Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Chris Trapasso grades the Minnesota Vikings' draft

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Matthew Coller and Chris Trapasso of DraftGradebook.com talk about Chris's grade on the Minnesota Vikings' draft. Why he liked Caleb Banks as a player, his fit for Jake Golday and the late-round pick he's most intrigued by. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandu. Matthew Collar here. And it is the final Chris Trapaso draft show of draft season. But it's one we look forward to every year where we actually have the draft picks and we go one by one and get your big time breakdown grade analysis and everything else. Chris, the final word basically on these draft picks. And then they're Minnesota Vikings and we start covering them at OTAs and media. and what do you call them,

uh, mini camps and training camps and then football games and so forth. So, uh, why don't we just begin with the, the big picture here. I've noticed that the draft universe is not super thrilled with the way that the Minnesota Vikings picked. So how were your grades in the hole?

And then we can go one by one versus what a lot of the other, uh, draft analysts were giving the Vikings. So what I did at draftgradebook.com is I just used a weighted system based on the Jimmy Johnson trade chart, which ironically, that one still holds up pretty well all these years later. Or it's at least the one that I think a fair amount of GM still reference when they're making trades. And I just went to, I gave leeway to my NFL draft grade system where like if I had a play at like 36 and he was like the 45th pick. I didn't mark that as a monster steal and give it an A plus.

So there was some tinkering that I needed to do on that system side of things. And the Vikings, where is it? The Vikings were not necessarily super high. They came out, I think C minus. I cannot pull up my page now. I just had it. It was not a terribly brutal class overall, but as we'll get into, there was a few reaches that I think were pretty sizable that needed nuance.

And I think what's important before I begin, I'm not going to say that I'm against giving any negative analysis to the Vikings. I'm coming on here to give the most objective, authentic analysis as I can. But I do think when you're listening, it's important to remember that I'm scouting for the entire NFL. my own philosophies are baked in. Like I have specific types of linebackers that I like. And we'll certainly talk about the one that the Vikings pick, certain running backs that I like, certain offensive tackles, edge rushers that don't necessarily fit.

They're not a one size fits all for every scheme. So it was one of the lower graded draft classes, but I do understand. We were kind of messaging back and forth throughout the draft, especially on day three. I did understand what they were doing because I have this intimate knowledge of like Brian Flores, and what they tried to do on offense and on defense.

So I understood it. But just based on where I had these players graded NFL wide, it was one of the lower draft classes like or draft grades that I gave out. Well, even from just the very beginning, the first round, Caleb Banks was not somebody that was projected by many people to go very high in this draft. And if you're going to go by the grades, well, I mean, that has to be the one that is weighed the most in most draft.

So when you have your top analysts that are ranking him DT4 or 51st overall or wherever it might be and most people are mocking him not in the first round, then I wouldn't expect that suddenly after he gets picked, everyone to go, actually, I changed my mind completely. And he is the best DT we've ever seen. But also, you know, the Vikings drafted him with a lot more medical knowledge than maybe the outside universe. and it also seems they drafted him with a development plan and understanding that he is not the final product yet. Now, I feel like we wavered throughout the draft season on Banks. There were a few times his name came up and I always said, very red flaggy. And I think early in the process, though, you liked the idea of Caleb Banks and then the medical thing and the foot injury and everything else.

So where did you ultimately stand on that draft pick? So I gave that a, or my system, which again, it was imperfect. It was not based on feel. It was all based on the numbers and then assigning a letter grade based on how big of a reach or a steel that I thought the picks were. It came out as a B minus. And here's, this is the first one that I think needs some nuance. And I will be fully transparent with you and with all the audience. When I watched him on film, he was my DT1 in this class.

first round pick all the way. And then my NFL draft predictive algorithm, resin, like liked him, but didn't love him. And it was one that I go through a process after the combine or when the pro days are done, all of the obviously, the college production is there. Once those numbers come in, I like do like a self-check with resin because I do, I mean, I built it, but I trust it. It's completely objective. There's no like film grade in there. and I saw, oh man, I have Caleb Banks as like a top 10 player. Resin doesn't really love him, but he was still my defensive tackle two behind Grayson Halton, who like ironically went in the fourth round.

So the D tackle class was not very good in general. And what how you outlined the intro with him, I think is exactly spot on that like, even though he's not a super young prospect, I think the Vikings feel like he can get better. And in watching him, one of the highest pressure rates in the class, a defensive tackle, which is really saying something at like 6-6-345 pounds, whatever he is. Run defense, weirdly, was not very good. A lot of miss tackles, a lot of times where his pad level gets high and he just gets pushed out of the play.

And you're like, wait a minute, the play before you just bull rushed through a double team and got a pressure on the quarterback or sacked the quarterback. And now you're just getting shoved out of the way on this zone stretch play. So that was the one area that I think lowered his grade a little bit for me. but I still had him in that round one, round two range. And I was probably overall higher on him than most of the draft analysts, especially and maybe, I mean, obviously the Vikings picked him in the first round, but the general consensus going in was like, oh, the foot injury,

like maybe that sunk his momentum, so to speak, going into the draft. But if like the foot injury wasn't there, I think we would have seen a lot more mock drafts where he would have been a first round pick because I'm assuming you can agree, the pass rush flashes are. like Dexter Lawrence freaky. And it's just the run defense that the,

a little bit of the age and the foot injury, I think is what made people maybe sour on the selection a little bit. Well, definitely because it wasn't the first foot injury. If it was just, oh, man, that's a bad break he had at the combine where he hurt his foot. But it was also missing his entire last season. And then you have to go back to 2024, whereas, you know, the production is a interesting discussion because there is a win rate.

that's pretty good for defensive tackles of his size. At the same time, his grading was not very good. His pressures overall were pretty underwhelming. His sacks were very underwhelming. And I think maybe the most concerning is, I mean, not just the PFF grade, which has pointed pretty successfully to defensive tackles in the NFL, their translation, but also the number of snaps.

