Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Vikings the most interesting team at the NFL Combine?

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

With the NFL Combine beginning tomorrow, Matthew Coller is in Indy by CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso to preview the Combine and discuss whether the Vikings are the most interesting team in Indianapolis this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome inside the Indiana Convention Center here at the NFL Combine where myself and CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trappasso are basically alone. There's hardly any other. I saw Aaron Nagler here. Does he count? Other than that, just a handful of people have arrived here and started podcasting on Monday, but I couldn't wait. We'll have, of course, the conversations with Quasi Dapho Mensa and Kevin O'Connell going

on at the podiums and side sessions with reporters here tomorrow, which we will have a full breakdown of that. But we could not hold off wanting to talk about what we are looking for this week, and we decided to make some lists of the most interesting names. Now, this could mean anything, Chris. Interesting names could mean people who are going to speak. It could also mean prospects.

It could also mean rumors. And I think I want to start out with the most interesting name on my mind, which is, it's going to shock everybody. Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold will be a fascinating name, especially, and you and I both do this here in India. After we're done with our work, we head out. We try to talk to as many people as we can to figure out what's the real buzz here. Last year, we were beating the bushes for JJ McCarthy takes. I was walking up to everybody. I could say, what do you think of JJ McCarthy? Tell me and I

gathered a bunch of information that way. Now I'm going to be asking everybody, where do you think Sam Darnold is playing? So I have Sam Darnold as the most interesting name here in Indianapolis to hear about from the Vikings brass, but also what everybody is saying about where he's going to play next season. Yeah, that's a really good name and it makes a lot of sense on this podcast. But just to quickly go back to that experience last year of JJ McCarthy, everyone, including me and you came into the combine in 2024.

Oh, JJ McCarthy might be like mid to late first round pick. And we heard like the first night we reconvene, I think for our second podcast after this intro one that we're doing now. And so many people out at the bars and restaurants were like, JJ McCarthy is going to be like one of the first quarterbacks off the board. He's going to knock it outside the top 15. You guys like the NF. So we were hearing from NFL people that the league it's, which I know you don't have to say the league because it's all it takes is one team, but it was a

consensus seemingly depending on who we were talking to. It was like, nope, JJ McCarthy is going to be an earlier pick than we all expected going in. So maybe we get some kind of clarity on that with Sam Darnold. At the same time, I don't think anybody told us that Michael Pennex was going to be a top 10 pick. No, that was secret. That was not something that was said here. And just as a side note, we'll get back to Darnold. Shadur Sanders not throwing here I think is a mistake for him. And I know a lot of people have said, well, he's throwing 1,000 passes or whatever. But I do go back to McCarthy and Michael Pennex, who both in their throwing sessions, really impressed, especially Pennex after his throwing session. I think a lot of people were saying, okay, wow.

He really set that thing on fire, but also JJ McCarthy, he had impressed some people as well with his throwing because it looked better than it looked at the end of the season in Michigan. So even in this short amount of time, he had made progress and where McCarthy really crushed it was in all the interviews. And I don't just mean the ones with teams,

but also in his media stuff, which is something to keep an eye on too, because these guys will kind of go through the wringer and they'll talk to a bunch of different shows and you can get a little bit of a vibe of where the guy stands. And McCarthy blew everybody out of the water with how mature he came across, how well he answered the question about not throwing a lot of passes and playing for a running team and things like that. And I think that a lot of those things that we learned in Indianapolis really carried over with JJ McCarthy to what we saw in OTAs, in mini camp, in training camp, the way he handled himself around the building, the way that he's able to communicate with his coaches and his teammates, the character that we heard so much about, and the raw skill that was improving. And that's going to be something we're always

looking for here is these players. There's a lot of them who are younger in this draft, like McCarthy was, who's going to improve, who's going to kind of show that they are getting better coming out of college rather than maybe have peaked. But let's get back to Sam Darnold. What is your take right now on where he ends up playing? I mean, maybe this is a minority opinion. I don't feel like it is. I think he's gonna be back in Minnesota. I really do. Now maybe when we podcast tomorrow or in two days, it's like, Oh, man, everyone out the bar is like, no, he's going to Oakland,

or he's going to the Raiders. He's going wherever I just feel like what the coaching staff was able to do and how he feels about, hey, here's a pretty nice cushy situation. To have both sides kind of be on the same page. And yes, I know that JJ McCarthy is waiting in the wings. But I think even Sam Darnall understands that he's not going to necessarily need to sign a five or a six year deal. He can get security for maybe two years and then go in at still not that old of an age, around 30 years old, where he could hit free agency again after more successful seasons under Kevin O'Connell, under McCown, with Justin Jefferson and this great situation

that we've talked about now for like multiple years in Minnesota. Yeah, I think if you're trying to put an odds on where he ends up and you made it into a pie chart, maybe the Vikings would deserve the highest percentage. That makes sense. But I also think that those percentages wouldn't be high for anybody because the possibilities are real with a couple of different teams. I mean, even the New York Giants are being talked about as someone who wants to really get in there and talk to Cam Ward, Jirr Sanders, not certain that they're going to draft a quarterback to try to save their careers.

