Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A post offseason program Vikings 53-man roster

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Matthew Coller takes a look at where the depth chart stands at the end of the offseason program and the things that he's unsure about like which receivers will make the club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And now that OTAs and minicamp are over, we can make an official 53-man roster projection that, of course, will get blown up when we get to training camp. But that's not for quite a long time. So for right now, we're going to look position by position at the starting point for training camp where everybody on the Minnesota Vikings roster begins. So I've got the entire list. We're ready to go. But let me say this first. If you want to check out the newsletter, go over to purpleinsider.com.

I've written this all out with a lot of my logic, along with the Friday Mailbag, many other articles throughout the summer. We're going to have some fun theme weeks and so forth here on the show and over at the newsletter. Plus I love to get your emails about random Vikings questions during this time of year. So I can do those fans only podcast episodes again, purple insider.com contact us best place to send me an email. There will be live youtube chats of course as well so why don't we start right out with the quarterback position where of course kevin o'connell announced more or less that sam darnold will start training camp as qb1 that was not a

shock to any of you nor was it to me maybe a little bit to the outside world, considering that J.J. McCarthy was a first-round draft pick. But in minicamp and OTAs, Sam Darnold was by far and away, clearly, the QB1. He was brought to Minnesota to potentially be a bridge quarterback. That's why they gave him $10 million. So there's no controversy there at putting him at QB one, at least to start training camp and we'll see how it plays out, but where the other positions finish training camp is a matter of intrigue. Will JJ McCarthy be the backup in week one going to East Rutherford? I mean, he very well could earn the starting job throughout training camp. But if he does not, will he be QB2 or will it be Nick Mullins? Will they keep only two quarterbacks on the active roster or will they keep three with

Mullins? They would have to see some value in Nick Mullins, whether it's being more prepared to run the offense in an actual NFL game or if it's just his veteran presence inside the room or in practice when their defense needs to practice against a quarterback that can learn the other team's offense to emulate that offense and so forth. That's something that backup quarterbacks bring a lot of value. Do they have to have Nick Mullins on the active roster to do this,

or could they cut him and sign him to the practice squad? Now the veteran players can be signed to the practice squad. Also, where does Jaron Hall fit in all of this? Will he have a chance to actually unseat Nick Mullins here as QB3? Would they keep two quarterbacks and two on the practice squad? That seems relatively unlikely. Uh, would they cut Mullins or even trade Mullins if they feel very good about where JJ McCarthy stands? If JJ McCarthy has a very good training camp, but they still feel a little more comfortable with Darnold and yet still see it as being fine if McCarthy has to go in the game well then it could

be goodbye Nick Mullins but if they do not feel fully comfortable with J.J. McCarthy running the offense getting out there if Sam Darnold were to get hurt then Nick Mullins's position on the team may be safe but if you keep three active quarterbacks of course you're going to have to chop from some other places and our next position might be one of those places, which is the running back spot here. Now, this was a little bit of a struggle for me as I was trying to figure now, will they keep Miles Gaskin? Will they keep, will they keep Dwayne McBride on the quarterback or the running back position here? Or will they just go with four on the 53, which is what I am projecting to start

because once again, you can have those running backs on the practice squad, maybe Dwayne McBride, and just call them up if you need them and otherwise keep only the ones that you would want for game day, which is usually four. CJ Hamm's position on this team. I believe to be stable though with Aaron Jones, one of his things that he does well might end up

being eliminated here, which was third down pass protection. Last year, Kevin O'Connell found a new way to get CJ Ham onto the field. and that was by using him in pass protection on third downs. I actually wrote an article about it on purpleinsider.com about how O'Connell had been pretty crafty with getting CJ Hamm out there, and it had had a positive impact to have him pass protecting on third down. However, Aaron Jones has been very good at that throughout his career and is such a receiving weapon out of the backfield that it's unlikely that Aaron Jones would be coming off the field on third down. So where does that leave CJ Hamm? He's still a team leader, a versatile player that they could use more for the run game to try to improve that, or they could just focus on mostly

special teams with CJ Hamm. Is that worth the spot? I think his leadership on special teams with the kick return coming back is still a big deal, but that might be a tough position to fit in there with maybe needing more running back depth. Aaron Jones only played 11 games last year. If he only plays that many for the Vikings, that's a lot of pressure on Ty Chandler. Kenny Wongwu, the kick returner, there have been plenty of opportunities to have Kenny Wongwu as a running back in the past, but they just have not chosen to do that.

