Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Counting down the most interesting Vikings at training camp (15-11)

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Matthew Coller continues with his list of the most interesting players in training camp and answers Vikings fan questions.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of purple insider Matthew collar here. And tonight I will continue my countdown on my list of top 25 most interesting players in Minnesota Vikings training camp. If you missed the previous episodes, feel free to go back and watch them also doing writing on this list as well over at the newsletter purple insider dot football, which just gonna throw it out there might be worth checking out, especially when we get to training camp time. So I'll start the list just a minute,

but I also wanted to begin with something that I've seen a lot of in Vikings land just as it regards to lists in general. I saw that PFF put out a list of their top coaches in the NFL and their top 10 did not include Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, which I think we all can pretty easily agree is insane and makes no sense that the coach of the year from last year wouldn't crack the top 10 and that I believe on the same list, Mike Tomlin was in the top five, which I think that he is squarely fallen out of that list. And the most wacky of that list was number 10, which was Kevin Stefanski, whose team won three games last year.

And all of that is just crazy. But two things that I want to throw out there about that number one is as I get ready to count down part of a list of mine and I'm also doing a bold predictions list. Things like that is just that we can't take list season too seriously. Embrace list season. Have fun with list season. Don't get a don't waste your time. It's almost July 4th here. a little bit of an ugly weather day. So maybe today you wanted to stay inside and be angry, but just in general,

it's not time to be upset about things regarding the Minnesota Vikings. No matter what somebody says, if somebody ranks your quarterback 25th, because they just don't believe in JJ, ah, like it doesn't make any difference for the season. We're all just making lists and having fun. And also I saw a lot of this is why I know what takes PFF seriously. And of course, as the person who wrote the book right over my left shoulder here about PFF, it's just one guy who works at PFF's opinion. It's not the opinion of the entire company and it's not all their data thrown

together to make this decision. And they've had a lot of their top people over the last few years, and it's in the book, why, uh, leave PFF. And I think some of the people who they're leaning on are learning on the jobs. So I don't think that, uh, it's worth wasting your time getting too upset. But if we were making a list of the top coaches in the NFL and including KOC, this is what I wanted to ask you guys. We could start a conversation about this after I run through my list and any other questions,

comments, I wonder where you guys would put Kevin O'Connell on a head coach's list in the NFL because the thing that I struggle with with making a list of quarterbacks or coaches is there's context to every single situation and Kevin O'Connell has this guy. He wears number 18. He's very, very good at football and that helps him be a quarterback whisperer. If Kevin O'Connell had to play 17 games without just a Jefferson, maybe he'd whisper less. Right.

And that goes for everybody all time. It goes for bill Walsh having Jerry Rice and, uh, you know, having Joe Montana. Like the, you have to have the guys who can execute what you're asking them to do. So isolating coaching is so, so difficult. There's also not an equal gap. And this has always been one of my issues with this kind of exercise is there's not an equal gap between number one, number two, number three, number four. It's not an equal like standard deviation. So the number one coach is X number of points better than the number two coach or the

number one quarterback X number of points it's easier to probably say that about quarterbacks but for coaches how would we even begin to figure that out so what I have generally done in the past but I am curious about where you guys would put O'Connell just if it was a one to ten ranking if we were doing this and not taking ourselves too seriously or getting too angry, where would you put them? I've always thought of the coach conversation is more of in buckets. So there's coaches, there's like the OG guys who they know what they're doing. They've won in the league before they're sort of knighted as great NFL coaches.

And that would be like Andy Reed, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll's back. Everybody will throw him in that list as well. They've won super bowls. They've had lots of success year after year, and we have a big enough sample size to be able to say, all right, Sean Payton, you may not like them, but he's a really good NFL coach. And then there's this next level, which I feel like is the, where KOC would land. And this is the younger coaches who are still looking

to really prove that they deserve to be knighted. And O'Connell, but they've shown a lot, like Matt LaFleur, Kevin O'Connell, even Kyle Shanahan's not really younger at this point, but hasn't won a Super Bowl. I think actually Kyle Shanahan's probably in the OG list at this point as a head coach Because he's been doing it long enough and was such a great offensive coordinator, but maybe you throw them in that list

There's a group that hasn't quite got over the hump But they're very very good and you go into every season saying all right Because the Vikings are coached by Kevin O'Connell or because the Packers are coached by Matt LaFleur You know that they're going to be competitive. You know they're going to have good game plans. You're not going to just roll into Green Bay and out coach them and stomp them and run away from them, that kind of thing. But at the same time, neither Matt LaFleur or Kevin O'Connell has a Super Bowl. O'Connell doesn't have playoff wins yet. You can't start saying,

okay, well, no, he's definitely better than Andy Reid or someone like that. But coaches that clearly elevate their talent or get the most out of their talent and then run teams efficiently and effectively behind the scenes, which eventually if you're not, it will come out that you're not, or you'll get fired and no one will hire you and et cetera, et cetera, if you're not creating a'll get fired and no one will hire you and et cetera, et cetera.

If you're not creating a good culture behind the scenes. So Connell checks a lot of boxes as next wave coaches. They're going to be here a long time. Uh, they're not going to get fired. They're going to compete for championships every single year. There's a handful of those guys. And then there's coaches who have been around a while that I don't think are that good Give you an example and it's not that he's not that Todd Bowles is a bad coach It's just that I don't think he's really a needle mover for example

And if you have Tom Brady, then you could probably win a lot of games And if you don't have a great roster, you're probably a 10-win team at best with him But he's been around a long time because he is a pretty good coach, but not good enough. And then there's a lot of coaches that are either about to get fired or are just hoping to keep their jobs in the league or are so new that we can't judge yet. So I kind of put them into those buckets. And I think O'Connell is very clearly in that, Hey, if things go right for him,

he can end up like Sean Payton. He can end up like Andy Reed. If things work out, if you've drafted the right quarterback, if you get the right breaks in the playoffs, say Adrian Peterson fumbles, and then there's 12 men in a huddle and then you get a super bowl or something like that. Um, it always has to go that way as well. So that's kind of how I think of it. But if we were doing just a top 10, that style of lists that I don't love,

I might put them six somewhere in that range between six and 10. Uh, you have a, a, a coach who clearly elevates quarterbacks, which is the most important thing in the sport. Uh, there may be some blind spots that he's still working out. There may be more experience that needs to go, thing in the sport. There may be some blind spots that he's still working out. There may be more experience that needs to go, especially in the post season, but somewhere between six and eight, I think is where I would put him.

I would definitely not put a coach who won three games last year ahead of Kevin O'Connell. So let me know and questions, comments, thoughts. What do you guys want to hear about? What do you want to talk about? I'll get to my list here and throw them in the comment section. You can react as well to my most interesting Viking list. So let's dive into that number 15 on my list of 25.

