Kevin Seifert! - Bumper to Bumper 11/18/25 Hour Two

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Will you be going to Lambo by the way for
the showdown Vikings Bears.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
That's a noon start. I think it's a noon kick.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
If there's any you're looking at, you're sniffing around maybe
and keeping your options open. If someone's got a pair
for a single, Okay, I'll go do it. So you
would miss me for sermons? Right, you're right, which I'm
sure you're fine with noon noon start. Uh, maybe Girby's
got some extra tickets. He might be able to help

(00:47):
you with. I'm gonna guess I haven't checked the spread
on this game. I'm gonna guess early line here. What's
today Tuesday? I mean, look, I'm going to say the
Packers are favored by six. You're very close, six and

(01:08):
a half a half. Wow, it says it opened at
three and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It did.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Now, I don't know if that's the beginning of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Are you Are you gonna have anybody back? Because you've
got a lot of injuries. Is you're running back going
to be back?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Potentially but probably not? Probably not.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
He's it's not a serious injury, but it's doubtful. I
would think he'd play this week. Right. They basically said,
if not this week, next week, okay, and the tight
end is done for the year. That's all right.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Who else? You got anybody else that that that hurts that.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
That there are some a lignement issues that we're going on. Yeah,
so there's there's plenty of guys on the injury report,
but the biggest one is uh Josh Jacobs.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
And if they don't have him, that's trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Who is your backup? I don't even know.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, there's Emmanuel Wilson, Chris Brooks a problem. You don't
have what you'd classify as a a big time backup
running back. Wilson's a fine number two, okay, but I
would I wouldn't be like, oh, no problem you go.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Dante's small hands ticked off. Vikings fans, no snow Lands.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Wolves and five.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
That's pretty good. That's very good.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
You could do Gophers regally on Saturday and then Vikings
Packers at Lambeau on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's a good little trip for for your for a
hardcore sports roube right, seriously, be easily done. What time
I think the I think the Gopher game is an
eleven o'clocker. Pretty sure it's or eleven ten whatever that
that window eleven is at eleven o'clock. Okay, uh check,
Here's what I'm curious about. Will you check the spread

(02:48):
on that game. I'm gonna guess Northwestern is favored by
two and a half over the Gophers.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Hey, on the road, three and a half. Northwestern is
favored three and a half and half points. That's embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Now, the Cats played a great They just played a
great game and lost at the buzzer. And think of
a field goal to Michigan. We might talk about that
with mace in your face. Well, it should be pointed
out too that the Gophers are six and four, they're
Bowl eligible. Yeah, we heard about it. Northwestern is five
and five. Northwestern is favored by three and a half
points the Wrigley Field home advantage, Yes, the friendly confinct.

(03:30):
So they get two straight weeks of games at Wrigley
to do the uh, the Wildcats. So that's a pretty
good Uh, that's a very good idea. All right, real quick,
the again, let me let me be completely honest enough
a bove board about this. This is not a rumor
that has started, you know, by let's say, informed media

(03:54):
people like a Johnny athletic, for example, where he might say,
I'm not saying this is going to happen, but there's
exploration going on.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
This isn't that kind.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
This is a kind where media jackals, in this case
basketball media jackals are bored and they start thinking about
early results this year. And in this case, the logic is, well,
let's take a look at the Clippers. They're a mess.
They seem to be going the wrong direction. Their season

(04:27):
almost feels like it's over before it's begun.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I think Kawhi is hurt again.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
They got who's the uh the the wing player that
was that they got from Phoenix who had the no
trade clause. It'll come to me in a minute. He's
already out for the season. So maybe the Clippers say
we're done. It's early to say that, but we're done. Meanwhile,
these same jackals are saying, well, it looks like the Wolves,

(04:55):
as much as important as Mike Conley has been, and
by the way, he's shooting great lately, maybe it's time
for a lesser role for him longer in the tooth.
You have him coming off the bench, but maybe you
need a starter and Dante really isn't a point guard.
And even though it's set up where a lot of
times the ball ends up in Anthony Edwards hands, you

(05:16):
could say there's an opening there for a with it
in a while point guard. So the suggestion I heard
today is what about James Hardened to the Wolves? Or
it would have to be a package a bevy of players.

