March 10, 2025 • 19 mins
Vikings Play By Play Voice Paul Allen from KFAN in Minnesota joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Seahawks signing Sam Darnold, what he saw from Sam in 2024, the positives and negatives and skills Darnold brings both on and off the field.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Re receivers right, Sam Darnald out of the shotgun. Jones
picks up a blitzer passed right, caught Addison to the
dam touch down Jordan Addison makes it thirty four to
twenty one, and for Sam Donald, that's a high five.
For the first time in his career, He's thrown five
(00:22):
touchdown passes in.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The game, back to pass.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
And he's taken down for a nach time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Eight sacks on Sam Donald.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
He's holding it too long.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Just run rowing man dodgeez, oh geez. That guy. He
could have stuck around.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
He could have been a legend in Minneapolis, but the
Vikings said, no, we're gonna stick with the kid. We're
gonna stick with JJ McCarthy and let Sam Donald walk
to Seattle to be the savior the Seahawks have been
looking for instead well joining us right now on the
air by Salton pepper haired Midwestern football savant, best buddy
(00:59):
from Minneapolis from KFA and the voice of the Vikings,
Paul Allen with us, PA, how are you, Paul?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
What's going on? Boys? We've got to be serious.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It involves a team losing a quarterback who was quite accomplished,
and a team within the last what forty eight seventy
two hours, losing a quarterback to a former coach and then.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Getting a new quarterback. So what do you need?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, let's talk about all of it.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I mean, JJ McCarthy obviously is there for a reason
because you think he's going to be a star down
the road. But why wasn't Sam Darnald re signed by
the Vikings? Why not bring him back? And maybe he
had a legend and maybe JJ McCarthy's need doesn't recover,
But why is Sam Darnald a Seahawk and not a
Viking anymore?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I don't with respect, I don't think they operate in
hypotheticals like that, softman. So you know, the plan when
you go one to ten with Sam is that he
leaves an organization and a coaching staff. As much as
Seahawks fans you know, may not, I want to hear it.
The Niners staff has some high end to it and
(02:04):
it bears its fruit in many different ways. So when
he got out of that Carolina jet situation, he just
needed to be turned out for a little bit, kind
of like a racehorse, you know, with.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Some kind of attendant, and just had to go.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
To a farm and run in the bluegrass of Lexington,
Kentucky for a year, then you come back and race.
So now Donald comes into a system and a coaching
staff led by the coach of the Year where clearly
it worked.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Clearly when O'Connell has.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Had to use Josh Dobbs that they squeeze as much
passing out of him as they possibly can a couple
of years ago until he throws a hospital ball to
Justin Jefferson and that was the expiration date Darnald. Clearly
they squeezed super high in play out of him, and
to follow it during the course of the year, from
(02:54):
the Giants game all the way through the nine sacks,
it was fascinating to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Sam Arnold pushed through three terrible.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Interceptions at Jacksonville, tried to throw a couple more of
the next game against Tennessee, and then go lights out
for a month and a half. And it also was
fascinating during the course of the equation to and this
is an underappreciated facet of Sam Darnold last year that
I just don't think enough people put enough emphasis on.
(03:22):
The Vikings running game was okay. You know when Kenneth
Walker's rolling man. You know, it's just not that consistently. Secondly, TJ.
Howkinson missed half the year, so you know, whether you
like TJ or not, he's probably a top eight tight end,
so he didn't have him half the year. And when
they were playing Thursday night football at SOFI, they lost
(03:45):
Christian Darisol left tackle for the year, and that's one
of the three best left tackles in the NFL maybefore.
Uh So, Okay, it was shrewd and swift to get
Cam Robinson and he mostly helped until the end when.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
He fell apart. But so that's Donald in totality, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And the O'Connell staff after the Shanahan staff is a
backup to Purty that plays a major factor into this.
I don't know Mike McDonald. I know Leslie Fraser incredibly well.
I talked to him a lot about the staff and
it's just about what he loves there, what he loves
about McDonald. And you've got Clint kobiec Now I know
(04:23):
him really well. Clint really has blossomed over the years
and absolutely earned that situation.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Now the land the plane on Sam.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Here's the a topic all right, when it comes to
why wouldn't the Vikings go either a deal three years,
you know, fifty five promise whatever, one, O one, whatever
it is. When they grafted McCarthy, Okay, he's off the knee,
but clearly they think he's doing well. Daniel Jones trapped
on the practice squad. He's the new horse with the
tendon who needed to be turned out from the New
(04:54):
York market. And Daniel Jones is expected, if needed, to
be the next Sam Darnald. Okay, that's not maybe he will.
