Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bradbury released. What are the Vikings going to do with their cap space?

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings releasing center Garrett Bradbury and what we can expect them to do with their fairly large amount of cap space. Another big signing on the way? If it's not for Rodgers, who? Plus, another week with the Vikings not talking publicly anywhere continues to raise questions.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here and the first words in the chat from Ben, please no more Rogers. I'll try. Ben, I will try. I did an entire podcast episode earlier today. If you want to go listen to it with Will Parkinson breaking down from a Jets perspective of what Rogers has left in the tank and whether my guy Will would have liked him to go to the Vikings if he likes that fit or likes how Rogers looks so I'll do my best that's the best I could tell you

because there probably will be questions and comments about Aaron Rogers that I may have to talk about. So we can get into more of who the backup might be as we go along in the conversation. Some of you want Joe Flacco. Okay. That's fine with me. I saw Ryan Tannehill's name floated. If he's still around, that's all right. You can talk me into any backup quarterback for JJ McCarthy, but it's backup quarterback for JJ McCarthy, but it's backup quarterback for JJ McCarthy, not anyone else playing quarterback.

If you want drew lock, if you want Sam Howell, sure, whoever you want, whoever you like is my favorite. Other quarterback for the Vikings, not named Aaron Rodgers. So we can get into that as well. But we do have some Vikings headlines for the day that I want to go through. First of all, Garrett Bradbury was released by the Vikings. I know the most common question about Garrett Bradbury.

Well, there's two common questions really. The first one is, well, if they could trade at Ingram, then why couldn't they trade Garrett Bradbury? But the way that trades work is usually if a team knows that you have to get rid of a player, they're not going to give you anything for him. And I think that that's probably the case here where with that Ingram, the Vikings did not have to get rid of it. Ingram, they had to have someone come get him from them.

They could have kept Ed Ingram as a backup for next year, but then, okay, well, that's the price you're going to pay. Then fine. We'll do it. But with Garrett Bradbury, the minute that they signed Ryan Kelly, that was it for Garrett Bradbury. And everybody else can figure that out along with you that that's going to be the case. So rather than trying to, you know, if you're the New England Patriots and you want Garrett Bradbury and they've been connected to him a couple of times, rather than them going out and saying, we'll give you draft capital and that's a team that's rebuilding and wants to hang on to their draft capital. Well, we'll just wait and then we'll make the biggest offer for him financially because

they have a good Jillian dollars in cap space still, even though they've been a big spender. That was the most likely reason, I think, that it worked out differently where the Vikings still had Ed Ingram under contract, under his rookie deal, and with Bradbury, even though it's not a huge expense, it still would be an expense.

And if a team thinks, well, we could get him for 950K if we sign him or whatever, it's the minimum for a veteran of his experience. Why take the contract that he's already on? Why not just take the cap space or the cap hit that we want to give him, which might not be very high at all. That's just my guess. I'm sure if they could have traded him, they would.

And the same was we kind of had this conversation with the Sam Darnold and franchise tag and trade. Like if someone offered it, then they would have taken it. You can't force people to trade for your stuff. So the most common other question is, why would they do a post June 1st? Now there's a couple of different reasons you might do a post June 1st. The, there's a couple of different reasons you might do a post June 1st.

The one that I see the most is they must have something cooking and you know, okay, we'll get into that. Maybe they do. It was a small amount of money that wouldn't have prevented them from doing anything. So if we're trying to make Garrett Bradbury post June equals Aaron Rogers is coming here or there's some huge trade on the way. I think that's a pretty big stretch because the 2025 cap hit for Garrett Bradbury, if they released him, wouldn't have gotten in the way of any structure of anything that they're going to do. If they're going to bring in Aaron Rogers, they weren't going to let that get in

the way. to bring in Aaron Rodgers, they weren't gonna let that get in the way. My only guess would be that because they don't need the cap space right now, because the thing is if you post June 1st, you don't get it till then, so they don't need it right now, that a dollar next year isn't worth a dollar today.

So think about it this way. I went to lunch with the wife, right? And we pay, let's just say we paid 75 bucks for lunch and it's a really nice lunch. And what if they came to me and said, okay, instead of paying for this $75 lunch today, if you pay it next year, you only have to pay $60 for it. Well, that's kind of how this works, where because the cap is going to go up, the dead cap that goes along with Garrett Bradbury for next year is going to be worth less dollars on the cap. It's going to be worth a smaller percentage on the cap.

So that's one reason that they could be doing it this way. That's actually really the only reason that I can think of other than that you carry over cap space and it doesn't really matter. So they have all this cap space this year and if they don't use it, then they can carry it over. The other thing is that because they have about $32 million in cap space now on over the cap.com. Once you start adding up like the things that they still need to do, they will need to sign a draft class, which I know it's going to be a small draft class, but you still need to sign it.

And they need a backup quarterback that will cost them some money. If Joe Flacco is showing up here, then he's going to want eight million bucks or something like that. And you're signing him to a one year contract. And then you're still looking at other positions on this roster that are open from a depth perspective. You're still looking for depth guys to bring in at a number of different spots. Maybe there's another interior offensive lineman, the left guard position could be one or wide receiver could be another one.

It they were supposedly somewhat at least in on Cooper Cup. So if you're looking at a Keenan Allen, a Tyler Lockett or whoever else, and it adds up pretty quickly and all of a sudden you're more at like 15 and you want to have a buffer. See, this is life with cap space folks. You want to have a buffer where if you're going into the season and you need to make a mid-season trade that you can do that because you've got the cap space and you could bring somebody else's cap hit in. So they may want to just be able to do that and have 15 to $20 million hanging around in case

there's a big star who needs to be traded. And think about what happened last year with the amount of teams that were really bad. Now the trade deadline didn't turn out to be insane, but there were a lot of teams that were really, really bad. And so they were able to, you know, to look at these tanking teams that might be trading people and at least have some options there. And that's what you could do if you have cap space is, all right, this team, they're getting rid of their big star.

They're losing. They don't want to keep him on the roster. So can you go trade for him? Well, you can only do it if you can fit him in the cap because you can't go over the cap in the season. You have to stay underneath the cap. So if you're trading for someone, it gives you options to not have to redo their contract

or whatever is part of the deal. You could just take on their money and that would be maybe another potential reason to carry over cap space. So it's good to actually have it. You don't have to spend all of it right now. And maybe there could be, like when you look into the future, maybe there's free agents for next year

that they have their eye on and think, well, if we carry over it next year, then that'll cut into some of these big contracts that the cap hits have gone up. And maybe there's some free agents that we think are coming up that could be interesting. Like there's other reasons than the next big trade is on the way or Rogers.

Like those things could happen. I'm not saying they're not going to. It's just that we can't really equate them having a little bit of cap space, meaning for sure, or June 1st thing a guy meaning for sure that there's a big move around the corner, but it does give them the space and the flexibility for them to potentially have a big move around the corner.

