December 23, 2025 • 42 mins
#92Noon! Finch - Ben Goessling- Vikings
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Team Hewitt experience world class hockey in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Six IHF World Juniors showcase the future stars of the
game in an unforgettable tournament. Geting secure seats now mnsports
and Events dot org to be part of hockeyhistory. Mnsports
and Events dot org.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome back, Final hour nine to noon here at TCO Studios.
Thanks again, Quasi Adolfa Mensa Vikings general manager for sub
and in XES and O's with head coach Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good conversation last segment.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You get to hear that via the X's and O's
Show podcast, well with the free iHeartRadio app as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We open the show. Where your home for Vikings football?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Obviously we're you're home for Wild Hockey the fan trying
to effort as of now, hoping John Hines, head coach
of the Wild, can join us via phone as part
of the Wednesday Christmas Eve feast tomorrow at buffaloild Wings
in Roseville. But to that end, we're also your home
for Timberwolves basketball. The Wolves hosting the Knicks tonight, an
undermanned operation fresh off the Big Cup last week. The
(01:12):
Knicks are going to be without Jalen Brunson tonight, O
g Ananobi, Landry Shammitt. Now we're digging into Daily Fantasy
related bits, but all the same, Kat Josh Hart. Most
of the Knicks will be on the hardwood tonight against
against your Timberwolves winners eight of ten, most recently a
dub over the Milwaukee Bucks. So a chance for Anthony
Edwards and those at Target Center tonight to find another win.
(01:37):
To open the show, if you did miss it, we
chatted with head coach head coach Chris Finch, and that's
always brought to you, not just by Second Harvest Heartland,
but thanks to our buddies at Prize Picks. Speaking of
Daily Fantasy, Prize Picks proudly presents Chris Finch on a
weekly basis nine to noon. He chatted with with Pa
to open the show, and he kicked things off like
PA's like, hey, you know these Knicks tonight should be
(01:59):
a dinger, right.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah, we'll look forward to it. And one of the
one of the top teams in the league. They're coming
off with cup their Cup victory the other day, playing
with a ton of ton of momentum. Uh and uh,
you know, a really hard team to to guard.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yeah, they're they're gonna sit Jalen Brunson this evening with
ankle management. How do you think that changes the game.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Well, I mean, of course, like, uh, you know, he's
such a phenomenal player and he's been such an excellent
closer for them, you know, really really great in the
closing minutes of games. Certainly they're engine but they're they're
twelve and seven without them in the last two years.
That's a pretty good, pretty good percentage of wins there.
And they got a lot of talented players. We know,
(02:49):
Cats still a threat. They played with great connectivity on offense,
play fast, really share the ball well, beat you up
on the offensive, glass pretty good different too, So they're
a complete team. They're not just relying on one guy.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Probably, you know before picks and switches and everything. Probably
uh a good test for Anthony Edwards tonight with O
g Nnoby, don't you think.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Oh yeah, I mean there's always a lot of attention
put on ant. You know, they'll be they'll crowd them,
for sure, They'll they'll send multiple bodies out them. They
got a lot of guys that can guard them u
or you know, got guys who like to guard. They
got a lot of two way players on their roster
with bridges and and heart and uh so, yeah, so
(03:38):
they'll definitely, uh they'll try to make life as difficult
as possible.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Did you did you happen to see Adlman Saturday night?
He got mad Saturday night like you did Friday night?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, I just saw I saw a little a little
clip of the of I guess his first uh first technical,
But I didn't watch I did not watch the game
and didn't really didn't really see the exchection part.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What just just like overall? What what? What are you
and other coaches seeking from officials? Is it? Does it
come down to more consistency?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Well, you know, that's what everyone's gonna say. That's what
the league will say, That's what the officials will say.
We're all striving for some level of consistency. But you know,
I think there's there's more to it than that. I
think for me, it's it's it's about, you know, we
got to do a better job of get the basics right.
We gotta get the I get the obvious ones. You know,
(04:36):
I think we've over complicated the way we look at
the game. Sometimes from from a referee or officiating perspective.
And we've all been around the league. We know what
a foul is, we know what we know what a
foul bating looks like too so and these you know,
these these gray areas, there's gonna be a ton of subjectivity.
(04:57):
I think we're all fine with that as long as
that subjective you is kind of evened out. Uh at
the level of all you know, the level that we're
playing at. We know there's going to be some night
to night differences, but there can't be such drastic night
to night difference. There's got to be a standard of
play that we're trying to achieve every single.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Night Friday night, when you were walking away by the bench,
did did somebody yell something at you?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Like?
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Because I you know, I I know the officials, you know,
they'll bark back and they have opinions. Did did somebody
yell something at you? Do you mean like a fan
or well, no, like one of the rats because you
were walking away and then you just like turned around
and then it was on.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Oh oh about no, Actually, what I so generally like
when you have I definitely wanted the first technical PA
like that was something I wanted I wanted to send
a message, I wanted to be heard, and and then
you know, generally you don't get two technicals for one incident. UH,
(06:01):
that's kind of the unwritten rule. So I got a
second technical. And then that's really what what you know,
annoyed me more than anything else to get the second
technical for basically the one outbursts one outburst, two technicals
generally not how it goes.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
And I know you were fined, but but did you
get a chance to discuss matters, uh, with from with
with anybody from the league, you know, after this took
place on probably.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well any any disciplinary process. The League has a uh
protocol that they go through. They they have a league
investigator call you, go through the timeline of events, things
that were done or said. It's very much a he
said she said process. You don't really have much of
(06:54):
a like appeal process in it. And you know, I'm
I spoke to the league after the fine was issued.
Talk to them, I thought, you know, to try to
figure out how.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
They got to that to that number, that level of fine.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So there's an open dialogue. But the reality is the
League is you know, judging Jerry in these situations.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
So and the fine was thirty five k. I mean,
you know that's more than a little walking around money.
Did you expect it to be for Toyota Prius? Did
you expect it to be more?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Though?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
No, I mean president was, it's generally it was. I
expected it to be a little last pa to be honest, Okay.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolfs courtesy of Second
Harvest he Atlanta two Harvest dot Org. I meanwhile, from
that victory Friday night against Oklahoma City, seriously, man, good
work by your staff. I mean, because we're six minutes
into the game, we lose the head coach. Yeah, and
Oka cs on the other side of the gym. What what?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
What?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
What?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
What are some.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Things they did that you liked over the course of
three and a half quarters.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Well, you know, we got I got a great staff,
but you know, led by Mike uh who's very comfortable
taking over in those situations. And what they did is
they just kept pushing the guys to stay aggressive, you know,
the and we were rewarded with a better whistle and
get to the free throw line. And I thought they
(08:27):
did a really good job of executing executing the game plan,
staying on point there, managing the rotations, uh, you know,
kind of according to who who okaysee had on the floor.
We did a good job of matching some of their rotations.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So yeah, just I never had much of a.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Worry and I don't try to micromanage those situations, whether
it have been the only other previous time I've been ejected,
or when I had the knee injury and I was
a little bit removed from the action, you know, I
just I trust those guys. It's like, you know, I'm
not trying to stay in communication with them, having somebody
run back and forth to the bench or texting anybody
(09:06):
or anything like that. It's I just I trust them.
And it's hard to know, it's hard to be in
the battle and looking over your shoulder trying to get
orders all the time from somebody. You got to you
gotta go with your experience, your gut, your feel and
I trust our guys one hundred percent to be able
to do it. And they're going to make decisions and
they're gonna work or not work, and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
So when you when you were watching the final three
and a half quarters on Friday night, did did you
notice a change in the officiating after you left?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Uh, well, yeah, for sure, I mean definitely. The I
thought the whistle even has had evened out a bit.
I mean we weren't getting much whistle at all before that,
So yeah, I think, you know, there's a long way
to go into game. So I'm sure whether I was
there or was not there, would have probably corrected itself somehow.
(10:00):
But the guys, like I said, did a really good
job of staying aggressive, and that's what you got to
do against a really aggressive defense.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Well, the I mean the foul on Edwards and that
not being called, I don't know, man, last four years,
we've seen that fifty times, that one on Julius Randall
with two guys, right, I mean, that's unbelievable. I mean
I can't say that I've ever seen a foul in
the NBA with two people ten to fifteen feet away
looking right at it not blowing their whistles. I mean,
(10:27):
did when you talked to the investigator, did you get
any clarity as to like, like why they didn't call it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Was it just just a bad moment?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Well, unfortunately, in the process, is you know the incidents
of the game that might trigger something are not discussed,
so they're not really part of the equation. You're expected
to be able to handle those moments and then you know,
gauge your conduct accordingly. So don't we don't talk about
(11:00):
that like that's not you know, in my disciplinary process,
that's not part of the equation. So that would be
a whole separate conversation that you would have to have
with refereeing refereeing operations and basketball operations. And then you know,
we've had those conversations countless times, and but quite honestly,
I find those equally frustrating.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
So right, I wonder if Friday night and Saturday night
with Adelman. I wonder if laying on the sword, so
to speak, certainly for you Friday, maybe David a little
bit on Saturday. Yeah, I wonder if that ruffled feathers
behind the scenes. I mean, maybe there are wheels turning
right now that that you're not going to know about.
