Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Clay's Corner: Trading Addison, Ranking Hockenson, Coolest WRs

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Matthew Coller picks up answering more Vikings questions before Intern Clay jumps in to discuss his thoughts on trading Jordan Addison, where T.J. Hockenson ranks among TEs, and who the coolest WRs have been in the league.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob says, sorry, Scott said his wife was screaming in agreement from the other room. I wonder what I said to make someone's wife scream from the other room. Sorry, I didn't mean that the way that sounded. I just meant what a take it must have been. Uh, Bob says, uh, first round picks should be day one starters. They should not sit on the bench. Well, it depends on what we're talking about because like last year I had no problem with the way that the Dallas Turner situation

played out. I know because it's a first round pick and because of what they gave up for him. There's just a lot of pressure and a lot of, Hey, you know, this guy's gotta be a star right away because they gave up X, Y and Z and he was a first round pick and everything else. But of all the positions,

the one that has the least production right away across the board, the NFL is edge rusher and Khalil Mack had four sacks in his first year. Like a lot of times they are a spot that is brought along a little slower. And if by year two, I always think you should draft two years out because you can't rely on rookies to just come in and just take over everything. Doesn't work that way, especially not at 24th overall. So I'm not sure I'm an entire agreement. I mean, if you bring in Derek Harmon and for a year or two,

Derek Harmon is a rotational player who plays 400 to 450 snaps and he's getting after the passer and he's learning to be an all-around player and he's developing and then in year three, J von Hargrave leaves and Harmon is the guy and he plays hundred snaps and he gets eight sacks and fifty pressures is a franchise player by year three i'm not complaining about that draft pick i need a draft picks pretty darn good that's that foundational piece that's young that we're talking about so they do have to think two to three years down the road at the same time. If you did go out and get, um, a starter right away, like Malachi Starks, who's a safety from Georgia. Let's say you get Malachi Starks right away. Well, that guy could start and then develop under Harrison Smith and take over a different role as he goes forward.

It's hard to complain too much about that, but there's also going to be rookie bumps for just about anybody or the same if you draft Tyler Booker or Grey Zable, like you can plug and play them. There's going to be bumps along the way and development curves that are required, but they might have to just learn on the job. You can never just ask that guy to be big time superstar right away. Like it happens, but just not that often. It usually takes two to three years, as we've seen from a lot of players.

Not everybody is Justin Jefferson where it takes three games. Dusty says Tannehill doesn't want to be a backup. He said in a podcast, that's why he sat out last year. It depends on if he still wants to play football anymore. I mean, no one's going to have him as a starter. So if he wants to be on a football team and earn some money, he can do it. If he doesn't, that's OK.

There are five Ryan Tannehill ish level backups remaining, and one of them is going to play for the Vikings. We're just going to have to find out which one it is once that draft gets over with. And you know what? Maybe you guys get an emergency podcast out of it. How once that draft gets over with. And you know what? Maybe you guys get an emergency podcast out of it. How about that? How about that? We'll do an emer because we love talking about the backup so much. Uh, we then, uh, we could talk, we could do an emergency podcast when they

signed the backup quarterback. We'll see. Uh, Steve says you don't personally gamble, but you're wearing an underdog fantasy t-shirt. That is correct. Underdog is an official sponsor of the show. And well, now I said what I said was I don't bet on the team. I don't bet on the Vikings. I don't gamble on the Vikings.

I cover them. Now fantasy football to me is under a different category. It's like, okay, on underdog fantasy, I'll draft a fantasy team. I feel like that's a little different than going to the, going to Vegas and laying down a thousand on the Vikings over that. That to me would potentially spin coverage. I don't know if me drafting Trent Sherfield in the 19th round of an underdog fantasy draft is gonna change that coverage too much Everybody plays fantasy at this point and shout out to underdog Chad says is this going to be a low-movement NFL draft not a lot of trades

It's kind of feeling that way isn't it kind of feeling that way because if Everybody has the same opinion that the draft is strong 15 through 50 and as we know and as I've gone through the data is clear there has not been a year in the last five years where 15 through 25 was the same value as 40 through 50 so there's no such thing as it's basically a myth that it's just as strong. Oh, I could get just as strong of a player. Well, the odds are not that high that at 47 you could get just as strong of a player as 24.

The odds are not the odds are totally against you when it comes to that. And that's why I've been advocating a little more stick and pick recently or don't trade down too far and maybe just pick up a little bit later. But if you want to do the trading down, it's probably at 97 is the area to trade down and stack later picks because those are more about fit with a team and teams just have guys that they're scouts like and that they pick. Uh, but to your point, if everybody thinks that that 15 through 50 is not that big of a gap, then why am I trading up? If I'm a team that has the 37th pick, why would I be calling the Vikings at 24 being like,

Hey, get me up to 24. I need this guy. There's a lot of positions that go multiple players deep, but you never know. It kind of depends on runs, right? Like if there's a run of wide receivers in a certain spot and you're a team that is sitting at 30 that needs a receiver. I don't know who I don't know who's at 30 whatever I could figure it out if I thought about it but if you're at 30 and you need a receiver and you're trading up to 24 for a receiver maybe you do it because you think we only have three wide receivers with first round grades and we need to come away with this that's what you have to hope for if you're the Vikings and you want to trade down, but there has been what no trades in the With first round picks right so far everyone has their first round pick which has not happened before I saw some tweet from

Schefter about that So I think you're right I think you're right that there probably won't be that much movement I think you're right. That there probably won't be that much movement. Skywalking McCarthy bullish take at the time. 2022 draft wasn't that bad. Booth was a consensus first rounder scene was approximately a 32nd overall pick. Bigger note, the scouting department was cleared, uh, going in 2023. Well, on draft night, 2022, some of you folks weren't so happy with me for criticizing the draft.

And the reason I didn't like it was twofold in 22 on the night that it happened. So this is not going back in time. Was number one, they moved out of a position where you get superstars. And I just don't like that concept. I think superstars. And I just don't like that concept. I think superstars when you championships not replaceable players, you could get in free agency or average players that you can get in free agency. It's superstars. You win with Jalen Carter. You win with Saquon Barkley.

You win with AJ Brown. These are the guys that drive your success to a championship. You need to draft that caliber player. In order to win and your likelihood at 12 versus 32 is massively different. So I didn't like it from that perspective. I also would have picked Jameson Williams, which for two years, we would have fought about the guy before he came good in year three. So, you know, these things are all journeys, I guess.

These opinions where I agree with you is booth Which I thought until we talked to him and he said he was never healthy I thought it was a good pick and then we talked to him. Oh, that might be a problem and it was The Lewis scene thing. I didn't like the the positional value. That's what I didn't like about the positional value now, I think their safety spot is a little different now because at the time they still had Harrison Smith and Anybody could play next to Harrison Smith. But in the future after this year they will not have Harrison Smith. And that's why if you draft Melchized Starks, they also didn't have at the time they didn't have Brian Flores who I think the safety positions a little more valuable under Brian Flores than it was under Ed Donatelle. Because he asks his safeties to do a lot of different things,

line up in a lot of different spots. So if Amelaki Starks can be dynamic and play in the nickel and play deep or play at the box, that's more important than say, at Donatelle who said safeties drop back as far as you can. In fact, go out of the stadium, stand in the parking lot and allow the other team to complete all the passes they want. But still, it was a different theory at the time. So that's why I didn't like it that night.

