Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Analyzing Danielle Hunter skipping Vikings offseason activities

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about the news that Danielle Hunter won't be attending Vikings offseason activities and then discusses what he heard from TCO Performance Center about Lewis Cine, Garrett Bradbury and KJ Osborn. Vikings fans then ask questions about receivers in the draft, the QB situation and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and you know what? We've started the last couple of episodes saying, you know, we don't really have a whole lot of big news to talk about in Vikings land. Well, they have gifted us some points of discussion as we lead up to the NFL draft. So not only is there Daniil Hunter news, but also several Vikings talk today at TCO Performance Center. Naturally, I was there. Garrett Bradbury, KJ Osborne, and Louis Seen. So we have things to talk about with each one of them. And of course, if you're watching live on

YouTube, very happy to answer all of your questions that you could throw in the comments. So you can respond to what we're talking about or you can change the subject. Either way, it usually works out great. So, and if you're listening on the podcast version, I apologize for the infrequency of times and dates that I'm going live, but usually it works out pretty well. So subscribe to the YouTube page and you'll be able to jump in as well as we lead up to the NFL draft. So let us start out before I get some questions with Daniil Hunter and his situation. So Jeremy Fowler, among others today, reporting that he would not be showing up to the team's voluntary offseason activities.

And of course, people like, well, well it's voluntary it doesn't mean anything it does every year it always does because people uh show up to these the team players do and i remember one year that stefan diggs didn't show up for a few days and it was kind of like what's going on there and then diggs didn't have a very good answer for why he wasn't there and so through the years normally even, even Anthony Barr, I think, was delayed one year and then was getting an insurance policy on a future contract and he didn't show up. It always means something almost to a T if somebody doesn't show up to the off-season workouts, especially when you're talking about a Vikings team that has a good culture and a locker room where people want to be around each other. So a

lot of the guys seemed excited to show up and be around their teammates again. So the fact that Daniil Hunter isn't there, it's very easy to tie it together with his contract situation. He's scheduled to make a salary, a base salary of $4.9 million this year. Do you know how much Joey Bosa is going to make? $24 million dollars in cash that's not the cap hit that is in cash so naturally uh the daniel hunter uh conversation now has come to fruition and this is i think finally the end of the daniel hunter saga like every year so this is going on three straight years i went back and did a little research and looked around three straight years where we have gone into a season talking about what's the Neil Hunter going to do? Is he going to hold out? Is there anything they can do? And every year they

have found a way to work those things out. So last year they let his bonus click in for $18 million. And I think that was like a goodwill gesture of, hey, we don't know if we want you to sign a long-term deal because of the neck issue, the pec injury that happened. And, you know, let's just give you this bonus. So maybe down the road we can say, hey, remember when we gave you that bonus? That was pretty awesome, huh? But at at this moment they have not yet been able to work anything out and there isn't any more buttons to push so there isn't more money to change bonuses to give we've run out of that we have reached a point where it's either extend daniel hunter or trade daniel hunter or try to force him to play on his current contract but trying to force him to play on his current contract. But trying to force him to play on his current contract

would not be a very good idea. So every time one of these things come up, people will ask, hey, why don't, he's under contract. Why don't you just make him play? Well, two things. I mean, one is that if he plays out his current deal, in 2024, they would take on an $11 million dead cap hit. That'll be less if they trade him.

So not only that, but if you trade him, you get things back for him. So would you rather have him next year or would you rather have maybe a first round pick to get back from him? I mean, consider the value of these pass rushers. I mean, Bradley Chubb, who is not as good as Daniil Hunter, ended up getting a first and a fourth from the Miami Dolphins last year. Now that maybe was a little more desperation for Miami feeling like they had a competing team, but they really went all in on that. And I think if the Vikings make it clear that they're going to trade Daniil Hunter, they will get a ton of phone calls. There are very few players on this roster with real legitimate value when it comes to the market. I don't think that Delvin Cook has a ton that's being shown at the moment. I don't think Zedarius Smith has a ton

with his injury history and with his contract, but Daniel Hunter, now that's a guy that you could potentially get a first round draft pick for depending on the team, depending on how desperate they are for pass rush, but you could potentially get a first round pick for him. And that's unfortunately though, for the Vikings going to have to be next year though, based on the way that his salary is worked out, that it would be a huge dead cap hit to the Vikings immediately. Whereas if they trade him after June 1st, as opposed to this year's draft, then they would actually create cap space. So they would make $5.5 million in cap space and then get future draft capital. That makes a lot of sense to me.

The only problem with doing that trade is that then you don't have Daniil Hunter. That would be the biggest issue. I know, Captain Obvious, but that's the trade-off, right? Is that if you don't sign him to an extension, then that position has to be replaced. Zedarius Smith is clearly not long for Minnesota, whether it's this year, next year, whatever. And Marcus Davenport has a one-year contract. We don't know if he's even going to be here, if he And Marcus Davenport has a one-year contract. We don't know if he's even going to be here if he has a good year. Now that seems more likely than not. If he does have a good year, we don't know if he can stay healthy for an entire season because he has

an extensive injury history. We don't know if they're going to draft a first round pass rusher. I mean, if they were to draft the first round pass rusher i think you know that would kind of tell us where they stand with this um but i mean think about it from the perspective of signing him though feels like we've been saying he's only whatever years old forever but still not 30 years old yet and uh he's been incredibly productive when he's been healthy there were no issues at all last year no issues issues with the scheme last year. He stepped in at first, maybe the first couple of weeks, it was a little slow to get going, but he finishes the year in the top 10 in pressures, 10 and a half sacks, just doing typical Daniil Hunter things. So I think there is still a very good argument. And I know that all of us love to play money ball and say, well, trade this guy away,

get a draft pick, manage the salary cap. But you have to have really good players if you're going to win something. And maybe we don't look at next year like, oh, yeah, that's the year that they can win a championship. But is it two years from now? Is it three years from now? Is Daniil Hunter 30 years old at the time where you're really peaking in your timeline to try to win a Super Bowl? That still seems pretty good. I mean, pass rushers, and we don't know the extent of his neck injury, but pass rushers, I think, can last into their early 30s and still continue to be productive. So it matters also what they think of his health, because they would know better than us about his health. So I don't think that this is any sort of easy decision

for the Vikings about whether to trade Daniil Hunter or extend him, but the rubber has finally met the road here. And with this report, it kind of makes it official. Like, look, Daniil is done playing these games. He's not going to play on this contract. So make it happen one way or the other. Vikings extend him or move on. Now, in the past, when players have fought tooth and nail for these deals, and this is actually why it's kind of surprising that Daniil never really has. And part of it's just because injuries have gotten in the way. But when he has fought tooth and nail, he has usually,

whatever player it is, has usually won that battle. So think about Kyle Rudolph, and it was not a great extension for Kyle Rudolph when they gave it, but he fought it all the way through the summer. Anthony Barr took it to free agency and they ended up bringing him back. Delvin Cook, remember that was all the way before the first game of the season that they spread that thing out he came to training camp he barely practiced for the entire camp making sure that he didn't get hurt and then at the last minute they came through and signed him so I think that with Daniil Hunter though because they have not really at any point decided that they wanted to go all in on him he would have a case for kind of pushing

this thing all the way to the end, like make me the highest paid or one of the highest paid, or just get me the heck out. So I don't know which way this is going to play out. Traditionally, the Vikings have always ponied up the money, but this is a new management with Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell. And I think already we have seen some, not a crazy amount, but some of their willingness to say to the old regime's players, we're not going to pay you like the old guys did. Eric Kendricks, even Kirk Cousins with his restructure. And now it's time maybe to move on.