So I suspect that that won't change this year, even though, hey, mix in two or three plays a game to get Kenny Wong with the ball. I've always thought that, but you know, maybe those two or three plays are designed for Justin Jefferson instead. But if Aaron Jones does miss games, Ty Chandler, we saw last year is capable of playing as the RB one. And if they keep miles Gaskin and or Dwayne McBride on the practice squad, they can bump someone up. Also an option for the Vikings might be once they get in camp, see how Dwayne McBride and Miles Gaskin look.

And then if they don't love what they see going out into the free agent market, that always seems to have a couple of running backs that sign late in the year and then end up doing something in the regular season, or even potentially looking for a trade of maybe even not a lot of draft capital because they don't have a whole lot, but a swap of picks or something like that to take someone else's backup running back. I'm not sure, but it could depend very much on what they think of McBride and Gaskin and whether those would be guys that they would be comfortable with bumping up should Aaron Jones get hurt. But otherwise for running backs, it is

at that position. Now those positions, quarterback and running back are without a whole heck of a lot of controversy, but the wide receiver spot is an open race. So you have, you have two horses that are running way ahead of everybody. It's secretariat, Justin Jefferson and other secretariat, because I don't know horse racing, Jordan Addison, just steamrolling ahead of everybody else. These guys are stars locked into their positions and then everyone else in the field jockeying for spots. And it's very hard to put odds on where everyone is going to land. We assume that Brandon Powell is going to be wide receiver three because he was effective last year when he was asked to be bumped up into that position.

When KJ Osborne got hurt, when Justin Jefferson was down. Brandon Bell had the best receiving year of his career, and it wasn't even close. We saw him do well as a route runner, made a handful of key catches for them, including a game winner against the Atlanta Falcons. So this is a player who is a better receiver than we would have thought when he signed after playing with the Los Angeles Rams.

Jalen Naylor remains kind of a mystery, even missing some time in minicamp, raised an eyebrow. And it was, it turns out the flu that Kevin O'Connell mentioned and O'Connell said encouraging things about him for this off season program. And yet we have to see him actually do it on the field and stay healthy through the entire training camp. And past that, what I wrote down is Tristan Jackson, but I also wrote down a bunch of question marks because there are so many receivers that are going to be in this mix. How do we even put odds on them? I mean, they signed Trent Shurfield in the off season. Shurfield is a veteran player. He's been around in the league before, but doesn't have any single season

that would make you think, all right, he's going to be the guy. In fact, we've seen receivers with better resumes over the years end up not making the team when they're signed from the outside. So I can't put good odds on Shurfield. You have UDFAs like Deshaun Jones.

Thayer Thomas made the practice squad after last year when he was a UDFA. I've been somewhat intrigued by Malik Knowles because he's big and he's very fast. And that's the whole analysis. You've got Lucky Jackson, Ty James, Devin Harper. There's a lot of players here that are fighting for spots at wide receiver, and they want someone to show up and emerge. But the thing is, in the past, we've usually gotten at least a sniff or a hint of which guy that might be by just watching minicamp and OTAs. A lot of times I'll talk on the show about the things that you can't know

when watching OTAs and minicamp. And we'll get to that a little bit later, but wide receivers are the easiest thing to see. They're running their routes, they're making plays, they're getting targets, but not so much this year where any one player really ran past the other guys. I saw a handful of plays from Shurfield, Lucky Jackson, Deshaun Jones, but that doesn't really set them way apart in the way that I'll give you an example. A couple of years ago, KJ Osborne was one of those players in 2021 that Keenan McArdle said he specifically wanted to push him in that spring session and into training camp to the front of the line because he believed he could be a quality wide receiver and we just didn't really see that from a particular guy so I went with Tristan Jackson just because he's been here for a couple

