Why Should Vikings Fans Care Kirk Cousins Feels Betrayed by Falcons?

Former Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is back in the spotlight with the recent release of Netflix’s “Quarterback” series, so FanSided’s Chris Schad decided to talk about some of the new drama that Kirko Chainz has created for the Atlanta Falcons.

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[Music] Oh my goodness. Welcome to the Viking Age podcast. It’s the official podcast of the Viking age.com. My name is Chris Shad. I write for fansighted andzone coverage and we do this right here on the Viking Age YouTube channel. We are also in podcast form on Apple and Spotify the very next day. But however you consume us, make sure you like, comment, share, subscribe, all the cool YouTube and Spotify things so you never miss an episode and we can spread the word to the masses. On today’s show, got to be honest with you, there’s not a lot going on. Uh we’re all waiting for the Vikings to descend upon Egan for uh training camp at TCO Performance Center. The Vikings, I can’t remember when they’ll report, but we’re about two weeks out. So, a lot of shows will go into lists and alltime teams and rankings and stuff. Um, you know, when Adam and I had more time over the summer, we would do the rewatchables thing. We’ve both been kind of bogged down and everything else, but we got our football fix this week and we got it in the form of Netflix’s docu series quarterback. Now, the Vikings have been heavily featured in these. Uh, of course, Kirk Cousins was in the first season of Quarterback. Justin Jefferson was in receiver, which was kind of the sister show for that. I can’t remember if there was a third one or I want to say there wasn’t one in there. I I I get it confused because George KD was in receiver and he’s technically a tight end, but they’re very formulaic like you know what’s going on. you’ve already seen the season and a lot of the times the behind the scenes stuff, you’re not learning a lot of new information and it’s not like some big revelation. So thankfully Vikings fans didn’t need to watch it this year, but I did because I live in South Dakota and I have nothing to do. And Kurt Cousins was featured again on the show. Terrific timing by the way considering uh he’s trying to force trade out out of Atlanta but they recorded him through the season and all that stuff and you know so he was featured with Jared Goff division rival also an interesting watch and Joe Burrow um between Goff and Burrow I don’t know I I thought they were kind of boring but that’s who they are like they they’re not somebody that they’re not and that’s kind of what I’m going to get into a little bit later on in the show when it comes to quarterback. But Kirk Cousins in his usual I didn’t mean to create a firestorm type of way uh made a comment and he made headlines earlier this week. And before we get too deep into this, I want to make a quick disclaimer. If you’ve followed me at all through the Homer Horn, through the Viking Age podcast, whatever you followed, first of all, thank you because I appreciate the support. But also, I’m just not a fan of Kirk Cousins. And I’ll tell you why as the show goes along. I’m going to do my best not to turn this into like a personal attack because when I was thinking about this, I had to stop myself and be like, “Okay, that’s too far. That’s too far. That’s too far.” Um, you know, it’s a you do you situation. Seems like an okay guy. He’s got great friends, a beautiful wife, great family, and a lot of money. Um, he is the American dream and if you were 10 years old in 2017, Kurt Cousins is the greatest Vikings quarterback to put on uniform in your lifetime. Now, did I say born in 2017? If you were about 10 years old, if I didn’t specify that, but like the newer wave of Vikings fans, the people that I see on Twitter right now and I usually fight. See, you can tell I’m a little old. I’m calling it Twitter, but the people that I see are like literally like, “Oh my god, Kurt Cousins, like he was so good and the Vikings will never uh will never get a quarterback like that and all that stuff.” It’s just kind of I don’t know. I I I mean, I totally get it because when I was a kid, the best quarterback that I had ever seen was Dante Co Pepper. And then, you know, you had 2009 Brett Favre, maybe 2017 Case Keenum. There’s like this hallowed hall of like random quarterback seasons. 