Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso thinks the Vikings will need to wait until next year to draft a QB

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

Matthew Coller and Chris Trapasso are back together again and Chris is here to give a detailed explanation of what Anthony Richardson's Combine performance means to his draft stock. Plus he talks about Lamar Jackson's strange situation with his contract and whether the Vikings will have a chance at any top QBs if they want one. Plus Chris breaks down players at Vikings positions of need who shined at the Combine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and guess who's back? CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso. Chris, the funny thing about us going to the Combine together to do shows there was that when we left, they were just getting rolling with the players doing their workouts, and we didn't really have a chance to talk about how guys performed and what that means to the Vikings. We mostly were breaking down what Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell said. So now guess what? We can do that from the comfort of our home offices. But I hope you had a great time in Indianapolis. Had some good food there. I saw you tweeting out your food rankings.

And I got to say that that you know people will will put out there and I know Dan Campbell had a quote about the combine it's more about what they did in the tape and not the underpants Olympics or whatever but things always shuffle around and change quite a bit in Indianapolis it's usually pretty significant and I thought the same thing happened this year that a lot of players made cases for themselves that otherwise maybe there was some current concerns about what their athleticism was. Yeah, definitely. And I'm not taking anything away from Dan Campbell and what he's done in his first two years in Detroit, but we always say it on this podcast. I think Kweisi Adolfo-Mentz is probably a big believer in it that most good players are high caliber athletes.

So it definitely matters. I had a great time in Indy with you doing three Purple Insider shows. But yeah, it feels like it was like three months ago. After all the workouts all weekend, I was like, oh yeah, Matt and I like talked about these guys, kind of gave a preview. But now we actually have numbers that we can point to. We talked about how we can now point to numbers or letter grades with the culture in Minnesota, but to now be able to reference arm lengths and 40 yard dash times, things like that, I think is really important and informative moving forward as we really get into the thick of draft season. Yeah, I think that it just becomes so much more

clear, the draft boards. And the other thing is, and people can't deny this, we all listen to Daniel Jeremiah during those broadcasts. And I know that some reporters stayed and watched. That's kind of a newer thing where you can actually go in and watch the workouts. For me, I would much rather watch TV and listen to the foremost draft expert talk about these guys for days because I always learn so much about the prospects from Daniel Jeremiah. This is always my process.

It's like get through what happened at the end of the Vikings season, set the stage for the offseason, and then go to the combine and figure out what's going on, come back home, watch Daniel Jeremiah like every single year. And also I came back home to a snowstorm, which was awesome since it was 70 degrees one of the days in Indy and my soul was crushed as I returned. So that wasn't great either. But of course, I think we have to talk about first, before we get into some players that could be Vikings targets that stuck out to you, of which

there were some corners, there were some pass rushers. A defensive tackle that made my heart grow three sizes too big, like the Grinch. I mean, there's some guys we got to get into that are potential Vikings. But Anthony Richardson, I'll just throw it out there because I already ranted about this the other day about how some people have decided what Anthony Richardson's going to be already. But I want to get your take. We talked to a lot of people around out at Indianapolis, and then he puts on an all-time great performance. So what does it mean and where does he stand as a prospect in your mind

after Indianapolis? It means a lot because we expected Anthony Richardson to work out well. No one expected him to be 6'4", 244 and run 4-4-3 and set records in the vertical in the broad jump. I thought, okay, he might be 6'3.5", 230. He'll run somewhere close to 4'5", have a vertical in the upper 30s, broad jump somewhere around 10 feet. But he was extremely explosive and extremely huge. And I think the juxtaposition of him having that workout at that size and Bryce Young, yes, it was a win at the beginning of the week for him to be 204 pounds, which I think he probably had the most carbo loaded breakfast that morning to get to 204 pounds. It's not going to play

anywhere near that. Him not working out, not throwing, not running, not doing anything. And then just kind of saying, here you go, Anthony Richardson, you have the stage, do your thing. And then he did. I think it means a lot for draft positioning. I don't think it necessarily like suddenly Anthony Richardson is just a better prospect now. Like I watched the film, any draft analysts speaking on Anthony Richardson or writing about him, talking about him has seen what Anthony Richardson can do on the field. You saw him run away from SEC defensive backs on a semi-regular basis. It's more about positioning with him.

