Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Day 2 recap: Jaren Hall and Jordan Addison stand out in camp

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Matthew Coller gives an update on Vikings training camp, Day 2, including Jalen Nailor being out and Jordan Addison stepping up with some impressive catches and Jaren Hall looking solid in limited reps. Plus Alexander Mattison as RB1 and Vikings fan questions about Lewis Cine and Joejuan Johnson and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and we have another day of training camp. I'll tell you the truth, I've really enjoyed coming on and going on live. So if you're listening on the podcast feed, feel free to stop in whenever we do these, usually in the eight o'clock central hour. Lots of people have been chiming in, asking questions, giving comments. And I've been able to go over and kind of empty the notebook yesterday for day one. And now I'll be able to do that with day two.

Not as much lineup stuff, obviously, because there wasn't a lot of huge changes. So we'll go over that. A lot of discussion about Alexander Madison. Tell you some observations from Jordan Addison yesterday. A lot of people were asking, Hey, what does Jordan Addison look like? And I was like, I don't know. He didn't get that many reps. It was a short practice. Well, today, Jalen Naylor was not there. And I don't know why yet, because we haven't heard from Kevin O'Connell

and they don't have to put out injury reports. So until someone tells us what's going on with the player's absence, we don't know. So if Jalen Naylor is injured after yesterday, then we don't know about it. And we'll see, because usually Kevin O'Connell has been very good about telling us what's going on. So we should have some news at some point on Jalen Naylor, or maybe just tomorrow he'll be back. I don't know, to tell you the truth. But I didn't notice any injury that happened on the first day. It wasn't like he limped off or anything like that. I think somebody would have spotted it, myself or another reporter, and reported it if we

had seen him limp off. I certainly didn't see that. So maybe it's just a one-day thing. Maybe it's longer term. I don't know. We'll find that out. But that left the door open for a lot more reps today from Jordan Addison. And even though it was a, I would call it quite difficult day for the offense, Brian Flores' defense was causing problems today. Harrison Smith had an interception, Kyrus Tonga knocked down a ball, which you know what?

I wrote about Kyrus Tonga last year. And if you want to Google him with Purple Insider, you can find that article. Really interesting guy. Kind of went through a lot in his life to be here. And I thought he was good last year. And the fact that he's playing already with the first team and just off the bat, no pads, obviously, but you kind of put those things together, might get a lot of reps for this year. So he had, you know, a bat down that was, you know, notable, pushing the pocket, that kind of thing. And it, but overall it was a little bit of a up and down kind of day, more downs than ups for the offense, but we got to see a lot of Jordan Addison. And what I can say is even to, I mean, I've seen enough of these training camps to have

somewhat of a trained eye. This is what, 2017 was my first camp. So what does that make? Six of them. I mean, you know, you kind of know when somebody's standing out and with Addison, he had a toe tap catch along the sideline where you went, Ooh, like a full speed going right into the sideline and then tap, tap catch kind of that classic Marvin Harrison. Or do I want to say Chris Carter in the same breath as Jordan Addison? Probably not, but you guys know the toe tap catch and how difficult that is and how impressive that is.

And one thing you just see from him is movement skill and the ball tracking is something we've known about from college, but route running shiftiness control of his body, no pads, not very physical, take it for what it's worth. But I thought it was a good day for Jordan Addison and almost nobody else on the offensive side. There were kind of a lot of those, Oh, was Kirk supposed to throw it there? Cause that didn't really get thrown and that kind of thing, but you know, no overreaction. I'm just saying that it was Brian Flores, his defense. This is the thing about training camp is you can take it whichever way you like is, it was a good day for the defense, you know, you can focus on that. But I definitely thought it was.

And their coverages looked like they were causing some problems for the offense, which, you know, I would say might be a good thing. But I also felt this way at times last year. It might also just be developing into the offense as it takes time with Kevin O'Connell's offense, because that was definitely the case last year during training camp. But if you saw the headline, then you know that I'm going to also bring up Jaron Hall and just have to put qualifiers on everything because it's camp and because I just can't bring myself to overreact like a lunatic. Maybe that should be a bit on the show. And now is took the snap, drop back, hit the back foot, let the ball go accurate on time completions. This is where it has to start for a young

quarterback. Because as we've talked about many times in the past, you guys all went through the Kyle Soder thing, which if you watched Kyle Soder in practice, you knew he wasn't going to make the team just because of the preseason games. Cause they didn't mean a lot in the fourth quarter, but in practice, he didn't have timing and accuracy and command of the offense and no NFL coach. As you notice, Kyle Soder is not on a team. Uh, I think he was on a backup on an XFL team. Maybe, uh, no NFL coach is going to give a quarterback a chance to play in real games. They cannot do those things that I just described.

Get everybody lined up, get your throws out on time, throw the ball accurately. And Jaron Hall was doing that today. And you just got a little bit of the sense that he was in command and he took a few more reps than I expected. I mean, even Wes Phillips, when and Nick Mullins Jaron Hall was vastly better than Nick Mullins today don't overreact to that again like now I say something ridiculous is there a QB2 battle no and not yet uh probably not ever just considering that Nick Mullins has a career but um he I think already has shown that there is potential there. And this gave me some

confidence that he could make the roster. I mean, this is jumping a little bit to conclusions anyway, but could make the roster could look good in preseason games because it's really not easy to master enough of the offense to come in and look like you're in control. And that was another thing Wes Phillips said is he said that, and this is kind of funny. He said that they give the players like a jeopardy game. Okay. And so they have to go through and it's a way for them to study and a way to test themselves, but they have a little bit of a, like an actual jeopardy game with the scheme. Because as you guys saw, if you watch the Netflix documentary, there is so much to process as a

quarterback. And so he said like, Jaron Hall has done very good at this. He spent a lot of time studying during the summer and paying attention and learning and it showed today. So yeah, I'm not saying there's like a QB competition or anything like that, but, um, and of course, uh, I love it. In fact, if you want to just drop your best overreactions to this in the comments, that's totally fine. I love that. Uh, sloth says, so what I'm hearing is we're going to the super bowl and hall is taking us there. I think what it says is, um, my good friend Judd Zolgad, I think jokingly, sometimes you can't tell what Judd,

said on Twitter, like, looks like they can scout quarterbacks better than the last guy. Like, okay. I mean, that's a good slam, but it just, you know, I think that he was all the things today in this practice that Kevin O'Connell was looking for. He looks mature. He's played a lot of college football. I think he's 24 years old, really intelligent guy, you know,

those kinds of things. And, um, somebody who was, you know, good technical thrower and accurate thrower of the football and all those things, you know, kind of matter. So, you know, Willville, you know, Ben says Jaron Hall is the QB of the future. Love that. The more likely starter in 2024, Mullins or Hall. They're not tanking. OK, here you go. Pack your bags, Kirk. Purdy 2.0.

