Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - BREAKING: Vikings trade Mekhi Blackmon (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts to the Mekhi Blackmon and what it signals for the Vikings roster build. He also breaks down the latest in Vikings receiver search 2025 and looks at a few notable players who they released early. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, or should we call it receiver watch 2025. Yeah, that's kind of where we're at right now. I even made a little graphic there. Receiver watch 2025, not to be mistaken, with Ron Burgundy's Panda Watch, but that's how it's begun to feel. Night in, night out, day in and day out. Like yesterday, I'm getting ready to go to the links game.

I'm like, should I go? Should I not go? You guys are going to trade for Adam Thielin while I'm at the game? And then, you know, I'm going to have to run out of there, run back and do the live stream and everything. And I kept checking the phone. Didn't get anything there. Then this morning, set an alarm to get up early. Make sure that I was ready for a receiver watch.

Troutor 25. And there hasn't been anything to report. But we're here. And there are a lot of notes to go. through of some things that happened around the league, even pertaining to Receiver Watch, 2025. And also, the Vikings made some early cuts that we need to talk about. And Matt Verde-Ram, who is a national NFL reporter for Sports Illustrated, joined me. I recorded that interview, so you'll hear that a little later in the show.

And we will get to your questions and thoughts. But we should start with Receiver Watch. We all know the Minnesota Vikings are on the hunt for a wide receiver. and things seem to have gone a little quiet with Adam Thielen. There was reports from Ben Gessling, from Adam Schaefter. I have done my own reporting on this particular topic, but did not hear anything that is going on today. I mean, it does seem that the draft capital,

the Vikings have been able to acquire from the Harrison Phillips move and from the Sam Howell move should get them to the finish line. And it seems that the ball is in the court. of the Carolina Panthers who have to decide, and I would expect that tomorrow would be the day that they would want to make this decision considering they're making their cutdowns, but they have to decide, do they want to part ways

with a veteran-wide receiver who's been very good for them? Over the last two years, he had 103 catches in Bryce Young's rookie year. He was someone that Bryce, even as much as he struggled, leaned on. And then when Thielen came back from injury last year, it was a turning point for Bryce Young in that season. And so he is somebody that their young quarterback has come to trust. They also know that the Vikings need Adam Thielen because there aren't that other,

that many other options. So they can hold out for their exact price that they think Adam Thielen is worth if they want to do it and just say to the Vikings, hey, look, you need a wide receiver. You guys are desperate. it. So you're going to pay us what we think Adam Thielen is worth or we're not going to do it because we don't have to. And I think that Carolina views themselves as a team that's ready to take a huge step forward and legitimately compete for a playoff spot, which I would agree with that. I mean, I don't think they're a 12 or 13 win team, but nine or 10 in that division, which is, you know, filled with teams that I think are nine or 10 type win teams. so do they want to move on from a wide receiver who could help them in their endeavor or not?

But on the other side of the coin at their training camp, they had some young receivers step up. And also Hunter Renfro was good for them from what I've read from Mike Kay, who covers that team, that Hunter Renfro was kind of the surprise, good story of training camp. And it feels like we're at a little bit of a stalemate, maybe tomorrow this will be resolved as the Vikings have to get somebody in here. I mean, they don't play for another couple weeks. But I mean, so whoever comes in has to learn the offense, has to get acclimated, ready to go. And if that continues to delay, I mean, that makes it really hard for even Adam Thieland to step in right off the bat. So they need a receiver week one.

It's got to happen in these next couple days. Is it going to be feeling at this moment? Maybe a coin flip that it's Adam Thieland. I still think there's a decent chance that it happens. that the Vikings will push up their offer if that's what they need to do and convince Carolina, but you could definitely see the Panthers at the last minute saying, you know what, thanks, but no thanks. So right now we wait, receiver watch 2025.

But, you know, other things did happen in the receiver realm today, including that Amari Cooper is now off the table. Oh, the Browns are trading Kenny Pickett to the Raiders. That was my second option, if not. for Carson Wentz. So there you go. Kenny Pickett now a backup Raiders quarterback and Cleveland will have more to discuss with their quarterback situation than we've already seen the last couple days. But the earlier news was that Amari Cooper, who I couldn't find any information from whatsoever, no social media posts, no reports, no his agent told somebody, whatever this, that, or the other thing.

And then all of a sudden, here's Amari Cooper. And he is back with the Las Vegas Raiders. So he goes back to where he spent time, a lot of time in his career, and that's another option that now is off the table for the Minnesota Vikings. But maybe when one door closes, another door potentially opens, because with the signing of Amari Cooper came also the news that Jacoby Myers, who is a wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, has been very successful with them the last couple years. He is unhappy with his contract situation, and he is, asking for a trade and I was just reading some stuff from the Raiders reporters on this and they were talking about how the Raiders have kind of gotten very cheap with their players and Myers is

somebody who has earned a potential extension for them he is 28 years old going to turn 29 this year he had 71 catches in 2023 and last year was a thousand yard wide receiver with 87 receptions 1,027 yards, four touchdowns for the Raiders in 2024. He was good with New England, good with the Raiders. He's been a consistent quality NFL wide receiver, and he thinks that he should get a bit of a raise from what he is making right now and is asking to be traded. So naturally, that means that we have to have a conversation about Jacobi Myers. Now, I think that the issue here with Jacobi Myers and the Minnesota Vikings is that,

that the price would be probably pretty high. They don't have to trade Jacobi Myers just because he's asking to be traded. And his salary cap situation is, it's not as easy to work around as Thielen. He has a $15 million cap hit right now. And this is his last year on his contract. And if he wants a new contract, then you probably have to acquire him and then sign him to a new deal. now they could do that looking into the future and knowing that you know Jordan Addison doesn't have to get paid for at least another year another two years

depending on how that works out as far as when Addison would become actually expensive they're unlikely to extend Jalen Naylor but there's moving parts here with someone like Jacoby Myers and they have a lot of money dedicated into the future already to all of their pieces so how are you going to get Jacobi Myers, sign him to an extension, and that's going to work for you short and long term. So that would mean fitting him into the cap right now, which they could do if they sign an extension. You maybe lower his immediate cap hit, raise it into the future.

