Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - 3 things worth watching in Vikings minicamp

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the 3 things he's looking for at Vikings minicamp this week. Plus, he answers your Vikings questions.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Coller here, and this is mostly a fans-only episode where I answer your questions that you have either emailed to me at matthewcoller at gmail dot com or sent me on Twitter over at Matthew Coller, but I've got something to get into first, which is that the Vikings are holding mini camp this week, and reporters such as myself will be there for three practices. So our biggest look yet at JJ McCarthy this year. So far, we've been in attendance for just two OTA practices,

and there's not a ton that you can glean from that so far, but this should give us a larger sample size of what McCarthy looks like at this point and where he needs to go during training camp coming up in the middle of July. So here's my three things that I'm going to be looking for at Vikings mini camp coming up this week. Number one, yes it is, J.J. McCarthy, but not just looking at him. What I'm looking for is consistency from J.J. McCarthy.

In those two OTA practices, one of them was very, very good. Felt like it was smooth, he was accurate, on point, the ball was coming out quickly. And then the other practice, I would call it choppy. I would describe it as a little rougher than the first one. I would not say that it was bad, it just didn't have him finding the receivers he was supposed to get the ball to.

There was an interception that was undercut by Isaiah Rogers, there were a couple conversations with Kevin O'Connell off to the side. So it wasn't quite as good looking as the first one we saw, but that is such a tiny sample size, so now we will get to see more from him, and it's in an environment in Minicamp that is clicked up a notch. I mean, of course, this is still the learning phase, as Kevin O'Connell is I'm sure going

to remind us again next week, but they usually run more Seven on sevens might get into a little 11 on 11 red zone drills start to happen a lot more So the first couple practices we only had a handful of snaps to look at from JJ McCarthy Well now we'll get more of a complete practice It is still not a training camp practice where they are going all out. There's only so many hours to get ready for this season and it is gas pedal down.

It's not quite the same vibe as that, but there should just be more to work with in mini camp over three straight days. And what you're looking for is three really good practices. Smooth, football in and out of his hands, finding where receivers are supposed to be, because we've already established that McCarthy and his arm talent looks like it's right back where it was during training camp, but what you want to see is it all starting to come together.

The other thing we know is that this group on the offensive side of wide receivers is pretty well locked in to Kevin O'Connell's offense. Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, TJ Hockinson, Aaron Jones, these guys have been running this offense for several seasons now, so if the ball's not coming out in the right place, it's more likely to be the quarterback than it is any issues with the weapons. So do we get JJ McCarthy making progress from where he was two weeks ago and then putting together multiple solid practices in a row?

And it's hard to judge just entirely on completions or incompletions and sometimes even with an interception he was making the right throw or giving something a try to see what type of window or when he has to throw with Anticipation so we're always kind of careful to make too much out of what a mini camp practice should look like But if they're running play after play after play and we're not seeing the head coach Stopping things to look at the video board slowing it down because that ball is coming out that would be a good sign and where you want McCarthy to be is comfortable for this point in the year. He is not going to play a football game tomorrow.

There is a long way to go for JJ McCarthy, but does he look like he is where a QB one should be by the end of many camps? So that's thing number one that I'll be looking for. Number two is the battle of Minicamp. So that's thing number one that I'll be looking for. Number two is the battle of depth wide receivers. In previous years, somebody will pop in Minicamp. Now that doesn't always mean that they are the next Adam Thielen, the next Stefan Diggs or something, but oftentimes we'll get at least a little bit of a sense

for, oh, okay, this guy might be the guy to watch. So I'll give you an example for this year of someone that I'm intrigued by a little bit which is Ja'Shawn Jones. Last year during training camp showed up a little bit, got cut, was brought back to the practice squad, has spent time there developing, has already made some catches in OTAs. Well do we see a little bit more of that? There's Silas Bolden who is the undersized wide receiver who's been doing a little punt returning. Does he show that he can get open and make some plays? Because we know who the starters are going to be, but where does Ty Felton fit into this?

