Minnesota Vikings path to get to… the Super Bowl?!

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Join us at the Northwest Sports Show. Save $2 on tickets at northwestsportsshow.com. Hey, it's Mackie. I never thought I had better banking options than the big national bank I had been at, but then I switched to North American Banking Company, and from day one, they made it easy. They took the time to listen and get to know me, and now whenever I stop in, they know my name and answer my questions on the spot. With six locations across the Twin Cities and cutting-edge online tools, I have access to everything I need. Go to nabankcode.com slash Mackie to learn more, or visit any of their six Twin Cities locations. Member FDIC, equal housing lender. Purple 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. All right, welcome in. Daily Vikings takes entertainment discussion here on Purple Daily. is the world and or Vikings fans ready for some positive Phil today? Positive Phil has a question for you guys. He's going to come barreling into the room here with a positively framed question, ready to get punched in the comment section. I mean, don't wait for the comments. I can answer it perhaps. I know you're going to, I know you're going to justify this out of the gate and it's going to be great. So we'll get to it. There's some latest Vikings news left over things that have been percolating if you will, the last 24 hours. But the big game is coming up here. The big game, Dex. Big game. Big game. Big one coming up here. Big one. For years, I've always thought the big game and underdog. That's been my thing. Big game and underdog right now, too. Looking at the promo section. The boost builder. That's right. Build up to the big game. Boosts of 10%, 25%, 40%, 50%. unlock a new boost every day leading up to the big game. Download the Underdog app, set up the promo code SCORE, S-K-O-R. Play your first five bucks, get $75 in bonus entries, and send me some screenshots of what you're picking for the big game on Underdog. It's a massive game. Massive game. When's the big game? When is the big game? Enormous game. It's in two weekends from now, Judd. It's a week from Sunday, later in the afternoon. Check your local listings for the big game. The big game. All right. Positive Phil is going to throw a question out, and then he's going to duck. Yeah. How can the Vikings get to the Super Bowl in 2026? Let me set this up, too, okay? Don't throw anything at me. I know. So the Patriots a year ago were a four-win team. in fact they they were in such a bad spot that they fired their first year head coach gerard mayo they had a rookie quarterback in drake may that was struggling pretty mightily a lot of fumbles a lot of turnovers a lot of interceptions um not quite as bad as jj mccarthy looked in some spots this year but the young quarterback who looked a little lost uh you had a four win team roster was kind of in shambles fast forward 12 months later the patriots go 14 and 3 and they're playing in the super bowl they've bounced back the seattle seahawks now they they missed the playoff the last couple years more competitively 9 and 8 10 and 7 so they were a level or two up from new england but you know going into 2025 seattle comparing their roster and their record to some of the other teams even in their division, people were like, they're going to be a feisty team, but man, there's a lot of questions on that roster. And who's even playing quarterback for the Seahawks in 2000? They have no idea who they're, is Geno Smith going to still be there? They make the move for Sam Darnold. So to varying degrees, both those teams had some pretty big question marks. And there were some people with foresight going into the season that said, I'm going to pick the Patriots and the Seahawks to make a jump into the playoffs. not many people thought they could make a jump into the playoffs and beyond and into the Super Bowl and and you've seen a couple other examples of teams like Washington two years ago that and there's two or three others I could rattle off here too even like Denver that didn't make it to the Super Bowl but that went from is that a playoff team to whoa okay actually that's like one of the top two or three seeds in the conference so what would the next 12 months have to look like for the Vikings one year from now to be playing in the Super Bowl? That's positive Phil's question. I would like to object to this. I don't think that this is that positive. This is how the league sort of works. Now you could say, well, just say playoffs. Okay, whatever. But I don't think this is incredibly – but I mean the league is – to your point, the commanders, right? Dan Quinn, Jaden Daniels plays every game. Incredible season. Let's just go into 25 and see what happens. Yeah, there are a lot of fluctuations. So, like, I don't think, like, if you said, I think the Vikings are going to get the Super Bowl, I'd be like, you're crazy. But I don't think that this is like some, like, this is how the league works if you do it right. I will start with the quarterback and say this, one of two things. Either you're going to have to go get a quarterback, and that does not, you know, I mean, if it's Joe Burrow, awesome. But if it's, but let's say, let's say it's not, let's say you go get a quarterback to compete with McCarthy who can throw the ball down the field consistently and or with McCarthy, I mean, I think, I think a lot of not all of the answer to your question lies in this. What's Kevin O'Connell going to do, particularly as a play caller? Like, like we've seen, like, if you embrace, If you take McCarthy and say, okay, it's a year he's going to develop, which he should, and he's going to develop, but what I want to do doesn't really fit his skill set yet completely. Like, if I want to go with a full darn old plan, drive the ball down the field, I'm probably not going to get maximum from him, right? But let's say that you're going to go to, hey, we're going to embrace the run a lot more. We're going to embrace what McCarthy does well. And with a year of experience, hope that he's at a place where, A, he stays healthy, and B, he can thrive, which, you know, in year two or year three of a quarterback, we've