Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Aaron Jones says JJ McCarthy is 'different' and 'wants to be great' (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about Aaron Jones's comments on Good Morning Football about JJ McCarthy and discusses some random scenarios that would be shocking if they came up. Plus answering Vikings fan questions and interesting comments from former Viking Garrett Bradbury.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here, and as you can see, I am on the road for today's episode, and hopefully we'll be just as good as in home territory. This is an episode that I think is a little more open, a little more free to have a conversation. I'm sitting in my in-laws back den in front of all of my father-in-law's car books, so you can tell that I'm definitely not home, because I don't know a thing about cars. But there's also no huge headline for today, so I've got a couple of interesting Aaron Jones comments about J.J. McCarthy, and then the NFL released something

that's kind of fascinating. It's called NFL IQ, and it tries to predict the top targets of each NFL team based on their needs, and I assume based on mock drafts as well. So we'll take a look at who NFL IQ, which was created by the NFL, thinks that the Minnesota Vikings are most likely to draft. But this is a show as always for you guys and ask me anything, anything Vikings you want, anything NFL, just the food

opinions I'm not very good at. So anything else other than that, feel free to throw it out there. We'll have a fun discussion. Also, intern Clay is standing by as well, and he's got some other things to discuss, including Garrett Bradbury's first comments as a New England patriot, which I wouldn't have thought he would have said anything that would surprise me or interest me, and yet he did. So, we're going to take a look at that along with Clay's put together some would you rather have this guy or that guy in the draft so we can have some fun debates there. But throw your questions, your comments into the comment section and we will fire up some fun football conversation.

Jason thought I was at the Masters. No, I would be whispering if I was at the Masters. Instead, I'm in my in-laws back then screaming. The windows are open, so maybe the neighbors are going to think, why is someone yelling about the Minnesota Vikings? Maybe they'll enjoy the show as well. So no, not me at the Masters. Although I will say, former intern Paul Hodawanek is actually covering the Masters for PGA Tour.com this week.

I'm very proud of former intern Paul and you can go follow him on social media to see his coverage. But how cool is that? Former intern of mine that I drafted and developed, if you will, turning into a guy who's covering the Masters. So there's a lot of pressure on intern Clay to step up his game. I have let him know that that today he's really got to prove himself because the other interns are kind of crushing it. So let's get to the Aaron Jones comments right away here on the show. And again, throw those questions and comments into the chat and I will jump on those right after I run through these. So Aaron Jones was on Good Morning Football. And of course, he was asked about his new quarterback, JJ McCarthy. He said, quote, he's different here, he said, pointing to his head.

And thank you to Jonathan Harrison, producer of this show, who transcribed the comments on Bring Me the News, their website. But, you know, different here, assuming mentally he's a competitor. He wants to be great and he's hungry. I think you'll see it when he steps onto the field. So that was interesting. And he also said, JJ is a winner. You look at him from high school through his time in college. He's lost one career game, which is really crazy to think about.

He came in in a short time with the Vikings last year, and he was falling. Now, the way that I look at compliments from teammates is, of course, teammates are always going to give compliments to their quarterback and they're always going to say nice things about each other because what sense would it make for Aaron Jones to go on Good Morning Football? He's way too good of a teammate to be like, man, I don't know. I'm worried. I'm worried. Of course he's not going to do that. If he does, that would be a huge headline.

It would be crazy. Aaron Jones is one of the most positive people that I've ever been around. It's almost like if you took Kevin O'Connell and made him into a running back is how everlastingly positive Aaron Jones is as a person. But these comments did make me think of two different things. Number one is, oh yeah, JJ McCarthy still has Aaron Jones. And when we talk about the leadership element for McCarthy and making this team his, I think it's really beneficial that he has a player like Aaron Jones because

everything you've ever heard about Jones is True when it comes to his locker room presence what he's like to be around people Care about him so much. I think he has a really great understanding of people and What they're going through what they're feeling how to put them in the right place, and that positive attitude, I think, is also really helpful. And it's somebody who's been through just about everything in the NFL. Aaron Jones has been through close playoff losses, he's been through tough seasons, ups and downs,

and knows how to navigate all that stuff, and he did so with one of the great quarterbacks in NFL history when he was with Green Bay. So this was a reminder of, yeah, that's right. J.J. McCarthy is not doing this thing alone. And I think the Aaron Jones re-signing, we can look at the price and the dollar figure and go, man, I don't know, like, is that risky to bring back Aaron Jones after he just carried the ball more times than he's ever touched the ball before in his history in the NFL. Is that going to be something that is good

