I was a Kyler Murray skeptic before the Cardinals drafted him. Considering that the Cardinals are the Franklin Pierce of the NFL--drunk and largely forgotten--they're better off without him.
And it seems to me the way to develop a quarterback is protect him, give him a running game and a competent receiver room, and keep him away from cuckoo-nanners coaches.
I played endless Strat-o-Matic baseball through high school. (Rural school, no drivers license.) The 1973 Atlanta Braves were the first team featuring three 40 home run players: Davey Johnson, Darrell Evans, and my boyhood hero Hank Aaron who popped 40 dingers in just 392 at bats, a one-in-ten chance to go yard. Although Hank always played au natural, his Strat card that season was roided up.
There was another somewhat popular football boardgame I encountered in the mid 80's - Statis-Pro Football, which was much better suited to draft leagues than APBA or Strat-o-Matic. Yardage results were listed on the player cards, so an RB with a 7.0 avg would have some pretty good numbers, as did a WR with, say, a 20.0 avg. In fact, having a 20.0 avg as a WR meant the minimum gain for that WR was 10 yards.
In Statis-Pro, players had "endurance ratings", which could limit them to being used only once per drive or once per quarter, and the vast majority of the 10-yard-minimum receivers were limited in this way. We referred to these players as "mutants", and sure enough, one of the league GMs assembled about 15 of these guys on his team in the inaugural draft. His name was Murray, and we referred to his team as "Murray's Mutants".
APBA and Strat had similar weak controls on usage. They were easy to ignore. Advanced Strat would often give a low-sample player a sever "Right-Wrong" split, so Keaton Mitchell's big gains might only come if the opponent was in the wrong defense.
I played Statis Pro. It had cool features but such tiny, flimsy cards!!!
"I’d love to speculate on their draft strategy, but I won’t go on a jeremiad about it."
Holy Our-Lady-of-Old-Testament-Puns, Batman!
And, to raise the nerd level even higher: The singing group I direct performed Thomas Tallis's setting of The Lamentations of Jeremiah last year, and I was so excited to be able to write in the program notes about "a literal jeremiad."
I'll push back a bit on the Kyler/O'Connell section. I don't think the argument is (or should be, at least) that O'Connell is that when he has at least a league average quarterback his teams are contenders. And Murray is at least a league average quarterback. There's no more developing him, not at his age, so I don't think O'Connell is going to unlock an MVP season from Murray, but he'll be better than JJ McCarthy. And that alone makes it a good move.
Also, dismissing the Vikings' coach and especially wide receivers as being just like what Murray had in Arizona? C'mon! Jordan Addison is at least as good as any receiver Murray played with in Arizona, much less Jordan freaking Jefferson. That's a few steps beyond healthy skepticism.
Lastly, a question for everyone: without looking it up, can you name the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals? I was sitting there reading that section thinking "they did hire someone, right?" Truly the NFL's most invisible franchise.
We don't know who the coach is. But we are also guessing about Murray as a "league average" QB based on 7 years of picking and choosing his good moments and ignoring injuries, December collapses, soft benching and so on.
The Kingsbury-era WRs were supposed to be some sort of superteam around Murray.
Make no mistake, I am not saying Kyler Murray is a good quarterback. I agree with you that the narrative that he’s going to turn it around and become an MVP candidate is absurd, and similarly so is O’Connell’s reputation as a QB guru. But I also think all three of these statements are objectively true: Kyler Murray is a better quarterback than anyone on the 2025 Vikings; Kevin O’Connell is a better coach than anyone Kyler Murray has ever had; Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are the best pair of receivers he’s ever played with. That’s all.
Mike LaFleur. Matt LaFleur's brother and a guy that was on McVay's staff this past season...
Regarding Kyler Murray, I just can't get him tossing that pick 6 in the playoffs against the Rams in the 2021 playoffs out of my head. I don't see it man. He's short, it's been reported he's aloof, and he'll have moments of panicking that you just can't do as an NFL QB. I don't see his signing as a game changer for the Vikings.
