Green Light with Chris Long - Minnesota Vikings Training Camp! Justin Jefferson, Harrison Smith, Harrison Phillips, Christian Darrisaw & Brian O'Neill!

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Coming to you from the Land of 10,00 Lakes! Chris and Beau make their mark at Minnesota Vikings training camp, get to talk to Justin Jefferson, Harrison Smith, Harrison Phillips, Christian Darrisaw & Brian O'Neill, all at the pristine Vikings training facility! Enjoy the convos, a great time with the dudes in Minnesota. Chris starts things off with a some football talk, an ode to Culver's and a Best Flight and Worst Flight from our trip so far. Enjoy! (00:00) - Intro (4:50) - Minnesota Vikings Visit (24:10) - Quick Review of Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels in NFL's WK2 Preseason (36:30) - Best and Worst Flight (44:08) - Kyle Long's New Podcast! (50:21) - Harrison Smith on Legendary Vikings Career, Brian Flores' Defense & Getting into it with Beau Allen (1:08:26) - Harrison Phillips on Versatility in the Vikings Defense, Wearing Sleeves and Learning from Kyle Williams and Star Lotulelei (1:27:15) - Justin Jefferson on Vikings Outlook, Playing with Sam Darnold, Favorite WRs and Learning from Keenan McCardell and Jerry Sullivan (1:35:21) - Brian O'Neill & Christian Darrisaw on Vikings OLine, Working Together as Tackles, Christian Darrisaw's Virginia Tech Career and Brian O'Neill's Favorite Block Want your Green Light Merch so you can look exactly like Chris and the fellas? Hit the website below and get kitted! https://stores.kotisdesign.com/yotehouse/products Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam's got a little play extension. Yes, you do. Is that something that's fun to see? Fun to see. He can extend the play, and those are the plays that you score on. You know, those scramble drills, those off-off-guard plays, that's the ones you love. When they scramble out the pocket and make a play downfield,

and, I mean, that's the way you get the yardage. That's where you get the extreme plays that we all love. So, I mean, to see that in practice, with to see it in game time. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Thank you for jumping on today. We are making our NFC North trip right now. We are in Minnesota.

We're going to head to Green Bay tomorrow, bringing more interviews. But today's episode, we've got plenty of Vikings, Harrison Smith, Harrison Phillips, Justin Jefferson, Brian O'Neill, Christian Darrasaw. They all stopped by. Have a good time with us. We toured the Vikings facility, and boy, did we not want to leave. It was a blast and a half. That facility is top-nodied.

to one of the best in the NFL. We do a quick open from our Airbnb. It's a little bit nicer than the one in Buffalo. We had both Harrison's in studio, and then we were rocking with Justin Jefferson, Brian O'Neill, and Christian Dersaw at the practice field outside. So you might hear some gaiters running around.

You might hear some people in the background. You might hear some audio blips. But it's all in good fun. Enjoy the interviews. I'm in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hello, Wisconsin. I'm up here in an Airbnb. I'm sitting on a couch that I'm desperately hoping has not been the site of group sex.

Casting couch. Yeah, because I'm not going to docks the Airbnb, but the Wi-Fi password was Exotic Star 30. It's in a little bit better of a neighborhood than our, than our Buffalo Airbnbs. I'm convinced that Matt wants me killed. He really doesn't like me because where he put us in Buffalo. Was questionable.

Questionable to say the least. It's like the set for every cop shoot I've ever seen on TV. It was like, do you remember that? It could have been. Oh, yeah. Like there has been a cop scene on that street. Yeah, for sure. In the 90s.

it was like a simple Google map search would have would have been let's stay away from here we did better in Minneapolis where we were this morning and now we're in Green Bay and this this place is lovely uh the drive from Minneapolis to Green Bay wasn't bad we pulled for you motherfuckers you were sleeping dudes are tired so essentially let me back up this podcast what you can expect from it is a you know just a little over open set the table for what you're going to hear over the next hour or so a little update on where we are and some Minnesota Vikings interviews we just came from Minnesota we are now in Wisconsin whatever that entails there's four hours in the car we stuffed ourselves with culvers

and got on the highway a shout out to Ralph for making it up in record time I'm pretty sure time and space yeah it was uh that was a construct we just got here he said uh took us three hours what's the statute of limitation on admitting to reckless driving it's gotta be 20 minutes podcast but i think you outsmarted GPS by over 30 minutes it was 45 it was 45 yeah we were supposed to be here

in five minutes anyways we are we are in green bay quicker than we thought we have a uh a nice order of groceries coming in a couple minutes uh some snacks some skippy peanut butter bites stuff like that all the essentials some some uh skinny pop shit like that i got two edibles cooking down in the furnace uh and i'm hoping that we can finish this open before they kick in ready break so we are uh we are again we're in green bay tomorrow we go to green bay packers camp today we went to the Vikings camp and I just want to say that place is remarkable. The Vikings facility is like a city. It really is. When we pulled up, I thought to, I really asked,

and there was a moment where I was like, man, you are stupid because I know that that stadium's downtown. But the building that they practice in and do business day to day is so spectacular and well laid out and massive that I thought we were pulling up to the stadium. I go, I had the geography. This city all wrong. I thought we were outside the city. What's the stadium doing here? Nope.

It's their practice facility. And it was just massive. And it went for miles. And you know the things they say about people from Minnesota, they're really nice. Everybody with that organization, whether they're from Minnesota or they just work for the Vikings. And they might have coached somewhere else before. they might have been in personnel somewhere else before they are all just really quality people and it's an organization you just want to root for you know i'm a big fan of the coach who by the way

came over and shot the breeze with us for like 10 minutes i tried to give him the coach you can go back and coach your team now but he's just a dude he was awesome he just wants to hang out with the fellas uh we're like the same damn age yeah and we uh we caught up with kOC we caught up with B. Flo, whose name was in the news today, listen, I'm not going to get in between those two grown men's business. What I will say is this, I really like B-Flo, and I was happy to see him. You know what I'm talking about, the whole thing today. But I really don't have an opinion on that because I wasn't there. It's pretty simple in that, in that regard.

Now, having said that, it wasn't just the coaches that I was excited to see. I was excited to see, well, Josh Hanks, I want to shout out to. He was a strength coach in Philly, our Super Bowl. year he's got a beautiful weight room they have a number of players that i played with or you know played against just a a bunch of guys i mean camu is there from philly we saw camu um guys that i've gotten to know over the years a little bit better just from a distance our philly listeners will i feel delighted to know wilbert montgomery wilbur montgomery was there willbert montgomery was there he's just kind of popping around from camp to camp like uh kind of help it out and consulting a little bit

i don't want to i don't want to i don't want to fuck up the job description for him but just having a guy like wilbert montgomery former legendary running back for the birds um in the building you know i got to meet um i got to meet keenan mcardell in the hallway in one of their giant hallways those hallways are enormous they're like the ceilings had to be 75 feet a fall from the top of the hallway would be fatal. It was cavernous. It was huge. Just looking straight up.

It was huge and beautiful. The whole thing, you walk into their welcome room, which is the most important room in the building, right? Visitors come in through there. And it is gorgeous. There's good natural light. There's leather furniture that's evidently four or five years old that smells like it's brand new.

They have the new couch smell emanating through the beautiful, expansive lobby, full of friendly minnesota and staff members trainer tyler williams who was one of the the main trainers in st louis when i was there athletic trainers he he heads up the training room mild strength coach josh hinks heads up the the weight room so you know you can really tell walking through there that they're just they're in lockstep organizationally they're kind of all saying the same things but it's not like um it's like a culty thing you know you'll walk into some buildings and and you can tell it's governed by fear. Minnesota is governed by a dude trying to win football games

and a GM who's just as young and energetic seeming as him like Quasi's what, 42, 42, 43 years old. We, I saw him on the football field and I was like, is one of their skill guys hurt? 42. He looks great. He just looks young. He looks.

And you can tell it's, it's, it's, um, The organization is progressive in a lot of ways the way they do business. They, you know, offensively, obviously I love KOC as a coach, but you can tell he's built that program out in a way that everybody's buying it. And you could tell in interviewing the guys we were interviewing, they love it there, talking to the guys. There wasn't a guy I walked up. The first thing I always asked when I see a guy at a camp,

you love it here, and you can usually tell whether or not they like it just by the body language of their answer. Nobody's going to be like, I fucking hate it. although I've heard that before in places. But everybody I talked to is just like, man, this place, you know, Matt Daniels, a guy I played with is now their special teams coach, special teams coordinator, right? I mean, is he the head honcho?

I don't know, pump the brakes if he's so. He's not. I didn't inspect his office, but I think he's running the show. Matt Daniels was a really hard hitting safety out of Duke, who he drafted in St. Louis and Jeff Fisher era. and he was just one of my favorite dudes he was always so smart he was wise beyond his years he's a really good coach from what I understand

and I knew he would be if he wanted to get into it so really cool to run into guys and it reinforces every time we go to one of these things and Bo came with us today obviously the Butter King Minnesota native he Minnesota Minnesota 45 people he's actually from Minnesota he makes himself a home everywhere

you know the guy is is unafraid of walking into an NFL facility and i feel really presumptuous strolling in whether it's the eagles or if i went back to the rams i would feel weird just like am i supposed to be here do these players think i'm like you know media guy or i'm not and bow just walks the fuck in dude he just walks in he grabs a handful of peanut peanut butter or cereal out of the bowl whatever it is like he's that guy i'm not saying he was grabbing food in the have to hear with his hands but i wouldn't put it past him yeah you know he was asking the equipment guy he was like yeah can i get some pads i need a helmet can i get you know he was hanging out in the way room i thought he's going to get a workout i don't mind if i do we both weighed in i think i was

two 53 he's 287 my boy looks great but uh beau was great it was great to have there we we interviewed as i mentioned harrison uh smith long time viking i mean it's year 13 for him and not a guy who I think says a lot. So it was really cool to talk to him and get him to open up. You'll hear that. About halfway through the interview, I was kind of wondering if he was going to, if the 2017 infamous NFC championship game where, you know, Vikings came to Philly and we beat up on them and their fans say they weren't treated well. And it's just from a culture clash standpoint, seem like a nightmare for these folks in Minnesota. Yeah. And they came to Philly and, you know, people were mean and we were mean and we beat up on him and I just wasn't sure if he and he's a

great player. I wasn't sure if he'd he'd kind of acknowledge that game and we weren't going to bring it up. And I love his nickname, Dirty Harry, which I didn't know that. And Hitman, all the people in the YouTube comments. He's just got a great. He's got great nicknames. He's a guy who doesn't say much. He's a guy who's always been kind of an enforcer for them and I love the way he's played the game. I just wasn't sure if he was going to open up and talk about the game. So he's, we do talk about that game. The story is told. We got some laughs out of him. Harrison Phillips, who's a hugely important piece in this defense. I know he's well liked in Buffalo. He's found a great home in Minnesota. And he's the type of guy as a detackle and not unlike Bo where he could be

or Mike linebacker. He really understands football from the back and down and how it factors in the run fits and the alignments and I just think he knows defense at a really high level and a guy you love having in your room because one of the things that the Vikings are doing this year and we got to see all these guys on the field they are replacing some talent on defensive front losing daniel hunter who we just gawked the stories people told in the accounts every time you ask somebody today though like what was the best play he made spoiler they couldn't you know before they could think of a play it was just like have you stood next to the guy yeah You know, it was very interesting talking to some of the trainers about the body types there.

