Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Acting GM Brzezinski hints that moves are coming for Vikings (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about how acting Vikings general manager Rob Brzezinski suggested at the owner's meetings that there could be still things coming down the pipeline for the Vikings roster. What does he mean? What does it mean for the Vikings approach to the NFL draft? Are there still players who could impact the Vikings in free agency? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here back from the NFL owners meetings. Hopefully you also caught the episode with Chris Trapasso, where we tried to avoid drafting a wide receiver, which, you know, really hurt my soul. I didn't love that. But anyway, the show is always presented by Fandul, and we are pretty wide open today. I've got some things to go over, some comments from Rob Brzezinski from the owner's meetings that I wanted to dive.

a little deeper into. I wrote about it today over at purple insider dot football. So that's where we are going to begin the show. But in terms of questions and comments and thoughts coming out of the owner's meetings, I'm sure that you guys have some opinions. It takes jump into the chat. Start throwing them in there now. I got lots of room, lots of space this evening to discuss whatever is on your mind as

we are officially in April. It is draft season, my friends. but any other questions that you have about the roster, the team, the NFL, whatever's on your mind. The chat is wide open. Also later in the show in our two, Joe DiLeon, a great college football analyst, podcaster, and former long snapper is going to join to talk some draft as well. So hopefully you stick around and enjoy that. But why don't we get right to it with what Rob Brzezinski had to say at the NFL combine?

one comment in particular stood out to me the most because I asked Rob Brzezinski said, you know, hey, there's been a little bit of a lack of moves that has happened in free agency. I don't know if you've noticed Rob, but you haven't done a whole lot. And I just asked about, you know, the theory behind that and the thinking of, you know, why there wasn't as much action as maybe people thought. And I'm going to give you what Rob had to say word for word. Rob said there were some things that we could have forced just to try to fill another need and we didn't do that. I feel really good about that because we don't kick off until September.

So we have some dry powder. There are, which if you listen to the show the other day, now I officially know from many of you what keeping the powder dry means. Thank you to everybody who told me that it's an old saying that has to do with muskets. Okay, I got it. I know what it means now. But anyway, back to what he said. He said, we have some dry powder.

There are going to be opportunities that present themselves, and we want to be in a position to capitalize between now and September. So that was the acting general manager Rob Brzezinski talking about the lack of movement in free agency. And this is the thing about free agency that's tough, that you want moves, I want moves. I like emergency podcasts. You like emergency podcasts. And when we looked at the free agent lists, there was a lot of guys that I think you and I all could have made arguments. What about this guy?

What about that guy? This guy looks like a fit. How about this running back? How about this wide receiver? How about this? Yada, yada, yada. Lots of different players that would have come as I thought good fits for the roster. But what ended up playing out is that a lot of bad teams spent a lot of money.

and a lot of those players that we discussed, they went off the board for big dollar figures. And the one that comes to mind the most is Travis E.TN. I'm sorry, Travis A-chan is now the pronunciation of his name, that he got, I believe it was three years, $42 million contract. And he's been a good running back. And I felt that his past protection ability, his hands, all that would have played very nicely with Aaron Jones and with Jordan Mason. but not at three years and $42 million for a guy that, you know,

averages 4.3 yards per catch like the rest of decent running backs. That would not have been a very practical move for the Vikings. Because if you draft a guy and have a three-headed monster of somebody with some explosiveness that's younger, the very savvy and gifted receiver of Aaron Jones, and then the grinder, the Leroy Horde of the group, the ground and pound guy Jordan Mason, like, that's a good. good trio, don't go crazy and throw all of your money at one guy who's just been okay in his career pretty good and would have been a nice fit. And the same goes for a lot of other positions

in this year's off season. And one of the things that they've had some success doing in the past is waiting around. Seeing who's still hanging around when we get to June, when we get to a, hey, training camp starting and you're either going to play or you're not, Mr. Veteran Free Agent whoever it's going to be. And they've been able to find guys like that. And one of them actually retired today, which we're going to talk about. But we can think of a couple guys who became big contributors for the Vikings that were not signed in March over the first couple of days of training camp or of the free agency period and rather came in during training camp or even a little bit later. And the ones that come to mind first are Stefan Gilmore who played the entire season, 15 games in 2024.

and also Dalton Reisner, who ended up twice being a starting offensive lineman for them that was playing week in and week out and did not begin the offseason with the Minnesota Vikings was a late signing both times that he did that. So there are usually free agents who kind of slip through the cracks or they think they're going to get more money and that everybody spends their money and they look around and go, okay, well, I guess I got to just latch on somewhere and the Vikings are sitting there. and waiting. So if you went out, and this doesn't mean that they should have signed nobody. I'm not fully advocating for the, just letting free agency come and go as they did. But I do think it's justifiable when there's an insinuation here that there are some ideas that could still end up popping up for the Minnesota Vikings as they go deeper into this

offseason. And we might see an extra veteran just arrive in Minnesota. that could fill a significant need. And maybe what they want to do is see where they're at after the draft. I mean, don't go out and spend X number of dollars on a safety if you're going to draft Dylan Thineman or Emmanuel McNeil Warren, right? They're not going to know 100% what they're going to come away with in the draft. And well, yes, they kind of need a lot of stuff.

And we've talked about that all the time. Safety is an example of a position that if you draft it, then you really do. don't need to spend $10 million on a free agent safety, right? But if you do not draft it, well, you might be comfortable with what you got or there might be a guy or two that are still out there that you like that you think you can bring in at the last minute. So it's a delicate dance. I think one of the biggest goals of Rob Brzezinski for this entire offseason was do not

screw up the future. That's one of the major goals. Don't give out bad contracts. don't redo a bunch of deals to kick a bazillion dollars down the road. Make sure that you are protecting the future, well, also leaving the door open with enough cap space to potentially, you know, maybe after June 1st, go out and grab a free agent that's still there. So I know what your next question is going to be, which is, well, let's see.

If that's going to be their approach, then hoomps are we talking about? Who might we be saying for a free agent for the Minnesota Vikings? So I have a list. have put together a list of the best available free agents remaining. I'll just run through them pretty quickly. A couple. I put them on the screen. I'll just highlight the ones that I think could be the most interesting for the

Minnesota Vikings or who they could be talking about when Rob says, hey, we don't kick off till September. So we've given ourselves flexibility by being cautious to maybe add a player at a much better price. And this is something that Rob Brzezinski, if he becomes the general manager long term, that will be thought about, I think a lot. They threw that out the window with Quasi Adafo Mensa last year, trying to match up the price and the player.

They really just said, let's just spend all of it. We got the money hit the bank on Friday, and that was the rookie quarterback contract. Let's just throw it at everybody. Let's just go shopping. And it was a lot of fun. But not all the moves really worked out to be worth the price.

And so I think if you're Rob Brzezintz, you're looking at what happened last year and saying, well, isn't it a good idea to be a little more diligent, especially since the salary cap situation is not great, with those dollars spending? So here's a couple of the free agents that are still on the list that they might be referring to. I mean, number one, of course, is D'Andre Hopkins, the wide receiver from most recently Baltimore, Arizona, the Houston Texans. He's been a great player for a long time. and he has said publicly that, hey, if the Vikings need him, come get him. And we know that he's not going to be at a crazy price.

