Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down Vikings Day 3 NFL Draft and Sam Howell

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts to Day 3 of the NFL Draft and how the Vikings did with their picks.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here, and it is over. The Minnesota Vikings officially have a draft class and not only that, but also a backup quarterback. What a day. Actually, what a largely uneventful day for the Minnesota Vikings. Not a whole lot of drama. There certainly was elsewhere as the world waited for a particular fifth round quarterback to get taken off the board. And we've also got the UDFA class to come in as well. And we know that that is certainly going to be something that the Vikings put a lot of investment in. So as we go along, maybe there'll be a few names that pop up or maybe we'll just talk

about that another day when they finally get that list solidified and they actually announce it. But the Minnesota Vikings come away with today a edge rusher slash interior guy, uh, named Tyreon Ingram Dawkins from Georgia, Kobe King, the linebacker from Penn State and Gavin Bartholomew Titan from Pitt. And they make a trade to acquire Sam Howell. So why don't we talk about Sam Howell first and then we'll get into who these prospects are and our bigger takeaways from the draft, your questions, comments, of course, very much welcome. The draft is over. So you can give your thoughts.

This is probably the least eventful draft that I have covered as a member of the media with the Minnesota Vikings. There was one back in 20, was it 2020 when they drafted four, seventh rounders, five seventh rounders, something like that. I think that was 2020 and that was a long day. That was a lot of prospects to talk to on conference calls and a lot of guys to write about. This one does not have as much juice to it.

So we'll talk about Howell and then the bigger picture my take on Sam Howell will remain the same as it was when it was discussed Going into the draft which is okay That seems perfectly fine Sam Howell was a guy that I did like coming out of the draft in 2022 because I felt like he had a couple of assets that 22 because I felt like he had a couple of assets that stood above the other quarterbacks in that draft class. Uh, one was arm talent.

Uh, he could throw the heck out of the football. Uh, it's not quite Malik Willis who was also drafted that year in the third round, but he does have a strong arm. He is a good athlete. He can run with the football. He's got some toughness element to him, but when he is played in the NFL, he has been a crazy person, uh, in terms of trying to protect the football. It's been absolutely nuts for Sam Howell.

Now I will say that he played for a team that was extremely bad when he was with Washington. I mean drafting, Jaden Daniels bad, but he threw 21 interceptions, 65 times sacked, which is almost what Caleb Williams had. This is not a guy that you would be talking about as a potential starter for any more than a short period of time, but he is a guy that could have more upside than what he showed in Washington with those really, really bad numbers, because it might remind you a little bit of Sam Darnold and just the way that some of his numbers look the eight, the 78.9 quarterback rating,

the sacks, the interceptions, the mistakes, and he can be pretty fun at times and he can have some big games at times, but also can really turn the ball over a lot. And I thought that it reflected pretty poorly on Sam Howell last year when he got a chance to play in a game against Green Bay, and then he did not perform very well. In fact, really let that game get out of hand with a good Seattle team. Didn't really seem like he was, uh,

locked in or ready to go when that game happened. And then I guess my thought was, well, this is who he's going to be for his career as a backup quarterback, but he is coming to the Minnesota rehabilitation center for quarterbacks that do things good and throw things hard or whatever. So, uh, this is a quarterback though that i'm sure kevin o'connell had conversations with in two thousand twenty two or at least study to some extent now when we just talked to quacy adolfo mensa he said that they did not have plans to draft a quarterback in twenty two so they did not do the all in deep dive in the same way that they did for JJ McCarthy. They didn't go meet with every one of the quarterbacks.

They didn't do all the background stuff and the investigations into who these guys are and talking to everybody who's ever met them and every coach they've ever had and every family member. They didn't do all that when it came to Sam Howell. But at the same time, I recall Kevin O'Connell saying that the reason he would always go to the combine was so he could meet with the quarterbacks. And I believe he met with how will end the rest of that quarterback class, at least to have sat in a room with them in 2022.

Um, but we are talking about still a backup option and maybe just a backup competition. And Wally says how old is Nick Mullins 2.0 with a better arm, which is fine. And you know, that might be the case that that's really all he can be in the NFL. He is still on the younger side is I think a little more physically gifted as you said, then Nick Mullins, but the recklessness with the football that is a similarity and also a staple of backup quarterbacks. It's kind of what you get, but does Sam Howell have enough talent to come in and go two and two if they needed four games of somebody to start because JJ McCarthy got hurt for a month.

Sure. But there was no available quarterback that they were going to be able to go get that would compete with JJ McCarthy or That would be someone that you could trust for an entire season to make you a playoff contender All the names that were tossed out there basically a bunch of Sam Howells where you go, okay I guess it's not Carson Wentz, but even if it was, this is not very different. Maybe Wentz is a shade better than Sam Howell. Maybe Sam Howell doesn't even preclude you for bringing in another guy if they wanted to have a real backup quarterback competition along with

Brett Rippon, who you hear Kevin O'Connell mention all the time, and he likes Brett Rippon. So it's very possible that he could just beat out Sam Howell. But you just throw numbers at it. Maybe they'll bring in an undrafted free agent quarterback as well, just to see if that is somebody they want. And yeah, if it's Wentz, if it's whoever, it doesn't really matter.

They could still bring somebody else in and just say, all right, everybody, work that out Amongst yourselves as far as the backup quarterback situation But if howl is QB to then all right you're always looking for him not to play You're looking for him to stay on the sideline And if he does have to play to just be prepared and maybe protect the football a little bit better Than he did when he was in Washington.

But again, that is it is an apples to oranges type of situation when it comes to Sam Howell versus playing in Washington. I don't even know who let me take a look here. Who was Terry McLaurin, of course. But aside from that, I mean, what kind of weapons are we talking about for Sam Howell when he was with Washington? Curtis Samuel, Jahan Dotson, Logan Thomas.

These are guys in the league, but they come nowhere close to the likes of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hockinson, and so forth. And I don't even know who was the offensive coordinator. Eric, the enemy was the offensive coordinator, and then he didn't even stay in the NFL after that. So that might be a little different for Sam Howell as well Whatever quarterback they have we can always project something a little bit better or a lot better Than whatever that quarterback has been before so if how is the backup perfectly fine with me and

I think you could probably trust them to at least have the Vikings be competitive if he had to play in a couple of football games. That's what I got. And they gave up nothing for him. They just slid back a little in the draft. Turns out totally fine. So let me go through some of these draft picks. They were calling him Ty. So I guess we could go with Ty Ty Rian Ingram Dawkins a defensive tackle but when we look at his

Profile he moved all over the place and I'll read you the numbers here from PFF he had 218 snaps as an outside linebacker 186 over the tackle so in it like a five technique and then 104 as a three technique and this a hundred and four as a three technique. And this is something that the Vikings really like about Ingram Dawkins is that he lined up all over the place on the Georgia defensive line and made a handful of plays. But I think they also like the upside of him. And really when you're drafting on day three, the theory is either you try to get some guys

who might have a lower ceiling, but you can kind of count on them being a player for you. And we'll get to a couple of those guys in just a minute that they also drafted today, but you could also try to take big swings. And I think that when it comes to Ingram Dawkins, this guy is a little more of a big swing because he went to the NFL Combine and he crushed it at the Combine. I like that comparison Pete throwing out there.

Jahad Ward. I mean, he's it is kind of that sort of player where he is really a tweener by his size 65 to 76. I think that's actually a great comparison because he is not clearly a defensive tackle. Doesn't quite have that much weight, not clearly a defensive end, maybe a little too big for that and definitely not clearly an outside linebacker, but maybe somebody who could stand up and rush up the middle or someone who could develop, put on a little muscle and become a three technique type of player because he has the physical attributes to do it. And I don't have his relative athletic score.

Maybe if someone has it, they could throw it at me because I've got his NFL.com page here, but he was ranked second among all defensive tackles in his athleticism score. And he ran a four eight six in the 40 yard dash at 276 pounds. I mean that is fast. That's like a tight end at the defensive tackle position and with defensive tackle size, 36 inch vertical jump. We were just talking last night about how Ty Felton had a 40 inch or 39 and a half inch jump.

This guy was only three inches shorter in terms of his jump at 276 pounds. So explosiveness, he is, I agree with VA Viking 33. He is a Flores type of fit. Anytime we see someone who's been used all over the field, and this was what Ryan Gregson talked about with us today as well, then immediately we're going to say,

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That just like Levi Drake Rodriguez last year, what it looks like they've been doing. Okay. So nine eight five. Okay. That's yeah, that's really good for relative athletic score, basically 99th percentile athlete. And this is the type of move that I really like for day three. I really like when a team says, you know what? The guy hasn't gotten to play a lot of football. He's been at Georgia. He had one year that he really got to play. He did some good things, got a couple of sacks, handful of pressures, but maybe we can potentially mold him into something more than that. Uh, and, uh, let's see Pavlogs frog says, man, well, I got news for you, Mr.

Frog, there's going to be a lot of men here because when you draft three times in all of day three, I don't know of anybody that they picked that was going to blow your socks off. I think yesterday was a little more of the exciting pick with Ty Felton, uh, where we could see the blazing speed, the playmaking and everything else. But I don't know today who they could have picked. And if you've got a favorite that they passed up on, feel free to let me know. But I really don't know which guys they could have picked on day three,

where I would have been like, whoa, emergency podcast. Stop the presses. They just got the next great Viking. Like that's just not how it tends to work on day three. So what you look for is an intriguing prospect who can potentially grow into something. On this roster with this team right now, that's what you got for the young players who were coming in.

Cam Scataboo. That's right. Now with somebody like scataboo, a running back, you want to play right away. You have Jordan Mason, you have Aaron Jones. There are UDFA running backs who are still good players who are out there, but yeah, okay. Running back would have been a little more exciting, especially because we did a lot of prep on the running backs. Would have been a little more exciting especially because we did a lot of prep on the running backs

We know who they are But is there a gap between a scataboo and a guy from a UDFA? Because look at this class. It was talked about as being so deep Corners is another thing Safeties, but you know, I agree with Wally that they already have two starting running backs on the roster You know, I agree with Wally that they already have two starting running backs on the roster. So if you were taken a chance on somebody like Scataboo, then I mean, is he going to actually play? And you're right that Jones could get injured.

