Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Chris Trapasso breaks down our first Vikings mock draft

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

It's officially draft szn... CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso is BACK! Matthew Coller is joined by Trapasso to breakdown our first Vikings mock draft of the offseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and it is a very special time of year. If you've listened to the show in previous years, you've been waiting for it. You've been itching for it.

The Chris Trapasso Draft Show is back for, I believe, the fourth year now. Chris Trapasso, CBS Sports Draft Analyst. We're going to be at the combine we're going to be breaking down the draft every week all the way up into the draft and then after the Vikings get their haul of four players then you will give the deepest analysis on those four players although maybe they might be able to grab a couple more draft picks along the way. Chris, I am extremely pleased to have you back on board for your weekly show leading up to the draft. Well, Matt, thanks for having me again.

And for all the listeners, I am hoping that I can be insightful, a little bit humorous, but just we can go back and forth, be Viking-centric, but also just take a broad look at everything in terms of prospects, the evaluation process of the 2025 draft class. I've been itching to get back on too. I've been waiting for the Super Bowl to end, which sounds weird, but it's like I've been so much looking forward to this. It's my favorite time of the year.

And this is like my favorite 45 minutes of the week where I can just say whatever I want and we can go back and forth about the NFL draft. There's so many philosophies and ideas that I have, and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of months jumping on here with you to talk everything NFL draft. So I thought there was no better way to get us rolling into the draft conversation than having you break down my first draft sim. So if people want to do this, there's a few different simulators out there. I use the one from PFF, but there's a different places you can do this. Some are free. Some you have to have a login or whatever. And, uh, I use PFFs all the time. Maybe we'll try different, uh, draft simulators along the way to see if we can get like stack up to,

right, exactly how we get, if we could get different results and things like that. So going into this, I'm going to put it on the screen and from the audio version, I'll talk everybody through it. I, my whole thought process was I need more picks because it's a really boring

draft sim. When you pick once in the first, once in the third and twice in the fifth. So I do expect the Vikings to get more. And I had in mind defensive tackle corner running back. These are things that I need to come out with offensive line if I possibly can, but I really need to get some of those positions that the Vikings have sort of patchworked in recent years. So here is the first purple insider draft SIM of the year. I started out by trading down and I want you to break this down, Chris. I traded down from number 24 with the Kansas city chiefs to number 32.

And I also got number 96 and number 132 back and looking at the different draft charts, this does add up to the right number of points. And I'm thinking, Hey, Kansas city, they're going to need a difference making player. They might be a team. Although this was trading back to 32, that would actually be 31 now. Uh, so, you know, disregard that point, but I traded back a couple of spots but I also remembered what happened in 2022 and I did not want to trade back too far so I still wanted to stay in day one because I'm going to be live on the air on draft night and I want to draft pick but just start out by grading my trade you think I did well to move back and add another third rounder in a fourth round?

Absolutely. Because, and we're going to certainly get into it tonight and over the next couple months, I think there is a lot of strength in this draft at defensive tackle in those rounds and definitely at running back in those rounds. So like you said, at the jump here, you know, for them to not have too many picks and to pick once in the first and then the third and the fourth, I think Kweisi will understand, like, we can't have a tiny draft class here. We have to keep the momentum going by bringing in young talent. And then along with him and his scouts and the whole college scouting department in Minnesota will understand that those are the prime ranges to get some of the positions that they probably need.

And you can always pick a corner in the third or the fourth round. We've seen so many mid-round corners become quality players. So if you're looking at running back, D-tackle, and corner, which we can probably all agree the Vikings will prioritize in this draft, it makes sense to just slide down seven or eight selections and get those extra picks from Kansas city or whichever team it would be toward the end of round one. At least the very, very early conversation on this draft seems to be that it's going to be deep and it's hard to say, right? Is it really a deep draft? Is it not a deep draft? I don't know. Maybe you've got a different opinion on that. That's just how it feels when it

comes to some of these things. So I thought if I can get into the middle rounds again, maybe that's where you're still talking about potential impact type of players. And of course, if I'm drafting them, they're going to be big time players. So what I decided to do with that first pick with number 32 overall was draft cornerback Trey Amos from Mississippi. And as I was looking about PFFs opinions and Dane Brugler's opinions and Daniel Jeremiah's, there's a lot of difference of opinion on someone like Trey Amos. Where would you stand on him and the decision to take a cornerback in the backend of the first round in my sim? So I think when your defensive coordinator is brian flores you need or you can't

have too many highly talented cornerbacks and trey amos on film looks like someone pre-combine who's going to test really well like right now pre-combine i have like that late first round grade on him if he runs four five five and has a 32 inch, maybe he's a mid-second rounder. If he runs closer to what I think, which is going to be low 4-4s and the vertical closer to 40 inches, good three-cone, things like that, then this would be great value. He's a good tackler on film in the SEC. The ball production was there, a lot of pass breakups, interceptions. He is a little bit of an older prospect, which may, I don't know how the Vikings view that. Some teams don't like it. Other teams, and I think most of

the NFL, doesn't really care as much because we're still seeing the lingering effects of COVID where some of these players are like 2020 true freshmen that got that extra year of eligibility and are 23, 24 and like that they're more polished players. I think you kind of got the other end of the spectrum with that, with Dallas Turner in the 2024 draft where he was so young and flashed but wasn't quite ready. He could have been at Alabama one more season probably. But I think that would be a good pick.

