Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Counting down the top 5 Vikings camp battles

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Matthew Coller looks at the top 5 position battles to watch at Vikings training camp this year. Plus, he answers several of your Vikings questions.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of purple inside or Matthew collar here. And Oh, you can feel it now. Minnesota Vikings training camp is right, right around the corner. On the 22nd, we'll have a press conference with quasi dot flamense and Kevin O'Connell. And then the 23rd, we are out there watching a real Minnesota Vikings practice. Oh, we have waited a long time for this and it is almost here.

So just in time, want to get in a ranking of the most interesting positional battles for the Minnesota Vikings. So I have five ish battles that I will be watching the closest. And of course, all eyes will be on JJ McCarthy throughout training camp, but there are a lot of interesting things going on on this roster below the surface, which I think more than any other year, it's taking place the most interesting storylines behind the starters, not is this guy going to win this job or can this rookie step up into this position.

It's a lot more of who's going to be the next wave and the next level on this team. So let us begin with my number one most interesting position battle. And that is along the defensive line. We have the starters, Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave, Harrison Phillips, they're going to play a lot of snaps, but these guys are all a little bit longer in the tooth

and they've asked a lot from Harrison Phillips over the last couple of years. So now can these younger players behind them make things interesting to the point where they feel like they have a complete rotation? And also as I was fiddling around with a 53 man roster, which will be another podcast, I was having trouble fitting everybody that I like

on this defensive line, that there could be somebody who doesn't end up making it. So I wanna start that discussion with Jalen Redmond, who I think has a chance, maybe the best chance, to be the guy who ends up as a rotational player because of how proficient he was last year at the end of the season where throw a stat at you weeks 13 through 17. He had nine stops, which is a PFF stat where you make the tackle on a negative play for the offense. So imagine it's third and three and you knife through

and tackle the guy for a zero yard gain. Well, that's a stop. He had nine of them as a rotational player in four weeks. That's a lot of playmaking for Jaylen Redmond. So he is kind of right now, the leader, I think, going into camp, especially because he has some previous pro experience and then came in and showed that he could play last year. But they're the names behind Jalen Redmond are all intriguing. I mean, we look at Levi Drake Rodriguez, a guy who came in as a seventh rounder, a lot of discussion and hype from the team. We love Levi Drake Rodriguez.

We love his attitude. We love his work ethic and that's great. But last year at the end of the day, only played a handful of snaps. So is that off-season work ethic and that's great. But last year at the end of the day only played a handful of snaps. So is that offseason work ethic going to translate now into an actual role where is he replacing Harrison Phillips? Is he a guy that's developed pass rush moves and they feel like he can go in for Jonathan Allen or Javon Hargrave? Can he get into the backfield or is he more of a garden center mover with his strength? That I think we're going to start to find out this year. Also a guy whose name I feel like we've said a million times, Takita Imani. I mean,

this guy is a fire hydrant. He's about six to 310 pounds and he's got great strength, point of attack guy, leverage guy, all those things made the team out of camp as a big surprise last year and then played a little bit, got hurt. We didn't see him the rest of the season. Now this is his chance to be that guy. Since the Vikings don't really have a true nose tackle or a true backup for Harrison Phillips.

So I think that is between Levi, Drake Rodriguez and Taki Tayamani to fight that out. And another guy that I'm not sure where he fits into this, I put him as a defensive lineman, but he might end up being an outside linebacker. That is Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, who played a lot of different positions when he was at Georgia.

He was a guy that was sometimes lining up inside, sometimes lining up outside. And so there's this battle between those kind of core key players along the D line where I don't think all of them can be the guy, but maybe two of them can emerge and they're going to go at it throughout the entire summer to figure out who is going to get on the field when those star players are getting a rest or under certain circumstances. If it is third down at one, is it Takita Imani and Levi Drake Rodriguez? Is it Jalen Redmond coming into play alongside Harrison Phillips? There's a lot of options there that the Vikings have.