And he has also said that he doesn't want to be a wide receiver one, that he doesn't want to handle that workload. He's perfectly fine with being a wide receiver three. So Hopkins is at the top of the list. Juan Jennings is still out there, which to me must mean that the price everyone's offering Joanne Jennings is nowhere near what he thought he was going to get. Does that mean that he might be. interested in taking a wide receiver three spot for a year at whatever small price and hoping

that it works out and then getting a bigger contract. I'm not sure. Debo Samuel is probably not a great fit necessarily. He's had a lot of injuries, but he's out there. Juju Smith Schuster is a veteran. So there are wide receiver three options. And this also might go for the draft. Let's say you get to the second round and my favorite wide receiver in the draft, Denzel Boston, mysteriously drops into the second round. I mean, wow, you got to take him, right? Like, this guy is so good. You just got to take him.

Okay, now you've picked Enzel Boston. Well, that means you're not really going to go grab D'Andre Hopkins or Debo Samuel or Joanne Jennings after the draft. That's how they could be waiting to see how things play out and then who's left. But there's wide receivers who have done things in this league before that are still out there. DJ Reeder also a very good option potentially for the Vikings. I think they need a veteran defensive tackle. they have all young guys there.

Everybody wants young guys to play until they're out there actually playing and it's not going that great and you don't have any other options. I like a rotation with Ty and Grim Dawkins. I like Levi Drake Rodriguez being in there. Their now main guy is Jalen Redmond, but they need a little bit more. And I also threw onto the list, Callais Campbell, because how awesome would that be? Callais Campbell with his long career and deep into his 30s, Shelby Harris is another potential defensive tackle.

And then there's some guys that, you know, I don't know if they would be interested or not. Bobby Okariki is the linebacker from the Giants has been good in his past. And I don't think that he would come here after they've signed Eric Wilson and have Blake Cashman. But, you know, threw him on the list. Devin White threw on the list. Jack Jones is a corner who's been with Miami. He's been with the Patriots and the Raiders.

I think, right, he's bounced around quite a bit. Maybe there's some off-field type of stuff there. I'm not sure. But that's a corner who still has a track. record and is out there. Donovan Wilson would be one of those safeties who has been around and might be hanging around if they don't draft a Dylan Thineman or Emmanuel McNeil Warren. There's a couple of offensive lineman. Boy, what a disaster it was for Mackay Beckton in Los Angeles, but he had that really good season in Philadelphia. He's still out there.

Ethan Pockich is the center. I guess if they don't love what they see from Blake Brandel early on after he's been working on being a center this entire offseason, I don't. suspect that they're going to roll with Brandel, but there's still at least one guy who is a veteran and has played a lot. There's a rotational pass rusher or two. Leonard Floyd is still out there. Kyle Van Neu. These are names that you guys have probably heard, Marshawn Lattimore.

You've heard over the many, many years of guys playing against the Minnesota Vikings. It's a lot of veterans. It's not foundational pieces. It would be much more of patchworking certain spots after the draft when you assess. But I don't think that the. notion of not going wild and handing out huge contracts on day one and day two, letting the Raiders do that, letting the Titans do that, letting the Jets do that. That's sort of indicative of the types of teams that have to spend majorly in free agency.

In a year like this where I didn't love the free agent class that was available either, I didn't think there were a lot of game changers, as there has been maybe over the past couple of years. So for the situation that they're in. Now, last year, we were advocating what they did. Like, hey, even if you spend some bad money, even if you get, and I would defend the Jonathan Allen and Jvon Hargrave moves by saying, look, they were a top five defense. I mean, they did their part and they could have been even better had the offense maybe

given them a little bit of help, a little bit of field position, a little bit of a lead to rush the passer from time to time. so not all the money that they spent turned out badly. But for the position that they're currently in, it might make a lot of sense to not spend on free agents that you could end up regretting a year or two from now. It feels like the margins are much more thin with where their cap situation is. So some of these players who are veterans, they've been around

and might be a plug-in-play contributor somewhere into the summer. but I thought that was a very interesting comment from Rob to mention that, hey, like, there's still a lot of offseason left to go. We could still add some players. And historically, they've done that quite a bit in the past. Got a couple of more things to run through. And then I will get to your questions and your comments. But I guess I'll stop and ask this. What would you grade how Rob Brissinski has handled the offseason so far and factor into your grade?

Let's say they sign a player or two off of this last. list. How would you grade what Rob Brzynski has done this approach to keep the powder dry, to not go out and spend crazy amounts of money, to keep 2027 and beyond in your sights, to keep a lot of the talent. Like we don't consider T.J. Hawkinson is a free agent ad, but sort of, keeping him around, keeping Aaron Jones around, resigning Eric Wilson, getting a new punter, I guess, if you want to toss that into your grade. Maybe it moves it to a plus or a minus, I don't know. Losing Ryan Wright, I think, is still a minus.

But I'm interested. And then, you know, justify your grades. Tell me why you think that. I've got a few other things to get to, though, including Kirk. Kirk is back, everybody. And I know that everyone's talking about his agent, Mike McCartney, crushing it out of the park again. But the real details of Kirk Cousin's contract are a little bit more rational than

they initially looked. when Adam Schefter tweeted it out, Kirk Couss joins the Raiders, and it's like some crazy deal. What the heck is going on? But that's more bookkeeping than reality. Ian Rappaport has this on Kirk Cousin signing with the Raiders. He's going to get $10 million in Las Vegas,

and most of it is being paid by the Falcons. Naturally, same with Kyler Murray. And we'll have a $10 million bonus next March, which will probably never happen. So it's essentially a one year $10 million deal, which is great for a bridge quarterback. I love this fit for Kirk and I love this fit for Fernando Mendoza. Kirk goes back to play in an offense that he's been in for his entire life with Clint Kubiak. He played some of his best football.

I would argue some of Kirk's best football was 2021. And it's just sad that the 2018 defense was the best that he played with. 2019 was pretty good. but I think 2018 was the best that he played with. And 2021 was horrible on the defensive side. They had all sorts of injuries and it was a mess and the whole thing with the cornerback situation. And here's Kirk playing pretty darn well with Clint Kubiak and his offense

and losing a bunch of games at the end, like losing in Arizona with a missed field goal, losing. I mean, he could have beat Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray to start that season and ends up coming away with losses there because of, the defense and probably some game management stuff as well. But anyway, so I thought that he fit really well, protected the football, got rid of the ball quickly, and they're going to run it a lot. But for Fernando Mendoza, this is the best thing that could happen to him. Kirk knows that offense inside and out, upside down. He's been in it since he was brought into the NFL as a fourth

round draft pick with Washington and Mike Shanahan and has been evolving with it through the years all the way up until right now. And Fernando Mendoza is coming from an offense in college that I don't think was anything like what we see in the NFL. I mean, shotgun is used in the NFL a lot. I've been sort of laughing at people who are like, how can Kyler Murray learn how to play for KOC? If he plays out of the shotgun, you're like, huh?