1998 Randle Cunningham, which a lot of that was fueled by Randy Moss. But, you know, me, some old-timer might come up to me and say, “Hey, Fran Tarkin was the man.” I’d be like, “All right, cool.” But, I mean, to a lot of people, some people may think that letting Kirk Cousins go was the wrong move. And they saw this quote and they said, “Oh my god, he really likes us.” Um, but he didn’t. That’s That’s not what he said. And and it gets into my first talker of the day, which is Kirk Cousins said he was misled by the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 free agency. So, the quote, if you either don’t have Netflix or uh just didn’t watch the show, which I don’t blame you, uh he’s sitting in an aderonic chair in his perfectly landscaped lawn, sitting next to Julie, his wife, his kids are playing on the playground, and he says, “Certainly, if I had the information around free agency, it would have affected my decision. I had no reason to leave Minnesota with how much we loved it there. if both teams are going to be drafting a quarterback high. But I’ve also learned in 12 years in this league that you are not entitled to anything. It’s all about being able to earn your spot and prove yourself. So, if you need a quick refresher, the Atlanta Falcons signed Kirk Cousins to a 4-year, $180 million contract in the spring of 2024. It included a hund00 million guaranteed. A few weeks later, the Falcons go and they draft Michael Penn Jr. with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft. And they did not tell Kurt Cousins until uh Zack Robinson, who is the offensive coordinator of the Falcons, uh called him while he was on the clock, which looking back in hindsight is absolutely awful management by the Falcons to not have Raheem Morris call him, to not have Terry Fontineau call him, or even Arthur Blank who just wrote this massive chank chank check. to give him a call. So, in a way, yeah, sure, Kirk does feel a little slighted by this whole thing, and he should, but thank God for the Atlanta Falcons. And I’ll tell you why. Because this was a case of two desperate parties trying to outsmart themselves. two people who thought they were the smartest people in the room and they wound up just screwing each other over because in one corner you had Kirk Cousins, the head of the negotiating table. This guy has milked so much money out of his career for one that’s barely over 500. I think it’s about 12 or 13 games over 500 with a tie mixed in. And what one playoff win I is I I think it’s just one going off the top of the head there but $294 million in career earnings. So when he says I didn’t really have a reason to leave Minnesota. He actually had a hundred million of them and it just happened to be fully guaranteed. A lot of this stuff that’s going on with Kurt Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons right now is because he is all about the dollars which isn’t a bad thing. If you play football, make as much money as you can and get out. He has been in position. He’s been able to play for 11 or 12 years. He’s made a ton of money. He deserves that money for being, you know, what every franchise wants in their quarterback. 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns, not going to cause a lot of trouble. Seems like a worthy investment for most teams. And the Vikings gave him about $200 million uh over six seasons to do that. Okay. But also too, like the Falcons could have just spray painted a hundred million dollars on a, you know, cardboard box with a little stick on it, you know, like the old Elmer Fud cartoons and Kirk Cousins would have been crawling into it because remember when Kirk said, “It’s not about the dollars, it’s what the dollars represent.” And it sounded like a Wuang Clang lyric and everybody was like, “Oh man, he means business.” Then there were this other stuff about like he made it public that his uh he was planning a move and like all that stuff and whatever and you know the Falcons got him and they’re like you know what we we got this guy and one a couple of things could have happened once Kurt Cousins signed on the dotted line. Matthew Coller brought this up on his podcast so I’ll give him credit for the first scenario. Kurt Cousins maybe walked into the facility and he got checked out, got the physical and everything else and the Falcons said, “Oh no, this doesn’t look too this ankles, this Achilles is not looking good.” And Kurt Cousins admits throughout quarterback 2 that his ankle is not okay, but his Achilles is fine. It just so happens his ankle is like the closest thing to his Achilles. But don’t worry about it, guys. I’m fine. So, did the Falcons look at that and say, “Okay, we we need to cover our ass here because this isn’t this is a Carlos Koreah situation where he’s going to break down and we need to be prepared.” That could have happened and the Falcons could have just said, “Okay, we’re going to wait until the draft. We’re going to take if a quart the quarterback we like is there, we’re going to take him and we’ll take it.” Because I mean, you could walk into the draft and you could say, “Oh, Michael Penn, he was supposed to be projected as a second round pick.” Nobody knows what the hell is