And the same thing with Tennessee after such a bad first season for Brian Callahan. You don't get too many of those seasons, right? And they've been making changes, front office changes. There's no guarantee that they're staying with him for very long. They're probably going to take, if they don't take one of those quarterbacks, Abdul Carter or someone like that to rebuild their roster, but they need someone to win them football games. They can't go four and 13 next year and hope to survive again for that head coach. So they've got to be an interesting name as well. Even the Cleveland Browns can be

tossed out there. You mentioned the Raiders, which I think would be the second favorite, if not the favorite, but the Vikings being the incumbent of having Sam Darnold and the franchise tag option. And then there's this other thing that has snuck in to the picture, which is Matthew Stafford and where he might end up playing,

which could be New York, the Raiders could be interested. And that's another name that I was going to bring up on my list of most interesting names that we're talking about this week is everyone's going to be asking, where is Matthew Stafford playing? But then the Rams, all of a sudden, if Stafford goes, they become part of that Sam Darnold conversation as well. So I think if we were doing that pie chart, it would be the Viking sliver is maybe 30% and the Rams is 20 and the Raiders is 25 and the Browns is 10 and the Giants, right? So there's all these different options. And I think Chris that the main thing the Vikings have to do here is they have to figure out is their teams willing to trade for Sam Darnold if he's on the franchise tag. And I think that the salary cap going up may have made teams a little bit more willing to do that.

Even if it's only for one year of Sam Darnold, but if you're the Titans looking to save your life, I think you're willing to trade some sort of draft pick for him. But do you think that it is possible that there are teams that would be willing to trade for him on the franchise tag? I think so.

And to use your Titans example, I mean, their new GM, Mike Borgonzzi, new guy, fresh face, the previous GM, Ran Carthon, only got two years. So like this new GM in Tennessee could say, look, I don't want to start with a four and 13 season. Brian Calehan doesn't want that either.

And being that he worked with Joe Burrow, with Zach Taylor, it's a Sean McVeigh scheme, I think the connection there, you know, the Sam Darnold with, you know, having played with Kyle Shanahan, all of those, that Shanahan Web that has grown so big over the last four or five years, that could play a pretty big role as well. And it's, we normally don't see those trades on the franchise tag, but this is a unique case where I think it could certainly make sense for the Vikings and we may get more suitors for Sam Darnold than really we normally get for any franchise tag player.

So where do you want to go with the next most interesting name here in Indy? I'm going to go with Omarion Hampton, a running back from North Carolina. He showed up in the first round of Daniel Jeremiah's mock draft earlier this week or last week. He had like three running backs in the first round when all we had heard up until this time is just, it's going to be Ashton Genti. That's it. Um, he also had Trevion Henderson from Ohio state in the first round to the

Vikings, to the Vikings. So, but for me, which DJ has certainly more sources and, and more of a connection to the league than I do, on film, I think Omarion Hampton is a better fit overall for what the Vikings want. That he is big, powerful, but still explosive. The stretch run game, the inside zone run game, that's where he really excelled at North Carolina. And there's also some buzz that Omarion Hampton is going to really test through the roof at like 220-225 pounds. Could he then be that RB2? Could he cement himself? I really could have said all the running backs because it's a deep class but he's the name that we've only talked about one running back for the first couple months of the pre-draft process if you want

to date it back to like bowl season, but who is going to emerge as the RB2? I think at this point, Jeremiah gives you a little indicator that maybe that's how the quote unquote league feels. I want to see how he tests. And even from a Vikings perspective, he is a one cut and go runner

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you had them behind some other guys that I haven't really looked at a lot yet because all we've heard about is Gentie and Hampton as the first rounders and then the two guys from Ohio State, but mostly Henderson and anytime you're right anytime Daniel Jeremiah does a mock, we're all going to go. Oh, okay. Who's he got? Yeah exactly and so to have Henderson going to the Vikings and you didn't have him as high on your list either

for those two guys. So why is that? Why is Henderson and Hampton not quite as high as we see in some other Mocs? So I hadn't watched Henderson yet. I literally watched him this morning. It was like an omission. I was like, oh, he's considered one of the top 10-ish

or so running back. Watched him, still wasn't quite as high on him. I think I said it last week, or I guess two weeks ago, in our like, our debut of this draft season, I'm a big elusiveness guy with running backs. The missed tackle forest, I think, is the best indicator of what a running back can do when blocking isn't great.

Now, do all teams feel that way? Like James Cook for the Bills is not crazy elusive. He's got great vision, surprising speed. When it's blocked up, he can hit a 50 or 60 yard gain. You mentioned the Vikings have not been an explosive run game team the last two years. If Omarion Hampton, that's why I picked him, if Omarion Hampton, if Travion Henderson,

run low four fours and have a 38 inch vertical and their 10 yard split is through the roof, I'll tweak my grade a little bit because I factor in the combine reasonably heavily, but I think that would cement them as higher running back prospects than I think. And that what a lot of us went into this draft is like, Oh, Jante's the only RB that can go in the first round. Maybe there'll be multiple or maybe there's just more that are going to be available and need to be picked on the second round of this draft. The question for me is, would the Vikings actually consider a running back? Because clearly, looking at the names on your list, there's a lot of talent here.

