Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - CBS Sports analyst Chris Trapasso talks about things are are sure about with the Vikings and the NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

OK folks, draft week is officially here. Matthew Coller and CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso get together to give their final predictions on what will happen Thursday night in the NFL Draft. Chris explains that he's sure the Minnesota Vikings will draft someone in the trenches with their first pick. Are we certain Rashod Bateman of Minnesota will be a top pick? Do we think one of the quarterbacks will fall? Will it be Justin Fields, Mac Jones, Zach Wilson or Trey Lance? And Matthew predicts madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Good evening and welcome to the NFL Draft. Draft season is here. Golden, Colorado, and good in the three cone, the broad jump, and every mark. You could probably tell me if you think the Vikings would actually do it. I can tell you as a draft analyst that they absolutely should. Welcome to the Chris Trapasso Draft Show on Purple Insider. This is a good podcast to listen to leading into the draft.

Well, welcome to another Chris Trapasso draft show here on Purple Insider with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso. Buddy, it's draft week. This is your Super Bowl. This is your what's the big NASCAR thing that everyone cares about. Daytona 500. That's what this is for you. It is a week that I feel more energized than any other week of the entire year.

And Thursday, that day to just get to seven or eight o'clock is going to feel like an entire week in and of itself. I'm going to basically pull a whole nighter after round one because I have to do like a second round mock draft and winners and losers after round one. I might even be on the CBS podcast afterwards. So it's going to be late, but I'm going to be running on pure adrenaline. We just have to get through what is the craziest rumor week of the year or four days of the year. But I'm so excited that it's finally draft week, absolutely. Yes, me too.

And if people didn't hear me mention it,'ll be on wcco's social channel so on twitter on facebook streaming with some of their personalities as well i'll mention that a few more times so when it comes to that time and you're looking for vikings coverage you could just go to theirs and i'll tweet it out and everything else uh and send out a reminder to subscribers and everything so uh yeah but it'll be the same here like doing a stream and then doing a post podcast and then doing articles and everything. So yeah, but it'll be the same here, like doing a stream and then doing a post podcast and then doing articles and everything else is part of the fun that you only get a handful of these times a year where you are, you know, putting in a 15 hour day or something. And it's great because the NFL draft is actually happening. So what I wanted to do is I wanted to,

to get us on record here before the draft on things that we are sure about that will either happen or sure about players. I left it vague because I wanted to see your interpretation for things we're sure about. So I'm just going to let you start with your first on your list, and then we'll bounce back forth. Things we are sure about with the NFL draft. So what's first on your list? All right, I'm going to take the one that is the low-hanging fruit that you have taught me about or told me about, and you would probably have said this at some point, but I'm just going to go ahead. It's the Chris Trapasso draft show that the Vikings will either pick an offensive

or defensive lineman at 14. We'll start with just a softball. So what do you think about that? I mean, we've got to be in agreeance that that's where they're going to ultimately go, one of those two spots at 14. Okay, one of those two spots, yes. But here would be my question. Do we think that actually happens at 14?

I think it's very astute to be looking at offensive and defensive line here. Those are the two by far needs. That's where I would say 95% of mock drafters have mocked the Vikings is either a Jalen Phillips type, a Christian Derrissaw, or an Elijah Vera Tucker. Those players I think are way up on the who you would gamble on the Vikings to take, but can they be the team that trades back? Because I look at picks 10 through 14 as all teams that could trade back and could have a lot of interest, especially if there's a quarterback hanging around. So I wonder what the odds are you think that they could actually trade back. I think they're actually pretty good because I do think, and this is not something that I'm sure about, but I do have a feeling that one quarterback will fall outside of the top 10.

Like it seems as though they'll all go there because that's just what all, like every mock draft has had for a long time now. I just get a sense that either it be Mac Jones or Justin Fields or people aren't as enamored with Trey Lance being that he only had one year starting experience. He was 19. The exhibition game against Central Arkansas wasn't that good. I think one of the quarterbacks will fall maybe well outside the top 10.