And then they've got some other guys. I mean, Jonathan Harris has been in the league before Elijah Williams is the darkest of dark horses. I mean, we're talking a guy who signed a little bit late in the off season, did not play for a major school. So he's the one though that had huge college production and is a little bit like a Levi Drake Rodriguez. I mean, he is deep on the roster, but if you look at his production, Elijah Williams might be a

name to ultimately know on this team. All right. Number two, for the most interesting position battles at Minnesota Vikings training camp, I will go with wide receiver four, five, possibly number six. When you look at the top three, it feels quite settled with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jalen Naylor. But if Jordan Addison is suspended for three games, then who's going to slide up on the depth chart? Could it be Ty Felton, the rookie out of Maryland

who had a huge season for the Terrapins last season, speed guy, but also could track the football downfield. We saw him make a great sideline catch during mini camp that sort of showed his ball tracking ability down the field. He is the most intriguing because usually guys this big don't run this fast, but Ty Felton does. And usually guys with that kind of speed, They're not always yards after catch guys. They don't always break tackles. They can run fast, but they don't always run through people.

And even though he isn't huge seems to have that natural ability, at least in college. How does that translate over to NFL training camp? And then where does Rondale more fit into this? Is he going to be wide receiver for because of his previous experience? He was developing as an Arizona Cardinals wide receiver from initially just a bubble screen guy to more than that. So can he slide up into a wide receiver three spot if they need him based on his experience? Those are the main two that will be watching jockeying for

playing time. But there's more than just that There's a couple guys that the Vikings have been developing for a few years now. Lucky Jackson is one of them He has been on the practice squad for a couple years straight always makes plays in training camp Is this the time that he actually gets his shot? I would also throw Thayer Thomas in there as well He's been there a couple years Tim, who as I was making my 53, I thought, yeah, I could see it. I could see Tim Jones. I mean, most people don't know this name

because he was a special teamer with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the Vikings lost Trent Sherfield in free agency last year. So if Trent Sherfield obviously not coming back, if that position is wide open, then Jones with his previous experience has a halfway decent shot at winning a position just because of that. And then maybe he could develop to some extent as a wide receiver. And you talk about dark, dark horses. We've got a few in this group for sure. Silas Bolden

is one of them who could fight out a position just based on his returning ability. I could also see just Sean Jones being the guy. He's somebody that I think we probably talked a little too much up last year. It did get cut and wasn't back until I think halfway through the season, but he comes out mini camp and is making catches again. He also went to Maryland and seems to have natural ability to run routes and catch the football. So I'll throw him in that mix as well. And then who's making the practice squad, who's making the roster. An intriguing one would be another returner.

Miles Price did a lot of returning at Indiana. So there is a deep and serious bunch of wide receivers that are going to try to fight it out. And that is why it is my number two positional battle. Look guys, I am just about at the age where I'm starting to notice that hairline fading a little bit. So if you're struggling with the same problem,

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go out and get two highly sought after undrafted free agents. They get, uh, Bryson Nesbit out of UNC and also Ben Urasek from Georgia. A little bit more of a blocking tight end, but can catch the football a bit. And Nesbit is supposed to be more of a downfield type of threat. He's lanky, he's pretty quick. He can track the ball well. And then I'll throw a name at you that I'm sure you haven't heard, but it at least is worth bringing up

because this guy has some experience, which is Giovanni Ricci is on this team. He actually has played before and has nine NFL catches for the Carolina Panthers. Sometimes the tie will go to a veteran if they're not pleased with the way that the young guys acclimate themselves. Even though we always want to see the younger players, someone like Giovanni Ricci might be in this conversation

