Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune reviews a better day for the offense at OTAs

Episode Date: June 10, 2021

After a hot day at TCO Performance Center, Andrew Krammer joins Sam Ekstrom to cool down with a review of what they observed on the practice field. Already the Vikings can't get their cornerbacks on the field, and how much trouble is the defensive line in without Danielle Hunter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day three of Sam in for collar on the Purple Insider podcast. Welcome to the show. It's a Vikings OTA day. Just got back from practice and I'm joined by Star Tribune Vikings reporter Andrew Kramer, also of the Access Vikings podcast. Andrew, have you cooled down yet from our time out at TCO? A little bit, yeah. It's slightly, slightly cooler inside this non-air-conditioned house right now than it was sitting on the berm watching Vikings practice.

At least you're out of the sun, right? Yeah, I was thinking maybe media would get, you know, a tent set up or, you know, some courtesy Gatorades, like a Gatorade cooler. Nope, no, it didn't get any of that. We watched it all unfold under the hot sun. And, you know, from our perch, far behind the practice fields, what stood out to you today? We've kind of got a few of these now under our belt, maybe some trends beginning to emerge. Yeah, I would say it was revenge of the offense a little bit in terms of what we had seen last week, the last time we were allowed, and I'm sure you covered it well after the four-interception day. That was what we saw in the second OTA. This being the third one, I think one of the consistent themes we're seeing here is just how prominent the tight end usage is going to be.

Tyler Conklin really standing out, at least to me in this practice. It's always a little tough to tell how much you can take away from it because this is basically passing league football. Like obviously no pads, no pass rush. And even when there is a guy in the face, nobody's touching the quarterback. But Tyler Conklin's laying out for some of these grabs and making these fingertip catches and really separating himself from defenders downfield. And that's good to see if you're the Vikings because you're going to need to rely on him quite a bit this year going forward. And they don't really have, as Collar likes to talk about, they don't really have a third wide receiver. They don't really have that option to kind of spread out and trust that there's going

to be that at least Jarius Wright style guy that we were so used to seeing for so many years. They're going to now rely on Irv Smith and Tyler to do a lot of that and kind of spread guys out. And they're moving them all over the field, too. There was one formation we saw where they've got Irv and Tyler both split out wide on the same side. They've got Tyler on basically the sideline with Irv in the slot. I think we're going to see Clint Kubiak move these

guys around quite a bit and the more Tyler kind of grows and gains confidence and makes these kinds of catches the more confident they're going to be in putting him out there and trusting him and it just looks like Kirk's got such a rapport especially with Conklin that he's trying to work on this offseason and that's I think that's a consistent theme and a good good sign to see so far from these OTAs it was a really good day for the quarterbacks. It was a really good day for the tight ends. There were great throws all over the place, especially in red zone drills. Tyler Conklin, Brandon Dillon made some great catches. And if there's any truism to, to sort of what I've seen through three practices, it's that this offense is definitely not getting more,

you know, three wide receiver centric. It's not going to be different. I mean, everyone has sort of echoed that too, that Clint Kubiak is running a continuation of what his dad did. And his dad running a continuation of what Kevin Stefanski did. Like this is the same system, a lot of two tight ends.

And if anyone thinks that because Kyle Rudolph's gone, that suddenly they're going to spread it out more, no, they're not. I mean, we're going to see Tyler Conklin a lot. And this is a big year for him because I think if he has a good year, if he shows that he can block and stretch the field just a little bit, he could be looking at a nice multi-year deal in free agency, like a Rhett Ellison kind of deal that he got with the Giants. And he wasn't really even that much of a passing threat. And he got like four years, 18 million from New York. So Tyler Conklin is kind of the

dark horse to maybe be a little bit of a coveted asset next free agency. And it's kind of a sneaky good fit in terms of what they're going to be asking him to do, because Irv has had to kind of bulk up and become more of that blocking tight end, the guy that, you know, he's going to have to be in line. He's going to have to work right next to the tackles. He's going to have to do a lot of the dirty work that they asked Kyle Rudolph to do, because they're still going to need a tight end on the field when it's first and 10, second, you know, five, and they're asking Dalvin Cook to just move the chains.