seen it before. So I would say just with the quarterback position, it's one of two things. Either they go get a guy who can do what O'Connell wants and or O'Connell says, you know what, I got something out of J.J. in the last five games or so, and I can do that again. so I I really think it starts with that and that is as much on or largely on O'Connell as it is on whoever's playing quarterback you know I actually took you you kind of broke it down into two different things and I did that in my own way and put a poll out on Twitter yesterday because I there's quarterback is not the only factor here if we're talking about making a big leap in 2026 but it's one of the most important factors and right now you there's just kind of a big question mark over that factor but it's interesting looking at Seattle and New England they present two different but sort of achievable paths for the Vikings to look at for 2026 and path number one would be this is kind of cringe because they already had this guy in the building but find the next Sam Darnold who and by the way I'm taking Joe Burrow off the board for this conversation I it's a fun topic. There's been some smoke there until there's like an actual right high level credible report that says that they're going to think about trading him. That has not happened yet. And and if they got Burrow, then the conversation is when should I book my tickets? Right. That's for the big game that for the massive game. Yeah. Biggest game ever. How do the Vikings get to the big game? That's the headline today. You know what? From now on, I think we should just call it the big game. Collect underpants. Step one, collect underpants. Step three, make money. What's step two? I don't know. South Park, I think. Shout out. So in the absence of Joe Burrow, let's take him off the board. Let's take the cheat code off the board here for a second. Finding the next Sam Darnall, which you already did once. Like on one hand, you already did it once. Oh, man. Like that guy was in your building. On the other hand, you already did it once. And I would classify that bin as buy low options that you could ride the gains elevator up to the right. Like, okay, go get a guy that is not top of the market, a guy that you could either sign in free agency or trade for, that maybe was a first-round pick, maybe there's some untapped talent. And I'm not saying these guys are all in the same exact spot that Sam Darnold was, but in terms of stocks that you could buy low on for far less than top of the market quarterback value. Mack Jones, via trade, Kyler Murray, who has had a better start to his career than Sam Darnold, but his stock is low. He's a former number one pick. His career needs to be revived. So in a different kind of way, he's in the Sam Darnold bin. Tua Tugavailoa, very similarly. And a lot of these players, you're going to mock and ridicule, like what are you talking about but people once mocked and ridiculed sam darnold as well and baker mayfield as well so this is the the bylow bin that we're talking about and i would even put malik willis in there because like he's going to be a free agent and you wouldn't have to pay 50 million dollars a year to get malik willis he's a former kind of coveted prospect that we've seen a couple glimpses of so mac jones kyler murray to a tug of iloa malik willis maybe there's another name or two we could debate that should be on that list but is there somebody in that sam darnold bin that you could tab you're the starter in 2025 just like the seahawks did and the vikings did with darnold for back-to-back years and you ride the elevator up and you have top 10-ish quarterback play you need something closer to top 10 quarterback play yeah then bottom three quarterback play collectively which you had this past season so could you do so that the two names that i think that jump off the page at me as good discussions are Mac Jones, who would cost you, and Kyler Murray. But here's what I would like to know. I don't think we ever thought, like, Darnold was a flop, but I don't ever think there was steam out there that he didn't take it seriously. Like, I don't think that there was a, hey, when Call of Duty comes out, Darnold checks out. We're going to need some language in your contract to prevent against video game playing. So what I would like to know is, has Kyler's career been undermined by the Cardinals, which is certainly possible, by talent problems or they're not bringing out his talent, or by a commitment, which we all know for the quarterback position is huge. I don't know about that. Mac Jones strikes me as, and he does have, you know, we can't sleep on this now. The Darnold blueprint was what? Like we said. Shanny. Yeah, and we probably, we got very excited a year ago or a year and a half ago when we're like quarterback rehab school is in Minnesota. Now it's like, no, actually it was in San Francisco. So yeah, you got the Shani thing there. Like the Mac Jones thing, the Mac Jones thing is a little more of a parallel. It's like when you see in like the movies or TV shows where there's a character looking out on the horizon and someone is like waving and going in for a hug and they're like, oh, that's me. Yeah, I'm a quarterback rehab school. And they're like, no, Shanahan's standing right behind you. I think that maybe is what we're learning. So it's not the Joe Burrow bin, but there are increasingly more and more quarterbacks that are kind of in that reclamation section of the quarterback grocery store. And then the second option would be, so that was the Seahawks blueprint. The Patriots blueprint would be your 22 turning 23 year old first round draft pick quarterback goes from being kind of rickety in the first 10 or 12 or 13 games in year one as a starter to being a stud full year. Let's rock and roll. Here we go. And so J McCarthy turned 23 I think last week A lot of people are kind of writing off the possibility that he would take a step forward just saying he a bust already based on what we seen I don believe that to be true I put the poll out, which quarterback solution would you choose for the Vikings in 2026? Find the next Sam Darnold or hope that J.J. McCarthy breaks out at age 23? 