You guys are great. All these are great. The overreactions. Look, this is light years better than the reaction we could have hoped for. Never got this talk with Mon because it never happened with Mon. And I respected Kellen Mon as a guy, the way that he handled himself and everything else. He looked like he was trying as hard as he could, but he never saw it. I mean, so you see from all the things that a quarterback has to go through with coverages and with routes, and you have to know what everyone is doing all the time. And that's not easy to do. And then you

have to process it lightning quick on what you see from defense. There's no way to really emulate this. So with Kellen Mond, he would get out there and I think just kind of freeze up. I mean, he'd be dropping snaps. He'd be missing passes. He wouldn't know where to go and just scramble. And so you, this is one of those things that you kind of know it when you see it like, Oh, okay. This looks like it's supposed to look and that's what i saw from uh jaron hall there you go um from jonathan totally in on giving kirk another year or two well uh i assume you mean developing hall and then let him take over yeah that's the type of overreaction we're looking for so yeah i i wouldn't say um quarterback of the future or Jaron Hall of Fame, but maybe at

some point, this would be the, as far as I would go on a prediction based on just today's practice of a handful of reps would be that at some point we might be having some discussion during this camp of should Jaron Hall make the 53 and potentially be considered the backup quarterback. I don't think there's any chance of that happening. I just mean, we talk about it, uh, because last year, if you remember, I refused to talk about the backup quarterback situation because I didn't believe either guy would make the team and they didn't Sean Mannion and Kellen Mon I believe we were referring to that as being completely screwed and I don't talk about screwed on the podcast so uh right now um Nick Mullins doesn't look that good but we know he's a quarterback who can play in the NFL that's one practice for him but overall we know a quality backup in the NFL that That's one practice for him. But overall, we know a quality backup in the NFL

that could win a couple of games if they needed him to maybe half the games or something, given the offensive weapons that he has. But I would just say that Jaron Hall caught my eye today. And that's really as far as it should go. And when the pads come on and the pass rushers can really get after you, because right now, when the pads come on and the pass rushers can really get after you, because right now, even though they can't hit the quarterback, there is still the factor of that, you know, they kind of blow the whistle. If you were, if you were sacked, like the play ends, usually the quarterback still throws it, but everybody knows it was a sack and the rushers, when they have the pads on, they're coming, they're coming after you.

And so you have to see over them. They get the hands up. They're in throwing lanes. It's way more chaotic and scary when they actually start rushing you as opposed to like today where they're just in the shells. So, you know, we will follow Jaron Hall's progress and I will be interested about that. This from Daniel. I thought teams could carry three quarterbacks now with that new rule

because of the Niner situation. Well, you could always carry three. It's that you can have three active on game day. I have to look up what the rule is. Exactly. But I thought it was that you could have three active on game day where before you could only have two active on game day. Was that the rule? Someone's going to have to remind me of it. Um, we, we should sure have him

as the new quarterback who could suit up. Yeah. I mean, whether he's on the practice squad or the 53 is really the question. And I think the might have a chance to press for the 53. Someone will have to remind me. I haven't reviewed that rule after it came out. When it came out, I thought, oh, this is good for quarterbacks and more teams will keep a third quarterback maybe on the active roster, but I can't remember exactly how it works. So if someone wants to remind me, please do. Zimbardo eight says as a fan, I'm fine with unrealistically dreaming about hall being the actual quarterback right now is when it's still possible to hope that Kweisi and KOC look like geniuses for picking this guy. Here's the thing. If you pick a backup quarterback who you can believe in and trust, that is actually a pretty

big win. That's the way I look at it because you don't have to pay him very much if you draft him in the fifth round and backup quarterbacks who are good, make millions of dollars that you could spend somewhere else. So if they did pick a good backup quarterback, then that's great for them. Uh, but it's, as far as I want to go to say that Jaron Hall looked like somewhat of a guy who might maybe possibly compete for a number two job. That's as, that's as warm as I want to get. So, you know, I like the, uh, the cold to hot meter. Uh, I would say I went from completely cold, not knowing anything to like a hint of in the yellow, and then we'll see how it goes as training camp goes along.

But at least if you can start meeting a threshold of knowing how to kind of step back and throw where you're supposed to throw, then, you know, you got something going on. So there's your Jaron Hall takes, uh, as, as much as I can do. So if you want to keep dropping over reactions or your questions are very much welcomed about today's training camp about, you know, just big picture stuff, whatever you want with the team, drop your questions in the comments every night. We've had really great discussions about this team. So, um, love when you guys do that. A couple other observations. We saw a little bit of lucky Jackson made a couple nice plays today. He's the XFL guy. And I think he's got a chance because preseason football is kind of like the XFL to really shine in, in the preseason, the battle for a depth wide receiver spots could be very,

very interesting. I mean, I was talking about Tristan Jackson yesterday. I think he made one nice catch today, but he kind of does that every single day, but also Thayer Thomas had a really nice catch. He's the guy from nc state who was an undrafted free agent so lucky jackson thayer thomas like these might be names that you end up learning as we go into the preseason in i don't know what is it 13 14 days or something that they um you know that they get on the preseason field. As far as the depth chart, nothing really changed,

but I'll tell you about a couple of things from my notes that were interesting today from what people talked about. Number one, had a really good discussion with Jawan Williams. Also confirmed that it is Jawan, in the same way that you would say like Jawan Howard, pronunciation, Jawan Williams. He clarified that for me. But he's been playing cornerback number one, or I don't know what you call it. Like starting outside cornerback. I guess you could say if Byron Murphy is one

Evans is two, it's not really done that way. It doesn't matter. He's been at the outside corner position for every starting rep for the first two days, which is pretty unexpected considering he missed all of last season and didn't play a lot for the Patriots. But something that he brought up that really stuck out to me was that he learned a lot in his year away that he got together with his cornerbacks coach with the New England Patriots, spent a lot of time doing that, trying to learn and understand the game better. And it's sort of funny that sometimes players get so in the weeds with football, with their bodies and with game plans and everything else, that they don't have the same amount of time to really study the game

and to sit back and to watch the game. And so he said that he had a lot of opportunities to do that. I also asked him because, you know, he's six, three. I asked him like at your height, how do you track wide receivers? And he said, it's really about focusing on his footwork, which so far I've liked what I've seen again, no pads, but I've liked what I've seen from Juwan Williams and the way that he's tracked wide receivers. So it seems like he's connecting well with Brian Flores, understanding what he's supposed to do enough to the point where

he is legitimately competing for this number one job. Now, maybe they have him there because he's a veteran and he understands the defense and somebody else will come take his job. I mean, that could be a Jesse Davis type of situation or a Chris Reed type of situation where the veteran is there kind of to be beat, but I don't know that that's the case. I mean, this is not an old guy. I think he's 25 years old and has not played a ton of football because of injuries and different things in New England. So Juwan Williams has suddenly become a very interesting player and he's even bigger than