It sounds great, but you're starting to get to the point where you're having to give up a lot. Like, are you for a receiver like him in his prime? He's been a quality number two type caliber wide receiver, not a superstar, but kind of a secondary Jordan Addison tier type of wide receiver, you're going to have to probably give up a decent draft pick, like a third round pick and then some in the best case scenario because again, they don't have to do this. They don't have to move him just because he asked for it so they could hold out. So that's going to be more expensive. And it would be a long term option as

having a great trio there. But is he going to want to stay with a team that has Jefferson and Addison. So even though someone is available, doesn't mean you can actually make it work. Would he want to sign some sort of extension? And if you're talking about using $15 million of salary cap space, that makes things a lot more tricky than where Adam Thielen is at, where you could probably split the difference with Carolina and take on like $7 million. The Vikings do have cap space right now. Over the cap, lists them at $31 million in cap space at this moment that is usually ballpark accurate, I would call it for those overall numbers, usually within, you know, a range of 10 million, somewhere like 5 million higher, 5 million lower.

So it's not like they don't have it. And it's not like he wouldn't be a great acquisition for them. And he would be able to step in and be a tremendous wide receiver three. I've talked about Naylor before where I think Naylor fits into a niche, but I don't think he's exactly a needle mover. and when you're in this situation, you are in a position where you're trying to get as much talent

on the field as possible. But you're talking about now having, by week four, if you trade for Jacobi Myers, giving up a fairly high draft pick for him to then have three wide receivers who need the football a lot. When you look at Jacobi Myers' targets in the past,

he was targeted 126 times last year and 106 the year before, 93, the year before that, 2021, over 100 targets. I mean, is he going to be okay with being traded to the Minnesota Vikings where that target number might be 60, as opposed to 120, which he's been getting? And wouldn't that maybe hurt his future value, even if they didn't sign him to an extension?

The different parts of Jacobi Myers trade make that, I think not that plausible. the price, the cap hit, the contract situation, and just where he would fit. I mean, this is why we keep going back to the Adam Thielen idea because it all just kind of clicks together, where you have Adam Thielen on a reasonable contract that you can fit into your salary cap situation, and it's a one-year deal, and it's coming back home, and it's an offense that he knows, and I'm sure that his expectation is not to be the number one wide receiver over Justin Jefferson or number two over Jordan Addison, it would be just

contributing on a team that's really, really good. Like, all that fits for him. It does not fit so much for Jacobi Myers. Now, if they got him, that would be fantastic for the offense, because this is just a really excellent football player. And we would hear about three deep and he would get to play the Jake Reed role and et cetera, et cetera. And that, that would be as good as you could possibly get. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a guy but if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss then i've got something that can help you it's called hymns if you've lost your hair that doesn't mean you can't find it again try hymns hair loss solutions and you'll be joining hundreds of thousands of subscribers who have found their hair again hymns makes

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Restrictions apply. See the website for full details and important safety information. So I think if you're the Vikings, yes, you make a phone call to the Raiders to at least say, okay, so, you know, what are you asking for? Oh, oh, whoa, what do we got here? What do we got here? Do we got a trade? We got a trade?

Oh, oh, wow. Okay. Now, this is not the receiver trade. that we've been looking for, but this is interesting. The Vikings have traded a sixth round draft pick. I'm sorry, they have traded Mackay Blackman for a sixth round draft pick. Mackay Blackman traded to the Indianapolis Colts for a sixth round draft pick. So I guess the best way I could put this is that our read on the situation with Mackay

Blackman was right. that something just was not clicking with Blackman during this entire training camp during this entire preseason and now he becomes an Indianapolis Colt and the Vikings get another sixth round draft pick back stacking them all together for a receiver watch that is I think not surprising

that they would move Mackay Blackman and it also opens the door now for are they on the phone? with Stefan Gilmore? Are they on the phone with other teams about trading for a wide receiver? The Broncos cut someone earlier, a corner that has experience that now I will be interested to see if they go after him or if they are going to sign another cornerback very soon because it just, I don't know exactly what happened. Asante Samuel, I guess, has been thrown out there a million times.

but, you know, maybe at some point that does come to fruition if he is in good enough physical shape. But with Mackay Blackman, it's just a strange, a strange arc for him where when he arrived, there was a lot of debate over the Vikings drafting him in the third round because he was not projected as high. And he seemed like the exact type of Brian Flores player where he was good at playing the football. He was very physical, kind of a relentless type of guy. and when he got in the game in 2023 and played about 450 snaps, he was pretty good. He had his moments that were down moments as any corner does.

He got Mossed in the end zone in that Broncos game. And there was the one play where he kind of stopped running and T. Higgins made one of the craziest catches that I've ever seen in my life. And maybe Blackman could have knocked it down if he didn't think that his teammate was going to pick it off or whatever exactly happened there. but then Blackman, you know, gets the ACL tear. He was set to be a starting outside corner for this team in 2024. That's how confident they felt in him to start 2024.

And he ends up tearing the ACL in the first training camp practice of the year comes back this year. And I even thought at that point that Mackay Blackman was going to just be the third corner. I thought he was going to take over that. Shack Griffin roll. He was going to fit in with Isaiah Rogers and fit in with Byron Murphy Jr. And there's your starters and Jeff Okuda's your backup and you feel pretty good about that and off you go.

But for whatever reason, it just never clicked this year for Mackay Blackman. It may have been confidence in coming back from that injury. He just did not play the same way that we saw from him in 2023 camp or in 23 games. It felt to me like Mackay Blackman had lost the nerve to be as aggressive as he was because what I liked about him as a prospect, and I think what Brian Flores liked about him as a prospect, and you could go back and look at this. His PFF grade was a 90 when it came to tackling. Was the aggressiveness and he had violence. He was not a huge guy, but he had violence. And, you know, invoking the name Antoine Winfield is always like, I'm not trying to make that

comparison, but sometimes the undersized guy, like he's gotten here through, you know, big heart and guts and physical play and all those types of things. And I kind of thought some of that with Mackay Blackman. And it just was not there. It looked like he wanted to stay as far off as he possibly could. He was not aggressive in going to make tackles in preseason games. He didn't really want to play the football. And his coverage was not very close when it came to wide receivers and then in the last game he commits a horrendous penalty on a third down and and look even if you're playing in the last game it's pretty telling but the fact that you're not even playing well and when we look at black men i'm curious actually now to look at his

preseason grade from pf because the last time i looked it was really not good and for somebody who played that many snaps that was the red flag for me oh it was yeah it was very bad he played 117 snaps, which is crazy for a guy that we thought was going to be a starter. And he had a 47.4 PFF grade and a 40.9 in coverage. He allowed eight completions on 12 targets into his coverage, including a touchdown and committed a penalty. It was a miserable, miserable offseason summer for Mackay Blackman. And now he's going to get a new start with the Indianapolis Colts.