And this is the new life you live as long as Aaron Rogers stays out of here, as long as it's JJ McCarthy, That is indeed the new life you live So I can get your questions in just a minute. So keep throwing them in a chat and I will run through Questions and comments. There's a lot of space for that tonight since we don't have a breaking news story Jeff Okuda, by the way visiting the Vikings They are one of those teams that likes to take former first round draft picks, bring them in, give them a look. Uh, Jameen Davis was last year's that Marcus Davenport was kind of this who had had like a little bit of something here or there, but you know,

it really kind of been a bust first round or not a successful first round pick. There's a lot of teams that do this. Kansas city likes to do it. Uh, Dallas just did it with a bunch of guys. It's a common strategy. Uh, but I mean, Jeff Okuda has just not had a good career so far. He had that one good game against Justin Jefferson and maybe that's part of why. I mean, this always happens, right? There's, I don't know. This is a deep cut. Does anybody remember Anthony Zettle? The Viking signed Anthony Zettle because he had one monster game against them.

And I want to say like 2020, he had a big game against the Vikings and then he was in the next camp after he had gotten cut and hadn't really done anything all the time. This happens in the league. Well, this guy had a really good game against us. Maybe something's there, but Jeff Okuda should not, if he comes to the Vikings, be considered anything more than just a long shot. He has not worked out. Great college player, but at no point in the NFL has he shown that he could be a consistent, even average

player. Otherwise, with his talent, he would be on a team, into a contract teams never let it go that they love somebody in the draft So as far as ideas go it's fine But I just don't generally believe that these work very often Maybe somebody can give me examples of times where bringing in a complete random bust Who was a first rounder didn't work out then suddenly you snap the fingers and the guy is totally different It just doesn't happen very much. So I'm not against it. Yeah.

Bring them in for camp. See what happens. But I wouldn't put a lot of eggs in the basket with somebody like that. Uh, Rondale more visited another team. How dare you, Rondale more. How dare you? Did they not bring Rondale more in on the really nice summer days? Because there's been a couple of days today.

It was really nice summer days because there's been a couple of days today was really nice and like three days ago or two days ago is really nice but not the two days in between so maybe if you brought Rondale more in the wrong day he could be like forget this and then he goes to Chicago it's really nice there today he's gonna sign there i'm just joking but it seems that Rondale Moore is on a Rondale Moore tour and I wish him the best on that. I still like him as an idea, but I'm not over the moon about him as an idea. He had the serious injury and on paper, he looks like a Brandon Powell type of player, which is okay to have,

but it's certainly not game-changing. You can draft a guy like that. He just has never really become that lightning type of player, that big play threat. If they do it, I'm okay with it because, you know, if he gives you 40 catches or 30 catches, a handful of handoffs, some kick returns or something like that's nice. But if they lose out on Rondale more, I don't think they have to move the franchise to St. Louis. So we'll see if he signs here or somewhere else. Don't tell him I said that.

Maybe that would turn the tides. And where where the cap space goes, we kind of went over that a little bit. But I just think that it will go in filling these depth spots. And the one thing that they have not been able to do as a team, as a franchise in the last six, seven years since Kirk Cousins came here was to make that last key signing that at the time, and this is the Eric Wilson signing, it's maybe even the Jordan Mason trade, like that one extra person at a position.

If it's Rondale Moore, maybe it's him. Give him that one extra million, that two extra million so you get the guy and not somebody else. It's always been because they have been up against the cap. Well, you can't really afford it. So let's just bring in somebody, you know, whoever kind of off the trashy, but there are still free agents remaining. So I did want to run through, uh, just off that athletic top 150 list, a couple of guys

that could still be of interest potentially. I'm not saying that I know there's interest, but just if you told me the Vikings were interested, I would say, okay, uh, Tevin Jenkins is at the top of the list here for sure. There has been no reports of the Vikings being interested in Jenkins, but he is basically the only above average office of lineman left on the market. After McKay Bekton signed a very reasonable deal with the Los Angeles Chargers,

who I think are going to be a good team next year running the football. I mean, no doubt about it with that offensive line, but with Bekton off the off the market, Tevin Jenkins is really the last guy there. Rasul Douglas is another one who's a corner played for the Bills. He's 30 years old. I like the idea of another veteran corner coming in and competing and filling out this corner back room because I like Mackay Blackman from two years ago,

but it's two years ago and he played like 400 snaps. So I think another veteran and the Isaiah Rogers deal is good, but if you can add another 30 year old, somebody who's in the Stefan Gilmore type of mode, and maybe Stefan Gilmore will be that guy, and he will sign in August. I guess we'll see. He was fine for them last year, but maybe if he's not starting, he doesn't or isn't playing all the time. He doesn't want to do it.

So Rasul Douglas, Keenan Allen, you guys know, I've been interested in Amari Cooper a little less so, but I guess his wide receiver three, Asante Samuel's name comes up all the time. One of those guys that I think if they wanted him, they would have maybe already done this because he's younger and he should have had a lot of attention. Maybe he's holding out for something. I don't know. Uh, Brandon Sheriff has always been a right guard and Will Fries is a right guard, but man, if we could just get him or Will Hernandez

to play for the Minnesota Vikings, it would justify all of our conversations through all the years where those guys have come up. Tyler Lockett, yep, I'm in. I'm into Tyler Lockett. Kaleus Campbell, why not one more? Elijah Moore is another one. Elijah Moore is another one who's interesting to me.

Wide receiver, he's like 26 years old, total underneath guy, a gadget player from last year. Some of you have mentioned wanting Tyler Conklin back, Mike Hilton, the corner from Cincinnati. I know Amir in the comments has mentioned Jedrick Wills as a guy to take a shot at at left guard to come in and compete. I'm okay with that.

Akella Weatherspoon kind of killed the Vikings last year. So the point is that there are a number of players who are still on the market that are proven good NFL players and just have not found spots. Dalton Reisner might be another one and they have some places that they can use the cap space. Uh, one more thing. And I want to just like, just say this is total tongue in cheek, but since the internet is still ablaze with Aaron Rodgers, just a PSA here that if you have seen a Vikings coach,

executive or free agent, please call 1-800-PURPLE and let me know of the location. Let me know that they're safe. Let me know that someday they will be available to talk in public again podcast appearances tv radio print interviews press conferences anything that these free agents and executives coaches for the vikings might be able to do if they're out there and they could possibly speak to anyone. Just call one a hundred purple and let me know. Cause none of us have seen any of them. I'm just kidding. But every day that goes by that the Vikings don't talk to anyone at all.

None of them is like another day where the Rogers stuff continues to be the fuel and the flame. And people ask me constantly, what's going on with this? What's going on? I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you. They tell us when press conferences are and we go to them. But aside from that, I don't know.

