Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down each Vikings Day 3 pick

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic react to the Vikings' draft picks on Day 3, which included a reach at a key position, a Golden Gopher who was surprisingly their first edge rusher and a sixth-round receiver that takes us back to wondering why the Vikings didn't pick a receiver earlier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 🎵 Hello, welcome to your super hardcore, incredibly serious breakdown of day three of the Minnesota Vikings draft. Matthew Collar along with Paul Hodowanek. Now, really, I was not on, what was it, six conference calls for no reason? Well, and much more, including Viking scouts and Kweisi Adafo Mensah. So a lot learned today about the Vikings draft class in day three. And let's just start by saying this. It's got to be a disclaimer right off the bat, Paul, that what the consensus board says about day three players,

eh, like I get it, I get it, and I get what the numbers say about it, but also and on that it's more i think something that we focus on in the top 50 when teams are reaching from the fourth round up into the second or up into the first that that would matter and that would tell you something but every team has their preferences for guys so if someone is 170th and they took them at 120 i don't think there's any reason to go oh man quacey just go back to cleveland what are you doing uh but we have learned a lot about these players and so we're going to go kind of guy through guy where they might fit in what our first impressions are of the draft pick and i guess guess if you want, Paul, since you are the hardcore grinder of the group here

and the draft columnist, the official draft columnist is what we should be calling you as opposed to professional Paul. What did you think of day three? Yeah, like you said, I think part of the thing we have to remember about day three specifically is you're trying to find developmental guys that really fit like your system. Like your system becomes kind of important in just like, can this guy like fill a depth role in our, on our roster?

Can this guy be a nice potentially fill in guy that comes in for a couple of games for our team? And so when people are ranking draft boards, they're just ranking them very generally, but the Vikings may have a specific set of what they're looking for in a player that really fits a day three grade. So yeah, I saw a lot of that on Twitter and I was looking at it too. Like, Hey, maybe did they have a great sense of the value? But to me, this was kind of just chock full of a typical day three, uh, projection picks at tackle projection picks at wide receiver projection picks at tight end projection picks everywhere. And that's really what day three is. You're not finding immediate starters. It's hard to break down in detail if you agree with a fifth round pick or not, because I mean, flash forward four months, there's a chance one, two of these guys just aren't even on the roster anymore

when training camp closes like that's what you're dealing with in day three so day one day two you can really break down uh the person and if they reached and if it was positional value made sense but in the third as long as you take a couple guys that look like they have some shots to be good or a couple guys that can fill out your depth i think you do it you know you're doing pretty well and so it's hard to critique much of what the Vikings did on day three uh so yeah in in general it was just kind of another day for the draft it it's funny that it ended up at 10 picks that's the the roundabout uh we know Rick Spielman always wanted to end up with 10 picks that completes our metaphor that I'm sure we'll go back to of not much feeling like it changed.

Kweisi traded back several times today. That was a part of the joke. But yeah, not much crazy analysis on if it was the right corner that they took or if it was the right wide receiver. It's day three. And if you can find one starter of that group that plays for you for a couple of years, that's pretty much a success. If you find any more than that, you're really doing well. So we'll see. But I, I thought,

you know, they filled that out with a wide receiver, which we liked. They added a couple more weapons, potentially not a lot to complain about on my end yeah i mean the rules are just different for how we break it down when it even comes to trades i think that it was reasonable to wonder if they did the right thing trading up to get andrew booth jr considering his injury history and also how they had traded down like in the first and second round because first and second rounders are the ones who really shape out your team. And then everything else is just rolls of the dice. So, you know, yesterday we talked a lot about them taking a guard where they did, who is a reach on the consensus board, who has background issues like those are really important picks. And we've seen second rounders turn into huge players for this team.

Delvin Cook, Brian O'Neill, Irv Smith, like second rounders are a big deal and you can't take too many risks with those guys. And you have to manage very carefully the way that you handle your draft capital. Now, once you get to the fourth, I mean, I'm trying to think of how many players and Cam Bynum might be one of them, but of course the Vikings still drafted a safety

despite having a fourth round safety that was set to start in that position. But I'm trying to think of how many guys since I got here in 2016 that were drafted past the fourth round that ended up having meaningful snaps. And the answer is not that many. Or there were a lot of guys that got on the field, but didn't do a whole lot. Like your Troy Dyes of the world or your Jaleel Johnsons of the world. And then they ended up, you know,

either down on the depth chart or just on some other team or in the USFL or wherever they might be. So that's the reality of day three. But what we will try to do here is project where someone could fit in. And also we'll kind of try to call our shot at which one of these guys could be the one or ones that have some success and work out to And I would just add that when you go through

and look at the middle rounds of some of the really good teams, you usually have to hit. And the first Zimmer iteration hit on the 2015 draft. It made a huge difference. So if they were able to identify some guys here, they could be valuable. So let's start right out with pick 118,

a Caleb Evans, a cornerback from Missouri. Now this is one where the consensus folks and you know, the PFF big board and the NFL.com, they all said reach big reach. Um, Kweisi Adafo-Menza talked about watching a Caleb Evans, and maybe this is the pick that he wants to be sort of the Kweisi can scout draft pick. Cause he talked about watching him and wondering like does everyone think that this guy is a really good prospect and that's why the Vikings moved up to get a Caleb Evans I would say this that just in general that taking middle round corners is a

