Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Cam Dantzler's progress and ideas to protect the Vikings' vulnerable interior offensive line

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Matthew Coller analyzes Patrick Peterson's comments on both the progress of Cam Dantzler and what we should think of his camp so far and the vibes of training camp and where they will show up the most during the season. Also he answers fan questions, starting with how the Vikings can better protect the center... by rotating centers? By scheme? How will they approach it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and we'll take a look at some press conference clips and then we'll get to your fan questions very soon here. And then I'm recording this before I go out for the night practice. So I will to years past where the night practice almost acted like the first opportunity for us to get a real sense of where the depth chart was. And they had a super hard practice that night in front of the fans. I think Mike Zimmer really wanted to put on a show. So they did tons of 11 on 11s and it acted as like a data point as we went up to the season. So I don't know if that's going to be exactly the same under Kevin O'Connell, but we'll have all of that recapped here on the show. And I will take very copious notes out at the TCO Performance Center field.

But let's start off with Patrick Peterson spoke to the media. And one of the things that he got into was Cam Dantzler. And as far as how Dantzler has looked, if you listened to the episode the other day, how's that guy look? I don't think we got into Dantzler, but I'm reserving the judgment for right now on Cam Dantzler. To me, he's looked okay.

I don't want to lean one way strongly or the other in part because he's going up against Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. Those guys are going to make plays. They're going to make catches. I don't think he looks a lot different than he did as a player during the season last year, but he does look different to me from how his camp went last season because his camp was a struggle and his preseason was a struggle right now it looks like he's got the starting job pretty much locked in

and left somehow throughout the next few weeks Andrew Booth Jr. takes it away from him but it appears that Dantzler is going to be that number two corner next to Patrick Peterson, and that that's unlikely to change. So Patrick Peterson talked about that and talked about the progress of Cam Dantzler and how he's been different this year in training camp. Cameron definitely has been playing with a lot of swagger, a ton of more confidence. You can tell that he understands the situation that he's in and completely taking that task head on. You can't ask nothing better of a young player that kind of went through the first two years of his career the way he has. But that's behind him right now.

And like I always tell him as a DB, you got to have amnesia anyway. You can't worry about the success or the failure you know you have to worry about fixing the problem that's present right now and and at the end of the day he came back in with a chip on his shoulder moving a lot more fluent you can tell he's he's comfortable in the scheme um and just extremely proud of uh off the strides he's been taking now we just have to go out there and put it on tape when it counts for real peterson also talked about something that has been a bit of a theme so far in camp which is the vibe and how it's been an enthusiastic camp from the veterans which of course the veteran players they're the ones that made the case for this type of atmosphere to ownership so they're getting what they want.

And there is pressure for the veterans to play well and prove themselves right, essentially, for pointing the finger at Mike Zimmer and his, you know, the atmosphere of camp and of practice and just around the building in general. And one thing that Peterson pointed to that's very similar to something Adam Thielen said was when they get into tough situations, players being more comfortable, players being looser, that it will have an impact. And I think this has been a bit of a fan theory is that that's when it showed up the most is in these big spots. But you know, there might be something to that because if you look at even missing the playoffs in the last four years,

when did it happen? It usually happened when things got very stressful down the stretch and they had lots of games that it was win or miss the playoffs. And that's when they had some of their biggest meltdowns. Now, who exactly you want to blame there might be your own personal preference, but it has been interesting to hear players say that the way that camp is being run by Kevin O'Connell, they expect to have some sort of impact when things get tight. And in the way Patrick Peterson talks about it situational football as they go down the stretch of this season that they're hoping that this this foundation of the overall ethos of the coaching staff like this is going to pay dividends in those tough spots

you know having majority of the guys back from last year's team, I believe drive a ton of that enthusiasm because, you know, I believe, you know, if we clean up obviously the mistakes in the situation of football, I believe we will be a much better record wise. We'll be a much better football team, but, you know, we weren't able to do that. And having the guys come back from last year's team, understanding that was a big Achilles heel for us.

