Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Analyst Bobby Peters breaks down the Packers offense post-Rodgers and why Kellen Mond is a fit for Kubiak -- plus minicamp comments

Episode Date: May 16, 2021

Bobby Peters is a football coach and author who writes books on teams' offenses. This year he wrote a book breaking down the 2020 Green Bay Packers, so he got together with Matthew Coller to talk about what the Packers' offense might look like if Aaron Rodgers does not remain the Packers' quarterback. How much was the supporting cast and play design a factor? Plus why Kellen Mond adding mobility to the Vikings' offensive scheme could be interesting and why Kirk Cousins thrives in this style offense. And then we pull some of the most interesting comments from Vikings minicamp from Kellen Mond, Mike Zimmer and Christian Darrisaw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And I just thought it was great, Bobby, that we could bring you on to talk about your book and how Jordan Love is going to fit in this offense or Derek Carr or I don't know, whoever is playing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers that is not Aaron Rodgers. So how are you, Bobby? Welcome back. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. And as a person who grew up a Chicago Bears fan, you know, the whole Aaron Rodgers thing right now is probably the best thing going for the bears in the last couple of years. So definitely enjoy discussing that. Yes. And by the way, still waiting, you're covering the rest of the division still waiting on the Minnesota

Vikings offense. I guess when it's a Gary Kubiak offense, and it's probably the same as a Gary Kubiak offense was in like 2012 or 1997, then maybe you don't have too many wrinkles to break down for it. But I'll be waiting on that one. Maybe the Clint Kubiak 2021 version for the Vikings will come eventually. But I do, I want to, I want to talk about this process for you writing these books because we've, we've brought you on a number of times to break down X's and O's.

And I really feel like people enjoy listening to you talk about how offenses work, but you watch every play and break down every play and then track numbers on how often these teams use every play, which makes me think that you have as many hobbies as I do. But I just think, I just think it's really a fascinating process. When you started doing it, it was the Philadelphia Eagles third down book. I wonder what you have kind of like taken away about NFL offenses since you decided, hey, I'm going to actually track every play and then write about it. So the philosophies, obviously, from team to team are different. I think the biggest compare and contrast that I have right now is this Packers

offense from this year with the San Francisco offense from 2019. You know, obviously Matt LaFleur doesn't, you know, he's a branch on the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. You know, he's not too far removed from coaching with Kyle back in Atlanta, but the offenses are very different. They're foundationally similar as they're built around the zone running scheme, but how they execute it and all the different stuff they do around it, how they game plan was very different from, from those two offenses that I studied. So that's, that's a very interesting thing to look at,

you know, as, as something that's, you would think, Oh, Oh, you know, the Packers,

they're just running the 49ers offense. Well, they're slightly close. That is really interesting because I think we kind of bucket these offenses into oh it's a Kubiak or Shanahan style and that's just what they do and so you know just go forward with it um but that is interesting I wonder why you think it was that last year it worked so well for Aaron Rodgers because the year before Aaron Rodgers you know is sort of adapting to a completely different style when it was Mike McCarthy he's in the shotgun all the time

and it seemed like everything had to be done by Aaron Rodgers that if he wasn't making a big time throw then no throw was going to happen at that point he was just throwing it out of bounds all the time and that led to a lot of people I joking jokingly said it, but there was some truth to it, thinking Rodgers was washed because his numbers were starting to dip. And then all of a sudden, last year, he comes back with an MVP. How much had to do with that offense? Because I feel like this is really centric to the debate with Rodgers, where I think the team feels like we actually have helped you a lot,

and it is the coaching, and it is Devontae Adams and Aaron Jones and everyone else, and then Rodgers feels like, no, actually you haven't done enough because you should be giving me more weapons. Like how much did this offense enhance what Aaron Rodgers did last year? So let's start specifically with Rodgers. So I think the framework of Matt LeFleur's system provides Aaron Rodgers with the ability to play within the structure of the offense more than what he did under Mike McCarthy. The coaching staff does a great job of getting receivers open, scheming his first read open.