But somebody jumps up with the refs and is like, look,
(11:45):
this is this is getting ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
We have to improve with at least the basic calls.
You think that happened, Yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
I mean, we can only hope that. I mean, we
know little referees work. The referee department is working hard
to you know, get young guys trained up to find consistency.
We we understand that, and well we also understand that
we're in a bit of a transition period. We've had
a lot of really experienced referees leave the game in
the last couple of years. Pace of the game has
(12:14):
never been higher, technology, replay, all this stuff puts even
more of an emphasis and critical eye on what's being
called and not called, and it's creating, you know, a
very tough environment to be an official. Quite honestly, I
would I would never really want to be one, but
I mean, you do have to get better at it,
(12:35):
and we've got to make strides there in a hurry.
You know, there was other instances in the week that
preceded myself and David uh e May had made some
comments postgame. JB had made some comments, The JB Bigger
staff had made some comments post game too, So you know,
(12:55):
we've got to do a better job of keeping our
emotions in check. But you know, sometimes in the middle
of the season right now, like it, you know, it
gets hard, and you know that's what you see a
little bit in the NFL too. You know, generally you
don't hear much complaining about NFL officiating, but we've heard
(13:16):
more in the last two weeks than we've heard in
a while, so it might be just the state of
the modern sports landscape.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
That's head coach Chris Finch with PA weekly guest. By
the way, thanks to Second Harvest Heartland as well as
Prize Picks Prize Picks.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Leader in daily Fantasy Sports. You've heard me talk about.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I love Prize Picks and Second Harvest Heartland, and the
Wolves are hosting the Knicks tonight.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Looking forward to a w for your favorite hoops team.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
When we returned Christmas football at US Bank Stadium, Ben
Gesling covers the vikings for the Minnesota Star Tribune. He's
at TCO Studios with me next final hour right here
on the Fant's.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Talk that Tuesday, we're delivering holiday cheer and vikings tickets
open KFN on the iHeartRadio app. Hit the microphone icon
if thirty seconds or less to tell us which biking
has been the biggest gift this year. Winner selected all
day get to details kfan dot Com key Er.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Contest Welcome Back, nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Pa, Just everything's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Just he did actually have to dip out a bit
early today nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But it's Nordo here.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We are TCO Studios An Egan courtesy of the Star Tribune.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But also Standard Heating and Air.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Thank you Standard Heating and Air on a weekly basis
for providing us the insight and intel of one Ben Gesling,
who you can follow at Ben Gestling via x and
he's in studio. Now.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
How you doing, man? I am doing well. Just got
back from New York last night. We did a surprise
trip for my kids, so I went. We went Friday
morning and told them Friday morning, Hey, we're going to
New York City right before Christmas time. I hadn't done
that before, so sounds awesome. Yeah, we sprung it out
on Friday morning. They were pretty stunned, which was a
lot of fun. So we stayed until yesterday afternoon, knowing
(15:16):
there'd be no access. So yeah, I just got back
last night and and back for kind of the one
the one week crammed into one day. Yeah, routine before
a Thursday game. That's typically how it goes.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So did when you're in New York and then we'll
jump to the football team. Yeah. Is it Rockefeller Center
that still has the giant Tree?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Did you do some of the Christmasy things as part
of your trip out there?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
We did.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
We went to the Both of my kids are are
in dance stuff, so we went to the Rockets on
Friday night, saw the tree, did a carriage ride through
Central Park. My wife took the kids to a Broadway
show on Sunday while I was covering the theatrical performance
out in East Rutherford. Yeah, and then we did definitely
off Broadway, Yes, was that one was decidedly off Broadway.
(16:02):
And then we did kind of we went to Macy's
on Monday to kind of see the whole thirty fourth
Street things. So we did a lot of the very
typical Christmas eat stuff in New York City and we
had a blast.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
But yeah, I kind of it was one of those things.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
When the schedule came out, it was like, hey, we
got to do it because the Vikings aren't going to
play here very often right before Christmas, so yeah, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Let's make it a total surprise. And it was. Yeah,
it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Oh that's good and welcome back. And you mentioned it
no acxis yesterday and normally we equaciefamensa in for ex'es
and o's today and that's the that's the short week
aspect of things. We did this during the Chargers week
as well, I believe, But normally I've heard from the
coach immediately after the game, shortly after that postgame, I've
heard from him Monday afternoon, and then i'd be sitting
(16:49):
here after hearing him then for a third time on
a Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Into with the x's and o's chat.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I kind of need some KO in my life to
be honest with you, because, of course the hottest topic.
It sounds like Kevin's going to jump on the microphone
around twelve fifty ish today and address the media again
for the first time since Sunday, but certainly news coming
out of of albeit a victory three in a row
for the Vikings at MetLife, the hand qb yep, the
(17:17):
third injury that the young kid has sustained in the
twenty twenty five season, from the ankle to the concussion
to the hand.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I need some.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
KO in my life to tell me exactly what I'm
looking at. Christmas Day afternoon at three point thirty you know,
I don't know how they choose who gets to ask
the first question. I assume it'll be something related to
JJ McCarthy in that hand.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Yeah, it probably will, and he may come out and
kind of give us some of that information. He's generally
pretty good about in that opening statement giving some injury
information right off the bat, which you know not every
coach does, right as anyone who was here from twenty
fourteen to twenty twenty one could tell you. So he
may address it right off the top and say, you know,
(17:58):
kind of where things are at with Arthy after the
MRI yesterday and then what they're going to do this week. Yeah,
I wouldn't think it would take very long to come up.
But yes, that is topic number one, because it looked
on Sunday like he was taking another step forward and
he had the pick six that was called back because
the offside penalty, and obviously had the strip sack that
(18:18):
went for a touchdown. The pick six was off Jaleen
Naylor's hands and the strip sack. If you watch it back,
he did look like he was trying to dirt it.
He was after the screen to Justin Jefferson got blown
up by Abdua Carter.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, he actually fumbled it before Burns even hits him.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
He did, and you know, Kevin O'Connell set up for
the game that he wasn't sure if McCarthy had the
ability to grip the pall at that point. And my
understanding is when they were doing the MRI yesterday, they
were worried more about a ligament issue. Obviously, the X
rays came back and negative, So that is topic number
one because the durability has certainly been an issue for
(18:55):
him this year, and when he's had a little bit
of consistency for the first time this year, they wanted
to see that continue and this will determine whether or
not we see him again this year.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I think, yeah, it's just hopefully with McCarthy that things
are turned around, the development process continues, and maybe as
Vikings fans, we can all look back in time and
just you remember twenty twenty five, how freaking awful that
was and he couldn't stay on the field. And now
you know, as he enters let's say, his sixtieth consecutive start,
(19:26):
we'll all just be like, man, I just yeah, that
was bad, But now all I'm seeing is as good
it's just crazy what we've watched with him this year.
I'm glad you pointed, because it has really been. I mean,
the exhausting conversation of is he getting better? What are
those growth moments? The last two and a half games.
I have to say two and a half sadly because
(19:47):
of the hand, there were true measurable moments where you
can say the kid gets it. He's operating faster, things
make sense, He's taking the easy ones, and it's the
pitch and catch and all the terminology that we've heard
from the coach.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know that pass that he had, I mean, how
about it?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean Addison dropping that opening drive touchdown. I was
doing Vikings rewind last night and I played the field
goal high don't like The reason I got to stick
you with a field goal highlight here, ladies and gentlemen,
is because McCarthy, with Lawrence in his face, exter Lawrence
about to eat him for freaking dinner, throws a dime
to Addison in the end zone and Addison basket catches
(20:25):
it and then just lets it fall. I mean that
there are measurable moments that we're seeing. We got to
pick in with. Sometimes, we got to dig deep, but
we're seeing them. But if you can't stay on the field,
none of it matters.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
That's correct. I mean the throw to Addison certainly is
one that sticks out. I think he had a throw
to Jefferson, the one for a completion on the sideline
that he put it right where you'd want him to
do it, and that's a throw we've seen him struggle
with at times. That that out route that's gotten picked
off a couple times. Certainly, the pick six in the
first game, I guess the Bears was on a similar
(20:55):
play to that. So there are things that are getting better,
timing wise, the pick Paulson, the d Y. Naylor's got
to catch that one too, no doubt. And there's been
a lot of that stuff, and some of this has
been this question of are they still getting used to
a guy that throws with a lot of heat. I mean,
Justin Jefferson, I've asked him about this. He said it
is one of the faster balls he's caught, and you
(21:17):
do have to adjust to that. But he's also said,
with no excuse, I mean, when you're getting paid, what
Justin Jefferson's getting paid, or you're getting the opportunities and
the opportunities to possibly get paid what Jordan Adison hopes
to be getting paid. You have to catch those balls
and Addison, it's been an issue more than it should be,
especially this year. And yes, the quarterback may play in
(21:39):
it a little bit, but if it's in your hands
in the end zone, you got to come down with it.
There's not much that you can do about that.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
You know, there's a chance when the head coach talks
today could be well, you know, I didn't practice yesterday.