And then as you were saying, you're sitting there at 14. We know or we're pretty sure that the Vikings won't pick a quarterback there. Then you have the Washington football team. You have the Chicago Bears, I think, that would be offering an arm and a leg to get up to 14 to pick Justin Fields if he falls, or Trey Lance, or maybe even Mac Jones at that point. Teams would think, hey, that's good value, even if we ultimately have to trade up. So I think it's pretty good. I would say maybe 50-60% chance that they trade back. They haven't done that a ton recently in round one, but I think there's a pretty good opportunity because I do, and it's kind of layered in with my thought that a quarterback will ultimately fall. All right. So let me ask you

a follow-up here. And I don't know what they would do if Trey Lance was on the board. That's the one where I'm like, would you do it? He is from Minnesota. It's never been mentioned before by all the local news channels who have interviewed a high school coach by now. But are you sure or would you say that it's the right decision for them to go, either offensive or defensive line, if they stay at 14? Let's say that they do that and they don't have a trade-down opportunity. Is that the right way to go? Or would you say you say look you should really just take a best player available you should take a wide receiver you should take Christian Barmore if he's there like uh if they well Barmore is a

defensive lineman but is that I mean is that kind of set for you that that's a good idea it is and we've talked at length about Kirk Cousins and his stranglehold on the starting position at quarterback, so that needs to factor in. I could talk about draft theories forever with you and say, hey, you should just pick a quarterback, pick a quarterback, pick a quarterback. For the situation with Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer wanting to win now and Kirk Cousins, again, having that stranglehold on the starting job, I think you should probably go offensive line more so than defensive line, especially that's how the strength aligns at that position. Like Barmore, yes, you could say, hey, we picked the first defensive lineman off the board potentially.

You could kind of tout it as that. But if you want to get the most out of Kirk Cousins, give him better protection. So I think that for the Vikings organization this year, given the situation at quarterback, and if you're going to tell me that the top three wide receivers are gone, yeah, go offensive linemen. And that's usually a position that you're going to get good return on investment in terms of longevity of being on your roster. Okay, let's just do this right now instead of waiting until the end. I am going to go on record and say the Vikings pick Elijah Veritaker.

That's going to be my here's who they're taking bet. Give me your bet now, and then we'll move on to other things we think we know. I think it will be Christian Dyrsa from Virginia Tech. You're thinking he makes it there? I think he does be Christian Dyrusaw from Virginia Tech. You're thinking he makes it there. I think he does make it there. It feels like Vera Tucker has recently, and again, trying to filter through all the draft speculation, recently, like late last week into the weekend, some buzz about him going maybe to the Giants at 11. He's, for whatever reason, risen up boards a little bit uh so I I am almost thinking that I I don't believe that

that your choice of AVT at 14 is a bad one I just don't think he's going to be there and then at that point Penny Sewell's probably gone Rashawn Slater's gone Elijah Vera Tucker's gone Christian Darsaw is probably the consensus number four offensive lineman. Very young, you know, explosive, long arms, powerful. I think that would be a good selection too. So someone on the offensive line, I think we both agree, that's where the Bucs are going to go. I think that you've been on Veritaker for a very long time. Really, I mean, going back when we were doing the Prospect podcast, which is your podcast, I mean, even just in the middle of the season talking about who could be very interesting,

and his name kept coming up. And I just feel like he's a great fit for the Vikings because he has future left tackle potential and left guard right now potential where he, I think even if he struggles, will be a much better left guard than what they had last year or the last three years, actually. So that's why I'm going Elijah Veritaker. I think he's a really good prospect with some positional versatility there that they could use. So sort of a now and later type of pick.

And he fits the zone blocking scheme to a tee. He's a crazy athlete. I think Christian Darasau is too. Not really flexibility into guard, though. So I think you being the insider,'re you're uh on the record pick is probably better than mine because of what you laid out the versatility and what I just said just the fact that he is very balanced very powerful but he is a crazy mover like he on the move he is going to block everything in that zone blocking scheme there is a few uh that I have gotten in recent

years correct uh Brian O'Neill I had in the second round correct on my final draft sim a few that I have gotten in recent years, correct. Brian O'Neill I had in the second round, correct, on my final draft sim a few years ago. And I think Garrett Bradbury was another one that we talked about a lot when they picked him. But I will say, and Justin Jefferson, as soon as Jalen Rager was taken, I think the entire universe drafted Justin Jefferson for the Vikings. But this is the most unsure that I have been going into a draft. So I will say that. Things that I am sure of, you started to talk about, and I want to talk about it more. I think one of the five quarterbacks drops, and I don't know if that means available at 14,

because if you're the Philadelphia Eagles and someone says, hey, we'd love to jump up from 24th to 12th and give you you know the rest of our franchise or something for mac jones or trey lance well then you know philadelphia might do that the giants might do that like who knows right but um i just don't believe and it could be wrong but i i just don't believe that these five quarterbacks the whole league agrees or the top teams all agree that they're all worth a top 10 pick and so three of them will go one two three I'm sure of that but I think that there's the other two where there are debates raging across the NFL and some teams might absolutely love Mac Jones and other teams might not be able to stand Mac Jones so I yeah I think that that's how it

