Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Chris Trapasso identifies best-fit players to watch during Combine drills

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso to discuss the Vikings, once again, earning top grades in the NFLPA report card, as well as who are the 'best-fit' players to watch during the Combine drills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome back inside the NFL Combine. Matthew Coller here along with Chris Trapasso from CBS Sports, our resident draft analyst. And Chris, every year at the Combine, you and I have done a podcast breaking down the NFLPA survey where the players anonymously give their grades for the every single year. The Mi is a holiday for them. Th on Christmas, ready to op and see all their great g

Vikings were graded as an players for Kevin O'Connell the ownership and across the board it was all A's and one B plus, no negative grades whatsoever for the third straight year for the Vikings. And the relevance is to me, Chris, it confirms a lot of the things that the players say to us because when you do the interviews in the locker room and you talk to the players and they tell you about the culture and things like that, you're like, okay, well, that's great.

But you know, unless it's really bad, they probably won't say that they hate it unless it's like Mike Zimmer and his culture of fear or something. But you know, it's hard to get the truth all the time. This is the truth telling. This is the anonymous survey. It confirms everything the players have said about the Vikings organization. I also think what a time when you're going into free agency and you are asking every agent and every player to consider the Minnesota Vikings at about

four or five different positions and you can just put it on the table. There it is. A pluses across the board. No surprises after a 14-win season but I think it does say a lot about how this organization is run. Yeah, to have this in writing on a website, the NFLPA just tweeted it out about an hour ago here on Wednesday morning that to have it written where you can point to it and say, it's not just players talk, they text each other,

hey, yeah, like Minnesota's a good spot. To have this be a bargaining chip during free agency or in a trade process, I think is huge for the Vikings. What happened with what, team travel? Was it B plus? That was the only, right? Was it team travel? No, I think it was a,

Was it training? There was only one spot, it was like, that was shocking to me because this, now we've done this episode a couple years and it's usually A's across the board. There was only one, oh it was nutritionist, dietician was the only non-A. I'm wondering, you being the guy that covers the team,

why was that a little bit lower? Because everything else was either an A or an A plus. I think we gotta hold them accountable. Yeah. For not getting an A plus. Impressive overall. Across the board, everything else. Everyone knows how good the facilities are, the ownership,

getting the top grade from the players, the treatment of families, A-plus. Treatment of families is going to be a huge thing when you're considering if you have two different offers. And one of them is from a team that their head coach is not getting good grades, which there were some Bs that were mixed in there. Denver, actually, surprisingly, to me, got a B after making the playoffs. Buffalo got only a B after making the playoffs. Buffalo got only a B and not an A after having a really good season. And Chicago and Jacksonville

were at the very bottom because obviously. And they got like C, which I thought might have been even lower. But there are some teams there that want to play in the sandbox of free agency that when this comes out, I think you you're gonna have to up the price if you're going to ask a player to go to a place that doesn't have as good of a culture. So the Vikings wait for this they hit it out of the park every single year and I also think too that when I see something like this and and look I never thought that Kevin O'Connell would be traded or that the Vikings wouldn't sign him to an extension or that even the Wilfs would fight with Kevin O'Connell about the extension. I thought it was a

foregone conclusion, but it just confirms even more what the Vikings have at their head coaching position. And there's a lot of analysis on this show of every single detail. We're going to pick apart everything, but the big picture on Kevin O'Connell is the players rate him as an A plus. 14 wins last season. I mean, this is now a situation that's locked in long term where everything that they do I think is gonna be pushed in the right direction because of who their head coach is.

And this just further says that the players feel the same way. And multiple years now with KOC of winning close games, having, you know, what, like the best record in the NFL over the, since 2022 or 23 in those one score games, great record at home. We've routinely talked about the personnel situation, how great it is for a quarterback,

maybe like someone, I don't know, like Sam Darnold to step into that last year and have his career year, or J.J. McCarthy next year. So it really is an organization that, from top to bottom, everything that you need to do on the front office side, the training staff side, the coaching side, and team building side, are doing things to be set up for long

term success, which is a very elusive thing in the NFL. And I think we should also just look at this year and when you say 14 wins, it sounds like everything was pretty easy, right? But you go back to training camp and they had a player pass away in a car accident before the season. I think it was really important to the players the way that Kevin O'Connell handled the passing of Kyrie Jackson because he showed a lot of empathy at that point, missed training camp practice, which you would never see a head coach do except for in those circumstances, and went to his funeral, spoke there, just showed a lot of care for the players.