We are continuing to evaluate the hand. Yeah, we just
want to make sure that, you know, if he gets
the opportunity to get some reps in yep. And we
don't get an answer today, very possible. Will it be Jj?
Will it be Brozmer? About Max?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Though?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
What what did you think about? I mean Max comes
in and and that that start. I mean, you want
to talk about needing to cleanse the palette after what
we saw in Seattle for for the former Gopher.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
But but he made a couple of throws and you
know when when when he was with the Gophers and
I think it was PJ. Fleck and and he again
terminology and bits they're endless. But but PJ was like,
he's a kid that fails fast and learns even faster.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Think I'm kind of paraphrasing for the coach.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I don't want to. I mean, I don't I don't
want to mix up the poetry with PJ. Fleck, But
it was something of that nature where this is a
kid that takes the l's but then he doesn't make
the same types of mistakes twice.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, small sample size. I thought he made some.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
He had some good moments against allbe it certainly a
I mean just a hideous Giants team.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yeah, the hideous Giants team that certainly had a secondary
that could be paid done if you had opportunities to
do it. That front was a lot to deal with,
and I think they especially with the offensive line health
issues that they had. Again, they had some struggles with
that at times against the Giants. But yes, when Brosmer
had time and largely I think was able to make
(23:17):
a lot of things happen in the way that he
did not in the first game. I thought he looked
a lot better. I mean this road to Justin Jefferson
for twenty one yards in the third and seventeen.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
That was nice. That was very well done.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
I mean Jefferson said after the game that he put
it in a perfect spot. He said he threw a
perfect ball. That was one of those that I mean,
Jefferson makes a great catch to come down with it.
But it was an inverted cover to where like the
safety came up and played the flat in the corner,
took the deep half and Brosmer sees it still realizes
I can put the ball kind of in that that
corner spot where you like to go on a cover two.
(23:47):
Puts it where only Jefferson can catch it. And Jefferson
makes a great catch as we've seen him do, where
he lays out, is able to come down with it
and still get his feet down. You know, the whole
thing was extremely well done.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So if you're.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Making those types of throw you need to see it
more consistently. But that play set up the field goal
that won the game. So you know, when you're coming
off of a shutout, progress is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, and we certainly saw some of that with him
on Sunday. Any type of production helps.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now, you know this this team and sadly it's silver
lining season for a seven win team that's not going
to be in the postseason, but this time of year,
we've seen it again that they've won three in a row.
Kind of the idea of wow, it's great that they
these guys keep coming out with that fire. These guys
keep coming out and giving their role, despite the fact
that the ultimate carrot it will not be at the
(24:37):
end of that stick. Look a been thing with the hand.
I mean, it kind of feels like, I mean, I'm
curious to see how the coach handles it today because
for me, I've wanted if he can play, I've wanted
McCarthy out there to get all those reps, get all
those snaps. We want to answer questions. But there's part
of me that also says, at this stage, guys, we
(24:58):
might just need to put this thing to rest. Yeah, yeah,
I mean there's a lot of that that goes into it.
And I go back to earlier in the year when
they weren't playing him because he wasn't fully healthy. I
would think that they're going to be cautious with him
in the long term setting, and if that means not
putting him back out there this week, I would bet
(25:19):
that's how they're going to go. Because the other thing
you have to think about is Christian Dara saw a
shutdown for the year. Now, I think Justin School has
filled in more consistently the last couple of weeks than
we've seen him do throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He was a little bit better than he was the
first couple of weeks of the season. Certainly.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Yeah, we're not necessarily clearing the highest bar there, but
it's been a little bit better that way. But then
you have Ryan Kelly again in a concussion protocol, and
I can't imagine he plays no Thursdays they unless we
find out something about how he's well. He who would
have been listed as a DMP yesterday. So I would
think that he is in fact in the protocol officially.
(25:54):
We'll get the language from that on Kevin from Kevin
O'Connell later. But when you had that, you have have
Brian O'Neil working through a heel injury, playing through things.
Your offensive line is once again not in a great spot.
So yeah, I would think this week especially, it's probably
more likely Max Brosmer, because I just don't think you
(26:16):
want to The other thing at this point of the
year is you don't want to have guys sustain injuries
that mean they're rehabbing well into the offseason and can't
get ready for twenty twenty six on the timeframe that
they would like. That's part of the reason I think
they shut Christian darrisaw down is let's not make this
an issue into twenty twenty six. And I don't think
(26:37):
there was. There was not a new injury. To my understanding,
it was you know, swelling and sonas and things he's
still working through. But they wanted to say, let's hit
the reset button and let's make this not a problem,
rather than having something that may linger. So I think
all of that, you could make the argument that McCarthy
would be better off just kind of shutting it down.
But then the problem with that becomes you or your
(27:00):
sample size is not big enough. No, and the durability
question is not solved to a degree that you can say, yeah,
we know exactly what we have going into twenty six.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I think this is potentially I mean, I hate to
be doom and gloom. I love this is my team.
I want them to win every game. This feels in
some ways like worst case scenario, if that makes sense,
from the standpoint that, yes, you're ending this season the
way we had spoken about it, especially once he came
back in that Lions game and then sadly had to
miss with a concussion, and such was let's get you know,
(27:31):
twelve thirty or whatever it was going to be eleven
twelve starts and then by the end of that to
have a definitive answer, not that he's going to be
at the elite upper echelon or the bottom of the barrel,
but just that this thing could potentially work, that it's
going to be better in week eighteen than it was
in week nine, and you're potentially leaving here.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Now with no answer to that question.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
You appreciate those two and a half games, but the
lack of durability and the lack of reps at a
high level is going to send you into an off
season where you're going to be doing podcasts and writing
articles about it. You're checking to see how much mac
Jones is going to be making or what the trade
equity would be to acquire him and other various veterans. Hey,
how's that shoulder going with Carson Wentz? I wonder what's
(28:19):
up with him? Hey Daniel Jones, how's the Achilles recovery?
And I do in fairness, I think no matter. I mean,
if he's healthy through these final two here and through
last week in the second half, I think they're still
vetering QB conversations. But the lack of an answer is
really in some ways hyperbolic, maybe devastating in terms of
(28:42):
going into this offseason not having an answer.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
Yeah, because it means that a team that has cap issues,
a team that has to make a lot of decisions
about the finances heading into twenty twenty six, has to
think about how much money do we allocate towards the
quarter of position you would like to be going into
twenty twenty six, saying we don't need to worry about that.
We have a young quarterback that we know is moving
(29:06):
in the right direction. He's our guy. We've seen enough
consistency to say, yes, we can continue to build this
thing around him. He's affordable for another two years, maybe
three if you consider the fifth year option to be affordable,
and you don't have to worry about staffing that position
in a way that may lead to somebody else coming
(29:26):
in to start the if we end up, if we
end this thing here, I don't know that you can
go into twenty twenty six and do that. I mean
if you decide to do that, I think you are,
you know, playing a little bit of the hope as
a strategy game. And I don't know that they want
to do that, especially when a lot of this roster
(29:48):
is not set up at this point with a ton
of financial flexibility to go out and add to it
and fix things if you are paying another quarterback. So
I mean, there are ways to figure that out. You know,
There's there's a number of buttons Rob Razinski can push financially,
as he is so adept at doing to fix some
of these things. But they're not in a situation where
(30:10):
going out to compete for a top dollar quarterback is
terribly financially viable. So you know, that is the fact
that we're going to have to look at that at all.
Is not a great time for them to want to
do that, given where they're set up financially and given
where they hoped to be kind of building around you
on quarterback at this point, let's.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Pause there because I have a couple of questions down
that road in terms of because it's tough team seven
and eight, we got to and we have some things
to do this offseason in spring and in the end
We're also looking at a Christmas Day festivity that includes
the Detroit Lions, who in some ways, I mean, what
a difference a year makes. Right, a year ago, we're
talking prime time one seeds on the line, and now
(30:50):
both teams ones already drowned and the other one is
fighting and gasping for air for their.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
Playoff life as well. Got Cats and Dogs at US
Bank Stadium on Thursday.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Ben Gaslin in studio at TCO Studios here An Egan
brought to you by Standard Heating and Air. Final segment
nine to noon is next. Are you at it to
the Christmas Day showdown with Detroit? Well, you can swing
by the plaza outside us Bank Stadium. NASCAR Street Team
Hike can score Papa Murphy's game day meal deals for
(31:21):
a year. Visit the kfan Booth Cafe dot com keyword
calendar for more details.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Arkital foul clipping, Personal foul clipping, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Final segment nine to noon. We were just talking to
just the other day. I think I was talking about
it on Fanline. The four greatest third round picks, Oh yeah,
in the history of Vikings football. Patrick Jones found his
way in a contract year. Kellen mand struggled, Wyatt Davis
the Big ten offensive lineman of the Year the year prior,
(32:29):
sadly he had his struggles, and I think Chess a
rat maybe, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Chess Raute was the fourth That.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Was the four best third round picks history of the
NFL draft for your favorite football team. Standard heating and
air is what puts mister Geslin in TCO studios here.
