Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A pre-draft Vikings draft simulation

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison go through a Vikings draft themed hot routez with the NFL Combine coming up, which begins with a draft simulation in which Matthew trades out of the first round and Jonathan looks for something the Vikings have been lacking for years. Plus, is a developmental QB worth the trouble? And what are we looking to hear from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell at the Combine? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Jonathan Harrison. And Jonathan, now that Paul Hodowanek has gone on to Greener Pastures, working for PGATour.com, of which you and I are both very proud, that means that you get to be the uh the journeyman quarterback who steps in you're gino smith you get the opportunity to do some more hot routes here we're going to do this more often now you and i uh if people don't know on the purple insider feed you and i do a separate hot routes that covers the entire nfl but we're going to do more Vikings-related hot routes as well now that Paul has moved on. And of course, if you didn't catch the episode introducing Haley English, we're very excited to have her along as well. But we've got the usual five hot routes questions for you,

and we encourage also on YouTube audience participation for you guys to answer questions. Or in this case, we're also going to do a little draft simming. Now, it's been a while, Jonathan. I mean, really, since last year, I hold off. I don't see the Vikings lose to the Giants and say, you know what, I'm going to run and draft sim. Because I know there's a long time between when that happens and when the NFL draft happens. And so I wait until the NFL combine and I am ready tomorrow to get on a plane to fly to Indy, where I'll be there for Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah,

both their press conferences in front of the entire media. And they do side sessions with the local media as well. So we'll cover those on the pod. Got lots of guests already lined up. Ben Gessling is going to come on. Yes, Courtney Cronin, Courtney, our draft scout, has promised to make an appearance at some point next week. Derek Klassen from Football Outsiders, Tej Seth from Sumer Sports. So there's a lot of people that I'm planning on having on. So make sure you're keeping it tuned to both the YouTube and the podcast channel. But Jonathan, why don't we get right into this? When was the last time that you draft simmed before today? It was probably before the last draft, like the day

before, just because I love draft simming along with you guys. Whenever you did it on the show, it's right there with you. So it's been a while. So it took some, had to knock off the rust a little bit. Now there have been some years that are better than others when it comes to our draft simming. One year I draft simmed Garrett Bradbury and another time I draft simmed Brian O'Neill. Now, yes, that was amidst hundreds of draft sims during the lead up to the NFL draft, but there were times where I think we had a really good idea of where they would go, even just at the very beginning of draft season.

This is not one of those years. And as I was going through this, I thought of about 50 different scenarios where like, well, if they do this with Daniil Hunter, then I got to do that. Or if they do this with the cornerback position in free agency, then I probably don't do that and so I tried my best to focus on premium positions and draft value so why don't we kick

off right into it to our attempts at simulating the Vikings draft and I'm just going to start by saying I traded down Jonathan I didn't tell you whether trades were allowed or not, but in this one, I just think it's a very likely scenario. So what I did was traded down with the Los Angeles Rams. I sent the 23rd pick to LA and I got back number 36 and I had to do it number 69 as well. Those were the two draft picks I got. So I moved back into the early second round from the late first and also picked up an early third round pick. And I'll, I'll, I'll just leave that as a tease. So you can kind of tell me what your approach was because mine was to try to kind of put myself in Kwesi Adafo-Mentz's shoes and say, I think this man's going to want more than two draft picks in the

top 100. Yeah yeah that you probably took the smarter route I didn't trade I just I wanted to get a pick in I wanted to see how this all played out and so when it fell to me at 23 I didn't trade up either fell to me at 23 there wasn't a whole lot to pick them pick from I probably should have traded but one of the Vikings needs is going to be the interior defensive line depending on what they do with it depending on what they do with Dalvin Tomlinson. And sitting right there was an undersized defensive tackle from pits. I'm like, that's worked out in the past, right? So why not take Elijah can't see from pit and see what he can do? Cause there's, there's that promise there. And he, he did well

in college. So I figured let's, let's take the, let's take the gamble at 23. You're not really high up in the first round, and you're at this point in the draft. You drafted around this area before, and it's worked out for you, Justin Jefferson. So I think with whatever they do, getting another interior defensive lineman will probably help considering they've got this new look defense that's going to pass rush more,

that's going to blitz more, and having another guy who's effective as a pass rusher, and he was in college for Pitt, that'll help them as well. that's going to blitz more and having another guy who can who's effective at as a pass rusher and he was in college for Pitt that that'll help them as well I don't think I'm really in a position to break down whether I like the player or not because we need the NFL draft like you mentioned that he's undersized and it's kind of like we'll see because sometimes I mean sometimes though these guys really put a lot of effort into it pre-combine and they show up at the combine.

You're like, wait, the guy was listed at 235. And then at the combine, he's 252 or something like that. That happens with edge rushers sometimes. So there's an opportunity for them between college and the combine. And now it's like a whole cottage industry of trainers and things like that, who specifically focus on winning the combine because there's a lot of money to be had but as far as your position goes I think we can speak to that whether they re-sign Delvin Tomlinson or not interior pressure is an issue

and Tomlinson over the last couple of years has actually improved quite a bit by his PFF grades pressure rates pass rush win rates But the thing is that he doesn't sack the quarterback. And I think it's great if you can push the pocket and if you can get in the quarterback's face a little bit, you make it easier for blitzers around you. You make it easier for the edge rushers. But the reality is like the great defensive tackles in the league are going to pick up 10 sacks. And, you know, the Vikings once upon a time thought that they had somebody like this in Sheree Floyd, and it didn't ultimately work out because of an injury. And then they had Tom Johnson that rushed on the interior on kind of early down, sometimes

on third downs. And then, you know, B-Rob would come in and mix in and those both of them would pair together on interior rush. And I think Mike Zimmer for the early years of his defense thought interior rush was really important. But then when they couldn't afford it or find it anymore, I think the pass rush never really recovered. And this last year, I mean, Harrison Phillips had a great game against Buffalo, but is just not a pass rusher. I think that when you look around the league at impact players, you don't have to look

far. Go to the Super Bowl and you find Fletcher Cox and Chris Jones and just what those guys can do to opposing quarterbacks by rushing up the middle. So I liked that pick. And I had that on my mind as well as I was drafting, but it didn't really work out because I also considered, I looked at the board and I considered making the same pick or a corner or an edge rusher or a wide receiver. But on my board, most of the wide receivers and the top, top corners were gone. So I thought, let me just move down. And I decided at the 36th overall pick to go with