I think Justin Jefferson, who we got a chance to talk to, and I'll talk about in a second. There's a perfect example of a guy when you just watch him in person. You're like, he's cut differently than most people. And they have to be measuring these things at combines, not just, hey, how tall is a guy? How heavy is he? How fast is he? It's also like, how higher his hips? You know, what's the angle of his torso from the shoulders to the hips?

And when I ask people like Tyler or Josh, you know, are people in the NFL doing this stuff? The answers are pretty illuminating. People are doing this stuff. And we're just scratching the surface as far as what we see as consumers of the combine. You look at a guy like Justin Jefferson. It's obvious when you watch him out on the football field stride into a break that the guy is special. And it's not just his work ethic and, you know, his, you know, his hands or his, his, his, his, his, route running. It's also the fact that the guy is just built a little bit differently than everybody

else. And it makes him so unique. You know, he's 6-1, but Bo as well walking in a day, I thought he was 6-3. He's just one of those guys that plays bigger. He looks bigger. He plays bigger. He's got the range of somebody who's really long. And he's got those high hips. And it was really interesting talking about guys in the building, getting their accounts of the freak athletes, the Neil Hunter, who's not there anymore Justin Jefferson who's currently there and it was on display. Like you're watching 7 on 7, we're just gawking at like a routine out route.

Just looks different, yeah. You know, and I'll get back to what I was talking about initially, the body types losing Daniel Hunter. Harrison Phillips is the type of guy that's going to help you bring the guys along who are just getting there. Whether it's Dallas Turner through the draft or Jonathan Grenard from Houston who came in today and dapped us up. Well, we were interviewing, I think Harrison, well, one of the Harrisons, Harrison, Big Harrison, as I was calling him, Harrison Phillips.

Grenard came in to dapp us up. B. Flo did. It was just great seeing those guys. But Van Ginkle, we met him in the hallway. They've got some guys that they're trying to make work together. In this defense, it's so complex. The importance of working together. the importance of knowing where a guy's going to be on a game the importance of knowing you know when i

come to pick the center as a three technique or the nose of the shade comes out and and we run a tom game or we're running an edge pressure because in b flow's defense you'll get guys you know you'll get an off ball back or come in and earhole the inside running a te with the end you know for for those are you watching or listening at home it's it's a ton of different communicative and spatial stuff that you have to be on the same page on. I can remember being in New England and having to understand Dante Hightower's angle, having to understand how to run a game with your ball or run it with any of the inside guys, and them getting together in training camps hugely important,

but having that kind of quarterback or your D-line. And he's a guy who doesn't really get enough credit. He was great to talk to. As I mentioned, we talked to Justin Jefferson. to that in a moment. We also talked to Christian Darisaw, who's a damn hokey, who went to Virginia Tech. Who anybody's listening, if you don't know, they beat us for maybe 17 years straight. I was Owen 4 and it felt like the end of the world. I used to have nightmares

for like five, seven years. It was really like enter Sandman for me. You know, I'd go to sleep and I'd have this dream where we were at like Lane Stadium and we were going to break the curse and somehow I got invited back to playing the team in like a Nate Boyer situation minus being a war hero and I'm like 30 but it makes sense to me my dream and I'd struggle to put my fucking clothes on and I just couldn't get my pads on it's kind of like the football iteration of punching in slow motion which I've already I've had those dreams as well but Virginia Tech is like a thorn in my fucking side so I have to interview this big SOB from Virginia Tech native of Petersburg Virginia originally

originally grew up in Maryland. He couldn't have been a nicer guy. He's just a, and I'm a big fan of this guy. I mean, Christian Derisaw is one of the best in the game. Great player. Love the physicality he plays with. Love the Edge. You pair him with Brian O'Neill.

You've seen it. They've got one of the best tackle duos in the league. In fact, they might have answered that question definitively when I asked them because I got them together. And this is the coolest part about it. I just, O'Neill, I had talked to him before, and I played against O'Neill, which means he's old. Sorry to tell you, Brian.

But I played against him in 2018, and I knew who's going to be a good player. We've been trying to get him on the show. We ran into him at the practice, and I said, fuck, will you run over and do the interview with Dar esau? We got the bookends in Philly last week. Let's not let you be outdone. It was great having them on as well. And then finally, Justin Jefferson.

I got to say, man, like, he made me a fan today. I have been a fan of the guy because it's undeniable, his talent, and anybody that likes football likes watching Justin Jefferson. But you know why I like Justin Jefferson? Because I watched how he moved today. I don't just mean physically. I mean, that stuff's amazing.

But he's fucking down to earth. I don't think I've met a skill player who's as talented as him who is his engaging immediately. You know what I mean? Like, and listen, it's not his job to be nice. That's not his job. There are guys in the league who aren't friendly. And they might not come across humble. And that stuff's all okay.

There's a million personalities in league. But this guy is so good for the game. I'm just telling you, he couldn't have been a nicer guy. one of my biggest assignments coming and I joked about him teaching me the gritty I never held him to that because honestly I didn't want to get like second first hand

embarrassment whatever the fuck you want to call like trying to dance in front of the Minnesota Vikings wait room and I just looked like a clown and then we'd have to post it I'd be like I don't know if I want to post that I can't dance to the point where it's not funny okay but I said fuck it

the most important thing is my kids are a huge huge Justin Jefferson fans. I mean, my son Luke, who's five, learned the gritty, as he calls it, from Justin Jefferson. I thought Luke broke his leg in the pool the other day. The only thing that got him to start walking again was like, show me that gritty. You got to practice your gritty for Justin Jefferson, because I told him that I was going to show Justin Jefferson, they're gritty. I face-time the boys. Justin couldn't have been nicer. He was just so engaging and really interesting to talk to from a football standpoint. I hope we get him again at some point for more than 15,

15 minutes felt like 15 seconds because it was just so fucking fun to talk to the guy i heard he liked candy last night we door dashed um as much freeze dried and interesting candy as we could because you know he was impressed with that yeah he was pretty stoked well you know i didn't love what i tasted as far as some of it but i did get him some peach trolleys just in case in like the freeze dried candy in minneapolis on door dash a door dash set up's crazy you can get hemp CBD THC Seltzers on the fuck of you

thanks Tim Walls but you know you can't get flour they don't actually sell a bunch of weed there it's kind of weird they'll have it soon according to the nice lady

at the dispensary by the culvers that we ate at on the way out of town that culvers I've never been to a culvers it's a geographical blind spot for your boy

but that was a just a really robust, solid, perfectly moist, nicely, you know, kind of smashed down burger, man. It's a great burger, that butterburger. The toppings were good. The bun was terrific. You know, there's something to this shit. You know, I hear a lot about covers. Sometimes you hear a lot about a burger place a la in and out.

And it's just a bunch of fucking noise. It's a circle jerk. Wait, what was it in and out comment? The comment is in and outs, you know, it's all it's all hype it really is who cop that stole my bit that's not a bit i really believe that it's not it's not bad yeah you don't want to yeah we'll get into this later we yeah we have notes listen the way you drove tonight uh in and out's terrific no i honestly i don't hate in and out but i think it's overhyped i like culvers burger better in and out is that fair no no it is christ you guys are

zealots. What? No. You guys it's like a fucking, it's like a Jim Jones situation out there in California. No. Everybody's drinking the Kool-Aid. You know, it's in and out burger. I like the in and out has mid to terrible fries. I will admit that, but the burgers are still

very good. I know they're very good, but you would think that you were. I'm not one of those homers. It's like, in and out or nothing. Yeah, there's just a lot of that is all I'm saying. And the Culver's homers. That was great. These Midwestern folks chicken sandwich is great too they really know their stuff because i thought culvers was tremendous um

listen it's been a long couple days it feels like five days we've been all over the place there's really not a lot i want to talk about tonight i'll give out a best flight worst flight by the way you're going to love these interviews if you're a viking's fan you're going to love these interviews i am pulling for this team every year i bet the win total i'm going to do it again this year i'm going over fuck it right here blood oath Okay. I like that, but you know,

I never followed through and, um, and invested in that kid from Denver. I like, I love Baron Browning, but I just can't get it. We did the math on that thing. 10 grand wasn't going to get me very far at all.

But what I mean to say is I break a lot of promises. This one I won't. We're going to take the Vikings over win total. Another one I'm flirting with is, uh, I'm Craig Ferguson on this, on this Tennessee Titans, uh,

wind total. I'm going over on that bad boy. looking hard at your Bo Nix, man, because Bo Nix played well. Nick Six. You know, there's some talk about maybe the hype train getting a little bit out over the track. It's taken off a little

too much. I don't think that Packer's top four cornerbacks were playing the other night. Yeah. So it's taking off, but. There's a lot of that in preseason right now. And listen, the Caleb Williams stuff I saw as a guy that wanted to keep Justin Fields, okay? If I'm wrong, I'll be able to tell you pretty quick. Okay. I don't

know that I'm ready to say this guy's going to the Hall of Fame yet, but boy, does he look good throwing a fucking football? Now, are we out there seeing not as much, you know, pre and post-snap movement, not as many schemes? Are we not seeing maybe some of the best events are going to see yet? But let's call it what it is. Okay. I was petrified about the fact that he might run out there week one or two of preseason. He'd be like, yeah, this guy just doesn't have it. No, so far, he looks like he might have it. There are more tests to come. There's a lot more tests to come for all these guys, you know, from from Pennix to, to,

you know, Jane Daniels, who I just got named the starter. We're going to dig into this tape more. We're going to be able to give you more Bo Nix analysis on our pod later this week. We're going to keep it short tonight. I will say this, Jane Daniels looks decisive. He just looks decisive. And that's what you want to see early on. And you talk about like Atlanta's not playing Michael Penn.

the last preseason game. And I get that. I kind of am on that school of thought. But if you're going to run the guy out as a starter, I think Washington has done a nice job, the first week, he didn't really throw the ball much. He didn't really throw the ball much.

But they got him in, got him out a lot more work against dolphins and a lot of quick stuff. Where you're not going to get in trouble. If you're decisive, I mean, there's no hitch. He's just hitting his back foot, finding the guy in the flat, or whatever it is.

It's, you know, I think some RPO mixed in some quick stuff out on the perimeter, some comebacks, hitches, that type of stuff. There was one ball he threw over the seam. Play action, I think. And, you know, some people are like, we're going to see him throw the ball over the middle. I mean, I'd love to see it. I don't think it's that time yet where you have to force the progression.

