I feel like
the wilfs
finally have come to the conclusion. And this is
something that I have said from time to time over the past two
years. He's just good enough. Right is no longer good enough.
It's not good enough to be
to be to be 8 and 7
to be nine and six last couple of games. Maybe we get in maybe
we don't as long as our quarterback doesn't get covid
and can't play against the Packers nothing when I won that
game. Anyway, but this whole idea of let's just
Let's just stay in the conversation. Let's make
the fans. Think we have a chance.
They want to consistently content for championships. And
I know, I know that that's a tough standard to live up to,
but the franchise lived up to that standard in the 70s and
currently in their division. The Packers
are that standard and the Packers are looking
at a future at some point without Aaron Rodgers. And
unless they get lucky
and find another way to hand, the Baton from
Hall of Fame and a Hall of Famer to another Hall of Famer
at quarterback. There's an opportunity to take over that.
Division. Once Rogers is gone. He could be gone as soon as
this year, who knows?
And the Vikings now are ready
to to elevate the bar. And look, they've got great
Stadium,
great, practice facility, state-of-the-art.
The wilfs will spend money on players.
You just need to have the right players and
I, you know, I was stunned that Rick Spielman was fired after
16 years with the team, but
That's what happens when you hit your wagon to Kirk Cousins,
frankly. Sorry, but that I think that's what brought him
down. Because I think the final analysis is
we blew it on this when we paid this guy way too much money
and even though he throws for a lot of yards and touchdowns.
There's a ceiling
on what he can do, right? And that, reinforced the ceiling on
what the Vikings can do. Yeah, I think so. I think it does is
certainly a big part of that situation. The Kirk Cousins
deal, how that all you
know, kind of I don't want to say fell flat on its face, but
He hasn't been anything special. I mean, they brought
him there to be the savior of the organization. And, oh, man,
he's going to get us over the hump. And of course,
here. We are two years in a row where
no things. Yeah. We got one playoff win, and got into,
you know, the wild-card game and had the,
you know, the the upset against the New Orleans Saints, that
one year, but then after that is two years of missing
the playoffs.
And I think you're right. I mean, I think that's where you
look at it and go. Wait. Well, I was sold at that was just,
you know, that's all we were. Saying
we spent all this money
on, trying to acquire him. I mean, gonna guarantee him.
Basically. What is it now? Somewhere close to 150 million
dollars and you're getting good quarterback play but not super
star quarterback. Play that would translate to the amount
of money. You're paying him. And I
think to your point that's a. You said it, right? He's really
good. He needs a certain formula though to be really
great or have, you know,
being on a team that makes a deep run into the playoffs.
So he's not the guy that's going to carry your team or
make plays that are off schedule, or hey, we got some
injuries will rely on Kirk this week. He'll make the plays. We
need to to get us over the
hump for a week or two because we're banged up, or we got guys
out with Colvin. Absolutely not. Nor does he have like
the, the Superstar, you know, Magnetic Personality either.
So there's, there's there's issues there and to me. Yes, it
does. Like, it looks like that was kind of the start of
the downfall for the Vikings and where they are now.
Not a coincidence. It Stefon Diggs tweeted his way out of
town. The same day, the Kirk Cousins, got an extension, not
a coincidence at all.
And that's going to be job. Number one for the new coach in
the new GM. What do we do with Kirk Cousins under contract for
one more year at a fully guaranteed salary of 35
million dollars. And, you know, this is something that occurred
to me yesterday
when Golic. And I were talking about rich masaccio staying as
the coach of the Raiders because he and I both came to
the conclusion that he should. Yeah, and I think you
Agree with me based on something I said earlier, but
go like said sometimes, the right answer is staring you in
the face. And, you know, I think back four years ago,
After Case Keenum comes in,
goes 13 and three
wins a Minneapolis Miracle game, gives the franchise. Its
most exciting moment. Yeah. In decades, right? And they say we
can do better. Yeah, we're going to throw you overboard
and we're going to go get Kirk Cousins and pay at least 10
million more per year
than what it would have cost to keep Keenum around. I think
that when you have a A
moment like that and we saw it with the Raiders this season
culminating in that Epoch Monday or Sunday night game.
That, you know, the firings yesterday took all the steam
out of any full proper breakdown. We're going to talk
about it more coming up
in the show though. But what a special night that was
like, you got to keep the Saatchi a now and I think in
hindsight, the Vikings would admit the wolfswood admit.
They should have kept Case Keenum at least for a year.
Just see if you see how it goes. If you can if you can't
if you can't then move on. Yeah, but you can't you just
had something ridiculously. A special. That's right. It just
gets thrown out the door
because you think you're at a spot where you can do better
and that's fine if you do that, but if you don't do better,
you can't ride that horse for five years. We've ridden
the Kirk Cousins, horse long enough to know that it's time
to go to the glue factory. Do they still send horses to
the glue factory? Don't know. I don't know. I hope not. I've
I was so horrified. I swore off blue when I was a kid and
somebody explain to me.
They make glue out a horse. Has
no more glue. There's no glow. I'm not. I don't want glue,
anywhere near me
anyway,
but I think you're right about you, don't, you don't abandon
that magic, that you have that year? That, that to me. I gotta
I'm no, I argued at that time. Like, what's wrong with Case
Keenum had? They were trying to ruin the magic of Case Keenum
that year
during the year while he was playing well and threatening
them with
the Teddy Bridgewater.