It's a really good class. Pretty absurd actually, how good of a running back you could get at the top of this draft, but also the top could mean trading back into the second. It could mean the third round, and I think that this week is the opportunity for guys to show that they're freaks. And when we look at Saquon Barkley, Derek Henry, that's what everybody's going to be looking at. Those two guys in the maximized circumstances with good offensive lines, great schemes, running quarterbacks, they can average five and a half to six yards of carry. I don't know that you do that with someone

who has average skills or average combine skills. Like not, yeah, traits, that's the way I'm looking for. And this is where someone like Kam Skadebo becomes very interesting because when you watch him play, you're like, is he lightning fast? He's not fast, no he's not. And can you be that guy who creates explosive plays if you are not a four, four or less type of player?

Can you do it by breaking tackles and being kind of crafty? I am not as convinced on players like that. That's why I like RJ Harvey for the Viking so much. I love RJ Harvey. From UCF, I mean, he is an elusive freak. Bucky Irving type. Yeah, I mean, he is an elusive freak. Bucky Irving type. Yeah. I mean, he just is just between tackles and he's small, but he is kind of hiding in spaces and using his patience and things like that. Like he's very crafty, but he's not like running

through people. I'm not sure that there's a lot of running backs other than Henry and the whole league who are running through people. No, that's true. And I think what will be the ultimate question that will need to be answered and we'll get the answer on draft weekend, are the Vikings okay drafting an RJ Harvey in like the middle of the draft and being like, this is not your traditional bell cow,

but he's gonna hit us long runs, he's super elusive. And like we saw with the Buccaneers, they went into last season, all right, it's Rashad White and then maybe we'll give some carries to this Bucky Irving guy. Then Irving is ultimately the only rookie running back to go over a thousand yards. Are we gonna maybe see a shift that with the league,

maybe it's just a few teams, maybe it's just the Bucs, maybe it's the Vikings that they say, hey, we'll pick someone that's like under 200 and just he's our bell cow. Or does Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi ultimately go with, hey, Omarion Hampton is not super elusive, but he's 220. We can give him 250 carries the first couple of years when he's cheap on that rookie deal, and he'll hit us some long runs when it's blocked up.

Yeah, I'm curious what they think about the type of scheme that they run, which I haven't quite figured out three years in actually, or what scheme that they would want to build around somebody. Maybe put it that way because they have been taping this position together. It was an old Delvin Cook who had a good first half of a season and not a good second half. Same kind of thing with Aaron Jones last year where age got to him. They like to do a lot of outside pitches and stuff like that to him. So I think there was some adjustment, but there's not an identity there where we can say, hey, this is the type of running back.

We want to pick because this is the scheme that we run. They don't have that, which to me means go pick the most talented guy. And I think in this draft, I would prefer a third round than first round because the other needs are at positions that maybe aren't as deep or are a little harder to find. So I want to go speak of deep positions. I want to go with Dion Walker for a name to watch here because first of all, I want to know what he weighs in at. I mean, this is a massive human being, but I mean, is it too easy to say to Vandre Sweat

from last year like this just Just big or Jordan Davis? Is he that freakish of an athlete? He is an enormous, enormous human being who can also get after the passer though. And that's where it's got my interest because I think we heard this about like, oh, is Vita Vea really going to be worth it? Is Tavandre Sweat really going to be worth? He was a second round pick, but you know, guys like that. Derrick Brown a few years ago,

and the answer has been mostly yes, if they have some element of pass rush to them. Even a Dexter Lawrence was supposed to be the, I'm just gonna stuff the middle guy, and he developed more of a pass rush to the point where he became great. I see that sort of potential in Walker, maybe that's too high,

but I wanna know what this big man runs because when I've watched him play, he looks like he has flexibility and some quickness that you just do not expect from a gentleman this big. You nailed it with the nose tackle type that I tend to like and what history, recent history has shown can actually be a three down player. Dexter Lawrence actually was a good pass rusher at Clemson.

He was, could just move centers and guards off of him with clubs and swipes. He could get up the field at a reasonable clip, given how big he was. Deon Walker has flashes of that. My comp for him is, and I'm not trying to do too many ranges, but my comp for him is either a better Allen Branch or a more raw Dexter Lawrence. The pass rush move arsenal

isn't quite to where Dexter Lawrence was coming out of Clemson, but he's gonna be like 6'6", 3'40", and two years ago had, I don't know if there was too many defensive tackles in college football who had more pressures than Deon Walker. Like he is a nimble dude. The bowl rushing ability is absolutely there. He's not a linear player. He can kind of squeeze between gaps. Wasn't quite as good or productive this year, but he had so much more attention on him after

that big season. He would be another, you know, most interesting guy at the combine because even though it's a deep class, almost everyone else is between six foot and six, two three ten and three or you know 280 and 320. He is a different breed and he can certainly be a good run defender but I love his pass rushing upside and just what he showed he was capable of in the SEC as a pass rusher. Well and this is what the Vikings had in Lin-Val Joseph for a few years there, especially 2017, where he was getting 40 pressures a year, which is really good for a defense. That's valuable at nose tackle. So valuable. If you could do that, and he was playing on third down. I mean, if you could play on third down and get after the passer at that kind of size, and we see it, we talk about it all the time on the show about guards are just not physically able to handle guys that big, and the Vikings are on the wrong side of it so often over the last few years. But it knows tackle defensive tackle. They're running a guy who starts the season to 300 probably ends the season to