Xavier Rhodes. Like I remember thinking with Xavier Rhodes, how in the world do you stop these little wide receivers? And the same thing kind of goes for Juwan Williams, but seems like a very bright guy went to Vanderbilt was like all academic team. And that I think is really going to shine in Brian Flores' defense because he asks a lot from these guys. So really, really interesting perspective. He told the story and I'm going to write this purpleinsider.com. So check that out. But he told the story about going over to Harrison Smith's house and the defensive backs all going to Harrison Smith's house and him trying to like pick Harrison Smith's brain over and over again. And he talked about understanding how good Harrison is and calling him a Hall of Famer and things like that and wanting to learn from him and get better.

So this may be a kind of late bloomer type of situation for Juwan Williams in the best case scenario. That's a great find. And in the worst case scenario, maybe it'll be something we just talk about for a couple of days, but totally unexpected that Juwan Williams would be getting this much work with the first team right away. Also, Alexander Madison, I asked Wes Phillips, why did you guys want Alexander Madison back? And why were you so confident in bringing him back? Because they didn't bring in any veterans and this is really Madison's job. And unsurprisingly, it started with, you know, he understands the offense and so forth and kind of devolved into one thing he really said that stuck out to me was about pushing forward. And last year, you know, I've brought this stat up before, but Delvin Cook had more zero or negative

runs than anybody else in the entire league. And that put them behind the sticks a lot. And I think that to Kevin O'Connell running is just a conduit to pass more. Uh, and it's just a setup. It's just here. How, how can I help us pass more, which makes sense? It's passings more efficient. And if you are running four yards, five yards, a clip, and it's second and five, you can run play action. You can hand off again and get third and short or maybe get a first down you can do a lot of stuff where passes look like runs runs look like passes at second and 11 you have to throw the ball and i think that when he looked back at last year one of the reasons they moved on from delvin cook was simply those loss drives to second and 12. You get second 11, second and

12, second and 13. And immediately you're saying, okay, well now we're behind the sticks. And if you guys remember last season, they had a lot of those failed drives. And I think the way they see Madison is a very physical runner. Who's going to make sure he's pushing forward for three or four yards that gives them an opportunity to still run or pass on second down is kind of the biggest thing. And also, I mean, Delvin cook had 39 catches last year was pretty much a non-factor in the passing game. And his yardage total was kind of skewed by the fact that one pass went for 75 yards against Indianapolis. but Alexander Madison is a legitimate pass catcher. And he was talking after practice about how a friend of his that he was in college

with used to kind of give him a hard time about not being able to catch the ball. So he worked at it and worked at it and worked at it and worked at it. And I think he is a very natural at catching the football. And I also thought it was interesting too, that both Kwesi Adafo Mensah and Wes Phillips both talked about how they had identified Madison before they even got here as somebody that they were interested in. And if you go back in his first two years, his rushing yards over expected were actually very positive so i don't know what it was last year because that data is not on the nfl next gen site he didn't have

enough carries and 2021 it was not too good but his first two seasons it was very good so i think they believe he can get back to that and then be more of a weapon in the passing game fall forward more often and then the explosive plays might potentially come from other guys, but I did find something interesting and I'm trying to debate how much this matters, but Alexander Madison and Delvin cook did not have that different of rates of rushing for 10 yards or more. So runs that go 10 yards or more, how often does that happen? And with Madison, it was about one every nine carries. That's around what it was for Delvin cook last year. It was better for Delvin cook at his absolute best, but I, the gap was not as much as I thought.

It's really that Delvin cook breakaway speed. When he got out in the open, you saw it unstoppable. I don't think that's going to be the case for Madison, but how many of those do you really get? Like two or three per season? They're big and it matters. And it's a difference between the two, but on a play-to-play basis, Madison was creating those 10-yard runs just as often.

So they seem to be very, very high on the idea of Alexander Madison. And he's, I mean, you could tell when he's talking and when there's reporters around him and stuff, he's, he's a very bright guy, a really great talker, but you could tell that he's trying to kind of hold in his excitement for this opportunity, but he's waited a long time for it. And it's a big storyline, you know, going through this camp with Madison. So, all right, let me get to your, your questions here. Maybe possibly might a ringing endorsement of Jaron Hall. Hey, look, I'm not getting burned on a number three

quarterback. Okay. I'm going to take this slow. If, if I'm going to get burned on buying into somebody too soon, I'm going to make it like Spencer Rattler next year when they draft them or something. I'm not going to quite go that far on a fifth round draft pick, especially since I didn't really endorse the idea of drafting a fifth round quarterback. So he's going to have a ways to go, but he looked good today. And I also thought if I talk about him, people will be interested because nobody has seen Jaron Hall except for the handful of us that were out there at camp today. So I can kind of bring you something from what I got out there roasting in the sun. It was hot, but still enough sunscreen, as you guys on YouTube can see. Not too bad. Farmer's tans a little bit on that side. Not too terrible just yet. But as we go along, it'll get worse.

All right. From Miles here, what are your thoughts on Lewis scene? He's going to have to give me a reason to think about him is what I think. Just, I mean, there hasn't been any first team reps except for when Harrison Smith went down for a couple of plays in the first day. And I don't know. I mean, we'll see how it, it goes through the training camp, but it just doesn't look like there is any competition at all. I mean, going into it and that's right now and that could change, but going into it, I guess I wondered, is there going to be a rotation? Is he going to mix in with Cam Bynum? Could that still happen?

Of course it could still happen if he really masters what's going on. But it just seems like that's decided what Metellus' role is going to be, what Bynum's role is going to be. And I don't know if we're going to see Luisine emerge at any point. So my thoughts right now are that he's going to be a special teamer and then we'll see where it goes from there. Now, again, this is so early that he has time to pick up on this better and he does have more physical gifts, but I thought it was really interesting. Harrison Smith was telling us that if you don't understand what you're seeing and processing, you can't use the athleticism that you have.

