Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy likes the way the Vikings handled draft night

Episode Date: April 27, 2024

Matthew Coller is joined by Brian Murphy, live from draft central in Detroit, to discuss how the Vikings handled the first-round Thursday night. Plus hear JJ McCarthy's full press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me from the Motor City where he was there for the draft last night, Brian Murphy. I mean, first we got to get to your reaction and then I want to hear a little more about what you did in Detroit. You are a Detroit native and you watched a heck of a lot of J.J. McCarthy and a run by Michigan football to a championship last year. So, Brian Murphy, give it to me, man.

What do you think about what happened last night? Well, I think he seemed to be on their radar, McCarthy, for a long time here. It was fun to watch, I mean, to see six QBs taken in the first 12 picks. I mean, I guess we shouldn't be shocked, but that was a hell of a run, a historic run. But to watch, you know, to watch the Falcons, I don't know what the Falcons are doing, but to watch the Falcons kind of cattle prod the Vikings into doing what they needed to do to secure J.J. McCarthy was probably the most entertaining part of the draft last night. And, you know, we all know, you know, Quasio Del Fomensa was on the clock literally

because his previous two years were underwhelming to say the least managing the draft. Everybody knew this was a franchise defining moment, not just for him and Kevin O'Connell, but just for the Wilson general. I mean, it's very rare that the Vikings ever target a quarterback in the first round, and it's very rare that they've never, I don't think, drafted top 10 before. Dante Kolturper, I think, was 11th in 1999. So we knew this was going to be sort of a franchise shape-shifting kind of a night, and it was interesting to see they were, you know,

Kwesi was not going to let McCarthy slip through his fingers. And if he had, if the Broncos had somehow outmaneuvered and found a way to leave the Vikings holding their hat in their hands at number 11, that would have been an unmitigated disaster. So they did what they had to do. I was impressed with how aggressive, too. They moved up and, you know, kind of broke against the grain and decided to get one of the best defensive players out there in Alabama, Ed Drescher, Dallas Turner. did they overpay? You know, have they drained their draft capital? Yes, in some ways,

but I don't know if that's something you need to be fretting about this morning. They are better positioned for the future than they were 24, 48 hours ago. And that kind of leaves us to all kinds of possibilities. It may not be a banner season in 2024, but it's certainly going to be a different season with a different set of expectations and personalities. And it's going to be interesting to see how they bring McCarthy into the fold. The way that Kweisi Adafomensa managed the draft board, to me, with a lot of patience, and I think I would have probably panicked

if I were in his shoes. When you get to number five, I mean, it was kind of out there that Arizona wanted Marvin Harrison Jr. They were going to stay. But in a draft with so many good offensive linemen, you could have seen number five, the Chargers saying, hey, we'll drop back. We'll draft an offensive lineman somewhere else rather than taking a lineman at number five that they would have been kind of the team to target there. And then you get to even number seven, another team that was taking alignment,

another team that could have traded back. And Kweisi Daffomenta has a relationship with the GM of the Titans to not panic, to have a very good sense of nobody else is going to be able to get up there or no one else is going to take that shot from behind us and let it kind of come to him was very well played. It was a little risky. It was like kind of the very risky, you know, going toward the edge and you can't go over and be left without a quarterback here and yet found a way to not give up major draft capital. And that was the key to last night

because every quarterback in my mind had a price that you would go okay all right that's fine you know if they gave up everything for drake may okay that's fine if they gave up a little for jj mccarthy they gave up almost nothing for jj mccarthy and then to just box out the broncos and the raiders to say all right we're gonna make sure we're just gonna move up that one spot and just make sure now that we're here on the doorstep. That was something, like you said, that was more of a veteran general manager managing the draft in the way that he did, as opposed to like what we saw in Kweisi Adafo-Mentz's first draft. But that's why we shouldn't judge someone in their first year as a general manager. I think it was actually good for him to have this run-up of a couple of seasons in the hot seat there in a good way as a GM to be able to make this move. Well, I think that's what makes maybe the

