Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Comparing a mild Vikings offseason vs. an aggresive one with PFF's Brad Spielberger

Episode Date: December 28, 2020

The Minnesota Vikings are in position to play it straight this offseason and make a few nice signings and otherwise stay the course. They could also blow it up and do some wild things like trading the coach and quarterback or trading Danielle Hunter that would really change the entire shape of the franchise. Which makes more sense? Matthew Coller gets together with PFF's cap guru Brad Spielberger to talk about which direction is smarter for the team to take. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone. Before we get into today's podcast, I want to tell you about Blue Wire Hustle, a brand new program where you can host your very own podcast here at Blue Wire. Hustle was created to give everyone the opportunity to take your podcast to the next level, or if you want to host a podcast and just don't know where to start, Hustle is the perfect place for you. As part of the program, you'll receive a personal cover. As part of the program, you'll receive personal cover art, Q&As with Blue Wire's top podcasters,

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Positioned by, no, of course I'm kidding. Are you serious? Joining me on the show today to talk off-season plans. I'm going to lay out the mild off-season plan, the aggressive plan for the Minnesota Vikings, and then we're going to break them down with Pro Football Focus's cap genius, Brad Spielberger. What's up, Brad? Well, appreciate the intro. You're far too kind. I got heavy nervous for a second there. I didn't have my Lions-Vikings notes pulled out. You should have seen your face. I should tweet out your face.

I honestly might have to screen grab it when I said I'm going to break down Vikings lines. You should. I was like, I mean, I could probably just, you know, pull something off the top of my head about how it's going to be 100 total points score, but I don't have much with me. Oh, yeah. You know, what do you think of their linebackers versus the Vikings' third tight end?

Come on, Brad. Let's go. Yeah. It's the Conklin breakout game. Everyone knows it's the Conklin breakout game coming up. Yeah, that was a couple games ago. He had, what, you know, 50 yards on two catches or something that were big explosive plays.

So there you go. It shows that you're dialed in. Well, that was against your Bears, the team that you watch closely, maybe the playoff Bears who, by the way, I don't want to get off on too much of a tangent, but come on, do it. Stick with Trubisky. Come on. Come on.

Trust me. You don't have to convince me. You don't have to. And I think it's going to happen. I really do. I do, too. It's just classic. It's like the Blake Bortles thing.

These teams want so desperately to be right about their quarterbacks. The funniest, though, would be if the Jets stuck with Sam Darnold and drafted a tackle. That would be the funniest, where you have Justin Fields and Zach Wilson sitting right there, and you could get a draft pick for Darnold. They should be thrilled because if he's played well, then they could get a better draft pick for him.

But anyway, we've got a lot to get to here so i won't harass you anymore about mitch trubisky's brilliant play um though he threw one of the worst interceptions i've ever seen yesterday every time every game hail mary into the end zone for no reason like nine jaguars in the corner of the game. That's great. It's great. So anyway, off to a roaring start here. So the Vikings, Brad, let's get a broad comment from you first before I lay these plans out. Six and nine, it's bad. 52 points last week, 33 to your flying Mitch Trubisky's the week before. So added up 85 points against in two weeks. This is a team that made moves that would insinuate

that they would be a winning team this year, that they would have a good defense, and I know that they're going to pin a lot of it on injuries, but I don't think that they can really do that entirely to say, hey, one guy or two guys really forced us to be the 27th best defense. I think what that says is you pinned everything on nothing going wrong. And when you looked at the roster, even in the offseason, we said, if something goes wrong, if someone gets hurt, you're in a lot of trouble.

And I think that they could have dealt with reality and not traded for Ngakwe and traded away players at the deadline and gone on with their lives, and this would not look as bad. But I think that's what makes it look worse, is making moves that were kind of win now, we totally believe in ourselves, when it just really wasn't appropriate, that they should have seen the writing on the wall. 100%. And I think the funny thing is the framing changes the entire narrative of the season.

And, of course, I think they funny thing is the framing changes the entire narrative of the season and of course you know I think they have to you know appeal to the ownership and convince the Will family and all that that hey you just extended Zimmer you just extended Spielman so we're not going to say the word rebuild or any of that but that's how they should have couched it and it was obvious you replace your entire defense you don't have an offseason. You know, a ton of moving parts. You lose to Fanske. Like, you know, we could go down the list forever. To then say, yeah, we have real aspirations to make a deep run in the playoffs, it's only setting yourself up for failure or for disappointment is a better way to put it. So, yes, the injuries are kind of crazy.