One of the themes that you'll see as you're reading the book is Devontae Adams is almost every single time the first read in Aaron Rodgers' progression. And if he's one-on-one, the ball's going there. So that's getting the ball out on time and in rhythm to your best receiver as often as possible. I mean, that's just good practical coaching. The second piece to that is the running game and the ability to keep Rodgers in good situations and not behind the chains. I want to say the Packers, when they saw too high safety, so typically, you know, NFL defense or defenses at any level,

when you see too high safety, offensive coordinators want to run the ball because there's one less guy in the box. The Packers did an excellent job of running against too high safety structures. And they saw plenty of them because when Aaron Rodgers was your quarterback, you know, you want to protect your, in the back, you want to protect your corners as much as you can with safety help. So Packers saw a ton of too high safety looks, especially on early downs,

and they ran the ball against them very well. And to me, the biggest difference between a couple years ago with Mike McCarthy and now with Matt LaFleur is that it seems like the offensive line and the running backs and receivers are coached up, and they spend a lot more time on the run game. And actually, you could come up with some player quotes that said that, where players admit that, yeah, you know, we spent a lot more time on the run game now, and it shows. It shows on game day. It does. And this is something that I would sort of

contest, but also in weirdly, like, endorse. So I'm sort of in a strange spot with it, with the Vikings offense, because I think it drives people crazy how much they run Delvin Cook, and those people are right to say that, hey, look, second down and 10, second down and 12 is not a time to hand off because you're going to end up with second down and six, even if it's a good run. At the same time, though, it's very clear to me that these offenses that are operating where it starts with the run and then everything goes off of that, that when you have a great quarterback like Aaron Rodgers

he's elevated to MVP it helps a lot to have that running game and with even Kirk Cousins his efficiency has been incredibly high Jared Goff when Todd Gurley was great his efficiency was very high and the same thing for San Francisco with Jimmy Garoppolo and then you need the quarterback to do something great at some point during the game because you get to spots where it's third down and 12 and the game is on the line you need something and this is where Aaron Rodgers clearly is you know the greatest in the world him and Patrick Mahomes at doing that um so I just think that that's sort of fascinating that we're in a world where everyone is talking about you need to pass more, and that's right, and yet still the run game is fundamental to succeeding offensively.

Right, and I think, you know, when we're talking about, you know, the whole pass more thing, I think, yeah, I mean, the data shows that passing is more efficient, but there's a lot of factors that go into that too, you know, what the defense is doing game plan-wise to take away what you're trying to do and all that sort of stuff. So tell me if Aaron Rodgers is not in this offense, if it's someone else, how different is it for Green Bay? Like how much could this offensive setup bolster someone else? I think the crazy thing is it honestly probably won't look too much different

from the 2020 version as far as scheme wise. Like, I mean, production wisewise, you know, who knows? Obviously, it's not going to – you know, when you take that stuff down in quarterback play, it's going to be a huge difference in production. But scheme-wise, I mean, they did anything and everything to help Aaron Rodgers, you know, last year and even 2019 as well, but even more so in 2020. You know, heavy reliance on the run game, a lot of boot action. They got him out of the pocket on the keepers a lot.

And then in the drop-back game, you know, getting the ball out quick, getting the ball to Devontae Adams as much as possible. I mean, I wouldn't – you know, obviously they ran a ton of RPOs too, so maybe they cut back on some of the RPOs and just call stricter run plays and give the quarterback less freedom in that sense. But one of the differences too is, you know, with the Shanahan-style offense, this is something that most of those guys do, like McVay differences, too, is with the Shanahan-style offense, this is something that most of those guys do, like McVay does it, too, is they'll call a play in the huddle, and then they'll have a can to a second play

if the defense lines up in a certain look or just depending on game plan stuff. They have a one-play call, and they can kill it or can it to a second play depending on how they game plan it. Well, in the Packers' case, when you got Aaron Rodgers, he would occasionally, not all the time, he would occasionally wholesale change the play at the line of scrimmage and change route concepts and stuff. And obviously, you know, when you have a quarterback like that, that ends up pretty well for you most of the time. So I think that part of the offense will

curtail back to the more Shanahan-McVay style of, you know, hey, we're just going to call it, run it, you know, and then we'll have a second play if they give us a look we don't like, or if we want to can it into an advantageous look as well. But overall, I... Oh, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, that sort of alludes to, like, my question is, so let's say they trade for Derek Carr.