So I think that that's very possible for Daniil Hunter. So feel free to leave your comments on what you think is going to happen and I'll get to them and many of your questions as well. Keep dropping them in the chat. We'll get to everything. Don't worry. We've got plenty of time here. The Wolves aren't going to lose a playoff game tonight, at least. So you've got time to sit around and have fun chatting here. Sorry about last night. That was brutal. Anyway, so a couple other quick things. Lewis Seen talked today and seemed in very good spirits for a man who has gone through as much as he has. And he talked about being able to get up to full speed running and not maybe all the time and not trying to push it and go too far. He's also not trying to set parameters for himself necessarily.

Like he's not guaranteeing that he's going to be out there in week one for sure. But it seems, and the Vikings have said this publicly, Kevin O'Connell has said this, that he is on track to maybe do some things in the offseason program, maybe fully participate in training camp. Now with an injury this serious, I don't think you want to put that on him as any sort of lock it in. Lewis seems going to be back, but it just, you kind of got the vibe from him that he is happy with how his rehab is going. And it looks like there's a decent chance he starts training camp.

He was talking about Brian Flores and how brian flores likes to be with the safeties and i think that lewis could be a really good fit for what brian flores wants to do is an aggressive downhill safety so that i mean that was nice because we talked to lewis seen one other time and you know when it comes to players performances and things like that you know it is what it is some players work out some players don't but when somebody goes through that type of injury you want to see them come back from it i mean everybody does and that was vicious and nasty and something that you wouldn't wish on anybody to go through and the fact that he's kind of come out the other side of a really really uh difficult process uh to be in

good spirits and feel like he's gonna get back on the field i mean we didn't know when it happened is this guy gonna play again and you know obviously vikings fans know that some of those leg injuries can be career altering so i think they're in a good place with lewis scene garrett bradbury talked today as, talked about why he came back to the Vikings. And he basically said that him and his wife talked about where they want to be in this world, like check off all the boxes and the atmosphere he wants to be around and the teammates and everything else. And that's why he returned. Now he had some interesting comments about why he performed better. And it's been a little bit of a theory on the show

that the reason that his numbers by pff were better is in part because people were attacking the right and left guard and i would stick to that i think that that is true but he also mentioned chris cooper their offensive line coach and putting a little more on the offensive lineman uh to be a less rigid is kind of how I understood it. Like make some of the decisions themselves based on what they see versus having to really check off boxes. I know the Kubiak system is very strict for offensive linemen. So he felt like that may have played in his favor as well. And, you know, he's back.

Now, how long he ends up being back? Does he perform better? Do they gel as an offensive line? He mentioned that 11 of the 12 offensive linemen they had last year are back. And I think that is a big deal. Continuity is a big deal. But what it really comes down to is whether Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram pass block better. I think we know kind of what we're going to get from Garrett Bradbury now. He also mentioned that his back injury was back to a hundred percent, uh, whether that's true or not, I would assume it would be because they resigned him. And if they thought that his back injury was not good, then they

probably wouldn't have given him another contract and brought him back. Uh, and the one other thing was KJ Osborne. So KJ Osborne talked today and he mentioned that, you know, he feels like this is his time. This is his big opportunity. And he's talked about how for his entire life, no matter what level that, you know, people always thought that he was going to kind of not be the guy who makes it. And this is very much true. He was not the wide receiver one at the university of Buffalo. And then he went left there, went to Miami, kind of became a draft prospect at that point. And when he's picked, he's a fifth round pick. He's low on the depth chart. And then all of a sudden gain momentum

and gain momentum. So I would not count him out. And I think even if they draft someone this year, that KJ Osborne starts the year as wide receiver number two. But that was kind of interesting to hear him acknowledge like, hey, this is kind of my big shot to be wide receiver two. So that's kind of your update. Harrison Smith's going to talk tomorrow, a few other players, and we will update you on what happened there as well and what those guys had to say. So let's get into your questions and opinions.

Again, if you have an opinion on what you think the Vikings should do and will do with Daniil Hunter, drop it in the comment box and I'll just run through some of your other questions here. So this one comes from Boyd. In your opinion, let's see, your opinion on the signing of Jawan Williams. I assume it's Jawan Williams is how it's pronounced i i don't remember from draft season if it was joe joe juan or joe juan uh so i'm sorry about that i haven't met him yet he just signed with the vikings today and i didn't look up the pronunciation i apologize so uh let's see it seems like a floor brian florist pick that will fit in the system yeah you know i think, I think Boyd that Williams is a guy who had some high potential and didn't work out so far in the league and they're taking a swing. So remember when

the Vikings traded away Mike Hughes and Kansas city was like, yeah, all right, we'll take a shot at it. If you're a first and second round player, a lot of times the league will take another shot. And if Flores liked some of his abilities, it's worth it. Is it an answer? Probably not. Like it goes against the odds that if the Patriots didn't keep him around and didn't make him into a top starter for them, that it's unlikely that he's going to be some incredible steal and incredible find for you. However, if he can be someone on the very, very cheap who comes in and makes the team and access depth for you. And if there's anything else there that he develops under Brian Flores, it's a win.

I always like things like this. I mean, this is why I like Marcus Davenport. It didn't exactly work out in new orleans but it could and with uh byron murphy i think he was a pretty good player in arizona but i think we all agree that that defense was very bad and there's more potential there for byron murphy i feel the same way about joan williams that yeah maybe there's potential there or maybe he gets cut out of camp but they didn't take a big risk here. And it's Brian Flores bringing in a guy he likes. So it's really hard to be against that signing for the Vikings.

