Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Vikings GM candidate emerges (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about a report from NFL Network's Tom Pelissero that the Minnesota Vikings are requesting to interview Terrance Gray from the Buffalo Bills for their open general manager position. He is their assistant general manager. Plus an update on Juan Jennings and ESPN's Mike Clay has stat projections for Vikings rookies. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here. And we have a general manager, candidate, everyone. I did say that I wasn't really going to talk about specific people until we knew who the specific people are. Of course, you know, we could take some pretty good guesses based on the search firm that the Vikings are working with or what names have been out there for interviews for other teams. I thought, you know, there's a halfway decent chance that some of these names start to trickle in when the Vikings make their requests. And that was correct.

So we have our first general manager candidate request. Tom Pelliserra of NFL Network is reporting that the Vikings have requested an interview with Buffalo Bill's assistant general manager Terrence Gray for their GM job per source. Gray spent 11 seasons with Minnesota as a college scout before joining Buffalo in 2017. So let's dig into the idea of Terrence Gray as the Minnesota Vikings general manager. Well, first off, the scouting background is expected in this, not just because most of the people who are in front offices have a scouting background, but as per usual, if you hire an old school head coach when you fire him, you hire a new school head coach. And when you have a general manager with a different background, you go and interview

general managers that have backgrounds that are very typical of ladder climbing in the national football league. Now, I don't mean that to be, I only am being a bit snarky. I don't mean that to be, you know, degrading of Terence Gray's background. Actually, I think under the circumstances and with the current setup, at least the way that it is right now, where there's a lot of voices in the room that the Wilf seemed to want to be there with the fact that the coaches have a lot of power in decision making. And you need someone who really knows the ropes about how it works in the football evaluation world.

I think Terrence Gray makes a lot of sense for the current culture, assuming that if you bring someone in who is here in Minnesota for a long time, that more likely, you're than not, it sort of reads that way that you would end up keeping a lot of the people in the front office that you had before. Now, I don't know that for 100% certain. I mean, Terrence Gray might come in and blow out everybody and build his old new front office, but the fact that he has roots here, I would say makes it a little more likely that he would decide or be, you know, told to keep the front office intact that the Wilfs wanted to be this way and the fact that they already did that with quasi adafelmentza, I don't know if they're going to,

who was a completely different type of hire, completely different type of person from Rick Spielman, if they're going to want to make a major change with the front office or not, but it's just sort of an assumption that someone who is here with a lot of the same people who are still here in this front office, then it doesn't feel like this is the candidate of sweeping change. This is the candidate of sort of go back to how it was with Rick Spielman, which doesn't have to be a bad thing because Terrence Gray was part of the 2015 draft class that was the best of the entire decade in the NFL. He was part of the college scouting that produced a team that in 2017 went to the NFC championship. So, you know, they had their good and bad drafts during Rick Spielman up and down at times. but when he was here, they did build a team largely through the draft that ended up being fantastic,

one of the best, if not the best team of the last decade for the Minnesota Vikings in 2017. So there are things that would definitely fit with Terrence Gray. But one issue that I have is when we try to look at where the person currently is and say, well, they kind of did stuff like this or they had that. success so the person will just do it exactly the same in their next spot like you're not like your boss and I'm sure that wherever you work some of us don't have bosses luckily but wherever you work you probably see things that your bosses do that you think you know what if I'm in charge I'm going to do it a little bit differently so I don't want to say oh because

Terence Gray worked for Rick Spielman he'll be like Rick or because he worked for a brand of Bean, that he's going to be Brandon Bean. I'm sure that he's his own man and has his own ideas. But what it would feel like is kind of a status quo type of hire where you're bringing in someone to do things a lot of the same way that it's done everywhere and that it's been done here outside of when Quasi Adolph-Flemenza was here. And then there were just seeming struggles to get on the same page with a lot of people and analytic ideas that never came to fruition. So, but when Rick Spielman was the general manager, everyone knew who was in charge, who called the shots at the end of the day. But Rick made people feel heard and appreciated. And he

had a certain way of going about it. And he grinded out and he went, you know, to places and pro days. And he did his own evaluations and stuff like that. And that might be the way that Terrence Gray would do it. I don't want to go too far with certain assumptions about the guy. I sent a couple of texts to people that I know in Buffalo and I got good feedback on him. And one of the things that I got back was this is a guy who's really earned his way, that he has come up sort the right way. You know, not that there's a wrong way, but like the right way of going to be the college scout, you battle it out for a really long time, you get elevated to pro personnel or maybe just director of player, player personnel. I think he was in Buffalo. And then you get AGM.