of years he was on the team last year he played in a few games and that's about it but if as of right now someone were to go down, there would be a lot of questions about how they could manage that this year because they don't have KJ Osborne to step into that position. And of course it maintains a question that will they add someone from the outside? Will they bring guys in for workouts? Will we see another off-season addition right before training camp? I don't know, but it doesn't seem like a crazy idea still. It's just who's actually out there. So five receivers there and four tight ends, my friends, they did this last year. I think they'll do it again. They want to use more two tight end sets

and they've got the bodies for it. But in this case, one of them will be on IR and that is TJ Hawkinson. So they'll only need three roster spots to start the season. My confidence is not very high that TJ Hawkinson will start in week one or even the first couple games of the season based on not only when his ACL was torn, but also when he was able to have the ACL surgery. It just takes a while to get that healed and back to a hundred percent. And then up to game speed when you haven't had training camp, training camp is a big deal for these guys to get to a hundred percent ready for week one. So Hawkinson will need extra ramp up time. That means extra tight ends on the roster. Robert Tunyon had a tremendous mini camp. So I'm putting him there as tight end one. If TJ

Hawkinson is not playing Johnny Munt, Josh Oliver, but there are two other guys that will have an opportunity to battle. I think with Tunyon and Munt for those positions. I can't decide right now. Maybe I'm just, but I saw too much good from Robert Tanyan and maybe overcompensated there for what he's going to be, but he did have a lot of catches in the mini camp and OTA phase. But still Nikhil Harry is switching to tight end and Nick Muse is a guy who's been here for now a couple seasons, and they like his development, though he was set back a bit by not being able to participate due to a knee procedure. But either way, you've got two other guys in the mix that are going to fight it out, and maybe one of them can make it to the practice

squad. Otherwise, this looks like your three tight ends with TJ Hawkinson on the shelf. And then when Hawkinson comes back, there will be injuries and other things that allow them probably to seamlessly slide him back in and still keep the other tight ends depending on how it's going. But that's way down the road.

These are your three tight ends for now. On to the offensive line, which was not all that controversial actually to pick the only guy that I had to leave off that I didn't want to was Michael Juergens, the seventh round draft pick another guy that you could very likely sneak onto the practice squad if he doesn't make the team, but otherwise Christian Derrissaw, Blake Brandel is my starting left guard as of right now. His money reflected it from the offseason that it's more than Dalton Reisner got.

And also the way that they've talked about Blake Brandel makes me think that he will get every opportunity to win that job. Garrett Bradbury at center, Ed Ingram at right guard. I'm not buying that Dalton Reisner is going to switch positions and then beat out somebody that the Vikings have refused to bench for two straight years, even though his performance warranted it at times. And then naturally Brian O'Neill at right tackle on the bench, David Questenberry, Dan Feeney, Dalton Reisner, and Walter Rouse, the sixth round draft pick. The only reason I picked him over Michaelner, and Walter Rouse, the sixth round draft pick. The only reason I picked him over Michael Juergens was he was in the sixth and Juergens was in the seventh because we don't know a lot about either one of these guys yet.

And also when you look at Bradbury, or I'm sorry, when you look at Feeney and Reisner, both of them can play multiple positions on the interior or at least are capable of that. So do you need another player who is a center slash right guard on the active roster? One thing that always happens is offensive linemen get banged up. So if Juergens doesn't make the team, he may have a chance to get moved up onto the active roster eventually. But this, I think, would be the starting point if they had to make the depth chart today with the offensive line. But that left guard position is going to be

something we watch very, very closely. And Walter Rouse is a draft pick lineman. Juergens is a draft pick lineman. Are there signs that those guys could at some point emerge as eventual starters on this team? It's always hard for late round draft picks, but sometimes you see it early with somebody if there's something there. Usually they're not asked to jump right into the fray though. So it's going to be the veterans on this offensive line. And it is, while not perfect, one of the deeper offensive lines in the NFL. There's not too many teams that you can go to. And it's

three guys with a lot of starting experience that are the backups for your starting five, but the Vikings have that in Questenberry Feeney and in Dalton Reisner. Hey, us cellular customers. I've got some good news. So do not hit that skip forward button just yet. I'm talking about their special customer event, Us Days. What's Us Days? It means exclusive offers just for their customers, just to say thanks. Like $1,200 off any phone plus $300 off any tablet. No, I did not misread that. They must really like you all. Us Days at U.S. Cellular,