goes and and just historically that's kind of how it's gone. Like there's always the one guy who slips through the cracks. Yeah. I'm kind of like thinking with this, like what the foundation of that thought is for me. And it's almost like all of these quarterbacks in their own right have been so hyped up during this draft process at one point or another. I don't know if it's like the pandemic and everyone's just on their phones, but like there's been so much hype for these five quarterbacks. And what you just said, I think is the perfect point that historically that just hasn't been the case

where there's five quarterbacks that go inside the top 10. So I think you turn on your TV, you check Twitter, you're seeing a highlight reel of Mac Jones or why he's going number three, why Justin Fields is getting pushed down the board unjustifiably or why Trey Lance is the guy that looks like the next Patrick Mahomes. They're almost like artificially boosting these quarterbacks up to this crazy elevation where, yeah, I think some teams might view a few of them as top 10 picks, but after Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, I think they're like you said, it is a wide disparity around the league. I think like one at the backend of the top 10 and then another one in the

middle of round one seems to be where ultimately the league that's obviously not as influenced by like Twitter or social media campaigns and highlight reels will ultimately land on this top group of quarterbacks. So two out of the last three years, there has been discussions about five quarterbacks going in the first round. And in 2018, it happened just barely with Lamar Jackson being the one who dropped. And then in 2020, it was Jordan Love who was the one who dropped. And I put that in finger quotes drops because I didn't really think he was a first round

quarterback. There were a lot of people who seemed to question him, you know, based on his last year at Utah state and whether he could be a first rounder. Still, there were mock drafts that had him going in the top 15 picks and he ultimately ends up being, you know, not that guy there. And then even Jalen hurts too, had some discussion as could he be a late first round draft pick?

He ends up in the second round. So I just think that that's likely. Do we think it's more likely Trey Lance or Mac Jones? That's the one who drops or, or I mean, or I guess I'll open it up for anybody except for Trevor Lawrence for you. I think to rank it, I think Mac Jones is the most likely to drop that. I don't know.

I just have a feeling that this whole 49ers at number three, it's like if he doesn't go there, we haven't heard about any other teams that really love Mac Jones. There hasn't been anything like the Panthers would draft him to have it be competition with Sam Darnold, or there's a team, the Chicago Bears love Mac Jones. They would love to get up into the top 10. So I think it could be him and then Justin Fields and then Trey Lance. I think every team might feel somewhat differently about Trey Lance, all the teams in the quarterback

market, but they all realize like he is a red shirt guy. His talent on film is undeniable. And I think he kind of is more positioned to be that new age quarterback, the improvisation, the arm talent. So I don't think there's any team that's like, we need to draft Trey Lance and we need to trade up to get him. And we're going to start him week one. I think everyone kind of feels the same with Mac Jones and Justin Fields.

And I don't really get why people aren't really liking Justin Fields like a lot more, why he's not more of the consensus third quarterback. It's kind of hard to pinpoint why teams don't like them. So I think Mac Jones, if he doesn't go three, we could see him fall quite far, like outside the top 10. Folks, the football offseason is off and rolling, and SodaStick has you covered with Minnesota sports-themed gear. Some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the Chuck Foreman Spin Doctor gear.

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Metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive from anywhere or you can call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Maybe this is just how the draft works, but I've kind of come around on thinking that if I was the Jets, I'd take Justin Fields. It seems like it's a foregone conclusion that they're not going to. How do you feel about that? Just like the more that I've studied and read and watched YouTube videos from JTO Sullivan and everything else, I just feel like Justin Fields is a better prospect i mean in part because the guy runs a 4-4 and is a tank and has the arm strength and accuracy and everything else and when i watched zach wilson it was super fun but i'll

admit the guy never had a lick of pressure i mean he's just do whatever you want but his back doors are backyard seven on seven football a lot of times i think i would go with justin fields here the strangest uh draft lock of the past couple months was when zach wilson just catapulted justin fields and became the guy for the jets at number two right after the college football playoff because justin fields played very well on that and trevor lawrence didn't really play that well. There was a lot of talk. We probably talked about it on the prospect podcast. Like is Justin Fields like not that much worse of a prospect than Trevor Lawrence? And then I think like more people started to catch up on college film, maybe some head coaches around the NFL, like if their teams