It's what they've seen with Dobbs, Nick Mullins and Sam Donald.
It's not maybe. It's expected around here.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So now finally, on Donald, here's your a topic, man,
and you and I shoot straight, all right. That nine
sack playoff game. I ain't putting a lot of that
on Sam. You played the vitriolic highlight because that's what
you do, and it's been on social media and I
was screaming and cool the game before. That's a major problem, Okay.
(05:34):
It's a major, major problem in the equation because the
most pressure Sam Donald felt all of his career as
the lead vocalist for this band that won fourteen games
was that standalone game Sunday night at Ford Field, where
the winner gets the one and five times inside the
red zone, specifically around the ten. The protection was good,
(05:58):
the play calls got the guys over, and the guys
ran the right routes.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And he missed five touchdowns, not two, not.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Three, He missed five, and the Lions were begging to
get beat. So when I bring that up to general
manager Quasiado flamensat the Indianapolis scouting combine two weeks ago,
and you know, I'm not bulldog journalist guy, but I
stuck to my guns. I'm like, you know, He's like, Okay, well,
if you shoot ten three pointers and you miss two,
(06:26):
kind of like what I'm talking about there, where you're
still laid to ten. Yeah, but if you missed the
two in the biggest situation of the year, that rules everything. Sure,
So I couldn't get that out of my mind this offseason.
I got and I kind of always knew that Darnald
wouldn't be the quarterback this year because of McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But that's your.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Synopsis, and it also needs to be fairly taken into
account what he pushed through this year after being beamed
a third overall pick failure, and you're getting a good
quarterback if he can handle the press, sure in the
right moment.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Well, okay, so Paul Allen's with us, and before Dick
jumps in here, I want to just put yourself in
our shoes, all right, because you know Sam Donald better
than us. You saw him play more than we did.
You have an idea what Clint Kobix wanting to do
in Seattle? If you were Scottie Seahawk fan in Seattle
looking for an upgrade at quarterback, looking to get back
(07:23):
to the glory days of Russell Wilson's heyday as a
Seahawk when he was an MVP candidate. Here maybe a
top five QB in the NFL. Have we found the
guy in Sam Donald?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, you know the how do you feel about the
offensive line?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Not great right now? But ask me in a month.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Now, the Vikings the Minnesota Moving Company when it was
Darisaw over to right tackle Brian O'Neill, Well, we were
onto something, man. Darisaw goes down, You've got to make
some changes. The Vikings don't run, I mean they may
run fifty three percent of the time, just runs a
different way and it's more of the identity, which is needed.
So with Donald now Clint Kobiak, you know his father Gary,
(08:09):
with the zone reads and the bootlegs. You're gonna love
when Sam.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Darnald goes on a bootleg.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Okay, and I'd bet a lot of money that Clint's
gonna call a lot of bootlegs obviously off play action.
You're gonna love that. Sam's athletic ability is fantastic. Sam's
accuracy is mostly fantastic. Again, there were patches last year
like I don't know, five to six and do it.
We're at Jacksonville and like my radio show the next day,
(08:36):
Vikings win like nine six or ten to seven or something,
and Jacksonville ain't great, and I'm like, he is Sam
Darnald who they said he was, which was ridiculous when
people were like, why are you gonna give anybody ten
million dollars? Didn't you watch the Jets or Carolina?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
All right?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean, Sam wasn't great there. But if some fool
thinks justin Jefferson and TJ. Howkinson putting double moves is
synonymous with Robbie Anderson and Ian Thomas, then you need
to start you need to start following lacrosse, okay, because
they do things a little differently here, and so Sam
gets into all that. He responds, bushes through stuff and
(09:17):
was super tough, super super tough guy. So when it
comes to the next Russell Wilson, man, I got a
lot of respect for Russy's Hof. I can't say Sam
is Hof at the stage of his career, but I
can't say.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That about Geno either.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So you know you have with Kubiak and with that
staff and with the deliberate nature taken with Sam Darnold,
you will get productivity out of him and that that's
pretty much the only way I can see it right now.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Well, I'm gonna alter Softi's questions just a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Pa.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
I don't believe we have the answer necessarily as the
next Russell Wilson. But I feeled that we got better
at quarterback. But you're the one that saw Sam Darnell
a lot more than I did. Do you feel the
Seahawks got better at quarterback?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah? And you guys saw Geno Smith more than me.
