Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bonus episode: Reacting to Xavier Woods signing + Locker Room app mock draft

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

On this bonus episode, Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom give their takes on the Vikings signing Xavier Woods and the audio from Matthew Coller's Draft Sim After Dark on the Locker Room app is included. There's much discussion over whether the 49ers will take Justin Fields or Trey Lance and whether the Vikings should pick a WR or OT at 14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to a bonus episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. Sam Ekstrom and I react to the Xavier Woods sign by the Vikings from our YouTube page. Make sure you go subscribe there for Purple Insider Extras, but I'm going to bring you the audio here in just a second. And then on the Locker Room app, we did our Draft Sim after dark,

our usual Saturday night around 930 Central is when we usually do it. So if you get the Locker Room app, you can jump in and have a great chat. And this time we did an entire first round mock, including talking a lot about what San Francisco will do and the conundrum for the Vikings if they get there. And there's some very interesting weapons along with offensive linemen. So that's what's coming up next. Appreciate y'all listening to Purple Insider.

Very exciting things coming up next week. We will see you then. All right, Sam, the Minnesota Vikings have added another defensive player, this time Xavier Woods, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys. They signed him to a one-year $2.25 million deal. Your reaction? I like the transaction. I think this is the type of deal the Vikings should have been making all along. They brought in Mackenzie Alexander yesterday and now Xavier Woods. Those are two value deals.

I mean, from what we're hearing about the Alexander signing, that was a veteran minimum, and this isn't far above that. So this is good use of cap space, and I think they fill a clear starting spot. This is probably the safety tandem. I don't think there's going to be a lot of competition for Xavier Woods. I think it's Harrison Smith on one side, Woods on the other. And I think we can check another box. I'd still like to see the Vikings find another edge rusher,

but that defense is coming together. The Woods resume is solid in Dallas, if not particularly outstanding, which is what they need at that second safety spot. You know, he gave up some more touchdowns last year, but altogether, his body of work isn't that bad. And he's still really young. He only has four years in the league as a sixth round pick. He's just coming into his prime.

I like the move. Right. And Xavier Woods has been remarkably healthy over the last three seasons. He's played more than 975 snaps each season. And you mentioned the drop off of his numbers last year, but I've got to think similarly to Anthony Harris that Xavier Woods suffered from playing with a bad defense. And I think when you're talking about single season numbers, you see them jump all the time for safeties because it's so dependent on how everything works around them. So the Vikings are hoping now that you put Xavier Woods right next to Harrison

Smith. You hopefully increase the pass rush at some point, whether that's in the draft or with the remaining about $7 million that they have in free agency. And then you increase the play of the cornerbacks, which I think is natural, naturally going to happen with Patrick Peterson and with Mackenzie Alexander coming in, and you can get the most out of Xavier Woods. And signing him for such a cheap deal, it's exactly the types of deals we talked about earlier when we were breaking down the Patrick Peterson contract. We were saying, maybe you should spread this out to a few more guys,

and now we're seeing them do that after the first wave is over. Yeah, I think we might have underestimated going into free agency, how much space the Vikings were going to clear up. I mean, a lot of the moves that we talked about, kind of uncertain whether they would happen, ended up happening. Like they did cut Riley Reif. That opened up a lot. They did restructure Adam Thielen.

They did restructure Anthony Barr. So a lot of those strings did get pulled and created a lot of space, more than I think we anticipated. So clearly their strategy going in was, we're going to sign a couple high-enders, Dalvin Tomlinson, Patrick Peterson, and then we're going to go after some of the small fish. And I think that if that was the plan, they're accomplishing it pretty well. And they still have about, I think, $6 million left over. The other thing I like about this move, and I know it's only a one-year deal, but if Harrison Smith decides to move on after this year, or the team decides to let him go, you know, as of today, this is a contract year for Harrison Smith. Xavier Woods could be a solution, you know, longer term if things go well this season. And, and if for Harrison Smith, Xavier Woods could be a solution, you know, longer term if

things go well this season. And, uh, and if that Harrison Smith money comes off the books, they should have, uh, some capital to sign a safety for, to a long-term deal. And maybe this is sort of a prove it year in that sense for Xavier Woods. Right. I agree that with even Mackenzie Alexander too, that signing these two guys to small contracts, if they play particularly well this year and fit really well in the defense, which I think we already know that Alexander does, but if Xavier Woods does, then they can sign these guys to long-term contracts.

And if they don't, they can move on and they're not locked in. And I think that's a really good play looking at the market and saying, there's a lot of guys looking for one-year deals who are hoping to hit the market again next year and get paid why don't we bring a few of these guys in and if you're Xavier Woods now you get a chance to play next to Harrison Smith which has usually been a kingmaker type of position for the NFL draft though Sam I think this takes safety

right off the board as a possibility at any point early Mike Zimmer's history has not been to draft safeties very high the highest drafted safety is in the sixth round during the Mike Zimmer era so I would expect now we are down to offensive line and defensive line and then the dark horse would be wide receiver totally agree I think they they've taken corner and safety off the board the last two days so that that makes a little more manageable for us to try to figure this thing out I mean they're clearly leaving some holes that that obviously need to be filled I can't imagine that Steven Weatherly is your go-to week one edge rusher I think you're going to have

some competition there from a high pick and I don't think that Mason Cole is your starting guard automatically either. You got to bring somebody else in. So the vision's becoming clearer. This, you know, sets up, I think, for, you know, maybe it's a Quiddie Pay. Maybe it's an Elijah Vera Tucker. The names or the pool is shrinking from which the Vikings are going to pull in late April. Hey, everybody, welcome to another draft simulation slash Q&A. Going to need a thumbs up to let me know that all of you can hear me and then we can get started.

You can throw any of your questions in the discussion. And I think what we need to do, thank you, Justin. Appreciate that. I think what we need to do is to mock the first 14 picks because so much has changed. I think that's what we need to do here is instead of doing just a Vikings mock, and we can do another one.

