Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bonus episode: Locker room app Saturday Night Draft Simulation with "my guys"

Episode Date: April 4, 2021

Every Thursday and Saturday night, Matthew Coller goes live on the Locker Room app to talk with Vikings fans and do a draft simulation. In this episode, he picks his favorite players in each round regardless of how they fit with the Vikings. Fans ask about Orlando Brown Jr. trades, the defensive and offensive line and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yo, what is up everybody? Welcome in to our Saturday night draft sim. Happy to have you all aboard. And we're going to go through the draft simulation again here. And I'm open to taking – what's going on, Chris? I'm open to taking ideas on what our angles should be. I had one, and I'll run it by you guys, and you can give me a thumbs up if you like it. And if you don't like it then okay

we'll try something else but I like to always have some sort of angle to our draft sim instead of just randomly kind of going through it and saying what would the Vikings do or which guys do I like I like to make it a little more specific than that so my idea was to draft my guys. And this is something that I'm going to do a little more of with Chris Trapasso on the Purple Insider draft show. And something that I like to make a theme of each draft season, because one of the coolest things about NFL draft season is that we all fall in love with draft prospects. And for me personally, I'm covering the Vikings 24 seven from July all the way till January and sometimes into the middle of January or even late January,

but never February anyway. So, you know, what happens then is I draft cram, like, just like everybody else. It gets done and we get into free agency. And then I start going to the PFF podcast, the two for one podcast and Daniel Jeremiah and Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. And I start to just drink out of the water hose of the NFL draft.

And, uh, by now, as we're only what, a couple of weeks away from the And by now, as we're only, what, a couple of weeks away from the draft, by now I feel like I've got the guys that I like. Now, I didn't watch a lot of these guys play college football live, but I've gone to YouTube and read everybody's film studies and everything else, just like everybody else, is how I do my general draft preparation. So by the time we get to draft night, I feel like I've caught up and I have opinions on different guys. Now there's a commenter on the website, purple insider sub stack that is in love with Jason away. And every time I bring up Jalen Phillips,

he says, no, no, no, they have to take Jason away and not Jalen Phillips. So here's what I'm going to do. Now, we have no idea which one of those guys will be better, right? But it's fun to have our guys. So as we go through, I want you to make your cases and give me a hard time and things like that about my guys. So I'm just setting up the draft sim and I'm going

to go four rounds here because I think I'm almost that draft prepped by now to be into the fourth round. Usually we've done three rounds, but also what's intimidating is that the Vikings have like 17 fourth round picks. So I'm ready to go here so we can draft a lot of my guys, just the players that I really like. So we're not going to do trades. We're just going to say when they get there, I'm taking the best guy available that I've studied and felt like my unscientific way of preparing has got me ready to take guy X. So that's how we're doing it. So as we always do, let's run through how the first round

played out. Now, this is a little odd that it played out the way that it did in this draft simulation. Oh, no, never mind. A little surprising. It's got the Jets taking Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence to Jacksonville. Zach Wilson ends up with San Francisco, which I could actually see. In this one, Devontae Smith ends up going San Francisco, which I could actually see. In this one, Devontae Smith ends up going fifth to the Bengals, and that's an interesting one, and Panay Sewell going sixth. The Lions taking Patrick Sertain. Kyle Pitts ends up with Carolina. Seems like they would draft a quarterback in that spot. Trey Lance to Denver. Caleb Farley to Dallas, which PFF Simulator loves Caleb Farley to Dallas. I think almost every simulation ends up with that.

Micah Parsons to the Giants. I think they would take Jalen Waddell in that situation. And Rashawn Slater goes to the Los Angeles Chargers. Francis Gregory Russo passed for me. Yeah, you know, I totally get that because his pro day was not all that impressive. And, you know, there's some question about, like, is he, you know, refined enough as a pass rusher, that kind of thing? Does he have the quick twitchiness?

You know, the thing about Russo, though, is, I mean, didn't he have like 15 sacks or something? Something crazy that people might fall in love with. But I do think they have totally a type when it comes to, you know, how they want their guys and and usually it is somebody who is um you know really lanky like Gregory Russo uh David did I hit the button correctly there when you tried to come to the to the stage if I didn't try it again um because I don't think I I don't think I hit the right button there with my thumb and I'm sorry for that so anyway so we're here at 14.

