Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bonus episode: Alex Clancy of FOX Sports 910 in Phoenix talks Patrick Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald and NFC West

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

Matthew Coller and Alex Clancy, who works for FOX Sports 910 in Phoenix and hosts the Locked On AZCards podcast talk about whether Larry Fitzgerald will ever become a Viking, why Patrick Peterson's last few seasons haven't gone as planned, why Kliff Kinsbury is already on the hot seat and what the Vikings can expect from the NFC West Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics and Symbol, your stock market for sports. All right, we welcome into the show Alex Clancy. He is a host and producer at Fox Sports 910 in Phoenix. Also hosts the Locked On AZ Cardinals or AZ Cards, not Cardinals because I searched that at first and the st louis cardinals came up so locked on az cards podcast what is up alex what's going on yeah the pecking order for cardinals is definitely st louis cardinals first arizona cardinals second yes the one place in all of america that actually liked baseball more than football and uh a strange and bizarre place in st louis uh but i wanted to bring you on to talk about a multitude of things, including Patrick Peterson leaving Arizona for Minnesota. But let

me start with one thing first. You can help me out. I get the question every single day. Is Larry Fitzgerald coming home to Minnesota? Just tell me if Larry Fitzgerald is coming home to Minnesota, because that is in my mentions 24-7. I would be very surprised if he went to Minnesota to finish his career. He's said forever that it's Arizona or retirement. I mean, there's going to be several myriad TV deal offers for him to come and be an analyst, whether it be CBS, ABC. It doesn't matter.

He's set for it. I don't know if he's going to be a studio guy. I would, I would look at him more as a studio guy than a, than an, than an analyst and a color analyst, but he can do whatever the hell he wants. He's Larry freaking Fitzgerald, you know, and it's the, the storyline about Fitz around here is this is maybe the best collection of talent on a roster that he's seen since he's been in Arizona. So why would he want to retire now it just comes down to money and I think Larry Fitzgerald could be a 50 catch 600 yard reception

with with five touchdowns next year without breaking a sweat if they utilize him correctly but I don't know I don't think he's going to Minnesota no yeah I know I feel the same way that I mean the Vikings have this wide receiver three opening and it seems like the last few years Fitzgerald has maybe signed one year deals. And this always comes up because he's from here. And did you know he was a ball boy when Chris Carter was here and all those things? So he is, you know, Minnesota famous, but it never made a whole lot of sense when he's really made his life and career in Arizona.

The signing of AJ Green, though, does that conflict or is there no limit on old receivers that you can have in one lineup? Trying to get every single one over 30. No, AJ Green, that's another interesting case because he was very underutilized last year. I don't know if him and Joe Burrow just didn't hit it off, but he's still AJ Green. I mean, he still runs great routes. He's still got great hands. He doesn's, he's still AJ Green. I mean, he still runs great routes. He's still got great hands. He doesn't care about going across the middle, being outside. He runs every route in the route tree and he's a great red zone threat at big at six, three or six, four. No, I think it would entice Larry Fitzgerald to come back more. I don't know. So Larry Fitzgerald's career was, he was on a bad team, but at least he was getting all the targets. And I feel like as a

wide receiver, even if you're quiet, you can still be somewhat egomaniacal. And Larry Fitzgerald was the best player on a bad team for 15 years. You know, that's what he was. And, but he was getting all the targets. He was getting the yards. And I know that he's a team player and it wasn't all about that, but it was nice to have. And this, if he wants to come back and be the wide receiver for, so be it, but I don't even, if everything goes to plan, AJ green will be the wide receiver three. We just don't know if Steve Kime has it in his bag to pull off, you know, whether in the draft or in free agency to bring in another wide receiver.