And is there an actual battle that's going to go on with Jalen Naylor? I don't think so as of right now, but we might see at least him make a case for that over the next couple days, but I'm more interested in the very backend of this receiver group. Who are the ones that are going to be fighting it out with Rondale Moore when he comes back? I don't think that we'll see him in minicamp,

but that's something to watch for as well. Lucky Jackson, Thayer Thomas, these guys have been around a couple years. Do they show another step to their game or do they show that they're a step ahead of all the young wide receivers? A mini camp is a place where we can really see the wide receivers work. We see the quickness, how they come out of their breaks, we see the hands, and somebody always has a chance to show that there might be something more there than we've seen before. So that is number two. And number three is to just get the starting point.

I've made this comparison before, but it's like a race when you get to training camp. It's like qualifying when you're at mini camp. And where does everybody stand on the defensive line and in the secondary? Do we have a good sense for what that depth chart is going to begin with once we arrive at training camp? So just for example, where does Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, their draft pick, fit in? How about Levi Drake Rodriguez, who we've seen doing a little bit of work so far? And in the secondary, it seems like Theo Jackson has that position locked up, but where does Jay Ward

fit into all of this? How about we've seen a lot of Jeff Okuda, do we see more and more of Jeff Okuda? Does he have a real chance to make himself a part of a rotation in this secondary? And what does Mackay Blackman look like coming back from his ACL? That's the very early view of him coming back from that ACL after

he showed some promise in 2023. The point just being that you can get a feeling for who they're interested in seeing more from in training camp and who might be starting a little bit from behind. These things are far from being decided after many practices in the hot sun and the dog days of summer, but this is the qualifying. So if you're a NASCAR fan and you're crazy enough to watch those qualifiers, well, that's like me out at mini camp. So I am excited to go out, watch these practices,

and then report back from podcasts out there, and then some live shows here in the studio as well. All right. So there's three things I'm looking for. Let's get into now your fans only questions. We start out with Jake, who says, if you were in charge of coming up with Madden team ratings, what number would you assign the Vikings as they are currently constructed? So this is a little bit of a rant about the Madden ratings because I like to play the old school Madden still.

Right over to my right there's a setup with N64, PS2, and I've got a bunch of those old games. And something I noticed over the most recent Madden's is that those ratings, they used to really get on some teams and some players if they didn't think they were very good. Your team could get a rating of a 60 something if the game thought that you were going to be really bad that year, where now if your team is absolutely awful, you're probably still pulling in a 75 and 80. Seems like everybody online complaining about team and player

ratings has bumped everybody up a little bit and now the gaps are smaller between the teams. So working with the old school rating, I guess I won't have to worry about talking about this team being bad because they are so talented. I would probably give them, let's say that the best team in the entire NFL, the team that won the Super Bowl, always gets the highest rating or at least least it should, coming off the Super Bowl in the next Madden game. Let's say that the Eagles are a 96 in the next game.

I think I would give the Vikings a 91. And I would also put a couple other teams in there like the Detroit Lions. I know that they've lost some things, but I would still put the Lions, a healthy team, for Detroit, maybe a 92, maybe a 93, right in that same ballpark. Buffalo, it has to be weighted with the quarterback. Buffalo looked like they were on a Super Bowl track last year and they were one or two plays away

from achieving that. They deserve to be above the Minnesota Vikings. They deserve that 95-96 rating. Kansas City, until proven otherwise, they were in the Super Bowl. They deserve to have that rating as well. Baltimore, I would put them there also. And aside from that though, hard to make an argument that there are too many other teams that have a higher deserved Madden team rating than the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, when we go position by position, it's really only the quarterback that would be

a hard one to figure out how do you rate JJ McCarthy and normally what Madden games have done in the past. Well, now they could do automatic updates. So if McCarthy is great by the first three weeks, then they can shoot his rating up through the roof or however they do the updates now. But back then, you know, in 2004 or something, you had to either do it manually or just live with whatever rating that the game was giving your player. So right now, what I would give JJ McCarthy by the old-school, harsh, more critical,

