Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down Kevin O'Connell's NFL Combine comments

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Matthew Coller and CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso analyze Kevin O'Connell's comments, starting with an NFLPA survey that found the Vikings to be the best organization in the NFL for players. Why that is meaningful. Plus what O'Connell said about the running game, the receiver position and Kirk Cousins' future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso as we've just gotten done listening to Kevin O'Connell's podium session and he sat down on the side with Beat Reporters. And an interesting thing came up just as the Vikings head coach was about to go to the podium, which is the NFL Players Association, put out a survey that they had given to all the players that ranked teams on a lot of different cultural elements from their facilities to how much they trusted the training staff, all things like that. And let's just say that the Washington Commanders won't be too happy in seeing it,

but the Minnesota Vikings were were they ranked number one chris and i wouldn't bring this up if i didn't think it was actually important because kevin o'connell of course was very happy to talk about how they were the number one team and got a's across the board but what really got me thinking about is last year at this time we were discussing about the vikings changing cultural elements and sort of, we roll our eyes a little bit when coaches say culture and things like that. But, and you could tell me more about the different elements of it and kind of what stuck out to you, but the training staff, the facilities, how much they felt appreciated, all sorts of things like

that, that they got A's across the board. And I think that it was important for them to grade really highly because that was their big selling point. And I thought throughout the year they delivered on those cultural elements more than even I expected. I thought that they would do better with O'Connell being a former player, but really well. And if you're considering like signing with teams, that's the nflpa wanted to do it is to sort of give them a like you know what you're getting into and for the vikings to rank number one they don't have a lot of money to work with so they're an f minus when it comes to cap space but uh i think that this is a this is a home run for them for like kevin o'connell to be here

and have his players saying that about their situation. Yeah, it's gigantic. And it's for the first time we were talking about this on the way over that we hear so many coaches or every coach talk about changing the culture, having a great culture. This is the first time that there is the input from the players that's quantifiable. And like you mentioned, the commanders, they got a couple F minuses, which we realize is not really a real grade. I don't think they got a couple F minuses, which we realize is not really a real grade. I don't think you can get an F minus in school. But imagine players hating it so much there that they're writing down F minus.

F minus, exactly. So on the polar end of that, the Vikings, A's across the board, a couple A pluses. I think treatment of families was in there, which is obviously pretty damn important. Nutrition, strength and conditioning program, the facilities, which certainly the stadium itself and the training facility, you've told me are just amazing, immaculate there. It was really interesting. I read it right away as we were waiting for Kevin O'Connell. Tom Palacero got in a question about it because it was striking.

If the Vikings were 10th or 16th or even in like the top 10, it wouldn't really be noteworthy. But to pass with flying colors and not just to do that, but to be the best in the league. I think there is trickle down to maybe some hometown discounts or a way for the Vikings negotiators during free agency to say, hey, look, this is what you're getting to come here. Maybe not taking as big and as lucrative of contracts to sign with the team this offseason. Well, and they have some players who are on the list that they want to give contract extensions to. And TJ Hawkinson obviously is already in that group.

But Justin Jefferson at the top of the list for somebody that they want to stay long-term and then Delvin Tomlinson, who they're trying to talk into it as well. And this just strengthens their case. And I mean, this is an organization that I've joked with you, and it is a joke. The way that I'm going to say it is that they love their players too much because they will pay them any contract that they want, including Delvin Cook's contract and Harrison Smith's, which were way above, in my mind, what they were looking at with market value. But it seems that when we talk about the ownership of this team and where they put their money

and their vision, it's clear that they care a lot about having the players want to be there. And there's no other way to put it then this is really good for them to come out at the top of that list uh and i think it says something even about someone like tj hockinson are you considering leaving and they can use this like for sure it literally does not get any better than this according to the players so i think that that that's good for them players who get drafted to them are gonna also be aware of this i think this is going to make a lot of ripples with that and you look at like arizona and wow they were getting horrendous grades it wasn't just washington but a lot of teams around the nfl so kevin o'connell

naturally was just like beaming yeah but but i think there is a point to be made that this was the plan and and a lot of people can say it, but to actually execute your plan and be able to show it quantifiably is a big deal for Kevin O'Connell for where he stands. And also, if you drop back a little next year or you need time to rebuild some elements of your team, but you maintain those parts of it, it helps you kind of not fall off the map

