Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso analyzes a strange mock and Mac Jones rumor

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by CBS Sports draft analyst to talk about more mock drafts that are giving the Vikings Hendon Hooker and a strange NFL.com mock that paired them with a linebacker. Plus there's a rumor that the Patriots want to trade Mac Jones. Is that interesting to the Vikings? And a closer look at a meh receiver class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with CBS Sports Draft analyst Chris Trapasso. And Chris, we have a lot to talk about. We've got some hot mocks to discuss as one does on a draft podcast. We've got lots of rumors going on in the NFL. And we've got, I guess, the Texans are reportedly down to two quarterbacks Peter King thinks that Bryce Young could potentially be going to the Carolina Panthers we this is this is officially rumor season season yeah so starting last week at CBS Sports they have me doing what's

called the with the first pick podcast newsletter which is just like aggregating draft news and writing some opinions on it as well. And I called yesterday's newsletter that this is the beginning of lying intensification season. Like the lying season gets intensified after pro days. It happens every single year that once everyone's done working out, every GM has flown back to the team headquarters. They're like, all right, what lies can we drum up to create chaos and to create a lot of confusion at the top? There was even a report and maybe you just mentioned it,

that the Texans might not pick a quarterback at two. They would then use the 12th overall pick to trade back into the top 10 to pick a quarterback after picking like Will Anderson. That was very interesting to me. So, yeah, it's going to be hard and it's impossible to sift through all of the quote unquote reports or the speculative tweets that we're going to see over the next couple of weeks. Yeah. So that's funny because that's different from the report that I saw, which was that they were down to two quarterbacks and they would be interested in either one, but nobody knows nothing. And, you know, it was, it was interesting because Bruce Feldman put out his mock and Bruce Feldman is extremely, extremely dialed in to the college football world. He wrote a book on it. I mean, he's one of the best college football reporters

that you're ever going to find. And so people were asking me because he had Hendon Hooker going to the Vikings, like, Oh, should this be concerning now that Bruce has it? And so I went back and looked at Bruce Feldman's 2022 mock draft and look, this is not, it's not, it's not to criticize him. No, it's just to say that nobody knows nothing because he had Aiden Hutchinson going number one, which of course he did not. So immediately wrong. He had three quarterbacks going in the first round alone. And he had, yeah, right.

I mean, every pick is wrong, by the way, and not his fault. He had number six. Can he pick it? It's just the way of the world when it comes to mock drafts is that they're really just thought experiments. They're like, how could we see it playing out? What would this look like? Let's discuss what we would feel if this happened. He had the Vikings taking Jermaine Johnson, the defensive end, which they weren't even looking at defensive ends. So they didn't even take one until what I think that a first

defensive lineman was maybe a Sazia Tomowo was the first guy that they took in last year's draft for a defensive lineman so that wasn't even on their mind that's just how it is with mocks so we should always take them for the grain of salt that they're worth yeah and that's exactly why for as many mock drafts as I do and and certainly in April, probably even in March and February too, I do put a fair amount of time into them, but it's why I, in actuality, do not care about mock draft accuracy. you are because if someone as plugged in as Bruce Feldman gets that many wrong and I always remember I think two years ago Daniel Jeremiah and he had all the right to do this was kind of championing that he got eight of the 32 first round picks correct and that was like the highest he's ever gotten right in his career of course Daniel Jeremiah super plugged in as well. So mock draft accuracy, it's not, it doesn't indicate anything. I'm much more all about evaluating the prospects and trying to get that part right.

Because I think there's even a better chance, even though we don't know anything about these prospects and their futures, there's a better chance that you're going to get some of those right by watching the film, as opposed to trying to pick and choose during April, what's a lie and what isn't. Right. And from Bruce Feldman's mock, the reason it's worth looking at is because he has coaching Intel about every single player, which is a great resource for us to learn about these players.

And the rest is just kind of his guesswork, like anybody else trying to put two and two together. So it is for entertainment purposes only. I'm not mocking the mock saying people shouldn't do them or anything else, but just to say that if you're thinking of them as reports, you're not really getting that right. He had Jamison Williams going 20 seconds as opposed to, you know, the big trade up with Detroit that actually happened.

Let's see. I'm just scrolling through the rest of this to see where did he have the quarterbacks um because he had kenny pickett going six which was extremely too high oh malik willis to the steelers which i think everybody believed was actually going to happen then he had matt corral and desmond ritter so four he had four first round quarterbacks there ended up being one so that's just how to look at mock drafts and their accuracy and what they mean which is a great transition chris for us to talk about two mock drafts for the vikings because todd mcshay is jumping on the hendon hooker to the vikings bandwagon we sort of made fun of this at first like ah daniel jeremiah starting this trend what's

he doing and then you did it to be a troll and I guess it wasn't trolling because now everybody's doing it so what is your thought on this buzz that seems to be gaining in the community and once again McShay wrote that the Vikings have quietly been putting in work on this QB class your thoughts yeah I'll try to be quick here because I know that we touched on this last week it's like based on what you just said with how respected Bruce Feldman is and how plugged in he is and he got all those quarterbacks wrong there was four in his first round and only one went we didn't see Desmond Ritter go off the board until the third round last year part of me wants

