Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Acting GM Brzezinski hints that moves are coming for Vikings (Part 2)

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.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Uh, Magar, what about Keldrick Falk? I like Keldrick Falk. I'm really intrigued by what the fit could be. Uh, is he a three, four defensive end? Do you spend a first round pick on that? Could you have him maybe drop some LBs and be an outside linebacker? Could you have him play right away like Jihad Ward did as like a third, third down,

interior rusher and then develop into a defensive tackle. There is a, I think a pretty high ceiling with a player like Keldrick Falk, who is a little bit of a tweener for his position. But since when does Brian Flores ever care if you're a tweener for your position? I like that idea. Someone who's got pass rush upside is on the younger side because I don't think you draft just to fill positions for the immediate and could potentially grow into a role that Brian Flores carves out and trains him to be in.

Maybe he's like, maybe he's like a Tom Johnson plus, like an undersized interior defensive lineman who gets after the passer, creates sacks on third down. That is a draft for upside, though, because right now, I don't know if he's going to come into the league and get you eight to ten sacks. Like, probably not. So I'm intrigued by that. Does he play edge? Does he play outside linebacker?

Does he play inside? is he kind of all over the place? That I really don't have a good feel for how they would use him or what they would envision him to be, but someone that's young and has potential to grow, you'd like to get them in the building and start thinking about him as a fight, a future piece.

But if he's your first round draft pick, then we're going to have a conversation on draft night, where I say, guys, he's probably only going to play like 400 snaps this year, and he's probably not going to get 10 sacks, and you're going to have to be, patient and give him time and everyone on draft night will say okay that's totally fine and then by

week three they'll be like this guy's a bust uh so that's kind of my thought on caldric folk i like him a lot i like i like his upside a lot uh josh when j j plays well in preseason is he trade bait or is kos so scared of what happened cuby injury wise last season they keep j jays insurance and let him mature uh like a fine wine is kiler playing in preseason i would expect Kyler will play one drive in preseason just like Kirk did and just like JJ did last year. Some of us may have argued that JJ should have played more in training camp last year. Some of us may have argued that he needed the experience. I'm just saying some.

I don't think that's true for Kyler Murray, though. I'd like to see JJ McCarthy play three quarters of all the preseason games and just get throws. get in there, throw the football, play three quarters each game until all the starters and all the backups are out and it's only UDFAs who are not going to be making the team. Do that, right? Because he needs as many throws as possible. Is he trade bait? I don't know.

It might depend on where things stand. Just for example, if J.J. McCarthy halfway through training camp, it hits him that this is not a competition. He's received zero first team reps and he's very unhappy and he's. I don't know, whatever. Him and his agent are going to the Vikings saying, get me the heck out of here. He's not going to be QB2 even, just for example.

Then, yeah, that could happen because that's what happened in San Francisco with Trey Lance. I don't know about like if his agent asked for the trade or not, but after he lost the competition to Sam Darnold, they traded Trey Lance. But I do think that you're onto something with, they would maybe do it for a second round draft pick or something, but I think they want a quarterback room that goes three deep.

When it happens to you twice where you're on to QB3, you're like, okay, we need three quarterbacks. Evan Grayson Hulton at Pick 70 if you trade back with the Browns. So you've been mock draft to take a fullback, of course. Thank you, Evan. That's good. Grayson Hulton is somebody who they had a visit with, reportedly, and I'm intrigued by as maybe a day two draft pick.

He is from Oklahoma, and I think has the pass. brush upside. Uh, I can check on that to make sure that I'm right. Um, but I was actually tomorrow going to go through all the players that they visited with on tomorrow's show. So maybe we'll just do it then.

Um, so I have my research already, but I know that they met with Halton and that's an interesting option. Son of Beaver's first round corner or safety. Second round corner safety. Third round. Center defensive tackle. And now you're all the way into the seventh round.

In the seventh round, you're just picking players your scouts like, but first round corner is the most sensible position to take for me. Jermad McCoy, Avion Terrell, McCoy is super high upside. Torell, I think, is a more polished player that you could potentially trade down a couple spots and still get safety. I'm less enthusiastic than a lot of people about the safety position in the first round just because of how easy it is to replace safeties, how they've developed them over the years,

and you better be getting someone really truly special. You're always going to think you are if they're a first round draft pick, but if they don't turn out that way, this was like, what did I call it? The Lewis scene, I called it the Adrian Amos test. Maybe I need to come up with a new player for that. But Adrian Amos was,

I believe he was a fairly high draft pick, and he was just okay. And my thought was, well, if Lewis seen when they picked him, because I was a little down on that decision being a, safety as well. If the guy turns out to be Adrian Amos, this wasn't worth it. And he turned out to be way worse than Adrian Amos.

But even then, like that was my bar. Maybe I need like a, maybe I'll just use Cambinem. If somebody, if I told you that Dylan Thieneman turned out to be Cambinum or Emmanuel McNeil Warren, would you say, great, draft him in the first round? Well, Cambynum is a second tier NFL safety. You have the top of the top and then you got really good guys, maybe second, third. is tier, but that's still a hit in the draft. That's still a thousand snap player. It's a guy who gets interceptions. He make plays. Is that worth a first round draft pick if he becomes only that? I struggle.

But if a guy becomes, if you take a wide receiver in the first round and he becomes Romeo Dobbs, he gets $17 million a year and gets 50 catches for you and you still feel pretty good about him, I'll let the wide receiver thing go eventually. But I think the same actually, applies for something like defensive tackle. If you draft a defensive tackle and they only become a decent player, but they give you 700 snaps and they get five sacks and a good amount of pressures, if they become DJ Reader, you're pretty darn happy with that because that's a hard guy to find. A couple years ago, DJ Reader.

That, right, that's kind of a hard guy to find. They don't necessarily have to become Akeem Hicks in his prime in order for that draft pick to have a major impact. I think with a safety it does. That's why it's a little more risky for me. I might even say the same for corner. If the guy becomes a good corner, then it can still be a hit because a good corner is going to give you 900 to a thousand snaps.

They're going to get interceptions. They're going to be locked into the defense. They're going to get past deflection, you know, all that sort of stuff, even if they're not a perfect corner because the drop off to a backup corner is so significant. I kind of look at a little bit like that. Just another dude says makes sense if more moves come post June 1st. They get a bunch of cap space from Jonathan Allen's offset. Yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they've set this thing up to do stuff in the late summer. And I kind of thought that that was going to be the case with the way things had played out with the salary cap. But getting Rob Brzynski to really confirm, hey, we kick off in September. We're going to have time to make some more moves. and he felt really strongly about not overspending in free agency and not making major sacrifices to get certain guys just to be able to do it, to say that they did,

like, we're going to scramble to fill this need. When maybe if you remain patient, so on a wide receiver three, for example, maybe if you remain patient, you end up with DeAndre Hopkins or I don't know, Keenan Allen or whoever else was on that list, maybe Joanne Jennings is just looking for a job and for whatever reason nobody will pony up, then you get that extra cap space.

You make that move and bang, you've got a really good wide receiver three. Does any, at the end of the day, does anyone remember whether these moves happened in June 2nd or March 14th? Not that, I mean, technically, yes, I know you guys remember everything, but no one cares if the guys make it place. Did you care when Stefan Gilmore was picking off Aaron Rogers in 2024,

against the Jets to win the game when he was signed? Of course not. No, no one cares. Or Dalton Reisner when he came in and solidified the right side of the offensive line in 24? No. You don't care when it happened. As long as it happened. Dirty Mike, all this talk about Rob, the elephant in the room is the Wilf's.

