Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down the Vikings' initial 53-man roster -- were there any surprises??

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Matthew Coller breaks down the Vikings' initial 53-man roster, which has a few surprises, including lots of tight ends and safeties and still some likely changes to get made before they open the season. Were there any surprise cuts after all? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to the Emergency Vikings Announce Their 53-Man Roster Purple Insider Podcast. Right away, it's important to mention that yes, my voice is back and we're doing okay. So I appreciate that. I appreciate anyone and everyone's concern over that. But we're a lot better off in a lot better shape at the moment so um good to go and uh anyway well excited to have everybody here and um we're gonna have a lot to break down a couple of surprises right off the bat for the 53 man roster i don't remember a time where i've covered a team that had four tight ends or six safeties, but especially not both. Also, multiple undrafted free agents making the team. You don't

see that very often. So I'm going to screen share for you guys watching live on YouTube. And of course, I'll talk our way through it. But I've got the 53-man up here so I can make myself, put myself on the side there. Hopefully all of you can see that, or should I just make it the full screen? Do you need to look at me? You can have me in the corner there. All right. Today, by the way, I've just brought my usual diet Dr. Pepper. That shows you that I'm in better shape because I don't think that soda is very good for your voice. So the fact that I'm able to handle that and still be confident in doing the podcast with my voice tells you I've made a lot of progress since yesterday. Just doing this many podcasts, eventually it kind of wears you down, but we're good. We're good now.

We're all set. So let's start right out with the fact that they kept Jaron Hall, that it's Kirk Cousins, Nick Mullins, and Jaron Hall. And there was somewhat of a debate about that because they probably could have cut Jaron Hall and got him onto the practice squad. But when Kevin O'Connell was talking about the third quarterback rule, it just seemed very, very clear that he really wanted Jaron Hall on the roster, that he liked what he saw from Jared Hall, and that he felt that that third quarterback rule was pretty important. Now, if Kirk Cousins and Nick Mullins get injured in the same game, boy, that would be shocking because Kirk Cousins is almost never injured in any game. I mean, I think that even when he stayed down for

a few minutes in Washington, when he got hit in the ribs last year was maybe the first time we've even see him get popped like that to the point where he doesn't get back up. And you saw on the Netflix documentary, his remarkable toughness to battle through that, what he had to do to go through that. So the chances that Jared Hall is ever needed for that third quarterback rule, probably not high. But if you think of it from Kevin O'Connell's perspective, I think that Jaron Hall is, I mean, first his first quarterback draft pick an opportunity to develop him, which I think is important as well, probably to Kevin O'Connell

and O'Connell was a former number three quarterback himself. And, you know, I, I think that he wants one on the roster. So, okay, I'm fine with that. I like the third quarterback rule. If it pressures teams to keep or not pressures, but gives an opportunity for teams to keep a third quarterback. That's great because I think what we saw this year, and I'll throw Jaron Hall in there to some extent, is a lot of mid- to late-round draft pick guys who at least showed a little bit of potential to be long-term quarterbacks. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Aiden O'Connell, the undrafted guy from the Bears that beat out P.J. Walker. Very impressive. So, you know, I think that it makes sense to keep Jared and all don't worry.

Don't worry guys. We're going to get through all of them. Okay. I'm going to take, take our time going through this. We got plenty of time to talk to all, to talk about all the different decisions that they made. And of course the next on the list is running backs. And they of course elected to only keep, cutting Dwayne McBride. It felt like from the outset of, I even want to say, mini camp, but much more in training camp,

that Dwayne McBride was not going to be what he was sort of touted as with the highlight reel from UAB. And they may keep him on the practice squad. It will be interesting to see who they decide to him on the practice squad. It will be interesting to see who they decide to keep on the practice squad and maybe a seventh round draft pick that makes some sense to bring him back. But there were just no signs that he looks like he was an NFL running back. And even by the last preseason game, there was some trouble where he was supposed to line up, stuff like that. There was some trouble with he was supposed to line up, stuff like that. There was some trouble with the pass protection. He didn't have the burst that we expect from NFL running backs. He, I think, ran an okay 40 and all that. But when he was actually on the NFL field,

there's just such a difference between college and the NFL. And it really was on display with Dwayne McBride. Maybe they feel like on the practice squad they can develop him, but I think this is the biggest room to change here. Kenny Wong has not practiced since I think maybe like the fourth or fifth day of training camp, which means that they're going to have to add some running backs to this room. Now you have to do the 53 and then put people on injured

reserve. That is a little bit of an annoyance, I'm sure for teams, because they have to cut guys that they didn't want to cut so they could put players on IR, but you can't have it the other way because then you could just sneak people onto the roster by using injured reserve or something like that. So Kenny Wong Wu, I think is destined for IR because he just hasn't been looking like he's anywhere close. It's not like Jalen Naylor, where he was working off to the side on the other field and taking part in walkthroughs. He wasn't doing anything. And that would leave a couple of running back spots. And there's a lot of running backs who were cut today that have at least some experience.

I noticed Corey Clement, who is from Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl fame. Melvin Gordon was one if they want a veteran. I don't know if they do or not. There's running backs all over the league who have been let go. And I think it's inevitable that they will bring in more running backs. Otherwise, they would have kept Dwayne McBride. Naturally, they cut Abram Smith and Aaron Dykes. Dykes had a couple good kick returns, but probably not an NFL-level player.

One fullback, no surprise there. C.J. Hamm was always making this roster. Six receivers. Now, this is something that we talked about a lot through training camp. A lot, a lot, a lot. And there was a report from Ian Rappaport early in the day, and I think we all understand what it means when a report comes out like this, that Jalen Rager was drawing trade interest, which means the Vikings want Ian Rapoport to put out there, hey, if you want to trade for Jalen Rager, give us a phone call, right? And clearly no one

gave them the phone call they were looking for, and Rager ends up making the roster. That means Tristan Jackson does not. Now, they could have cut him, but it comes along with dead cap space and he does know the offense and he is a punt returner. But for all the discussion over whether Powell or Rager was ahead, it ends up being that both of them end up making the 53 man roster. Now the question here is how long will this last? Is this going to last a day? Is this going to last an hour? I mean, there have been plenty of times where on cut-down day, I've done the reaction podcast, and then as soon as I shut it off, they make a trade, they sign another player,

they bring somebody in who's been cut, they pick somebody up off waivers, whatever it is. By the time I'm pretty much done with the podcast. So this could happen with this receiving group. It might not though. They might decide that they're just going to roll with these six and then potentially put Tristan Jackson. I would expect maybe two wide receivers go on the practice squad might come down to whether they liked Thayer Thomas or not. I thought Thayer Thomas had a pretty good start to training camp and then petered out as it went along and really struggled to punt return.

That just shouldn't have been a thing. He was not a punt returner. That is the worst attempting of a punt return, actually both of his tries, since Rodney Adams when the Vikings had him. But Blake Prohl is a guy that they've long liked is very popular in the locker room. So, you know,

it's, it's very possible that Blake pro ends up and he was pretty reliable in the preseason as well. So I, you know, I think Tristan and maybe one other person will end up on the practice squad, but if rigor gets phone calls for a trade,

they could certainly still move him. It seems like that's something they're interested in. But I also don't hate it if they go with six guys. If somebody's struggling with punt returning, they can go to the other one. And wide receiver is a position where you can use depth. And Naylor has not practiced in a long time. If you go into week one and Naylor is not ready, you still have your full bullpen of wide receivers that you were practicing with throughout the entire off season.

Does Kirk cousins have any say for the roster moves? No, I don't think so. I don't think that they, I mean, maybe with a wide receiver, if there was somebody, but even then if it was somebody on the fringe, he wouldn't be throwing to them that often. I'm sure he can make suggestions, but I don't think that there are many quarterbacks that are making cuts. That would be the only scenario I could think of. If there was a veteran player that was possibly going to be cut, they might ask the quarterback his opinion,

but there's a pretty clear structure in the NFL, and I guess the only time where you don't have that structure is if you are like Aaron Rodgers and you go to the Jets and tell them all the players you want. And since they've given up the world for you, they might as well. Does keeping Nick Muse, and we're going to get to this signal, any sort of movement surrounding TJ Hawkinson?