Um, I mean, it seemed at first like logistical type of thing, and I'm sure that's what we'll be told. But I don't know that Kevin O'Connell has gone two weeks without doing any interviews or media ever. And I don't know that there's any team in the NFL who has ever spent this much money, signed this many players and had such an exciting off season for their fans and been nowhere to be found. I don't think that's ever happened that.

So, uh, that's what makes me continue to think that the Aaron Rogers discussion will dictate when it is that we see and hear from, uh, any Vikings players or brass and we'll all just continue to wait and have this conversation until then. But, um, for now, they remain on the back of milk cartons, I guess. Anyway, again, just joking around, but anytime now is fine. All right. Blueberry Sanchez wants Joe Flacco to the Vikings. Yeah, I can't say that Joe Flacco excites me at all.

But when we look at the remaining list of backup quarterbacks, I know you guys love quarterbacks. Everybody loves quarterbacks. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Everybody loves talking about quarterbacks. It's what we do here, but I'll continue to say if it's drew lock, if it's Joe Flacco, if it's Sam Howell It's all the same thing. If it's Brett Ripon, even it's all the same thing. It's all the same thing. At this point, there's no difference making backup quarterback.

I'm completely against James Winston. I don't want any person who is going to make noise. If it's Ryan Tannehill, that's totally fine. I would prefer somebody that has. Maybe experience in the playoffs or has played before. Joe Flacco would be that guy. Ryan Tannehill would be that guy. Whatever it's. Yeah, that's fine with me.

I know Sam Howell really lost himself. Probably some money last year when he got into a game when he was playing for Seattle and then just completely fell apart and wasn't prepared. So that probably hurt him. Drew Locke had his moment seems like a good vibes guy, but I mean, I don't know that for sure. Maybe they like him. Maybe they don't. I again, I don't want any backup

quarterback who's going to draw any attention to himself for the, it's a go about your business, be ready if they need you. That's why I was always fine with Sean Mannion. No, of course, I didn't want Sean Mannion to play any games, but it was like, whatever, man, if Kirk Cousins gets hurt, the season's over. And guess what? That's what happened in 2023. So the same thing goes here. At this point in the game, there are no backup quarterbacks that are going to be able to save you with Cooper rush signing with the Baltimore Ravens. The other thing with that position is because it does cost some money.

And you know, I'm saying this through gritted teeth. And you know what I'm going to say? The comp picks may play a role in this. They might be waiting for Cam Robinson to sign to see how much he signed for, to see what they can spend to make sure they keep the comp picks. It is a factor. I just try not to figure out what kind of factor it is. It's been asked that about Cam Robinson and guard, he's just not a guard.

It's just not going to happen. He is not a guard. That's just not how he plays. He is a very tall player. Like he, he doesn't get down low. He doesn't have a quick twitch off of the line of scrimmage. He's not explosive. It's been one of the worst run blocking tackles in the NFL.

He is purely a past protecting tackle. And I think that teams aren't paying him because of what they saw at the end of the year. I mean, at the end of the year for the Vikings, he was terrible. His last five, six weeks, he was honestly on the level of some of the tackles of the past. The Andre Smiths, the TJ Clemmings, like numbers wise, he was given up the same amount of pressure, the Matt Kalil's of those guys, he really, really struggled down the stretch.

And it's all on tape. And I imagine that there's no team that's going to come out and say, oh yeah, here's, you know, $25 million a year after that type of performance. And not only that, but it's not like he kind of left the best impression in leaving Jacksonville. He got benched for Jacksonville.

It just, you know, but he's definitely not a guard. And I don't think he's going to make a ton of money in free agency. Stephanie wants to know. Good to see you, Stephanie. Who's a backup center? That would be Michael Juergens, who they drafted in the seventh round last year. I got the idea that they liked what they saw from Michael Juergens because he was active. I never asked anybody. I will eventually about now that he's in line to play if Ryan Kelly has any injury issues,

which I mean we can sort of pencil in the possibility of Ryan Kelly missing some games at some point. Um, and if he does, then Michael Jurgens will be the next man up. So he'll get a little more attention this time around, but he was, uh, an active player over Dan Feeney, who was a veteran that's been in the league for some time, uh, Bradley can Walter Rouse play center. We've got, uh, Walter Rouse doing a lot of different things these days but I think he is much more of a guard for the future for them to move inside truly he's a tackle but there's just no room at the end a tackle where they brought in a proven guy in justin school and they have two of the best tackles in the league. So, uh, he's a prospect that they like, but I think they like him at guard. And he is a good athlete.

He was a basketball player and had a very good, um, a very good preseason. So I think he's somebody that they like. He may get into a competition at guard. I don't know that. Uh, but at very least he's, he's good depth if they need him, but he's not somebody that you're moving all the way into center. That's going to be Michael Juergens. Edwin says, how far can the Vikings trade back and still have Gray Zabel available?

I was drafts him in today. And I think that. There's a there's a lot of attention on interior linemen these days, and this is what makes it hard, because in a rational world where you do a draft simulation on PFF website, they're going to factor in the positional value in a traditional way in their draft board. So they're going to have those wide receivers pushed up, those tackles pushed up edge rushers and maybe even defensive tackles to some

point. But every drafts, am I do, I can get, I could get Gray Zabel in the second, I can get a lot of times like Derek Harmon at 24. I don't know though, because the league, everyone's talking about interior pressure and interior blocking. And there's so many teams that need offensive line that Gray Zabel might go a lot higher than people think, or maybe it'll stay a little more traditional

with the actual draft value. But I think when guards are getting paid, like Aaron Banks or like Will Fries, these big contracts, the ones that we saw for last year, that there's a very good chance teams see it as a worthwhile investment now to bring in somebody like Grey's able on a fairly high draft pick. So I mean, as far like your your mock drafters and your draft simulators and

there's the mock draft database are fissons does his consensus draft board i'm sure they're all gonna have grace able a little farther back to where the vikings are but i also wouldn't be shocked if there's one position the teams reach on and it is the interior office of line but he would be. A very high on my list, very, very high on my list for the Vikings for sure. Uh, Kurt Ploppy says, how much money do you want to keep on the books for something like mid season acquisitions to cover injuries? I was thinking somewhere around $15 million, maybe even a little bit more than that. So if you have a player out there who's got a fairly big cap hit, if it's a star, then you could just go out and get them and you don't have to make a whole lot of

adjustments. And yes, injuries are a factor. You have to bring in other players. And remember last year at the end of training camp, they signed Stephon Gilmore. Like you never really know which one of these guys is going to just hold like wait, hold out. I don't mean hold out in the traditional sense, but kind of wait, wait and wait. And then all of a sudden it gets into camp. It's like, Oh wait, I need a job. And then they sign them last minute and Stephon Gilmore, what a great last minute

signing, I mean, he played how many like 800 snaps on a team that had a top five defense last year, they always want to keep at least a good chunk if you can in the past years you couldn't but now you can. St. Perp possibility of maybe interest in Tevin Jenkins risk high risk high reward. Yeah, that's the one thing I just don't know about Tevin Jenkins. It seems like everyone is afraid of his injury history and they should be. He's never played a thousand snaps but you do get to a point where if you sign the guy and he plays if you have a good backup option if he plays 700 snaps like

okay that's still worth the money like 700 snaps of Tevin Jenkins for a one year or two year contract or something is worth it but you don't want to be doing that with guard and I think's, I'm guessing some fear when it comes to somebody like Tevin Jenkins, cause he's way too good of a player to still be on the market versus the type of guys who have been let go before. So, yeah.

