Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Vikings GM candidate emerges (Part 2)

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.

Nick says, yeah, I mean, it is possible that Kyler Murray could get injured and McCarthy magically live up to the hype because we know that anything is possible in Viking land. That is for sure. Maybe you're talking about, are you talking about a little bit of the, is that in response to the ESPN ranking or just a random thought? son of beavers would rather have D.Hop at his price, DeAndre Hopkins. Do wonder if they'll bring in a veteran-wide receiver to try out at rookie minicamp. That does happen sometimes where they bring in a veteran player. I don't know if that will be this year or not. I mean, if you're getting DeAndre Hopkins, he's just coming in.

You're just signing him. And there's a lot of guys who are kind of okay, like, or who have been okay during their careers Noah Brown, Curtis Samuel, Josh Reynolds. Those guys are playable, but have not been a successful model for the Vikings in years past. In fact, they become, do you remember that guy? Like, do you remember the time that Kirk Cousins threw a bomb to Tajay Sharp with the game on the line against the Vikings or against the Packers in week one of 2020? I mean, and that was like, he had two targets all year and both of them were, uh, unexplainable throws in his direction. If I remember correctly, Albert Wilson was brought in here.

Uh, he didn't make the team Kendall right back in the day, Jordan Taylor. It hasn't been a very successful model to bring in a guy who was very fringe to begin with. And then you're sort of hoping that he sustains that fringeness. Uh, but it also hasn't been that sustainable to bring in. in an older player who had better days. The only one I could really think of, though, is Michael Floyd is the only one I can really think of. But I'm just, I mean, Michael Floyd, that was a whole situation in its own that we can

laugh about another day about how just strange that entire thing was. Purple Kool-Aid, Trayvon Morig was ejected for punching him. Oh, that's right. Yes. Jennings. Yes. That's right. So he might not have the best reputation.

That's the, that I was trying to think of what the other incident was. That's good call. There was, there was a punch. And I think it was a punch in a not very nice place that cost Trayvon Moring there. But yeah, I mean, that might be the case. When you add it up a little bit, you go, oh, this is sort of wide receiver stuff, right? But does that mean that he's somebody they're concerned about having in the building or do they think it's probably fine? And they're not worried about that part of it.

but him kind of trying to pull a trade demand last year, not a position of having really any leverage, and then some stuff off to the side with other players. If they feel like he's not somebody that fits with their locker room, they won't sign him. I mean, that's just who the Vikings are. Nick says, Fandul question the day, they need receiver.

Yeah, I mean, I think that that's clear. It's really to what degree of receiver? Do you need to pay Joan Jennings because you feel like if you don't have him, you're going to be in trouble. Or do you feel like, well, they could just throw a Curtis Samuel in there and see what Ty Felton's got open competition for all the undrafted wide receivers and so forth? So, like, there's different approaches that they could take two wide receiver. It's, do you want the DeAndre Hopkins, which feels like the safest route or the biggest

move that they could make, the biggest name they could bring in? a Noah Brown who's been a solid wide receiver three for a couple teams that just got hurt last year, which is probably why he's still out there. Purple Kule, we need to add another receiver, whether it be Jennings, Newk, Curtis Samuel, or even, I think, didn't Jahan Dotson signed somewhere? I think he did. Gabe Davis has been injured too much. Please get Jennings on the stream.

I'd be happy to. I would be happy to. Does he live stream? I know that a lot of athletes do, including Jalen Brown, who went on his live stream after the Celtics loss to complain. Joker, if Banks got to half of those numbers, he's overachieving your expectations. Well, half of 582. I'm not that great at math, but that's not even 300. So, I mean, if you're, then, you know, you're expecting, I guess, injury.

but I think of 475 to 500 is where I would put it. Because that means that you're using him a lot in passing situations, but you're not asking too much of him. That probably would mean that early on he plays, say, 25 snaps, and then you're hoping to work it up to 40. But with the fact that he's coming in, I don't want to say he's out of shape, but it's like not really possible if you're recovering from a foot injury

to be in the same shape as everybody else. So you're having to work yourself into shape during training camp, work yourself back into game shape. He has not played games really since 2024. So there's going to be work that has to be done right there. And that's why, you know, 450 feels pretty reasonable to me. 582 is like a best case scenario. That means he's earned his way on the field a lot over training camp.

And they feel like he's good to go, jump right out there. but if he's under 300, then that's a pretty tough year for Caleb Banks because then it starts to add up in the same way with J.J. McCarthy where you go, this guy hasn't played 400 plus snaps since 2004 and now it's 2006. We went through that whole thing with McCarthy where it's like he hasn't gotten to a thousand passes since high school yet. At some point, the guy's got to get on the field. And I think we all know that. Like that's the biggest thing for Caleb Banks. that Caleb Banks' talent is somewhere in the ballpark of a middle first round pick. I, by a lot of people's assessment, not everybody.