good idea especially someone with a good athletic profile who's on the taller side that maybe doesn't project necessarily some shutdown corner but quacey talked after about how you just need people you need human beings playing corner because what happens when you end up with chris jones in there tony pollard runs right by him for an easy touchdown or what happens when you have chris boyd in there he gets smoked or you know whoever it might be and the Vikings have struggled with that in recent years so just on its face of the position that Caleb Evans plays I say that is a good idea that's something you should do even if the draft analyst world did not have him ranked very high yeah I think my only one criticism would be they traded up

and they gave up a 2023 fourth round pick in the trade up. And I would just say in general, trading up in the mid and late rounds is maybe just kind of a buyer beware situation because like they made it that far for a reason and no one else felt like they really needed to get up there. So I feel like for the Vikings, it was probably they had a tier of cornerback that they still wanted to grab from. And Caleb Evans maybe was the last guy on that tier or something like that. And they wanted to get a guy that they probably situated in a tier of players that these guys could potentially start for us. And this was kind of the last one and they wanted to go get one. So the only thing would be, did you have to trade up to go get a guy in a mid round? But this is kind of quasi calling a shot. He talks about it in the

press conference that he really, really likes him. And so if you've got that guy, you might as well go up and get him in the fourth round. If there's someone you really feel good about, might as well just go up and get him instead of just waiting, taking as many draft picks as you can and maybe hitting and swinging on one. If you feel like you have a 50 chance to hit on this one where if you waited 20 picks you only have a 30 chance all right it's fine go up and get one so yeah he i think we kind of saw the type of at least the type of secondary player uh quacey and this new draft regime and this new coaching staff will want for long guys long wingspans athletic caleb evans is another guy just like that him seen and booth all have above like above average wingspans above average arm length two of them are above 32

inches which is often kind of seen as a cutoff for teams that like long armed cornerbacks so this kind of fit the mold of the type of secondary piece that they had added in the first day and it makes sense that they added another athletic guy and if we're just talking about the mold of the type of secondary piece that they had added in the first day. And it makes sense that they added another athletic guy. And if we're just talking about the types of guys you want to take shots on in the later rounds, it is those athletic guys that are a little less polished that won't have to play right away that you can coach up because you can't coach up like their size and their, you know, their jumping ability and their speed. And a Caleb Evans seems to have a lot of those boxes that you'd want to check. So yeah, I, I, it was an initial reach by what people would consider, but if Kweisi feels super strongly about it, it's the right position. It's the right athletic makeup for a guy. So no complaints with, with their round four pick. Yeah. You know, I think that when it comes to Kweisi Adafomensa versus trade value charts, I mean, what a battle for the ages.

We have tried now for three straight days to figure out, and hopefully some analytics people smarter than I am with math can give me a definitive answer. Like, did he win all the trades? Because there were a lot of them. And yeah, giving up the next year's fourth means you must really think that there's something there. And it's an overconfidence play to think that, you know, a fourth means you must really think that there's something there. And it's an overconfidence play to think that, you know, a fourth rounder is really good. And we've seen them do this before. Jalen Holmes was the guy that they kept trading back because they knew they could get Jalen Holmes early in the fourth is like, well, it's Jalen Holmes.

And he was there for a reason. Yep. Years later, we know he was there for a reason. where it's won or lost is in Christian Watson and Jamison Williams. Really? If those two guys become superstars in the division, you lost all the trades. Sorry, man. If the players that you got in those trades end up turning out to be key members of a defense that shuts down Jamison Williams and Christian Watson. I mean, that's what this really comes down to Lewis scene, Andrew Booth jr. And now I guess I'll throw also, you know, a Caleb Evans into that mix as players that will matter very much that were factored in. But they made so many trades that it's almost hard to track.

Like, wait, did you get proper value on this? And this chart says that. And I guess the answer at the end of the day is probably that there isn't like a perfect answer to whether they made the right moves or not. And we'll be focusing really on, on those receivers and whether it plays out that way. So just moving down the board here, a CZ, a Tomo, who you covered at the, at the university of Minnesota, a Sezzi, right. Is how you pronounce it. And he will not have to, uh, move, which is nice for him. And he also already knows the restaurants

of which he mentioned a few that he frequents, so he can help all those players. Um, but, uh, you know, this is another one where I just mentioned jalen holmes and jalen holmes and armand watts kind of popped into my mind as previous guys that are similar that really what they're trying to bet on is his last year was very good and he has height and he has length i think he's six foot five and they're hoping that there's some versatility there and he and i asked him that uh in his press conference after he was drafted, just about how comfortable he is. And he talked about playing in lots of different looks

on a very good Minnesota defense this year. So I guess, what do you know about Asezi Otomo? Yeah, like you mentioned, a nice athletic, kind of big-bodied edge. P.J. Fleck has gone after a few of these types of guys. And like Boye Mafai, who went a lot of rounds earlier, they don't quite have the production to match like an NFL draft pick. And so so that's a red flag. But I think, again, with a fifth round pick, you want those traits. You want those guys that can just potentially

turn into something if you get them in the room and you can develop him uh and so he he profiles as another one of those guys and it says he wasn't one of those like recruits that you were like fawning over when he came to minnesota he kind of grew and kind of continued to get better and continued to to play for the gophers into the spot where he had a big role this final year with Minnesota. Now, again, the production isn't quite there, but he had a good last year for them, and he profiles again as the athletic type that you want to bring him in. And to be honest, when I saw this pick,