Again, we've been counting them down on the show here is cornerback Jeff Okuda. So I was looking up Jeff Okuda's previous statistics in the NFL and I gotta say it's not a pretty PFF sheet of statistics. This is a former number three overall draft pick in 2020 and in his rookie year had a 42.5 PFF grade, which is what you would expect if you just put in a random special teamer or if you pulled somebody up off the practice squad, like that's the type of performance. And then he's got two other full seasons, 59.4 and 50.5, which is replacement level play. So that's the type of performance you'd expect from just a regular backup if you played them for the entire season. And to make it a little more understandable,

season and to make it a little more understandable, uh, rather than just talk about the grade when targeting Jeff Okuda in his career, opposing quarterbacks have a 106.3 quarterback rating, which is basically like playing like a top five quarterback when they have targeted Jeff Okuda. So there is a reason that somebody this highly regarded coming out of the draft a couple years ago was available for a song this off season because there is not any previous performance to look at and say, okay, well, you can see the flashes. I mean, last year, even with Sam Darnold, like I remember doing an article on Sam Darnold where one of the, after I had written 700 words or something, I got to this point and said, well, this is how you start to believe in Sam Darnold

because there were at least flashes, there were streaks, there were moments for him and statistics where, hey, if he's running play action, hey, if he's got a clean pocket, hey, if he's got the right coaching, like maybe it can work. With Okuda, there isn't much to lean on with that statistically.

And that includes a lot of penalties over his career. He's only got two interceptions and 10 past breakups in almost 2000 career snaps. He's been penalized 13 times. So you don't want to have more penalties than past breakups, but that's what he's got. The only real thing that you can look at with Okuda that you could see mattering with the Minnesota Vikings is that I think his size plays into this very good tackling grades, very good run defense grades. And sometimes when it comes to coverage, it might just depend on what type of coverage

you're being asked to play. When Okuda came out in the draft, he was supposed to be like, this guy is the next Derele Rivas. He's going to lock down top guys. He's going to go to battle with the best wide receivers. And then the league changed. Teams started using motion way more. They started using bunch sets way more that made it a lot more challenging for anybody to be Darrell Revis in the shutdown corner. I mean, Darrell Revis still would be great no matter what era you put him in, but most cornerbacks, most players in the NFL are not like that.

A lot of times how they're used will dictate that. And if Brian Flores is defense, which is a lot of rally to the football type of defense where you're playing in a zone and you're trying to get the opposing team to throw underneath and then you're rushing to make a tackle. He could be effective in that type of role. But my question is for a guy who's always been asked to just lock down. down, is he going to be able to adapt to playing in a system that basically says read route combinations, be in the right spot, communicate extremely well, and then read and react. That's what it seems to ask this to do. Can he follow along with Byron Murphy's direction and can he rally to the football but also be in the right spot to rally to the football? Can he make plays on the ball when it

comes his way? Because we really saw that from Murphy last year, where if there was a mistake, if there was an underthrow, or if there was a route combination that they recognized from their preparation, he was undercutting it and picking it off. We saw him do that against the Indianapolis Colts. And then he took advantage of mistakes that quarterbacks under pressure made, like Kurt Cousins tossing up a ball into the atmosphere and, uh, Byron Murphy picking it off. If you can do those things, if you could be in the right place, if you can make plays on the football when you get a chance,

and then if you can tackle, you have a shot at hanging around in Brian Flores's defense. So what it might come down to for Jeff Okuda is just how well he understands it. And I'm intrigued enough to be patient and see what comes of it. If Jeff Okuda is serviceable for this team, that means you have decent depth with him and Dwight McClothern and a couple of guys battling for spots behind him. If Okuda goes the way of say, Joanne Williams, who was a former fairly high draft pick, huge guy that they brought in and it just never worked out,

then the depth is pretty concerning. You got, you know, Ambry Thomas, a couple other guys that are battling for spots, but nobody that you feel really good about if they are to get in the game. So Jeff Okuda is a bit of a swing man for this cornerback unit. And I think that he's somebody that the team is going to be

watching really, really closely because they have to make a decision at some point. Do you want to bring in another cornerback? Do you want to go out into that free agent market and try to bring somebody in or not? And Okuda will be a player that determines that. So he's number 15. Number 14 is a very different side of the spectrum that is defensive tackle slash DN. We're not really sure yet. Tyreon Ingram Dawkins out of Georgia, fairly productive last season in a situational role in college.

Sky played all over the line of scrimmage on defense. And sometimes there's a bit of a master of none type of thing with, if you played all these positions in college football, were you really that good? Because usually if someone's really that good, they just played defensive end sack a bunch of people. But at the same time, this is Brian Flores is defense. He asks these players to move all over the place, play outside, play inside, rush from the linebacker position sometimes,

even for big guys. So Ingram Dawkins is intriguing because he is a ridiculous athlete on paper at the NFL Combine, totally crushed it. And then, you know, we had a couple of minutes with him after he was drafted and then heard this as well, just about high intelligence player, like very, very bright guy.

And in Flores's defense, athleticism, intelligence, versatility, if these things come together, you can have something interesting. And the interior D line battle now kind of includes your, I mean, call them five techniques if you really want to get footbally, but that just means the guy, a defensive tackle kind of lines up over the offensive tackle. And then the outside linebackers are much more in a traditional outside linebacker position. Could Tyreon Ingram Dawkins be a traditional three, four defensive end? He's kind of built that way where you're getting upfield, but also you have to

stick blocks and things like that. Um, maybe, uh, and that battle is open behind Jonathan Allen, behind Jayvon Hargrave, you have Jaylen Redmond, you got Taki Taimani, you got Levi Drake, Rodriguez, like there's guys there, but it's not like there's proven guys there. There is opportunity for Tyreon Ingram Dawkins to prove himself right away and carve out a role. Now my expectation, I think theirs is as well, is that he's going to need development.

I mean, he just hasn't played a whole lot of college football, but in Flores' system, we've just seen this enough times where if somebody does something well, he's going to find a spot for that person and maybe Ingram Dawkins can carve out some sort of role. Now maybe some of you who listen every day, you might call me hypocritical here for this

next guy on the list because you've probably heard me say, hey, this backup quarterback situation, I don't really want to talk about it. Don't really care about it. JJ McCarthy is the dude and it's all about JJ McCarthy. However, Sam Howell, you're number 13 on the list. You are a top 15 most interesting player at Minnesota Vikings training camp. I have to be fair. It's true that behind JJ McCarthy right now is a guy who has won only a couple games in the NFL is not that old, not that experienced. And when he was in Seattle as a backup quarterback, can't say that it worked out very well. He had a stretch in Washington where he was pretty good, but that's really all he has to hold his hat

on is maybe a six or eight game stretch where he was a pretty good quarterback and the rest was a disaster with a disaster franchise that was selling off parts and was changing ownership and was tanking and was getting Jayden Daniels and all that sort of stuff. It wasn't a good situation for Sam Howell, but was it really situation based or was it more of a, you know, Sam Howell not being that great. I think we're going to find that out. I did not want to be very judgy in mini camp and OTAs because Sam Howell just got here. He has not been with this team for a couple of years.

