Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso gives his 5 most interesting teams in the NFL Draft and talks Vikings guard prospects

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

Matthew Coller and CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso deep dive into the most interesting teams in the NFL Draft, starting with the Atlanta Falcons, whose decision to take a quarterback or trade down could determine how the rest of the board falls. Will Denver get in the QB mix? Are the Vikings one of the 5 most interesting teams? Chris thinks so because they have so many options. Plus who are the guards the Vikings should target in the third round? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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victoryhometeam.com to check out how great their listings look and their sellers guide. That's Victory Home Team, number one in real estate in the Twin Cities. And if you mentioned you heard about them on this show, they will give you a special purple and gold discount. All right, let's get into the show. Good evening and welcome to the NFL Draft. Draft season is here. Come on, come on. There you go. To break down every need.

They're not going to pick a quarterback, any offensive lineman, any defense. Every pro day. He had a phenomenal pro day. Explosive, really good in the three-tone, the broad jump, and every mock. 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.

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is the Chris Trapasso Draft Show presented by Victory Home Team. We do this every Monday leading up to and slightly past draft season. What is up, Chris? We're almost there, buddy. I'm really sad that the draft is not this upcoming Thursday like it has been the past couple of years. There was that stretch like in 2015, 2016 where it was that last weekend in April like it has been the past couple of years. There was that stretch like in 2015-2016 where it was that last weekend in April like it is this year and it just seemed to take forever

to get here. So I'm excited. It's building up to what will be an awesome weekend and with so many storylines but I wish it was coming in like three days instead of like 10 days we're dragging we are dragging to the end i mean not only did the mac jones justin fields thing take years off my life i mean there's but there's so many other ones of these if this guy is rising this guy's falling and this guy's pro day and this guy and this and this and this, and like the draft takes have become overwhelming. And of course, since you and I have ranked at least 900 players, you know, we've been grinding hard in the film too. So there's also that, but there is still plenty for us to talk about as we preview. So you and I both have our five most interesting teams lists.

And I want to talk interior offensive line because I know that Vikings fans are very excited to hear more about interior offensive line so why don't we just start out I'm gonna throw out a team here that I think is probably on our both of our lists for the five most interesting teams in the first round and that is the Atlanta Falcons do you have them on your list of course I had them as the most fascinating just because probably a lot of the reasons that you would feel the same that I think the draft begins at number four overall it's going to be a quarterback at three probably Justin Fields maybe Trey Lance I'm not even going to say the other name and number four we don't know what

the Falcons are going to do I think think the one indicator, they restructured Matt Ryan's contract. I've probably said that before on this podcast, but that it kind of locked Matt Ryan in for two more seasons. They do have a new GM who doesn't have any ties to Matt Ryan. They're probably going to get tons of calls for teams wanting to move up for Kyle Pitts or maybe another quarterback. And that Adam Schefter, I think last week tweeted, like the Falcons are getting calls and they are open to trading down.

So like to have that report come out, you would assume that the Falcons are probably leaking that. Like if they're like, Hey, we want Kyle Pitts. He could have just tweeted the total opposite. So we don't really know. Are they going to go quarterback to be the heir apparent to Matt Ryan? Are they going to try to load up on offense and pick Jamar Chase or pick Kyle Pitts they are very fascinating because they're a team that for many years in the Matt Ryan era

were a playoff team that were fun to watch because the offense was good the last couple years the defense has really held them back and I think they are at a point where if they did load up on offense, I think they could go from, like, you know, worst to first or worst to a playoff contender. So that's what I think they ultimately should do after the Matt Ryan restructure. But it'll be interesting. I bet they're doing a lot of homework on Trey Lance, Justin Fields, and maybe even Mac Jones. Right. They would have a lot of different scenarios that they would be looking at. And that's what makes them so interesting is it's like a pivot point for the entire draft. And I was listening to Thomas Dimitrov talk on the PFF forecast podcast,

which was really fascinating and super insightful. And just a side note, he mentioned that teams still use the Jimmy Johnson chart. So believe that. I know, right? So if you want to figure out what the Vikings would try to get if they were trading back, just pull up the old chart. I think it's posted in about a million different places, and you can figure that out by adding up the little numbers. I was amazed by that. But he was talking about how some things to consider that we normally don't when we're trying to break down the logic of a potential move one of them is that whatever Terry Fontenot does here as the GM of the

Falcons in his first year is going to rest with him for a long time so if he decides to trade down what Thomas Dimitrov said was you better win the hell out of that trade like you better get way above value if you're going to move out of that fourth pick and if you draft a quarterback now that's a guy you're tied to forever if you draft a good player there that's actually the safest route to go as a general manager is just drafting Kyle Pitts there and going forward with Kyle Pitts but the thing you have to think about though is when will you be drafting fourth overall again where you can get a top quarterback prospect yeah and that's huge and that's what I think we have to remember with every team inside the top 10 I kind of have a draft adage that I mean there are some outliers

but if you're picking like in the top five top seven top 10 you probably need a quarterback or you should be doing your homework on a quarterback I mean the Cowboys are sitting there at 10 with Dak Prescott but all the other teams I mean maybe not Joe Burrow and the Bengals at number five all the other teams though are in the market for a quarterback I think you and I would agree though that long term and value wise picking Trey Lance would be the smarter decision for the Falcons to make. But again, if we're trying to not look at everything, and I do this probably too much, like theoretically and from a draft angle, Terry Fontenot might want to say, hey, like I understand that every team basically is in win now mode in today's instant gratification NFL. I have a pretty good quarterback in Matt

Ryan. He's going to be our starter for two more seasons let's try to get better very fast so I'm not going into year two coming off of four and 12 season four and 13 season uh something like that so it's fun to kind of look at a team picking early and saying are they going long view or short view? And again, normally as a draft analyst, I would say go long view, pick the most valuable position, quarterback, offensive tackle. But I understand now that teams are like, we understand as a GM, as a front office, we don't have three, four, five, six years to build our roster. And I think that's the conundrum that the Falcons are in at number four.