And we understand we can clean up those, those situational football, you know, points in the game. We'll be a much better football team. So having KO and Ed bring their scheme over, it just makes it that much more fun because it's giving playmakers ability to be playmakers. Okay. So I know you guys want center talk and trust me, I looked at the fans only questions and we have more center talk to go, but it is developing as the most

interesting position battle. We have not really seen Chris Reed take over Garrett Bradbury spot, but the possibility of that happening seems to be in the air here and potentially down the road if they are not happy within the next few weeks of the way that Garrett Bradbury is playing. And Chris Reed was back at center and practiced the other day, taking a lot of snaps before they did the 11 on 11s and so forth. So here's what offensive coordinator Wes Phillips had to say about Chris Reed, who does not have a ton of experience playing center, none in actual games, some in preseason. here's what offensive coordinator Wes Phillips had to say about Chris Reed, who does not have

a ton of experience playing center, none in actual games, some in preseason. Here's what he had to say about Chris Reed and making that transition to center if need be. Well, the snap is number one, you know, both under center and gun, there's got to be a comfort level with the quarterbacks. And then the communication is huge. The guy in there who's directing traffic, we have a little bit of a collaboration between our quarterback and our center. Our quarterback isn't pointing out every single thing. The center has a lot of ownership, and then the quarterback kind of can play the trump card based on the looks that he's seeing.

Hey, this is the base call. And then the quarterback can trumpet and get the call out to maybe a blitzer or whatever it may be. But Chris has shown mentally that he knows the game, that he can communicate. Some guys are just mutes. They get up there, they don't speak. Those aren't good center candidates. But Chris has done a nice job.

Okay, two more quick ones from a couple players before we get into the questions i know you guys have wanted to hear from johnny munt so if you were curious johnny munt who has taken over tight end number one duties with irv smith out here's what johnny munt had to say about the opportunity that he's getting with Irv Smith on the sideline it opens up some more doors uh getting a lot more reps in practice um you know third down situation and things like that just building chemistry with Kirk and the other quarterbacks and the rest of the team so it's been great now I think that Munt is going to be on the

team either way because of his blocking prowess. And if somebody can stay in the NFL from 2017 to 2022 while only catching 10 passes, that must mean that they are highly considered as a blocker. And you might roll your eyes at blocking tight ends. And I think that's mostly fair. But we've seen before that that type of player can pay dividends from time to time. The David Morgans of the world who come in and catch one surprise pass every so often, who are very good in those big personnel package situations that you're going to need short yardage and so forth from time to time. But from my observation, I don't think you want much more than that out of Johnny Munt.

But his experience in this offense probably puts him far ahead of Zach Davidson. And Davidson will have to catch up by making plays in preseason, catching the ball when he gets an opportunity in practice, which has been a bit of an issue. I think that your confidence is still not very high. You get much out of that position if Munt has to be in there, but at least you know he's going to be ready with the offense. He's going to be where he needs to be. So far, we have not heard any real buzz of the Vikings looking at other tight ends

and potentially bringing in other guys. So for now, we will keep our eyes directly on Johnny Munt as one does at Vikings training camp practice. Uh, last one comes from Amir Smith, Marset, who is getting opportunities. He's getting worked in with the second team, BC Johnson, Albert Wilson, and Amir Smith, Marset are kind of the clear second three for this team. And he discussed his opportunity and how he's trying to grow from year one to year two. Saw us move, coming out here, like I always say, just being able to be myself. New staff.

You know, just feel comfortable going into my second year, getting a feeling for the competition. You know, my first year and then being able to progress on that you know coming into year two so i feel like i'm you know very comfortable new system um and i'm learning i feel like i'm learning quick okay i'm off to night practice uh but i did have a chance to answer a bunch of your guys questions first so i will pass you along to all of those great questions. Keep on sending them purpleinsider.com. Feel free to send me your tweets, send me a DM. Just let me know that you want it for fans only. I'll put it in the file and we will continue to roll. So look for the conversation from after the night practice, and then the Vikings will have a day off on Tuesday.

And then friends, we have an actual preseason game at the end of this week, which we're rolling along every day is a step closer to playing actual football. So I appreciate all of you listening now to the fans only portion of the pot. All right, let's get into your fans only questions here. This comes from a friend of the show at Orange Suds. Loving the fans-only segments, here's another one to add to the queue. Knowing the NFL's tendency to keep the offensive line intact no matter the down and distance, please talk me into making Chris Reid or Austin Schlottman into a passing down specialist being a bad idea. Is it crazy to think that offensive lines could rotate similarly to running backs and defensive linemen?

Thanks for the killer content. Well, I appreciate that very much. And the thing about that is there are way more running backs and defensive linemen who can play and who can come in and contribute something over the other player that is in. So for example, you know, you bring in a defensive end as a rotational player and you line him up over the guard and you have him rush on third down because he's better at rushing the passer than the defensive tackle who's generally like a two-down player.