Yeah. Of a young quarterback. And that's what I'm saying. I'm interested to see how these teams roll these guys out, what they asked them to do. Like I said, I thought Atlanta asked, has Pennix to do a lot in that in that debut. I mean, some of the throws he was making,

we said that throw where he wheeled back and through the ball of the right side line left handed with his back to defense, turns back around, delivers that ball across the field. Like these are, these are advanced throws. The throws that Caleb Williams made the other day are, you know, gorgeous. I'd like to dig into the whole tape. So I'm not blowing smoke up y'all's asses.

And we will do that later in the week here. But so far, so good with these quarterbacks. I think, you know, including JJ, who's going to sit for a year. And that was something we didn't get a chance to really talk to, you know, any of the guys about. But I think JJ McCarthy looking as good as he looked and getting hurt, which sucks, man. It's terrible. But it gives them a real unique opportunity to redshirt. You know, that's not something we talked about with anybody today.

But like, to me, there are very few times where quarterback is good enough to play now. And the team could use him playing now. and he sits and there's no tension around should he run out of the tunnel or not. It is a very unique situation. And if you can turn it into a positive, the positive for me would be that this guy's going to be able to really shut it down physically. He's going to rehab his ass off. But by shut it down physically,

I mean, he's not out there trying to learn the pro game while he fails or while he makes mistakes, which I think it would have been fine. You know, I think one thing they said about him today in Minnesota is they loved his response to his pick i think he's going to be ready but i think this helps even more in a strange way to sit for a year and really be able to like kind of take a back seat watch sam succeed

fail watch the mistakes the pitfalls watch other fucking guys in league yeah that's one huge thing for him he's going to go through and learn how do i prepare week to week that's something you can't do in college and sitting in the phone room with k oc with mccown yeah you couldn't really ask for better do there no i mean like think about it if you're playing you're stressed you're like man my ass on the line i got to get ready for this game i got to study what i'm supposed to do all that stuff now you can sit back study how sam studies study how kOC installs offenses week to week study how people study film look around the league study other quarterbacks you know i he's got to take advantage of it and i think you will judging by what i hear about the guys so you know so far so

good on all these rookie quarterbacks, you know, it's early, right? Also, shout out to our people now, they're like family, our friends with the Vikings. Sam. Yeah, Sam and Carly. Carly.

They took good care. Carly took us to the cafeteria, okay? Before I get into what I said I was going to get into, when I was in St. Louis, I made a little like checklist of things. When I was in St. Louis, we had, okay,

they had a state-of-the-art cafeteria with like a beautiful view amazing food they had those salads in a in a container that you get at the airport now but you're like this shouldn't be at the airport is so fucking nice chia seeds and shit you know the ones i'm talking about what is it farmer fresh or farm fresh you get to the bougie airport food i was i covet that shit dude and i can only get it in the airport they have it in the cafeteria they have aquapana water dude I was so giddy to grab an aquapana. I felt like one of those people that takes a to go thing home from like a rookie dinner or something like Nate taking a Tomahawk steak home from the Brazilian steakhouse. He just orders it. Just because he's like it's fucking free. That's the way me and Reed were on the way out. We're just grabbing aquapana.

My dumb ass didn't have a bottle opener. I'm just happy to have the bottle of aquapata. Okay? In my facility, we had deja blue water in St. Louis. They had this beautiful state. the art cafeteria we had a half court basketball court with no windows okay actually it was a half court cut in half so make it a quarter court we had a quarter court basketball thing we covered it with some tarp there were some circular tables and there was a fucking there was a kitchen the size of skip

balas's kitchen you know how i feel about that motherfucker's kitchen okay and in that kitchen we had pop tarts of different flavors i'll hand them that they don't have any they didn't have any of the new ones the exotics it's a blueberry guy personally they had kellogg's cereal in the cups which are just it's it's fucking poison right we had mexican food one day and then we didn't have chefs they had it brought in mexicanos the next day which is actually pretty good i don't mind maggiano's big family style dinner right de-line magianos And then we'd have Popeyes on like Fridays. It was, and you know how I feel my conscience is clear talking about this because the franchise, as we know it, is defunct.

Like whoever put us in that fucking situation. And you know what? Maybe it was Stan Cronkey. If it was Stan overseeing that bullshit, I'm not real happy with that. Because I could have been a better football player. We all could, all of us in St. Louis could have been better. I walk around these fucking facilities now. And I'm like, these guys are.

in frozen Gatorade slushies and Aquapana. They have beautiful wayrooms. They have state-of-the-art cafeterias. They have fucking sleep pods. They got big, big fucking chilly cold tubs that everybody can fit in at once. You have to like, back in the day, we had to like wait. You had to wait. Oh, you want to get cold?

You got to wait a few minutes, dog. Because there's a line. Now these places are state-of-the-art, man. They're catching up to the college facilities. You had to do the major league. pull motor thing. Yes, dude, like a fucking lawnmower. Yeah.

So anyways, I just, when I walk through these places, I'm so energized, number one, because I love this job. Like, I really, this is when I love the job. It means, number one, we are gaining traction, right? When we walk into a building like this, you all know how I feel. I'm like, am I supposed to be here? Isn't this annoying that I'm here? But then people come up and they're like, we really,

like your show. Your show is great. We like this show. Paul Allen, he interviewed you and Beau. He was a legend. He's a legend. Paul Allen, well, I've seen all his legendary calls. Bo was geeking out over Paul Allen. They were talking Minnesota the whole time. Chris, we're going on Paul Allen. Paul Allen show. Yeah. No, he was all psyched. It's too much. This place is amazing. And when you come to a place like this, it reinforces that like, hey, you know, when a coach comes up and he's like, hey, I like your show or you guys are doing a good job. Or just the simple fact, they allow us in the building. To me,

it reinforces why we're doing this. And when players come up and they're like, we like the show or whatever, that reinforces why we're doing this. And I don't do the show to kiss people's ass and make them happy, but it's like I tell people when we go to these facilities, I'm not here to fuck anybody. I'm not here.

Obviously. Yo. Yo! I'm not here to fuck anybody over. You know what I'm saying? I thought that was implied. Okay? I'm not here to fuck anybody.

Right? Exotic. We're just here to talk ball and have fun. Sitting in a circle with Bo, Christian Darisaw, Brian O'Neill, we've never played with each other. Let me say that again. Well, no, you know what Bo asked those two in the interview?

He asked him, he's like, how's the feel with it? That's coming down your face. I was like, Jesus. Bo, a couple, couple just brilliant moments by Bo today. Harrison Smith, who's a legend, and he's given us, it doesn't say two words, he's giving us 15 minutes of his time. We're at minute 16. And I'm like, last question for you.

And I've last question, I'm like two times. And Bo's like, and you'll hear this in the interview. Bo's like, one more question. Wait till you hear this fucking question. You're going to throw your phone through the fucking window of your car. if you're driving pull over before you hear the question it's absurd okay i call it about during the interview but the point is man it's energizing it means football season's coming again you don't know how much you miss this shit and and this is when i do miss football when you roll up to a facility like this and

you see guys running around and you're kind of like i'm i'm big as those guys or you know like i used to do that drill could i do that drill it's just fun to be around the guys it is there's something about football and i understand why these guys getting to coaching like matt daniels or some of these guys because the vibes are so high especially this time of year nobody wants to be in a football building in november when you're four and 12 more in December i can't do my gosh arm math that is the worst place on earth to be but sometimes a building in september or august can be the best place to be. And it doesn't matter because we haven't kicked off yet,

but the Vikings, to me, look like a team with a lot of hope. It feels like a very hopeful place. And I think for good reason, I can't wait to go to Green Bay tomorrow. We're going to interview a couple of your favorite players, Packers fans. It's got a shout out to Scotty Trill, one of our loyal listeners.

This is how crazy it's been getting here. Me and Cowboy Reed were on the same flight out of Richmond, Virginia. It was a 7 o'clock flight, okay, whatever it was. We got a message sitting on my front porch about to get in the car, car to go to richmond at 4 p.m. the flight has been delayed till 945 we've got a fucking der a ratio situation we've got one of these one of these tropical storms moving through new york it shut down all air travel to the north and to the west and unfortunately that's where we're trying to go to land of a thousand lakes and we're now two and a half hours delayed so me and cowboy are

like well let's kill some time we don't want to go to ber Richmond bird international airport of the it's cool airport, um, four hours early. Who the fuck does that? Sit at the Waffle House outside the rivals. You know what I mean? There's nothing to do.

So like any normal person, I spent more time at home with my kids, you know, took my damn time smoking a joint on the porch. We got in the car. We're like, we're going to, you know, we're going to be fine.

It'll be perfect. Halfway through. Halfway through. We're, we're there. It's 7.15. We're in the car. And cowboy turns to me and goes,

uh, I just got to alert. that our flight is boarding. Somehow our flight got re- like bumped back down to the original 7 p.m. The guy at the gate, the guy at the ticket counter said he's never heard of it.

Never heard it before. We walked up and like, we walked up to the Delta and he was like, what flight are you guys here for? And we're like, well, this one? Did it really? Is this really true? This is why attitude is so important. Yeah, I left 20 minutes ago. But read, attitude's important.

We had a great attitude. The first leg of our flight. best flight uh was that the first thing no the second leg of the flight okay took a big old edible before leg one was kind of like man these shits don't even work anymore i'm just superman there's i just can't get high all right we get to the chicago o'hare airport we have a hudson we me and reed sit down to a nice hudson news dinner because everything's fucking closed duncan donuts and serving hot food what the fuck is that all right so we sit down we have our dinner I guess the food kick started the edible because when we got on the southwest flight,

I was geeking, bro. And the best part about this flight is, and we don't fly Southwest all the time. And I don't fly Southwest all the time because I've seen it with my own two eyes. It can be like, it can be like, like Lord of Flies. Oh, yeah. You know, like, what's up with Southwest? Well, because you don't have assigned seats. So like they let the first people on.

Oh, you just like bum rush? Yeah, you just bum rush. And then so people will walk all the way back and be like, oh, I don't want to sit back here. Then they'll come back against traffic all the way to the front. It really is like Cowboys Stadium. It's ridiculous.

And it makes a lot of sense because I think they're, are they out of Dallas? Yeah, Texas base. Yeah, well, so are the Cowboys. And the Cowboys do that shit where they're like,

hey, you know, like run in here. And a lot of college people do that. But imagine Cowboys fans. You know, like just, yeah.

Imagine an airport full of Cowboys fans. Anyways, imagine a Southwest flight full of Cowboys fans. Southwest, West sucks because usually it's like, oh, fuck, you know, I got to, I got to, we bought a zone one thing. So we could go on first and get the first seat. And every time you go up, people look at you like you're cutting in line. If you don't cut in line, you're not going to get on.