Yeah, that's a, that's a good question. So let's scroll down to the tight ends. And this is very, very interesting here. Keeping Nick muse, keeping Nick muse to me says that they thought that,

uh, Nick muse was going to get picked up by somebody else if they cut him. So a lot of you asked throughout training camp, hey, this Nick Muse guy is getting a lot of buzz, and he would go into preseason games and make great plays. And we really saw the development of Nick Muse. So they keep him along with Johnny Muntz and Josh Oliver. I had had Nick Muse on my initial 53 that I made

way back at the beginning of training camp, my first guess at the 53. And because I never thought they would keep four, but I did think that would be a tough decision if he made progress and he did. And he, I think really showed that sometimes you can draft a tight end toward the back of the draft and develop them and make them into a good player. And we've seen that from Nick Muse. Does it have anything to do with TJ Hawkinson? I suspect that it does not. Now, I wasn't sure they were going to keep four, so I could be wrong about this, but I don't know that right now would be a good time to trade TJ Hawkinson because you can franchise tag him next year. You can also trade him next year.

And you know, if he has a good season, you're talking about probably pretty good return, but you've got an offense that looks like it could be a top 10 offense in the NFL. And even as good as Josh Oliver was. And I wrote an article about that where I talked to Josh about his long development path as a tight end. If you want to check that out, purpleinsider.com, but even as good as Josh Oliver was filling in for him. And I thought that Johnny Mudd actually had a really good training camp as well. And so did Nick Muse. I don't think any of these guys have the capability as receivers to be as much of a weapon as TJ Hawkinson. And I would rather just have all these people on the team. So, I mean, I think that they are going to continue to work toward this with Hawkinson and Jefferson, though more Jefferson reporting came out today from Diana Rossini about them working toward the contract. So there's momentum growing on the Jefferson side and radio silence with TJ Hawkinson.

But I think this was much more about Nick Muse earning it. And when you put it on tape in these preseason games of making really nice catches, I mean, he lost the guy at one point. I mean, he was open a lot. He made plays that there's just not a lot of good tight ends in the league. And teams are willing to pick them up if there's any chance. So you don't want to draft somebody last year, put them on the practice squad for a

whole season, develop him, and then have somebody else come steal him from you. So that could be why they decided to go with four here. If it goes the other way, then I will be surprised. Hunter, I agree that the wide receiver room is not particularly surprising. No, I mean, Jalen Rager had a really good training camp. I really thought that he and Brandon Powell were both really good. And it felt like if they kept both, there wouldn't be room for Tristan Jackson as well as he played also, but he's a guy that you're worried a lot less about.

If someone picks him up, he's a 25 year old journeyman guy. And you could probably get him onto the practice squad. He's not someone like muse who's considered like an elevating player. He kind of is what he is. David asks, is there any running backs they could sign? Like Gordon, Drake, Robinson, Miles Gaskin.

It seems like there's a number of them. I don't know which one they would prefer. But yeah, I saw Kenyon Drake, yeah. So there's probably a half dozen of these guys that they could potentially pick up. And someone is joining this team. We just don't know who. And their pro scouting personnel people are going to make that decision.

And I'm sure that we will get news on that at some point. I think it could be two running backs if Kenny Wongwu ends up on IR. And they've got to be very frustrated by that because I think that they felt like coming into this, and I'm basing this on how they acted in minicamp with their reps that they thought Kenny Wong could take that step and be the number two running back and even a combination type guy with Alexander Madison and it just has

not come to fruition so I think that they're frustrated by that. And now they have to go get a veteran. It could also be one of the reasons that they did not sign Kareem Hunt, because when you look at all these other running backs who have been released, then compare them to Kareem Hunt. Okay, well, there's a few guys who can be a number two or a number three that you don't have to pay as much for. Matthew asks if and when they pick up another running back from some other team, who gets cut from the initial 53 or do they use the spot with Kenny going to IR? Yeah, they might have to cut somebody that's why there's always like this hey it's the initial 53 and

let's come on and do a live podcast and break this all down and all have a great time and sometimes that changes very quickly and that's what we'll also talk about here is trying to identify where that could come from roster spots if they're going to add people of which, yeah, we'll get to the cornerback position and so forth, but they are going to have to add people and they are going to have to make changes. So the whole thing that we just talked about with Nick muse could change very fast, but if you cut somebody, not on the initial 53,

maybe there's less of a chance that that player is picked up right away. Right. So if you keep them on the initial 53, then everybody solidifies their rosters. Then you might be able to sneak that player in. All right. Let's take a look at the offensive line here on the offensive line. No real surprises as far as who they cut trading Vendorian low. That was a little slightly surprising, but you can see why there are, they only kept eight offensive linemen, which is not a lot.

And then placed Chris Reed on the non-football injury list. So it was something with Chris Reed that happened before training camp. And he has not practiced even a single time during training camp. He's just been out the entire time. So their offensive line is pretty thin. You're talking about only three backups. And this is another area that they could just wait for Chris Reed to be healthy, and then he comes back in. Or Chris Reed, or that spot could be filled by someone else if Chris Reed is going to be a while. It's hard to tell how long he's going to be. He hasn't looked like he's been ready to step into any sort of role. So with Chris Reed being injured for as long as he was, will they go into the

season with only three backups? Now you do have a lot of practice squad spots. This is something where it has changed. So your 53 doesn't have to be as maybe rigid as it used to be. When you think about how, how much it used to have to be like all right there's only a couple of practice squad spots you can keep two linemen a receiver a safety whatever i mean now you could fill noah's arc with the practice squad i mean there there's just there's two of each position basically what is it 16 guys so you can have three at this position and elevate somebody if there's any sort of problems. But I would not be surprised if they added another offensive lineman or maybe they'll just wait for Chris Reed. But aside from that, no, no, nothing to really discuss along the offensive line.

As far as the defensive line, too bad for Sheldon Day. I thought Sheldon Day had a good preseason. This is just a lesson for the future, and we learned it last year with T.Y. McGill. The preseason performances are just not that important to this team as far as who makes it. It's just not going to weigh as heavily as other factors, but also this defensive line was always going to come down to some really difficult decisions. When they drafted Jaqueline Roy and then he played well in camp, they really like Jonathan Bullard. I mean, he just wasn't even playing in preseason games and they brought him back after last year,

so they were dead set on Jonathan Bullard. Cutting Asasia Tomow well, that's tough. That is tough. After you draft him in the fifth round last year, got a handful of snaps last season, and then that was it. That right there is something I kind of expected them maybe to decide to develop him. The Ross Blacklock trade officially goes down as a failure,

but I think when he was out there in the second quarter of the third preseason game, we could have written that as officially a failure. Otomo might be a guy, if he doesn't get picked up, he ends up on the practice squad and then they go from there with him. He is just a very raw player and he never flashed this preseason. And I think that's what you're looking for, is for someone to take a jump from year one to year two, and that didn't happen. Let's see.

From AJ, do we make any trades today? Today or tomorrow, I don't know. But I think that they will either make trades or they'll sign people, just because of the way the 53 is shaping out at this moment. They don't have a full running back room. They don't have a full cornerback room, which we'll get to as we go through this 53. There will be different human beings who come in here and get added to this team. Why is it, Scott asks, why is it distinguished between waived and contract terminated?

So if someone is a veteran free agent signing, they get their contract terminated. They instantly become a free agent. Whereas if, well, you know, that might be on the rookie contract. If someone's a rookie contract player. So even Ross Blacklock was still a rookie contract guy. That's when they get waived. So I think that's the difference. Let's see.