So I mean, you know you're you're gonna magnify.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The metaphorical warts or the problems with Gino every bit
as much as I'm gonna do the same thing with Sam.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, Darnold is the better quarterback at this stage of
their careers.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I would rather have those two.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
But again, okay, so say you get things going on defense,
you resigned on Jaren Reed, you get you get.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
A lot of things going all right? Uh, the Smith
and Jigma is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean it's I hadn't watched him a lot till
we were there live last year.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Are you kidding me with that thing? So that's he's
high end.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So yeah, good starting points here, But when you get
in that biggest game at the end of the season
and all the pressures on you, you got to push
through that, then I think he's good.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Well, the great Paul Allen's with us. I hope you
guys are learning something out there. These opportunities to hear
him speak don't come along very often. When they do,
I hope that you take something from the conversation the
way I do. Just got a text from my wife,
by the way, Paul that said, I love Paul Allen.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
He's great on the air. So you have a champion.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Oh that's the two oh six number.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That was a time, could be could be?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if if the number starts with the
three of, that's her. But Paul uh tell us about
what kind of leader he is, because look, anytime a
guy takes off, there's always gonna be some dirt that
comes out from underneath the rug. And we're seeing some
of that with DK Metcalff and Gino. Smith's that maybe
they didn't get along and the relationship wasn't what we
thought it was going to be exactly. He's gone, what
(11:27):
about Sam Donald as a leader? What about a community guy?
What about a locker room presence? What about with the
young guys as a mentor?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Tell us about the guy Vikings won a game near
the end of the season might have been the penultimate.
And your your fan base vast and ever expanding as
it is, and you and Dick Vane and producer Jackson,
you can all do the same thing. Just go to
the YouTube machine and like search. You know, Sam Darnold
picked up or they, I mean it was blew up
(11:58):
on social media. We win a game and they elevate
Sam in the locker room before O'Connell does his talk,
his speech, and he's sitting there waiting patiently.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
They were so in love with Sam.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
They like picked him up, like just think Buddy Ryan
back after the Bears won that Super Bowl and walk
him around the locker room.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
It kind of had a feel of for he's a
Dolly good fell Over.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
He's a Dolly good fell Low. And there's your answer
right there. So okay, you know, I think if you've
got players and coaches and executives and all that to
open veins about that darnold game at Ford Field, I
don't know if they'd say it as directly as I did.
And I have a lot of Bokays to throw at Sam,
and I threw him at you. But if that game
(12:42):
right there, man, it's that he then I'm telling you
where they were just loving on him and elevated him
and walked around loving on him. That was like two
weeks before that. So the whole thing doesn't flip as
like he's a leader. He's not a leader. He's good,
He's not good. That's not the case. That Lions game
was maybe the biggest game in the history of the
(13:05):
National Football League regular season.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Some people called it that.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And when the protection's right and the calls good and
they run their routes the right way, and you're inside
the twenty and inside the ten, and you missed two
of them, all right, I can deal with that. If
you miss five, that's tough.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Well, we know that Gino at times would take off
and run. I wish he would have run more, to
be honest with you, when he was here, and there's
a play against us when you guys came here, the
game winner to Jefferson, the whole shot to Jefferson where
he steps up in the pocket and delivers that laser
beam to Jefferson down the sideline in the corner. And
he showed some mobility. Maybe not on the run, but
(13:43):
he showed some mobility. How much of that does he
have left in his game in your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Man, Sam made terrific throws. You know, I don't know
if it was Sam or if it was O'Connell. Sam
didn't make as many fifty to fifty throws as cousins.
You know, he just didn't like Kirk. You know, Kirk
can take a ton of chances early in his run here,
but the more comfortably got, specifically when O'Connell got here.
Just think of that Buffalo game in twenty twenty two
(14:08):
and that right sideline pass to Jefferson. Okay, I mean
it's cousins would recognize there's Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I think that single. I'm going at it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Sam played differently, played more conservatively. But the play calls
here are good. Man. You don't run up the offense
and become coach of the Year and win fourteen if
you don't know offense. They saw it in Seattle when
we came out there, and that's with a running game
that that hasn't been great over the last three years.