were in the playoffs and whatnot, kind of caught up, watched Zach Wilson and we watched him just go from, oh, yeah, maybe a mid-round pick, maybe top 10 to number two, and then that was it. It was over. So I did have Zach Wilson graded like two hundredths of a point higher than Justin Fields on my big board, and I did that grading very early. I always like to grade the quarterbacks before any of the hype machine gets going. So technically, just based on that,

which I'm obviously evaluating the entire draft class as a whole, I would say Zach Wilson, but you've mentioned it, the Provo Utah to New York city media. I think Justin Fields coming from Ohio state and Georgia and being a top recruit and being in the spotlight for marquee programs probably has made him more better suited to go to the New York Jets and try to fix this franchise that's been looking for a quarterback for so long. So you could sell it to me that way, absolutely. And just the fact that he went from being close to Trevor Lawrence to maybe going outside

the top 10 and Zach Wilson being entrenched at number two to the Jets. And yeah, it would be close for me. I like both guys. It's just, to me, Justin Fields with his physical attributes and the quality of competition that he played. Yeah, I think it's decidedly better. And some of the other people that I trust and like their opinions have talked about the quality of competition that Zach Wilson faced was not only bad, it was an atrocity.

So it was just a complete joke. So, you know, I guess who knows how it'll work out. If it was me, I would take fields at number two. So what's the next thing that you are sure of in the draft? All right, because everyone wants to talk quarterbacks, I'll just segue right to my big prediction. It's not really that big, I guess. Mac Jones is not going to go number three overall. We're going to hear it for the next three days leading up to the draft, maybe even the morning of. Actually, I would say the morning of if Adam Schefter tweets something like the 49ers are leaning toward Mac Jones,

then you could probably say that that's going to happen. But we're going to hear a lot about like they like him, they like him. I just do. It does not compute in my head because I know that how smart of an offensive mind Kyle Shanahan is. And he has coached Mac Jones before. He basically has coached Mac Jones before. And yes, they got to the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo. He held them back in that game.

The most talented quarterback he's had is Matt Ryan. He got to a Super Bowl with him, won MVP. He made the trade, he and John Lynch, to pick either Trey Lance or Justin Fields. I just cannot believe and will not believe, refuse to believe, that Mac Jones will go number three overall. I'll also say, or Zach Wilson Zach Wilson because I mean yeah the mockers think but that doesn't mean anyone's ever said it like Joe Douglas has not said oh yeah we're actually drafting Zach Wilson if he's right there so uh I think when they traded up they figured if

we can get Justin Fields or Zach Wilson then those are the two guys that we want and you know the other thing too I mean Mac Jones just like why would you not if your dad coached? Oh, I don't know. John Elway and won Super Bowls with John Elway and went to a lot of other Super Bowls with John Elway. Why would you not look at someone like Justin Fields and be like, that's the arm I've been looking for. That's the athletic profile I've been looking for. I mean, you know, John Elway could play center field in Major League Baseball, right? I mean, you had that kind of athlete in John Elway and who could fire bullets down the field with, you know, the low, maybe the lowest trajectory of anyone ever at throwing the ball 40, 50 yards down the field.

And that's what I see with Justin Fields. The ball doesn't have to leave the picture on TV when he fires it. I don't know. I just feel like you had Matt Ryan, a really good version of that type of quarterback. You had Jimmy G, also a good version of that type of quarterback, and you couldn't get over the hump. Aren't you looking for something different? It just doesn't really add up of, oh, well, he can scheme it. Yeah, but what if you scheme it for someone who's ridiculously good?

And what's so fascinating about Kyle Shanahan is that everyone, like, has kind of crowned him, I think justifiably, as, like, you know, the best play designer, play caller, offensive mind. He's been the coach for four seasons in San Francisco. They went to a Super Bowl. The other three seasons they had a losing record. So I don't think he's on the hot seat. I think he's just, even though he's one of the still younger coaches in the league,

he's, like, fed up. Like, he's like, even though he's one of the still younger coaches in the league, he's like fed up. Like he's like, I do not want to coach Jimmy Garoppolo or CJ Beathard or Nick Mullins anymore. I want a high level talent. I don't know if I've said it on this podcast or just other radio spots I've been on. Being in Buffalo and watching all the Bills games, after Josh Allen tore up that really good defense on Monday Night Football last year, Kyle Shanahan, I don't know what the exact quote was. You can look it up. He ranted in a positive way about Josh Allen and said that's the type of quarterback that you need today. You need someone that can be elite. He used the word elite multiple times. You need

