Vikings, Broncos Release Surprising Order at QB on Depth Chart
Transcript
00:00Some interesting initial quarterback depth charts released yesterday around the National
00:08Football League that involved two of the six rookie quarterbacks taken in the top 12 of
00:14the 2024 NFL Draft.
00:16We start in Minneapolis with the Vikings, Sam Darnold, who is listed as the starter
00:22following the off-season program in Minnesota by head coach Kevin O'Connell.
00:27In the first depth chart of preseason, Sam Darnold remains the starter.
00:31The 10th overall pick, the rookie out of Michigan, J.J. McCarthy, his backup.
00:36This was really the true surprise in Denver.
00:39Bo Nix, not even the backup, he's listed as the third string QB behind both Zach Wilson
00:46and the number one quarterback, Jarrett Stidham.
00:49DRS, the caption of that graphic that you saw on your screen was, does it matter at
00:57this stage of training camp before week number one fully gets underway in the preseason?
01:03So answer the question.
01:04Does it matter?
01:05100% it does.
01:07It matters to me and I understand what coaches do and some of the mind games that they like
01:12to play and you got to earn your position and I don't care where, you know, you always
01:15like these ones, Ben.
01:16I don't care where you were drafted, the best man will play.
01:19That's not how sports works here.
01:20You draft a guy in the first round, he's expected to be out there.
01:22Otherwise, your general manager will probably fire you for embarrassing him and vice versa,
01:27the opposite direction.
01:28But let's also take place here.
01:30Sometimes you say to yourself, oh, this depth chart is interesting.
01:32Well, how about when Aaron Rodgers gets drafted to the Green Bay Packers, but Brett Favre
01:36is ahead of him?
01:37Hey, by the way, Favre's first on the depth chart.
01:38Of course, that's going to make sense.
01:40And the same thing with Green Bay did.
01:41You go out and get love as a draft pick, as a quarterback high, and you don't play, oh,
01:45why is he only the second quarterback?
01:46Well, Aaron Rodgers is above him.
01:48Let's take a look at some of these depth charts of how they're playing out.
01:51Like Sam Darnold has been kicked around.
01:52I'm not saying he's not an NFL quarterback at heart because he is drafted high, teams
01:57still think he has some talent.
01:58They're going to give him a chance.
01:59But Minnesota isn't one of those football teams that we look at like the New England
02:03Patriots that goes, do we want to kill this kid out here?
02:06Because he has no weapons, no talent in the division.
02:08He is going to get pasted the first seven, eight games of the season.
02:12We were led to believe J.J. McCarthy was the ultimate winner.
02:16Unbelievable at the chalkboard.
02:18Boy, when you get him into the pros, he is going to be it from day one and command that
02:22cuddle.
02:23We even had Jim Harbaugh thinking out there in Los Angeles that he was going to trade
02:27Justin Herbert because he never saw a quarterback ever around men that could be able to lead
02:31a group of guys to a victory.
02:33So now we're saying to ourselves, wait a second, we've watched J.J. McCarthy in his pro days,
02:39in his OTAs and in training camp now, and he's not better than Sam Darnold.
02:43That could be an issue.
02:44Flip it over to the Broncos.
02:45You went out and said, all right, well, we're going to trade Russell Wilson.
02:48The future starts now.
02:49The future is going to be Jared Stidham over Zach Wilson.
02:52Now I understand it's a depth chart.
02:53We haven't seen any preseason.
02:55This could change here.
02:56But why are you doing this?
02:57Because typically myself, I've seen it at every level of sports, professional, college
03:02and high school.
03:03Do you know what typically happens on the first day of practice?
03:05The coach has the football and goes, you are my starter in front of the team, flips on
03:09the football and says, lead this team.
03:11And you set the tone from day one.
03:14Players around camp understand how well these guys play in camp, who deserves the start.
03:17But if you are going to be the leader of men and be the franchise quarterback to be drafted
03:23in round number one and be behind Zach Wilson and Jared Stidham, I don't know what Sean
03:28Payton is doing at this point.
03:30So worse here in Denver than Minnesota for me, I don't understand.
03:35You get drafted round number one on a decent football team.
03:38You better be the starter day number one in OTAs.
03:41If not, I'm questioning the general manager and the head coach.
03:44And if I'm an owner, I'm saying, I don't know if I have the right guys in place.
03:48If you just sold me on the franchise guy that can't beat out mediocre bums at this point.