Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Flores responds to Tua's comments and a 53-man roster projection

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about Brian Flores' response to Tua's accusation that he's a "terrible person" and answers Vikings fan questions and takes fans through his latest 53-man roster projection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. Another day, another Vikings practice, and I'm here live with you to take your questions, your comments, and address all controversies regarding the Minnesota Vikings. So I have to tell you the truth. When the Tua comments initially came out about Brian Flores, I went, oh, okay, Well, that seems pretty harsh. And then I just moved on and started working on other stuff. Didn't really think it was going to

be a multiple day thing. Didn't really think that we would have to get Harrison Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkle to go on the record after practice and talk about how they actually like Brian Flores. Didn't think players would go up to the lectern slash podium and start, you know, just standing there to back Brian Flores. And we got to make it this whole thing that it has become, uh, on ESPN.com top story for two days or whatever on every show they're talking

about it. They're debating it. They're taking you inside the controversy that is brian flores versus to a tug of iowa so that's where we're at and we'll start off with what brian flores had to say i've got a couple of comments that i want to play you from the press conference and then after this i asked brian just about the defense and the joint practices because we had to move on at some point and we will. And I promise two days from now, we will all have moved on from this thing.

But also I have a 53 man roster that I published. And funny enough, I published the first time with only 52 players. So I've added a 53rd. And now I want to go through that entire 53-man roster with you guys of my projection of what's going to happen a few days from now when the Vikings make their official cutdowns. And we'll talk about each position and some of the conversations there and what decisions they might have that could be difficult for the 53-man roster. That's the more exciting part of the show, but I feel contractually obligated to discuss what is going on since this Brian Flores thing has become a big deal. So I will play you a clip from today's press conference. Brian Flores' opening statement addressing Tua's comments that included calling him a terrible person. I just want to say, look, I'm happy, genuinely happy, genuinely happy for the success that Tua's had. And I really wish him nothing but the best.

And, you know, I think player relationships are very important to me. I think that's kind of the foundation of coaching. I got into coaching because I was impacted as a young guy by my high school coaches, my college coaches, my going all the way to Pop Warner. I got into coaching because I want to make that same kind of impact, positive impact impact pour into young people help them become you know as kale says all the time the best versions of themselves

and you know that's really my goal always in coaching so i wish nothing but the best to tour well there you go so we were all curious curious about how Brian Flores would approach this. Would he, and this was actually more interesting than the actual controversy, but would he come out and say anything? Would he try to avoid it? And credit to Brian Flores, he did not try to avoid the comments made by Tua. He addressed it head on. He took a number of questions from us about what had been said specifically the terrible person thing he was asked about that and here's how he responded the words you use were terrible person i'm just curious how that hit you when you saw the curtain look i'm human so you know that hit me in a way that you know wasn't wasn't, I wouldn't say it was, you know, positive for me. But at the same time, I, you know, I've got to use that and say, hey, how can I, how can I grow from that? You know, how can I be better? And that's really, that's really where I'm at from, from that standpoint. Do I feel like, you know, that's me. No, but you know, how can I grow from that situation and create a,

create a world where that's not, you know, the case that anyone says that about, about Brian Flores. So there you have it. Brian Flores addressing comments that he's a terrible person. My experience in covering Brian Flores here with the Vikings has been that the defensive players have really responded to him extremely well. And the only thing more that I have to say about just this entire thing, because I talked about it with Ben Gessling on the show yesterday.

So I don't want to spend too much more time is that things change. Circumstances matter how someone acts as the Minnesota Vikings defensive coach in a situation with very good culture, a lot of talent, a lot of mature veteran players and relates to those players may be different than how it was with a very young quarterback in a situation with an unstable owner who was demanding that that quarterback play versus a coach that was defensive minded and wanted to win football games in a certain way. We have a generational gap here. We have a player that may have felt like there was a different way to reach him that would have been better. He's probably right about that. But there's also reverse engineering of the results after they got Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddell.

And so now the circumstances are a lot friendlier to Tua there in Miami. And with Brian Flores, it may impact the possibility that he gets a job in the future. But I don't think that it really does because last year he had an excellent defense the players and coaches were coming out and saying hey Brian Flores is deserving with the way that he has gotten way more out of this defense than was actually there and he got no interviews because he has a lawsuit against the league, which really speaks to just how messed up the situation with Brian Flores in Miami was. And with him, you know, going out after proving himself with a lot of wins in Miami, trying to get a job, but it was pretty clear at that point, he was

already being blackballed for not doing what his owner wanted to do and all those things. There were a lot of factors that went in. It was also his first head coaching job ever. And I believe he had gone from maybe linebackers coach right into head coach. And what Brian Flores said today was essentially, he didn't say this straight out, but essentially if he had another shot at it, he might've done things differently. And the last two stops that he's been at with Pittsburgh and with Minnesota, the cultures are quite a bit different than they were in the Patriot way. And you can see how he is adopted a lot of the way that Kevin O'Connell does things here and interacts with players and they've made it their defense. But everybody, and it's always been my experience, everybody has a different viewpoint on their coach.

It's actually unusual that with Kevin O'Connell, he gets an A-plus from the NFLPA. That means pretty much everybody is buying into O'Connell. How many times do you ever see that? Most of the time, it's some people love them some people don't love them and it often depends on the results with tua he got off to a very difficult start to his career and this isn't to apologize for flores's approach i don't think it was right i think kevin o'connell's approach is right i don't think the old school way of berating your quarterback and beating him down is the best way to get the most out of him.

Maybe there wouldn't have been as much berating if they had better players, but I've never thought that that was the right way to go about coaching your quarterback. I mean, Gary Kubiak, to me, anybody who listens to the show, I think Gary Kubiak's about as great of a coach as i've ever seen in my life and he was a connect with the quarterback type of coach have that relationship be as tight as it possibly can between hc and qb get in that guy's headset uh and understand each other and give him every opportunity to succeed be behind that guy i like that approach better for a quarterback i think it succeeds more for a quarterback so what kevin o'connell is doing with jj mccarthy and sam darnold i would pick that over the way that brian flores handled tua but i also think that this for tua is him getting it all out after he's had some success and he's gotten his contract

and saying i didn't like the way that i was treated and maybe he used some words that were too harsh for the circumstance to say terrible person that's too far for just being coached really hard and maybe hard to the point where it was a very uncomfortable situation for him but that I just don't think that this means a whole lot in terms of either person's future or present tua is not having Brian Flores as his coach he seems to be happy they seem to be in a good spot and they're going to go forward and they're going to contend and Brian Flores has landed in the perfect spot for him where he can have command of that defense. He's connected extremely well with Harrison Smith. Those two seem to be really tight.

He's brought a lot of guys that fit him, and it all ends up working out here. And Brian Flores may be in his best spot for him to be, which is the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings going forward and uh again maybe if he had another chance at it he would go back and he would treat Tua a lot differently than he did but um that doesn't really impact what's happening here right now and it just feels to me like a thing that because it's such a big deal and is being talked about that I have to talk about it, but I don't really want to all that much more.

So if you have questions, comments, thoughts, I'll definitely take them on this Flores and to a thing, but the way that it seems to be happening here with responses to this story are Miami fans saying, uh, floor has tried to ruin to, uh, he worked through it and Minnesota fans saying to a must be soft. And I don't think that either extreme of this is actually true. I think it's a fairly common thing that happens in sports where certain people respond better to certain types of coaching and coaches sometimes who are aggressive and super competitive. And especially from the Patriot way, uh, were too demonstrative,

too harsh, too blunt. I mean, there's, there was a coach here, Mike Zimmer, who ran into this same thing when he was winning. It was great to have a hard ass. Yeah. Mike's tough. He rides us hard, but we win. And then as soon as they weren't winning, he doesn't say hello in the hot hallway enough. That's often what it comes down to as well, to his results have been so much better under Mike McDaniel. And that's the guy he's, he's going to lean on. But, uh, I don't think any extreme of this story is really the right way to go and I also don't think that there's a whole lot else here that we can take with us other than Brian Flores and the relationship he has with this defense right now is a good one Josh Metellus

Andrew Van Gingel said after practice today that you know Brian Flores is the reason that he has this career as a former fifth round draft pick harrison phillips talked about how he really liked the atmosphere that brian flores has created and one thing i know from my own personal experience is the version of me in the minnesota media is not exactly the same as it was when i was first coming up in my career in the buffalo media the Buffalo media. The Buffalo media operates differently than the Minnesota media. There's a different culture there. And I was younger then, and I have learned some things and grown as a person as I'm sure

Brian Flores has as well. And that was really his point today was to say, you know what? He wasn't even trying to fight Tua on the details of this thing but saying you know every year i try to get better at this and i think that his point was that focus on relationships that you make is something that he has picked up along the way and that's good for the minnesota vikings all i know is that they have a very good defense with a very good defensive coordinator who has been, it seems at the center of helping find the right players for him. And it looks like now his defense in his vision with his players that like his coaching style and respond well to his coaching style. What's relevant about Brian Flores and the Vikings is that if they're going to

overachieve, it's going to be because of that guy. So I'm not really all that concerned about if he didn't get along with a quarterback because he's not coaching the quarterback. Kevin O'Connell is coaching the quarterback and not Brian Flores. It just doesn't have a whole lot of impact, but it has a very salacious type of feel. It's not often you get somebody calling somebody else a terrible person. It's just if we remove ourselves from the news cycle, that is, oh my gosh, something in mid to late August that we can

react to and grab onto and argue about endlessly and have very deep conversations on the debate shows about how we treat players and all that. That's just meat in front of the lions for media at this point. And that's why we have a big conversation about it. It doesn't really mean a whole lot. That's where I stand on it. I'm sure if he could go back, he would treat to a little bit differently. I'm sure that years later, there's many things that a lot of coaches would go back and change. They still won a good amount of games. I still think he had great defenses and is a great coach there and has been a great coach here. And we go forward and we already knew that the head coaching thing in the future

was probably not going to happen. Because if he didn't get any interviews last year, he's not going to get any interviews next year. Even if Tua had come out and said, yeah, I got a tattoo of Brian Flores' face on my chest because I love him so much. No one was giving him a head coaching job because as an ownership, when he's suing the

league, you're not going to make that person as the center of your entire franchise. So that wasn't going to happen anyway. And as some of you guys are having thoughtful comments, I just think that everyone's relationship with someone else and how they view it and how they remember it and how they responded to it is different. From my own perspective, I played sports growing up and I'm with Tua. I would have I had different types of coaches growing up and I had a CYO basketball coach who was very Kevin O'Connell-ish, very positive, very wrap his arms around you. I like that a heck of a lot more than the bully junior high football coach. That's me.