They have never once allowed a GM latitude to think long term. Maybe they will give Rob that. I think what you mean is that they've never, it's not that they don't give them a latitude to think long term because they did with Quasi Adolfo Menza. In 2022 to 2023, we talked about it a lot then, but it's worth remembering when we talk about the ownership and what they're allowing, you know, the front office to do and so forth, they did not want them to trade away Kirk for nothing and get a bad quarterback and lose all the games in 2023 and tank to get Caleb Williams.

Should they have done that? Yes, they should have. They were in a perfect position to do it. I know they had won 13 games the year before, but they had come to the end of that roster. And the quarterbacks were so good at the top that what they should have done, and some of us may have mentioned it, is now I'm starting to sound petty tonight about like, you should have played McCarthy more and then tanked the other.

Okay, okay, I'll stop. But when we, when we review history and the team build and the decisions that were made about the direction. In hindsight, we can clearly say, and maybe it would have been foreseeable at the time, that tearing it all down and trading Kirk after 2022 would have potentially put them in line to draft Drake May, Jaden Daniels, or Caleb Williams. And this would have really been something if that was the case. However, they did not, because the owners are always going to have an edict of being competitive. We know that. They don't lie about that. They say that to us every time we talk.

Like even when Mark Wilf was laying out to us at the owner's meetings, the criteria for the next general manager, he was saying, yes, we want someone who's always going to make us competitive. They want that. It's not the worst thing in the world, my friends. When you compare to some other ownerships around the NFL, it's not the worst thing in the world to have owners that will give you everything you need to win. and the only edict is that you try to win, well, work within that frame and win, right? I mean, the Packers, they don't tank. The Seahawks didn't tank.

They made moves for the future. But from 2022 to 2023, this was the best thing Kwasi Adafl Mensa did. And if they win this year and win the division, we can still go back to when this happened and say, hey, there were some issues with Kwayze Adolfel Menson. He's not here anymore, but he deserves credit for this overall direction. because they made a lot of bold moves. They moved on from Thielen, they moved on from Cook, Eric Kendricks,

Delvin Tomlinson, all these guys that I think most other teams in the league after 13 wins would have said, we got to keep these guys. We cannot tear major pieces of this down. And they did that. And it did set them up to be able to have the roster that they have right now outside of the quarterback position. So the Wilts did allow for that type of rebuild to happen. It's just that it's never, it's always going to be a competitive rebuild.

You can do it, but you have to do it in a certain way. You have to get the free agents you aim for. You have to hit on the draft picks. You have to stockpile. And this is what Rick tried to do. You do have to stockpile. He always wanted 10 plus picks in every draft. Unfortunately, I think Rick had it maybe a little bit off that not every dart throw.

That's the issue with a dart. When you call it dart throws, all the darts are the same, right? And they all have the same chance to hit the bull. bull's eye. Well, drafting is not that. Drafting would be like one dart is perfect. And one dart has one little feather and flies all over the place. That's your seventh round draft pick. And a lot of Rick's darts were the ones that had one feather and flew all over the place. So I don't know that the math was quite right there for him, but I think he understood that that was a way that you had to build talent was through the draft. And Bersenski has said that as well. So it's a delicate thing. Um, but

When people talk about that, it's really you have to hit on a first round quarterback more likely than not to succeed. And if J.J. McCarthy had been good, we would be singing a very different tune about how they handled the competitive rebuild and Quasi would still be here and all sorts of other things. They nailed it by spending all the free agent money around J.J. McCarthy's rookie contract. That's what we'd be saying if he had actually worked out. So some of it all comes down to that. And that's what it really is for Vikings history.

It's a lot of scrambling and trying to find the quarterback. And I think another issue is the Packers have always drafted a quarterback when they didn't need one. And the Eagles did that with Jalen Hertz. And the Vikings, there were different seasons where, and this is the, we've got to win, we've got to win, we've got to win. So we got to draft the center. We got to draft the center who's the outside. zone guy because that's what we need right now today rather than taking Jeffrey Simmons who had an ACL injury but was a top five talent, right?

That was who was drafted after Garrett Bradbury, if you're wondering, was Jeffrey Simmons. So that has hurt them from taking quarterbacks. And in 2020, they extended Kirk Cousins, but there was a really good quarterback class. They end up with Jefferson. But imagine if they had ended up with Jefferson and Jordan Love or even Jalen hurts who they could have taken. Then things probably would have played out a little different.

Develop Hertz for two years. He comes in, rookie contract. It's all different. They've never wanted to do that. So I don't know. Will next year be that? Depends on Kyler Murray. But I've always really struggled to criticize the Wilfs as an ownership because they

are as good as it gets. I mean, I asked Mark about the A plus rating. And, you know, he and I talked about it, like about how it just, or he gave a good answer anyway about like they care they care about winning they care about the players very very deeply so they don't want to be a team that is going three and 14 and everyone's angry in the building and the the walls are falling apart it's hard to tank so I stand on like theoretically yes you're right they there are several opportunities that they had justin Herbert could be the quarterback of this team but you know he goes in the top five

you had to get there and they didn't get there. So anyway, is this Kivon says we go through this each year. They wait till after the period that counts against comps. Yep, people get cut after the draft and are available to snatch up. Yeah, or guys are still kicking around. No, that's right. Yeah, they do it a lot. And it's not a bad strategy.

But sometimes they also spend big and free agency too. You're right. this was very much Rob Brzezinski protecting the future without sacrificing much for the now for this offseason, which is why grading that is a hard thing to do because the teams, if you go through who won free agency, the Vikings got an A plus last year from some major outlets on free agency because who do they usually give the best grades to? The teams that spent the most money, they got the most players, that's who they usually give it to. They, the analysts never go.

Well, hey, they didn't make any stupid moves. A plus. That never happens, right? They never grade on the moves the teams didn't make. That's why it's a little bit challenging to try to analyze. And I think you guys are doing a really good job of it in the comments. But it isn't easy when you have to kind of have that restraint of, well, actually, it was probably good not to give this guy or that guy that big deal that would have hurt you down the road and he's got an injury history or whatever it might have been.

And then you look back at last year and go, yeah, only like a couple of those guys ended up working out. So, and even the Byron Murphy deal, you know, didn't work out for last year. Even the Aaron Jones, the in-house free agents didn't work out for last year when they had so much spending. So it probably is better for the good, even if it's not as fun. Evan says having flashbacks to when Quasi tried to fill every need in one draft, but we need everything. How do we balance trading down with getting good talent? Does a B plus draft class mean we trade down twice? Uh, there is a imperfect type of formula that I have in my brain for this. And I always like to put real numbers on stuff, but I don't have this for you. I don't have like

specific, this is the exact research. These are the exact numbers. But I think that there is a place where you can trade back to where you don't sacrifice the quality of the prospect. And there's a place where you do. And my issue with 2022, you're exactly right that he tried to fill every need in that one draft. There is a place that would have been okay for Quasi Adolfo Menta to trade back to

from 12 to maybe 18, where, that was a pretty deep draft. Trent McDuffie went there. There was a couple guys. Did George Carl Aftus go that year? A couple guys who ended up working out later on in that draft. But they moved so far back that they went over the hill. There is a very clear, through the research, a clear cliff that you fall off of.