So tell me what you think is the most likely scenario and what would surprise you with number four that the Falcons are in at number four. So tell me what you think is the most likely scenario and what would surprise you with number four for the Falcons? The most likely scenario to me is that they'll just pick Kyle Pitts. That we'll hear they got calls, but no one, for as much as Kyle Pitts is universally liked, it still is a tight end prospect. Yes, he's basically a wide receiver, but remember, it is a fantastic wide receiver class.

I always go back to when the Bills traded up for Sammy Watkins, and he was the adored wide receiver prospect in that 2014 draft class. It's easy to say now, no, it was Mike Evans and Odell Beck. No, it was all about Sammy Watkins. Good move. They got a pretty good player. I mean, he had injuries and off-field stuff. But the ultimate problem with Doug Whaley making that trade was that Mike Evans was there,

and Odell Beckham was there, and Allen Robinson was in that draft class, and Brandon Cooks. So I think the most likely scenario is them picking Kyle Pitts. And what would surprise me is if they traded back like outside of like the top eight because at that point you're missing out on a big time playmaker unless you're like hey we don't need or want jamar chase or davante smith or jaylen waddle which would be surprising we're happy with patrick sirtan at number 12 or at 15 with the Patriots. That would surprise me, especially like what you just said about what Thomas Dimitrov said. Like if Terry Fontenot trades back all the way out from four to 12 or 14 or 15, and then he misses on this super highly touted top of the wide receiver class, of the offensive

skill position class, and picks like a pretty good corner, that's kind of a loss. I mean, obviously second and third rounders that he would get in the trade could ultimately be factored in as well but it would surprise me if they not that they trade back but if they trade back more than three or four picks and if you're matt ryan and that happens and they trade out of the top 10 to take a corner even though corners are valuable and they certainly need a defense you're probably feeling like Aaron Rodgers did last year where you're going oh really I mean if they drafted Trey Lance then I think even if you're Matt Ryan you understand like you have a calendar you know how old you are and you understand that they would be looking a couple years down the road for the future but you know I also think I'm always draft the quarterback guy but I also think

there is a case here if you're thinking three years out that hey if it blows up in your face and matt ryan falls off the edge of the earth and is horrible and you go 5 and 12 or whatever then you could draft one next year and you are going to be bad if he doesn't play well so it's a very interesting pivot point because if they do draft trey lance and it goes one two three four for quarterbacks then everyone behind them is going oh my god we can take whatever we want that is not a quarterback here and that leads me to ask you who the next most interesting team on your list is it's kind of a little bit out there I really am interested in the Washington football team, or as you like to call them, the Sharks.

They have eight picks, two in round three, and we know they have Ryan Fitzpatrick. They have Taylor Heineke. They signed him to like a restricted free agent deal, relatively cheap. But it's been so long since that organization has not been this dysfunctional mess. And Ron Rivera, I think has kind of helped steady the ship. Although his comment about, did you see the comment where he talked about, even if analytics say 99% of the time, you should make this move. What about that 1%, that one time that you missed? That was strange to me coming from Riverboat Ron, but

it's, it's been so long since they've been good, and I'm wondering, like, are they a pretty good quarterback away from being, like, a legitimate NFC contender? We know that they played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as anyone in that wildcard playoff round. They've invested so much on their defensive line. They bring in Curtis Samuel to pair with Terry McLaurin and in a separation-based NFL, those are two young separators that can win down the field. I wonder with those eight picks and two in round three, and yes, they swung and missed on RG3 just two years ago. They picked Dwayne Haskins, gigantic bust of a selection. I wonder if they're like, hey, we actually have a little bit of a

window now. Let's get aggressive again and try to get someone like Trey Lance. Or if Trey Lance is the guy at three, do they try to move into the top 10 to pick Justin Fields? So like, imagine Justin Fields on that roster, Ryan Fitzpatrick starts the season and then, you know, it's typical Ryan Fitzpatrick. He's ultimately not the starter by November. They're really interesting to me because it's just they've been kind of irrelevant for so long and I think they're on the way toward relevancy which seems crazy with the Washington football team so I want to talk about their options in a second but going through the Washington football sharks and their draft history is one of the great joys you can ever have it's so funny so uh the football team drafted two players named rock or rocky that's really funny and they once upon a time traded up for a

guy named rocky mackintosh who turned out to be just like a regular inside linebacker did nothing but they traded the house for someone named rocky mackintosh and that's just uh never-endingly funny to me but patrick ramsey the rg3 and it's really funny that their best draft pick in a very long time is kirk cousins who's not on their team anymore and ends up going you know going elsewhere they run them out of town. And the very ironic thing is that Washington right now has a better roster, in my opinion, than Minnesota. And so if Kirk Cousins had signed his long-term contract extension with Washington, maybe they rebuild their roster. Though part of it is having Chase Young. They would never have Chase Young if he's there. But they have a great roster,