Some people didn't see him quite at that level. But in terms of where the grinding the mocks had him before he got the other foot injury, he was somewhere like 23rd. So he's that level of player. If he had dominated college football, he would have gone in the top seven. but he didn't so he's still going to have to be a project who develops. If he stays healthy, there is a, I think a good chance that they'll have a plan for him and there will be development.

But if he does not stay healthy, then you can get behind on a player like this very quick. So that is vital for them. And there's no way for us to really figure it out. Purple Kool-A don't need a star, but if we could get a Gerius Wright type who could count on and have sure hands on third downs. Totally. And, you know, I, now there's a guy that I should try to connect with. Is Jerry is right?

Because he has to be one of the most popular players in Vikings' recent history. It's just so many big plays from that guy, even though you go back and look at his numbers and you're like, it really didn't put up big numbers, but it felt like every time he got the ball, it was something important. That's where who can you rely on the most. That's why I like the name Noah Brown because he has a history of being a reliable number three wide receiver. He's probably the closest thing. Maybe not exactly. I don't know what his specs are, his size, speed, whatever.

But in terms of the role he's played during his career, that's the type of player he's been. Whereas some of these other guys have been bigger role players. Josh Reynolds has kind of been that a little bit. He was that for the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams. So there might be a connection there with Kevin. O'Connell. But there's, it's, it's not like there's a ton of amazing players out there that you could just bring in for wide receiver three. That's why it's interesting that Joanne Jennings is available because the guy has 132 receptions and 1,600 yards and 15 touchdowns over the last

two seasons. I mean, that's just not a guy who makes it to May very often as a free agent. Nick says Claymore gets 14 carries and at least one of them break out touchdown. Or if he gets 14 carries, then at least one of them. I think he'll get more than that. I would shoot for because what are the chances that, I mean, Xavier Scott is still on the roster and he does something different. He is unique and he's got some experience now. He could catch the ball.

And I thought that the times they asked Xavier Scott to pass protect, he was actually really good. So I wouldn't be surprised if they want to keep four running backs because and five with Max Bredesen because Xavier Scott is just this kind of weird little unicorn player. I mean, he's actually quite big, but you know what I mean? Like smaller role, but can come in out of the slot, can rotate to the backfield, can pass protect, can catch the ball with a toe tap in the back of the end zone. So I think they might want to keep him.

but if Claiborne only gets 14 carries, for a sixth round pick, I guess I shouldn't be disappointed or there shouldn't be disappointment in someone who gets 14 carries as a sixth round pick. Just feels like there's a higher expectation based on the guy's speed that if there's an injury that he's going to step in or if they're just maybe sputtering in the run game that they bring him in to try to be a change up. because he's the only one in that group that has that 437 type of speed. Kev Charles Demings will make an immediate impact. I think that in the best case scenario, he doesn't, you would much rather have him develop. He's coming from Stephen F. Austin. So the jump is going to be really enormous.

I think with his athleticism, he has a chance to become a very good player in the NFL and be the guy who slid through the cracks, where everybody was sort of avoiding FCS. talent and Mac talent and so forth and they, you know, grab him. I think he has some upside there. But right away would probably be a big ask. The other thing is, too, is that if he has an immediate impact, that likely means that

somebody got hurt. And that's not so good either. Joker, Claiborne will be RB2 in like four to six games because of injury. Certainly history is a little bit on your side there with Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, both being banged up at different times last year. And I agree with you that that's one of the reasons we could see DeMond Claiborne play more than is expected. Nick says, interesting that McCarthy was at Max Bredison's house for the draft.

Wonder if is orchestrated by the Vikings. No, no, no, they're, yeah, like you said, college friends. Yeah, they played on the national championship to get a team together. Very, very close. I don't think J.J. McCarthy had any idea that they were going to draft his teammate. but they probably did ask him about Bredison and everything that I've heard so far about Max Bredison is this guy is a classic fullback. High intelligence, high drive, high toughness.

I think we're going to see a good amount of him playing. But I'm sure that they did ask J.J. McCarthy. They usually do that in their, I think they do it a lot where if there's somebody who someone else played college football with, they ask him. Purple Kool-Aid. I think Orange will have closer to 500 snaps, about 30 snaps a game seems right for run fits. I could see it. That type of player usually hovers between 4 and 500, that nose tackle type of guy.

And, you know, you actually might see some pass rushing downs where, you know, he grabs somebody and throws him. I mean, he's got a little bit more jolt to get into the backfield than I think most guys that are like him. A lot of guys who are like him are just like, yeah, I run into the, block, you know, blockers and I take him up and that's it. But he actually, there's some reps where he kind of takes off and penetrates. It gets into the backfield because he's got quick feet for someone who's that enormous. So they don't have to just pull him out of the game for every second down in 10. They could still continue to use him for different things with his quickness.

