Former Minnesota Vikings QB Sam Darnold is Super Bowl bound

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And let's talk about how we can grow your business together. Daily is Daily Vikings Entertainment. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. Okay, we're live on the Purple Daily YouTube channel here because there are so many things to talk about. I guess we could frame this, as we do every Monday in the offseason, as the latest Vikings news. So much Vikings news. And there's a bunch of things to comb through. The things we don't get to today, we can get to tomorrow and later in the week. But it feels like this would have been, like if you could have awakened Kevin O'Connell or Kwesi Dofa Mensah from a fever football dream at any point over the last 12 months. It feels like this is what it would have been, right? You're in a deep sleep. It's 145 in the morning. And oh my gosh, Sam Darnold, 350 yards, three touchdowns, no picks in an NFC title game. Drake May, we didn't have enough draft capital to go up and get Drake May. oh my god they're playing each other in a super bowl oh my god we're gonna get fired you wake up oh okay oh thank god thank god that wasn't real except it is real on this monday morning and we're gonna get to it here we'll see if the sports dad will apologize to sam darnold and his family and just and just for uh some fun too just part of the dream like fleeting but it felt like it is garrett bradbury the starting center for drake may no that can't be no now we've got too far Imagine. Oh, man, that would have been crazy. You know, it's not crazy starting your week at Quick Trip. Let's start out the right way. Starting your week there and starting it on the right foot because you know what? You go into Quick Trip, you don't have, you know what? You forgot breakfast or you just want to pick some up. Well, how about this? The $6 breakfast combo at Quick Trip, which is a breakfast sandwich. Two packs of hash browns. Who does not love hash browns? Any size Kruba coffee or Big Buddy as well. Again, $6. Now you're saying, Sports Dad, what about lunch? I'm going to tell you right now. The $7 lunch combo includes a variety of choices, quarter pound cheeseburger, wedges, mac and cheese. I could go on, but I don't need to go on because you need to go on right now and make that stop at Quick Trip. Quick Trip, of course, everything that you need, including the quality gasoline guarantee. But get that $6 breakfast combo. You can thank me later. Also, Federated Insurance is here for over 100 years, actually, for small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of America. They also work closely with next-generation business owners. So if you are taking over a family business or if you're a younger business owner and you want guided, trusted insurance infrastructure, Federated knows what they're doing. They can be that guiding hand for you and your company. Federated measures their success by the success of the clients that they work with. Find out more about Federated Mutual Insurance Company, where it's our business to protect yours at federatedinsurance.com. Latest Vikings news. Well, the latest Vikings news is Sam Darnold. It is not a fever dream, Vikings. Sam Darnold is a Super Bowl quarterback. in two weeks after throwing for over 300 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, a couple big-time dagger throws in the biggest game of his life. In two weeks, he will face off against the quarterback, the Vikings, based on all of the rumblings over the past year and a half, two years, desperately wanted in the 2024 draft, Drake May. So just on the Darnold front specifically, boys, I'll ask the same question I asked last week, which is, hey, Sam Darnold is now on the doorstep of the Super Bowl. What does it mean for the Vikings? How does it reflect? Well, now he's in the Super Bowl. How does this reflect on the Vikings? And is Judd going to apologize for doubting Sam Darnold these past 18 months? I actually have already done so in written form. So, yes, I will. In fact, you know what? Here it is. The Zolgant Substack. Don't know if you can see this. Getting the last laugh, Sam Darnold silences his critics and that includes me. So I had said Sam Darnold won't get to a Super Bowl. I had said that I had no problem with the Vikings moving on from him. I agreed with that, and I even had to write that down, that he would get benched at some point by the Seahawks in the 2025 campaign. So, yes, I am here to apologize. He has overachieved what I thought possible. I think the Vikings agreed to a certain point, but that's not the point. The point is accountability. And I am here to tell you right now, I am taking accountability for what Purple Daily has gotten basically everything wrong since the Rams lost in the playoffs. More importantly, Twins fan, 91-41. Unfortunately, so have the Vikings, and that's more important than us. Yeah, we're for entertainment purposes only. Because we don't run the team. They're not, yeah. But, I mean, if you want to send that to us, that's fine. but uh no i do apologize because i did not think he was i did not think he was capable and look that san francisco game i thought was a very darnold-esque performance with a very well coached well called game they relied on the run a lot they didn't rely you know sam did sam had the sort of shaky start and sam has had his shaky moments this season but i don't know how you can't watch yesterday's game and just be flat out impressed like the game was put on his shoulders and he didn't throw a pick what three touchdown passes uh basically you know went toe to toe uh with Stafford if you will so yes say I I didn't see that coming and what he did incredibly impressive congratulations uh because I certainly did not think that that was a possibility to have that type of game in that type of environment now i will say as a as an og darnold defender from almost two years ago when everybody mocked and ridiculed the signing there was there was one man standing alone in this market saying hey this dude might be able to to play and resurrect his career but if you fast forward where i will raise my hand as well i mean everyone on this show when it came down to the decision 12 months ago all right how confident and argue that this is repeatable enough at a higher price tag for you to continue forward with it and we all kind of said yeah it's it's not it's not a no-brainer but you've got this top 10 pick in the wings we we all kind of said actually if we could you know this is this is we're we were wrong but like if the vikings the vikings have built up enough credibility at that point 12 months ago where if they decide internally and Kevin O'Connell decides internally hey we're going to move off Darnold and we trust J.J. McCarthy to jump right in and this team can roll forward in 2025 then we kind of said yeah I mean he's earned that level of trust over the three years of being a head coach and now that we've seen the last 12 months that trust has eroded greatly but if we could unpack this going back to last year the Vikings I continue to look at it this way the Vikings made two big bets at quarterback they they bet number one that Sam Darnold it was it was not reliable enough after watching those last two games to project that he could repeat that high level of play and keep you on that contender level beyond 2025 at like a 30 million a year price tag they they bet that him getting paid more money and you hitching your franchise to sam donald for another year or two which is what it would have taken commitment commitment wise that he was not good enough for you to build a super bowl team around him obviously the seahawks have proven that to be false with their infrastructure and we can unpack that and then the second bet they made was that jj mccarthy would be immediately good and healthy enough to step right in and keep the Vikings on that contender level now that second bet is actually still alive going forward because he's 20 just turned 23 he's under contract the immediate payoff was not there uh but if I could continue the gambling analogy it's like the Vikings were sitting at the Sam Darnold blackjack table they were running hot Dex you're a blackjack guy yeah right back in your day I actually I was just a fun fact all the bond films just got released on netflix which is great so uh yesterday morning