So we get on and they tell me it's, it's 60% empty. So I go to the back right corner. Is that normal? I mean, I feel like that's like grade school. bus vibes. Well, that's my vibes on the Southwest flight that's half book because it was a fucking awesome flight back there. Like I said,

the edible hit me like a ton of bricks. I had, I downloaded a Netflix show on the world's most dangerous prisons. I watched an episode on Finland. Those guys are a bunch of pussies. Not all the Finnish people, but the guys in those prisons, man, it's not

hard. They got microwaves and shit. They're like knitting with each other. They got big common areas. the season. What do you mean? You said the world's harshest prisons? Yeah. And that made the season? Well, no, I get, that's a good fucking question. I guess it's like

season seven. But I sat back there and I just thought to myself like, man, I am a king. You know, sometimes air travel, it can feel like it's the worst thing in the world. But sometimes you feel like an absolute emperor on your flight. Like, and it doesn't take much for me. A half empty Southwest flight. A good, strong

Edible, a Netflix documentary about a finished prison. I was happy as a clam. It really was one of my best flights of the last calendar year, and I want to shout out Southwest. For everything I just said about you, it's all true,

but last night was awesome. Best flight, me, back right, Southwest. What a pussy I am. I was watching 1883. I was talking to read about this last night. Sam Elliott and them, they used to have to like fucking do all that

to get across the country. I was just like, man, my flight left because I'm a stoner and I didn't get to the airport early. I just booked another one on my phone and now they're going to give me a bunch of food and an edible and some strong Wi-Fi. And I'll be a Minneapolis like that. So shout out to Southwest. Worst flight. I'm going to go got Gostercherilus. Gaster charlous.

Yeah. Or the person who was on the flight. Listen, I love, I love gastrochialist, so I'm, I, I am, I tend to believe that it was the Ambien. Blaming on the Ambien. And I also would just like to say that could have been any of us. Nah. I agree. I agree, because Ambians never made me do that.

but I have heard of people who have taken sleeping pills and done crazy shit. Anybody in here done crazy shit on sleeping pills? Come on. I just want to. Is this not something we should be supporting him on? I just think he's a good guy and it's just not in his character to pee on somebody on a flight. He allegedly urinated on one passenger and struck another. Well, yeah, so he interrupts you trying to take a piss in the middle of the night.

Who is in my bathroom? You're some guy in my fucking bathroom And my house is shaking And it sounds like my sound machine Just going nuts Do I have surround sound? What the fuck is this? Welcome back to bed

Somebody hands you some pretzels Is there an air marshal in my room? No, honestly, he's going to be fine So we can laugh about it now And hopefully the people on the flight were fine, man. Like, you know, I'm not trying to, I don't, I don't condone pissing on somebody on an airplane, and nor does he. It was an ambient.

And so I just wanted to give out a worst flight to my guy, Gostercherilus, who I'm cool with, but I'm not cool enough with that I've texted him and been like, what really happened. I think that's probably what really happened. Worst flight, Gostercherless. last thing before the Minnesota Vikings interviews. Thank you for bearing with me from my Airbnb in Green Bay. So I figured I'd say this because a couple of people have asked me. First off, I want to shout out my brother, Kyle,

who just started a podcast called Pushing the Pile with Mike Renner, who's a really good football mind from over at PFF, working with CBS now, him and Kyle teaming up because Kyle's working for CBS. Kyle was working for CBS last year He I mean like if you watched The other pregame show on CBS I really do think he's one of the rising stars in the business And just he's terrific on TV

He's also great on podcasts Which is why I've been trying to get him on our podcast a bunch Here's what's going on Kyle and I got in a big fight and I beat him up really bad Because I'm so strong and badass And I just threw him through a glass window And it was like don't fucking come back No

It's like an old Western. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't even come to that. I was like, get out of here, pussy. No, I'm joking. Kyle's not going to be working with us really in an official capacity this fall. And it's not because anything happened. Like, you know, sometimes when somebody was, it was, the Monday show was so fun last year with him.

And having him on the show all the time was fun. But I think what we realized and Kyle realized more than anybody. and I'm sure he could speak to this a little bit more than I could, but like his career is a different place. Like I'm growing a business that I started and my name's on it. And, you know, I've been doing this for five years now. Really, me and Reid have been doing this for five years and everybody else has come along since. And we built this awesome, fun thing that we have a lot of ownership in. Kyle's career is, man, he's just getting started.

Like, and I think he has to make a decision or had to make kind of a, decision, at least in the short term. What does he want to prioritize right now? And I think his career with CBS is, I mean, like, I look, I could look up in five years and Kyle could be on my TV screen every Sunday. I think he's that good. I really do. And so like he had to make a move. He's talked about it on Twitter, moving down to Boka. He's a big sunkissed meatball down there in Florida now. He's a Florida man. He seems really happy. And he's doing the CBN. thing more full-time. And I think it's a great opportunity for him. And I think it's one that he's already started to seize. And so when we kind of shot the shit, we tried to make it work all through

the summer. We're like, could we do the show? Could we do the show? And CBS is really cool. Like, they respect his setup and trying to do things with us. But, you know, him moving down to Boka and doing CBS, he's doing it a lot more. Like, this is a full-time gig for him. And I think it's exactly what he needs to be doing you know it's it really is just as simple as that is like Monday he's busy big boys got a job now and big boys doing a great podcast with renter and i don't know it's going to be on a few times a week i think it's almost every day monday through thursday and he's like a real morning person dude like we used to do these shoots for monday like he'd come in with a cup of coffee at like 6 a.m and i'd roll in at like 930 after being up till 3 a.m and be like

don't say a word motherfucker and he's just all on top of the you know he's just ready to go he's a morning guy i think he's going to be great in the morning and um i think him being at cvs is awesome it's really that simple i just i wanted to address it because a few people were like you know what is kyle not going to be on the monday show no not in any official capacity we're going to have him on a lot as a guest as much to let us um throughout the season because i think it's awesome when he comes on um but there's nothing funky my man just is doing him which I think is the right thing to do. And listen, when he gets that big desk job and, you know, like, when you start a new thing,

and that's what he's doing, he's moving down to Florida really dive into this thing full speed, you really should just focus on that thing. And I think, I think that's really good, man. I was hoping we could make it work, but we'll be okay. I mean, like, I've been, you know, getting Bo ready to do that Monday show with us. We'll have guests. you know, Dr. Fax will still be there. But listen, the Monday show is my job.

You know, like, so for people listening who are like, what's going to happen to the Monday show, the whole thing, I'm going to make sure you know what you need to know coming out of these games. I can guarantee you there's nobody working harder than us to get you the information every Monday and have fun with it. You know, I think Bo, me, Nate will have a lot of fun. It's still going to be like, listen, it's my responsibility. So ultimately, I'll be grinding Sunday nights, just like I always will.

It just won't be Kyle. And we'll just keep growing this show because we know you love that show. And we will be live again. I don't know what time we start, probably the same time as last year, probably 1 o'clock every Monday. But it will be a little bit different without Kyle. But it's not going to be, it's not going to be something that I think. The content will be the same. The information will be the same.

It's just minus the big boy. And listen, the big boy, I thought made the show. I thought made the show a lot of fun. We'll do our best to make it really fun too without him, but we will miss him. And we already miss him physically. But yeah, just wanted to tell people,

I love my brother. I'm psyched for him. I think he's so good at this. And we'll have them on whenever we can get him on. But I just wanted to fill you guys in, loyal listeners, the locals. You locals out there,

they've listened to the Monday show religiously and love the format. It's not changing. But the faces might change a little bit, and it's not because of any stupid shit. I can guarantee you that. Me and my brother, we are Gucci, and he's a CVS mogul.

So go consume his podcast. Enjoy these Minnesota Vikings interviews. I really love that organization after spending a day there. It's just first class. Again, shout out to the whole team for sending that up. And shout out to the boys. They've been on the road. They've been working hard.

This is a treat. This is a guy who's been making plays for a long time in a league now. and you look up in what year is this for you harrison uh 13 golly dude do you feel incredible like a super vet sometimes yes and then sometimes like i forget i've been here this long yeah so it's yeah it's just day by day do you think you know you've seen things changed we're just talking about it you're not like old old cbA where you had two days and stuff but things are different now do you think rookies in the secondary have an easier or harder time transitioning as you work with these young guys i don't know it's just

I don't know if it's easier or harder. It's just different. Like the game itself, like the way offenses play is different. Like in the scheme that we run, I like to think it's easier, but I'm spoiled because I have years of experience and failures and successes. So I think it's just different. And then like the external stuff of everything, like, is so different. I didn't even have a Twitter when I came in the league.

The only reason I made one is because somebody made a fake one. So I was like, I'll just make a real one. Yeah. So that tends to dominate things a little more and can get into guys' heads. I'm like, just don't look at that stuff, man. So it's, you know, it's kind of up to every individual. Do you like your young guys, your rookies? Yeah, we got some good rookies.

Not a ton. We, you know, we unfortunately lost Kyrie Jackson in the offseason. Yeah. Um, he was, he was, uh, kind of just one of those guys you see, you always smile when you see him and stuff like that. So I was, I was looking forward to getting to know him more. Um, there's no blueprint for that. No. How do you guys handle that?

Um, how have you? Yeah. It's, you know, obviously just with him not, not being here that long, um, it's kind of like, it's, it, you don't know how to, how to respond. almost. Obviously, it's very tragic. And then some of the younger guys, like, played with him in college and were very close to them. So it's obviously going to affect them a certain way. But just appreciating the time that we have, it's easy to lose side of that, obviously. So it kind of puts everything back in perspective. Is this team, you've seen a lot of iterations this Vikings team. You played on some great defenses, man. Is the personality of this team that much different than

the Zimmerlake group or like what what's the difference now and just the way things are not saying one's better or one's worse but what's the programmatic difference um and i think starting with k-o um just the type of coach he is the type of leader he is it's not like looser like we're still like meetings on time everything's tight uh but just kind of the personality of k o and um i think being an offensive offensive head coach is is can be different. I don't know.

But with K.O. It's, we're competing, but it's, it's good work and we're taking care of each other. It's not quite as like adversarial at times. That's the defensive mindset. Yeah.

Which like, I'm not knocking that either. Because you got it. Yeah. But the coach when he's got. Yeah. You just kind of got to fit in. You got to know one thing that

plan for multiple head coaches and multiple coordinators. Like, you just got to know what. that guy's looking for and try to fit into that while not being fake or yeah or somebody you're not uh but like no one knowing what we're looking for and then going from there and then like having flow come in has been awesome because he's got uh were you with him in i was in in new england yeah yeah so he's obviously got a ton of success in his past a ton of calls he's got calls during the damn i used to yell at high tower motherfucker where's the call he's like i just gave

you all three of them. And then there's a couple we didn't even say, but they're in there somewhere. So that's, that's, that's like fun and that, that schematic side is a lot of fun to me, but also like just the mindset that flow brings. He's very like, he's not like a raw, raw guy, but he's an intense guy without having to do that, which is like, I think a kind of a sweet spot that's hard to find. He just came in. He looks jacked.