for the regression possibility, the injury possibility with a running back in his thirties and all those things? And I look at it as some of the value is that he's still a good player and we saw it last year and with Jordan Mason there, Aaron Jones, I think could be a very good player if he's carrying the ball maybe 150 times as opposed to 250 times and very much worth the money if he's doing it. The other part is he is such a good receiver out of the backfield that this is one that we have not talked about as being a very important signing in the off season. And this reminded me, right, no,

it was, because the check down option for a young quarterback I think is really important and valuable and Aaron Jones is one of the best receiving running backs over the last decade in the NFL. But it also made me think about his character and his leadership and his experience and how important it is for a young quarterback. Think about the young quarterbacks who have succeeded in the NFL recently and Brock Purdy might be the best one to compare to this situation with JJ McCarthy because how many times could we say that the quarterback came in with this kind of coaching, this kind of wide receivers and even potentially this kind of running game.

I'm going to leave that at potential. I'm not going to quite get to comparing KOC's run game to Kyle Shanahan yet. But what Brock Purdy had was not just a lot of talent, but also a lot of veteran leadership around him. He did not have to put the entire franchise on his back. So somebody like Joe Burrow, when he came into the league, he had talent, but he didn't have a whole lot of leadership there. Young wide receivers, players who hadn't had much success in the past, and he had to make that team entirely his. Now he was able to do that.

But the Vikings are not asking J.J. McCarthy to do that with players like Aaron Jones, who can still be leaders. So this was a reminder that he has a lot of players to help him out. Brian O'Neill is also a part of that. Justin Jefferson, who has really become a leader over the last couple of years. Once he got the contract, especially, I mean, I think he's taken another step as a leader. And we saw that from Justin Jefferson last year. And I don't think there's too many guys who carry themselves more professionally at that position wide receiver around the league than just a Jefferson. But having that infrastructure is really important. But about these quotes,

I was looking at the actual wording and what he focused on because the question from a good morning football, it's a fun show. It's kind of light. They're not grilling it. They're not going to be like, Aaron, what do you think of your right? You're not going to do that. It's a good morning football. So the question is kind of open ended. Take it wherever you want. What do you think of JJ McCarthy? And the place that he took it was immediately to the character makeup of McCarthy and what he observed right away and what I look for in compliments is are they specific? So if you hear somebody give a compliment and this isn't always a hundred percent correlation But think about it this way half of my job

If not more is picking apart player quotes and trying to figure out what they mean. So I'm trying to make this maybe more Science than it needs to be but just you know follow with me here when you ask somebody about somebody They're not really sold on they might go. Yeah. Well, you know, yeah He's putting in the work or something something like that. Like well, you know, he's a young player. He's got a Figure it out, but you know what something hedging a little bit on I'm not going to go crazy complimenting this person. But in this case, he really focused specifically on he's a competitor. He wants to be great.

He's hungry. And you're going to see it when he steps on the field and then talking about knowing his past history as a winner and saying that he was balling when he was playing before. I think when the quotes match up with what we think, then we start to become more confident in them. At least I do. Look guys, I am just about at the age where I'm starting to notice that hairline

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and important safety information. When I'm standing on the sideline at training camp, watching JJ McCarthy, and I'm immediately thinking he's a competitor, because I liked watching him in those two minute drills and just how focused he was. And even when he made mistakes, you saw him bounce back from those mistakes, but how competitive, how he was able to get guys,

I think, rallied behind him, his natural personality, he's got a big personality, and you could really see it. And so for him to say, like he's different mentally, he's a competitor, he's hungry, like these are all things that Aaron Jones observed about JJ McCarthy. So he didn't try to avoid or go around the question, he went straight for, this is what I saw last year,

and I think it matches up very much with the things that we already know about JJ McCarthy. So when it comes to the questions that we have about McCarthy, we can talk about well, how accurate is he going to be right away? He's got to relearn all of that footwork after the injury during this offseason. Plus the game's moving way faster in the regular season than it is in those preseason matchups with the Las Vegas Raiders. So how is he going to adjust to the speed?