Will McDonald, the fourth, who is an edge rusher out of Iowa state. And what I really like about Will McDonald fourth is that he is undersized, as you mentioned, but he's an outside linebacker. He's a wide nine, you know, kind of guy who I think would fit in really well with what Brian Flores does. Also very, very productive. 34 sacks in college, lots of pressure, very good pressure rates. And I don't know what the future is for Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter in the immediate, but I certainly know that Zedarius Smith is not going to be on this team five years from now or three years from now, even based on his career health.

That would be very surprising if he was. He might not be on this team two weeks from now based on their cap situation and the fact that he's selling his house in Minnesota. I mean, he's ready for it. I mean, that's smart business for him to be ready for the fact that they just might let him go to create the cap space. And they're the only ones that know his medical situation as well. So if they feel like his medical situation is too risky to run out there for 17 games, but even if he's going to be here for another year, even if they extend Daniel Hunter,

tell me that you always don't need more edge rushers, guys who can rotate in. And usually they need like a year. If you're drafting them in the second round, here's a good example, like Jalen Phillips, Jalen Phillips, Miami Dolphin guy that his first year, he was just okay. And then by his second year, he was an absolute beast. It just, every position is kind of like this. So if we're looking a year down the road, Jonathan, I think that an edge rusher should not be out of the question,

even if they still have Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter. And I'm sure there will be discussion of like, why did they draft a position that they already have? Because I think with the draft, and you don't, again, you don't have to look far to last season where it was like, oh, they're filling that safety spot. Like, well, what if they're not though? What if the guy's going to need more development and almost every single time, if it wasn't Justin Jefferson, the guy needed more than one year

before he could be considered like a quality starter if he was going to work out. Yeah. And if you're going to use a pick in the first or second round, you probably should use it on a premium position. An edge rusher, especially with how they're going to play defense over the next couple years under Brian Flores, they're going to need premium edge rushers. And as you said, not every guy breaks out in the first year. Not every guy is Justin Jefferson.

And so, yeah, getting a guy ahead of time, it's always smart planning to start planning for or plan ahead of time and get your guys ahead of time before you know you need them. Because you don't know, especially with Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter's past, you don't know if they're going to get injured. You don't know if you're going to need those guys or that guy this year. So, yeah, getting an edge rusher, I like that pick because it does give you that depth behind them, which they didn't really have the past couple years behind Daniil Hunter and Z'Darrius Smith they didn't really have that behind those guys when those guys were gone so getting that guy there is is a smart pick I like that one well I appreciate that Jonathan uh and also yeah I mean you mentioned like DJ Wanham I think they thought something might be there but he is what he is Patrick Patrick Jones, I do believe that he showed some flashes last year and he might

have a long career as a rotational rusher because there was enough there to put some pressure on the quarterback. But if you're asking me, like, do they have their future guy in Patrick Jones? I don't think so. We don't really know yet. I mean, he might develop over the next year and surprise us, but I didn't see that so far I saw much more of a career rotational rusher so it is in the short term if you have somebody that can fill in situationally that's great and Zedarius rushes from the inside as well so if they keep him you have somebody to rush from the outside it works on a lot of levels uh that's the way that I went but let me ask you about another part of this so there were two quarterbacks there that have a little bit of buzz, obviously not the top quarterbacks on my drafts.

And they were all gone by the top 10, which is exactly what I think will happen. I don't know. We didn't know last year. But what I think will happen with this caliber of prospect this year is that they'll all be gone by the top 10 top 12 but tanner mckee and hendon hooker were both there and they went like 45 and 46 or something like that in my draft simulation would you have any interest in either one of those two guys like do you think there's any argument that i should have just taken the quarterbacks there as opposed to going for a position of need in the edge rusher it all depends on like really what you want to do with kirk cousins because we both know and i think everybody knows kirk cousins isn't going to be there to kind of develop the next

guy behind him we saw that with uh with the last guy it's just not going to happen kirk cousins isn't here for developing the next guy to come in place of him. He's never been that way. And I don't think that's going to change just because he's 36 years old and going in to the final contract of his career. It's just not going to happen.

So if he's here, then I would say continue to try and build around him because you're only trying to win now with Kirk Cousins if you're keeping him. But if he's gone, then yes, absolutely take that because you most likely signed a veteran or a journeyman quarterback off the free agent market. So you probably signed someone who you know is probably more likely to give that guy or teach that guy the ropes a little bit. And you're giving him an extra year

to develop instead of throwing him into the wolves. So if you keep Kurt's Kirk cousins, then no, I would go with the route you took in your draft and go with the outside linebacker, go with the position of need that you, that that comes available at that time. But if you're getting rid of Kirk cousins and you have a journeyman quarterback,

then absolutely take one of these, take a chance on one of these guys, because if it doesn't work out, if you, if you realize after a year of practice with him and you don't like what you see, you've probably been bad enough where you're going to draft high in the first round next year. And Hey, you can get a, you can get a first round quarterback that way too.