And I think he could be in a conversation to go ahead of Bryce Young at this point. It's really the ultimate test of high floor against high ceiling with low floor. Like where will the NFL or just one team ultimately, one or two teams ultimately decide is more important. That's what we always talk about during draft season. I think it makes for a fascinating storyline at the top of this draft for those two quarterbacks. Yes. It's interesting with the floor and ceiling conversation, because I feel like when a quarterback has prolific running ability, and there's only about five to seven ever in the NFL that fall into that category. Mike Vick, Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields is there now. And then maybe I don't even think Jalen Hurts is a

prolific runner. I think he's a good runner, but I don't think that he's on the level of someone who could dominate. Maybe Vince Young was this way for a bit. I feel like the floor becomes higher because there have been a lot of quarterbacks who, even with their running ability, think about it this way. Daniel Jones last year, good runner for sure. Not prolific, but good. He had more first down runs than Delvin Cook.

Think about that with your brain. Like that's how important the running can be. Yeah, that's like my new favorite factoid when I ran across that. That really was like, what? And he doesn't even do QB sneaks all the time like Jalen Hurts does. He's at, you know, he actually does design runs and things like that. So you can get first downs. You can keep drives going, even if you're not a perfect passer.

The other thing is, too, that I've watched every JTO Sullivan QB school breakdown of Anthony Richardson games so far. And the thing that I want to point out, because I don't blame people for not grinding tape or watching a lot of Florida football. They weren't a great team and they were not on television all the time. But after watching JT, former NFL quarterback who now does QB school, it's awesome the way he breaks down. Yeah, they're good. They're really good.

One of the things you see is tremendous passing at times. And there's, of course, problematic passing at times. The footwork, shoulder angles. He goes through a lot of the different stuff that is technical that Anthony Richardson makes mistakes on he does a very like down the middle kind of analysis but he was breaking down a play on a video he released today where Anthony Richardson rolls to his right flicks his wrist and throws the ball about 40 yards on a line right to the face mask of his wide receiver with no effort at all like the arm talent there is so high that I think NFL teams are going to look at Anthony Richardson and and several who need quarterbacks and say that that we can fix

the footwork and things like that you can't't just invent arm talent. And there's so many good plays, pocket presence plays where he steps up in the pocket. Malik Willis had none of that. He had, I throw rockets and that was impressive, but there's touch passes. There's pocket presence. Like there's first round stuff here. And nobody that I talked to an indie thought he was a divisive prospect. I think it's like the internet, the television, like this is the way you hype the draft is you make somebody the guy of like, let's all argue about this dude. But I didn't even get that feeling in Indianapolis. I think that mostly people think he's a really good prospect. Yeah, I agree. It's kind of like when we see on Twitter that there's this chorus about a

certain player, like, Hey, Hey, he's actually pretty good. And it's like, no one's saying he's not good. Like it,

I haven't seen too many analysts, respected analysts, writers out there that are like, Oh, Anthony Richardson's a third round caliber prospect for a lot of the reasons that you just pointed out. Two things that I want to mention on that. Number one,

I agree with you on the high floor element of him as a runner. I always go back to a lot of these new age quarterbacks in their rookie seasons. Josh Allen was not a good passer as a rookie. He ran a lot. Even in year two, when he kind of took that quasi step forward, he was better as a passer, but not to where he is today. He ran the football a lot and had some like hundred yard games, just was able to lean on that. Deshaun Watson did it early in his career. Kyler Murray did it early in his career. Even Russell Wilson.

And that first season, 2012 with the Seahawks, he wasn't ready to be like a 300 yard per game passer, but he was like, oh, my first read's not there. I'm just going to run and oh, I'm going to pick up the first down. So we've certainly seen that, that that can be a nice crutch to have early in your career at the quarterback position. And in terms of the passing, that's what I said on a few radio spots this week, or I guess last week in Indy, it was all about his running ability, four, four, three, how explosive he is. And it was like, Anthony Richardson's arm talent alone if he was a statue teams would be like hey this guy has an incredibly strong arm and I thought it was funny that Will

Levis comes out and I don't blame him for doing this necessarily during his press conference it says I have the strongest arm that's entered the NFL in a long time and I'm like dude you don't even have the strongest arm in your draft class. We saw that during the throwing session. So you're right. Anthony Richardson is not this divisive guy where everyone's like, oh my God, he's, you know, half the people think he's a fourth rounder and half think he's the best player in the draft. I have him squarely like inside my top 10. Cause I factor in positional value. Of course, uh, if you're a team like the Colts with their new head coach, Shane Steichen, that just worked with Jalen Hurts and ran about 50 designed runs in the Super Bowl, I think you have to lean Anthony Richardson

over Bryce Young. And that's not saying that Bryce Young is bad. I don't like him. He's in my top 10 as well. But I just think with him, there's just not nearly as much ceiling because of the running and what you ast nearly as much ceiling because of the running and what you astutely pointed out because of the arm talent they just they're not even in the same stratosphere yeah it's interesting too with anthony richardson that when you play under one

