Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Breaking down former Iowa Hawkeye Ihmir Smith-Marsette's fit with the Minnesota Vikings

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

We are joined by Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings to break down Ihmir Smith-Marsette's fit with the Minnesota Vikings. Does he have a legitimate shot at playing time on offense and who our his competitors in the return game? Plus, we discuss the ridiculous events that transpired last night regarding Connor McCaffery's transfer rumors.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. And after you get done listening to this show, I highly recommend you go check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast. There is simply no better place to get all the news on the Big Ten conference than with Big Ten, Ben Stevens, and the Locked On Big Ten podcast.

Follow the Locked On Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. And on today's show, we are continuing our NFL draft coverage. We are joined by Luke Braun from Locked On Vikings to break down what Amir Smith-Marset brings to the team. We also talk a little bit about Nate Stanley. So that's going to be coming up in just a few short seconds. If you hadn't had an opportunity to do so yet, I highly recommend you go check out our

interviews with Patrick McCaffrey, Philip Abracha, Brendan Swanson, and Blake Gearan. Sorry, Brendan Swofford, excuse me. And then Blake Gearan had some phenomenal conversations with them talking about, for Blake and Brendan, the recruiting aspect for Patrick and Phillip, talking about what the Iowa basketball team is going to look like next year. Really enjoyed those conversations.

And we also did a spring preview with Celia Palermo from WQAD. So check out all that from last week. We have shows every single day this week. So let's get into our Wednesday morning episode right now, talking to Luke Braun about Amir Smith-Marset. Alright y'all, we are continuing our draft coverage, talking

to hosts of the Locked On NFL channels about the players from Iowa football program that did get selected by their teams. And we are joined by Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings to talk about Amir Smith-Marset. Luke, how are you doing today, though? I'm doing great, man. How are you? I'm doing great, dude. Your voice is very calming. I appreciate it. I've been on calls for the last nine hours, and your voice is very calm. I can respect that.

You should hear me after a loss. Oh, I'm sure. Is it bad? No, I play meditation music and we we we all uh meditate together are you the show gets really weird in season wait are you serious right now yeah oh my gosh i thought you were joking no i'm not joking at all i've absolutely done that on locked on vikings if you are a vikings fan and you're mad after a loss come hang out and we'll we'll all kumbaya i love Well, the good thing is a lot of Iowa fans are Vikings fans. That's the one of the few that, you know, say it's touching us since Iowa doesn't have a pro football team. So there's

probably going to be some, some people joining your show. My, uh, my way of meditating, I guess you could say after a loss is I record with, uh, one of the former Iowa wide receivers, Matt Vandenberg. And he explains to me why I shouldn't be that upset. And I say, you're probably right. You know, better than me. And that's how we get over it. Fair enough. Yeah. But Luke, you, the Vikings selected a mere Smith Marset in the draft this year. A mere Smith Marset was, I would argue, maybe a Twitter favorite. A lot of people had him as a Twitter crush. You see the speed,

you see the return skills. You see some of the highlight plays getting selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round. I want to get your instant react, or not your instant, your just general reaction. When you saw that pick come across the board, what were your thoughts? Yeah, as a fifth round pick, the expectations are never going to be set that high.

So to pay that out for me, he just has to kind of make the team for a bunch of years. I think he could do that, right? Especially considering that the wide receiver group after Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen has to kind of make the team for a bunch of years. I think he could do that, right? Especially considering that the wide receiver group after Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen is pretty thin. So if he can beat out like Chad Beebe and KJ Osborne, who didn't even get on the field from scrimmage last year, that it shouldn't be that tall of an order. And so if he can kind of pay out some of that juice that he had in college, if he can you know translate that to the nfl level absolutely not to mention the idea of you know

