December 24, 2020 • 19 mins
Watch the audio version of 'Xs and Os with Mike Zimmer,' which airs on KFAN and the Vikings Radio Network each Wednesday night, as GM Rick Spielman fills in for Zimmer to talk about his game-watching routine, the up-and-down nature of the team's season, Justin Jefferson's stellar rookie season and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's x's and oh's on the KFA in Minnesota Vikings
Radio Network. Those of you watching at Vikings dot com,
thank you very much. It is Paul Allen this week,
joined by general manager Rick Spielman on a show courtesy
of US Bank. Good luck against New Orleans and U
and Early Mary. Christmas to you, mister Spielman. How are things? Yeah,
(00:21):
Happy Holidays to your family into all of our fans
out there. Yep. Definitely watching this on a holiday week,
hoping you beat the Saints. Finish it off of the
victory at Detroit. Can I may I ask you a
game related personal question to begin, Yes, thank you. When
you watch the team play, what triggers you to write
(00:44):
stuff down? Because like where I call the games, you're
you're like two or three boost to the right. Sometimes
I'll look over there and I'm like, Heavenly Father, please
put peace in this mansul when things aren't going well.
But I also see you write a lot of stuff down.
Writing down it's basically just writing things that happened during
the game, whether it's something a player does. You know
(01:08):
every week, where the coaches are responsible for turning in
maybe a questionable call during the game, I'll make note
of that. I usually try to write a note down
on each play on some of the positives or negatives
that I've seen. I know, you know, we're looking at
the game production standpoint. What a great job Harp does
Brian Harper and his crew on video replays, if they're
(01:32):
showing it at the right time, is they're going to
be a competitive advantage for us. Although staying with in
the NFL rules, so there's just a lot of different
things that are going on during a game and just
making sure that you take notes here or there because
you're not going to remember everything once you get back in.
You're going back and you're going to review the film
(01:52):
and do all the personnel stuff. But there's so much
else going on and just being an observing each play. Yeah,
and I go into this last week with the head coach,
Mike Zimmer, it's like that there were two legitimately awful
calls that win against him the Champa Bay game, and
you know, I know the game's over, there's nothing you
can do, but they both led to points. You know.
(02:13):
Then in this Bears game, a Keem Hicks punches Brian
O'Neill and it's not called so you guys send in
these plays, like what comes out of that? When you
send in plays, Usually we'll get a response back after
the league reviews it and tells us if it was
a correct or incorrect call or that should have been
(02:34):
called or should not have been called. So game's over.
Can't change the game, but at least hopefully, you know,
we can answer the questions. So if the ownership calls
me yet it should have been called this way from
the league response. But hopefully the league uses those as
they review them with the officials to help the officials
grow each week as well. Love that. Rick Spielman, general
(02:57):
manager of the Minnesota Vikings on XS and O. So
just kind of a broad question, Rick, how are you
handling the six and eight season with Judago. Well, you know,
it's it's been a little bit of a frustrating season.
It's like, you know, every game's been down to the
wire this year. There's some games that you know, we
maybely could have finished off, but it is what it is,
(03:18):
so you assess where you're at. You know, this week
we still had over four hundred yards of total offense
and against a very good Bears defense, but we were
down twenty to seven at one point, so we had
some slower starts, but the resiliency of this team, that
grid of this team would come back and throw seventeen
points up in fourteen first down first downs into three
(03:41):
possessions of the second half to get us back in
the game. And the defense probably didn't play its best
game of the season, but when we didn't convert on
those third and fourth and one situations, the defense on
a short field held Chicago to two field goals there,
which is very difficult to do. So they boat up
(04:03):
their in that situation. And then at the end of
the game and see Cam Danzler go up and make
that interception to get us back into the game again
and give us a chance to win. So how the
thing and the ebbs and flows that go on during
the season, the one thing I think that you see,
and you've seen it almost every week, is that this
team really does have no quid and will fight to
(04:25):
the bitter end whether we win or lose. They're going
to keep swinging all the way through the game. Love that,
no doubt, and it personifies the head coach's personality. Likewise,
for you a couple of tough guys, I mean after
that at Landed disaster, and you got an extra week
to think about it, and you come back and break
Green Bay spirit at Lambow like that. I mean, I
(04:46):
think that personifies that toughness personally. Now it's really to
ask this, but I'm gonna hit you anyway. Do you
envision significant things needing to be done in the off
season to make the team better. We'll go through that
every year. You're going to do that process just like
every team does. Once we get through this season, we'll
(05:06):
assess our strengths, we'll assess the weaknesses where we need
to improve. From a personnel standpoint, you got to kind
of take into account that you're going to have some
of these guys that we're missing this year, some of
our blue chip type players back on the defensive side
of the ball. You weigh in what's going to be
available in free agency, You weigh the strengths and weaknesses
(05:27):
of the draft, so you can lay your offseason plan
out totally on how you want to improve this football team.
