Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - 5 guys the Vikings should stick and pick in the NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the players he would stick at No. 24 pick to take and then answers Vikings fan 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 collar here and there's breaking news in the NFL that a former Minnesota Viking has signed in Chicago and could have implications in the NFC North. It's case Kenan case Kenan has signed as the backup quarterback of the Chicago Bears just moments ago. And if we want a tiny little breakdown of that, Case Keenum, everybody, still in the National Football League and solidifying the fact that this man is a journeyman's journeyman.

So shout out to Case Keenum for continuing to get jobs in the NFL, but that does take another backup quarterback out of the mix. He signed for $3 million. So I think the Vikings probably do have a good idea of who they are going to make JJ McCarthy's backup at some point. But now we know who it's not going to be. It is not going to be the nostalgia. It's not going to be the second stint with the Minnesota Vikings. Like what did Gus Ferrat have two stints?

Brad Johnson had multiple stints. That won't be the case. Sadly for case Kenam, he's going to be in Chicago, but he could tell all the Viking secrets. No, that doesn't exist either. So it's a completely different coaching staff. But there were some people who had reached out to me and said, Hey, is case Keenum an option for the Vikings? And my thought was, why? I think he would make a great mentor for a young quarterback.

That's for sure. But the issue would be, do you want him to play football games at this point? And I would say probably not. He did get in a couple of games, what? Two, three years ago for the Houston Texans Didn't exactly look like Minneapolis miracle case, which now you guys realize you guys looked up and realized how long it's been. This happens to me with my marriage sometimes where I look up and I'm like. It's been a while.

We were really at this for some time, haven't we? Feels the same way with that, doesn't it? Where you realize how long ago the Minneapolis Miracle really was? 2017, the Vikings are about to head into the 2025 season, which means it's almost been, you can do the math. I mean, almost 10 years since the Minneapolis Miracle. So it's been a while, but Case Keenum still in the national football league. I think the thing is the Vikings are going to hold out

for somebody who maybe they could trust a little bit more if they needed to start over multiple games, rather than looking for just a mentor for JJ McCarthy and maybe someone who will press McCarthy a little bit more in training camp than say Case Keenum. So there is your Case Keenum update. And again, much respect to Keenum who I enjoyed covering in 2017 very much with his journeyman story.

And if we're doing an all time list of journeyman quarterbacks for the Minnesota Vikings or just all time in history, I think Case Keenum belongs on that list. A guy who was part of one of the biggest moments in NFL history, led a 13 win season, played for a ton of different teams, a highly loved type of player who's been around several times with the Houston Texans, I think three different times, which if you're with a team multiple times,

it boosts your journeyman status to begin with. So one of the greats and good for him signing with Chicago. But let's get into tonight's topic, which is, I've been talking a lot this week about the stick and pick idea. And I've decided that this might be my thing. I might make this my thing is as much as I like trading down for draft simulation purposes,

you get more picks, you have more fun with the drafts. And when you do it, I'm wondering if the Vikings want to stick and pick because the more we talk about, well, yeah, there's a lot of great players in this draft and 15 through 50 aren't that big of a difference. When I actually looked at the research, when I actually looked at it last night for an article I wrote over a purple insider dot football, I went. Oh, it's now almost never like that.

It's almost never the fact that the 15 through 50th are similar or even close to the same, even when number 40 through 50th are similar or even close to the same even when number 40 through 50 so this is how I did it I looked at the two extremes I looked at the early part which was 15 through 25 and then I looked at number 40 through 50 and I used pro football references, approximate value to add up how much approximate value had come from picks 15 through 25 and then 40 through 50. And almost every single year, it wasn't close. There was one year, 2020, where Antoine Winfield Jr. was in there and a couple other good players,

and it was almost close, but it wasn't really because Justin Jefferson was also taken that year in the 15 to 25 range. So then I became a little more convinced that the higher impact players come from the top. I mean, shocker, right? But it was significant and how many more high impact players came from 15 through 25 historically and then 40 through 50. So if they were the same, even in the best years, you would see about the same number of impact players, but I didn't. And if the Vikings theory is not the traditional way of analytically thinking, which would be well, trade down, accumulate more picks, but you know, we talked about that with 2022.

And if you go all the way back for a long time, listeners of the show in 2022, my issue with the trade down was the history of it, that hall of famers and pro bowlers are drafted in the top 15, not at number 32 overall. And who knows who they would have picked? Maybe it would have been Jameson Williams Williams and maybe we would have argued about it for three years until the guy became good. Maybe it would have been Jordan Davis and he would have been not that good or maybe it would have been Kyle Hamilton and he would have been incredible. But Josh Battellis would have never played or something like that.

Like who knows right how that would have played out had they picked then but my argument against that trade down was just that I thought they went too far in that trade down in 2022. And I'm sure, you know, we've gone over it 10,001 times about what happened then. But if they traded down this year. Into the forties or somewhere in there, it would be the same kind of thing. It's like you still have a good shot in the back end of the first round of getting a high impact player.

And if you trade out of that, your odds just go down with each one of those traits. So I'm starting to get a little bit more convinced that the places to trade down to accumulate guys are more of trading down from that pick in the third and every pick you go down, you do make some sort of sacrifice of your odds. But I think the odds between picking number 24 and say number 40 are different

than from picking 97 or 110 where everybody's just kind of picking guys that they're scouts like and throwing darts and just hoping. Uh, so that's part of the theory of why I wanted to talk about this. My top five players as of this moment, the list can change that. I think the Vikings should just stick and pick if the player is on the board, because I think they could have the most short and long-term impact. So I'm going to run through that list in just a moment, but I want to say, this is a great time of year for you guys.

You who are watching live because we don't have news. I don't have to spend 40 minutes breaking down something, yelling at myself here. The Rogers thing is quieted. I don't have headlines to go through that are big breaking news so forth. That means I got lots of space for any and all questions you could throw my way. So whatever's on your mind, whatever you got fired up in the comments, let's talk

football and max my sunburn recovery. It's okay. The thing is that no matter what, I always, when I'm down here in the studio and I'm huffing and puffing, talking football, my face always turns red anyway. It has since I was five years old. I don't know why. You know, when I play sports, people would be like, are you okay? I'd be playing basketball. My face is beat around the, I'm fine, but I don't know why it just happens. Uh, every time I see somebody else who's an athlete whose face turns red like this,

when they play sports, I'm like, Hey, you got whatever I got. So it, I think if there's no sunburn left, it's just that we fired up. We're talking football. So my face is still a little red. Hard to kind of tell though. Anyway, that's the first question. So let's, I'm also interested in what you guys think for players that you would stick and pick for.

So, uh, let's see's see. Matt sent his list. We'll see how similar it is. He says, guess is Baron, Harmon, Burden, Nolan, and Zabel. Interesting list, interesting list. We'll get to that in just a minute. JP says, positional value matters. So I'd say Nolan and Harmon should be in consideration as well as Zabel, but guys like Starks, Emmanuari

seem to be gems, so I wouldn't be too upset if they drafted them. I will reveal the list momentarily. Ron says, cases made a lot of money for an undrafted free agent. He absolutely has. He absolutely has all the credit to Case Keenum, who is as earnest of a dude as you're ever gonna come across Just It was so much fun in 2017 to follow him. I'm glad he's still in the nfl So let's get to the list. I don't want to spend any more time

Screwing around and then we'll get to your question. So put them in the chat and we'll have a real fun conversation The list is who would I stick and pick number five of the, who I would stick and pick Michigan defensive tackle, Kenneth Grant. So this goes a little bit against where I had normally stood with the defensive tackle position, which was, Hey, I only want those guys who are big sack numbers in college, big pressure numbers. But then, you know, I started to look a little bit more underneath the hood with Kenneth Grant. And what I noticed was that he has a pass rush win rate of 9.4 percent.

