Minnesota Vikings offense is heading toward changes?

Minnesota Vikings offense is heading toward changes?

it up. Oh no. 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. It’s a Tuesday state of the Vikings edition of Purple Daily here. Probably our deepest dive episode of the week where we give you the the overview of where the Vikings sit in various key categories. We dive into the biggest storyline of the week and then we give some of our favorite and least favorite Vikings related things here. Sports Dad, one of our favorite things is a good HVAC system, especially during these winter months. Yes. And guess where you you can get that, get it checked, make sure it’s working, firing on all cylinders, is with our friends at MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air who do such great work across the board. But right now, let’s talk about the HVAC. Let’s talk about the fact that the cold is here and the cold is here to stay. 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And you’re gonna are you saving some of your vitriol for Thorox Purple? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. And and ba basically he’s gonna he’s going to throw me uh um a lifeline to say something like like I think Kevin Oonnell should run more or I can go with I think the entire front office should be fired. And I told Thor it will not be it will not be play calling. I I will not I’m past I’m past play calling you guys. Wait, is that a new is that a new segment? Throw me a lifeline. That could be a new segment right there. I I love it. That’s fine. Steal it. But I’m done. I am done bitching about play calling. Like we’re past that now. Well, okay. I’m glad you brought that up because I have I have some thoughts on on that. It sounds like we’re going to be maybe in not lockep necessarily, but we’re kind of sniffing around the same big picture questions about the Vikings. Let’s start with the overview as we do every Tuesday. Bad news on the playoff odds front. I don’t know. Is it math? Are they mathematically eliminated? Because on ESPN’s FBI, it says 0%. Technically, no. No, they do not have an X. Run the table and then need a barrage of help. Okay. So, technically, no. Non zero. Nonzero. Nonzero. Well, but ESPN’s FBI is rounding down to 0% playoffs, 0% division, 0% Super Bowl winner for the first time. It’s over. Sorry, Vikings. Uh, offensive ranks, including defensive touchdowns, they are still only 28th in scoring offense. I think if you took away the Bengals defensive touchdowns, they’d be 30th. Uh, yards per play, 27th ranked offense, and then offensive expected points added, 29th. So, by any classification, yardage, analytics, scoring, this is one of the five worst offenses in the NFL. Not great. Defensive ranks. Scoring defense 18th yards per play defense seventh. Defensive expected points added 10th. So kind of a the scoring defense is below average. The yardage and analytics say that they’re kind of a top 10 defense. So not not nearly as bad as the offense. Uh and JJ McCarthy, we’ve been giving you where he ranks. He didn’t play last week. He ranks dead last in every category that we measure. I’m going to broaden out here and and give you where the Vikings passing game collectively for the season ranks in some categories. It’s not uh good news. Passer rating dead last. Net yards per attempt when you bake in the sack yardage as a minus dead last. Interception rate dead last or the highest drop back EPA. So when they draw on called pass plays, expected points added 30th. So only third from the bottom. And that brings us to our biggest story line here, boys, which I think is a combo platter of JJ McCarthy is back. So he has he has cleared concussion protocol. He is symptom free. He’s tracking to start this weekend again. And Kevin O’Connell yesterday in his press conference reflected on the offense’s struggles and some of the things that maybe he would or could do differently. So, I’m going to just read you a couple quotes from Okonnell and then we can go off to the races here on this biggest story line. So, uh first and foremost, he did own the fourth and one disaster interception that Brosmer had in that game. Uh he said he hated his own play call and wished that he would have set the team up better. So, he did fall on the grenade for that one. And Okonnell added, “We can all be better. I’m going to personally look at myself and continue to find a way to coach the details of the plays that are called and what type of plays we’re going to call and how many plays we’re going to take into the games if we’ve got to limit our inventory and just demand execution of a a smaller group of plays. We’ll do that more than we already have, which has been part of the process over these last few weeks. When asked about the lack of a run game, he said it’s getting great combinations in the run game. The key is like getting those getting getting numbers basically in the run game. Uh it’s handling movement defensively in the run game so you don’t end up with unblocked players at the point of attack. Uh the startute added the Vikings ranked second in both the 23 and 24 seasons in throws gaining at least 20 yards. Chunk pass plays seemingly no longer capable of reaching the explosive standard that they have set. Or if you could put that a different way, they can’t gain big yards in the pass game anymore. Okonnell said his in-game decision-making needs to reflect that reality with the type of passes he’s calling. Quote, “It needs to take a backseat to what the best thing for our offense is in that moment.” Full transparency, things I may see, chances to get maybe in cuts or high crosses, running or vertical chances that have always kind of given us the lift in games. He’s saying like, “Oh, the things that I know that this offense is capable of, we might have to just ignore that and as I translate his words, meet our quarterbacks where they are.” U your thoughts? You’re 12 games into the season. You’ve now cycled through two young QBs, including one who had no business, and that’s Brosmer, a UDFA, being asked to do what you clearly say he was asked to do on Sunday. and now you’re going to find a mirror to look into. Um, if he is going to remain your coach, you flat out no longer can allow him to have a young quarterback. It’s that simple. Like, you just can’t. This is not going to work. Um, this is this is incredible. Like to me those quotes I I I watched the press conference and I was listening to him talk and it’s like it’s it’s sort of like he’s he is it’s almost like someone either talked to him from above him and said hold on dude what are you doing here because I I mean we have been talking about this it does not take a football genius you do not need to be a fellow