Or for a running back, you bring somebody in on third down because they're better at pass protection or they're better at sneaking out of the backfield and making catches or something like that. That rarely applies to offensive linemen. Like maybe on Madden where one guy would have a higher pass block grade than the other guy. And in this case, I see what you're getting at. You're saying Schlottman or Chris Reed are probably better pass blocking centers than Garrett Bradbury.

So why not have Bradbury block for the first two downs and then Chris Reed are probably better pass blocking centers than Garrett Bradbury. So why not have Bradbury block for the first two downs and then Chris Reed come in for third down. And one of the problems with that is the communication with the quarterback that if you're having a different center shuffling in and out, depending on the down, I mean, a, you have to run a guy in there every time, which is, I don't think the same as running in a wide receiver. Uh, but I think that the communication between the center and the quarterback is extremely vital. The other thing is that first and second down or passing downs too. So maybe it can have somewhat of an impact, but, uh, when you're talking about like

how many downs, how many times you're actually going to be able to use this versus still having the same problems on first and second down. And the other part of it is if one guy, and this is what we might see play out. If one guy is significantly better at the most important thing, which is pass blocking, then that guy should just play all the time. I mean, Bradbury has been okay when it comes to his run blocking, if not good, but not so much to the point where he is far in a way, vastly better than Chris Reed at his run blocking.

In fact, Reed last year for Indianapolis was quite good. And, uh, the that's one of the reasons that the Colts fans liked him so much when he ended up signing with Minnesota. And we got all those tweets that, that those people were going to miss Chris Reed. Part of it was he was a good run blocker and the difference between, and I remember this conversation with Brett Jones. Now the difference between a Brett Jones and a Garrett Bradbury and run blocking might be a lot.

The difference between him and Chris Reed is probably not much. And as far as Austin Schlottman goes, his pass blocking grades are just as poor as Garrett Bradbury's for his career. So I wouldn't look at that and say he's going to be a whole heck of a lot better. But I mean, I get what you're saying. Uh, and if there were a lot of offensive linemen that were way different in one area or the next, this is a pretty unique situation. Maybe we would see some of that, but normally it's like offensive tackle. What's that guy need to be good at pass blocking. So the best pass blocking guy is already out there. Uh, and you know, there are a lot of things with, with Bradbury that I think he does well enough to convince them to keep him on the field.

But when they're seeing already that, you know, this is going to be more of a passing offense and teams are isolating him to pass rush over and giving him problems, that that's what might result in them using Chris Reid instead as the center. Seemingly, if he could snap the ball, he's got a chance to be the first team center. But yeah, I think, I mean, that's why is that generally, if you're a good pass blocker, you're the one who's in there anyway, and there wouldn't be much need to change guys in and out. This is a unique situation, but I think that it still applies that if Reed is the better pass blocker then he should

be in there we need to throw out the draft status throw out the idea that oh this guy's a weapon on screens like how many screens are you throwing a game how many times in his career have we actually seen this been a thing like not meant not many like sometimes a handful there was a few in the playoff game against new Orleans, but is it that much better for screens or for zone runs than the next guy that you need to make a big sacrifice in the toughest situations? I think this coaching staff is already thinking about that. So it's, it's definitely not the craziest thing I've ever heard. Is it absolutely crazy? If you had two guys that were extremes for situations?

No, it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard that they would have one player who would go in on say third and longs only. But again, then you're asking a backup center to come in and communicate with the quarterback in the toughest situation to read defenses and their blitzing and their rushes, which is third down and long. So come off the bench, run in there, even though you're the one that hasn't worked with the quarterback as much in practice or very often, and then communicate in the toughest situation. Like it's a lot to ask. You should just play the guy who blocks better against passing. If they feel that Chris reads better at blocking against passing, then he should,

he should be the one who plays. Uh, onto the next question here. Uh, Matthew loved the show though. This comes from a at Charles worth GR. Uh, I love the show. KOC talked about helping Bradbury with the scheme. It's clear that he can't hold up against larger nose tackles. Do you think the scheme can salvage Bradbury's career? If if not what's the immediate solution it's hard to understand the vikings goal here so yeah i mean i don't think that scheme can protect anybody on the offensive line i truly don't uh i think that they will try and they will try to give him help and they'll try to put stress more on Brian O'Neill. But Kevin O'Connell even talked about this. He said, look, when you have to help somebody, then there's a domino effect.