So how good is this roster? I mean, when you talk about it being the most talented that they've had since he's been there, I'm thinking of the Carson Palmer version that was very, very good. I'm thinking of the Kurt Warner team that goes to the Super Bowl, and Larry Fitzgerald has his big Super Bowl moment there. Is it more talented than those teams? I mean, I was putting Arizona in the list of teams that the Vikings would be competing for for playoff spots, but it sounds like there's more excitement there than that well the um yeah there's so many question marks like i'm trying to figure out a way where

i answer it the same the same way every time is this could be a top four seed or this could be a team that misses the playoffs i mean cliff kingsbury is a huge liability deandre hopkins had 1400 plus receiving yards and over a hundred catches last year, and he was underutilized. So the roster on paper looks fantastic, but you always go back and you know, being in the NFC, the Eagles dream team with Nandi Asamoah and Vince Young, and it was going to be the next great team. And they completely sputtered. I always go back to that. J.J. Watt, we have no idea. Splash signing, great leadership. He's going to be the next great team. And they completely sputtered. I always go back to that. J.J. Watt, we have no idea. Splash signing, great leadership.

He's going to be great for the trajectory of the team moving forward, at least over the next couple of seasons because of his notoriety and what he's done in Houston, whether we philanthropically or on the field for the culture. But A.J. Green's old. J.J. Watt's old. DeAndre Hopkins is still the best receiver in the league, pound for pound, in my opinion.

And Kyler Murray, we'll see where his ceiling is it may there may be no ceiling but it's all going to come back to cliff kingsbury's ability to put together not just a highlight reel but an actual offensive scheme second one to the last second of a game or this team's not going to go anywhere until he's gone so how good the roster is is pretty much solely predicated upon Cliff Kingsbury's ability to put together an offensive game plan and have these defensive pieces come together, which I think they will. It's more the former that's the worry. So I'm glad that you said that because my feeling on Cliff Kingsbury was there's a lot of questions, whether the guy can really coach or not. And this only comes from watching a couple of games a year. I mean, you know,

you know, buried in covering one team, but I try to get a sense for everything that's going on, but I felt like it was odd that Deandre Hopkins was sort of just an outside wide receiver. It didn't seem like they were moving him around and the level of creativity that's expected for college coaches coming to the NFL rarely meets what they actually end up doing. And I felt the same way about Matt rule where it was like, oh yeah, these college geniuses, they're just going to come change the game. And then you go like, Oh, the NFL has already been doing a lot of that stuff. So did he, do you think he held back Kyler Murray last year? Or was it just the injury at the end of the season? Or what's the,

what's the take there? I like how you asked that. So I can say my favorite line since Cliff Kingsbury has come into the league. And now Jared Goff is obviously with Detroit, but this is how I used to say it. Jared Goff would win because of Sean McVay and Kyler Murray will win in spite of Cliff Kingsbury. And the thing is though, it's, it's setting the stage potentially. And so to answer your question simply, yes, I think he's holding back this entire offense. Unfortunately, he would be a great quarterbacks coach.

He would be potentially a fringe great offensive coordinator. But when your head coach can't go into the defensive side, go into the defensive locker room and say, hey guys, this is what we need to change, you're lost. He's a quarterbacks coach slash OC that's a head coach of an organization and he's bit off more than he can chew. It's not his fault.

Steve Kime shouldn't have hired him to begin with but we've seen flashes where it's like oh man if he can put those seven plays that were incredible in that game and kind of multiply them and actually have the scripted plays to start the game work which they never seem to do um we could you can kind of be cooking here what What could be down the pike though, is you're looking at Eric B enemy and Brian table looking for head coaching jobs next season. So if it doesn't work this year, you could be in line for two of the best offensive minds, the NFL seen in the last 20 years. So it's, it's a,