exclusive offers just for you, just to say thanks. Right now, U.S. Cellular customers get $1,200 off any phone plus $300 off any tablet. Terms apply. On to the defensive tackles, which folks, I didn't know what to do with i mean there's a lot here there's a lot of players who are battling for these positions so i went with harrison phillips jerry tillery jonathan bullard james lynch and levi drake rodriguez james lynch being because they brought him back after the ACL tear when they didn't have to, they could have just let him move on and said, sayonara. But I think he's also a good fit for a team whose base is in the three, four. I know they play a lot more nickel and so

forth, but that defensive end defensive tackle position that is the 3-4 base is something that James Lynch did. It's kind of the five technique where you're lining up directly over the tight end. He did a lot of that in college. And as an NFL player, they just haven't been able to figure out really what he's supposed to be. In 2021, he was pretty good, graded quite well, actually, against the run. They clearly like him. So I put him on the roster.

I don't know how he's going to come back from the ACL tear, though usually that works out fine for most players, but it's a factor. Just the fact that they brought him back, that's what I'm going off here, because this is a wide open race. I went with Levi Drake Rodriguez in a similar vein to Andre Carter last year, where I don't think the guy is really going to be ready to play a whole lot in year one, considering what college he came from. At the same time, there are very few guys that I would have any concerns about cutting and then having someone scoop them up.

Levi Drake Rodriguez is kind of that guy that I believe other teams had interest in him late or in the UDFA market if the Vikings hadn't picked him up. So someone else might say, hey, wait a minute. We love that guy coming out as a late round pick or a UDFA. Why don't we pick him up? Because the Vikings cut him. Let's not let him get to their practice squad. That's why I put him here over some other guys that actually might be better, including Jonah Williams, who's played quite a bit in the NFL.

And then Jaqueline Roy, who I'm going to put on when that list eventually gets made of the most interesting players going into training camp. Jaqueline Roy will be one of them. He was a fifth round draft pick and we saw some flashes from him last year, but he also had some injuries and then just didn't get a whole heck of a lot of game action for the Vikings last season. Looking for that big step forward from Jaqueline Roy, because this is a position that is truly wide open. I mean, if somebody emerges, they can play a lot, not just a little, they can play a lot on this group because Harrison Phillips, I'm sure they want to reduce the snap count for Phillips from where it was last year,

just too high for what he's meant for. Jerry Tillery is battling to stick around in the NFL, really. Had an improved year last year, but was a bust with the Los Angeles Chargers. Jonathan Bullard is a journeyman type of player who, again, they like, but you don't want usually playing 600, 700 snaps. And then Lynch and Rodriguez, both total wild cards. So if Jonah Williams or we see Jaqueline Roy step up during training camp, either one of those guys could make the list. And I was thinking about this position in particular that we've mostly focused on because it's OTAs, it's quarterbacks and wide receivers. We've mostly focused on other positions

when we're having these conversations, but this one, when we get to training camp time, will be one to keep an eye on on a daily basis. The outside linebacker position, call it edge rusher, defensive end, pass rush, whatever you want to call it, or pass rusher. These guys come off the edge edge the outside linebackers and the vikings have three of them that they should feel pretty darn good about two our top free agent signings and jonathan grunard and andrew van ginkle and the other one dallas turner the first round draft pick if we consider all three of them, the starters, and they will move around in whatever ways, Brian Flores seems fit that group right there. If Grenard plays as well as he did last year,

and so does Van Ginkle and Dallas Turner even somewhat lives up to his draft type. You're talking about one of the best units of edge rushing in the entire NFL here that, you know, Grenard and Van Ginkle were 20 sacks ish together. And if they do something like that, again, add Dallas Turner to the mix, this could be a very dangerous group. After that though, shrugs, Andre Carter last season played a handful of snaps and looked a little in over his head because he was an undrafted free agent that was not really ready to be out there. They must have some confidence in him because, well, he was out there a little bit last year. Patrick Jones also is a guy that struggled mightily with the