But I will say, to your point, the draft is random as heck, man. If you look at number 12 through 32 in that draft, that's 20 spots, there's like 15 busts. It was not a good draft in that area, which I'm sure factored into why they moved down. Now they didn't get Kyle Hamilton or Trent McDuffie. It's hard to find too many other good players in that draft. It was some offensive linemen who went bust.

Jameson Williams just became OK last year. So it was some of the worst luck, though, that you're ever going to see. To have all those guys, I mean, that you're ever going to see. To have all those guys, I mean, Lewis Seen was a good prospect. I mean, he had the national championship MVP of four, three, seven, 40. It's not like they drafted some guy that no one had ever heard of or they reached out a consensus. And that's this is where I agree with your point. Is that it's not like they... the... yeah, the...

Dustin brings up like the... Ingram pic. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a hat guy, but if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss, then I've got something that can help you. It's called HIMS. If you've lost your hair, that doesn't mean you can't find it again. Try HIMS Hair Loss Solutions, your hair, that doesn't mean you can't find it again. Try HIMS Hair Loss Solutions and you'll be joining hundreds of thousands of subscribers who have found their hair again.

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for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Him dot com slash purple insider. and Restrictions apply. See the website for full details and important safety information. And the Ingram pick I thought was really tough because that was so far against the consensus that they were, uh, taking their lives in their hands when you reach out that much, but it is bad luck to have Lewis Seen turn out as bad as he did. Now, the funny thing about that is that because Lewis Seen was so bad, they put in position a guy who just made 60 million in the free agency market and can bind them. And because scene was so bad, they kept Josh Mattel is and he turned into one of their most valuable players. So sometimes the draft gods close a door and open up a window apparently. Right. Um, but it does speak to how, you know, development can work at that position. And that would be your argument.

I'm writing about this tomorrow at purple insider dot football. You want to sign up. It's great time. Uh, but the, uh, I'm writing about the safety position and the arguments back and forth between, is it worth it for positional value? Is it a position that you could just find or would Malachi Starks or Nick and Amore be worth the first round draft pick? Mama says Dallas Turner breakout year imminent. I believe so. And part of it, what I'm basing my belief on is that they haven't replaced Patrick Jones if they went out and Replaced Patrick Jones

Then I would have gotten a little concern if they had gone out and got a situational pass rusher and spent ten million Dollars on them. I would have gone What's going on here? But the fact that they didn't do that and and that he played consistently at the end of the season at 2838, you know, 25 snaps made plays at the end of the season. I don't expect that Dallas Turner is just going to flick the light on and all of a sudden he's got 1415 sacks. But you know, there are examples all over the place of guys who were drafted in the first round that didn't right away set the world on fire and needed some time and I think Dallas Turner is one of them. It takes a long

time to figure out how to beat NFL offensive tackles for a lot of players who are young and he was only 21 last year, he's one of the youngest players in the league. So I'm certainly willing to give him a lot more time. A Blade runner says the 2022 draft, we had a new head coach, new GM and Donatelle drafted mostly defensive listening to Ed was their biggest mistake. And that we don't know what happened inside the draft room and all that. But if you are. Looking at the way they operate now and how much value they put into Brian Flores, his opinions opinions if they put the same amount

Under a Donatelle's opinions, and that's how they ended up with seen But look if you're the general manager you own that what you own also though is The other players that you've drafted to have become good and the way that you've solved it as I have said probably many times The draft is random. There is all sorts of proof of this, Harvard has done studies, I'm serious. I wrote in my book at some point, like there have been studies that have been done on the draft and the editor was like, is there real studies? And so I sent the editor, like, yes, there's real studies on the draft and how random it

is and every time anyone has ever looked at it is there's no team or general manager who consistently nails every single draft. Now they missed 2022 in a biblical fashion and like, oh my gosh, it was just a tidal wave of busts. But it's how you make up for it and the way that they made up for it. Look at the positions they drafted and here's how they fixed them. Maybe this is an article at some point. The safety position, as I mentioned, was fixed by two development projects who turned out to be really, really good players. They just fixed the right guard spot by spending money that they have because of their rookie quarterback

contract. Who else? The, let's see, it would have been Andrew Booth. Now they fixed that by Byron Murphy becoming a better player than they thought but they're still kind of trying to fix that with Andrew Booth But you're always gonna have misses. How do you deal with those misses if those misses crater you then it's a big problem Mama says where would JJ McCarthy be drafted if he came out in this year's draft? It would be number one or two depending on preference of the team. I don't have, I'm going to be honest, I don't have any feeling for how good Cam Ward is. I watched Ward a couple times, did love him. Heard from the draft analyst world like, ah, you know, I don't know if he's a guy that

you typically would draft number one. But then after he did his pro day, I heard from some people in the league that his arm is really live. I mean, that the velocity and the way throws the football. It's emblematic of a number one overall draft pick, but I watched a ton of JJ McCarthy and interviewed people about McCarthy and did every bit of research I ever could last year on him. So I know way more about what he was as a prospect than Cam Ward. Cam Ward is much older and is much more productive than JJ McCarthy was. It's a little bit apples to oranges because McCarthy is so young and inexperienced that it was a bet on his character and his upside.

And we saw a lot of that last summer. And that's the other thing. It's hard too, is I was pretty skeptical on McCarthy, but then I said on draft night, as soon as they pick them, throw all that out, it's what he looks like at OTAs mini camp training camp. That's what I care about. I don't care what I thought about him at Michigan, right? And that's how I'll always do it is the more information, the more my opinion

evolves on someone like JJ McCarthy. And even when quasi-adapelmenza came on this show, he talked about the challenge of trying to sort through the small sample size with McCarthy, but with someone like Cam Ward, you've got an enormous sample size. And there has long been a thing in the league about how many starts,

and guys that have more experience playing have a better chance of success. So maybe Cam Ward would have been number one and McCarthy number two. I don't know. Again, I'm not, I'm the farthest thing from a draft analyst. playing have a better chance of success. So maybe cam ward would have been number one in McCarthy. Number two. I don't know. I again, I'm not I'm the farthest thing from a draft analyst. That's why I bring draft analysts on the show.

And that's why I read really good ones like Chris Trapasso and Dane Bruegler and guys like that who do the job in a genuine way. I put the work in. Matt says KOC Saying they'll pick the best player available at a position where he has a chance to play seem like the biggest takeaway from the owners meetings Seem to be give really insight into what they value in the first I mean, I think the biggest thing from the owners meetings was Mark Wolf saying that quasi

Not only they want to sign quasi to a contract, but they want to keep the power structure the same I think that was the biggest one. But well, Kevin O'Connell saying that was also kind of obvious in a way because I'm starting to put together my draft guide for the week of the draft. I usually put out a big PDF of all the players. I've been looking at Vikings targets, the data on them and stuff like that. Sign up purple insider dot football. Uh, and I, I'm not including tight ends. I'm not including offensive tackles unless they could play guard.