We usually do a fun one at the end. That's just like for speed, but I think we need to do the first round now that there has been trades and all sorts of fun that has happened here I guess these teams didn't seem to realize that draft night isn't for a while usually trades like this don't happen until the very last minute but this year I guess things are different so we got some great entertainment seeing you seeing San Francisco move up that makes things very interesting. So as always, using the Pro Football Focus

mock drafting machine here. But this time we're going to make all the picks up to 14 where the Vikings are. And yes, if you say that it's a very good chance the Vikings trade down, I agree with you. But for today, we're not going to trade down. We're going to stay at 14 and we're going to take all of the picks. So welcome. Welcome to all of you. And any of you who aren't jumping in the discussion, feel free, feel free. I'll answer any question that you got or any comment that you want to throw out there. I'm always happy to do that as we go along. What's up, Kenny? Defense is looking promising for next year. Yeah, there's no question that it looks a lot more promising today than it did just a couple of days ago right I mean I'll tell you the truth

after the Patrick Peterson signing I was looking at the defense and saying I'm not sure how they're going to fill out the rest of this thing after spending so much on Patrick Peterson but the Anthony Barr restructure got way more cap space than expected. And the Adam Thielen one did too. So picking up cheap guys like Xavier Woods and Mackenzie Alexander, Alexander in the comments, love the past two signings. I totally agree. I mean, I think that these are the type of signings along with Steven Weatherly

that are exactly what they needed of guys who may not be superstars by any means, but are capable of doing their jobs. And what we saw last year is when you have guys out there that are incapable of doing their jobs, that opponents just attack and attack and attack those things. Chris Jones, poor guy, just kept getting attacked and gave up 131 quarterback rating uh any edge rushers that i like out there for two to three million let's take a look before we get into the draft simulation

i don't know what melvin ingram is going to get it still feels like melvin ingram is going to get more than that because carlos dunlap pulled in some good money i'll tell you who i like for this and i don't know how much this guy is looking for, but Ryan Kerrigan, I think would be a really great pickup because he only played 38% of snaps last year, but he still produced pretty well. And he kind of got bumped out of that lineup by drafting chase young, but I think he could still play. He's 33 years old. He's the exact type of guy that would take a small one-year deal to come in and play a big role. I think that's one of the things that probably the Vikings can offer McKenzie Alexander and Xavier Woods is hook. You're going to play. Unless Jeff

Gladney takes a huge step or Cam Dantzler takes a huge step. You want that extra corner being able to rotate in and guys get hurt as well for cornerbacks so there's a great chance mackenzie alexander would play try to bump up his stock in free agency next year same with xavier woods you're going to come in and play next to harrison smith here's some money would you like it yes and the same thing with ryan kerrigan would you like to come in and play 50 of snaps and rotate with stephen Weatherly and DJ Wanham. Like I think that that's, you know, not a bad situation for somebody like him. There's other guys out there, Justin Houston. I don't know what his status is.

We'll see where Everson Griffin ends up. I don't know about that. Alex Okafor and Adrian Claiborne are a couple other guys. And I don't know the deal with Alden Smith. The fact that the Cowboys aren't bringing him back makes me question it a little bit, but he was good last year. Played 70% of snaps, got a handful of sacks. If he were to come in and play a little less snaps, seems like he's got his head on straight

these days. I think that that might be something that's worth the risk. He only made $2 million last year. So if he was willing to take something similar, I think that you'd be willing to do it because of how he produced last year. So if he was willing to take something similar, um, you know, I, I think that you'd be, you know, willing to do it because of how he produced last year, Scott, uh, the last couple signings have been better than the big ones. I really do like Delvin Tomlinson as a player, the fit, we're going to have to see exactly how that works out. But in terms of bang for your buck, there's no question that Mackenzie Alexander on a veteran minimum to me

is kind of crazy and is still evidence that the NFL is just not valuing the nickel corner the way that it should be. I'm very surprised by this, but I thought since nickel corners were playing 70% of snaps that the NFL would come around and pay these guys, but they still act like what nickel corner sounds like you're a rotational player. Sorry, can't pay you. And I mean, that's to the benefit of the Vikings here. Um, Ian convinced that our next signing is going to be a pass rusher. I think so too, unless it is like Alexander is saying, Austin Blythe would be another guy who is the, I think by far best offensive lineman remaining on the market. Austin Blythe should have a lot of people calling his number though, because if you look at the rest of the

guard market, I mentioned this on a show earlier this week, but there is nobody on the guard market who had a pro football focus war above zero that's remaining. That's not super promising. So if they can't bring in Austin Blight, I think you might just rather look to the draft on that. Scott, is it possible Xavier Woods PFF grade was bad last year because the Cowboys defense was trash. Vikings D was bad. So was Harris. I think so, but I haven't gone back and watched him yet from last year and from 2019 and 2018 to tell the differences just yet. Um, I'm on the list of things to do is to watch a lot more of these guys and do some tape breakdowns and things like that. But I would suspect that that is the case. And when you look

at just safeties in general, from year to year, almost all of them bounce up and down in their PFF grades. Even someone like Tyron Matthew, who is an elite player and a superstar in the NFL, even he will have years where he's more like rated 25th or something. And there's no question that he is not 25th. He's one of the better safeties in the NFL and more valuable defensive players. But that year things might've gone wrong or somebody might've jumped over him for a touchdown or whatever it was, a handful of plays that can really swing that. And if you look at Xavier Woods, like Anthony Harris, he was not targeted a ton of times, but gave up four touchdowns. So that's really going to hurt his numbers. But when you look at his 2018 and his 2019 numbers,

they're very good. So I think the larger sample size on Xavier Woods probably is that he is a decent player. I mean, it's not as much of a sure thing as it would have been to bring back Anthony Harris, but I think it's a good bet. I mean, he allowed, I've got this right here actually on Pro Football Focus. He allowed only a 56 quarterback rating into his coverage in 2019 and a 70 quarterback rating into his coverage in 2018 and had seven PBUs in 2018. So yeah, I think a lot of it does have to do with how the defense is playing for somebody like him because he's not a game changer. I mean, he's not Harrison Smith where it's somebody who's going to be able to overcome that and still have a good year. Um, Scott, should we read into the lack of Harrison Smith extension? I'm going to be able to overcome that and still have a good year. Scott, should we read into the lack of Harrison Smith extension?