And, you know, Phillips with the concussion, Scott, yeah, totally understandable that that would be a concern. He does look to me like the best pass rusher, like the best complete pass rusher. But, I mean, if you're talking about somebody who's going to come in right away and make a difference, that would be the player that I would point to. But if you're talking about, you know, long-term type of thing, you would worry about if Jalen Phillips is going to be a problem. Kenny, we have to get first-round offensive linemen, but scares me that Zimmer thinks after free agency we can get best player available.

Let me help you with that one, Kenny, is that they say that every single year and every single year they end up, you know, drafting for need. So there has never been a time that I have covered Rick Spielman or Mike Zimmer's press conference before the draft where they have said, yes, we're going to draft needs. But last year they draft wide receiver and corner, which were needs. I think there's a lot to the team philosophy on waiting on defensive ends. Yeah, you know, Justin, that's true. And I'm not sure how successful it's been. I mean, it was successful, of course, with the guys that, if you listen to the Friday roundtable, which it seems you did,

that we mentioned. But at the same time, you know, recently that hasn't been the case. And if you want a star defensive end it's very often been up at the first round and so i could see them tweaking that philosophy because of how desperate that need is i mean i mean there's a lot of things we could look at and say well they usually do this they usually do that um but you know all those things change like they usually drafted tight ends in the fifth round or the sixth round when Kyle Rudolph was there in his prime. But then when it looked like Kyle Rudolph was not going to be in his prime anymore, they drafted Irv Smith in the second.

So it's always kind of a moving target. Would I trade the 14th pick for Orlando Brown? Absolutely not. No chance that I would do that. And here's why. And I could see them doing it because desperation is a hell of a drug. But the reason I wouldn't is twofold. Number one, I don't know about Orlando Brown as a left tackle. Like if you're getting Orlando Brown, he wants to play left tackle and then you have to pay

Orlando Brown a ton of money for the future. And he's played 10 games at left tackle and he's played them for a team that usually runs the football and I know this team does too in sort of like a power running manner and he doesn't have like a Kirk Cousins at quarterback he has Lamar Jackson at quarterback so when you look at his numbers too Orlando Brown was not much different than Riley Reif last year by the numbers in terms of pass blocking grade and pressures. That would be a really hefty price to pay, the 14th pick and all the money that you have to give him. Rob, I'm okay with defensive ends in the first, given that we have Cleveland, a lot of guards in the second and third rounds. Right. That's a good point, and I think they, a lot of guards in the second and third rounds. Right.

That's a good point. And I think they will try to get back into the second round. I mean, that's almost a guarantee that they're going to hope that the situation comes about that is like what I have in front of me, which is Mac Jones on the board and then desperate teams behind them. Something I thought of the other day is the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers both would probably like to get a future quarterback. And if you look at the Mahomes trade with Buffalo, where the Kansas City Chiefs moved up to get Patrick Mahomes, they gave up a lot. They gave up the next year's first and a third round pick to move up from, I think it was 27 to 10.

Now, if the Vikings had Mac Jones on the board and didn't want to draft Mac Jones, and they moved up, you know, one of those teams, either Pittsburgh or New Orleans, moved up from the 20s all the way to 14. I mean, you could be talking about a huge haul for the Vikings in the draft. So I think that that's the ideal situation for them is exactly how this is played out in front of me. But I also think that if Carolina is on the board, they're picking Trey Lance and Denver's picking Mac Jones. I think that's very possible. What about Brandon Sheriff? Apparently he wants out of Washington. Don't know if that's true.

I don't know if that's true either. but Brandon Sheriff, where they stand right now, would be very expensive for the Vikings. They only have about $7 million left in cap space. I think he's an amazing player, and it would be a perfect situation for them to get Brandon Sheriff. So if they could figure that out. Now, I remember, I have to look into this, but I remember with Yannick Ngakwe when he was franchise tagged, and maybe we haven't gotten to that date yet, but at some point it became so you couldn't extend his contract. Now, maybe we haven't reached that date yet, so you could do it with Brandon Sheriff.