280 and Harrison Phillips. And he's a good player and he's good technically. And I think he is a physical presence in the run game, but not a overpowering more More he does it through technique, not I'm gonna actually move your body. So that's why. And he's not an up the field guy either. Right. He's not a creative pressure, not.

Right, exactly. But there are guys like that in this draft. And so even though Walker is my favorite for a name to throw out there, Omar Norman Lot is a really interesting one in terms of testing. He's somebody that's been mocked sometimes in the back of the first some by some folks, sometimes in the third, maybe there's some limitations there.

TJ Sanders, Derek Harmon. These are two guys Sanders out of South Carolina and Harmon out of Oregon. Harmon is one where I saw a lot of him. Oregon was on TV all the time. Yep. Stood out all the time. And he is that guy we're talking about that just his job is to go get the quarterback or at least that that's the way it seems to

me. This group here you could name five, six guys who I think would be good picks for the Vikings. How they're going to stand out though is here in Indianapolis because this is a position I think correlates as much as any to size speed quickness strength go play football I think it defensive tackle is one of those positions. Yeah, I know that's a that's a funny segue because it's like oh The casual fan thinks oh these guys are not gonna ever run 40 yards like defensive tackles It doesn't matter. No, it does If you look at the history of the full workout, you can love a guy on film and if he has, you know, a terrible workout, the chances of him becoming a really good player drastically decrease. And the opposite is true for someone that you're like, oh yeah, he's pretty good on film. And then he just

blows it through, just has an insane workout, like blows the roof off of Lucas oil stadium. That increases a lot. I always think back to Milton Williams a few years ago, who's going to be a very rich man in a few weeks from the Philadelphia Eagles, who's a free agent Louisiana tech film. I thought was pretty good, but he like had like an RAS of like 9.97 or something relative athletic score. That is yeah, sorry. I'm like getting ahead of myself not explaining that. Based on the combine. Based on the combine. His full workout was tremendous. So we will get a range for these players of, okay, we like CJ West from Indiana, but he didn't really test that well. He's probably, and then you can understand where the Vikings could ultimately get these players. By the way,

CJ West from Indiana, my comp for him is Alim McNeil. He is a nasty, up-the-field nose tackle. I don't know how great of an athlete he is, but talk about pass rushing moves. He has them. And when you can come into the NFL with an understanding of how to utilize your hands and win with your hands, that gives you a leg up. So CJ West is someone that I think would make a lot of sense for the Vikings too. And we have seen the Vikings focus a lot on production with Kwesiadaph Omenza, although they've only drafted 23 players since he took over. So we don't really have, and they're not gonna, they're not gonna draft a lot more. So I'll be saying that to you next year, more likely than not. But we don't really have that, like, oh, Spielman. All right, they're going to draft this defensive

lineman who's corner. Yeah, Trey Waynes and Mike Hughes. There was a kind of a blueprint. Yes, they're going to try to recreate Daniel Hunter. They're going to try to find a Stefan Diggs like we know that they're going to do that and they're going to trade back a million times and draft 20 times on day three and we knew all the things that were going to happen. We still don't really. I think they're not afraid to draft older players. We did notice that with someone like McKay Blackman,

who was taken a couple of years ago and flashed and looked like he's going to be somebody. So they're not afraid of that. But we can't say, Oh, well they only take freaks or they only take productive guys. But I think at this position, they're probably aware that that has to be the case. Who is the next person on your list? I'm going to steal yours if you don't mind. I think Pete Carroll and that whole Pete Carroll and everything new with the Raiders that there's

Tom Brady where like is Tom Brady that kind of the GM like is he kind of the owner like I know he's part owner now, but is he really calling the shots? Chip Kelly there like it's really interesting. All of this, the Raiders coaching staff, front office, everything's new there. They have a clear needed quarterback. The quarterback class is not very good. Are they in the Sam Darnold sweepstakes?

