#607: Aaron Rodgers WANTS TO PLAY for Minnesota Vikings, Vikings ELITE NFL Free Agency | NFL

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome into the show today. Wow, what a day if
you are a Minnesota Vikings fan, because yesterday's free agency
was one of the most exciting days in the offseason
for the Minnesota Vikings since two thousand and nine, when

(00:31):
Brett Favre signed with the Vikings and agreed to come
back again to the NFL and play against the Green
Bay Packers. Now he's advising Aaron Rodgers to sign with
the Vikings organization. Went on Fox News on a Will

(00:54):
Caine Show the other day and basically said, the Vikings
have a good football team. Why wouldn't you want to
sign with them? And there's a lot of factors into
this Aaron Rodgers situation, because how interested are the Vikings

(01:17):
in signing Rogers as a backup quarterback potentially to JJ McCarthy.
How interested are the Vikings in having Rogers and McCarthy
compete for a QB spot.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
With JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think it's too easy to say, well, it's too
big of a distraction. You're just gonna throw off the organization.
It's just too much because Brett Farre would have been
too much in two thousand and nine. Think about what
Brett Favre maybe the scandal with the Jets and the

(02:03):
reporter didn't come out until twenty ten. But farv retiring
on retiring, retiring, and unretiring and then facing the Green
Bay Packers twice during his redemption tour, that was the
top ESPN headline. There were literally helicopters following Brett Farr's
car to Winter Park. Shout out Adam Pubick for seeing

(02:26):
Brett Farvre's car drive into Aiden Prairie Aden Park the
good old days. So I get that Rogers might be
over the hill and that he does come with some
sort of distraction and publicity and all that stuff. And

(02:51):
the Jets were a terrible organization last year, could hardly
win any games. But Aaron Rodgers still threw for twenty
eight touchdowns and eleven interceptions with one of the worst
NFL organizations. And this is pure speculation, But the reason

(03:19):
why Aaron Rodgers has not signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers
or the New York Giants yet is because I believe
he wants to be a part of the Vikings organization.
For multiple reasons. One, if you go to Pittsburgh, the Ravens,

(03:40):
the Bengals, the Browns, it's a pretty darn good division.
And Pittsburgh they got some decent receivers that they got Pickings,
they got Metcalf, they got a good defense. The Giants
they go into a division with the Commanders and Eagles,
both in the NFC Championship Game. The Giants are almost

(04:01):
as close to a dumpster fire as the New York
Jets are. Then you think about Minnesota. You've got a
quarterbacks coach who loves to throw the ball, You've got
Aaron Jones, you got the wide receiver car that we're
all familiar with, and you've got a rising defense. And yes,

(04:24):
the Vikings do play in one of the toughest divisions
as well, but you compare roster to roster, and the
Vikings clearly have the best opportunity to succeed offensively. Plus
he can needle the Packers twice. He who wouldn't want

(04:46):
to do that. That's why farv came to Minnesota, and
I'm sure that's why Aaron Rodgers wants to play in Minnesota.
So I don't know what that looks like from the
Viking standpoint, Because they lost Daniel Jones to Indianapolis, they

(05:07):
lost Nick Mullins to Jacksonville, they've got Brett Rippin and J. J.
McCarthy on their roster in that quarterback room right now,
you've got to bring somebody else in. Whether that's Gardner
Minshew as a backup option that's a good option, whether
that's Aaron Rodgers as a backup option, or somebody else.

(05:30):
You cannot enter the NFL season with McCarthy and Rippin
as your one, A and two be options. There's got
to be someone else. And is that guy Aaron Rodgers.
From Rogers's standpoint, the answer is yes. The question that

(05:52):
the Vikings need to answer is is Rogers's presence in
the Vikings locker room going to be too distracting?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Is it going to be.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Helpful in the growth of McCarthy or is he going
to put a damper on things. Now, there's one reporter
that has dominated everything, and it's not an Ian Rapaport.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
It's not Tom Pelo Sorrow, it's not Adam Schefter.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
The one guy that has had everything down to the
t correct has been crack Rock. At crack Rock on
Twitter at c R A K R O K. He said,

(06:55):
Darnold will not be back. McCarthy is not going to
be traded. Those are clickbait stories, and he also mentioned
that the Vikings are not interested in Aaron Rodgers. Says,
stop the madness. Aaron Rodgers is not coming to Minnesota period.

(07:18):
Why are people so naive to believe such an utter nonsense?
I told everyone months ago what was happening. Now, eat
a reality sandwich and embrace JJ McCarthy. I repeat, Aaron
Rodgers will not be a Viking. He said that on
March eighth, two days before the legal tampering period opened.