And it really is about the 12th pick most years. This year, I don't know, might be a little bit different because instead of a cliff, It might just be like a rolling hill where the, because there's not the blue chips and then the second tier type prospects. This year, it feels like there's a lot of very good second tier type prospects. But if you move from 18 to 24 to the second round, you're probably sacrificing quite a bit there. If there is a year to do it, though, it might be this year because the difference this year specifically between 18 and 33 might not be what it was in pre. seasons. But this is the same ballpark that they got Addison, Jefferson, Darrasaw. It's like it's hard. Same ballpark, same range. It's hard to go. Oh, yeah, yeah, just move out

of the first round, move down, move down. I think that what Quasi said is telling that you got to make sure you get a quality starting player that you can use for a long time and not just as many bodies as you can possibly get. So that's worth thinking about. Just another dude says with linebacker depth so thin and cashman, a consistent injury risk. I really want Rodriguez. Yes, in the second round, Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech. I am very big on Jacob Rodriguez. He checks off all the boxes.

He's a little bit short and I don't know. Like is a having grown up watching Sam Mills play linebacker and London Fletcher, I just don't factor height into it too much. it probably matters a little. Eric Kendricks wasn't a very tall guy, but turned out to be a great linebacker. So I don't know. He's not, he's not that big.

He plays with his hair on fire. Instincts are through the roof. He had a great combine, which I wasn't really sure. What's his real athleticism going to be? Rodriguez is a really good player. The linebacker position specifically feels like it's got a lot of guys.

And I know the Vikings had Anthony Hill in for an injury, or for a 30 visit. I think it was a 30 visit. Or maybe they met with them at a pro day. I'll have to check on that. But there was some sort of meeting with Anthony Hill. I believe that they're interested in the linebacker position. This is the trouble where we start to add it up and go,

well, they need a running back in day two. And they need a linebacker is probably a day two. And there's not really a day one defensive tackle. So that's probably a day two. Oh, hey, there's a lot of wide receivers that you could take on day two. So what's the right way to go? But linebacker, I think in this, in this defense, this is where there is a formula adjustment for Brian Flores.

Linebacker in this defense, how big Cashman's been to their pass rush, how big Wilson was to their pass rush. You're not just a linebacker. You're a pass rusher. So that matters to the equation. And linebacker is one of those positions where like safety, if you get a great one, man, it is worth its weight in freaking gold if you get a Jacob Rodriguez and he turns out really good. So I like that plan. But, you know, I've also kind of talked about how, you know,

you guys can sell me on a lot of stuff because there's reasonable and rational arguments for a lot of different positions in this draft. Rob, a few major analysts have criticisms about Washington. So you mean Mike Washington, the running back? Is that who we're? talking about here. The running back position is odd for me. The guys that I like the most are not necessarily the most explosive outside of Judarian Price. I really like Judarian Price.

I think he's a big play waiting to happen. Natural, natural football player. And if Jeremiah Love hadn't been their starter, then Price would have been probably an even higher rated prospect. The guy could kick return for touchdown. He was a big play machine. He could catch the ball smoothly. I think he could be a star in the NFL.

I like the idea of the Vikings drafting him. He might go in the first round because he, I think, has a better profile. The other running backs that I like are Emmett Johnson and Jonah Coleman. And what do they have in common? They're not very explosive. I was looking at Mike Washington's numbers and he did have a lot of explosive runs and graded well by PFF and so forth. but the productivity score from NFL.com. So NFL.com has their athleticism score, which is based on combine events,

and then they have their productivity score. Washington's athleticism score was through the roof. I think he was second best in the entire class. And his productivity score was 17th. And that gives me pause. When a guy who runs a 4-3, and he did have good numbers in terms of like yards per carry, but didn't rush the ball a ton. When his productivity doesn't blow your mind and he's got that level of athleticism,

you have to go, is he really that good of a football player? There are a million guys who run four threes who have not been great football players. Delvin Cook ran a four, four, nine. That's not a very good 40. He had a terrible three cone. He had a terrible 20-yard split and he was a superstar. Xavier Scott shut out. Yeah, look, Xavier Scott, I think has a role on this team,

special teams he can fill in i actually thought that he was a good pass protector because he's big and instinctual uh he could catch the football out of the backfield he's just not explosive he's much more of kind of a special teams guy i like him on the team uh rob jo mixon would not be a bad idea i don't know what the injury jo mixon had last year was it seemed like it was a big secret with the houston texin so i guess he'd have to be healthy i think we're thought enough away with Joe Mixon from the off-field stuff that happened in college. Not that that justifies it at all, but as an off-field, I don't think he's had a lot of issues during his career with Cincinnati or Houston.

The issue there is that he's just old. And you're looking for more explosiveness. You're looking for big plays. Does the old guy give you that? I want to remind you again about our sponsor, ZipRecruiter, and also reiterate the Fandle question of the day. which is on Fandul, the Raiders who just added Kirk Cousins, they're over under for win total is 5.5.

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Wilson is old. Cashman has an injury history running back and wide receiver three and defensive tackle and fullback. Fullback they could probably figure out an undrafted free agency, but that's a lot. So they have to decide, because I don't disagree with that list at all, they have to decide the intersection of the prospect that makes sense for what they have and what they need with also the player that's going to fit long-term potentially, who can contribute maybe right away in some way or another, defensive tackle really stands out because you just don't have

a clear-cut number two defensive tackle. I like where Levi Drake, Rodriguez, and Ty and Grimdawkins are going, but you don't really have a clear number two there outside of Jalen Redmond. And outside corner, you're one year away from having no outside corners. And you also have really no depth other than James Pierre, but they haven't developed anybody in that spot for years. So those positions really jump out to me the most. And defensive tackle is being considered a premium position these days. Uh, Josh, the Vikings picked up Jordan Addison's option. Do you think they resign him to a massive long term deal or trade him? I don't think the Bengals, uh, let's pay multiple wide receivers is working out. Uh, agree with you there.

if you're going to give, because Jefferson, if Jefferson has a good year and he's happy and they're in the playoffs and everything goes according to plan, then he'll sign another extension after 2026. His contract is totally set up to get a new contract. And just, just rework it, lower the cap hits right away, you know, kicked some money down the road, that whole deal that they did last time, which now looks like a pretty good contract, considering there's someone in the league making $7 million a year more than Justin Jefferson. But they'll do that again. Can you do that if Jefferson gets pushed up to 45 a year?

Even if the cap is going up, can you give Jordan Addison 30 a year? Probably not. 25. I don't know. And if you're, if you're Addison, now's not the time. It's not the time to negotiate. I don't think. You're locked in for a certain amount of money.

But if I was representing Jordan Addison, I'd be like, you got to, You got to wait. You got to go out there and you've got to prove it. You got to get 65 to 75 catches, 10 more touchdowns, and show the world how good Jordan Edison is again because last year was terrible for him. His drop rate was double what it has been in the past. There was the suspension. You don't want to sign a contract now.

