our
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: game on Monday night, the Monday night before and give
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: us an extra buy like they do in college football.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: They got this thing for a while now called Week zero.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Well you're guaranteed two byes if you are a team
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that does Week zero. Now college football now you do
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: get two buys. But it's just funny. It just but
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I had to get that. I had to get that
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: first rant out, and you know, and to your point,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the flip side of the advantage of that second week
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: for a team coming over trying to adjust to the time,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: like you said, you never know, you know, it could
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: be a disadvantage for us, and then you're away from
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure that.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: People say all the families can come over, but are
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: they really gonna have your I mean maybe you're I
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: don't know, like your significant other, but your kids aren't
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: gonna be there for two weeks. They school just started,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you know, So I don't understand. It's just weird, dude. Anyway,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I had to get that off my chest. But yeah,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy. Obviously, you know, the guy had the arm
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: talent coming out of high school. He was very highly rated.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I think people kind of forget that. I don't think
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the NFL did, because you could see where he went
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in the draft compared to what people were saying where
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: he was going to go in the draft. I think
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: people get stuck in the uh, the run first thing
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that they had going at Michigan, and you know, just
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: like a running quarterback or a full running system where
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you have a quarterback and two tailbacks, Like, if the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: shit works, you're gonna do it in college football, just
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: like Cam Newton. Cam Newton could throw the ball a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: lot better than it appeared at Auburn. But if you
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: got a big dude and it's working, why wouldn't you
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: do the offense that's gonna win you a national championship. So,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: but I think what people get lost in it is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: JJ was really good on third in long If you
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: watch Michigan games, you can see they only asked them
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to make a handful of plays a game, whether that's
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: with his arm or his legs, and he was as
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: he developed there, he really got good at picking his
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: time to run for that first down. And he's more
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: athletic than you think. You know that that play he
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: made against Alabama was pretty crazy. He made a couple
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: of good plays actually, So I think when some games
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you only get to throw the ball fourteen times or
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: seventeen times, sometimes it's hard to get a rhythm. And
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I will say that there's times where he'd make a
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: throw where I'd be like, wow, yeah, you could tell
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: this kid was highly recruited. But there was other times
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: where you're like, JJ, you got to hit that guy,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you know. But if you're not, if you haven't thrown,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: you know, a ball further than a screen pass or
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a tight end dump off for a quarter and a
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: half or two quarters, and then they ask you to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: do it. Sure, that can that can be an issue.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So I guess the whole point of JJ is, you know,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: how high is his ceiling in his first year as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a starter. He is a second year player. Technically having
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: a year to learn the system is great. I will say, though,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to get him in because we actually had some blowouts
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: last year, to get him in and get the live reps,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to get at least one more preseason game, like it
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: would have been nice last year for him. You know.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I think people kind of are like, it didn't matter
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that he was hurt. You know, he's still got to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: learn everything. Yeah, I hear you, But not that. NFL
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: quarterbacks get a like backups get a lot of reps
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: during the week because they don't, but I would have
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: rather him be able to get more reps and scout
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: team and whatever and not get hurt. I think people
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: kind of forget that part. But I'm not really worried
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: about his injury per se, because it's been a full
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: year and usually if you get that full year, you're
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: gonna only improve by that. But you know, where where
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: is his you know, ceiling right now? He's gonna go
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: through some ups and downs, as we know, But where's
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: your mindset kind of on JJ McCarthy going into a system,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: an offensive system that has a elite level play caller
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Aaron and has a ton of talent, especially when it's
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: back fully, you know, and obviously I mean Addison.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's some I'm kind of pondering most
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: of the off season, and I'm thinking a few things.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I think JJ, like you said, what really encouraged me
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: about his college career was his third down percentage, and
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: I think that's kind of what got him drafted where
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: he was. And he's playing for Harbaugh who's running NFL
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: type system and a Harbaugh styled system where they're going
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: to run the football. I don't hold that against JJ
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: at all. What he was supposed to run, and he
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: did a damn good job of it. They won a
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: national title. Let's not forget that, you know, national champion.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: So I'd say it was somewhat successful at Michigan. So
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: there's been a lot of you know, like Colin Cowherd
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: and these people saying you didn't throw the ball. Well,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: he did what he had to do for that offense.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And so you move that into the NFL, where obviously
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: you're gonna have to throw the ball a little more.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: But you've got a really quarterback friendly system once you
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: learn it, because I guess it's it's a bit much
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: to learn, but once you learn it, it kind of
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: goes to Halffield reads. You know, we kind of put
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: out to where he can the reads go a certain way,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: so it's quarterback friendly. And you know when you watch
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: what O'Connell's done with Josh Dobbs, with uh, Sam Darnold,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: even Nicky Mullens, Uh, he's gone now.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know where he ended up, but I'm gonna
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: miss nick Mullens.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: It's just nice to have him on the squad for
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: comedy reasons.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: And also you know, if you need him for like
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: a play, it doesn't matter if it's third and eighteen
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: or not. He's coming an asy and slang any thing. Yeah,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: he is and usually complete it. Yeah.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: So as far as the ceiling, Chris, it's like you
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: you kind of pointed out like, okay, second year player,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: but first year in I'm not worried about his poise.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: He's a poised kid. I'm not worried about, you know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: him freaking out from the big lights and stuff like that.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I just don't see that. What I do see is like, oh,
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: you maybe don't throw that. These are NFL defensive backs.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: You know they're gonna be in front of that, that
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: type of stuff. So what I'd like to see him
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: is just get better every game. Maybe you know, you
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: have a few mistakes here to start the season out learning,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you know, learning errors, and then you know you improve
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: as you go. Now, and there's no there's a lot
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: of talent around him, and he's going to have a
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: good defense. But I'm not putting any pressure like NFC
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Championship game or even around of the playoffs on him.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying, go out there. You know you're cheap
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: right now, you're talented, You've got everything going your way.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: So let's let's build it, you know, kind of like
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: how we were with Edwards. With Anthony Edwards was like, Okay,
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: he's got the talent, we see it. Now, we got
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: to watch it progress and we kind of watch that
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: go all the way to the Western Conference finals and
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: that took four years or so.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Now I'm not going to say that's going to take
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: that with JJ.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: But as far as this season goes, I just want
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: to see improvement on a weekly basis. I don't want
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: to see him going to the tank or anything like that.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: I think what you're going to get from O'Connell is
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: give him what he can handle throughout the course of
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: the season. He's gonna have, like you said, he's got
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: everything around him. Good offensive line, he'll have a great
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: stable receivers. He's got a nice pass catching tight end
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: and a good blocking tight end. So it's all there
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: for him. I trust him. I think he's in a
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: good spot. I really think he will get us to
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: the playoffs in some shape or form. But you know,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: it's a tough division and we'll see how it goes.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: But I don't have, you know, extreme expectations, Chris, I