That's true. But that's why they went out and got Jordan Mason. Scataboo would have definitely, he went to the giants, uh, VA Viking, and he would have been somebody that at least, uh, you know, actually I'm sorry. I was waiting to crack the final diet, Dr. Pepper, but now I, uh, I'm going to need it. Hold on. Celebratory diet, Dr.

Pepper. Um, I, I look, John, I enjoyed Scataboo as much as you. Uh, I think that if you're drafting a player like that, you probably want to get him on the field. And if Jordan Mason is somebody who is young, you sign him to a contract extension. It's really maybe not the year to good to use on a running back. But if they had done it, it would have been fine. I mean, that's the thing about day three. And that's why I said, like, I'm not criticizing you, John, for wanting scataboo.

I said, throw out your favorite guys that you wanted today instead of who they got if you want to and we could talk about them because there's just so many dudes that we discussed along the way I'm curious about how who you were disappointed by because as they were going by I'm like oh that okay they missed out on that guy. They moved down and, and that kind of thing with a lot of them. And sometimes we get so deep into the draft process

that we're like, man, they need to take this sixth round safety. And then you realize that's a sixth round safety and that's, you know, probably not a guy who has a great chance to be a difference maker, but you know, I think with the Ingram Dawkins pick, what they also talked about liking with him was his intelligence and awareness and they felt like he would be very coachable. I like projects like that on day three and because when they hit if they click it usually turns out really good for your team and we have seen that happen over the years we've seen it with someone like you know.

A step on digs for example i was kind of thought of as a project when he came out i think right i don't remember the the 2015 draft super well in the discussion about Stefan Diggs, but a later round guy that had more explosiveness than his production and they thought was something there and then they found it and he turned into a really good player. So I like those big swing upside type of guys that usually don't work out. But if they do, you get something pretty cool because their athletic upside

is through the roof. And the other thing too, why I like taking defensive linemen is that even if they don't end up hitting their absolute ceiling athletically, they still can just turn out to be something. So I'll give you an example of that, which would be Stephen Weatherly. Stephen Weatherly is probably not going to end up in the Vikings hall of fame, but you know, he played a nice little role for them for a couple of years. He was a guy that had great athleticism and they developed him a little bit for a couple of years.

And he turned out to be a decent player for them, rotational, fill in type of player. And you need those guys because players get hurt You need special teamers you need rotational guys And if he turns out to be Jahad Ward then for where they selected him, that's not a bad pick But again, it's not gonna be quite as exciting as somebody like Kam scataboo who we'd all heard of I don't know if he could play in the NFL at this type of level to be a difference maker with the way he plays.

He kind of just crashes into stuff, but I liked him. I mean, I enjoyed the heck out of watching him in college. Any of those running backs I would have been on board with. So if they had drafted scataboo, I would have said, Hey, this is, this is a lot of fun, right? They got a guy we've all heard of or any of the running backs that maybe could have doubled as a kick returner or a scat back or something like that. But I think they're going to probably address that in undrafted free agency.

And thank you so much, John. I really appreciate you. And everybody who's followed along also TJ with the super chat as well. I mean, this has just been a really, really fun weekend. I guess, starting on Thursday, somebody said the other day to me like, thank goodness it's Friday. And I was like, is that yeah. Okay. I guess it's Friday.

Like I've lost total, uh, total awareness of what day it is or what's going on. It's like, I'm sorry, ma'am. Did you say day two of the draft? That's what you going on. It's like, I'm sorry, ma'am. Did you say day two of the draft? That's what you really meant, right? But it's been a really fun time to have these conversations. But our discussions today are going to be a little more limited with these prospects because well, I am, I would say not blown away by any of these picks. I like the project idea. We'll get to the other guys. I Also can't go through the list and I'll take a look at it when when we're all said and done here and say oh my Goodness gracious how in the world did they pass up on this guy or that guy? that's what's gonna be kind of hard because it's day three and Everybody is going to have their strengths and weaknesses. But with Ingram Dawkins,

he's a project. So going on to a Kobe King, they, they traded back to get two picks instead of one pick. So they moved back. They got two Oh one and two Oh two. And just to put this all in context, the Las Vegas Raiders drafted back to back to FCS quarterbacks and you never know with those guys, but that's kind of where we're at. Like the Ravens took a kicker because they might have to cut their kicker because he might be, you know, and like that's what's happening on day three of the draft where

you have either projects or guys that have very limited ceilings or you're taking FCS quarterbacks for the vibe. Kobe King. Now this is one where I got a text from somebody in the league when they drafted Kobe King that said, Hey, I think you just got a good player there in Minnesota. I go, okay, interesting. So I went to his, you know, his PFF page and so forth. And he is an absolute monster in terms of stopping the run and tackling. And in the coverage part of it, it's a little bit hard sometimes to use the coverage stats as if they are gospel when it comes to a player like this.

Uh, they're more of just okay. But sometimes if you know, with, with linebackers, if the other team is just checking down in front of the linebacker, I mean, it's not exactly like, you know, it's crazy, you know, like he's crazy opportunity or something. Now the, the very interesting thing about, um, about Kobe King is that he has a twin brother who is playing for, uh, the green Bay Packers. Sorry, I'm searching and talking at the same time, but Kobe King has a twin brother who is playing for the green Bay Packers.

Like how crazy is that? Kaylin King. He's a cornerback. I mean, that's, uh, that's going to be quite a rivalry. You can get ready for those features, but, um, anyway, so it picked 200. I mean, he had really good PFF grades over 80 11 back to back years. He was actually good in coverage in 2023 for his grade and not as good this last year, really good blitzer, 16 quarterback pressures, great, great run defense grade,

blew up a lot of plays. So he might kind of just be a ball player that they were interested in and somebody who could carve out a role for himself or at very least be a developmental player that's on special teams in the first year. And then you're looking a little bit down the road, but in that room. Okay. Max Brosmer signed with the Vikings. Hey, okay. That's interesting.

That's interesting. I really liked the way Brosmer played for the Gophers this year, by the way. I was somewhat intrigued by him as somebody who could get an opportunity in the NFL. I mean, he's the best quarterback. The Vikings have had in a long time. I'm sorry, not the Vikings the best quarterback the Vikings have had in a long time. I'm sorry, not the Vikings. The Gophers have had in a long time. So good for him. Maybe he'll compete for a practice squad spot or something. So going back to Kobe King, anyway, the breakdown here with Kobe King is that when you look at his PFF page and his grades, There is a lot of green. I could show you guys this. There is a lot of green on this guy's page.

I mean, look at this. This is impressive. A green and blue is elite. Green is really good. Had a tough game against Notre Dame in the college football playoff. But if you look at some of these numbers, he has just produced a lot and been successful. And so even if he doesn't have the highest athletic upside or something,

when you're talking about linebacker, then what you're usually getting into is instincts, tackling ability, leadership, toughness, intelligence. And Kobe King seems to check off a lot of those boxes. So as you start to look down the road, right now in the linebacker room, you've got Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace, Eric Wilson. Pace has got a couple more years left on his contract. So does Blake Cashman. And then you have, uh, Eric Wilson. That's a little bit of a one year filler. So, you know,

maybe you're talking about King as a special teamer who develops, but then his depth and they have really been lacking depth for young players at linebacker over the last couple of years, probably also says where they stand on Brian awesome law, which is that he's really just a pure special teamer. He's in that room as well, but hasn't gotten many opportunities from them. So that's a likable pick at a position that you should draft in the late rounds. You shouldn't be taking linebackers too often at the very top. You should draft them in the middle and late and then develop them and hope that you find the next Fred Warner.

By the way, if you guys have a undrafted free agency, you're seeing that they're picking up that are interesting, throw them in the comments. Let me know Because I'm not reading Twitter talking to you and looking at the stats for these draft picks all at once but Max Brosmer Hey, man, that's a pretty cool story, right? He comes here wasn't really a highly projected quarterback and then plays really well for Minnesota had a great year for them one of the better years they've had in a while from the quarterback position, and then gets an opportunity to come and play with the Vikings and we'll see what happens from there. So their last pick, a tight end, and I know a lot of you were interested in the tight

end position as we went through the draft process, they picked Gavin Bartholomew and this guy Bartholomew, and this guy has played a ton of football. He came in his first year of actually playing 20, 21. He was AC, all ACC honorable mention, uh, caught a couple of touchdowns right away. And he's played a bunch of games since then. Last year had a pretty good season. 38 catches, four touchdowns again, honorable mention four seven 40 could be a receiving tight end does not sound like he is necessarily going to be a body mover,

but maybe more of that like receiving type of player. So that's kind of where we're at right now with, uh, the draft picks and we'll see what they do in the undrafted free agent market. But I don't have a lot more to say about Gavin Bartholomew. And the bigger picture is when your team has almost no draft picks, I really don't know how you come away with a fan base that's going to be. Through the roof excited just they started picking today in the fifth round and when we look at where they packed including the moves down. I just as i was watching the pics go by i certainly was saying i go back i was interesting or you know maybe this guy or that guy would be somebody i would look that but. How many guys what i say, how dare you Minnesota Vikings?