circumstance it it can be so wildly different than playing under another circumstance and this goes for the nfl to some extent like if you play for the the Texans or you play for the 49ers, like you're in two different worlds now multiply that by like 500 and that's college football. Like think about Anthony Richardson has one year of starting. It actually kind of reminds me a little of Trey Lance in this way, where it was, you're really betting on the skills that you see. Cause if you go back to Lamar Jackson's first year as a starter at Louisville, he was terrible at passing the ball and then he got better. And then he got better. I think Jalen hurts, even at Alabama only completed like 60% of his passes in the first year. And then he got better and he got better. I don't know if Anthony Richardson will get better. You kind of have

to make that bet, but think about Joe Burrow. This is how little we know. Joe Burrow in his second to last college year was like 23 years old and wasn't good. And then the next year he's unbelievable at 24. Anthony Richardson is 21. We are not looking at apples to apples when we evaluate. He's not a finished product. And you have to factor in every one of these things, but also like Anthony Richardson, the team that drafts him, they have to take this under consideration that you can't just think like, oh, well, he's a freak athlete. So he's just going to be a superstar in the NFL. There's a couple of years, probably development there before he can get to that place. But I think that's what makes evaluating quarterbacks so freaking hard is because

what Will Levis has like three years of starting Bryce Young has several years of starting CJ Stroud and then you got a guy who just stepped into that role and is still very young but yet you could see a path where he could be better than all of these guys so I think that makes it a difficult decision and poor poor CJ Stroud just lit the thing on fire. It was an absolute beast. And everyone's like, let's talk about Anthony Richardson instead. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think what helps to Anthony Richardson, just to kind of put a bow on this is that I think now in the modern day NFL, it's the offenses are very similar to what they were in college with the RPO game and how much quick stuff there is. We've kind of seen that over the last probably decade where spread offenses, things like that, where I think pre maybe 2010, the big arm quarterbacks were coming in and suddenly it was, all right, you're going to be under center 70% of the time. You're going to do a seven step drop. There's going to be two receivers in the route. You're not going to have four verticals. You're going to have to read, whether it's man or zone, as you're dropping back.

Now it's all, I mean, it looks like the college game when you watch an NFL game. So I think that makes things a little bit easier. Not as much early to mid-2000s, getting through three, four, five reads as you're doing a seven-step drop that you've never done before. So I think the transition is still difficult. You're right that it's 500 times a different world, even from the SEC to the NFL, but it's certainly someone, Shane Steichen, that did an amazing job developing Jalen Hurts. He'll know, he'll understand, all right, here's what I need to do in terms of what I can put on Anthony Richardson's plate early in his career that won't overload him as he's kind of, you know, taking those bullets instantly once he's in the NFL.

So here's a transition for you. The Vikings don't have an extension done with Kirk Cousins as we speak. Sometimes this podcast has a tendency to push news forward and have it break right after I post it. So, I mean, the other day I recorded a pod talking about, well, you know, this Derek Carr thing. I don't know. Maybe you'll end up with the Jets. And then instantly that goes wrong. So it happens. But as of this moment, as we we sit here they do not have an extension with kirk cousins after seeing what you saw in indianapolis talking to people around indy do you

feel like there is going to be any opportunity if the vikings did want to draft a quarterback this year to do so or should they based on now what you know about Derek Carr's extension, about Geno Smith, Daniel Jones, because that's probably the price right in that ballpark of Kirk Cousins. So your thoughts. On whether the Vikings could pick a quarterback in the first round or just at all as kind of an insurance guy behind Cousins. Oh, if you think that they could pick a development quarterback, I guess. How do you think that they should approach this? Do it from a should perspective, because I don't think either one of us know how they will. Well, I didn't hear anything that there's like an extension imminent. You would have probably gotten any word of that well before I would, but in Indy,

no one really expected that. I think we kind of went over it. I think on the last pod that we recorded in Indy that it kind of just feels like almost both sides are like, let's let this contract play out. And in terms of should, I think that's what they should do. I think, you know, if for some reason CJ Stroud were there when they picked, or there's one of these top four quarterbacks who fall to them. Yeah, absolutely. I think at that point, quarterback supersedes any of your other, you know, short-term needs because you're expecting to still be good again. And you don't, I mean, we never know what the next quarterback class is going to be. We always think next year's is going to be better than the previous years. But it feels like because Anthony Richardson, again, exceeded those expectations that the top half, at least the top 16 picks, we're going to see those four quarterbacks going off the board.