He's going to talk to the head coach around twelve fifty,
probably won't talk about these sorts of things at least today.
With Christmas just about forty eight hours from now, they'll
(32:55):
be preparing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
To battle the kiddies. When do you start in earnest?
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Because it's you know, your schedule, it's it's it's gamers,
it's interviews, it's pressers, it's podcasts. But there is some
ten thousand foot view related things about a team that
it was talked about years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
We're going to you know what competitive rebuild? What does
that look like?
Speaker 3 (33:18):
We're gonna get younger and more financially flexible. At some
point you're just going to have to turn on a
dime bend and start looking at Okay, well, we're definitely
not financially flexible right now, and so where how much
does this guy make? What's the lever that this guy
can pull? And you talk about mister Brazinski and the
magician that he truly is, He's got a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Of work to do, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Jalen Naylor is somebody that we've been talking about here,
Pa and I have and Jalen really the Jalens as
as Pa put it with with Quacy last hour. Just
two very interesting names in terms of what their future
is with this team, how much money that potentially garners,
how important they are. Redmond for me is a guy
(34:01):
that like, if you can find any way to bring
this guy back, I just love this guy's hunger and
his production on the team. Nayler's a little trickier for me,
but but at some point you're gonna have to start
going down that list, Ben and start picking and choosing
and prognosticating into the offseason.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yes, that is that is certainly going to happen sooner
than later. Probably already has for me in a sense,
And that's never really far from my mind because I
if I bring anything to the table on this in
this beat, it's the cap geek with the rusty accounting
degree that I never really used for things other than
talking about NFL salary cap stuffing from the Carlson School
(34:38):
of Management that I basically used to talk about biking
salary cap stuff I yes, they have a lot of
things to figure out, and I'm tap dancing here in
part to try and remember you have a spreadsheet open.
I do have a spreadsheet open. I'm trying to remember.
If Jalen Redmond I believe he will be it's some
like exclusively exclusive rights. I think that's exactly it. So
(34:58):
that won't cost the much to keep him for next year,
but Jalen Naylor certainly will, and that's going to be
one of those that I'm not sure they're going to
have the money to do much with it, because I
know there are feelings in this building about, hey, he's
had enough of a year that somebody's going to say, yeah,
(35:19):
this is a guy that could probably do a little
bit more, And if he gets a decent contract on
the market, you may not be able to bring him back,
especially depending on what you want to do with you know,
there's going to be a fifth year option discussion on Jordanatison.
I would imagine they'll pick that up, and you're going
to have a lot of other decisions to make financially,
(35:40):
so it may not put them in a position to
bring him back after he's had a nice year and
probably will attract some attention. I think the question would
be what team picks him up? Is it somebody in
the division that also may need a receiver. I mean,
you can go down the list of teams in this
division that he may be a good fit for.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
You know, it was possible. It goes there need a receiver.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now the Packers have five or six number one receivers
according to their own head coach, I guess aman Rod
jmo in Detroit. Adunza basically never plays anymore with this injury,
but he's back on the field.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
DJ Moore.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Kind of tough, tougher year for yeah, the second year
with Kleb kind of a tough season for him. The
one thing I think about when I think about Jalen,
and this isn't fair to Jalen by the way, So
Jalen Naylor, I like him. I think a little bit
about kJ Osbourne. So kJ Osborne was a guy that
(36:39):
I mean, just hard hat and the lunch pail man.
He did whatever you asked him to do, whether it
was special teams, he had to find his way onto
the field and really work for it behind other receivers.
He leaves in free agency and it was a great
moment for him, a chance to make some real Uh
you know, I guess NFL money right. He gets in
and then he disappeared and he couldn't get on the
(36:59):
field with a wide receiver, needy wide receiver. Poor Patriots
team bounced around. Maybe it was with like Washington or something. Yeah,
there's just a little element like we fall in love, like,
you know what I'd like for our draft picks. I
want our draft picks just to play well for those
first four years, like if we can get to that stage.
But it seems sometimes like we really fall in love
with the names we know, and that's just it's not
(37:22):
fair to Jalen. Jalen's had one hell of a season.
Just kJ Osborne and just falling too much in love
with our draft picks worries me.
Speaker 7 (37:30):
Sometimes that's fair and I think that, I mean, you
hit on something there that is kind of the life
blood of the NFL. If you can get players in
those first four years that produce and are young and cheap.
It is a lot easier to build a team that
has enough depth to succeed consistently. And then the question
(37:52):
always becomes do you give a player a second contract?
You want to be in position, as harsh as it sounds,
you want to be in a position to tell some
of those players, at least some of them, not all some, hey,
it's been a great run. We're grateful for what you
did here. We wish you the best on the open market,
but we don't really have the capacity to pay you,
which really means we don't need to because we have
(38:14):
another guy coming behind you.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
So, I mean ty Felton would be certainly a name
that would make this easier for them, and I know
internally they have some optimism about what he can be,
but we haven't seen it during the season. So you
want to be in a position where you can tell
Jalen Naylor, hey, you know, go out and get your money,
go out and get your bag somewhere. But it's probably
not going to be here because we've got Justin Jefferson paid,
(38:38):
We've got other places where we're going to commit, and
we've got people coming behind you. I mean, that is
where you end up in a tricky spot cap wise,
because you don't have that supply of draft picks that
have produced at that level where you say we're comfortable here.
So it's what makes Jalen Redman an important piece because
when you're making decisions on guys like Javon Hargrave, which
is that's a bigger decision than Jonathan Allen because of
(39:00):
the finances of it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
But yeah, a.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Guy like Jalen Redman makes it maybe a little easier
to say, you know what, we're okay here, and you
need more opportunities like that where it's we feel good
enough about this guy playing a larger role that we
don't need to say yes to every veteran because that's
where you get in a tough spot. I mean, we
talked a lot at the end of the previous regime
(39:23):
about the lack of a middle class on this roster.
It was top heavy with Kirk and Feelin and Cook
and all the guys on defense that Zimmer wanted to
keep around, and then you had draft picks that hadn't
really become that two to three million dollar player.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
He was never able to replace him, right right, you
could have twenty seventeen greatness, so he had on defense,
he was never able to fill in the gaps as
they got older.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
And that team was.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
Great because the twenty fifteen draft was an unqualified home run. Yes,
that draft, they hit a gold mine. And then year three,
all those guys are producing. Look lo and behold. They
have a team that's good enough to go to the
NFC Title Game. And I will mention about that team.
They did not have a perfect run with injuries. They
lost their quarterback right they're running back towards acl Week
(40:13):
four against the Giants. Yeah, and they were healthy largely
other than that. But they survived the Dalvin Cook thing
because they had Jerck McKinnon. They had Latavius Murray, who
was a sensible free agent pickup. They were able to
build a tandem. They had case Keenum to come in.
I mean, and that's just names a pick that's a
pickup off the free agent market. But they had guys
(40:36):
that helped them with stand some injuries. Tom Johnson is
a free agent pickup too, So it's not just draft picks.
But you had guys in early in their contracts that
gave you financial flexibility. You had starters still not making
big money. Although those guys got paid later and that
became kind of the downfall. But the fact that that
draft in twenty fifteen produced what it did and that
(40:58):
team goes to the NFC title game two years later,
those things are not unrelated, and you need drafts like
that to help the success be sustainable.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Final thing, just a minute and change maybe left probably
the final two games for hit Man, I.
Speaker 7 (41:15):
Would think, I mean, you never know with him because
the last couple off seasons.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
It's just going to celebrate every moment in the next
two weeks just in case.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
That one's going to be really hard for me because
he came in as a rookie. His rookie year was
my first year on the beat. So I've done this
whole thing, covering him the whole way through. He's the
last guy in this building by a few months that's
been here longer than I have. In fact, the day
he was drafted was the day I became a dad.
So he and I have talked about this over the
years that I know exactly the day he was drafted
(41:42):
was April twenty six, twenty twelve. It's not hard for
me to remember. And now we're like two old guys
just wondering when the time went. But I would imagine
this is probably it. He's he's I've walked out of
the locker room the last two years thinking it was over,
and I don't know if it'll go that way or
if he'll say I want to come back. I would
tend to think this is it. But yeah, you have
to appreciate it. A guy that is one of a
kind as a player, one of a kind as a character,
(42:03):
and it's certainly been a blast to cover.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Thanks for hanging out today, man, sure, man, that's a
lot of fun. Ben Gestling.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Follow him because the head coach is going to talk
at about twelve fifty today. You'll hear it on the
fan and you'll hear Ben's voice asking some questions. Whether
it's podcast access vikings, you got gamers and articles and
stories and fits to start reviewed at Ben Gesling via x.
Thanks for tuning in today nine to doon. Thanks to
Standard Heating and Air for bringing you guestling as well.
