August 7, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of 'The Grind,' Tim discusses the struggles of Minnesota sports fans, particularly focusing on the Vikings and their recent depth chart release. He highlights J.J. McCarthy's fiery nature and the potential risks associated with his involvement in on-field scuffles. The conversation also delves into the quarterback situation for the Vikings, analyzing the roles of Sam Howell and Brett Rypien as backups to McCarthy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Grind, a Minnesota sports podcast. This is the Grind,
a Minnesota sports podcast because it's been a grind since
nineteen ninety one. Being a Minnesota sports fan, where is
our championships? Where are our final Super Bowl, Stanley Cupp
(00:26):
and World Series appearances? Well there are nowhere to be
found unless you look back to nineteen ninety one, and
that's why this podcast is called the Grind. Lots of
fun topics to discuss. The Minnesota Vikings released their unofficial
first depth chart of the twenty twenty five NFL season
(00:48):
just a few days ahead of their first preseason game
against the Houston Texans, and Jaj McCarthy calls himself the
enforcer after he gets involved in a pushing and shoving
match following a big hit on Aaron Jones. So we're
(01:12):
gonna talk about that and much more on today's podcast.
Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you're listening
or watching on YouTube, and if you're listening somewhere else,
hit that follow button so this podcast will show up
to your feed Monday through Friday. All right, less of
talk about today, but let me first tell you about
(01:33):
five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis, because they transformed our
bathroom in forty eight hours, the entire thing from new floors.
They got rid of a step which made a bathroom bigger.
We had mold in our shower. They got rid of
the mold. Don't outsource that new bathtub shower head. You
got rid of handrails. We went from a single to
(01:55):
a double sink, new countertops, vanity, mirror, they hold. Thing
got renovated, and it was done in forty eight hours.
Don't wait eight weeks for your bathroom project to get
done when Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis will remodel
your entire bathroom in forty eight hours. Big projects, small projects.
(02:17):
Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis does it all. Contact
them today for your free consultation. They also have affordable
payment plans. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. Contact them
today and get the bathroom of your dreams in forty
eight hours, all right. Jaj McCarthy, as I mentioned, was
(02:41):
involved in a pushing and shoving match after Aaron Jones
was hit hard by Brian Osmola, and after that happened,
Jajon McCarthy inserted himself into the pushing and shoving match
between players. Judd Zogetov scored. North Purple's Daily asked him
(03:04):
a question about getting involved and entering himself into a
fight in practice, and here's what he had to say.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Practice to the Saturday practice. What's going through your mind
when when Aaron takes that second hit and like you're
the first guy to come to his defense, Like you
don't see qbs do that a ton? What's your mentality?
There a thought process.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Those are my brothers, and no matter who it is,
especially three to three, I'm the first guy in the fight,
no matter what. And you know they know that. I
know they would do the same thing for me. So
just as a QB and you know, former hockey player
used to be the enforcer out there. Believe it or not,
but yeah, I love that stuff, you know, just letting
the teammates know I got their back because I know
they got mine.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
This attribute by J. J. McCarthy is very lovable because
it is enjoyable to see your quarterback get involved in
tussles or fights or scrums because it shows that he
(04:10):
loves his teammates and it shows that he wants to
be a part of the action. It shows his attitude,
his fiery nature, and when I think about McCarthy getting
involved in these fights, a memory of Brett Farv in
two thousand and nine pops into my brain. One of
(04:33):
my favorite all time memories of Brett Farv in a
Vikings uniform wasn't his throw to Greg Lewis, although that
was sensational. Wasn't his amazing sidearms and touchdowns against the Packers.
One of my all time favorite memories of Brett Farv
(04:57):
was him handing the ball off to Adrian Peterson. Peterson
getting stuck in the backfield, moving a little bit, finding
a seam, and then who do you see as the
lead blocker. It's none other than Brett Farv, forty year
old grandpa Brett blocking down the field for Adrian Peterson.
(05:23):
You will love that stuff. It's fun, it's exciting, and
it makes quarterbacks lovable. The attribute that McCarthy has getting
into scuffles and fights and scrums, it makes him lovable.
But here's also the truth. It's also very dangerous. It's
(05:53):
very very dangerous for Jajon McCarthy to get involved in
these scuffles between players. If there's a quarterback that gets
hit hard in the game, whether he's running to the
sideline gets pushed out of bounce. It is not the
(06:15):
quarterbacks responsibility to fight back. It is the offensive lineman's
responsibility to protect the quarterback. So although McCarthy's mindset and
attitude is lovable, it is also extremely dangerous because he
plays the most important position on the field. And you
(06:38):
heard Judd asking in the question. He asked him, you
don't typically see quarterbacks do this, but you did, and
why did you do it so well? I love this
stuff type of stuff. I was the enforcer in hockey.