Usually the bar for being elite is around 10. But for a guy who is six foot three and 340 pounds, this is reminiscent a little bit to me of Vita Vea. And if the Vikings could draft their version of Vita Vea, an unusually sized person who can move like a mongoose and be this big and line up right over the a gap right over the center and just be a problem pretty much right away to pair with the defensive tackles they have and to pair with the defensive tackles that they are developing somebody who can get after the passer maybe a little bit

more than he's giving credit for his pass rush grade on true pass set. So this is a very important stat because pass rush grade. I mean, if they throw a screen, you're not just getting any credit at all for that, but true grade is when you're talking about an actual drop back, not a play action, not a screen pass or something. It was a 77.3 for Kenneth Grant. And that goes along with his elite run stuffing in a league that let's not forget is still running the ball. And if that was a long-term option to eventually move on from Harrison Phillips

as he gets older and replace around him, I am not against it at all. And the more of these beasts that you can throw in there, the more monsters in the middle, the better loaded up. I would stick and pick for that guy. That is a long-term option. And I think if you look at somebody like Dexter, Lawrence, I don't want to say that he'll become Dexter Lawrence, but when you look at Dexter Lawrence, he did not come into the league and sack the hell out of everybody right away. He waited for the playoffs over Ezra Cleveland to do it. Nobody. He,

it took a couple years And so it might be one of those things where you could draft him He's a big part of the rotation early on and then he becomes that pass rusher as he develops over years Because he has the raw freakish skill to do it. Will he actually be there? That's debatable some draft sims think that he will, some think that he won't. I tried to pick guys who on consensus mock draft consensus were somewhere between 15 and 25, 15 and 30. So obviously I didn't say, Oh, I'd stick and pick for Travis Hunter. Um,

to some people, Kenneth Grant is that, but I think I would take him because he is such a unique talent that I think could just get better and better at getting after the passer. The next one and Matt who guessed had Jahadi Baron and I do have Jahadi Baron because I think he would be a great fit for Brian Flores. In some ways he reminds me of Byron Murphy. Oh, he's not. Oh my gosh.

His wingspan is so insane or something or his 40 his 40 was good, but it's not Whoa, it's crazy, but playmaking on the football high IQ aggressive play Can take guys one-on-one but also could play in zones and is really intelligent That to me is just such a good fit you want Multiversal type of players for Brian Flores if he were to drop which we do see the cornerback position drop sometimes I mean look at last year Terry and Arnold Quinn Yon Mitchell Cooper de Jean those guys unfortunately the Eagles

For the rest of the NFC, unfortunately the Eagles got two of them but those were guys who were projected to go in the first round and Quinn Yon Mitchell was projected to go super high and he ended up going in the 20s. So, Jaday Baron will go on that list for me of a corner that you can put in place, have there for a very long time and you don't have to throw them in right away because you do have Isaiah Rogers, you do have Mackay Blackman. I like what Blackman did two years ago but I also don't think that Blackman's presence or the development of Dwight McClother and should mean, Oh, just ignore that position.

I think it's still valuable for the future. Number three on my list of guys I would stick and pick. You guys guessed it. We've talked about them a lot. Derek Harmon. It cannot be said enough how much of an all around player Derek Harmon was. be said enough how much of an all around player Derek Harman was. And I think there is a little buzz that is gaining for Derek Harman since the combine people saw how he moved. But when you go and look at his numbers, that stat, I told you the true pass set grade 91 and the pass rush win rate, 17.6% for this guy pass run wash win

rate, which is off the charts. I mean, just absolutely phenomenal pass rush win rate. And when it counted the most he was able to get after the quarterback. I like Kenneth Grant and what he can do with his size and the potential for him to improve as a pass rusher, Six foot five, three 10 Derek Harmon. Just do that. Apologize to no one. Get after the passer from all angles in the future and be a big old problem.

I would stick and pick and take him. Now this one won't surprise you either because he's been one of my favorite players to discuss. NDSU guard, gray Zabel. Now I go back and forth a little bit because I don't want to overrate Tyler Booker, his combine or overdo it with a guy having a bad combine because he's a guard and size matters, power matters

and how much does quickness truly matter as a guard, depending on how you play. But I do think the Vikings with the running backs they have want to play in a zone type of system where you are asking your guys to move and you are asking them to get out and reach linebackers and Gray's able from NDSU. I also like the fact that he can compete right away with Blake. Brandle does not necessarily have to play right away. Maybe it would be a mid season change if they wanted to make that adjustment but the upside of gray's able is extremely high and i know it's hard to try to figure out well how's he gonna make that true transition and things like that which is totally understandable but i always look for that of well. that w which is totally understandable, but I always look for that of, well,

what kind of athlete is this guy? It does he have the athleticism to make that adjustment? And we saw it at the combine and his numbers are just astronomical. He's played different positions in college, but against the competition, he demolished the competition. He allowed one sack all of last year and two quarterback hits and four pressures. That is a total of seven pressures against the quarterback for Gray's Abel in all of last year, which I think the competition at his level is better than people give it credit for.

And one of the things I look for is, well, when did he play teams that were above his level and how did he perform? And there's not a ton of those types of games, but they did play at Colorado to start the season. And this actually reminded me of like a Khalil Mack thing, uh, where Khalil Mack went to the university of Buffalo, didn't play the best competition in the Mac, but he had this game against Ohio state where he just demolished everybody. And that put him on the map.

Well, Gray's Abel played against Colorado. That's really good competition and graded 90.1 by PFF against Colorado. It was one of the better teams that he faced all year and did really, really well. So I think that combined with his senior ball performance, he is a possible plug and play, but even if he has to develop a high ceiling to plug in a guard. And the thing is, doesn't this line feel like it's one serious dude away from being filthy? Like, it's good. It's good.

It's a good line right now. It's a really good line. If both tackles are healthy, Will Fries is a 18 million dollar player. It better a good line right now. It's a really good line. If both tackles are healthy, Will fries is a 18 million dollar player. It better be good. But if that left guard position is an impact player and there's no clear weakness and there's actually clear strengths and if he's a little got a little nasty to him, people aren't going to want to play your team.

And that's exactly what the Vikings have been looking for for I don't know how long. When was the last football game and it's happened throughout the years. But when was the last stretch of time where you said this Vikings offensive line imposed their will and boy they made a joke of the other team's defensive line because they just powered through them. It was probably 2019 because Riley Reef was a pretty nasty guy. Josh Klein did a good job on that line. Um, they ran the ball so well under Kevin Stefanski, but, and they did the screen stuff really well, but that was probably the last time that you really

said, wow, that team on the run game specifically could impose their will. It just doesn't happen that often. So number one, there's a lot of potential options here, but I went with the number one player I would stick and pick is Malachi Starks, the Georgia safety that I had not early in the process thought as much about safety, maybe positional value there. But the thing is I'm going through a little draft sim here

and I'm looking and I'm looking and I'm waiting and there's no safeties that have been taken. The idea of getting the best safety in the entire draft is pretty attractive. And Melchized Starks, I think is a uniquely talented player. And I also think it's a unique defense and that Harrison Smith could cross train someone to be in the future and in today. Uh, Malachi Starks is also pretty young, 21 years old, lots of room to develop his talents.

