Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman's comments as the Vikings open camp

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom were in attendance at TCO Performance Center when Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman talked to the media. What's the latest on O-line coach Rick Dennison's role? Why the wide receiver battle is suddenly in the spotlight. Will we see Jeff Gladney at camp? How many catches will Dede Westbrook have? What does it mean that Christian Darrisaw is going to be brought along slowly due to a groin issue? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TD Insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD. Ready for you. so oh welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here sam extra will join me in just a moment but first i want to tell you about something very very cool purple insider has shirts now if you follow me on twitter you may have seen it already if not check it out at matthew collar is where i've tweeted it out but also soda stick and i have paired together to create an old school football looking shirt. So if you go to SodaStick, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, look under MN Football and boom, you will find the Purple Insider shirt. So if you'd like to get one, go check it out. If

you're a fan of the show, this is a great way to support what we do and keep us going and get yourself a cool shirt with an old school football helmet on. So please do that. SodaStick.com under their football collections. Check out our cool shirts. All right, now let's get to the show. So why don't we just begin, Sam, and we'll get right into it. We were both out there at TCO Performance Center today, and we talked to Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer. And the topic

du jour to start off everything, of course, was Rick Dennison and his situation as offensive line coach. And as ESPN's Courtney Cronin reported a couple of days ago, Rick Dennison is no longer the offensive line coach. Phil Rauscher is taking over. But it sounds like to me, Sam, that they worked for a couple of months to figure out what Rick Dennison exactly would be doing for this team. And finally, we have a resolution that he is going to be an assistant. So here's the question that I have for you to start this off is, do you think that this will make any difference? Do you think that this is something that Vikings fans should be concerned about or I mean even you could spin it the other way and say

this could be a good thing because their offensive line has struggled how are you viewing Rick Dennison in his new role I have a hard time speaking in any absolutes about any kind of consultant role because we've we've been around a lot of consultant situations in the past. And those figures are very much in the background. They're not usually accessible to the media. You know, when Gary Kubiak was sort of influencing Kevin Stefanski as the offensive coordinator, it was hard to figure out what was Gary, what was Kevin. We've had, you know, Todd Downings of the world come in. We had, his name escapes me, last year, the defensive

consultant who came in and was gone after one year. Maybe you can fill in the blank for me there. But- Packers guy, trying to remember. Dom Capers. Dom Capers, yeah. Dom Capers came around and we didn't really know what he did you know so sometimes these things are a little bit intangible they're tough to put your finger on but mike zimmer did a pretty nice job of laying out that um you know rick dennison has decades of coaching experience in the league phil rousher has never really been a head offensive line coach

and there's just there's a huge gap in experience. And Rick Dennison will be able to look at tape and hone in on the nuances that he's seeing and either relay that to the players or to Coach Rauscher himself, who can then kind of relay it and it becomes a game of telephone. I still think that it creates challenges. I think that having multiple voices in the players' ears,

both in sort of a pseudo position of authority can be a little bit confusing sometimes uh the messaging might be a little different and it's harder to make corrections like if you're rick dennison and these guys have seen dennison as kind of the authority figure for the past couple years and suddenly he's not there on game day to help you know make those minute adjustments in the moment um and maybe ruscher's not as good at that because of his inexperience, and maybe he is, I'm not sure, I think that could have a kind of minor effect on this team. And we'll never really know the true effect. A few years ago when they tragically lost Tony Sperano, they didn't really tell us how much it had been affecting them until after the season

when that sort of came out. So we may not really fully understand how challenging or how tough this is, but it does sound like it's been as amiable a situation as you could expect for a guy kind of getting fired from his job and then keeping him around in this capacity. That's kind of a rare thing, and it seems like they have a good understanding on what they're going to do. It also sounded like Mike Zimmer wanted to fire Rick Dennison and that he was patient and allowed them to work out something where he ends up in this role.

And I have Mike Zimmer's quote on what Rick Dennison will be doing here. He said he's going to watch practice with the offensive line coaches, help to evaluate. He will be helping with game plan ideas, third down ideas, protection ideas, things like that. So it sounds like they're just going to be in contact all the time with Rick Dennison from home and he's going to join virtually. And then Phil Rauscher will go from there. And like you said, how much this impacts everyone, we're going to ask everybody and who knows what they'll say to us, or if we can read between the lines for certain hints of how this is going. But for now, it's kind of a dead issue. It's that this is how it's going to be. Phil Rauscher, a guy who has been

with this team and Mike Zimmer said he talked him into staying on multiple occasions because he believed at some point that he would ultimately be the offensive line coach. I believe him when it comes to that because of Phil Rauscher's previous stops and his reputation. And so there you have it. We're all set with this issue. Phil Rauscher is the offensive line coach. Rick Dennison will be in the background. And I think it's a great point about other assistants and other advisors that they've brought in that we don't really know what they do. We might really never understand how they impact the team positively or negatively. And that's kind of that. And now we move forward away from this. I would imagine the Vikings are

not the only team dealing with something similar. It's just that our friend ESPN's Courtney Cronin put it out there before everybody else. So the world found out what was going on with the Vikings offensive line coach. So let's move on to other exciting things that we learned today, because I've got nothing more to say about Rick Dennison. And I also just think that no one wants to hear about this particular topic, like the whole, here's how COVID's affecting everything it was a huge discussion from Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer Mike Zimmer coming out very strong in favor of everyone getting vaccinated which I think is probably a good message for society to have the head coach of the Vikings encouraging people to get vaccinated but we know that not every player will

and the team also wouldn't reveal what percentage of guys didn't and so forth. So we could just move on from this issue and onto Jeff Gladney, one of much more excitement, our friend, Brian Murphy, who is going to be this season working for purple insider. He's going to be writing columns, joining us on podcasts. He went to Jeff Gladney's house and he found Jeff Gladney. So Sam, Jeff Gladney is in town, but the team will not speak about him at all. He has his indictment hearing July 29th. What do we think happens with