Anyway, Alexander's guessing Rondo Moore failed the physical. Well, I don't, yeah, I don't know. I mean, we don't know. He might've come here and had a conversation. They told them how much they might pay and that was it. And then he went somewhere else and tried to find out how much they might pay. So uh, Alex says, if the Vikings made a big trade with the cap space, this, this is a

way to get me to talk about the trades. This is the way Alex, if the Vikings did make a good, uh, big trade with the cap space, this is a way to get me to talk about the trades. This is the way Alex, if the Vikings did make a good big trade with the cap space, which position would you target? That's a good question. I mean, I have an obsession with teams that have three weapons and I think you guys can appreciate it. It's been going back forever.

I remember arguing with people about Antonio Brown when Antonio Brown was having a crazed meltdown and I was like, I don't know. I think I'd still do it. And it's like, no, you can't still do it. And then he won the super bowl at Tampa Bay. I got, uh, see, uh, that wide receiver three position. My, my brain was harmed by watching, uh, Laquan Treadwell get targeted on fourth down by Kirk Cousins in 2018 while he had Adam Thielen and Stefan Diggs.

And so I'm always thinking, you know, one more wide receiver would not be a bad idea, but it might be on the defensive side for making a trade. Where would that go? Corner, right? Corner would have to be the place. That's why all of you like the fake sauce. Gardner a thing is probably corner because if you could put fire Murphy together with somebody really good, uh, then I think.

Yeah. I mean, I think your secondary would be unbelievable if that was the case. Uh, this is a good list here from Nick Ross, black lock, Joanne Williams. We brought it. Yeah. Jalen Rager. Thank you, Nick.

Yes. That's you're making my point exactly on bringing in somebody like Jeff Okuda. Like they've done this before and have not really seen it work out. Uh, Julio says, can it be possible the Vikings see something in Brett Rippon? Yeah, no, they like Brett Rippon. I don't think that that's fake. I don't think that that's fake that they like Brett Ripon. It's just that when he's played before.

As a really gone all that well, I think what you would like is to have somebody who's been through it in the league. Someone like Joe Flacco, who has just gone through the ringer of the NFL. He's won a super bowl. He just knows how it goes and can help with the game planning, help with the understanding of defenses, help with just the day-to-day stuff. Because I don't think any of us really can put ourselves in the shoes of a quarterback and the mental and physical exhaustion that is an entire NFL season.

Just look at how gassed these guys are, how many hits you take, how many defenses you face, how much criticism there is and all that sort of stuff. Somebody there who's been through it, I think could be pretty helpful to JJ McCarthy. I mean, not that he needs somebody to hold his hand. It's just, you always prefer that. I think every team with a, a younger quarterback, even like Carolina last year with with Bryce young that guy was going through it.

He wanted to get traded out of there and they're benching him and then he's only going back in because Dalton hurt his thumb but Dalton along the way is kind of that good soldier veteran guy and it's just one of a hundred examples of young quarterbacks with veteran backups that you like. a hundred examples of young quarterbacks with veteran backups that you like. Uh, Ben says Rouse at left guard draft, the left guard, Brando in year two as the starter or just the competition. How about that? Uh, just the competition and you could draft one of the third Tate Ratledge is a guy who's interesting to me from Georgia did really, really well at the combine. So let's say you draft one in the third round and then you have a full out competition, Blake, Brando, Walter, Rouse and draft pick X and whoever wins, wins.

That's another thing we've not had. When was the last time the Vikings had a serious competition for one of those spots, Nick Easton versus Alex Boone 2017 training camp? I really, I haven't remembered a serious competition. It was supposed to be Jesse Davis first and Ingram, but they had already decided they were giving it to Ingram and Jesse Davis was pretty banged up at that point and just couldn't really move. So in an actual, in earnest day to day rotating first team reps, best man

wins left guard competition. Let's go. Let's go. That's a good one from Aaron. Sign Tevin Jenkins to make your training staff work overtime. Oh buddy, they're gonna need to add like eight people to the training staff if they do that.

They've already got the Aaron Jones, the Jonathan Allen, the Javon Hargrave. There's a lot of guys that they are putting trust in this training staff to be able to work through that are over 30. I mean, some of the injuries are just bad luck. If you tear a pack or something, it's I mean, we've seen guys come back from that. It's just one of those. I don't know. A bad break for you.

But it's not like something that you expect to impact somebody long term. So there's all sorts of different injuries, but when you hear someone had a back issue, which I think was what Tevin Jenkins problem was, that's where you do get concerned. Like, ah, back injuries are not something that usually go away all that easily. The nightly Adam Thielen question, he resigned with Carolina. So as much as everybody likes bringing back old Viking players, he is not going to be doing that.

Kerpluppy says Pat McAfee was talking about Sam's contract being Sam Darnold's contract being essentially a one year contract. Thoughts? It is. Yeah. When you look at it on paper, really the full guarantees only go for one year. It's about $37 million. This is exactly the contract that I was talking about. If the Vikings wanted to bring him back. In fact, it was almost to a T.

I think I threw out there three years. This is because I asked an agent about what he would do with Sam's contract. But that's not the point That is kind of what I'm supposed to do but the what was told to me as a guess for Sam Darnold was three years 120 and it would be more like the actual fully guarantee more like what the Franchise tag is and that's basically what it. The little below the franchise tag, which is 41, I think,

and he's gonna get like 37. So it's a fake kind of three year contract that they can get out of after one. Had the Vikings wanted Sam Darnold or him wanted to be here, then that would have been exactly the type of deal he would have done. And if you look at the cap space that they have now, this was also kind of the point was they could always work this out to make it fit.

Like they could still build this same exact roster with what Seattle is paying Sam Darnold. It's just, did everybody want to do it? Like did Sam Darnold want to come back? And now it did come to mind with all this discussion about Aaron Rogers. Did come to my mind like, wait, did they want Sam Darnold want to come back? And now it did come to mind with all this discussion about Aaron Rogers did come to my mind, like, wait, did they want Sam Darnold back, but he didn't want to do it. And he wanted to go to Seattle and knew that that was an option. I don't know because the reporting was that they kind of did.