they would give guys a 45 quarterback accuracy if they didn't think the guy was very good. Going by that, I would probably put JJ McCarthy somewhere around if Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are 95 to 99, somewhere in that range. I would go 83 would be my place to start with JJ McCarthy and I'd probably give him 92 throw power and if we're assuming again that Josh Allen is 99 I'd go 91 or 92 and probably 78 throw accuracy, maybe 80 awareness. Got to play it a little bit safe early on and that's a Madden quarterback that you can

live with and speed is another one. We really have to see it because he scrambled and got hurt in the preseason game I Don't actually know what he looks like running the football on an NFL field But I think his speed would probably be like a 78 for me I don't think it's where we start talking about one of the faster quarterbacks in the league But definitely quick enough that if you roll out one of those bootlegs on Madden, you could take off. So I would definitely put the Vikings in the top five most talented teams in the entire NFL, whether it's Madden or otherwise, but I don't think until they prove it that we can say that they're with the Eagles, they're with Buffalo and even the Detroit Lions despite losing Frank

Ragnow. Next question comes from Elden, says, "'Which camp competition are you most excited for "'and do you think we have a punt off?' "'Now look, the last couple years "'we have been promised this punt off. "'I have wanted this punt off. "'I have campaigned for it, "'just the same way I campaigned for a receiver

"'in the draft, and they got me one of those. "'So now do they get me my punting competition? We'll see. Oscar Chapman, still on the team as of right now, and Ryan Wright. It didn't look to me like Oscar Chapman had the leg strength of Ryan Wright when they were punting inside,

but that's a very small sample of a couple of warm-up punts. But we'll see about how that plays out. It has not really been a punt competition so far, maybe this time around it will be and I think they could just keep Oscar Chapman around because of the international thing. So he's going to be here and that might mean that he is on the international list or whatever

and they'll start with Ryan Wright. If they don't like what they've seen, then they will go to Chapman. So as of right now, I'm not optimistic that there is a real punting competition that could result in anyone other than Ryan Wright being the punter. Something that is important to mention about Ryan Wright, by the way, is that it seems like he's very good at holding for field goals. You saw how good Will Reichard was last year. You saw how good Will Reichard was last year You saw how good John Parker Romo was when he had to come in and if Ryan Wright is the 15th best punter in the league Or 17th best punter, but he is really good at holding

I will take that over somebody who is a great punter but might be a little more spotty remember Matt Wiles seemed like it was a little shaky every time he was getting that ball. It's more important what Will Ryker does, I think, than the ability to cough and corner for Ryan Wright. But I don't, I mean, I think that he's a fine punter and he can really boom it, but he's not going to be a sharpshooter when it comes to pinning the other team inside the five or something like that.

You could do a lot worse, you could probably do a little better. I don't know if Oscar Chapman's gonna win that job. That was not your question, but I am intrigued at least to see if we get that punter competition that you're talking about. Let's talk about actual competitions that I'm intrigued by.

I mentioned a couple of them for Minicamp and how they set up. Maybe at the top of the list for me is Edge Rushers behind the top three. Van Ginkle, Grenard and Turner we know they're going to play but there is opportunity here for guys to really make a name for themselves whether it's Bo Richter who I'm gonna keep saying his name because last year he performed really well in camp really well in the preseason and then when he got an opportunity on special teams he did the job and

You can always kind of go. Well, you know, it's just special teams But if we look at the pipelines from the past there have been plenty of players Who have started out on special teams shown that they can be top-notch there and then they could play elsewhere I mean you're making plays out on an NFL field at a very high speed where you have to go tackle people, you have to beat somebody one-on-one. Like these are all skills that translate to regular defense as opposed to just running down as a gunner or something

and making a tackle. That doesn't always translate, but sometimes it does when somebody has potential. So Richter is on my radar Also gave Murphy on my radar as well as a guy who made a really good first impression And then we didn't see him outside of one game against the Atlanta Falcons And it was just one game not much to take from that and then there's other guys that they brought in that might be Intriguing Tyler Batty is one of them from BYU. He was productive at BYU.

