Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A mock draft with Kyle Hamilton to the Vikings and how NFL Draft season finally broke us

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso joins Matthew Coller to talk about what the Derek Carr extension means for teams potentially looking at quarterbacks, whether the Vikings should trade back with the Steelers or Saints, why Danielle Hunter comparisons are ridiculous and 90s comparisons to all the quarterbacks in the draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, another Chrisris trapasso draft show matthew collar along with cbs sports draft analyst chris trapasso and um chris we got lots to do on the show i've made 90s slash early 2000s comps for draft picks we have a mock that does not have aiden hutchinson with the number one pick and we've got rumors to talk about everything is happening chris we are getting close it is draft season season season yeah big time and it's it's to the point for me as a draft analyst and maybe some of your listeners maybe for you that it feels like next week should be the draft like i can't believe that we have next week you know mock draft 4.0 will come out from the big guys and then it's like we need to

scrutinize this mock and then oh yeah there's still one more mock the day before the draft like always around this time i'm like at like a fever pitch and then i'm like oh my god two more weeks to go so yeah it is draft season season season season season and i will be like ready to go april 28th at 8 PM Eastern time for sure. Uh, yeah, no, I, I totally agree with you. There's no reason for this to go on this long after the second round of, um, you know, free agency, pretty much everybody's found their home. That's going to find their home for right now. And we could just do this thing. I don't know if it bumps into anything else. Now I would not want it to go up against the Masters, of course,

because you've got to have that weekend free. But right after the Masters, let's draft everybody. I mean, the team right now, the Vikings this week and next week, they're having their voluntary workouts. And so guys are coming in and they're talking to the media and they're getting into meetings and things like that. And I don't know why we couldn't just get drafted and then the draft picks would have a few weeks to get ready

for a rookie mini camp. And then we go on from there. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have too many complaints about how the NFL works in general, but I agree with you that there's only so many more mocks we can read. But I do have a mock that we're going to read. So maybe the answer is many.

No, I mean, I get it. And now that we have the NFL schedule release in May, I think that actually started in 2020, like during the pandemic. I get it that the NFL says that outside of really, I think, June, they want like an event every month. But why does this event, the biggest off-season event need to be at the end of the month when we have the combine at the you know late february early march free agency middle of march and then like a six-week gap of just build up i feel like there's already enough

maybe for the casual nfl fan the nfl wants uh those that huge contingent to like get caught up on the first rounders maybe some second rounders but yes we are definitely in the thick of it and the draft cannot get here soon enough yeah my body is ready to actually draft it's usually a long couple of days but I've been told that out at TCO Performance Center there's going to be tacos for the media on draft night oh nice yeah I know I'm more inspired. So let's play your intro and then we'll get into it. Good evening and welcome to the NFL draft. Draft season is here. Come on, come on. There you go. To break down every need. They're not going to pick a quarterback. They need offensive lineman. They need defense. Every pro day. He had a phenomenal pro day explosive really good in the three cone

the broad jump and every mock you could probably tell me if you think the vikings would actually do it i can tell you as a draft analyst that they absolutely should welcome to the chris trapasso draft show on purple insider this is a good podcast to listen to leading into the draft. It sure is. It sure is a good podcast. I hope so. Leading to the draft. Profound statements from you, Chris.

Now, here's what I want to ask about. The rumors are always the best part of leading up to the draft. And last year, there was the whole is mac jones going to san francisco and everybody's watching vegas lines go all over the place trying to decide and guess what they were going to do uh what i determined last year is that vegas knows a lot of stuff they don't know who's drafting who because if you tell people outside of the building who your team is drafting, you are fired. And so people do not do that in the NFL very often. But there's a lot of talk now of trades down by the Vikings or the teams in that area and trades up from teams like New Orleans or Pittsburgh who might want to draft Malik Willis. And I guess I wonder your take on that concept of the Vikings trading down

the teams behind them that might want to trade for a quarterback. I'm a trade-down advocate. I mean, for as much as I'm doing the homework, trying to be, I guess, kind of like a scout grading the entire draft process, at the same time, I get that I shouldn't be overconfident in my abilities to evaluate talent. So trade back when the Vikings traded back last year, I think the haul that they got to get their left tackle, get extra day two picks, that's how you build a team and either

go from rebuilding to a contender or go from a borderline playoff team to a team that can make a run in the playoffs. I think that's how you do it. I said it on a previous episode that the one kind of analytics hack that I would love to see a team do is just every year be like, we're trading down like five times. We're going to just trade down and get like 11 picks. We'll sort through all the young talent on the roster. We'll trade some guys that flash that we don't love, whatever. We haven't really seen that too frequently.

