Latest / The Skol Hop / A Disappointing Game, A Disappointing Season, A Busy Offseason for the Minnesota Vikings | TSH Ep. 22

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A Disappointing Game, A Disappointing Season, A Busy Offseason for the Minnesota Vikings | TSH Ep. 22 · The Skol Hop

• 0:30
  fans, welcome into another episode of The School Hop.
• 0:33
  I'm Evan. And I'm Austin.
• 0:34
  We're just a couple of dudes from Iowa who like drinking
• 0:36
  beer. We like talking about the.
• 0:38
  Vikings. We do school.
• 0:40
  School. So, Evan, you brought the beer
• 0:45
  tonight. I sure do.
• 0:46
  What? What'd you bring us?
• 0:47
  I brought us the Fire Trucker Brewery out of Ankeny, IA.
• 0:53
  They're Iowa IPA. American IPAI like the Iowa IPA
• 0:59
  moniker better. So the name of it is Iowa IPA,
• 1:03
  but it looks like they're the style is the American quote UN
• 1:07
  quote American IPA. Correct.
• 1:09
  But we'll just call it the Iowa IPA 'cause we only drink Iowa
• 1:11
  beers on this show. On the show, yeah.
• 1:14
  And yeah, I think it's a a good name for a beer. 6% it's an IPA
• 1:19
  and it's just solid. Yeah, yeah, I I like it a lot.
• 1:23
  We we did our Tiktok, which you hopefully you've already seen.
• 1:28
  I felt like I was kind of awkward on it.
• 1:30
  I don't know. I saw my my beardless face on
• 1:32
  the screen and kind of froze up. But we did our Tiktok and we did
• 1:36
  our first taste and we both we both said we liked it, right?
• 1:39
  I liked it a lot. The foam for mine is finally
• 1:42
  dying down. A few minutes later I did a hard
• 1:45
  pour. I don't know.
• 1:45
  Somebody needs to teach me how to pour.
• 1:48
  We'll work on. If you have tutorials on how to
• 1:49
  pour a beer, send them our way school hop@gmail.com that's
• 1:54
  that's fine 'cause I obviously need some help.
• 1:56
  But yeah, I like the beer, I like it a lot, it's good.
• 1:59
  And I'll have a more well thought out opinion at the end
• 2:04
  of the episode. Agreed.
• 2:06
  Yeah. But so far so good.
• 2:09
  Yeah. All right.
• 2:10
  Well, today's episode is brought to you by Big Top Ventures.
• 2:17
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• 2:20
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  rates over there. Yeah, Thanks.
• 2:40
  Big top for the sponsorship. We appreciate it.
• 2:42
  Thank you very much. Well, the the Vikings season
• 2:46
  officially ended. It did this last weekend.
• 2:49
  Almost like put us out of our misery a little bit.
• 2:51
  Kind of. I mean, we all knew that the
• 2:54
  Vikings weren't gonna go anywhere or do anything in the
• 2:57
  playoffs. I mean I was, I was holding out
• 3:00
  hope. I I knew if they made it, they
• 3:02
  probably wouldn't do anything. I had made that statement many,
• 3:05
  many, many weeks ago, like in the first quarter of the season
• 3:09
  saying like, holy cow with these one in four Vikings if they end
• 3:12
  up making the playoffs. Could be a dangerous team.
• 3:14
  Look out, 'cause, yeah, they'll they'll, they will have fought
• 3:17
  and clawed their way into the playoffs and they'll be, they'll
• 3:19
  be scary. But you could just see it, even
• 3:22
  in the faces of the coaches and the players on the sidelines the
• 3:25
  last several weeks. Not just this Week 18 game, but
• 3:28
  you could just see the deflated, uninspired play.
• 3:35
  Yeah, that they came out with. It kind of looked like what it
• 3:40
  felt like on the last day of school, you know what I mean?
• 3:42
  Like, even even if you liked that year of school and you, you
• 3:47
  made some new friends, you had a good time like that last day of
• 3:50
  school and like middle school, you know, it's always like, oh,
• 3:52
  summer and I'm ready for the next thing.
• 3:55
  It kind of felt like that, like maybe some of the players were
• 3:58
  thinking like, oh, Hawaii or Mexico or Jamaica through big
• 4:02
  top ventures. Like it kind of felt like they
• 4:05
  were. They knew it and they were just
• 4:08
  ready to do what they needed to do.
• 4:10
  Turn in their books, turn their pads and and go home for the
• 4:14
  summer, which, I don't know, kind of feels merciful after how
• 4:21
  this season beat the crap out of the Vikings and Vikings fans.
• 4:27
  They would have been fun. I always I've said it a million
• 4:29
  times. I root for my team to win.
• 4:31
  I wanted the playoffs and to even at kickoff knowing like
• 4:36
  there's a reality where this isn't the last game of the
• 4:39
  season, however small that chance is like that was still
• 4:42
  kind of exciting to me, but yeah.
• 4:46
  Well, we were texting back and forth like we always do if we're
• 4:48
  not watching the game in person together.
• 4:52
  And the game clearly was not within the Vikings reach even
• 4:59
  from the get go. I mean, you texted me after the
• 5:01
  first touchdown and you were like or the first Lions
• 5:04
  touchdown, Well that's it. And I was actually at my parents
• 5:08
  house. I don't think I told you that.
• 5:09
  But I was helping my dad with the project and I told my dad,
• 5:12
  I'm like, just give me a minute. And I watched the first touch
• 5:15
  and I'm like, all right, now I can help you.
• 5:17
  Yeah. Like, we'll keep it on in the
• 5:19
  background, But anyways, we were texting later on in the game.
• 5:23
  We were kind of frustrated because all of the starters,
• 5:26
  including guys like JJ, were still in.
• 5:30
  And at that point, not only was that game out of reach, but who
• 5:35
  was it? Was it the Saints?
• 5:37
  No. The.
• 5:38
  Bucks one of those two. Oh yeah, Who had won?
• 5:41
  The Panthers needed to win, or I think the the Falcons needed to
• 5:48
  win. And then yeah, the Buccaneers I
• 5:51
  think needed to lose. There was a few scenarios and
• 5:53
  one of those things. The Saints won, and I'll I won't
• 5:57
  forget it because there was that infamous QB sneak at the end.
• 6:01
  Yeah, we can talk about that for a little bit.
• 6:03
  That's crazy. Yeah, that was.
• 6:05
  That was kind of interesting. But anyways, the the playoffs
• 6:08
  were completely off the table at that .1 of the key pieces to the
• 6:13
  puzzle of the Vikings getting into the playoffs had fallen
• 6:16
  through. It wasn't going to be possible.
• 6:18
  And yet, you know, J JS still out there and we're thinking
• 6:22
  like he could get hurt, just like Sammy Laporta did.
• 6:25
  And Oh my gosh, you know, he's our best player by far.
• 6:29
  Yeah, JJ, Yeah. Can you imagine if he would have
• 6:32
  popped his Achilles in the fourth quarter of that game?
• 6:35
  Like, Oh my gosh. Kevin O'Connell might not have a
• 6:37
  job today if that happened. People are, yeah, heads would
• 6:42
  have rolled. That would have been crazy.
• 6:45
  And thank goodness, I don't think any Vikings really got
• 6:48
  injured. I know some Lions.
• 6:52
  Sam Laporta was the most notable one, but I I wrote down to hear
• 6:55
  that a few others got dinged up too, and Dan Campbell kind of
• 6:58
  got some Flack for it. Yeah, never pulled anybody out.
• 7:01
  I think Almanoras St. Brown was it is that is he the
• 7:05
  bear of the the lion? St.
• 7:06
  Brown for the Lions. Yeah, he's the lion.
• 7:08
  Yeah, he kind of got best receiver.
• 7:11
  He kind of got pulled up and was grabbing at his chest a little
• 7:14
  bit. He seemed to be OK.
• 7:15
  He's probably a little little dinged up, little hurt, But not
• 7:19
  he played the rest of the. Game he'll play this weekend.
• 7:21
  I saw a video where he and JJ swapped jerseys after the game
• 7:25
  and he looked he looked fine, yeah.
• 7:28
  But yeah, it's always a tough, it's a tough call, you know, do
• 7:31
  you keep your guys in, do you not?
• 7:33
  And we know Dan Campbell to be a coach who's an ultra competitor
• 7:37
  and just, you know, he's going to fight till the end no matter
• 7:40
  what. We saw that when he was oh, and
• 7:44
  16. And now last year they missed
• 7:47
  the playoffs, but barely. Are you saying like, was he a
• 7:51
  player when they were on 16? No, he took over right after.
• 7:54
  They were Owen, 16, didn't he? The Lions were Owen, 16, a while
• 7:59
  ago. No, maybe.
• 8:00
  They've been bad for a while, but.
• 8:02
  They've been bad for quite a while.
• 8:04
  Yeah, he may have been on the Owen 16.
• 8:06
  Were they one in 15 his first season?
• 8:08
  I don't. I don't.
• 8:09
  They were bad. They were.
• 8:10
  They didn't win very many games his first season and then last
• 8:13
  season they kind of turned it around in the last half of the
• 8:16
  season and I think they ended up winning like 8 or 9 games.
• 8:20
  Yeah, well, so I've been doing a little bit of a re listen to our
• 8:23
  our podcast. I'm like through the 1st 7
• 8:26
  episodes, I'm really conceited that way.
• 8:28
  I like to hear my own voice. But we've been saying since the
• 8:32
  first episode that hey, the Lions were the the team to be at
• 8:36
  the end of the 22 season. It's just the Vikings had
• 8:40
  already set the the the foundation for winning the
• 8:43
  division. But yeah, and there is no
• 8:45
  question they were the best team in the NFC North this season,
• 8:48
  the 23 season. So yeah, I mean, they're a good
• 8:50
  team now and Campbell seems to be a good coach.
• 8:54
  But yeah, he he like, to your point, he's not one that'll give
• 8:57
  up. They could have been down 400
• 8:59
  points and he's not going to give up, for better or for
• 9:02
  worse. And now we get to see the
• 9:06
  Stafford Goff rematch in the Wild Card round of the playoffs,
• 9:12
  which will be. Interesting.
• 9:13
  Have the Lions and Rams played each other at all since that
• 9:17
  trade? That's a good question.
• 9:18
  I don't know. I don't know even like pre
• 9:20
  season. I don't know.
• 9:21
  I haven't even really paid attention.
• 9:22
  Yeah, but it'll be in Detroit. So Matt Stafford has a a chance
• 9:27
  to win a playoff game at Ford Field, I believe for the first
• 9:31
  time ever. And I am.
• 9:34
  I'm rooting for the. I'm rooting for the Rams.
• 9:37
  Lions fans have something to be happy about and root for this
• 9:40
  year. But at the end of the day,
• 9:42
  there's still an NFC North rival.
• 9:44
  And I'm not going to root for an NFC North rival just because
• 9:48
  they're in the same division and all.
• 9:49
  At least somebody could. No, we're we are anti NFC North.
• 9:54
  Other teams. I am at least.
• 9:56
  So go Rams. Well, we can talk about the
• 10:01
  playoffs in a little bit. A few other just quick hitting
• 10:05
  notes from the lost the Lions this last week.
• 10:09
  Mullins didn't play terribly. No, he's still got his. 2 picks,
• 10:14
  2 picks, but two touchdowns and four yards shy of 400 yards.
• 10:20
  Yeah, I mean 30 of 44, Yeah. I mean that's that's not a
• 10:25
  terrible game. The.
• 10:26
  Ball moves when he's under center.
• 10:28
  The ball gets turned over a lot when he's under center, but it
• 10:31
  also moves down the field a lot and.
• 10:34
  It's funny, 'cause I texted you and I was kind of worried about
• 10:37
  my whole losing the turnover bat or committing A turnover.
• 10:42
  My prediction where I said the Vikings go whole game without
• 10:44
  turning the ball over, they're going to win.
• 10:46
  That was in jeopardy because the Vikings were clearly going to
• 10:49
  lose and they hadn't turned the ball over yet.
• 10:51
  And I hit send and he literally, it's like me hitting send caused
• 10:57
  the defender to catch the ball like it.
• 11:00
  It was the next play after I hit send on that text to you and I
• 11:04
  don't know if you said it or off.
• 11:06
  I said it right away. It was like, Nope, never mind.
• 11:08
  I think we it was like one of those things where we both
• 11:10
  texted back at the same. Time you were like Wilp Bloop
• 11:13
  and I was like, never mind. Yep, so.
• 11:16
  Anyways, I didn't think he played terribly.
• 11:18
  He found ways to get JJ the ball.
• 11:20
  It took a while like it has taken a while the last couple of
• 11:24
  games with JJ back. A while as in like he had, what,
• 11:28
  89 yards in the first half. Yeah, but like even in the first
• 11:32
  quarter it was just frustrating. Like find Justin Jefferson, he
• 11:36
  is your best player and they just weren't getting him the
• 11:39
  ball. He JJ finished the game with 192
• 11:43
  yards and a touchdown and still eclipsed 1000 yards, which is
• 11:48
  crazy for only playing what I think he missed.