I think. If you could go seven and nine last year with the disasters that were playing quarterback for them outside of Alex Smith, but even Alex Smith, I mean, he's like wearing a contraption to make one of his legs work. And yet he goes something like five and one as a starter for them. Dwayne Haskins gets let go by the team. He's starting games and they still end up playing one playoff game. I think that says a lot about their defense and what they've even started to build in terms of weapons so I think they're in the perfect position to look at their roster and say it's strong enough for us to trade up I don't love trading three first round picks and things like that like San Francisco did to trade up to get a quarterback but if you're going to do it you should do it when your roster

is really really strong not when you're like the do it, you should do it when your roster is really, really strong, not when you're like the New York Jets and you've got nothing in-house and then you trade way up. One other thing about the Washington football team that makes them fascinating, they're picking at 19 in round one. And like that has become too far away from like any, even if say all the negative stuff that has been written and said about Justin Fields and there was the Chris Mortensen thing that he played baseball and

that ruined his mechanic whatever that was someone told him that I think Chris Mortensen's awesome but like that was strange so bizarre there even if Justin Fields is the guy who falls or maybe say Trey Lance falls or even Mac Jones like I don't think anyone believes that one of the top tier quarterbacks will be sitting there at 19 so it is really a like we're waiting to see if the Washington football team trades up at least ahead of the Patriots at 15 probably inside the top 10 and just like you said you have the roster now and you would think that Daniel Snyder has seen some really bad quarterback play like Patrick Ramsey like you mentioned Dwayne Haskins RG3 abomination of quarterbacks since

he's on the team that maybe he would be okay with them trading up to get a good quarterback to just try to win 10 11 12 games and see what happens in the playoffs and then this is the interesting conundrum that a lot of teams go through because you think about, you know, they drafted Dwayne Haskins and we're just talking about how good their roster is right now, that if you draft a quarterback at your spot, it doesn't ruin your franchise. If you do to trade everything to move up, it can ruin your franchise.

If that doesn't work out very well. And the jets are a good example of that, where the cupboard is still bare several years after drafting Sam Darnold and not entirely because they traded all that stuff to get up there. But some of it is the is the reason for that. And so Washington is in that kind of difficult position of do we really want to give up a lot of future picks to move up, but we're not close enough because they made the playoffs in seven and nine. Ironically, we're not close enough to get one of those guys unless they drop. Although I still am kind of holding out this thing in the back of my mind that Mac Jones

makes it into the middle of the first round. And that's my next team is also in the middle of the first round, just behind the Vikings, which is the New England Patriots, because they also are in this same ballpark of Chicago and Washington. And even if you stretch out a little bit Pittsburgh of these teams who could try to move up, if you get to number 10, if you get to number 11 or 12, and one of the quarterbacks has not gone yet, it seems like it should be kind of a free for all for a bunch of these teams

unless, and then you got to tell me what you think about this unless you think that somebody is looking at Kyle Trask or Kellen Mond or somebody else and says that's okay we're going to get them instead I just I think whoever that fifth quarterback is if he gets past you know maybe 10 or 11 then it's going to be a lot of people calling to make that trade up to say like the Los Angeles Chargers or even Philadelphia if they're going to stick with Jalen Hurts. Yeah, well, I think from an analyst perspective, I would say if I was running one of those teams that needs a quarterback like the Patriots, even though they have Cam Newton, I would be fine with picking an offensive tackle or a receiver in the first round and going with Kyle Trask or

Kellen Mond or Davis Mills in round two over like trading up to get Mac Jones or trading up for any of those guys that you just mentioned but we have definitely seen crazier things happen on draft night so don't be surprised if one of those quote-unquote second tier quarterbacks ultimately goes a lot earlier and I do think in general, the league has smartened up and understands how valuable of an asset a quarterback is. And you've mentioned it a lot. Even if your quarterback doesn't play as well as Ryan Fitzpatrick or Taylor Heineke plays better, if you're the Washington football team, you have a former first round pick at the quarterback spot that you can trade and get back assets for him. So I, the Patriots are interesting to me.

I thought a lot of the points that you brought up, I agree with. They're interesting to me because it's like, are they rebuilding? Does Bill Belichick think that they can like win another Superbowl? Like they went crazy in free agency, but a lot of their, like they paid a little bit more than we expected for some like decent players like Nelson Aguilar and Kendrick Bourne Matthew Judon's a good player but they like spent more than we have ever seen the Patriots spend then they re-signed Cam Newton and the offensive line's pretty good they're getting back some opt-out players uh it's just it's an identity

I think a post Tom Brady identity that we just don't know. It's like an identity crisis in New England that you would, I think there's a team that could fall in love with Mac Jones, it would be Bill Belichick calling up his buddy Nick Saban and saying like, hey, like what is really the deal with this guy? So I think at 15, I would not pick Mac Jones there, but I think that is the most likely scenario where then you could still play Cam Newton. And if things go as poorly as they did in 2020 for him then there's your young quarterback bill belichick being close to 70 years old that's like what's kind of fascinating about it too like is bill belichick gonna like try to rebuild the team and then retire or like it's i can't really

get a firm grasp on what he's trying to do with his team so that makes them fascinating in round one and then throughout the rest of the draft because he normally just trades down and is fine just accumulating picks because he's had that ultimate masking agent being Tom Brady. He doesn't have that anymore. So that's why they're really interesting to me right in the middle of round one. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf.