And I got the impression that they kind of didn't and wanted to be polite and make everybody think, yeah, oh yeah, we're considering it, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, maybe if they're considering somebody else, they did try to get Sam Darnold to stay, I don't know. I'll ask someone the next time I see them, which is going to be some time. Definitely. They have to, Kevin O'Connell has to do a sit down conversation at the owner's meetings, every coach does, but that does. That's two weeks from now.

So at very least we'll know then. At very least we will know then. But until then, can't ask that question. But yes, Sam Darn, I mean, look, Sam Darnold was never after those last two games going to get some sort of $50 dollar a year contract. Everybody saw what happened, but it's a reasonable contract for someone's very reflective of Baker Mayfield, very reflective of Geno Smith. It's similar to those where they were pretty sizable if the guy stays for three years,

but if he doesn't, then it is more of a one year contract that they can get out of if he does fall apart. So a good contract for Seattle and a good contract for Sammy if he proves it and everything is, I mean, think about the NFL. Who isn't year to year anyway, in the NFL is like 10 players who aren't really year to year with their contracts. Most of them are. Skywalking McCarthy, Linval Joseph is our run stopping defensive tackle. We got to come up with other players. Lin-Val Joseph's like as old as I am, I think. Seriously, I think he's like 37.

So that I don't think that he can really be Lin-Val Joseph anymore. Uh, I shot you 99. Where does Harrison Phillips land on the depth chart with two new DTs being plugged into a 3-4 defense? I just don't think of this as a 3-4 defense. I just think of it as Whoever should be out there on a particular play It's not like this defense has I mean you can think of it as Van Ginkle is a true old school outside linebacker and he is, he is a throwback to an old school three, four, and the way they had it set up last year with Tillery and Jonathan Bullard on the field, it was a little bit more of that five type of guys up front and you know,

you have the outside linebackers. So, but the three four just doesn't really exist in the same way that it used to So I look at it as they're gonna put whoever on the field is right for the situation on first down it'll be Harrison Phillips and Probably Jonathan Allen I think he's more of a three down type of player and then you're gonna see second down and long Javon Hargrave Jonathan Allen, maybe Harrison Phillips is off the field. So you when Harrison Phillips got here, he only, uh, I think played like 500 snaps a

year and was more of a run stuffing type. So when he's, I think in a situation where the other team is clearly going to pass, they will take him off the field, put Hargrave and Allen both on the field and maybe rotate some of those other guys in That's how I think it's gonna work is maybe Allen will play more of three downs But they could also bring back Jonathan Bullard They could also have Jalen Redmond on early downs play like first down in ten or third and short He was pretty good at getting into the backfield and stopping the run. So They've got a lot of options there.

And that's always Brian Flores and what he's going to do. He's going to put on guys on the field that are the best for that very specific situation and look and team, which they haven't been able to do at that position because they just didn't have guys. So they were saying, Jonathan Buller, go play 700 snaps.

And that was a lot for him or Jerry Tillery, go play all the snaps. That was just a lot for those guys to handle. But I think what we'll see is Phillips and the last couple of years, it's the same story with Phillips where beginning of the season, middle of the season, he's great. And then he gets worn down. Maybe this year they will not have that happen. Uh, draft Luther burden problem solved.

I'm down. I'm down. I've been sold on that. I've been sold on that idea If you try to sell me on more weapons, I will say yep. I mean I you guys all remember three deep You know it you know how effective it was If they have an opportunity based on all the things that they've done to bring in Matthew Golden or Luther Bird and the two wide receivers who could be there, it does a couple of different things. Number one, it just adds another problem for opponents and think about like Seattle drafted Jackson Smith in the jig ball when they had DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. You are allowed to look a year or two down the road. And when we look even into next year, there's a possible suspension for

Jordan Addison and when we look two years, there's a decision on Jordan Addison of whether to pay him. And as of right now, it's early in the off season, gonna have to make it through a full one first in order for him to end up getting that big contract. Eventually, like he's got to play well. He's got to keep his nose clean off of the field. They got to be sold on the guy to give him an extension. And even if they did and your three wide receivers are all really excellent.

I mean, that's just more help for J.J. McCarthy and the more help you can give J.J. McCarthy, the better you can do. J.P. North, why do you think they're taking so long on the quarterback decision? Give us some theories. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's not like they didn't know that Aaron Rodgers was available.

When did the Jets announce that they were moving on from him? I mean, it was weeks ago. Maybe it's a very hard decision. I don't know. How long did it take all of you to ask your significant other to marry you or something, right? Like that a while, I guess, I guess you thought about it pretty deeply. Maybe that's, maybe that's what's happened here is there's a lot of meetings and a lot of conversations.

Maybe somebody's trying to be talked out of something. I mean, this is, you're asking me to give theories. I mean, all those are theories that make sense. The reporting is that it's all on KOC. I find that tough to fully believe, don't you? That everyone's just like, do whatever you want. We have no opinions whatsoever. I'm bringing Aaron Rodgers here.

It's all you, pal. That seems like it's unlikely. So maybe it's just ongoing conversations within the building about whether to do it or not. Clearly they're talking about it. Otherwise we would have seen them out and about, and there's been multiple reports that they are talking about it. Not even just within the athletic and their two reporters who have been banging the drum. So that would be my guess is that it's something that you got to have

many layers of plans for how much you're going to pay him. It could be that it also, I mean, it just could be like Aaron and his list of demands, which friends of Aaron Rogers do you have to sign? If Aaron Rogers comes here, you know, there's going to be some. Is it going to be Alan Lazar? Does he have to be a Viking or you can't do it? Is it does he want two years and they're trying to talk him into one year? That could also be a thing like it could be a negotiation issue.

I don't know what is taking so long, but until we do this thing, then, you know, we're just, we're still going to sit in the dark until there's either a JJ McCarthy declaration of quarterbackness or there's somebody who comes out and talks and says, yeah, he's our guy. Or Aaron Rodgers is signed like we're not going to know. We're just going to sit and wait. Uh, go wolves. Wolves have been playing well lately, haven't they? Uh, Tyler Booker fills in so nice at our left guard spot. He played left guard at Bama next to a stud left tackle like he would with Darasa.

