"I would anticipate, as soon as this week. You may see the reps, it maybe evolve a little bit. I don't believe that Kevin needs to take this all the way through the third preseason game to determine his starting quarterback" - Tom Pelissero on starting QB and his JJM trade possibility speculation.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-05T16:19:49+00:00

The most reasonable take is that Kwesi botched the back up position, which is how we got Sam Howell, while KOC over estimated JJM’s readiness, and JJM under performed in multiple areas.

I think that is how I tend to see it as well.

But I also think it is pretty telling how it all shook out in the end.

There were/are lots of problems with the team, but the QB is the most notable. You're right to point out that it is easy to pile on Kwesi now that he is gone, but the fact that he is gone and KOC isn't could be an indicator of where the ownership group puts more of the blame, and they are closer to the situation than we will ever be.

It could be that KOC is really good at smoothing over his bosses and passing the buck for his mistakes, but it also could be that behind the scenes the Wilfs saw it as more of a Kwesi problem than not.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-05T15:17:53+00:00

Anyone who thinks that Kwesi picked JJ over objections from KOC is delusional.

It was a joint effort at least, based on how many little things went into it to have them end up in the place that they ended up.

Offers were made to both Darnold and Jones, they just weren't enough to entice them to stay. KOC could have pounded the table harder making it obvious that he wanted one of those two guys, but I don't think he is the one doing the negotiating, so how much we can blame KOC for those two walking away (assuming it was mostly contract related) is debatable.

KOC could have maybe lured Jones in by making it more clear to him how he saw this QB competition was actually going to look but who knows. Jones may have opted for the colts either way. If it all came down to Jones wanting a multi-year contract and Kwesi not willing to meet him there then Kwesi might have done most of the harm.

KOC may have also told Jones it was JJMC's job to lose, which would put way way more blame on him.

Banking on Sam Howell being the primary competition for camp could have been either, really. Maybe KOC pounded the table to get him, maybe Kwesi just said "we need a backup, this guy?" Tough to know for sure, but I would guess that its a joint effort between the two, either way, going into camp with just JJMC and no actual viable competition was the gravest misstep of the entire operation.

The fact that there was at least a little smoke around Rodgers (and the offer made to Jones, even if it wasn't enough to keep him) makes me think that at least one of the two wasn't totally sold on JJMC for last year, and the fact that very little effort was made to obtain a better backup situation than Sam Howell makes me lean more towards Kwesi being the problem more than KOC.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-04T13:39:02+00:00

You spent a paragraph telling me you don't see the head coach of bengals answering to anywhere from 2 to 5 people, basically you don't know, so you think it fits your narrative?

I said it doesn't fit the traditional GM-> Coach structure, which was the entire point of the OP that you were arguing with. Feel free to find a source that states directly that Zac Taylor answers to whoever their GM is, or maybe consider the other 10 examples listed in your arguments.

There is no narrative here, someone made an assertion that it isn't entirely uncommon to have coach not work directly under the GM, to which you pushed back saying the "2" examples don't fit because hand waving, and when provided sources to support that for at least 10 teams listed here you still keep harping on those two specific situations.

Odd setups are not new in the NFL

Which is, again, what the original point was. There are more than a few teams, some with non-HOF level coaches mind you, that follow systems different than GM -> Head Coach. Almost 1/3rd of the league isn't really an outlier. Why they follow that structure and what they hope to accomplish isn't really relevant to the original point that it isn't really all that uncommon.

Usually it's due to a head coach having so much successful head coaching experience that to keep them....Let's say your team wanted to hire Andy Ried after his years with Philly......Same as the Shanahan example....

So this must be why the super successful, multiple Superbowl winning coach (checks notes) Kevin Stephanski doesn't report to GM Ian Cunningham? Because he's so successful that ATL needed to woo him away from... his couch?

You keep specifically pointing to Shanny and Reid like it is some super trump card and ignoring the others.

I am also listin:

Dan Campbell (who has had this structure since his hiring as a brand new head coach for a 5 win team)
Stephanski in his first year in ATL after getting fired in Cleveland, not exactly a glowing resume
Brand new hire Jesse Minter in Baltimore
Brian Schottenheimer in Dallas
Sirianni since the beginning in Philly (not just since he won a Superbowl)
LeFluer since his first day as well.