That means the running back then probably has to help off the edge. They have two good tackles, but there are edge rushers in this league who are so dominant that you want to give help either way. And if you can't help with a guard, then you have to help with a tight end, or then you have to help with a running back. And that just takes away from the weapons that you can use. I've never believed that you can scheme around players who have extreme weaknesses. It's like in the secondary where, you know, Mike Zimmer talked about playing different schematics to make it easier on the corners,

and there's something to that. But this is the NFL. They're going to find you. These teams, they spend endless amounts of time scouting every detail of the opposing team's players. If there's a weakness, they will know. And we've seen that play out with Bradbury, where they know it's the weakness. They attack the middle. They blitz up the middle. And that's where they've succeeded against Kirk Cousins. They also know that Cousins does not

escape the pocket. Well, he doesn't, he doesn't move off his spot very well. Everyone else knows this. We aren't the only ones. And so I don't know that there's any, like there is moving the pocket as far as bootlegs and things like that that they're going to do but a lot of times it's stand back there drop back throw the ball and you can't have your center being blown up there's really no answer for that even if you're trying to give him help but then the other teams will know what you're doing that you're trying to give him help in a certain way and they'll attack other parts of the offensive line because you're doing that so i think it's a very very difficult task to try to scheme around one person and pff even

put out a study recently about the weak link system of offensive line which we already suspected that that was the case having watched good tackles for the entire kirk cousins era and then seen how poorly the offensive line performed because of the interior, like that, that opposing teams just understand extremely well where you are at your weakest and they're going to go after it. So if they don't think that Garrett Bradbury can hold up in those spots, I don't think that there's any real answer.

I don't think there's any real solution, snap your fingers and it's going to cover this up. Um, not when it's to this level, if it was, let's say he was a 50 grade by PFF or something, which is not, not very good. Um, okay. Maybe you can get that to a 60. Can you get it from a 30 to a 60? Probably not. Like that's a lot of negative plays that you have to try to reduce. And I'm just not convinced they'll be able to do it. What it really comes down to is do they believe Chris Reed is better or are they just going to have to deal with the same things that they've dealt with before and try to work around it the best they can.

All right. Next question. This comes from Justin Seabirds, maybe on Twitter at Justin Seabirds, something like that. Hey man, got a couple of questions for fans only. Power rank the Vikings position groups and how confident you are in them for this season, including kicker, punter, and the returners. Where would you rank Daniil Hunter? Also, where would you rank Daniil Hunter in the top edge rushers? Personally, I think he's number five behind Watt, Garrett, Bosa, and other Bosa. Health wasn't factored into my ranking, so I'm curious where you would put him.

And another question, excluding quarterbacks, which five players do you think have the most trade value in the league? I don't think that trades are much of a relevant conversation just to start with that. The ones that would have the most trade value obviously would be Justin Jefferson is number one by far by a million miles. Probably Harrison Smith, Eric Hendricks, like the best players are going to have the most trade value. And those are the only guys that anyone is going to trade for, for the most part, if it's anyone outside of a star player, you're talking about trading for, for, you know, chump change for fifth round, sixth round, seventh round picks. And that's pretty much the best you can do. Um, it's rare

that you find that you're on the right side of a Chris Herndon trade, but even that was a fourth round pick. So it's not, you know, they're not trading people away from this team. They need everyone that they can get. Um, as far as where Daniel Hunter ranks, there's kind of there, there's a group that stands way, way far ahead. And they're the guys that you mentioned. And I think he is what I would call in the 1B tier. So he is a first tier edge rusher, but he's not quite of the level of some of the ones that you mentioned. I think Rashawn Gary is getting there to be of that level.

But the, yeah, the Miles Garrett, Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa, TJ Watt, these guys just draw, I mean, so much attention and still overcome that and um they've succeeded sort of with or without any help and i think that uh daniel hunter has always had some help and that's again i'm not taking away from that i'm just saying that if we're talking about the tears he's in the next tier down from a fromosa or a Miles Garrett that completely takes over games. And that is not at all a disrespect because that's putting him still up within the elite. But that's another one where it's kind of like, yeah, I mean, every single team in the league is taking Daniil Hunter on their team over 90% of the other players who play the position. As far as power ranking the Vikings

position group in terms of how confident I am in them, I would go, running back has to be at the top of this list because even if you have one guy hurt, you have two other guys that are pretty talented, Alexander Madison and Kenne Wongwu. And what I've seen of Wongwu when he's been healthy so far is he looks just as quick as he did last year. It doesn't look like there's any injury that's causing him to struggle or anything like that. So I think they have one of the deep and then Ty Chandler shown some potential in practices too.

I mean, they have the best or one of the best running back groups in the entire league. So that would be first wide receiver is second. Uh, the way KJ Osborne has looked so far in practice gives a lot of confidence to the three wide receivers. It's just very, very open for who would have to step in, uh, if there is, uh, an injury, uh, for the, for that group, but you have one of the truly elite players in the league, two other very, very good players at that spot. After that, it's a little bit more difficult. I think we could talk about it as like front seven and defensive backfield.