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: guess I would say more of his his basement and
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: his floor. You know, I think you're gonna see quickly
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: that he belongs in the position that he's at, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: I think he'll he'll thrive in that.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think I would say we talked about
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: it before we hit record that you know, there's really
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: no such thing as as game managers anymore. Brock Party
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: kind of comes to mind. But you still got to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: make plays. But I would say, just just above, whether
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: it's slightly or like a full bump above a game manager.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I think I'd be just fine within year one. And I,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: you know, going back to his college days, like you
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: said I would, I would be more worried if he
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: went outside the system trying to you know, trying to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: show what he's got rather than follow what the coach wants,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know, So that would actually if I was watching
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: those games and you kind of tell he was going
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: for the home run or instead of the easy first
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: down or something like that, that would have me worrying
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a lot more than just being at times a game manager.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And then you know, a few times we needed to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: make the plays. And Sam Donald, you know, had an
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: up and down year. When it was up, it was
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: really up. When it was down, it was like, holy shit,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: this is why he's not starting, you know, previously anyway,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: But we only and we talked about this throughout the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: season Aaron, where we're like, we only need him a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: few times a gain to do something where you're like, wow,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that was great, whether that's a throw or a run
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: so or you know what, maybe a throwaway, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: maybe throw it out the back of the end zone, take,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: don't take the sack, that type of thing. And so yeah,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I do think he's very underrated J. J. McCarthy. In general,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: he is a Midwest kid, grew up in Illinois outside
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of Chicago, you know, went to Michigan, and now he's
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota. So he fits in perfectly really so you know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the cold's not gonna freak him out. So yeah, I'm
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: pretty high on him just in general. And like you said,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: we basically have four years under contract because that fifth
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: year kicker, you know, if he if he shows he's
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a good quarterback, the fifth year kicker goes up. But
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it's still not going to go you know, to fifty
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: million or something like that. So we have four years
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: to do our thing. And you know, like you mentioned,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the track record of being a productive quarterback like koc
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: has it of late. He really does, and he cans
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: scheme stuff open and at times he can have people
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: thinking Sam Darnold should get fifty MILLI year, you know
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: what I mean, Like the things that people were saying
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: about him going into the season, and then midway through
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the season, you're like, dude, calm down, Okay, we saw
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Dobbs look pretty good for a little bit. Then they
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: obviously caught up to him, and YadA, YadA, YadA. But yeah,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I'm comfortable with McCarthy, and you know, like you said,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: beyond the little things like just going to the wrong
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: guy or whatever, maybe taking a sack where he shount
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: or or you know, we all know that guys run
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: more wide open and call than they do in the pros.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: So you know we're gonna see you know, where he
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: where he settles in there. But I do you know,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: like what I see out of him in general. Now,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: would I have liked to see him play a little
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: bit more in preseason, Yeah I would have. But you
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: know the fact that those scrimmages now where you scrimmage
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: with teams, you know, and a couple of years ago,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I think it was Denver. I went to one of those,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and it is like about as real as you're gonna get. No,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: you're not tackling to the ground. If you tackle to
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the ground, there's probably gonna be a fight. But it
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: is a different team. They don't know your routes. You
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: don't know their routes. You don't you know. So so
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: it is actually about his live action as you're gonna
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: get And I understand that, you know, something happened. I
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: don't know. I just would have liked, you know what,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: what would one more draw? You know? On one hand,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I would have liked to seen more action from him
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: in the preseason. But on the other hand, it's like
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: if he got two more drives, would that really do
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a whole lot? Like, oh, now he's ready, you know.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I so back and forth, and you know, I think
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: going against the Flora's defense, going in that scrimmage against
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: another defense, and also doing it without Jefferson for basically
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the whole camp, that's got to help him because he
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't have you know, Addison Ken draws and doubles, no doubt,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: especially deep, but Jefferson's a whole different beast when it
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: comes to double and and I gotta admit when he
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: said tightness in the hamstringer and I was scared for
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Jefferson right away. It seems like he's good to go now,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: but I was what was running through your mind when
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you hear tightness in the hamstring And we're gonna reconvene
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in a week and we'll tell you how we're doing well.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: It's a hamstring, Chris. He was out what seven eight
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: games like that two years ago, same issue, And it's
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: one of those things where you just got to sit him.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: You know, you can't move him, you can't get him
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: to you know, no walkthroughs, no nothing. Just let him,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: let it get better, shut him down and let him
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: get better, because he's just too important to the squad,
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: and especially with the situation with Addison being out for
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: three games, which we we anticipated what happened, you know,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: so it wasn't like a big surprise to anybody. But yeah,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously you don't want to see or hear
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: about a hamstring with Jefferson at all. But then again,
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: on the lighter side, it's a hamstring. You know, you
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: know how to deal with it. It's fixable. Yeah, it sucks,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: you'd like to have him in camp to work with JJ,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: but you know, it sounds like those two haven't you know,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: been together doing things, even last training camp and all
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: that stuff, so they're familiar with each other. Obviously, Jefferson
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: is He's gonna be in the right place that he's
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: supposed to be in as.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Long as he's going to be open.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: You're not worried too much about h Addison on the
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: other hand, and you know, really good connections with JJ
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: through camp. Yeah, real shame that he is getting suspended
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: for those three games because they look like they're they're
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: in you know, in sync, especially in those practices. And
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: then you know, like you said about McCarthy and his
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: performance in those joint practices, he had a.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Day where he let things up.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: So I'm not worried too much about it, but there
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: is that, you know, like a god for God's sake slide.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I don't want him, you know, putting the shoulder out
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: in the NFL in regular season games. Now, there's times
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: when I guess.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: You could do that, but you're the quarter parts of
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: an important game or something.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're you're QB one now, so you know
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: you've got a lot riding on you. You need to
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: be responsible with that. And like we said about his mistakes, Chris,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: they're gonna come. You know, I don't want to see
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: on message boards and everywhere McCarthy sucks. Is you know,
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: because he threw an interception because he didn't realize that
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: you know, uh, the safety was lurking, or you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: the defensive backs break so fast. That's the kind of
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: stuff I'm concerned about. But I don't see him being
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: you know, I guess in a more positive way. I
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: just I know he's poised. I know if he makes
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: a mistake, he's it's not gonna take him on the
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: dumps like Cousins or or he's not gonna be peaks
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: and valleys like Darnold. It's gonna be pretty steady. You're
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: gonna have your mistakes. And as long as the lion
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: is heading up instead of down, I think we're in
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: pretty good shape. Speaking of good shape, the receiver room.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Now Rob Addison, we know his three games, Suspench. We
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: already mentioned it, and it sucks. And then you've got
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Jefferson who's got the hammy, but I guess he's good
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: to go. And then you get down to Naylor, who's
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: got a hand issue that needs surgery. Rondelle Moore out
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: for the season, so we made a move. We brought
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: the kid back at him Feeling. Now I hear he's
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: from Minnisode. Is that true?