They really have stacked up. But I think what you're saying is, all right, you're 6-9 with all these injuries. Cool, you would have been 9-7 or 10-6 without the injuries and lost first round. So whoop-dee-doo. But the thing with the Vikings, the one thing going forward is that I think their flexibility going forward is still important. I have them as their free agent class has the lowest, the least value among all teams in the NFL. It's basically Anthony Harris and a bunch of guys they might not even want to bring back.

So they do have an ability to, again, kind of turn over the roster quickly. How that goes is the question mark, but thankfully they're not like a Falcons or a Saints or Eagles where they have no way out of this. Right. And they also have ways of creating more cap space by restructuring some contracts. I think Anthony Barr would be up for that. The Daniil Hunter situation, though, is really interesting. And so this is – I'll get to that, though, when we get to the uber-aggressive moves because he's involved.

So let me start laying out the plan that I think is kind of likely here. And it starts with cutting Riley Reif to create a bunch of cap space, moving Ezra Cleveland to left tackle. And I think at some point this organization has to realize that guards are good. When they can block people that don't sack your quarterback, it's a thing that helps. When you have the worst left guard in the NFL and a guy playing out of position at right guard and a guy who doesn't pass block well at center and Kirk Cousins as your quarterback. It's a recipe for disaster. So I think this is the time that they finally invest and they sign someone like Joe Thune

or Brandon Treff, cut Anthony Harris, and then we'll move on to some other things. So let's start there, though. Or not cut Anthony Harris. I'm sorry. Let Anthony Harris walk. Cut Riley Reif. Sign some guards. I think this is a good starting point for the Vikings before they get into really even the whole free agency thing is to move on from Riley Reif and Anthony Harris and create that extra cap space.

100%. I think one thing that's interesting that we're learning across the league and honestly in the NFC, I can think of three teams off the top of my head, that tackles are hugely important. Obviously, they're always going to be the most important position on the offensive line, but three teams I'm thinking of, Saints, Vikings, and Rams, you pretty solid tackles on both sides. You know, obviously the Saints and Rams have great tackles. But all three have really weak interior offensive line. And the pressure from the interior, which is also kind of this new phenomenon with the Aaron Donalds of the world, like it's killing these offenses. And it doesn't matter they have tackles because they're just getting killed on the interior. So it's something that if you invest in that position, I think the dividends could be more than maybe traditionally we think of

when you sign a guard and free agents. Yeah, that's a great point. And, I mean, it's one of those things where it's like if it's happened to you time and time and time again, eventually you've got to learn from it. So I think that that's a big investment that they should make is to try and lock down a really good player at one of those positions. Because the drop off from the first couple of free agents to the middle or bottom of the interior offensive line situation, I think is huge. I think if you don't land one of those really good guys, then you end up in the Quinton Spain sort of range of like, I don't know, we're just picking a guy off the heap and then

hoping it works out. And eventually you have to decide, no, I think it's going, I think this is going to be more valuable than even like a PFF war would suggest. Like the situation matters for when you're deciding what the positional value is. And if you drafted a guy to be your left tackle in Ezra Cleveland, then you should play him at left tackle and not right guard because he's getting killed in pass protection at right guard. I mean, come on. Like he's going – he went up against Cameron Jordan on a twist or something the other day and just got murdered.

It's like, come on, the guy's playing way out of position against a top three or four player in the NFL. What did you think was going to happen? And the same thing with like Jason Pierre-Paul lining up over – teams figured it out in the second half what did you think was going to happen and the same thing with like Jason Pierre Paul lining up over teams figured it out in the second half of the season oh yeah these guards are are you know a problem for them and so I think that they need to finally uh do that I just wondered about your thought of like judging sort of a wins above replacement by the situation rather than just saying like broadly well guards aren't worth that much and you shouldn't pay them.

Yeah, so that's the thing with the offensive line. And if you're going to look at like from a war perspective is that there is, if you try to put one piece in and just isolate that value, like it's maybe you don't see the full perspective. But like you said, if you bring in a true like solidifying presence, you bring in a Joe like solidifying presence you bring in a Joe Thune for example who can make us make Ezra Cleveland's life better at left tackle because he can kind of help him grow and kind of be a safety blanket for him he can help you know Garrett

Bradbury with combo blocks with all the stuff he does in the run game but more importantly can kind of cover up for him in pass pro which as we know Bradbury is great in the run game but not a great pass-attracting center. So, like, when you incorporate all of that, then you see how, yes, like a traditional just war, plug a piece in metric isn't going to capture potentially all the value there. I will say I do often promote the kind of, what did you say, the heap pile and hope, heap and hope. But the Vikings have done the heap and hope route a couple times now and it hasn't worked out so then i would say all right you know you i respect that strategy

you mentioned the bills with clinton spain he got cut because they signed like 100 interior offensive linemen and just let the cream of the cup rise to the top so but the vikings have tried that ahead nick easton had a bunch of guys like that they may now need to just kind of make a move finally make something of a splash um to solidify once and for all. Well, think about this. I moved here to cover the team in 2016, and I've covered a different left guard every single year. So, yeah, that's not really like the heaping hope as you're talking about. And for the quarterback that you have, I just don't think it's a reasonable strategy anymore, even if broadly it makes sense.