And that's probably a conservative guess at this point. So yeah, they should just let this Kirk Cousins contract play out, try to be competitive this year, which again, we talked about that it's easy for us to say, Hey, tear it down and just aim for the Superbowl, but try to be competitive again, maybe, you know, in somewhat of a down NFC North outside of the lions with the, you know, bears and maybe the Packers kind of rebuilding ish. I mean,

not having to deal with Aaron Rogers will be nice, even though the Vikings have kind of had their number of late. That's what I would do. And I think that's, what's ultimately going to happen with the Kirk Cousins situation. Yeah. I didn't come away from Indy thinking that any of the quarterbacks would really drop it is funny to me that will levis is not getting debated even though he's in my mind more debatable

than anthony richardson because he does have some accuracy issues but uh we've just picked richardson as this year's guy to yell about at each other um so which you know every year again there's got to be anytime there's not, it's like the draft ratings are down and things like that. So everybody likes that when you can have those debates. But as far as the Vikings getting one of those guys, I think Richardson pretty much went off the table from what they could even cobble together with their draft capital. Even if they were trying to throw in a player like Daniel Hunter and some sort of trade there,

it's just going to be really hard. If someone does drop into the 12 to 14 range, I think maybe that's possible, but it would have to be the guy that they like the most to go for it. And I'm not saying that I would do it that way. I'm just saying that, you know, teams kind of operate that way. Like, Oh, it's gotta be our guy that we all

agree on. And that, and that is, that is fair. The whole scouting staff organization really has to be on the same page. If you're going to make an all in move, or then you're going to get the, Hey, you wanted him and I didn't want him and you were right. And I was wrong and things like that. You don't want that because that's how people get fired. But as far as letting it play out, I think that's the right thing to do just to have him under contract as he is for next year. They do have to create a lot of cap space to even be compliant still from where they stand at this moment. Now there is another element of it, Lamar Jackson. It seems like the NFL is, i'm just gonna say this quietly colluding against uh against lamar jackson they're not saying it quietly they're actually saying it quite loudly

by having teams announce that they're not interested more or less through reporters all like at the same time it was like a coordinated attack it was like as we like right before we recorded this podcast tuesday night it was like a bunch of. It was like as we, like right before we recorded this podcast Tuesday night, it was like a bunch of just random but very respected and plugged in insiders, just like the Falcons are not interested. The Dolphins are not interested. The Commanders are not going to be pursuing him. It's like, wait a minute, no one's pursuing this guy?

When Daniel Jones just got $86 million fully guaranteed and Derek Carr got whatever he got with the Saints? Like it does, it was like if the NFL was trying to do this veiled collusion thing they failed miserably in doing that yeah well it's it reminds me of the Colin Kaepernick situation because well they have not blackballed Lamar Jackson they're clearly all working together against him to keep the prices down because if he ends up getting and they've got to be very mad at Jimmy Haslam. If he ends up getting, he's the Browns owner, if people don't know.

If he ends up getting what Deshaun Watson gets, then everybody does. All the next group of quarterbacks who come in that are great young players looking for contracts and what, Joe Burrows coming next? What do you think he's going to ask for if Lamar Jackson gets 250 guaranteed? And really what they've been able to do here which i did not think they would is to put a cap on this which is very relevant to kirk cousins because with geno smith daniel jones and derrick carr none of them broke the bank all of them had to sign these deals that were very reasonable and actually shockingly mid tier. And I think that that might

affect what the, how the Vikings negotiate with Kirk cousins. Cause he can't ask for 45 million. Now he has to look much more at the Derek Carr deal and the Gino Smith more at the like 35 to 40 range. And if they're not going to put all this money into Lamar Jackson, that just keeps that quarterback market from going completely crazy. Yeah. And it's really fascinating to tie back into Kirk Cousins because when he signed the original deal in Minnesota that was fully guaranteed, at that time, everyone's like, oh, he has started the new trend. After this, every quarterback is going to get fully guaranteed deal. Every single penny is going to be fully guaranteed at signing. That hasn't materialized. So I think Cousins being the original guy, like the poster child for this, and then seeing the Deshaun Watson deal over the offseason was like, look at this.