coach to say what was your thought process here you just need to sort of watch the sport once in a while and we are now in December we are 12 games in it’s been a disaster you had two young QBs who really are at the opposite end of the spectrum. First round pick UDFA fail. And now you’re like, I got to go back and look at how I’m doing this. You know what? I’m going there today. I’m taking away his young quarterback toys. He’s getting a veteran if he’s staying and we’re going to John Walford and and and we’re going to proceed. No, but I I can’t do this again. I can’t do this. This is why the play calling to me like yes, it was very interesting for a long time to talk about individual play calls. He’s talking about his entire concept and the fact that he never adjusted it for these quarterbacks and and by the way it failed time after time after time and it took you until a game and at the end of November to sort of like be like, “Oh, I guess I shouldn’t have done that.” This is an incredible indictment. It’s um it’s bothersome. It’s troublesome. But I mean, I I I think right now what we have to all accept is if Kevin Oonnell is staying, which I think he is for 2026, the young quarterback thing is over. And and I’m not bringing McCarthy back to do this again. He’s not This takes time. Like like I don’t trust him. I I no longer trust him. So I am I had no idea he was capable of being this stubborn and only now basically coming to his senses and saying, I have to look at at this. And my question is, is that lip service or are you really going to do it? So, I am done with with these experimentations. I will never draft a quarterback again uh for this guy because this has been this has been an the above the the Darnold Cousins thing to me, you know, really impressive. This has been the the polar opposite of this is a huge huge problem. That press conference to me was a selfown of sorts. And I am I am out on young quarterbacks and Kevin Oonnell. Wow. But if is is that is that the wrong Okay. So, let’s unpack that for a second. I I want to I want to agree with you that if we’re also doing some self-reflecting on this podcast, this Purple Daily, I also mistakenly thought that he was more adaptable than he has shown. I mean, he he has he has essentially with some tweaks here and there, I’m sure, like, but like he has taken his system that was pretty powerful in terms of chunk yards and hunting down the field with veteran quarterbacks and instead of saying beforehand, I don’t know that a firstear QB student is going to be able to do all the same things that a Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold who collectively when they entered KOC’s system with the Vikings had like 17 years of NFL experience instead of proactively scaling back or adapting. It doesn’t look like he did much of that at all from the get-go. And and like now you’re there’s some reflection going on as they’re out of the playoffs. basically where I was dead wrong is I baked into the equation and assumed oh like part part of developing a young quarterback and being a quarterback whisperer for all types of quarterbacks is your adaptability as a head coach. So, I think if I I think I would feel differently about this, like I would I would put way more of the of the blame or the vitriol on the young quarterback for looking like a disaster. And Brosmer, too, in that game. If Kevin was consciously stripping down and dumbing things down from the get-go to put them in a spot where all this might seem basic, but we’re going to start here and then build. It feels like he threw too much and he’s admitting it, right? That he That’s what I’m saying. He threw too much at them to start with, which feels like an obvious what are you doing criticism. So why would you trust him though? Like like like the McCarthy thing it remains. And look, it’s it’s interesting that he said this after Bromer started. Like if anybody should have gotten the um the the cliffnotes book of the Vikings playbook, it’s Max. Like yes, he’s very smart. That’s awesome. They told everyone he’s he’s super smart. He’s still a UDFA being thrown into a National Football League game. I am giving him as small a playbook as possible and saying let’s try to execute these things and try and have our defense play well spoiler they did but instead you you’re basically he’s far more reflective about what he did to Max and to me this is where this is where the problem comes in if this was all JJ then I would say well he’s a 10th o overall pick I don’t like what you’ve done at all but when you’re basically saying that I took this kid who is a quarterback you know on a tricycle and I put him on I put him on a 10-speed. Oh, and it didn’t work. Put him in a NASCAR race. Put him in a unicycle. Yeah, exactly. Right. And now I and and now Yeah, he’s failed. So I look, I am I’m just saying that if he remains my coach, I am done. if he it took until December for him to say that I am done with hey let’s try another young quarterback and let’s try another young quarterback because he doesn’t have the patience and it doesn’t sound like he’s got the he’s got the aptitude to understand hey everything I’m doing with these guys has to be dialed back a a bit um and and look I do I will take some responsibility although Jud’s camp notes by the way next season enjoy entertainment purposes only okay entertainment purp self-reflection. Yeah. If you put any money on anything I said, no, no, no entertainment purposes. But if you look at this, I do feel like, look, the McCarthy from practice to a game has I’ve been surprised by, but I will own some of that. I was wrong. That being said, on Okonnell, I will not take a bit of of like, well, this was on me because I should have known he’d be this stubborn. Like to me this is I am I’m not mad at Kevin right now. I’m disappointed like a parent. Kevin, this is your sports dad speaking to you. Yes, I am disappointed. Like Declan will someday say to Sunny, “I’m not mad at you, Sunny. I’m disappointed.” At which point you will, poor Sunny will say, “That stuck with me forever.” Well, first off, my my mother’s quiet guilt. I’ll take I I could not take that. I’ll take a tongue lashing from my father over my mother’s quiet soft guilt any day of the week. gets are you mad at me? It cuts me so deep. Uh but I guess to go back to Jud’s point where he said I I’m out especially after this damning press conference here and I know Judge Alsmore looking ahead at the 2026 plan as opposed to the what five games, four games that are left now in 2025 when you say you’re out. So like do you want John Wolford to start? Like would you say you’re out on him even wanting to touch McCarthy? Do you want him to sit McCarthy? No. No. No. I’m saying 26. It’s just I