75% of Vikings fans said bank on the McCarthy breakout over going and finding the next Sam Darnold. So do you leave room for option two if you're the Vikings or if we were making the decision here, that your 23-year-old quarterback, having not looked great in year one as a starter, could take a big step forward? It feels like the mystery box option of the second-rate quarterbacks is much less of a mystery and much more of, I think I know what I'm grabbing out of there, and I don't really think it makes me any better. you know like that if phil's point is true of if burrow's off the table and herbert's off the table like now you're talking about some other guys that have you know mac jones has won some games thrown some flashes kyler murray has been electrifying but like yeah you kind of kind of know it at this point do you just rock and roll it with jj mccarthy and follow the new england patriots blueprint i would i would lean keeping that blueprint i have another thing that i do want to get into with both of these teams that we can talk about how to get to the Super Bowl if we want to transition there or go there eventually. But to answer your question, I would rather just stick with McCarthy and do another year of this personally. Well, and the flip side too is if we slightly gentify this and say, how can the Vikings get to the Super Bowl in 2027? If you are, if McCarthy's a disaster, that takes you back into the Drake May world of how did you get Drake May? so like i think that there's a variable there i i think if we're talking about like if we're trying to make this into how can the vikings get to a super bowl in 26 like and i feel the best about it and i'm not advocating for this but i would say it's probably mac jones because you're going to know exactly what you're getting you're going to get a guy who has been who has worked with the master the master has put hands on mac and now you take him and it turns out that you can be like, hey, I can do this a little bit myself. But I think the variables on the Pats plan are far greater. But Thor's talked about it in depth, the 27 draft and the quarterback class. So if McCarthy's not good and you win, this is so un-Vikings, but if you win four games and now you've got a very high draft pick, that's another way to solve your problem. Can I say something else too? as you throw out like the Mac Mac Jones is kind of a specific name that's been bandied about I want to go back a year ago and if we could roll the tape on some of our what should they do in the offseason discussions it's funny how like a year later everything gets construed or everything gets classified as a especially in retrospect a black and white right or they made a right or wrong decision like a binary right or wrong decision now that you have 12 months of evidence well 12 months ago the Vikings and idiots like us and fans who are opining on this you didn't have all the information that presented itself 12 months down the road and I feel like we tried to hit it from every possible angle what if you franchised him what if you did sign him which could you trade McCarthy we'll kind of export all the angles and at the end of the day all of us kind of landed in the same spot which is well there is some risk that he doesn't repeat that performance, Darnold. You've got this top 10 overall pick that everyone is speaking very highly of behind the scenes to this point. And so not 100% sure on it, but I would lean toward this direction. I'm sure the Vikings kind of thought the same way. I don't think we, I'll just speak for myself. I don't want to apply black and white binary 100% ironclad opinion, this that to this year's quarterback carousel because i like i think there's a there's a non-zero chance and maybe even like better than a 40 chance that jj mccarthy is going to become a franchise quarterback like i still i still believe that i think we saw a lot of flashes we also saw a lot of bad i'm not 100 sure i'm not out on him on the other side like a lot of people are but I want to leave room for like in my thinking about this, like McCarthy could absolutely still have some juice and be a guy for 10, 12 years in this league. And also if the Vikings went down the path of a Mac Jones or a Kyler Murray, we've seen Sam Darnold thrive in this offense. We've seen Kirk Cousins thrive in this offense. Veteran quarterbacks can thrive and put up big numbers and win games in this offense. You could, you could win 14 games. If you won 14 games with Sam Darnold, you could win 12 games with Mac Jones or 11 or 12 or 13 games with a Kyler Murray. Right. And so I'm going to, I'm going to treat the next few months, not as black and white binary. If they don't do this, they're idiots. If they don't do this, like, I don't, I don't think that's the right way to approach the next two or three months. In my opinion, there's a lot of variables at play here, including things that go beyond the quarterback themselves. Yeah. Well, and I also think it's fair, like in this conversation, it's perfect. It's also very fair to apply this. Okay, that's great. You won 13 games. That's awesome. Did you get near a Super Bowl? Like, that's the thing. And, you know, I continue to say about Darnold, the way he was used. Now, on Sunday, he was magnificent. But if you look at how he was used and you look at what the Seahawks did, they made, this is probably the wrong word, it's too strong, but they made concessions to who he was to get him here. And he did a great job. And that's part of the formula. Like, that's the thing is you can't, I guess the one thing that frustrates me about this entire discussion, Darnold deserves all the credit in the world, but the one thing that frustrates me about this is this feeling that, well, if you just plopped, if they had kept Darnold and plopped him back in, you would be right now going to play the Patriots. And I think that's ridiculous. I don't think that. They didn't use him in a way. They loved what they had with the arm. Which, by the way, we all said at training camp, holy cow, that's a great arm. Like, that deep ball is gorgeous. But that didn't translate to, oh, and by the way, screw the run game. Yeah. Like, that's what we got. So to your, okay, so to your point, let's move beyond, like, who the