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Du Luth? Yeah? Oh boy? Or who is it?
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Detroit Lakes?
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not culture No, okay, wow, I didn't realize.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Well, he knows his way around Chris, so that's a
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: good thing.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's thirty five.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: But if you put in the scheme of things right,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: you get you start off the season with Jefferson Feeling
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: one and two probably most likely definitely, and then you
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: know as the week three you're dealing with I think
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: you're in Europe for week three. I'm not one hundred
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: percent sure, but let me look here.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: You're I think it's is it four and five? Game
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: four and five?
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: And yeah, you'd be in the Steelers, and I think
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: the Steelers are a London game. So you get Addison back.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Now you're dealing with what I assume is the vision here,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: which is Jefferson one, Addison two, Feeling three, and now
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: you're starting to get out of that eleven personnel, starting
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: to work into that three or sier set started to
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: work in the feeling in the slot where you know,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: a lot of people thought he should have started his career,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: and then he kind of overperformed, and now he's kind
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: of thirty five and back into the spot where you
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: think he's gonna do very well. That is tough to
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: stop with you Ted Addison and Jones out of the backfield.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: You can't double Jefferson and Addison both. And even if
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: you do, Theling's going to move the chains at the
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: very least, if not score touchdowns. So that's a very
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: good situation to have. I'm glad they brought Theeling back.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I'm not at all surprised. We kind of talked throughout
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: the years that he was gone, and eventually this guy's
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: gonna end up back, and whether it's a one day
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: contract to retire a Viking or whatever it is, he's
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: going to be back. And so I think of all
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: the options that you had for a possible season long
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: number three, Theling might have been the best of those options.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, if you look at when he left,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, we we just weren't going to pay
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: him that kind of money. It appear at the time
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that kJ Osborne was ready to take another step now
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: once that happened and Dealing left, he definitely had a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: lot of drops. He's been very inconsistent when he went
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to the Patriots and then uh forgot where else he went.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: But anyway, and that was one of the guys that
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I thought, Hey, if we don't get the stealing, maybe
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: maybe kJ Osbourne would come back as a role player
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: or even uh Powell, you know, but I like the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: feeling thing for what you said. And now his expectations
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: where his career is is different too. You know. He
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Jefferson came on the scene and it was like, whoa,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: this dude's better than me, you know, like by a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: long shot. So you know, it was kind of like
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: he was out of favor and he wasn't you know,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you know, as an athlete, you know, you don't feel
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: like you're being used all the way properly. So he
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: went someplace else and we weren't gonna give him a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: big contract. So and I respect it it, I get it,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: no problem. But when we brought you know, then all
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of a sudden we get Addison, It's like, well we're
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: good to go, you know, like we we got our
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: one two punch, and then whether it's Naylor, Paula's made
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: some good catches over the last few years or whatever,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: we were gonna be fine. But the fact Aaron that
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: they didn't budge on the third round pick I really like.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I do hope that it's like a two year thing
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: rather than.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Just this year.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Financially, it's a really great deal where he's at now,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: So I think he's at a different I think he
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: realizes where he's at in his career, and I think
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: he'll be way more willing to kind of fall into
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: wherever it fits, rather than thinking he's still in number one.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: So I think it's perfect timing. And and then you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the Hall trade, I liked it originally. Speaking of trades,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I did like it originally when we got him, but
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the fact that we got capital back, you know, I
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: was fine with that. And bringing in a vet like Wentz,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: who is kind of a change at pace if we
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: ever needed to go to him. And obviously Max, you know,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Max was just he's made a lot of improvements even
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: since the first month of being a Gopher as far
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: as you know, on the field, and he just kept
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: making throws that were so impressive. That it's like, there's
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: no way he'll make it to the practice squad. He's
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: not going to get through waivers. So that was a
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: kind of a great theme, kind of standout thing with
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a couple other players, but Max making the roster, you know,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you had to do something, and so you know, I
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: do like what they did there, and even like you
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: mentioned the Phillips trade, you know, they really must like
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: their depth with the two year the second year guys
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: that played last year and then some young guys that
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: they got as well. You know, I think that they
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: liked Roderiguez and Redmond. We did see some improvement out
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: of those guys. But just to spell Allen and har Hargrave,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: who you know are in their thirties, so they do
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: need someone to rotate for it them. Going back to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: making McCarthy successful as much as you can anyway, you know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Aaron Jones, you know, had a hell of a year
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: last year, but you know he's starting now, so to
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: make the trade. Speaking of another trade, Jordan Mason like
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: that guy. He's a big back short yards, can catch
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the ball out of the backfield too. That combination of
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: those two backs sign me up for a real run.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Game that we actually can lean into, and so we
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: we beefed up the backfield. But also, like you mentioned,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: you know, the interior with Will Fries and Kelly, and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we did add to it. So maybe this
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: will give him full confidence to run the ball and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and McCarthy can do a nice rollout seven step you know,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: play action kind of the old school way. So I
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: think that plays into it just as much as can
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: that interior make a leap? Can that second back spelling
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a guy who, like I said, had a standout year.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: But Jones does get banged up. Now he doesn't miss
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: a ton of games, but he does get banged up
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and leave games. And well we'll see he's questionable and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: this and that, and he's a great player. We love
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to see him, even at this age hit the hole
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and the guy's awesome. But why not have another back
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: And so it really does kind of lend itself for
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: McCarthy that the playmaker or the call maker who could
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: scheme shit open an improved running game talent at the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: white we haven't even talked about the tight ends and
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: that is plural. You know, I don't know, man, I
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: am big on this offense. One of the biggest question
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: marks is the cornerback room. But you can expand on
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: some other stuff and then kind of make your way
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: back to the corner room if you want to, you know,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: if you want to do some of that, because I
