Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - An extremely X's and O's breakdown of Vikings-Bucs

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Matthew Coller, Will Ragatz and Andrew Krammer dive deep into what questions they most want answered in Vikings-Bucs and talk about why the Vikings should be expected to win this game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome into the new look, Raggett's Roundtable. Matthew Collar, Will Raggett from Sports Illustrated, Andrew Kramer will be joining us every week from the Star Tribune. And Will is going to lead the conversation here as this, if you've been listening for a while, you'll know, is the hardest core of the hardcore breakdowns and previews of a football game, meaning that we will get into the shape of Blake Brandel's body. We will dive as deep as we possibly can. That's a reference to Wes Phillips calling him a rectangle. It doesn't need to be discussed further.

But where would you like to begin in Vikings Bucks, Will? Where do you want to start? I mean, first of all, I'm just excited that we have an actual real football game to watch and to talk about and not try to manufacture excitement over some preseason action. It's this is the real thing. I guess as we kind of start looking at this, we've had training camp and all this build up. I mean, going back to OTAs and everything, the preseason, I guess what are you guys kind of most excited to see actually unfold in this game? Yeah, for me, it's going to be Brian Flores' defense.

I mean, he said it might be a little more exotic in week one than it was in the preseason. He said, I don't think we were quite vanilla in the preseason, but I do think we'll be a little more exotic. I think it's going to be a lot more exotic. I think especially against Baker Mayfield, who in the past hasn't always handled pressure very well. And I imagine Brian Flores is going to want to try and confuse him. And so this is probably going to be a good look out of the gate for the Vikings defense in terms of their pressure schemes. We'll see if they can cover and all that. But to me, it starts with Brian Flores. I also wanted to mention for those watching on video, it's a very small room.

That's why we're standing at different angles. And Will looks way shorter than me. For me, it's maybe it's too on brand to talk about the number two tight end. But how different is this offense going to be? Because last year, it depends on what metric you looked at to decide how good you thought the vikings offense actually was because for me a lot of the efficiency metrics said that it was maybe a good offense but not a great offense and yeah they were top 10 in scoring but that's a lot of shootouts and i think the defense maybe caused them forced them to be top 10 in scoring because

they had to finish off a lot of games passing the football desperation to score but from a play-to-play basis they were just okay and I think that that was really in part because they couldn't run the football very effectively so they go out and they give them a bunch of cash to a giant number two tight end I think CJ Ham has to be a little bit more of a part of this thing with the past protection and what his role can be. I'm very intrigued to see, like, did Kevin O'Connell really get into his Gary Kubiak bag? Are we going to see a lot of more play actions and bootlegs and things like that from Kirk Cousins? Or was that all a little bit of smoke and mirrors and it's not going to be

different really at all? And it was just maybe something they talked about and Oliver's a good player. So they wanted him or, or are we going to see like a different offensive identity? And just Alexander Madison is the starting running back. It has been so long. Will, you've never covered the team without Delvin cook being the starting

running back. And for me, the first training camp, my first training camp was Delvin Cook, his first year being drafted. So we haven't seen anyone else in the backfield aside from when there's been injuries. And I want to see how Alexander Madison takes on that role. And also, does anybody else play? Like, is it going to be Ty Chandler or not?

Are we going to see a little Miles Gaskin in our life or not? So, I mean, I think that this team has actually many questions to kind of be answered in week one. Yeah. And let's start on the offensive side of the ball. Cause you got into a good question that I have as well, which is how seriously do we take Kevin O'Connell when he talks about wanting to run the football more and be efficient and be more balanced? Cause this is one of the most pass heavy teams in the league last year. And it's not just Kevin O'Connell that they went out and they made a point in their offseason actions by bringing in josh oliver by resigning garrett bradbury by resigning cj ham that they want to have kind of the personnel variety to be heavy

in certain situations and be able to run effectively out of that but also be able to throw out of that and then when they need to they can put four wide receivers on the field because you have jaylen nailer kind of emerging you You draft Jordan Addison. I'm just curious to see kind of what the balance is with these personnel groupings. How much 21 personnel are we really seeing with CJ Hammond there? How much 12 personnel? How much 11 personnel? All these different things, I think, are going to be kind of fascinating.

Is it going to be very similar to last season's offense? Is it going to be notably different, or is it going to just be kind of subtle changes as they try to become more efficient and more balanced? Yeah, and I think that's been a trend in the NFL. You've seen teams' offenses try to go heavier personnel and throw out of it. I mean, the Chiefs were one of the best multi-tight end teams last year in terms of trying to throw out of that stuff, and other teams have tried to follow suit and getting heavier defensive personnel on the field. The Vikings are well-suited to do that. They need to find a way to counter Justin Jefferson and the attention he commands. They need to find a way to get defenses up closer to the line of scrimmage,

stop playing so much too high, and that's why I believe them. I do believe that they're going to try to establish the run a little bit here and try to get that going, and the financial commitments, as you guys mentioned, really kind of lend to that, that they actually are going to try to get that going. And the financial commitments, as you guys mentioned, really kind of lend to that, that they actually are going to try to do this. The defense can't be much worse, meaning that they shouldn't be playing so much catch-up this season. I think you brought a good point, Matt,

