Purple Insider Mailbag (Part 2)

Diving into more Viking fan questions about where the Vikings go from here

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Monday, everyone. I had so many mailbag questions that I split it into two parts. Hopefully you all enjoyed your Sunday watching football with a little less stress. Let’s dive in…

Matt D…What do you even say at this point? They pushed all of their chips minus bus fare into the pot, lost the bet, and the bus broke down on the way home. Long walk back to respectability from where they are now.

What you can say right now is that McCarthy giving them a clear answer by the end of the year is the best thing that can happen to the franchise. If he’s pretty good, then they can still look favorably on next year.

The offense is still going to have Jefferson, Addison, Darrisaw, Jackson, Fries, O’Neill, Mason surrounding the QB position.

What has been true since Week 3 remains true now: Having to play Carson Wentz put the entire franchise on pause. Despite the poor record, it feels like it starts again this week versus Detroit.

It’s not ideal, but it is a breath of fresh air.

Lorne S…Both Christian Darrisaw and Mekhi Blackmon suffered season-ending injuries last year. The Vikings showed patience and commitment with Darrisaw — slow, careful recovery and full backing from the team. Blackmon didn’t get the same treatment. They moved on quickly, and now we’re left hoping Jeff Okudah can fill the gap (a disaster)It’s a double standard that speaks volumes about how this organization evaluates its talent.

I’m not quite there with you. Blackmon hasn’t been good for the Colts. He’s 61st out of 72 in PFF coverage grade. He struggled a lot in training camp and we don’t know much about the stuff behind the scenes with his recovery. Plus we’re talking about an all-world talent in Darrisaw versus a guy who was a third-round pick.

My issue is much more with them thinking they could fix Okudah. Everything pointed toward him struggling mightily through his entire career. They deserved some benefit of the doubt after Cashman, AVG and Greenard were all great signings but they aren’t miracle workers. Maybe they thought they were.

Having zero backup plan for Okudah and refusing to play McGlothern is odd to me.

A few more points: I think the way KOC has talked about Darrisaw’s injury lately, it sounds more complicated than just a routine ACL. Also Blackmon got hurt 3 months earlier than Darrisaw. His recovery was done methodically during last offseason.

Daniel V…I know this is way too early, but Thursday night was brutal. What sort of outs do the Vikings have to try to rebuild this offseason? Clearly the bets they made in free agency are not working out, but are those sunken costs for next year or are there ways out of those deals that give them a path forward?

I’m not there yet. I haven’t looked at all the contracts and tried to figure out how they are going to approach the offseason because… it’s October. I didn’t ever dream that we’d be doing this already.

What I do know is that they are going to carry over cap space next year, the cap will go up and they can move on from some expensive contracts. They will be able to spend in free agency next year.

WinRank…Do you think Brosmer has been held off a bit despite Wentz’s struggles and injuries simply to avoid even more QB drama if he actually played well- in other words, to avoid a potential JJ vs. Max debate?

I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that the “Brosmer might be too good” conspiracy has no merit. Come on guys.

Sean M…Is it just me or has KAM found himself in the same cap situation (cheap QB aside) that he was in when he took the job? Old and overpriced players who are under performing.

Yeah, but there’s a pretty big difference between having it that way with Kirk and without Kirk. In this case, there are ways out.

Also, not everyone is old. The most important expensive players are in their primes: Darrisaw, Jefferson, Greenard, Murphy Jr.

CJ M…Realistically, how bad can this season get? Related: Have we checked the roof at US Bank Stadium for its snow-soundness?

The biggest thing that all the meltdown seasons have had is internal strife. If they can avoid that and keep the ship from going completely under, then it will be much more of a 2023 season than 2016 or 2018 or 2021.

KOC got the big bucks for a reason. It’s on him to work through this. It’s going to be the toughest spot he’s ever been in as a HC. We’ll learn a lot down the stretch.

Eldon…Do we finally see JJ McCarthy with Darrisaw and Oniell against Detroit?

Per KOC, it seems the answer would be yes.

Jason… In your subscriber chat, the topic of trading at the deadline got brought up. I couldn’t think of anyone who would get them more than a fifth or sixth round pick to trade away. Do you have any thoughts on potential candidates and compensation?