Yeah. And you're right, Mark, that there are still talks of a Jalen Rager trade, which could possibly happen at some point soon enough. So, you know, there's going to be changes to this thing and that's why breaking it down.

We're also trying to touch on the spots that there could be, there could be changes. But as of right now, I mean, uh, the Asasia Tomolo move is the only one that really sticks out, but I always thought there was going to be a tough decision or two to be made there. Uh, a lot of you liked Luigi Villain, unfortunately for Luigi Villain, he ends up getting cut because Andre the Carter the second I'm certain that they thought that he was going to get picked up by someone else now I didn't expect this so there's a few things you know every year when you make the 53 or you take your best guess I didn't expect the four tight ends I didn't expect the number of safeties I didn't expect the four tight ends. I didn't expect the number of safeties. I didn't expect the Juwan Williams. And I would say that I am a little surprised that they decided to keep Andre

Carter out of fear that someone would pick him up because he didn't flash anything really in the preseason or in training camp that would suggest to me that that raw talent that's being talked about is going to eventually come together but they invested a lot in him as an undrafted free agent so they must feel like that is something that they want to bet on for the future and for a guy like luigi villain this is the hard part of the nfl if you're Luigi Villain and you played as well as he did in all the preseason games, and I thought he was fine in training camp as well, and you get cut because of another guy's potential high end several years down the road, it's got to be very frustrating.

It's like, wait, I'm better now. But that's why they picked up Andre Carter. I think they had no expectations whatsoever for him in this training camp. And it was all about getting him in development, development, development. And they were concerned that someone else would pick him up. And so they keep him. As far as the linebackers, they only keep four. They cut Wilson Huber, no Troy Reeder, no Tanner Vallejo.

Those were kind of ones that were expected. So Ivan Pace makes the team. Will he be the starter or will we see Brian Asamoah start? Will we see both of them? That's another question for a different day. I think Ivan Pace certainly earned his chance to be the starter, but Brian Asamoah shouldn't just be thrown away because of that. I think Pace just is a special instance here of an undrafted free agent stepping up the way he did.

I can't remember too many times that I have ever seen an undrafted free agent like him do that. So quarterbacks is the last thing to talk about here. Oh, quarterbacks and safety is the last thing to talk about here. And Najee Thompson, another great story, Najee Thompson. I mean, just a remarkable story for him,

a guy who, if you were ranking all 90 players and their chances to make it Najee Thompson might've been 84th or something. And he ends up making the team because he just had a commitment from day one to being a great special teamer. And every year we see somebody rise to that challenge, whether it's, you know, Dan Dracena or Chris Boyd of the past, there's always a player who kind of steps up and shows that they really want it for special teams and they master the techniques and they impress the special teams coach and there you go and i also thought that when he was doing

one-on-one drills and playing defense he had some interceptions in camp he had some past breakups in one-on-one drills he wasn't a disaster uh but i do think they're gonna have to add someone else having cut joan williams joan williams also goes under that same category as Ross Blacklock as, hey, you're a guy who was a former top draft pick. We're going to pick you up and give it a shot. And it failed because that's how it goes. I mean, if the New England Patriots gave up on a corner, it's probably not a great situation.

And Jawan started out training camp as the on a corner. It's probably not a great situation. And Juwan started out training camp as the number one corner and Makai Blackman pretty quickly took his spot. But the reason you are a little bit surprised, and maybe this is because they have someone else in mind. I've seen a lot of cornerback movement throughout the NFL today. There was a trade for the guy from Miami. So there's things going on with corners and some corners getting cut. Bradley Roby was cut by the Saints. They may have interest in bringing him in

as a depth player. But when Makai Blackman got hurt, Jawan Williams was the guy to jump in. And that could have just been a message to Andrew Booth Jr., possibly, and not the actual depth chart. That's why it can be difficult to stand on the sidelines and figure out what's going on inside their head. I enjoy that game throughout the summer to try to guess, do you like this guy?

Do you not like this guy? But clearly with Juwan Williams, when he got his opportunities, they did not feel like there was further potential there. So I'm going to suspect that we could put that in the same category as running back, where there's going to be more cornerbacks to come. At least, I would say at least one. I think you have to probably have six, unless they feel good about bringing some of these guys back on the practice squad.

But Bradley Roby could be a guy that they chase. Now, six safeties. What a time to be alive, folks. Theo Jackson, a number of you throughout the weeks asked, hey, there's a lot of buzz on this Theo Jackson, and he had a really great camp. Another guy who's great on special teams. Could they keep six?

And I usually said no. I I usually said, I don't think so. I can't remember a time where a team has ever kept six. That's so many safeties, but Brian Flores has a different philosophy about the safety position. So if you were one of those people who sent me an email or a message and said, Hey, will they keep six safeties or four tight ends? And I usually said, I don't know. I don't think so. That usually doesn't happen. You were right. I was wrong. They kept six safeties. This could also be a position that they chop from if they're adding other players and having Theo Jackson make it. But there was always going to be five with Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus,

Louis Seen, and Jay Ward. Jay Ward, I don't think they were going to cut a fourth rounder, especially when they're still trying to find his real position. But Jay Ward had a great final preseason game and showed some of his aggressiveness and playmaking ability. And I think that that helped him. So there you go. There is your initial 53.

And there are lots of potential changes on the way, as we have been talking about throughout there. So questions and comments on... This is good good from Christopher. Nick Muse mentioned that he was practicing as a backup long snapper knew he was making the team. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're a guy like Nick Muse, you always want to be ready. Remember that game where, who was it that got hurt? David, David Morgan had to come in because Kevin McDermott got hurt, and he had to do the long snapping against the Green Bay Packers in 2017. So you never really do know. Hunter Luigi Villain was a bit of a surprise cut for me.

I agree. I also think, though, that Luigi Villain is a guy you can put on your practice squad. And if someone else picks him up, the ceiling is pretty limited for someone like Luigi Villain. He is what he is. He did. He earned a spot. I mean, blackjack says that he earned a spot. I mean, with his preseason performance, he did earn a spot, but they clearly just don't weigh that as much as it used to be weighed in the past in the past with Mike Zimmer. We could look at how people played in the preseason and say, okay, well, I think that this guy or that guy is going to make the team because they've had a great preseason. And now that's just completely different. That's not how it works anymore,

where you could be Sheldon day. You could be fantastic when it comes to the preseason or last year T.Y. McGill and it won't matter but I think that when they have to make a decision between Andre Carter and Luigi Villain that's probably a hard conversation between the coach and the player because I mean it's clearly about the upside and that's really it. Yeah, and Mark says Carter did not have one flash, not even a spark, and not really in practice either. And I'm with you. That's the trouble with something like this,

and I thought that maybe they would just sort of shrug their shoulders and go, you know, whatever. But that's the problem with the Luigi Villain situation is you have to cut the guy who is clearly better right now with hopes that there's a 10% chance Andre Carter, this undrafted humongous guy who had big production two years ago, all of a sudden has a click in over a couple of seasons. I think we've seen this before, this type of move. I don't know if I really endorse it. Brian Robison was this type of move when they cut him in 2018 because they wanted to keep Tashaun Bauer and Tashaun Bauer stayed in the league, but it was Tashaun Bauer.

So they, because they had spent a lot of money in UD, and they thought, well, Bauer's got more potential. But the locker room really could have used Brian Robison in 2018. And I thought that that was a big mistake that they made that year. I don't know if it's that similar to Luigi Villain, because it's not like he's played a lot in actual games in the NFL. But I think that just sometimes teams overthink that a little bit. Maybe that's the case, or maybe he becomes a good player. I think it was Cameron Wake, who once was cut by Buffalo, and he became a good player somewhere else.