as a guy with some NFL playing experience. So that tight end three, you know, I've kind of joked about a little bit like, hey guys, I mean, you don't want the tight end, uh, three on the field too much, right? But at the same time, you know, the Vikings do use that position at times. And if anybody gets banged up, they are a two tight end offense pretty often. And you could see where the third tight end would get some playing time as Johnny Munt the best tight end three in the NFL. Well, it wasn't a joke. I mean, really was a very useful and helpful tight end three

and normally that guy never sees the field, but he might with the Viking. So Gavin Bartholomew is the guy that they really want to step up as a very athletic very good ball tracking tight end out of pit who didn't have the best quarterback play and maybe not the best offense, but you saw the natural skills. So that battle between all those guys

will be something to watch on a daily basis. Next on my list, number four, is the cornerback. And we'll throw the whole secondary in there for the backups. And the reason that I only have it as the fourth best battle is that the depth chart seems like it's pretty solidified, but where does everybody actually land on it? And the guy with the best chance to elevate himself,

maybe even into a rotational position, although Brian Flores doesn't tend to rotate the secondary all that much. Like he'll bring in different packages of the same people like Shaq Griffin and Stephane Gilmore were not on the field all the time together, but it's not like he was throwing in Dwight McClothern last year or Fabian Moreau last year or anybody behind the starters. But McClothern is the most interesting of this group because he had such a good training camp last year as an undrafted free agent. And always the thing to watch is playmaking.

Brian Flores wants guys who get their hands on the football. And McClothern has that. Uh, but of course the other really intriguing guy is Jeff Okuda. And there's nothing quite like a training. It wouldn't be any training camp around the NFL. If you didn't have one guy like Jeff Okuda, that was a former first round draft pick trying to make his last big swing at getting a chance to be a legit starter or significant contributor in the NFL, It has been a tough ride for Jeff Okuda, but we trust Brian Flores's ability to

see something in people that everybody else doesn't see something in. Now I know he tried that with Joanne Williams. They've tried that with some other guys, including Marcus Davenport. It doesn't always work. Ross Blacklock doesn't always work. But for this guy, this is not just any old first or second round draft pick. This is a top draft pick of the Detroit Lions. It did not work out there. He spent time with Atlanta, didn't exactly work out there either.

So now he's got a big chance for the Minnesota Vikings, unlikely to carve out a role as a starter or as that Shaq Griffin spot, but he might be the one leg injury away, one turned ankle, one twisted knee away from being a starter. If he proves himself this year in training camp. So he fell on my most interesting players list for that reason. And the guy with immense talent who hasn't put it together, always always a training camp intrigue. So he'll be in the fight there as well in the secondary. As far as corners behind those guys, Ambrie Thomas is the one to probably

watch the most as a veteran. He has played in the league for a couple of years, played for San Francisco in 2023 and then did not play last year was banged up. And Zamyavon is someone who's also gotten a lot of mention because he stood out an undrafted free agent from Utah, tall, great leaping ability, length, someone who could sneak into the back end of the roster and unseat a guy like Jeff Okuda if he plays well enough. And as far as the safeties go,

the guy who's got my attention is Jay Ward, but there isn't really a competition. It's not really a battle. Or is it? If Theo Jackson does not do what we expect Theo Jackson to do, then maybe Jay Ward gets some opportunities or maybe he can be the guy who can carve out a role.

And as always, you're one injury away. So is this the year that we see a little bit more from Jay Ward? Again, I don't think that the safety is really positioned, is really a battle as much as who's going to be on the field how much. And I guess that's a positional battle in its own right. I included kick and punt returner on this list just because it's wide open at this point. Could we see Rondale more? Could we see Ty Felton or will Isaiah Rogers actually get a chance to do some of that stuff?