You want to keep him fresh, a guy that's that big. But yeah, I mean, 500 is certainly not crazy for Orange. I think he'll go over the expected 300-something. Joker, you says power rank for gambling purposes every week during the season, usually end up sorting teams into about five or six tiers and rank from the edges to the middle. Yeah, that's what I ran into when I was doing. And I'm going to continue to do it because people enjoyed it, actually, the NFC power rankings for how much I struggled with it.

But I'm also trying to really think it through, right? the thing that I struggled with is deviation, where the Rams and Seahawks are a lot better than the third best team in the NFC. And the third best team and the 10th best team are pretty close together. The third best team, in my opinion, is closer to the 10th best team than two and three. That the Seahawks and Rams are so much better than everyone else, at least, you know, in May, but are so much better than everyone else on paper. but yet I have to do it one, two, three, four, five, six.

Like the same thing kind of goes for if you're making a draft board. Well, yeah, I mean, the guy might be 23rd on your draft board, but he might be close to number 10 and number one and number five are not that close together if that makes sense. So that's, you're probably right to do it in tiers, but I want to do it the way everybody does the power rankings. I want to do it in order and then try to figure it out. Because even though I was joking about it,

it was quite challenging to go through in an NFC like this that has a lot of teams where you could absolutely see it working and then you can also see the potential pitfalls. Gazincad, the most unstable thing is the fan base. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, I think that Vikings fans have been through so many different iterations of what's happening right now, not necessarily always GMs. changes because Rick was here for a very long time, but always kind of searching for that next thing that's going to get you past being the nine and eight type of team. And what is it?

Is it the next leader? Is it the next signing? Is it the next quarterback? That's where Vikings fans have lived for a long time. And then you know where it usually goes, which is I was joking with a friend today, a former NFL scout, just about Kyle. He's not a huge fan of Kyler Murray. And I said, come on, man, you know he's winning 12 games. Like, that's been kind of my joke with, you know, Packers, people and everything else. Like, this, this thing, it always goes this way. So I think Vikings fans are well prepared for the different ways that this could go. I don't think it's going to look like Donovan McNabb, Minnesota Viking because Kyler Murray is in shape. There was a video that I think he put on his social media.

Like, can confirm Kyler Murray is more jack than you are. So, you know, like, there's a, there's a place that Vikings fans have lived for a very long time. And they are in this place again. And that's why there is some interest, I think, from some fans at saying, is there something different you can do at GM to shift this? Because there's never been a better time to do it than right now. oddly enough, 2021 to 2022 was not really the best time because that group was still, they were still good enough to win games. And so you made the new general manager come in with someone else's team that was still

good enough to win and then had to tear it down. Whereas the new GM here, this season is all set. Other people have done that. He's starting anew in 2007 with a lot of flexibility. where it felt like Quasi Adafel Menta had to force that flexibility by cutting guys, taking on huge amounts of dead cap space, sticking with Kirk Cousins, that whole deal. So this time the quarterback situation is open. There's a lot of salary cap space open.

There's a good amount of draft capital for next year. Like, this is a little bit different in that way. Matt says we play the NFC South. We're not picking in the top 10 next year. 24th is preposterous. Wouldn't mind, but it's not going to have. happen. The NFC South is improved in some ways. The New Orleans Saints, I think, have gotten a lot better. They had a really good draft in my, you know, my draft grades. I didn't make draft grades necessarily,

but I thought they had a good draft of players who could impact right away. Also, they had a good free agency. And Tyler Shuck, if he's even halfway decent, they can be a competitive team. Carolina made the playoffs last year. It all is about Bryce Young there, but them getting help on their offensive line, them spending a lot of money. I believe that they were maybe a top three, four spender and free agency this year.

So they're trying to take advantage of the last years that Bryce Young is not expensive. So that team has improved enormously under Dave Canales and their new front office with Dave, um, David Morgan. So they're a lot, they're a lot better.

than they have been in the past. Is that more than an eight or nine win team? That's going to have to be proven. Tampa Bay, I think, is regressed. And Liam Cohen did a heck of a job with Baker Mayfield. That did a heck of a job with Trevor Lawrence, but they don't have him now in Tampa Bay. So is Baker going to kind of be what he was last year,

which was mostly mid, kind of regressed back to that last season? I think he was trying to play through an injury, but still was not the same Baker as he was the year before. That team, I think, is just okay. And Atlanta, I mean, who knows? They've got weapons, but who knows? You're right, though, that it's not like you're facing the NFC West. And also the AFC East has the dolphins and the Jets.