I responded better to it when the coach was giving me confidence and patting me on the back and saying, you can do it than saying you're doing it wrong all the time. I would get frustrated when that happened. So I get it. There are other players who want somebody to say MF or do it right and get in their face and get them going. It's clear that there was a disagreement in the way that those two saw their relationship and the coaching that was right for Tua. Maybe Flores thought, I need to see a little more dog in the guy.

I need to push him. I need to motivate him. I need to tweak him and get him worked up and have him prove me wrong. There are coaches who take that approach. That wasn't my favorite. Clearly, it wasn't his favorite either. And he would prefer to have someone like Mike McDaniel. That's life. That's

life in sports. And everyone is always going to have a different response to different types of coaching. It was just too far to say terrible person. That's where anything else that he said wouldn't have made that much noise. Terrible person was where it took it to a place it didn't need to go. And if he had said something like yeah look remember urban meyer kicking his kicker or whatever okay that's psychotic behavior that's more than just berating someone over a misread or a bad throw or telling someone they can't play in the league or whatever uh there was no evidence of tua really even showing like what does that mean bad person with brian floris and again he hasn't had those types of reviews since he's been here

so there we go uh and yeah i i agree that verbal abuse is not something that I would ever be on the side of. But we are talking about a football environment here. We are talking about a little bit different than your usual. I don't think if you work at the target offices where you're doing data or something that your boss should come in and say you had the whatever spreadsheet wrong you MF or go F yourself like that's insane but if we're talking about football and we're talking about football practices and a crazy competitive environment with complete lunatics who play this game it's a little bit

of a different standard and for brian floris when he came up and where he came up with and the types of coaches he was underneath that probably wouldn't have been that unusual he's been under some different types of coaches recently it's probably influenced his approach that That's all I really got on this. Now I've got a 53 man roster. Does anybody want a 53 man roster? Because I'm exhausted of the florist to a thing. And I was exhausted of it by maybe in the middle of yesterday, but all I have to say is I am on the side of Kevin O'Connell's culture over what Tua is being, you know, is presenting as what happened. And Mike McDaniels, I would prefer that.

I would prefer that's why Kevin O'Connell remained the head coach. And Brian Flores, I think is in the perfect spot for him. Defensive coordinator. He gets along so freaking well with those guys. Harrison Smith. He's a psycho about football that they vibe off each other extremely well josh metellus is a super intense super intelligent player that those two just connect well there you go i mean he's in the right spot two is in the right spot we can all play football

now no one will remember this in three weeks, I promise. But you know what they will remember? A 53-man roster projection. So let me screen share here. Let me get screen sharing. Which is the best? Let me see. What's the best place for my little head? Probably right here. Hopefully you guys can see that well for my 53-man roster projection,

which I did add a 53rd player after not calculating enough, right? The number of players. Now, there are quite a few that I struggled with. And so I'm going to go position by position. And I want you guys to ask your questions, comments. Let me know what you guys think about the different positions here. And as far as actual practice today, I didn't think there were many takeaways. It was an intense practice.

Sam Darnold made some good throws. Will Reichard, real quick before I get into this, went six for six again today. It's like scary good how well Will Reichard is going. And I know what you guys are thinking is that me telling you every day how good Will Reichard has been is going to result in him missing his first field goal which will be a game-winning kick or something like that but truly every kick was right down the middle from i think he was between 40 50 something yards six for six today i've never seen someone like kick like this in in practice just not missing at all so um i know what you guys are thinking and feeling but

i generally believe this is good news that the kicker has been has been really good so let's start off with this 53 questions comments and heckling is absolutely uh involved uh over here in the comments section please do i want to start out with the quarterbacks. And at the moment, I am projecting Sam Darnold and Nick Mullins to be your quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. And the reason is because I think that Jaron Hall can get through to the practice squad. I don't think that another team is going to swoop in and take away Jaron Hall. Now, maybe last year that might've happened because Jaron Hall was an intriguing prospect. Fifth round draft pick. A lot of teams liked them. Oh, Seifert said eight for eight. I thought it

was six for six. Either way, he made every single kick. Every single kick went in from Rikert. Maybe it was eight of them. Anyway, I just don't think that another team is going to swoop in. Maybe they would have if they had liked their draft evaluation on him. But now that you have actual performance in real games, it's hard to see another team saying, yeah, let's bring that guy in, put him on our 53, make him our backup quarterback because his performance last year against green Bay looked way in over his head in the first preseason game. It was pretty tough, made a great throw to just Sean Jones in the second preseason game, but that's late in the game. Can't really put too much on that. If you're

another team evaluating it. i think that jaron hall would be able to get through the practice squad the uh the vikings could certainly look into going for somebody else uh as far as backup quarterbacks go um they could look at maybe a veteran that's out there if they wanted another quarterback or somebody that uh kevin o'connell had evaluated coming out they could do that but i think that they have to be at this point okay with just rolling out sam darnold nick mullins as their two quarterbacks uh let's see oh um skull for life says judd said uh darnold threw two picks today. He'd rather, yeah. One of the interceptions seemed to be maybe a misunderstanding

and Harrison Smith just kind of threw it right to him. It was a Sam Darnold practice. There was some great throws, one to Justin Jefferson, one to Jalen Naylor deep. And there were some throws that you went, eh, I don't know. That's not a good one.

But I think that was just a, one of them was just a misunderstanding when he threw it to Harrison Smith. So let's keep moving on to the 53 projected 53 at the running back spot. I've got Aaron Jones, Ty Chandler, Kenny Wong Wu and CJ Ham. I do not have Miles Gaskin making the team. I think it's possible that he does, but I also don't think that they need that many running backs. It just Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler are healthy going into the season. It looks like it's going to be a good duo. And maybe the biggest part of this is that Kenny

Wong Wu has looked pretty good. Wong Wu has looked like a guy who, if they have to have him play in a game as a starting running back that he could probably handle it, he's never going to be a good pass protector. He's just really not big enough. Maybe he doesn't have a lot of reps past protecting in his career and got mostly steamrolled when he did that. I think he allowed three pressures in eight potential reps or dropbacks where he was past protecting in preseason. So that's not good. But if they need him back there, he can play the position. He's proven that he could be a real running back.

That means they don't need to keep another guy and just have him be a kick returner. So that's where I've got that now. Jones, Chandler, Wong Wu, Ham. The wide receivers is where it got quite difficult for me. have him be a kick returner so that's where i've got that now jones chandler wong woo ham the wide receivers is where it got quite difficult for me i've got six and this was a debate on the sideline at training camp practice today was six or five wide receivers it sounds like i might be the only one of the 53 projectors among reporters that has six wide receivers but i've only got three tight ends and hockinson going on ir and that may allow them to have six wide receivers but i have of course jefferson addison naylor powell but i've got tristan jackson and trent

shurfield both making the team and what i like about them is i think that they bring different things to the table that surefield has a a toughness to him a grit to him where tristan jackson is more of the route runner more of the the deep receiver downfield can make a play can create separation and i think they've just both had really good training camps surefield started off a little slower than jackson maybe not knowing the scheme as well, but Shurfield has shown up in the games. So has Jackson. Both guys are veteran players, at least to the point where they've been around.

Jackson has been around a few years. I think 2021 is when he arrived here and Shurfield's played in plenty of NFL games where they could use Shurfield is that he's got a lot of experience on special teams and that is something that i think makes him stand out versus tristan jackson that he can be a gunner he can be someone who's on the kickoff blocking whatever you need trent surefield to do he can do so i've got six wide receivers i only have three tight ends because I assume Hockinson is going on IR. Hockinson is still working out on the side, but we haven't seen him

do anything outside of, you know, just do his normal rehab type of stuff. He's back in the room sometimes he's walking on the other field sometimes, but if he was going to not go on IR at this point, he probably would have to be close to getting back on the field for practice. And he just doesn't seem close. And I've always looked at the first section of the season as you're probably going to be without Hawkinson based on ACL timelines. ACL timelines are pretty standard. And that always took me at least into October with him. So I've got Munt, Oliver, and Muse. Now it is notable that Robert Tunyon was out there today working out some in practice. They could, depending on how they feel about Nick Muse, they could choose to go with Robert Tunyon still.