I know it's never all. So that to me that was a, that was
a weird one. There's no doubt and you just don't throw overboard
that type of chemistry and what you had there that year,
you know, again Case Keenum. I know he's not a superstar
but he's he's still the things. He did that gear. He's
a viable,
you know, bottom half of the league starting quarterback
with. Again the right pieces around where you see, he could
be successful, has some of the same plate, he has more
playmaking ability, actually
that Cousins. His ability to dance around and move around
the Sun, the the pocket, and do things like that. Or we used to
show the clay. He'd work
his way resented that his way. Reset, and someone to pop open
eventually, and that's where Kirk Cousins is not good at
that stuff. He's not, he needs space. He needs room to throw.
He's not a guy that's going to move around and hop around
the pocket and make some awkward
off-kilter type of throw. That's not what he is either.
So yeah, they lost a little magic or you know chemistry
they certainly He had their that that always was
head-scratching to me. It was apparent.
Apparently. The threat of being sent to the glue factory was
one of the realities of playing for the Vikings, over the past
eight years. Here's Eric Kendricks, one of the best
players talking about the way things had been
up until yesterday.
No matter how what your role is in the staff, you know, you
having a voice in being able to communicate,
you know things that you you think could help facilitate
wins. You know, I think just having that voice. No, no
matter how big your role is important to listen up and, you
know, take take
a tick, each others, opinions, and note
account. I don't think that,
you know, a fear based organization is the way to go.
Yeah, that's very telling and look Zimmer had a style.
He had a personality
still does still alive. Still will end up somewhere. I assume
running somebody's defense but it's that Parcells Vibe. It's
that old school
approach where the coach is the Emperor, the dictator the tsar
and he sets the rules and don't even question him. Don't even
raise the
possibility that maybe we need to do things a different way.
I know it all. I make the
And it worked to an extent until it didn't and
I think that's what Kendricks is getting at. So, yeah, we
always
notice that
when a team fires a coach, the next coach is very different.
Sometimes the polar opposite a lot of different ways. I don't
know what that's going to translate into for the Vikings.
But
you know, they've got a higher a GM.
I've got to hire a coach
and and they fall into the Stephen Ross category. The
wilfs are in New Jersey. Yeah, they need a presence in and
That organization. They need, you know, ideally move there,
make it your base of operations. If you want this to
be as good as
it can be. You need to be there every single day. And if not,
they better make sure whoever's in charge of the place. Brings
the there's got to be an accountability. There's got to
be an urgency. I feel like the Vikings and, and it's hard for
me to say this because Rick Spielman
was great at what he did,
but that urgency that comes from someone who's fully and
firmly in charge, whether it's ownership or someone else who's
fully and firmly in charge of the organization that needs to
be there.
If they, if they truly want to consistently contend for
championships. Yeah. No, I agree again. I mean, yeah,
I totally agree with you and that that sentiment, there's got to
be some sort of some sort of element in that in
the building.
You know, we talked about it, a lot last segment, but, yes, it's
not even then. I think it has to be the owner,
but it has to be a guy that, you know, is deeply connected
to the owner like the right-hand man. Like I was
saying that's there, every day to wear again. He's walking
around the building and you go.
Well, he's really an extension of the owner,
you know, the Wolves wanted to stay.
New Jersey, but you got to have that type of presence.
I mean, again, I'm not shocked by the the Vikings thing.
I know, you're not either, and I think it had run its course
and it was a good run. Your, I mean you said it right Rick.
Spielman did a lot of good things. Mike, Zimmer did a lot
of good things. It's just that could never make it all work.
It was always
something was missing,
you know, whether it was hey simmer coached, well, but we're
missing this part of the element of the roster that we,
that Zimmer could take the team over the top or it was
the other way around where you Go away, the team's good and man,
Zimmer needs to adjust a little on the defensive side of
the ball or they need to open up the offense a little
bit. Just never could quite seem to get it all together to
where, you know, to a thing you say a lot,
could couldn't consistently contend for championships.
Could consistently contend for being in the conversation of
the playoffs. But
at some point, you know that gets old and you got to try to
make a move and Teddy KGB style to go all in and go. Now we
need to start talking about championships. Just getting in
the Wild Card round
and the crowning achievement for Zimmer was to get the NFC
championship for years ago. And I remember in the aftermath of
that game. He came dangerously close to admitting he got
outcoached and his point was
you know, if we get in this situation again,
I got to make sure that we're not quite so some digging wells
in other words at yeah, you know, 17 games of film. Yeah.
And Doug Peterson and Company. Crack the code on the Vikings
defense and offense
and figured out how to stop them and ultimately blow them
off the field 38 2. 7. After the Vikings took us seven
nothing lead. And you know, it looked like it was going to go
like the rest of the Vikings games that year until it all
fell in, on them in part because Zimmer got
outcoached.
All right, let's let's pivot now and I don't know what,
I have no idea what they're going to do. I don't know what they
should do. You know, they have a lot of things. They can
they can sell as positives,
but you know,
cap situations, not great. No, it's not. And you better have
up. You better have a plan for Kirk Cousins. And I hope
the plan isn't, let's go find a coach who really wants to work
with co-coach Kirk Cousins.
Let's go find the best coach
and let the coach decide. Absolute it is, and the GM
decide what to do with Kirk Cousins and if they want to go
another way, so be it if they want to give cousins out last
year and make him earn his 35 million. So be it. But
I think I think that the winds are blowing in the direction of
Kirk Cousins, finally
making the long last trip to the glue factory at