Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - 2022 Vikings cutdown day: Armon Watts and many members of the Vikings 2021 draft class are out

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Sports Illustrated's Will Ragatz joins Matthew Coller to break down an interesting cutdown day for the Minnesota Vikings in which they surprisingly released Armon Watts and traded for Ross Blacklock. They also cut most of the 2021 draft class, including Kellen Mond and Wyatt Davis and then left the door open with cap space for the possibility of adding someone else. Suh? Beckham? Who knows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Cutdown Day Reaction. Matthew Collar along with Will Raggett, Sports Illustrated Vikings reporter. And Will, I hope you got a pot of coffee on because we are going to broadcast nonstop through the night if we have to until the Vikings do something with the cap space that they created with their cutdowns today. Are you prepared? Yeah, I'm prepared, but I mean, in reality, we know that as soon as we stop recording here, they're going to do something, but we'll do our best to talk about what has happened so far today and maybe what

could happen in the future. All right, then we'll start with Luigi Valen making the team. Congratulations to him. No, I mean, actually, it's a cool story for luigi valaine he's an undrafted player who has a great final look in the preseason ends up making the 53 as we know 53s are not completely set so hopefully his family doesn't celebrate him making the team and then they make a change quickly but clearly that is not the biggest story of the day. It is the Vikings shockingly cutting Armond Watts. And this is always the like oxymoron that is what surprise cuts could be coming. It's like, it won't be a surprise if I see it coming. And this was a surprise. I, in fact,

I might even go a shock will that a guy who practiced with the first team all summer long, first and second team rotating in, would just get to the end of training camp and they say, no, we're good. We're going to get Ross Blacklock from the Houston Texans. Like, what? Why did this happen in your opinion? I completely agree that it goes beyond the mere surprise tournament

into the shocking or stunning realm. When I saw that notification popped up, that was the last thing I was expecting. Armin Watts, like you said, has been a first team player basically all offseason. He was listed in their unofficial depth chart as a starting player, like alongside Harrison Phillips and Dalvin Tomlinson. When the Vikings were in their base 3-4, Ar Watts was a starter he was on the field so that makes this really really surprising now you look back and you can maybe see some signs where in the second preseason game the Vikings did not play any of their starters with the exception of Armin Watts playing 12 snaps so maybe hey they're still trying to evaluate him a little bit in this scheme.

I have to imagine ultimately that's what it came down to, was they didn't love how he fit playing that five technique in this scheme. Maybe they thought he was better suited. Because he had a breakout year last year. He played almost 700 snaps. He started nine games. He had five sacks. But that was as a three snaps. He started nine games. He had five sacks. But that was as a three technique in a 4-3.

This is a different scheme. I mean, I wonder maybe shouldn't you have realized that earlier? I don't know what the answer is there. It also creates a little bit of cap space. They save, I think, 1.2 million by going from Watts to Blacklock. And Blacklock's interesting in his own right, even though they didn't have to give up very much to get him. He was a second round pick just two years ago. Somebody I remember looking into in the pre-draft process in 2020, a good

athlete. Hasn't really done much of anything with the Texans, which is why he was cheap. But yeah, a really surprising move. But I guess it came down to scheme and clearing a little bit of money. It has to be scheme because last year just pulled up the PFF data here in terms of his past rushing grade. He ranked 21st among all guys who played at least 50 percent of the snap. So players who were regular or starters among defensive tackles, and he was 21st. I mean, that's pretty good. Like out of a lot of guys who play defensive tackle that can't pressure the quarterback at all. He had a decent pass rush win rate. We even saw him in the first preseason game, get after the quarterback. It seemed like, and even when I talked to Armond

Watts the other day, it was like we were talking about his development from somebody who was a sixth round pick to what appeared to be, and this is like old takes exposed on me because I didn't see this coming, but appeared to be someone who would be kind of a key role player on this team because Harrison Phillips and Delvin Tomlinson are just not pass rushers. So it may just be that this is what they think they want from that position from that either five technique, or they were looking for just more defensive tackle depth because more often than not, they're really not going to play

a traditional three, four. It's going to be the nickel defense most of the time with the edge standing up a lot, but you you know it's just surprising that you would say no this guy is so poor of a fit that we're kind of throwing out his actual results from last year and saying let's move on to somebody else that is of course unless will there is someone else on the way and there's someone else who had been rumored at one point and then it just disappeared and that would be indomitian sue so if indomitian sue shows up then i think we'll go oh okay well i guess i see why you needed that cap space and that player became no longer relevant because we kind of talked about this right that there wasn't really room for arman watts and