to say hey well you know if Todd McShay's putting it in a mock, if Daniel Jeremiah has it originally, then maybe there's, you know, when there's smoke, there's fire. But then again, just based on what you said, like maybe there's not. And I think in general, all teams, especially ones that have older-ish quarterbacks that are nearing the end of a contract, they probably do the homework or they probably do their homework on at least the top of every quarterback class it is interesting and and i think noteworthy and at least puts hendon hooker on the draft radar as we get into the second half of round one because as of like two weeks ago you know it matt i know it a lot of listeners probably know it too hendon hooker was not in any first round of any mock drafts and now suddenly he is. So either his agent's doing a great job talking him up or,

or he is just truly someone that after the pre-draft process pro days interview time at the combine is someone that is ascending boards for a lot of teams. And I think it's just easy to plug in Vikings. Oh, they need a future quarterback. They're going to be the ones to pick head and hooker. I kind of see it similarly with running back and here in Buffalo, like everyone's like, Oh, the bills don't have a star running back. They're going to pick BGN Robinson when they probably won't. And that's been kind of a trend, I think for the Vikings in mock drafts over recent years and for the Bills with a running back position in the first round. See, this is where I do find it interesting because it's like, what is the cause of this

happening? As you mentioned, and there are people who chart this, by the way, where everyone was mock drafted and Hendon Hooker was not at all mock drafted by first round people until Daniel Jeremiah did it. So is it a matter of other mock drafters? Like, think about how silly this whole conversation is. But like, yeah, it is. Is it other mock drafters believing that DJ knows something and that like, oh, OK, actually, I agree with him and I think he knows something. Is it that Hendon Hooker has had these interviews with teams and they've been blown away because I know that the interviews make a really big difference in getting the guy on the whiteboard and everything else

for how they feel about a particular prospect. And then suddenly there was more buzz or is it entirely just group think? Because that's what happened last year in a lot of ways was there was just a lot of groupthink with some of the quarterbacks it was like everyone believed okay there's no way the NFL just lets all these quarterbacks fall so we've got to just buy into this even if a lot of the scouting reports and even yourself had a ton of hesitation about the actual prospects so I think that that is interesting and also that also, if enough people say that the Vikings have quietly been looking into quarterbacks, it is no longer quiet. When you put it, when you put it on ESPN and NFL network, it is no longer quiet that they are

looking into quarterbacks. So let's, but let's say it's not Hendon hooker, right? I mean, then what, I mean, there's the will Levis thing, which I think is very, very hard to predict whether somebody buys fully into him or if he's the one that could drop out. It seems like there's almost no chance that they could get the other quarterbacks. But how am I saying that if I'm also saying that the mocks don't make any difference? But if it's it all, it does go through my mind, Chris, though, if it's not Hendon Hooker, then who? Yeah, that's a good question. Just very quickly on kind of sifting through what happens in the mock draft world in terms of the ripple effect that can occur when someone like Daniel Jeremiah posts a mock draft and it has a surprise player, in this case, Hendon Hooker, going to the Minnesota Vikings. I think the one point that we do have to remember is there's certainly GMs,

front office people that are talking to Daniel Jeremiah, but they're not stupid. They understand, hey, if I tell Daniel Jeremiah one thing without really burning a bridge, he's going to post that and it might not ultimately be correct I remember in the 2020 draft class when his final mock draft and along with a lot of other draft people had Justin Herbert going to the Miami Dolphins and Tua going to the LA Chargers ultimately that obviously was not true so I think with Bruce Feldman or anyone that's really plugged in that's why it's impossible to decipher what's true and what isn't I think there probably was someone that gave Daniel Jeremiah a pretty strong indication like hey I think the Vikings might be into the quarterbacks more than we think Hendon Hooker would make sense he's going to be there

at 23 most likely almost assuredly will be there that led to him putting them there but was that a calculated message to Daniel Jeremiah it's happened before it will happen again so if it's not a quarterback which I think is maybe on the table but I don't think it's super likely even though we have seen this kind of avalanche of Hendon hooker picks, including myself, my troll job that I did to the Vikings. I think it, I mean, there's a, there's a plethora of positions that it could be wide receiver corner defensive line, make a lot of sense. And it feels like those are more universally mocked positions and with players that would be the correct value, not be a surprise.

Whoa, Hendon Hooker and back end of the first to the Vikings at 23, where if they pick an edge rusher or a corner, it will not be met with as much surprise and would probably in the long run be a better value selection than I think reaching considerably on someone like Hendon Hooker. Yeah. I mean, the whole dynamic is interesting because, you know, everyone goes to the combine and they talk to different people and they hear a lot of different things. And sometimes, as you mentioned, it could be certain sources trying to throw off the scent for a player. I remember a story from Buffalo where John Murphy, the play-by-play broadcaster, was told by the GM,

you can talk about any quarterback except E.J. Manuel on your show. And that was the guy that they wanted to pick. Like, do not talk about E.J. Manuel because I don't want people getting the idea that we might end up picking him. And so they were doing interviews with people on, you know, Ryan Nassib and Mike Glennon. And of course, none of these guys worked out Gino Smith, but they're interviewing leading up to, because everyone knew the Bills were drafting a quarterback there that year.