• 11:51
  Seven, yeah. He played ten games and not even
• 11:53
  10 full games cause like his first game back after being on
• 11:56
  IR. He had to go to the ER.
• 11:58
  Yeah, he and that was in at least the first half, if not
• 12:02
  their first quarter that Dobbs hung him out to dry.
• 12:06
  And I think that whole that whole thing, not to go off on
• 12:09
  too much of A tangent, when they took him out and sent him to the
• 12:12
  ER, it was like, oh, he grabbed his side.
• 12:15
  If he hadn't gotten tackled that way and like grabbed his side
• 12:18
  when he hit the ground, he probably would have been in the
• 12:22
  next play or within the next couple of plays.
• 12:24
  They just rightfully so, are so cautious with him, especially in
• 12:30
  a A season that doesn't matter. Why go balls out if you're not
• 12:33
  going to even make the playoffs? Well, yeah, and and not to
• 12:37
  mention the fact that he's our best player and we want him back
• 12:40
  and we want to see him in purple.
• 12:41
  But all the armchair quarterbacks out there, the
• 12:43
  keyboard heroes are whipping up a storm about, well, trade JJ,
• 12:49
  get the picks, blah, blah, blah. Let's just burn the whole thing
• 12:52
  down and there, whether or not we agree with that, it it is
• 12:58
  true to some extent, like, yeah, you want to protect your assets.
• 13:01
  And if if he is your greatest asset in terms of talent on the
• 13:05
  field, then yeah, take him to the ER.
• 13:08
  If he grabs his side, pull him off the field.
• 13:10
  If he comes up, you know, tell him he can't do the fake
• 13:13
  hamstring pole dance in the end zone anymore.
• 13:16
  Like otherwise he's going to get yanked like you, you got to
• 13:20
  protect your assets a little bit.
• 13:21
  You have to make sure that he's good to go because A, we want
• 13:26
  him on the field and we want him to produce the way that he's
• 13:29
  produced all four years, that he's played in purple and 1000
• 13:33
  yards every year. If push comes to shove and we
• 13:36
  have to let him go, then we want top dollar, right?
• 13:41
  We we want, you know, the, the, the picks or whatever we can get
• 13:46
  in return for. I'm going to pull us on a
• 13:50
  tangent, but please be our bumpers and pull us right back
• 13:54
  'cause this is only gonna take a minute.
• 13:56
  Let's do it. How?
• 13:57
  Freaking awesome. Is JJ right?
• 14:01
  Like on the field? Absolutely.
• 14:03
  There's no question. The guy's elite.
• 14:06
  He's on a Hall of Fame path. If he continues what he's doing,
• 14:10
  he will be a Hall of Famer. But off the field, this guy, I
• 14:15
  haven't seen a negative word thought.
• 14:19
  I mean, we've seen negative looks on his face during the
• 14:21
  Lions game, but that just seems like frustration.
• 14:23
  Like, come on, let's win. He's got a he's got a very
• 14:26
  competitive energy on the field and when things go wrong you see
• 14:29
  that emotion bubble over. But I I attribute that to just
• 14:32
  being a competitor. And I think, I think some of
• 14:35
  that is rubbed off onto him from Adam Thielen, which kind of
• 14:39
  makes me like warm and fuzzy inside, like, oh, so you can
• 14:42
  pick something up from Adam. But for real, JJ, this whole
• 14:47
  time, he could have been, he could have done the the Stefan
• 14:51
  Diggs where he pulled the hoodie over his face and tied the zip
• 14:54
  ties and like, yeah, no, I hate this place.
• 14:57
  This is terrible. He could have done that.
• 14:59
  He could have said trade me, send me some, send me the
• 15:02
  Eagles, send me somewhere that I'm gonna win.
• 15:05
  And get the respect and get a Taylor Swift and do you know,
• 15:10
  get a ring. He could have.
• 15:12
  He could have done that, and he still easily could have.
• 15:15
  And we will never know what happens behind the scenes.
• 15:18
  Maybe he's terrible, but we've never heard anything about that.
• 15:21
  That guy, Every time he gets a chance, shows that he is a
• 15:26
  teammate. He loves the Vikings.
• 15:29
  Never once has he publicly said I want out or I want a different
• 15:33
  quarterback. He's only ever been in Kirk's
• 15:36
  court. He's only ever defended his
• 15:38
  team. And I mean, sure, what a week or
• 15:40
  two ago he he was very adamant about Kirk being the
• 15:45
  quarterback, almost to the point of making it sound like he was
• 15:48
  throwing shade on other guys. But he never actually did that.
• 15:51
  Like, he seems like such a guy to root for on this team.
• 15:56
  And it's awesome because we've seen diva wide receivers and
• 15:59
  he's not one of those so far. He he's everything as a a player
• 16:05
  on the field that Randy Moss was in terms of production, yards,
• 16:10
  touchdowns. I mean, maybe not exactly, but I
• 16:15
  I mean he's like you can give him a couple more years, he's
• 16:17
  going to be up there in the upper echelon of wide receivers
• 16:20
  and he's everything off the field that you didn't want Randy
• 16:25
  to be, you know, So like, yeah, he's, he's got that great
• 16:31
  reputation on and off the field. I think to further this tangent,
• 16:37
  'cause I think it's a great tangent to go on.
• 16:41
  I I think there are very few guys in that Vikings locker room
• 16:45
  right now that are that diva cancer.
• 16:52
  Get them off of our team as soon as possible.
• 16:54
  Type of. Guys, the loudmouth, the guy
• 16:56
  that you don't want in front of the media, the guy that's just
• 17:00
  saying I'm only here so I won't get fined.
• 17:02
  And it makes me wonder to go way down this rabbit hole.
• 17:07
  It makes me wonder some of these thoughts are just kind of
• 17:10
  materializing as we talk, but it makes me wonder if like Marcus,
• 17:15
  Davenport and Lewis seen are kind of that way and that's why
• 17:19
  they've been shut down and we just it's been like.
• 17:24
  Marcus who? Right, but it's.
• 17:26
  We live near Davenport. Is that what you're talking
• 17:29
  about? But like it, it's been like like
• 17:35
  darkness for them. It's been like they haven't even
• 17:38
  been interviewed. Hardly.
• 17:40
  Like it's just been like complete blackout.
• 17:43
  Nothing. They're in street clothes, on
• 17:45
  the sidelines. I don't even think Marcus
• 17:47
  Davenport has been traveling with the team and.
• 17:49
  Marcus Davenport could walk into this room right now wearing his
• 17:55
  jersey, reach out his hand and say hello.
• 17:58
  I'm Marcus Davenport and I would not recognize him.
• 18:02
  I saw a video of him. I don't even know what he a.
• 18:04
  While ago. So I kind of know what he looks
• 18:06
  like. But yeah, I I get it.
• 18:08
  I mean he he is an anonymous, anonymous face and I think he
• 18:11
  only appeared in like 4 games. If that I think really just two
• 18:15
  for the most part. And he had, he had a big role
• 18:17
  in. I think it was the Carolina game
• 18:20
  and that's it. The Vikings paid, I think,
• 18:22
  something like $13 million for the Carolina game.
• 18:26
  Yeah, and I think eventually we need to talk about the
• 18:30
  offseason. We're still, I I think we'll
• 18:33
  transition first to the recapping the season, because
• 18:36
  that's the most present thing in the offseason is a little bit
• 18:42
  farther off. But I think it'd be fun to cover
• 18:45
  both of those things in this episode, if we can squeeze all
• 18:47
  that in. But yeah, it's just been really
• 18:52
  interesting to to see that and I I guess that's a theory that
• 18:55
  I've maybe developed since we've been talking that because the
• 18:59
  culture of the team overall is so good and you hear so many
• 19:02
  good things, perhaps they're trying to squash those cancerous
• 19:08
  type players. And just you're on to something.
• 19:11
  I think. I'd never really thought about
• 19:13
  it, but maybe the PR department or whatever version of quote UN
• 19:17
  quote PR department the Vikings have, maybe they're aware of it
• 19:22
  doesn't. We don't even need to keep
• 19:23
  saying one player's name. But like, maybe there is a
• 19:25
  certain player that the media would talk to if they had the
• 19:31
  chance, but the coaches or PR department or whoever it is know
• 19:34
  like, no, we're gonna be on Sports Center.
• 19:36
  If player X gets in front of microphones because he's a hot
• 19:41
  head or he he he's just gonna spout out some negative stuff,
• 19:45
  that doesn't even matter. So we're just gonna find
• 19:47
  creative ways to not let him get in front of the media.
• 19:50
  I don't know that that could be. It'd be a thing that's
• 19:53
  happening. And with the way this season
• 19:56
  went, with As frustrating as the season was, and maybe this is a
• 19:59
  good transition into recapping the season with.
• 20:02
  As frustrating as the season was, nobody really said anything
• 20:08
  that was like alarming or like, oh, they want to get off this
• 20:13
  team. Oh wow, I can't believe they
• 20:16
  just said that. Like no bombs were dropped.
• 20:20
  Really, By players? And we've known Kirk Cousins to
• 20:24
  be a very well spoken, carefully thought out communicator, right.
• 20:32
  And I think, honestly, I think the reason JJ is that way is
• 20:36
  because of Kirk's influence. I would say.
• 20:41
  You know and and we've seen other players like some of them
• 20:46
  aren't the most articulate but they're football players.
• 20:49
  They don't have to be, but they're also not speaking out of
• 20:54
  their butts saying stupid stuff that is embarrassing for the
• 20:58
  rest of the organization. And we I I don't think we really
• 21:01
  have any of those moments. Maybe there were and I'm just
• 21:04
  not aware of them. Yeah, but if we.
• 21:06
  Follow enough that we would know like, oh it would be on Sports
• 21:11
  Center. Like, oh, Player X for the
• 21:13
  Vikings, man, what a loser who really hates this team.
• 21:17
  Like, you know, we would hear something about that.
• 21:20
  And to double down on that through all of that, to throw
• 21:24
  out this hypothetical idea we just kind of formulated, we've
• 21:28
  still seen the likes of Harrison Smith, JJ Kirk as much as
• 21:34
  possible. Big name Vikings are still being
• 21:38
  put out in front of the media, in front of people and still not
• 21:44
  saying terrible things. So not only could it be possible
• 21:47
  that PR departments are kind of squashing guys and not letting
• 21:51
  negative guys get in front of people, the players they are
• 21:55
  letting in front of people are big name players.
• 21:58
  It's it's not like we're sitting here saying it's weird that we
• 22:01
  haven't heard JJ talk for weeks, 'cause we have.
• 22:04
  He's he's talked every opportunity he gets to and he
• 22:06
  says great things. So even when he was hurt, he was
• 22:09
  going out with KJ Osborne and doing like shopping sprees with
• 22:14
  little kids and stuff like that. Like, he was just doing cool
• 22:17
  stuff and being a great guy off the field.
• 22:21
  And Harrison Smith to kind of piggyback on that a little bit.
• 22:25
  Like Harrison Smith doesn't sit in front of the camera and just,
• 22:28
  you know, shoot the breeze. And he doesn't, you know, talk
• 22:32
  sunshine and rainbows the whole time.
• 22:34
  Like, he'll sit there and kind of, like, wear his heart on his
• 22:36
  sleeve a little bit. And even this last, like, locker
• 22:40
  room presser that he did after this loss to the Lions, he's
• 22:44
  kind of like, yeah, I'm frustrated, Yeah, didn't end the
• 22:48
  way we wanted it to and. Potentially his career.
• 22:52
  Yeah, and I don't know what's next for me if I retire, he I
• 22:55
  think he was quoted as saying. Like if I retire, you won't know
• 22:57
  about. It I won't.
• 22:58
  I'm not gonna tell you like which I I mean, if you sat down
• 23:04
  and asked me right now to say what I think, will he retire or
• 23:07
  keep playing? I genuinely don't know.
• 23:11
  Like, I really would be both surprised and not surprised by
• 23:16
  anything that he comes out and says whether he's playing or
• 23:19
  not. Yeah, I don't know.
• 23:21
  Yeah, it's it'll be interesting. I mean, I mean there's there are
• 23:25
  a couple of huge bombs dropped in football world today.
• 23:28
  Oh yeah. Today.
• 23:29
  Like Pete Carroll getting fired and then that.
• 23:33
  That was less surprising. But Nick Saban retiring?
• 23:36
  Yeah, that was crazy, Coach. That was.
• 23:38
  I texted friend of the show Forest when I saw that, because
• 23:41
  Forest is a die hard Michigan fan.
• 23:44
  So yeah, I was. To Michigan, by the way.
• 23:47
  Yeah, as even though I'm an Iowa fan, I was definitely in that
• 23:50
  game rooting for for my friend and rooting for his team.
• 23:53
  So I was, I was rooting for Michigan and I texted him.
• 23:56
  I was like, did you see Nick Saban's retiring?
• 23:59
  He's like, yeah, it's crazy. I just saw.