How is he going to adjust to real pressure getting hit by the real best edge rushers in the league of which he's going to play about 10 of them this year? You know, Aiden Hutchinson is on that list a couple of times. You know, there's a lot of guys he's going to face that are going to be really tough. So those questions have to answer themselves when he arrives in the NFL and actually starts to play games. But I think that why it's different from a rookie quarterback is that there have been questions that have already been answered quarterback is that there have been questions that have already been answered throughout last off season. And Aaron Jones is kind of confirming the things we've heard from Kevin O'Connell, the things that I've talked about on the show that we saw from interviewing

JJ McCarthy and talking with him and watching him practice and go about his business is that that competitive nature of his, how hungry he is to be a winner, his past history, I think it all matters. And we will never know until he's punched in the mouth and how he's going to bounce back from real adversity, which the NFL will throw at you. But the fact that he has people like Aaron Jones on his side, everything to me is a percentage. What percentage chance is it that he becomes the most accurate quarterback in the NFL? Probably not that high based on what we saw in college, but what percentage chance is there that if his teammates that are the veterans

believe in JJ McCarthy, no matter his age or lack of experience, that they can guide him along on this journey through his first year with a lot of pressure and a lot of pressure to win, then you've got a serious chance to overcome whatever rookie bumps along the way there's going to be. And Aaron Jones talking about JJ McCarthy in this way was just a reminder for me of, oh yeah, he's got a lot other than KOC. KOC gets a lot of the attention. It's got the quarterback whisperer, but the quarterback whisperer is no fool when it comes to the roster. And I think he whispered Aaron Jones back onto the roster to make sure that not only did he have the playbook, the receivers, but also a very important veteran like Aaron

Jones to go with JJ McCarthy. So there's thing number one, headline number one that I wanted to get to and continue throwing in questions, comments, thoughts. Very interested in what's on your mind as we are marching toward the NFL draft and would love to have a good conversation with all you guys about whatever's on your mind this evening. But I want to show you the list. So the NFL released this thing called NFL IQ.

It has all their analysts and their thoughts on each team, the Eric Ed homes and everybody else there at NFL.com who they've got mocked to different teams. And then it lists the most likely targets based on mock drafts and percentage chances that they see the each team they did all 32 teams and who they're going to draft. So here is NFL IQ's top five players that they think the Vikings could draft. Number one is Kenneth Grant, which

is interesting to me because a lot of the mocks that I've seen have Kenneth Grant already off the board. And if he's there, I really like the idea because I think there's pass rush upside. When I first thought about Kenneth Grant, I went, I don't know. Yeah. Big fat guy. Like that's great. No one loves fat guys more than me. That defensive tackle that knows tackle. I know how important it is in a three, four rooted system. We've seen that over the years with different Bella check teams, the Allen branches, the Danny Shelton's. But normally do you have to draft that guy in the first round? Probably

not. You can get a Jonathan Bullard, for example, just about anywhere. But then when I took a closer look at Kenneth Graham, when I watched a little bit of him and looked a little closer at the numbers, you actually see pass rush potential. And the fact is that there have been a handful of guys throughout the league. Derek Brown is one of them. Dexter Lawrence is the best example. Vita Vea is another one where Delvin Tomlinson also falls under this category of would you draft Delvin Tomlinson with the 24th pick? I think you would if you could get 30 to 40 pressures out of that guy along with top notch run stuffing in the middle

and then if there is more potential there of five to 10 sacks a year along with 40 pressures or even more. I mean this guy has movement skills that you just rarely see in the NFL at 330 pounds. And I compared him to Vince Wilfork the other day. It's kind of that same type of guy cause he's not the tallest. I would do it if it's that level of player with that kind of upside. You can't expect it right away,

but he could contribute right away in run stuffing downs. And look, the league is running a lot. Look at who they're going to play next year. The Vikings are going to play Philly. They're going to play Washington, the running quarterback, but the league is run a lot. Look at who they're going to play next year. The Vikings are going to play Philly. They're going to play Washington, the running quarterback, but they run the ball a lot. They're going to play Baltimore. You got to stop Baltimore.

They're going to play Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh doesn't have a quarterback. What do you think they're doing running? I mean, even the Packers, the Lions, these teams run a lot. So not crazy to get Kenneth Grant,oday Baron the corner back from Texas I've talked about him a lot and here's another interesting piece of information that I ran across today So I'm working on at over at purple insider dot football, which is the newsletter Working on the thing I put out each year

Which is a draft guide of 30 players that I think could be Vikings targets and then a bunch of other guys That are interesting to me and some stats on them, some why they might fit the Vikings, things like that. And I was looking at last year's consensus draft board and trying to figure out like where, like who could be the person that dropped someone for the Friday mailbag asked me over there, like who could drop that's projected as someone the Vikings can't get their hands on and last year Quinian Mitchell and Terry and Arnold the two corners that were drafted in the later part of the first round both of those guys were consensus mock draft top 15 to 17 players and the same thing goes for Jad Baron and Will Johnson for this year. So Baron is number two on their list because I think some people believe he might be the one who drops.