someone that can raise the level of everyone on your team that can do stuff when the defensive is like when the play is schemed perfectly to stop him it was almost like taking a shot at the quarterbacks that he's had and like that's what I ultimately want and to your point I think we've heard about like the 49ers haven't really settled on who they want I think maybe that's what happened initially like what you said they said let's get to three. We're going to get Zach Wilson or Justin Fields. And we would be fine with either because we know that Kyle Shanahan is going to get a fishing quarterback play out of either of them. If they would have stayed put at 12 said, okay, you know, let's maybe have a chance

to pick Mac Jones here. Like that wouldn't have been out of the question. But I just think that Kyle Shanahan is fed up with the Kirk Cousinsimmy garoppolo types and will pick that supreme athletic quarterback i remember having a conversation with an offensive coach once who talked about how you can scheme a million different things but what the game ultimately comes down to on a couple of plays is there's a guy on the other side who's going to beat your offensive line is going to blow up your play and how do you handle that like if your guy gets blown up on the offensive line and gets a sack then it's over and if your guy escapes it makes a play then you might win the game a lot of these things just come down to who has that

ability to make that extra play and we saw that from Josh Allen on many occasions this year. And we saw it from Justin Herbert at times with these younger quarterbacks. We didn't see it from someone like Tua. And I think that even that recency bias, but it's also correct, I think that that all points to Kyle Shanahan will like one of the either dynamic guy and Jack Wilson or the guy with the physical ability Justin Fields and then we'll all have to ask the question so who are these sources saying that it was Mac Jones that's what I love about draft season is hey you could just you could just report a bunch of things that aren't true and weren't reliable and everyone forgets about it the next day because they're so excited to have their football players. I'll give you my next one, which is a running back.

I do not know who, but a running back will still be taken in the first round this year. Prove me wrong, Chris. Well, I stole what probably could have been yours with the Vikings going O-line or D-line, and you stole one of mine there. I said that there will at least be one, if not two, running backs that go in the first round. We have gradually moved away from running backs going in the top 10, which was actually not that long ago. Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette went inside the top 10 in 2017,

which is crazy to think now. But I still believe with the Steelers, potentially the Bills, maybe even like the Buccaneers at 32, the fact that Najee Harris and Travis Etienne are really good running back prospects, I think that most of the league has smartened up. But I still think there are GMs and offensive coordinators that can be convinced like, hey, I am a Travis Etienne away from having an amazing offense and uh who cares about what happens three or four or five years

down the road let's just pick a running back I definitely like that's I would lock that in whatever the bet is on that if it's point five like if it's over under a half in terms of running backs going in round one, I would say over. There will definitely be a running back, and I wouldn't be shocked if there's two. All right, who's the mark then? Who's the team that you say, yep, they're going to be the sucker to draft the running back? Is it the Buffalo Bills? I mean, that looks like their big weakness, but man, like learn from Kansas City guys

that there are four or five running backs in this class who could be great for you and you just took Zach Moss with a fairly high pick and that did nothing for you I mean do you really want to do that again what was he maybe a third rounder I mean yeah like do you really want to do that again I I don't know I could I mean I could see it because they could look at and say that's our need that's what gets us over the top thurman thomas was great for us but you know unless the guy's going to add to the passing game like thurman thomas i don't think you want to do this i could see it being the pittsburgh steelers i mean that is uh with gm uh tevin colbert who is one of the best gyms in the nfl if the off if a lot of offensive tackles go off the board in front of them at 24, which I think they will, and a fair amount of the corners are gone, I don't know if they would take a gamble on someone like Caleb Farley at corner.

And they might say, there's not an offensive tackle worth picking here. We don't want to reach on a cornerback. We don't like Caleb Farley with the back injury. Let's pick someone in Najee Harris who reminds us a lot of Le'Veon Bell when, no, we never got to a Super Bowl, but our offense was really, really good. And he is a multi-dimensional guy that's very big that might not have the off-field diva-type concerns that Le'Veon Bell had. So it wouldn't shock me if it were the Bills.