That would fit, like I just said. I just looked at my scouting grade book pre this interview starting, it that's right where I have him right somewhere between like twenty eight and thirty five. And that's obviously I'm saying finalized grades because I've watched the film. I understand the analytics profile, but we have to factor in that that last key piece to me, which is the NFL combine. And he does have a good analytics profile in terms of his grades and an 85.6 coverage grade from PFF, which is very good when he was targeted really the last three years, he allowed under an 80 quarterback rating. And one thing I like about Amos a lot is you mentioned that he's on the older side, but he's also on the experience side. He's played a lot of football. And I think

if you're going to come out and play for Brian Flores, and I'm thinking about Makai Blackman, remember there were a lot of people who didn't love the Makai Blackman pick and he got hurt last year, but as a rookie, he adapted pretty quickly. And I think they would want the same thing from Troy Amos. Now there were other options here. and I wrote about some of them a little down the article, other potential options. Uh, Oh, Marion Hampton is somebody I had to pass up on by trading down. And as far as like on the board, I could have taken TJ Sanders or gray Zabel, who is sort of a rising type of guy, but I felt like Amos was the best player on the board. And he also really fit quite well with what the Vikings want to do now with my second pick, which it was in the third

round, the 96th overall pick. I took RJ Harvey from UCF because he threw a pass in the senior bowl. Uh, that's actually not why, but he did throw a pass in the senior bowl. But what I liked about RJ Harvey, Chris is the Vikings have the least 20 plus yard runs in the senior bowl but what i liked about rj harvey chris is the vikings have the least 20 plus yard runs in the nfl over the last three years since kevin yes since kevin o'connell took over this dude is a 20 plus run freak he has averaged over six yards to carry for three straight seasons for ucf and i know it's not doing it at Alabama or in the sec, but he graded extremely high in zone running gap, running elusive rating, rushing grade yards after contact and explosive plays. I mean, this draft just has a bunch of running backs that I think the Vikings do not

have to take someone like Omari and Hampton to fill that spot. I think they can wait until the third round to do it. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a hat guy, but if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss, then I've got something that can help you. It's called HIMS. If you've lost your hair, that doesn't mean you can't find it again.

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going through recently the the the depth of this running back class. And I'm really trying to dive into and I will try to say and I'll have notes written down here every week any of my comparisons for these players because I think that's a good guide if you're just like who's RJ Harvey never watched him he is somewhere between and you could go to either side of this he's either a faster Devin Singletary or we're looking at a very similar to Bucky Irving type player. He's short. You could look at him and say, oh, he doesn't really have an NFL body, but we know that the running back position, you don't really need to be particularly big. There was a stretch maybe five to seven years ago where it was like, hey, you got to be at least 190 or 200. He's probably

going to be right around 200 or actually probably at the senior bowl he weighed in. And I think he was over 200 if I remember correctly. Short, but so elusive and the juice through the second level that you mentioned will immediately change that problem for the Vikings offense where he can hit those home runs. So I really like that in round three, where you're not picking maybe more of a feature back in Hampton in round one, you're not getting as much value just position wise, which we'll certainly talk about positional value. And you're getting someone that can eradicate one of your main problems with the run game. That's mostly been good in the Kevin O'Connell era,

but just has lacked that explosiveness. RJ Harvey is definitely one of my favorite, you know, this is pre-combined, but pre-combined, he's one of my favorite, you know, this is pre combine, but pre combine, he's one of my favorite mid round running backs in this class. the season, Delvin is pretty good. And then age and injury catch up to him and he fades and they don't have the explosiveness. And I think his last hundred yard game in 2022 was midway through the season and then just fell off toward the end. And then they tried to experiment with a duo in the backfield of Alexander Madison and Ty Chandler and as explosive as Ty Chandler was, they couldn't really trust him. And this is one thing I do worry about with RJ Harvey not being a big guy is pass protection is a big deal in the NFL. And Ty Chandler was super quick, super explosive, but couldn't figure out the pass pro.

So RJ Harvey is going to have to be tough and he's going to have to do that if they want to draft someone like him. I don't know how a running back is going to transition to that because there's nothing like it in college. There's no way to simulate what it's like to have, you know, some blitzer coming through in the NFL and destroying you as a running back. So, but the weight might be a difference maker when it comes to that. And I think if they're doing it in the third round, that is decent value there.

Like you want to pick the premium positions higher, but I think you get to the mid rounds. You could take somebody like that, but I know they need a running back. Chris, if you look at the free agent list for running backs, it is a miserable nightmare. I mean, there's Rico Dowdle, Najee Harris. Harris might go back to Pittsburgh

and then nothing outside of Aaron Jones coming back. So Aaron Jones coming back paired with a third round rookie, I think would be potentially a good idea. So let's go to my other pick in the third round, my very next pick. Now, this is a guy that is very high on the list of a lot of draft analysts. And I think after the senior bowl, he may have risen up and I'm not sure that I can get him here, but in such a defensive tackle, rich draft, maybe they can wait until the third round. Darius Alexander from Toledo. This is one of already, already, Chris, I have a favorite guy in the draft and Darius Alexander

from Toledo might be that guy because his production is absolutely out of this world. And when he was, he was in the senior bowl, right? I'm not making this up in my brain. No, he was, that was big riser apparently and okay right okay so i i'm remembering correctly huge huge production great in the senior bowl like showed that he can do it i like this guy in the third i like the defensive tackle class so much that i think they could wait if they needed to and still get somebody that has pass rush production potential. Yeah, that's a fantastic point. And we can get to it either tonight or just throughout the next couple of weeks that the trend that the league is going to take from the Super Bowl,