Uh, from Joshua, while the hype for wide receivers, like, uh, well, you mean Jackson, Jess Jackson, Smith, Najigba and Quentin Johnson, other wide receivers seem to have better tape and stats to boot like Jalen Hyatt as a move back option to pick up. Well, I mean, if you talk about from the stats perspective, Jackson Smith Najigba, I mean, 2021 had incredible numbers. I mean, he was on an offense that also had two other great wide receivers and he still put up 1500 yards receiving. I mean, the guy was a beast out of the slot. And I think that he's known as really being the best technical wide receiver. So getting off the line of scrimmage, understanding zones, running routes,

creating separation, all those things, make it plays on the ball that that puts him in that first round conversation. And I mean, if you're putting up numbers on a team that has Chris Alave and Garrett Wilson, two great NFL receivers right off the bat, I think that's going to earn you a lot of credit. It doesn't mean he's going to be a superstar and maybe he is not like the most blazing fast, but I think a lot of the NFL now is who can create separation in small spaces. And Jackson Smith, the J buzz, that guy, some people think that he's the only first round receiver. I tend to think there will be more, uh, Quentin Johnston from TCU. I would just suggest, I'm going to talk more about this with Chris Trapasso in a day or

two. I would just suggest go looking at his highlight tape. And I know highlight tape is not a good thing to look at for trying to scout a player, but he is a really interesting sort of test case about like yards after catch. So he reminds me a lot of someone like Debo Samuel because he is not the best catcher of the football, but man, when he gets the ball in his hands, the dude just makes plays. And that could be really interesting to a Vikings team, for example, that is looking to pair Justin Jefferson with someone and could scheme and interesting to a Vikings team, for example, that is looking to pair Justin Jefferson with someone and could scheme and create to get him the ball in his hands. Doesn't mean he can't do anything else. Like he, I think can run some routes and make some plays on the ball,

but he doesn't have the best hands, but he is a beast when it comes to getting the ball in his hands and making plays. So I think that's why those two guys are considered pretty high on the list. Jalen Hyatt is much more of a one-dimensional player as a deep threat and that's it. And I don't know about the value of that. Like there are a lot of fast guys who can go down the field. So Jalen Hyatt, but I agree with you that a trade back option and a deep threat to pair with Justin Jefferson like when it comes to these receivers it's very hard to figure out who's going to fit where and everything else but I think you have to with the Vikings try to kind of envision like what would this guy do well if this is the guy you pick at 23 or if you move down like what like what will he do for you

so Quentin Johnston Jackson Smith the jigba Jalen Hyatt they'll what will he do for you? So Quentin Johnston, Jackson Smith, the jig bud, Jalen Hyatt, they'll all do different things for you. It really depends on what they think is going to be best. So Jalen Hyatt being an outside wide receiver who goes deep, that might work out great because you have more of an inside receiver as a KJ Osborne. So yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot of different options for the Vikings. None of them are flawless and that actually might help the Vikings be able to grab a top receiver in the draft if they want one. Daniel says, let's see, can't wait for the pie chart on what actual defensive ends the Vikings

start the season with. Yeah. I mean, that's an interesting question who they actually start the season with, uh, Patrick Jones and Marcus Davenport. Anybody? I mean, I do think that that's realistic. It's just Zedarius Smith situation's very weird because Zedarius does not have a whole lot of leverage in this situation. Unlike Daniil Hunter. Daniil Hunter's leverage is very weird because Zadarius does not have a whole lot of leverage in this situation, unlike Daniil Hunter. Daniil Hunter's leverage is I'm worth a lot on the trade market and my contract is so bad you can't really reasonably pay me that. And then you get crushed on it the next year on void years and dead cap. So Daniil Hunter, they have reached a point where the worlds are colliding. It is time to make

this decision. With Z'Darrius Smith, he's going to be paid a reasonable amount this year for kind of where he is in his career. It's not like his situation, like his contract is so horrendous that he says, oh, I can't possibly play on this. Uh, that one's a weird one. Cause I think when they signed him, they expected it to be more of a two-year deal. And yet now Zedarius feels like he wants to go somewhere else, but who's going to pay him. I mean, the money has largely dried up around the NFL after the first couple of waves of free agency. So I could see Zedarius Smith having to come back uh maybe even more than Daniil Hunter but look I mean again this team every time almost almost when someone who's in

their prime or has played well or even sometimes in the case of Harrison Smith not in their prime and they're up for an extension this team always kind of they walk up to the edge and they go no no no no no no we're not gonna jump nope we're not gonna jump we're gonna extend that player uh and with harrison smith look if you're daniel hunter you gotta look at harrison smith and go are you are you guys seriously not paying me you guys paid harrison smith in his 30s as one of the highest paid players i'm in my 20s and you're not going to do for me. So I think he's got a pretty good case. I would still lean pie chart that Daniil Hunter is here. Marcus Davenport, Patrick Jones, maybe a draft pick DJ Wanham.

I think that's how it goes. And they will move on from Zedarius, but I could be completely wrong because even in that pie chart, I'm just totally guessing. I don't know which way it's going to come out because if a team comes in and says, Hey, we'll give you a first and a third for next year for Daniil Hunter. Like, how do you say no, especially when it might be a year where you have to trade up for a quarterback? Uh, I, yeah, I mean, I, I think that this could go either way with any of those guys. And this speaks to CJ's question as well. Pie chart one, two, three, or none of Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter, and Delvin Cook on the roster. I don't think Delvin Cook has much of a chance being in the roster. I mean,

I would give Delvin Cook maybe 25% or less. It seems like they've really made it clear. We want to move on from Delvin Cook. And there was even a report that the Dolphins would want to sign him if he gets cut. So like teams are even sort of lining up and being like, all right, we're ready for Delvin Cook to get cut. And this is why getting compensation back in trades is so hard because if everyone knows that you have to move on from a player, again, you have no leverage and you have to end up releasing them. That kind of happens every off season with certain players, but Zedarius and Daniil flip a coin, whatever the coin says, that's, that's what I say, because I just don't think Zedarius has a great case where Daniil

Hunter has a very good case for an extension and wanting to keep him around for the next five years, but it's going to have to be an extension that's not only worth it, but also adds a little bit more on top for time served or a contract money that you got screwed out of. I mean, I was looking at this in 2019, Daniil Hunter made 10 million in cash, which would be wonderful for all of us, but for one of the best pass rushers in the league to have a season that dominant and get paid like a middle type of defensive end and then have that happen a couple of times you could see where he would be looking at this and saying if it's going to be with you guys you're going to have to make up for some of that uh some of that money so i don't know with hunter and zadaria smith but i do

think that uh the time is coming to an end for Delvin Cook. Okay, let's see. JD says, get whatever compensation for Hunter. I think that's fair. I think if you're looking at it like, look, if you spend this much money on Daniil Hunter and this much money on Justin Jefferson and this much money on Christian Derrissaw, things are going to get pretty tight, pretty fast.