Isaiah Rogers was a really good kick returner in Indianapolis has blazing speed, lightning quickness. Uh, he's got some shiftyness good with the ball in his hands. He's had some great returns in his career, but are they really going to let him go back there? And then Silas Bolden, as I mentioned, is somebody who was a very good returner in college, had a huge part return in the college football playoff. Is he going to carve himself out a role there? There was a clip. I don't know if you guys saw it. That was going

around social media where Isaiah Rogers said to Silas Bolden, like, Hey, I've been using you in the NCAA football game as my as my kick returner as my part return. That's funny. But I mean, I could see it with the natural ability to return. I think Marcus Sherrill's really proved to us that it is more than just a speed thing, that there is a playmaking element. There is a natural quickness or maybe even just the ability to process where all those people are and catch the ball and read and react and even catching punts as we've seen

in the past can be quite a challenge. So kick and part return makes the list and also at number six our bonus one is the backup quarterback position. Now during training camp practices, we will not be watching any quarterbacks not named JJ McCarthy. Okay, maybe a little bit of Sam Howell to get a sense of how he's picking up the offense, but I don't think that there is a QB two battle. I think it's really only QB three slash four that there is a fight between Brett Ripon and Max Brosmer. Now I've talked about Brosmer. I wrote about him. I was very impressed with what I saw from Max Brosmer in mini camp. There haven't been too many times where I've seen an undrafted quarterback

in practice in any of the rookie mini camp or OTAs or any of that and said, Oh, you know what? That looks like, that looks like this guy knows what he's doing. That looks like he's throwing to the right spots. He's getting the ball out on time. He's throwing accurately. What's going on here? And that's not based on a ton of reps, but we all watched Max Brosmer play at Minnesota and saw that he was a guy who could make good

decisions and he could throw accurately and he's got leadership traits as well. And when you hear Kevin O'Connell say that he's got some of the highest football IQ you're going to run into then, well, now you've got my attention. And Brett Rippon has kind of bounced around. We know what Brett Rippon is. So that's the bar for Brosmer. And where this is really going to show up is in those preseason games. I don't expect to see a ton of J.J. McCarthy.

I think that Sam Howell will play a good amount with the starters or second teamers, really the guys who start the game, uh, or come in after a series or two of JJ McCarthy. But the rest of the way we're going to find out, is it Brett Rippon or is it Max Brosmer? Do the Vikings have kind of an intriguing quarterback three who could eventually be their long-term backup in Brosmer or was this just a guy who had a pretty good mini camp and that was pretty much it.

So there is the list of the most interesting training camp battles. I would also toss in there the outside linebacker and who is playing behind Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Grenard. Is it Richter? Is it Murphy? Is it somebody else? There's a guy named Chas Chambliss. I mean, that sounds like an outside linebacker comes from Georgia. Had some big sacks for the Bulldogs this year. So maybe, right.

Maybe he could work his way in or maybe Tyron Ingram Dawkins ends up being the backup outside linebacker or maybe that's Tyler Batty from BYU. So I'll throw that in there as well. So there's your list. Go see all the details over purple insider dot football. Also wrote this as an article. So you want to check that out and well, you're going to get your feature stories and written recaps of practices over at purple insider dot football. Great place to sign up. If you like the show, it's also a good way to support it.

Okay, let's get to some fans only questions here for the remainder of the show. Let's begin with Matt who says, what do you think we will see more from the defense this year? Three safeties or three outside linebackers with Turner, Grenard and Van Ginkle? Well, I think it's part of, this is actually a good question because it's been part of, I should say it's been part of their base defense to have three safeties on the field. When you look at how much Josh Mattel is cam buying them and Harrison Smith

played, it was every single snap over the last two years. Mattel was over 900, both of the last two seasons. I think in 2023, he may have even cleared a thousand snaps. So he all those guys were every single down players. Now, is that what Theo Jackson is going to be? I'm a little more hesitant to say yes, because I mean, he's got to prove that during training camp, but also the Dallas Turner element does kind of

shape shift things a little bit from where they were before last year. And also, I mean, buying him was an, an impact player at safety for them. So he was someone you wanted on the field every single play, but I could see them moving Josh Mattel is back to deep safety and having Dallas Turner be in the game and sliding Andrew Van Ginkle over and having three outside linebackers on the field. I tend to think that still the answer is going to be three safeties more than three outside linebackers and Brian Flores is going to have to get creative, but he's also going to just use Dallas Turner in the game to give a rest to