We still don't know yet where the CAP's going to be,
so there's going to be some business decisions that we're
going to have to make as we move forward. But
that's the evolution of a roster that we go through
each and every year. Hey, Rich Hall has college football
(05:51):
during COVID times change the way you analyze college football
and you're ready for a draft. It's been basically I
have not been able to get out and see a
lot of these college players in person. I got to
one game this year over at the at the see
Minnesota play Iowa. Other than that has been based off
of all tape. You know, our college director Jamal Stevenson
(06:15):
has been out and seeing a couple of games. If
our college scouts can get out, the only thing they
can go to as is to games, although it's very limited.
And then the condensed season the college had this year
starting late and just finishing up. There's going to be
some bowl games coming up, you know, we're still there.
Their scheduled to come, like the Senior Bowl and some
(06:37):
of these other all star games. But if they're going
to go on, you know, we got a lot of
decisions to make on what and how the combines potentially
going to look this year, just with the way everything
is in a world right now with the COVID and
you know, still not out of the woods. It's great
that we have a vaccine, but that's going to take time,
so we still have to follow a lot of these
(06:58):
procedures that are set right out to make it a
safe workting environment, and hopefully we'll be able to get
the information that we need, although it may be different
ways we're going to have to get this information and
all that is yet to be determined. But I know,
you know, everybody's been working extremely hard with the circumstances
that we're dealing with and try to get prepared for
(07:20):
the upcoming offseason. Inside football question off the last two games,
are you guys starting to see defenses more consciously take
away the deep shots with Jefferson and feeling, Yeah, you know,
I think it started in the Tampa game and even
this last week it was always, you know, try to
(07:43):
stop Dalvin Cook and try to stop stop our run game.
And because the way Kirk Cousins been throwing the ball,
especially down the field, and he's one of the most
accurate deep ball throwers in the NFL. Right now, with
the emergence of Justin Jefferson, Adam feeling in the big
plays that we're able to create in the off of
(08:06):
play action in the passing game, all of a sudden,
you start to see how some of these defensives played
us differently, where they're taking away a lot of those
explosive type plays in the passing game and maybe not
focusing as much on the run game. We mentioned justin Jefferson,
the rookie from LSU Christmas in a couple of days,
(08:28):
you got your Christmas gift eight months ago. I mean
by tee, with all due respect, teams shaking receiver, other
receivers before him. I mean, he's unbelievable in all the
spots too. Write I think the one thing that makes
him unique is just because of the circumstances that he
had to come in, just like all the rookies had
(08:49):
to come into this year where you don't have any OTAs,
you do not have an offseason program, you have a
condensed training camp with no preseason games, and then you
just throw these guys out there once the regular season starts.
And he's just been phenomenal on his professional approach for
a young rookie, on how he's handled everything and even now,
(09:13):
you know, being selected to his first Pro Bowl, how
mature he is handling that once to go out and
still prove more and that's usually assigned that he's going
to have a pretty good career career going forward. Not
going with that, he stays healthy Christmas in a couple
of days working in the National Football League, And for
the Weilphs, that's a gift in its own right, isn't it. Yeah,
(09:35):
we've got probably the best owners in the NFL in
my opinion, not only the support they give us to
do our jobs to the best of our ability, to
the facilities that they've provided us down at US Bank
Stadium and here at the TCO Performance Center. But they're
passionate and how truly they really care, you know, about
(09:59):
our fans. They really care about this football team, and
just like all of us here, we're trying to do
everything we can to eventually get that championship. Here, Rick,
back to the Jefferson dealing conversation. So off Tampa in Chicago,
how's that factory into Dalvin Cook's game. Well, you know,
(10:19):
Dalvin's played a lot of snaps for us this year,
and you know, he had another one hundred and I
think thirty some yards last week. But I think you know,
the one thing about Dalvin the people don't appreciate as
much There's a lot of great running backs in the
league this year, but Dalvin's ability not only to run
the football, but what he does in a passing game
(10:41):
sometimes goes overlooked on some of the big plays he
makes in a screen game, or his ability to catch
the ball out of the backfield. And the thing that
people don't notice is because the ball maybe going downfield
to one of our receivers. Is how effective he is
at locating and picking up blitzes, and that's critical, especially
(11:02):
with how the teams have been attacking our offense right now.