before football started i turned on casino royale is like one of my all-time favorites so i was watching i was watching that i was watching the poker with le sharif and uh and james bond the craziest poker hands of all time everyone has like a straight flush or a royal flick um but they were sitting at the sam darnold blackjack table running hot and they said oh man like we should just cash out now this is crazy like there's let's just cash out now. We're on a heater. So they cash out, and then the Seahawks come walking up and sit in their exact spot at the Sam Darnold blackjack table, and the heater blasts off even more. It's like they triple their money, and you're like, oh my god. And the Vikings went to the J.J. McCarthy blackjack table, and at least in year one, went broke. That's pretty much what happened over these past 12 months. And I think if you're ownership right now, if you're Mark and Ziggy Wilf and company, first off, you should be looking in the mirror and reflecting on your own 20 years of ownership and why you can't even get to the playoffs and back-to-back seasons, let alone compete for a Superbowl more than twice in 20 years. But you should be pissed this morning. You're literally watching the guy you let walk out the door for nothing. And we had these conversations about franchise tagging him to a year ago. And I said, well, you can't run the risk of locking him in for $50 million. Then you wouldn't be able to go sign Will fries and free agency. and so yeah the commenter kind of getting on us for being wrong about everything the last 12 months and like that's a point well taken but more importantly as judge said if you're a wilf right now you're looking at everyone that you employ to run this thing from front office down to coaching staff and the amount of things that they misgaged and got wrong over this period and that's the alarming part where where do we think the vikings are at let's just say they had stuck with sam So are we talking about them this morning going to a Super Bowl? Where do you think Darnold would have fit into the ethos, to the structure? That's the Vikings. Yeah, that is definitely something to unpack because I think we had a conversation last week that was kind of, well, the Vikings, the way that they run their offense and the way that Kevin O'Connell doesn't commit to the running game, the Vikings wouldn't have gone to the Super Bowl with Sam Darnold or even people saying that like well the Seattle Seahawks infrastructure is just better and uh and well they have a better front office with John Schneider all these things but if you start to go through the checklist that Seattle brought to the table here how many of these things are inherent infrastructure issues where the Vikings just aren't on Seattle's level versus choices and strategies that the Seahawks deployed around Sam Darnold to get that team into this position. What does Seattle have that the Vikings don't have? Let's just go through a few things on the checklist. Seattle has a top five defense. Oh, the Vikings have a top five defense, right? I mean, they had a top five defense a year ago. Yes, yes. That side of the ball is probably slight advantage right now, Seattle, but that's not a clear-cut problem for the Vikings. No question. Weapons in the passing game. I mean, Jackson Smith and Jigba had a huge season. Well, Justin Jefferson is maybe better than Jackson Smith and Jigba if you give him Sam Darnold or a quarterback that's better. So in terms of weapons to throw to, the Vikings are right there on that level. Offensive line, I mean, the Seahawks are running out. They've got dudes like Jalen Sundell, I think, was undrafted. That's Jeremiah Searles' guy out of NDSU. He's their starting center. So the Seahawks brought a guy that was not a highly touted draft prospect through their development pipeline, plugged him in as the starting center, and away we go. Well, the Vikings have drafted Michael Juergens in the later rounds, and they've got rid of Garrett Bradbury. They've been playing musical chairs at center. Did the Seahawks just get lucky? Or are the Vikings unable to? They took a risk on Ryan Kelly. they bailed on gare bradbury who's a super bowl center now with with drake may so when it comes to the offensive line i don't know that seattle has a dominant offensive line it's good enough obviously to get them to the super bowl here in this case uh the vikings have had two of the best tackles in the nfl so i'm not sure there's like a huge gap in terms of personnel on the offensive line maybe in terms of the way that they are being organized and coached and schematically uh the run game it's funny because the vikings actually averaged more yards per carry in the run game than seattle did this year but guess what seattle did they pounded the run more frequently they stuck to it yeah when they take a lead they grind you into dust by just running the football running the football and now you're getting and and with that that's where you're you're getting to what i think are some of the biggest especially key moments for sam uh and this is not an issue on Sunday in the conference championship game, but that's where one of the biggest differences lie. Like, my question is, if that's the Vikings playing San Fran and Sam, you know, on that first drive, shorts out, they go for it on fourth down and Sam shorts out, what do the Vikings do? Like, that's my question. Because Clint Kubiak just said, oh, okay, that's fine, cool. You know what? We'll run the ball. And literally spun that game back in his team's favor by doing that. And so this is getting to the heart of what I think are some of the issues. And to your point, play-calling mix and just tempo and feel for what's happening, Seattle had the second highest run percentage of any team in the NFL from a play-calling mix. And obviously when you have bigger leads in the second half because your defense is great, but the Vikings have had a lot of leads over the years with Kevin O'Connell, and they still over a four-year sample size with 13-win season. Now, a lot of close games to get to some of those wins, but philosophically the Seahawks have been more willing to stick to a run game, thus eliminating some of the bad Sam Darnold plays and possibilities. And then I think the number one thing on the checkbox too that needs to be discussed is when it came down to the end of the regular season, this is week 18. If you win this game, you are the one seed. You don't have to play wildcard weekend. And then you host the other two games in your building in the NFC bracket. If you lose this game, you're the five seed, and you have to go on the road immediately starting the next week. The Seahawks won that game in Week 18, got the bye week, got to rest up. Darnold got an extra week to rest the oblique that he tweaked or whatever in a practice, or maybe he tweaked it during that off period, whatever. They got the extra week. The Vikings lose that game to Detroit in Week 18 for a bunch of different reasons. Some of it, Darnold, dude, hit a wide-open receiver in the end zone. Some of it's on Darnold. Some of it's on the coach. Mixing a water once in a while in the red zone. So getting that number one seed helped them. Would they have gone through the road three different times if they lose that week 18? Would they still be in the Super Bowl? I don't think so. I don't think they would. So like all those factors, it's not, to me, when you list all those factors, there's not like two of them that were unattainable for the Vikings. some of them Seattle was just dialed in more in certain places and uh and made the right decisions play calling mix got the big win in week 18 etc I think for me because I there's a lot of conflicting fans on on this and you know people I think are also conflicted Vikings fans are conflicted on do they want to root for Darnold do they not want to root for Darnold and I keep coming back to the same thing. I am much more upset, and maybe it's misguided, but I am much more upset with how Kevin O'Connell used Sam Darnold in the last two games of the season and watching him play for Seattle now throughout this entire regular season and postseason run that where my anger goes I don I don want to see Sam Darnold fail you know I there are I think a faction of Vikings fans I would love to see him you know go down his leg again maybe on in the Super Bowl