So, okay, we're on the same page that spending at the guard position makes sense. Moving on from Anthony Harris and signing someone like Tashaun Gibson or whoever, this is a place I think you can heap and hope the way that you put it. Spending $11 million on Anthony Harris to play next to one of the top three or four safeties in the NFL, it just never made a lot of sense. It didn't even make sense for them because they tried to trade him, and then they were unable to trade Anthony Harris. And what they did was they may have lowered their compensatory pick eventually

because I don't think he's going to get paid anywhere near now what he was going to get paid if he hit the market last year. And it's one of those sort of short-sighted things that they did this offseason. So you kind of put that one in the L category. I think they need to amend that this year where they go and look for somebody who will just fit to play next to Harrison Smith. Yeah, no, I hear you. I think maybe the thinking a little bit there was Harris is good in coverage,

therefore he can make things easier on Dantzler and Gladney and all these young guys as we bring them along. We didn't necessarily see that to every game at least. I'm sure it happens sometimes. But bad coverage is bad coverage, and Anthony Harris isn't a superhero. So sometimes you give out 50 points and there's nothing you can do about it. I think his market will be really interesting. I do, because I agree with you that it's probably gone down from a peak at the end of last offseason.

And there's a ton, a ton, a ton of safeties hitting the market. And he's older. So, you know, I still think they're probably going to get a decent compensatory pick there. But I agree that there's no reason to try and bring him back. And now, as you look in hindsight, that move probably should have happened a year sooner. But to that degree, I mean, we don't know how bad a secondary would have been without him, too. It could have been even more of a nightmare to start the season. So I'm going through kind of the details of the mild offseason plan that I kind of expect.

And we'll get to the big parts of it in just a second. But I wonder what you think with a player like Kyle Rudolph, who's clearly on out I mean Irv Smith is the future he looks really good Tyler Conklin as you mentioned can play and uh Kyle Rudolph set to make a lot of money next year but that contract is not easily movable so I wrote down trading Kyle Rudolph somewhere and attaching a draft pick for someone else to take him is that a bad use of a draft pick for someone else to take him. Is that a bad use of a draft pick? Or do you think it makes sense to open up some cap space? Yeah, I probably wouldn't trade away a pick for like, you know, a salary dump type maneuver.

If the Vikings want to go ahead and do a post June 1 cut with Rudolph, then it's not too bad from a cap perspective. They'd only have, you know, 1.45 million in dead money in 2021 and then about 2.9 million in 2022, which is palatable. And I agree with you. I thought Irv Smith looked fantastic against the Saints. He's obviously the future. It looks like he's filled out a little bit. Like he can probably handle himself more with doing some of the, you know, Rudolph's responsibilities and blocking and not just as a pure pass catcher um yeah so so like definitely another move to explore um those old

tight ends at a certain point I mean I think teams kind of overvalue their contribution frankly like I I just don't see why like I mean bad comparisons like Jimmy Graham Rudolph like you know like a Jason Witten like I don't know why Jason Witten's getting snaps, the Raiders, over a Foster Moreau. Like, I don't even understand it. Well, I mean, really, too, the Vikings have just not thrown to Kyle Rudolph anyway. I mean, at one point in 2016, he's a main weapon for them, and he was a really effective receiving option for Sam Bradford

with a bad offensive line. But Kirk Cousins has never trusted him outside of right at the goal line, and if your quarterback doesn't trust the guy, then I don't know why you would continue to pay him, but they sign him to an extension, and it sort of speaks to how if you wear purple, you'll get an extension for the Vikings. They just never seem to ever want to let any of these guys walk, And with Rudolph, they felt like, well, you know, we don't know if Herb Smith's going to turn out, so we've just got to hand him the money.

And I think that's another move that went bust because they just never really used him. So, okay, bad idea to send the draft pick, but a post-June cut makes a lot of sense. So now you've got some cap space. Anthony Harris is gone. Bye, friend. Riley Reif, see you later.