I'm going to say not for now, not yet, because usually the Vikings do their contract extensions later. And even though it could right now save them money, that's just traditionally how they've done it, is it's not usually in this part of the season, except for Kirk Cousins, where it was right at the beginning of free agency. The other thing is, too, that they're not desperate for that cap space. They get more cap space from Kyle Rudolph, almost eight million dollars from Kyle Rudolph

because they use the June one designation on him to create more space later. So that will pay for their draft class, which will probably be five or 6 million and then offer a little bit more space. So yes, they could do the Harrison Smith extension right now, but I remember, let's see, Linval Joseph, Everson Griffin, Xavier Rhodes, Stefan Diggs, all those guys did them in training camp or right before training camp. Kenny surprised. There's no news on Hunter's contract farther into free agency. We get, seems like he'll be on the team next year. I don't know what to do with that one. And I don't know what to do with the fact that we've

just heard nothing. It was very curious that Rick Spielman said that he had seen on Instagram that Daniel Hunter looked pretty good and that Chad Graff put out his report about Daniil Hunter saying that he was unhappy still. And Daniil Hunter tweeted sort of like a subtweet, but not really. And he has done nothing to deny that he is unhappy or to put any, I mean, he could put out this fire so easily with Hunter. I, I disagree, Alexander. I actually think that no news is kind of bad news because what you want to hear is either a, he has signed a long-term contract extension or B he's saying he's fine and he's putting something out there on Twitter, or he's doing an interview. He has gone completely radio silent, which makes me think

that we're going to get into maybe training camp with this, but usually the Vikings come around. That's usually how it ends up going. Uh, Tony, how much juice does DJ want them really have? Can we draw any similarities between he and Hunter? Um, I would draw more similarities with DJ want them to Steven Weatherly, uh, somebody that probably doesn't have the ceiling of being a star or even someone who's going to start on a great defense, but more of a rotational player. I just don't see the same type of physical dominance. I mean, with Daniil Hunter, he had six sacks in his first year, but you could tell he was throwing guys around. He was physically a beast and a lot to handle for offensive linemen right away. And I didn't see that with DJ Wanham. I thought that he had kind of a lack of counter moves, a lack of a true quick twitch burst where

that's when you just see a guy explode past the tackle right away. And like the tackle had no chance right off the snap. We've seen that with Everson Griffin and Daniil Hunter a million times. I don't remember seeing that too many times with DJ Wanham. So I don't look at him as somebody that they should count on to start or play a lot of snaps. I think they should still be looking in free agency for one more guy or making that their first draft pick. So, okay, keep throwing your questions in there. And I think we can start drafting. So we're going to do the mock. We're going to go one through 14, kind of see where we're at. Now that San Francisco is drafting third, Miami is sixth and the Eagles have traded down.

So first overall pick, I think is pretty easy. Trevor Lawrence, second overall pick, I think has become pretty easy. And we're going to go with Zach Wilson there. Now, third, who are we going with? I mean, do we think San Francisco is going to take Justin Fields? Do we think San Francisco is taking Mac Jones? I don't buy Mac Jones at all with number three. I don't think you trade up to take Mac Jones and Kenny. No, they're not taking Penae Sewell and trading for Kirk Cousins. That dream is dead. If any of you wanted Kirk Cousins to be traded to San Francisco.

I think that it would be a classic case of NFL overthinking if the San Francisco 49ers went any other direction than Justin Fields. Justin Fields went into last season as the 1A, number one or number two overall pick to Trevor Lawrence. And I don't see why he's dropped. He was not perfect. And I don't know of any quarterback in college football, whoever has been perfect.

And even, you know, Peyton Manning had bad games too. So Justin Fields had one or two bad games. His team had COVID issues. There were players out and there is some weaknesses in his game for how long he takes to get rid of the football and things like that. He's not a perfect prospect, but he can throw the football with absolutely anyone. And I was just thinking about a Kyle Shanahan or Gary Kubiak, Clint Kubiak type of offense where you run play actions and rollouts, and the guy can actually escape if a defensive end

comes upfield. I'm not talking about anybody in particular, but Jimmy Garoppolo, Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, if something goes wrong, the play is usually just over. And with Justin Fields, that's not the case. So I think San Francisco is taking Justin Fields. I think Trey Lance is too much of a long shot. I like Trey Lance.

I really like his arm strength. I really like his running ability. I really like his running ability, but the guy has such a small, tiny sample. It's like, what's the difference between how we were talking about Jordan Love last year and Trey Lance about like, was the production really there? He only threw 19 passes a game. I've watched some of his film. I watched, by the way, if you guys want to see something cool, if you go to QB School on YouTube, JTO Sullivan, the former NFL quarterback does great, great breakdowns and gives really, really good detailed stuff from an NFL quarterback perspective.

So he did a Trey Lance one. And what I saw was a great deep ball and a guy who looked like he could process and things like that. But the competition was brutal. So, I mean, Justin Fields is playing great competition. He,

I think broke a rib. We never really found that out in the college football playoff, kept playing. I think he goes to San Francisco, so I'll stop ranting about that. But I just think the NFL would be classic to overthink this and somehow end up with Mac Jones or Trey Lance. Nick, how bad is it to be so obvious as what the Vikings need in the draft?