indomitian sueoux, except for my argument was that Armand Watts then wouldn't play and Sioux might not be as good. So I'm not really exactly sure how this is going to make them better, even if Indomitian Sioux does end up here. Yeah, I think Sioux coming would make it make more sense. If you look at it as just a one-for-one, all right, we're replacing armin watts with rock ross blacklock i'm not sure i don't think that makes you better i think that's a risky move to make when you are trying to win games and and pressure the quarterback and that's that's a big part of winning games like you said dalvin thompson harrison phillips that's not really

their game i think it'll be interesting to ask Kweisi and Kevin and maybe other coaches about if and when we get that chance. But Ross Blacklock, to try to kind of understand it from the Vikings perspective, he does have still some upside. It's just he's only been in the league for two years. He got better from his really disastrous rookie season to last year. I think he had a 50-ish PFF grade after like a 30 his rookie year. And the run defense was a problem for him last year. If you go by PFF, I haven't grinded the tape. He had a pretty good pass rush grade. He had 25 pressures, two sacks. And that was the thing on him coming out of TCU is that he is like 6'3", 290 with a lot of

explosiveness off the line of scrimmage. So maybe there's something that defensive line coach Chris Rumpf saw in Ross Blacklock and his pass rush ability, and they think that it'll be a similar – they think he could be a similar player to what Watts would have been in this scheme or maybe a slight downgrade where you save some money. But still, just the one- one for one I think right now makes the Vikings worse like I think Armin Watts was gonna be a 400 500 snap guy in a rotation and probably lead the defensive line not the outside linebackers just the pure defensive

linemen in pressure so yeah it's it's really surprising to me. We will just wait and see if there is a, another move coming that maybe makes this make a little more sense or maybe Ross Blacklock will turn out to be good. I don't know. Yeah. I'm a little surprised by this, unless a different move is coming. Do you think it's possible that a center could be on the way with this cap space? What if just throwing this out there what if the Vikings didn't know about JC Treader and then they were like oh he wants to come here I guess we'll create some cap space for you I'm mostly being facetious but imagine yeah that would be a pretty funny story I think they we've talked about a lot they could absolutely still use a center I mean you're going

into this season that's now less than two weeks away. And Garrett Bradbury, the prospect of him going against Kenny Clark and Devontae Wyatt and other, Daron Reed, other Packers defensive tackles, I think is one of the main concerns. So we're going to be kind of scouring the waivers and stuff like that. Like you said, this initial 53 is not going to be the 53 that that we see when they when they play the Packers it just isn't I mean it's a question of are there one or two differences or like six differences um because they're going to look at waivers they're going to look at like veteran free agents who were released they're going to look at possible trades I mean we saw Quasey make two of them today and so bringing in a center I think could be an option like the Chiefs I believe

released Austin Ryder who who's a veteran. The Cowboys waived Alec Lindstrom. There are going to be some guys out there. Again, we just talked about it a bunch last show. I think J.C. Tretter is getting kind of blackballed by the league. I don't think they're going to turn around and make that move. But, yeah, it would make sense for them to keep addressing the trenches on both sides of

the ball at center and then maybe adding another defensive lineman yeah and of course the issue with getting a center at this point is that you can't really play them right away that it would take kind of uh i don't want to say quite midway through the season but at least a month uh in order for them to feel comfortable with whoever that center is. But it would act as some sort of a parachute if they get four or five weeks into the season. And if they get blown away in the interior offensive line in the first couple of weeks, and then they just say, we need to kind of save our season here at that position. That's basically what they did last year with Mason Cole. When Garrett Bradbury went down, they said, well, actually,

Cole is kind of playing better than Bradbury did. And then I believe there was talk that they wanted to keep Mason Cole to compete with Bradbury. But then Pittsburgh gave him a pretty good offer, which, of course, is another move that happened today and is not shocking at all. Jesse Davis being traded to Pittsburgh for a 2025 conditional seventh round pick. Here's my question on this, because you could give a reasonable football reaction if you like, but what will you be doing in 2025, Will, when this conditional pick comes up? I have no idea. I will quite possibly still be doing this, but you never know. That is three years away.