And with Tyler, he's stepping into more of that maybe move tight end role where they can also accentuate him, but really in a secondary role at that tight end spot where it's just going to be, hey, we want you to split out wide, line up in the slot, stretch the field. When we go too wide, you will have to do some blocking, but it's going to be more of that kind of you're going to be farther out. You're going to be next to Irv. You're not going to be next to a tackle necessarily all the time. And so I think he's not going to have to necessarily be

like a Red Ellison who was a lot more of an H-back. He'd be more of a lead blocker coming out of the backfield. I don't see Tyler doing any of that. This guy's going to be put on the field to catch the football and block safeties and corners. And that's going to be a good fit for him. And you brought up him being in a contract year. He's got all the more incentive now to kind of cash in on that. And I think the Vikings are going to give him a lot of opportunities because, too, we, as you mentioned with the wide receivers, we haven't seen a whole lot from a lot of these guys. We're seeing the same kind of Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen.

We're seeing B.C. Johnson, Chad Beebe, just a lot of the same guys that we're used to seeing. It's going to be really hard, I think, for some of these younger wide receivers to earn much playing time when there's not going to be a lot of it to go around. No. Defensive side, the Vikings continue to bring in corners, and we continue to not really see any of them. Last week, Patrick Peterson was gone. Cam Dantzler was out. Jeff Gladney's been gone the whole time. Today, Peterson's back, but Dantzler is still out. Rashad Breland is there, but as we found out later, he had shoulder surgery, which is holding him out probably of the rest of the summer practices,

and I assume he's good to go for training camp, but we're seeing a lot of Harrison Hand and Chris Boyd. I mean, those have been sort of the two constants through OTAs so far uh we haven't really gotten a good read on what this this rotation is ultimately going to look like and I think I think there are some legitimate questions there like is Cam Dantzler's job really in jeopardy is Bashad Breeland going to challenge for that and and where do Harrison Hand and Chris Boyd fit in yeah these cornerbacks the additions that they've made bringing in even Ty Smith you brought up Breeland these this says a lot about how they feel about their cornerback depth and it's more than just Jeff Gladney's situation when they can't clearly they can't count on him to be available for the team whether it's going to be a

suspension or jail time or whatever he ends up facing. This also says a lot about Cam Dantzler, because this is a guy who needed to put on weight, was injured a lot last year, dealt with rib injuries, I think other kind of leg injuries, soft tissue injuries as well. They're going to need him to stay healthy. And then all of a sudden you get into OTAs and this guy's dealing with the right leg injury that he's got wrapped up. And that's just a bad sign. We've been out there now for today was the third OTA we've seen. I don't think we've seen him at all in terms of taking part of these practices. And that's a huge letdown if you're the Vikings coaching staff and saying, look, we needed you to bulk up in the offseason so you can stay healthy.

And here before we even put pads on, you can't stay healthy. So I think that is the impetus for bringing in guys like Bashaw Breland and some of these veteran options who are more reserve options. Breland's the guy too, who might end up starting in that third spot or even second spot. If you view Mackenzie Alexander as kind of just a slot guy, that's really going to pigeonhole Dantzler as more of a, you know, break glass in case of emergency kind of thing where we'll bring you on if we really need you to, but otherwise we're not going to want to rely on you because this kid hasn't been able to stay on the field. And Breland, like you had mentioned, now he's coming off shoulder surgery as well. I'm sure that he had mentioned that that played a role in kind of how little activity he got in free agency. I don't know how much that played in Kansas City,

not wanting to bring him back because he was open today and talking with us on Zoom that he wanted to go back to Kansas City. And if you follow him on Twitter, that was pretty obvious too. This guy loved the time he had there. The metric sites, the analytics sites like Pro Football Focus say he did take a big leap in Kansas City last year. So it makes sense why he'd want to stay with a contending team like that. But the Vikings end up getting what really is kind of a bargain bin option in Breland, who's started 88 games. This guy's got 14 picks in his career. He brings them some kind of reliability that they just didn't have

with Cameron Dantzler as their number three. The good thing is with these OTAs so far is we are seeing Mackenzie Alexander, except for today, we have seen him out there practicing as the starting slot corner. We've seen Patrick Peterson outside of a graduation. He had to attend to for one of his kids. We've seen him out there as well. So the Vikings are getting at least two of their newcomers out there and you know, McKenzie Alexander knows the system. It's not going to be that big of a leap for him coming back.