So Sam carried this thing to a certain extent. But
that's great. Let's go to Emerald Downs. Let's bet five
(14:40):
hundred dollars on a horse who leads to the final
sixteen and then all of a sudden does the moon
walk and we lose our cash.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
PA, you talked about Daniel Jones JJ McCarthy kind of
being what you feel like the answer is, so you
would dispel all of these Aaron Rodgers of Minnesota rumors?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah there, I mean how who I mean what I mean? Like,
how's that come up? I mean, honestly, seriously, I had
the opportunity last night, for whatever the reason God chose,
I got to call my first.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
NBA game of my life. Oh right, nice night.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, it was Timberwolves hosting San Antonio Spurs Radio Guide
to do TV, so they asked me to do it.
They brought in the cartoon character, and so I'm all
focused on that yesterday and Devin Visell this and Anthony
Edward's that, and people started asking me about that of
the game, and I'm like, who in the who says that?
I mean, how's that gonna happen? I mean, that'd be
(15:36):
really cool. You bring somebody in, you know, somebody who's
really interested.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
In raising JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That just absolutely seems like Aaron Rodgers' personality, right, And
then all of a sudden, you're getting ready for mandatory
mini camp and they're looking around the quarterback room and
they're like.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Where's Aaron. Oh he went to Egypt. Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, I forget it.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Well, I'm glad he's not coming here because I said,
if the Hawks signed him, my tattoo Fane's face on
my ass. So I'm glad I don't have Dick's face
on the butt.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
To be honest with you, you can do better than that.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, absolutely, I can do. Your face on my ass
is probably where it belongs to.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Be honestly, well, with the way you treat me on
your radio show, that's how it could be.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
You know what, You're a freaking god out here, man,
all right, you get treated like a kid.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'm gonna first and foremost I'm a god nowhere. Uh. Secondly,
if I were to like use.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
A metaphor or some type of analogy with my butt
compared to you, that would then you would be like
my dingle berry.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's actually your face on my ass, not
your butt.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Florio is a human dingle.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You're still so sour about the York strand Yanni's bord
move that you're taking it out on me.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Right, can't get over it?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Man? And then and now Turbo Tannem is gone. My
heart's breaking in a million pieces. Paul, you're the man.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
What great not to turn this into nine in the
noon on KFA And I'll ask you questions, But what
do you think of Michael McDonald?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Of Mike McDonald, I love him as a defensive coach.
See if he can fix the offense.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I mean it seems like, Paul, it it seems like
and we went through this with Carol. Defensive head coaches
get no criticism when the offense sucks, and offensive minded
head coaches get no criticism when the defense sucks. I
thought they were the head coach, which meant both sides
of the ball.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean I sat down with Leslie for about thirty
minutes of the combine. I mean, he O'Connell and a
handful of others are just like my favorites all time
in two plus decades, and you know, really a narcissistic
and image conscious type of world and game. And Leslie
has a lot of great things to say about that
coach man. And you know, before the before our game
(17:38):
out there last year, I watched in press conferences and
he just gets it. He just impresses me with the
way he handles humanity. So I think you're onto a
good one. I hope Sam succeeds at an extremely high
level because I like stories like Sam Darnold, with the
exception of when the Vikings come back there to beat
your chickens, and if it's needed here for whatever the reason,
(18:00):
don't be surprised if Daniel Jones is the next Sam Darnold.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Pat Paul, Pat Peter, whatever the hell your name is.
There's one thing you're forget. There's one thing I've been
called that too. There's one thing you're forgetting about the
Vikings in Seattle.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
By the way, Vikings may never win a game in Seattle, Washington.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, you know what frustrates me most about that call?
May I share with you before we leave?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, we're getting later here, but go ahead, make it quick.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I split my infinitive. It's play it again. You want
to hear it again. The Vikings may never win a
game in Seattle, Washington. It's never may win. It's not funny.
I split my infinitive. I wrote you a day to
day for five years. I know the Associated Press style book.
(18:50):
Is there a guy up there named Bob Lucindatta or something.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, Bob Condata covers the Hawks for the Times, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
If he's listening right now, he's smiling because he knows
what's flit.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Infinitives are yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well he did you know what?
Speaker 4 (19:02):
If he's hearing this show, then he's in trouble. All right, man,
you're the best. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Man. Appreciate it, pal, Yeah, I love you, guys, man,
all right, I love you?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Ok?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You bet?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Paul Allen the Vikings may never win a game in Seattle, Washington.