He's jacked. What's he doing with Hanks? I guess he's in there. Benching. Yeah. His pecs look incredible. And on Game Day, he's got the hat. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And he's just all business. So I like, I like being around that, for sure. Talking about Flo's defense a little bit. Obviously, like, you played for a long time under Zimmer. A lot of mugged A-gap blitzes, stuff like that. A lot of exotic blitzes, a lot of calls with B-Flow, you know, without giving anything

away. Is there something schematically that you're really looking forward to doing this year? Yeah, I mean, I'd say it's all of it together. Like, we have. have we obviously have some you can call it exotic you can call it like borderline unsound right is that because it's just the coverage is you're calling behind the fronts is that that like once you do it like when they when flow first got here last year we were talking about it not getting to know them and I'm like this is kind of wild and but once you do it and

you're in it like a lot of it is not a lot of it all of it is very logical it makes sense and it's uh it's it's it's kind of like liberating in a sense because it's not we're not we're not going over what shoulder do i take this on with and what you know if they do this if we do that like what like we we don't have to deal with some of that stuff because of the way that we play and that you know that can create other issues but we we kind of know what they are and just getting on the field and doing it gives you the confidence to believe in it. Right. Yeah.

What can you do with Josh Mattelis that you couldn't do without him? Yeah, he's like, I mean, he can play any role on the defense. Like physically he can. He can cover man to man really well. He can blitz well. He can play the deep half, the deep middle. Like, and he gets involved in the games up front with the linemen. So his physical attributes allowed to that.

but it's really his mental side that, like, you could tell him to switch something that we didn't even go over. And he's, it's easy. Like, so he's just, he's a guy that I just, I don't think there's a lot of them out there like him. So he, he kind of opens up a lot of things. You had, in my opinion last year, and I love the guys you brought in, they got big shoes to fill because Hunter, to me, is probably the most underappreciated rusher in the league. Yeah, I think that's fair. He's a free show. And I don't think people know it because he plays up here.

And you know this from playing up here a long time. You're not going to be on TV in the big market game every week. I don't think people understood how good he was here. And I also don't think they understood how freakish. What was the craziest thing you ever saw him physically do or the play that stands out? Honestly, just looking at him. It's crazy. He was there, Lane, described.

He was built in a lab. But he does this one move where he does like a, like a jump pull through. Yeah. Yeah. That I love. Don't try this at home. Yeah.

And it's not one you teach you. You can't do that. We look like this, Chris. He's so long. And he set you up with everything else throughout the game. And then he hits that skip, like skip, step, jump, grab, pull, and it's over. Yeah. It's like, what?

That wasn't even like a real thing. Yeah. It was that. But that, like, that one's not rare. It happens every game. But I always like to see that one. What's, what's, uh, what's, what's, uh, what's, what's, Aaron Jones ad because I feel like that was a huge addition if he can hang on physically.

He's getting up there in years, but he was very productive last year. Why is he so good out of the backfield and what does he add to you guys? Yeah, he's the ability to catch the ball and be a threat, like a legitimate threat in the past game, not always just coming and running a choice route or whatever. But he's very multiple and he's so smooth. Yeah, he just glides and obviously playing against him. in Green Bay for a lot of years. He just adds another threat

besides running the ball, which he does very well. But you got to take account of him, especially in the Red Zone, in the past game and stuff like that. And he's still moving around great. He's just got that smoothness to him. That's not like that type of style, I think, age as well. What's your favorite memory over the last couple of years? And I'm talking about like single game,

because you guys have had so many crazy finishes. I feel like it's always interesting watching you guys play. And whether it's the comeback against the Colts or the fourth and 17th, like Dobbs, what's been your favorite memory as a vet who's seen it all sitting through it on the sidelines? That year, 22 was filled with crazy games. The one here at Indie or versus Indy is the greatest comeback. in NFL history.

And then I think it was before that, we played Buffalo. That was crazy. That one was probably a crazier game, just like the way it all went down. Like they, the fourth and 18 with jets. The muff on the goal line. It was nuts. And then the, yeah, the fumbled, QB sneak on the goal line. And then we have a chance to play the way we don't.

And then it continues on. Pat P. gets a pick in the red zone. That one was wild. But just for the scenario, I think the Minneapolis miracle will probably always be up there for me. Crazy. Crazy. Unfortunately, we got smacked by y'all of the next week. Well, let me tell you something about that game. The first five minutes, I was like, oh, shit.

Yeah. Because you all hit that. Because Rudy scored, right? Yeah. I think we scored on the first drive. And the first time, three and out or four in out. We were like, shut out. We didn't know what was going to.

I don't know what y'all thought coming into that game, but we didn't know who was going to win. It wasn't like we had a lean. It was a mystery for us. It was like, who knows? I thought we were going to win. Like roll. Like roll. I thought we were roll.

Well, one thing I'll never. What happened? What was it? It was just the crowd or what? Man, I don't know. Like, I've gone back and watched that game and like, there's a lot of big plays y'all hit that. Perfect. They just hit perfect.

They were perfect. And I'm not trying to make excuses. Y'all just smacked us. You all out physical. We're a couple football players here could have gone either way. Sometimes. I think that that game made me realize the real, like the realness of home field advantage in the playoffs. Yeah.

And I'm not like, I don't know what happened if we'd have played here, but it would have been tough. You could feel the juice, like, for sure. It was a real thing. The Philly fans were not happy about the Skoll now in front of the Rocky statue. But you got, hey, there's a funny moment you should probably ask. We got into it on a P-A-T, me and you. I don't know if you remember this. Towards the end.

Towards the end. Towards the end. It was so funny, man. You got a running start. Yeah, yeah, you fucked up, sell it. It's kind of crazy. No, no, it was great. I was laughing about it.

I pulled it up because Brent Suggs is a long time, tight end for the birds. We're on, I was the end on field goal, and he's the wing. And I'd always go to the block side. And I was like, oh, okay,

they're not coming to this side. And Sells me, but he would talk mad shit during PAT. Yeah. Probably piss him off. It pissed me off because I'm getting fucked up every play is the end on field going, Seleks over there's the wing,

just doing this talking shit. So I'm like, we're good. Like, we're good, we're good. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere you come flying out from like 10 yards deep and just

fucking smack selig so i like went over there then me and you were john and then uh bar anthony bar comes in and absolutely just tea kettle sell like right on his fucking ass and we were all scrapping i was like i'm about to get fine for this dude in this play yeah that was just you know game was over and i was like that's so funny it's so funny bro i wanted to ask you about that i didn't know you know like we're all cool dude but whatever just uh shit was hilarious so i like that's I was like finally someone comes to fuck Selika after he's been talking shit

all year against three people. We had one of my best friends cut him on a bin block in joint practice, you know where he comes across the formation and my homeboy cut him. Yeah, in a joint practice. He's like, I'm going to fucking kill that guy. So here's the question I want to ask you

because I don't think it's people pay enough attention to this. You're like a quarterback of a defense, right? So new quarterback comes in. Donald or JJ. How much do you take it upon yourself to work with those guys, you know, and talk them through. I mean, Donald, I think he's got a chance to turn his career around in a big way, especially here. But he hadn't seen what you've seen. And like, you can really affect his thought process in a

positive way. Do you guys talk? Yeah. Yeah. After the first couple of practices, I talked about those guys, you know, nothing, nothing like super high level, but just, you know, what were you doing here? What are you thinking? And I'm like, well, I'm trying to try to. to make you think it's a different coverage or whatever and then i'm like sometimes i'm like why didn't you why didn't you make that throw because that's like the one that stresses us there and like well it didn't look a certain way or whatever like sometimes sometimes it's good to just try defenders like you think you're in a good spot and they try you anyways you got to keep guys especially in camp yeah yeah especially early um does his mobility add some have you noticed that he

can run a little bit better than people realize yeah more than more than i realize yeah more than i to be honest. Yeah, he's sneaky athletic, for sure. Yeah. JJ's, JJ was, he looked great. He was pretty obviously athletic.

He looked great. Yeah. I'm so bummed for him, but, you know, like I sure will come back stronger, but. Yeah,

for sure. It's just part of the game. Sometimes you forget about, especially with young guys. But, yeah, Sam's mobility, especially in this offense, that just adds that one,

one more component for the defense that, like, you got everybody covered on third and five, and he gets out of the pocket, it extends the drive that just pisses defenders off. And that stuff adds up. Do you find yourself pulling for Cooper DeGine? Great White Hope.

100%. The funny thing is, is my coach Durante called me in last year. So he went to Iowa. And there was a kid in last draft that's on the Broncos. Riley Moss. Yep. He's another one.

And he pulled me up. like check this corner out you know like we like him whatever we're just watching tape and he's like he pulls the tape up and i knew we were looking at a white dude and i was like everyone's white like in iowa i was like everyone is white and they both ended up being like first second oh it's crazy moss went second and third round and that's so funny or dejon went second round He might play corner corner corner corner. That's crazy. In five or six years, though.

I don't want to say he walked. He was sprinting so that they could also sprint. You know what I mean? Safety's a little. It's not quite corner, but it's good to see a little. All right. Last one, because we like to get props to somebody on the end of every interview. We asked Harrison about who was the toughest interior offense alignment.

who over your career have you respected the most the way they go over the middle man there's a few there's a few um Julio's an obvious answer um I mean he was he was something else um I'd say like guys that people don't quite well I played with Percy and he was another one percy was a dog for sure um Pierre Garsohn yes he was a dog dog dog dog um Muhammad Sunu as well He was a dog He's just strictly dogs Yeah

And like those two are guys Percy Harvin Your fans You probably don't know about Quite as much But like Every time we played Garso and Suno

Suno is tough Fika Block I better bring your hat Yeah Because like they're looking for For contact Yeah And you gotta appreciate that

With With receivers especially Well I know they say the same About him And Yeah Just want to bring this name Up

Sendeho Sendaiho he was the real guy you had to hear you say he'll fucking take your head all and he wouldn't he wouldn't talk any trash yeah yeah i'm not a big trash talker but i'll get into it whatever oh i know he wouldn't say he's not gonna tell you before he drills you in the sun he'd knock everybody out himself included i remember because he signed in philly and kelster's like dude you know this guy like he's a psycho Same with him, though.

You're a little psycho, too, and I mean that in a good way. I got one more question. We got let him go. I got one more real quick. I'm a Minnesota guy. I grew up in Minnesota. I grew up in Minnesota. I've been telling Chris all about it.

Too slow. What is it that you love about Minnesota that's keeping here for you here for 13 years? Coming back for one more. I thought this is. Great, bro. I'm just trying to gas up the great state of Minnesota for all our viewers at home, baby. The lakes, man. It is the lakes.

It's not. I've got to ask them. Not everything that anybody would want. Mild winters. If it had mountains, it would be crazy. That's what Crystal Santa. It would be nuts if it had. Yeah, I need some hills.

But it's a, it's a pretty place. People are cool. Called Eden Prairie, bro. Minotaka. You should practice out of Eden Prairie. Yeah, and I've kind of. My boy Bradford was out here. Tammy B.