I mean, it sounds like you're just going to get a bit of a poor man's version, but, you know, it's not, like, he could be elevated by this offense as well and helped by it and could handle it mentally whereas with Jordan Love if you go to a quarterback who's inexperienced there might be a difference in how much you can do like there's only so much that Matt LaFleur can just call in plays and design anything else and there's that extra reliance on the quarterback to make some of his own decisions is kind of how I'm hearing it. For sure. And a guy like Derek Carr, I mean, he, he proved, this is what year two or year three under John Gruden. And he, you know, he, I mean, he executed that offense perfectly.

And they have, they have so many checks with Lance Grimmick. I mean, he was doing a ton pre-snap and even post-snap too. He had an incredible 2020 season. But the thing, the thing with these, with any offense, really, it's not, it's not unique to, you know, a Matt LaFleur offense. Even though he did kind of simplify his scheme in 2020, year one in an offense compared to year two is night and day. Look at the, you know, the Falcons, you know, with Matt Ryan, back when Kyle Shanahan was there, you know, year two is when they took off.

You know, this year with Aaron Rodgers was year two under Matt LaFleur. So that's, that's when that big jump is made typically in these offenses. And so say they do trade for a guy like Derek Carr, you know, it might not look exactly how you want it this year, but in year two, you know, you'd probably see that next level jump. So you study a lot of these, and I want to ask you about some Vikings things here in a second. But, and I know that you don't like questions like this,

so I'm going to ask it on purpose. Because you're a football guy, and you break down football, and you're not like a media guy with hot takes. But where do you rank someone like LaFleur? I mean, do you put him in the upper echelon? Because I guess this is the thing that I just sort of don't know how to separate is your coach from how good your quarterback is. And last year, we have to remember too, Aaron Rodgers is in an environment with fans not in the stands and the OTAs and minicamps didn't happen. So defenses were behind from the very outset. The most offensive friendly environment that's ever existed that will not probably exist this year if they end up having a different quarterback. And I guess I wonder if you think like, sorry, folks, this is one of the best coaches in the NFL or well, look, I mean,

he's running a very nice offense, but it was probably Rogers in the environment. So this, this question isn't so hot takey in my opinion, I think it's a very practical exercise. So, you know, somewhere in the middle on that one, but he, so to me, this is is a tough one for me and I kind of go back and forth on this a lot um so in the coaching world and you know myself being a young coach sometimes I can get caught up with you know kind of a 49ers way of thinking of let's just add new concepts let's take advantage let's let's scheme plan this let's do this let's do this let's add this in let's run this cool play um whereas a guy like Matt LaFfleur this year he they made the hard decision to say hey let's cut a lot of crap out of the offense let's get really

good at our base run schemes let's get really good at these past concepts that feature our best receiver and let's coach the heck out of the technique and get really good at them and that's what they did um so i think you know that's why i have a hard time because i see you know an offense like the 49ers just adding new stuff and how great that stuff looks every week. But then you see the Packers run almost the same plays every week, but they've run it at a high level. Number one, they've got a ton of talent. Offensive line-wise, they're very good up front, run game and pass game.

And their skill players, obviously, Conte Adams. Alan Lazar is a solid receiver, tight end position. Mercedes Lewis is a great blocker. And then Tanyan had a heck of a year receiving. And obviously their two running backs are stellar too. So personnel-wise, they can get away with a lot of this stuff because they have the personnel to do it, to be simple and not have to do a ton of different stuff scheme-wise. Whereas a team like the 49ers, who historically haven't, the last few years haven't had as

many skill guys like that, they have to be more adaptive and do different things. So I think from the practical standpoint, you obviously, you look at the results and, you know, Aaron Rodgers, you know, the last few years under Mike McCarthy, when he almost had complete control of the offense, you know, it didn't look this good. So I think, you know, for those reasons, I'd be curious to see, you know, what Coach LaFleur would look like, you know, post-Aaron Rodgers. I think that's when we can make our decision on that. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf.