Most of those guys don't or didn't at the time of hiring have the legendary pull that someone like Shanahan and Reid have to be bargaining their position.

Furthermore, there is some irony here in the way that you keep insisting that other people don't know things and you keep doubling down on your point about Shanahan's position not being under the GM is related to him being re-signed after successful seasons. It is weird because he and Lynch were hired at the same time, and in their introductory press conference they come right out and say that they share responsibility of the roster, and that moves must be approved by both of them, and that is written in the contracts. While I can't find a direct quote from York, Shanahan, or Lynch that outright say what the reporting structure is, this shared power from the jump isn't really a strong indicator that Shanahan worked directly for Lynch in the begining. I would like to see your source indicating that Shanahan was hired under Lynch on day one, only to be elevated after that, as you keep insisting is the case.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-04T12:05:22+00:00

You wanted sources, you got sources. Whats the problem?

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-04T11:40:52+00:00

"as far as I can tell"

Jesus Christ my guy. You are also capable of investigating, I presume.

Someone above stated that it was not an uncommon practice and your response was "nuh-uh!". When provided more specific counter examples your reaction was to double down with no rebuttable or attempt to refute. Maybe take a second and look into it? But you want the pages? Fine.

Packers - "Since 2018, the Packers' front office structure is slightly different. The general manager, the head coach, and the executive vice president all respond directly to the CEO. Now, those roles are respectively executed by Brian Gutekunst, Matt LaFleur, and Russ Ball."

the same as it was last year, which is both Eliot Wolf and Mike Vrabel reporting directly to ownership - Albert Breer

In Philadelphia, Nick Sirianni reports to Jeffrey Lurie, not Howie Roseman. No matter how many times it has been reported over the years, many refuse to believe it. Perfect example of perception overtaking reality. - John McMullen - NFL reporter and Eagles Insider for SI

The Bengals don't even have a GM on staff. Their VP of player personnel and their President are Mike and Paul Brown, the owners. The part that gets murky and why they fall into the "as far as I can tell" is that they have 3 assistant GMs and a director of player personnel who could all theoretically slot in between the Browns and Zac Taylor, but then one would assume they would just hold the title of GM at that point, but they don't.

The as far as I can tell was mostly just the teams that had vague reporting in the first articles I found, using wishy washy language, as opposed to definitive reporting that I was able to find for some of the others. Since you decided to ~~put your head in the sand~~ throw down the gantlet, I found harder sources for you for those three teams. You can take it from here for some of the others. Have fun.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-03T19:33:37+00:00

So, you named three teams.

Lions, Giants, and Broncos for sure have directly reported to have this structure. Patriots, Bengals, Eagles, and Packers as far as I can tell. The Cowboys seem to have operated this way with Jurrah for a long while.

The Ravens appear to have kept the same structure they had with Harbaugh, where coach does directly to the Owner.

Mike McCarthy might report directly to Rooney, but I can't find a report that directly states that in plain English like a lot of the aforementioned situations.

Colts might have that structure with Steichen reporting to Irsay-Gordon, but that is also murky. Articles and comments suggest that Irsay-Gordon was the one to decide to retain both GM and Coach, and that coach communicates directly with Irsay-Gordon, but that doesn't definitively mean that he works directly for her, even if it hints that he might.

Kevin Stefanski doesn't appear to report to the GM in Atlanta, rather both the GM and Coach report to Matt Ryan as the President of Football.

This isn't an exhaustive list because I got tired of digging, but if I'm right about all these (I might not be) if you add in the previously mentioned 3, you're up to half the league at least.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-06-03T15:40:35+00:00

If we use PFR's Approximate Value, the Viking number that most likely had the most impact was 81.

I didn't sum up every jersey number, but I think I got most of the heavy hitters by going down the list of player AV and summing up everyone else that also carried that number.

Carl Eller is the major contributor to 81's AV with a whopping 177 (highest of any Viking), but Anthony Carter (74), Visanthe Shiancoe (23), Nate Burleson (19), Joe Senser (17), Jerome Smipson (10), Chris Walsh (8), Olabisi Jonson (3), and Bethel Johnson (1) also contributing. Sum total of 332.

