Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - 10 most intriguing free agents for the Vikings (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Matthew Coller looks unveils his list of the most intriguing free agents for the Vikings and chats with fans about The Athletic's top 100 free agents list and looks at an interesting Kyler Murray trade idea. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Stephen wants to keep Naylor and trade Addison. Well, what's the offer that has to be thought of here? If we're going to talk about trading Jordan Addison, then we need to discuss what is it that you're getting in return for Jordan Addison. Then, you know, we can have a little more of a discussion. Because if you're getting a second round pick in return for Jordan Addison and then resigning Naylor and then drafting a wide receiver, like, you're getting closer to convincing

me that that might be a good idea. But if you're only getting offers for third round draft pick or something like that, if it's not a second, because I look at it like this, first and second round draft picks are day one starters a lot of the time. You get past the mid second round, into the late second round, third round, those are swings. I think there's a demarcation line, really in the middle of the second round. You can see it when you look over draft history. I know that the line goes straight down for expectation of success, but you can see it through history.

You get past the middle of the second round. They're just not starters right away. It's more of projects and swings. Jim is the Combine open to fans this year. I believe it is. Yeah, I believe so that. So I've never actually gone to watch the workouts because that seems to do it with to do it with no one telling you anything about the athletes seems like it

I mean I don't know how exciting that would be for me I don't know how much it would actually help me because at my preparation I go home Thursday and then I watch Daniel Jeremiah through the whole weekend and then after that I feel like I know everything I just sit in front of the TV and take notes on what Daniel Jeremiah is saying for like three days and it's great. He is just incredibly good at this. And he did today. I haven't looked at the transcript yet,

but he did like a two-hour conference call leading up to the combine. I mean, this guy's an animal when it comes to the draft. So I've always found it much better. Plus it's, you know, it gets expensive. Purple Insider could use a few more subscribers. I'm just saying, you know, it gets expensive to stay in indie for the entire week. So I usually pick the couple of days that are vital for talking.

to the coach and GM, and then, you know, doing the radio row stuff, listening to other coaches, general managers and some players, and then I scoop back here to watch that. But I mean, for fans, I mean, it seems like people who have gone have had fun. I just don't know if it would be helpful for me. Dumer K.O. is Naylor actually the most exciting wide receiver free agent, who's second, DLM says Alec Pierce. Well, we can, we can take a look at the, we can take a look at the,

We can take a look at that athletic list here in a second for who they have. Let's go take a look at that and just make the point about wide receivers. Let's go take a look, make it bigger here. So as we scroll looking for wide receivers, and this is why I didn't include Brees Hall. He is the athletics number two free agents. So not exactly under the radar. Same with Linderbom. If Mike Evans is coming back, he's going to Tampa.

We know that. You start to scroll. So Alec Pierce is the. top name. He averaged like 20 yards a catch, pure deep threat. It's going to get a lot of money, $20 plus million. But I'm scrolling. I'm scrolling. So Wondale Robinson, I would be a little bit suspect on Wondale Robinson. I think that his target and reception numbers were really inflated by just the giants having nobody else after Malik neighbors got hurt. Not that he couldn't be good, but he might get overpaid because of his box score stats.

Now, here's a guy that I would be interested for the Vikings if they were looking for the number three receiver is Joanne Jennings. He's been in that San Francisco system. He's had his moments with that team, but is not considered a big star or anything around the league. As a number three could be really good. You might be right, though, because Jalen Naylor lands at 29 on this list. In terms of intrigue, yeah, actually Jalen Naylor probably is intriguing to the rest of the league. we know if he's here that he would fit in as the number three receiver as he had the last two years.

But if you're another team, you're probably saying, hey, this is a guy who could blow up and be a 50 or 60 or 70 catch guy under the right circumstance. I don't want to overstate his talent. But I think in the right circumstance, he could be a 50 catch guy for somebody and be an every down wide receiver. Romeo Dobbs on the list at number 30, kind of an odd man out situation. This is also the reason I didn't have Jalen Watson on the list. Someone's going to pay him to be a starter as a corner for Kansas City.

He's one of the top corner guys. Rashid Shaheed will probably get overpaid because of the Seattle tax. That's another wide receiver on this list. Calvin Austin, who I don't think is all that good from Pittsburgh, a little bit gadgety type of guy. He's the 40th one. See how much trouble I was at. I was scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. and trying to find an intriguing wide receiver.

Like, we're right now at Keenan Allen. I mean, Debo Samuel, these guys are not intriguing at all. Actually, Jaquan Brisker is way lower on this list than I think he should be. I think he's going to get paid a lot. Maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe I should have included Deshawn Hand, big old fat guy. He might be interesting for the Vikings. Tyler Algier, the reason I didn't have Algier is because I think he's a pure runner like Jordan Mason.

Noah Fant if you're looking for the tight end. They had some guys who've done a lot in their careers kind of low on this list, actually. But you can see how much trouble I'm having, finding wide receivers. I mean, we're just scrolling and scrolling. And where are they? I mean, it's crazy.

It's crazy how few wide receivers are on this list. How about Greg Dulcich? How about, no, wait, that's a tight end. Yeah. Who's the other guy? There's another guy who has a similar name as a wide receiver. I mean, there's nothing. Brandon Cooks, there is nothing.