Not many of them. I'll take a look right now to see who's some other ones that might've been interesting, but they weren't even picking like crazy, uh, crazy, higher number of these guys. So they started out the fifth round with, uh, Ingram Dawkins. Let's see who was on the board after that. I was interested in Riley Mills, Jordan Phillips. Some of you guys liked the Chaudhuri Sanders thing. We can definitely talk about because I do have some thoughts on that Jordan James,

the running back from Oregon and DJ Giddens, the running back from Kansas State. Those guys were on my list to J Jaden blue from Texas, just clear. They did not want to go with that position. A couple other ones, Marcus Embo dropped it a lot. He was talked about as maybe even a second or third round pick the guard from Purdue. Uh, then we're getting into deep cuts though. Elijah Roberts and SMU edge rusher kind of caught my eye. It's hard after that. Arunde Gadsden was a position switch player how many other of these guys were

you talking about so it's you're not going to come away from a draft like this and go they crushed it they've got all the next great players maybe the only thing you might have said is that there was some corners there as Evan mentioned Zaya Alexander Kobe Bryant, which is C O B E E Donovan Edwards the running back a lot of you wanted running backs Jod Joyner. Yep, Jod Joyner would have been an interesting player I think what happens all the time is we end up falling in love with some players throughout the process and becoming convinced

that they would be really good draft picks. And sometimes they do. Sometimes there's a guy that works out and I go, oh man, I love that guy coming out in the draft. Aneas Peebles is one of them. He ends up going to, where did he get drafted? Pick 210 with the Ravens. I was like, darn Ravens, you took a Nias Peebles and not the Vikings

because he had really good numbers. Devin Neil was another running back, uh, that they could have potentially taken. Jalen Reed, a safety from Penn state. It seemed like they just were really not very sold on the idea of taking. Corners and safeties in this draft. And that's where we can now zoom out and take a look at what the actual entire depth chart looks like and where these guys fit in just the entire draft class, including the first two days, because it looks pretty darn complete to me.

Doesn't it? And that's another thing. Like where on this depth chart were they supposed to try to fill out in the draft where you could have gotten a fifth or sixth rounder and said, Oh, well, we're filling a need with this fifth rounder. But they did not shoot crazy high. Uh, Seth McLaughlin, I don't know for the center. Was that Ohio state, the center?

I did not see his name. Somebody let me know if Seth McLaughlin got drafted. Okay. So he, he did not get drafted. He's, he's an undrafted free agent. Okay. That might be somebody they bring in. And that's another thing too.

You might pass up on some guys that, Oh, well, we really like this guy in the draft, but he ends up as a undrafted free agent. I think that the sexiness factor to these guys is just not very high. They didn't go out like the Raiders and draft a couple of FCS quarterbacks or maybe the fastest wide receiver. Jay Higgins is still out there. That's someone who was interesting to me from Iowa. They didn't draft positions that are all that exciting. I think they actually played the draft

kind of like Quasi-Adolfo Menso with his golf analogy the other night. If you caught that, what he was kind of trying to say about the draft is, let's keep the draft on the fairway here. Let's not go crazy and end up, you know, getting a double bogey or something like let's make sure we get there and get a par. And this was a par type of draft where it's unlikely that the tight end that they took or the linebacker are

going to turn into these game changing type of players, just based on what their projected ceilings are and where they got picked and the positional value. And even with Ingram Dawkins, the earliest player they drafted on day three, hard to see the biggest type of production from him right away. And he's going to have to develop over the next couple of years even with Ty Felton as Exciting as it was to have the wide receiver get drafted in Ty Felton For this show where we've been talking about wide receiver forever Still you know we're not looking at somebody who's gonna start for them next year and

Donovan Jackson is really the only player that is going to have an impact right away because of the bigger picture of this off season. And that's what I wanted to look at as we see, you know, some of these undrafted free agents kind of coming in here and getting picked up, which my phone is lighting up time and time again again with every Tom Palacero tweet about undrafted free agents who are signing. So we'll get, maybe they'll send out the list at some point or at least we'll get enough reports to take a look at some of these guys. But just in general with the entire depth chart,

they were able to overhaul their entire offensive line on the interior this year with free agency and the draft and bringing in Donovan Jackson is the last step to that. It's another pick that is not that exciting, sexy, doesn't blow your mind. And there was the whole discussion about, well, did they reach or how much of a reach it was? But I think if you look at the character fit, you look at how he played as a tackle and the fact that he was even able to grow as a tackle and continue to develop as a player while he was playing out of position last year, that all, all that makes a lot of sense to me

because it helps JJ McCarthy. It has a trickle down effect, so I'm not so concerned about it being a little bit of a stretch, right? But it's definitely not one that you're going to run outside in the streets and yell, we got them, Donovan Jackson, a guard. So, I mean, maybe, maybe some of you did, but I'd be surprised if there were too many huge celebrations. It could be one of those that has an overall bigger picture effect by plugging that, that hole.

And I look at Ty Felton is the same kind of thing where right now it's all right. This guy's going to kick return. He's going to be maybe wide receiver four behind Jalen Naylor. And if there's an injury, then he slides up or he slides into a playmaker's role or he punt returns or whatever it might be. He competes with Rondale more for a spot in the wide receiver room. Also not the most impactful type of player, but in the long haul, it might turn out to be something there where Jalen Naylor is going to be a free agent after this year and he steps into that role or he develops and two years down the road,

you're saying, man, felt Felton is so exciting because he runs that four, three, and he's got the 40 inch vert and he can break tackles and make plays in space. You could be saying, well, he's so exciting and such a good player that you can not pay Jordan Edison. And then you can spend that money elsewhere or something. Right. Like there's lots of different iterations of that. But I like that pick for potentially a little bit now and then down the road a little more.

Then you get to today's picks. And it's a guy who could turn out to be something along the D line if he develops well, which they have I think maybe three four guys in that room who are just like that You know Taki Tayamani had his moments last year We all enjoyed Levi Drake Rodriguez with the hair and he's a big huge guy And he's quick and everything and now you throw another number at it I like that idea throw another number at it. I like that idea. Throw another number at the interior D line. Let those guys fight amongst themselves for a position

as they go forward here and develop behind Jonathan Allen and Jayvon Hargrave. And then, okay, there's guard guy in the chat. We were waiting for you on night one, guard guy. It was your night. And you're right. The Vikings should be happy about their two starting guards. This is your off season, finally, guard guy.

You've been waiting forever. And here you are, Will Fries and Donovan Jackson. What an off season. So with Ingram Dawkins, you're taking somebody to compete in that room and develop over time. And then we'll see and With Kobe King you might have a contributor right away on special teams depth right away He's got leadership capability somebody that might be able to outperform his physical expectations And then with Gavin Bartholomew, that's your depth tight end that they were looking for

They were looking for the Johnny Munt replacement and that's about what you would expect from somebody like that. So if we're trying to grade the overall draft, it becomes kind of difficult because, and we'll include Sam Howell in this too. So we include Sam Howell in the overall haul of the draft. And if you really wanna get detailed, you'd have to also look into who they

gave up, uh, what picks they gave up to get like cam Robinson or cam acres. And those, you know, cam Robinson will turn into a comp pick. And I'm sure somebody has done this really detailed dive and, and some of this might be Dallas Turner. I'm sure something of this is Dallas Turner, right? From last year. So there's a little more complicated to it for why they had no picks, but it's a hard draft to go, man, I am juiced up. It's more like, okay, it all makes sense.

It's not going to cause some sort of crazy debate here. Oh my gosh. I wanted Kobe King instead of, you know, some guy who was in the sixth round. And I felt like Donovan Jackson was even the same kind of thing. I was like, there's a really a lot to debate here. Maybe you're like me and you wanted them to take Luther Burden there, but they kind of got a different version of Luther Burden in Ty Felton. And okay and with nick mullins even the same sort of thing where there's not really a lot of arguments to be had about same sam how did i say nick mullins i meant sam how with them going back and.

Going back a few spots just to get. just to get Sam Howell. Okay. They didn't really give up anything. He could come into camp and compete with Brett Ripon and whoever else. And apparently mocks Max Brosmer. And there you go. That's fine. It's a very matter of fact type of day.

It is not one where we're going to be throwing rocks at each other and having a discussion. But as just to circle back though, as we go back, and this is a good point by Gatino's Christmas channel is that there really aren't a lot of spots on the roster for a ton of draft picks to try to make. And as we go through it, solidifying the offensive line, that's a really, really good job by the Vikings this year to do that, to be able to fill those positions that had been such a struggle and past protection and then the backfield where you get Jordan Mason, you don't have to give up a whole lot of draft capital to

get Jordan Mason, but that fills another spot that we were looking at in the draft and saying, well, you know, they'll probably have to draft somebody, but they instead get a 25 year old guy who's already averaged five yards of carry in the NFL. All right. Wide receiver position. They did not get somebody who is going to be an instant person who competes with Jordan Addison for wide receiver too, but could add something to the room. Even if he just adds, remember what they tried to use Jalen Rager as?

Remember that they tried to use Jalen Rager as the punt returner slash like wide receiver for rotates in, gets the football, runs a jet sweep. Well, what if it was a little better version of that with Kai Feltin for this year? Like that could be pretty helpful. Uh, Tulane wide receiver, Dante Fleming signing with the Vikings. Okay. Interesting. Interesting.

Always interested in the wide receivers. You know that, uh, we'll take a look at what they've got there. If I can find it. So, you know, they were able to add, there we go, there's Dante Fleming on my PFF page. Not the most productive, but certainly a deep wide receiver, eh? He 19.3 yards per reception. That's pretty serious. Over almost 600 yards on 31 catches at Tulane and only four drops.

Okay, always worth a swing with these guys. Apparently weighs 167 pounds. They do not care about how much people weigh, do they? So back just going through the depth chart here and what it looks like now with the rookies on it with wide receiver position. I was just looking at this in 2022. I've referenced a few times that KJ Osborne had 90 targets that year's wide receiver three, but also they had Jalen nailer and Jalen rager combined for 26 more targets. And if that is what's, um, Kai Felton ends up doing, and he ends up getting something like 30 targets and make some plays and return some balls and then has

a chance to be something in the future. That would be a big win for them right away. And along the D line, nothing really changes here with the draft, uh, with a Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, he's just going to be somebody who competes in that room. There will be probably somebody who doesn't make the roster that we expect to but overall with the if you include the outside linebackers and the d-line there is a lot of competition there they move out patrick jones but you got bow richter i gave me a murphy from last year made a good first impression and then on the inside then you also have, um, you know, here's Levi Drake Rodriguez,

and it's going to go along with, uh, Ingram Dawkins. So, you know, uh, a good D line, a good, a good room, a lot of competition there. Oh, Wisconsin offensive lineman. Okay. Joe Huber coming in, uh, Vaughn says, why didn't Kobe Bryant get drafted again? C O B E E the guy from Kansas. I wondered about his personality.