Very winnable games. Buffalo and New England are going to be hard attack, but the other two games are very winnable. I mean, six games right there that not any of those teams truly scare you. So 24th, just based on schedule, just based on schedule. Sorry, I got, Matt says, difficult to believe we have the best foot specialists in the world when here on Earth we have the worst doctors in the NFL. I don't think that that's, I don't think that that's true at all for the Vikings with the worst. I do think it last year was crazy, the way that there was a lot of complicated injuries, the J.J. McCarthy thing, the Darrisaw thing.

Cashman was out for a while. There was a other specific health issue with Harrison Smith. It was all kind of happening at once. And they were moving the entire operation overseas. When they got healthy, you know, things looked a lot better. But yeah, purple Kool-Aid, you're pointing out two years ago, it was good injury luck. Oh, and, yeah, the Carson Went situation. That was a whole other, you know, thing that I would care not to revisit.

It was such a mess. But when you're talking about the injury luck is really what it is. And you can do a lot in your medical staff. They have to be trusted by the players, which I get the sense that they are here in Minnesota. And they're, you know, I mean, best in the world. If Rob had just said the best in the league, I think that it could have been left at that. We would have, you know, picked on them so much. But I have no doubt about that.

There's just only so much you can do when it's football. And there's always going to be injuries. Rob thoughts on the power ranking pundits putting the Vikings bottom five. Yeah. So my main thought. thought on that is when you look at the other teams in the NFC, you can, I mean, quarterback is stable. There's very few teams in the NFC that have an unstable quarterback situation. Even someone like the New York Giants, they know that Jackson Dart was pretty good last year and

has a good chance to take a step forward. And, you know, Dallas and Philly and Washington and Detroit and Green Bay and Chicago, like all these teams know who their quarterback's going to be. Even the NFC South, there's only really one question, which is whether it's two are Michael Penix. And then in the NFC West, same quarterbacks. And they're all good. So when you look at everybody kind of has B to B plus quarterbacks in the NFC, but they all played last year or, you know, Jane Daniels got hurt, but he was in the NFC championship the year before. I could see why people would say that we just don't know what's going to happen with Kyle or Murray.

so why would we put the Vikings ahead of this team, that team, and the other team? And I also will continue to go back to the idea that no one has watched the Arizona Cardinals play because why would you? I think that a lot of people who are power ranking watched the last 21 games of Kyler Murray or 22, 22 games of Kyler Murray, they might look at it a little bit different, but you don't know if he's going to stay healthy. He got hurt last year. You don't know how he's going to fit.

with the offense and all those things. And are you going to say if you're trying to be as right as you possibly can, yeah, a new quarterback who has been up and down in his career versus a Jared Gough, who's been very stable versus a Jordan Love who's been very stable, right? So I can see why they do it. Oh, gosh. Did I do an off-season jam session? Where have you been?

No, I have not. I have not. It's someday, someday. June, early July. I got to try to figure out how we get the amp down here so you could hear it with everything, because I'm using a lot of outlets. Like I'm a data center here, the amount of power that I'm using. So I have to figure out how do I get an amplifier here so you can hear it, you know,

that kind of thing. But I'll figure it out for you. We can laugh at Michael. Can we laugh at Michael Floyd? Well, his situation was not funny, but how everything played out was bizarre. And so I sometimes when it's. stuff like that. And I just kind of remember what happened. It's like a little chuckle because of how weird it was. And it was weird. There was the thing about, you know, kombucha. I mean, that part,

yeah, that part you can laugh at. The whole kombucha, they have kombucha on tap. Like, yeah, come on. I mean, that's Mike Zimmer saying, if he's lying, I'll cut him. And, you know, clearly kombucha didn't cause that. So, yeah, or at least I don't think so. But it was a bizarre situation. I mean, how we landed on that situation was not fun. No, of course. It's not. And my understanding, I mean, Michael, I believe, has a very good reputation.

And after that, like, things have gone, at least my understanding is well for him post-career. So, you know, good for him and all that. But that whole situation ended up just being strange with the kombucha. It's hard to not laugh at that part. uh, Jim says, uh, oh,

thank you for the super chat, Jim, now the draft is over. What is the next big thing for Vikings fans to look forward to? Yeah, I mean, this is a hard thing about, um,

well, the, the GM being introduced, being hired, of course, is going to be huge. And, you know,

we'll cover that the best that, uh, I can. I'm, you know, I'm sure I'll be at the press conference and all that sort of stuff. And we'll do a lot of shows, breaking it down and what he's going to do and what he says and all that sort of stuff.

That'll be exciting. Uh, I don't want to, overstate what rookie mini camp or OTAs or mini camp is because it's not a lot. Rookie mini camp is going to be guys back in the day with Zimmer. He used to get them out there really, really going after it. That's generally not been the way that Kevin O'Connell has approached anything when it comes to the offseason stuff.