Even if you have the rookie quarterback going into 2024, 2025, that you're still going to look at your salary cap and go, okay, we're paying these three players so much percentage of the cap. How are we building a complete roster at the same time though? If you want to win anything, you have to have great players. That is my least hot take you'll ever hear on the show. But if you just let everybody go, because we've kind of turned into this and I get it because playing front office is our favorite thing to do, but we've kind of turned into these like draft pick zombies of, well, why don't we just trade everything for picks? and i know you guys have heard

me be snarky about the alexander madison thing from last year like why don't we take every player who's something and just trade him for picks like no or or the questions about trading justin jefferson no if you get a justin jefferson you keep him forever you hug on to him and you never let him go yeah there's a salary floor salary cap like you can spend up to it you have to spend at least so much i wouldn't suggest just drafting all players and moving on from anybody who's any good uh i don't think that's really the right way to handle it so with daniel like there is a good case for extending him. The problem is if he's asking to be the highest paid defensive end, that's super tough. Or if he doesn't like being technically an outside

linebacker and standing up, that's super tough. You can't overcome that. You just hired a guy who plays three, four in his base. So that's, these are some roadblocks that could potentially come up. And if they do, and it's time to move on, then you can get a lot for him and you can make it work. But I don't always subscribe to the idea that anybody who wants to get paid, you should just trade them because I think the Vikings have plenty of evidence to show us in the past five years, six years, that trying to draft replacements to all these players is not always the easiest. Otherwise they'd have a much better secondary. Let's see from Ryan, Houston needs a pass rush, package him to go get a future quarterback. Yeah. I mean, I think that, and of course we have to keep in mind that it has to be after June 1st

or they have to pay this huge dead cat money. But in 2024, if that's when you're looking at a quarterback if you had even if they got a second round pick for daniel hunter a first an extra second these are things you can use to move up because i think that the vikings if they're going to draft a quarterback high in 2024 if that is their plan they probably will have to move up to take somebody just based on my expectation for this year. They could win four games, but I doubt it, right? Like this team's still too good. They're probably going to compete for the division. So if you end up with the 20th draft pick, you got to have enough capital to move up. It's part of the problem they're sort of facing this year. So yeah, I mean,

I think that Houston, there's probably 15 teams that want Daniil Hunter that could extend him, keep his salary cap hit fairly low to fit under their cap situation, at least at the very beginning, give him the amount of money that he wants, et cetera, et cetera. Like there's a lot of teams that are looking for a pass rusher and can afford one. If you put him out on the market, you're probably getting pretty good return. Let's see. Let's see. Try and get Hustings second this year. Hustings? You mean, is that Houston's? Chris, I think that's probably a typo. And third and a fourth next year for Zadarius and Daniil Hunter. I mean, you think about this though.

Just think about this for a second. Now, I like that idea. Trade away your older players, get the draft capital. I like that idea. But as we're thinking about next year, if you move on from Daniil Hunter and Z'Darrius Smith, you are moving on from 20 sacks and like 115 pressures. Just reply. If you're expecting them to have a better defense, moving on from these two guys is not going to be that. What does it now? I'm okay with that. Cause I'd like to find out, can Marcus Davenport play? Can Patrick Jones play? Has DJ wantham developed? I'm okay with that in this next season because of where they stand with their quarterback, the timeline, all those things. But you just have to take that into consideration that if you're Brian Flores, you took this job

and they're like, oh yeah, we got these great edge rushers. And then they trade them to Houston. Like, okay, then you don't have great edge rushers anymore. And now you're kind of hoping and praying, and then you have to draft one. But at the same time, you know, you need a receiver, you need a corner. There's a lot of things. So, you know, there's a lot of considerations, a lot of moving parts is my point. I'm not against your trade proposal of trying to get draft picks from a team like Houston. It's just, they will consider like how, how big of an L are you taking on that defensive line for this year? If you move on from both of those guys and does Brian Flores like sign off on that? Uh, this one from Todd, how much would it change our team's trajectory if we draft a first

round quarterback this year? I assume you mean, um, well, you know, I mean, not, not a lot because from what we expect, because once they restructured Kirk, it kind of became obvious that someone else is going to be the quarterback. So what drafting a first round quarterback this year would do is clarify, right? So right now it's very muddy. We have no idea. Like, are you going to draft one this year? You're going to draft one next year. And if they don't draft one this year, it remains very muddy. Could Kirk even get extended again? If he plays really well, could they work something out? You know, that happened

with Joe Flacco many years ago, the year that he won the Superbowl, he was actually going to be a free agent. And then they paid like crazy after he won the Superbowl and they never won anything really again with Joe Flacco. You know, maybe those two things are connected. I don't know. But, uh, you know, the point just being that like, it's not completely unprecedented to have a quarterback play into the year that he's supposed to become a free agent then at the last minute sign an extension so that's possible then you have drafting one in 2024 that's possible you also have the possibility of any other quarterback demanding a trade becoming a free agent becoming disgruntled a team that's good is going to tank and trade their quarterback and you're there because Kirk has left.

All those things become on the table. If you draft Hendon Hooker this year, for example, then that's all off the table. And you know who your quarterback in 2024 is going to be. I think there's a lot of value in that. There's also you get to be around Hendon Hooker for a whole year and understand, is this really someone who's going to be our guy or not? You get to see around Hendon Hooker for a whole year and understand, is this really someone who's going to be our guy or not? You get to see him behind the scenes. The injury is probably going to slow him up to some extent, but not for the whole year. So you get to see if he could be,

you know, your future guy. So there is a lot of value in drafting one this year. It clarifies the trajectory of the team. If not, it kind of remains muddy. Are they rebuilding? Are they going to try to trade for some other quarterback and then go from there? Like a lot would be up in the air at that point if they do not draft a quarterback. From Chris, the drop-off between Patrick Jones and Hunter isn't that far. Oh no, I disagree with that. I mean, I think Daniil Hunter is one of the truly elite players in the league. Then we can go after quality D-line and youth. Yeah, no, I disagree with that. I mean, I think Daniil Hunter is one of the truly elite players in the league. Then we can go after quality D-line and youth.

Yeah, no, I mean, they could do that. And I think that finding the next group of defensive linemen that are young is going to be important because you have Harrison Phillips and who else? I mean, you know, Kyrus Tonga is a nice like rotational run stuffing player who can play, I think. And I don't know what's there with Ross Blacklock. I guess we'll find out this year. But as far as clear cut future defensive lineman, Harrison Phillips, and I don't know. And so, you know, maybe Patrick Jones is that guy. Maybe you're right. He's that guy. But the drop off between Daniil Hunter and Patrick Jones is absolutely massive. Maybe you're right. He's that guy. But the drop off between Daniil Hunter and Patrick Jones is absolutely massive.