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: kind of was jumped all over the place there.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll just touch on Jordan Mason. I'm I'm there
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: with you. I think there's a one two punch. Uh
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: that's a really good a really good one. You know,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: Mason's got the power, He's got the short yardage stuff,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: and you can keep Jones his touches down, which is huge,
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: and you can use him scatback might be a word,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: but there's not really such thing anymore. But he can
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: be your your Jamier Gibbs. Maybe not as fast, but
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: he can be your when you need speed to the outside,
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: when you need a catch in the flat, when you
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: need a screen, a screen, uh, things like that. When
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: you need someone to want to run a wheel route,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: you know, that's Jones and that's what he's best at.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: And then for your every day you know, up to
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: between the tackles, uh power type runs, you can use
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Mason now whether you know, uh, Kevin his last name
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: just left me but the coach, whether he O'Connell, whether.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: He uh decides to lean into the run this year.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: More, I think will depend on how those two do
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: and and who's healthy on the offensive line. I know
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: we've already got one guy was banged up for a bit.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: I think it was the center. He always banged up
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: a little bit, So I'm a little bit about health
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: on the offensive line.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: A bit.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: You did touch on the defensive line and what they
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: would do. Yeah, Phillip's gone was a surprise, uh, just
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: because he's at your run stuff. And I really didn't
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: see that out of Hargraves or Alan. But they're gonna
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: have to do it. And then you know, Drake Rodriguez, Redman,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: that bunch will spell them. And I really hope that
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: there's gonna be a bit of a rotation there where
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: you're gonna see combinations of a bunch of those guys
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: depending on down and distance and what you want to
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: do defensively. I know it'll probably draw back the Blitzes
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: a bit, hopefully back he's still a little I think
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: he's dealing with a k me. I'm not quite sure
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: what Ben's dealing with, but I know he's dealing with something,
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: and then you've got and then you got Grenard, who's
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: been studied. I thought he was a plug and surprise
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: last year. I think he overachieved in what I thought
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: he was going to do. And the Dallas Turners supposed
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: to be coming on and doing stuff got rid of
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: gave Murphy. I think I claimed off Waivers. I was
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: excited about him in the preseason, but he's gone now.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: Couldn't keep him. It's just a tough will and it's
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: pretty deep, which is a good thing. And the linebackers
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: are what they are, so you know, I think, like
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: you mentioned, the only real thing to look at defensively
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: is that cornerback spot. We kind of before we hit record,
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: we were like, oh, what is there actually? And you know,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of question marks, maybe not as deep
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: as they were last year's for us questions, but Murphy's there.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: Whether he plays slaughterer outside is a thing depending on
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: you know, Mclothuran's a young kid. We got the Rogers
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: kid out of Philly, might start.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: We don't know.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: We'll have to see who we start back there because
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: we just we don't know. And then Jeff Akudah, you know,
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: question mark double question mark there, double question mark with
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: an exclamation point right.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: You know, in his career.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Hasn't impressed first round pick, high pick for Detroit, moved
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: on to Atlanta, didn't stick either of those places, and
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: you know, you gotta think to yourself, why not?
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: And he's not four or something, you know, yeah, talented athlete,
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: So you gotta trust Lawa's on this one. And I think,
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: you know, Flores has earned our trust. So I'm gonna
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: but I don't think he's gonna start him. I'd be
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: very surprised if he started Jeffakuda, But then again, what
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: options does he have? So it'll be a mystery coming
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: on Monday night. Who's outside, who's inside, who's playing, who's not?
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: Like you just really can't tell it the cornerback room.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: So maybe that's a good thing, Maybe it's not.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: I tend to think it's not the greatest thing. There's
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: not depth there. You're a little bit thin as far
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: as I can see. But I guess it's a trust
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Flawa's situation, and we'll have to do that.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: But I am very curious, Chris is to see what
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: it looks like on.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: Monday night, because I really, I mean, you have the
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: depth chart, you see stuff, you see interviews, and you
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: can't really tell who's going to play in the slot,
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: who's going to play outside, and who's going to play
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: in general. Those are all questions. And you know, it's
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: not like you don't have athletes. You do, but where
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: are they going to play and how are they going
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: to play and and so on, and like you said
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: off air, you're not really playing a lot of man anymore. Now.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: That could change depending on what you're blitzing and how
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: much pressure you get from the defensive line.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And what you can expect.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: But you know, I guess they're hoping Akudah can get
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: in zoned and do a good job of it and
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: to play man. I'm not sure, but I'm a little
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: skeptical there.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: We'll see how it goes.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: I don't think he can be worse than Gilmore, but
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: you know, cross your fingers.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: On that one. It'll be, uh, it'll.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Be a test to just kind of see how this goes.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: In the quarterback position.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the one thing we know is Murphy's playing, and
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: that's about it to your point. And you know, like
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: speaking of the D line, I am anticipating and just
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I can't can't wait, Like you said, not as much blitzes,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: but to get pressure from the interior defensive line on
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: said quarterback. You know, I cannot wait to see that,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: you know, because it's just like whoa. And it wasn't
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: a blitzing safety or anything or a line but no,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: that was our D line. Yeah, we got there on
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: our D line. So I am really anticipating that. And
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you know, like those guys were more hand picked, right,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and we had to pay money for him because they're
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: very productive. But on the lower level scale, some of
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: these hand picked free agents that like in a Rogers
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Rodgers. Now when I say hand picked, he wasn't
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the best corner or top five corner you know, available,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: but the fit and like you said, you know, trusting
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Flores has really paid off. And I think a guy
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: like Rogers, or even a guy like a mcglotherin or
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: you know, who knows, maybe if you know, knock on wood,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: we don't want injuries. Maybe one of these young you
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: know corners that we got of Vaughn you know, from Utah,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the kid from UCLA maybe or not kid that he's
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: actually a grown adult. The other guy from Western Kentucky
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: he's like a second or third year player. By the
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: way I'm looking at I'm looking at it right now.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Gabriel Murphy, the linebacker, that's what you're talking about, right,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: was that what you're talking about?