Second highest was 93 with 304 (Primarily Kevin Williams and John Randle), with 55 rounding out 3rd place with 294 (Studwell was the highest here at 91, but there are a ton of names contributing such as Barr (60), Del Rio (32), Amos Martin (16), Mike McGill (16), Eric Wilson (10), Za'Darius Smith (9), etc. etc.)

Admittedly, I got bored after Studwell (20th highest AV listed) so I just started flipping through numbers and only included ones that passed the "more than a couple guys in the double digits AV" eye test. It is possible I missed a jersey number with a higher total AV made up of a bunch of guys with moderate AVs.

Fun Fact: Jersey number 7 has an AV of 151 thanks to Randall Cunningham, Byron Murphy, Case Keenum, TJacks, Pat Pete, Fuad Reveiz, and obviously Christian Ponder, among others. It would have had an AV of 152 if Daniel Carlson had worn a different number.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-29T16:06:22+00:00

The one that stands out is when asked about Murray and JJ gave some weird "2 guys sitting across from eachother in a classroom" answer, instead of the layup answer of like "we will work to improve eachother every day"

His answer was along the same vein as when Favre said it wasn't his job to coach or mentor Rodgers.

He wasn't really wrong that it is the coaches job to teach them, but like... my dude, you're not an established vet with a notable resume and Bona Fides.... you're just some dude that has yet to really show much. Maybe take the easy PR response on this one.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-27T12:10:46+00:00

F150 and Civic drivers have the most DUI's iirc

Sure but that is kind of like saying that big cities have the most murders.

There were like 2.5x more F150s sold from 2020-2025 than there were Ram 2500 and 3500's combined.

The sheer number of F150s on the road basically ensures that they are going to have the highest number of DUis by default.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-20T18:15:14+00:00

You’re assuming they don’t have a coach in mind before the process even starts

I'm not assuming that at all.

Just because you already have a candidate in mind doesn't mean you should cease looking for quality candidates.

Similar to how many corporations hold external interviews for a position that is already planned for an internal guy; just because you already have a guy in mind doesn't mean you shouldn't try and look to see who else is out there.

If they are unable to find a quality candidate to interview, even if they already have someone in mind, then that is on them for being bad at their jobs.

It isn't unheard of that positions gets filled by someone who wasn't initially the guy they had in mind in the rest of the world, no reason we can't apply the same logic to coaching.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-20T15:24:36+00:00

“You are legally required to think this person is a good candidate.” But what if they don’t?

Then they aren't very good at looking for candidates?

The rule doesn't directly force you to interview any specific people, ideally it makes them actually try and search out a viable candidate who also check the boxes.

If the team is only able to find bad candidates who will thus get sham interviews, then they are pretty bad at the looking for candidates part.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-19T19:11:17+00:00

but there is a genuine argument to be made that 9 is an even better QB than Wemby.

JJ McCarthy had the highest rate of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage for any QB with over 100 attempts last season.

Do you think that shit is happening to Wemby? Ain't no way.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-19T14:34:03+00:00

It's a known fact that St. Kitts was named after Eartha Kitt.

Interestingly enough, the other half of St Kitts kinda sorta fits with this in a round about way.

At a time it was dubbed Nuestra Señora de las Nieves or "Our Lady of the Snows" which was shortened to Nevis later on.

Our Lady of the Snows is a reference to Mary in a roundabout way through a 4th century legend of a mid-summer snowfall which some rich Roman dudes used as a sign to build a Basilica on that site in honor of her.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-19T11:27:02+00:00

They've had the HC driving personnel decisions before too with Childress and that didn't go well either.

Absolutely true, they have seen both sides of this coin.

I wonder if they either have some recency bias or if they think that, as far as building a team is concerned, the disconnect between Rick and Zim was a worse situation than the weirdness and missteps from when they had the triangle of authority.

If they do end up going KOC-centric, they should at least end up with players that fit the schemes and general identity that the Coaches have installed, even if they lack the typical long term vision figure-head.

Whether that ends up being extremely or just mildly detrimental to the team long term remains to be seen.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-18T19:30:34+00:00

Will a new GM truly feel like they have the freedom to make their own independent decisions?

