Friday Mailbag: The final three games, Nailor's future

Vikings fans have questions about what will happen to the Vikings' WR room this offseason

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By Matthew Coller

EDITOR’S NOTE: For Sunday’s game against the Giants, there will not be an instant reaction article due to a holiday-related family obligation. There will still be a reaction column Monday morning as usual and a postgame podcast. Thanks for your patience.

Happy Friday everyone! How about that Seahawks-Rams game, huh.

Well, let’s dive into your questions…

Crosby…. Question for the Friday Mailbag: With Tua being benched, where would you rank him as a potential option as a QB for next year if we need to end up going down that road.

I’m completely out on Tua. I would much rather have McCarthy regardless of how he performs over the next three weeks than a quarterback that has totally fallen apart over the last couple seasons. Since his really excellent 2023, he has 37 turnover-worthy plays to 29 big-time throws. Whatever was tricking opponents that year obviously stopped working and their roster fell apart, particularly Tyreek Hill either wasn’t the same or was out this year and he couldn’t play at a high level anymore.

The concern with Tua was always that he’s just not very physically impressive. When things go wrong, he can’t make up for the difference either with his arm strength or mobility. Everything has to be accurate and on time or he’s completely out of luck. That just screams 8-9 or 9-8. It’s not worth giving up on McCarthy for that.

Kip Nazda… Matt If you had a choice of Hard Knock shows, would you rather the Vikings be on the training camp or during the season with other teams (ie like NFC North)? I know the show isn’t as exciting as it once was, just curious.

The Hard Knocks product is so watered down now that I don’t really care either way. If they could go back to the more raw version of it from 15 years ago, I’d rather have the in-season version. Training camp is pretty fascinating when you’re talking about cutting players and having the time to really go behind the scenes with some guys about their lives but the true chaos of several weeks within the season would be great… if it was really shown.

Never Played Madden… It looks like we will see a bit more of Jay Ward the next few weeks. Is there anyone else who hasn’t seen the field much that might get significant playing time in the next 3 weeks?

With Greenard out, they probably shouldn’t ask Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel to play every single snap the rest of the way, which could mean that we could get a peak at some of the backup outside linebackers. Maybe Gabe Murphy, Bo Richter, Chaz Chambliss. I definitely think we’ll see a lot more of Ty Ingram-Dawkins. I’ve been a buyer of his stock since he made a name for himself in camp. He has some unique physical skills and he strikes me as a really smart kid who might have a pretty high ceiling.

On the offensive side, I’d definitely like to see Tai Felton. I’m not sure how plausible that is though. They want to get every possible look at what JJ McCarthy can do, so they’re most likely to use the starting three receivers 95% of the time.

Kip Nazda…. You are GM Matt and Rob gives you control of the budget, besides your love of the FB, how is Matt fixing the Vikings in 2026, 2027? What would GM Matt do?

This is going to end up being an entire series of articles, so I’ll give you the short version. The top priorities to me are: Improving the secondary, figuring out what’s happening at center, trying to keep Nailor and otherwise looking for WR3 options to compete with Tai Felton, keeping Eric Wilson and deciding what to do with Javon Hargrave. After that, it’s all about depth. Finding the Tom Johnsons and Jarius Wrights or the next Jalen Redmond… they need more.

In terms of 2027, who knows. That could be a complete teardown time or all-in time depending on what’s happening at QB.

Pickle Enjoyer…. So, I have a hottish take here. The comp for the early struggles JJ has had have led people to compare him to rookie year Josh Allen, which i guess makes sense if you’re talking about play-style, broadly. However, as you have pointed out, Allen is a 6’5” 240 lbs athletic freak with a Jeff George arm. So the inaccuracy and bad mechanics is where the comp stops and, frankly, it’s not telling us much. The comp I’m more interested in - AND HEAR ME OUT - is Aaron Rodgers. Take the black magic- like accuracy of Rodgers out of it. Similar size. Similar athletic profile (speed and agility, that is). Mechanics a mess out of college. Arm strength pretty similar (Rodgers famously known to twist his torso in half launching balls). Neigh-unplayable in his early career (early reports out of Packers camp was he was so Tedford-pilled it would take yearssssss). What say you? Not saying he’s Rodgers - a top 10 qb of all time - of course, but just saying!

Taking the black-magic Rodgers accuracy out of it makes it not anything like Rodgers.

If you’re looking for comps that are much closer, they are all ones that you don’t want to hear. In a scenario where it doesn’t work, Mitch Trubisky makes the most sense to me. A guy that didn’t throw a lot of passes in college, had some good athleticism and moxie and was able to win some games but couldn’t throw the ball consistently enough to be a great quarterback.

