Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down the practice squad and finding 9 wins for the 2024 Vikings

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Matthew Coller runs down the Vikings' practice squad and dives into expectations for the team for 2024 now that they have a full roster settled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, and I'm going to tell you the truth. I wasn't initially planning on going live tonight because I thought, well, all right, it's a practice squad, whatever. We'll just move on to other topics. But you know what? Here's what I thought. You guys earned this.

You earned a practice squad breakdown show. Of course, I'll be answering any and all questions that you guys have and we could talk about what's next for the roster and now that there is a roster we can also discuss how good we think this minnesota vikings squad is now that we can look at a full complete depth chart and we also understand the depth on the practice squad as well and And, you know, I could make fun of the old practice squad, but a lot of these guys end up playing. And one thing that I know about Brian Flores

is he doesn't mind reaching deep down into the practice squad to bring up guys, even when you have those elevations, to come up and play a game. He did it a couple of times last year. And over 17 games, you always need a little bit more when it comes to the roster. So why the heck not? Let's break down a practice squad together.

There's also some guys that are interesting, maybe for the future, when it comes to this as well. And then throw all your questions, your comments, into the comment section, and we'll have a good time. And the other thing I want to know from you guys is, now that you know what the roster looks like, give me your win totals. This is your last chance to do it. Next week, it's all about Vikings versus Giants.

East freaking Rutherford, New Jersey. I booked my travel today. I'll be headed out there into that concrete jungle that is uh met life stadium so i'll be there next week for an actual football game very excited for that but i want to know from you guys how good do you think this team is now that they have a roster but let's waste no time here this evening if there's a practice squad to break down then we got to break it down and here it is so uh one thing that i think is actually interesting about the vikings practice squad is if you look over these names you're going to recognize every single one of them

and the vikings did not claim anybody and they also didn't make any other type of moves to bring in anybody else. These are all players that they had on the team this year during the summer and that they are bringing back. And there's some guys on here who I'm a little bit surprised are still on the practice squad and others who I think could have a chance to do something in the future or even this year. So I'm just going to start right at the top, and we'll go one by one. 17 practice squatters we'll run through. I will do it. Sometimes you guys make fun of me for talking about things and answering questions for longer than necessary, and I agree with you.

But we'll do rapid fire here, okay? 30 seconds or less on each player and then all your questions comments about these guys so Nikhil Harry interesting that they decided to keep him around that must mean that they thought enough of how he transitioned as a tight end to want to keep him here and I've gotten the sense that the coaching staff actually likes Nikhil Harry and wants him to succeed he also knows the offense and they've got three tight ends this might be a situation where when TJ Hawkinson returns they end up moving on from Nikhil Harry but at least for now he remains hanging on in the National Football League Dwayne McBride was one that I thought it was going to be over for Dwayne McBride.

Just based on his training camp and preseason, we really didn't see much of him. Maybe they think there's a little bit more still there in the tank to be developed, but through two summers now, just hasn't been any flashes really for Dwayne McBride. But again, a guy who knows the offense and someone that they could move on from if they're adding another running back, I still think they will. They keep miles Gaskin as well. And this might've been a little bit of roster maneuvering out,

by the way, Kenny Wong Wu was picked up by the new Orleans saints. So he was claimed off of waivers but Miles Gaskin and Dwayne McBride what they could do as opposed to signing another running back anytime soon they could because there were a few guys that got through Frank Gore Jr. some of you brought up Pirine signed somewhere else from I can't remember now what team he signed with, but some of the running backs that we were talking about last night are already off the board. They could use their elevation to move Miles Gaskin up and have him be active. And so they would have three running backs and CJ Hamm on a game day. That might be the plan to start the season and they could still

look for somebody else. I personally would prefer another veteran running back outside of Miles Gaskin that they pick up, but it's sort of a beggars and choosers situation. Jalen Williams had a good year last year over the summer. Didn't notice him as much this year, but he sticks around as a developmental corner. Nashawn Wright, somebody that they got in a trade, you might as well. He's been around the NFL for a little bit. You can see he's 25 years old and he is six foot four, which we know that Brian Flores likes dudes that are tall at the cornerback position. If you're going to trade for him and the other guy makes the 53 in Dallas, you got to at least

keep your guy on the practice squad I've barely seen Nashawn Wright I can't tell you anything more about him from practice Bobby McCain Bobby loves football that was the Brian Flores quote Bobby McCain good guy to have his depth if there's an injury at nickel corner, he can play there. And as far as safety, if you need 17 safeties to be on the field at once, Bobby McCain could always pop up onto the active roster. He's somebody I wouldn't be surprised though, if there are some injuries, if he's the first man up. Andre Carter gets through to waivers, which means, or through waivers to the practice squad, which means that nobody around the NFL was interested in poaching him from the Vikings and an up and down preseason and training camp. There were times he, the development here from Andre Carter that you

want to see. Henry Bird got a decent amount of reps in the preseason. Tyrese Jackson was someone we talked about quite a bit. Good pass protector, Tyrese. I'm sorry, Tyrese Robinson. Did I say Tyrese Jackson? That's lucky Jackson is next on the list. Tyrese Robinson got, I thought, a lot of work in the preseason and training camp and did a really nice job as a pass protector. Maybe there's some development there as we go forward in the run game where he could potentially be a guy that offers depth. Lucky Jackson and Jashon Jones, they did keep Jashon Jones after it seemed like every day in practice the guy was making a play, but we almost never saw him in the preseason games. And Lucky Jackson at 27 years old continues to hang around. He was in the XFL.

He's been here a couple of years. And just like Tristan Jackson now, because you could stay on the practice squad as an older player, here he is still fighting the fight, but at least they know that they have someone who can play if there's an injury at wide receiver. Robert Tunyon, another guy that sticks around. We had talked about him quite a bit, but then he got injured.

I think there was a chance that he was making the team if he hadn't gotten banged up. Thayer Thomas, somebody they've liked since the start, gets another year to develop. He's also 26, but you could end up seeing him at some point he was banged up to in in that joint practice against the Browns I don't think he was going to make the roster because other guys played better but still somebody that could pop up onto the roster if they absolutely need him Jonah Williams the veteran cut, but maybe this was a situation where they kept

Taki Tamani because they thought he could get picked up by someone else and cut Jonah Williams knowing that they could get him back in the practice squad. Dallas Gant, I was impressed with in multiple games and the same with Bo Richter, two guys to develop for the future. And they do bring back Samy's Reyes. Didn't look to me like he would have much chance to be an nfl player at really any point as an international player former basketball guy but he sticks around and they'll continue to try to see if there is anything there and there is my

email because i accidentally closed that out that you guys don't need. But I think there's actually some players there on that list that have a chance to develop into the future to be something for the Minnesota Vikings. Dallas Gant, Bo Richter, maybe one of the wide receivers at some point, Tyrese Robinson, also on that list. And some of those guys also provide fairly meaningful depth. I mean, at the defensive tackle position, to have somebody who just last year, Jonah Williams, played 500-something snaps for the Los Angeles Rams and was okay against the run,

to have him as a player on the practice squad is not bad. And Robert Tunyon, also also if someone were to get hurt Johnny Munt Josh Oliver or Nick Muse then you're bringing up off of the practice squad a player who's had 50 catches in a season before it's really changed the game with the fact that you can have veteran players on practice squads Bobby McCain McCain, he looked pretty good to me in the practices that he had. And he laid somebody out in that Raiders game when he was first there. McCain's been around the NFL for quite some time. So there is a bit of a mix between guys that they could try to develop and also guys that will provide some meaning of depth right away this year. So there you go.

There's your practice squad. Questions, comments, thoughts, takes, opinions. And I'd love to hear from you guys when we're talking about this roster being all settled now. For the most part, maybe somebody else might show up and they could cut a running back or something and bring in another veteran but for the most part you're all set so i want to know how many wins what do you what do you got what do you

stick in your flag in the ground because now is the time to do it we have no more questions about the roster to answer so throw me your comments questions and I am happy to answer them. Because I think anything more than about 13 minutes of practice squad breakdown, just for me alone, is too many. So now I need your guys' questions and comments. So let's start off with JP. Seems like we have way more depth than last year. Shows how good Kwasi's work has been since the start of 2023. People only talk about the 2022 draft, but forget about him moving on from old players.

Yeah, I think I got a couple of messages from people about the 2022 draft takes. I think we can live in the world of being realistic with ourselves that they blew that draft. And they really needed that. That could have given them a big boost and it was botched. They end up drafting players that aren't going to be here. I mean, it's very similar to, was it 2021, the Wyatt Davis draft, the Kellen Mond draft, aside from, I think, was that Derrissaw in the first round? There was nothing else.