the biggest takeaway I had was just the fact that they waited this long to take an edge player, and I think that's probably a conversation we can have. They feel confident at least this draft told me they feel confident in the health of daniel hunter and zedarius smith enough to the point where they don't have a ton of depth behind them at this point and they didn't go out and sign a bunch of guys that provides much depth and people that have played many snaps for them like they're gonna ride with those guys and they feel really strongly about their health at least that's kind of what the draft has to tell us based on how they feel about that edge group because they really did not

do much uh says he could be good a big o as they call him at the u could be a big a big piece on the defense but betting on that for next year even even the year after, I think it's probably a little rich for him. So it's, I was just kind of, when I saw this pick was like, oh yeah, edge, like they haven't addressed that at all. They feel at least decent about that room heading into the next year. And he's listed as an edge rusher, but I think that in this type of defense, you're talking about probably someone you want to be able to move around and i think it's a really fair comparison based on the size of the player to talk about arm on watts as being a similar guy is like this really tall doesn't quite fit as a defensive tackle isn't a defensive event like a true true defensive end really or an outside linebacker rusher like he doesn't really profile as those things so maybe just a piece that

they think has a little more ceiling there which is what um you know they had directors of scouting and scouts come out and talk to us about each player and the word you know some ceiling still to grow was kind of thrown out their words i i suppose um and you know i think that that's kind of the hope is that they found somebody who is a little bit of a late bloomer that has some physical skills that they think that they can develop. It does sound a lot like a lot of the things that they have tried in the past with this position. But, yeah, to your point, I would have. And this is where I just don't know how else to do this. The guard thing just sticks out like the sorest of sore thumbs, not just because of the background,

but because it's a guard and they had more value position needs that we really expected to be addressed. And they hit on some other ones. I mean, we had safety as a potential. In fact, you did in our, uh, our draft guide, you had a Lewis scene as a potential late round guy, if they traded down for, and they did they did so okay that's mostly a need it's in the secondary corner absolutely and then you know you get to the rest of it and you see a lot of players that we thought we they would have needed like a wide receiver gets in there we'll get to him a little bit later some offensive line depth um but taking a guard where edge rusher was really something that I thought they

needed, not just for the right away because the health of Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter, like, look, that's, what's going to determine that thing, regardless if they took a second round edge rusher or a third round edge

rusher. Same kind of goes for the linebacker pick also in the third round, like, Oh, there was that really the position that you were looking for. But in the long term we don't know what either one of those players is going to be and whether they're going to be here because both have injury histories daniel hunter's contract situation i mean they have dragged this

thing out but actually next year it really comes to the end where something has to be done and with zadarius smith like what version of Zedarius Smith do you get? If he's absolutely fantastic, you feel great. But if he is not and is, you know, a shell of the old Zedarius Smith, I mean, they didn't pay a lot. So there's concern there clearly from the NFL that Zedarius Smith might not have what he did in 2019.

That's where I would have thought that even like, you talk about a Minnesota guy that I would have thought maybe they would go for is Boye Maffei, who was more of a pure pass rusher and not doing that and waiting until this round. It essentially means you got a project. You did not get someone that you think is going to come in right away, which means Janarius Robinson, Patrick Jones, Kenny Willekes, the guys who are behind the starters, it's kind of on you to develop and make your case. And if one of those guys leaves, then it's free agency really after this year that they'll have to address it, or maybe even in the immediate, try to address it with whatever dollars they can muster up to try to get,

you know, whatever, Justin Houston or something. Coming into this draft, Edge felt like the perfect competitive rebuild type of pick because if you got a guy that was really good at pass rushing, you can bring him in on third downs in special packages, give him a few plays, let him run out there, and he can be a useful part of a competitive team right away situationally. And then you see what you see on the field.

If you like it, then you feel better about moving on from Daniel Hunter or Zedaria Smith whenever that time comes. And you've already given another guy snaps to go off of, and you've seen him on tape. And some of the best edge groups that we've seen, like the Eagles some of the badge the best sorry the best uh edge groups that we've seen like the eagles the year they won the super bowl just had a rotation of tons and tons of good edge players that you could throw out there a rotation of defensive linemen and so that's a competitive rebuild pick to me because it both addresses short term and long term in terms of

they can have a role right away to impact winning and they can have a role long term and kind of give you a succession plan and they decided not to do that they decided to take more immediate needs and some less positions of value so i was surprised that it wasn't addressed a little bit earlier because to me that was the along with wide receiver those are kind of the prototypical to me play right away guys in smaller spurts and grow into something even cornerback like when a cornerback gets burned like that's a touchdown if you had an edge come in there and kind of go through some warts like he doesn't have a good play you just don't rush the passer the passer with that one guy that one time like there's a little bit more margin for error and so that's why i kind of expected at least in the top three rounds to get an edge at some some point, it felt like the second round was going to be kind of that perfect spot,

especially when they trade back, they get 34, they get another second round pick. Then they trade back again with the Packers. You felt like, okay, there's going to be in a good edge player in this spot and they just didn't go there. And so I think it's a really interesting kind of like referendum on where they feel like they're at in that spot and the gamble that they're going to take at that spot heading into this year. Yep. And we did know that you can't fill everything that you need. And so that was the thing that got left out of the party for this draft.