That's how it always is, isn't it? I mean, I feel like every year since I moved here in 2016 to cover the team, every year going into the draft, we pretty much knew exactly what they were going to take that. We knew after Adrian Peterson left that they were taking a running back and we knew that let's see, Joe Berger, I think was retiring that year. No, no, no, no. He wasn't. He retired after 2017. So we knew they needed guards though. And, uh, interior offensive lineman. So they took Pat Alphline in the third. And you even go to, how about taking Garrett Bradbury? We knew they needed offensive linemen. We knew they were

switching schemes. That seemed like a thing that they were clearly going to do. And then they take Irv Smith when they knew that eventually Kyle Rudolph was going to be leaving. The only one that I can remember that threw me off was Mike Hughes, because we thought they were going to take an offensive lineman there. We thought they were taking Will Hernandez, which he's turned out to be OK, just a guy. And Mike Hughes has had his problems. So I guess we all would have been wrong there. But most of the time we have known exactly what they were doing. And then even after they took Mike Hughes, we knew in the second round that they were going to go with Brian O'Neill. Imagine if JJ wasn't what he was last year. You mean Justin Jefferson, right? And wide receiver

depth is scary. I totally agree, Scott. Absolutely. Right now, if somebody tweaks an ankle, you are in a lot of trouble. If, I mean, Justin Jefferson, I think for weeks in a row, probably can carry the offense. I think we've seen in past years that Adam Thielen can't, but still you're allowing defenses to just focus so much on one guy with Chad Beevy, BC Johnson, and whoever else they bring in. It just feels like they're going to keep going back to that well of taking four, fifth, sixth rounders at the wide receiver position and hoping one of them clicks when I don't think another Stefan Diggs is walking through that door. Dylan, Justin Fields,

imagine him in that offense. I know that's what I'm saying is that a great athlete in this play action offense that's QB friendly, I think could be really great. I think Trey Lance starts halfway through the season, Alexander. I could see it. Yeah. I mean, whoever takes Trey Lance, whoever takes a quarterback, there's always that pressure to start that guy right away. And that might be your one argument for Trey Lance in San Francisco is that they can play Jimmy Garoppolo if they don't trade him and do the Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes thing. They can absolutely do that. I think dark horse has to be Mac Jones. Ryan, you know, the reason that I agree with you

that Mac Jones should be in consideration here is just because Kyle Shanahan strikes me as the type of coach who might overthink it, who might be like, I want a quarterback who's accurate, who I can control, who runs the play actions well, and things like that. But when things broke down, Mack Jones wasn't that guy who was going to take off and get you 20 yards and he doesn't have the arm strength to Justin Fields. A lot of those routes are designed to be open. But the thing about those play actions and rollouts is that sometimes if a linebacker gets

back on those, you have to make a really great throw. And we see Kirk Cousins do this kind of a lot. But Justin Fields' arm strength, he could make that throw all the time. I agree with you, Scott, 100% jealous of the 49ers that they get to have these conversations. I know, I know. Trust me, that came across the other day and I just went, I am so jealous of every podcaster slash web writer, reporter, TV person, everyone in the Bay Area that they get a month to talk about all these quarterbacks.

Dylan Lance, I guess if they really believe in him, then they wouldn't have to go to three. That's probably true because there are so many varying opinions on these different quarterbacks that you can just roll the dice. If you felt good about fields, Jones, Lance being there, you could have just tried to wait it out and see, you know,

maybe you trade up to seven or something like that trading all the way up to three. They know who it is. We don't know who it is, but they have to know who it is. You don't trade up to three and then go what do we do here no way they they saw somebody's pro day or went through the tape or whatever organizationally made the decision this is the guy we're doing it for um scott i could

also see trey lance yes i could i could see trey lance sitting for a year i could see justin field sitting for a year uh ken, any concern with Zach Wilson having bad PFF grades against higher ranked teams? I'm going to say no on that, but that doesn't mean that Zach Wilson is a perfect prospect. Like Zach Wilson would have been playing on a team that when they played equal competition, like let's say when they played Boise State and Boise State was ranked and he just smoked them. Also, was that just last year? Because his years before, he was nowhere near as good as he was last year. So if it's for his career, I think that's a totally different story. And against Coastal Carolina,

I thought Coastal Carolina was just a far better football team than BYU. But when I watched Zach Wilson throw the football and make plays off schedule and just his kind of baller mentality, it's hard not to like that. The other thing is too, he didn't make a lot of mistakes. And I always look at that with quarterbacks, like Sam Darnold threw a ton of picks. And I mean, do you, you really want to roll the dice on someone who was throwing a lot of picks in college? I would say I would not, but Zach Wilson didn't do that. He rarely threw picks. Alexander, I agree with Kuyper. Don't watch pro days. You can watch pro day highlights, but don't change your mind.

The same thing with pro day 40s and pro day high jumps and all those sorts of things. But yes, Scott, the way that he played this year, I was enthralled with watching Zach Wilson play football. He's one of the most fun players that I think I have ever seen play football. Just tune into him and watch the pure entertainment of college football. So Alexander, I think it comes down to Parsons, Slater, Derrissaw, Quidipe, or Elijah Vera Tucker. Well, we're going to get there.