And I think that what players are always looking for is of course do you help me win? Do you help me get my contract? Do you get the most out of me? But also do you care? Are you a real guy? Are you a real down-to-earth person? And it seems like KOC is. Right and I think that that really showed that side of Kevin O'Connell and then I think his communication ability where each player feels like they know exactly where they stand and that's one thing I hear from players When they're not happy is I don't know where I stand I don't know what my job is supposed to be or I don't know where my career is going And I think that even with someone like Nick Mullins or Brett Rippon who he communicates with when they signed Daniel Jones

He had a meeting with Brett Rippon You're like you don't have to have a meeting with Brett Rippon But I think it shows a lot of respect for every player who's in his team. And that is going to matter for who people want to play for. It matters. Justin Jefferson signed a contract extension before we even got to training camp last year. You can't tell me it doesn't have a lot to do with Kevin O'Connell and the fact that he communicated with Jefferson throughout that entire time that it was leading up to him signing that extension So it's a massive massive win for the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell Well, I'll say quickly on this to finish is to me fish like from a I'll call myself an outsider's perspective

the perfect blend of a former NFL player that knows What players don't want what they do do want, how to be real. And then of course to have the offensive acumen to be a quarterback whisperer so to speak. All of these things on Sunday certainly matter, but Kevin O'Connell understands that. And then to have a GM, which this is right up my alley, a GM that is analytics based that understands

maybe I'm not gonna be just the best evaluator based on me watching film and my scouts, but we're gonna bake the numbers into our evaluations. So we're gonna get quality players, whether it's in the draft or in free agency. I know we don't really have a complete picture or complete grade for Quacy's drafts because there haven't been too many of them

with a litany of picks, but in free agency, I think it's a good blend of like players coach and an analytics based GM to kind of come together and be in lockstep with each other to build this team the right way. Now they need to win the playoffs. That's the next step. It'll come. It had to be set.

But this time of year, this thing comes out for a reason at this time of year, which is to inform players as they have a bunch of difficult decisions that need to be made. So, you know, I think that just as it pertains to the Vikings organization in general, it really speaks to how well this hire has gone for them and where they could go in the future if they handle the roster correctly, if J.J. McCarthy works out. And if you're talking about your valuable merchandise when it comes to J.J. McCarthy and your 10th overall draft pick, if you were to draft all coaches in the league, who do you want to be managing him?

I think Kevin O'Connell would be very high on that list. Now I did want to see who did bad. Who did bad? There's a few that are not that list. Now I did want to see who did bad. Who did bad? There's a few that are not that surprising. New York Jets were pretty low with ownership I believe. Oh wow. F. Ownership F for the Jets. Panthers D-, Arizona Cardinals D-.

Are you surprised by the Steelers getting a horrible ownership grade? Yeah, they have been the staple of ownership stability and not making a lot of rash decisions and changes. Maybe it's starting to wear thin that, you know, this ownership is not doing anything in terms of Mike Tomlin not being the coach anymore. So that's very interesting because that is obviously a foundational team in the NFL. Folks, I'm trying a new thing in order to s fast food restaurants all busy schedule. It's called

is a weekly delivery serv crafted meals from a dietic right to your door. They' lunches and dinners take of eating as well. They'r and they could be heated i the microwave in just three minutes. I got my first box and wow. Talk about easy and delicious.

I got sweet and tangy chicken, mozzarella marinara chicken and barbecue chicken. Kind of a trend there, but there's so many more options than that. All of them tasted great for me, were super quick and easy to make. They were my choices out of dozens and dozens that took about five clicks to get set up with Tempo Meals. For a limited time Tempo is offering my listeners 60% off your first box. Just

go to TempoMeals.com slash Purple Insider that is TempoMeals.com slash Purple Insider for 60% off your first box. Rules and restrictions apply. And the only surprise on the coaches list I think was probably Baltimore which did not go as well as I would have expected so that was interesting and the rest is kind of facilities and things like that anyway so that's not the most hot take exciting thing. Especially because that's where the Vikings have been. If this was the first year we're like whoa I think this is the third time that this has come out. I think when the NFLPA tweeted it,

they said it was the third annual. So we've talked about it. We're like, I think the first year, we're like, oh my gosh, look where the Vikings are. You knew it more than I did being around the team. But three straight years, it's not super surprising. They have established themselves with all of the amenities, let's call them, of how you treat your family,

that your training room, the head coach, the ownership, as's call them, of how you treat your family, your training room, the head coach, the ownership, as an elite level organization in the NFL. All right, let's talk about some draft stuff. Let's do it. We're here at the NFL Combine. Yesterday, after the show, we did a lot of the rumor stuff,

and what we're hearing, and you're like, I gotta talk to some guys. Gotta talk to some dudes. So you know what, Chris, we're gonna talk to some dudes. All right, I am most, the name that is popping up, it's not just to me, if there's other people that I've heard about this, is Derek Harmon, the Oregon defensive tackle.

I know we are very early in this process, but when somebody's name comes up, you perk up. Oh, okay, because remember Jordan Addison was somebody that was talked about and we draft simmed a million times to the Vikings leading up to that draft a couple years ago and of course JJ McCarthy like it was at the combine where we had a pretty good sense for some of the guys that that they were going to be looking at so let's talk about what you want to see from these defensive tackles and how they can

separate themselves because I think so far here's how far we've gotten in the process. They like defensive tackles. But what I want you to tell me is stylistically, like how are these guys different? And is there somebody that could pop here that could suddenly gain the attention of a team like the Minnesota Vikings? Yeah. So there's certainly different flavors, different types, even though you can just that could suddenly gain the attention of a team like the Minnesota Vikings? Yeah, so there's certainly different flavors, different types, even though you can just kind of all group them into the defensive tackle umbrella.

