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00:01someone who knows those in the hunt years in western new york very well is our guest on the
00:06western hotline matthew collar proprietor of purpleinsider.com matthew is kind enough to
00:12have me on his podcast weekly through the season to talk fantasy football so i thought matt we
00:17would just do that to warm up that sounds like a great idea actually when um you know the in
00:23the
00:23hunt graphic pops up like that's one of my favorite insults for a team is like oh yeah well
00:29they'll be uh in the in the hunt graphic on thanksgiving and you know we'll just we'll be
00:34able to dismiss them by then because they'll be like the last team in the hunt i think the vikings
00:38last year were four and seven and they were still getting the in the hunt graphic and it was like
00:44boy if i mean that would be a heck of a hunt if they were able to somehow find a
00:49way to make the
00:49playoffs exactly i'm the 11th best team in the afc i don't want to be on the screen i want
00:56to have
00:56some pride just take take me off of there all minnesota did by the way to that example
01:01is basically went out right uh yeah they well they went uh four and eight to start the season
01:08and then they were officially eliminated and then they were after so they couldn't even be in the
01:12hunt and then after they were out of the hunt then they won five games in a row but it
01:17was uh you
01:18know not the most impressive stretch of wins they faced i think the three worst defenses in the nfl and
01:25then if anybody can name who started for the packers in week 18 at quarterback against the
01:31minnesota vikings i'll buy you a tim horton's cup of coffee any guesses no i'm just going to pass on
01:38this one this is good tell me clayton toon was the starting quarterback yeah so you know it was it
01:45actually reminded me of that time when doug marone got to i think it was eight and eight or something
01:50and
01:50it was a meaningless game and the patriots weren't playing brady and then he acted like that was a
01:56huge victory for them and then he quit yeah and then he quit yeah they were eight and seven he
02:01wanted the winning record for his resume he knew he knew he was going to quit right so probably because
02:05uh an am radio station made fun of him too much i'm not sure it could that's one theory that's
02:10one
02:10theory well matthew it's great to talk to you again and here the bills headed for cleveland tomorrow
02:16for joint practices you've been around these are you a fan of the joint practice uh i know
02:22who is a fan is coaches are a huge fan of the joint practices i mean i think that it's
02:27fun uh to see
02:29like lamar jackson is coming here tomorrow to practice against the vikings and that is super cool i got to
02:36see i was in the great borea ohio uh two years ago and got to see miles garrett and christian
02:44derisov from like 40 feet away and that's insane so being able to see that uh versus just kind of
02:51the same practices over and over again there's way more juice there's way more energy a little
02:56pushing and shoving goes on but the guys are really like really playing and also with the death of the
03:02preseason where my gosh i would have rather been doing anything than watching the preseason game the
03:08vikings played in the other day my eyes were bleeding like in comparison like this looks like the
03:13first quarter of preseason games used to look when they do these joint practices i just wish that
03:18more fans could see them because you know in cleveland i don't even remember if it was open
03:23to fans for the vikings maybe 2 000 people get to show up i wish they would do these in
03:28stadiums and
03:29put them on tv and everything else because they are way more entertaining than any preseason game that's
03:34going to happen i was talking to sal capaccio earlier and he's like one thing that coaches love
03:39about these practices is they can set up situations i'm like well sal if you tried hard enough you
03:46could do that in games too right i take the kickoff the landing zone whatever i'm at my 30 and
03:53we just
03:53want to work on red zone so you're going to let me walk down the field 50 yards and i'll
03:57just take a
03:58knee and then we'll just go from there what do you think uh so there you you cover all of
04:03it you have
04:03the fans there they can see the situations it's controlled in a certain way but uh no it's
04:09ridiculous because we want to bet on these games that's what matters most we can't bet on games like
04:12that right matt that would be that would kind of be like the pro bowl or something and by the
04:17end
04:18we'd be like uh can we see if we can toss the center the football and see if he runs
04:22around and
04:23you know whatever yeah i mean it really does feel like essentially a ufl game with the vikings clothes