Are they in the Matt Stafford sweepstakes? What do we hear from them? Do they give anything in press conferences or do we hear anything throughout the week from anyone within the Raiders organization? Big year for them. They have an early pick. They need a quarterback and they have a lot of money and a lot of draft picks in this

class. The Raiders are the most interesting team for me outside of course the Vikings because that's why I'm here. But the Raiders would be second place because if they go after Stafford or we even hear that they're interested in going after Stafford, does that reduce the odds that they would go after Sam Darnold like or by how much it clearly if they got Stafford it would, but in terms of the Vikings making out their list,

well who's going to be interested if we try to tag and trade the number one team you're writing down is the Raiders, but suddenly Stafford might be available, but everyone's got Stafford going to New York, which does make a lot of sense for them. And if you're him, you're seeing Malik neighbors are going, that's fine. That will work. And they could sign Cooper Cup and everybody could be happy there. And they probably be a fairly competitive team. But if Stafford goes to the Giants, that leaves the Raiders open and the Raiders to me have a win now type of

mentality. Go into this off season, make as many signings as they possibly can. Their coach is 100 years old and even with Tom Brady, there's no world where Tom Brady joins a team and is like, you know what we should do is like we do a long-term rebuild, slow methodical wins. Not pick a quarterback for five years. Like no way. Right? That's not Tom Brady And one thing I keep coming back to is the best game that Sam Darnold played all year was arguably Against the Green Bay Packers at home and guess who was broadcasting that game Does that qualifies tampering could the Vikings actually be on the right side of tampering this time instead of like with Kirk last year?

but side of tampering this time instead of like with Kirk last year. But honestly, I think him calling that game and seeing how well Sam Darno played, he was good under pressure. He was good after making a mistake at bouncing back and has that great interview with him after the game that everybody remembers. I mean, I don't think it's very hard to make that connection, but also trying to sort through like who does run this team? What are they going for? because they've been so lost in the woods for so long and normally they wouldn't get two seconds on my show. I was like whatever the Raiders

barely exist but suddenly they become a team that not only could be involved in Sam Darnold but also all those free agents that you love so much. You go to over the cap.com. You'll get free agent tracker and you go, oh, I want that one and that one and that one and that one. You go to over the cap dot com. You'll get free agent tracker to go. Oh, I want that one and that one and that one and that one. Well, the Raiders have the most money and they have Brady and they're in Vegas and they can give the most money. So, that is if their owner's willing to do it, of course, but that situation in general

and trying to figure out what their ethos is, what their thought process is, who runs them, is a great one. And it doesn't count as stealing it from me if I said it to you before the show. Well, but still, it kind of was. I could go, I'll do another quick one because it's in the division.

To me, Ryan Poles, the Bears GM, they have nine picks. And here's why he's fascinating, not that we're gonna necessarily get anything here from him that's anything super juicy. They have nine picks, but when you look at them, you're like, okay, they have like a bunch of young offensive linemen. They have Caleb Williams. It's a huge offseason, year two. They have Ben Johnson now. They like, what's the future for Keenan Allen? What's the future?

They just drafted Roman Dunze. They have DJ Moore. Like are they going to use a lot of those nine picks on offense or not? Like, they're not really set up like, oh, year two, like the Patriots were seeing this Patriots-Texans game up here on this TV in here. It's like the Patriots are gonna add receivers and tight ends and offense alignment.

Like, a clear, our draft is going to be based on year two development for our young quarterback. The Bears really aren't in that situation. And they, for as much as I do think Caleb played okay at times, they have to be better offensively. And they can't just be stagnant personnel-wise on that side of the ball. So with nine picks, a fair amount of money,

I'm interested if we get any nuggets about the Bears intentions to try to return to some relevance with Caleb Williams in year two. Well, their whole offensive line is free agents too. And I mean Tevin Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, is that his name? At least three of them are free agents. So what are they going to do there? And if Ben Johnson, I assume Ben Johnson is talking,

the more that he talks, the more I want to hear how he's going to make it work with Caleb Williams, which is going to be a main question for that team because offensive line is a place to start when your quarterback gets sacked 68 times, but it was also his fault. Probably right. At least at least half of those times. So the Bears and the Packers, the Lions, the Lions have cap space. They've got huge changes. They're going to be talking about those changes as well. Offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and where those are going. My next on the list is Chaudhry Sanders and Cam Ward.

Now, they're at least one of them is not throwing. Maybe both of them are not throwing but the buzz around here. I want to know if there's buzz of those guys are going to the very top or if people are saying, let's hold our horses here. Like we got last year with JJ McCarthy. Yeah. And even a couple of years ago, when it was the Malik Willis thing, I mean, there was thought that Malik Willis could go high. We talked about that quite a bit and he, I thought he had a good workout here,

but most of the conversation was like these quarterbacks just aren't worth it. It's like a bad situation with the quarterback class. And I wonder, are we trying to make Chaudhuri and Cam Ward happen is like the guys or I mean even with a Will Levis like or is it more of yeah they're okay but nobody's really going to bet their futures on those guys and this does matter to the Vikings because if there's another team looking to trade for and let me just go down a little bit of a rabbit hole here if there's another team looking to trade for, and let me just go down a little bit of a rabbit hole here, if there's another team looking to trade for Darnold, if they draft a quarterback, they're probably looking to play either one of those guys right away,

especially Cam Ward, who's on the older side. I think they want him to get in right away, and teams aren't that patient. You're not trading for Darnold and getting Shadur Sanders, right? So any team that gets those guys at the top is off the list. But I was thinking about the Alex Smith trade from Washington's perspective. When they acquired him,