it's a win-win situation. Either cliff comes into his own in his third year or he excrements the bed and you have these other great minds that should have got head coaching jobs this offseason but didn't yeah alex i think that's a really great way to evaluate an offensive coach is how they perform in the scripted plays and when kevin stefanski was the vikings coach it seemed like they scored on the first drive of every week right and then i think you've seen that transfer over to Cleveland because that's your game plan for the entire week where you're laying it out and how well it works, I think, is a good way to judge it. Now, with Kyler Murray, though, you mentioned the ceiling, what he can get to, of course, really impressed with how he runs with the football and the way he throws it downfield but it seems like everything else is on shaky ground every

time i watch him and if he throws it down the field i'm excited and if he runs i'm excited and everything else i'm like uh what's going on there yeah no i mean it's it's a valid it's a valid testament to what where kyler is at i mean there's one thing that needs to be removed from people's worry worry uh room is him throwing up his back foot and throwing, falling away. Everybody does that. Like, like if you show me Patrick Mahomes, what he does on a day-to-day basis, throwing the ball on a Sunday, you'd have like high school coaches cringing until you see that he has some of the best receivers in the game, just going up, either jump balls or Tyree Kilby and faster than everybody on the planet.

Kyler Murray's ability to throw the ball fading away is just something he's always done. Cause he's been small. Everything else, the interim passing game isn't the greatest, the dump down passing. And you can, you can, as of right now, scapegoat Cliff Kingsbury and his ill-timed wide receiver screens, his ill-timed, you know, wheel routes from the, from the running backs. It's right now. It's Cliff Kingsbury's fault next year. This is the true test to where Kyler Murray's at. I would compare him.

I've compared him to Lamar Jackson and the elusivity portion of it. Cause I think Kyler is the most elusive quarterback in the game and he doesn't get touched whether he runs out of bounds slides, Lamar Jackson gets hit a lot more than Kyler Murray does. And that's just a truthful statement, but Kyler Murray doesn't have the ability to throw those interim passes, just like Lamar Jackson can't at this point. And we just, I don't know. It's a work in progress and nobody, you can't be Patrick Holmes.

It's unfair to Sean Watson Watson it's unfair to compare young quarterbacks so that's like comparing young corners to Jalen Ramsey right away or Marshawn Latimer is working you're not everybody can do that and it's not his size that's going to hold him back it's scheme and its ability to really get to the next level and just get the reps in in the offseason you know it kind of reminds me a little bit of Baker Mayfield with Freddie Kitchens where you could still see it that that the skill was there. He really needed the coach to just take advantage of it. I also love talking with writers versus people in sports radio, because you could tell the phone calls they've been getting and the throw off the back

foot sounds like a text line or phone call type of thing that you're getting all the time. Um, so let's talk about Patrick Peterson. That was the reason that I invited you on, but I'm so interested in the Cardinals and just, you know, how that's going to go this year, especially in the division and the Vikings are going to play the Cardinals. So Larry Fitzgerald can return to Arizona. I'm just kidding. But Patrick Peterson, just tell me this washed or not.

Can I give incomplete as an answer you can you can i don't think he is no there's a couple things to patrick peterson's credit he hasn't had a cb2 ever but he hasn't like in 2018, they started Brandon Williams, who was a running back in college that they transferred over to cornerback. And he was the week one starter from the cornerback to position alongside Patrick Peterson. So Patrick Peterson was all pro early, great punt returner early on. He had a punt return for, to walk off a win. I think I can't remember who was against in his rookie season. He ran a handful back.

He was pro bowler, pro bowler, pro bowler. If he would have been in the Ravens scheme or the Steelers scheme where you have really good linebackers and corners, he may have stayed with the Cardinals. But the thing is, his talent was somewhat wasted because he didn't have that. Since Antonio Cromartie, maybe in 2012. I think that with,

with Mike Zimmer's defensive scheme with the defensive scheme you guys have over there, I don't know if he's going to flourish to pro bowl level, but you may see the $10 million as kind of a steal. I don't know what's going to happen next year when the, when the contract, uh when the salary cap balloons up but i don't think he's washed at this point no so what i want to see is exactly how zimmer is going to use him because i know that a lot of people have been citing certain statistics about how zimmer plays more zone coverage and that might fit patrick peterson but when they had a shutdown corner in Xavier Rhodes, they did not play all that zone coverage. They had him lock onto somebody and follow them all

