Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Daniel Jeremiah mocks a wide receiver to the Vikings in the first round and we need to talk about it right now

Episode Date: February 17, 2021

Matthew Coller officially welcomes Sam Ekstrom to Purple Insider and right away they are given a bombshell mock draft topic to discuss. Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network has mocked Devonta Smith to the Vikings, which is the first time any serious draft insider has connected the Vikings to a wide receiver. Why does it make sense? How would they still go about fixing the offensive line? Is Smith worth it? And does this increase the potential chances of it happening since Jeremiah is dialed in? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here and new on Purple Insider, Sam Ekstrom, who has now joined Purple Insider, both here on the podcast and Purple Insider, the website. You can go to purpleinsider.substack.com to see his first article there. He will be on multiple times a week. We'll be doing roundtables with other journalists and taking Purple Insider to the next level. Sam, how are you? And congratulations on your new gig joining me. I appreciate it. Do I have to call you boss now when I join? Mr. Collar?

During every show, Mr. Collar will work. Thank you. Coach. Call me coach. Coach Collar. Somebody pointed out on Twitter that you expanded the size of the company by 100%. So that's got to feel good. And props to you, man, for building this thing out in a way that we could join forces. This is going to be a ton of fun. And the reaction yesterday was really, really cool to see all the people that are pumped for you and pumped to hear us together.

We've dabbled, you know, doing these podcasts here and there, but it's going to be fun to do it on a regular basis, man. This is a good thing. Well, I just want to say before we get into it, the reason that I wanted you to join and I jumped at the first chance that I could to bring you aboard to Purple Insider is because of how great your work is, Sam. doing a tremendous podcast and you were grinding out on the beat every day, every Zoom call, road trips, all those things, standing around in the locker room for hours on end as we do sometimes. And that grind is not always easy. And you put in so much effort to it and you have creativity. And I just felt like there are a few people that are as multi-talented and that few people that I would want working alongside me here at Purple Insider. So it's a big compliment to your work. And also

I needed someone who will disagree with me sometimes on stuff. So that's another reason to bring you aboard. Well, I appreciate the kind words from you and all of our listeners and readers. And I've said some nice things about you, but I feel like it's been a little too civil. We need to disagree and argue about some stuff now. So let's get contentious. Yeah. Usually those things happen on the golf course where we're arguing about the Vikings while shanking golf balls into the woods. So let's get right to it and talk about Devante Smith, because this is a big event today. Not only you joining Purple Insider, but we have a legitimate, credible mock draft that is giving the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver three. That is Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network,

a guy who is as dialed in as anyone in the NFL, doing his 2.0 mock. And Devontae Smith, the Alabama wide receiver receiver in his mock drops to number 14 and the Minnesota Vikings take him. And to me, I just looked around and said, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to the wide receiver three train. And I know, I know what everyone's thinking, Sam, they're thinking if they don't get a guard, if they don't get a defensive lineman, I'm going to climb to the tallest building in the twin cities and jump off. And I get that. I get that.

But I think that there's always been a case for this. There's statistical evidence that this is necessary to be a great offense, which we'll talk about. And this is a prospect who did special things in college. And once upon a time the Minnesota Vikings drafted a wide receiver when they didn't necessarily need a wide receiver and it worked out pretty pretty good so give me your reaction because you know that I like this and I have liked this idea for a long time and I have been banging the table for this for several years to improve at that position but give me your reaction to Daniel Jeremiah mocking Devante Smith to the Vikings. Well, first of all, maybe we can crowdsource this.

I'd like to find out the last time the Vikings had like a viable, productive wide receiver three. I mean, I think some people might say Jarius Wright, but he was never utilized enough. And that's kind of been the problem in the Zimmer era is they just don't use free wide receivers a lot. And we'll get into how that maybe plays into this decision. I love Devontae Smith. I don't think there's really a lot of knocks on him other than his stature. He's, you know, smaller. He's 170 pounds, probably needs to bulk up and got hurt in the national championship game where he was incredible. And I'm like a lot of people who maybe didn't watch every Alabama game, but then tuned in to the post season and saw what he did in the national championship game

and saw him put up 215 yards in like one half, sort of a Tyreek Hill versus the Bucks type performance in against Ohio state and the title game. So I think he's incredible. I think he's good out of the slot. I think he's good wide. I think, you know, kind of Jefferson, like in that way, not as big as Jefferson, but good hands, good route running. He's pretty much the whole package, except he's maybe a, what? 20 pounds lighter than you'd want. Um, I don't know if that's a reason to knock him down to even 14. Like if I'm the NFL,

I'm looking at Devante Smith and saying, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute. We're talking about him as the third or fourth wide receiver. Um, you know, if he slips to 10 or 11 or 12, I feel like he's going to get snatched up but but let's talk about the vikings in this particular situation there is a difference between what they should do and what they will do right like daniel jeremiah is making a logical recommendation of what they should do to get the most out of this already good offense. Do you think, Collar, that they're actually going to shift philosophies, that they're going to embrace a three-wide receiver offense? Because you're not demoting Thielen, and you're not demoting Jefferson.