actually going on in an NFL draft. So, if Michael Penn goes five, six, one of those picks before Atlanta, maybe Atlanta says, “Eh, we’re not really into McCarthy or Bo Knicks. Let’s just, you know, we’ll ride with Kirk and we’ll see what happens next year and maybe two years down the road we’re drafting a quarterback.” All of those things could have happened, but there’s also the likelihood that the Falcons just outsmarted themselves. And that’s where this whole thing comes in because Arthur Blank is one of the few people on this planet, excuse me, contacts acting up. One of the few people on this planet that is just he’s taking the words just win one before I die. more seriously than Vikings fans. He’s 82 years old. The last time the Falcons were even close to a championship, they blew a 28 to3 lead in the Super Bowl. They pissed off Matt Ryan a couple years ago when they went after Deshun Watson. And he’s probably like, I I don’t want to do the Desmond Ritter thing or like quarterback of the future thing. Go get me Kirk Cousins. He’s reliable. He’s all the things that I mentioned before. Overpay him if you have to do it. Figure it out. and if your boss tells you to do something, you’re going to go ahead and do it. The only problem is if that wasn’t the case and Terry Fno was like, “All right, job’s on the line. Need to stabilize my job. Let’s get an answer in at the quarterback position and take a rookie quarterback.” He basically tried to eat his cake or have his cake and eat it too. bots to the line there. But that you get the point because rookie quarterbacks, you know, the whole rookie quarterback window, he took that thing and basically slammed it down on the back of his neck because rookie quarterbacks make less than a player than Kirk Cousins and people go, “Well, why does that matter?” Then you would just take a quarterback in the seventh round and stick him, you know, at the quarterback position like Brock Birdie, excuse me. So why why would you even invest any resources at the quarterback position because it hurts the rest of your roster? Well, if you find a guy on a rookie contract, it builds a window so you have wiggle room. You can add pieces around him. You can go spend in free agency. You can make some uh what do I want to say? YOLO moves or whatever. Like the Philadelphia Eagles, they had Jaylen Herds on a rookie contract for a while. They traded for AJ Brown. They spent a month some money in free agency to shore up their defense. They go to the Super Bowl, they lose to the Chiefs in a close game. Two years later, they win the Super Bowl. It’s that kind of mentality. That’s what the Vikings are trying to do right now with JJ McCarthy. McCarthy on his rookie contract. He’s going to go ahead. They loaded up the offensive line. They loaded up a lot of the pieces around him. and now he’s going to go ahead and take this thing over when the Vikings show up to camp in a couple of weeks. It it gives you a better chance to win when you have a more complete team around the quarterback unless you have an elite signal caller like Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady. Quacio Mensah said this in his interview with Jory Epstein a couple years ago like hey you know everybody wants to find Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady but it’s hard to find those guys. So do you just forge ahead with what you have? for a while. The Vikings had to do that and eventually they, you know, got rid of Kirk and they’re able to load things up around McCarthy. The Falcons are not in that position even though they have a quarterback on a rookie contract, Michael Penn, because last April in the draft, they had to trade up for a first round pick and select James Pierce Jr. to add with Jaylen Walker. Now, those two could pan out, but it reminds me of one of the my favorite articles I’ve ever written at zone coverage, which is Mike Zimmer needs a cigarette because it was basically Mike Zimmer sitting at a slot machine pulling the lever again and again, hoping that all five little slots, I don’t even know how many slots are on a slot machine, so maybe it’s three. I don’t I I don’t go to the casino often, but uh you know, he’s hoping all the little dials line up. They’re not even dials anymore. It’s an LED screen, so you get the idea. You pull the lever, all the dials line up, jackpot, we won the Super Bowl. That was basically the Viking strategy with Kirk Cousins, especially once they got into that second contract when guys like Stefon Dixs were getting paid, Adam Thielin was getting paid, Dvin Cook was getting paid. They were good at rewarding their players and their homegrown talents, but it didn’t match up with, okay, now we’re paying the quarterback. We have to hope that one of our eight day three picks hit or something like that. Again, it’s easier