Would you trade 14 for a guard, though? Not unless you are insanely desperate. As much as I really like Brandon Sheriff, and I think guard is important for this team, a first round pick for him would be pretty tough. Trade down into the 20s, pick up a second draft. But yeah, I agree, Lance, that trading down into the 20s, considering all the players that are there in the 20s, when we've traded down in these draft simulations, there's a lot of guys that fit and somebody's going to drop because of the number of quarterbacks who are going uh kenny no way mac jones is there there in real life i generally agree with that

but each year somebody drops who we don't think they will it seems like at the quarterback position teddy was that way at one point lamar jackson was that guy i don't know who it's going to be maybe it's trey lance and teams are not as convinced as we think they are. Would you entertain offer from Chicago to move up for Mac Jones? That's a good question because then if that guy becomes great, you are dealing with that for many years to come. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say that's your

problem, Chicago, and you need to trade with somebody else if you want Mac Jones, because who would ever want that situation where you trade within the division and then you give the other team a quarterback who, even though I don't know if Mac Jones will be good or not, but you've got to be terrified of that situation where you trade and then the guy becomes great and smokes you forever. That's not something that you really want, even if it was a good offer. Kenny, five quarterbacks are going in the top 10. I definitely agree. I think that there's too many quarterback needy teams. I don't think that Quidipe will be there at 20. I don't either, but when you start trying to match up teams with players who are good prospects,

there's always somebody who is the one that is projected as a top 15 pick who ends up falling. And I don't know which guy that's going to be. I don't think it's going to be Quidipe either based on his athletic profile. Scott, they would have to pay a big division tax. Right. And instead of that, they would probably just trade up with the Chargers or somebody instead if he got to 13. Any of the top five are there. They get passed on by the Vikings.

They better hope he's a bust. No, you're exactly right, Scott. Now, Max Jones is the one where I could see saying, all right, this guy isn't a transformational athlete who's going to be a game changer on the ground. He is Kirk Cousins-like, so they might look at him and say, well, we could always draft a quarterback next year and play that out. Like there's Mac Joneses in most drafts. There's not necessarily Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields or Zach Wilson all the time with the arm talent or the athleticism and that kind of thing.

So I could see them looking at it saying, if you're going to move on from Cousins, you make the decision after this year, and then you do it in next year's draft, as opposed to doing it now. I am for doing it now and giving yourself as many options as possible with the quarterback position, but I don't think that they would do it. Quidipe is not as high as he was a few weeks ago. Isn't that funny, Rob? Like when was the last game that Quidipe played? And yet you're right. I've seen him lower on mock drafts and maybe he is the guy that sort of slips and Jalen Phillips had a great pro day.

Maybe he ends up going up there or some other defensive, Jason Owe with his unbelievable pro day where he's running 4-4 or better Alexander you're right our mocks could be completely wrong that is totally right that sometimes it's just off but I think that you know when you look at the sort of combined mocks and this is what I like about what PFF is doing here with their mock draft simulator now, that they weren't even, I think, a couple weeks ago, is now they're giving you where the average draft position in mocks is, which I think that the consensus board often tells you most of the guys in the general area they're going to be at. Zimmer seems to be getting everything he wants.

Feels like it's definitely defensive end and offensive line later. Who would you love to see from the tackle position in the third round? We will get there, Mike. We will definitely get there. everything he wants. Feels like it's definitely offensive, defensive end and offensive line later. Who would you love to see from the tackle position in the third round? We will get there, Mike. We will definitely get there because right now I got to make this pick at 14 in the my guys draft that are only players that I really like and I think would be excellent in the Vikings defense. So in this scenario, a lot of good talent on the board. You have Christian Derrissaw. You've got Christian Barmore. So a pair of religious fellows there.

That was bad. I'm sorry. Trayvon Moerig, Rashad Bateman, who we picked in the Thursday night draft sim. So I'm not going to pick Rashad Bateman because we did it on Thursday night. But Bateman might be my pick here. Otherwise, Greg Newsome, be my pick here otherwise. Greg Newsom, the corner from Northwestern. Quiddy Paye is here.