He's on the older side, but having seen him up close, dude is huge and can really, really move. And then I mentioned Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, who was playing as an edge rusher a little bit more in OTAs. We'll see where he's at in minicamp, but there's physical skills there that Tyrion Ingribdaukens has that most human beings do not have, even in the NFL. He is one of the higher percentile athletes in the league already just off the bus.

Doesn't mean he can play though, so we'll see how that translates and if he can start to carve out somewhat of a role here that maybe there is a position where you're rushing up the middle or you're rotating in if somebody makes a really good impression during training camp on that defensive line. The backups for the defensive tackles, super interesting. Where does Levi Drake Rodriguez fit in? Where does Jaylen Redmond fit in?

He made a really good impression last year to the point where we're asking Brian Flores questions about him on a weekly basis, because he was getting into the backfield on rundowns. Does he carry that over and win a job as a rotational player behind Jayvon Hargrave, behind Jonathan Allen, behind Harrison Phillips? I think they need that depth to continue

to rotate in and out. And it seemed like Harrison Phillips was pretty excited about that when he talked to us about it the other day, about having those young guys who can fit in as well. But we've got to see him do it during training camp. So that's probably the area that is the most interesting to me because when it comes to these competitions, all right, yeah, I am very interested in wide receivers. They're probably the easiest position to figure out from the sideline during training camp. But ultimately, whoever wins wide receiver five or six, that person better not be on

the field very much. I mean, maybe for the future that's an interesting guy. But if you're the Vikings for this year and if you're getting down to Silas Bolden, then things have gone very, very wrong with your top three wide receivers who should really never be leaving the field outside of maybe Jaylen Naylor to rotate in for Ty Felton or Rondale Moore, both of those guys. But those competitions at the back end of the wide receiver group, even the cornerback unit,

you have your Ambri Thomas who's bounced around the league a little bit, and your Dwight McClothern. Like those guys, I'm interested. I really wanna see how they develop. At the same time, those are not the guys who you necessarily want impacting your team at the end of the day. But I think the defensive line and the edge rusher backups,

those guys could have a real impact if somebody emerges and makes a difference. So those are the positions I'm looking for most, even starting in minicamp and then going forward. All right, let's get into now some quarterback questions from folks. Jonathan says, over the next five years, considering current trajectories and opportunities, who would you rather have

as your QB of the future Caleb Williams or JJ McCarthy? I think that is a really difficult question to answer right now because if you ask people in Chicago, I'm sure they would say, how could you not pick Caleb Williams based on the draft status, based on the raw talent? And we saw this at Chicago. It's undeniable the amount of raw talent that Caleb Williams has. And if it all comes together, if it all clicks,

he can be an incredible quarterback. He can put his name up at the top of the NFL with the other great quarterbacks in the league, the Josh Allens, the Lamar Jacksons. He has that type of raw talent. And I remember with Josh Allen, that after his maybe second year, I was very skeptical. Like, oh man, is he ever gonna be able

to throw the ball well enough? Is he just kind of a running quarterback? Is he like a Vince Young that runs enough to win, but just can't really throw the ball accurately enough? And then something clicked with Josh Allen and he became Tied for the best quarterback in the league. I think we know, you know my homes with his Super Bowls You can't take that away Jackson Allen. That's the big three in the NFL That's your from back in the day your your John Elway your Jim Kelly and Dan Marino or for more recently

Like your Peyton Manning Drew Brees and Tom Brady. Those guys all needed development in their own way. So Mahomes didn't play his first year, Lamar Jackson's first year couldn't really throw the ball that well, and it took Josh Allen three years. So I would not want to call it right now and say Caleb Williams is dust. Now I have my concerns, which I have stated on the show, about just his, the way he leads and the excuses that he makes and things like that, or the excuses made for him and telling reporters that he doesn't know how to watch film or doesn't want to play for the Chicago Bears. Like all that stuff kind of makes you raise eyebrows.