The team media is interviewing, you know, West Virginia's coaches and stuff like that, all up to build this up, even though everyone knew inside the building that they were looking at manual. So like, that's just kind of how it goes. And also there might be things in the league where they think it's going to go one way with a certain player. And it just doesn't like, it's very possible that last year people in the league thought there was going to be four quarterbacks taken, but then every team was too hesitant because there's so

much pressure when you, a quarterback with the first round, you don't just take a swing on a quarterback. Like that becomes your guy. That becomes your big investment. The one that gets tied to your name is a GM. And so I feel like there probably will be too much hesitation to have Casey Adafo meant to tie himself to an older quarterback with an ACL injury. But you know, if they do it, we've,

we've gone over this before, so we won't spend the whole time on it, but if they do it, I will have to say, look, you did the right thing, taking a quarterback because it's a shot at finding your next guy. And if it doesn't work out, you've got time to take on another one. So anyway let's get to the other mock that I wanted to talk with you about, which was from Lance Zierlein. And this is one where if it came to fruition, I think that there will be pitch forks, uh, outside of TCO performance center. Lance Zierlein has the Vikings trading down, which is totally fine. And taking someone named Drew Sanders, a linebacker from Arkansas.

I'm going to tell you the truth. I haven't even looked at any linebackers outside of like the third round. Yeah, this would be pretty surprising. Just to give you the quick scouting report on Drew Sanders, former five-star recruit was at Alabama. Didn't play a lot behind a bunch of, you know, future NFLers there. Transfers to Arkansas and was actually really good for the Razorbacks this past season why I think he would be a stretch at 27 and then I can give you a reason why he might make

sense he would be a stretch because he is not a very sure tackler he misses a ton of tackles he's a big guy he's like 6'3 240 I'm not going to say he's Anthony Barr sized but close he's also way more of an edge rusher than he is a coverage player so that perspective is kind of my segue into why he would make sense if the Vikings are like hey maybe we can kind of dip our toes in the off-ball linebacker market and get someone who can legitimately rush the passer I don't think he's Micah Parsons 2.0 but he's much more of that type of player he's very talented as just a traditional edge rusher. I think he's actually better there than he is playing linebacker, but that's like one position.

And you certainly know the Vikings 50 times better than I do. The linebacker spot's not one that we've really discussed at length is kind of focusing in on a priority for the Vikings, especially early in this draft. Yeah, I think if he was going to be an outside linebacker edge rusher, then that's okay. That is along the lines of what the Vikings are looking for. But if it's more of a traditional linebacker, then I would not understand it. And he's not ready to be that guy either. He's not ready to be a three down coverage type. He really isn't well i mean it but if it if it was like hey this guy's going to be a pure edge for us an outside linebacker it's what brian florist wants

and he's going to rush the passer then i could be sold on it but when you see linebackers like wait a minute um but you know i guess everybody does uh kind of put these under different categories when it comes to linebacker outside outside linebacker, edge rusher, defensive end. Life is more confusing than it needs to be. Trust me, I tried to buy baseball tickets the other day, and you would not believe how more confusing technology makes our lives. But so, I mean, I think that if that is the case, then that does make sense. Trading down makes a lot of sense as well.

And I also think that just in general, if they were drafting a guy that was not talked about as one of the top pass rushers, and we all have to kind of Google him at the same time, then it would likely be pretty disappointing. But I do think that if the Vikings were trading down to this position that Lance Zierlein has them at 27. That is, I think, a really good idea. Like the Vikings should not, they should learn from last year and not trade

too far down to the point where you're trading out of the potential to get a very good player. But especially in this case, if Buffalo's trading up to get a running back, oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm sure that they're very thrilled with this mock draft as well uh but but i like i like that idea though i like dropping back just a few picks where you can still get somebody in your range of needs without having to sacrifice the potential for getting a star play yeah let me just start by saying this unless you're at the top of the draft and your team is not very good and it has a desperate very glaring need a quarterback trading down in my opinion is always a good idea we've talked about it i won't go at length about it just getting more

selections in rounds two through four is always going to be better than being so sure with yourself that you're going to trade up for a guy or you're going to sacrifice multiple picks to do that or you think you have your guy at your original selection so trading down i think would be fine in this mock tyree wilson was gone at the edge rusher spot obviously will anderson nolan smith who we had in our mock draft sim last week that we discussed um i'm looking at the other miles murphy from clemson edge rusher so he would be one of the best if not the best kind of hybrid outside linebacker three four types available now there's certainly others uh anthony or andre carter from army felix and you dk uzama uh from kansas state so if you are really thinking that Brian Flores is enamored with a classic stand-up 3-4 outside linebacker, that would be Drew Sanders.

So for as much as I've seen a lot of people say, like, oh, he's this really good off-ball linebacker, like three-down player, he's three downs because on third down, he needs to rush the passer. If you ask him to play in coverage, it will be a disaster, I think especially early on. But if you're telling me that the Vikings maybe could kind of dip their toes into that well and say, all right, yeah, we do want some more edge-rushing help beyond Danell Hunter

and some youth beyond Z'Darrius Smith, then trading back not that far, like you mentioned, not missing out on a lot of the premier guys and getting Drew Sanders at, at 27 accumulating maybe an extra third or something like that. I don't think he has it pinpointed here, what they would ultimately get in that trade. It'd be a heck of a lot better than picking Hendon hooker. I can tell you that.