I probably believe in the front seven more because of Kendricks, Hunter and Smith being healthy so far, Harrison Phillips and Delvin Tomlinson, two proven players and interested to see how much Armand Watts is a part of this as well, if he can continue to develop as an interior pass rusher. And then the defensive backfield after that, offensive line after that, is just the group because of what we've been talking about for the first 10 minutes here with Garrett Bradbury and the right guard situation where you're not super

confident about that. I'm sorry. I forgot to mix kicker and punter in there somewhere. Both of them deserve to be, maybe kicker is right behind wide receiver. I mean, Greg Joseph has just kicked well. And the tweets that I got were super funny to when I said that he's been kicking well, but he has since he got here and it's like famous last words. I know, but he's just been good. So there should be some confidence there. Maybe you factor in a Vikings element to that, like you, that you should just always have them last punter deserves to be in there somewhere. Wong Wu is going to be a really good kick returner again, I would assume. And punt returner is basically not a confidence position at all for me.

I'm not sure how much that matters, but I would put that toward probably the back. The long snapping, though, very confident, very confident in the long snapping. So I think if we're making the final list, it's running back, wide receiver, kicker, front seven, punter, secondary offensive line, and returners after that because we include the punt returners. I mean, Wong Wu should be fine, but maybe returners still go in front of offensive line. I think that's how I would probably do it. All right, on to the next question. This is from Swervin Mervin on Twitter last season, notwithstanding many of the Vikings losses

seem to be games where you could turn the game off after the first quarter, knowing full well that this is one of those games and that they just don't have it today. Is this a reality or am I just being a jaded Vikings fan? If so, what's the deal? Well, I think that's Kirk Cousins, really. It usually starts with him where there is something to what you're talking about that everybody can sense something is a little bit off. And I'll give you a good example. 2019 week 16 against the Green Bay Packers. They cause a turnover, I believe, on the first drive of the game. Maybe it was a fumble or I don't know if it was an interception, whatever it was.

They got the ball back in Green Bay territory, a chance to go up 7-0 immediately, and there's just three very slow reads, throws to places you don't expect. I believe one of them involved C.J. Hamm, as it so often does. And right from that moment, there was just a sense of, like, something's not right here. Like, this is where you should have gotten the fumble, confidently scored the touchdown, and you feel like you're off and running in this really big game,

which there was still implications at that point about the division. It just should have been like that. And yet it was a very timid, lacking confidence type of start for Kirk Cousins. And we've seen that many times. That doesn't mean that a three and out to start the game equals Cousins is going to have a tough day. But there are a lot of games throughout his time here where at the very beginning of the game, you just see a, I don't know if it's a nervousness or it's a discomfort, probably discomfort would be the way I would describe it. Whether it's because of

the scheme, the game plan, the defense is doing something that he didn't expect. The pass rush is getting on him faster than it usually does or he woke up on the wrong side of the bed i really don't know but i've looked at this and i've looked at the ups and downs of cousins and it really is more volatile than other quarterbacks who have similar overall statistics if you take you, the quarterback rating and the PFF grade and so forth, he is more volatile in terms of QBR is a stat that I think gives a nice little snapshot of how someone played for a game or what their results really were based on the, you know, the game situation at facts, it factors in so that it excludes those garbage time points.

So I like to use QBR for this and I charted it out once. I mean, it looks like a roller coaster. It's just way up and way down and everyone knows that feeling right away. And even a lot of games that were tight for them last year, there were situations like that. And then they ended up coming back or, um, last year there were actually a lot of games where they came out strong and then went ice cold for a long period and it's I don't know I think I I don't know that it has anything to do with anything more than that I think all teams have their slow starts and their ups and downs throughout a season and all quarterbacks will have games where it looks like something is off

and they just don't have it even Patrick Mahomes had games like that early last season, but I think Cousins has more of those per capita that, that his rates of games where you're like, Whoa, what is going on early in this game? I mean, the Denver one is another example. They come back and win it when they're down 20, but from the very start of that game, it looked like Denver's defense and their pressure were just causing havoc for Kirk Cousins. And oftentimes, if he comes out and looks confident, then you're probably in for a pretty good day or a shootout or something that's going to go back and forth. But I think there is, with this particular player, a feeling that when you watch enough