I'm pretty sure Kirk and Sam Darnold played a lot out of the shotgun. I mean, like almost all the time. Anyway, not the point, not the point. But, you know, Fernando Mendoza was not playing in an NFL real pro-style offense. Not that I think any of them are truly pro-style, but he really wasn't. So having Kirk there to learn from, to watch operate, to deal with the criticism, the ups and downs, the drama that happens through an NFL season, I think that will be really, really good for him.

And anytime I see a team with a real plan that is saying, this is how we are going to develop our first round quarterback. I say, you've got it right, my friends. And I think that they have it right in bringing Kirk to the Raiders. I think this also shows you, you know, there is always questions about Kirk and the, people would say he just works here kind of thing. And yeah, that was always tough because I think you could tell from these last few years, Kirk could have retired.

I think he could afford the mortgage payment. He could have retired anytime he wanted to. And he's continuing to play. even when starting is not locked in 100% because he loves football and he loves playing and loves being part of a team and loves being in the environment. And I think that was questioned a lot for him unfairly. Sure, you could look at the contract versus the team building and all that stuff. And I said a lot about that.

And some of his physical limitations, I said a lot about that too over the time he was here. But I don't think I ever believe that Kirk. Cousins wasn't committed or didn't love football or anything else like that because you don't work that hard to be a fourth rounder to overcome the team drafting RG3 and loving him and everything else and get to that point if you had no commitment and didn't care and just worked here. So Kirk Cousins kind of showing that I think that the end of his career might be pretty good for him to be a mentor. And if he's in the playoff race, then maybe he gets the entire.

season. I don't know. I think that's going to be pretty tough, though, for them, considering the AFC West. Maybe we'll, maybe I'll take a look. Actually, I'm kind of curious what the odds are. I'm going to take a quick look here on Fanduil. I wonder what their regular season wins total is. That is five and a half. Kirk can get you over five and a half, I think. That's their win total on Fanduel. Okay, one more note here. Stefan Gilmore, retiring from the National Football League today, a five-time pro-bowler, defensive MVP, Super Bowl champion, and played 15 games for the Minnesota Vikings in 2024. So, Stefan Gilmore is one of the cooler players to cover because he's very chill, he's very quiet, he's very relaxed. But he's also like an honest and kind of blunt guy.

And when you have somebody who knows so much about football and has seen so many different things, it's just great to learn from that guy. and I tried to pick up anything I possibly could from him when he was in the locker room. And I was just so impressed by how well he played for somebody at a position that's usually for younger, twitchier guys. And it was IQ. It was Flores defense. It was his playmaking ability on the football, his instincts that allowed him to play a ton of snaps and was a big player on that team. And, you know, had the 2024 Vikings played out a little bit differently, had they, you know, want to playoff.

game, we would probably look back very fondly on Stefan Gilmore's time because he kind of saved everybody's bacon. If you remember, they got to the end of that training camp and it was a nightmare at the cornerback position and they went to Cleveland. Their defense played really well in the joint practices. And I think the team said, we just got to get that one last piece because we don't have the cornerbacks to be a great defense. And they turned out to be a very, very good defense with Stefan Gilmore. So congratulations to him on an amazing career. I think we always want to talk.

Is he a Hall of Famer and so forth? And I think Gilmore is evidence of how hard it is to make the Hall of Fame. A Super Bowl champion, pro bowler, all pro defensive MVP. And if you compare him historically to other corners, probably not. Like the Hall of Fame monitor on pro football reference does not have him among the top corners. And that just shows you the bar to get in. defensive back, which may eventually apply to Harrison Smith. So there's a rundown of some things that have gone on today in the National Football League. And now I am very interested to get to

your guys' questions and comments and thoughts. So throw it in there. I mean, the main subject really for tonight is Rob Brzeinski back from, you know, we're back from the owner meetings. We've heard from Rob. And now we have a sense for what they're thinking is. But also, you know, there's a GM search that's on the way and it'll be very interesting to see how Rob operates the draft. I think that he's been in enough draft rooms where we don't really have to question, does Rob Brzezinski know what he's doing in a draft room? He's been making trade calls and stuff for many years. It's not like he's going to walk into the draft room, be like, what do we do, guys?

Like, he's going to know what he's doing. But seeing how they come out of the draft, what trades they do make, how much do they trade down if they trade. down. Do they trade up and make some, you know, big swing at a certain player that drops out in the draft? I think we're going to want to see the entire picture. But just this approach specifically, I don't think that we fully expected it. I didn't. I thought that there would be a lot more kind of housekeeping like moves of like, okay, when they signed James Pierre, I thought, all right, there's going to be three or four more James Pierre's coming, guys who have played in the league

that have experience. I thought initially that they were going to, you know, rework the salary cap like crazy, push a bunch of money down the road, et cetera, et cetera. And they didn't really do that. So I've been surprised. And how much do you like it is kind of an interesting question because I think

it's the most logical thing to do is how they handled it. And is it the right thing for 2026? Can it really get them somewhere? in 2026, I think that's a little bit of a harder question to answer. So, uh, rich says, I hope they learned their lesson to not pick up old and hurt players again and offer them good money. Well, so rich, uh, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose with that because the guys that were some of the guys that were old and were injured worked out fine.

Um, Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen had really no injuries at all. Aaron Jones did have some injuries and Ryan Kelly of course had some injuries. Will Fries came in with an injury wasn't old but came in with an injury and he played every single game. It's a really hard thing to predict and I think that the argument that they were making was if we wanted to get Javon Hargrave at his best, we would need $25 million. So if he's coming off an injury, we need $15 million and that sounds like a pretty good deal. There is risk that goes along with it, though.

And old players, it's funny too, because we just talked about Stefan Gilmore. And I think if you go through every single team in the NFL, that is one, you're going to find some older players that latched on to those teams. For whatever reason, Baltimore is popping into my head where Bryant McKinney played for the Baltimore Ravens when they won the Super Bowl, right? there's always those guys the Patriots would always have those guys who showed up and they were no spring chickens or whatever anymore but they had enough in the tank and enough savvy and enough IQ to still make a difference so if they bring in a DeAndre Hopkins who has not been injured but is an older player but you're not asking and I think this was why the Patriots always like to do it you're not asking that guy to be the megastar anymore you're just asking them to be a role player and them being a role player with their experience and their raw talent that still exists and their knowledge and IQ. I'm really thinking of Hopkins for this specifically. They're going to be better than some wide receiver three that doesn't know what he's doing or some safety that doesn't know what he's doing. So Edwin still wants a wide receiver.