The Amir Smith-Marset, it's similar to the Laquan Treadwell, Mackenzie Alexander draft. These things happen sometimes. else the amir smith-marset it's similar to the laquan treadwell mackenzie alexander draft these things happen sometimes we can look at that and analyze that and the choices that were made and the player they picked and go what went wrong there and how can they fix it in the future but also look at the bigger picture of this thing and realize that the overall, the 400 foot viewer, what is it? 4,000, how many, 400,000, how many feet? 5,000 feet. The bigger picture is that this roster is in a much better place and doesn't feel a million miles away from being complete. As you mentioned the depth, I do think it's a lot better than where it was last

year. I mean, we still look at the cornerback position and go, oh, I don't know, man. Now, it would have been a lot better had they had Makai Blackman, not Tara's ACL, but you have veteran players, at least, who are proven in the league. It's Stephon Gilmore, Byron Murphy Jr., Fabian Morrow, even. So there are some players here, Shaq Griffin, who have been around and have had success in the NFL. That's a lot different than what we were looking at last year where Caleb Evans was playing every game. Juwan Williams for a while was getting first team reps

in the 2023 training camp. That's a lot different this year, even at the position that I still consider the weakest. Jerry Tillery, Levi Drake Rodriguez, even having Jonah Williams as deep depth on the practice squad. Jonah Williams might've been their second best defensive tackle last year, or their third best defensive tackle last year. And now they've got more there. Is it a good position for them? I still don't think so, but maybe what a little bit of depth does is allow some guys to play in better positions than they could last

year where Byron Murphy jr. Was asked to be their best corner last year. Now, Stefan Gilmore may help a little bit with that. Now Shaq Griffin might allow him to move inside. Byron Murphy had been better with Arizona when he was inside as a slot corner. Now there's a little more flexibility from a coverage perspective for Brian Flores. So that helps. How about Harrison Phillips last year who played, I thought too many snaps. And even when we talked to him about it, he said, you know, there were a few tackles that I missed that I wondered if I was fresh I make that tackle right because Harrison Phillips I think we look at him as kind of just a guy but in his first year he was an above average player in Buffalo he was an above average player but then last year he falls off a bit by his PFF grade because he missed

more tackles than he ever did before. Now with Tillery, with Levi Drake Rodriguez, maybe a couple other guys, Taki Tamani mix in. I mean, maybe you're talking about fewer snaps there, more of a rotation and just ever so slightly more depth. Even a Kamu Grugier Hill last year, they were calling up Anthony Barr and telling him to get here and go into a game where Grugier Hill has played. Last year, they were calling up Anthony Barr and telling him to get here and go into a game where Grugier-Hill has played a ton of snaps over his career, including with Miami and Brian Flores. The safety position has great depth.

Wide receiver is an interesting one because you lose KJ Osborne, and he was a good player, but you have more guys that you feel like can mix and match where it's not just Brandon Powell, it's Powell, it's maybe Tristan Jackson. It's sure. Field has proven a little bit in the league before. So I agree that they do have more depth. The interior, the offensive line is still pretty scary. Uh, but if Dalton Reisner is healthy, him Robinson Juergens, it's just, it's a little bit better, I think, in a lot of different positions here, except for running back where they have two guys.

That depth, the starter is a lot better. The depth, I don't think, has maybe changed a whole lot. But to your point, it's a stronger roster from top to bottom than it was last year, in my opinion, with the additions of Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkle. And that's sort of the trouble with having a question mark at quarterback because you feel like the rest of the group is in pretty good place. And then for the future, that's what you're talking about. Moving on from the older guys, refreshing.

And now that you see Grenard, Van Ginkle, Turner, what the plan was, it also looks pretty savvy to move on from Daniil Hunter because how would you have afforded some of these other players if they had gone all in on Daniil Hunter? I think there's been a lot

of very good big picture type of moves for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa to build a roster that's on the cusp of something, but still needs a little more of that top end talent at a couple of positions. Mike says, if a signing occurs on the next week, what's the likelihood of a running back or lineman on either side of the ball? So what's the

likelihood of either running back or offensive or defensive line. I guess I'd be surprised that defensive line, considering that they kept another guy, Jonah Williams, on the practice squad, and they already have Jalen Redmond and Taki Taimani. I mean, I think that they're good there probably, unless some opportunities showed up that they couldn't pass up. Offensive line with Reisner on the four game IR, it looks like they're just expecting him to come back and they should be okay with Dan Feeney as a backup interior lineman. Feeney's played a lot of snaps in his career. He has not been above average, but as a fill-in guy for a couple of weeks, if you need him, it should be okay. And Reisner is a well above average pass protector. I think that they would have preferred he was healthy and actually competed for the right guard spot but he does have a good career

as a pass protector you feel like you do have pretty good depth there and there isn't much reason to sign anyone else it really is that running back position where I'm not really sure what the plan is with the running back position because there were opportunities to pick up other guys to be an RB3. There were several running backs who graded very well in preseason. And you guys mentioned last night, Frank Gore Jr. had played really well. He ended up back on the Buffalo Bills practice squad. There was another guy, I think his name was Terrell Jennings, who played really well for New England. He ended up back on their practice squad. So they didn't make any of these claims or go out and get any of the free agents that were let go that were veterans. What is the plan here? Is it just to have Miles Gaskin and Dwayne McBride and they wanted to just move on entirely

from uh kenny wong woo and now miles gaskin is rb3 uh gaskin has had a little bit of career success in the past but that was quite a while ago i think you have to go back to 2020 it still feels like gotta get somebody else but who now and when is much more of a question uh except for maybe it's Latavius Murray Jarek McKinnon I think is he still out there I know he was a free agent I don't know if he wants to play I would welcome Jarek back uh oh gosh says uh you see anybody that could get demoted or cut based on what's out there now I would would like Foreman. Yeah, Deontay Foreman is somebody that I think that they should pick up if they get a chance. I don't know if anybody picked him up today.

I didn't see that they did. So Foreman was a player that has a good enough career as a bounce around type of guy to have his RB3. You're not talking about looking for a starter at this point. You're looking for somebody who could just come into a game and be a professional running back if you need them to. I'm not so sure based on any recent results that that's Myles Gaskin. It's definitely not Dwayne McBride from what we've seen in preseason and in the practices. So Gaskin it is, but Foreman is somebody that I would definitely welcome.

Still thinking seven and 10. That makes sense. And what website can you look up? I assume you're, are you talking about looking up the free agents or looking up the practice squad? If you're talking about the Vikings practice squad, that's, you can go to their website, vikings.com. But as far as free agents, usually I to their website, vikings.com. But as far as free

agents, usually I end up going to over the cap.com. Sometimes you have to Google the guy to make sure that it's completely up to date, but they're usually pretty good about the free agents who are out there. Matt B, isn't it, isn't there a limit on the number of practice squad elevations? The RB room still feels unresolved. Yes, there is. Is it three? They're changing these rules all the time. Is it three times you can elevate somebody? So they couldn't do that every week.

And if you're going into a game with just Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler and CJ Hamm, it's not impossible that you could end up with CJ Hamm playing running back. They really need to have someone else, but they could always, I mean, if you're elevating, I don't think this will happen, but if you elevated Gaskin for three games and McBride for three games, then you've covered half, not half, whatever percentage of the season, someone do the math for me. It just doesn't add up though. They need another guy to be on the active roster as a running back so they must be out there uh looking for somebody i just don't

know who it's going to be maybe it will be foreman um cj uh kenny uh why does it have to be the saints and lewis scene revenge game in lond. I'd be surprised if Louis scene ever gets into a game for the New York jets with the defense that they have. And with Kenny Wong, of course it had to be the new Orleans saints. It had to be a team that could punish you in a, in a wild card playoff or something, or how about a Kenny Wong will kick return for touchdown that gets the saints into the playoffs and knocks the Vikings out on the last day of the season. Something like that has to happen. There has to be some connection there. I mean, if I'm another team, I would look at Kenny Wong Wu if I didn't have

a kick returner and go, why not? Guy's been one of the best kick returners in the NFL since he came into the league. And that's why it was a little perplexing that they decided to move on from him. And I keep thinking that that's why they must have someone else in mind to sign as a running back. I just don't know who. And as far as, you know, the cam acres thing, it's maybe why they were looking at cam acres. I don't know exactly what happened there. There was a rumor that the physical didn't work out with him, and that's why he went to the Texans. He's looked pretty good with the Houston Texans. There must be some idea that they have or some person they have in mind to play