He had a really great minicamp. He might be a guy that you could cut and then you could put on the practice squad whereas muse might get picked up um but that that decision i think muse has just been very good in this training camp and he's a little bit bigger of a guy maybe a little more of a blocker than ro Tunyon. Seems like Tunyon is the type of guy that you try to get a veteran onto the practice squad, which you can do now. And if no one else picks him up because he's been injured,

they haven't seen him in preseason games, didn't have a great year last year. And also the Vikings got him late in the process. So they might be able to keep all four. Not sure if they'll keep Trey Knox on the practice squad or not, but those are my three on the 53, Munt, Oliver, and Muse. Now on the offensive line, I am not keeping Dalton Reisner.

He's been banged up. He hasn't practiced. He hasn't played in the preseason games. And it just seems like it was a failure to launch here this year for Dalton Reisner. He came in. He was immediately put on second team, right? Guard never really competed with anybody and then got banged up and we just haven't seen him since then. So I have, uh, Michael Juergens, Walter Rouse, uh, David Queston, Barry and Dan Feeney, uh, all as the ones that, uh that are going to make it as the backups along with your usual starters.

But that gives them two young players, two veterans. Queston Berry could play anywhere on the line. Dan Feeney can play anywhere on the interior. Juergens has gotten a lot of work. Walter Rouse has been, I think, quite good as a tackle. So I've got nine offensive linemen going that way. And we'll get into the defense, but let me take a look here over at your questions, comments. Let's see. Blue Stork says, could they keep five, at least until Hawkinson is back five tight ends or five receivers? Cause they don't need five tight ends, but five receivers. Yeah, they could do five or six is going to be hard to decide because I think that those guys just play a little bit different of roles, uh, where you just can have Jackson be a route runner. It could be a downfield guy that mixes in. And when it comes to a four wide receiver set, which we haven't seen a whole heck of a lot of.

And Shurfield could come in, maybe sub in for a Brandon Powell or Jalen Naylor when they want to run the ball and then catch them on a play action or something because you don't want Brandon Powell and Jalen Naylor doing a whole heck of a lot of blocking. And if Jordan Addison misses any time into the regular season,

you're definitely going to want to keep an extra wide receiver there um so that's kind of how I'm feeling about the offense at the moment let me get to some of your questions and then we'll go to the defense let me go back to big head mode here there we go and I'll do the ad reads for you guys always keeping an eye on me don't worry uh I will get to those in a moment uh let's see austin says how well can mccarthy work on throwing the ball while having to stay off his leg that's a good question i mean i've never been in this circumstance myself with trying to throw well one of my legs doesn't work but i think that he can still understand all of the

things that he's supposed to do, but it's going to take some rebuilding. And this is why we won't see him this year and why he can't just come back right away and jump right into the mix. Even if he is healthy enough to potentially play by week 15, you wouldn't want to throw him in when he hasn't had the reps and the footwork to get everything back on point to where it was when he was in training camp. Uh, it's, it's going to take a lot of work for him to get that back. I'm sure that he will still be able to throw an actual football because it's not his arm, uh, that he's going to be able to stand in one spot and you know work on whatever it is that he needs to work on but i think it's more of the mental

stuff he's going to be able to improve on and then when he comes back to 100 with the meniscus he's going to have that entire off season to focus on the throwing of the football to lock it in to the point where he's back to where he was and maybe even better than that. So he'll have a complete 2024 into 2025 off season. And that's going to be really big for JJ McCarthy. He's not going to get less strong. He's not going to forget how to throw a football. He's not going to, he'll, it'll be healed up enough at some point midway through the season where he can start doing stuff. He just wouldn't be able to actually play. It's not going to be that long. And this is not the worst injury that you can ever have as a quarterback. He'll be okay.

It just is unfortunate that we're not going to see him. That's really the issue. Um, but I don't think he's taking like some huge setback or something as far as a thrower of the football, because he was really getting it with the footwork. And once he gets back into that locks that in, he should, he should be able to still make a lot of progress from a throwing perspective. Uh, Mark says they don't need many at running back. Uh, I like him him but do we need a fullback oh ham yeah yeah do you need a fullback i think you do um not necessarily because they run a ton of huge personnel they do more than the regular team but i think it's a special teams thing and a pass protection thing they i don't think that they want aaron jones taking all of the difficult pass protection reps.

Not that he can't do it, but do you really want him getting smashed by linebackers over and over again when maybe you can mix in CJ Ham there? They want Aaron Jones running behind a fullback at times because I mean, he, I think, is good at it. We haven't seen a ton of it in Green Bay, but what I've seen so far in training camp, he seems to have such great patience behind a fullback, such great vision behind a fullback, so they can give him something that he hasn't had before,

and they're not great on the interior. As far as the guards go for run blocking, they may need an extra body there when they do decide to run up the middle for cj ham but i think the biggest part is probably uh the special teams element there's going to be a lot more kick returns this year and cj ham is going to be out there blocking his butt off they can't really cut someone who is one of their biggest special teamers and it's going to matter more this year than it did before. Jonathan says draft Chandler and fantasy Jones is injury prone fantasy.

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to use their phones less is ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started thank you for the fantasy comment and let me answer it now that you've asked it i do think that aaron jones last year was banged up and at different times in his career he has been on the like most running backs are at the same time they've managed him really well during this training camp and i believe that that kevin o'connell wants to use aaron jones a ton they like ty chandler he's fast as heck they like to give him the ball but i don't know that they trust him in all circumstances jones i mean how can you really predict when someone's going

to get hurt he He's looked good. He's looked quick. He catches the ball a lot. He'll get the ball in the red zone. I'm sure a lot based on what I saw in the joint practices in Cleveland. I still think if you're looking at running backs and everybody is picking the Jameer Gibbs and the Derrick Henry's at the top, that Aaron Jones might be a good choice because I feel like on a one-year contract, they're going to ride him quite a bit for this year. And I'm a little

less confident than the fantasy universe that Ty Chandler is the perfect handcuff, so to speak. We'll see though. We'll see. That doesn't mean I'm down necessarily on him. I just think that Aaron Jones is going to get the ball a lot. Uh, Dana, your take on Brandel and who is the backup center? Uh, the backup center, I think will be Dan Feeney and Michael Juergens can play center as well, but Feeney is more experienced. He is banged up at the moment. I just doesn't seem super serious for Dan Feeney. He's out there still walking around. Um, I, but I don't know what the injury is. We've been caught up on controversies with quarterbacks, accusing

defensive coordinators of being terrible people. So that's what we've been caught up on. We haven't gotten the full injury update. We'll try to get that, uh, soon for you as far as what's going on with Reisner Feeney and all that. But, um, my take on Blake Brandel is it's not easy to figure out when it's the team versus their own team day in and day out if a guy is going to be average above average slightly below average against the Browns it was a rough ride but that's the Browns they have an extremely good defensive line. This offensive line had a tough time with them, but so will every offensive line. I think what you're looking for from Brandel that he has shown is competency, but I would not expect

difference making. Competency would be an upgrade from a lot of years at guard i just think that if you're asking blake brandle to be the reason your offensive line takes a big step forward you're asking too much if you're asking him to be a cog in the machine that sometimes makes a mistake and sometimes is pretty good on a block where he's moving bodies because he's a big guy he should be pretty good in pass protection because he was a good pass protecting offensive tackle. I think he has been pretty good in pass pro. It's also hard in practice to see with the run, run blocking and whether the running back would have kicked it outside or what it's going to be because they can't tackle. But average play would be good for Blake Brandel.

That's where I see it at the moment. And there really wasn't a competition, which makes me think that they have some confidence that Blake Brandel can be pretty good. Uh, Zoomer Kev says, I don't see them cutting Tristan Jackson or Trent Shurfield. I feel the same way. I think that they should keep both of them because they've both been very good during this training camp. And they've got, I believe, room enough to keep six wide receivers and a use for six wide receivers, especially if Jordan Addison has to miss any time, because we were told Jordan, Jordan Addison's injury was not serious.

We were not told that he was not going to miss any time because a non-major injury could still keep you out for two weeks. And it's not a major injury. They may need to keep it just in case it's not fully healed by the time it's week one. So they may need to have those two wide receivers ready on the 53. Anthony says, I like lucky Jackson feel like he's flashed on special teams

as well i also think lucky jackson has been pretty good and is a guy that they should keep on the practice squad he's made some good catches he has uh done well on special teams i agree with that i think he could be a special teamer but you can only keep so many, right? And if sure, field is going to be a receiver slash special teamer. And Jackson has had such a great camp, making all the catches that he's made. Somebody's got to be the odd man out. And I think it's been a little telling in the preseason games that Jackson and sure field have been decidedly ahead of lucky Jacksonson uh in those preseason games but as far as a practice squatter makes a lot of sense there um sean says uh tight end check offensive line check although robinson is attempt for a adding a 10th lineman tyrese robinson's been really good in the games very

very good in the games his past protection's been great he's a huge man and i think he's the highest one of the highest graded past protectors i really did think about putting robinson on the 53 but i couldn't figure out where i mean are they going to cut jurgens and keep robinson jurgens was a draft pick i mean if phoenix making the team initially i did try to put a tenth on there and then as i went through I just had trouble keeping a 10th offensive lineman but I don't disagree with you that it is tempting to put him on there always is going to be a consideration that they're going to uh think about who can they get to the practice squad can they get Tyrese Roberts into the practice squad

the answer is probably yes just based on his history he's bounced around a little bit in the league i i think that they can get him to the practice squad whereas dan feeney might get picked up by somebody who has offensive line injuries uh let's see ed ingram how do you feel about him skull for life barber 1975 says i feel that i am quite concerned about him. He hasn't played well in either one of the games, which isn't weighed heavier than what we've seen in the first two years. But the first two years have been underwhelming.