And Otomo will have his chance to develop, but probably not make an impact right away. The next guy probably also won't have an impact right away. The next guy probably also won't have an impact right away, but I have to say, I saw some people freaking out a little about this pick. There is a threshold of the running back. There's a sweet spot of the running back. It is not in the first. It's probably not in the second, but I do think third to fifth is a space where if there's a really good prospect, you should take him because it is better to have a good running back than a bad running back like sometimes this gets lost in the you know running backs don't matter and everything else which you know there's plenty

of statistical backing to direct you that way that you shouldn't be drafting Saquon Barkley and ruining your franchise with the number two overall pick or Leonard Fournette if you're the Jacksonville Jaguars. But in the sixth round, that is, or I'm sorry, the fifth round, that is a different conversation. And so they pick Ty Chandler out of North Carolina, blazing fast guy, pretty impressive highlight reel, and also another chip to kind of have when the end of the delvin cook era ends which the reality the facts of life about running backs is it's probably not that far out from now i mean back in the day we saw some running backs go into the age 30 there have been outliers on this uh marcus allen fans from back in the day. How about Terry Allen was a guy for the Vikings that played in the early 90s.

He played into his 30s. Robert Smith called the quits pretty early. Adrian Peterson got into his 30s. Delvin Cook has a pretty long rap sheet of injuries. And when you add those up and his performance last year was not what it was even the previous two seasons i mean red flags all over the place for what he's going to be in the next two seasons so picking dudes that might have any chance i mean the whole idea is that you could find them in a lot of different places right so fifth round if you find him and you're also

kind of throwing numbers at it alexander mad Madison probably won't be here that much longer. Kenny Wong Wu is crazy fast. And now Ty Chandler is really fast. Like, I think this is a solid idea because you probably get a far better running back than you would almost any other position in terms of just the general prospect in the fifth round. Yeah. And Alexander Madison only has a year left on his deal. This kind of feels like a, we're either getting rid of Dalvin cook and we're going to give Alexander Madison less money to be 85% of Dalvin cook moving forward after this year, or this is, we're going to ride out Dalvin cook's contract and Alexander Madison, if you want a chance to start, it's not going to be here. We're going to let you go next year and test out the waters in free agency

because we now have at least two backs that we've drafted in the mid rounds last couple of years that show some great speed that we feel like we can, you know, recreate your role, so to speak. So yeah, this tells me at least one of Dalvin Cook or Alexander Madison aren't on the roster heading into not this year's season, but the following year's season, which is really when Dalvin Cook will be a year older and Madison will be looking for a bigger contract somewhere, but I can't imagine the Vikings would be giving him. So that was my biggest takeaway from this pick.

Yeah. And I think we've seen this type of player who doesn't get a ton of work in college and then has maybe one good year he averaged six yards carry at north carolina and i know this from watching a little bit of sam howell on those you know qb schools that jto sullivan does and uh congrats to sam howell fifth round draft pick yikes but uh you know that their offensive line was not all that good. So, I mean, Ty Chandler really had to rise to the challenge for UNC and averaging six yards of carry is pretty impressive. Did not catch the ball a whole heck of a lot. I also know there was almost this expectation a few years ago that

every running back would be like a deep threat. It was like once Christian McCaffrey started running around playing in the slot, it was like, oh boy, everybody's going to do this now. Everyone's going to be a running back slash wide receiver. That has just not happened. Like not even really close. Debo Samuel, Cordero Patterson, those guys are pretty special cases. And those are receivers who run the ball. But as far as running receivers who run the ball. But as far

as running backs who catch the ball, it still remains kind of same as it ever was screens underneath passes. And so I think, you know, maybe there's some part of you that looks at it and goes, well, I didn't catch a lot of footballs for this team. And I'm not sure that it really matters because usually the catching of the ball is just on screen passes and the Rams it's been since Marshall Falk was there since they use their running back as a real receiver like they didn't really that you know Todd Gurley it was all screens and it was all swing passes um so you know even back then they weren't asking a lot of it now I mean that's a lot to project for a guy who they picked in the first fifth round to start talking about that but I just think that that's an interesting wrinkle that hasn't really happened in the nfl uh the

next guy pick number 184 vidarian low an offensive tackle from illinois now this fella has kind of been through a lot of things in his life mother passed away had to raise his younger brother he's already married and has two kids which you don't run into a whole lot you know they that's always the cliche is yeah you know uh i'm i'm coming into a locker room that's got guys that are married with kids and so it's going to be a big adjustment you're like well not for this guy uh this guy's been living the family life already forever and huge arms six foot six uh positional flexibility was a conversation that came up. It reminded me a lot of what they did with only Udo,

like a similar type of player that is big, has length talked about as being a tackle slash guard. And this is where we get into the, this dude is a project player and you are taking a shot at him on the chance that he projects into something that could someday maybe start. But what you're more looking for is the next Rashad Hill. And if you laugh at Rashad Hill as a projection, well, Rashad Hill was in for some pretty important games actually Minneapolis Miracle game he started right tackle and played against Cam Jordan so um he also started the