running back when they got rid of Kenny Wongwu. Just I'm not sure what that plan is. And there also must be something as far as the kick returning, because it was a little bit odd with practice this year that we didn't see a lot of the kick returning. A lot of it must've been done during the walkthrough, but I don't know how they would have determined whether Kenny Wong will was good at it or not because he didn't have any time in the preseason to do kick returns. He was only playing running back. And how would they figure that out from a handful of reps? They did some live reps against the Browns in those joint practices with the kickoffs. And that was pretty cool to watch. But how would

you know for sure whether he was going to be good at this or not it does feel like it could be a different skill but with kenny wong woo hit a hole and this guy is still gone so i'm sure that that's what the new orleans saints are thinking and i'll be interested now to see what they do back there i'm guessing it's going to be ty chandler but uh hard to say they may just be viewing this as more of a regular football play once the ball gets to the guy and that's the idea right is that it's more of just a regular like an inside zone or whatever handoff and maybe they thought Chandler's going to be better at it or Powell's going to be better at it that's the best I can do for why they would move on from Wong Wu but it's almost a guarantee that at some point or maybe when they play the saints again, uh, that'll be an issue. Uh, Janet, a huge fan of Tyrese Robinson.

I thought he did a really good job. Uh, and this was some guy, this is why when they cut down the 53, sometimes there's like, Oh wow. They cut down that guy and he didn't make the team, but sometimes they just know, well, there's no reason to keep him there when he's not going to get picked up by anybody else. And someone like Tyrese Robinson has bounced around the NFL a little bit. It was very unlikely that another team was going to scoop him up. So you get to have them as a pass protector to develop for the future or could get called up if there's more injuries and you don't have to take up a roster spot with them. It's kind of a good deal there. Oh gosh, when you say

develop, do you mean for the actual future or more of a game or two and then back to the bench? Well, it kind of depends on the guy, right? There are some of these guys, let me look at my list again. If we were talking about guys who could actually maybe be a difference maker in the future, maybe play a significant college, had a pretty good camp. I don't expect that just Sean Jones will someday become Adam Thielen, but I do think it's possible that he could be a Tristan Jackson type of situation where after a couple of years, maybe he's somebody that you're talking about. Maybe I'm just saying it's a possibility, not the most likely thing when you get to this point, but we've seen

that with wide receivers before. And I would also say that of Dallas Gant and Bo Richter, there are two other guys that are rookies, undrafted free agents who were good enough to me in practice and in the preseason that we've seen that type of position, thebacker the pass rusher we have definitely seen that type of guy who develops in the practice squad and then becomes a situational player unlikely to become a big-time starter or superstar but maybe there's something there and you need everybody we know that if you're going to go deep in the playoffs it's a 17 game season you need to have players that have become undrafted free agents.

And that's why I thought it was kind of odd, some of the comments about the undrafted free agents. They have to be good to make the team, and they're useful if you can land them to do even anything. It's a huge win. If you get an undrafted free agent, Dallas Gant, who eventually gets called up and plays linebacker in any capacity or even special teams.

You've done well with your undrafted free agent, but those two guys maybe have a little more upside. Let's see. Good for the Vikings cutting ties with guys who just ain't flashing. Yeah, I didn't have any real issue with anybody that they cut, good for the Vikings cutting ties with guys who just ain't flashing. Yeah. I didn't have any real issue with anybody that they cut. And I appreciate that. It was more about the performance in training camp performance in preseason. If you go look even,

and this is why PFF can be pretty useful. Sometimes a guard like Tyrese Robinson or, you know, a defensive tackle like, like Taki Taimani. I mean, I thought he was popping a little bit on some of those plays, but it's much more useful to have some data to point to, to go, you know what? My eyes are not fooling me. They're seeing the same thing. And then the guy ends up making the roster. That's the performance and the high grades and them making the team. And you like that to matter, having the preseason matter a little bit more this year for a lot of guys where there were some real battles where in the past, the preseason was so

senseless. I didn't even want to talk to you guys about it. I mean, the Lewis scene thing, you weren't going to erase two full seasons and a whole preseason. But if you're talking about, Hey, this guy versus that guy and one is putting up numbers in the preseason and the other isn't, and it's a close race. It seems like they consistently chose to go with the guys who performed. And I mean, that's, that's how I would do it as well Mike says nine wins everybody agree with that I'm curious about now that the roster is out let me know how good you think this football team actually is Anton they must really like Murphy if they decided to place him on short-term IR do they see him as a contributor I think they do yeah based on the early comments from training

camp when he was practicing before he got hurt. And I think someone reported it was a knee injury for Gabriel Murphy. It sounded like they were really high on him. That was the guy that Brian Flores said, Gabriel Murphy hates bad football. And I was like, I have, okay, me too. I was like that. I think I get that. I think I know what you mean by that. I think that means that he cares about the details, wants the defense to get it right with the scheme and assignments and things like that, and wants to play good football. But when you look at his college production and what he did at UCLA, I mean, this was a guy that makes so much sense.

You should always be doing this with undrafted free agents. And it looks like this is what Kweisi Adafo-Mensah's strategy is, which is if they had good production, even if the measurables do not match up, that means that at the very least they could play this game. That in college, someone like Dallas Gant, someone like Bo Richter, a guy like Gabriel Murphy, hey, they played on actual fields against opponents, good football. So there might be something there.

And then they picked them up and they've had a pretty good amount of success with it so far, just getting guys that were productive but not perfect specimens, which you're not going to find too many of those in the seventh round anyway. But it does seem like they really like Gabriel Murphy. Mike says, it's pleasant to see our team rewarding guys no matter the draft status. Yeah, I agree with that. I think that is definitely a Brian Flores type of mentality. Whoever plays better, they're going to play.

They're going to be here. Leonard says, I don't care about 2022 2023 2024 draft as long as number nine is good and quacey can find a solid left card and right guard he's a hall of fame gm in my books yeah so this is kind of yeah i know you're being somewhat funny about the last part but you know how people joke around like, oh man, if the Vikings could just win one Superbowl for me in my lifetime, for me, it's just, just get two good guards for me in my lifetime of covering this team. I would love to see what that looks like. Two guards that we don't have to talk about because they're so good. Let's the baby steps. We'll start there and we'll figure out to rest after that.

But to your point, there's several guys that they've drafted that will be difference makers and you can find the other stuff, whether it's undrafted free agents, whether it's free agents, you get as, as veterans and pickup it's number nine. It's also Dallas Turner. It's also Jordan Addison. I'm a little concerned about Jordan Addison and some of the off-field stuff but he's a heck of a player and Dallas Turner is looking pretty solid so far looks like a guy with a very high ceiling as a long-term edge

rusher I think this year he'll be able to slowly work his way in but the long-term outlook for Dallas Turner is likely very good based on his skillset, the early returns and his football IQ, where he came from all boxes that are getting checked. And JJ McCarthy had about as good of a preseason and training camp as you're ever going to have. I have these, or as,

as we ever could have expected for him, not like ever, as far as preseason goes for a rookie, but as far as the progress he made from mini camp through training camp, through the preseason game, it was all the ideal situation, the way he handled being in an NFL building, doing his press conferences, working with the coaches, all those things that pro quarterbacks have to do on a daily basis. He was doing everything that they wanted him to do. And I think that's why Kevin O'Connell was comfortable talking about him as a franchise quarterback. And he was getting the ball out on time. He was making plays. His arm strength was definitely more impressive than it

had looked in college or at least more consistently impressive not just occasionally ripping a throw across the middle the deep ball was improved all those things just looks like they're in line to have their quarterback next year ready to go uh that all all of that is the most important stuff having the wide receivers in place signing jefferson signing derisaw the superstars in place you can fill out some of the rest of the stuff and the quarterback will be the guy who determines whether this thing works or not at the end of the day and so far early returns are quite good kind of funny story last night so i do a lot of these uh we call them hits radio hits where i go on somebody else's radio show as a guest and talk about the vikings and i was on a show last night and the host welcoming me in said you know i i

just i don't think uh jj mccarthy's going to be a good pro anyway but i guess we won't find out till next year and then the guy went right into the question about Sam Darnold. And I said, well, hold on. You haven't seen him in training camp like I have. Do you want my opinion on that? And it didn't seem like the answer was yes. And he just moved on to the Sam Darnold question. I think it's interesting how some people don't move on from their takes about guys in college when my biggest thing of whether he was going to be a success or not was the time that we got to see. That's what I really wanted to see from McCarthy. The college tape, it just is not that predictive. Desmond Ritter got cut. There were a lot of people. I suggest this