Yeah, same here. Same here. I'm definitely not giving up the wide. receiver train. I think I'm just giving it up for the first round, probably. Alexander, good to see you, buddy. Do you think that Rob wants the GM job? So we tried to pin him down on that in the owner's meetings and, you know, Rob kind of joked of, yeah, guys, like, I could tell you the cliche that I'm just focused on this. And then he did. Then he was, more or less, I mean, he said that there's been a few moments where he's kind of looked around and be like, this is, this is pretty cool to be in this seat after so many years of working with the organization and running these meetings after being in thousands of them over the years,

I don't know what Rob really thinks. He is a very, very smart guy and he knows who he's talking to when he's sitting down with us. And he wasn't about to say, guys, bring it in for a group hug here. And I'm going to tell you all my deepest thoughts on me potentially being the GM. So it didn't work that way with Brzezinski. I think it stands to reason, though, that Rob, would want to be the general manager.

And Ian Rappaport was reporting down from the owner's meetings as well that he feels like and other people around the league that Rob is a great candidate for this job. And I think that if the Wulfs, I mean, he's been so loyal to this organization and to the Wills, if they come to him and say, we need you to be the general manager, we're really happy with the way you managed everything, which certainly sounded that way from the way that Mark Wulf was talking, we think that you're the right guy, you work with KOC really, really well, etc., etc. Then I think there's a very decent chance that he would say yes and that he would want the job. So I think that he does want the job.

And if you miss that earlier in the week, I asked Mark Wilf directly, would you be interested in having like a president of operations that's above your general manager and head coach? And he said, no, like that's not what they're going to do. They're going to have a GM and a coach. and they're both going to answer to ownership. So for me, if that's Rob Brzezinski, that's a pretty good situation because of their trust and belief in Rob and his inner knowledge of how they operate and how they think, as opposed to a new general manager coming in from the outside.

But, you know, somebody else made a really good argument today. I'm writing the Friday mailbag as I always do for the newsletter over at purple insider dot football. And somebody made a really good point. I mean, they said, well, don't we need some new? ideas and I thought, I like that. I like that concept. New ideas are good.

There's a lot of people in the NFL who have been waiting their turn, who have been high ranking executives with great teams for a long time and have fought their way up the ladder that might make good candidates here that might have ideas that they can bring from another franchise. You know, Kwayze Adolfo Menzo was supposed to be that person and I think he brought ideas, but I don't know that they always got executed. I think they did early on. some of them, but maybe not later on, where it seemed like it was much more coach-driven of

what they were doing. But also, Rob has overseen a franchise here that has had a hell of a lot of success for a team that's never really had that true top 10 quarterback. For a team, I mean, think about this, when Kevin O'Connell had either Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnels, who are both very, very good quarterbacks, but I would not put them up with Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Pat Mahomes. He went 31 and 11, 17 and 8 with Kirk, 14 and 3 with Sam Darnold. I mean, that's a lot of success. I know we're talking about the GM, but there's a lot of success right there.

And they have the fifth most wins since Kevin O'Connell took over. Again, like, that's a good amount of success when the other teams are all teams that have had consistent quarterbacks through those years. So you don't want to, in looking for new ideas, we got to do everything different, because we didn't like some of the ways that it's been done recently. And that's when people say, well, we got to just get rid of all the scouts. Like, well, not all of them, right? Like, there's got to be, they have a good team.

There's got to be some people in the building who have done something right in recent years. I know the drafting has been an issue. But when you have five draft picks and your scouts, I don't know. I don't know how many reports they come up with. 250 reports. I don't actually know the number how many real scouts submit. maybe it's maybe it's 200 i have no idea 200 scouting reports and they draft five players well fire the scouts like they didn't make the calls they didn't make the decisions on that who knows if they did a

great job uh but rob brisinski i think would have a really good sense for who should stay who should go you could also argue if you want a total refresh of the front office and if you want a GM who is evaluating kevin o'connell then you go outside the building and that may be a consideration as well so it's got a lot of layers to it. Doug, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate you watching all the shows and listening to the shows. Thank you very much. My polite way of reporting is a really nice thing to hear, Doug,

because that's when I arrived here, having grown up in the east in New York State, it was a lot less polite, I think, when I was first starting. So I've adapted my game a little. more to the Midwest. But I really appreciate that. All of you who have continued, I mean, we're in a time right now where there isn't a ton of breaking news and we're kind of just kicking back and talking ball. And I love this time of year because there's lots of questions to be asked and we're laying out draft plans and options and I'm working on the draft guide and trying to learn every single player and all that sort of stuff. So it's a fun time of year.

But the number of you who listen to every single show, even when there's not breaking news or big events going on is amazing to me. So I really appreciate that. Rich says, all I wish for is at least a tradeback of five picks in the top 100. Oh, trade back to get five picks in the top 100 and shore up the center and defense, especially defensive tackle to stop the run game of the opposing team to carve us up with. Yeah, I mean, they needed also last year to figure out a little bit more about how to stop the run with Hargrave and Allen earlier in the season.

It felt like it wasn't a great fit. It's also harder to stop the run when the other team is winning the whole game because your offense can't do anything and your defense has to be on the field and they're never looking at third and seven, you know, never getting their chances to rush the passer. I'm thinking that Falcons game where Michael Pennix had to do basically nothing to win the game. Just don't completely muck it up and you win because you could just keep handing off because the other offense is doing nothing.

And, uh, you know, I think that that hurt him in the run game. But center and defensive tackle certainly should be at the top of the list. The other day with Chris Rapaso kind of off the top of my head, I was trying to do a positional rankings and I'd be interested in your guys for their needs. And I ended up sort of like, well, this and this, well, that. Well, also this. Like, there's a lot. A defensive tackle is high up there.

But where do you do it? because the guys who are expected to be available in the first round, there might not really be that big of a gap with the second round. So if you remember, if you were watching all the way back when I did my first draft sim and I took Christian Miller from Georgia and there were a few of who were like, what are you doing, dude? And I was like, I don't know.

Like, I don't know the draft yet. Like, give me time. Miller is now kind of thought of as a second round type of prospect. And that sounds good to me is somebody who can stop the road. run that might have some pass rush upside. It feels like we could say that for every defensive tackle, except maybe Caleb Banks, who is so physically imposing that he could just end up being a great player. But he's got this foot issue that's really terrifying.

I mean, you don't want to take some, a guy who's had multiple foot injuries very high. You take them in the first round, you're kind of putting your life in your hands. And, you know, somebody mentioned earlier, like, hey, let's stay away from the injured players. I mean, I tend to agree. They rolled the dice on injured players a lot during Quasi Adolph-Omenza, and sometimes they really got burned, like Andrew Booth Jr. For example, so Banks scares me from that perspective. Peter Woods is still more of a, I like him. He's kind of a Sharif Floyd type is who I would comp him to.

It's not some wild man pass rusher, but I think he can get to the quarterback and may have played a little out of position. But I don't like that necessarily in the first round for them. Same thing goes for center where, yeah, I mean, Jake Slaughter, Connor Lou, Logan Jones from Iowa is one that I should mention more. I really like this is when I've gotten farther down. So, you know, first mock draft, I've never heard of anybody. And now I've heard of a lot of people. And Logan Jones from Iowa, I think is a really good fit for what they want to do

offensively. But that's more of a day two type of draft pick. So those two positions, I think, have to be addressed at some point. but where they decide to do it, I don't think it matches up with the draft to do it on day one, maybe later in day two. I'm not even sure if those are second round type draft picks.