I this whole thing is not like the rest of the season. It’s five games, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The rest of the season is not going to like solve this. Like McCarthy is not going to come back, I don’t think, against the Commanders. It’s like, dude, looks like you’ve been playing for five years now. What I’m saying is Okonnell I I honestly, no, I’m not talking about the Commanders game on. I’m talking about 2026. I’m not going to continue to try to go down this path now because I because we’ve seen it and quite frankly I don’t trust that Kevin can do what he talked about at the podium. Okay. So, let’s just say with the dumb down offense, McCarthy starts playing well. Yes. What do you do? Okay. Okay. This is this is the problem that question. Yeah. Here’s the problem. If McCarthy starts to play well, dumb down, he’s going to load him back up. It’s going to happen. He’s not capable. At some point you have to like load him back up. But this would be the this would be the right way to do it. Hey, maybe we should have done this earlier in the season. Let’s let’s here it’s going to be like a Techmo Super Bowl playbook. There’s going to be eight plays and your cadence is going to be ready, set hut. Yeah. And he and he carves it up pretty well cuz it’s it’s okay. He’s not thinking as much. Yeah. I would I would then be curious to see more of that in 2026 because I’ve been adamant as critical as we’ve been of the whole thing in McCarthy. It’s foolish. The people that are writing a guy off at age 22 after six starts Yep. are foolish I think. Um and Kevin is admitting like in front of everyone right now. Yeah. We doing some reflecting. Man, I could have done this. I could have done that. Okay. So, what do you guys what have you guys been doing for 2 years? What did you think this process was going back two years ago? Right. Um, but I’m I’m Declan’s question is interesting. Okay. It took him longer than it should have to do some self-reflecting on this or some major self-reflecting. If he comes out and and and takes a big step the way that it should be, which is master this first and then we can add to it later. Yeah. I’m interested. I’m interested. I would be. But the problem is this. He won’t it it won’t last. He will get Kevin will get JJ over his skis again. It’s not going to Kevin. Look, I do believe this. At least the Packers game. So, the So, uh the Baltimore game wasn’t was awful. Like, that’s one of the worst game plans I’ve ever seen for a young quarterback, especially one who who we know had his deficiencies. Um but let’s go to the Packers game. I think he dialed it back there. I think Kevin was trying to I I think Kevin has tried to dial things back, but his idea of dialing it back is still he is still Phil to use your um your comparison. If he dials it back, he’s still going from like an advanced science class like the most to to a slightly less advanced science class. And it’s like, buddy boy, we need to go back to third grade here for a second. He doesn’t have the ability. So I I don’t He’s lost my trust here. He’s lost my trust. We’re going to have I think Jeremiah is going to join us tomorrow for an O line committee crossover and uh I I made a note reminding myself to to bring this up on O line committee yesterday. He said what what he has realized in his post playing career as an agent and and Boone too who’s like training offensive linemen. They’re working with these college young and young NFL players who are 20 22 23. Well, those guys, Alex and Jeremiah, have 16 years of NFL playing experience, and they speak I mean, on that show, sometimes we try to make it for a mass audience, but they’ll start on film breakdowns speaking a totally different language than I, as a 30-year football fan, understand. And I said, “What?” So, can you explain the process of you’ve got a young quarterback or a young offensive lineman, whatever it is, and what that gap is going from college to the NFL and the processing speed. Can you give an example? and he said, “Yeah, and I recommend it’s uh it’s it’s in the episode yesterday. I can’t duplicate it cuz I can’t speak his language, but him and Alex like started talking about assort protection.” So, you walk up to the line of scrimmage and uh okay, based so here’s the mic here. We’re going to sort this and he he gave like a 15-second saliloquy speaking football language and he said what I just said right there, any NFL veteran offensive lineman would be like, “Cool, got it. Let’s do it.” But most young players coming into the league would have a blank terrified stare on their face because they’re trying to process what they’re looking at and the language and then after that the the physical part of doing your job after the ball is snapped. And for an offensive lineman, it’s one thing. For a quarterback, it’s another thing. And yeah, obviously there’s some guys that pick it up quicker than others. And we’re not going to give you 10 years because the clock is moving. This is the NFL. This is the National Football League. Yeah. Right. But it feels like it feels like Kevin Oonnell is realizing based on these quotes yesterday that man there Yeah, we probably tried to skip some of the earlier steps in this or or went too fast through them. And also, you’re dealing with a quarterback that didn’t get to step foot on the practice field basically his entire first season to go along with it. Right. But my confirmation about this issue is is is really through Bromer’s eyes. Like you are now admitting that you threw this kid. He had no business being asked to do half of that stuff. Like like I’m sorry, your quarterback is hurt or we can say he wasn’t hurt. I don’t know. I’m willing to believe he had a concussion. Okay, I’ll buy that. But so like you literally have this like this like like um you know this product of okay, you’re a UDFA. I know you’re smart. You’re physically not the most talented gifted guy and you throw him to the wolves. Like to me that was the confirmation. Like bromer to me is the confirmation of the problem. JJ was like, “Oh, I I think I’m on to something here. I sense a problem here.” And then you take a guy and say, “You know what? Fourth and one, you know, play action run CJ Ham power and then we’ll fool you by, you know, by making sure all the blocks are there and we’ll roll you out and we’re gonna” and the inevitable happened. He freaked out. I don’t blame the kid. So like to me, if we’re talking about this through the prism of what’s wrong with Okonnell, I actually think the Brosmer start is far more instructive because it sort of shows it’s the pattern. It’s the exact pattern that was is so good with the veterans is a pattern of And here’s my here’s my question, too. Do you really think that