Jeff Gladney and the Vikings if he gets indicted, which is almost a certainty? Yeah, I don't think we're going to see Jeff Gladney for a while. And I would expect a commissioner's exempt list, you know, exemption to be made here at some point. Now that is kind of at the mercy of Roger Goodell. Like, we don't know when or like how that might, you know, come down. But I think it would probably make sense if he goes on that list. He wouldn't count against the 90-man roster. But I think there's less than 1% chance that he shows up tomorrow to training camp with a grand jury hearing literally the next day. We don't know necessarily if that's a virtual hearing. I'm guessing it would be in COVID times that he can probably video in for that from his home in the Twin Cities down with the hearing in Texas. But my gut tells me that we aren't going to see much of Jeff Gladney this year. And, you know, if this goes to trial, which it seems like is decently likely, you know, the league has kind of the authority to lay the suspension on. And when it's completed, regardless of what the punishment might be legally, he could

still face a six-game suspension or something along those lines, and the legal process can have slow-moving wheels. So that might back this whole thing up kind of deep into the season before there's even resolution to that. The Vikings aren't going to give us much of a comment on it because it's an ongoing legal situation. So I think they've got a plan for no Jeff Gladney this year. And that would explain why, you know, they're pretty assertive to go get Bashad Breeland pretty late in the game. I think that, you know, kind of explains that move a little bit more to get someone that can play the slot and a little bit outside and maybe Gladney next year. But I think this year is a bit of a long shot. I just find it interesting that Jeff Gladney is here.

And I don't know if he's been here the entire time in Minnesota or if he went back to, I think he's from Texas, and then stayed there and just came up here to possibly do his physical and all those things. I really don't have a good feeling for how the Vikings are supposed to handle this type of thing because he has not been indicted yet. And when that happens, then what? Does the NFL instantly suspend him? Do they let that play out? Do they let the trial play out while he continues to practice with the team? Even Michael Floyd, by the way, practiced with the team. Now, it was a much less, you know, I mean, this was a personal issue for Michael Floyd. It was not a violence issue. It was not something that the NFL had come out staunchly against after Ray Rice, considering the domestic violence element of it. So the NFL always wants to seem like they are very much against domestic violence and for punishing domestic violence abusers. But at the same time,

I could see him practicing. Maybe I'm just going to leave that door open to maybe until this ends up resolving itself. He's already worthy of a suspension just with the fact that this happened, that he's getting indicted for it. But maybe the NFL is going to wait to see how long they want to suspend him for. But then there's the other element of is going to wait to see how long they want to suspend him for but then there's the other element of the longer you wait to deal with jeff gladney from the nfl's perspective the longer you have for fans to say now wait a minute like you're allowing this domestic abuser without punishment to show up here or i should say alleged domestic abuser to show up here and practice with the team and you're not punishing him and all those sort of can of worm things end up coming out. I just found it very interesting

that our friend Brian found him at his house. And so he's here for a reason. Is that to practice or not? I guess we're going to find out when we get on the field, how this thing ultimately resolves itself, I think really depends on the legal process, because if he is convicted, then we could see, who knows, whatever the law decides. He could end up with jail time for what sounds like a very serious crime. But if he does not, then the NFL will very likely still suspend him. And to your point, that leaves you with one cornerback short. And the NFL, I believe, also allows for some cap space for the Vikings if they do suspend Jeff Gladney. So that's kind of where that's at is we still don't really have a good sense for how they're

going to deal with it. But I would not be super shocked if the team just says, why don't you stay away until this thing resolves itself? And that was the approach they took in the spring too. And, you know, that was before the grand jury date was set. And I think, you know, maybe they could have even justified more so having him around in the spring and they didn't, they didn't have him there. He wasn't present whatsoever. So I think I would be surprised to see him tomorrow on the field. I guess, like I said, it's not impossible. He is in town, but it would probably not be a great look. And it gets pretty messy, Matthew, when you talk about like what someone deserves for punishment when you've, you know, you've got their employer, the NFL.