And I think if you're the Vikings, you don't want to do it either. You don't want to go to the table with Edison and be saying, yeah, well, we're not really sure about what's going to happen off the field for you. but here's 20 a year, 25 a year. I mean, you don't want to be doing that. I think what the fifth year option and picking that up, it's a very obvious thing to do. Because even if you picked it up and you weren't thrilled with Jordan

Addison, you could trade him. And the fifth year option number is not that bad. Another team would absolutely jump at that opportunity to take Jordan Addison and give you whatever little draft capital that they would give back and you'd get something for nothing if you were done with, with Jordan Addison in general and didn't want to play him in 2007. So from that perspective, it makes so much sense as a procedural move to just have the fifth year option

there in your pocket. So if he does, and this is why you could kick this out a lot of ways, really. If he does end up playing really well, but you don't feel like you still want to give him that $30 million per year, you can have a play on the fifth year option and then leave after that. That's another way to approach this as well. And at that point, you probably are Purple Insider, not wrong, just early on maybe drafting a wide receiver. It might be next year that we're talking about it.

If they don't think they're going to sign him to an extension, they don't have to rush to do that. And they can wait to see how this plays out. If he has a wake up call for what happened in Florida and, all right, we finally got, we finally have gone too far. And this needs to get resolved by whatever. means necessary. And he does.

And it's all crystal clear off the field. And he plays great. And he's back locked in and catches 70 passes and stuff. Then you're, I think, talking about that extension. I think they want to. They want to have that duo. But it also might depend on Kyler Murray.

If Kyler Murray wins, I don't know, 11 games and throws for 4,200 yards and runs for 500 and he's in the playoffs and wins a playoff. playoff game or something. I don't know. It's not, it's not absurd. It's not crazy compared to what he's done in his past. Well, then you're probably signing Kyler Murray because there's a no franchise tag clause in that thing. So you're signing him to a four-year contract worth 150 million or whatever it might be. That changes the math on what you can do with Jordan Addison. You probably have to say goodbye after that. So this gives them, hey, look, you've got them under contract through a certain time and then you can

figure it out. It just pushes that decision down the road. That's what it does. uh, Goblin graphics. Vegas will win seven games, uh, scamping around six wins for the Oakland Raiders. The Oakland Raiders of Los Angeles. Uh,

I think, I think seven, I think is probably right. The way that it most likely will play out with Kirk is he will win four out of seven or eight games and they will be, and they'll decide, all right, it's time for Fernando to play.

That's probably how it goes. two or three at best until he gets benched. I'm thinking it's maybe a little more than that. I don't think you want Mendoza going in there three weeks into the season. I would much rather squeeze it out like they did with Jacoby Berset into the second half of the season and then go to it. Kirk played okay last year. He played well enough to win some games. You know they're going to run the ball pretty well because they have Rick Denison and they have Kubiak.

You know, you know they're going to be able to run, get the play action, going, they'll win a few games. They were not as, as a team, they were not quite as bad as their record. I mean, the wheels completely fell off last year. And them keeping Max Crosby is actually kind of good for them as long as he's healthy. Brian, it's about time, some common sense free agent spending. Well, this was just no free agent spending, really. And look, I, it's true that it's, I think overall for this particular position, a good thing.

two years ago, they spent a lot in free agency and crushed it. I hit it out of park. They got franchise altering players in free agency. I don't know that those players were here even last year or this year, but Van Ginkle, Grenard and Cashman. I mean, my gosh, that's been the foundation of your defense in going from being bad to really good over the last couple years. So it's not that free agent spending should always be buyer beware.

It should always be, you know, don't do anything. It's better not to do anything. thing in free agency, just be the Packers all the time. Pick your spots and don't overspend like a crazy person just because you could and don't sacrifice the future. I think there's some sort of laws of free agency that they threw in the garbage last year and it ended up hurting them a bit. Vikings TW.

Want to see how serious Rob is about drafting best player available over needs. So the thing with needs is there's probably a lot of. of positions where best player available matches up with needs. We always, in the, in the high level thinking, we're always sort of saying, hey, don't draft for immediate need. And that's true. But sometimes you do, and it's also the best player available, and then it becomes Christian Derisar or Justin Jefferson.

You needed a tackle and it's the best player available. That might be the case with Jermad McCoy or Kenyon Sadiq, like these guys keep coming to mind for me is, hey, who could kind of drop down the board a little bit? and be there, but also be the best player and something you need. It's almost hard to draft something that you don't need at all. Okay, so tackle, I think is not even crazy because most tackles that are backups will get to play in their first year, even if there's a starter. Like, you could see a world where O'Neill gets hurt or Derasaw has some troubles and

your tackles playing. And then one year from now, he's starting and you feel great about that draft pick, right? So it should be best player from that angle. but it's almost hard to go through the Vikings roster and not find where it's justifiable. I mean, I honestly don't even really know. I mean, running back would be silly if it's not Jeremiah Love. But, I mean, it's justifiable for wide receiver. It's justifiable for edge, for linebacker, for safety, for corner.

You can make all those work. Guard, I guess, is the only position that maybe wouldn't make any sense since you just drafted a first round guard last year. But even then, you look at Will Fry. contract, you go, well, can the guard plate center right away? You know, you can make a lot of things work this year. This year you can. Josh wants to see a straight defensive draft. I mean, I don't think you're wrong on that. I mean, the offensive side, wide receiver should always be a prize. I think every single draft should have wide receivers taken within the first two days. They're just so hard to find unless you have Moss, Carter, and Reed, you should be

drafting someone, drafting a Ty Felton. I don't know how good Felton's going to be, but that draft picks a good one, a good decision, a good thought process. All right. It's the end of the third round. It's a prospect that we think we can develop behind Jaylen Naylor. We're not going to be able to sign a good one more likely than not in free agency. Bang, you draft Ty Felton.

It's a good decision. You should do that every single year. But if they went, if they went in the first two days, if they went corner, linebacker, DT, and edge rusher. I mean, no complaints here. You need every one of those things. I don't know that I don't know if a Kevin O'Connell run team is not going to get any draft picks on his side of the ball. Guess we'll see.

Evan says you could play Theo Jackson and Jay Ward all year. Yeah, they could. uh, they could. I think that there's weaknesses there that would get exposed eventually. I mean, I noticed you put their PFF grades in there, which were okay PFF grades, but Theo Jackson did kind of get exposed for not being a downhill type of guy.

And, uh, Jay Ward though, I thought played very well in his amount of time. You can play those safeties. The thing about the safety position recently is that we've always had those guys develop, under Harrison Smith next to them, which has been very, very helpful. So the Vikings have always had a development pipeline guy and Anthony Harris and

Anderson Dejo at Josh Mattelis. But next to them, a Cambinam is this all-time great safety. They might not have that into the future. So how does Jay Ward and Theo Jackson play if you don't have? Well, we saw that from Theo Jackson. We saw some of the weaknesses really start to come out. that safety position does matter in this defense. I think it would get taken advantage of.

Coverage is very important. I think you need one more guy in there. But you don't have to draft one in the first round. That is why everyone's mocking them in the first round. Vikings TW is still mind-blown that Zimmer wanted Anthony Barr over Aaron Donald. Well, you are because you know the result. There's plenty of other people that they, I mean, are you mind-blown that they took? Stefan Diggs over somebody else.