Okonnell if McCarthy just starts to play okay, do you think he’s going to be able to still go through the steps? because I see McCarthy as a project right now. Like I think there are steps here. I don’t think you can go from A to Z. I think you have to understand that and I don’t think he has the patience for it. So there are off of all of this I’ve I’ve been thinking a lot about Okonnell specifically the last couple days because for three years as we’re self-reflective here, I have been the number one Kevin Oonnell propagandist on this show and maybe in Vikings media, whatever. because I think he’s a great leader. I think he brings people together. When when things are going well, that’s obvious. When things are going poorly, we’ll see coming out of this season or does everything just fall apart? It’s easy to be a frontr running leader, but when things are going poorly, can you kind of glue it back together? Uh, but there there are three major criticisms of him that I’m wondering in in each one of these, how how workable are they? like if they still kind of exist, can you still win big with him as your head coach or how adaptable or fixable can can they be or he be through all three of these? I want to run these three things by you guys in just a second here after we shout out Mystic Lake Casino Hotel. The Hop House is a is a really cool spot to watch football with playoffs coming up. Good spot. Absolutely. In fact, if you love sports and you love games and you love to watch games, guess what? Hop House is the place to hang out. Uh- because look, delicious food, great drinks, a great space and every game that you could imagine is on. That’s right. 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Yeah, you can actually turn your Roku TV into wall art, which is cool. Uh, but but the the the main screen is so great at recommending the the teams and sporting events and leagues that I want to watch. Hello, Mr. Mackey. Oh, it’s Thursday night. Would you like to watch football? Here’s boom. Here’s exactly the or for like, you know, some of these basketball games where you have no idea what channel it’s on or whatever. It just you just click it on the menu and it’ll take you to whatever streaming platform. But now it’s also recommending seasonal channels from the Roku channel, the Ulog channel, the cocktail winter jazz channel. So love the Roku TVs. Great for winding down at the end of a night, at the end of a week, whatever it may be, and discovering new content. 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. and also federated insurance powering this episode of Purple Daily here. Federated uh an excellent place to work, potentially a great place to start your career. Federated hire special driven people who fit the federated culture. People who value and exhibit integrity, teamwork, respect, and equity, and they also hire a lot of former college athletes. So, if these things describe you or if you’re interested in finding out more about Federated’s work culture, go to federated insurance.com/careers. That’s federated insurance.com/careers. So, you you guys tell me these are the three main areas that I’ve been kicking around most the last three days of man, we’ve touched on these. He continues, I think, to go down the wrong roads with these three major areas. And I I’m If the goal is Super Bowl, can he adapt? Or if he doesn’t, can you win a Super Bowl with these three things? Number one, we’ve touched on this throughout the first 30 minutes of the episode, he is extremely stubborn about his system. He loves hunting for big chunks down the field, which could be a great thing if you’ve got the pieces to execute. There’s been times over four years where that hyperaggressive Darnold Cousins, you look, no, I’m not even going to give you a checkown option. You hunt for that deep crosser. Kirk’s like, “Oh, yeah, you are.” Yeah. No, I need that. I need my third. Yeah. But he loves and especially coming out of the Zimmer conservative era where it was a lot of run pass patterns very predictable. It’s been refreshing at times when they’ve had the pieces. Oh, they’re hunting for big plays down the field. But on the flip side, you’ve got your JJ McCarthy experiment happening this year and JJ McCarthy is number one in the NFL in average depth of target in terms of how far you throw the ball down the field. So, okay, when he’s got the veteran quarterback that you can trust to know what he’s looking at, hunt away, baby. But when he’s got the young quarterback, he’s still saying, “Hunt away. No checkdowns for you.” Uh, McCarthy averaging the longest throw down the field this season. I mean, can he adapt off of that? Or maybe that’s the right strategy. How quickly can he get a young quarterback to perform up to that standard within his system? or does he need to take the Jut advice and say, you know what, it ain’t going to happen with a young quarterback. You got to go back to you got to go to the M. Jones well or something. Yeah. Do you think with the So I I guess my question back off of that is this. Do you think that seemingly like I I feel like there have been uh steps that have been skipped? Like I feel like they went right for hey here’s what we do and McCarthy is probably like okay I guess I can try that and it’s been a disaster. So, do you So, the question is, do you think one day with McCarthy that the switch gets flipped and he is all in and now he totally gets it? And to your point, Phil, which is a great one from from the guys on O line committee, you get the you get everything like you get the verbiage, you get everything. Um, or has he or have so many uh steps been skipped? This is how you stunt the growth in my opinion. So I I don’t know you’re going to get McCarthy there with what they have done. That’s my problem. Yeah. Uh and there’s also though there’s also the whole component of even if they are adapting and and building that bridge the way that it should be built, the learning curve. We don’t know if he’s good enough. Like that’s the other fact. A lot of people a lot of people are jumping to the he’s not good enough conclusion, right? Maybe while skipping steps. Yep. Uh the the the second thing here that I that I view as a red flag if your goal is to win a Super Bowl can can you win it despite this trend or can he adapt? And it’s the fact that after four years it has become obvious Kevin Oonnell does not believe running the football is a major key to offensive success or winning. And the numbers bear it out. Since 2022, no NFC team has run the ball less than the Vikings. This season, with mostly a firstear starter and a a rookie UDFA and Max Bromer, the Vikings have a top five pass rate in terms of percentage of plays called. What percentage are passes? Vikings