to hit when you’re launching chips into the first round of the draft, but the Falcons don’t have a first round pick because that trade for James Pierce Jr. So, that’s the type of things you have to do. And while the Falcons are doing this, while Kurt Cousins is locked in a broom closet somewhere hoping for a trade, um, the Vikings are sitting in the corner like Bugs Bunny munching a carrot, just laughing and enjoying life because they have the young quarterback and JJ McCarthy. They have resources to build around him and they get freed from what I would like to call the Kirk Cousins vortex. And this might be the part where it unintentionally gets personal. I I don’t want to do that. But the Kirk Cousins vortex is apparent throughout this documentary. And this is where the Vikings tied in. I’ve talked a lot about the Falcons. I’ve talked about a lot about Kirk Cousins. And some people out there might be saying, “Well, why are you still talking about Kurt Cousins? Kurt Cousins left and now it’s the that dude scarred six years of my life. it. I may not want to make it personal, but it is personal to me. It’s personal to every Viking fan who watched him. Well, I’m not going to call a timeout because Mike Zimmer calls the timeouts or well, Justin Jefferson’s double covered, so I’m just going to check it down to TJ Hawinson. This dude was coaching his son’s flag football team. And it was towards the end of the game. These kids are maybe six years old. And he goes to them and he goes, “All right, guys. the clock is running down. The clock is our friend. We don’t want them to get the ball back, which again, solid football play. But if I’m a If I’m coaching 60 year olds, I’m saying, “Guys, go have fun. Go have it’s it’s a youth football game.” Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve never coached a youth football team. I don’t think I have the patience to coach a youth football, and I never played football. I was always afraid about getting hurt. So, I guess that makes me less of a person, whatever. But um no, I I mean I would just let the kids play at that age and they can learn about clock management when they’re, you know, 12 or 13 years old. Maybe maybe the game has changed cuz I remember uh the lot a lot of the kids when I was a kid were like skating around in hockey and they wound up being the kids that played high school hockey when I was in high school. So, um, that’s just kind of a weird rant to go on, but but I mean, you get the idea. It’s just like he’s on alert at all times. He has to be perfect. He says in the documentary, you know, perfection’s unachievable, but yet he’s always chasing it. Excuse me again. This is what happens when I do a solo show. I get tickles and I have to take a quick break. Um, I also forgot my water bottle, so we’re we’re kind of up a creek here. But the Kirk Cousins vortex, I don’t think you could create a better quarterback if you used AI. Like, without the production and the playoff wins and all that stuff, but he’s a he’s a big Tom Petty lover. He’s a big Selen Deion lover for White Woman Wednesday. Uh, he gets his haircut at Great Clips. He actually gets a haircut there. Uh, and he very quickly got an endorsement with Great Clips, which hey, another bag. I wonder I hope that endorsement was fully guaranteed. Um, I don’t know, maybe Great Clips is into endorsing backup quarterbacks, but there’s that’s it. He enjoys Cookout, which is, I guess, a fast food chain down in the South. Uh, and he enjoys a good Roy Rogers, which I learned is, uh, Coke with Grenardine and a cherry on top. and uh his buddies actually came to visit him, which again I’m I’m not slam slamming them for coming down. I think it’s pretty cool to have friends that show up and support you. Uh but also too, when he got that Roy Rogers and was sipping on it after beating the Cowboys, it was it was an outof body experience for O’ Kirko. Uh let’s just say that like everything with him I I mean there first of all it just feels like it’s forced. Like I never feel like Kurt Cousins is himself. He tries to be and I think a lot of people have this flaw. He tries to be what people want him to be. So like in Minnesota, you know, he comes into Minnesota in 2018 and he defers to just about every leader on like, “Oh, they went to the NFC Championship game and you know, there’s all these leaders on this team.” Dude, they brought you in as the missing piece. You’re the guy that’s supposed to put them over the top. You are being paid to be a leader. And yet instead of, as the kids call it, it’s beta energy. It’s uh you’re not being an alpha here. You’re being Matt Baldy on the top line being created by Carel Capri off. Sorry, I had to get my wild dig of the episode in. But that that’s true. He’s a passenger. That is what he’ll always be. And there are times, too. We