Colin Cowherd Podcast - Super Bowl Week Preview: Darnold From Bust To Top Ten QB, Seahawks Valuation Too Low, Vikings Fire GM, Kubiak Will Succeed

Back from a long flight and a flat-feeling show day, I tossed out the Vikings shake-up and the paternity-leave chatter and asked John what really got the GM shown the door.

Draft misses and a frayed partnership with Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores did it, and stepping away at cutdown time cracked the bunker trust you need in these jobs built on human capital, not spreadsheets.

They passed on veteran options and hitched to J.J. McCarthy; was that the GM validating his own pick, or did O’Connell truly share that conviction?

I doubt they took a quarterback the coach was lukewarm on, but desperation can warp decisions, and reworking a top pick’s mechanics screams risk with few off-ramps to fix it now.

A trusted league voice told me the team lost faith in J.J.’s confidence and physical ceiling, which sure sounds like coach–GM strain boiling over.

Skip the office during the wildest roster days and people question whether you’re shoulder‑to‑shoulder with them, and once that doubt creeps in, respect is hard to recover.

Pro football is a six‑month grind where you show up sick, miss family stuff, and push through, and the internet may hate it but the building keeps score on sacrifice.

Take every minute of leave in most careers, but timing is everything here; he was fired for personnel and politics, with that absence accelerating a breakup already underway.

Give me the new coach who’ll overdeliver; I’m in on Clint Kubiak with the Raiders because the cap, a better rookie QB, Colton Miller, a real back, and Max Crosby set the table.

I’m with you: coaches around the league vouch for Kubiak, his family offense fits Fernando Mendoza perfectly, and while some jobs look shiny, ownership volatility like in Tennessee can undo smart hires.

Las Vegas can even consider flipping Crosby for a haul and build with a longer lens, not the win‑today urgency of the previous regime.

If Sam Darnold wins the big one cleanly, where does he land in the quarterback hierarchy?

He’s safely top ten, because the size and arm are real and the late‑season version showed smarter restraint, more gunslinger than surgeon but under control.

He always had Luck‑like traits in movement and toughness, even if he’s not that guy on the whiteboard.

He learned to eat sacks, manage moments, and his stops with Kyle Shanahan and Kevin O’Connell rebuilt confidence, a Plunkett‑style reboot that proves landing spot luck matters.

In a no‑huddle, snap‑heavy league I care less about interceptions and more about horsepower, and I’ll take big touchdowns with teen picks over safe and stale.

Those old spotless stat lines are relics; modern offenses chase explosives and live with some mess, which is why a creator like Caleb can thrive despite uglier stretches.

On the business side, NBA teams are trickier to operate now, while a Seahawks sale at a six‑billion tag would be a steal given the brand, cash flow, John Schneider, and Mike Macdonald.

Seattle’s a corporate cash machine with guaranteed media money and a solid stadium, and if I could own anything it’s an NFL club or an EPL team because the TV leverage and game‑day buzz are unmatched.

That’s a wrap, buddy—good chat; The Volume.