With us on the show, We'll come back and recap
what's been a crazy day so far next on ninety
three three kJ RFM.
Re receivers right, Sam Darnald out of the shotgun. Jones
picks up a blitzer passed right, caught Addison to the
dam touch down Jordan Addison makes it thirty four to
twenty one, and for Sam Donald, that's a high five.
For the first time in his career, He's thrown five
(00:22):
touchdown passes in.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The game, back to pass.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
And he's taken down for a nach time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Eight sacks on Sam Donald.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
He's holding it too long.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Just run rowing man dodgeez, oh geez. That guy. He
could have stuck around.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
He could have been a legend in Minneapolis, but the
Vikings said, no, we're gonna stick with the kid. We're
gonna stick with JJ McCarthy and let Sam Donald walk
to Seattle to be the savior the Seahawks have been
looking for instead well joining us right now on the
air by Salton pepper haired Midwestern football savant, best buddy
(00:59):
from Minneapolis from KFA and the voice of the Vikings,
Paul Allen with us, PA, how are you, Paul?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
What's going on? Boys? We've got to be serious.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It involves a team losing a quarterback who was quite accomplished,
and a team within the last what forty eight seventy
two hours, losing a quarterback to a former coach and then.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Getting a new quarterback. So what do you need?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, let's talk about all of it.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I mean, JJ McCarthy obviously is there for a reason
because you think he's going to be a star down
the road. But why wasn't Sam Darnald re signed by
the Vikings? Why not bring him back? And maybe he
had a legend and maybe JJ McCarthy's need doesn't recover,
But why is Sam Darnald a Seahawk and not a
Viking anymore?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I don't with respect, I don't think they operate in
hypotheticals like that, softman. So you know, the plan when
you go one to ten with Sam is that he
leaves an organization and a coaching staff. As much as
Seahawks fans you know, may not, I want to hear it.
The Niners staff has some high end to it and
(02:04):
it bears its fruit in many different ways. So when
he got out of that Carolina jet situation, he just
needed to be turned out for a little bit, kind
of like a racehorse, you know, with.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Some kind of attendant, and just had to go.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
To a farm and run in the bluegrass of Lexington,
Kentucky for a year, then you come back and race.
So now Donald comes into a system and a coaching
staff led by the coach of the Year where clearly
it worked.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Clearly when O'Connell has.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Had to use Josh Dobbs that they squeeze as much
passing out of him as they possibly can a couple
of years ago until he throws a hospital ball to
Justin Jefferson and that was the expiration date Darnald. Clearly
they squeezed super high in play out of him, and
to follow it during the course of the year, from
(02:54):
the Giants game all the way through the nine sacks,
it was fascinating to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Sam Arnold pushed through three terrible.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Interceptions at Jacksonville, tried to throw a couple more of
the next game against Tennessee, and then go lights out
for a month and a half. And it also was
fascinating during the course of the equation to and this
is an underappreciated facet of Sam Darnold last year that
I just don't think enough people put enough emphasis on.
(03:22):
The Vikings running game was okay. You know when Kenneth
Walker's rolling man. You know, it's just not that consistently. Secondly, TJ.
Howkinson missed half the year, so you know, whether you
like TJ or not, he's probably a top eight tight end,
so he didn't have him half the year. And when
they were playing Thursday night football at SOFI, they lost
(03:45):
Christian Darisol left tackle for the year, and that's one
of the three best left tackles in the NFL maybefore.
Uh So, Okay, it was shrewd and swift to get
Cam Robinson and he mostly helped until the end when.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
He fell apart. But so that's Donald in totality, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And the O'Connell staff after the Shanahan staff is a
backup to Purty that plays a major factor into this.
I don't know Mike McDonald. I know Leslie Fraser incredibly well.
I talked to him a lot about the staff and
it's just about what he loves there, what he loves
about McDonald. And you've got Clint kobiec Now I know
(04:23):
him really well. Clint really has blossomed over the years
and absolutely earned that situation.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Now the land the plane on Sam.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Here's the a topic all right, when it comes to
why wouldn't the Vikings go either a deal three years,
you know, fifty five promise whatever, one, O one, whatever
it is. When they grafted McCarthy, Okay, he's off the knee,
but clearly they think he's doing well. Daniel Jones trapped
on the practice squad. He's the new horse with the
tendon who needed to be turned out from the New
(04:54):
York market. And Daniel Jones is expected, if needed, to
be the next Sam Darnald. Okay, that's not maybe he will.