I'm not one of those uh I'm more upset with the fact that they had two games that were winnable and one that had bigger consequences with it with not getting the seed but the way koC used him and then it's continued with the way the Vikings still tried to play in 2026 without sam or 2025 without sam darnold i i put much more blame on the coaching staff than anything else um and and there's a there is a pie chart of blame right of who is the blame for letting sam darnold walk out the door it's kwacy it's koC it's darnold himself it's the free agents decisions it's the misguided uh draft picks that they've made there's a bunch of things in a pie chart there. But for me, the number one sticking point is KOC. It's maddening watching what he did with Seattle because I think KOC should have the opportunity to do that and he doesn't do it. Let's go to the Rams in particular too. Because while the rounds that the teams played them in were certainly different, it's an apples to apples. It's playoffs, you lose, you're done. And to Declan's point too, because I do think so, I still will, I will go to my grave saying Kevin O'Connell could have called a way better game if the Vikings had run the ball in Detroit but Darnold was unplayably bad as well that was an awful game I don't think the Rams playoff game is the same I've always said that I pin that as much on Kevin as I did on Sam Sam struggled but he got zero help but when you talk about this game I think it's fair to say that that you know the Rams in a year's time it's not like they changed immensely they they still had, they did change a little bit in how they certainly approached the game itself, play call wise, but you know, a lot of the personnel was the same Matthew Stafford, a quarterback in both games. And that's where I've got some problems, is when you look at those games, I mean, Sam Darnold got sacked nine times against the Rams in the first round playoff game. And were those, were zero of those sacks his fault? No, he was at fault for some of them. It was like five, by the way, the official tally of the O-line committee tally of how many were his fault. But at the end of the day, when you look at that and McVay in that game flat out, and we've talked about that the Rams basically punted on their last game of the regular season. McVay didn't care where the seed was. They were in the playoffs. And he basically said, I'm going to spend all my time preparing for O'Connell and the Vikings. And he did and put on a master class. But, you know, this was the NFC Championship game. And Mike McDonald and Clint Kubiak and his crew put together a game plan that was great, fantastic. And to me, it shines even bigger light on just overall, too, not just the quarterback play, how badly Kevin O'Connell got outcoached by his mentor in Sean McVay in that game. and that's that's concerning because like those playoff games they're different they're different you know if you can get the first round by home field that's awesome and the Vikings had that chance and they blew it but then you go to a neutral site because of the fires at the time in California and you play in Arizona and so it's a neutral site game and you didn't have a clue it look like as far as what you were doing against McVay. And McVay is very good. I'm not saying he's not. But the reality is then we saw on Sunday, Mike McDonald and his team put together a great game plan. And it was a great game. But that's where I guess I get more stuck now on the apples to apples comparison of what happened in those Rams games as far as what you looked like, what your approach was, what Seattle's was and and the common denominator for the two teams obviously is Sam Darnold yeah do you let me ask you guys this if the if the Vikings had beat the Lions in week 18 last year to get the one seed the bye and then you start a home game in the divisional round against the Washington Washington commanders by the way which like obviously that team that team went into Detroit put up 45 points on a rickety defense that was missing like 14 guys but if the vikings beat the lions in week 18 do you think they get to at least the nfc championship game do you think they beat the commanders at home because i do like i think they would there's no way the commanders put up 45 points on that yeah at us bank's him against that sure yeah yes okay yeah yeah very plausible and then the commanders went had to go into philadelphia philadelphia would have had to come to u.s bank stadium it would have been the first time the vikings hosted an nfc championship game since 1998 pretty sure because the other ones were at new york in 2009 new orleans and then and then at philadelphia yep and that that game becomes a little more coin flippy because you're going up against like peak tush push eagles but if if if that game against detroit was was that high leverage of a game where it actually may have created your path to a super bowl with sam darnold a year ago if you dig back into that game and i get it like i agree on the o'connell front dude read the room your quarterback is having a hard time in this game call a run play in the red zone once in a while but Darnold himself like okay we're gonna put this on your plate you've you've you've handled this to this point we had you on your show on our shoulders a week and a half ago against you know when we beat Green Bay so he winds up going 18 for 41 in that game against the Lions biggest game of his life at the time 18 of 41 for only 166 yards four yards per pass attempt and specifically on passes over 10 yards in that game against the lions he went two for 12 on balls traveling 10 yards or more in the air and some of those were red zone sales as well so yes like if your quarterback is struggling you got to have a gear that you can switch to as a play caller and Kevin O'Connell deserves a ton of criticism for that but also Sam Darnold in that instance completely wet himself and did the opposite in in the biggest game of his life against the rams yesterday he right i mean they put a bunch on his plate and he delivered time and time again on chunk throws down the field he played his ass off yesterday yeah and he melted a year ago some of this is like people didn't properly get to the conclusion that was correct which is just because he struggled in those two big games doesn't mean that he's forever going to struggle in big games but like that's what he was labeled oh he well he's he melts and he sucks and he's two for 12 and then he struggled against the rams therefore he can never be good in big games ever again and that that clearly wasn't factored enough into the equation for whether the vikings or even even us sports dad on this show so but here's the question off that game when early on And when he shows signs of it's almost too big a stage, right? The parallel is Seattle, San Francisco. Like on fourth down, I don't know what he was doing, but what did the adult in the room do? He just pulled back the reins. He's like, okay, that's fine. We got a run game. We'll work around that. I mean, Sam Darnold's performance against the Niners, incredibly pedestrian, which is what you needed against Detroit. Right. So, so like I, as I said a couple of weeks ago, Sam Darnold for, for his purposes, he is a very blessed man that the Vikings allowed him to walk because he found a, he found a perfect fit. But I mean, I, when he threw that ball on the Seahawks first drive on fourth down against San Fran, I thought to myself, here we go, here we go. And the Seahawks said, no, no, no, no, we got this. We know what to do here. And so let's just say the start of that Detroit game, same thing. But instead of saying, you know what, damn it, we got to pass, pass, pass, pass. And if it doesn't work with the run, we're going to abandon it immediately. You know, could you have pulled that back? Because as great as he was on Sunday, he definitely has gotten help from the play callers in Seattle. But there's no crime in that. That's no sin. Good for him. so if like to bring this full circle if if the question is could the vikings have won a super bowl or gone to a super bowl with sam darnall either a year ago or if they had kept him like this year we call it like a three-year four-year window if your answer is no i think the why is super important because if if it's like a roster why okay like quasi what are we what are we doing and