Is his ability to really throw his body in there
and pick up a lupblitzing linebacker, pick up a safety
coming off the edge, and some of the things that
he does that they're not going to show on all
the highlights are pretty incredible to watch when you review
the tape on Monday mornings. Rick, knowing you for a
(11:24):
decade and a half, I know you're not big on
best or worst. You're not really an absolute guy. So
with Harrison Smith, I'm not going to say best season
of his career because that's beauty is in the eye
of the beholder. I mean, seriously, how much respect you
have for Harrison Smith, the way he's played this year
with all those kids back there. Seriously, Yeah, no, he's
done a phenomenal job. In Anthony Harris has to try
(11:46):
to direct traffic back there with all the rookies that
we have playing on defense and especially in the defensive backfield.
And you know, one play that really stuck out to
me in this last week's game, we had our defense
was missed a line and there was a receiver out
wide in the play where they ran a boot out
to their right. Harrison Smith, just because he's so intelligent,
(12:09):
seeing the deficiency that we had due with us not
lining up the correct way, came up and made a
heck of a play the beat that passed out on
a boot pass. So that just tells you, again not
how valuable he is on the back end because of
his experience and what he sees and how he can
(12:29):
make those quick in game adjustments. Now, with your quarterback
Kirk Cousins off his best season as a pro in
twenty nineteen, what have you seen this year and maybe
specifically after the bye, what do you like? I think
he you know, he's played his best football since the buye.
I think you know in the beginning of the season,
(12:51):
some of those turnovers. You know, we haven't created a
lot of turnovers on a defense, and we were giving
up way too many turnovers on the offensive side of
the ball. But I think what you've seen, especially the
last three or four weeks, is that his ability to
make some plays on his feet and when there's something
(13:11):
not there, what we call potential coverage sack. You see
him step up in the pocket. There was a player
early in the game where he stepped up in the pocket,
was going to throw the ball, recocked it, and then
hit Irv Smith on a twenty one yard game. Irv
did a great job adjusting his route and that was
a critical third down conversion right there. But also if
(13:33):
things are not there, him being able to scramble and
pick up some fast downs and keep the chains moving
if nothing's there in the passing game. So I think
that's one thing that he's really improved on this year
is making some plays with his legs. All Rick, what
about the makeup of your offensive line. I mean, clearly
(13:53):
good enough left to right, reef to O'Neill for Cook
to do what he's doing. Jefferson feeling Conkling got a
TD last week and so on. But the makeup of
the offensive line, what do you think the next step is.
I think we're going to We're continuing to evolve up there.
We still have a lot of young guys playing, and
you know, it gets into fitting the scheme that we're
(14:16):
trying to run a lot of this outside zone stuff.
I think a lot of these guys, you know, we
put a huge emphasis on athleticism up there, being able
to work in space at times when you have to
do that gap scheme or come forward some time. You
see some breakdowns there, but for the most part, you know,
(14:39):
this line has continued to evolve. I mean, there's a
reason why we're one of the top rushing teams in
the league because of how they're run blocking up front,
and a lot of it has to do with Dalvin too.
I don't want to take any credit away from him
and his unique ability to make plays, but I think
with us having a top five offense right now, a
(15:00):
lot of credit has to go to that line up front.
And no one's ever going to be perfect, but they
are continuing evolved. We have a lot of young guys,
even since we've got Ezra Gorn right now in at
the right guard and his maturity level and how he's
slowly getting into getting into rhythm. You and your staff
(15:21):
a great job of the draft, seriously, Jefferson, Gladney Danceler
Cleveland of just being the ultimate team guy, no preseason
playing guard, and then you even get to, like Josh Mtellis,
I mean, if you're not going to play a lot
at safety, lead the team in special teams tackles, you know,
I mean, that's I think that's big, and that's where
a lot of these guys that ended up becoming very
(15:41):
good players, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
start out on special teams. Anthony Harris, before he became
a starter, was one of our core special teams players.