I mean, it does happen from time to time, but you're right that there is not a lot of flash there. T. Kubler says, Carter is an XFL guy for about a year. It needs to play and develop. Someday, man, someday, someday, they are going to form a deal with the xfl to have guys like this have a place to play and develop someday and until that day this is kind of what ends up happening uh from digits uh cornerbacks are frail need one or two more yes that is i am almost certain

that is on the way uh shopping shopping list, cornerbacks, interior offensive line, right tackle. Well, I mean, maybe a backup tackle. You only have one. I mean, you could play Blake Brandel anywhere. So that's probably part of the conversation. Can we keep eight? Well, Brandel could play tackle or guard. And Austin Schloman could play center or guard.

So in an emergency situation, you would have to lose three offensive linemen. And then I guess you'd play Josh Oliver, a tackle, but you probably elevate somebody and, you know, people get hurt and stuff. I don't know.

But the Chris Reed thing is a mysterious situation. We don't know how long he's going to be out. And maybe there's one more there, but cornerback seems more pressing because they've only really got four. You can't play Najee Thompson at a cornerback position. It's almost like when they had to play Marcus Sherrill's a couple of times at the cornerback position. That's not something you want, not the special teams ace playing actual corner. And you really don't even want Andrew Booth Jr. playing right now. Although maybe it's some progress that he was picked over, uh, Jawan Williams, but he was

never going to get cut as a second round or anyway. Uh, AJ says, don't understand getting rid of Tristan Jackson. This is the numbers game with Tristan Jackson. Well, first of all, you have to give Jalen Rager credit because Rager had a very good training camp. And so I don't think that he is this next great player who's going to have it click in as a former first round draft pick and then just shoot up to the moon. But he did have a good training camp and he practiced every day and he made plays in camp every day. And then he went into the preseason games and he made plays in every preseason game. And even though he was playing in the third preseason game, he made catches and helped Jared Hall get a touchdown drive. And he did what he was asked to do in training camp. And so even though it looks like they are trying to potentially trade him away,

you do have to give him that, that he looked in training camp much more like he could be an actual receiver than he did last season when he got into the games. Brandon Powell, I think would be the next man up clearly. And there's something you have to factor as well, which is we don't know if Jalen Naylor is ready to play week one. So you need at least this bullpen of wide receivers to be ready for week one. And that might include Jalen Rager. So if you couldn't trade them away and keep Tristan Jackson, then you had no choice but to cut Tristan Jackson. But that's a guy that I think that you're going to be able to get onto the practice squad. He's been a practice squad player for a couple of years. And yeah, you know,

I mean, I, I just think he's another guy that really earned it, but it came down to the numbers game there from ad plus verb. I feel like special teams last year was highly volatile. Any thoughts on this roster's impact? Probably hard to know. Well, yeah, it always is hard to know. It was. And, you know, I think it's because Matt Daniels in general wants to play aggressively. And if you play aggressively, then you're going to hit some and you're going to swing

and miss. Sometimes you're going to have when you have a punter that could punt at 73 yards. Sometimes that's going to be amazing. And sometimes he's going to swing and hit the side of the ball and it goes 30 yards. Or sometimes he's going to outkick the coverage or, you know, these things happen. And that even goes for kick returning, putt returning. If you're going to be a team that brings the ball out, of which are becoming, you know, the dodo bird at this point. But if you're going to be one of those teams

that brings the ball out with Kenny Wongwu, you're going to hit some with Wongwu that are impressive and great, but you're also going to get tackled after 16 yards sometimes and then feel like you have regrets. And that's his philosophy. His philosophy is not to just try to exist

as special teams, but to try to be aggressive and make game-changing plays. So I would guess that that doesn't change where it could change a little is last year. They had so many veteran players who were starters that everybody else got pushed into the special teams and they might've had one of the most talented special teams in the league with guys who were drafted fairly high or guys like CJ

Ham who had a lot of experience. So they had, I think a very talented special teams last year that might have some of those guys like Brian Asamoah. I don't know if he'll play as much special teams, but some of those guys pushed into jobs that are actually playing on the field. Josh Metellus, maybe he still plays all special teams. I don't know. That is a tough ask if you're going to be out there for defense all the time. That will be something that they have to balance. From Tristan, would you say that Pace will be an above-average starting linebacker in the NFL? That is a very hard question to answer.

It is a very hard question to answer. It is a very hard question to answer. Because I have liked what I've seen from Ivan Pace, just like everybody else has. The coaches rave about him. He flies around to the ball. He's very instinctual, very fast, very aggressive. The kid knows how to play football. How it's going to look when it's game plan, when opposing teams circle him as a guy to attack because he's an undrafted free agent and he's small, how he goes against first team offensive linemen trying to clear him out at the second level,

as opposed to backup offensive linemen, receivers running behind him, tight ends going up against him. These are all major challenges for somebody who's undersized. If he becomes a average NFL linebacker, that's good. This is something we always have to remember, is that average is good. If you have a number of players who fill out your roster who are average, and then you have your great players like Justin Jefferson, Harrison Smith, you can be a championship level team with that. Go through championship level teams, a lot of average players. What championship level teams don't have is bad players. So not many of them. You really can't survive that many bad players if you're going to be a playoff team a championship caliber team but if he becomes an average nfl linebacker who's got some flaws but also has some playmaking upside

then i think that that's a really great find for them but they're still going to uh they're they're still going to work their way through it um with him and b Asamoah. So that is something that I think is undecided, but it felt more decided because Asamoah got hurt. And when Asamoah got hurt, then Pace took all the reps. But the fact that he was also doing the green dot duties, which is where you have the communication in your headset, you're calling out the plays, and they liked how that went. It just speaks a little more to his football understanding and how well that he picked up the defense. And I think Brian Flores would have a lot

of respect for that, but that's going to play out throughout the season. It seems like there's going to be roles for both of those guys. And then who ends up on the field more will be on who makes more of an impact. T Kubler says, be real. Juwan Williams beat out booth. I don't know. I mean, when we're talking about Juwan Williams,

we're talking about a guy who played less than 300 snaps for the Patriots. Juwan Williams is their Andrew Booth jr. Like the way that they talk about Juwan Williams is the way you talk about Andrew Booth jr. Like, Oh, that guy, that was a bust draft pick. It didn't work out. They signed him for one year, $1 million. So the expectations were not high.

I think it was notable that they bumped him up to the first team over Booth Jr. in some of those practices that may have been to get a little more evaluation on him and make that difficult decision over Booth. But when you talk about a young player, if there's any potential there and you're in a situation like the Vikings are, then you have to ride it out with that player. I mean, I think everyone's unhappy with Andrew Booth Jr., including the team, because they wanted him to be more than he is. But Trey Waynes basically didn't play his first

two years. This happens sometimes. Or the guy never makes it. I don't know. I would lean more toward this isn't going to work out than it is at this point. But Booth Jr. did make it through the rest of camp after getting banged up once healthy. And it also is not favorable to cut him salary cap wise where you lose nothing if you cut cut Juwan Williams. I don't think that one player was so much better in training camp than the other that you could say, oh, wow. I mean, what a decision. Why did they do that?

They're both bust draft picks so far. One of them is younger. One of them is younger. One of them's your guy. One of them, it hurts if you cut him on the cap and the other doesn't. I would rather they stick with him because Andrew Booth Jr. is talented. He missed so much time. And that's the concern. He missed so much time.

But Andrew Booth Jr. has talent. We've seen it in practice. He makes plays on the ball. He can track wide receivers. It's just he's missed so much time that I don't think he's had any opportunity to really grasp the NFL at this point. And maybe eventually he will. I don't know. We're not really sure. But I think it would be a bad decision to just call it on Andrew Booth Jr. because he had how many games did he play last year? I mean, very little experience last year. And then this year, one training game. So I think it's a much safer bet to decide to cut Jawan Williams where it's more decided what he's going to be.