Kenneth Grant from Michigan, nose tackle. Deion Walker from Kentucky, nose tackle. And both of those two can get up the field. They're not just gonna eat blockers strictly two down players. Are they going to be guys who are gonna rush the passer 700 times in their first or on their rookie deals every season?

Probably not, but we're hearing about them as potential first or early second round picks because at their hulking size, they can also get up the field. Then there's a group of like classic one techniques, but mostly three techniques. Derek Harmon being one of them. He can probably play anywhere but he's actually in a,

I'm trying to kind of go through all of them in my head. He's probably in a different group. The one technique, three technique types. CJ West from Indiana who is really good against the run already. I think at the very least you're getting someone that is gonna help you on first and second down. Pass rush moves, the production wasn't quite there.

Trying to think who else. Oh, Omar Norman Lott from Tennessee, same type. He's like around 300, 310, not a great run defender but can get up the field. And then, and we'll get to Derek Carmen here, TJ Sanders and Derek Carmen to me are those legitimate, and we always hear this, oh versatility, versatility. They can play, and on film you saw them win at,

head up with the center, one technique, three technique, and even five technique. Derek Harman is bigger, listed at six, five, three, 10. We'll get those official measurements as these players start to work out. Six, five, three, 10 reminds me a lot of Daquan Jones, who I've watched a lot in Buffalo, that as his career progressed, he got a little bigger

and mostly was a nose tackle, but length is there, bowl rush is there, pass rush move, a swim move, swipe move, it's all there with him. Is he a tremendous athlete though? And I don't know if I saw that on film. If he tests really well, then maybe we're talking about him as an option for the Vikings in the first round. TJ Sanders is kind of like Derek Harmon,

but a smaller version. I think at the senior bowl, he was like 6'4", 290, 287. Because of that frame, he can play up and down the line, similar type player, that multiple seasons of pass rushing production at Michigan State, or I'm sorry, that's Derek Carmen at South Carolina for TJ Sanders in the SEC. So those players are more, let's see how good of athletes they are, but their versatility

is really their calling card in this draft. Well, and I think that when it comes to the athleticism, that will be a huge deal because I feel like a lot of the things that they do at the combine are predictive when it comes to the Explosiveness especially art split right the strength especially I mean maybe on a 40-yard dash you could argue that they're rarely running 40 yards at the same time if you can run a 40-yard dash under five seconds, and you are six foot four and you're talking about 295 pounds or 300 whatever pounds, you've got my attention, right? I don't think you should draft somebody off that. And even someone

like Jordan Davis probably got overdrafted because of the combine performance that he had. So you want to be a little careful of that. But what really stuck out there about harm and this is probably why everyone is talking about him is because the Vikings are not going to take a defensive tackle and say you are lining up here every single play. Go be that. Like a Ted Washington, a Gilbert Brown. You're not going to line up a guy over the center and just plow forward. And that's all his job is going to be. You see Harrison Phillips all the time or Jonathan Bullard, whoever they are really lined up across the line And I know technically they'll call someone like Jonathan Bullard a defensive end because it's the old-school 3-4 type thing

But I think that they need somebody like that who can play out on a five technique Which is just lining up over the tackle by the way That they can move out a little bit if they need to or move in a little bit if they need to and that person can make an impact. I do believe that the Vikings desperately want to be able to rush for and do a little more in coverage because they've been limited in coverage by the fact that they have to blitz all the time. Blitz a lot. And so up the field and versatility to me are the biggest boxes that they have to check

here when they're looking at defensive tackles at the combine. What I would say very specifically on that note, usually you will see early in the process, or let's just say right after the combine, when we have the official measurements, we will get prospects that receive that versatile label just based on their measurement. Like at 6'5 and 3'10 with like 33 inch arms,

34 inch arms for Derek Harman around that range. Right away it'll be, oh he's versatile. A lot of times though, just because they get the versatile by body size label, that's not enough. Derek Harman though on film is enough because he won routinely against tackles, against guards, on stunts, against center. So whenever you hear me say or write versatility it doesn't just mean oh he can play there and like be bad here and bad there but be good in one spot. That's not what I mean. It's

being able to thrive in multiple positions. And Derek Harmon, and I think to a certain degree, TJ Sanders from South Carolina fit the bill there. The one other player I think we talked about on Monday or Tuesday, Darius Alexander from Toledo, is one that already did a lot of what you just mentioned. Played absolutely everywhere. He's an older prospect, but I think he's gonna test well.