This is why Tyree Kill, this is exactly why it would be very hard. Marquise Brown should probably be higher on this list. Christian Kirk, Kendrick Bourne. Kendrick Bourne was cut by his own team last year. Tyquan Thornton, I mean, my gracious. That is a position that is just totally empty when it comes to the free agent market, just totally empty. So that's why I think it's going to be so hard to resign Jalen Naylor

is because if you're Naylor's agent, you're looking at those free agents going, uh, yeah, we need to hit the market. We shouldn't go back to Minnesota for $9 million or something because he's in the top 30 of this list for all free agents. KFT, some draft Nix think Jeremiah Love could fall to the Vikings. He could be a transformative offensive player like Randy Moss. it's a little on the aggressive side, my friend. He could have a Marshall Falk-like role.

Okay, well, like, you're putting, you're putting him in like, not just the Hall of Fame, but like the upper echelon Hall of Fame with those comparisons. So maybe that might be a little much, but I just can't see it. I just cannot see. I know I saw Charles Davis point that out. If Jeremiah Love drops the number 18, then you write his name down. and you run full speed to get in the card. I actually don't know how it works anymore.

Maybe they text it or something. However they do it, they use a portal that you forget your login and don't get to pick or something. That would happen to the Vikings. Uh, Jeremiah loves an easy pick if he's there. I just, I just have a such a hard time. I mean, this is an excellent, excellent running back with the size, the speed, the receiving ability, the versatility, the power.

He's got a lot of everything. I was thinking of somebody else for him that's kind of similar, like a real all around type of back with power and speed. There's a lot there for him. I wouldn't say Marshall Falk, but I'd say there's a lot there. I just can't see him drop into 18. Now, if he or Caleb Downs shocked the world, I do not think this happens. And one of them got to like 13, would you start pulling the. resources. I don't know. Because those prospects are really good. And we think in theory do not trade

future draft capital. You do not need to do that. And then you like dangle one of those two guys and go, well, actually, well, actually, maybe that's a good idea. I can't see it. But if, I mean, if he does it, then they are obligated to draft Jeremiah Love in that scenario. DLM, if you look at Walker's stats, he wasn't having a great year until, the end. Oh, Kenneth Walker. I mean, by PFF grade, he was one of the top five running backs in the NFL, but that's how running back goes, right? It always goes that way. It goes in streaks and stretches. It was the same with Delvin Cook. Look at Delvin Cook's first part of 2019 and last part of 2019. It, there isn't usually a running back in the league where every week they get 87 yards.

it's usually 128, 54, and a stretch of three games where they're crazy hot, and then it slows down. What that probably correlates with, though, just my guess, is their offensive line coming together. Jake Sundell, their center was hurt for a few weeks. That made it more difficult for them. And also, Gray's able was young. Sundell is pretty young.

When they clicked, I think that one of their tackles was banged up. When they clicked and they were healthy, they could really run the ball. uh, trucking. Do you think we try to trade Addison this season, uh, this off season? I do not think that they will, especially because of how much Kevin O'Connell has really praised the heck out of Jordan Addison over the years. It's been his guy. I think he cares about him. I think he really, really likes him. If this last incident crossed the line, it's still like you can have in your head, all right, that's it for me. But that doesn't make it a smart move to move. on from a wide think about what we just talked about think about what we were just talking about the wide

receiver market is brutal i mean you can draft the guy but if he's not good right away then you're in a lot of trouble i think you have to stick with jordan addison for this year but you do not have to use your fifth year option you do not have to give him a contract extension you can let this thing play out and i think that that is ultimately what they will do so i do not think that they are going to to do that. DLM Philly ain't breaking up the exciting whites.

Yeah, that's the their secondary there. Philly is not in the greatest spot cap-wise, which happens when you set up everything for a win-now window and they got to win, but they are not in a great, great position from the cap. Dumer K.O.

Alec Pierce projected to make 20 to 30 mil, nailer in the same ballpark as a player. Yeah, I mean, circumstance for there's just a lot of players in the league where circumstance dictates what they become. I don't know if Naylor is quite as good as Pierce. A Pierce is very explosive, tracks the ball extremely well as great hands. I think Naylor's probably a notch down from that. But, you know, sometimes it really depends on just how you're used in a particular offense.

when a guy averages 20 yards per catch, to me, it's a red flag for paying that player because it's so hard to repeat year in and year out. And are you going to use him the exact same way as the other team or not? Matt Verick, you became addicted to curling. You know, the rules are hard to figure out too. And there's a lot of lingo to it that I've found because I've now watched, I don't know, a dozen curling matches that my wife has been broadcasting. And I've said to her still, I don't fully understand the game.

But imagine, imagine that you would never watch football before. And then someone's like, oh, yeah, yeah, you got to have, like, they're explaining a catch to you. Well, yeah, you got to, you got to have possession through the ground. You'd be like, oh, okay. Well, it's kind of like that. Like with any of these Olympic sports, the people who play them all the time know all the details. But if you're just dropping in for the first time ever, you're, you're, you're,

kind of scrambling a little bit. It is a very, uh, shockingly tense sport when you get into the final frames. When, you know, it's close and they're sliding to rock down. I mean, it's like throwing the last pitch of the world series sometimes. It's pretty crazy. So I've enjoyed it. Uh, KFT Malachi Fields second round, uh, Ted Hurst in the third round, a couple good wide receivers, uh, fields for sure.

I'm not, I'm less familiar with Hurst. Folks, you may have noticed by all of my old football references that I have reached the age where my friends and I are complaining about hair lines as much as we talk about football these days. But here's the thing. Why be down on yourself or frustrated when there are answers? Maybe back in my favorite era of football, the 90s, the hair loss products were not so legit. But there are answers now. And I present you with Hymns. Hymns brings expert care straight to you, 100% online access to, to,

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Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidil and finestriide. Feature products include compound drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions and important safety information. That's funny, Ben. Who do we blame for the bad draft pick now? Yeah. I mean, look, you know how I feel about the drafting.