That attitude needs to change. You don't see quarterbacks do
it because you don't see quarterbacks putting themselves in a
dangerous position to get in The NFL has gone through
(07:03):
so many protocols to make sure that the most important
position in the sport is protected beyond all costs, which
means a quarterback like McCarthy should not be putting himself
in a position for himself to get injured something as
(07:24):
simple as a punch or a scuffle. You don't see
Mahomes or the Burroughs get involved in this stuff. You
see their alignment step in and protect them. You don't
see them getting into scuffles and fights. You see their alignment,
come in and take the hit if there's gonna be
a hit, because the quarterback cannot get injured by something
(07:45):
random and stupid. So although it's lovable by McCarthy, he's
got to be very careful when he gets involved in
these things because this isn't hockey. You aren't the enforcer anymore.
It's a lovable approach, and I love the fiery nature
(08:08):
of McCarthy, but I guarantee you that although the coaches
might have liked it and the players might have liked it,
Kevin O'Connell is going to take McCarthy to the side
and say, hey, I love your fiery nature and how
you stick up for your teammates, but don't get involved
(08:28):
in those fights. Let the big boys like Will Fries
and Ryan Kelly and Brian O'Neil and Donovan Jackson and
Christian Dersa deal with this kind of stuff. That's what
they're there for. They're not just to protect the quarterback
in the pocket, but they're also to protect the quarterback
when he scrambles and gets hit unfairly. So it's lovable,
(08:55):
but it's dangerous, and McCarthy, I guarantee you, is going
to be coached to not do that if this happens
during a regular season game. So it's cool, it's fun,
but dangerous and that's something that he will eventually learn
(09:22):
as an NFL quarterback. Let's just play his answer one
more time.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Go back to the Saturday practice. What's going through your
mind when when Aaron takes that second hit and like,
you're the first guy to come to his defense, Like
you don't see qbs do that a ton? What's your
mentality there? Thought process?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Those are my brothers, and no matter who it is,
especially three three, I'm the first guy in the fight,
no matter what. And you know they know that. I
know they would do the same thing for me. Not smart,
just as a QB. And you know, former hockey player
used to be the enforcer out there. I believe it
or not, but yeah, I love that stuff, you know,
just letting the teammates know I got their back because
I know they got my It's.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Good to have your teammates back. And this is why
his approach is so lovable and it makes him likable.
But you've got to understand the circumstance that you're putting
yourself in being the first guy in a fight. It's
not as smart approach. Let the offensive lineman be the
offensive lineman and protect their quarterback everywhere on the football field.
(10:24):
So he's gotta change that. All right, Let's talk about
the Viking's depth chart. But first let me tell you
about Hokland Farms. Because Hochland Farm has the best rotationally
graysed one hundred percent grass fed beef. I'm gonna go
pick up my beef today and it is incredibly good,
and it is incredibly healthy. No preservative, is no junk.
(10:47):
I'm not wondering where my beef came from. Plus, you
go to the store, try to get a steak or
truck rose, you're looking at nine to ten dollars a pound.
Hokland Farms Beef has them for four dollars and thirty.
That's a pound steaks, chuck, ROAs, ribs, hamburger beef, all
of Ithakland Farm. Contact them today at nine five two
(11:10):
four nine one five four one. Tell Jared Tim sent
you and you'll give you a little discount on your
first order two four one five four one. Contact Hukland
Farm Beef and get great, great beef in your freezers today.
All right, The Vikings released their twenty twenty five, first
(11:32):
unofficial depth chart. And as I run through this, you
got quarterback McCarthy, running back, Aaron Jones, ball back c
J Hamm, receivers, blah blah blah blah blah. Basically, everything
is as you would expect it to be. Isaiah Rodgers,
(11:54):
Byron Murphy Junior, Jeffakudah, Makaya Blackman. There's not that many surprises.
Joshua Mattellis, Harrison Smith, Jay Ward, Theo Jackson. It's basically
pen to paper and this is what was anticipated. The
(12:15):
one story that is apparent or clear in this unofficial
depth chart is at the quarterback position, because if you
have followed the Vikings training camp practice at all, if
you're following the reporters, the stories, the fans videos, it
(12:39):
has become clear that Sam Howell has struggled in training camp.