AJ says, Daniil Hunter wasn't that great right away either. I think your memory might be failing you a little bit there, AJ. He was pretty good right away, yeah, when he came in 2015. I know that he wasn't great in college production-wise. It's kind of the opposite of Carter where they were betting on the production that he had in 2021, but Daniil Hunter showed it right away, like his, his ability. It's just, it makes sense for them to keep somebody that they

made a bet on signing him for a bunch of money as a UDFA because they liked him. So what he did in this year's camp was not going to really dictate how they felt about that. He was pretty much locked in. And I wondered about it. I wonder, cause it didn't look good at all. And I wondered about it, but there have been other players, Stephen Weatherly, a Fadi Adenabo, who I felt the same way about. And those guys became at least rotational players. If someone becomes a rotational player, eventually there's some value in that. Digit says, surprised they kept Kenny Wongwu.

I mean, Kenny Wongwu, as frustrating as this has been, they were high on him coming into training camp. And they wanted him to be the number two, but he's just been hurt. And sometimes this summer, I got a little frustrated talking about like, well, somebody's hurt. It seems like they're coming back soon, but I don't really know because we're not getting many specifics on the updates from injuries. And he just didn't practice, didn't practice, didn't practice. But I don't think that's a good reason to say that you're done with the guy because he couldn't practice. And it looks like it must have been serious enough to keep him sidelined to where he's not even working out on the rehab field.

But when Kenny Wong Wu is in the game, he is a top five kick returner in the game, a legitimate game-changing player. I mean, they win on Thursday night football against the New England Patriots because Kenny Wong Wu brings back a touchdown. There was a couple of games last year, 2021, where he tried to win them the game against San Francisco and against Baltimore when he had returns for touchdown. I think that they still believe there's some running back number two in Kenny Wong Wu. It's just that he's got to be out there. And at some point, I'm sure that they have gotten frustrated, but now they have to go and look for other players at that position because of his injury. But I don't think it's really reflective of him as a player. It's just frustrating that, that he's been out.

Bulldog says Luigi got hosed. He's a good football player farther along than Carter. I mean, that's, that's true. And that's, it's just the unfortunate reality of the league. And this, it's not just this league. So back early in my career, now it feels many years ago. Now it's, now I'm the guy who says 10 years ago, uh, I was doing minor league baseball stuff.

And if there was a guy who was 23 years old in the minors and I was doing, it was low a, so it was not a high level, the minor leagues. If he was 23 years old, I mean, the coaches were not spending almost any time with that guy. They were like, okay, he is what he is, whatever. If you were 20 or 21, then they were spending a lot of time trying to develop that guy. If you were a 17th round draft pick, you could hit 400, not get called up. If you were a sixth round draft pick, you could hit two 50 and get called up because it was always about upside, always about potential. And that's kind of how it has to be for teams. Because if you hit on that guy, he could become valuable for you. I don't always agree with that, but they also might be able to put him on the practice squad and then no, no big deal.

Any cuts from the other 31 teams that you think the Vikings could be interested in? The one that stands out is Bradley Roby for sure. Who knows how they feel about him, but that's a player with some experience, a player with some talent and the cornerback room is just empty aside from the starters. And you only have Andrew Booth jr.

And, and one other backup there at the cornerback position. So, I mean, I really, I mean, really you only have one backup because Najee Thompson is a special teamer. So you have one backup.

You need at least one other corner and then you'll have practice squad corners as well. But, and the corner that you do have as a backup is pretty unreliable. And Andrew Booth Jr., you don't even know if he can stay healthy. There's got to be at least one more guy, but maybe two. Roby makes a lot of sense for me. And then some veteran running back at some point to bring in, to pair him with Alexander Madison, even if they have somebody who can just rotate a little bit. But I think that if you were somebody that drafted Alexander Madison in your fantasy league, you'd feel pretty darn good right now.

Let's see anthony says don't know how our defense can be as far overall uh let's see don't know how good our defense will be as far as overall rank this season but if we are good in the red zone on defense third down and get sacks i'll take that i believe in brian floris, one thing we did see throughout training camp is how they took on his personality, like the aggressiveness of Brian Flores. They seem to really gel very well with him and he seems like a hard guy. Like, I don't want to call him like Mike Zimmer because at this moment there's a negative connotation to Mike Zimmer. There wasn't always that, especially when Zimmer was a defensive coordinator,

but he has this hardness to him that I think when you have a group of a lot of young players in the secondary specifically, they need that, but you're also kind of turning the wild horses loose and letting a lot of them run after the quarterback and play aggressively and try to make plays and i think that that really works for them the issue is what we're seeing just look at the 53 and if you get a couple of guys that go down you're going to be in a lot of trouble there they just do not have a lot of depth on this roster. And when we go back to some of the rosters of the past, it was like, I remember a game where Everson Griffin got hurt

and couldn't play. And you're, you're, you're putting in Brian Robinson. You're putting in like a really good player for somebody who gets hurt. And you had Shamar Stefan and his backup or rotational player is Tom Johnson. Like there's good players, two probably average for their position, but average is good. Right now, if you go one level down, it's not average. It's either completely unproven and has never played before or just not great. That is the concern with Flores' defense.

I think there will be a lot of ups and downs. Four tight ends is nuts, High Times KG says. Nuts. Let's get nuts on 53-man day. I don't, I mean, I don't know. Is it nuts? Like, we'll see if it stays that way, for one. I love that you categorized it as nuts, though. Like, let's go crazy with one more tight end.

But if it had to do with Nick Muse's performance in keeping him here, I think it makes sense. They're also going to use extra tight ends. And next year, Hawkinson's status a little bit up in the air. Let's even say they extend to Hawkinson. You're still probably not talking about too much longer with Johnny Munt. You got Josh Oliver. Muse is a guy that you drafted and developed, didn't want to lose. So, you know, I mean, I don't, I didn't think it was a crazy decision, but it also might not last. I mean, something like that. The same with Theo Jackson. Hey, good for you. The guy calls us. I always feel terrible about this. A guy calls his family, tweets out, oh, blessed to make the team, everything. I guys, I made the team. I can't believe it. And then like an hour later, they cut him to sign somebody else. That's the worst. That is the harshness of the NFL.

So I'm not sure that that is set in stone. So the IR spot is going to create some space. Maybe Naylor goes on IR too, but I don't think so. I think he's expected to be ready early on enough. So I don't think he Naylor goes on IR too, but I don't think so. I think he's expected to be ready early on enough. So I don't think he'll end up on IR. And so Wong will create one spot, but if we think that they need at least one more corner, maybe an offensive lineman, and they need at least another running back potentially too. That's numerous spots we're talking about that they have to shuffle around. So we're not quite finished with all of this just

yet. Digit says McBride looked powerful, but ran into blockers a lot. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was tough. There's the thing about the NFL is there's just so many technical elements. I'll give you an example that I was watching the running backs warm up one night and the running back coach, Curtis Modkins, he was teaching these guys to turn their shoulders to a certain angle and set their foot to a certain angle before taking off to kind of indicate that they were going to go one way and turn the next way or to hit a gap or whatever he wanted them to do. I can't remember what it was, but it was kind of like getting this specific footwork down and he kept going over and over and over it. And as a running back, even though it is a simple position, and even though

at one point compared to say tight end quarterback right center it's still complicated like you have to get the technical parts right and it felt like duane mcbride was really far away on the technical parts you also have to have some jump and i don't know that he had the jump that you need to be a good running back uh in the nfl there's just this it's kind of like how i make fun of those people who say they could get a couple yards the reason is because you have no acceleration as a normal person and the acceleration required to be a good running back in the nfl is so high even if you you don't run a great 40 or whatever, you got to have that quick burst,

and I don't know that it was really there. So he might end up on the practice squad, or they might just go with a completely different player and say, oh, well, didn't work out. AdPlusVerb asks, what would we say if they actually stuck what would, what would we say if they actually stuck with six safeties in five corners? Does that mean more positionless defense with Ward, Metellus, and maybe Bynum? Yeah, they could, that's possible. They could do that. But I do think that the roles are pretty different and Ward has never practiced at any other position than safety

so that's kind of important to mention too when he came in they said he's a nickel he's a safety he's a outside corner but as far as i remember i don't believe he was practicing at any other spot and josh metellus is playing in this package where he's essentially a linebacker. He doesn't have any experience playing at the nickel, doesn't really have the quickness to be a nickel type of corner. Bynum was moved from corner to safety because he was too slow and not twitchy enough to be that. So I think that's like playing with fire a little bit. The outside corners are huge. And while the nickel corner is huge in this defense,

you could probably survive with Josh Metellus for a game playing nickel or for a couple of games. If you had to, because that's an up in the box type of aggressive position in this defense and they blitz a lot and whatever you can work around it. But if you're asking the outside corners to be anything but this, then you're in big trouble. Like you need outside corners for sure.