So they're evaluating, I don't know, different things. When it comes to the rookie mini camp, it's usually what do we hear? what do we see? Can we observe some stuff? I remember last year, one of the top observations made by Alec Lewis was that Ty Felton looked fast. And I think someone else looked taller than he expected. And that was like the top takeaways. It is tough with rookie mini camp to go out there. You get so many guys, you don't know who they are. And you're like looking around, pass catchers can stand out. But the edge rushers and the DTs, like, they're not going after

each other. They're doing technical type of drill stuff. So, you know, I know that people will look forward to, and I'll be there and everything, the post rookie minicamp podcast, but it's going to be about what's said a little bit more than what we see. And I'll try my best to come away with if defensive backs sometimes. I think was it maybe Zamaia Vaughn started to stand out a little bit there last year. So we'll try, do everything we can. But really, this GM thing is, I mean, it's, it's going to shift wherever the franchise goes into the future. So whoever they hire will be an enormous deal. Bob, no, they're not going to bring back Stefan Diggs.

Oh, yeah, that's a good point, friends of Taz, the schedule, the schedule, that'll be another thing to look forward to. Always love the schedule. We'll get Manny in here. We'll pick every single game. That'll be fun. That will be fun. So you look forward to that. Matt says if the Wilfs decide to go with someone else, a GM other than Rob,

Are there any promotional titles they could give Rob as a way to show they value him? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how that's going to work out. I mean, Rob has been promoted to pretty high, if not the GM, you know, right? Being the next man in line to the GM, not really a lot of other places they could go with that unless they decide on doing what Mark Wilf said that he wasn't going to do. He said that they really would like it to just be the general manager and the coach, not somebody above them, not like an intermediary or a liaison to ownership or whatever, not a Matt Ryan and then a GM and then a coach,

but to have the GM directly report to them that that's what they want. So Rob was already president of, was it football operation? What was, now I'm forgetting executive something. I'm bad with this. I was bad with you guys tested me on it the other night. I was terrible with it. Front office titles. It was high.

It's the guy that gets to be the GM when they fire the GM. So I don't know what more they would do there if he's not. But I would fully expect that that's part of the conversations. Like this guy is going to be a part of our front office because he has been a trusted member of that front office for such a long time. And that's the whole conversation is do they make a huge change? do they do a big overhaul or do they just say to the new GM work with these people that we believe in and trust it? That's really a, that's a huge question. Marauder, how can we improve if we keep doing the same stuff that has gotten us very little playoff success?

No wonder there were rumors of the Wilf's. The Wilfs are not selling. It wasn't a real rumor. It was like, can anybody just read? It was someone just sort of, hey, I wonder if. And then it gets picked up and then it becomes a thing. And then suddenly people are texting me saying the wulfs are selling the team. And it's like, are we nine years old in a game of telephone?

Because that's what that was like. And no, they're not selling the team. And no, it doesn't because they cut their spending. They have to because there's a salary. cap. Anyway, that was just crazy. It was like, how did this become a, how did this become a thing? It's just someone being like, I don't know, will they? I mean, there's stuff we say all the time on the show where it's, hey, well, they do this. That's not a headline every time if you're just sort of talking out loud. But I guess if you put it in writing and they didn't have the greatest

headline on it, that was, you know, eye catching, but certainly sent up a lot of flares. Anyway, it doesn't matter. The whole point is that that doesn't mean anything. Um, and In terms of doing the same thing over and over again, the whole, you know, Alfred Einstein, well, what it really comes down to is look who they're talking to. They're talking to a gentleman from the Buffalo Bills, who they would not be talking to if he didn't work for the Buffalo Bills, the team that has Josh Allen. I think we all know what the answer is to how to break out of this,

this same sort of wheel that they've been on of you get closer to the success with a pop-up year and then you regress and then you get closer to success and then you regress. Well, who doesn't regress? It's the teams with the best quarterbacks. You would defend all day long the approach they took of moving on from Kirk and drafting J.J. McCarthy. It was the right thing to do to take that swing and they may have to do it again unless Kyler Murray shows that he's good enough to compete in the NFC.

And then you've got to be the best team build team or team builder and evaluator and asset manager because really that's what the NFC is turned into. The NFC is turned into who can manage their assets the best, who can draft the best, because there aren't any elite quarterbacks. Every quarterback in the NFC is somewhere between B and B plus. Just go through them. Like I think Jane Daniels is phenomenal, but he got hurt last year and that he's probably a B plus right now.