Only that I don’t see a ton of options. The Wilfs tend to be die-hard when it comes to trying to keep seasons alive. I’m thinking about them not trading Danielle Hunter in 2023 after Kirk went down. I would be surprised at a fire sale — or if anybody wanted to take the junk off their lawn at a reduced price.

Rob… How do O’Connell and Flores right the ship? Getting guys back from injury is a start but what can they realistically do scheme wise in the middle of the season?

Really, they just have to play the scheme that they implemented from May to August. It’s pretty clear from the lack of under-center plays that they were using a Wentz-adjusted offense that may have had a lot of the elements of the scheme but wasn’t exactly how they drew it up. They hit on a fair number of play-action plays against Philadelphia that I could see them continuing to use with McCarthy as well as continuing with the easy-button type stuff for Justin Jefferson that was effective against Cleveland.

It’s pretty clear that the key to this entire operation is keeping Darrisaw and O’Neill healthy. If those guys are playing, then they have

Myles S… Explain to me the logic of this season being over and lost, isn’t it now just time to play McCarthy, learn more about his floor and ceiling, and just try to win any game you can? It drove me nuts when people said the same thing in 2023 after Kirk went out.

Yeah. I think that’s pretty clear now. There was a minute where maybe it seemed like they might continue to play Wentz if he was absolutely awesome against Philly and Los Angeles (however unlikely that idea was) and KOC left the door open to that by not saying “JJ IS OUR GUY!!!!” That’s probably what fueled a lot of the “soft benching” stuff but KOC couldn’t completely dismiss the idea of Wentz suddenly being awesome because we did see something similar last year.

Now that their playoff odds are about as high as me playing point guard for the Wolves, it’s all about McCarthy. If they make things interesting with the playoff race, that will be a very good sign. If they don’t, then at least get a sample size to be able to evaluate him for future decisions.

Substack user… Two questions: It’s it time for a change at Defensive Coordinator? How would you go about fixing this team in the off-season, Matt, if you had only three actions you could take to do so? (It seems painfully obvious to me that this is a lost season already.)

If things continue to go down this path and they finish with one of the worst defenses in the NFL, then they probably will have a new DC next year. There’s a long way to go before we get there.

As far as offseason fixes, it’s really hard to say right now. We don’t have the total picture on this team yet. The offseason is so painfully long in football that I really don’t want to start it on October 25th.

The short version to your answer is: Clear out as much of the old/expensive as possible, and spend in free agency again. What other option is there?

Dale S…Three (yes 3) questions: 1) Is this team as slow and soft as it appears to be? They get pushed all over the field most of the game, can’t create leverage, and then are constantly three steps behind any tight end receiver or running back running a go route or exploiting the holes in the middle. 2) When was the last time the O line ranked as at least average? I know Darrisaw and O’Neil, when healthy, are very good, but as a unit my mind’s eye tells me they have been below average for about ten years. Am I wrong? 3)Given the line is a mess and JJ is raw and has a tendency to hold the ball a bit too long, is this another potential lost year in his development? If he is getting crushed and pressured immediately every down what good is that going to do him?

1. Yes

2. They were an average O-line last year. Through the first 8 games, they were elite. Through the final 9 games, they were below average. It worked out to be average. In 2023, they were really good too. They ranked 2nd in pass blocking in ‘23. But since they lost Cousins, it didn’t matter. Overall, you’re not wrong about being mostly mediocre or bad for the last decade. I do think with four starters, they can be good.

3. Nah, if four starters are playing, we’ll get a good sample size on whether he can play or not. If he’s getting crushed immediately with Darrisaw and O’Neill in there, then it’s a JJ thing. As much as Kirk had some tough O-lines in the past, he still threw for 30 TDs and 4,000 yards pretty much every year. He should still be able to show the signs, even if there are issues. There isn’t a single team in the NFL that doesn’t have injuries or shortcomings on their line in 2025.

Anglo Vike… We know that KOC is good on developing schemes that get players open - problem being when to run these plays. Would he be better in letting the OC call those plays and leave KOC to provide the overall game management and time management.