It's not like he's experienced in this offense. So he's having to learn it on the fly. And as you know, Kevin O'Connell seemed fairly happy with how things went in OTAs and mini camp, but you're still talking about last year, for example, when McCarthy was learning it on the fly, it looked pretty ugly. And even Sam Darnold, I don't think it really clicked in through halfway through training camps. So there's a lot to learn from this offense with Kevin O'Connell. And I want to give Sam Howell time in training camp before we start getting overly judgmental and see him in preseason games as well. But it's Sam Howell v Sam Howell for that number two spot.

If he makes progress and he looks good, it looks like somebody that could start if you needed him to, you might have something here as a backup quarterback. And if McCarthy were to miss a couple of games, you might feel good about it, but you could also walk out of training camp feeling very bad about it or feeling like, oh man, they need to go out to the trade market or pick up someone else or use Max Brosberg as the backup or something.

So there's a wide range of outcomes regarding Sam Howell, which is what lands him on this list. And yes, we will be mostly watching and tracking JJ McCarthy and training camp. That is goal A1 every single day. And during training camp, by the way, this is a reason to subscribe and set some alerts for the show.

During training camp, after every single practice, I will be right here live streaming, breaking down what happened in the practice that day. And I have not, I think I missed, I think I missed one. I think I've missed one training camp practice since 2017 was my first training camp. So I'll be there for sure. And we'll be breaking it down,

also doing interviews from out there and everything else. It'll be a grand old time. But the point is that, you know, when we're not tracking JJ McCarthy We will also keep close track of Sam Howell, which is why he's on the list Number 12 was a hero of training camp last year one of the best Training camps from a backup player that I can remember and that was Theo Jackson He was making plays on the ball left and right at training camp

And then he gets into the game and lo and behold gets an interception against Seattle. He had done it the year before against Philadelphia when he had to come into the game. And I think the team feels very confidently about Theo Jackson. But here is my question is, is Theo Jackson Cambynum or is he something else?

Is he more of a rotation player where possibly they have Josh Mattel is playing more traditional safety so they can get Dallas Turner on the field more often. There's a lot of moving parts to this thing. And they also have Eric Wilson who we know can play and you can have him into a role where he's rotating in. Like they have a lot of pieces which may push the O Jackson out of the every single play type of role that we saw from can't buy them. That is a guess though because I want to see what it looks like in training camp. We want to get a sense for is he the can't buy them.

Is he really a starter? Is he the guy who's going to be playing every single down? Or is it more of a nickel safety type of situation where Metellus would move up into the box in those nickel spots? How's it going to work with Theo Jackson? And is it going to work with Theo Jackson? I mean, we have mostly just assumed that it will because history suggests that it should.

Go back to the history of, you know, you're Andrew St. Dayhoe, you're Anthony Harris, you're Cam Bynum. because history suggests that it should go back to the history of your Andrews and day. How your Anthony Harris your cam buying them. So many of these guys have showed up and played really well next to Harrison Smith that at this why wouldn't we be saying now? All right. Well next man up and the way that Harrison Smith talked about Theo Jackson

where he kind of made fun of the Tennessee Titans for getting rid of them and said like, why did you guys get rid of Theo Jackson? And the way that the coaches have talked about him, I talked to Durante Jones last year. Again, you can read these articles at the newsletter, purple insider dot football. But I talked to Durante Jones, the defensive backs coach last year about Theo Jackson for an article on Theo. And he said that they had what they called is kind of the four horsemen of the safety room where it was Harrison Smith, obviously Josh Mattel is obviously and can't buy them. And also the O Jackson, he said, like,

they all sit next to each other in the meeting room and they communicate and they ask questions and they have feedback. So behind the scenes, this team has loved what they've seen from Theo Jackson, but will we love it again in training camp is why he is number 12 on my most interesting players list. And number 11, now this is a little bit of a hard one because the player and his intrigue kind of outweighs what I know we can see at training camp.

So with a running back, it is kind of hard because he's not actually running over people. But we could get the sense for how they're going to use Jordan Mason and what they think of him. He is number 11 on the list, former 49er. They make the trade for him. I think it was a really, really good move in the off season to give a thunder and lightning element to this Vikings backfield. How much is he going to really play in training camp preseason? I don't know, but he's still interesting nonetheless, because he brings such a different dynamic from what we've seen before to this backfield.

This was supposed to be Alex Madison. Didn't really work out that way. Madison and Chandler, they were supposed to be that in 2023. Just didn't really work out that way. Madison and Chandler, they were supposed to be that in 2023. Just didn't happen. Delvin Cook was more speed than violence at the end of his time in Minnesota. And in 2022 with Kevin O'Connell, I just remember the number of times that he ran out of bounds rather than taking contact because he was dealing with injuries. This is going to be the most physical runner since Adrian Peterson to play for the Minnesota Vikings. What does that look like and where does he fit in

will be very interesting at training camp. And then, you know, we'll see a lot more when we get into the real season, but we'll be watching close for Jordan Mason. So there it is, number 15 through number 11, Jeff Okuda, Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, Sam Howell, Theo Jackson, and Jordan Mason. The top 10 will be revealed next week.

Very excited about that. Along with more predictions. If you missed my show with Steve Palazzolo, we started in the 50 bold predictions list, which I'm having a lot of fun with and looking at that. So, all right questions comments thoughts feelings Who are you interested in and where would you put? Kevin O'Connell on your top 10 list because Vikings fans were big mad that PFF did not have him there

Dustin says I hope Jeff Okuda shines in this defense. I still until proven otherwise, I still have Jeff Okuda in that category of the Ross Blacklocks and other players that the Vikings have brought in. You guys can remind me of some of them that were former first or second round draft picks. I mentioned Joanne Williams, that if multiple teams have passed on them, there's probably a reason why, but that doesn't guarantee

that it's over. It's just that the odds of something like this, even bringing in Rondale more, once you have had your chance in the league with a couple of different teams and more got hurt. So maybe it's not a great example, but once you've had your shot with a couple of different teams and it doesn't work out, the percentages that you suddenly become something different than you've ever been before with the Minnesota Vikings because they're special is not super high. But the thing that's a little bit different

about the Vikings is just how they play. And I wrote about this the other day about uniqueness in the Vikings offense and defense. And we can go on paper and we can look at these percentages of how often they play zone defense, how often they blitz. And we can see that the Vikings play differently than other teams, which at least opens the door for someone like Jeff Okuda, that his physicality

and his size might play to his advantage enough that it could potentially fit here. It's a hard one to see because the history is so poor. And when you're talking about someone this talented, they're going to get lots of shots with lots of different teams and it just hasn't stuck. And a lot of times a player like this who is so physically gifted during OTAs and mini camp, they usually look pretty good because obviously they're in shorts and not pads and it's not physical at all. So, hey, if you're a physical freak, if you're an athletic freak, you're going to stand out pretty good in that

situation. But what they would know that I don't is what about the mental part? The mental part for Jeff Okuda could be a huge part of it. I don't know that any team has leaned into the mental part for Okuda because his reputation was so much as a shutdown and a lockdown type of corner. Has anybody asked him to be consistently playing as a zone and be physical and tackle people type of player?