The more picks they have, the more chance you have to have a good draft. And it's also very random. So they might have four great picks this time and we'll all say, oh, yeah, it's because they got rid of Quasi. I don't know. But it might just be that the pendulum swung back their way or that they had picks. I mean, last year, they had five picks and one of them got hurt in rookie mini camp and was never seen again.

So they basically had four. picks at that point. And as much as, you know, on draft day, you go, like, hey, Kobe King, that's an interesting player. It's a fifth round linebacker. You want to succeed. You got to have picks. Some answers to the Fandual question of the day, which was Fanduel now has its odds for the division up and curious about what you think the order will be. The order on Fandual was Detroit, Green Bay, Chicago, and Minnesota, with Minnesota plus 700 to win the division. So Patrick has the order going Chicago, Green Bay, Detroit, then Minnesota, Hunter, Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, I guess you guys are maybe thinking that the Vikings are not going to bounce back. Truck and feel like it'll be hard to cut Jonathan Allen.

I can't see them cutting Jonathan Allen based on his contract. It doesn't do you a lot. You'd rather just have him. And he was, he was fine. He was fine in the role that he was asked to do. The thing about last year is that a lot of the signings, look inefficient and they were. And I think even they knew that they were when they did them. The idea, though, was who's the next best guy if we don't do this? Would we rather have 65,

what was it, 67 pressures between Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and overpay or have not 67 pressures? Overpaying when you have the rookie quarterback contract is a good idea. So I think that a lot of the things that they did were still very defensible in the production that those guys had, even if it was disappointing versus the dollars. So it's a little bit of a complex line of logic there because we always look at production versus dollars, but you had a top five defense. If you had the 15th best offense, you're making the playoffs and you would have said, wow, like this all worked out, even if they overspent, it just didn't go that way.

Dumer K.O., Detroit best odds is surprising, but only, sticker shock when you remember that they'll play a fourth place schedule. Oh, don't start that again. That was a nightmare of a discussion. Maybe that's for like June or late May. It's like, what's the, what's the worst things we've ever talked about? What's, what are the most frustrate, like compics, of course, are number one,

always in forever for me. It's not, it's not the compics aren't important. It's, it's more of, hey, do we get? a compick for that guy. I'm like, they announce it. I'll just let you know when that happens. Uh, but I, I, that fourth place schedule conversation was not the most fun I've ever had in my life because just reality, it would have helped the Vikings to have fourth place

schedule two different games against potentially bad franchises, but you're right. Not only does Detroit have what you're talking about the fourth place schedule, which will help them at some point next year, or is likely. to. They also are a very talented team that has a new offensive coordinator that I think he knows what he's doing. And you know they're not going to mess around with the interior line again. They are not going to mess around with it. And maybe Drew Petting will know a little bit more about the Vikings defense than John Morton did. Bradley's is a need to trade Hawkinson for a third and a seventh, can you get, what can you get for Hawkinson in a trade?

And do you really want to do that? T.J. Hawkinson sometimes is treated like he's the only one that had his stats go down last year. I mean, Addison did, Jefferson did, Naler stayed pretty much the same. Like, nobody had a breakout year because they couldn't really throw the ball. I would much prefer with T.J. Hawkinson just to keep him. and have him try to elevate the quarterback, then go looking for another tight end and get a third round pick. Eventually, yeah,

you'll look for another tight end, but I thought we saw during some of the Carson Wentz games. He's fine. He's the same T.J. Hawkinson. He could still get open. He could still catch the football. He's still reliable, knows the offense, high IQ player. They don't mess around too much just because the quarterback position went wrong.

Hunter says if someone will do that, then, of course. See, I just am not, I'm not in agreement with that. I think a lot of the discussion about Hawkinson has just been caused by circumstance, and you just want, you want your reliable guys, knows the offense inside and out. Whoever shows up a quarterback, whether it's JJ or Kyler or Derek Carr or whatever, they're going to show up to a group that really knows this offense inside and out. I think there's value to that. I just don't see a huge benefit of moving on from somebody who has been a pro bowler,

to get a third and a seventh. I mean, that's just, and what do you really get from a cap space perspective? I haven't found a scenario from a cap space perspective that is convincing to me other than just a restructure. I don't think that you have to just change everything. I think actually you want to keep a lot of this the same. DLM, Jamari Taylor out of Virginia, four three guy could be a day three pick. I do think as a team, they just need. more speed as a team.

Bradley, how much for a nailer to sign? 15, 12 sound normal, 12 million. I was thinking 12 to 15 somewhere in that ballpark. 12 sounds about right. Depends on though the scarcity matters. If there's a bidding war for him, it could go higher than that. 12 sounds about right. Kruplupi, what are the odds that Ryan Kelly gives it another go?

I suppose it doesn't change whether or not we need to get a center in the draft. I don't hate Kelly and Brandel's center room. I'm, Brandel to me can't be a starter. And I, I give that guy a ton of credit for what he did last year, a ton of credit. He cannot start 17 games. Somebody just had a list today of, I think it was maybe pass rush win rate allowed or something like that. And Brandel was 30 second among centers. I mean, he's a, he's a backup. And that's great. And it's very valuable. And he played a bunch of different positions and you love that you have him on your team. But we saw 17 games of him before.