and we talk about it and kind of joke about it, but I think there's some credence to it that the end of every Super Bowl, it's like whatever the team did, like whatever the calling card was, whether it was how they were made up or just how they won the game, like that's the trend that everyone wants to follow the following year. Of course, the defensive line domination from the Eagles all season, really. But with the exclamation mark at the Super Bowl, there's going to be an emphasis, I think maybe even a little bit more throughout the entire league of you need really good edge rushers. You need defensive tackles. Like that wasn't the case before the Superbowl. Right. And to your point and why I

think it's a great one is yeah. Darius Alexander is apparently rising up boards because he had such a good senior bowl week. I don't necessarily subscribe to that. Like, I don't think a guy, you know, I don't think Daniel Jones like having a good week down in Mobile should have led to him being a first-round pick when he wasn't really on film. But I do think that kind of like how these trends really impact from the Super Bowl winners, I think there are GMs and the coaches are just getting on board with the scouting process at that point that they can go in and say, hey, let's move this guy up. Why did our scouts have him so low? He was great.

He was great in the interviews. But what I will say is that, yeah, because it is a very deep class of defensive tackle, Darius Alexander could be available later. There's always guys who fall every year. It's like, I try to remember as the draft is happening. I like, all right, next year, I have to remember that this guy I'm sure of that's going to be a top 40 pick, he might still be there at pick 75 or a pick 96 in this case. So it is a very, very good, it's like top heavy. And then there's also like there's top tier talent at defensive tackle and a lot of depth second and third round. So Darius Alexander would be a great fit in Minnesota and he could be there in the third

round. So I was trying to find, I mean, because of the Superbowl kind of, I mean, they hadn't made it yet when I did this draft sim, but I was looking for the next Milton Williams, somebody who maybe wasn't going to the biggest college, but was highly productive in college and pass rushing. And I had this stat about Alexander that he ranked sixth in college football among pressures among DTs, uh, in 2024 and third in 2023. So he was a top six pressure guy among defensive tackles for two straight seasons in college. And if there's one thing analytically that has been shown pretty clearly, it's that the old Daniil Hunter drafts for traits and not for production. I'd point to Trayvon Walker over Aiden Hutchinson, and there's a lot more fails

than there are successes. And there's also a lot of successes of the guys who have high production, but maybe don't go to the biggest college or might not be perfect on paper. So I like that for Alexander. Let me get to, did you have something else on that? Yeah. I just want to like, I don't know if I can do this every single time throughout the next couple of months, but I'm going to try whenever we mentioned a player for the first time, or even if we're mentioning him for the second or third time, I'm going to try to give my NFL comparison. If I have it, Darius Alexander to me, maybe will not test as well as this player did. And this is a throwback. Muhammad Wilkerson.

You watch him on film at Toledo. I'm talking zone blitzes, which I know are a core piece of what Brian Flores wants to do. Dropping defensive tackles, trying to confuse quarterbacks by seeing a 300-pound lineman in coverage. He did that. Intercepted the football. Looks like a tight end when he has the ball in his hands. Play on the edge, played as an overhang defender, played nose tackle, played some linebacker. You could tell that the Toledo coaches were like, this is our best athlete. We're not just going to let him play zero technique or three technique and that's it.

We want to just utilize him like literally everywhere. And everything that you said about production is absolutely true with Darius Alexander. So Mohamed Wilkerson was kind of a freakish specimen, had some like high watermarks in his career, like borderline all pro type player with the Jets. That's the kind of player I see with Darius Alexander that he's legitimately versatile because beyond his production, he's a big time athlete at his size too. I love the idea of you using the comps to kind of solidify in people's minds, like who they can envision for these players stylistically. Yeah. Uh, the next guy, I'm just going to admit to you. I just, I just love this guy. Me too. Willie Lampkin. No,

get to know the name. Cause you're going to hear a lot about him in draft season. He is a five foot 11 offensive lineman who is really, really good at football. And I've watched him play a little bit. This is another senior bowl guy. And a lot of people are talking about him. He does not have the normal specs of a six foot seven, 345 pound guard. But this dude has the numbers. He, all the high grades, all the tape, all that.

You just have to buy into the idea. And I'll tell you my funny comparison for Willie Lampkin is that, uh, I I've got tank Dell as Willie Lampkin, somebody that nobody thought you could take this guy. He's too small, but he's such a football player. And for the Vikings fourth round pick, I took Willie Lampkin. They need more guards. They need developmental players. And his grades over the last three years from North Carolina are fantastic. He's played everywhere on the interior. I think the Vikings need more interior guys badly. They need to take a lot of swings at them. So I went with him in the

fourth round. That's so funny that you did that, which by the way, I love that on the first, our first episode, you're already pumping out a draft sim. That's like, it's the perfect on-brand thing to do because we're going to do a bunch of these and they're a lot of fun what's so funny to me about this is the senior bowl jim nagy the executive director of that event they have found guys like ollie marpet and jeremy chin and kyle duggar these small school players uh quinn minors from wisconsin Whitewater they are able to usually find whether it's FCS D3 like hey you would have played it at a lower school or a lower competition level but we can tell that you're like an NFL caliber athlete on film Lampkin's like the opposite like he does not look like an NFL player but he just blocks everything. And by the way, I have to correct you, Matt. He was 5'10 and 3'8. Not even 5'11, 270 pounds. I'm just starting to work on the interior of the

offensive line through this class. That's usually like the last group that I look at. And I was blown away by his film. I was like, he looks out of place. He looks like the JV guy that gets called up in 10th grade. That's like only playing because of injury. And then he just blocks everything. So I don't have a comparison on him yet. He kind of reminds me though, and this is not, there's no size comparison. He kind of reminds me of someone that the Vikings should know reasonably well, Zach Tom, that Zach Tom played tackle, but he's a center, but he's a guard. He can do everything. He's athletic. He gets up and under defensive tackles. That's kind of how I view Willie Lampkin.