And now I'm 13 and three. If we make the playoffs again next year, I can write my own check. But at this point, because this middle tier has really materialized when we didn't really have one until the last couple of weeks, it was really, you're either letting a guy walk or you're paying him 45 plus million a year. And he is clearly your franchise guy. He's your Mahomes. He's your Allen. He's a guy that is certainly not going to leave. It does make it interesting. And I think it certainly helps the Vikings where they can say, look, now we have parameters. We have those, you know, when you're shopping for a new house, there's those comparables. Now there's comparables with Dino Smith, Derek Carr, and Daniel Jones, where now Kirk

Cousins can't really lean in or point to any of those monster deals or Deshaun Watson and say, Hey, look, all quarterbacks are getting fully guaranteed deals because unless during really lean and or point to any of those monster deals or deshaun watson and say hey look all quarterbacks are getting fully guaranteed deals because unless during this podcast lamar jackson signs a fully guaranteed deal with the ravens i don't think that's the precedent that will be set because the nfl the owners of gms again we don't want to say for sure that they're colluding but it certainly feels like it most certainly does yeah uh and right we can only say it quietly because it uh certainly seems that way though and like you said they didn't really make an effort to hide it but there will be plenty more time to talk about kirk cousins i know what you

want to talk about you want to talk about some dudes you want to talk about some guys so i'm just going to tell you some guys that i think are interesting and you can tell me what you thought of them how about kalyza can't see i mean aaron donald probably not but that is as fast as a man of that size at defensive tackle he is from pit and guess what as i do draft sims guess who comes up all the time for the Vikings? And he may have helped himself so much that he's not going to be available with the Vikings. But interior pressure is a drum that I will not stop banging. And when I saw him, I was like, that's the one. That's the guy. I think he helped himself as much as anybody at the combine.

He did. And it's funny, like I said, that it felt like we talked like two months ago because there were so many workouts. The defensive lineman like worked out on Thursday and it was like, or Friday, that was like the first workout. And we had so many other things transpire that it kind of feels like two weeks ago that that happened. Running 4-6-7 at that size with the explosion, like a 10-yard split,

what, 1.54 seconds, which is like wide receiver ask. Uh, I, I certainly think he was a first rounder, probably mid to late first rounder coming into the combine. And you're right now, maybe he actually tested himself inside where the Vikings ultimately pick. What's interesting about Cancy's dynamic in this class is there's Jalen Carter. And of course the legal issues still hang over his head for his sake. Hopefully that gets all settled before the draft, which I think will just give us more clarity as to where he'll go. Jalen Carter. And then not much else in terms of top tier interior pass rushers,

besides Kalijah Cancy. So there are a lot of teams, even besides the Vikings, that need interior pass rushers. And Cansey is, to me, the second best one in the class. He might even be, just in terms of pass rushers, he might actually be a better pure pass rusher than Jalen Carter. And in terms of the kind of, you know, it's joked about, you kind of just joke, you know, is he Aaron Donald 2.0? I love comparisons because I think it gives listeners, readers something to envision in

their mind. I can list off 50 players and 49 of them, people are like, who is that? I don't know who that is. I don't know who he is yet. That's why I love comparisons. I think the Aaron Donald comparison is pretty apt. And a lot of people, especially Bills fans in my area have said, Hey, how is he not at Oliver? The difference between at Oliver, Kalijah can't see an Aaron Donald is at Oliver tested pretty similarly to those two pit players at Oliver, like had basically no pass rushing moves. He had like one move. It was a swim move and that was it. They kind of played him out of position at nose tackle. Aaron Donald was super quick. He was very powerful with his bull rush, that speed to power conversion that we hear a lot. And he had like 50 million pass rushing moves. That is where Kalijah Canty is. difference is his arms are a little bit shorter, probably not quite as strong at the point of attack, but in terms of burst off the line, pass rushing moves, I think he's decently powerful at

6'1", 282. It's the closest that we've seen to Aaron Donald, closer than Ed Oliver, who was a top 12 selection to what, number nine overall, 10 overall to the bills in 2019 been a little bit disappointing. And the book on him in the NFL has been flashy, but doesn't have those pass rush moves that Aaron Donald does. Can't see has those. So if he's there, you pair him with all the big meat that the Vikings have at defensive tackle with Harrison Phillips and totally blanking

on the other guy, not Michael Pierce, Delvin Tomlinson that I think that would be a great complimentary group on the inside and would just help the entire defense have a ripple effect. Like you mentioned to get that pressure on the inside on quarterbacks. Yeah. If they are able to work out a deal with Delvin Tomlinson, which you were there for Kweisi Adafo Mensah at the combine saying how much he wants Tomlinson back. So that

would be a heck of a combination. And I just think we've seen over the years, interior pressure is so problematic and not that many teams have it. And if you do, you are scary as a defensive line. So I like that. We spent a lot of time on that because i like it how about edge rusher here nolan smith just lit this thing on fire uh when he got up there and ran a 439 which is like you know this is what the hell is that i know this is a point that you've actually made a number of times on the show that when we talk about quarterback athleticism and a quarterback will run like a bunch in college and they'll go, Oh, he's got a running element to his game. Guess who's chasing him down. Nolan Smith in the NFL

with his four, three, nine. So you better be really fast if you're going to run in the NFL. But how about that edge rushing class? Because that's another one that we don't know where they're going with Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter. It would make sense to draft someone to eventually replace one of those guys other than Nolan Smith. How did people do? Nolan Smith really intrigued me just to kind of finish up on that because he's almost like for me, it's going to be an internal battle that on film I was just talking about with Kalijah Canty, all the pass rush moves. And any interior or edge rusher, I love to see the ability to beat blockers with their hands.