Jonathan Grenard, to give a rest to Andrew van Ginkle. Those guys didn't get any of that really last year. And when we look at Patrick Jones's usage as a way to kind of say, all right, well, he's kind of replacing in a way. And I know it's not a perfect comparison, but in a way Patrick Jones and Jahad Ward's roles that they sort of combined to be the rotational outside linebackers that mixed in, that's still a pretty good number of snaps. That's six, 700 snaps between those two guys that if Dallas Turner is playing on third

downs, pass situations, they're not afraid, I think, to line up somebody on the inside on second down and 11 because they just know that the other team is going to pass. So you could see that being mixed in. There is way more mix and match potential this year personnel wise than there was last year though. And so I think you make a good point by asking the question, like, are they still going to be that three safety team as they have been in the past?

Or is this going to be, Hey, suddenly Dallas Turner, Ivan pace and Blake Cashman are all on the field at the same time. And it's just two safeties. And like, what is this package? And the opponent is looking over like, who, what are they doing? Um, but it might depend also on how they feel that it goes during training camp, because with someone like Dallas Turner, he learned last year about coverages and how to make plays on the football and where he's supposed

to be and when. So how does that carry over to this year? Does he take a step forward as that coverage guy if they need him to be? And maybe he's splitting a lot more of coverage and rush because he can be an impact player there. I mean, I mentioned this when he first got there that they were throwing footballs to him and he was catching every one of them smoothly, like a tight end. And I'm sure they took notice and he did it at Alabama as well. So it wasn't just those drills, but that he has a mobility to him, a natural ability to make plays on the football that you just don't get from most outside linebackers. Van Ginkle has it, but most outside linebackers do not. Especially if you ever saw Daniel Hunter try to throw or catch a football, I

think you should stick to defense. But you know, when it comes to a Dallas Turner, I think that they're going to be very creative and try to get them on the field as much as possible. So I'm going to say even, I'm going to say even split of three safeties and three outside linebackers. And the only thing that could turn it a little bit in one direction is just the fact that on third down, you know that all those guys are going to be on the field for third down. You're going to see Dallas Turner. And that'll even be interesting too, Like Turner Hargrave Allen I mean this sounds nasty for an opposing offense to face if they've got all those guys

But that's what they've built here as a front seven. That's pretty nasty Next question comes from Eldon says which camp storyline do you think will be overblown this year? That is a fun question. Well, so this is a hard one because I like to think that every back end of the roster question is probably overblown because when things are settled at a lot of positions, then you're going to focus on the things that could change, right? Like tight end three, for example.

So we may have spent the whole off season talking about tight end three and a draft pick and undrafted free agents. And then Giovanni Ricci might get it, or they might just cut them, cut all of them and end up signing some veteran. Right. And I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. So there's probably one of the positions that it will have happen. More likely is, and this is just based on the past.

I'm not writing this guy off, but I'm just saying that this is kind of how it goes sometimes is the most likely one would either be Rondale Moore or Jeff Okuda, where we spent a lot of time in the off season talking about like, hey, this is an interesting player and maybe he could be this. And maybe in our imaginations run wild about what that guy could do for you. And then ultimately they get caught.

And I can go through all the names, especially a wide receiver that this has happened with in the past. So you should already kind of prepare yourself for a we might have overhyped that guy. We might have spent way too much time talking about him. And then all of a sudden, you know, he's just not making the team. Um, I would also say that someone like Tyreon Ingram Dawkins, who, again, this is not me projecting that it's going to go this way, just that it's possible

that it ends up overhyped last year. We definitely overdid it with the Levi Drake Rodriguez stuff because Jerry Tillery went down for a couple days and the guy that played his backup role was Levi Drake Rodriguez. So he's out there taking first team reps. And of course, I mean, as we should, we're going, whoa, they got this seventh rounder out there with the long hair and the crazy mentality. And this guy is getting first team reps already.