And then you get GM. And the reason that there's a ladder like that is because it takes a long time to learn how to be a general manager. I'm sort of reminded at times when certain people get elevated around pro sports of like when a former player will get made a coach right after they retire. You go, what do they know about coaching? Penny Hardaway was a great player. But does he know how to coach Memphis basketball? There's a reason why coaches often have to go. go the like Kurt Signetti from Indiana you have to go the long route they learn a lot along the

way and then when they get their chance they have done it for such a long time that they're ready for it and I think that is absolutely the case with Terrence Gray what you would be getting is a very professional general manager who has been around a long time and who knows exactly how all this works and who has been with a franchise that under that leadership went from and a Josh Allen has a lot to do with this. We'll talk about that in a second, but went from an armpit of the league and thought of as a bumbling front office at two. And that was their reputation. I'm not saying it was always like that.

The bills did build good teams, but that was their reputation because of the lack of quarterback success, honestly. But they were viewed that way, right? They were not viewed as a franchise or a front office as a team. that was getting an edge, they missed the playoffs every single year. They hired Rex Ryan, you know, etc. Their coach quit on them. Doug Morone. He just straight up quit on them.

Like, when does that ever happen? He just actually left. So they were not looked at very highly from the outside. I would argue the first year of Tyrod Taylor, they built a very good team and elevated Tyrod to the point where people thought he was like a franchise quarterback, but that's neither here nor there. that was my last year in Buffalo.

But the point being that under Brandon Bean and Josh Allen is wildly responsible for this, but also they built very good rosters for Josh Allen. You saw Kansas City with Mahomes miss the playoffs last year. It's not always a guarantee that you're going to be in the divisional round or the AFC championship. And I was looking at the defenses that the bills had during Brandon Bean's time, not at the beginning, but actually, after Josh Allen signed his big contract, and they still maintain top 12 defenses every year,

which doesn't have a ton to do necessarily with the quarterback. So they have been able to build good offensive lines a lot of times, good running game. They've struggled with this wide receiver issue, but the Vikings don't have that problem. And good defenses overall, I was looking at their drafts, which is very hard to blame or credit Terrence Gray for all of Brandon Bean's drafts. But overall, they have found a lot of really good players in the draft, whether it's James Cook or Spencer Brown or Gregory Russo when you're not drafting very high. And there's a website I was looking at that does some data stuff of adding up the value

of every team's draft. And the bills had a very good run of drafts that built them teams that have been competitive recently. Christian Brailford, the cornerback, a very good find for them. So they've had kind of a lot of those good drafts that have netted them a lot of good players. And I think that if the philosophy was, we're going to be the team that is building through the draft now. We're going to lean heavily on the scouting, the evaluation, the development of players. And that's going to be really the shift for the organization.

then I think that that's a good way to shift. And this guy knows what he's doing when it comes to that. And I think that's what they want to do. And Rob Brzynski saying it at the combine, like he said, I believe you build a team through the draft. And I tend to agree. I mean, if you have the golden ticket rookie quarterback contract, which the Vikings thought they did,

then yes, you can skirt the rules a little bit. But a lot of times, you have to build most of the time, 95% of the time, you can't build through big free agency spending year after year. You can't build on just robbing teams blind with trades or whatever. You usually have to do it through drafting and then having the patience to develop. So if that is their plan, if that is their main goal, let's find a person who is going to operate in a draft mindset first. accumulate as much picks as possible. Trade, the bills traded back a couple of times,

which I thought was really good for them in this last draft. Of course, I would have taken a wide receiver if I was them, but, you know, they traded back. It still got a good edge rusher. They had, I thought, a very good draft talent-wise. If that's what your focus is every year, and you're going to sprinkle in the other stuff, you're going to sprinkle in the free agency,

that's a good way to build, especially if you might have to pay a, quarterback and it might be Kyler Murray or it might be somebody else who comes available that we don't expect right now, Joe Burrow. Or, I mean, it could be, but it could be almost anybody, right? I mean, not Mahomes, not Alan. But you never know from year to year who might end up coming available. So if you draft successfully, somebody mentioned this.

I think it was Mike Renner yesterday on the show that Seattle went into this offseason with like $50 million in cap space because they were able to. to draft and they have somebody who is headed up their team for a long time that built multiple teams where through the draft. So if that's the main idea, if that's the edge, because what I want to ask with every single one of these GM candidates that comes in, and it's very challenging when I don't know the person, they don't do media interviews, I can't go and listen to a Terrence Gray podcast and come back and tell you what I think of the guy. I don't know him. So that's why I asked a couple of people and professionalism came back. He's earned it came back,

which is good. But you're looking for what is your edge? What is it that's going to, if you hire this person, be the difference maker? And I think it's not that hard to see that draft and development with his background is probably the edge that they're aiming to get. The trouble with that is that the Vikings don't often draft super high. So that's a challenge that Buffalo is taken on, but the Vikings don't have Josh Allen to cover up any of the mistakes. And I think that we are seeing some teams separate themselves in the draft recently, but we also don't have a big enough sample size since the data revolution to really say,

well, this team is getting an edge, well, that team is getting an edge. And they're consistently drafting better. that might be happening or it might just be the same small samples that have sort of come and go through history. So are you kind of banking on something that's mostly random if you're bringing in someone who is trying to win with better evaluation? And in that case, is there an issue where you feel like you need to change front office? Or do you feel like maybe Kwayze Adolfo Menta didn't make the most of the evaluators, which I believe has been strong. strongly enough hinted through the years that that was maybe the case. But that's the edge that you're looking for.