maybe it's a big pie chart. It's probably a bunch of whys. If it's a Kevin O'Connell play-calling mix, unable to mix in a water, so to speak, but the Seahawks just proved you absolutely can go to a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold. And if part of your math on letting him go was, hey, he's just not that guy. He's just not a guy, you know. We know he's not Patrick Mahomes, but we also just don't think. We think there's a chip in his brain that will not allow him to perform at a level needed in the biggest games. that is squashed after yesterday and so the like the vikings just have a lot of soul searching to do here as they get into this three or four month stretch between now and the end of the draft season i have a hottest take on darnold i can deliver here okay yeah we do it presented by uh standard heating and air conditioning perhaps that's right so standard heating who live at declan's house right they just they're here every week uh they they checked out my hvac system on thursday tip Top shape. Everything's looking great. It's working efficiently. It's been obviously still freezing in the Twin Cities. I'm glad I got that peace of mind. I'm glad they're taking care of it because I'm not DIYing it. And if you need your HVAC system looked at, it looks like by next week, it's going to be like in the 20s and 30s, so I'll be wearing shorts again. But in that time, make sure you get your HVAC system looked at. In the event, it may be on the fritz or not working so well over the last week here in the Twin Cities where it's been absolutely freezing cold. So go contact Standard Heating and tell them that Purple Daily sent you. Also, Roku is the official sports watching TV of Purple Daily. Roku TVs are very versatile. They're very good also at recommending various sporting events, movies, and TV shows that you may enjoy. And you can even turn them into artwork. You can upload your favorite pictures and videos to these Roku TVs. Turn it into a gallery with the Backdrops app. browse famous artists, photographers, personal photos, whatever it may be. One more football game to watch on the old Roku TV. It's always a sad time, but it's going to be a big one here in a couple weeks. Better TV for everyone with Roku, America's number one streaming platform. Go to Roku.com to learn more or shop at a retailer near you. I don't know if the big game numbers are on underdog yet, Dex, but soon they will be if they're not already. Yeah. Oh, man. Yesterday. I don't know why I didn't do it. I had a three-pick-em thing going, and I almost took Stafford rushing yards because it was .5. He doesn't rush. He doesn't move. He's a statue. And, of course, that guy took off like five times, had like 20 rushing yards. I just miss out. And that's the breaks at underdogs sometimes. I'll let the audience show me how they win their money instead. So sign up with promo code SCORE. Yeah, the big game coming up. Plenty of different things to get in on there. I'm riding higher, lower on so many different categories. So if you haven't already, with the big game coming up and boosts and tokens and so many fun things, go sign up with Underdog with promo code SCORE. All right, what is your hottest take here, Dex? All right, my hottest Vikings take is this. If Sam Darnold was the quarterback of the 2025 Vikings, okay, so he's healthy all year, and we get to play out the same type of things against the same teams that we saw, I think the Vikings were exactly where they'd be at the same spot with J.J. McCarthy, which is a nine-win team. I don't think they make the playoffs. I don't think they get a miraculous run to the Super Bowl. I don't think that they get a one seed. Even with some of the worst, the worst quarterback play, which the Vikings had in 2025, I think KOC doesn't change his ways. Is there going to be some games where, or even a stat line where Darnold still throws for maybe like 4,000 yards and pushes the ball down the field and has better connections with that ADOT that KOC loves? In three of some of the most important games, I'm going to remove just the NFC title game just for this conversation. It was a big part of Darnold, and I'm not discrediting it. But in the divisional game against San Francisco, 12 of 17, 124 yards, a touchdown. With the number one seed on the line, again, in the regular season finale, Sam Darnold, 20 of 26, 198, no touchdowns, no interceptions. Are you telling me that in the biggest games, Kevin O'Connell would have his quarterback throwing for less than 200 yards and controlling the game and being a manager? I don't think so. I really don't. And game flow dictates things for sure. But if Sam Darnold was the quarterback and with those roster, so has so many different holes they have to fill and fix, which they have missed in the draft and they have missed addressed in free agency, I think they're right back where they are right now, which is a nine-win team and a team that didn't make the playoffs. That's my hottest take. I don't disagree on the playoff run thing for all the reasons we talked about in some of these like punch you in the mouth games. But if the Vikings finished with nine wins and had statistically bottom three, bottom five, if we're being generous quarterback play, and Sam Darnold at worst is giving you top 15, top 10 quarterback play on the season. And with Kevin O'Connell's system and still some roster flaws the year before, they won 14 games and he was like top six, top seven quarterback productivity. I disagree on capping out at nine wins. I think if you were to swap out Darnold for the hodgepodge of bad quarterback play the Vikings had this year, you're at least winning 11 games, which means you're winning the division, which means if you're not the one seed, which you probably wouldn't have been because of those NFC West teams, you're at least like the two seed or the three seed hosting a home playoff game in the wildcard round. The playoff thing, like, we've kind of dissected it, point well taken, but I think to say that they would only have won nine games despite having drastically better quarterback play is where I disagree. Yeah, I think they would have made the playoffs, but I get Declan's point, and I don't disagree. And I would be curious to know, too, like in retrospect, were the Darnold meltdowns, so there were two at the end of the season last year, but there also were a few, that Jets game, the Jacksonville game, which they won, but he was absolutely unplayably bad. were though were those a product of something he has completely overcome now or were those a product also of the play calling and so like if you put him back in that exact environment that that he would run into some of the same problems might not be as bad but like the san francisco game that stat line does not say oh seattle won that game for sure right uh no question about it so i would be curious how much of it also has to do with him just being put in an environment that works really well for him uh i'm sure there's been some growth there i'm not saying that there has not been but i don't think that you can discount what again the last offensive coordinator before o'connell came here clint kubiak of the minnesota vikings it's another one did for darn oh the connections are incredible they're they're but but i do wonder about that how much did he just flat out grow out of those struggles and how much of them were also managed very well as opposed to what took place here yeah do you have any defense for the we both we both disagree that he would he would have won more than nine games because he would have been like a top 15 quarterback in the league i don't know i i don't i think it's so difficult to also just like say all right all these games that happened because they were four and eight right after after the first 12 games that they played this season. I think it's, I think there's too many holes on this roster and KOC is too stubborn. I think that I, I, I don't think that they win at win 11 games. I don't think that they're in the playoffs. No, I, I don't think that they they're there. There were a ton of close games though. And I just think, I mean, I'll give you a one guy alone. I just think Darnold throwing to Jefferson gets you there. Like, like when you look at Justin season for him, it was horrific. Like it was It was terrible. He barely got to 1,000 yards because he couldn't