This seems like as good a place to put this as any:
I thought that since Mike just posted a feature on every NFL team, it would be an opportunity to see which teams drew the most interest from the TDZ fanbase. Here are the number of comments on each team:
Raiders: 31
Chiefs: 30
Chargers: 19
Broncos: 13
Browns: 27
Steelers: 24
Ravens: 10
Bengals: 18/2 = 9
Texans: 10
Titans: 18/2 = 9
Colts: 6
Jaguars: 6
Jets: 43
Dolphins: 30
Bills: 24
Patriots: 31/2 = 15.5
Cardinals: 24
Seahawks: 31/2 = 15.5
49ers: 12
Rams: 3
Lions: 30
Packers: 30
Vikings: 17
Bears: 12
NFC South: 8/4 = 2 each
Cowboys: 35
Eagles: 30
Giants: 22
Commanders: 16
From this I can deduce that Mike's subscribers have an east-coast bias. And that if Mike wants to bring in the eyeballs, he should focus on writing about the Jets, Cowboys and Raiders. ;-P
The East Coast bias has a lot of factors, one of which being I post at 7:30 am/4:30 western time and usually am most active on socials in early mornings. Most of my media friends who help promote me are also on the East Coast. But also ... even when the Rams are great they don't generate much chatter.
imo Kyler is clearly the best option for the Vikings, and the Vikings clearly the best option for Kyler. But I've never been a Kyler believer, so expect it to end badly anyway. As a street person's Lamar Jackson, Kyler requires an offense closely tailored to what he does bring to the table. And then still isn't all THAT productive.
So what're the odds on O'Connell being the first coach axed next year? Pretty good, I'd think?
I dunno about axing O'Connell. He's definitely viewed as a wunderkind in that frozen hell west of Green Bay. I think KOC's rope is long enough that his feet touch the ground for a few more seasons.
Bronco fanboi here. "A little more sizzle" is a massive understatement. Standing pat in the NFL is falling behind. I certainly hope the Pa(y)tons don't think running it back means they assume we're going to come out of the locker room tied at the start of the second half of the AFC title game. Tougher schedule, one-score game regression, injuries....would have liked to have seen *something* in the first week beyond resigning depth. Won't miss Greenlaw, but Trautman? Singleton? Krull? Yawn. Consensus going into free agency was the team needed ILB, TE, RB. One week later, yeah.
Could we at least get a new WR to draw the fans’ ire so Courtland Sutton doesn’t have to go it alone? I mean, the Eagles don’t want AJ Brown that much, right?
100% agree with this. At least do SOMETHING. I've grown okay with not getting, say, Etienne and Devin Lloyd, but how about Tyler Allgeier instead of Dobbins, and Charlie Kolar instead the currently invisible tight end corps? If they don't absolutely nail some playmakers in the draft, you're right, they are falling behind pretty much by default.
What reason(s) are folks giving for panning the Chubb signing?? Can't see any substantive one for thinking it's clearly bad, or questionable even.
My guess is those folks are just sour on Chubb for making them look dumb with their earlier "Chubb Is A SUPERSTUD!!!" takes. Which they're now taking out on him. Makes emotional sense.
I don't think it's anything to do with Chubb, more that the Bills have previous when it comes to adding name brand edge rushers believing them to be the missing piece (see also: Joey Bosa, Von Miller).
Could also argue that he's a consolation prize compared to either Hendrickson (with whom they were strongly linked) or Crosby but signing either one of them would likely have had the same result but at a higher price.
Awesome job as always, Mike. Not sure how you do it, day in, day out. Maybe I don't wanna know, lol. Yeah, the chicanery of the dirty birds in the Crosby fiasco definitely took most of the oxygen out of the room. I am intrigued by the Kyler Murray signing, though. I always thought Tom Clements was the closest thing I'll ever see to a QB guru, but even a Michelin Chef can't make chicken soup from chicken sh#t. Hopefully you get a respite between free agency and the buildup to the draft. Best regards
Jerry Jones doesn’t care if he has a winning football team, he’s wants a brand he can sell. That means getting players with name recognition. Once you understand this, all his moves make sense. Osa Odighizuwa isn’t a recognizable name, Rashan Gary is.
Oh, man, the hours spent playing APBA. There was also a board game called NFL Strategy; my best friend and I whiled away many a Saturday afternoon watching that marble bounce between the springs.
I was a Kyler Murray skeptic before the Cardinals drafted him. Considering that the Cardinals are the Franklin Pierce of the NFL--drunk and largely forgotten--they're better off without him.
And it seems to me the way to develop a quarterback is protect him, give him a running game and a competent receiver room, and keep him away from cuckoo-nanners coaches.
A Franklin Pierce deep cut! Don't see too many of those these days...
Thanks for the APBA shout out! I used to do a similar exploit in their baseball sim by finding relief pitchers who'd hit a home run or two.