So I would like a trade down, but like you mentioned to me off the air, if the team coming up to 12 picks Malik Willis, it would sting a little bit for the Vikings. I haven't even really thought of that though, because it feels like based on what you've told me and just following kind of the tea leaves around this pre-draft process that there's really like no chance the Vikings are going to pick a quarterback. So it would sting, but it's not like not like oh they were talked out of Malik Willis while they were on the clock it it feels like with the Kirk Cousins extension and that this competitive rebuild this Vikings new regime is like hey we're not picking one of these quarterbacks so it would be um something I certainly wouldn't advocate because I love Malik Willis. We've talked about the upside shooting for the moon,

but I will say as a Buffalo guy, the bills in the 2017 draft traded out a number 10 overall, the chiefs pick Patrick Mahomes look disastrous. The bills got a Tredavious white at 27 overall, then use a few of those picks to get Josh Allen the next year. Now, of course that doesn't mean that it's going to happen again, but there is some recent history that says, hey, you can make this move, still be competitive. The Bills went nine and seven that year, made the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, and then got their franchise quarterback the next year. So if

you're a Vikings fan that's been pining for Malik Willis, and if it happens on draft night, you and I will not be too excited about it and I'm sure a lot of other Vikings media members too but they're I guess theoretically could be let at the end of the tunnel but it just has to wait a year to get there yeah you mean if they had Willis there and then traded out of that pick yeah move down and take a defensive end or something that there wouldn't be a lot of excitement and there would probably be a good amount of frustration. Now, I mean, the way I would look at it is, is just why, like what would be the justification? Because otherwise, if you were truly in love with Kirk Cousins, you would have signed him to a longer contract and you would not have been shopping him

and trying to get the best offers that you could and had people around the league, including Baker Mayfield, which is weird. Mayfield thought he was getting traded for Kirk Cousins, and Indianapolis apparently thought they were trading for Kirk Cousins at one point, and it just didn't ever come to fruition. And judging by Cousins' press conference the other day, he heard all that. But, you know, so that would be totally mind-blowing to me if they said no we're going to trade out of that pick as opposed to taking somebody with as high of a ceiling as malik willis the reason i don't think that it happens is because i don't think malik willis

is going to get there i think that there's five six teams that are before the vikings that uh could take him and then after willis i think there's a pretty big drop-off in the ceiling of all the other quarterbacks that even if Sam Howell or Desmond Ritter, even if they become their best, which I have a comp for Desmond Ritter that I'm very proud of to talk about later, because we're doing the 90s and 2000s comps.

So I have one for him that I really like. But those are not the high-ceiling quarterbacks. The one thing I would say is I would never put anything on a hundred percent that the Vikings wouldn't take Willis there just because we haven't seen Kweisi Adafo Mensah draft. But I also think that because there's some desperation from teams behind them to get a quarterback, New Orleans has nobody, Pittsburgh has nobody in terms of future QBs. And if they feel like, Ooh, another team is going to take Ritter,

but we really love him. Then all of a sudden there's all this buzz from like coach Twitter about Desmond Ritter. Okay. So, so I don't know. There's like, this team loves them.

Teams love them. All right. Well, I guess we'll find out. But in that scenario, if Willis is gone, let's say he's taken by the Seattle Seahawks and the Vikings trade down to get a haul like it's a Chicago Bears trade up from last year and the other team takes Kenny Pickett. I would not say Vikings, are you out of your mind for moving down?

Because Pickett is just not of the level of a prospect anywhere near in my mind in terms of what they could possibly be to Malik Willis. So I would say in that scenario, okay, I still think you probably should have taken the quarterback, but I'm not going to have my skull implode into my brain because of this. Yeah, no, that's where I've been with the Vikings, with the Saints trading up already, and then there's thought that they might continue to trade up on every radio spot. I've written it. If they trade up for Malik Willis, okay, I get it. For as much as I just said, I'm a huge trade down advocate.

I'm a trade up for a quarterback advocate. And really, when you look at it, trading up for a quarterback, of course, does not guarantee that he will be good. But unless you have the number one overall pick, almost every single recent-ish quarterback that has become successful was selected after a trade-up. Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson. There's a lot of them recently in the last five to seven years where if he's there and he's that talented, some team will come up to get him. It's kind of awkward almost when the team just stays put and picks Daniel Jones

or a team just stays put and picks someone Jordan Love later in the draft or later in the first round. So I'm totally in agreeance with you. If you trade up for a quarterback in this draft, it has to be for Malik Willis. I like Desmond Ritter more than you do, but I certainly am aligned with you that I agree his upside even though the athleticism on paper is there is not even really remotely close to where it is with Malik Willis one last thing I'll say on this I thought it was interesting that Daniel Jeremiah tweeted earlier this week about and it's funny Daniel Jeremiah like doesn't tweet very often but like when he does his tweets have like a seismic impact like if he tweets about a seventh round corner suddenly that

guy's a second round corner if he tweets about any draft idea it becomes a news article it's crazy how powerful he is which is awesome but he tweeted about looking at the quarterback in the wide receiver markets he's like I feel like that should sway teams that if they're on the fence about a certain player have the same grade or close that they should go quarterback or they should go wide receiver and then i tweeted back to it like or i quote tweeted it i should say that that's why i feel like desmond ritter kenny pickett and malikis, because there's a lot of people that don't have Malik Willis as a first-round talent. They have to be first-rounders because they're quarterbacks.