Nolan Smith on film, I just kept seeing him win with speed, bend, quickness around the corner. And he did that in the SEC, made it look pretty easy. And I was like, Sky just has to develop some type of pass rush move. I would love to see that. But last year before he tore his pack, he generated a pressure on almost 19% of his pass rush snaps, which is a crazy high number for the collegiate level. That's like TJ Watt, Chase Young, Miles Garrett-esque in terms of final seasons in college. So to me, I've come around on him now knowing that he really is like epically

explosive, a little bit smaller, but it kind of reminds me of Rashawn Gary, who I actually didn't like very much coming out of Michigan because all I saw him do was win with his athleticism in college. And it's taken him time with the Green Bay Packers, but before his injury last year, he was an elite, elite pass rusher, probably the best young pass rusher in football. Now you do need to kind of build in some of those pass rush moves. But I think Nolan Smith could be there because again, he's a little smaller. His arms are a little shorter, you know, 6'2", 239, 238, somewhere in that range, but absolutely elite explosion that I think really translates to being a good pass rusher in the NFL.

A few other guys. Lucas Van Ness is a guy from Iowa that I think kind of fits. He kind of reminds me body type wise of Zedaria Smith, that he's like 6'6", 6'5", 6'6", 260, 270 pounds, long arms, and his three cone was really, really good. And usually edge rushers that size, that tall, cannot get low and change directions that you have to do in the three cone drill to run that drill under seven seconds. So Lucas Van Ness, also really, really good at the edge rusher spot. I definitely want to talk about those two because I think they're going to be there

when the Vikings go on the clock, especially Lucas Van Ness. And overall, it's a really good edge rusher group. So that to me, with the Vikings, like from that perspective, they can almost fall back on that position. They can say, hey, look, we want corner. If, you know, the best receiver on our board is available, we can pick that. But if not, there's a bunch of really good edge rushers beyond Will Anderson, beyond Tyree Wilson, that we can take them as a consolation prize and get better up front. Yeah.

And you touched on the two that I was most interested in. And those guys, they are a little bit different, especially in their size. And Brian Flores could kind of choose his own adventure with that. Because in the years past, we didn't even look at anybody who weighed to less than 250 pounds or something at the edge rusher position because we knew that mike zimmer wasn't going to be interested he's going to want you know three down players who could stuff the run he didn't he didn't really like the super fast situational guys and things like that where now with brian floris're looking at a 3-4 base which means

you're talking about guys being more of outside linebackers that he could like but I don't think that that dismisses Van Ness and his potential because you're always going to be looking for guys who can go after the passer and maybe there's a little more flexibility in his game I think both guys sort of fit that bill if you got more to say about that that's okay but i think also the corners were very very interesting in this where i think it's pretty clear that joey porter jr and gonzalez from oregon that those guys are going to go really high but after that it seems like there was some some people that the kid from maryland banks like that kind of showed themselves a little bit in indie that they fit the bill for

the sort of length speed that you're looking for to be first round picks. Yeah. And it's, it's kind of the same thing with, or like, it's kind of the same as to what I said about the rushers that there's so many good ones at corner in this class that you're probably right that I think Christian Gonzalez with his workout, his size, his length, solidified himself as the first corner off the board. Joey Porter ran a little bit slower than people expected, but at 6'2", with 34-inch arms, which I thought was a typo. To see a cornerback with arms that long, offensive tackle length,

was sensational. that will probably push him up the board a little bit he certainly fits the bill in terms of what Brian Flores has traditionally liked like I think we talked about it during the preview Byron Jones, Zavian Howard Byron Jones was like 6'1", 32 inch arms Zavian Howard's arms are actually a little bit shorter but he was right around 6'1", as well, around 200 pounds. So he likes the bigger corners. And Deontay Banks, to run sub 4'4", be right in that range, kind of similarly sized to Howard and Byron Jones, to run and to have a vertical over or a broad jump over 11 feet, I think he solidified himself, can play man, can play zone and plant and drive on the football, use his length to get to the football.