And I just like the way this guy moves. So you put him in, maybe doesn't have to start right away with Theo Jackson there and Jay Ward there, or if he's just awesome, he starts right away with Harrison Smith and gets to play with one of the goats at that position of all time and then takes that guy's position after a year. That is a very favorable situation for Brian Flores. So that's the list. Kenneth Grant, Jaday Baron, Derek Harmon, Gray Zable and Malachi Starks, the five players that I would tell the Vikings, Hey, just take them,

just take them. Cause I think these prospects are ahead of the next group. They're not the elite of the elite, which play, you know, the Travis Hunter, the, the cam war, they play quarterback or they play wide receiver. But, and that, I think somebody thought I was going to put Luther Burton. I did think about that, but I also don't think that Luther burdens difference like his gap with the other wide receivers is big enough to put him there. I think if you trade it down, you could still get a very good wide receiver.

You know, I like wide receiver at the top. I've mentioned it enough times, but I'm not sure this one guy is so far ahead of Golden or the other wide receivers that are out there that I would say, oh man, you have to stick and pick if it's this guy. I've liked him specifically as a fit, but I don't think he is way out in front. Although I did watch a collection somebody put together of deep throws to Luther Burden today, and I felt bad for him. Their quarterback was very bad. So he's probably even better than some of his numbers suggest Okay, so your thoughts your questions comments anything football on your mind throw it out here

We'll have a good discussion clay Petri the intern here for purple insider standing by later in the show He's got his five questions for me for Clay's Corner. Got some fun stuff for you. Uh, so we'll go through that as well. Let's get to, uh, Clifford says not sexy, but, um, Zabel is who we want. O'Neill isn't getting any younger and could bounce him, uh, back outside after his tour of duty at left guard. Well, that's true. I mean, I think that's true for multiple positions with Zabel.

Uh, it could be Brian O'Neill's right tackle, depending on how the next couple of years go. Cause when you draft a guy like that, you're thinking second contract guy, you're thinking long term left guard and potentially he could move out to tackle or just in the very short term he could go from left guard to center after Ryan Kelly. And the fact that he's played every position on the line. I mean, you saw this does matter because you saw when it came to Dalton Reisner last year.

What a good job. Dalton Reisner did it right guard and he had been a right tackle in college and then he had played left guard in the NFL mostly and then he made the switch and he was able to do it. I think it's a, a specific talent for guys who maybe have bounced around, haven't held down one position that it's easier for them to do than it is for someone who say has been a left tackle for their entire life. So I agree with you that the positional flexibility of Ray Zable in college

does give him the potential to start at left guard, move over to center, move over to right tackle if he's good enough to be a tackle in the NFL. But I do think he's probably an interior guy. Uh, Delta says as far as team needs, what do you think of us needing nose tackle defensive tackle? I kind of think similar sort of the same, uh, cornerback and or safety, um, as far as team needs. Yeah. I mean, I would throw in guard. Uh, I don't think it's a dire need.

I don't think anything's actually a dire need. I would probably rank safety and corner is a hard one to decide whether it's one or two safety is not considered as much of a premium position and the reason why go look at free agency where teams found free agent safeties Trayvon Morrig, Justin Reed, Cam Bynum teams were able to go out and get free agent safeties and so it's a little easier to find in free agency than some other positions but as far as an actual just if we're doing pure need and we're not trying to add in positional value or anything, I think safety might be number one.

And that's no disrespect to Theo Jackson, who deserved his contract and could be a rotational player for them if they draft Melikai Starks. I like Theo Jackson's potential as somebody who's developed over a couple of years, but he hasn't really played a lot and he was a sixth round draft pick. And if you could get one of the best players in the whole draft, then you just do it and figure out a place for Theo Jackson later. The same way that they did for Josh Battellis. Well, I might put safety at the top.

Plus even if Theo Jackson is good Harrison Smith, this is probably it. I always said that last year, but this could really truly be it for Harrison Smith. So you have to start planning for the future with Harrison Smith and the safety. And I always tend to look at not just one year, but also two years down the road. That's part of the wide receiver argument is a Addison's going to be pretty expensive soon and Naylor's hitting free agency. So, but safety is a now and later potential need. Corner is a little less now that we have come to the information from Kevin O'Connell that they really like Isaiah Rogers and

that's a Brian Flores guy. Still long-term corners, Byron Murphy, maybe Mackay Blackman, maybe Dwight McLoughlin, maybe Isaiah Rogers who's only played 500 snaps one time in his career. You'd like to also throw in maybe this guy that you drafted in the first round would also be it. So safety is probably number one for me then corner, then I would go left guard, then defensive tackle, slash nose tackle in that spot. I think that would probably be the most pressing in the list. Then hey, my wide receiver spot comes in after that. Uh, Steven says, uh, you could talk new rule changes.

That is a good idea. And I think, uh, clay wants to talk about that a little more later, how it might impact the Vikings, if at all, maybe we lean toward a day three prospect with return experience, well that Rogers also is a guy that they mentioned as a potential returner, Ty Chandler still on the team who is a good return experience. Well, that Rogers also is a guy that they mentioned as a potential returner. Ty Chandler still on the team who is a good returner. I know that they have just like he's the guy they never speak of, but he is a pretty talented kick returner. The new I got to tell you, I loved overall the kick return last year. I know a lot of people hated it. I liked it.

I thought it increased how often there was returns. It wasn't quite as insanely dangerous. Some teams did some fun stuff with it, but it wasn't cartoonish or silly or annexation of Puerto Rico. You know, if you know, little giants, it wasn't like some sort of goofball football that we saw and insane wild plays or whatever, but of goofball football that we saw and insane wild plays or whatever. But some teams got creative and we saw some returns for touchdown.

It felt normal to me other than how it looked at the very start of the play. But now changing it to move out to the 35 is come on. I don't want the kick return to impact the game that much. And if you go out to the 35 yard line, you need to pass completions to kick a field goal. Come on, I don't want the kick return to impact the game that much. And if you go out to the 35 yard line, you need to pass completions to kick a field goal. I think that maybe they want some more scoring in the NFL. I don't know if that's it, that maybe the narrative that defense came back and running was back like, no, we want passing.

We want fun. People did people not enjoy football last year. I did. I did. People not show up for football last year? I did. I did. People not show up for football last year. I did. You did. I don't know. I didn't.

I don't think we needed more scoring. I think scoring has been at a really good place. And I really don't think we need 70% of the kick returns happening. I wanted an increase. I wanted those players to matter, but I don't want it to matter to the point where you're getting a lot more players injured and it is having a massive I wanted an increase. I wanted those players to matter, but I don't want it to matter to the point where you're getting a lot more players injured and it is having a massive impact on every game.

I'm not much in favor of that. So how it could impact the Vikings, I think they brought in some players. Rondell Moore is one of them. Isaiah Rogers is one of them. Who we could see do some returning. They might, day three, maybe you look for someone with a little bit of. If you're looking at a wide receiver which i think they could on day three maybe a little bit of experience but the thing is a lot of a lot of great receivers return cuz they're just the best guy with football but maybe that's somewhat of a factor now that it's going to impact the place i think you could you could be right about that. The there will be a big competition for that position.