quarterback should be. So we've kind of laid out, you've got to find in one of those two bins, either McCarthy has to break out in 2026, or you have to identify the next Sam Darnold, for lack of a better name for that category, because there's really no other, there's not like an easy button unless it's Joe Burrow. Because I've had some people answer that poll. Is there like a third option? Wouldn't it be great? Wouldn't it be great? Oh man, the most important position in sports. And there's just a plethora of great options out there to fill this need here. But I think they need to find one of those two categories at its peak level. What else beyond that, I guess? Can we also, like from this, what we're doing with the exercise, can we also vote on the path as we go through these? Because I think the Vikings would take what the Seahawks did, but my vote is the McCarthy path. Because I think it could be boom or bust, and that's what I want. I'm tired of we had a great regular season. So the Judd vote, the sports dad vote is I take door to the Patriots plan because I think the differences in that appeal to me a lot more. Worst case, you win three games. Okay. So that's my vote. What's your vote? Yeah, I think I lean the Patriots path. The thing with the Pats, though, in 2025 is a few things here. If you're looking to replicate, and this might not be as easy as just saying this is what the Patriots did in 2025. So naturally, the Vikings follow these steps. They will also get to the Super Bowl, right? You can't really project that. If we could do that, we wouldn't be doing this podcast. We're doing something else. But the Patriots, in going into this season, had the third easiest schedule in the entire NFL. Only the Saints and Niners had an easier path in the regular season. Look at their draft picks. Will Campbell, they drafted as a tackle. Trayvon Henderson was a second-round pick. Really good running back for them, right? They had a couple early draft picks that were helping them. Drake May took a huge step forward, and they have an awesome head coach, and their schedule is very easy. The Vikings, going into 2026, have one of the hardest. Not one of the hardest. They have the 11th toughest schedule going into 2026. I think the Bears have the hardest. The Packers have the third. We don't know fully yet, too, because free agency and quarterback. Well, just in terms of opponent winning percentage, you know your opponents for 2026. So if you're just going off that, true, it's like, yeah, things change. But just from an opponent's winning percentage standpoint as of today, that's where that ranks. And the Lions, who finished in fourth, are 27th. They have one of the easier paths because they finished fourth place in their division. So I guess to replicate what the Patriots did, and if the Vikings can do it, the schedule thing doesn't really necessarily add up. However, they had a quarterback who was turnover prone his rookie year take a significant step forward in year two. They had early draft picks that helped them out immensely, helping them get to the Super Bowl. And I'm probably also missing the free agents that they added off the top. I'll have to do Patriots daily on the side here to make sure I'm not throwing shade at what New England did in free agency. If they can replicate some of those things. Milton Williams, right? I mean, that was the big defensive tackle. Who worked out great. What's funny is they spent $25 or $26 million a year on Milton Williams. And the Vikings lost the comp pick game because he was an unrestricted free agent. And the Vikings went out and went the veteran route and said, we'd actually rather just go get Hargrave and Jonathan Allen and not play around in the Milton Williams bin. But he's been a beast for them. It is a good point on the schedule, though, if it holds up. Those would be the things. if McCarthy takes a significant step forward, if they can get something out of a draft class for once, like as a whole, and like for multiple guys, because what, they have eight, nine picks. I'm not expecting seven picks to step in and be immediate contributors, but it's obvious they have yet to have a draft class that has a significant impact. Your top two or three picks making impacts like the Patriots did, or like other teams have, like Seattle did. Hell, Seattle had a really solid draft too. So those are the things that are hopefully replicates that they can get to the Super Bowl next year. I want to come back to the draft thing in a second here, but just to finish off the quarterback voting, I would also vote for the same reasons in terms of I'd rather have the wide variance of J.J. McCarthy. If it hits, boom. All right, it didn't hit in year one, year two, but it hit in the middle of the rookie scale contract, 23 years old, off to the races, maybe for a long time. That possibility is open. and if it train wrecks i'm sure you'll bring in a viable veteran maybe a kirk cousins to be a backup i don't think there's any way they win like three or four games but um i'm okay with the lower end of that variance going into a good quarterback draft in 2020 so i'm so real quick on the young players clicking front let's sneak this one in here too i think you're going to need between like the last two years of drafting and then however many picks they wind up with this year you're gonna i'll call out some names too you're gonna need donovan jackson to be a stud left guard and he showed some signs which he might be yeah you need dallas turner took some nice steps in the second half of the season that dude needs to be one of the top 12 to 15 pressure edge rushers in the league i think like if we're talking super bowl yep like that dude needs to really even take another step forward i think you might even need like michael jurgens to be a good starting center for you for lack of a better option at center right now and you're 50 million over the cap probably saying goodbye to ryan kelly yep and you probably need tyree and ingram dawkins to join the party along the defensive line he dabbled in the party but he needs to fifth round pick he needs to join the party yeah and then you probably need ty felt in your third round pick receiver if you lose jaylen naylor free