To a media darling, Riley Reif, that's a joke. He's very soft-spoken. And, you know, Kyle Rudolph, who actually is a guy who's in the media a lot. Here's how I'm spending the rest of the money. So we signed a guard. I'm thinking a defensive lineman, an expensive defensive lineman potentially with someone like Delvin Tomlinson or Carl Lawson, someone who's going to cost some money and a proven corner.

Like they like who their corners are right now with Cameron Dantzler and Jeff Gladney, but Gladney did not have a good year. I mean, he allowed something like 125 quarterback rating into his coverage. He missed a bunch of key tackles against the Saints. That was supposed to be his calling card. Dantzler has looked good, but he's been hurt three different times, so I'm not willing to say either that that's something you should fully rely on. I think that if you're real savvy, you can find corners who are professional, good,

decent NFL corners, and you can roll with them. You don't have to go get Patrick Peterson. You can spend on someone like Ron Darby, and he'll do the job for you. So I think that those are two areas that they could very reasonably invest a lot is defensive line on a star player and then cornerback on somebody who's at least a proven veteran to fill out the group. Yeah, I'm with you there 100%. I mean, I think – you mentioned Delvin Tomlinson. I think him and Michael Pierce could be a touch redundant.

Okay, fair enough. Yeah, but definitely need more interior defensive linemen, but hopefully with maybe some more pass rush upside. Those guys are both kind of like your traditional nose tackle, though Pierce can get after it. But then it gets interesting, as you mentioned, though, because if you're going to invest in the defensive line, even if it's not at edge, you talked about Daniel Hunter earlier in the show.

He's made it very clear that he wants some new money so that gets interesting there as well and then touching the cornerback point the price point's going to matter here and i think there is going to be a really wide range but will jackson the third out of cincinnati would make a ton of sense to me just get your lockdown number one he can he can shadow number one receivers he can i mean do as well against davante adams and those type of guys as anyone can kenny galladay's alan robinson hopefully he's still there for me um like that's a guy you can get for maybe you know 10 12 million a year probably more than that but but you're not spending your jail and randy 20 million a year and then it

kind of it knocks everyone a peg down right dancer is the is the outside CB2. Glad he's sticking the slot. And we'll kind of see how things work from there. I like that idea as well. So the reason I wrote Tomlinson down is because Mike Zimmer's defense just gave up six touchdowns to a running back. And you know that that's going to influence what they want to do in the middle of that defensive line. They also have loved having two run stuffers.

And even it was kind of weird i thought that they um shrugged their shoulders at sheldon richardson leaving like um he was really good for you at getting after the passer but they seem to really have that in their mind that they want to stuff the run with those interior guys so that's kind of along the lines that i was thinking now in the draft best player available seems kind of reasonable, like defensive linemen, offensive linemen, kind of go that standard route. So this is our standard, the usual kind of Vikings offseason. Maybe they'll move some money around with Hunter, keep him. Let's just assume they do that.

The big picture, though, is status quo at the head coach, at the quarterback, and at the general manager and let's just even assume that no quarterback gets taken in the first round is that a route that gets them anywhere because I think that this is the big criticism from Vikings fans or the big concern from Vikings fans is that if you don't draft quarterback if you stay with the same coach if you stay with the same front office then you stay with the same front office, then you stay with the same results. And as we laid out, I mean, there's a lot of things to do on the defense. Excuse me.

If they lose Daniel Hunter, or if they have to trade him, it might be good for getting draft picks, but it's not easy to then replace him, of course, because he's a 15-a-sack-a-year guy. So I wonder what you think about status quo as kind of going forward as a very typical, very usual Vikings offseason with the same key players in the key places. Yeah, so, I mean, that's the issue with them

is that the way they've set themselves up is that they have a feeling. They do. I mean, I think they also have a high floor, which obviously fans to an extent don't really care about, but they do, which is nice and fun. But but the feeling is limited. And that's end of the day, which you're going to care about more, especially if you have kind of been competitive for three, four years in a row. Now you make the move for Kirk Cousins, you extend Kirk Cousins. All right. Now we need to make that, you know, that next push into the upper echelon of teams. And like you said, if they stick with status quo, is that likely?