You get exposed in 17 games. So, and with Ryan Kelly, I just, I don't think morally you could justify playing him in another NFL game. If some other team wants to do that and risk the possibility that that's his last game or that this really impacts his life and his future, I don't know. I mean, at some point, you got to say, this is this wrong. And I thought bringing him back the third time was wrong. After the second concussion, I thought this is not right.

Like we've seen so many guys deal with these problems later in life. You can't keep putting them out there. And they did. And I mean, that guy loves football so much. I get it. You got to, you know, wheel some of these guys off the field with a cart to get him to stop playing. But man, I can't see it. You got to get a different center.

Cause and effect, which free agent running back? would you pair with Jordan Mason like Rico or Breece Hall, maybe ETN, your thoughts? Yeah, the two guys on my list were Rashad White and Travis ETN were my two favorites because they're more of all around players. And the reason I didn't love Rico Dowdle and Giovante Williams as much is because they're much more one dimensional. And outside of that, I mean, I just think Bruce Hall is not in the conversation. I think he's going to get huge money.

Outside of that, oh, I don't know. Let's go back to the, let's go back to the. let's go back to the list. Let's go back to the athletics list here and scroll around and see, let me put on the bigger camera and see if we can find some more running backs. So Kenneth Walker too expensive. They've got ETN really high. So maybe I'm thinking wrong about this and he's going to get a big contract.

But let's take a look and see about other running backs because I was not super enthused. I don't think it's a deep group. I think that there's really those two guys that stand out to. me and that's probably it. Yeah, as you can see how much I'm having to scroll. Hopefully I'm not freaking out anyone's eyes here by how fast I'm scrolling. But Rico Dowdell is 53rd on their list. And Javante Williams is 61st.

Is there anybody interesting? Rashad White is 70th. Tyler Algier, if there's more there than I think, like I think he's a one-dimensional, just a runner kind of guy because that's what he's been for Atlanta. but maybe there's more there than I think. So Tyler Eljir maybe deserved to be on my list of intriguing players because he is kind of intriguing. We don't know what his ceiling can actually be.

And J.K. Dobbins, the injury issues are too concerning for me. But he is more of an all-around type running back. Just can't do the injured player thing again. And Gainwell. Gainwell, you know, he had a really good role with Pittsburgh last year. is there anybody else in the running back position? I do like the idea of Sebastian Joseph Day or Sheldon Jenkins for really old proven veterans at defensive tackle for cheap.

I would go with that. Michael Carter. How about that? Let's take a look at Michael Carter. Arizona Cardinal. You know, we've all been watching Cardinals football lately for Kyler Murray. Right? That's what.

All right. He didn't pop right up here. Let me see if we could find him. Michael Carter, formerly of the Jets, I believe. I mean, maybe he falls under that. I don't know what he's done recently. Okay. So Michael Carter recently, 27, played for the Jets, got some speed to him.

He's been kind of a role player. Nah, it's just not a lot there. Not a lot there. It looks like a traditional backup running back. 92 carries, 33 yards. doesn't grayed out particularly well. I mean, I'm, I'm hunting.

I'm on the hunt looking for any, any intriguing running back, and I am struggling. So that's kind of the point, you know, Kareem hunts a no for me, Isaiah Pacheco's a no for me, too banged up.

And there you go, all the way to the end. This is done by my friend Daniel Popper, who covers the Chargers. So great stuff by Daniel here. But yeah, I mean, sadly says you take breese hall but i think i think he's going to make like 15 million dollars a year

or more by a by a stream deck i have considered that but if i were to invest in the stream deck just for a little button that went like pew pew pew it's time for a mock draft like i don't know is that is that is that worth it i could just do that uh matt says denzel boston doesn't do much for me let's take a look at denzil boston because he's getting a lot of first round buzz. But let's take a look at his profile. Sorry, bigger screen. What did he do last year for Washington?

86 PFF grade, 62 catches for 881 yards, 11 touchdowns, graded well versus man coverage, which I'm always looking for. Contested catch rate was ludicrous. That is a little bit of, I actually don't love that all the time when somebody has a really high contested catch rate, uh, because it means that they were having to make contested catches a lot. It's kind of like, yeah, he had, oh, the 10th. Yeah, okay.

He had 10 of them. So that's, I mean, it's a pretty good rate. But you could see what I mean where like separation is king. And if separation is king, then if you're making a lot of contested catches all the time, you go, is that what you really want? He's a bigger guy. Do they want someone who's six four? I think anytime you're talking about that height, it's a little more.

risky. Surat is an interesting receiver for me, for sure. Dumer K.O., what's more valuable this year if they're all third on the depth chart, corner, wide receiver, or defensive tackle? That's a good question. I mean, I always think it's wide receiver because if someone gets banged up, you need that person to be your number two wide receiver. third running back is valuable as Cam Acres continues to prove time and time again,

but I don't think it's as valuable as wide receiver three because that guy usually plays like 50 or 60% of the snaps. Defensive tackle is, but they'll have, I mean, they'll still have Redmond, Allen, Levi Drake. That's a good start for them. I think you need to add one more if you're cutting Javon Hardgrave, which I feel like is a foregone conclusion. Yeah, Melchai Fields. I have to look into Melchai Fields a little more.

KFT quality at defensive tackle in the draft sim. The defensive tackle drops off quickly in the third round. Lee Hunter and Caleb Banks have passed rush potential. No disagreement there. In that particular draft sim, what we were trying to accomplish was get a corner and a wide receiver because that's what it's sort of laid out. Like, hey, these are the positions on my intrigue list. So then what?