And I think that's the issue with Louis scene where a guy who runs a four, six, remember this for Kyle Hamilton, sorry to bring him up. I know they could have drafted Kyle Hamilton, but I remember his 40 was one of the reasons he dropped a little, but for a safety, I think they play with their minds and their eyes more than they do their 40 in terms of playing fast. So Kyle Hamilton, when I saw him play a couple of times last year, I thought I sure looks fast to me. Harrison Smith still looks fast. What do you think he runs like a four, eight? I mean, and yet he still looks fast. Uh, maybe he'd

contest that, but I don't think he was ever really the fastest guy, but he's always played fast because of anticipation and because of how fast he can process. And that's what they talk about. So if Louis seen through this camp cannot get that down, he will not play like a guy who runs a four, three, seven, and it's going to be another year of us kind of out of sight, out of mind, like not really even thinking or talking about Louis scene. It is his opportunity to beat out Cam Bynum, to beat out Josh Metellus, to get a role, but he's only going to do it if he's trusted because Brian Flores does not care which guy is better. Brian Flores wants to have a good defense. He wants people to be talking on the outside about how he should be back as a head coach. He wants to take pride in turning around a defense.

He doesn't care where somebody was drafted. And, you know, we might not see Louisine get first team reps throughout camp. I don't know. I don't know. It's going to be a day today. Like, let's just check and see. Nope. Still can't buy them, but it feels like they are comfortable with can't buy them, uh, is as the starter and, and Josh Metellus is kind of that hybrid position on like third and long situations. Uh, this one from, uh, Jeffrey big, if cousins has an injury, uh, this season, do you think that Mullins can take the Vikings to the playoffs? I do not know. I think that if Nick Mullins had to play four games and it was a fairly favorable schedule, he could win two of them. But Nick

Mullins played for the 49ers as favorable of a quarterback situation as you will ever find in the NFL in 2023. And I think he went like four and 12. I mean, if Kirk cousins got hurt and Nick Mullins is in, you're really talking about Caleb Williams, Drake may like, you're talking about who are they going to draft at the top? I mean, Nick Mullins got them, Nick Bosa out there because it was one of his seasons that they struggled so much. He's just, there's levels to backup quarterbacks. So there's like your Kyle Orton, who was good enough. If your quarterback got hurt, that he could get you to the playoffs. He could grind out, you know, a little over 500 record. Tyrod Taylor is kind of like that. There's a, there's a number of quarterbacks. Andy Dalton,

I think is still like that. He's mostly played for bad teams, but if he was playing for a really good team, he could get you to the playoffs, maybe at like a nine and eight or eight, nine or something. If it was a good situation, he's still pretty bad, but you know, like kind of the, the, the upper echelon of like a 500 backup. And then there's guys that if you play more than three or four games, you're probably in a lot of trouble. And then there's guys that are completely unplayable, like a Nathan Peterman or a Tim Boyle or something. And I think that Peterman, not Peterman, I think that Mullins falls in the middle category. So you're comfortable with him and he can definitely play in games and you don't feel like you're just going to get

destroyed. But over a long period of time, his weaknesses are going to get you. And, uh, you're, you're not going to win a heck of a lot of games, especially if you don't, um, if you don't have a great defense and you're playing good quarterbacks or something, uh, Hunter, I just got here. Wait, hall looks kind of good. Yeah. Yeah, he does. He does. Um, and you know, I, I think, um, I don't want to like overreact to that, but I also want to point out that when a quarterback looks like they get it, you can see it. And, and so that was, that's the point about Jaron Hall. I won't go through the whole thing again, but yes, that is the case. What are your thoughts on Josh Oliver? Do you see him making any plays? I haven't seen him make any plays yet, but the talk about Josh Oliver is really this. I mean, Wes Phillips discussed this today is having this other gear that you can use. And he talked about how they were so much as 11 personnel last year and that they were still finding out how to use CJ Ham. And I really truly think they didn't know how. I think they liked CJ Ham and especially he's a great special teamer,

super respected. I don't think people would have been happy if they cut him and so forth and they knew he could be useful, but they didn't really know how to use him. And they had an off season to figure that out. And with Josh Oliver, what keeps coming up with him is that they believe he can catch passes. They don't think he's just a blocker. And if he can, then that opens them up to different personnel packages where they put out there, uh, two tight ends, but it's really a three wide receiver set. They did this with Irv Smith really effectively in 2019, where Irv Smith was much more of a receiver with how fast and shifty he was. So they would put out, you know, digs and Thielen and then Irv Smith. That's like having

three wide receivers. I think that TJ Hawkinson can be that way. Uh, if they want to really kind of mess with defenses to have Oliver playing the traditional tight end Hawkinson playing more of a slot receiver, and he can do a lot of things that slot receivers can do. So, um, I think that they like Josh Oliver and that they have something very specific in mind for him. My question is just how do you implement that with also the things that you like? And so you don't subtract away from things that work and try to do something that's out of your comfort zone. Uh, purple pain forums.com. There you go. Uh, says the new rule is mostly useless unless you're San Francisco quarterback be permitted to enter the game. If the first two quarterbacks in the

active list left due to injury or disqualification. Okay. So, um, that just means that you're going to want to have a third quarterback around. Um, and before, for some reason, it'll never make sense to me, but for some reason, it'll never make sense to me, but for some reason you could only have two, just totally silly. That didn't make any sense. So I'm glad that they fixed that. And I appreciate you, um, uh, uh, you clarifying that for me, Derek, thank you. Love the new studio. Sounds like you're not broadcasting from a live shelter in place situation. Yeah. The empty house, what I didn't realize in the old house was how much having like carpet and bookshelves around where I was sitting, uh, killed the echo. And then when I took everything out and moved it

into the new house, I was just sitting in this empty room echoing and I felt bad. Uh, but now we're good. Like we got the upgraded microphone situation, looks a little more professional, got the whole studio situation, still working on the background a little bit. You know, I got, I get texts from people like your pictures are crooked. Look, who cares? It looks good. All right. And I also think that maybe the angle makes them look crooked a little bit more than they are. I don't know. That's that's excuses. We don't have secu excuses on the show. Um, let's see our, uh, our Jared, our Thayer Thomas and Jared Hall eligible for social security this season. Yeah. Well, that's a nice callback to the Hendon hooker is old jokes from a draft season, but you know, that is an interesting factor because when you're 24 years

old coming into the NFL, it doesn't mean that you can't make it. 24 is still a pretty young NFL player, but it is four years older than like Daniil Hunter when he came into the league or Justin Jefferson was 21. So it's three years older, which is a lot. And those are development years that in college, you're just not developing in the same way you would be if you were in the NFL. So there's a, usually a ceiling on those players, unless that player is Joe Burrow, who I believe was 24 when he came into the league. That's why with Jaron Hall, you look at it more of, could he be a Nick Mullins or better type? And if he is, that's really good for you.