Yeah. Booker hurt his stock for sure at the combine, but that also might be something that ends up helping the Vikings potentially. They say that they love Tyler Booker and his tape, but then he goes to the combine and doesn't do very well. I mean, you're going to stick with the tape more than the combine. And if you love his play style, his physicality, his size, all that stuff, more

than you care about what his 40 was, then you might be able to move down and get him because he's not going to get drafted quite as high because of the 40. And it's weird that, but this has been studied. It's true that teams will overdraft for a 40. They will draft based on a 40. Kevin Cole, uh, analytics guys looked at this before about like players who ride or he has done this players who rise because of their forties and Benjamin Robinson and grinding the mocks does a good job at tracking

like what draft analysts say. And if someone has a good 40, then their stocks going up. I mean, it's, it's interesting that way because I don't, I, the, the league shouldn't ever just look at a 40 and be like, oh yeah, okay, he's been, he ran really fast, but guys have been wildly overdrafted because of it at times. And maybe you think about Orlando Brown, his stock dropped significantly down to the third round as an offensive tackle, had a really good career as a left tackle, but he had a terrible combine and that seemed to to weigh, uh, you know, on his draft stock trash boat says betting odds.

You guys have some great names. Uh, I don't even want to ask what that one's about. Betting odds have the Vikings is the lowest chance to win the division. Do you agree more locker motivation for KO to use this year? Yeah, I guess. I mean, last year he did the no one believes in us, but it was actually true, like no one did believe in them. And this year, I guess if it's McCarthy, he could still say that

if they have the lowest betting odds, I mean, maybe two years in a row, the same message is a little tough to swing when they've been one of the biggest spenders. I don't think they should have the lowest betting odds. I think they should be second. The Packers is really a name only at this point. It's just they're the Packers, so they couldn't finish last. Right. But also quarterback uncertainty is always going to do this. That's what it was last year, and that's what it would be this year.

Bradley says they're just too busy with the signings. I mean, every other team has run out their free agents for conversations. It's like, I don't know. I saw Kyra's Tonga do a press conference. They can't be that busy. It doesn't, look, I'm not mad about it. I'm just saying it's never been done this way before

and they've never been connected seriously to Aaron Rodgers before. You know, I don't have to put on the tin foil hat for this one. I'm just joking around with the like call one 800 purple because it's such a big conversation. Like where are these guys? Uh, okay. Got a sponsor read for you want to continue answering questions.

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You think they're betting someone will pick up his contract mid season. I think that what they were waiting for. This is just a guess. I don't fully, I luckily I haven't followed it that closely, which is nice, isn't it? And it does feel like what you're saying though could be accurate where Kirk Cousins would refuse to waive his no trade clause until he got his bonus. And then after and dare them to cut him and take that huge cap hit. So then once he gets his $10 million bonus, great, I got my money. Now I'll wave my light. You know, his agent is a beast. His agent is welcome to operate this

show and represent me anytime he wants. Mike McCartney, what a monster. And I've asked people at other agents to think like, is that guy that is like, is he as good at his job as they say? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He's the guy. So playing chess with Atlanta and getting his bonus so then he can then accept the trade somewhere else. That seems to be how it's going. Uh, Taylor, I'll continue to make the pro bowl. Tyler Huntley jokes. He's made one more recently than Rodgers.

OK, that's funny. That is funny. That's definitely funny. I mean, Tyler Huntley, fine. Yeah, I told you guys could talk me into pretty much any. Any backup will be fine. Can't get drew lock. Have you seen the wrapping videos? Yeah, I mean, that was when he was in Denver when he was playing.

I don't. Drew Lock, I don't think is a problem. I don't. I mean, I haven't seen anything that would suggest to me. He came in for the Giants and played. He came in with Seattle a couple of years ago, and I think he won a game or played well. All I need from a backup is if your quarterback is out for a month, step in and keep the train on the tracks, be able to still make the playoffs. James says with the cap space available, what positions would you recommend to the Vikings brass that they solve now?

Or would you prefer to put some cap space toward paying off some contracts early or just to carry it over to next year and help with the cap hits? I mean, this is another cap hack. You create a lot of space for this year. You push a lot of it into next year, which if you look at these contracts, there are big cap hits for Byron Murphy, for Will Fries, for Jonathan Allen,

big cap hits for 2026. But if you carry over your cap space, then those cap hits become less or restructures become easier or whatever it might be or more beneficial. That could be it. But if we're talking about what positions the depth chart has been filled out pretty well here for starters. And that's why another wide receiver is on my radar and a corner would be on my radar. And you can never, there's some positions that really,

you can never have too many of them corner is definitely one Defensive line is you know, maybe another rotational rusher I know they have Dallas Turner But if you get another guy who might be on the older side or something or or the left guard position if they're waiting For some things to play out the backup corner is gonna cause you know cost some money or backup quarterback is gonna cost some money. So It'll get used they won't to cause, you know, cost some money or backup quarterback is going to cost some money. So it'll get used. They won't let it just, you know, oh, yeah. Michelle asks how much cap space do they need for draft picks and extra during the season?

I would think for draft picks this year, it's not that much. It's probably five judging on where they're drafting is probably five to seven million. And then during the season, I'd like to have 15 in case they make a big move. So maybe they spend half of this on a couple more players, a couple of more depth type of signings, older players who could come in and make a role in that kind of thing. So. Mr. Mayor

Why was keeping Bradbury's a backup seemingly totally unconscionable to everyone in the Vikings media space? It's not like he was that expensive, right? Yeah, I think the reason is probably this is just a guess That they I mean you're right. They didn't make a huge amount of cap space for this year. So that is true. Probably that they like Michael Juergens in that role as being their backup. And here's the other part of it too.

As much as I have defended Bradbury throughout the years, and I think he improved under KOC, uh, there was a stat that Nate Tice put out there that he had the worst rate of losses and the eye test certainly matches up with this. One-on-one, the worst rate of losing one-on-one of anybody in the league. I mean, I think they just want to move on and look for guys who are going to be able to pass protect at that position. Ryan Kelly is a starter and then Michael Juergens, I think they just want to move on and look for guys who are going to be able to pass protect at that position. Ryan Kelly is a starter and then Michael Juergens, I think they're hoping is going to be better, but it's not hard to be better from where Bradbury was as a pass protector. He was legitimately one of the worst pass protectors in the league.

Just, just time to move on, let him go get another job and go from there. And the other thing is too, that this team, they do stuff sometimes out of the culture, out of do what's right for the players. And they're not out here handing out participation trophies and stuff. And it's, you know, they're playing football and they got to cut people sometimes that you don't necessarily want to cut. But at the same time, Garrett Bradbury could be a starter in the league. Someone will pick them up to start them. If you keep them here and then you keep them as a backup and you already have

another guy that you like, that's a backup. Why not just let them move on? Get your few bucks of cap space, that kind of thing. I understand what you're saying. I'm not dismissing what you're saying. Like that happens all the time and depth is important. And Ryan Kelly is also somebody that gets hurt. So I just think that they were so frustrated with the struggles in past protection at the end of the year that it was just time to look for somebody else who can be more of a Ryan Kelly type of clone rather than having a totally different player have to pop in there. All those things could be the thing. Uh, false profit is what type of corners fit Flores scheme and the draft this year. I love Murphy, but he's not really a press man on an Island corner.