Let's see. Jana or Jana Jana says, Harman says the person from Oregon, totally objective. But hey, if, if you went to Oregon and you love Oregon, you watch Oregon all the time and you want Derek Harman, that tells you something. Cause I haven't watched every Derek Harman down, but you probably did.

As an Oregon fan, I look at mostly the data and the times that I saw him play, and I thought, who is this beast? And it turns out he was a beast all season long. Grant would get a stamp of approval. He's Pat Williams. Hey, if he's Pat Williams, that would be great. Dexter Lawrence was who I was was thinking of someone who developed but even if he's Pat Williams like that player

Has a big impact and I like a lot of what Harrison Phillips can do I do I think he's a good football player and he does a lot of subtle stuff That maybe is hard to pick up on and I actually had a great conversation with Harrison Phillips last year. He was coming off a game where he had his highest PFF grade of the season. So I went up to him and I asked him about it. And he said, like, one of the things that's hard for PFF to grade me is because I switch gaps after the snap sometimes. So I might, I might be moving backward a little bit,

but I have to jump a different gap to move my blocker and then allow for the linebackers to get into the backfield, which takes kind of quickness and timing the snap well and getting away from the reach block. And there's a lot of technique to it. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. Having Harrison Phillips explain football to me was great. He went to Stanford, but I got it.

Like I understood what he was saying that he has a unique element to him of the size of near a nose tackle traditional nose tackle, but who is doing different stuff because Brian Flores is creative up there. However, they are playing a three, four type of system. And I've said before, well, it's, you know, Jonathan Grinard isn't like dropping back a lot. He's really a pass rusher. They play nickel a lot. It's not traditional three, four, but if you have the Dexter Lawrence,

if you have the Pat Williams, you just take two bodies, Casey Hampton back in the day and you just devour them. And to do that with a shade of past rushing ability, which I think could be developed like Kenneth Grant, you've got my attention. You've got my interest when it comes to that, but I still like Derek Harmon a little better because he just goes and gets a goes and gets quarterbacks. Uh, school SC says don't want a defensive tackle.

The Vikings first pick if the top corner or safeties are around or Zabel. Yeah. The thing about the corners is that, and I could be wrong and PFF simulator could be wrong and mock drafts could be wrong, but it's really, it looks like about a three or four corner class early. And then there's a pretty big gap. And the other guys are expected to go in the middle of the second.

So if we were talking about trading down for tray, most trading down for whoever else it might be a corner. Chavon revel, those guys are projected to be in the second round. So what I was looking for with this list was guys who are projected to be in the top 15. So I understand what you're saying with, with corner or left guard or safety being a little more of an immediate priority. The thing about defensive tackle is if you can, I think the Eagles really show this. If you can have these guys running five to 600 snaps, they can come in hair on fire and just do their job and the two guys that they got were in free agency 30 year old dudes who you'd want playing

550 snaps a year Harrison Phillips when he graded his best by PFF was more of like a 600 500 snap player which is not an insult like that's great that's worth a lot of money but you'd rather have a bunch of dudes coming in the offensive linemen Don't get to rotate. They got to be out there the whole time taking the punishment the defense they can throw out whoever the heck they want and you see it from Philly those guys come in fresh just flying and you've also seen it from the Vikings where they've gotten worn down and I'd like to see them have a little more rotation and KLC talked about that for sure that.

At the owners meetings that they'd like to see he mentioned Redmond. He mentioned Taki Taimani who was interesting last year Levi Drake Rodriguez is guys who they'd like to rotate in around the veterans. But if you could get your hands on a Derek Harmon or Kenneth Grant, that would be even better. Steven says one reason not to take a DT early is you can grab a solid DT prospect later. So I agree and disagree, like I think that in this draft solid yes. Can you get one that's gonna be on your team for 10 years? No, uh, very unlikely.

If you look at all of the top and wide receiver and defensive tackle are very similar this way. All of the top paid defensive tackles in the league are all first, second, or third round draft picks. I mean, mostly first and second. Every single one of them is either first or second round because it's such a physical position and you're getting drafted at the top. If you're a freak like Kenneth Grant, that freaks go high.

And I think it's hard to find freaks in the middle rounds. Can you find solid? Yeah. Yeah. You can, you definitely can. Can you find run stuffers? Oh, everywhere. TJ West from Indiana.

Great run stuffer. Oh, sure. Go ahead. Can you find a 340 pound dude at six foot 3 who moves around like he's 290 pounds? Probably not. So I think difference makers, guys that get second contracts, those are mostly very high picks at that position. Steven says the Cliff drops off for interior O line after Donovan Jackson and Tate Ratledge on day two. Yeah, that's, I really liked Donovan Jackson. Tate Ratledge, we'll see.

We'll see if he goes day two. That's probably a guard position. I agree with that. Yeah. I mean, this doesn't seem to be a draft that has a deep group of guards. It seems to have a handful of guards. Then you better plan on moving a tackle to guard. So I agree with you on that. If you're getting that starter, you should probably go with someone

who's like Grey's able. Now, a lot of you are agreeing with Grey's able. Steven does bring up that is it Cody Mock is the only guy who was drafted that's worked out and two other ones haven't. I'm not concerned about that at all. They're just they're different people. I, I, I, all the time we run into this in the draft, Ohio state quarterbacks, they all bust until they don't.

I mean, it's the same thing. That's how Rogers dropped into draft. I think it's one of those draft myths. He is a different person from a Raddence and the other guy, They're just different people. And if you're looking at his physical talent, his positional flexibility, the way he performed senior bowl, all those things check a lot of boxes for me. If they don't for the Vikings, well, then don't take them.

Of course. But just the way that I'm looking at him as a longterm type of player with his talent, his physical ability, I'm not, if he's getting this type of conversation going to NDSU, I'm looking at him as a long term type of player with his talent, his physical ability. I I'm not, if he's getting this type of conversation going to NDSU, I'm not going to say, well, the Jersey he wore is going to keep me away from him. I'm not going to say that because he's just a different guy. Uh, Nathan, uh, is anyone on the Vikings defensive coaching staff could step in for the DC role concern that Brian Flores will be getting a head coach position next year.

Uh, yeah, I mean, uh, Durante Jones is the guy, the defensive backs coach who has been someone I've had circled for a long time. He has worked with this defensive back group brilliantly, I think over the last couple of years, Harrison Smith told me last year that. One of the reasons he was having so much fun was working with Brian Flores of course but he also said and i would add to run to Jones into that. As someone that he's really enjoyed working with that's pushed him and durante has worked in multiple different systems he's been with Brian Flores for several years and you want to keep. This type of system if that happens because a lot of the same players are going to be here.

Now, I have in pace, like Cashman, the edge rushers, Dallas Turner's development, the corners who are young and coming along. Like there's a lot of the foundational pieces that will be here over multiple years. So if florists were to get a job somewhere else that Durante could step in and run a very similar defense doesn't mean it's going to be exactly the same because Flores has something very unique to him and special but I think Durante has been around a long time now working in a lot of different places. He worked for Zimmer.