That means you developed a quality backup. Seems like, you know, a good leader and that sort of stuff. Maybe they needed to take Jaron Hall and Zach Wilson and make them one person. And then they would have been a good quarterback because Wilson was more arm talent. Younger could be developed. Jaron Hall, older, accurate, but doesn't have a really strong arm, that kind of thing. So yeah, with both of those guys, they have an advantage, but even if they aren't going to be superstars in the league, if you are just a guy who you can trust and who can

make plays when called upon or as a backup who could win a game when called upon, that's good. I mean, that's good to have. I remember it will stick with me and I'll probably bring it up numerous times, but Greg Rosenthal of NFL.com, I think, uh, he said one time on a podcast that he felt like you have to have 40 good players on your team. If at least good, if you're going to be a Superbowl contender, 40 is a lot lot and so if you find somebody who maybe doesn't have the highest ceiling but they're good even if it's not great but it's just good uh and you find them as udfas or fifth round picks like you need that to build a legitimate

team so if you find those guys and they're you know 25 26 and they're not becoming stars but they're still making some plays for you and can get open and catch the ball when they're, you know, 25, 26, and they're not becoming stars, but they're still making some plays for you and can get open and catch the ball when they're thrown it. Not everyone's going to be Justin Jefferson. So I I've been intrigued a little by Thayer Thomas, uh, the way that he catches the ball. He's a really natural athlete. He played baseball and was an MLB draft pick. So, you know, there's, there's, um, some things about his game that I think when people get to see him in, you know, practices out there when fans go or watch preseason games, he might be somebody who stands out. From Daniel, if we land a potential prime Xavier Rhodes and Juwan Williams, we rejoice somewhere Zimmer shedding a tear of approval for this pickup. Yeah. I mean, I think that would be going, uh, pretty far as far as overreactions go.

But if Juwan Williams ended up even being a starter, then. Like that would be a huge win for kind of a random pickup that I didn't make a big deal. I don't know how much I talked about it other than to say, man, that Jawan Williams guy's huge. And that was the whole take. There was no other opinion. And he wasn't playing with the first team as far as I remember on OTAs or mini camp, because we would have pointed it out. And then he comes out, he must understand the defense best, or they want to get a look at him first to see kind of where he's at and then see if any of the younger players can beat him out. But I don't know what it says about Andrew Booth Jr. as a second round pick with experience that, you know, a guy like Jawan Williams, who is now like entering the journeyman phase here, going from his first team, not getting a second contract, getting injured,

kind of showing up with a team without a big contract. If that's the guy over Andrew Booth Jr. for the whole camp, Blackman, I guess I would react less to, but I mean, Booth Jr., this is kind of his big camp to show what he can do. So this might be a Chris Reed or Jesse Davis situation where they brought in a veteran who might be depth on their team and then we'll see, or he might just keep that job because he does have the natural talent. And that goes to what Kwesi's off season philosophy seemed to be was pick up younger free agents, Byron Murphy, uh, Davenport's not super young, but there's still years left for him and see if there's anything there. I like that from a rebuild perspective, uh, from sloth. We need our running back to be more like Louie. So rise cook was more like max Kepler at

this point. Yeah. Kirk cook was really home run or bust. And I mean, even at the beginning of the season, some of the numbers were just weird because he had a few big breakaways. Like, uh, he had one against Miami. There was a huge run and those huge runs, they skewed the numbers to make it look like that yards per carry. I mean, it really, it's like quarterback rating where no matter what happens, it's still going to go back to like, well, but you know, he did average four and a half yards of carry and like, yeah, but not, it wasn't consistently successful. And even toward the end of Adrian Peterson, uh, in 2015, when he led what the NFL and rushing, but it was more inconsistent as he went along in his career. There was even a couple

games, I think in Washington or Arizona, where he was pretty legit and broke away with some big runs. But it's that down after down after down that I think they want to see from Alexander Madison. Derek says, I want to see McBride shine in the preseason. Yeah, I mean, this is where I think when the pads come on, we'll see a little more of him. So far, it's been more Kenny Wong Wu as running back too. But I absolutely guarantee you that duane mcbride is going to get work uh this offseason no doubt about that um from daniel since they won't play starters till week one do we have to wait till then to see if they run

madison like they did cook or do we finally see a committee yes you will have to wait probably till week one because even in practice you're not going to run the same guy over and over and over and over again in practice and wear him the heck down before he goes to week one. So they're going to rotate a lot. And so far it's been a lot more Kenny Wong Wu, what they actually do in games. I think that's up to Kenny Wong Wu, right? If he looks like he's really got it from the offensive perspective, and it's something that will continue to kind of go back and ask people and try to read between the lines, like, how's he looking? You know, does that look like something that's going to be a thing because a thunder

and lightning combination there could be pretty good. You know, I mean, you've seen that work in the past where you kind of have a guy who pounds and slams into the line of scrimmage. And then another guy who's quick, like that works that's worked in the past where you kind of have a guy who pounds and slams into the line of scrimmage. And then another guy who's quick, like that works, that's worked in the league before that was like the Mark Ingram, Elvin Camara kind of recently. So yeah, like that could work, but Wong Wu is going to have to prove it first. And that will take, you know, the whole summer. I think as far as the preseason goes, it will be Wong Wu Chandler and Dwayne McBride all getting work. But if Wong Wu does not play in those preseason games and it's the other two just battling or

doesn't play much, then we'll know there's a separation. So you can tell a little bit, we just have to readjust our, our, our recalibrate our brains to reading the head coach. Cause last year we were like, Oh, this guy's doing this and this guy's doing that. And then we found out, Oh, it doesn't really matter to him. It mattered to Zimmer, but it doesn't really matter to O'Connell this year will be different though, because there's so many young and unproven players that who plays and who doesn't will actually be a thing to, um, to read or who plays or who plays first and who's still out there in the second, third quarter. From Hunter, not that Madison's going to be running wide receiver routes,

but I agree he's a good pass catcher who catches the ball cleanly and starts running upfield quickly. I think that that's really it. Nobody is Marshall Falk, I mean, ever, right, as far as catching passes out of the backfield, uh, I used to be a big fan of Eric Metcalf. Percy Harvin was a receiver who could put in the backfield and have him run routes and he could do pretty much anything in football, but there's not many guys who can actually do that. Uh, and so it's not like he's going to be doing go balls, but you know, I thought that

with Delvin cook, he kind of had drops sometimes and just was so much that the running game that they didn't integrate him a whole lot in the passing game. And there was probably a reason for that. Like they weren't confident in the hands. They weren't confident in the routes. He made a couple of really good catches along the way, but it was never a consistent thing. Madison, there is something you can just see. And, and yeah, I think you're pointing it out where he just confidently snatches that ball, like soft hands, how the ball comes out of the air.