I can get on board with a rebuild entirely through the draft. It's the way they might have to do it after this year and just where they're at with a lot of contracts and so forth that it might become very difficult if you sign Kyler Murray to an extension to go out and build through free agency. Or if you draft a quarterback, you are still then working on a time. timeline that's a year or two out to when you can really be a true contender. So let's say the Vikings go eight and nine. They draft a quarterback with the 16th overall pick or something.

I mean, that quarterback could start right away, but could they dominate right away? No. So you want to really build on a longer timeline that might benefit from having someone whose main focus is the draft. So there you go. That's the best I can do. but it's always really challenging to look at someone who comes from a team that has Josh Allen because I don't know, there's been a lot of coaches or front office people that,

that franchise is the cream of the crop because their quarterback is amazing. Are they actually good? Now, Kansas City, one of their main people ended up with the Carolina Panthers and it feels like they've gotten a lot of their stuff together. So it's not one way or the other. It's like if you hire from Buffalo because Josh Allen's great, it doesn't mean the guy's not good. Or if you hire from,

I don't want to say Cleveland because that didn't exactly work out. But if you hire from Arizona, they might have a genius guy there, but he just doesn't have his voice heard. So I don't know. It's really, really hard to figure out based on background. But knowing he came from that college scouting world,

that would be the assumptions. and as we look at GM candidates, we're just going to have to make some leaps on on what it might mean for the Vikings in their plan going forward because we don't know and we don't get to be in the room. And as much as I've pounded the table to be a part of that committee, no one is called. No one has asked me to be a part of the GM search committee.

And I'm disappointed. And I think I'd be good at it. But unfortunately, I have not been. So I can't bring you any more information than that. But we know that it started and we know that Terrence Gray is involved and we will see where it goes from here. An update on Joanne Jennings came from Albert Breer today. And not that we didn't already have some sense of this, but Albert Breer wrote of Mr. Jennings that he may have, quote, overshot his market and is looking for, quote, wide receiver two money. So you say Purple Insider, what's Wide Receiver 2 money?

Well, I'm here to answer that question. If you look at wide receiver 2 money, it's a lot. That would be where I'd start. It's a lot. It ranges somewhere between, I would say, 15 is low. I might go higher than that. $17 million is kind of the low end of wide receiver 2 money. I've used Romeo Dobbs a number of times, but that's sort of like Kelvin Ridley

ballpark as well. And the high end is like $25 million per year. And I dug up something that I had forgotten about, but I typed in since Joanne Jennings is a wide receiver. And I know I've pushed back against this in years past, but I thought there's only one way to find out. So I googled Joanne Jennings disgruntled. Click.

And I was reminded that last year, ESPN's Adam Schaefter reported that Joanne Jennings had wanted either a new contract or to be traded by the 49ers. And they said, no, we're not going to do either one of those things. And then he just played and had a good season. And he was helpful for them getting to the divisional round. And over the last two years, I was looking up some of the wide receivers that he has produced in similar ways to. He has about as many yards receiving as Jalen Waddle.

He has as many receptions as Chris Alave. Like, there's some good players that are wide receiver one-ish, two-ish, that Joanne Jennings has similar numbers to. If you look at the last two seasons, 132 catches, just over 1,600 yards, 15 touchdowns. He's got numbers. But I think what the league sees in Joanne Jennings is much more of a wide receiver three. Somebody who should be getting in the range of $12 to $15 million, and he's thinking that's 17 to 25 based on his production.

And I'm sure a little bit if you're his age and you're like, come on. I mean, this guy has put up big numbers. I've got a few theories there. I mean, one, there was that Shelby Harris thing that happened. I don't know if you remember. That's one you can Google with Joanne Jennings. But you add that with also disgruntled in Google coming up with something. 49ers bloggers were trying to figure out trades for him last summer and what they could

get for him. there might be a little bit there of he is overvaluing himself or might not exactly be somebody that a team wants to bring in unless they're doing it for him to be in the top role. Like, is he going to be happy if he's behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison is a question that has to be asked about Joanne Jennings when he is overshooting his value by this much. At the same time, once upon a time, not so long ago, the Vikings took a time. advantage of Dalton Reisner with the same issue.