It's another position where it's kind of hard or it's really impossible to know this early on in the Kweisi Adolfo Mensah era, like what type of prototype they'll lean toward, who they'll probably like, but they are in a very good position where they're sitting in the twenties with this edge rusher and this cornerback class. Cause we're going to see four to six or maybe even seven go off the board at those positions in the first round. Now, the other one that really got a lot of conversation was the wide receiver position. And it's weird this year with wide receivers, because there isn't like freak show dudes that are at the top that, you know, are going to go super high.

Like they have in the past, like when Jalen Waddle was coming out, like, okay, this dude is going to go crazy high or last year. I mean, remember when we debated Garrett Wilson versus Chris Alave and the answer was yes. Yes, absolutely. It's like, I liked Alave a little more. You liked Wilson a little more. And we were both really really right on those but i don't see i don't see receivers who check every single box like addison from usc is is a really good route runner and i like that but he also is like your size and that's not great and i think that at some point that is a factor when the guy only runs like a

four or five. So I don't know, like, but that also opens the door for, there are imperfect receivers who are great all over the league. If you can run routes, track the football and the Vikings might be looking for one now. I mean, I've been, you know, just like interior pass rush draft to receive, are you Vikings? But now with adam thielen's situation which is not resolved as we're doing this yet it is much more possible that they could look at this class and say because these guys are quote imperfect we might get someone who's really high on our board because we like them as a football player it seems like there's going to be a bevy of receivers who could be available toward the end of the first round. Yeah, I think

back half of the first round, I don't know if I'm going to predict a run like three or four go in a row, but that's where we're going to see, I think the top of this wide receiver class be selected. Maybe someone like Quentin Johnson from TCU is picked inside the top 16, but yeah, we've had multiple years now in a row where there's like Jamar Chases, Drake London's going really early. There's not that guy. And for as much hype as like guys like Jalen Hyatt got that he's going to run in the four twos and he runs four, four flat. And Jordan Addison, like you mentioned, measures in at 5'11", 173. And it was like, oh man, he might run in the four threes.

And he runs 4'4", 9". And then Zay Flowers was telling everyone his goal. He's expecting to run in the four threes and he runs 4-4-9. And then Zay Flowers was telling everyone his goal. He's expecting to run in the four threes, doesn't run in the four threes, 5-9-1-83. So you're right. There's guys like Devontae Smith and Kelvin Ridley that are a little on the smaller side, but I feel like teams in general and if with an analytics GM, it feels like those type of clubs are going to want to check all the boxes with the first round pick to pick Lewis seen last year I mean he ran sub 4-4

at the safety position and was built like a linebacker I feel like again it's still early we don't know what the the what this new regime's prototype is especially with the early round picks I'm going to assume that they're going to be big time athletes. So I think it does make the wide receiver position a little bit more interesting, better value later in the first round. One name I will throw out, Rasheed Rice from SMU. 6'1", 204, so he will check the size box unlike a lot of these receivers in this class that came in super light.

He ran 4'5", 1", which is like, okay, that's not really checking the box, Unlike a lot of these receivers in this class that came in super light, he ran four or five, one, which is like, okay, that's not really checking the box, but he had over a 40 inch vertical, a big broad jump. And I actually looked size athleticism, almost identical to Brandon Iuke, who was picked right after Justin Jefferson in the 2020 draft. Now, clearly the previous regime, like Justin Jefferson, more than Brandon Ayuk, but someone that can play on the perimeter where Adam Thielen has primarily played. If you move on from him, or if you're just going to say, Hey, look one more year, and then we're going to, you know, kind of pass the torch to a younger player. If you want someone on the

perimeter, there's all these slot receivers, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Zay Flowers, all these guys we mentioned that are really good on the outside or on the inside. Rasheed Rice, someone that came in with the concerns about, hey, is he explosive? He's explosive. He had a 41-inch vertical or 40.5-inch vertical. He ticked that box. So he's someone that would maybe be a worst-case scenario if all the corners and all the edge rushers and Kansi is gone, that I think would actually be a good pick for the Vikings to add that legitimate number two that can play on

the outside of this offense. And I think that's really important for this pick. If you're going to take a wide receiver because KJ Osborne is a guy they really like and apparently saves lives from burning cars. If you saw that story, it's just amazing. But you know, KJ, KJ Osborne, well, having the guts to pull somebody out of a burning car is really something, even in comparison to how crazy playing in an NFL game is. That's nuts. But KJ Osborne is going to be here. They like him a lot. And I think he's a good slot wide receiver overall, even though last year took a while for him to adjust to Kevin O'Connell's offense. But he's got to be more of a slot receiver.