of it, like think of the sample size. You know, if you're listening to anybody else talk about Kirk Cousins that has not watched every game, that is on the outside, like you know more than they do because you've watched every single snap. You have a much bigger sample size and a much better feeling for this player than anyone who is not watching the Minnesota Vikings for every snap. So, you know, the nuances of that. I'm sure that with every fan base, they know the nuances in Detroit of Jared Goff or the

nuances of, you know, who knows Steve Walsh in Chicago in the nineties or whatever, like a fan base is going to watch every minute of every game and they're going to understand the intricacies. And I think that that is an intricacy of Kirk Cousins game where you could get a feeling pretty early on of what type of day it's going to be. All right. So an additional question from Swerve and Mervin here i'm a big nhl fan from canada nhl media and players seem to be obsessed with states and without state tax in the nhl they're the biggest draws for free agents and tax status is often one of the biggest reason given by teams players agents and the media superstars trade lists on their no trade clause often consist of teams with no state tax. It's obviously a factor.

I do hear it mentioned on occasion, but this seems to be way less of a deal in the NFL or any other sport for that matter. Am I missing something? Why does it seem like it's less of a factor in the NFL? That's a good question. And I don't really have an exact answer for you. The best I could do is that teams you are players usually are. Well, a lot of times this might be it a lot of times because of the way that the NFL season works. These players are not residents of the States.

And I also think that if I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong here, but I think when it comes to taxes, you have to pay whatever tax that the game is in. And when half of the games are in the home state and half are in all other states, and then I could be, I could be wrong on that. Somebody who knows taxes would have to figure this out, but maybe the way that it's structured, it just doesn't end up making as big of a difference. I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure of that, but also they're usually not

residents of that state. So you're, you're more of a contractor who shows up and lives in Minnesota, plays your games there, but you probably live in Florida. Like a lot of the guys are from Florida, Texas. Maybe that's why it's less of a conversation. I'm not really a hundred percent sure. There's also so much to do with, I mean, you want to play for the right coaching staff, the right situation, how much of the football you're going to get. And I don't want to simplify hockey because there are nuances to that. But hockey is kind of hockey where you can play however, and you're still going to be you and whatever else.

But if you're a wide receiver, you want to play with a certain quarterback to maximize your total value. That's all I can really think of for why that's not as big of a conversation, because of course, all of these players want to keep as much of their money as they possibly could. So that's a good one. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but those would be my theories. All right, this next question comes from IBE Straffling on Twitter. Sorry if I'm saying that weird or if that's one word that I don't know. Questions for the Fans Only podcast. Last year, the Vikings fielded two of the worst corners in the league statistically,

which statistically speaking is hard to accomplish. I don't think enough of the offseason chatter on how improved the Vikings will be is talked about enough when it comes to getting better play from that position by default, not trotting out Alexander or Breland week after week. Can you remember a statistically worst group of corners in Vikings or Bills history. Well, PFF only goes back so far, but I can say that the Dante Culpepper era in Minnesota had some of the most unbelievably awful defenses that you have ever, ever seen in your entire life.

And I'll try to pull this up. But, I mean, I remember, and some of the points allowed probably has to do with turnovers which you know they did have a lot of fumbles and stuff like that with dante but they have definitely had worse groups than they did before how about uh 2013 they ranked dead last in points allowed 2011 but 2002 is really what i was thinking of as far as they were a top two offense in yards and top 10 in points and went six and 10 and finished with the 30th best defense. Just got absolutely lit up game after game. Let's see, in terms of total points allowed for a season, 2013, 2020 was that bad, though.

2002, 2021. So yeah, actually, this is crazy that out of the, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six seasons. And of course there's 17 games last year. So this factors in. But the worst, it's two of the worst six seasons ever in terms of total points allowed by the Vikings over those last two seasons. So yes, by default, it is very likely that they will get better play, but I wouldn't, I would not go much farther than that though. Because when you look at the secondary, you see a lot of the same things. Cam Dantzler was on the team last year, Patrick Peterson on the team last year as far as the other safety position how quickly Lewis scene steps in or cam Bynum is that going to be

way better than Xavier Woods who was actually okay for them last year Shandon Sullivan is he a lot better than Mackenzie Alexander like better probably of course probably uh but a lot better um i don't know i mean maybe uh i guess with breland that's the one specifically where uh if i mean i don't know that mike zimmer is a big regrets guy but he should have a lot of regrets about not playing bashad breland they should be better i totally agree how much better they still still have question marks. How Patrick Peterson's going to look so far? Peterson has been good in training camp. How he's going to look over 17 games. How Dantzler adjusts to really being the starter there all the time,

as opposed to coming in sometimes and then out sometimes. If Andrew Booth Jr. gets in, will they attack Shannon Sullivan a lot as the nickel corner? How the safeties adjust? But I mean, if this defense is healthy, which is always the caveat, they should be 10 spots better in the NFL than they were last year. If they are healthy. If they are not, you are talking about Ty Smith season, Perry Nickerson season.