They have the right to punish you. The legal system has the right to punish you. And, you know, whether you're found guilty or not, can your employer still levy a punishment? There's just there's a lot of uncomfortable questions that might come up here. So I kind of take the tact of let's just sit back and let the process play itself out. And then we'll see how the team reacts well i wanted to get past the frustrating stuff for fans to listen to because that's the top two stories really of the day is the vikings would not comment whatsoever on what's going on with jeff gladney and rick dennison situation is resolved and mike zimmer also said look it's going to be harder on players he reiterated that who are not

vaccinated they have to get tested sit in their cars for a half an hour, wait to get the negative test before they can do things and be separated from their teammates. But there are at least some players still on the Vikings who are unvaccinated. By the way, they're talking, they won't tell us how many. So now let's move past that to stuff. That's more training campy and fun which is wide receivers we're at the center of both rick spielman and mike zimmer's excitement

when talking about the potential battles that will go on over the next couple of weeks and i'll just give you credit sam you were watching kj os You mentioned K.J. Osborne multiple times on our show, and he gets not one, but two name drops, one from Rick Spielman, one from Mike Zimmer. Now that D.D. Westbrook is a part of this, I don't think I've gotten your take yet on D.D. Westbrook being here. It makes for a very, very interesting wide receiver battle behind Thielen and Jefferson. Yeah, Rick Spielman said he thinks it's going to be one of the most competitive positions on the roster, which is not how I would have described it before the DD Westbrook acquisition. And that,

I think, reflects the team's excitement in my guy, KJ Osborne, who looked fantastic all spring and Amir Smith-Marset to a certain extent. That's a fifth-round pick, and even though I don't think he looked very good in the spring, there's still plenty of promise there and time for him to figure things out. So you add in kind of the veterans, I guess, if you can call them veterans, Chad Beebe and B.C. Johnson to that mix. I think they're trying to fight for their lives a little bit. We've talked multiple times on the show that it's not a particularly high bar

to be cleared you know bb had 200 yards last year that's like less than 20 yards a game as a wide receiver three bc johnson had one pretty good game in relief of adam phelan maybe one and a half good games in 2019 but neither of them are like you know impenetrable from being kind of knocked off the ladder. I think that, you know, if Osborne looks really good, I think he could be a wide receiver four type. They weren't giving anything to D.D. Westbrook by the way they were talking. They weren't speaking as if he's their wide receiver three, which I thought was interesting. Remember, he is coming off a knee injury. They were very impressed by his workout and they waited a couple extra months

to sign him because they wanted to see how he was coming along in his recovery. Sounds like he's coming along pretty well. So he's the automatic favorite to be your wide receiver three. He's got two pretty good NFL seasons under his belt in 2018 and 2019 on, you know, a kind of unremarkable Jacksonville Jaguars team. He's a guy that not a lot of people talk about, but I think he could be pretty effective, to be honest. He's not extraordinary by any means, but he's got speed and he's got experience.

And that's more than you can say for a lot of guys on this roster. So the guys you're familiar with, Chad Beebe, BC Johnson, they may not have like a locked up roster roster spot maybe one of them but if you add in westbrook you add in osborne you add in smith marset that's five and maybe you keep six but that doesn't leave room for both and that's what makes it so interesting here is because you have a player who is proven in the nfl but coming off of an injury. So he has not played since 2019, but he had 66 catches in 2018 and 66 catches in 2019, which is a lot more in terms of a track record than BC Johnson or Chad Beebe. But the fact that they only signed him to a one year,

essentially $1 million deal, that kind of smacks a little bit of Kendall Wright and of Tajay Sharp. And so you've got to see it first and you've got to see how fast Dede Westbrook can come in and get things together because we've made this leap before of, oh, this guy, he's going to change the offense. This guy's going to have this role or that role. We really thought that Kendall Wright was their pure slot receiver and situational guy. And then he just didn't even make the team. And so with Westbrook, I think it's fair to temper expectations and where he might fit it on this team. And when I asked Mike Zimmer about that, he also added in, well, you know, we're going

to play a lot of two tight ends and things like that. So he was not at all anointing anybody as the next big weapon for the Minnesota Vikings, where I think it's interesting. And you correctly diagnose it is they're not saying, oh, we're excited about B.B. and B.C. Johnson. And it's going to slot in after those guys and they're going to fight for one spot or something. Everything is up for grabs past jefferson and theelin and now all of a sudden that becomes very interesting and amir smith-barsett did get some compliments from mike zimmer about how he came back and the rookies have been working out for a couple of days here and so he had not gotten any compliments from him earlier and i think was kind of put on blast a little bit after minicamp. So then he starts him out with a positive comment in the media about how he looks.

And if you had to guess right now before we start, what do you think the wide receiver room is? Well, I want to first point out that you left Jordan Taylor off the overhyped wide receiver threes list of the past. I just want to want to throw that out there. That was another epic name, belongs on the Mount Rushmore. The wide receiver room is going to look like this. It's going to be Jefferson Thielen, interchangeable one and two. I think it's going to end up being Westbrook. I think that if he's healthy, he's probably the best of the bunch. And his tenure is decently impressive for being with not a great quarterback and uh

I just think that he brings a decent amount to the table and maybe even in the punt return game too he can be their guy KJ Osborne I gotta you know stick my flag in the ground for him he looked much improved in the spring he didn't get much of a chance to prove himself last summer because there was no practicing there were no preseason. He seems like a very appealing wide receiver four option to me, and he signed with the team for another three years. So if he's got hope of improving, DeeDee Westbrook is probably, you know, he's probably gone after this year, to be honest. So you're going to need someone to backfill that spot. I think Osborne, number four, I think that they're, for a similar reason, invested in Amir Smith-Marset, too, as a fifth round pick. I think Osborne number four, I think that they're for a similar reason invested

in Amir Smith-Marset too as a fifth round pick. I mean, you don't want to give up on someone with that high a draft status right away if you think they can be a player. So that's number five. And then I throw my hat in there for BC Johnson. I think that BC can just do a little bit more than Chad Beebe can, even though Beebe is good around the line scrimmage. I think, I think that BC can just do a little bit more than Chad Beebe can, even though Beebe is good around the line scrimmage. I think it's, I think the end of the road for Don Beebe's kid, just, you know, his, his durability, his limitedness when it comes to contested catches. I think BC Johnson would be number six. And I'm not sure where he slots in on the hierarchy, but that that's how it rounds out my wide receiver room.