I'm not including linebackers really. I just don't see any path for linebackers to play for this team except for the late rounds. I think he was talking about that and he was giving me a hard time about me trying to convince him and quasi to draft a wide receiver because you know, that's my thing, but maybe that was some of his point. You could apply to something like wide receiver was if the guy doesn't have a path to get on the field anytime soon, you can't just take him because he's the best guy on the board.

If it's an offensive tackle, you can't take him because he's the best guy on the board. If it's an offensive tackle, you can't take him because he's not going to play. If it's a linebacker, you can't take him because he's not going to play. So it's not true best player available. It has to be at a list of positions. And if you're doing it kind of off the dome, listing the positions, the Vikings need, you would start with safety. Corner guard and defensive tackle. I think those, those four are like the big four of positions that they need.

Safety and guard are the most pressing right now. Corner and defensive tackle are a little more down the road. So with corner, yes, they have two starters. They like Isaiah Rogers. That's great. But if you have a chance to draft your number one corner on the board, other than Travis Hunter, let's say will Johnson falls and they like him or John A Barron, I mean, you're looking at potential first round star for the

future to go along with Byron Murphy. I mean, Isaiah Rogers is a rotational player for his career. And I don't doubt that Flores can find these guys, but that's somebody who's already 27 and who has never played more than 527 snaps. So if you have a chance to take somebody difference-making, like corner is a spot. And I look at DT is the same way.

Like, yes, they could play next year with their DTs and with their corners, sure. But those are premium positions that if they hit the free agent market, get wildly overpaid. But you want young versions of those all the time. I agree with Mike Zimmer that it's never bad to draft a corner. They just unfortunately missed on a few that they picked. Dusty says I'm surprised.

Haven't discussed Donovan Jackson more. Yeah, I like Donovan Jackson a lot. I just haven't seen him all that high projected, but maybe the draft, maybe. I mean, the draft analysts are wrong constantly. So maybe he could be somebody who is liked more than the draft analysis world. He could be a trade down option potentially.

I like him a lot though. I mean, if you can step in and play tackle at a high level when you're really a guard, that says a lot. Great movement skill. I mean, I've thrown out Zabel, I've thrown out Tyler Booker, but I should include Donovan Jackson in that list. There's a couple other guards that could be there. There's even a chance. I don't know what chance it is, but if Kelvin Banks ends up dropping the tackle from Texas, he's got short little arms.

So maybe he can be a guard, potentially. Spencer says, what do you think about Jack Jones? My understanding is Jack Jones has some off field problems. And last year, he did not do very well with the Raiders, but he showed a lot of exciting potential when he was with the Patriots. It might depend on whether they think they want to bring him into the locker room. He was very good early in his career with New England, and I guess they did put in for him the last time he was available. So, I mean this team does have a tendency to roll the dice on some guys like that, and if they want to do that,

then okay, like they've won on some of those bets in the past. And if you could get them for very cheap, fill out your corner room. If they signed him, I don't know. Like how many of these dice rolls do you want in that room? I guess you want to take as many as you can. He is a very highly talented player. Did not play well last year though.

Jason says, did you hear about that Buffalo beat reporter? Talk about the bills trading for Addison. as you can. He is a very highly talented player. Did not play well last year though. Jason says, did you hear about that Buffalo beat reporter talk about the bills trading for Addison? I did not. I did not see that. I've got no indication and we can always be surprised that I've got no indication that the bill or that the Vikings want to trade Jordan Addison. If they do, then I'll be surprised. I wasn't that surprised when they traded digs because it was going really badly. I don't think it's going really badly with Addison. Of course, the DUI is an issue, but I don't know why you would give up a young player. In fact, intern Clay is sitting in the bullpen waiting to talk about Jordan Addison because he

just wrote a huge film study piece on Addison.. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment. I don't see any reason why you would trade Jordan Addison at this point. Kalu is seen as a ring is very funny, Bob. That's true. It's true. Did he actually get into a game? I don't think he did. Skywalking McCarthy, Linderbaum at 23 would have been a hit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could have stuck in and picked him 23 would have been a hit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Could have stuck and picked him at 12. That's right. I mean, look, if you redraft anything, if you redraft anything, you're going to crush it, of course, but I mean, there really were out of out of 20 picks between where the Vikings traded down. There really were maybe four players who worked out. There were not that many. Linderbaum was one. Duff McDuffie was one,

but even Jordan Davis, everyone wanted Jordan Davis. He didn't even play much for the Eagles. He got passed by their other guys. So I'm not sure he would have been the difference maker that everybody else thought that he was going to be. Okay, a couple more questions that will bring in intern Clay. He's been very patiently waiting to excitedly talk about his new film piece.

Dusty says, I think the other part of the draft is just because a guy does or doesn't work out for a team doesn't mean he would or wouldn't have for yours Zimmer would have had my homes out of the league. Okay. No, he wouldn't have. No, he would not have. Zimmer would not have messed up Patrick Holmes. I promise you that I agreed with most of your statement, but Mike

Zimmer knew quarterback play and the funny thing you could say that you could say that but here's a funny stat for you though. Kirk cousins had a higher quarterback rating with Mike Zimmer than he did with Kevin O'Connell all Kevin O'Connell did with Mike or with Kirk cousins is gave him a lot more Confidence in himself and he performed better in the bigger moments. I thought I thought that's the more leadership power to Kirk Cousins Rather than demeaning him when he every could But Mike Zimmer Mike Zimmer knew football guys

I he I've sir I've heard this about Lamar Jackson. Zimmer would have messed up. No, he wouldn't have. Lamar Jackson, the two-time MVP. No, he wouldn't have. He hired Gary Kubiak and Kevin Stefanski to run his offenses. He would not have messed that up. They would have designed an offense that was different.

They designed an offense for Kirk that became very efficient in 2019 at his best year. It's just that he did not give him an opportunity to be a confident leader. And I think that was because he resented the heck out of the guy because he took all the money from the defense. That's what it kind of really came down to. All right. Let me get one or two more in and then we'll go to Clay.

Josh says, did you see that Jalen Milro accepted an invitation to be in the green room? Do you think he's going in the first? I don't think that invitations to green rooms indicate anything. I don't know why, if you're him, that you would do that and less people have told you that you're a first round draft pick. Otherwise, you're just going to be the guy that they get the camera on all the time. This Malik Willis was invited to the draft. I'm not really sure why they would invite Jalen Milrow aviation.

MKF would you take trade Addison for a first and a second? Hmm. How high is the first? I don't think so. It's teams trying to win. Why are we trading players? I don't get it. Why, why, to win. Why are we trading players? I don't get it. Why? Why?