But if they get to 18 and Caleb Banks is there or, I mean, Lee Hunter is definitely standing out to me. I don't know if he's quite. worth that high of a pick, maybe a trade down. I mean, I think defensive tackles huge for success in the NFL. I really think that it is increasing every single year with how important it is in the NFL and success. And you're like, you don't have to look too much farther than the Super Bowl.

You guys know I don't love to do it that way, but that's a fact. I mean, Byron Murphy, Leonard Williams or the year before, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, it takes usually a big investment at that position. So if they go banks, I'm good. If they go Hunter, I'm good. But in that scenario, we were kind of looking for, all right, corner wide receiver, who could they possibly get? Matt Verick can't wait for the pause with Chris DePasso, the chatter.

Yeah, Chris is great. Like, we're already working out. We were talking about today our schedule for the combine. So Tuesday afternoon is going to be the big one. I'm probably actually going to record one early. Tuesday about, or, well, actually, I'm going to try to go live with a lot of these interviews. We'll just see, you know, technologically. But I have a radio row spot, so I'm happy about that.

So Chris and I will probably do like a live show early talking about prospects at the combine and who we're most interested in Tuesday. So maybe like, I don't know, 10 o'clock in the morning or something like that. Then the afternoon will be myself and Dane Mizatani. That'll be after we've spoken to the head coach and the general manager. then probably Wednesday morning looking at doing a buzz, like what we heard last night kind of thing. And those are the pods that you're talking about.

And then we'll go from there and see how it goes. So we're looking to do two of those of like what we heard at the combine from going out to different places and talking to people. And you can tell I'm excited. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I was very relieved today. I just got today the notice of the radio row spot. So I was very, very pleased about that.

Patrick says, I assume you mean Christian Kirk is not bad for a number three. Health issues, maybe. KFT, love is as good as any running back I've seen in 20 years. I mean, he's really good. I mean, you start tossing around Marshall Falk and like, okay, we've gone a little too far, but he's really good. Jared drafting, Jeremiah, I love one of my least favorite ideas, but I guess taking talent is good.

Well, so there's a conflict there for me. because analytically speaking, it's not a great idea. But then when you start to look at some of the running backs who are difference makers, I mean, it's a lot of top draft picks. It's a lot of first and second rounders who have been true difference makers for an offense. And if I think we can really count out J.J. McCarty, even if it works, we can count out J.J. McCarthy being an elite quarterback next year. So right away, that's an instant contributing position that could be the guy you lean on for your offense and then help your quarterback.

You can see it. You can see it. It's just hard to find guys that are special that are in the third round. Like you can, this, the idea that you can find them is true. But then when we actually start going through them, like we can do this. We can, we can take a look and see because that's my impression. I'm willing to change my opinion if I'm wrong here. But we can take a look at this.

Let's go take a look at the running backs. And from last year. So James Cook's second round pick was the leader in the NFL. Derek Henry, top draft pick and, you know, legend. Jonathan Taylor, second round draft pick. Bejohn Robinson top draft pick. Those are the top four. Where was Devin A. Chan taken?

He was the third rounder, 85th overall. Okay. That's some unique speed. Kyron Williams was a fifth rounder. Okay. Are those guys special in the same way? Well, A-chan is, but in the way that Bejan Robinson or Derek Henry or Taylor. But then we go right back to the first rounders, Jemir Gibbs, Christian McCaffrey,

Giovante Williams was ninth, and Saquan Barkley, Travis E,N's a second rounder. So is D'Andre Swift. And then now we're into the middle of the pack, Kenneth Walker here, over a thousand yards. That's just in rushing yards. in grade we kind of see a lot of the same things. Josh Jacobs was up there. Kenneth Walker, these are top draft picks, Breece Hall.

You know, it looks, it just looks more and more like you probably have to, if you want to get one of the best, you probably have to invest in doing it, even if it's not the most efficient thing to do long term. Dumer K.O. They've been hammering the curling on TV. That's a good one because if you don't watch curling,

the hammer is when you have. have the last throw. I've learned that because when my wife kept saying they have the hammer and they had the little hammer, I was like, what does that mean? I did try. That was my Christmas present to the wife when she was preparing to do curling for NBC. I took her out to Chaska Curling Club and we did like a learned to curl thing. And let me tell you, it's hard. It's hard. They just take for granted at the Olympics. They just take for granted. How about Rock? Am I right? So they just slide that thing. Oh, and it goes right in the middle, right to the button is what it's called. And you're like, oh, yeah, well, obviously, he should do that. But then you go try it and you, that's a long way down there. It's not easy. Although that, that would be like saying, well, yeah, I mean, that guy should catch that fly ball, that line drive fly ball in the outfield, then you go try to catch it, right? So I guess all sports are are hard.

they wouldn't be fun if they were easy. Jim says, we all want to say the Vikings will win the division, but if you really think about it, they have no evidence that we will not be fourth. The other teams are just so much more predictable. I think the only team that you could make an argument for having variance would be Chicago,

because we don't fully know if Caleb Williams can take another step from where he was this year. and, you know, they did win a lot of really close games. We don't know what their free agency is going to be like, as you found out from the Vikings, just because you want to spend all that money doesn't mean it's actually going to work. Jared says with their goals seemingly being short term, I don't see much reason to get rid of Hawkinson. Right.

That's what we're working with here. If we were doing a theoretical team build, drafting Jeremiah Love doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Getting rid of T.J. Hawkinson for draft picks absolutely does, but that's not what we're doing. So next year, we can play the GM position next year and maybe we're having a totally different discussion. Like how do they reset the franchise? I was just talking with for a story that's coming out Monday, a former NFL general manager about how the Vikings should approach their GM position. So purple insider dot football, if you want to check that out on Monday and go see the other stuff I wrote recently.