And, I mean, Malik Willis, even if you don't like some of the bad decisions, you have to be able to see that he has upside and that Desmond Ritter started 50 games at Cincinnati and won at Notre Dame, looked good in that game, whatever. That because of positional value, you almost have to say, Hey, let's roll the dice in this quarterback and see what happens because the money is like getting that quarterback on that cost control deal for five years is a huge boon to what you can do in terms of your team building over the next, you know, uh, four or five years. Yeah, the Ritter take is just that sometimes I just have, I don't know,

like a radar for things I've heard before. It's like, man, doesn't this sound like people who galaxy brain their ways into liking Kellen Mond more than Mac Jones last year, where they were like, I don't know, a lot of starting experience. He always improved, and he does this technically technically well pro offense, that sort of stuff. And then it was like, guys, he doesn't throw the football very well. Whoops. And that ended up being the thing. And I kind of think of Ritter is the same way where did you see his footwork in the pocket? Like, yeah, that's great. Doesn't throw the football very hard. That's kind of a big problem in the nfl but if the vikings were to draft desmond ritter with the 12th overall pick i would not say how dare you i would say like all right i mean good move because i don't know if he's going to succeed anymore i just but if he does then the vikings could could potentially be you know a top three team in the nfc in three years like that's

not out of the question if they hit on a d, it might not change things very much at all. Right. And the thing is that like, let's say that Ritter doesn't have that high of a ceiling, but his ceiling is someone like Derek Carr, who just got a contract extension that though allows Vegas to still move on if they want to, is basically going to pay him $40 million a year. Well, what would Desmond Ritter be making if he's the 12th overall pick? Six?

I mean, you know, Kirk Cousins next year is scheduled to make $36 million on the cap. Desmond Ritter, or whoever, plus $30 million in players is better than just Kirk Cousins if Ritter is anywhere close. And that's the formula. And that's the receiver thing, thing too that Jeremiah is talking about is if you're Christian Kirk and you're getting $21 million a year, just draft somebody. And even if they're just okay, you get $15 other million.

Go buy yourself another player of any other position to be able to work it out. And it seems like those two positions and defensive end have gone just completely off the deep end when it comes to the gap between the first round draft picks and the top players at their position. Yeah. One quick philosophical thing on this. That's the perfect point. And I think most people get that now about how the advantages a team can have when they have a rookie or a quarterback on a rookie deal.

I've kind of had this galaxy brain ish idea or theory recently that to take that a step further and for a team to almost not purposely have a bad quarterback, but either not spend a lot or just draft one every couple of years and just absolutely stock the shelves at wide receiver and just say, look, we are going to give you say a branch off the Kyle Shanahan tree, which certainly the Vikings have now. We're going to scheme open receivers. We're going to get bubble screens involved, RPOs. And I think you can get a team deep into the playoffs with that.

I think what Jimmy Garoppolo did in San Francisco, I mean, he's with the son of the architect, so to speak, in Kyle Shanahan, but Jimmy Garoppolo I don't think is that great of a quarterback. I think Debo Samuel, George Kittle, Brandon Ayuk, they picked a first-round wide receiver when they had those two stars already on the roster. The offensive line being good certainly helps, but it's almost like today's NFL. And I think you retweeted it recently that Chase Stewart from like, I don't know what his website is, but he does a lot of football research.

And he said that like he and I don't know how he was categorizing this, but the NFL has become a league where there's more easy passes for quarterbacks than ever before. And from watching the first and second year quarterbacks for my project that I did every week at CBS sports, there were Mac Jones and Jalen hurts games where I had a best throws and worst throws category. I was like, I have nothing to put in here because none of the throws were challenged.

Truly none of the throws were challenging and he didn't really make any bad throws, but no great throws. And it'd be like, Mac Jones, 25 of 35, 300 yards, one touchdown, one pick. And it was like, he was getting applauded, but I was like, he didn't really do anything. And for the first 14 weeks of the season, he was like the offensive player of the year or offensive rookie of the year front runner. I think a team could have a Desmond Ritter game manager type, have Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, good receivers, tons of extra money around him and win 11, 12, maybe even 13 games, getting a few bounces here or there. I saw this happen right in front of my eyes with Case Keenum, and I'm not suggesting teams should just sign Case Keenum,

but if you have even Case Keenum level play from that year, which was good, he played well. The whole deal was can he do it for more than just one season, and the answer was always going to be no. But Stephon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, these guys have risen the level of play of everyone now teddy bridgewater had the knee thing so he was never going to be the same no matter what but teddy bridgewater with an emerging stefan diggs played his best football and then sam bradford

comes in remember sam bradford is considered at the time the vikings get him is one of the biggest busts ever quarterback right he wins rookie of the year and then never does another thing and he has like a 99 quarterback rating for the vikings in 2016 plays really well comes out 2017 plays the first game blows away the new orleans saints throwing to these guys and then keenum comes in then cousins comes in sets career highs like every year with those wide receivers and i also there's a pff stat that we've talked about a little bit, but two out of every three passes in the NFL are first read throws according to PFF. And the other stuff is where the difference is made. But can you take a quarterback who's just

capable of hitting those first reads and then doing something every once in a while, if you have the absurd weapons, I think that recent history would say yes, especially since Jared Goff was able to take a team to the Superbowl. I think that the level for that to be likely, because probably should have been the saints in that Superbowl, has to be a little higher than Jared Goff, who's probably just like the 20th best quarterback in the league. But if you draft a quarterback this year and by next year, he becomes the 13th best quarterback in the league by his talent, 15th, 17th, even by his talent. But you have stacked the roster to the roof. We can never really separate roster versus what the player