That I don't know. WV Walker says, what if everything works this year? How good are we? So by everything, I think we have to talk about the definition of everything. I mean, sometimes we have seen seasons before where everything goes, right? 2017 was probably that, but even then, like they lost their quarterback and they lost their running back early in the season and then everything went right after that. The schedule was pretty easy. They won their one score games like was it Detroit blocked the field goal,

but they were offside that would have maybe won a game on Thanksgiving possibly in 17. They did have a lot go right in that season, including the Minneapolis miracle. And 2022 was kind of the same way where every last second situation and the health of the team was very good. Last year, the health of the team was very good. Sam Darnold, you couldn't have asked for anything better from him. That was kind of an everything goes right. And still some stuff went wrong. It's impossible for everything to go right. Even last year in a 14 win season, you have Christian Derrassaw lost for the year and you have the worst possible

matchup and it just so happens that another team gets 15 wins. So you have to go on the road and the playoffs like even the best of the best years something still goes wrong. So let's say when you say everything, let's say 90% of stuff goes right. They're healthy. The older players that they brought in, those guys don't have any issues and they play at like 80% of what they used to be, which is still really, really good. How good can the Vikings be? And yes, it does go back to the best version that's reasonably projectable from JJ McCarthy. If we are reasonably projecting when you say everything goes right.

Well, of course, if he becomes Peyton Manning, you win the Super Bowl. But if everything goes right in, let's say the 80th, 90th percentile outcome for JJ McCarthy in a good way. I mean, you should be winning the division and you should be going into the divisional round with a chance to potentially go to the Superbowl. The offense and defense and the coaching are that good around JJ McCarthy. And if he is good enough to put himself in the top 15 of NFL quarterbacks, which I think is a reasonable goes right scenario, then you should have

that chance. And the more that I've thought about the schedule, the more I've thought, I know that it is difficult. It is challenging. But what game on the schedule are you going into saying, Oh, well, they can't compete with that team. That team's way better than them top to bottom. They're never going to be able to go to battle. I mean, in the past, we've looked at matchups in a lot of different ways, depending on the Viking strength, but Hey, this team has a tough defensive line. They've got no

chance. That happened a lot, didn't it? And yet, uh, you know, now they bought an offensive line interior and drafted in part. So that might not be the case. How they stopped the run could be a big element of it. How they go against some of the best running quarterbacks, which we haven't seen them have to do. That's gonna be some of it. But who in the league could they go against

on their schedule where you thought, ha, nah, they just don't have any chance whatsoever. I failed to see that team on this schedule and Philly's coming here. They're not, you're not going to Philadelphia. If they were going to Philly, I'd probably say that's going to be pretty darn tough, but they match up really, really well with every team from top to bottom. It's just that we don't know as much about the quarterback. So we were looking at the schedule saying, yes, it is difficult. It is challenging.

They shouldn't win 14 games. They shouldn't win 15 games, but if everything goes right, then they're in that conversation for 11, 12, 13 and playing for the NFC North. Uh, AJ says, hate to say this, but if all else fails, we'll bring back her cousins. Like I said, hate to say it. I think all else fails, we'll bring back her cousins. Like I said, hate to say it. I think the cousins thing, like I get it. And I don't think KOC would be against it. I mean, it has a good, really good relationship with Kirk cousins.

And if cousins has accepted at this point, no one out there is making him their starter, but also not a good time to retire with, uh, you know, the money situation's got to get his guaranteed dollars. Did he already get them? Maybe he already got them. I don't know. I haven't studied that contract, but just, he doesn't want to retire. He wants to keep playing in the league.

He wants to be in a position where he could start. I think it's best for Kirk Cousins to wait and hang onto that no trade clause until some other quarterback in the league gets hurt because you saw this from the philadelphia eagles with sam bradford and carson wents exact same situation. Bradford was unhappy he was getting benched for carson whence the draft whence which he didn't expect i think and i don't know why i wouldn't expected at the time but you know kirk was pretty shocked by michael pennix and all that and then what happened was of of course, Teddy Bridgewater got hurt and the Vikings had to go and trade a first round pick for Sam Bradford. Now nobody's trading a first round pick for Kirk Cousins. Maybe we've gotten older and wiser at this point and there's contract stuff to be

regarded there. But if you're a team that's competing and you have your quarterback get hurt, there's a guy that's right there that's really obvious that should be able to give you a shot. I still also think it's possible that the Cleveland Browns have two weeks of training camp and are like, Oh my gosh, we're all getting fired. If Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett is our quarterback and these other two guys aren't ready and just make the phone call and try to get Kirk Cousins. So there's other teams that are out there that could do it. There's injury potential, but I don't think that it's the most insane thing I've ever heard that if the Vikings really didn't like how it was going with Sam

Howell that they could consider bringing Kirk in. I just think it's so awkward. I just think it's so uncomfortable. And you know, you've got a young quarterback who's trying to really establish himself with the guy who was the franchise quarterback here for years. It's just, I can't think of too many situations where that's ever happened before. You'd probably rather have somebody one notch down in terms of talent. I think Kirk can still throw the ball and just not have that dynamic there because a lot of the players in the locker room Kirk was their leader for multiple years and now you're going to say like, all right, well actually it's JJ, but Kirk is back, but he's

here but don't look at him. Don't look directly at him. I don't know. That's just kind of uncomfortable to me. Ryan says, how will has Nick Mullins written all over him? And that is not a bad thing. Well, the one thing about Nick Mullins that I don't know about Sam Howell, because I just don't know Sam Howell yet. I got to know Nick Mullins over a couple of years, uh, a go-to guy in the

locker room, one of the smartest football minds that you're going to run into. Uh, he knows this sport inside and out. Uh. He has a freakish mind for the game and he puts so much work into it and he's so appreciated in the locker room because of that because he's running scout team and look I mean he came very close to winning them games when he actually got a chance and he aired it out and I think everybody appreciated that how much heart he put into it. You saw how emotionally was after it didn't work out. Um, does Sam Howell have the mind in the heart of Nick Mullins? I mean, I would, I'm, I would put Nick Mullins and this is why I always, always, you know, balked when people talked about him, you know, he's not a great quarterback. And I think that he would

tell you that also that he's not, uh, you know, Peyton Manning, he's not Josh Allen or anything like that. But a lot of times these backup quarterbacks, the way that they're in the league is that they're so prepared and they will fight to the very last second to try to win, even if they're not good enough to actually do it. And there's a lot of great journeymen,

you know, you're Ryan Fitzpatrick, you're Josh McCown, who stay in the league because they know they're gonna be able to run the offense and they know they're a fighter and they're a leader and they're gonna go give everything they've got. I don't know if Sam Howell is that guy or not. I'm not saying he isn't, I just don't know that yet. That he hasn't been around long enough

to have a bunch of proof to say that he is. If he's that guy, if he can take all the great things about Nick Mullins and make those about Sam Howell It's gonna be in the league a long time and he's gonna have a lot of jobs and he's gonna have some opportunities That would be great for him if he's got that heart and mind to go along with it Like Nick Mullins did it because that's why you know, that's why they win got Nick Mullins for Jacksonville, right? Because not because they thought oh oh yeah, if Trevor Lawrence goes down for eight games, we're going to win four of them. No, because they want him

in the room with Trevor Lawrence. Son of a B versus Theo Jackson was part of the 2022 draft Titans. So a safety from that class did end up getting a contract extension. Fun fact of the day. That's right, because they got Theo Jackson when Lewis Seen got hurt in London. So there's a trickle down effect here, a domino effect of if Theo Jackson becomes a wall of fame, Minnesota Viking player who challenges Paul Krause's all time record for interceptions or something.