Tammy, he was, my boy. He was special. Yeah. All right, cool. Harrison, appreciate the time. Dude, good luck this year. Hope we get you back on after a win or something. Sounds good.

Cheers, brother. What's up? Bo Allen here. He just took over the mic. Well, Bo's in his home state. Yeah, I'm feeling myself. Yeah. But we got a little white defensive line pod for you right, right, right, this moment.

That's a rarity, a rarity, great white hopes. We're going to give a lot of effort. We don't know if it's going to be a great pod, but we give a lot of effort. A little stiff hips. Yeah. We got a couple of locker room guys here. So first question for you as a big white detackle, what do you think about the winter warrior uniforms that you guys are going to be debuting? How do you feel about that?

I was a big proponent for some all blacks. Yeah. Smart. Just once in my career, I want to be a Viking for life. But man, can we get a black uniform? It's not flattering. No. I understand.

We used to like the white on white and then the old line. No. The all whites are tough. We had the black unies in Philly and we'd bust them out. Like, I think we had a, we always like wore them at night. We had a couple night games against the Giants. And I felt so sexy. You look great.

It was awesome. It was the best. My wife and I were building a house back in Omaha, and, you know, we're doing some of the interior designs. And I'm looking for, like, some photos for the man cave and stuff. And I'm just waiting for an all-black uniform. There's one photo I could hang that I feel good about it. Yeah. So, you know, this is year two with B-Flow, right?

Yeah. Okay. So you've seen a couple different defenses. I played for B-Flo a year in New England. And I used to remember getting, like, the third call right before the ball is now. Yeah. Like, there's a call coming. You got to be ready the whole time.

Is that kind of how it is? And how hard was it to transition to being queued in right up to the snap? Yeah, I mean, I think it plays to my strengths, at least being able to kind of control up front, you know, what are we gone in? What's the alert? What are we killing to? Four open, under center, pistol checks. Like, we do have a lot. And, you know, they make the joke like defensive linemen.

We're not very smart players. Yeah. But flow does challenge us to be kind of intellectual in the space. And it helps us when we're handicapped by talent. You know, we can go to that different checks. And he always says we want to hold the card last. And why would we not? And so it's been great.

And we had a great stretch down the road last season where we were playing, you know, top three, top five defense for a handful of weeks. And, you know, we're hoping we can stay a little bit more consistent to that. We added some more talent on this side of the ball. But I love the system. And it's made my career, I feel like I'm pointing up. Yeah, I mean, along with that, I think it's always interesting when you learn a new scheme, you know, because you kind of feel like you have to start over in a certain sense. But, like, you're later in your career now, you know, you're not a rookie anymore.

Or is it easier to learn a new scheme when you've kind of been in, you know, in different schemes with different coordinators or is a little tougher because you feel like maybe you're stuck in your ways a little bit. Ah, that's a good question. I'd say a little bit of both. I think it's easier to learn plays because you can, you know, oh, this is this, this is this play under this coordinator. This is similar to this concept we had last season. But I think what's tough is maybe more your play style. It's like, man, you know, I've acquired 3,000 plus snaps in the National Football League and I had success doing this. Oh, well, they're asking me to play it this way.

And so there's where egos get involved. But I think that we don't really play hero ball here. I think that's one of the things that we pride ourselves on is like, you know, I do your 11th. Really buy into that big culture thing here. So, but yeah, I can see like, you know, for example, earlier in training camp, we were playing a lot of two eyes. It's like, man, I made my money as a shade.

Yeah. You know, how do we do this? That was going to be something we were going to ask you. How many damn alignments do you have to get in in this defense? Right. What's your least favorite alignments? Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of man.

hand down stuff so two eyes or four eyes just because I don't have as much reps there yeah been comfortable as a zero I like I like a ball hand down so I'm playing shades or threes or fives but yeah I mean we have you know we have groupings where I'm the only delinman where there's two big guys there's three big guys where there's four big guys I mean any any mix in between we're stunting from from what you call base personnel to look at in a nickel personnel because we have versatility outside lineback they can play middle lineback or middle linebacker they can play nickel I mean we have a lot of stuff so I can line over from zero all the way out to five. A lot of the guys have that play,

versatility, position versatility. And that's one of the things that Flo looks for, I think, when he brings in guys. Mattella seems to be like the chess beast that you got to have. Oh, my God. Oh, speak of the freaking. Do you look back, bro? Dude, what's the weight room?

Hinks has got you. What a big boy? Oh, my. What's going on, man? I know. I'm going to see how. I'm good, bro. I'm doing all right.

I did some pushups this morning. Yeah, you can't. put me to three technique anymore but not with that attitude yeah yeah terrible attitude terrible attitude no we were just talking about four eyes he was praising you he was saying i love how he puts me in a four eye and a two eye and a shade good to see you man all right coach he looks good yeah wow yeah he looks like you got a couple snaps in him yeah seriously let's line him up holy shit but yeah so so you line up all you you you you You mentioned something a minute ago that I thought was interesting.

You said when there's a talent handicap or a deficit. Yeah. What are some examples of the games last year where you guys felt like, man, they have some matchup problems for us, but we were able to put those fires out. Well, I don't know about specifics, but, and, you know, it's, I think that I'd ride with the crew we had last year for sure. And I ride with the crew that we have this year for sure. But, you know, if you think about, you know, how many pro bowlers are all pros we had.

And, you know, if you're not amazing up front, well, we're going to move the front quite a bit. If you're not amazing on the back end, well, let's, let's add six to the pressure so that the ball has to come out now. And so Flo was able to, you know, use some of these coverages, use some of these kills and checks, three calls in the system so that we took plays off the menu. You know, teams couldn't run weak against us. Teams really couldn't run boots against us. Screen game was really tough. Like, we tried to eliminate a lot of things that we did or that they could do and limit that offensive play callers play sheet. Not many OCs are okay getting the three yards, the four yards, the three yards, the four yards. Yeah, they're getting impatient.

Yeah, they want to take that big shot. And we knew a negative would come from that. So again, like I said, moving our front quite a bit, getting us into, you know, big tilt calls or pushing fronts over so we can eliminate double teams. And then on the back end, that almost new coverage where it's kind of zero, but the ball would bring so many, the ball has to come out. He doesn't have time to go through a full progression.

And then your DBs just have to be sure tacklers. Harrison, obviously you're a smart football player. I think it's funny because, you know, I was a noseguard, Chris, defensive lineman, you're a noseguard, interior defensive lineman, people think of us is pretty dumb. It's pretty simple. O linemen think that D linemen are stupid. Not here, they're not.

Not in here, no. Not white noseguards. In Jim Schwartz's defense, we were dumb. But I think it's interesting because I talk about this a lot. I think you're so close to the ball. I agree with you, Chris, by the way. I heard you. It was just go.

But when you're so close to the ball, you have no room for error. You miss your hands, you're getting rolled on a double team. You take one bad step. you're going to get reached. But, you know, when you're a smart player and you understand how an offense is trying to attack you, you know, you know what's coming. You kind of have the answer to the test. Like, how much of that do you do?

How much, how often pre-snap you kind of know what's coming, whether it's formation or, you know, just kind of the O-line stance and shit like that or else, like, calls it that they're making up for up. Like, usually. That's great. I mean, I think that if you watch my training camp tape, I'm not a good football player because we don't game, we don't play in these guys. Like, it's just reading keys, it's reading blocks.

And we have some guys in our room that are great at that. And they don't buy into the formation and who just went to a bunch and what's this backfield set? And they just read keys and their talent can take them from there. When I was a rookie, I backtracked a little bit. I had two great vets. I had Kyle Williams and Starlett-Dulele. And they were two completely different vets. Like Kyle is in that room every day over lunch, watching film.

He's making our calls. He's understanding coverages when we have all this stuff. Then you had Starr who like in week 10's asking me what the password to the iPad. He's playing ball. He's playing ball, baby. He's out here ball. I'm trying to make some nose guard plays. I mean, $50 million, man.

I'm ashamed. No one of the block. I had kind of two different styles, and I saw the one that maybe I had to gravitate more toward. But no, man, it's been really fun. And I think if you were to go look at my production, I'm probably more productive at the end of the season, where I now have 10 games to watch.

And I'm more productive in the second half of games. When you see the runs before, you see how guys lean. You know, if I have a 10-tackle game, I bet maybe three are in the first and seven or in the second half just because I can feel those plays. I always thought and it's kind of later in the season you get an understanding of what teams are how they want to attack you and you kind of end up seeing the same runs like hey we got hit with this big play from the bears. That's coming back. That's coming back. Dude.

When's that reverse coming back? Whatever. I also think like nowadays where you take the pads off later in the season guys with really good technique and really good hands who can maintain that technique thrive in December. Yeah. You know, some guys need a lot of reps putting their hands on people. Some can remember what it's like. Do you feel like at your position as you've seen the NFL change a little bit? And you mentioned this regime is a little bit easier as far as like practice and that sort of thing. Do you feel like you can get your reps as the season goes? Yeah. You know, I think one of the greatest things here is Kevin and Flo both they'll say, you know, to some of the older guys like, what do you need in the week to be your best for four hours on Sunday? And be a mature, you know, be a matured. You know, be a matured. sure enough of the guys he brings in here that aren't assholes trying to get the easiest way out of things and cut practice and stuff. But Harrison, you know, this came up in the game last week. You're dinged with this.

You have swelling here. What do you need this week? What do you need on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday so you can give me your best on. And hey, I'm telling you, coach, I need Thursday off. Or hey, I'm good for the walkthrough and just live at my snap counts. And like to have that repertoire with a coach because he trusts you. He knows you'll fight through. He knows you're tough.

He knows you're going to do things. Yeah, but you've earned that. You have to earn that ability. But not every team's like that. Exactly. There's still guys to say, great, your niece swan, cool. Tape it up. Go get this 15 play role. What do you think of the young guys? Well, not just the young guys, but the new guys.

Grinard just walked in here. We had him on the show last week. I thought he had a great year last year. Big shoes he's filling, obviously. But also you bring in Van Ginkle and then you draft Dallas Turner. Talk to me about the new faces. Yeah, I mean, I think that room specifically, you know, they talked about a lot this offseason with Kirk and like his leadership and how we're going to miss that.

And I said it's going to be. you know, by a committee is where that leadership in the same way with DeNeil's absence. Like obviously we got J.G., but it's going to be from a committee that we're going to replace that pressure. DJ Wanham, another amazing football player that went down with injury. But so we added the pieces, you know,

this helps us in where I was talking about handicap before. If we can get pressure with four, I mean, imagine the creativity they can do on the back end with that. So being able to throw all these different fresh bodies, I mean, that makes a lot. I think pass rushing in the NFL is the most tiring thing in the world. It can be. It's a big difference between your rush and the first play of two minute and your rush on play 70.

But if you're in two minutes, it's a good tire. Well, that must be nice to be in on two minutes, Chris. Well, it sucks for us because I love, I love four minute, but I hate four minute the idea of how we got to it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They're going to run. I was saying, yeah, exactly. I got so used to playing four minutes in St. Louis.