So if you draft a wide receiver in the first round, and I agree that they should use more three-wide receivers. I'm on board with that. But with Clint Kubiak coming in, do you see him and the Vikings like willingly changing their system to go away from tight ends to go away from a fullback a little bit more? Is that realistic in your mind? No, but it should be. And maybe if it's going to be realistic, it will be realistic for this reason, because somebody says we can't keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting

different results. So when you're talking about those wide receiver threes, and when was the last time anybody did anything at that position? Cordero Patterson had 52 catches in 2016 as the third wide receiver behind Diggs and Thielen. And he was a bubble screen guy for the most part. There were only a handful of games where he did anything down the field. And that was still an effective role for him. But after that, you're right about Jarius Wright that he only had 17 catches, I think, that year in 2017. It just was that 15 of them were big. And he, in the playoffs

really came up huge for the Vikings in the, in the Minneapolis miracle game. But aside from that, they didn't use him enough. And then it was Laquan Treadwell, Laquan Treadwell. This year it was BC Johnson. I mean, these are players who are just flat out, not a threat at all. And this is where I think that if the Vikings really pick apart with a microscope where things went wrong for their offense, which was good, but it was not good enough to carry them to the playoffs with a bad defense. And it was not a championship level or, or like deep in the playoff run type of level offense, even if they had had a good defense this year. And I think that at some point you have to look at where is it going wrong for us? Everyone knows it's going wrong for the

guard position. That's pretty obvious. And no one would ever say, Hey, don't draft an offensive lineman with 14 or just leave Dakota Dozier in there. No one would ever say that you'd look to improve that in free agency in this case. But I think what they're missing is when you get to third down and long, everyone knows you want to throw to Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. That is not a surprise. Remember when they were playing the Bucks, you saw Kirk Cousins look toward Tyler Conklin a couple of times on third downs, which nice plays by Tyler Conklin, but that's not a model. That's a thing that happened in one game that would be nice, you know, to get an extra

contribution. But when you have three or you have four of these guys, they're the ones who are often counted upon when the other team is doing everything they can to slow down your top guys. And our friend, Eric Eager, a pro football Focus did a study on this about the playoffs and which receivers have the biggest impact on winning games. And number two, number three had bigger impacts than number one wide receivers because that's the other team's main goal. And when you play Detroit in the middle of the season, they're going to play their system against your system and see what happens. When it's the playoffs, they're giving everything they have to game plan for you. And that's where, and in the big games,

we see this too, against good defenses. That's where the good defenses often find ways to at least slow down your top receivers and you need someone else to step up. I'll give you an example that comes to mind for me, new Orleans, 2018. They have a, I think fourth down that they go for and Kirk Cousins targets Laquan Treadwell and it bounces off his hands. It's like Laquan Treadwell was the right read and he was fairly open, but he's just not any good. And if you have Devante Smith, who is like you mentioned, a technician knows how to get open, catches everything everything I'm not saying he's a perfect prospect otherwise he'd be at the very top but if you're comparing what type of value this can give to you and can change your offense from being very one-dimensional it's got to be run the ball and play action hit deep shots or you're just not winning that day well you've got to have more than

that and this system does run out of three wide receivers. Also, if Kyle Rudolph's not coming back, well, I don't want Tyler Conklin on the field all the time. I would prefer to have someone who is unstoppable because they're so good. And one last point on this, Adam Phelan is not young either, by the way, he is into his thirties now, and there needs to be some thought of how much longer does this last for him being an elite receiver. And some thought too, of if he gets hurt again, do you want BC Johnson? Do you want Chad BB being that guy to fill in? Do you even want a cheap, free agent that didn't work with Tajay sharp being a dangerous offense, a versatile offense, having a bunch of different guys who can

make plays is the best way to be great at this. And that doesn't mean ignore the guard. That means get the guard in free agency. But from those, all of those perspectives, I think if the Vikings brass says it's time to lean into what we are the best at, which right now is offense, then that's what you do. But circling all the way back to the beginning, no, I don't think they'll do it. Yeah, I tried to get Clint Kubiak to admit this when he had his opening press conference. I said, yeah, you're run first, Clint. Well, you drafted Justin Jefferson, who got 1,400 yards, set the rookie record. How does that change your plan? And he, of course, didn't give me anything because he's smart and media trained.