Caleb Williams was a B or a B plus quarterback last year. He could be an A, but until then, DAC press. Scott B plus, Jordan Love B plus. Jared Gough, B plus. It's the same story. The only guy who is elite in the entire NFC won the MVP last year, Matthew Stafford, and he is 100. So, you know, into the future, can you get to B plus and compete or is there a path to A? And that's what is going to determine whether this works or not for the next GM. Chandler, Ty Chandler is not on the team anymore. He signed with the New Orleans Saints. JP, okay with Terrence Gray, but only if we keep Rob. Yeah, they're going to, I mean,

I can't say for 100% sure, but I mean, I just don't see any way that they're moving on from Rob Brzynski, especially after he did a good job here. But in terms of like president, I think what a lot of people like, and I like this idea too, I like the idea of having Rob Brzynsinski over the general manager and being the direct connect to the, the Wilf's and they may change their mind. It just, Mark Wilf said that that's not what they were going to do. I like that idea of, you know, putting him as the in-between and overseeing everything, but it doesn't feel like that's what they're going to do.

So he'll very likely stay in the same situation he's in, which is managing the cap and assisting on a lot of other stuff and he's good at it. If he doesn't get the GM job, obviously. Purple Kool-Aid, have you busted out a Caleb Banks pie chart feels like there's been a shortage of pie charts that's fair enough people got to ask for them if you want pie charts ask for pie charts i'm happy to do it well let's see let's do you want to just do year one or do you want to do like his whole his whole career uh of a pie chart you got to be specific so let's just do a let's do a year one Caleb banks pie chart let's let him maybe get

a game or two under his belt and then we can maybe do a career pie chart i think that there is a there is a 30% chance that Caleb Banks is just really good from the start and can play a lot of snaps and just goes out there difference maker week in and week out. He'll have his ups and downs, but he's just good. 30% chance of that. I'm going to go with a 40% chance that he rotates into a certain spot and is fairly effective, but there are some games where we just don't even really notice him outside of being enormous. And there are other games where we go, oh my gosh, Caleb Banks, wow. And he finishes with like 450 snaps and three sacks.

And you think, well, this could go in a good direction or it could settle in kind of right here. And okay, we'll see. There is a 20% chance that we just don't really make a lot of Caleb Banks in his first year. He's out there. It's 360 snaps. just didn't see too many plays from him and it's disappointment.

And that would be 90%. And a 10% chance. And I'm just throwing out injury altogether. Who knows? And a 10% chance that he doesn't even make it on the field. Because Flores has done that before. If he doesn't like what the top draft pick is doing, then he's not going to put him out there.

He does not seem to care about the draft status. So there you go. Friends of Taz, when you look at the 2025 roster, the running back's wide receivers, which group has more talent? Well, of course, the wide receivers, because of Justin Jefferson, which is why they ran 43% past 57%. Why would you try to give the ball to the lesser talent? So, I mean, I think that the one of the reasons they threw that often is because they were losing a lot early in the season, and then they shifted it toward the end of the season.

But this is a fair point when you talk about the backfield and where they made a genuine an effort in the coaching staff and in the draft to improve what they have in the backfield and their overall running game. The hiring of Keith Carter is the offensive line coach, Frank Smith, I've mentioned many times, but I think you're going to notice a lot of different stuff. After watching Miami, I was like, okay, there is a lot of misdirection stuff, a lot of eye candy, things going on that I don't think the Vikings have been that effective with in these previous years under KOC. But where it is a little bit on the, I guess, disappointing side isn't the right word,

but maybe not enough side is a sixth round running back, keeping Xavier Scott, keeping Aaron Jones, from a talent perspective, it doesn't move the needle. It's the same. And we'll see what happens with Claiborne. And if he is a startlingly good player right away, then, well, then, wow, that's a home run. but he's a sixth round draft pick so you can't really bank on that. When it comes to Aaron Jones coming back, I have no doubt that Aaron's going to be good

and that he's going to be banged up at times. And Jordan Mason was effective last year. And I think it could be very good in this offense. But it's not like they went out and got Travis Etyn. It's not like they went out and got the top free agent running back or that they drafted, you know, Judarian Price. So they did not have a needle moving move in the backfield.

But you're right about Kevin O'Connell. He's going to be passed first. And he should be. That is still the way to win in the NFL is that you have to have your quarterback succeed. I think that what is missing, I don't know that anyone wants Kevin O'Connell to just run 47 times a game. I think what everyone wants is, hey, you're up by seven points and you just need to get a first down here. Maybe don't, you know, fire it into the end zone or something or go for a shot play or whatever. Not that you can never do that stuff, but sometimes you have to just take the common sense, grind it out, win the game.

But they really haven't had the players of the line to do that too often either. So, uh, Joker, you're, you're right about, um, the power rankings. Like, yeah, rank, I mean, the tiers are better for, for actually understanding them. Uh, but certainly when you do it one through 32, it's easier for people reading it to understand. So that's what I'm going to do. Uh, Or I'm doing one through 16. Skull Shadow, what is your level of excitement for the inevitable punter battle this season between Hecker and Thornton?