That is a long time. I'm going to be like 27, 28, which is bizarre to me as currently a 24-year-old. But, yeah, it's an interesting – it's not an interesting move. What am I saying? Jesse Davis, I was going to try to talk it up. That's just my instinct. But no, Jesse Davis, he lost the battle to Ed Ingram. When they signed him in March, it seemed like, okay,

he's maybe the favorite along with Chris Reid. But it was one of those ones where it was like the amount of money they gave him and what you heard from like literally every Dolphins fan and reporter who watched him play just didn't match up. So that was always kind of weird. And he, of course, I think was playing out of position at tackle at times in Miami. But yeah, then Ed Ingram beats him out. Ed Ingram has looked really good throughout camp, developed quickly, played well in some limited preseason action, played well from what we saw in like the joint

practices against the 49ers so not shocking at all it saves them 1.5 million but i believe they have 750 000 in dead cap penalties both this year and next so that's not ideal but a good gm will will recognize hey maybe this wasn't the best move. Let's just cut bait and move on. And that's what the Vikings did. And both of their moves today, the trades, kind of point towards a couple depth guys as people to just keep an eye on, I would say. Because with Jesse Davis gone, you've got Austin Schlotman and Chris Reed as your two interior depth guys who could play both center and guard. So two names to know if the Vikings don't make a move there. And then one other guy I wanted to just quickly touch on on the defensive line is Jonathan Bullard, who was a former third round pick by the Bears.

The Vikings have really liked what he's done in camp. So with Watts moving on, this might be a chance for, I mean, Ross Blacklock's just about to show up like a week and a half ahead of the season it might be an opportunity first for Bullard or James Lynch maybe even rookie Issei Otomu who made the 53 but I don't think so I think it's probably Bullard or Lynch there yeah I think with Otomu they must have believed that he was going to be picked up by somebody else if they cut him which you know fifth round draft pick you start to get into that area where someone will probably grab that player um we'll talk about a couple of other things with the cuts but as of recording this right now alexander madison's still on the team and people were upset about alexander madison takes online

but uh still will stay in the same spot that I've been with Alexander Madison for the entire offseason since it started getting brought up after the Raiders game. I don't see a really good reason to trade him, not unless the return is going to be absolutely fantastic, which it generally is not for running backs. And even then, a few running backs around the league who are proven got cut today that other teams would be likely to pick up so if you're a team in need of an extra running back you're probably not trading a third round pick or a fourth round pick for alexander madison so you might as well just have him be on your football team where you're trying to win games and he can help you and one of the weird things is in football, it seems like anyone who

hasn't played is automatically better than anyone playing forever and always all the time. Like if, if there's a right guard, who's not good, why aren't they playing the backup? I mean, it used to be much more with the quarterback, the starter. Why aren't they playing the backup? The backup must be better. Oh, it's Sean Mannion. Well, Mond must be better. Somebody else, if they haven't played, if they're younger, they must be better. And so the assumption that Ty Chandler must be better than a guy who's played for three years and has been really effective. Alexander Madison has started six games, four times he's gone over 90 yards rushing and another one where he didn't start

he had over 100 yards against Seattle when Delvin Cook got hurt I mean he's reliable and he's solid and and Chai Chantler had 15 carries in the preseason 15 like that's not a sample size I liked what I saw but it's 15 so to me there was no reason to do that. You're trying to win. You are not like selling off everything for assets. The other thing is too, people love their late round picks. Everyone used to make fun of Rick Spielman, but I got receipts that show there's a lot of the internet that also thinks that sixth round picks are becoming something marvelous.

But the best tweet of the day from somebody yesterday was the Peter Griffin where he's like, but what's in the box what if it's another box like what if what if it's a run it what if we use that sixth round pick to get another running back or something it's like it's okay to just keep your good player it's not gonna like corrode your franchise and uh i just want to blame billy bean for everybody thinking since they watch moneyball that they can like we're gonna analytics this thing and get rid of every player for draft picks like no just keep just keep the good players and as of this moment they have oh uh Pat Elfline struggling at right guard let's play Drew Samia he must be better uh yeah there's a lot of examples

like that in football quarterback being the most blatant one where everyone loves a backup quarterback. And I get it to some extent. Like if somebody is not doing particularly well, you're like, all right, well, let's try the other option. But most of the time, not all the time, most of the time, there's a reason why that person is playing over the other option. And I'm with you on the Madison front. Like I would trade them for a third in a heartbeat. I would maybe trade him for a fourth. But they're not going to get that.

Like you said, like who's going to – I mean there's some dumb teams out there. I don't think there's a team that's quite that dumb. Just knowing the positional value of running backs, the kind of – the amount of running backs that are out there to just be signed as free agents. Like a bunch of solid running backs are going to get cut this week we got cut today i'm sure so um i i think like you i can sort of understand where people are coming from i don't agree with it but madison has had some issues at times like including a couple big moments with like the

vision the one against the seahawks where he had a hole on fourth and one and, and missed it and got stuffed. But that's one play. Like you got to look at the whole body of work that he's put together in the NFL. He has almost 2000 yards from scrimmage in his career. He runs really hard and physical, which is kind of an aspect that Ty Chandler and Kenny Wong would don't have, or at least we haven't seen. So, yeah, with Dalvin Cook's injury history,