And it's interesting that you're saying that the Vikings probably should add some more pieces on the interior of their offensive line. I remember being on the show and we talked about like the Ed Ingram pick, like didn't really make sense because he's not that mobile. Willie Lampkin can certainly move. And I think all of those outside zone runs that are a staple of Kevin O'Connell's offense would probably run a lot more seamlessly if Lampkin was playing next season for the Vikings. If this is how intense Novocaine sounds, imagine how it looks. Yeah, big time.

Novocaine, only in theaters March 14th. Yeah, I went back and forth a little bit on the size issue because I do think that a guy like him can get bigger and not taller, but bigger. And I think height is probably overrated as far as being on the interior of an offensive line. I don't think you have to be particularly like high. In fact, uh, or better if you're lower, the low man wins. And you see that a lot from him when he plays, I am concerned about the bull rushes and the power. There's nothing like the strength of defensive tackles. This is a fourth rounder. Okay. So I was swinging more for a maybe lower ceiling type of player that might be able to develop into a starter for them, as opposed to trying to

take a six foot seven, 340 pound freak that technically is not a very good football player. That's the discussion you always have to have in the middle and late rounds is this guy's a good player, but doesn't fit the specs. This guy's not a good player, but has amazing athleticism. Which one do we take? So I went with him. He actually kind of reminded me of a guy the Vikings took a few years ago named Kyle Hinton, who's hung around in the league and become a guy for Atlanta. I think he's a backup there. We'll see about him. I, you know, him versus Dexter Lawrence. I don't know how well that would go. That's, that's the back and forth of that, but I went with it anyway, because I like him

and it's our first draft sim and I'm allowed to do that. Uh, let's see next pick. I went with Kobe Bryant of Kansas. That is C O B E E. He is a, another productive cornerback who I've seen. I got him in the fifth year. I've seen him higher than the fifth, but I like throwing numbers at the cornerback position, taking multiple corners, looking for late round guys and trying to develop them along with also taking somebody at the top. So how do you feel about the,

the Bryant? I hate to say this, but I have not finalized my grade on him yet. So I don't want to speak on him directly. I'm to say this, but I have not finalized my grade on him yet. So I don't want to speak on him directly. I'm on the offensive side. I'm trying to work on interior offensive lineman, defensive side, those mid to late round corners. I know there's a fair amount of hype for him. There was going into the season. I'm pretty sure his analytics profile in terms of production was very good at Kansas. So it'll be interesting to see if that, if the film kind of matches up.

And then of course, what happens at the combine with Kobe Bryant? Kobe Bryant will be a guy that is always going to stand out to me when I do any of these because of production. And it's just a proven fact, like shocker, right? If you were productive in college, you have a better chance of producing in the NFL. This is sort of a captain obvious. It's sort of like in baseball analytics say that if you hit the ball harder, it's actually good. Like, Oh, well, that's a Ron Swanson thing to say. Yeah. Good to hear. Yeah. Well, the same thing here, what stood out to me about Bryant though, a lot of experience playing and he has a very high run defense grade. And I think to play for, and he's on the skinnier side, but to play for Brian Flores, you have

to rally to the football. It's just part of what they do as a defense. That's why Blackman stood out. He was a really good tackler and I was kind of feeling the same way here. So another corner, just kind of throwing numbers at it. And then Elijah Roberts was my last pick, an edge rusher from SMU. To me, when you get to the fifth round, I was just taking the best player. And once again, a very productive player to kind of round out the draft. So you don't have to dive too deep into that unless you have a serious take on Elijah Roberts. I haven't watched him yet,

but I know he production wise was very good. so that's maybe was your theme of of this initial uh draft statement um especially later but i know he's an older prospect and maybe that plays into he's more ready the production was there so you're thinking not a lot of upside potential as a fifth rounder but the floor is reasonably high which, that's the ultimate conversation in the draft room. Are we, is the fifth rounder, the, I don't want to say Danelle Hunter, but is he that type or is it someone that we just know he's never going to be an all pro or a pro bowler, but he's going to be that glue guy.

That's the rotational piece. That's where I kind of view Elijah Roberts, at least from his analytics profile. Well, Chris, you haven't watched the film on the 161st player that I took off the board. Uh, well, I guess you've got some work to do. Uh, no, but, uh, I will hear. So here's what I want. Uh, I want to know your grade for that draft, uh, Trey Amos, a corner from Ole Miss RJ Harvey running back from UCF defensive tackle Darius Alexander in the third, Willie Lampkin, the guard in the fourth. And I can, I can definitely hear people screaming about not wanting a smaller guard. I understand if you don't, it's okay. And then the

corner and the edge rusher in the fifth round, how would you grade that draft, including the trade down for the Vikings? Yeah, I'm going to go A- because I think to get those extra selections is huge, especially for a team that was in the playoffs and goes into a draft without a lot of picks. I think it's important, regardless of how good you feel about your team, it's never good to have like a three-player or four-player draft class. I mean, ask the Miami Dolphins. They had back-to-back drafts. I think 21 and 22 or 22 and 23 after the Tyree kill trade, four players, four players. And I think it set