No, because it worked out for your team. Drafting Aaron Donald would have made sense, and it was part of the discussion, but they had just drafted Shree Floyd. And did you know that Sherey Floyd was going to have botched ACL or whatever it was knee surgery and just lose his career? Was it meniscus or ACL, whatever it was that he had and his career ended, which you know, you don't see very often of a guy just having a knee surgery. And that's it for them for their entire career. he was an ascending young first round draft pick that they thought they were very solid in they had Linval Joseph. I get why they didn't do it. Now your point I think that you're making is take the best player. Anthony Barr turned out to be a really good player on a number one defense. Yes, if they had had

Aaron Donald that would have been insane. So if that's your point, take the best player, not the one that fits. But if you can't get the guy on the field, if you feel like it's going to be hard to get the guy on the field, because you have this first round draft pick and this other star level type of of Limval Joseph, I get why they didn't do that. That would make some sense. Let's see. Get Gatino's Christmas channel. Good to see you.

Same scouts for the most part that were put in place in 2022. Does that mean anything? I know that they replaced some people. I just don't pay a lot of attention to this. There's a lot of people in the front office and scouting staff that have been there a long time. And then there's some that Klai Adaflmenza brought in. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with that. Like I know some of these people and we've interviewed some of these people at times,

but I don't know their reports. I don't like there might be people Quasi brought in that are great. There might be people from, I'm sure there are from Rick's era that are great that deserve their jobs. It's that's really for someone else to be able to evaluate because they know their reports. They know the quality of work. We really don't. It's just that it's like a platitude that people, I think, reach for when you haven't drafted well. I was like, well, get rid of some scouts then.

But we don't really know. So I can't really say a whole lot about that. Evan Pace fell off a cliff last year. Yeah, I mean, he really is a special teamer. I don't know what happened. I think, actually, I kind of do. I think what happened was when Ivan Pace was playing really well, the Vikings had run stuffing DTs who just grabbed the guy in front of them

and held that person in place. So the guards were not getting to the second. level and meeting Ivan Pace there. So he could just rocket at the quarterback, lightning into the backfield and get stops and make plays and play really fast. When they had Allen and Hargrave and those guys were getting to the second level, they just eliminate Ivan Pace. He's just too small.

But into the right situation, he has shown that he can play. And I think that's why they picked up his option and they're going to keep him around is because I think they do think that he could play. Last year was, it just wasn't great. And he played everything on special teams. You can't rob Matt Daniels of any more on special teams. He's already losing CJ Ham. Just another dude.

If Kyler Murray is the future in 2027 is supposed to be another quarterback, great quarterback draft, what kind of trade compensation would JJ actually fetch? I mean, if they were trying to put McCarthy, and it depends on when we're talking, if McCarthy was put on the trade block right now, it's just very, very hard to see any team giving you much. Third round draft pick, fourth round draft pick. I mean, in theory, it makes sense probably in your head of like, why wouldn't some team want a quarterback who's only started 10 games?

But that's the Trey Lance thing. If it's gone, it matters who the organization is. I've asked people this around the league. I asked Bucky Brooks on the show the other day. I said to Bucky, like, why do people buy into Kevin O'Connell so much as an offensive mind? And he gave a really good answer to that. And I've asked other people at the Combine and other places and people I know who watch

a lot of tape and really understand the offense and so forth. There is a reputation there that has not been knocked off its pedestal around the NFL for Kevin O'Connell. And there's a lot of people who think Kyler Murray is going to succeed because all those concepts can now be executed again by Kyler Murray that could not be executed by J.J. McCarthy. This plays into trade value. If you're another team and you're looking at the Vikings going, I don't know, man,

they turned around Sam Darnold. Kirk won a bunch of games there with O'Connell. Jefferson was off as a player of the year. I don't think that we're going to give you much if you guys can't get a lot out of this. And if you guys are trading, I mean, this isn't the Jets. trading a quarterback. This is the Vikings. Reputation is going to matter quite a bit in that conversation as well. I would say a fourth round pick is what they would get. William says, I think pockets ruptured as Achilles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. So that might be someone who is later

if they were desperate. But you're right. Yeah. Injuries are going to play into that with some of these guys for these free agents. He's the center from Cleveland, if you're wondering. BWS, which 21-year-old is legit? Kids who have been big man on campus, most of their short lives, now throw them in with older, more experience, dudes knock them out. Drafting is hard.

This is why, like, usually you want the younger players because you can develop them kind of in your vision. And if you can play with the top competition in college at 20, then there's a good chance that you'll grow into being able to, take the next step. If you're 24, then you're likely a grown man pushing. And this is not applied to quarterback, but it applies to like defensive tackle, edge rusher. If you're 24, 25, you are pushing around a lot of kids. And that does have to factor into drafting. Like, if you're drafting the 25-year-old guy from Miami, I'm just not sure that that's a really good

pick because he was probably dominating in part because he's five years older than some of his competition. I love that you guys know, uh, Bredesen, the fullback is the heir apparent to C.J. Ham. I am curious about whether they, uh, whether they get a fullback somewhere. Um, Moral, will they spend top money on UDFAs? I believe so. I think this is part of their core strategy, just in general.

and you know for a bit some of them were working out and then overall they kind of haven't you know the Dwight Mcgluther and the Gabriel Murphy who I think might be in the UFL now Murphy looked like a guy for a minute there and then it just didn't you know Ivan Pace it looked like they had found some stuff you got your Chambliss your Bo Richter there are players who are contributing but they haven't really had a ton of hits on that and the reason of course is there's their UDFAs for a reason. reason, but they do need to hit on some of these guys. And they also had a linebacker, was it Austin Keys, who looked pretty good, and someone

stole him. Maybe it was Arizona. Someone stole them off the practice squad. Ace Boogie, you have the Packers at 10 and 7, Lions 9 and 8, bears at 7 and 10, and the Vikings at 2 and 15. Okay. You know, I don't think that that's going to happen. I'm going to take the over on that.

And I think I actually would take the over on all of these. I think the Packers can win. Packers is reasonable for 10. The Lions could probably win 10. The Bears, I'm not sure because Caleb could take another step and they could be really good. But I just have been so underwhelmed by their offseason. And I'm just having a sense that the Vikings probably won't win two games. I don't know.

Rob responding with the Vikings going 14 and 3. I don't think that they're going to have 14 and 3 either. Evan back to rational conversation. If Flores likes experience guys, how are these not positions of need this year? You have to draft them this year to develop and get them years in the system, safety corner lineback. I mean, you basically have the entire defense there.

I think with Flores, it's not just that he likes experience players. They haven't given him a lot. How many draft picks in the top 100, I could tell you, Since he got here, it's one. One guy in the top 100, and I think Blackman was maybe one oh something, 102. It's just Dallas Turner. That's it. And they took their time with Dallas Turner in part because they had Van Ginkle and Granard

healthy for that entire season. And then they played Turner a lot more and developed him last year. I don't think that Brian Flores hates young players or won't have anything to do with them, but it is a complicated defense that does take time. So every position on the defense is rational to take someone in the first round. This is, we're going to call it the BPA draft. I mean, just take, just take the best guys on the defensive side, especially because you're going to be right.