over the field. It seems like that would be a bad idea though, for Patrick Peterson in his present state. Where you are now with him. Yes. I mean, do they play man? The majority of the time with the Cardinals last year, he's not a tackler. He's a push out of balancer. And he's not somebody that, so last year, there was the big, the big shiny moment for him was when DK Metcalf was held to two catches in like 20 yards, Sunday night football, when Tyler Lockett had, I think 13 catches

for over 200 yards. I attest that more to why would you go away from what's working and what Russell Wilson and Tyler Lockett had that night was magical. So why would you go away from it? Terry McLaurin ate him up, ate his lunch. And if you're going to be playing against young, young, wide receivers in this league, Patrick Peterson's not your guy. Zone may be a little bit better for him in that, in that specific sense. He's not going to be a lockdown corner.

And I know that Harrison Smith is one of the best in the game. He goes from Buda Baker to Harrison Smith, so that's a beautiful thing for Patrick Peterson. But I'll tell you what, he's not going to be a flash of what you saw five years ago from Patrick Peterson. He's just not. He's capable. And he said that he would move to safety now, which is interesting. I don't know if that would fit the fit,

the scheme for you guys at some point, if he decides to stay past this year, but temper your expectations and be pleasantly surprised if he, if he exceeds them. Hey, everybody want to tell you about our friends at symbol symbol is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks so as we jump fully into free agency season you're going to want to get in on teams now before your team's stock rises go to symbol.app that is s-i-m-b-u-l-l dot a-p-p sign up using the promo code purple and get a ten dollar deposit bonus if you're a first-time user,

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Now, whether down the road, he ends up doing the Rod Woodson or Charles Woodson thing and moves back to safety. I don't know, but that Mike Zimmer in the past has had somewhat of this issue of kind of not recognizing player age. You know how some people will say, I don't see race. Well, Mike Zimmer doesn't see age. And he played Chad Greenway in zone defense and starts to flourish. So that would be my concern is that if he looks at Patrick Peterson and he looks at the name and he does not look at the present skill set and says, yes, there is my lockdown corner. We're going to Island him on one side of the field. I don't know how this is going to work out. And I also think you make a great point about multiple corners that Patrick Peterson might be fine. He might even be good, but they also have a lot to kind of still rely on. And I think that your experience with him in Arizona says that if you still have these weak links, it's not going to make that much of a

difference to have one great play. Right. And then to compound that, the audacity of quarterbacks now to throw at lockdown corners when they never did in the past. It's like, that's one thing that I never understood is, Oh, Richard Sherman is the best corner in the game for the time or Josh Norman. When he was in Carolina, it's like, they're not going to, he takes away half the field. Why make him earn his money? Like, I don't like they went after Jalen Ramsey once in one game last year at home, Deandre Hopkins forced two pass interference calls and they scored a touchdown on that play after chunking 35 yards of interference calls.

That's bad for Patrick Peterson, because if quarterbacks now have the audacity to actually go after the opposing team's number one corner, there's so much based on reputation and Patrick Peterson is still in some capacity living off his reputation from the mid 2010s. So we'll see. I mean, he may be ready more than he has been the last few years to prove that he's worth the money. And he wants one more deal. It's going to be 30, what? 32 when next season starts the 2022 season starts. He,