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I think we'll find out. I'm kind of starting to lean in that direction myself. Now, when it comes to the Vikings, it was very interesting to me that Rick Spielman said on draft night that the offensive coaching staff liked Kellen Mond because of his mobility and athleticism. And he's got a good arm, too, as well. But as far as how it fit in their scheme, which is waving a flag that says, sorry, Kirk, we wish you were faster. But I wanted to ask you, because you've studied varying similarities with teams that run stuff that comes from the Kubiak tree, how much would that help to have a mobile quarterback? Because you go through, and I was thinking about this trying to come up with, like, who was a real athlete at that position?

Jake Plummer was for Gary Kubiak, and obviously John Elway was. But past that, you have your Matt Ryans, your Jimmy Garoppolo's, Jared Goff's coming from this similar sort of play-action offense, and even with the Vikings here with Kirk Cousins. And when he was in Washington, he's working with McVay, and he's working with Shanahan and Mike Shanahan and running this same sort of thing. So it has sort of been relegated to quarterbacks that do not have mobility where you can move them from the spot. So they don't have to run around like Russell Wilson or something out of the shotgun. You could just roll them to a certain spot, give them a good platform to throw. And it's worked incredibly well for Kirk Cousins. When you look at the numbers and maybe even what

your expectation would have been coming from Washington. But I wonder how you think it would translate to a quarterback like Kellen Mond, assuming that, you know, he could check the other boxes, he could improve his accuracy a bit, that he can, you know, get the offense, get people lined up, all that. But just having an athletic player at that position in this type of offense, like what kind of difference can that make? I think, you know, when you look at it from a, you know, let's look at it from a couple of different perspectives. Let's look at it from the QB run, the design QB run standpoint. You can run zone reads.

You can run like counter, counter gap schemes, you know, where you got the running back going one way, inner shotgun quarterback running back on one way, offensive line pulling run, running counter the other way with the quarterback. There's, you know, and when you do that, you get, you get a plus one in the run game, right? When your quarterback becomes a ball carrier, now you can run against a single high look and have a half for a half. You know, you're not, you're not trying to, you know, leave the guy unblocked or do something of that nature.

You don't have to check in and out of plays as much when that's the case. So from that standpoint, obviously that helps. That beats up your run game. You can do a lot more in that sense too. Give defenses a lot more to prepare for. And then when it comes to like the pass game and stuff, when you've got an athletic quarterback, especially a young quarterback who's athletic, you know, as he's trying to learn how to go through NFL progressions and read NFL defenses and how all that stuff works, you know, the spacing, the timing and all that, you know, if the play breaks down, you can just take off and, you know, pick up positive yards for you in

that sense too. So it's a bailout. It's a bailout for a coaching staff. It's a bailout for the offense. So that's the inherent benefit of it from that standpoint too. I think that that is the biggest thing, what you mentioned there, the bailout, is when teams have sent defensive ends straight upfield and they guess right. If anyone has ever played Tecmo Bowl, they know how this works. So you pick the play and then the defense,

you don't like pick a 4-3 or a 3-4 or anything like that. You just guess the other team's play. And this is sort of how it works with the Vikings offense and opposing defenses is if they just guess right, that the Vikings are going to run a boot right or left and send someone straight up field from the defensive line or an outside linebacker it just blows that thing up because Cousins is at this point his career probably runs a five flat 40 and now you're bringing in someone

who runs a four six and we don't know if we'll actually see Kellen Mond at any point soon but it will be really interesting in training camp and preseason to sort of see some of those plays where you go, that probably would have been a sack or throw away. And there might be something more to it. And I think that, you know, Kyle Shanahan was thinking the same thing with Trey Lance, where Lance is more of a prolific runner than Kellen Mond is, but it's like,

I need someone to help me when I'm wrong. Or when the other team, you know, presses a and up and selects the right thing that is blowing up our play and plays the right defense, I need someone to fix that for me that Jimmy Garoppolo just isn't going to do and Kirk Cousins just isn't going to do. Right, exactly. It gives you, as an offensive coordinator, you don't have to be perfect every play call. You know, and then, you know, in those cases, you know, say, you know, he picks up two or three yards on,