It's what they've seen with Dobbs, Nick Mullins and Sam Donald.
It's not maybe. It's expected around here.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So now finally, on Donald, here's your a topic, man,
and you and I shoot straight, all right. That nine
sack playoff game. I ain't putting a lot of that
on Sam. You played the vitriolic highlight because that's what
you do, and it's been on social media and I
was screaming and cool the game before. That's a major problem, Okay.
(05:34):
It's a major, major problem in the equation because the
most pressure Sam Donald felt all of his career as
the lead vocalist for this band that won fourteen games
was that standalone game Sunday night at Ford Field, where
the winner gets the one and five times inside the
red zone, specifically around the ten. The protection was good,
(05:58):
the play calls got the guys over, and the guys
ran the right routes.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And he missed five touchdowns, not two, not.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Three, He missed five, and the Lions were begging to
get beat. So when I bring that up to general
manager Quasiado flamensat the Indianapolis scouting combine two weeks ago,
and you know, I'm not bulldog journalist guy, but I
stuck to my guns. I'm like, you know, He's like, Okay, well,
if you shoot ten three pointers and you miss two,
(06:26):
kind of like what I'm talking about there, where you're
still laid to ten. Yeah, but if you missed the
two in the biggest situation of the year, that rules everything. Sure,
So I couldn't get that out of my mind this offseason.
I got and I kind of always knew that Darnald
wouldn't be the quarterback this year because of McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But that's your.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Synopsis, and it also needs to be fairly taken into
account what he pushed through this year after being beamed
a third overall pick failure, and you're getting a good
quarterback if he can handle the press, sure in the
right moment.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Well, okay, so Paul Allen's with us, and before Dick
jumps in here, I want to just put yourself in
our shoes, all right, because you know Sam Donald better
than us. You saw him play more than we did.
You have an idea what Clint Kobix wanting to do
in Seattle? If you were Scottie Seahawk fan in Seattle
looking for an upgrade at quarterback, looking to get back
(07:23):
to the glory days of Russell Wilson's heyday as a
Seahawk when he was an MVP candidate. Here maybe a
top five QB in the NFL. Have we found the
guy in Sam Donald?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, you know the how do you feel about the
offensive line?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Not great right now? But ask me in a month.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Now, the Vikings the Minnesota Moving Company when it was
Darisaw over to right tackle Brian O'Neill, Well, we were
onto something, man. Darisaw goes down, You've got to make
some changes. The Vikings don't run, I mean they may
run fifty three percent of the time, just runs a
different way and it's more of the identity, which is needed.
So with Donald now Clint Kobiak, you know his father Gary,
(08:09):
with the zone reads and the bootlegs. You're gonna love
when Sam.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Darnald goes on a bootleg.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Okay, and I'd bet a lot of money that Clint's
gonna call a lot of bootlegs obviously off play action.
You're gonna love that. Sam's athletic ability is fantastic. Sam's
accuracy is mostly fantastic. Again, there were patches last year
like I don't know, five to six and do it.
We're at Jacksonville and like my radio show the next day,
(08:36):
Vikings win like nine six or ten to seven or something,
and Jacksonville ain't great, and I'm like, he is Sam
Darnald who they said he was, which was ridiculous when
people were like, why are you gonna give anybody ten
million dollars? Didn't you watch the Jets or Carolina?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
All right?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean, Sam wasn't great there. But if some fool
thinks justin Jefferson and TJ. Howkinson putting double moves is
synonymous with Robbie Anderson and Ian Thomas, then you need
to start you need to start following lacrosse, okay, because
they do things a little differently here, and so Sam
gets into all that. He responds, bushes through stuff and
(09:17):
was super tough, super super tough guy. So when it
comes to the next Russell Wilson, man, I got a
lot of respect for Russy's Hof. I can't say Sam
is Hof at the stage of his career, but I
can't say.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That about Geno either.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So you know you have with Kubiak and with that
staff and with the deliberate nature taken with Sam Darnold,
you will get productivity out of him and that that's
pretty much the only way I can see it right now.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Well, I'm gonna alter Softi's questions just a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Pa.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
I don't believe we have the answer necessarily as the
next Russell Wilson. But I feeled that we got better
at quarterback. But you're the one that saw Sam Darnell
a lot more than I did. Do you feel the
Seahawks got better at quarterback?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah? And you guys saw Geno Smith more than me.