This was a draft pick that I thought was going to work out for them. So now the the Quasi can't draft people, you get another feather in your hat. But I got to tell you, this was one that I don't think anybody really saw coming that this player who looked promising and looked like they were on the upswing was going to have this injury miss a year and then totally change as a player. And it might have been some of it might have been. and then this is only just taking some guesses at it because I've seen this sort of thing before is when they brought in Jeff Okuda, he might have thought the writing's on the wall here. I'm just not going to start over somebody that they really like and there wasn't the same drive for Mackay Blackman as there was before. These are only just attempts to kind of figure out

what exactly happened there with Blackman. But clearly they were not pleased with the way that he came back from that injury and now they are in a position once again for the second straight year on August 20 something to be looking to add another corner. I have to think that there is a subsequent move coming though because just like with what happened with Carson Wentz and Sam Howell almost moments later, so I guess we got to stay locked in here. Almost moments later, the Viking signed Wentz after they traded Howell and got a draft pick back. So I would expect that there's either someone that's been released by another team

that they're interested in or that they have stayed in contact with Stefan Gilmore. And he would make a lot of sense to come back to this team if that's something that he wanted to do. I saw one article I think about Stefan Gilmore that said he was undecided about whether he was going to come back or not. And last year, we questioned Gilmore like, hey, can he still play? you know, is he in shape to step right in? And he not only did, but played extremely well early in the season. I think as the season wore on, they asked too much from Stefan Gilmore. He heard

his hamstring. He was a little banged up. But still overall, it was a pretty good season for him. So his name should still be out there, but also they may have spotted somebody else who got released that they are potentially interested in to move on from Mackay Blackman. But it's just, it's a very unfortunate situation for him to have gone from looking like a rising type of player, somebody who could be a long-term type of starter, and then have it fall off like this. And, you know, I mean, I see you guys talking about the, what draft capital they have right now. Oh, I think I have that answer. Hold on. I saw Alec Lewis tweet this the other day. So they now have like a lot more after this trade and the Sam Howell trade. Okay. So I've got, I've got the answer to that

for how much draft capital they have right now. Alec Lewis six minutes ago from the athletic just tweeted that. They have their first, second, and third, a comp pick for Sam Darnold, which will likely be a third, a comp pick for Daniel Jones, which will likely be a third, three fifth round picks right now, one from the Eagles and another comp pick from Cam Robinson, a sixth from the Colts and two sevens,

one of them from the Texans, I assume that was in the Ed Ingram trade. So that is, uh, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven draft picks screams to me, my friends, that a trade is a foot, uh, that the Vikings are going to stack up some of these, uh, these picks. And what they might be doing here, that's not, it wouldn't be shocking is if they're trying to get as many as they can to convince the Carolina Panthers that they need to move Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings. I don't know that for sure, but it seems like they've been able to turn everything that they didn't want into draft capital. And I think

that that is pretty interesting. So that trade right there does not come as a huge surprise. It just comes as, I think, a disappointment for the Vikings and probably for Mackay, who looked like he was going to be a guy for them for quite some time. And it's, it was, really noticeable the way that the tone changed for Brian Flores throughout the offseason, that when Mackay first got back in OTAs, Flores was saying, we love the way he attacked his rehab and, you know, it's just been, just been great, like, we're ready to get him out there, can't wait to see him. And then as it went along, it was, well, you know, he's got to get some more reps and he's got to see things better or see things again and shake off the rust. And it just,

it was a lot of lukewarm type of commentary where every time we talk about Okuda, either he or Kevin O'Connell would get pretty excited. So I still think that with this happening, that they need to add someone else. They, I believe, were happy with Zemaya Vaughn. And this might mean that Dwight McLaughern is now on the team where we were not really sure what was going to happen with McLeather. And it's possible that they gave McLeodern fewer reps so they could really evaluate Mackay Blackman, but, you know, sometimes this just happens. Like there's an injury. And this has become, you know, the other night, I introduced my wife to Spinal Tap. And so I'm sure that a lot of you have seen the movie Spinal Tap. And they always have the issues with the drummers,

you know, where there's always something going horribly wrong for their drummers. They spontaneously combust or there's a gardening accident or something like that. Does that not feel like Minnesota Vikings' corners at this point? I feel like this is Minnesota Vikings Corners is they have turned into spinal tap drummers where there's just constantly something that is not working

whether it's changing defensive systems drafting two of them in 2022. Both guys were pretty good prospects. I mean, if you go back and look at Andrew Booth Jr. and the scouting reports, I mean, there's a lot of scouting reports that loved Andrew

Booth Jr. And he was considered to be a top 20 prospect. They get them in the second round. It does not work at all. And then they take a Caleb Evans, who looked like he was a player on the rise for a bit, and then that comes apart. And then he's not playing anymore.

And then they're moving on from him, turn the season up to 11. There's a spinal tap fan. And then, you know, okay, so those guys don't work out. All right, maybe it was system. Maybe it was at Donatelle, whatever it might be. And then you get Mackay Blackman, and you think, well, that, okay, there you go.

Brian Flores has his guy. There's your young developing corner. You pair him with Byron Murphy and here we go. And then this happens. The injury and then never really coming back from it the same way. So now they are looking at having no young corners outside of Zamaia Vaughn that are up and comers and having to go out and get another veteran somewhere, whether it's from another team or if it is from, you know, Stefan Gilmore coming back or Fabian Moreau, I think is still out there.

He had to play a handful of snaps, but, you know, I don't really feel like this is a situation to get into the can they draft, can they not draft? Because to me, this was a draft pick for them that was tracking the right way and then had something go sideways that you can never predict. Like there's been a few of those. Lewis Seen is another one that had the injury. And I don't know if Lewis Seen was ever going to make it otherwise, but Lewis Seen had the injury.

That was tough for him. And then Blackman has the injury. And that's clearly tough for him. So there has been these sort of bad breaks when it comes to these situations with a lot of these draft picks. But when was the last, this is a great question, was Trey Wayne's the last corner that the Vikings drafted that was even solid? I think the answer is yes.

They have just struggled time and time again to draft and develop a cornerback going back to the Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler, who I think they thought were going to be their future. And that was another one too, where Cam Dantzler for a minute there looked like he had a very good chance to be a future piece. But then they changed defenses. He wasn't in Zimmer's defense anymore. Came in with Ed Donatell, I think that was.

And that didn't work out at all. And then, you know, they make the change from there. So there has just been one reason or another that corners have not worked out, which I guess is why Mike Zimmer used to say all the time. Oh, great, great pull. Yeah, Mike Hughes. I forgot about Mike Hughes, that he was another one where Hughes had a good start to his career, had that pick six against San Francisco.