because you can always entice free agents to come to Minnesota. Yeah. Two points that I want to make. Number one, I think the Wilfs, it shows like you've told me, and again, now it's quantifiable that they really care about their players. I don't think that's the case for a lot of owners. I think most of them kind of view their players as commodities and that's it. And I thought the treatment of families, I think they got an A plus there. That's huge. That's gigantic. And the second part, now we don't have to like roll our eyes with the Vikings. Every time they say we're trying to build a strong culture and they have this like almost from a coach speak Bible,

like here's what you say about the culture. Now it's legitimate and it's not eye roll inducing. It's legitimate with the Vikings. And like you mentioned, it will be interesting to track during free agency, during maybe undrafted free agency, if they end up hitting on some of those players, guys who decide to come here or to come to the Vikings. Was that part of the equation? Are we going to see, again, hometown discounts, not as big deals, signing with the Vikings in free agency. I really think it's just getting another edge in this team building process, which any edge you can get with analytics, with culture, which again, you were never able to point to anything.

Now you can. It certainly helps as you kind of build to try to win a Super Bowl. Right. I don't have any more hot takes on it other than that's just a really good day for Kevin O'Connell to get that news. Now, as far as news items go from Kevin O'Connell, at the top of the list is what he said about Louis seen that not only is Louis seen ahead of schedule in his rehab and has been Instagramming as one does as a youth, some of the updates,

but you can never tell from someone putting on IG what that really means. So I don't tend to put a whole lot of stock in it, but he said he's been at the facility and in his office all the time, trying to push for, it seems getting on the field as soon as possible. And I wanted to ask you, Chris, about projecting him and how much you weigh what we saw last year, which was very, very little, but he didn't really get on the field right away with what you remember from last year's draft season, because I think that this is very pivotal for Louis scene, even though he's coming off an injury and we need to understand that, but this off season being ready to play by next year and then winning that job in training camp, uh, we're always evaluating, was he a hit? Was he a miss? And I have not been willing at all to say

Louis scene is a miss because his first training camp, he didn't dominate. That happens all the time for someone who was not a top 10 draft pick. But he really does need this year to be starting next to presumably Harrison Smith or whoever. He needs to be starting and succeeding this year to have confidence of where he's going to go. But I think a really good sign from Kevin O'Connell that he is ahead of schedule, and that makes it maybe more likely he can start getting into training camp, which will be big for him with a new system. Yeah, that's the key point is that this injury happened really early. And this is at his age with modern medicine and how quickly these players tend to heal in the NFL, especially when they're 22 and not 32, and they haven't played 10 NFL seasons and gotten banged up all along the way.

I expect Louisine to play exactly like I expected him to play when they drafted him last year. And the kind of go-to summary that I had is that he is the size of a strong safety, but he has feet of a nickel corner. And I think you mentioned to me that post-draft, that's what Kevin O'Connell kind of said in a roundabout way about Louisine and learning. And even with the injury, being able to watch Harrison Smith, learn from him in practice, watch film, another big, really athletic specimen when he was coming out of Notre Dame, what, 20, let me see if I got this right, 2011

draft, 2012, 2012 draft Harrison Smith, I think. Oh, Harrison Smith, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just, I like to keep- 2012, yep? 2012. 2012 draft, Harrison Smith, I think. Oh, Harrison Smith. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like to keep those years in my head correct. To learn from someone that's a similar type player that can do everything, and that's really why I think Louis Seane was ultimately a first-round pick, not just to free safety, not just that extra defender in the box, but can play the slot, great hitter, very adept in coverage. I think he's going to be Louis Seane that made him a first-round pick last year for the Vikings. And, of course, Kevin O'Connell, when we were asking about Brian Flores' system and whether it's at the podium or in our side session with beat reporters,

of course he wants to say, look, it's going to be flexible. It's not just going to be us lining up and running cover zero because that's Brian Flores' MO. At the same time, what's on paper and on the data shows that that's kind of what they do, that they blitz a lot and that they bring the saf has to read multiple route combinations and double moves and everything like that, if that's a shortcoming early in his career... That's hard for a lot of young safeties and corners, for sure. Going up to the line of scrimmage running after the quarterback to chase people down, that seems like a lot more manageable. And for somebody who once ran a 4-3-7, I just think they kind of got the perfect guy if they're going to make Louis Scene into a hit.