So only having one guy who could play outside corner, and I'm sure they feel like Murphy's versatility could allow him to move around. But I don't like that either. I really like Byron Murphy as a nickel corner and a nickel corner only. His numbers when he was playing nickel corner were really good. And when they were playing outside, he just wasn't as effective. So, I mean, I guess as an emergency, sure, you could put him in there, but I think that you'd rather just have somebody else that you could trust as an outside corner and they should go get one. No guarantees.

I love this bit. Now six safeties is nuts. Newt said it's all nuts. Now if they kept three long snappers, that would be nuts. Five quarterbacks. They're just signing more quarterbacks to keep. Yeah.

I don't think any of this was really nuts today. That's what we're talking about like the if the biggest surprise was juwan williams who was on a one year one million dollar deal luigi valaine who was a undrafted free agent two years ago and tristan jackson who just seems uh was part of the numbers game that's not really very surprising. Bradley Roby is 31. Doesn't fit Quasey's time horizon. I understand that, but it's not like they don't have any veterans on the team. They have Dean

Lowry. They have Harrison Smith. They have Harrison Phillips. If they're trying to be a good defense, then they should try to be a good defense. They should pick up as many plays because they've already seen what they have throughout training camp. So if it's, you know, okay, Booth jr is the first man up or whatever,

that's fine because you want to get him playing opportunity. But if he gets hurt again, and then you're, you're down, you're talking about elevating, I don't know, Kalen Barnes or something, then you're in a lot of trouble. But maybe someone like Bradley Roby goes and looks for a starting job for somebody who's got an injury around the league. I just think it would make for a good just in case. Evans has had injury issues before. We don't know if he can play. Blackman, we don't know if he can play. These guys are the starters, but are they going to succeed in these roles? They look good

in camp, but we don't know that yet. Maybe he would view this as an opportunity to learn the defense battle with those guys. Another thing, just as a reminder, though, it is pretty rare that anybody who's picked up at this point in the game is a big contributor. Like Jalen Rager, last year, we had a lot of discussion over. Tremaine Brock, Blake Bell, like some of these late additions. It's not impossible that it works out, but it usually doesn't. Deontay asks, any surprise cuts around the league? Well, I've been doing this for the last hour, so I haven't looked at everyone's roster yet, but I did see that Bailey Zappi got cut the backup from the Patriots,

which means that Scott Zolak is now going to be their backup quarterback. They don't have anybody. Malik Cunningham got cut as well. So they don't have a backup quarterback. That's got to, is that Colt McCoy or somebody that they must like that they're going to bring in? Maybe Mac Jones took command of the organization like Aaron

Rogers and demanded no more Bailey Zappy. I don't know. I don't know what happened there. It sounds like he was just bad in training camp, but that was surprising. I mean, I don't think anyone really saw that coming. That's probably the biggest one. Was it surprising that Jonathan Taylor didn't get traded mildly, but if they were asking for a first, I like to follow this guy, Andrew Brandt. I don't know if you guys follow him on Twitter. He also does a newsletter. He's a former cap guy for the Packers.

He has good perspective on inside the NFL stuff. And he said that the minute the Colts asked for a first round pick in a return for a trade for Jonathan Taylor, it was basically like, we don't want to trade him. And that, that makes sense. We're not going to trade him unless we are totally insane.

Like unless the return, I mean, is totally insane. That's the only way we're going to trade him. But Indianapolis does have to figure this out. I will say from Jonathan Taylor's perspective, and I never want to blame the player in this sort of thing. You guys have heard that whole speech before about players deserve to

get the value they're worth and everything. And the owners make a lot more money than the players do and all that sort of stuff. But Jonathan Taylor also has to live in reality about his contract. Josh Jacobs had to, Saquon Barkley had to. They worked it out, and they did the best they could with, I think, somewhat fair market contracts. Maybe Jonathan Taylor just has to do the same thing at some point. Sorry, I'm scrolling through you guys' comments.

I'm working my way down. From Derek, I could see that Muse played his way into the roster, but also wonder if the lack of a Hawkinson deal played any role. It may be. I mean, the thing about tight ends is that's a position where there are positions where I don't really believe in this big development curve.

Running back would be one of them. Normally if a guy comes in and he's got it, he's got it he's got it and then you go from there even wide receiver you should see it right away okay adam thielen developed over the years but kj osborne did late some late picks it happens sometimes but usually it's super talented high draft pick wide receivers who are good right away, like Justin Jefferson with tight ends. Some of these guys become really good players after being late round draft picks, totally raw, brought along slowly, and then just emerge. And I think you want to, and again, they could cut him an hour from now and then make a change. So I don't want to lock myself into this

take, but you could see him coming along and you don't want to lock myself into this take, but you could see him coming along and you don't want to bail on that. And you also don't want to have somebody steal that from you. Like you drafted him and you've spent all this time developing him. And then here comes the Jaguars and they say, he's ours now or something. You don't want that. So that could be a way as well. I don't know if it's directly related to that, but down the road, I mean, if you're talking about maybe a year from now,

if it was a year from now and TJ Hawkinson says, I'm not getting a contract here. I want to be traded. Well, then you've got three tight ends that you're very happy with still, you know, that could play into it. Yeah.

So to your point, like that's possible that plays into it as kind of a longer vision. AJ says, I'm going to be honest. Uh, not sure if you need to be great in Flores's defense. Like you said, they just need to be average. Yeah. I mean, all defenses, all defenses are predicated on how talented you are. And let's not get it twisted about Brian Flores in general. Brian Flores, I think, has great ideas and is using players the right way. And I've been very impressed by that. But his first year in Miami, they were 32nd in defense because they had a terrible set

of players. The Vikings don't have a terrible set of players right now. But if their two outside corners aren't good, it's a problem. It's going to be a major problem. There's no answer for that. And we saw that with Zimmer. I mean, we saw that with Zimmer. If Mike Zimmer couldn't play call his way or scheme his way into a halfway decent defense without good corners, I don't know that there's anybody who really can't. I'm impressed with the defense. I like it. I like the philosophy a lot more, but I also think that this defense's success comes down to can you pressure the quarterback with the front four somehow outside of Daniil Hunter? and how do those outside corners handle what Brian Flores puts on their plate because it's going to be a lot. And if one of them gets hurt and then it's Andrew Booth Jr.

or then it's whoever, that's why they need to look for somebody else. But that's where my skepticism lies with defense. Scott says, who's the first person to get cut from this roster? Yeah, I mean, Nick Muse gets a nomination, but I also think Theo uh, Theo Jackson, uh, this, you know, the six safety probably gets a mention here as well. Uh, those are, those are probably the two favorites because they are short on offensive linemen short on running backs. They only kept four linebackers. There's really only a couple of places that they could actually

draw from. Um, Delton says valaine matthew yeah yeah i mean the valaine thing i think caught some people by surprise because he had a good training camp and you just you do feel like he deserved it but they've they have four outside linebackers already that they're going to play so if you're not a great special teamer there's there's really you're not really doing a lot and maybe some of the other guys did more on special teams what's surprising is the lack of effort to fix the trenches where games are won hoopie says well there's only so many dollars to go around. This is always the issue, right? Is over the years, this team has spent

on the interior of the offensive line, two second round draft picks and a first round pick. Now the two seconds have not worked out. And the first, he only had a good year last year. So that's a lot of investment though. That's a lot of investment through the draft because they knew they wouldn't have the cap space to put into those positions. So they tried to do it through the draft and so far have not had a ton of success or any success last year at the guard position.