I mean, there's not a ton of depth there at the cornerback position. Probably if Sullivan were to get hurt, because we were talking about the nickel corner the other day, and I think it's been Nickerson playing in nickel corner or maybe Hairston, but there's not a lot of experience there for anybody in nickel corner. So they might end up having to put someone like Cambynum there. It gets a little messy pretty fast if somebody ends up getting hurt. But I agree that that unit should be quite a bit better. And so when we're talking about what they'll be as far as a team, there's a good case for putting the bar at 9-10 wins

if they're, say, the 15th best defense and the 10th best offense. But I think that that would be kind of a disappointing result considering that they went all in so you need everything to go right for that secondary for seen to be good right away for Dantzler to take that next step we talk about or at least be consistent through a season for Peterson to look good for Booth to be out there for Sullivan to be serviceable like in order to be out there, for Sullivan to be serviceable. In order to be better than kind of a middling team that's maybe a win or two better, you probably need better performances by those guys.

And nobody gets to be the weak link. And remember last year, and this is how hard football can be to predict with players, and of course they should not have stuck with Brashad Breeland. But when we looked at brashad breland and we looked at uh you know mckenzie alexander and their career histories there wasn't really anything to suggest that they would be two of the worst in the nfl and there's there was the lack of pressure mike zimmer being super aggressive some bad luck mixed in like the throw

against uh dallas that hits brashad Breeland and he doesn't catch it. Like that's just, it's kind of random, some bad luck. A lot can happen over a season. In 2020, they used something like nine different corners because they had injuries. I'm not ready to guarantee that it's going to be way better, but on paper at this moment, I would predict that, yes, it's a much better secondary than it was last year. And it should be at least from the edges. If there's health again with Smith and Hunter, it should be a more consistent pass rush. Yeah. I mean,

I think that this defense should get into the top 20 should be in the middle of the league. I'm not ready to say until I see some other things play out that it's going to be way, way better as far as going from 24th to something like 8th or whatever. We're going to have to see that. But right now, it definitely does look better. All right, this comes from Sarah via the email. In the past few years, I have noticed toward the end of games, our defense, especially the safeties and corners, like to give room between them and the opposing receivers or tight ends.

What's the purpose of this when you're letting the opposing team make plays and gain yards, it's called prevent defense. And it makes no sense to me. Is there a special term or name for this? Yeah. Prevent defense in the long, the long running joke is that it prevents

you from winning that's not actually true it does not actually prevent you from winning uh the goal is very similar to in baseball where they will they'll play everybody in the outfield back and they'll give up singles when you're up by three runs or something but you're not you you want to avoid giving up doubles though. It's called the no doubles defense, doubles, triples, uh, you know, things that are going to help the other team come back quickly. So the idea of playing prevent defense is to say to the opposing offense, look, you are going to need to complete eight passes in a row against us to get down to the end zone. If you're going to have a chance and we're

going to dare you to do that now i do think that this is going to start changing in the nfl because your observation is good that there's just a lot of really good quarterbacks there's strong-armed quarterbacks there's running quarterbacks that in in this type of situation can make a play and Patrick Mahomes against the Buffalo Bills 13 seconds is a great example they were playing off of everybody not playing very aggressive and they found some holes and with Patrick Mahomes arm or Josh Allen's arm or Joe Burrow's accuracy and playmaking or Lamar Jackson's running, there's space that you can find in those prevent defenses. And that doesn't mean you have to blitz like crazy. It just means that, you know, maybe teams have to play a little more aggressive than they used to with the changing quarterbacks in the

league. And that might be part of the reason that, uh, you know, you have all these games at the end where it's sort of last man to touch the ball wins because defenses are still playing this. Like we've always done it this way. And for the longest time, prevent defense did not prevent you from winning. It was actually a very viable and successful strategy. I just don't know if that's going to continue with the direction we're going with the talent of the quarterbacks and particularly the physical prowess of the quarterbacks i mean you look at like if justin fields turns out to be halfway decent look at his physical ability i don't know that's going to happen talk to courtney cronin maybe a week or two from now and and get her update from training camp but uh look at his