I think that what Kellen Mond should have kind of taught us is, and I know Brock Purdy worked out. And once upon a time, Dak Prescott worked out. Tony Romo, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson. Not every quarterback ever has been a first-round draft pick. But they mostly are. Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen. Like most of the time, the NFL is not overlooking these guys at this point.

Maybe back in the day, there was time for developing quarterbacks. You could put a guy who's a late pick in as a backup, and maybe a few years later, he becomes something. Just doesn't happen very often. I mean, the high end of second round picks. Now, Jalen Hurts worked out again, second round pick. Jalen Hurts is a little different because his physical upside was very, very high. I don't know if that's the case with Hooker, and it's definitely not the case with Tanner McKee. I don't know if that's the case with hooker and it's definitely not the case with Tanner McKee. I mean, if you draft Tanner McKee and he becomes Daniel Jones, like, was that good for you? Probably not. Right. I mean, I don't think,

I don't think if you told someone you get to draft a quarterback and their absolute peak is Daniel Jones that you're like, Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I don't know if that peak is high enough. Now, if it's, if Goff on a rookie contract, maybe. I think that's a little better than Daniel Jones, but very dicey to me. It's just hard to make that work. The second round pick is more possible than any other. I'm not taking it past there based on the odds, but I think if you're going to go all in, you want to go all in for a guy who's a top, top prospect, make that the one quarterback you draft, as opposed to taking a bunch of swings in the middle rounds where 95% of the time it does not work out. Even the history

of second round quarterbacks, like this was one of the arguments against Jalen Hurts at the time was look at the history of second round quarterbacks. It's very rare that it actually works out. So I decided if the guys get to the second round, it's not really worth it. Hendon Hooker is a little intriguing to me, but we're talking about a guy who, you know, I don't know, like he remembers Frank and Alan Dan in the Monday Night Football broadcast who like he's old. And I think that you don't want really like a Brandon Whedon situation. So I don't think that's a developmental quarterback when the dude is like 25 years old. So in the, how deep did you go in this? Cause I just went through the third round. I thought if we're getting any deeper than this in the draft simulation, we're not going to know who any of these players are, but I'll tell you my approach

in the third round, because I had two picks. I went with Garrett Williams, who is a corner out of Syracuse, who I think people will not like this pick because he tore his ACL in the middle of the season. But again, I don't draft for next year's needs. I draft for what I know I'm going to need long-term. And this guy is a man to man, great at mirroring type of outside corner that I think that they're really going to like for Brian Flores and then I went with Nathaniel Dell an undersized wide receiver from Houston who put up massive massive numbers at Houston so that was kind of my approach to the third round was again get premium positions I think Dell would be a guy who might be able to fit in right away to a role, and Williams is a guy who's going to have to recover from his injury and maybe halfway

through the season could play, but I'm really looking down the road two years for him to be potentially a starting corner. So that was the way I approached it. Yeah, I did the first round, but I like that thought process of continuing the draft for not just this next coming season because you're trying to fit whatever you can through that window that's rapidly closing, if not already closed. But you're drafting for the future after Kirk Cousins, after everything moves on. Because yes, Kweisi does only have a four-year contract and he's already gone through one year.

But still, you always want to be planning for the future in case you do get another contract or get a contract extension. You're still here long-term and you're still continuing to be successful for the future. It's not always just about the 2023 season or the next season coming up. You have to draft and have to prepare your team for the long-term future instead of just always looking very short-sighted like Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer did over the last couple of years of their career in Minnesota. No, you're right they too often I think uh they they too often went for oh we need a center so we should really draft a center as opposed to down the road we're going to need this or premium positions which you know I think is just really what the sharp teams do

is they're looking for these positions that are hard to get or that are expensive. I mean, one of the reasons they're called premium positions is not just because they're worth the most on the field, like the receivers and the edge rushers or the interior rushers. These guys are the most valuable, but also it's how hard is it to get one? So if you need a safety, like Xavier Woods can just be signed in free agency. I don't think Cam Bynum played great last year, but he was a starter and played every single snap and they drafted him later in the draft. So like running, this is running backs. Like there's lots of good running backs in free agency.

And that's kind of the point is that you can find them pretty much anywhere. And that's what makes a position like premium it's not easy to find edge rushers interior rushers great wide receivers um you know when you could just go to free agency because they're going to be very expensive so i want to i want to throw up two comments from uh folks here from michael trade up in the first round get your franchise quarterback i mean look i am for that, of course, but the opportunity is probably not going to be there. Now, that's not a guarantee.

Again, like every time we talk about this, we don't know for sure. I never would have guessed Lamar Jackson would have dropped all the way to number 32, or even they were talking about Teddy Bridgewater as the number one overall pick when he came out, or Aaron Rodgers would tell you, don't count the chickens before they hatch when it comes to the NFL draft it just seems unlikely based on the way things are playing out in the mock draft universe that the Vikings will have that opportunity and they don't really have the draft capital to do it um as far as my guy Nathaniel Dell um his stock is rising and he's not going to be there in the third. No, you're right. And one of the cool things about his stock rising, which is one of the reasons I

picked him, is because I thought, oh, this is good that he's there in the third. I would never guarantee someone's not going to be somewhere or this guy will or won't be available. People were mock drafting Malik Willis number two overall last year, and the dude went in the third round. So don't buy into too much of, oh, I guarantee that guy's not going to be there. He was there in this simulation. So I picked him, but I have noticed in the mock universe, PFF charts this out that he was on the upswing. And I thought that's a good reason. Plus he's more of a slot receiver, which I think really helps with Justin Jefferson to have somebody who's got great speed playmaking and so forth. This one from JD, like the idea of extending Cousins until he retires while we fill

the holes with premium players. So when Cousins is ready to retire, that's when we're ready to trade and go get the future quarterback uh i'm ready to move on now if that's available i don't know that it will be but i i don't like the idea of continuing to do this thing by continuing to just run back the same plan over and over again and we're going to find out whether they like that idea or not themselves but i think we've seen kind of the results over a really big sample of a half a decade with this situation. And I think the most likely scenario is that they extend him short term and they draft a quarterback in 2024. And if we're just guessing as of today, I would say that they're probably going to have a higher draft pick next year than they will this year. Probably not going to win 13 games.