If teams were a little bit concerned about it. Uh, he was talked about as being maybe a second or third round draft pick, but when he talked at the combine, it was a little bit wild. And I just wondered if teams were put off a tad by him, or if there was something else behind the scenes and injury, whatever else might've been, but yeah, that's it. That's a curious one with Bryant. I was surprised to see that, that he wasn't drafted because when we first started doing those early draft simulations and mock drafts and looking at them.

He was a guy that kept coming up. So, all right, let me try to come up with a grade then for this for this entire draft. So I was going to look at the other position. So anyway, at the D line and the D line room training camp will not be very exciting when the ones are out there because it's just going to be a bunch of veteran players. We know, but when the twos and the threes are out there because it's just going to be a bunch of veteran players we know. But when the twos and the threes are out there, that's when it's going to be like, okay, we got some serious competition going on between these young guys. And that's what they want to see is who's going to emerge.

That could be a rotational player because we know that Brian Flores will use these guys. player because we know that Brian Flores will use these guys. That's what I really enjoy about covering Brian Flores is defense, or at least one of those things is that he will use just about anybody, uh, for any type of role if he feels like that's going to work for that particular day. Silas Bolden from, uh, is that, is at Texas is coming in with the Vikings for UDFA. I'm trusting you guys. I'm putting a lot of trust in you guys here. So he played at Oregon State and then a little with Texas last year, 23 receptions has pretty good numbers over the last couple of years, but nothing that's going to blow your ways. Five foot eight and 160 pounds.

So they're going for guys who, uh, maybe not exactly the right specs for wide receivers, trying to find something there. If we look at the linebacker position, just bounce it back and forth between the depth chart and just how things look now that they have, uh, you know, done the draft here, I see it as Ivan face junior Blake Cashman. And then after that is Eric Wilson and probably Kobe King can compete with Brian awesome law.

And if there's a competition there, that might be a spot where Brian awesome. Why could lose it out? It could be some motivation for awesome. Why, as they bring in one of their guys here in Kobe King and they might want somebody who can play all the special team stuff, but also maybe could get into the game because they don't seem to trust Brian awesome walk. And that's a real competition.

Now there the w the corners and safeties. I was expecting them to take one, but at the same time, and we heard that they were happy with Isaiah Rogers, and that was a Brian Flores pick, but at the safety position, it's even more interesting because I think this says a lot about Theo Jackson through this entire time. Just when we even go back to a training camp of last year and then where Theo Jackson finally gets in a game and there's an injury, there hadn't been one all year long, and he gets in a game, gets the key interception against Seattle. He's made a real impression on his teammates, but he's clearly made a real impression on the coaching

staff as well because they didn't go out and get anybody for competition for Theo Jackson. And it looks like he is just set in line to start what we heard from Harrison Smith last week about Theo. He said, I can't believe the Titans got rid of this guy. Like he's really I think he called him big time. So the impression of him behind the scenes has been very, very, very good for the Vikings and they're going to roll that out there. And in years past, we've just seen that development of safeties where they're picked late or a UDFA or picked up off somebody else's practice squad.

And then they become good players. My expectation is that the O Jackson can do that job. he's had a couple of years of development and Derek i think you're right when it comes to the corners where when we look at who was on the board and you go well what corner would you have taken. Add a viking's pick that could have been. Someone you would have said, okay, this guy can definitely, uh, you know, battle with the starters. Okay. So Jalen Smith was the one that the Texans traded up with the Vikings to get at 97, maybe him and then Upton stout was taken from Western Kentucky.

Not really super sold on that. The, I mean, if they had 12 picks, we'd probably have some corners to talk about, but we just really we just really don't. Yeah, it's an F draft for not getting all the players you wanted. That's right. That's the thing. They just they just didn't get. A lot of players just in general, so as we try to, uh, grade it, I mean, I guess I would say that you have to give it like a B I don't know.

Uh, you know, right? I mean, if we're being serious, yeah. As Matt says, we're being serious. Then I would probably just have to say a B. The only criticisms that I would have is that when we look at these positions, it's really hard to see anybody making an impact soon. And that could even go within the next two years. A lot can change in two years, but Ingram Dawkins is probably going to need that just to develop,

to be ready to play. And then Kobe King, they've got the linebacker spot pretty well solidified there and, uh, you look at. You know, even the tight end position, that's just purely depth. Uh, let's see, surly Viking says, would you rather have howl or Jones or Mullins? I assume you mean Daniel Jones. I don't know. I mean, they're all not good options. Those are

all not good options. Daniel Jones was considered by far the best backup option for the Vikings. He was 3-13 with 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in his last 16 starts. That's the best option. Normally you're just not really looking at a whole lot of guys that could win you games. Nick Mullins would have been fine if he stayed. I think you're looking for a bit of an upgrade there talent wise. And that's what Sam Howell is Sam Howell is a bit of an upgrade in terms of talent wise. Derek says he likes Ingram Dawkins. I do too. I do too. I mean, when we talk to him, he's somebody that seemed, uh, like he had the right approach as if he really understood what was ahead of him

that he needs to learn a lot, that he needs to play a lot more football, that he's very willing to develop. And that's something we were looking for. He's a defensive tackle. And I like when you draft defensive tackles, CJ West was mentioned there. That would have been someone who probably has a little bit lower ceiling, but is easier to guarantee. Now, this is an interesting thought from Mustin, sir, here. The Kirk possibility is dead.

Is it though? from Mustin Sir here. The Kirk possibility is dead. Is it though? Does Sam Howell end the possibility of Kirk Cousins coming here? I don't know. Daniel Jones with this offense or Sam Howell with this offense. I mean you can you can do that for anybody but Daniel Jones has never really been good and Sam Howell has never been good and Nick Mullins was only briefly occasionally good It's just that none of the options say to me. Wow, this guy could win 12 games 11 games if you were to throw him in there I mean we talked about what are the most recent examples of a backup quarterback coming in and playing well I guess Joe Flacco

but that's a guy who's won a Super Bowl before and he did it with an elite Cleveland defense, great running game. And he got to the first round and got blasted and then was gone. So it's like, I don't know, that's the best recent example other than Case Keenum, which was maybe a once in a lifetime type of thing. So I just a bigger picture thing for me is, oh, I'm sorry. Let me get back to the Kirk cousins thought it's odd that Kirk would be connected to the Vikings in any way. Adam Schefter saying it on Rich Eisen last week really made me go. What are we doing this?

Are we having this conversation? Sam Howell does not keep you from getting Kirk cousins. I will say that because this is a guy who was drafted in the fifth round. He went four and 13 when he actually got to play. He throws lots of interceptions. I mean, if they really want competition for JJ McCarthy, if that's what they really want, if they are really not actually a sold on JJ McCarthy, as they say, then yeah, I guess they'll make a trade for Kirk cousins. I don't know why Kirk would accept it though because it's the same exact situation

Unless they told him he could compete for the starting job and then again that would just be weird It would just be very weird after they told Aaron Rodgers No To that because they were so sold on McCarthy to then go get someone who would clearly be competing with him. It doesn't add up at all. But if we're saying that it's completely dead because they got how I can't say that for sure.

It'll be completely dead when he's the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, which could happen very shortly. Cleveland has their 18 different quarterbacks in their room, but the Steelers, they got Will Howard and Mason Rudolph. I expect that they're going to try to trade for Kirk Cousins once all the dust settles here. But naturally I would not be interested at all in having any veteran quarterback that's going to compete with JJ McCarthy. It's time to go. That was definitely an Aaron Rogers take, but it's also an anybody take. It's time to go with a JJ McCarthy and just let any of that other

discussion go sideways. And most of the people who have brought up this idea of them wanting cousins to come back and be the backup, most of them admit that it doesn't seem very likely at all. So that's just to put a little bit of a bow on that. But the way that I look at this draft is think about the, you ever seen the iceberg analogy? It's the iceberg analogy is sort of used to describe when you only see a little bit of the work, but a lot more went into it, right?

That's how I think of this NFL draft for the Minnesota Vikings. I think of it as being the iceberg, but everything else has been done over three years to build up this big iceberg. And then this was just a little tippy top of it. And that includes spending a lot of draft capital to get veteran players or to move up and to get the types of players that they wanted, like Dallas Turner, who could this year take a big step for them and then be a significant part of this defense. They've used a lot of that draft capital through the years to get a TJ Hawkinson, for example, or to make filler moves last year, but then they'll get some capital later, but cam Robinson, I think we all agree was the

right thing to do with cam Robinson to make that trade and not have Blake Brandol try to play left tackle and just get annihilated for the rest of the year. At least Robinson gave him a chance to play for that 15th win to play in the playoffs. He didn't come through when he was there, but he gave them a shot at that. That's draft capital that you have to use.

Well, it makes a lot of sense to use that when you're in a win now mode, but it definitely does not make for an exciting draft day. Uh, they're getting a punter Oscar Chapman. You mentioned Kobe Bryant. Is he coming here? That's a name that keeps popping up. Is he coming to, uh, the Vikings? Let's see. Mustard sir. What do you think of the few Vikings fans that wanted Chaudure here? I think that there's some people on the internet that just say stuff because they know it's gonna get engagement you'll never believe it but i don't think it's all genuine i'm starting to think. Just a little bit i become suspicious recently that there might be some performative opinions that are designed to get a lot of attention that maybe people don't exactly believe on the internet. So you gotta have an eagle eye for those. I'm figuring out. I mean, no one actually thinks that right about, uh,

the Chedure Sanders thing, but since you brought it up, um, Michael says a B to B plus drafts could become an a, but I think it's going to be hard to become an A because there's so few players. But really, what does this draft really rest on before I get to the Shador thing? This draft really rests on pretty much one and a half guys. Donovan Jackson for sure. If Donovan Jackson becomes a solid starting offensive guard, this is a great draft for the Vikings considering how little

they had to work with the position that they ended up taking. I mean, if that guy solidifies the line with the center, the guard, the tackles they have, and they are a really good offensive line for the next two years, it's a great pick. Just just to use because my brain works in PFF grading system. If he ends up with a 70 PFF grade, which is pretty good for a guard, that line is phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. And then it's a home run pick.