Dalton Reisner thought he was worth X. The NFL said, nah. And Reisner was a very useful player for the Vikings, helped them a ton in 2024 and was a really good starter for Cincinnati last year. So he's a good player. But if you kind of wait long enough, then the guy is going to sign somewhere. He's going to play somewhere. So there's a little bit now of a like a cat and mount, well, not cat and mouth.

what is this a game of, I don't know, what is it? Like, Rebel Without a Cause. What is it when you drive toward the edge? Chicken, a game of chicken. Now, with Joanne Jennings. Like, he's going to try to hang on for as much money as he could get. And another team is waiting until he gets to a price point where, okay, now we are happy to sign Joanne Jennings.

So how that plays out in regards to the Vikings, I'm not sure. But I do think that it is hard in the middle of a. GM search to sign Joanne Jennings to anything more than like a one-year contract or maybe if it was say two years for 30 million dollars and 15 million of it is guaranteed something like that would kind of make sense to me but I don't think you want to go spending big money and then have your GM walk in and be like why did you just give away the red the little cap space that I had to make another signing or two so they may have to wait on that and he may wait on that and he may wait on and think, I'll just hang on until somebody gets hurt or something.

But it feels like Joanne Jennings is going to fight the fight. And we'll see if that results in him sort of being a little more realistic about where the NFL sees him. And this is something I threw out the other day. Just curious if the rest of the league thinks, I know you got those numbers, dude, but you played for San Francisco and they could pump up anybody's numbers. Sorry. I don't know that that's actually true.

And I think Jennings is a really good player. but he might suffer a little bit from that. Okay, I got two more things for you guys. So I'm very interested in your thoughts on Terrence Gray and the Joanne Jennings situation. I also want to get you a Fandul question of the day. So I saw in the chat, the Joker mentioned that on Fandul, Kyla Murray's plus 550 for comeback player of the year. He is coming back from an injury and from a terrible franchise.

Now that the offseason has slowed down to a whole, and the Vikings did not make major changes to their offense. Do you think they need to make another move for Kyler Murray? That is the question. So plus 550 for comeback player of the year on Fanduel. And do they need to make another move? Want, maybe, but do they need to? Two more things real quick.

I got from Mike Clay, friend of the show, and we'll have them on at some point of ESPN, one of their fantasy gurus there. the year one projections for all the Minnesota Vikings draft picks. If you type in, going back to Google, type in Mike Clay PDF. And what you'll find is he has this huge file where he has projections for every player for every team right down to the fullback. It's amazing.

And I like to look at them and kind of compare and contrast what I think. Sometimes I'll send Mike a note and say, hey, man, why don't you have Max Bredison in there which I did the other night. So he put him in there. But here's for all the players. So he's got defensive players, offensive players. So here's,

I'm going to run through them real quick and just give a couple of takes. And then you guys can comment on these as well if you like. So Mike Clay has Caleb Banks getting 582 snaps and three sacks this year. I think that's a very high number for snaps. I looked last year and there was only one defensive tackle and it was Mason Graham. who was a rookie that had over this number of snaps. So I don't expect it to push 600. I would put it a little more under 500,

maybe like 475. I think if he gets 475 snaps, ends up with 42 tackles, three sacks. That's a really good start for Caleb Banks. Sacks are not going to be that important. Pressures are going to be big for me. And then also when I watch back the tape, do I see him moving people creating lanes for other guys?

That's something we have to really watch for with this defense. So that one I think is a little on the high side. The next one I think is on the low side, which is Jake Golda at 95 snaps and 13 tackles. And yes, it does say 0.2 sacks. I'm aware that's not possible, but it sort of splits the difference between a sack and a half a sack, I guess. I think that Golda is going to play more than that

because I don't think everyone's going to stay healthy. And he is the next man up. He's the next man up if Van Ginkle gets hurt or Cashman or I just don't know where they stand with Ivan Pace. So Eric Wilson, any of those guys get banged up, then Golda will get in there. So I am expecting a little bit more. I'd go maybe like 250 for Golda at the end of the year, one and maybe like a sack or two, a couple of past deflections.

But I think he's going to end up playing more as a main depth piece. Dominique Orange, I think this one's dead on, 318 snaps. I think it could actually go higher than that if he's going to play mostly first and second down. Jacobi Thomas only 106 snaps. That seems fair unless he comes in right away and they're like, whoa, this guy, we love him and we want him to play, which could happen at the safety position. We do see third and fourth round draft picks start very quickly. It's one of the only positions where that happens.