Probably not. I mean, you can always count on variance, things breaking your way, being healthier next year, getting, you know, great contributions from some rookies and having another class like the one they just had where, you know, guys come in and make immediate impacts like a Justin Jefferson. And all of that is possible. But at the end of the day, does that still push them into the NFC championship game or something like

that? I mean, I don't know that it does. And so that's why I think it makes sense for you to maybe have another potentially more radical route. Or I would say it's not really radical, but the other decision is to kind of make decisions that do help in 2021. And you still tell yourself and tell people like you and press conferences that they believe they're competing in 2021 but in reality there's an undertone of like we're already trying to figure out the future like you know unfortunately they lost their second round pick um you know if they maybe could have like taken a mac jones like you know early second round like something like that that's just not status quo that's different um you know not that i'm a huge fan of like him or

trash i don't think they're gonna like come in and win games right away first year, but they're potentially good players, and it kind of is your bridge to the future. That I think you now lose if they don't do it in the first round. There's no point in taking one after that. I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. There are many great designs. Someone on Twitter recently sent their John Randall shirt,

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Just real quick on that point. The Vikings are 27th in pass attempts and have played from behind a lot this year. That doesn't make any sense to pay a quarterback what they're paying him if that's how you're going to play you can play that way and i think you can win that way um tennessee does they don't turn the ball over as much and you know but they they do win that way um but you it's hard to win that way if you're paying your quarterback that much money to be a, you know, handoff machine and a play action guy who throws downfield. And then his essentially his only job is, oh, we're down by two scores.

You have to throw it now. And Marcus Mariota can do that. Marcus Mariota could win seven, eight, nine, 10 games by just standing in there and giving play actions and then trying to get first downs on third and long or something. I mean, it's just I think that that's where the big criticism of the status quo is. It just doesn't quite add up. It's like, you know, Kirk Cousins might be good for another team that relied more on passing, but with this, you're not getting the value out of what you are trying to pay for. So let me get to some of the radical ideas. Maybe we'll just go through them because I just wrote down a bunch.

I created a Kirk Cousins trade. I traded him to the Denver Broncos for a second-round draft pick. If I'm the Broncos, this is perfect. I mean, you bring in, yeah, he's expensive, but you got these young players. Sutton will come back. Jerry Judy, the other guy from Penn State that they draft. I mean, they have players that they can give him at key positions. They could throw the ball. They could open things up with him. And I think that that's a team that's

ready to be much more competitive than they were this year. But Drew Locke is just not a good quarterback. So is a Kirk Cousins trade insanity or would something like that make sense? So it obviously would depend on what their solution would be at quarterback, you know, in lieu of Cousins, but I really don't think it's that crazy. I like the Broncos as a choice. I think I wrote an article last week sending Wentz to the Broncos for a similar package. Second-round pick was the main pick there.

I mean, yeah, I agree. Denver is a team where if Von Miller comes back healthy next year and they get Hamler, Judy, and Cortland Sutton as their three wide receivers, that offensive line is starting to figure things out a bit. I mean, they could be, contender is a strong word, but they really could be in short order. And like you said, if Kirk Cousins can sit back there, make throws to open receivers, do his job, like it could really catapult them because Locke is just throwing games away for them at the moment. So I don't think it's crazy in a vacuum.

But there's a question of basically what is your other quarterback choice? And if it's like a – if it's not a good choice, how do you justify kind of the spending you've done elsewhere if you're then going to kind of give up on the quarterback? It's to either trade up and get one of the top four quarterbacks or to take someone like Mac Jones or Kyle Trask. But I think trading up is the thing. If they end up with, let's say 13th, I saw there's, they could be 13th or 14th. There's some scenarios where they move up a little from that, but let's say you're 13th and you trade your 13th pick and the second rounder you got from Denver and a first rounder from the next year or something like that and you move up to number two and you take Zach Wilson or

you move up to number three and you take Justin Fields I mean I think that you can hand the guy a corona a um what am I thinking of a crown or a, no, not a crown, a throne, a throne of gold. Like, Justin Jefferson, here you go, rookie. Throw it to that guy. Just put it anywhere near him. He'll run with it. I mean, you can give him two elite wide receivers, a great young tight end, a great young running back, and tell him to just, you know, go play.

And if you sign a veteran like Marcus Mariota, I was just poking through Mariota's stats. In 2017, Mariota had the best quarterback rating in the NFL when running play action like this. And I know from year to year that can vary a little bit, but you can take other talented quarterbacks, run play actions with them, throw to great wide receivers and win, and then eventually hand the job over to Justin Fields. I think that a lot of Vikings fans hear this idea and go, yeah.