getting the kick returner job um and yeah i i didn't know much about him because i just i don't really have time to look into that deep into the draft once we're in day three it's past you know kind of the research that i've done so most of what i've uh done has been after the fact, after they drafted him. And it seems like a really interesting way to get kind of a horizontal element to the offense and an interesting kind of competition element for guys who have kind of been mainstays on the roster like Chad Beebe and Ola BC Johnson, who are very much uninspiring depth pieces and guys that like, if you do want to get that wide receiver three job, like it's there if he's got the, the, the juice to take it. Yeah. I mean, I think the interesting thing about Amir Smith-Marset, he was under-recruited coming out of high school. And although I was wide receiver position or wide receiver group was pretty dismal when he joined, he did get a lot of snaps as a true freshman he was able to battle into that spot despite being a very unheralded recruit and as i asked the next question i'll look up the

actual numbers there so definitely an opportunity there um what do you think he can really provide in this offense though because i you know it seems like i don't watch a lot of vikings football right to be fair i'm a broncos fan i also just don't like the vikings um to be fair but it seems like the vikings neither the vikings fans yeah it just it's a rough't like the Vikings to be fair, but it seems like the Vikings, neither the Vikings fans. Yeah. It just, it's a rough, it's always rough to be a Minnesota fan. I feel like there's just a lot of depression and bad things happening, but it feels like the offense does like to go vertical quite a bit with Kirk cousins. Obviously you have Adam Thielen, you have Justin Jefferson. What do you feel like they're missing for that third wide receiver spot then?

Yeah, it's tough because with Jefferson and Thielen, like the whole point of them is that they kind of can do anything you want. Like if you want to set up like a bubble screen or something, they can do that. If you want to run mills, you know, two deep routes, you can do that with them. You can put them both outside. You can put them both in the slot. You can kind of attack however you want with them. And that's sort of the point of why those two players are kind of such a special duo um with but but what they that typically means is that they're going to send those guys deep a lot because why send them shallow when you can send them deep right um and go for the bigger chunk plays so there's a lot of i mean it's a zone run scheme and what a zone run scheme means a lot of play action boot legs a lot of you know roll out and try to huck it 35 down 35 yards down the field um with you know a horizontal stretch and so if jefferson and theelin are busy doing that what you get with

somebody like smith marsette who correct me if i'm wrong isn't much of a deep burner that's not his style um not in the iowa offense i think there's an opportunity there but iowa's offense didn't really allow that got it okay so yeah somebody who doesn't have a lot of that on tape at least that's the guy you can chuck it to underneath or you can set up screens to or you can set like uh they love running tunnel screens but they're running tunnel screens to like tight ends right now because they don't have a wide receiver to do it so and you know they ran it to like justin jefferson a couple times but why are you running but they're running tunnel screens to tight ends right now because they don't have a wide receiver to do it. And they ran it to Justin Jefferson a couple times,

but why are you running tunnel screens with him? Send him deep. Let him do the deep thing that we know he's good at, and if Smith-Marset can win that third wide receiver job, then he can be a guy out of the slot running little whip outs, blaze out routes, or not blaze out, little pivot routes and stuff like that, tunnel screens, kind of the after catch oriented stuff that takes it. I call it a horizontal element, you know, a shallow cross, that kind of thing. Get him the ball underneath, try to get him to make a play.

That would be an excellent production to get out of a fifth round pick. If only he can do it better than Chad Beebe, which is not that much to ask. All right. One pause in the conversation. I hope you are enjoying the insight Luke was providing he can do it better than Chad Beebe, which is not that much to ask. They got the raspberry. If you like sweets, they got mint brownie, double chocolate. And all these bars are covered in 100% chocolate. So regardless, you can get that sweet and savory all in one. And not only are these bars absolutely delicious, they're healthy for you too. I've been on the market for a protein bar for so long, and I finally found it with Built Bar. My favorite flavor is mint brownie. In that mint brownie Built Bar, it packs 17 grams of protein, 130 calories, 4 grams of

sugar, and 4 grams of net carbs. It's the perfect either breakfast replacement, post-workout snack, midday snack, whatever you might be or whatever you might need. It gives you the macros and the taste that you want. Go to BuiltBar.com and use the promo code LOCKED15, L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5, and you'll get 15% off your first order. Use the promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BiltBar.com. Yeah, when I looked at the past distribution breakdown, I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but it was like 9% or 8% of the targets