can do. So whoever you draft, you have to project that their production with Justin Jefferson. And if they draft, I don't know, wilson or something this year or whoever you love sky more let's say sky more is unbelievable second round yep yeah second round so they draft ritter sky more and and ritter gets to take over this offense that still has theeland playing well jefferson's a megastar more is here uh mere smith-mararset emerges. K.J. Osborne's good. Ken A. Wong was coming out of the backfield, and the line is good. Like all of a sudden, you can make things happen. And I guess that is, to me, a better model than putting all of the money

into the quarterback unless the quarterback is Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Malmes. Yeah, I guess I'll finish with saying this, that it feels like a galaxy brain theory now because we've seen all these big money contracts at the quarterback spot that Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes game. Actually, Daniel Jeremiah tweeted about that, too, that he feels like that game changed the perception and every team just like dying to have that big arm outside of structure quarterback that we've talked about ad ad nauseum to me though like and and we understand like you get 30 million dollars extra if you have that rookie quarterback compared to paying a expensive veteran i want to just see i like i guess what i'm saying is i want to see a team come out there and almost maybe they would never publicly say it but be like yeah you know what we're gonna try to start a new trend in in the NFL and not throw $50 million a year on our quarterback. We're going to be like, yeah, we're going to sign Case Keenum

or we're going to sign Teddy Bridgewater, and we're going to have the best receivers, the best tight ends, two stud left tackles. We're going to draft our guards and centers in the first two rounds, and we are just going to scheme the hell out of every single defense we play because to me, and it's funny, you mentioned it last year when we were doing this podcast together, that you're like, I think the receiver position is actually the second most valuable position in the NFL.

And I was kind of like, oh, offensive tackle, edge rusher. I'm totally with you. I think wide receiver is the second most valuable position in the NFL today, that that can change your quarterback more than him being protected. Well, I think offensive tackle matters, but if you have a game changing wide receiver or a great mixture in your receiver group,

like you got the big guy, you got the speed guy, they all compliment each other. Well, I think that can transform the production of your quarterback and your offense more than anything else. So hope, I mean, just to see that the league continue to change, it will just be interesting. If there is a team out there, maybe it's the Vikings that just says, yeah, we're going to not

really emphasize quarterback too much. We're going to build the environment amazingly around that guy. So maybe we can plug in different quarterbacks along the way that a Desmond Ritter plays awesome. And by 2026, he wants 70 million a year. And we're like, no, no, we'll just get this. We'll get Daniel Jones, you know, 30 year old Daniel Jones, who will just come in and be good in our offense. Something like that. I mean, it's kind of not Daniel Jones.

That's a bad example, but you know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of what Tennessee has done to succeed by plugging in Ryan Tannehill, who was good, not great. And I think that this all goes along with a baseline for all of it. Like the rookie quarterback cannot be terrible and that's, and they often are. And so that's the problem that you run into. And so that's why there's the theory of like, well, just draft another one then, because if the guy is Paxton Lynch or who is the guy, Christian Hackenberg, that guy just can't play.

Right. You can't play. You're terrible. And you're kind of ruining your franchise there for a minute. And you probably can't win much outside of a crazy outlier year with Case Keenan, where they were the number one defense in points and yards. Pretty tough to be. Things fell right right they needed a

miracle to get the nfc championship teddy bridgewater last year had a good denver team there's you know he's seven and seven i think is a starter so there's probably a baseline that's like the ryan tannahill jimmy g where if you are that so if you draft one of these guys and kenny pickett is jimmy g then i think it's very possible. And the upside to drafting the guy is if he becomes a star when you didn't expect it, like a superstar, well, then you've got something for a really long time. So the whole point is that even if the Vikings are in a position to trade down with Pittsburgh or new Orleans, they probably should just take the quarterback anyway, but they probably won't take the quarterback anyway.

Not likely until next year. So, okay, let's talk about this mock because this has some interesting, very, very interesting discussion points. Lance Zierlein, NFL.com, his first overall pick. And you talk about my head exploding. I know when you saw this, that your glasses shot off your face with rage.

He has Trayvon Walker as the number one overall pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Talk about galaxy brain. If there is any team that has got a galaxy brain themselves into something as ridiculous as taking Trayvon Walker number one, it is Trent Baalke and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yeah, it seems to be growing in popularity over the last couple of days that it's not just Lance Zerline who's super plugged in. Phil Vietrami, SPN, was on a podcast last week, said he's hearing that. It's kind of just growing around the league. Now, what I wonder is, are more people really in the throes of draft season now, and they're tying Trent Balke back

to the Alden Smith pick over J.J. Watt and some more polished players and Anthony Davis the offensive tackle from Rutgers who was kind of this raw type DeForest Buckner Eric Armstead or are they like legitimately hearing that like the Jaguars love Trevon Walker I don't know but I will say I mean from our podcast I think last week he's my he is my banner buyer beware prospect in this draft class. I could see him probably not busting out of the league like being terrible, but I just think he is so far away from the polish that I would like to have with a number one overall pick that his upside, while it's tantalizing,