NFC championship game that didn't go quite the same but Rashad Hill uh was valuable for them every time somebody got hurt he was there and that's kind of what you're looking for with someone like Vardarian Lowe so take a high character, take someone who might be able to kick into guard from time to time. And that's really the best chance you got. And I wish that I could do the thing where I talk about how every player is going to become like, oh man, this guy is going to become this, that,

and the other thing. But I think that what this is, is this is realistic projections, Paul. Maybe we could do an alternate reality universe where we talk about all of them becoming superstars, but realistic projection is that you may have found somebody who could someday be a guard for you and more likely are looking for kind of the next swing tackle type. Yeah. And like the Vikings have two really solid tackles that you feel like are going to be on this

team for a long time and Brian O'Neill and Christian Derrissaw, but behind them, there's not a lot of depth and there's not a lot of young players, unless you feel like Oli Udo can be that guy. He certainly could be with, he's been in the system for a really long time. So you'd hopefully feel good about throwing him out there for a game if you need to,

but like they don't have like great quality backups. And so low is not going to be that this year probably not going to be that next year but you're hoping you know if Christian Derisar Brian O'Neill goes down with an injury in a couple years that low can step in very quickly and just jump right in and be a really good player I mean he's 6'6 has extremely long arms massive wingspan like he's you know got the traits that you want for project tackle and that's really all this is uh for them if he can at some point in his career start a four or five six game stretch where he doesn't get obliterated and you don't talk about

him and you say oh the pass protection yeah that was you know it was just a solid day of of offensive line play in those six seven weeks where he's going to be asked to start at some point. I think you take that as a win and anything else is a fantastic pick. You found a really great guy in the sixth round, but if you can get that for a part of a season where he does his job and no one's talking about some highlight real play where he gets bowled over like that. You fulfilled what you wanted to with this pick and offensive tackles are really valuable. So if he can turn into more than that, this is one of those really nice picks that you found in the sixth round. But to expect anything more than just to come in for four or five, six games in three years

is probably asking a lot. Yeah, I think that they also are targeting players who kind of have certain personality traits that they like, and maybe maturity is one of them, uh, at least from, you know, most of their players in the draft one in particular, maybe not some of the traits that we would have, uh, wanted, but, uh, no, I mean, for most of the picks, like when we've talked about these guys, it's sort of been really something similar is mature, driven player. You know, there wasn't I guess they're never going to come out and say the guy is a joker. But like there's there's evidence of that.

You know, there's at least evidence of that, of what the guy had to go through to be here. And so they hope that the motivation is greater. I have never really found that to be a correlation to tell you the truth. Like there's a lot of guys that they've drafted that have great stories. Uh, ESPN really backed off the storytelling. Here's the worst thing that ever happened to this guy after they got called out for it a lot. And guess what? A lot of those guys didn't make it in the NFL. So it really, I don't know if there's a, there's a connection there necessarily that this guy has a great story. So he'll succeed, but came across on his calls, very bright guide that will help you for sure. So we'll see what comes of him, but the

more sexy pick Baylin Naylor, the wide receiver we all wanted. And we all talked about how many times have I done this now? So year after year, I've gone into the draft and I've made a case for this team to get another wide receiver, probably like six straight years. I think it's six of these drafts that I've covered, not seven. I got here in 2016, but it was the 2017 draft. I think it was the first one that I covered and they didn't have a first round pick. So I probably wasn't making a case for a receiver then, but every year since get that number three guy draft that receiver and

they always draft them in the backend. So this is Jalen Naylor. I don't know if you happened to stumble across him playing in Michigan state. He has some really exciting numbers and seems to have some jets on him. And actually this was one where people projected him a little bit higher than where he was actually taken. I saw fifth round was kind of where some people expected him to go. And I don't mind throwing numbers at the problem. They have succeeded. You know, Diggs, of course, is the ultimate, you know, kind of thing. But but also, you know, K.J. Osborne, a successful player, and Adam Thielen was not a draft pick, but someone who developed into a very successful player. So, you know, you do have these late round guys sometimes develop into average to above average players.

And taking a shot on Jalen Naylor makes sense. I mean, it's more likely than not. These are Rodney Adams or Stacy Coley rather than Stefan digs. But if you're taking any position late where you're hoping the guy find some sort of role, we did see KJ Osborne develop into something. And, uh, I guess they can hope that the same thing happens with Jalen Naylor. I think going into the draft, Vikings fans and a lot of people were starting to really come around to the idea of adding a wide receiver and just kind of going with embarrassment of riches at the wide receiver position. After the first night and hearing Kevin O'Connell talk, this much more felt like the outcome that they were going to roll with in this draft. I don't know if you remember, he was answering a question about the wide receiver movement that night. That was when A.J. Brown got traded. Marquise Brown gets traded. Five or six wide receivers go in the first round. And he basically said, you know, you're seeing a lot of teams prioritize wide receiver

if they don't have a group like we have. And you see them going after these guys and that was kind of the key phrase bait i'm paraphrasing exactly what he said but it was basically said like yeah if you're not like us with the position you have with wide receivers like you're going to be going out and chasing those guys and so after the first night they trade back from jameson williams they don't take one late in the draft i hear kevin o'connell say this this kind of always felt like the outcome that was then going to be there for them later in this draft. It just didn't feel like a spot that they felt like they needed to upgrade.