Okay. All right. You're talking me into it it's just with lance zeer lines right up it's talking about how good drew sanders was it inside linebacker and i was just like no come on he's what he really and i okay i'm sorry if this was actually your thread and i didn't realize or i don't remember it was you that I'm sorry, but I did see a thread the other day about linebackers that had been taken in the late first round and just about how many have not worked out like those traditional type of linebackers because there's usually this difference in what linebackers are asked to do that is so significant. And a lot of times it has to be entirely on projection, like the Patrick Queens

of the world where you can really dominate college football based on the job that you're given but once it goes to the NFL so much of it is just intelligence and reading defenses and making plays and coverage and things like that so you end up with you know your Fred Warners who are not top draft picks becoming literally the best player at the position in the league where that's not the case almost anywhere else. Like usually corners, it's first round edge rushers, definitely first round. Um, but linebackers are a little bit different. So I always think if you're going to get a traditional linebacker, you should wait and try to find a Brian Asamoah, try to find even an Eric Hendricks, who was a second rounder and develop that player as opposed to,

you know, trying to find that, that home run in the first round with the linebacker position. I think that you probably want to go with either free agents at linebacker or just go with, you know, players that you can hope kind of figure it out in the third or fourth rounds. I don't know how you feel about that. No. Yeah, that was, I think that was maybe my thread in reference to some people tweeting like a screenshot of first round linebacker like traditional off-ball linebackers over the last 10 years that most of them like have not been very good I think early career Devin White was really good and he's kind of fallen on some hard times

uh there in Tampa Tremaine Edmonds in Buffalo, kind of up and down, got a big deal. Roquan Smith beyond that, a lot of them have been very bad. Like Devin Bush, that 2020 group was terrible with Kenneth Murray, Jordan Brooks, Patrick Queen, because in the first round, I've written this a lot lately. And you know, that's certainly, man, I think a lot of your listeners know this too. The first round is more about traits than anything else that's exactly why Trevon Walker went ahead of Aiden Hutchinson last season it's projection it's upside it's how good can you be in year two through year four not just year one and we see guys like Kenneth Murray and Jordan Brooks and Zavin Collins go crazy early in the first round even last year Quay Walker and Devin Lloyd who both did not really have that good of seasons because they're 6'2 plus they're they're 230 plus pounds

they look like Greek gods but they're not good coverage players they weren't asked to do that very often in college they were spying the quarterback because of their athleticism and I think Vikings fans understand Anthony Barr was a great coverage player at his size and Eric Kendricks for a long time, I thought was the best coverage linebacker in football. And that's a big reason why the Vikings were so good on defense when those two players were in their prime. So it's kind of like a side conversation, because again, I, for as much as i respect lance zirline i i don't see drew sanders as a really good inside linebacker i think he is super raw in the traditional linebacker job responsibilities but again if you're saying he's an outside linebacker who is going to rush

the passer like we used to do 10 plus years ago the 3-4 ol, then I like it a lot more. Yeah, that's, that would be the entire difference is how they say they're going to use him. If that were to come to fruition, I just thought that was a different thing than I've seen from any other mock drafter so far this year. It's almost entirely been, here's a corner, here's a quarterback, even some, here's a wide receiver. And that's been about it before we get to the wide receivers, because I wrote about them and how it's such a unique class where you could kind of pick and choose what you like for styles and sizes of all

these different receivers. So I wanted to get your take on some of these guys. There is a report that Mac Jones is no longer in the favor of Bill Belichick. And I would just like to say, we used to, we used to have a thing on my radio show where I would call it turbo snark, where I would really turn it up to 11 in being snarky. I just want to turn it up to 11 and ask what in the world happened to that old Patriot way?

Where did it go? The Patriot way it was Belichick wasn't it it was the big bad coach wasn't it it was his iron-fisted rule that caused them to have so much success it was that that must have been it it was his culture it wasn't having the greatest quarterback of all time no couldn't have been so anyway uh i'll move on unless you want to add some snark to that. But there's a report that Belichick and Mac Jones are not getting along, and Belichick tried to shop Mac Jones this offseason. The Vikings also, there was a report that they were trying to talk to the 49ers

about a potential trade with Kirk Cousins. Is there anything here? Is there anything there? Can we put these things together? Is Mac Jones interesting for the Vikings, do you think? He absolutely is not. And if anyone that has listened to me on this esteemed podcast the last couple of years, I was not a Mac Jones fan coming out.