04:31on uh because you get to the third and fourth guys so fast and i know there were a lot
04:36of people
04:36leading up to this last preseason game who were like let's see if jj mccarthy has taken the next
04:41step and then he threw seven passes and like four of them were bad it was like what am i
04:47supposed to
04:47do with this am i supposed to rip the quarterback to shreds four passes like i i don't know with
04:54the
04:54backup team and you know it's it is unfortunate i don't really want an 18th game because i think that
05:00nfl players strain on their bodies is already absolutely insane but i mean they could chop
05:06this one down in the preseason by another game if they wanted to you're going to get that 18th game
05:11whether you like it or not i mean it's inevitable which by the way is what roger goodell called
05:17international a team playing uh like stationed somewhere outside the united states in the future
05:22of the national football league inevitable really that's not the word for it really it's up to you
05:27isn't it it's up to it's it's this is within your control or the owner's control whether that's
05:32going to happen it's not like it's sort of natural law that there be a team in paris in five
05:37years
05:37matt uh the ravens coming in that's a lot of purple i mean that's right up your alley purple insider
05:42you're gonna have to have uh your all your purpleness on point here this week apparently yeah i never
05:49thought oh the intro was perfect with bulldog talking about being purple but i you know i never thought
05:54that i would need maybe like another person to cover the other purple um it is you know it is
05:59going to be really interesting though because we saw kyler murray throw maybe three passes in the
06:04preseason game and hand off and hand off and hand off and then they basically talked about i'm not even
06:10joking like having him just put on the jersey and the helmet and like walk out there and that was
06:16that's
06:16about as much as they could get out of it so this we get our first real look at him
06:20practicing
06:21against another defense and the defense is run by a new head coach in jesse minter with the ravens
06:27which i think is a fascinating dynamic there where i think that it had probably gotten a little bit
06:32stale and their defense last year was nowhere near what we usually expect it to be with the ravens
06:37so their folks are kind of coming in looking for how does this defense perform against justin
06:42jefferson and jordan addison we're kind of looking for does kyler murray look comfortable and so far in
06:48training camp i think that he's looked about as good as he possibly could have coming to a new
06:53offense and performing with justin jefferson but it is a little bit different when you're going
06:58against the defense that you don't know and we did find out last year that there was uh some game
07:04planning that went on between the vikings and the patriots in the joint practices which is may may have
07:10impacted the results a little bit so i guess we'll have to get the scoop on whether they've been
07:15forming a game plan for this one for kyler murray or not that'll be your job matthew collar purple
07:21insider uh proud i want to say hopefully wgr alum i'm mike show bulldog is off this week so let's
07:29i
07:29want to ask you about like anybody would uh with murray just sort of how the timeline played out
07:35there because it felt like maybe five minutes between yeah we don't know if what's what we're
07:41going to do nobody's really showing all that much to okay he's the starter is that just sort of like
07:49the media machine doing its thing and working on me and i might have misread that because there really
07:54shouldn't have been that much indecision right before they announced it what do you think is
07:59really what happened yeah i mean so for me what i did i tried to come up with a system
08:05to track
08:06every pass so we could more objectively decide on how the guys perform which is of course i'm sure
08:12sal would tell you completely ludicrous because we have no idea what they're trying to accomplish on a
08:17given play but we can see the results from the media tent so uh and just by the tracking of
08:24the actual
08:24success of the passes it really wasn't a close competition and it wasn't close the entire time
08:29um but murray at right before they made the decision had probably his two worst practices
08:35and so i think that combined with the um i don't even know what to call it absurd love for
08:41jj mccarthy
08:42that exists in this universe i've never seen a quarterback play so badly and be so beloved i mean
08:49i know that every quarterback has his group of people that'll defend him to the the end of days or
08:54whatever but for a quarterback to not really be very good in college then not be any good at all