I have so many addendums that I want to add on to what you said. Number one, how many times have the Vikings whiffed on trying to find this wide receiver three? Like the fact that Chad Beebe almost stands like above some of their, their past attempts. Like when they brought in Michael Floyd, he was supposed to be, you know, the number three guy. And like the only thing I remember Michael Floyd for is dropping a touchdown in the miracle game. Kendall, right.

Didn't even make the team he's on in the CFL. Now Tajay sharp didn't have a catch. Tajay Sharp was their wide receiver two until they drafted Justin Jefferson. Like, that's how badly they've kind of misjudged the wide receiver three position. But the fact that the offense, you mentioned the offense wasn't as good as maybe some people thought. And I'm in full agreement that if you're basing it on yards, you're, you're cherry picking that that's just choosing like the best possible lens to view the offense through because they were eighth and DVO way. They were 10th in points per drive. They were 18th and scoring percentage. And I think they were 11th in points. So, okay. Your top third offense, you're on like the bottom of the top third I'll give you that

there's plenty of room to ascend if arguably you weren't even in the top 10 and for a second straight year the Vikings are such an outlier in the the way they don't use three wide receivers like Stefanski did it you know under Kubiak's thumb and then Kubiak did it himself they're like like the difference between the Vikings and the 31st most team that uses three wide receivers is like the difference between 31 and 15 it's like a crazy drop off not even Kevin Stefanski used as few three wide receiver sets as the Vikings. So when you look at what you've done the last two years, okay, combined, you went 17 and 15 in two years with that system. Maybe you need to shake things up. The problem is, I don't know if Clint Kubiak's the one to do that. I think that his dad's system is sort of a safety net. So we'll see what kind of influence that he can bring. Maybe he will

want to be more aggressive and maybe Mike Zimmer even wants to be more aggressive. But it did feel like, you alluded to this, when the Vikings were at their best, they were getting yards on first down. They were setting up sort of second and manageable, and then they could distribute more easily. They could go to Conklin. They could go to CJ Ham in the flat if they wanted to, and they would distribute the ball well. But when you only have two wide receivers that are downfield threats, it's going to be hard to convert on second and 10 even, which they seem to think that running the ball was a better option there, which is bonkers to me. You can't count on Tyler Conklin to pick up third and twelfths or even third and

eights. That's not as likely. And don't you feel like we were kind of sold a bill of goods on Irv Smith? Like we were told that he was going to be this almost wide receiver like impact. He was going to be in the slot. He was going to be outside. He was going to line up in the backfield. I don't think that's happened as much. I think he's still a blocker so much of the time. Not to the extent of Kyle Rudolph, as he would like us all to know, but I don't feel like they've even unlocked that capability as much and turned Irv Smith into a wide receiver three type option. So I disagree with the conservative nature of their approach last season. And I'm still kind of befuddled as to whether it's going to be any better this year with, with Clint Kubiak.

Cause I think he's going to kind of bend to Zimmer's will. And I think Zimmer loves the system as he's let us know. Hey, everyone who listens to the show knows that I am an old school gamer. So if you're still playing the games from the nineties, trust me, you're going to want to check out the new gear from SodaStick, football, hockey, and a Minnesota logo in the form of another famous video game logo. I'll just say that.

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newsletter yet, go to purpleinsider.substack.com and you're automatically entered. And if you have already subscribed to Purple Insider, respond to any Purple Insider email just with the word video games. That's all you have to do. And you're entered to win a $50 gift card from SodaStick. Now here's some precedent for the possibility of this happening would be eventually they did get to a point where they said, we need to start drafting offensive linemen higher because we can't just fill all these spots with Joe Bergers and Nick Easton's where we get lucky and the guy's halfway decent. So we need to draft Brian O'Neill in the second round, Garrett Bradbury in the first, which hasn't worked out so far, but at least it showed the process

of realizing this is a problem and you need to solve it with higher draft picks. And then Ezra Cleveland, that might point to the possibility of, they recognized that this third wide receiver was important, but they just kept trying to fill it by not spending any money or resources on it, which is understandable to some extent because you don't have unlimited cap space and you don't

have unlimited draft picks. Otherwise they would have picked receivers at the top instead of Stacy Coley and Rodney Adams and KJ Osborne and all these other guys who are not Stefan Diggs. And so that might point to at least the wheels turning in their mind of, yeah, the numbers are pointing to this thing being important. And even if right away, Devante Smith does not catch 70 balls in 10 touchdowns, if he catches 40 as a rookie, and then he turns out to be a long-term option next to Justin Jefferson. I mean, that is got you set up for if there's another quarterback or if you extend Kirk Cousins, then you could have two very good wide receivers on rookie contracts. And I think about the other offenses that have been