When we talked about throwing the dart, well, imagine the dartboard has all the different positions on it and they each got an equal size square and you close your eyes and whichever one you hit. Well, you're probably right. If you hit edge rusher, yeah, Grenard might not be here after next year. Same with Van Ginkle. Bang, you're right. linebacker someone brought up Jacob Rodriguez really like him as a prospect bang you're right second

round probably there's there's a there's a lot of ways that this could go corner is at the top of my list because of the players that are there i like the players the most jermad mccoy avion turell are probably two of the guys i i think fit the best if it's the second round chris johnson colton hood hood is someone that sounds like he would fit Brian Flores, physical, bigger type of corner. I really like the way Chris Johnson moves. If you want to go a little bit later into the third round, you might still be able to find a starter like the guy from Duke is that Chandler Rivers from Duke, maybe him. You know, like there's, there is a good amount of corners in this draft.

So they could get one somewhere else outside the first round. But I think that those first round guys might actually be worth it this year. class g says i like will was will fries i didn't notice him all year long there were some times there were some times uh and dirty mike points out you know by pff grade risner was better than fries fries fries at the end of the season slipped uh he was not the same at the end of the year right that maybe battling through some things or just fatigue from not having a full off season but he did he did have a bit of a slide toward the end of the uh the season cause and effects Matt, would you trade Grenard to Dallas?

Maybe there's this year's 12th for Future First or Addison or maybe to the Titans or Miami for a high draft pick. So I'll tell you what I heard and I mentioned this with Alec Lewis the other day. The price tags for Jonathan Grenard are not what you think. And you have to start thinking of it from the other perspective, not from yours. If you've ever had a garage sale or you've ever sold something on eBay, then you're You know this lesson. What other people are willing to pay for your stuff is not always what you think it's worth. You think that Jonathan Grenard is worth a first or a second round draft pick.

He is not. I have been told that's not happening. There are no teams that are coming in with first and second round draft picks. Now maybe, not right now. Now, maybe someone gets crazy desperate and is like, all right, fine, second round draft pick. I still can't see it. I would be surprised. I shouldn't say that it's not ever going to happen.

there's no chance because, I mean, a team was willing to give two firsts for Max Crosby. The issue with Jonathan Grenard, there's several of them. From the other team's perspective, if I'm the Colts, if I'm the Eagles, if I'm these teams making these offers, you could see probably, you know, Dallas is one of them. Well, Dallas is crazy. So this is why I want to say, I'm not saying there's no chances will happen. This is just where things stand right now from my understanding. And it could change tomorrow.

It only takes one crazy team, which is maybe the Cowboys. But when you start to add up the fact that he didn't get any sacks last year, we know that he played really well. But if you're a team at the negotiating table, you're going to be like, I'm spending how much for a guy with three sacks? He had an injury last year. That matters to the equation. Oh, so I'm getting a guy who's had injuries throughout his career

that has really only played kind of one full season for you guys, 24 and was injured in Houston, so I'm paying for that. I'm putting myself in the Eagles shoes or the Colts shoes or whoever. Oh, by the way, he wants a contract extension. So now I have to give him millions and millions of dollars of my money. Really? For a very good player, isn't it better for the Vikings to just keep this guy and have him be good than to trade him away to teams who are kind of running down that list?

Because from the Vikings perspective, you have Kyler Murray. here just the Jefferson is prime you have a good roster that could win nine games with terrible quarterback play last year an imperfect division where somebody might fall off why not just keep one of your top pass rushers but it could get a little dicey with the contract situation i just don't see granard being in a position to hold out with two years left on his deal that usually doesn't happen it's usually one year left on the deal and i also don't think he's criminally underpaid underpaid yet criminally, no. Is 22 million, I think?

I mean, that's just not, I don't know what the cash flow is, but it matches up. His average annual value still matches up with a lot of good pass rushers that are second tier in the league. Dirty Mike's wasn't paced the special teamer that abandoned his assignment and the infamous Bears kickoff. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. He played, I think, the most, maybe some of the most snaps on special teams, but he did

have a bad moment there. Yep. And that was costly for them and cost them the playoffs and, uh, you know, not, not, not, not ideal. Not great. It was a very, very big mistake by Pace. Overall, though, he was a good special teamer for them. That was a really terrible mistake. It was more, I think with Pace, it's more of just you have no one else. And he knows your defense and he can play and he could start if you needed him to. and he's been good at times before. They don't throw him out

and just hope that somebody else can come in and play. Like, where are you getting a $3 million linebacker that is going to give all your he's, I mean, $3 million bucks? It's going to give you the special teams. He's going to be a backup. Maybe you can rotate him into Blitz. He was once upon a time good at that. It's a really shocking falloff, though, from a couple years ago.

Cause and effect, would you take a developmental swing on quarterback Jack Strand, either with a later draft pick, if he's available. Yes, yes, I would. I have not actually seen Jack Strand play, but I have read a little about him. And somebody like that, needle in the haystack, who knows? But I'm actually starting to think of backup quarterbacks as being much more valuable than I did before

after what we've seen the last couple years when the Vikings have gotten to QB3. can you have a guy that you're developing to be a good backup quarterback backup quarterback's worth his weight in gold i mean you could save seasons that way and if you have a rookie contract backup even or somebody you never know you never know with those undrafted free agents those late round picks and if it's somebody that has the physical tools i would take a shot at it yes uh may i mean i don't know like it's i've never been a huge fan in certain areas of the draft the third round the first round the first fourth round quarterbacks. If they got to that point, I mean, DAC went there, but there's not many guys

who went in the third round that worked out. Once you get to the seventh, sure, I mean, what are you taking a punter? You might as well. You know, you might as well take somebody

if there's any reason to be interested at all in a quarterback, but they would have to really like him. Cause and effect, you think we take a flyer on Klaas, Campbell, and from a GM standpoint,

why not look at a Lewis Riddick as a candidate. He seems like he could shake things up. If not, who is on the radar. They don't even know who's on the radar yet. Lewis has gotten a few interviews in the past. I don't know him very well. I mean, I know, like, he's on TV,

and I follow him on Twitter, and I know that he's been a player and an evaluator and stuff before, and I think he knows his stuff. I just don't know him super well. Like, how would he run an entire front office? They don't have their list yet. So I have a tough time looking, around and go, I don't know, like, how about this guy from Seattle or how about this guy from,

I would suspect that it's going to be much more experienced people than last time. It probably will be a lot more people with evaluation backgrounds and not the, the next analytics GM, because teams always sort of, well, we went this one direction. So now we're going to go back the other direction. I am very interested to see the names that come out. But if the team hasn't even begun to figure it out, I don't know how I can. figure it out. What I, what I, I, I wouldn't even try to put someone in a box and say, well, I want this specific type of general manager and this is what I want. Uh, I would be open to a lot of

different ideas, a lot of people with different types of backgrounds. You could say you want an evaluator, but the thing with the evaluator is that person was making the final calls, but every general manager in the world will tell you, they don't sit in their office and watch tape 24-7. That's just not the job. It is a. management position. You are managing 100 people that are working on the to solve these problems. And then you have to take their information to make decisions. So when Mark Wilf says, well, we need leadership at the top, that sounds like a little cliche, but I actually agree with them. I think you need someone, whether it's Prasinski or anybody else, who understands how to work with people and how to manage people.

That was the thing that was missing from Kwezi Adolfo Mensa. And I think that the person needs credibility in their background to be able to stand in a room. And I think this is what Brzezinski is done. This is why I would grade him high is because he is stood in a room and they've said, should we give this player this much money? And it's too much. And Rob has said, no. And they have not done it.