went to wide receivers three on in the entire season which is uh not exactly what you want because they all stink yeah so definitely an opportunity for amir swift-marcet um minnesota didn't have exactly the best return game in the league last year second worst next to only whatever happened to the chargers i was trying to uh apparently sound make minnesota sound better than they were so that's uh good on me i guess but amir sithnarset was known for his kick return ability in college my dynamic returner uh averaged i think 29.3 yards per return um throughout his career so that's a phenomenal get but minnesota also made an interesting selection in the fourth round another guy

out of the state of iowa from a college, I'm going to absolutely butcher his name. So if you can help me out, that'd be phenomenal. I don't know if you've tried, but it's Kenei Nwangwu, I believe. Cool. Yeah. I don't pay a lot of attention to the backup Iowa state running backs, but I do know that he is a speedster as well. Yeah. Also has some returnability, but do you feel like, what are their plans with him and

how does that impact amir smith-marset considering he has return ability as well so they'll compete for it that's the the long and short of it um basically every year you will start if you watch their kick return drills they've got about 12 people rotating taking the kicks while um or taking the punts you know because they'll also have a punter competition so there will be drills in camp where both the punters are going to kind of trade off and they'll be kind of doing the punter competition right and trying to uh you know kick them high and stuff like that and you will probably have two different groups of people all rotating and trying to catch them and basically whoever drops one last gets the job um so and and you know of course there's

preseason all that stuff too but basically're going to have a ton of people. They asked, they asked, have Amir Abdullah back there. They'll have BB back there. They'll have Adam Thielen back there. They'll have, uh, Nwongwu and Smith-Marset back there. They'll have everybody back there. So it's just this big, giant kicking competition and their philosophy is whoever comes out of that has to be at least so good.

Right. Um, and they'll have KJborne, who they drafted in 2020. And the Vikings have had an abysmal return game ever since Marcus Sherrill's kind of got too long in the tooth to do the job anymore, who was their guy, former gopher, their guy for like a decade. So they've been kind of looking for that guy to take both return jobs, punting and kicking.

Now, I don't believe either of the rookie returners this year have punt return experience. experience if i if i yeah yeah so that definitely does not i know he was always he always wanted to but they just wouldn't put him back there yeah well maybe i mean he'll probably get a chance to try out for it in camp right why not you know throw him in the give him some reps why not but um so it'll all be a big competition but they've taken this return job like really seriously they drafted part of the reason they drafted mike hughes in 2018 in the first round was kick returner acumen and of course he hasn't been able to stay healthy they draft they spent a fifth round pick on it last year now they spent a fourth and a fifth round pick on guys

i mean no one was like he's probably to mostly be a returner. He's not going to take running back reps away from Dalvin Cook. And Smith-Marset probably will have to find his way on special teams as well to get suited up for game day. And then that's how you get your wide receiver reps. And then you get a couple of good plays and suddenly you've kind of carved your spot. But that's so for anybody going to the pros from college to the pros special teams is your avenue toward more opportunities if you can be good enough on special teams to make the team look at a guy like dan shisena last year out of penn state undrafted free agent dude was playing

track 18 months ago and he actually makes the 53 man roster because they were so excited about him on special teams turned out to be a disaster but he made the team and he got opportunities and he got it he got his pads on on sundays that's sometimes that's all it takes um and then you know it gets you in more wide receiver drills gets you developing gets you learning more you know route nuance and stuff though i don't think there's a problem for smith-marcet or anything but you know it gets you developing and getting more more of your skill set so yeah that it's an avenue to a to a greater end um but for the returner job itself yeah he will not be short on competition i love man so it sounds like amir smith-marcet has a path to playing time

minnesota vikings wide receivers after dylan and jefferson definitely needs some improvement so definitely some opportunity there for smith-marcet one other guy i want to talk about on the minnesota vikings roster is nate stanley are we ever going to see Nate Stanley play? No, no. Here's the thing. So Nate Stanley, when he was coming out, right, big arm, nothing else. Um, that is not going to be good enough in the NFL. And as a seventh round pick, who is their 14th pick of that draft? Like absolutely just, Oh, we got this one. They had him targeted as a free agent. Didn't want to bother with a bidding war. So they drafted him and that's pretty much it. But otherwise it's just like a guy who might come along, who might surprise you and can't, maybe he plays better.