He has struggled to find the timing, he has struggled
to find his rhythm. He's been throwing a lot of interceptions,
which has opened up the possibility of having Brett Rippin
as the backup quarterback because he's familiar with Kevin O'Connell's system,
(13:04):
and Kevin O'Connell raves about Brett Rippon. It get him
going on Brett Rippon, and Kevin O'Connell will not stop
talking about Brett Rippon. But in this unofficial depth chart,
Sam Howell is listed as the number one backup to
(13:26):
jaj McCarthy, and it's not surprising at all. Sam Howell
will be the backup to Jajon McCarthy because when you
look at the backup quarterback options and you look at
(13:47):
what you're trying to get out of the backup, all
you're trying to do is get upside. You're just trying
to get maximum upside out of your backup quarterback. And
last year when Donald threw three picks in the red
zone area against the Jaguars and some people were clamoring
(14:10):
for the Vikings to put in backup quarterback Nick Mullins,
it was never going to happen because the upside of
Sam Donald was so much higher than Nick Mullins. Even
a bad day of Sam Donald can be just as
(14:30):
good as a good day of Nick Mullens. And that's
the same thing with Sam Howell. Yes, he has struggled
in training camp to grasp the playbook and figure out
timing to throw into their right windows. But his upside
is so much higher than Brett Rippen's upside, and unless
(14:54):
the Vikings decided to trade for Kirk Cousins or another
backup quarterback option, Sam Howell will be QB two for
the Minnesota Vikings this season because although Brett Rippin he's decent,
he's fine, he's okay, if McCarthy went down with an injury,
you have way more confidence in Sam Howe to step
(15:17):
in and to give the Vikings a similar feel as
to what McCarthy gave the Vikings. So that is the
right decision because being a backup quarterback in the league,
although overlooked and overshadowed by the QB one, is still
(15:40):
a very important position because if QB one goes down,
then having a backup quarterback that can come in and
you don't have to rearrange the entire playbook to fit
the needs of that quarterback is huge. So it should
(16:03):
not be overlooked that Sam Howell is backup quarterback and
he definitely has more skill, more arm talent than a
Brett Rippin, and that's why he'll be the backup. Just
a story that I noticed as I was analyzing the
Vikings first unofficial depth chart. Thank you for joining the
(16:28):
show today. Remember to check out five Star Bass Solutions
of Minneapolis for all your bathroom needs, free consultations, affordable
payment plans, and remember Hopeland Farms Beef nine two four one.
Tell Jared Timpson you and he'll give you a little
discount on your first order Hoakland Farms Beef. Thank you
(16:49):
for joining the show today and I hope I got
you to think a little bit harder about my tics.
Appreciate you, thank you, Thank you for supporting y' all.
Have a good day.
The Grind, a Minnesota sports podcast. This is the Grind,
a Minnesota sports podcast because it's been a grind since
nineteen ninety one. Being a Minnesota sports fan, where is
our championships? Where are our final Super Bowl, Stanley Cupp
(00:26):
and World Series appearances? Well there are nowhere to be
found unless you look back to nineteen ninety one, and
that's why this podcast is called the Grind. Lots of
fun topics to discuss. The Minnesota Vikings released their unofficial
first depth chart of the twenty twenty five NFL season
(00:48):
just a few days ahead of their first preseason game
against the Houston Texans, and Jaj McCarthy calls himself the
enforcer after he gets involved in a pushing and shoving
match following a big hit on Aaron Jones. So we're
(01:12):
gonna talk about that and much more on today's podcast.
Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you're listening
or watching on YouTube, and if you're listening somewhere else,
hit that follow button so this podcast will show up
to your feed Monday through Friday. All right, less of
talk about today, but let me first tell you about
(01:33):
five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis, because they transformed our
bathroom in forty eight hours, the entire thing from new floors.
They got rid of a step which made a bathroom bigger.
We had mold in our shower. They got rid of
the mold. Don't outsource that new bathtub shower head. You
got rid of handrails. We went from a single to
(01:55):
a double sink, new countertops, vanity, mirror, they hold. Thing
got renovated, and it was done in forty eight hours.
Don't wait eight weeks for your bathroom project to get
done when Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis will remodel
your entire bathroom in forty eight hours. Big projects, small projects.
(02:17):
Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis does it all. Contact
them today for your free consultation. They also have affordable
payment plans. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. Contact them
today and get the bathroom of your dreams in forty
eight hours, all right. Jaj McCarthy, as I mentioned, was
(02:41):
involved in a pushing and shoving match after Aaron Jones
was hit hard by Brian Osmola, and after that happened,
Jajon McCarthy inserted himself into the pushing and shoving match
between players. Judd Zogetov scored. North Purple's Daily asked him
(03:04):
a question about getting involved and entering himself into a
fight in practice, and here's what he had to say.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Practice to the Saturday practice. What's going through your mind
when when Aaron takes that second hit and like you're
the first guy to come to his defense, Like you
don't see qbs do that a ton? What's your mentality?