I do think that they understand that the pass game is how you win in today's NFL. It wouldn't shock me, though, because they have said, like, we need to upgrade our running game. But I could see it being the Steelers, especially you just look at their running back room, and it is barren right now. And Ben Roethlisberger talked about it. Like Tomlin said, you know, our running game was a big problem. I don't think they want to necessarily come out and throw it 50 times a game with Big Ben anymore. If they could add a dynamic weapon in Najee Harris, I could see that being the pick at 24 if the board falls in a specific way. Yep, I agree. And I would also say

to them, I think the reason that you didn't do a very good job running was probably your offensive line. It got old and it was no longer blocking the hell out of people for Le'Veon Bell to literally at times walk behind as they pushed people back. I'm just saying it was probably that. And the reason they looked better than they probably were last year, their offensive line was that Roethlisberger got the ball out as quick as anybody in the NFL last season. But I thought that the way they played said a lot more about the line than it

did their running backs. Well, sorry for stealing that one from you. What's the next on your list? We are going to see nine offensive players go off the board from one to nine. And we haven't seen that much of a run to start a draft, I think, ever. That's just on one side of the ball. That's just on the offensive side of the ball. I think I saw a thing that Champ Bailey was the number seven overall pick in like 90, was it 98 draft, 99 draft. And every draft since then, there's been at least one defensive player in the top six. I think we're going to get all the way to number nine. The Cowboys seem somewhat of a telegraphed selection, like whether it be corner or somewhere on defense for them. But the first nine picks, I am sure, are going to be quarterbacks, receivers, and offensive tackles.

Yeah, I think that that's a great bet, just because I don't really know who you would take there. Like, who is a good enough prospect that can also make that big of a difference? I like a couple of the corners, but give me a coin flip for which one is going to be better than the other one. It doesn't seem like it's really decided whether it would be Sertan or JC Horn, Asante Samuel, Greg Newsom, like all these guys are kind of talked about the same way. And the same goes for pass rushers that one of the first things we heard in this draft was there is no Nick Bosa. And when there's no Nick Bosa, there's no somebody who can come in and get 12 sacks right away for you and be a franchise player for a long time.

Then you're probably not taking him there because if you're talking about situational guys, you can sign Adrian Claiborne for a million and a half bucks to be a situational guy. Like that's not what you're looking for. And I even looked at the boomer bust athlete prospects um since jj watt was one uh at 11th overall i think and i found that like it's basically a coin flip to whether the guy ends up working out like some of it literally is boom or bust they become really good or not a whole lot

with these freak athletes and i don't think you want to take that at like fourth overall if you're atlanta yeah and the edge rusher spot mean, I think that is still a premium position. But all the edge rushers, there's like a clear mark on their draft resume. Like Jalen Phillips, his film is amazing, but he retired from football for a year. The concussions, like what if he gets a concussion in his rookie season? Is he going to all of a sudden be like, hey, I'm done? I think teams would be worried about that. Aziz Ojulari, my top edge, him him being a little smaller only being a redshirt sophomore I think uh that might scare

away some teams like is he really a three down player right away Quidi Pei only played four games in 2020 and is still ascending in terms of using his hands like he's a good athlete didn't test as well as people thought it wasn't quite as big as people thought. Like he was listed at like 6'4", 275, and he was like 6'2", 260. So there really is not – there normally is like a guy that it's hard to kind of find a clear-cut flaw on his resume. But this draft class at the edge rusher spot, like all of them have question marks. And same with corner. Like I think the one position that could kind of crash the all-offense party in the top nine would be like J.C. Horn because he tested really well. Like he's got the NFL bloodlines.

Patrick Chetan coming from Alabama, testing well. But, I mean, there are clear-cut flaws on their film. So you would think in any draft class, if a team or like the NFL or teams in general would be like, Hey, we're going to just watch the film. Cause we don't, we don't know as much about these guys. We didn't get to meet with them. They didn't get to play full seasons. It would be this draft class. And JC Horn is very, very grabby on film. If he doesn't really beat you up at the line, I don't think he's great at mirroring despite being a really good athlete. And then Patrick Sertan, I don't think he's crazy fast down the field. And you can just tell that his athleticism, his twitch is not to the standard of JC Horn or even Greg Newsome or Asante Samuel.

So yes, good prospects. Yes, first round prospects, but not a top 10 Patrick Peterson type corner. The team that I think might do it would be Carolina. That is possible that they would continue to draft high defense after, I mean, really like their weapons are pretty set with Christian McCaffrey, Robbie Anderson and more. They've got people there. I mean, I'm always team go get more weapons, but they could look at it and say, we really couldn't cover anyone last year.

We need more corners and decide to take one there. That's the one that could blow it up. But I think it is a good bet to make that there will be a lot of offensive players at the beginning. So let's see. My next one is about Rashad Bateman. I think Rashad Bateman, I'm going to say I'm sure of it, is going to be a steal for somebody that when Rashad Bateman is taken, I don't know if it'll be day one, if it will be day two, very early in the second round that we are going to look at Rashad Bateman and go, man, how did he end up in the middle of the second or early in the second bunch of teams passed on Rashad Bateman? Boy, they made a mistake.