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And Jimmy Garoppolo, I think, was a major hit for them. But Jacoby Brissett wasn't Ryan Mallett wasn't Jared Stidham wasn't like they've tried this many many times and Jimmy Garoppolo in the second was really the only time it was a hit but you could see them looking at Davis Mills and saying a lot of Jimmy Garoppolo and Davis Mills and maybe that's our guy I would be surprised if they're the team to trade up and and partly because like you said I mean they went out and treated this would be surprised if they're the team to trade up, and partly because, like you said, I mean, they went out and treated this offseason as if they needed to fill the final pieces of the puzzle to try and get to a Super Bowl, which is odd because Miami and Buffalo are still better teams than them,

I think, hands down. The only wild card is we don't know how Bill feels about the way that Cam Newton played last year. Cam, before he got COVID, was playing at a really high level. I mean, that game against Seattle, he was tremendous. And then, you know, he had some issues and he was out for a couple of games and they still finished 7-9. And I think he might have gone, what, like 7-8 as the starter

because they had to start Brian Hoyer one game. Like, it wasn't that bad with Cam Newton, even though it wasn't great. And I wonder if they think, okay, in better circumstances with some receivers, Cam can actually get us back to the playoffs. Yeah. One last point on that, that bringing up Cam Newton there is, is a smart point because after how poorly he played down the stretch, I would have bet a million dollars that they would not resign him. So maybe there was something to he was injured,

there was some lingering effects from COVID, because we know that Bill Belichick is completely unafraid and unapologetic of cutting players, trading them, you know, even if it's a big free agent signing to release them after a season. When I saw that Cam Newton re-signed, I was shocked by that. So there could be something to Bill Belichick saying, okay, maybe Cam Newton is not this guy that we're going to sign to a massive extension like people thought early in 2020 when he was playing so well. But maybe Bill Belichick feels like, hey, he needs another year in the system. We can do some new things at the quarterback spot that we didn't do for 20 years with the

running aspect to it. So I think Cam Newton's presence is probably not with the long view in mind, but it is interesting that he's still on the roster given how poorly he played, but then they re-signed him. Right, so that gives them a bunch of different options, and it's, I think, maybe one of the hardest teams to predict. Okay, who's next on your list? Los Angeles Chargers. They have nine picks,

and what makes them interesting, we're talking about all these quarterbacks and which teams will trade up. They're fascinating just for the straightforward reason of they have their quarterback, and this second draft after you have your quarterback, we know how vital that is, and every bit of quarterback analysis, you can break down the individual, but everyone today knows it's all about the situation and what your offensive line does and the skill position players. So with nine picks, two of them are in the third round. It's vital for them to get a left tackle. They essentially don't have one right now. They definitely need that. I don't love their skill

position group I think it's solid with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams but for a team that picked the third quarterback at pick number six last year and everyone most people were low on Justin Herbert and thought that was kind of a reach you know he was clearly not as good as Tua and definitely not as good as Joe Burrow he He wins Offensive Rookie of the Year. And it's like, okay, now you have the most important piece, but it's still also critical to get good pieces around him. So I think just for the obvious reason of, hey, everyone's looking for a quarterback. They're one of, what, eight to ten teams that's not looking for a quarterback.

But this draft is vital the offseason was vital and they let Hunter Henry go so they have to fill that need at tight end they could certainly add some pieces on defense as that defense has gotten a little bit older so the Chargers they're at 13 right in front of the Vikings I think they'll probably go left tackle there but with that many picks and Justin Herbert on the roster it's absolutely critical and this could be we could look back in three years and say this is why Justin Herbert is winning his second MVP because of this draft or look at what a talent that was wasted in Los Angeles because they whiffed on some early picks in 2021. I think with so many picks and so many

good wide receiver prospects that they would be a team that would wait unless Jalen Waddell drops to them or unless Jamar Chase drops to them. And it's just the player is too good to pass up on. And then you could take a tackle in the second round. And there are good tackle prospects in the second round as well. I mean, even just someone like Sam Cosme or Walker Little, like those guys aren't as much of a sure thing as Rashawn Slater or Christian Derrissaw but still very good prospects that you don't often see too many tackles in the second round but when I was looking at Mel Kuyper's mock he's got like four or five right there in the middle of that second round that are going which is not what you usually see so it's usually top guys in the first

round and then you know projects later on so they need a left tackle for sure but Brandon Staley being there interests me as well because you think about where he just came from and who the most important player in the Rams defense not named Aaron Donald was and that would be Jalen Ramsey so is he looking at these corners and that's where I wonder is there a corner that would be worth taking at 13 I'm not really sold on anybody in this cornerback group, but Sertain, Horn, I mean, maybe that's where the first corner goes off the board. Yeah, I would think it's Caleb Farley, but now with the back injury, yeah, that he would have been worth it there. I think I have him as my number 15 or number 16 overall player.

So if he goes 13, that would have been worth it there I think I have him as my number 15 or number 16 overall player so if he goes 13 that would have been fine but I obviously have no legit background on his medical issue and our team's super scared about a back issue I mean those are usually pretty serious he said he's going to be fine in a couple of months at his pro day a few weeks ago I think though what is interesting that yes Jalen Ramsey was the most critical player on that defense after Aaron Donald but and I know that you've listened to it I've listened to it on the PFF podcast they talk about how Brandon Staley's scheme is all like cover two and cover four keep everything in front it's not one that is like from the Belichick tree where they need a press man corner. They don't need a lot of – like it's almost more of the group is better than one individual player.