There a thought process.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Those are my brothers, and no matter who it is,
especially three to three, I'm the first guy in the fight,
no matter what. And you know they know that. I
know they would do the same thing for me. So
just as a QB and you know, former hockey player
used to be the enforcer out there. Believe it or not,
but yeah, I love that stuff, you know, just letting
the teammates know I got their back because I know
they got mine.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
This attribute by J. J. McCarthy is very lovable because
it is enjoyable to see your quarterback get involved in
tussles or fights or scrums because it shows that he
(04:10):
loves his teammates and it shows that he wants to
be a part of the action. It shows his attitude,
his fiery nature, and when I think about McCarthy getting
involved in these fights, a memory of Brett Farv in
two thousand and nine pops into my brain. One of
(04:33):
my favorite all time memories of Brett Farv in a
Vikings uniform wasn't his throw to Greg Lewis, although that
was sensational. Wasn't his amazing sidearms and touchdowns against the Packers.
One of my all time favorite memories of Brett Farv
(04:57):
was him handing the ball off to Adrian Peterson. Peterson
getting stuck in the backfield, moving a little bit, finding
a seam, and then who do you see as the
lead blocker. It's none other than Brett Farv, forty year
old grandpa Brett blocking down the field for Adrian Peterson.
(05:23):
You will love that stuff. It's fun, it's exciting, and
it makes quarterbacks lovable. The attribute that McCarthy has getting
into scuffles and fights and scrums, it makes him lovable.
But here's also the truth. It's also very dangerous. It's
(05:53):
very very dangerous for Jajon McCarthy to get involved in
these scuffles between players. If there's a quarterback that gets
hit hard in the game, whether he's running to the
sideline gets pushed out of bounce. It is not the
(06:15):
quarterbacks responsibility to fight back. It is the offensive lineman's
responsibility to protect the quarterback. So although McCarthy's mindset and
attitude is lovable, it is also extremely dangerous because he
plays the most important position on the field. And you
(06:38):
heard Judd asking in the question. He asked him, you
don't typically see quarterbacks do this, but you did, and
why did you do it so well? I love this
stuff type of stuff. I was the enforcer in hockey.
That attitude needs to change. You don't see quarterbacks do
it because you don't see quarterbacks putting themselves in a
dangerous position to get in The NFL has gone through
(07:03):
so many protocols to make sure that the most important
position in the sport is protected beyond all costs, which
means a quarterback like McCarthy should not be putting himself
in a position for himself to get injured something as
(07:24):
simple as a punch or a scuffle. You don't see
Mahomes or the Burroughs get involved in this stuff. You
see their alignment step in and protect them. You don't
see them getting into scuffles and fights. You see their alignment,
come in and take the hit if there's gonna be
a hit, because the quarterback cannot get injured by something
(07:45):
random and stupid. So although it's lovable by McCarthy, he's
got to be very careful when he gets involved in
these things because this isn't hockey. You aren't the enforcer anymore.
It's a lovable approach, and I love the fiery nature
(08:08):
of McCarthy, but I guarantee you that although the coaches
might have liked it and the players might have liked it,
Kevin O'Connell is going to take McCarthy to the side
and say, hey, I love your fiery nature and how
you stick up for your teammates, but don't get involved
(08:28):
in those fights. Let the big boys like Will Fries
and Ryan Kelly and Brian O'Neil and Donovan Jackson and
Christian Dersa deal with this kind of stuff. That's what
they're there for. They're not just to protect the quarterback
in the pocket, but they're also to protect the quarterback
when he scrambles and gets hit unfairly. So it's lovable,
(08:55):
but it's dangerous, and McCarthy, I guarantee you, is going
to be coached to not do that if this happens
during a regular season game. So it's cool, it's fun,
but dangerous and that's something that he will eventually learn
(09:22):
as an NFL quarterback. Let's just play his answer one
more time.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Go back to the Saturday practice. What's going through your
mind when when Aaron takes that second hit and like,
you're the first guy to come to his defense, Like
you don't see qbs do that a ton? What's your
mentality there? Thought process?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Those are my brothers, and no matter who it is,
especially three three, I'm the first guy in the fight,
no matter what. And you know they know that. I
know they would do the same thing for me. Not smart,
just as a QB. And you know, former hockey player
used to be the enforcer out there. I believe it
or not, but yeah, I love that stuff, you know,
just letting the teammates know I got their back because
I know they got my It's.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Good to have your teammates back. And this is why
his approach is so lovable and it makes him likable.