The biggest question is that number three job, which frankly is going to be out there 70% of the time with the way the Vikings play defense. And to me, it's going to be up to Bashaw Breeland to really kind of grab that. And yeah, is he going to be healthy come training camp? I guess if you're looking for positives out of these young guys playing quite a bit right now,

it's that if they have to ever rely on a Harrison Hand or a Chris Boyd, they're at least getting long looks at them now. And I found it very interesting that today, Harrison Hand was their starting slot corner. They've kind of had him throughout these OTAs shadowing Mackenzie Alexander. And then today he stepped into that starting role in the slot. They don't have a lot of options in the slot. We're not too far removed from them playing Andrew Sandejo in a playoff game in the slot. And so I think bringing Harrison along, that's going to give him a lot more versatility to make the team. And I think they're trying to kind of build him up as kind of this kind of do it all backup to bring off the bench. Yeah. And with Breland too, he's kind of the

perfect fourth man in the rotation. If you do end up starting Dantzler. And I think the team would like Dantzler to be that guy because of his age, his upside, the investment they made in him in the draft. I think they would prefer if he was that man. But I think they're also accounting for somebody to get hurt. And just based on his history, that might be Dantzler. But last year, they were not prepared to have kind of the rug pulled out from under them the way they did. And this year they've taken all the precautions. And with Breland, they've got someone who can play

outside, obviously, but he's got a couple of years playing inside. He's obviously got the experience. He seems interested in sort of being a mentor and also being mentored. Like he's not too good to learn from Patrick Peterson, but he wants to pass something down to the young guys. And that seems like a really good attitude to have. And I'm sold on him. Like I want to give him the Corey Stringer award right now. He was really good in the press conference. And I think that'll be useful with a lot of young corners around to have somebody that's kind of charismatic and willing to teach them and guide them a little bit. So I think it's a good signing. And and I'd like to see sort of all these guys on the field at once and see what they look like, because we just haven't, as you mentioned, really gotten a look at at what this this secondary is going to look like. One intriguing thing that caught my eye today,

speaking of the secondary, Andrew, is during seven on sevens, we got a couple reps of Cameron Bynum, adjacent Harrison Smith at safety. They keep elevating him up the depth chart, kind of giving him some opportunities to get his feet wet with the ones. It feels to me like, you know, he's the one corner that they actually drafted and quickly moved him to safety and he seems to be taking to that really quickly yeah yeah and his intelligence is something that I think every coach that's um that we've heard from certainly about him is praised and that's going to help him get on the field right away it's just a matter of physically is he going to be able to jump in there and compete and I did see them rotate even Miles Doran in with the ones um during 11 on 11s they were having Harrison kind of sit out some reps and mix in with the twos and you talk about depth in the corners this whole

secondary is kind of just an island of misfits outside of harrison and patrick peterson even patrick coming off of the down years in arizona they got a lot of guys that have a lot to prove and i think when you look at that safety depth they've known or they haven't necessarily needed it over the last couple years with Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith. And now they probably realize, hey, you know, Xavier Woods is nice of a signing as he might end up being. We need to prepare for the worst and that if we need to throw somebody in there, it's going to be a young and unproven guy. They don't have any NFL snaps behind those two starters right now in terms of reliable guys they can turn to at safety. And it's not like the Vikings necessarily rely on guys not named Harrison Smith to do a whole lot,

and they can hide them however which way. But Bynum is that kind of guy that if he can develop into that kind of rangy, you know, free safety style back end cover guy, that would allow Harrison Smith to do quite a bit. And they hope that Xavier Woods is kind of that guy too can kind of step in and do some of the things sideline to sideline that even Anthony Harris wasn't necessarily the most athletic guy back there to do and I think that'll open some things up a little bit but god forbid they have an injury back there because as you mentioned they just don't have a whole lot and And this secondary communication, we hear this so much from the

coaches, from the players about how communication is so important on that back end. And we haven't seen what might be the week one starting lineup, take a single snap together. Now that might happen come mandatory mini camp. If let's say Basha Breland's healthy or Cameron Dantzler's healthy, but we might be waiting until training camp for the secondary to finally play a snap together. And they're really not going to have a whole lot of time with one fewer preseason game as well to get all that kind of work in, to be able to smoothly communicate the ways that the number one Vikings defense in 2017 was able to just look at each other and they knew what kind of adjustment they had to make. This is going to be a lot of work and a lot of work they have to