if he wants to play to 35, he's going to have to have a team that wants him and he's going to want to get paid. So this year you're going to get the best he's gonna have to have a team that wants him and he's gonna want to get paid so this year you're gonna get the best that Patrick Peterson has to offer you are the one team that will we don't know if we've gotten it in Arizona after the 2018 get me out of here I mean you got to give him I give everybody a free pass for the 2018 season that was nobody's fault it wasn't Steve Wilk's fault it wasn't Al Holcomb's fault. The defensive coordinator over from Carolina was Steve Kime's fault, but Patrick Peterson wanting out, you kind of got to give him a free pass, but cheating the PEDs, that was his fault in 2019.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you about is that it seems like Patrick Peterson has been on the trade block for a while. And there was conversations even here, I think maybe in 2018, should they trade for Patrick Peterson? Would that be something the Vikings should do? And yeah, they played in Minnesota in 2018. And I remember what a freaking disaster that team was. I mean, it was a crazy bad offense and Josh Rosen was a mess. And it was, it was one of the worst football games that I've covered in the last three years. But about his

personality though, I mean, at least from just talking to him one time, he seems like a guy who would express his opinions. But I wonder what you think of the PED part of it, of the fact that it seemed like he wanted out for a couple of years. Like, is that just a relationship kind of gone sour? Or what are we to make of him? So the Cardinals made him the highest paid corner in nfo history several years ago uh i think he got paid i don't million dollars more in the contract than richard sherman did just

to to stick it to richard sherman who got it i think earlier that week um patrick peterson he's got an ego he's a corner he's always been in the shadow of larry fitzgerald always he's never been treated financially like larry fitzbear like larry fit Fitzgerald. Always. He's never been treated financially like Larry Fitz, like Larry Fitzgerald been treated, even though he may maybe, maybe should have over the last couple of years, Larry Fitzgerald getting one year, $11 million,

2017, 2018, 2019. And Patrick Peterson, like, this is my theory is that he wasn't even the bell of the ball on a bad team. And if you're still playing at a high level,

and he wasn't 2017 and 2016 before that bad year, like him saying he wants out, once a player says that, that's it. That's it. It may be seeing, you know, your significant other texting with somebody else, but not actually cheating. Once that Pandora's box is opened it doesn't matter

what happens after that's it so that that that was the start the cheating part like i'm i'm surprised they didn't try to trade him in 2019 get a third round pick and get out of here like he's never gonna be the larry fitzgerald of the arizona cardinals whether that's fair or unfair and i think that stuck with him now him as a person philanthropically family, man, great teammate by all accounts, except for, you know, the actual trade out. He's I have nothing bad to say about him as a human being at all. It's just, it wasn't a great look for him. You know, the last 18 months of his tenure here with the Cardinals.

Trust me. I have been there. There is a truth to all rumors that I have been there with Stefan digs and others who have recently wanted out of Minnesota. And you spoke to one of the fundamental truths of the purple insider podcast, which is once you're talking about breaking up, you might as well just break up because there's no, there's no unringing that bell with a player, with a coach, at any of those things. Uh, last thing I want to ask you about Alex is just the, um, the NFC West. It looks like

it's going to be a hellacious division to fight with because Russell Wilson isn't getting traded to the bears. So, uh, everyone here is pleased that Russell Wilson is not getting traded to the bears, but he's still in your division. Jimmy Garoppolo presumably comes back healthy, maybe even San Francisco drafts quarterback. And then Los Angeles makes the biggest splash so far still, I think of the off season and their trade for Matt Stafford. So how do the Cardinals navigate that? And really, I mean, the Vikings are going to deal with the same problem playing that division. Yeah. I mean, the cornerback position is, it's really unfortunate that they haven't addressed it

because the wide receiver slash quarterback duos that the Cardinals have to face this year, not even in division, where it's Stafford and then all the toys you want with Robert Woods, Cooper Cup, et cetera, and then Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Russell Wilson, and you've got George Kittle, et cetera, they're playing Aaron Rodgers and Devontae Adams, your boys with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, who will tear this secondary up if they don't want, you know, if the game plan that game is not to run the ball 48 times and throw the ball 12, which I'm sure, you know, you're too fond of there four times a game, four times a year, where Kirk Cousins throws the ball less than 20 times regarding the NFC West top to bottom if I were to be told that any team were to finish first or last this year I wouldn't be surprised because when you look at San Francisco there's a lot of

question marks they can you can sugarcoat a turd but their quarterback's not great. They have fine receivers for this, for the scheme, but you need to change the scheme. If you end up going down points and they did last year and look what happened, the defense is back, but you're now injury prone across that whole front, including Nick Bosa, uh, the Rams. We don't know if Matt Stafford can do anything under the lights. He's never played an important game in his career, except for one playoff game that he lost or whatever, two playoff games, whatever it is. And then Seattle, you could trade Russell Wilson in week three if you start one and two.