You know who I felt about this last year? And I think there's some correlations between how they play even, is Michael Pittman. I felt the same way, where he was talked about as maybe a first-round pick, and then he ends up going in the second to the Colts. And I think that turned out to be a very good pick for them. Bateman does not have anything sexy to him. He didn't win the Heisman.

He didn't run a 4-2. And I've seen a lot of receivers right in front of my eyes succeed that didn't have that one sexy tool that everybody loved, like Henry Ruggs' 4-2. So I'm going to say Rashad Bateman drops in this draft, and I'm sure that he's not going to be like a top 15 pick and that he ends up giving somebody a home run draft pick. Yeah, I think he's going to actually go into the second round. I really do. It just seemed like there's more of a chorus of that he's like a clear tier two or tier three wide receiver in this class. But to your point, I mean, watching his film, and I just said about the edge rushers, there's a clear cut flaw. When I wrote Rashad Bateman's scouting report in my

grading system, I was like, what is the legitimate flaw to his game? He's one from the inside. He's one from the outside. He broke out at an early age. He's not a 24 year old prospect. That's a red shirt senior, good in contested catch situations. He's pretty good after the catch runs good routes, not going to drop a lot of passes. Uh, so I think me learning from my mistake, he kind of reminds me of Justin Jefferson, where I was like, oh, Justin Jefferson, he's just a slot. And he was really benefiting from having Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase next to him. And he had to be schemed open, but he turned out he was just good in all three or four phases of playing the wide receiver spot. I agree with that. I think he'll go in the early second round to a team, maybe one of these teams that's drafting a quarterback at the top of round one and will ultimately be like

a number one wide receiver. We've seen a lot of really good wide outs go in round two over the past three or four years that definitely in any redraft would have gone much earlier well into round one. Hey everyone, we have a new special offer to tell you about with our friends at Symbol. If you go to symbol.app, that's S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot A-P-P, and sign up as a first-time user with a $20 deposit into Symbol using the promo code PURPLE, you will receive six months free of premium Purple Insider written content at purpleinsider.substack.com. So go to simbowl.app, deposit $20 if you're a first-time user, six months free of our premium written content at Purple Insider.

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We know the top three are going to go somewhere. Chase and Waddle probably top 10-ish. Devontae Smith may be outside there. And I still think Elijah Moore, because of the production in the SEC, improved his statistics in all three seasons at Ole Miss, tested very well. I still think the pro day workouts are going to matter to a lot of teams. And then Kadarius Toney, wouldn't shock me. Terrace Marshall from LSU. I still think we get to that five wide receiver threshold, if not more in the first round.

Speaking of more, what do we think of Rondale Moore here? And Kadarius Toney I'll throw in there too. I actually made, and maybe you could say it's a little ridiculous, but I made a little bit of a comparison between Kadarius Toney and Justin Jefferson because they played in the slot almost exclusively on great, great offenses. And there are dynamic athletes with the ball in their hands, things like that. So I wonder if teams will maybe not value him as much because he played in the slot or if they'll say, I remember making that mistake last year and saying that a guy is only a slot when almost really now, if someone is a slot in college, that tells you good things about them when it used to be kind of a criticism. Yeah. And I think teams understand like that we are in an era where it's

like get a guy in space. And like, that's why everyone likes jalen waddle and rondell moore like cadareus tony is like yeah his routes can take a little bit too long sometimes he uses like basketball jukes but he is dynamic in space like he is one of the scariest guys in this draft class in space what's interesting about him is i thought he was going to be a lot smaller and then he measured it at almost six foot and 193 pounds so he's like not that much smaller than like Rashad Bateman who was listed at like 6'3 215 and he was like 6'1 90 so I think people thought oh he's a like with Tony he's a slot receiver he's maybe 5'9 185 pounds and he has like outside receiver size in today's NFL and you're right I think the slot only designation is shouldn't be a bad distinction anymore because we're even seeing guys like

Devante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins and Stefan Diggs like they play a third to almost half of their snaps inside in the slot just give them more space operate, to win against press at the line a little easier, and then just create more after the catch. I think playing in the SEC on a great offense, testing well, and then measuring in bigger than his size, I think we're going to go back and say, why didn't we not have Kadarius Toney well inside the first round, like the whole pre-draft process?