I'll put Chad Beebe in and B.C. Johnson out with the total possibility that they could stick with Dan Chisna as the special teams specialist. They have done this. That was Marcus Sherrill's position for a long time. And they did it last year with Dan Chisnana even though I can't really tell you how well he did as a gunner but the overall performance by the special teams was not particularly special but I wouldn't be surprised if they said five receivers and one special teams guy and that guy is Dan Chisna I do think Westbrook makes this team how many catches he gets how big of a role he gets is another conversation um he'll go in there and then i i have chad bb and i'll give your guy um kj osborne and amir smith-marset or is that too many is that too many is that the right number that i have there so it would be

smith-marset bb kj osborne and oh so i've got six then if it's Westbrook so then Dan Chisna is the odd man out they won't keep seven so they did last year oh they did yeah that's right because it did not make sense but they did because he really isn't a receiver he's just a special teams guy who runs some routes to get warmed up so I'll go with it I'll say that they go with seven in finger quotes but really six and those six but BC versus BB has all of a sudden become a pretty interesting battle. Let me get to something else. Actually, we've got some questions here that are coming in. So I'm going to try to mix those into our conversation here. Joe asks this question, if Kirk Cousins goes down, are the Vikings dead or does Kellen Mond

have the skills to make an impact right away I will answer that by saying I don't know yet I'm gonna find out and you're gonna find out as we watch the daily progression of Kellen Mond and I think what we learned in minicamp is that Kellen Mond is not competing in any way with Kirk Cousins he's not pushing Cousins there's there's none of that going on. It's entirely battling against Nate Stanley and Jake Browning for QB2. And if he wins QB2, that means he'll probably have grasped the offense pretty well and he has the physical talent to play. So that's what's going to determine it for me, whether he could step in for Kirk Cousins is just can he beat Jake

Browning and Nate Stanley for the job because it is not a high bar as we talked about but they do like Jake Browning enough to give him QB two reps and enough to keep him around now for a third year yeah I certainly can't declare that you know the QB four which Mond is at this point let's be honest about this is going to save the day if Kirk Cousins goes down because I'm not sure that he's QB2 yet. Now, you've speculated that you think he'll get there by the end of training camp, that he'll make that slow progression up the depth charge. He'll start taking those number two reps in the preseason games and be the guy. That's your opinion on it. And I think you might be right on that um and I think

Mond is a little bit of the opposite of Kirk in that he might come in and be okay off schedule if you threw him into a game situation but he might not be good at the other stuff the accuracy you know knowing where to go with his reads that's what I'm going to be looking for in camp is can he get to his first and second reads more often and not have to check the ball down because if you're checking it down in training camp you know obviously either the defense was immaculate or you know you didn't have a lot of confidence in that window to throw so yeah let's see how he progresses and and whether he ever usurps browning in the order in the games because you know they're gonna have a game probably the third preseason game where Cousins isn't going to play who knows if he even plays in one or two like they might just

bench Cousins and try to get Mond the experience does he start those games does he come off the bench in those games that's going to be pretty telling about where he stands in the coaching staff's eyes I am guessing right now just our precamp guess, is that Jake Browning starts the first one, and that will be the only one that Jake Browning starts. That is just my guess, but it's really going to be determined by Kellen Mond and how he comes along, because if he comes along really well on a day-to-day basis, and he's showing confidence, and he's completing passes, I mean, practice is where all this stuff is determined more than the preseason games. We've learned that in the past, but what the preseason games tell us is usually how much opportunity they

give guys in the preseason, the order in which they give opportunity. That's what tells us what's going on in practice. As much as our own eyes trying to watch everybody all the time, though, is really tough, but Mond will be keeping a close eye on now the offensive line a couple of interesting developments one of which it does not sound like Christian Daresaw will be starting at LT1 left tackle a starter but it also doesn't sound like he'll be starting at 100% either he had groin surgery in the off season and Mike Zimmer said that he's bringing him along slow. He was not at 100% during mini camp. And I'm going to throw up a red flag already, Sam, throwing up a red flag here because at a hundred percent, a rookie doesn't always have

a great chance to win a spot versus an experienced player on a Mike Zimmer team to begin with much less, Hey, you've got to come out here after setting yourself behind not on purpose obviously but being set back by an injury and so already I'm wondering is Christian Derrissaw going to be the starting left tackle or is this just a bump in the road and they're trying to bring him along slow but then ultimately yeah he's going to be the guy or what it surprised you at all. If Rashad Hill was the starting left tackle in week one. Increasingly would not surprise me. And I'm not saying this is another tweak situation,

but I felt like this injury was downplayed quite a bit in the spring and that Darasau was only going to be out for a day or two. And then he was limited for the rest of spring practices and appears like he's still going to be limited in training camp. So already I'm a little worried about this setback that he had following surgery because he started OTAs at a hundred percent or so it seemed, and then had a pretty big regression health-wise. So that does worry me. You've laid it out nicely in some articles. I've written about it too, that only about one in five rookie tackles come into

the league, and this is over the last 10 years, come in and play at an above average level. Tristan Wirfs last year was one of them for Tampa Bay. That doesn't always happen. And I think you pointed out in a recent article that based on PFF numbers, about half of them will come in and play like kind of an average starter. So that's basically what the Vikings are hoping for. I think at minimum from a rookie, Riley Reif was pretty good last year. So if you want to replace what Riley Reif brought to the table, you're going to need a pretty darn good season from your tackle. And Rashad Hill might give you a better chance of that, at least if he starts the year, if he is healthier, if he knows the protections a little bit better than Derrissaw.