I mean, I've gotten really off on this San Francisco thing, but man, I love that. I love that topic. So let me go to Atlanta here for the next pick. They're in a great situation. So Justin Fields goes, they should be trading down. I'm not going to do that here, but they should be absolutely trading down. I think with Julio Jones's age and the fact that they already have Ridley, who is great, that they're going to take Jamar Chase. So that's who I'm picking here for Atlanta. I don't have to think for two seconds about the

Cincinnati Bengals. They're taking Penny Sewell. Now, next is the Miami Dolphins. I'm going to go with Jalen Waddell here. I think that the Miami Dolphins traded down to take Jalen Waddell, that they didn't want to go to 12 and miss out on the wide receivers. Now the other guy could be Kyle Pitts. If you've watched any Kyle Pitts, then he's a guy they could definitely go with here. In fact, maybe I'm going to change my mind and go with Kyle Pitts. That's what I'm going to go with here for Miami. I think that that's who they've got in mind at number six, him or Jalen Waddle. We'll see the Detroit lions. Everybody seems to be mocking Micah Parsons to the Detroit lions. That seems very possible, but their wide receivers right now are let's see Tyrell Williams and, uh,

Bernard Perriman, I think. So they're drafting Jalen Waddle here. The Detroit lines have to get a receiver for Jared Goff. So they're going to take Waddle here. The Detroit lines have to get a receiver for Jared Goff. So they're going to take Waddle. And now we're left with this, with the Carolina Panthers, no better position for the Carolina Panthers than to pick Trey Lance here to go along with Teddy Bridgewater. He'll sit behind Bridgewater for a year and then, you know, they'll move on from Teddy and he'll go on to be somebody else's bridge quarterback. Am I right guys? Teddy bridge quarterback. All right. Sorry. Uh, so we're onto the Denver Broncos now they're, they're sad. They're going, Oh no, all the quarterbacks got taken. And now we're kind

of stuck here. So the Broncos though, they are in the process of rebuilding their defense. They could also take an offensive lineman. They have really been left out of the party when it comes to offense, uh, or to, to quarterbacks in this off season, they have great weapons. They could roll with drew lock again, but just seems like such a bad idea. Um, you're right. Carolina absolutely does have to be praying that nobody else trades up with, I say Detroit. I think if you're Detroit, that trading down makes a lot of sense in that case, if somebody's calling you, um, Dylan, you bet Parsons will fall to the second, very possible, very possible. The linebacker who doesn't necessarily have great traits when it comes

to coverage is always a guy that I'm a little skeptical about. Unless you're the Seattle Seahawks randomly taken Jordan Brooks last year. That was super bizarre. Do the bears trade way up for Mac Jones? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think they're going to sit this out. I actually think that they're going to sit this out and they're going to roll with Andy Dalton and maybe they'll draft somebody in like the second round. But I mean, I could see the argument if you're Ryan Pace for saying, all right, we've got to mortgage our entire future because our jobs are on the line. So we're trading up and we're getting our guy. But if you get Mac Jones and he loses a competition to Andy Dalton, I mean, you're fired anyway, right? You might as well just

roll with Dalton, see how it goes, and then plan to draft a quarterback next year because you're just too far down the list to draft a quarterback right now. So here's what's on the clock for Denver. Quiddy Paye, Rashawn Slater, Caleb Farley. I could see them as being the first cornerback team. I think if they're not drafting a quarterback, if they're not drafting Mac Jones here, that they are a cornerback team. Although Mac Jones's comp is Kirk Cousins and George Payton is there who would have been a part of the Kirk Cousins decision. So let's go for it. Let's go five quarterbacks in the top nine, because I think this is an amazing scenario for the Minnesota Vikings. Kyle. Yeah, I could see the Broncos taking Parsons because they are really committed to rebuilding that defense. It seems Aaron. I think that Miami has set themselves up incredibly well. Absolutely. Masterclass masterclass. When you can get four first round picks ultimately for a Laramie Tunsil

trade, holy cow. Like, I mean, that's just, it's incredible work by them too. And I think that they're doing the right thing with Tua to give him another year to find out. He was not so bad. You need to bail. I just looked at this today. Actually, I did a comparison today comparing Josh Rosen and Tua in their first year. And as a Josh Rosen believer coming out of college, wow, just wrong. I mean, 61 sacks in his first 16 starts. Are you kidding me? He had a 63 quarterback rating. Like Tua was not that bad at all.

Tua had a tough time, but he went six and three, something like an 87 quarterback rating, had a really, really bad game to end the season. But he was not so bad that you would say, okay, there's no way that we can move forward with this guy. And if he blows up next year with everything around him, then you go out and get somebody else. I mean, that is the best part of quarterback markets today is it seems like there's always somebody else. The Bears have to be going all in on a franchise quarterback,

so they have to be trading up. That might be true, but what if the other teams also want their franchise quarterbacks and won't do it? And that's the way it looks to me here. If you're the Lions, you probably want Jalen Waddell. Like who's trading down to 20 from the top 10? I mean, that would take a ton. Scott, they did tweet QB1 about Andy Dalton. But again, I've said this before on the show, that you can't laugh at Andy Dalton until you beat him. Until you go to Soldier Field and beat him,

then Vikings fans can laugh at Andy Dalton. So I've got the Broncos taking Mac Jones here, and I've got five quarterbacks going in the top. And now the Dallas Cowboys are up with the 10th overall pick. So they have Everson Griffin and Alden Smith both leave. They trade away Griffin. They lose Alden Smith. I'm thinking maybe they either go Quiddy Pay or Caleb Farley here.

They could definitely use more cornerback help. I'm thinking that they go with Caleb Farley here. They could definitely use more cornerback help. I'm thinking that they go with Caleb Farley. So that's what I'm going to take here. The top corner goes off the board to Dallas and now the New York Giants. I'm going to go, I'm going to go with Quiddy Paye here for the New York Giants, that they're going to bolster their defensive line even a little bit more. They seem to be really into that. Now they could, they could go weapon. They could go Devante Smith, but I think after losing Delvin Tomlinson, they have really struggled to get edge rushers that they're going to go with quitty pay. Okay. Let me scroll back up here. Um, I think the Broncos trade back very possible, very possible Kyle that if all the other quarterbacks that they want are there or are not there, that they would just move back. Um, Kyle, I'm sorry about Jordan Brooks and I'm sure

that he played well for Seattle at times. I didn't watch a whole lot of Jordan Brooks, but it was a terrible draft pick. I'm sorry. It was not, it was not a good draft pick. Um, you, you make a good point, Dylan, that Denver would probably really like Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa. And I'm really intrigued with him too, as a chess piece type of guy who can do a lot of different things well. Totally agree that Denver would like him. That would be in the trade back scenario. But my thing is, who is trading up with them from close to them would be my point. It's like Dallas has their quarterback, the Giants. I mean, do they have the quarterback? I'm not sure. They think they do. Philadelphia seems to

want to roll with Jalen Hurts for now. Justin Herbert is locked in. I mean, the Patriots would probably be the team to trade up if they were going to do it. So maybe that's possible. So I've got Trey Lance at eight to Carolina, Mack Jones at nine to Denver. Caleb Farley goes to Dallas, Quitty pay to the giants, and now the Eagles are on the clock. And so maybe they'll just take a wide receiver that didn't catch any passes in college. Hey, yo, like they did last year. Right. Um, you know, so, uh, Kyle says it liked Rosen as well. Coming out, wasn't sold on Darnold or Mayfield. I'm in the same boat.