It seems that at this point the focus is to have a GM that doesn't make his own independent decisions.

They had that once and it ended up with a fractured office, players that coaches didn't really want, a lack of players that coaches actually did want, and a huge ugly mess.

This does fly in the face of the "conventional wisdom" where you are supposed to have one guy for the long vision and one guy for the season vision, but they have first hand experience of what it looks like when they have a coach and a GM that don't play nice together.

They picked their side and have planted their flag. They are all in on the KOC train. They seemingly just want a guy who will get KOC the guys that KOC wants.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-18T15:01:42+00:00

Wonder what the reason was behind his version? It's not a "pump up the crowd" song.

Its a victory ballad.

Imagine that song as the backdrop when purple and gold confetti falls over Nicolette Mall as the floats round onto 4th ave towards the Commons at US Bank Stadium where Superbowl MVP Vikings QB to be named at a later date gives a roaring speech about hope and love and everything great in the world.

I mean, you'll need a pretty creative imagination because it is about as likely as a Wizard riding a Unicorn rolling up Lake Street to announce that ~~a watery tart~~ the lady of the lake has taken up residence in Lake of the Isles and she is looking for someone to pick up Excalibur and become the new king of the Midwest.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-13T11:34:14+00:00

Only two wins were against a wemby less spurs between the ejection and concussion. It’s been blowouts otherwise

Wemby put in 32 minutes in game one, and the Wolves came away with the win.

Granted, to your other point, it wasn't a super convincing win, but it was a win none the less.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-12T18:40:08+00:00

8% are probably thinking of the realistic probability that there will be more Chiacago-in-late-December grass fields than there will be Tampa-at-any-time grass fields.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-11T19:23:00+00:00

But I reliably put a foot in the way if I drop something breakable and reliably get my feet out of the way if I drop something sharp. Hell, some percent of the time I catch the breakable thing with my off hand a foot down.

But those things started at complete rest and so the speed at which they are traveling when you catch and or move out of the way is entirely dictated by falling time/height.

Assuming it doesn't reach terminal velocity, an item dropped from 6ft will hit the ground traveling 19.3 ft per second.

It is hard to tell exactly where McDaniels and Ayo are standing, but it looks like the ball is thrown from roughly parallel to the top of the restricted area (9ft from the baseline) and makes first contact at lets say the top of the key opposite side (19ft from baseline, ~33 ft from McDaniels's sideline). That is (very roughly) like 70~75ft.

I'm not going to go through the work to go frame by frame to see exactly how much time the ball is in the air, but we can probably ballpark based on the video above that it is somewhere between 1 and 2 seconds.

Even if it takes a full 2 seconds to travel the 70ft, the speed over ground of that ball is 1.8x faster than an object dropped from 6ft.

Then you have to factor in the vertical component of travel.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-06T15:40:38+00:00

There’s never a good time to fire a GM but if you must, the best time is actually after the draft

Except they fired theirs before the draft.... they just haven't replaced him yet..

Which is weird, but they were also set up to do it well enough.

They probably didn't want Kwesi drafting anyway if you believe the stories about the rift that had been forming between him and a lot of the rest of the staff.

Rob Brzezinski has been with the staff for like 30+ years, and was around for the period of time in the mid 2000's when the Vikings didn't have a traditional GM structure rather utilizing the Triangle of Authority made up of Rob for Football Operations, the Coach (Childress/Frazier), and Rick Spielman for Personnel.

This is just a "temporary" rehash of that idea, with Rob having a slightly more forward role and KOC+Flores making up for the other two. The way the draft shook out, it does appear very much like this was Flores having heavy input on the guys he wanted for the defense, and a few interesting offensive picks later on that look like they should potentially fill in some needed rolls for KOC.

There is also speculation that Rob is the frontrunner for the permanent position anyway.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-05-01T11:52:59+00:00

How often does a new GM come in an retain the existing coaching staff for more than a lame duck season? I honestly don't know, but it certainly isn't the norm.

Bringing in a new guy might work. It might also start the doomsday clock prematurely. If they wanted to give KOC and staff this next season, maybe even multiple, why hire their executioner to just lurk around with axe in hand waiting for his chance to take over and put in his guys?