A lot of zone drops, which was like a staple of what Brian Flores wants to do with his front seven players. He did a lot of that at Toledo. But again, after these workouts, we will get a better sense of, oh, the Vikings are gonna have to pick Derek Harmon in the first, or actually TJ Sanders is more like a second

or a third rounder. And the Vikings will get that information too, and be able to evaluate it so they can kind of stack their board a little differently of, hey if we want Derek Harmon, we gotta pick him in round one. Well that was gonna be my question for you Chris, is when we do the draft sims on BFF,

and their even rankings will adjust after the combine, based on what everybody thinks and so forth, it looks to me like there should be defensive tackle options in the back end of the first round. Now, can you explain that? Because the one thing I keep thinking about, and I hear it all over India is,

well you saw the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Well you saw those Eagles in the Super Bowl, and where did their pressure come from? The defensive tackles. And as silly as it might sound, I think those conversations are happening in front offices as well. Because they had Jalen Carter, they had Milton Williams,

they were able to create a lot of pressure up the middle and there aren't many answers for that, schematically for teams. Does that have the potential to push defensive tackles up the board in this draft. Because the way that, and I was showing you a draft sim that I did the other night, and I traded back, and I also traded Sam Darnold, so I had a lot of picks.

But I traded back, and I drafted a guard, and one of the reasons was I was looking at the defensive tackles that were there after I traded back into the 30s, and they weren't really there anymore. I wonder if they get drafted higher than we expect in a normal year because of what we just saw, and we know it is, what is it?

Copycat League. There you go. There it is, we gotta get in every cliche possible this week. Yeah, I think because of that, and because of the nature of the NFL being a copycat league, yes, defensive tackles will be pushed up the board.

And it aligns. It aligns with the quality of this class. So it's not like really quarterback where teams are just desperate and they go, hey, we're going to just push up this position. These quarterback prospects aren't great. Let's just pick them there. It will be, hey, we just watched the Eagles decimate

the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, and they have just prioritized the trenches on the defensive side for a long time under Howie Roseman. It's that plus, this class is really, really good. So the Vikings picking late in the first round, in most drafts, you're like, oh, we can maybe pick the third or the fourth defensive tackle. That would be great value.

This class, it kind of is, the stars are aligning for that, maybe to not necessarily be the case that they might need to be aggressive, or they're gonna be picking like the sixth or the seventh or the eighth defensive tackle off the board because the copycat league, the nature of it, and how good this class is at that position. Let's continue the hardcore.

Let's talk about some guys that the Vikings might be interested in. By going over to the cornerback position. We discussed a little bit some of the corners the other day, but now as we get closer and closer to them actually hitting the field here in Indianapolis, I want to know which cornerbacks might be on your radar for the Vikings, and it seems to me like the big thing that comes up at the corners are, there's Amos who looks like a fairly, I call it a safer pick, if you will, and then there's some guys that if it works out, it could be amazing, and if it doesn't work out,

it could be terrible. So, like, Will Johnson is an example of this, and going into the draft process, a lot of people thought, well, he should be a top draft pick, but then, you know, I think about some of the corners in in recent past Terry and Arnold was thought of as being really high Joey Porter Jr. Was thought of as a cuda too, and there's been some guys that are Jeffy a cuda yeah Well, but there's been some guys who have been Mocked oh yes, I thought you were saying that like didn't play well early on you're right that have slipped yes

I was thinking more along the lines of not getting drafted way at the top. Because the Coodle was like the third pick in that draft. Right, yeah, follow along Chris. No, but seriously, this draft has, it looks like a lot of projected back end of the first round corners, and the Vikings have no corners outside of Mackay Blackman and Dwight McLothern at this point.

What are we looking for, is the question, from these guys who are kind of in, I think, a specific cluster of could be late first, second round. Yeah, that's a good way to frame it coming off the defensive tackle talk where it seems reasonably likely that a bunch of defensive tackles are gonna go early. The back end of the first seems like the sweet spot right now for cornerback.

And it's because Will Johnson gets injured in his final season at Michigan and the tape the tackling was not very good and there were some signs of him maybe getting beaten over the top with his speed his tape just was not as good in 24 as it was the first two seasons with the Wolverines Benjamin Morrison man coverage mirroring specialist freakyaky athlete, super smooth. He gets injured early at Notre Dame. Savon Revelle from East Carolina, who is that size and length specimen outside.

He gets injured early in his final season. Had these guys played, now there's no way to tell what they would have done, but they were tracking toward all being like top 20 selections. Maybe that's music to the ears of Brian Flores and Quasi Adafo-Mensa, where they can get length and athleticism

to play man coverage and be aggressive at the line of scrimmage at the cornerback spot and not have to trade up for it, or oh man, like all of these quality players are gone. One other name that I want to mention, Azari Thomas from Florida State, senior bowl, I think he was just under 6'2", 192, 93 pounds, over 32 inch arms.

I don't know if the Vikings have that threshold, you talked about it, that we don't have enough of Koisse's drafts to be able to say, hey, here's their prototype, here's who they won't like. But traditionally, the man coverage guys you want the 32-inch arms to be able to disrupt and press coverage and the physical traits for Azari Thomas on film are absolutely there. I think he could

run really well. Now is he great mirroring finding the football? Not necessarily yet but the upside with a quality coach on the defensive side like Brian Flores he could be someone that's, there's not a lot of fanfare for him, and then in two or three seasons he's a lockdown number one corner. So that's a question that I have is that you said lockdown number one corner and this is what everybody's chasing. But when I look at the data of the man coverage and how often teams play man coverage, the Vikings are at the bottom of the league.