pick up quickly in the secondary. That includes the safeties. And I'm very curious to see how Bynum progresses, how he's going to come along in special teams, because that's going to be a big way too that he gets onto the field. Yeah, that reminds me of one stat I saw on the safety position last year. While they had 10 different corners getting snaps, I think they had two safeties get a thousand plus snaps. It could have been so much worse if one of them had had an extended injury, but really the only time they needed to back up safety was when Harrison Smith got ejected in the Texans game. And it didn't go well when George Iloka was brought in. So they were really testing their lack of depth last year. And I don't know if the situation's any better this year. I mean, I don't know if Bynum is really any better than having Josh Metellus as your backup last season, but

maybe just marginally because he's a higher draft pick. But yeah, it'll be tested again, I think, in 2021. Defensive line question for you. Sands, Daniil Hunter, this group is just so anonymous and so hard to peg for me. And we can't really learn a lot when the pass rush is so soft during these kind of low contact practices. But we can look at the depth chart. And it seems like Weatherly and Wanham are kind of the clear one and two right now. But beyond that, Jalen Holmes, Hercules Mata'afa, Patrick Jones, a little sprinkle of Kenny Willekes, a dash of

Janarius Robinson. I don't know what to make of the depth of this group right now. Who do you think kind of fills out the defensive end portion of the 53 men? Yeah, I'm very curious to see how players like Hercules Mata'afa and Jalen Holmes keep their roster spots. You don't draft Patrick Jones in the third round, Janarius Robinson in the fourth round. You don't bring these guys in if you're comfortable with your DN depth. And we saw a lot of Jalen Holmes last year. The guy started his first NFL game, so he got a huge opportunity,

and the franchise had its fewest sacks ever. And that says a lot about not only the moves they made, but just his play last year and not producing. And I think they, we've heard enough. They really liked DJ Wanham. Him stepping into a starting role is not necessarily the plan. I think they would like to Neil Hunter to come back, have Weatherly there, and maybe if Wanham shows enough in camp, they can throw him out there eventually. But yeah, behind those guys, I just, I think the holdovers are going to be facing a really uphill battle. If you had to make me guess right now, I don't think Holmes or Mata'afa make the team.

I think they really remake that group with Weatherly being brought back and the two rookies I just mentioned. And then obviously with Wanham and then what they hope to be Daniil Hunter leading that group. And the pass rush outside of the coverage, we've talked about this so much this spring, the pass rush is the biggest question mark along with that coverage. And those are the two most important things you hear Mike Zimmer talk about. You need guys who can cover and guys who can rush the passer. We have the legit questions about whether they have either right now. And they've done a whole lot to remake the defense in terms of the corners

and in terms of the run stoppers. They really haven't done that much to remake those pass rushers outside of those rookies that I had mentioned. And so that's why they need to Neil Hunter back so badly. That's why I think they're banking on him being back. And I say that no pun intended, but I think they'll pay him and find a way to make it work because they have to. And then, or trade for somebody who could come in to help with Daniil Hunter. I know Collar, I had him on Access Vikings podcast last week. He throws out Melvin Ingram as a potential option. That's one that makes a lot of sense because if you do end up having to move a guy like

Daniil, you need to bring in somebody who can help you immediately. It can't just be trading him for a pick or something like that. So the pass rush is something that's a huge question mark. And the depth of it, as you said, it's a no-name group. And I think this is going to have to be Mike Zimmer's master class in terms of blitz scheming, third down pressure packages. They're going to need Anthony Barr basically to be like their second best pass rusher. In terms of when you look at how this third down lineup is going to be,

they might end up moving DJ Wanham inside. They might end up moving Steven Weatherly inside, but they didn't bring an interior pass rusher onto this roster. I mean, Steven Weatherly is the best that they got in terms of the guys they brought in. Dalvin Tomlinson is not going to be that Sheldon Richardson style player that really pushes and collapses the pocket the way that you want a third down rusher too. So to me, it's going to be, yeah, the slot corners, Harrison Smith blitzing, Anthony Barr blitzing. I just feel like we're going to hear the word blitz quite a bit this year because I don't know where else the pass rush is going to come from. Yeah. Mackenzie Alexander out of the nickel. I mean, that was sort of the,