And I don't know if Delvin cook ever quite really had that, uh, miles, what position looks like it needs tuning up so far? Well, guess i would say i mean the offense in general looked like today it needs tuning up overall um it's going to take kirk cousins a little while to get used to i think who his receivers are now without adam thielen there thielen was such a go-to guy for uh kirk cousins after a long time i mean just year after year after year that he's gonna have to get used to that so just the offense in general looks you know pretty rusty at the moment and that's two practices in so you know tomorrow they could be great and then we'll come back

here tomorrow and go yeah they were great today and everything's fine So no overreaction. I saw a video from some reporter for another team, just talking about the quarterbacks and everything else, and just like hammering them for some non-padded practice. Like, okay. All right. Well, that's, I mean, you do you, I guess, but that's, I'm not going to do that. But I think that getting on the same page with the receivers in new roles, because KJ Osborne is in a new role at the moment. Jordan Addison is just coming into the league and Kirk is having to get on the same page with him. It might take a little bit of time to see that thing kind of come together.

But I expect it to be seeing the cornerbacks just getting throttled early on. And we haven't seen that. They through these first two days have looked pretty competent again, two days. And TJ Hockinson has been great by the way. He's making plays every day. No surprise there, nothing new.

But one thing that was funny is TJ Hockinson standing next to Josh Oliver. And I was standing there with a chip Scoggins from the Star Tribune, who was named Journalist of the Year, by the way. Congratulations to him. I saw that on Twitter. But Chip is a tremendous journalist, obviously. But we were standing there talking about how big Josh Oliver is next to TJ Hawkinson. It's like he's towering over him.

He looks like an edge rusher. So anyway, that's probably one of the reasons they brought him in. But from Jeff here, do you think the Vikings should change their helmets for a few games a year and have a logo with a Viking on it? Um, I like what they're doing with bringing back the, uh, the old school. And I think the NFL in general this year has done a tremendous job of that, bringing back some of the old school things, the Falcons. I think they're doing the red helmet. The Oilers are coming back though. I'm a little conflicted in general, but you know, the Buccaneers,

a lot of teams, and supposedly the Eagles are coming back with the Kelly green. And I'll tell you, I've been to Philadelphia three times. I think covering the Vikings every time everyone wears those like their fans, they just wear those old Cunningham jerseys. There were probably as many Randall Cunningham, old school jerseys in Philly as there were like any other player from any era. So I love that the Vikings are doing it. I love that the Eagles,

like all the teams bringing it back but as far as the helmet i think if we were ranking all helmets they have one of the top five helmets in the nfl i don't need the viking i just i love the horn i think the horn is perfect i wouldn't change a thing about their helmet um since they made it the same color as the jersey that was weird when it wasn't but i i love their helmet since they made it the same color as the jersey. That was weird when it wasn't. But I love their helmet, man. I get where you're coming from, but I love the Vikings. I think it is an all-time classic.

Brian Asamoah looking good or at least taking all the first team reps? I would say yes on both. Linebacker with no pads, hard to say. But, I mean, he moves really well. You know, the other thing he has is vibes. You know, we talk about that in the show all the time, aesthetic. He looks like a linebacker. He's got one of those reflective kind of like my, um, Oakley sunglasses kind of like this, the sort of thing with the visor. And he just looks like a sharp linebacker, but he moves so well. I mean, they just picked a really great athlete in him.

I mean, I think that when you see his burst and when you see his quickness, then yeah, I mean, you're immediately impressed by that. It's going to come down to, does he go too fast with that quickness? But that's something I think you can rein in. You can't rein in going too slow. So, you know, but he has been taking all the first team reps. Ivan Pace is taking all the second team reps, which has stuck out to me, somebody that they liked a lot. I think everybody knew that they liked a lot from the UDFA, just very small undersized, but I see him as another Cincinnati guy, like an Eric Wilson, who was very undersized, but I see him as another Cincinnati guy, like an Eric Wilson who was very undersized, but carved out a nice role for a couple of years with the Vikings from

Alexander. What are your thoughts on the commit deal? Seems like an overpay for polls. Well, so overpay is an interesting term because if the bears overpay, it's different than if a team that is up against the salary cap overpays. And if you're the bears and you stink and your quarterback situation is a little shaky,

you have to overpay for even a good player like Cole commit. I don't think that Cole commits contract has any impact whatsoever on like TJ Hawkinson. He's riding in a different air. He's going to look to beat Evan Ingram by quite a bit. He's more of in that Darren Waller. I mean, when you can be second in the league and catches, you're more in the Darren Waller type of, you know, 15, 16, 17, $18 million kind of thing. And I think Komet got well, like 12 and a half per season, but yeah, I mean, he probably is an overpay. I also don't know. Cole come back could be really good and, uh, have a quarterback who can't get them the ball. Um, Derek, I do agree with you that the 40 is

overrated, but, uh, that Jerry rice story is actually kind of a myth. Um, it Google it, Google it. There's a story about it that I read a couple of years ago. Um, but it is overrated when it comes to receivers. That's absolutely true. That was, um, studied by, I think, uh, our friend, Kevin Cole, who studied like the connection between draft and combine and found that there was a very strong connection of teams drafting guys because they were faster, but not a strong connection with them succeeding, which is why when I see somebody like Thayer Thomas getting open and making plays, I take a little notice because, okay, is the guy going to be a blazer?

Probably not, but that's really not like the main factor of being a great wide receiver. It's really route running and playmaking on the football. Do any players look above the rest or stand above the rest with their movement skills without pads? I mean, the guy that of course is going to stand out to me because I'm watching him a lot as a first round pick is Jordan Addison, but his movement skills have definitely stood out. I mean, in general, we're talking about like Christian Derrissaw, who may be one of the world's great

athletes. It is unbelievable to watch him move at his size. Uh, but aside from that, um, yeah, I think that Asamoah pace is undersized, but you really understand why he made all those plays. I mean, just the quickness of put his foot in the ground. He is, of course, kind of the size of a safety. So he should have that quickness as a linebacker. But pace and Addison, the two rookies have definitely stood out to me. I would say quite a bit at the moment. All right, let's see. Um, Thor, did anyone Hulk it out this off season that that is no longer a thing. I think that used to be a thing, the whole best, uh, best, whatever look of your life or whatever best shape of your life. And that's these guys just never go out of shape. So they come back looking exactly like they looked before. That's why I was talking about Daniel Hunter, of course, was not out there today, uh, as he probably won't be until this is resolved. But with Daniel Hunter, does anyone think he'll be out of shape if he has to play week one without any off season? I don't think so. There's so much

sports science and trainers and everything else that nobody comes back looking a lot different. Maybe next year we'll be talking about Addison putting on a little more weight because he is pretty small. So, you know, we'll see on that. That's the only time I've ever seen it with Brian O'Neill. He was extremely thin for a tackle. And then, you know, he obviously put on that weight. O'Neal

still not practicing by the way, still only Udo. And that is a situation where we probably do put a date on wondering, but with a backup tackle, like only Udo, you don't feel like he really has to, um, you know, like rush it. And I think that was what he said in the off season that he doesn't have to rush it. Pro football talk said today, word out of Niners camp is a Trey Lance's QB three behind Sam Darnold. Yikes. It's early, but yikes. When, when Trey Lance was here last year, it wasn't very impressive. Just what I was talking about with Jaron Hall. It should look like it does on TV. So when you watch a good quarterback on TV, any of us, and you see there's a rhythm to plays, there's a rhythm to taking the snap, dropping back.

