Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso gives us Combine buzz (and how it impacts the Vikings)

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

The NFL Combine is officially underway in Indy. Matthew Coller and CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso discuss all the Combine Buzz they've picked up and break down how it impacts the Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back inside the NFL Combine Matthew Coller here along with CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapaso and Chris has his Trapaso's buzz which has now become a staple feature of our NFL Combine coverage we both go out we talk to people I hear stuff you hear stuff and then we bring it all back and we talk to people, I hear stuff, you hear stuff, and then we bring it all back and we talk about it. And also there's a bunch of GMs and head coaches that are talking behind us. So we hear stuff from them too. So we're going to run through that and some of the other buzz going on around the NFL here today. And I

think you want to start Chris with a pretty big subject that could have some serious relevance to the Minnesota Vikings. So why don't you begin your Trappasso's buzz? We need a better headline for that. I'll think of it. For now, that's good. In the interim, that's good. Right. I'll think of it.

You go ahead. So from last night, being out and about around Indianapolis, talking to two separate people, and then trying to dig a little bit deeper today, a third person heard the exact same thing, that the Matt Stafford to the Giants buzz is not just a media creation. That it is legit, that the, I mean this is not saying that the trade

is gonna happen tomorrow, but that the Giants are legitimately desperate at quarterback and they're not as enamored anywhere close like we talked about to this quarterback class like Drake May, Jane Daniels, even Bo Nicks, JJ McCarthy last year. So for as much as it just makes sense, you know, the Chad Hall hiring and that he's, what he's, his sister is married to Stafford. Is that what it is? Something like that. That's what Adam Schefter connected it.

It's like, oh, his brother-in-law works for the team now, which I thought was a little bit of a stretch. But legitimately, that is the buzz around Indianapolis, which could impact the Vikings. That could be one of the potential veteran quarterback landing spot dominoes that goes down Stafford to the Giants. A fair amount of buzz one day into the combine. Stafford to the Giants just makes too much sense to not talk about or to even happen, honestly, because this has been a thought process of mine

ever since the Giants owner said, hey, yeah, our guys are actually on the hot seat. I once you say that, that means that they have to make some sort of move that is going to get them back into the playoff race. I'm not sure Brian Dable needs to in that division win the division, even if you got third place and missed the playoffs by a game or so. You can keep your job after that. And I think that their run actually OK. And compared to years past, they locked themselves into Daniel Jones.

That was a huge mistake. But they tanked, they drafted high. They got neighbors. They got another high draft pick, and they have a lot of assets to work with going forward, but they just don't have any answer whatsoever. they need somebody who's a real quarterback and there are so few quarterbacks who are available who would even be their next place if it's not him or Sam Darnold. Kirk Cousins or it's not Daniel Jones or Russell Wilson drafting one of those guys but if you're not sold on them and we've also talked about too you can't really draft a quarterback with hopes that that player is gonna save your job right away so a veteran always made a lot of sense for them. It also made a lot of sense for Sam Darnold to go to the New York Giants. So if Matthew Stafford ends up going to the Giants,

would his trade return make difference for what... Maybe not, because there's contracts and so forth. But if Matthew Stafford is traded there for a second round pick, is that what the Vikings all of a sudden are asking for? Because they're saying, hey, you traded a experienced veteran winning quarterback. That's what we have. And so forth. So I think that this does have potentially, if it happens with Stafford going to the Giants, a huge impact on the number of teams that would be bidding for Sam Darnall, which could lower the price or it could create a bidding war between a couple of teams. I actually am not sure which way that would go. Does this also suggest Chris, that the top teams at the draft, the

Tennessee Titans of the world might not be so sold on drafting a quarterback that high? I think so. I mean, again, we don't want to group the league altogether, but the Giants, a team that, with a GM and Joe Shane, who has not ever drafted a quarterback, he gets the GM job from being the assistant in Buffalo. And like you said, they make the big mistake of extending Daniel Jones. This will be his fourth draft in New York.

You know how rare it would be to not draft a quarterback when you're a first time GM. So if they are seriously considering trading for Matthew Stafford, that is a huge, I don't want to say red flag, but it sounds the alarm. Like this is a team that needs to draft a quarterback, has the third overall pick. There's two quarterbacks.