Eric Wilson another guy who never had a backup type role,
but he was such a good special team player, and
then you see how he evolved into the type of
(16:02):
defensive player. Is so one of the signs that I
think tells you that this guy has a chance to
be a pretty good player in this league on the
offense or defensive side is their ability and how they
adapt and improve on special teams, and I think Matellis
is going right down that path as of today. Expielman,
general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, on EXES and O's
(16:26):
on KFA. A couple of quickies to close here. We
mentioned Jeff Kladney his season, I mean, nine snaps against
Green Bay in my opinion, a rough game against Indie.
But after that, it's just gone that way, hasn't it. Yeah.
I think both him and Cam Danzler continue to improve.
And you know, you look at the evolution of the corners,
which is probably the hardest position to adapt at the
(16:49):
NFL level, just because the rules are different. The talent
is much more significant than they are probably facing at
college weekend and week out, and just and we talked
about this before and some of the previous shows, you
see them playing off their natural ability. Right now they
(17:09):
don't have to think, you know, they don't have to
think if this guy goes in motion to coverage is changing.
So now you're starting to see these guys where camp
Danceler maybe missed a player two for example, making a
play in a ball in air, and then you go
to see him go up and make two interceptions these
last two weeks, closing on an end route and then
(17:31):
last week in the back of the end zone actually
high point and go up and getting the ball. So
those are all signs that I think these young guys
have a chance to continue to grow and to continue
to have success for us. So is Danceler becoming one
of those corners, you know, like Rhodes was when he
was at his best here like sixteen, one of those
corners who can like track a receiver. Is he becoming that?
(17:54):
I don't know. It's too early to tell yet, you know,
I just think that you know, the things that like
when Xavier and he didn't start, you know, and he
had some growing pains his rookie year or two. But
these guys that I know fit the traits that the
coaches are looking for, that are smart, that have true
passion for the game, and have the physical ability to
(18:17):
play in a scheme that code Zim wants to run.
I think that both these guys have a chance to
be pretty good cornerstones for us at that position. Last
one Christmas Day Football. You guys are super banged up,
specifically defensively. What job what are you looking to accomplish
in this game? Like? What are some big points for
(18:38):
you in this game? One? Go beat the New Orleans Saints,
on Christmas Day. Yes, that would be that would be
a gift. Thank you very much for everything, not only now,
but during the course of the year. Mary. Christmas to you, ma'am,
and best to luck against the Saints. Okay, thank you.
It's x's and oh's on the KFA in Minnesota Vikings
Radio Network. Those of you watching at Vikings dot com,
thank you very much. It is Paul Allen this week,
joined by general manager Rick Spielman on a show courtesy
of US Bank. Good luck against New Orleans and U
and Early Mary. Christmas to you, mister Spielman. How are things? Yeah,
(00:21):
Happy Holidays to your family into all of our fans
out there. Yep. Definitely watching this on a holiday week,
hoping you beat the Saints. Finish it off of the
victory at Detroit. Can I may I ask you a
game related personal question to begin, Yes, thank you. When
you watch the team play, what triggers you to write
(00:44):
stuff down? Because like where I call the games, you're
you're like two or three boost to the right. Sometimes
I'll look over there and I'm like, Heavenly Father, please
put peace in this mansul when things aren't going well.
But I also see you write a lot of stuff down.
Writing down it's basically just writing things that happened during
the game, whether it's something a player does. You know
(01:08):
every week, where the coaches are responsible for turning in
maybe a questionable call during the game, I'll make note
of that. I usually try to write a note down
on each play on some of the positives or negatives
that I've seen. I know, you know, we're looking at
the game production standpoint. What a great job Harp does
Brian Harper and his crew on video replays, if they're
(01:32):
showing it at the right time, is they're going to
be a competitive advantage for us. Although staying with in
the NFL rules, so there's just a lot of different
things that are going on during a game and just
making sure that you take notes here or there because
you're not going to remember everything once you get back in.
You're going back and you're going to review the film
(01:52):
and do all the personnel stuff. But there's so much
else going on and just being an observing each play. Yeah,
and I go into this last week with the head coach,
Mike Zimmer, it's like that there were two legitimately awful
calls that win against him the Champa Bay game, and
you know, I know the game's over, there's nothing you
can do, but they both led to points. You know.
(02:13):
Then in this Bears game, a Keem Hicks punches Brian
O'Neill and it's not called so you guys send in
these plays, like what comes out of that? When you
send in plays, Usually we'll get a response back after
the league reviews it and tells us if it was
a correct or incorrect call or that should have been
(02:34):
called or should not have been called. So game's over.