Jason Owe is here. Walker Little, the tackle from Stanford. Guy who's being overlooked, I think, right now, Aziz Odulari. Tevin Jenkins, Jalen Phillips, Elijah Vera Tucker, all sorts of talent here. Alex Leatherwood. This would be 100% the trade down situation. So the fact that Bateman is the best receiver on the board, there's also Elijah Moore. I'm not going to take either one of those guys. I'm not really 100% sold that Elijah Moore should be a first round pick. And Rashad Bateman, I just took him the other day. He would be normally

like one of my guys. I'm very convinced on Rashad Bateman. I'm trusting myself from last year where I was convinced on Antoine Winfield after watching him a ton. And then also Rashad Bateman. So like, you know, when you get to see a guy locally, sometimes there's a bias there of, you know, oh, I think this guy's better than he's going to actually be. But I don't think

that's the case with Rashad Bateman. So I think I'm going to go with, I really, I like the Jalen Phillips idea. I really like Jalen Phillips as a player. And who knows with concussions and who, you know, who knows on any of that, that health stuff. But this one might drive you guys crazy. I think I want to go with Christian Barmore. And this might, I mean, it might be a weird one, but I really like Christian Barmore. The way that he played in the biggest games against the best teams really impressed me. And he would have been my lock dead pick for the Vikings had they not signed Dalvin Tomlinson. But at the same time, I mean, they have two guys who are rotational players, Tomlinson and Michael at the same time, I mean, they have two guys who are rotational players.

Tomlinson and Michael Pierce, those guys, like, yes, they signed multiple year deals. That's right. But there's definitely room for another interior pass rusher. And I think he's the best player on the board right here. I think he can be a difference maker as an interior pass rusher, and he can play on every third down, and he can play on every pass situation. So I'm going to take Christian Barmore, and you guys might think I'm nuts for that, but I don't think it's crazy to have multiple really good players at one position, especially in a league that is rotating defensive line all the time. 2022 mock draft, but Clint Kubiak is the head coach.

Well, maybe, maybe. I don't know if they're hiring somebody internally if they ended up going that direction. Probably not, right? Let's see. Let's see. Rob says, like Zimmer gone, give him what he wants and then let him go nine and eight.

Yeah. Well, you know, there is that. This is the point about, um, this season. That's very interesting. And this off season is that they have done it his way. So if they lose, then it's his way. And if they win, it's his way. And I kind of respect that, to be honest with you, that if they're going, this is the guy that they signed to the contract extension. So the owners aren't coming down and saying, you have to do something differently. And Zimmer isn't saying I'm going to do something differently. He is just stuck to the bit and he's going to go with it.

And whether it works or not is entirely on him. And who it makes it easy for is all of us. Here's how we evaluate it. We evaluated that they did it his way and it either worked or it didn't. It's not very muddy. It's not like, oh, they made him do this and that way and it either worked or it didn't. It's not very muddy. It's not like, oh, they made him do this and that's why it went wrong or something like that. Best defensive tackle in the draft. Thank you, David. No, Matthew, Tim. I'm just taking my guys here. And I think that that's what you should do in the draft is you should go into it as a team

and say, these are the players that we like the most, and here's the guys we're going to take, the most talented players, and we're not going to worry about their exact fit or their scheme. I mean, you know, Kenny Christian Barmore was my favorite player, and I just don't see them, you know, using him if he's drafted. Well, see, I think that they're, like, look at, let me pull this up here. I'll give you an example of how this would work if they took Christian Barmore. And I'm not like trying to die on this hill or anything, but I just think that it's always justifiable to take the actual best player available. And in this case, that's who I think it is in this draft.

So I'm going to call up here what the New York Giants did last year with their defensive line, because this might be of interest. And they had a good defensive line last year with, let me find it, with Delvin Tomlinson. But they had multiple people who were rotating in all the time on their defensive line, especially on the interior. So if we look at their total snap counts here, Leonard Williams, who, you know, best case scenario is what Christian Barmore becomes. He played 803 snaps.

Delvin Tomlinson played 658. And Dexter Lawrence played 655. So they had three defense, and B.J. Hill played 375. So they had four defensive tackles who were rotating in, and two of them played over 600 snaps. So I don't think it's crazy. I don't think it's crazy at all to have one of your pass rushing freaks like Leonard Williams and then mixing in your other run stoppers and things like that. I don't think it's nuts. So I'm just, I'm trying to justify taking my guy here. And I'm sure that

some of you would be against that. And you know, Francis, I mean, that's a good point. That's a good point that we have done this many times with draft picks where somebody gets taken and we go, are you serious? How could you not take guy X, guy Y, guy Z? I'll give you a good example. And this is where I kind of learned my lesson on this. In 2018, they went with Mike Hughes instead of Will Hernandez. And I went on the radio the next day, and I talked about how they were crazy. You're in win-now mode. Why are you not taking the big guard who can, you know, and maybe look, Will Hernandez probably