draft more attractive, exciting, and intriguing to watch, particularly the first night, first round, obviously. I mean, I've never been one to really dive into watching the draft and trying to figure out the machinations, because usually the Vikings are not in play for high-level maneuvering like they were last night. Either they're shooting themselves in the foot by not getting a pick in time, they're trading back out, they're moving down, they're not as relevant, and then you're left kind of teeth gnashing and hand-wringing about the whole thing. But to watch how the first 10 to 12 picks and, and how the team's maneuvered. And it's like you mentioned, I mean,

it was as much about being aggressive to get McCarthy, but also being aggressive to watch your flank because everybody knew the Broncos were hot, hot, hot for a quarterback at 12. The Raiders were in the mix too. And then when the Falcons throw a monkey wrench into things by shocking the world and shocking Kirk Cousins to his well-compensated toes, I'm sure, then you're now looking at, you know, the pressure is building, the clock is literally ticking, and you need to make sure that you have, you know, measured, smart, aggressive, and ultimately responsible decisions made in the draft room. And it looked like it was executed last night to perfection.

Now, was this Kwasi's plan all along? Has this been a slow play to this moment? Because obviously the last couple of Aprils have been fairly underwhelming, save maybe for Jordan Addison. But I found it interesting that the Vikings didn't allow themselves to get boxed in to overpay and also get outmaneuvered. And I think that was as much of the story as it was who they got. It's how they got them and how they prevented others from getting them. Yeah, and the strategizing also to go and get Dallas Turner, who was one of the elite prospects in the draft.

No one would have been shocked at all if Dallas Turner had gone to the Atlanta Falcons. It was probably one of the most mocked draft picks out there during draft season that everyone thought, all right, there will probably be one defensive player to Atlanta, and that will go number eight. It'll probably be Dallas Turner. But a couple guys go off first, Leatu Latu and Byron Murphy, two very good prospects as well. And the Vikings decide this is a guy who's perfect for Brian Flores,

which I think if you look at his resume, he runs a 4-4-6 as an edge rusher, which is pretty wild. But he also played 90 snaps last year in coverage. He's a versatile player. He's got all the tools to be a star. I mean, this just seems like fit is a huge part of Dallas Turner. But I want to go back to your reaction with JJ McCarthy specifically. One thing that I always warn against is trying to decide on draft night whether you like a quarterback or don't like a quarterback.

But what is your feeling about him knowing that there is some unknowns the way that they played from Michigan? That was the word that Qu played from michigan that was the word that quase used was unknowns i think that's a good way to phrase it uh but also somebody that has won a lot in his football career and has tools to be a franchise quarterback i mean he's got a winning pedigree pedigree that's obviously his largest asset, right? He was 27-1 as a starter, 15-0 last year with Michigan. Very accurate. I think his 72-plus completion percentage was a school record. And, you know, Michigan hasn't necessarily been known as a quarterback factory,

but that's 120-some years of football. He's the most accurate passer in the school's history. He's only 21, so he was the youngest of the first-round quarterbacks. But you're right. I mean, Michigan was a run-heavy, Jim Harbaugh, grind-it-out, old-school pro style. Maybe I think he threw 20 to 25 passes a game. But, you know, how do you overlook what he was able to accomplish as a leader?

It's not easy to play at Michigan. It's not easy to be in that hothouse scrutiny. And he was able to beat Ohio State the last couple of years as well, which is, I mean, in Ann Arbor, I mean, you could be elected president for doing that. I think it's going to be, what I'm really going to be fascinated by is how the Vikings kind of frame in the next couple of months, what their expectations are for developing and allowing McCarthy to compete with Sam Darnold, not only in the offseason, but in training camp. Because, look, you can easily go 4-13 with Sam Darnold next year,

and I don't think anybody would be shocked. You can also go 4-13 with J.J. McCarthy, but does that mean he's going to be getting beaten up and having his confidence chewed up and facing sort of a Christian ponder in over his head expectation level? Or are they going to be able to plug and play him and allow him to maybe get some battle scars and some experience in a rebuilding year?