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: Ye's possible he got signed back to the practice squad,
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: but we got he Yep, we got him on the
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: practice squad. Okay, that's good because I think he's got
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: a lot of talent. He had a couple of sacks
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: in the preseason, and they held on him last year
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: throughout an injury, so they got it like something there.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Speaking a linebacker, Welcome back, Eric Wilson. How you doing, sir? Back.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: The one thing I'll say is, you know, we also
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: have to remember at any given time, there could be
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: four or five safeties on the field, right I mean,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be running a three, three five at times
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: like now. Hopefully we don't have to do as much
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: of that, but we are going to have a lot
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: of three safety looks. So we do have and some
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: of those guys can play boundary corner, you know, have
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a have like a responsibility on the field that they
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: have to cover. Right, Like we're saying, certain types of
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: zones and stuff so I think we got to put
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: that into the equation of defensive back, right, not just cornerback,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: but defensive back, kind of much like the Gophers. Man,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: they got three legit safeties and they're gonna play those boys.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: You know they're good, They're gonna play them. So I
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: think that we have to kind of remember that in
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: the style of defense that he brought over that there
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: is you know, we were deep at safety and they
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: want to get them on the field. So I think
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: that'll play into it as well. You know, Harrison Smith
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Game one, is he going to be back? I don't know,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: I really don't. It sounds like they're trying to get
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: his legs back, conditioning and stuff. He had a personal
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: reason why he missed some time. I haven't dug into
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: that just yet. I mean, I don't know exactly what
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: it was. If it was something with his family or whatever,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: have no clue. I just haven't haven't had the time
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: to look into it, you know. So so we'll we'll
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: see where we're at there. And you also, you know
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: mentioned dang gink the gang's a little dinged up. He's
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: a little ginked up right now. So hopefully you know
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: it won't take long. And then we know Nailer it
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: says questionable. But you know, I don't know what's up
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: with that hand. And anytime you're dealing with the receiver
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: and it's in literally on the status report, it says
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: hand hand in receiver. That's a little funky. So you know,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I wonder they do have a question a little with
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: a groin with Johnson for cornerback. That's kind of as
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: we speak, looking at it right now, but any other
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: items before we start to kind of get into the
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: game itself. And then also, uh, you know, kind of
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: predicting our our season, our season record to get it
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: on record, so to speak.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: No, I don't really have a lot more to cover.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: I just you know, I'm looking at the fronts again,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: offensive line, defensive line, particularly the health. And then Darris
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: saw I guess as a goal that's what everybody's saying.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Sounds like it, I don't know, sounds like, you know,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: which should be great.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously it's a Pro Bowl, all Pro left tackle,
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: just another feather in JJ's cap, so you know, but
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, I guess I'll say this before
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: we move on to the Monday night matchup. Is you know,
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: relax with McCarthy, give it a little bit of time. Now,
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: he might come out gangbusters three fifty four touchdowns, but
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: in Soldier Field on a Monday night first start, it's
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: probably not gonna happen. And I'm not saying it's going
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: to be a terrible performance either, but I'm saying, you know,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: don't expect so much from him.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Let it build.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Obviously at the beginning of the schedule due to the
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: travel and the bye and blah blah blah, it's just
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: not very opportune for him to make your starts there.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: But I just cut the kids some slack, is what
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: I'm saying now, especially now speaking of a.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: More rookie last year, Caleb Williams.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: You know, first of all, matchup Monday night, Chicago, Soldier
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: Field always a fun place for US Vike US to play,
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: no matter what new coach for them. Ex Lion offensive
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: coordinator Ben Johnson. Pretty good draft by the Bears. The
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: Bears are sticky, and we talked a little bit before
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: we record about jeez, you know, this game, it's just
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: you'll pick your hair up because you just there's so
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: many question marks.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: How's MacArthur, You gonna They were heavy in the free
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: agent market too. Yeah.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they got to gel a bunch of guys
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: together there, and that it is Caleb. You know, we're
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: huge fans of Caleb coming out of USC. I'm still fan.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: I just don't know how it's gonna mess with the coordinator.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be a much better show than
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: it was last year in a lot of ways, right
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: as far as him maybe getting a little bit more structured,
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: a little bit more uh prepared for a season. But
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: to pick this game, Chris is the tough thing, and
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: we're not there yet. It's just, you know, I think
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: the Vikings will go be a poised group. I think
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: that everybody's healthy for the most part. Uh, it's healthy
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: as we're gonna get. It's just, you know, it's just tough.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: It's Monday night. Now. We gotta maybe wipe out all
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: these old tropes because McCarthy is a new quarterback. It's
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: a new kind of a new page here. But yeah,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: it's just it's a toss up, Chris Beau. I think
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: either offense could be outstanding and either offense could be horrible.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: If it comes down to defenses, I think that our
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: defense is better than theirs. But Johnson also is quite
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: familiar with Flores, so you know, there's just a lot.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Of variables in this one.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be fun game to watch for those reasons,
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: But as far as picking it, it's tough.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: I love the Vikings. I'm gonna pick the Vikings. I
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: think this Vikings in a very close game, low scoring.
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: And I say that because I just, you know, I
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: don't trust Caleb quite yet, and I don't trust McCarthy
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: quite yet until I see it with my eyes.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: So it's you know.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: There's that that fluctuation there that you just you can't
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: able to put your finger out. So I'm gonna go
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: twenty three to twenty will Reker with a field goal
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: to win it. That's the best guy can do in
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: this one. And I'm really looking forward to see how
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: you slice this one up.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: So you're already calling him his name by his name,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: not the kicker. Oh boy, here we go, oh boy. No.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: But to your point, like a lot of times, I mean,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: we see this in preseason, we see this in game
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: one in college football, or the first time you play
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a real team or whatever, like it is sloppy as
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: we know defenses are ahead of offenses this time of year.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't doubt if it looks ugly for a little
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: bit on both sides. You know, like Johnson, we're gonna
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: find out how damn good he is because Golf had
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: his own issues and you know, with the Rams, that's
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: why they traded him. But he highlighted his strengths and
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: they had so much talent around him that you know,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: it really highlighted. All of a sudden, you're like, hey,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: this dude's pretty fucking good man, you know. And and
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: now it's different, right, and we know Caleb does have
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: to contain himself. He doesn't have to go for the
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: home run as much. Now he can go for the
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: home run all he wants in this game twice a year,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and if we see him in the playoffs, but as
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: a player, just looking at you know, looking at his career,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: he does have to He's got to find that perfect
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: balance of what makes him, what made him a great
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: player at USC and Oklahoma, and what's gonna make him
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: a great player or at least above average player at
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: that position in the NFL. And what he did last
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: year is not the recipe for success now he'll make
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: some throws where you're like, holy crap, you know, but
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: he also makes some throws you're like, dude, what was that?