It feels like safety, corner, wide receiver, then linebacker has a bunch of guys that they could draft. Edge rusher is interesting because I don't think it has crazy talent, but it's got a lot of guys who you could see being good. It's a bit of a messy draft. It really is a bit of a messy draft. Rich KJ Osborne actually signed with the Titans recently, just the other day. So he is off the board now as well.

There's not, that's the thing, but there's not many left. And yet when I show you that list of all the free agents, there's a lot of guys that you definitely recognize. And it always kind of works that way. Like the big free agents go off the board, they get big dollars. And there are some guys, especially older players that maybe they think they're going to get X number of dollars, maybe they don't feel like locking themselves in until they see how a full offseason plays out.

They get released late. I don't know, whatever it might be. And they end up being available late in the off season. The Vikings have taken advantage of that, you know, a number of times. There's always next year says, I have a feeling that this trial period is more owners giving Rob the opportunity to run the organization and run an off season and then give the offer if he wants the job. It might be, uh, it also might be that when they fired Kwezi Adafo Mensa, they had to put someone in charge and it was so obviously Rob would be the one that

made the most sense that they would have the most trust in and that they could also know was not going to sacrifice the future in order to sign one big name here, one big name there off the free agent list. He was not going to sell them down the road just for 2026 because Rob's not playing for his job. Rob can always go back to be the cap guy, and whoever comes in is the new GM is going to be happy to have him because he is as good as it gets in the NFL. He's as respected as it gets with contract negotiations, trade talks, all that stuff that he's involved with.

I've heard this for years when I would talk to other people in the league and they'd be like, hey, do you know, Rob Brzynski? I'm always dealing with him. You know, he's tough but fair kind of thing and agents that I've talked to through the years. it's just a lot of respect for him. Like, I don't think that he is unequivocally loved in the way that, you know, hey, we're getting all the top dollar out of the Vikings.

So go to Rob or something. I think smart, fair, professional is the way that he's usually described. And they have handled their off season like someone who is fair and professional is running it, not someone who was trying to show off and say to the Wilf's, hey, look at all these contracts that I can bring in. look at all these big ideas that I had, right? That, you know, I'm showing you guys for the first time or something like that. That hasn't been this type of offseason.

And that's where, you know, when we talk about, you know, do you like what they did or not? And I'll get, you know, your grades are going to be here in the comments in a second. But did you like what they did or not. It's like yes, yes and no, because they get Kyler Murray and they have not traded Jonathan Granard and they kept Wilson and they kept Hawkinson and they kept Jones. So what's another guy or two? What's an extension? And it is a point that, you know, after June 1st,

we'll reassess where they are with the salary cap, but you can agree to deals and so forth. But it's a good point that people make of like, that matters. But so you maybe need these extra pieces. If you want to get a little bit of an edge over the lions, a little bit of an edge over the Packers, and I think all the teams in the division are vulnerable. The Bears lost their sales.

secondary that got all those interceptions last year. I think the Bears are going to be good, but they lost DJ more too. And that's a lot of talent that went out and not a lot of talent came in. The Packers are Micah Parsons, but what else are they on defense? What are they on the offensive line? They re-signed their center because there's nobody else out there. That guy's not even good. So, and they lost their tackle.

Like, they have issues. They lost Elkton Jenkins. He's a good player. They have a lot of issues to solve and not a perfect team. So there's some vulnerability in the NFC North that I do feel like, oh, man, what about, like, what about one more? And that's where I wanted to tie it together because then it started to make sense. McCall, you don't really have the cap situation to do this. You do have till September to add players and the free agent market still has a halfway decent amount of guys that are still hanging around.

So that clicks. But is it going to be Rob making those decisions or the next GM? I guess that's the question. third and nerdy says, am I the only one confused by the cousin's contract? I know it's really a one year deal, but what's the point of five years 172? I'm going to tell you the truth.

I don't really know. I didn't look that deep into it. I saw Rapaport's tweet and I saw Schefter's tweet and I was like, one of these makes sense and the other one does not. I would assume there is something to do with the accounting of this. I really don't fully understand it. I haven't read up on it. If someone else gets it, like, feel free to explain it in the comments if you've looked into it,

if you're a cap person. But bottom line is it looks like one year, $10 million. And I don't know where all those other dollars come from. Because when that first showed up, it was like, they did what? They, like, this has to be a, is it April Fool's was yesterday. So this can't be right. And then, oh, okay, it's really one for 10. And that's the bottom line.

So I don't know. but I still think Kirk has a great agent, but it's much more of a reasonable price for him, one for 10, than it would be if he was 5-172. I truly don't know. Like, this is the NFL salary cap for you, folks. Brian, how much can we trust what K.O.

is hinting at about the run game. We heard that last year, plus how many times as he said something about marrying the run in the past? Well, I mean, every single coach talks about marrying the run in the past because you have to or you're not going to have a successful offense. You have to have a play action game. You have to be in favorable situations, which helps you throw the ball.

You've got to wear teams down with your run. You know, all that sort of stuff to play off of it in the past game. It all does have to go together. But the hire that they made when we talk about how serious is it, you are dead on that after every season that I've covered KOC, It's been, man, we're going to figure out this run game. We're going to figure out this run game. One thing to keep in mind is the people of who they've been trying to figure it out with,

the offensive line, the running backs, eh, not exactly the most inspiring group. It was Delvin Cook for half a season, then he fell off. It was Alexander Madison and Ty Chandler. Chandler had his moments, but Madison really struggled. And then they bring in Aaron Jones. And for a half a season, when Christian Darisaw is in there, he plays really well. As soon as Darissau goes out and they bring in one of the worst run blocking left tackles in the league, well, that's a pretty darn important position.

And then it fell off and he got banged up. And last year, when you look at their overall efficiency, their success rate, their expected points added, they were an above average run game. I think that was actually part of the complaints from myself and some of you guys was. Jordan Mason seems to be working. Like maybe, you know, give him the ball more as opposed to having Carson Wentz drop back 40 times. So they did, though, at the end of the season when they won some games and they went

5 and 0 down the stretch, they did lean on the run game a lot more with some success. But Miami and Mike McDaniel, that is connected to Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. It has been one of the preeminent running games in the entire NFL over the last few years. I mean, they have had, I think Rahe Mostert may have led the NFL in rushing touchdowns with them. Devin A. Chan has turned into an elite running back who led the NFL in 10 plus yard runs last year. I know he's very good. I know he's very fast.

But there's a lot of scheme that goes into that as well. And the big thing is, and it's like you could see KOC in his brain being like, how do I not put this in a way that makes it obvious that Kyler Murray's the starting quarterback? And he was like, the exact quote was something like, not that this like pointed to anybody we were looking at. But you know, we wanted to do this anyway. Okay, we get it. Runs out of the shotgun, potentially out of the pistol.