that last year they had to really put all the gas, I mean, just step on the gas and keep going and throwing and throwing because they were constantly giving up touchdowns. Now, if you can actually try to keep the water level a little lower, you might be able to put CJ on the field. You might be able to lean on that running game and try to play more ball control. And then, oh, there's a big 50-yard play to Justin Jefferson in ways that teams could just too easily scheme against last year because, hey, we know where the ball's going. We know you're going to throw it to him. Here, this is them trying to develop a counterpunch to that. And that's why I do think they're going to throw it to him uh here this is them trying to develop a counter punch to that and that's why i do think they're going to try to establish that running game a

little more i just love that i had to turn down the audio levels when will started talking about 21 personnel because he got like really excited about that uh but you know same will honestly yeah you know i i tend to believe that there will be a little bit of a different offensive identity but at the same time kevin o'connell's roots are in 11 personnel three wide receivers out there shotgun throwing the ball all the time and i think it it may be that they have at least another switch to turn because last year they didn't it was throw to justin jefferson or like, and then when Hawkinson got here, he at least provided them some sort of other option, but there wasn't a counter punch. There wasn't a, oh, you're taking this away from us.

Well, we're going to run it down your throat. Or you think you're going to play three safeties on the field? Well, we're going to make you pay for that. Or if your third linebacker is terrible, then we're going to load up on those guys and we're going to run. I just, I remember a game, I think it was against the Cowboys 2019, where they ran like 11 straight times and scored a touchdown. And like, they just could not do that last year.

There was, that was not a club in their bag. So at least to have that, I don't think it's going to be any more than one out of every four or five plays that we see that bigger personnel. But I think that at least they can flip that switch. And the other thing is, too, we blame the defense for everything and they deserved it. But but the offense can close a game. You can be up by 10 points in the third quarter, score another touchdown, and that is over. And they didn't do that last year and so I mean part of that is just who the quarterback is and kind of who he's always been but there's also the you get up 10 points in the third quarter and you can hand off to Madison Ty Chandler five straight times and run the ball kill the clock get a couple of first downs and that makes it very difficult for the other team to come back as opposed to a three and out in the third quarter, which just gives more and more opportunities. So I think from that perspective, they can be a better offense

than they were last year. But also, I mean, you talk about things that we're looking forward to see unveiled. I mean, it's finally Jordan Addison time, like finally seeing, and you asked Wes Phillips this will, but I'm really interested in when they do go bigger personnel. Is it KJ? Is it Jordan Addison? Is Addison going to be out there to run play action deep shots, or is it going to be KJ because he can run the ball? Like they have so many more options than they had last year where it was really like, if you're not throwing the ball to Jefferson, you're just kind of not doing anything. Yeah. Kirk Cousins, I think says this a lot. It's just having tools in the tool belt and having different ways that you can go based on the looks that you're getting, based on the game situation, all kinds of things. You have these different places that you can go in these different personnel packages you can use. So to have the ability to, it doesn't have to be that extreme, but you'd like

to be able to get up early. We've seen that Kevin O'Connell is great at scripting these opening drives and getting a seven, nothing lead. But then so many times last year, they just, the defense would adjust and the Vikings wouldn't really have the right counter punch. They would go through these lulls. It would end up being a close game and they would just find a way to pull it out late. You'd like to really, I mean, try to be able to win a game by 14 or 20 points, especially you look at this week, this is going to be on paper, one of the easier matchups that they have. I mean, it's, it's, it's a tough defense, but you'd love to be able to, if you're the Vikings go up early, run the football, kind of control the clock that way. And then you can hit some explosive passes out of that when the defense is kind of focusing on

the run. So I just think Kevin O'Connell spent a lot of time this offseason just in his office, watching tape, racking his brain for different ways that you can make this offense more consistent, more balanced, and not just kind of reliant on the Justin Jefferson card. I think they brought in the personnel and the roster to do that. Now let's go see it unveiled. And to your point, a big part of that is Jordan Addison. And I think early on, it's going to be a lot of KJ Osborne. Jordan Addison will be mixed in. There's going to be plenty of 11 personnel where we see both of those guys.

I'd imagine the very first snap when they're in a two wide receiver set, it's KJ Osborne out there. To me, that feels like something that maybe pretty quickly transitions over time. But for right now, you kind of let the rookie earn his way up. But I don't know. What do you think about how those snaps will be kind of divided between the two? Yeah, I mean, we should not overlook the importance of run blocking. And I know O'Connell talked up Addison's willingness, but he's 175 pounds. He's 21 years old. We saw in the preseason when Addison was healthy that that was not his strength out there.