He doesn't have the longest arms, which I mean, oh, I don't know what are you going to do? But some might see him as more of a nickel corner. And there also might be an element of if you're not a Travis Hunter caliber prospect, they're going to take offensive tackles, edge rushers where there's more desperation to get your hands on those guys first and the corners might come second. And if that's the case, then Baron has a good chance to drop to 24. Derek Harmon is the next guy on the list. I mean, we've been talking about Derek Harmon since since the Combine when we heard that the Vikings met with Harman. He just makes so much sense. So I'm not surprised

that he would be in there. He's a Jonathan Allen type of player can do it all. He could line up in the five tech. If you want to get very footbally, he can line up inside. Uh, so Derek Harman, tons of pressures last year, six foot five, 300 plus pounds, like he's kind of got it all. Nick Emunware, the safety from South Carolina, not Melikai Starks making this list, but Emunware, I think because Starks has been projected earlier by a lot of people. And there was Bob McGinn who always does the piece

with my friend Tyler Dunn over on his newsletter. He does the piece of what scouts are saying. And apparently scouts are very, very high on Melchi Starks, maybe being drafted earlier than the current projections. But I would have had Starks here, I think, over Emenwarre. But you could see them both as being the types of players that Brian Flores would really like. And then fifth on NFL IQ's top targets

for the Vikings is Gray Zable, who we have talked about ad nauseum. Uh, he makes the list over the two other guards, which, you know, is, is interesting to me, uh, whether Tyler Booker or Donovan Jackson or like who, who would it be, it be for the Vikings when it comes to the consensus guard for them? Why it's Gray's Able? Is Gray's Able going to go earlier or do people just really not believe in Tyler Booker? That kind of seems to be the case that people just really were out on Tyler Booker after that combine. I have not heard from people that I talked to, including Jeremiah Searles, which go back and watch that episode, but Jeremiah Searles said he still thinks that he's worth a first round draft pick, even with the combine not being that great.

So, all right, let me get to your questions. We'll get rolling in the conversation, but I thought it was interesting that Zabel was the guy that they picked and not Donovan Jackson or Tyler Booker. I think Booker is all the way down to 47th or something on the mock draft consensus. That one might be just an overreaction to the combine or the NFL might react to that. I don't know. We'll find out. Caleb says if JJ and Dallas Turner had waited to declare for the 2025 draft, where do you think each of them would be drafted in this year's draft? So JJ McCarthy would be a top three pick. I think we could pretty clearly say that because, I mean, the options are not particularly good. Now I will have to ask somebody, I have not asked anyone about which guy is a better prospect. Kim Ward or

JJ McCarthy. I think they're very very different. Now, just if we're using comparisons, Michael Penix was drafted over JJ McCarthy last year and Penix had a similar type of resume. It was a little different with some injuries but huge production played for many years in college football. But the NFL kind of likes that. I remember quasi saying last year at the combine, somebody asked him about the quarterbacks being in college for longer. And he said something like, yeah, we kind of look at it as a minor league, like minor league years. If you're

dominating college at 24 years old, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think at one time it was thought of as being a bad thing, but now it's looked at as, hey, the more experience a quarterback gets actually playing football, the better. And that's kind of an old scouting thing is, hey, the guy's got to have at least 30 starts. And we have seen a lot of quarterbacks not have success in the Anthony Richardson mold where it's one year and they shine and that's okay. The guy gets drafted really high and then doesn't work out. We have seen that a number of times, but the comparison of Cam Ward and JJ McCarthy is very much apples to oranges because Cam Ward

had a ton of crazy production this year, played really, really well against or for Miami and put up massive numbers. He's got a cannon for an arm. I think he's a playmaker, but he's not a freak runner like we've seen in the NFL. And McCarthy is somebody that didn't have necessarily the numbers, but had the winning and also had the upside and the physical traits as well to become a very good quarterback. I think Ward might have gone over McCarthy, but I don't know. I'll have to ask somebody who does this 365 and looks closer because I've just kind of been whatever on Cam Ward, but I haven't taken a close look at him. The Vikings are not drafting him, nor do they have any real chance to. So I haven't

dove deep into Ward. I just know I watched him a few times and was like, I don't know, kind of plays a little crazy for somebody that might not have the physical traits of a Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen who played crazy in college. But if I was asked to draft one of the two of them, I don't know, I'd probably go McCarthy at the top myself. As far as Dallas Turner,

well, the interesting thing about Dallas Turner is that everybody had him as a top 10 pick last year, and then he dropped down the board because of a very unique circumstance. And that circumstance was six quarterbacks being taken. That's never happened before ever in the NFL draft. So with only one and maybe two in the top 10, Dallas Turner clearly would have been higher. Now, this is another position that's hard for me to compare. I can't tell you how Dallas Turner compares to Abdul Carter because I just haven't really looked at Carter or asked anyone about him because we're mostly focused on the show on guys that the Vikings might go after.