He worked at Alabama and on that side with their defensive schemes with Nick Saban and then back with Brian Flores, like this is somebody who's highly respected around the league and, um, somebody I mentioned to somebody who works for a team that was hiring, uh, I think on the defensive side or considering hiring a defensive coordinator. I was like, you should interview Durante Jones because he's really done a great job with this team. So that's the guy that that I would pick. But, you know, I also think too that. I mean, it's April, so we don't have to worry too much.

I mean, you get a neck roll for that question. That's a neck roll question. If Nathan is sitting here going, you know, I'm worried about losing Flores next year. Like that's your your your deep, your deep in. Let's see if they play a football game first, then we'll see how it all plays out from there and we don't have to worry about it yet. And I also think that this year was. It's probably telling again for Brian Flores, I mean, everybody knows that he deserves a job.

The performance he put on last year, 14 win team, top five defense, it was not the top five most talented defense. They made fools of a lot of good teams. I know it didn't end very well for the defense either. It wasn't just Sam Darnold, but they were a great defense last year. And Flores, let's not forget, he won a lot of football games as the Miami Dolphins coach. The relationship with the quarterback was not very good, but they won more games than they lost when he was there for the last few years after they were trying to get him to tank

and allegedly trying to pay him extra to lose football games. Allegedly, allegedly. I mean, the guy's a good football coach and he's an unbelievable evaluator I mean how many times ever in the history of football has a fan base and media just said well if that guy likes him then we just believe it and he's gonna miss eventually I mean I'm sure and who knows who that might be because no one's perfect, but he is as good at evaluating players as I have ever seen.

Ivan pace, Josh Mattelis, undrafted free agent linebacker just comes in sixth round safety who had only been on special teams and then he becomes a star. I mean, it's wild. This stuff Brian Flores has done and identifying players and identifying talent, Andrew van ginkle. What was his career high like six sacks? And I thought he was a good player before because he had really good data.

But I mean, what like second team all pro multiple pick sixes, 11 and a half sacks and what this guy knows what he's doing. So he's very special. And he got a couple of interviews he didn't the year before. It just feels like it's still not going to happen. And there is some, there was some movement the other day on the whole thing, but. Um, the lawsuit, but maybe not until that's resolved or maybe not ever with the way that the NFL owners hold their grudges.

I don't know. Maybe someday for Brian Flores, but it's not something I'm thinking too much about with him. I think what they need to do is I believe I want to say, uh, Ben Gessling wrote something about his contract not too long ago, just make him the highest paid DC in the NFL, keep him in KOC and lockstep for a long time, get a spagnolo, Andy Reed situation and go forward with this leadership.

I mean, when Mark Wilf said to us the other day in Florida at the owners meetings that he loves this leadership and wants to keep it together. I mean, who wouldn't with this group the way that they have achieved so far and playoffs have to happen. But I think 34 wins in three years versus the rosters. And last year with the defenses in 2023, which I thought the 2023 defense was probably going to rank 25th with the talent. And then last year we were saying, well, you know, maybe borderline top 10 and

it's top five that if it's, if that didn't earn him a job, then it's going to be hard to get in the future. But, uh, the consolation prize is that he gets to be here within super talented defense. Now Ryan says, hope Tyler Warren's on the list. The tight end that can block better than TJ Hockinson gets open quicker than Oliver would be huge for this team. There's just nowhere to play him. And that's what Kevin O'Connell said to me the other day when he was giving me a hard

time about the wide receiver thing. But like his point about the best player available was you can't draft a best player available who can't get on the field. You're not drafting Tyler Warren when TJ Hockinson is one of the highest paid players in the NFL. You just can't do it. And Josh Oliver is going to play a ton. And I wouldn't be surprised if they resign Josh Oliver extend him at some point because they love Josh Oliver and that combo is one of the best combos in the NFL I think some of you are a little down

there's been a handful of people who have said to me like should they draft a tight end and I just They just made TJ Hawkinson the highest paid tight end the NFL the year before they love TJ Hawkinson they think paid tight end the NFL the year before. They love TJ Hawkinson. They think he is an incredible Pro Bowl star player. And I would agree when he's not coming off of an ACL injury. I thought he was pretty good. And maybe we'll have a quarterback that's not always looking past him down the field to Justin Jefferson.

But I don't think that there's any reason to look at the tight end position at all. I mean, this is just, I mean, yeah, you could make some sort of like But i don't think that there's any reason to look at the tight end position. At all i mean this is just yeah you could make some sort of like. You know gronk Aaron Hernandez argument or something but there rooted in three wide receivers that mixes in two tight ends and Josh Oliver is the perfect mix in second type of tight end So and and I just I'm just against drafting tight ends high look at TJ Hawkins is a great example They take so long to develop they often show up with some other team and turn out really good You know would you be surprised if Kyle Pitts like finally emerges or

they don't sign his fifth year option and then eventually he just becomes good with some other team like that's kind of TJ Hawkinson. Nathan says, will the Vikings have too many places that might not be able to perform in a more traditional defense. Do you mean pieces pieces like too many? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, but I don't think that any defense these days is traditional.

When you look at a three, four, maybe that's what you mean. If you look at a three, four defense, go back. I love doing this. I love doing this. I love going back and watching games from 2005, 1997. What was the game I was I was watching Brady Manning from 05. It was Al Michaels and John Madden on the call. Great stuff. And Peyton Manning kind of gets the monkey off his back a little bit

in New England, where he hadn't won before. And it's a great game and everything, you know, saw that. But one thing you notice about the defenses is they just stand there and the offenses just stand there. Everyone's just like, ready set football. And there used to be that kind of thing. Like sometimes you'd see motion.

The 91 Washington team with Joe Gibbs. They were famous for using motion and bunch sets more than anybody else. And they were one of the best teams of all time, but it didn't really stick in the nineties and two thousands that where those traditional defenses and offenses were being played and bunch formation started to get a little bit more spread is what everybody started to talk about with three, four wide receivers, nobody in line, that kind of thing. And defense is still though, even as they were getting spread out, they would just stand there and offenses would run a little bit of motion. And what you could do as a quarterback is if the defender moved with the wide receiver in motion, you're like, oh, he's in man coverage.

Fender moved with the wide receiver in motion. You're like, oh, he's in man coverage. And if he didn't like, oh, he's in zone coverage. Now you can still do that, but it's not a guarantee anymore. Now defenses move around. They make so many checks. They make so many changes. They have so many answers. They have people lining up over here, moving over there.

Harrison Smith line of scrimmage. Then he's dropping back all that stuff that there's really no such thing as a traditional type of three, four defense like there used to be. There might be plays where Andrew Van Ginkgels just lined up over the guard and you're like, okay, that's what they decided to do on this play. And one of the things that makes Brian Flores so good is that he takes all these pieces and he makes it work.