It's a Wednesday Christmas Eve feast tomorrow Buffalo Wild Wings
(42:34):
Roseville would love to see all of you there with
Pa and Alec Lewis. I'm Noordo have a Terrific Tuesday Afternoon.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Podcast, Today's Paul Allen Show, or listen back to previous
show and interview site going to the iHeartRadio app for
kfan dot com
Team Hewitt experience world class hockey in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Six IHF World Juniors showcase the future stars of the
game in an unforgettable tournament. Geting secure seats now mnsports
and Events dot org to be part of hockeyhistory. Mnsports
and Events dot org.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome back, Final hour nine to noon here at TCO Studios.
Thanks again, Quasi Adolfa Mensa Vikings general manager for sub
and in XES and O's with head coach Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good conversation last segment.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
You get to hear that via the X's and O's
Show podcast, well with the free iHeartRadio app as well.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We open the show. Where your home for Vikings football?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Obviously we're you're home for Wild Hockey the fan trying
to effort as of now, hoping John Hines, head coach
of the Wild, can join us via phone as part
of the Wednesday Christmas Eve feast tomorrow at buffaloild Wings
in Roseville. But to that end, we're also your home
for Timberwolves basketball. The Wolves hosting the Knicks tonight, an
undermanned operation fresh off the Big Cup last week. The
(01:12):
Knicks are going to be without Jalen Brunson tonight, O
g Ananobi, Landry Shammitt. Now we're digging into Daily Fantasy
related bits, but all the same, Kat Josh Hart. Most
of the Knicks will be on the hardwood tonight against
against your Timberwolves winners eight of ten, most recently a
dub over the Milwaukee Bucks. So a chance for Anthony
Edwards and those at Target Center tonight to find another win.
(01:37):
To open the show, if you did miss it, we
chatted with head coach head coach Chris Finch, and that's
always brought to you, not just by Second Harvest Heartland,
but thanks to our buddies at Prize Picks. Speaking of
Daily Fantasy, Prize Picks proudly presents Chris Finch on a
weekly basis nine to noon. He chatted with with Pa
to open the show, and he kicked things off like
PA's like, hey, you know these Knicks tonight should be
(01:59):
a dinger, right.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah, we'll look forward to it. And one of the
one of the top teams in the league. They're coming
off with cup their Cup victory the other day, playing
with a ton of ton of momentum. Uh and uh,
you know, a really hard team to to guard.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yeah, they're they're gonna sit Jalen Brunson this evening with
ankle management. How do you think that changes the game.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Well, I mean, of course, like, uh, you know, he's
such a phenomenal player and he's been such an excellent
closer for them, you know, really really great in the
closing minutes of games. Certainly they're engine but they're they're
twelve and seven without them in the last two years.
That's a pretty good, pretty good percentage of wins there.
And they got a lot of talented players. We know,
(02:49):
Cats still a threat. They played with great connectivity on offense,
play fast, really share the ball well, beat you up
on the offensive, glass pretty good different too, So they're
a complete team. They're not just relying on one guy.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Probably, you know before picks and switches and everything. Probably
uh a good test for Anthony Edwards tonight with O
g Nnoby, don't you think.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Oh yeah, I mean there's always a lot of attention
put on ant. You know, they'll be they'll crowd them,
for sure, They'll they'll send multiple bodies out them. They
got a lot of guys that can guard them u
or you know, got guys who like to guard. They
got a lot of two way players on their roster
with bridges and and heart and uh so, yeah, so
(03:38):
they'll definitely, uh they'll try to make life as difficult
as possible.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Did you did you happen to see Adlman Saturday night?
He got mad Saturday night like you did Friday night?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, I just saw I saw a little a little
clip of the of I guess his first uh first technical,
But I didn't watch I did not watch the game
and didn't really didn't really see the exchection part.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What just just like overall? What what? What are you
and other coaches seeking from officials? Is it? Does it
come down to more consistency?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Well, you know, that's what everyone's gonna say. That's what
the league will say, That's what the officials will say.
We're all striving for some level of consistency. But you know,
I think there's there's more to it than that. I
think for me, it's it's it's about, you know, we
got to do a better job of get the basics right.
We gotta get the I get the obvious ones. You know,
(04:36):
I think we've over complicated the way we look at
the game. Sometimes from from a referee or officiating perspective.
And we've all been around the league. We know what
a foul is, we know what we know what a
foul bating looks like too so and these you know,
these these gray areas, there's gonna be a ton of subjectivity.
(04:57):
I think we're all fine with that as long as
that subjective you is kind of evened out. Uh at
the level of all you know, the level that we're
playing at. We know there's going to be some night
to night differences, but there can't be such drastic night
to night difference. There's got to be a standard of
play that we're trying to achieve every single.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Night Friday night, when you were walking away by the bench,
did did somebody yell something at you?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Like?
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Because I you know, I I know the officials, you know,
they'll bark back and they have opinions. Did did somebody
yell something at you? Do you mean like a fan
or well, no, like one of the rats because you
were walking away and then you just like turned around
and then it was on.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Oh oh about no, Actually, what I so generally like
when you have I definitely wanted the first technical PA
like that was something I wanted I wanted to send
a message, I wanted to be heard, and and then
you know, generally you don't get two technicals for one incident. UH,
(06:01):
that's kind of the unwritten rule. So I got a
second technical. And then that's really what what you know,
annoyed me more than anything else to get the second
technical for basically the one outbursts one outburst, two technicals
generally not how it goes.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
And I know you were fined, but but did you
get a chance to discuss matters, uh, with from with
with anybody from the league, you know, after this took
place on probably.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well any any disciplinary process. The League has a uh
protocol that they go through. They they have a league
investigator call you, go through the timeline of events, things
that were done or said. It's very much a he
said she said process. You don't really have much of
(06:54):
a like appeal process in it. And you know, I'm
I spoke to the league after the fine was issued.
Talk to them, I thought, you know, to try to
figure out how.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
They got to that to that number, that level of fine.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So there's an open dialogue. But the reality is the
League is you know, judging Jerry in these situations.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
So and the fine was thirty five k. I mean,
you know that's more than a little walking around money.
Did you expect it to be for Toyota Prius? Did
you expect it to be more?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Though?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
No, I mean president was, it's generally it was. I
expected it to be a little last pa to be honest, Okay.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolfs courtesy of Second
Harvest he Atlanta two Harvest dot Org. I meanwhile, from
that victory Friday night against Oklahoma City, seriously, man, good
work by your staff. I mean, because we're six minutes
into the game, we lose the head coach. Yeah, and
Oka cs on the other side of the gym. What what?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
What?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
What?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
What are some.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Things they did that you liked over the course of
three and a half quarters.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Well, you know, we got I got a great staff,
but you know, led by Mike uh who's very comfortable
taking over in those situations. And what they did is
they just kept pushing the guys to stay aggressive, you know,
the and we were rewarded with a better whistle and
get to the free throw line. And I thought they
(08:27):
did a really good job of executing executing the game plan,
staying on point there, managing the rotations, uh, you know,
kind of according to who who okaysee had on the floor.
We did a good job of matching some of their rotations.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So yeah, just I never had much of a.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Worry and I don't try to micromanage those situations, whether
it have been the only other previous time I've been ejected,
or when I had the knee injury and I was
a little bit removed from the action, you know, I
just I trust those guys. It's like, you know, I'm
not trying to stay in communication with them, having somebody
run back and forth to the bench or texting anybody
(09:06):
or anything like that. It's I just I trust them.
And it's hard to know, it's hard to be in
the battle and looking over your shoulder trying to get
orders all the time from somebody. You got to you
gotta go with your experience, your gut, your feel and
I trust our guys one hundred percent to be able
to do it. And they're going to make decisions and
they're gonna work or not work, and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
So when you when you were watching the final three
and a half quarters on Friday night, did did you
notice a change in the officiating after you left?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Uh, well, yeah, for sure, I mean definitely. The I
thought the whistle even has had evened out a bit.
I mean we weren't getting much whistle at all before that,
So yeah, I think, you know, there's a long way
to go into game. So I'm sure whether I was
there or was not there, would have probably corrected itself somehow.
(10:00):
But the guys, like I said, did a really good
job of staying aggressive, and that's what you got to
do against a really aggressive defense.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Well, the I mean the foul on Edwards and that
not being called, I don't know, man, last four years,
we've seen that fifty times, that one on Julius Randall
with two guys, right, I mean, that's unbelievable. I mean
I can't say that I've ever seen a foul in
the NBA with two people ten to fifteen feet away
looking right at it not blowing their whistles. I mean,
(10:27):
did when you talked to the investigator, did you get
any clarity as to like, like why they didn't call it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Was it just just a bad moment?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Well, unfortunately, in the process, is you know the incidents
of the game that might trigger something are not discussed,
so they're not really part of the equation. You're expected
to be able to handle those moments and then you know,
gauge your conduct accordingly. So don't we don't talk about
(11:00):
that like that's not you know, in my disciplinary process,
that's not part of the equation. So that would be
a whole separate conversation that you would have to have
with refereeing refereeing operations and basketball operations. And then you know,
we've had those conversations countless times, and but quite honestly,
I find those equally frustrating.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
So right, I wonder if Friday night and Saturday night
with Adelman. I wonder if laying on the sword, so
to speak, certainly for you Friday, maybe David a little
bit on Saturday. Yeah, I wonder if that ruffled feathers
behind the scenes. I mean, maybe there are wheels turning
right now that that you're not going to know about.