great, not okay, not 11th, not 18th in scoring percentage, but legitimately dangerous with this very system. And the San Francisco 49ers also did not use three wide receivers all the time. Yet they drafted Debo Samuel with a high draft pick. They paid for Emmanuel Sanders. They brought in people who were extra weapons to just give Jimmy Garoppolo more options. The same thing goes for the Los Angeles Rams, where suddenly Jared Goff is a different player when he has three wide receivers to work with when they had Cooper Cup, Brandon Cooks and Robert Woods to then Josh Reynolds is his next best guy. And all of a sudden he is a different quarterback at that point. And even Kirk Cousins in Washington, 2016, their number three wide receiver is Jameson Crowder, who was good. He's not a hall of famer,

but he got a second contract worth like 10 million bucks a year, a good player and a dangerous player. And that to me is missing just as much or harming your offense just as much as the guard position. And I know that that drives some people crazy because they want this improved offensive line and so I think you can thread the needle and try to do all of these things you mentioned in the piece that you wrote for your debut article at Purple Insider you wrote about how you can't ignore the guard position absolutely true and also spreading out the cap space that you create to multiple different players. And I think you make a great point there where, you know, I've made the argument for Brandon

Sheriff, like maybe, you know, you put some eggs in that basket finally, and really fill that guard position. But even if you signed three guards or something that were cheap and you let them battle it out, somebody has to be better than Dakota Dozier um I just think that you know a major issue with them and you look at the numbers and it backs this up was when you got to third down the majority of Kirk Cousins lost yardage to sacks came on third down which is you know makes sense because that's when they're really going after you uh if you have people open and more options it helps you just as much as having good blocking and cousins. Most of his pressure came when holding onto the ball for more than three

seconds. Well, we know he's going to go through his reads. And if someone's open, he's going to throw the ball. It's just that if you're going through your reads, he would never find Kyle Rudolph open and he never trusted that. So can you get someone with separation ability that Kirk cousins will trust and then try to take this to the next level? I think you make a great point that you don't hang a banner for being 11th in offense. Like they, they don't give you rings for that.

Like you need to be better. The next best team right above the Vikings in scoring was the Las Vegas Raiders. Anybody want to trade offenses with the Raiders? I mean, like, no, they were good, but they weren't great. Did anybody look at the Raiders and say they're all set on offense? They're good. No, I don't think so. So when you kind of look yourself in the mirror a little bit, you think, well, what can increase

the amount of points that you produce and how dangerous you can be? And I think that that's it. And even if people want to use the Kansas City example to back up the offensive line point, Kansas City also didn't get production out of their third and fourth wide receivers like they did last year when they overcame the same problem. They were getting their tail whipped on the offensive line in the Super Bowl against the 49ers and Sammy Watkins comes and makes a play well he didn't do that this time he was hurt pretty much all year

McCall Hardman's just not good and so they relied on two wide receivers for the whole season and what happened in the Super Bowl they were able to take away Tyree Kill down the field and take away Travis Kelsey I think that this is a trend in the league that the Vikings need to hook themselves to, even if they don't go 11 personnel all the time. Yeah, you mentioned the Rams, and I know the Rams weren't awesome last year. Goff was pretty mediocre and got traded, so not the gold standard for offense. But if you watch the Rams, sometimes McVay just tosses in a line change. Like, okay, bring off cup,

bring off a Henderson. All right, let's put on Everett and Reynolds and an acres. Like they would just take all their playmakers off the field and replace them and make the defense sort of readjust and react acclimate to what they were seeing. And like what you mentioned, the chiefs, when they're at their best, they're getting DeMarcus Robinson involved. They're getting Byron Pringle involved. Look at the Packers. Instead of drafting a wide receiver two, and I'm actually in the camp where I don't know if that's a valid reason to pin the NFC championship game loss on Green Bay that they didn't take a wide receiver to in the draft. I just, I can't get on board with that when they're the number one offense in football. I mean, in aggregate, Lazard and MVS were pretty solid for them. They had like 1200 combined yards. So they spread the

ball around. Well, they had, you know, sort of a nameless tight end group and they had three running backs. The Vikings like to amass stats. I mean, with the way they run thing is, and it's fun. It's fun to, to watch Justin Jefferson get 1400 yards and Adam Thielen pile up the thousand yard seasons and Dalvin cook, you know, threatening 1500 yards and maybe even 2000 someday, if he stays healthy, that's fun. That's great. But it also makes you a little bit predictable, a little bit one dimensional. And I guess my fear would be, okay, if we're going to drop back more, which I think you need to do to win, I think the offensive line is going to be a problem because there is a strong correlation to