This would be the thing that concerns me about Caleb Banks is we're talking about someone who had only 900 and something snaps in college. And he's coming into the NFL being talked about as a project because he didn't play that much, because he missed so much time. And now his first impression into the NFL is, oh, you're missing rookie minicamp. You're missing OTAs. You're missing mini camp. And we'll see where you're at by the time it gets to training camp.

And if he misses any time there, then we're talking about getting set way behind to jump into the NFL. I mean, I've looked at this, Chris, like a surprising big swing from them, but I think that everybody can see the outcome that works out and how good that could be for the Vikings. It's just, was it in your mind worth the risks that go along with it, the lack of playing time, the injuries he's had, the lack of production that was, I mean, not like big time Quinn and Williams level production, and more like you would expect from a second round pick. That's the ultimate question.

That's one that I've been thinking about a lot. And it popped into my head right away when that pick came in. I was like, oh, that's surprising. But and I instantly went to, I could see him being like a borderline all pro or like one of those nagging like Andrew Booth like, oh, he's not playing. And now he's behind the eight ball. And now like a veteran they signed his head of him.

And now he's like kind of in the doghouse. So it's really, I think the epitome. We don't really hear safe prospect very much. anymore or boom or bus prospect he absolutely is the boomer bus prospect like if if he was in the draft 15 years ago and it was melkiper is essentially the only guy we were listening to he would be the boom or bust prospect maybe in the entire draft certainly in the entire first round and i think seeing the vision i my comp for him was marcus stroud who was really good on the jaguars finished his career um with the bills tall powerful pass rushing nose tackle

To me, that's what I would want it. Like we've talked about, if you're going to pick a nose tackle in the first round, don't have it be Caden McDonald or Kristen Miller, neither of which were first rounders after all that buzz, because they're not very good against the pass and they're good run stuffers. Pick the guy that at least is either, of course, Vita Veyer or Dexter Lawrence or has that in his arsenal. And like you said, he didn't play a ton under a thousand snaps in his career.

But when the flashes were there, they were freaky good getting after the quarterback. So I almost feel like two, it was a shift from analytics of Equacea da Fu Mensa to, hey, I watched the film. And Rob Brzezinski's like, we watched him and we were blown away. And yeah, we're going to pick him with the 18th overall selection. Not to suggest that they didn't do their due diligence with all the medical stuff. But if you're just watching the film and really looking at nothing else, Caleb Banks at 18 would have been considered a steal. Yeah, I mean, the analytics are just, I mean, what does that mean? right. It just means the study of everything past that we try to work on what it's going to mean for the future, right?

And we try to get better numbers and we try to get more accurate numbers, but it's never perfect. One thing that is clear is if you go against the consensus, there's a pretty strong chance you're going to be disappointed, but it doesn't mean it's 100% chance. And the same thing goes for, you know, those PFF grades for first round defensive tackles mostly has, pointed to guys haven't succeeded if they didn't grade well. But it doesn't mean every single one is not going to grade well. I think what surprised me is just that they would go kind of against a lot of stuff that would be pointing not to do this, including the medicals. And I know that they have, you know, their medical analysis is much better than ours,

but also there's some common sense like guys get hurt that are this big with a foot injury. So there's like all these swirling different things. And I did try to pull back a little bit and think, what would I have thought of Caleb Banks if they had drafted him? I don't know, 15 years ago when I was just watching football and not necessarily studying every analytic and every data

and every consensus board and everything else. You'd probably like, this is awesome. This is the best guy. And oh, there's only Mel Kiper who doesn't love it or something like, whatever. What does that guy know? This guy's going to be awesome. So he's kind of that type of pick that felt a little bit, like an old school decision by the Vikings to just go with the traits guy and then trust their

coaches to make the most out of it. Completely agree. And that's was the biggest signal where I was like, oh, man, I don't know if Kwayce would have pulled the trigger here, but it is a, it's a new chapter with a new GM. And everything that you just said, we agree. Like the film, there were some bad run defense reps, but the pass rush ability at that size. And what he showed early in his collegiate career, which I think you can look at his age now, but it's not like his final season was his only good season. It was really as a freshman and sophomore that's like, hey, that dude for Florida, that's like a tower, he's going to be a future top 10 pick. He ultimately ends up going 18 overall was not surprising. That's also a good indicator, not just that receiver for breakout age,

at defensive tackle at any position. If you're doing that, like Derek Stingley, I just popped into my head, Derek Stingley had that ridiculous freshman season at LSU in 2019 with that Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson team. After that, his next two seasons, like he got hurt. He wasn't really that good. And everyone's like, hey, we saw what he did at 18 years old. Like, we know what he can do in the SEC. We saw the same thing with Caleb Banks.

And of course, Derek Singley's become an all pro. So I think that's one that actually worked out, had injuries after a really fast start at the top level of competition. That's what I think the Vikings are hoping ultimately comes to fruition for Caleb Banks. All right. Let's go to a Cincinnati linebacker Jake Gold day, who was on my list of guys that I thought would make a lot of sense for the Minnesota Vikings because I've watched Andrew Van Ginkle. And then when I turned on Jake Gouldale, I was like, wait a minute, that guy needs longer hair because they play kind of similarly. But where did you have him?

And is this one of those that is a context pick? Because if I think he went to the Jaguars, we might not talk about it. the same way as if he goes to Brian Flores and the Vikings. 100%. And I think we, like, did we talk about him in our, in our last episode or second to last episode is like, and like we kind of tease how if he grows out his hair, he could like confuse defenses of if it's him or Van Ginkle. It's funny. I had him graded in the early third.