Now, the Vikings are never going to call this a rebuilding year, but you've got to look at the division with Green Bay and Detroit sort of ascending. Chicago is going to be building for a while. But it's not like the Vikings' nine wins are going to get you in anymore. So I'm going to see how they allow him to compete with Darnold. What are going to be the benchmarks for getting him starting snaps? What are going to be the benchmarks for pulling the plug if they're one and four

and Darnold's going nowhere? How are they going to both allow McCarthy to grow into the role they want him to be without ruining him too soon? These are all the things that are now going to be fun to watch because, you know, Kevin O'Connell's a quarterback guy. He's a quarterback guru. He played the position. McCarthy seems like, in I've read that he had great contact with him and great relationships inside the Vikings. So what are they going to want to do with him? So that's what I'm going to be looking for next. But I mean, I don't look at his diminished stats. You know, it's easy to have inflated stats that don't really get you anywhere. I think he's got some championship metal to him. He's got some thick skin. I mean, look, 27-1 for a huge college program is nothing

to blink an eye at, even if he's only throwing 170 yards a game. What are the Vikings? They got Aaron Jones. They obviously have some offensive pieces in place. He may be in a position to develop because of those around him that can help make him better as opposed to the burden being on him to make everyone else better. But as you mentioned, it is important that they kept the first round pick for next year, by the way, because that might be a fairly high pick. And it is really important also that they brought in Sam Darnold because they don't have to play J.J. McCarthy right away. And if he's got the offense down and they feel great about it and he's ready to go, then OK.

But Darnold gives you a really good bar to have to clear. So it's not like they draft them and then, hey, this is all on you, kid. We're nobody else there. It's just you and Jaron Hall and Nick Mullins or something. And it kind of reminded me almost with McCarthy of a little bit in hockey when you draft someone who's 18 years old, and it's all about what you're going to see from them two years from now when they call them up from juniors or something. It's sort of like that with McCarthy, where he's so inexperienced and he is so raw as a quarterback, and he's never had it all put on his shoulders which we know kevin o'connell if o'connell would do that with josh dobbs he's going to do it with jj mccarthy but i think if o'connell can help himself and not panic himself when it

comes to this if darnold throws four interceptions not just be like all right throw in the kid you want to make sure that he's 100 ready to to go. And the patience has paid off. But what I think happened over this last number of months is that these guys have earned their stripes as being believed in by the ownership, the way that they've put this all together. So they should be given this patience. It shouldn't be a, well, man, you guys better win next year. Or, you know, it's hot seats for you in 2025 or something. It should, this next year should be, this is, it's important to develop JJ McCarthy

in the right way and let them do that. Like from an ownership perspective, from a Vikings fans perspective, you need to let them do that for next year, even if it is not a championship season. Yeah, I mean, it's easy to chew up a potential quarterback or a prospective quarterback right away. And if you ruin their confidence and you ruin their opportunities to develop and you put the burden of either a playoff run and or the future of the franchise and or the job security of the front office and the head coach on a 21, 22-year-old kid who's just trying to find his way, that is a recipe for disaster. And I think fans should be prepared. Nobody in Eagan is going to mention the word rebuilding. They're not going to mention competitive rebuild anymore because that's been beaten into the ground. But let's be honest. I don't want to say 2024 would be a lost season because it's not.

Because if you're developing McCarthy and you're kind of reshaping who you are financially and also competitively, you're going to you're going to have there's going to be the potential there for losses and there's going to be a potential there for pain. What kind of pain is it going to be pain that's going to pay off later, like in the weight room, or is it going to be pain that, you know, is catastrophic and going to put you in the hospital? I'm talking about from a fan's expectation. Go into this season hoping for the best, not bracing for the worst, but sort of expecting somewhere in the middle. And if you can develop McCarthy along the way, if you can get decent production out of Sam Darnold and maybe keep him from losing you games, you may be able to hammer and tong your way to eight or nine wins again. That should not be considered a lost season. Now, on the flip side of that, I don't think Justin Jefferson is sitting around going, well, I want to sign for a truckload of money here and

wait around for J.J. McCarthy to develop. I don't think you're going to have the new guys that they brought in on defense, you know, playmakers that are going to be waiting around for J.J. McCarthy to develop. I don't think you're going to have the new guys that they brought in on defense, you know, playmakers that are going to be waiting around for J.J. McCarthy to develop. So it's going to be interesting how they frame all this publicly and then, you know, judge them by their actions more than by their words. But McCarthy is an asset. He's your most valuable asset right now, in addition to Justin Jefferson. And you want these two guys to be, you know, probably Batman and Robin for the next five to six years. And a lot of that's going to depend on how you handle McCarthy in the next six