And Hey, if he plays better than you think, and he turns out to be a real quarterback, I mean, it's quarterback, right? You can't overspend on that. So go for it. Um, but he ended up below Jake Browning on in the quarterback room. And he's not that good. No, he's so Jake Browning has been a really good whiteboard guy, too. So in terms of just like a guy in the quarterback room helping Kirk Cousins prepare week to week, they value, you know, if you're good in that room, like that has value to them. Because if it makes Kirk Cousins better, you know, to your quarterback play and that's really valuable so that you know and they just drafted Kellen Mond also who has who his coaches just swear by him as a whiteboard guy

too um I haven't heard much either way about Nate Stanley in that regard I think it's gonna be really really hard for Nate Stanley to make the roster this year um maybe they stash him on the practice squad again you know last year they had extra practice squad slots. There was kind of no reason not to, um, but so far pretty much everything Nate Stanley has done with the Vikings has been done because why not? And not because he's like justified it. Um, so he, he just hasn't played well and you know, it probably just ends up being a guy that is more remembered in Iowa than he is in Minnesota. Uh, and there's a lot of seventh round picks like that. That's how it goes. Yeah, no, definitely. I appreciate all your insight, Luke. Really appreciate you talking

to me about Amir Smith-Marset and Nate Stanley. I know you probably don't get a lot of questions about Nate Stanley. Probably aren't talking about the fourth string quarterback too often. So happy to be surprised. Really? There's a guy. So we, I, on a lockdown Vikings, Twitter Tuesday, we do mailbag every Tuesday. There is a guy whose So on Lockdown Vikings, Twitter Tuesday, we do mailbag every Tuesday. There is a guy whose whole thing is Nate Stanley for starter that asks a question every week about like, is it time? Is it finally time to put the big arm guy in? Pretty sure it's all a joke, but I choose to believe that it isn't.

That is honestly phenomenal. I think this is definitely not me. Are you sure? I'm pretty sure. I might just start trolling you now and start asking that question too, just for fun. But it is definitely not me. I'm not, are you sure? I'm pretty sure I might just start trolling you now and start asking that question too, just for fun, but it is sure. That's hilarious.

Well, Luke, I appreciate you joining. Where can the folks find you out? Since there is a lot of overlap and fandom between Vikings fans and Iowa Hawkeye fans. Yeah, of course you can find locked on Vikings.

It's just like this show daily show every Monday through Friday. You can find it wherever you find this show, Odyssey, Spotify, Apple podcasts, every Monday through Friday. You can find it wherever you find this show, Odyssey, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, when Apple Podcasts is behaving. You can also find my writings at zonecoverage.com. That is a website that writes about all Minnesota sports. I write about the Vikings there. And you can also find me every Tuesday on the Locked on NFL podcast,

hosting with Ross Jackson, who does Locked on Saints. We're the Tuesday guys. I did not realize you're on Locked On NFL on Tuesdays. I learned something new as well. Luke, thank you so much, buddy. Have a great day and go check out Luke's work wherever you can get it at. All right, y'all. And that does it for our conversation with Luke Braun on the show today.

Appreciate his insight. If you are a Vikings fan, definitely go check out his Locked On Vikings show. He does the exact same thing, hosting that show every Monday through Friday, covering all the misery for the Minnesota Vikings that has happened every single year. So Luke Braun is a fantastic host on our network. I do want to tell you about BetOnline.ag before we get into segment number three of the show. We're going to talk about the Connor McCaffrey rumors. BetOnline.ag, though, is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your sports action.

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All right, y'all,'re going to get into segment three just want to address the connor mcafree rumors that were fueled by poor journalism all around and if you don't want to rant maybe maybe don't listen to this part of the show but i i'm very frustrated by the necessity it seems like for journalists to be first as opposed to right. And especially when it comes from a site that's hosted on the SB Nation network, Wide Right Natty Light. They're honestly an embarrassment to sports writing, in my personal opinion. They do have some content out there that's all right, but I think for the most part, they operate in that satirical line of,

are you actually providing any content worth consuming? And I truly don't believe that they mostly are. Now, that being said, they created an article and what really became an issue of this is when an idiot on Twitter who is supposedly a Hall of fame writer picked this up. So what wide right Natty light basically said was they posted a satirical article based saying Connor McCaffrey was tired of living with his father. I'll read that actually the article to you.