08:59in the nfl and have people still like faking that he's performing well in practice which i just thought
09:07it was no different really at all the inaccuracies the slow processing all that stuff still existed
09:13and kyler came in and looked like a pro quarterback from day one got rid of the ball quickly completed
09:18a
09:18lot of passes didn't make a whole lot of mistakes and it was like yeah okay that's what it's supposed
09:23to
09:23look like um and then i mean there was more of a question for us the people who watched every
09:28single practice of why did it even go on as long as it did when it was obvious that mccarthy
09:33was not
09:34taking huge steps forward um and then you know the decisions made in the outside world i see like nfl
09:40network guy being like how dare they do it you know call it this soon like huh what uh okay
09:47sure i mean
09:48look i i think that it was reasonable for o'connell to want to see did my 10th overall draft
09:53pick from
09:54two years ago take a big step forward because if he did that would be awesome but it would have
09:59had
09:59to have been an enormous step forward in order to beat out a guy who's thrown i don't know 3
10:05000 nfl
10:06passes he's taken a team to the playoffs at one point in 2021 arizona is 10 and 2 right so
10:12it's like
10:12this guy has won in the nfl before and i know there are questions about him but this is a
10:17much
10:17better organization than arizona so i mean i think that murray has looked the part but i also get why
10:23o'connell would want to say to kyler murray if part of your reputation from the past is maybe you
10:29don't
10:29study the hardest then i'm going to put you in a competitive environment and kind of force that
10:34a little bit maybe that's too big of coach brain but that was kind of the idea that i got
10:39but i didn't
10:40think there was ever really a chance that mccarthy would be better than this guy who's performed at a
10:45high level before and was the number one overall draft pick once upon a time fair enough i have one
10:50more question on murray but what bottom line matthew was the mistake on mccarthy was it just the
10:57ever-present franchise quarterback thirst that teams you know teams drafting as early as minnesota
11:05then it's not like minnesota has been well the cardinals or one of these teams that's drafting
11:09top five all the time but still like there's always that you need one then you draft one no
11:15matter who he is almost that's not really bright but you know what i mean no that is no that's
11:19right
11:20you know you're right that's what is that what happened were they just sort of okay well we need
11:25somebody so did they just sort of trick themselves into thinking that he was good or what well i think
11:31uh
11:31two things happened there number one shout out to the buffalo savers uh the vikings didn't tank
11:36in 2023 when they knew caleb williams drake may and jaden daniels were going to be in the draft
11:42and they lost kirk cousins halfway through the season if they had lost all the rest of the games
11:47after kirk got hurt they would have drafted drake may and i would have been talking to you about the
11:52super bowl champion minnesota vikings so that didn't happen and they end up drafting 10th instead
11:57because they had to win a couple games with josh dobbs for some reason and they came down to two
12:03quarterbacks it was either the younger quarterback with better tools which is j.j mccarthy his arm
12:09strength is outstanding he's a great athlete or bo nix who was more of a finished product coming out
12:15at 24 or 25 years old and it was just one or the other and they obviously they picked wrong
12:20but
12:20they decided we're going to bring him in we're going to develop him for a year and then you know
12:26we're
12:26going to transfer over him to be the starting quarterback we'll just have this transition
12:30year with sam darnold and in 2024 training camp he absolutely looked the part we saw all the tools
12:36all the skills he was in a good place with his development and everything else and then he got
12:41hurt so they had to kind of make a bet on where he was halfway through 2024 training camp and
12:46they
12:47bet completely wrong and i think the biggest thing was they believed in themselves way too much
12:53um that they thought they were the reason that sam darnold had all of his success turns out that
12:59they were not the entire reason that sam darnold had his success so they thought we'll just do it again
13:04with j.j mccarthy but the problem was he was too immature to handle the pressure he was way too
13:11inexperienced as a guy who only threw 700 college passes was only 22 years old when they were trying
13:17to have him take over and he also can't throw the ball accurately which last time i checked is a