I think he is almost the antithesis of what you want out of a franchise quarterback today. He is not mobile whatsoever. And he has a, at its absolute best average NFL starting arm. Like he does not have a strong arm and I don't really think he's like pinpoint accurate. Like all of these quarterbacks who come into the draft every year that have some

deficiencies that are pretty clear, even for the common fan to see, Oh, well he can be drew breeze. He can be Tom Brady. We see that label all the time. And it's like, come on guys. These are the two of the best, most productive quarterbacks in NFL history that were going back and forth of who had the most passing yards of all time when they were both still playing. Mac Jones, I think is a, I don't know. I think he's a high level backup, you know, could maybe be the best backup in the league and can win you games. Obviously like he did in that rookie season that when he was really carried by his defense,

I'm not surprised at this because I think Bill Belichick saw some Tom Brady-esque qualities and said, look at how good he is in the pocket. He's a pocket passer. We don't need someone to be like Justin Herbert or Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. We won for 20 years with a pocket passer. Mac Jones is not Tom Brady. You cannot bank on Tom Brady, a sixth round pick, falling into a situation after a starter gets injured early in his career with an amazing defense and an amazing defensive minded Bill Belichick

to just be recreated again. And I think if you're the Vikings, you have to aim significantly higher than Mac Jones. And I wouldn't trade much of anything for Mac Jones at this point, besides the fact that he's, is a starter. He's played games, he's won games and he would be relatively cheap contract wise. I'm not surprised. It's just a little interesting or very interesting that now three years removed or three drafts removed from when Bill Belichick picked Mac Jones in round one, that he's already shopping this quarterback because he realizes, man, when I play the bills, I got to try to game plan for Josh Allen or play the Chiefs. It's Mahomes or Trevor Lawrence with the Jaguars.

There's too many high caliber athletes at the quarterback spot today with big time arms who can make throws that really Mac Jones can only dream about making and cannot make on NFL Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, whenever they want to put them on the field. Or a flex to Thursday. I mean, really any kind of, yeah, any kind of day or in Europe, eventually five years from now in the European division. Let me, let me try because I think I like 90% agree with you that shooting higher is the right way to go, here's my here's my only

like let me give it a shot let me do like a talk you into kind of thing so mac jones over his first two seasons has been an average starter maybe a little below average starter let's go a little below average with probably the worst or one of the worst circumstances maybe the bears were a little worse than that with justin fields but some of the worst circumstances, maybe the Bears were a little worse than that with Justin Fields, but some of the worst circumstances, a horrific offensive coordinator last year, no weapons to speak of, a washed Bill Belichick, who clearly did not get along with him

or didn't like the way they were playing, and nobody that's just getting open consistently with them. You can't tell me Jacoby Myers is a great wide receiver. And if you were to plant him in Minnesota, now I agree with you. He's not a playmaker. He's not going to be the next, you know, pocket mastermind or something. He's not going to run for a thousand yards. So these, these are things that I agree with, but you can have him on a rookie quarterback contract with Justin Jefferson two of the best tackles in the league a former quarterback Kevin O'Connell who pushed Kirk Cousins to be one of the leaders in passing yards last year in a pass first type of offense I mean it's almost like Mac Jones has

survived his first two years without being a complete bust. Could he be better in the circumstances on a rookie deal? Now that doesn't mean make him your franchise quarterback, but who else are the Vikings getting to be their franchise quarterback? We're sitting here talking about Hendon Hooker, who might be older than Mac Jones. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but he might be like, we're talking about Hendon Hooker. We're talking about, like, is Will Levis even, like, remotely accurate? I mean, if it's not, you're not getting Caleb Williams. You're probably not getting Drake May because then you'd have to be bad. Like, what are you doing exactly that's going to be better

would be my only try-to-talk-you-into-it argument. Yeah, well, I think what you said at the beginning there is probably what bill belichick is saying on the phone if he's calling the vikings and saying hey look like mac jones could be really good in that situation there with justin jefferson those tackles uh a former quarterback that bill belichick knows very well and kevin o'connell as the coach. I just don't see the value in it, but what you ended with Hendon Hooker, like, what are you aiming for? I think that's kind of why I'm really down on both ideas, but if they do go Hendon Hooker or a quarterback, if Will Levis

falls, what you said at the end there, that they're probably not going to get one of the top tier guys next year, unless they're trading 2025 and 2026 first rounders. That's where you're kind of in a sticky situation. If you're the Vikings that we've talked about it all offseason, that I think Kweisi Adolfo Mensah wants to be competitive, wants to make the playoffs. I think the Wilfs want to make the playoffs. But I think deep down, they all know, like, we're not going to win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins because we have a pretty damn good environment around him and we lost a home game to Daniel Jones.

That's why you're in a really tough spot, and maybe that is why the Vikings are apparently quote-unquote doing their homework on the quarterback position. So I would say this to give kind of a more concrete answer. If you say trade for Mac Jones or draft a quarterback position. So I would say this to give kind of a more concrete answer. If you say trade for Mac Jones or draft a quarterback and you give me the option of Hendon Hooker or Will Levis, I'm definitely going with the latter. Okay. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And also, if we're talking about all of these quarterbacks are going to need to take full advantage of the rookie quarterback contract things because none of them are, you know,