So this is one where it was technically a reach if you want to be a big stickler on my board, but where the context is absolutely needed because he is a blitzing downhill, intimidating specimen at linebacker. He was graded in the third instead of like the second where they picked him because I think the coverage is going to take time. But if you tell me, oh, he's not going to be like running down the seam as the Tampa two middle linebacker, he's going to be used like Andrew Van Ginkle. Then I could have said even late first for him because he was that good getting after

the quarterback with that much authority. 17% pressure rate in college, which obviously linebackers can have a higher rate than edge rushers. but last season 18 quarterback pressures on just 80 pass rush snaps, which is a ridiculous number. So he was super efficient when it came to getting after the quarterback. And at like 6-4 and 230, 240, he absolutely has similar size to Van Ginkle and can be used in the same way. Tested very, very well too. So older prospect was awesome at Central Arkansas, but the last two seasons at Cincinnati,

he is like the quintessential. I mean, outside of Sunny Stiles in this class, the quintessential front seven player chess piece that I think Brian Flores would build in a lab. So yes, if he went to a different team, I would have been like, this doesn't make sense.

But this team with this blitzing emphasis, I think it made a lot of sense in the second round. I think so too. And I also see, I mean, look, no one is going to come into the NFL and just be great in coverage right away. Like that takes,

no one does. It takes years to figure that out. But do you, you have the physical traits and the movement skill to be able to do that? Do you have the football IQ? Do you have the coachability? Do you have like check, check, check with Jake Olday? And the more that I learned about him, even as a teammate, somebody that decided to stay at Cincinnati rather than go chase the bag, which look, I mean, I'm not going to criticize anybody that chases the bag, but I think it does say something about some guys that decide, hey, I'm going to stay here with my team, knowing

that the NFL is coming next for them. I mean, it's also, it feels a little unfair to compare him completely to Van Ginkle just because they look the same and play the same. But I think that with someone like Brian Flores, he doesn't look at a guy and go, well, you have to fit into my system in a certain way and I'm going to put you there. And that's like the outline of the player that I envision. I think it's if you have certain skill sets, especially with versatility, the wheels start turning with that man.

of like, well, we could have them line up here, here, here, here in this scheme and do that this week and do that the next week and he can do multiple different things. That's why Golda makes so much sense to me because if Blake Cashman got hurt, I think he might be able to fill in middle linebacker or if an edge rusher got hurt, I think he can rush off the edge. And he might not be an insane pure edge rusher, but I also think he could do it. I think he's quick enough, strong enough to have some success against tackles. So when there's so many different things you could do,

you could see from a week to week basis where Brian Flores could shift that role. I do wonder how often he'll get on the field in the first year if they're going to see that and just like, hey, we got to get them out there or if it's going to be a little more for Van Ginkle's contracts up after this year and develop him into being that and maybe find like a NASCAR package on third down or something for him to start with. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I mean, you know, like, what the Vikings tendencies are when it comes to playing young players better than I do. But I feel like, yes, in the grand scheme of things, Brian Flores could have 15 different responsibilities for Jake Gold Day. But I was leaning more toward like getting your six foot four, 240 pound explosive linebacker just on the field, like in a specific package and not saying, hey, we're asking you to do everything that Blake Cashman does or everything that, say, Dallas Turner gets hurt, everything that he does or Van Ginkle. but like there's the quarterback, go get him.

And like having the size and the length that he does and the explosion is really, really vital to this defense, even if you're not a completely well-rounded player right away. And I don't know if I said it before. My comparison for him was Kiko Alonzo, which I want to bring him up again because, and we both watched him closely in Buffalo, Alonzo would be like the bad outcome where they asked him to try to cover and do so many different things. And he did have a great rookie season, kind of fell off after that.

similarly size, similarly aggressive, similarly linear player. If Kiko Alonzo was drafted by Brian Flores with, I don't know if he was with the Patriots at that point, similar type player that could have been a downhill, like just get to the ball type of linebacker. I think he landed in literally the best place he could have among all 32 teams. So before the draft, one of my, I think it was maybe one of my hot takes was that Dominique Orange was not going to go as high as people thought. And I did see a lot of orange being taken in the second round, which I did think was too high for him.

I also didn't expect the Vikings necessarily to draft a defensive tackle that was the nose. And we kind of talked about that a little bit. Like we haven't really seen them do that. But maybe if they do, he could be on their radar. So they end up taking orange. He was one where he played better two years ago than he did last year by the numbers. But I think it says a little bit more about. about just what Brian Flores saw last year from his run defense and wanting to bring more

strength and more power and somebody who can overwhelm a center with his strength and size, because look at the division you're in. I mean, they're just running teams that you don't want to let some undersized centers take advantage of you, especially, you know, Chicago drafts Logan Jones. That's a guy who's not even going 300 pounds. Can you create a mismatch there with the other teams in your division? But this was not a prospect that I was necessarily over the moon about his numbers. So where were you on Dominic Orange?

So I had Dominique Orange graded in the fifth round. Vikings picked him in the third. So this was one of the bigger reaches. I never really bought into Dominique Orange as his premier prospect. I even saw with the bills picking at 26 and needing a nose tackle, presumably. There were some first round mocks reasonably early in the process that that showed Dominique Orange going in round one. I watched the film,

check the analytics, check my resin. And I was like, oh, I think he's like a good, pretty athletic nose tackle, but not anyone that I'm like, oh, he should, he's better than the group,

than the collective. So maybe they picked him like a round earlier than I could have been okay with round four. But I think your last point is the context and the nuance that needs to be added where they're like, last season we had veterans that were a little bit on the smaller side

in Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. We want two monsters in there that can control these smaller centers that want to get out to the second level and climb and get to linebackers. We're not going to necessarily let them do that. Caleb Banks is a monster. Dominique Gore in 6-2-322 with long arms. And yes, was a pretty good pass rusher and a great run defender in 2024. Tate fell off a little bit last season, a little bit head scratching.