So, but knowing what I did in this mock draft, Jonathan, how would you grade me? And I'll tell you how PFF graded me. Go over your picks again. I remember you traded out. The first round I traded out. So that's part of your evaluation. I got number 36 and number 69, a nice haul from the Rams. I picked Will McDonald, the edge rusher from Iowa State.

Garrett Williams, the corner from Syracuse. And Nathaniel Dell, the wide receiver from Houston. So you got some positions that the Vikings can use, especially. I like the wide receiver position because it gets you another guy and gets you maybe the replacement for Adam Thielen. Obviously not going to get that same production level, but you have that depth behind now KJ Osborne and Justin Jefferson where you didn't have that before without Adam Thielen. So I like those picks. picks i would say probably because you traded down it was a good trade it was a nice trade i would give you i would give you an a for the trade just because it was a nice trade and then i'd probably give you probably a b plus wow you're a hater in comparison to pff

which gave me an egg there you go so absolutely crushed this draft now Now, as of right now, and so much can change, as of right now, I see this as a fairly likely scenario. Like if we were putting it in the percentile of likeliness, I'm not going to say like 95th percentile, but I'd say like 80th. Like when you look at how Kweisi Adafo-Mensa approached the draft last year, really putting a focus on getting more

draft picks by moving down. And I think the math works out pretty well on this one where you're getting, you know, a draft pick back in the third, the very early third round that you can get somebody who could be a potential starter right away or a role player at some point in the early third and a development player that could be a starter at some point that's a pretty good haul and that's just in line with Kweisi Adafo-Mentz's thinking and what they need as far as long term where I wonder about is do they get talked into like drafting a linebacker or you know know, like last year, it just corroded my confidence that they believe in the positional value thing as strongly as I do when it comes to the draft, because they

did take a safety. They did take a guard. They did take a linebacker. And those are all positions of need for sure in the short and long term. They're just not the positions that generally get paid the most and drive the success in the NFL not the positions that generally get paid the most and drive the success in the NFL. So it's no guarantee that they'll take those positions. But since I think that they should, that's what I went with. Let's move on to some other questions here, Jonathan, beyond our draft simming. So feel free, by the way, anybody, if you want to simulate the draft and send it to me, purpleinsider.com. If you use the contact us, you can go there and send them to me. And maybe we'll even do that an entire fan

podcast where I just react to people's draft simulations. I think that's a good idea down the road. So feel free to do that. This week is where the Vikings are going to meet with all the agents and they're going to get in a room and talk to these people and figure out where everybody's going, what everybody's thinking. The only move that they've made so far is just to bump back the date with Delvin Tomlinson, which to me says that they're interested in keeping Delvin Tomlinson. But they will have that meeting at the NFL Combine as well as with Adam Thielen's agent, Harrison Smith's. That's one of the biggest things that the NFL Combine is for, is having those meetings. Of this list, Adam Thielen, Harrison Smith, Zedaria Smith, Eric Hendricks, Daniil Hunter, Delvin Cook, and Kirk Cousins, which do you think is the most

difficult decision for the Vikings? I think for me, if I'm looking at this list only, it's Harrison Smith because he's the toughest call for me because he was asked to play the safety position last year in Ed Donatello's defense in a completely different way than he has in the past. And that makes you question whether the down season that he had last year was because of the, the way he played the, the way he was asked to play the misuse of him. If, if you want to call it that last year, or was it age finally catching, catching up to him? He's 34 going on 35 next season. This is going on 34 next season. He just turned 34. So he's an older safety.

Obviously he's got it. He's got a big cap number, so you have to take that into consideration. But if it's not age and it was just misuse, you'd like to think that with the way Brian Flores likes to blitz, especially from the safety position, thanks Haley for writing all about that over at purpleinsider.com. Go read that piece. It's incredible, the breakdown she did. If you think about the way Brian Flores liked to use those safeties and the way Harrison Smith has succeeded in the past, playing almost kind of a similar style, you'd like to think, could he be in for a major bounce back season next year? Yes, he would be 34 doing that. But I think there's enough there where you know that he's a smart enough safety that he could

catch on to this system. You probably want to rework that contract if you could um because it's a pretty big it's a pretty big number if i'm remembering correctly that he's going into next season with i'd like to think that that's the toughest one because the other ones you can kind of you have plenty of reasons to move on from them theon and kendrick's his age cook as well as age zadarius and daniel injury histories uh kurt cousins cap number. Also maybe just want to move on in a general different direction. Could you get a pick? Could you get a trade for him?