And he's, you're good at this, you're good at this, you're good at multiple things. Let's bring it all together and make it work. And the one thing he was really lacking is something that they got, which is what if I Brian Flores just want to drop everybody back in coverage on a first down or something? Four, you rush up front, everybody else drops back, and now they can do that with Javon Hargrave and with Jonathan Allen. And those will have a trickle down effect to where they can just do that more as opposed

to every single time it feels like they've got to send some sort of blitzer. Or I mentioned Harrison Phillips. Harrison Phillips, Harrison Phillips, who has some ability to get after the quarterback, but so much of his job has just been moving bodies upfront. If you want, it's really fascinating to watch where it's like, he's going to line up over the center, but he's going to rush to the right

to try to take the center and the guard. So you can blitz in Ivan pace. Well, what if he just lined up in the a gap and went after the quarterback along with Jonathan Allen, who's maybe in the B gap? And maybe you get a little more pressure from Harrison Phillips this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they did, because there's just more danger up there for defensive lines. So. Matt says, don't hate picking Starks,

but really liked Watts and Mabuka from what I've seen. Yeah, I mean, it's the same sort of deal where it's. Who would I stick and pick for? Give me the best guy in the whole draft, not the. Well, you know, he's pretty good prospect. He's the third, fourth safety. Well, that's great. I mean, Watts gets a lot of hands on footballs,

but Starks and that could be a star. I think that's like a higher ceiling type of player. So that's where you're taking a shot at. And that's why picks 15 through 25 create way more value than picks 40 through 50 is there's just more stars. Sean says you have a choice of getting Derek Harmon or Kenneth Grant. Do you still take? Oh, I see Harmon or Grant. Do I still take Grant?, do you still take,

Oh, I see Harmon or grant. Do I still take grant or do you lean to Harmon? I would probably Harmon was higher on my list, so I would probably lean to Harmon. Now some of it is I'd love to know what they think. I'd love to just know the debate inside of their building of the, can you tell me that you guys see upside with the ability to create pressure from Grant. If you told me that I mean he could be a little more dominant of a player but Harmon I mean this guy just crushed everything in his way with the pass rush.

I'm always going to and he wasn't a joke in the run as far as his grades go. I know some people have brought up that he missed some tackles, but I mean, when you talk about getting into the backfield penetration, pressuring the quarterback, what's more valuable in the NFL than pressuring the quarterback? It's probably nothing. Uh, there's, I could tell you the numbers on this of just how much, how valuable it is to pressure the quarterback and why we've obsessed over this defensive tackle thing. Is it, this is, this is the off season of the Viking saying, fine, stop talking about this already.

Stop talking about the guard already. Stop talking about the DT already. Let me look at quarterbacks. I got the PFF up, up here. Quarterbacks when pressured versus not. And the numbers are so crazy of NFL quarterbacks when they don't have pressure are really darn good at football. And when they're when they are pressured, they become very average.

So how about this? Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow were the only guys in the NFL last year to have quarterback ratings over 90. So if you're under 90, you're like a backup quarterback, right? Only guys to have numbers over 90 when they were pressured. Sam Darnold was third in the league under pressure, ironically, since that's what melted the Vikings at the end with an 87.1 grade. And there are even really good quarterbacks in here. Matthew Stafford had a 50 quarterback rating when pressured last year. Patrick Mahomes, 74, Josh Allen, 73, Jalen hurts 72. I mean, pressure just turns great quarterbacks into average or backups. And with a clean pocket last year, Lamar Jackson had

131 quarterback rating. In fact, there were 18 quarterbacks over a hundred with clean pockets. There's nothing more valuable than getting in the quarterback's face and causing pressure. That's the whole point. So Derek Harmon would be my pick because of that, but I still like Kenneth Grant. I really do. Preston says, since the Vikings current roster is pretty solid, what if the Raiders wanted to trade up to 24 and get a second first round pick this year by offering the Vikings their first

in 2026 plus some lower round pick? There's always as I present the argument for sticking and picking, which I have become a little more convinced on is a good idea Just take the best player try to get a star There's always exceptions Preston and if you're gonna tell me that the Raiders will say I moved down But we're gonna give you a first next year The only thing is the Vikings do want and I got that indication from KOC the other day it sounds like they want somebody who's going to play.

And I mean, even Dallas Turner last year, as down as everybody was on Dallas Turner, he played snaps, he made plays in games. He was a contributor to that team. He got a key interception in Seattle, a big sack in Chicago. He was on the field. So you do in a circumstance like this, where you are trying to win, want to thread that needle. I've talked about now and later, like Gray Zabel, for example, uh, is a guy who can compete right away.

And if he wins the job over Blake Brandle, that means he was awesome. And then he could play right away or he can develop and be a later guy too. So a little bit of now and later, but I do think that it would be their preference to find players who they could get on the field because they're, I mean, they're coming off a 14 win season with no playoff wins in three years. They want to win. They're not looking at this year like,

oh, let's just develop some guys like that could pressure them a little bit more to find someone who could contribute right away, which would mean you would maybe turn down some trade offers, but someone comes to you, hey, move down a little bit. We'll give you a first. I mean, my gosh, you got to do that. But I don't know how desperate the Raiders would be. Matt says, can't they just move the kickers back? I don't really get it, man. I don't really get it with the kickoff. I just don't get it. What they should be looking for is when the kicker is really

good, he can create a touchback and that's worth something. So the kicker talent matters. If your kicker is not good and he can't reach the goal line, the other team gets the opportunity to return. But now it's almost like, well, kickers, you just can't even use your talent of kicking it into the end zone because then you harm your team by being better at football. That's weird to me. And also, when if we're going to go, this is just it could be ludicrous if we're going to go from returning 30 percent of the kicks, which I thought was fine.

3040, I'd like it in the range to what? Either either 70 percent, which you're just returning all the time, it's having a huge impact, or you kick it into the end zone, they get it at the 35 and they're two passes away from scoring. I just don't like it, I totally agree with you. Slide the kickers back five yards,

reduce it by a few more percentage points, get a few more returns in the game a little more excitement and then go from there but it goes out of the back of the end zone so your kicker kicks it the best you could possibly kick it and then gets punished at that that to me is silly I don't like what they've done with it unfortunately because I really wanted the kick return back you guys know how much I wanted it back. I, I name off all these kick returners and how fun they were. I want it back.

I want kick returners to matter, but I don't want kickers to be punished for being too good at kicking the football. Uh, Chris says we're totally moving a pick next year to move up and get an extra pick this year, especially with the expected comp picks in 2026. You know, Chris, I did think of this. I did. I did have this thought when I was putting together my little list because here's here's here's why I see stick and pick is being very reasonable. Let's say the Vikings have

14 true. This is a guy I see as a difference making potential star player in the NFL. Let's say they have 14 of them. They're drafting 24th. Well, if it's the right position or the way the board falls, that guy can be there. That guy, just for example, with Dallas Turner,

like that guy might be there a few spots ahead of you. Could I see them dipping into next year to go up a spot, two spots to make sure they get one of their guys out of their 14? I could see it. I could see it. That's more in line with the way they've handled the draft the last two years, as opposed to the first year trading down and trying to get more bodies. So if you're in a position where you have so much talent on your roster

that you really just want the absolute best player and get your hands on and that guy and you've got to the 21st pick and you really think the next team is taking them. OK, let's dip into next year's draft capital, move up. It's it's antithetical to some of the like traditional and analytics way of thinking of stack picks. But it's also in line with how they looked at it last year with Dallas Turner. Like let's just go get our guy and the jury is out on it.

But I think it's an interesting conflicting philosophy of you can make an analytics argument that superstar players move the needle. Not just pretty good players. You need to get them, but you could get them in free agency. You can't get superstar players and free agency go through free agency. I looked at this for my article, purple insider dot football, by the way. I looked at this for my article. Where how many players actually got more than 20 million dollars, which would indicate a superstar in free agency.