One of them at least would presumably be there. And there's like, we might be out completely a month and a half or two months before the draft. A few other layers to that of my conversations that I had was hearing that they would be okay with like technically overpaying, like giving maybe not, you know, a ton of picks, but giving a lot to get him and paying him whatever he wants

because that's how desperate Brian Dable and Joe Shane are to just have competent quarterback play. They've like never had it. I mean, the Daniel Jones year, he still, they were winning in spite of him in that 2022 season. So that was one thing. There was one other buzz that I'm now blanking on, but that I thought was interesting,

that the deterrent to it has been, hey, are they really gonna give him $50 million? And yes, that's from all three people that they had heard that the Giants would be okay. Like, hey, not out of the realm of what would be reasonable, but give a high pick and give him the money that he wants. That's how desperately they need a quarterback in New York. I think what you're saying is they would be willing to outbid the other potential. That's what it that's what it seemed like. Yes.

Right. So if we have the Raiders, we have other teams that want him, that they would be willing to kind of up the ante. So the point of giving him the money that he wants, giving the draft picks that the Rams want and maybe even giving him Cooper Cup, which I thought of is probably in a Aaron Rodgers like fashion. It's like, well, we got to make sure we get you your favorite wide receiver over here as well. I think any team who does it would probably want Cooper Cup. I'm sure they'll wait till he gets cut and then he would sign wherever Stafford went.

The big domino that would fall would be then suddenly the Los Angeles Rams would be on the list of teams that would potentially want Sam Darnold. And Kevin O'Connell has said time and time again he is not shied away from it at all. Sean McVeigh is one of his best friends in the entire world. I mean, him and Sean McVeigh are as close as it gets, and those guys are texting on a daily basis. So if Stafford goes, you have to think that the Rams would be a team to immediately the first text message from McVeigh goes to Kevin O'Connell. Can we have Sam Darnold, please? I mean, because

when you look at all the options, we've said over and over how much Darnold is so much better than any other option out on the market aside from Stafford. We know Stafford and his background and how good he is. But aside from Stafford, Darnold is the clear cut number one free agent or potential trade target. The risk about trading him to the Rams is that he goes to a team that you might play in the playoffs again and then you worry about losing to Sam Darnold. You don't necessarily want to give them to an NFC team, but you have to give them away to the best bidder because the Vikings need more draft capital and if they're not sticking with Darnold, then they're going to get as much as they

possibly can. And if you're the Rams, that's not a rebuilding team. That's a team that won a playoff game two years ago, won a playoff game last year, and is one drive away from beating the team that won the Super Bowl. And that's why it's always been odd to me that Stafford would want out. But I guess if he's unhappy

and he's basically threatening them, like I'll just retire or whatever else, if you don't trade me, then they don't really have any other option. But if I'm Sean McVeigh I'm not sitting there going well we've got Jimmy Garoppolo. I'm not sitting there saying oh yeah we could draft we could trade up and draft Chaudhry Sanders or anything like that. I mean there's no better option than Darnold and it's the same offense. I mean those two the O'Connell and McVeigh and their offenses it's a lot of the same language. It's a lot of the same offense. I mean, those two, the O'Connell and McVeigh and their offenses,

it's a lot of the same language. It's a lot of the same concepts. You can project what he would do. It's also probably the number three wide receiver in the league. If we're ranking, I would have Jefferson one chase to and Puka Nakua three and the entire league. I mean, it just makes so much sense with that connection. The only question is how much are the Rams willing

to give up, but if they've just gotten a bevy of picks from the New York giants, they would have extra draft capital to give the Vikings. Folks, I'm trying a new thing in order to stop going to fast food restaurants all the time with my busy schedule. It is called Tempo Meals. Tempo is a weekly delivery service that delivers chef crafted meals from a dietitian approved menu, fresh to your door.

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Yeah. So I just remembered the last bit of buzz, which is related to what I was talking about earlier, that the Giants are presumably willing to be that highest bidding team. The thing that I heard in conjunction with that is that they're almost in a situation where they're like, if this doesn't work out and we're looking in 2026 that Matthew Stafford is making a ton of money and he's almost 40, that'll be the problem for the other, like for the next GM and for the next head coach. That to me was a strong indicator that, yeah, the Giants are serious.

They will pay as much as they need to. Their owner could be involved here. Like John Mayer might be like, hey, like we need a quality quarterback. We're seeing Jaylen Hertz. We're seeing Jayden Daniels in the division. We need to kind of up that ante. Dec Prescott is the highest paid quarterback in football.