Yeah, definitely. And that was the one thing. He was so explosive at Georgia. And for as much as I just said, he could make plays at that kind of free safety role. He was best at the intermediate level and attacking downhill, outside run plays, wide receiver screens that are so big in today's NFL. They're prominent in every offense.

That's where he kind of made hay and became a, you know, top tier prospect that ultimately went in the first round. So yes, it definitely takes time for almost 90%, if not more of rookie safety or young safeties to be so good flipping your hips and understanding where they're trying to bait you. They want you to take that deep route because there's a dig route coming underneath it. That will take time, and I think you can learn that in time. But just to have the athleticism, the explosiveness to attack and to blitz, I remember watching Javon Holland with Brian Flores, who was kind of a similar guy,

and he was so good as a rookie because they had him blitzing a ton. You're just going to make more splash plays when you're that explosive player um that like you said one job get to the quarterback or disrupt what's happening in the backfield so i also asked uh in the side session and i thought it was notable about um or maybe it wasn't me who asked someone asked about adam phelan in the wide receiver situation and Kevin O'Connell pointed to how they had I think it was four guys over 60 catches that were not running back so TJ Hawkinson and then the three wide receivers all over 60 catches and where Adam Thielen fits into that and he talked about how you know Thielen's a captain and is important to Minnesota which is absolutely true that you

know when you come from Minnesota it's not like coming from LA and playing for the chargers. Like it's just a little different, um, what he means to them. But I also think that if they are being realistic here, running back the same group of wide receivers is not going to be good enough. I mean, they are, we're a top 10 offense just barely, and the threshold's going to be higher. And also you're going to have a future. And so if we're only looking at next year, like, okay, yeah, I could see where Adam Thielen fits into that for next year and restructuring his contract and everything else. And I think he could still be an effective wide receiver. To me, there's no doubt he could still be effective. But as we've talked about, the draft is for the future.

And at some point, you're going to need more wide receivers. I would be surprised, though supportive, if they drafted one in the first round. Beyond the first round, though, how do you feel about this draft as far as wide receivers go? Because I have not seen a lot of people raving overall about this draft class, but it does seem like there are a handful of guys that might not necessarily be top, top draft picks who could be in line for maybe the Vikings to look at. I love this wide receiver class later. And I think a lot of the talk, which I agree with and has kind of become the consensus that it's not a quote-unquote good wide receiver class,

it's that there's not a Garrett Wilson or a Drake London or a Jamar Chase or a Jalen Waddle, those premier talents, even going back to the 2020 draft, CeeDee Lamb, Jerry Judy, Henry Ruggs, like those were all like premier prospects that had multiple seasons of a lot of hype to be built up at the collegiate level. Round two, three, four, five. Jaden Reed from Michigan State, I like a lot. Rasheed Rice from SMU is kind of a contested catch. Yards after the catch guy. Parker Washington reminds me a lot of DJ Moore. You can certainly get those quality receivers on day two or day three. Maybe you don't want to go deep into day three, fifth, sixth round, but I think between round two and rounds four, we'll still see a few wide receivers in the first round, but that is the true strength

and the kind of meat of this wide receiver class, which probably bodes well for the Minnesota Vikings that if they don't follow our instructions to pick a receiver in the first round, they'll be able to get a lot of those quality players who don't have to step in and be that number one guy of course right away and maybe even not like a 1a with tj hawkins in there as a focal point or one of the focal points of the passing offense just to kind of slowly mature your way into a wide receiver two role that's maybe going to start with getting the third or fourth most targets early on and then kind of grow into a bigger role later into their careers. So, yeah, I mean, that's something that they should really be looking at no matter where it is.