And the answer was like five. And one of them was Sam Darnold, which is a very unique situation for a guy to win 14 games to be a free agent. And then it was like Devante Adams, a couple more technically Stefan Diggs, but that's not really that much. It's not really that much. It's not really the contract. I mean, very few superstar game changers. It's mostly complimentary players.

You fill in complimentary players. So if you're drafting, you could go on the idea that you're hunting superstars because you can get complimentary players. Now, if Kirk Cousins was your quarterback taking up 20% of your cap, then you need bodies. So it's different than it is where you can spend $300 million in free agents.

Fascinating stuff, fascinating stuff. Skoll SC says PFF board can be different than. Yeah, so what I looked at was the public boards and mock draft mock draft database that has a lot of consensus type of picks. But I mean, we never really know how the league actually feels about it. Every time in the draft, I do my yearly rant about how, like, I guess the draft analysts didn't know everything, even though we gave them all that credit on the in route

To the draft we just assumed they were right about everything and then on draft night. It was actually quite different. So You know Who knows how it's actually gonna play out when we get there Steven no Durante Jones did not take a defensive coordinator job this year. He got interviewed for one, I think. Maybe it was New Orleans. I think it might have been New Orleans. Let's see.

Rascal Lover says, for me, the priority is offensive guard. I got NFL plus looking at the tape. All right. Let's throw them. Let's throw them a neck roll. Rascal Lover, you them a neck roll. Rascal lover. You get a neck roll for that. You bought NFL plus to grind the tape just because you wanted to look at guards. There you go. Good stuff. Brando looked okay to me at best, not much depth. And I think we need to

improve. Yeah. Blake Brando. The thing about him is I think he is a league average or below a little below guard, which means that if he is the weakest point of your offensive line, it's not, that's not bad. Like you can win with that if he is the weakest point. Now if there's three weak points or so, if it's cam Robinson, Blake Randall and Garrett Bradbury in pass protection, well, you're not going to win with entire left side and Brian O'Neill in the playoffs clearly playing through an injury. That's not really conducive to domination on the offensive line. But if a guy who is kind of coming along and had a good start to the season last year with Christian Derrissa is the worst player you have. I think you're in pretty good shape, but I would agree with your assessment

that okay at best is probably the way I'd put it. And what a draft pick might get you is somebody who could be a true difference maker. And if you have a difference maker at right guard, because he's a nasty big old man and Will Fries, a difference maker at center and Ryan Kelly who's a Made the Pro Bowl and is excellent and then a difference-making talent that may have some mistakes But could really move the needle at left guard. Well, suddenly you got yourself an offensive line

Steven says J Ward was likely a beef low pick at 23. It's beef lows only miss Well, not I mean, maybe. I remember Josh Metellus didn't play basically at all for a couple of years. But but also, I mean, we can't look at every defensive player that they brought in. And that's a fourth round draft pick. And actually, I would even say that because he plays so many snaps on special teams and his depth that they didn't need last year because they stayed healthy. It's not somebody who was cut.

He's still contributing to the team. So I wouldn't throw Jay Ward out just yet and call him a miss. But I mean, there's a fourth round guy. That would be a harsh standard. If we start holding into every single defensive player drafted in the fourth round is a hit or miss, But I get what you're saying. My point is just, you know, somebody like Flores who came up in the scouting world and really understands the talents of players and what they can do and where they can fit.

I think he assesses players. I asked him this. He told me this last year that he always asked what can they do? not what can't they do and Instead of saying well, you know, he doesn't he's not tall enough. I've in pace. It's not fast enough Josh But tell us where could I see him fitting in? What role could I give him? How many snaps could I make it work with this guy and? That's how you get a lot of hits

Bradley says what do you think about Harrison Smith being a coach for the Vikings after the season? I think what's hard to comprehend for anybody who hasn't done it is just how insane being an NFL coach is like how many hours Harrison Smith has fairly young kids. I think kid or kid, I'm sorry, if I if I've got that wrong for how many kids, I thought I thought it was multiple. I think that it's it's way more hours in the building away from your family than actually being a football player is.

So a player, it's a long day. Like you go and you grind. actually being a football player is. So a player, it's a long day. Like you go and you grind, but the actual work day of an NFL player is not crazy. Different from your work day. Like Harrison Smith, they don't all show up at five o'clock. They tell you that they make it seem like that quarterbacks do. But the other positions, the show up at say seven o'clock, I'm not saying Harry doesn't show up early, but let's just say seven o'clock and they will be leaving the facility at five

o'clock sometimes a little later, but that that might be about it. It's more of a Monday through Friday type of job and then he's going to go home. He's going to watch film. He's going to study. He's going to do all those things. But when you're a coach, those days can be 12, 14, 16 hours. And then the travel and all that sort of stuff. It is a absolute grind sitting at a lot of it sitting at a computer being a coach.

Terrence Newman found this out a lot of it sitting at a computer just being asked to look at specific things and study specific things. And you're just watching film all day and putting together reports and stuff like that. Like if you're grinding to work your way up the ladder, I don't think that a player like Harrison Smith works his way up a coaching ladder. I think if anything, maybe he would love to be a high school coach or something like that, or I mean, he might just want to play golf.

The guy, what more can you ask from this man to give to the Vikings? I think he wants to play golf. That's what I would do if I had his contracts and career. That's what I saw. John Randall on the plane on the way down to the owner's meetings. I don't know why he was going to the owner's meetings, but I saw him and I was reminded, like, that's what John Randall does. John Randall just plays golf and he's always tweeting about it.

Like that's that's you have an awesome NFL career and then just play golf. That sounds great to me. Let's see. Because Zink Ed says I need to weigh a way to spread out the word best player available. That is also a position of need with added value and your acronym for that is bit Pomp and wave. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's catchy. I don't think it's catchy not as catchy as BPA

I think I think a BPA and I'll give you a neck roll for trying that but I think the BPA is implied. It's implied that you're not gonna draft a position where clearly you have nowhere to put someone my argument about Wide receiver is you always have somewhere to put wide receiver if you draft Luther burden think about this KJ Osborne got 90 targets nine zero in 2022 in KOC's offense. 90 wide receiver three with Thelen and Jefferson and the man got 90 targets. That's a lot of value from a wide receiver three. And even if the first year, even if the guy gets 35 catches and makes plays and that's added value, that's worth 10 million dollars of value.

And that's how you can really pinpoint it Right if you draft a tight end what I mean, where are you putting him? It's just not playing If you draft a tackle and you don't move them to guard. He's just not playing So I think everybody understands that you're not drafting if the best player available is a tackle You're not drafting a tackle. You might move down a couple spots If the best player available is a tackle, you're not drafting a tackle. You might move down a couple of spots. Aaron says, do you look at edge as a possible day three pick behind Granard Van Ginkle and Turner is lights?

Yep. Gabriel Murphy, Bo Richter. I do think that Murphy and Richter are guys who could take a step. When a guy is really good on special teams, we kind of go like, who cares, special teams? But it is an indicator a lot of times. And Bo Richter was terrific. I wrote about him last year. Terrific on special teams, but it is an indicator a lot of times. And Bo Richter was terrific. I wrote about him last year. Terrific on special teams.

And his athleticism is very high. That's what got him into the NFL. He only really had one year of playing as an edge rusher where he put up a bunch of numbers, but his athleticism numbers were freakish. And Gabriel Murphy was a highly productive guy. So I like that. But I don't disagree with you that as you get in that undrafted free agent, the depth that a day three edge rusher might be worth looking at, or what they could do also is just look at the remaining final wave of free agency. Maybe there's one more guy out there who's a veteran who's got some experience doing that, but they could use one more as just depth and special teams.