to nine months than what they could do together in two or three years. So the burden really shifts on the front office and the coaching staff from winning draft night, at least in their context, seizing the moment, not shrinking away from being aggressive or regretting, as Quasey was saying last night, you know, I don't want to wake up in the morning regretting that I hung on to a fourth round pick when I could have had my guy. I think that's going to be interesting to watch. But what I'm really curious about is if and when McCarthy does get an opportunity this year, is it going to be mop up? Is it going to be bandaid work or is it going to be development work? A lot of that's going to rest on Sam Darnold. But I would say, you know,

just go into this season, not thinking playoffs or bust, but thinking playoffs, maybe development, hopefully success further down the road. And they might end up having a good enough defense to put them in position to compete regularly. They, in my mind, have improved significantly with their defensive roster, despite losing to Neil Hunter, but there should be expectations. And that takes a lot of burden off a rookie quarterback when you have a solid defense. It does. And this is the thing about McCarthy is that we know that football IQ is what everybody praises through the roof with him.

And he might be such a football-obsessed psycho like the rest of the great quarterbacks that he gets the offense down and he transitions quickly into it. It's not somebody that's coming from, as you said, some crazy spread offense where he's never seen anything like this before. Jim Harbaugh was his coach. So it very well may be that he just wins the job outright in his starting week one, and then it's really on.

I guess I'm just saying that if they have to take time with this, they could still compete for a playoff spot with Sam Darnold. He went 8-9 in Carolina Carolina and they were a disaster. I think he's in a much better spot than he was early in his career. It's just that you got to be okay with that. If you're the team, the ownership, the fans, we just have to be all right with the fact that this might take a little while for the better good of JJ McCarthy down the road. Even if it's not overtly stated that way. Right. Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, I'm sure that it's going to be quarterback competition

from the very start. Give me your feeling now about the excitement level of where we're at Vikings fan-wise. Because, I mean, most exciting thing iniking land since what right it just feels like for a very long time it's been kind of a slog with some brief moments of like oh well maybe they might and then they didn't it right in 2022 eight weeks of fun and then reality hits or you know a week of fun in new orleans where they get a playoff win and then reality hits. It just, it feels like this, if from the Vikings fan base perspective is the most juiced up they have been

really in a very long time. Yeah. And rightfully so. I think that what we've learned about what we had learned about the Kirk Cousins era is how exhausting it could be just from a debate standpoint, evaluating his production, parsing his production, parsing his words. Just from a debate standpoint, evaluating his production, parsing his production, parsing his words. Is he a new Kirk? Is he a new version of the old Kirk?

Has he won over the locker room? Look, he's winning over the fan base now, too. And then, you know, he ends up doing what, you know, Cousins of the Shark in the negotiating room has done all his career, which is leverage everything he can. And, you know, Atlanta made him an offer he can't refuse. So I think with Cousins departure and McCarthy's acquisition, I think you can kind really close the book on the previous regime, the Mike Zimmer era, sort of all of the angst, all of the the the near misses and the just kind of really pungent way that that whole thing went down toward the end.

And I think now it's kind of a brand new day. And I do agree. I think there's – I mean, look, they've never drafted a quarterback in the top ten. This is a franchise that's been around for 60-plus years. And you look at the last time they even came that close. Christian Ponder was a disaster. The Teddy Bridgewater era, what may have been, we'll never know.

But I feel like this is where it's a young, fresh coach, young, fresh GM, young, fresh quarterback. How is he going to endear himself to the fan base? What are fans going to be excited to watch? They're going to be excited to watch Jordan Anderson and J.J. Jefferson. They're going to be excited to watch what Aaron Jones is going to bring to the round. They're going to be excited about what this rebuild defense is. With Brian Flores still there, you know, head coach and waiting,

there are possibilities for them to overachieve, and there are possibilities for them to still be muddling along as they try to find their way. But at least there seems to be a blueprint and a long on-ramp here to the future as opposed to lurching season through exhausting season about what is Cousins going to do, what are they going to do with Cousins, what does this mean for the rest of the locker room? And I got to imagine there must have been some Freudian joy