Now I think that's partly because of personnel. And when you're blitzing a lot, you're not playing a lot of man because that's just asking for problems. So you're usually playing zone behind blitzes, and that's what Brian Flores likes to do. But I also wonder if the lockdown corner is such a rare beast these days, if that is something you should try to chase with the players' traits traits or if you should just get somebody who is a good zone corner and can read and react it can read route combinations and has more of a high IQ

but I also think too that the Vikings really need somebody who gets up on the line of scrimmage and can take out a top wide receiver. That's what I was getting at. Right they don't have to play even just for a key. Like you don't have to do it every down, but if you're playing man coverage 30, 35% of the time, this has been my DJ Reed argument for the Vikings. Oh yeah, he's that feisty type. Exactly, like DJ Reed's not perfect, but when it comes to, hey, it's third down and 10,

we want you to go play man against Pukka Nakua, he can actually do it. I go back and forth a little bit because I think that those Zones are being played at such high percentages that you do have to consider that and then Just one more layer to the conversation would be if they played a guy in a bunch of zones in college Is that their defense or is that because he had to and they didn't trust them against the top wide receivers out on an island? Yeah, so philosophically this is a lot of fun to talk about because it's not to suggest that the Vikings are playing man coverage 80% of the time. It's like the

entire league is 70 to 80% zone. Like the teams that are at the top of man coverage rates are like 30-35%. What I meant by the Vikings maybe gravitating toward a man coverage specialist is what you just mentioned. In those money downs in the playoffs that they've set the bar higher, where it's not just let's just get there, let's just be able to win a playoff game. And once we get to the playoffs,

every team has at least one dude at wide receiver. And usually the thought is you need to have freaky traits to be able to stick with someone in man coverage. And also I'm thinking about, now obviously Brian Flores has been in Minnesota for a while now. Me being a Buffalo guy, I remember when he was in Miami and he had Jalen Ramsey and Zavian Howard,

two long, freaky athletes that could play man coverage if they needed to and still make plays on the football. They were all pros. That's when that Dolphins defense was really as good as it's been in the last five or six years when Brian Flores was really commanding the entire team but certainly had his finger on the pulse of the defense. So for me, I'm not saying that all of these prospects

that I just mentioned at corner can't play zone and there's certainly plays that they made on the football in zone, but they have that, like you're mentioning, that ability, those traits, the explosiveness, change of direction, to man up when they need to. And there aren't a ton of corners every year that have that ability.

So who's your favorite? Who's your favorite for the Vikings? If you were to pick from just all the guys that could be first rounders outside of Travis Hunter, who would be number one on your list? Savon Revelle from East Carolina. He is someone that had insane ball production. I know it was not small school, but lesser competition.

And a lot of those plays were him peeling off an outside assignment and making a play near the number. So he's made plays against zone. He's not going to be able to work out until the summer. We just had a memo go around Twitter from his doctor that performed surgery on his knee. He tours ACL in September, so it's not like this is someone

that probably won't even be able to start week one. He said, hey, in this memo, by training camp he'll be cleared. He's long, I think he is very fast. The instincts are there, and we talk about this for as much as I wanna get nitty gritty into the film, we say like I do a little box score scouting with corners. Like if you have a bunch of interceptions and pass breakups, you're doing something right.

Like it's, that is a pretty, I think, strong correlation, as strong as you're gonna get in terms of box score scouting, it's not like touchdowns for quarterbacks or for running backs in college. And Ravel at East Carolina when he was on the field, big time playmaker, he just feels like that guy that Brian Flores would really like to say hey look we are going to be butzing here from this side go make a play on the football because that's really what he did on a routine basis at East Carolina.

And based on their appreciation for Byron Murphy Jr. and the fact that they drafted Mackay Black been a highly productive college player. I think that it matters to them a lot too about the ball skills and the production. And really the theme of this entire discussion is just identifying early on in this process the best fits in the draft. Like who are we circling on these lists as, hey, we should keep an eye on this guy, this guy, and this guy for the Vikings. So Ravel is one of them. Hopefully he's better at running than Darren Ravel.

That's like a deep social media joke. Oh yeah, that's old school. I love it. He tried the 40 once and it didn't go very well. So hopefully he can run better than that. But yeah, Ravel, Harmon, these types of names. Let's go over to the offensive side and try to figure that out as well. Is the best fit at guard just big, awesome, good at football? How do we even start to have that discussion?

Because I'm of two minds about the guard position for the Vikings. You could tell me about who might be turning from a tackle to a guard, or that's possible. This is one thing I heard in the league. I really did hear this. Yeah the thing is it's a bit but it's also like stuff I've actually heard is that there's a lot of offensive linemen who have played multiple positions in this draft and they have the Vikings attention because they know they're not getting tackles but if you played tackle and have also played some guard or you have projectability at guard,

then they're going to pay attention. That might be a Gray Zable or something who could potentially move in, and probably will. I don't think he's gonna play NFL tackle. Who's the guy from Texas, first round? Calvin Banks. Calvin Banks. Same thing. Yeah, potential to play inside.