It felt like Kevin O'Connell, after his first round press conference, felt very quite happy with the wide receiver room he has and what he can do with that room. Now, I would always advise throwing another one out there because you don't know about injuries. You don't know about age without him feeling, and you just want to always have a good playmaker that you can go to. And maybe Jalen Naylor in the sixth round can be that for him. But if we go through the history of Vikings late round draft picks, there's really only one. It's Stefan Ds. And that's pretty much it. K jazz born has been basically the second best one out of any of them. And we only have a part of a year of production for him. So if we listened closely to those first round comments by Kevin

O'Connell, this always kind of felt like the strategy that they were going to employ in these next two days. Do I agree necessarily? It's the best one. one no but they got a guy that put up good numbers at michigan state seemed to have a good athletic profile again just the types of players that you want to be adding to the room could they have prioritized it earlier probably with a ham that guard spot there were still a lot of good wide receivers sky more george pickens were all picked within i think the five pick range i think both went right before him, but right in that same range, like you come out of the draft with one of those, you feel like the ceiling on your draft is just exponentially higher with what they could become. That's not where you feel now because you take a wide receiver in the sixth

round and best case scenario, I think you're thinking of a repeat of KJ Osborne. That's kind of the best case you're getting out of that. And so, yeah, I mean, just another guy you throw in. I'm never going to begrudge you for taking wide receiver. I just would have maybe advocated for it a little earlier, but better late than never at this point. Yeah, no, 100% on the should have done it earlier. I mean, if there's one big beef with the thing,

it's not that they added to the secondary. It's that they didn't add another playmaker at wide receiver who had a legitimate chance to be very good. Like that's not really looking down the road at that position. And it's not really looking at it in the immediate either because we saw Adam Thielen go down and look, I have a ton of respect for KJ Osborne. I mean, I think that he's a remarkable story of someone who went to university of Buffalo. I mean, that's not a high recruit grinded his way to university of Miami. You know, that's also at this point, sorry, hurricane fans from back in the day, not the greatest of universities for football. Yeah.

I mean, it just isn't. They have great things that they do to celebrate, like turnovers and stuff, but they're not a great football team. And, you know, so then he gets here, gets zero catches in his first year, and at that point you would have bet the guy's dead in the water. Like there's no way this guy has a career. And last year shows that he can catch the ball, he can make plays, he can catch a game-winning touchdown. However, when asked to

fill in for Adam Thielen, it's just a different ball game. Like it's just completely different from being the number three, who's getting the favorable situations because of those top two, drawing so much attention to being the number two guy, being an outside receiver much more often. And if you add another person to that mix, then you've got a chance to have a better depth, better high end, better long-term. Not even just if Jefferson leaves, but Adam Thielen moves on eventually. And that's the one position other than edge rusher, which I was a little more like, okay, I get it.

I guess if they didn't really believe in some of the edge rushers, but with the receivers, there's always good receivers day one, of course, but even through a little bit into day two and maybe even day three earlier, but usually it goes through the third round where you find legitimate, really good wide receivers. Well, Kenny Galladay, Terry McLaurin, I think we're third round picks. I mean, I think Galladay is a third rounder, but like, yeah, I mean, there's usually good guys there and they just sort of said, no, we're forgoing our chance to take one of those guys who could be a real playmaker.

And instead they go with, you know, somebody who has a good highlight reel and really good speed. And maybe they found something in Jalen Naylor. That was, but you know, this here was an important moment in this, in this draft day though, is that stand on the table made an appearance for Jalen Naylor that somebody mentioned that Keenan McArdle stood on the table for Jalen Naylor. And then, you know, if there was a bingo Spielman draft board stood on the table for somebody, an assistant coach stand on the table would definitely have checked off one of the boxes. So the final guy on our list, I just say one more thing on the table would definitely have checked off one of the boxes.

So the final guy on our list. Can I just say one more thing about the wide receiver? Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead. Yeah. I was just going to say, I think in general, because we've been kind of talking about it a lot, about potentially taking a wide receiver. That was a big proponent of ours coming up to this draft. And I think the natural, when people who didn't want a wide receiver are like, okay, do you not like KJ Osborne?

Do you not like Amir Smith-Marset? And I would look at the position more just like the Vikings looked at the guard position this offseason in that, you know, you want more swings at it. You just want more guys that like, hey, if this guy doesn't work, we have another guy that we just signed that we're going to try and we're going to keep plugging and playing guys and so it's just yeah they like there's no reason KJ Osborne can't take a second to third year jump that's really good like talk we talk about what just what Kevin O'Connell could unlock in Justin Jefferson's game I think he could also unlock in that offense a third wide receiver a fourth wide receiver that can break out and I think think that's entirely possible. I think it's just more about, do you have more options? Because right now they have Adam Thielen, they have Justin Jefferson. Those are great options. And you like KJ Osborne as a third option. And then you have Amir Smith-Marset as the fourth. But as soon as one of those comes out, how do you feel

about Amir Smith-Marset as your third on a team that needs to be really good? And so it's just, do you have more of these swings that you can throw at guys do you have situational guys that can come in on third down or do you have a home run hitter that you can go to and so it's just about accumulating talent at that position more than any there might be times when they have four wide receivers like out on the field like they could go crazy with the amount of guys that they have out there and so then it's do you feel comfortable with one game of amir smith-mars saying he can be that guy? He very well could be, but at this point, it's just about trying to shift the odds in your favor. And I think a wide receiver just would have done that so much. It helps account for so many possible things that go wrong. Cause every,