more snaps that he took. And I wrote Gabriel Murphy, but I meant to write a question mark next to Gabriel Murphy because I'm not really sure if he will have a chance to make it or not. And I think now that I've included him on this list, it might put me up to 54. So let's redact Gabriel Murphy from the list that I have on the screen because I meant to put a question mark next to that. But I think that he has an opportunity to beat out Andre Carter or Patrick Jones if he can be the UDFA darling, as there have been several now in the past that we've seen, including obviously Ivan Pace Jr. last year. But even the fact that Andre Carter could make the team last year, that qualifies as well as UDFA Darling, I think. So that's the list right there. And this

is a group where they could absolutely and should absolutely be looking at going into the free agent market and saying, let's see what we can do here to find somebody else that could be a potential pass rusher. Because if anybody goes down on that list, Van Ginkle, Grenard, both of them have some injuries in the past. If either one of them goes down, then you're talking about a humongous drop-off in just even in experience alone to Andre Carter and in performance to Patrick Jones. When DJ Wanham went out, and DJ Wanham is not in the ballpark of somebody like Van Ginkle or Grenard, he goes out last year and they changed entirely as a defense when they had to rely on Patrick Jones. He's much more of a rotational and occasional

player. He can flash, but not somebody that needs to be playing more and more often. Is the free agent market a place to go? Is there another team that will cut a pass rusher or will Gabriel Murphy rise up to that challenge and prove that he belongs on the team. There isn't a ton of other edge rusher competition that I would expect would have a chance to be in this mix, but maybe, maybe somebody will surprise us right now at this moment. It's going to be a position that is a little short on depth. I think interior linebacker inside linebacker, Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace, Jr. Kamu Grugier Hill and Brian Asamoah. And this is another one where I'm not sure question marks after this, because on one 53, I wrote down Abraham Boplan and on another 53, I wrote down

KJ Cloyd. And there's another guy named dallas gant who we could throw down there as well everybody can make that last spot because it's likely to be who's the best at special teams so i wrote kj cloyd on the screen here but i could change it to abraham bow plan i could it doesn't i don't know I have no idea it's going to be who plays the best probably on special teams in those preseason games that has a chance to make it if they even keep this many linebackers I would suspect they would you're going to want to be able to cover those kicks and that's going to be a big deal and you want to have a little bit more depth, I think, behind Blake Cashman and Ivan Pace. But they might go with just Grugier Hill and Asamoah.

Asamoah's status is interesting as well. Could someone like KJ Cloyd unseat Asamoah the same way that Ivan Pace Jr. did last year? Asamoah, this time of year, last year, we were talking about, hey, he's one of the most interesting players going into training camp is he going to take this big next step and so forth not only did he not take the next big step but he just was quickly taken off the field in favor of pace jr and they were so seemingly down on the idea of him playing by the end of the year that Anthony Barr was getting time. Yes, Anthony Barr played for the Minnesota Vikings last year. Real thing that happened. That's a

trivia question sometime. When was Anthony Barr's last snap as a Viking? And the answer is 2023. But that kind of tells you where they were at with him. So he's a guy that has to prove himself this year to be on the roster, as we'll get to. Certainly other members of the 2022 draft class are in that same canoe. So that's what I went with with this. The starters are very obvious. Grugier Hill is a guy who's been a very good special teamer. Also could be the kickoff specialist if they need

him but awesome was status the other udfas could go out look for another linebacker at the last second wide open there at the edge of that position cornerback this is where we find on my list, another 2022 draft pick in peril, because I did not include Andrew Booth Jr. On this list. I have Shaq Griffin, Makai Blackman, Byron Murphy, Jr. A Caleb Evans, Kyrie Jackson, and special teams. H Najee Thompson as the guys who are making this list. Now there is a free agent to keep an eye on undrafted free agent, Dwight McClothern. This is another instance though, that the big practice squad and the lack of teams plucking other teams players makes it pretty easy for someone like Dwight McClothern to just slide on through to the practice squad.

If he beats out a Caleb Evans, they could make that change. But I'm having trouble figuring out where Andrew Booth Jr. fits into this list because last year, Brian Flores had opportunities to play Andrew Booth Jr. There were injuries in the secondary from time to time, and he could have thrown him out there, but did not very often last season. And that makes you wonder And then also talking about the potential of a 2022 second rounder going, it just did not seem to fit in what Brian Flores wanted to do last year. However, I think we do need to give this one time. I may be a little bit short here.