saw it here, the Denver comeback where he led that. The Indianapolis comeback. Uh that playoff game in New Orleans that won him about $200 million where he screamed, “You like that?” and had two good throws in overtime. Like he’s had his moments where he’s been the alpha and then he shrinks back down into a beta at the exact time that his team needs him. and and you saw that in Atlanta like game one has a tough time and again that’s another thing that’s unexpected or you know kind of expected like new environment Kurt Cousins creature of comfort like offense and code words and all this stuff and then you know he gets smoked by the Steelers next week he has the comeback against Philadelphia few weeks later a 500 yard game against Tampa and then you have like the clunker he had against LA and he says you Maybe he did get I mean he took a pretty good hit in that New Orleans loss, the one uh at the Superdome that kind of hurt him a little bit, but you look at a lot of those throws, it’s like, “Yeah, but Kirk, there’s like two or three guys around that receiver.” Like that’s also decision making. Like you may feel like you can force that ball in there, but it’s also like why are you throwing when there’s two or three white shirts or purple shirts or whatever color the Falcons aren’t that day? like why are you making these throws? And you know he’s calling Raheem Morris and leaving voicemails. He he’s you know it never feels like he’s himself like he’s wearing the oversized sweater and the stocking cap and everybody’s like yeah it’s for the culture. It’s like no no not really. He just wants people to like him. So he’s doing all these things. And I look at Goff and Burrow, and this gets me to my original point at the beginning of the show, and they they are who they are. Like Joe Burrow, he opens the show by playing the piano. Like, which is kind of cool. Like, you wouldn’t expect Joe Burrow, who looked like the coolest dude at LSU, he’s like, “Yeah, you know, I mean, you can only watch so many shows and read books, you know, I’m just uh playing some piano, chilling.” Jared Goff. It seems kind of weird, but like a normal dude. Like just h Yeah, you know, normal, like if you met him down the street, you’d probably be like, I don’t know if he plays football or not, but then like you see him play football and he’s like he’s pretty good. And I actually kind of like Darren Goff after a quarterback. I mean, it is what it and he’s got this weird I’ll talk about this in a second. He’s got he’s got this weird kind of vibe around him that just fits Detroit. I know he’s from California, but like he just seems like he fits in over there. Like Kirk just seemed square peg round hole in Minnesota and in Atlanta. Hell, even Washington if you want to go back that far. So, I mean, all of these clips reminded me of the quarterback Ken comment that I made a couple years ago where you can dress Kirk Cousins up. You can make him anything you want to be. just god forbid he takes a risk when you actually need it and he’s his own culture of fear at the quarterback position because he does so many things right but he does the critical things wrong and you’re just like well we we want to pay for that because the alternative is we get Christian Ponder or you know Teddy Bridgewwater’s leg explodes or whatever and I know I’ve spent about 30 minutes nearly speaking on Kirk Cousins but I mean watching the documentary, it just digs that stuff up and it makes you realize how much better of a situation the Vikings are in right now where they have the young quarterback, they have the roster, they are legitimate Super Bowl contenders going into 2025 and the Falcons are I don’t know, maybe we can make the playoffs for the first time in seven years. Like it it just seems and again everything could change. McCarthy could be trash. Somebody Justin Jefferson could tweak an ankle during training camp. Don’t want to put that out in the universe, but those are all things that could happen. But but it’s hilarious how this has played out. And to have him come out and say, “I was misled by the Falcons.” No, you jumped at the first opportunity. You saw $100 million on the table. So, I don’t feel sorry for you. I don’t miss you. And there are a lot of Vikings fans that feel the same way. So, there’s your quarterback update and there are my thoughts on uh Kurt Cousins’s comments about getting misled. So, after that 25m minute rant, let’s get back to something that affects the Vikings because this is the other thing I picked up on during quarterback 2021. The Minnesota Vikings go to the Detroit Lions and they play a typical December game between the two teams. Let’s put it that way. Because the Vikings were five and six trying to save Mike Zimmer’s job. The Lions were 010 and one. The whole biting kneecaps thing with Dan