It was being a receiver. And also when they go too tight and too wide, we shouldn't overlook the fact that Josh Oliver's presence in line is going to allow TJ to be a true split out option. That they're three wide. They could have packages, as you asked about, Will, that could be Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and TJ out there or KJ instead of Addison. But it will be two wide, but it'll be two receivers, but it'll be three wide and they'll be throwing it maybe just as much as they would out of an 11 personnel. So I think having Oliver here is going to help them not stick TJ as that extra blocker and then have to dump off

to him on fourth and eight like they had before. I think they're going to be able to send him down the field and be more of that downfield option because they have more blocking options up front. And then with KJ blocking in the run game, he does it. He does it well. He's proven he's a veteran at that spot. I think they're going to rely on that early on until Jordan kind of comes along, gets his feet wet. We'll see both of those guys in the game on that spot. I think they're going to rely on that early on until Jordan kind of comes along, gets his feet wet. We'll see both of those guys in the game on Sunday. I just think we're going to see, as you mentioned, KJ's start in that spot. So do we have to end fourth and eight jabs after the season starts,

or does that just go on forever? I was just wondering, like, maybe it's like, do we turn a new leaf? Do we get the last couple of them in? That was directly related to Hawkinson. So he was on, he was running that route because he was a block and release option. No, that's, I mean, that's true. And really, I mean, last year in general, I thought that their third down offense was okay, but it just sort of goes under the whole thing of like, probably even as there's some

excitement about what Flores is going to bring, just okay is not going to get you very far this year, unless you want to try to win every one score game again. But if you're going to be better as a whole, as like a more stronger team on offense, then you can't rank sort of like 12th and 18th and 15th and everything like they tend to do. So they do have to have more options when it comes to those big situations. But my question is, and Jordan Addison could bring him that.

I ran across the stat the other day that nobody except for Justin Jefferson averaged more than 11 yards a catch. So everybody was a check down. It wasn't just TJ Hawkinson and Addison can bring, I think, a downfield element. But I was going to ask you, Andrew, how are we feeling about these milkshake bets? You and I have two of them. And one of them is that K.J. Osborne will catch, or these are my side, that K.J. Osborne will catch more passes than Jordan Addison. And the other one is that Brian Asamoah, new pronunciation, I said that Ivan Pace was going to take the first snap of the season.

I'm not feeling great about that second one. So how are you feeling, your confidence level, going into week one about our offseason milkshake bets? Yeah, I feel pretty good when Brian Flores came out today and said he expects Brian Asamoah to take the majority of reps next to Jordan Hicks in this opener. He did mention we hope to get Pace in there for some snaps, but he's an undrafted rookie. He mentioned this is going to be a special moment for him, and then he hopes he can kind of calm down and get into the rhythm of things. That's going to happen with any rookie,

and I think they were always going to rely on at least a little bit of experience that Brian got at the end of last year, and somebody that the front office took in the third round that they feel highly about, just as highly as they clearly feel about Ivan Pace. I feel good about that bet. I'm not so sure about the other one. My bet is that it's going to be Jordan Addison getting more catches by the end of the year in total over KJ Osborne. But if they really want to run the ball and establish that, I think KJ is going to get a lot of work in this offense regardless of how they use Addison and move him around. But when Addison's on the field, I do think they're going to be throwing the ball quite a bit.

And that's where we're going to see him get those one-on-one chances. Yeah, I mean, that's why they brought him in is that you're going to have defenses focusing on Justin Jefferson, focusing on TJ Hawkinson. You're going to see a lot of single coverage against Jordan Addison. He's well-equipped to beat that with the route running that we saw all throughout training camp very briefly in the preseason. I think it's just about having the various options. You can go heavy and you can run out of that. You can throw out of that. You can use play action and boots and all these different things that we've seen from Shanahan and Kubiak and McVay offenses. But then you can also spread it out and you can go lighter. I don't think necessarily Jordan Addison being in the game has to indicate that they're going to throw it they'll probably throw more when he is versus when kj osborne's in the game but just to have those various options i

think it's a great thing for kevin o'connell as a play caller just having the versatility they'll start out in various looks they'll see what the bucks are doing and they'll react to that and they'll make adjustments and i think you look at this game and it's, you see that it's about a touchdown spread and you're thinking, okay, the Vikings are at home. This should be a relatively very winnable game, but it's a good test for Kevin O'Connell and year two of this offense. I mean,

you talk about upfront Vida V as one of the most game wrecking defensive tackles, and that's just a glaring kind of concern with this offense that we have coming into the season is the interior offensive line. Garrett Bradbury, Ezra Cleveland, Ed Ingram specifically. I mean, all these guys. Garrett Bradbury had a good season last year in a contract year. They brought him back.

But his game has never really been to anchor against the Vita Vea types. And we saw that with Dexter Lawrence in the playoff game last year. So there's concern there. At the second level, you've got levante david devin white some really smart linebackers that are going to really test the running game of the vikings and kind of alex madison reading how they're flowing and just the blocking and everything there and then on the back end this is a team with antoine winfield and jimelle dean and carlton dave like a quality secondary so it's kind of like strength on strength then maybe weakness on weakness in this game which I think will be fascinating to watch the Vikings offense I think

has a chance to be really good but it's a good Bucks defense on on the other side the Vikings defense has a lot to prove but it's a good place to start with Baker Mayfield so what did you guys make of just on the offense before we go to the defense what did you make of what Wes Phillips said about at Ingram today yeah I don't know that I was super convinced it was I mean it was the answer that you expect a coach to give where he was asked how how Ed Ingram has looked I think he was just asked generally how the interior trio has looked and he said Ed Ingram he's he's he's looked really good it was there's a little bit of hesitation and maybe I'm reading too much into that and of course the coach is going to praise his player, but it's tough for us to see. I mean, we watch so