They'll have gotten him because a first round pick went down and that's, it's the safety version of Brock Purdy and Trey Lance, the athletic freak who's drafted high and basically never plays. And then the late round draft pick. Look, this is a point that I've made many times, and that actually is really funny that you bring that up because let's let's like reverse engineer if they had found now I know Ivan Pace. So Ivan Pace was a rookie in 23 not 22. So I guess this doesn't quite work. But if you know that you got Jalen Naylor, Theo Jackson, if I don't remember the undrafted free agents from that list, but it's just sort of

like what if Theo Jackson was the first round pick and worked out to be pretty good and started and got an extension? Then maybe we wouldn't look at that draft as being so bad. But yeah, I mean, Oh, you know who you can actually count as like Josh Mattelis because Josh Mattelis probably doesn't get an opportunity if Lewis Seen had worked out. So they got Josh Mattel is a top hybrid player in the league and Theo Jackson is starting safety because one player could not get on the field. So there you go. And it's always not if you hit on the draft picks as much as what do you do about the failures?

Uh, Jude says, uh, how much do you think McCarthy is going to play in the three preseason games? I've been thinking about that a lot about how Kevin O'Connell is going to handle it. If I had to wager a guess right now, I would say that they will play JJ McCarthy for maybe three or four series in the first game. And that will probably be it. Maybe one series in the second game, depending on how it goes. Uh, but they have joint practices and those joint practices are just the real, those are the real preseason games.

And that's why I want to make it my thing that they should have joint practices inside the stadium before a preseason game. I don't know how it would work out, but this is my idea for all teams. If you're having a joint practice, which means you're not going to play your starters in your preseason game, you should have that practice in the stadium that people can buy their tickets, come in, watch the joint practice, and then stay for the actual game. Because if you're buying a ticket to the Vikings preseason game and you're not seeing JJ McCarthy or Justin Jefferson or Jordan Addison or TJ Hawkinson or all these star talents, I mean maybe you know, you're watching this show

So maybe you're super into whether Taki Taimani is gonna work out or not, but to not see any of them That's why I always suggest because usually they do warm-ups. I usually suggest if people ask me Hey, what should I you know, I'm coming to this preseason game. What should I do warmups. I usually suggest if people ask me, hey, what should I, you know, I'm coming to this preseason game. What should I do? What should I see? I always suggest make sure you show up super early so you can watch the warmups and actually see the players that you like.

But anyway, that's a side rant. But I would guess, I'm gonna guess five series. Maybe that's an over-under if you guys wanna answer that. How many series should he play? I to guess five series. Maybe that's an over under. If you guys want to answer that, how many series should he play? I'll guess I'll guess five. I think that you get him in the first game. You get him rolling around a little bit. Make us a plays.

Hey, you're back in a real football stadium. So it's not going to be the first time you're doing that when you arrive at the regular season and maybe the second game just to go through the process just to treat it like another game. You know, maybe he starts it, runs a series, but last year he got hurt in a pre-season game. Don't want too much of that action. And I'll always think, you know,

when it comes to KOC and not playing anybody in the pre-season, I have to respect it because it's the right thing to do. If I was buying tickets and I was in the stands, I would have much preferred Mike Zimmer because I would have seen a whole half of Kirk Cousins at times. But that game where Irv Smith Jr. got hurt

in the final preseason game, because Zimmer wasn't too happy with how they'd practiced. So he made everybody else, you know, all the starters go out and play in a fourth preseason game. Oh, I mean, getting somebody hurt in that situation, I very much respect. It's the same thing goes for OTAs and mini camp with O'Connell, where as a reporter, I really enjoyed OTAs and mini camp when Zimmer would have those guys going at each other because we could watch and go, all right, well, this guy looks good and the offense

is doing this and there are 11 on 11s out there. I mean, when Kirk Cousins famously threw the ball into the road in a mini camp practice, that was 11 on 11 and Zimmer was throwing blitzes at them and all sorts of different coverages. And that's what upset Cousins so much. That feels like a different universe from Kevin O'Connell. It's all walkthrough at 11 on 11. The only full speed stuff is seven on the seven and they have a rule that nobody hits the ground. Nobody should ever be making physical contact with each other. But then again you get

to the end of last year, look at the Vikings roster. It's most of the guys, they're out there, they're healthy. So I respect and appreciate that they probably won't play McCarthy a lot in these preseason games kind of wish that they would so you guys could see him. And I think you'll get a little bit of both worlds. Son of a beaver says, speaking of Sam Howell, if he does not prove that he's capable with the Vikings, look at Anthony Richardson, Joe Flacco or CJ Beathard.

You love CJ Beathard. You're going to have to explain that at some point. Beavers Tyler Huntley, Carson Wentz. Yeah, I haven't seen Carson Wentz pop up anywhere. Is he playing this year? There was some fake news that he had retired. It was like an April Fool's thing, but maybe he is I don't know Did he sign somewhere? I don't remember if Wentz and tell me if Wentz ended up somewhere I don't remember if he did as a backup but and tell me if Wentz ended up somewhere. I don't remember if he did as a backup, but Tyler Huntley, it just, it hasn't worked out for him. He played for Miami last year.

It was pretty ugly. Started a playoff game that he lost because he fumbled at the goal line and that was kind of his shining moment. Joe Flacco, maybe if they cut him, I think if you are Joe Flacco and you don't win that job, maybe you are asking to be cut and just go be a backup for a better team. That's possible.

Anthony Richardson is one. I just can't see him at any point, anytime soon getting let go. They have to ride it out for the entire season because there's always a chance where you get two thirds of the way through the season and you've been playing Daniel Jones. It's not really working working and you're like, all right, Anthony Richardson, okay, Wentz hasn't signed, I didn't think so, I didn't see that pop up.

But maybe Richardson kind of has a click. You're gonna hold out for that because you've seen players like Richardson who were declared bust, Sam Darnold was one of them, and then all of a sudden it works and who knows why, right? Uh, Richardson has just had so few reps in his career. Like I just don't think he's going to be available, but those other guys, yeah. I mean, if they don't like what they've seen from Sam Howell, then yeah, you call Ryan Tannehill, you call Carson Wentz, you call maybe I guess CJ Beathard, but you call

the Browns about Joe Flacco. Like, Hey, if you guys are going to start Kenny Pickett, then we'll take him as a the backup. I think they'll have options. And that's why when we were in the middle of that, who's going to be the backup quarterback conversation, I was like, you don't find somebody. And if it doesn't work out with that guy, they'll find somebody else. There's a number of quarterbacks out there that are possibilities. Now, Anthony Richardson to be the Vikings backup, they'll find somebody else. There's a number of quarterbacks out there that are possibilities.