But we were having this same discussion about how, like, you really got to be sure about that timeline. And sometimes you want to push the button of like, we're going to have to make sacrifices to stack draft capital. And you try to time it up with what you know about the next year's draft because they know two years drafts out. A lot can change, but they have a sense for it two years out. So you have to start thinking about what your long term is going to be for are you stacking draft capital? Are you moving guys? that's a very big part of the discussion. Hunter says the problem with the Hawkinson restructure for me is that you push money into

future years and I think he might be cooked. Oh, yeah, I mean, that's if here's the thing about 2026, they're going to restructure a bunch of contracts and it's going to result in future dollars that you don't want. And we know the story here. But if you don't do that and then you can't add to your roster and you just fired your GM, And you've got all these good players, you just, you just end up in in no man's land, which they may be anyway, but you have to try to get out of it. You have to try to make this thing work.

This was always the plan was to do all these restructures and to blow the money down the road. And if it doesn't work, then it goes bust. Then you're looking at rebuilding and trying to correct it, kind of like a 20, 23 situation. But in the spot you're in right now, it's just not the right time to do it. domer k o chicago this on the fan dual question of the day at plus 370 seems high but looks like their cap situation isn't good surprising um we'll see what they do with their cap situation because as we know we can make it you know not we they can make it uh better in the NFL quickly

with the different things you can do so i'm not sure if theirs is really tough or if it's just paper tough. Derek, do you buy into the whole KOC took out the middle of the field schemes for McCarthy? If so, how does that even happen? Well, I mean, I do. I do. I don't think that. So I kind of wish that Alec, I'm on his show, by the way, tomorrow, I think, when he

publishes the episode. So you listen to me on the Alec Lewis show talking about Kyler Murray, if you want more of that. but I do wish that he had expanded a little bit on what he meant by that. But even when you look at just the numbers of overall through the entire season, they threw to the middle of the field a lot less than they had before. And it's kind of clear that he was struggling in those routes over the middle. And I think maybe the point was that they had to go away with McCarthy from fundamental stuff that Kevin O'Connell really wants to do.

And when Aaron Jones uses the words dumbed down, that sort of told the story for me and confirms what he's talking about with taking certain things out. Now, obviously he heard one specific thing about trying to get less throws over the middle. But you remember what was happening. They couldn't get the timing right. They couldn't get the timing right of guys breaking over the middle and the throws would be late. They would be missed. there was one against, I think it was Chicago, where Addison is going over the middle and he doesn't, or maybe it's Jefferson, and he doesn't see it at first, doesn't see the read correctly, then just kind of goes, and by the time he throws it, the guy was open in the middle of the field, he's all the way deep on the other side of the field because he didn't identify what was happening there in front of him. It's really hard to see the field in the NFL.

It's really hard to trust your footwork and timing, especially if you're losing confidence. which I think he did. It's a lot easier to kind of have just some outbreaking stuff to the wide side of the field, give a clear vision to the quarterback. You can't do that over a whole season. You sure as hell can do that against the two worst defenses in the NFL. But this is why every time we talk McCarthy,

I come back to, it's just so hard to see them continuing down that path when the head coach had to fundamentally change something that is a massive part of his office. offense, which is using the middle of the field. So, yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I observed that, uh, that it was a major struggle. It does not surprise me at all that they tried to eliminate that. And that's what I mean, sometimes when I, when I hear that like, KOC didn't adjust his offense. I'm like, I, I thought, I actually thought that that criticism would be right when Carson Wentz was in.

Carson, for Carson Wentz, I thought it was at times absurd how much they, they, were making Carson Wentz run the full Minnesota Vikings passing offense, as if they thought he was going to be Sam Darnel. I didn't think that for J.J. McCarthy. I thought it against Atlanta. Yes, week two, where there were times that they were throwing that they didn't need to. But once he came back, they were a run first offense with bigger personnel, as you're talking about here, throwing more to the outsides.

And he did well against Detroit. so you wouldn't have completely like dumbed it down yet. But when you can't even get snaps off, when you can't run stuff on time, I mean, it's just, it's just far away from where it needed to be. Kerpupi, Dowdell has big playability. He does. Yep, he does. I wonder about consistency of that, but maybe it would be evened out by a Mason.

I just want to know who's going to pass block then. Because I don't think that's Dowdle. Bradley, I get what you're saying about Hawkinson, all of us listening. last year wanted Hawkinson traded last year. They're going to depart with him or else Grinard. No, I don't, I don't think that. I don't think it comes down to him or Grenard. No, I don't think so.

And, uh, yes, a lot of you did want him traded last year. But what, I mean, what are you getting for him even last year with his contract the way that it was? I, I have a tough time buying that. And last year, when you guys were advocating for trading him last year, we were assuming McCarthy was going to be pretty good. and if he had been pretty good, I think you'd be talking about

not even dreaming of getting rid of T.J. Hawkinson. It just kind of bad quarterback play breaks everyone. Son of beavers when I use stick to the model today, got rid of Ryan Kelly and forgot to add a center. Yeah, when you use that, so stick to the model is the team building website, which I've been playing around with

and I know some of you guys have as well. when you do that, you do realize, because I got tunnel vision myself and I signed a running back and then drafted one, although, you know, that's not a terrible idea, but I was like, oh, maybe I didn't need to spend that high of a draft pick on a running back. And then I just did, just spent a second rounder on a running back. Whoops. Son of Beavers, any running backs would speed the counter Mason. I think that's what you got to go to the draft for that.