But it does. So I would still go that that's a really good number for Jacobi Thomas, but I mean, if Harrison Smith doesn't come back, it's Theo Jackson and Josh Mattelis and Jay Ward and Jacoby Thomas. So he could certainly end up playing more than that. Max Bredison, he didn't put in a snap count, but he has two carries for eight yards and four catches. I'll take the under on the catches, but I will say that I think that Bredison, I would go with like 250 snaps for him. I think that's, I think he's going to be on the field a lot. I think they're going to use him a lot. This is somebody that they were very excited about that I think they see a lot of

Alec in gold from Miami in where he can line up in different spots. So I think Bretteson will play quite a bit for Chuck Demings, only 53 snaps, four tackles. Totally agree. I don't think he's going to play a ton on defense. And DeMond Claiborne, I'm going the overall day on this one. 14 carries for 57 yards as Clay's projection. Four catches for 28.

I'm going to go higher on that one. I think they're going to use Demand Claiborne. And the other draft picks were linemen who you just, I don't know, how are you supposed to project them? So if you got thoughts on those. But I thought it was interesting to see what the outside opinion is. And Mike is always trying to kind of hit it in the middle of you're not going to go Caleb Banks 11 sacks or something in his first year.

But how do you kind of project where he's going to fit in as a significant player for sure right now, but that one might be a little on the high side. So always love looking at his projections. And one other thing I wanted to comment on before I get to your thoughts and takes for about, oh, the next hour or so before the wolves tip off. I have my, my wolves sweatshirt on here, my favorite one. Really like this wolf's team. ESPN's power rankings, my friends.

You know that this is the year we take power rankings seriously. I am working day and night. You can see how exhausted I am, barely could even make it down here into the studio because I'm working so hard on my NFC power rankings, post-draft NFC power rankings that are going to come out soon. But in this ESPN, all NFL power ranking, the Vikings are 24th. And the write-up here by Kevin Seifert says, the Vikings did some good work at defensive tackle in the draft, but they had long ago a compliment.

the most important task of the offseason by bringing in a more competitive quarterback room. Kyler Murray was the best quarterback available this off season. He will cost the Vikings 1.3 million instead of simply hoping J.J. McCarthy will take the necessary steps forward. The Vikings have a proven veteran with arguably higher upside in Murray. And if it doesn't work out, the Vikings at least brought in Carson Wentz to ensure the position will have a higher floor than it did last season. So the Vikings have better quarterback play. They did not finish 24th last year. They only lost older defensive tackles who they replaced with younger defensive

tackles and Jalen Naylor. And they're 24th. And so I wrote about this yesterday because NFL.com had to be worse, had him like 28th. And I think that it's entirely to do with volatility. I think that's all it is. And I made a little observation. And I started, because I started to think, like, what?

Why the heck would they be 24th? I think this doesn't make any sense. They just drafted 18th. But, you know what I think it is? Nothing in the NFC really changed. Look over the NFC. How many quarterbacks are different? The answer is two from last year.

It's the Arizona Cardinals and the MFSI. Minnesota Vikings in the NFC that in their conference, everybody's coming back and almost all of the coaches are. I think it was only three coaching changes in the NFC. The Vikings have the volatility of the quarterback position that people just don't know what to do with. And this happened when Sam Darnold took over to that I remember being in Las Vegas, the OG listeners will remember me doing this, being in Las Vegas for an event that they were having where they created kind of a radio row for podcasters and radio hosts. And I had the owner of the Circa Casino, a sports book,

I had him come on the show. And I said, what the heck, man? Circa's got the Vikings at six and a half. What's the deal? And he just said, what am I supposed to do with Sam Darnold? Fair enough. Fair enough. And I think the same thing goes here.

But Sam Darnold had not been a good quarterback. And Kyla Murray has been a good quarterback. So that's where I just can't fully get my head around why it would be that. But I don't think that that's the only volatile position. I think in terms of stability on the roster, there's a lot of things that are unstable. The secondary without Harrison Smith is unstable. The defensive line with two rookie defensive tackles. The offensive line with questions about Derisaw and the center being Blake Brandel,

the backfield is the same guys who were only so effective last year. and they didn't make a big change there. So I get it. There's a lot of areas where they're lacking stability, but they are bringing back a lot of the same players, and they do have the same coaches, which I think gives you a baseline. And what I also think people need to remember is that their schedule is easier.

They have nine home games instead of eight, and they're not traveling overseas for two weeks. So things should be overall stable in that way as well. I would not have them 24th, but we will see what I come up with for the next NFC. Maybe that will be, I don't know, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. I'm not really sure because rookie minicamp is going to be our one day out there. It's going to be Friday. So I'll do a live show Friday night.

So put that in your calendar. I'll do a live show Friday night with whatever we've taken away from rookie minicamp. So there you go. There is everything that is on my mind. and I gave you guys a lot to respond to. So let's dive in to what is on your guy's mind. Anything on the table here? The Fanduil question of the day,

please answer that if you get a chance about whether the Vikings need to do something else for Kyler Murray because he is plus 550 for comeback player of the year and he's not going to win that alone. But do they need to do something else before the season starts to help Mr. Murray? Okay, let's dive in. Isaiah says, Will McLeigh should be the number one target.