Everything is timing. It's all by design and hitting the back foot and getting the ball out. And that's what it needs to look like in the NFL, because I was just looking at the quarterback annual from PFF and the data on there. And most quarterbacks are getting the ball out in 2.5 to 2.7 seconds. Like let's all do 2.5 seconds now, like one Mississippi to Mississippi bang football out. That's not a lot of time. And Trey Lance was holding onto it, holding onto it. And then he would often run in the practices against the Vikings that I watched. And it just makes you wonder, like the guy hasn't played a whole lot of football, almost no football in all these years. So I am not surprised that he would be the backup to somebody like Darnold. Who's actually played a lot of football over his

career. And we'll see how that develops through the season, but it might just be a bad situation. He might just be a bust. And the whole theory about trading Kirk for Trey Lance was also paired with the idea that, um, like if he was a bust, it's fine for the Vikings, because that means that they'll get another quarterback next year and they lose nothing. That's really was the theory behind that. Not Hey, Trey Lance is going to be great, but let's, let's see how that one plays out first and we'll figure it out. But it seems like they are really committed to Brock Purdy and his reconstructed arm. Uh, Jeffrey is cousins, a better quarterback today than Rogers. Nah, I can't do that. Nah, I can't say that. Can't say that. I think last year, uh, Kirk played better football than Aaron

Rogers. No question, but I'm not, I'm not going to do that because now he has Garrett Wilson and a pretty good offensive line. And it looks like they're going to have a running game when Brees hall returns. They've added some players. I mean, you know, I I'm not going to say it until it's like really official because there were some stats a couple of years ago. Well, Hey, Kirk has a better quarterback rating over this kind of time. And then Rogers won two MVPs. So every time we kind of counted them out, he's come back strong. And that's just my rule is with legends like that. Not until it's over. over, not until we really know it's over. And the guy is just either bad or retired, but I can't say that I still got so

much arm talent. And look, the last time we saw him play the Vikings, he made some incredible plays and some incredible throws. So I'm not going to quite, quite go there just yet. But is it possible that, is it possible that Cousins plays better than Rogers this year? More possible than it's ever been. Yeah. I would say, I would say that, that it is more possible than it has ever been because Rogers could just be washed and he looks weird. It not just in the Jets jersey, but his body looks kind of weird. It looks like he's been, you know, just like chewing on random grass that he found in front of his house in LA and not doing the same things to beef up. And I even like thought, is this tricking my brain?

So I went back and looked at some pictures from him from 2015, and he looks a lot thinner than he did then. So is it possible that Kirk is better than Rodgers this year? Definitely more possible than it's been, but I'm not going to go there and then have Rodgers win 14 games or something because he's done stuff like that in the past. Daniel Madison and Kanae, Thunder and Lightning something. Uh, cause he's done stuff like that in the past. Um, Daniel Madison and Kanae thunder and lightning 2.0 Lendell white and Reggie push joke for the younger crowd. Hey, you know, back in the day, uh, there, there was some good combinations. Who was it? It was like Darren Sproles and somebody or, uh, Charlie Garner and Ricky waters like that. The thunder and lightning

concept has worked many times, but if, if we were just being reasonable about the statistics, I mean, let's say that Madison has 850 yards and Kenne ends up with like 400 and Ty Chandler is mixed in. I mean, you can have a decent running game and, you know, have it be more effective by efficiency than what it was last year. And that's what they're really looking for. I mean, that was my big takeaway from what Wes Phillips said is that it's really about that consistent success rate, the efficiency, and not so much about the occasional big play. So they could be more efficient overall. And at the end of the day, we're looking in the numbers, aren't that much different, but it was actually better because sometimes it's not the numbers lie. It's that we need to fully understand what they mean. Uh, from Jeffrey, do you think the D will be fine? If Hunter goes elsewhere? No, I don't because I don't think they're sacking anyone if that's the case. I mean, like the secondary could emerge as being much

better than we thought it was going to be. So I would give you that. And if the secondary is better, then there'll be better. But if they don't have like, let's go over this front four, if they don't have Daniel Hunter and you tell me who's sacking people, you have Marcus Davenport who had a half a sack last year. And I like where Kwesi's mind was at with some of the data on him, the pressure data, the PFF grades. That's a guy I would have signed just based on pff.com, but he only had a half sack last year so even if we split the difference between his best year and last year that's still like four uh dean lowry i think he had a sack and

a half last year uh you know he's rushed the passer a little bit before kind of a veteran harrison phillips handful of sacks handful of pressures more of a run stuffer and then if daniel hunter has gone it's dj want him who could maybe get you six sacks but very inconsistent in terms of pressure that's going to give opportunities for opposing quarterbacks to just sit back there if you're not blitzing all the time but if you're blitzing all the time then there's opportunities so i am comfortable with the idea that they could trade Daniel Hunter because I don't think it's smart to extend him for a gazillion dollars. But I also think that, I don't know where the pressure is coming from. They probably would sign another

veteran late in the game, but I, the pressure from a front four is just not going to be there. If Daniel Hunter is not there, uh, from I shot you 99 is Bynum that good or is seen just not doing well. I think that Bynum is good. Like not in the way that Ed Reed is good, but in the way that like Xavier Woods was good. Xavier Woods was not a game changing player or anything like that, but he's a guy that you could respect a smart player, knew what he was doing, professional sort of player who understood the defense and was just solid, right?

