Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Depth concerns on display in Vikings' preseason loss to Titans

Episode Date: August 20, 2023

From inside US Bank Stadium, Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani talk about how the Minnesota Vikings struggled to get going against the Tennessee Titans because their offensive line had such a bad night. Plus, Lewis Cine missed a big opportunity to make a play and Jaren Hall had another chance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome inside the press box at US Bank Stadium, Matthew Collar along with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press to break down a football game that absolutely happened in front of us hours ago you may not remember it 10 years from now but there were some things to actually talk about from tonight's game so I see that plenty of you have already jumped into the comment section but of course comments questions always welcome and we're going to break down everything we had to take away from this preseason football game and dane i want to start with a question that you asked the head coach of this national football league team kevin o'connell about after the game lewis seen and his game tonight because i think we all saw a missed tackle that was pretty concerning where

he flew downhill and right by the running back who went for a touchdown but Kevin O'Connell argued after the game that he liked that he was pulling the trigger quicker and playing faster tonight so why don't we start with that your take on Lewis Seen's evening. Concerning, I think, is what I would say, because it feels very similar to what we saw out of him last week in Seattle. He is getting to the point of attack quickly. He's getting downhill, but he's not finishing the play. To his credit tonight, he did have a sack. He finished a couple plays near the line to scrimmage.

But when push came to shove and he was in the hole ready to make that tackle on tajay spears he whiffed the play went 33 yards for a touchdown i get it the kid broke his leg last year gruesomely he might not be 100 mentally he says he's 100 physically maybe he is maybe he isn't i don't think he's 100 mentally so maybe there is some sort of ramp up period and you know maybe some grace there but at the end of the day that was one of the biggest plays of the the night especially with the group that was running at the time because they benched or arrested 33 starters or whatever so that was essentially the ones for tonight and and it was the biggest play

you know that that group kind of gave up 33 yards touchdown all because he missed that tackle on the hole right and after the game lewis seen said that he didn't feel like there was much he could have done on that play and it was like other than tackle the guy that would have been the thing to do on the play and i think that what kevin Kevin O'Connell was trying to do when he talked about it was be as positive as possible as Kevin O'Connell wants to do. And they even named him a captain for tonight. It seems like they are trying to push as hard as they can and just encourage, encourage, encourage when it comes to Louis scene. And he did make a good play on the malik willis play at the end zone but that was the third quarter that's when lewis scene shouldn't even be playing if he

had been showing more in practice from them then he would have been out of the game already because even guys who are clear second team and backups were mostly out of the game and it was almost exclusively third team guys, practice squad guys. And there's the former first round pick steal out on the field. And yeah, he makes a play, but I mean, that's really the only play of the night. I did think he was coming downhill a little bit faster and he called it triggering a little bit faster, but we're still not seeing consistent playmaking from him or even being in the right place. There was a third down pass from Malik Willis where he was kind of just drifting in the zone

and took a little bit of a bad angle. And even Malik Willis as inaccurate as he was tonight, which by the way, you see why he's a third round pick the way he threw the football, but even he was able to throw it over Lewiswis scene to his wide open receiver which looked like it was scene's assignment and after the game him talking about well i haven't gotten many of these reps and so forth he did have an entire practice uh last year of training camp and he did have the preseason games last year and he's been practicing all summer and he's already had another preseason game like okay i understand like you said the injury but if you were looking and waiting and hoping for that moment where it clicks in uh that wasn't gonna happen tonight and then that play i think was

sort of emblematic of even with him trying to fire downhill not being able to finish that play when to me that is either a i mean that is to me it's fairly routine and maybe it's because i've watched harrison smith for so many years but that hole opens up the safety's supposed to fill it make the tackle we all move on and he just dove forward superman style like what i mean i don't know it looked very bizarre to me and i don't want to focus too much on that play but it was was funny for, uh, you know, Kevin O'Connell to say, well, you know, outside that play that one play, which we don't practice tackling much. It was, it was pretty good. And it was like, I don't know, man. I think that that was trying really, really hard to be complimentary and to be encouraging of Lewiswis scene but we're getting to the point where how much more can be said you know it needs to happen at some point and that

point was not tonight yeah the game he had one play to make tonight he made a handful of plays but the one play he needed to make to stop the touchdown from happening he didn't make maybe he'll make that play next week maybe he'll make it later in the season but he didn't make. Maybe he'll make that play next week. Maybe he'll make it later in the season, but he didn't make it tonight. And this is, was a huge game for him. Like you said, he got the whole game. He didn't come out after the first half, like a handful of players did tonight. He got to play the whole game. And when push came to shove, he didn't make the biggest play of his night. And it resulted in a touchdown, not just a big game, not at first down,

a touchdown. It gave up a touchdown so i mean it's it's it's tough but you you you understand what they're doing with him by like you said trying to build his confidence back up i i guess i would prefer kevin o'connell do that than just you know dump on him after the game but at a certain point he's got to make those plays that that he's in putting himself in positions to make and i did notice this week during practice that he was playing up in the box more often that was it looked like a little bit of a change for them i didn't think he was doing that tonight but i also believe that they don't want to show anything that they want to really do so he was back in sort of his normal role but if they're going to figure something out for him, I mean,