I mean, Daniil Hunter is one of the best sack artists of the last 10 years. And Patrick Jones has yet to really prove that he can be that guy. And in fact, if Patrick Jones was that guy, they probably would have traded Daniil Hunter already. From Joseph Zadari, Smithith cook and hunter who do you think that has the highest percentage of staying i will go with daniel hunter on this because i think about his age and i think about his value to the team how much he has been loyal to this team it seems like every time we think that daniel hunter is about to go, he ends up staying. And Zedarius Smith just kind

of popped in last year. Seems like he's more about kind of himself and his contract, which is fine. That's not a criticism. I just mean there isn't the, I was drafted by the Vikings. I've got this loyalty. I've got the friends in the locker room and everything. Zedarius could be much more as, hey, I could only get one more contract left, so let's go. But I would go, Daniil Hunter has the greatest chance. He's still in his prime. He's the type of player that you pay to keep around at a premium position. Zedarius Smith is past his prime, and we saw that in the second half of the year, though still good. I'm not saying he's washed. I'm saying that when you're in your 30s, you're past your prime, unfortunately, in the NFL. And the same goes for Delvin Cook and them re-signing Madison and Kweisi Adaflomensa saying,

theoretically, they could be in the same backfield again, even though they've been in the same backfield for four years. So theoretically meaning, I guess it's possible in some world, but probably not. So that would be my order. Hunter, most likely, then Zedarius, then I think a big gap before Delvin Cook. All right. From Topaz Morrison. I hope that's because you drive a Topaz. A friend of mine had one in high school. It was a really fun car. Let's see. Let's see. Thoughts on Mina Kine's declaration that the Vikings should move up for a quarterback.

Opportunity is everything when it comes to that. So can you actually do that? And who are you getting, right? So we assume that you have the number one and number two kind of set. Now, we don't know that for sure, though, because the Texans could always go rogue. I mean, they're the Texans, so they could draft a defensive end. They could draft a Will Anderson or something. We don't know. We don't know what the Texans are going to do. They could stick. Who is their quarterback? Is it Davis Mills? I guess they could stick with Davis Mills. I don't know. They're the Texans, right? But let's just say though, let's just assume that in the top five, at least two are coming off the board, but there's a decent chance it's three.

So the only way to really guarantee yourself a top three quarterback, and it looks more and more like Bryce Young is locked in at number one. So Stroud or Richardson, of which both would be tremendous for the Minnesota Vikings. These are elite, elite prospects. I think they're better than a lot of the prospects over the last couple of years. So these are great future potential franchise quarterback prospects, all right? It's to trade up with Arizona. But think about this. I did a little poking around on this one.

The 49ers, when they moved up to get Trey Lance, they only had to move from, I think, number 12. And they had to give up three firsts and I think a third to move from 12 to three. The Vikings would have to go from 23 to three. Now, if things change though, and maybe Richardson isn't as loved as it seems, though I think he is, but if he isn't and he drops to the Falcons and the Falcons say, you know what? No, we love our guy Desmond Ritter because we're insane. Okay. All right. That's fine. Maybe you can trade two firsts and something in the future to move up into the top 10. You're giving up a lot though. I mean, with a team that doesn't have a lot of draft picks

and has a lot of needs, but if you're getting someone like Anthony Richardson, go for it. I will never criticize them going for it when it comes to a quarterback. And that would go for Stroud too. If you're going for it, then go for it and don't apologize to anybody.

It's just that the price is going to be a lot. And there are a lot of teams that can make a case for needing a quarterback. So how do you make this work? So I agree with Mina that in theory, it makes a lot of sense and they should do it if they can. How do you do it? And also the other thing too, is, and we can't underrate this, that the entire organization has to be on the same page. Do you think that every organization is on the same page with all its top decision makers on Anthony Richardson? I don't know. That's a guy that's, I don't want to call him controversial, but I was just talking with a friend just earlier today about him, like where it's, uh, you know, uh, the accuracy and is he really gonna, you know, be able to turn

that around and things like that. Right. So there, there are questions still about Anthony Richardson. You would need everybody all in because everybody knows if you make a trade like that and it doesn't work out, there is going to be a lot of finger pointing and infighting and people fired. So it's again, sort of like in theory, if you're playing Madden, you absolutely do this in practice. It's a little bit harder, but I'm for it. Okay. From Jason Hunter will be traded.

No way we pay him the 20 mil a season he wants. I bet it's more than that. And maybe get a second round pick and some change for him. Yeah, I think it's going to be more than 20 mil. I think it's going to be pushing much closer to 30 mil because quarterbacks set the bar for everything. So Jalen Hurts signs today, and I think his average annual value is 50 mil.

Although if you look at his year by year cap hits, this is where that difference between the complete contract and the guaranteed money comes in and why in part, no one wants to give Lamar the fully guaranteed deal. Why Kirk's fully guaranteed deals have made things so difficult for the Vikings is that they could work it out with Jalen Hurts to have a decent amount of cap space for the next couple of seasons, while they're still in their winning window, that's beside the point.

When you're making 50 mil average annual value, everybody's else sort of slots in behind, pass rushers slot in not that far off. We're probably talking for pass rushers and receivers 30 mil. So that's where the price just keeps going up and yet the rookie slotting stays kind of the same, right? You're paying way, way less. And that's where if they were to draft someone at

23 as a pass rusher, trade Daniel Hunter away, that would be the kind of, and I don't want to call it the money ball, but that would be more of the data-driven type move, looking at that surplus value, the problem is, I mean, the 23rd overall pick, you need to hit, you need to get a really good pass rusher. And I don't know, we've seen them before try to cobble together pass rushes and it hasn't worked. It's worked when they've had Everson and Daniil or Zadarius and Daniil, that's when it's worked. Not so much when they've tried to say, hey, what about if we just have like Jalen Holmes mix in and Afadi Adenabo and Steven Weatherly? That hasn't worked as well. From Boyd here, and I'm scrolling as fast as I can through these.

I appreciate you guys, the interactions and sending all your questions. Let's see. It looks like Marcus and Daniil is getting paid at the same time. I think that Hunter has the right to be a little miffed. Yeah. Well, I mean, of course he does. You know, when, when you look at all of the years where we've gone into a season wondering, is this the year that Daniil like holds out and holds their feet to the fire for that initial bad contract? The initial contract was five years, 72 million. That was because Daniil was coming off a seven sack season where he was still very good, but he was not as dominant.