This is something that they had mastered in Miami. You have to have a guy who is explosive. I think they're going to aim for that in the draft. Mike Washington Jr. is a guy whose name has sort of shot up. Judarian Price would be great for this. Judarian Price had, I looked at this today, he had something like 23 runs of over 10 yards in only 113 carries. It was crazy how explosive he was.

Even if he didn't run the fastest 40, he ran the same 40 as Delvin Cook. So I'm intrigued by him if he makes it out of the first round, Judarian Price. They need somebody in the draft to add some explosiveness to their game. But I also think it's how it's coached. And there's no mistake in moving Keith Carter, who also comes from that same wide zone type of world, that I think they're going to do things differently in the offensive line.

And when you look at why Chris Cooper, was let go, I don't think it was because he was disliked or because his guys didn't know how to play or whatever, he dealt with a lot of injuries and things like that. I think a main part of it was that O'Connell was looking at, all right, these two guys have this background in this run scheme, Frank Smith, Keith Carter, let's make this work. Let's really make this work. So the commitment is truly there. The guys in the backfield, I think Mason is good. I think there's some left there for Aaron Jones. I won't count him out because he's Aaron Jones and they can add in the draft. I think they have to in the draft. Maybe there's a free agent left out there. I don't know. Joe Mixen. I don't know

what his deal is. But point just being that this is the first time there's a clear commitment shown in things that happened. Changing offensive line coaches, bringing in an assistant coach who has this great background with run success in Miami. Those are tangible things that are happening. and if they draft a running back fairly high first two days, that would be another tangible thing that's showing us, yes, they are serious about improving in the run game. And I want to see that to believe it as well, Brian.

I mean, I think you're being fair by having some skepticism, but this is the first time where we could say, yes, they actually did stuff to show that. Real quick, let's see, let's see. Do have our friends at ZipRecruiter, got a message from them. And also, I need a fan dual question of the day.

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Here's the Fandual question of the day is, so Kirk, Kirk's back with the Raiders and back with Clint Kubiak. They're over under on Fandul is five and a half wins. will Kirk end up with more than five and a half wins as a Oakland, as a Vegas, right? They need a win in the playoffs to call themselves Vegas, right? With the Vegas Raiders. That's your Fandual question of the day. So let me get back to your questions and comments. AP Carlin says, wouldn't a GM want to draft his own players?

Seems like the Vikings want Rob is the GM and just trying to figure out the contract. well they wouldn't be just doing that if they weren't putting together uh or i guess they let me put it this way they wouldn't be putting together this big search party and casting the wide net and doing all these interviews that they're talking about doing if they just were settled on rob and they were going to say all right you're a guy here you go let's work out the contract uh i think it will be an honest GM search but they may sit down with a bunch of people and decide that well robert Rob actually is the best guy for the job. When you think about the qualifications of being inside the organization for this long,

inside the NFL for this long, holding down a similar role to what Howie Roseman had and where he came from in Philadelphia, there are two routes to the general manager position. One of them is through player evaluation. And the other one is through the salary cap and being the numbers guy and the team builder behind the scenes. Those are the two ways that guys get to the GM post. and Rob has been in one of those for such a long time.

A GM, yes, would want to draft his own players. You're definitely right about that. But when they hired Quasi Adafel Mensa, I'm sorry, fired Quasi Adafelmenza, how was that going to be possible? I mean, a general manager coming in at the last minute and saying like, okay, guys, who we drafted? I mean, that would, I know, they wouldn't be like that. They would have to have a plan.

It would be a very hard thing to just hire someone right before the draft, have them come in and say, all right, now, here's our plan. And here's what we're going to do with the draft and totally change up all the work that had been done throughout an entire year, at least when a new GM is hired at the end of the season. They've got some runway to do that. But even then, I've talked to people in front offices before who said that's really hard. Because we've been working for one guy with one guy's vision and we've been putting

together our reports in one guy's vision. And then someone else comes in and says, oh, no, no, no, no. Can we actually do that completely different? So most of the time when there is a GM trade, the draft goes a little bit similarly to what it would have happened the year before. That would be ideal, but I don't think that it means it's not like a clear signal. Oh, yeah, they're not going to hire anybody else from the outside. I think if they hire Rob, it's because he's deserving, not necessarily just, you know, because the last guy didn't get to draft his own players. He will.

the just, it'll just happen the next year. If anything, there might be a case for preserving the salary cap, stockpiling the draft capital and young players. Rob is setting up the next general manager the best way he could, because if he handed out a bunch of bad contracts, then the next GM would come in and be like, uh, really? You, you paid, you know, Travis Achan, you know, that much money or whoever, I'm just thinking of him right off the bat or you, you really sold the,

entire farm for Tyler Linderbaum, huh? They didn't do that, which might point to, like, Rob protect the future, and it feels like they have done that. Zach wants Njoku, I just, I'm not sure that there's a fit there. He can play, but you have Hawkinson, you have Josh Oliver, and then maybe draft someone. Gavin Bartholomew is also somebody they drafted last year that they feel, they feel good about or felt good about. He just got hurt right off the bat. But he's another guy that is developing and has some interest. In Joku feels like more of a where you would try to patchwork than, hey,

this is a long-term option. And I also, I haven't talked about Kenyon Sadiq lately, but I still do like Kenyon Sadiq as a potential option. It just feels like he shot up so much after the combine that he might not be available. And when I was looking at the ESPN analytics where they're estimating the chances of different players being available, his chances were kind of low of being there for the Vikings. I think it was under 30%. We could play with that more at times, though. Son of Beavers saw that your book was brought up on the pod about the death of PFF. Yeah, I mean, if you read the book, it's right behind me here over there. If you read the book, football is a numbers game, then you already understood when you saw it. You already knew. Oh, what they were

predicting at the end of the book is exactly what happened to PFF. And it's unfortunate. And I don't know what the future is going to hold for the people who now work for teamworks, what it's going to mean. There is still a ghost ship running of premium stats and content on that side. I don't know where that's going to go. And if those stats disappear, then Purple Insider is going to have to pivot to find some new stats that tell me the same stuff that I've been working for working with for a long time, but mostly just felt really, really bad for the people who got let go and the people who built the company who had been forced out over the years. I mean, it was the, it was the last straw, but it had been dying for quite a while by the time it got to that point. And

mismanagement, bad directional decisions, bad money management. That's what led to where they are. But yeah, Sam and Steve have always been great to me. And they're in my book. They have amazing backstories. So if you get a chance to read it, please do. Let's see, Steve, I like the temporary GM's patience so far, but the draft is under the microscope this year. I like to see us getting one or more picks in the first three rounds by a trade back. Defensive line, safety, defensive back in those. That is, it's a hard thing, right? Because Steve, you're dead on that this draft is really big for them. It's always really big. It's really big this year for them because there's so much to be decided into the future

You need to find foundational players you need to get guys who can fill in roles So you have some depth right away you need contributors right away you really need to hit on a lot of picks And when you go through the average percentages for each pick You know the number 18 and 49 couple third round picks like the odds that you nail every single one One of those are not high because once you get past the top 10, you're talking about a coin flip or less for those players. And by the time you reach Lewis scene at number 32, the odds are like 40% that that guy becomes a key player for a team. Even at pick number 32. That's always shocking to people.

