Star Tribune's Ben Goessling breaks down Vikings QB situation

Very popular, Justin Jefferson expressing some frustration after last night's game, but coach Kevin O'Connell saying Justin was at practice today. He's in good spirits. He's just a competitor, and obviously he has some frustrations about not getting the ball enough. Coach Kevin O'Connell also saying that Kyler Murray, despite a lot of questions about his performance and about this offense in general, will remain their starting Quarterback, we bring him back Gessling from the Star Tribune because he knows way more about this than I do. Hi, Ben, what a disappointing loss yesterday. Yeah, Courtney, first one of the year, you figure it's going to happen at some point. But the way that they lost that game, a lot of the issues that you're alluding to there, and a lot of the issues we just asked Kevin O'Connell about a little while ago with the offense, were a big part of the reason they lose. And they're going to be a big part of the discussion going forward in a pretty pivotal stretch for them. So yeah, a game they wanted to win would have kept them undefeated as the only team in the NFL with that kind of a record and would have given them a further leg up in the division. So, uh, Sort of a tough stretch for them here, but yeah, a lot for them to figure out before Monday night at home against Buffalo. Let's talk about Justin Jefferson. I mentioned it there, but this is an individual who's very well known for being very kind. He's great with the media, just has a really great reputation in the locker room as a leader. Thank you. And last night, or yesterday afternoon, I should say, he declined to speak to the media, which is very out of character for him, which to a lot of people signaled he's frustrated. The guy wants, he's there to catch, he wants to catch. What's your take on this, and what is the team saying? Well, it was interesting because there's only, I mean, I've covered just about every game of Justin Jefferson's career. And the only two times I can remember him doing that were yesterday and after they got shut out last year in Seattle, where they were, of course, in the middle of some quarterback issues as well. I think a lot of this for him, he is an awfully competitive guy and certainly wants to get the ball. I think he's well aware of the fact that they are better when he And he does get the ball, but I think a lot of this is He wants the offense to run effectively because he wants to be able to win. This is a guy that still has not won a playoff game in the NFL, and this is year seven. So there's a lot of, I think, urgency on his part to see this thing get going, see this thing take the Vikings on a ride that has, as of yet, not happened for him. So a lot of it was, I think, coming from there. And you heard Kevin O'Connell talk about it, I think, yesterday. Certainly talked about it yesterday, talked about it again today. Kyler Murray said... He's got the right to feel the way that he's feeling because he's not getting the ball and the team is not doing as well as a result. He gets targeted nine times in that game yesterday, only catches three of them. The interception was targeted towards him. You know, some throws that were a little too high for him and some throws that he was open and he got missed. So that gets frustrating. And then losing in that setting up obviously is kind of adds to it. So I think that's kind of where it's coming from. We'll hear from him probably on Thursday this week. And then we'll get a little more insight onto what he was thinking yesterday. But you could see in the locker room certainly was not demonstrative by any means, but you could just tell he was not in the mood to say anything that he ultimately probably would have found to be productive. So it may be the old, you don't have anything positive or nice to say, don't say anything at all. I mean, are you worried at all? There's a lot of chitter chatter from the fans today saying, does he want out? Does he want out of this team? Well, I don't, I don't, I don't think that's a concern at this point. I think there is certainly frustration with the quarterback changes that have happened because Kirk Cousins, the first two and a half, three years of Justin Jefferson's career, I suppose three and a half years of Justin Jefferson's career was the only guy that really threw him the ball. So you've gone from that to eight or nine quarterbacks in the last couple of years. There's been a lot of Change a lot of trying to get to know a new quarterback. They had the year with Sam Darnold. Obviously, they don't keep Sam Darnold. And you've kind of been going through this stretch of things since then. So I do think there's been a realization in that building that as gracious as he was with things last year, which is not always how you see receivers go about it, he didn't. Demonstrably pout, he didn't put things on social media. He didn't go berating a quarterback on the sideline in front of cameras. There was none of that stuff last year. And you heard a lot of people just conversations I would have say, The level of class and the level of ability to see the big picture was something everybody appreciated. But I think they also know you don't want to take that for granted. And I don't think he's looking for a way out. I don't think he is upset with the overall picture, the overall direction of things. But you do need to figure the quarterback thing out to do right by him and really to do right by the team. So there's a lot of that. And I think that's a lot of what Kevin O'Connell, who has a long relationship with Justin Jefferson, is kind of trying to navigate right now. And let's talk about the quarterback situation because Kyler Murray is well below the league's leading quarterbacks. I mean, he's only had five passing touchdowns all season, 1,022 passing yards. Does Kevin O'Connell need to change the offensive game plan here? Well, I think a lot of it has been this question of what does Kevin O'Connell do well? What has this offense done well? And what does Kyler Murray do well? And he even talked about that a little bit today. You're still trying to find that marriage of those things. I think there's some of it where they have made some changes. You saw some design runs for Kyler Murray. They've been in the shotgun more often than we've seen in the past. Some of it is Kyler Murray still getting comfortable with the things that they want to do and the things that they do well. So if that's not happening, do you need to... Put some of those things to the side and say we're just going to go all in on what he does. I think that's a conversation, but there's also some of these things where he just needs to be able to execute it. And you saw moments of that yesterday on the long touchdown, the long pass to Jordan Addison that set up the touchdown. That was a pretty vintage Vikings concept on that play, the play action deep