At the end of last year, he played a little better than he did at the beginning. That doesn't totally soul me, sell me that is on him being an above average player at this point i feel like ed ingram is what he is which is a guy that for the most part can be an average lineman on a week-to-week basis but there's going to be a week or two in there where you just go well that was not the matchup that they wanted or what the heck happened with that, that week. I don't think he's so much of a liability at this point that he just destroys your chances to ever win. Sam Darnold is a lot more mobile and has more of a playmaking mindset than cousins.

That's one thing that I think you will start to notice as the season goes along is when a guard gets beat, the play doesn't have to end immediately as it has in previous years, or just the ball doesn't have to come out. You can have a scramble, you can run, but Ingram is still going to allow a lot of pressures. And I don't see him as being a well above average run blocker. Nothing has indicated to me that this is going to be a lot different, but he's a player in the league. Last year, he proved that he could be a bottom third starting offensive lineman, which is better than Tom Compton.

It's better than Dakota Dozier. Some of the guys that they had had in past years, and it's way better than his first year. His second year was a lot better than his first year. I just don't have a lot of sense from this training camp that it's going to be wildly different. And he took this huge step and now he is Alan Fanica or Steve Hutchinson. That's not happening. It's there's going to be good days and bad days for both of the guards and for the tackles. You need them to be the best version

of themselves and you need them to be healthy in order for this offensive line to be pretty good zoomer kev should teams be able to roster more players percent chance the nfl increases the number to more than 53 i don't know is that maybe part of the 18 game thing is you get to keep two more players on your roster. They have increased it over the years. I believe it was maybe 47 back in the day, and now it's 53. It could be more. But the practice squad staying increased from the COVID year, that sticking around, I think,

is the answer to what you're asking about. And having veterans on the practice squad, it's been a big difference maker to be able to call up a veteran from your practice squad when back in the day you could not do that. It was it had to be all guys that had, I think, two years or less of experience on the practice squad or less than two. Maybe it was two years you could be on the practice squad and then that was it.

And there was 10 guys and that was it. It made some very difficult decisions now what is it 16 players and they can be veterans for x number i mean there's a there's a lot of roster spots if you can't make a team now at least on the practice squad you're just probably not that good or not a fit for the team uh sloth says i like the idea of keeping 24 on offense 26 on defense florist will use a fan from row four on a stunt if their jersey looks authentic enough and o'connell prefers to stick to and i assume you're saying uh like his guys in his starting lineup yeah i i agree uh with you there that the more players that Brian Flores can rotate in and they've got some older players at corner Stefan Gilmore Fabian Morrow which we'll get into a little bit so do

you really want to have some more depth there and I think that you do well let's go to that by the way let's go to the defense take a look at that and we could talk about it a bit wait what's the better view is that the better wait what's the better view is that the better view that's the better view right okay well let me make this the big screen here we go okay back to the defense and then i'll get back to your questions and we'll keep rolling along um i mean i do have i do have controversies to write about later but i think i've got time to chat about this now okay here we go. Outside linebacker. I have Jonathan Grenard, Andrew Van Ginkle, Dallas Turner, Patrick Jones, Jihad Ward, who has been,

I think a pleasant surprise for them and Andre Carter the second. So I don't have Gabriel Murphy here. Murphy has been banged up quite a bit. I know you guys love Bo Richter, but Bo Richter is a classic preseason guy who flashes a little and you cut him and you put him on the practice squad. That's how he strikes me. I would be very surprised if another team tried to swoop in and take Bo Richter, but someone who could develop over the years. If you lose him, you're not devastated. It's very unlikely that you lose him though. So you'll have him there and be able to develop him. And maybe he becomes a situational type guy at some point because he is a very good athlete. And I've liked what I've seen from Bo Richter as well. It's just usually you're talking about

a little more experienced players or guys that you paid a lot of money or spent a first round draft pick on or something andre carter was not really impressing me early on in training camp feels like he has come along recently and he's had a couple of decent preseason games but that's the one that i am maybe the least confident about is and Carter. I don't know health-wise where Gabriel Murphy stands. It is altogether possible that, uh, Murphy ends up on IR because we don't know what his injury is and they haven't said what his injury is. We just haven't seen him in a long time. And we have asked at least on that one, we haven't really asked on Dalton riser, but we have asked on

Gabriel Murphy, but they might put him on the roster instead of Carter. I just think Carter, knowing the defense has done enough. He looked to me like he had some pretty good joint practices that he's going to get a nod here. Six outside linebackers. Carter can play on those kickoffs and special teams. This unit's really good. And I think it's going to even be deeper when they add some guys to the practice squad I've liked Owen Porter Owen Porter gets no conversation really but I've liked what I've seen from him as a practice squad guy really good unit I think they'll keep six inside linebacker Ivan Pace Jr Brian uh Brian Cashman that's the general manager of the Yankees Blake Cashman Kamu gruge hill and brian

assamoah assamoah plays a ton of special teams not somebody that you really want in there this was a discussion i had with uh andrew kramer who on his 53 i believe had awesome getting cut that would not blow my mind if awesome got cut just doesn't seem to have the same juice that he had in the first year. And it appears like losing the job to Ivan Pace jr. May have just hurt his confidence a little bit. Um, he, he looked like a guy early on that was going to bring a ton of energy and just hasn't been that, that same vibe from him as he's been the backup. Grugier Hill is a veteran. He's been around a long time. He's a good special teamer.

I've mentioned you guys, he could kick off if they need him to. He's a good player to have as a backup, but they may go looking for another linebacker in free agency slash waivers. See who gets cut to replace Asamoah. But I think, I think he makes the team because he does play a lot of their special teams. Now corner is where I really did have some struggle here because Fabian Morrow, Dwight McLaughlin, who do I keep? Is it going to be the veteran player that they brought in? Do they cut the veteran to keep Dwight McLaughlin? Who's been really good during this training camp do they keep a Caleb Evans a Caleb Evans had his chance to win the job and keep Stephon Gilmore at home or sign with

Carolina who I believe was another team in the mix and where he's from but instead they gave the offer to Stephon Gilmore basically saying yeah a Caleb Evans you're more of a backup I look at a Caleb Evans as a guy who can play in the league. And I don't think there's a huge upside to him, but he can start if he has to. And you'd rather have Stefan Gilmore because the guy's been a star in his past and it was really good recently. But Evans is someone that could play six weeks if he had to. Marto, I just don't know what they think of him. They brought him in as a free agent, but he's on the older side. He's bounced around.

He's been a replacement level player. Shaq Griffin on the team clearly. And I included Jay Ward because Jay Ward was the one that I accidentally cut when making the 53, but I came up with 52. Jay Ward, big special teamer and also flexibility to play corner or safety. Bobby McCain is the one on the safety side that I struggled with here because is it Jay Ward or is it Bobby McCain? Um, cause on the safeties, I've got Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus, and Theo Jackson. That one's obvious. Uh, I don't think Lewis seems making the team.

McCain is another guy though, that they could put on the practice squad. Nobody picked him up all the way until the start of training camp. That would stand to reason that they wouldn't pick him up if they cut him and that he could go on the practice squad. And then you have the specialists, obviously Riker to Paula and Ryan, right? So there is your full and complete 53 man roster rundown of my projection. And, uh, you know, can always be wrong about these things. They change teams, pick up guys, David Questenberry showed up out of nowhere last year, they picked him up and he did a pretty good job. So there you have it. Questions, comments, thoughts, anything that's on your mind doesn't have to be about the 53,

but anything regarding the Vikings. I have been told we may get pizza. So I think maybe about a half an hour more of a question answering and then some pizza is in order for me. So let's get to it. What about Bob? McCarthy's age is his ally as he will still be younger than most rookies in 2025. Just grind the concepts, learn to be a pro. I think that, well, of course you're right. 22 years old starting next year. It was always the

plan to start him next year. It doesn't have to be a setback a massive setback it can be a small setback where you would have liked him to get on the nfl field it doesn't really hurt his career long term though it will be something that if the best version of j.j mccarthy happens that we don't really remember oh yeah he had that meniscus thing and then he put together this great start to his career in year two uh but he is only going to be 22 that is two years younger than michael penix and then bo nicks still in 2025 and what i think he can learn the most you're right about the concepts and all that the offense how it works how game planning works. But I think that just watching Sam Darnold operate and Sam Darnold has his problems and he throws interceptions and he

takes sacks and fumbles and all that. But Sam Darnold has fought his way through some really difficult places in his career to get to this point by being a pro. If he was unprofessional in his approach, or he was a diva, or he frustrated his coaches and they didn't like him, he would not have been in San Francisco and he sure as heck wouldn't have been here. So having a professional type of quarterback to learn from on a weekly basis, how he prepares, how he deals with the ups and downs, how he manages his body, which is a really big thing for the future. I asked Stefan Gilmore the other day, I said, you know, most guys don't make it to this age as corner. Like how did you kind

of do it? And he said, biggest thing, just managing my body. And he was a top 10 draft pick, great athlete that helps, but learning how to manage your body to have a long career and stay healthy is something that is very important. And you learn all these things. How does he deal with it? How does he battle through the ups and downs? How does he prepare for a game? All that experience can be really huge for McCarthy, even if he's not on the field, it is somewhat of a setback, but not at all.