For me, it's Harrison Smith is the toughest call just because of all those things I laid out. And it's just, it's so tough to know why he had the season that he had last year because of the way they played. Yeah, I think with Kirk Cousins, it's not that the idea is difficult. It's that the execution is difficult that you know what you want to do. And this has even been a little reported out there already. I think Albert Breer said this and Daniel Jeremiah hinted at it a little bit

in his conference call, but I think what they want to do is keep him for now and then have the flexibility to move on next year and draft someone if it's time to draft somebody. But making that actually work as I wrote for the website, as we push the newsletter website as much as we can, but I did a mock negotiation and i couldn't make it work i just couldn't between the two sides because kirk cousin's side is saying look the franchise tag is 45 bills and i mean right like now he's not getting franchise tag because he can't be but his point would be that's if they franchise daniel jones that's what he's going to make how are you not giving me a contract with

that as my price tag i've taken these short-term deals from you that lowered the immediate cap hit to help, but I won 13 games last year. So you don't have any negotiating power to say, well, we couldn't get in the playoffs with you being paid. Well, you got in the playoffs with me being paid. That's not my problem. I just think that that's a difficult position to be in, even if they know what they want. That's not a tough call.

It's tough to actually make it work. You said Harrison Smith. I think that that one is a little dicey. But if Harrison Smith is on the roster next year, almost no matter which way you're going, I'm okay with that. It's not like there's someone playing behind him that you really desperately need to see. If Louis Seane is going to play, he's going to play with Harrison Smith. And I like that. I mean, even if he's expensive and he's around, I like that idea that Louis Seane will play with Harrison Smith. So I'm okay with that one. And I think that's

what will happen is that Harrison Smith will be a Viking and that they want him to be a Viking for life. The tough call for me is Daniil Hunter because Daniil Hunter has a pretty good argument that he has gotten screwed a few times. Now, some of it, I mean, none of it's ever been his fault, but his initial deal was not very good because in 2017, his sack total went down a little bit. If I'm remembering correctly, was it 17? His sack total went down a little bit, if I'm remembering correctly. Was it 17? His sack total went down a little bit from the year before. And he didn't have as much negotiating power. So he was kind of forced into signing a decent deal that wasn't great. But by the time the next deal came around, he had been injured.

So then he's like, OK, well, we'll rework that deal. And then he gets injured again. And then it's OK, we'll rework that deal. And then he gets injured again and then it's okay. We'll pick up your bonus. And he's never gotten that big mega contract for someone who's in, I believe the top five or seven of sacks since 2015. I mean, think about that for a guy that missed all that time. And he's still one of the top sackers since that time.

And then he has an excellent year this year. I think if you're Daniil Hunter, you're like, it's time folks, either pay me the real deal, 25 mil a year, make me one of the highest paid pass rushers in the league, or move on to somebody who will going into the last year of his deal. And from the Vikings perspective, you could let that thing play out, but then you lose Daniil Hunter and you're only getting a third round pick as compensation as opposed to potentially a first round pick or a second round

pick if you trade him right now. These are difficult challenges for them because you want Daniil Hunter on your football team. You're also talking about looking a few years out and knowing that Justin Jefferson is going to be really expensive. Christian Dersaw is going to be really expensive. How many 25 to $35 million non-quarterback players can you actually afford? Even with the cap going up, that's still going to be tough. And Daniil Hunter's neck injury lingers in our minds, rightfully. That didn't affect him last year. It doesn't mean when he's 31 it's not going to affect him and you don't want to get yourself in a spot where two years from now you're talking about eating all this dead cap space because this contract didn't work out but again you like

daniel hunter and you like him a lot that one for me is at the top of the list for hardest decisions yeah that makes sense because, because his age, what he's been able to do for you. And as you mentioned, one of the best sack getters of however you want to pronounce their label that over the last couple of years, I mean, he's, he's shown that when he is healthy, he's one of the most dominant pass rushers in this league. And he's able to get at the quarterback a number of different ways.

And he's shown improvement. He's built himself up from, I believe what was a third round pick and he's been able to do some incredible things and yeah at this point with how things have worked out with his contract it almost feels like you owe him that big deal although that's never how you want to operate things but like he feels like he deserves that big deal rightfully so because he's been able to put it on the field that I think that one is a good shout for the toughest decision that the Vikings will have to make this offseason. Yeah, and none of these are easy except for Delvin Cook.

And his agent's making it easier and easier every day by putting stuff out there about how they didn't run the ball enough. There were criticisms I had of Kevin O'Connell this year. There weren't a lot of them. There were some. Don't ever run a fullback jet sweep ever again. But the way that he handled the run-pass ratio was right. It was right, it was right, and it was right. He did it correctly. They passed the ball. They were a pass-first football team, And that is how you will win. Not by surrounding your team with a running back who's lost his fastball. So that's an easy decision.

If we're making that list, let me get to a few of the comments here before we move on to a few other questions from the Norse wonder looking forward to the, what will Quacey do takes coming from everyone much more intrigue around what he will do makes the offseason more fun and predictable than the past GM. I do agree with that because this is his first real offseason. It seems like there was a directive from last offseason of how things wanted to be handled. And he executed that. And they ended up with 13 wins. You can't say that he blew it or something.

Now it's more of you guys have proven that you're a leadership group that can win and is competent. And the building seems to be functioning. Unlike at the end of Spielman and Zimmer. Now this is your show. Or at least that's how I look at it. It will never be completely your show ever. I listened to Eric Eager and thomas dimitrov in the sumer sports show podcast and thomas is a former general manager and he talks about all

the time that arthur blank is knocking at his door the owner of the falcons for for every move so you're never going to have the wilfs not be a part of the conversation but now it's on them i think to trust quesadilla fomenta we don't know which way he's going to go with a lot of different things. This one comes from Joshua. Let's see. Why no steam for Jalen Hyatt? He had five touchdowns in one game against Alabama for crying out loud. His speed would be too much for teams to worry about if they want to focus

on Justin Jefferson. Oh, well, I mean, you are preaching to the choir in my draft simulation. He wasn't there. That's why, that's why I didn't take him. But if you're telling me like you want a wide receiver, then, uh, you know, we're the, there's that meme with like the two arms clasping or whatever. Like, yes, we are very much on the same page and have been for a while that a wide receiver would be a good pick, even if it seems like they should be going with defense. And that is the one position, by the way, we talked about two years out. That's the one position that can help right away. From JD here, we got to trust Quasey and

Kevin O'Connell. Can't be impatient. Getting a generational quarterback is the best way to go instead of the mid-round quarterback. Yeah, I think the mid-round thing is pretty much lighting your pick on fire. There's really no way to tell when it will be that Russell Wilson. There's no, oh, well, you look for quarterbacks like this. It's just, you gotta get stupid, lucky, and most of the time, go through those third rounders.