At the defensive line spot, that is where I tend to agree with you, where it's OK, like Dean Lowry. He's he's a player that he's been in the league and you know, we know what we're going to get there. Harrison Phillips is I think a consummate professional quality player. You're never going to be mad. Harrison Phillips is on your team, but he's not a needle mover in terms of past pressure. And if that's what you're kind of running out there on the interior of the defensive line, you have to have some really vicious outside linebackers. And I think that they do have very, very physically gifted, you know, Daniel Hunter and Marcus Davenport. So they've got that. And then they're going to blitz a lot. And I think that's the plan, but I've always felt like,

I mean, you look at Miami and the success they had with Flores. Christian Wilkins is right in the middle of that. I have always felt like it is really important to create interior pressure, and they're going to do it by blitzing. And we'll see if that works out. So you have a lot of guys who are going to be taking up gaps on the interior of the defensive line. I also think Kyrus Tonga looks pretty darn good. That's a part of it, too. Are any intriguing guards getting axed? If only, if only, if only there were intriguing guards getting axed, but unfortunately,

not usually. I mean, there are so few good players on the interior of the offensive line. This is one of the reasons the Vikings have gone through this. It's one of the reasons they get overpaid as much as they do when they hit free agency, when any of them are halfway decent, is because it's just not that easy to find one. And then I thought that coming into this training camp, there was going to be somewhat of a battle between Chris Reid and Ed Ingram. But then Reid got hurt away from the facility before training camp and is not recovered. And there's just no battle there. My guess is that that was, that was their expectation

that there would be some sort of at least battle between those two. But once that happened, there was no battle and you have to have cap space. If you're going to fix these places. And if you're going to get good offensive linemen and free agency now they could have painted by numbers a little more but then you're not signing byron murphy like that's how tight this cap situation was going into this year so i mean i don't disagree i mean i know all about the guard position and what it does to this offense when it's not solid but i also think that you look at this offense if madison fits the way he's supposed to, TJ Hawkinson is what he is.

Jordan Addison carries over what he's done. It should be a really, really darn good offense. Bulldog says, TJ is a punk. He ain't the best tight end. Watch Jefferson get a contract and you get franchised, baby. Wow. When did this turn into like WWE smack talk in the comments? It's not even the start of the season yet.

We still got like 10, 11 days. He could be franchise tag next year. They just take a play off. It's I mean, this is how negotiations work with players. Uh, I, I I'll never understand when people get angry at a player for negotiating a contract with their team. It's the, this is how it works with every team in all of pro sports with every player who's good. Uh, TJ Hawkinson's a good player. I think we all recognize that. And I promise you, as he was catching 10 passes in the playoff game

and putting them in a position, had they not failed on the final drive to potentially win that game, or failed on both final drives, by the way, always forgotten maybe a little bit that they failed on the defensive side and allowed Daniel Jones to drive all the way down the field. But if they win that game, TJ Hawkinson is the hero. He's an important part of this offense. Like let's not lose forest through the trees because the guy's negotiating a contract. Although the smack talk is great though. I mean, I thought that was well done. Thoughts on... Oh, wait. Hold on, hold on.

That wasn't supposed to go up. Nope, that wasn't supposed to go up either. Sorry. Actually, that one can. Intriguing guard is an oxymoron. Yeah, I know. That's the thing. It's just there's not that many of them. There's a few that are good,

and everybody else is just scrambling, and every fan base is like, man, we need a better guard. That's just, there's not that many of them there. There's a few that are good and everybody else is just scrambling. And every fan base is like, man, we need a better guard. That's just how it is. Um, it's like saying you need a more clutch kicker. Like everyone thinks that their kicker is in clutch. Um, let's see from, uh, depraver. Uh, I'm not sure how to pronounce that thoughts on defensive tackle. Uh, J J Quayle and Roy. not sure how to pronounce that thoughts on defensive tackle uh jay jaqueline roy i mean

i thought that he has legit power as a defensive tackle i mean when he puts his hands on people they move and there's something to that like that's important what he can become from here i don't know but when they drafted him there was this idea of picking him with upside from even where he was, and I think we've seen that. I think we've seen the raw skill from him. And even in that last game when he played in the preseason, he was getting pressures and moving bodies. He shouldn't play right away, but if he has to rotate in,

I think that he's got some talent there. I think it was a good draft pick that will eventually come to fruition, but probably not that soon. Caleb says, it seems like TJ Hawkinson would be a good investment with how expensive wide receivers are becoming. It's, it's all about the dollar figure. It's all about the dollar figure. And if they can come to the right spot, because if you get to like 17 million with TJ Hawkinson, well, now he's really not saving you a lot of money over wide receivers. But if you're in the 15 million range and wide

receivers are getting 20, well, that, I mean, that's another player. That's a $5 million player, or that's a couple extra million for you to get a player in free agency and not somebody else. So, you know, structure is also important. The years are important. These contracts are hard to work out. And there's another part of this as well. That when the Vikings in 2018 signed everybody easily, when it was Diggs and Kendricks and a Hunter. And they all just signed. It was like, part of that was they had come off the NFC championship and they all just

signed in the dotted line and just said, I want to be here. We're going to win a super bowl. And it, you know, it didn't work out that way, but the situation is a little bit different now. And these players are saying,

okay, well we get it, but Hey, you know, we're, I got to get mine. And for someone like TJ Hawkins, I mean, this is your first contract outside of the rookie deal.

This is your biggest shot. You might not get another shot to make this deal. So you got to work it out. You got to negotiate. You got to dig your heels in a little bit. I don't blame him at all for that. Hold on. Scrolling.

Jaqueline Roy will eat up blocks like Tonga. Yeah, I can see that. Kyle Hinton made the 53 of the Falcons. Good for him. That's your intriguing guard? Yeah. Okay. I mean, look, Willie Beavers was still bouncing around not that long ago.

I saw Storm Norton the other night. These guys, offensive line play, it's so hard to be an offensive lineman that if you have any chance that you're going to be around, do I see any chance of taking a shot at Chris Jones? I have no idea how they would do that. That would be amazing, but I have no idea how they would do that. That would be amazing, but I have no idea how they would pull that off. I mean, they have very little cap space. He wants a gargantuan contract. You have to pay Jefferson. You have to pay Derrissaw. If they were in a spot, and I also think that Jones is going to stay with Kansas City.

They're trying to win the Super Bowl. So I don't think that that has any chance of happening, but it'd be great. Remember last year we didn't have Jordan Addison. Yeah, that's true. But I think that what offenses, if this is relating to TJ Hawkinson, what offenses are often predicated on is how many things that you can do, right? Like, okay, so you can be unstoppable with Justin Jefferson, but you can also be underneath on third down to get a first down.