like having Madison as insurance this year is important. It could, in theory, help you win a game or two games. Like running backs don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things, but Madison is such an experienced player, an established player, that even if he's going to walk after this year and he almost certainly will like just keep him on the team this year because it could help and you don't want to just suddenly dalvin cook goes down and you're like all right ty chandler and kenny wong lu like you guys haven't played in the nfl regular

season very much at all you guys got to be our our lead backs here so So I really think Ty Chandler has a bright future. I liked what I saw a ton from him in those 15 carries, but it's 15 carries in preseason against backups. Like, let's slow the roll a little bit. Alexander Madison is a player worth having on the team, even if it's just for this year. And then maybe you get like a sixth round comp pick in 2024 anyways. Folks, want to remind you to go to sodastick.com.

That is S O T A S T I C K.com. Sodastick.com has all of your great Minnesota sports designs, whatever sports you're looking for, but specifically for this show football, they have John Randall, Randy Moss, Adam Thielen, lots of great designs there and

everything with the word skull written on it. So make sure you go to sodastick.com. Great hats, t-shirts, hoodies. I've got a bunch of them in my closet. So make sure you check that out. S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Right. Yeah. I mean, a few other things on that the reason so people will say like oh well every running back is good that's like all running backs are good but there's like the survivorship bias there like they only keep the good running backs uh and they only elevate the ones that are really like really terrific right so i oh they found this late round running back and he's good right but what about all his friends that were also taken in the late rounds that were good and just got cut and you forgot about all of them?

So, yes, one running back, James Robinson or somebody is pretty good that you found out of nowhere. But that doesn't mean that like Kenny Wong or Ty Chandler can play. The other thing, too, is multiple running backs, believe it or not could get hurt at once. And so like, it's a position that you kind of can't have enough depth there. Because if you get, if they were to move on from Madison and then you go to Chandler and he gets hurt and it's cook and Chandler both out, then you're left with what?

Like signing somebody off the street, basically elevating, elevating Bryant callbackryant kobach to the right right active roster yeah if cook gets hurt like all the people out there who want to see ty chandler you will see him like alexander madison and and chandler awang will split time you're just not pouring everything on the young players right right and that actually is probably better for madison the other thing is too that there are other elements of this game. There are pass blocking there's receiving, which actually Alexander Madison is pretty good at. He's got nice hands out of the backfield. Like they've had success with him. And I think that that one play you're right. Really stuck out. I love the confidence though,

of people to think that they know running back vision. I just like, I, you and I, you look at the all 22, the coaches film. Most of the time, I could not tell you if the running backs eyes were in the right spot because no one told me where the running backs eyes were supposed to be. So if it's, if it's outside zone in the traditional way, I could figure it out because I understand that scheme. If it's gap, well, you're just not, you're not using your eyes you're just running behind the guard so that that's pretty much set for you it's like what it's really one play right like that's where that came from it's just one play where you missed the hole and that was it because yeah there might be a couple other like minor examples but to say he's this running back who just runs forward and has no vision is ridiculous.

Most of the time, he's been in this scheme for three years now. Most of the time, he's going to know when to cut it back, when to bounce it. He's going to make the right read. He's not Delvin Cook-level vision, which is why he's not a top five running back in the league making $60 million. But very few people are. So I think it's that one Seahawks play that stands on everybody's mind, but like, come on, that's one play at lightning speed where you have to make that decision to try

to figure out which way is going to get you the yard. And he didn't, but that doesn't mean he's blind. Also maybe don't call run play behind Drew Samia in that situation. The worst offensive lineman I think we've covered. But yeah, I mean, I just think that that's like one of those, someone has a key drop that loses a game or, you know, Greg Joseph misses one field goal. And it's like, I don't know about that Joseph. It's like, it doesn't matter that he made all the rest of them.

He's still questionable because he had that one big miss. And I think that's kind of been the case for Madison and that he's just not blazing fast, but that's never really made that big of a difference in terms of his success so I won't it's kind of the it's kind of the Cam Dantzler effect too like oh yeah he I think he's a perfect example of that where he like overall he his numbers look good like he plays pretty well technically in coverage and all that he just happens to like end up on the wrong end of big plays and big

moments and highlights which when it happens as much as it does there might actually be something to that situation with him um but it's like people are like oh get booth in there Dantzler sucks like no no he actually is a quality starter I think so uh Cooper Rush got cut today by the way so did he yeah back up quarterback I thought he was I thought he was going to be the Cowboys backup Cooper Rush got cut today, by the way. Did he? Yeah. Backup quarterback. I thought he was going to be the Cowboys backup. I don't know who's going to be their backup. I saw that he got let go. So, yeah, the guy who beat the Vikings last year is not on the team anymore.