Of course, Lamar Jackson was my guy for that draft because I thought, you know, you always take the guy that they're over criticizing for something ridiculous, like being too athletic. So always take that guy. And I thought his throwing was better than people talked about. But Josh Rosen had so many good things going for him. He was accurate down the field. He looked like he processed well and went through his reads and had a lot of classic pocket quarterback stuff and maybe a little more athleticism than we thought. Um, gosh, he had a bad team and he averaged almost nine yards

in attempt. I mean, there was a lot of things to like about Rosen, but he just looked like a deer in the headlights. He didn't know what to do. Let's see. Scott, it's what the Browns did, kind of keep moving multiple picks back each year. Either Tua is great and you build the roster or have Amel to trade up in a year he's not. Great point.

It's a masterclass by the Miami Dolphins. Brilliantly played. Because if they go seven and nine next year, then they'll have all this draft capital to just be like, okay, let's get Spencer Rattler. Let's move up. Let's get the top guy. So Philadelphia, did they take Quitty Bay? Did they take a cornerback? Do they take another wide receiver?

Cause they lost a couple in the off season. Let's see. New England is a good one for mac jones and that is you know both of you saying that uh alex and kyle great chance of that of new england moving up and they just seem very mac jonesy don't they maybe not maybe not cam newton's their quarterback for now but you could really see belichick wanting a quarterback that was accurate, that would be in the pocket, that would be Brady-ish, at least in their minds. So yeah, New England is definitely the team that could possibly trade up.

You're right, Kyle, the interceptions with Sam Darnold. And that's why he's probably not worth trading for. But I do wonder about Sam Darnold. At what point is he just a good backup though? Like if no one is trading for Sam Darnold and you're the Vikings and you have like seven fourth round picks, do you just send two of them to the Jets

and say, give me Sam Darnold? Because even if he's a backup and Kirk Cousins gets hurt for two games, then you absolutely made a move that was worth it. And maybe if you really love him, there's something there that he could fit with, I don't know, good wide receivers. He wouldn't have a good him, there's something there that he could fit with. I don't know. Good wide receivers.

He wouldn't have a good offensive line, but he's going to have good receivers. Philly with Patrick Sertan. I like that. I like going corner here for Philly. They need to cover somebody. That's a good one. All right. The Los Angeles Chargers are up now.

Could take Devontae Smith, at another wide receiver for Justin Herbert. They could go defense with their new defensive minded head coach, Christian Barmore. That might be an interesting pick for them. Uh, Rashawn Slater Slater is a guy Darisaw. What do we think Darisaw? Let's go. Let's go Darisaw to the Los Angeles chargers here. He's a, he's a beast. Uh, Kyle, sorry, Kyle, Kyle Pitts got taken way earlier. He went, I had him go number six. I had him go to Miami. Yep. He already went. I'll go through it in a second. When we get to the Vikings, I'll go through the whole thing again for anybody who wasn't here or just to remind you. So I'm going to go Christian Derrissaw here because they're going to want to protect Justin

Herbert. So now the Vikings are up and we can really talk about some decisions here. So here's how the board looks for the Vikings. We've got Trevor Lawrence, number one of the Jags. We have number two, Zach Wilson. Number three, Justin Fields goes to the 49ers. Jamar Chase gets taken by Atlanta. They're trying to squeeze every bit out of Matt Ryan that they could get. Penesul will protect Joe Burrow and his broken legs. Kyle Pitts goes to Miami.

He's going to be, that makes so much sense to me to work with Tua. Jalen Waddell to Detroit. So unfortunately for Vikings corners, they'll have to face someone explosive. Trey Lance ends up with Carolina to work with Teddy Bridgewater. Mack Jones taken by George Payton and the Broncos. Caleb Farley trying to help that secondary with Dallas that is so miserable. Quiddy Pay to the New York Giants to rush the passer for them. Patrick Sertan to the Eagles. And Christian Derrissaw to the Los Angeles Chargers. All right. So, you know, I think you guys are fine to accuse me of making the board

drop to have Devante Smith here. Okay. That's fine. That's, but tell me, tell me where I'm going to change that though. Like, tell me who I'm changing out. I tried to go with all the needs of the teams and somebody's going to be there. Like, that's the thing is like, somebody is going to be on the board that you don't expect, whether it's Devante Smith or whether it's maybe Quiddy Pay ends up dropping. Like there is going to be a player who is a really good prospect. If four or five quarterbacks go on the top, then it's like getting a top 10 pick for the Vikings. I mean, this, this is a great year to also not need a quarterback. If you're toward the top, uh, I agree, Eli, that the Eagles might go with Devante Smith. That's true. I went with a corner for them, but you know, they lost, they had to Sean Jackson. They lost him. Elshon

Jeffrey is gone and nobody could possibly believe in, um, Jalen Rager after what we saw last year. So very possible, very possible that happens. So here's what we know. Off the board for the Vikings is safety. Now that they went with Xavier Woods. Cornerback, since they've really stacked that up, probably also off the board. We have a pretty good idea that they're not going to take Micah Parsons.