Can't change the game, but at least hopefully, you know,
we can answer the questions. So if the ownership calls
me yet it should have been called this way from
the league response. But hopefully the league uses those as
they review them with the officials to help the officials
grow each week as well. Love that. Rick Spielman, general
(02:57):
manager of the Minnesota Vikings on XS and O. So
just kind of a broad question, Rick, how are you
handling the six and eight season with Judago. Well, you know,
it's it's been a little bit of a frustrating season.
It's like, you know, every game's been down to the
wire this year. There's some games that you know, we
maybely could have finished off, but it is what it is,
(03:18):
so you assess where you're at. You know, this week
we still had over four hundred yards of total offense
and against a very good Bears defense, but we were
down twenty to seven at one point, so we had
some slower starts, but the resiliency of this team, that
grid of this team would come back and throw seventeen
points up in fourteen first down first downs into three
(03:41):
possessions of the second half to get us back in
the game. And the defense probably didn't play its best
game of the season, but when we didn't convert on
those third and fourth and one situations, the defense on
a short field held Chicago to two field goals there,
which is very difficult to do. So they boat up
(04:03):
their in that situation. And then at the end of
the game and see Cam Danzler go up and make
that interception to get us back into the game again
and give us a chance to win. So how the
thing and the ebbs and flows that go on during
the season, the one thing I think that you see,
and you've seen it almost every week, is that this
team really does have no quid and will fight to
(04:25):
the bitter end whether we win or lose. They're going
to keep swinging all the way through the game. Love that,
no doubt, and it personifies the head coach's personality. Likewise,
for you a couple of tough guys, I mean after
that at Landed disaster, and you got an extra week
to think about it, and you come back and break
Green Bay spirit at Lambow like that. I mean, I
(04:46):
think that personifies that toughness personally. Now it's really to
ask this, but I'm gonna hit you anyway. Do you
envision significant things needing to be done in the off
season to make the team better. We'll go through that
every year. You're going to do that process just like
every team does. Once we get through this season, we'll
(05:06):
assess our strengths, we'll assess the weaknesses where we need
to improve. From a personnel standpoint, you got to kind
of take into account that you're going to have some
of these guys that we're missing this year, some of
our blue chip type players back on the defensive side
of the ball. You weigh in what's going to be
available in free agency, You weigh the strengths and weaknesses
(05:27):
of the draft, so you can lay your offseason plan
out totally on how you want to improve this football team.
We still don't know yet where the CAP's going to be,
so there's going to be some business decisions that we're
going to have to make as we move forward. But
that's the evolution of a roster that we go through
each and every year. Hey, Rich Hall has college football
(05:51):
during COVID times change the way you analyze college football
and you're ready for a draft. It's been basically I
have not been able to get out and see a
lot of these college players in person. I got to
one game this year over at the at the see
Minnesota play Iowa. Other than that has been based off
of all tape. You know, our college director Jamal Stevenson
(06:15):
has been out and seeing a couple of games. If
our college scouts can get out, the only thing they
can go to as is to games, although it's very limited.
And then the condensed season the college had this year
starting late and just finishing up. There's going to be
some bowl games coming up, you know, we're still there.
Their scheduled to come, like the Senior Bowl and some
(06:37):
of these other all star games. But if they're going
to go on, you know, we got a lot of
decisions to make on what and how the combines potentially
going to look this year, just with the way everything
is in a world right now with the COVID and
you know, still not out of the woods. It's great
that we have a vaccine, but that's going to take time,
so we still have to follow a lot of these
(06:58):
procedures that are set right out to make it a
safe workting environment, and hopefully we'll be able to get
the information that we need, although it may be different
ways we're going to have to get this information and
all that is yet to be determined. But I know,
you know, everybody's been working extremely hard with the circumstances
that we're dealing with and try to get prepared for
(07:20):
the upcoming offseason. Inside football question off the last two games,
are you guys starting to see defenses more consciously take
away the deep shots with Jefferson and feeling, Yeah, you know,
I think it started in the Tampa game and even
this last week it was always, you know, try to
(07:43):
stop Dalvin Cook and try to stop stop our run game.