He doesn't need to be a superstar for it to be a home run pick. He needs to be a cog in the machine. That's all he really needs to be in order for them to be great because they have greatness at left tackle and he could play next to him and they have excellence at center and a really good guard and really high level right tackle. If all those guys come together as one unit that is outstanding and he was the final piece. Great. Great draft pick.

If Ty Felton becomes anything that is of the playmaking variety. Well, that's a really good pick too. And the same thing I would say goes for Ingram Dawkins. If he develops into a Jihad Ward rotational player, I think it was I forget. Maybe it was Wade who brought that up early in the show, the Jihad Ward comp. And Uh, I think it was, I forget, maybe it was Wade who brought that up early in the show, the Jihad Ward comp. And now I I'm keeping it there, but even a Patrick Jones, if he's a Patrick Jones type and he gets a handful of sacks eventually, and as a rotational

rusher, that's great for, for where you're picking same with King, same with Bartholomew, if these guys do anything, it's hard to get it to an A though, because it's not like they really had the opportunity to draft potential all pro type of players. But you do need to you're right. Not now add Dallas Turner into the conversation for this draft. If Dallas Turner works out, then that's part of this draft as well.

And what they spent on Dallas Turner, it probably won't ever truly add up, but it's part of it. So Turner becomes a really good player for you and Dawkins solidifies the line and Felton becomes a role player who catches, I don't know, 40 passes and kick returns. That's really good return on what you had. And considering all they've done in free agency and the draft pick that matters the most. JJ McCarthy and what he's got around him through years of building with Jefferson, with Darasaw, with the money they've spent in free agency.

It could all come together to be just that I use the tip of the iceberg, but maybe it's like. I don't know. Maybe it's like when a NASCAR drivers got a great car, but they dent the hood and they just tape that thing. Like that last piece of tape. Maybe that's what this becomes as a draft. But then that car is fast enough to go and compete to win the race.

Or as Preston says, maybe Sam Howell will just somehow win the job and win the Superbowl because it's the Vikings. I don't know. I don't know. But let's talk. Can we just talk about Chider Sanders for like, it won't be long. Maybe just like five minutes, just five minutes. And we'll see if any other UDF pop in.

And does Max Max Brosmer does not impact the Kirk Cousins thing? Right. Really at all. I don't think there's any chance the Kirk Cousins thing, right? Really at all. I don't think there's any chance the Kirk Cousins things happen. That would be, that would be shocking if they decided to do that. It wouldn't make a lick of sense to me. Wouldn't make a lick of sense for Kirk. I mean, wasn't Michael Penick's drafted last year in the same draft class as J.J. McCarthy?

So it'd be the same exact situation. Why wouldn't he just go to Pittsburgh where they have no quarterback and they're sitting around playing with their thumbs, thinking about Aaron Rogers. Like why not just take a trade there? So that makes way more sense to me than coming to Minnesota. No, I know a surly Viking. I know that you've heard enough of the name should do her Sanders, but I just, I just give me a, just give me a sec to just get it off my chest here. The should do her Sanders discussion. Is it too much to say ruined the NFL draft for everybody?

ruined the NFL draft for everybody. It became so annoying to have every single pick be talked about through the lens of Shador Sanders and all the teams that were passing up on him that there are dozens of players and teams who got exciting draft picks. And I mean, think about if you are one of those players and you're getting drafted and your family's there and they're like, turn up ESPN, we want to hear what they're saying.

And every single draft pick, instead their family's like, let's go back and watch. Cause they screamed and yelled, let's go back and watch ourselves on TV. Let's see what the guy said about you. It's gotta be so exciting. And with every single pick, Mel Kuyper is screaming like a freaking lunatic about Chedurah Sanders. This is intolerable. The coverage from NFL network of that topic was massively better

than ESPN because they talked about it real quick and then moved on. And I think that's just being NFL network feeling like we can't just keep pounding away at this one subject over and over and over again. It drove everybody up the wall. And here's the other thing too. This is not unprecedented. We kept hearing how unprecedented this is. We cannot believe that someone's dropping in the draft. What? The Vikings just traded for a guy. I looked this up. They just traded for a guy in Sam Howell who was projected as the 56th best prospect in the 2022 draft and he went in the fifth round. This is not unprecedented at all.

There were mock drafters last year who were saying Spencer Rattler, he is going to be a second round pick. And yet he was drafted in the fifth round. Will Levis dropped out of the first Malik Willis was mocked by an ESPN analyst the day before the 2022 draft. Number two overall dropped to the third round. It happens all the time. Where quarterbacks surprise us because teams have so much more information than we do. And I think what a lot of these analysts did was they ignored all of the warning signs that this could happen with Chaudhuri Sanders that we discussed on this show. They ignored all the warning signs. What happened at the combine? It was out there at the combine that he was having these bad meetings. And then he went to the podium and had a disaster podium at the combine,

which does matter by the way, how you're going to look in front of the media as a quarterback. You have to talk to the media every single week and you're the front door to a $5 billion franchise. So that was a problem. And then apparently he got an argument or something with Brian Dable and just that matters, man. The Minnesota Vikings traveled to Oregon, Washington, Michigan, all over the world to interview these quarterbacks. How they interview matters a lot.

So if Shadr Sanders interviewed, acted arrogantly in the process, acted like he was guaranteed to be a top five pick, but also did not have the skill set to be a top five quarterback, had a skill set of a second round quarterback, it totally fits that he would fall out. And then the conspiracy people, the NFL is out to get Shador They're teaching these guys a lesson about NIL the F. They are Absolutely not no way no chance. I'm sorry you fell in love But the guy wasn't who you thought he was it felt like a lot of people were projecting something on Chaudhuri Sanders that he's not.

He's got an okay arm. He is a terrible athlete by the standards of a Josh Allen or a Lamar Jackson. He's nowhere close to the best athlete quarterbacks in the league. And when you add in concerns that you're getting a circus to go along with him, which you are, Concerns that you're getting a circus to go along with him, which you are to go along with bad interviews And an overall incredibly arrogant approach to the point where he's building himself an entire draft house or whatever Who wants this like what team is signing up for this if you're gonna take a second if you're gonna take a back end Of the first quarterback. it's gotta be Teddy.

It's gotta be Derek Carr. It's gotta be somebody who's mature and is going to take a humble approach and develop and all those things. It's not going to be a circus like Chador Sanders, but I promise you, if he was good enough, he would have been number two overall. If he was good enough, NIL this or that. Are you serious? He just wasn't as good as you

thought he was. And that hurt a lot of feelings. That hurt a lot of feelings, including Mel Kuypers. He was not as good as you thought he was. Same with Jimmy Claussen back in the day. Same with a lot of the Malik Willis fans. Oh my gosh, they were so hurt. The NFL is so dumb for Pat. No, they're not. And I heard Mel say something to the extent of the NFL's been getting quarterbacks wrong for 50 years really a couple But let's look at the quarterbacks around the NFL right now Alan Mahomes Lamar Jalen hurts was a second round pick. I Think a lot of the quarterbacks that are good right now were taken in the first round. Jaden Daniels, CJ Stroud.

What are these guys also have in common? They went through the process in the draft. They threw at the combine. They played in the senior bowls and stuff like that. He didn't do any of those things because he thought he was just guaranteed. He thought because I'm me and I'm Chauder Sanders and I'm the son of an all-time great player that I don't have to do any of this stuff that Michael Penick's had to do. Michael Penick's was a way better quarterback in college than

Chaudhuri Sanders and he did all that stuff. And it just became a mess and all I wish could have happened was that they accepted the media here, accepted that they were wrong and moved on and covered the rest of the draft. And I get it. I get it. Like the, the hot topic. We just did this with Aaron Rogers and quasi and his press conference. And a lot of people were mad at us when it's somebody who's a big name, you got to talk about them. But this felt like is LeBron in this draft? Because I was just getting hit over the head for three straight days of the same mediocre prospect. And gosh, I am exhausted.

So that's it. I needed it. I needed to have a rant. I'm sure some of you felt the same way, too. Oh, and the Vikings brought in a player, right? April white feather here on the comments, really keeping me up to date on the UDF phase, Tyler Batty was someone I thought they might draft and they had them in for a visit. I saw him a couple times. BYU and he was impressive.

He was decent at the combine, but he's kind of a tweener, but that's perfect for the Vikings. 42 pressures last year, three straight years of very good grades by PFF. So he's a little older and he is a tweener as like more of a 3-4 defensive end, 6-5, 275. That's a guy I'm going to have my eyes on. Yep. That's the guys I'm going gonna have my eyes on. Yep, that's the guys I'm gonna have my eyes on. Yep, yep, we're done with the Chaudure talk. I promise I will have nothing more to say about Chaudure Sanders unless he is starting against the Minnesota Vikings when they play the Cleveland Browns. It's just that, gosh, can we talk about who the teams picked?

I would have liked that. Okay, here's another one. Zeke Carell from NC State. This is great service you're doing. So I can look these guys up. You know, the thing about the undrafted free agents is this is a center, is that right? Yep, this is a center who graded really well in past protection for four straight years. Somebody to watch.

Oh, he played for Notre Dame. OK, now you've got a little more of my attention. He played for Notre Dame in twenty twenty three, then went to the Wolfpack last year over 70 grade in past protection for four straight years listed at six three three hundred, another developmental center to go along with, uh, with Michael Juergens. Oh, does that count as my yearly mock drafters rant? Ish. I'll call.