you know, like somebody comes in unblocked, but he's still able to pick up two or three yards. Whereas before, that unblocked guy would create an eight-yard loss. That's just a drive killer. From that standpoint, if you can do that a couple times a game and save yourself a couple possessions, that could be the difference in a lot of games. With all this said, too, sometimes I see people get too hung up on the whole mobility thing you know in general and especially at the NFL level even high school you know to a degree too and obviously college even more so um you're not quite as much the NFL but you know especially in the NFL the quarterback first and foremost has to be able to read a defense and play the mental game from that standpoint and he has to be able to throw on time with anticipation and be accurate so all that mobility stuff is

great and it's a game changer assuming all the other conditions are met now you're just if you're doing that if you can't do those things you kind of see what you know the Mitch Trubisky experience in Chicago the last couple years is a good example of that because he was mobile he was able to do some stuff with his leg but didn't matter defenses weren't scared of him being accurate down the field or going through progressions um you know on. And this is, now Mond, I think might be good at going through progressions, but there might be some comparison between Mond and Trubisky in terms of not being the most accurate, consistent quarterback. And so now you're hoping that he can improve that at the NFL level. It might not be very easy, but I think you make a tremendous point because now

people are tired of me talking about the Vikings passing on Mac Jones. But I think a major reason they passed on Mac Jones is the lack of mobility. But we can go through the NFL and look at quarterbacks who have been successful that are not necessarily Trey Lance in terms of their running ability. And we can look at guys who have had running ability and have not had a whole lot of success. And usually my point was Patrick Mahomes, who's not even a running quarterback. He scrambles on 9% of his passes,

which means 91% are thrown from the pocket. It's a nice thing to have. I think, I think the thing that you need to have, and, and this is a, probably a criticism of cousins, but it might be of Mon too. Cause when I watch him, I don't see this a whole lot, is just having a natural playmaking ability.

Like Joe Montana was not, I don't think, a 4-4 runner, but he had a natural playmaking ability. John Elway was a great runner, but it was when things broke down, being able to do something that takes you to the next level. Aaron Rodgers is absolutely brilliant at this. Mahomes is brilliant at this. And so I think I'm with you very much on people get too caught up on this idea of like, well, we've got to get X number of yards rushing. And really what you need is when things go wrong to find a way to still continue, whether it's stepping up in the pocket, whether it's rolling out, whether it's running, it has to be some answer when things go wrong. And so I'm not sure that they barked up necessarily the right tree with that,

though I still like Kellen Mond as an overall decision. But I think that's really interesting. And maybe just kind of the last thing on this subject, you can talk a little bit about why Kirk has so much success with this, because his statistics for his career have been very, very good in playing in this type of offense. I'm just interested in your opinion of why a quarterback like Kirk works in this type of offense.

So when it comes to, so, so, so a lot of the stuff in the Kubiak style offense, it's all, it's timing based, right? A lot of the play, play action drop back-style offense, it's timing-based, right? A lot of the play-action drop-back stuff is timing-based, and that's something Kirk excels at. I know you and I were talking about a couple – I don't know if it was yesterday or a couple days ago, why Kirk is so good on bootlegs, even though he's not really that mobile.

And in these systems, Jared Goff was the same way, not to the degree Kirk was because Kirk has been absolutely incredible on throwing on the run. You don't necessarily have to be the most mobile guy in the world the same way, not to the degree Kirk was, because, you know, Kirk was absolutely, has been absolutely incredible, you know, on throwing on the run, is you don't necessarily have to be the most mobile guy in the world to be successful with that. You just have to get you, you know, after the play fake, you know, if you're well coached and you do all the right things, which Kirk does in these cases, you know, he gets out of the play fake, gets his head turned, you know, he goes through his progression on the run,

and he throws, he has good mechanics when throwing on the run, both to his right and to his left. And that's something that, you know, even some mobile guys, guys that are super mobile when they get out on the edge and they're trying to throw as they're running right or left can't necessarily do it, even though they might be great athletes. You know, it's just something that you can – it can be coached. It can be worked on. So that's why guys – you know, I know for years Drew Brees, they would run –

you know, the Saints would run Q8 smash, which is just sprint right in the high low on the corner. And it's like, you wouldn't think Drew Brees as a sprint out quarterback, but he would throw the ball on his third or fifth step, depending on which receiver he was throwing into or depending on the route combination. And the ball would be out on time every single time. And who's great at throwing once that third or fifth step,