Bryce Young or CJ Stroud, the elite elite prospects of this draft that they're all going to need those favorable things. Well, one of them has several years already off of that rookie contract and the other ones don't. One of them has a bigger sample of playing who could step right in and the other ones don't. One of them has a bigger sample of playing who could step right in and the other ones don't. But yeah, I mean, with Will Levis, there probably is a higher ceiling on him than there is with Mac Jones. I'm not convinced that there is on Hendon Hooker because I just don't think that guys who come into the league at 25

have any ceiling. I think they kind of are what they are. And if that's a good quarterback, then that's a good quarterback. But I don't think that that's going to like take a big jump. Yeah. I'm trying to, I mean, I'm trying to make the case for it just because it's hard to do better than that. And I also think like doing a, do an imagination land here thing and say that Mac Jones and Kirk cousins are very similar. Okay. That was when they came out. I kind of pushed back against it a little bit because they were very different prospects coming out of the draft, but let's just say in the NFL, they're similar quarterbacks. Okay. Now take that and add like put Mac Jones where Kirk was last year and add $25 million into the defense. Do they get to the NFC championship game? Do they get to the the at least to the divisional

round and then maybe get beat by san francisco like i don't know i mean there's not like a model where this consistently works necessarily but we have seen carson wentz jared goff like lead teams and neither one of those guys are great great quarterbacks uh and especially in the nfc so that's if I'm trying to make the argument for it. And I don't disagree with you. I think that if you're shooting for something, you should shoot for the stars. And if it fails, it fails. But just if I'm trying to make the argument for it, because it seems like there's just more and more buzz every day that the Vikings and Kirk Cousins are coming to an end at some point. We just don't know exactly when. Yeah, I would just finish it with this, that the Vikings have had a quarterback,

that they have known what they're getting with him almost every single week out. An occasional primetime game would be absolutely terrible. An occasional game against the Packers would be really good. But otherwise, they knew where his floor was, where his ceiling was. They would get a similar type player, almost an identical player, I think, in Mac Jones. I think it's time for them to just say, let's draft someone or acquire someone that we don't really know

where that ceiling is. And that's where a Trey Lance, you know, when you were talking about a potential trade with the San Francisco 49ers, a Trey Lance, even a Hendon Hooker, who I don't really like very much, and I could be wrong on him, or a Will Levis would fit the bill a lot better than, hey, we know what we have. This is a nice, safe option with Kirk Cousins or Mac Jones. It's time to ultimately see how much better you can be with someone else

besides these low-ceiling quarterbacks. Yes. Yeah. I completely agree, but I also feel it is my obligation to try. It is. And I think, and I think when,

when we're hearing in these write-ups and no, I mean like what you said makes sense from that perspective, when we're seeing in these write-ups in, in mock drafts, this phrase that keeps being repeated that the Vikings are doing their homework on the quarterbacks. I bet their front office and Kwesi is sitting there thinking let's write down all the possible avenues that we can go down to make this right and the inserting Mac Jones for a mid to late round

pick or whatever the case may be on the trade market to get him along with what you said 25 more million dollars to spend on the defense. That's probably one of the options that they have at least written down and have maybe, maybe spoken to bill Belichick or to Kyle Shanahan about Trey Lance to say, Hey, let's maybe do this. So I think the doing their homework on the quarterbacks,

I think actually extends beyond just, Hey, they've scouted these quarterbacks in the draft more than a lot of people expected them to seeing that they have kirk cousins as their starter right right and the minute that they did the restructure and not an extension i also think that just sent the flag up the pole of like hey this is not gonna last much longer so what's gonna happen here and and it's always, I don't want to count out the potential of Anthony Richardson, surprisingly dropping and the Vikings having a

chance to make some big trade or whatever, like, cause anything is on the table. Uh, but that one is probably goes under the, there's more reasons not to like it than like it. So pass now, Mac Jones in San Francisco, if Brock Purdy's arm doesn't heal right, is kind of interesting. Okay, so let's talk about these wide receivers because I still think that that is high on the priority list for the Vikings. When you start naming the receivers, Justin Jefferson, KJ Osborne, and actually, Chris, and I know you've become very dialed in to Vikings land. Do you know who the next man up is for the Vikings on their depth chart beyond KJ Osborne? Is it Jalen Naylor?

I would say that he is today. It's either him or Jalen Rager, which is not a good situation. So I think it is Jalen Naylor. That is correct. Well done. So if that's the case, then they need to be looking close at these wide receivers. Now I, I mapped them all out, Chris, and I did it by how much they played in the slot and their average depth of target. And what I found was we got a lot of differences in wide receivers here. So what do you make of just the overall class in the fact that there's a lot of guys who were kind of slot only undersized? There's some guys like A.T.

Perry or Quinton Johnston that are that are bigger and were outside wide receivers. Like what should the Vikings kind of be looking for if that's on their list? Well, I think overall, like at the beginning of the pre-draft process there was a thought that it was a bad receiver class and i won't go as far to say that um i i do think that it is lacking that surefire plug him in as your number one type but fortunately for the vikings they don't necessarily need that i mean last year even drake london garrett wilson i was lower on ch Olave, but I could see it with him, Jamison Williams. Of course, Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddell, Devontae Smith before that.

Even in that 2020 class, there was guys that felt like, all right, you can plug them in, give them 120-plus targets as a rookie. They're going to get you 1,000 yards. They're future stars. I love Quentin Johnston, and he is that perimeter guy. He's probably the closest to being that wide receiver one but you're right that after that it's a lot more you want to move him into the slot most of the time they're not going to necessarily win a ton on the perimeter only Jackson Smith

and Jigba was a little bigger than people thought like just under 6'1 almost 200 pounds like 195 or 196 at the combine. But he's more of a slot player. That's certainly the case with Zay Flowers. Jordan Addison, I think you want him in this slot because he's 5'11", 173. That's pretty tiny. And then even someone like Josh Downs, who I can see the appeal, but I think he's being a little overrated at this point.