(05:37):
Is it even feasible? Now there's financial implications. Harden makes
thirty nine million this year, and I think he's got
a contract for next year where it goes up to
I think it's a player option that goes up to
forty two million bucks. He's longer in the tooth, obviously.
Let's check his age. He's thirty six years old. By

(05:59):
the way, somebody said how old was Dante in his
first year? Was he a lot older than JJ McCarthy.
Dante was twenty three the first year he played for
the Vikings, So he's a year older than McCarthy. He
wasn't twenty He's not Brosemer. He's not like twenty nine
years old. Anyway, I digress, and I'll throw it out

(06:20):
to the Wolves fans out there. Would they have any
interests to that? It's a dangerous move. It's a big move,
but we've learned. You know that Tim Conley makes big moves.
James Harden is playing well and he's also, I think,
shown the ability to not be the main guy anymore,

(06:41):
where he's perfectly content occasionally scoring and still scoring at
times very effectively, but other times just distributing and just
getting other people involved the whole bit. It would be
a I mean, just a dramatic departure, and then I
think you'd have to factor in, well, who the hell
you giving up? And I put it this way, if

(07:09):
if you have to give up, I don't think you
can trade Randall in this deal. I don't think you
can trade Jaden in this deal. As an NBA source
reminds me, could you get it done or would you
be willing to get it done? If let's say you
traded Dillingham and nas nas reed, could that do it?
I have no idea. And as I said, we're big

(07:30):
Conley guys on this show.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
As you know, I.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Never ever discount when he's getting it going, even at
his advanced age, that he can help this team. But
James Harden's a big juice guy, right, I mean, he's
he on the other hand, in the playoffs, he is
trunk from time to time, so you have to factor
that in too. So again, it's just an interesting muse

(07:55):
that's been lay the sort of speculated on as well.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
The Clippers are done. It's a natural place.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
The Wolves do potentially need help here, So I'll throw
it out and see. I'm very curious to see what
the Texters have to say about it. I'm going to
save these texts and take it under consideration how people
are responding. A number of people already have because we've
got Seaffort coming up next segment, so we'll save them

(08:22):
for maybe a little bit after Kevin Seffert. Luigi is
going to join at five point thirty. We've already had
a couple of good comebacks to this whole rumor of
James Harden. That is an internet rumor, not one, as
I said, that's very much media based at this point,
but people trying to put their heads together about the
condition of the two clubs. Wolves still very much thinking

(08:43):
and rightly that they can be in this mix if
they get you know, the right pieces and get going
the right way, and the Clippers season might already be
as we said, done, Big name is James Harden, but
a volatile name as well. That's what I think makes
the whole thing, even in a hypothetical way, so interesting

(09:04):
to discuss. We'll come back with Seaffert if you have
questions for him brat Shawn Briant, k FA n text line.
He used the term on Monday cannibalized. What does the
term cannibalized have to do with the current condition of

(09:24):
the Minnesota Vikings? Will give him a chance to explain
and get too much more NFL related net the fan
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Speaker 2 (10:00):
All right, we are indeed back.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
If you have questions for Kevin Seaffert, as we like
to call him in the business, please reach out via
the bresh on Brian kfe in text line at six
four six eight six. That's six four six eight six,
And some of you have already done exactly that. See

(10:32):
if you're joining us via the Connectico Water Systems Hotline.
I want to start with before we get to quarterback
and cannibalizing and all kinds of good stuff from some
of your more recent pieces, I want to revisit one
aspect of the Vikings loss. Not so much the kickoff

(10:54):
return itself that then opened the door to the Bears
re stealing the game from the Vikings who had seemingly
just stolen it, but what it says again about the
effectiveness of a rule change.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Because.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
I think it's fairly evident that if the NFL had
not changed the rule properly to say, you want to
kick it through the end zone, that's fine, But now
from now on teams are going to get it at
the thirty five yard line. That's what you have to
be willing to give up. Then we would have seen
the ball obviously kicked through the end zone, or we