But when you frame it that way, where they're like, we just need to get bigger and more physical. And by the way, younger. and not as expensive along the defensive tackle spot. I think I can digest it a little more, but just based on the evaluation, I think he was just one of those day three nose tackles that I think teams should pick if they want to get better against the run,

help out. They're playing a lot of too high safety shells, so they're not getting gassed up front in the front seven. That just had a cool name. And everyone was like, oh, big citrus, second rounder, first rounder. And there are some flashes where he looks really athletic, but it was more like flashed, than efficiency. Like you would see him get off the ball quickly, but then he would just stall

out and not really get to the quarterback. So I was a little bit underwhelmed, especially relative to seemingly a lot of other draft analysts that did have him in that second or third round range. Yeah, this is where I kind of am a little bit hesitant on this pick particular, not just because I felt like he didn't play as well last year as he did two years ago. And I agree with Brian Flores about getting stronger. I love a good run stuffing nose tackle. I think that those guys can be incredibly valuable for your defense. So I don't want to seem like I'm down on the overall concept. It was maybe a little bit more for me about what's left on the table.

And that's the theme of the third round that not getting a wide receiver here, which we've talked about so much leading up to the draft. And then they didn't draft a single wide receiver. Were there skill position players that they decided to pass up here? Were there centers that they decided to pass up? I kind of put Dominique Orange in the same bucket of the third round of Caleb Tiernan and Jacoby Thomas, where your third round, which you came away with, is a nose tackle who stuffs the run and a backup offensive lineman who maybe ends up starting in the future and a safety that a lot

of people thought they made a big reach on where it's not a center that you're trying to develop for the future, like a Connor Liu that I thought maybe they could have gone for. it's not a Brennan Thompson. It's not, you know, one of the potential weapons that could slot into wide receiver three eventually. And that it just wasn't what I expect to happen. It's not that I think that Orange won't help them. And it confirms that they wanted to have much more beef in their overall.

And I'm not against that. I think that that could be really, really helpful. I don't know if you felt the same way as we were going through the Vikings draft, but that was definitely how I felt like, oh, this is quite a bit different than what I thought they were going to do. 100%. I mean, I thought they would have added a wide receiver at some point. And this was one of those periods. I mean, honestly, like a wide receiver instead of Dominique Orange, I think would have raised the grade a lot. I mean, obviously, it would have depended on who they picked.

By the way, my Dominique Orange comparison was Bobby Brown, who started with the Los Angeles Rams and kind of slowly but surely became a quality player, signed a free agent deal last year with Carolina and is like similarly size. He's tall. He's 320 plus. and is just a good space eating, run defending nose tackle, not much more than that. As far as Tiernan, he was one of the more fascinating evaluations for me because he's 6-8, like 320, but he has like the arms of like a center. He's got really short arms. So I'm like, okay.

And but he has tackle feet. Like in my scouting report on draftgradebook.com, the strengths are legitimate NFL tackle feet, high level explosiveness out of his stance. he had a vertical in the, what is it, 98th percentile, good to great, independent hand use. Like he can use left and right hand pretty strong, but he has super short arms. He's a finesse blocker in the run game. His anchor needs to improve. And he's more like linear than like super quick twitch.

So it was like, am I watching a tackle or a guard? I mean, are we going to have a six foot eight guard in the NFL? I know NFL offensive lines are getting bigger and bigger as teams want to just kind of demolish those smaller players in the box. But 6-8-3-20, I don't know if you can necessarily play guard there. So he was a player that I really liked on film. And I remember watching him at North Washington. I was like, this is a quality player.

Like he's a football player. And again, I instantly thought this is a player that if Rob Rosinski was the GM 10 years ago and we did not have PFF and all these other analytics things, we'd be like, oh, this is like a second round pick because he was that nasty on film. And the explosion out of his stance and pass protection was really. good. I had a third round grade on him. So this was actually one of the picks that I did like. But you kind of outlined like where he fits and maybe that's kind of awkward in

terms of the prospect. And if they're looking ahead for either the left tackle or right tackle spot in the future or maybe guard, I like the Caleb Tiernan profile overall and felt like he should have been a third rounder. Well, and you and I talked a lot leading into the draft about the possibility that the Vikings would take an offensive tackle. I guess I just thought once they didn't do it in the first, when Monroe Freeling was on the board, then, okay, well, I guess you're not going to take that. But if you look a year down the road, there is a possibility for tackle, then there's also a possibility for guard. And the Vikings current right guard is like six foot seven. And that's Will

fries. So it's not like they're afraid of that. Their current, uh, center is six foot seven. And he also started an entire year on a guard for them too in Blake Brandel. So it's not a unique thing for them to have really tall guys. His explosiveness is great. And maybe the arm thing. I don't know that it's overrated. I think it's very real of you got to make first contact. But I also think that it doesn't mean you have to be bad. Like Will Campbell got crushed by everybody because of his Super Bowl after having a very good year in the NFL with his little T-Rex arms. So it's not impossible. And also I wonder about and this is like a weird thing, but like the difference between wingspan and arm length. Yes, I always look a wingspan, yeah. Right. Is his wingspan also pretty short?

I'm pretty sure. I don't have that right in front of me right now, but I remember writing that and that's in my weaknesses. Let me check. And while I tell you that my comparison was Rob Habenstein, who's like, was just a tall workman like player at Wisconsin and has been a quality right tackle for the Rams when he's been healthy. He's like tall, kind of finesse, but has big time explosiveness can play guard when they need him to. And is someone that I'm not assuming Sean McVagetz asked about Rob Havenstein a lot, but is someone that I assume is a key cog on that offensive line that just does his work, not a lot of holding penalties, good run blocker, good pass blocker. So that's the player that I saw. And I remember scouting havingstein in watching Caleb

Tiernan. Yeah, I mean, I can see that. Man, 79 and a half, which is pretty short. It's, it's guard level. It's, it's not tackle level. Right. So, which if he ends up being a third rounder and starts at guard, then you've hit a pretty good home run there. And I could see that happening after this year if everything works out. An explosive giant guard with pass protection ability. We know that the Viking system requires good pass protection from the guards. They get a lot of stunts, twists and blitzes, things like that. So I like that pick overall.