Everson Griffin was more dominant that year. And then two straight 14 and a half sack seasons after that and the man's making like way less uh as you know as far as his contract versus everybody else so i think that you know he does he does have a right and if you're talking about like marcus davenport and daniel hunter getting paid the same at the moment uh yeah that's exactly right like he you can't be looking at that guy going wait he had a half a sack last year i had 10 and a half and I was one of the top pressure guys in the league. And do not also underrate the fact that Daniil plays like every snap. He doesn't just play third down. He doesn't play like 500 snaps when he's healthy for full seasons, which is sort of ironic that he's been either like really hurt or he's been completely healthy, but he plays

every down when he's in there. That makes a big difference when you're deciding how much to pay someone. So yes, he has every right to be unhappy with his contract. And that's why something has to happen, either pay him or trade him. From Chris, is Cook's trade value higher with a player for player trade or a player for pick? I don't think his trade value is high no matter what. I mean, I don't. Player for player trades do happen in the NFL. They're very hard to work out. And I think what the Vikings are looking for in trading Delvin Cook isn't just opportunity for the next group of running backs. You know, the Ty Chandler, maybe Kenai Wong, if they like him a little more this year, maybe draft somebody. And of course,

Alexander Madison. I think it's also about the cap space that if you trade them away, it creates more cap space than if you cut them. And so you're looking to get anything back, but you're really looking to get cap space back because that's worth sort of it's weight in gold as well. I don't think that he has a whole lot of trade value. Now, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I think if he had a lot of trade value, he would have been traded already by now. From Joseph, do you think Hunter's trade value is greater this off season or last off season? Oh, this offseason. Yeah. Because last offseason he was coming off another injury. So I think they played this correctly, right? Make a bet that Daniil Hunter, if this is if they want to trade him, this isn't about the,

you know, an extension, maybe an extension would have actually been better last year for the Vikings, but it was very, very risky. So, you know know I think that his trade value is way higher this year because he's coming off a fully healthy season in which he was a really dominant player I mean 10 and a half sacks and a top 10 pressure season and that's exactly what they were looking for and that's what gets you actual draft capital in return unlike, an older running back who had his worst year, right? So with Daniil, he's coming off an excellent Daniil Hunter season, classic Daniil. Somebody's going to want that in terms of trading. Now, as far as how much it costs the Vikings for an extension, it's definitely costing

them more for an extension now than it would have then. But also, they have the peace of mind that he could make it through the entire season. And that matters as well. Let's see from KW better watch out mocking us a wide receiver at 23 KJ might come after you. Yeah, I know. I joked with KJ a little bit about that at the press conference. I said, you're not going to roast us for asking bad questions in this press conference. Are you that? So that's funny. You know, KJ has a good sense of humor, I said, you're not going to roast us for asking bad questions in this press conference. Are you? So that's funny. You know, KJ has a good sense of humor, I think, but he has to understand, right? Like he's the one that tweeted out last year, a three deep thing, right? He understands the more weapons, the more success. I do think that KJ Osborne views this as

a big year for him. They'll think about it this way. KJ Osborne's in his fourth year. What's that mean, everybody? He is a free agent after this season. So if you draft a receiver, it's not just to pair somebody with Jefferson. It's also because there's no guarantee that KJ Osborne is staying either. And if he has a really good year,

if he catches 75 passes for 900 yards, how are you extending Jefferson? you know Derrissaw is going to be up for an extension too and you know you've got dead cat money from Kirk and then an extension here right there's a lot of balls in the air a lot of juggling to do there and he might hit the free agent market uh after next year so you would be also drafting future security and you assume in your first year you're you know rookie can help, but there's no guarantee of that. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think that he'd be losing his mind if they drafted another wide receiver, but I also think that he has reason and definitely is a big, like self-belief

guy. He's somebody that has overcome a lot to be a good wide receiver. Of course, he's going to buy into himself, just like Adam Thiel in the same way. Like, you can never blame an athlete at this level for believing in themselves. And, you know, I think that's what the KJ thing on Twitter was about. From Duke DeGod, why not tank Dell and work on keeping Delvin Cook if you want to win now? We will regret sending Delvin to a competitor and they win a Super Bowl. Let's see, if JJ says find a way, they will.

Well, I don't think Justin Jefferson calls the shots on Delvin Cook. I think that Justin Jefferson is in the loop about the quarterback. I don't think that he's the GM. And also, look, Delvin know, and also look Delvin Cook. And this happened with Adrian Peterson too, that a lot of people hold on to what they think Delvin Cook is based on what happened in the past. What you're trying to do is project to the future. And when someone is coming off their worst season at his age, could he still go help another team? Yes. But it's sort of like Ezekiel Elliott

and Tony Pollard where it seemed like the Cowboys were hanging on to this idea that Ezekiel Elliott was better than Tony Pollard because he was three years before that but he was not better than Tony Pollard and I don't know that Delvin Cook is even better than Alexander Madison at this point Madison was a higher graded running back by PFF last year. And by all the numbers, and I know you could say the shoulder, but injuries matter to this conversation. All the numbers dropped from last year. So he either wasn't a good fit.

I think they also could use someone who can catch the ball. And if he goes and wins a Super Bowl somewhere else, so be it. I mean, I don't, I mean, that's something you can't worry about when making a trade. You have to do the best thing for you. And if he wins a Superbowl, it's not because of him. I mean, he may be a last piece, but if he wins a Superbowl, it's because somebody else had a Superbowl team and a Superbowl quarterback that they will have won. Why not Tank Dell? No, Tank Dell is interesting because he is a extremely undersized player, but he was also a good route runner and good deep receiver, which you don't always see from the undersized guys. The only concern I

would have there is that it almost seems like every time these really small players are drafted, and I got fooled by Jalen Darden. I thought he was going to be a really good player, I think, what, two years ago. And, you know, there's Andy Isabella, who was blazing fast. He didn't work out. John Ross, undersized guy. He didn't work out. So you kind of worry about those undersized players.

Maybe you can put Tank Dell in a slot position in like a fourth round draft pick or something. But I don't think you go any higher than that or really rely on him uh then you know to be like your guy let's see from uh cash hepper uh let's see after the first waves of free agency is there any reason they need to cut and trade players like cook and zadarius now versus after the draft nope not really no um the only reason would be that you could at least for delvin cook get some draft capital for this year but they don't have to sign the draft class until training camp um they can come to otas they can come to mini camp they usually just sign waivers or something but that's how you know it usually works out uh is that they don't actually sign until right before

camp and i think in past years there's been some debates over guarantees and it even lasted a day into camp or something with some players where they still didn't have the deal done but the only reason is so they sign joe wan williams today but there's still some free agents out there who could help this team as depth players. So if you wanted to sign anybody right now, say that you hear they need an answer right away, maybe that would be a reason to do it. But you're right that usually those players who are still free agents, they don't sign until right before training camp because everybody does the draft. Then teams have their mini camps, OTAs. They go on vacation. Sometimes they try to sign players to get them in by OTA. So we saw that with like

Bashad Breeland, Sheldon Richardson, then they go on vacation and then they come back the week before training camp and make a couple more signings. That's kind of, uh, you know, how it ends up working out, uh, from Derek Hunter like a 4-3 DE only. Not by the numbers last year. I mean, you know, I can see where you're coming from, but I also think that if you're at all good at your job as a defensive coordinator, then you're fitting somebody in in the best way possible. I mean, that's, you know, that's how I would look at it. And last year he started off a little slow, but he ended up with, you know, a great season, a top 10 season by PFF in pressures and a great sack season. So I think that he's so talented. He can fit in wherever, but I do think it took

them a little while to sort out how he fit in Ed Donatell's system. And that might happen again with Flores, but I don't think you have to lock somebody like that in. Let's see from T Kubler, Hunter averaged five and a half sacks a season over the past three years proceed with extreme caution. Well, you can't sack people when you're not playing. I mean, I think that, you know, both of those, both of those issues, I mean, like the arm, the pec injury, and the neck injury, one of them concerns you. I don't think the pec does, but the neck definitely does. And they would know.