Kirk Cousins throwing more and Kirk Cousins struggling more, usually because of interior pressure. So Dakota Dozier, worst pass blocking guard in football by a pretty long shot. Garrett Bradbury, one of the worst pass blocking centers in football. Whatever kind of piecemeal you had at right guard, I imagine that those four bodies in tandem were also probably toward the bottom. So I think that it's troubling without a second round pick as to how you're going to like add a weapon to the offense and fix the offensive line. But I think using a combination of free agency, maybe take one good stab in the draft, try to get a couple new bodies in there where you can

get crew cousins, some, protection because you know the Vikings haven't had a lot of continuity on the interior ever I mean not with cousins not with anybody they haven't had the same two guards getting the majority of starts in back-to-back years since 2012 and 13 I mean it's not that hard to have two guards on your team for back-to-back years and yet the Vikings have made it extremely difficult so we'll see what happens if they take Devante Smith I mean that's your signal right that tells you that they're serious about this and even if they took a wide receiver in the third round I think that tells you they're more serious about this the draft is going to be a pretty big tell as to what Clint Kubiak is going to be running this year. I totally agree.

And also I think of it this way when it comes to the wide receiver three is it might be a signal a little bit of how much do you want to win this year in 2021? Because I know that everyone wants an offensive lineman, but how often do we see offensive linemen be immediately dominant? Now, Tristan Wirfs was for sure. Jedrick Wills did a very good job. Mekhi Becton looked like he could play. So yeah, I mean, it does happen, but there's also the Andrew Thomas's of the world that really struggle right

off the bat. And there's Ezra Cleveland who a player was out of position and needed development. Brian O'Neill wasn't ready right away. Wide receivers can be ready right away. I just saw one in Justin Jefferson. They can bust too, for sure. But guys who are route technicians and play for complicated offenses and are put in a position where Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson are the main attractions already,

that person can contribute a lot of value to you right away and in the long term, whereas I think that if you draft a guard, if you draft a tackle, likely you're getting replacement-level play to start, unless the guy is an absolute monster and kind of an outlier. But historically, you're probably looking at a couple of years of development before they're really good. Like Brian O'Neill has become for the Vikings or like Ezra Cleveland could become, or even I'd leave the door open to Garrett Bradbury improving. And I think actually that if you were able to spread it out, throw a little more quick game, get a little more

hand, you know, ball in the hands of playmakers, less deep dropbacks. I think that helps Garrett Bradbury. I think every, I think the offensive line is improved by just tweaking the philosophy a little bit, even by keeping the same system. But I also, you know, I look at only two positions for sort of when now ish, which would be defensive end. And you see those guys come in and make a difference right away and wide receiver. So let me ask you this, where after Daniel Jeremiah, one of the most plugged in mock drafters there is after Daniel Jeremiah takes a wide receiver for the Vikings at 14. What are your odds on how likely each position is,

or I would say rank them of what is number one, two, three, four, for the Vikings. Most likely as we stand here today with a lot of time to go before the draft, most likely positions to be taken. At 14? At 14. Okay. I don't think wide receiver is number one.

No, I don't either. I hate to say it. Honestly, unless you're going to, you know, set up for the future and get a quarterback, unless you're going to go get Trey Lance, which would be thrilling. And I don't fully endorse that move or a quarterback trade up. Maybe this year.

We'll see. Depends how aggressive they would want to be at any rate unless you're going to do that I'd be okay trying to trade back in the first and get a second because I think second round picks are crazy valuable because you think about getting most of the most of the second round picks the Vikings have taken in recent years have been really good like Like Mackenzie Alexander, quality starter. Brian O'Neill, going to get extended as a tackle. That's huge.