much during training camp of the receivers and the DBs and everything. It's hard when they're on the other field doing the O-line, D-line, one-on-ones to kind of see any of that. But from just, you know, 11s and then the brief preseason action, I didn't see a ton that indicates to me that Ed Ingram has made some massive leap. So so absolutely that's going to be one of the big things to watch right away can he avoid stepping on Kirk Cousins foot can he avoid giving up six pressures in his game like if he can just get to a baseline level of being solid that goes a really long way for the Vikings offense folks we are going all in on prize picks this football season. If you haven't heard of it, prize picks is the easiest and best way to play daily fantasy. Instead of battling

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Use the code purple. PrizePicks. Daily fantasy sports made easy. I think that at the beginning of camp that they're that they were concerned and i always judge by what they do more than what they say unless they layer in interesting criticisms into their like when it's uh we love ty chandler he's great doesn't have to learn on the pass block but he's uh we're doing great uh so they do that sometimes and maybe there's a little bit of that pass block, but he's a, we're doing great. So they do that sometimes. And maybe there's a little bit of that with Ingram.

And there's a little bit of, I also think trying to speak it into existence with him. Like we believe in you guy. Cause you really have no other choice. So if you're Mike Zimmer and you come up to the podium and you say, well, you know, still can't pass block.

I don't know. You guys figure it out. That doesn't help anybody with anything. So I would expect them to be more encouraging, but I have to see it. Like you said, Will, I don't believe in my own ability to decide whether a guard is going to be better or not by watching nine preseason snaps and pass pro and some practices out there because the margins are so small between being a decent player, a great player, and a terrible player. It's like three or four plays per game that decide the

difference between Trent Williams and the worst tackle in the league. So how could we tell? But this is, I think, going to give us an immediate indication because the interior of the defensive line is good and also because Todd Bowles is exotic as well with his blitzing and that to me was maybe the biggest problem like yeah you're going to get beat one-on-one by great players sometimes but when you can't identify what the other team is doing and you're just looking around as somebody runs by you that happened way too many times and what I keep hearing is the word communication and it seems like it's like ed you better you better be communicating because if they don't they're just

going to give up a bunch of pressures from those blitzes and we saw it in the preseason game in seattle where they gave up an interior pressure in part ed put it on himself he said that i didn't pick up the communication of where we were sliding we let somebody go right between and that was with backups that was with ollie udo aust Ole Udo, Austin Schlotman, maybe with Bradbury and O'Neal on either side of them. It will be different. But we saw too many times last year similar things happen. And to be a year later and we're still seeing that,

here's what I believe about what Wes Phillips said, though. He brings what the other two guys don't. He does bring power and anchor when he's on, when he has the technique right, when he's not stepping on Kirk's foot, all those things. They really need that in the interior. And I'd heard this this past month that there have been no discussions on extending Ezra Cleveland, who's entering the final year of his contract. I don't know how enamored they are with Ezra either. So when they bring in Dalton Reisner, you know, they talk about moving him to the right side, but maybe they would have played that out

and also potentially replace Cleveland on the left side. Cause I don't think either of those guys have earned their spots. Yeah. It, it felt like there was kind of a shift and this started in 2021 in the previous regime when they drafted Christian Darasau, where they realized, you know, having these guys with 9.9 relative athletic scores who could be tight ends who are amazing in this zone blocking scheme is great, but you just have to have a little more balance where Ezra Cleveland and Garrett Bradbury, it's been consistent, specifically with Bradbury in his first three seasons. Just the pass blocking in the anchor is tough just based on body type and kind of the athletic makeup. And that's not really Garrett Bradbury's fault for being drafted in the first round with that profile.

It's just it's what the Vikings were looking for at the time. The Derrissaw shift, they talked about this Rick Spielman, like we wanted to get a little bit bigger. They tried it with Wyatt Davis as well. That didn't work out, but a mixture of somebody who can run block and have that quick first step in the athleticism to reach guys and do all these things, climb to second level, but also anchor against pass protection because with a quarterback like Kirk

Cousins, you really need that. And running the ball effectively and in the zone schemes and everything is great, but this is a passing league and you need to keep Kirk Cousins protected. And so I think they did that as well when the new regime came in. That's why they liked that Ingram. I think he had a combination of both in terms of you watch the college tape and you look at his athletic testing and all these things is he's an athletic guy. He can do all these things in the run game, but he also has that anchor and that kind of power. And it just, it didn't show up as much in year one because there

were these little technical mistakes and communication and like sliding the wrong way and letting a guy through, or just kind of whiffing with his, with his hands in the initial kind of set. And so if he can fix some of those things, and I'm sure he's been working on this entire offseason, there are still the tools there that made him a second-round pick that you would like to think can kind of help in pass protection and be kind of functional. And to me, it's just something to watch right away because I don't think this