And Hughes is still around, right? Like, he's become an okay NFL player, but maybe never what he was. set to become so you know i i mean even that was a bad break too he had a neck injury and then he went out and so there's just been a lot of those issues and you know when you guys are talking about the draft and understandably the mistakes that have happened or the players that haven't worked out i mean i i get it with the picks that have gone sideways this one to me though is you know when you guys are talking about fire their scouts or why can't they draft or whatever. This one just doesn't fall into that category for me. This one is a different evaluation

for me. And I actually think, you know, somebody made the crack. Like, oh, is it genius to turn a third round pick into a sixth? I, here's where, here's where I think it is smart, is just realizing this isn't working with a guy. You drafted him. You liked him. You wanted him to work out. But what we saw in training camp and preseason was terrible. And it's time to just bail. They have not held on to guys that weren't working. They, I thought they stuck with the Ed Ingram experience a little too long, but they, the same thing there where as soon as it wasn't working,

they put in Dalton Reisner and they moved on. This wasn't working with Mackay Blackman. They trade him for a sixth round draft pick. And if they turn that into a wide receiver, then, well, you got something for nothing because Blackman was going to be nothing. I think on this defense when he was getting significantly outperforming. formed in training camp by Jeff Okuda and by, you know, Zemaya Vaughn, who's an undrafted free agent. The other part of this, though, is rather than turning this into a whole recap of

the whole draft history, which to me is just not relevant. Like, there's a season to play. I'm not too concerned about going through all that. We'll have next off season to figure that out because if Dallas Turner and JJ McCarthy are good, the draft history is going to look a lot different and we won't worry so much about a third round corner that had an injury and didn't work out. For me, this is all about the short term. And when we look at this entire team and we go across the board, okay, hold on, Schefter just tweeted something. I've got to read that first. Okay, just recapping how many picks the Vikings have. If I see Schefter pop up, I have to immediately stop because we don't know what's coming next. So when we go through this roster across the board

and we look at their offensive line, their backfield, their receivers when they're healthy, the tight end room, the quarterback is a first round draft pick who had a very good training camp, he's ready to go. The front seven is ridiculous. The front seven is so good they can move Harrison Phillips because they feel great about Jalen Redman and everybody else there, Levi Drake, Tyreon Ingraham Dawkins, and of course Hargrave and Allen. The linebackers are deep now where they have three linebackers that I think are very good, if not Blake Cashman being great. And I thought, you know, Kobe King did not wow in preseason games.

I thought he had a good training camp. He's somebody that you're not going to play a lot this season, but at least three very good linebackers. The safety room I thought had a pretty good camp overall. Theo Jackson looked good. Josh Mattelis, we know is a good player. We'll see on Harrison Smith. I assume he's going to be back from the illness

and be what he has been the last couple years, which isn't the same as 27. but still good. There's just, there's a lot, there's a lot there that says to me, this is about as talented of a group as you're going to find in the NFL. I mean, you have two superstar edge rushers, two guys who have been superstars and there's career on the interior. You have another first round draft.

I mean, there's just so much to work with here. But there's one position that is now a little scary. And that is corner. I thought that Isaiah Rogers had a good training camp and he made, He plays on the football, and he has really excellent speed, great instincts for the position, a little bit of aggressiveness. He's not huge, and there's going to be some times where Isaiah Rogers gets beat by somebody rising up over him.

Like, that's going to happen because he's not a huge guy. It's kind of like Byron Murphy. That happens sometimes. It's just going to happen. He's not six foot two. So somebody's going to go up and get him, and then people will say that he stinks or whatever. But I think he's got a lot of talent. and he's at a position where he's ready to take off in his career

and as somebody that they identified similar to a Van Ginkle and Grinardar, not quite the same but similar, like hitting his prime as a player. Those two guys and the three safeties, I think that defense is as stacked from number one to 11 as there is in the entire NFL. Pittsburgh, maybe Baltimore. There's not that many other defenses that you can go position by

position with the starting Vikings defense. But one player down a corner right now, even if they signed Stefan Gilmore, who's the name I'm just sort of throwing out there because I don't know what else exactly they're going to do at that position. So maybe there is another corner that they have their eyes on, the guy from Denver. Somebody get me the guy from Denver's name who got cut today. But he's been around. Like there's other guys who have been cut that have been around or maybe there's

there's other trade possibilities that are coming of picking up somebody else's corner, but it's hard to get guys right at the end of the summer to come in and be as good as you want them to be. So that corner position has to stay healthy because if they have to rely on Jeff Okuda too much, don't love that. I think Okuda is going to play like 400-something snaps. I don't think that he's going to play a ton if everyone is healthy. but one person down and you're playing an undrafted free agent who the other day could not tackle

van jefferson so uh tray flowers got cut from the bears that's a possibility uh tie says must be keeping mcglothern i think that that's probably true uh that mcglothern is someone that they've developed over a few years and even though they didn't seem thrilled with him this off season that would not make a lot of sense for them to cut a young player who's been on the rise um Rob says, where's everyone that's been raving about nudie and Zemaiah? Well, Zemaya, for sure. I think McLeathern had much more of an up and down type of training camp. But in terms of, you know, talking about McLeodern, he was boom or bust.

It was like great past breakups, interceptions, or he was having a tough practice. Colts fan in here. Welcome. Welcome, Colts fan. What can we expect from Blackman? Well, here's my, here's my hope for Mackay Blackman, Colts fan, is that in a different system, in a different environment, that maybe he gets back what he was before he got hurt,

that maybe there's confidence, self-belief, the aggressiveness that he once had, and playmaking on the football that he once had, that just wasn't there for the Vikings this year. There's a major concern, I think, as, you know, the Colts for them, as they acquire Mackay Blackman, they should be majorly concerned if they watch his preseason

and the lack of aggressiveness. But I also think that it's not impossible that some of that was just being down on the situation. And I don't want to say sulking, because I don't know that, but it does happen sometimes, where it feels like you've gotten passed up. It feels like the team doesn't love you

the way that they once did after the injury, and it's just harder to be the same version of yourself. Mackay Blackman was once, I think, a very solid looking corner who now does not look anything like what he was two years ago. But in a different place, you know, maybe we're talking about halfway through the season, Mackay Blackman's done well for the Colts and we're saying Fire Quasi. So I don't know. But I think it just tells you a lot.