Eric Kendricks, all pro. The second round, you can find stars. And you get them cheap, cheap, cheap for four years. So I love second round picks. I'd love to get one back. And if you can't do that with some trading or finagling, you know, in, in free agency or thereafter, I w I would maybe do the unsexy thing and trade back. So what position would I take with that first pick? Let's say it's in the late teens, early

twenties. It would be out of character, but I think, I think you go defensive line. I mean, the Vikings don't tend to take defensive line early. Uh, the one time they took one in the first two days of the draft, it was to Neil Hunter, you know, in, in the, in the Zimmer era. Uh, and that worked out pretty well, but usually they will wait till the fourth round. I think they got to do some things differently. Like you got to take a guard and the first two days, they haven't done that in like 15 years um so i'm also in the camp of uh finding a safety like if you had if you went defensive line safety and guard in your first three picks i think that that fills needs um and don't force it you know it's sometimes you got to go bpa but

not those would all be out of character for the v Vikings, and I think they should do all of them. So that wasn't a very good pie chart. The best. Now, we'll leave that to Courtney on Thursday when she joins the both of us for a little roundtable. She is the pie chart master. Well, so if I'm ranking them most likely to least likely, I'm starting with the defensive line for sure. Christian Barmore makes a ton of sense for them, especially in a trade back type of situation. And there are multiple defensive ends that have that mold, this ball of clay, like Quiddy pay. Am I right?

Or Gregory Russo or there's, you know, a bunch of other types of names that come up for potential first rounders. It kind of depends on just which one they think would fit their system. I think Quiddy pay is a perfect fit for them because he's similar in his body type to Everson Griffin, but you know, either way, defensive line is at the very top. And then offensive line is probably after that for most likely. And then I would put wide receiver right after that, maybe even because, and I don't think that they care what we think, but I think about who's above the decision makers and whether there would be some pressure if the Wilfs sort of heard the noise a little bit. I, again, they're not,

if they were listening to us, they would have done this years ago, gotten a wide receiver three, but maybe just even their own observations of our offense is good and how can we be great on offense. And I don't think that they come down to the room and say, you have to draft this guy or that guy, but they're also the ones who sign the checks. And if that was kind of the goal, look, we need to have a draft this guy or that guy, but they're also the ones who sign the checks. And if that was kind of the goal, look, we need to have a great offense. By the way, there's fans coming back to these stadiums next year,

and we would love to be one of the most exciting teams in the NFL, just saying. There's always that possibility, that door that I would leave open, that behind the scenes, it's quietly whispered, we'd really like somebody to be exciting here. Sign your defensive ends in free agency, sign your guards in free agency, but let's get somebody that people are going to want to come in the door to watch play. So I was,

I would still put that in the top five. And then I agree. Safety cornerback is still in the mix. It's not the craziest draft pick. And for sure, you know, for the first time in a long time, Sam, I don't know which way they'll go. I really don't at this point after free agency, we'll have a much better idea. But last year I thought we, we are locked into the direction they're going. They are going wide receiver and corner, and I'll bet my home on it. And even the year before offensive line, it was clear that they needed to improve and a lot of people were mocking Garrett Bradbury to the Vikings this year it's all over the place and I think it's one of the things that makes this most fascinating well as many times as Rick Spielman wants to insist that this is the strategy they are not a true best player available drafting team they are a draft for need

kind of team especially in the early rounds like you don't take Garrett Bradbury in the first round unless you're trying to fill a very specific need which they were they thought they were extremely close to to you know winning a winning a title and they thought that that was a missing piece for them one more interior lineman and you know that it kicked Pat Elfline to a bad spot and the ripple effect didn't work out there but I think we predicted that move too like we've kind of had our finger on the pulse most years the only pick that I can think of that kind of threw me was the Mike Hughes pick you know which was kind of a luxury at the time and same same with Mackenzie Alexander, they tend to stray when it's a cornerback, which again, I wrote in my piece today.

I don't think you're set at corner either. Like you've got, I think three bodies there that you can consider starters, but one of them is Mike Hughes coming off multiple neck injuries. One of them is Cam Dantzler, who's good, but had multiple injuries as a rookie, needs to add weight. And then Jeff Gladney, who can play inside-outside, but needs to get a lot better in pass protection. So I think that corner needs to be on the table as well. I'm really compelled, though, by the tradeback idea because it is another really top-heavy wide receiver draft. You've got like eight to 10 that could go in the top 60. So if you do trade back into the second round, you're probably going to have value there that's available for you. And that allows you, I think maybe to capitalize on defensive line, which is

maybe a little more top heavy in the first round. I think Spielman's got to be working the phones. I think you got to get that second round pick back. The Ngakwe trade strikes again. It still is going to, I think, I think the Vikings are going to be ruining that one for a while, but yeah, it's, it's going to be a really compelling free agency period because how creative are they going to get? Like, are they going to try to fill needs legitimately in free agency or wait until the draft where you can get guys, you know, obviously at cost and and for multiple years? Vikings have a lot more needs than they usually do. Big needed safety. Probably need a I guess they don't necessarily need a third linebacker, but you need two or three defensive linemen. You need interior line help. They have a lot of needs and it's going to

be compelling to see which way they go. Hey, if you've been listening to the show lately, you've been hearing about Scout Logistics and trust me, I've been trying to get them to come out with a line of Vikings merch or something because my listeners are hearing their message all the time now. Maybe we can get them to partner with SodaStick for the draft in those Scout Logistics scouting reports.outing reports anyway scout logistics joined up with us here at purple insider because they enjoy the show and they wanted to get behind us so if you have a business with shipping needs then you're going to want to join up with them scout logistics has a 99 delivery rate they know exactly how to handle perishable goods and increase shelf life they also ship ship non-perishable, oversides, fragile goods with the utmost care.

