Speaker 1: It's x's and oh's on the KFA in Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: Radio Network. Those of you watching at Vikings dot com,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. It is Paul Allen this week,
Speaker 1: joined by general manager Rick Spielman on a show courtesy
Speaker 1: of US Bank. Good luck against New Orleans and U
Speaker 1: and Early Mary. Christmas to you, mister Spielman. How are things? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Happy Holidays to your family into all of our fans
Speaker 1: out there. Yep. Definitely watching this on a holiday week,
Speaker 1: hoping you beat the Saints. Finish it off of the
Speaker 1: victory at Detroit. Can I may I ask you a
Speaker 1: game related personal question to begin, Yes, thank you. When
Speaker 1: you watch the team play, what triggers you to write
Speaker 1: stuff down? Because like where I call the games, you're
Speaker 1: you're like two or three boost to the right. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll look over there and I'm like, Heavenly Father, please
Speaker 1: put peace in this mansul when things aren't going well.
Speaker 1: But I also see you write a lot of stuff down.
Speaker 1: Writing down it's basically just writing things that happened during
Speaker 1: the game, whether it's something a player does. You know
Speaker 1: every week, where the coaches are responsible for turning in
Speaker 1: maybe a questionable call during the game, I'll make note
Speaker 1: of that. I usually try to write a note down
Speaker 1: on each play on some of the positives or negatives
Speaker 1: that I've seen. I know, you know, we're looking at
Speaker 1: the game production standpoint. What a great job Harp does
Speaker 1: Brian Harper and his crew on video replays, if they're
Speaker 1: showing it at the right time, is they're going to
Speaker 1: be a competitive advantage for us. Although staying with in
Speaker 1: the NFL rules, so there's just a lot of different
Speaker 1: things that are going on during a game and just
Speaker 1: making sure that you take notes here or there because
Speaker 1: you're not going to remember everything once you get back in.
Speaker 1: You're going back and you're going to review the film
Speaker 1: and do all the personnel stuff. But there's so much
Speaker 1: else going on and just being an observing each play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I go into this last week with the head coach,
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer, it's like that there were two legitimately awful
Speaker 1: calls that win against him the Champa Bay game, and
Speaker 1: you know, I know the game's over, there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do, but they both led to points. You know.
Speaker 1: Then in this Bears game, a Keem Hicks punches Brian
Speaker 1: O'Neill and it's not called so you guys send in
Speaker 1: these plays, like what comes out of that? When you
Speaker 1: send in plays, Usually we'll get a response back after
Speaker 1: the league reviews it and tells us if it was
Speaker 1: a correct or incorrect call or that should have been
Speaker 1: called or should not have been called. So game's over.
Speaker 1: Can't change the game, but at least hopefully, you know,
Speaker 1: we can answer the questions. So if the ownership calls
Speaker 1: me yet it should have been called this way from
Speaker 1: the league response. But hopefully the league uses those as
Speaker 1: they review them with the officials to help the officials
Speaker 1: grow each week as well. Love that. Rick Spielman, general
Speaker 1: manager of the Minnesota Vikings on XS and O. So
Speaker 1: just kind of a broad question, Rick, how are you
Speaker 1: handling the six and eight season with Judago. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's been a little bit of a frustrating season.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, every game's been down to the
Speaker 1: wire this year. There's some games that you know, we
Speaker 1: maybely could have finished off, but it is what it is,
Speaker 1: so you assess where you're at. You know, this week
Speaker 1: we still had over four hundred yards of total offense
Speaker 1: and against a very good Bears defense, but we were
Speaker 1: down twenty to seven at one point, so we had
Speaker 1: some slower starts, but the resiliency of this team, that
Speaker 1: grid of this team would come back and throw seventeen
Speaker 1: points up in fourteen first down first downs into three
Speaker 1: possessions of the second half to get us back in
Speaker 1: the game. And the defense probably didn't play its best
Speaker 1: game of the season, but when we didn't convert on