go type into Google search, Twitter, Desmond Ritter, QB one. A lot of people loved Desmond Ritter's tape coming out of Cincinnati. The guy can't play. They gave him a couple of years in Atlanta. He got cut by the Cardinals. The dude is not a good quarterback and yet a lot of the college tape suggested he might be good and so that it just doesn't always tell the story you can only really know when the guy is here and to your point number nine is the most important determining factor for quesadilla fomenta and kevin o'connell going forward and they know that so that was a long roundabout way of agreeing with you completely that the the guys who will determine the roster were not a safety that they took 32nd overall it's a quarterback that they took 10th overall Mike says what about

running back you think Gaskin just comes up for four games then McBride I think that might be the plan to start the season but I just feel like they have to they have to do something else right like they they have to uh bring in some sort of other veteran aside from just Miles Gaskin I mean he hasn't been a contributor to a team in years. And the last time he played, he wasn't very good. And I didn't notice him much during training camp or preseason. He, I think, knows the offense and is a veteran pro. But if you had to play him for any amount of time, you might be in good shape or in, I'm sorry, in bad shape and very tough shape. Janet says, Alec Lewis reported that Porter had other choices and decided to stay.

I think that says a lot about how the organization treats their UDF phase. This is a place where you're going to get an opportunity if you can play. And when we talk about evaluating the head coach and the overall operation for extension talk and stuff like that, I factor in things like what you're saying, how the players view their coaching staff is pretty important. Whether players want to stay here, whether players want to come here is important, I think, and getting opportunities for the best players and not having it not be political. There's always going to be some element of that, but we just saw first round and second round and third round pick from a draft, all not being the guys who are getting rewarded. They're not going to keep running something back that doesn't work and the functionality of that i think is just

a good thing because there are times there are teams where there's egos with the gms and coaches and i drafted this guy so he's gonna play as opposed to that guy but i think i think having flores is sort of the it's like he's a defensive coordinator but he's kind of like defensive czar. I like to think of him because I look at it as much more encompassing than just dial up the scheme, teach the players the defense. I look at it as this guy is in complete command of what's going on on that side of the ball. And you feel pretty good about that based on his track record. And that includes picking the players that are best fits for him up north says there is no way they only roster two running backs can't do it even with the hate of running the ball that koc has yeah that's the that's the point about

maybe for a couple weeks they could get around it which would be to elevate miles Gaskin and then pray that Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler remain healthy. And it's not super likely knock on wood that you would lose two running backs in the same game. So if you at least have another guy, miles Gaskin on a call up, you don't have to solve that problem right away. But with the number of running backs who are out there and available and

still available, they should be able to find somebody else. You know, they should be able to find somebody else who ends up playing a role for them as a backup. I mean, look, if you get to RB three and you're having to hand that guy the ball a lot, you're probably in trouble anyway. It's not like the difference between most rb3s that got cut or bouncing around and miles gaskin is going to be huge it just seems that they would have to either

move him up to the active roster at some point or go out and get someone else and i liked the idea they didn't do this i like the idea of taking swings at running backs who are from other teams practice squads just because of the number of random running backs who end up being good even Ty Chandler is a fifth round draft pick I don't think a lot of people thought about it twice with Ty Chandler and him getting drafted but now he's got an opportunity to maybe play a significant role there's a lot of guys out there who might have been that guy so the fact that they didn't do anything to pick up a guy off waivers was a little bit surprising to me but then again they would have had to drop someone so i don't know

uh chris says what do you think about making flora's general manager and head coach make koc the quarterback coach no I I don't think so I think that everybody's actually in their right spot uh that Brian Flores having a lot of say over the defense and Kevin O'Connell having a lot of say over the offense and the rosters there is a good thing uh because the general manager sometimes we think of him in a different light than it actually is like the general manager, sometimes we think of him in a different light than it actually is. Like the general manager is not that different.

And I know this sounds weird because it's sports and we always pin every roster move on one guy, but it's not that different than whoever your boss is. If you work in an office. So I worked at a grocery store and we had managers and they were in charge of lots of different departments and they had to work with people and make decisions that they thought were right. At my grocery store, I'm not sure the decisions were always very right. But when it comes to football teams, you are working with your coaching staff.

You're meeting with your coaching staff. You're trying to figure out what they need and then how to get it. It's the old Bill Parcells grocery analogy where KOC and Brian Flores are going to have a good idea of what they need. And it's Kweisi Adafomensa and the scouts in the front office. It's their job to go out and get those things for the coaching staff. So it is, it became a joke. That's collaborative effort. Ha ha.

They're going to work together, it became a joke. That's collaborative effort. Ha ha. They're going to work together dweebs, but that's what it really has to be. If it's one person making all the decisions, then you're just going to end up with a lot of people feeling like they're left out of that conversation. I think it can be hard if you don't have a good connection between the coach and GM. And here's how I know that at the end of this Zimmer Spielman, it was pretty rough, but also at the beginning of Zimmer Spielman, it was pretty good. And those two seem to have a strong connection on what Mike needed for his defense and how they needed to build the team. But it just did not hold up after Kirk Cousins and some failures and a lot of pressure and all those things. But Brian Flores working as a central figure in building the

roster doesn't mean make him the GM. It means that that's a guy with a scouting background who understands, and he's been around for a long enough time, how to work with certain types of players, who's going to fit for him. He's brought in some of his guys, Van Ginkle. McCain is another guy that was with him, Grugier Hill. So he's really made it his defense, and I think that that's the two sides, the management and the coaching staff working together here.

That was why I just, when there was that draft video of Kevin O'Connell saying like, Hey, we got to get Jordan Addison. And people said, well, that wasn't Casey's pick. It's like, what? That's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to work with each other. They're supposed to have opinions and make decisions that way.

So, you know, it just kind of, I look at it from a little bit of a bigger type of perspective than just, Hey, that's the GM. So he made all the moves uh jackie says we could be a sneaky good ball club i love calling it a ball club jackie i like that uh sneaky good ball club this season what's uh what's sneaky good that's that's a question what would be sneaky good for this team i think 10 10 is probably sneaky good for the Vikings. And you know, there is, I go back to the, that six and a half over under number. And when I was looking at teams that had a similar number from last year, some of them were the biggest overachieving teams like the

Tampa Bay bucks, or you go back two years when the Seahawks were going to start Geno Smith. I think I thought that they were going to tank and that they were going to be the worst team in the league, but they had a lot more talent around Geno Smith than he'd ever had before. And here you go. He ends up having two decent enough seasons. Sneaky good could mean a very good defense that wins you some games and a Gino or Baker like season for Sam Darnold that we end up at the end of the season going, you know what, that, that was a good year for them. And they're in place to go forward for the future. I think talking about it as more than a 10 win team would be pretty aggressive. Uh, but I don't think that you're a crazy person going into this saying there's

enough talent here to be right in the race at the end of the season kade says say we end up with a top 10 15 pick it's a virtual lock that we trade back uh yeah i have no idea what anything is going to be for the next year's draft in In fact, what I'm really excited about, really excited about is covering football games again and not drafts and not speculation and not prediction and not anything else, but football games. We'll get to the draft when we get to the draft, which is a really long time from now. The only thing I could say to you about that is if you're talking about a 10 to 15 pick, yeah, trading back, they're going to need more picks for the future, but also maybe don't do that again. Just try to pick a good player and defensive tackle

and corner make the most sense there, but we don't have to talk about the draft for a long time. That makes me happy. Let's see. See, this mentality I really don't understand. Up north says, Kweisi Adafo, Mensah, and KOC out the door after this year. No playoff success. These guys are in over their heads. I I just couldn't I could not disagree more I'm on the complete opposite side of you on this I don't think they're in over their heads I think that they have done exactly what they were supposed to do when they got here with the plan that was laid out for them I think that when Kirk Cousins was the quarterback they were seventh in the league. I looked this up from the time KOC took over to the time that Kirk Cousins Achilles popped. They were seventh in scoring,

which is about as good as Kirk Cousins has ever done in a run in his career. On the defensive side, they've hired a tremendous defensive coordinator. They've built a team that has a lot of talent on it that's not going anywhere after this year. Look at the free agents that are coming up next year. It's Harrison Phillips, Cam Bynum, and everybody else is pretty much locked in that are the key players to this team. They signed huge extensions for their young superstars, especially Justin Jefferson, which in two years, that's going to look pretty good on the salary cap. I think with the expectation of how much it's going to go up and there's this private equity