Vikings team is going to mess around necessarily with what they view as an open division and the team that they've put together this offseason. If you see struggles, whether it's Ed Ingram, whether it's Ezra Cleveland, to me, somebody that's actually kind of interesting is Blake Brandel, who I think had a really good preseason. They've been training him at all three interior spots, mostly the two guard spots it wouldn't shock me if not after one game but like a month or two months in if this if one of those guys is not playing well hey let's let's put Blake in and see what he can do the rectangular guy the rectangular guy yeah or it could be going out and Dalton Reisner is still a free agent like he has not signed with anybody yet it probably makes sense from his camp's perspective let's let's wait and let's let's uh let's see who which guards are struggling around the league here and that might up our leverage a little bit did you

guys uh catch brian flores mentioning that he felt mobility and a quarterback is pretty important i did hear that and i did a little double take when he said that so when you bring up needing to protect kirk cousins that interior as you as we've all talked about so much is so important in front of him specifically and then how much do you plan for that going forward when Kirk's not even signed beyond this year? Oh, by the way. Yeah. I mean, I did catch that and I went like, oh, you think so? I wonder if the organization agrees. Maybe they do because there's no contract extension. So I wanted to talk about though, that when it comes to the offensive line thing, I have taken a stance. I have dug my feet in on this i don't care if the interior isn't that great there is no excuse for the minnesota vikings offense to not

be in the top 10 in the nfl not be one of the most efficient not want to be one of the most successful and i would also take this stance for this game in particular because you are right to run down their roster be like heard of that guy that guy. That guy's pretty good. He was on that Super Bowl team. This guy, what did Mark Craig say? He looks like a circle for Vita Vea. It was a wild day out here. But, okay, and I agree with all that. Every football team has football players that are good at National Football League football.

Every single time. Not the Cardinals. We can talk, except for the Cardinals. Every single time, though, since can talk except for the cardinals every single time though since they're not playing the cardinals we could talk about like oh they got some guys who could cause problems the idea is that you brought back kurt cousins to mitigate those guys causing problems so yeah there's going to be interior pressure but you know that and you knew that all off season you can game plan around this you have to find ways to stop it so is does

that mean josh oliver plays more of a role in pass protection does it mean that cj ham helps on interior pressure somehow step you know stepping up into the middle and they blitz it in those areas kevin o'connell had six months to find the answers to not having a great interior offensive line and by the way who does there's like three teams in the league that have really good interior offensive lines so at some point sometimes I get tired of like oh man if the if the guard lets somebody through okay fine well do you have any answers to that I think that you should so I think that despite this question mark our standard for this game and this season should be extremely, extremely high for this offense.

This is going to be fired up on a on a Thursday morning here. Yeah, I agree. It's you can't expect to go into a game with three Pro Bowl interior offensive lineman teams just don't have that. You have to have answers, getting the ball out quickly, utilizing the screen game. Like I think Kirk Cousins is a is a great quarterback operating within the pocket. If it's just a quick three step drop, get the ball out quickly, utilizing the screen game. Like I think Kirk Cousins is a, is a great quarterback operating within the pocket. If it's just a quick three-step drop, get the ball out. You now have Jordan Addison who can win off the line of scrimmage with releases to get open for a quick slant or things like that. Ideally, you don't want to have constant interior pressure. It's not ideal. It kind of limits what you can do with some longer, longer developing routes

downfield, but you're right. It is not an excuse for this Vikings offense if it's a similar level of interior pressure as last year to still not find ways to adapt and be successful. And this was a team that you mentioned this. They were like 7th in yards and 8th in scoring, but they're like 18th in EPA per play and DVOA and all these things. They were not a very efficient offense. They have to find ways to improve that. And this is a good test week one against a pretty good Tampa Bay Buccaneers

defense. So, Andrew, let me ask you this. Would I be out of line and saying there's no excuses here with this game? I mean, when this game like we were talking about and I wrote about the schedule and I've brought this up a number of times, how important it is to win this game. And I think we all know that because we all got plane tickets to fly to Philadelphia in like three days. And that's not going to be an easy game. And we know Mahomes is showing up. And did you know Mahomes' dad played for the Twins? I hope someone brings that up. But when I look at Tampa, I think there's people in Tampa who are like, maybe it could be okay. And we had Trevor Sikkim on the show for PFF, who's a former Tampa Bay reporter. Who's like, well, maybe they could win the game. If this,

this, this, and this Baker Mayfield stinks, Baker Mayfield's terrible. This guy has an 81 quarterback rating since 2021. That's what you would expect in 1979 from a good quarterback. Like, I guess, you know, it's, it's part of the job to hype it up and talk about all the nuances, which is why we do the Raggetts roundtable. But at the end of the day, when it's Thursday, we're going to the game. And I'm like, how am I feeling about this game? I'm feeling if you lose this game, I'm going to think, I don't know if this team is any good because I know Tampa is not a good football team.