would still keep me away because he just needs to learn how to rush the passer. And I just didn't see him do that at a high degree when he was at Georgia in the SEC. He's big, he's fast, he's athletic. He's kind of like Ritter though, in a way that I don't think he's quite as athletic as he tested. You have a three cone under seven seconds, like 6.89 seconds. You would think, Holy crap, 6.5270 you would think holy crap 65270 he must bend he doesn't bend he's not really that bendy around the corner and the pass rushing moves are not there but you

are right I mean if there is a team to do it it would be the Jacksonville Jaguars one thing I'll say on this uh extra is that it wasn't Trent Falky same organization two years ago they picked caleb on chase on from lsu the edge rusher who was a pretty similar uh profile to trayvon walker he was an edge rusher he got injured early in his lsu career didn't have crazy production but it was like speed to power conversion hustle athleticism burst and he's been pretty much a bust in the first two years in jacksonville so i wonder when these teams, when there is a new GM, and this would be the case in Minnesota, that they have to do self-scouting and be like, okay, who do we have on the roster? What has this guy done? And I wonder if the Jaguars, and they haven't really made a lot of smart decisions over the last 20 years,

if they would say, oh, man, we kind of picked a guy similar to this. Certainly not the same size, but it didn't work out for him. He wasn't able to just learn pass rushing moves on the fly in the NFL if that would push them away from it. But, yes, it does feel like Trevon Walker is gaining steam to be the first overall pick. What do you think my face looked like when I saw an Albert Breer tweet that they think Trevon Walker can be like Daniil Hunter.

I thought of you right away. You are like Daniil Hunter. I am like Daniil Hunter. Everyone who hasn't sacked anybody is actually like Daniil Hunter. I mean, how many sacks do you have? Is it zero? Me too. We're like Daniil Hunter.

It's all about our potential, Chris. It's all about our potential that we're like Daniel Hunter. It's all about our potential, Chris. It's all about our potential that we're Daniel Hunter. Daniel Hunter is one of the most freakish, bizarre outliers. First of all, his combine is one of the most insane of all time. He's like 99th percentile. But he's also one of the most driven, intelligent people that I've come across in covering football. The guy is a mental makeup freak show as much as he is a physical freak show. I mean, it's just like, why do we keep doing this? Everyone who didn't, Adafi Owe last year, I didn't sack anyone. Hunter, what? It's not,

it's ridiculous. And let me read to you, and I love Lance Zerline, but let me read to you his strengths that he listed. Was this Nolan Narocki doing it? Maybe it was Nolan Narocki at the time for NFL.com. No, it was Lance Zerline. Okay. Fluid and agile in space. Flashes winning spin move in pass rush. Uses an arm over inside move to set up tackles.

High-end tackle production for his position this is hunter you're reading hunter okay hunter uses a secondary motor to pursue and speed to chase leads to to more tackle opportunities active and energetic these it's like he didn't have the production but the polish was there he's listing he has a spin move he uses an arm over danelle hunt or trevon walker rushes into edge rushers and occasionally overwhelms them with power and he's like a pretty agile mover for being how big he is but the pass rushing moves are not there they're not on film so and i uh vaguely remember scouting hunter and thinking this guy's got some pass rushing moves like Like he didn't have the sacks, but that was like kind of the PFF era where we were like, no,

disruption is production. Like he doesn't have, you know, crazy high pressures, but the traits are there physically. And in terms of the fundamentals or the technique, Trevon Walker does not have that, but yes, I could see Trent Balky saying, Hey, I'm going to continue to just go the opposite direction of everyone else when there's a much more sure thing high floor player in Aiden Hutchinson or even Kayvon Thibodeau right there. And that's what the Jaguars need

because they've had too many first round busts over the last decade. Now you could talk me into things like this, like consensus top picks not being as good as some other prospect because of scouting, whatever, or data, whatever. But if the argument is he's the next Daniel, I have heard that so many times that it's just like, it's like, Oh,

for 30. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It just really DJ still waiting for DJ want him to become the next Daniel, which is really unfair to DJ want him. He's a fourth round pick.

Do not call him. It's, it's just like, look, John Randall and Aaron Donald were small defensive tackles. You draft all the small defensive tackles. I'll draft the ones of the right size and we'll see who comes out with the better ones. I mean, the same thing for Richard Sherman was a slow corner. Good. You get the slow corners. I'll get the fast corners. Let's see who works out. You draft the short quarterbacks. And if you get one Russell Wilson, that's great. I'll get the fast corners. Let's see who works out. You draft the short quarterbacks. And if you get one Russell Wilson, that's great. I'll draft the tall ones and get all the other

guys who have been successful. I mean, it's so weird to chase that. It's weird to chase that base. You outlining it like that. It's like, you're pointing out what the, like where the higher numbers are, taller quarterbacks, fast corners, really productive edge rushers. But then it's like people in the NFL making decisions that are GMs and head coaches, they go galaxy brain and say, no, I know the next Danell Hunter. I will find the diamond in the rough again. That was a third round pick when it's really a lot smarter to just say, oh yeah, most really good edge rushers had a lot of production in college

and have a lot of production in college and have a lot of pass rushing moves and are the complete package. Let's not chase Danelle Hunter. Let's not chase Josh Allen, whatever it may be these high upside outliers, because the chances of you getting that guy are pretty slim because I don't know before Danelle Hunter, who was another Danelle Hunter? I don't know.