get the football. And if you do go back and look, I will say this. Look at the games in which there was spotty QB play, and look at some of the scores. Like, it wasn't like they got blown out, partially because the defense was damn good, right? But, I mean, let's just go back and reverse some of those games. For instance Baltimore Let say KLC calls the exact same game that he called for McCarthy against Baltimore with Darnold okay I think the Vikings win Absolutely. And look, that game plan was not great. I mean, what? I think we counted 48 dropbacks, including the sacks and scrambles. It was ridiculous. But that being said, I think that they win that game. I think that you probably have a good chance to win the Carson Wentz, if I'm not mistaken, started Philadelphia game. But I just think that Justin Jefferson alone wills you there because he would have got the ball thrown his way competently enough to catch the football. MNTwins28 chiming in. Let's end the narrative that the Vikings let Sam Darnold walk. They offered him a contract. He chose to leave, period. There are some conflicting reports about the level of contract that they offered. I think Pellicero went on some platform recently and said that they did offer him a comparable contract to the one that the Seahawks did, which surprises me if that's true. But I think the biggest thing was, because there's no way that they would have offered him that contract and not told him that you are the bona fide starter going forward. So I guess I'll stop there. If the Vikings offered him a comparable, if they didn't offer him a comparable contract, it was a fake offer and like they just did it out of courtesy right which is what i think happened if they did offer him a comparable contract they would also then have told him at that price tag you are the starter over jj mccarthy there's no competition here because it would be foolish to commit like 30 plus million dollars to someone that you don't think is going to be your starter in week one so would he then have just flat out chosen the seahawks over a vikings infrastructure that brought him to 14 wins i mean he he loved it here and i think was sort of heartbroken that they didn't he understood it was a business thing but from some of the rumblings i think there was a coping period there for him that he wasn't going to come back so i'm not sure how much i buy the well the vikings offered him a contract i don't i don't know if they offered him everything that seattle offered including like you're the number one unquestioned franchise quarterback starter and that was probably at the end of the day the most important thing but let's keep in mind to go back and look the seattle contract i i mean it it's it's glossy it looks good it created a one year bailout for the seahawks yeah there's no there's no guaranteed money on that thing yeah in 2025 so do not make the mistake of saying they offered him an ironclad this was not the cousins 84 million entirely guaranteed contract seattle had questions too so so this was not a hey seattle We see it, baby. We're giving you three years, and you are our guy for three years. There is a team option attached to that contract that will come up now. So that is incredibly intriguing because it does speak to, hey, we think you're good. We need to see it. Now they've seen it, and my guess is he gets a new contract again now, to Phil's point, more guaranteed money. But all of that being said, yeah, the Vikings made some type of attempt. but you know what too i mean it also who knows i i'm with you i think they offered him a contract because you know what dude you've been great and everybody looked around too and said but mccarthy's gonna start here soon right and jones bailed and i think the vikings would tell you i think still that jones bailing was a far or i know this jones bailing was the surprise like it was not Darnold bailed I can't believe it so whatever transpired there contractually they had put their eggs in the basket of we're going to at least keep one of these two and I think that they had decided because of circumstances it was going to be Daniel Jones because Jones was going to be about half the price or even less than half the price of of Sam Darnold we've had a bunch of people ask us over the last couple weeks okay like what would it have looked like if they had kept Darnold and then what would you have had to sacrifice and to what extent would that have affected the team if you go back and kind of just let's reverse course on the last 12 months, pick a different, choose your adventure path. And there's two ways that the Vikings could have kept Sam Darnold. They could have done the Seahawks deal, which was like $33 million a year. It was like three years, $100 million. They could have done that contract with kind of an out after the first year if you're not feeling it. They also could have franchise tagged him for around $50 million, if I recall last year's franchise tag number. Of course, if he says yes to that, it's a $50 million cap hit for 2025. So they would have been stuck on that $50 million number. Well, the Seahawks contract, the way that they did it, and this is how almost all long-term contracts of three years or more go, you give a guy a signing bonus, you prorate the signing bonus from an accounting standpoint, and the first year cap hit is way less than the average annual value. So he's getting $33 million a year in terms of AAV, but the Seahawks cap hit for this year on Darnold was just $13.5 million. Now, it's $45 million in 2027, and so if you had done, let's just start with everything remains the same, except you add the Sam Darnold contract to the Vikings cap sheet 2025 26 27 well the Vikings had 15 million dollars in unused cap space for 2025 so technically you could have fit the 13 and a half million dollar cap number under for 2025 and had a little breathing room there to roll over. The problem with that is in 2026, you take away the $15 million in unused or in rollover cap space. They would be going into this off season, $65 million over the salary cap with a bunch of cuts on the horizon. And I believe they'd be stuck close to that cap because his cap number in 27 is $45 million. The Vikings are currently $43 million over. so two years out you'd be over the 2027 cap as well so it would have been kind of a all-in 2025 and then start hacking away at that roster into right now basically going into 2026 and go back to march though as well and and look again guilty as charged okay but if you go back to march and you think about like like they're in retrospect now why didn't you keep darnold and not sign what one of those two defensive tackles you know will fries was not great you paid him a boatload but again i was i was like yeah this is this fantastic you're filling holes you're filling holes and and and you know we all thought if mccarthy is just good enough like he doesn't have to be montana if he's just good enough this team can be a playoff team but in retrospect now a lot of those guys it feels like that we were excited about that came in free agency didn't come close to living up to their billing. And now it's like, hold on a second. You could have kept Darnold for this. So I am curious. So like we can talk about this and be wrong and we're not going to probably get fired for it. I am curious about how much what's transpiring in real time right now from a football standpoint affects the Wilfs thinking. Like it's one thing to be like, well, we missed the playoffs. McCarthy wasn't good. Incredibly disappointing. But you know what? It's fine. Well, but then now on Sunday, they're football fans. They're sitting there watching Sammy D slinging around Lumen Field. And they're saying, wow, like there's a lot. There's a lot of things now transpiring in these playoffs. Garrett Bradbury, hold on a second. You're going to a Super Bowl with the Patriots. There's a lot of things transpiring right now that I just think I would be interested to know if the Wilfs thinking about their current structure has been altered by the fact that you can't help but see the success of guys who either were let go from here because of salary potentially or in a case like Bradbury, you just thought they're not good enough. Like you literally just said, see you later, bye. We all agreed with that at the time. And now he's snapping a Drake May and he's going to a Super