But he's still the most talented quarterback to come out of that class and You know, Jaden Daniels has made his case for that as well But he was the number one with a bullet for a reason in that draft class So that makes it really difficult but the thing about JJ McCarthy is as a character fit It feels so much better. It feels like the maturity, the dedication, and I don't want to say Caleb Williams doesn't have work ethic, I don't know Caleb Williams, but it's so clear with JJ McCarthy how bad he wants this and his natural leadership capabilities, and his physical talent is still very, very high.

I can't say that it's as high as someone like Caleb Williams otherwise he would have been drafted at the same point as Caleb Williams. That's usually a judge of tools and numbers is a big deal there in college but raw tools is where you're drafted. That's what scouts are evaluating is what is your upside and I think Caleb Williams probably has the upside of being a quarterback like Those three if everything clicks for him I don't think the odds are super high of that But if everything clicks that could happen whereas I think with JJ McCarthy if everything clicks

He is the type of quarterback that would be in the Matthew Stafford for many years with Detroit Or the Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, that's if everything goes right, and these quarterbacks can absolutely win, but I don't think we would have said of those quarterbacks that they were on the same level as a Peyton Manning, for example, or a Drew Brees or a Tom Brady. So maybe a second tier type of really good quarterback

if it all comes together, and that's just based on the raw physical talent and not being a total athletic freak show. He's not six foot six. He is not running a four two 40 or something like that. I can only imagine what Lamar Jackson would have run had he run the 40. So that's not to be down on JJ McCarthy. And I think quarterbacks like that can win a heck of a lot of football games, including the last two quarterbacks to go to the Super

Bowl and the NFC. Jalen Hurts is not a perfect quarterback, neither is Brock Purdy, and yet those guys have led great rosters in the leadership, the consistency, the communication, seeing the football field. I think that the way I would phrase this of McCarthy versus Caleb Williams is, McCarthy probably has a 70% chance of becoming one of those really good quarterbacks

that gives you a shot every year to go deep in the playoffs if he's got a good team. Whereas Caleb Williams probably has a 15% chance of being great, but a much higher percentage chance of being just in fields where, yeah, the guy can start and win you games, but he's not going to really take you anywhere because he's inconsistent, he doesn't see the field well, his accuracy is not what it was supposed to be, all of those things. So it's not one or the other, it's more of the odds are differently distributed I think between these two quarterbacks. But that's, we are so far away from deciding,

I say this all the time, go to a bar and ask some people, some football fans, what do you guys think of Justin Herbert? And you'd probably get seven different answers from seven different people. We're not going gonna even be able to decide what we think of these quarterbacks this year, unless one of them is just mind-blowingly awesome. Next question comes from Evan. If you are the Vikings front office, what type of contract are you signing Josh Metellus to?

So this is a very hard question because looking at comparables for Josh Mattel is is kind of tricky. He is half linebacker, half nickel, half safety. And when that happens, well that doesn't add up exactly that math either. But when that happens, when someone is fully unique, that means that it's just harder to find comparables. And so I'm gonna pull a guy up right now who is maybe the best comparable that I could find to Josh Metellus as I was thinking about this question.

And that is Trayvon Morig, who plays for the Carolina Panthers. So Morig has been a box safety, he's been a blitzer a lot, he's played up at the line of scrimmage, and he's dynamic. He's played in the nickel, he's played back and he signed a three year deal worth 51 million with 34 million guaranteed with Carolina.

So a three year contract and his cap hits are 7.2 and then up to 21.3 and 22.5. So it does go up and it does get expensive for Trayvon Morrig, but I think that based on the number of snaps that he's played and that Metellus has played, they are pretty similar players. It's just hard to find an exact fit. And with someone like Metellus, the other thing is too, the communication, the knowledge of the defense, the leadership, what you have in the locker room with him and how important that is, all of that is a lot of extra value added.