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Like why are you? You know you're up by a
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: point right now? Right like so, but it's gonna really
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: show Johnson because it is a different fit. Can he can?
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: They find it in between. But now wide receivers they
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: have them too. You know, I'm not gonna sit there
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: and line up wide receiver corps versus ride receiver corps.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: But shit, if you look at Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: they're pretty damn good, right, So he does have a
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: corps of wide receivers and throaty who has the talent,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: But overall, the whole structure of the team is different,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: and I don't know, I am really looking forward to
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: see this play out and just see how good Johnson
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: is as a head coach, but also just on offense
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: because it is different and he may have to tweak
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: his quote unquote system to fit his player. And you
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: could probably say he did that in Detroit too, because,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: like I said, Goff had shown plenty of weaknesses in
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: you know, a RAMS uniform at times. He really did,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: and you could tell that they were holding back at
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: times even in the big games because they just did
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: trust them in that system. But he wasn't holding back
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: much at all. In Detroit. He looked like a new guy.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: So now it's it's kind of interesting. So we're a
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: one and a half point favorite the over runners forty
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: three and a half, you know, like you said, getting
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: rid of the old thoughts and all that. It's funny
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: because the last couple of years we've brought up past
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Chicago Bear teams and all that, and we remember in
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: the teens, basically the twenty teens, like from maybe twenty
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty nineteen or whatever, that defensive line ate
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: us up and it was ugly and it just sucked
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: playing him, and we couldn't move the ball and it
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: just it was bad. But for quite some time now
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: we've been able to win at Chicago, right. It's kind
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: of crazy. And I talked about it, you know, the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: last year or two we've mentioned it, but I had
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: to go back and check really quick, and it's like, dude,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: we haven't lost in Chicago since twenty nineteen, and so
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: I thought it was one loss in that time, maybe two,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: but we haven't lost since twenty nineteen. Now, So that's
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: one thing, right. The other thing is the way sport
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: odds go. You start to go, well, we're kind of
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: do you know, we're kind of due for a shitty
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: performance and lose. Now, I will say this, if you
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: look at some of the scores of the game, they
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: are very ugly, grinded out games even and wins. So
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: actually have a bet plus one oh five on the Bears.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: But funny enough, Aaron, we've been friends for a long
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: time because my score that I wrote down two nights
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: ago on this piece of paper is twenty three to
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: twenty the Vikings. So that's just kind of that's just
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: funny how that works out. But yeah, the game one,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: game two, man, it can be funky and a lot
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: of conclusions get drawn and then you know it's just like, yeah,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I forget it. Like when the Bill I remember years
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: ago the Bills started up three and oh and they
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: beat the Patriots and it was like, oh shit, and
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: then it was like, now the Patriots wanted the division again.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Just forget about it. You know, I'm not talking about
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: the Bills now in the recent years, talking about like
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years. A guy I just remember it was
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: on Sports Illustrated cover. They're three and oh is this
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: the new Well? Hold on, dude, But yeah, I'm gonna
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: favor the Vikings just because I think we're the better team.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: But twenty three to twenty, my friend, exactly what I
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: wrote down two days ago.
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: It just sounds like a Bears Vikings game at Soldier Field, right,
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: it's either thirteen seventeen or it's yeah, yeah, you know three, Yeah, no,
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: watch it. It'll just be a fricking yeah right, yeah, they'll
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: be attract me, you know, forty five. Who would have
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: thought that? But yeah, I mean, just like all things
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: this season, hopefully it's gonna be eye opening, and I
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: just want people to not you know, check the bridges,
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: you know, check the tunnels.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, a lot of people on the edge. You know.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: It's not gonna be all all great. I don't see fourteen,
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: you know, wins again, I certainly don't see that. But
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: as long as you can see the beginnings of a
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: foundation here, finally, I mean, you've had a lot of
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: the parts here, missing the fronts, missing the lines, and
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: now you know, the lines are getting better. They're not done,
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: but they're better to go along with some really good
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: skill position players and a quarterback you can get behind,
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: and actually a couple of them. I'm behind Max too,
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: and I think he'll eventually be the number two and
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: once will be a three there.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: But I just think in a couple of years.
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: Sure, And I think it's hard to make you know
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: Brasner too, uh right away? You know, I think you
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: gotta kind of have to feel that out a bit. Yeah,
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: but yeah, I mean I'm all optimistic. I did even
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: say the kicker's name this time. Not sure I'll do
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: it again. We'll see how Will does Will does on
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: on on Monday night. And you know, I'm not real
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: fan of starting a season on Monday night either, but.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Short week, you know.
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I like that new kickoff, you know, noon
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: or three o'clock on Sunday, gotta gets you in instead
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: of waiting that extra day.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Let me bye. This is this the son of a
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: bitch share, I'll tell you that.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So let's talk about that a little bit. Season
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: prediction all right again, question marks all over the place,
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: mostly at the quarterback position. Unfortunately, you'd like to have
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: a little bit more. But if you're if you're a
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: logical person and try to, you know, think logically, you're
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: gonna have some question marks there. Obviously you wish for
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: the best, but you got to prepare for the worst.
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: I don't think JJ's gonna be Hall of fame coming
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: out the gate. I think it's gonna be a slow build.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: I think he's not gonna be terrible at any point.
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: I think that's where O'Connell comes in, where it's like,
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: you know, he might have a couple of two thirties,
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: you know, pass for two thirty a couple of time.
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: Teddy's gonna pick maybe one pick each, a pick and
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: a touchdown each, something like that to start it off slow.
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: So I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm here because on
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: the flip side of that, Chris, if he comes out
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: and plays very well, uh, this team stacked.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, Sky's the limit all of a sudden.
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so, and that's an actual statement as opposed
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: to like, you know, well, if this is good and
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: these play player no, I mean, if people stay healthy
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: and he comes out and plays average and above average,
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: this is a very very good football team. And of
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: course we want to go that way. But you know,
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: let's kind of how we were Donald last year, Chris,
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: we might have to go back into that mode of
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: you know, let's let it.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Play out, let it. Yeah, it'll be harder with this
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: one though. If he's playing good early, exactly difficult, we
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: got it. That's a good call. We gotta temper ourselves.
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: Right, And you gotta also look, if he comes out
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: in a three straight wins, three hundred plus games, you
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: know the league is gonna catch up with him.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's more on film.
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So you know that'll temper it down a
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: little bit too. So season prediction I could give to
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: you know, a plus and minus, but that's kind of
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: a I guess I think you know, I don't.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Think we lose uh any more than.