I don't think anybody really is anymore. When I look at the numbers for how often man coverage is played, there's only about five or six guys who are playing man coverage more than 40% of the time. The league has just gotten to the point where if you play man, you know, they used to have that like cover three and that kind of thing, but it's gone away. If you've played just man with most guys,

they're gonna use motion, they're gonna use bunches, they're gonna use, you're gonna have these freak wide receivers who are great route runners. You're going to get toasted a lot of times in man coverage. So that's why most teams are playing in the zone. And there's a handful of guys, the DJ read, but they get penalized all the time too. If you play man a lot, you take a lot of penalties. So you got to be like Patrick's or tan.

You got to be Jalen Rams. You got to be great at it. But I get what you're saying that he's not that way. I like Trey Amos. That's my favorite corner in this draft so far. Siobhan Revelle is another one who has maybe a high upside because of his athletic ability. He got hurt last year.

That's somebody that they could look at. There are late first round guys that could be there. Amos, though, I mean, I don't I don't look at any of these guys and go, whoa, he's a lockdown like Travis Hunter is the only guy in the draft who is that type. But I do like Amos because he's bigger. He makes plays on the football. He's played a lot and is a good tackler.

Kind of fits like the Brian Flores. But I think, I think Flores is going to play zones. I think he's going to be a zone, more of a zone defense because that's what everybody is. So if you draft for that shutdown guy, and if he's not incredible and he's not good at playing zone, then you're actually kind of losing on that decision.

It might be better to get guys who have played in zones. Jay says, what if they're waiting on the Packers to release Jair Alexander? I would not really be down with Jair Alexander, but maybe again, one of those, hey, if the guy kills you, then he's going to be somebody your team is looking at. Bring back Xavier Rhodes. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is like Xavier Rhodes, Xavier Rhodes would not be as effective right now as he was years ago. He would still be really good, but not in the same way because even in 2017, it's now we're now separated quite a bit from 2017 and the league has changed stylistically where

he was islanding against Julio Jones, Antonio Brown. Those teams now would have had those guys going in motion all day, trying to get away from Xavier Rhodes. They'd be lining up in bunches, different splits. I mean, they did some of that stuff, but now it's to the extreme. Like after remember what happened in 17, the Rams came in and ran motion on like every play and they ran those fake jet sweeps all the time and they messed with the league and then everybody copied it after that. And that made it so much harder on cornerbacks to just be that type of line it up and be that guy.

Should the Vikings bring back Jaren Hall? You guys love bringing back people. Jaren Hall to me was not an NFL quarterback. He was, he handled himself really professionally, but from what I saw from his practice and the time that he started, it was just going too fast for him. I just, yeah. Bring back Teddy. Okay. We're going to need some funnier, bring back answers. I mean, Taylor Heinecke might be a funny answer. I know he's, he signed West Lunt, Danny Etling. Uh, case Cook is, is obviously the funny answer. I know he's he signed West Lunt. Danny Etting case Cook is is obviously the funniest answer. Maybe you could go Bubby Brister. Todd Bowman had a minute there.

There's a lot of funny answers of who to bring back. If you want to throw some in there feeling next year, that's good. I am not Alexander. I'm not working on another book at the moment. We just had free agency. Tom Compton to the rescue. Yeah. Let's see.

No, noob. Alex says, is J.J. McCarthy not going to be ready or already a bust or something? Why haven't we come out and support him as the day one starts? Great question. I will, uh, be sure to ask it when I get the opportunity. I mean, Caleb asked something along the same lines. Do you think that they're not as high on McCarthy as they make it seem?

I don't know. What is your gut feeling? I mean, my, if, if they're considering Aaron Rodgers the reason that they would be doing it is because Kevin O'Connell would look at Rodgers and watch his tape from last year and say if he was with me and He was with Jefferson and we had the offense that we have now and the offensive line that we can win a Super Bowl. I Don't think that an Aaron Rodgers decision would be about JJ McCarthy. Everything that I have heard and seen in front of my face on McCarthy and training camp has all said that they love what he brought to the table last year

behind the scenes, his attitude, attitude his work ethic all of that I mean I think about the first test a lot of times I can get a lot from a young player just their first test do they pass it and One of the first tests is always how do they come back from OTAs? Because they get there and they're all excited We're in the NFL now and then they do OTAs and mini camp and those meetings. And they're like, Oh man, that was a lot. Do you come back prepared for training camp and put in the work ethic, or do

you kind of go on vacation, hang out, not really look at your playbook, JJ McCarthy and his improvement during that time said a lot about what he's going to be and then how much he improved during training camp, how he led the team. There's, there is a, and this comes from college and you've seen it, everyone's talked about it. Like he has a vibe to him that people really like and that teammates respond really well to all that stuff. The only thing I don't know. So I can tell you all that, that they are that high on all of that, the way he threw the football, the velocity with which he threw the football

the accuracy improved The day-to-day how he responded from mistakes all that stuff. They loved all that stuff. The only thing I don't know is the knee That you know, Kevin O'Connell has said that the knee is fine and the recovery is fine, but we don't I don't have his charts Somebody wants to bring it out to me. I can take a look at it, but I don't, you know, I don't know that. I think it's more about Rogers and less about McCarthy because they still know that they're going to have two more years. And this is if they did it, that they're going to have two more years of his

rookie deal. So kid wait one more year for this opportunity of a lifetime for one year to go and play with Aaron Rodgers and give us, give it a shot, right? That would be the explanation. I don't think it's about not feeling excited about, um, JJ McCarthy. General soreness. How long can the league fart around before announcing a suspension for Addison? It's not the league it's Addison. He has continued to, uh, I should say his lawyers, he's not doing this.

Uh, they've continued to bump back court dates and they had some sort of date. And now you're testing my memory from what Kevin Seifert reported, but there was some sort of recent date that was set for them to have a pre-date Trial thing or whatever these they take forever this stuff and sometimes Lawyers know how to drag it out until it disappears, but we'll see so it's not the league It's it's gonna be they're going to wait. And this is this is precedent. They did this with us. The last player who was suspended for DUI was on the Saints and the league waited until that player. There was a ruling and then they suspended him for three games.