So it's, he's been like one in the last 15 ish years if i'm completely forgetting someone definitely let me know but it just feels like a a day two pick limited production but a big time athlete that just became like an elite edge rusher in his second season i don't think that's there's even one 10 years before danelle hunter that became that type either yeah i mean rashaan gary was kind of this guy um that you know didn't have quite the productions that yeah i mean hunter is just so extreme that chasing that is uh flat out bizarre but i mean you do you jaguars you do you so uh anyway well it has aiden hutchinson going second which i think is not great for vikings fans and just to

run through um sauce garder going extremely high here. I'm just going to buzz through to the ones that matter, which means going down to, uh, the Vikings being on the board with Malik Willis, not being taken yet at number 12 overall. I just, I know we just had a much longer discussion about this,

so we don't need to circle back, but what do you think the odds are that we're all just way off on the quarterbacks and the nfl teams hate them as much as we were told months ago and nobody is taken through the top 12 i think there's a decent chance of it and i'll admit i always bring up bias with my uh evaluations i try to avoid it at all costs. There could be some bias here that I just really like Malik Willis. I have him as my number eight overall player in what is a weaker class in general. I think that's one thing that's important to remember that everyone's saying, hey, it's a weak quarterback class. It's a weak class in general. There's not a Miles Garrett and a Chase

Young and a Nick and Joey Bosa and a Jamar Chase. And I guess even a Justin Jefferson who was picked later, but was, you know, an instant superstar. So I think you have to kind of sort that and say, well, Malik Willis in most draft classes, no, he wouldn't be the number eight overall player, but in this draft class he is. So I view him and there's this with the Seahawks at nine, the Falcons at eight, the Panthers at six. I can't imagine in my head that many teams are saying, nope, we don't want this high upside guy that looks like the new age at the quarterback position.

But yes, it is certainly possible that teams are not loving that he's at Liberty, that he didn't play quality competition. And when he did, you know, three, three four interceptions it's plausible but I just feel like there's too many teams inside the top 10 that need a quarterback that won't pass on it but I will say and I'll certainly admit this Lance Zerline Daniel Jeremiah they are all way more plugged in than I am so if that maybe not this mock but if like the April 27th mock has Malik Willis at like 25 he's not going number two overall to the Lions. Well, the teams aren't at Liberty to say yet where they're going to, Hey, where they're going to draft Malik

Willis, but this has Kyle Hamilton falling to the Minnesota Vikings, which I think over the last couple of weeks of draft season, season, season, season, that it's become very possible that this could happen with his 40 times and maybe he can actually be the next Daniel. No, I'm just kidding. I just, I'm just looking at things and saying they're the next Daniel, just like the NFL does. But I I'm interested if it's Kyle Hamilton at number 12, because when you watch this human being play football, hot take, he's good at it, Chris. That's my opinion. I think that this is a position that if you have a very versatile

and freakish player who's really, really good, that it is worth the 12th overall pick to do for a safety. Absolutely. He's my number one overall player in this draft class. And I think, by the way, I said if Malik Willis goes 25 overall, he's not going to go to the bills. They pick 25, but you get my point.

Everyone was very upset about that. Yes. I just wanted to be giving the correct analysis. There's always the one guy. There's the one guy who sends you an email. They're not going to draft Malik. Well, I get you.

exactly. So we'll just click. yeah. So he's my number one overall player. I agree with you. And that's could be the scouting report on Kyle Hamilton. He's really good at football and doing everything that you need out of a modern-day safety. And I really think the Vikings have been a little bit spoiled with their wide receivers and their safety play.

That Harrison Smith is this deep middle-of-the-field eraser. He is that robber at the intermediate portion of the field. He's a great blitzer, run defender. He's really, if you look at the last decade, he has a case as like a top three safety in the NFL that's had that longevity, that's been that good for that long. And I would get that Viking stance,

oh, well, we need other things. We need a corner more than that i uh did a live video actually on tiktok today and i was got a question that said which yes that's a new thing matt people are doing that you should be doing that you probably have thousands of viewers on there anyway that we have to remember that we go through mock draft season season season season and every team or every fan of every team like identifies here is my team's biggest need. And then if they see a mock draft where their team does not address the biggest need in the first round, they lose their shit. It's like, oh my God, how do they not address, you know, position A in the first round? Teams don't always

do that. We get to draft night and we're like blown away that the Vikings would pick a safety when they have Harrison Smith. Kyle Hamilton, had he not run four, five, nine, and I don't really think it shows on the field, this guy forever was like a top five overall player consensus in this draft class. And I would liken it to when the Rams picked Aaron Donald in 2014 they had Michael Brockers I still think they had Chris Long on that line and it was like they don't need defensive line they have and then it two years later they had the best player in the NFL and it worked out it would be a similar scenario different position Kyle Hamilton covering tight

ends blitzing ranging to the sideline, doing anything that you need. And I think, you know, the fact that Harrison Smith is into his 30s now would be a nice mentorship for a season, and then you would be able to maintain that high level of safety play. I would be, certainly because he's my number one overall player, would love that for the Vikings. If he falls, you just let him fall into your lap and you say, hey, we're going to pick someone that we believe is probably a top three overall player in this class.