thing that could maybe impact that. I haven't looked into that, but there's going to be more money for the NFL. The cap's going to go up. That contract won't look too bad. And then drafting the quarterback who looks like he can be the one for them to build around this was the plan and they've executed that plan we just have to be patient and wait for it to come to fruition saying no playoff success is sort of like you just showed up here with no information and you ask someone hey did they make the playoffs and they said no and you said fire everyone uh we have to evaluate these things through the bigger prism of what the players think of the coach, the operation, how the general manager has managed the salary cap is a huge part of this as

well. Along with somebody like Rob Brzezinski in the front office, how they as a front office have managed everything. This is, this is the best position the Vikings organization has been in, in my opinion, since Kyle Rudolph reached up and pushed off a guy and caught a ball in the end zone to win a playoff game. Then they were one playoff win away from going to the NFC championship again. They did not win that next week against San Francisco. And since then, there is not a single time until the moment they moved on from Kirk and drafted JJ McCarthy that I felt like this team was actually headed towards something. And when they drafted JJ McCarthy, that moment was, okay, now it's here. it's not here just today it's it might not be here this season but it's here as far as your window starts to open soon to build around a rookie quarterback contract which

we've seen so many teams do san francisco philadelphia these teams did this jared goff when he was on his rookie deal with the the rams this not a mistake. This is not by accident. It's not random. This is something that was plotted out and they're starting to execute it. So, you know, I just think that they're in a good position here going forward. David says, is there a chance that the reason they waived Gaskin was to bring him back as RB3, just have him play week to week? Yeah, I mean, he's going to have to be RB3 for now. Even if they sign somebody today, I don't see that person being ready to be active on week one. That would be pretty difficult for somebody to be ready to jump into the offense.

So Gaskin's going to have to be elevated early in the season. My only question is, are they going to stick with just Gaskin is going to have to be elevated early in the season. My only question is, are they going to stick with just Gaskin and McBride and look for spots for those guys once some people get hurt early in the season to full-time elevate them up onto the roster? Or are they actually going to go look for someone else? It just stands to reason to me that you wouldn't want to trust Gaskin as RB three when he hasn't really played much since 2021. And he wasn't that good then. And McBride is someone who's never played. So yeah, I, I don't know. I still think that they're going to go get someone at running back. Do you think that they cut Reisner after he's off the IR

yeah that's a good question that might depend on how they feel about Tyrese Robinson on the practice squad or if they feel like they're good there with Dan Feeney I don't see any reason to move away from Dalton Reisner unless they really didn't like what they saw during training camp or there was any attitude issues or anything else like that from Reisner, because it wasn't a true competition. It seemed at right guard, he never took a first team rep and it was all Ed Ingram. So maybe they could still cut him. It's possible, but I'm not sure. I think based on Reisner's history and the fact that he's been a pretty good guard over his career, you would rather have him around for the rest of the season. I just think that maybe we thought there was going to be more of a competition than there was,

or at least we were told that there was going to be a competition. Mike says, I'm leaning on the side of a couple more wins, even though our schedule due to will record, he might be clutch. There you go. That's there you go. He was that good. He was that good. But I don't know if you give a team a couple more wins just because of a kicker. Uh, but I like that take Mike. That's a good one. one. Guy says, can you tell me the inside scoop on why everyone is leaving PFF? Sure. I'll do that just briefly here. But I did write a book on it.

Football is a numbers game. So the long story short with PFF is that at one point, they kind of reached their peak as a business and they got a huge investment from an investment firm and that put a lot of pressure on them it's the business and sports are are not different it put a lot of pressure on them to make a lot more money and what ended up happening was conflict between the founder and chris collinsworth who owns pff and that ended up with the founder and Chris Collinsworth, who owns PFF. And that ended up with the founder out of the company. He had a lot of loyal people to him within the company. So the direction that they were going in general

was not a way that a lot of the original people with the company wanted to go. And once they started looking for offers, a lot of them got great opportunities. Eric Eager now works for an NFL team. Austin Gale works at the Ringer. Mike Renner works for CBS and Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson were very original to the company and they decided to break off and do their own podcast with 33rd Team. And now that company is going to face, I think, some tough times of getting back on track after all those key people left.

But, you know, it's not like they're falling into the ocean or anything like that. It's they still have very much solid operation on the grading side and data collection side. It's really the content side where most of the people have ended up leaving and the forward facing people. So there's kind of the long story short, but if you buy the book, you'll get the full background to how it all happened. Drew says, have you made a call on their record? Oh, yeah well when uh i i haven't made it official but i guess tonight's the night right uh i guess that could have been another trolley headline rather than practice squad but a lot of you showed up to hear talk about the practice squad i'm impressed but as far as my own updated locked in prediction for this year.

I think I'm going to say the same thing that I said. I'm a little hesitant. The same thing that I said the day after the schedule came out. I don't think I'm going to change it. And some years I do after seeing training camp, 2018 would have been one of them where I thought, oh, this should be like an 11 or 12 win team.

And then after training camp, I don't know if they're going to get there. This one, if Sam Darnold had looked horrendous, I would have moved it away from nine. If the defense had gotten a ton of injuries, they really got one, but everybody else is pretty healthy. And they were able to add Stefan Gilmore, who I think still is a very good player. At least he was last year. So I'm going to stick with nine. I'm going to stick with outside of that big injury to Makai Blackman. JJ McCarthy likely wasn't going to have a huge impact on the record overall. And I've seen enough out of Sam Darnold to think there's going to be some wins. There's going to be some excitement. There's going to be some absolutely brutal games that are shockingly bad. And yet they're still going to end up coming out with a chance, or at least in that race, in that hunt at the end of the day, it's not the

hottest take I've ever had nine and eight, but that's where I think that they'll end up. I think coaching matters and the schedule looks really hard. Now things change. Guys are out. I mean, think about the San Francisco game last year. They played San Francisco without, I think it was Debo Samuel and McCaffrey was banged up. You just don't know how hard it's really going to be. And Trent Williams and Brandon Iuke might not be there week two. So, you know, things change throughout a season. It's a long year. Digits says even JJ's college tape showed clues on his pocket adroitness.

That's a good word, if that's a real word. Over the middle throws, progression reads, pocket timing, and balls to hang in there. Well, no, of course. I mean, he was a first-round pick for a reason, reads pocket timing and balls to hang in there. Well, no, of course. I mean, he was a first round pick for a reason because he had those tools there. He had an arm. He had a mentality.

He was a five-star prospect. He was a kid that in seventh grade got a division one offer. I mean, this kid is made in a lab to play football and then won the national championship with the biggest school so it wasn't like we were talking about somebody from toledo that just kind of showed up on the scene and put up some empty stats or something no offense toledo rockets shout out to them but you're talking about a guy who has tremendous tools and has for a long time but i think that it was undersold a little bit with the tools that's number one and the arm strength but the thing that you never know is how someone is going to respond to an nfl atmosphere and lewis scene

is a great example lewis scene was the guy when it came to college at Georgia, the dude, he was amazing in college, but the NFL environment is so much different and the, the strain of it, the dedication that it takes and all the things that I listened for of what coaches are saying, what teammates are saying, what the player himself is saying that tend to equate to success. I was hearing with J.J. McCarthy how much he was improving his approach to coaching, all the little things he was talking about, tangible stuff that he was doing to get better, having his fiancée read him the plays and have him act it out with his footwork and draw it up on the

board and all those things at home. It's a 24 seven job to play quarterback in the NFL. And even to play cornerback, even to play defensive tackle, there's a lot of work away from a TCO performance center that has to be done. Think of it like this. When you're in high school, you can usually get away with doing your homework in class or doing your homework in a free period or copying off your buddies or whatever. But you go to college and you don't study for those tests, you're going to fail, right? And you don't go to class for the most part, you're going to fail. You have to put in the work. It's the same thing with the NFL where college you can get

through by going to your practices, going to your meetings and you're good to go. But that's always my thing. Is this guy really going to put in the work that it takes and how does everybody respond to him? And that's where JJ McCarthy really shined to me that there's still stuff he has to work on from that preseason game. It wasn't perfect. He threw an interception. He had two or three throws where the ball didn't come out as fast as it was supposed to. He was still having a bad practice on a relatively regular basis, but it was just a little better and a little better and a little better. And that's what you needed to see from him to have a feeling that they were going in