ETN is fast, but not the guys who are super blazers. Dumer K.O. Isn't that just Laquan Treadwell? You're talking about Denzel Boston with the contested catches? Yes. Uh, yes. That was my issue with him. But there have been plenty of other guys who are not Laquan Treadwell.

Like over the years, there's been plenty of guys who are not him that relied on, you know, their size and so forth. But when I look at the top receivers, I mean, Nekua is huge. Gosh, that guy is enormous. So you can be, if you are big and fast and in the right offense, you know, a great quarterback and all that, you could certainly be Pooka Nakua. But when we go through the best wide receivers,

how many of them are like 6, 4, 6.5? It seems like everybody wanted that post-Moss, Megatron. There's not a ton of them who rely on contested catches. It's mostly route details is what's winning these days. Bradley, love the mock drafts. You should do it twice a week. Absolutely. We'll just, we'll could.

I mean, almost every live stream is probably going to have a draft sim. Almost everyone. Georgia Tech Haynes is this year's Kyle Munungai. Okay. I don't know a lot about him. Alabama's Miller will be a value pick. Okay. I'll keep an eye on some of those guys.

I'm not to day three. Fellas. We're not even at the combine yet. I think I've got day one and day two. At least the names. But day three, I'm not quite there yet. D. Kirsch, Vikings could get more dynamic at running back. I'll be fine with it.

Yep. That's what they need. More dynamic is right. Derek Wilf's, this is a theory from Derek that the Wills told Brzezinski he is safe, no matter what he does, free agency draft, as long as it's for the long term future. KOC can't spend too much. Well, I mean, yeah, like Rob Brzynsinski is not on the hot seat or something this offseason. Rob Brzezinski is not on the hot seat ever.

Like he's working here. He's working here. It's just what capacity he's working here in. Is he going to be president of operations or something? Or is he going to go back to his other role once they hire the GM? I guess if he becomes the GM, then he's not safe forever. But I think he would be in a very good position if he were. But I also agree with your overall assessment that with Rob Brzezinski in charge and him

and his relationship to the Wilf's, he's not going to let them just trade. three firsts for Jeremiah Love or something. That's not going to happen. They're not going to go crazy, but they also know that this is a year to win for that locker room, for that team in the way that it's been built. Matt says there are nits to pick with love, in my opinion, skinny for a running back, runs high,

a lot of hurdles and spin moves that don't translate to the NFL every down. Well, those details are tough for me to say. like I don't know. I mean, that's the hard part about the draft. Like what I see with love is a complete all around back who's very strong, really tough to tackle. But yeah, I mean, I guess when you're talking about like spin moves and different highlight real stuff that might be harder to translate to the NFL or he might

jump backwards over a guy like Sequin Barclay. Like, I don't know. I know he's got the talent to be really good though. And he's the only one that does. Jared says, I understand it. I don't think drafting a running back high is something that should be done to supplement a roster that's nearing a Super Bowl window, not to come in and fix the team. Yeah.

Well, because what you're talking about is, let's say you draft Jeremiah Love and 2026 just goes to hell. So then they end up with now a rebuild and you've got Jeremiah Love, you've spent a draft pick on a running back. We're assuming it goes well. but if it doesn't you might have this running back here for two three years you just don't succeed with them and then what do you do sign them to a huge contract yeah very very fair critique and i think from an overall team building that i would agree with you from a they are kind of panicked and this

is a really great football player and and look if it goes well if this year were to go well let's say they get kiler and it's a two year type of thing like that person laid out earlier with Kyler. All right. They win 11 games this year with Kyler Murray and Jeremiah, I love in the back field. And, you know, they're a really good team. And they get in the playoffs and are dangerous.

Then it was worth it. And then you're going forward with that piece to build around. So it's risky, though. Cause and effect. Give me your sneaky GM prospects post draft names. Man, I just don't have that. I just do not have that. I don't know.

I need to know first who they're interested. interviewing and then we could start talking about it. But I can't tell you, oh, well, this executive from Philadelphia, I know some people have tried to put together lists. I just wait to find out who they're actually interviewing and then we can talk about them. Because otherwise, it's just guessing. I don't know who they're looking at. I don't know.

And the other thing is not like we have data on other. Oh, well, this guy was the AGM when some team did this. Well, I don't, I mean, I don't know if that makes him a candidate or not. Aaron says was the former GM you talked to Quasi. It was not. It was not. It was Doug Whaley, former executive for the Pittsburgh Steelers,

former general manager of the Buffalo Bills. And currently, the, I think he's the managing the entire UFL currently. Doug was there in Buffalo when I was there. And so I gave him a call. We had a really good conversation, very, very insightful.

So you want to look for that. I'll maybe Monday's lives, I was thinking, well, let's see, I'm flying Monday. Can I do a live stream Monday? at some point I'll I'll read some quotes from it so we'll get you some of that but the best place to get it would be signing up at purple insider dot football let's see uh jeremiah let's see this is uh pigs pig 76 uh love you wonder about his play style will he stay healthy in the NFL see these are things that are just i don't know like there's always with every single prospect there's

always some question like yeah like he plays extremely hard he does a lot of those things that we're talking about, the spin moves and jumps and stuff. So is someone going to smack them or not? I have no idea. Those are hard things to figure out. Aaron, will there ever be a cap limit since 2022? The cap has went up from 200 million to 304 years. Yeah.

Probably it will hit, but I don't know. I mean, Amazon, YouTube, international games. I think it will slow, but I don't think it's going to stop going up. It tends to. And there's inflation in society as well, but I think there will be a point where it maybe settles. It just has exploded with these things in recent years. Phenom, please no more Kyler talk.