So that was interesting. And like what you said, I think what's interesting about it too, potential, I mean, we're kind of going down a rabbit hole here, but it makes sense. These dominoes, Kevin O'Connell can give Sean McVeigh that vote of confidence. Like, hey, on these set, 15 staple plays in our offense,

Darnold was lights out this past season. And when he had this route or this first read or second read to Justin Jefferson, you can use Pukinakua or you do use Pukinakua in that same way. Darnold was so good on this throw and that throw. So that connection, I think we always after free agency or after the draft or after those trades were always like, oh, we should have put that connection together that those coaches were best friends

texting all the time or that assistant coach was his wide receiver coach when he was here. That makes a lot of sense. And it's a one situation where I've been skeptical thinking Sam Darnold really could only be 2024 Sam Darnold with the Vikings. If you put him on a Rams team with Sean McVeigh and Pukka Nakua, even without Cooper Cup, an ascending defense, a very quarterback friendly head coach,

I think they could feel very confident in Sam Darnold playing at the same level or maybe even better than he did in 2024. It would make a lot of sense and be kind of a win-win across the board. And not only that, a running game as well. A running game, yeah. Kyron Williams, not something that the Vikings really had last year, but being able to project the performance makes it worth more. Yeah, absolutely.

And the fact that Sean McVeigh would know that and that he would know the strengths and weaknesses, having a game planned for Sam Darnold and beating him quite handily, that would be the only counterpoint that you would have is, well, he did see Sam Darnold and beaten him quite handily. That would be the only counterpoint that you would have is while he did see Sam Darnold play about as bad as Sam Darnold could play against the Los Angeles Rams. And the first time they played, he was pretty good, but in the playoffs, clearly, you know, he was crushed overwhelmed by the Rams defensive line. But when we talk about these desperation things, we usually talk about it in terms of who's going to get fired or in the case of someone like the Raiders.

Okay, they just brought in Brady. They just brought in Pete Carroll. They need to be better. They need to put themselves at least in the discussion for a playoff team. That's a very different spot from the Rams where their desperation would be Sean McVay has a reputation as one of the best coaches in the league and they have a team that was thought to be totally screwed after they won the Super Bowl and they were and they were briefly but then unscrewed themselves quite well with some good drafts and good moves and so if you're out there in LA you've got to be feeling like wait a minute you're gonna let this great quarterback and Matthew Stafford won the Super Bowl out the door and what now? Rebuilding? But how can you rebuild with that D line? Like that's a championship caliber D line. It's a championship caliber wide receiver one. It's a championship caliber coaching staff. Don't you need a quarterback that can at

least put you in that range? And one thing I know about all the McVeys, the O'Connells, the Shanahans, what am I going to say? They all think they can get the absolute best out of every quarterback, and you know what? They usually do. They have a good track record. They usually prove that, and if you're McVey, and also here's one other factor I thought of too, for why this would make so much sense

if this becomes available. Kevin O'Connell really, really cares about his players and especially his quarterbacks. And his relationship with Sam Darnold this year was phenomenal. Does he want to send him to a team that's a mess? I don't think so. I don't think that he would want-

Said to do his best friend, which is better than that. Exactly, I think it would matter. And Kevin O'Connell has earned a lot of points with players for stuff like this, where he's going to try to do the best that he can. It is a business and everything else, but if you've got a choice between trading it to team A and team B, and team B is Sean McVay and team A is some joke, like Tennessee, well, I think that Kevin O'Connell would try to-

He would push for that. Make it work. Yeah. They might go with, I don't know. I am not going to speak for them and say they'd go a little less to trade him to LA, but I think they want him to succeed. I think he wants to be one of the reasons and the guy who gave Darnold that opportunity that then sent him on a path to be a great quarterback going forward. So all of that makes a lot of sense. Here's what I'm curious about from you. Give me like your, if they're moving Darnold and franchise tagging him, give me your ranking, your three, your five, like

who would be on the list? And let's do it in a scenario where Matthew Stafford is traded to the Giants. Okay. Let's do this hypothetical. Stafford is a giant. Now who are the next teams in line in order that would be most interested in Sam Darnold? So we just mentioned the Rams, which that to me would be number one. And then number two, Tennessee Titans, not quite as much desperation with a new GM, Mike Borgonzzi, who is in Kansas City forever. But I think Brian Callahan is like, I need to like win. Like I was a little surprised that he wasn't a one and done. I don't know if his dad's reputation or the fact that he worked with

Joe Burrow helped him out, but that was a total abomination on the offensive side. This past season they trade Malik Willis and he actually like auditions as like a backup for that little stretch when Jordan Love was hurt pretty well, Will Levis did not play well, Mason Rudolph was like their main starter. He needs a quarterback too and I think he's like, I don't necessarily love these players at the top and I don't want to go through rookie growing pains. I mean, of course we're just remembering months ago,