There was some conversation about that that perked my ears up about the Vikings and potentially getting guards. I've always thought that pass protection is the number one thing you should look at all the time, always and forever, and yet it is so clear, clear from this assistant offensive line coach that they hired that they want to be much nastier

and much less soft on the interior than they have been. They wanna push people around, and I wanna see them push people around. They have not done that in three years. It's not just that they've had, and that's the thing, they've not just had bad guards, they've had soft guards in a lot of ways too. Ezra Cleveland was this way, Garrett Bradbury, I wouldn't call him soft, but I would say that he is not big enough or strong enough to move bodies. I think they want to get to the goal line and be like, you know, we don't need our quarterback

to make some great play at the goal line. Why don't we just push everyone into the end zone and score a touchdown? Who's that? Who's that guy? Yeah, it's probably going to be, well, I shouldn't say probably because there are two guards at the top. I'll start there with kind of the opposite of what you mentioned, just strict guards. Tyler Booker, and I'm mentioning him because you had him in your draft sim, he is off the

bus, plug him in at guard, he was a big recruit at Alabama, he's like 6'5", 3'30", he looks like a tackle but they had him at guard, the athleticism kind of lends itself to him playing inside Nasty he is someone that can I don't want to say just single-handedly change the demeanor of your offensive line But he will add power There will not be any softness at his position when he plays and then Donovan Jackson from Ohio State Who actually played some tackle because Josh Simmons who's's probably gonna be a first round pick and tackle, got injured in the Oregon game early on for Ohio State. And because Donovan Jackson, in an emergency role,

had to play left tackle, you got to see how athletic he is. But he's also 6'4", 3'25", plenty powerful, big recruit. Those two, if the Vikings are like, hey, we haven't seen the defensive tackles go off the board as quickly as we thought, we like the depth in round two, cornerback we feel the same, or obviously they could plug some holes in for agency, either of those two are plug and play guards. I will admit I've not watched every single interior offensive lineman, that's like the position I'm probably the least deep into my film watch on, but Kelvin Banks, Armand Membu from Missouri was a right tackle,

has NFL caliber length, but his body, six three and a half, three 25, three 30, he's a guard body. It does feel like that would be what's gonna ultimately happen with him. And the one guy that I'll mention, Gray Zable, when you were saying everything about guards and they haven't been, they've been too soft, I go back to all of our Ed Ingram talks and

it didn't really make sense in terms of his lack of mobility, but he was that big dude that could move people around. And I've ever since then always thought the Vikings, the outside zone, they need athleticism more than anything else at guard. Maybe at this point they're reevaluating and saying, we really could not run the football late in the season. We do need more of a mauler. Gray Zabel could in three or four years

be like a Brian O'Neill type, where he was, looked like a tight end out there, but so athletic, gets bigger, gets stronger, and he's a great player. I wonder though if the Vikings are gonna think, someone like Gray Zabel, who is getting late, first round buzz out of North Dakota State is just not ready yet in the strength department

and they are not wanting a softer, smaller, weaker guard to plug into one of the starting positions in 2025. I also think everybody's gonna look at Philly and they're gonna say those gentlemen are quite large and that's what you're gonna need. We all wanna tush push while it's still legal and the Packers, make those Packers cry about a tush push. If everybody doesn't know, the Packers tried to put in

like a rule change proposal to ban the tush push. How about to, just to what you're saying, that is, at first was an unnamed team but it came out this week that it was the Packers. To have Mackay Bechtin at one spot and Landon Dickerson at the other, the Eagles were about as big as you could be at the guard position.

And I'm not taking anything away from Saquon Barkley, but those maulers inside with Cam Juergens, who is a big and super athletic center, even after the Travis, or the Jason Kelsey era, big reasons why Saquon Barkley was so, so super athletic center. Even after the Travis or the Jason Kelsey era, big reasons why Saquon Barkley was so, so good in 2024. My thing with the guards has been, since Kevin O'Connell got here, like pick a lane. I mean, they put a six foot seven former tackle in there.

Well, you're not running outside zone. You're not doing outside zone with Blake Brandle at left guard. And, you know, they had Dalton Reisner in there who can't really run block at an above average level but is a really good pass protector which does make sense to me because they were a deep drop back offense so it's hard to have everything when it comes to this position. Pick a lane. Do you want to be giant maulers and you want to run gap scheme and you

want to go downhill with your running game or do you want to be a little more Finesse to the outside. I think the giant human beings knowing that they are a deep drop back passing game seven step Let it go that takes a little while to get Justin Jefferson 40 yards down the football field So how are you going to do that? If you're putting together an offense that's lighter, an offensive lineman that's lighter, you can't really. So I look at Booker as somebody who I've really circled, as if he's there, the Vikings might be really interested in him.