The next one is the hardest one to work with Jacoby Thomas because that's where at the top of the fourth round, we're just a lot of guys that you and I had talked about. There were a lot of guys that I had circled and been like, hey, man, if you put Brennan Thompson, that's the one that sticks out the most to me. You put Brennan Thompson in with this team, like that could be pretty darn good.

And there's a few other positions that, I mean, Sam Hecht was, I think also on the board. At that point, there's potentially your future center. And you go with the safety that most people had as like a fifth round draft pick. I mean, we do have to believe that Brian Flores always has a plan. But he's also like not made of magic. I mean, not every single person that he ever likes is going to turn out to be a success

story. So what do you think it was the disconnect between why the Vikings loved him so much and maybe why the draft analysis universe was not as high on Jacoby Thomas? Okay. That's a really good question. My comparison is Tracy Walker, who was, I believe, a second or third rounder by the Lions in 2018 and never really panned out but was kind of just a similar highly instinctive player.

And why I'm saying that first, I had a fifth round grade on him, by the way. So that's, I kind of fell into that majority. I think what the Viking, like what you just said about Brian Flores, I think is probably what, what the reason the Vikings gravitated toward Jacobi Thomas, because you look at the workout and you just watch him on film. He's not super fast. He's not super sudden changing directions, following from the slot, great mirroring skills. the instincts and like how quickly he processes what's happening, I feel like is a defensive

coordinator's dream. And it's the reason why even though we had a pretty productive season at Miami and they were in the national title and they were, and he was making a lot of plays along with a lot of other members of that defense, why he wasn't viewed as like a second or a third rounder consensus wise because he ran four or five, eight and he did not have a big broad jump, big vertical, and it matched the film. So in my scouting report for Jacoby Thomas, very quickly, I have like everything from the IQ side. High level aggression and instincts. Positional versatility across the secondary, quick processor who attacks

downhill, he has a tone setting mentality. But the weaknesses lacks true top end speed and range, limited burst and change of direction, tackling reliability inconsistent. And he can kind of drop his head and look for the big hit instead of just wrapping up. So like I could see, whether it's Rob Rzinski or Brian Flores, like, oh, this guy gets it. He understands he can do 50 different things for us. he's going to be maybe a half step slow,

but we're hoping that we can coach him up and his processing actually allows him to play faster than what he timed and what he measured at the combine in his pro day. This feels very much like chasing your successes, because there's that phrase of gambling of like chasing your failures. But in some ways we see defensive coordinators, scouting departments, general managers, where let's just say, for example,

they hit on a Daniel Hunter once every century. And then they go, you know what? We have to bring up Donnell Hunter every year. We have to bring that up. Because it's the best example ever, right? Of hitting on a total outlier. And then every single year after, it's like, you know, we saw a lot of DeNeil and DJ want him.

No, you didn't. No, you freaking didn't. Like, there's no way that it will not happen again. There was a, there was a tweet this year that was taking the guy from Penn State that, that, uh, Sutton. And he matched up with his RAS or whatever to Hunter and like, nope, just stop doing that forever. We've seen it every year and no one has ever DeNeil Hunter again. So I don't think that Josh Mattelis is exactly Daniel Hunter in terms of being irreplaceable.

But I also think that Josh Mattelis is kind of hard to emulate because his instinct and his IQ and his toughness and all the stuff at the NFL level. I mean, there's just not many guys that are exactly like that who are not physically gifted in any real elite way. Because Mattelis is not that quick compared to his teammates. He's not that, you know, heavy compared to the rest of the league. I think he's like 215 or something like that. It's just instinct, IQ, toughness, all that stuff, heart will grit, whatever. Like, that's made Josh Mattels. And hunting that guy, I think, is a little bit tough.

Now, I don't want to, I don't want to go. off the deep end about a third round pick. But that that one is the one where I think we might end up looking back and going, were you trying too hard to emulate your success story with Mattelis with someone else here, rather than going with one of those players at a different position or, you know, maybe someone that did have a higher ceiling with different traits or whatever it might be. But I don't want to belabor the point on a guy at the back end of the third. Yeah, exactly.

Who also seems like if you check all those boxes, you'll have a lot of success with Brian Flores. So a fullback, Max Bradison in the fifth round. This is one where if you swapped him with Demand Claiborne, I feel like we would look at it a little bit differently. But when they took the fullback, it was like, okay, I guess what everyone says about this draft is true, that the day three is going to be really weak.

So you might as well just take players you like. But I also think we're going to see a lot of Max Breitzen in the Vikings office. offense 100% and I think when you do get to day three it's like not that foolish of an exercise to like flip a fifth rounder with a sixth round or seventh rounder because they are reasonably interchangeable and that a lot of times we've talked about it like the team's boards are like already gone and they're just like hey like who do we like or they're getting close to the end of their board not saying that they haven't watched the players but guys that they feel are like draft a bowl so like fifth six seventh round those are like hey we're either

going to pick this guy or call him the second the draft ends and try to sign him as an undrafted free agent. I did not scout Max Bredison and I hate it was a nightmare when that pick came in. I instantly thought I got to talk about this. I didn't scout him. But in talking with a few of the scouts that I know around the league, they're like there's one draftable fullback. It's Max Bredison. He's a tank. The Michigan, I mean, you think of Michigan. You think of lead fullbacks for our entire lives essentially. Certainly was brought back during the Jim Harbaugh era in the last couple of years there when they've had a lot of success. So if in the fifth round, it's usually hard to find, like,

someone that's going to play a lot. And I'm not going to say that, that obviously, Bradison is going to be on the field 80% of the time. But, like, he has a role. Like, he's got a, I don't want to say a starting role, but like there's not a ton of competition. And I think that he's someone that you're right, that they will use a fair amount of the time.