I think that they would have a good sense for his health. For us to say, well, he's not going to be healthy. I mean, I don't know that, right? I don't have the medical information on Daniel Hunter to make that decision. And that might ultimately end up making it is whether, you know, they feel like that neck injury is going to hold up. So, I mean, I think that's a little bit of a stat twisting violation on your part. I mean, fully, fully healthy seasons from Daniel Hunter. He's put up 14 and a half, 14 and a half and 10

and a half in his last three fully healthy seasons. So we could kind of go back and forth there when he's fully healthy. He is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL. I don't think there's any real debate about that. The question is how long does that hold up? What is that worth? And is he on the same dominant level as a Bosa or as a Miles Garrett? And I think the answer is probably not. I don't think he's like on that level, but he's certainly not like a five sack player that we're talking about giving $30 million. Let's see from Jamie.

You need to keep either Hunter or Smith. You can't get rid of both. Hunter is worth more right now. Well, it depends on it's really timeline and what they're trying to accomplish. Right. So, I mean, if you're trying to find out next year who can play, if you want Brian Flores to figure out, all right, who are our guys? Then yeah, you could get rid of both of those guys for sure, because you know exactly what they are. You know where that train is headed. Hunter's going to be extremely, extremely expensive. Smith is older and has had lots of injury issues. Like, you know

what you get with those guys. We don't know Patrick Jones. We don't know the fully established version of DJ Wanham. We don't know Marcus Davenport. So if you want to find out, which I am not against, by the way, like if next year is the year of finding out, let's find out what KJ Osborne's worth. Let's find out if Jalen Naylor can play or draft a receiver. Let's find out. Let's see Louis seen for 17 games and not play Cam Bynum instead, because we kind of know what the ceiling is there. I'm all for that, all for that approach. But if they're trying to win the division and the goal

is get back to the playoffs, that's what ownership is set. Don't miss the playoffs. That's what we're going for. Then yes, I would agree with you. You can't move on from both of those guys. Derek still bringing the Hendon Hooker jokes. Hendon Hooker is so old he knows who shot JR. Yeah, or at least knows what you're referring to even. I was just watching the Simpsons episode the other day, who shot Mr. Burns. So I won't spoil it for anybody, but I'm old enough to remember who shot Mr. Burns. From still keep on losing, which is pretty aggressive as a name on Twitter. Let's see, asking Davenport to play full time in a whole season is like expecting Zion.

I assume you mean Zion Williamson. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that Marcus Davenport would be a guy who's going to play 800 snaps. What you'd be looking for is to find out what you have in Marcus Davenport would be a guy who's going to play 800 snaps. What you'd be looking for is to find out what you have in Marcus Davenport. He's shown flashes. He's had good seasons. He's had down seasons. He's always had a lot of pressures. He hasn't always had a lot of sacks. How does he fit with what you do? And so you play him as much as you possibly can. I mean, and if he gets banged up, then you know. And more likely than not, he will be banged up because that's been his history. But at least you get

to find out if you got something there, because if he is healthy and he is a beast for you, then you can resign him and keep him as part of the defense for a long time. From Derek, can you trade someone in the draft and not have it finalized until after June 1st yes but it would not be able to involve current draft capital so you could trade them on draft night and agree to a trade on draft night just because you're on the phone I guess but you can't say like this year's first and we'll finish it after June. No, no, no. It's got to be finished. And then like the draft, you can't trade that draft capital for basically nothing. You know what I mean? So, uh, yeah, you have to, you know what I mean? Like you get what I'm saying, right? Like you have,

you can't just say, we'll give you that draft capital. Then after June, we get Daniel Hunter. It's you have to trade to the next years, but that's okay. I mean, I think that that's entirely fine. Let's see. Can you name your top five draft options in this draft? There's a lot of different paths and there's a lot of different paths you can make a good argument for.

I don't know if I can like specifically go one, two, three, four, five, but I think the first is entirely to get a future quarterback. It has to be number one. And if they believe in Will Levis or Hendon Hooker, and those are the guys that are there and they go for it, A plus. And if it busts, it busts, but you went for it, right? I'd be all in on that idea. The second option to me is wide receiver because of KJ Osborne's future, even Justin Jefferson's future.

Don't want to say it too loud, but pairing someone with Jefferson, the value of the position, you guys have heard me go through this a million times. That would be number two. At number 23, get the best receiver you can. Trading back is probably my third best option, trying to get multiple players, get another corner, get an edge rusher along with a wide receiver. After that, I would say drafting a corner at 23, because

I think there's a group of corners and a big drop off and then your second group of corners. So if you're at the end of the first group, draft your corner there and then move on. And what's the, what's the fifth option? Um, I guess it would be pass rusher or just like not running back. I don't know. I mean, maybe some people have tried to make the B. John Robinson argument for the Vikings. I don't know. Like just, just don't screw it up entirely at that point. Like don't take a inside linebacker, you know, I don't know. Um, but that even that's possible because some people have mocked those guys to the Vikings as well. Uh, let's see here. Richardson isn't getting past Pete Carroll. I think that's very possibly true. Uh, I don't know any better than anybody else,

how it's going to go, but one of those teams is going to look at him and say, that guy could be a mega star. And look, I mean, Seattle's a great position for him because Gino Smith is essentially on a one-year deal there, essentially. So, you know, I think that if Seattle were to draft him, make him their future quarterback, they already had a running quarterback there for a long time. It's not like Pete Carroll doesn't know how to use that. He loves to run the football to begin with. That's the problem with the scenario of trading up to get a quarterback. If you don't get to three, you probably don't get one. That's one of the top three. Anyway, the other guys could drop. All right. Uh, uh from one we don't have much capital to move around in the

draft uh tapping into an aging and disgruntled edge to package makes so much sense of your commitment to the team is rather than just next season yeah i mean i i mean i agree with you like that's why it's hard to go back and forth because daniel hunter is such a good player and such a also and it needs to be mentioned, but also like a coachable player, a high class player, somebody who has always shown up and done his job whenever he's healthy year in and year out. I mean, these are hard dudes to find like superstars don't just wander into your building. So you understand why they pay them. It's just that based on the timeline, you know, it's probably more favorable to move on and get that draft capital for the future.