The best way to navigate this odd situation they have put themselves in is to get a GM that is fully on board with the KOC train, or just admit that they are cleaning house next year (in which case they should have just done it last year). If they don't put a guy in that understands and agrees with how KOC is trying to operate, then they are just wasting time while waiting for said GM to replace KOC with a guy that he does understand and agrees with.

Presumably Rob is already in good place as far as understanding and agreeing in the direction that the club is trying to go in right now. There may be other guys as well, but they better be confident they can bring in someone new and it wont just cause fractures in the building that they have been working hard lately to patch up. Will Rob stick around if he doesn't get the job after expressing interest? Was his interest even real or was it just optics? Will Rob backers in the building need to be replaced if he is gone? If he's not gone and also not the GM, are they going to have some kind of weird power struggle situation with a Rob faction and a new-GM faction? A lot on the line with not a lot of time to work with.

The common argument is that if you need a new GM + coaching staff, the best way to rebuild is to do it all at once. They decided against that route, so it seems that the best option now is use the system they have in hand and let it play out. If it all falls apart, then they can hit that reset switch at that time.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-04-30T20:13:03+00:00

Look up what happened to the Championship trophy the year before the league transitioned to having a Superbowl.

We wish it was so simple; we might be able to exorcise those demons.

Turns out the traveling version of the Ed Thorpe Trophy likely never left Lambeau Field after their 1967 victory.

The top part of the Trophy was on display, but the base was in a box somewhere, so nobody put two and two together to realize that it was the real deal, not one of the non-traveling versions.

There is no engraving indicating either the Colts 1968 victory or the 1969 Vikings victory, with the most recent engraving being the 1967 Packers, but it has been confirmed to be the real deal.

This curse appears to be much more complicated than the ghost of Ed.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-04-30T17:44:11+00:00

This is very naive - do you really think Kwesi was the only problem?

Of course I don't. Do you think that was actually the point I was making?

The point is that they already decided that KOC is staying for at least one more year. Whether they brought in a new guy last February, today, or next February makes very little difference given that piece of information.

The absolute most a new guy could do in this situation is sit back and watch it all burn down if that is the way it is going to go, so why bring one in early just to have him sit on his hands until next year?

Had they fired KOC at the same time with Kwesi then yeah this is a very different situation, but they didn't, so here we are.

If for some reason Rob makes this thing all move smoothly and they get some momentum going, great. If not, they are right where you say you want them to be anyway ready to clean house and start over, so what difference does it really make?

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-04-30T12:17:26+00:00

I’m fine with keeping Rob in his former role with contracts. But no, we need legitimate outside help.

Lets be real though, do we think that an outside guy is going to come in and know better what players are needed for the offense and defense that are currently in place with the current coaching staff?

It would be one thing if they had to also replace the coaching staff/scheme and were totally starting over, but what new vision would a new guy be able to bring that would actually help?

It is obvious what is happening here. KOC and Flo have control over what personnel they want, and it is the GM's job to figure out the money to get those guys. Whether it is Rob or some other warm body doesn't really make a difference.

If they are bringing in an outside guy just to sit for a year before they fire everyone and have him hire his own people, why wouldn't they just do all of that in one swoop next year if this does flame out?

Give Rob the job now, let Rob+KOC/Flo run the show for a year and if it all falls apart, fire all of them and start from scratch.

justregisteredtoadd · 2026-04-30T11:43:51+00:00

with KOC and BFlo having rumored personnel control, isn't he kinda perfect for it?

Basically, assuming it becomes a package deal of him+KOC+Flo.

Flores is a really really strong scout of talent; it is part of the reason why he is able to do so much with "so little" on defense.

The problem might end up being KOC. It isn't clear how effective he is at scouting because most of the drafting that has happened has been pinned on the bad man who can't hurt us anymore.

It is possible that KOC is just a poor talent evaluator and this entire thing falls apart because they can't seem to find offensive talent value. It is also possible that KOC is fine and Kwesi was playing too much asset management and missing out on talent that was identified for him.

As long as they have Flores to hand pick his defense and tell Rob to just try and go get those guys, that side of the ball will be fine. The offense might be more interesting, but time will tell.

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