So, anyway, speaking of guys who are not on the team anymore, and, hey, this goes to the, hey, I would trade Alexander Madison for a third. Thirds don't always work out either, my friend. And boy, is the 2021 class proof. I mean, Cam Bynum and Patrick Jones are looking around going like, where'd everybody go? All these guys we came in with. You know how when they do the draft class, they usually take all I don't know if they do this, but like they usually take all the draft picks if they did it like in 2021 covid was still kind of happening but they'll like take them to top golf or when i was in buffalo's like niagara falls all the draft picks like oh let's go show

niagara falls they're new in town it's just cam bynum and patrick jones from that trip now at this point and uh amir smith marset after Chaz Surratt a very strange draft pick when it happened not here anymore Kellen Mond not here anymore it appears that Sean Mannion is going to be put on the practice squad as we kind of expected Wyatt Davis was he real hard to say never saw him do anything so uh your take on the end aside from Patrick Jones of the 2021 third round draft class yeah it's it's a pretty amazing thing that 16 months after these players were day two draft picks which you think gets you two years like being a day two pick you think gets you two years at least, even if you are really bad. It's hard to be so bad that you're a third round pick who gets cut before

their second season. And the Vikings have three of those out of their four picks. It's the, the Mon one is like if, if Davis Mills becomes a good starter, which I don't think he will, but I think at the minimum, he's going to be a good backup in the league for a long time. That one was right there because he

was literally the next pick. That one did not age well at all. Mon just showed some flashes at times of upside, but really never put it together in terms of the decision-making, the processing quickly, even the accuracy. That one, not a surprise after what we saw uh the chess one like you said that was i remember where i was during the 2020 draft at home because it was it was covid and i saw the news that the vikings took chess right well first i went who because i didn't know who that was and then i looked it up and i read about him and i like watched some film and i still didn't understand it. And maybe try to talk myself into it, like his athleticism, whatever.

But like he was a quarterback two years prior to being a linebacker, a head scratcher at the time. He never did anything. The Wyatt Davis one like made sense to me at the time. Just I watch a ton of Big Ten football. I knew Wyatt Davis was good. I knew at one point he was projected as a first rounder he was like a two-time all-american at ohio state um but then it turns out later reporting i i don't remember exactly who reported this but um like rick spielman kind of went against his scouting staff with that pick like courtney yeah courtney courtney yeah he he the general consensus in the building was that

they didn't want wyatt davis but it was it was a rick driven pick and yeah it did not work out at all we never really saw him rise above like the third team in his two seasons so um that it's it's just pretty shocking and then you throw in a fourth rounder generis robinson who obviously it's a little different he missed all of last year with an injury but he gets cut today too so that's it was three of the top four and then i think like four of the top seven the funny thing is like a lot of people were dunking on rick spielman today and understandably so when you get three third rounders cut in one day, 16 months after they were drafted. But this could still turn out to be like a good productive draft class for the Vikings. All that really matters at the end of the day is if Christian Derrissaw becomes a perennial all pro left tackle.

It's a good class. Like that's what matters the most is the guy you take at the top, especially at a premium position like that. And then Kanae Wong-Wu led the NFL in kick return touchdowns last year and might have some upside as a running back. Patrick Jones really impressed me during training camp. He's the survivor out of that third-round quartet. Who else? Cam Bynum is going to be a starting safety for the Vikings in week one. I don't know how long that's going to last with Louis Dean waiting in the wings, but he's a starting safety right now.

Amir Smith-Marset is their number four receiver. And then at the back end, Davidson and Twyman also got cut today, but that's a lot more normal for fifth and sixth round picks. Yeah, a really surprising day on the surface, but the interesting part is that it still could be a decent class overall. Yeah, so I kind of go back and forth a little bit on this one when it comes to that because there is a case that, look, I mean, the first rounders failing for the Vikings in the past is what really punched a giant hole in their roster. I mean, Laquan Treadwell doesn't work out and Mike Hughes and others that they took

in the first round or Derek Barnett playing for Philadelphia. Year after year of missing on first rounders not named Justin Jefferson was a major problem for them. So Christian Derusaw by far is the most important person in this class and he looks good. He looks like he's about to take a next step. And you're absolutely right to bring up that they found other useful players in this class and he looks good. He looks like he's about to take a next step. And you're absolutely right to bring up that they found other useful players in this draft potentially. Smith-Marset hasn't done much yet. We'll see about him.