Let's see from Vikings Gaming. Would you trade Kirk and get draft capital and draft picks, then also draft a wide receiver like Johnston. So Kirk is under the same category as Daniil Hunter, where if you're trading him, you're doing it after June 1st. Again, this doesn't seem very likely at all. Hunter is much more likely to get traded in the summer than Kirk Cousins. You never know. San Francisco might call. But if they're doing that, they would be doing it again for draft capital in the future, not for this year. It would have to be like 2024 draft capital. Would I do it?

Sure would. Yeah, of course. When you're not locked into somebody for the future, what's the point? Like get started on the future and finding your quarterback rather than just having this season sort of exist. Like this is, you guys have talked about in the past in these chats of like this team being in purgatory and it's like this would be the ultimate purgatory season would be the quarterback doesn't really want to be here the schedule is much harder it's it's harder to win the division

you probably aren't a championship contender and nobody in Vegas seems to think that like you're just existing. You're just like having a stadium. I mean, you're, you're not really like competing for anything. So yeah, I would do it. I'd get started on the future now and I don't even care who plays quarterback next year, but probably Justin Jefferson and the rest of the team. If you traded away Kirk and didn't have an answer, I'm going to be very unhappy with you. As far as a receiver like Quentin Johnson, I like him a lot. I think he's a beast. I mean, I'm no draft scout. I don't purport to be.

I don't watch all of the all 22 of every Quentin Johnston rep. So, you know, I read people who do, who spend 365. I spend most of my year going to training camp, covering games, everything else. And then I try to play catch up by reading a lot of really smart people. And that's why we have Chris Trapasso from CBS on the show, because that's what he does all year long. And he loves Quentin Johnston for his yards after catch. And I think the guy's very exciting.

Yeah, I'm good with that. I'm good with that idea. From Bob, no corners in the first round. Don't blame you. Do not blame you. Do not blame you. I think that a corner in the first round is risky. And if you were to give me my option of getting edge rushers or receivers versus corners and then signing corners because it's more predictable, I'd probably go signing corners. All right, let's get in just a couple more here from, again, from Vikings Gaming. Would you trade Kirk for Trey Lance in draft picks and draft a receiver or do you have a different option that's better? I mean, I don't mind the Trey Lance idea at all just because it gets you started on the next option and it doesn't preclude you from

drafting a quarterback next year so if you were to do the kirk for trey lance trade and then you don't like what you see from trey lance well you didn't really lose anything and so then you can still draft a quarterback if you think trey lance isn't any good and go for it and all scenarios where someone says would you draft a receiver the answer is always yes. Let's see thoughts on Clark Phillips, the third, maybe third round option for them. I can't say that I've seen a lot of Clark's Philip the third, but I think he's more of a second sort of there's like the first wave of the corners and then there's a second wave. And he's kind of right in there with a bunch of other guys like DJ Turner, right? The Hodges Tomlinson from TCU, Clark Phillips. So if you're looking at him as a trade down and then draft him option or a third round, that's

fine. I couldn't compare like his, I don't know, oily hips or not, but I would say that he's been on my radar as someone that they could look at. Okay. Two more and then we'll wrap it up for the evening. Let's see. All signs point to trading down. Derek says, make a counterpoint to why that doesn't happen and its probability. The counterpoint is only that they love someone at 23. Let's say, so they make the draft board and I have been in the room where they have their draft board several times and one time rick spielman showed us how it works it's pretty cool i gotta tell you you can click on every player and his film comes up and his stats and everything it's pretty fun i kind of want to build one here at the house but um anyway so if if they

have this draft board and there are tiers to it, so let's say guys, they have first round grades on guys. They have second round guys. They have third and they have say 18 players that they have a first round grade on. And there's two left when they get to 23. They're like, you know what? We can't really move down to 33 because those two players are going off the board. They also have mocks that are more informed

than say our mocks. So I remember talking to someone who had been inside buildings that was telling me like, here's how I'm mocking this out. And his mock was more accurate than anybody who had actually mocked in the mock world. So the NFL has a much better sense for who's drafting who than the Daniel Jeremiah's or Bruce Feldman's or anybody, even the most dialed in people. So if they're mocking it out

and expecting this team's taking this guy, this team's taking that guy, so forth, and they feel like, you know what? We just don't expect many of our guys to be there except for these two or three. We better take them at 23 and not apologize to anybody rather than trading down and seeing this huge drop off a cliff.

Because like the difference between pick 15 and 20 might not be the same as the difference between 20 and 25. You know what I mean? Like the difference between 15 and 20 might be not that much where the difference between 20 and 25. You know what I mean? Like the difference between 15 and 20 might be not that much where the difference between 20 and 25 in their mind might be huge. So you got to pick, you get what I'm saying? So that, that would be the probability. I think, I mean, everything in this draft is like 25% chance they do this 25% chance they do that. I mean, this is why it's one of the most interesting drafts uh you know i think that in some previous years we really knew exactly what they were going to do this year we do not we didn't last year taken totally by surprise last year okay last

one for the evening this chat has been phenomenal every time you guys show up and are great great questions great comments respectable to each other respectful i should say to each other in the comment section that's why i love doing this you guys are the best so this is the last comment i'll take uh from daniel what happens with brian o'neill's restructure that was going to save them 10 mil or is everything on hold till the Vikings release Zedaria Smith, Delvin Cook? Oh, I mean trade. I think you're right. And here's the thing too, that, and somebody brought this up to me in an email weeks ago about the Brian O'Neill restructure, because everyone kind of wrote that in, in pen. Well, one thing is let's say Lamar Jackson at the last minute says, you know what? I've always wanted to be a Viking.

I'll only wear purple and screw the Ravens. I want to be a Viking. Well, you've got that in your back pocket that you could do that restructure to make that work. So keeping it there, but also every time you restructure, it pushes money down the road and that is not good for the future. So they've done that too many times. And I think that with the way that they handled Adam Thielen's situation,

where they cut him and did not wait until June 1st when they could have, it's the same kind of deal. It's like you can sort of see the wheels turning of them not wanting to do that all the time, even though they have hurt themselves a little, that 10 million, that's a lot to push down the road into the future. So I think that that's why, but some of this stuff still remains kind of uncertain.

And we didn't get, I wouldn't say, totally concrete answers from them when they talked the other day. So again, A+, great job, guys. I could just log on and chat football with you all night. So I appreciate that. I think there's a hockey game. You guys got to watch tonight. Is that right? Playoffs. So, and I want to see Kings and Warriors. That should be good. So thanks again, everybody. Great stuff. And we will be back. I think tomorrow night

to do hot routes. So always around on the channel, make sure you subscribe, tell your friends, and we will talk to you again soon. Take care, everybody.