And it's probably going to be good on special teams too. So that's a pick where, yes, flip him with the running back, who we'll talk about in a second. And I think it's a lot more digestible for the Vikings. And watching. Bretison. He reminded me of a guy the Vikings had years ago, and this is too much of a deep cut, even maybe for you, but David Morgan they had who was a violent. Yeah, okay. All right. There you go. You remember him. Just a violent, strong, aggressive blocker

who played a big role for them in 2017 and then had some injuries and didn't have a long career, but was very good at his job when he was out there. And I feel like Bretison can bring the same thing where it's a ton of special teams, which is, I think increasing in value, by the way, with the kickoff. And then, all right, run situations. And when you look at the Miami run game, they used Alec Ingold in that run game a lot. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were targeting someone to be the fullback here.

And it does feel like an old school pick. But I also think it's probably a good one for what they want to do. You're framing all these picks really well because I totally agree. Like you're telling me about Josh Mattalus. And I've watched him more closely the last five years. Very cerebral player. that was almost assuredly the thought with Jacoby Thomas, whether they're chasing that and it's like an outlier and do you pick that in the third round? Okay, we could talk about that.

And you can criticize that. What you just referenced, David Morgan was a tight end at UTSA, just like Max Bredison was too. So it's like they do have that in space comfortability where they're not like just a big like hulking fullback where the second they get out to the linebackers. They're just kind of like floating and see and don't know what to do. He's good in space. David Morgan was as well. So that's another apt comparison in terms of like, what if the Vikings had where they've gotten decent contributions from?

Oh, Josh Mattelis, Jacoby Thomas, David Morgan, Max Brettison. So that does make a lot of sense because that's a lot of what I heard, him being a not just a classic fullback, but a tight end makes a lot of sense. All right. I don't think it's going to be hard to talk you into Charles Demings, who is a warrior at the NFL Combine and then explained to us that he was actually dealing with an injury. Combine and he thought he could have put up even better numbers. Not a lot of FCS in this draft at all.

And the Vikings got one of the top, if not the top drafted player from the FCS in Charles Demings, who was another one that explained that he could have taken the bag. There were teams that were interested. He decided not to and it pays off for him. But I think that he has a fairly high ceiling based on his athletic traits. and when you see him play one-on-one with people. I think there's going to be a lot to learn,

but the one-on-one element, sometimes in the NFL, you just got to win one of those. And I think he can at the NFL level. 100% my favorite pick that the Vikings made, based on the analysis or the just evaluation, like in and of itself, I had that late second,

early third round grade on him. He reminded me of Jalen Watson, who was a seventh rounder for the chiefs out of Washington State, just a press long, like deceptively athletic player. I think we have this thought of like, oh, when you're 6-1, 6-2 and 200 pounds with 32-inch arms, you just try to suffocate at the line of scrimmage and you can't move. In my scouting report for Charles Demings, I have for the first strength is a rare lower-body explosiveness for his size.

And that showed 42-inch vertical, 11-foot broad jump. Elite recovery speed, which is absolutely vital. We talk about it a lot with offensive tackles. like, hey, you're not going to win every rep, but can you recover and just like save the quarterback before he's hit? And can you just get your hand back on that like pass where you whiffed in press, but you're able to hit the jets and still break up the pass or make the throwing window tighter. Charles Demings has that. And I think in this scheme, the man coverage ability, yes, it might take time coming from Stephen F. Austin, but absolutely had that in college and was

showed on film exactly what you want to see from the small school level, like ridiculous mirroring ability, ball skills, needs to get to be a better tackler. And it's kind of like linebackers all need to get better in coverage. Almost every corner has to tackle more reliably once they get to the NFL level. But man, Brian Flores getting to mold someone that has the traits of Charles Demings. I don't care what school he's coming from. That has to be very exciting for him and for Vikings fans. And we had a chance to talk with Charles Demings for probably a half an hour.

It's like maybe the longest conference call ever. huge personality, very bright guy. I think he's going to be a great fit in the room there. And everything that I've heard about him is just that he has, um, like a ton of energy and a great attitude and all those things that I think will, uh, match up well with a guy that does need to develop. It's very unlikely that he's just going to walk into the NFL and be ready to play. Otherwise, he would have been a first or a second round draft pick with his

athleticism, but he's one that's not hard to see that eventually being, a fit and you have if you're just looking for a similar type player you've got Isaiah Rogers he's going to be a free agent after this year you could start to you know put those together all right um demand Claiborne was a guy that we talked about you caught this yeah this was one of yeah this is i mean i didn't hit the first round or really anywhere close but i did get i feel like gold day and uh claybourne because you look at the vikings backfield and they just don't have explosiveness this guy has it in spades. I mean, not just he's not just at the combine. I mean, it's also when you watch him, it's a ton of explosive runs that he had. And if they're going to run like this outside

zone type of system where it's kind of sea hole and then go, uh, I think that he can actually have success, which I know for a draft pick that what number was he, uh, let's see. He was the 17th pick in the sixth round. You normally wouldn't say, hey, I think this can actually work right. away, but it might be able to with his skill set. Definitely. He's someone that I did have graded as like seventh rounder, undrafted free agent, because I'm a big believer in like, you got to be able to force mistackles as a running back,

and that's not really an area in which he excelled. But the last three seasons, over 20 carries in each of those seasons above with more than 10 yards and double digits of 15 plus carry. So the explosiveness is absolutely there just based on that. And then obviously running 4, 3, 7. that's like high level speed for the running back position. So he's someone that like when you watch Claiborne, you see him move and you're like, oh, he has to be a really high mistackle force rate player.