(11:34):
might have seen a squib, But now you can't even
necessarily count on a squib because of where it lands.
Which all that tells. All this tells me, Seffert, is
that this rule change is a smashing success because it
has sort of reinserted a certain amount of strategy to
the kickoff return that most of US had given.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
Up on right absolutely, you know, they if you kick
it out of the end zone, like I think a
lot of people wanted the Vikings to do. Even with
this new rule, the baggos of the thirty five yard line,
you're basically like twenty five yards away from field goal range,
which would be the Vikings forty and then that becomes
like a fifty eight ish yard field goal if you

(12:16):
combine this kickoff rule with the rule that apparently has
changed the distance that the CA balls can go that
we talked about a couple weeks ago, and you're talking
about you have no choice but to try to pin
the or I would say no choice. But the clear
strategy I think at that point, especially if you trust
your kickoff coverage, is to put the ball in play

(12:39):
and try to pin them somewhere deeper than that thirty
five yard line.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, there's no question about that.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Now to the question of whether, even knowing that that,
the Vikings would have been better served giving them the
ball at to thirty five and thereby obviously eliminating the
possibility of that kind of big return, I am on
the side that had no difficulty with the decision, because
the Viking I should say the Bears only needed three.
If they needed seven, I might feel differently about it.

(13:07):
But if you need three and you're putting them on
the thirty five and people are kicking field goals as
long as they are now the Vikings, the Bears don't
have the longest field goal kicker in the league, but
he is capable of getting to fifty and maybe even fifty.
I think he had a fifty four in this game, didn't.
I think it was the longest of his career. It
was room to spare, Yeah, the room to spare that
I if it's just three, you just have to you

(13:28):
have to handle even with a good return guy, you
have to handle the return better. And we all know
that a lot of laying changes took place or a
lot of people left their lanes. I had no difficulty
in a field goal situation with not wanting to concede
the thirty five yard line to the opposition.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah. And I know a lot of people are down
on the Viking special teams, and there's been, you know,
plenty of times when there's been penalties on long returns
or what have you. But the one of the parts
of their special teams that have really good this year
and function at a high level as the kickoff coverage.
And Matt Daniels, their especially teams coordinator, has stat and

(14:08):
I look back and it appears accurate that of all
the kickoff returns they've had against them this year, I
think only three have gone past the thirty five yard
line of but fifty plus or whatever it was, And
so there there there was a real reason. You know,
people talk about analytics and one of the analytics telling you,
but you also have to judge the skills or the

(14:29):
lack of skills of your team, and one thing that
has been pretty reliable has been their kickoff coverage, and
so that's I think why they were they Kevin O'Connell
had a little extra reason to put it in play
and why they were so gutted by what happened.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
All right, So where does cannibalizing come in to your
description of perhaps the current condition of the way the
current condition of the Vikings, the way this season has
played out to this point.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Yeah, I mean they had to clear goals coming into
the year, and that was number one to compete the
playoff spot, like most teams try to do. In their case,
very genuinely there's some teams who just talk about it,
but I think based on how much money they spent
and the quality of the roster that they assembled, that
they very much thought they would be heading for the playoffs.

(15:19):
And the other goal was to develop their young quarterback
and get to the end of the season and be
able to say like, hey, this is our guy moving forward.
We got them all these all the reps we needed.
We didn't have to ask him to do too much
because of the great team that he had around them.
And basically, as they sit here at four and six,
those two goals and the word I use was cannibalized

(15:42):
each other. That because they're trying, because they're trying to
develop JJ McCarthy, they're very unlikely to make the playoffs,
and like that, one has led to the other, and
so I you know, it always was a possibility, and
we could if we end up having the same situation

(16:05):
here at the end of the year and we do
all the post mortems and all that, I guess we'll
question whether the judgment that they were capable of doing
both of those things at the same time was sound.
But so far it appears as though they're kind of
collapsing on top of each other.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
All right, let me ask you for your view on
one aspect of what I might call the the you know,
the earnest efforts that most coaches do in a situation
like this damage control. Right, a young in this place,
in case, a young quarterback who you're invested in, that
you want to believe in, and that you you want