I'm only giving them five real corners, but the thing is they have so many safeties and they have safeties who can kind of play corner, including, and especially Josh Metellus, but also Jay Ward. I'll get to that in a second with the safeties. But when you have safeties who are also versatile that can move up and play those positions, particularly Josh Metellus, who was downright good at it last year, that means you don't have to carry a million corners. And as with some of these other positions,

they'll stash a couple on the practice squad. Will that include Andrew Booth Jr. or not? He's going to have to prove it. He will have to fight his way up into a position and show Brian Flores that he is a different guy than he was last year when Flores clearly did not fall in love with his game. In fact, at times during training camp, he was playing Jawan Williams over him and they cut Jawan Williams and then brought him back. And then he made one play, I think, against Denver. And then they did not bring him back this year.

So, you know, that's the kind of player that they were tossing out there in front of him, which tells you a lot about where his status was last year. It's kind of a last shot for him. And the safety position is the ultimate last shot for our 2022 crew of draft picks. Louis Scene is not on my list of guys making the team. I just don't know where to put him. When you have Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus, Theo Jackson that they just really like, Theo Jackson,

and then Jay Ward where I don't have a great sense for how they feel about Jay Ward, but he was just drafted last year. He is expected to be quite a versatile player. He played corner, he played safety a little bit in the box, that kind of thing, a move around type of player, the slot in college. And so they drafted him with that in mind that he could play multiple different positions. So if they feel like they have a special teamer with multiple positions that he can play rather than Lewis seeing that they just don't trust to put on the field. And when you think of some of the players that they were willing to put on the field over Lewis seen last year,

and I don't mean at the safety position. I just mean the whole defense guys who were journeymen guys who never played before undrafted free agents like Andre Carter, everybody was getting on the field. It was almost like if you were playing dodgeball and you were picking teams and they're picking the calculus major ahead of you and you're going, wait a minute. Okay.

I just must not be. That kid can't even throw a ball, and you're picking him over me? That's how it seemed with Brian Flores and the snap counts for Louis Seen, who only got in when they were getting completely blown out against the Green Bay Packers. What would change is the question between last year and this year. Is it in the meetings? Is it out on the practice field and the walkthroughs? And I don't know because he would have to really do something spectacular. It seems to even make this

roster. There are negative cap implications, but not so negative that they couldn't just move on from Lewis scene. So it will be up to Jay Ward to hold him off. But Jay Ward being a fourth round pick, if a fourth rounder makes the team the previous season, you usually don't see them just getting chopped right off. But this group right here, we talked about some of the best groups in the NFL comparative to the outside linebackers. Well, I would say the same thing for the safeties of the Minnesota Vikings where Harrison Smith coming back. By the way, talk about nail in the coffin for Louis Seen. That might be it.

Is Harrison Smith coming back? If they don't want to stash him on a 53-man roster, going to the practice squad would really be a tough scene. Oh, tough scene. Lewis scene. How about that? But it would be a tough look for Lewis scene if he were to end up on the practice squad. But Harrison Smith coming back solidifies that group, keeps it exactly what it was last

year. And I believe that that's how it's going to be on the depth chart where it seemed that even Jay Ward was ahead of Louis seen now for the final group, we've got our specialists and I am projecting will Reichard to make the team. And I thank those who took the little clip of me and Dane Mizutani talking about how good Will Reichard was during practice. Also, thank you to those who told me it was just practice. I am aware of that. He also was the most prolific kicker in Alabama history, so that does matter as well. And he's been really good since he was in junior high. So I guess it shouldn't be shocking that he had a

great practice. It was really excellent to see him kick up close. That doesn't matter when we get to the training camp and it doesn't matter when we get to the preseason and the regular season, but when you consider how it's looked and where he came from and his college and his past beyond that and his draft status seems pretty likely that Will Reichard is going to be their kicker and how good he's going to be. Well, that just shows you, I think that conversation trying to project a kicker is the little slivers of difference between making it and being great or being good or being bad are so small. If Will Reichard makes eight out of 10 kicks as a Viking, he's a pretty average kicker in the NFL, maybe even a little below. If he makes nine out of 10, he's the best Vikings kicker ever.