The other thing is too that, I mean, I wonder about Metellus and it's very different positions, very, very different positions. But if he looks at someone like Cam Bynum, for example, and says, well, that guy was able to make 15 million dollars a year so it's got to be more than that where do you want to put it and again that's very different type of player in a different type of role

and I feel like the deep safety is more replaceable than the safety who's playing in the box playing the nickel outside corner if you need them not that you'd want too much of that, but linebacker, last year Josh Mattelis basically had to play linebacker for a couple weeks when Ivan Pace was out, and it was a straight up linebacker position at 205, 210 pounds, whatever he weighed at that point.

So he has a lot of talent and a lot of value for this defense. It is going to make things a little tricky down the road when they've spent so much money in free agency And now they have to add more to that with an extension for Mattelis But to me this is a guy you don't let get away from your organization That you want a Mattelis on your team for as long as he can possibly be here So this would be a good time to work it out and I think that three years 51 is a pretty fair average annual value and a pretty fair

Comparison to somebody like Trayvon Morick. So we'll see how that ends up playing out. I think you know by the end of mini camp maybe we get an extension for Metellus or you know they haven't done it as much in the KOC era but it used to be a Rick Spielman thing that every time we'd start training camp there would be a player who got an extension. I think the Vikings know how important he is to this team and this leadership going forward and they will make that happen. They've already done that for a few key players Andrew van ginkle And don't forget that Harrison Phillips signed an extension last year as well So I'm confident that they'll do it when and how much might take some some figuring. We'll see how that goes Okay, this question comes from Adam says hey Matthew mailbag question

Adam says, hey Matthew, mailbag question, watching NFL highlights from last season, notice that Justin's school is getting destroyed for four and a half sacks by Aiden Hutchinson. Given Christian Derisaw's rehab and school at left tackle and OTAs, he's likely to potentially start three to five games early next season against Swett, Montez Swett, TJ Watt, Miles Garrett,

and Trey Hendrickson, we'll see about that. Could it be a big issue in trying to get off to a positive start before the toughest stretch begins? So a few things about that. I mean, we don't know if Justin Skool is going to start zero games or three or five games. So you're penciling him in for three to five, but we really don't know where Christian Derisaw stands. And tearing your ACL in the middle of the season last year, it puts you right on the borderline of being able to start the season. So I remember we've seen the extremes from this, right? We saw Delvin Cook in 2017. He tore his ACL, I believe, week 4, and he was able to come back for the beginning of the season The following year in fact he was in preseason and his first handoff went for a touchdown

And then we said okay I think that Delvin is back from his ACL injury and then TJ Hawkinson last year It was toward the end of the season so we can reverse engineer a little math here that it was I believe week 16 Or maybe 17 that, uh, Hockinson tour, I think it was 16 that he tore his ACL against Detroit in 2023. And he came back week eight or maybe nine. So if we subtract what you end up with is Christian Darasaw, if these are similar injuries, I don't know all the details.

I haven't seen medical reports for Derrissaugh, but if it's a similar recovery, that puts him right around the beginning of the season. Doesn't have to be three to five games, but it absolutely could. Some of the guys you mentioned, by the way, do rush off the right side. I think that Montez Sweatt

tends to rush off the right side more. I know that TJ Watt does. TJ Watt does not almost ever rush over the left tackle. Miles Garrett though, if still he's not playing when they get to Miles Garrett, then that's very concerning. If he's not playing, then we're talking about almost an entire year for missing for an ACL injury. I think he should be back by then.

And who else did you mention we'll see if Hendrix if Hendrickson is even playing for Cincinnati at that point so you know it's kind of a murderers row but it's also kind of not and at land you know who's Atlanta got we don't know what James Pierce can do I think with any position like this even think about when Justin Jefferson went out for a couple games they were able to survive and As the games went on it became harder to survive without Justin Jefferson there That's kind of how backups work in the NFL