that right foot hits the ground, you know, getting his shoulders turning and getting the ball out. It's a mechanics thing. You know, it's less so of athleticism when it comes to those types of throws. And this is a little bit of my point that I think that they nailed the type of offense that they needed. For Kirk Cousins, I think it was way better than having him in the shotgun and fire it over here, fire it over there, make all these reads,

make all these checks. I think they really nailed it for what worked perfectly with his skill set. And I always come back to, I wonder how we would look at this situation if he didn't cost what he costs, but you can't separate the player from the cost. So anyway, it's kind of an interesting thought experiment to say, you know, are we really focusing too much on the mobility element of it because there's a lot that you can sort of do around it or that most plays are not focused on having the quarterback scramble or run? And Drew Brees, I mean, he was probably the slowest quarterback in the league at this point. And like you said, he was able to move around. So last thing for you, Justin Fields is a bear in your great Windy City there.

How's that work with Matt Nagy? This was another one of your books, the Complete Chicago Bears Manual, which was by far your biggest. Matt Nagy, dial it back, my friend. My gosh. Yeah, especially a run game. I feel bad for your shipping costs because those must have been very heavy to send out to everyone. Actually, the Niners book was longer. That one was longer.

Oh, it was? Okay. Yeah. Okay. I also kind of beefed up my analysis going from 18 to 19 too. So Justin Fields, the dynamic runner, the downfield threat in Matt Nagy's offense, how's that going to work?

So scheme-wise, it's going to look a lot more like the Andy Reid stuff. You're going to see a lot more four verticals than you did the last few years. Now, Nagy did call it, but from 18, 19 to 20, he called it less and less. Play action shots are going to – they went up last year in 2020, but I think they're going to go up again because Justin Fields is very good down the field, you know, pushing the ball down the field.

RPO-wise, I'm not sure. I know he has kind of a slower release, which isn't very RPO conducive. So we'll see on that end. But I think they're going to push the ball down the field a lot more. They're going to run their Y-cross concept a ton, which I'm assuming they're going to run it a ton because they ran – he was one of Justin Field's best plays in college. And the Bears haven't run it a ton since 2018.

They have, but not a ton. So maybe they feature that concept more, which is, in my opinion, one of the bread and butter pass concepts because it works against any coverage, any blitz, any theoretically, right? There's stuff you can do to stop it. But, you know, in general,

it's one of those plays that works against like 90% of defenses, which is why I like it. I think, especially for a young quarterback who's coming in, he's familiar with the concept already. In fact, that you can run it against 90 percent of the defenses. You know, if I were a Bears coach, I'd be pushing to get this play in the game plan each week, different address it up different ways and all that stuff, which I'm sure they will.

But, yeah, no, it's exciting. Justin Field does a prospect. You know, the thing that excites me most about him is his downfield accuracy. Oh, for sure yeah and uh that's why it will be an interesting thing to talk about whether the vikings should have just traded up to get him because they also like to push the ball deep down the field and uh i don't know if that's really kellen mon's game i think it's much more of a justin fields game uh who has a very special deep pass so that will be an interesting though we're really going to find out about Matt Nagy, in my opinion, because when you have a Trubisky quarterback, how can you judge? How can you really

judge when the guy is just not capable of doing the job? So Bobby Peters, the 2020 Green Bay Packers complete offensive manual. If you are interested in really just how offenses work, I'm sure that it would be horrifying for Vikings fans to buy something that said Packers, but trust me, you will learn a ton about how offenses work if you do this, if you get Bobby's book. And just your, I should say, you're a huge help to me

because we do film pieces for the website and I try to deep dive into offenses and defenses and how all these things work. But I need your help and you are always there for me. So I appreciate you greatly. And people should know that also you have NFL coaches who help you with these books and break down these offenses too. And so I've, I've seen you, you know, work in your magic at the NFL combine and stuff.