• 24:00
  I was like, I heard, I heard Harbaugh's going to Alabama
• 24:04
  totally just yanking his chain. I haven't actually heard
• 24:07
  anything like that. And I'm sure I'm not the first
• 24:08
  person to make that joke. But he just said, ha ha, like,
• 24:12
  like, he knows I was joking, But that's funny.
• 24:14
  Crazy. Yeah.
• 24:15
  Saban. MM Vrabel, was that today or was
• 24:19
  that yesterday? Yesterday crazy.
• 24:22
  And who knows? We could, I mean, could have
• 24:25
  happened already on Twitter. Like Bill Belichick is not
• 24:29
  guaranteed to be a coach next season.
• 24:31
  Like, at least now with the Patriots.
• 24:34
  Like that could happen at any moment.
• 24:36
  Or not at all. It's kind of crazy.
• 24:39
  Yeah, well, we'll get to the offseason and all of that
• 24:43
  because those things affect the Vikings.
• 24:45
  With a former head coach on the coaching staff right now, those
• 24:50
  coaching vacancies could look somewhat attractive to Brian
• 24:55
  Flores for the right price and the right setup and and all
• 24:59
  that. But Vikings 7 and 10 overall.
• 25:04
  Yep. On the season losing record two
• 25:09
  and six at home. That's crazy.
• 25:11
  Which stinks? Yeah, at that, Yeah.
• 25:15
  U.S. bank is such a nice place and something that I would would
• 25:19
  assume to be a great home field advantage to only win two games
• 25:24
  there. Like, yeah, that's that's
• 25:27
  demoralizing. Five and four on the road and
• 25:31
  they were just. The Vikings were streaky as all
• 25:33
  get out started. One and four O and three and
• 25:38
  then one and four and then ended with that four-game losing
• 25:45
  streak. Yeah, I absolutely.
• 25:47
  When they beat the Raiders, they squeaked it out.
• 25:51
  It wasn't a beat down. I mean, they won three to
• 25:53
  nothing. When they beat the Raiders, that
• 25:57
  was their last win and I definitely did not expect that
• 26:00
  to be their last win. I mean I think they played the
• 26:04
  Bears after that game. They played the in the entire
• 26:08
  NFC North after that game. Like, yeah, I you just don't
• 26:12
  expect it. It was.
• 26:15
  I don't need to tell you guys if you watched, if you're a Vikings
• 26:17
  fan and you watch the the team this year, it was a roller
• 26:21
  coaster ending with such a disappointment and I was
• 26:25
  surprised. And obviously in the preseason
• 26:28
  you and I, we we made our predictions and we're always
• 26:31
  going to be a little Homer ish. I don't know if I will ever go
• 26:34
  and predict the Vikings to win only two or three games in the
• 26:37
  season, but I said they'd go 10 and seven and I was wrong about
• 26:45
  a handful of games. You were?
• 26:46
  Closer than I was. I said 12:00 and 5:00.
• 26:50
  But going off of 13 and four like and all that to say like
• 26:56
  yeah, Kirk went down and at the time he went down he was on a
• 26:59
  trend. I think there was like a
• 27:01
  four-game streak where he was looking and VP like, but he
• 27:05
  still started. I mean he was the starter for
• 27:07
  that one and four start. So, I mean, it still started a
• 27:11
  little rocky for the whole team, not just Kirk, but he was a part
• 27:14
  of that. And and we talked previously
• 27:16
  about how he played really well in those first handful of games
• 27:20
  where they lost. And then his worst game in the
• 27:23
  early part of the season was the first win at Carolina, which is
• 27:27
  kind of odd. And who's to say, I mean, yeah,
• 27:29
  we can, you know, put it on a pedestal and say what could have
• 27:33
  been and Kirk should have been MVP.
• 27:35
  You know, we can, we can say stuff like that.
• 27:37
  But who's to say he wouldn't have gotten cold or teams would
• 27:41
  have figured out, oh, he can't do this, So we're just going to
• 27:44
  defend him this way and, you know, totally shut him down.
• 27:47
  I don't know. But man, it sure seemed like he
• 27:53
  was figuring things out. When JJ went down, Addison
• 27:56
  really started to take a step, and then Addison kind of went
• 27:59
  cold once once Kirk went down. Just a season that what could
• 28:04
  have been. Yeah.
• 28:05
  Oh, for sure. Something that I was surprised
• 28:09
  by as I reflected on the season. So I'm pretty sure I was pretty
• 28:15
  vocal about this when Kirk first got injured, that he'd be very
• 28:21
  present and he would be very active on the sidelines.
• 28:26
  Like, visibly active, like coaching almost.
• 28:29
  Yeah, we thought that would be the case.
• 28:30
  And I thought, you know, maybe there was an outside shot that
• 28:34
  he would hang up his cleats and grab a clipboard and retire at
• 28:39
  the end of the season and take up coaching.
• 28:41
  I thought for sure, man, like, he's just such a good guy.
• 28:44
  The players rally around him. Maybe this is that transition
• 28:48
  for him and he becomes the next Kevin O'Connell and he gets a
• 28:51
  shot at coordinating somewhere and then he goes on the coach
• 28:55
  somewhere. I don't know, maybe that's not
• 28:57
  what he wants. But like, he was just like
• 28:59
  noticeably absent for a while on the sideline, wasn't traveling
• 29:03
  with the team. And then when he did come back,
• 29:06
  he just kind of stood. There, yeah.
• 29:08
  And I mean, we've already talked about whatever version of the,
• 29:12
  quote, UN quote, PR department the Vikings have.
• 29:15
  Maybe they were a part of that. And we're telling him, like,
• 29:19
  hey, we don't want you like, in the huddle.
• 29:21
  You know what I mean? Like, right.
• 29:23
  I'm just totally guessing here. I don't know why you would tell
• 29:26
  Kirk to to kind of back away, but I mean, if he's not in the
• 29:30
  fire with the players, like, maybe it would be a distraction.
• 29:32
  I don't know. We know that he was in the
• 29:34
  quarterback room during the week in the meetings and things like
• 29:37
  that, and I saw him a handful of times during games.
• 29:40
  I saw him talking to Dobbs at 1.1 of the games that Mullins
• 29:43
  was starting and Dobbs was just on the sideline.
• 29:46
  I think it might have been the game that Dobbs was the third
• 29:49
  string was the emergency guy. But anyways, I saw something on
• 29:55
  some social media platform that basically just kind of said,
• 29:58
  like, you know, a lot of people are calling for the Vikings to
• 30:04
  resign Kirk, draft the QB of the future and let that new guy sit
• 30:10
  behind Kirk for a season or two. And their point was, well,
• 30:15
  shouldn't he have mentored the existing young quarterbacks on
• 30:19
  the roster? Shouldn't shouldn't that have
• 30:22
  had an effect? And and who knows, maybe maybe
• 30:25
  Kirk isn't the Brett Favre or the Aaron Rodgers that trains up
• 30:31
  the Aaron Rodgers or the Jordan Love.
• 30:33
  Well, it's funny you say that 'cause I think both Brett Favre
• 30:35
  and Aaron Rodgers in the past have said something to the tune
• 30:40
  of it's not my job to train up this guy.
• 30:44
  And both of them I'm pretty sure unless I'm misremembering, have
• 30:47
  said like I'm gonna go and play and Aaron and or Jordan can
• 30:54
  figure it out like I'm not his coach.
• 30:55
  Like I think being in the backup behind a great player, just
• 31:00
  seeing and viewing by osmosis how that guy goes around doing
• 31:06
  things is extremely valuable. And I don't know that it's
• 31:11
  Kirk's job to sit down with Nick Mullins and say, hey, when you
• 31:16
  take this job over, make sure you do this like, and I don't
• 31:20
  think that's what you're saying. No, I yeah, I'm not necessarily
• 31:23
  saying like hold his hand until he's literally, you know, about
• 31:27
  to go on the field for his first snap.
• 31:29
  But I don't know. I guess I I kind of hoped as a
• 31:33
  fan of Kirk, cousin I I I hoped for a little bit more that way.
• 31:38
  Yeah, in the wake of his injury, I'd hoped to see him a little
• 31:43
  more active, visibly on the sidelines where we can see
• 31:48
  because we can't see what happens at the TCO Performance
• 31:52
  Center week in and week out, day-to-day.
• 31:54
  We don't see those things and I'm sure he is still a vocal
• 31:59
  leader in all aspects of the team, not just in the
• 32:02
  quarterback room. Oh, I'm sure and and I heard
• 32:04
  Brian O'Neill say just. About to bring that up, yeah.
• 32:07
  Brian O'Neill was just praising Kirk Cousins up and down.
• 32:10
  Like, yeah, I want him back 10,100 million percent.
• 32:14
  Like he used every extent of hyperbole known to man to make
• 32:19
  it known to the media. Yes.
• 32:21
  And I think Brian O'Neill could probably speak for most of the
• 32:24
  team. Yes, we want him back.
• 32:27
  And Quasi has also today I think in an interview said we have
• 32:32
  every intention of bringing him back.
• 32:34
  Yeah, I watched that whole. They had like 1/2 hour press
• 32:36
  conference quasi and excuse me, KOC together.
• 32:41
  They were sitting next to each other taking questions at the
• 32:43
  same time. And if you haven't seen that
• 32:46
  you, Evan or anybody listening, it's a it's a good.
• 32:50
  I mean it's a lot of coach speak and a lot of they don't drop any
• 32:53
  bombs saying anything we wouldn't expect to hear.
• 32:56
  But it is nice to hear it from them in a in a tone of voice
• 33:00
  that doesn't sound rehearsed or planned or fake.
• 33:04
  I was going to bring that up to that, that whole press
• 33:06
  conference up to later in the podcast, but and I'll, I'll save
• 33:10
  it for them. But for you to talk about Brian
• 33:13
  O'Neill and JJ again, like recently there have been many
• 33:21
  leaders on the team that have given their vote of confidence
• 33:25
  for Kirk. And yeah, maybe we haven't seen
• 33:28
  it on TV or on the sidelines. If Kirk wasn't around or wasn't
• 33:33
  a continued at the moment leader, I don't know that Brian
• 33:39
  O'Neill would have to feel like he would go out of his way to
• 33:43
  like open his heart out for Kirk Cousins into the media.
• 33:48
  I don't know that JJ puts his foot down and says Kirk's my
• 33:52
  guy, pretty much. You know, in other words.
• 33:54
  But if if Kirk wasn't there, if he had just flown to Michigan
• 33:58
  and we hadn't seen him since the Green Green Bay game, like guys
• 34:03
  aren't feeling that. Way he's not like Marcus
• 34:05
  Mariota, where yeah, he got benched by the Falcons a couple
• 34:09
  of seasons ago and then he was just he's no longer with the
• 34:11
  team and that's all they said. He got a surgery and had a baby
• 34:15
  and moved, literally moved away. Like I just listened to you and
• 34:19
  I talking about that. I in like episode.
• 34:22
  I don't know. We were talking about the
• 34:23
  quarterback. Three or four or something?
• 34:25
  Yeah, 'cause that's really where, like as fans, we got to
• 34:28
  see that whole thing kind of laid out for what it truly was
• 34:33
  and from kind of both sides of the equation from the Falcons as
• 34:36
  an organization and Marcus Mariota the player.
• 34:40
  And just to kind of stick along this theme, we've been going
• 34:44
  about players saying things in the public.
• 34:47
  If Kirk I and I've said it too, unless it's all an act, the
• 34:51
  whole quarterback on Netflix thing, unless it's all an act,
• 34:53
  Kirk is a like, good dude. I guarantee you there are, you
• 34:59
  know, there would be, quote UN quote, anonymous teammates from
• 35:02
  the Vikings that would have come out and said, like, dude, Kirk
• 35:05
  is not that way. He is not the guy that you know,
• 35:10
  reads books to his kids at night or blah blah blah.
• 35:13
  Like they would say like he is a terrible person.
• 35:15
  We haven't heard a single thing about that.
• 35:17
  If anything people have doubled down and said I love Kirk.
• 35:20
  He is that way like so it's not an act.
• 35:22
  He is that dude. And and even some of the new
• 35:26
  guys like I, I've talked a lot about Dalton Reisner, 'cause I
• 35:29
  watched a lot of his locker game, locker game, locker room,
• 35:34
  post game is what I was trying to say.
• 35:35
  It is interviews and you know he was signed what, two games into
• 35:41
  the season or something like that.
• 35:43
  Yeah, it was after the Philly game.
• 35:45
  I just listened to you and I talking about that earlier.
• 35:47
  So like. The dude had no training camp,
• 35:50
  no previous experience with any of these guys, and all he's done
• 35:55
  is talk about the culture of this team and Kirk Cousins and
• 36:01
  how good of a leader he is and who this is going to be.
• 36:05
  A good poor, I can tell. Can you hear it?
• 36:08
  You probably won't. Post concerned you'd hear that
• 36:10
  trickle liquid sound on the microphone and people would have
• 36:14
  to take bathroom breaks. There's a better pour than your
• 36:18
  TikTok. Pour There's still some in here.