But somebody jumps up with the refs and is like, look,
(11:45):
this is this is getting ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
We have to improve with at least the basic calls.
You think that happened, Yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
I mean, we can only hope that. I mean, we
know little referees work. The referee department is working hard
to you know, get young guys trained up to find consistency.
We we understand that, and well we also understand that
we're in a bit of a transition period. We've had
a lot of really experienced referees leave the game in
the last couple of years. Pace of the game has
(12:14):
never been higher, technology, replay, all this stuff puts even
more of an emphasis and critical eye on what's being
called and not called, and it's creating, you know, a
very tough environment to be an official. Quite honestly, I
would I would never really want to be one, but
I mean, you do have to get better at it,
(12:35):
and we've got to make strides there in a hurry.
You know, there was other instances in the week that
preceded myself and David uh e May had made some
comments postgame. JB had made some comments, The JB Bigger
staff had made some comments post game too, So you know,
(12:55):
we've got to do a better job of keeping our
emotions in check. But you know, sometimes in the middle
of the season right now, like it, you know, it
gets hard, and you know that's what you see a
little bit in the NFL too. You know, generally you
don't hear much complaining about NFL officiating, but we've heard
(13:16):
more in the last two weeks than we've heard in
a while, so it might be just the state of
the modern sports landscape.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
That's head coach Chris Finch with PA weekly guest. By
the way, thanks to Second Harvest Heartland as well as
Prize Picks Prize Picks.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Leader in daily Fantasy Sports. You've heard me talk about.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I love Prize Picks and Second Harvest Heartland, and the
Wolves are hosting the Knicks tonight.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Looking forward to a w for your favorite hoops team.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
When we returned Christmas football at US Bank Stadium, Ben
Gesling covers the vikings for the Minnesota Star Tribune. He's
at TCO Studios with me next final hour right here
on the Fant's.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Talk that Tuesday, we're delivering holiday cheer and vikings tickets
open KFN on the iHeartRadio app. Hit the microphone icon
if thirty seconds or less to tell us which biking
has been the biggest gift this year. Winner selected all
day get to details kfan dot Com key Er.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Contest Welcome Back, nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Pa, Just everything's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Just he did actually have to dip out a bit
early today nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But it's Nordo here.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We are TCO Studios An Egan courtesy of the Star Tribune.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But also Standard Heating and Air.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Thank you Standard Heating and Air on a weekly basis
for providing us the insight and intel of one Ben Gesling,
who you can follow at Ben Gestling via x and
he's in studio. Now.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
How you doing, man? I am doing well. Just got
back from New York last night. We did a surprise
trip for my kids, so I went. We went Friday
morning and told them Friday morning, Hey, we're going to
New York City right before Christmas time. I hadn't done
that before, so sounds awesome. Yeah, we sprung it out
on Friday morning. They were pretty stunned, which was a
lot of fun. So we stayed until yesterday afternoon, knowing
(15:16):
there'd be no access. So yeah, I just got back
last night and and back for kind of the one
the one week crammed into one day. Yeah, routine before
a Thursday game. That's typically how it goes.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So did when you're in New York and then we'll
jump to the football team. Yeah. Is it Rockefeller Center
that still has the giant Tree?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Did you do some of the Christmasy things as part
of your trip out there?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
We did.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
We went to the Both of my kids are are
in dance stuff, so we went to the Rockets on
Friday night, saw the tree, did a carriage ride through
Central Park. My wife took the kids to a Broadway
show on Sunday while I was covering the theatrical performance
out in East Rutherford. Yeah, and then we did definitely
off Broadway, Yes, was that one was decidedly off Broadway.
(16:02):
And then we did kind of we went to Macy's
on Monday to kind of see the whole thirty fourth
Street things. So we did a lot of the very
typical Christmas eat stuff in New York City and we
had a blast.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
But yeah, I kind of it was one of those things.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
When the schedule came out, it was like, hey, we
got to do it because the Vikings aren't going to
play here very often right before Christmas, so yeah, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Let's make it a total surprise. And it was. Yeah,
it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Oh that's good and welcome back. And you mentioned it
no acxis yesterday and normally we equaciefamensa in for ex'es
and o's today and that's the that's the short week
aspect of things. We did this during the Chargers week
as well, I believe, But normally I've heard from the
coach immediately after the game, shortly after that postgame, I've
heard from him Monday afternoon, and then i'd be sitting
(16:49):
here after hearing him then for a third time on
a Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Into with the x's and o's chat.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I kind of need some KO in my life to
be honest with you, because, of course the hottest topic.
It sounds like Kevin's going to jump on the microphone
around twelve fifty ish today and address the media again
for the first time since Sunday, but certainly news coming
out of of albeit a victory three in a row
for the Vikings at MetLife, the hand qb yep, the
(17:17):
third injury that the young kid has sustained in the
twenty twenty five season, from the ankle to the concussion
to the hand.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I need some.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
KO in my life to tell me exactly what I'm
looking at. Christmas Day afternoon at three point thirty you know,
I don't know how they choose who gets to ask
the first question. I assume it'll be something related to
JJ McCarthy in that hand.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Yeah, it probably will, and he may come out and
kind of give us some of that information. He's generally
pretty good about in that opening statement giving some injury
information right off the bat, which you know not every
coach does, right as anyone who was here from twenty
fourteen to twenty twenty one could tell you. So he
may address it right off the top and say, you know,
(17:58):
kind of where things are at with Arthy after the
MRI yesterday and then what they're going to do this week. Yeah,
I wouldn't think it would take very long to come up.
But yes, that is topic number one, because it looked
on Sunday like he was taking another step forward and
he had the pick six that was called back because
the offside penalty, and obviously had the strip sack that
(18:18):
went for a touchdown. The pick six was off Jaleen
Naylor's hands and the strip sack. If you watch it back,
he did look like he was trying to dirt it.
He was after the screen to Justin Jefferson got blown
up by Abdua Carter.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, he actually fumbled it before Burns even hits him.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
He did, and you know, Kevin O'Connell set up for
the game that he wasn't sure if McCarthy had the
ability to grip the pall at that point. And my
understanding is when they were doing the MRI yesterday, they
were worried more about a ligament issue. Obviously, the X
rays came back and negative, So that is topic number
one because the durability has certainly been an issue for
(18:55):
him this year, and when he's had a little bit
of consistency for the first time this year, they wanted
to see that continue and this will determine whether or
not we see him again this year.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I think, yeah, it's just hopefully with McCarthy that things
are turned around, the development process continues, and maybe as
Vikings fans, we can all look back in time and
just you remember twenty twenty five, how freaking awful that
was and he couldn't stay on the field. And now
you know, as he enters let's say, his sixtieth consecutive start,
(19:26):
we'll all just be like, man, I just yeah, that
was bad, But now all I'm seeing is as good
it's just crazy what we've watched with him this year.
I'm glad you pointed, because it has really been. I mean,
the exhausting conversation of is he getting better? What are
those growth moments? The last two and a half games.
I have to say two and a half sadly because
(19:47):
of the hand, there were true measurable moments where you
can say the kid gets it. He's operating faster, things
make sense, He's taking the easy ones, and it's the
pitch and catch and all the terminology that we've heard
from the coach.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know that pass that he had, I mean, how
about it?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean Addison dropping that opening drive touchdown. I was
doing Vikings rewind last night and I played the field
goal high don't like The reason I got to stick
you with a field goal highlight here, ladies and gentlemen,
is because McCarthy, with Lawrence in his face, exter Lawrence
about to eat him for freaking dinner, throws a dime
to Addison in the end zone and Addison basket catches
(20:25):
it and then just lets it fall. I mean that
there are measurable moments that we're seeing. We got to
pick in with. Sometimes, we got to dig deep, but
we're seeing them. But if you can't stay on the field,
none of it matters.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
That's correct. I mean the throw to Addison certainly is
one that sticks out. I think he had a throw
to Jefferson, the one for a completion on the sideline
that he put it right where you'd want him to
do it, and that's a throw we've seen him struggle
with at times. That that out route that's gotten picked
off a couple times. Certainly, the pick six in the
first game, I guess the Bears was on a similar
(20:55):
play to that. So there are things that are getting better,
timing wise, the pick Paulson, the d Y. Naylor's got
to catch that one too, no doubt. And there's been
a lot of that stuff, and some of this has
been this question of are they still getting used to
a guy that throws with a lot of heat. I mean,
Justin Jefferson, I've asked him about this. He said it
is one of the faster balls he's caught, and you
(21:17):
do have to adjust to that. But he's also said,
with no excuse, I mean, when you're getting paid, what
Justin Jefferson's getting paid, or you're getting the opportunities and
the opportunities to possibly get paid what Jordan Adison hopes
to be getting paid. You have to catch those balls
and Addison, it's been an issue more than it should be,
especially this year. And yes, the quarterback may play in
(21:39):
it a little bit, but if it's in your hands
in the end zone, you got to come down with it.
There's not much that you can do about that.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
You know, there's a chance when the head coach talks
today could be well, you know, I didn't practice yesterday.