The type of, I saw something the other day, someone was asking, well, who's the worst Vikings quarterback injury in recent history? And they had McCarthy on the list. And I thought, well, that's the least worst by a million miles. He's still going to go into year two of his rookie contract with a chance to start, chance to go play, chance to become everything he's going to be. Meniscus is not that big of a deal, especially when you do the full repair.

It's obviously Teddy Bridgewater, who was just starting his career on a team that was on the rise, and they thought of him as the franchise quarterback. But this is not the most dramatic thing. It's not the biggest setback for J.J. McCarthy. He'll be okay. It's just annoying to all of us and frustrating. I'm sure to Kevin O'Connell that he can't get

them in there right away. Uh, Alex, it's hard to hire Flores ever again for a head coach position when you can't get along with the quarterback and the offensive staffs. Yeah, that's correct. I would agree with that. Um, it's harsh, but it it's true it would be very hard for another team to say brian floris you are our head coach when the previous reviews knowing how important the quarterback coach relationship is are what tua said that and this has happened to a number of guys just take steve spagnolo for example he got one shot at being a head coach it didn't work out and there was never another shot Brian Flores might be the same way he won a lot of games with his defense and he's going to help the Vikings win games with his defense they're really going

to need him this year but if you're an owner for another team, there's always a hundred more young quarterback coaches coming in. And those are the guys you're usually going to look to. You're going to look for less of the old school Belichick or Zimmer type approach and more of the O'Connell, the Matt LaFleur, the Sean McVay. You're going to look for those types of guys. So, yeah, I think that Flores' chances are hurt by his relationship with Tua in the past. What about Bob Flores' hours? As far as, as long as he's a good coordinator, not everyone has the EQ for the head coach, takes the whole package.

I mean, and you add, see Mike Zimmer. Mike Zimmer won a lot of games, the head coach. I think Mike Zimmer at the end was a different version than we saw early on. Mike Zimmer was a very, very good head coach in the NFL, but his shortcomings got him in the end eventually. But go look, go look at his winning percentage versus a lot of the other great coaches in history and consider what happened with his quarterbacks along the way. He was a

really good coach super prepared when he had the defensive talent they were the best in the entire NFL he's not the best coach of all time but I think he was a very very good head coach and he was capable of handling it all it's just that when chaos happened I don't think that he was great at guiding through chaos all the time I think he tended to make it more chaotic and it was the players who had to drive them through that and once they didn't have the players it started to fell fall apart but as to your point you're right not everyone is built to be a head coach it takes takes a very specific type of person. And that's why most of them get fired in three years. It's also why Kevin O'Connell should probably get a contract extension because his connection with the quarterback is really good. And this is a

culture, if you will, that you want to go forward. I think what Kevin O'Connell runs is a ship that stays on the water it is it is not a ship that goes under when something goes wrong it's not rocking back and forth on the waters at all times and that is two-thirds of the battle and then you got a scheme and you got to call the fourth downs and all that that most people focus on I focus with a head coach on the health and functionality of what's going on with your entire operation, how the other coaches respond. Think about this. Players want to be here.

Coaches want to stay here, it seems. Keenan McArdle, Josh McCown wanted to come here. Brian Flores wanted to stay here. I mean, it feels like it's, it's just a healthy operation and that it's not a drama filled operation, which is a big part of that. And then his relationship with the quarterback, those things are important to give Kevin O'Connell a full shot here, uh, as the head coach, uh, Mark says, don't get Ty, get him on waiver. Uh, let's see.

Nobody. Oh, Ty Chandler. Yeah. Get them on waivers. Nobody in your fantasy league is picking up Ty Chandler. Well, look as an underdog fantasy expert, because the show is presented by underdog fantasy. Let me just say this about Ty Chandler. It depends on the size of your league.

If you have a small league, then certainly you're not picking up Ty Chandler. But if you have a big league, some people are playing with tons of different players. That might be a guy you want to get. I think that Aaron Jones is going to be a huge impact player and I can't predict injuries. I think he's going to play 70% of the snaps under Kevin O'Connell and get a lot of the workload. I don't think it's going to go a ton to Ty Chandler at the same time. You can't predict injuries. Some, sometimes guys get banged up. And if he does, that could mean a lot of Chandler. If you're in a deep league, he's a

good guy to pick up. If you're in not a deep league, you're probably not looking at, uh, Sean, I'm excited to see this offense with Jones running screen plays and receiving out of the backfield. He's so good as a dual threat. One of the best, one of the best of the last 10 years, I think, as a complete running back. And it's a big change if he is anywhere close to where he's been in the past. It is a big change from what O'Connell has had in the backfield the last two years to have Aaron Jones, because he can do those things. And it's big for Sam Darnold to be able to throw a little check down a little swing pass and know that his guy can turn it into

a lot more. And I am curious actually to see Jordan love without that. If, uh, Josh Jacobs doesn't play well, how's that going to look for Jordan love? Because Aaron Jones was really big for him, building everything off the run with the play action throwing screens and short passes to Jones it's a big benefit for Sam Darnold it's almost funny that we kind of talk about this team as having to play a little more Zimmerball to maybe win which is winning with defense trying not to turn the ball over asking Sam Darnold to check it down and hit a deep shot every once in a while that feels like the best strategy for this team with aaron jones in the backfield uh wally says uh chandler is a great best ball pick stand alone and contingent value when aaron jones inevitably gets hurt yeah you go to underdog

and use the promo code purple on those best balls but that's what i mean about depends on the deep nature of the league but from what i am coming to understand about best ball is that you're getting whatever best version of that player like your top players are the ones that put up the points so you're not picking your lineups you're just drafting and then the top players so chandler looks like he's capable of a guy who has a few breakout weeks and ends up being very important um that that's good for you if you're in a deep league look at this look at me with all this fantasy advice i think we're really when we're just talking about kind of projecting what's going to happen

in the backfield for the vikings i see being largely Aaron Jones, but there will probably be games where Jones is out and Ty Chandler needs to step in. So I understand where you're coming from there. Stephanie says, what's your take on Ingram's low PFF grade? I think that he played very poorly in the two preseason games, but it doesn't really change my opinion on what he is because we have two years of sample size that he can be a liability on a week-to-week basis if he's got the wrong matchup or if the other defense is throwing a lot of complicated stuff at him and it's a major concern that he won't improve from where he was last year where he was last year you can survive i don't i think the first year kirk cousins ribs did not survive where ed ingram was his first year his second year

was more there were some good games mixed in it was a little more consistent toward the end of the year that i'm going to still weigh heavier than what we've seen so far but what we've seen so far and the fact that he's playing as much as he's been playing, that is concerning to me. I think that is, I think it still remains a concern at right guard. Uh, David says, how hard is it for Bradbury to adjust to different quarterbacks after working with Kirk for years? It will be an adjustment for sure. He talked to us about that when we were in Cleveland, where he was saying that he's got to do a little bit more as far as maybe making suggestions to the quarterback and offering potential changes. Like he mentioned the cadence. I think he's going to be more

responsible and more engaged in the process of setting protection and things like that. I've always thought that Garrett Bradbury was good at that stuff and that it was part of his strength that he wasn't getting to use a whole lot because Kirk was in charge of the entire operation. It might be a benefit because Kirk always wanted to have everything on his plate. And I always felt like Garrett Bradbury's IQ was part of why they drafted him is because they thought he could handle a lot if he needed to, but then Kirk wanted to do everything. And so this difference may help them in some ways because the entire line, I know this,

I did a story on this last year, has a lot of trust for Garrett Bradbury. There's a reason he's still here. And it's not that he's the most demonstrative guy or the biggest, fattest guy who's going to push everybody out of the way. It's really that he is a trustworthy, reliable center who will be a big part if Sam Darnold's going to succeed. But it will be different,

and it will be worth kind of keeping track of that, how that comes along. Sean says, thought Brandel was a beast against Wilkins and the rest of the ones for the Raiders. I thought he did. Okay. Beast is a little aggressive for me. There was a play where he was pulling and he just completely whiffed on the guy that was coming his way. And, you know, he made the tackle. I don't know if pulling is going to be his best thing. He's a bra a brawler i mean he's a big giant dude who is is gonna get i think you know in the trenches with big guys like wilkins and battle them i also don't know if wilkins is going 110 in a game like that

but he's he's gonna put up a fight this isn't somebody just gonna get steamrolled because he's an enormous guy that was a really good pass protector. How is it going to be a little above average, a little below average or average is my question. I don't see the physical skill, the athleticism in Blake Brandel to be a top notch guard, but can he move some bodies? Can he do well enough at pass pro? I think he can. That's just where i stand on

him right now we won't really know until we start seeing the games because for guards and centers what over the last couple years has become so big for them and i think it's the reason why pff grades for guards have gone down in pass protection is the complex stuff it's the stunts the twists the Blitzes the confusion all of that is a major part of playing that guard position now that wasn't as much even you know years ago uh skull for life uh nudie will make the team you guys like calling them nudie Dwight Mcgothern i try i don't use nicknames too much um and i'm definitely not using nudie but uh dwight mcglothern has a good chance to make team he does but somebody has to go they have in the past i believe kept maybe five corners if jay ward counts as a corner it's six there and i've got jay ward making the, but if you remove Jay Ward and put in

Dwight McClother and which you can do, McClother is a more talented outside corner. Then you're going to have to have a response on special teams where Jay Ward is a valuable piece. I think of the special teams, that's a decision for them though. Do they want to keep ward? Uh, do they want to keep, uh, you know, um, do, do they want to keep a Fabian Morrow, the veteran who has come in here for a couple of weeks that I don't know, uh, guard guy. Good to see a guard guy. I heard Peyton Manning is filming Blake Brandel for quarterback season three guard. You know, those guys would never do it because offensive linemen don't want to bring attention to themselves. They are amazing, amazing human beings. They are the funniest guys in the locker room most of the time.