I mean, that's better than having a guy throw the 27th most passes for $31 million on the cap next year. No, 100%. I think the point you mentioned is great, is that Kirk's contract isn't a problem in itself, but when you're not even like forcing him to attempt to become an elite quarterback, basically deploying him in that way, then why are you even paying him in that way? And it's funny, Teddy Bridgewater and him are, I mean, yes, he's a little bit better than Teddy,

but look at those two contracts this offseason. Is the bridge, is the gap, should it be that big? No, probably not. And it's funny, you mentioned the rookies. I think Zach Wilson in a wide zone scheme would be phenomenal. And it's unfortunate, it really is unfortunate that he's only got to play one game this year. But I know I've mentioned to you my favorite Vikings connection, Trey Lance.

But he also, because you mentioned the throwing thing, Lance has a big arm and could become a big thrower. But I would predict his first two, three seasons, he's going to have 20 passing attempts a game at most. He's going to run the ball nine to 12 times a game. You know, some options, some keepers, stuff like that, which I think Minnesota would love. I mean, imagine him and Dalvin in the backfield just mixing things up.

I think it could be special. But, again, that's the thing. It's like, all right, it's an FCS quarterback who started 13 games. Right. And you're going to bring him in on this win now roster. And like, how do you justify that? But I do agree that like those guys would fit and I think could give you 80% of Kirk Cousins like pretty soon. It doesn't have to be a win now roster.

I mean, it can be 2021 is really fun because we're figuring out what Trey Lance can do or Justin Fields can do with Justin Jefferson. And that's the thing is, you know, Justin Jefferson, well, let me just even, you know, rewind for a second, is that the Miami Dolphins turned it around really quick. I mean, if you hit on this and you really commit to the approach, you can turn it around in like two years. And that's kind of the way that I would look at it is all right well maybe you only win eight games or something in 2021 but the whole season is about Justin Fields or Trey Lance and Justin Jefferson and they're building you know for the future and that could be really exciting for fans to watch on a weekly basis and sort of judge you know what Trey Lance has or is that

more exciting than going eight and eight with Kirk Cousins and signing Delvin Tomlinson like it is right there's no that's objectively no question about it that it's more uh entertaining for fans so if that's in the back of your mind making a decision well what are the fans going to feel like I think feeling like it's new and fresh and it could go somewhere special is much more interesting than well you, you know, it's kind of the same thing, only it's spruced up a little bit. The other thing I was thinking about was a Mike Zimmer trade, because you and I talked about this, and this would mean keeping Kirk Cousins, but trading Mike Zimmer to the Atlanta Falcons and getting, whatever, a second or third round pick and then hiring joe brady from carolina to be their head coach and going all in on throwing the football and bringing with mr brady curtis samuel where

you spend your money on a number three wide receiver and then your weapons are curtis samuel justin jefferson adam phelan irv smith delvin cook and profit and profit and a better offensive line samuel will be a phenomenal wide receiver three for them, which they need to address as well. We didn't even get to that. But if they keep coming into seasons with two receivers on the roster, I know they have like four, but if I see Chad Beebe and Ola B.C. Johnson playing like critical snaps in a

game again, I'm going to lose it. It's crazy though. And they get lucky with, with health. I mean, if Theodore Jefferson ever missed like a stretch of eight games in a season, their season is just over, which is like, you can't have that. But yeah, I mean, if Theodore Jefferson ever missed, like, a stretch of eight games in a season, their season's just over, which is, like, you can't have that. But, yeah, I mean, that would be a phenomenon.

That's a pipe dream probably, but that would be a lot of fun. I mean, Brady, yeah, a guy that, like you said, you can turn things around really quickly. I guess, again, just I'm poking these holes, but, like, when we mentioned Garrett Bradbury, like, all these guys that were brought in because they do what Zimmer excels at, it almost then it's, again, it's like, all right, you bring in Joe Brady, he can figure it out. He's a creative guy.

He obviously came into Carolina with scraps and they figured it out. But, like, is there going to be a growing period there as well? So do you almost want to go Joe Brady and use that Mike Zimmer trade to get ammo to still turn up for a quarterback. And now we're really cooking with gas. Now we're talking Zach Wilson, Joe Brady combo. Yes, absolutely. Tell me that you didn't just get excited about that. Yeah, I'm all in.

I mean, this is where every comment that I read on my website and people who tweet me all the time, like I know that taking risks and things like that and being aggressive can blow up in your face and if the guy that you draft a quarterback isn't good and it becomes Christian Ponder then it's just uh you know it sucks you into a black hole of just uh bad football and that's something that always needs to be considered with this the answer is not always just draft another guy. But the question is, what do you have to lose if you do? If you have to lose a seventh seed for the playoffs next year,

is that something you're really concerned about losing? Because unless there are radical moves, it's hard to see being way better, being worlds better. To me, this reminds me, this season reminds me of 2013 with the Vikings, where they were the worst defense in the NFL, and 2014, they went seven and nine. They feel that far away after giving up 52 points to the Saints, so how are you going to close that gap? And the way is, what do you have to work with? Offense, stars at key positions. That's what you have to work with.