are top five in pass rate this year. In 2023, Cousins went down after eight games and the rest of the season, which was nine more games. You had Josh Dobs off the street had no idea what the system was. You’re literally like talking him through on the headset how to land the plane. Jiren Hall was a fifth round rookie and Nick Yolo Mullins. The Vikings were were third in pass rate in 2023. So even even in the face of like you do not have a qualified quarterback to throw the ball, he says again again. Right. And then the the the short yardage stuff which we’ve talked about on third and fourth down and short. No team passes more than the Vikings which could be great if you are zigging while they think you’re zagging and you’re catching teams off guard and it’s working. Which brings me to the third thing. Can you win at a high level in spite of this or can he adapt? And that’s the fact that Kevin Oonnell is the worst shortage play caller in the NFL. That is not hyperbole. He is the worst short yardage schemer or play caller in the NFL over four years since 2022. The Vikings are 31st in third and fourth uh fourth and short first down conversion rate. So if it’s third and short, fourth and short, the only I think it’s only the Dolphins are worse at converting first downs in those spots. But here’s the worst part of it. The Vikings have 14 turnovers on third and short, fourth and short since Kevin Oonnell took over. And almost all of those are on pass plays. Let’s catch them off guard on third down and two, fourth down and one. I know what we can do. They’re expecting us to run. Let’s pass. Not only are you not converting those into first downs, you are by a mile turning it over more often in those situations than any other team in the NFL. So, it’s backfiring two times over on you 14 different times. Okay, those are bad trends. Those are like high leverage game swinging bad trends. Can you and they’ve won game like they’ve won 14 and 13 games in the face of some of these things in two of the four years. Can you can you continue to to find a 12 13 14 win seasons or are those over until you fix some of these key areas? But the problem is, first of all, two and three show show his through the years far more than just this season, his stubbornness. And the problem is you can still probably if you get the right quarterback win 12 to 13 games, you ain’t winning playoff games. His his It’s funny, the YOLO quarterbacks drive him crazy, but he’s a YOLO coach and and you do and YOLO coaches rarely win Super Bowls because what’s going to happen? You’re gonna do something if you have when you win 13 games, you’re gonna go to the playoffs and now you’re and now it’s going to be third and one and you’re gonna and you’re gonna think I’m a genius. I’m gonna catch them off guard. And what’s gonna happen? Your quarterback’s going to throw a pick cuz playoff teams when you’re playing a playoff team, guess what? They’re good. They’re really good and they’re ready for you. They apply pressure in those situations. They’re also like in those situations too, you think, I’m going to pass the ball. Well, a lot of times that defense is pushing forward with pressure to try and stop you from getting any yards. And imagine what what you just went through through a statistical analysis. NFL teams have have not only what you have, but they have film to instantly look at to see what the trend is and to see how how they can beat the trend. He no, it’s not going to work here because of the fact that I don’t think he’s willing to change. I don’t think that he is he is willing to change. And we talked about this briefly at the time, but in retrospect now, Josh Dobs was patient zero. Josh Dobs was patient zero. And here’s why. The Falcons game was great fun. And and Kevin led him through that game. And that’s the one time where Kevin, because Josh Dobs had gotten here on like Wednesday, said, “Okay, this guy has no clue what I’m doing. I’m I’m going to basically get him through this.” And it was impressive. But then as it went on and Josh Dobs played more, what happened? Kevin tried to install more of what Kevin wanted. And Josh Dobs didn’t I I don’t know if he wasn’t right for it, not good enough, probably a combination of things, but it got it got worse and worse. And the reality was that was sort of the beginning, patient zero, of oh, this is who you really are. Like like if you don’t have the exact right guy, this is what happens. And so, no, I don’t think one, I don’t think he’s going to lose his job immediately by any means. But I also this is why I don’t trust him with McCarthy going forward. and and what you have is enough to tell me that this team is re is never going to win a Super Bowl with him because these trends to me are playoff death and we are right now a long ways from the playoffs. Yeah. So, so to be clear, and Dex too, these three areas that that I’ve highlighted, his stubbornness with his system, his belief that running the football is not a major key to offensive success or winning compared to every other team in the NFL and the short yardage failures not fixable andor not adaptable. like are are you guys leaving any room for a little more self-reflection and adaptation or is this who he is after four years? Well, I mean it it’s hard to argue that it’s it’s not going to be who he is because he’s the most stubborn one of the most stubborn NFL coaches I think around. That being said, he’s been here for four years now. You have no playoff victories. You’ve had your guys around you the entire time. Wes Phillips, right? Um I know they’ve had a couple changes here. Josh Macau’s come in. and they lost Grant Udinsky. Like they’ve had a little bit of personnel changes, but I would be shocked if they roll into 2026 with Wes Phillips still here or without some type of different offensive influence in here. I’d be surprised. I really would at this point if that’s Is he going to lean on that? It kind of feels like he does need someone to your point to like to like lean on a little more or hey, how do we But I don’t Is he willing? Is he open to that or does he think I am I am the man he wants and I think he does. I think he want I think he’s going to think like that but he is he’s already kind of digging his own grave with what he’s done. So unless you just want to die a painful death in your own way which I guess to each their own’s death. Uh but I would be surprised if there’s not someone that comes in here in 2026 to help him out. If I may enter this into evidence of the case that we are making right now though, okay, the Minnesota Vikings, if you go back and look in March, did everything they could to give Kevin O’Connell a far better run game. They traded for Jordan Mason. They they went out and redid