the, the, the joker, you know, he was the wild card that they used a couple of years ago when he was on the team. I do have one Jalen Holmes stat that I came across yesterday in some research. There were 46 guys last year across the league, defensive ends, that had 600 or more snaps. Holmes was the only one to not have a sack. In a contract year for him, it's going to be tough to make this squad. I agree with your assessment. I think they might even favor someone like Kenny Willekes to make the roster over an expiring contract in Holmes. He has unsuccessfully tried a position switch. And once you start switching positions and it's not working, you just don't have a role. You don't have like a clear home

on this team. It's kind of a shame that the defensive end free agents right now, other than Melvin Ingram, you mentioned, are pretty anonymous. I mean, it's not a very deep group. Like if you look at wide receiver and you look at corner and the Vikings took advantage of this with Breland, there are some names. And if you wait long enough, you're probably going to get them pretty cheaply. At defensive end right now, I mean, it's slim pickings. Like the highest, you know, beside Ingram, the highest rated PFF guys, like Jabal Sheard from last year, like 54th.

And Everson Griffin has the institutional knowledge, but do you want to bring him in? There might be some headaches there with Everson Griffin. So I don't know if there are a lot of good affordable options. Obviously, the team has some cap space right now, but they might need that to retain Daniil Hunter. They might need to extend Brian O'Neill. I don't know how they intend to allocate that at this point,

and they still have a few draft picks to sign too. So if you were to sort of pinpoint, Andrew, a next move for the Vikings, what do you think that might be? Boy, it makes a lot of sense with Paul Gunther on the staff now, Mike Zimmer, obviously. It just makes a lot of sense to bring in Geno Atkins. If you can get him at the right price, if you can get him on a one-year deal. I know the guy's like 34 years old, hasn't necessarily been the healthiest, but I think he's still a free agent. I think he's still out there. And if you can bring him in as a situational pass rusher, because you know you don't need him on first and second down. When

you've got two nose tackles that you brought in basically to be your starting defensive tackles, you can rely on him in a much limited role. And I think that could help his career and help extend it in the likes that you saw Chris Long extend his career as a situational pass rusher off the edge. When he bounced around between the Patriots and Eagles, you could see a guy like that come into a system that he's very comfortable with under coaches. He's very comfortable with and thrive in a role that really they need him in. Like I'd mentioned, they don't have an interior pass rush right now. And if you've got questions at that second defensive end spot, assuming you have Daniil Hunter back, there really still are questions at number two

because it's not like Steven Weatherly is a world beater and DJ Wanham is still developing. They could really be best served by bringing in a guy like him. And to me, it makes a whole lot of sense. It's just money-wise, we know they're going to be pinching pennies. We know they're going to want to be spreading this out as much as possible. They've got to Brian O'Neill. They've got to give some of that money to they probably got to rework Harrison Smith's contract as well. And in terms of the cap that could make that work, certainly. But if you're paying Daniel Hunter anywhere close to what he's rumored to wanting, you need a lot of that space just for

him, too. So I think with Gino, it's probably a matter of what he's asking for and what other teams are willing to give up. But if he's going to go anywhere for a quote-unquote hometown discount, it makes a lot of sense for it to be Minnesota. Hey, everyone. Summer is here, and you're trying to get out on the golf course. But if you're like us here at Purple Insider, spending all day golfing isn't always an option. That's why you need to check out birdie golf in woodbury i'll give you

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Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Let me play a game with you, Andrew, just to sort of provide some levity to the program. And I'll say right off the bat that if I were the one playing this game, I would probably fail at it and I'd be really embarrassed. So hopefully you're a good sport and you might you have a chance to really impress the masses with some some very specific knowledge. The game is where did he go to college? I'm going to give you the most obscure vikings on the 90 man and i want you to tell me where he attended college so i've got uh i've got seven of them for you let's see if you can get the majority of the seven uh if you can go over 50 i'll be

very impressed i gotta remember where i went to college here first yeah yeah uh and if anyone knows where i went to college too i bonus points for that because it's extremely obscure um the first one is zach bailey zach bailey oh boy um oh my god yeah that's that's i feel like that's unfair is um i feel like zach ba, you just merged two different names on the roster and you did a creative player on me. Tulane? No. I mean, that's a good poll from the Ade Aruna days, but that's incorrect. Zach Bailey attended South Carolina.

