out Spillman. Was there 16 years? Mike Zimmer was there
eight years? The will spot the team in 2005. First order of
business was to move on from Mike Tyson, then they hired
Brad, Childress. They
tried to set up what they call it a triangle of authority
between Brad Childress
robbers in ski, who's still there doing the contracts. And
Fran Foley, who was the GM for like a week because of some
resume
Scandal that took him down and brought in Rick's pill. Man,
who had been with the dolphins before that Spielman has been
there the entire time
that the wilfs have owned the team, but for that initial
stub, when it was free and fully as the general manager or
whatever the title was. Zimmer's been there eight years
through ups and downs, and highs, and lows and playoffs
every other year except
the past two, they were on an every other year postseason
track until 2020 and 2021.
And now Shireen.
Hey, I look at it. I don't know what they're going to do. And
and this is another group. That needs to move to Minnesota
or, or if you're not going to move to Minnesota and Shop.
Every day. You need a VP of football operations, who has
the passion that an owner should have who's going to be
there every single day,
providing the accountability, providing the Steady Hand
supervising and and ensuring and and being the owner in
the absence of the owner. I still days. Better have the owner
there. But this is the next best thing.
They've got a great Stadium. They've got impeccable facilities,
the Wolves will spend money. They authorized big.
Money on Kirk Cousins, they'll spend the money they'll spend
up to the cap and Beyond and they finally reach the point
where they said enough and
the only encouraging thing so far, the most encouraging
thing. We'll see where they go from here. The most encouraging
thing is, they've reached the point where they've decided,
that just good enough, something I've harped on for
weeks, just good.
Enough is no longer good enough. They said today they
want to contend for championships like they used to
and we'll see if they can get there. This is going to be
a critical higher GM and head coach,
but Plenty of, of reason to be optimistic about what they have
there
and we'll see if they can hire people who will come in and get
the job done the right way.
Well, and you look at them, Mike. They had 14 games decided
by one possession. Eight of those were losses. That's one
short of the NFL record. So they do look like they're close
to getting over that hump. They were 31st in defense, which as
we know
is Mike Zimmer specialty
and that was after Goering guaranteeing 46 million in
defenders in the offseason and they just didn't get it done
defensively 24th in points allowed. So they've got to be
better on defense, but you would expect or I would expect
them to Look toward the offense
when they make this higher as opposed to the defense, which
they had under Mike Zimmer and you know, they gave him eight
years and he had three postseason appearances, but
they just again they got to the championship game one
time but couldn't get over that. Hump.
They've been to the NFC Championship twice since
the Wolves bought, the team in 2006. They had the year where
Brett Favre fell into their laps and despite the best
efforts of Brad Childress to
muck it all up. He eventually did with 12 men in the Huddle
and then Brett Favre. Did what he had to do thrown across his
body for the Tracy, pour syrup, Tracy Porter, interception,
that prompted, our friend, Paul Allen to shout.
This is not Detroit. This is the Super Bowl
2009, 2017. That's it in 15 years and that's not good
enough.
It may be just good enough to be in the fringes of
the playoffs every year, but the wolves have decided, just good
enough is not good enough and we'll see what they do. They
hold the 12th pick in the draft. They've got Kirk Cousins
under contract for one more year
at a fully guaranteed salary of 30.
Five million dollars.
I don't know that they can find somebody
who would take on that salary and give them
net draft, pick compensation. I've seen opinions all over
the place. All they'd easily be able to trade Kirk Cousins.
Look at his numbers. I don't care about his numbers. What
I looked at is when the play that's called goes to hell.
What does he do?
He folds up and crumbles.
You can't have that in the NFL, because there are going to be
plays that go to hell, and the walls are going to cave in, and
you got to be able to do Something when the walls came
in, he has shown a little more this year, a little more
athleticism and ability
to improvise but not nearly enough.
And good luck getting somebody to take on 35 million fully
guaranteed, plus no
guarantee for what his contract situation will be Beyond
this year and get
get them to give you
stuff. I think that
whoever takes that job has to accept the fact that
they may have to spend a year with Kirk Cousins
and see how it all goes. But even then, even And I think
it's an attractive landing spot because the wolf's will pay for
players. They've got an awesome practice facility. That's just
a couple of years old and they've got a great stadium and
a great home field advantage and a passionate fan base
that you know, that just wants the wants to feel like
the organization is as committed and passionate about winning
as they are.
Yeah, those fans definitely are passionate Mike and they do
want to win and I think they deserve a good team and they
haven't had that in a while.
One thing they're going to have to do with whoever the GM
higher is, or have to clean up that salary cap. I mean,
they're already projected to be 7 million over and we know
that's easy. You can move money around, we know all those
things but
they're gonna have to clean that up a little bit
moving forward. And they had do have the 12th overall pick this
year. So they'll be able to fix players, but they got to pick
better than they did. In this pass crap. They did not
Have a good draft, Mike, and I think they paid for that in
some ways this season with not enough, young players
contributing
one thing, they've done. That is very admirable as their own
players, develop and perform. Well, they do reward them. They
find a way to keep him around but that's how they got
themselves into a cap mess. She can't
keep everybody. There is a point where I have to draw the line
and and look, I we were talking earlier today.
My goal I can, I about Ripa Sasha and what happens with him
with the Raiders. And should he be the head coach? And Golic
said, sometimes the answer is staring you, right in the face.
And, and he's right. I've come around on Basalt. Shh.
I think what happened last night and what they've been
able to accomplish. I think Mark Davis should keep rich
basashi.
The Viking should have done the same thing with Case Keenum.
Look at what he did in 2017, 13 and three
great. And you know, they weren't fluky wins. They were
convincing wins over solid team. They didn't have Dalvin
cook for most of the Season Sam. Bradford got injured early
and open the door for Case Keenum.
They had the Minneapolis Miracle.
They got within a game of the Super Bowl.
And, you know, they could have kept Case Keenum for at least
10 million a year, less than Kirk Cousins, but they saw this
as their way, to dump one guy, and go all in with someone
else. And that was a disaster. I think that Sheree
Is why Spielman got fired because
overall spillman's done a good job,
but they they hitched their wagon
to Kirk Cousins and he went to the playoffs
one time in four years and he made many many millions of
dollars
and and ultimately
ultimately missed
a key game that would have potentially kept their playoff.
So playoff hopes alive,
because Spielman and Zimmer and no one else in
the organization. Could Prevail upon cousins to get himself.
Accented. I think that's why Spielman is gone
because the cousins experiment blew up in their faces. All
the more reason to think that that cousins will be gone sooner
than later.
Yeah, I would think so too Mike and you're right. They could
have kept Case Keenum and I was really confused why they didn't
do that after what he did that season. You could have kept him
on the cheap and then you could have looked for your future
franchise quarterback, whether that was in the
draft or signing somebody or what however you did that.
But that's the move in hindsight that they should have
made rather than going out spending all the money on Kirk
Cousins, giving them fully guaranteed contract. That just
has not worked out well for them.