(16:40):
to not be traumatized by any more than he already is,
perhaps about how this thing is playing out.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
So today.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
KOs says, one thing Vikings fans can look for when he,
meaning McCarthy, gets to the top of his drops, we're
really trying to see if we can get him to
be a little bit more in a repeatable body position. Now,
I'm not here to say that that isn't part of
what they have to work on, but I believe, and

(17:10):
we got a lot of these after the game too,
eyes and feet, Eyes and feet. I don't think they're
doing him any favors articulating his issues publicly this way.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
It comes off to me as we're dealing with a
middle school quarterback who is just a raw talent that
has no idea, has never played the position, and it
reminds me a little bit of bilateral leg weakness where
whatever the intent was, it ends up working against the player.
And I you know, we had the base stuff that

(17:43):
from a few weeks ago. I just think it unwittingly
makes it sound like we've got to repeat this stuff
in this guy's ear every fifteen seconds, as if he's
just started playing the position.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
What do you think?

Speaker 4 (17:57):
I mean, it's that, But it's also the largelarger sense
that here we are at the highest level of football
on the planet, you know, the NFL, and they're being
pretty open talking about how they're having to sort of
teach him how to play the position at the levels
like I think, like we can go through all the

(18:17):
different like you know, postures and the and the technical
words that he's using. But in the larger sense, it's
that they have a asset, that they high priced assets,
that they're kind of openly admitting is not equipped yet
to play the position at this level and that they're

(18:37):
trying to teach him that in real time. And that's
a lot different than I think young quarterbacks developing, because
we hear about that for every quarterback when they no
matter how many how experience they were in college and
how much success they had when they get to the NFL.
There's just a mental level that you take some time
to use the speed of the game, the complexities of

(18:57):
the game, the different defenses that you play, and those
are usually that's usually the world you're talking about with
quarterback development, and we don't understandable. I mean, there isn't
a single quarterback who became a long term starter who
had it all figured out right, you know, the second
they got there's like that. But those are the things
that they're working on, like understanding NFL defenses, being able

(19:19):
to call and spit out the play call of an
NFL offense and knowing the different audibles and knowing all
that sort of thing and being able to get it
to a point where you can do it routinely. And
that's that is very much not what.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
They're talking about.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
They're talking about kind of some basic things that like,
to me, I don't know how realistic it is to
think that these things can be improved over the course
of the season, like the offseason thing. Yep. But you know,
as a reporter, I'm never going to come down on
anybody being transparent or or for providing quote unquote too
much information, But I see what you're saying in terms

(19:54):
of how that could make JJ field with My guess is,
if they're saying this to us now, this has been said,
you know, behind the scenes for many it's not even
a guess. I know, like been saying behind the scenes
for months and weeks and weeks and probably months, and
so I don't think that he's necessarily getting blindsided by this.

(20:15):
I think that there's a point where like sometimes having
it out there publicly, you know, can speed the process.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, well, we're kind of saying the same thing I
in just in different ways.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's it's it's.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
It's the alarm bells go off, And if part of
what you're trying to do is protect him from the
heat that he's getting, it's not it's not helping in
that regard at all.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
I I you know, I don't think.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
I I mean, And the other thing that caught in
my ear was just the phrase, you know, eager to
see the cement start to dry, to me is another
way of saying, like it's time for you to do
these things. You know, we've talked about it a lot,
We've laid the foundation, the cement, you know, the the
you know, the how the foundation of the house is laid.
It's time that and it's time for you to do

(21:01):
these things. And so I, yeah, I don't. I wouldn't
say that Kevin O'Connell or any of the assistant coaches
on this team are the kinds of people that trying
to motivate people in the media or whatever. Yeah, Like,
if it is being said publicly, then I think that's
kind of where they're at privately as well.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, that may well be very well true.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
I mentioned this yesterday, and it's a little bit apples
and oranges because this is Caleb Williams second year of
actually playing, although it's actually only his first year working
with Ben Johnson. But I went after the game back
and forth. I got wine line here via iHeart to
get reaction and listen to the head coach, and then