It would make a lot of sense for a team that is in a competitive rebuild. Yeah. I mean, I think that you're talking about the clear cut best player available situation. For sure. And you can play him right away. It's not like he has to sit. I mean, he can play next to Harrison Smith. He can learn.

They can be a dynamic duo for a couple of years in the twilight of Harrison Smith's career, and then you go from there. But I also think that, you know, dynamic players. This is last year's 12th overall pick is Micah Parsons. It would feel kind of the same. There were people last year who thought that Micah Parsons was the best non-quarterback player in the draft, and he dropped for other reasons. There was some off-field stuff.

They weren't sure if he was this kind of player, that kind of player. And Dallas was like, go play the football. And he did. And how about that? So I would look at it similarly. I'm just going to give you where he's got the quarterbacks and then we'll do our nineties comps to close out the show. He has Malik Willis going to new Orleans. Kenny Pickett to Pittsburgh and Matt Corral to the Detroit Lions. Reaction? Yeah, I guess it shows that at least right now, two weeks out, Lance Zerline, who I believe he tweeted that he put 11 hours into this mock.

I don't know if that was a joke or not because someone, I think Evan Silva tweeted like Lance Zerline is one of the most accurate mock drafters, which is no surprise because he's super plugged in. He's a smart dude. That he's been one of the most accurate mock drafters of late, and, like, he puts a lot of time into it. I think maybe Evan Silva had him on his podcast. And Lance responded, like, yeah, I put 11 hours into this one, like, thinking about it and talking to people. And I was like, man, like, that's.

So if he's putting that out there, and again, that's more so than where quarterbacks are going. If you're really concerned about that, like look at the ranges. If Daniel Jeremiah comes out with mock draft, whatever he's on, four or five, and it's like the same deal, it's like quarterbacks at 16, 20, and 27 or whatever it is, then I think that will kind of show that the league is lower on these quarterbacks than I am and a lot of the draft analysts.

The one thing I will say, though, in the 2020 draft class, the last mock draft day of for Jeremiah, I'm not sure about Zerline, but a lot of the big ones, Peter Schrager may be in there as well, McShay, Kuyper, most of them had Justin Herbert going to the Miami Dolphins. And it was, they almost wrote it as if it was like ironclad. It was like all the Tank Fertua stuff. That was a smokescreen. I've heard that they love Justin Herbert. So it's like, I think these teams understand the power of social media and that we hear

after every draft that teams say, yeah, you know, we, we do a lot of mock drafts ourselves, and we're paying attention to what's going on. It behooves some teams to put out literal lies right before the draft. So with this quarterback class not being great, it's really hard to tell if the shortage of quality quarterbacks will push them into the top 15 or like Lance has them here going a lot later in the first round. So here's what I'm going to do on the day before the draft. I am going to run my final draft SIM and I'm going to save the whole first round. And I bet you,

it will be just as accurate as the guy who spent 11 hours when I could just hope it was a joke. I don't know. I love Lance. I don't know if he's joking. I don't know i love lance he's a nice guy season i don't know if he's joking i don't know like these people these you always get that with like i wrote 700 to 1000 words on my mock you have to read it this is my 19 round draft mock draft you're like there's only seven rounds uh it's that is like there's always this competition to wave it around about how much work you did like wow congratulations but anyway um i hate so yeah so i mean i i also hope he's kidding but i also am going to try this out with doing a final draft sim with the pff simulator and just

see if it's more accurate oh man draft season so uh anyway well i do think that where he put the quarterbacks is accurate but also i remember michael lombardi last year he's like i will bet you my entire life savings that mac jones is the guy that they traded up for whatever there's some crazy hyperbole and of course it wasn't so it wasn't mel kuyper's famous one that uh if jimmy clausen doesn't become a star then he'll stop doing what he's doing and all respect to mel kuyper he like had he not done what he started to do in the in the 80s i would not be here right now doing this podcast but that was a pretty bold thing to say and then just like zero not that there should be repercussions but just like okay we're just not

gonna hold them to that like the hyperbole gets nuts this time of year but what do you what do you think causes that like is it these guys are just i mean is it i don't want to call any of these people i don't know them like egomaniacs or whatever but is it like insecurity like are you insecure about your draft take so you have to go over the top like our here's what i think gets in their head is that they don't know. You want to be considered and you are so good at this. And this is why you're on the show because you're so good at this. Just living in reality and digging up a lot of information and watching a lot of these people, but also knowing that we're not sure and everything is just an odds play and everything

is a, here's what could happen. Here's what might not happen. And that's what makes this interesting. I'll never understand the people that put their own worth. It's almost like putting your own self-worth as a, as a writer or an analyst on a roulette table. You can't control where the ball bounces. So why are you doing that? And it's like going on TV and being like, I know that number 21 is where that little ball is going to bounce. You're like, no, you don't. So I don't know. Like it's eventually I snap. I think that's today.