agency plus like three dudes from this So we're talking like you need like six guys that are young that don't currently contribute at a super high level. Donovan Jackson kind of does. Dallas Turner is getting there to be really good high level players for you in 2026. I would say that this is this might sound crazy, but I would say at the end of the day, if you look at the big picture, OK, McCarthy might break out. We have no idea. I would say the lack of overall success on picks. And by the way, not first round picks. I'm saying all picks in the Kwesi era presents a bigger obstacle to this accomplishment potentially for 2026 than anything else. I don't know that you have the depth. Like, I just don't know so much of it. It's gone. And so, yes, you need guys that have stuck around. But I also, and this is tremendous pressure, but I also think that there is a viable ask to say, can you get five guys from this draft class to contribute and I don mean be gunners I mean contribute They don have to be to be starters but they all if they just like just nothing but gunners nothing but gunners and there just you are your punt team so good but anyway uh to me this is one of the biggest problems because to be fair to mccarthy we don't know yet like who knows he might get hurt again and the kid just can't stay healthy yeah he might break out he might not be good it's a quarterback it's it's there's a lot of things and look that's a big problem potentially if it doesn't work But I really think from the start of this assignment, this conversation, this quest, I think the lack of quality draft picks has been your biggest problem. And because O'Connell, O'Connell not so subtly, brings this up quite a bit, which is you got to have depth. Yeah, and that is, and of course, the front office and Kwesi, if they were as frontal or face the cameras as much, might say you got to develop the players that we draft. but the development right love you buddy right um i would i'll throw one more specific name out from the 2023 draft jay ward who got a lot more run throughout this season not just on special teams a safety but has dabbled uh as kind of a multi-faceted defensive back so so so far the check if they're going to go to the super bowl in 2026 the checklist includes we agree jj mccarthy big step forward at age 23 maybe there's a safety net backup in there somewhere but we are willing to accept the variance that goes with that decision and then you need like six young players that aren't currently or or guys who are contributing but need another level from them minimum six that joined the party in 2026 let's say six total from the last from from the draft coming up and the last in the 25 draft and the 24 if we're including like michael jurgens or Dallas Turner so like yeah um can we can we defense I mean they brought Flores back I don't know that we need to spend a lot your defense needs to hold serve this Vikings defense I think is Super Bowl level right now and there's going to be some personnel tweaks if Harrison Smith retires like you might say goodbye to Javon Hargrave cap casualty whatever so like you're not running the whole thing back but they had some turnover the previous year and still last year the defense was top five in pressure rate top five in sacks top five on third down top five in red zone top five yards per play uh the scoring defense was like eighth but it was 19 and a half points per game which is awesome and ordinarily would put you probably in the top three or top five so yes some tweaks but if your defense brings back top five and all those key situational categories that is a Super Bowl winning defense currently constructed. I think the biggest thing that occurs to me off the bat is the Harrison Smith factor of him almost certainly retiring and replacing him effectively because he's such a key part. And the other thing I'm about to mention is a little bit of a crapshoot, but it is important, and this is where the offense and defense meet hand-in-hand, glove and glove which is your turnover differential needs to be a plus like that's the one thing and i understand the defensive turnovers forced can be up and down and is not completely within your control but you know what is within your control the turnovers by the offense yeah and so if you're looking at a minus seven or something like that i'm sorry it's not going to work so the most important thing is turnover differential i'm looking for a plus there and i don't think that's too much to ask it's kind of like uh as you're budgeting right how much how much do you spend how much do you make and maybe if you're talking about like your investments or whatever the market might fluctuate from year to year the turnovers that you are creating but how much you spend how much you give the ball away is much more under under your control i agree we'll get to some other things here as we go down this positive fill path of how can they get to a super bowl in 2026 Shout out to Mystic Lake. 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By the way. and this all kind of came about i had a terrible experience with a different bank that shall not go named it was like a year ago now a year and a half it was all kind of the timelines blending together but it's like i just don't want to do this anymore and north american banking company came along with their personal relationships cutting edge online tools and just a better banking experience really appreciate their partnership here nabankco.com slash mackie that's nabankco.com slash mackie member fdic equal housing lender football You know what my favorite bird is? A superb owl. Superb owl. Yes. Very good. Very good. Did you get that one from Ross? That's a Ross joke. Yeah, I did, actually. That sounds like a vintage Ross Brendel joke. I think it went over to Judd's head. Judd, did you get it? No. A superb owl. Superb owl. Oh, God. No. No? Okay. If you're looking to talk about the big game, You can through your favorite bird. It's great. What else is on our checklist here to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years next year? Oh, boy. So I feel like we've hit on the absolute key things because I just keep going back to player, as it was once called player