We are continuing to evaluate the hand. Yeah, we just
want to make sure that, you know, if he gets
the opportunity to get some reps in yep. And we
don't get an answer today, very possible. Will it be Jj?
Will it be Brozmer? About Max?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Though?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
What what did you think about? I mean Max comes
in and and that that start. I mean, you want
to talk about needing to cleanse the palette after what
we saw in Seattle for for the former Gopher.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
But but he made a couple of throws and you
know when when when he was with the Gophers and
I think it was PJ. Fleck and and he again
terminology and bits they're endless. But but PJ was like,
he's a kid that fails fast and learns even faster.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Think I'm kind of paraphrasing for the coach.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I don't want to. I mean, I don't I don't
want to mix up the poetry with PJ. Fleck, But
it was something of that nature where this is a
kid that takes the l's but then he doesn't make
the same types of mistakes twice.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, small sample size. I thought he made some.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
He had some good moments against allbe it certainly a
I mean just a hideous Giants team.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yeah, the hideous Giants team that certainly had a secondary
that could be paid done if you had opportunities to
do it. That front was a lot to deal with,
and I think they especially with the offensive line health
issues that they had. Again, they had some struggles with
that at times against the Giants. But yes, when Brosmer
had time and largely I think was able to make
(23:17):
a lot of things happen in the way that he
did not in the first game. I thought he looked
a lot better. I mean this road to Justin Jefferson
for twenty one yards in the third and seventeen.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
That was nice. That was very well done.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
I mean Jefferson said after the game that he put
it in a perfect spot. He said he threw a
perfect ball. That was one of those that I mean,
Jefferson makes a great catch to come down with it.
But it was an inverted cover to where like the
safety came up and played the flat in the corner,
took the deep half and Brosmer sees it still realizes
I can put the ball kind of in that that
corner spot where you like to go on a cover two.
(23:47):
Puts it where only Jefferson can catch it. And Jefferson
makes a great catch as we've seen him do, where
he lays out, is able to come down with it
and still get his feet down. You know, the whole
thing was extremely well done.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So if you're.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Making those types of throw you need to see it
more consistently. But that play set up the field goal
that won the game. So you know, when you're coming
off of a shutout, progress is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, and we certainly saw some of that with him
on Sunday. Any type of production helps.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now, you know this this team and sadly it's silver
lining season for a seven win team that's not going
to be in the postseason, but this time of year,
we've seen it again that they've won three in a row.
Kind of the idea of wow, it's great that they
these guys keep coming out with that fire. These guys
keep coming out and giving their role, despite the fact
that the ultimate carrot it will not be at the
(24:37):
end of that stick. Look a been thing with the hand.
I mean, it kind of feels like, I mean, I'm
curious to see how the coach handles it today because
for me, I've wanted if he can play, I've wanted
McCarthy out there to get all those reps, get all
those snaps. We want to answer questions. But there's part
of me that also says, at this stage, guys, we
(24:58):
might just need to put this thing to rest. Yeah, yeah,
I mean there's a lot of that that goes into it.
And I go back to earlier in the year when
they weren't playing him because he wasn't fully healthy. I
would think that they're going to be cautious with him
in the long term setting, and if that means not
putting him back out there this week, I would bet
(25:19):
that's how they're going to go. Because the other thing
you have to think about is Christian Dara saw a
shutdown for the year. Now, I think Justin School has
filled in more consistently the last couple of weeks than
we've seen him do throughout the year.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He was a little bit better than he was the
first couple of weeks of the season. Certainly.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Yeah, we're not necessarily clearing the highest bar there, but
it's been a little bit better that way. But then
you have Ryan Kelly again in a concussion protocol, and
I can't imagine he plays no Thursdays they unless we
find out something about how he's well. He who would
have been listed as a DMP yesterday. So I would
think that he is in fact in the protocol officially.
(25:54):
We'll get the language from that on Kevin from Kevin
O'Connell later. But when you had that, you have have
Brian O'Neil working through a heel injury, playing through things.
Your offensive line is once again not in a great spot.
So yeah, I would think this week especially, it's probably
more likely Max Brosmer, because I just don't think you
(26:16):
want to The other thing at this point of the
year is you don't want to have guys sustain injuries
that mean they're rehabbing well into the offseason and can't
get ready for twenty twenty six on the timeframe that
they would like. That's part of the reason I think
they shut Christian darrisaw down is let's not make this
an issue into twenty twenty six. And I don't think
(26:37):
there was. There was not a new injury. To my understanding,
it was you know, swelling and sonas and things he's
still working through. But they wanted to say, let's hit
the reset button and let's make this not a problem,
rather than having something that may linger. So I think
all of that, you could make the argument that McCarthy
would be better off just kind of shutting it down.
But then the problem with that becomes you or your
(27:00):
sample size is not big enough. No, and the durability
question is not solved to a degree that you can say, yeah,
we know exactly what we have going into twenty six.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I think this is potentially I mean, I hate to
be doom and gloom. I love this is my team.
I want them to win every game. This feels in
some ways like worst case scenario, if that makes sense,
from the standpoint that, yes, you're ending this season the
way we had spoken about it, especially once he came
back in that Lions game and then sadly had to
miss with a concussion, and such was let's get you know,
(27:31):
twelve thirty or whatever it was going to be eleven
twelve starts and then by the end of that to
have a definitive answer, not that he's going to be
at the elite upper echelon or the bottom of the barrel,
but just that this thing could potentially work, that it's
going to be better in week eighteen than it was
in week nine, and you're potentially leaving here.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Now with no answer to that question.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
You appreciate those two and a half games, but the
lack of durability and the lack of reps at a
high level is going to send you into an off
season where you're going to be doing podcasts and writing
articles about it. You're checking to see how much mac
Jones is going to be making or what the trade
equity would be to acquire him and other various veterans. Hey,
how's that shoulder going with Carson Wentz? I wonder what's
(28:19):
up with him? Hey Daniel Jones, how's the Achilles recovery?
And I do in fairness, I think no matter. I mean,
if he's healthy through these final two here and through
last week in the second half, I think they're still
vetering QB conversations. But the lack of an answer is
really in some ways hyperbolic, maybe devastating in terms of
(28:42):
going into this offseason not having an answer.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
Yeah, because it means that a team that has cap issues,
a team that has to make a lot of decisions
about the finances heading into twenty twenty six, has to
think about how much money do we allocate towards the
quarter of position you would like to be going into
twenty twenty six, saying we don't need to worry about that.
We have a young quarterback that we know is moving
(29:06):
in the right direction. He's our guy. We've seen enough
consistency to say, yes, we can continue to build this
thing around him. He's affordable for another two years, maybe
three if you consider the fifth year option to be affordable,
and you don't have to worry about staffing that position
in a way that may lead to somebody else coming
(29:26):
in to start the if we end up, if we
end this thing here, I don't know that you can
go into twenty twenty six and do that. I mean
if you decide to do that, I think you are,
you know, playing a little bit of the hope as
a strategy game. And I don't know that they want
to do that, especially when a lot of this roster
(29:48):
is not set up at this point with a ton
of financial flexibility to go out and add to it
and fix things if you are paying another quarterback. So
I mean, there are ways to figure that out. You know,
There's there's a number of buttons Rob Razinski can push financially,
as he is so adept at doing to fix some
of these things. But they're not in a situation where
(30:10):
going out to compete for a top dollar quarterback is
terribly financially viable. So you know, that is the fact
that we're going to have to look at that at all.
Is not a great time for them to want to
do that, given where they're set up financially and given
where they hoped to be kind of building around you
on quarterback at this point, let's.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Pause there because I have a couple of questions down
that road in terms of because it's tough team seven
and eight, we got to and we have some things
to do this offseason in spring and in the end
We're also looking at a Christmas Day festivity that includes
the Detroit Lions, who in some ways, I mean, what
a difference a year makes. Right, a year ago, we're
talking prime time one seeds on the line, and now
(30:50):
both teams ones already drowned and the other one is
fighting and gasping for air for their.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
Playoff life as well. Got Cats and Dogs at US
Bank Stadium on Thursday.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Ben Gaslin in studio at TCO Studios here An Egan
brought to you by Standard Heating and Air. Final segment
nine to noon is next. Are you at it to
the Christmas Day showdown with Detroit? Well, you can swing
by the plaza outside us Bank Stadium. NASCAR Street Team
Hike can score Papa Murphy's game day meal deals for
(31:21):
a year. Visit the kfan Booth Cafe dot com keyword
calendar for more details.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Arkital foul clipping, Personal foul clipping, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Final segment nine to noon. We were just talking to
just the other day. I think I was talking about
it on Fanline. The four greatest third round picks, Oh yeah,
in the history of Vikings football. Patrick Jones found his
way in a contract year. Kellen mand struggled, Wyatt Davis
the Big ten offensive lineman of the Year the year prior,
(32:29):
sadly he had his struggles, and I think Chess a
rat maybe, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Chess Raute was the fourth That.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Was the four best third round picks history of the
NFL draft for your favorite football team. Standard heating and
air is what puts mister Geslin in TCO studios here.