• 36:20
  What you're supposed to do is once you get just like maybe
• 36:24
  half an inch on the bottom, my brother-in-law, David, will be
• 36:27
  proud of me for this. You're supposed to swirl it
• 36:29
  around. Oh, I'm not talented enough to
• 36:31
  do that. You got to swirl it around a
• 36:33
  little bit and then you pour the rest of that in there.
• 36:34
  Oh, in the can. Swirl it in the can.
• 36:37
  Got it? And then pour it in.
• 36:39
  I'll demonstrate 'cause I'm getting close here.
• 36:41
  You better. In just a moment, I really hope
• 36:43
  this is hilarious, but yeah, I I did.
• 36:46
  I remember after Kurt got hurt, Dalton Reisner, he had one of
• 36:49
  those locker interviews and he said something to the tune of
• 36:54
  like, I've only known the guy for like the past five weeks.
• 36:58
  And even now I can tell you this is a huge blow and he's a great
• 37:03
  leader and and that was like after the Green Bay game.
• 37:06
  So yeah, Kirk is, Kirk is him. He is that dude.
• 37:10
  And it sucks that there's a chance he's not a Viking after
• 37:14
  the season. I think they signed him.
• 37:16
  So I've got like maybe this much left in there.
• 37:20
  OK, hey, hold on. This is our listener's chance to
• 37:23
  switch from the audio version of Spotify to either the video of
• 37:27
  Spotify or YouTube, just to watch this masterful act here
• 37:32
  that is not going to go wrong in any way.
• 37:35
  It won't. I've done this many times.
• 37:37
  I just don't do it as well as David.
• 37:39
  So David, if you're out there, thanks for teaching me.
• 37:41
  And thanks for watching, David. Yeah.
• 37:43
  Will you just give a little swirl?
• 37:44
  Oh. I talk to the subway too much.
• 37:47
  And then you just dump the rest in Interesting.
• 37:50
  I think it's more important to do on wheat beers and other
• 37:55
  beers with like sediment. Yeah, unfiltered Ipas and stuff.
• 37:59
  Yeah, 'cause that sediment settles, and so you you pour
• 38:02
  most of the beer and then you shake the rest of it up and dump
• 38:06
  it in, and that just churns that sediment into the rest of the
• 38:09
  beer. But yeah, there you go.
• 38:12
  That's how you're supposed to do it.
• 38:13
  Nice. And after that great transition,
• 38:16
  I think maybe we can start talking about the offseason.
• 38:20
  Yeah, yeah, we can. Do you want to talk about the
• 38:24
  playoffs first? Just quickly hit on who's in the
• 38:27
  playoffs? Yeah, I feel like most people
• 38:29
  out there that listen to us probably know who's in the
• 38:31
  playoffs. Yeah.
• 38:32
  So I mean, we we can kind of quickly go through it and maybe
• 38:35
  give like a this team or that that team, depending on sure who
• 38:39
  who we think wins, maybe give like a two-minute playoff
• 38:42
  bracket and then our Super Bowl picks.
• 38:45
  Are we good with that, or should we hold off on Super Bowl picks
• 38:48
  for a while because we're going to keep recording weekly?
• 38:50
  Can I just tell you who I'm rooting for?
• 38:52
  Sure. Regardless of my pick.
• 38:54
  Yeah. OK, I'm going with the Ravens.
• 38:56
  I. I am a Ravens supporter this off
• 38:59
  season as well or this playoffs as well.
• 39:01
  I well, not Even so much. I think.
• 39:03
  I think they're the team to beat.
• 39:05
  I don't know who's going to beat them outside of injury or fluke
• 39:08
  plays, nor the ref beat them. They're the refs.
• 39:13
  So yeah, the the Ravens there. We'll go down AFC really quick.
• 39:17
  Ravens are the number one seed. The two seed is Buffalo and they
• 39:21
  will host the seven seed Steelers.
• 39:25
  Three seed is Kansas City. Who will host the six seed
• 39:29
  Dolphins. And then we have the four seed
• 39:33
  Texans, which is kind of crazy after being so bad for the last
• 39:37
  few years, they're gonna host the five seed Cleveland Browns.
• 39:41
  They found their guy though. Houston.
• 39:43
  Houston found a couple of guys. They have two high profile.
• 39:47
  They made two big hits on rookies in the second overall
• 39:51
  pick and the third overall pick, CJ Stroud.
• 39:54
  And do you know the guy, the defender?
• 39:56
  I can't think of his name, the third overall pick.
• 39:59
  I know who you're talking about. I just can't remember his name
• 40:01
  off the. Top Brooks something, I don't
• 40:03
  know. That's terrible.
• 40:04
  I should know this, but I know he's good.
• 40:06
  But yeah, that. I mean, and obviously their
• 40:09
  coaching is working. They have a new coach.
• 40:12
  Did they get a new GM or I don't remember their coaching staff.
• 40:17
  D'amico Ryan's is proving, you know, anytime you get handed the
• 40:21
  second and third overall pick, that's that's a big heave.
• 40:27
  You know, that's that's a nice boost for you.
• 40:30
  But you still have to do it. Like you still have to coach and
• 40:33
  win, and they won their division and they're going to host a
• 40:36
  playoff game, and good for them. Yeah, agreed.
• 40:39
  I can run down the NFC really quick. 49ers are the one seed
• 40:44
  with the first round. Bye wild card weekend, we'll
• 40:47
  have the Cowboys taking on the Packers in Dallas.
• 40:52
  So the Mike McCarthy revenge game a little bit.
• 40:55
  There's a couple of revenge games.
• 40:57
  Yeah, and the next one is Detroit hosting the Rams.
• 41:02
  And I already said who I'm rooting for in that game.
• 41:04
  Go, go Rams. Go Rams.
• 41:07
  And then I think the worst matchup in the playoffs, both
• 41:12
  sides, AFCNFCI think is Tampa Bay and Philly.
• 41:15
  Interesting. Tell me.
• 41:16
  Tell me why. Well, Philadelphia's laid an
• 41:19
  egg. Yeah.
• 41:20
  Have they? What did they go like?
• 41:21
  Oh, and two. Oh, and three.
• 41:22
  So there's a fun stat that I think I heard on the power trip
• 41:25
  on K fan, but like, it's probably been bounced around
• 41:27
  everywhere. Philly, I believe, is the first
• 41:30
  team in NFL history to start with the 10 in one or better and
• 41:38
  not hit twelve wins. Really.
• 41:41
  Yeah. Well, that that's a.
• 41:43
  Crazy stat. That's a good stat, and that
• 41:46
  just makes me feel good for. Yeah, I hope.
• 41:51
  Anti Eagles fan. I said it on a previous episode,
• 41:55
  one of the first 7 cause I've been doing a re re listen.
• 41:58
  I hope Eagles fans never have another good thing to root for.
• 42:03
  Well, they've they've been bad. And I think I said this on my
• 42:07
  little brat pick em video that I did on YouTube where I kind of
• 42:15
  picked the Vikings to the number one seed back when that was
• 42:17
  still a possibility. Which is laughable now
• 42:20
  mathematical possibility, yes. Anyways, I just made a very,
• 42:25
  what I thought was funny passing comment that somebody's got to
• 42:28
  win the NFC South because they were pretty bad all the way
• 42:33
  around this year. I mean, they had the worst team
• 42:35
  in the league in the Panthers as well as who else, The Saints,
• 42:40
  the Bucks and the Falcons. And all three of those were kind
• 42:44
  of vying for that divisional title.
• 42:48
  Half of that division is searching for a new head coach
• 42:51
  right now. Yeah, that's true.
• 42:53
  So anyways, you've got the Bucks hosting Philly, I think.
• 42:58
  I don't know. It'll be interesting.
• 43:00
  You know what? NFC.
• 43:01
  I'm rooting for Tampa Bay. Just Baker Ballin out.
• 43:07
  And obviously I think the AFC is gonna be runaway.
• 43:10
  The whole thing's gonna be taken by Baltimore.
• 43:13
  I should probably put money on that right now.
• 43:14
  But you know what? Why not Tampa Bay?
• 43:17
  They won it a few years ago, but that was kind of a layup with
• 43:19
  Tom Brady. Yeah, if it's got to be anybody
• 43:23
  in the NFC, go Tampa Bay. For me at least, right?
• 43:27
  Well, the the Super Bowl colors were red and purple.
• 43:31
  So maybe, maybe, maybe that's true.
• 43:35
  Maybe we do have a Buck's Ravens Super Bowl.
• 43:38
  We'll see. I forgot about that.
• 43:40
  We'll see. We've mentioned it briefly, but
• 43:44
  a lot of. Coaching vacancies already 7 at
• 43:48
  the moment. Seven at the moment.
• 43:50
  I mean, a few of them happened during the season, like the
• 43:54
  Raiders fired Josh McDaniels. Who else was fired mid season?
• 44:02
  The Stokely. Oh yeah, and Stokely in LA.
• 44:06
  Frank Reich, I think for the Panthers, he is the only coach
• 44:10
  ever. Another NFL history trivia thing
• 44:15
  for you guys. One season.
• 44:16
  Right. Well, he's the only coach to be
• 44:18
  fired mid season in the first season with his team two seasons
• 44:25
  in a row. Back-to-back.
• 44:29
  That's rough, yeah. So I think there's been a couple
• 44:32
  of coaches that have been fired mid season twice in NFL history,
• 44:37
  like at some points in their career they've been fired during
• 44:41
  the season. He's the only one back to do it
• 44:44
  in back-to-back years, in the first year with his prospective
• 44:48
  teams and I don't think he's that bad of a coach.
• 44:54
  I I don't think so either. I might be wrong on the first
• 44:57
  year thing. I don't know.
• 44:59
  We'll have to. It doesn't matter.
• 45:00
  We'll. Have to check it out.
• 45:01
  Brian will correct me on that. Anyways some big bombs coming
• 45:05
  down like. This evening.
• 45:08
  Just, yeah, within the last 24 hours.
• 45:10
  Vrabel got fired yesterday. Yeah, that's.
• 45:13
  Crazy. And then today, Pete Carroll.
• 45:18
  And that whole thing is, I think they did the thing where it's
• 45:21
  like, hey, Carol's gonna be an advisor.
• 45:24
  They gave him the Bruce Arians treatment where it's like, yeah,
• 45:27
  he's not, he's not fired, but he's not gonna be the coach.
• 45:31
  We're gonna elevate him to a different role away from
• 45:34
  coaching, so. Kind of wonder if the Patriots
• 45:38
  will do something similar, because correct me if I'm wrong,
• 45:41
  but isn't Bill Belichick also in some sort of management position
• 45:47
  with the Patriots? So I think he he fills the
• 45:49
  duties of the general manager. So he is the personnel guy.
• 45:54
  Effectively. He's the head coach and the GM.
• 45:56
  So if, yeah, if the Patriots were to all out give Bill
• 45:59
  Belichick his walking papers, they would need at least one
• 46:05
  person to fill the role of coaching the team and doing all
• 46:10
  of the personnel decisions that the GM would do.
• 46:13
  So interesting. I think it's been proven that
• 46:17
  the teams run better when there's a guy who gets the
• 46:21
  players and there's a guy who coaches the players.
• 46:24
  And yeah, those guys need to be hand in hand working together.
• 46:29
  But like you ultimately need one guy to say I'm going to keep
• 46:32
  this guy and cut that guy. And then the coach.
• 46:35
  You know, maybe he wanted the guy that got cut, but ultimately
• 46:39
  he's going to have to coach who he has.
• 46:41
  So the Patriots, if they were to fully kick Bill Belichick out
• 46:46
  and boot him, give him his walking papers, they would need
• 46:50
  at least one guy to fulfill both roles, if not two guys.
• 46:53
  You know what movie I always think of when it comes to that?
• 46:56
  Moneyball, Moneyball. When he goes in, he's like,
• 46:59
  we're not starting Smith tonight.
• 47:02
  He's like, yeah, of course we're starting that guy.
• 47:04
  He's like, no, I can't. You can't.
• 47:06
  You can't. I'm telling you can't.
• 47:07
  Well, fine. I'm the coach.
• 47:08
  I'm going to start him if I want to.
• 47:09
  No, you can't because he plays for Tampa Bay now or whatever.
• 47:12
  I I totally butchered that scene.
• 47:14
  But you you. Captured the essence of the
• 47:16
  scene pretty well. Not accurate in terms of
• 47:20
  details. No, I totally.
• 47:21
  Butchered it. But in terms of the essence, you
• 47:24
  got it. Yes.
• 47:25
  And yeah, that's totally what I think of.
• 47:27
  And I agree with you. I think there has to be that
• 47:31
  system of checks and balances, almost of like, Yep, you're the
• 47:34
  guy on the business end of things that brings talent in.