You're always going to go into games with somebody that you didn't plan on starting so you can Rashad Hill theory call it the Rashad Hill theory Rashad Hill is a starter over 17 games is going to get exposed But Rashad Hill over four games can hold it down and be okay And I think that that's probably the same for Justin school and I know you're saying he got beat by Aiden Hutchinson That is Aiden Hutchinson. He is one of the best players in the entire league and Yeah, they have some of the better ones, but every week you're facing someone. I don't know, last year we saw against Chicago where David Quessonberry was able to hold up for a single game. I don't think that it takes apart

their chances to be good early in the season, but it is something you're going to have to deal with if Darasaw isn't ready to play. You game plan a little bit different, you have Josh Oliver in helping out on that side a little more because TJ Hockinson really can't do that, and they'll have to work around it. But overall, last year even despite the game that you were watching, Justin Skool had a 66 point something PFF grade as a pass blocker. If he does that again, that's okay. That's manageable. What you can't get into and Darasaw is always, you know, mid 80s, like elite, but 66 will hold it down. He'll allow some pressures. He'll get beat sometimes and you have to work around that. But what you can't have is the TJ

Clemmings where the just wheels come off and the guy can't do it and that's why you go and get a Justin school veteran Because you know that he sets a certain baseline You know what his strengths and weaknesses are because you have a sample size of him playing and you can work through it It's a concern for sure, but I don't think that it's oh no JJ McCarthy is in deep trouble for the first few teams Cincinnati's D line overall is not that terrifying and Chicago's I don't think is that scary. I don't think Atlantis is so if you're going to miss there I saw this would be the time to do it as you mentioned before you get into some really freakish and scary teams Alright next one here from

Roberts s Says seemed like when we played him, seemed like when we played him last year that Jordan Mason is an absolute beast, but at times you seem skeptical that he'll be a real game changer. Can you tell us why? I understand about blocking and receiving dimensions being issues, but I forgot about the end of the Atlanta game when KOC was more willing to pound the rock. So it's in him somewhere and he's got a new O-line and a young quarterback to ease in now.

So I don't know that I have been skeptical of Jordan Mason. I think that I'm trying to present what he's going to be by his role in combination with Aaron Jones. So if they didn't have Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason was RB1, we would be talking about, all right, well, how does this guy get five yards carry again and can he catch the ball?

Can he block and things like that? But wow, you know, this guy is a beast and he is absolutely enormous when you see him out there I think when you guys see him in I don't know if he's gonna play in pre-season but when you see him in a Viking uniform this is the biggest running back they've had since I don't know I mean it must be Adrian Peterson really as far as size wise goes he is huge that will stand out right away how he can break tackles, how he can plow forward. It's very hard to take down a man of this size. So I like this addition a ton.

I mean, I think that it really reads a lot like what the Packers had with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. And AJ Dillon was never a special running back, but he was good and big and he could break tackles and make plays from time to time out of the backfield and just work off of Aaron Jones so Jones is taking more like 10 carries 12 carries a game as opposed to 15 20 plus like he was last year to get him to 255 I like Mason I think that he is a little bit of a one-dimensional type of running back and old-school Handed off probably, you know, he's very good in the outside zone So find his gap and plow through it and run over a couple people

I also think that San Francisco is a different animal when we're talking about evaluating a running back that came from the 49ers I Am as high on the offensive line improving the run game as everybody else, but San Francisco is Kyle Shanahan, it's really special. They've been a kingmaker throughout the entire time that he has been there for running backs. McCaffrey goes there, has his best year ever.

There were guys like Raheem Mostert and Matt Breida and players like that. Was it Elijah Mitchell got guys were coming out of everywhere including Jordan Mason to be really good running backs does that mean you could do the same exact thing here so there's a healthy amount of well it's not San Francisco it's not Shanahan it's not that offensive line by PFF they were second-best in run blocking last year I mean that's that's that's not that offensive line by PFF. They were second best in run blocking last year. I mean, that's that's that's good That's legit. Can the Vikings get up to that level and Also, I mean I'm with you about the Atlanta game at the end

Remember they were up a couple touchdowns in that game and it was the fourth quarter and they plowed You know through Atlanta who had one of the worst defenses in the entire league. I don't disagree. And early in the season, I was impressed last year with Aaron Jones was averaging around 5 yards a carry before Christian Derrissaw got hurt. And they were playing the pass off of the run like they had never done before. There were just a few times where KOC decided to lean into the past that maybe he didn't need to, but they've shown it in bits and pieces.