Bowl. Yeah. Well, you're not the only one scratching your head about this inside the building. Anybody got any Vikings news? No. Got a Jonathan Grenard tweet that came across last night. Yeah. Very simple. So that game ends. Sam Darnold is, by the way, every time he was asked to about, hey, your journey to get here, basically you used to be so bad and now you're so good. What happened? Michael Strahan trying to get it out of him. And every single time he shut it down, he's like, I don't, that's not relevant to me. I love my guys. I love my teammates. He's just kind of a one-track mind cyborg. Love that. But Jonathan Grenard, after the game was over, tweeted dot, dot, dot. What did you guys make of that? Dex? I have no idea. So I'd be curious. You have no idea what to make of it or what it means? I have no idea what he meant. Like, what's he saying? It's kind of a – if I could give a look, it would be like – the dot, dot, dot is like – Really? yeah really okay okay so and ellipses is like uh okay yeah it's like a gotcha yeah it's like a feeling it's like a hmm you can fill in you can fill in the lack of words kind of a kind of a thing you should also add the context of he replied to the gif with uh trevor noah like looking over his shoulder there's a there's a tweet back underneath that too so it's more than just the ellipses i would have appreciated just the ellipses of no no gift backs we could actually really, you know, grab bag of what the hell this means. I think it means you let Sam Darnold walk out the door. Yeah. I think it's pretty obvious to me. I think that has to be what it is. I agree. Okay. I will then further this with his skepticism about his employer. Jonathan Grenard has no guaranteed money left. Does this drive a deeper wedge where Grenard is not back with the 2026 Vikings? Yeah. Yeah, it could. it could also this all could just be maybe there's conversations already happening and he kind of knows that i'm just speculating here maybe he kind of knows there's a chance he's on the way out and so he feels a little bit more freedom to clap and chirp in this way um there's some there's some other interesting stuff brewing here from the weekend keep going i love vikings news so charlie Walters, longtime plugged in OG columnist from the Pioneer Press, TwinCities.com. And he's known for his notebook columns where a little birdie told me this. Don't print that. It's a little rumors. He's kind of an OG of reckless speculation, really. Reckless speculation. You might say. And he reported over the weekend in the Pioneer Press, it was to no one's surprise that Vikings general manager Kwesi Adolfa Mensah and coach Kevin O'Connell made it public recently that they intend to bring in a veteran quarterback to compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting job. That veteran, whoever it is, is expected to be the starter, not McCarthy. The reason Daniel Jones signed with the Colts last year rather than re-sign with the Vikings is he figured he had a better chance at winning the starting job in Indy than in Minnesota. Next time, though, he's saying the Vikings have learned from that framing. McCarthy will have to beat out his competitor, not be handed the starting job. Your thoughts? Okay, so like this comes off as like, whoa, really? But I'm not really surprised because as Shooter does, I think he brings this up in a note a couple down from that. you know the expectation is there's a very good chance it's Kirk Cousins and I don't know that you're going to get Kirk to come here if you're like dude you're going to be a backup and I also think that because of the well and it continues to get worse because of how things operated this past season with a lot of guys saying I don't know that I want to be there I would not be surprised at all if they say on the first day of training camp like you like like you're the starter and McCarthy. Now, now do I think, I think the more important question is would they say that flat out and there's not going to be a competition? Cause that to me would be like, Oh wow. Okay. Now you're bailing for 2026. If it's framed up as, Hey Kirk, if you come back here, you're starting. And, and, but McCarthy's going to, McCarthy is going to get first team reps as well. And, and he's at least going to compete. If I found out that they were not offering McCarthy really a chance to compete and like he was the second team reps guy i think i would be more shocked this this this to me is almost sort of semantics because they probably don't want to frame this as you're coming here as a backup and then have the guy be like well then i'm not coming there right yeah so i think it's more like i i wouldn't be surprised if charlie's right but i think it's more semantics i think where we would have an issue is if they literally said jj mccarthy is the backup and he will not be competing for the starting job that would be surprising to me and also just I know people are out on McCarthy and he's garbage and you've seen enough after he's just turned 23 but you've seen enough I know that that is the prevailing opinion on J.J. McCarthy but it's it's kind of ironic to watch Sam Darnold needing like six years and I'm not saying you should wait six years on McCarthy just to be clear but we just watched the ultimate case of why impatience or or incompetence at that position is more of a problem than like the guy himself I mean Sam Darnold that player's been in there the whole time and it just took a different circumstances to draw it out maybe it was Kyle Shanahan that unlocked it when he was a backup in San Francisco but it's interesting to me that a lot of people out of emotion and anger are just refusing to acknowledge the possibility which is not zero that McCarthy does take a big step at age 23 this season and so where I'm at is and we'll get to the the latest Joe Burrow thing too if it's Joe Burrow and I know that yep we're just gonna make a grapefruits on the table move for an all-time talent and we're just gonna upgrade unquestionably cool I'm in but if you're gonna like I'm all I'm I'm all for Kirk coming in as a backup. And if, listen, if JJ is terrible this summer, all right, whatever. Like you got a guy that can come in here and be competent. But if it's anything below Joe Burrow, you're better off to me allowing the possibility of your top 10 overall pick to blossom in 2026 before you let fear take over and cap yourself with a limited, you know, 22nd best quarterback in the NFL. That's not going to be here long-term, but it raises your floor. and also ruins your 2027 draft stock. Like, I'd rather just see McCarthy. Just give him all the reps in the summer and see what happens. So, again, I don't disagree with what you're saying, but thinking like the Vikings think, I think that they will have – I think they will be instructed, the O'Connells and Kwases of the world, to have a competition. And they got caught so badly with their pants down as well that this is going to play a role. but yeah like there is a case to be made that if it's Burrow McCarthy's in the trade and he's just gone but I guess and I guess what I'm saying is I agree on the pants down thing and that's going to influence this if I'm the ownership I would tell them unless you can get Joe Burrow which is a much better pair of pants then and go get a go get a backup that's competent but you're going to have to operate with your pants down now like you're going to have to operate with yeah McCarthy you've You've laid in the bed of J.J. McCarthy. Yep. Let's see it. Let's see what happens. But that's not how, unfortunately, unless you are impatient, in which case it's fortunately, that's not how the Wilfs think. Like, I don't disagree with your sentiment, but I don't think that that's how they ever think. I think that they think if we had Darnold, we'd be a playoff team. I mean, they might be delusional enough to say we'd be going to the Super Bowl, but they would err more on that side than they would on your side. but it's also you know you know what to the Darnold thing is it's got so many layers but one of the most interesting things in my opinion is there are like like we joke about or talk about the Jets are just a mess but when you look at the fact that yes Darnold struggled yes he was young so there's so that goes on him a little bit or somewhat but like this is a classic like example of the dumpster fire nature