Not a game changer, not five or six picks, not getting sacks or anything like that. Just he's back there. He's where he's supposed to be. He can make some plays on the ball. I think that that's Cam Bynum, but if you can't meet that threshold of be where he needs to be or read the plays you need to read, because the thing about Cam Bynum is, is if Cam Bynum is an average speed type of safety, but he is playing confidently, and this really matters, he's playing confidently and playing fast, then he's running faster than Louis

Seen on the actual football field. That's why a guy with a 4.540 can look faster than he is. Some deep route runners run 4.5s and not 4.3s, and they look better than guys who run 4.3s because of their route running and their technique. And they look better than guys who run four threes because of their route running and their technique. And that's what it often comes down to. So if your technique and your confidence is high, you will play faster than the guy who runs a faster 40 than you. That's why we make too much of the 40. There's a threshold. Um, and then that's about it. Uh, Kirk isn't better than washed Aaron Rogers. I mean, I don't

like, I think last year was a, was a tough year for Aaron Rogers, but I also think that 2018 was a down year and everyone called them washed. And then he won two straight MVPs and a 13 win season when he didn't win MVP in 2019. So, you know, I think you give him a great team, a great number one wide receiver. Like that guy, Garrett Wilson was making Mike White look good. I mean, that's, you know, I just think he's a, he's going to be in a really good setup in, in New York and it's a tough conference. It's a tough division. And I could see the Rogers thing, like completely backfiring and falling apart. Totally, totally could see it.

I'm just not calling it now because I have seen Rogers do so many things, so many things over the years. The games that I've driven down to Lambeau Field and everything else in front of me that like make no sense to my eyeballs that I just can't count the guy out and say the cousins is better than him when he is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't make fun of him because I like doing that. And I think that's very funny to make fun of him, but he's really, really good at football. So until that's over, I, I that's over, but I think if we were trying to do an odds play about Rodgers versus

Cousins, what are the odds that Cousins outplays Aaron Rodgers this year? Higher than ever, like higher than ever. Normally, you know, going into the last couple of seasons, it's been nothing. There's no chance that he outplays Rogers last year. He did outplay Rogers overall. I'll, you know, I mean, Rogers situation was different, but he overall had a better season than Rogers. Will he do it this year when Rogers has a good team? You know, I don't know. I don't know, but I would be, if I'm a Jets fan and I look at the pictures of Rogersgers i do go

where's the rest of him like is he supposed to be a little more muscular than he is uh matthew please enlighten us regarding uh your views on sean payton's comments today well i think that less steckle fans would have something to say about him calling nate hackett's coaching job one of the worst in history there have been Urban Meyer is the worst head coach of my lifetime that I've ever seen somebody who just had no idea what was going on in the National Football League and then he kicked a guy I mean not good that was the worst I've ever seen. But Nate Hackett's not far behind. Nate Hackett's coaching last year was abominable and it was over so fast.

Do you remember Peyton Manning losing his mind on television over Nate Hackett not understanding how clocks work? That guy, some people just fall forward in life and I don't get it. He was not good as an offensive coordinator in Buffalo. He was not good in Jacksonville. He latched on to Aaron Rogers at the right time in green Bay, but who couldn't, and then ends up with a head coaching job. Huh? I, it just never made any sense. And now he's back with Rogers to make him look good. I guess again, because he's

Rogers buddy, maybe he drinks whatever ayahuasca tea or whatever with Rogers and they hang out and talk about the meaning of star constellations. But I don't think the guy is at all fit to be a head coach. So what Sean Payton said was what everybody already thought is that they were clueless as heck last year. And the thing about head coaches and retreads, and this is what I like to say about like Mike McCarthy is we Mike McCarthy makes some very dopey decisions in big games that he's in because he's a good NFL coach. He's in the playoffs all the time and his offenses are good all the time that he knows how to effectively coach an NFL team, which very, very few people do. It's just like quarterback. There's probably 15 human beings who can actually handle it. Everything that goes into it. Sean Payton is certainly one of those people. And those coaches,

your Mike Tomlins and so forth will raise the level. And that's why when they fired Mike Zimmer, my thing was, you just don't know what you get with the next guy. Can he actually coach a team? And my impression of Kevin O'Connell so far is that he can, there hasn't been a lot of adversity yet, but he can. So, I mean, I thought like when you're Sean Payton and you earn as much money as you do, and you are just owned by Walmart or whatever. I mean, you just don't have to care. And when you don't care, you just say whatever you want. And I didn't think that anything he said

was something that we would disagree with. Kind of reminded me of like what Kwesi said last year about, you know, Kirk Cousins and those kinds of things where I was like, that's okay. I mean, yeah, I don't get any problem with that. Yeah, you do hurt feelings sometimes, yeah, I don't, I don't get any problem with that. Yeah. You do hurt feelings sometimes, but he said the truth, you know, and if he's saying the truth, then I respect it. Yeah. I know you guys don't like Sean Payton, but if he's, if he's speaking

truth, I'm going to respect that part of it. At least there are other parts of Sean Payton that I do not respect so much, but, um, you know, I didn't have any problem with what he said. I'm sure it'll ruffle feathers. Uh, if you didn't see it, you should look it up. It's kind of funny though. But I mean, did anybody else think it was a good coaching job last year or that anybody did it right? And he is, he is right. That sometimes many times in NFL history and the jets could be this, you know, you guys who, who would like to see Rogers fail, which I of course don't blame you. Uh, you could be right because a lot of times there is a lot of pomp and circumstance. There's a lot of hype and

everything else for the off season. And then, you know, it kind of goes sideways. Uh, maybe it is the hype gets to, I mean, the 2018 Vikings were like this, it was off season hype. It was Superbowl or bust. And then, you know, some things went wrong. The pressure pressure is a heck of a thing. Pressure got to everybody in Denver when it was all supposed to be, you know, here they go back to the playoffs and it doesn't happen and pressure will make people crack. And I think they cracked early and never really recovered so you know it's fine if if people want to give their perspectives in a truthful manner a journalist

who interviews people professionally is not going to complain about that so anyway well it's been a really fun night really really fun night again so many of you tuning in tonight and uh really appreciate it and i wasn't planning to do like a training camp tonight every night, but now I am at least several times a week during training camp because, you know, you guys have just been so responsive and made this so much fun. Even tonight, I was planning on doing like, you know, 30, 40 minutes. And here we are an hour 10 into it. And you guys are still engaging.

So really, really appreciate it and you guys are still engaging so really really appreciate it you guys are the best you make this really fun and every day we'll have something new to talk about with training camp that's what makes it great we'll lead up to the preseason game cover all that purpleinsider.com for the written work i also tweet out my articles at matthew collar so check it out there. Join the newsletter. I have my book with me. Here's my book. This is the author copies that they sent me.

And the real thing comes out officially in October, but you can pre-order it. Now football is a numbers game pro football focus and how a data driven approach shook up the sport. So if you go to Amazon or wherever you get your books, check that out. I haven't checked every book website, but anyway, thanks everybody. Appreciate the time and we'll keep on rolling.

So we'll see you soon.