He is a, to me, underneath slot option only, move the chains guy, occasionally make a play down the field. So yeah, it does lean a little bit more toward having those secondary type wide receivers that you mostly want to give space to on the inside in the slot position. I poked around the smaller receiver bit, and it seems like there's a certain height. You must be, yeah, you must be this tall to get on the ride of being a good wide receiver.

And that is 5'10". Because under 5'10", I did a whole search using pro football reference, trying to find any, like how many pro bowlers were there? How many stars were there below 5'10"? And I came up with two literally two Steve Smith and Wes Welker and they were 5'9 below that Taylor Gabriel Andrew Hawkins Dion Branch and Marquise Goodwin were like decent wide receivers but not somebody you're spending in the

first round if you bump it up to 510 you start to get your T.Y. Hilton's, Antonio Brown, Tyler Lockett, Deshaun Jackson. But if you're looking at tiny dudes that are 5'7", 5'8", I'm just out. I just don't think you can really succeed at that size to do all the things you need to do as a wide receiver. But the other thing I found, I arbitrarily pulled all the first round big successes of recent years and what they did in college. And they consistently graded way higher than almost any of these guys that are coming out in this draft class. Jordan Addison was like in the ballpark as, as far as PFF grades go. And then the,

the tiny slot guys got good grades as well for PFF, but those are probably pumped up from playing in the slot. I think that it's, it's a draft class that probably says if you're looking for the surplus value, knowing that a number two wide receiver is actually an awesome draft pick, then that's great. If you're looking for some star and you're saying, oh, well, we need to get our guy, which the Vikings don't, they need to get a complimentary piece. But if you're looking for a star, probably Smith Najigba is really the only guy that you'd be looking at, or at least that's it. That's how I feel about it. I don't know if you feel that way too. Yeah. I mean, I think with Smith,

you get someone that is, that has a higher floor. I think with Quinton Johnston compared to JSN, it's like one is polished. One is not really playing in the big 12. They had at TCU Quentin Johnston run a go route, occasional dig route, an RPO slant, and maybe a screen. Like he didn't run a lot of routes at TCU, but he could win down the field because he has a 40 plus inch vertical. He's around six foot three, 208, 210 pounds um what i do like about quentin johnston a lot and i think it's actually being underrated about his game especially relative to smith najigba uh even zay flowers some of the other top uh presumed wide receivers in this class

quentin johnson is really good after the catch and i think that's a big reason why Drake London did not have such a flashy you know separating highlight reel compared to Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave last season but he was still the first wide receiver picked because he's big he's athletic and he is just a load to bring to the turf and is kind of deceptively athletic like a running back after the catch i kind of view quentin johnston similarly to drake london last year who didn't have as good of a season as garrett wilson or chris olave but obviously the quarterback situation was was pretty bad in atlanta yes it is definitely more of a class where you're saying you are going to be the number two and maybe you're even going to start as originally the number three three three wide receiver. And hopefully you can move into a bigger role.

I like Zay Flowers and Smith Najigba about the same, like in the back portion, right around where the Vikings are picking. I have Johnson graded inside my top half of the first round. After that, I'm just lower on Jordan Add Addison who we talked about last week just because of the size and the weight deficiency same thing with Josh Downs he's under 5'10 and again there's just not a lot of players that have become good wide receivers at that size it's not even just about the height it's that at like 165 to 175 you're getting bumped by big, fast, athletic, twitchy corners. You're not playing in the ACC or the Pac-12 anymore where a subtle head fake to the inside just completely frees you and you're wide open on the outside.

So I think being a good route runner matters, but you got to do other things, especially produce after the catch on a consistent basis. And I think we see a smaller receiver that's 5'9", 5'10", 170, 180 pounds and it's easy to think oh he must be amazing after the catch. Jordan Addison I don't think is great after the catch and I don't think that Josh Downs is very good after the catch in terms of just making defenders miss, bouncing off tacklers. With Smith Najigba and Zay Flowers I think you do get a high caliber yak type player which if you're catching those short passes underneath when all the defense is attending to Jordan or Justin Jefferson then I think that's when being able to maximize those

touches becomes very important yeah I totally. And I think that being an unbelievable playmaker in college versus the NFL is just a different standard. I mean, running away from people in college is so much easier and you can get fooled by highlight reels when it comes to that. I mean, the Debo Samuels of the world are so rare of these like true difference makers as a playmaker. So you better be sure. And the cutoff that I found in just looking at the past was 175 pounds. If you're below that, I mean, good luck to you if you're going to be that kind of guy. Right. So I do think that limits who they should be considering in the first round.