procurement. Player procurement. Very, very important. I'd like to mention one more thing on defense, though, that I think would help. I would like to see an improvement, more depth, but also improvement at the corner spot. I know that Flores' defense is built on pressure and coverage sacks and things like that. I get that. uh i i just i feel like they took the one thing i didn't like in 2025 was i feel like they took a lot of guys and asked too much defensively or asked them to do different things so byron murphy jr was coming off a great year and got paid and then he was played outside a lot more i think he is much more comfortable inside which by the way is a tough job uh that slot uh corner is difficult so i would love to see them get a corner who can shut guys down and and most of all is a little bit of a ball hawk as well i just think it would present opportunities uh to create interceptions where it just felt like aside from the hall of fame isaiah rogers game against the Bengals they just didn't have that guy yeah I don't disagree with that I think it is it's and maybe that's a marginal thing for this defense to remain top five okay you're gonna lose like a Harrison Smith over here how can you get better in the margins I'll go back to the offensive side of the ball and I'll give you something in the running game I feel like in the Patriots and the Seahawks have and the Patriots offense is not quite as consistent as I feel like the Patriots have a lower floor with their offense sometimes but both teams are able to grind you into dust with their running game yep much more than the Vikings so just for this season the Patriots and the Seahawks had 12 combined games of at least 150 rushing yards the Vikings had three of those games and one of them was the Max Brosmer Christmas game where passing just wasn't an option they It was like that Broncos game from a while back where all their quarterbacks had COVID or something, and they played a full game with no quarterbacks, and they just ran wildcat formations. Yeah, that's right. That's kind of what that Christmas game was for the Vikings, where passing is not an option, so you have to run the ball. Of course, you're going to get 150 yards on the ground. And then if you break this out even further here, over the last three seasons, the Vikings running game has only 11 total rushes of 25 yards or more so like those big chunk kind of home run type run like they don't break big plays in the running game Jordan Addison had the longest run of the year 65 yards I don't think they had anything else over like 31 yards the entire season they only had three runs this season of 25 yards or more only two teams had fewer and like I said over a three-year sample the Vikings have had 11 runs that's it of 25 yards or more so whether you're trying to put a team away whether you're trying to just like take something off your quarterback's plate maybe the weather is kind of crappy like you have to be able to hit some home runs in the running game lean on it more than they do and put some teams away we also found this one going back a couple years that the Vikings are dead last in the NFC when it comes to first half running percentage. I know that we're deep in the weeds here, but the first half is when you script the game. The game flow is still fairly scripted. You're generally not like way ahead or way behind yet. So you are choosing the plays that you planned all week in the first half for the most part and the Vikings have the lowest running percentage among any NFC team in the first half of games so they they just it's a it's a choice but it's also a personnel thing that they have to figure out if they want to win a Super Bowl in my opinion oh yeah and I I uh broached this a little bit in the quarterback discussion but I mean we we could certainly have a Kevin O'Connell discussion about just his offensive mindset which needs to change completely like what what happens in that Broncos game when it starts snowing in the second half if you are just relying on driving the ball down the field again again yeah you if if they're gonna get to and win potentially a Super Bowl and I mean this can apply to 2026 or if KO stays through 2029 it can apply to that he needs to rethink what his his mindset is um the run game quite frankly i mean watch these games and see how teams deploy like like uh um jsn of the seahawks and and brady talked about this throughout the telecast on sunday was in the backfield a lot and brady kept saying if he's in the backfield he is the guy he's going to get the ball and guess what teams couldn't do they couldn't stop it like if you look at you know i mean to deck to dex's point about the rams and the personnel how mcveigh has changed that morph that if you look at like if you watch how teams approach especially the playoffs kevin's not anywhere close like like he's not in the area code of what that takes and which is part of the reason why they've made the playoffs twice and been one and done so So, yeah, Kevin's mindset as far as how he thinks a game should, how game flow should operate, needs to be changed almost completely offensively, in my opinion. Yeah. So, and that's, he just hasn't shown that yet until the last maybe six weeks of the season. I'll go back to this question. Where was that Addison play? Like, that dude, if you're going to keep him, okay, that dude, yeah, He could catch the ball. Well, hopefully. He dropped seven passes this season. But more importantly. Way more than that, too. They're very stingy about their drop. You guys saw him turn the corner there. That play was I mean like God put him on the earth partially to do that Yeah And it was done once And it like that was our that was a surprise First of all what I saw I would run that sucker all the time and dare you to stop it It does feel like other teams, and I, listen, like, I don't, when it comes to breaking down film, I lean on the O-line committee, guys, we do film breakdowns on a weekly basis. So I'm not an expert in that area. But as we break down a bunch of other teams across the league, it feels to me like the Vikings don't do as good of a job leveraging their run game and the various things you can do to set up bigger chunks in the pass game