He showed flashes, but Wong Wu, we'll see if he can repeat the kick. We don't know about any of those guys. Pat Jones played like 100 snaps last year. Bynum played like 200. Wong Wu played like 20 snaps that weren't on special teams but maybe right right but maybe but maybe the guy's still on the team okay but one of the big issues that this team has had and still continues to have and this is not going to change

is the depth it's like if you draft a fourth rounder a third rounder and maybe the guy isn't good but he's like okay like i think of stephen weatherly for this i know he was a seventh rounder, a third rounder, and maybe the guy isn't good, but he's like, okay. Like I think of Steven Weatherly for this. I know he was a seventh rounder, but he's just a good example of somebody who was totally okay at his best. And in 2018, they lost Everson Griffin. Weatherly came off the bench. He played like four games and it was fine mostly. And that's like kind of what you're looking for with those players in their rookie contracts and then you draft more and then the next group becomes those guys if they don't become quality starters so we almost grade them as if like were you a starter or were you

complete garbage and totally useless but you're not complete garbage and totally useless if you can be some sort of reasonable depth of course if, if you get cut, then you are not reasonable depth. And that goes for the, you know, even for the quarterback as well. It's like, well now, you know, they had to invest something to bring Nick Mullins in and a little bit of money to bring Nick Mullins in, and you're going to lose some dead cap for cutting Kellen Mond and all that. You know, just one by one real quick, because this is actually kind of interesting. It's like Kellen Mond was chasing something that wasn't there. I mean, it was just like, we need to draft quarterback. Well, do you got the guts to get Justin Fields? No. Okay. Well, what's kind of looks like Justin Fields, but not that he really does, but you know, like, uh, this guy's fast. He ran like

a four or five something. And then on draft night, it was like, and we think he's a lot like Teddy Bridgewater. He's like, what Teddy? I mean, Teddy Bridgewater is like a first round draft pick and you know, all that stuff like, huh? Yeah. You know, that's the third round draft pick is not like that. And so they kind of took all these little jabs at Kirk, like, Oh, we were looking for mobility and, and arm strength and stuff. And just kind of trying to be a little like wink, wink. That's why we drafted him. Uh, but it was, it was like a foolish move to draft a quarterback in the third round because they just don't work out. So it's like, I, I, you know, the agent, uh, Joel Corey, who works for CBS was tweeting like's like i you know the agent uh joel cory who works for cbs was tweeting like well you know this is because they change regimes like no it's not it's because he was horrendous

and he was nowhere close but most third round quarterbacks aren't i saw davis webb got cut again like yep that's how that goes you're just flushing a draft pick most of the time when you take one of these guys in the third round. But it seemed that they were chasing their own like scar tissue from Kirk and hoping that something was there. The Wyatt Davis pick. I don't know, man. I do not know. Like even it would it would benefit certain people to say it was Rick's pick and not mine

or whatever. Maybe some people knew. Maybe some people in the scouting department knew that there wasn't anything there but i agree with you when they drafted him i was like a plus great pick third round guard like has a great college resume big guy like go for it everybody i knew liked the pick like all the draft analysts everything else uh what i guess yeah then in hockey what they used to say is that someone had a torn heartilage like they uh had didn't have heart you know that i think maybe that was it like

it's hard to be in the nfl and sometimes you get out there and you lose some one-on-ones and you you know in the off season you're not grinding 24 7 and you just you know you don't want to be in the league wyatt davis always came across to me as like a pretty nice guy who was sort of worldly. I think his dad was like an actor or something. I think he'll probably have, you know, a good career doing something else. I'm not sure that he ever had that like killer instinct to be an NFL player. Um, and Cheser, I, yeah, you nailed it with Cheser. I was was just weird it was just a weird pick and and look at these positions backup quarterback guard linebacker like premium positions just being ignored not a corner not a receiver not something that might matter there so um sorry for the the long rant about that but it actually is kind of fascinating and Zach Davidson man you missed an opportunity

there my friend I mean it was right there for you Zach Davidson season and he gets cut for Ben Ellefson to stay on the team yeah Zach Davidson had the opportunity like more than you could really ask for because the Tyler Conk is gone. Irv Smith got hurt. His only competition was Johnny Munt, Ben Ellison, and a seventh-round rookie, Nick Muse, and he still couldn't get it done. In general, when talking about these picks, I know we are using hindsight, but it's not complete hindsight. There are some things that you've touched on where the process at the time was flawed. I know we are using hindsight, but like it's not complete hindsight. Like there,

there were some things that you've touched on where like the process at the time was flawed. Kellen Mond, like, you know, who else was a third round quarterback? Sean Mannion, who they also cut today. Like it just doesn't, it doesn't really work out there ever. Like there's, you can count on one hand, like the Kirk cousins and Dak Prescott and Russell Wilson. Like that is just such a rare finding, finding a needle in a haystack type of thing that like doing it at the time just to maybe save face for not taking a first round quarterback always was probably not going to pan out. I think the hope was probably that Kellen Mond was at least going to be decent backup which didn't materialize the Wyatt Davis thing yeah I don't I just I don't know if I have anything else