in as much as panic may have set in when the Falcons drafted Michael Penix. I got to imagine there was a little bit of clucking among the Vikings fan base that Cousins is shocked to his lucrative toes as to what's going on with him and what's going to go on with Pennix. At the end of the day, he's still going to be counting money the rest of his life. I don't think he's going to be losing too much sleep over all of this, but it is interesting that, fine, Atlanta, you can have the drama of Kirk Cousins now. We're moving on. And of course, Kirk had to make it clear to everybody how mad he was through his agent and everything else. Couldn't help himself, but to let it be known that he was very upset of

what they did. Although he was as shocked as me. I never saw that coming. I thought, because I was doing the live show, I thought that the chat was messing with me, but they were saying, oh, they're drafting pennies. They're drafting penn pennix and my tv was 30 seconds behind and i'm going no come on guys stop we don't don't mess around this is too important and no they actually took michael pennix and then their gm said hey if he sits for four or five years that's great what four or five years is gonna be 30 he's already 20 yeah he's already 24 isn't he he's going to be 24 at the start of the season it's an odd thing with Jordan Love I believe he was 21 when he was drafted and then waited for three years but uh you know maybe they don't believe in Kirk's Achilles as much as they wanted to say or

something but what a what a strange that's a hell of a hedge man that's a that's an 80 180 million dollar hedge I I have no idea i mean i guess the idea is that uh you know you stick with him for two years and then you move on but it didn't make any sense and everyone was shocked and once i finished my broadcast i turned on espn and scott van pelt is just like has no words it's just i someone explained this to me and no one could and i feel most bad for michael penn. I mean, this guy should be playing. He's like you said, he's 24 years old. He's coming off of throwing college passes.

Right. Yeah. I mean, now he's got this like historically strange draft pick hung over his head. Tell me about Detroit, Murph. You were you were out and about. I mean, it was crazy looking on TV. What were you up to in Detroit last night? You know, I went, so I got in about noon and my parents picked me up, came back to their house

where I'm actually now in my parents' basement. If you can see our Red Wings Stanley Cup posters here in the background that have been there for forever. We went down to, you know, Nemo's, which is a famous Detroit sports bar on Michigan Avenue, about three o'clock. And I knew I was in for something I'd never seen before, when all of the super fans that you see on TV all the time with their mohawks and their painted faces and their studs, think of the black hole in Oakland. I counted at least four fan bases represented at this bar at three o'clock, the Eagles, the Cowboys, the Dolphins, and the Bills. And I just casually talked to some of them and they had all come in for this. I mean, the draft has now become the traveling

roadshow destination that the Super Bowl has always been. And what I found striking was the fact that not only were there 200 plus thousand people downtown, but they had to turn a hundred thousand people away at the gates from where the venue was, where Goodell was announcing, because everybody bought these passes. But if you didn't get down there before four o'clock yesterday, started at eight o'clock Eastern, you weren't getting in. They basically said, come back tomorrow, i.e. today or come back Saturday when no one's going to be there. But it was I'd never seen that many that massive humanity in downtown Detroit before. And we're we're blessed. We got some great weather. It's going to be even nicer weather today.

Mid 60s and sunny. It's perfect for outside. They really cleaned up the city. Well, you know, part of it's a little bit of a Detroit comeback story. I mean, everybody knows the problems with the city in the late 20th century, all the economic downturns. Then they had the bankruptcy when the auto industry failed in 2008, and they had a corrupt mayoral administration. And just all the inner city decay for decades, they bottomed out about 15 years ago. And it's been a long run back to respectability. But for the city to be able to bring in that, I never thought of Detroit as a destination town before I did yesterday. And that was quite interesting to see.

I mean, I've been gone 24 years. I've never known anybody to ever say, hey, let's go to Detroit for a weekend in April. And yet there were hundreds of thousands of people here. And I, you know, it's going to eventually make its way to Minneapolis. It's heading to Green Bay, I think, next. It's a party atmosphere. It's a festive atmosphere. And it really is a reminder of how deep, deep the NFL really does have its hooks in this culturally. Because at the end of the day, this is a business meeting. And there's not going to be a single game played in five months.

And yet there's as much intensity and just sort of joyous fandom for essentially a board meeting. There's no other sport that can command attention, command eyeballs, command wallets, and just command interest and passion for what's, frankly, just a television event. So I was quite impressed. I'm going to go to the Tiger game in a couple hours against the Kansas City Royals. I got my Tigers gear on.