or even bigger chunks. And they don't, they're not like married together in the way that some of the top, the Ben Johnson offenses, the Kyle Shanahan offense and some other offenses out there. So one more category real quick, offensive line, because a lot of people kind of chirping about the offensive line. I've said this the last couple weeks. I feel like if everyone stays relatively healthy and you've got your tackles back, you've got Donovan Jackson in there, Will Fry is maybe not the best right guard in the league, but he's a very expensive kind of average right guard, according to PFF. And he played. He played every game. I think he played every snap. You've got to figure out your center situation again. You've got a couple options internally. If it's Blake Brandell, all right. He was fine as a starting center. But it's an above-average offensive line, and I don't think you can say that either New England or Seattle have elite, elite offensive lines, but they've got elite things elsewhere that we've sort of covered throughout these different categories. Well, I mean, let's go back to Kale for a second then. If they change their mindset and they run the ball more and they work off the premise of we're going to use the run to set up the pass instead of we're just going to pass, uh what does that what does the offensive line become then and i would love to hear searles and boone because i i do think that you now are putting them in a position to succeed i would say this part of our takeaway of the offensive lines problems since 2022 now in retrospect are at least partially based on the philosophy of passing the ball as much as the vikings do yeah i think um that's i think that's a fair way to to characterize it so going through the the solutions or the the blueprint that we've sort of come up with here how can the vikings get to a super bowl in 2026 without the joe burrow cheat code and we have decided to take the hope that jj mccarthy breaks out in 2026 path at quarterback acknowledging that there's a couple other interesting options there that might be in play looking for at least six young players recently drafted or yet to be drafted to contribute at a very high level in 2026 yep the defense needs to essentially hold serve from what they've been the last couple years maybe there's a cornerback upgrade in there to Judd's point the run game this is this is probably a swap Aaron Jones out for I mean Kenneth Walker is a free agent Brees Hall is a free agent and Aaron Jones thank you very much great guy but yeah I'm fine with that but you need a you need more home runs in the running game and then you you probably just need a higher percentage of run plays overall to to be able to deploy and then the offensive line you got to find a center uh but and and maybe the online coach swapping out which we can talk about here in a second sure it's gonna help but if they can do all those things if all those things happen your playoff team definitely a playoff team yeah and then sometimes it's did you get the one seat or not what's your draw but it at least puts you pretty high up in that conversation yeah it's a pretty long checklist though um yeah and and to go back to because i think it's so important the the run game and your point about you know explosive plays via the run the one thing is and this is another o'connell thing are you willing to because you're not going to just get explosive runs are you willing to take pitches to get them you know stand in the box work the count home run because if you just go up there and swing on the first pitch i'm not saying that you won't hit some you will but like are do you have the patience to work the count because what happens a lot like we did on online committee last week we did off the divisional round the last I clear my let me clear my there we go Phil has cleared his throat so we did a Seahawks run game film breakdown last week and they essentially took the same concept and ran it left ran it right sometimes they had a fullback in the backfield sometimes they had a tight end that would that would be either in line or split out that had the role of the fullback where he's like a lead blocker coming around in some fashion they had different ways to run the same concepts left and right with different looks yep yep and as the game went on it was kind of crazy like early in that game as they're wiping out the 49ers and some of this is like you have a lead how do you then squash out your opponent and the four and five and six yards run he runs in the first half migrated over to like 12 13 15 yard runs in the second half right because what happened was 49ers linebackers started like Eric Kendricks for example started to get frustrated they started to man these we got to stop these like five and six yard runs so they what they would do is they would essentially try to go underneath blocks and cheat the the scheme and that opens up lanes in the second level and but if they don't stick to it and do it if you're going to run the ball 12 times in a game or 15 times you might not break one right and I don't think they have the personnel to break one either the Vikings right now um but the point you've been making is what if you pounded that thing 22 24 25 28 30 times a little bit more often yep do you have that and you're leaning on the opposing team and imposing your football will more often right here we go here we go it can't all be quantified by just like the statistics on those individual runs so correct I love that anyways all right let us know in the comment section I know people are going to be mad about the McCarthy thing but we're also saying if it doesn't work there's a 2027 quarterback draft class that is waiting with its arms open for you and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world yep if uh you were well positioned in that draft right yep but of course of course the folks at TCO will say what what are you talking about we just want to get the playoffs let's just win 10 games they're not going to have a bad backup like they'll bring in a backup so all right so much vikings news let's do this let's do one latest vikings news nugget here and then we'll take there's alec lewis from the athletic has a couple names