You can contact them and see why North America's largest shippers and receivers have chosen Scout Logistics at 855-217-2688. That's 855-217-2688, extension 23 32, or at scout logistics.com. The only thing that would totally blow you away or shock you is if they went like linebacker or tight end, if they went linebacker, we would already know why, because that means Anthony bar's not here. If they're going linebacker. And if Anthony bar were to be let go, the minute he was let go,

we would know, okay, a linebacker is being picked. We just don't know where unless Eric Wilson was being brought back. But even then Troy Dye didn't show any signs of being a guy for the future. So you would be talking about Micah Parsons at that point, probably. So that's the thing too, is that so much can change here. I mean, if they sign Curtis Samuel to be their number three wide receiver, then Devante Smith ends up off the table at that point. But you make a great point about drafting for need. And yes, it worked out with Justin Jefferson.

That would have been also best player available, I think. I remember being totally stunned at that point. That was one where we knew right away. It was a great pick and we're not super shocked at all that it turned out to be a great pick. This guy dominated at LSU and took that team to a national championship, showed up the biggest on the biggest stage, and then murdered the combine. It's like, I don't know what more boxes you need him to check off Philadelphia, but that was, that was kind of an easy one to pick because it was so clearly the best player on the board. This time there is the option of just going with the best prospect because you do have so many needs and it's sort of revealing of how much work has to be done between now and the time that they possibly take the field at OTAs. So I am. Well, what if they, what if they make a couple of surprise cuts too? Like that only makes it murkier. I mean,

if you actually sort of weaken your roster by letting go of Riley reef and maybe Anthony bar is, you know, gets thrown off by like getting asked to take a pay cut and says, nope, just cut me. And they can't figure something out. Well, then suddenly you're, you're kind of stuck there at two more positions. And that really makes it, that gives you five, I'd say legitimate needs to find starters on this roster. And just to put a bow on the whole thing that when you look at all those needs, most of them exist on the defensive side,

which makes me think you try to fill spots with okay players, if you can, with cheap okay players. You listed a bunch of them in your article. And then you try to draft a difference maker somewhere, whether it's on offense or defense, whatever. You're trying to draft one difference maker, but the case to do it on the offensive side is that you probably can't fill all those spots on the defensive side. So if you want to win something, you can look at other teams around the league that made the playoffs without great defenses,

but can you get to average on defense and great on offense and be a real contender? I think that that is realistic for this team and exciting to think about an offense for the first time since what, I mean, 2009, that could really be a next level type of offense. That to me does not feel so far out. Everything else does. If you were to tell me, oh, they have the top five defense next year. I'd be like, how, what? No way. Right. Even with Hunter coming back, even with Pierce coming back they have the top five defense next year. I'd be like, how, what? No way. Right. Even with Hunter coming back, even with Pierce coming back, come on top five, they've got so far to go.

But if you told me that they added one dynamic playmaker and they were a top five offense, I'd be like, yeah, I could see it. Yeah. Well, if the offense, you know, help the defense out a little more too, by being more effective effective not turning the ball over just scoring more points where last year if they had just gotten to like 31 you know instead of 27 in a number of games they would have been in more games like it seemed like they were settling for the high 20s we're good we're good we're top 10 or 11th or whatever when i think they could have been so much more um but the But they're kind of, they could take the Minnesota Twins approach, right?

The Twins were like, we don't want to pay to fill out the entire pitching staff, so we'll just go bargain hunting for Rich Hill and Homer Bailey, but we're going to double down on offense and sign Josh Donaldson. Oh, next year, we're going to sign in Drelton Simmons because we don't want to have to pay for pitching. So we'll just try to score more runs than you Vikings could try to do that on offense because they have more, I think, solidified,

particularly with the skill positions, uh, then on defense where you've got weaknesses pretty much at every level. Can I ask you something before we wrap up? It's a stupid question, but what is the off season thing that you are the least interested or you care least about? Like this is the most is to me, what you do to make sure this offense goes to another level. And it might not be, oh, well, they can just implement this passing thing that they, because that's probably not going to happen. So it's really personnel. And I think all with the NFL, like Gary Kubiak system works. Did you have the personnel to be