That if you just try to draft needs when you need them, you've already missed the train. And they don't have money to sign a free agent wide receiver at any sort of price. I mean, except for the bottom of the barrel, which they've tried so many times. Did you have any Jalen Naylor thoughts? By the way, he came into a couple of games and did some stuff, but it was always like the game was over or it didn't necessarily matter like the week 18 game. But the man can run. I mean, he's very quick. I wasn't sure if he was ever

on your radar. No, he was. I definitely remember scouting him, uh, running down the field, making big plays. He had one big game last season at, at Michigan state that I remember. I want to say it was like close to 200 yards, if not more than that. And a lot of it was just vertical stuff down the field, slight of frame. I'm, I was worried about him, about him dealing with physicality at the line of scrimmage I didn't see a lot of yards after the catch skill but I think we talked about this after the draft that I like that kind of late round flyer to be just a niche type of player and I think that's what Jalen Naylor could ultimately be where he's your wide receiver four or five and you're not expecting a full skill set, contested catches,

run after the catch skill. But if he can be someone that is even running clearing routes to free up the middle for Justin Jefferson, then that is a great return on investment on a late day three pick. I don't mean to just kind of run from topic to topic, but that's what I'm going to do anyway. I asked in the side session about running the football, and running the football has been sort of the enemy of the analytic folks, including myself after watching

them have a run first offense and not lean into Kirk Cousins in the passing game. And Hey, look, they had a top 10 offense by leaning into the passing game and throwing to Justin Jefferson all the time. But their running game was bad. It was a negative expected points added in a year where actually a surprising number of teams were really effective in their running games by the numbers. The Vikings were not. They were 27th in yards per attempt. And as Kevin O'Connell talked about what he's self-analyzing,

he talked a lot about wanting to be at second and five when he runs or better looking at the best teams in the league as if they're going to play shell coverages against us with Justin Jefferson, which he noted that teams over the final couple of weeks of the season, after Jefferson had throttled, everybody played more shell coverages against them than anybody else in the league. And their data had told them that, well, you have to make teams pay for sure and we saw kansas city which is actually i

think they were like sixth by epa and running that they would make teams pay uh with their running game and the vikings don't have one now this has caused some but very few to ask should they draft a running back if they move on from delvin cook because it was not a success when it came to the running game with delvin cook last year and i think my answer is not with the first and not with the third but past that would be a yes from me if you take you already took a shot on ty chandler last year we didn't see him play outside of preseason so but you've got ty chandler i would probably be okay with Alexander Madison going in free agency and Delvin Cook moving on and drafting one in the fourth round or beyond.

Yeah, that's a sweet spot. Okay, is that a good place in your mind if they're going to do that? Because I don't think that they can really afford to spend too much cash on running backs, and I certainly don't think that they can spend a first or a third. Yeah, that's the sweet spot, I think, both in when you want to just pick a running back to start to actually get the correct value on the position to not allocate a maybe top 75 or top 100 draft pick on it

and where it would make sense in this draft class. What I will say about running backs, evaluating them, it's still fun. I think it's a relatively easy position to evaluate, but there's just so many of them. There's so many that are available in every single draft that I don't really nitpick with that position. It's almost like, okay, let them pick a running back that maybe has run a lot of outside zone stuff in college and then just plug him in fifth or fifth sixth seventh round if the blocking is good he'll be a good player and that I think was a key problem with the Vikings last year that we initially did not

like the Ed Ingram selection because he was not a zone blocking scheme guard I remember that I think first game of the season he played well and I got some backlash from some purple insider people saying like, hey, I think you're wrong on this. After that, he did not really bode or play very well. So for the running back spot, I could list off five, six, seven guys. As long as they do it at the key or the right spots of the draft, fourth round or later, I think if the blocking is better, you can get good complimentary production behind Delvin Cook in this offense.

If Delvin Cook is in this offense, and that is the question because Tom Pellicero, our guy from NFL Network said on a radio hit today that he thinks that Delvin Cook will be back. In my mind, if he is, then that means ownership told them they have to have him back. Because you don't have a pass-first offense and an analytics GM to continue to pay a running back like that.

I just don't see any reason to do that. I think that it's one of the easiest offseason decisions that they have to move on from a veteran. And even if you end up going with a young player and Ty Chandler and Kenny Wong Wu and maybe one veteran, I think that they should be very comfortable with that. And I don't know if there's a guy that you look at that's a plug and play starter because who knows, right? With those running backs, as you said, it's hard to figure out who could step right in. But if there's any position in the world that adapts as quick as possible, it is running back.