Why are we trading away players for draft picks when you're in position to compete for the division and the guy has two more years on his rookie contract? If the Vikings went three and 14 last year, then I would maybe do it. He's also how old is he? 20 something 23, possibly. I'm not trading away 23 year old thousand yard wide receivers who are great compliments

to Justin Jefferson for a draft pick. It doesn't make sense. Lou says other GM's want to build during the draft and they think they are better than stock market gambling free agents. Well, I think it all depends on where you're at as a franchise. If you're a franchise that is in the middle or worse, then you want to build through the draft. If you're a team that is ready to go and ready to win, then add those final pieces.

That's what the Vikings did. They're ready to win. They won 14 games last year. They're ready to win. Dunn says hypothetical Gentie or Hampton slips to the Vikings. Well, I would do it for Gentie. I wouldn't do it for Hampton Gentie is a prospect that is unlike many others. I can ever remember running back Probably say Kwan is the last guy who's that good? So I would do it for him

Hampton there's a lot of debate on whether Hampton is actually a first round guy. They've kind of got. Paired together, but I don't know if they should actually be paired together with their talent, I'm not sure Hampton's going to go in the first, so I wouldn't do it for him. He might be available in the Vikings pick, but Gentie, that's a different animal for sure. Sean says if the 2022 draft was a hit, we'd still have Ed and B-Flo wouldn't be here.

Yeah, how about that? There is. And that might not be true, Sean, because he might have just been so bad with scheme. It wouldn't have mattered. But there's a lot of these little ripple effects to the draft not working out. And one of them, the biggest one is that Josh Mattelis and Cam Bynum became really good players. You know, that's, that was one of the ripple effects. So it's how you make up for it. Garrett says, how come teams don't just punt on picks four through seven in effort to garner more top threes because teams don't want to give up top threes.

I mean, everybody knows that there's a clear cutoff from day two to day three where you're getting starters in the first three rounds and you're getting projects and long shots in the last three rounds or kickers. I don't think many teams want to trade back from their third round back into the fourth. Go too far because the farther you get away from the area where the starters are picked, you know, the worse you get. I get your theory, though, like trade your fourth, fifth and sixth for a third. But I might.

Yeah, I mean, I get what you're saying. But I think if you're a team that's in the third, you're like, not I'm going to do that. Caleb says, would it be smarter to draft offense instead of someone that fits Flora's defense? He might be gone after this year or a defender who can fit in multiple systems. I don't think anybody that you're drafting in the first round is just a scheme fit guy. I think your if it's Malikai Starks, for example, and I think he's a transcendent or Gray's Abel or Tyler Booker. Like if you're getting really good talent in the first round,

you should be getting them to where it's not just, hey, he's a he's a florist guy. He might be gone after this year, but I also think he's going to be here for a while. We'll see. Okay. I've gotten to the bottom of the comments, which means it is time to bring in intern clay and you can continue to ask questions and comments clay former division one football player at the university of Pennsylvania, where he is currently in his prison cell looking dorm room, you would think for an Ivy league that it would have like cool bricks and that it would be designed. You'd have different degrees in the background

and it would just be very, very cool. I guess, you know what? That's how they keep you studying on whatever it is that you take at the University of Pennsylvania. So, Clay, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me back. I'm I'm ready to talk some ball. OK. Well, why don't you begin by addressing

the questions about Jordan Addison? I don't know why, I think it's boredom, why people are talking about trading Jordan Addison, but for an article that is coming out tomorrow, you watched a bunch of Jordan Addison film as a former wide receiver and you brought your insight. It's gonna be a terrific piece. I've already read it. So tell me your thoughts on Jordan Addison and his fit with the Vikings

and why you would not trade him. Yeah, I think Jordan Addison is a special player, but being in this specific offense makes him even more valuable. As I was watching the film, like Justin Jefferson gets guarded, like Steph Curry gets guarded. It's unbelievable. Teams throw the kitchen sink at him. So that leaves Jordan Addison a lot of 1v1s with the second, third best corner on the

team and he's great at winning those matchups. And it's easy to say, oh, he's left on the island with the two or three corner, but that doesn't guarantee a win. And Addison, he's, he's shown that he could win these matchups a week in a week out. And I think that adds tremendous value to, to this Vikings offense. I think what we saw from Addison last year is some growth in the area of fighting through contact, where in his first year, I felt like he got pushed around quite a

bit and he still had a productive season, but there would be times where if it was him versus a defender going for the football that you saw him just get out muscled. I thought he did a better job there. His understanding of the offense grew as the season went along. I think early in the season there were some hits or misses with that because he was dealing with the injury and coming back and maybe wasn't fully locked in the same way and targets were a little hit or miss there.

But as the season went along, I felt like his chemistry with Sam Darnold and how he interacted with the way defenses were playing. Cause I think what people don't understand is how differently a wider say, I think when you said you were going to look at the film, I was like, yeah, be prepared to see some weird coverages because they just do not play coverage the same way against any other team. So you have to be able to fit into that really, really well

if you're the other guy with Justin Jefferson. Yeah, you got to be an intelligent player. And that's exactly what I saw on film. At first, I just thought he was fast, giggy kind of guy who was a great compliment piece. But after seeing all the film, you could tell he's a really smart player and he knows how to find his spots.

Yeah, I think what maybe people conflate sometimes with Addison is some of the off field nonsense with being an intelligent football player. I remember interviewing his coach, his wide receivers coach at Pitt. And he said like, this guy doesn't really do anything except for watch film. Like that's what he wants to do. He told me a story about Addison coming to visit him and just saying like, Oh, let's just sit down and watch the film.

Like that's what he wants to do all the time. So I think he's kind of a savant in that way. And I would want to go forward with him. Now there's always going to be that risk off the field. It's another off season and every day that goes by, you're wondering is Jordan Addison got this figured out. But if that is okay, the on the field stuff is extremely valuable.

And I also think that the number two and number three wide receivers, and I will never stop thinking this because when PFF studied it, they found even in the playoffs that the number two and three wide receivers were more valuable than number ones because teams put all their effort into stopping number ones. So you have to have counters and Jordan Addison is that. So here's the thing, you were busy today and if your mom's watching, she'll be absolutely thrilled when I say this,

that you were busy today working on a paper. So I said, hey, I'll write the Clay's Corners questions and I'll ask you the Clay's Corners questions. So here's what I got, Clay. And you can tell me how well I did, because this is your bit. So let's start out with this. And Clay's Corner, for those who are maybe just watching for the first time, he usually comes up with four or five questions for me.

And we go back and forth that are a little off of our main topic since we've already been talking about that for an hour and a half. So here's the first question. Mike Clay, a VSPN friend of the show ranks TJ Hockinson as the league's seventh best tight end. Do you agree with that ranking? Do you think you should be higher or lower? And I also want to know who you think will be the best tight end in

football next year. Seven initially seems high just cause he was hurt and he didn't get in the end zone last year but after I looked at the numbers and who he's comparing to I think it's fair and actually I would probably put him at six ahead of David and Joku going next year but I think he's like a low A top of B tier type of Titan in this league and I think once he gets back and he has more time to recover from this injury I think he'll fit back into the offense and be a good piece. But I do think some guys are close to kind of being in that conversation.