It tells you a lot. The dolphins cut a corn. Yeah, I mean, there's, yeah, yeah, Mike Hilton. I mean, that's a veteran player. That's another veteran player. Mr. Mayor, you're right when it comes to the corners of Kyrie Jackson and that tragedy was another thing. And, you know, I didn't, I didn't think of that when I was, you know, making the spinal tap joke. So I apologize if that was inappropriate. But, you know, when it comes to like different things happening in injuries and an unfortunate incident, I mean, with losing Kyrie Jackson is another one that he was a very highly thought of prospect within the building that was expected to be a big part of that.

this. And they've just, you know, even Jeff Gladney had some moments where it looked like he was going to be on the rise. And then they ended up having to cut him because of the domestic violence issue. And then there's injuries and all sorts of different, you know, things like that. So it has been a really rough ride for the cornerback position in recent years. So Asante Samuel Jr.'s name has been brought up many times. I just don't know where he's at physically in that situation. I guess we're we're going to have to see if he actually wants to play or if he is too injured to play or what the story is. I'm sure he wants to play. But if he is medically cleared to be able to play would be part of the conversation there, I suppose. So let me get back to a couple more

things. You know, Timothy, with Stefan Gilmore, I don't know where he's at. If he wants to come back. There's also Russell Douglas who visited some teams and then did not. sign with those teams. That could be another guy that they're looking at. So there's a bunch of different potential options. For those asking about Jacobi Myers, you're going to have to rewind a little bit. I talked about that. It's a really good idea, but it's really hard to make actually work. And that's why it's much easier to get somebody like Adam Thielen probably than Myers, because Myers is a Jordan Addison caliber type receiver, you know, maybe not quite as good. but in that ballpark who probably should be paid $23, $25 million.

So you'd have to work out an extension or you'd have to, you know, do figure out something else. Let's see. Seldom scenes as don't understand the fascination with Stefan Gilmore. His PFF grade wasn't that great. I'll pull it up here. But, you know, with Gilmore, I think a lot of that was trust. And in this scenario, if he were to come back.

and I don't know if he wants to, if he wants to continue playing or not. It would be, for him, it was early in the season. He played very well. And I thought as the season went on, that's where he got a little more gassed and a little more worn down. It was a 64 PFF grade. That's okay for Stefan Gilmore. I mean, that's not awful by any means. And when you look at last year, let's see, in terms of quarterback rating against, it was

a hundred. A lot of that is based on a high completion percentage, a couple touchdowns against him, only 9.8 yards per reception against. So the longest reception allowed by Stefan Gilmore last year was 27 yards. That's pretty solid. I thought he was fine. I thought he was okay. It wasn't by any means great, but it was this guy knows where to be.

And he can make a play on the football. He had eight passes, defense, and he had an interception and all that. Skywalking McCarthy, can we say officially now, Quacy's a terrible drafter. I mean, look, you know, I just, I don't know what to say about this. You draft a good player who comes in and performs really well in his first year and then he has an injury and you make the right decision to move on from him because he doesn't come back to the form he's supposed to come back to. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, it's a player who showed that he should have been a good draft pick and then he moved on. And then it just,

something happened to move on from him that was totally unforeseen, but I know that everybody, like, really loves focusing on this topic and this subject, but sometimes things just happen. The same with the Lewis scene injury. Like, sometimes things just happen that don't break your way. So if you want to say that, that's fine. Certainly you can, but it's not like they've even made a lot of draft picks. They've had a lot of things go wrong with these draft picks. That's for sure.

I don't think anybody debates that. And what they've done is when they have had problems with the picks is that they've fixed them. And I think that this right here is the right way to deal with it, which is not to just stick around with the same player. And, you know, those who you're saying, the scouts are no good and all those things. Like, I'll never, I'll never get this through to everybody. All the data says it. All the studies say it, no matter how many times I say it, you guys won't believe it.

Because when a draft pick goes wrong, you just want to, you know, go to Quasi's house with the pitchforks and the, you know, all that. But it, a lot of it is random. And there's no more random draft pick gone wrong than Mackay Blackman, where it's a good player. And then it just goes, and then it just, who knows what happened here? It's very hard to figure out what happened. Maybe he'll talk to the Indianapolis media about it and talk about what went wrong this summer.

But it's hard to figure out from the sideline of watching him, practice and seeing a completely different player a year after he came back from or a year after he had the injury just when he came back looking that way. So is that, are you the worst draft or alive or did you have a bad break? You know, that's gone for several of these picks. And as I will continue to say, it's always about what you do when they go wrong because every single team will have them go wrong sometimes. So you go back to the Ed Ingram, for example, it goes wrong. They replace him with Reisner. He he's better, then they spend $17 million on Will Fries, and that's the solution.

It goes wrong with Lewis Seen, and instead they get, you know, Josh Mattelis becomes a key player for them, and Cam Bynum becomes a key player for them. So they've been able to work around. There's no question about how bad the drafting has gone in its results and how many things have gone wrong with the drafting, but they have dealt with it well. And now this is another challenge for them for how to deal with it because you are one injury away from playing Jeff Okuda all the time. You are one injury away from having to play Zamaiavon at this moment until, you know, I assume they're going to add somebody else. But that is a little bit of a dicey situation to be in when you have such high expectations and so much talent outside of the cornerback position.

So, yeah, it's, it is created, it is created an issue there. Marley says, Josh Mattels was drafted by Rick. Thank God that he knew how to scout. Did he, did he, did Rick, was Rick great at drafting? Do you guys want to go over that? I'm not going to go to stupid town tonight with this, because I have other things to talk about and a really good interview with Matt Verde Ram, but if you want to talk about Rick Spielman drafting,

I just present you with past 2015. Let's talk about. Let's talk about all the draft picks that went horribly, horribly wrong after 2015, especially on the defensive side. I did this one time. I went through every pick after 2015, and they drafted like 25 defensive players, and I think three became good. I think it was Bynum and Mattelis and maybe one other player became good of all the guys

they drafted past 2050. I mean, that's just, that's just laughable. That's just absolutely laughable. This team has built a very, very good roster. And they were relying on somebody who had been good in Mackay Blackman to create depth for them at the cornerback position. And sometimes as a team, you show up at training camp with all the expectation on your depth chart sheet. This should work. This should work.