That's the one spot where you can throw a rookie in, and if you have somebody else that's a veteran player, like Jarek McKinnon was to Kansas City, who can pass block on third downs, you've got yourself a running back room. I just see no reason to go back to that well when we were just talking about how they had one of the worst and least efficient running games in the entire league last year. Yeah, definitely. And it really just comes down to, I think, the Vikings scouting department will, again,

just look at those running backs that are a little bit more north-south. You don't have to have someone that has crazy lateral agility or insane contact balance. Maybe prioritize speed. I think the template for how you should handle the running back spot, a certain degree in terms of evaluation is the San Francisco 49ers. They prioritize speed at the position. They're like, hey, look, and they probably run it more than I think analytics would probably suggest. But if we block things right, we want you to get as many yards as possible with your speed. So look for north and south running backs.

Eric Grave from Oklahoma makes a lot of sense. Tank Bigsby from Auburn is another one that's not crazy elusive, but I don't think you need to in this outside zone scheme that Kevin O'Connell runs. But yeah, certainly your point with Quasey there, none of his models are saying keep Dalvin Cook and pay him this much money unless, like we talked about yesterday, he wants to still stay as competitive as possible. But I keep going back to his comment where we want a great running back, a great all-pro corner, an all-pro safety, but we understand there's parameters that won't let us do that.

And we have to kind of figure out what makes sense to kind of sacrifice to build this team in the future. It feels like running back would be the most obvious spot to say, we're going to sacrifice running back for as good as Delvin cook has been at his age with his usage. And certainly just how much money he costs at this point in time, that would be the easiest decision in my opinion. But if it doesn't happen,

you're probably right that it's the Wolf saying, hey, this is an established superstar. Fans know him. There's a lot of number four jerseys out there in the stands. Right. And if that is the case, I think that that would be a bit of a gut punch. And like you said, if you're judging a player on what they were several years ago, then he's the elite running back in the league. There's nothing to suggest that now, and he's having shoulder surgery. And how am I supposed to buy into the idea that that's going to bounce back? I mean, even Derrick Henry is not the same as he was when he signed his deal. Christian McCaffrey is the only guy who worked out, but just last year because he was injured in the other years.

And again, how are you supposed to say he's not going to be injured again, not going to play through injuries, the second half of every season fades? Like there's so much evidence and the price tag that is piled up that when I asked O'Connell about it, he focused a lot on the scheme and how he could be better because he doesn't want to say, we need our running back to be better. But I think that that actually really is the case. As far as Kirk Cousins, which was, of course, a question, this is a very difficult balance that they have to strike. Maybe they don't think so.

Maybe Kevin O'Connell is just saying it, but I don't think he is. That when I asked him about Kevin or about his relationship with Kirk Cousins and he raved about what it was like to work with Kirk Cousins and said that they really came to a great understanding of each other throughout the year and that he believed he could win with Kirk Cousins in the right circumstances and have a top 10 offense and all of those things. And he talked about their relationship and I buy all of that. But if you're crazy at Afo Mensah and the front office and you come to Kevin O'Connell and you say,

I don't know, man, we're just probably not going to be able to get a deal done. If he wants X number of dollars, what I'm trying to figure out and I'm not really sure about is how awkward of a position that is for Kevin O'Connell, because he's going to want a sure thing at quarterback, I would think. But there's also another world where he could say, as much as I like the guy, there are playmakers out there in the world that I would love to have. So I guess I think that they

have a lot to kind of work through with that. And I wonder where you kind of come down on how much the coach buys into Kirk Cousins mattering for the equation, because I think everyone knows what I'm going to say. Yeah, I think it certainly matters, especially with kind of how we started this episode with the culture and the relationships and how strong that is the strongest in the NFL in terms of just how the players feel that they're treated. I think it certainly matters. And it goes back to the point where we've mentioned repeatedly that the Vikings, I do think, want to remain competitive. And usually it's the head coaches that say, hey, I want to keep this veteran, keep that guy, keep this player that I know that he's an established guy.