I think it helps to have Jalen Ramsey. So that does make it interesting. I mean, it's a defensive-minded head coach on a team with a really young, really talented second-year quarterback and a need on the offensive side of the ball. So that's a fascinating pick right before the Vikings. Do they go with what the head coach knows defense and, and they certainly could use a corner or are they like, Hey,

in today's NFL, even if our defense isn't as good as the 2020 Rams, if we get Jalen Waddell or if we get Rashawn Slater, we're going to ultimately be better. So I think they'll go on the offensive side, but not really knowing what they're going to do and the presence of Justin Herbert makes the Chargers really interesting to me. Yeah. And it makes it interesting to me just because this swings the way the Vikings

could go. I think, I mean, I think if they're going defensive end is a great case to just trade down there. And you can even trade down a couple of times the way that these defensive ends look like they're going to come off the board. I was fiddling around with that the other day of trading down to 19 and then down to 24 again and I was still looking at Ogilari on the board I was still looking at Rousseau on the board and if you came away with one of those guys and a bunch of extra

picks from trading down you'd feel pretty darn good about yourself and I think the Vikings could do that but that would only be I think if someone like Christian Derrissaw and Rashawn Slater were both gone and that could be determined right there at that 13th pick so I like that for the Chargers being interesting the next one on my list is the Denver Broncos because the question is how did the Denver Broncos get into the quarterback party and they should even be side eyeing the Detroit lions a little bit with if someone like Trey Lancer, Justin Fields is there because I've seen that mocked. And just like with the Matt Ryan situation, it does make sense for a team with

a mediocre quarterback and Jared Goff to take Justin Fields and then just tell the media and the fans, well, we couldn't pass up on Justin Fields. Come on now. We weren't going to draft him. This is always one of my favorites when you draft someone that might conflict with another player. Like, hey, that was just the best guy on our board. That's why we took him. I mean, we couldn't pass up a prospect like that. But I could even see that happening for the Lions. So do the Broncos try to kind of hold their breath and see what happens?

Would George Payton want a kirk cousins type in mac jones or would he having seen kirk cousins the last couple years be like give me trey lance or give me nothing i i think they've got a lot of options yeah all those questions make them very compelling they're at number nine they're definitely right on the outer cusp of a quarterback maybe falling to them but they probably realized they would need to trade up I think in general just from the last like five to seven years it seems as though GMs when they or you know if you're an assistant GM and then you become a GM you they tend to stay away from what they had at the previous stop that something that was limiting

the team me being a Buffalo, I always think back to when Brandon Bean was hired from Carolina and was under Dave Gettleman there, who built a great defense, whatever, but just completely ignored the offensive line. And then the Bills had Josh Allen, and I'm like, is Brandon Bean going to just ignore the offensive line? Like in that Super Bowl with Cam Newton,

it was like if they had even any semblance of an offensive line they could have maybe won that game but their Mike Remmers ironically was one of the starting tackles in that game and then for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and but Brandon B did the complete opposite and I think in general someone like George Payton who I think is obviously a very smart football mind would say I know everything that comes with a Kirk Cousins type in Mac Jones. If I'm trading up, it's going to be for Trey Lance or for Justin Fields. And obviously with Drew Locke there, I don't think he moved the needle enough for them to be like, hey, he's our guy. But what does make it interesting, say they can't trade up, they're sitting there at nine in the scenario that you pointed out earlier. I think they would be fine.

Like, hey, four quarterbacks went off the board. We tried to move up. We couldn't do it. It's a pretty nice consolation prize to have. Penn A. Sewell still sitting there and Rashawn Slater and all the receivers and Kyle Pitts. Like, not that they need offense, but if they're like, hey, let's maybe just take what is given to us and load up on

offense or add pick the first defensive end or linebacker all the skill positions to move down I don't think that that is completely out of the question for them if they can't ultimately move up for a quarterback do you think Trey Lance would be worth it to move from nine to four which would probably take a lot considering what san francisco had to pay to get up to three i do i really and that situation i everything i've said about trey lance is that he needs to have somewhat of a red shirt type season i actually think denver would make a ton of sense because i don't personally think that it's a completely closed case on drew lock, it wouldn't be the worst thing for them to say, hey, we traded up for Trey Lance.

We didn't have a lot of extra draft picks after the move. So we're just going to start Drew Locke for like six to eight games, 10 games. We know we're not like a Super Bowl contender right now. It's George Payton's first season as a GM. Let's see how Drew Locke plays. And maybe he actually, with Cortland Sutton back and Jerry Judy in year two and a better offensive line, he plays okay, but you know Trey Lance is your future quarterback. You could be in a Patrick Mahomes, Alex Smith type situation where

Trey Lance takes over and the Chiefs traded Alex Smith to the Washington football team for a bundle when he was like a 35 year old quarterback so I that's a situation I think that would be worth it for them because of how they're set up and just because of the immense talent that Trey Lance has I've said it on this podcast I said on my own podcast the prospect if you're going to trade up for a quarterback trade up for a freak quarterback and that's what Trey Lance is yeah I agree and I think that their situation with their wide receivers and their roster overall sets up for them to do that and there's another point with this too that hey you know if Drew Locke even hits the ceiling maybe he's a poor man's Matt Stafford or something

which is you know not that great maybe he's like a Ryan Fitzpatrick, what Fitzpatrick is now, if he reaches his ceiling, where it's a little bit of high variance, he could be a lot of fun, he could be really terrible. Is that beating the NFC West? Or, I'm sorry, the AFC West? Like, is that really competing in the AFC West? I think for them, you have to take the risk to give yourself any shot at a quarterback who's going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes.