Caleb Williams was this consensus number one overall prospect, 20 touchdown, six interceptions, but a lot more bad than good in terms of the sacks and the bad decisions. And it took him a while to really come to form that wasn't atrocious really, um, October, November. I don't think Callahan wants that in year two. And then I would guess I would go to the Las Vegas Raiders. Although the ties, I mean, we're talking about ties, the ties of Chedur Sanders to Tom Brady, that

they've known each other since high school, since Chedur Sanders was in high school and he's kind of been a protege. It kind of feels like that's more likely for them, but Rams and Titans, I think, and you're talking about a team with the first pick and a lot of selections, you know, early in every round, that would be really interesting for, again, another team. We talked about this yesterday, desperate at the quarterback position, maybe not as much as the Giants, but desperate at the quarterback position that could be like, let's roll the dice with something that we have seen. We have watched NFL film on a quarterback like Sam Darnold. Who's the wild card? Who is a team that no one's thinking of but could suddenly kind of surprise us

in terms of the quarterback position? I have one. Okay, let's hear it. In part because their media's sitting next to us, which would be Cleveland. And you know, we've been overhearing a lot of discussions over there about their quarterback situation, what they're going to do.

They are unbelievably screwed. But they need to have someone play quarterback. They also can't lose this year and have their leadership keep the job. The fact that their leadership has kept the job so far, I think says a lot about who made the call for Deshaun Watson that their ownership was the ones who really pushed that. Maybe that's giving their their leadership too much credit, but I think they would have been fired if they completely were the ones that were pushing for that move and then had it fall apart. So they've got one more shot and that's it. It can't be much more than that and that's a football team that has a lot of talent on it, especially on the defensive side, but their top player wants out. Would a Sam Darnold acquisition maybe inspire Miles Garrett to

be a little more reasonable with them, which he shouldn't be. They're a joke. But, you know, I mean, maybe that's part of the conversations like Miles, we're not trading you, but we're getting Sam Darnold that we could potentially win. He won 14 games last year. Cleveland might be a little bit of a wild card. I also think that Pittsburgh is in this wild. Sorry for stealing your thunder there. Go ahead. I stole your idea yesterday with Pete Carroll as a fascinating guy here in Indy. The Steelers are in this weird spot where they had a drafted in-home quarterback for like 20 years with Ben Routhsberger and now they're just like patchwork, patchwork, patchwork. And I think at times when Russell Wilson

reassumed the starting job, like, what was it? Like late October, early November, he played okay football, regressed back. He is like, I think he's like half the athlete that he was earlier in his career. Justin Fields doesn't really have it as a pure pocket passer and certainly Vikings fans have a lot of experience knowing that.

Maybe Sam Darnold, they feel like this is Ryan Tannehill 2.0 pass or and certainly Vikings fans have a lot of experience knowing that maybe Sam Darnold they feel like this is Ryan Tannehill 2.0 that didn't really play great early on and and and Darnold was probably worse in New York than Tannehill was in Miami but they loved the film that they saw in 2024 and figure with an elite level defense with George Pickens with getting Roman Wilson back the second round pick from Michigan that they drafted, Calvin Austin, and then replenishing some more picks on the offensive side,

and probably adding to the offensive line that he can be a quality veteran for them. And they just needed some stability at the quarterback spot with someone that's not like totally washed or someone that we're like, yeah, we're pretty sure he's not an NFL caliber starting pocket passer in Justin Fields. So those two in the AFC North,

probably the clear dark horses, if that makes sense, to land Sam Darnold. Well, I was thinking about the Arthur Smith play action downfield passing, and they were doing it with Russell Wilson in a very limited type of way, but with Sam Darnold, he was just coming off an offense that was more complicated with that, with the play actions and downfield concepts. And they do have a downfield wide receiver who just is angry all the time because he hasn't had good quarterback play since he got

there. I mean, he's got, you know, George Pickens, just bad quarterbacks that can't throw down the field effectively. Wilson did have his moments throwing to Pickens deep, but not in the same way that Darnold did last year, which was... And Darnold was great downfield, I thought. Elite, truly elite, like one of the best downfield pastors in the entire NFL. That could intrigue, as you mentioned, in the Ryan Tannehill type fashion, Arthur Smith.

So that, I think, is a pretty solid list on Sam Darnold teams and A, if the Stafford thing happens, then I... Not those can fall quick then. Exactly, I agree with you. I think that that might be the first thing that has to fall. And of course, the Vikings would have to franchise to Darnal. But but you talk about that desperation.

It ramps up once Stafford goes and then teams are like, oh, now what are we doing at our quarterback position? And just something popped into my head from one of the other pressers, Brandon being the Bills GM reference, something that I think we can even in the media forget about. He obviously couldn't talk about, you know, a Miles Garrett or Max Crosby trade for the bills, but they asked about it and he said, look, there are like conversations going on about like, hey, if this happens, then so if these guys are best friends, McVeigh and KOC, like are they saying, are they tampering?