physical skill though like that's the type of quarterback that is coming into the league. CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, like the next level of quarterbacks. At some point, there's going to be 27 quarterbacks who have strong arms and really good athleticism that, uh, you know, you, it's actually one of the reasons I think with Kirk Cousins, where you do end up with that thing where they're down two scores and he sort of runs out the clock on himself because Cousins doesn't have those things that I described. He's not firing balls into tight windows in a prevent defense. He's not taking off and running and gain 30 yards. What you see a lot is that he'll get a lot of completions underneath

and a lot of time comes off the clock and then they don't have time for, you know, to, for another score. But I think that, uh, what you're hinting at here is like, is this going to have to change in the future? Like, why do they still do this? I think you're right. I think that that will be an adjustment that defenses have to make, uh, at some point. All right. One more question here. Uh, this is from Josh via the email camp question. Is there a way to evaluate the new coaching regime during camp Zimmer demonstrated a base level of competence in the way he structured practices and prepared players. It's great to

see O'Connell rely more on sports science to keep players healthy. Is there any other indicators of how he and his staff will perform? Thanks from Josh, an OG listener from back in the Donald Jones days. Yeah, Donald Jones, former NFL player. When he was in media, he's not in media anymore. He would come on the show and a great resource, a former wide receiver. So is there a way that we can evaluate them? Yeah, I think so. So I've always believed with training camp that it's not about the things

that you're doing well. So when Kirk cousins drops back and finds Justin Jefferson over the middle and Jefferson jumps over a safety and catches the ball, you're like, well, yeah. Okay. Well, that's supposed to happen. That's what we know has happened and we'll continue to be good. That's fine. If the first team offense is really rolling, like, yeah, they should. I mean, it's practice. This should be working, right? Uh, it's really about the things that are red flags. So with practices so far, you don't see a whole lot of tension. You don't see them as a first team looking super frustrated or anything else like that. You have not had Kevin O'Connell go to the podium and say something insane. You're not having him force players to do crazy things.

Like I remember there was a time where this running back for the bills, who was a veteran when I was there, he came off the field at practice, wasn't even supposed to talk to the media, but gathered the media around to hammer the head coach, Doug Marone, for making them practice. I think it was the day after a road preseason game. And it just was, I mean, honestly absurd. Like there's no reason to play a road preseason game, have your starters play in that game, which they did, and then have them practice

right after. And I remember in that, in that camp Marone getting into it with one of the star defensive ends and yelling, you don't have to be here or something. And it's like, uh, sir, that man's under contract. So actually, yes, he does have to be here. This isn't a college program. The point is just that if there's no, if you're walking out of training camp and you have no reason to go, guys, this coach might not know what he's doing. If you have no reason to say that, and who knows what happens in the meetings and behind the scenes or anything else like that, but as far as what we perceive, you've been able to pick up concerning things

about Urban Meyer, Matt Patricia, Joe judge, like right away, just from the things that they say, the way they're doing practices, all those things that has not been the case with Kevin O'Connell with Kevin O'Connell. This has been so far a very smooth camp at the podium for him on the practice field for him, the way he seems to be relating to his players. And that's giving you a good chance to make it succeed. But I agree with you that it's not like Mike Zimmer yelling at people was causing them to fall apart or whatever. I think the tension in training camp was caused by a lot of other things, including outside factors like COVID and just in general, the hot

seat. Anytime a coach is on the hot seat that causes tension. Well, that's not where O'Connell is that everyone knows it's his show for right now. And the, you know, they're also out to prove that O'Connell's the guy. I mean, think about the incentive for a lot of these players. They went to ownership and said, you need this guy. You don't need that last guy. He was ruling by fear. You need this new guy. And so they have a lot of incentive to make this work, which I think is a good thing that the players, the veteran players, it's on them.

If you're going to come out and say it was the last guy, well, you have to prove that the new guy is right. And so there's a lot of, I think, incentive for them to get along with the coach, to follow along with what he wants to do, to go along with the coach, to follow along with what he wants to do, to go along with his culture, to run practices the way he wants to run them and buy into everything. And so far, that's, I think, what we're seeing. Again, I'm not in the meetings. No one is except for the players and the coaches.

But at least my perception is that's what we have going on so far. So I think there is a way to be able to figure it out. And it's that we haven't seen any red flags at all so far. All right. Thank you, everybody, for all the questions. I've got lots more, but you can always add to the list by going to purpleinsider.com. Send an email there. Feel free to send me a DM, a tweet.

I will put them on the list and we'll continue to roll through these and the press conferences and everything else. I'm recording this before the night practice. So there'll be another pod that comes your way soon as well. All right. Thanks everybody.