Not even if you just lose it, if it's close, if you have to struggle through this game, I don't think that's a very good sign. And remember last year, like the openers are always weird. Last year, the Vikings had a bad training camp. Kirk Cousins was throwing a bunch of picks. And all of a sudden, the Packers can't cover anybody because they come in with a bad plan and Justin Jefferson goes crazy. And this offense really kick-started what it eventually became

in terms of potent in the passing game. This is a good chance for this team to establish what they are offensively, what they are defensively, especially against Baker Mayfield. Because after that, you got Hertz, you got Herbert, you got Mahomes. You're not going to have a chance really to lean on a bad quarterback. This is going to be a time to build confidence, a time to establish the pressure packages that Brian Flores wants to roll out and then build off of those. As you said, Baker Mayfield is just not good. He's bad. And when you've got that in there, there's no room for, well, you know, maybe if you just only give up a couple deep balls. Well, no, this needs to be a defense that puts the clamps

on him, forces them into third long situations and forces him into some tough decisions that he has never really made well in his career. So I, yeah, I think this needs to be a two-score win for you to walk away feeling yeah all right this they did what they should yeah baker mayfield's got to be feeling pretty thankful for josh dobbs in arizona right now because that's the only competition he has at the bottom of the starting quarterback rankings heading into like i don't care about cj stroud the rookies justin fields jordan all these different guys like baker mayfield is at the very bottom, and that's just – he had some decent seasons early in his career at Cleveland. We have not seen that in several years.

Last year it was Carolina and then the Rams. It just was really bad. So this is a good little way if you're Brian Flores and you're the Vikings defense to kind of ease into things a little bit. Not that you can not take it seriously or give everything that you've been game planning and building towards, but it's not opening with Jalen Hurts. You get a chance here. You'd like to think that the Vikings offense will put you in a kind of positive game script as a defense. You get a chance to unveil everything that we've been talking about so much throughout

training camp, throughout even the preseason action. we saw some of it, the variety and kind of the multiple-ness of these blitzes and bringing confusion, bringing chaos, making it so Baker Mayfield doesn't know which guy at the line is going to come on this blitz, which guy is going to drop into coverage, just muddying the picture for him both pre- and post-snap. I think it's a great – it's an ideal kind of situation. Now, the Bucs still have talented wide receivers, which as we can talk about it is going to put some stress on the Vikings,

young cornerbacks that we haven't seen a lot of, but you can help those guys. You can make their job easier by just bringing a lot of pressure. The Tampa Bay offensive line isn't really a strength anymore. It had been, I mean, they won the Superbowl. They had a really good offensive line, but Donovan Smith left this off season, Ryan Jensen, their center got hurt. It's Tristan Wirfs, and it's a bunch of young guys that you may or may not have heard of. Cody Mottch is a rookie out of North Dakota State who has great hair and a funny gap-tooth smile, but I don't know if he's any good right away. So this is an opportunity if you're the Vikings. Pin Daniil Hunter and Marcus Davenport back.

Get your linebackers, get your safeties involved in the blitz, and just go after Baker Mayfield because you can get this team into third and long and kind of obvious passing situations and just make it really tough on Baker Mayfield to have any time to see the field and find Evans and Godwin. Let me ask you a question real quick. Are you going to make it to Sunday, Will? I feel like you are as jacked up as I have ever seen you on this show.

You're the one, you're the one who yelled Baker Mayfield stinks. I was just going to mention that. I yell on the show all the time. It's like what I'm trying to match the energy. I like that. You bring Hunter and Davenport up. This might be the only time you have a healthy Marcus Davenport because his whole track record has been getting banged up in seasons. The most he's played for any season is about 50% of the snaps in New Orleans. When you finally have that, you've got your healthy duo. You know, they want to maintain

that for much longer, but this is the game then to really unleash them and cause it against the mediocre offensive line to cause that pressure. And then I also want to see, we've heard so much this summer about this young secondary and their ability and not ability to tackle and learning, relearning how to tackle and all these things. I imagine the Buccane and not ability to tackle and learning, relearning how to tackle and all these things. I imagine the Buccaneers are going to try and get the ball out quick and try to force guys like Makai Blackman, Caleb Evans into situations where they need to bring down Chris Godwin, bring down Mike Evans. Those are the things that you kind of look at and say, okay, from what we've seen from these young guys, that could become a problem if you can get

the ball out quick and you're not bringing those guys down. Brian Flores has to make sure that those young guys are on point when it comes to that. Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports, and I'm always a fan of trying to catch other games when I go on the road to cover football, like baseball, hockey, basketball, just about anything. And that's why I use GameTime, the fast and easy way to buy tickets of any type of event, even music, comedy, whatever you're looking for. GameTime has last-minute flash deals on tickets, images of seats, and a low-price guarantee. You don't have to plan your tickets months out in advance.