So I mean, you know you're you're gonna magnify.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The metaphorical warts or the problems with Gino every bit
as much as I'm gonna do the same thing with Sam.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, Darnold is the better quarterback at this stage of
their careers.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I would rather have those two.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
But again, okay, so say you get things going on defense,
you resigned on Jaren Reed, you get you get.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
A lot of things going all right? Uh, the Smith
and Jigma is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean it's I hadn't watched him a lot till
we were there live last year.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Are you kidding me with that thing? So that's he's
high end.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So yeah, good starting points here, But when you get
in that biggest game at the end of the season
and all the pressures on you, you got to push
through that, then I think he's good.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Well, the great Paul Allen's with us. I hope you
guys are learning something out there. These opportunities to hear
him speak don't come along very often. When they do,
I hope that you take something from the conversation the
way I do. Just got a text from my wife,
by the way, Paul that said, I love Paul Allen.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
He's great on the air. So you have a champion.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Oh that's the two oh six number.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That was a time, could be could be?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if if the number starts with the
three of, that's her. But Paul uh tell us about
what kind of leader he is, because look, anytime a
guy takes off, there's always gonna be some dirt that
comes out from underneath the rug. And we're seeing some
of that with DK Metcalff and Gino. Smith's that maybe
they didn't get along and the relationship wasn't what we
thought it was going to be exactly. He's gone, what
(11:27):
about Sam Donald as a leader? What about a community guy?
What about a locker room presence? What about with the
young guys as a mentor?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Tell us about the guy Vikings won a game near
the end of the season might have been the penultimate.
And your your fan base vast and ever expanding as
it is, and you and Dick Vane and producer Jackson,
you can all do the same thing. Just go to
the YouTube machine and like search. You know, Sam Darnold
picked up or they, I mean it was blew up
(11:58):
on social media. We win a game and they elevate
Sam in the locker room before O'Connell does his talk,
his speech, and he's sitting there waiting patiently.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
They were so in love with Sam.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
They like picked him up, like just think Buddy Ryan
back after the Bears won that Super Bowl and walk
him around the locker room.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
It kind of had a feel of for he's a
Dolly good fell Over.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
He's a Dolly good fell Low. And there's your answer
right there. So okay, you know, I think if you've
got players and coaches and executives and all that to
open veins about that darnold game at Ford Field, I
don't know if they'd say it as directly as I did.
And I have a lot of Bokays to throw at Sam,
and I threw him at you. But if that game
(12:42):
right there, man, it's that he then I'm telling you
where they were just loving on him and elevated him
and walked around loving on him. That was like two
weeks before that. So the whole thing doesn't flip as
like he's a leader. He's not a leader. He's good,
He's not good. That's not the case. That Lions game
was maybe the biggest game in the history of the
(13:05):
National Football League regular season.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Some people called it that.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And when the protection's right and the calls good and
they run their routes the right way, and you're inside
the twenty and inside the ten, and you missed two
of them, all right, I can deal with that. If
you miss five, that's tough.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Well, we know that Gino at times would take off
and run. I wish he would have run more, to
be honest with you, when he was here, and there's
a play against us when you guys came here, the
game winner to Jefferson, the whole shot to Jefferson where
he steps up in the pocket and delivers that laser
beam to Jefferson down the sideline in the corner. And
he showed some mobility. Maybe not on the run, but
(13:43):
he showed some mobility. How much of that does he
have left in his game in your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Man, Sam made terrific throws. You know, I don't know
if it was Sam or if it was O'Connell. Sam
didn't make as many fifty to fifty throws as cousins.
You know, he just didn't like Kirk. You know, Kirk
can take a ton of chances early in his run here,
but the more comfortably got, specifically when O'Connell got here.
Just think of that Buffalo game in twenty twenty two
(14:08):
and that right sideline pass to Jefferson. Okay, I mean
it's cousins would recognize there's Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I think that single. I'm going at it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Sam played differently, played more conservatively. But the play calls
here are good. Man. You don't run up the offense
and become coach of the Year and win fourteen if
you don't know offense. They saw it in Seattle when
we came out there, and that's with a running game
that that hasn't been great over the last three years.