Like that cat is now out of the bag. It's a conversation that will constantly be had this year if things don't go well. And the Cardinals could put together a first and second round pick with an offensive lineman in a corner and have one of the best defenses in the league and have Kyler Murray and A.J. Green resurrect his career, then DeAndre Hopkins have 12 touchdowns and 1,700 yards receiving, and they could win the division.

Like, this is not a cop-out. I have no idea what's going to happen in the NFC West. If I had to guess right now, the odds on favorite, I think, are the Rams. But who the hell knows? I mean, seriously. And it's just like the NFC North. It's like, I look at that roster with the Vikings and I'm like, they go in the division and I'm sure you look yourself in the mirror.

This is, this is the year where they're not going to start two and six. This is the year where you see Delvin cook, Justin Jefferson and Adam theme. Like, Hey, let's maximize this. And you know, it just, it goes by the wayside, but it's it's going to be it's going to be weird in the nfc west and i would not be surprised to see any finale after week 17 or week 18 this year folks the football off season is off and rolling and soda stick has you covered with minnesota sports themed gear some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the chuck foreman spin doctor gear

you can commemorate randy moss's disgusting act on a shirt or a hoodie and if you're old school check out the purple people eaters design as well go to sodastick.com and check them all out if you use the promo code purple insider you can get free shipping on all your minnesota sports inspired gear all of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. Plus keep your eyes and ears out for our giveaways going on on this show as well on social media, follow them at SodaStickCo on Twitter and at SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports inspired goods code purpleER for free shipping.

Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in in time transportation for full tractor trailer loads and if you're wondering what that means exactly well if you own or work for a company that needs

shipping solutions they are the preferred carrier of fortune 500 companies across north america and we have quite a few of those in minnesota right they can ship perishable non-perishable ftl or ltl and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Well, as it pertains to the Vikings, you are talking to a person who is waiting on a left tackle or a left guard to exist on their team. So I'm not sure they're going to do anything to change the way they play offense. And I guarantee you're right that there will be four games where Cousins throws less than 20 passes, even if they lose, even if they're down in the game. I mean,

that's the funny thing when you go seven and nine and your quarterback still ranks like 29th and pass attempts. What, how does that happen? But that's, you know, Mike Zimmer and how he wants to play football. But to your point, I totally agree. I'm not convinced that Matt Stafford is going to entirely change the Los Angeles Rams. And the funny thing about Seattle is here we are with Russell Wilson unhappy. And if you just said, based on the vibe from Seattle, you would have guessed they went eight and eight last year. They went 12 and four last year.

I mean, that's someone asked me if it would be worth it for the bears to trade everything for Russell Wilson. I'm like, their team isn't even good. And they went 12 and four. Yes, it would be worth it for the bears to trade everything for Russell Wilson. And I'm like, their team isn't even good. And they went 12 and four. Yes, it would be. But how it goes and whether that relationship can stay repaired, your guess is as good as mine. So I love the division from that standpoint. Yeah.

Isn't it crazy that it's usually the quarterback that calls the shots. Pete Carroll's like, hell no, man, I'm the anchor here, baby. If you want out, well, like he's going to, that gonna that's gonna be the conversation even if you just sign an extension people get fired after sending extensions all the time death taxes seattle seahawks winning over 10 games every year doesn't matter doesn't matter how doesn't matter what the roster looks like yep that's right are you guys uh simulating the draft yet there and figuring out who the cardinals are going to take you know pretty much every pundit across the landscape of mock draft has the Cardinals taking JC Horn at 16.