them back where they are now. They just don't have anyone coming up the pipeline. So that in and of itself is great. The first three selections I love. Like I have Trey Amos graded almost exactly where you have him. with RJ Harvey the big play explosiveness is there and Darius Alexander again maybe he could be there in the third round but having watched more Vikings over the past couple years than I ever thought I would having done this podcast seeing how the defensive lineman can play anywhere and you are the quarterback and you're like wait what is that why is Andrew Van Ginkle here and why is Harrison Phillips over here when he was just there that's Darius Alexander's game and he has the athleticism the power just of a traditional defensive tackle so

of course you want to weigh the first few selections heavier than those picks later so I give this an A- I love what you did with the players and to get those extra picks with the trade down. Well, I think for my first swing, what I went for is realistic. I went for what do I think they want to do in a draft? And I had to kind of decide what's more important to get that defensive tackle in the first order to get the corner. And I think had certain guys been on the board for me. Uh, and in this case, when I was trading down, I was considering too, that I believe the way the first round played out, I could take a look. I think that Walter Nolan had just been taken. Uh, no, actually Walter

Nolan was taken 25th. That was the hard one not to take because I really like him a defensive tackle who could get after the passer from Mississippi. That's going to be a really tough one to pass up if he was on the board to trade down. But I also thought with the depth in this draft being defensive tackle that I can afford to do that. Tell me about the cornerback position, because when I look through it, when I looked at Brugler's big board, I was kind of expecting a lot of corners just based on numbers. And it's a position where three guys could be on the field at all times. I didn't really come away

thinking, Oh wow, boy, if you need a corner, this is your year. It looks like there's only going to be a couple taken in the first round. And I didn't see a lot that made up the backend of his top 100. Okay. So here's how I would set the scene for the cornerback class. We talked about D-tackle, edge rusher, running backs really good. This is going to be, I think, one of those mid-tier positions where it's not amazing, but it's not brutal. It's not the quarterback class, which we could get to. And there's obviously Travis Hunter at the top.

From what I've heard, and we'll probably get some more rumors or thoughts at the combine of where teams view Travis Hunter playing in the NFL, probably corner, though. That's what I've heard early on, that it's going to be corner with wide receiver package. And why I think it's a little bit down is for two reasons. Two of the other premier corners in this class, Siobhan Revell from East Carolina and Ben Morrison from Notre Dame got injured early in their final season. So they are like freaky athletes. Revell at the small school level, tremendous ball production. Benjamin Morrison has like, I think, top 10 or top 15 athleticism and mirroring skills, but he got hurt like in early October, late September. So we didn't really see him after that. The second reason guys like Trey Amos, who's probably the

most polished of this kind of like one B tier. Um, there's so many like raw types like Maxwell Harrison or Hairston. We're going to hear a lot about from Kentucky. Athletic, but not a great tackler. Didn't have insane ball production. Kind of runs hot or cold with his motor. The Florida State cornerback, Azari Thomas. I'm not totally keen on all of these names just yet. Same deal. Fre freakishly athletic, but wasn't super consistent just in every phase of the game. Jedi Baron, who won the Jim Thorpe Award for the nation's best cornerback, he's very smart. He makes a lot of plays on the football. I don't know how great of an athlete he is. So there's these quality players, but they have some clear question marks after Travis Hunter,

and then two corners who probably would just be locked into the first round type players, but will be coming off of injury. So it'll actually be fascinating to see where Siobhan Revell from East Carolina and Benjamin Morrison from Notre Dame, two premier talents who were tracking toward top 20 selections, where the NFL ultimately gauges their range to be based on their injuries in this draft. I tend to think with corners that they fall into kind of two categories of either you're getting taken at the top because you're an absolutely freaky athlete or your second, third round, even if you're just one tier below that, which means that there's usually a lot of

good second and third round type of corners. The fact that the Vikings don't have a second round pick influenced me trying to get one of those top tier type of players. But that's usually the way it's like when they drafted Makai Blackman, like he's not a super, super high ceiling guy and he's not, he's undersized,

but he was very productive, very smart. And it kind of either goes one way or the other with those guys in the draft i was reading uh the guy's name is azariah thomas but i'm not we're gonna have to find that out um project i'm not sure either i'm gonna have to we're working on it i'm gonna have to do my homework pre-combat and certainly after when i'm doing this show and a bunch of radio shows to get all these names down one other name i forgot too which i just don't want to blatantly forget someone.

Will Johnson from Michigan, another one, didn't play like his last half of his final season at Michigan. In watching the film, like you mentioned, and you saying this kind of sparked his name in my memory, like he has that freakish could be a top 10 pick type build, athleticism, things like that. Besides the injury, you watch him on film, not a great tackler. Clear business decisions, and maybe that was just like, hey, I already have done what I need to do the last two years at Michigan.