This should work. Why would you think somebody who had, if we go back, I'll pull it up. Akai Blackman, where he was at, why would you, if you were the Vikings think, coming off an ACL at 26 years old, which is hardly old, and it's hardly an injury we haven't seen a million times before, somebody who played 434 snaps and had a 71.8 PFF grade, 90.3 tackling, and 71.8 coverage grade. And that was despite that play against Denver, allowed only a 63% completion percent. into his coverage, 87.8 rating into his coverage and zero penalties for Mackay Blackman in 2023. Why wouldn't you think that that would work if you showed up to training camp? Of course you would think that this will create very solid depth for you. And then stuff happens that you just don't expect. So now you have to work around it. You have to go to the free agent market.

you have to go to the trade market, and they have a ton of draft picks that they're going to have to look at and figure out how to create a little bit more depth. As I mentioned, the starting situation is good. Byron Murphy is an excellent player, and Isaiah Rogers looks very, very good. But past that, that's where there's a lot of concern. And I don't expect the Vikings to have, you know, a great depth. because no one really does at the cornerback position. There's no team that has five great corners that they feel awesome about.

I mean, that's just a fact. It's kind of like when we talk about the backup center, it's like, well, how many teams have these great backup centers that you guys want the Vikings to have or backup tackles or backup a lot of things, right? Why don't they have a great wide receiver five? Like, I don't know, man. I don't know how many teams have great wide receiver fives. But they need more than just relying on Jeff Okuda here.

They need one more body. And if they get a Mike Hilton, they get a Rasul Douglas, that's an upgrade from where they were at with Mackay Blackman. And it will feel much like last year. So I just, this, this bleep fit that everybody throws every time, you know, a draft pick goes wrong has gotten, it's gotten pretty exhausting to tell you the truth, that every single time a draft pick does not turn into, you know, a superstar. We got to have this same silly discussion time and time again.

the fact of the matter is the roster is really good and they found a lot of ways that have not been through the draft to stack up this roster it's been free agents it's been undrafted free agents I mean look they didn't draft jalen Redmond do you do I got to give them back that's one of their best young rising players who's been phenomenal to the point where they could move on from Harrison Phillips but like I guess that doesn't count because you didn't draft it I don't know like This is, it's just that, that whole part of it's gotten frustrating. I think with this situation, though, it was uncontrollable. There was no way to know that Blackman was going to come back like this.

That I never would have guessed. How many teams have great starting centers? That's a good point. Yeah, not that many. Not that many. So, you know, if they had drafted great, they would have been Super Bowl champs. Okay, well, I guess so. but I actually don't really think that because Lewis Seen was replaced by

Cam Beinam, who's been really good, and now they have other players that they've developed. So, I mean, unless Lewis Seen became, you know, Darren Woodson or something, probably not. And I don't think that was ever really his ceiling. The same goes for Ed Ingram. Would they be Super Bowl champs? I think Will Fries is good. They paid $17 million for him. So, I mean, look, the bottom line here with Bikai Blackman is, it was, it was,

was a mystery. I don't understand it. And unless he explains it to somebody, we might not ever know what exactly happened with Mackay Blackman and why he didn't return from his injury the same. We just don't know that answer. And I don't think that we're going to find that answer from, you know, I don't think O'Connell's going to tell us. I don't think Quasie when he talks on Thursday is going to tell us. I don't think that Blackman, I don't know. So it's just putting the pieces together, we can ascertain that he either did not feel confident coming back from that injury again and kind of had the yips a little bit and just didn't feel that he could play with the same aggressiveness, maybe for fear of getting hurt. If you've ever been in a car

accident, I think that this happens to people who get in car accidents sometimes where you just don't have the same, not aggressiveness on the road, but confidence. Or somebody pulls up behind you and you maybe grip the wheel a little bit tighter, like that happens. That happens with injuries sometimes. If you ever played baseball and you got hit by a pitch, the next time you come in, are you feeling great? Some people are, but some people back off.

So that it could be that, or it could be that he was frustrated with the fact that Jeff Okuda had taken his spot and they seemed to love Jeff Okuda more and he was playing second team reps. And he just didn't put in the same type of violence and aggressiveness to his game. But this is one that could not have been foreseen, and it should have been that they had a good draft pick there.

So that's the bottom line on Mackay Blackman. And the bottom line on the defense is that it has everything across the board to be an elite defense, including the starting corners. But they are going to have to find at least one other player here to replace Mackay Blackman. they have a ton of draft picks now to spend at this time of the year with fifths and sixth and sevenths tons of draft capital to be able to hand out if they need to go out and get somebody else and there are still some other corners that are on the market. I am certain that the answer is

coming. We just don't know what the answer is right now. So there were a couple of things I wanted to get to other than just the Mackay Blackman, like let's go over the same thing over and over again with the drafting and rehash that. But a few other things that I did want to talk about in the NFL today that could be relevant to the Vikings and the early cuts that they've made. There was a returner cut today. You guys are looking for a returner. DeAndre Cooper, or I'm sorry, DeAndre Carter.

Amari Cooper was the other one. DeAndre Carter. So they could be looking at a veteran returner. Seems like every year those guys got cut, get cut. And Cam Acres was released. by the New Orleans Saints. Only a matter of time, folks. Only a matter of time

until Cam Acres is a Minnesota Viking again. Also, Nick Mews was released by the Philadelphia Eagles, so if they're not happy with Ben Yurasek as tight end three, that could be the case as well. So I do have a Fandul question of the day. I want to get to that,

and then we'll talk about Brett Rippin being cut, what that means. The Fandual question of the day is on the defensive side. Jonathan Grenard on Fanduel has a sack over under of 9.25 for this year, over under 9.25 for Jonathan Granard sacks. I think all of us based on the last couple years in camp, we would all take the over. But how many sacks do we expect this year from Grenard, Van Ginkle, and Dallas Turner? What is the total number of sacks that you expect from Grenard, Van Ginkle, and

Turner. That is the Fandul question of the day. Let me move on to the players that the Vikings have cut, which would be Brett Rippin, for starters. They released him yesterday, and that says to me that Max Brosmer is on this roster. I think actually there's really no question that it is going to be McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer. And that's one where we kind of saw this coming for months almost. The minute that Brosmer arrived in minicamp, he looked like he was throwing the ball well. He looked like he had command of the offense.

He got very high praise from Kevin O'Connell about his IQ. And I remember O'Connell saying that he was farther ahead than he could ever remember undrafted free agents being in terms of learning the offense or rookies. And that showed during all of training camp, all preseason that I think that in Brozmer's case, had they released him, that somebody else would have picked him up, that he would not have made it through to the practice squad with the quality of play that he put, especially on tape during the preseason.