How can you highlight that? Well, doing some other savvy things and developing and drafting at the defensive positions to get enough. But I think that your ticket is being a top five offense. Okay, let me give you another one, which would be to trade Daniil Hunter for, let's say, I mean, Bill O'Brien isn't around anymore to give you three first-round picks. So let's just say you trade Daniil Hunter for a second and a fourth or something like that because the neck issue and everything else, he's not going to get what Khalil Mack

got in terms of a trade. Of course, this is a gut punch for Vikings fans to lose one of their best players. But you call Leonard Williams and you sign him to a bunch of money. So you bring in somebody else who can get after the passer and you've got more draft capital, realistic or not. So that's more there. Like you mentioned Davin Tomlinson. I like how him and Leonard Williams operate together. So I think Michael Pearson and Leonard Williams would be like an awesome combination.

My concern there is I now think Leonard Williams is going to be asking for $20 million a year. I really do. So, I mean, yeah, he's a good player. He's had a great season. Always grades well for us. Like a really high floor guy. Like I know people expected more out of him and thought he was going to become, you know, Aaron Donald. Like he's not Aaron Donald.

He's a really good football player. I mean, I think it's realistic. I think it's, again, like we're trying to – realistic in terms of what the Vikings would want to do. I think they would definitely be interested in something like that. Like you mentioned, they're giving up six rushing touchdowns. Those two guys in the middle would not give up six rushing touchdowns. So, it would make life a lot easier for Kendricks and, you know, linebacker seven that they're on now at this point. So, I don't hate that one at all either.

But I think, as you mentioned, the key is offense i think i think right now as much as i hate saying windows and attacking windows and all of that there's this very interesting situation with the afc and the nfc right now where the afc already has most of the good quarterbacks they're now about to add you know lawrence and whoever goes second like and there, and then in the NFC, I think you can see Breeze done after this season. So the Saints are going to kind of fade away. The Bucs, I'm just not a really big believer in the Bucs. Like, like this is the season I kind of expected 10 and 10 and six, 11 and five. Like, I don't think they're going to make noise in the playoffs and maybe win a game, whatever. And it kind of gets even tougher for them

next season. know gotta pay chris godwin potentially they'll probably tag him but gotta pay shaq barrett you know king's ransom anyways like the nfc is vulnerable where there's like there's not a lot of great teams and so it's like you said if you go in like get a guard like fix get a wide receiver three like all that make the defense palatable maybe not leonard will but, like, do as much as you can there, like, then you really probably could, like, win 12 games, you know, with good health and stuff like that. 2020 has already reshaped how we work, and it's almost over.

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He's been a different player in the second half of the season. But still, like, they're not this, oh, my God, they're going to go to the Super Bowl next year type of team. And the 49ers are likely to bounce back next year. Garoppolo comes back. They're healthier. They have had some of the same problems as the Vikings, only they're on their third quarterback and have the same record as you.

That's not great. Anyway, but, yeah, no, it's a good point. Like Seattle is still going to be in the mix, and Chicago will still be 7-9, 8-8, or 10-6 or whatever with Trubisky. Aaron Rodgers probably continues to be the Packers quarterback now after he's likely going to win the MVP so you still have some of the contenders I think the Vikings do have a tougher schedule next year on the way I think that they're going to play the north and the AFC north and the NFC west if I'm not mistaken that's pretty tough so you know I

think that these things kind of even out but but I agree. And I think that after watching this year, it really solidified that Mike Zimmer wants to always play as if he's got the number one defense, even when he doesn't, even when he's got the 27th ranked defense and punts from fourth and three at midfield when the other team scoring on every drive and things like that. So the philosophy probably won't change, but you can change the talent to get the most out of them and not rank something like 14th in scoring, but rather try to get that into the top five where you can actually win. That was kind of like my last big one, but let me ask you this question on Daniil Hunter. Is there, in your mind, something that can be done with this contract? Like, he's got a couple of years left. He's coming off of an injury.

It seems like such an odd time for an agent to come out and be like, how dare you? But he is carrying something like a $17 million cap hit next year. And there must be something that they can do to deal with that. Yeah. I found the timing of all that, frankly, bizarre as well.