I've seen Carter and I think he's awesome. Is that different from Turner? Because I thought Dallas Turner's college tape was phenomenal from what we saw with him in Alabama. His production was phenomenal. So he might be the only only behind Abdul Carter. If Turner was considered to be a top five draft pick last year, he would have gone higher. I think though there was the wide receivers man, the Roma Dunes,es a the Marvin Harrison so maybe that's really why and in this

year's draft he would have gone a lot higher but I do think that Turner was widely considered by people on the outside to be a top-10 talent and honestly Atlanta probably still I mean if they hadn't taken Michael Penex maybe they would have taken Dallas Turner it's a It's a strange world out there of who you would draft, who you wouldn't, or why a guy falls who has such talent as Dallas Turner. But Turner, I think, for sure would have been a top 10 draft pick this year. I mean, some of the other guys that are edge rushers, it's, well, this guy's from Marshall. Okay.

It's not that you can't be from Marshall. I mean, Khalil Mack is from the University of Buffalo, so you can, but it's not that you can't be from Marshall. I mean, Khalil Mack is from the University of Buffalo, so you can, but it's not quite the same as putting up those huge numbers at Alabama or this guy, Shamar Stewart. Well, he hasn't really produced anything. But did you see his combine like, OK, well, I've long felt like that's not very good logic when it comes to drafting a guy. So good question, though, really good question.

Getz 99 says, how do you feel about Walter Nolan? I like Walter Nolan. So the reason I like a Harmon a little bit better, I think he's a little more polished and his pass rushing stats were just better. I mean, just better. Uh, and that's always going to get my attention. Although Nolan was elite against the run and very good against the pass and had good sack production. But when you look at the grades and the pressures, Harmon was far ahead. What I like about Nolan is he looks to me a guy who could line up anywhere on the D line where you could have him in the three technique spot. You could have him over a tackle and he's just got so much strength, strength, quickness, but really, really I think strength is his thing and you get on the inside there and start throwing

people around like Walter Nolan does. It's impressive and it's not perfect. There's definitely some times where, you know, I've read about him a little bit. I've watched, I try to watch a little bit of every guy that the Vikings might target. I'm not claiming to be a film grinder that's going to do it all 22 breakdown for you. There's a lot of people better at that with college prospects than me. But when it comes to guys that the Vikings could go after, I want to see what he looks like. And what I see is Nolan throwing people around and his get off, if you will, very, very quick. It looks like somebody who could get into the backfield. So if that's the guy they went with instead of Derek Harman,

okay. But there are times where maybe doesn't have quite the same motor as Harman. I don't want to say that with like really definitively. I'd have to read what other people think, but that's just how it felt to me. I felt like Derek Harman had this motor where you're like, okay, that guy is not going to be stopped, but I like him. If he gets into the backfield, I like him.

Let's see. Chris Christopher, sorry, says, uh, how much of shoulder Sanders draft status is increased by his last name? I don't know about that. I think when you get to the NFL level It doesn't really matter. I don't think that anybody in the NFL is saying you know what? This is Dion's son. So we've heard a lot about him and we actually like him now if there's a crazy owner Okay, so that could be the case if there was a crazy owner who was just demanding that their team drafts Shoulder Sanders because he's Dion's son. That is a possibility.

Let's assume that it's not. So two years ago when Dion first got to Colorado, I wanted to watch a lot of it. You know, look, I mean, I grew up in the Dion era. I'm captivated by the guy. And to see him take a program that was such garbage and make it competitive with Hunter and Sanders, and they would play all these crazy close games. So I enjoyed watching them. And what I really liked about Shider

Sanders was his accuracy, the way he threw the football comes out of his hand really well, but he anticipates very well. And he just, you know, when you could throw accurately, that's a, the only place you could start is can you throw accurately in the NFL? If you can't throw accurately, you pretty much can't play here so he's got my attention with that and last year he played better than he did the year before but what I started to notice was just that even though his offensive line was bad and even though I don't think his offense was actually that good he's got some serious warts and one of them is taking sacks. And to me, that's always adult. I don't know if you're not Jaden Daniels who can run away from anybody on this

planet. It's pretty hard to be that guy to be the Patrick Mahomes type, the playmaker, the I'm going to run. And we saw this from Sam Darnold. If you turn around, run backwards, they will catch you. And Darnold got away with it a couple of times, but at the end of the day, playing against the Rams, what happened? They tracked him down. Shoulder Sanders doesn't have his arm. I mean, I think that he is kind of a, like what a typical second round pick would have been in years past.