No, but like I just said, I think if that Matthew Stafford trade, which is kind of building some steam at this point, does happen, I don't think it'll be three or four weeks or a month until something happens on the Sam Darnold front that these teams, like we always hear that they have mock draft drafts that they do, or they have, okay, if this happens, this happens, they're also doing that with the trade market and in-free agency, and with all the connections between these coaches, that would make a ton of sense if

Matthew Stafford is ultimately traded to the Giants. So I just want to add a little bit of news coming across my phone here that I've insinuated but now want to mention that Kevin O'Connell told us that... Talk about breaking news here, like literally live as we're recording. Yeah, well, hold on one second. I've got to read this text message. So. This is literally live news gathering from that pulling the Adam Schefter power move of checking his phone while I think is amazing.

Hats off to you. So here's the here's the message. So Kevin O'Connell told us at the podium that J.J. McCarthy is doing well in his recovery, and there's an expectation that he is going to be on track to participate in the offseason program, which to me was really big news because his health has been central to my discussion and analysis. I have been told and you'll probably see this from other reporters as well that we'd heard from folks within the league. I'm doing the league thing within the league that JJ McCarthy is up over 200 pounds in his recovery, which is a big thing for JJ McCarthy in his recovery. So we have heard here in Indianapolis that

McCarthy's recovery and his weight gain back from 200 pounds or less is going well. Yeah, it's going well. That's the that's the best I can do here. But that's the information. I'm sure by the time this is published, there will also be other reporters who mention this as well. So anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. Another signal that the Vikings will more likely than not go to J.J. McCarthy, which is why the discussion has turned here on the show toward where could Sam Darnold go? And the last part of that, before we get to your other combine buzz, is what should they expect to get back? Like, set the price for me me Chris? What should the Vikings want to get back for Sam Darnold if they trade I think two picks one?

One of which needs to be at least a second rounder because you could say alright Matt Stafford is a better quarterback had a better career more volume all that Matthew Stafford is what? 37 years old and he wants an astronomer where you're like, Hey, we kind of just want you for maybe one year to just patch us over if you're the giants so we can keep our jobs to then draft your heir apparent. Sam Darnold is much younger. He is like technically in like the prime of what should be prime of his career. So I think second rounder and like a fourth become a third.

If he reaches certain incentives. Now, what you mentioned previously, I think makes a lot of sense. The Stafford raid, if it happens, could set those parameters and change them. Is it, I mean, and sometimes we don't know, like the, one of the Carson Wentz trades, we were like blown away by what,

like the Eagles got, or you got traded from some of the commanders. We don't really know. It's hard to say and they're not the exact same quarterback, same ages with similar reputations and track records. But I think if I'm the Vikings, I want after the 14 win season and we're winning because of Sam Darnold a lot of the time.

Like you mentioned, I think you mentioned on our show a couple of weeks ago, he was like a top seven to 10 quarterback in the NFL last year by like every metric. And you just watch the games. You felt that relatively young. I think they should say we want a second rounder and then like a third or a fourth somewhere in that range. I don't know if they'll be able to get a first. Um, I think that would be probably a little bit too rich, but like a second and a fourth for one year of having Sam Darnold winning 14 games, I think would be a great compensation package for the Vikings in return.

So that's what I've been looking at as well. But I've also thought if it's a team like the Raiders who has a high third run pick, I accept. I mean, the one thing one thing that teams are working with is which against the Vikings is they probably have a good sense that they're moving on from Darnold if they're having conversations with about you know what's the worth on the market so would a team say we'll just wait till he gets to the market then it's like a high stakes game of chicken you know racing toward the edge who's going to do it who's

going to pull the trigger are we all going to kind of agree to not you know give the Vikings those high draft picks but then someone says says, screw that, we need a quarterback, and then they decide to do it anyway, which actually happened. Second round pick might be high. I know that these teams really, really value second rounders as starting players, so I've set it at second round is absolutely ideal, but third round I would be willing to do it depending on where that pick is. If you're talking about the last pick in the third,

that's a really hard spot to find somebody early part of the third. You're still talking about looking for starting players for sure there and maybe there is a Alex Smith third rounder and a player type of trade if somebody want to give up a second round pick fascinating stuff. Now another one of the biggest names that you're going to hear a lot about on the show probably already have is Trey Smith. Well today, Brett Veach, who is the GM of the biggest names that you're going to hear a lot about on the show, probably already have, is Trey Smith. Well, today, Brett Veach, who is the GM of the Kansas City Chiefs, talked about Trey

Smith and his possibilities of hitting the free agency market. What did you make, Chris, comments on the Kansas City Guard? I was surprised, and I don't know if this will ultimately be one of those clips or snippets that we look back upon in a month when free agency starts and go, oh, why did he say that? But he said variable that we're gonna rein Trey Smith. And he feels like he could set the market at the guard position.