And the last position that are, to me, the big four of Vikings could draft these guys in the first round positions is running back. Best fit for running back is can just quick, fast, what do you wanna, but stylistically, I have seen a lot of Scadabo, or is it Scadaboo? Scadaboo, I believe. Which makes it cooler to me.

I like that it's Boo at the end. I've seen a lot of Scadaboo, enough to know for sure that it was Scadaboo, but he's an interesting player as a downhill type of runner and sheds a lot of tackles, stuff like that. Toughness, can catch the football, kind of a natural athlete type of thing, but maybe not quite the quickest. And I don't know, you've studied them a lot more than me. Who's a good fit for, if they're trying to build a much more big, much more physical offensive line to run downhill on teams and work their play actions off that.

Who fits that sort of bill in the backfield? Well, what I wonder, too, and to kind of piggyback off what you said about picking a lane at guard, they need to pick a lane at the running back spot. Do you want your smaller, faster, to hit more explosive plays that we already talked about that they were just not a part of the Vikings offense, non-existent element to the to the game for the Vikings over the last couple years or do

you want, I know Marion Hampton who's like 5'11", 2'25", is not gonna run away from a lot of people but will bounce off a lot of linebackers and can get you, you know, four, five, six yards at a routine basis. Caleb Johnson from Iowa, I actually wrote in his scouting report that he was born to run in a Kyle Shanahan based wide zone scheme. He did it at Iowa a ton.

Just pressing the front side. If there's a cutback, he takes one cut and gets up field. He's also big. I think for teams that miss out on drafting, Omari and Hampton, who I don't really like more than Caleb Johnson, honestly, but feels like he's gonna be picked higher, Caleb Johnson would make a ton of sense.

And then later, there's Devin Neal from Kansas is another big body that has good vision, one cut back that, you know, feels like would be accentuated very well in a zone blocking scheme. Kyle Menangahai from Rutgers is another one, big body, bounces off tacklers, not gonna hit a lot of big plays. And then Damian Martinez is another name

to circle from Miami. One of the youngest players in this draft class, like six foot, 225, 230, does not run like that. There is a little bit of explosiveness to his game and just is very well-schooled in those inside and outside zone running plays and was very successful this past season at Miami. I draft simmed Damian Martinez. He has great numbers and that's how I usually do it because I can't watch the seventh round, fifth round draft picks. So I'm going to do it all by

the numbers and when the combine numbers come out. It helps even more right? We'll get a little more information Johnson is my favorite Caleb Johnson in this draft I did see a lot of him play because he is in the big ten and played the Gophers One of the things I like about but I can't figure out how much this matters to the Vikings is that he catches the ball Extremely well, and there's a natural hands to it where,

one of my friends just talking football, you wouldn't believe it, I also talk football when I'm not talking to this camera. We're talking about how some running backs can catch the ball when you dial up a screen and you throw it to them with the screen, but cannot catch the ball if you surprise them. If you're like, oh, check down, or like he's scrambling and he's got to dump it off and

they're just not as good at making something out of that. Johnson is so natural with catching the football. It actually reminds me a little bit of Aaron Jones in that way. And Aaron Jones was a weapon for this team in the passing game. 51 receptions last year. And everyone can think of several of them where he made running across the field, they lined him up at wide receiver. Now he's special, and that's hard to do. He's one of the rare guys. I remember when Aaron Jones did that early in his career,

he was like, oh, is this going to be a trend? Like, wide receiver, you know, because McCaffrey was coming out too. No, it's not a trend because guys can't do it. If they were good at catching the ball, they'd be receivers. They're running backs for a reason. But I think that Johnson just has a natural ability to catch the ball that I would like to see. And I want to connect this to JJ McCarthy too. If he's the quarterback going forward, I think McCarthy's going to be good at checking the ball down. I mean, I know that this sounds like an insult, but it's truly not. It's truly not. Like being good at knowing when to check the ball down

and making plays when all you did was throw it four yards. If the safeties are chasing Justin Jefferson 40 yards down the football field, there are opportunities left and right for those check downs where you could make a play. So that's why Johnson stands out to me. I don't know what you're, are you dialing up some data there? Yes, I'm trying to, because I remember the first episode that we did, I said I was going to give my comparisons for all these guys. I have the defensive tackles like memorized,

like who I've already comped them to. I'm looking at the running backs now. What I would say to that is about the check down thing. It feels like KOC will let JJ McCarthy know that checking the football down when you're a rookie or you know in this case year two but your first time starting in the NFL that's your friend. We saw Caleb Williams not do that throughout his rookie season. He took an inordinate amount of sacks more so than you know relative to how good his offensive line was. The comp that I have for Caleb Johnson is Jaylen Wright who we haven't seen a ton of in Miami,

but when he did play when Devon Achan got hurt last season, Jalen Wright made a lot of big plays down the field, and it wasn't that he ran 4-3 flat and had a 40-inch vertical, it was just the vision was there, he could find creases outside the numbers on those outside zone plays that Mike McDaniel likes to obviously utilize a lot.