(21:41):
I went to Bear's wine line to see, Okay, what
are they saying, And just by luck, I happened to
be listening when they played back a portion of the
Ben Johnson press conference and there's the usual questions about
you know, the kickoff return and you know, showing some
toughness and finding ways to win all all the cliches,

(22:04):
and then there was well what did you know? What
did you what did you tho? How would you evaluate
Caleb's performance? And there's a pause from Johnson and he says,
I can't really say, I need to look at the tape.
And I'm thinking, WHOA, that may well be true. And
you often hear but usually you hear it after a loss,
or you hear it after you know. So the word

(22:24):
out of Chicago is that the Johnson approach has been
a lot of tough love where he has been a
lot harder. And maybe that's you know, style coaching style.
Maybe again, this is he knows Caleb's second year, so
he's going to be a little more impatient about you know,
the cement drawing and all that stuff. But I'm curious

(22:45):
to know if you think it'll ever get close to
that point in a meaningful way with KOC or are
we just talking about completely different coaching styles where he
might say, come on, man, come on, JJ, we need
you got to buck up here, man, and you have
to concentrate, and we got to challenge you a little
bit with maybe a little bit more tough love than
we've shown to this point.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
I mean, I would argue that that is a little
bit of what we were just talking about, like the cementra.
I think that's just kind of the way he talks,
you know, and everybody's got their own ways of communication.
And I think the worst spot for coach to be
in is to decide in his head, I got to
act a certain way. I you know, I've gotta I
gotta get meaner, or I've got to be nicer, or

(23:28):
I've got to be drill starch guy, or I've got
to be you know, youth coach guy with the orange
slices and capri sun guy like you like that is
that won't work, and it won't no player will respond
to it. And it's like the O'Connell talks about that's
being the best version of yourself. And in that regard,

(23:51):
I don't see him being somebody who can apply the
level of public certainly publicly direct, you know, love that
you're talking about. I think the way it might come
out is a lot closer to where you know, Okay,
we're each for the cement to dry. So I don't
know how that changes behind the scenes with JJ, but

(24:13):
I do think that in his in his way, that
is sort of what's happening already.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Kevin Seaford ESPN dot com joining us. If you have questions, please,
as I said, text US six four six eight six.
So I think I've asked you this before, but I'll
ask you it again because it keeps coming up. There
are people who think that at times he looks so

(24:39):
overwhelmed that the coach actually would be better served throwing
out the other QB Brosemer. And we know some of
that is because he played here. Let's be honest, A
lot of people wouldn't even know who the hell this
kid was he didn't play here. But there are others saying, well,
you know, I mean, other teams have occasionally they they had,

(25:00):
you know, high hopes in San Francisco for Trey Lance,
and they want other directions, and you're allowed to it
if it's so bad to just throw somebody else out there.
The theory is that the only conceivable reason that KOC
wouldn't throw him out there is he's afraid that he's
going to do well enough that then he's got another
headache on his hands. Do you have any reason to

(25:22):
believe that might be true.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
I don't think he's afraid of that. I think like
even in the Trey Lance Brock pretty transition that you're
talking about. I'm almost positive that Purty ended up on
the field because Trey Lance was hurt, right, and so yeah,
there was a natural opportunity for him to be out there.
And the Lance injury was pretty significant, so it wasn't
like he you know, it was just the high ankle
spray and he's eventually going to come back, like there

(25:46):
was a break broken leg or whatever, and he was
done for the year, and so they had a natural
reason to put Purty on the field. But I do
think there was a moment in Sunday's game when I
think it was a third down and he in the
third quarter and McCarthy way overthrows Justin Jefferson on the
sideline and he kind of he like throws his hands

(26:07):
on his helmet and discussed and then like sprints off
the field, and like, like I just at that moment,
at least, I'm thinking, like, I wonder if this is
like it's like he needs to be put out of
his misery here, not to like set him back and say, Okay,
you know you're not going to play it the next
few weeks or you're punished or whatever. But just like
mentally reset, even if it was just for a couple