He's going to talk to the head coach around twelve fifty,
probably won't talk about these sorts of things at least today.
With Christmas just about forty eight hours from now, they'll
(32:55):
be preparing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
To battle the kiddies. When do you start in earnest?
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Because it's you know, your schedule, it's it's it's gamers,
it's interviews, it's pressers, it's podcasts. But there is some
ten thousand foot view related things about a team that
it was talked about years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
We're going to you know what competitive rebuild? What does
that look like?
Speaker 3 (33:18):
We're gonna get younger and more financially flexible. At some
point you're just going to have to turn on a
dime bend and start looking at Okay, well, we're definitely
not financially flexible right now, and so where how much
does this guy make? What's the lever that this guy
can pull? And you talk about mister Brazinski and the
magician that he truly is, He's got a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Of work to do, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Jalen Naylor is somebody that we've been talking about here,
Pa and I have and Jalen really the Jalens as
as Pa put it with with Quacy last hour. Just
two very interesting names in terms of what their future
is with this team, how much money that potentially garners,
how important they are. Redmond for me is a guy
(34:01):
that like, if you can find any way to bring
this guy back, I just love this guy's hunger and
his production on the team. Nayler's a little trickier for me,
but but at some point you're gonna have to start
going down that list, Ben and start picking and choosing
and prognosticating into the offseason.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Yes, that is that is certainly going to happen sooner
than later. Probably already has for me in a sense,
And that's never really far from my mind because I
if I bring anything to the table on this in
this beat, it's the cap geek with the rusty accounting
degree that I never really used for things other than
talking about NFL salary cap stuffing from the Carlson School
(34:38):
of Management that I basically used to talk about biking
salary cap stuff I yes, they have a lot of
things to figure out, and I'm tap dancing here in
part to try and remember you have a spreadsheet open.
I do have a spreadsheet open. I'm trying to remember.
If Jalen Redmond I believe he will be it's some
like exclusively exclusive rights. I think that's exactly it. So
(34:58):
that won't cost the much to keep him for next year,
but Jalen Naylor certainly will, and that's going to be
one of those that I'm not sure they're going to
have the money to do much with it, because I
know there are feelings in this building about, hey, he's
had enough of a year that somebody's going to say, yeah,
(35:19):
this is a guy that could probably do a little
bit more, And if he gets a decent contract on
the market, you may not be able to bring him back,
especially depending on what you want to do with you know,
there's going to be a fifth year option discussion on Jordanatison.
I would imagine they'll pick that up, and you're going
to have a lot of other decisions to make financially,
(35:40):
so it may not put them in a position to
bring him back after he's had a nice year and
probably will attract some attention. I think the question would
be what team picks him up? Is it somebody in
the division that also may need a receiver. I mean,
you can go down the list of teams in this
division that he may be a good fit for.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
You know, it was possible. It goes there need a receiver.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now the Packers have five or six number one receivers
according to their own head coach, I guess aman Rod
jmo in Detroit. Adunza basically never plays anymore with this injury,
but he's back on the field.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
DJ Moore.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Kind of tough, tougher year for yeah, the second year
with Kleb kind of a tough season for him. The
one thing I think about when I think about Jalen,
and this isn't fair to Jalen by the way, So
Jalen Naylor, I like him. I think a little bit
about kJ Osbourne. So kJ Osborne was a guy that
(36:39):
I mean, just hard hat and the lunch pail man.
He did whatever you asked him to do, whether it
was special teams, he had to find his way onto
the field and really work for it behind other receivers.
He leaves in free agency and it was a great
moment for him, a chance to make some real Uh
you know, I guess NFL money right. He gets in
and then he disappeared and he couldn't get on the
(36:59):
field with a wide receiver, needy wide receiver. Poor Patriots
team bounced around. Maybe it was with like Washington or something. Yeah,
there's just a little element like we fall in love, like,
you know what I'd like for our draft picks. I
want our draft picks just to play well for those
first four years, like if we can get to that stage.
But it seems sometimes like we really fall in love
with the names we know, and that's just it's not
(37:22):
fair to Jalen. Jalen's had one hell of a season.
Just kJ Osborne and just falling too much in love
with our draft picks worries me.
Speaker 7 (37:30):
Sometimes that's fair and I think that, I mean, you
hit on something there that is kind of the life
blood of the NFL. If you can get players in
those first four years that produce and are young and cheap.
It is a lot easier to build a team that
has enough depth to succeed consistently. And then the question
(37:52):
always becomes do you give a player a second contract?
You want to be in position, as harsh as it sounds,
you want to be in a position to tell some
of those players, at least some of them, not all some, hey,
it's been a great run. We're grateful for what you
did here. We wish you the best on the open market,
but we don't really have the capacity to pay you,
which really means we don't need to because we have
(38:14):
another guy coming behind you.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
So, I mean ty Felton would be certainly a name
that would make this easier for them, and I know
internally they have some optimism about what he can be,
but we haven't seen it during the season. So you
want to be in a position where you can tell
Jalen Naylor, hey, you know, go out and get your money,
go out and get your bag somewhere. But it's probably
not going to be here because we've got Justin Jefferson paid,
(38:38):
We've got other places where we're going to commit, and
we've got people coming behind you. I mean, that is
where you end up in a tricky spot cap wise,
because you don't have that supply of draft picks that
have produced at that level where you say we're comfortable here.
So it's what makes Jalen Redman an important piece because
when you're making decisions on guys like Javon Hargrave, which
is that's a bigger decision than Jonathan Allen because of
(39:00):
the finances of it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
But yeah, a.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Guy like Jalen Redman makes it maybe a little easier
to say, you know what, we're okay here, and you
need more opportunities like that where it's we feel good
enough about this guy playing a larger role that we
don't need to say yes to every veteran because that's
where you get in a tough spot. I mean, we
talked a lot at the end of the previous regime
(39:23):
about the lack of a middle class on this roster.
It was top heavy with Kirk and Feelin and Cook
and all the guys on defense that Zimmer wanted to
keep around, and then you had draft picks that hadn't
really become that two to three million dollar player.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
He was never able to replace him, right right, you
could have twenty seventeen greatness, so he had on defense,
he was never able to fill in the gaps as
they got older.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
And that team was.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
Great because the twenty fifteen draft was an unqualified home run. Yes,
that draft, they hit a gold mine. And then year three,
all those guys are producing. Look lo and behold. They
have a team that's good enough to go to the
NFC Title Game. And I will mention about that team.
They did not have a perfect run with injuries. They
lost their quarterback right they're running back towards acl Week
(40:13):
four against the Giants. Yeah, and they were healthy largely
other than that. But they survived the Dalvin Cook thing
because they had Jerck McKinnon. They had Latavius Murray, who
was a sensible free agent pickup. They were able to
build a tandem. They had case Keenum to come in.
I mean, and that's just names a pick that's a
pickup off the free agent market. But they had guys
(40:36):
that helped them with stand some injuries. Tom Johnson is
a free agent pickup too, So it's not just draft picks.
But you had guys in early in their contracts that
gave you financial flexibility. You had starters still not making
big money. Although those guys got paid later and that
became kind of the downfall. But the fact that that
draft in twenty fifteen produced what it did and that
(40:58):
team goes to the NFC title game two years later,
those things are not unrelated, and you need drafts like
that to help the success be sustainable.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Final thing, just a minute and change maybe left probably
the final two games for hit Man, I.
Speaker 7 (41:15):
Would think, I mean, you never know with him because
the last couple off seasons.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
It's just going to celebrate every moment in the next
two weeks just in case.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
That one's going to be really hard for me because
he came in as a rookie. His rookie year was
my first year on the beat. So I've done this
whole thing, covering him the whole way through. He's the
last guy in this building by a few months that's
been here longer than I have. In fact, the day
he was drafted was the day I became a dad.
So he and I have talked about this over the
years that I know exactly the day he was drafted
(41:42):
was April twenty six, twenty twelve. It's not hard for
me to remember. And now we're like two old guys
just wondering when the time went. But I would imagine
this is probably it. He's he's I've walked out of
the locker room the last two years thinking it was over,
and I don't know if it'll go that way or
if he'll say I want to come back. I would
tend to think this is it. But yeah, you have
to appreciate it. A guy that is one of a
kind as a player, one of a kind as a character,
(42:03):
and it's certainly been a blast to cover.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Thanks for hanging out today, man, sure, man, that's a
lot of fun. Ben Gestling.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Follow him because the head coach is going to talk
at about twelve fifty today. You'll hear it on the
fan and you'll hear Ben's voice asking some questions. Whether
it's podcast access vikings, you got gamers and articles and
stories and fits to start reviewed at Ben Gesling via x.
Thanks for tuning in today nine to doon. Thanks to
Standard Heating and Air for bringing you guestling as well.
It's a Wednesday Christmas Eve feast tomorrow Buffalo Wild Wings
(42:34):
Roseville would love to see all of you there with
Pa and Alec Lewis. I'm Noordo have a Terrific Tuesday Afternoon.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Podcast, Today's Paul Allen Show, or listen back to previous
show and interview site going to the iHeartRadio app for
kfan dot com
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.