I think I just snapped. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's like when you're a draft analyst, you do all the work. You don't want to come off every single take you're giving is like, has a caveat or a preface at the beginning. Like, well, I don't really know like that but i never go like i guarantee mason rudolph is the next tom brady if he's not then i will wear a dress every day or whatever like it's it's kind of weird to just say something so outlandish

in the middle of draft season when again even as you want to present yourself confidently because you've done the work and for, you know, Mel Kiper and co, they talk to a lot of people that you have your opinions, but it's like to push them so far to be hyperbolic about what you will do. If you're wrong, it just seems like unnecessary to me.

Right now. I totally agree and maybe Lance was kidding so I don't want to and he does all the work that we all go to nfl.com and take so I and that's the thing is like I appreciate all the effort that these guys put in to give us tons of information I just don't see it necessary to do all the other stuff although Mel is pretty entertaining so maybe he did it for entertainment purposes. For sure. Okay, I've spent too much time ranting on this, and so now we've gotten to the point where we have to run quickly through the 90s comps, which I'm very excited about, but we'll do it.

Okay, so I did a bunch of the quarterbacks and then a couple other players. I'm going to go – I'll give you one, and then you can react to that and tell me if you have one. Malik Willis, 90 90s early 2000s comp steve mcnair undersized great physical skill question coming out of college that's what i'm gonna go with that's fantastic i would um and and then i'll just bounce back uh that's really good uh i'm gonna go with jeff blake who i i don't really remember if he was quite as agile like for the time period yeah but I remember

those long arcing bombs the car pickings in Cincinnati that's really what Malik Willis gives to you with the arm strength I have Jeff Blake for someone else which is Sam Howell because yeah I could say that Jeff Blake wasn't very tall it wasn't like he was like a 6'4 guy and yes the arcing bombs that Sam Howell throws, but also Jeff Blake with some of the details back in the day, not so great. And I think that that's the case for, uh, for Sam Howell, Desmond Ritter, the one I was proud of Jeff Garcia, like that doesn't have the zip, but he's just kind of a scrappy, pretty accurate, like pretty smart for the position. Maybe not so much smart post career in some of his comments but

uh desmond ritter is jeff garcia that's a really good one i i don't know if i could top that i i had written down brian greasy but i don't think he's quite i like it i don't know if he was i mean again 90s 2000s uh standard for the athleticism at the quarterback spot was a lot lower i don't remember though brian greasy being being really at all mobile, and I think Ritter is a little. But when I think back to Greasy's career, I think of someone who obviously never really lived up. He was a first-round pick, right?

Or early second, maybe. Second, maybe, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He never lived up to that, but he had stretches where he was a decent starter, didn't make a lot of mistakes. That's kind of how I view Desmond Ritter uh through this 90s 2000s lens no i like it because i just don't think desmond ritter is running anywhere in the nfl i just don't see it so i like the rest of his game uh for carson strong i went right-handed scott mitchell oh my i that's what i have for him too

i mean i didn't say that's amazing i had. I had Scott Mitchell just stoic in the pocket, throws it through tight windows. Maybe we'll throw some picks. Maybe we'll have some ridiculous throws to Herman more down the field. That's Carson strong. Absolutely. Okay. I had a,

for Kenny picket, Jake, the snake plumber. Ooh, good one. I have, that's good because of the improvisation, although he's not a great athlete.

Yeah, Plummer I think was a great athlete, but Wiley. He's a little Wiley. Yeah, true. I have Matt Hasselbeck. I think Hasselbeck for Kenny Pickett was like the arm strength, slightly above average, athleticism, slightly above average, and in a good scenario like Matt Hasselbeck was in the early 2000s in seattle i think he can be a good quarterback but never that elite you know total franchise

changing quarterback uh okay so on receivers drake london i have herman moore for drake london fantastic that's awesome uh i didn't actually do the wide receivers i only wrote down the quarterbacks i just wrote a couple other guys guys. Herman Moore is a great one. The length, the play above the rim ability, that's definitely Drake London. Aiden Hutchinson, I went with Jason Taylor. Oh. Well, because of the height, really. It was hard to find a guy that was that tall and a similar weight.

And I think that Aiden Hutchinson hutchinson like jason taylor was not completely a freak as in like javon curse for somebody who was that tall uh so i went with jason taylor obviously these are like best case scenarios yeah yeah yeah no i was just gonna say that i remember jason taylor doing a lot more like dropping into coverage and like having interceptions and stuff yeah i don't really remember or I don't really view Hutchinson in that way, but stylistically like being a little taller, being a good pass rusher, three down player, yes, I can see that too. And last one was Kayvon Thibodeau, Jason Gilden,

because they're the same size. And Jason Gilden was an absolute monster who just was underrated because he played for Pittsburgh's defense. So there's my 90s comps. You are the best at this. You can start like, you could do a vertical of the purple insider that just like runs through the Vikings roster and just does nineties and two thousands comps.

And that would be a huge hit for you. I think. 40 minutes on how CJ ham is like Jim Klein saucer. Great, great stuff. Chris always read his work. Go to Twitter at Chris Trapasso, CBS sports.com draft analyst.

And we got what? Two more shows before a real ass draft. And then we'll break them. We'll break them all down. Of course. One by one. So sounds good. All right.

Thanks, Chris. Thanks, man.