And then you look at the stats, you're like, oh, he's not because he's smaller and he's explosive. But similar to Ty Chandler, my comparison actually to him or for him was Justice Hill Light. And Justice Hill was similar tester. I think he ran like 4-4 flat coming out of Oklahoma State or 4-39. And early in his career in Baltimore, it's like, oh, he wasn't super elusive, but was explosive. And it felt like, oh, he's going to be a bust.

And then over the last couple of seasons, as Derek Henry's, I mean, certainly been the man, but has dealt with some injuries or they've needed Justice Hill to play as that backup player, they found space for Justice Hill and he's hit some home runs. Like that's the type of player. And he's signed multiple deals in Baltimore. He's like a key cog of like rotational piece in their backfield. I think Claiborne is very, very similar to Justice Hill when he was coming out of Oklahoma State and is not someone that's going to make you miss in a phone booth to use an old reference,

but you block it up, you can get 70-yard runs out of him. He's that fast. And I think that everyone has clear eyes about what a player like this can be more likely than not. I mean, if there's any position that surprises us all over the place, it's running back, where a fifth rounder, sixth rounder, it's never a shock if that guy becomes somewhat of a key player for your offense. But I think that when you're looking forward at maybe Jordan Mason and Claiborne going forward and you have kind of a thunder and lightning type of thing, sorry, my dog is playing with his favorite toy down here. But if you can create that kind of thunder

and lightning type thing, then that's, I mean, not quite the equivalent of having Jeremiah love, but it's what a lot of teams are looking for because running backs don't carry the ball 325 times anymore. So as it was once said in Moneyball, can you make it in the aggregate? And that's basically what the Vikings will try to do. And we'll see how that ends up working out for Demand Clayboy. One last thing that I want to say about this is that I almost think like this,

taking a explosive running back or like the most elusive running back, fifth or sixth round, seventh round even. What I like about that and the segue from what you just mentioned, if the Vikings say even in its first season or in 27, they're not going to ask Demand Claiborne probably ever to have more than like 100 to 150 carries. But if he can have two to five games where he busts off a 30 yarder, a 15 yarder and a 10 yarder, you got your money back essentially for that six round pick. So that's like they're not asking him to go into this big role and they're not expecting any of their running backs to be breaking off 50 plus yarders that often at all.

But if he can just come in and kind of have that pinch hit home run, then it's absolutely worth it. And you get your return on investment. So that's why, again, I had him graded lower overall if you're trying to ask him to be your clear running back two or your belcow. I didn't love his elusiveness. But at 437 and the fact that he did break off a lot of big time splash play runs when it was blocked up well. And that's what the Vikings needed.

That's another pick that needed some nuance to it. And again, we are talking about the 198th pick in the draft. Okay, the dog really going insane now in the background here. So I apologize for that. But maybe you can hear that. I can hear it now. Yeah. So he's a big demand clayborne guy.

But yeah, I mean, I think if you're grading these players as in how likely are they to be RB1 or CB1 or whatever might be. Yeah, I mean, maybe you might look at it like that's not something to invest too high of a draft pick on. But if you're looking at it as this guy can be a very. good role player eventually with his skill set in this offense. And if you're calling him Devon A Chan light, we talked about Devon A Chan a lot and did not get traded. So I guess Miami was telling the truth. But if that's what they were looking for and that's what they're looking to identify,

they found it. Now, the seventh round, Gavin Gerhardt, this is, yeah, this is another one of those, hey, this is what happens in the draft in the seventh round. You take a guy that you like. and my feeling on that was that they really liked him from a mental perspective, a leadership, a toughness, but not somebody that ever is going to stand out too much in terms of his physical traits. Yeah, that was one where when the sixth and seventh round are happening. I'm like thinking about a lot of things. But like when the Vikings come up, I'm like, all right, I'll be able to talk about the

six rounder on the show. And then they pick him and I'm like, honestly, I was like, who is that? Like he was someone that was not really on the draft. radar from my perspective. That doesn't mean that other people weren't scouting him. But that has to be what they were thinking. And I think just to have another center body in the room makes sense and one that they can develop as maybe like a swing interior offensive linemen in time. But again, what's interesting, and I saw a tweet that like sometimes undrafted free agents that are sought after and I don't know if he would have been can sign like

bigger deals than like seventh rounders. So like they ultimately don't want to get drafted so they can just pick whichever team they go to. But like you're referencing, the Vikings may have been like, hey, we like him for whatever reason. Let's make sure we get him by just drafting him here. And that could have been a situation where he was one of the final players that they actually had on their big board with a draftable grade. Right.

Yeah. I think that that does happen a lot. Like this is why you see it. People will be like, well, why did the team draft a long snapper or something? It's like, well, because they wanted to make sure they got him. And if he goes into UDFA land, then that means anybody. can come in swoop and make the best offer and get him. So that may be why you end up drafting a guy that isn't necessarily listed by

everyone as being the most draftable player. I have two more quick questions for you. Question number one is now with all the context and understanding where it all comes from, how would you grade the Vikings draft yourself, not with your model, but like just overall? Probably higher than the C plus that might be. that the draft grade book system gave them because it felt like, and maybe we didn't talk about it a lot because we're not really like recapping

the season once we start the show. We're just talking draft. Like the defense needed kind of an overhaul. And they tried the patchwork, bring in the veterans. They trade Jonathan Grenard. They had Hargrave and Allen last year. They needed young, cheap talent at marquee positions.

The run defense got gashed down the stretch. they needed like whether you like Dominique Orange or Caleb Banks or not, they probably did need multiple defensive tackles. Gold Day is a really good selection. I think Demings is the one that I'm really excited about as an ideal fit for Brian Flores. And that's kind of my overarching thing. I would give it for C plus, I would give it a B minus or a B because I think there is a clear vision where the GM and the scouting department were in lockstep with the coaching staff, where they're like, oh, this is the type of the Andrew Van Ginkle that you need. Here's Jay Colday.