I'll say, I'll say yes and no. Here's the thing about the mock drafters. Nobody knows who the teams are going to draft, and here's why. Because they don't tell anybody. And that's part of the fun for me, is trying to figure out who they're going to draft. Oh, who's it going to be? And then we get to draft night, and then it's Christmas morning. Oh, this is great. But if your projection is wrong,

then talk about how your projection was wrong. Don't talk about how the league is wrong. Now on Lamar Jackson sliding to the back end of the first, okay, but if someone gets to the fifth round, you wanna talk about how a team is wrong for passing a guy in the first, that's different. Even to the Jalen Hurts into the second, that's different. If you want to say, how the heck did they let Luther Burden

drop these foolish NFL people? OK, all right. Well, that's fine. We can all have that discussion. If you miss by five rounds, that's on you. That means all of the information these people claim to have. This is this is there. It is you tip. You just set me off. All the information these people claim to have. This is this is there. It is you tip. You just set me off all the information these people claim to have. I'm hearing this guy's got the I'm hearing this is this.

Yeah. Okay. Well, maybe but if you missed on the biggest name player by five rounds, maybe the information is not as good as you claim. I don't know. But then one more thing everyone called the Browns geniuses and playing ice. I heard 3d chess. Well, that's what the Browns are known for, right?

Just the league is dancing on the Browns puppet spring strings here, right? That's what's happening. The Browns are just lapping the league all the time, especially at the quarterback position. If there's one team we can all trust that is far ahead of the rest of the NFL on the quarterback position. Let me tell you who it is. The Cleveland Browns. Yeah.

Oh man. A lot of people dug their heels in and it was weird. It got weird in this draft. It got very, very weird. And that is probably what I will remember it for. So some of you trying to move me off into other topics and I appreciate that. We can do that. Uh, Steven says disappointed.

We didn't dip into the deep DT and RB classes kind of depends on how you look at, uh, Ingram Dawkins, more of a DT. He'll be off the roster by 2026. Well, come on, man. See, that's the overconfidence that I absolutely freaking despise about the draft right there. You just, you hit me at the wrong time with guaranteeing somebody will be a bus. It's just like, what?

You know, the Vikings cut Josh Mattel is the first time. First camp overconfidence just kills me when it comes to the draft. We don't know how these guys are going to work out. Somebody like Ingram Dawkins to me on paper looks like, I don't know. There's not a lot of production there. There's a very high athletic ceiling, but how often does that work? And the answer is not very often in the middle rounds. It's a fine dice roll. I probably made fun of Rick Spielman for doing this a bunch of times because it

very rarely worked, but every guy's different. Every situation is different and I will go to training camp and OTAs and mini camps and we'll see where these guys are at and we'll go from there. Is it a great bet? Does it hit as a bet very often? I'm going to say, no, it doesn't. It does not hit very often to bring in someone like Ingram Dawkins, but sometimes it does and sometimes it becomes the Neil Hunter and we'll see.

So I can, I'm not gonna guarantee Anybody is gonna become anything from this draft because I that type of overconfidence. I think is silly It's just like the mock overconfidence. Oh, this guy will definitely not be there at this position. Really? You know how it's gonna go. You're you're from the future. We'll see we'll see You know how it's going to go. You're a, you're from the future. We'll see. We'll see when they like a guy, Brian Flores and think that he has the right personality fit to develop, then we're going to, we're going to see, but we'll

give them a chance guys who are taking the fifth, sixth, seventh round usually don't work out. So if you come in and say this guy definitely won't work out, you're probably right more than you're wrong. But why don't we see him have one practice before you cut them in 2026? Um, biggest loser today was Brian awesome. Why? Yeah, I guess.

I mean, again, we're talking about Kobe King and when he was drafted, not like he was picked in the first round here, we're talking about the 25th pick of the sixth round, so awesome while we'll still have a chance to compete. And a lot of times those sixth round draft picks, they end up being cut and then signed to a practice squad anyway. But that is possible that this is now competition for Brian awesome. And this is really his last year to take a shot at it to actually get some playing time but really when Eric Wilson was signed then it was clear that awesome while will be staying in the same role or could could be cut but I think he is a good special teamer and has adopted that role and that's just where he's going to stay I don't think that Brian Flores really sees him as part of the defense. But

if we're doing if we're doing a winners and losers, why don't we do that? That's a good way to I'm going to say wrap it up because I got the rant in. I think we broke down all three picks enough. These guys, Gavin Bartholomew, best of luck, man. You're the new three tight end. So there you go. And that's all I can really say about it till we see him play. But Ingram Dawkins isn't Daniel Hunter. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Well, we don't know, but probably not. You're right. The guy they drafted today with a high ceiling probably won't become a top five player in the NFL at his position. You're probably right. That's a, that is a very bold bet. Taylor.

My point is that you just don't know when, and once you acknowledge that you don't really know how it's going to go. I feel like it's freeing. Yeah, Van Ginkle was a fifth round pick. It's freeing to acknowledge that we don't know how it's going to go. It's much easier for me. It's much less stressful for me to say, all right, here's what they're looking for. Here's why they did this. And now we'll find out how it goes. And what was the logic behind those picks I think if we're giving a criticism, it could have been a lot more fun I think it could have been a lot more names. We heard of a lot more positions. Yeah a winner

Yeah, that's a good. Well, I'll get to that one. That's a good winner, but It could have been a lot more positions that weren't so safe. It could have been now they took the wide receiver. It could have been the running backs. It could have been the the corners or the safeties that we had heard of as we did draft prep a little bit more like that rolling the dice on some guys than it was a safe linebacker a project guy without much production, which look, I don't love that. Like that's not really my style. So that I like to have the production when it comes to these middle round prospects over the Denial Hunter type of swing, but it's just hard when you have so little draft capital, there's a big criticism to be made it's that they had so little draft capital and if they had

traded back and back and back and back, then, you know, they traded a little and got a guy. They came away with a backup quarterback, but it wasn't exciting. That's really, if we're knocking it down a peg, all the picks kind of makes sense. All the picks can be argued against, I suppose, if you really like somebody. But when it comes to like, you know, a project DT, a pretty safe, tight end, a pretty safe linebacker, there's nothing to go, man, I can't wait to get to training camp to see, you know, Colby King compete for a special team

spot. It just doesn't have, doesn't have a lot of that juice, but at some point, you know, these guys might develop into something if they don't. Well, this is a roster that is pretty deep to begin with and has salary cap space to make up for that in the future but i think the biggest winner. Of all for this draft for the vikings was the most important person in the organization going forward which is jj mccarthy. in the organization going forward, which is JJ McCarthy. I think JJ McCarthy was the biggest winner of the Vikings draft. He gets an offensive lineman and he gets a weapon. Had it been a really, really fun weapon then and give me some, give me your winners and losers for this. And it could be NFL if you want to winners and losers.

I mean, the losers were us for watching them debate Cheddar Sanders. That's what we were the losers for having to deal with that for so long. Um, but if we're doing it on the Vikings roster first, JJ McCarthy, the most important winner was the winner because he gets the left guard and he gets the offensive line solidified and he gets another weapon to work with. There wasn't a lot of places to put another weapon, but at the wide receiver three slash four, then you're in a good spot. And yeah, I mean, our emmer, if you want to, if you don't like Jackson as far as a pick, then I guess you're not going to give it a very high grade. Uh, I think if Jackson works out, there is a trickle down to the entire offense

because how do we talk about offensive line? And this is where it's like this individual player versus what they mean to an offense. What do we talk about with offensive line? Weak link system by drafting Donovan Jackson, they may have just taken out the weak link and replaced a very weak link that ranked in the bottom five of guards last year and Blake Brando and in the bottom three and quarterback pressures and made that better.

And even if Jackson has some development curve, it's still very likely made that better. And even if Jackson has some development curve, it's still very likely made that better. And then to add a weapon that even if we reasonably, just reasonably project Ty Felton as a guy who makes some catches and makes some plays here or there. Say he gets 17 catches on 25 targets. Okay, that's still helping JJ McCarthy.

Now let's say Addison suspended three or four games. Now he's got to slide up a little bit. Now he grabs a few more balls. Biggest winner, probably JJ McCarthy among the Vikings. I would say Theo Jackson is the biggest winner because they didn't draft a safety with Malachi Starks and Nick Imanwari on the board. They said, nope, we are good with Theo Jackson. I mean, what an endorsement for Theo Jackson, for them to not only not draft a safety there, but not at later either to even give competition for Theo

Jackson, Jay Ward, another big winner because he slides up in that depth chart. And he's someone who's been developing over a couple of years. I would say he would be a big winner here. Um, maybe the, uh, younger defensive tackles, Levi, Drake Rodriguez, Taki, Tayamani big winners because they didn't go out and get a younger defensive tackle that would have pushed all those guys off the board. Isaiah Rogers, another one because they didn't grab a cornerback who's going to compete for a starting spot. So those are some of the winners.

I think Kevin O'Connell getting two offensive draft picks with his first two picks and a backup quarterback. Also a winner for this draft. Uh, the losers really, I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't call Jalen Naylor a loser of the draft. I think he's still wide receiver three. And this is when I was making the argument about wide receiver, it was like, well, look, you could still have Jalen Naylor.

You know, he still could be a part of this. Because he's a weapon and he could go downfield. You're just looking for something else. Blake Brando clearly, you know, takes an L here. He's I respect Blake Brando. I think for a five or six game period of time, he could be a fill in player. He is great depth for next year. Important depth.

Their depth on the line is pretty good because they brought in Justin School. And then you have Brandel, who started a full season. Michael Jurgens, who they really liked last year. This is a good depth offensive line situation. But I mean, as far as other losers go, I don't know. I mean, probably just you guys for not having a lot of picks to talk about our debate. You could say quasi for that reason, but I think we also know why these picks aren't here. And they won 14 games last year and it played into that and they have high expectations this year.