So it's going to be probably still some time there. Son of Beavers, could you see a C. a CJ Mosley is some veteran depth? Yeah, I think so. He's that type of player. That's what I mean about maybe we have reached the point where they will wait on other signings and after May 1st and you guys are going to love this after May 1st, I believe you don't have to give up comp picks after May 1st. So sometimes that's when these signings happen is we'll get that mini camp signing where we go, oh yeah, they brought that guy in during mini camp. And it's sometimes it's just because it's after that deadline where you don't have to do the mini

or the comp pick thing. So they could wait on somebody like that for a little bit longer. And that might be one of the reasons to just hang around with this, with the salary cap space is to just make sure that that guy who's still out there in May or before training camp that you could sign him or in the case of uh, somebody like Stefan Gilmore deep into training camp, cause he didn't want to come to camp and he was staying in shape at his house or whatever. because he didn't want to come to camp and he was staying in shape at his house or whatever. Uh, let's see. Freaker be the speaker. That's, that's a, that's a good one. What's the thought process of why KOC even wants Rogers and his cancer in the

locker room? I think with Rogers, I don't think that he is like the worst teammate or something. It's just that it's always something with him. It's the circus in town, the number of interviews and stuff that he does. His explanations for everything that it's just always kind of causing some type of drama, my understanding from where he fit last year was not that he was a bad. Teammate. It was more of just, it's always going on.

You can never escape it. It weighs on everybody. And he, and he's just not good enough for it to do that anymore. I mean, when he's winning the MVP, you don't care about when he's not winning the MVP, you do. And you can't tell me that this wasn't part of it. And I know there was some drama with like the Flakegate and stuff, but you can't tell me this wasn't part of the Brady and his success is that

they just was never a thing with Brady. I know the Flakegate. And he was the they would try to make a thing out of Brady sometimes, but it wasn't like this it wasn't like endless headlines and Rogers is a political figure like it or not. He's a political figure at this point It just brings way more to the party than you're ever gonna have with any other quarterback Because he's gone past he has transcended just some guy in a locker room. That's what I'd be more concerned about than how he actually acts inside the

locker room. Cause I think he's probably just a regular football player when he's there. But even then, I don't know. I don't know. There's been some strange stories there. So, uh, tie to skull says, uh, with Kelly's injury history, do you think the Vikings will draft a center? Should they draft a center?

They might draft somebody with positional flexibility, like a guard slash center, but I think Juergens is the guy that they like. And so he'll probably be the backup. And if he can be like a Mason Cole or something or an Austin Schlotman that can fill in, yeah, you'll be fine there. Matt, you're funny. If Chris Thomason was here, he'd be knocking on Quacey's door. That's funny. Chris is a dogged reporters.

No doubt about that. No doubt about that. Good friend and dogged reporter. Is Will Johnson sliding? Evan asks thought he was a top 10 pick. Doesn't seem that way. Now. Yeah, it doesn't seem that way.

Now. Now that seem that way now. Yeah, it doesn't seem that way now. Now that of course always depends. Like who you buy, like if the draft analysts are not as high on Will Johnson, because he didn't go to the combine and do his workouts, cause he's got an injury, is that what happened? Right? If that's, that might hurt his stock on the outside world,

it might not hurt his stock inside the league. The stocks falling and rising are kind of an invention from the outside. Mostly, right? I mean, in the league, they've been scouting these guys for two years, so they're not coming in and going, you know what? I think the combine will have this magic effect. Sometimes if somebody goes nuts and there's maybe two or three players a year or a late round player who everyone thought wasn't a good athlete and suddenly was or a Matthew Golden

who everyone thought was maybe pretty fast and then it turns out he's insanely fast things like that things like that will happen but for the most part the league has figured out a lot of their draft stuff and is having draft meetings and all that and solidifying their board and then it's kind of on the outside who hears one thing that this guy's rising this guy's falling so i don't know but it doesn't seem like there's as much hype on will johnson is there was so that could be somebody the vikings look at. look at. I shot you 99 with a super chat tip of the cap for that really appreciate that. If the Vikings are this gun shy about starting McCarthy just call Jim Harbaugh and trade a first in a first round pick for Justin Herbert. Yeah, the Vikings did make that call last year. Reportedly reportedly they did make that call about Herbert and they were told, no, we're good. Justin Herbert's pretty good at football. We'll see if they can build enough around it, but he's not a guy that you move on from. He's what you're hoping McCarthy becomes, where if you get good enough coaching and you get a good enough supporting cast that he is going to have you in the playoffs every year.

And one of those times it's going to work. I tend not to really believe, and I'm sure there's some of it, but history just tells me not to believe this guy can't win in the playoffs. This guy can't get it done. I mean, do you know how bad Eli Manning was in his first couple of starts?

And then he turns out to be Mr. Clutch. So I think they'll just keep, if you, I've always looked at it this way. Now you, now you've got me into this thing. There's Brady, there's Manning, there's Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, the best three or four quarterbacks of a generation will get 10 shots at winning a super bowl. They'll be so good every year that they're going to have every single season.

They're going to be deep in the playoffs. They're just going to be there because they're that good. And that's how this sport works. The next level down will have maybe five Eli one, two of his Matt Stafford won his one. That's a, that's a quarterback who gets five shots at the Superbowl on a good team. I know Stafford didn't have a good team, but Joe burrow is a guy that's going to get five shots at a Superbowl, right? In his career, he made

one already. He'll probably make another one at some point, but he's not flawless. That's where Herbert lives. That's where most quarterbacks who are really good live. That's where if JJ McCarthy gets to, you've had a majorly successful draft pick and you're kind of looking for, because I mean, icon is unlikely. So that's what you're kind of looking for because I mean, icon is unlikely. So that's what you're kind of looking for. Does this guy give you five shots to win a Superbowl? I think Herbert will eventually with Jim Harbaugh, which is why they won't trade him. That's the point.

Uh, while he says PFF had them at seven and their power rankings for early post free agency. Yeah. I mean, I you're talking about the the odds. I don't think I really maybe went far enough into that because I think that the Vikings belong in second place in the odds right now. First of all, the Bears got to prove it. Their quarterback got sacked 68 times last year. They got to prove it. They shouldn't have any odds higher than it, but they did this last year.

They love the Bears. They always do. They always overrate the Bears in Vegas every year and As far as the the Packers they just haven't done a whole heck of a lot in this free agency to make a difference and If they're running the same roster, then it's probably a 10-win roster or 11-win roster for them, which is okay But then you know things, things gotta go right. Uh, Sean says any chance we could get a second and maybe a fifth for Addison. There's, there's really no reason to trade Jordan Addison.

I, I think you guys, you guys just like trades. I know. Cause I do this on Madden too. When I get a team, what do you think the first thing I do is I sim the season, I tank, put the punter quarterback. And then what do i do when i get to the off season i trade for all sorts of people but i'm not trading jordan adison for draft picks he's got two years left on his rookie deal and he's really good. A nine hundred yard receiver who could go down the field and track the ball like that is worth twenty million dollars in the NFL how much better to get Higgins is a great receiver. How much better is T Higgins than Jordan Addison? Is he maybe he's $5 million better? I mean, he's he's going to make 28 a year. Like this is a valuable thing. Receiver on a rookie

contract is like a quarterback on a rookie contract at this point. So you did not a good idea to go trading people like that.