So Sam carried this thing to a certain extent. But
that's great. Let's go to Emerald Downs. Let's bet five
(14:40):
hundred dollars on a horse who leads to the final
sixteen and then all of a sudden does the moon
walk and we lose our cash.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
PA, you talked about Daniel Jones JJ McCarthy kind of
being what you feel like the answer is, so you
would dispel all of these Aaron Rodgers of Minnesota rumors?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah there, I mean how who I mean what I mean? Like,
how's that come up? I mean, honestly, seriously, I had
the opportunity last night, for whatever the reason God chose,
I got to call my first.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
NBA game of my life. Oh right, nice night.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, it was Timberwolves hosting San Antonio Spurs Radio Guide
to do TV, so they asked me to do it.
They brought in the cartoon character, and so I'm all
focused on that yesterday and Devin Visell this and Anthony
Edward's that, and people started asking me about that of
the game, and I'm like, who in the who says that?
I mean, how's that gonna happen? I mean, that'd be
(15:36):
really cool. You bring somebody in, you know, somebody who's
really interested.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
In raising JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That just absolutely seems like Aaron Rodgers' personality, right, And
then all of a sudden, you're getting ready for mandatory
mini camp and they're looking around the quarterback room and
they're like.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Where's Aaron. Oh he went to Egypt. Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, I forget it.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Well, I'm glad he's not coming here because I said,
if the Hawks signed him, my tattoo Fane's face on
my ass. So I'm glad I don't have Dick's face
on the butt.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
To be honest with you, you can do better than that.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, absolutely, I can do. Your face on my ass
is probably where it belongs to.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Be honestly, well, with the way you treat me on
your radio show, that's how it could be.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
You know what, You're a freaking god out here, man,
all right, you get treated like a kid.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'm gonna first and foremost I'm a god nowhere. Uh. Secondly,
if I were to like use.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
A metaphor or some type of analogy with my butt
compared to you, that would then you would be like
my dingle berry.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's actually your face on my ass, not
your butt.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Florio is a human dingle.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You're still so sour about the York strand Yanni's bord
move that you're taking it out on me.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Right, can't get over it?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Man? And then and now Turbo Tannem is gone. My
heart's breaking in a million pieces. Paul, you're the man.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
What great not to turn this into nine in the
noon on KFA And I'll ask you questions, But what
do you think of Michael McDonald?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Of Mike McDonald, I love him as a defensive coach.
See if he can fix the offense.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I mean it seems like, Paul, it it seems like
and we went through this with Carol. Defensive head coaches
get no criticism when the offense sucks, and offensive minded
head coaches get no criticism when the defense sucks. I
thought they were the head coach, which meant both sides
of the ball.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean I sat down with Leslie for about thirty
minutes of the combine. I mean, he O'Connell and a
handful of others are just like my favorites all time
in two plus decades, and you know, really a narcissistic
and image conscious type of world and game. And Leslie
has a lot of great things to say about that
coach man. And you know, before the before our game
(17:38):
out there last year, I watched in press conferences and
he just gets it. He just impresses me with the
way he handles humanity. So I think you're onto a
good one. I hope Sam succeeds at an extremely high
level because I like stories like Sam Darnold, with the
exception of when the Vikings come back there to beat
your chickens, and if it's needed here for whatever the reason,
(18:00):
don't be surprised if Daniel Jones is the next Sam Darnold.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Pat Paul, Pat Peter, whatever the hell your name is.
There's one thing you're forget. There's one thing I've been
called that too. There's one thing you're forgetting about the
Vikings in Seattle.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
By the way, Vikings may never win a game in Seattle, Washington.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, you know what frustrates me most about that call?
May I share with you before we leave?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, we're getting later here, but go ahead, make it quick.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I split my infinitive. It's play it again. You want
to hear it again. The Vikings may never win a
game in Seattle, Washington. It's never may win. It's not funny.
I split my infinitive. I wrote you a day to
day for five years. I know the Associated Press style book.
(18:50):
Is there a guy up there named Bob Lucindatta or something.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, Bob Condata covers the Hawks for the Times, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
If he's listening right now, he's smiling because he knows
what's flit.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Infinitives are yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well he did you know what?
Speaker 4 (19:02):
If he's hearing this show, then he's in trouble. All right, man,
you're the best. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Man. Appreciate it, pal, Yeah, I love you, guys, man,
all right, I love you?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Ok?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You bet?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Paul Allen the Vikings may never win a game in Seattle, Washington.
With us on the show, We'll come back and recap
what's been a crazy day so far next on ninety
three three kJ RFM.
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
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.