They have a lot of other free agents, Justin Reed, the safety is a free agent, their star linebacker Nick Bolton, I mean, quasi Nick Bolton at linebacker. He said things are going well with him in terms of contract talk. So it was really interesting to see, but he did mention after he was off the podium

and he was like bouncing around as serious, everything did kind of throw out the caveat, not to the main presser, like, oh yeah, but things can change and then you really can't do anything about it. But the amount of confidence, I mean, most GMs here just say, hey, yeah, you know, we're going to just keep that behind closed doors and we hope the best. He like said very much that it's probable that they're going to be able to resign Trey Smith, which that would be the biggest domino on the guard free agent market this off season.

Yeah. I mean, I don't see how they can make it work. I didn't think there was a chance that they could do it. Because they desperately need a left tackle. You got to spend money to get that. It's unlikely that they could trade up for a starting left tackle. And their interior is already super expensive with Joe Tuni and Landon Dickerson.

So now you're looking at, OK, you're going to spend spend 60 million, 70 million at just your guards and centers and just leave the tackles. Wasn't that how you lost? It was not having the right. Super bowls they lost were because of the tackles. A big reason why. Right. So it's time to make a major investment in that. I think for them, even if there's not huge names on the free agent market, that they should be spending their money there. I think Trey Smith is a very realistic option for the Vikings, but I also think there's going to be 12 teams who line up to try to pay Trey Smith as much as they possibly can. So I did a podcast, I don't know when that's coming out, that

I recorded with Sam McDowell from Kansas City Star. He thinks that he's hitting the free agent market and thinks that it probably will be an overpay for him. But at the same time, it's free agency. If you're looking to get top players. Starting guard, that's like a pro bowl caliber guy who's nasty and has all the traits. It won't be an overpayment. It'll be like you're saying classic free agent signing. Right. Exactly. So there's Trey Smith. I don't believe Brett Beach. I just don't believe him. I think that- It was kind of surprising.

When he said it, you saw everyone that was at the press conference looking around, checking their phones. Did he really just say it feels probable that this is going to ultimately get done? Because the buzz coming in was that the Chiefs were not going to be able to do this, and they still have Creed Humphrey, they still have Joe Tooney, and they were just going to have to let Trey Smith hit the free agent market. Okay. I'm getting asked about this one a ton, so it needs your take on it. Jonathan Allen apparently has been given permission to seek a trade. Jonathan Allen is a very good football

player, but there are contracts and there are complications. And I think with this one, Chris, I prefer if the Vikings were to look at a defensive tackle in the first round, which is actually part of my combine buzz. I think the Vikings and I know that this is not a, I've been saying this for weeks, but just as I talk to people more, I think the Vikings are very serious about defensive tackle. I think they agree with all of you and us that the defensive tackle draft is great and that they did not get enough from that position the last couple years. They're hard to find anywhere except for in the draft. I don't think that trading for Jonathan Allen makes anywhere near as much sense as just drafting a guy

in the first round at that position, but give me your take on him as a potential Vikings trade target. It is the exact polar opposite of the quarterback situation where quarterback class is not great. There's teams at the top, they're desperate, and that combination is leading to us talking about Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford at length all week. And that's really been the biggest buzz early here in Indianapolis. The defensive tackle class is super good and it's deep. And you can get one late in the first round and in the second and third, there's TJ Sanders and Derek Harmon and Dion Walker. We talked about them yesterday that aren't going to be top 10 selections that are going to be available.

You're right. Jonathan Allen is a plug and play type. But I do think that it is probably time for the Vikings to draft and have an in-house defensive tackle. They brought in Harrison Phillips in free agency a few years ago. Jerry Tillery was playing there, these cast-offs. It's time for them to invest early in the draft

at defensive tackle in a very good defensive tackle class. Could he be traded? Sure, but that one doesn't really align with what the Vikings should ultimately do to bring in, to trade draft picks, to bring in Jonathan Allen and then pay him big money. He is kind of in the twilight of his career. You can get similar productivity along the defensive line on the interior in this draft.

The other problem is trade what for Jonathan Allen? I mean, are you talking about a fifth round draft pick? I mean, I would not be willing to do much. Usually when these things come out, this is my theory, when there's a veteran player and it comes out that they're on the trade market or they've been given permission to seek a trade. Correct.