So they just don't really draft a lot of quarterbacks in the second round anymore, but think about like when Teddy went 30 second and then it was their car right after that. And there might've been one other quarterback that was a late first second round type of pick. So those are the types that I would match up with Chaudhry Sanders as a prospect, but desperation might force him to be a little bit higher than that, I think. But I think he's an NFL prospect for sure. I mean, throws a great football and he's been around the league for his entire life, which I think helps in terms of his experience and adjustment. But I just don't know that the skills are there to be talking about someone who's

going to be a clear- cut franchise quarterback with any higher of a ceiling than someone like Derek Carr. If he becomes that you could potentially win with him on your rookie deal. What I think it comes down to is Chedur Sanders is just where he goes and I know that's everybody, but there are some people who can transcend where they go. He's not one of them. James says given this draft contains the last of the players of the extra COVID eligibility,

how many draft picks do you think is ideal and how many do you think that will end up taking? I don't know how much the COVID eligibility has to do with much now other than I think NIL is going to also cause players to stay longer. Now, their last couple of drafts, they've seen a lot of 24 year olds that we're not going to see otherwise. But in future drafts, because players can make a lot of money in college, I think they could stay longer and they could develop a little bit longer. And we're going to

see more 22, 23 year olds. It was a lot of times, if you were 23, the NFL was like, take him in the seventh round. Who cares? The old man, he's disgusting. Don't even look at him. He's 23. But now it really isn't that way. I think after a lot of guys prove that it's okay to draft someone with more experience and you could still see them become a star pretty quickly. Maybe this is deeper. Maybe that's what you're insinuating that it's deeper. And I've heard people say that that there is good prospects into the fourth into the fifth.

But to your main question, because I don't really it's hard to say like we're going to find out within three years, I guess, whether it was actually deeper or not or whether the COVID eligibility helped or hurt or I don't really know. But that I mean, that might be actually deeper or not, or whether the COVID eligibility helped or hurt, or I don't really know. But that might be something. When it comes to how many draft picks I think is ideal, well, you'd like to have 12, but they have four.

So they're not going to get to 12. Imagine how much more fun our mock drafts would be if they had 12. I mean, do something, Quacey, right? Give me some mockscks I can work with, some draft sims where I don't have to do all this trading down. I'm kidding, but I think that the middle round is where they are most likely to trade down. So the early part 24, there's a very good stick and pick argument,

or maybe they move down a little, but 97, you could go back a little bit from there, and if somebody is desperate to take a guy that they really love or their scouts really love and they move up, so I wouldn't be surprised if they try to move down in the middle rounds. If maybe they don't see a big difference between 97 and 112 or whatever that they could drop back and get some of those later round picks.

I'll go with I'll go with seven. I think they end up at the with I'll go with seven. I think they end up at the end of the day with seven players. How about that? I don't know though. I mean maybe maybe quasi will try to make history have the best four man draft anyone's ever had. I don't know. Steel horse travels says people are concerned with JJ's lack of production small sample size. They say what's not really they say. I mean, it's a small sample size, but am I missing the fact that he was running a more pro style offense under hard bought? I yeah, I've never

cared about that at all. I mean that it is a total myth of pro style, whatever. I mean, the NFL is so much more complicated. You could come from a cartoon offense where they have no play calls or you can come from a pro or whatever. Your adjustment is going to be massive. Think about the old John Gruden camp where Cam Newton, he said, well, give me a play call. And Cam was like, we didn't have play calls.

It was just like one, two, three, four. And those are the plays we ran. And's like uh okay that's weird uh fine and there was a lot of there were a lot of people who said well you can't draft cam newton like he doesn't know anything and well it turned out that he won an nfl mvp took a team to a super bowl and also our friend jeremiah soros played with cam said he was one of the most locked in on the playbook guys in command of the offense that he's ever been around. I mean, so it really is how you adjust. I think that JJ McCarthy's adjustment was the most impressive part because last year when he came in, oh man, was he in over his head? You could tell in a mini camp at OTAs, he was way in over his head

with the new footwork, learning on the fly. It is very, very difficult. And then by the time he got to the end of training camp, he seemed like he was very much in command of the offense and understanding it at that point. And that's where you really don't know what somebody's going to look like until they get there. You can't tell how are they going to adjust what what's can they go from a pro system whatever. I think when it comes to McCarthy whatever happened in college just doesn't matter anymore. That's my opinion last year when they drafted him you could go back and watch the video if you want to find it my reaction to JJ McCarthy getting drafted and I said, whatever happens from here