Campbell wasn’t really going too well. And the Vikings go ahead. They fall behind 20 to6 in that game. Then here comes old Kirk Cousins leading the rally. They take the lead on a touchdown to Jeff Dustin Jefferson with 150 to play. And then Jared Goff comes back and they lead a two-minute drill. He hits a Monro St. Brown because Cam Dancler is playing the back of the end zone for God knows what reason. And it’s 11 yard walk-off touchdown. Lions have the first win the Dan Campbell era and their first win of the season. So, a lot of Vikings fans, that’s probably a traumatic moment for them, but it also might have been the best world not only for the Lions who had some confidence, some faith, you know, things got off to a tough start the following year, then they go ahead on the long run at the end of the season and now they’ve been a Super Bowl contender for two years now. But it also turned out well for the Vikings because it might have been their signal like, “Hey, we should do something here because I think in the case of the Vikings, you know, if Cousins wins that game, you have to ask yourself like do people keep their jobs?” Because Mike Zimmer was fighting for his job, Rick Spielman was fighting for his job. There was a lot of fear at the time that the Wels were more connected with their uh soccer team in Orlando than they were with the franchise. And kind of Zimmer and Spielman did enough damage like a toddler in a basement alone with a box of crayons and a 2 liter of Mountain Dew like just big old mess, right? But I I mean there were other moments too where you kind of look at it and you go, “Huh?” You know, the Cooper Rush thing was embarrassing. So was the timeouts in that game. I mentioned that a little bit. Uh there were also moments where you’re like, “Oh, Cousin Cousins is getting it.” You know, I think there was a big touchdown against Green Bay that year. Uh where Zimmer is kind of like, “Dude, Kirk, do that. Be more aggressive.” And he’s like, “No, Notre Dame.” Like, and that sort of thing. The stuff I was talking about for the first 25 minutes of this podcast. But while Zimmer’s t culture was toxic, I I think that law, that win, if they had won that game and held on, that would have given them some confidence, maybe they win another game or two. Um, honestly, if they win that game in general, they’re a 9 and8 team that year. So, do they pull out another game down the stretch? Are they a 10- win team? Do they make the playoffs? Do we do another year of this whole, you know, let’s save our jobs, let’s take 10 people in the seventh round of the draft type thing with Rick Spielman. Like remember Zimmer did a PowerPoint after that game where he basically said everything since I was hired in 2014 was not my fault. And people kind of checked out after that and that was it. Simmer and Spielman got fired. Quaces Adulensa and Kevin Okonnell come in. Okonnell gets the best out of Cousins for a few years. Adolf Mensah strips down the roster without anybody really noticing and builds it around, you know, his plan to get a new quarterback, whether it’s Sam Darnold, JJ McCarthy, whoever. And, you know, the the rest is history as far as where we’re at right now. Like I don’t think you go 14 and three without with Kirk Cousins last year. Mainly because the money doesn’t add up. The money that you saved by letting Kirk walk and I think there was oh how much a lot of dead money on Kirk Cousins contract when he walked away. But you used a lot of that money to bring in Aaron Jones and Blake Cashman and Andrew Van Ginko who are all big time pieces. Um, there’s somebody else big I’m forgetting as far I mean Stefon Gilmore. You could throw him into that category. Somebody else too, but I just can’t remember. There was another big I think I said Aaron Jones. Maybe I got all of them. But, um, you know, the the money just doesn’t add up to build a contender around Kurt Cousins last year. So, I I think that helps everything out. And then you look at, you know, what if McCarthy pans out? Like we’ll look at Quesy and KC getting hired as the turning point, but it’s one of those moments where it’s just like I just want to break the cycle. I want to get out of the Kirk Cousins vortex. And when you look at the Lions, I mean, that win gave them something they wanted because the coolest thing I thought about the Lions was, you know, they have like the origin stories of all the quarterbacks. So, they talk about Joe Burrow growing up and Kurt Cousins and his career so far. And they talked to Jared Goff and he was talking about his time with the Rams and how it came to an end. and kind of felt like uh the toy in Toy Story meme, you know, where they’re saying, “I don’t want to play with you anymore.” It was Sean McVey tossing Jared Goff to the ground. And uh the next thing he knows, there’s