It's, I'm hopeful. But you know what? I've had my heart broken before. I mean, Ryan Wright turned out to be fantastic last year. But we've been, we've been hoodwinked before. So I'm not putting it on the line now. I'm not putting everything into it. I'm not believing Matt Daniels when he says it.

Uh, prediction for rookie mini camp, DeMond, Claiborne looks fast. Yeah, I did see, uh, that was, that made me laugh because everything that gets said now turns into like 50,000 of the same article, uh, like in Google or whatever, the same aggregation. And when somebody says something like that, so and so looks bigger than they, than I thought, it's like a story somewhere. Like, okay. Uh, but we'll try. We'll try our best.

Uh, skull shadow. the Wilf's need to need someone with zero fear of being fired to watch day-to-day operations. Wolf have been caught flat-footed a few times. That was my thought for why they should have a president of operations. Yep. Friends of Taz was 20-24. Chandler was cursed by penalties negating almost a dozen nice runs. He was.

He was. And a kick return, I think. Chandler just sort of failure to launch. 2023 looked very exciting and it just didn't happen after that. Andrew, Kyler Murray for the long-term quarterback sounds good to me. need to win a playoff game so KOC can stay long term. Everything has kind of indicated that that will be the case, that they want Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores to be here as their long term head coach in D.C., but as we know, the pressure

ramps up, things change. But in a best case scenario, in a best case scenario, they're getting to the end of the year saying we're absolutely signing Kyler Murray and he can do it and he can win in the playoffs. and we're going to rebuild around him over the next couple of years or build on the fly around him. I mean, there's that, of course, the best case scenario is you're drafting the number one overall quarterback the next year, but they just have too good of coaching and too much talent to do that. So the next best is that you have a quarterback that at the end of the year, you think that's, that is the best version of Kyler Murray that we've ever seen and he can win and you're close.

And it's right there and he can do it. and he loves it here and the extension is coming and like all those things are a best case scenario that's not crazy to see happening. But for the Wilf's sake, I think it would be a mistake if they were saying you win a playoff game or you're out. That type of ultimatum just is never, never good for a head coach situation. Do you think this is Hayden? Do you think that the Vikings believe they will have a strong season or do you think they're

going to bail on the year to get a better draft pick? So they basically never, ever bail on a year to get a better. draft pick, which is what has been a little bit of a clash of philosophies between myself and the top level of the team, because I've thought at different times, you really need to be realistic here. This is a tear down, not a competitive rebuild. And yet they've gone competitive rebuild every time. So I don't see that happening at all. I think that they think they're going to be very good behind the scenes.

I don't know that they think they're going to be a Super Bowl champion. but I think Brian Flores doesn't come back. And I don't think Kevin O'Connell after what happened in 2024 is going to go into a season saying, I don't know, guys, because that team went, you know, 14 and 3. But you look at the amount of talent that came back. They really only lost a couple of spots. We'll see what happens with Harrison Smith. Overall, it matches up just fine with the other teams in the NFC North.

It's just going to come down to who has it work out for them and how. how well Kyler Murray plays. But I, when you go through it, you know, when you go through the different teams in the NFC North, all of them have holes that their podcasters are talking about every night. How are we going to fix this hole? Friends of Taz, do you think there will be a way of honoring the veterans who have gone to Valhalla, who have passed away, you mean like Joey Brown or Doug Martin, others, there should be.

Yeah, there should be something. Joey Browner, I mean, Doug Martin was a really good player too, but Joey Browner was a legitimate legend for the Vikings. I'm sure that they'll do something. Yeah, I'm sure that they will have some way of honoring those guys for sure. So, all right. Oh, the wolves tip got moved to 847, huh? Storm says, I just, your name is Storm Davis.

Is that like, are you the former Oakland A's pitcher from the 80s? Wasn't that Storm Davis? just hope they don't jump and pay Murray a lot of money long term for a mediocre season because of being gun shy after letting Darnold walk. That is a very fair point, storm is if Kyler Murray, and I'll look at Mike Clay's projections on that, but I don't think he's projecting a crazy big season from Kyler Murray. if he ends up having a decent year and they win 10 games and they rank 15th on offense and it's just okay, then you shake Kyler Murray's hand, you say thank you for your time and we're going to go draft quarterback and then move forward. It's a hard place to be.

This is why this conflicting general manager is getting hired in the middle of Kevin O'Connell's, possibly the middle of Kevin O'Connell's time with the Vikings. He's been here for this long. The pressure starts to mount. Does he get to draft a second quarterback? I mean, that just doesn't, uh, yeah, that doesn't jive normally. If you're on your second GM with your head coach that has already been here for quite a long time and hasn't won in the playoffs, I mean, I think that they would look at it like if you get to 10 wins, well, maybe next year it'll be better.