13:23pretty big issue uh and if the only example you have of a guy turning around accuracy from college
13:29to the nfl is that six foot six monster that you guys have well that's not great to compare to
13:37a
13:3710th overall draft pick who his tools are good but they're nowhere near what josh allen's are so you
13:43know i think it was a lot of maybe um just yeah belief belief in themselves is probably the the
13:49overarching theme there they wanted to be able to build the strongest team around them they thought
13:54they couldn't do it if they re-signed sam darnold uh and they forgot the most important part that
13:59quarterback um you know that's going to drive your success or failure well i respect it at least to
14:05a point because dobbs and um mullins right another one it it kind of made the it gave you the
14:15impression
14:15that it didn't matter so much who the quarterback was which is a dangerous slope right there but i know
14:22from playing fantasy when it came to justin jefferson i didn't think there was any way it could fail and
14:29then it did so i mean it's sort of uh human nature for them to maybe feel like they could
14:35just
14:35overcome any sort of struggles the bills are in minnesota monday night week nine that i think is
14:42november 9th and uh you've told me that'll be like a real circle that game on the viking schedule
14:48the bills interestingly have five nfc games as you know of course but they're all at night all four
14:56games against the nfc north and then their extra nfc game if you will at the rams is also on
15:01a
15:01monday night bills and vikings in week nine um on on murray matthew just quickly i need him to run
15:09if
15:09he's going to pay off in fantasy is he going to run i think so uh because i think that
15:15he just runs
15:16no matter what uh i know that throughout training camp your main idea is for him not to run so
15:23there's
15:23a lot of probably even negative plays that fans have seen the stands or us where there's absolutely
15:29no way he would actually throw the football he would have just scrambled but i will say i looked
15:34this up on uh true media is like this huge data the resource uh he had the fastest speed leaving
15:41the
15:41line of scrimmage of any quarterback in the nfl in 2024 and a couple of times where we have seen
15:47him
15:47take off it's insane yeah i did the speed that he still has so i don't think that that has
15:53dropped
15:53off at all i don't think his play style has dropped off and the biggest thing with him that's always
15:58an
15:58issue with the height is that he can't always see the field and that's how he's always made up the
16:04difference with the scrambling so i think that's going to be there and i would also think that for
16:08your fantasy purposes his connection with justin jefferson is going to be huge which we have seen
16:14in spades during training camp that's probably the part that won him the job as easily in my
16:20opinion as it did it was like once he started hitting four or five passes to jefferson a day
16:24on the mark it was like okay well we don't we don't need to see much more than this since
16:29jj
16:29mccarthy threw it 50 miles over jefferson and hit the guy selling popcorn in the stands a bunch of times
16:36last year so uh i i do think that everything is sort of clicked in for murray to look like
16:41he could be
16:42a quality starting quarterback for this team it's just you know it's got to stay healthy it's got to
16:47happen they got to protect him all that sort of stuff but he's going to make plays i have no
16:50doubt
16:51about that well i love how this sounds my only question after whether he's going to run i mean
16:56you can see kyler murray in those fast feet getting out of the pocket and finding some open field in
17:01his
17:01cardinals days is like when i when i think of jefferson i mean he's as good as there is when
17:08i think of
17:08jefferson what's the play that comes to your mind's eye it's like a 15 to 20 yard crossing route and
17:15he
17:15he separated or he wins a contested catch and you know maybe there's not a flaw in his game at
17:21all
17:21but that's the play in my mind and that's the play that murray it gets criticized for not being able
17:26to
17:26make is the play over the middle because of his height and so i hope you're right i mean i
17:31want there
17:32to be that fit because i mean we know how good they both can be numbers wise um at their
17:37best but
17:38i got to see murray work in the way that jefferson works best or are they just going to is
17:45jefferson
17:45so good matthew that it's just going to be a different looking route tree for him or something
17:51well i think it's a little bit of both um because they have been working a ton on that exact
17:56throw that
17:56you're talking about they hit one yesterday it's been pretty regularly a completion for them of course