A lot of times they're the smartest guys football-wise in the locker room. They have their own unique culture they go through things that people don't understand no one understands offensive line play i've always said this i've said this to offensive linemen no one understands your job except you we all understand wide receivers jobs we all understand running backs we all understand quarterbacks none of us understand offensive line play it's so complicated there's so much going on there in the fastest uh you know point zero whatever seconds that the ball gets snapped and something is happening immediately they're really interesting guys and i would love netflix to do it it would

be great they wouldn't get ratings but it would be fantastic uh sean says surefield i like his game he's good blocker uh and a receiver catches the ball on a run or a run play yeah i like surefield too i think he's done a good job here and i think that having him on this roster as a special teamer slash bit player would give them a little more flexibility and what they like to do is they like to have somebody who can play the role of somebody else trent surefield can play the role of brandon powell brandon powell is a little bit more of a playmaker a little bit more quick and underneath stuff run after catch he's shifty surefield can probably be that guy uh let's see mark says uh nobody's taking andre i assume andre carter um if he goes to the practice squad beau flashed more and his history shows more promising than andre well andre had like 18

sacks in a season in college so i i don't know about that um beau was beau richter was a one year player in college who has a great athletic profile and needs a lot of development. Andre Carter has had an entire year of development. He's had an entire year in the scheme. That's why I picked Carter. And it's to your point, when you say no one's taking him, he had a lot of interest. He was one of the highest paid undrafted free agents.

Teams keep an eye on that stuff and might pick him up. Whereas Bo Richter was a way down the list type of free agent. That's my logic there. Uh, I, I think that people fall in love with a guy like Bo Richter because he, where did he come from? Is it a air force? Uh, and he's got a big giant arm thing and he sacked a couple of quarterbacks in the preseason and he's just like a lovable type of Mr Mankato kind of guy but I think that Carter might be a better fit I could be wrong uh you could be right but that that's just how I was looking at it with this 53. uh guard guy wish we could go back to 1993 and watch Randall McDaniel play what we would have done to deserve

to watch Vikings guards of the past. Oh, I mean the past Vikings guards, there were a lot, a lot of great, uh, past, uh, past guards for sure. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I, did I skip the interior of the defensive line as I was talking? Oh, that is i'm sorry i actually did skip the d line yeah okay my bad let me run through that because there's some interesting decisions there sorry guys harrison phillips jerry tillery jonathan bullard james lynch levi drake rodriguez and jonah williams Lynch, Levi Drake, Rodriguez, and Jonah Williams is the list there. Um, Lynch is an interesting one because he's coming off the ACL and it's not clear, uh, where he fits in. If he fits in, um, talkie Taimani has been pretty darn good in the preseason. He's a huge giant run stuffer. They might like Jalen Redmond has been good in the preseason i think these guys

have had a good time but the controversial cut would be jaqueline roy just feel like i haven't seen a next step for jaqueline roy that i was expecting and jonah williams is the veteran they brought in levi drake rodriguez is a guy that you can't cut at this point i think he's got enough attention his film has been good that someone would pick him up if you cut him. Um, so there you go. Sorry about that. I just, I didn't scroll down far enough on, uh, the site there. And I ended up forgetting, but Jaqueline Roy and Williams is a difficult call. Williams is a veteran, but you know, Jaqueline Roy just last year, grab some attention and hasn't really built on that. Let's see.

Anthony says, I need some more Najee Thompson. If he's played his last snap in purple, I'm going to be heartbroken. We just haven't seen him at all during this entire training camp, which makes me wonder about IR that he might just end up going on IR. and then he'll come back if they have a spot for him to come back and even with a guy like that he could probably end up on the practice squad anyway it just makes it a little bit less dramatic when there's so many practice squad spots but naji thompson very likable player very good at his job we haven't really heard anything about when he could come back maybe that's another one to to check out uh aaron what kind of pizza look i'm not a complicated pizza person it's just gonna be a pepperoni pizza that's it i'm a simple man a lot just this is straightforward i'm not doing

pineapple i'm not doing anything weird to it i i don't even, I've never even tasted an anchovy. People act like that's a common thing to put on pizza. I don't know. Just straight up your usual cheese pepperoni. I'm good to go. It's all I need. Uh, Zoomer Kev, who is your 54th player? The guy who just missed the roster that would have been McClothern. Um, that, you know, I think he's had a really good training camp and that was a hard one to figure out. He could still make the team if they're afraid of losing him. And they could cut someone like Fabian Morrow and put them on the practice squad as a veteran on the practice squad. If he agrees to it, if there's not any other interest for him or Bobby McCain, same thing that secondary has some difficult decisions, difficult decisions to make.

So McLaughlin was the toughest guy to cut for me. Marley says, I have nothing to add to the discussion. Just here to shout out Bo Richter. You guys love Bo Richter. He's a really, he's been a really fun player to watch. And I think that there is a chance in the future that Bo can develop into somebody that they can use on the back end of the edge rushing group. Um, I don't have him on making the roster, but I would not be totally

shocked that if he does, because he has had a good training camp in preseason, he might be just a little bit on your side of seeing only the preseason games a little bit overrated from what we've seen in training camp and i'm not saying bo richter's overrated i'm saying that because he's been really good and has made some splash plays he really jumps off the page where in training camp practices we haven't seen as much work from him and there hasn't been as many of those splash type of rushes that they would have seen in camp. But I mean, he's been good. And if he makes the team, then I won't be terribly shocked.

I just have someone like Andre Carter getting it instead of him. Let's see. Travis says, is guard a position they could look to upgrade post cuts? Or is it Brandel, Ingram, or Bust? No, I mean, last year they brought in Dalton Reisner a couple of weeks into the season. And David question, Barry, really too. Sometimes with offensive linemen fit ends up being a big deal. And scheme ends up being a big deal where they might get cut by another team.

And you think, oh, well, the guy got cut by another team. He must be horrible. And then he goes be horrible and then he goes somewhere else and plays okay who was that was that quentin spain that happened uh a few years ago maybe i think the wrong guy um but it does happen from time to time that an offensive lineman doesn't quite fit no who was it was the guy it went from the bills to the browns the bills cut him big giant guy someone correct me on this who this was and he turned out to the Browns, the bills cut him big giant guy. Someone correct me on this, who this was. And he turned out to be very good for the Browns because he was just a better scheme

fit there. They could look for someone. The answer is yes, that they could maybe cut Michael Juergens, put them on the practice squad or cut Dan Feeney altogether. Look for somebody else. It is hard to find competition when somebody hasn't played for this team all the way through mini camp and training camp to then come in at the very end so it's possible but probably not how long did it take Reisner to actually get in the games I mean it might have been a whole month maybe three four weeks then you know I you're gonna have ed ingram more likely than not for at least the start of first half of the season even if they do that jonathan how are we going to be feeling if zimmer makes andrew booth jr into a solid corner

you know that was a weird one to me with andrew booth jr and brian flores somebody get andrew booth jr on a podcast right away. Andrew, if you want to come on here and say something about Brian Flores, it's hot right now and it won't be by tomorrow. So do it this moment. I just don't think it was ever a fit of how Brian Flores wanted to play with his corners.

It seemed like he wanted his corners to be very aggressive tacklers. And that's not necessarily Andrew Booth's thing. His thing is more off coverage, mirroring, tracking wide receivers, making plays on the football, which he was very good at in college. But he also got toasted a bunch early in training camp. Vikings have good wide receivers. I mean, Jefferson does that to a lot

of people it just it never clicked there with andrew booth jr it just never clicked and so i don't think it was a fit with floris and i don't think that he performed very well in the opportunities he did get maybe zimmer will get something out of him uh but look who they traded back i mean a guy who's gonna get cut I don't know that was one of those do you got somebody that we might want to take a look at yeah do you got somebody we might want to take a look at I would be very surprised if we someday see Andrew Booth Jr emerging as a starting corner for somebody but I could see why Zimmer would take a shot maybe he evaluated him in the draft and liked what he saw because he does have the ability to footwork wise, stay with people, but he just

didn't make plays in either one of the training camps. Uh, Dale says the 25 season is going to be the year for us, but how do you think we will be able to get a guard defensive tackle corner with so few picks next year yeah well when you're looking in the draft anyway it's pretty rare that you're trying to fill spots for that season so they draft alice turner but not to fill the edge rusher spot this season he'll be a part of a group and then in the future he's going to be the guy at the edge and that's how it usually works unless you're drafting in the top five is you're usually not drafting to try to fill a need right away. You're looking for over multiple years, just trying to get a good player. I think defensive

tackle though, you have to draft at the top in order to get that position to be good. It's rare that guys are even second or third round picks and become top players at defensive tackle. That's the position I'd be identifying already to get a difference maker at after Jerry Tillery fills a role here or they move on from Harrison Phillips. He'll probably come back, at least I think as of right now, but maybe someone like Jonathan Bullard you're replacing with a penetrating defensive tackle that you're looking for next year. Maybe that guy can have an impact right away, but really all those things you're replacing with a penetrating defensive tackle that you're looking for next year.