But I do think the fact that, well, we'll see. I mean, they're not gonna draft one in the first round, but the fact that they haven't gone out and gotten a Patrick Jones replacement is probably telling that it was not a priority that what they're saying, because I've always said to you guys, it's what they say or it's what they do and not what they're saying, because I've always said to you guys, it's what they say, or it's what they do and not what they say.

Well, no replacement for Patrick Jones to me is a what they do about Dallas Turner. I believe them when they say that they're really buying that what Dallas Turner did at the end of the year. And if you projected it out over last year with some more snaps and his growth, if the season had gone, you know, 25 games or something, I think we would have seen Dallas Turner even take a bigger step. Here's another thing I ran into. It's worth mentioning about Dallas Turner. I'll probably dive into this at some point.

I was looking at a PFF study done by one of their data scientists from a few years ago, uh, Timo risky, very, very smart guy. And the worst production of any position in year one in the NFL is edge rusher. The worst production of anyone in the NFL edge rusher. Now that wasn't for Jared verse and it wasn't for miles Garrett, but a lot of guys, there's tons of examples. So you really can't judge that position until we've seen at least two seasons

and maybe even a little more than that. Bradley says, I think Turner would have played more if I think you mean if he didn't get dinged up. But let's say I don't think they expected to see Van Gingel and Grinder. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. Oh, if anyone if anyone got dinged up. No, that's a great point. No one got banged up.

And the one game was against Indianapolis. The one game that Van Ginkle did get a little dinged up. Turner had one of his best games when he came in and got actually more snaps. So I'm still I'm still like, you don't want to see a guy not put up huge numbers when he's a first round pick, but extenuating circumstances, I think were there with Dallas Turner. One Steven says Tyler Booker may be a set it and forget it left guard at 24 in terms of him not being a fit for outside zone scheme. Are we really running that anymore? Yes, I think so. I think. Are we really running that anymore? Yes

I think so. I think they still will be running that now They're not gonna run what you mean with Kelly and fries. They're not going to run a traditional Everybody goes out like the Gary Kubiak, but it still has Some of that like the some of the best runs from Aaron Jones last year are pitches to the outside that have everybody on the move and it's not just about outside zone getting wide it's also about. Working to the next level and i was listening to Nate Tice and Mike Tice do a podcast about the office of Lyman and i fast forwarded to Tyler Booker. And i agreed with what he said about book or my one concern is that there's not a explosive element to his game. Like, yeah, he's a big guy. That guy has not always succeeded in the NFL and there's not that quickness.

And you think about the DTs we're talking about these days. I have more nervousness about Booker. Another Steven does not want a guard at 24 I think that's fair because we do talk so much about the Positional value, but I think that when we get to the end of the first round That's when I look at it and throw that out the window Just take the best player at that point if you're talking about the very top of the draft, OK, take the Travis Hunter, take take the offensive tackle, you know, from LSU, who apparently has long enough arms now.

And you want those premium positions, but when you get to the back end, if you can get the best player in the draft at his position, that's pretty good. Web TV, OG says who replaces Addison during his suspension. I assume everybody just slides up one spot unless they draft a wide receiver. And maybe maybe KOC was trying to throw everybody off the scent by mentioning it the other day and sort of seeming to shoot it down. I don't know. Maybe he actually believes in it. Maybe it's Luther Burden who slides into the spot. Probably not.

I would say more likely than not, it would be Jalen Naylor just goes and plays wide receiver to everybody moves up a slot and maybe Rondell Moore or somebody else that they've developed. Sean says, no one talks about Kelly Hill helping raise the floor for Brando possible. How much is that how much is that? Does that happen?

I mean, I, maybe I think that's very hard to pin down. Um, Kelly could make a big difference for him, especially when it comes to pass blocking and reducing pressures. He allows, I don't know. I'm, I am not confident tricky. KOC. Yeah, maybe, right? Maybe. I don't know. I am not confident. Tricky K.O.C. Maybe, right? Maybe. I don't know. I'm trying. I'm trying to convince them. I was retweeting Randy Moss.

Old Randy Moss gets drafted clips and I was like, I don't know. I mean, they didn't need a wide receiver. Just saying I'm trying my best to push my agenda. They do not care about what I think about this. The point on Kelly helping Brandel, I just I think it works for run blocking. I think it does work for communication. I don't know if Garrett Bradbury did have communication problems or not,

or if that's a quarterback thing from last year. I mean, it's so tricky to pin down who impacts who and how. Like, I believe you fundamentally that a better center should impact his guards. I definitely do. But how much better? Brando has limitations. He's just not a great athlete.

And I think there is sometimes where he gets kind of over his skis. If you know what I mean, sort of lunging forward. And I think that guys can get underneath him a little bit. And then there's just slower to identify stuff from that position because he always played tackle. I don't think he's a bad player at all. I just think that there's some weaknesses there that I don't know

if they're resolved by Kelly. If he is the starter at left guard, though, again, I think you're a really good offensive line. Son of a beavers. Is there a running back you think could be a steal on day three or undrafted? Maybe a kick return. There's there sounds like there's about 20, doesn't there? Doesn't it sound to you like there's about 20 running backs? I like it. I like what you're suggesting.

Damien Martinez is a guy who's come up a few times. The guy, Bashal Tutin, crazy fast. Some people think he's the best running back in the whole thing. Some people think that he's a fifth round pick. Jarquis Hunter is great. Trevor Etienne is really good. Jordan James is interesting.

Somebody brought up Ollie Gordon. I haven't seen him play, but somebody brought him up. The last guy I mentioned on the PFF drafts, I'm looking at right now, but somebody brought him up down. The last guy mentioned on the PFF draft. So I'm looking at right now is Donovan Edwards, who had an awesome combine. And it was really good in 2022. Like it's crazy how this draft works, but I'll have to take a look a little closer and see if there's anybody who has the kick returning potential. Rashad Smith from SMU. Like I could just name a bunch of guys. Devin Neal. I don't know where R.J. Harvey's going, but I like him. and see if there's anybody who has the kick returning potential. Brachaud Smith from SMU.

Like I could just name a bunch of guys, Devon Neal. I don't know where RJ Harvey's going, but I like him. That might, I mean, that might be an option though. RJ Harvey is someone who could have, but Shaltooten has got kick return written all over him. That might be a guy. Uh, cold to gold. What's the skinny with a Santa Samuel?

Do we have the cap space? They have the cap space. I don the skinny with a Santa Samuel? Do we have the cap space they have the cap space. I don't know About a Santa Samuel. They could sign him. They might not I know that Some people have talked about him signing here. I could definitely see it happening but I Don't know if it's happening We're gonna get a couple of more I don't know if it's happening. We're going to get a couple of more emergency podcast ish type of stuff. I think after is a backup quarterback and or a San de Samuel worth an emergency

podcast, Eileen very much. Yes. But I could see it. I mean, I, they have enough cap space to sign a couple of guys if they want to. They also want to carry over some of that cap space. They also want to keep some cap space available in case they have to do something mid season with a trade, which is a real possibility. All right, we've gotten to the bottom

of the comments section. Great stuff, guys. Great stuff. Through some neck rolls, had some good discussions.