That, and I think they'll just let that play out at linebacker. I totally agree, Mike, that this would be the situation to trade down. Nick, the tackle from BYU, Brady Christensen, he's probably more of a second rounder. Maybe you trade back into the second for someone like him. Alexander, there's got to be at least one name that we aren't expecting to go this high that will go prior to 14, 100%. Every, how about the, what was it? Colin, Colin Farrell was the guy.

Is that his name? From the Raiders who's done basically nothing. He was taking like fourth, seventh. He was taking really high and everyone went, what are you doing? So you're right. Every single year, somebody does something that you don't expect.

Jake, could the Giants go wide receiver? Absolutely. They, I mean, they really should. Um, now I had them taking an edge rusher because they need more pressure, I think. And they have the interior kind of set there, um, with Leonard Williams, but their, um, edge rushing is not very good, but could they go with Devante Smith a hundred percent because they need to find out if Daniel Jones can really play last Last year, he showed a little potential, but he also had his problems and turned the ball over a lot.

So this is really the make or break year for Daniel Jones. Very possible that they would go with someone like Devontae Smith. Let's see. They like to fill needs a year early, and Anthony Barr is probably leaving. So that's right. But Cleland Farrell, yeah, that's right. But, um, Cleland Farrell. Yeah, that's right. He's the guy I was thinking of. So, um, you know, that you're right about how they like to fill needs a year down the road, but this is very much a win now type of situation.

And you wouldn't even really be able to use Micah Parsons this year. Like with Irv Smith, when they filled that need a year down the road, they could use them. Same with Mike Hughes. They could use them. Um, yeah. Fourth overall was Pharrell. What? That was very bizarre. Um, so usually if they're drafting for a year out, it will be someone that they can use as part of a rotation or who can start, um, or not start, but I mean, you know, that they can put in some sort of role. Uh, I don't see them doing that this year, especially with like, look at the moves that they've made. They've made moves to win that they're trying to win next year. They're trying to rebuild the defense and have it be very good again. They're trying to get back to the playoffs and compete. And part of that is probably because Zimmer and Spielman are feeling the heat.

So that makes me think, even though it might not be a crazy idea to draft someone to eventually replace Anthony Barr, probably not the way it's going to go. Right now, I look at this setup for the Vikings, the way they have it at this very moment and say left tackle, left tackle just makes so much sense. They let Riley reef go. They bring back Rashad Hill, but probably is just a one year can compete with whatever rookie. And then probably, you know, maybe when the job out of camp and then give the job up later, very similar to the Brian O'Neill situation, the Devante Smith thing would be such a change in direction from where they have been the last few years

that even though I want to do it and you're totally fair in telling me that I set the board up this way because maybe I did. I would do that in a heartbeat. I don't think there's any player that impacts the Vikings offense in 2021 more than Devante Smith. I don't know if there's a single player in this draft who makes them as much better as Devontae Smith would right away. You want to win now? You take Devontae Smith and you try to be unstoppable. And I mean, think about this too. Last year, Andrew Thomas was the fourth overall offensive lineman. He got roasted for like half the season. I mean, there were, there were offensive Lyman who stepped in and were very good. Jedrick Wills was good. Tristan Wirfs was good, but it's not a guarantee. So you could expect or project Rashad Hill to be pretty average based on his history.

He was good in 2017. And I think he's gotten a lot better since then. You can't really project if it's Rashad Slater. So if you are truly in win now mode, which they have shown to be, then I'm going Devante Smith here. If it's me, there's no question if it's me and Jake. Yeah. Chad BB is the number three wide receiver does not inspire a whole lot of confidence. It doesn't scare the pants off of teams on third down and long. Uh, you're right. Mike, you know, trade trading down with Miami makes a lot of sense. But is Miami going to trade up though? They seem to be the team that you probably can't fool with any of this. And I've done, you know, some trade down scenarios. I want to stay with this one right here. So that's where it gets really interesting. I don't think

that anybody else is really even in the conversation. If the ball, if the board falls this way, the other guys that you might think about, if they were going to stay at 14 with their pick, I don't think that anybody else is really even in the conversation if the board falls this way. The other guys that you might think about if they were going to stay at 14 with their pick would be Aziz Ojulari, the edge rusher out of Georgia. Not exactly a perfect fit for Zimmer, but he does have really long arms and very good technically. There's also Jalen Phillips, who does have great technique and looks like he could be a star. I don't know that he will be, but it looks like he could be like right away. Get, you know, seven, eight sacks right off the right off the gate.

Jalen Phillips looks like a really good player. So they could go with guys like that. But I think that, you know, Rashawn Slater is probably the pick here. The Rashawn Slater is the most likely guy that they would go with. So let's do this. Let's run through. Tell me if you agree with that. I think that that's the guy to go with, though.

Rashawn Slater, and if he's not ready right away, then Rashad Hill plays left tackle. That's who they would go with as my pick or as my guess. And my pick would be Devante Smith for this. And I think that he would be a game changer for their offense right away. And I like so many things that I see from him and I'm not concerned that he's only 170 pounds because I think he can get off the line of scourge. Alexander, if all the quarterbacks are gone, who wants to trade up with the Vikings? Someone looking for edge or corner. Hey, that's a good point. That like, what are you trading up with the Vikings for

when everybody knows that the back end or middle of this draft is very good? That's a good point. Usually you see teams trade up for, you know, somebody that's on that cusp of being a top 10 pick, but with the board all being bumped down because of those quarterbacks, I think a lot of teams will just kind of sit.