would have been better than Dakota Dozier. He would have played more than Mike Hughes, and it might have been a better pick. But by not drafting Will Hernandez with that pick, they drafted Brian O'Neill, who's a much more valuable player in the second round. And so, like, you never know how these things are going to work out. That's why I think just, you know, just draft who you think is the best guy, and then you figure out how to use them. Rob Christian Barmore equals Chris Jones is a good call, but I don't see it for this team. Desperation means getting big first-year contribution from rookies. You're right. You are right. I 100% agree, and that's my point about how they will draft for need in the first round. I don't think there's any doubt about it. Now,

what happens in the next few weeks, whether they do an Orlando Brown trade, whether they sign an offensive lineman, all these things, that could determine what kind of desperation they are for which position. So we'll see. Tim, I don't agree that interior pass rusher is not an impactful enough position. I don't agree. I think, and there was a PFF study on this about interior pressure and run stuffing and how defensive tackle is maybe more valuable than we think. I look at the way that teams are paying

their best interior pass rushers, and that's what usually tells you what they think is most valuable. And the top guys are getting huge money. And I know, look, he's not going to be Aaron Donald, but do you think that like Russell Wilson would say, would say that interior pass rush is no big deal or Jimmy G who had to deal with Chris Jones or, you know, Josh Allen? Like, I don't know. I think when you have somebody who is really dominant at getting after the passer in that position. It makes a huge, huge difference. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf. And that's why we have partnered with Birdie Golf in Woodbury.

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Follow them at SodaStickCo on Twitter and at SodaStick.com for your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. Let's see. The Vikings seem to slow their roll on rookies not named Jefferson. That's true. And even Jefferson, they were a little slow bringing him along, too, in the first couple of – yeah, that's right, Alexander. They tried to.

They tried to make him just a slot guy at first. That's exactly right. Let's see. Rob, I'd like to trade down, grab Jason Owe and then Minerts and then Green. Speaking of which, that's where we're at right him so he's on the board here but i now after his pro day i'm not sure that's where he actually gets taken but in terms of interior offensive line if we are picking my guys even if it's combination with needs at all in the third round here there's a couple of offensive linemen i really like and i'll tell you which guy i'm gonna go with because kendrick green is as an option and his numbers point to him being good for this scheme, but I've got a different guy that I really like on the offensive line, and that is Brady Christensen out of BYU. So I'll tell you guys how much I enjoyed watching Zach Wilson, and this might be weird to say, but I would listen

to BYU games that were not on TV because I wanted to hear what the broadcasters were saying about Zach Wilson. And that's how much I enjoyed watching BYU this year. And I will apologize to no one. But Brady Christensen, their tackle ended up standing out to me almost as much as a guy who was dominating and giving Zach Wilson so much time to throw the football. That's the one concern you'd have about Wilson is he had so much time to throw

the ball in college. It was nuts. You know, so Jason Owe being the next Daniil Hunter, Rob, the thing about that is Daniil Hunter is truly an outlier. I mean, there, if you go through and find me the top guys who sack quarterbacks in the NFL now, how many of them didn't sack anybody in college? I mean, like I get it with the athleticism. It's totally unique.

It's totally special. But Daniil Hunter is really, truly a rare case, I think. So Wyatt Davis is gone. Yes, I believe that is the case and so otherwise I would be considering him uh let's see if he's John Randall part two well he might be I don't know if he's gonna be John Randall but I mean John Randall's a good example of I mean if you've got interior pass rush I think it's also it's also like not a lot of teams have it. So it's harder for your opponents to deal with. I think there's some of that.

So look, we've got ourselves an interior defensive lineman. We've got ourselves an offensive lineman. And now what are we looking at here? A lot of different options. Milton Williams is a guy who had an unbelievable pro day. He's interesting. I've mentioned Jalen Darden on here before. Cameron Sample is a guy who had an unbelievable pro day. He's interesting. I've mentioned Jalen Darden on here before. Cameron Sample is a guy who's very interesting.