And because the way Kirk Cousins been throwing the ball,
especially down the field, and he's one of the most
accurate deep ball throwers in the NFL. Right now, with
the emergence of Justin Jefferson, Adam feeling in the big
plays that we're able to create in the off of
(08:06):
play action in the passing game, all of a sudden,
you start to see how some of these defensives played
us differently, where they're taking away a lot of those
explosive type plays in the passing game and maybe not
focusing as much on the run game. We mentioned justin Jefferson,
the rookie from LSU Christmas in a couple of days,
(08:28):
you got your Christmas gift eight months ago. I mean
by tee, with all due respect, teams shaking receiver, other
receivers before him. I mean, he's unbelievable in all the
spots too. Write I think the one thing that makes
him unique is just because of the circumstances that he
had to come in, just like all the rookies had
(08:49):
to come into this year where you don't have any OTAs,
you do not have an offseason program, you have a
condensed training camp with no preseason games, and then you
just throw these guys out there once the regular season starts.
And he's just been phenomenal on his professional approach for
a young rookie, on how he's handled everything and even now,
(09:13):
you know, being selected to his first Pro Bowl, how
mature he is handling that once to go out and
still prove more and that's usually assigned that he's going
to have a pretty good career career going forward. Not
going with that, he stays healthy Christmas in a couple
of days working in the National Football League, And for
the Weilphs, that's a gift in its own right, isn't it. Yeah,
(09:35):
we've got probably the best owners in the NFL in
my opinion, not only the support they give us to
do our jobs to the best of our ability, to
the facilities that they've provided us down at US Bank
Stadium and here at the TCO Performance Center. But they're
passionate and how truly they really care, you know, about
(09:59):
our fans. They really care about this football team, and
just like all of us here, we're trying to do
everything we can to eventually get that championship. Here, Rick,
back to the Jefferson dealing conversation. So off Tampa in Chicago,
how's that factory into Dalvin Cook's game. Well, you know,
(10:19):
Dalvin's played a lot of snaps for us this year,
and you know, he had another one hundred and I
think thirty some yards last week. But I think you know,
the one thing about Dalvin the people don't appreciate as
much There's a lot of great running backs in the
league this year, but Dalvin's ability not only to run
the football, but what he does in a passing game
(10:41):
sometimes goes overlooked on some of the big plays he
makes in a screen game, or his ability to catch
the ball out of the backfield. And the thing that
people don't notice is because the ball maybe going downfield
to one of our receivers. Is how effective he is
at locating and picking up blitzes, and that's critical, especially
(11:02):
with how the teams have been attacking our offense right now.
Is his ability to really throw his body in there
and pick up a lupblitzing linebacker, pick up a safety
coming off the edge, and some of the things that
he does that they're not going to show on all
the highlights are pretty incredible to watch when you review
the tape on Monday mornings. Rick, knowing you for a
(11:24):
decade and a half, I know you're not big on
best or worst. You're not really an absolute guy. So
with Harrison Smith, I'm not going to say best season
of his career because that's beauty is in the eye
of the beholder. I mean, seriously, how much respect you
have for Harrison Smith, the way he's played this year
with all those kids back there. Seriously, Yeah, no, he's
done a phenomenal job. In Anthony Harris has to try
(11:46):
to direct traffic back there with all the rookies that
we have playing on defense and especially in the defensive backfield.
And you know, one play that really stuck out to
me in this last week's game, we had our defense
was missed a line and there was a receiver out
wide in the play where they ran a boot out
to their right. Harrison Smith, just because he's so intelligent,
(12:09):
seeing the deficiency that we had due with us not
lining up the correct way, came up and made a
heck of a play the beat that passed out on
a boot pass. So that just tells you, again not
how valuable he is on the back end because of
his experience and what he sees and how he can
(12:29):
make those quick in game adjustments. Now, with your quarterback
Kirk Cousins off his best season as a pro in
twenty nineteen, what have you seen this year and maybe
specifically after the bye, what do you like? I think
he you know, he's played his best football since the buye.
I think you know in the beginning of the season,
(12:51):
some of those turnovers. You know, we haven't created a
lot of turnovers on a defense, and we were giving
up way too many turnovers on the offensive side of
the ball. But I think what you've seen, especially the
last three or four weeks, is that his ability to
make some plays on his feet and when there's something
(13:11):
not there, what we call potential coverage sack. You see
him step up in the pocket. There was a player
early in the game where he stepped up in the pocket,
was going to throw the ball, recocked it, and then
hit Irv Smith on a twenty one yard game. Irv
did a great job adjusting his route and that was
a critical third down conversion right there. But also if
(13:33):
things are not there, him being able to scramble and
pick up some fast downs and keep the chains moving
if nothing's there in the passing game. So I think
that's one thing that he's really improved on this year
is making some plays with his legs. All Rick, what
about the makeup of your offensive line. I mean, clearly
(13:53):
good enough left to right, reef to O'Neill for Cook
to do what he's doing. Jefferson feeling Conkling got a
TD last week and so on. But the makeup of
the offensive line, what do you think the next step is.