South Carolina. Okay, that's not too obscure. I should have probably been able to get that one. And he, yeah, he's an offensive lineman for those unaware. Where's the number 65. And I, I believe he's a third team kind of guy. All right. They gave him John Sullivan's number. I should have known that. Yeah. Yeah. They haven't, they haven't retired that one yet. Okay.

Chance to bounce back. How about a UDFA, somebody that you might have written about or researched recently, Turner Bernard. Oh, a long snapper. That's mean. That's mean. Oh, that's really mean. Yeah. As you mentioned off the top i'm gonna do very poorly at

this uh turner bernard sounds very much i'm just gonna go what he sounds like he sounds like he went to navy no i knew that no yale that's our there's already been an armed forces long snapper on this team, Austin Cutting. You think he was Ivy League. Wrong coast. San Diego State is the correct answer. I feel like I actually did know that once upon a time. You're right. You write down their college once when you write them up that they got signed.

A long snapper, that's a tough one. Yeah. Let me go slightly easier let's go with a draft pick from last year Blake Brandel uh Oklahoma I think I know that one no oh I I feel bad that you were confident no that's it does start with an o but it's Oregon State oh my gosh didn't they sign somebody from oklahoma that was oh man i thought he was definitely definitely from oklahoma yeah um there's an oklahoma state guy on the roster i don't know if there's an oklahoma maybe we'll come across him later in the game all right you're you're

oh for three i think the goal at this point we just want to get you on the board i just you know i gotta have the confidence of a cornerback here i'm just just going to shake it off and move on to the next play. Short-term memory. How about the big March acquisition, Mason Cole? Mason Cole, I knew this because I've written about him. I looked up. Oh, man. Obviously, he was in Arizona. He was the third-round pick for the Cardinals. Gosh, I could tell you so much about that. Started 30 of 32 games at center for them. Where did he go to college? Why do you do this to me?

Mason Cole. Mason Cole went to college. Is this a trick question? He didn't go to college? No. Mason Cole went to college at oh man hold on give me one more second yeah no i don't take your time i'm sure i'm sure if uh if you weren't on the spot right now you could probably bring it to mind in a few seconds but it's the pressure it really is it really is can you can't no i don't even want can you give me the conference?

What conference did he play? Big Ten. I was thinking Big Ten. All right. He played at Wisconsin. Their rivals, Michigan. All right. The Wolverines.

Okay. A couple more for you. Let's go down the list. We won't do the other long snapper. Thank you. All right. Greg Joseph, possible week one kicker. Man. Oh, see, I know much about these guys' NFL careers. I mean, I could tell you why he got cut from Cleveland because they brought in Austin Siebert. I could tell you why he got cut from Tennessee because they brought in Steven Gostkowski. Look at you educating the listeners, even in your embarrassment. You're still finding a way to entertain and educate. I'm trying to show people that I don't, it's not that I don't know

anything. It's that I clearly just don't know colleges where they went to go. Greg Joseph kicked it in Miami. Wow. You're in the right state. You're in the right state. I mean, you get half a point for that. Florida Atlantic is the right answer. FAU. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. For real. All right. Let's, let's round it out with, I really want you to get one so bad. Okay. Let's say Justin Jefferson. Okay. We're going to go high profile man Michael Pierce that's not even fair because they didn't even draft him um Michael Pierce went to did you know this Sam did this? I mean, I'm looking at the answer key. I don't know. Before that, before this, did you know it?

If you had asked me before this moment, I probably would have not known it. And then I would have said, oh, right, right, right, right, right, right. But no, I this is a high profile player in a low profile school. Yeah, I'm thinking, did he go to like, no. See, I want to say like East Carolina, but that was Linval Joseph. Oh boy. Kind of in the same ballpark for like obscurity.

Southern Georgia. Yeah, the answer is Samford. Oh, Samford. Okay, all right. Okay, man. You know, that's a tough one. That's a tough game. And, um, you prefaced it by saying that I was, you, you would do horribly. And I, uh, I topped you. I went over. Well, I, uh, I don't want to claim to have, you know, do any better than that. So, and feel free if you ever had me on Access Vikings, try to stump me if you want. I will show everybody that I'm not omniscient or anything.