He could be the guy. Now, we've been down this road before with Rashad Hill. It didn't go awesome when he filled in before Brian O'Neill took over. That was on the right side of the line. This is on the left side of the line, maybe even a little more important. Now, Rashad Hill's older, more experienced since that point, so it doesn't mean that he's doomed to fail. I think Rashad Hill is, I guess, as good a swing tackle as you can hope for in this situation, but it's unfortunate if you can't get Derrissaw on the field right away because that just pushes back the timeline of when you can start to see him on

the field with the ones, which I assume the Vikings were planning on seeing at some point. And now that probably can't happen until later in August. Hey everyone. Summer is here and you're trying to get out on the golf course, but if you're like us here at purple insiders, spending all day golfing, isn't always an option.

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Golf and absolutely loved it. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights. And every time Sam and I show up at Birdie Golf to record our podcast, we always get the boneless swings. Make golf a night out. It's the perfect place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, and even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive away from anywhere in the Twin Cities metro at birdiegolf.com, B-I-R-D-I golf.com. Call 651-998-2200 today, and I'll see you there. Because of the history that you laid out there, which is pretty clear that rookie offensive linemen struggle and Christian Derrissaw has a murderer's row of defensive linemen that he's going to face. I think that it's totally fine if Christian

Derrissaw has to come along slowly and doesn't start right away. I don't think you want him to start against players that are going to be huge challenges right off the bat. If he ends up only starting six games, and I know this is getting ahead of ourselves, but if he only starts six games or six games into the season and ends up starting at 10 or 11 games and plays well, because you brought him along slowly, that's fine. I mean, if they brought along Brian O'Neill too quickly in 2018, maybe his confidence is hurt. It actually worked out the exact right way.

He was thrown into a week two game just for a minute, and then he kind of got to gather himself and then became the starter eventually down the road. I think that that was a good way to do it and not have the pressure of being that starter right away for O'Neal in 2018. And if Derrissaw ends up with the same thing, Rashad Hill has really impressed this team by coming along the way that he has in the last few years. I mean, they've said this on multiple occasions. Even Mike Zimmer brought up left tackle wins with Rashad Hill last year when they thought

that he might be the starter. They like him so much that they were ready to start him last year if riley reef left um in a season that they went into thinking they were going to win and not just like a rebuild year which is what it ultimately became so i think that that's a thing that wouldn't surprise me at all and also would not be worthy of some kind of freak out like, he's a bust or anything like that. So we'll watch that as we go along, and we'll see if at some point they start giving Derrissaw first-team reps, but it's not going to happen right from the beginning of camp. Now, to the right guard position, that's where things get interesting,

and a little piece of news dropped by Rick Spielman in his interview with KFAN today, which was that Ole Udo is going to compete in the right guard competition and Mason Cole as well, who has been a center. But I think we always suspect that they brought him here to also compete at guard. And that goes along with Wyatt Davis. Do you think that Dakota Dozier gets the first reps at right guard in training camp

and then everybody else is behind him or will it be Wyatt Davis and then sort of an open competition yeah omitting Dozier's name does speak volumes I think sort of in the same way that omitting BB and BC at in the wide receiver conversation also speaks volumes Dozier starting again never made sense to me when you have other candidates um that can be better you know that are younger that have more years under contract um and i'm not saying that you know it doesn't sound like drew samia is in the mix either it sounds like you know they they traded for mason cole who i have my own reservations about too he hasn't lit the world on fire at all in Arizona.

And I don't know if right guard is going to be a good fit for him or not, but they clearly want to see what he can do. Wyatt Davis though, should emerge and win that job. Now, is it going to be week one or is it going to be week four or week 11? I don't know yet, but the red carpets laid out, like they haven't set up a lot of competition for him to overcome so i think he he needs to go and win that job and if all things are equal if davis is as good as cole um if he's as good as udo who keeps fluctuating between tackle

and guard and sometimes that you know can be a good change of scenery and sometimes it tells you that maybe he's not great at either i don't know what the case is for Ole yet, but I think that Davis needs to go win that job because his competitors are not world beaters. They're not pro bowlers. These are, you know, replacement level guys that a third round pick should be able to come in and win a job against. Okay. I have a couple of just sort of over unders for you related to our last two conversations about camp battles, wide receivers and offensive lines. Okay. So let me ask you this. We'll start with the offensive line first, but then I forgot to ask you about DD Westbrook's catches. So I want to ask you about that as well. Where will P the vikings offense when we get to the end of the

year offensive line sorry when we get to the end of the year because i saw steve palazzolo put out his pre-season offensive line rankings and the vikings were 26th and ross tucker put out his offensive line tiers and the vikings were in the well below average tier, not the disaster tier, but the well below average, will pro football focus rank the Vikings offensive line greater than 21st? We'll say 21st and a half to just make it a real over under. 21st and a half, how high will they ultimately be ranked at the end of the year?