every season, one of these wide receivers is going to be out for four or five games. It's just kind of how this goes. And do you have the best plan to back up for that? And I just think there was an opportunity in those mid rounds, probably with that guard pick or with that linebacker pick where you could have got out and gotten a wide receiver. And it's more than just a luxury for them at that, at this point, it was always more than just a luxury pick for them to take a wide out. And so that's just my, like even more standing on the table for it, for anyone that says, well, they still have four guys and yes, they do. And they could all develop and be really good, but you have to, you know, you're betting on that and

you should probably just, you know, get a backup plan if you need one. And that was what a mid round wide receiver would have bet. Yeah. Um, so I think also that why I believed they might go that route was because of Kevin O'Connell, not just offensive guy, but because it was the Rams philosophy to just keep adding receivers. I mean, in the middle of the season, they have Robert Woods and Cooper Cup, two of the best receivers in the NFL, and they go and get Odell Beckham to add on to that and they brought jefferson who's probably like a better version of kj osborne there right and they brought in tutu atwell to sean jackson like they were the ultimate bring in more wide receivers so i thought they would and uh that did not come to fruition final guy on the list pick 227 nick muse a southern gentleman we talked to him on his conference call there. A thicker tight end than some of the more downfield type of guys that you see. But a fine draft pick for the seventh round. And here's why I think that. The Vikings have done well with their late tight end picks in the past. Tyler Conklin was legitimately good.

David Morgan was helpful, at least situational. Michael Pruitt turned into something for the Tennessee Titans. It's a very difficult position to project, I think. And if you're not one of those freak Kyle Pitts tight ends, everyone just doesn't care about you, which has resulted in the Vikings going like, okay, we'll try to care. Not always. Zach Davidson hasn't worked out. Obviously legendary Bucky Hodges didn't work out, but that's, that's fine. That's fine to go with Nick Muse. I think that's the whole opinion.

Yeah. I don't have a lot to say on Nick Muse, another body in the tight end room. If you have a chance to potentially get us, I mean, they need, you know, a solid number two that they can bring in and have in two tight end sets and someone who can just be more than a blocker. And if Nick Muse can be that, then cool. And if he can't, it was a seventh round pick and you'll live to fight another day.

So not, not a ton I can say on, on Nick Muse. Okay. So before we wrap and what a different feeling a day makes, I mean, day three is just so much more like relaxed. I can't even ask for, Hey, do you have some hot takes around the league?

Like there weren't player trades. There weren't really divisive prospects that fell. I don't know. We're not discussing that, but I think that it's a bad look for you in your first draft coverage here. Yeah. That your alleged punt God was not the first punter off the board. You know,

that's, that's, that's tough for you. I mean, you came into this, this whole process with really one goal. And that was to pressure the Minnesota Vikings organization through the media to draft this punter.

And then you didn't even pick out the best punter, Paul? What? I'm not going to lie, Matt. When I saw whatever that Penn State punter's name go off the board was today, that hurt. It hurt. And it wasn't a good feeling. And I'm not going to stand up here and say that I'm bulletproof and that just fell right off me.

And I was going to say, no, that hurt. But our guy went at the top of the sixth round, probably still very rich for a punter. He went at the top of the sixth round to a team that doesn't punt. So for a team in the bills that is so good on offense that will a limited amount of times punt and for them to decide we're gonna invest a sixth round pick when we probably could have just found a punter off the scrap heap in udfa or any veteran but they decided no we're at the top of the sixth round we're gonna draft this guy even though he may only need to punt 10 times because we're amazing that tells me that they saw something in him that even though it's going to be,

he's only going to be on the field for a small amount of time, but they needed his talent. And so I refuse to even know who the first punter's name was. I know he's from Penn State. I don't know his name. I don't want to know his name. The only person I care about is punt God. I will be looking to see if the bills are selling jerseys.

I may need to invest. I am not off this train. Was today a great day? No, it wasn't the best day, but he got drafted. He got drafted at the top of the sixth round. And I feel very good about that. And I refuse to know whoever, I don't even know who went ahead of him at the punting spot. I know someone did and that hurts. Two guys. Out of out of sight out of mind there's a couple of important things to know here number one yeah uh met arizia or ariza whatever it might be his mom called you out for pronouncing his name wrong on the podcast she saw one of the clips of us talking about taking him and said that you were pronouncing his name wrong. So I'm just going to call you a fraud. You're a pod fraud. That's what you are. Like you spent this whole time pumping up your tape grinding and your ability to scout

punters. And then the person's mom says, you're not even saying his name, right? Like what? Uh, but I, I will say this ball that you shouldn't apologize. You know why? Because when we get new information, we change our opinions. It's crazy how this works. That, you know, the reason we thought it might be a good idea to draft Malik Willis is because our information from the universe of people who are paid 365 days a year to look at the draft that we were using to form our opinions was wrong. So then we changed our opinion to no, actually, it's a good idea that the Vikings did not waste a draft pick on Malik Willis.

It's crazy how it works out that way. So you don't have to apologize for being way off on your punter scouting. You just have to say new information came to light that he wasn't actually the best punter. You were misled. And that's all it really was. Again, I don't remember which teams took punters, but I'm just going to say they don't know how to scout punters is really the route I'm going to take.