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: A eight games, uh maybe nine, So let's say let's
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: let's call it nine. Uh So we could be eight
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: and nine at the very least. I think that's the
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: bottom there, the ceiling. Chris.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: It's tough to call, but I'm.
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: Gonna go somewhere in the ten eleven range to be realistic. Again,
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: like I said, he comes out and he plays really well,
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: we're talking twelve, thirteen, fourteen. But you know, I'm gonna
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: stay with temperate enthusiasm and say that positive season to
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: me is a winning record, nine to ten winsh and
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: a lot of things to look forward to. So I
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: guess to nail it down, I'm gonna say my season
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: prediction will be ten and ten and seven.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, ten and seven is that? Yeah?
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: Just making here, I got the eighteen games there or
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: the seventeen games there, So ten and seven.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Our math is gonna get messed up because they're gonna
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: go eight team before you know it, but before you
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: know for sure, I'm ten.
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: Seven is when I'm sticking with here, and I think
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: I already put out the caveats of like you know,
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: where it could go. But I really don't see a
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: four win season. I don't see a six win season.
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: I think that if you can still get that number
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: in Vegas for the over under on the season, I
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: would I would take the over and I would run
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: with it.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And to your point, like.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: The the the amount of wins we had last year,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: like you know, we we were really good in one
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: score games obviously, and we're on a current trend that
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: every other year we don't make the playoffs. It's been
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: a trend here for a little bit now now it
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: hasn't you know, it's been two playoffs and not a
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: playoffs under koc. But to be fair, two years ago,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of shit went wrong and it all started
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: but Cousin's getting hurt and Jefferson was out for a while,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: and you know, we were on a third quarterback and
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So I mean that I thought he
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: overachieved that year, you know, really, so I wasn't too
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: mad about that. But to your point, overall, like it's
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: just hard to predict fourteen wins again, you know, thirteen
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: wins again. It just it's not realistic. But it doesn't
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: mean we're a worser team, that's the thing. And some
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of those matchups we just matched up well and we
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: were able to hide our weaknesses. And then once we
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: played a team that was more, you know, better overall,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: then our weaknesses would come right out real quick. So
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: and obviously for years it was the defense just being
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: a sieve in the interior line, whether it's not given
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: enough time, stepping on Cousin's foot, not picking even with
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Cook and other good backs, not being able to pick
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: up short yardage when we should. It just limited us
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: from getting past, say the second round, because that's we've
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: only been past the second round since twenty eighteen, so
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: or past the first round, I should say. So you know,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: come January, Aaron, we could feel a lot better about
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: the team than we have recently and still only have
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: eleven or twelve wins. Twelve and five would be a
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: great year. Our schedule's tough. It has a weird start.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: You got a short week, you have an early buy,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: you have back to bed. You know, there's a bunch
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: of dumb shit, and then even off that buy, oh Philly,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: here you go, you know, like damn okay, Like it's
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: a tough schedule the first six eight games or whatever,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: just straight up let alone the other stuff, short weeks
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and all that. So I'm with you. I don't now
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: my my basement, my floor is your thing. Ten and seven,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: nine and eight. I'd probably go about as far as
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: low as that, But my my basement is ten and seven.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: In the high is twelve and five. And like I said,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: if we're sitting at ten and seven or eleven and
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: six with this schedule, we could as funny as it seems.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: And a lot of casual fans don't think this way.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: But I could see, especially if you know, we see
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: JJ really getting a shit together, Like I could see
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: us being way more confident going into the playoffs than
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: we have in previous years, just because we know ultimately
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: this is fun in these regular seasons. I mean that
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: regular season a handful of years ago where we had
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: all those comebacks and we probably will have the largest
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: comeback ever for a long time. I don't see too
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: many people beating that record like it was crazy. It
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: was fun, and we did remind ourselves and remind people
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: out there to enjoy this part of it. You know,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: let's really enjoy this part because once you get the playoffs,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: it's a different ball game. So I am eleven and
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: six is where I'm gonna land. But like you said,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: ten and seven, and I'd say anywhere from ten and
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: seven to twelve and five, but I'm landing on eleven
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: and six for the prediction on the season. We only
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: got a few minutes because I know, you got to
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: go Gophers football. You know, they came out. I thought, overall,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: a fairly clean performance by Drake. He didn't he took
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: a sack, He shouldn't have got an earfull on the sidelines,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: took it in stride. He threw a ball in the
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: end zone he probably shouldn't have. But other than that,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: a very clean, composed performance by Drake and I do
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: like that they're not waiting for the cal or Rutgers
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: game to throw the ball. Let's see what he's got
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: right now. Let's go ahead and throw thirty some odd times.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: But there were too many drops, you know. Jalen Smith,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: this phenom red shirt freshman that we've heard a lot about,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: made some plays, but he also didn't make plays. And
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: then the veteran gears, Jamison Griers, he had two drops
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: that were like, what are you doing? So if you
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: tighten up or even like some sideline plays that we
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: just were really close to getting it but just not
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: quite there. But the fact that we're making that throw
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: to the sidelines from the other side of the field,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: that stuff is really good. So if we can clean
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: up some of the timing in some of the act
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: not the accuracy, but the drop balls and all that.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: If we can clean that up, our passing game is
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: going to be in good shape. Man, because this kid
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: does look legit and he is a red shirt freshman,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: so we know we got to much like JJ. We
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: gotta let him fail too, but he looks the part man.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: And the defense looked fairly legit. I liked they spread
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: the ball around. Taylor looked great, and you know the
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: score if you look at the yardage. The first of all,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: the Buffalo team is solid. They were nine to three
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: last year. They brought back a lot of their defense,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: their front, their whole defense is really solid. They had
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: a multiple PBUs, they played pretty good man and they
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: have a thousand yard rusher, two receivers that are legit,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: a pretty good quarterback. So it was a good team
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to first play if you look at how much we
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: outgained them by had we not done the fourth and
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: long push push which PJ. Fleck even says he didn't
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: realize it was that long and that was his mistake.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: And then we didn't have the weird hacky sack ankle
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: interception that led to a field goal. And once again
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: Taylor kept four points off along with the defense kept
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: four points off the board from hustling down and grabbing
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: that guy. But if you take away like two plays,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: it's probably like thirty to seven, you know, and we're
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: looking at it a different way and I also like
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: that we got a two minute drive at the end
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: of the second quarter to actually have in a live game.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: And also what PJ says all the time, that four
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: minute drive that they want to kill a game, Well
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: they had a sixteen play drive that killed a game