But you're right. I mean, you run into that. fear and that's what the Vikings did in 2019 into 2020 extending kirk cousins there was the fear of well what the heck did you know anybody else uh you know or or what the heck are we supposed to do a quarterback who else are we supposed to get if kirk isn't here used to be the thing that got thrown around a lot well if not kirk then who it was like i don't know man i mean you're only winning with his contract eight to 10 games so is there something else is there another option is there a draft pick?

Is there a swing? And they always seem to be, that's why it's wild that they did the Sam Donald thing because they were so afraid to ever move on from Kirk. So I always wondered if Kirk and being afraid to move on from Kirk made them more confident to move on from Sam Darnold. What a team. I'm the first person to get the name origin right. No one has ever known where it comes from.

Oh, okay, cool, cool, cool. Well, I collected a lot of baseball cards. so randomly every once in a while somebody's name will pop into my head you know chili davis or something and it'll be like oh you know like i remember that guy you know so it happens all the time i could just keep going but it happens all the time but um that's cool uh skull shadow off season is slow any chance you can bring on uh oh make a viking's trivia games so we could play during the live pods that's a that's a good idea that's a good idea you know know, that's, that is a good idea to, um, last year we had after nine o'clock, things get weird.

And then people would start asking strange questions after nine o'clock. I should come up with something like that. I like, I do like that. I should come up with something like that for, all right, we've been on the live stream for, you know, 45 minutes and answering questions. So now let's do something ridiculous. Let's answer some Vikings trivia, whatever. I like that.

That's a really good idea. Hayden, if the Vikings have a mediocre offense, do you think they will draft another quarterback? I have no idea how they're going to approach it right now, but they should. And having a new general manager gives you that opportunity. Now, I know that the next year's quarterback class is always supposed to be better. Just wait till next year. But it actually was true in 2024. So there are a lot of quarterbacks, maybe eight or nine of them that are projected to have a

chance to be a first rounder. So it really comes down to the next general manager. But here's the other thing, too. You just don't know what's going to happen. Did anybody else have Kyler Murray being available for a million dollars this year? Like, no, at this time last year. In fact, go back and look at power rankings or whatever else. There were a lot of people who thought the Arizona Cardinals were about to take another step.

Like, oh, yeah, the Cardinals could kind of surprise people this year. And the way they started the season with Kyler, if you actually go back and watch those games, they were playing with everybody in those games. They even played a tough game against Seattle, where Kyler played it. I mean, as well as anybody did this year against Seattle, he gets hurt, the wheels come off, they tank, everything else. But that just shows you how hard it is to figure out. And, you know, Bob saying Baker will be our quarterback.

He might be. I mean, there's, you never know who is going to potentially be available after this year. So that's why you keep as much cap space as you possibly can have because you might be in the position to convince the next quarterback to come to the Minnesota Vikings if you have to. But the hardest place to be is if Kyler is the 16th best quarterback in the league and you win 10 games and you lose by three in a playoff game and he plays really well, then what do you do? Daniel Jones got hurt at the right time. As weird as that sounds, Daniel Jones was regressing and then got hurt. And it was like, oh, well,

what do we do? Right. Anyway, uh, really fun chat. Um, if you're rewatching this, please answer the, uh, fan dual question of the day, which is Kyler Murray's plus 550 to win comeback player of the year to the Vikings need to do something else to help him is the fan dual question of the day. Uh, Jay, why do you think that the Vikings are not being more aggressive to find a wide receiver three? Will we wait, um, long on the wide receiver three like we did last year?

year or on backup quarterbacks. Well, wide receiver three last year was Jalen Naylor. So he was pretty well settled. But to your point, I think they have to have a GM in place before they start making other moves. If they signed Joanne Jennings to a multi-year contract where he's got big guarantees and then the next GM comes in and it's like, so you did that right before I got hired, huh? They can wait and they're going to get more cap space June 1st.

and it doesn't seem like anyone in the league is in a huge hurry to sign anybody. So I think there will still be wide receivers there. And I really feel like, yes, they're going to address the position for sure. So, all right. Great stuff. Great stuff. I appreciate all of you guys watching and listening. Really fun live show.

Something tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly what. And Friday, we're going to be out there for rookie mini camp. so I will have a live show on Friday for sure to break down what we've learned. If anything, we'll see who looks bigger than we thought. See if there's any interesting undrafted free agents. We'll go from there. But thanks everybody for watching and listening.

And enjoy your Wolves basketball. Let's hope it goes as good as it did last time. Football, though. Football.