the right direction with him in the future uh digits with this interior line does it appear the vikings are moving a bit more to a power run game i think it does suggest that yeah they were never the whole mid-zone thing i gonna be honest with you i didn't quite understand because i would try to really watch it and figure out what they were going for but there seemed to be more confusion of who was supposed to block who than there was a conducive type effort. I did see Blake Brandel move in some kind of power style, some pulling. With Brandel, that's what you're doing, and Ingram is more of a big power guy than he is like a nimble outside zone type, so I think that is correct. What I'd like to see

them do is try to get around the edges more because who's there? That's Brian O'Neill and maybe Josh Oliver on the edges. They're going to give you a little bit better chance, I think, than running toward the interior. And I also don't know how the power thing is going to work with Garrett Bradbury. The more of the power type you're playing, he's built more for the outside zone. Bobby says the interiors of both lines were most important and most neglected. Well, yeah, I mean, that's true. Most, most important for this offseason this offseason it was most important to get andrew van ginkle to get jonathan grenard defensive pieces for the future blake cashman

that quarterback guy we've been talking about to extend jefferson to extend derisaw i think the interior lines also saw a lot of players get overpaid on both sides, defensive tackle and guard. So if you were asking, would you rather wait till next year and get a better player or overpay for a mediocre one? I would probably lean toward next year. I think that's the way they did it as well. They feel like they've developed Blake Brandel.

I don't have a ton of confidence in the interior of the line or the interior of the defensive line. And I think that this is just part of the process of them getting this roster from point A to point B. There wasn't a way to fix every single thing this year, but they did change a lot and they did add a lot of talent that's going to be here for the future. It's just, there's still weaknesses on the roster that would keep them from being a Superbowl contender that are going to have to be addressed next year. Austin, if you were the GM, what's the most significant thing you'd do differently than Kwesi Adafo-Mensah with this roster? Within reason, because I think we were just talking about it. The lack of a dominant defensive tackle has driven me crazy for years to tell you the truth, but who would it have been? I mean, Christian Wilkins got a ton of money.

They decided to bring in Jerry Tillery just as someone to take a shot at. That's a position though, that I would have been looking at a lot more in that draft that went completely bust. Although I wanted Jamison Williams and he hasn't really done a whole heck of a lot yet. I probably wouldn't have drafted the kicker that has worked out so well for them so far. I'm not sure how much different it would be from where they are right

now, because this was the general plan that I thought was the right way to go, which was to move on from Kirk cousins, move on from those older players, the biggest difference. And, and this is if I'm the GM and don't have to answer to an owner, the biggest difference is that I would have started the teardown right away. And I don't think that they were allowed to do that. I probably would not have taken too many of the shots at washed up guys, former first rounders that have gone bust like Marcus Davenport or, you know, bring in somebody like Dean Lowry.

I just didn't see the point there. But, you know, aside from that, this is the direction they had to go with what they were asked to do. So if it was me, a lot of the stuff would be the same. I mean, when I made my list of top free agents for them to sign that I thought were the best choices, I had Cashman, Van Ginkle, and Grenard. And when they got all of them, I thought, well, thanks for reading, Kwesi. I appreciate it. So a lot of it has made sense to me. And I that's why it probably why i've agreed with what they're doing um i'm not defending them just to defend them but it's more of well there's a lot of this stuff is what i think is the right thing to do but that defensive tackle

position the guard spots that's it is a weakness it is super important if you can have a good defensive tackle we've seen this from chris jones and plenty of others in the nfl on great teams it's a nightmare they're just hard to find they have to draft one next year but that's probably the biggest difference uh this is uh matthew i i've i'm in three fantasy drafts coming up is there a website that can help me decide who to draft? Are you leading me intentionally into the underdog fantasy read? I don't necessarily have to do that tonight, but, you know, I might as well. I might as well now that you brought it up.

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Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started but no for for real i've really enjoyed messing around with underdog fantasy that's not even just because they're promoting the show um lots of projections and different things that i can use for content so it's been it's been pretty fun i i hadn't been much into fantasy in recent years because it's honestly just too much to do. But that's why I liked it. You could do drafts and just kind of leave them and see how your team does. There you go.

Bobby says lots of dropped quasi picks and lost draft picks gives him a D minus. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense. A D minus. How could you have a D minus for a general manager if they just drafted their future franchise quarterback who looks very good and they extended their most important players and built a defense that looks like it's a position or two away from being extremely good in the very near future.

I just, I feel like you're trying too hard to, and this has been a sense I've gotten for maybe two years on Kweisi Adafomensa, is that I think there are some people who decided the day he was hired that they wanted him fired and have just ignored so much about how they got here, including the people that you sign are as important as the people you don't sign, the people you don't keep like Adam Thielen, like Kirk Cousins, like Delvin Cook. If they kept those guys, they would still be very much stuck in the middle. And instead, they look like a team that is a year away from being every bit the contender that everybody else in the NFC North is supposed to be. So I just, I mean, this, David says,

Kweisi and KOC are the best thing to happen to the franchise since 98. I mean, that might be a little aggressive, David, but I think that they're the best direction to take for succeeding in the future. That's it. And I, and look, I get it because when it comes to not winning playoff games, we have to factor that in as well. I can tell you about all the plans and all the process and all the context and where this team is supposed to be going. But if they win four games this year, all bets are off. Then I'm going to come a little more over to your side for sure if that's what happens. And if they can't build around JJ McCarthy, that's where they're truly going to be tested. And what is a little bit challenging as opposed to maybe other regimes around the NFL is that usually

you don't start in the middle and then go backwards and then go forwards. What usually happens is you start with your team is totally awful and you rebuild it. You go what Chicago did with Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus. That team was an absolute joke. They totally tanked and then they rebuilt their team. That's how it usually works with a new coach. This one, they showed up in the middle of the story, like in a movie or something. They showed up as a character two thirds of the way through and said, we're here to save the day.

They win 13 games. That's what they were supposed to do. Don't win in the playoffs and deserve for that to be held over their head. There were expectations that year and they didn't get it done. And Kevin O'Connell didn't get it done. And keeping Ed Donatel as his defensive coordinator was a massive mistake because if they don't, they probably are winning a playoff game and going to Philadelphia with a chance

in the divisional round. But instead they made that mistake and then they did exactly what they were, would have normally done in taking over, which was to start moving on from certain pieces that's what would usually happen it's just it didn't right away and that has shaped the way that we're looking at it because if they had been awful in 2022 as opposed to if they had brought in marcus mariotta and won six games in 2022, of course,

they're drafting higher in 2023, but let's just say that that's what they did. And they were still on track to draft the quarterback this year. It would just be different with their roster build. And we would have felt like, oh, well now it's making progress. Or maybe they would have traded up for Anthony Richardson or something like it would have been like, oh, well now it's making progress. Or maybe they would have traded up for Anthony Richardson or something. Like it would have been a very different world. So we have to keep that in mind as we're evaluating this team. So also feel free to throw me what you think the win total is going to be. Phillip thinks that it's a 10 win minimum.

See, I think Phillip, I'm on the side of 10 win maximum. And that's not because I don't think they have a good roster enough to win 10 games. It's really because there's so much uncertainty with the quarterback and then the division, you just can't get around it. I mean, the, the division is, is, is just so good right now, or at least the way i expect them to be uh taylor says if darnold gets hurt knock on wood do you think we would sign tannahill or roll with mullins at hall who that's a tough question uh i think based on what we saw last year they probably would try to go out and convince ryan tannahill to play i believe, and I have no sources on this at all.

This is just what I want to believe that they called Tom Brady last year and said, come on, man, come on, come on, come back. And Brady said, no, I'm done. But Tannehill, he's still out there. He's played before. I think if he gets hurt, it would be better to just ride it out. You're going to face a lot more pressure the following season if you win four games because your quarterback got hurt,

but it might just be the best for the future to do that. It's a good question though. And I wondered if they were going to go out and look for a backup quarterback now, if they were going to try to bring in Tyler Huntley or something from Cleveland in a trade. Maybe Jameis Winston. I don't know. That would be having two Jameis Winstons on the same roster. Preston thinks nine wins. I think that's fair. Mike says nine is the magic number.

That's what it feels like to me. It feels like if they get to nine, that's been a pretty good season for them. And that means they're in the race. And there was a lot of entertainment and ups and downs and drama and all the things that we're looking for in an NFL season. I like this nine, seven and one.