Maybe that guy can have an impact right away, but really all those things you're talking about free agency. The day we do the live show on free agency, I expect records because this team is going to have a lot of money to spend and a lot of motivation to spend it around JJ McCarthy. And as long as they can have a reasonable enough year and look like a team for the future, this is another reason that tanking is not in the cards because you want other players to see an eight or nine win team in Minnesota and go, you know what? They've got a lot of cap space. They've got a notably good culture and good building. And also I'm not going to lose a bunch of

games that they could even make you know a good season out of sam darnold but free agency is where they're going to have to fill a lot of that stuff that's why they did so much work on the salary cap as they did over the last couple of years to get it to this point this was a major part of the plan and where quesadilla flamenco and rob brzezinski deserve a ton of credit because next year, those positions, they feel a little bit like, man, you know, you're going to need quite a few guys there. Well, this year they got a linebacker, two edge rushers and a running back and free agency. They're probably going to add the same type of hall next season. Matt says, I apologize if you've gone through

the quarterbacks already um but i hope that they don't try to keep hall on the 53 he's perfect for practice squad and if some other team wants to put him on their roster good luck yeah i started with the quarterbacks many minutes ago and i agree with you i think that jaron hall is good for the quarterback room kevin o'Connell likes him. He, if he had to play, he would know the offense well enough to walk into the huddle, call a play, get out there and run it. But over a bigger sample, he's not going to be someone I think at this moment, he looks like someone you can't really even trust to be a backup quarterback like Nick Mullins. But that's what they're hoping he becomes maybe for next year likely they still have a

veteran at backup next year there's no issue with keeping him on the practice squad but as far as the 53 there's just a lot of other players that have a good case to be kept on the 53. So I'm with you on Jaron Hall. Travis is not counting Brian Flores. What coach on the staff could you see as a future head coach candidate? That's a good question. I think that Keenan McArdle deserves more attention as an offensive coordinator, potentially.

That's one. I'm not sure if Wes Phillips gets enough attention under O'Connell, although Kevin O'Connell ended up getting a head coaching job. So there is that under McVay, but they had to win the Super Bowl in order for him to get the attention there. If the Vikings with Sam Darnold end up with a top seven to 10 offense, maybe Wes Phillips gets a lot of attention after that. Because, I mean, look at Pat Shermer. Nobody

was naming Pat Shermer head coach anywhere until they saw the Vikings win 13 games with Case Keenum. And then all of a sudden the New York Giants won Pat Shermer. It could be that way for Wes Phillips. Durante Jones has been a coach that a lot of people really like. He was here in the Zimmer staff and the floor staff, which really speaks well of Durante Jones. He's someone that could rise up a little bit more eventually, probably with Flores here would have to go somewhere else. If he wanted to have a chance at that, those are the two guys I think of the most. And I think if there might be anybody else, there might be some younger coaches that i don't know about who aren't position coaches yet who i just don't interact with but i don't know if micardo will ever get his chance to be a head coach maybe as an offensive coordinator and matt daniels has

great leadership capabilities a real presence in the room a way about him that you connect to guys being head coaches. There's this Mike Tomlin thing. That's maybe the easiest way to describe it. Someone who is clearly in charge has a presence about them, motivates players extremely well, finds good roles for guys, but special teamers just do not get on special teams, coaches enough attention. Maybe if they're the best kick return team in the league, Matt Daniels will get a little

bit more. They just don't get the love that they deserve. And those guys often have to be the best or really, really good at identifying players. A lot of times it comes from like those players who show up as undrafted free agents. It comes from developing on the special teams. They have to know a lot of different circumstances, prepare for a lot of different things. You would have thought after John Harbaugh got his job that more guys would have gotten attention for it, but maybe Joe judge ruined it for everyone.

What about Bob, Matt? What is your opinion of Denver head coach, Sean Payton? I think he's ego driven, self-made man in love with the maker completely self-absorbed and disconnected i'm not really i mean i don't cover sean payton so i don't really know him i think that what he was able to do is exactly what tua is kind of talking about and alluding to which is to form this deeply connected bond between the head coach and the quarterback. And there's a lot of things that you can overlook when the head coach forms that bond, when

the quarterback fully understands every single bit of the offense inside and out and can operate it in the middle of his sleep get the ball to his playmakers play on time this stuff works it i don't know that it travels because it depends on the player that drew breeze is an unbelievable football player and perfect for sean payton so it worked there despite a lot of other stuff that went on with Peyton because of Drew Brees if Bo Nix clicks with Peyton the same way Brees did then watch out if he doesn't then he's probably going to get fired in a couple years that he can be an ego man I'm sure he's an egomaniac a lot of coaches are and you know I just think that guys like him it's all and and really anyone it's always going to

come down to whether your quarterback plays well enough because that's what sean payton is really there for i don't think he's there to form this perfect flawless culture where everybody's included and it's kumbaya like kevin o'connell has done here where it's the collaboration or whatever i think he's much more i'm the czar i'm in charge everything is about me and my quarterback and my offense and sometimes that works if you got the right quarterback uh sloth says who are a couple players not on your initial 53 but because of practice squad rules will contribute well the deep cut would be uh taki taimani i mean i just really like the guy he is a mountain of a human being mcgothern is definitely another one let's think about that uh if they put jaqueline roy on the practice squad i could see that

maybe if they keep miles gaskin on the practice squad and they need him he could be somebody lucky jackson at wide receiver maybe a cornerback at some point those guys always end up showing up you know jaylen williams is a guy we never talked about and then last year showed up in a game somewhere so they always kind of end up showing up uh anthony says might swoop uh for naylor in fantasy for week one because addison is out in case addison is out thinking about it naylor is an intriguing one and remember promo code purple on underdog fantasy if uh you sign up for it it helps the show they keep track of those things the more they like how this is going the more uh they support the show so promo code purple anyway uh you know what Naylor is an interesting one because they are going to throw

the football a lot I guarantee it he makes plays every game or every practice and in in every game in the preseason games as well they've really liked him and there is a chance that he does have to play um for a couple of weeks with Jordan Addison I like it I like it as a deep cut as somebody to take uh way down in your uh draft Matt says I saw someone online oh online say that uh there's a rule now that you could put two guys on IR that won't count against the 53. yeah, that's right. We were talking about that at practice the other day. I believe you have to do it the day of cut down, put them on IR and it's IR to return and it doesn't count against 53. I believe that's correct. And that's why I put Hawkinson on IR in my 53, uh, because I was kind of going off of that rule. So I hope that's right. Cause that's how I did my

53 Alex, Jordy Nelson or Adam Thielen and their primes. Good question. Maybe if Adam Thielen had Aaron Rogers, I would go ever so slightly Adam Thielen, I think, but I'm not really sure about that. The connection between Nelson and Rogers was absurd and he was a great wide receiver. Thielen had more chaos from the quarterback position and was good over multiple quarterbacks. Thielen was a great route runner. Uh, Jordy Nelson, I thought was a good route runner, but was very good at back shoulder catches, contested catches, tough call, but I'm going to give the edge to the guy who had to battle through, uh, not having great quarterback play at the level of aaron rogers all the time i shot you 99 do you think you've seen all you need to see from sam darnold or is there still

room for improvement as the season goes on if he plays like he has during training camp what you're going to see is some really jaw dropping throws from Sam Darnold. And you're going to see some jaw dropping throws for bad reasons. Like you can't believe that he just threw that football. That's what I've seen from Darnold. There's been more good than bad over training camp. And the improvement will really be stop throwing the interceptions. It hasn't been insane. The number of picks he's thrown during camp, but most of them have been the same kind of interception. I can do it. I can get the ball there. I can throw it off this platform. I can force it into that window. And if he can

cut down on that a little bit, use your Aaron Jones to your favor, then that's going to be good. But his connection with Jefferson is the biggest thing. I feel like his connection with the receivers has been pretty good. There's, I mean, things to work on. It's hard to say because we're not seeing it in real action. We're only seeing it in practice, but it's making sure he doesn't take sacks, getting rid of the football on time. The sacks I think have happened from time to time. It's, it's really the negative place place that's what it really comes down to uh anthony says i like hockey i like him too he's a big mammoth human being and a lot of times those guys come from undrafted free agency or late

picks uh what if we just ran three rhino rushing bull rushers on the inside and they don't need to have a pass rush well that's kind of what they're going for it when artillery is supposed to make some progress there but they're really going for just plow the middle create gaps for guys to blitz in create problems inside for to allow the edge rushers to do their thing on the outside stuff the run by yourself because you're going to use smaller you know metellus and guys like that um oh wyatt teller yes well done wally thank you wyatt teller was the guy who i was thinking of where it just didn't work in buffalo at all then he became a beast so sometimes you're looking for those guys uh joe berger was another guy for the v the Vikings they picked them up if he wasn't really anything with Miami came up a really good uh a really good guard for

them and Center for two years uh let's see Roxanne says I live in South Florida welcome Roxanne from South Florida everything I heard is that most Dolphins fans love Flores and I'm a Vikings fan you know when it comes to where the fans go a lot of times it's whatever way the wind happens to be blowing uh Brian Flores overachieved in Miami he turned around their defense and he put them in position to make playoffs every year outside of that first year i think that he was there the tank year he won a lot of games the record between flores and mcdaniel was the same and there are probably a lot of fans who were on the side of brian flores because his defenses were so good he's an intense old school style football coach that a lot of people connect with. Clearly his quarterback just did not feel like the way he coached him, got the most out of him. And I guess I wish that Tua used different words to

describe that, that even being really hard on someone, even being over the top part on someone is a style of coaching in the national football league. And sometimes it works for certain players. And sometimes it doesn't, it definitely gets old on quarterbacks. It grates on them. It makes life difficult, but it's not like it's new. It's not like it's some crazy thing that he did. And if you're not going to give specifics about what was said that made you so upset then it's hard for me to think that there's much more to this than it just didn't work out between those two guys and the circumstances dictated a lot of how flores treated tua which seems like he didn't want him and it was foisted upon him and then he didn't want to play him and that was foisted upon him as well he didn't want to play him. And that was foisted upon him as well.