Speaker 1: those third and fourth and one situations, the defense on
Speaker 1: a short field held Chicago to two field goals there,
Speaker 1: which is very difficult to do. So they boat up
Speaker 1: their in that situation. And then at the end of
Speaker 1: the game and see Cam Danzler go up and make
Speaker 1: that interception to get us back into the game again
Speaker 1: and give us a chance to win. So how the
Speaker 1: thing and the ebbs and flows that go on during
Speaker 1: the season, the one thing I think that you see,
Speaker 1: and you've seen it almost every week, is that this
Speaker 1: team really does have no quid and will fight to
Speaker 1: the bitter end whether we win or lose. They're going
Speaker 1: to keep swinging all the way through the game. Love that,
Speaker 1: no doubt, and it personifies the head coach's personality. Likewise,
Speaker 1: for you a couple of tough guys, I mean after
Speaker 1: that at Landed disaster, and you got an extra week
Speaker 1: to think about it, and you come back and break
Speaker 1: Green Bay spirit at Lambow like that. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that personifies that toughness personally. Now it's really to
Speaker 1: ask this, but I'm gonna hit you anyway. Do you
Speaker 1: envision significant things needing to be done in the off
Speaker 1: season to make the team better. We'll go through that
Speaker 1: every year. You're going to do that process just like
Speaker 1: every team does. Once we get through this season, we'll
Speaker 1: assess our strengths, we'll assess the weaknesses where we need
Speaker 1: to improve. From a personnel standpoint, you got to kind
Speaker 1: of take into account that you're going to have some
Speaker 1: of these guys that we're missing this year, some of
Speaker 1: our blue chip type players back on the defensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. You weigh in what's going to be
Speaker 1: available in free agency, You weigh the strengths and weaknesses
Speaker 1: of the draft, so you can lay your offseason plan
Speaker 1: out totally on how you want to improve this football team.
Speaker 1: We still don't know yet where the CAP's going to be,
Speaker 1: so there's going to be some business decisions that we're
Speaker 1: going to have to make as we move forward. But
Speaker 1: that's the evolution of a roster that we go through
Speaker 1: each and every year. Hey, Rich Hall has college football
Speaker 1: during COVID times change the way you analyze college football
Speaker 1: and you're ready for a draft. It's been basically I
Speaker 1: have not been able to get out and see a
Speaker 1: lot of these college players in person. I got to
Speaker 1: one game this year over at the at the see
Speaker 1: Minnesota play Iowa. Other than that has been based off
Speaker 1: of all tape. You know, our college director Jamal Stevenson
Speaker 1: has been out and seeing a couple of games. If
Speaker 1: our college scouts can get out, the only thing they
Speaker 1: can go to as is to games, although it's very limited.
Speaker 1: And then the condensed season the college had this year
Speaker 1: starting late and just finishing up. There's going to be
Speaker 1: some bowl games coming up, you know, we're still there.
Speaker 1: Their scheduled to come, like the Senior Bowl and some
Speaker 1: of these other all star games. But if they're going
Speaker 1: to go on, you know, we got a lot of
Speaker 1: decisions to make on what and how the combines potentially
Speaker 1: going to look this year, just with the way everything
Speaker 1: is in a world right now with the COVID and
Speaker 1: you know, still not out of the woods. It's great
Speaker 1: that we have a vaccine, but that's going to take time,
Speaker 1: so we still have to follow a lot of these
Speaker 1: procedures that are set right out to make it a
Speaker 1: safe workting environment, and hopefully we'll be able to get
Speaker 1: the information that we need, although it may be different
Speaker 1: ways we're going to have to get this information and
Speaker 1: all that is yet to be determined. But I know,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's been working extremely hard with the circumstances
Speaker 1: that we're dealing with and try to get prepared for
Speaker 1: the upcoming offseason. Inside football question off the last two games,
Speaker 1: are you guys starting to see defenses more consciously take
Speaker 1: away the deep shots with Jefferson and feeling, Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it started in the Tampa game and even
Speaker 1: this last week it was always, you know, try to
Speaker 1: stop Dalvin Cook and try to stop stop our run game.