We're going to spill out of the ballpark after that and kind of, I think we're going to be a lot closer to the belly of the beast tonight for rounds two and three than we were last night. Well, I mean, very cool, very cool scene. And I think really just the fact that everybody has so much information now

about the players that are coming out. And I, they're all invested. That's right. Everyone's invested. Because for months, there are so many people who create content around the draft. You are given so many different opinions and you form your own throughout and so many different storylines going into it that you could feel the gripping tension as the picks are coming off the board.

Now, of course, it's super important to theikings organization but i just mean almost any fan base unless you were drafting a tackle as tennessee you're sitting there not that that's a bad thing uh offensive line people don't freak out it's good to have great tackles but you know what i mean it's not a quarterback and yet as they're coming off the board and you're gripping the table going like all right is this gonna happen going to happen? Are they going to do it? I mean, it was some of the best sports drama. I compared my own feeling just inside to the fourth quarter of a game where, all right, here comes the final drive. As they were counting down these picks, when Roma Dunzey comes off, it's like, all right, I mean, this tension and energy is really real.

And that was, I know, when you pull back and think about it, created from reading a bunch of names who we have no idea what they're going to be. But to get it finally out there after all the buildup and everything, it was a great night for the Minnesota Vikings, for the NFL, for Vikings fans to have. And then we'll see from here what it becomes. So final thoughts, Murph, before you run off to the Tigers game. I'm going to be interested in what the vibe is going to be like down for rounds two and three

because these are still obviously relevant players that are going to be difference makers on rosters. They may not be as well known, but it's also Friday. The weather is going to be a little bit warmer. So like I said, we were so far outside the perimeter last night, I felt like I might as well have been in St. Paul watching it on television. Whereas today I think I'm going to get more of an atmosphere for what the draft means for a city that hosts it and what that kind of vibe is going to be like and how many people are actually going to be downtown is probably going to be twice as big as it was yesterday.

So that that's, that's a bit of what I'm looking forward to. And like, and you know, it's to have six quarterbacks go in the first 12 picks. It was a historic draft. We knew it was going to be a historic draft, but the scheming and the plotting and the maneuvering that kind of took up that second hour, as you mentioned, I mean, it was just,

it was as good as watching, you know, a three 30 game on a Sunday afternoon. I agree. No shame, no shame in feeling that. I agree. That was really something different than any other draft that I have covered since I've been here covering the Vikings because usually they're drafting 23rd or whatever. And we wait to see if it's a cornerback. So thanks for your time or if I appreciate you jumping in from your parents basement, given your reaction, and we'll look forward to your article over at purple insider.com as well. Great stuff, Murph. I appreciate you jumping in from your parents' basement, giving your reaction. And we'll look forward to your article over at purpleinsider.com as well.

Great stuff, Murph. Thanks, man. All right. Great. Have a good day, everyone. JJ, you talked about on the call just about wanting to be with the Vikings. This is the place you want to be. What was it that was most attractive to you about wanting to be a Viking?

First, obviously, just the organization's outstanding. And then you add the players and the pieces that are around it and the coaches and just everything about, you know, being in the Midwest is something that I always gravitate towards. And, you know, it was just the perfect fit for me. And, you know, I talked with a lot of the quarterbacks throughout this process and it was the perfect fit for them too. So, you know, just extremely blessed to be here obviously it's a you know huge honor and I hope to just you know prove them right. Can you tell me kind of uh about the competitive part of this that you're just going to start getting into now in terms of you know when you get on the field or

sign Sam Darnold here, what's your sort of mindset as you enter into that period of your career? My mindset is just take one day at a time, really focus on just getting to know everyone's names, getting to know the playbook inside and out, and focus on being the best version of myself every single day. And I've been doing that leading up to this point, and it got me here, and I'm just going to continue to strive to do that every single day. And, you know, I've been doing that leading up to this point and it got me here and I'm just going to continue to, you know, strive to do that every single day.