I think we're going to We're continuing to evolve up there.
We still have a lot of young guys playing, and
you know, it gets into fitting the scheme that we're
(14:16):
trying to run a lot of this outside zone stuff.
I think a lot of these guys, you know, we
put a huge emphasis on athleticism up there, being able
to work in space at times when you have to
do that gap scheme or come forward some time. You
see some breakdowns there, but for the most part, you know,
(14:39):
this line has continued to evolve. I mean, there's a
reason why we're one of the top rushing teams in
the league because of how they're run blocking up front,
and a lot of it has to do with Dalvin too.
I don't want to take any credit away from him
and his unique ability to make plays, but I think
with us having a top five offense right now, a
(15:00):
lot of credit has to go to that line up front.
And no one's ever going to be perfect, but they
are continuing evolved. We have a lot of young guys,
even since we've got Ezra Gorn right now in at
the right guard and his maturity level and how he's
slowly getting into getting into rhythm. You and your staff
(15:21):
a great job of the draft, seriously, Jefferson, Gladney Danceler
Cleveland of just being the ultimate team guy, no preseason
playing guard, and then you even get to, like Josh Mtellis,
I mean, if you're not going to play a lot
at safety, lead the team in special teams tackles, you know,
I mean, that's I think that's big, and that's where
a lot of these guys that ended up becoming very
(15:41):
good players, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
start out on special teams. Anthony Harris, before he became
a starter, was one of our core special teams players.
Eric Wilson another guy who never had a backup type role,
but he was such a good special team player, and
then you see how he evolved into the type of
(16:02):
defensive player. Is so one of the signs that I
think tells you that this guy has a chance to
be a pretty good player in this league on the
offense or defensive side is their ability and how they
adapt and improve on special teams, and I think Matellis
is going right down that path as of today. Expielman,
general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, on EXES and O's
(16:26):
on KFA. A couple of quickies to close here. We
mentioned Jeff Kladney his season, I mean, nine snaps against
Green Bay in my opinion, a rough game against Indie.
But after that, it's just gone that way, hasn't it. Yeah.
I think both him and Cam Danzler continue to improve.
And you know, you look at the evolution of the corners,
which is probably the hardest position to adapt at the
(16:49):
NFL level, just because the rules are different. The talent
is much more significant than they are probably facing at
college weekend and week out, and just and we talked
about this before and some of the previous shows, you
see them playing off their natural ability. Right now they
(17:09):
don't have to think, you know, they don't have to
think if this guy goes in motion to coverage is changing.
So now you're starting to see these guys where camp
Danceler maybe missed a player two for example, making a
play in a ball in air, and then you go
to see him go up and make two interceptions these
last two weeks, closing on an end route and then
(17:31):
last week in the back of the end zone actually
high point and go up and getting the ball. So
those are all signs that I think these young guys
have a chance to continue to grow and to continue
to have success for us. So is Danceler becoming one
of those corners, you know, like Rhodes was when he
was at his best here like sixteen, one of those
corners who can like track a receiver. Is he becoming that?
(17:54):
I don't know. It's too early to tell yet, you know,
I just think that you know, the things that like
when Xavier and he didn't start, you know, and he
had some growing pains his rookie year or two. But
these guys that I know fit the traits that the
coaches are looking for, that are smart, that have true
passion for the game, and have the physical ability to
(18:17):
play in a scheme that code Zim wants to run.
I think that both these guys have a chance to
be pretty good cornerstones for us at that position. Last
one Christmas Day Football. You guys are super banged up,
specifically defensively. What job what are you looking to accomplish
in this game? Like? What are some big points for
(18:38):
you in this game? One? Go beat the New Orleans Saints,
on Christmas Day. Yes, that would be that would be
a gift. Thank you very much for everything, not only now,
but during the course of the year. Mary. Christmas to you, ma'am,
and best to luck against the Saints. Okay, thank you.
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