(07:42):
So we'll see if the truth sayer is right again
because he has been dominant in his accuracy.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
All Right, The next story.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I wanted to touch on this morning is Darnald going
to Seattle and the Minnesota Vikings splashing with the amount
of money that they would have had to pay Donald
paying valuable players in free agency. For months, I've said

(08:21):
Donald is gone. McCarthy is the guy. They're gonna use
that cap space to bring in other guys. I've been
consistent on that all off season. I have reacted to reports,
and I learned a valuable lesson this offseason. I reacted
to reports from Ian, from Tom, from Adam Schefter. These

(08:42):
are the big time guys, Am, I supposed to just
listen and hear what they say and just call it crap,
because these guys don't.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Throw all crap.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
These guys are the best insiders in the league. And
they have been saying for the last week or two
before Donald signed with Seattle that the Vikings and Donald
were working on a contract, negotiating a deal because the
Vikings wanted Donald back in Minnesota. And there's no like

(09:18):
leverage situation here. It's not like the Vikings were leveraging
Donald so that they could get something out of it.
Seattle took them, they signed them, and the Vikings will
get a compensive portatory pick. But it's not like because
Seattle signed him or because the Vikings negotiated a deal
with Donald, then the Vikings got a compensatory pick.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
They're gonna get a pick regardless.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
So it's not like there's a leverage play here where
you know the Vikers could take them and oh are
they going to bring them back and not the team's
got trade for him. You know all the nonsense that
here during this time of season, But you look at
what the Vikings were able to do with what they
didn't sign Donald with Aaron Jones two years twenty million.

(10:05):
Vyron Murphy three years sixty six million, which was big,
and he's had an up and down NFL career. Had
his best NFL season last year with like five or
six picks, but he played well last year and the
cornerback position is a high need for them. Jonathan Allen
three years sixty million. Javon Hargrave. That signing isn't official

(10:31):
yet because he gets released on Wednesday by the forty
nine ers. Will Fry's five years eighty eight million, Ryan
Kelly two years eighteen million. Sam Donald was never a
part of the Vikings plan. Based on the reporting from
the big guys, I imagine the Vikings offering Donald a

(10:54):
veteran minimum contract so that they could make these happen,
because this has been the plan for three years when
the Vikings general manager was hired to do the job.
Get cap space, get off these massive dead cap contracts,

(11:16):
find a rookie quarterback, and make it happen.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
So I learned a valuable lesson.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I've been following the Vikings for my entire life, and
I don't have inside sources. I don't have guys within
the Vikings organization that I text to. I have Paul
Allen's number, and sometimes he comes on this show.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
But I don't have other sources.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
I'm not texting people say hey, what are the Vikings doing,
you know, give me a lead. But based on their
decision making for the last three years, I was able
to come to the conclusion that Darnold was not coming
back to Minnesota. So despite what the big reporters were

(12:05):
saying and have been saying for months, it was never
going to happen because the Vikings were not about to
forfeit all of these signings in positions of desperate need
to bring back Darnold when they selected a guy in

(12:26):
the top ten. It's more so common sense than really
anything else. You know, I don't have inside sources, but
I've got common sense.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
That was never going to be a part of the
Vikings plan.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
The plan was to always build a roster around a
rookie quarterback on a rookie contract and find guys like
offensive lineman Will Fries and Ryan Kelly, defensive guys like
Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and build that roster and
build it to be super Bowl level.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
And that's what the Vikings are doing.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
So the Vikings have had an elite NFL free agency
bringing in guys in big positions of need. You know,
they lose Daniel Jones to Indy, and that's the logical
choice from Daniel Jones because he's more likely to start
over Anthony Richardson than j. J. McCarthy because Richardson was

(13:28):
benched for Joe Flacco.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
And you know who said that. I said that two
days ago.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Jones ain't coming back to Minnesota, go to Indy be
the starter. Shane Steikin is an offensive minded head coach too,
just like Kevin o'connells.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
They also have.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Good NFL wide receivers like Michael Petman junior, and they
have other good options there too, So it was kind
of a wash offensive head coach, offensive head coach. They've
got good wide receivers, not as good as a minisil.
But he's also gonna be given a greater chance to
play next year even if Anthony Richardson wins the job

(14:08):
at training camp, because Richardson ain't lasting the whole year.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
I think dude can't throw.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
He's in an inaccurate quarterback and he will get benched
if Andy starts out with him in regular season game
number one. Daniel Jones will eventually find his way in
that starting role, and that's why he made that choice.
Made sense if he wants to get a long term
contract after this year, like Darnold, you go to Indy.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
So those are the Vikings' offseason moves.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
We'll see what happens next with the backup quarterback position,
because it's a big deal. You can't go with McCarthy
and Rippingini to have someone that is a veteran presence
behind there that could step in in case McCarthy gets hurt.
The last thing the Vikers want to do is, Okay,
we got our entire roster, we got our rookie quarterback,
McCarthy goes down with an injury and we're screwed. Then

(14:59):
what you want to have a backup option that's capable
of winning games, and that name is not Brett Rippon.
So it'll be a fascinating watch. Aaron Rodgers Gardner minshew,
who's that guy going to be? But that is one
of the biggest positions the Vikings neat to address before
free agency period ends and before the regular season starts.

(15:19):
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