John New Smith had a great final eight games so if he continues to be a big piece of that offense I could see him rising the ranks. And then Mark Andrews was another guy but his role in the offense is diminishing as likely is continuing to grow. So I can kind of see a Hockinson beating him out and then maybe Tucker Kraft, but I'm not too convinced about that one. Yeah. I agree with you that, um, he is not the best Titan in the NFL.

And when you sign the contract, it's like, oh, it's the most, the highest paid or whatever, then you're always going to raise that bar. But if we go back two years where he was at when Kirby Joseph went at his knee and tore the ACL, he was one of the best Titans in the NFL. He's one of the most targeted and some of the most receptions. This is a fantasy writer, Mike Clay. So he's doing it from a fantasy perspective of how much, you know, target share he's going to get.

So I could see where from that way you would say, well, they've got Addison, they've got Jefferson. You're going to have to really fight for targets. I do think McCarthy is going to lean on TJ Ockett and more and they can start from day one of the offseason working together. Whereas Sam Darnold and him never really truly got each other. And I remember him talking about how Kirk Cousins was very detailed with where he wanted everybody in their routes and things like that. I think McCarthy is going to be a little more like that where Darnold wanted to kind of gunsling a bit more. I think it worked for Hawkinson to be in that one place.

So he'll probably be a little better than seventh, but I could see that where some tight ends like Trey McBride are you're going to lean on that guy over and over and over and over again him and Marvin Harrison. I don't think that's a bad ranking and where the Vikings have him in the offense is the right place. The only question for me is just how do you work around the issue with? It's not the best blocker, but if Oliver's on the field, it was too much of

an indicator they were going to run. I think they ran twice or three times as much than they passed with Oliver on the field. They do have to work that out a little bit more. I wouldn't mind seeing Hockinson on the field a little less. And Oliver just playing the regular tight end spot. So it's less of an indicator and then Hockinson mixing in, uh, as opposed to just all the time. But yeah, I think seventh is fine. Okay. Next question for it. Oh, do you have follow up? Go ahead.

I was just going to, you asked me about who I think will be the best. Oh, that's right. Yeah. The best tight end. Sorry. I was going to add on to since Hawkinson, you mentioned his run blocking. Incapable, I'm not incapable, but you know what I'm trying to say. Not a strength. Yeah, I'm not calling him soft. I'm just saying it's not a strength. And that's why I think Kittle is going to be the best tight end again. It's just he's so dynamic in the past game.

And when he's that consistent of a run blocker as well, it's just, it's hard to see somebody else take that crown, especially with Travis Kelsey Dick, like showing clear signs of decline. I think Bowers will be up there again this year. I think he got to upgrade at head coach and quarterback. So I expect him to take another jump, but it's just hard to see another tight end, give more value than than George Kittle. Yeah, I think from a full football perspective, it's not even close. I am really curious, though, because I think Kittle is the best tight end in the NFL all around. I'm really curious if Kyle Pitts and I know this is every

year with Kyle Pitts. Is this the year Kyle Pitts? And the answer has mostly been no. But even T.J. Hockinson through his first couple of years, it was kind of touch and go. And then all of a sudden it clicked with him and he was very good. And I could see the same thing with Pitts with Michael Pennex because one of Michael Pennex's cheat codes

is that he gets rid of the football and he doesn't take many sacks. Well, that's a tight end's dream. Knowing where your check downs are could be a factor there. A Dinesh says a wide receiver two is around 22 million average annual value. That's what the Devante Adams got to be wide receiver two in Los Angeles. Better find your answers through the draft. It's also a reason not to trade Jordan Addison because it is very valuable at $22 million a year.

That's right. And I agree with finding your answers in the draft. Speaking of wide receivers. Oh, we got our first police siren that took. It's been a while. It's been a while though. They've kept me to myself for the past. You look like you're in a prison cell and we hear police sirens all the time.

I we you know, like we do this virtually. You could just be an inmate. I'm not really 100 percent sure. But you know what? You never know the opportunity ball talking as long as you can talk. Ball doesn't matter. You can be an inmate. So here's my next Clay's corner question for you, Clay. Julio Jones announced his retirement.

He is definitely among the best receivers of all time. I don't think anyone debates that. But how about one of the coolest? I think that Julio Jones is one of the coolest wide receivers ever. He had the the face mask with the blacked out thing. Deep catches jumping over people. I mean, if they won the Super Bowl against the Patriots, that catch he made, that would be something you build a statue of out in front of the arena

and stuff like that. I think he's one of the coolest ever. Who are your top three? And I'd love answers in the chat as well. Who are your top three? Coolest wide receivers of all time that I could go on about this for a while, but number three, I'll go probably underrated. I'll go to Sean Jackson.

Growing up, I just always loved watching super fast guys, and that's exactly what he was. And he had the freakiness to shake guys out of their shoes. So it was just really fun to watch. And it's just when you pair him up with Mike Vick and Mashal McCoy, other guys out of their shoes. So it was just really fun to watch. And it's just, when you pair him up with Mike Vic and Michonne McCoy, other guys who have that sauce, it was just a really fun, uh, cool offense to watch. And also like, I feel like if, if you're going to be on this list, you need to have like a signature dope moment.

And his was definitely the return against the giants. Um, somehow he made Muffin a punt look cool. And so so, yeah, he's got to go at three for me. He also had a look to him as well. There was something about like a playing style, the way even wide receivers, you know, they like how to dress up and that kind of thing. He was so insanely fast. And if your thing is you're the best at tracking deep balls running by people Blazing speed. I think that's a great pick

I'm going to start out with a real deep cut here Randy Moss I'm not even gonna do a countdown Randy Moss coolest receiver of all time hands down. I don't think there's any debate I mean you can go back to whatever year you want to go back to. You can look at every recent receiver. Randy Moss is the single coolest wide receiver of all time. This stadium is here because of Randy Moss, this fan base. I mean, the number of people who say I really got into the Vikings when Randy Moss joined the joined the Vikings. And I know that some of the stuff he did along the way was not the coolest.

Running over a parking attendant, I would not advise, but just in terms of how he looked, how he played the game and the coolest thing of all time. And Gus Farrott, who was a former Vikings quarterback, he told me this story once. He said that when Randy Moss would get man coverage, he would throw up his arm to indicate, like just throw it up to me. And Gus was like, I just threw it. Like that was obviously, you know, I'm not questioning Randy Moss. I just threw it.

And when he would get going full speed and throw up the arm, a man is running full speed, throwing his arm up in the air and still flying by somebody. And then, you know, Dante Culpepper throwing it all the way to the roof, coming down one handed catches, the Afros out game, the mooning, like just there's, there's so many

iconic plays. I had to just pick Randy Moss hands down. Number one, coolest wide receiver in the history of the game. Yeah. I left him off the list just because it was too, too free. It was too easy to, to mention him. But when you have a guy like him talking about, I don't stretch, I don't need to stretch. And then he goes out, goes in his stance with no knee bend, and goes 99 miles an hour on the first step. It's yeah, he's definitely the coolest receiver. But number two that I had on my list, he's up

there. Nobody's gonna touch Randy. But Chad Ocho Cinko, another guy who questionable offable off-the-field decisions and stuff but on the field just his look at his trash talk He had the gold grill like who else is gonna change their name to their jersey number like He does he had it and the fact that he was to me a top three route runner in history When you compare those things, it's it's super cool. So with him, this is where there might be an argument for. Like when you're when you're in high school, say, so I was nowhere near the cool kids.