And the Vikings have something there for the future. I think as a future backup, you get one year out of Carson Wentz and then Max Brosmer as the QB2, maybe long term, maybe over multiple years could be the backup quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, that's another good find. And that's where it's also kind of funny, right? Like, I don't know. We talk about the draft and Zamea Vaughn beats out, this is, this is the funny part, right? So Zamaia Vaughn beats out Mackay Blackman for the backup corner spot. It's an undrafted free agent. So I guess since they didn't draft them, they can't draft, but also like, is that, is that good? Like for them, for their young players, when they get

undrafted free agents, they get an undrafted quarterback who not only makes the team, but looks like he has potential in Max Brosmer. So I wrote an article on him a little while back. I tweeted that out. You can go find it if you want to at purple insider dot football. But what really stuck out to me, I just want to read you a couple of quotes from Quincy Avery, who is a Minneapolis-based quarterback trainer. I mean, he's trained many, many star quarterbacks.

I think Jalen Hertz is also trained by Quincy. so he's, you know, not just here in Minnesota, but he's from Minnesota, one of us. And he's been working with Max Brosmer for a really long time, actually. And when I did my story on Brozmer, what Quincy Avery told me was, and I quote for my article, he operates on a different level and people trust him. He could basically install the offense they were running, meaning with the gophers. He has the highest level of football knowledge. And that's why he's been successful.

Of course he could throw, but his ability to do all. the little things on the mental side is what really separated him. And Avery told me that he feels like he's a football savant and he will be a coach someday quickly after he's done playing. But I also thought he threw the ball really well, really well for somebody who is not the biggest guy. And Quincy talked about how he, you know, his technique is very good at throwing the football.

So that's a win for the Vikings to have a backup quarterback in the future, I think, in Max Brosmer. and he's got a great scenario here where he can get an entire season to develop and then be ready for that role. I think a lot of folks wanted him to be QB2 after seeing how well he played. And I totally get that. And I get why, you know, you'd see the young quarterback play well and you want the unproven guy. But I think it's much better to have Wents here and Wence take on that QB2 role. And then Brosemer develop and develop and develop.

you know, I think that that is a big win for the Vikings to have a future backup. And then, you know, the other part is too, backups cost money. And he will be on that undrafted rookie contract next year if he wins the QB2 jobs. So I would guess he'd be in part of a competition. But a good quarterback to be developing as a backup as they go forward. So Max Brosmer appearing to make team after they cut Brett Rippin. another note there for who they cut three guys stood out RIP the punt competition we tried so hard to make it a thing we really did they did everyone did everyone wanted it to be a thing

it was not a thing uh Ryan Wright was probably always bound to be the starting punter and maybe they'll bring Chapman back on the international exception but they cut him today so that makes me wonder if it's going to happen. Clearly disappointed with this holding ability. The two misses from Will Riker, it's just not the same. Like Ryan Wright's very good at holding, and we went over that.

The Australian sidewinder type of punts were fun to watch and fun to watch the punt returners be confused, but I don't know if he has the power of someone like Ryan Wright. So it was fun while it lasted, talking about Oscar Chapman. And the other two, neither are surprises, but were guys that we did talk about that have already been cut Silas Bolden and Logan Brown. So Bolden was in the punt returner competition all the way through training camp, clearly

didn't do enough in that returner discussion, wasn't going to bring anything to the table as a receiver. And Logan Brown was one of the highest paid undrafted free agents on the team this year. They really spent to bring in Logan Brown. And he was another one that was a bit of a mystery. He started off pretty, pretty well and was getting second team reps and they were switching back and forth between he and Walter Rouse and some foolish reporter had him on a 53 over Walter Rouse early in training camp. That was me. And then it just changed. And I don't know what exactly it was, but he went from playing second team left tackle when Justin School was with the first team to third team and then never left the third team.

It was after, I think it was really the night practice was when I noticed the change where I was like, oh, why isn't he with the second team anymore? And then Leroy Watson, who they just cut also, he started moving up to the second team. And I was like, I don't really, I don't really know what happened there. He must have just got outplayed. And then when it came to the preseason games, it was just a total failure to launch. He was third team the whole way, didn't play particularly well. And so Logan Brown gets cut today.

and that's why I always warn people about falling in love with the undrafted free agents. It's, you know, they will let you down and they will break your heart because you look at their college resumes and you go, wow, you know, this guy could be the next great thing. And the Vikings have found these undrafted free agents. So this will be the next guy and this will be the next guy. And, you know, sometimes it just doesn't work out. So seldom seen says Lewis Seen was always going. going to be terrible. Well, that might be true. You might be right. He did break his leg in half, though. So I think we at least have to add that into the discussion. Uh, you know, so, uh, saucy nicy,

I think, or, or Nikki, saucy Nikki, sorry, uh, says, uh, how many more guys need to be cut. And thank you very much for the super chat. I'm trying to think of how many they've released so far. Is it 14 so far? So you'll have to do the math for me. Got to go from 91 to 53. The 91 was Oscar Chapman. So whatever it takes from there. But we'll do the show tomorrow for sure, breaking down the initial 53 man roster. And then they'll have a practice squad the next day. We'll talk about that. We'll hear from Quasi on Thursday and we'll talk about that. So there's still a lot to happen with this roster. But those are the initial cuts and the reactions to those. Stevens's Trey Palmer might end up getting cut in a

loaded wide receiver room in Tampa. Very possible. Alec Pierce, someone's going to have to show me any story article, anything that says Alec Pierce is on the trade market. I mean, it's possible, but I just haven't seen it. Aaron, does Ambrie Thomas make the 53? That would be really surprising because Ambrie has not seen a whole lot of work in training camp or preseason. I was more or less counting him out, but it's possible. I think that they're much more likely to just go into the late free agent market here or make a trade that they, they wouldn't do this if they didn't already have something in mind.

We're just waiting for the answer. So if they already were looking at a Mike Hilton who got cut by the Dolphins or Rasul Douglas who's out there or Stefan Gilmore, they, you know, we'll probably make that move fairly soon. If they have a trade in mind with all these draft picks, then that is probably up next as well. I don't know if what kind of name it would have to be for an emergency podcast or maybe we'll still be podcasting.

I guess we'll have to find that out. But they have to have somebody in mind for who they are going to replace Mackay Blackman with. You know, it's actually funny. I got to say, I have never seen such disdain for a punter. I mean, I can't remember, I can't remember the chat ever having any opinion on the punter. But you guys can't stand Ryan Wright, which is odd to me. I mean, the numbers are okay.