Oh, we love Josh Mattelis's instincts and that he plays as an overachiever as this kind of do everything safety slot defender. Here's Jacobi Thomas. You like length and physicality and press mannability. Here's Charles Demings. Oh, we need an explosive running back that we're not going to pick in like the second round. Here's DeMond Claiborne.

So for those reasons hitting on the needs, the super hyper-specific needs, I think the Vikings actually did a very good job in this draft. And I think now, I don't even know if I said the word Kyler Murray or like the name Kyler Murray. I think they're in a lot better position to be explosive on offense and more explosive than they were and be just serviceable on defense. It was the very shoddy defense down the stretch that kind of was the what caused the Vikings to not make the playoffs last season.

I do think they have added the youth on that side of the ball and the explosiveness on on that side of the ball that they definitely needed. Yeah, I think there's a lot for the future as well, where you can look down the road and say, this guy could slot in there and that guy could slot in there. And these are good potential prospects to fill in spots. But I don't think there was a lot other than Caleb Banks where you could look at and say, this guy could be a total game changer. And that's where it can't, to me, elevate to an A.

Like if they had taken a Mackay Lemon, and I know that's my receiver bias, but I probably would have said like this guy could very clearly elevate their offense to the next level where if Caleb Banks you're going to have to wait for that and then find out and there's risks and it might not happen and like it's just really hard to lock it in and say this is clear cut they did everything we expected them to do they didn't and they put themselves in a position not Rob Brzezinski's fault to have to trade Jonathan Grenard and even though the return is fine I guess and you get your cap space and everything else. You don't have to pay them.

That's still kind of an L when you have to lop off one of your better players over the last couple years because of the spot you put your team in. And you can only get two third round draft picks. So I ended up somewhere with like C plus B minus overall. It feels like a little bit of a cop out to not be extreme. But I think it's what it deserves. The only other question I had, Chris, is who is going to win rookie of the year? I will give you the odds on Fandul.

the favorites for a rookie of the year on both sides of the ball. On the offensive side, Jeremiah Love is the favorite at plus 320. Fernando Mendoza second plus 410. Carnell Tate plus 700 is third. Jordan Tyson plus 750. Judarian Price is next at plus 850 and Mackay Lemon at plus 1,200. Which one of those do you like? How about McKay Lemon?

Let's just say that he's the guy that like elevates Jalen Hertz back to a level where he was a few years ago where they were going to multiple Super Bowls. They trade A.J. Brown and suddenly it's, hey, it's Devante Smith and your gig that, like, Lemon needs to be someone that's going to get over 100 targets. And for how bad and pedestrian the Eagles past game was, especially down the stretch, if Lemon is like, oh, now the offense is better. And Lemon is here. And he's getting targets and he's getting open. I could see him pretty quickly not being such a long shot to win offensive rookie of the year. Just feels like the right situation, low bar and that he can help elevate that offense

to where it was a few years ago. And just going to a good team is always useful. I mean, Jeremiah loves going to touch the football a lot, but we kind of said that about Ashton Gentie last year. Do you have a defensive rookie of the year nomination? No, do you have the. I do, yes. I didn't know if anybody just jumped right to. No, there wasn't anyone that really jumped. out.

Ruben Bain is actually the favorite at plus 500. And then Dave, excuse me, David Bailey also plus 500. Arvel Reese plus 750. Mansour Delane at plus 850. Sunny Stiles plus 900. Caleb Downs also plus 900.

How about Mansour Delane? Just the job that Steve Spagnolo typically does, kind of like in the same vein as Brian Flores, like developing aggressive, blitzing man cover cornerbacks, like the job that he did early. in the career for Trent McDuffie. Now, it's not the exact same player that McDuffie was more a slot player than Delane,

but that's a huge need. They lost a lot of their cornerbacks last season or in free agency that I could see Delane just being the guy that is like instantly cornerback. One on what still should be a pretty aggressive defense in Kansas City. I'm assuming they'll be better than 6 and 11 next year with Patrick Mahomes returning from injury. So like you said, good team. Mansor Delane kind of steps into the spotlight with Trent McDuffie. on the Rams now and I could see him winning defensive rookie of the year. I like that. I don't think

it's crazy to have Ruben Bain. I mean, if you're doing like versus Price, probably not. But Caleb Downs going to a defense that desperately needs playmakers in Dallas. He's going to play, you know, every single snap and has a certainly a chance. And he will get a little bit of attention. I'm thinking in Dallas. Chris Chapasso, draftgradebook.com, an amazing launch this year, an incredible credible resource. People should go check out all of the grades versus your grades through the draft season. I used it a ton when evaluating potential prospects that the Vikings never drafted throughout this year. Outside of Gold Day and Claiborne, some that they did, but it wouldn't be the NFL draft if we could predict it. As I said, like you are opening your Christmas presents

and sometimes it's not what you had on your list. So this was a very interesting one to break down. and an incredibly interesting draft season with you. So, sir, it's been an honor again to have the Christopher PASO draft show. And I cannot thank you enough for all of the shows, all of your help and all of the good times that we had at the, the NFL Combine and chatting as well throughout this draft season. It's been the highlight professionally for me every week being able to just, there's no limit to like the nerdiness that I can dive into for this hour with you every week. The Combine's always super fun, all the stuff, all the nuggets that we try to get.

And I'm going to be that guy. I think next year will be a lot juicier with quarterbacks and with some edge rushers and some big time wide receiver prospects. So for as sad as it is for me to go and for this to be the conclusion of what I think is the fifth year of the Chris Trappaso Draft Show, which seems crazy to me. I've loved every second of it. A lot of Purple Insider audience has reached out to me. And they've all been super cordial and super nice.

So it's been super duper fun. And I'm really excited to maybe jump on. maybe before training camp or when training camp starts or some rookies start to play and then jump back into it next January. Absolutely. Well, the door here at Purple Inside are always open for you, Chris, and we'll definitely have you on before next year for sure. So thank you for your time, sir. And football. Football.