So last year, pass blocking 29th um run blocking despite how good their run game was um 18th last year so that's with um pretty good left tackle pretty good right tackle and you know a center that struggled in pass protection good in run blocking we know the story as cleveland you know revolving door at guard wasn't very good so they they were good on the ends last year and they were bad on the interior this year i think they aren't going to be necessarily better on the edges and the interior still worries me i so i don't see on paper how it's a better group. Um, now it's hard to be worse, especially in pass protection. Maybe Ezra Cleveland will take a big step. Maybe Rashad Hill, like you said, is kind of a good stabilizer, but, um, they need things to go right with players

that haven't proven they're good yet. Oh, they're only good in theory. Um, so I think you can certainly hope for improvement based on just getting new blood. Hey, they're only good in theory. Um, so I think you can certainly hope for improvement based on just getting new blood. Hey, maybe a new voice, Phil Rauscher, maybe that is going to unlock something, um, kind of shuffle the deck. So I think 21st and a half, I still go under. I still, I don't quite know if Garrett Bradbury is going to be a good pass blocker yet. And rookies are a crapshoot. So I got to be the pessimist here and go under. I'm going to say like 23rd. Under, yeah.

Okay, I was going to say under being lower. A higher number than 23rd. Yeah, a higher number, right. I will also, well, I'm the odds maker here. So I'm impressed with my own number because I think it's going to be right around there. I think it's right. It's going to be right over the 20 bar that it will be, I think a little bit better than last year because Ezra Cleveland is now not a rookie and he's more in a position of comfort for him at

left guard. And I think that Garrett Bradbury, and when you look at the numbers, I wrote about this a little bit that when you look at the numbers, it sort of seems like there was an injury there. Like he was really doing well in run blocking about 10 weeks into the season. And then after that, his pass blocking never was great, but it was closer to average. And if he's a elite run blocker and an average pass blocker, he's pretty darn good. I think at one point he, through 10 weeks, he was like fifth by PFF. And then just after that off the face of the earth and was over the final weeks of the season, all the way at the bottom in both categories. And that makes me think that there was an injury there. Mike Zimmer said at the end of the year, there was an injury.

And it was part of the reason that they still felt confident in him. So let's just assume that he will continue his progression or at least be okay. And then the right guard becomes very much how fast can you get ready? Wyatt Davis. And if you don't, then behind you is a pretty serious issue. offensive lines in the league. But I also think that there's enough talent there now that as the season goes on, they could actually improve as opposed to what we saw last year, where they just got exposed more and more. And teams realize that if you throw stunts and twists at them, that they would just fall apart. And that's exactly what happened. Okay. The DD Westbrook over under, he had 66 catches in back-to-back years I don't see it coming anywhere close to that with this team I am going to go 22 and a half as the over under for receptions for Dini Westbrook I think I gotta go under just because he's not guaranteed the job

like if he was guaranteed if they'd spoken differently about him today i might have gone over but because there's it sounds like there's a chance that he could either lose that job or split the reps with someone younger and you know kind of rising up the depth chart i'm gonna say no because the vikings throw the ball to dalvin cook in the screen game they're gonna throw it to irv Smith Jr. a lot. Tyler Conklin occasionally. And, oh yeah, they're just not going to pass it as much as other teams do, especially to their wide receivers.

They're going to use the third wide receiver less than any other team in the league by a pretty wide margin. I think Beebe was 20 last year on the nose. And I think if Westbrook were to play the same number of snaps, he goes over. But like I said, don't know if he starts, don't know if he gets that job. So I'm going to go under. I will go over. And my reasoning is that if Adam Thielen or Justin Jefferson has to miss any games,

let's even say it's three between them. It's a 17 game season now. Let even say it's three between them it's a 17 game season now let's say it's three between them dd westbrook was brought here in part to be the guy who was able to fill in for them because we knew that chad bb was not capable of doing that we knew that bc johnson really showed he wasn't super capable of doing that in 2019 and mostly Stefan Diggs had to carry the load there and the tight ends had to carry the load as well so I see your logic if everybody is healthy and he is the wide receiver three even our guy Jarius Wright who we have repeatedly praised over the years for being their last good wide receiver three I think he had 17 catches in 2017 it just was that 13 of them or

so were big and he had a couple of touchdowns and he had a catches in 2017. It just was that 13 of them or so were big. And he had a couple of touchdowns and he had a bunch of big third down catches and made one of the biggest plays in the Minneapolis Miracle to get them a first down. But over the year, they were not using Jarius Wright all that much. They never used Laquan Treadwell all that much. They never used even Aldrick Robinson, I think, finished with 17 receptions. So that's probably where the mark is i just think that those other guys um they had very few opportunities to fill in with any injuries

so i'll leave the door open for that but i could definitely see that as being being something that that that doesn't turn out to be anything or it turns out to be a really good weapon for them zimmer hinting at we're still going to use two tight ends though, sort of said to me, maybe we should set a Tyler Conklin over under. Okay. Those were the biggest things that I had. And I know we've spent a lot of time on them with the wide receivers and the offensive line. What did you take away from Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman today? Because I thought there was also sort of, there wasn't like a full breakdown of every single position, but there was kind of an overall vibe that you could take away from Zimmer and Spielman. But did you have anything else that was position-oriented or anything that just popped for you?