• 47:39
  And then there's another guy who makes the decisions of Where do
• 47:42
  you fit in this puzzle and how do we get the most out of you on
• 47:45
  the field? Well, and I think that just I,
• 47:49
  I, I can understand the like pie in the sky dream of well, yeah,
• 47:53
  the guy who coaches and who puts players in his scheme and
• 47:57
  designs everything should be the guy who decides who's on the
• 48:00
  team and who gets, you know, traded for or traded away.
• 48:03
  I can see that mindset but ultimately it just it doesn't
• 48:07
  work. In the Vikings press conference
• 48:12
  today with the general manager and the coach somebody asked
• 48:15
  Quasi. I think it was a question about
• 48:20
  like some high profile guys like Lewis seen and I think Andrew
• 48:25
  Booth that Quasi made big decisions and drafting pretty
• 48:30
  high, but then we're not getting playing time.
• 48:34
  And quasi, his answer was something to the tune of like, I
• 48:38
  mean obviously those guys work their tails off and they're
• 48:42
  doing everything they can behind the scenes.
• 48:44
  But like as far as playing time, he kind of pointed it off to
• 48:48
  KOC, like that's up to the coaching staff in their
• 48:50
  direction. And it wasn't like a it's not my
• 48:53
  fault they're not playing, it's the coaches.
• 48:55
  It was more like, hey, Koc has his job and his job is to play
• 48:59
  the guys and make those decisions and my job is to bring
• 49:02
  the guys in, so. Comfortable to stay in his lane.
• 49:04
  Almost like this is my lane, That's his lane.
• 49:07
  We do what we do and it is what it is.
• 49:11
  But yeah, all that to say, there's some at the moment, what
• 49:16
  a fourth of the league, almost just under a fourth of the
• 49:20
  league, is looking for a new head coach.
• 49:22
  And the Vikings have at least one guy that in their coaching
• 49:27
  staff that has been a previous head coach.
• 49:29
  And we've been talking about it ever since we started this
• 49:32
  podcast in May of 23. Brian Flores.
• 49:36
  He's a head coach, caliber kind of coach and he will get his
• 49:40
  chance. I just hope, selfishly they keep
• 49:44
  him on the Vikings. I don't remember who I was
• 49:46
  listening to, but we had a snow day earlier this week because
• 49:50
  we're in Iowa and we had that big snowstorm rolled through
• 49:53
  early this week and I was listening to some sports talk
• 49:57
  show. I can't remember which one it
• 50:00
  was, but they were talking about these new vacancies.
• 50:05
  And I think it was yesterday actually when right after Vrabel
• 50:10
  was fired and somebody brought up the fact that, well, maybe
• 50:16
  this is actually good for the Vikings because perhaps Vrabel's
• 50:21
  the guy to take over for Belichick in New England.
• 50:25
  And perhaps before Vrabel got fired, maybe Brian Flores was
• 50:31
  the guy that was maybe the front runner for that position.
• 50:34
  And so now that Vrabel's kind of entered the picture, maybe there
• 50:38
  aren't many attractive options out there for Flores.
• 50:42
  And maybe he's, you know, more comfortable to stay put for
• 50:45
  another season and see what develops.
• 50:47
  Maybe next season. There's also a mindset too, and
• 50:51
  I think you've said it, and I've heard it said around other
• 50:54
  outlets too, that the trend right now is to hire a young, up
• 50:58
  and coming offensive mind for your head coaching position.
• 51:03
  And I can see that obviously it worked with McVeigh and that's
• 51:06
  why they're doing it. Shanahan's got the number one
• 51:10
  seed in the NFC right now. And then like, who's the
• 51:13
  Cardinals coach? Gannon.
• 51:15
  I think he's a defensive mind. Defensive focused head coach.
• 51:19
  And obviously the Cardinals are not great.
• 51:20
  So that could be proof that like, yeah, no, go for the
• 51:23
  offensive mind and then hire a good coordinator for the defense
• 51:26
  to run that. I don't know.
• 51:28
  But maybe that means Flores stays for another year.
• 51:32
  I don't know what his contract looks like.
• 51:34
  I've seen Schefter tweets and stuff that oh, this team has
• 51:38
  requested, you know, to interview this coordinator from
• 51:42
  another team. And I haven't seen anything
• 51:44
  about Flores being requested to interview.
• 51:48
  But I don't know. Is he still under contract?
• 51:52
  I don't. I tried to look it up when he
• 51:54
  got signed last offseason. Flores did.
• 51:57
  I couldn't see anywhere where it said, like, oh, Flores, the
• 52:00
  coach is being signed on a three-year contract or a one
• 52:03
  year contract. I couldn't see anything about
• 52:05
  the years, which makes me kind of question like is he even
• 52:11
  technically still under contract?
• 52:13
  Do do teams have to request to interview him or are the Vikings
• 52:18
  competing for him the same? I may be way off.
• 52:21
  Maybe he's still under contract, I don't know.
• 52:25
  It's an interesting question and I don't know the answer to that.
• 52:29
  I do know in the press conference today, sorry, I
• 52:31
  totally cut you off. No, you're good.
• 52:34
  I think it was Koc today fielded a question about the defense and
• 52:39
  about Flores. It wasn't necessarily about,
• 52:41
  like, what do you think about the idea of him leaving?
• 52:44
  But it was like, what do you think of how he did and how the
• 52:47
  defense did? And KOC said something to the
• 52:49
  tune of, like, thought he did well.
• 52:51
  There were ups and downs, but I'm really excited to see what
• 52:54
  he does from here on out. Which alluded to the idea that
• 53:00
  at least KOC thinks there's a possibility Flores doesn't leave
• 53:03
  and he's still the coordinator here.
• 53:05
  I don't know. We'll see.
• 53:07
  It'll be exciting to see how this all plays out.
• 53:09
  It's kind of the soap opera of the NFL and following your
• 53:13
  favorite NFL team, I mean, and there are just so many aspects
• 53:16
  to it. Who are the coaches?
• 53:17
  Who are the players? Will they stay?
• 53:19
  Will they go? You know they stay.
• 53:21
  Or will they? We probably can't.
• 53:24
  Even say that. So I texted you an idea.
• 53:28
  I think this was inspired by my snow day research that I did
• 53:33
  when I was sitting at home and I was bored.
• 53:35
  But I I told you that I wanted to come up with three keepers
• 53:41
  and three goners in free agency. And if you didn't know, the
• 53:46
  Vikings have a whole slew of free agents coming up here.
• 53:51
  Let me count them really quick, 123456789 Eighteen 19/20/2022
• 54:01
  3/24/24 free agents in 24. That's easy.
• 54:06
  I should have counted that before because the the year and
• 54:09
  the number would have been easy to remember.
• 54:11
  But anyways, 24 free agents we we're not going to go through
• 54:13
  all 24 of them. Although I started to.
• 54:19
  I want to know who you think the Vikings should keep and who you
• 54:24
  think the Vikings should get rid of.
• 54:26
  Well, I'll just go down. I'll say some of the biggest
• 54:29
  name free agents that the Vikings have go for it after the
• 54:33
  season. So if nothing changes, nobody's
• 54:35
  resigned anything like that. As of right now, these guys are
• 54:39
  the biggest ones that are going to be lost.
• 54:44
  You got Kirk Cousins, his contract expires, Daniel Hunter.
• 54:50
  Let's keep going. Greg Joseph is kind of a a
• 54:52
  sneaky name on that. Brandon Powell's a little
• 54:55
  sneaky. Jordan Hicks, starting middle
• 54:57
  linebacker or inside linebacker, I guess.
• 55:03
  Dalton. Reisner's.
• 55:03
  Dalton. Reisner's huge KJ Osborne, which
• 55:06
  could be a controversial one. DJ Wanham, who's injured.
• 55:12
  So those are some of the big, big name, at least decent
• 55:16
  players that are on the block. If nothing changes, they will
• 55:21
  not be on the team next year. They're not under contract after
• 55:23
  the season. So yeah, you've already written
• 55:28
  down your keepers and goners. Yeah.
• 55:30
  I didn't intend for you to see this until we recorded.
• 55:33
  Well, that's all right. Well, we.
• 55:34
  Have a shared drive. So we share a Google Drive.
• 55:38
  That's that's fine. You want me to start?
• 55:41
  Yes. Go for it.
• 55:42
  All right, I'll start with my goners.
• 55:44
  So I think my first goners like I think any Vikings fan.
• 55:48
  That's at least somewhat educated on the roster.
• 55:51
  Would agree with me 100% on this, but Marcus Davenport has
• 55:54
  got to go. He committed highway robbery. 13
• 56:01
  as much as $13 million. For a handful of games.
• 56:06
  Two sacks, I think maybe a sack or two, I don't know.
• 56:10
  And again, my theory could still stand.
• 56:12
  You know, maybe he's one of those cancerous guys in the
• 56:14
  locker room that they just shut down earlier, early in the
• 56:18
  season. And they were like, Nah, we're
• 56:19
  we're not going to deal with you.
• 56:20
  We're not going to make a big deal of it.
• 56:23
  We'll eat the 13 mil that we sorry about that spent on you.
• 56:27
  But like, yeah, no, he's he's got to go, like get him out of
• 56:30
  there. The sentiment I've heard about
• 56:32
  him is you just can't make somebody want it.
• 56:35
  I think Darren Wolfson has said like you can't force a player to
• 56:40
  want to play and want to be good and that's that's all I need to
• 56:45
  hear. So bye, get out of here.
• 56:48
  You want to go back and forth on this?
• 56:51
  Yeah. Let's go back and forth.
• 56:53
  All right. So we're going goners right now.
• 56:56
  So I'm spitballing here. I'm just looking at names, man.
• 57:00
  I don't even know who John Reed is so that's unfair to say.
• 57:09
  Yeah I don't. I don't know.
• 57:10
  This is this is very OK. I've got a goner.
• 57:14
  Jonathan Bullard. I think he was a a depth
• 57:20
  defensive lineman cheapish contract.
• 57:25
  I don't know he he didn't make a huge impact.
• 57:28
  Maybe a couple of you know non stat sheet plays he made but it
• 57:33
  feels like with the right draft pick you can you can replace a
• 57:36
  guy like that pretty quickly. He didn't make my keepers list,
• 57:40
  but I did put a check mark on you to him, like yeah, maybe
• 57:43
  keep him for depth, you know, he would come in every once in a
• 57:47
  while and I think he saw more playing time once Davenport was
• 57:52
  officially out out and wasn't coming back.
• 57:56
  So anyways, yeah, I I would agree with that to some extent
• 57:59
  though. Like he was kind of a fringe
• 58:01
  player for me. Like, yeah, you could take or
• 58:03
  leave him. Maybe my second goner is maybe
• 58:08
  kind of controversial, 'cause he's been with the team for a
• 58:11
  little bit. But I think you gotta let Greg
• 58:13
  Joseph go. I can see that.
• 58:16
  And I think this is the time to do it with his contract
• 58:18
  expiring. Statistically, he is a bad
• 58:21
  kicker. He is in the bottom half of the
• 58:24
  league in every statistical category, and I looked it up.
• 58:27
  He's 22nd in field goal percentage.
• 58:33
  No, sorry, I stand corrected. He's 30th as of the end of Week
• 58:38
  18. He's 30th in field goal
• 58:40
  percentage. He's 22nd in extra point
• 58:44
  percentage. So it's time to move on.
• 58:49
  And the Vikings have historically struggled with
• 58:52
  kickers. I don't know what you do.
• 58:54
  I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think he's the
• 58:57
  answer moving. Forward.
• 58:58
  I think at least you're getting his value back in any name name,
• 59:03
  any incoming rookie or, you know, previous kicker on another
• 59:08
  team. I think you're at least getting
• 59:10
  a replaceable name, maybe at a lower salary.
• 59:14
  Unless he's like essentially free.
• 59:17
  You know, like if, yeah, and that that would be the only way
• 59:20
  I would say yeah, keep him, but I agree with.
• 59:23
  You there were there were like 5 or 6 kickers in the league this
• 59:26
  year that were 100% from extra points.
• 59:28
  I know they moved the extra point back.
• 59:30
  Like what? Five years ago.
• 59:32
  Probably been closer to 10 years ago at this point.
• 59:34
  It's been a while. Maybe Walsh was the kicker for
• 59:36
  the Vikings when they made that change OK.
• 59:39
  Well, I point being like at this point, when you're an NFL
• 59:43
  kicker, you shouldn't have anything less than a 90% from
• 59:47
  extra point like it's best. Assuming you know indoors and
• 59:51
  you know assuming. Yeah, yeah.
• 59:53
  Like, I don't know. And I don't think he was 90%.
• 59:56
  I think Greg Joseph was like 88 or something like that.
• 59:59
  And to me that's just, it's not acceptable.
• 1:00:02
  You, you can't win games, especially with as many close
• 1:00:05
  games as the Vikings seem to find themselves.
• 1:00:07
  And you can't win games with a kicker like that.
• 1:00:10
  You can't. We've seen it.
• 1:00:12
  Yeah, you can't get out of a season with a winning record
• 1:00:14
  with a kicker like that. You've got to.