(26:29):
series or whatever, it just looked like he was like
just so it was beyond frustrating, And so I asked,
And that was when it was at the absolute worst,
like it was near the end of the third quarter
and first three quarters in that game. His his off
target rate was like thirty two or thirty three percent,
which means one out of every three passes he was
throwing was just uncatchable. And so I asked, at what

(26:52):
level of performance do you have would he need to
be at to consider that even in just kind of
the very short term, And I'm not sure if he
what he thought I was asking, and he basically said
he didn't want to go into it. And a lot
of people said, well, what do you expect him to say?
Like he's not going to spell out what he's looking
forward to bench the guy. But it just it just

(27:14):
felt like at that moment, at least, like that wouldn't
have been like the absolute worst idea to consider, not
to see what Max Brosber can do and not to
you know, allow the next rock party moment to happen.
But just like I don't know, like almost like sympathy,
but you know, and you talk about tough love, like
to me, making them go back out there again even

(27:35):
under that circumstance with that body language. You know, I
think that there's a little bit of tough love there.
And it ended up being for their benefit because he
did rally and play much better in the fourth quarter.
And if they had right taken him out, even for
sympathetic reasons at that point, he wouldn't have gotten the
opportunity in those reps. So I you know, I don't
think they made a mistake, but it just like popped

(27:56):
in my head, and like I still think, like overwhelming
necessity here is to get this guy as many reps
as possible, no matter what, you know, unless you are
convinced and all your coaching staff agrees that you're doing
damage to him by playing him. And and that's really
the only point of the whole season where I felt
like that was even a modest Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
No, it was a fair question, question Mark, Yeah, it
was an absolutely fair question. Chris Carter yesterday told us
that he believes that the Viking it's it's essential. He's
not giving up on McCarthy, but he thinks it's essential
that you that the Vikings bring in This was, again,
much to the chagrin of the brosmer fans, a backup,

(28:39):
legitimate backup quarter veteran quarterback. He made it sound like
more having to do again with injury than it did
with actually trying to get somebody else to compete for
the job.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
What do you think of that? Do you think?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
And I think he means maybe somebody better than Carson Wentz.
I don't know, And again that's sometimes easier said than
done identifying who that person is. Is that essential you
think for next because the assumption is that whatever happens
the rest of this year, at the very least, McCarthy's
still going to be in the mix. Or do you
think it's actually possible that it could go so bad

(29:15):
that they'd have to they have to rethink everything, even
for the twenty twenty six sies.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
I mean a lot can happen in seven games. Yeah,
I mean, that's that's the that's sort of the bottom line.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Like he.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
He could turn a corner and you could get to
the end of the year and say, man, like that,
everything I saw on the last two months of the year,
I feel great about. You know, we'll we'll have a
veteran backup, and we'll we'll think through all those things,
but this is our guy, and like that's what they
want we're hoping to be at regardless, And then I
still think there's enough time to happen. But you also say, like,

(29:52):
has there been any progress towards that at this point,
like with his fifth game, any better than his first game?
And the answer really is no. And so if that's
the case, and it kind of like hovers in this
general area and you're planning to compete for a playoff
spot next year, it seems that Chris you know, is
making a good argument there, and that really the question becomes,

(30:13):
is there a guy like that out there that you
could get that would could be essentially next year? Is
Daniel Jones somebody who comes in and in theory is
competing with your young quarterback and in the case of
the Indianapolis was clearly the better quarterback, and they went
with him and they never looked back. Since it's hard

(30:34):
to imagine if they if it stays in this kind
of general performance area, that they can look themselves in
the mirror and say, I think it's going to be
much different next year without having a real strong second
option there.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
You know, the anytime a quarterback is struggling, no matter
his level of experience, part of what gets broken down
is how much of it is physical, how much of
it is form, how much of it is, you know,
following through habits in terms of how you you know,
where you're releasing the ball, all that stuff, And then

(31:11):
how much of it is mental, how much of it
is you're you're you're rushing in part because you're pressing
because it's not going your way. McCarthy says all the
right things, and everybody has talked about leadership skills, and
he's a gamer, and he's got the EyeBlack and all
this stuff. But and I know this is probably impossible
to measure. We can't rule out the possibility that behind