Speaker 1: And because the way Kirk Cousins been throwing the ball,
Speaker 1: especially down the field, and he's one of the most
Speaker 1: accurate deep ball throwers in the NFL. Right now, with
Speaker 1: the emergence of Justin Jefferson, Adam feeling in the big
Speaker 1: plays that we're able to create in the off of
Speaker 1: play action in the passing game, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you start to see how some of these defensives played
Speaker 1: us differently, where they're taking away a lot of those
Speaker 1: explosive type plays in the passing game and maybe not
Speaker 1: focusing as much on the run game. We mentioned justin Jefferson,
Speaker 1: the rookie from LSU Christmas in a couple of days,
Speaker 1: you got your Christmas gift eight months ago. I mean
Speaker 1: by tee, with all due respect, teams shaking receiver, other
Speaker 1: receivers before him. I mean, he's unbelievable in all the
Speaker 1: spots too. Write I think the one thing that makes
Speaker 1: him unique is just because of the circumstances that he
Speaker 1: had to come in, just like all the rookies had
Speaker 1: to come into this year where you don't have any OTAs,
Speaker 1: you do not have an offseason program, you have a
Speaker 1: condensed training camp with no preseason games, and then you
Speaker 1: just throw these guys out there once the regular season starts.
Speaker 1: And he's just been phenomenal on his professional approach for
Speaker 1: a young rookie, on how he's handled everything and even now,
Speaker 1: you know, being selected to his first Pro Bowl, how
Speaker 1: mature he is handling that once to go out and
Speaker 1: still prove more and that's usually assigned that he's going
Speaker 1: to have a pretty good career career going forward. Not
Speaker 1: going with that, he stays healthy Christmas in a couple
Speaker 1: of days working in the National Football League, And for
Speaker 1: the Weilphs, that's a gift in its own right, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got probably the best owners in the NFL in
Speaker 1: my opinion, not only the support they give us to
Speaker 1: do our jobs to the best of our ability, to
Speaker 1: the facilities that they've provided us down at US Bank
Speaker 1: Stadium and here at the TCO Performance Center. But they're
Speaker 1: passionate and how truly they really care, you know, about
Speaker 1: our fans. They really care about this football team, and
Speaker 1: just like all of us here, we're trying to do
Speaker 1: everything we can to eventually get that championship. Here, Rick,
Speaker 1: back to the Jefferson dealing conversation. So off Tampa in Chicago,
Speaker 1: how's that factory into Dalvin Cook's game. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: Dalvin's played a lot of snaps for us this year,
Speaker 1: and you know, he had another one hundred and I
Speaker 1: think thirty some yards last week. But I think you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing about Dalvin the people don't appreciate as
Speaker 1: much There's a lot of great running backs in the
Speaker 1: league this year, but Dalvin's ability not only to run
Speaker 1: the football, but what he does in a passing game
Speaker 1: sometimes goes overlooked on some of the big plays he
Speaker 1: makes in a screen game, or his ability to catch
Speaker 1: the ball out of the backfield. And the thing that
Speaker 1: people don't notice is because the ball maybe going downfield
Speaker 1: to one of our receivers. Is how effective he is
Speaker 1: at locating and picking up blitzes, and that's critical, especially
Speaker 1: with how the teams have been attacking our offense right now.