And it's the GMs and the scouting department says, look, there are better pieces out there. We can do that. So I certainly think, like I mentioned, it will be slightly awkward. But with guys like Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neill coming off the injury, but was, you know, an elite right tackle before the injury. And then Justin Jefferson, you have to be in Kevin O'Connell's shoes and ultimately come to the point where you think, okay, it's not like if we get rid of Kirk Cousins, we are the worst team in the league. We have no good players. If they're going to try to rebuild the defense this year, then maybe next year, it's a new quarterback. I think you're

still in a pretty good spot where you don't feel like you're just left out in the cold, where you're kind of suddenly don't have any talent on the offensive side, being an offensive minded head coach who calls the plays. Yeah. It's hard to really put myself in Kevin O'Connell's shoes after his comments and know if it's like, I'm very happy with this quarterback and how he played. And when you go back and evaluate him, I like what I see, but there's a future in this. And O'Connell did say that every year he evaluates all the quarterbacks because he's a former quarterback and it matters to him. And you never know when something's going to come up,

when someone's a free agent. I think he had mentioned this when they got Nick Mullins, that he has always been evaluating all the quarterbacks. And that's a good thing to do. He even said to the point where someone asked him about coaching, a former quarterback. So he went back and looked at their draft interview notes, like what he had said about them when he interviewed that person

who now wants to be a coach and was talking to him about it. So he likes to keep these detailed notes. And what comes to my mind is, are they going to try to play it halfway? Are they going to try to draft developmental quarterback in the late rounds or something like that? Or is Kevin O'Connell so tuned into all the quarterbacks and the evaluations and everything else that he would want at some point to kind of put his skill to a test there with his evaluation skill. And I just, I don't really know the answer, but I think that when they took over, they had to have

had that conversation of how long is this guy going to be the quarterback and almost no matter how many games he wins. But Kevin did not go as far as Kweisi who said, basically, if we can't get this done, it is what it is was what quasi adafo menta said and that was like oh well that's not the ringing endorsement exactly that was more of the like hey stuff happens that might not work out we're going to kind of be steadfast in what we want where o'connell was much more willing to kind of go far with how he felt about kirk cousins i i know you know uh that I don't buy into the idea of a development quarterback or anything like that.

I do wonder if they take a swing at one in the middle or late rounds to play it halfway and see if they can find a diamond in the rough or a Brock Purdy or a Dak Prescott or something, because he does love the evaluation process of quarterbacks so much. Yeah, I think that will be interesting to watch on day three. I would be surprised if they do it any earlier than that because they do have a lot of pieces to be added, especially on the defensive side. It's kind of par for the course. Like I mentioned that the head coach is kind of like wants to hang on to the guy where it feels like, like you mentioned from Tuesday, Kwe is kind of like wants to hang on to the guy where I, it feels like, like you mentioned from Tuesday,

Kweisi kind of almost to me without coming out and saying, which of course he wouldn't, he's like, Kirk's going to play this year and then we'll go to the, the table with him and, and, you know, offer him something,

but he's going to want like fully guaranteed three year deal. We're not going to give him that. I don't blame Kirk for doing by the way. No, definitely not. And I also will not blame the Vikings for being like, okay, thank you for your services. You were great. But we're going to give him that. Which I don't blame Kirk for doing, by the way. No, definitely not. And I also will not blame the Vikings for being like, okay, thank you for your services. You were great. But we're going to move on. We're not going to pay you that into your mid thirties at that point. And it just kind of makes sense. It's part for

the course for the new GM, where we always hear that new GMs want their guy. And it usually happens like right away. I think Kwesi understanding, I don't want to enter year two or year three with a, you know, nine and 25 record to get last season under his belt, to win as many games as they did, to hopefully still be right around the playoff hunt this year as a defending NFC North champions. Then when you want your guy, you could maybe even pick a quarterback. And even if he's not amazing right away, you could get the chance to draft another quarterback

like they did in Chicago with Justin Fields. So, yeah, it seems like obvious that the coach wants to maintain that status quo, but it kind of feels like the writing is on the wall. Kirk Cousins will be here this year, and then after that, there's not going to be a long-term or even a two- or three-year extension for Kirk Cousins will be here this year. And then after that, there's not going to be a long-term or even a two- or three-year extension for Kirk Cousins. I know we're always in Indy trying to read through all the lines and stuff like that.