they signed him to an extension right away. They acquired him. And I think that's what a team would want to do at the top if they feel like these quarterbacks aren't worth it. If you're a Brian Dable or you're a Pete Carroll or you're a Brian Callahan and their new leadership in Tennessee, you probably want to get them in and get an extension done with them so you know who your quarterback is for a couple years if you're not sold on drafting these guys. So is the hype real or is it not real about Cam Ward and Shadr Sanders? Two things of what you just said. Yeah, I want to see if there is that similar to last year and similar to 2022, almost like a consensus with all the people that you talked to at JW Marriott tonight and throughout the week, or will there not be a

consensus? So then maybe we leave and say, oh, okay, yeah, like we have to just do our own evaluations. We don't know where these guys are going to go. And to what you just said, I think is important to keep in mind with this quarterback situation when it ties with Stafford and Darnold and the draft, those three teams that you just listed, I think they are all in, we need to win right now, Brian Callahan, the Giants, and the Raiders with Pete Carroll who's 73 years old and Tom Brady as the owner.

So this is not that classic, there's not that many classic situations. Clear rebuild, they need a quarterback, they don't really care if they don't win in year one, they don't, you don't really have that at the top of the draft. And it seems like almost every other year, there are like at least two or three of those type of situations and we just do not have that. So maybe there were, will be more of a push to acquire a Sam Darnold and

maybe teams will say, look, we're going to pay a little extra. We'll give an extra draft pick or we'll go one round higher than we normally would or for Stafford. That's what's really interesting that those teams somehow their GMs and coaches have kept their jobs or are in Pete Carroll situation, you know, an older coach. I think they're going to want to win right now with a veteran. I think the Vikings are holding a lot of cards because of that, because there aren't clear guys at the top. I mean, if there were six first rounders like there were last year, then there would be a lot of teams saying thanks, but no thanks. We're going to draft our boat next. We're going to draft our Drake may, but instead I think that maybe you could make an

argument that cam ward would be in the conversation kind of where Bo Nix was last year, but I still, I mean, you look, what did Bo Nix throw like 45 touchdowns at three picks at Oregon or something. And he was being like Okay, he's not that great of a prospect like what yes he was and when I watched I've watched a lot of Sanders because I've enjoyed watching Colorado football is always entertaining they had no defense and They were kind of like appointment viewing because of him because of Deanna because of Travis Hunter Travis Hunter, right? Exactly and and Chedure was a fun watch too,

because he would get sacked a bunch of times, but also make a bunch of great throws. For a minute there, I thought when he was, I guess it would have been a junior, his first Deon year in Colorado, I thought maybe I could see this like, I don't know, Drew Brees type of accuracy freak show where he just has pinpoint passing ability and guts

and smarts and all that stuff. And last year he played better and their team was better. But I also thought that some of the weaknesses were revealed with him where the accuracy is not as consistent as maybe it looked at the beginning, right? As far as the high end and the thing with Sridhar Sanders, I was trying to think about I got a comp already for sure Sanders and I this is breaking one of our rules. We usually do this show before the draft of like 90s early 2000s comps. So let me throw mine out for Shader Sanders. I have not heard this right now because I was just talking to somebody. In the league about it yesterday in the league when you if you say in the league, that's how you say. So if you're talking to people tomorrow night, we do not prod. You gotta go in the league. When you, if you say in the league, that's how you have to say it. So if you're talking to people tomorrow night, we do another prod. You gotta go in the league. Uh, Chad Pennington, I got Chad Pennington because it's a not that athletic accuracy. I think he's tough. I think he's extremely tough. Took a lot of heads

and I think you can win games with him. I don't know if you can win games against Josh Allen with him. That's how I view Shudder Sanders. Yeah, I think I've landed. I have not thought about the 90s comps yet, although I will spend an inordinate amount of time when we get ready for that episode. I'll come up with more. We'll talk about this one now, but I'll come up with more.

I think I said it two weeks ago, I'm in the Teddy Bridgewater, and then high end is Geno Smith. I think Geno Smith is actually a little bit more of a talented thrower, has a little bit of a stronger arm. But to mention what or to kind of piggyback off just Shadur being here and yes, he's definitely one of the most interesting people here in Indianapolis. I'm never one with my own evaluations to be like, oh, I'm going to really just dive into the combine throwing session and like change a grade based on how someone did it. But I think back to 2022, where CJ

Stroud or jeez 2023, where CJ Stroud knew he was going to throw up against Anthony Richardson, who threw like a 90 yard ball at the end of the like his session. And Stroud could have said, Hey, I know my arm's not quite as strong. I'm probably gonna be one of the first picks. He threw and put on a show with his accuracy. When I first saw that Shider Sanders was not gonna throw, I'm like, oh, it's cause he knows his arm is not really that good.