Middle of the season, even with Alexander Madison, he had a game against Vegas and a game against Chicago where he played pretty well. Delvin Cook early in his first season played really well and then faded down the stretch. It's been spurts where the running game has been good, but I do think they're gonna lean on it more than they have before. It's just, I mean, this is always gonna be a passing offense. So it's not skeptical as in, I don't like Jordan Mason.

I do, I like him a lot and where he fits with this offense. It's more of, let's paint the right picture here of what Jordan Mason is going to be and what he can add to them. It's not like they brought in somebody to be Christian McCaffrey with the 49ers. They brought him in to carry the ball 10 times a game and be really effective in short yardage,

break tackles, bring some grit, allow Aaron Jones to stay healthier through the season and more fresh. That's what he's here to do. I mean, if we're trying to project statistically with Jordan Mason, are we saying maybe 750 yards? Five, six touchdowns and maybe four and a half, four point six yards per carry somewhere in that range. That's where I would guess right now, based on his potential role.

But if Aaron Jones were to get hurt, he could be very, very valuable. range that's where I would guess right now based on his potential role but if Aaron Jones were to get hurt he could be very very valuable so I think realistic is different than skeptical those are two kind of different things okay one more question this one comes from dermo man says have you been able to get a look at Tyreon Ingram Dawkins Kobe King and Gavin Bartholomew yet? I understand Bartholomew was not doing much. Is there injury news? So we'll definitely get an injury report for next week. I should have mentioned that for three, how about three and a half things to watch for next week's mini camp and one of them is the the injuries. So we'll get an update

presumably on Christian Derisaw, Rondale Moore, we'll see about Bartholomew, what he's doing, if he's back or not. He was working off to the side and the second OTA that we saw, he was in the action in the first OTA. So I don't know if that's any sort of serious thing or not, but we'll get an update of, oh, Will Fries. Also, whether Will Fries is out there

or if we're gonna have to wait until training camp to see him. So that belongs on the list of things to watch for with mini camp. But as far as the other guys, it's only the tiniest snapshot that we've seen so far of anybody in the draft class. I mean with Donovan Jackson, those guys are not doing anything. The offensive linemen, they are doing drills. They are doing drills. They are working techniques. Now I'm not saying it's not important for that to be happening now at this time of year,

but the 11 on 11s are slow motion. They are half speed, and I respect this about Kevin O'Connell. I think it's smart. Now as a reporter, I would love to see hardcore full speed practices Let's get as much padding on those guys as possible and run 11 on 11s because then I could figure out a lot more But I think KOC is smart knowing don't get anybody hurt this time of year So we don't really know what Donovan Jackson is going to look like other than looks like he's working with the first team

That's important right away. And with Ingram Dawkins, we've seen him rotating in, we've seen him get some reps, that's important. He looks big, he looks very athletic. Again, very tough to say. And Kobe King, the only thing I say about Kobe King is he's the biggest linebacker they've had in a long time. He is a lot of dude there,

and he was quick enough to run down people sideline to sideline in College I think there's potential there for him to be in a run stuffing roll right away And then special teams too, but for this draft class We're really gonna have to wait until training camp before we can see these guys and then but we'll get there folks We will get there and we'll have a lot of fun along the way so feel free to shoot me an email or a DM with any of your questions if you want them on these fans only episodes very excited to get back out there for a couple more practices and the typical live shows might even mix another one in just for the heck of it so make sure you get a

chance to join those and for the written side purpleinsider.football I have plans to go back and watch JJ McCarthy's one and only preseason start to refresh my memory of what that looked like I'm gonna do that for the newsletter so purpleinsider.football go check that out there alright thanks everybody for watching another episode and listening and we'll catch you all soon. Football.