Hard to say that they're losers because of that. And then they spent all the money on free agency. As far as winners and losers around the league, I'm going to have to study some draft classes because I'm just reacting to this. And thank you so much to Surly Viking there. Really appreciate the super chat. Thank you so much for that. And also not now. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for that. And also not now.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm glad that you have enjoyed the draft coverage. It's been a lot of fun for me. You got to mix in a rant here or there, but overall, I mean, it's been, it's been a good time. It's been a good time for me. Uh, Aaron, thank you also for the super chat. You guys really rolling in with them today.

I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And really I, the, the winner is always me, but the fact that the chat, which I rely on so much for conversation, Hey, Dwight McClother, and that's a good winner, that's a good winner. I rely on you guys so much for questions, comments, backs and forth. And it's been awesome. It really has. it's been awesome.

It really has. It's been smart, respectful. You guys do your research on the draft. You respect each other in the comments, but I love how informed everybody comes in to this show every day with really smart and interesting thoughts about the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL. So shout out to you guys. I owe you all for that. Um, just looking for winners and losers here.

Yeah. Dwight McClothern, right? Dwight McClothern is absolutely a winner of this because it shows some belief for sure. Uh, Dalton Reisner was probably not coming back anyway, but I know that there was some mention of him, maybe a discussion about him potentially coming back. Go Wolves says, don't get the Ty Felton in the third.

He's a special, special team or seems rich. Now I don't think they see him that way. I don't think they see him as a special team. If you look at what he did last year, he caught 96 passes and was a top 10 tackle breaker in college football. I think they see him as a weapon. It might not be a huge weapon right away. Somebody mentioned Jerry is right. 2017 the other day.

I think that's right is, is that he's somebody that could, yes, punt return, but also that he can be a weapon to start with longer term as you develop him, maybe something more than that. That's what you're looking for. Winners are the Patriots and Broncos. I definitely think the New England Patriots did a great job. The New England Patriots did a great job. Uh, the New England Patriots did a phenomenal job. It just shows you that there are some folks who know what they're doing when it comes to running a team and Mike Vrabel is one of them and he is lucky

that he was fired by the Tennessee Titans who just are lost in this world. And you know, maybe we'll see with cam ward. Hey, here, how about this for a winner? Before I go back to the Patriots draft, a winner is cam ward cam ward, went number one overall. And I saw him get interviewed one time on TV and he seems pretty happy, but imagine being the number one overall pick in the draft. You work your whole life for this. The guy went to incarnate word and then Washington State and then Miami and

He puts up these big numbers and he's doing you know he's got this live arm and everything else got all the talent and all the pressure that comes along with the number one pick and They refused to do these discuss him the guy didn't even exist in this draft discuss him. The guy didn't even exist in this draft. In any other draft, they would have been going back to the number one pick and every 30 minutes resetting, Cam Ward went number one. Let's talk about if that was the right decision. Should they have taken Travis Hunter? Hey, by the way, Travis Hunter, another huge winner in this draft. This guy, the amount that his team moved up to take him. and then his GM comes up and says he's going to break the game of football.

Like, can we just talk about the number of things that happened that got ignored in this draft? His general manager walked up to the press conference and said this guy is going to reshape the game of football. That's how much pressures on Travis Hunter barely discussed throughout the whole thing, because everything was about a fifth round quarterback. Crazy, crazy. Those guys are the biggest winners because they didn't face nearly half the pressure

that normally guys would is the number one and number two overall picks. No one I didn't hear a single debate should the Titans Titans have taken Travis Hunter and if this guy's going to break football, should they have just taken him? Nothing. No debate whatsoever. That's amazing. Good, good for them. They don't have to face any of that.

They're the winners. Uh, back to new England, Will Campbell, Trevion Henderson. Oh man, they got Kyle Williams too. I like Kyle Williams a lot. Jared Wilson, the center from Georgia. And then, you know, after that, well, I like Josh farmer too. He was a guy. You want to talk about a guy.

I would have liked to have seen the Vikings take Josh farmer if they had had a chance to take him. And I guess, well, I guess they did have a chance to take him and didn't yesterday, but if they had gotten their hands on him, I would have been quite interested in farmer for the defensive tackle from Florida State. Those first three picks are the ones that'll matter. Really, really good choices. First four picks really for the New England Patriots. Big winners. Let me go check on Denver.

I did not look at their entire hall. I think also Dallas had a good draft. That's right. Jada Baron, RJ Harvey, Pat Bryant, the wide receiver, Sevillian Jones. Yeah. Oh, and they got Q Robinson. Got to keep an eye on from Alabama edge rusher. That's a good draft there, too. Can we say if the Ravens is kind of weird because they took another player?

I feel like the Ravens are a loser of this thing. Melchized Starks is really good, but they also took another player with sexual assault allegations. Like, really? I mean, you talk about the level of callousness or just tone deafness for them to do that. I'd put them as a loser. Nick Muse got picked up by the Eagles actually.

So he is not still on the practice squad. So he would not be a loser for today. In fact, a winner because he plays for the Eagles. David could cam acres come back. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised or wait, wait till later in trade for him. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised though. I think veteran running back is now back on the table to

look at for somebody else who could come in because it would be surprising if they just left it up to Ty Chandler when they didn't want to use him at all. Uh, one more guy could be in the mix there. Um, our Emmer says your favorite pick was, uh, Ingram Dawkins. He's interesting. He's, he's interesting. It's just that when they take somebody like that and you know, you're really not going to see him for a year or two.

That's that's where it's a little less exciting when they take them. But I like the pick for the personality fit and the physical upside that even if he becomes some sort of role player on the interior, that he has a chance to make an impact at some point and you need a lot of those type of guys. Oh yeah. Kenan, McCartell, McCartell was a winner. Yep. And I saw a RMR.

I saw the video too of Kenan. McCartell had the biggest smile on his face about Felton I think he's got a really good sense for Wide receivers and just what makes it work ball tracking playmaking Personality character all that stuff. There are some concerns about Felton. He doesn't have the longest arms biggest hands. He dropped some balls You're not gonna get a perfect prospect there. Drake May was a winner. Yep.

I agree with that. Jets had a solid draft. I like where the Jets are. I like what they're doing. I just think that the Jets are a long way away. Oh, I was going to look. I looked at Denver. Oh, yeah.

RJ Harvey. Who else was brought up the Jets and Oh, Cleveland, Cleveland had the craziest draft. Cleveland's draft was just insane. I can't make any sense of Cleveland's draft at all. They took Mason Graham. That's a great pick. Trading back is a good idea because they got an insane haul. And then they took a really good linebacker Carson's Wessinger.

Now you're now I'm with you and Quinchon Judkins. Okay. I'm still with you. A Harold fan and fine. It's a tight end in the third round, but the back end was so strange. Dylan Gabriel quarterback, then another running back and then another quarterback in Chaudhuri Sanders. Very weird. The top, I don't think they were losers for the top end of their draft.

And who knows what's going to happen with Sanders, but I think the top end of their draft and who knows what's going to happen with Sanders but I think the top end of their draft was good unless Travis Hunter breaks football and then they're the team that traded out of it. I think you'd be pretty concerned about that. I would be pretty concerned about that. How insufferable is Jeremiah Searle is going to be Jeremiah is going to be great. I got to find out when he's coming on next week but for sure going to have him on to break down Donovan Jackson. He was pumped. He texted me immediately. Absolutely jacked. We got a guard. Like exactly. Uh, Brett Rippon. No, see, John, I'm going to disagree on Brett Rippon being a loser of the weekend because Brett Rippon still on a roster in the NFL. So that's a win.

That's a win for him. Indianapolis. Okay. Let me see. Let's see what Indianapolis did. Indianapolis is kind of just in a, they are in such a weird spot in the NFL in general of irrelevance. What are you as the Indianapolis Colts? So irrelevant that I'm scrolling through the teams having trouble finding them. There they are. Tyler Warren. That's probably a good pick. The edge rusher from Ohio State, the cornerback from Minnesota. This seems fine.

Not really game changing. Just seems fine. Indianapolis. I think Tyler Warren's a good pick for them. Saints draft. Well, the Saints are the winners for passing up on Chedder Sanders. That was a smart move. I don't know if shock is gonna become good or not but they are not a chider sanders away should if chider is gonna work out at any point.

He will work out because he has a phenomenal phenomenal group around him. And the saints cannot give that to him. Calvin banks. group around him and the Saints cannot give that to him. Calvin Banks, they got a defensive tackle from Texas. I don't know. Jonas Sanker. I thought was a good player from Virginia. Yeah, they got some guys. I don't know if they really crushed it other than banks.

They got some guys. The Raiders. Let's see. Of all the trade backs for the Raiders, I was not paying enough attention to the rate. Oh, I love the Raiders draft. I love the Raiders draft. It is the most fun draft by far. The Raiders see the Raiders win the entertainment draft 100%

and shout out to them for that because the Raiders to me when I was growing up would just do things to get really fast players or celebrity players like Warren Sapp, who was way past his prime or, you know, they would just be bringing in guys, Jeff George, whoever it was. And it's, they would be a fun team to play with on Madden because they'd have all these either old veterans or they would draft guys that had 99 speed on Madden. That's what they kind of are going for now with their really old coach. But look how fun this is. Jack Besh, the wide receiver after Gentie, Jack Besh, the wide receiver from TCU, Darren Porter, who has insane physical ability,

but has basically never played football. Uh, really good player Charles Grant, I think, but they got Dante Thornton, who has bananas at six foot five crazy speed. They got JJ Pugweese, the defensive tackle who plays at running back sometimes Tonka Hemingway, which is just an awesome name. And then they took two quarterbacks, but one of them is going to be a wide receiver and then the kid from Minnesota. I love that draft. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but that's great.

Uh, Ty says folks have been dumping on the Bears draft. Take a look at that. This is a fun game where you guys say a team and I look at it and say what I think. I the Loveland pick, I just I didn't get it. I just didn't get the Loveland pick. He might be a good player, but even like look at look at some of the passing games that are driven by tight ends. Are you scared?