this random number trying to call him and he’s just like, “I don’t know who this is.” He’s like declining it. And uh his agent calls, he’s like, “Dude, that’s Brad Holmes. Pick up the phone. Like, what are you doing?” So he calls and Brad Holmes’s like, “Dude, we’re so happy. We can’t believe you got here. We’re excited to have you here.” Uh, you know, it’s going to be great. You know, Dan Campbell called him and, um, I always just laugh thinking about, you know, Dan Campbell’s voice on the end. Oh, dude, this is gonna be awesome. We’re going to be we’re going to listen to Talico. We’re going to slam coffees. It’s gonna be great, man. We’re excited to have you. Um, you know, stuff like that. And as a Vikings fan, you’re probably going like, well, why why are you, you know, why are you talking about that? Well, well, you just see how other teams operate. Again, full disclosure, I write VI or Lion stuff. So, like this this stuff pops into my head when I watch quarterback and and I mean, you get to see, you know, Ben Johnson at work, who is now the head coach of the Chicago Bears and who we’ll see in week one, and how he operates during a game. Uh the game where they played the Vikings at US Bank Stadium last October, Vikings raced out to a 10- nothing lead. I was there. The crowd was insane and Ben Johnson just walks up to Jared Goff and go, “Okay, yeah, yeah, they’re coming off by. They’re charged up. Everybody’s jacked. Like, we got this. Don’t worry about it.” And maybe when you’re working with Jared Goff and you know, somebody with the mental even keeledness of Jared Goff compared to say Caleb Williams, it’s a little bit different. But I I think you know that fact that Goff was rejected and he landed in Detroit that connected with their fans because Detroit is clown constantly. Like I don’t know what deal with the devil they have made for their success over the past two years. Uh both when it comes to the Lions and the Tigers who are just a vibe this summer. Um but but they’re on one. They’re on a heater and you know they love Jared Goff obviously they’re chanting his name all the time but but I mean he he feels like a guy that fits in with a city like Detroit. He’s from California but he feels bluecollar. Um he feels very chill, maybe even a little welcoming, that sort of thing. And I think that fits in very well with Detroit who they’re very prideful of their city. If you say anything bad about them, they’re going to tear you down. Um, go see Sophie Cunningham’s mentions lately if you don’t believe me. You know, Matthew Stafford, I I’m not sure. I don’t know enough about the situation where maybe Stafford wasn’t as Mr. Detroit as I think he was, but I know his like Lions fans do not like his wife Kelly because she said a bunch of mean things about Detroit and they, you know, nobody talks about my city that way. That’s kind of how Detroit fans operate. So, I don’t know. I I think that win because if Jared Goff loses and I’m trying to think, too. So, that would have been 2021. So, it would have been the 2022 draft because I I do think I remember people were like they should take Malik Willis at two and that would have been a terrible decision. So, maybe Dared Goff does get another year, maybe two. Who is number one in 2023? I’m trying to think. I gotta look this up. This is where I’m a little bit uh disheveled. And hopefully you like these solo episodes, too. Like I I do like just kind of talking and ranting into the void. So, um if you don’t like them and like, “Hey, you’re way too choppy or whatever,” give me some feedback in the comments. We We’d love to hear from you. So, 2023 draft, Bryce Young went number one overall and then CJ Strad went number two overall. Uh Anthony Richardson at four. That’s a landmine. And then you have to go That’s right. You have to go all the way down to pick. Swear to God, I’m missing this here. Where’s Will Levis? 33rd overall. Will Levvice to the Tennessee Titans. So, those were your top quarterbacks in that draft. Not uh not ideal. He also could have took Brock Perie in 2022, but I I think that bought Goff time. Uh because I I think that kind of instilled some confidence and didn’t show up right away. I mean, the Lions had a rough start to the 2022 season before they got going, but I I think he’s a perfect fit in Detroit after watching quarterback. Um I’m interested to see how this works without Johnson at the controls. Um but I don’t know. I there Jared Goff gave me no reason to hate him. Let’s put it that way. I that’s what I feel about. Like Aaron Rogers, there’s plenty of reasons to hate Aaron Rogers, but Garrett Goff, it’s like all right, he’s your quarterback. Seems like a cool dude. I mean, he’s not doing anything to piss me off except for throw touchdowns on Sunday, so uh whatever. But I mean, it’s just one of