So Will McLeigh from the Dallas Cowboys has been around for a very long time. This is the hard thing for me. I would love to come in with a list and shout at the top of my lungs that I believe in one guy over the next. It's just so hard to know. Like, what's the difference? I mean, McLean has been around for a really long time, but so has Terrence Gray. I do think that where he comes from Jerry Jones just towers over that entire organization, but he could be very good at what he does.

And I do think that Jerry hires a lot of really good people. So I just don't know. I just don't know how to parse it out if it's one guy who's been around football for a long time and player evaluation and another guy who's been around football for a long time in player evaluation. Quasi made this discussion more interesting because he was so much different. than Ryan Poles when we were having those conversations. Nick says, so I've been thinking I'd have more faith in the medical team keeping Caleb Banks on the field if they had done a better job with CD on the field, not a fair comparison.

But, well, you took the words out of my mouth when you said not a fair comparison. I think that what we realized last year, that we did not know going into the season, because it was never brought up at any time. and we sort of took for granted that an ACL was an ACL. We saw Delvin Cook come back from an ACL, of course, legendary Adrian Peterson coming back from an ACL. Okay, Derisaw tears his. He's out there for mini camp.

He's out there for training camp. This is going to be fine. I don't think anybody could have anticipated where that thing was going to go for Darisaw not being able to finish games, taking himself out because of discomfort and not looking like the same guy at all. At times, clearly being an injury there, I don't know if that's something that could have been prevented or that they were supposed to handle differently

or not put them out there or do something different with a brace. I have no idea. But I just know that at one point, O'Connell seemed to get so frustrated about the questions about it week in and week out that he did say something to the effect of Darisaw's injury was much worse than people knew. And so I think it was a unique one that there was a lot more torn than just the ACL. And that was the cause of the problem from last year. And we'll see how it works out going into next year. But this foot issue, this is another one where what,

what are you supposed to make of it? I know skull doc pops in. He's a foot guy, a doctor, foot doctor. I mean anyway uh but uh he pops in at times on our chat and his mention that he feels like this should not be an issue from just what he's read uh but no one really knows right i mean there's a this guy's six foot six and three hundred and thirty pounds and stuff breaks like everybody's got a similar skeleton i guess right so i i don't know when it comes to kela banks whether he'll be fine or not but at least We know that their evaluation, they put a lot of work into it and are going to take their best shot. You could certainly, there is, there is some skepticism there that's fair because it's football and he's that big.

And because there have been some other players that they brought in and deemed to be draftable. And then it wasn't. Although Andrew Booth Jr.'s issue was not exactly injuries. It was bad. That was really his problem. Still, another one where they took a risk on and it didn't work out. A couple of those happened last year as well for veteran players. Aaron Jones, you know, there's only so much you can do as a training staff.

I'll say this over and over again. They are good at their jobs. We know that. The NFLPA survey tells us that. O'Connell tells us that. I believe that they do everything they can, but they're not magicians. They're not fortune tellers. They can only evaluate what they can evaluate.

And the rest is kind of up to the guy's physiology. or whatever, but we'll see. Purple Kool-Aid, hopefully he doesn't take receiver advice from Brandon Bean. I know that would be, that would be like if they were personally attacking me, would be to hire the guy who doesn't draft wide receivers. I'm kidding, but the Vikings having their number one and presumably their number two wide receiver for the foreseeable future does take that off the table. And it also seems like there's something there with Bean,

who has built very good rosters and has been really successful with Buffalo and is this close from having a Super Bowl ring. But the reaction that he had last year to the local media critiquing them not drafting a wide receiver was one of the more bizarre things you'll ever see. And then the firing of Sean McDermott and the handling of that overall by the Buffalo organization where, okay, if you want to fire Sean McDermott, Dermann, I guess I understand. I kind of don't, but I guess I do because you can only get to the edge so many times before you maybe decide you need to try something else. But then they acted like

he killed a guy. They acted like it was just all his fault. How dare you, Sean McDermott, get you to the cusp of game after game that you could potentially go to the Super Bowl and not have it work out. That was also a little bit odd. I don't think that reflects on Terrence Gray at all. I mean, he's not the guy who's doing that stuff. So I doubt that he doesn't want to ever draft wide receivers. He would have been part of the Stefan Diggs draft. So, you know, at least there's that. Maybe fifth rounders are coming back like when the Vikings tried to repeat the

Stefan Diggs draft with Rodney Adams and Stacey Coley and Dylan Mitchell and a number of other guys who were not capable of playing in the NFL. but I think with Terrence Gray, I don't have any concerns about not focusing on wide receiver, but the one thing the bills have done that I do raise a little bit of an eyebrow and they didn't do it this year. But they've invested a lot of draft capital in non-premium positions. And they've hit on a lot of it. They've hit on James Cook and they've sort of hit on Dalton Kincaid.