A few pick sixes before he went down with the injury, but didn't come back. But not a great tackler. And I had some questions, and I actually reached out to a scout about this. There's questions about his long speed. So that question coming from me and then from more importantly, a scout in the league with his injury, does he run at the combine? Is he going to be able to be fully healthy enough to do that? So I think that's why it's kind of perceived as a, a somewhat of a lesser corner class because average trip, because after Travis Hunter,

there are injury questions. And then a few like, um, raw specimens, really, like I'm saying, Trey Amos is probably the safest bet based on his injuries or his experience at Ole Miss. Um, and the fact that he is a pretty good tackler and got his hands on a lot of footballs in college. So that's why I think we're not as excited about this cornerback class at the top. Okay. Let me show you how the first round as a whole played out. I'll put that on a bigger screen so you can see the whole thing. What stood out to me is Cam Ward and Shadurers going the top two picks in this draft sim i don't know about that i mean i am so underwhelmed by the quarterback class me too

i'm not a huge fan of ward as a pro prospect now look there's been a lot of guys who don't have perfect footwork and things like that but i just saw a lot of for a guy who's been a lot of guys who don't have perfect footwork and things like that. But I just saw a lot of for a guy who's played a lot of college football, just scrambled around, make it plays. It's kind of messy. And with Shadur Sanders, I like Shadur Sanders, but I think there's a limited upside with his mobility, which is kind of none in the at the NFL level. We've talked about this in years past. If you're going to be a runner in the NFL, you better be a runner in college. You can't just kind of be, well, you know, he moves around in the pocket a little bit. Sanders is very accurate and I'm interested in kind of what his personality is going to do in the NFL, but I don't know if these guys are going to go number

one and number two. I think there's going to be skepticism in the NFL for both of these quarterbacks. I don't see Jackson is Jackson dart or Spencer Rattler of like, don't try to make Jackson dart a thing. Maybe it, maybe it's not, but I just don't, I feel like if a quarterback's not a first rounder, he's a third rounder, right? There's just really no point in taking second round or quarterbacks and thinking that that's going to work for you. And in this one, Abdul Carter went seventh, which does not seem possible to me because that guy is an absolute monster. Yeah. So this is really interesting.

And again, this is going to change a lot. Free agency combine to your point on the quarterback. So we can talk about them. This feels a lot like 2022 in that the whole cycle and the media is going, and I'm, and I'm part of the media. We're part of the media, but it's going to try to push up the quarterbacks.

The difference is one of the quarterbacks last name is Sanders and he's Dan Sanders son. Like that year we're like, yeah, like I loved Malik Willis and he did okay. And that little backup audition for the Packers, but wasn't a first-rounder. There was a lot of buzz for Desmond Ritter.

Is Desmond Ritter going to be a first-rounder? Kenny Pickett's the only first-round selection at quarterback in that class and should not have been. It's almost like there's a huge need. The Giants need a quarterback. The Raiders need a quarterback. The Titans could pick a quarterback. I'm very much with you that I was underwhelmed by both of them on film.

I actually have Cam Ward graded a little higher. I think he gives you a little bit better traits. He's not going to be someone that's going to be Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen running the ball, but I think he's a little more athletic, and the arm strength is a little better than Shadur Sanders. And you're right. Sanders can be that pocket quarterback, but he's not going to move around much in the NFL. My comparison for him is actually Teddy Bridgewater. And I think that's like high end. Like if to me, Teddy Bridgewater's processing and accuracy was even a little bit better than Sanders, where if you really watch the duration of his entire season, you're like,

oh, that game, he wasn't that accurate he could get into a rhythm but when he feels pressure i think that's where that accuracy comes down a lot but we've seen it before in the draft 2011 and i will not mention that name that begins with c and his last name begins with p but we're one show in and we had to go one show in we have to go to all of our like on-brand things that the nfl will push up quarterbacks now and of course in 2022 it didn't happen but there was to go back to last year like you mentioned spencer rattler was a hot name late in the process i remember bryce petty was a hot name late in one of the years 2015 2016 somewhere in that range

so i do it who was uh who was the guy? There was a guy who went undrafted who was one of those guys, not Jacob Eason. Was it Jacob Eason? Big arm guy. Jacob. Yeah. Jacob Eason. He was like Washington. Was he Georgia and then Washington? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was one of them too. Um, so yeah, I, I view it much closer to that draft in terms of the strength at the quarterback spot. And I think just because of his last name, there's no way that Sanders makes it past the Raiders at what, pick seven or six or seven?

Just because of the connection, he's known Tom Brady forever. But in a vacuum, should he be the seventh overall pick in this draft? And would Cam Ward, like you mentioned, to go from incarnate word to washington state to miami he should be more polished than he is as a passer would either of those two have been picked in the first six quarterbacks last year i don't think so not even not even close definitely not even not even trait wise it's not even close i mean the thing with ward is that people might try to squint and be like well you know mahomes wasn't very and the traits are nowhere mahomes had the coming out one of the freakiest arms of all time yeah yeah yeah yeah and he does not have that right he could make throws side i remember the gruden sit down with uh patrick

mahomes where he just lost his mind over. He was rolling to his left and he threw it almost sidewinder underarm 50 yards down the field for a touchdown. And it was like, Oh, okay. Yeah, that was, that's, that's quite a bit different. And yeah, he's a scrambler, but he's not super fast. He's not going to be a difference-making scrambler in the NFL, and he doesn't really sit in the pocket, and he can throw big. This was a Justin Fields thing. Oh, he's got big-time throws,

but sometimes it's just, well, he hooked it to the guy, and it kind of just got over somebody's hand and into the receiver's hands, and it's a sick highlight, but if you're doing that all the time, that kind of means you're throwing into coverage a lot and we got fooled on Justin Fields not throwing in rhythm and then expected him to do it in the NFL and he didn't yeah and that's where I and I write this and I want to say this on the first episode to kind of pave the way for me saying it 50 more times

this draft process that's the difference between arm strength and arm talent at ohio state justin feels had crazy big time throws from a clean pocket all right here comes the post all right i'm going to throw it to chris olave or whatever same with cam ward now he certainly improvised more but the arm talent to do the mahomes submarine going the other way. Like, I don't see that anywhere in the stratosphere with that, that can compare to that in this quarterback class, Jackson dart.