So it's very cool and I love to see it and I'm glad we could get together, man. Yeah, no, you know, I love talking about this stuff. So, you know, it's fun for me. And obviously, you know, you don't you don't write a book about something you hate. So, you know, I have fun doing it. It's a lot of, you know, I, I honestly, you know, I was talking with some coaching buddies, I wish more people would do these types of things. You know, I don't have all the time in the world in the offseason to study every offense, you know, I'm watching some bills tape right now and seeing what Brian, Brian Dable did with the bills and I'm like man

I wish I had time to write a bills book and kind of go you know watch all their games I think I've only watched two or three of them so far man I wish someone yeah I wish I had more time to do a book on them so anybody anybody listening who wants to get into breakdown books you know if you write a few pages a day um you know you can get it done and I will be your first customer in line to buy a breakdown book. So it's one thing to read a book, to learn about something, but to write it, to teach it, to go through and actually have to break it down to the depth that you do to write these, like I end up learning more and I end up taking more from it too. So I think that's one of my favorite parts about doing it as well. Right. It forces you to get it right and you have your own education from it.

I felt the same way about the 2017 Vikings season where when I went back through everything with a fine-tooth comb to find everything that I wrote about it, to find every, you know, quote that I was looking for and all those things. And a lot of things didn't match up exactly with my memory. And I really sort of had it crystallized in my mind how that season worked. And I wouldn't have had that without writing it. I was just being snarky because it's one of my favorite things. I feel like we cover everything in the entire world on the show.

And then it's one opinion somebody won't like. You hate the team. Like, I guess so. Anyway, so I'll just dial back the snark a little bit in the future bobby i i always appreciate you man this was fun anytime man hey everyone i want to tell you about our friends it's scout logistics and i really do mean it when i say friends they are fans of purple insider over at scout logistics and since they reached out wanting to support this show i want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor

trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America, and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So, if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688, extension 2322 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Okay, hope you enjoyed my conversation with Bobby Peters.

So this week, the Vikings held rookie minicamp at TCO Performance Center. We'll talk more throughout the week about notable things that stuck out, but I wanted to bring you some of the comments from the Vikings that stood out to me, starting with Kellen Mond. He started out his press conference talking about his goals for minicamp, which starts in a really simple place at how the progressions work and what he'll have to do in order to learn them. You know, I think just some of the biggest goals are just, one, kind of learning the progressions and being able to tie my feet together with each of those progressions. And, you know, I've watched a ton of film on just, you know,

what Kirk did this past year and with, you know, a whole bunch of different plays and stuff like that. So that's pretty much all I'm focused on. So just being able to have, you know, Nate and Jake out there with me, you know, tremendously helps me. So just being able to have Nate and Jake out there with me tremendously helps me. And just being able to kind of sit behind them and just being able to watch them every rep and also take reps with them, I think that's a huge advantage for me. So, yes, it is a lot thrown at my plate. I feel like I've done a really good job with the information that is given.

But there's still a lot more room to grow. In the pre-draft process, Mond was highly regarded for his understanding of a pro-style offense because he worked with Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. He was asked how that helped him prepare for his first steps as the Viking. You know, I think Jimbo did a really good job with me and, you know, won his scheme and also protections. It definitely is, you know won his scheme and also protections it definitely is you know I would say different playing under center and just pretty much under center almost every snap today so just really getting away from the line of scrimmage and still being able to you know have quick feet and you know tie my feet up with all different routes so that's something

I just continue to work on and you know like I, I got Jake and Nate out there helping me. I'm able to watch them. And, you know, we do so many drills and, you know, different walkthroughs. So that's pretty much what I'm really trying to focus on and trying to master as I'm out here. Mond said that he had already been deep diving into the Vikings offense from last year on film. And one of the reasons Mike Zimmer decided to hire Clint Kubiak

was because he wanted to stay with a similar system. So everything that Mond is watching on tape should be able to apply to the field, especially when we get to minicamp and training camp. Yeah, I mean, you know, pretty quick after I got drafted, I got my iPad. And so I've already watched all the 2020 games and, you know, really watched them multiple times. And just some plays are a little bit more advanced that, you know, I necessarily haven't gotten to. You know, we're still on, you know, a lot of the base stuff on install,

but it's still a lot of information. So still being able to watch Kirk on certain cut-ups and certain things that I really enjoy and just really enjoy just watching his execution, watching his footwork, and just watch how he's able to, you know, just go through reads and pretty much master the offense. So, you know, the more I watch him, the more I'm able to kind of mimic, you know, his footwork, his cadence, which is huge in the NFL. So, I mean, there's so many things that I need to learn,