He played like 60% of the time in the slot. He's not a guy on the outside that just beats dudes one-on-one. He doesn't have high top end speed. So as they're looking at these potential receivers, it's got to be in my mind someone who is on the outside. Who is the most comparable wide receiver to your actual size? Because someone said this to me at the Combine, and I was shocked. They said, you know, Chris Chappas was a little shorter than I pictured him.

After seeing you on CBS or seeing you on our YouTube, and I was like, yeah, he's not a height guy. He's not a wingspan guy. He's quickness, heart. I'm not a wingspan guy or a height guy I'm actually looking on mock draftable right now at receivers I said to you off the air I'm more like deuce Vaughn who was like the smallest uh the smallest running thing oh actually I just found one tank Dell Nathaniel Dell from Houston 5'8 and 3, 165. That is almost identical to where I'm at right now. So if you want to try to visualize what I look like from this part of my body down,

if you're watching on YouTube, it's Tank Dell. I'm not quite as quick as Tank Dell. I don't have the college production at the receiver spot of Tank Dell, but I'm between 5'8, 5'9, and and I fluctuate depending on the year, what's going on, between like 160 and 170. That's not great for Tank Dell, though. That's not great. No, it's not.

If your body comp is draft analysts from CBS Sports, I'm not sure. And you know what? I made this mistake a couple years ago. I really obsessed over Jalen Darden, but at the end of the day, he kind of dominated lower competition and was too small and just couldn't really do it in the NFL. I think they do have to be careful with that. Devante Smith was a Alabama receiver who annihilated people. We're talking about different stuff here with that weight. So I don't think you can just look at one guy and be like, I don't know, he's sub 200. It'll probably work. They have to really consider that. Was there anybody else that

you wanted to bring up just maybe with a Vikings angle or stuck out to you? I did think it was interesting how many small guys there were that are going to get drafted, but you know, I guess linebacker might be on the table for the Vikings or if you had anyone that are going to get drafted. But I guess linebacker might be on the table for the Vikings or if you had anyone that stuck out to you. Yeah, I was going to mention Jack Campbell from Iowa. Before I do that, I want to correct myself. I said Lucas Van Ness ran a three cone under seven seconds. He was just over seven seconds, but did so 6'6", 272 pounds. So when you factor in the height and the weight, that's a really good three cone that I think cements him right in the middle of the first round.

Jack Campbell from Iowa, Lucas Van Ness' teammate. I think, like you mentioned, maybe after the release of Eric Hendricks, now suddenly, I know they like Brian Asamoah. I liked him last year coming out of Oklahoma, but you kind of have a need at the middle linebacker spot. Jack Campbell, similarly to some of these other players that we had some concerns about his athleticism. He ran 4.65, so that's not great. It's not terribly slow at middle linebacker, but he's 6'5", over 240 pounds.

So he's sized like Tremaine Edmonds. Has kind of shorter arms, but the rest of his workout, broad jump vertical and the three cone and his was under seven seconds. All were the best among linebackers in this draft class. And I just wrote it today, or I guess yesterday, CBS sports. There's not really like this Devin white or Devin Bush or, you know, top tier off ball linebacker. That's like, Oh, he's a top 10 pick all day or top half of the first round selection. Jack Campbell, I think maybe even tested himself into the first round being that big with two years at Iowa, a lot of coverage productivity, which I think is important. And now we know he's actually a very agile and explosive athlete. That could be another kind of

dark horse player for Purple Ins insider listeners to kind of familiarize themselves with given the release of Eric Hendricks. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And we saw it last year that they, even though we think of linebacker as a non-premium position, they were willing to draft guard safety. And I think that has to be in their mind where Kendrick's going, that Brian Asamoah could be the next Eric Kendricks, but you're usually going to play in these nickel systems, two linebackers all the time. Although Brian Flores does play more dime

than Ed Donatel or Mike Zimmer did. So, but that could be on the radar. You can't just have one linebacker and run them out there in any defense, I think still today. So Chris, great to get together with you again, post combine. If anybody missed those broadcasts that we did from the combine, go back,

listen, they haven't all been blown to smithereens yet. So make sure you check them out before they, you know, don't make sense anymore, but they definitely do for right now. So great stuff. And every week up until the draft. And then of course, one episode after the draft,

you will be on here. We're going to try to aim for every Tuesday, breaking down different draft angles. This is just the beginning of Chris talks about guys. So prepare yourself everyone. Yes, exactly. It is draft season. And of course, much will change with free agency that will shape team needs. We'll look at the rest of the NFL as well. We won't just talk about the Vikings. So a lot to come.

Thanks for your time, Chris. And we will see everybody again soon.