Usually they're out of the league. Like Kellen Mond, they're on a practice squad a couple of years in. So the next question I have for you, Jonathan, is, well, we kind of, we kind of, we're just getting into this. So let's talk about it more. If I told you that the Vikings were considering a quarterback, but not in the first round, would you be interested? We kind of talked about that, but of the development quarterbacks who have Kirk Russell Wilson Dak Prescott Brock Purdy which one is the best argument to make that case so let's say that you're Kwesi Adafo Mensah and you're saying you know what I think we should go with the mid-round

quarterback with the third rounder with our third round pick who are you presenting to your coaching staff, to your scouts to say, we can look for the next this guy. This is the guy who's a good example of how this can work. I think if you're presenting that to the coaching staff, you're looking at Russell Wilson. Yes, this last year was a bad year, and it looks like his career is probably on the downward slope of it, just his age and everything.

But the dude won a Super Bowl. What more can you ask from a quarterback than winning a Super Bowl? Yes, he hasn't led top 10 offenses all the time like Dak Prescott has, but Dak Prescott also doesn't win a whole lot of playoff games, whether that's his fault or his coach's fault. I like to blame the coach because I just don't like Mike McCarthy as it's been well-documented on this show. But you're pointing out Russell Wilson because he's won the Super Bowl.

He's gotten his team there. Yes, it was helped out by an all-time great defensive dynasty there that they had in Seattle for a while. And they didn't really rely too much on Russell Wilson because they had a great running game. They had some great receivers. And they weren't asking him to throw it all over the field because they were mainly focused on just keeping the ball on the ground and giving it to Marshawn Lynch all the time. But he still led his team to a Super Bowl win, whether you want to credit that to anywhere else. What's the goal every year for every team in this league? It's to win the Super Bowl, and he's done it, and he did it as a third round quarterback. You're pointing to Russell Wilson as the guy that you will always and forever

point to outside of Tom Brady as a guy who can succeed from a non-first-round quarterback? I think there's two answers to this. One would be, and I'll include Jalen Hurts. If you're taking a mid-round quarterback, okay, Kirk worked out and has been a really good NFL quarterback for a long time. But all the others have something in common, is that they're playmakers and they have really good athleticism. I mean, Brock Purdy is a playmaker. I mean, he stepped in and got rid of the ball quickly and got it to his wide receivers and weapons. And that was the other argument is if you could add other people

to Justin Jefferson, you can make somebody succeed because Brock Purdy has to understand the offense. It's got to execute it. He's got to throw accurate passes. But if we're being honest here, George Kittle, Brandon, IU, Debo Samuel, I mean, this is Christian McCaffrey. It is a freakish group of weapons. And you might not feel like you're that far away with TJ Hawkinson and Justin Jefferson. You're like halfway there. And I think KJ Osborne's a reasonable player, but if you're talking about adding a true number two receiver, a running back who actually is a weapon in the passing game

because that never came to fruition with Delvin Cook, no matter how many preseason articles we wrote about how they wanted to use Delvin Cook as a receiver, he just didn't have good hands and they never really used them that way. But, you know, you get somebody who is dynamic out of the backfield as a receiving weapon and you can place other quarterbacks in and have success. I mean, even with Geno Smith, you give him Tyler Lockett, you give him DK Metcalf, you give him a running game, you give him an Metcalf, you give him a running game,

you give him an offensive line and you might, you might have something, but I buy into much more. If you're going to take a developmental quarterback and many have failed this way too, but if they can run and they can make plays outside of just staying in the pocket, Dak Prescott was much more of a runner early in his career, and he definitely was in college. And Russell Wilson was a tremendous running quarterback. Jalen Hurts, a running quarterback. It raises the floor. So even if the guy is imperfect throwing the football or reading defenses or whatever else, that they could still escape. That would be the case I'm making. If there's a guy in the middle rounds that you spot, and this is why Tanner McKee just does not interest me. If you spot somebody and say, why Tanner McKee just does not interest me.

If you spot somebody and say, you know what? This guy is actually a really good runner and has arm strength. Maybe there's something else there. I'm still very skeptical. Like this would also apply to Pat White, who did not work out at all and was a really fun quarterback. Tim Tebow was a great runner, not a midbow was a great runner not a mid-rounder but maybe a mid-round talent and throwing the ball is always going to be a number one but if i'm

making the case jonathan that's the one case i could make if there's someone there in the fourth round who can actually run then okay i'm somewhat interested but probably still not really. Yeah, I agree with you. It gives you an added floor. It gives you a higher floor than what just a pure pocket passer is because passing in the NFL is much different than it is in college. You have a lot less time than you do in college. And if you're able to run around, scramble, and get out of the pocket, be good in and out of the pocket, then yes,

it gives you that added element that defenses have to be aware of. And that'll give you time to make those passes, make those reads. Whereas just being the pocket passer, just being kind of the stationary guy, like her cousins tends to be, it's going to, it's going to be a lot more difficult for you than it is for the Jalen Hurts or the Russell Wilsons who can move and get around and those offenses can build in that running element into their offense as well which they can't do with a pocket passer Kirk is some kind of outlier in this conversation not only in the NFL now but I mean in that whole discussion go through the different players that have been drafted from the third round on who were not runners or playmakers and how many succeeded?