out is going to shape my opinion, not what he did in college. I don't care what he did in college. I don't care how many passes he threw. I don't care who his coach was. I don't care if they were stealing the signals. I don't care what happened. What I see at OTAs, mini camp, training camp is going to be a lot more telling than anything in college and that's always been the case with every prospect the Vikings have ever had. Kellen Mond was a good prospect. He was. You go back and watch his college tape, he played well in a lot of games. He was fast and he really looked in command of that pro-style

offense. He got to OTAs and minicamp and is like, okay, and we can just move on now. And now he's playing in the UFL and I think his offensive coordinator just quit like some guys are built for this and some guys aren't and you don't find out until they're really there so you can argue with people. He's got the small sample size got this he's got that so far to me. He looked like someone who could play quarterback in the NFL. He certainly convinced Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings organization in a very, very important year that he could be the guy. I think that's a lot more telling than whatever

he did with Jim Harbaugh. Vikings Jerome, is it possible they draft a quarterback in this year's draft? It's always possible of anything. They do not have enough draft picks to just be tossing one at a Nate Stanley or something at the back end. I, and I know Tom Brady, Brock Purdy, it's happened before. My opinion has always been if you're not taking them in the first or second, don't bother. Don't even think about it. Just move on. And every time they've drafted a Jaren Hall, I remember when they drafted Jaren Hall and I said, guys, I just don't see the use and I got a lot of well, he might be actually and you're not probably not. There's been a couple. I don't see the point in it.

They should keep Brett Rippen. They should get Joe Flacco or somebody and they should bring in an undrafted free agent quarterback. Don't waste the draft pick on a fifth round guy who's not going to do anything. I don't see any point in doing that. Now, again, the 49ers can argue, hey, we took Brock Purdy and got lucky. Okay, well, do the Vikings have a bunch of seventh round picks? I just don't see.

I just don't see any point in doing that. When it's JJ McCarthy's show, who are you developing and for what to hope for a future backup? I don't know. I never saw the point with Jaren Hall, to be honest with you, and I don't see the point now. Deontay says Aaron Jones also mentioned how he thought that it could have turned into a quarterback competition had he not gotten hurt. Thank you for adding that Deontay, and you're right about that. And I think that that's true, that it could have been, and I reported that last year, that if Sam Darnold had started poorly, that they felt like he was close enough to make

things interesting. I don't believe it was ever a quarterback competition through mini camp, OTAs or training camp, but it was about to be interesting when it got to the joint practices of Darnold and JJ McCarthy. And I don't know that McCarthy could have done anything to actually take that job away from him. Like even if he had great joint practices, it had been Darnold the whole time. It would be a huge adjustment. But I do think that he showed enough that if he had gone to the joint practices in Cleveland and played well, that if Darnold had gotten off to a slow start, it would have been JJ McCarthy show. But the thing is, McCarthy never would have played last year the way that Darnold held it down. I don't even think after the Jacksonville

meltdown that they would have made the switch at that point because they were still what, seven and two. So, but it really does speak to, I mean, that's the thing. It's like when, when we've been talking about these things and I'm giving you my opinions and my reporting and everything else. And then I hear it come out of Aaron Jones's mouth. You're like, Hey, that's what I've been saying. Scott says, give me two free agents we need to add and also what, who is the mid-season trade projection? Well, now we're too far down the road. Mid-season trade is pretty tough for me to figure out because I think if the Vikings were doing something like

that it would be to make up for an injury, like a Cam Robinson or a Cam Acres situation. So what position gets injured? I don't know. If there's one spot, well, we need to know who they draft first also for what doesn't have depth. Maybe you'd be looking at a corner or something like that. Maybe a linebacker if somebody got hurt or pass rush.

I mean, I don't know. That's hard to figure out who the target would be for a mid-season trade, but you do get a neck roll for asking because if you're thinking about mid-season trades on April 10th, that's the good stuff right there. You're locked in. As far as who they need to sign that is still remaining out there, I've got two guys, and you know who they are.

I would say a left guard, if they don't draft one, would be Will Hernandez, could be somebody they look at, really focus on that competition with Blake Brandle. And the other one is clearly a backup quarterback. I think they've added a little bit to that wide receiver room with a special team, or Tim Jones. And I think that they could use maybe some competition at safety, is Julian Blackman still out there? Former Colts guy that they could use maybe some competition at safety is Julian Blackman still out there

Former Colts guy that they moved on from to sign Cambina, but he's got good numbers from last year. You'd like a little competition Again, if they don't draft a safety if they don't draft a safety, I'm good with Theo Jackson I was impressed with Theo Jackson last year All that we talked about it coming out of training camp. Clearly again, the team agreed because they signed him to that contract, but I don't think the contract they signed him to screams. This guy should never have any competition.