the entire interior of their line in large part because that’s how you pound Zerok. And as Phil pointed out, he really hasn’t changed. I I I don’t see him changing. I don’t see him changing. And And he ultimately has say. So like, if he’s going to bring in someone to help him out, he’s going to bring in almost certainly someone who he can basically bounce things off of. And it’s going to be confirmation bias, if that’s the correct term, of yeah, we are right. What we do is right. So I I don’t see it. I just don’t see it. And and that’s why I said I think 2026, if nothing else, unfortunately, you’re going to have to go in with a veteran quarterback who can at least execute what he wants in the regular season. How you win in the playoffs, unfortunately, now is an entirely different discussion because things have gone so poorly. Yeah. So, and that’s I guess to put a stamp on this, you you kind of you kind of just did there much just like you did off the top where you said, “Hey, veteran quarterback in 2026.” I mean, I think I think the options are there’s two options. There’s what Jud’s saying, which is all right. Well, we know we know that this offense can hum a little bit if you’ve got a seven-year veteran who knows what he’s doing or a 10-year veteran. M. Jones is now a five or six year veteran. I’ve brought up Aaron Rogers because the flirtations were so strong last year. He’s a 20-year veteran and I don’t know if he can even hit the deep crossers that Kevin Ocon wants, but you just say screw it. You go back to the veteran quarterback well and you get someone who can do the all gas, no breaks stuff that that Kevin wants. The other option is you can adapt as a head coach a little bit and meet a young quarterback JJ McCarthy where he is with obviously like a safety blanket backup. Sure, you can run the ball more. You can create more quicker concepts. Um, again, the pro the problem there is like are you’re kind of starting over even like with McCarthy with all the injuries and I don’t know if if the next five games are going to are what needs to happen the next five games for you to even feel like, oh yeah, he can be our starter. He’d have to be so good the next five games for you to feel like, yep, we got our guy as the starter in 2026. Yes. You’ve kind of screwed yourself. Yeah. Exactly. And in fairness to Okonnell, at least to a certain degree as well, JJ McCarthy has not in two years now stayed healthy. So, so like that’s a whole different the our biggest concern right now on this show should be can he stay healthy? But there’s so many things here. Um, I will say this though as far as the veteran quarterback that can drive the ball down the field and why I think it can be sold as as bad as this has been is Justin Jefferson who I think privately is going to have a say in things like there is no way he didn’t talk on Sunday which is which for him is very rare and I don’t blame him but I’m just saying him not talking is is more powerful to me than him talking and he is the guy who has ultimately if you look I I mean they have I think he’s 26. They have wasted a year of this dude’s career and and he’s played now six years. So he is not a he’s not a a young man in football terms. That’s a wear and tear sport. So I do think that you can sell okay we need to go back to a veteran QB if nothing else because you’re paying this guy a ton. And I am not buying into any of the nonsense about well I also think he’s not trying as hard or he’s lost the step. There’s nothing wrong with Justin Jefferson. He can’t throw himself the damn football. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a whole another conversation too that the Jefferson side of this because on one hand I do agree you have wasted a year of his career. He is your highest paid player. He’s awesome and he is a a he is a force for highle passing offense. And also, it’s hard to find many examples in NFL history where catering your approach organizationally to a wide receiver making a bunch of money is like a Super Bowl blueprint. I’m not saying you should just like I don’t think you should compound one problem which is quarterback and offense with trading him and now you’ve like I’m not advocating for that. I am saying you got to you got to thread a needle here where you you want him on board and you want him as a huge weapon. you’re paying him to be a huge weapon, but you can’t start to cater your organization to appeasing a wide receiver above winning games. I agree. And I kind of feel like sometimes the way Kevin O’Connell runs offense, I feel like the short yardage stuff, the pass happy splits, all the stuff we talked about, it’s almost like he’s catering play calling and strategy to build a highlight reel of look how awesome my passing offense is versus optimizing for winning football games. Mhm. Now, he would come back and say, “What are you talking about, dude? We won 13 games in 2022 and 14 games last year. And you don’t think I’m optimizing for winning football games? And that’s a that’s a fair comeback, but I certainly don’t think they’ve been optimizing to win football games this season with a young quarterback. Oh, I agree. I agree. And the So, I agree with what you said Super Bowl wise about Jefferson. The issue is things are going to be in such disarray in the building now that I just think he’s going to have a say in what are we doing here? Like like he is going to say I’m a captain. I kept my mouth shut. I did not publicly come out and say a damn thing. In fact, I was supportive, but you cannot do this to me. And I think they will say yeah, you’re probably right. So I’m I’m not arguing about this from a standpoint of what’s going to win them a Super Bowl. I’m trying to think through the chaos that’s going to occur in or is occurring right now in that building with your highest paid player literally you can’t get him the football and when you do it’s behind him or when you do it’s it’s not thrown well you know so there’s a lot of things there um but to go back to Okonnell for a second too you know we talk about can he change and things but I’m telling you I think what the Vikings did for him in March that was that was the challenge to change we got you Jordan Mason we got you an offensive fine and I know that they’ve been hurt, but that was the challenge for, okay, you know what, we’re going to have to run the ball more. JJ McCarthy’s here. And it’s as if Kevin like got to the season and said, “H, I don’t know about any of this.” And basically defaulted to much like JJ McCarthy in game defaults to who he is, which is a problem. Kevin Oonnell in game feels it feels like he defaults to who he is, which also is a a problem. It’s interesting the parallels between sort of the struggles of the coach play