JJ, what was that moment like when you heard your name called, you got the call from Quacey and Kevin? I'm sure you had envisioned that. Was it better than what you had expected? It was definitely better than what I expected. I woke up that morning and I felt like my stomach was in my throat. It was just one of those big days, you know, for all of us that are going through this process that, you know, it's once in a lifetime, you try to soak it all in. But, you know, when that phone call came around, it was, you know, something different, a feeling that I can't describe. And it was just, you know, overwhelming emotions of joy, you know, bliss, everything about the opportunity that's in front of me,

you know, just extremely grateful from, you know, this organization all the way down to, you know, all the way up to God and putting me in this position. So, you know, just absolutely thrilled when I got that call. And now it's just let's get to work. Interesting texts from some of your teammates that are already on the team. Yeah, I got a lot of texts, you know, just Josh Metellus. I'd say this for a Michigan man. He told me, you know, hey know, just Josh Metellus, I'd say this. Foreign Michigan man, he told me, you know, hey, this is Josh Metellus, number 44. It's like, come on, man, I know your number.

I know who you are. But, yeah, I'd say that's the most interesting one so far. What was the scouting report of Dallas for the game against Alabama? Game wrecker. Game wrecker. Somebody that could affect you know the game at all times you know

somebody that we're going to have to make sure our mic point is directed towards his side you know Chris Braswell another great player but you know

we knew 15 was somebody we were going to have to worry about and you know it's going to be amazing not being able to you know get hit by him now you know

in practice might get a little dicey I don't know how it is as a rookie but you know I'm just super blessed to have him on the team not just because of the great player he is but you know in practice might get a little dicey I don't know how it is as a rookie but um you know I'm just super blessed to have him on the team not just because of the great player he is but you know the great person you know I got to spend some time with his family on the plane and just you know made it the right routes and really just appreciative that coach O'Connell

Kweisi the Will family added him to the team because he's a great addition. JJ welcome to Minnesota sorry about my audio issues. All good. I wanted to ask you about, obviously you've done a lot of things like with kids in the community and you establish your foundation. I know just how much do you know about the Vikings kind of off-field culture and what kind of an impact does that make or how much does that matter to you? What I know so far, you know, just a little booklet was given, that they're very involved in the community, especially with the next generation. That's something that makes this organization so great and something that I really appreciate.

Just being able to learn from the older guys and how they went throughout that process with the nonprofits and the foundations and stuff like that is going to be invaluable. I can't wait to get rolling with it because all I hear about is how great the people are in Minnesota, and I can't wait to get rolling with it because all I hear about is how great the people are in Minnesota. And I can't wait to, you know, meet them individually and make those connections. JJ, Kweisi said yesterday that your superpower is your emotional intelligence.

What would you say your superpower is? You know, Kweisi's a smart man. I go with that. I go with that just because, you know, I understand whenever you're part of a team, whenever you're trying to build something, you have to all do it for each other. You know, it's not about me. It's about we. And being able to connect with my teammates on and off the field is something that I hold to most importance

and realize that, you know, in order to go to battle with somebody, you've got to trust that they've got your six at all times. So it starts with developing those relationships and being able to connect with each person individually, because everyone has a different style of leadership and a different style of, you know, communication. And just being able to figure that out, you know, right away is going to be another thing that I'm really focusing on stepping in here. And yeah, I'd say it's that EQ for sure. Jesra, have you talked to anybody in the quarterback room yet? How excited are you to work with them? I haven't talked to anybody yet, but I've only heard great things about the quarterback room.

Obviously from the top down, Coach McCown, he's just an amazing coach, amazing human being. Sam, Jaron, Nick, just can't wait to be a part of it because all I hear is that they're just great dudes that love ball, want to compete every single day. and I want to be a part of that. So, you know, it's going to be a lot of fun meeting times, a lot of fun practices, and, you know, I can't wait to spend a lot of time with them. JJ, what do you think about the potential of playing with Justin Jefferson? Surreal, honestly. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, you know, Aaron Jones, the big boys, Christian Derusaw, Brian O'Neill, I just met him earlier, Garrett Bradbury, all great pieces. There's so many more

that I could sit up here and just list all of them, but a lot of great pieces that make this organization what it is. And Justin is just a key part of that. And he already let me know, Justin is just a key part of that. And, you know, he already let me know I go by Jets, so we don't get any confusion there. But, yeah, it will be great to get that connection going with all the guys, and he's definitely a key piece to that. JJ, a lot of the pre-draft comments about you said that you're a winner. What does that mean to you when you hear that? It means everything because, you know,

the way I view the game of football is, you know, winning is the ultimate thing you strive for. And, you know, I'm a believer every place I've been. It's the ability to attract winning. That's a byproduct of what you do on a day-to-day basis and, you know, how you water your roots to get those apples off that tree. And just being able to continue and evolve to, you know,

get to the success that we want to get to as an organization, it's going to be a fun ride, and I just can't wait to do it with a great group of people and a great top-down organization. JJ, when you were at Michigan, were you ever aware that you're in the type of offense that might be harder for NFL teams to project that fit? I guess from the standpoint of just, you know, volume of reps,