So I don't know how great he'll be to some of those that took the clip and declared that the Vikings have a great kicker. We'll find out as we go forward, but I think he's pretty clearly the more talented of the two kickers on the roster and will make the team. As far as Ryan Wright goes, him versus Seth Vernon, talk amongst yourselves. I mean, I did see them punt a few times, both. I can't tell who's actually better at it, but I believe that they would like Ryan Wright to win the job

and go back to where he was two years ago because they know how good he can be. He was one of the best punters in the NFL just two years ago, and then last year, Matt Daniels called it the sophomore slump. It was not a good season for Ryan Wright. So he's looking to bounce back. He does look like he has put some effort into his shape and so forth, but we'll see how that goes.

And then Andrew DiPaolo, a man who deserves a lot more attention than he gets for being one of the best long snappers in the NFL, but long snappers at their best when no one notices them. And that has been the case since Andrew DePaula arrived. He has never been noticeable. The snaps have been tremendously consistent. There's no competition for him, nor should there be. And that is your long snapper update. So recap, biggest questions, position by position on the roster. Will they have a number three quarterback or will it be two and a practice squad guy? Will they add to some of these positions with free agents or other additions,

including running back, outside linebacker? Who is making that spot and wide receiver or is it spots? Might depend on Jalen Naylor's health, but that one is the most wide open and the most difficult for me to project when making a 53. How many offensive linemen will they keep as backups? Who is going to fight for the defensive tackle position? Man, there are storylines all over the place. Will any 2022 draft pick outside of Ed Ingram and Ty Chandler

actually end up making this team? So there's a lot of questions going forward. And of course, maybe the biggest one is aside from who's playing quarterback, how good is this roster? The way I look at it right now is if we went starter for starter and we just graded positions across the board, you could make a pretty strong argument that at some of the most valuable positions, the Vikings are very strong, wide receiver, offensive tackle, outside linebacker, and even inside linebacker. Now with Blake Cashman here, if he plays the way that he did last year and safety, they might have an argument for being the deepest and best group in the NFL. The problem though, right now is when you go one layer down from

those guys, what do you end up with on the field? And it's not a lot of experience. And I think that that's kind of the difference is teams that have depth. And, and I know there's a lot of teams. There's not a lot of teams that have spectacular depth, but the teams that have depth have one of two things. They either have veterans that have been around and are on cheap deals or sort of at the end of their careers, say like Brian Robison was for the Minnesota Vikings years ago in 2017. He was a backup for Daniil Hunter. That's a heck of a backup to have. Or even when Chad Greenway for a year is a backup to Eric Hendricks and Anthony Barr. Again, it's a very good backup, but that's not the only way you could do it. That usually does cost money. You can also develop players, UDFAs, late round

draft picks. So emerging players that are going to be the next man up. And that is a good example of maybe Anthony Harris from years past where Anderson Dayhoe goes down. Anthony Harris is a UDFA who's been developing steps into that role. And I just would say, put this on paper and circle the number of players who really qualify for what we're talking about with either emerging UDFAs and late round draft picks who can be depth that can step in and might be ready. Or you're talking about veteran players who have been around, who could give you five games and you wouldn't necessarily see a massive drop off from the starter. I don't think they have enough of that right now. And the quarterback position being so unclear is also adding to the, well, how strong is your

roster is often how strong is your quarterback. And right now we don't know with Sam Darnold, but we're going to find that out and that will headline all the training camp conversation. So I appreciate everybody paying attention to this 53-man roster projection. Lots of fun coming up. I got theme weeks. I got other beat reporters coming on to talk about the Vikings games that won't happen against their team until November. It's going to be a lot of fun over the next six weeks.

Very casual. So I want random questions, things that have been on your mind, even if it's something a little strange regarding the Vikings, send it over because I'm going to do a lot of answering fan questions during this time. So go to purpleinsider.com, check that out, sign up for the newsletter as well. A lot of you ask, how can I support your channel other than just watching? That's a great way to do it. Sign up for the newsletter over at purpleinsider.com. Great way to support the show. So again, appreciate all of you stopping by and we will catch you next time. Football.