• 1:00:17
  You gotta do better, and I think the Vikings need to find better.
• 1:00:20
  I think Greg's good guy. Oh, sure, yeah.
• 1:00:23
  And he made that incredible 61 yarder.
• 1:00:27
  But yeah, I you don't have confidence in him, right?
• 1:00:32
  I say you we the school hop does do not have made.
• 1:00:35
  And I don't think so. Coaching staff really showed
• 1:00:37
  that they had a ton of confidence in him, yeah.
• 1:00:39
  I just think it he was kind of hidden this year amongst the
• 1:00:44
  rest of the poor team. Agreed.
• 1:00:48
  All right my turn. So I just want to iterate that I
• 1:00:52
  do agree on the let Marcus Davenport walk.
• 1:00:56
  He's he's not the guy that I'm going to pick right now but
• 1:00:58
  absolutely IA 100% agree with. I will say my next one to let
• 1:01:03
  walk is Josh Dobbs. Magical 4/4 to five to six
• 1:01:11
  quarters that we had with him. I just think keeping him kind of
• 1:01:17
  muddies everything up. And that's, I mean, it's more
• 1:01:22
  for the other quarterbacks in the room if you draft a
• 1:01:24
  quarterback high and you keep Josh Dobbs, because if you keep
• 1:01:28
  him, that means you've you've signed him, you've made, you've
• 1:01:31
  gone out of your way to make sure that he's still on the
• 1:01:33
  team. It's not like you keep him
• 1:01:36
  because he's a cheap option or something like no, you you had
• 1:01:38
  to sign him. So does that hinder the
• 1:01:42
  confidence or development of a young guy?
• 1:01:46
  Does it kind of let everybody know that like, yeah, we've got
• 1:01:50
  this guy that, yeah, he he was a disappointment.
• 1:01:53
  But we could, we could bench you at any second, whether it's Kirk
• 1:01:56
  or whoever, because we do have this electric weapon who's
• 1:02:00
  proven he can come in on a second's notice and do
• 1:02:03
  something. So yeah, all that to say, I let
• 1:02:06
  Josh Dobbs walk and he may be ready to like this season.
• 1:02:10
  He might just need a refresh and some other team's going to sign.
• 1:02:13
  He's going to be an NFL quarterback next year, but yeah,
• 1:02:17
  I just let him do it somewhere. Else I I would agree with that
• 1:02:21
  my third goner would be Cam Akers.
• 1:02:25
  I don't think a running back can recover from 2 Achilles tears
• 1:02:28
  on. It's tough both.
• 1:02:31
  He's young, though, but yes, that.
• 1:02:32
  He's young and he's, he's proven he can come back from 1:00, but
• 1:02:36
  he tore the other. And when you're in a position
• 1:02:41
  where you've got a shift and move and plant and Juke and do
• 1:02:46
  all that stuff that I don't even know, like, 'cause I'm not a
• 1:02:49
  running back and even work out and recover, yeah, I loved what
• 1:02:54
  he brought to the offense. I thought it was a great pickup
• 1:02:58
  at 1st, and he electrified the running game when the running
• 1:03:02
  game was stagnant. Had he not been injured, he
• 1:03:06
  wouldn't be on my list. And even if he hadn't injured
• 1:03:12
  his other Achilles, he might still be a keeper in my eyes.
• 1:03:17
  But because he injured that other Achilles, I I don't know
• 1:03:21
  that you can justify bringing him back.
• 1:03:22
  Yeah, I think the Vikings running back room at the start
• 1:03:26
  of the 2024 season looks significantly different than it
• 1:03:31
  did at the start of the 23 season, I think.
• 1:03:33
  It needs a pretty big overhaul. Yeah, and I think the injury to
• 1:03:36
  Cam Akers, I agree with you, almost disqualifies him for
• 1:03:43
  being in that overhaul, if nothing else, just for the fact
• 1:03:48
  that he's not under contract. So again, another guy that if
• 1:03:52
  he's on the team next year, you would have had to go out of your
• 1:03:54
  way. And maybe because of his injury,
• 1:03:56
  let's let's just say pie in the sky, let's assume he is
• 1:04:00
  physically able to fully come back to 100%.
• 1:04:04
  I mean, with that injury, he could be a cheaper option as
• 1:04:07
  well. Nobody's going to sign any
• 1:04:08
  running back to big numbers. Game Acres could be a cheap
• 1:04:12
  option, but that also means there's going to be some names
• 1:04:16
  out there this offseason that the running backs tried to, you
• 1:04:21
  know, start a coup in the NFL and force their way to big
• 1:04:25
  paydays. There's going to be some high
• 1:04:27
  quality guys that are not going to get big paydays, and the
• 1:04:30
  Vikings might be able to reap the benefits of that.
• 1:04:32
  So all that to say, I can see and slightly agree with your
• 1:04:36
  your thought on Cam Acres. If I had to tend to go one way,
• 1:04:41
  I wouldn't mind having him back. But that injury is tough.
• 1:04:45
  Yeah, that is tough. Who's your third goner all?
• 1:04:47
  Right. My third might be a little
• 1:04:48
  controversial. Maybe not.
• 1:04:51
  And it has no bearing on the kind of person he is.
• 1:04:56
  But I think KJKJ Osborne, you're already hopefully about to drop
• 1:05:04
  a record-breaking amount of money on the league's best wide
• 1:05:10
  receiver, one of the league's best players.
• 1:05:14
  And KJ, he's not gonna be like veteran minimum.
• 1:05:20
  He's also not gonna be JJ Money, but he's gonna be a a chunk of
• 1:05:24
  change. He's a good #2 or a #3
• 1:05:26
  somewhere. Yeah.
• 1:05:27
  And this year, he we, I again, I've, I've listened back on our
• 1:05:32
  offseason episodes from last season.
• 1:05:36
  We talked about KJ and that he's gonna step up.
• 1:05:38
  And that's even after the Vikings drafted Addison before
• 1:05:41
  we knew anything about Addison. How KJ he's gonna be that #2?
• 1:05:46
  We wanted him to be that. I wanted him to be that so badly
• 1:05:50
  and it never materialized. I think he did too.
• 1:05:52
  And he has always had flashes throughout his entire career.
• 1:05:57
  When he's been the number four guy, the number 5 guy, the
• 1:06:00
  number three guy, he's always had flashes where you think he
• 1:06:03
  could be a number 2 or even a #1.
• 1:06:06
  He just, I mean, he's been behind Adam Thielen and JJ his
• 1:06:10
  whole career. Even BC Johnson was ahead of him
• 1:06:14
  for a little bit, like he never took that next step.
• 1:06:19
  And then this year, when he had that opportunity, he probably
• 1:06:23
  entered the season on the depth chart as in the number two guy.
• 1:06:28
  He still only had those flashes. You know, like he never was the
• 1:06:33
  number two. He never had #2 receiver
• 1:06:36
  numbers. He wasn't the Adam Thielen, Mr.
• 1:06:38
  Consistent. Every time you throw it my way,
• 1:06:41
  I'm going to get it. He had a couple of decent games
• 1:06:44
  and then a couple of games where it's like, how did you drop
• 1:06:46
  that? I think he's good and I think
• 1:06:49
  he's he's not done in the NFL by any means.
• 1:06:52
  I just he's going to cost what a halfway decent veteran wide
• 1:06:57
  receiver costs. And I think the Vikings have
• 1:07:00
  seen enough to know that they can draft a guy or they can give
• 1:07:05
  a guy like Jalen Naylor an opportunity to step up and be
• 1:07:10
  the guy. So yeah, all that to say, he's
• 1:07:13
  my let's let him walk. He can find another.
• 1:07:15
  Opportunity. I think the good news for the
• 1:07:17
  Vikings as an organization is even if you do pay Justin
• 1:07:22
  Jefferson a lot, which he deserves arguably being one of,
• 1:07:27
  if not the best offensive player in the league.
• 1:07:32
  Even if you pay him, you have Jordan Addison playing second
• 1:07:35
  fiddle who's on his rookie contract.
• 1:07:38
  Still, like, you're going to save a few dollars at wide
• 1:07:42
  receiver even if you do pay JJ, because you're going to make up
• 1:07:49
  for that on the other side with Jordan Addison.
• 1:07:51
  And I think Jordan Addison has proven already in one season he
• 1:07:57
  is at least as good as KJ. Yes.
• 1:08:01
  And I would venture to say he's better.
• 1:08:03
  Well, there's a reason why Jordan Addison had that little
• 1:08:07
  spurt when JJ went down and it wasn't KJ.
• 1:08:11
  Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Like we still had Kirk when JJ
• 1:08:15
  went down. You would expect, yeah, you
• 1:08:17
  would have expected Kirk to find KJ like, oh, they've known each
• 1:08:21
  other for several seasons now. They've got that chemistry
• 1:08:23
  developed. And they've had flashes, but
• 1:08:26
  yeah. Right, right.
• 1:08:27
  So yeah. Anyways, I I think that's a
• 1:08:30
  good, good pick. I will be sad to see.
• 1:08:33
  KJI like him as a player, as a Viking.
• 1:08:35
  He seems like a good guy, I just think.
• 1:08:39
  And maybe he goes somewhere else and having a different scenery,
• 1:08:44
  different quarterback, different scheme, maybe he does turn into
• 1:08:48
  1000 yard receiver and a Pro Bowler.
• 1:08:50
  I don't know. And if that happens, it's not
• 1:08:52
  like we can say, ah, darn it, we should have kept him, 'cause
• 1:08:55
  obviously he's proven that's not what he's gonna do in Minnesota.
• 1:09:00
  Moving on to the keepers. Yeah, So we've given our three
• 1:09:03
  goners. Let's talk about our three
• 1:09:05
  keepers. I'll go first.
• 1:09:07
  Hold on. You kind of cherry picked a
• 1:09:10
  little bit here. You you kind of took.
• 1:09:12
  What do you mean you took the obvious guys That you're right.
• 1:09:15
  I've. I can see your three keepers.
• 1:09:17
  I'm gonna choose different guys just because that's how we
• 1:09:20
  should do it. Let me just be clear, I actually
• 1:09:23
  came into this prepared and I feel like you're just kind of
• 1:09:25
  spitballing here, so. Yep.
• 1:09:27
  OK. You are a trillion percent,
• 1:09:29
  right? And I'm I I love you.
• 1:09:31
  But you you did. You stole the the good names.
• 1:09:34
  Well, maybe I did. But I did some research and I I
• 1:09:38
  actually have, like, facts to back these up.
• 1:09:42
  They're not absolutely do. They're not just my opinions.
• 1:09:45
  Yep. Well, this first one might be my
• 1:09:47
  opinion but. It's hard to beat.
• 1:09:50
  So all that to say, I'm sorry you cherry picked.
• 1:09:52
  We're friends. Go for it.
• 1:09:55
  Sorry you didn't come to this conversation.
• 1:09:57
  I was. I didn't even know we were gonna
• 1:09:59
  do this segment. I texted you about this.
• 1:10:01
  I I do not remember when did you text?
• 1:10:03
  Was it during the game? No, I think it was during the
• 1:10:06
  snow day the other day. I was like, hey, we'll do with
• 1:10:09
  all these free agents, we should do the Three Keepers and the
• 1:10:12
  Three Goners. I'm not saying you didn't 'cause
• 1:10:14
  you absolutely did. And if I I could pull up my
• 1:10:16
  phone right now, there's probably that text right there.
• 1:10:18
  It's on there. It's on me that I don't remember
• 1:10:21
  this, but I don't remember this. You can keep throwing me under
• 1:10:23
  the bus, it's fine. Hey, you started multiple
• 1:10:26
  Packers in our playoff? I'm just an.
• 1:10:29
  Insulation if you. If you can't take it, don't dish
• 1:10:32
  it. That's all I'm saying.
• 1:10:33
  OK, all right. OK, so my first Keeper Jerk is a
• 1:10:40
  very obvious one, but we've also dissented on this issue.
• 1:10:45
  There's some controversy here. There's There's a large portion
• 1:10:48
  of Vikings fans that will argue with.
• 1:10:49
  You and we haven't agreed on this either to some.
• 1:10:53
  Extent, sure. OK.
• 1:10:54
  Yeah. To some extent.
• 1:10:55
  And we could go back and listen. You haven't made it all the way
• 1:10:58
  to episode 20 and. 20 yet, but I'll get there.
• 1:11:01
  I work from home. I think my first keeper, and I
• 1:11:04
  think the keeper that the Vikings go after more than
• 1:11:07
  anybody else if if I were in that GM seat, is Kirk Cousins
• 1:11:14
  because I think he's the best option at quarterback to win
• 1:11:18
  this coming season. As of right now.
• 1:11:20
  As of right now, he's the best option.
• 1:11:22
  I don't know that there's any. Well, I can guarantee you that
• 1:11:25
  no rookie quarterback coming in from the draft is going to net
• 1:11:30
  you 10 plus wins. I don't think that's reality.