to add about that it's just it's just strange given his college pedigree and what he did there that he couldn't even become like a capable second team guard it's just weird the surat one yeah what it's just a spectacular whiff so as yeah it as we speak courtney cronin texted me about wyatt davis because as the as the internet want to do so i don't want to get too caught up on the internet because there's like lots of people who do lots of things on the internet and a lot of them are weird but but people went after her for that wyatt davis report which is true and i like i don't sometimes i sometimes i just don't understand talking yourself into things that there's no evidence of talking yourself into it like if a guy couldn't even be active on game day as a rookie third round draft pick who was originally slated to start. It's not good.

Like it's not a hot take. So yeah, kind of funny. I maybe, uh, the Courtney hasn't been on the show in a bit cause she's been covering the bears, but she will be back and she will take her victory lap on that one. Um,

so, so what's left, what's left. Uh, we do like, if you have a Luigi Valen take, go ahead and make it. But,

um, Chris Reed and Austin Schlottman both remain on the offensive line for now I know you brought that up uh the cornerback group Chris Boyd stays kind of makes sense Perry Nickerson will probably end up on um you know on the practice squad or whatever Ryan Wright certainly earned his spot as the punter like uh what what else do we have here yeah there's a few others at just like the back of the roster that I think are worth discussing a little bit.

This whole process, I thought the Vikings would keep six receivers just because this is like this new Kevin O'Connell, slightly more pass heavy offense where maybe we're going to see some four receiver sets. But the thing about like the positions and the numbers of guys at certain positions it doesn't really matter that much when you have the ability to elevate from the practice squad and be flexible with um with signing guys

after week one and and various things like that so they end up waving tristan jackson myron mitchell and dan chisana to just keep five. Jalen Naylor is the fifth. Would Jalen Naylor have even made it if B.C. Johnson doesn't tear his ACL the other day? I don't know if that's the case. As it is, all of the rookies made the roster with the exception of Muse, the seventh rounder, which wasn't surprising. Then they keep 10 offensive linemen, including both Ole Udo and Viderian Lowe, which was interesting to me. I thought they would keep one or the other, although I guess that was, well, Jesse Davis was also on the team. So I suppose that makes sense.

I don't know if Udo is going to stick around all year. He was a really kind of disappointing player throughout the preseason um for me i don't know twyman gets waved um they keep troy die over blake lynch that one's slightly interesting but but that one was kind of like troy die has been ahead on the depth chart all offseason so no matter what you think about hey blake lynch has been has played more and been more productive over the last two years clearly Clearly, this defensive coaching staff thinks Troy Dye is a better fit for what they're going to do. There really weren't many shockers or many even surprises. The Armand Watts thing was the stunner of the day, and we're still kind of waiting to see if there's any more fallout or explanation for what happened there.

Yeah. So I think with the wide receiver position, that one is kind of worth watching. I don't know if Odell Beckham is a real potential option. I kind of think that with someone like Odell Beckham, he has no reason to sign with a team right now. Why? Why not just wait and then when somebody needs a receiver he basically did this last year it was like all right browns get rid of me and superbowl like why wouldn't you do that it worked out well for him too right right i mean if so like kansas city for example oh no uh you know valdez scantling went down guess you need a receiver here i am to play with patrick mahomes i mean it just it seems to make too much sense um to me for for him to do that

and there is a i will say a receiver and obviously vikings fans minnesotans kind of leapt all over this one but there's a fellow graduate of the minneapolis public school system which i am one southwest high school but uh minneapolis north's tyler johnson who uh tore it up at the u and then uh played i think i think he's played two seasons at with the tampa bay bucks super bowl champion as a rookie he was kind of in the mix to be like their fourth or fifth guy, but I've read he struggled with some drops at times. He was a somewhat surprising guy who was cut today. So the Vikings are 12th on the waiver priority. It's the same as the draft order.

So by tomorrow morning, we're recording this on Tuesday, by Wednesday morning, they could put a claim on him. I don't know if they'd get him. I don't know if they'd get him. I don't know if they'd even put a claim on him. Again, it might be a situation where fans see, oh, Tyler Johnson, he was awesome in college at Minnesota. Maybe he's not actually that good, which would explain the Bucs releasing him. But a name to keep an eye on, and I always support my fellow Minneapolis products.