I think like you're saying, like if he's a third round pick where it seems like, Hey, we want to like draft maybe one of the better backups in four to five years. Okay. Like I could see it with him. He was a highly touted recruit. And I think actually his traits are a little bit better than most third round quarterbacks,

but I wasn't really enamored with his ability to read the field, his accuracy overall. And that offense was super gimmicky. It was kind of the Bo Nix offense where it was a bubble screen or a goal ball. And now maybe that's more of what we're seeing in the NFL. But in terms of reading complex coverages and then being like super mobile, like we mentioned, like you need to be like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen or even Patrick Mahomes, who is a great athlete in his own right, to then have even like 80% of that transfer to the NFL. It's not the case with Sanders or Cam Ward.

And Dart's a good athlete too, but I don't think we're going to see him with 100-yard rushing games in the NFL. I would be asking for any quarterback that I'm picking in the first round, what's your freaky talent? Because the Jackson Dart, you could just draw the line between all these guys who have been picked without a freaky talent.

You look at Kenny Pickett or, you know, kind of reminds me of people fell in love with Jake Fromm. They're like, Oh, Jake Fromm. And you're like, well, yeah, but what's going to take him to the next level? The AFC and NFC championships are being played by Jalen Hurts, Jaden Daniels, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson lost to Josh Allen. Do we really think that you're playing with the big boys by taking someone who's just kind of mid? No, you're not. And that's something that is like an overarching, like over multiple years philosophy that we've had, like aim for the moon at the position.

And the one quarterback we haven't discussed is Jalen Milrow. Now he can say that. He can say, look at the Superbowl champions, Jalen hurts, which I don't know if I was doing the show at this time, but like, I labeled him as like a developmental quarterback coming out of Oklahoma where it was like, okay. At Alabama was a great runner started as like a freshman was his big recruit, but this dude cannot throw the football. Like he does not have a strong arm. He doesn't know where he's throwing it. He got better in that final season.

And that transfer was huge for him, but I still think, and this is taking no disrespect, or this is no disrespect to Jalen hurts coming off, just winning a super bowl. He was great in this super bowl was good. Two years ago in the super bowl was awesome in the NFC title game, but we all have to agree.

And I'm sure he would too. The situation in Philadelphia probably could not conceivably be better with the offensive line, the run game, AJ Brown, Devante Smith, Dallas Goddard. And maybe if you're listening to this as a Vikings fan, which I'm sure most of you are, you could say, Hey, we kind of have that. We have a good offensive line. We have Justin Jefferson. We have Jordan Addison. We have TJ Hawkinson. That's, I mean, not of course that the Vikings are going to be looking at Jalen Milrow, but that's the type of situation that you, and to have a lot of patience with Jalen Milrow,

who has a big arm, he's going to be a quality runner right away. He can lean on his legs. You just have to teach him, throw it here, don't throw it there. Maybe when you see this, go in this direction, which I think was such a good job that the Eagles did early in his career. He didn't start right away. They took their lumps early. He had some like ugly completion percentage games, and now he's just that ultimate game manager who makes good decisions and then leans on his legs when he's in kind of those precarious situations. So Jalen Milrow, like you just said, he's the one that could say, hey, by the way, I'm probably going to run in the four fours. And I have some big time throws

on film that are unlike any of the other quarterbacks in this class. I am sort of intrigued, but also extremely skeptical on Milrow because I watched a lot of their games and it just wasn't good. I mean, the, the, the accuracy, the decision-making the game they lost to, was it Oklahoma, Oklahoma state? Who did they lose to? They lost to Oklahoma. Yeah. Oklahoma. Oh my goodness. I mean, just pick six is left and right. I don't think he sees the field at all with a Hertz though. The amount that he developed over those first couple of years was enormous. I mean, even when you go back to his early starts,

he's kind of throwing the ball up there for grabs and then running. Those were the only two options and he's developed into a complete quarterback. I don't know if I see that with Milrow. I thought if there's one guy Hertz was wrongfully asked about being a running back, maybe Milrow would be rightfully asked about being a running back in this draft. I'm just, I guess if you're taking one of them in the third round, I would easily take the guy who runs crazy, insanely fast, but I truly want him to be a running back. His running ability is so next level. I just don't think he is ever going to be able to do what those other guys did from watching him play in college, but at least he brings along some intrigue, which I don't think there's as much

for the alleged top two quarterbacks. We'll see. So let me ask you about, as far as we've talked about kind of some of the strengths of the draft, but something that I know you like to talk about a lot and like to think about a lot is the trends of the league. And you're right to say, it's not a trend that people want pass rushers or defensive linemen like this is the purple people eaters the fearsome foursome the steel curtain look defensive lines have always won super bowls okay as long as they could maul people and destroy quarterbacks they've always been great uh so everyone wants to be the eagles. But I think that the profile of a defensive tackle is changing to where, okay, man, you better be pretty big and you better be able to stuff the run.