If it's more of a third round pick, then OK. But I think if you're locking yourself into wide receiver, you want to look for somebody who is a little a little more in that hot range of where we've seen success stories and not saying, no, no, we're going to go against the grain here. Like a two, two at well of like, oh, is he 112 pounds? Yeah, sure. But like, we know better. And then I don't, I think that that's not what you should really do in a situation where you need somebody to pair with Justin Jefferson pretty quickly. Just before we wrap up, Chris, who was the receiver off the top of your head in the past that you were the wrongest about? Somebody that you absolutely loved and you just couldn't believe

how bad they were in the NFL? Well, I thought you were setting me up to talk about how I was wrong on Justin Jefferson because I did not like Justin Jefferson. That's my biggest whiff that I was like, this guy was just getting perfectly thrown passes from Joe Burrow. And everyone was attending to Jamar chase. Like this guy was good, but not that good. He should be picked later. I don't know why the Vikings picked him. And now he's like a future hall of famer. So on that end, it's definitely Justin Jefferson in terms of receiver i'm looking at an old list here um receiver that i loved who didn't turn out let's go with maybe courtland sutton maybe courtland sutton that i had him graded crazy high and i know that

he hasn't been brutal so i'm kind of like taking a little bit of a cop out here but I like had him as like my number five overall player like I thought Cortland Sutton was truly the next Brandon Marshall like he tested through the roof his three cone was amazing he was very productive at SMU big body contested catch stuff yards after the catch ability I thought he separated pretty well for being a bigger guy and at times he's been good, but I think at this point, yes, he's had injuries. It's like, yeah, he was picked in the second round. And that's around where he probably should have been picked maybe if not a

little later. So I like adored Cortland Sutton and thought he was like, he was the future hall of famer when he's been kind of like maybe at times good receiver, but mostly just kind of a run of the mill guy that gets thrown a bunch of targets every season. Yeah. And I didn't mean to pick apart that old wound, but you were not alone in the NFL where they picked Justin Jefferson as the fifth wide receiver off the board. So there were a lot of people that year who felt the same way as you. And that's just tells us how different

the NFL is than college. And also what we've learned too, is Justin Jefferson's maturity, his drive, his want to be great. Like all these things are absolutely through the roof. And you don't know that when someone is a college football star, uh, for me, it's Ted Ginn, dude, I thought Ted was going to be freaking unbelievable. I was like, Oh man, this guy. Cause what, for whatever reason, I probably watched Ohio state a number of times. And he was just one of the most flashy blazing, fast, unbelievable college wide receivers. And it just did not, did not really come about, you know, also like Braylon Edwards falls under that same category as sort of a half, half success, half failure, because you saw it a

little in the NFL, but man, if you watched Braylon Edwards back of the day in college, you would have thought he was going to be the next Moss. I mean, he just was so dominant. And then there was a moment for him, but that was about it. So it just, it just tells you how hard it is to predict any of this stuff. But those two guys completely ran over college football. Yeah. I don't want to jump back to one point that we were talking about because I, I think it'll be just before we finish here that I said that I don't think Smith and the Jigba or Jordan Addison are like amazing when it comes to creating yards after the catch and forcing missed tackles.

I'm looking at my notebook here and I have some nuggets, Jordan Addison's career missed tackle forced rate, 17.8%. You're thinking, okay, that's pretty high. Remember with Jordan Addison, his RAS was 5.87, which is not very good. It's not terrible. It's not, it means he's pretty much an average athlete at the receiver spot. You know, it's from zero to 10. If you're at 5.8, you're right in the middle.

17.8% of the time he caught a pass. He forced a missed tackle. Garrett Wilson had a season at Ohio state 27.1. Jamar chase his career, 25.2% career missed tackle four straight. So you're just looking at a different type of yards after the catch athlete or player when you're looking at those two former first round picks who've become very good players at the receiver spot. And Jordan Addison, who after he worked out, a lot of people are still saying, hey, look,

he's still a great route runner. He can create after the catch. Well, over the course of his career at Pittsburgh and USC just wasn't the same. And Smith, the Jigba is not much higher. His career missed tackle forest rate, 18.3%. I feel like from just looking at these and hits, not hits, you probably want to be over 20% and probably into the high twenties. If you're going to be a first% and probably into the high 20s if you're going to be a first-round wide receiver and be very good at the next level.

So those are some, I guess, cautionary words or metrics about those two kind of smaller wide receivers in this draft class. Yeah, and just in general, I remember you and I talking about, like, I liked Alave more last year. You liked Wilson. And then it was like oh we were both right and yeah that was fun that was fun i don't feel i don't feel anywhere close to those two with any of these prospects i don't and so i think that and and if you know people look at the

article that i did uh you could kind of see from the charts that there is just a big difference between some of the elite prospects of recent years and this group from how they performed in college so you kind of have to just pick your like this is kind of what might fit with us and see if it works out but i i don't think it's like a joke of a class it's just more of you're not getting the level of a garrett wilson or chris alave where nothing is a sure thing, but my gosh, those guys just, just annihilated college competition. Wasn't exactly the same, uh, for these guys. So anyway, it's a, it is a very interesting topic because you know, the Vikings need a quarterback and we're not sure, can they really get one? The Vikings need a receiver. We're not sure. Can

you really get one? Um, and, and we're kind of landing in that spot. So we'll try to look in depth at different positions as we go forward. Maybe we'll kind of landing in that spot. So we'll try to look in depth at different positions as we go forward. Maybe we'll do more on the corners for next week and some of the pass rushers and things like that. But until then, Chris Trapasso, great stuff. Follow him at Chris Trapasso on Twitter, CBSSports.com

as always. And we will do it again very soon. We are just weeks away now, Chris. We're almost there, buddy. Thanks, Matt.