And, uh, there might've been some resentment there. So yeah, I that's, I'm sure that fans did like it because he won a lot of football games. And if they had, who knows if they had traded for Tyree kill and drafted Jalen Waddle while Brian Flores was still there and they had an offense that worked a little better than the one that he brought in maybe tua gets treated a lot nicer if brian flores hadn't been fired for yeah reasons um so that's kind of where we're at with that uh uh mel kill says uh what exactly are ed ingram's shortcomings is Is it physical, mental, scheme, or question marks? Well, question marks is in there somewhere.

You know, the problem with offensive line is this. It's definitely not physical. The man is a monster when it comes to his physical size. But when you think about the thin line of offensive line play and how difficult it is to get 70 snaps in a game and go 70 for 70 with not having negative plays. If you go 65 for 70, you've done terribly as an offensive lineman or let's say pass protection. If you've gone 35 for 40 and you gave up five pressures, you did horribly that day. If you gave up three pressures, it wasn't too bad. If you gave up five pressures. You did horribly that day. If you gave up three pressures, it wasn't too bad.

If you gave up two pressures, it was a pretty good game. I mean, there's a thin line there, which means that the mental attention span has to be so sharp and the attention to detail and the technique. And there can't be, oh, yeah, he has a tendency to lunge. And then, OK, I'm trying to fix that. But then you lunge, which I see a lot from him. I see the quick losses. Quick losses are probably the biggest problem from Ed Ingram,

whether it's lunging or whether he's trying to guess on what the defender is going to do or whether I think he doesn't identify things particularly fast and that the level of grit from him versus his size does not match up on tape all the time. There are some weeks where he goes after people and he's pushing the pile. There are other weeks where he's a little more passive. Consistency is such a big deal at the offensive line position.

And it just seems to me like he lacks it, which a lot of offensive linemen do. Uh, but his losses are, that might be the biggest issue right there. His L's are very bad. It's like the guy goes right by him and sacks quarterback. Sometimes if you have negative plays, but you get a, you get an elbow on the guy. I actually wrote an article about this once with Brian O'Neneill that one of brian o'neill's biggest skills is that when he loses he's still able to push the guy by or get a hand on him i talked to o'neill and a couple of other offensive linemen about the oblique moments that kind of define offensive line is just being able to get a hand on somebody and if you're lunging at them or you're firing your hands and missing,

then you're just gonna lose instantly. And I think that in college, that just doesn't happen as much as it does in the NFL, where if you do it against Kenny Clark or Grady Jarrett, then your quarterback's just getting murdered. A couple more questions, then I'm gonna go eat some pizza. I'm already past pizza time.

Anthony says, quarterbacks are so athletic these days one guy is not uh gonna run down caleb or jordan love it's going to take a total team effort and good strategies and and i really think that they have built at this point a complete defense if it remains healthy i think they have this is the best defense we've seen since 2019 and it reminds me of that defense where it's not perfect and it has flaws still but it is with stefan gilmore here a lot more rock solid than it has been in the past there's no even with with tillery is an improvement there isn't a position that i'm looking at going now that gilmore's here oh man this is just brutal um if there's an injury to gilmore or byron murphy it could be problematic if there's an injury a defensive tackle it could be problematic i think the defensive tackles have had a good camp and pre-season a little bit of pre-season but

joint practices if we count that better than I thought I was going to come out feeling about them, that doesn't mean they're great. It just means a little bit better. And the edge rushing group, the safeties, the linebackers, just fantastic across the board. So you're right. And it's, it is going to be a group, a group effort. Uh, oh gosh, says, I think this team is solid. It's not like we have gaping holes. Um, we sure have some guys starting that shouldn't be, but that's pretty much every team, right? I mean, going forward in the future, you're not likely to be able to get every single position locked in. Like wasn't Tom Compton starting on one of the San Francisco teams that went to the super bowl or whatever. You're always going to have some weaknesses, but can you

survive injuries is a huge thing. Who can you put in? If somebody gets hurt right now, not a great scene at some positions. And a lot of it comes down to how weak is your biggest weakness and how strong, how many superstar caliber players do you have? Grenard, Van Ginkle, Cashman. These guys are borderline. They're at least star. And they could use another superstar caliber player, probably a defensive tackle or corner to get themselves up over the top.

Sean says last year, 43 team sacks, 19th. How much higher this year? 48 is top 10. 48 sounds about reasonable it doesn't feel like they're going to have a million more sacks with this unit but dallas turner and van ginkle adding more flexibility to this thing and more depth of pass rushing could be but quarterbacks do they play quarterbacks who take sacks that is also a big thing the real question is corinne robinson or marcus robinson i think marcus robinson well that's a good question i think marcus robinson was better than corinne robinson but maybe i'm

mistaking my robinsons uh, enemy cap. Do you see our interior offensive line being a problem this year? Could we maybe see noticeable improvement with the extra time together? That's what, that's what everybody is. I'm sure in TCO performance center hoping for, I don't have huge hopes that it'll be wildly better than it was last year. I think it will be improved, but I don't think it's going it'll be wildly better than it was last year. I think it will be improved, but I don't think it's going to be crazy better. That said, the Vikings probably have about the 12th best offensive line in the league. As long as Ingram doesn't regress, and as long as Brandel is not a disaster, if he's just as good as Reisner was, or even Ezra

Cleveland, because they have a a tackle because they could put in extra tight ends it's not the problem it used to be but it's still the biggest question is can their guards hold up Anthony says one under the radar player on offensive defense that you're excited to see see with you guys it's hard to come up with under the radar things because you watch this show and we talk about everybody all the time so you know the taki tayamanis and beau richter's and all that stuff it's hard to trick you guys uh and say oh yeah well this you know this guy or that guy is way under the radar but i'm curious about on the defensive side what theo jackson's role is i think it will be expanded and i do want to see how uh jalen naylor and brandon powell fit into this thing how they use them and whether we do

see someone like tristan jackson get opportunities at wide receiver and maybe it's kenny wong who ends up being the under the radar guy because they've used them so much at running back but that's probably that's probably where i would go with it uh matt says uh great crystal ball episode thank you go check that out with ben gessling always very fun uh crystal ball telling me seven and ten season it's off awfully difficult to tell the order there's such a different isn't it crazy there's such a difference between say like a seven and ten and a nine and eight even though it's only two games and that's why it's so hard to pick the schedule pick the how it's gonna work out it could be two fumbles it could be two field goals and this team is just gonna have to ride that kind of wave that's where i see them being and it could go one way or the other and those have very different results i mean you go nine and eight and you're right there in the playoff race make it or not

you still have a winning record the way that everybody feels about that versus seven and ten even if it's two field goals that get missed at the end of a game, which will not happen with Will Reichardt or two fumbles or whatever it might be. That's really last year. Last year was a Alexander Madison fumble against the Denver Broncos is the one I go back to and just, and then a Nick Mullins throw it out in front of Justin Jefferson against the lions. You win that game. If they win those and go nine and eight, we are going, I mean, whoa, do you believe in Kevin O'Connell to win those and go nine and eight we are going I mean

whoa do you believe in Kevin O'Connell to be able to go nine and eight under those circumstances you go seven and ten you I don't know about that extension crazy league it is a crazy league but we enjoy it and we cover every part of it so lots coming up on the show I've got oh Mike Renner is coming up uh later on in the week from CBS now he was with pff he's got a great new podcast gonna do that interview tomorrow morning got the underdog presented fantasy show coming up then the show goes to Vegas for two days Thursday and Friday myself Brian Murphy will be doing shows out there live live chats with you guys. We're going to get some interviews out there as well. Really, really excited to do that at the end of this week.

And that's for their millions and survivor contest. We do that every year. So really excited. Great week here on the show. We're almost there. We're marching toward it. One more preseason game, one more preseason postgame show where we have to react to something and we go forth.

All right, here's everybody's goal. Tomorrow, no controversies, no injuries, no season-altering things happening with the Vikings. Let me be me tomorrow and just cover a regular practice. So before I go to Vegas, I'm not dealing with anything. How about we do that? All right, right now, zero days without a controversy nationally around the Vikings. practice so before I go to Vegas I'm not dealing with anything how about we do that all right right now zero days without a controversy nationally around the Vikings thanks everybody for watching I'm gonna go eat some pizza I hope you do too and we will talk to you very soon again football