but, you know, I feel like I'm in a phenomenal organization with phenomenal talent, and obviously, can't wait to get to work with Kirk also. Mond did mention that Kirk Cousins, if you were wondering, called him on draft night and talked about working with him when the veterans arrived. I mean, he was just congratulating me and telling me he couldn't wait to work with me, And, you know, I said the same. I mean, you know, just even whenever I got drafted, I knew what type of opportunity it was for me to just be able to learn from a veteran, a guy who's been in, you know, multiple systems, who's played under center, you know, playing in a great offense and just being able to learn how he's able to lead when he gets out here with, you know, you know, JJ, Adam Thielen, you know, Dalvin Cook. So just watching how he's able to learn how he's able to lead when he gets out here with, you know, J.J., Adam Thielen, you know, Davin Cook.

So just watching how he's able to communicate and just really learn. You know, you said earlier just him being kind of a mentor and just being able to watch him. You know, that's what I'm excited for. I also asked Mike Zimmer about Mond studying Kirk Cousins and what he would be able to do to learn from Cousins' game. I think the biggest thing for him right now is just learning the process of the plays, getting in the huddle, out of the huddle, calling the different plays,

the different checks that we have. I want him to be himself. We brought him in here as a talented athletic quarterback and just wanted him to be himself. But he can learn, you know, the things he can learn from Kirker, the way that he handles the games, the way that he goes about his business in the classroom, on the field, how to work.

You know, a lot of these guys, when they come in, they don't know how to be professionals. So, you know, part of that's in the locker room, in the training room, in the weight room. You know, so I think all those types of things. There were also a few notable comments from Zimmer on defensive backs, starting with the trade of Mike Hughes. We can pretty clearly take away from this one that the Vikings didn't believe Hughes was going to work out because of the accumulation of injuries. And Zimmer was also asked about the status of Jeff Gladney. You know Mike is a terrific kid and uh but yeah he's been you know he's been injured an awful lot and um

you know we just just you know with the way that everything is now um you know we just got to kind of get some we're fortunate to get a couple corners last year in the draft um you know, we just got to kind of get some, we were fortunate to get a couple corners last year in the draft. You know, we signed Patrick Peterson in free agency. So I think that gave us the opportunity to make the trade. But as far as our corner depth, you know, we're always, you can honestly, you know, you guys laugh at me, but you can never have too many good corners. You know, they just get hurt. Mike, you mentioned your depth at corner. Is there a resolution on the horizon to the Jeff Gladney off-field situation?

Do you have an update for us on that? I really don't. We're just letting it all play out. And I really can't say what I know, so I'll just leave it at that. Christian Derrissaw talked as well. He seemed to be pretty confident with how quickly he was picking up the playbook. And he said that he's getting to know Wyatt Davis. Both rookies are expected to start this year.

Yeah, me and Wyatt, we talked. As soon as he got drafted, he hit me up. We kind of like changed numbers and everything so we can start building that bond and relationship and stuff like that. And now finally being here, my rooms are right next to each other in the hotel, so we kind of can hang out and just like help each other with anything we need, like in the playbook as far as me being a tackle and him being a guard. Like we work together. So it's just like there's different calls and everything.

So it's definitely been pretty cool getting out here and getting to know him better and working with him. There's an interesting dynamic on the offensive line, in part that Brian O'Neal is now the veteran offensive lineman and the leader. And Derrissaw talked about what he wants to take away from O'Neal, who actually did a good job in 2018 of transitioning quickly from college to the NFL. That's what Derrissaw wants to do as well. Yeah, you definitely can rely on somebody like that

who's been really in the same position as you, coming in as a rookie and is working his way up and starting. And we haven't talked about it yet, but hopefully we can, just so I can give a little tips and things of how he did it and how he maintained it during his whole rookie season and everything like that. So I'm definitely going to talk to him about just like these little things, how to get through the rookie season and where I should be at coming, like training camp here in July.

So I'll definitely talk to him about that for sure. All right, those are some of the most interesting comments that stuck out to me for this week. We'll have plenty more as we go forward here throughout the offseason. So we will catch you next time. Thanks for listening to Purple Insider.