Another Kyle Shanahan coaching tree guy. Omarion Hampton I have as Brian Robinson, but with more juice, who's been a quality player for the Washington Commanders when he's been healthy. So those two guys are kind of the, I don't want to say prototype for Jalen Wright, but expect big things from him in year three, or year two I should say.

And Caleb Johnson is that size and speed specimen who? Can catch the football even when he's just catching it on a surprising check down or in a scramble drill situation See, I don't want to ruin our 90s 2000s comps, but what do you got? It's a it's a recent enough player that's not going way back for Caleb Johnson Chester Taylor. Oh recent enough player that's not going way back for Caleb Johnson Chester Taylor Oh a former Viking I like that one a lot was an all-around football player who could pass block catch the ball the backfield played a lot of third downs early in Adrian Peterson's career because he was just so much more versatile I like him as that kind of player I think that also resonate with

the audience but that kind of this guy can do it all three downs and in KOC's offense in the McVeigh offense, there's not a lot of rotation for running backs historically. We talk about it all the time, but it's like you're looking for somebody who maybe could pair with Aaron Jones for a year, but you want to be a running back for three, four years at very least, and then make a tough decision

on whether to extend them. And I think that's a three down back. That's my only hesitation on Trevion Henderson. It's like as talented as he is, is he really that type of guy? Is he like a three down back type of guy? Yeah, I think Quinchon Judkins, his teammate at Ohio State is more of that type.

If you look at his numbers when he was the clear feature back at Ole Miss and he was like 20 and 21 years old, Judkins looked like, hey, this could be a second round pick at running back was in more of a split backfield situation with Henderson last season winning the national title. The body type is there and he ticks like all the boxes. He's not tremendous in any area,

elusiveness, contact balance, speed, it's all there with Judkins. He was a big recruit as well. So if we're going to Ohio State running backs, I agree with you that especially if you're gonna say there's not a lot of running back rotation, it's not gonna be three running back committee, you know, all split relatively evenly.

Judkins to me is more of the complete running back who could be, you know, an option if the Vikings get more picks second, third round. So this is our last pod here from Indianapolis. I'm gonna head back and then I'll watch Daniel Jeremiah talk about the guys run the 40s because I'll learn a lot more that way than going over to Lucas Oil Stadium. But I want to know right now where you stand and since you'll continue to do a weekly show on Purple Insider we can keep checking up

on this. Right now how strong is this in terms of opportunity for the Vikings? Let's just assume that they will have some opportunities to move back. Okay. Now, how strong is this in terms of opportunity for the Vikings? Let's just assume that they will have some opportunities to move back. Let's even go as far to assume that they might get an extra draft pick from trading maybe a franchise tagged and traded quarterback. They have four picks now, they won't have four picks

when they get to draft night. That I think is an absolute lock. But they're not gonna be high. They're not gonna be top 10, they're not gonna be top 15. They're going to be in the back end of the first through the end of the third round. Is it weak? Is it strong? Because remember, I go back to 2021, where there were a lot of people saying this is just not good past the very top of this draft. And of course, the Vikings had four third rounders, and none of them turned out to be a thing. It might end up being like that where they get a lot of picks in that sort of third type of round range. Is it good? Is it tough?

How are you seeing it? Yeah, combining everything that we've talked about today position-wise together, I think in round one even, they're going to be in a good spot. Now, we're going to hear from other analysts over the next two months. This class is in grade, I only have 12 first round grades. This is, it's a down class. But I think the depth of defensive tackle, all of the potential offensive tackle to guard converts,

along with Tyler Booker and Donovan Jackson, who I mentioned today, being just those classic guards, probably in that mid to late portion of the first round, along with all of the cornerbacks, who after Travis Hunter, it feels like we're gonna see them like we saw them last year, where Quinian Mitchell and Taryn Arnall went a little later in round one. So with that being said, obviously we don't know

how all of the picks are gonna fall, but I think the Vikings are gonna be in a good spot in the first round to say, alright, we have three or four defensive tackles we like here, we have this offensive tackle convert that we like at guard, Tyler Booker's still on the board, and two of our top five cornerbacks are still on the board. So it aligns if you're really looking at it

through strictly a Vikings lens and the strengths of some of these positions and where these guys feel like they're gonna ultimately go position-wise, I think the Vikings will be in a pretty good spot early in this draft. All right, well it's been fun. Another year, this is our what, third time doing this?

Third, yeah, third. Yeah, third time doing this together and then I believe Tuesday probably, we will have a full reaction to everything that happens on the field the big time 40 yard dashes how those old DTs and running backs ended up looking so I have a lot to say and any other buzz that comes from the combine and then leading up to the draft then once it happens I mean it's going to be all draft season all Chris Drupasso Draft show all the time people are begging for the intro. I'm gonna have to dig it up. We've changed systems and done different things, but I got it somewhere. So we'll definitely get that going as we get closer. So thank you so much, Chris, for making the trip and spending all the time with me here in Indianapolis. Beating the bushes for the buzz, which you got about 12 more hours to do that this evening. So thanks for your time.

Thank you, man. Talk to y'all later. You want to give them football? Football.