I was like, man, this is easy. You get power again? That's great. Yeah, power counter. You don't want to be in that situation. No. 22 personnel. Yeah.

No. Yeah. Harrison, I don't look forward a little bit. Just talk some NFC North stuff. I grew up in Minnesota. Right. It's actually a Packers fan growing up. I had the opportunity to play in Lambo, which was really cool for me. I think it's one of those historic stadiums. Also kind of Soldier Field. Just wondering, you know, obviously you've familiarity with outdoor games in Buffalo, do you look forward to those late season games in Lambo and in Chicago, or is that something where you're just like, fuck? Yeah, you know, I might lose a little respect from you two out of this one. I'm not going to lie. He's sleeves. I know your sleep guys. Sleeves? But it makes you feel like I'm a block.

Okay, no, no, no. If you want me to get vulnerable, be honest. Be honest. It's a safe space, brother. This isn't even going out. I'm insecure about my arms. So,

you shouldn't be. Dude, these, you. You shouldn't be. So am I. That's what I got tattooed. Right. Look at those hogs.

So this star, Star, perfect example. I go out there next to Star back my rookie year. I'm strong. I got good way. He's got body. He's got body. We all do.

He puts his arm down. I thought he was. in like a four legate. Four quads on the ground. And I'm like, I've got to wear sleeves. That's all I felt with Vita down in Tampa, dude. Right, right. Right.

So, yeah. Let me give you the tip. In Miami, week three, 110 degrees, I got long sleeves on. You got to go to the trainer pre-game. You have them lube up your arms with Vaseline. Have you not thought about this? I've seen this before. Yeah, I know he's matters.

It's not a shiny thing. It's a shade thing. Get the, like, go talk to. to Josh Hanks, get like a bicep band, super, super tight. Put it right here. Just get some lactic ass. It's basically, you get a pump under the game. BFR, blood flow restriction.

Pre-game. You'd be down on your stance, yoked up, baby. And then there's the other side. It's like, ah, it's not worth that much. And you're supposed to be the guy. He is supposed to be the guy that if I was just looking at roster pictures. I would be like, yeah, he's going to be sleep. Never more to sleep.

Yeah. I respect it. For sure. I mean, it definitely is my brand, but it's like, uh, and then, but to answer your question, I think, like, snow and rain games are the best games. They're either going to run the football. That's my money. So that's fun stuff.

In division, I wonder if the answer is right here in division, but who do you think is the best coached offensive line in football? Since you kind of think about things that way. I think that the lines do a really good job. I will say, and you could ask me this three, four years ago when I was in Buffalo. I think, you know, non-biased, I think that the Vikings front works together very well. Some of the slip blocks and the combo blocks that they do, now our scheme isn't. you know down the outside yeah but the way that they can pass off some stuff if you're not yeah if you're not jumping the cadence you can get reached pretty quick on the

backside that's tough too with the combo if you're a three technique or four eye right you know get overtaken easy in a four eye going away well not really i actually didn't mind being in a four eye because of because your man hands down right you know i thought it's harder than three you take a baby step so you don't take too big a step yeah because that's how you get cut off When it comes to playing in division, is there a team that you think Minnesota doesn't get along with, just inherently? Just a little more chippy? Yeah. I think our fans probably want it to be the Packers.

I think that's what they want. But I would say it's the Lions. They're top dogs right now winning the division. They've got a big swag to them. And again, that's like smash mouth football. So it's one thing if you're beating guys off of reverses and trick passes and stuff. but when a team rushes for 150 yards to win a game on you, and you can't get it,

you can't stop a fourth down. That's tough. So I would say that that's probably where it's the chippiest right now. Yeah. Continuing to talk about the lines in their O line, actually, Frank Ragnow came on the podcast a couple weeks ago. He's a Minnesota guy. Yeah, he's a good dude.

Yeah, I'm sure you've had a lot of good battles with him. What do you think the best part of his game is? Because I really think he's a good player. I think his almost kind of like Kelsey, kind of like that body blocks. You know, it's not just shooting hands where you could, if you can beat his hands, you got him. And he's so good with his grip that it's not a hold, but he's holding you. Yeah. No ref will call what he's doing.

It's under punch. Under punch. He body blocks. And so as you're shedding, you cannot create enough space to draw the hold. And so, you know, I had some production against the lions the last couple years, but they're just ugly tackles. It's, I'm throwing my body and running back to my body. Yeah. You're trying to get off a play.

Yeah. Yeah. So then they're falling. Then it's leaky yardage and now it's second and six when maybe I should have made it second and eight. But I've had, yeah, we've had, you know, four, four battles or so these last couple years. And I think very mutual respect there. And I know that I got to lace them up when we're playing those guys. All right.

So maybe the final question. We'll give somebody some love here. Who is the biggest badass in the interior offensive line in the NFL? Biggest badass in the interior offensive line in the NFL. out. And I just mean bad, dude. He doesn't have to be the best player, but somebody you're like, hey, it's lunch pail day. That is a good question. You guys kind of stoop me here. You can think about that. I have another one ready for you if you're good. Well, hey, Brian Jensen was a shit. He thinks so too. He used to bully Bow and fuck out of here,

dude. That one came to mind originally. Yeah. But I'll have to think about active. Okay, go on. So I was just wondering, this is a question I love asking, you know, nose guards, interior defensive lineman. And you can go all the way of that. to college if you want but what what's the most physical football game you ever played out oh just has a flashback that's a san francisco game last year that's that's what i'm kind of going to but yeah williams didn't play i know but still you didn't have to think about that you it still was physical as fuck it was i actually think about the 49ers game during covid when i was in buffalo that was a very physical game there were some physical games when derrick henry was balling at

tennessee new england yeah actually that new england game where they threw the ball three times yeah oh yeah two for three i think that's just was that in the win yeah yeah That's just nine on seven. Yeah. It was your kind of game. Sleeves. Double sleeves. All right.

Good. If I was going to throw some love to an interior offensive lineman, I would say I'm, I totally know this kid's name, but I'm missing. The right guard for the Broncos just got paid. Miners. Quinn Myers. He's a big Broncos fan. I totally.

Tough guy. And then Dickerson. Yeah. It was like, you know, last year that we had a package where I was the only detackle on the field and so it was me and those three guys inside and it was that sounds fun man there was a lot there was a lot of plays made but my gosh it was you're just in the in the locker before the game no i'm sitting there i'm like okay so our game plan for one of the best old lines is one big guys we're not going to follow came back in we'll ask the game play that's like they didn't

block micha parsing yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm on block but uh harrison appreciate the time man i hope you have a great year been fun watching your play you got our respect for sure man I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. It's cool. Thanks, guys. All right, folks.

Hope you've been enjoying the Minnesota Vikings content so far. This is the part of the show where we head out to the practice field. We're on the Vikings practice field talking to Justin Jefferson. Then Brian O'Neill and Christian Dairsaw together. Bo's going to join him for that one. Just a reminder, as I said in the open,

there's a little bit of background noise in a couple of these. There might be a few audio blips. But enjoy these two interviews. Thanks for sticking around with us. We really appreciate it. We really enjoy bringing. you this content. Enjoy the interviews, ignore the background, noise as you can, and stay tuned for some more great content coming out later this week. Okay. We're reading candy. I brought

Justin Jefferson some candy. That's good right now. I got finished good. What is your favorite candy? I like skittles. I like skittles. Got to go with the purple. The purple pack. Pro black. I'm with you. All right. So we told a little candy. First football question is, I know there's an adjustment. What is the adjustment the receivers talk about? Is it certain routes? Is it scramble drill? Is it certain areas of the field that you got to work more when you got a new guy?

I feel like it's just more about the chemistry. Having that chemistry with a whole person is very difficult, especially when you're only having like a week, two weeks to prepare with them. You know, I mean, I always bring up, you know, just the deal with me and Kirk, you know, just having Kirk with me for, you know, four years. That's a hard chemistry to really come upon and really have right away, especially with a new person. So just having that conflict all last year, having to deal with a new quarterback,

don't know who's going to be the start of the week of. So it's definitely difficult, but I would say like the timing and the chemistry of, you know, where I'm going to be at at what speed, at wood timing, I feel like it's more difficult. Sam's got a little play extension. Yes, you do. Is that something that's fun to see? Fun to see.

I mean, he can extend the play, and those are the plays that you score on. You know, those scramble drills, those off-off-guard plays, that's the ones you love. When they scramble out the pocket and make a play downfield, and, I mean, that's the way you get the yardage. That's where you get the extreme plays that we all love. So, I mean, to see that in practice, I can't wait to see it in game time. How lucky you to have Keener Cardell? Like through your whole tenure here? Almost.

Almost. He's been here with me for what? Going on three years now? Going on three. I mean, he's been a big help. I mean, as soon as we got K.O. And we kind of had the coaching change. You know, when there's a coaching change, everybody's new.

You know, he gets all new coaches, all new strength and conditioning coaches. So I said the one thing that I want, anything that I ask was one thing. I want is to have Coach Keenan back with us the next year. And, you know, luckily he gave us that wish. And we had Kenan for then until now. But I mean, to have that seven-year vet into our room, someone that knows the game, been through the game, knows the system, knows how we feel mentally, physically.

So to have him and coach me through different things, because I'm not the most perfect receiver. I still have things that I need to work on. and things that I need to get better at. So for him to be that coach for me and to teach me different things and to be on me, it's definitely very helpful. Where do you get this from, man?

Because I'm not putting down wide receivers, but you know, there's the whole stereotype of diva and that sort of thing like, you're a dog, bro. Sit back. Like you play like a dog. You work like a dog. Everybody in this building loves you like you were like lineback.

You know what I mean? Like you have that. Where did you get the EADS or your work at it? just the way you are. I mean, that's just how I came up. I mean, first of all, just with my parents. I mean, I don't know what both my parents, my whole entire year.

I mean, my whole entire life. They always taught me to be humble and be grateful for what I have and from where I came from. And that's kind of what I try to inside my mind every time I set foot on this field or outside these doors. It doesn't matter how much money I have what fame I have.

I'm still adjusting at the end of the day. You don't spend it either. No, no, I try. my artist not to unless it's some jury. But other than that, I mean, that's, I mean, I've always been about this football. I mean, I do all about talking out here on this field and just enjoy my time. I mean, I know that a lot of people don't get these opportunities to be out here on this field and grinding and doing the things that I do, the thing that I love to do most.

I kind of had that in the back of my head when I think about things. You know what I think about when I watch you is that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, The easy stuff is never boring to you. Right. Because you'll kill people on a five-yard out. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? A little get 20.

Yeah. So talk to me about how you think about route running because, shit, I don't know anything about route running. But it kind of seems like pass rush to me. For sure. For sure. And I think you're really great at getting off the line as well as never had those first five steps look any different. No matter where you're going. Exactly.