Now Anthony Richardson to be the Vikings backup, maybe two years from now. That one I could see that one I could see happening. Track Pat says who will have a better year this year McCarthy or Darnold? That's an interesting question. I mean, because Seattle has enough to be competitive. I don't think they have enough to be a serious contender, but Darnold just showed last year that he can really play in the NFL.

Clint Kubiak is his offensive coordinator. Has that ever really worked? In 2021, the Vikings had an okay offense under Clint Kubiak, but it was not great and they really struggled. Late in games, it seemed to adjust. Then again, he was working for Mike Zimmer. That's a tough gig. And last year he was having to start Spencer Rattler. Not exactly, you know, a good gauge on how good Clint Kubiak is as an offensive coordinator. They gave away DK Metcalf, but they have Jackson Smith, the Jigba.

They brought in Cooper Cup. I don't know how healthy he's going to be. Their offensive line kind of stinks. Like all Cooper cop. I don't know how healthy he's going to be. Their offensive line kind of stinks like all these things. I mean, we've seen from Sam Darnold that what's around him is going to play a large role and how good he's going to be. So I think that Darnold will have a year where he throws for a lot of yards and he's a lot of fun and he makes a lot of mistakes and he probably runs like a nine and eight team when I was working on my predictions, my 50 bold predictions the other day, I wrote

down 4500 yards and nine wins for Sam Darnold. So I think that he could end up with fantasy stats. Like if you're a fantasy player and you're asking me Darnold or McCarthy, I might say Darnold because he might rack up more yards. They might play in more shootouts. I don't know how good that defense is in Seattle and it might be a really good statistical season for him. But does that mean that they're going to win a lot of games and be that competitive? And we know that Darnell is going to make his fair number of mistakes. And when he did it last year, he had a top five defense to bail him out like in Jacksonville and a great kicker John Parker Romo that day

but is he gonna have that in Seattle if he throws three interceptions all in the red zone probably not so I think JJ McCarthy is going to lead a more successful team and possibly even a more successful offense in terms of total points but I think that Darnold will end up racking up more of your traditional stats. So maybe that's a cop out answer, but I think that that's probably how it plays out is at the end of the year we might say, well, McCarthy threw for 700 less yards, but we're like old enough now and we understand stats well enough now to not look at total yards is a great way to evaluate a quarterback. So yeah, I mean, if you're asking also who ranks higher by

PFF at the end of the year or ESPN's QBR, like those catch all stats, I would probably say Sam Darnold, but I don't know if it's going to be by a lot and I don't know that his team is going to win more. Bruno says, how do you think Brian Flores will use Dallas Turner this year? I think he will use Dallas Turner in a lot of different ways. It won't be unless somebody gets hurt, then he'll have to fill into somebody's role. But let's just assume everyone's healthy. That's how we do it on June 26. You got Granard and Van Ginkleinkle who are pretty locked into what their roles

are. But what you can do with Van Ginkle is you can adjust that ever so slightly to where he can play middle linebacker a little bit more. You can also look at both of those guys and say, do you really want 900 plus snaps for Jonathan Granard and Andrew Van Ginkle? Like last year, they were both in the top five in total snaps. And when you get to the end of the season and you're playing in the playoffs and you're flying to Glendale, Arizona to play the Rams, is that good? Is it good to go into the playoffs with so many games

where Jonathan Grenard was exhausted by the end? I mean, you remember the Vikings calling a timeout just to get Grenard enough of a breather to get them back out there in a big moment. I think they would much rather have Grenard play like 750 snaps and Van Ginkgel 700 snaps and have Dallas Turner take up a large portion of the other one. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's rushing off the left side and the right side. I also wouldn't be surprised that in certain packages, he's playing an inside linebacker type of situation.

You know, Dallas Turner kind of reminds me of what everyone wanted Anthony Barr to be when Anthony Barr came into the NFL. He was thought of after his first year where he made a lot of splash plays as this dynamo who could play off the edge in the middle, could line up anywhere, do anything. And as the years went along, he kind of settled into more of a traditional inside linebacker position. One of the two linebackers with Eric Hendricks in the nickel package, which they played pretty much exclusively. And he was good in that role.

He was very good in that role, but he never turned into that freak show, off the edge guy who could do all sorts of stuff. That wasn't him. I think that could be Dallas Turner. It's also because Mike Zimmer played a four, three, and it was a very traditional kind of four, three, and he had the horses to do it in 1718 19

and bar was just fitting into a traditional type of linebacker spot. Whereas Brian Flores, there's no tradition. It's just whatever works the best for that player at that time. And for Dallas Turner, that might be a lot of different things. And I think that's one reason why they took it so slowly for Turner last year was because they wanted to train him to do a lot of different stuff. And yeah, you could just throw them out there and say, all right, dude, you're an edge rusher, just rush the passer and let's make sure you get like six or seven sacks. So we look good for our first round draft pick, but that wasn't how they use them. I mean, they dropped them back over a hundred times in coverage.

They, they rushed him from different spots. I didn't love how he looked at inside linebacker, but they were trying things with him to see how it looked and to get him some experience doing it. So now he can do all those different things. And I've thought that van Ginkle might get four or five less sacks this year and actually be more impactful or just as impactful because you can slide Turner over a lot of times to create those sacks. They were using Van Ginkle kind of in stunts where he would line up outside swing to the inside or you know, there was some cleanup sacks in there where Turner has the pure twitchiness

where he could just beat somebody. You saw that against Chicago where he could just roast an offensive tackle that it takes a little bit more effort for Andrew van Ginkel. So he might play a little more in the linebacker position. There's so many things they could do. It's very, it's, it's very fun to talk about because there's so many different things that they can do. Son of a Beaver says, when we signed Tim Jones during free agency, his one highlight was catching a 74 yard touchdown from CJ Beathard.

It's a bit because we do not have a backup quarterback for a while. Okay. I did not realize that Tim Jones had caught a 74 yard touchdown from CJ Beathard. Well, that's some good tape analysis there from you, Mr. Beavers. But you know, Tim Jones is another one that's not gonna make the list. I was thinking about that today

because I've got the top 10 now to count down and who did not make the list. And there's a lot of guys who might be intriguing in this camp that will have to show that they belong on the list. And there's a lot of guys who might be intriguing in this camp that will have to show that they belong on the list. And I guess Tim Jones is one of them, because I just don't really know what they've got there. He's been around a couple of years. He's been a special teamer, but you never really know when someone's going to

take that big step forward and emerge and surprise you. And through Vikings history, there have been quite a few of those. All right. Well, it looks like you guys are kind of running low on questions. surprise you and through Vikings history there have been quite a few of those. All right well it looks like you guys are kind of running low on questions. I don't blame you for that. It is June 26th. I do have a bank of fans only questions to get to some more episodes of those and I did an interview with Steve Palazzolo today.