The answer is very, very few. And it took a lot of work, but also he's unbelievably accurate and he is hardworking and he can operate an offense in a lot of ways. You know, get people lined up and get the calls in and know where he's supposed to go with the football. And he was the rare bird that actually got a lot of development that he was drafted in 2012. Didn't start for three seasons. And if you're willing to do that with somebody, okay. But I think they want somebody on a little bit quicker of a timeline than something like that. Next question for you is about the number one overall pick. who uh saw Haley's video on YouTube or listen to the podcast there were some Bears fans that got in the mentions of that one and it just went wild they were not happy at the idea of trading uh Justin Fields let's say they're not

going to do that though they're going to roll with Justin Fields but they are going to trade out of number one they're not going to trade out of number one to two, three, or four. More likely than not, those teams know that they're going to get one of these good quarterback prospects. How about beyond the fourth draft pick? I want you to propose me a trade. I'll be the Bears. You be anybody else you want to be. Let's make it work for a trade for the Bears to move out of number one that would be acceptable on their end i'm gonna play as the raiders of course because my second team is the raiders and uh they have the seventh overall pick now looking back at the past uh times that the number one overall pick has been traded i'm going to go back to the most recent time when the rams traded up from all the

way down from number 15 to number one they had to to give up a first, a second, a second, a third in the 2016 draft to move up from 15 to one in 2016. They also gave up a first and a third in the 2017 draft. Now that's giving up six picks to move up 14 spots. I'm giving you, I'm dropping you down half of those spots. So I'm taking out two of those picks. I'm not going to give you six picks. I'm going to give you four. I'm going to give you my first and second this year, first this or next year, and my second in 2025. And I think that's a reasonable enough trade. I did the PFF mock draft and mock trade and it accepted it over there. So it's all on you caller. I think that's a good enough trade because not only are you not dropping down 14 spots, you're only dropping down six, which is a significant difference.

You still have a top 10 pick, which is much more different than a 15th overall pick. We know the talent level starts to drop off significantly after that 12th overall, around that 12th overall range. You'll also still probably get a top 10 spot next year because I'm starting a rookie quarterback in the AFC West. Good luck to me. So I'm probably not going to do that well next year. And you get a second round pick this year, which you don't have because you gave it up for Chase Claypool for some reason. And it's a high second round pick. You currently have, I believe, the Ravens, which is lower in the second round. So I'm getting you back in that top

10 range in the second round as well this year. So those two picks for this year and the picks in the following two years, I think is enough that you should think about this one. Yeah, because I have to be convinced as the Bears that I shouldn't have Jalen Carter or Will Anderson on my football team. And that's a tough sell, especially Jalen Carter. His highlight reel is hilarious. And it looks a lot like Jadadavian Clowney or Indomitian Sioux. He was just running through people. And that's the interior pass rush we're talking about. You never know how someone's going to work out in the NFL. That dude's probably going to work. Just steamrolling interior linemen is a good plan. But giving me a pick that i think is actually going to be really high next year

is very enticing looking at seattle they never dreamed they were going to get the fifth overall pick when they traded russell wilson but if you're the bears you're thinking about a year out and how that team's going to perform and saying all right i mean because not only am i getting the seventh pick this year but that's like getting a top 10 pick the following season. If you take that team, which has a lot of problems, and a coach that probably doesn't know what he's doing, and you put a rookie quarterback there, and even if it's Bryce Young, even if he's good,

Joe Burrow was good in his first year, and they still lost a bunch of games. That's what usually happens with rookie quarterbacks. Josh Allen started right away. They lost a bunch of games. He turned out to be great. I think Deshaun Watson didn't have a great year right away and then got way better after that, as they usually do, year two and three.

But from the first year, it's often pretty difficult, and that is not a complete roster with the Raiders. I like your trade. I would accept your trade. It's not like Madden, but the PFF simulator is a little more credible with some of those trades than that. How about this one? Would you accept this trade if the Carolina Panthers called? And I saw this one on the internet. The Carolina Panthers called, so I didn't invent it. I just stole it from, I think,

NBC Chicago or somebody. But what about Brian Burns, who's the pass rusher from Carolina? Star edge rusher. The Chicago defense wants to be better. They are horrendous. And if they're sticking with Justin Fields, they're trying to win. They're not just trying to stack draft picks.

They're trying to be good next year. Brian Burns, ninth overall draft pick, and say next year's first and throw in a second I like the I like the idea of getting a player who I know can probably do pretty well for me right out of the gate and you still get the ninth overall pick and you're getting Carolina's first round pick I believe you said for next year which based off of the NFC South and the rest of the NFC in general, it's probably not going to be that high like they are this year. They're probably going to be able to turn it around because I believe in their coaching staff. I believe in Frank Reich

and Jim Caldwell and everybody else they put on that coaching staff. I think the Carolina Panthers are going to continue where they left off this season and just continue moving forward and continuing to be good. I think they're a team that just basically needs a quarterback to slot in there and they'll continue to, they'll just continue to rise up in the NFC. So you're probably not going to get a high first round pick next year. You're probably going to get in the late teens, probably twenties there, but still I like the idea. I think that the idea of giving me Brian Burns supplements, the fact that I'm not getting a top overall pick, like I would with the Raiders for the following season. So yeah, I'd probably take that as well. I may have given up a little too much. I mean, adding in that extra draft pick,