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like hey why didn't you sign Dalton Reiser what's your deal uh but I also think we should talk about the cornerback group the same way because a bunch of veteran corners got cut around the league in training camp and they didn't bring any of them in and so they're sticking with Andrew Booth Jr. as the backup that's no parachute at all J Jawan Williams is on the practice squad. Okay. Well, he's barely played in NFL games either. And so not having anyone who's a veteran player, except for Byron Murphy, who's really not a veteran veteran, like he's 25 or 26 years old. So not having any experience whatsoever in that secondary, if they do come out in this game. And the one thing I'll say about Baker Mayfield, because I did insult him, but he can throw the football like this. He is an accurate passer just haven't played. So there will be mistakes, but if we're going through the season and they're just giving up pass after pass, I think we're going to look back and go, Hey, uh, you know,

you guys talked about winning, winning the division, getting back to the playoffs and then rested entirely on totally unproven corners, probably the most important position. I mean, because we've seen this in the past, even when they've pressured the quarterback successfully, if the corners couldn't stop anybody, 2021, 2020, 2021, I thought they pressured the heck out of the quarterbacks and then they just couldn't cover anybody with Rashad Breeland. So is that, is it going to end up being the same sort of thing where we look back and go, I don't know, you could have probably foreseen this, especially a Caleb Evans has an injury history. Andrew Booth has an injury history. That's a,

to me, like as far as questions to be answered week one, I really want to just see how these guys match up against two good receivers. Yeah. It's there's there's on each side of the ball for the Vikings. There's an obvious area of concern, a question mark, a weakness. I mean, we, we, we're assuming it's a weakness. We haven't seen them play yet, but on the offense, we talked about it. You can mitigate the interior offensive line struggles a little bit. It's harder to do that on defense with your cornerbacks. It just is. And so that is going to make or break in a lot of ways, the success of this entire plan that Brian Flores has this philosophy this attacking scheme and it's going to be I think all season in year one of Flores and we don't know if we'll get a year two of Flores it's going to be kind of a high risk high reward proposition

where there will be plays like take what you saw in the preseason where Jay Ward comes unblocked and just hammers Clayton Toon and gets a strip. There's going to be big game changing plays like that. That's what it's built for is to get after the quarterback and pop a guy and have him float a ball in the air and pick it off. Things like that. There's also going to be times where just communication wise, you bring a lot and it gets picked up. And that leaves somebody one on one with a cornerback downfield and you float it up and you catch it. And it's a big play. And I think like we've been talking up, I'm,

I'm high on this Brian Flores defense. I'm bullish on it at the very least making a solid step from last year, which on paper should not be that hard to do with how bad the Vikings defense was. I think they can be a solid unit, but you have to remember and people are pointing this out like Brian Flores first year in Miami, they were not a very good defense. And it was a lot of this. They were blitzing a ton, and they're getting burned a lot,

and they didn't really have the guys or maybe the comfort or communication. Year two, they took a huge leap, and the next two years, they were really good defenses. But that first year, it's asking a lot of guys, many of whom have never played in a system like this before, to come in right away and do it and do it effectively and kind of mitigate some of that risk. So I think there's going to be splash plays for the defense,

and I think there's going to be some splash plays for the offense. And week one with Baker Mayfield is definitely less risky than when you start facing Jalen Hurts and Herbert and Mahomes. But even Baker Mayfield, with the receivers he has, can make you pay if you don't handle everything right on the back end. Weren't the 2019 Dolphins the team that everybody thought was just outright tanking because they had gotten rid of so much talent? Brian Flores really didn't have a whole lot to work with until they brought in. Was it Phillips and Rousseau and some of these other guys that they brought in Jones Corner?

Yeah, to really shore that up. So and then Brian Flores ended up winning like seven straight games that 2019 season eventually on the back end once they got it together. But I think Brian Flores, when he was in the spot last time, when he was establishing a defense, it wasn't with a front office that would have figured it out with Daniel Hunter. It wasn't in a front office that would have been bringing in Byron Murphy right away. Yeah, they could have brought in Ronald Darby, a guy they hosted, let's sign with Baltimoreimore so there are questions about how much is this front office really trying to go all in on this year in terms of putting the best talent on the field as opposed to having the long view of now it's still that competitive rebuild right i think they've got more talent though than brian flores had in 2019 i think

the expectation should be hired right out of the gate with this matchup it's just that question of yeah when you get hurts her, Herbert, Mahomes, when you start facing more balanced offenses, certainly. I don't know how you guys feel about Rashad White, but I don't think the Tampa Bay is going to be able to run the ball at all. I'm wondering how the Vikings stop the run when they face a good running game, because you've got an interior of Dean Lowry, Kairi Tsonga, Harrison Phillips. Jonathan Bullard. Jonathan Bullard. These are guys that scrap heap guys outside of Harrison Phillips.

So I just I have big questions on both sides of the ball, certainly. And then with those young corners, you mentioned the transition to this man scheme. It's a lot different for a Caleb Evans than what he was asked to do last year, certainly. So do we all agree that the Vikings will win this football game or we just they should? Yeah, I don't think any of us would be bold enough to pick against that in making a prediction the question to me is am i confident i've been thinking about this all week am i confident that they're gonna like actually do something that we've seen literally once under kevin o'connell and win a game by multiple scores or is it gonna

somehow be the same story and all the headlines are more of the same Vikings went on last second, 45 yard, Greg Joseph field goal. Like I, I just, you don't want to put yourself in that situation because as we saw in the playoffs,

you know, the one score games, you're not going to win all of them. That is not a sustainable method. They could find a way to lose this game. And then you're staring down the next three being tough. And it just, the things, things can get out of hand pretty quickly with with the schedule it can get late pretty early so you have to find a way to win this game and to feel good about it like we've said you