But then you look through the history, go through all the guys who are drafted number 32. And you're going to go, man, there's a lot of guys who didn't work out there because, yeah, that's why they shouldn't have traded down from number. 12 because at 12 there's a lot of guys that worked out there anyway the point is they don't have the best draft capital there was a chart that i saw i apologize i don't remember who put this out there that was all of the draft capital added up from the the charts so who has the most value and the vikings are 16th which is such a viking'sy place to be in total draft capital so i agree with you that they need to find ways to get some more draft capital. Maybe that's trading John Grenard.

Maybe that's not. Maybe it's just trading down from 18 to 24 or something like that in that ballpark and trying to pick up more top 100 draft picks. But it is vital that they hit. And in a draft that is not that strong by a lot of people's analysis and also the draft is generally super random. Some guys come in as really good prospects. How about was it Demetrius Underwood who just quit football?

There are guys who've gotten hurt right away like Lewesin. And I don't know if that ever would have helped him or not. But man, it's hard when you get hurt right away like Lewis Seen did and have this major catastrophic injury. And then it's just like, hey, just come back and compete with Cam Bynum, who's also really good and would eventually get paid 15 mil. I mean, that's very depressing. And then it kind of tumbles down from there.

So you never know what's going to happen. There's a lot of randomness. It's not like we get our choice. You know, it's not like you could just go, well. And I was looking back at one of my draft sims from last year where I got, let's see, it was it Tyler Booker and Travian Henderson on my first two picks. I was like, man, that would have been good except for neither one of those players were available to the Minnesota Vikings because I did some trade down stuff and whatever

else. It's like, yeah, great job. I identified those as two good prospects. but also you couldn't get those players. And it'll depend on who's there, who's on the board for how good prospects you end up getting. How Rob handles the draft, we know this. We know that draft grades the day after are not worth the paper they're written on. They are entertainment value only.

They are not predictive. It's been studied many times. So even our response to drafts right after they happen, and we're just not very, we're opinionated about it and we're thoughtful of the process and we try to dive deep into the players. But our percentages, mine or anybody else's, are not great at knowing which prospects will ultimately work out. So that's why judging Rob off of the draft is a very hard thing to do because we need like two years

to see unless it goes bust so fast like 2022 where we know, but or it's great really fast like 2015 usually takes a couple years until we'll really know how this ended up working out. Norse force is getting the team back under the cap. Working with veteran players to restructure contracts, well-managed A-plus for Rob Brzezinski. Son of Beaver gives a B-minus, brought some guys back on the cheap. Free agent class did the best he could, did hope that they would bring in a veteran center. Norse Force says, I hear Kyler Murray is unbeatable at chess. He is, he is beatable.

I've looked at his games and his rating on chess.com. I'm, you know, we're about the same. We actually have a very close rating to each other in rapid chess. Not unbeatable, but probably for you. Like, if you don't play, then you wouldn't beat him. Put it that way. Like, he's been playing a long time and he's good. He does have other things that he's working on,

including playing for the Vikings. But in terms of the offseason grades for Rob Brasinski, I think A plus is aggressive. A plus is a little too much. I don't know what deals were on the table for them. I don't know what prices they had at certain guys. But coming away with nobody else is a little disappointing that there wasn't at least the cheap signing where you add another wide receiver to fill in Jalen Naylor's spot

or you add in a veteran defensive tackle or something. It's also, and this is a little bit of trick question, because of our main subject, for the show tonight. It's really an incomplete grade for Rob Brzezinski so far because he is indicating with his comments that later in the summer is when they might make some more additions into free agency. But I think that a B plus to A would be reasonable for Rob because the franchise will go on. It's not like after this year that, all right, Minnesota Vikings are moving to Canada and it's over, like, there are considerations for the future that have to be made.

And they also had a good team last year. And it's a lot of the same team. They've lost Hargrave. They've lost Allen. There still has to be something done about that position and some replacements. But you go position by position and go, I mean, this team, if they had reasonable quarterback plays, an 11-win football team, and I think they know that, and they approached it that way. because if you look at the errors that were made in 2024,

why did they, into 2025, I mean, after 2024, why did they make those mistakes? They made those mistakes because they lost the playoff game to the Rams and they said, here's five things that we needed to be better at in that specific game and we're going to throw as much freaking money at it as we possibly can. And that resulted in not really hitting the way that they needed to hit. and going and taking a big risk on Ryan Kelly, a big risk on Alan Hargrave with huge dollars. Will Fries.

I mean, I think Will is a good player. I think he's going to be better this year than he was last year because when you look at his numbers, it was very clear that this guy didn't have an offseason. Classic, this happens all the time to guys who had an injury in the off season and didn't have a full training camp is 12 weeks into the season. You're like, they're great. And then the last five weeks, it starts to decline because. that's when you build yourself up to shape that you're going to need for the rest of the season.

And he had that leg injury, wasn't able to do that. So I think fries can still be a very good addition overall. But it was a panic thing. It was, well, we can't keep Dalton Risenor around. We got to go with, you know, the big money guy because they were able to beat us on interior rush. And you should always try to make the most efficient and savvy moves regardless. And that's where when people say process over results, that's how I,

interpret it. Sometimes it's interpreted as every decision I make was right, process over results. You can't tell me different. That's how it's used a lot in sports. I think of it as if you have your ideas of how to do the most efficient thing as a front office with signings and decisions and cap space, you want to do that regardless of what the results were in the previous season. And maybe you're altering it a little bit. But if you have an idea of this is how much this is worth, we're not going to overspend. This is the savvy way to go about this. You don't just say, well, hey, we were close last year,

so let's throw caution to the win. They've done that too many times as a franchise, and I don't know how many times it's actually worked out. Scamping around, happy that the bulk of the team is still together. The addition of Murray and resigning of Wence makes me feel good about the quarterback room being set, and it's going to be an entertaining year. That's right that we kind of look at the quarterback position as, it's really a Kevin O'Connell thing.

So, Brasinski, I mean, he would have done that any day of the week, a quarterback that is worth $40 million getting one. The numbers guy is going to be freaking pumped to get that kind of quarterback. And I did think that you could see a little bit of light return to Kevin O'Connell's dead eyes after what happened last year, even talking about Carson Wentz, he seemed happy. Coming back as a number three quarterback knowing you wouldn't have to play Jaron Hall again. so or you know max brosemar in situations that those guys were not ready for at all it's not having to do that but also knowing that you have a kailer murray this is what i have heard

that kailer murray is very motivated now that doesn't sound like anything right of course he is right but i think people don't realize how competitive kailer murray really is and i have heard this from some people who know him or have been around him throughout his years that just because he's quiet and doesn't do a lot in public and doesn't have a podcast and isn't always, you know, jump in front of the nearest microphone, uh, that people will kind of fill in the blank sometimes, but he is a very, very competitive person who wants badly to do the same thing Sam Darnold did here, which is completely changed the narrative on what people think of Kyler Murray. I think you have a coach who is very motivated to get back to the playoffs and to win.