But I'm going to take a corner here. Another one of Matt's guys. I need to brand this better the next time we do it. Matt's guy sounds not okay. Not like what you expected in this locker room app. But Trey Brown here with the 90th pick, this playmaking smaller corner, he's a nickel corner. Now you might say, oh, look, you signed back Mackenzie Alexander, you signed Patrick Peterson. But I actually do

subscribe to, you're right, Scott, that Zimmer would like me for today. That's true. Can you tell I've been focused mostly on defensive players? But if you watch some Trey Brown a little bit, I think he's a true playmaker. He returned punts. He got picks. He allowed a 46 rating into his coverage. And I also think that when you look at this cornerback group, it feels like it's pretty deep with Patrick Peterson, with Mackenzie Alexander, the two rookies. So how much do you need a guy to come in right away? Well, one, Trey Brown could punt return. So that would be helpful right away. The other thing is, Mackenzie Alexander, one-year deal. Patrick Peterson, one-year deal. And if you're drafting

to look down the road, you're thinking, those guys are patchwork. So why not take a guy who's very talented, who could punt return right away, and then maybe play a little bit of a role in the first year, but down the road, he's playing a much bigger role. So I'm going to take Trey Brown here. Tim, I've gone to the dark side. Don't worry. I'm coming back. I am coming back to the other side in a second, and you'll find out who I'm coming back. I am coming back to the other side in a second. And you'll find out who

I'm coming back with to the wide receiver three train is where I'm coming very soon here. We're going to help Kirk. We're going to help. And I did draft an offensive lineman. So trying to help Kirk there. Let's see, Rob, that's usually Mike Renner's points on defensive end. Yeah, I mean, just like any player who didn't produce in college, I think you have to be skeptical of. And even when you think about Josh Allen, he's going to be used as the example to, oh, yeah, give guys time, and he wasn't good until his third year. But even Josh Allen is a supreme outlier.

Like Jordan Love didn't have great stats in college. And I wouldn't project myself. Jordan Love to be the next big star because he just didn't really do it in college. And there, for every example of guy that works out, there's a bunch of examples of guys who didn't work out. Let's see.

I feel like everyone is assuming that second year's corners takes a big step. They might be, they might, but seriously can't assume Dantzler and Gladney will be great. I totally agree, Scott, that if you're locked into Gladney and Dantzler will be great. No question about it. They're taking the big year two step. I mean, we just don't know that. Jeff Gladney had some of the worst statistics of any cornerback in the entire NFL last year. And there's a good chance that he improves because he's a first round talent.

But what if he doesn't? I mean, I think that signing Mackenzie Alexander, signing Patrick Peterson is a sign of, but what if he doesn't? Which is a smart play, because if he doesn't, then you are stuck in the same situation you were last year. And the concern for me about Cameron Dantzler is Mike Zimmer said, this guy's got to put on some weight. I mean, again, sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. He was injured several times last year. So is it a bad idea to draft somebody who is a playmaker, slot corner?

I don't think it's a bad idea, but now I'm going to help Kirk. Now I'm going to get him Demetrik Felton, who is one of my guys for sure. If you watch the Senior Bowl, he was a beast in the Senior Bowl. He can play running back. He can play wide receiver. I don't know if the guy kick and punt returns, but I was thinking in my mind like Curtis Samuel type, or if you want to go back in the day, maybe an Eric Metcalf

who would come out of the backfield or who would, you know, be a slot receiver, a thing like that. I like those multifaceted type of players. Now, I don't know how creative Clint Kubiak is going to be allowed to be, but I like, I really, really like that type of player who can do a lot of different things well. And I think that that's important. So our draft board still has a lot of players that I like in the fourth round. And now we're going to the three fourth round picks. So we've got a lot of work to do here. And I think that we can go with somebody who is an offensive lineman.

We can go with another interior defensive lineman. We could try to get an edge rusher here. It seems like a lot of the edge rushers have kind of gone away, and that's a little unfortunate for where we stand in the fourth round. And this would be we're looking for somebody to be a rotational player, see if they could play some role mixed in with Steven Weatherly, mixed in with DJ Wanham, if he improves and that kind of thing. Now there's a part of me that also wants to take Amari Rogers since he is one of my guys or Shai Smith, who I like too. There's so many