I mean, you know, I know way too much about 1990s football teams to have ever been in the cool kids, but you kind of see where it's like the guys who are generally cool, like genuinely, they just are. And then there's people who are trying a little too hard, a little too hard to be cool. I think Chad Ocho Cinco goes under the category of a guy who was trying a little too hard to be cool.

Randy is the natural cool. Terrell Owens and Ocho Cinco. They're trying a little too hard. Like, look at me. I'm cool. It was Randy is the natural cool Terrell Owens and Ocho Cinco. They've tried a little too hard. Like, look at me. I'm cool. Just like that. You play for the Bengals. I mean, you do agree with that. You do have to have extra vibe to play for the Bengals and get yourself

any attention. Now, I agree with you on the route running, the actual skill, the talent, the production, all that stuff. I enjoyed some of the act, but I just thought it was a little contrived. I thought there was a little bit of him trying too hard to be like, oh, look, see how awesome and cool I am. I'm going to go a very, very different direction for cool because you could you could go in a way of like Michael Irvin playmaker if you wanted to. And he was, you know, he definitely had that, that element to him, but I'm

going to go with cool as in a different definition. Larry Fitzgerald, Larry Fitzgerald is cool in the way that he knows exactly who he is. He doesn't need to put on a hall of Fame jacket because why does he need to campaign for it? Blocking deep ball underneath deep ball earliest career. Obviously not later, but underneath never drop passes. Mr.

Consistent every single week you show up. Larry Fitzgerald is just there time and time and time again. He didn't have celebration dances. He didn't have, you know, signature stuff that he was putting out there. Wasn't in commercials or anything. Just Mr. Cool every single week, always consistent. And that type of coolness deserves credit in our conversation.

So Larry Fitzgerald is my second pick in the cool wide receiver draft. Lance Alworth, that's throwing receiver draft. Lance Alworth, that's throwing it back. Lance Alworth was cool though. Yeah, I love Larry Fitzgerald. He was my, he was the receiver that I looked up to the most like growing up. And I think my dad even put me in wrestling as a kid because he used to wrestle younger. So he thought it would make me tough. And it was just so much inspiration I took from him and he's just such a dog. But yeah, Cool is definitely him.

But the complete opposite of Cool of that is who I have at number one, and that's Odo Beckham Jr. Oh yeah, okay, yeah. I know he had like a very short window of being good, but he had every little kid in America wanting to dye their hair and get the haircut. And everyone's going yo, oh, tell me, oh, tell me. Like, he just had so much influence and not even like, when it comes to equipment, like he was like the first person to bring like popular culture and these like other like fashion brands onto the field and do custom cleats gloves. He's the reason that receivers stack their socks, like so much influence. He's I view him as like an Allen Iverson type, not as good as Allen Iverson, but just the influence he had on the culture of the league. I

think he's got to be up there. the influence he had on the culture of the league. I think he's got to be up there. I think that's a great pick for somebody who made everybody watch. I mean, when anybody makes a one-handed catch, it's instantly, is that as good as Odell's catch? To have the catch that is so great. And even in your brain, you're like,

was it really that great? You go back and watch it. Okay, it was. Yeah, it really was. Probably the most high difficulty reception that has ever been made. The style, the production early on, the personality was not. I didn't think he was like an outrageous personality, but

I think just playing with style was something that he did differently from the guys of the past. And to me, it was a little more natural than someone that from that, like Ocho Cinco, who seemed like he was trying to kind of make up for insecurity. Or I think Odell just thought he was him and then just, you know, was doing it. So, uh, that's a good pick. And that's someone that probably every young wide receiver who was in high school watching, I want to be like Odell Beckham. And my third pick, I have gone back and forth on about 15 different guys that I

like, cause I have, there's some other nominees that I could go like in the same way, like in the same vein as I did with Larry Fitzgerald, the coolest wide receivers, Andre Johnson is definitely one that I was thinking the coolness type of factor. But I'm going to go. I'm going to go with somebody who was the least cool in this factor. But the highest, like I want to be like that guy when I play sports because he's crazy, which is Steve Smith.

I think Steve Smith was a psychopath when he was out there. But he did the he rode the boat one time when he scored a touchdown on the Vikings did this. Was that after the sex, but it might have been after the sex boat, you know about the sex boat, right? OK, so you're going to have to go after the show. I'm not going to tell you right now. Your mom's watching. But look up the Wikipedia Minnesota Minnesota Vikings, love boat is what it's a Wikipedia is under and it's not safe for work. So make sure your school's not going to kick you out. If you read that, you're researching for your internship. More, the, the long story short is the Vikings, they had a party on a boat and there were some underage people working there.

The police did an investigation. That's the very, um, skimming the top of that. And it happened quite some time ago, but Steve Smith, aggressiveness, violent player, first one to jump into a fight, punt returning, like dude could take over games like nobody else and at his size, but also strength could run through people, could jump over people. They were losing in a playoff one time, playoff game. And they were like, all right, Steve Smith, like our best wide receiver, but we got to just try them on a part return. Bam touchdown. Like he was so special as a wide receiver. And he always carried this edge

to him. I thought about picking Heinz Ward for the same reason. Like he always carried this edge to him. I thought about picking Heinz Ward for the same reason. Always carry this edge to him. That was so, so great to watch. So Steve Smith, Larry Fitzgerald, Randy Moss are my three coolest for different reasons. Yeah, I love Steve Smith. Also, he was close to making my list and just ice up, son. That's all I got to say. Yes, exactly. Now, there's lots of different ways that you can interpret that.

So please any more nominations is fine. There's hundreds of of answers. Let's go to the next question. I got two more for you. As long as your paper's done, let's go with Chedur Sanders. All right. So he did his pro day. Seemed like everybody liked his pro day.

Again, I've been on the outside of the widers or the the quarterback conversation just on the outside of it. I see flashes of reports and different things, but it seemed like Cheddar Sanders had a pretty good pro day. And then after his pro day, when he was being interviewed, he said that any team would be a fool not to draft him. He said that any team would be a fool not to draft him. What team would be foolish not to draft? Shoulder Sanders.

And let me just throw out there that it's got to stop talking like this. He just has to. Yeah. Megatron is a good, good selection. Steve. We could. I just wish that he had a team that mattered.

I have like no memories of Megatron playing because he was so rarely on TV. But should our Sanders saying that anyone who doesn't draft him is a fool. It really sounds like he's kind of desperate to get someone to draft him. But is there a team that would be foolish not to? In the first round, obviously, it's hard because I look at a team like maybe the Saints or the Jets, but I'm not going to call them foolish if they don't pick him in the top 10. I'm not going to call anyone foolish if they don't pick him in the top 10 because I think he's more of the late round, maybe second round kind of guy.