They're not, they're not terrible. I mean, last year they were, I think, sixth when it came to punts inside the 20-yard line and returns against it wasn't that. bad starting field position it wasn't that bad that it's it's kind of odd like the range that i see constantly for ryan right i just i just can't remember a time where i've seen it before and the fact that he is a good holder it does matter it does you know maybe that's something that you just sort of dismiss but if he helps your kicker then you know that's that's kind of big too but i just think like you can have that opinion it's just i don't know i mean it's the ray guy isn't here i guess

I think he's been mostly fine. Thought he had a pretty tough 2023, pretty good 2022. I don't know. Don and Bethany says to the Fandul question 35 to 40. I think Turner will break double digits and Grinard will be close to 20. Oh my gosh. Wow. You are super, super high.

I think when it comes to the Fandul question of the day that if you're projecting 10 to 12 from Grenard, another 8 to 10 from Van Ginkle and 6 to 8 from Dallas Turner. I think that's probably the most reasonable. Like you're thinking that, you know, Michael Strayhan and Lawrence Taylor are coming here. Chris Dolman and Jared Allen. I don't know if it's quite going to be that much. If it is, then you are 100% a Super Bowl team. I mean, if that happens, if you get 35 to 40 sacks out of those guys, that would be wild.

But, you know, I. I don't know. That's a little much. I think that there should be high expectations there. So Clancy says, we'll never understand the idea that you have to be great immediately for anything to be good. Guys only had one draft you can reasonably talk about to be evaluated. Look, I mean, the thing with the drafting is it is very clear. Just it's the fact of the matter that most of the draft picks have not worked out so far.

And it's also the fact of the matter that they have. one of the best rosters in the NFL and drafting as we have seen as we have been talking about is often about luck and just do you do you hit or not when you roll the dice and with mackay blackman i thought that was a hit and it turned into not a hit so punter rage running rampant it's that's that means we need football i think that that's where it's time to need football is when you're angry at the punter. Blinky says, with all these draft picks, the Vikings, could the Vikings,

maybe if not now, by the deadline, pull a 2021 Rams and go all in? I mean, that is the curious part of this is, are they stacking all these picks by moving guys who lost camp battles to load up to do something

big? And they have a decent amount of cap space and we've thought that it was the Adam Thielen type of thing and look, maybe Carolina wants three sixth or something. I don't know. Maybe they are trying to make sure that they don't have to trade out of the third round or give them the third round pick or whatever it might be. That would be too much. So maybe they're trying to just stack up enough to be able to get that deal done. But it's also possible. And we talked about Jacoby Myers to start the show. It is also possible that they have eyeballs on somebody else that could be an all-in type of move.

As you mentioned, the 2021 Rams, they, they went after it. I mean, they got Vaughn Miller, they got Odell Beckham. I mean, they really brought in every older player that they could. And they sent out draft capital. And they did the bleep them picks and all that. Would anyone be shocked if they went out and got Tyreek? Yeah, I mean, I would. I don't think that there is much of a.

chance of that. But what you're talking about, though, it's not unreasonable. I mean, I read the draft picks earlier. They've got a million of them now after trading Harrison Phillips, Sam Howell, and Mackay Blackman, which it's so funny how you can go from a genius GM in the chat to an idiot GM in one day, which is you trade Sam Howell for a fifth who had about the worst camp that I can remember since Kellyn Mond and Sean Mannion. And they get a fifth round pick for him. It's like, well, what a great job. Let him cook. And then the next day, he moves on because an undrafted free agent beat out Mackay Blackman and then something happened with his recovery. And then, you know, all of a sudden, then you're the worst GM in the league. I guess that's, that's how it works.

Let's see. I mean, there are still, you know, there are still players who are on the block at the moment. Trey Hendrickson got it worked out. Micah Parsons, you know, that's one. But I don't think that's too possible so uh Jared's a zero chance it's close to a third round pick for a 35 year old receiver it will be cheap if it was cheap Jared if it was that cheap then they would already have Adam Thielen I think what you have to understand about the situation is that it is uh about leverage is what the Adam Thielen situation is about. does not have to move Adam Thielen, and the Vikings really want Adam Thielen. So when you are in that position, then you are able to wait and hold out and, you know, do what, like,

whatever it is that you want to do for your price, if you're Carolina, that you could say, we don't have to move them. So we're just going to wait until you come to our price. And if that price is, you know, a pick swap from the third to the fourth and two sixth or something, like they could just wait. and they could just say, you know what, we're going to make you do this. What is the amounts that I would give up for Adam Thielen? I think that it probably is something like I just said.

Like if Carolina would only do it for a swap of third and fourth round picks in 26th and then two sixth, okay, that's fine. I mean, sixth round picks, what are we talking about there? Swapping for the third of the fourth, I expect Carolina to be better. I don't expect Carolina to be great. I expect them to be just okay. Mid fourth round draft pick as opposed to I expect the Vikings to be good. Late third rounder, you're talking about sliding down a handful of picks and then give

them a couple sixths. That seems completely fine with me for a receiver who has a really good resume and who has been here. Brand says if I'm the Panthers, I wouldn't budge. Why should they? Well, because the Panthers are not in one year win mode. and the Panthers have three young wide receivers that they really like and they want to evaluate and they want to succeed and get targets and they also want more draft capital for the future

because they are in a mode of trying to build over three, four years into the future here with Bryce Young. Well, he's going to be cheap for at least two more and if they extend him, you know, we'll see where it goes from there. If they extend him, then he'll at least be able to probably be cheap. for, you know, two, three more years. So that's what they're looking for is they're trying to get as many foundational players as they can and as many solid players as they can.

They're very much in win now mode. Okay, so there's not, there's not two modes. There's not tanker win now. They are in make significant gains and try to win within the next three years mode. They are, yes, they are in, like, they need to win. they need to be competitive and they're on the rise. The Carolina Panthers are not in Super Bowl or bust. You have to win right now or everyone's fired.

You have to be deep in the playoff. Like, that's not where they're at. I don't think anybody would see it that way. I think that they are in a, you have to make big improvements. You have to be in the playoff race. So yeah, those things are important. But when you have younger wide receivers, you are certainly going to want to evaluate them and figure out

what you have, uh, overall. So, you know, I, I, I can see why they would hold out on at a giving up Adam Thielen because, because he's depth at this point and because he isn't part of a three year plan. He's a free agent after this. And if they don't have a great start to the season and they give him away at the trade deadline, they'll never get as much at the trade deadline as they're going to get right now for Adam Thielen from a desperate Vikings team. And I guess if you're the Vikings, you're probably saying to them, like, hey, do you got a lot of other great calls for Adam Thielen?

Because if you don't, well, then maybe you should just give us, you know, what we want. And you should take what we're offering. Yeah, I mean, the Kurt Russell says they can't keep all of them, cocker, Thielen, Renfro.