But then, you know, you saw during the season that it didn't really materialize. Maybe it will this year could also be the brosmer thing that I mentioned. I like a lot that I see from brosmer, but when they start going full speed, it might not look like it looked in mini camp. And we might again, ultimately say, ah, you know, it's still Brett Rippon's job and you know, we'll go from there. So I think those are a few of the candidates and you know, maybe the quarterback thing. I mean, the quarterback thing is when I do appearances on other

people's shows. So just for example, uh, the New York giants have a radio show, daily radio show, which means, you know, it's a lot of content there that they're putting together in the off season. So they have me on. And what do you think the number one thing they asked about was other than JJ McCarthy, it's well, what about this secondary? What is that going to look like? Are they going to have to go get somebody else or are they okay with Isaiah Rogers, Mackay Blackman? It might be the case that those guys are just good and we go out of training camp and like, why were we even questioning if Brian Flores

could pick up, you know, cornerbacks in the draft or in free agency that knew what they were doing and are good. I think that could eventually be the most overblown. And I say this as even someone who was advocating for Jalen Ramsey to come to the Minnesota Vikings that it's a real possibility that that just ends up working out. One of them will be overblown. Just don't know who yet. Jason says what is your biggest camp surprise from covering the Vikings? The biggest ever in all these years. My first camp was 17, got here in 2016, then 17 was the first training camp.

Biggest surprise that I've seen the entire time. Okay, so I know it's not a sexy one. I kinda know what it is, because I just couldn't have been more shocked that this person made the roster. That is Dan Cicena. And this is like, you gotta be a camp nut to remember this, but a couple of years ago, Dan Cicena came out of Penn state as a lacrosse player who had played, I think one year of college

football. And when I looked him up on college football reference, I thought I had the wrong guy. I was like, that can't be it. That guy has like four catches in his college career. How is he on the Minnesota Vikings? And he is also one of the fastest people that I've ever seen. And he ends up winning a job as a punk gunner. And I kid you not, there were a couple of practices, I am not joking, where Dan Tresena was legitimately good at catching the football, like made plays in practices. And there was a moment where, uh, Mike Zimmer wanted to move Jacena to corner or safety and Adam Thielen went to him and said, no way, man, no way. This guy could be a legitimate wide receiver. That of course has not happened, but he still

is in the league place for the Carolina Panthers. So Adam Thielen, he's with Adam Thielen down there in Carolina. That's probably the biggest shock ever of wait, what the lacrosse player from Penn State who never played football is on the team. Like on the night, like not the 90, but the 53, not the practice squad, but on the team. So that was, that was pretty stunning. There have been other times throughout a training camp where I've been more like perplexed by storyline. So when you say surprising, of course, I know what you mean, like, Oh, this player came out of nowhere. So I'll throw a few more of those examples at you. Ivan pace. I mean, that was a shock. We were talking all off season about Brian awesome one third round pick.

He had made a couple of plays the year before. He's going to do it. Undrafted free agent. Oh, that's great. Like some kid from Cincinnati. All right, then he's taking over by the night practice and he's starting and then he's making plays and what undrafted free agent who's coming out and make a plays right away that that one

is pretty surprising. I was pretty surprising. Um, I was pretty surprised that they traded for somebody that claimed to be a kicker and a punter. I was pretty surprised by that. I, when Mike Zimmer said that Corey Vedvik might be able to kick and pun that blew my mind. Yeah.

That blew my mind. I mean, look, these guys spend a lifetime kicking. They spend a lifetime punting and they even bounce around and they have their ups and downs. Somebody was going to do both of them. I mean, I guess Shohei Otani proved that it's possible and maybe Travis Hunter is, but I think the odds were against the old Corey. So, uh, didn't work out for him, but I was, I was pretty shocked by that.

