The Vikings make a trade move at quarterback, look to continue 3-0 winning streak

NINA MOINI: Time to knock on some wood, everybody, because the Minnesota Vikings are undefeated for the start of the season after their win yesterday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Minnesota Lynx, however, are off to a rough start in their playoff run. We're joined now by Minnesota Now sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson with the latest. Hey, guys.

ERIC NELSON: Happy Monday, Nina.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Nina, how are you?

NINA MOINI: Happy Monday. I'm doing well. I understand we have some breaking Vikings news, Wally. Oh my gosh. Quarterback JJ McCarthy has been traded. What does this mean for the team?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well changing uniforms he is. And he's going to the New York Giants where he will be coached by John Harbaugh. Now John Harbaugh's brother Jim coached JJ McCarthy at the University of Michigan when JJ McCarthy and the Michigan Wolverines won a national championship a few years ago. So there is a connection there.

The Vikings didn't get much back in return. They didn't get much out of JJ McCarthy for spending a number-- a first round draft choice on him, number 10 overall. They get a fifth round pick, which I don't know. Eric and I were talking this morning about this, and I said I-- off the top of my head, I can't really name a fifth round pick who is currently making a major contributions to the Vikings or any time in the last few years.

So they really get nothing out of the JJ McCarthy deal. I think that they just kind of cut their losses. And so JJ is out, and last year, he missed several games because of injuries. He missed the entire rookie season because of an injury. So he really didn't produce much at all and spent a lot of time on the sidelines.

Now the good news as you alluded to is that the Vikings win. What this means is that their third string quarterback is now Max Brosmer, the former Gopher. He was basically the number three quarterback last year. But they win with Kyler Murray yesterday, and Kyler wasn't a great day but it was efficient enough to help him get the victory.

Let's face it. The Vikings defense is why they're winning. They beat Tampa yesterday 23-16. The defense sacked Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield six times. Kyler Murray was sacked three times for the Vikings, but they got contributions from Myles Price. Returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown. Oh by the way, that's the first punt return for a Viking in 10 years that went for a touchdown. Yeah, it's been a long time.

Kyler Murray did hook up with Jordan Addison a 41-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. But the other story is Will Reichard their kicker. He's made 26 in a row. He made three more yesterday 56, 54, and 43 yards so some good things happening for the Vikings.

An interesting move though to move on from JJ McCarthy, we'll see how this play out. Of course, the cynic are going to-- the cynics are going to say, well, that just means that JJ McCarthy is going to lead somebody to a Super Bowl someday.

NINA MOINI: That usually happens, right, after somebody--

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, it happened with Sam Darnold last year. So anything's possible.

NINA MOINI: Well, it's still early in the season, Eric. Who are the Vikings playing next, and what do they need to work on?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, they've got Miami next Sunday, Nina. That'll be a 3:05 PM kickoff to accommodate the Twin Cities Marathon, which will start very early on Sunday through the Twin Cities.

Dolphins are 0-3. Vikings as you mentioned, are 3-0, and this is a rare trip to Minneapolis for Miami. On Sunday, the Dolphins get beat by Kansas City 24-10 at Hard Rock Stadium down in South Florida. Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker had a touchdown run and a touchdown catch to pace the Chiefs.

Now Miami's Jeff Hafley is off to a slow start as the team's new head coach, but he does know the Vikings well. Hafley was the Green Bay defensive coordinator for two seasons. The Dolphins though have struggled for 2 and 1/2 decades now. Their last playoff win came in Y2K, and since then, Miami has gone to the postseason just five times.

Now this is going to come up during the week. I'm sure that Brian Flores is not going to want to say a whole lot about it, but this game is going to have extra meaning for the Minnesota defensive coordinator. He was the Dolphins head coach from 2019 through 2021. Flores led the Dolphins to winning records in 2020 and 2021. His overall record was 24 and 25.