I mean, I guess maybe some of it was like them being anxious about a you know yannick ngakwe getting an extension before they did or something like that so maybe now they're not as anxious about it obviously with ngakwe no longer on the roster still the sack leader as you mentioned but no longer on the roster great season for ngakwe hey he led the team in sacks. I mean, the trade was worth it. Yeah, it was worth it. For when they went 1-5 and then he got shipped out of town. Yeah, I mean, the beauty of working with him is that, yes,

there is three years left in this deal still. So, as much as he wants a strong arm and pushback and all that, and as much as he deserves to do so, this isn't like he has one year left or something like that. Like, he's on a contract for a while.

So, I think they're going to extend him. I think they should extend him. I think he could honestly threaten, like, you know, he's still only 26. Yes, he has the neck issue. It depends how serious that is, of course. But, I mean, he could $23, $24 million a year type thing. But I still think they could, yes. They could still lower his cap hit in 2021.

I mean, he has a $12 million base salary. So, with an extension, you could obviously plummet that way down. And that, I think, is how you get a win-win for both parties. You clear some money for the Vikings. Daniil gets his deal. Maybe there's a kind of – because oftentimes you have to, as a player, take a lot of concessions and maybe don't take as nice of a deal if you have that much time left.

Like Robert Woods is an example. Had two years left on his deal when he signed his pass off season. He's 29 years old. Like I think he was worth more than the deal he took, but it was the assurances basically like, all right, this is your last big deal of your career. You know, through your age, 31 season at wide receiver, you still have guarantees, which like isn't even that common.

So I think the play with Hunter is kind of the same thing is you say, look, I know you're young. I know you, you want the miles Garrett extension. Like, I mean, you're basically his age somehow, which makes no sense, but I would sell him on, we'll give you strong guarantees. We will give you, you know, even guarantees maybe out in year three because we trust, even with your health issues, we trust that you're young and can stay good. But he's not getting a Joey Bosa contract with three years left. Like, if he's pushing for cash flows and for total values in that range, then he's being unrealistic.

My thing is, are there teeth to his threat that he's going to sit out or that he's going to demand a trade? Is there really teeth behind that? What, is he just going to retire at 26 or three years over the contract? Right, probably not. That seems pretty unlikely. I mean, he's a different kind of dude, so he's never said explicitly that he wants to play football past age 26.

I just assume that. He does keep us all forever young, though. Like when you see a player whose dad you watched in the draft and you're like, oh, my God, how old am I? But then you're like, Daniel Hunter's only 26. So I must not be that old, right? So last thing before I let you go, Brad, it's been super fun. Where do you think the salary cap's going to be?

I mean, this is a weird situation, and the Dallas Cowboys filling their stadium didn't carry everybody's money for this year, right? So what's going to happen? There's been a bunch of different reports, some that it's sinking a lot, some that it's sinking a little. How do you think it plays out? Yeah, so the latest updates I've heard i would characterize as positive um

i think the floor of 175 million is going to be avoided at all costs and i think we're probably going to land between 185 and 195 so you know 190 if you want a nice round number um because i just think both sides of the aisle recognize that it would just kill the league it would just kill rosters in their current framework if you drop the cap. So I not only think it's going to be in the 190 range, I do think they almost could negotiate some type of situation where it helps teams not have so many cap casualties because the issue with flooding the market with cap casualties is twofold.

A, a bunch of vets are getting caught and aren're gonna make money you're gonna be pissed off and all that but b you you suppress the free agent market as a result so you you kill basically two classes of people so now everyone aged 30 to 25 is just in a bad mood about about their money so i think they're gonna find a way to maybe allow teams to prorate money more easily or something like that, just ways where they can manipulate the cap easier as opposed to having more cap at their disposal. Yeah, it'll be fascinating to see how it plays out. Maybe there's just ends up being like less dead cap money if you want to cut certain players or yeah, I don't know.

It'll be really interesting to see but i think that at very least um the vikings will have some things to work with some space to work with but at the same time they've put a lot of money into just a couple of players and they're going to be in a tight spot where they have to do a lot to try and get out of that so uh brad spielberger are you brad underscore pff yet? Yeah, PFF underscore Brad. All right, we did it. PFF underscore Brad, great stuff. And PFF.com, people can see your work.

Everyone's got a podcast. Do you have your podcast yet? Not yet. We're working on it. Come on, man. I'd rather just come on yours as a guest. Okay, deal. Perfect.

Well, they'll get you a podcast eventually. Everybody on PFF has one. So great stuff, Brad. Great to catch up with you. We will deal. Perfect. Well, they'll get you a podcast eventually. Everybody on PFF has one. Great stuff, Brad. Great to catch up with you. We will do it again, I guarantee, this offseason. Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me on.