And it kind of reminds me of being a rusher. Right. You think about it that way, and where do you get your inspiration on your releases? Yeah, I definitely have to shout out my coaching at LSU, Jerry Sullivan. Yeah. He's the guru of receiver coaches, but he really taught me how to perfect my craft. Just technique-wise, being patient throughout the route, being hansy at the line of skirmish with just one-on-one press. but he really taught me how to have that full work,

how to really take every step and be technical. That's kind of how everything really started when I got to LSU, and I really was really heard him and being able to really listen to him and grasp all the information that he was giving me. But watching Keenan Allen, watching Devonty Adams, those are my two favorite.

Adams, he's got a pass. Crazy bag. Crazy bag. His bag is big. You got a big bag and I like taking it all I can out of it. Is everybody young you watch now that you're like he's next? For sure. I think Malik neighbors is going to be like tough.

Yeah, he's been killing it in practice. I'm excited to see. I'm excited to see what he do. You know, LSU guy, we got a root for him. Of course. But somebody else, I like Taint-Dell. I like Tankdale. I think Tankdale is going to be crazy, especially with C.J. Straub. Didn't him being under Stefan Diggs, I think he's going to learn a lot, you know, just how to run routes, how to be available on the field.

They got a lot of guys, man. Speedy, Speedy, for us, is going to be a big time. Yeah, who's going to surprise somebody this year? Speedy, 100%. I mean, speedy has been making it. His government name for people that might not know? Jeline Naylor. Okay.

AKA Speed. Okay, Skiy. Okay. So we got one or two more here. The one that's gonna kid, you know, it's a Philly podcast. So you should play for the Birds and talk to Harrison about 2017. He was like, we thought we were gonna whip y'all there. But y'all got us back soon after because we had a shot at you, not me.

I wasn't there anymore. And they drafted somebody else. And I know you don't seem like an indie type. But you think about it much? Do you think about places like Philly? 100%. I mean, every single mock draft had me going to Philly. I mean, I definitely talked to Philly during that process,

and I was very confident that I was going to Philly if I didn't get picked up before then. But, I mean, once Philly was on the board and I got that Minnesota call, you know, I was happy to be drafted, you know, and I was excited to be working with Kirk and excited to be working with Adam. And I knew that I was going to be having to fill the role,

you know, with Diggs leaving. So I like the opportunity that I had here. But I definitely kept it on the back shoulder and definitely kept it with me throughout my career. No question. One of the best in the game, one of the coolest dudes we've met. Justin Jefferson, appreciate you. All right, cool.

As promised, we just, we don't pick one tackle. We just interview both tackle. And in my opinion, you guys are right up there at top of the league as far as tackle duo. Do you guys see that and who are the other duos that you really like? Yeah, I definitely see that. I think we're the best. I like the tackles on Detroit. Yeah, I think Philly got two studs as well. But I definitely feel like we'll do that in the conversation. Yeah, the Philly guys last week and I think they said we got to look at the guys

in Minnesota too. So I think Houston's pretty good too. Oh, because yeah, you got Tunsel and then who's the other guy? Titus Howard. Titus because they played him inside. Yeah, when a guard got hurt, they moved to him. and then I had George Fanon, but I don't think L.T. gets the love. He deserves. He does not get the love. He deserves, bro. And I don't know why that is. Joe hit it off right away. Yeah, I got dropped here. They set my locker out right next to beat. Yeah. And it was kind of like a day one thing. I've been picking his brain since I got here. It's definitely a great luxury to have him playing in this position. So it's a long time

and me coming in as a rookie. Yeah. Getting inside on the left side, but having him every single away, man. That's been great. Well, what was it like when he came in as a rookie? Was he rough around the edges? Did you have to calm him down sometimes? Bro, he didn't speak. Perfect rookie. He didn't speak. We get to the rookie dinner and he goes, run it up.

Hey, right? He did all the shit. Deli on the rookie dinner. 13,000. Well, you just got paid, so you got to take them out again. That's true. So what was the first big purchase? So I got myself a car.

Oh, nice. I didn't even know they made those. Yeah, that should be. You got the stars on the ceiling? Not a lot. Not sure. It's done on that. It's been wrap this week.

So it's only been two minutes, and I'm going to ask you this. What was it like? And do you still think about it a lot being the one tech team that found a way to lose to Virginia in the last 20? It hurts, man. Especially it being in Charlottesville, too. Had the fans just on the field and us into the street. They had a vice grip on it. I don't know if you ever talked about this.

It was bad. I mean, O and for four, up for four to Maine. and what, 15, 20 years in a row, and then one year we actually ended. I never lost the Virginia in my career. All right, so your guy with an edge, we talked about this, who's a guy on the defensive line that you guys have played,

that you respect the edge they played with? Strong is. But I say the same thing, best. And Miles Good as well. Yeah, we just came from Cleveland. And I never faced him. It was a difference. Because he's like up here, right?

Exactly. He can do everything. He's wide. He'll bend the corner down here. He'd bend the corner. It was impressive, but definitely getting to work against him, man. It was great work. But him across me for sure.

Bro, he can take one step and be behind you two. Like one step, he's fucking two inches off the ground. No way to get up the ball. You see that shirt when he was creep out of the ball. He's in front of the center. What's not like when you're at O-Libbon and you see that coming out of your face? Yeah. Hot potato.

Get it out quick. So, potato it takes a little long to say. Yeah. You got to have a. It's a fucking ball out. Fire. Hey, when we had Kirk, he said, like, there's a couple times I got beat early in the rush. I'd be like, Kurt!

I think I heard you say Kirk in 2008, dude. That's good, dude. But I got to play you early, and I knew you were going to be damn good. Like, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just have all the tricks in the train to Adam early. Who helped you along when you were here and you were a young guy? Learned the game. First one was Riley Reef. Yeah.

Iowa played for 12 plus years, first round picked to Detroit, stud forever. I remember my first couple weeks on my practice and I'm sitting on my helmet. He looks at me and says, hey, I'm not telling you to get up, but they pay you a lot of money to look like a pro. Wow. Wow, I love that. That's a pretty big brother. So I was like, oh man. But we got Harrison Smith who's been here for 13 years, Anthony Barr when I was coming up.

I came into a vet heavy team like you guys know. You guys had in Philly at the end. Yeah. And, yeah, it's cool. What's the biggest adjustment like for DeLondon? We never had to think about it. We just consumed your calls. We never had to make.

What's the hardest thing communication-wise with a new quarterback? Or in your situation, before JJ got hurt, it was like two quarterbacks. Now you know you're wrong with Sam, but is it just the Cady's or is it a whole host of other communication issues that you've got to work through when you've got to do that. I think the biggest one's cadence. Absolutely. Yeah, but we got the smartest in the game. Yeah. like with Derek, he wants to sell.

He's telling us that we're going to go. Yeah, definitely probably there's on the cadence. Yeah, being on the same page with that. It's probably the biggest thing. But, yeah. Did you guys have to go through a lot of that last year? Because there was Dobbs, it was Hall, it was Hollins.

Like, I couldn't keep track. Obviously, it's not how you. We couldn't either. Tell him out the Falcons game. The Falcons game had to be the craziest game I've ever seen. So we learned this, we learned the cadence on the sideline. When we find out he's going to. He got there Thursday.

And then, so we're just going. no huddle and K.O. is calling the play to him in the headset. And he's like, hey, the X has got a slant. He's got to go and the F has an out. Just call it on one. Ready break. So you went on one the whole game. Yeah. And it was silent. Silent one. Clay's a Cammell pick up on that. He's like oldest, smartest. Yeah. Some of those conversions in the Red Zone in that game, I mean, you were just like, this is going to be magic. I don't know how long it's going to last. Yeah. What was it like rallying behind Josh and watching it kind of fizzle towards the end? But like, what you got?

did that run was really memorable, even if you didn't make the playoff. It was crazy. It was kind of like a double-edged sword with a quarterback that mobile. Because you don't always know where he's going to be. There's some quarterbacks you know where they're going to be. So in the pocket, you can set accordingly. And there's some guys who you don't know where he's going to be. But at the same time, he's going to run around and make plays off schedule and get out of stuff, right?

So it's like... Yeah. So you kind of just had to ride with it and walk him unless you could. What's the importance of outside zone? of outside zone with you guys, getting on the perimeter and setting up everything you guys do and what's the key to being proficient

in that area of you back? I feel like front side just setting it. It's not allowing that end to set the edge. It's allowing the back to set its track. Because it kind of helps the guys inside to the set the, to start with it down, to work to the backer again.

The right back, he's going to set it up. As long as we're creating space on the edge and allowing that back to keep its track. It's always going to be a plus yard. It's kind of honest. What's your favorite block for me? I'm like, so I'm a left tackle. 17.

17. 17, we call it 17 Wander. Yeah. And I'm just going, spinning an edge on that defense end. Yeah. And, yeah, that's my only job. That's where I see you.

Yeah, you see your eyes seem to light up. I love her. Inside, inside arm. Crossing out the color. Hell, yeah. How about you, Brian? You got a favorite block? I'm probably more an outside zone guy.

I like running a little bit more. But you know what I miss is when O-Lyman used to pull and get downfield on screens, we can't cut anymore. Yes. I'm happy. And you know what, usually I'm very pro defense. But in that situation, I feel like it's a little fuck. Like, you know what I mean?

It's just a little fuck. Well, the DBs can't cut you guys down. True. But it was easy. If they came to cut, you just dive on the ground. You're good. Kirk's gone. This isn't me trying to pull anything out as far as what's going to be different.

But like, say something about Kirk, you know, for people that wouldn't know what kind of teammate he was or his chapter in Minnesota here, I thought was a little bit undervalue. Yeah, I mean, just, I think people saw it in the quarterback deal on Netflix, just how much of a dude he was where the media gets one portrayal of somebody. And as a franchise quarterback, he kind of put on the shirt and tie, so to say. But when the cameras came on and you saw, he was a, he got a little bit more shit to him. How about the chains? The chains were off. Is that a fun run?

That was a fun run for sure. Who chains were there? It was mine. Who's your chain? Yeah, for sure. How much was that chain word? I ain't need to say. I'll talk to you off.

No, we're still. Right. Yeah. No, but yeah. Lost in the money. That was drunk. It was. That's not going to happen with Kurt, you know?

Yeah. Absolutely. Exactly. Well, you were, yeah. You got to know who to give your chain to it. I would not have been the guy to give a chain to me because I was going to end up. Yeah. All right.

So this year, what should fans be most excited about watching this Minnesota team? What's going to be different that you were the extent about? Outside of, uh, Number 18. Yeah. I think Aaron Jones is a hell of a player. Yes, and we're really fired up to see him.

Some of the cuts he's been making in practice or special. And he's an all-time locker room dude in like three weeks. Like the man, his little son, Jr.'s running around. Yeah. And you're like, why we kind of get why everybody loved him in the Green Bay. All right. Well, hey, I hope you guys have a great year, man. It's fun to watch y'all.

Glad we don't have to line up a problem. Yeah. Good luck this year and come back again. Appreciate it.