Speaker 1: Is his ability to really throw his body in there
Speaker 1: and pick up a lupblitzing linebacker, pick up a safety
Speaker 1: coming off the edge, and some of the things that
Speaker 1: he does that they're not going to show on all
Speaker 1: the highlights are pretty incredible to watch when you review
Speaker 1: the tape on Monday mornings. Rick, knowing you for a
Speaker 1: decade and a half, I know you're not big on
Speaker 1: best or worst. You're not really an absolute guy. So
Speaker 1: with Harrison Smith, I'm not going to say best season
Speaker 1: of his career because that's beauty is in the eye
Speaker 1: of the beholder. I mean, seriously, how much respect you
Speaker 1: have for Harrison Smith, the way he's played this year
Speaker 1: with all those kids back there. Seriously, Yeah, no, he's
Speaker 1: done a phenomenal job. In Anthony Harris has to try
Speaker 1: to direct traffic back there with all the rookies that
Speaker 1: we have playing on defense and especially in the defensive backfield.
Speaker 1: And you know, one play that really stuck out to
Speaker 1: me in this last week's game, we had our defense
Speaker 1: was missed a line and there was a receiver out
Speaker 1: wide in the play where they ran a boot out
Speaker 1: to their right. Harrison Smith, just because he's so intelligent,
Speaker 1: seeing the deficiency that we had due with us not
Speaker 1: lining up the correct way, came up and made a
Speaker 1: heck of a play the beat that passed out on
Speaker 1: a boot pass. So that just tells you, again not
Speaker 1: how valuable he is on the back end because of
Speaker 1: his experience and what he sees and how he can
Speaker 1: make those quick in game adjustments. Now, with your quarterback
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins off his best season as a pro in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, what have you seen this year and maybe
Speaker 1: specifically after the bye, what do you like? I think
Speaker 1: he you know, he's played his best football since the buye.
Speaker 1: I think you know in the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: some of those turnovers. You know, we haven't created a
Speaker 1: lot of turnovers on a defense, and we were giving
Speaker 1: up way too many turnovers on the offensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball. But I think what you've seen, especially the
Speaker 1: last three or four weeks, is that his ability to
Speaker 1: make some plays on his feet and when there's something
Speaker 1: not there, what we call potential coverage sack. You see
Speaker 1: him step up in the pocket. There was a player
Speaker 1: early in the game where he stepped up in the pocket,
Speaker 1: was going to throw the ball, recocked it, and then
Speaker 1: hit Irv Smith on a twenty one yard game. Irv
Speaker 1: did a great job adjusting his route and that was
Speaker 1: a critical third down conversion right there. But also if
Speaker 1: things are not there, him being able to scramble and
Speaker 1: pick up some fast downs and keep the chains moving
Speaker 1: if nothing's there in the passing game. So I think
Speaker 1: that's one thing that he's really improved on this year
Speaker 1: is making some plays with his legs. All Rick, what
Speaker 1: about the makeup of your offensive line. I mean, clearly
Speaker 1: good enough left to right, reef to O'Neill for Cook
Speaker 1: to do what he's doing. Jefferson feeling Conkling got a
Speaker 1: TD last week and so on. But the makeup of
Speaker 1: the offensive line, what do you think the next step is.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to We're continuing to evolve up there.
Speaker 1: We still have a lot of young guys playing, and
Speaker 1: you know, it gets into fitting the scheme that we're
Speaker 1: trying to run a lot of this outside zone stuff.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these guys, you know, we
Speaker 1: put a huge emphasis on athleticism up there, being able
Speaker 1: to work in space at times when you have to
Speaker 1: do that gap scheme or come forward some time. You
Speaker 1: see some breakdowns there, but for the most part, you know,
Speaker 1: this line has continued to evolve. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: reason why we're one of the top rushing teams in
Speaker 1: the league because of how they're run blocking up front,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it has to do with Dalvin too.
Speaker 1: I don't want to take any credit away from him
Speaker 1: and his unique ability to make plays, but I think
Speaker 1: with us having a top five offense right now, a
Speaker 1: lot of credit has to go to that line up front.