I think that was where the GM needed to stand. So it's not making too many headlines for a negotiation. And also where the coach needs to stand is that, oh, yeah, I mean, I got my quarterbacks back. Because if you the coach needs to stand is that, oh yeah, I mean, I got my quarterbacks back because if you do sign them to a long-term extension, you don't want to be anywhere on tape saying, yeah,

I don't know if we change quarterbacks. Oh, well, like the GM could kind of say that, but the head coach most certainly cannot. But this is one of those topics that can break up a marriage. And it did in the last GM and head coach, when I arrived in

minnesota in 2016 i mean rick spielman and mike zimmer were very much on the same page they were in lockstep and then by the time they both were fired they weren't talking and who was at the center of that different feelings about the quarterback position that's how much it means and i think that they understand that so they have to be on the same page i get the think that they understand that. So they have to be on the same page. I get the feeling that they probably are. But just if you were wondering, Kevin O'Connell just heaped praise on his relationship with Kirk Cousins. And real quick, before we wrap, was there anything else from his press conference that sort of stuck out to you? Because, you know, with the press conferences here at the podium, sometimes people just come up and ask about Brian Dable. Yeah, multiple questions about Brian Dable, which is super awkward.

Since they lost to him in the playoffs. Yeah. It's like, hey, what about your ex-girlfriend? How's she doing? Yeah, that's what it was like. But she's got a new job or something. You're like, dude, come on. There was two or three questions.

Three questions about Brian Dable. Not to criticize the reporter. I'm just saying it's awkward. Yeah, I was just checking my notes. To me, and it just kind of sparked in my head when this happened. I wrote that Kevin O'Connell raved about Brian Flores and his impact on this coaching staff. And it kind of reminds me of when Sean McVay hired Wade Phillips right away to have that veteran coach, certainly not the same age as Wade Phillips was, but a veteran coach on the staff that has head coach experience.

He talked about his personnel background. It was very similar to what Quasey said. And it really feels like, not that I think he's going to, you know, cede control to Brian Flores, but that Flores is going to be a very prominent voice in the room with not just, hey, I want long athletic cornerbacks with the game planning, with understanding how to probably manage the roster throughout the season with the practice squad and things like that. Kevin O'Connell is super successful, but was a first year coach and is still pretty young. I

think it is a smart decision to bring in, again, someone that has been a head coach and probably got some of those Dolphins teams to play better than really their roster should have ultimately played. It just reminded me so much of that, and certainly Kevin O'Connell's connection to Sean McVay. I think he probably felt similarly to have kind of that parallel early in his head coaching career. I agree.

I don't think that with him and Ed Donatell there was ever really a synergy. There was much more of I do the offense, you do the defense. And the way that he's talking about it so far, I think you can see that connection at a much deeper level. So less like hardcore news addressing things today and more of kind of an overarching feeling from kevin o'connell here from indianapolis chris trapasso has done a tremendous job on the show breaking these down and make sure you follow him at chris trapasso cbs sports.com and we will carry on

our coverage here from indianapolis thanks for listening okay just before we wrap up the show wanted to add a couple of quick notes uh one of them, I wanted to just bring you the exact quote from Kevin O'Connell when it comes to veteran players leaving. And I've wondered aloud about how a coach is going to feel about having to move on from players that he really, really likes because of just the cap situation and so forth and I and I mentioned that in the show with Chris but I just wanted to give you the exact quote now that we have it transcribed which is he said it's just so hard to still build for the future with the way that the rules are set up but we'll continue to go and I've spent a lot of time with Rob Brzezinski and Kweisi Adafomensa will continue to do that in anticipation of being at a certain place by the start of the league year that we need to be. And how do we go forward building it from there? So I just wanted to point out that he said even further that he's tried to educate himself

as much as he can about the salary cap and about the job from their perspective. So he understands when they have to make certain decisions, even if he does not love those decisions. And maybe a previous head coach did not always do that when it came to understanding some of the limitations completely. Or maybe Mike Zimmer just resented those limitations as it came to the quarterback situation. Maybe I should put it that way but um you know trying to be on the same page with quesadilla fomenta and rob brzezinski for the difficult decisions they need to make seems to be like that should be a very important thing but i