And they've let someone else do it. If you are going to be the general manager of the Vikings, you have to bring that credibility. You can't get bold over in that situation. You have to be able to be someone who commands the room, commands the respect. and can make the decisions and put them on your shoulders. Because even though they talked about collaboration, everything else, the buck has to stop with somebody and you want a GM who's willing to take that on,

to take the arrows when it's gone bad and to, you know, praise everybody else when it succeeds and that kind of thing. So. But who falls under that? You know, I mean, I think you do want somebody from a good organization. Of course you do. that has had a successful structure and so forth before. It doesn't always work.

Coltrain says I get the impression if Rob Brzezinski becomes the full-time GM. It will be status quo for the front office, including scouting department. I want an outside hire because I think the scouting needs an overhaul. Yeah, I feel like I've kind of touched on that. Like, I don't think that you or I or anybody else knows anything about the scouts and what they do and how good they are. I have known some, like vaguely some of the Vikings people throughout the years.

I've gotten to know them a little bit. And I just, I, in sports in general, so often, it's anybody else other than you is the best possible person. Like it, the people have been there. You haven't won a Super Bowl. Get the F out. Like it just get, get out. We'll bring in someone else.

And I just don't know if that's always the right approach. If they hire someone new, maybe they'll overhaul it. Maybe they'll bring in new ideas. Maybe they'll bring in a more fresh, more modern approach or whatever it might be. I don't know. But I also can't say when this front office drafts the fewest number of top 100 picks of any team in the league over the last four years. And then we're like, these guys can't scout. Well, no crap, they can't scout.

They have no picks. I mean, you're going to look like you can't scout. If you have eight first round or first top 100 picks over four years, that's just, hey, look, the Packers or the Lions are better. Well, yeah, the Lions tanked and picked up a million draft picks. I guess their scouts are geniuses. I mean, most of the scouting information that people get at some point becomes a lot of the same information across the leak.

It's what the decision maker does with it that really matters probably a lot more. That's not saying that, you know, you're wrong. I just don't know if you're right. I really don't. I just can't tell you if they have the right scouts or not. Rob would know that better than better than us by far. ace boogie trade McCarthy to Denver to get stid him. You're doing an interesting job of,

it's an odd troll job here tonight. It's not like a rude one. It's just kind of bizarre. Class G, JJ is going to ball out in preseason, probably going to look at his best and they're still not going to start him because he won't be the same in a real game. I think with McCarthy,

that's if he's at all part of the day, discussion, it's going to be the hardest part is that in practice, he's looked good before. And he's looked good in front of me. And I've come back to this very room and told you guys how good he looked in training camp practices. And I remember doing a podcast with Dane Mizatani after training camp wrapped up. And I said, I just don't see how he won't be at least decent. And he was not at least decent. But, you know, he got hurt. And that's the, the tough part. I think if J.J. McCarthy has continuity. I'm going to, I'm going to stand on this.

If he has continuity from day one of OTAs all the way through training camp, all the way through preseason, that they will get to the end of the summer. And he just flies steady. Doesn't make too much of the noise, the outside, you know, the reporting or analysis or tweets or memes or whatever the heck else that bothers the youth. And he just shows up to work every day and tries to improve every day and gets those reps and doesn't get hurt and makes the most of them and works his butt off. I think by the end of training camp, there's a very good chance that they could feel good

about J.J. McCarthy. I think it's off the table that he could potentially be the starter, but they could feel good about him and want him as the backup. And then what are the odds that he plays even a little? Decent. And then you see where you're at from there. Then you just kind of go from there and figure it out because right now there's no good way to know how it's going to play out.

Class G, I'm going to put this out there. If JJ clearly looks better than Kyler and Wentz in preseason, things are going to get weird. Things will get weird, but not in there. Well, Kyler's just not going to play in preseason. He's going to play one drive, and that's going to be it because he's the starting quarterback. If McCarthy plays well in preseason, it will get weird. It got weird during Kyle Slaughter. It got very weird during Kyle Slaughter.

And he was QB4 or whatever, QB3? I don't remember. Was there another guy? Trevor Simeon was there? or Sean Mannion or somebody, maybe three. But he, I mean, he wasn't, he was an undrafted free agent who was from another team. He wasn't even a first round draft pick.

As would, there will be PSAs running on a scroll across the bottom of this show. I'm going to figure out how to do that. It'll be a PSA that runs across the, the scroll. Do not make too much of preseason with J.J. McCarthy playing. Because if you do, then we're going to get in huge arguments that aren't worth anything.

It'll, I mean, I think he can use the reps to develop. But it is very, very unlikely that, I mean, this is a coach who has not given the slightest care about preseason ever. The guys who perform have been tossed out the door many times. Guys who are good performers in preseason by, I mean, Zimmer used to do it to some level, but Kevin O'Connell has never cared at all about what happens in preseason. season. It might be the 53rd versus 54th guy on the roster, maybe for a preseason. And that's it. Mostly, the starter stand on the sideline and watch. And if you're out there playing, it's actually

bad news for you is how it usually goes. But there's got plenty of guys who have picked off passes or caught a bunch of passes or whatever might be. And they just get released. They've just not cared much. Uh, Benjamin, what are your thoughts on Grayson Hulton? third round. I do like him in the third round. I want to talk about that a little bit tomorrow more, but I don't want to leave you hanging. So let me, um, let me pull up his PFF page real quick, just so I can get you an answer on him because I'm in, I'm intrigued by guys that could be like you're talking about, it could be like a third round defensive tackle. I just don't love the DT class at the top, but I kind of like it in the middle.

Halton was, is he's undersized, right? Is that his thing? Yes, undersized. Six foot two, two 92. Great run defense grade, good pass rushing. A lot of production over the last two years in terms of hurries and sacks. His pass rush win rate is pretty good. And he has played a little bit up and down the line.

So yeah, he's he's somebody that I know. They brought in. There was a report that they brought in anyway. And I think that there's a decent chance that he could turn into a pretty good player. All right. You guys have a lot of questions here tonight. I'm rolling through, but I also want to get to the, our interview with Joe D. Leone, who is a great college football podcaster and analyst for A to Z sports.

I want to do that. Cause and effect. So I'll do, uh, I'll do three, four more. questions and sorry if I'm, I'm leaving some people behind here. I'll be doing it again tomorrow because there's a lot to talk about. Cause and effect, what are you looking for in the draft as far as wide receiver?

I can be sold on a lot of different ideas. I mean, someone like Zachariah Branch, a playmaker, get the ball in his hand. I think his quarterback play was kind of not good. And he's better than some of the screen numbers that get thrown out. He's the exact opposite of Chris Brasel,

but I would take either one. I think with O'Connell, you can make an argument for an underneath guy, a playmaker would make a lot of sense. I'm always a little hesitant on those guys. I think Leviska-Cenault ruined it for me. I loved Leviska-Shanalt. He's just like, oh, it's just not, there's not enough there as a true wide receiver. So you need that. But I could be sold on a bigger wide receiver who's a possession guy.

I could be sold on a deep threat, which Jalen Naylor was. There's a lot of different options. I, uh, Bryce Lance, I'm not as sold on Bryce Lance. I mean, total mega athlete, freak athlete, but he's older, is 24. You know, the NDSU thing has worked out for some guys, but I would prefer them go with someone who's played against better competition. Um, in terms of tight ends, Benjamin, uh, I haven't looked. That's the one position outside of Kenyon, Sadiq.