You're going to have to have somebody who can do special things. Otherwise, you're probably just going to keep losing a lot to Patrick Mahomes. And I do think that has to be a consideration. The guy's going to be inside of that division. And George Payton goes from playing against Aaron Rodgers now to going up against Patrick Mahomes. But he should know, like, you're going to be in that division. And if you want to win it someday, you've got to have a quarterback who can do the same things that Mahomes, but he should know, like, you're going to be in that division. And if you want to win it someday, you got to have a quarterback who can do the same things that Mahomes can, or at least some semblance of those things.

Yeah. One last point on the Broncos, if they do trade up, and I think they're probably the team most ready to do that being at number nine with the new GM, it wouldn't be the worst thing either for them to trade up to number four, pick Trey Lance, and then just keep Drew Locke like he's a good you know let him play in his second season by year two even if he plays like the whole year and you're under 500 you're like all right he's not the guy you don't need to offload him like you know that he can start in the league he's had 300 yard passing games like he could be still

a good mentor to someone like Trey Lance that has a big arm, that's a little bit raw, and he's only a second-round pick. He's not making a gigantic salary. He can be just your de facto backup starting in 2022. So it's not a situation where they absolutely would need to trade him. But the value of quarterback and the talent that Lance has makes him someone definitely worth trading into the top five for. Okay, I've lost count of how many teams you've gotten. I don't know how many, but I think you have maybe one more on your list.

I have one more and it is the Minnesota Vikings. And I promise not cherry picking this. They have 11 picks and me being a draft guy, I love the teams that have a lot of picks because if you were, if I was a GM, I would be trying to get as many picks as possible. It's just fun. Not only to see if a team drafts 11 players or more as you've suggested that they might do if they trade down but what 11 picks means in terms of the possibilities to trade up

and maybe not even in round one maybe if we're dead set on the fact that the Vikings are not going to trade up for a quarterback because of Kirk Cousins' contract. They could trade up in round two and they could, you know, take a few second round picks. So I think, and because they've been in the playoffs, out of the playoffs, in the playoffs, out of the playoffs, they've been kind of back and forth during the Kirk Cousins era. And they have some still really good players. presence of Justin Jefferson I think is huge for that organization based on how you feel and how we all feel about the growing value at the wide receiver position you still have Adam Thielen you're getting Danelle Hunter back Eric Hendricks Anthony Barr there so I think they're fascinating because of how many picks

and what they ultimately do and where they're positioned at number 14 we talked about the chargers they probably have to go offensive tackle maybe corner and then right in front of bill balachek and the patriots they could trade back like you're saying but being right in the middle of round one i think there will be a good tackle on the board they will there will probably be or potentially uh the first edge rusher could go at number 14 overall. That would not surprise me whatsoever. The first linebacker. They're just an interesting team because it's hard to tell what they ultimately will do

because they do have a fair amount of needs and so many picks. I feel like the needs have been funneled in the draft mocks and things like that to tackle or defensive end. That everybody's either going those two directions, and then you have your rogue Devontae Smith that fits in there. And my thing is we've got a pretty good feeling, I think, with this draft of how things will go and what players will be at the top. But there's always that one or two surprises,

and that's what can totally swing where the Vikings go. So if Devontae Smith does not get taken, then you're on the board and Devontae Smith is there and you've got to make that call. Are you going to go with your defensive end? Are you going to trade out of it and let somebody else trade up for a wide receiver? They could have so many different directions to go just based on if one thing changes from what we think is going to happen. Yeah, and I think if there's stay put at 14,

Jalen Phillips is the one that we've kind of zeroed in on as he fits the prototype of what Mike Zimmer wants. But what's interesting and that you hinted at it earlier, it's a very good edge class from like middle of round one to middle of round two, they could trade back and be like, Hey, we like all these guys or there's not that big of a gap in our grading system between Jalen Phillips and Quiddy Pay or Aziz Ojulari if we want a more of a smaller pass rusher um they're Jason Owe from Penn State who might be Danelle Hunter maybe not uh Joe Tryon from Washington, Carlos Basham, who's that bigger

type. There are a lot of quality late first round, maybe sneak into the 20s edge rushers where the Vikings could ultimately trade back, get a few more picks. And then I think what would be the smartest thing to do, get those extra picks and then ultimately move up again and make, because they don't have that second round pick yet yet to trade up and at least get one or if not two second rounders onto this roster the jason oway thing i think is plausible for the vikings that they could look at that sub 4 4 40 for a defensive end and say that's our kind of freak and i was you know kind of making some snarky comments about oh the next deniel hunter but it's almost not even fair to jason oway because he's probably going to be a first round pick.

And Daniel Hunter was a third round pick. And that's what makes Daniel Hunter so unique. And what's frustrating is every guy who is an accurate quarterback, but not mobile gets compared to Kirk and every defensive end who has a good pro day, who does not have a lot of sacks gets compared to Daniel Hunter. And Daniel Hunter is one of the most special human beings I've ever been around, not just from a physical perspective, but from a character makeup perspective. I mean, if you're trying to do a percentile on him, he's 99th percentile.