But I think if he does fall to 21, it might be considered foolish for the Steelers to pass on him just because they've been the Kings of Mid ever since Roethlisberger retired. And they've been dealing with guys like Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett. So I think this might be their chance to get the QB of their future and turn things around and maybe get off or get over that hump, that 10 win hump, I guess. I was thinking Steelers and Saints were the two teams that I thought, how dare you not draft a quarterback, even if there there are questions about Chedure and there should be, he is a very accurate passer, throws a really nice ball.

But even what I read about his pro day was that he played it a little safe. I mean, he showed, okay, I could throw the ball 60 yards. I'm going to tell you a secret. Pretty much anybody could throw a deep ball alone in the gym. I mean, it's just not a spectacular thing. Maybe, you know, someone like Bo Nicks showed that he had more arm strength than people thought last year at his pro day. But being able to drop back and fling it up in the air 50 yards.

Well, I guess you should if you were a prospect, but. His accuracy is really excellent. My concern would be leadership and it would be also, he just takes so many sacks and I know his offensive line was horrendous. It was so bad, but at the same time he runs back where he ran himself right out of a game against Nebraska. And it was at that point where I wondered, can you, can you really do it? And also a lot of his deep balls that were successful are just kind of prayers

that Travis Hunter comes down with. I will say I would draft Travis Hunter very high. No one should pass up on Travis Hunter, but it's a factor that the guy who's going to go number two overall was Chider Sanders top wide receiver that he was trying to throw to all the time and the guy made incredible catches left and right. So I don't know that I would pick him at the very top. If you're the here's the thing about the Giants, you're getting fired. You guys are getting fired.

Just draft Travis Hunter or draft, whoever, and hope that they could contribute. Abdul Carter, that they could contribute enough right away to help you. There was a list somebody put out. Maybe it was Mike Sando. I forget who that went through every top three draft pick quarterback and how quickly the coaches were fired after they drafted them, like you're getting fired if you're the giants and you draft Shider Sanders. So I don't know what you're going to wait for because you're not

going to be there to develop them. That's why somebody like the saints that just hired a new coach, Hey, they have a really exciting young coach. And Kellan Moore, maybe he can work with the Sanders. You know, a son of Beavers brings up Jackson Dart. I would say this for either one, like draft a quarterback who has to do it. I think the Saints and Steelers are the teams that have to absolutely have to. The other teams are so far away.

I mean, the Cleveland Browns. Where are you at, man? You might as well just play Kenny Pickett. You're not close, right? Just play Kenny Pickett and get Travis Hunter and see what you could do. Yeah, play the play the archmantic game next year. But yeah, right. Exactly. The Giants need to pick somebody for their resume

because they're going to be job hunting next season. Certainly, I've heard this guy. But yeah, they're trying to get to eight wins to keep their jobs with Russell Wilson. Like, that's all they're trying to do. Yeah, it's I don't know. It's hard for these quarterbacks out here going at the top of the draft. And when you're already just so dysfunctional and nothing's around you, like should doors can even have an even bigger job to handle.

So I like the Saints for him, especially if he could develop under Derek Carr for a year or two, he doesn't have to rush in and get blown up. So I don't know, there's some options for him, but that the ego is concerning. I will say, it's concerning, but he is a Sanders. Like it's kind of in his blood to be that braggadocious. Yeah. Yeah. In your face kind of guy. But, but say, Deon at least was also an extremely hard worker and made sure to prove his point and showed up when it was time to show up.

So maybe he'll do the same thing and surprise us, but it's not a good look right now. Deon Sanders may have been the greatest, the single greatest athlete to ever play in the NFL. I mean, it's just not the same. Dion Sanders may have been the greatest, the single greatest athlete to ever play in the NFL. I mean, it's just not the same. It's not the same like Chider. Sanders has to be so sharp.

He has to be such a great leader. He has to hit on every single thing because he couldn't run away from you. He is slow. He is not fast. And you call me slow. You actually I mean, at your at your absolute best, might have run the same 40 or faster than Jeter Sanders. Being running faster than Jeter Sanders.

Come on. I think you're running faster. I should have. But I can't say he couldn't run away from me because yes, he could. You could definitely run away from me. But the point is, though, that there's a lot of people in the national football league or faster than you. And that's not something he's going to be able to do. He's not going to be able to run away and escape.

If he could live from the pocket and he's could play on time with accuracy and lead a franchise, he could maybe be like a Derek Carr type quarterback and you can make the playoffs with that guy and you could potentially win with that guy. But everything's got to click to be that to win with that, as we've seen from Derek Carr, where it's like if his team's not great, he's bad. And if his team is great, he can make the playoffs. But other than that, like, that's kind of where you're at.

Dion Sanders is just a totally different like if you're doing like a top ten players of all time, he's in that conversation. He's just so different. It's somebody that could go play Major League Baseball and get hits in the playoffs of Major League Baseball and go play an NFL game like this is a somebody that's never been seen in the world before and kind of since. It was like Shohei Otani kind of where it's just I don't know. This is someone who's an alien.

That's not who Shadr is. You can't have the same attitude as Dion had Anyway, last question speaking of quarterbacks with attitude Joe Milton reportedly was traded because he believed That he could compete with Drake may for QB one quick story there was a guy by the name of I Believe it was bow Levi Mitchell think was his name. Let me check bow Levi is that a bow Levi? by the name of, I believe it was Bow Levi Mitchell. I think it was his name.

Let me check. Bow Levi, is that a, Bow Levi, okay. His name was Bow Levi Mitchell. He was a CFL quarterback. He was very good in the CFL, and that's a hard league. So he deserves credit. He's very good in the CFL. And so he had a great year in the CFL,

and the Vikings called him and asked him if he wanted to come and compete, sign with the Vikings and compete for the backup quarterback job. And that sounds great for him, right? Like, wow, CFL quarterback. So he meets with the Vikings and he told this story on a podcast and he told the Vikings, I want to compete with Kirk Cousins for the starting job. And they were like, no, uh, we just signed him to a 30 million dollar a year contract,

and he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. So that's not going to be the case, but you could be his backup. But if he got hurt, that would mean you would play. And he was like, no, if I can't compete with Kirk, I'm not signing. And he went back to the CFL. I'm like. You get what if you win that job and you're Kirk's backup and you do all right, you could be a backup for years. And instead he went back to the CFL.

So this sounds like Joe Milton to me. Where was it? Was it more so because he just wants to like he wants to play and he doesn't want to be a backup or like, no, it was truly just the ego. I think that irrational confidence is a thing that a lot of NFL players have, and you have to have to compete at the highest levels and irrational amount of confidence. Otherwise, you'd probably just get scared and quit,

which we see a lot of players do by the end of training camp. That's too high on the level. That's turning it up to irrational Levin, just like Joe Milton, bro. Drake May was awesome. You played in a fake game where you were. I saw people. Well, he's really good in that game. What Buffalo didn't even play their starters.