Yeah, the introductory or sort of the kickoff pressers are always very general in nature. We didn't really talk about Kirk at all. We didn't talk about Dalvin. We didn't talk about Irv Smith or the tight ends. It was focused, I'd say, you know, from an on-field standpoint, a lot on the defense. And the question I asked was, is it actually important to create chemistry with all these new defensive players? And Mike Zimmer has, you know, he's been rattling them off for a while now, even as late as last year, talking about getting Barr back, getting Pierce back, getting Hunter back. So players that didn't play for a year returning, then adding new blood to the mix, Xavier Woods, Dalvin Tomlinson, Patrick Peterson, Mackenzie Alexander, and Steven Weatherly are new in a way. They haven't been with the

organization for a year. So the defense is going to look completely new. Is it actually important to build that chemistry or is that an overrated storyline? And it does sound like there's, you know, I think every coach would probably agree on this. be together and communicate in person, which Mike Zimmer's always said, like he likes to see their faces in the meeting room and be able to quiz them, ask them questions and make sure, as he said today, they're not pretending to pay attention while they're actually on their phone. And I think that Mike Zimmer does a lot of kind of in-person team building camaraderie kind of stuff that that's how he knows how to build a football team. And the fact that they've had that ability, they could practice in the summer together. And now that they're much further ahead

of the curve this year than they were last year, it's going to be easier for them to integrate all the new faces, whether that be rookies or veterans that have, that have come along. I think this team is more equipped to handle kind of the freshness to their roster than last year's team was you know I've always enjoyed about these press conferences to start training camp with Mike Zimmer is just how excited he is and it's just like Mike Zimmer is football guy through and through and he gets to that podium in the first day of training camp and it's just like this is the best day of his year possibly because he's so excited about what's going to happen. And he, he legitimately seemed pretty jacked about all the players that they got him. And not that he's ever going to say they didn't

get me enough players, but I thought the miscalculated comment that he made last year had to do with not only himself, but also the front office, the entire organization kind of believing in some players that maybe they shouldn't have, but also the front office, the entire organization, kind of believing in some players that maybe they shouldn't have, but he seemed legitimately excited by all these names. He rattled them off every player that they signed and why he was excited about them. So that was an interesting vibe that came from him. Now, the chemistry part of that though is it's a lot of new people it's not how can this one guy integrate and outsiders recently have just not been a thing for this team or they have not been a successful thing for this team yanni kingakwe was here five weeks and they decided no and i i mean i've thought

about this at different times through the offseason since they haven't added anybody else. It's like you can actually kind of use Yannick Ngakwe right now. But you decided that this was not a guy who fit with how you guys wanted to play or with the personality or whatever it is. We never really got a full answer on what didn't fit with Yannick Ngakwe. But that was one example. George Iloka twice came in. Now, the other time he got hurt, but the first time he came in and he was going to take over for Manderson Dejo, and then he was immediately out for Anthony Harris after that. I can't think of too many other guys that they've brought in. And then all of a sudden, oh, this free agent

defensive player worked out right away. The 2017 team had been together as a complete unit since 2015, and they had three years to get ready for what they ultimately became that year. I do think it is an interesting factor to watch. We can't really figure it out during training camp, but throughout the season, how everybody's picking up on the system. And the other part of it too is now we've got a couple of guys that we're talking about healing as they get into training camp bashad breland coming off of his injury and i mean on the offensive side dd westbrook christian

derisaw they've got injuries and then michael pierce as well and mike zimmer would not say anything about michael pierce because we roasted him for the whole tweak thing with Daniil Hunter. So I think it's a very reasonable question for you to ask. I just don't know how to sort of put odds on it. Like, do we have odds on whether these guys will figure out Mike Zimmer's defense or not? Yeah, I think it's going to help that they have kind of a stalwart veteran at every level of that defense. They've got Harrison Smith at safety they've got Barron Kendricks at linebacker they've got Daniil Hunter at defensive end and even though he's new Patrick Peterson is going to be that guy at corner and I thought one other takeaway speaking of corner was interesting Mike Zimmer saying that Cameron Dantzler needs more belief in himself um and that's another guy that's coming off injury, too.

You know, he was hurt multiple times last year. He was hurt in spring practices. And, you know, I think just number one, getting him to play better at the end of games, but getting him to be, you know, confident enough to play freely without fear of getting hurt. I think that can be a real thing for players if they're worried about, you know, Cam Dantzler, for instance, gets knocked unconscious by like a rogue knee last year. That can create some hesitancy in guys. And I understand that.