And then if you could get after the passer, that's great. And there would be five guys who could get after the passer. Now it's just, all right, we're going to just get maybe one nose tackle. Then everybody else is a pass rusher on the interior. Rotational guys are valued. If you have 500 600 snaps in a year you should be a second round draft pick like you or even maybe a first rounder because those are going to be so valuable of those pass rush snaps it's also the reason i think on

the other side why running backs are more valuable because defenses continue to get more focused on rushing the passer more focused on being smaller, more nimble. Kalijah Canty is looking pretty good and getting penetration, which can be countered by a run game, unless you're the Chiefs who have no run game. And it was one of the reasons they were three and out over and over against Philly. But I think that that trend is going to really, really show itself as far as the shape and the profile of defensive tackles in the league today. And on the other side,

how running games are countering and the fact that teams are seeing it being worthwhile to invest in drafting a running back. If you're going to have four years of an explosive young player that can help you battle with some of the past rushes that are winning consistently in the NFL. So let me ask you, are you saying that you think the defensive tackles run stopping ability will be more highly valued or just being able to pressure the quarterbacks? I think it will be less. I think it will be, it will continue in this draft class. There's a few guys who are just freaks all around, but it will continue in this draft class that it's going to be about getting in the backfield penetration that teams will value the Milton Williams type where you don't

care if he could stop the run or not. It's all about pressuring the quarterback. And on the other side of that offenses, we'll say we should draft a running back because it's a good class and we need a running game if we're going to play against teams like that. Yeah. I mean, and to take a trend on the other side, not, not just from the Superbowl, I get what you're saying. Obviously Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, even Aaron Jones to be like, Hey, and of course it is not draft related, but I think that teams, I mean, we joke around and I'm literally underneath this, this fleece. I'm wearing my don't draft running backs in the first round shirt. You can't see it. But I've kind of evolved in a way that it's like, okay, like, yeah, like you're saying,

if you can get a really good running back on a rookie deal, he's cheap, he's young, okay, that's going to help you. But I think the league, for as much as I can wear this shirt and joke around about it, it feels like the NFL has evolved in a way that every team has an analytics department. They've been pushing this for years. You can't just draft Najee Harris in the first round with a bad offensive line and be like, he's transcendent, He's going to change our run game. The teams that already have good offensive lines or sign two big free agents, a guard and center, or their first round pick and second round pick are offensive

linemen and they feel great about their NFL readiness. Then you can plug in that running back and get the proper amount of value from like extracted from their rookie contract. So it's a great running back class. So I think we could see maybe like a proper amount of value extracted from their rookie contract. So it's a great running back class. So I think we could see maybe a record amount of running backs in the first couple rounds. Maybe not round one necessarily, but two and three, I think we're going to see an absolute litany of them. And to your point on defensive tackles, I'll say this.

We talk about this, and I hope none of the listeners are like, oh, they're always talking about traits and the combine and this. Look at what the Eagles have done. Milton Williams was at Louisiana Tech, and it was just like, he's like 6'3", 285, where does he play? Tested absolutely through the roof. Jalen Carter was clearly a freak of nature in terms of his production at Georgia with all these first

rounders around him, but freaky combine Jordan Davis, who maybe hasn't lived up to the hype. Like he was the talk of the combine a few years ago, but what he did at like 345 pounds, freaky Josh sweat to go back to 2018 draft class. He had a combine at a similar size and that was comparable to Jadavian Clowney. Like he fell a little bit because Florida state used him at like a defensive tackle. He's one of the weirdest evaluations that will always stick in my head, but like insane length,

crazy 40 burst. They have prioritized the traits in the trenches. Now they certainly have landed on some, some just really good football players too, but Milton Williams, whether it's in Philly or somewhere else is going to sign a huge, huge contract in free agency. So is Josh Sweat.

So I think for, to your point to kind of narrow it down to a dorky draft rant here, it's just the freaky specimens that can not only just get to the quarterback, but can get there in like under two seconds with how much RPO and quick game stuff there is in the NFL. I think teams will look at that and say, man, it's not just that the Eagles have had these really good players fall into their laps. They have prioritized. We are going to draft a Milton Williams in the third round or a Mauro Ojomo in the seventh round from Texas who are big time athletes,

because if we can just develop them a little bit, when they win, it's going to be a splash play, whether it's a tackle for loss or it's a hit on Patrick Mahomes in the backfield and the super bowl, they're going to win in a very athletic and dynamic way. So I think that's what I, what I'm taking and what I expect a lot of the NFL,

the rest of the NFL to take from what the Eagles just did throughout the season and in winning the Super Bowl. And we'll definitely talk more about that as we go forward into the combine, when we start to get numbers and stuff like that coming out of it. But I think when you look at the Vikings in the interior, their D line over the last five years since Linval Joseph left, who's the freak? Like Harrison Phillips. They need some specimens. Yeah, they do. Freaks win. Like Harrison Phillips.

And, you know, I'm a believer in production. Harrison Phillips is a good player in the middle. But if you're going to put average type of players, average type of athletes, you're going to draft average type of athletes. You're kind of going to get that out of that position. I think freaks win. And I had this number the other day that the top 11 paid defensive tackles in the league are all taken in the first three rounds and eight of them are in the first two rounds.

So if you want that guy, you probably got to take him pretty early, which is going to be part of my thinking going into this draft. But we can't talk about every single angle in the first show chris chris trapasso draft show we stayed on brand though we definitely did we draft him i kind of hinted at a specific vikings bust uh i'm doing nfl comps like this this was a good kickoff to the chris trapasso draft show i think oh and we will get to along the way some of our staples including 90s and early 2000s comps uh uh, including bust comps, worst case scenario comps, which without a lot of quarterbacks is a little harder, but we'll, we'll figure it out, uh, along the

way. And we'll have a lot of fun. We'll do a lot of draft simming and there will be a changing landscape as we go forward off season moves, breaking down free agency moves and how that changes draft needs for the Vikings and different teams. So much to go. And I am so glad we are freaking back Chris Trapasso. So glad to have you. And, uh, well, why don't you take it away with the way that we end the show? Football. Blood ball.