Or you can also go deep to somebody else, or you can also run somebody out of the slot over the, you know what I'm saying? And so the more playmakers that you have, the better, and it's better to have a versatile weapon like TJ Hawkinson, whose football IQ is through the roof. If they can work it out, then you're going to want to do it. He's a good player. I mean, like it's been a long time since there's been football. You guys thought about this? I mean, you, you gotta be on the brink of madness here, right? It was January the last time this team played. So I get it. It's been a long time since TJ Hawkinson has played football in front of you, but let's not for him. He was a good Viking last

year. He's a real good Viking. Now this Jamie says the money is in the Wolf's pockets. Oh guys. I mean, come on. I think, uh, look, this is, this is an ownership that buys a taco bar for the media. They've got, they spend their money. Okay. I'm just joking. I'm not joking. The taco bar is incredible, but this ownership is spent is spent it's it's never been a matter of the ownership being cheap and letting players go they have not had that issue really at all um with this ownership and you just you can't ask for much more the only if the only criticism is that they didn't tank at the right time. Well, I mean, that's a pretty good ownership. Of all the things, when you look at some other franchises,

their facilities, how they treat their players. I mean, Byron Murphy was having to pay for his own lunch. I mean, come on. Oh, it was a joke. Okay, yeah, I know, I know, I know. But you do get that sometimes about the owners, I think. You just can't ask for a whole lot more from this ownership. Can't Brandon Powell return kicks and punts, Jamie asks.

Oh, yeah. Yep, and I think he's good at it. So he can play – I think he can play receiver and run routes well enough and understand the offense and return punts. I mean, they could still make a decision to move on from him instead of Rager, but it looks much more like Rager. There's more of a chance that they would trade him and make a spot. So we were talking about that earlier. Like where could the spots come from tight end safety and Jalen Rager are probably the answers to that. Do you think that they'll have Ward play as a

corner and a pinch over booth? Oh, definitely not. I mean, uh, Ward is not an outside corner. Yeah. If Ward is going to be anything,

it might be a nickel, but it's definitely not an outside corner. It will be booth for sure. So anyway, Bailey's happy. No, I don't need another Nick. You already have a Nick Mullins,

so you don't need another Nick Mullins. Are you just looking at things and asking if the Vikings should get them? I love lamp. Let's see. Thoughts on Marcus Davenport. I'm intrigued. I'm very intrigued by Marcus Davenport because Brian Flores moving him around. I like that playing him at the outside linebacker and then moving him inside.

Sometimes I think that. Playing him at the outside linebacker and then moving him inside sometimes, I think that's a very, very interesting concept. And having DJ Wanham playing way outside, a very interesting concept. And I think he might be a fit for that. We'll have to see. But I think it's a very interesting way of using Davenport because he is bigger than most edge rushers. So using him inside against some of the big guys, when he's bigger than most edge rushers. So using him inside against some of the big guys when he's quicker than pretty much any guard or center you're going to run into.

I like that idea. He hasn't done it before, really. I mean, he said, oh, I've done it a few times, but it was only a handful of snaps. I think that Marcus Davenport was a really great decision to bring him in. And there is a chance that he becomes a huge find for them. There's a chance he gets hurt and doesn't play a thousand snaps. And we all say, well, that's too bad. But at least from what I've seen in training camp, I think that that's going to be a good fit. Okay. A couple more questions. The voice is starting to give out here. If you were in yesterday, you saw me struggling with the voice. And today we've done pretty well with the Diet Dr. Pepper, but I'm

starting to lose it here. Over under Harrison Smith, three and a half sacks. I will go, I'm going to go three. I'll go three because they're going to blitz a lot of different people, but that's a good one. I like that. Does Harrison Smith get more sacks or interceptions? Probably still interceptions. They're definitely going to blitz him a lot. They're going to blitz a lot of people. From what I've observed in training camp, Metellus you're going to see a lot.

I think Byron Murphy's going to blitz a lot. Harrison Smith. A lot of times, and it's not just blitzing. A lot of times it's rushing four but who who is the four that's that's kind of the fun thing about brian floris's defense i think that you guys are going to enjoy that chuck chuck aoki who was just on national television on the today show by the way i tweeted that out if you want to see the clip what's up chuck great to see you congratulations on that and wearing the medals on national TV. Very proud of you, sir. Coming in late, did we talk about how

they must really like Andre Carter or be worried to get snatched up off waivers? First of all, it's unacceptable to ever show up late. I don't even care if you were doing the Today Show. But second of all, it was discussed a bit, but I'll talk about it again, just for you. Yeah. I think that the thing with Andre Carter is from my eye and from preseason games that we all watched, you couldn't really see what it is that they're claiming is the upside. He took a lot of time to get going with his motor. He does not bend really at all. And he has no pass rush moves. He got started from behind in this training camp. So that hurt him. He was injured at the very outset. And then, you know, it, you know, so he hasn't had a lot, a lot of work, but when they

signed him as an undrafted free agent, the idea was never that this camp was going to matter. It was entirely on getting him in the building, making him a development project, and hoping that after two years, two training camps, off-season development, weight training, body, all that stuff. I mean, what was he at Army? I don't know how much they're putting into developing someone for the NFL specifically as much as, say, like Georgia or Alabama. So he's got to do so many things to be ready to take on NFL tackles. And so they're making the bet that he can, and they're probably worried that somebody else would also make that bet.

I'm guessing, based on how much they paid him, there was a lot of competition. And so if they cut him, then other teams would have picked him up and said, well, we'll take that chance, especially bad teams. I mean, if you're Arizona and you're just picking up anything that moves that might have potential, then yeah, like there's a lot of teams that could use somebody or that would be interested in somebody that might have potential big upside. And I don't know if he actually does or not. And sometimes I think that there's a little too much obsession with that. But, you know, I get it.

I get it because they're probably saying Luigi Villain is what he is, and he's not really going to change. So anyway, I know that you guys are – yes, Chuck, please apologize. Please apologize. But great to see you, man. Very happy for you. And we'll be watching your journey. Go check out Chuck's Twitter, my Twitter, to see his interview on the Today Show. I'm not joking.

Like, that actually happened. So anyway, so who starts opposite of Byron Murphy? It's going to be M Makai Blackman and Caleb Evans are going to be the guys who start on the outsides. And then we'll see who comes in from the outside, and we'll see from there. Tyler asks, are you surprised they cut Juwan Williams with the lack of cornerback depth?

I think they must have something else in mind, someone else in mind that they've been looking at that they think that they can pick up that, that, that would be my guess. I'm like ish surprised, like meh, meh,

like a little, like a little bit, you know, cause someone, the first tweet I got was, you know, like there's your surprise. I was like,

is it really, is it really the surprise i mean when you're talking about somebody who signed a one year one million dollar deal it's just kind of a roll of the dice i don't know that that's really shocking uh greedy williams has been brought up a number of times i don't know i don't know which guy they would like and they have a whole pro personnel department that decides which veteran running back, which cornerback. But I think what we know is that they need some of those things. So anyway, if I didn't get to your question, tons of participation on this episode, and thank you so much for that. And I apologize if I missed your question, your comments and didn't get to it, but so much great stuff from

you guys. And this was really fun. And I look forward to seeing how this changes. Of course, that's the great part of doing the show every day is that sometimes you could listen to me and be like, Oh wow, that all sounds great. And then tomorrow it changes. And then we go back and go,

Oh, well we were wrong or Hey, look what they did and look how different it is. So we'll be back, you know, tomorrow doing our thing as always for you guys. And we'll see what happens from here. But this is our initial 53.

It's always one of my favorite shows to do because there's so much reaction. And I think just knowing how much it's going to change is going to be interesting. And then it's on to actual football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The lineup this year is going to be great. And let me just remind you guys before you go that I mentioned this yesterday about how we're going to be launching this Hot Routes, a new version of Hot Routes, which is we're going to be here pretty much every night on YouTube. And then the podcast feed is going to be called Hot Routes. Manny Hill is going to be involved. Marcus Whitman of that franchise guy. He's on YouTube. Great, great, great content creator, Jonathan Harrison. So you're going to

want to keep an eye out for that. And the lineup is going to be Brian Murphy, Jeremiah Searles, like we're like, we're back. Will rag it's doing the rag it's round table. So it's going to be a really, really fun season. I can't, I'm just so pumped for it. So thanks everybody for watching. And we will talk to you again very, very soon. Football.