It said Iowa basketball head coach and disappointed father for a McCaffrey shocked the world today by announcing that he is entering his firstborn son Connor into the NCAA transfer portal. After 22 years of Connor relying on his father for housing, food, Wi-Fi, and a single cold embrace each year on his birthday, Fran, red-faced and yelling indiscriminately at passers-by, has apparently grown tired of his second favorite child's presence in the McCaffrey home. That is not, I mean, clearly if you read it, right, that's, that's clearly just a joke. Um, I think posting stuff like that though, especially when you're supposed to be a,

a site for analysis and insight is pretty poor taste in my opinion. But what's more poor taste is the fact that a writer actually picked it up and went with it. So Dick Weiss, at Hoops Weiss, H-O-O-P-S-W-E-I-S-S. You'll remember him. He's also the guy who reported that Jordan Bohannon was returning, despite the fact that Jordan Bohannon never actually said that. He said, Report on Connor McCaffrey.

Transfer came from SB Nation and appears on Microsoft News Sports. I can't verify it. It seems so strange. Family has always been close. Disregarded until further notice. This comes after he posted a tweet that was later deleted saying that that was actually happening. This is truly ridiculous. Let me read his bio to you. National Sportswriter Hall of Fame, Kurt Gowdy Award, award-winning columnist for New York Daily News covering college basketball for 8,000 years. He's an embarrassment. But anyways, this started a whole conversation whether or not Conor McCaffrey is transferring. Conor McCaffrey is not transferring. Anyone who thought he was is ridiculous. Now, I know some of y'all aren't the biggest Conor McCaffrey fans. I think Conor McCaffrey

brings an element to this team that no one else does. He does so many little things so well. So even if you saw this and got excited, you shouldn't have. I think Connor McCaffrey is a phenomenal player on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Is he going to be an NBA player? No. Is he going to be a pro basketball player? No. Does he have a lot of faults? 100%. He can't shoot the ball very well. He's getting better at that. But he does manage the offense really well. He gives a consistent presence who's not going to turn the ball over he's a great inbounder he's probably the highest IQ basketball player on the team those are things you can't I mean there's a reason why a sprained ankle and all he came in to inbound the ball in a game this season despite the fact that he wasn't going to be able to play

once the ball got into the you know court so anyone who is like happy about this i think is ridiculous i also think just be very careful with the journalism you are consuming this goes for everything out there so many dumb people have an opportunity to speak and act as if their truths or what they say are truth just like sir boat or sir dummy who thought he was being uhbreaking, don't give those people the time of day. Focus on the people who are actually reliable sources. And I can assure you, I am never going to be a person that is going to be breaking news for you. If you're looking for breaking news, that is not my wheelhouse.

I do not want to be wrong. I think it's too important to be right, especially when it comes to these student athletes' lives, that I would never be breaking news. I will just be reacting to the news. So if you're looking for that here, I'm not necessarily the right person to be giving that to you.

Definitely check out some of the other fantastic Iowa beat reporters that are covering the team. That was a little rant though, but that does do it for the show. Again, just be careful where you're getting your information at. Connor McCaffrey is not transferring despite idiots on Twitter saying that he is Connor McCaffrey is a great teammate and a person to have on the Iowa

Hawkeyes. And, uh, that would just be absolutely asinine if that actually happened. So that does do it for our show today. We will be back tomorrow though. So stay tuned for that. If you'd like the show,

give us that five star review, wherever you found this podcast at and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And if you want more Locked On content, you got to check out the Locked On Today podcast. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast.

Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at. So that's where you can get some more Locked On content. Also check out Locked On Big Ten, and we will be back tomorrow, Hawkeye Nation. Thank you for your love, your listenership, and as always, your support. Have a fantastic Wednesday, and let's go Hawks.