shot that he hit. That's a throw you would have seen Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold make a lot in the past. So there are moments of it, but He needs to get to the point where that's more consistent. And the Vikings probably still need to continue to find the things that he's really comfortable with. And you had that quarterback competition in training camp, it does cut into the time to get to know everybody. And I think they had their reasons for doing that, but they are still trying to make up for time in that sense, I think. Let's talk about the Vikings defense, because they are just incredible. I mean, they had a strong performance, a frustrating finish yesterday, but overall a strong performance. They held Detroit to just six points at 154 total yards in the first half. And let's talk, I mean, Jared Goff, first interception of the season. So, um... So... Yeah, the defense obviously, like I said, frustrating finish, but overall an incredible performance. Yeah, it's more of what we've seen from them all year. They have been the best unit in the NFL, and you saw early on. I mean, Jared Goff, I think, had not thrown an interception in his last 233 passes, which was the longest streak in the NFL. Obviously, it was under a lot of pressure. The Vikings got to him early and often. And what you saw happen in the second half of that game. They did seem like they got tired. They did seem like being able to contain Jameer Gibbs, who's maybe the best running back in the NFL. They struggled to do a lot of that in the second half. A lot of that, I think, just comes from the fact that the offense was not on the field very much, which means that the defense was, I think, on the field for 36 minutes or something like that in that game. So fatigue definitely played into what we saw late in that game. And you have a lot of defenders in that group that are on the older side. So there's going to be a little bit more that goes into the fourth quarter of a game from that standpoint as well. I think that's a lot of what you saw happen late in that game. But even when it came down to it at the end, Kevin O'Connell said, I'm going to punt because I trust my defense. To make a stop and they weren't able to get it done in the end. But yes, the pressure that they were able to bring and then some of the plays you saw them make, I'm going to make... especially early in that game, being able to contain things from one of the more prolific offenses in the NFL, they will keep them in games. And I think they'll continue to do that with Josh Allen coming in on Monday night. But It is a matter of that offense continuing to do its part and probably help that defense not have to carry as much of a load and certainly not spend as much time on the field as they have the last couple of weeks. You brought up Josh Allen, Monday Night Football, another great offense, another great quarterback. What do you think the Vikings have to do to make a comeback on Monday? Well, some of it's going to be, you're just going to have to score some points. I think they're going to be able to slow things down to a degree, but a quarterback like Josh Allen with the arm he has, he is the hardest quarterback in the NFL to bring down. He's able to make things happen with his feet all over the field. It is not reasonable to think that you're going to keep that team down and keep that team to 10 or 13 points in a game. You're going to probably have to go, I mean, even holding the Lions to 19 yesterday for as prolific as they've been is impressive, but I don't think you want to go into that game assuming that you're going to win 16-13. I think you're going to have to be able to put some drives together. And the other piece of that is if you can put long drives together. You keep Josh Allen off the field. He cannot hurt you when he's on the sidelines. So it's extending drives. I think being able to run the ball more effectively than they've done it, that's something they want to do a lot more. And I think being able to do it effectively against this team makes it so that Josh Allen is not as big of a factor. That's going to have to be a part of it. And then when they are on the field, being able to keep him pinned up and bring him down with some of those pressures will be a lot of it. You know, I know you cover the Vikings, but it's hard to talk about this game without talking about Jack Campbell. He was injured while tackling TJ Hawkinson early in the fourth quarter. Really hard to watch on TV. Suffered a suspected neck injury. There's reports that he wasn't able to move any of his extremities. The team hasn't confirmed much. But what do you know? Well, I think it was one of those that, you know, this is my 15th year covering the league, 15th year covering the Vikings. So you see things like this every once in a while. And when the medical professionals react as fast as they did, that's kind of when you know it's something serious. The degree to which it was people from the Lions, people from the Vikings, and obviously fans watching it on TV, they went to commercial break during a lot of it. But being in the stadium, being at Ford Field, I was able to watch kind of a lot of the treatment. They were attending to him for quite a long time. And I think a lot of it was trying to get him stabilized, get him to the point where you could put him on a backboard and put him on the stretcher without possibly risking further injury to his neck. All of that, you have to take a lot of care and you can't make a movement that's going to lead to something that may be a grave health concern even further. So when you see... As many medical personnel as there were around him and people reacting as fast as they did, that's kind of when you know, because I'm watching it through binoculars from the press box, kind of trying to see what's going on. But when people who know this stuff and people who do this every single day are reacting that urgently and reacting that fast. That doesn't happen all the time in the NFL, and there's only been a few times in my career covering the NFL that I've seen that kind of a thing happen, and that one stands out for that reason. We've heard the Lions say that... He's still in the hospital and being watched and there's initial positive signs. But the fact that we haven't heard a lot of specifics yet, I just think things are probably still pretty touch and go. It's hard for me to speculate and I don't really wanna do that. But I think when we are still waiting on a lot of concrete details, it probably tells you it's worth keeping Jack Campbell in your thoughts and prayers for sure. Yeah, and he certainly will be in our thoughts and prayers. So scary to watch that on TV and I can't imagine being there live. It looked pretty serious, so I appreciate you. Ben Gesling with the Star Tribune. Big game on Monday, and I'm sure we'll have you back after that. Sounds great. Thanks, Courtney. All right.