But then I'm like, wait, there's not an Anthony Richardson type in this class. There's not someone that's just gonna, I mean, even Cam Ward's arm is not that much better. And this could have been an opportunity for Sanders to just be pinpoint accurate against air with no pressure. He's not getting sacked. And he didn't ultimately take that. So that to me, I thought it's, I'm not going to crush him for it. It doesn't factor into my evaluation, but was a missed opportunity that CJ Stroud took advantage of and seized and said, I'm going to show how I can separate myself from these that CJ Stroud took advantage of and seized

and said, I'm going to show how I can separate myself from these other quarterbacks by being super duper accurate. Because if there is an area where Sanders can say I'm a little better, it is the accuracy. Maybe he, though again, like you're saying, because I agree, his accuracy is not Stroud or Joe Burrow level. And that, yeah, and I think that what the comp that he wants to make is those guys Oh, I'm just that same sort of not freak runner, but also like a field general I don't know if anyone could say they're on the level of field general of Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is like Drew Brees And I just don't see quite that from Chaudhuri Sanders

And if there are teams that are saying we only bet on trying to get superstars as our franchise quarterback. And he's also got to explain some things. I mean, with Dion Sanders being his dad, but also there's some tweets, there's some things that made him look like a bit of a selfish leader and you got to explain that. And with Cam Ward, I just think it's very messy and it's not, it's not messy in a way that he has insane high end. Like when you watched Anthony Richardson a couple years ago. You could see him being, if it develops all pro quarterback.

And the same went for Mahomes and Josh Allen. Like those guys, you know, Mahomes obviously would have gone number one in a redraft, but they were saying about him, well, the footwork's not that great, but he could roll to his left and throw his sidearm 60 yards in the air for a touchdown. And the same with Josh Allen. It's like in a commercial, right?

That one where he rolls out and throws the 60 yard touchdown or whatever at Wyoming. I mean, those are not on camera or does not have those on film though. So it just looks messy to me. It looks like it looks very much like college football. I mean, when we were, when we were doing our stuff last year, we were watching Drake May and Jane Danis, we were going, oh my gosh. The treacherous roof. Right, I just don't see that. Me neither.

I don't see it with Cam Ward to that level, but if, and we certainly saw it last year with Hard Knocks that Giants GM Joe Shane tried to trade up for him, couldn't do it. Teams get left out in the cold, whether that be in the draft or on the free agent market or on the quarterback trade market. If one of those reasonably to very desperate teams

at the quarterback spot, Giants, Titans, Raiders, can't ultimately make a trade for Sam Darnold or Matthew Stafford, Joe Shane might say, I just need to draft a quarterback because I've never drafted one and I'm a GM probably only one time. So that could be where like we've seen in the past where quarterbacks get artificially boosted in the draft

where like you're saying, maybe Kim Ward could be a Bo Nix type, but he probably would have been fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth quarterback off the board one year ago. That's crazy. It is crazy how much it changes year to year. Even I think of 2020 and 2021, all the quarterbacks from 2020 were good. All of them from 2021 have failed so far.

How crazy is that? You're right. All right. Give me one more from you and then I'll have one more. Okay. I'm going a little bit of a deep cut because I'm deep on defensive tackles. JJ Pegues, defensive tackle from Ole Miss. You watch his film and he is big.

He's like 6'2", 6'3", 3'20", that classic like pretty disruptive nose tackle, kind of like, I mean, I'm saying classic size, but new age ability up the field. He's not just gonna eat double teams and that's it. And then you're watching the film and you're like, wait, why is it showing Ole Miss's offense? And he is a legitimately good running back. Like they were giving him the ball in Wildcat situations, in short yardage situations,

just regular handoffs where you're like, oh wait, dude, you're not supposed to be out there. And then he literally takes a handoff, makes a guy miss, stiff arms someone, gets seven yards. Do I think he has a future as an NFL running back? No, but could teams use him in short yardage? Maybe, and does that hint at that he's gonna be a freaky athlete? He's a little older, he transferred to Ole Miss, but I think the production as a up the field,

bigger body nose tackle, the Vikings could be into that. I think a lot of teams could use size and upfield ability. And I just wonder if the coaches being so sure about his athleticism to give him literal handoffs. I think he had like seven or eight touchdowns last year. Does that hint at, oh, this guy is gonna have a big combine workout and maybe get elevated maybe onto the second day of the draft. Well, and they did that with Lin-Val Joseph in college in East Carolina where they would

give him the ball. It's like he's a freak athlete. Just here's the ball. Exactly. Like he's so freakish in terms of his raw athleticism, but also his ability to what's the, it's like a lot of receivers are great basketball players. Like there's an athleticism that goes beyond just can you run fast, right? Yeah, he's smooth.

But how that looks in the workouts might matter to him. I look at him as if the Vikings don't take a DT in the first round, what are they looking at in maybe the third round with their comp pick or if they traded down, he's like third round, right? He fits that mold. Yeah, I was going to say he is feels like late day two, early day three with a good workout could be a little higher but I really meant that that I think he fits the mold just from a defensive tackle perspective obviously of what the Vikings need. They have the Harrison Phillip type that is that's technically sound but a little

smaller and not a great pass rusher. I think with Pegise, you get a little bit of pass rushing upside in a big body. Oh, well over 300 pounds. I'll throw out one more. That's here. Quasi now, Flamenca, the Vikings GM because you have a quarterback decision to make. You have a fourteen win team to rebuild. You have a weird bleep ton of yeah, there's a lot of rebuilding to do because there's a lot of free agents which they could bring them back. Are they coming back?