You have a wide receiver who is very motivated to prove to the world that he is the number one receiver, not just, oh, well, actually it's kind of Jackson Smith, the jigba. Oh, actually, it's kind of Pooka Nacua. Like, no, Justin Jefferson wants to, let's everybody forget that. I'm back kind of thing. That sets up for a lot of people with a lot to prove for the Minnesota Vikings. And that's a pretty good place to be. and you talk about intrigue, entertainment, there's a lot there. So when we talk about the offseason,

we can't overlook this enormous thing that happened at the quarterback position. I think that's a little separate from grading the GM because any GM in the universe would have taken a top 12 to 15 quarterback for free when last year they were 28th in quarterback rating. Goblin graphics. It was right for 2026. It doesn't hurt the team in 2027 and beyond. I, yes, I agree overall that when you look at the team last year and how good they were in a lot of areas, when the offensive line was healthy, look at the Baltimore game, look at the Chicago game.

When they were healthy, it was a good offensive line. We can look at the, luckily the grades are still up there now for PFF, the grades from those games and how they performed were some of the best games grade-wise from the offensive line that they've had in the last couple years. It was, I mean, Jackson, the way he played right away. I think he's a hit instantly as a first round draft pick. When Derisaw was healthy, he was still playing mostly well. Even Brandel filling in was fine. And then Fries and O'Neill, when those guys were out there, they were good off its line.

The receivers we know and the tight end, we know what they can do. Even in the backfield, they had their games. They had their moments for Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones. The quarterback position, not just JJ. Brosmer went. it was just not good enough. And the fact that Wentz was the best of the lot, says everything about where that quarterback position was last year.

So the fact that they didn't overreact and say, all right, we got to blow this thing up. We got to make a ton of moves. You got to make a ton of trades. That would be overreacting because the rest of the roster was very sound. But now there are some big holes, though, because you aren't running it entirely back. If Harrison Smith doesn't return,

you're not running it entirely back if J. Von Hargrave and Jonathan Allen aren't here, which they're not. So there are some differences that need to be resolved in some way or the other. I don't think they have enough at D.T. right now. And the safety position is interesting. I mean, Theo Jackson didn't look like he was really up to the task last year playing every down. But then Jay Ward actually did when he came in. Do you get a corner so you could play Byron Murphy and nickel? and you don't have to have big nickel anymore with Josh Mattelis,

but I actually like Josh Mattelis a big nickel more than I like him as a traditional like box safety. So there's a lot to still be resolved here. Son of Beavers, if we don't add any more free agents and stay at nine draft picks, we are looking at 20 plus-ish UDFA class. So I'm hoping we grab a couple of veteran depth guys either soon or after the draft. Yeah, I mean, it's almost inevitable that they will. it's just who.

Is it somebody from the free agent class that's kind of kicked around a little bit or, you know, someone from the past of like Fabian Morel or Bobby McCain and those guys are fine, but you can't really play them a whole heck of a lot. Or is it one of those players that we saw on the free agent list that might actually bring something to the team a more significant? That's what I'm curious about. But you're right. I mean, last year, when people would criticize Matt Daniels, I would want to,

to pull out what is remaining of my hair because it's like, do you understand how many UDFAs this guy is trying to teach to, to play special teams who have never really done it before? You know how hard that is, including your punt returner and kick returner Miles Price for the first time? And then, you know, you get a holding penalty. You're also returning every kick because you've got no offense. So you're going to get more holding penalties than other teams because you're losing,

you're trying to break out something and make a play, and then you get a reputation for holding and so forth. But then at the end of the day, they end up with one of the best EPAs of any special teams unit in the entire NFL with Matt Daniels coaching it. So they can coach up some UDFAs, but it doesn't usually give you a lot of options for depth. Do you want to have, if someone gets hurt at safety,

you want to have an undrafted free agent rookie playing there, same with Corner. You know, they got James Pee. for that, but linebacker, that was kind of the case last year. So you're right. It's inevitable that they will add some folks in the veteran market. I just wonder how accomplished those players are going to be. Is it going to be guys who have bounced around to 10 teams or something as role players?

Or is it going to be a DeAndre Hopkins who can really potentially move the needle a bit? Dirty Mike, I struggle with success. Three playoff wins in 20 years. I think it's important to acknowledge advanced metrics have put KOC offense in the top 10. 2024 was also a Sharman soft schedule. I don't know that that's actually true about 2024 in comparison. I mean, everyone who played the AFC South got to beat them because the AFC South was bad. And the league kind of had this split.

They also beat the Texans. They beat the 49ers early in the season, but they beat the Packers who were playoff teams. they, I mean, they crush the Packers at the end of the year. Mostly got a huge lead off of them at home. They were way up on the Packers early in the season. When they were actually tested that year by good teams, how about Seattle? Was a 10-win team at Seattle? They beat them.

They had some tests where they came through. And the Rams, they end up losing to the Rams. The first game, they were, I don't know, like what happens if the Sam Darnold Face Mask is called? They're within one score. They've got a chance to potential. go tie the game there. So, you know, I think that when they had good games in 2024 against competent or quality opponents, they played well and they won a good amount of those games.

So I would not say that it was totally as soft as it was in 2022. I'm sure there's some metrics that I can look up for what the strength of schedule ended up being. But get it, they weren't off a 14 win team because they just ran through the AFC South. They played Indianapolis, you know, with Joe flacko playing or whatever. So there were some wins there that were pretty routine. But I also don't think that that what happened was fake. Like they were right there neck and neck with Detroit, win one game. And look, the first game against Detroit was this close too.

So, you know, they were, they were neck and neck with the best teams in the NFL that year. They outscored their opponents by 100 points. Like, I think it was a pretty legitimately good team. But three, I know what you're saying, three playoff wins in 20 years in terms of success. I mean, I guess we're putting that on who. Like, I mean, is it the owner's fault? Is that what you mean? Like, it's, I mean, Kevin O'Connell's only been here for a couple years and has won 31 games and lost 11 when he's had either Kirk or Sam Darnold.

That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I mean, even to have the fifth most wins since O'Connell took over, it's not playoff wins. We all agree that has to happen. But it's not like you should look at the KOC. and say, this guy's a bum or like Rob Brzezinski, who's been here, he has no idea what he's doing. Throughout that time, they've also gone to the NFC championship a couple times, you know, the 20 years that you're talking about. They've been in the playoffs a good amount.

My point is with Rob Brzezinski, you know, I think there are some cases and some arguments for a clear house. Like, this group's been around for a long time. They haven't won a Super Bowl. Like, they've been going back to this well since Spielman. move everybody out. At the same time, Spielman did build a team that went to the NFC championship

and is maybe a little better quarterback play away from playing in the Super Bowl and they have won a lot of games recently. So I don't think that it's completely right to go, well, they don't want a Super Bowl, so kick everybody out of town. But I agree with you in general. I mean, I think we know why they only have three playoff wins.

I mean, it's because they have not had the franchise quarterback year after year, so they have to rely on pop-up quarterback seasons. And here we are again.