18:01that's not with real defense and real pressure and all those things um so but he has been able to
18:07throw it and that's the thing is when he does throw it his numbers are pretty good he just doesn't
18:12throw
18:12it enough um also justin jefferson didn't play for the arizona cardinals so it's hard to you know make
18:18that but we've also seen a lot i think of emphasis on the quick game because he was one of
18:24the most
18:24accurate quarterbacks in the nfl in his career on throws that don't go you know nine yards which i think
18:30i always took for granted and after watching last year with jj mccarthy i will never again
18:36take for granted how hard it is to execute those quick game things but we've seen a lot of
18:42like jefferson seven yard outs where it's just perfect timing with murray takes the snap one step
18:47back and bang hits that type of play we've seen some more slants which i know o'connell has never
18:52really been a huge fan of so i think that there's been this to talk about o'connell can he
18:57really adjust
18:58his offense and so forth i think we've seen a lot of it so far and it will come down
19:03to the you know
19:04whether he can execute it but i do think that o'connell's doing a lot to deal with the fact
19:08that murray obviously is not the tallest guy in the world last thing we are drafting jordan mason
19:13out here on the presumption that he's going to be the most productive vikings running back
19:19uh would you make that prediction i would yes i think mason has looked great in camp i actually think
19:26he looked great last year he averaged almost five yards a carry um the only thing is that they
19:31really really really trust aaron jones in pass protection and they really trust him to catch
19:37the football so is it going to be a 50 50 split until i don't know aaron jones gets banged
19:43up or
19:43something but i think mason the way he runs the football and if he can even just catch swing passes
19:48i think he looks like an rb1 to me that should get support from aaron jones um but i'm not
19:54sure
19:54because you know coaches can be this way where it's going to be the guy you trust so if mason
19:59makes one mistake in pass protection it's like i'll get aaron jones back out there uh that kind
20:04of happened a number of times last year but i mean i do think mason has the juice and they
20:09have put
20:09more emphasis into the run game they drafted a fullback they have built up their you know tight
20:15ends to have a blocking group they have uh added a guy from miami as a coordinator to come in
20:22and work
20:22on the run game like they've done a lot here they are aware that if you try to make kyler
20:26murray throw
20:27you know 700 passes that it's not going to work out that great for you so i think the run
20:31game will
20:32be emphasized more than ever which should be on the shoulders of jordan mason well you just saw one
20:36point you just made in that game you saw between the giants and vikings where tyrone tracy might have
20:42missed the block i mean there was some sort of mix up and two days later they're signing naji harris
20:47like yeah yeah right you're gonna get our quarterback hit we're gonna do something else
20:51and that's on a lot of these running backs james cook even you can lead the lead in legal lead
20:56the
20:56league in rushing thank you and still really not get that kind of trust from coaches to play on third
21:03down all right matt it's been a pleasure and um we'll talk on your podcast soon i guess right it's
21:09coming absolutely fantasy i mean we should probably get going it's uh it's fantasy drafting season
21:14i'm on tonight i've got another radio spot tomorrow night we're gonna do thursdays this year we got
21:21to get into that thursday groove where we've got you know games that night so we can talk about
21:26you know over-unders and different things can't wait for all of it thanks for joining me today
21:30yep thanks for having me man matthew coller purple insider jeremy fowler of espn reports that the bills
21:36are signing veteran defensive tackle greg gains formerly with the rams and more recently with
21:43tampa bay um no more details to my knowledge yet but i was busy i was talking to matt you
21:49heard it
21:49we'll we'll see uh what else comes along guys that are free agents right now and the bills from 2025
21:56have a pile of them you know they're just kind of hoping the phone rings and i don't want to
22:01get too
22:02excited it's interesting what it might say about the team's feelings about maybe injuries or its uh
22:08relative weaknesses 8030550 if you want to join me another new crowd of people saw the stadium today
22:16for the first time i'm always eager to hear those sort of first impressions from the new place i'm mike
22:22i'm mike show
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