(31:34):
the scenes, this is you know, getting to him more.
And that is also that sort of feeds on itself
when things are not going the right way. The mental
side of this can't be completely dismissed, can it.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
No, not at all. And just from the sense of
on Sunday, you know, the first couple of downfield pathses
he makes are you know, very inaccurate. You know, he
had a couple of short passes that went fine, and
they were trying to get him into a rhythm, and
they know that that pass that bounced the way before
Jordan Addison, uh, you know, had a chance to catch
it on the first drive. Like apparently he had thrown

(32:09):
that perfectly five times in practice or homemb many times
they practiced it, uh, during the course of the week.
It was called because he had thrown it very well
and shown them that he could do it. And once
that start, there was definitely a snowball effect. I mean,
you could say it whichever way you want, but like
even in you know, the Detroit game and then against

(32:31):
the Ravens, his earlier you know, the part that was
on the quote unquote script was going pretty well, and
then as he got amped up the course of the game,
his accuracy dipped, but didn't to the fact that it
happened in the first series, I think was just kind
of sent things spiraling. And so there's no way it's
not at least part partially a psychological thing. And you know,

(32:53):
he'd only be human if that were the casese. But
obviously there's a lot of physical parts.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I talked to Leeb about this yesterday and I'm sure
you've heard it too. So he recovers nicely with that
last scoring drive. It's basically two minute offense. I don't
know that they huddled at all. If they did, they
didn't huddle very much. And so people watch that and
they go there, it is, he just needs to be
in the two minute offense all the time because he

(33:21):
otherwise he tends to overthink. And I refuse to believe
it's that simple, but maybe it is. I don't know.
Most people say, you can't. You will get killed by
defenses eventually if you constantly try to do you know,
no huddle or go two minutes that you can do
that earlier in games, and some teams do, depending on

(33:43):
trying to keep other people's defense, you know, from making
adjustments in terms of personnel. But it's the natural human
place that people go. They go, well, look how good
you look? So just have him play in that style
the whole time, to which you say, what.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Yeah, they should definitely do all the stuff that he
does well and do none of the stuff that he
doesn't do well, and then everything will be fine. Now,
I like, you can't. Obviously, you can't do that throughout
the whole game. What I've taken from the two minute thing,
and this was also in the fourth quarter against Detroit
when he made that really good third down throw. Like,
to whatever extent we're talking about mental, psychological, the impact

(34:20):
of things snowballing, like, he is not negatively affected by
the game situation. You know, we saw that, and also
in the first quarter, fourth quarter against Chicago where if anything,
he tends to get to lock in and bear down
in those really the times when you would see a
lot of young quarterbacks fall apart, Which is part of

(34:42):
what's so confounding about trying to figure out exactly what's
up here, is that, like it would be totally normal
for a young quarterback to come out, you know, the
games whatever, first quarter, second quarter, do okay and fine,
and then you get to the fourth quarter when the
defense is coming at you, the pressures aren't you. The
coach is probably amped up a little bit, the crowd's

(35:02):
amped up, and he's fine. In those situations, he seems
to thrive. So maybe what they really should do is
just tell him that that we need to strive to
win the game, and all the drives would be good now.
But I like, I think that's a good sign. You
try to pull good and bad out and everything, and
like it's a good sign that the game situations at

(35:24):
least don't seem to be driving him into anything other
than being the best he's been all season in those situations.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
On that note, we'll let you go. We appreciate the time.
We will chat next week. Thanks Seffert.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Okay, Dan appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
That is Kevin Seffert, who covers the Vikings in the
National Football League for ESPN dot com and of course
showins Us Weekly as well. Lots of good texts have
come in reacting to our discussion. I'm going to try
to get to those in the next segment. We have
Top five and five yet to come. We've got lou
Nanny to talk about the red hot Minnesota Wild as well.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
About five point thirty.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Time now the Vikings Report on the Fan, presented by
Miller Lyte. Hiking's wide receiver Adam Thielen joins danbur Rairo
next man join the fans Eric Nordquis Nordo at Gray's
Food Hall for a Purple watch party. This Sunday probably
kicks off at noon with Minnesota taken on Green Day,