I played endless Strat-o-Matic baseball through high school. (Rural school, no drivers license.) The 1973 Atlanta Braves were the first team featuring three 40 home run players: Davey Johnson, Darrell Evans, and my boyhood hero Hank Aaron who popped 40 dingers in just 392 at bats, a one-in-ten chance to go yard. Although Hank always played au natural, his Strat card that season was roided up.
There was another somewhat popular football boardgame I encountered in the mid 80's - Statis-Pro Football, which was much better suited to draft leagues than APBA or Strat-o-Matic. Yardage results were listed on the player cards, so an RB with a 7.0 avg would have some pretty good numbers, as did a WR with, say, a 20.0 avg. In fact, having a 20.0 avg as a WR meant the minimum gain for that WR was 10 yards.
In Statis-Pro, players had "endurance ratings", which could limit them to being used only once per drive or once per quarter, and the vast majority of the 10-yard-minimum receivers were limited in this way. We referred to these players as "mutants", and sure enough, one of the league GMs assembled about 15 of these guys on his team in the inaugural draft. His name was Murray, and we referred to his team as "Murray's Mutants".
APBA and Strat had similar weak controls on usage. They were easy to ignore. Advanced Strat would often give a low-sample player a sever "Right-Wrong" split, so Keaton Mitchell's big gains might only come if the opponent was in the wrong defense.
I played Statis Pro. It had cool features but such tiny, flimsy cards!!!
"I’d love to speculate on their draft strategy, but I won’t go on a jeremiad about it."
Holy Our-Lady-of-Old-Testament-Puns, Batman!
And, to raise the nerd level even higher: The singing group I direct performed Thomas Tallis's setting of The Lamentations of Jeremiah last year, and I was so excited to be able to write in the program notes about "a literal jeremiad."
Oh the irony at least in my own mind that Bradley Chubb is now on the same team as Josh Allen.
I'll push back a bit on the Kyler/O'Connell section. I don't think the argument is (or should be, at least) that O'Connell is that when he has at least a league average quarterback his teams are contenders. And Murray is at least a league average quarterback. There's no more developing him, not at his age, so I don't think O'Connell is going to unlock an MVP season from Murray, but he'll be better than JJ McCarthy. And that alone makes it a good move.
Also, dismissing the Vikings' coach and especially wide receivers as being just like what Murray had in Arizona? C'mon! Jordan Addison is at least as good as any receiver Murray played with in Arizona, much less Jordan freaking Jefferson. That's a few steps beyond healthy skepticism.
Lastly, a question for everyone: without looking it up, can you name the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals? I was sitting there reading that section thinking "they did hire someone, right?" Truly the NFL's most invisible franchise.
The anonymity of the Cardinals works both ways!
We don't know who the coach is. But we are also guessing about Murray as a "league average" QB based on 7 years of picking and choosing his good moments and ignoring injuries, December collapses, soft benching and so on.
The Kingsbury-era WRs were supposed to be some sort of superteam around Murray.
Make no mistake, I am not saying Kyler Murray is a good quarterback. I agree with you that the narrative that he’s going to turn it around and become an MVP candidate is absurd, and similarly so is O’Connell’s reputation as a QB guru. But I also think all three of these statements are objectively true: Kyler Murray is a better quarterback than anyone on the 2025 Vikings; Kevin O’Connell is a better coach than anyone Kyler Murray has ever had; Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are the best pair of receivers he’s ever played with. That’s all.
I know his name but I definitely couldn't pick him out of a lineup.
Mike LaFleur. Matt LaFleur's brother and a guy that was on McVay's staff this past season...
Regarding Kyler Murray, I just can't get him tossing that pick 6 in the playoffs against the Rams in the 2021 playoffs out of my head. I don't see it man. He's short, it's been reported he's aloof, and he'll have moments of panicking that you just can't do as an NFL QB. I don't see his signing as a game changer for the Vikings.
The curse of the 1925 Pottsville Maroons remains undefeated until the Bidwills sell up.
This seems like as good a place to put this as any:
I thought that since Mike just posted a feature on every NFL team, it would be an opportunity to see which teams drew the most interest from the TDZ fanbase. Here are the number of comments on each team:
Raiders: 31
Chiefs: 30
Chargers: 19
Broncos: 13
Browns: 27
Steelers: 24
Ravens: 10
Bengals: 18/2 = 9
Texans: 10
Titans: 18/2 = 9
Colts: 6
Jaguars: 6
Jets: 43
Dolphins: 30
Bills: 24
Patriots: 31/2 = 15.5
Cardinals: 24
Seahawks: 31/2 = 15.5
49ers: 12
Rams: 3
Lions: 30
Packers: 30
Vikings: 17
Bears: 12
NFC South: 8/4 = 2 each
Cowboys: 35
Eagles: 30
Giants: 22
Commanders: 16
From this I can deduce that Mike's subscribers have an east-coast bias. And that if Mike wants to bring in the eyeballs, he should focus on writing about the Jets, Cowboys and Raiders. ;-P
Early on I was sure I detected a strong correlation between # of comments and team-is-a-dumpster-fire / Mike-got-out-his-flamethrower.