I could see that, especially being, you know, three and done. But, you know, this is a pro, this was a pro style offense that I came from that Coach Harbaugh ran and Sam Fran and had success with. So just being able to do the things that, you know, they expect me to do coming in here and have those reps has been huge and crucial. And, you know, it was a process of a lot of, you know, questionable, like, hey, why aren't we throwing it here? But that's just because, you know, confident in my abilities and, you know, want to sling it. But, you know, just at the end of the day, do whatever the coach has asked of me

and, you know, go from there. Did Justin reach out to you? Did you reach out to him or had you guys had that little? He reached out to me. He sent me a great text. And, you know, I'll add to that. You know, he told me confidence is key in this league. And just being able to hear that from him

and just be able to get introduced to all the wise words that he's going to be giving me over the years, I'm just extremely excited and can't wait to get going. JJ, at what age did it hit you that you could play at the highest level? I would say it didn't really hit me until I got here. You know, I've always just been striving to be a better version of myself every single day. And wherever that takes me, it takes me. You know, fifth grade is really when I started editing my life to get to this point today,

stop with the BS in school and really focus on my grades, focus on training, focus on all the right things. And it got me to this point, so I'm just going to continue to go down that path. JJ, you talked a little bit about how this was such a good fit for you in terms of development. How do you, now that you're here, go about kind of leveraging, whether it's Josh McCown, Kevin O'Connell, veterans in the building, how do you leverage those resources to develop and support them?

Well, they have to know that you care and that you want to get better. So just being in the building, you know, first one here, last one to leave, just getting around them and exhausting those relationships and making sure that, you know, I almost bug them too much about wanting to get better and wanting to learn from them because, you know, that's a lot of the regrets that, you know, former players have told me is that they wish they spent more time with their coaches and use those resources to their utmost advantage.

And I plan on doing that. JJ, Clacy talked about a call that you guys had during the whole process where you had asked him like is there a reason that you wouldn't draft me just curious like kind of your recollection of that conversation and how it went getting to know him and you talked about confidence just your comfort level and asking what maybe a kind of a bold or a direct question like that. You know that's something like that first off that conversation was on the spring game you know right when it started and I wanted to be no place but talking with him and you know he's such a great guy such a great human being and being able to answer the questions he would ask

you know his executives that's what he introduced it as was you know an honor to be able to be in that position and you know we just hit it off. Like he was asking, like, what's a song that embodies who you are and all that good stuff. But the reason I asked that question is because I was genuinely curious because I'm always trying to get better and I want to hear from great minds and different perspectives on how to do that. And, you know, Kweisi and I developed a great relationship and I felt comfortable, you know, asking him that question.

JJ, with your background on the ice as well as in football, is it fun coming to the state of hockey? And at what point did you decide to concentrate on football instead of hockey? It's amazing coming to the state of hockey. I've heard so many great things, got my butt kicked by a lot of Minnesota teams. So, you know, I can't wait to get out there on the pond in the winter and do all that fun stuff, go to a wild game. And, you know, it stopped my freshman year of high school just because it was getting too much. I was first year of AAA hockey at the time. So I was, you know,

practicing Monday through Thursday with football. And then right after that, I would drive an hour to Skokie, Illinois and have hockey practice twice a week. So it got a lot, and, you know, just with the travel and just, you know, overdoing, you know, my – or overstraining my schedule and had to make a choice. And, you know, I just listened to my heart, listened to my gut, and felt like I made the right decision. You never got called over to Yost when they had hockey injuries last winter? No, I did not.

I wasn't that good. I wasn't that good, but I enjoyed it for sure. All right. Thanks, JJ. We'll bring it down. Thank you guys.