So maybe I would go with somebody who's still sitting out there as a safety Justin Simmons, I think still wants to play. He was on a podcast the other day talking about that. So maybe it maybe just a veteran safety for competition probably goes for almost any position cornerback. I know people talked about a Sanて Samuel. Maybe he's that guy. They could it's all depends if they draft a corner one. Now my answer is not corner. It's guard. They draft

a guard. Now my answer is corner or safety. Kind of depends. I also think that they could use one more running back because they clearly aren't doing the Ty Chandler things. So if he's gonna be the kick returner, but Isaiah Rogers could also be the kick returner with his speed. Rondale Moore could be the kick returner. That's what I was forgetting

for wide receiver competition, Rondale Moore. Lot of options there. So, you know, they could add a veteran running back to Rance Do the lack of first round pick trades this year and the bucks? GM's comments about nobody trading up make it less likely the Vikings will be able to obtain extra picks on trade downs I think that that is the case. Yes, or Everybody's telling the same story to trick you and try to up the case. Yes. Or everybody's telling the same story to trick you

and try to up the prices. I don't know if that's really it. I mean, I really think that this is a year. And all the data will tell you, hey, picks 40 through 50 are not like picks 15 through 25, but maybe picks 25 through 40. There's not that big of a difference or it's all on preference or it's all on need and teams are not looking at guys who are still there.

Now that's what they're saying now though. Let's say we get to draft night and you are the Tampa Bay Bucks and all of a sudden, oh man, you know, oh wow, that guy that we had is our 15th best player. Like he's still available and get on the phone and make the call. Let's try to get I mean, that stuff happens. So I wouldn't count it out.

I think that there's a few things around draft time that kind of always get said. One of them is that picks 15 through 50 are aren't that big of a difference. There's only X number of real first round picks. You kind of hear that all the time. So what's real this year and what's not? I have been told two different things on the 15 through 50. I tried to ask people to combine at the owners meetings like, hey, is that real? And one person said, oh, yeah, that's that's really real.

More this year than any other year. And then I heard from somebody else like, it's kind of a cliche. We want to take the best player. So I don't know. Hard to know. But I think there will be trades. Ultimately, when we get to the draft night, it's do the Vikings have that guy drop? So I went through those NFL IQ guys.

And if they've got Malachi Starks as the ninth best player on the board, like their boards look different than consensus mock boards and people will never figure that out. I think sometimes like, yeah, the NFL teams don't always look at everything the same way that mock drafters do. That's how Will Levis goes in the second or Malik Willis is a third round pick or Desmond Ritter is a third round pick or whatever. So if the Vikings were looking at and they're making their players and they're looking at their targets and going, you know,

somebody brought up Walter Nolan. Hey, Walter Nolan's our third favorite player or something. You'd be like, okay, we should just take him, right? Because maybe the next guy on the list. So you don't know how that's going to play out. Or if all of their guys in the top 15 go, all right, well, there's four DTs left and how they come off the board in the order. This all matters, too. Well, there's four DTs left. And let's just see, you know, are they going to be a run here on DTs? Do we need to take one now or do or could we move down? And one of those guys will be there.

The dynamics kind of all end up playing out on draft night. So that's just to say, I wouldn't count it out. Aaron says, do you look into the top 30 visits for an idea who they might be leaning toward? I've seen about 15 of the players who visited but not all of them. I usually do not. I usually do not when it comes to the top 30 visits because do not when it comes to the top 30 visits because teams like to play games with those and they also will bring guys in that sometimes they're a little dubious on and they want to confirm that they are dubious on those players or just give them another chance.

So it's not always, oh, we are interested in you, so we will bring you here. Trying to figure that out is pretty tough, although Siobhan Ravel was the one that stuck out to me because and I don't know, like he's a guy with an interesting backstory and he's got the ACL thing, so they might have wanted to take a look a little closer with the injury and get a good sense for where he stands with that. I don't know what's all allowed in those 30 visits, but I imagine health is a discussion at times, but he was the one that stood out because there's been,

I think, a little debating on corner within Vikings fans. Oh, is his corner? Well, they already have Rogers. They already have McClother and black men. And I think that none of those guys precludes you from drafting a corner. And maybe the fact that they brought in Revelle kind of says We're looking at corners, but they also brought in the local kid from Minnesota Who's a tackle and they're not looking at tackles. So I don't know subterfuge Playing games four dimensional chess. It's draft season everybody, but yeah, I don't I don't look that closely at that