just wanted to read that exact quote because i found it interesting that he was saying that he understands the rules prevent you with the salary cap from keeping everybody you want. And it sounds like he's prepared himself for that reality that there could be changes. And I think that we've all gotten to that spot. It's just which changes are they going to make? How many of those changes are they going to make? That we do not yet know. Also, I wanted to bring up, too, that Brian Flores is going to be able to go forward with his class action suit against the NFL. This came out today. I'll just read the headline from the New York Daily News because it wraps it up pretty

succinctly. Brian Flores wins the right to take the NFL class action and cases against Giants, Broncos, and Texans to court. And I will read you something from the judge, which was particularly striking, Judge Valerie Caproni. She said plaintiff's descriptions of their experiences of racial discrimination, which allegedly are the most recent chapter in the NFL's long history of systematic discrimination toward black players, coaches, and managers is incredibly troubling. So I think that, you know, Brian Flores, while he's going to be here being a defensive coordinator and will be making this

case against the NFL and will be taking it to court, assuming that there isn't some sort of settlement, but it doesn't seem like that's what Brian Flores wants he wants to ride this thing through and really get it all out in the open about how he was treated when he went to those job interviews and the lack of a fair chance that he was given if you recall he interviewed with these teams but it seemed like they had already made their decisions for who the coaches were going to be, and they were just doing it out of pure obligation to interview him.

This will be going on as Flores is the defensive coordinator of the Vikings. Of course, the wheels of justice turn very slowly, so we don't know if this will go to court, when it will go to court, but he won the right to take it to court. And I have to imagine that if he stands his ground and demands that all the evidence be put out there in writing, as opposed to say, you know, even like Colin Kaepernick, remember the NFL settled with Colin Kaepernick. And that's an important thing. I don know if brian floris is going to do that or not i'm not sure if he's going to or if he would rather kind of lead this charge of how a lot of very deserving and successful coaches have been mistreated and that will be something that we're keeping an eye on throughout and two other things uh the gm of the ravens eric da costa said that

they would like to get something done rather than use the franchise tag with Lamar Jackson but I was talking to a few people the other night about this situation and it's just a little odd how far it's gone and the people that I was talking to about this all felt like him representing himself makes this so much more complicated but also unprecedented in the nfl so the gm of the ravens is saying hey we're working on this we're trying to get this done but the buzz a little bit in indy is people don't really know because of the situation being so different and unique and one other thing that you know jonathan harrison who works for us here at Purple

Insider has a personal beef against Mike McCarthy. He just thinks he's not a very good coach. And Mike McCarthy had a absolute gem of a comment at the podium today saying that one of the reasons that he couldn't have Kellen Moore as his offensive coordinator anymore is that he wanted to run the ball and give the defense more of a break where Kellen Moore wanted to light up the scoreboard. And that is just kind of mind-blowing. Honestly, kind of mind-blowing because Dallas had an amazing defense this year. Their defense didn't seem to struggle with their offense throwing the ball as much as it did. And the Dallas Cowboys

might be getting worse because Mike McCarthy is taking more command of that organization and the Chargers might be a lot better off with Justin Herbert now playing with Kellen Moore but I thought that you know as there are a lot of Vikings fans who probably have some dislike for Mike McCarthy or maybe want him back in Green Bay I don't know because uh lefleur is a better coach i think oh also relevant uh jalen carter has an issue involving road racing or whatever yeah right that's what you call it road racing um and street racing not road racing street racing and uh he put out a statement and everything else but this was something that seemed to be hinted at by todd mcshea of espn at some point earlier in the draft process and i saw charles mcdonald who's been a regular guest on the show wrote about asking people in indianapolis

whether they thought that jalen carter's draft stock would be impacted by the street racing issue, which is apparently a rest warrant came out with a couple of misdemeanors for that. And most people think that it won't, that it will not be something that impacts his draft stock. Of course, Chicago has to decide whether to pick him at the top or go with Will Anderson or trade down. And it was almost like, if you follow politics the october surprise like the pre-draft surprise it wasn't a gas man bass bong as it was on draft night once

upon a time with uh laramie tunsell uh but this was quite a surprise i think that this came out so there you go there's kind of what's going on from Indy we will have so much more an episode coming out soon with Tage Seth and Derek Klassen two very very smart football analysts breaking things down Courtney Cronin's going to join for all of you Courtney our Draft Scout fans lots still to come from Indianapolis thank you all for listening