There's been funny debates that have surprised me. Uh, the Kyle Slaughter battle that went on was really wild. I mean, we're talking about, uh, a fringe roster player who was playing in the fourth quarter of games and, you know, I was getting emails, could he like take Kirk's job? What? Uh, and then Mike Zimmer saying that he couldn't get the guys lined up correctly. And then, you know, that whole kind of battle between them and then his, you know, he was online and people got upset, got very emotional over the fourth quarterback who, you know, has played zero games in the NFL. So that was a, that was a weird one.

Alexander Hollins, people got really mad about Alexander Hollins getting cut in 2020. I remember Amir Smith, MarCet. There was a lot of debate about him being let go. So all of those were surprises to me, because when you talk about the back end of the roster, like I know we're trying to have debates and have conversations about what decisions they're making on cut down day, but if we're talking about that kind of thing, Oh, actually, you know what? I, I, I have any better one.

Sorry. You, you opened the flood gates here. Probably the biggest surprise since I've been here was them cutting Brian Robinson, Robinson. I mean, that was B B Rob cutting B Rob was crazy. That was really crazy to me because Robinson had been such a big part of that 2017 team. He could still rush the passer. He was savvy, smart. He'd been through all the battles on this team and was a leader in his own way.

And they cut him to keep to Sean Bauer, who was kind of their pet cat, like favorite undrafted free agent who they had paid out some dollars for. And I just didn't get it. I mean, when you're talking about one of the better Vikings, edge rushers, defensive ends over the previous 10 years before that, and was an advantage that they had that they could bring him in on third downs, or there was a game where Everson Griffin was out and he had to come in and he played fine because he was a good football player.

And then they just cut him like what? And they also cut Terrence Newman that year, which was a little less surprising, but even still kind of dubious for them to do. And it was part of the 2018 not being the same as 2017. But I will, yes, I will say the craziest guy to make the team, Dan Drusena and the cut that completely shocked me was definitely, uh, Brian Robinson. Uh, next question is from, uh, idiocy two or idiocy. I, I, well, let's see how good this question is, uh, says, uh, probability

that Darasaw starts week one or that he'll begin the season on the pup list. Well, idiocy, that is not an idiotic question. Actually, it's very reasonable. I mean, it's hard to put a percentage on a guy's recovery. Here's what I know. I know that him getting back to mini camp is huge. Being able to get onto the field and actually do some real drills with teammates. He didn't do five on five stuff like basketball.

I don't know. That's why did I call it five on five? He didn't do full speed stuff out there, but he was getting pretty physical in some of those drills and he was moving well. I am not trying to play trainer from the sideline, but I was like, wow, okay. He's really moving out there. He's not just standing around and that's a great sign for him potentially coming back week one, but the recovery is not always super easy where, oh, like he's on the field. So he's just ready to play football in the NFL, uh, getting to the game shape. Part of it does take time and does take work.

And we're just going to have to see, I mean, right now, the only percentage I could really put on that is just kind of 50 50 because I know they don't want to rush him. I know for sure that they don't want to rush him. I know for sure that they do not want to push Christian Derrissa. And if you go back a few years where I think they did push some guys onto the field when they had some injuries, Adam Thielen in 2019, Delvin Cook coming off the ACL, probably rode him a little bit too hard early in that season.

And then he ends up with a hamstring coming off an ACL. And some of these things are connected. Like you have one injury and it ends up kind of causing another injury because your body is making up for something. Again, this is not, you know, biochemistry, but I've seen it happen before and they do not want that to happen with Christian Derrissa. They want, if, if you're sacrificing one game and you end up with 14 games of a top five left tackle, that's way better 14 in a row starting in week

four or three, uh, then rushing him out there and then, Oh, it's, it's eight games. It's nine games he gets to play because he's in and out of the lineup while he's still recovering. So I would throw it at 50 50 right now. Um, but I wouldn't be surprised considering what a free Christian Derrisaw is if he does end up back on the field, uh, in week one. All right, let's get in one more question here. Maybe one or two, uh, average Vikes fan says who contributes more this year. TJ Hockinson or Jordan Addison.