I mean, he's intelligent and he's driven and he's coachable and he's a great teammate. It's just like everything converging all at once for this guy to be highly, highly motivated to be great. I mean, you just don't know how somebody is going to transition into the NFL life. You know, so the athleticism, I mean, I don't know. Like, I think he's just an extreme outlier because of his personality as much as his athletic build. Yeah, that last point is spot on because that's what I was going to say,

that Danell Hunter is an outlier. He's a unicorn in the sense that he is so good and so productive in all phases of the game as a third-round pick who was so young coming into the league that I think that's what teams, I think not as smart teams fall into. They see someone like Josh Allen and they're like, we need to just draft a big, inaccurate quarterback. He's going to turn it. Josh Allen is an outlier too.

He truly was not that great of a prospect. The Bills built him up. He had the mental capacity to fix his mechanics and work really hard on it. A lot of the stuff that you mentioned with Hunter. So I think there is, and I think we talked about this a long time ago that there gets to be trends in the draft but don't try to chase the outliers and danelle hunter is that but for the vikings sense even if it's not chasing no way there truly are there's even joseph osai from texas they could trade back and if you say to me do you want jalen phillips at 14 at 14 or do you want Joseph Osai at 22 and a second rounder and a fourth rounder?

I would pick Joseph Osai for sure in that scenario. So that's obviously the added bonus to trading back. But even though they already have 11 picks, you would get those extra selections. And getting that round two pick, I think, is really, really valuable. To go from pick 14 all the way to pick 79 it's a pretty big gap folks the football off season is off and rolling and soda stick 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 you can commemorate Randy Moss's disgusting act on a shirt or a hoodie.

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and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Another point about the, the Daniel Hunter, Jason away thing. Daniel Hunter runs a sub four, six 40, but also 25 bench reps. I mean, that's even when he was a young kid,

you should see him now in terms of his strength. I mean, this is like, like Aaron Donald and Daniel Hunter, just guys, you should never compare anyone to because they are unlike anyone else. They get 100 out of 100 when it comes to their bodies and their makeup. So anyway, anyway, now just a real quick point.

The Vikings have 119, 125, 134, 143, and 157. So get ready. Day three, I will be on so many conference calls, Chris. It's going to be nuts. Before we wrap up, though, I wanted to touch on the interior offensive line, because this will be, I think, very much in those picks that we just ran through or in the third round, something that the Vikings could target. And this draft, to me, just does not have second round interior offensive linemen, and I'm not even sure that there's, other than guys who will transition from tackle to guard,

anyone that you're even taking before the third round? I mean, am I wrong about that? I mean, other than, like, Vera Tucker is a tackle slash guard. So if we just throw those guys out and talk about only interior, it seems like the third round is where there's a bunch of guards and centers that are going to go I agree with you on that point and but we're kind of in the minority there's people that absolutely love Landon Dickerson from Alabama right I see him more as an early third round pick and here's the quick reason why and this is a very minority opinion he's like 6'6 340 338 he's not playing center in

the NFL at that size I'm sorry it's too tall it's too heavy and watching him on film I think he moves well for his size but I like wrote in in my scouting report for him that he looks kind of stiff and he has the ACL injury so So you're dealing with all that. And he was really like bullying people in his red shirts, senior season at Alabama. But beyond that, I agree. I think third round is really where it kicks off, where the value at center or guard, whatever position,

interior offensive line, that seems to make more sense than anyone that's a slam dunk round too big. Maybe Creed Humphrey from Oklahoma. I like him a lot and I like his versatility, but I think you're safer to get the right value waiting until the third round of this draft for interior offensive lineman. We talked about Trey Smith on the last episode when I draft simmed Trey Smith

and his athleticism versus kind of his production. I feel like Wyatt Davis is a little bit the same way, that he was a guy who was talked about as, hey, maybe this guy's even a first-round guard, and then his production from this last year was not good. And if I'm recalling correctly, Christian Barmore eating up the interior that offensive line for Ohio State did not help him or Josh Myers. It didn't help either one of those guys in terms of their draft value.

Yeah, Wyatt Davis, if you look back to even mock drafts at the beginning of the college football season, it was like he was a top 10 pick. And that's kind of when I say with my grading system, when I have three corners in a row, because that's just how the numbers come out, that I'm not just going to throw a tight end in there or a wide receiver to make it look better. That's what I think it kind of was with Wyatt Davis. Like, hey, there's got to be a dart somewhere in the first round, right? I truly don't think there is. Elijah Vera Tucker is the closest that I have graded inside the first round. But again, for the Vikings, that's good.

If there's not four or five interior offensive linemen gone before pick 50 or pick 70, they could ultimately still get a pretty good one that could start and does have upside on late in day two or even early day three yeah and uh beyond that though i mean kendrick green is another guy that stands out uh to me as being talked about a lot now he's not the biggest guy but when you watch, it's pretty nasty in the way that he plays. And Vikings fans are very interested in Kendrick Green from Illinois because PFF graded him extremely high when it came to his zone blocking skill. Yeah, he's one of my favorite interior blockers. I think he might be the best value selection because a lot of the names that I

already spoke about are getting either late first or early second round buzz and there will be a team that needs a guard or thinks it needs a center that early Kendrick Green is probably going to be there in the third round he played center he played guard very athletic and he's one unlike Dickerson and unlike Wyatt Davis who I, and really even Trey Smith, who plays as athletic as he tested. He is very explosive off a snap, getting across a gap on those zone runs. And I wrote in my scouting report for him that he's effortlessly powerful. He's like a road grader, but he's not exerting all of his energy to bring someone to the turf. He has a wrestling background.