wide receivers here that could potentially be good. But I am going to take out of UAB, Jordan Smith, who is a defensive end. And if you've seen any of him, lightning quick, lightning quick defensive end. He is extremely fast. And he's the one that if you want that guy who's a little raw, but has that quick twitch type of talent that you can mold with your great defensive line coach go go that way go with somebody like Jordan Smith um the other guy actually his name's Ellerson Smith too the Northern Iowa player go with one of those guys uh where did your sim have minors um I think he was actually like in the second round, maybe the third might've been in the third. I don't think I had a chance to draft him. He has really gone up

quite a bit in these draft sims. I think I was getting him in like the fourth round before, but now I'm not anymore. Um, yeah, Rob in the fifties and sixties, um, I'm not finding him just sort of scrolling through fast, but he definitely was off the board for me to be able to pick, unfortunately. And I don't know if he's one of my guys either. Like sometimes the guy who there's like the hype and, oh, he's the small school guy. And, you know, he, I don't know, bench presses trees. And sometimes I get a little skeptical. Like, is that really going to translate to the

NFL? I'm not sure. Hey, everyone, I want to tell you about our friends. It's Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America, and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate

of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 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. Like if you're looking for somebody to mold, the one thing that you can't replace is how quick the dude is off the snap. There's lots of other things that you can teach them. And this is where with DJ Wanham, I just, I didn't really see it last year. I didn't really see it in college.

And that was a move that I kind of questioned. And it's a fourth round pick. So how much questioning do you really want to do? But I questioned it a little because he didn't have that. He didn't have that like explosive blow up right off of the snap. And we didn't see it much in the NFL either. So I'm not sure what type of development you're really going to expect from him in year two. All right, we're on our second fourth round pick here.

As you know, there are fewer of like Matt's guys. Now, Jameen Davis still being there. He's not really one of the guys that I really love. I think he's more of a pro day hero. But the defensive, I mean, this is a problem. We just drafted a defensive end in the first round or defensive tackle in the first round. Do we want to do that again? I'm not sure about that. Now there is a guy named Rashad Wild Goose who would absolutely be someone I would pick. Ben Cleveland was taken already, unfortunately. But there is another guy here who

I like on the offensive line, and that's Robert Hainsey. He's a little undersized, might be a guard that you could slide in there. I'm going to kind of keep scrolling here. I'm going to keep looking around a little bit before we make our next pick. Let's go down here and read some of the names. Yeah, man, the second, third, fourth round guys. Jonathan Cooper, defensive lineman out of Ohio State, is still on the board. Liked him in the Senior Bowl, which I've become totally that guy. I'll tell you, I got it. I got it. Patrick Jones out of Pitt is still on the board here. And the place that they're at with defensive ends, and I know you guys were picking on me before about how I'm making Mike Zimmer happy with picking his guys here, but Patrick Jones in the Senior Bowl was terrific.

So I'm going to take Patrick Jones, the defensive end. And then we've got, I think, one more, one more. And I'm going to go with Amari Rogers here. So let's get a couple. I mean, look, right now your number four wide receiver is BC Johnson. So if they were to draft two guys that can be playmakers or receivers, I don't think that that's a bad idea. Or was Rogers taken?

Ah, well, Rogers was taken. So we're going to take Shai Smith, a very similar type of undersized, quick, great hands, gets open, that kind of thing. So the Mets prospects draft sounds like this. And you guys can tell me who you say, Scott, is there time to research who the next Moritz Boehringer is? Did you guys, have you guys seen who the top long snapper is? His name, I have his name. Hold on. I'm going to get this for you because it's great. It's great. Hold on. I've got this. Because you know there's a good chance that the Vikings are taking a long snapper. His name is Cameron Cheeseman. So if you guys were wondering who the top long snapper in the draft is, it's Cameron Cheeseman. So if you guys were wondering who the top long snapper in the draft is,

it's Cameron Cheeseman. And when we do a seventh round in one of these or seven round one of these, then Cameron Cheeseman is someone I will absolutely take. So tell me what you think of this draft simulation that is just players that I like. What's up, Sean? Before I give the list, what's going on, buddy? Can you hear me? Did I push the wrong button? Sorry, I was on. I can't hear you. Oh, now I do. Now I do. What's up, Sean? Yeah, I need you and Courtney to do a detailed breakdown on this Cheeseman fellow before we get too close. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, you know what?

I actually did. I am not making this up. And you can check on the Friday mailbag if you're a subscriber to Purple Insider. I'm not making this up. I actually included a link to Cameron Cheeseman snapping. So go find that. That's necessary for draft season. I mean, this is the one thing.