But it's been a lot of invested in there was a linebacker early on and there's running back early on, there's a tight end, and there's not really maybe as much. Now, they did this year, and Gregory Rousseau would be another, but there hasn't been as much of those key positions, which you need to crush if you have an expensive quarterback. You need those because you need to make up the difference. If you're paid Kyler Murray $45 million a year, you can make up that difference if you draft an edge rusher and a corner whose cap hits basically add up to what, like $45 million, if they were veteran players, right?

So you can do that, but you can't do it drafting tight ends and running backs, even though those guys are good players. So that might be something that I wonder about. Nick says if it's status quo, we should just keep Rob. I think that that's fair because, I mean, the thing about Rob is, I mean, he'll be here. Either way, I'm pretty certain of that. I don't know in what title or if his title would change. I did ask.

saw Alec Lewis wrote about this a little bit. I brought it up before about the idea of a president than a GM. I asked Mark Wilf that at the owner's meeting. Straight up. I said, do you want to keep, and he doesn't have to tell me the truth. So this could change, but he usually is pretty honest. I said, do you want a different structure where you have like a president over the general manager or do you want the same structure that you've had? And he said, we're comfortable with the structure. We're going to keep going in the same way. So that means the GM is the, the top of the food chain. So I assume it's going to be that way, which would mean whoever the next GM is,

if it's Terrence Gray, that they would be the one calling the final shots. And presumably Rob Brzezinski would go back to being that right-hand man type of person. The reason I wouldn't mind Rob is because I'm always looking for, this is what you're going to hear me say. This is what I decided on. I decided on I need a phrase. I need something that like encapsulates how I feel about the GM search. And the phrase is, what's the edge?

What's the edge? Where are you getting an advantage by hiring Terrence Gray? And the answer would be, the presumed advantage is his background in college scouting. It runs extremely deep. He's come from a team that drafted well. When he was with the Vikings, they drafted well, this guy gets that side of the business. Okay. the advantage with Rob has actually already been on display, which is, yes, it's status quo, but

there's a tweak. And that tweak is Jonathan Grenard not being here. I don't think in previous years, in 2019 and 2021, years where they seemed up against a certain roster group that was going to change after this, I don't think any of those people end up trading Jonathan Grenard under those circumstances. I think that they would have Quasi or Rick Spielman. I think they would have just found a way to give him his money. And look, it goes back to the not trading Daniel Hunter at the right time.

I think they would have found away or not trading Kyle Rudolph at a certain time. Found a way. Let's get you the extension. Let's make you happy. Let's make sure we keep it all together. You know, this one last group for another try at it. And in this case, Rob was able to sell the idea successfully and execute it of if you put in hand number one, all the assets that you get in cap space and draft capital versus Grenard and playing Dallas Turner more. It evens out pretty nicely.

I think that's, I think asset management would be the Rob Brasinski cheat code. So there is a, so it, it's, it is status quo in that it's not likely to be. wildly different as in clear out everybody in the front office, Rob's here now the new sheriff in town. Of course it's not going to be like that. But I do think that the focus on asset management would be the edge. Nick says, I sense this is a legit interview, but fulfills the Rooney Rule needed to interview.

Yeah, I mean, like, that's something that they do have to do. That's true. But Terrence also having his career here. and being with a successful franchise. He's been on a lot of interviews. So I suspect that he's considered to be, as you said, a very legitimate candidate. Joker, we must make Quasi the scapegoat this season. Therefore, we must not win the Super Bowl in the last year of his play and window.

The football guys have pride on the line. You're being very snarky lately, Joker. And that's funny. But I was laughing the other day when pro football talk found a way to blame. Quasi for a rumor about the team being traded that didn't exist. So I guess you are right that we can continue to blame. Now, so as you guys know, I'm from Buffalo. I've been following the Buffalo Sabres very closely in the playoffs.

They look like a better team than the Minnesota Wild look right now. Funny thing about that is when they were struggling, they fired their general manager and hired a new GM. And then they took off. now the new GM, Yarmal Keck al-Nan had nothing to do with it. Wouldn't it be funny if Quasi gets fired, and I mean funny in like an ironic way, not funny for Quasi because he's the one that got fired, but wouldn't it be ironic if the Vikings won like 12 or 13 games? They didn't do a damn thing in the offseason, had a totally normal coach draft,

and then they just go off. And the whole debacle with the quarterback situation leads them to Kyler Murray and Quasi's roster, most of it, goes deep into the playoffs or something. Not impossible. Not impossible. You can look at a lot of different elements of that, but I do think that a lot of good players and a lot of talent were brought in and a lot of the right players were sent out during Quasie's era.