I have just not looked at it all. So I, I don't really know about Trigg or Roush. I just have not looked at those guys. Class G, the inevitable purple karma, JJ will look better in the preseason. They're going to start Kyler, trade JJ. Then Kyler is going to flop. Yeah. Yeah, that's not actually how Vikings history has gone, though.

Vikings history has gone kind of the opposite. It's like an idea for a quarterback doesn't work out for a young quarterback. And then they get some random guy and that guy is great. That's how it's usually worked out. that's how that's what viking's history says uh benjamin where i think of jadarian price in the second round love it love it i really like jadarian price the more that i've looked at him the more i think he might go in the first round i think he's an excellent excellent prospect with less mileage on his body than jeremiah love love the way that they moved uh the way that he moved at

the nfl combine thought he was awesome so i am a i am a big fan of uh jadarian price AP Carlin, if Kyler balls out and JJ makes huge steps forward, are they going to do the same as they did with Sam Darnold? The only scenario where I could see that is if Kyler Murray looked great and played 10 games and then got hurt and then they brought in JJ and he played seven games. It was amazing. Then they would probably go with JJ because it's the rookie quarterback contract still. They've got another year of that.

Murray's going to be expensive. that is the one scenario I could see, but you'd have to have it split up. I'm just going to go with Jack here, a long name. I heard that Free Safety Genesis Smith is a good player and style similar to Harrison Smith. I think that this safety draft is very deep. It's one of the reasons that I don't love Dylan Thineman or Emmanuel McNeil Warren, even though they make so much sense. I do not love it because A.J. Hulsey, Janice Smith,

Zaki Wheatley, like, there's a bunch of guys that are good players that I think would be available in day two. Caleb, am I seen correctly that Mike Zimmer is coming back as part of Flores' staff? I don't think that's happening. I have not seen that. If that's out there, I've not seen it. So, anyway, well, I think I'm going to call this a night. Sneaky wide receiver, TK. Skyler Bell, interested there.

Yep, I'm interested there. Kind of brings in everything that they throw at them. Not a twerk. Price isn't an elite athlete, not special at evading tackles. Yeah, I mean, I get the downsides. But I also think that when you see this guy run, like natural, when you say he's not good at evading tackles, I'm not really sure about that.

I mean, he had like one every, one every five runs went over. for 10 yards for that guy. It felt like that was his thing, was explosive runs. I like him a lot. I think he's a good player. Massage, could I see Scott transitioning to fullback? He's got, he has to put in a lot of weight.

No, I don't think that's going to happen. TK. likes Denzel Boston. I do too. I mean, if it's, if it's my draft, if Purple Insiders drafting, I'm taking Denzel Boston with number 18, and I would let the internet cry about it. That's what I would do. Boston is,

My favorite receiver in the draft, I think. I'm not saying he's better than Carnell Tate as a prospect, but he's my favorite one to watch. It's got great, great, great hands. Yeah, and TK. He rarely drops anything. Totally agree. Dirty Mike.

Well, KOC's obsession with explosives is annoying. There's definitely a need for explosives. Well, look, that correlates really well to winning. It correlates really well to top-notch passing games. but I don't think that means they're just going to have Kyle or Murray stand in the pocket for four seconds and try to whip the ball a million yards down the field. They do need, yeah, Brendan Thompson's a good wide receiver.

But how they manage that, like Kyler Murray's need to get the ball out of his hands with wanting to go down the field. You do have to deal with that. That's where bootlegs and play actions and things like that are so effective for looking for shot plays is that those help a little bit with the pass protection. I like Brandon Thompson as an explosive wide receiver.

Yes. I love that Eli Heidenreich is listed as a fullback. I mean, he's definitely not a fullback. He's kind of like a slot receiver. I really like Eli Heidnreich. He's a Navy. Awesome player to watch. I saw him several different times.

He took over every game he was in that I saw him. He was fantastic. And I know the natural comp is like Christian McCaffrey, right? but as it is just a football player his hands i think it's more like a like a slot wide receiver he's more like he's more like um jarius right or something he's a slot wide receiver who they can run the ball with not that they ran the ball with jarius but that's what he kind of looks like is he has really good hands and he's undersized but he's quick and he's stocky i i like that guy as a fourth or fifth round draft pick i think he can play uh truth bombs if lemon dropped to

take him? I mean, you're speaking my language, my friend. Oh, this is a good reference here. Good reference from Chris. Heidenreich is like a Dave Meggit. How about like an amp Lee? How about that for a role? A David Palmer? Benjamin, you think Sadiq is overrated? I don't know, man. Maybe. It's, tight ends are a tough one to figure, but that guy, I think the upside is spectacular. I like him. you know, maybe, maybe you're right. I don't know, like some of you guys are saying that, you know, Sadiq's not going to be any good. I'm not so sure.

I mean, they spread the ball around a lot. And I didn't actually love their quarterback. People were saying that he was supposed to be a top draft pick. I'm not sure about that. But I think that, I think that Sadiq has a very high ceiling, but would need some development. SWAT, do you think that Kyler does good this, so good this year that they'll resign him long term?

I mean, that's just, that's just so, so far away from knowing. But if I were to bet, I would say yes, based on what we've seen before. Dirty Mike, why does KOC have this reputation? Never a top 10 offense, an EPA per play. I like the, um, the data as much as you do. But I was talking about his reputation as a past, a past designer, past game designer, quarterback coach, all that sort of stuff. And, you know, they have had really, really, really,

effective numbers in terms of total pass EPA. Their running games in the past have not been very effective, and that's why they have been down on some of that stuff. But, you know, Sam Darnold, they were sixth in total EPA passing. I think they were even middle of the league in 2023, despite the fact that they were playing Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs and then Kirk Cousins in 22 wins 13 games. He's confident. He's a leader.

Then 23 is playing some of his best football. So yeah, I mean, if you, like, you've been here, right? Like you've watched, right? You understand the difference between they haven't had good run game with the way the offensive line has been built, the scheme, the actual running backs. But you can't tell me that Kirk Cousins, who went 17 and 8 in his two years with KOC, didn't play really well. You can't tell me that Sam Darnold, who went 14 and 3, didn't play really well.

And those weren't really, really good pass games. were. Justin Jefferson didn't randomly catch 1,800 yards worth of receiving by accident. Those were really good pass games. DeAngelo Pons is another corner that I would be into. Benjamin, I mean, I would say that Trey Wayne's ultimately worked out and Xavier Rhodes worked out for first round draft picks. There was some that didn't work.

So let's, uh, let's, let's do this. I have a conversation here with Joe D. Leone, who is a college football analyst, podcaster, also is a rights for A to Z sports and breaks down the NFL draft. So I'm going to give you the Fandual question of the day and a message from ZipRecruiter again real quick. And we'll get to that discussion. The Fandul question of the day is cousin signed with the Raiders. what's how many starts and how many wins a lot of you were kind of hovering around five it was five and a half is the line six and we've been calling them oakland because they kind of deserve it i think they're actually getting a little serious now as a team i i do i actually believe that

they're being serious as a franchise with clint and they have the right plan here with kirk cousins but he probably ends up starting i think he starts eight games and wins four of them that's bold right 500 and then they go to fernando mendoza