you go from the jets to carolina which by the way had sam darnold and baker mayfield neither of whom a bad qb in their building and bungled that huge right And even the number one pick Bryce Young has kind of been bungled but they getting just enough out of him And then he gets, and I think, so if I had to bet on the amount of times next week that we're going to see or read or watch Darnold stories, if I have to bet on the amount of times the Vikings or Niners will be mentioned, I'm taking the Niners. I think the Niners are going to get a lot of credit here. I already thought that we saw that on the Fox telecast, and I'm sure that those guys sat down with Darnold. I think Darnold's given a lot of credit to San Francisco and that year. And I think the Vikings are getting mentioned, but I think that we also probably put too much stock in what O'Connell did, and we did talk about what Shanahan did. But we are seeing, like, the dumpster fire nature and what happens when you get out of those predicaments to actually grow as opposed to stagnate because you're getting really zero help, which I guarantee you the Jets gave him zero help. Latest Vikings news. Can't play our stuff and then his because, I mean, he's got such good pipes. It blows us away. Showing us up. I sound like I'm 12. Got any Vikings news? And then he comes in. Bang. Brady LaRock. uh so over the weekend we had a second joe burrow report and i'll put it in air quotes here because there's some skepticism over the credibility of walter football's reporting long time og nfl internet mock draft when did wally football start breaking news that's what i want to know we used to we used to sort of poke fun at his mock drafts so on friday's feedback friday episode we brought the Grant Cohn. He's a 49ers media guy. Got a big YouTube channel, si.com, kind of the local affiliate. And he said, to refresh everyone's memories, that the Vikings are not rebuilding according to a Vikings-related source of his. They want to get right back into contention. And so they're planning to offer J.J. McCarthy, Jonathan Grenard, and two first-round picks to Cincinnati for Joe Burrow. And if the Bengals say no, they might go out and get Kirk Cousins, bring him back. So he's saying they're planning to offer those pieces to the Bengals. Well, Walter Football came on in here over the weekend. This comes rolling in the room. I think it was on Friday or Saturday. And he says, just heard from a source that the Vikings reached out to the Bengals to trade for Joe Burrow in past tense, that this is a conversation that maybe already happened. And the asking price was too high. The Bengals wanted multiple first-round picks, a defensive player, and J.J. McCarthy. So a couple things of note here. Unless Grant Cohn and Walter Football, not exactly the Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport of breaking football news here, somewhere further down the pecking order, unless those guys are like conspiring together with this information if but where my interest is peaked is like these guys have not saying they're like super credible reporters but they've like had football platforms for a long time and they probably do talk to people if they both came across this information independently with independent sourcing i think it's kind of interesting because it's they're essentially reporting the same pieces mccarthy defensive a player, Grenard, and multiple or two or more first-round picks from the Vikings to the Bengals. But Grant Cohen is saying the Vikings are planning to do this, as if they would offer that and be happy if the Bengals said yes. And Walter Football is saying that the Bengals asked for those things and the Vikings deemed that the price was too high. So that's where there's a disconnect. By the way, if that's the asking price, I'm in. Well, I was going to say, so the Wally football thing that slows me down is that's not too high. Like, if you want Joe Burrow, that's not too high. I think it's McCarthy, a defensive player. Okay, whatever. And at least three first-round picks. For Joe Burrow? Like, if the Vikings called and drew a line, like, let's just hypothetically play this out, okay? So Kwesi calls the Bengals. Hey, what's up? Bengals and my bosses are breathing down my neck about this situation I want Joe Burrow and you're gonna tell me that they're gonna draw two two first round picks is it like I don't think you call if you make that call if you have the home knows the gonads to make that phone call I don't think you call with uh here's what we're willing to do and that's it I mean yeah that's where there's a it would feel like that's the that's about the asking price for burrow it's i would think i was gonna say two first round picks seems light it's got to be i agree and some other things called play i mean russell wilson was like wasn't it two firsts maybe three and then some other picks and also no offense and one or two other players on that broncos like from the seahawks and that was russell wilson at the time who was aging he was aging uh you could probably argue that his peak was joe burrow ask like the numbers he would put up but um now maybe teams have learned from that and have reduced what they're willing to to give up but it's i just find it i'm again not saying walter football and grant cone are uh the peter schrager tom pellicero dan graziano diana racini of nfl inciting here but to come to very similar information if if it's separately acquired information feels like where there's smoke there's some fire layer in the fact that the vikings are going through this quarterback internal crisis here watching all this play out desperation mode oh yeah probably yes i agree with this there's just a lot of pieces to the recipe here that makes some sense i you know i have no idea if if you know the offers are being made now because like you've got the senior bowl you've got the combine that's ordinarily where teams start to talk but that being said if you were to tell me at the at you know in april the vikings have made phone calls on joe burrow uh matthew stafford take your pick of potential available guys none of it none of it would surprise me zero super interesting super interesting Walter football. Love Wally. Right. I just want to know when Wally got involved in the Vikings news. Breaking news game. Well, you've been around and have broken a lot of news yourself in the day. For the people that are just outright clowning these two reports from Walter football and Grant Cohn as being like totally ridiculous, what would you say? Do you think that there's a chance these are just like somehow completely pulled from like independently both of them are somehow just 100% wrong on the same information or similar information. I think Wally football has nothing to lose, but on Grant Cohn, like he is a reporter. He covers the, like, if he was found to be making stuff up, he's not going to keep his job. And so I would say, I would say whoever Grant Cohn is talking to, I would actually trust that. I mean, I don't even know who Wally is. I don't even know if his name is really Walter football. What? Like, how do you get the name football? It's so coincidental. The last name football. Like, I wish I was Judd Football. You could. You could legally change your name. I could change my name to Judd Football. What is his real name? I'm on his website right now. If it's not. It's like a GeoCities website from the early 2000s. If his last name's not football, I am so out. I've lost all faith, if that's the case. There's going to be like an about section on here, doesn't there? Let's see here. I don't know, man. What was his name? He doesn't have Walter or Walt. It's just like John. Oh, my God. Well, then I don't believe anything anymore. Who is Walter football? I was going to say I'd do that. Who is Walter football? Will the real Walter football please stand up? Yes. Walter Cherapinski is known as Walter Football, a prominent American sports analyst and founder of the NFL Draft Analysis website, WalterFootball.com, which was established in 1999. He's a Penn State alum. Launched the site in October 1999. I don't think he has updated the framing of that website since 1999. He was probably young and hip back then. He's like, there will never be better technology than there is right now in 1999. This Angel Fire website is going to be great. We're going to get rich. so