I got, I got collar quite a bit on the last one. We did Stefan Diggs tweet, excuse me, or Confucius proverb. And those are shockingly similar. Yeah, I've done it. That's funny because I did a bit on a podcast once called Stefan Diggs fortune cookie tweets and you select like a number one through five and that equates to a Diggs tweet and that's your fortune. Yeah, yeah, no, very, very cryptic, I guess are the words. Andrew, this has been, it has been really fun. In closing, is Daniil Hunter going to be here next week? I don't think he'll be here next week, but I think they find a way to get him in for training camp because, like we talked about, they need him.

But no, I think Daniil continues to try to send a message, and I don't think he – my prediction is that he doesn't show up next week. I think that's a safe prediction to make. He's made millions. I'm not sure that the workout bonus or the practice bonus is enough to really move the needle for him, especially if it helps him get a new signing bonus. So I don't know if that's going to be enough incentive. And the team can play nice and just say, okay, it's an excused absence.

You don't need to come in. They can play it in a way that, you know, at least is somewhat understanding or they can try to slap him on the wrist and find him $100,000 in which you said, you know, what is that to him when he's trying to get an even bigger contract and continue to show the team what it looks like without him. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends.

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Appreciate it, Sam. And to put a wrap on the show, we heard from Kirk Cousins on a Zoom call today. How is the Vikings quarterback feeling about Kellen Mond? We found out about that and plenty more this afternoon. Oh, hey, Kirk. Good to talk to you. Hope everything's going well for you. Hey, wanted to know,

what was kind of your initial reaction when the Vikings drafted Kellen Mond and then what were your conversations like with Rick Spielman after that in terms of why that move was made? Yeah, you know, there was good communication through the process and Kellen's been Yeah, you know, there was good communication through the process and Kellen's been great, you know, working hard and picking up our offense quickly. So

it's been a good process and, you know, we're just kind of building this thing right now to keep ramping up as we get closer to September. Hey, Kirk, you mentioned the valuable time right now obviously in regards to Justin you did not have this a year ago with him on the field how much of a difference do you think and I hope you guys make this year and what's that rapport with you and him where are you guys at right now? It's a good question because I think part of the reason you didn't see Justin as much in weeks one and two of the season would partly be due to the fact that the offseason was much shorter or there really wasn't an offseason. And all we had was training camp and even much of training camp early on was walkthroughs. someone to see what they're ready to do, but also, you know, just all that we were throwing at him,

it's much easier to learn it when you're playing football, as opposed to just talking about it in a meeting or in a walkthrough. So there's value now for the next wave of young players coming through to be able to have that time on task. Certainly Justin, you know, proved that he was caught up to speed very quickly and had a great rookie year. So now it's just about, you know, building on that and now being able to be consistent, you know, year in and year out moving forward. And he has had a great eight practices, I believe is how many we've had. He's had a great, you know,

eight practices and certainly looks to be the same player that he was last year. And, and you know, it's, I would say the same of a lot of other guys on our offense joe and then will yeah kirk i'm wondering just how much time in the offseason you spend uh taking a look at past games and then out of that you get the emphasis on what you want to concentrate on in the offseason hitting in the camp? Yes, great question. This year I decided to go back and really watch my whole career,

watch a couple other offenses to see what they have been doing or what they did the year that they had a lot of success. And I do think that that time looking at Tate, you know, through the winter and the spring and even now as I go home, you know, through the winter and the spring, and even now, as I go home, you know, through the summer after next week, I do think that it's helpful to, you know, to see what has worked in the past, what, you know, I want to make as a staple for myself as I move forward, but then also, you know, where I have improved or where I need to improve. And that, that evaluation certainly comes from your coaches day in and day out, but there's also gotta be an ability to self-evaluate and say,

I like what I'm doing there. Keep doing that. Or that's not good enough. I want to improve that. And I think being self-led and being tough on yourself can really help too, as you watch a tape, you know, that you put out there. Kirk at practice day, we saw you connect with Tyler Conklin a number of times. With Kyle gone, what have you kind of seen from not only Tyler, but Irv as well, and those tight ends early on in the spring period? Both of them have had a really strong eight practices, and it's been fun to see, you know, what they're continuing to be capable of.