Make sure you go check that out. Really good stuff on some of my random predictions. Got a couple of guests coming up next week. Jeremiah Searles, I've been told, is begging to get back on the show and have some fun there. We got it. I mean, this weather has been such trash. It's either been 95 degrees or raining. How am I going to get the, uh, how am I going to get the porch podcast going? Am I going to play guitar for everyone this summer? I'll, I'll, I'll try. I'll try to get it set up to be able to do that. My guitar stuff is upstairs.

I'm not, I'm not trying to bail on you guys. I just haven't figured out like, how am I going to mic that up? How am I going to make that work to do it and when, but you know what? You do have me on that. We are at the time of year where I probably should figure that out because, you know, we got time.

We have time as there's how many days left, maybe 25 days left until training camp, we'll get there. The position that needs more depth, cornerback or O line. I mean, cornerback is the one that I think is the most clear is the easiest one. And I've been trying to think about the other positions because we just have spent so much time on the corners and the shortage of depth.

And that really depends on Dwight McClother and it really depends on Jeff Okuda because if those guys are good, then you don't really need a lot of depth. And if they're not, then you've got problems. Offensive line, I think they have good depth. I think they have some of the best depth in the NFL at the offensive line position. And that's not a high bar because most teams do not. But if you could trust Justin School for four games and you could trust Blake Brandle for four games, I mean, you're in good shape there.

And I'm really interested to see like Michael Juergens, Walter Rouse, Walter Rouse was good last year in training camp and pre-season. He really showed something. So is he somebody that is a long-term swing tackle option? Could he bump into guard a little bit? I was not looking close enough to see if he took any sort of slow reps at guard,

but I don't think that's a really good way to look at it in OTAs and mini camp, but training camp it will be if he takes any of those. And Juergens is an interesting player because he beat out a veteran backup for the number two center job last year, and they're trusting him if Ryan Kelly gets hurt. I think they are pretty solid at that position and the corner is a little more dicey. I think that the weakest position depth wise is actually outside linebacker edge because I'm counting Dallas Turner as a main guy. I'm counting him as more of a starter. We may see him start some games like get the official start. I'm counting him as more of a starter. And then behind him, that's where it's the Gabe Murphy is the, the Boer's, the Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, and you know, there's nobody back there where you can

go, all right, look, this guy's been around a long time. He's going to be fine. He's going to get you some sacks and that kind of stuff. There's no guy that's that's that like that, that's proven behind those three starters. That might actually be the position that has the least depth. I really liked getting Eric Wilson to give the linebacker position a little bit more there. We know running back, if you've got two, you've got depth, wide receiver, they've got three, but after that, there isn't a lot of proven.

So, but you, I mean, you gotta look kind of hard to find where they don't have depth on this roster I need an iRig for guitar. Okay. I haven't heard of that iRig I'm gonna have to look it up all I have what I have upstairs. I don't have a big, you know six Marshall Stacks like slash or something. I have you know a fender amp and I've got my my Mac upstairs and it's hooked into garage band and you know, I play and record some stuff into that. I got a keyboard that I can barely play

and use the drum machine on the program. So, you know, it's not the most spectacular rig, but I could probably just, I would guess I could probably just bring the amp downstairs and set it up near the microphone. You guys would be able to at least hear it or like Jack it up super loud. I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. I'll do it. I'll do it at some point. We'll figure it out.

A purple half says, you think JJ McCarthy is going to have designed run plays this year? You know, I was thinking about this last year during the playoffs with running quarterbacks because I think in the year 2025 when you look around and you go, all right, well, there's some guys who don't use their legs at all like a Justin Herbert or Jordan love when they really could they

have the athleticism to do it, but they just kind of don't. I mean, are you getting enough there on? Third down scrambles are you getting enough from the design run game that actually might cause some problems Even if you're not doing it all the time shouldn't you be doing it some of the time and with JJ McCarthy I can imagine if you're Kevin O'Connell where you'd be like look I'm not running JJ McCarthy because if he gets hurt, then we're in trouble. But at the same time,

it's pretty clear if you have a quarterback as an element of the run game, just how much that impacts the defense, because then they have to pay attention to the quarterback as well. Can you do it enough? And I don't think they'll do it at all. Like they didn't really do it with Josh Dobbs. And if they didn't do it with Josh Dobbs, and I know those plays weren't in the playbook, but you know, you could try. If they didn't do it with Josh Dobbs, I can't see them doing it with JJ McCarthy. I would like to have some element of it. I just don't think that that's in KOC's DNA, which is ironic because he was a running quarterback himself Uh cj says crystal ball

Vikings are a wild card team. What is their seed? Where are they playing? How far does reichard line up with a chance to have? uh to win I could see them being a five seed and playing against I mean if I wanted to make this spicy, I could just say playing in Philadelphia. How about playing in DC?

How about that? If they are a wild card team, five seed, playing Washington DC in Jaden Daniels, and maybe they win 11 games. That's where I've got them right now, 11 games. If the Lions win 12, that puts you in a wild card, but a high wild card seed. And I can absolutely see Washington hosting a playoff game with Jaden Daniels.

How far does Rykard line up? I don't know, 40, 45 yards. I'm not going to say the number that has happened maybe in the playoffs before for the Vikings. But I mean, I could see that scenario. One question I get a lot is if the Vikings make the playoffs and they win a wild card round game, is it a success for this season? So if they were a wild card team and they went to Washington and they beat the commanders 2724 on a walk off will Rikert field goal.

Does that make the season a success? And my answer is it kind of depends on how it looks because if it's the scenario that I just laid out, which is 11 wins and you go to Washington and you feel like you're even with them just as good, you win that game against one of the best young quarterbacks in the league. You don't feel really good. That means McCarthy played really well. But if you back

into a wild card spot, nine and eight McCarthy hasn't played that well. You've won some games with defense, grinded some games out and then jaden Daniels gets hurt or something and you pull out a wild card win. Like all these things are a moving target and there's lots of teams that you could use as an example of this, of like the Texans last year, they won a wild card game. Were they a success? I don't think so. Um, how about the giants under Brian Dable? They gave him coach of the year and they beat the Vikings in the playoffs, but they went and got trounced. And what happens the next week matters a lot too.

If the Vikings went nine and eight and they won a playoff game 13 to nine and the opposing quarterback got hurt and then you got killed in the next round. I don't know. Like, I don't know if that's really a great season. There there's a lot of this that cannot just be static. It can't just be in a vacuum of if they do this, then they do, then it's a success, then it's a failure. It has to be a lot of how it feels

and it has to be a lot of how it looks. Because if it looks like JJ McCarthy is that dude going forward and they lose on a missed field goal in the playoffs, that would never happen to this team. But if it did in some crazy world, well, you're going to say that was a success. I mean, think about even 2015.