have to find a way to win this by 10 or more i would say and i do actually think that they're going to do that just because i really don't think baker mayfield is very good but it's the opener and so you know nothing would nothing would surprise me too much. Yeah. We've seen Mike Zimmer for years here, scheme up a smart defensive mind and really put a lower quarterback in his place. And I think Brian Flores is a modern defensive mind in the NFL, akin to a Mike Zimmer who could bend with the times on that front. And that's why I think they are going to limit Tampa to 20 points or less in this game. I think the offense is going to go buck wild because points or less in this game. I think the offense is going to go buck wild because Jamel Dean's the only buddy and Antoine Winfield. Those

are like the couple of guys they've gotten that secondary, but the Vikings offense is loaded. I think TJ Hawkinson could have a huge day. I think this offense is going to easily surpass that 20 point mark and that's why they should win by multiple scores. Buck Wild, was that intentional? No, it actually was. So then let's close on this, fellas. I think that my favorite opener, let's say U.S. Bank Stadium opener for me, because it was technically week two. But when I first moved here in 2016,

Sam Bradford, his first game against the Packers, US Bank Stadium opener had more energy in a stadium than I've ever felt except for the playoff game in the Superdome. And that's probably, and Taylor Swift, we were there. Oh yeah. Insane. Absolutely insane. Anyway, I actually looked this up. Decibel levels of a rock concert in a stadium are higher than a football game. So maybe we weren't insane bringing that up. Aside from that, that game was nuts. Trey Wayne's finishes it off with a pick. It was like a really exciting game. And that was my favorite one to cover just because it was the first one and it had so much juice. And I thought as I was walking out, like that's one that everyone

here will remember they were at because of the opener of U.S. Bank Stadium. And again, I am aware that that was week two, but opener thoughts like I think that this is going to have a lot of pomp and circumstance. But Grant tributes, I think that there's a new breath of air that has been breathed into the fan base when there's a lot of new stuff to look at. And I also think that Kirk Cousins and the support from the fans of Kirk Cousins, specifically after he won a lot of games last year, after the Netflix documentary is, I think, less apt to have the fans be like the first three and out. Oh, here we go again. Like, I just think that there's going to be an energy to this building

that's a little bit different than maybe some years past. Your thoughts? Yeah, it's often like this at U.S. Bank Stadium, just with the atmosphere and the home field advantage they have. But this feels to me like one where it is going to be so raucous that if the Vikings start fast and do what they often do and get out early, and then just the volume turns up on Baker Mayfield and we haven't even talked about as much as we should but just having Daniel Hunter is so huge I think he's in

line for a great season I think Marcus Davenport if he's healthy you can sneakily play well Byron Murphy like there are a few guys on this defense Harrison Smith we have not brought up he can still do it at a high level like I just think this is one that could get away from Tampa if the Vikings can start fast. Now, if they don't, and it's like a tie game and kind of a slugfest, low scoring, and maybe a close game at halftime, there might start to be some nervous energy in the air a little bit, but I would not be surprised at all if the Vikings come out fast and are able to kind of pull away from this team. That's a good point. If we hear let's go crazy early, if we see a gritty early, I think this is going to be a fan base that's ready to jump on that,

ready to feel good about where this team is at. They read all offseason about who left and then trying to figure out what's new coming in. This is a team that, like you said, in a matchup, that if they were able to get that jump on them, I'm not too sure how Tampa's going to be able to come back from it. Did you guys have other opening day nostalgia at all? Well, the opening day, I just go back to last year.

I was not expecting that at all. Kevin O'Connell's first year, the offense, how crazy it was in the building after they got off to such a hot start. And, you know, when Christian Watson drops that pass, that felt like the only chance Green Bay had in that game. And it immediately got away from them. And not even Aaron Rodgers could bring that team back against what we learned was an incredibly inferior defense

from Ed Donatel and the Vikings. So I think the Vikings have the coaching advantage. They have all that. And last year, what they were able to do, I expect a similar environment. Yeah, I'm just still not taking it for granted that we're going to be in the stadium and it's going to be packed and full because I just remember in 2020 it would be how weird it was when they opening it to Packers and there was nobody there the worst and the that historically bad defense got like 45 put

up against it so it's going to be just fun to see kind of the fan base come together and be really positive about a team that won 13 games last year, got to the playoffs. And now in some ways, I mean, they moved on from a lot of veterans, but in some ways they're set up to potentially be better this year, even if they win fewer than 13 games, which is inevitable because they're not going to go 11 or 11 and 0 in one score game. So the Brian Flores excitement, Jordan Addison's debut, all these different things. It's just going to be fun to be in a packed house. So a lot of good vibes on this show.

But if they lose, Dane Mizutani, by the way, will be co-hosting postgame from inside US Bank Stadium after the game is over live on YouTube. So make sure that all of you check that out. Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune, Will Raggetts of Sports Illustrated. We're going to do this, I say every week, but we're in Philadelphia next Thursday.

So mostly every week when there are not Thursday football games, the Raggetts Roundtable. Thanks everybody for listening to this obscenely hardcore breakdown and we will catch you all next time. Maybe we'll get some lighting inside this room next time. I feel like I'm in the shade.