Yeah, that's, that's good. That would make it a real Viking season if it was nine, seven and one. Yep. Let's see. Digit says seven to eight max due to Sam's first year as a Viking interior

offensive line and cornerback room in flux. Does the interior offensive line move the needle that much? Is it that bad? I don't know if it's that bad that, I mean, we're not talking about Drew Samia and Dakota Dozier here and they I mean even last year did it really it wasn't good but did it like crush Nick Mullins when he was in I don't know uh I just I think that it's a factor but it's not so horrendous with the interior that they're just going to get steamrolled and crushed.

I've always kind of had that theory that if you're okay as an offensive line, not great, even you can still function as an offense. And if Brandel is even mediocre, if Ingram is even mediocre, you should still be able to function as an offense. I'm not sure that that's going to crush them, but the cornerbacks for sure. If, uh, if you end up with Stefan Gilmore, not playing like he did last year and he's washed, that would be a big problem. If guys get hurt, that's a big problem at cornerback. If it is what it is right now, and you get even a decent version of Griffin Murphy and Gilmore, the rest of the defense is pretty good but the receivers they face the quarterbacks they face could be a long season there Lee says which nine

games do you have the Vikings winning well Lee gonna have to pull up the schedule for that why not let me find out in my quest to answer all questions let Let me see. It is, I will say it's a little, it's a little tricky to find nine when you just look at what teams are like this season. So you're going to need good breaks. All right, let's, let's give it a try. So we'll go with the Giants. There's one. I'm going to say that either the 49ers or Texans game, that may be a bit of a cop-out, but that's two. Packers at the Packers, maybe not. Jets, let's say yes. Lions, no.

Rams, probably not. Colts, that's four. Jaguars is five. Can they win three in a row and beat the Titans? Let's say two out of those three. That gets them to five. I'll say they split with the Bears, six, Cardinals, Falcons, either one of the two of the Falcons and Seahawks,

and then you got to beat the Packers at home, and we're at nine. Did everybody follow that? I think we got there. If they split with the Bears, if they split that Falcon Seahawks matchup, if they get two out of the three against the Colts, Jaguars, and Titans, and win the games, they're supposed to win against the Cardinals and the giants. Then they probably need to beat maybe the jets or surprise the lions in one of those games to get to nine. There's your rapid fire. That's how you get nine wins.

There we go. Let's see. So sit on that. Everybody agree? Mike says, do you want to speculate what the Vikings look like in 2026? We'll be still turning over the roster. Well, it's hard to know if they're going to win week one this year. So when Vikings land looking forward, two years is always pretty tricky. I would have told you by 2017,

Teddy Bridgewater would have been taking them really somewhere. So you never know what's going to happen. But the way that it looks to me is that 2025 is where you start to make noise as a team and you are building around your quarterback and you've got a chance to start really competing. If he hits the ground running, if JJ McCarthy needs an entire year before he's really fully up to speed, cause he will be 22, by the way, in that year. So think about Josh Allen. When he came in, he had that tough first season.

And then the next year, I think they went like 10 and 6 and made the playoffs. And they were clearly a team on the rise. So think of it that way, maybe for 2025, is that you're going to see a competitive team in the best case scenario, team that goes to the playoffs, team that is viewed as dangerous, but maybe not quite there. And then that's where 2026, if everything goes the way it's supposed to go, that's the year where you start talking about,

that's where you start talking about Super Bowl contention. If everything goes right. And think about even with Teddy Bridgewater in 2014 the first year is a little up and down 2015 though they win the division they're right there and 2016 who knows how things would have gone differently because the offensive line was so bad in 2016 but 16 and 17 number three and four years for teddy bridgewater were going to be the super bowl window opening years for bridgewater on his rookie quarterback contract you're trying to do basically the the same thing uh txyu not sure i pronounced that if that's your name sorry uh if

levi drake and uh taki can be the next williams wall the defense will be great in the future that might be putting the bar a little bit high for those two if they can both play roles in the nfl then that would be wins for guys like that um and i think they might be able to williams wall might be a bit much but you know you always have to find you always have to find guys like that in order to build a good defense usually guys with some toughness in the middle like taki has and somebody who can get in the backfield a little bit like levi drake and he's going to develop over a couple years uh joey says i usually wait for the podcast but

hopping on for a quick question how concerned are you they didn't add a third running back to the 53 i think that they will add another running back at some point here i just don't know who and when how concerned not much i mean because i love looking at the roster look we're taught we started this out with a bunch of practice squad talk so i love breaking down the roster you guys love breaking down the roster that's why we do this so much fun to think about how are they going to put the pieces together right we all play armchair gm it's fun but rb3 usually doesn't determine a season most of the time. Aaron Jones's health, Ty Chandler's next step,

those are the things that are going to be most important. Where you do get concerned is if Aaron Jones gets banged up, is there going to be someone there to spell Ty Chandler? Or if Chandler were to get hurt, is there going to be another option for Aaron Jones? But as far as how concerned like a meter i'd give it like a four just because if you've got both your running backs hurt then you're probably in a pretty bad spot anyway so they'll they will i'm almost certain that they

will otherwise they'll have to just elevate miles gaskin maybe they like him a little bit more than i do based on his history uh it still feels like there is a guy yet to be added and maybe an emergency podcast about i don't that might be a bit much if they unless it's someone really notable if they had signed delvin cook, then there would have been an emergency podcast. Zoomer Kev over under 1.5 objectively terrible trick plays by KOC. He did almost have one work. Was it the, the one where cam makers laid a block? Was it Jefferson throwing a pass?

Who threw a pass? Somebody Chandler threw a pass to somebody now I forget how this worked there was one that almost worked but got negated by a penalty and it's the only one that's ever come close that's something that I I do hope that Kevin O'Connell throws those plays out of the out of the window uh TXYU if McCarthy doesn't pan out Quasey gets fired in two to three years well yeah that's true i mean that just goes for every i mean well the 49ers drafted a quarterback and traded a bunch of picks and then brock purdy became great so we can never really say what's going to happen

to quarterback in the future but more likely is is that, yeah, that's the case. Everything rests on how they build this thing around JJ McCarthy. And I think they're going to give McCarthy the best possible odds to succeed because they've got the receivers, they've got the coach. And if you can't do it there, then he's just not a good draft pick but we already saw enough to know that he can get on an nfl field and play and the really painful thing for everybody about the injury was i was thinking pretty early in the season if it doesn't go well for sam darnold that we would see jj mccarthy and he would have this year for everybody to see what they've got for the future, which I think is somebody who could play quarterback in the NFL. Can JJ McCarthy be

a great quarterback? I'm not sure, but he met the baseline from what we saw in camp and preseason to know he can play in the league. He can make plays. He's got the arm to do it. He can scramble out of the pocket, throw on the run. He can run for first downs. He can see the field, which I think is a big thing. I talk about this all the time on the show, but McCarthy is able to see the field pretty well and gets rid of the football pretty well. We know those things. We know it wasn't a disaster. We know the type of person that J.J. McCarthy is and how hard he worked. But is it going to be competent, good, really good, great?

That we don't know for the future. But it does, of course, yeah, every team rests on the success or failure of their quarterback i mean that's just that's just really the reality of the entire nfl um so you can say that about every single general manager in the entire league that if their franchise quarterback fails that they will get fired that's absolutely true. Even look at a team that drafted a franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert, but they screwed it up around him and they failed. Ken thinks that the range is between six and 10. I agree that I was a little wider on the range, maybe at the

beginning that I, I mean, I maybe because I covered Case Keenum think that that's possible that Sam Darnold could be Case Keenum but between six and ten I think is probably the uh right range uh let's see it did take uh it did take almost an hour and a half to get to they could have drafted Kyle Hamilton hey did you know that uh they could have drafted Kyle Hamilton. Hey, did you know that they could have drafted Michael Thomas instead of Laquan Treadwell? Or that we could go through every single draft and find players that your team could have taken instead that would have made your team better.

But that also applies to every single team in the NFL. It does. The reality is that there's no real reason to talk about too much about the 2022 draft as long as they can fill the spots. They drafted a corner, not really there yet. They drafted a safety. It's one of the best positions in the NFL of all position groups. I'm not concerned about that.

Linebacker, it's in a really good place. Cornerback is where it hurt them. Guard still needs to be addressed. Those things have to be handled by the time of next year to be able to say you're a real contender. But it's not about whether you'll have bad drafts. You'll always have bad drafts. Every team does.