Negativity sells!
The East Coast bias has a lot of factors, one of which being I post at 7:30 am/4:30 western time and usually am most active on socials in early mornings. Most of my media friends who help promote me are also on the East Coast. But also ... even when the Rams are great they don't generate much chatter.
Or home field advantage
imo Kyler is clearly the best option for the Vikings, and the Vikings clearly the best option for Kyler. But I've never been a Kyler believer, so expect it to end badly anyway. As a street person's Lamar Jackson, Kyler requires an offense closely tailored to what he does bring to the table. And then still isn't all THAT productive.
So what're the odds on O'Connell being the first coach axed next year? Pretty good, I'd think?
I dunno about axing O'Connell. He's definitely viewed as a wunderkind in that frozen hell west of Green Bay. I think KOC's rope is long enough that his feet touch the ground for a few more seasons.
I dunno. They just offed Kwasi. So no head remaining between O'Connell and the chopping block.
KOC seems like a pretty good coach but gets a lot of "Look what he has done under the circumstances" acclaim.
("Good" as in 'bettable')
Donald Trump Grifting : Don Jr Grifting = Kirk Cousins Contracts : Daniel Jones Contracts.
Bronco fanboi here. "A little more sizzle" is a massive understatement. Standing pat in the NFL is falling behind. I certainly hope the Pa(y)tons don't think running it back means they assume we're going to come out of the locker room tied at the start of the second half of the AFC title game. Tougher schedule, one-score game regression, injuries....would have liked to have seen *something* in the first week beyond resigning depth. Won't miss Greenlaw, but Trautman? Singleton? Krull? Yawn. Consensus going into free agency was the team needed ILB, TE, RB. One week later, yeah.
Could we at least get a new WR to draw the fans’ ire so Courtland Sutton doesn’t have to go it alone? I mean, the Eagles don’t want AJ Brown that much, right?
100% agree with this. At least do SOMETHING. I've grown okay with not getting, say, Etienne and Devin Lloyd, but how about Tyler Allgeier instead of Dobbins, and Charlie Kolar instead the currently invisible tight end corps? If they don't absolutely nail some playmakers in the draft, you're right, they are falling behind pretty much by default.
What reason(s) are folks giving for panning the Chubb signing?? Can't see any substantive one for thinking it's clearly bad, or questionable even.
My guess is those folks are just sour on Chubb for making them look dumb with their earlier "Chubb Is A SUPERSTUD!!!" takes. Which they're now taking out on him. Makes emotional sense.
I don't think it's anything to do with Chubb, more that the Bills have previous when it comes to adding name brand edge rushers believing them to be the missing piece (see also: Joey Bosa, Von Miller).
Could also argue that he's a consolation prize compared to either Hendrickson (with whom they were strongly linked) or Crosby but signing either one of them would likely have had the same result but at a higher price.
Awesome job as always, Mike. Not sure how you do it, day in, day out. Maybe I don't wanna know, lol. Yeah, the chicanery of the dirty birds in the Crosby fiasco definitely took most of the oxygen out of the room. I am intrigued by the Kyler Murray signing, though. I always thought Tom Clements was the closest thing I'll ever see to a QB guru, but even a Michelin Chef can't make chicken soup from chicken sh#t. Hopefully you get a respite between free agency and the buildup to the draft. Best regards
Jerry Jones doesn’t care if he has a winning football team, he’s wants a brand he can sell. That means getting players with name recognition. Once you understand this, all his moves make sense. Osa Odighizuwa isn’t a recognizable name, Rashan Gary is.
Oh, man, the hours spent playing APBA. There was also a board game called NFL Strategy; my best friend and I whiled away many a Saturday afternoon watching that marble bounce between the springs.
Check the banner atop my BlueSky profile some time.
"I’d love to speculate on their draft strategy, but I won’t go on a jeremiad about it." -- clever, but please no, don't jinx the fantasy owners!!
Speaking of which -- there's a Magic the Gathering variant of Fantasy Football??