those weird butterfly effects you think of this time of year. Like uh I’ve been writing a lot of stories where it’s like where the Vikings took Javon Kur, would they have had a Super Bowl window? Like would they have buffed up their defense? I mean, they wouldn’t have Dante Co Pepper, but it’s something to think about. Um you know what if Dennis Green never calls Randall Cunningham in 1997 and then you know 1998 is he fired? Does Randy Moss never show up? Like it’s just one of those weird things you think about. St. Brown drops the pass or whatever. Like does he figure it out at some point? I think he has the confidence that he would have. But also, do the Lions ever, you know, find their footing at some point? Do the Vikings get a, you know, second win and they go to the playoffs and they I don’t know, maybe they even win a playoff game. Who knows? I don’t think that team was good enough to win a playoff game, but it had its moments. So, does, you know, Zimmer and Spiel keep their jobs? And is this whole thing with JJ McCarthy, does it ever happen? Do they fire do they hire a different guy? Like, it’s I I’m probably rambling here, but I mean, these are just the kinds of things you think of when you see other things. So, there’s always an angle that you can find with another team. Um, I don’t know. Like, like I said, quarterback these behind the scenes shows have these very form for formulaic um approaches to them. Like I I’m not a big Hard Knocks guy. I know a lot of people love it, but I mean it just feels like it’s the same thing every year. They never really show you like the really good stuff, so it’s kind of like eh. Um, I also, you know, quarterback’s kind of interesting, but I always stall out in the final episodes. I’m at episode five right now. So, I or I completed it this morning, so I have three more to go. I’m just before uh the Falcons played the Vikings, and that was kind of the beginning of the end for Kirk. So, I’m interested in seeing that episode. But, um, yeah, I I mean, if you’re looking for football content, you can check it out. It’s on Netflix and uh you can make your own opinions about Kirk Cousins because it’s certainly entertaining with him. I will say that much with it. But hopefully in two weeks uh we won’t worry about Kirk Cousins and we’ll be talking about the Vikings and how they can go to the Super Bowl and all that stuff. But in the meantime, you can go check out the vikingage.com. We got all the news, some opinions, some stuff to tide you over until we get to camp. Uh I’ll be going on vacation next week. I’m gonna try and get a podcast out for you guys, but um we’ll see how that goes. But, uh if I don’t, you should go check the writers out over there because they do a great job. They they find connections kind of like I did with other teams and kind of, you know, it’s your way to keep an eye on it. And you can also do it through the fan-sighted regional network, which is something that I write for. Um we do three NFC North related uh teams. So, we got Dairland Express, which covers the Packers. We got Dwindi City, which covers the Chicago Bears. And then we got Detroit jock city, which covers the Lions. So, um, if you ever see one of my stories there, just just know I’m writing for a different audience. I some of the stuff, yeah, it’s devil’s advocate really. When you think about it with the Vikings, it’s, you know, what would another team see and think about? And you know, it might not be my a opinion, but it’s also like, hey, I can see this from your end. So, um, go check that out. We we got a lot of talented writers and we do a great job over there. Um, if you’re looking for more Viking specific stuff from me. I write over at zone coverage. I got my story about Kirk Cousins. Probably going to write about the uh Lions Vikings, that touchdown, and uh, see where that’s going there. And then also, I write about the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Wild. So, if you like middle teams with uh no chance of winning a title, uh you are covered there as well. But of course, this is the Viking Age podcast. It’s the official podcast of Vikingage.com. I am Chris Shad at the real Chris Shad and we do this every week right here on the Viking Age YouTube channel. We’re in podcast form on Apple and Spotify the very next day. But however you consume us, make sure you like, comment, share, and subscribe so you never miss a new episode and we can keep growing uh our community. We’re up to, I believe, 1.6. I part of me says that’s a little high. It might be 1.3. We got a lot of subscribers now, which is awesome. So hopefully you’re enjoying this. Hopefully you’re enjoying uh the guests that we get on. I’ll try and get some more here as the season comes closer. But I am Chris Chad signing off and this has been the Viking Age podcast.