New England has had bad drafts even when they were great. The Chiefs have had bad drafts. The 49ers have had bad drafts. We just about trey lance we could always go you should have drafted somebody else for every single team all the time but it's really how you maneuver around those picks and how you take advantage of the ones that you hit on have they taken advantage has this organization taken advantage of justin jeff Jefferson on their team? No, they haven't. They wasted several years, not wasted. He put up records, but they did not get playoff wins. They have not done enough with him. They have not done enough with Derrissaw so far.

They have to make the most of that in the future in order for this to work. But, uh, you're that's the way the draft works, right? You get Justin Jefferson handed in your lap because someone else picks Jalen Rager. And then down the road, you, you trade out of a spot and you miss on a really good player. It's like, that's the draft for you. It goes that way for every team. It's how you work around and work with what you land in the draft. And of course, circling back, it's really about how much you do to support your quarterback. They're in pretty good shape there.

And we also can't forget one of those draft picks was spent on TJ Hawkinson, who was fantastic for most of last year. Really, really good in 2022 and is not old. So I expect to be good in the future. That's important to remember. Valerie asks, is Sam Darnold athletic at all? He is. Yeah, he is. And, uh, when I think of athletic, I'm not sure if you're thinking along the lines of like, does he run a lot? He does run sometimes, but he's not a running quarterback. Sam Darnold has

athleticism in the way that he could be looking this way to his left with his shoulders nowhere near square and just fling his body around and fire the ball with a ton of velocity on it. Or someone could get through the line of scrimmage and he can scramble and throw on the move, stuff like that. He has athletic traits that are extremely good, but he's not a running quarterback necessarily. Hunter says, I like the Vikings over the lions coming off the buy. Could be if you get one out of two from the lions, you got yourself a chance to maybe make the playoffs. I think if you could

split the division, it would be incredible. Even if they win two out of six for the division, it would still give them a chance. Gitano's Christmas channel. Merry Christmas, Gitano. Football is Christmas, is it not? Absolutely no way Cousins beats the Vikings. KOC knows what it looks to show him a defense to render him useless, which happened to Cousins many times during his tenure. The way that they play,

I always thought if defenses did not show Kirk Cousins what they were doing pre-snap, that it was a problem for him. So think about the Lions with Aaron Glenn. They play pretty much straight up. This is how we're going to play. That's how we align. With Brian Flores.

There's lots of movement, lots of moving parts. It should be a difficult defense for him, but receivers is what it might come down to there. Let's see. Is there a great cornerback class? Do we know that? Well, Travis Hunter is going to be way up there if they end up drafting Travis Hunter.

So hot take, McCarthy comes back week 11. I don't think that's going to happen. They put him on IR and did not designate him to return. So he'll be there in 2025. And I will be very excited to see him back because it was a really fun training camp watching him develop and things like that. It really was.

It was something that we hadn't had in a long time and coming in each day and talking about what kind of practice he had and all those things. It was fun. It was a good time. So next year we just push that off to next year and then there'll be expectations and you know, he'll develop and all those things and we'll see how much farther along he is because the only thing about his injury that is on the plus side,

the silver lining is that he should be healed by the late part of the season. And even though he's on IR, he can start doing a lot. And then he can go into the off season and have all that time leading up to OTA's mini camp and then up to training camp, a long time to work on his craft and to do the things that he started to master with this team and come in ready to go. And, you know, the examples of course are there with someone like

Mahomes, but Mahomes didn't play almost at all. And then developed a ton that following off season. I feel like the off season, the second one, is always so important. JD, what if LDR, Taimani, and Nudie all hit? How do you think the Vikings will draft next year? Well, we have to consider, I think, that if Levi Drake Rodriguez and Taki Taimani, if they hit, they're probably role players, and you're still looking for someone who could be a star on that interior to build around. I don't know if they'll bring back Harrison Phillips. It might depend. I think they love him, but I might depend on the price tag for him. He seems like a guy that might stay, but those are rotational types. You need someone who's going to be a star there.

Unless Levi Drake Rodriguez takes a massive step. I think it'll be good. I just, you know, we're talking about people who are superstars is what you're looking for. Um, real impact players, the type that have crushed the Vikings guards, you know, their names, uh, how will they draft next year? I'm still looking at that position because usually, and there's been research on this. If you're going to get a star at defensive tackle, it usually has to be at the top of the draft. Corner is going to be the other position. Those are spots that are hard to just pick up guys in free agency, but they will have a lot of money to spend.

The way they handle free agency could determine the draft. But once again, thank goodness we've got real games and not draft. Man, it was the most exhausting draft season I've ever had. It was fun. It was fun with you guys having those debates about the quarterbacks, but I'm going to need another eight months before I can talk about the draft again or whatever it is, six months. Let's talk about some real football.

Let's see. Where was the one okay uh taylor if darnold has the top 15 season jj is still hurt do you resign darnold or roll the dice well mccarthy won't be still hurt um jj mccarthy's injury with his meniscus is a very standard thing it happens to basketball players all the time tear the meniscus is a very standard thing. It happens to basketball players all the time. Tear the meniscus, have the full repair, good to go. Then it shouldn't be an issue anytime soon. It's football, things can always happen, but should be totally fine with that. As far as if Darnold has a top 15 season,

it would have to be a top three season for them to consider him coming back. That might be a little excessive top five, and maybe they think about franchise tagging him, but it would have to be divisional rounds. I mean, he would have to throw 34 touchdowns, 12 picks, 4,600 yards. It would have to be an unbelievable season for them to consider Sam Darnold sticking around, not out of the realm of possibility, but when you are pretty sure you've already got your franchise guy in McCarthy, it just doesn't seem likely that almost any outcome aside from all pro type of MVP season

from Sam Darnold would keep him around after this. Lee says, will purple insider be traveling to New York? You betcha, sir. Of course I will. I booked my travel today and who isn't excited to fly into Newark on a

Saturday night. I am excited about the game, but I don't leave Newark until the next afternoon after the game. So I'll be there longer than I want to be, but I will be there. Yes, there will be a postgame podcast with myself and Dane Mizutani after the game from the press box in New York. And there will be a reaction Monday morning Murph podcast where i'll be doing that inside of the hotel after that so i'm pumped man i'm excited i'm ready to go uh let's see gatano darno will be good enough to get the vikes a second round pick if they franchise tag and trade them i don't think it's going to

work that way i i think they'll just leave in free agency um yeah you know you don't think it's going to work that way. I think they'll just leave in free agency. Yeah. You know, I don't see that. You don't see like a franchise tag and trade. That would mean someone else would have to be willing to take on a humongous cap at the franchise. Franchise tag has to be enormous. What's going to happen is he'll just go somewhere else in free agency and

the Vikings will get a comp pick. You guys love comp picks. So I'll be excited to hear you talk about that. The interesting trade angle is actually with the early part of the season, because where the trade deadline is now that they've moved the trade deadline back, if Sam Darnold was playing okay, but they were not that good record wise. So let's say Sam Darnold had something like a 95 quarterback rating and was playing decently, but they were two and five. You might consider trading him away. Uh, if somebody came in with a big enough offer and

had a quarterback injury, that might be a factor that we get to at this point, or they could be five and two and we're going, what? Five and two? It's the Vikings. We never know. Hunter, I think you picked up on my tone there. I hate the comp pick discussion. No one has any idea how it works. Bingo.

I get the every off season. Are we going to get a comp pick for that guy? I don't know. Let me let you know next year. Will Tuesday morning guard be returning? Yes. Yes. Jeremiah Searles will return to the show every Tuesday. That is going to be happening. Also Manny Hill on Mondays and Thursdays. We'll be here every night for the live stream. We'll still take all of your questions the same way we do, but we'll also have some fun topics as well during the beginning lead up to Monday night football and into the early part of the game Thursday night

football as well. So lots, lots to come should be very exciting. Are the Vikings close to extending Bynum? I think they're going to let that play out with Bynum. I don't know that they're going to sign him. They might do it right before the season. They did that with Metellus, but with Theo Jackson playing the way he has, they might look at that and say, we've kind of got a guy for the future here for that position. So anyway, Hey, how about this?

An hour and 40 minutes starting with practice squad talk. guys excited for football or what seems like you are i am too uh tomorrow early in the day somewhere in the day uh quesadilla flamenco is going to talk about the roster so i will have a recap podcast from tco performance center with dane mizzutani make sure that you come right back here to the channel and check that out. Also lots of other stuff. Steve Palazzolo conversation is up on the page right now. Also the, the fantasy show for you fantasy nuts out there. So much going on leading up to the season.

So thanks everybody for your time as always. And we will catch you again very soon. Football.