Don't you agree with this, Sean, that if they draft another specialist, which they will, it's like, do you ever learn? Do you ever learn with these guys? You know, three, four years ago, I would have said the same thing. I wanted them to draft, but I'm starting to come around to your thinking that undrafted guys are the better way to go. I mean, they found a better long snapper, like what, who had both ACL tears or something,

and he was better than the guy that they drafted? I don't know. Kai Forbath is better than the kicker they drafted? I don't know. I still miss the guy who left his finger on the field. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin McDermott, right. They moved on from him for the guy they drafted,

someone who's proven, and it blew up in their face, as it does so often. So thanks for checking in, Sean. I appreciate you, man. Thanks, Matt. All right, so here's the list. And before I go, you guys can – let's see. Can Green Bay go get Cheeseman? Yes, Green Bay should go get Cheeseman.

Here's the list. You guys can tell me what you think. Christian Barmore in the first. Brady Christensen, the tackle from BYU in the third, Trey Brown, the corner from Oklahoma in the third, Demetrik Felton, the halfback slash wide receiver with the 119th pick, Jordan Smith, edge rusher from UAB, Patrick Jones, edge rusher from Pittsburgh, and Shai Smith, receiver from South Carolina. How did I do? How did I do? I mean, PFF doesn't love it. It's giving me a B minus, but I think they also don't love drafting a defensive tackle. No, they gave me a B for that Christian Barmore pick. I really don't ever know what to

do with the PFF grades because sometimes I feel like I did a good job and they say that I didn't. Starting offensive line for next year. Well, here would be my guess is that your starting left tackle is Brian O'Neill. I'm going to be mildly bold there, but I think they're going to move him to left tackle. Your starting left guard is whoever they draft in the third round is going to start at left guard. Oh, based on this draft, you mean? Okay. Well, Brady Christensen then is going to play guard for me at left guard then, I think, if he can play guard. And I know I've criticized them for moving offensive linemen around,

but you might have to do that because you have Mason Cole and you have, you know, Dakota Dozier at the moment. So you've got to do better than that. So Brady Christensen is going to move inside and you're going to have Brian O'Neill at left tackle, Brady Christensen at guard, and obviously Garrett Bradbury at center. Cleveland stays at right guard and then Rashad Hill at right tackle. I think the combinations are just not super, super good. BYU guy was too early. Well, you know, Christensen seems to be moving up draft boards. I think he had, did he have a good pro day?

Because I saw his name in the fourth, and then all of a sudden it's jumped up. And so I kind of had to take him where I was taking him. Oh, he had a 10 out of 10 relative athletic score. That's why. So, yeah, I mean, the,

the offensive line situation in here with this draft still wouldn't be ideal. I would probably sign someone who's better than Mason Cole, but doesn't it really feel like getting Mason Cole means he's going to compete for left guard really feels that way. Doesn't it? Uh, don't think he he's going to compete for left guard? Really feels that way, doesn't it? Don't think he makes it out of round two. Yeah. It seems like when he had his pro day, everybody really started talking about Christensen.

And he was going to be one of those sleeper, oh, I watched Zach Wilson and loved that random guy who turned out to be good. But then after his pro day, no more of that. So anyway, well, I appreciate the grades and everything. and love that random guy who turned out to be good. But then after his pro day, no more of that. So anyway, well, I appreciate the grades and everything. I think a draft like this would be really good for them because you end up with more pass rush, offensive line who's really athletic, depth on the cornerback position in future corner, and then playmakers who could step in right away,

edge rushers who can battle for a spot, jump in right but of course since it's my guy draft then i love it why wouldn't i right so um i really appreciate everybody jumping in for uh draft sim after dark actually on the podcast on monday chris trapasso and i are going to do a mock of the first 13 picks that lead up to the Vikings. And then we're going to talk about, you know, just like what the Vikings options will be once we have mocked the first 13 picks. So it's draft season,

everybody we're getting there. And by the way, I've enjoyed these so much that even after the draft, I want to keep doing them. I want to keep doing these locker room things because just the Q and a talking with you guys, it's a lot of fun. So I really appreciate keep doing them. I want to keep doing these locker room things because just the Q&A, talking with you guys, it's a lot of fun. So I really appreciate all your time. Thanks for stopping in, everybody.

And we will do it again soon. Football.