So let's kind of speed through this here before we wrap up. And this has been really fun, as always, guys, here on the Locker Room app. I've always enjoyed these. They're just good conversations that we have on these draft sims after dark. The New England Patriots, if they are completely left out of the party, would do what with quarterbacks? Maybe they're the ones to take Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa. Let's say that Belichick wants to get creative and he does that. The Arizona Cardinals, would they go with another wide receiver here to add to,

to kind of replace Larry Fitz to maybe replace? I think they'd go, I think they'd go with Devontae Smith. I don't think that they could pass him up. Devontae Smith, DeAndre Hopkins. I think they go, I think they go with Devante Smith. I don't think that they could pass him up. Devante Smith, DeAndre Hopkins. I think they go the offensive route with Cliff Kingsbury. So let's go with the Raiders. What's the craziest thing the Raiders could do? They would take Micah Parsons. I think I haven't studied every team past the Vikings. Really? I've been kind of more focused on who's before them and how it might fall. Let's go with Rashad Bateman to Miami. It makes a lot of sense to me. Football team, another team that's left out of the party, football team. That's too bad. What a shame. Let's see. Would they go with linebacker? Nick Bolton isn't one we talk about really ever on

here. Maybe they would go with a corner. JC Horn. Let's go with JC Horn to Washington. They'll go with a corner. Chicago. Oh, sorry, Chicago. Hate to see it that you ended up without a quarterback at number 20. What a shame. Trayvon Morig to Chicago because they lost their safety. So they're going to go there. Now we've got Christian Barmore slipping. Let's go Christian Barmore to Indianapolis. they keep bolstering their defense the tennessee titans lost all their receivers so they're going to take rondale moore uh let's go with let's see the new york jets who the new york jets want tevin jenkins makes a lot of sense for new york jets maybe jalen phillips they need someone to rush the passer now they're going to want to jack up around their around their quarterback tevin jenkins chicago long snapper whatever whatever chicago i mean yes like whatever the wrong thing is to do

chicago could absolutely do it you know another team that is looking for a future quarterback maybe i'll do this right here for pittsburgh is to give them let's see maybe i'll give them kyle trask i could see that six quarterbacks in the first round. Look, this is the reason you trade down is there are still so many good players on the board. So many good prospects, uh, Elijah Vera Tucker to the Jacksonville Jaguars. I mean, he's a guy that's being talked about as potential top 15. And yet here he is Jalen Phillips to Cleveland. Uh, you know who I'm just not sold on is Jason Owe who ran a four, three, nine, allegedly that was really something, but not sold on that a lot. I'm going to go Elijah Moore to Baltimore and we'll just, you know,

kind of buzz through this here. Saints, another team that could need a future quarterback. Let's see, would they take Kadarius Toney? Let's go with that. We'll get them another weapon for their bad quarterback situation, and then we'll go Green Bay. They're definitely not drafting a corner, are they? Let's go Samuel Cosme. They pick an offensive lineman.

Just keep getting guys who can hold. There you go. There's your Zimmer joke, right? Keep getting guys who can hold. Buffalo needs pass rush. Aziz Ojolari to them. The Kansas City Chiefs need offensive line. We probably go offensive line here.

Alex Leatherwood, maybe? Let's go Alex Leatherwood. And then we are on 32 and it doesn't really matter who the Tampa Bay Bucks go with. Cause they're just, they would, they could go with like Travis ETN and it wouldn't matter. Maybe that's, maybe we get 32nd overall pick again as a running back. Let's, let's do that. Let's say they'll go with Travis ETN because why not? So let's have, let's just have a

look I'm gonna run through it real fast then we'll wrap up for the night uh this has been real fun sorry it took forever for me to get to those final picks but here's the whole 32 before we say good night Trevor Lawrence number one overall pick Zach Wilson goes to the Jets number two Justin Fields taken number three by San Francisco Jamar Chase goes to the Falcons. Penny Sewell, Cincinnati Bengals. Kyle Pitts picked by Miami. Jalen Waddell, number seven to the Detroit Lions. Sorry, guys. Trey Lance ends up behind Teddy Bridgewater in Carolina.

Mack Jones to Denver. Caleb Farley to Dallas. Quiddy Paye to the Giants. Patrick Sertan Jr. are second to Philadelphia. Christian Derrissaw to the chargers. Vikings take Rashawn Slater. I think we're giving that an A, right? If the Vikings take Rashawn Slater, I don't think anybody can complain about the Vikings trying to get a franchise left tackle. Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa to the Patriots. Devante Smith to the Cardinals. Micah Parsons is drafted by the Raiders. Rashad Bateman goes to Miami.

JC Horn to Washington. Trayvon Morig taken by Chicago. Christian Barmore, Indianapolis. Rondell Moore to the Titans. Tevin Jenkins to the Jets. Kyle Trask to Pittsburgh. Elijah Vera Tucker, Jacksonville. Jalen Phillips goes to Cleveland.

Elijah Moore taken by the Ravens. Kadarius Toney by the Saints. Samuel Cosby by Green Bay, Aziz Ojulari to Buffalo, Alex Leatherwood to KC, and Travis Etienne to Tampa Bay. So there you go. A full mock, guys.

I didn't even open my Diet Dr. Pepper that I had here. That's how dialed in to this mock I was. So super fun time, guys. Always love doing this. These Thursday night, Thursday night, Saturday night, it's always around nine 30. Usually I tweet out the link. If you follow me on Twitter at Matthew collar, if you don't listen to the podcast, generally, I'm going to post this to the podcast feed. If you didn't catch all of it, or just if you don't listen to it, just search purple insider and you can listen to the podcast. And all right, things are getting exciting, guys.

Things are getting very exciting. Do I think that the Vikings trade up for a quarterback if one gets passed at nine? Kyle, I think that that scenario for Purple Insider podcast listening purposes would be a dream, but I don't think it's a dream that's going to come true. I just think they're going to roll with Kirk Cousins. I'm sorry. I think, but you never know. Brett Favre once played for

the Vikings. So you never know. That's where we're going to wrap it up. Thanks guys. I really appreciate all of you dropping by. This was a lot of fun and I just, I love doing it this way, picking all sorts of different ways to draft Sim and mock draft. So it's very fun and things are getting really exciting so take care everybody thanks for stopping by and we'll see you again when we do it thursday night take care