I'm doubling down. I know I'm not going to double down with any quarterback predictions because I think we saw no one quite knew what happened there. But I will not back down from I know I know a good punter when I see one. And I if you remember, one of the first stories I told on this podcast was when I was an intern, Carol Levin. I followed around Kari Vedvik with a camera as he came to Vikings training camp. And my assignment for the day was just to film every single one of his kicks,

every single one of his puns. You know, I didn't see it then. And, and I was vindicated there. And so I see it with punk God, and I'm going to put my reputation on the line for this. Yeah,

you should. That's fine. I'm willing to do that. And many people, when they say Malik Wills is going to go in the first, and then he doesn't, they go, Oh, well that's just a miss. And they, and they, and they, and they say Malik Wills is going to go in the first and then he doesn't, they go, oh, well, that's just a miss.

And they and they and they push those away and they or or they, you know, I think in general they go, you know, the NFL just in volume there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They don't take blame for the fact that they put him there. I'm sticking with my guy. Oh, we're going through for this. And I'm yeah, I remain vindicated. Yeah. oh we're going through for this and i'm yeah i i remain vindicated yeah one of the funniest responses uh as i was asking just really just asking what happened uh because truly like the mocks have normally been in the ballpark and this wasn't even in the parking lot so i just said like what happened and uh a typical response was that it's the gms who were wrong for not

valuing properly his ceiling and i was like there is no ceiling he's a third round pick this is a league that drafted christian hackenberg based on his ceiling in the second round like josh allen was a draft him in the ceiling oh they, they know about that. GMs know about that. They're very aware of what a player's ceiling is, and they know how to project it. And they're usually incredibly good at it. So they felt there wasn't one. There wasn't this magical, what if he reaches,

that the odds were so low of that, that it wasn't even worth the bother. That's what happened. And the reality is, I think that if you do a really good investigation here about it, because I know that some people like the rant. Some people were miffed by the rant because they love draft season. They don't want to believe that there's a lot of kind of, I don't know, stuff that you don't want to talk about out there with it. But I think the reality is there's a handful of people who have the biggest influence in their opinions in how everybody else views the

NFL draft. This is not a hundred NFL draft analysts placed in a room to watch film and write reports and then decide what they think. There are some very influential people. Mel Kiper is still at the top of that list. Todd McShay that those two aspn guys specifically who have been doing it for a long time uh daniel jeremiah and if those draft analysts and dane brugler who we read from his uh well maybe at next episode we've got time we'll do some more readings we'll do some readings sure if they if their feeling is that someone is going to be a high draft pick. Everyone else will find reasons why that person is going to be a high draft pick. And, you know, I think that that's what really happened is that the group think is real.

And so you start to look for reasons why you think that that person must be a first round draft pick. And then you mock them and project them there because the people who are most influential and who have done this for the longest time and are supposedly the most connected and everything else already said it from the start that this was a first round draft pick, even though the people inside the league knew it never was. And if you're inside the league, you've got to be like, well, that's fine.

If they're mocking this guy at the second overall pick or whatever it is, because let somebody take them. We don't think he's that good of a prospect. So, you know, I think that there's, there's lessons to be had from that is that, um, you know, maybe doing like trying to keep an independent mind on certain things, uh, and thinking about what influences you have just in the media world or whatever else might shape the way you view something and try to pull back. Now for us, there's only so many hours in the day. Like we have to write stories. We have to cover press conferences. We have to cover free agency, a coaching change, a whole NFL season, a whole NFL training camp. If I were to

claim to you that I watched enough Malik Willis tape to form an opinion about where he stood against the other quarterbacks coming out, I would be lying to you. It would be a total disservice to pretend that I would be able to do that while I'm writing stories and covering the Minnesota Vikings based on this one player. How would I even watch enough to have a baseline? So what we do is we take the information that's available and I hope that the draft universe, and I'm not confident in this knowing kind of the thought process of a lot of people who do that, but I'm not confident. I hope they learn from it. I hope they learn from it that if you have, you know, really do your own independent study on things, then come out with your own independent opinions and don't just sort of bring them back to whatever some analysts said.

But, you know, I think next year will be much easier for all of these people to pick because the quarterbacks are all going to go high. So I guess there's the there's the whole thing. We were sarcastically making fun of it with the punt deal. But that's kind of how it ended up playing out. But even Doug Kide, who's been on the show from PFF, he talked to a bunch of executives and nobody really had like a perfect answer. I mean, the main answer that, yeah, yeah, the main answer was kind of like, I don't know. Guess nobody thought they were good.

Like, it's probably as simple as that. So, well, that's that's where we end up. And you won't have to hear about how the Vikings passed on Malik Willis over and over again unless he becomes great. Same thing with the punk god, I will say. Okay, Paul. Thanks for all your time. Tremendous work. The Skull Searching column will continue.

I don't know if we continue to name it the skull searching column. We haven't gotten this far in negotiations, but your Tuesday column will still continue on the website. And thank you all for listening to our fun. I think weekend of draft coverage and very much appreciate it. We'll get back to fans only. We'll have guests draft analysts. Yes, we've been talking about them a lot,

but they'll also be on the show to have that discussion and they can explain to you what happened with the quarterbacks this week. And we'll talk to everybody later. Thanks for listening.