What are you talking about? What is that was a preseason game anyway. So they traded him to a team that had the high. It was clearly, clearly they hated this guy and traded him to the team where he had no chance. And the highest paid quarterback locked in, obviously good sense of humor from the Patriots to trade him there. Here's what I want to know from you. Who was the quarterback who you had the most irrational belief in and the guy could work out or not. It doesn't have to have failed or let you down with your irrational belief.

I want to know what quarterback that you irrationally believed in the most. Yeah. Um, like at the start, I won't call it a rational, but I gave him too many chances and that's Justin Fields. Cause yeah, yeah. But I gave him too many chances and that's Justin Fields. Yeah. Yeah. We're coming off the time. It was 2021 when he got drafted.

So Trubisky is on his way out. Defense looks pretty good. And I think Bears fandom was like, we just need a quarterback. We're a quarterback away from being competitive. And then they traded up for Justin Fields. And I was really excited because I've kept up with him since high school. I don't know if you ever watched the Netflix show QB one. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So yeah, I saw him on there. And

he was massive. I thought he's gonna be the next Cam Newman. So I was a huge fan of his and then he went off to Ohio State, continue being a fan and the bears after I was like, this is it. This is awesome. And it wasn't it was horrible because he He went off to Ohio State, continued being a fan, and the Bears draft, I was like, this is it, this is awesome. And it wasn't, it was horrible, cause he held the ball forever, and he was slowing his progressions,

and I defended him through all that. And then they made the DJ Moore trade, and I was like, this is, you'll see now, you'll really see now. And he still just held the ball forever, and didn't get it out in the timely matter. It, it fell apart and it was really sad to see. And even now I'm looking at him on the jets, like maybe, like maybe, so I don't know, maybe, maybe I'm right.

Maybe, maybe, but I don't know. It seems pretty irrational to me. Some good answers. John David booty. No one said Gino Touretta yet. He was a guy who had a good preseason game and Vikings fans loved Ryan Leaf. Still believe in Teddy Michael Vick. That one went well for you. Mostly Scott Mitchell. Clint Longley. I do not.

That's that's quite a deep cut there from Bob. I'll give you two of them that my irrational belief worked out brilliantly and two of them where it did not. So there's a guy in Kansas City who I really had a thing for in the draft by the name of Patrick Mahomes. So when and there is a tweet out there where I tweeted of Patrick Mahomes. So when, and there is a tweet out there where I tweeted that Patrick Mahomes would be the best quarterback in the draft on the day of the draft,

when the Bills made that trade, I tweeted, I was like, he's going to be the best. I was watching. So I didn't really, I watched the quarterback class a little cause I thought maybe there was a chance the Vikings would take one, but I didn't really think so. But I was looking into it and I remember where I was and what I did when I watched the Patrick

Mahomes film. Like I called the wife into the other room. Like you have to see this. Watch this man play college football because I watch more college now than I did then. I barely watched it then. So I just called up a game of his. I'm like, people are talking about this Mahomes guy and I lost my mind. Oh my gosh. This is incredible. This quarterback is incredible. So I, I, you know, believed in Patrick Mahomes. The other one was Lamar Jackson, who I was imploring the Vikings to draft in 2018. I was saying, drafted me. It'll be a project behind Kirk. You build them up. You let Kirk go after two years when they had an option to let him go. And then Lamar could be your guy because they were talking about him

as if he couldn't play in his first year. Turned out he could. Jeff George is a great answer. Kyle Slaughter. I don't want to get into that was a practice squad quarterback that Vikings fans. I don't know got bored and started fighting with people about Tyler. Think Pen is a good one.

Trey Lance is a good one. So Lamar though, I had this thing of like you should always draft a quarterback that you can develop to be the next guy and he's a great athlete so forth. So that makes me sound like a genius. Yeah, those are the others good ones to have in your bag. Yeah, it is. It is the other side of that coin.

Now people heard me talk about Josh Rosen. Love Josh Rosen. Huge Josh Rosen guy. I would have taken me talk about Josh Rosen, loved Josh Rosen, huge Josh Rosen guy. I would have taken Lamar one Josh Rosen too. And Josh Allen would have been my like QB five. I just thought, okay, big guy who throws it over the mountains. Who cares? Um, Slaughter was not the guy who kicked the door. That was Taylor Heinecke. Uh, the Vikings had a backup quarterback who missed time cause he kicked a door and

there was a whole funny backstory and whatever. Anyway, so that's one. If you want, there is a game. Where Josh Rosen comes back from down 30 points till I forget who a text saying or something, he was unbelievable in this game, like leadership, accuracy, guts. He's taking hits left and right. I was like, this is my guy. Terrible, absolutely terrible. Didn't want to play football once he got to the NFL. Could I imagine Lamar and Zimmer? Yes,

it would have been great. You guys think that Zimmer just, he didn't hate all quarterbacks. It's kind of hated one. He got along great with Sam Bradford and with Teddy Bridgewater It really was just one Tavaris Jackson's a good answer. Here's my other one Jake locker. I was a huge Jake locker guy. Yep. Yep, Jake locker He had toughness. He had leadership He could run the football he run over people and everything the problem was he ran over too many people and got hurt all the time.

And the issue with oh, and you know, another one is Anthony Richardson. I really liked Anthony Richardson. The problem is we have quarterbacks that get hurt. They don't develop and then they just get stuck in neutral. And that's what's happened to Richardson. It's what happened to Jake Locker. He just couldn't get better. And then he ended up out of the league.

So you win some. Can you imagine Zimmer with good players? Yeah, that's the thing. Like Mike Zimmer, Mike Zimmer knew quarterback play. I remember Mike Zimmer saying to us before the Vikings played the Bengals, he was like, this this borough is going to be unbelievable. You guys don't even understand.

We're like, I don't know. OK, because he had barely played the year before. And then there you go. Jake Plummer, it's good. And Jake Plummer was pretty good. So it's always a fun conversation when we get toward draft time to talk about the ones we thought were good picks and the ones we didn't. Maybe that'll be an article at some point.

So anyway, anything else, Clay? You got to finish up. Got to wrap up your article. I'm excited about it. Your article on Jordan Addison, you did a great job with it. That's going to come out tomorrow. Purple Insider dot football is the newsletter. That's where that will be. So great stuff, man. Thank you. I appreciate it.

All right. So keep an eye out for that. Thank you for your time. And I appreciate everybody coming in on a Sunday. Great crowd here tonight. This is what I love about you guys. Thank you for your time and I appreciate everybody coming in on a Sunday. Great crowd here tonight. This is what I love about you guys. It's no real big news item. Got a couple of weeks to the draft, which is kind of just kind of vibe and talk of football.

And here is a lot of you to show up and do it. So I'm going to have Jeremiah Searles on the show this week. I am trying to get a really cool guest. I'm going to be on the road a little bit this week, so I'm doing some fans only questions. So if you guys want to hit me up on Twitter with a DM or an email, Matthew Coller at Gmail, feel free to do it because I'm going to be doing some fans only stuff when I'm on the road and

trying to go live on Thursday. We'll see. But I won't be live tomorrow. That's why you set the notifications anyway. And of course, emergency stuff. I'll always be here. So thanks for your time and we'll all talk again very soon. Football.