I mean, if you feel like you're injury prone, you might not be, you know, you might be thinking too much when you're out there. So getting the young players to sort of buy in to what the veterans are preaching around them. And I think there are enough veterans that understand the language of this defense that they'll be able to guide them along the way. And they won't be putting too many young players in too many difficult spots. So are they going to hit, are they going to bat

1,000 with all of these signings? No, there's probably going to be a flop or two. And you know what? They're on one-year deals. They're not over-invested in them. A lot rides kind of on 2021, and they'll figure out 2022 later. They're just hoping that they hit 750, and most of them work out, which I think a lot of them have a good chance of doing. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show,

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and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Yeah, that's the thing is that they signed all these guys to one-year deals, but they really need them to work. And if we go through them, there's almost no deal that we could say, oh, this one, if it busts, we'll be fine. Like even if we talk about going back to last year, like Michael Pierce is probably the only one that I can think of where you would say, look, if Michael Pierce doesn't work out, Sheldon Richardson plays, you're okay. If Pierce gets hurt, he's out for the season

or something like you're fine. Cause you have Delvin Tomlinson and Sheldon Richardson who are two very, very good defensive tackles. But aside from that, maybe DD Westbrook would be the one. If he doesn't work out, you're okay. Wide receiver. You've got two elite wide receivers. That's okay. But on defense, you might need Bashad Breeland to be good. If this is the case with DeeDee Westbrook, you might need Mackenzie Alexander, who Mike Zimmer said, I think this is about maybe the eighth time Mike Zimmer has said that Mackenzie Alexander has matured a lot. So I guess he really started at zero when he got here because he matured a lot by the time he left and then matured even more since he's been gone and we'll see how that plays out throughout the season but they need that one to work out if jeff gladney's not going to be any part of this and i wasn't confident that

jeff gladney was good to begin with so uh he's got to work out at slot corner and cameron dantzler when you're injured three times throughout the course of one season, it's hard to say, oh, well, he's just going to be X, Y, or Z. And that's just what he's going to be. So they did hedge their bets and not say, oh, we're just going to rely on Cameron Dantzler. But that is a very interesting comment. One more thing before we wrap this up. Let me ask you about dark horses to make a difference or dark horses to even be mr mancato which we have not put our official picks down on mr mancato and i

do not believe you can use kj osborne i'm sorry but no hold on now just play he played you can't use no no no no if you read if you read the rules, and Chris Long is the commissioner of this, and I asked Chris Long over Twitter, the rule is that if they are like a day three pick and they played a little but didn't make a huge impact, then it's up for the committee to vote. So I'm not sure who's all on the committee, but Chris Long insinuated that Osborne was eligible. He had no catches last year year he was a special teams guy come on all right if you want to make that your pick then I suppose you can make that your pick now I do recognize like value when I make these picks and with all the accolades that he's been

getting um I might there might not be value left on him he might be like a top three candidate so it potentially will change. He's my guy. He's been my guy. I'm going to be, you know, sort of supporting him throughout, but I would love to come up with someone a little more obscure for you. So let me run through some, some other candidates. What about like a WAP failure, you know, a UDFA receiver who is pretty good in the Big Ten, who I think is going to get a lot of run in preseason games. Someone like that. Not sure if there's room on the roster for any of the UDFAs, to be honest. Blake Prohl, too.

Blake Prohl has gotten some love from the coaches as well. Yeah, you got to look at wide receivers. You got to look at tight ends and running backs. Kellen mond can't win he's too high of a draft pick so maybe what about nate stanley i mean nate stanley we haven't seen in the game yet uh he's eligible seventh round pick i think stanley could be a dark horse as well i'll tell you who i've got and i've got two guys that i'm leaning toward but i'm i'll decide here cameron bynum third round pick i believe is allowed third round is where the cutoff is you can't be first or second right you gotta be he's a fourth round pick so you're definitely good there yeah i'm not sure about the

cutoff i yeah okay so i i always thought it was after the third round but maybe third round is included but either way cameron bynum is one that that I think has a chance not to be a starter but to go into preseason games make plays and then people get excited about Cameron Bynum 2022 that's my first thought my other one is Zach Davidson tight end slash punter he is a freakishly good athlete and I think he could overtake Brandon Dillon with a few big games and so I'm leaning a little bit towards Zach Davidson and I think he could overtake Brandon Dillon with a few big games. And so I'm leaning a little bit towards Zach Davidson. And I guess I'll have to make my official pick by tomorrow. But those are the two guys that I am sort of heavily leaning toward picking one of them.

Maybe I'll have to flip a coin. What makes you think that Davidson is better than Bucky Hodges? Because Bucky Hodges, let's just say was, how can I put this? Maybe a little short on self-awareness, maybe struggled a bit with picking up the offense and what they need to do. Tight end is a very complicated position. And so that's the politest way I'm going to put it with him. I don't think that all tight ends who are tall and athletic and are drafted late are the same. And so I'm going to go with Zach Davidson just because I think his his athleticism and size is not just like, OK, it's it's super freaky. And I think that will shine during preseason games and I think it'll shine during practices.

So I might as well just put my chips on Zach Davidson as the guy, even though I do think there's a good chance with Cameron Bynum. So this has been our first Bring Me the News live stream connected with Purple Insider. If you hung around, then we really appreciate it. Go to purpleinsider.substack.com to read all of our written work, purpleinsider.substack.com. And also check out, if you haven't already, the Purple Insider podcast. We do this every single day. There are usually five, six episodes per week with lots of different guests. So there's my Purple Insider commercial. And look for my weekly column at Bring Me the News every Thursday,

depending on whether I get it in in time. Usually is when it comes out at Bring Me the News. So we appreciate Bring Me the News every Thursday, depending on whether I get it in in time. Usually is when it comes out. It bring me news. So we appreciate bring me the news for streaming our show. Make sure you go listen to the rest of the podcast. Check out the written work. Thank you very much, Sam. And we'll catch everybody next time.