Speaker 1: And no one's ever going to be perfect, but they
Speaker 1: are continuing evolved. We have a lot of young guys,
Speaker 1: even since we've got Ezra Gorn right now in at
Speaker 1: the right guard and his maturity level and how he's
Speaker 1: slowly getting into getting into rhythm. You and your staff
Speaker 1: a great job of the draft, seriously, Jefferson, Gladney Danceler
Speaker 1: Cleveland of just being the ultimate team guy, no preseason
Speaker 1: playing guard, and then you even get to, like Josh Mtellis,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're not going to play a lot
Speaker 1: at safety, lead the team in special teams tackles, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's I think that's big, and that's where
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys that ended up becoming very
Speaker 1: good players, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: start out on special teams. Anthony Harris, before he became
Speaker 1: a starter, was one of our core special teams players.
Speaker 1: Eric Wilson another guy who never had a backup type role,
Speaker 1: but he was such a good special team player, and
Speaker 1: then you see how he evolved into the type of
Speaker 1: defensive player. Is so one of the signs that I
Speaker 1: think tells you that this guy has a chance to
Speaker 1: be a pretty good player in this league on the
Speaker 1: offense or defensive side is their ability and how they
Speaker 1: adapt and improve on special teams, and I think Matellis
Speaker 1: is going right down that path as of today. Expielman,
Speaker 1: general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, on EXES and O's
Speaker 1: on KFA. A couple of quickies to close here. We
Speaker 1: mentioned Jeff Kladney his season, I mean, nine snaps against
Speaker 1: Green Bay in my opinion, a rough game against Indie.
Speaker 1: But after that, it's just gone that way, hasn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think both him and Cam Danzler continue to improve.
Speaker 1: And you know, you look at the evolution of the corners,
Speaker 1: which is probably the hardest position to adapt at the
Speaker 1: NFL level, just because the rules are different. The talent
Speaker 1: is much more significant than they are probably facing at
Speaker 1: college weekend and week out, and just and we talked
Speaker 1: about this before and some of the previous shows, you
Speaker 1: see them playing off their natural ability. Right now they
Speaker 1: don't have to think, you know, they don't have to
Speaker 1: think if this guy goes in motion to coverage is changing.
Speaker 1: So now you're starting to see these guys where camp
Speaker 1: Danceler maybe missed a player two for example, making a
Speaker 1: play in a ball in air, and then you go
Speaker 1: to see him go up and make two interceptions these
Speaker 1: last two weeks, closing on an end route and then
Speaker 1: last week in the back of the end zone actually
Speaker 1: high point and go up and getting the ball. So
Speaker 1: those are all signs that I think these young guys
Speaker 1: have a chance to continue to grow and to continue
Speaker 1: to have success for us. So is Danceler becoming one
Speaker 1: of those corners, you know, like Rhodes was when he
Speaker 1: was at his best here like sixteen, one of those
Speaker 1: corners who can like track a receiver. Is he becoming that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's too early to tell yet, you know,
Speaker 1: I just think that you know, the things that like
Speaker 1: when Xavier and he didn't start, you know, and he
Speaker 1: had some growing pains his rookie year or two. But
Speaker 1: these guys that I know fit the traits that the
Speaker 1: coaches are looking for, that are smart, that have true
Speaker 1: passion for the game, and have the physical ability to
Speaker 1: play in a scheme that code Zim wants to run.
Speaker 1: I think that both these guys have a chance to
Speaker 1: be pretty good cornerstones for us at that position. Last
Speaker 1: one Christmas Day Football. You guys are super banged up,
Speaker 1: specifically defensively. What job what are you looking to accomplish
Speaker 1: in this game? Like? What are some big points for
Speaker 1: you in this game? One? Go beat the New Orleans Saints,
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. Yes, that would be that would be
Speaker 1: a gift. Thank you very much for everything, not only now,
Speaker 1: but during the course of the year. Mary. Christmas to you, ma'am,
Speaker 1: and best to luck against the Saints. Okay, thank you.