The comp where it works out is Ryan Tannehill or Alex Smith. Both of those guys were really good athletes with accuracy/touch issues early on that eventually got into the right situation and developed enough to make it work and won a lot of games.

Dermo Man… Would the Seahawks winning the Superbowl have an impact on Vikings hiring /firing decision this off-season.

I want to say that it wouldn’t make any sense to have that as part of the equation. However, I remember Zach Lowe saying one time on his podcast that the playoffs change everything. He’s absolutely right.

The fact that Darnold is already playing in enough big games already shows that the Vikings could have been right in the race this year if they franchise tagged him but if the main reason for getting rid of him was that he wasn’t good enough to take a team deep into the postseason and then he does it…. whew. That would be a rough, rough look.

Then again, Sam already looked pretty “clutch” to me on Thursday night. So it’s already a pretty darn rough look.

For the record, the way I look at it, the front office and coaching staff should have their opportunity to make the McCarthy decision right. They weren’t doing it for 2025 but for a window that lasts at least through 2026.

Jason… Has the defense been performing well enough for Flores to get seriously looks at head coach keeping in mind the lawsuit? If not a head coaching job, is he back in Minnesota?

Flores is one of the truly brilliant minds of the NFL. His defense has pushed the league forward as everyone tries to emulate the way he flusters quarterbacks. So he is deserving of a head coaching job. But if he doesn’t get one after a 14-win season, why would that change now? He didn’t even have interviews last year. Maybe someone out there is desperate enough to break rank but I doubt it.

What could happen, however, is that Flores could leave to become the highest paid coordinator in NFL history. If I’m Jerry Jones, I’m offering him whatever it takes. A stake in the team. Not even kidding.

I’m not sure whether he’s going to be back or not. He’s going to have a lot of options.

Geoff… I gather you are high on Jalen Nailor (as am I and apparently KOC), so would you offer him WR2 money to keep him? I think I would. Addison is likely more talented overall, but the off-the-field concerns remain. More importantly, the Vikings don’t really have to choose now since Addison is still pretty cheap next year and you can pick up his fifth year option/figure out 2027 after next season. So I’d say pay Speedy and keep the WR room largely the same next year.

Yes, very high on Nailor. The problem is that WR2 money is like $20 million. The only way you’re doing that is if you’re trading Addison. I’m not totally against that idea. I think they have to discuss it.

Let’s say that they could trade Addison to the Jaguars for a second-round pick and sign Nailor to a $17 million per year deal… does that really work? I’m having trouble figuring that one out.

In a perfect world, Nailor would accept a reasonable contract and stay but there’s no replacing the fact that he has a legit chance to be a WR2 somewhere else, not just in dollars, in targets. I’m sure he wants to be a 75-catch guy, not live in the shadows of other receivers.

Brad L… Any way Jefferson gets to 1,000 yards?

Well, it’s 56 yards per game over the final three. If he doesn’t get that, everyone should be ashamed of themselves.

I’ll make a prediction: Jefferson gets 8 catches for 96 yards this week. The Giants are terrible and they were really close on a bunch of plays last week.

Chad F… What is KOC’s record in short weeks? It feels like every time we have less than a full week to prepare we lose. Short week, Lions revenge game, starters going to IR, I’m already dreading Christmas Day.

Can’t say there’s much of a sample size. They’ve played four times on Thursday and gone 1-3. They have gone 2-1 on Saturdays.

When it comes to the Lions game, the disadvantage is that the Detroit offensive players have been together for several years now. They could play a game without any preparation at all. The Vikings are still struggling to get McCarthy on the same page with his No. 1 receiver. That seems like a pretty big edge. Not having Greenard is definitely a big loss too. Yeah, that’s an uphill battle. But it’s at home, national TV (sorta), the Lions D isn’t great and they’ve been picking up some momentum so… who knows.

Jesse K… 2026 NFL Draft….secondary in first round, center in second round. BA after that. Wentz come back as a backup? Brosmer third string. Thoughts?

Works for me. I’m very much in the camp of both draft approaches… that’s without having done much research about the guys who will be available but I’m now viewing center as super important.

The only scenario where I’d say that they need to shoot higher than McCarthy is if they are just out on him. If they view him as an Anthony Richardson or Trey Lance and don’t think that they are going to be able to win with him, then they need to make a much stronger play than Wentz as a backup. But I don’t want a phony “competition” with Andy Dalton or something. Either you’re replacing him next year with Kyler Murray or you’re playing him.

Arin J… Future is looking brighter on McCarthy too early to tell. If the Vikings decided to trade Addison, or see the market, keep Nailor and the rook, what could they get? 1st and 3rd, maybe lowest we could accept? 1st draft a DT try to find that run stuffer that can pass rush. And the corner.