Well, just based on the fact that Addison might get suspended, I suppose that, uh, TJ Hockinson would be the way that I lead here. I don't mean to cop out on these questions by saying like, it's probably going to be around equal. I mean, depends on what you mean by contributes because if we're just talking about yardage, like what would you put your yardage on for TJ Hawkinson and Jordan Addison? I think we would all say like about 800 to 900 yards for both of those guys. We can pretty much pencil in 13 to 1500 for Justin Jefferson and sometimes more depending on how things are going. But after that, you know, what have they done in the recent past?

It's probably in that ballpark. If JJ McCarthy loves him some TJ Hockinson and he's constantly throwing to TJ Hockinson, he could get up into the nine 50 type of range. Also, if teams are selling out even more than they did last year to stop Justin Jefferson and he becomes more comfortable with Jordan Addison could reach a thousand, but it seems like a little bit of a stretch. If there's a suspension, it also seems like a little bit of a stretch because you just need a lot of footballs going that guy's way. And they have so many weapons to spread

it out because you're not just talking about Hockinson and Addison. The Vikings also have a top five receiving running back as well in Aaron Jones. And then look, they're going to throw the ball to Josh Oliver. Sometimes they're going to throw the ball to Jaylen Naylor sometimes. Um, so that's about where I would put it. If I'm just taking a swing at it, I'd say maybe 85 catches for TJ Hockinson for 850 yards. And with Jordan Addison, maybe 68 for 875 yards, something in that ballpark.

But I would say, I mean, split it right down the middle. And both of them are red zone threats with so much attention going to Justin Jefferson. All right, one more question here. Let's go with Alex C. Flick says Dallas Turner year two, who wins cornerback to and how does the brand new interior offensive line gel? The trenches and training camp are going to be good on good. It's almost too obvious to say McCarthy and training camp as the thing. I assume you mean the thing you're watching the

most confident in Addison, JJ and Hawkinson to give him a pretty good floor. So the things you're most interested in, in training camp, which was honestly how I phrased the question on Twitter, Dallas Turner, year two, and who wins cornerback to, you know what that is something I haven't really talked about a lot. That's a great one to bring up.

So let me focus on that one. I want to find out pretty quickly. Is there a battle between Isaiah Rogers and Mackay Blackman, or is it kind of set and Rogers is going to be the starter and Blackman's going to work in, or are they more, you know, we talked about three safeties. What about more nickel? I mean, you can't have more of everything all at once, but maybe you can spread it out a little bit more and have Blackman and Rogers on the field more often than they had Shaq Griffin and Stephon Gilmore.

That was not a package that they used a ton, which would have been Gilmore, Griffin, and Byron Murphy. But now that they have a little more youth there and Rogers and McKay Blackman, a little more speed there. Maybe they do feel good about Byron Murphy in the slot, or maybe Byron Murphy in the slot is the same thing as running backs talking about how they're going to play wide receiver. Um, but I'm, yeah, I'm very interested to see if that's an actual battle or is it just, Hey, Rogers is the starter until proven otherwise, are they going to get

50 50 split for snaps or is it going to be just Rogers 100% and then Blackman mixes in in the nickel package and that's how it goes. I think that they really like Mackay Blackman. He's got every chance to be on the field a lot, but he has to prove it. I mean, the guy has barely played any snaps in the NFL and is 26 years old. So it's kind of time for him, not so much as a development player, but to prove it here coming up this season. So there you go, the position battles and also some very good questions and comments from you guys, purpleinsider.football.

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