You know, I could compliment them for a while because they're deserving of it. And I'd also say that some of our younger tight ends have done really well as well. Brandon Dillon, you know, Zilly, I think has flashed quite a bit with his athleticism. You see that he was a former wide receiver and that shows up in his ability to run routes, make difficult catches and just be really comfortable in the pass game. And Zach as well, just has a great size and frame, which you love, especially down in the red zone. And, and he's been separating in a lot of the match coverages that you see where, you know, he's got to create separation versus a defensive back and he's doing it. So that's been fun to see from all those guys,

the challenges the tight end position requires so much mentally. You have to learn the whole run game. You got to learn most all the protections. You also got to learn all the past games. So you pretty much have to learn like you're playing receiver, offensive line and running back all in one. And it's a lot to put on somebody early. And so for Zach and Zilly, it's, it's, you know,

a lot of volume coming at them, but you know, Irvin Conk, you see now with several years, how they've kind of emerged as these veterans that, you know, now are really confident and know what's coming and have that, you know, that confidence on the field. A couple of questions from Courtney and then Sam. Hey Kirk, when this is a kind of like a broad question about quarterbacks and the dynamic when a young guy is brought in because I remember a few years ago when Mason Rudolph was drafted by the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger was asked about well do you know what's your role as the veteran guy the established guy do you bring him along do you train him effectively he's like well he's got it That's kind of on him where this kind of feels like the one position in sports that we almost unfairly put it on the veteran guy to bring everybody else along and, you know,

expect that potentially one day that somebody could supplant somebody for their job as a veteran guy is the established guy. How do you approach when they bring new quarterbacks in here to learn under you? Is it something that you seek out like almost like a teaching tool, things like that? How do you go about that with Kellen and any other young quarterback? I think you do the same thing. I do the same thing I've done with Nate Stanley, Jake Browning, Nate Sudfeld back when I was in Washington. You know, you're an open book, you're, you're helpful and, and you're there and make yourself available. And, you know, I had Rex Grossman when I was a rookie and Rex had played in a Superbowl and

won a lot of playoff games and started a lot of games in the NFL and was in year 10. So it was great to be able to learn from him. And he was a big part of my early development as a football player. And I really, you know, took every word that he said to heart because I felt like he had been there. He had done that. He knew what it should look like. And I hung on his every word. So, you know, I've, I've been there and want to certainly be that same resource whenever

possible. Sam, and then Eric, and then Chris. Yeah, Kirk, you've been on the offensive coordinator carousel for pretty much your whole career. What have you learned about what's important in cultivating those new relationships every summer? Yeah, great question. We're kind of in that process right now going through it of, of, you know, the dynamic. I think, I think what's interesting to kind of work through is the offense is very similar, essentially the same. So it's not so much the plays, it's more just the

personality or the communication, you know, the so much the plays, it's more just the personality or the communication, you know, the person behind the plays, the human being, if you will. And so while that changes, there are dynamics that you, you know, want to learn and observe. And the same for Andrew Ginoco as the quarterback coach, you know, the quarterback room when Clint's not there, then, you know, I'd say, okay, it's a different year. It has a different feel to it, different people in the room. So time, you know, time certainly helps just being together, meetings, practice, and kind of then being able to say, okay, this is how it's going to go just with our time on task. It shows me that. And, you know, that's where this OTA time becomes very valuable, but it also is a positive that Clint's been my quarterback coach for two

years. So I've spent so much time with him in the quarterback room. And I'd like to think he really knows how I'm wired, what I like. He's heard so much feedback for the last couple of years. And I think that that certainly helps. But it's been unique to look back over six years and have six different play callers. You know, I never would have thought that would happen. But I've been fortunate to be in pretty similar systems for the most part over those six years and I think that's a blessing because a lot of quarterbacks will have to change systems entirely and you know that's another conversation.

Kirk you mentioned earlier that you went back and watched your whole career was that the first time you had done that like in previous years had you just go back and watch the previous season like just 16 games and then was it the first time you'd watch all you know 100 plus yes uh is the short answer um I wanted to go back and just really study it create cut-ups kind of build up some volume that I could pull from as we go forward I regret that I hadn't done it earlier in my career, but I did, you know, get the film set up at my house to basically have access to all of that. So that all off season, even if I'm not in the facility, I would have access to tape. And I do think it's been a really

valuable resource to have, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it sooner in my career, but you know, it was just a piece that I think hopefully can help me improve, uh, this coming year. And that's the podcast for today. I'm Sam Ekstrom in for Matthew Collar. I'm on Twitter at Sam Ekstrom and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content like this in video form with our purple insider extras. Talk to you tomorrow for another episode.