• 1:11:34
  Nope. And I don't know that there's
• 1:11:36
  going to be any free agents on the market that are going to
• 1:11:39
  immediately fit into the system and fit into the culture in this
• 1:11:44
  locker room and win over the locker room the way that Kirk
• 1:11:47
  Cousins has immediately and and lead this team to a playoff
• 1:11:52
  berth. So I I think it's gonna cost
• 1:11:56
  money. We know that Kirk has said this
• 1:12:00
  week, even in interviews, that he's willing to take less money.
• 1:12:04
  He's implied that he's willing to take less money, slightly
• 1:12:08
  less money, but still less money than maybe what he could get
• 1:12:13
  elsewhere to stick with the Vikings.
• 1:12:15
  And I think the Vikings milk that for whatever they can.
• 1:12:18
  If that's a season, two seasons at, I don't know, $35 million,
• 1:12:25
  thirty $7,000,000, if they can get him down to a number in that
• 1:12:31
  range, I think they've opened themselves up to a whole new set
• 1:12:35
  of possibilities in the 24 season and in the future.
• 1:12:41
  Yeah. And so all that to say, I I
• 1:12:44
  agree with you before I react in any other way, I agree with you.
• 1:12:49
  I want Kirk back. Maybe it's not my.
• 1:12:53
  I think having Kirk back is my 1B, but I I want him back.
• 1:12:58
  So you have some notes here, and one of your notes about Kirk
• 1:13:02
  Cousins and resigning him is almost like identical to a tweet
• 1:13:06
  that I saw from Dustin Baker today.
• 1:13:08
  It's. Probably because I got it from.
• 1:13:10
  Hey, it's a it's a good thought. So I don't have it right in
• 1:13:15
  front of me, Dustin Baker's tweet, but it's something he
• 1:13:17
  tweeted something like, yeah, Kirk did say he would.
• 1:13:22
  He kind of implied he would be open to a quote UN quote
• 1:13:25
  hometown discount. And Baker also goes on to say
• 1:13:31
  that discount probably means something like 30 to $35 million
• 1:13:35
  a year, not $10 million like, which I think is a very accurate
• 1:13:40
  thing. I If the Vikings sign him.
• 1:13:44
  And there's not this whole fanfare where there's ten other
• 1:13:47
  teams that are competing neck and neck for Kirk Cousins.
• 1:13:49
  Like if whenever that news report comes out that the
• 1:13:54
  Vikings sign him, I expect it to be somewhere between, you know,
• 1:13:58
  3035, somewhere in that range, somewhere under 40, which is
• 1:14:03
  we're just throwing out just life changing numbers.
• 1:14:06
  You and I could combine. We could combine our lifetime
• 1:14:10
  earnings. We wouldn't quadruple that
• 1:14:13
  number. And we're not talking about $40
• 1:14:16
  million like. But what's interesting is like
• 1:14:19
  since Kirk signed his huge, record-breaking, fully
• 1:14:24
  guaranteed contract with the Vikings in 2017, was it?
• 1:14:29
  I think it was after the 17th season, so.
• 1:14:31
  It would have been like in the offseason.
• 1:14:33
  Early 2018. Sure.
• 1:14:36
  Yeah. Whenever that was like that was
• 1:14:39
  a record-breaking contract at the time.
• 1:14:41
  Yeah, well, and notable because it was fully guaranteed, but
• 1:14:46
  it's kind of chump change I think now.
• 1:14:49
  Somewhere around 15th. Right now compared to like Joe
• 1:14:52
  Burrow and Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson.
• 1:14:55
  LeBron. Hurts.
• 1:14:56
  Yeah. Like those guys have just
• 1:14:58
  eclipsed him infinitely, almost, it seems, in terms of contract
• 1:15:06
  amounts and things like that. And I I think Kirk realizes that
• 1:15:08
  too. I think he's really realistic.
• 1:15:11
  I think what's gonna need to happen is both the team and the
• 1:15:16
  player will have to get in a room and say, listen, this is
• 1:15:21
  what we need out of each other and this is what it's gonna
• 1:15:24
  take. And if both parties agree, let's
• 1:15:27
  do this. If not, let's make an amicable
• 1:15:30
  split right now and let's just let bygones be bygones and let's
• 1:15:34
  move on, yeah. Well, and the reality too, I
• 1:15:36
  think the the true nature of this quote, UN quote, hometown
• 1:15:40
  discount is the fact that they can sit down in a room and talk
• 1:15:44
  to each other as people that respect each other and have
• 1:15:47
  worked with each other for years and know each other and Kirk's,
• 1:15:52
  he said, like you know, if I go somewhere else, my kids love
• 1:15:55
  their kindergarten class. Like I'll just have to find a
• 1:15:57
  good kindergarten class somewhere else.
• 1:15:59
  So that idea too, like this isn't Nike trying to sign
• 1:16:04
  Michael Jordan and throw anything that came at him just
• 1:16:07
  to get him to agree. Like this is people that are
• 1:16:12
  working, they're Co workers and they've had success together and
• 1:16:16
  they have a a level of respect for each other.
• 1:16:20
  I think that alone opens up the idea of a true and fair
• 1:16:26
  conversation negotiation. It's not just quasi walking in
• 1:16:30
  saying all right, what's the cheapest we can get you for?
• 1:16:33
  It's Kirk. We love you.
• 1:16:35
  And Kirk's saying, yeah, Vikings, I love you guys too.
• 1:16:38
  What's the best deal? And I think just starting off
• 1:16:41
  from that point means that that is as much of a value of the
• 1:16:47
  quote UN quote, hometown discount than anything else.
• 1:16:51
  So I wouldn't be shocked if I'd I'd almost be a little surprised
• 1:16:54
  if he's not a Viking next year. All that to say, I agree with
• 1:16:58
  you, Keeper #1, keeper, Cherry picked.
• 1:17:01
  But keeper, well, who do you got?
• 1:17:05
  All right, so we disagree on this one, but I don't think
• 1:17:09
  we're going to come to blows. My keeper, my #1 keeper.
• 1:17:14
  If it can't be Kirk, Daniel Hunter, he's an under 30 elite
• 1:17:22
  pass rusher who is another guy who enjoys Minnesota, loves this
• 1:17:28
  team and I don't want to represent anybody wrong here.
• 1:17:34
  Kirk's a savvy guy and he's going to get his dollars.
• 1:17:37
  I don't want to say, oh, Daniel just because he's been here his
• 1:17:39
  whole career and he likes Minnesota and he likes his
• 1:17:41
  coaches. That means he's going to take a
• 1:17:44
  lesser deal. That I don't think that's the
• 1:17:47
  case. But I also don't think he's a
• 1:17:48
  jerk that's going to demand every penny he can ever get.
• 1:17:52
  I think Daniel is my number one. I think he's probably going to
• 1:17:58
  cost around 20 million. That's what he got this year.
• 1:18:00
  That's probably the starting because he earned, I think all
• 1:18:04
  or most of his incentives to bring him up to $120,000,000.
• 1:18:08
  That's the first step. Like, all right, at least 20
• 1:18:11
  million like, which is a lot of money for one guy that's not the
• 1:18:14
  quarterback, but he's a top tier player in the league and pass
• 1:18:19
  rushers are coveted. You notice that there's
• 1:18:23
  something wrong with the defense when they don't have an elite
• 1:18:27
  pass rusher. So.
• 1:18:30
  Yeah, I and I don't disagree that he is worth keeping.
• 1:18:36
  I think he's too expensive to keep and you mentioned that he's
• 1:18:41
  under 30. I think he turns 30 this year.
• 1:18:43
  He might turn 30 before the season or during the next
• 1:18:46
  season. So, I don't know.
• 1:18:48
  I I think there's plenty of good young edge rusher talent in the
• 1:18:52
  draft. If that's really a concern, you
• 1:18:54
  go after him. I guess I did, actually, on my
• 1:19:01
  full list of free agents before I gave up on keeping and cutting
• 1:19:09
  everybody on the list. I I did indicate letting go of
• 1:19:14
  DJ Wanham and Daniel Hunter, both Daniel because he's too
• 1:19:20
  expensive and DJ Wanham because of the injury.
• 1:19:23
  I just, I don't know that he'll be the same guy coming back.
• 1:19:28
  I mean valid thought and valid point.
• 1:19:30
  I'm less concerned about that. They're not in.
• 1:19:34
  Neither of them are in my top three.
• 1:19:36
  They are not like they're on the chopping block.
• 1:19:38
  Get him out of here. First guy's out.
• 1:19:40
  Yeah, like Daniel. Like, gosh, if we could make it
• 1:19:43
  work, Heck yeah. Keep that guy around.
• 1:19:46
  He's like you said, he's a locker room guy.
• 1:19:50
  He loves the organization. The organization loves him.
• 1:19:54
  He's produced pretty much every season He's been on the field
• 1:19:57
  for us. Like, yeah, gosh, if we can work
• 1:20:00
  it, let's do it. Yeah, well, and to kind of
• 1:20:03
  address Daniel's age to he. Sure, let's just say he's 30.
• 1:20:08
  That seems to be the age of complete downturning for NFL
• 1:20:13
  players in. I'm gonna reference that press
• 1:20:16
  conference that Quasi and KFC had today.
• 1:20:20
  Somebody at one point early in the press conference talked to
• 1:20:23
  ask Quasi about, like, you know, Kirk's, sure, you've said you
• 1:20:28
  want Kirk back, but what do you think about the injury?
• 1:20:32
  And Quasi said something to the tune of like, well, you kind of
• 1:20:35
  see how a guy takes care of themselves and you see like what
• 1:20:40
  they do. So even injured or not, you can
• 1:20:42
  kind of know, like, OK, this guy does the right things or he, you
• 1:20:46
  know, needs 10 cheeseburgers a day and he doesn't, He sleeps an
• 1:20:50
  hour a day. Like, do you know if a guy is
• 1:20:52
  doing the right things or the wrong things?
• 1:20:53
  A little bit later on, somebody asked Quasi about Daniel.
• 1:20:58
  Literally this same thing. Like he's, you know, a free
• 1:21:01
  agent. If you keep him, he's gonna be,
• 1:21:03
  you know, expensive and he's about to be 30.
• 1:21:07
  What do you think about that? And Daniel or Daniel Quasi kind
• 1:21:10
  of referenced his earlier answer about Kirk and saying, like,
• 1:21:14
  well, I said Kirk is a guy that takes care of himself and, you
• 1:21:18
  know, does the right things to take care of his body and stuff.
• 1:21:21
  He said, I think Daniel tends to be like Kirk in that idea.
• 1:21:27
  He even said something like all you have to do is walk by the
• 1:21:30
  guy to know that he takes care of himself.
• 1:21:34
  I mean Daniel Hunter, his biceps are bigger than like my freaking
• 1:21:39
  head. Like, the guy probably looks
• 1:21:42
  like Superman, you know, he's just jacked.
• 1:21:46
  And if you see him work out, which I'm sure they do, and you
• 1:21:49
  see like how he takes care of himself, which I'm sure they do,
• 1:21:53
  the age becomes less of a of a concern, yeah.
• 1:21:59
  Yeah, I can see that. Yeah.
• 1:22:01
  All right. You're you're.
• 1:22:03
  Are we on #2 for The Keepers? You said Kirk.
• 1:22:06
  I said to Neil. Yep.
• 1:22:07
  So my #2 would be Dalton Reisner.
• 1:22:10
  OK for the simple fact that he allowed zero sacks this year.
• 1:22:17
  Pro Football Focus. Yeah, I did see something like,
• 1:22:20
  hey, the Vikings don't sign him. Somebody else is going to sign a
• 1:22:23
  guy that went almost 400 snaps and didn't allow a sack.
• 1:22:26
  He had an incredible season and he's just a, again, a culture
• 1:22:31
  guy, a locker room guy, is a good fit and he was vocal from
• 1:22:37
  the get go. Like, yeah, I love this team, I
• 1:22:40
  love this culture, I love this locker room and I don't know, I
• 1:22:44
  I think you you pay a little bit to keep guys like that, to keep
• 1:22:48
  that culture going. I've heard multiple players say
• 1:22:51
  the Vikings have the best or one of the best cultures in the
• 1:22:56
  league. Now culture doesn't mean much if
• 1:22:58
  you don't win, so there's that. But I think it starts with
• 1:23:02
  culture and I mean we're in this competitive rebuild and I've
• 1:23:07
  I've got a little bit of an opinion on that.
• 1:23:09
  Like I think this next season is make or break for Quasi
• 1:23:14
  especially and probably Kevin O'Connell by extension.
• 1:23:17
  Year 3 tends to be a hot year for new coaches.
• 1:23:21
  Well, I I think it goes for GMs. Well, GMs too, but GMs tend to
• 1:23:24
  get. Maybe a little.
• 1:23:26
  Couple of coaches before they get fired, unless it's just a
• 1:23:29
  toxic situation. I think KOC, which he's already
• 1:23:34
  been to the playoffs and but yeah, Year 3 tends to be a
• 1:23:39
  regardless of how the record works, you kind of we need to
• 1:23:42
  see what we need to see. But all of that to say,
• 1:23:46
  Reisner's a guy that quasi brought in.