As you should, and he really was spectacular with the Gophers. I, you know, I would support this type of move. The only thing is that, you know, we get pretty excited about like, oh, this guy got cut. They should pick up this guy and they should, oh, they're going to grab that guy. And it becomes a big talking point and maybe even emergency podcasts from people like ourselves. But you go through the list, your Blake Bells, your Tremaine Brock's like, it's hard to find anyone that the Vikings have picked up this late in the process that has actually been able to make a difference. And so it seems like your roster is your roster even though things can change but

fundamentally unless it is an indomitian zoo unless it is an odell beckham or the biggest shocker jc treador or whatever other center if it was some sort of major trade that they made for a center okay like that is going to change what's going on but the guy who gets cut and comes in i mean you know, even like a Michael Floyd that they brought in earlier in the off season, like we talked about that way too much. There was the, I mean, even Albert Wilson, the Tajay sharp, like these depth receivers rarely end up making a big difference. So as much as I want to agree with you and get on board with the Tyler Johnson idea, which I think, I mean, as far as quality of player who gets cut at this

point, he's probably toward the top, but you miss so much chemistry building opportunity. And if it's Odell Beckham, sure, he can fit into the Rams. He's like one of the most talented receivers in the league, but if it's a fringe guy, it's usually pretty hard. So what they have to hope is that KJ Osborne and Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson stay extremely healthy. And the same goes for Irv Smith, because the fact that Zach Davidson didn't work out, you're talking about nobody to catch passes. And you could say like, oh, well, it's not a tight end driven offense, but the Rams second leading receiver last year was their tight end. Like, I think that the tight end does make a big difference in this offense. So they need Irv Smith to stay healthy. And it's sort of ironic that the place

where I feel like they have some depth and imagine the Vikings trading away a depth player at this position is actually offensive line. It's kind of fun. Like, yes, for the first time ever. So that receiver room is going to be a tight end. Very much walking on eggshells, I think, for the whole year. Like nobody turn an ankle, nobody get turf toe, because at that point, then it's Amir Smith-Marset, and I don't know. That B.C. Johnson injury really might end up making a difference.

Yeah, I think it matters a little bit it's not ideal for their for their depth there this really quickly on the on the tight ends um i was trying to think of like a vikings waiver claim that has made some sort of difference and technically ben ellison was a waiver claim and now he has made the 53 man roster so that's like that's probably like the best case scenario out of a waiver claim is you just get somebody capable of being on your team and you make a slight upgrade there. One other name I will throw out that, again, like with Tyler Johnson, probably won't happen, and if it were to happen,

wouldn't be some game-changer, but Kendall Blanton was a tight end with the Rams last year who was waived a week or two ago, picked up by the commanders, and then he was cut today, which again, might say something about him that he's been cut twice in the past two weeks, but he like was a fairly productive player for the Rams. So there's that instant connection there with Wes Phillips, who was the Rams tight ends coach would not shock me if they look to bring in somebody like him just to add a little bit of depth yeah yeah I think that there's a handful of guys that it wouldn't

be shocking if all of a sudden it was like somebody that they're scouts or Ryan Grigson or Quasey or whoever knows from the past like we kind of knew where to trace the dots to Rick Spielman we don't really know this as much uh with the new regime but i guess clear that they wanted to shape this roster the way that they wanted to shape it it didn't include arm on watts we'll see if they end up doing something with that money right after this podcast or uh regretting it i mean we've only got like 11 hours left to pod here through the night will um no i'm just kidding but um you know that that will be the next thing that we watch because it's good it's got to happen fast they're going to get right back

on the practice field and then it's like 10 days from now we are playing football so if they're going to pick somebody up um it used to be on a saturday right so they used to have the saturday and then they would have like monday they'd get back on to practice and maybe they would go from there. So it's never much time, but it feels like you are, you are really, you know, kind of behind the ball when it comes to picking up an offense or having any possibility to make an impact if you're a new player. So that goes under the, we will see if there's something that they do here soon, but you know, it's all, it's the Vikings. So it's always seems very likely, but, uh, excellent breakdown, sir. And, uh, make sure

you check out all of Will's analysis. You are on top of everything today. Um, you are like the, the go-to for what is going on with every cut, uh, that could impact the Vikings. So I was following you closely today. Oh yeah. I was, I was on Twitter basically all day. So it was following you closely today. Oh, yeah. I was on Twitter basically all day. So it was an interesting day. It's always kind of a fun one, but I'm excited to kind of put it in the past. And we'll hear from Kwesi and Kevin O'Connell a little later this week. And then I'm going to go to Chicago for one last little mini vacation this Labor Day weekend. And then it's Packers week. Football time.

Football time. Alright. Thanks for your time, Will, and we will have football time again very soon, and then we start turning our eyes to the Packers. So, thank you all for listening, and we'll catch you next time.