But you've got to understand the circumstance that you're putting
yourself in being the first guy in a fight. It's
not as smart approach. Let the offensive lineman be the
offensive lineman and protect their quarterback everywhere on the football field.
(10:24):
So he's gotta change that. All right, Let's talk about
the Viking's depth chart. But first let me tell you
about Hokland Farms. Because Hochland Farm has the best rotationally
graysed one hundred percent grass fed beef. I'm gonna go
pick up my beef today and it is incredibly good,
and it is incredibly healthy. No preservative, is no junk.
(10:47):
I'm not wondering where my beef came from. Plus, you
go to the store, try to get a steak or
truck rose, you're looking at nine to ten dollars a pound.
Hokland Farms Beef has them for four dollars and thirty.
That's a pound steaks, chuck, ROAs, ribs, hamburger beef, all
of Ithakland Farm. Contact them today at nine five two
(11:10):
four nine one five four one. Tell Jared Tim sent
you and you'll give you a little discount on your
first order two four one five four one. Contact Hukland
Farm Beef and get great, great beef in your freezers today.
All right, The Vikings released their twenty twenty five, first
(11:32):
unofficial depth chart. And as I run through this, you
got quarterback McCarthy, running back, Aaron Jones, ball back c
J Hamm, receivers, blah blah blah blah blah. Basically, everything
is as you would expect it to be. Isaiah Rodgers,
(11:54):
Byron Murphy Junior, Jeffakudah, Makaya Blackman. There's not that many surprises.
Joshua Mattellis, Harrison Smith, Jay Ward, Theo Jackson. It's basically
pen to paper and this is what was anticipated. The
(12:15):
one story that is apparent or clear in this unofficial
depth chart is at the quarterback position, because if you
have followed the Vikings training camp practice at all, if
you're following the reporters, the stories, the fans videos, it
(12:39):
has become clear that Sam Howell has struggled in training camp.
He has struggled to find the timing, he has struggled
to find his rhythm. He's been throwing a lot of interceptions,
which has opened up the possibility of having Brett Rippin
as the backup quarterback because he's familiar with Kevin O'Connell's system,
(13:04):
and Kevin O'Connell raves about Brett Rippon. It get him
going on Brett Rippon, and Kevin O'Connell will not stop
talking about Brett Rippon. But in this unofficial depth chart,
Sam Howell is listed as the number one backup to
(13:26):
jaj McCarthy, and it's not surprising at all. Sam Howell
will be the backup to Jajon McCarthy because when you
look at the backup quarterback options and you look at
(13:47):
what you're trying to get out of the backup, all
you're trying to do is get upside. You're just trying
to get maximum upside out of your backup quarterback. And
last year when Donald threw three picks in the red
zone area against the Jaguars and some people were clamoring
(14:10):
for the Vikings to put in backup quarterback Nick Mullins,
it was never going to happen because the upside of
Sam Donald was so much higher than Nick Mullins. Even
a bad day of Sam Donald can be just as
(14:30):
good as a good day of Nick Mullens. And that's
the same thing with Sam Howell. Yes, he has struggled
in training camp to grasp the playbook and figure out
timing to throw into their right windows. But his upside
is so much higher than Brett Rippen's upside, and unless
(14:54):
the Vikings decided to trade for Kirk Cousins or another
backup quarterback option, Sam Howell will be QB two for
the Minnesota Vikings this season because although Brett Rippin he's decent,
he's fine, he's okay, if McCarthy went down with an injury,
you have way more confidence in Sam Howe to step
(15:17):
in and to give the Vikings a similar feel as
to what McCarthy gave the Vikings. So that is the
right decision because being a backup quarterback in the league,
although overlooked and overshadowed by the QB one, is still
(15:40):
a very important position because if QB one goes down,
then having a backup quarterback that can come in and
you don't have to rearrange the entire playbook to fit
the needs of that quarterback is huge. So it should
(16:03):
not be overlooked that Sam Howell is backup quarterback and
he definitely has more skill, more arm talent than a
Brett Rippin, and that's why he'll be the backup. Just
a story that I noticed as I was analyzing the
Vikings first unofficial depth chart. Thank you for joining the
(16:28):
show today. Remember to check out five Star Bass Solutions
of Minneapolis for all your bathroom needs, free consultations, affordable
payment plans, and remember Hopeland Farms Beef nine two four one.
Tell Jared Timpson you and he'll give you a little
discount on your first order Hoakland Farms Beef. Thank you
(16:49):
for joining the show today and I hope I got
you to think a little bit harder about my tics.
Appreciate you, thank you, Thank you for supporting y' all.
Have a good day.
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