Dude, they might. I think you know they might. And as long as they might, we're going to talk about it. And also, as long as it's the smartest idea they could do, I'm going to talk about it. If you look at all the other options other than Kyler Murray, tell me who you could really believe would come in and give you play good enough to win 11 games and give you enough talent to win a playoff game at the quarterback position. I mean, Derek Carr is retired.

I think Derek Carr could probably do it, but he's retired. Like, who gives you better odds? Malik Willis has thrown 100 passes. I think he's talented and I like his work ethic and his attitude, but he's thrown 100 passes. Kyler Murray has made the playoffs with the team before. And if you're saying, well, what do you do in the playoffs? Well, what did Sam Darnold do in his first playoff game? So Kyler's made the playoffs before. He's been a top 12 quarterback by PFF two times in his career. He played in an offense that had more similarities than you think in 2024. He's not

just a snap out of the shotgun, scramble around, throw the ball like people act like he is. And if you're looking for someone who is the closest thing to a Baker Mayfield or a Sam Darnold Reclamation Project, this is it. And he was a number one overall draft pick. There's no one with that much talent out there. Gino Smith is a hundred years old. He could probably still throw it, but he is very old. And had a terrible, terrible year last year last full year was good.

I just, there's no better option that you, when you line it up on paper is better. Some people just don't like him, but they don't have great reasons in comparison to what, Mac Jones? Mac Jones has been a backup quarterback for. three years and has not really been good in the NFL other than a smaller sample with San Francisco since 2021. So yeah, I'm going to keep talking about it because I think it's a real option for this team to do. And with, you know, Gino Smith, somebody asked me today, like, hey, a couple weeks ago you were talking a little higher about Gino Smith. The reason that I changed my mind on Gino,

other than that, you know, he was truly horrific last year. But I started looking at the, you know, and how he's played. And he just has not played in a way that the Vikings do. Yes, downfield passing, but the intermediate stuff was not great. And he's almost never under center. And he's also very old. Like he's as old as like Kirk and Derrick Carr. We don't think of him that way because he disappeared for such a long time,

but he's old. And I know Murray's been injured. I know that. And there's risk to every single one of these quarterback options. But when you stack it up on paper, I don't think you could find a better one than Murray. KFT, Derek Carr sounds like he doesn't even know if he could get healthy. I know, like he said on his podcast, well, you know, if I'm healthy and I'm like,

do you, why do you not know if you're healthy enough? Gino's stats are insane. They were insane. They were. Can they still be? I mean, he is a downfield thrower. Yes. He is a downfield thrower.

But can you do the rest of the stuff? Aaron disappointed they didn't draft running back last year in a stack draft. Now that I totally agree. I mean, you're drafting. This is where, you know, some of the drafting stuff is frustrating. If you're drafting like a thumping linebacker and a fourth tight end or something, like, isn't it better to take some swings at running back?

Son of beavers, Anthony Richardson, Justin Fields, and J.J. McCarthy would be an entertaining QB room. Caleb is all in on Willis. Look, I like the idea of Malik Willis. If they buy into it, I like that idea. And I think it's a good one for now and later. I don't, I think it's very risky. And I mean, they're all risky, but it's very risky for someone who's barely played any football to come in.

But I do like that idea. Those are my top two. I mean, my top two ideas were Kyler and, uh, Malik Willis. So. And both of them have their, their ups and downs. But we're going to, yeah, we're going to find out in the coming weeks. I don't think that they can wait that long. and I guess a, you know, a trade, there could be news of a trade anytime.

And I don't think it could be consummated until after the next league year starts, but that could come out. Dumer, K.O. had zero percent faith in Gino to have a game winning touchdown when the Vikings played Seattle. That was a great example of why Gino Smith, to me, is kind of like a better version of James, Winston, in that huge arm, takes a ton of risks, throws a lot of pisses, picks, gets sacked a ton. He's been sacked over 100 times the last two years.

I mean, that would be terrifying for an offense that asks you to sit back there and throw. Not that I think it's impossible for someone like Gino Smith to be good with this team because he does have the arm for it, but he's taking a lot of hits over the last couple of years. And I mean, I think age is probably coming for him a bit. So anyway, well, great, great, great, great chat again tonight. Really enjoyed throwing that list out there. Yeah, and I agree, Aaron, the entertainment value with Kyler would at least be there. At least it would be fun to watch and interesting for sure.

So anyway, well, great stuff tonight, guys, really enjoyed the conversation. And if you didn't in the comment section, answer the Fandul question of the day, that the, the odds are out now for division winners on Fanduel. And the Vikings are plus 700. That is the fourth best odds. think of the order right now. Just take a swing at the order for next year. And again, make sure you go check out and got Friday mailbag coming out, Purpleinsider. Football. And I think this will probably, unless there's some reason for another show, I'll probably do one, probably record one for Monday,

because I'll be flying out to Indianapolis on Monday. So I'll probably have something recorded there for you, answering some questions or whatever I come up with over the weekend or news reaction or something. And of course, if there's ever breaking news, we'll jump live. And then it's, it's just going to be a really exciting week next week. So I usually don't beg for, uh, subscribing, but I'm suggesting, strongly suggesting subscribing because we're going to talk with the brass and then talk right to you right after it happens. That seems like a thing you might want to be around for. So, uh, thanks everybody for listening. I think we made a fun week out of something that was pretty slow. Uh, so, uh, had a good time. Thanks to all of you joining on these live shows. So take everybody and we will talk to you

very soon. Football.