for offensive line coach we can do that with doogie and some other things with doogie we'll have a second episode today but um the big thing from yesterday is that the vikings defensive backs coach and defensive pass game coordinator Durante Jones has taken the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator job. Adam Schefter had it first. Commanders are finalizing a deal to hire Durante Jones. Jones has been one of Brian Flores' most trusted defensive coaches the past three seasons. He has also coached under Vance Joseph and Mike Zimmer. I think he coached under Zimmer. Did he coach under Zimmer in Cincinnati? No, here. Just here. He was with Cincinnati, but after Zimmer had come to the Vikings. If I'm not mistaken, he was the D-backs coach here with Zimmer for a year or two. Took the LSU coordinator job, right? Yeah. And then I think he got blown out there. Because they got no patience. Was that the, did he get blown out individually? Or was that the end of the, whatchamacallit? Was that the guy, the coach of the 2019? Ed Orgeron? Yeah. It might have been. Was that the whole staff that got blown out? It might have been. But, I mean, they got no patience there. So then he came back here when Flores or O'Connell, I forget if it was with. It was 2022 with O'Connell. Yeah. And Ed, yeah. And he stuck around. So he's been with essentially three different defensive coordinators with the Vikings over two different stints. Yep. Yep. To what extent is this a big-time loss here? I think it's a loss. But you keep Flores, so. Yeah, yeah. I think it's a loss for sure. Now the commanders are in a very interesting predicament. I saw this last night. They have more than 30 free agents. It's interesting that Durante Jones is going to be, I think this is going to be his first time in the National Football League calling defenses. He's going to be doing it for a defensive guy in Dan Quinn. I would say this. Don't sleep on Durante Jones being back here, since I believe that Brian is back on a multi-year contract. Don't sleep on Durante Jones being back here in 2027, because if the commanders have a bad year, you know what's going to happen there. It might not be fair, but they're going to blow out that staff. Yep, yep. I think it's going to impact the Vikings in as much as this guy had a key role, and I think that he did a good job. But as I texted you last night, Phil, you know what? speaks to commander football is going to be the vikings defense because they spent a day picking flores's brain and now they've got his second in command i got a text this morning from uh do you guys know kevin sheehan he's a washington dc he he has a radio show on the am sports station out there and then he has the kevin sheehan show which is a big podcast out there and immediately this morning we've been friends for several years and he says how much do you know about uh durante Jones and he I might jump on his podcast I think like what I would say to that for Washington fans and for Vikings fans is he was if if Flores were to have left Durante Jones was maybe the only guy on that staff that the Vikings would trust to just promote and run the Flores defense so is is he going to do what you're saying which is is he going to go over to the commanders are we getting a Brian Flores coaching tree here now where we're going to have a bunch of just like coordinator tree confusing so i don't know if you can replicate it fully but in terms of creating chaos at the line of scrimmage and then bailing at the last second i'm guessing that's what washington's defense is going to start to look like of the two choices flores leaves let's say he does not get a head coaching job because he didn't and uh he takes the commander's job and durante jones gets promoted here or flores stays and jones leaves it's pretty simple yeah you keep yeah like you're You're keeping the guy. You're keeping the mad scientist. Yes. You're not losing the mad scientist. So to this point, the Vikings coaching staff, largely intact except for offensive line coach. Safety and defensive backs. Okay. So that's pretty much. The safeties coach took a job as, I think, D.C., like with Cal. Okay. So Wes Phillips. Oh. Josh McCown. Defensive line coach is probably going to leave. I saw he's talking to the Cowboys, knew DC about that job, and it sounds like he's going to leave as well. So you're going to have more jobs open on the defensive side of the ball. Okay. Anybody got any Vikings news? Makes sense that you'd be getting poached on that defensive side, but not as much on the offensive side. No one was trying to poach Josh McCown this time around. The running backs coach, Curtis Motkins. safe and sound here yeah all right dudes well we so yeah we will on the doogie episode we'll get into a couple of the names that have surfaced including one internal one that is controversial for new vikings offensive line coach and what that could mean and i'll tease this too on mackie and judd the og score north podcast people probably saw this floating around the internet over the weekend but we have not talked about it yet a couple former vikings quarterbacks cutting open a vein about mike zimmer just publicly stories everything so we'll uh we'll get into some of that too but all right boys uh and if you haven't yet audience click that subscribe button maybe you've been looking for some new vikings content the last couple days for whatever reason click that subscribe button the like button and um help us keep growing this incredible community this fan base you guys are the best and we're here to keep you informed and entertained throughout the offseason for the sports dad for Dex I'm Phil we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die it's season three on we fixed it you're welcome and we're still just getting started I think we've identified very clearly that there are major issues here the problem is the rebrand backfired people were confused no apologies the door hits you on the way out fired on the spot Companies, culture, chaos. If it's broken, we're going to fix it. That's my fix this time around. I like that idea. I love that. New episodes drop weekly, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. We've fixed it. You're welcome.