caller and the young QB and how they sort of mirror each other in in s in not being able to keep a straight head when you need it which is you got to think about this stuff when the scripted plays run out. You’re not you’re not just allowed to go, you know, oh my god, okay, here’s what I want to do. You got to think about what’s best for your team. Okonnell’s not capable or hasn’t proven capable of doing that. Yeah. Yep. There’s uh the only other thing I’d throw out and then we can get to our favorite least favorite things is I have I have had people poke at this show and and us social media comments, whatever, saying, “Well, wait. I mean, in two different ways, you guys are getting exactly what you wanted. You wanted to move off Cousins and move off Darnold and the expensive quarterbacks and get to the rookie scale contract quarter. This is exactly what you wanted. Mhm. What do you have to say about?” And I would say one, go back to the beginning of the show here. I thought KOC was going to be more adaptable with the young quarterback that the franchise chose and he’s admitting that he hasn’t been. And number two, sometimes when you move off of the kind of the the more sure thing, but the thing that doesn’t get you to a Super Bowl into drafting a quarterback, there’s risk. You have to be willing to take on the risk of, oh, it might not work, and do you have the stomach for that? Uh, so I mean, it was the right decision. And maybe it still winds up being the right decision. The other thing people point at is wait a second, you guys in part wanted Zimmer out because it was they were so runheavy offensive. They were like bottom five passing rates year after year. Run, run, pass, run, run, pass. And now you’ve got the most passy coach in the NFL. Isn’t this what you wanted? Like what I Okay. Like wanted definitely wanted some more passing, but not like all gas, no breaks all the time. Third and one, fourth and one UDFA rookie. Pass pass. I didn’t want the Arena Football League to come to our town. Yeah, I never asked for that. Oh man. Um, before we get to least favorite and favorite Vikings things here, uh, I got the Prize Pick app rocking right now and uh, they’re they’re loading in is it week 14 in the National Football League? Open up that Prize Pick app and you can win money this football season. When you download the app and you use it for the first time, use the code purple daily for $50 in lineups when you play your first $5. That’s code purple daily. $50 in lineups when you play your first $5. Let’s see here. Okay, JJ McCarthy 194.5 pass yards. So, if you think he’s going to flirt with 200, you take more on that and you pick between two and six players. You pick more or less on their projected stats. Code purple daily on the prize picks app. Even if the football is bad inside US Bank Stadium, it’s a great stadium to tour to hang out in. Jud Dex, uh, yeah, it’s a it’s all right. Jud, Jud, you in there all the time. Hey, Dex, it’s great. It’s been, it’s been five, six years since I’ve stepped foot in there. Uh, but here here’s here’s the cool thing. So, the day before select home games, uh, you can get a 2-hour guided tour. You can see the locker room, the broadcast spaces. You might be able to see Jud Zulgad’s seat. I don’t know if I can confirm that they’ll show you it, but maybe ask, “Can I see Jud’s seat?” See what happens. Uh, tickets are limited. They do go quick. You can get yours at usstadium.com. That’s usbankstadium.com. Obviously coming up for the Commanders game. It’ll be on Saturday, December 6th. Go to usbankstadium.com to get a sweet tour of the facility. One of the coolest places in all the NFL. Bankankstadium.com. Uh, Two Men in a Truck also powering Jud this episode of Purple Daily. I haven’t moved in years, so I have no idea what you’re talking about, Dax. Yes. In fact, Jud, if uh if you are to move, you don’t got to worry about like, man, what friends do I have to call to who have a truck? Who has a truck? Two men in a truck. They have all different size trucks. It’s a it’s a completely different. It’s a run pass ratio offense. There’s so many differentiz trucks, man. The combinations are endless. What they quote is what you pay. No hidden fees, no service charges. I’ve used them. Phil used them this summer, too. If if you’re making a move happen in this bitter cold too, again, let the experts take care of it for you. Twoinut truck.com, TNT purple daily sent you. All right, we’ve got 7 minutes until Jud needs to bolt for Thor Talks Purple here. So, Jud, why don’t you start? What is Let’s Let’s go positive. What’s your favorite current Vikings thing? Oh, this is simple. And and this is a guy I know you’re all gonna be shocked by this because we’ve done nothing but rip him, but Dallas Turner is not so dumb. Dallas Turner in the past three games, four sacks, 12 pressures like this. And and by the way, this is what we expected. So, yes, I mean, you can you can torture an argument that, well, he wasn’t bad before, but it wasn’t a question of him being terrible. It was a question of he’s a first round pick. You traded up for him. You gave a ton to get him. And and and and we’re talking about an impact player, okay? We’re talking about an impact player. We’re not talking about a guy that, oh, he’s good at stopping the run. You don’t understand. Stopping the run. Interior linebacker off ball. You don’t understand ball. No, I understand ball. Fine. But what I was looking for, but what I But what I’ve been looking for was a was Dallas Turner athlete explosive disruptor. And that’s what he has been Sunday in Seattle. Really, really good. So, my favorite thing is Dallas Turner is starting to look like a very nice draft pick. I want a new shirt on scor.com shop. I understand ball. I understand ball just fine. I understand ball just fine. Just fine. Balln knower. Balln knower. We actually we actually probably should uh put those in. Actually, I’m going to make a note. Those are going to either be in the score store or the or the O line store if they’re probably already out there. But ballner uh yeah, I mean he is he leads the Vikings now with six sacks. He’s second on the team with 31 pressures behind only Jonathan Grard who’s been in and out with injuries, played limited 15 snaps, I think it was on Sunday. So, yeah, I would say uh I think Dallas Turner is also my favorite current Vikings thing. Um, but to add something else that isn’t Dallas Turner, I would say the the just continued progression of uh Jaylen Redmond too. He is I just pulled up the PFF grades for the season. Jaylen Redmond is the highest graded Vikings defensive player that that has played more than 100 snaps. Yep. So, between Redmond, who’s still fairly young, like in his mid20s, even bouncing