Are you scared by Trey McBride? Like when the Vikings played Trey McBride, did you go, oh, no, man, I don't know what we're going to do. If just for example, if T.J. Hawkinson, instead of being the complement to the wide receivers, was the center of an offense, would you be worried? Not really. So Loveland, I thought the 10th overall draft

pick that's rich for that guy. And then teams drafted a bunch of other tight ends in the second and third that I was like, I don't really, I don't really see the difference between him and Loveland. Maybe I'll be wrong and he'll make the hall of fame, but that one I didn't really fully understand. But then they totally redeem themselves with Luther Burden. They got a tackle defensiveden. They got a tackle, defensive tackle. They got someone named Ruben Hippolyte, which is hilarious.

I mean, I don't worry too much about the back end of some of these drafts, but it looks to me like they got one player who's going to matter, who's going to really move the needle if he's good. And that's Luther Burden. And then Colston Loveland will just Just if you talk about the average outcome. I mean, like you mentioned Brock Bowers, first of all, he doesn't really look like Brock Bowers to me, Brock Bowers was a beast with the ball on his hands. I didn't think that for Loveland, but also, oh my gosh, what if he becomes Brock

Bowers whose passing game with the Raiders was unstoppable last year? Right? I mean, you just, it's hard to drive a passing game. They got that's why they got Birden. That's why they have Roma Dunzey. If he's a piece of the puzzle, that's good for them. But when you're picking 10th, are you looking for a piece of the puzzle or someone who is a star that moves the needle?

And if you're looking for that, I don't know if Loveland is that. I don't I mean, they think he is, but I don't know if he is. I did not love what they did with their draft. What did the Packers do? Take a look at them real quick as we're just running through and we'll put a bow on it here soon. You guys are having fun with this. Matthew Golden, which I like that pick.

Okay. I'm just not really sold on him overall as having the type of speed that he was projected as tackle wide receiver edge rusher. Oh, that was a, that was a fun thing when the guy was still there. Yeah. I mean, they got, they got two wide receivers, which they needed to do. So that's not great for the Vikings that they got to that the Packers got two good wide receivers, potentially, potentially they took two wide receivers

that could be good potentially. Um, yeah, I don't doubt that Loveland is a BC. We just, the thing is that we just hear it all the time. We always hear it all the time that well, this tight ends different. He's going to be different. He's going to be the one that's the real game changer. And then they just aren't. How many tight ends in the NFL right now?

Would you say are total game changers? Is it is it five? Is it seven? And honestly, at the money that they're paying TJ Hockinson this year, he better be or it's not going to be worth it. Let's see. Let me pull this up. How many tight ends are game changers

in the NFL that you go in and you play their team and you go, oh, man, I don't know. I don't know how I don't know. How are we gonna stop this guy? George Kittle, I mean, Trey McBride averages 10.3 yards per reception, is that terrifying? Like he's good, but is it terrifying? Not really. Brock Bowers, maybe.

McBride is a maybe, Laporte is a good player, he can go down the field a lot. Travis Kelce has been this guy in the past. It's just a lot of guys when you go yards per reception. It's just a lot of guys who average 10.2 yards per reception is Cade Otten much different than Brock Bowers. Like not really for the efficiency just how much they get targeted because of their situation the position if it's not a freakish blocker

or somebody that really goes downfield, just doesn't have impact plays in the same way. There's a lot of people who can get a nine yard pass over the middle. So Loveland has to be phenomenal in order for this to make sense at the 10th overall. I'm not saying he's not a good prospect. I'm saying at 10th overall, I'm not saying he's not a good prospect. I'm saying a 10th overall.

That's not something I would do. Uh, yes. Uh, blind shadow vortex. It seems that they are signing, uh, Max Brosmer. There's been a couple of people who've thrown out some other names that we've looked up, uh, nobody that has been controversial in any way, but all I have to say about Max Brosmer being brought in is good for him I love the way he played this year for the Gophers. He was the best quarterback they had in a long time

That's really all I have to say about like maybe he gets a roster spot that would be great. He's pretty accurate and Knows how to play football in a system that is questionable with the Gophers so Okay. Well, why don't we put a bow on this? It's been really fun. And I'll put together some more thoughts over on the newsletter on day three over purple insider dot football and probably some winners and losers of the day three. That might be a better way to structure it.

My final thought is this. These last three days for me have been a lot of fun, tons of different scenarios to talk about the drama of night one is unlike any other. And last night, the Vikings getting a wide receiver, another weapon. It's a fun position, not just because I bang the table for it, but it's a, it's a position where we can all look up the guy and get his highlights and things like that. But overall, we knew what we were getting into here with this draft. We knew that you were not going to walk out of day three and go, oh my goodness, they just reshaped. Thank you, Tyler for or tie for throwing in

all the UDF phase that we know about so far. Appreciate that. I've mentioned a bunch of them throughout the show, but he's got the list there, so I appreciate that. Anyway. I don't think any of us thought we were going to walk out and say, I can't believe what the Vikings just did. I can't believe that they just reshaped their roster.

They just changed their future. Everything is different now after that draft. It wasn't going to be that way because this was part of a three year project that was really if any of you watch any of you watch things like the food network where they have those big competitions at Halloween and you have those people they build these crazy Halloween things and then in the last 30 seconds they run around and they put little tiny details on them and

that's usually the difference between winning and losing. That's how I feel about this draft. The bigger project started in 2000 and really after 2022 season. That's when the bigger project started when they moved on from Kendricks and they moved on from Thielen and Cook and they decided not to extend Kirk Cousins. That's where this off season started was really then because that's what led to drafting J.J. McCarthy. That's what this off season started was really then, because that's what led to drafting JJ McCarthy. That's what led to them having the cap space to sign Alan Hargrave trade for Mason, bringing all these free agents to fill out the roster because they've got the cap

space to do it. And the same with last year where it was Granard, van Ginkle, Cashman. All that stuff is the franchise shaping stuff that happened because of their salary cap situation and the culture they've created where free agents want to come here. This is just a tiny little detail. This is putting a little bit of sprinkle on it. It's not much of a meal for some franchise. This is the meal. They just made their roster for the next.

I don't know how many years the Vikings, they looked for a guy to fill out the offensive line that they really like who if he works out, they could be great on the O line. They looked for a project. They looked for a playmaker. They looked for a guy to fill out the tight end room. If there's an injury and then maybe develop none of those things. Are going to cause big celebrations, but it's kind of the best

you could do in the position that you're in, because they've made other sacrifices to be here. And a lot of it has required draft capital. How Dallas Turner works out will be evaluated with this, who they passed up on in the first round will be evaluated along with this. And I don't really know how to overly judge the last couple of days. You know, Dino drops in with a C plus. Like how do we even really what are we supposed to do here with three picks?

Not a whole lot, but the bigger picture, the bigger picture, because now it's done. Now the meal is cooked. The presentation is made for Halloween Wars. a lot, but the bigger picture, the bigger picture, because now it's done. Now the meal is cooked. The presentation is made for Halloween wars and you're ready to show the judges. How do we feel about it? Pretty freaking good. I can't really tell you what they should have done differently. You can nitpick on, and maybe they should have picked this or that and this or whatever.

you can nitpick on and maybe they should have picked this or that and this or whatever. But if we start really evaluating their process after 2022, after going 13 wins, 2022, when they started to tear it all down and make it their team, O'Connell and Kwesi's team, how do we evaluate it to get to this point with your future quarterback, with stars on the roster veteran players ready to win a culture that gets an a plus from the NFL PA Free agents that want to come here an ownership. That's not crazy a Coach that's extended. We'll see about what happens with quasi Maybe give them a couple of days to calm down after a draft

But we'll see what happens with his, but a coach who's extended long-term coach of the year, you're in the best spot. Let me say this. I'll make the declaration that we'll call it a day. This is the closest the Vikings have been to competing for a Superbowl since they walked off the field in Philadelphia in 2017. Since they walked off the field in Philadelphia in 2017. I think last year at some point we certainly felt like that was the closest moment and then we got a really cold dose of reality that that was not the case.

That the weaknesses were so significant on last year's roster that once they got to the playoffs it was all revealed that maybe it was some smoke and mirrors throughout the season or maybe just the worst possible matchups. They had a chance last year if things had broken right to maybe go deeper in the playoffs, but the roster had too many weaknesses to win the Superbowl last year. They've done everything they could to fill every weakness they could. And this was just a little dash at the end. This was not what they were relying on to do that, which I think is a sign of being in a great position to compete legitimately. That doesn't mean they're going to win the Super Bowl. It doesn't mean I'm projecting them to. I'm not saying go spend your life savings on it.

All I'm saying is this was the process that has worked for the Eagles. It's worked for the 49ers. It has brought them to this position to be like them for the next few years with these stars in their prime. And so they need some of the young players to step up, they may need Donovan Jackson to be quite good right away in order to have a great offensive line.

But this overall is a tremendous, tremendous job by the Vikings who when they took over were in purgatory It does not feel like they're in purgatory anymore so this draft was just Almost like a let's step back and kind of look at that and fill out a couple of little positions Next year will be a more fun draft because they'll have more picks unless they trade them away for players Then they won't and we'll do this again. So anyway, can't thank you all enough for all the greats,

all the great commentary, all the thoughtfulness, all you draft Knicks. Everybody's become a draft expert now, which is really fun because that means you're all informed and doing draft sims and having opinions. It's been just a really, really cool couple of days. I do wish for more picks for you for next year so we can discuss a lot more players But here's what I can't wait for here's what's coming up next this next week's gonna be a ton of discussion Chris Trapasso Jeremiah Searle's coming on the show

We'll get a look at some other teams in the NFC North their draft what they think and then we're not too far out from it OTAs, mini camp, and seeing JJ McCarthy actually on a football field. That will be soon. I will be in attendance for everything that they have and I'll be reporting out from TCO Performance Center for that. So good stuff, guys.

Thank you so much for watching slash listening. Tell your friends, subscribe, like, go check out the newsletter, stay safe, and don't talk about Cheddar Sanders with your friends. You'll just be upset. Okay, thanks everybody. Football.