(36:19):
plus great food and drinks and your shots went awesome.
Prizes every corner, all the details, KFA and dot com
keyword calendar. All right, a couple quick thoughts before we
get to the Top five at five. Don't forget that
Louis is scheduled to join at about five thirty pm tonight,

(36:39):
So a lot of hockey talk coming and uh we
certainly if you want to get your questions in early
for Luigi, you can do that at any point. Top
five at five, as I mentioned, is yet to come
as well. I did get a bunch of texts regarding
the online James Harden muse about the possibility of him
and the up up here. And of course there's no

(37:02):
media steam that such a deal is on the table.
It's media folks who are bored, thinking, all right, well,
the Clippers season might already be over and the Wolves
might be looking for some pep at the point guard position.
Harden is one of those volatile, polarizing names. I've tended
to be very critical of him, certainly because of his

(37:26):
number of his postseason performances. I do think he is
playing in a different mode where he doesn't demand the
ball as much as he did previously. That's kind of
the change in the way he's played as he gets
a little bit older. Here's the consensus is there are

(37:48):
a few people who are intrigued, but a bunch who aren't.
I would want no part of Harden, but I will
admit I have a huge bias against him for the
way in which he goes about forcing his way off
trades off teams. I guess I should say, Dan, what
about John Morant? We have talked about him before. There
were a couple people who said they'd rather get James

(38:11):
Harden than Ja Morant.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
How about a Wolves trade for Kyrie Irving.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Well, he's first of all, got to prove that he's
healthy enough to play, and then I don't know that
there's a lot of reason why Dallas would make a
move on him. A six' five to one guy would
Prefer harden Over John. Morant you, know at least what
you're getting With harden could be the perfect place him
to finally make that. Jump remember he's failed in the
playoffs many times when he's a great player and good point. Guard,

(38:39):
STILL i don't Get harden And randall complimenting each, other
especially with the. Aunt you would need three balls out.
There John moran Or, harden say it would Take, Nas
dillingham And. CLARK i would Take, harden absolutely. Not he

(38:59):
cannot stay on the floor in the. Playoffs, defensively he
will not buy. In we need A Drew holiday type.
Player if you want a, championship you need The big.
Three and if getting rid Of nas And dillions and, picks,
well hell, YES i would trade everything for one.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
Championship harden has never won.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Anything if you get you can get him for one
of the, kids, maybe but don't give up the core for.
Him harden doesn't play defense at.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
All.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Horrible, heck no To. Harden guy's never won on, team
any team he has been, ON i, think Not Dan
On harden not exactly a youth. Movement, WELL i don't
think you have to worry about a youth movement at this.
Point you're trying to give yourself the best, CHANCE i,
think to make a run at it. Now, defensively obviously

(39:47):
that does hurt. You and somebody pointed, out, hey the
offense has been good this. Year the offense really hasn't
been the. Problem what hasn't been Accepted, Again we're going
to start, playing you, know a higher volume of teams
with winning, records which we still haven't done very well.
Against that's we're doing very well knocking out teams we're
supposed to dominate better than they usually. Do but in, general,

(40:12):
yeah the offenses look pretty, sharp one could, Say but
we have TO i think we do have to factor
in who the team has beaten through this period of.
Time harden is a volume, shooter not a great shooting.
Percentage not great shooting percentages this? Season are you Kidding James?
Harden he's got the worst playoff record. Anybody come, on

(40:34):
not even should not even be a. CONSIDERATION i wouldn't
Touch harden with a ten foot beard brosmer starts Put
Mike conley in the. Carts dan is an old. Fart
wolves in? Five, well, okay that's one WAY i guess
to look at. It harden To, WOLVES i just threw

(40:54):
up in my. Mouth that's five h three. GUY i
asked for a, opinions and we've certainly gotten a wide
range of the top five will include Wild wolves and
SOME Nfl.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Nuggets