• 1:23:49
  After we bullied him on Twitter a little bit.
• 1:23:52
  Yeah, but still took the guy to negotiate and make it happen and
• 1:23:59
  drop the paperwork and actually get the guy and then not only
• 1:24:03
  get the guy, but get him on the field.
• 1:24:05
  I mean, that's KOC more than Quasi at that point.
• 1:24:08
  But yeah, once he found his way onto the field, he was, he never
• 1:24:13
  got off. He was an incredible offensive
• 1:24:16
  lineman. Ezra Cleveland got injured,
• 1:24:18
  opened the door for Reisner to get on the field and he never
• 1:24:23
  stepped off the field. He it they they literally traded
• 1:24:26
  Cleveland away, and they wouldn't have done that if
• 1:24:30
  Reisner was garbage. So I I think he's a guy you have
• 1:24:34
  to bring back and that that offensive line needs to be
• 1:24:39
  fortified. It needs strength and he brings
• 1:24:43
  that. For sure.
• 1:24:44
  I agree. Yeah, let's keep him.
• 1:24:46
  I want him. All that to say is like,
• 1:24:49
  depending if you sign Kirk to $40 million, are you able to
• 1:24:53
  give Dalton 3, four, $5,000,000 a year?
• 1:24:56
  I don't know. What he I don't.
• 1:24:58
  Maybe 5 million is laughable to him.
• 1:25:00
  I don't. I don't know, but yeah, the
• 1:25:02
  numbers have to work and we just get to play Madden and act like
• 1:25:08
  we we. We're just marionettes here,
• 1:25:10
  sure, playing with our puppets. All right.
• 1:25:12
  My #2, my, my #2 keeper might be a little bit of a surprise, but
• 1:25:21
  I think Johnny Munt, tight end has proven that he's good to
• 1:25:27
  keep. And I think there's a a slight
• 1:25:29
  wrinkle for this episode. I think two or three, maybe two.
• 1:25:35
  You and I, we talked about our like for the 23 season surprise
• 1:25:39
  cuts and like who could be a, a big name that gets cut that
• 1:25:43
  might not be, you know, known about that.
• 1:25:46
  You know, it'd be a surprise if this guy got cut.
• 1:25:48
  I said Cam Bynum and you famously said CJ Hamm famously.
• 1:25:54
  So CJ Hamm did not get cut, but they did kind of do the thing
• 1:25:58
  where they, like, signed him back for one year and kind of
• 1:26:02
  gave the fanfare. But it almost felt like a
• 1:26:04
  farewell tour. I want CJ Hamm on the team.
• 1:26:09
  I do 100%. However, if you do not employ A
• 1:26:14
  fullback, that role when it has to appear in the backfield as a
• 1:26:21
  fullback gets filled by a tight end.
• 1:26:26
  Preferably a good blocking tight end.
• 1:26:28
  Yeah, the Josh Oliver or you know something like that or you
• 1:26:32
  know a big backup running back. So or fullbacks are not utilized
• 1:26:38
  a whole ton, even less so for the Vikings once Koc came in.
• 1:26:44
  So if you let CJ Hamm walk, I think that makes Jonny Mund all
• 1:26:51
  the more important as a as a good tight end, rotational
• 1:26:55
  depth. Because even if he doesn't fill
• 1:26:58
  that tight end role, Oliver might fill that tight end role,
• 1:27:03
  which leaves the door open for Mun to kind of get some more
• 1:27:06
  snaps snaps as a tight end. So I I think it gives you a
• 1:27:11
  little bit more flexibility to have one more good tight end and
• 1:27:15
  then who knows how TJ is gonna enter the season having done
• 1:27:20
  some major damage to his knee. He might, you know, start off
• 1:27:25
  the first few games, either on IR or the PUP list, or less
• 1:27:30
  available than otherwise. We would think so.
• 1:27:34
  I think Johnny Munn, he's my #2. Yeah, I I think that's a good
• 1:27:38
  pick and I think obviously the pecking order at tight end is
• 1:27:44
  TJ, Josh Oliver, Johnny Munn, yeah.
• 1:27:49
  Unless they draft or sign a different guy, that's this is
• 1:27:51
  all with an asterisk. But yeah, well, Nick Muse, the
• 1:27:54
  only other tight end on the roster, he caught his first pass
• 1:27:57
  of the season. I think it was.
• 1:27:59
  The Daily Norseman on Twitter tweeted something.
• 1:28:03
  I think it was PFF rankings or you know, some statistical
• 1:28:08
  ranking. And their tweet was something to
• 1:28:11
  the tune of I present to you without, you know, further
• 1:28:16
  analysis, the total rankings of all tight ends in the NFL.
• 1:28:22
  And it was like by, you know, yards and average and stuff.
• 1:28:28
  And it had names like, you know, TJ Hawkinson and and Travis
• 1:28:32
  Kelsey and all the big name tight ends.
• 1:28:34
  And at the top of the list was, was Nick Muse solely because he
• 1:28:41
  had one catch for I think like 30-4 yards.
• 1:28:44
  So his average was like 34 yards a catch.
• 1:28:47
  So by whatever metric they were, they were measuring he was the
• 1:28:52
  best in the league based off of 1 catch like.
• 1:28:56
  And he retweeted saying like, I I love it.
• 1:28:58
  That's awesome. We love you too, Nick.
• 1:29:01
  Yeah, that's funny. That is funny.
• 1:29:04
  No, I I think I I don't disagree with you at all.
• 1:29:09
  Johnny Munt. He'd be a great pick for depth
• 1:29:12
  and like you said, and it's a possibility that I haven't even
• 1:29:16
  considered. But if CJ Hamm is gone, still
• 1:29:20
  gonna need some sort of blocking presence in the backfield.
• 1:29:24
  And you know, a good tight end, a good blocking tight end could
• 1:29:28
  bring that. Yep.
• 1:29:29
  So that's your #2. That's my #2.
• 1:29:32
  My #3 keeper in free agency, Jordan Hicks.
• 1:29:37
  Oh, I thought you were gonna say Phil Lodholt.
• 1:29:40
  No, it's. Been a few years.
• 1:29:43
  More than a few. Jordan Hicks, I I think he's a
• 1:29:47
  defensive leader. The way that he rallied after
• 1:29:49
  his horrific injury, got surgery and then came back and played
• 1:29:56
  for what, the last two or three games?
• 1:29:58
  Something like that, yeah. Of the season.
• 1:30:00
  Decent level too. And played well.
• 1:30:02
  Yeah, I I think he's a guy that proved his value the entire
• 1:30:07
  season. He played well up till his
• 1:30:10
  injury and then he proved that he's willing to do whatever it
• 1:30:15
  takes to get back on the field, and he did.
• 1:30:17
  And then when he got back on the field, it wasn't like man, good
• 1:30:21
  for him. He got back on the field he he
• 1:30:26
  played well despite any of that, so.
• 1:30:30
  I will say last offseason I was surprised when the Vikings not
• 1:30:34
  only let Eric Kendricks walk, they cut him and on top of that
• 1:30:41
  kept Jordan Hicks. I was a little surprised by
• 1:30:44
  that. But yeah, you hit the nail on
• 1:30:46
  the head. He proved Jordan Hicks proved
• 1:30:49
  that he was capable and a valuable member of the defense.
• 1:30:53
  Well, then they brought in Ivan Pace as the undrafted, yeah.
• 1:30:56
  Any time you get a UDFA, you don't expect that guy to be a
• 1:31:00
  Rookie of the Year candidate or a starter in any capacity.
• 1:31:04
  He was, and he was. That just made it so much
• 1:31:06
  better. Yeah, it wasn't.
• 1:31:08
  It was incredible, actually. All right, my last keeper.
• 1:31:12
  I agree with you, Jordan Hicks. I want him back.
• 1:31:15
  My last keeper, Brandon Powell, knowing you're probably gonna
• 1:31:19
  make some moves in free agency, letting guys walk like KJ
• 1:31:23
  Osborne, hopefully. As far as like, the numbers
• 1:31:26
  work. Maybe drafting a guy or two,
• 1:31:29
  definitely getting some undrafted guys, getting back
• 1:31:32
  Jalen Naylor. But Brandon Powell proved his
• 1:31:37
  worth. He had a major fumble as a punt
• 1:31:41
  returner against the Eagles, but it seemed like it seemed like he
• 1:31:46
  dropped off the last three 4-5 games.
• 1:31:50
  But before then, every once in a while, he'd pop up and make a
• 1:31:54
  catch on 1/3 down and get a first down.
• 1:31:56
  It's like, oh, Brandon Powell. When he had the game winner in
• 1:31:59
  Atlanta. Oh yeah, from Dobbs.
• 1:32:01
  Yeah, yeah. So I I think he's definitely
• 1:32:04
  worth keeping. He's probably going to be cheap.
• 1:32:08
  I don't know his age, how young he is, but I I think he's worth
• 1:32:12
  keeping at least one more season.
• 1:32:13
  I think he's worth keeping purely as a returner and then,
• 1:32:18
  you know, throw him in as a receiver.
• 1:32:21
  When needed. And he's been with Koc in the
• 1:32:25
  Rams and now Koc brought him to the Vikings.
• 1:32:28
  So there's obviously some connection there and it's
• 1:32:32
  worked. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:32:35
  No, I I think he's a good pick and I think he's one that I
• 1:32:38
  identified too as like if you can't keep him.
• 1:32:41
  Yeah, do it. Oh yeah.
• 1:32:42
  I and I think his contract won't be it'll be cat friendly it it
• 1:32:46
  won't be too much so well. No one's gonna demand as much
• 1:32:49
  money as Kirk Cousins and Daniel Hunter and JJ and JJ Yeah, but I
• 1:32:54
  I think the nice thing too is the Vikings do have some cap
• 1:32:58
  space into the 2024 season and they have even more in 2025.
• 1:33:05
  So if they really wanted to, I think, I think Quasi could make
• 1:33:10
  it all work out to where some of the dead money ends up in 25.
• 1:33:16
  Yeah. And I don't understand how all
• 1:33:17
  of that works, do I? There's some.
• 1:33:19
  I'm pretty sure there's actual, like, magic involved or
• 1:33:23
  something. The cap is a myth.
• 1:33:26
  I saw a tweet today. Somebody tweeted, like, yeah, I
• 1:33:29
  know money is tight and the Vikings are up against the cap,
• 1:33:34
  but darn it, the Saints somehow enter every offseason like $100
• 1:33:38
  million over the cap and they still feel the team.
• 1:33:41
  So Yolo sign everybody. Yeah, maybe there's something to
• 1:33:45
  that, too. I don't know.
• 1:33:47
  But yeah, it'll be a super interesting offseason with 24
• 1:33:53
  free agents. Yeah, some some pretty good
• 1:33:56
  draft picks coming up. The Vikings are picking, as of
• 1:33:59
  right now, Elevens. I expect them to move up like
• 1:34:03
  get a earlier pick and not move down in the draft, but that's
• 1:34:08
  that's a hot take for another day.
• 1:34:09
  It's a hot take. Yeah.
• 1:34:10
  We'll have to talk about that in future episodes.
• 1:34:13
  The the draft's not too far off. I mean, we're a couple months
• 1:34:16
  away. Yeah, couple months.
• 1:34:18
  So we'll definitely be talking about it.
• 1:34:21
  Yeah, coming up. But we probably better put the
• 1:34:24
  kibosh on this one we've been talking for.
• 1:34:26
  Yeah, quite a while. This might be our longest 1 yet.
• 1:34:29
  Could be, but perhaps our best one.
• 1:34:31
  Yeah, what'd you think of the Fire Trucker Iowa IPA?
• 1:34:35
  Mine is gone. Yours is completely gone.
• 1:34:37
  Mine's basically gone. I was just saving mine for the
• 1:34:41
  final score, which you didn't do.
• 1:34:43
  No, I'm sorry. But that's OK, We can still do
• 1:34:45
  it. And I'll finish.
• 1:34:47
  But no, I liked it. Really good.
• 1:34:49
  Solid solid IPA would have again would recommend to anybody out
• 1:34:54
  there looking for a good IPA from Iowa.
• 1:34:57
  And with that name, it's like it was made for our podcast.
• 1:35:01
  We can adopt it, Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:35:03
  Yeah. So fire trucker hit us up if you
• 1:35:06
  want us to have more of those, yeah.
• 1:35:08
  Oh yeah, 'cause we will. Oh, absolutely, we will.
• 1:35:11
  All right, man. Good conversation today.
• 1:35:13
  Good beer as always. Till next time.
• 1:35:15
  Till next time school. Hey Vikings fans, Evan here from
• 1:35:36
  the Skull Hop and we just wanted to say thank you again so much
• 1:35:39
  for listening to the Skull Hop. And we also wanted to take one
• 1:35:42
  more opportunity to let you know that this episode of The School
• 1:35:45
  Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures.
• 1:35:48
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• 1:36:12
  to the School Hop School.