a top five offense last year? No. Could you this year? If you want to, you can't. But what thing that is being talked about does not interest you at all, where you're just like, nah, I don't know. I'm out. I'm out on that. I'll give you two just top of head. I don't care about Paul Gunther. I don't care about Paul Gunther's role unless they're going to ask him to call unless they're going to ask him to call plays. Like he's brought in as like a play calling specialist, which I think a lot of Raiders fans would caution Vikings fans don't go there. Even though Gunther was pretty good when he was working Zimmer's system in Cincinnati, I don't care about Paul Gunther,

just like I didn't really care about Dom Capers either. I also don't really care to speculate about what, what do they do to replace Kyle Rudolph? I think they're fine. I think they're okay with Irv Smith, Tyler Conklin, and Brandon Dillon question mark, and probably like a sixth round pick to add to the mix as well. I think they're going to be okay. Like the, the, the numbers in the final four weeks of the year were the best at tight end.

They had all season without Kyle Rudolph and Kyle Rudolph just wasn't that effective. So I don't really care about that storyline either. There there's more pressing matters in my mind. I think I want to pick a backup quarterback because every year it comes up. Should they improve from Sean Mannion? Like, yeah, they're probably not going to the that's unless it's traffic, but not a seventh round draft pick. That's Nate Stanley. It would have to be third round or higher. You've got my interest a little bit, but if it's anything other than that, Sean Mannion is fine. He's the best you're going to do for 800,000 bucks. And that's the end of

the story. You don't have endless cap space to spend $7 million on a backup quarterback, like the Raiders did with Marcus Mariota. So it's all right. Sean Mannion's fine. You can have him. Yeah. Why would you just change bodies just for the sake of it unless you're going to get a Cadillac,

like a Cadillac backup like Ryan Fitzpatrick? Otherwise, there's no sense in getting someone new who doesn't know the system or maybe doesn't understand Kirk Cousins as well. Mannion is exactly what the Vikings want. He's vanilla. He's not really chasing after the job. He works really hard and he's been there for a couple of years and Kirk likes him. Like he's everything the Vikings want in their backup, not all teams, but the Vikings. Mannion is perfect and he's cheap. I also think that any conversation about developmental quarterbacks is just like a waste of time.

It's a waste of time. If somebody's not a first round draft pick or a highly paid quarterback that's already established, that is needle in a haystack for anybody who will be anything. Remember when it was, I think mike mccarthy he was asked after aaron rogers went down like we just signed colin kaepernick he was like we've been developing brett hundley for years okay how dare you it's like yeah sure you have i mean like this is not an nfl quarterback that's a starter so they usually aren't if you're drafting you know i know like kurt warner one time did this thing but there's just not too many of those guys who ever become the starter. So I'm not worried about why aren't they developing someone instead of Mannion? And the other thing that's funny too, is that Mannion has been around a long

time and never ever gets to play. He played the week 17 game with all backups. That's not a fair assessment that was playing a preseason team against the starting Chicago bear team. But I mean, we don't know other than watching him in training camp where he's pretty good in training camp. We don't actually know if he could win a game or two. Like, I think he knows the offense and the system well enough to just operate it. And he has a strong enough arm to hit a couple of shots down the field. He can, he's just like Sean Hill with no opportunity. Basically. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't get the sense that he could pull a Keenum out of his head. Definitely not. No Keenum just had more intangibles. Um, Manion could, like you said, be a Sean Hill and run. He could,

he's a game manager in the truest sense, but there's really no less compelling, uh, position battle than Vikings, third string, fourth string quarterbacks in training camp every year. It's UDFAs, maybe a seventh round pick in Nate Stanley. That's never really high on my priority list. I love how the first day for you on the job at Purple Insider, Daniel Jeremiah just took some steroids and shot it in the arm of this show by mock drafting Devante Smith. So a very enjoyable first run through. Thanks, Daniel. Sam, not our first time, obviously, broadcasting together. We did Friday Purple on WCCO all the time. So hopefully we'll keep doing that. But great to have you as part of the crew now, Sam. So we'll look forward to you and I and Courtney getting together and going forward there on Thursday and all sorts of new content at purpleinsider.subzack.com. Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Matthew. And I know when you mix in the music later, you're going to give me some epic like walk-up music. I assume I'm going to have my theme song. Thanks a lot. Appreciate

it. What was the TI song that Joe Maurer used? I'll use that for you. Yeah. It's escaping me right now, but I could hum it for you. I won't, but I promise you, I know it.