If it's not- They're about to get caught. If it's not Matthew Stafford, but if it's Cooper Cup or it's Jonathan Allen, it's a last ditch effort to just be like Ian Rapaport, can you help me out here and see if anybody wants this guy? We've called everything we could think of. Maybe fan bases will push or owners will be like, no, why don't we get this guy? But it doesn't work. I don't think I very rarely, very, very rarely. I just, I think that if that's the case, I would just wait till the guy gets cut and then consider him. But I'm looking younger. I'm looking at a five to 10 year defensive tackle that you want to draft.

Because once you get that guy, the crazy thing about the defensive tackle position is if you get that guy, they're good every year. It's I mean, there are other positions like corner that can be volatile. Way more volatile. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Defensive tackle. You get Dexter Lawrence. That guy is good forever and he's just always my example because he's a murderer and he's just like he is the guy that I would pick number one overall in the defensive tackle draft. So I always go back to him now that Aaron Donald is retired, but if you could get that guy, he's going to be good for the

Giants every single year. They don't have those huge ups and downs. So I'm much more inclined to lean toward the draft of that. I think it's my favorite position right now for the Vikings to take in the first round. And I wonder too, maybe this is like galaxy brain and this is crazy, but like you bring in Andrew Van Ginkle. He was great. You bring in Jonathan Grenard, great.

At this point, John Harrison Phillips, like I mentioned, has been in Minnesota for a few years, but I wonder if they just want to use it on the defensive front because it's all been free agents over the last couple of years and it's been successful, but I think it's just time to say, look, we don't necessarily want to throw away any draft capital in the future with Jonathan Allen, great player, but let some other team, maybe another contender trade for him that has maybe more draft picks and doesn't have already a bunch of guys that you poached from other teams. It's a good defensive tackle class. Scout them and make sure you're getting the right, you can get one second or third round

as well. Okay. One more thing on your buzz from walking around talking last night is about the potential number one overall pick Travis Hunter. And there is a fun discussion is Hunter that we just haven't really had a chance to have you and I because Vikings, but we will have more of it as we go along and get closer to the drive. I think people will get a little more on board of having this Travis Hunter discussion. He's such a fun and interesting player.

What position is he going to play is something that we have not had any debate about ever other than Julian wanting Lamar Jackson to be a running back. Like we haven't had any conversation about what position is I going to play in this sport outside of guard or tackle. So what have you heard about Travis Hunter and what position will play? All right. So here's the timeline. Talking to a few scouts before the combine, he's going to be a corner. There'll be a wide receiver package for him. And I kind of would text back jokingly.

I'm like, what happens if he makes a lot of plays in those wide receiver package for him. And I kind of would text back jokingly, I'm like, what happens if he makes a lot of plays in those wide receiver packages? Then suddenly you're gonna, like, there'll be sports talk radio, podcasts like this one, even the owner like, hey, maybe we need to give this guy the ball more. That from the few scouts that I reached out to,

that was the consensus. Like he's gonna be a great corner, can give you some spark on offense in a gadget role. Andrew Berry, the Browns GM, they have the second overall pick, and this could impact the Vikings if they don't pick a quarterback, then whatever. He came out today at his press conference and said,

we view Travis Hunter as a wide receiver. Same kind of deal as when Brett Veach talked about Trey Smith and probably being able to re-sign him, everyone kind of looked around. I don't want to say there was an audible gasp in the audience, but that you could see everyone's like, did he just said, like they view him as a wide receiver? It's not crazy though, because the nuanced skill on film was there in 2024. He looked like just a freaky athlete in 2023, the route running savvy, tracking the football. And actually Andrew Berry spoke to Travis Hunter's

ball skills and said his best trait are his ball skills or is his ball skills and he's gonna be able to utilize them more at wide receiver obviously than you would at corner. So I thought that was interesting. And to me, I've graded him, I've like separated Travis Hunter in my scouting grade book. Like there's two blocks in my Excel sheet that say Travis Hunter corner

and Travis Hunter wide receiver. He would be the number one player at each position. If you just were able to clone him and let him play both spots. So it's not like an outlandish thing for Andrew Berry to say, but maybe that impacts the top of the draft. If the Browns are just completely enamored with this guy at a wide receiver position and they go elsewhere at the quarterback spot. I tend to agree with Andrew Berry and just because Colorado was fun, I watched a ton of them, and I liked them as a wide receiver better than a corner. Now, the thing about corners is if you have a game-changing corner

and they get interceptions, holy cow, the value about it is if you have a game changing corner and they get interceptions, holy cow, the value on that is crazy, right? But can you do it every single year? Like we saw Trayvon Diggs get a bunch of interceptions and then all of a sudden he didn't. I'm sure that with Byron Murphy Jr., he's never got interceptions in his career and then all of a sudden he did. And it's so volatile with those game changing plays. The other part of it is the corners get hurt all the time. They get hurt a lot and this is my concern about some of the corners in this draft that have injuries smaller, right? That have injury histories and wide receivers also get hurt sometimes because they play football, but

I don't think it's same rate and I think as far as the actual tool value to a defense, it's great to have a number one corner. There's a trickle down effect to it. It's important. All positions are important. But when you have a wide receiver who throw the ball deep to and go up and get it, you throw it underneath and he can run it 50 yards for a touchdown. This guy could do everything.