around, uh Dallas Turner turning a corner, there’s a couple little bright spots as you’ve got some defensive players aging out or maybe you have to cut a couple guys because of their contracts. Okay. Makes you feel better. Le I mean, they Levi Drake Rodriguez is getting a ton of snaps. So, you feel a little bit even they’ve whipped on some draft picks and they got some aging guys, you feel pretty good about a couple two or three of these young defensive front players going into 2026. Silver lining. The offensive struggles across the board have probably made us be two down on the defense, which I think has put together some very nice games. Um, but it’s, you know, on Sunday, like on Sunday, if the Vikings offense had just played normal, Yeah. that defensive performance was really damn impressive in Seattle. So yeah, Jaylen Redmond third on the team in pressures, 28 pressures in the 12 games he’s played, handful of sacks, and he is second on the team with 27 stop tackles. Meaning if you if you made a tackle that prevented the opposing team from a successful play, you get a stop tackle. Defensive tackles. You want the stops. No ball. Dex. Yeah. Favorite thing for me? Uh Eric Wilson, man. I mean, he’s having a insane year kind of completely out of nowhere. I I know in the Seattle game the offense is ugly, but defensively he was a beast. 11 tackles, four tackles for a loss, one quarterback hit on the season. He’s now started uh he’s appeared in 12, started 11 games, up to 85 tackles, four and a half sacks, 14 tackles for a loss, six quarterback hits, like out and and I will say, okay, Jud Camp notes self-reflection. I believe Jud was pointing out the impact that Eric Wilson was slowly making and and kind of kind of percolating behind the scenes there a little bit. So, Eric Wilson having a great year. He does deserve some kudos. He’s probably my favorite thing uh going for the Vikings. Thank you, Dean. You’re welcome. Yes, of course. Entertainment purposes only. Yeah, it’s like the the bold takes or whatever on NFL Network and poor Steve Marichi got clipped, I think, during that segment saying Max Bro is going to throw for 485 yards. Yeah, rough. Um, least favorite current Vikings thing. I’ll throw the obvious one out here. Adam Thelen and his second stint with the Vikings coming to a crashing thud. I don’t know if it was worse than Randy Moss’s second stint cuz Moss went out like torching the organization. No, it wasn’t. It felt worse. The catering company and stuff. Yep. But Adam Thelen only 11 catchable targets this season and he dropped three of them. And of the eight that he caught, he racked up only 10 yards after the catch. Eight catches, three drops on 11 catchable targets. 10 yak for Adam Thielen. Wow. Total disaster. Wow. And I’m not sure what the information is going to be, but I did get a note from Thor that he has more information on the Theeland situation. So on his show, he’s going to tell me a little bit more about it, which I don’t know. Wow, dude. Like there’s something. It’s juicier. It’s juicier. I’ll tell you that. One of my favorite things on Thor Talks Purple yesterday was the CSI Minnesota Sports Investigates with with uh with Thor and AJ. I can I can just hear the theme song running basically as they like are are essentially investigating what the hell’s going on behind the scenes with the Vikings. Forensic uh football investigators. Yep, I can see it. Uh oh, you can’t don’t sing that, man. Don’t sing too much. That’s true. I just YouTube’s looking out for us already. They’re like after us. That’s true, actually. So, next thing you know, Roger Daltry here is going to get us banned. We’re going to be on We’re still We’re still in YouTube probation until January 28th. I think so. Yeah, it’s 26. I’m celebrating. I’m celebrating when our parole is up. I got to go see very nervous. PO checks in every morning knocking on my door. You still employed? I’m like, yeah, I think. Uh, any other just quick least favorite things that we haven’t already hit on before we say goodbye? I got one here that is probably worth um more of a discussion, but I’ll just throw it out. Byron Murphy Jr., who has no picks, I believe his PFF grade is 50.3, his o overall. He’s 172nd out of quarterbacks. God, I did not I didn’t love I did not love paying him. I didn’t like him in the time. He’s a good talker. Not a fan. Not a fan. Yeah, when he’s been targeted by opposing quarterbacks, they have a 116.8 passer rating against him. That’s that’s less than it’s not great, Bob. Not good. So, anyway, that’s my least favorite thing. And that’s probably worth more. You know, it we’ve talked about the free agents the Vikings brought in. That’s a free agent to what Declan just said that they retained at a very high price coming off a really good season. And uh yeah, I was I was surpris I mean I know he hasn’t been as good but PFF which I understand is a lightning rod 172nd overall. That’s that’s really really surprising. Yeah. Disappointing. Uh least favorite thing for me quickly. Uh just the Aaron Jones injury probably. I know they said he’s dayto-day. I guess like he could still play, but losing him, I just I wonder what the ripple effects are that not just losing a player who actually’s been pretty productive. But does that actually commit Kevin O’Connell to maybe run more with Jordan Mason or is this does this scare him because now you have one less viable running back. So I think it’s just if Aaron Jones removed from the equation, what what does that mean? again again like coach coach odds that odds right now that John Walford at some point in time starts taking snaps this season very high very very high yeah and you know what’s going to happen he’s going to complete like four passes to Jefferson and Okonnell’s eyes are going to light up John Walford all right you got to bounce and then we’re going to we’re going to hit our guy Doogie up for some information on what’s going on here too so uh plenty happening across us, the Scorn North Network, a podcast, Purple Daily, Thor Talks Purple, also Flagger Halls, Jud’s Hockey Show. We got the Scorn North Twin Show and uh and other fun goodies and some other stuff coming down the pipeline, too. Tell Duke’s high for me. Coffee cup uh raised. We just want the Vikes to win a Super Bowl before we die. Come on, Kevin.

Minnesota Vikings want to execute better and dial it back on offense; JJ McCarthy returns from his concussion and will start at QB for the Vikings against Washington; Judd doesn’t trust the current Vikings regime to develop young quarterbacks; Mackey’s 3 principles for KOC and the Vikings to get back on track; Favorite and least favorite things for the Vikings and more on Purple Daily.

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