I don't know if the Vikings like that. Some teams like that. Oh oh yes oh yes i do yes i like to especially if you're a center guard um that you are we're like a state champion wrestler i think that's very good kendrick green is good in that respect he would make a lot of sense i don't know what the vikings want to do with the future of garrett bradbury but green is someone you could plug him in at guard he's already pretty powerful pack some weight onto him. Let him play guard for a season, see how it goes. And you wouldn't be dealing with an Ezra Cleveland type situation where he is definitely not a guard and you're putting him there.

And then if Garrett Bradbury ultimately isn't the guy at center, you have someone that has the athleticism on the move to play center in Kendrick Green. Okay, last one before we wrap up. Everyone saw Quinn, is it Mannerts, Minerts? Miners. Miners at the Senior Bowl. What do you think? I mean, PFF likes him. A lot of people like him.

I still feel like interior guys are just not going until the third, but do you like him as a guy who could transition quickly to the NFL from Wisconsin and Whitewater? I think it's going to take him a while. the third but uh do you like him as a guy who could transition quickly to the nfl from wisconsin whitewater i think it's going to take him a while i don't think i mean ollie marpet coming from hobart that was a d3 school is the prototype here but it took him a season or two to be like oh my god every guy is the strongest human being i've ever dealt with his film and I did find some Wisconsin whitewater film obviously it wasn't easy but I did get some he's pretty athletic and he tested pretty well and we know that at the senior bowl he was just putting people in the dirt he's pretty athletic and he's pretty

strong but his technique in pass protection I think it has a long way to go and I even saw I don't know what insider it was but someone a big name like had him as a center and I did not I think he is a guard all I don't know if it was Lance Zerline or it was someone like tweeting or in a mock draft like that wrote his position as center so maybe some teams are thinking that he's a center. But I like him. I don't like him in the top 50, but in round three, it picked 79, it picked 91. I think absolutely because of the inherent athleticism he has and just how powerful he is, even coming from the D3 level,

I think he's a step or two above any of the other small school players in terms of meeting those athletic and physical thresholds that you need to at least meet to not be a liability early in your career what vikings fans have been thirsting for interior offensive line talk chris capasso the prospect podcast cbs sports draft coverage we march closer and closer we will do one more of these shows before the actual draft and then chris you are going to have so many freaking draft picks to break down when we do this after the draft okay we've talked

about this off air but i want to get it into a podcast we need to i mean you are the vikings expert you believe that they will ultimately make more than 11 picks yes is that are you ready to go on the record with let's let's bet something on Yes. Are you ready to go on the record with that? Let's bet something on it. What do you want to bet on it? Milkshake? Want to bet on milkshake? Milkshake.

I'll Venmo you money for a milkshake. Okay, milkshake. Milkshake. Are we just going over under 11, or do you think it's going to be way more? Let's go over under 11.5. So if it's 11, then you win, and if it's 12, then I win. I think that they're going to take some of these picks, and they're going to move them back.

They're going to move back from 90 to 97 or 78 to 83, and they're going to pick up another seventh. They don't have a seventh right now because they've got to take it away from them. They'll have a seven. I guarantee it. One last thing that I don't get with that is if I was a GM, and maybe I'm completely missing something here, I would do everything in my power to not have sixth and seventh round picks. I'm the biggest advocate of trading back and getting more rolls at the table, but those picks, the success rate, the chance of a sixth or seventh rounder, making your roster when you're not giving him as many reps as your early round picks and your veterans,

and then ultimately being really good are so low. I would use sixth and seventh rounders to trade for veterans, to trade up. Hey, you know, we're sitting here at 91. We like someone, you know, ahead of our pick at 79. Let's trade a sixth and a seventh and next year seventh to get up to get him. Like in those scenarios, I'm okay with that. If you're just making all your picks within like the top 150 instead of saying we need that 243 we need that selection

I can't tell you how much Vikings fans agree with everything you said because they have watched seventh rounder after seventh rounder I think we had four seventh round conference calls last year none of them mattered and that's usually how it goes is, yeah, I mean, somebody gets to have their dream day of getting drafted to the NFL. But I mean, other than that, I mean, a Fadi Adeno was a seventh round pick, Stephen Weatherly, B.C. Johnson. I mean, these are inconsequential players for the most part at best in the seventh round. So I agree with you.

This team just seems to love to trade back to get more and more sevenths. And I will admit, as a serial draft simmer, it is fun picking more players. That is true. Yeah, absolutely. No doubt about that. I'm excited after the draft. I've been saying to you this whole time, for as much as I love watching players, evaluating, plugging them into the grading system,

see how the big board populates. It's fun to actually finally be able to talk about legitimate players. Like things that we've talked about will ultimately, 90% of what we talked about will ultimately not come to fruition. But when we can sit here and talk about hopefully 11, so I win the bet, 11 Vikings draft picks and I can say, hey, I had him here. I think this was too high or this was great value. That will be a lot of fun.

So definitely next week will be good because we'll be in draft week. We'll be entering it. But then after the draft, a lot of content to get to with the Vikings having potentially a dozen picks. Yes. Prepare yourself for 12. All right.

We'll talk next week, Chris. Thanks for your time as always. And make sure you check out his podcast, the prospect and follow him on Twitter at Chris Trapasso. Thanks, Chris.