Which we're gonna get some of these answers and not some of these answers from him when we talk with them tomorrow. But I think he is one of the most interesting people to talk about, because there is now an expectation that's been set rather than this. Hey, you got your quarterback and you won eight games, then you won 10 games. And then you were a real contender. It was like, all right, Kirk's gone and 14 wins what and I also think that who they played last year played into that the AFC South was four free wins for the Vikings and there were a lot of bad

teams. I've had this stat this is a crazy stat though each of the last three years before this there were only five teams with five wins or fewer. Last year there was 10. They doubled the number of truly awful teams in the league, which is probably why you had the Vikings win 15. You had the two other 14 win teams. I mean, just a couple of years ago, Tennessee won the AFC with 12 wins.

12 wins, yeah. I mean, so you don't always see this. And so that puts that extra pressure because now there's an expectation of, all right, no one thinks you're going to win 14 next year, but you've got to be in that Superbowl conversation going forward. So the timeline of this team is something I think about a ton. How that relates to JJ McCarthy. We know that it's going to be a main question for them about McCarthy's health and where he's at. And we know they're gonna say positive things about him, but do we get an actual substantive, substantive? That word's hard to say always. Update on, yeah, JJ McCarthy. But I think his position in general

and where he stands now in the toughest division in the NFL with high expectations now and a lot to do on a roster. He is one of the main characters of Indianapolis. Yeah, all these thoughts pop into my head when you're giving all these, when you're just rattling off great point after great point. Not necessarily here in Indy, but I think too what makes sense for Quacey to be one of the most fascinating people in the draft and draft season, the Vikings don't have a lot of picks. So like there's a little bit more ratchet up pressure. Like you don't have a lot of picks. How do you navigate it? Do you

what the 2019 draft where the Seahawks went in with four picks and they traded down like six times and got 10 picks. Do they do something like that? Probably not to that degree, but do they add more or are they just like, we're going to have not a lot of picks and we're going to believe that we can hit on them. When you don't have a big draft class, it ratchets up the pressure. So I think his drafting history has been fairly good to this point. And it's easy when you have 11, 12 picks, okay, we're going to hit on two or three of them will be good. How does this draft class go for the Vikings without it maybe not being that big of a or a very small draft class. What I would say about the drafting history is there isn't much like because They traded up for Turner. They lost a couple picks there. Right. I think I think when when you're looking at these last two drafts

You're probably thinking Addison Blackman has potential and then last year is so undecided that we should still look at those as Blackman has potential. And then last year is so undecided that we should still look at those as really good high end picks. We don't have a ton of information on Dallas Turner yet. We'll see still has high end potential. And then McCarthy is the most important pick you could ever make as GM. So even if the twenty twenty two class has imploded entirely, twenty twenty three has some players who are contributing.

And then twenty twenty four will dictate how we feel about it. So it's a very short and this is because Vikings fans will talk about, well, he can't draft. It's like, well, we haven't really seen him do a lot of drafting. But this one, I think that there's a weird world you have to live in. And I don't want to say everything because we're going to do like three podcasts here in Indy. So I don't want to say everything, but there's a weird world that Quacey has to live in where he needs this draft to go right for him. Just in terms of roster building and going into the future, but they have hardly any picks and drafts are random. And so it's like you can say that it can be pretty random, but they really need more players who are making an impact on rookie contracts. I think they had the fewest number of snaps from their rookie class this year in the entire NFL or just I think on the whole roster, the fewest number on rookie contracts that can only work for so long. So I think it is a

super important draft for the Minnesota Vikings. And if this draft hits and again, we don't know how many picks they're going to make and what is a successful draft. Is it two out of four picks? Is it one out of draft. Is it two out of four picks? Is it one out of three? Is it three out of five? You can also get Dallas Turner in year two as kind of a draft pick. And obviously, JJ McCarthy is just coming in. So maybe that factors in a little where they wouldn't necessarily need to get like, oh

man, they hit three home runs. These guys are all rookie of the year candidates. They can get three or four, two to four contributors. oh plus, Dallas Turner who's now in a prominent role and oh yeah, J.J. McCarthy's your starting quarterback. And to me it's always about the high end picks rather than, there's a lot of players you can develop from middle rounds, you can find a free agency, you can get UDFAs, but high end players, they usually require high draft picks unless you get super stupid lucky. So anyway, I don't want to say everything on the first podcast, so everyone has to listen to the rest of them.

There's going to be reaction from myself, Dane Mizzetani from the Pioneer Press, other guests that I am in the process of booking. Well, we are here to talk about everything going on in Indianapolis, the rumors, the things that are said at the podiums, the reactions leading up to the events in the weekend, but most importantly, what the Vikings have to say tomorrow. So it will be a big day for us on Tuesday. Thanks for your time here on Monday evening. I have a lot to talk about going forward, so make sure that you are subscribing and check out the newsletter

purpleinsider.football if you have it. That's where all my written analysis will be here in Indianapolis. So thanks so much everybody for watching slash listening and we will see you a lot here from Radio Ro. It'll probably be a little louder in the background because there's nobody here right now, so football.