He's as explosive of an athlete as anybody. He tracks them as well as anybody. He can run by people. He could go over people. I think he'd have a little more work to do as a technician as a wide receiver. But with that kind of talent like that is, and this may be Justin Jefferson Viking bias, look who the Vikings have run through quarterbacks. What determines whether you win or more than now? I know the defense with Champagne. We all agree that quarterback is going to be the most valuable position on the field. The people who enhance

the quarterback the most are the second most important. I would lean toward him as a wide receiver who plays corner when you need him to or maybe he could play both, but I would be a little afraid of what I think is so funny about the defense wins championships narrative that we're hearing loud and clear after this Super Bowl, the Eagles have AJ Brown and they drafted Devontae Smith in the first round after they had AJ Brown.

So just because those two didn't have 200 yards each in the Super Bowl does not mean that like they were not parts of Jalen Hurts development and how good the Eagles have been recently and how good they won this run to the Superbowl. So I totally agree with you. And I was hoping that you were going to mention your point of like two or three years ago now that wide receiver is the second most important position in the NFL. I always counter with, I agree, but the caveat is there's so many good ones.

So there's like a surplus. So maybe that lowers the position of value a little in the draft, but the caveat is there's so many good ones. So there's like a surplus. So maybe that lowers the positional value a little in the draft. But if you can get a Justin Jefferson or a Travis Hunter, you're right that yes, having Patrick Sertan, that's great. Having Trent Mcduffey, that's great. But that wide receiver one impacts the quarterback

who is the most important position more than anything else. So there is a surplus, but how did they get them? They got them entirely through the draft. Nobody is going free agency and getting their league wide receiver. No, doesn't happen. I mean, Khalil Shaikh just signed a huge contract

for Buffalo, he's not becoming a free. Any useful wide receiver doesn't hit the market. They have to have some sort of deficiency problem, want to be overrated. the that corners are never taken, number one, overall. And maybe he is both. I don't know, I would love to see that. So you're gonna go and beat the bushes for more tonight out here at Indianapolis. And I will be around as well. Yep, that's right.

And so we'll figure out what kind of buzz we get for tomorrow and what else we hear from podiums and things like that. And then we'll talk about it. We'll get some more Vikings discussion going on as well. One last thing I saw on when you were, you posted something, a tweet from Quacey's press conference and someone, and maybe this is just classic Twitter response. Someone was drawing the conclusion like, Oh, Quacey is speaking in the past tense with Sam Donald.

Did you read into that at all? Or are you just saying he had a good season with us? A tiny bit. A tiny bit. Well, the reading between the lines to me at the podium here was mostly about how nobody told us to cool it with JJ McCarthy. And last year, they told us to cool it with JJ McCarthy a lot. Like during the training camp and stuff. Kevin O'Connell seemed offended last year that we were counting first team reps and reporting on the rep counts and everything. He was very protective, I think, of he didn't want the media pushing some, hey, put in McCarthy before he's ready narrative.

And with this, he didn't bring that up at all. It was like, yeah, he's doing great in his workouts and we're super excited. There was never this like, hey, you know, we're going to take it as slow as we want with McCarthy, still got to do. There's no couching. It was just like, oh, yeah. And I do think that there is a little tiny something, little tiny.

I mean, the logic of the whole situation lends itself to JJ McCarthy, but a little tiny of we loved what he did for us. He proved that he could be an NFL quarterback, but there has been no our NFL quarterback. We love him. We want him to stay. There's been none of that sort of campaigning for him to sign an extension or something like that. But it is hard to read into and these guys think it over before they get here.

But I think that the comments were a little bit more about what they didn't say that they did that now have me leaning heavily toward JJ McCarthy as the day one starter. So we'll see. I put you on the spot there and you nailed it. I just wondered if that was you get those type of comments all the time on Twitter or there's maybe some credence to that. Well, it's a high percentage of my job to read between lines. So of course, anybody who wants to play along at home, you are absolutely welcome. Chris Rapasso, CBS Sports Draft Analyst, will do another podcast again tomorrow

before I head back on Thursday. We'll see what we can find and we will talk from Indy. Football. Football.