maybe it has to be a next year second or a first to second and Brian Burns another second. I don't know exactly, but Brian Burns being the center of it. I wonder if the Bears want a player. They have so many spots to fill. They're so far behind. And oh, by the way, they have cap space just coming out of their ears. If a team doesn't want to sign someone, then you can make that trade and give them a player that they're going to be able to sign for a lot of money when U.S. Carolina might not see it that way with your cap situation because they've been drafting high for years they might have other players that they want to pay and not brian burns but it doesn't have to be him i think that that's just a part of it that i would consider

as a realistic possibility and this one also goes into the high percentile of possibilities i think that this will happen with one of these teams that they will trade out and they will look to get maybe a player, but a huge, huge haul, which is going to happen because Bryce Young is a very attractive. I'm assuming it's Bryce Young, a very, very attractive prospect. All right. Last thing for you for the evening, Jonathan, this one, you tell me, what is one thing you want to hear from Kwesi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell at the NFL Combine where they will speak twice? Besides non-corporate, non-Silicon Valley Tech Bro talk from them that we've heard in the past, I want to hear where they believe they are now.

We know that there was a mandate from above that they go out and try and win this year. And they won 13 games, lost four. Unfortunately, ended up losing in the wildcard round to Daniel Jones and the New York Giants. But I want to know where Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah see themselves. Because we heard in the Brian Flores press conference, we heard at the end of the year press conference

that Kevin O'Connell said he was looking at everything that they did this year and doing a lot of self-evaluation of everything that they did. And that's why they got rid of Donatel. They brought in Brian Flores, a completely different defense. if you see this 13 and four season as a sign that the window might still be open and you can still succeed here, or if it was just a blip and they need to reset more than they did in the previous season. I want to know that other than just the normal kind of just fluff talk. They usually give us, let me know where your self-evaluation has taken you and where you think you

are going into the future. Because as we've talked about here, as you've talked about plenty of times on the Purple Insider podcast, there's a ton of questions for where this team is going. Let me know where that's what I want to hear most is where they think this team is going over the next couple of seasons. It's a hard question to ask in a press conference or a sit down. Hey, are you guys being told by ownership what you got to do? Because no one's going to say yes, even if that's the case. I mean, you're right. So that's a hard one to answer. And

hey, are you going to keep all these old players or not? They're also going to defer to, well, you know, we haven't met with all the agents yet and we're talking with them early in the week. So they can do that and say, well, you know, we've got it scheduled to sit down and we're going to figure all those things out as we go along. But I think, you know, what I'd like to know that is answerable is what they kind of learned from last year's process, because they were really thrown into the fire. It was, Hey, you're hired and now draft. And I remember Kevin O'Connell talking about how difficult that was. And what I do wonder about is how much hay was already in the barn because the scouts are spending their whole years putting it together. And they did tell the scouts, we're looking for some of these other things. Let's

focus on some different stuff. But there was a lot of that process that they're going through the whole year and amateur evaluation of getting down the road on those types of things, which may have influenced how they dealt with last year. Did you have time as Kevin O'Connell to evaluate every quarterback in every scenario with every quarterback? Or did you not feel comfortable enough to take Kenny Pickett if you wanted him, uh, with your first round pick this year, you've had this whole time. You haven't had to do coaching interviews or GMing interviews or press

conferences. You haven't had to meet every person in the building and everything else. And you, you've got an opportunity here now to know everything that's going on and not just step in out of nowhere and try to run the organization. So how much did you learn from that? And that may be my question, if I can get that one in there. With all the other stuff that does have to be asked, like you said, the direction will be the main question and the answer is likely to be, well, we're trying to do

both. And that was the answer at their end of the year press conference. And I imagine that will continue to be the answer that when Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said competitive rebuild, that he's going to kind of keep going back to that, that, well, of course, you know, we're building on the 13 wins, but we're always trying to draft good players. But rebuilding is not drafting players. Everyone drafts players. 32 out of 32. Even the Rams. Everyone drafts players. So that's not rebuilding. Rebuilding is making some major concessions here.

And I just keep envisioning what, and I just listened to this, so it's fresh in my mind. Thomas Dimitrov was talking about on the Sumer Sports Show with our buddy Eric Eager, and he was saying that when certain things would happen with the Falcons, the owner would knock at his door and would want to know, why are we doing this? I don't want to do this. I want to make sure we keep this guy. I want to make sure that has always got to be a consideration when we evaluate any of these moves, that if the owners say, this guy's a Viking foriking for life his numbers going up on our ring of honor when he retires we will not move on from him make it happen there's nothing you can do if

you're quesadilla fomenta that doesn't let him off the hook that just means that just means we need to be realistic about some of these things and the possibility of them just throwing some veterans overboard i will kind of believe that when I see it, because their past record has not suggested that they get rid of guys until they really see them fall off and struggle. But looking for some answers and hints about where they're going to go with their cap space,

how they're going to create enough cap space. They will, but how are they going to get there? I don't know. Jonathan, great stuff a wonderful hot routes our first draft sim i think we i would give us together probably a b plus there's some room to grow through draft season but you know for shaking off the rust we did well and thank you to everybody who tuned in and watched i know it's almost 11 o'clock but um if you needed to pick me up after watching the Wolves game, hopefully we provided that for you because that was not good.

And, you know, they're used to this by now, probably. And yeah, it's going to be an exciting week. There's going to be a ton of content coming out here on the YouTube channel and on the podcast feed. So make sure you check that out. And of course, purpleinsider.com for written work. We are a content machine. So plug yourself into it and it'll be good. It'll be good. We are days away from finding out where this whole thing is going. So good stuff, Jonathan. Thanks for your

time. And thanks to everybody for watching. We'll catch you next time.