I think 2015 was a success for the Vikings. They should have won the playoff game. Teddy Bridgewater. You came out of that season feeling like he could lead a winning team. You thought you're on the rise. So how it feels walking away from it last year, last year, walking away from it last year last year walking away from it

It all just was oh, huh. I guess that was fake the whole time, which it wasn't They were a really good team that had the wrong matchup and they choked everybody did everybody did and It was a successful season last year even the way that it ended because Kevin O'Connell proved that he could coach and he can raise the level of a quarterback. And McCarthy developed behind Sam Darnold, even if he didn't get to play, but you didn't ruin him or anything by starting him too early and having problems.

Like they stayed to their path, which was probably always to play him in 2025. They developed a lot of players, the guys emerged, or even if they didn't develop them, they understood how good they really were. Like I thought that, you know, Jonathan Grinard was good. I didn't know Jonathan Grinard was great. Just for example, like a lot of that happened last year and the same for van Ginkle, the same for Cashman. A lot of players emerged and that's a successful season

because it swings you forward into 2025, gives you confidence in where they're going. That's a success. But I mean, if they lose in the first round this year, that's a lot harder because if you have three years of Kevin O'Connell winning in the regular season and losing in the first round of the playoffs, it just starts to build up in the same way that it has in some other markets. Like green Bay's probably tired of that. Uh, Pittsburgh's probably tired of that. Then, you know, it starts to add up, but if they were to go, you know, nine and eight and right. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. CJ is right. Nine and eight and barely winning and then losing in the divisional round. You feel like, I don't know, was that really what you were looking for?

Probably not. So it all depends on how it looks. If you blast some team in the wild card and barely lose in the divisional round, well, come on. I mean, that's a good season then. So there's a, there's a lot of different kind of trees to that. A lot of different routes and paths to that opinion. Reconnected says if Addison is suspended two to three games who decides which games he misses the team or the league that would be the league As soon as you're suspended you're suspended. I mean as soon as it comes down like you're you're out like the next game They don't get to pick that would be great for the team is to say you know what? Giants missed that one. Cleveland missed that.

That'd be great if they could do that. Unfortunately, whenever it comes down is when it is the one thing that's a little bit tricky is you don't know when it's going to come down. I saw Ben guessling had something on this the other day about how I think it was how many days later the last suspension came after a ruling. I think it was, I mean, maybe he had something like 20 days after, uh, the NFL will look at it after the court ruling and then they'll decide. And as soon as they decide, then it's, then it's, that's the suspension.

So if they're messing around and haven't figured it out and then in week five they decide we're ruling He's out week six seven eight It's not the best for planning, but that is often how it goes in this scenario It should be clarified soon and then it'll likely be games one two three Which they need to win. Beaver son of beavers. Do you have any thoughts on the colluding of the NFL teams to not fully guarantee contracts? It seems JC Treader also tried to hide the report.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, number one on the this year program, I probably have made fun of that like 50 times because everyone with half a brain cell knew that the NFL was colluding against Lamar Jackson. So I'm not surprised that Pablo Torre would dig up this report that has all sorts of evidence that they were colluding against quarterbacks to try to lower the amount of guaranteed dollars and that they were celebrating with each other when they got good contracts that

Pushed down that number from Deshaun Watson and that they were all very angry with Cleveland because Watson set the bar Another that surprises me and I mean Lamar Jackson you were talking about the MVP of the league, one of the best players ever in the NFL ever. And you're telling me that nobody was interested. I mean, the Falcons leaked right away. No, no, no, we're not interested. Oh, great stuff. Falcons as if, as if you were in great shape with Desmond Ritter. I saw that the other day from a Falcons writer. It was D Orlando Ledbetter, who's covered them for a long time, was like, yeah, they went with Desmond Ritter instead of pursuing Lamar Jackson. And they were the most obvious team to go after him. But even the Minnesota Vikings, we talked about it. And there was one report that was connecting that situation

with Lamar Jackson, with the Vikings, if I recall, or at least there was something involving it. Cause I remember doing a show and debating it with people and being like, guys, this is Lamar Jackson. Like you want him on your football team. Uh, so I'm not, nothing surprises me about that. Uh, I think JC Treader should probably resign. I mean, if you just look at some of the things that were said in that report, he doesn't really seem fit to run the NFL PA, uh, that that should be easy based

on some of the things that came out. And also that they haven't been able to fight back, uh, well enough against this because the owners successfully were able to push down those contracts. And you would've thought that the players would want to be the first ones out there who were telling the world that the owners were doing this and instead it just got shoved under the rug, which to me was maybe trying to save face for JC Treader. The other part of this though that I think and I've seen Mike Florio saying, like, why isn't anybody talking about this?

There's been very little discussion on the major networks about it and the answer is probably because everyone knew it already and I don't know what you're supposed to do about it I mean he got a contract eventually with the Ravens NFL play I mean look collusion is bad no one wants this you shouldn't do it at the time, when you have a quarterback in the league, like Dak Prescott, who's got 60 million bucks, and he fought like crazy for it. Are any of us going, Oh, how well, you know, they're going to be okay. Right. I mean, I think that's why, and I don't totally subscribe to that. This is a different world. That's in its own bubble for the universe. I mean, you have people who are, you know, struggling to survive and NFL quarterback is making 60 million a year. And it's just not a just society when it comes to that, but like put that all aside. It's hard, I think for people to look at players

and quarterbacks who are making this much money and just feel bad for them that their owners were trying to push the prices down. And the owners always try to push the prices down whether they talk about it with each other or not. Um, so I would be very surprised if any of this moves the needle with anybody. The other thing is too, that every major network, they have NFL rights. They know how popular it is.

That's a boat. You really don't want to rock too much when it comes to those owners. I just don't think that there's a lot that's going to come from this other than oh, yeah, that thing that was happening it was happening and Hey, all you teams that didn't break rank and go get Lamar Jackson good stuff If you're a fan on one of those teams, you should be infuriated if you're the Atlanta Falcons, you should be like What the owner was 80 years old like Who cares if everyone's mad at him? Go get Lamar Jackson.

But yeah, I mean, for something to pop up like that at this time of year is, you know, it catches your eye for sure. But when it came out, did anyone go, oh my, I'm shocked. I'm shocked. No, definitely, definitely not. So, all right, good my, I'm shocked. I'm shocked. No, definitely. Uh, definitely not. So, all right. Good stuff.

Good stuff. I'll, uh, I'll try to work on the plans to play guitar on the show at some point. And until then though, Monday night, Maggie Robinson returns Monday night. She has moved into Syracuse university, intern Maggie, and she'll be ready to talk some football again, and we'll start to do some of them predictions I'm thinking unless some news pops up, but at this time of year you always root against news Coming out with the Minnesota Vikings So we'll continue to count down the most interesting players heading into training camp next week as well

Probably next Thursday and also start to make some predictions and I can't wait to find out what your guys are as well. Your guys pulled predictions. So thanks everybody for stopping by and we'll talk to you all again very soon. Football.