anyways there's your latest reckless speculation quarterback update here see what this this is one of the juiciest three to four month offseason stretches in this probably trumps all of the Kirk Cousins offseasons right yeah because for a long time it was like is Kirk going to come back or not are they going to draft a quarterback or not and now there's just so many possibilities on the board I don't think drafting a quarterback is likely but all of the other possibilities around the board. I feel like with how the playoffs have also transpired, though, like we ordinarily don't get this much vitriol right from the playoffs or second guessing. Like you literally have look at the amount of guys going to the Super Bowl. I mean, it starts with Darnold on the marquee, but look at the amount of people with Vikings ties who are going and a few of them have to make you wonder. Wow, I wonder I wonder if we made some mistakes here. And then O'Connell coming off a rough season as well does not help. So, yeah, there's a lot here. And I think the quarterback situation is going to get – it's going to become more in flux, much to your dismay, Phil. It's not going to sort itself out, at least in the springtime, as much as it probably should. and uh there's a lot of people in the youtube comments today wondering if we could provide some therapy or some positivity like is there like an optimistic spin for the vikings going forward it's hard because you you don't know who your number one quarterback is going into the year you don't know to what extent you trust the head coach to be adaptable going forward you don't know to what extent was that barney barney it's his reflux problem hey buddy boy you okay and suddenly got the same thing he just yeah he just arbitrarily well he doesn't puke though he he's just got like this uh i don't know what it is i don't know what it is but i but you know his stomach making that noise or no it's a diaphragm it's a diaphragm thing it's like up here so i don't know if he like a like a hernia like you can have a hernia yes i think it's that I think he smokes. So it could be the lungs. I'm not quite sure. I'm not quite sure. But anyway, I have found a positive, okay? Brian Flores is back. The defense is really good. And at the end of the day, you still have freaking Justin Jefferson. And he didn't have a bad – I know he dropped some passes, okay? But I'm going to – I'll die on the hill of I don't think he suddenly had this terrible year. I think he didn't get the football. Hey, it's Dex here. After a long day of, you know, talking sports, slinging takes, I like to sit down on the couch, relax, and pop in a Lucy Breaker. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Lucy Breaker Mint 8mg. That's my go-to. But they also have a ton of different flavors like mango, berry citrus, apple cider, apple ice, espresso, and more. Lucy's the only pouch that gives you long-lasting flavor whenever you need it. Right now, get 20% off your first order when you buy online with promo code PD20. And if you don't want to wait, just head to Lucy.co slash stores to find Lucy near you and grab it today. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. Go grab yourself some Lucy today. Yeah, I agree from a standpoint of kind of is there a good chance you can improve and get back to the playoffs and like be in the mix to some extent next year? 100 percent brian flores puts a puts a big time floor on your defense where okay at worst you're going to be a top half of the league defense you've got enough weapons you have ideally a healthy franchise left tackle coming back you got there's some stuff here there's some holes here as well that if you can just not get bottom five quarterback play and there's there's really two two paths to explore can jj mccarthy give you a top half of the league quarterback play a lot of People say, no, I still think there's a good chance he becomes a franchise quarterback at some point. Or can you go find someone that can give you that, and then how far can you ride them? Right there, you see? You see? In the next two or three months. You see? Yeah, they're not like a four-win disaster. People sometimes act like they are like this 3-14 disaster. Even in their disaster seasons under Kevin O'Connell, here's some positivity. Even their worst seasons are seven, nine wins where everything went wrong and you're still competitive. Of course, people might fight back and say, yeah, well, maybe you should just lean into being terrible once in a while. When you've got four wins halfway through the year, you should just lean into that and figure yourself in better play. You know how I feel about that? Hey, Patriots were awful for a very short period of time, and now they're in a Super Bowl, okay? Well, if the Vikings, for example, like one more thing, and then we got other podcasts to get to here, but plenty more on this. The Vikings were picking, was it 11th, and then they moved up to 10 to get McCarthy. If they had lost a couple of those, like the Josh Dobbs games or something, and instead of being a seven-win team, they're a five-win team, I'd have to go back and look at all the records. If they were picking fifth, and the move up the board to get to the Patriots is third, do the Patriots say yes on those Drake May trade scenarios, and now you have drake may i guess we'll never know but did did the pastronaut games cost them the draft capital to go get drake may and then would they have been in this same spot as the patriots are with drake may would he have been an mvp candidate with the vikings as a team mike vrabel is such a great culture builder so many hypothetical paths i'll tell you what as a selfish reason here that i know everyone is dying to know about i've had a drake may rookie card stuck at psa for like two and a half months i need that thing back all right i need that grade back i need that card don't get me started psa all right i sent that in in november thinking i'll have it back because that team could make a super bowl run almost a super bowl so are you saying that like you would have you would have sold it in the last couple weeks well it's still going up in value but my my my reckless speculation is they're holding it because if cards reach a certain value you actually have to pay in to get that card back oh it should be based on when you send it otherwise that's that would be great they could just hold on to cards yeah i mean maybe that is the case i don't think that's don't get me started on this entire process i don't even it infuriates me i got part of it infuriates you the fact that there is a company that you have to send your card to to get it graded it used to be just hey this card's in good condition right like okay here's my psa edges are bent bad condition edges aren't bent good condition but instead i get this company that holds the cards and then tells me ah this is a seven it is kind of funny that like a little tiny like dot in the top left corner oh sorry it's an eight could have been it's It's not centered right. Well, you know what? My freaking fault it's not centered right. It used to be on a big sheet. Anyway. I keep in bags and everything now. It's just awful. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for hanging out with us here on this Monday. Devolved into a PSA bitch session. That's why I love this show. If you're new, maybe you just discovered Purple Daily today. You were looking for a new place to consume Vikings content. Welcome into the offseason. We've got you covered 365 days a year here on Purple Daily. Click that subscribe button on the YouTube channel, the like button on this episode. And then if you're listening on the audio side, a five-star rating and a positive review on Apple and Spotify can help continue to grow this community. So we'll see you guys for some more commiserating here and trying to figure out what this team should do going forward on tomorrow's episode. Football Takes, our brand new, more wide-ranging football show, We'll have an episode later today as well. Our guy Thor has had three flights canceled. We're hoping the fourth one sticks going to the senior bowl, but there's a Thor talks purple mock draft Monday up to. So all kinds of football stuff and O-line committee already dropped this morning. We'll see you guys tomorrow on purple daily where we just want the Vikings to win a super bowl before we die.