I joke with my co-host, like, that's it. I mean, he's like, if I have to hear JC Horn one more flippant time, but yeah, that's, and it's fine. I mean, at this point, it's going to be warranted. I think that they should be looking more at Elijah, very Tucker from a UCL or from a USC. Maybe a guy that you guys would be looking at as well. Cause I'm trading for Rodney Hudson and drafting Elijah,

very Tucker would put them as one of the best left sides in football of the offensive line, but they needed cornerbacks really badly. So JC horn, who the hell knows there's so I, I, are the Vikings looking for corners too? I mean, there's so many out there that are going to be a fraction of what they would have cost, you know, three years ago. I don't think that they are, but I think they should be like, if they're relying on their two guys that they drafted last year to both hit, I think that that's pretty questionable, but in previous years, they've kind of not given themselves backup plans at a lot of positions. And so really until they

signed Patrick Peterson, we were thinking that corner could be one of those spots for them to pick, but all of a sudden, as I mentioned, no offensive lineman presently on the left side. And also they signed Delvin Tomlinson. Where's the pressure coming from? I mean, Daniil Hunter, we think is returning, but after that, you still, you have two nose tackles. And so are you getting pressure from somewhere else? So there's a lot of different ways that the Vikings could go. So all the draft simulations do not have the same position,

but we're starting to narrow it down to basically tackle and defensive end. Are you guys like the way that the Vikings have looked at it for so long as we could predict exactly who they're going to pick just based on their needs when they get there. Like everyone talks about best player available. I'm not even sure it exists for more than like three or four teams a year. Yeah. I mean, there's 53 players that are on the active roster, so you need everything. You know what I mean? Like it's you want to to make, you want to make something a strength, like it's best player available. Like put it, put it, this is a perfect perspective. Last year, the Cardinals needed an offensive lineman.

And there were three still on the board at eight. Jedrick Wills, Tristan Wirfs, who won a Superbowl and Mekhi Becton. And they chose the best player available on the board, Isaiah Simmons. And if you can find the perfect mix of one of the best players available with a position of need, that's where your wheelhouse should be. Not just a flash pick of who's next on the big board. When, in fact, nobody knows who the hell the next person on the big board is, when it's going to translate. All they are are glorified weathermen, Todd McShay and Mel Kuyper, who get paid millions of dollars to be right 15 percent of the time. So you just go you go on your draft board and you stick.

And if you have good scouts and draft evaluators, talent evaluators like the Cardinals do not, you're ahead of the game. But the perfect mix is best player available ish and position of need. It is funny how often teams get pegged as geniuses for great drafts. And then the very next year their draft is garbage. And this is, that has been the recent history of the Vikings as well. Alex Clancy, your Twitter handle is Clancy's corner. Very nice. And you can check them out in the locked on AZ cards podcast. You will need that at some point when the schedule comes out, we'll know when, but you'll need that to prepare for the Vikings game against Arizona.

We're there, right? So does that mean I get to go there and play golf in Arizona? Oh, yeah, baby. Please make it December. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. All I care about one time, they're playing the Cowboys this year. All I care about is that it's on Thanksgiving.

Give me a damn Thanksgiving game. That's all I want well yeah the vikings oh man it's gonna be fun to watch that roster here for sure what makes those great because i've had a couple of them in recent years though against detroit the thanksgiving games is that on sunday you do nothing and just watch all those games you're all set you've already given all the takes you can give and written the articles and whatever else done the podcast. And then you just hang back and eat the leftovers and watch football. So, uh, really appreciate you coming on, man. Really enjoyed this conversation. And, uh, while I can guarantee when the Vikings play, the Cardinals will do it again. I'll, I'll talk to you then. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.