I'm going to give you one more. I'm sure of madness. That's what I'm sure of. I'll tell you why. Because I was reading a Q&A with Mel Kuyper today, and Mel Kuyper was talking about how in his 43 drafts or whatever, that this is the least sure he's been about one. That he said it's the most uncertain with the weird circumstances with the pro days instead of the combine with all you know all the things that have gone on around it that it's the least certain he is so i don't know whether madness means trades whether it means hey we all mocked you know tevin jenkins at 27 and he went fourth or something. Who knows, right?

But I think the mocks and the guesses and the reports and all those things, that there will be several things that go totally way off the board from what we expect when we get to draft night. Yeah, that is the best prediction of this podcast, I think. That for all the reasons that you just pointed out, I think we're going to see a fair amount of trades. And there will be, like, I always say, like, and I don't know what the record of getting the most mock draft picks correct is,

but I remember looking back, and I get, like, entered into these mock draft contests. I don't care about them whatsoever. But, like, in 2018 or 2019, Daniel Jeremiah got eight of the 32. I don't know if he got like the, where they were picked correct, but he got like the prospect and the team pairings correct. And so that to me was the first time I had ever looked into that. And I was like, wow, that is still extremely low. Like that's not a lot to get right to have like your leading insider to piggyback off what you said with the madness I think we're going to see like three or four prospect team

pairings like beyond Zach Wilson and it's obviously Trevor Lawrence like those other 29 or 30 picks I think if you get three or four right you you are completely lucky, but you will look like the smartest mock drafter, air quotes, on the Internet because I think there are going to be – and what that will lead to is all the mock drafts leading into Friday will be like, look at how much talent is on the board, all these guys. This guy was mocked inside the top 15, and he's still sitting there like Rashad Bateman, Caleb Farley. There's names that we're not even thinking of that we're sure somewhat that today are going to go in the first round, that are going to be available in round two, maybe even into round three, because I think a big thing, no combine. At the combine, there's a lot of executives out.

They're drinking. They're talking to people. Not necessarily to me, but like big insiders. There was not that meetup of the entire NFL industry. I mean, there was a Super Bowl, but then, I mean, but obviously that was different. But the Combine week, it's like five days of, yeah, like the workouts obviously matter, but you're not really doing a ton throughout the workouts for a lot of these people. I'm not sure like a draft analyst like myself, it's all about going out to dinner and like

going to the restaurants and staying out super late and hearing everyone say, hey, well, we really like Sam Darnold and we don't, and we like Josh Allen. Like that didn't happen. So I think there is more uncertainty than ever before. If little old me can go to the combine and come away with a bunch of little nuggets, then I can't imagine what Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport end up getting. So you're right about that. It feels like the level of certainty is lower than it's ever been, which is great for us.

That's awesome. Right, exactly. We just, we don't know the ending to the movie and we never do, but we really don't this time. So you are going to continue to do chris trapasso draft show for next week and the week after that so we're going to carry it all the way through so we can break down every part of the nfl draft with you but as we go into it i just wanted to say that i can't thank you enough for doing this and doing this each week in your

busiest season because i learned so much from you from you from doing this and from what you do on your podcast, The Prospect Podcast. So I appreciate all of your time, and I'm excited for both of us, man. It's going to be really fun, and Matt, thanks for having me on this. Thanks for thinking of this idea. I've learned a lot about the Minnesota Vikings. I feel like beyond being a draft guy, I know a fair amount about the Bills, living in western New York, watching a lot of their games. Now I know a lot about the Minnesota Vikings, and I've learned a lot about draft philosophies from you as well. And it's going to be fun.

We said, what, last episode, over under Vikings draft picks, you said over 12, over 11. So we're going to have a lot to talk about. Maybe, I mean, we can split it up, or if you want to cram them into one podcast, I'll have a lot to talk about. Maybe, I mean, we can split it up, or if you want to cram them into one podcast, I'll have a lot to say. I can, no hindsight, I can read right from my grading system, my scouting reports, and what I thought about every single draft pick that the Vikings made. Yeah, I think we'll do like rapid fire day three,

and that will still take maybe a half an hour to get to that number. Which, by the way, I'm going to stay with the bet that it is going to go over. We had over 11, so if it's 12, I win. Is that right? Or over 12? 12 or more? I think it was 12 or more. 12 or more, I think.

Yes, 12 or more. I will add that I forgot that they got a draft pick taken away for some nonsense with a practice squad player. So they only have 10 instead of 11. But I'm going to stay with it. I'm going to stay with it.'m gonna stay with it i'm not gonna change the bet they love those seven rounders yep yep so they don't have a seventh rounder right now they will they'll get one so okay all right chris great stuff and just enjoy your week man this will be fun thanks matt