However, it was a very acrimonious parting for Flores and the Dolphins. After being let go by Miami, Flores claimed that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss in 2019, his first season, as the head coach to tank games on purpose to get a higher draft choice. So in 2022, Flores sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the Denver Broncos, and the New York Giants, JJ McCarthy's new team, accusing them of racial discrimination in the interview process for head coaching positions in the NFL.

This past May, the US Supreme Court denied a bid by the NFL to keep this case against the league by Flores out of court. So simply put, don't look for Flores and Stephen Ross, the Miami owner, to break any bread Saturday night before the game.

And one other footnote. These teams met in a Super Bowl back in the day, Nina Super, Bowl VIII, Miami 24, Minnesota 7. The game was played in Houston.

NINA MOINI: Let's move on to the Lynx here. We got a few minutes left. Some good news, bad news, right? Coach Cheryl Reeve has been named WNBA Coach of the Year for a fifth time. Olivia Miles has been named Rookie of the Year, and then Miles was back on the court yesterday after an injury, right, Wally.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, and she played hurt, but-- and I'm guessing she's not 100%. Not a great game. She had just 11 points, 1 assist. So it wasn't a great-- and they lost the basketball game.

And I can tell you right now Cheryl Reeve would take that Coach of the Year Award and give it back in exchange for a WNBA championship. And that's just how they op-- that's how you operate if you're a winner, and they've won four WNBA titles.

But they're not going to get their fifth unless they bounce back quickly. They play tomorrow night. They lost last night or yesterday afternoon at Target Center 91-75.

Here's an interesting stat for you. They are 17-4 on the year as visitors. So on road games, they're 17-4. Home games they're just 15-8 after losing yesterday.

NINA MOINI: Interesting.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: So they're way better on the road than they are at home. And guess what. Tomorrow they're in New York, so maybe that's a good sign.

The bad news is they have not played well against New York this year. They are 1-3 against the Liberty. As I said, game 2 is tomorrow. If the Lynx win, they'll be back at Target Center on Thursday. Oh, by the way Breanna Stewart had 34 points and 12 rebounds for New York yesterday.

NINA MOINI: Let's skip ahead a little bit to the Twins season, Wally. Officially over. No playoffs for them. I know you've seen a lot of games. You watched a lot of stuff go down. But they ended the regular season on a high note, right?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They did. I went yesterday, and actually it was a decent crowd yesterday. They got a nice game out of Dean Kremer. They got a home run out of Josh Bell. They got another one out of Royce Lewis.

I think there were some positives. They got a lot of young guys. They win the baseball game yesterday. They finished with 70-- 77-- 75 wins this year. Not what they had wanted for sure. You want to at least break even. They didn't do that this year.

So I think that they have some hope. They've got a lot of young guys that I think they're hoping will turn this thing around next year. And they got to stay healthy. They got to get-- they have to stay healthy, and that's something that has been a bugaboo for them for sure.

NINA MOINI: And, Eric, we got about a minute left here. The Minnesota United lost in Seattle. How's their season going?

ERIC NELSON: It's going poorly. Minnesota United got beat 3-1 in the Emerald City Saturday night. They're in 14th place now in the MLS Western Conference. So they're going to have a lot of work ahead of them to make the playoffs.

I should mention the other event in Seattle Saturday night, and that was the Gophers beating the Huskies 27-24 in college football. I was there, and it's just the fourth time Minnesota's won a game in Seattle. The other victories came in 1936, 1948, and 1952. And after the game finished at approximately 1:25 AM Central Time, Gophers head coach PJ Fleck embraced linebacker Maverick Baranowski. He was bleeding from the mouth after being hit on the final play of the game by a cleat.

NINA MOINI: Oh my gosh.

ERIC NELSON: PJ then swiped some of the blood on his own cheek.

NINA MOINI: All right.

ERIC NELSON: The video blew up. It went viral. PJ's vampire moment capped off a night where blood, sweat, and tears were clearly left on the field turf unless mistaken.

NINA MOINI: All right, guys, we gotta go. Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, thanks so much. And thanks to all of you for listening. Hope you'll join us back here tomorrow at noon.

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