But the drafting, there's no, there's no debating about how bad it was. Purple Kool-Aid would prefer the Howie Roseman approach where they draft on an elite level and then rob teams blinded traits. Yeah, that's like saying I'd prefer, I'd prefer LeBron in his prime. Could he just, although Anthony Edwards the other night, my goodness, but I see what you're saying. The Philadelphia Eagles have been the masters of the asset management

and of drafting. Seattle, of course, is up there with John Schneider building two Super Bowl teams, and that is the dream scenario. But one thing that we know is that, Howie Roseman's missed on plenty of draft picks. But if you take the right shots over and over, it will eventually work out. Now, I'll never understand what they were looking at with Jalen Rager versus Justin Jefferson

because production was not even remotely close. But, okay, that was a huge miss for Howie Roseman in that front office. But they tend to have very good, you know, process. They play the numbers well. they play the draft board well. They make trades at the right time. They do crazy stuff with their salary cap, but when they're in a position to win, they got Devante Smith because they were not in a position to win and pulled Jalen Hertz out

of a game to lose and get a higher draft pick. They took advantage of a bad situation in Tennessee to trade for A.J. Brown. They're going to, I think, trade A.J. Brown to New England for, you know, the way it sounds. they were able to land Mackay Lemon in this draft. So they wait and get a wide receiver and, you know, kind of swing a trade there. So they are as good as it gets to asset management. And so that would be the concern. And I don't know what Terrence Gray thinks of asset management.

But if you hire the scout person who's about eval, evail, evail, everything is about nail the evaluation. we believe in our ability to scout and develop talent. That side of it, and it doesn't have to be this way because there are teams that manage their assets quite well who have scouting backgrounds. I mean, you know, there are teams that have former players as their GM who handle their assets quite well, right? But it can be a shortcoming of that side of it where it's more focused on we believe in what we see as opposed to Howie Roseman comes from. the same kind of world as Rob Brzezinski, I don't necessarily believe in what I see, but I do believe if we get more draft picks, that we've got a better chance to succeed, right?

And if we have more salary cap space, then we've got a better chance to fix the mistakes that we make. So I'm much more on the side of, I think that asset management is the most important thing in the sport, because I think even if you are the best evaluating team, it doesn't mean the board's going to fall to you in the draft. it doesn't mean the free agent's going to sign with you who you love so much. So even though I think the Vikings with Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell understands what fits him, he was clearly in the driver's seat to draft Jordan Addison. So he knows what fits him as well.

So those guys are good at their jobs. And if you want somebody to work hand in hand with the coaches of we know what you guys want and we're going to go out there and we're going to find it, well, I'm certainly not against that. But I tend to think my brain works much more on the consensus boards, draft capital, how many top 100 picks can you stack, how much cap space can you create to then push the gas pedal down when you need to. That's just where my brain works more so because I think the evaluation thing can be, I mean, the draft could just be so random. You can nail nine out of ten evaluations, but if you draft the 10th guy, you look like, you know,

good. Joker, a Bill's guy overreactive, illogical move. You know, I don't know about that. The bills certainly with Brandon Bean, there's something with the wide receivers, but they have built a good team over there pretty consistently. And that's my point about the defenses, is that they have built good defenses and that has not a lot to do with Josh Allen. It certainly helps a bit that you're playing from ahead with Allen.

when you have good defense year after year after year. Overall, they've never been worse than 12th since he signed an extension, which means it's going to be tougher for you at that point. When he was on his rookie deal, they were at the top of the league in defense under Sean McDermott. So, I mean, they do know how to build a team in Buffalo, and Brandon Bean is not some nutcase. I just think that he's kind of made it his hill to die on with this wide receiver thing.

They also traded a, what was it, a second round pick for DJ Moore? so it's not like they didn't try that either. And they spent a second round pick on Keon Coleman. But if their only thing that they're bad at is wide receivers, that you don't need to be good at that here. Son of Beavers, this guy used to be a Viking scout. What players did he pound the table for when he was here? I mean, I would ask that.

I'd be curious. They probably have his old scouting reports on file. But, I mean, who knows, right? Over the years, he was part of, as everybody else is, some good drafts and bad. And Rick and Mike were the ones calling the shots. Rick had the final say. So it would have been during his era.

But he was part of the 2015 draft and 2014 as well that really set the stage for this team going to the NFC championship in 2017. So they've drafted well in Buffalo considering their draft slot. They've had some down drafts. But especially I was looking at 2022 through 2024. They had a lot of hits through the draft. then and found especially like fourth and fifth round players that had worked out pretty well, role players that were built around Josh Allen. So they've been a good drafting team there and the Vikings drafted pretty well.

I mean, really that 2013, 2012 getting Harrison Smith. I mean, that's all when Terrence Gray was here. I think if I'm doing the math correctly. He was, see, he was a scout for 11 years with the Vikings and has been with the bill since 2017. So, yeah, it would have been a part of a lot of those drafts that ended up building that really good team.