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: that almost hit ten minutes. So I do like that
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: we got those little tests live action rather than just
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: repping it in scrimmage, you know.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: In week one too. Let's you know, some of that
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: stuff that you're talking about besides the drops. Yeah, you know,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: that'll get ironed out, you hope, you know.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: But it looked fucking good though you know that we
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: weren't even attempting those throws, right.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: And I was really impressed with Drake as well. I
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: thought Poise is a bigger kid. I'm glad they didn't
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: go with like, you know, Georgia tech guy or Yeah,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 3: it just it seems like that's the right fit there.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: I think he did a good had a good showing
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: for himself. I was really impressed with the defense, particularly
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 3: defensive line. Had a little more teeth than I thought
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: it was going to have. And you know what's going
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: on in the back end there. I like a little
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 3: bit too. With with Baranowski and Perish and and those guys.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: So I thought that overall was a good show in
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: Buffalo is not a bad team.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: And I really think, you know, Jalen will get it.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 3: I hope he's not, you know, consistent dropper of the ball, right,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: and then gears might be. You know, that's the thing.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: He's he's had some drops the last those years and
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: that would suck for him because he's got everything else.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: He's just got to hang on the ball, make these
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: great catches, these fifty to fifty catches. You know, you
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: gotta give them a tough ball. You gotta give him
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: a tough rot the catcher.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: Or hull drop its, you know it.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Just throw the ball high to him. He'll be fine.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: Right And then I don't think this is one of
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: our better offensive lines. It's not terrible. I think they're
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: one two years ago and obviously three years ago with
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: a couple of first rounders on it, it was really good.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: But I think it's adequate.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: And I'm only judging that from a couple of the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: runs I saw second to third quarter, but that you know,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: the most impressive thing to me is you mentioned was
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: that that drive to finish it off.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: I think that is dominance.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: You know, when you can take sixteen plays nine minutes
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: and just end the thing running football and converting first downs,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: that's a statement against Buffalo or whoever.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: You do that against, as long as it's not you know,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Sisters of the Poor. They were run blenzing from the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: start of this game. Yeah, they were trying to take
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: away a run clearly as day.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, I think they did a pretty good
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: job of it. But not everybody's gonna be able to
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: do that. So yeah, I'm very impressed with the golfers.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: We're looking forward to seeing how the season progresses and
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: how Lindsey progresses, because you know, that's huge man, and
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: come off of Max. Now you go into a red
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: shirt freshman with some talent. You can throw the ball
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: a little bit. Now Darius can get up well a
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: little bit. It's looking good. I really like it.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to temper it a lot of people.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: You know, we'll get into it further because we got
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Northwestern State this week, so it shouldn't be a problem.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: A lot of young players will play. But we'll dig
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: into it a little deeper next week because that at
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Cal is going to be very interesting. But yeah, I
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: like that they didn't just well, we'll just wait until
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: we have to throw to see if he can throw
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: in a game. You know, I do like that they
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: trusted him and like I said, they were literally trying
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: to take away the run, so they said, all right,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: let's pass, and he could have been like twenty three
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: instead of nineteen completions. You know.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's PJ has come along around to the fact
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 3: here that you're playing Oregon, you're playing Ohio State, you're
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: playing Washington, you're playing Indiana.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: You gotta throw the football and you've got to be
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: able to do it. You're not gonna be able.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: To grind and eat the clock on these guys because
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 3: they don't take much to score a lot. Now, Ohio
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: State's on a different after what they did the Texas.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: I think they're in a different tier, right, But I
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: mean that's a semi pro team if.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: You ever saw one.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean this, this division has changed, this
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: conference has changed, and you need to be in step
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: with that.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: That's going to catch up with Iowa at some point,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: you think, and I'm glad that they're making moves to
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: where that might not be happening to us.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: Iowa might stick to their.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Guns, be like the thorn and everybody's.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: Side and just continue to do the same thing, which
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: is kind of Iowa's way of doing things. So I
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: wouldn't expect them to be throwing the ball thirty times
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: a game this year, But at some point they're going
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: to have to come around when Washington's putting up a
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: fifty burger on them and they can't come back, you know, quickly.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: They've got to be able to throw the ball. So
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 3: I think times are changing, to say the least, and
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: I think this is flex attempt to keep up with
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: the times.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: And if we can get a quarterback that makes the
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: wide receivers better, that's a whole different viewpoint than two
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight twenty nineteen offense, right, because it seemed
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: like we had the talent. Obviously, the two guys are
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: still in the league. When of them just sign a
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: new contract, that wide receiver, you know, once they went,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: then we saw a kind of decline and we've been
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: looking for that next guy that we can have for
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: three years for a while. And so if you look
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: at recruiting, if you look at what we're doing the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: transfer portal. If you look at the NLI, like if
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: you just look at it, and now that they pass
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: something that's going to be official where the athletic department
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: can spend money, then that really helps being in the
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Big Ten and getting that check. So but I've heard
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: people talk about all the schedules manageable. It's like, well,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: hold on, anytime you got to go to a house state,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: you gotta go to Eugene, Oregon, and you got to
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: go to Iowa. I don't know how that is manageable.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: But the toss up games Cal, Rutgers, Nebraska, and Michigan State,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, if we go two and two
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: and those, it'll be a pretty good season. If we
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: go three and one in those, now you're talking, but
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: you know, we got to get to Cal next week
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: and see where that lands us. I think our buys
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: are in a really good spot. We have three games
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: a bye before we start Big Ten, and then we
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: have a bye before Oregon and then having Oregon Northwestern
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin close. So I do like where our buys are.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: But if anybody's just saying nine and three or ten
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: and two this year, and they'll be mad, If that's
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the case, just those three road games alone probably chalk
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: up his losses, you know. So I mean, let's not
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: freak the f out, you know. But yeah, we'll get
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: into it a little bit more on the on the roster.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: I do want to talk a little bit roster depth
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: and all that, and but you know, we're we're playing
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Northwestern State, so we can't get too too deep, you
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: know what I mean.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, don't forget Bowling Green.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, but at least they were in the MAC.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: I mean Northwestern State. They I don't think they won
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: a game last year, right, I hope those days are done.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: None the rest.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 3: Monday night game this week, so I bet we'll be
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: doing the show Tuesday night ish.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: So look for a later podcast. Does that work really? Yeah?
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: I think it should. Okay, until then another season.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: Let's go