I think that it's probably as a player that's up in the box and maybe can react quicker. But I also think every position needs a lot of reads and reacting and quick triggering and all those things that just are not happening, you know, tonight. So that, that did stand out to me. And I'm always trying to sort in my brain with a preseason game, like what's going to matter toward the season. Like we're not going to break down Nick Mullins performance because it doesn't matter. We know what happens if Nick Mullins has

to play significant time. It's not good. But I did think if we want to talk about somebody that could matter at some point, only Udo is a guy that could matter at some point. We saw Christian Derrissaw get banged up a little bit last year. He had to come in. Brian O'Neill got beat up with the Achilles injury and he had to play in the playoffs. I thought he was okay in the playoffs and that it didn't hurt them. But in these two preseason games, it has been absolutely miserable for only Udo. And that was one of the worst games I've seen from a tackle in preseason that actually started the game yeah I mean it's it's kind of unfathomable that like

we've just slotted Ole Udo into that swing tackle role like it's just like a given at this point they're like yeah Ole Udo is a swing tackle I think it's honestly time to maybe reevaluate that I don't know how the Vikings can walk into TCO Performance Center next week and just feel comfortable that if Christian Derrissaw goes down, if Brian O'Neal goes down, granted, if either of those guys go down for the whole season, you're probably screwed anyway. But if they're out for a few weeks and you have to put Ole Udo in,

right now it looks like you're just hemorrhaging pass rush. It's what happened tonight against a lot of backups like we've talked about well those players that were playing tonight for the titans if at any point down the road ole udo has to get into the game during the regular season he's going to be playing against players that are better than the players he played against tonight uh there was a sequence early in i think it was first or second quarter. He got flagged for hands to the face. Someone else got flagged for, I think it was an offensive pass or defensive pass interference on the same play or offensive pass interference on the same play. So the Titans accepted that one. And the very next play he got flagged for holding. So it

was like he compounded two large mistakes and that was just emblematic of the whole game for him. He looked lost out there and that would be emblematic of the whole game for him he looked lost out there and that would be like you said if we're pushing ahead to what really matters come regular season that's probably one to me right from tonight I think the entire status of the backup offensive lineman matters quite a bit because how many offensive lines stay healthy through the entire season last year they actually had very good luck with that ingram played all the games which is pretty rare for a rookie garrett bradbury missed a couple austin schlotman had to come in he's the guy that you would feel

okay with at center for a couple of games you don't think it's going to be a total disaster but aside from that blake brando is moving from tackle to guard, which is a tough transition for anyone. And tonight, nobody had a good game. They also played one starter because he got in a fight, and that guy mauled everybody. He was out for blood. He was just ripping heads off and beating Nick Mullins to death with it. I mean, they had one starter, and he's just annihilating people.

That's a guy who played 500 snaps for the Titans last year. And he looked like Aaron Donald against the backup offensive lineman. I mean, that is a problem. And it seems like every week we're talking about, will they go into free agency or are they waiting for Chris Reed to come back? But he's missed the entire training camp. That's not easy. I mean, I think that they really do have a legitimate issue here. And with only Udo, you're kind of asking yourself, how much do I want to react to two preseason games? Because his history as a swing tackle has been okay. As a guard, it was really bad. Well, when he's been a swing tackle, it's been mostly fine. And this week he did have to practice

for brian o'neill in all those 11 on 11s and then come out here and play so that was like playing two games essentially for oli udo but then again you're holding you're committing penalties which he's always had a huge problem with i mean i think that there has to be some veteran considerations and i also think that if you're going to do it, do it now. After seeing those joint practices, you have enough time to get somebody else in and prepare them for the rest of the for the beginning of the season. I think it's sort of now or never when it comes to any of the free agent decisions. Yeah, I agree, because you want to try and onboard everyone that you bring anyone that you bring in once the games really start to matter it's pretty clear that the vikings don't truly care about the

end result of these games right now they're getting a lot of the work that they know i mean yeah they're getting a lot of the work that they want to get done in these joint practices you have a set of joint practices coming up this week against Arizona. Like I kind of agree. Like if you want to see a Dalton Reisner, bring them in now. Like if you want to go out and canvas for veteran tackles, because you are worried about it, only you to bring them in now,

like it's okay to bring a guy in now and not when you really just, okay, now we really need to do it in the regular season because we have a real problem on our hands where we can see the problem might exist already. So I think it's okay to kind of try and get ahead, be proactive here when it comes to it, especially, like you said, the backup offensive line. They're backups. We get it. But you're one play away from having to play.

And if you just look at it tonight, I wouldn't feel comfortable with anyone having to come in and play. Yeah, aside from Austin Schloteman, who I think we saw last year was okay. I'm not saying he was good, but he could run the offense and it really hurt them when he got hurt late in the season. And that kind of threw them all off for that Packers game. But aside from him,

yeah, even with only Udo's history, the fact that it's not looking even serviceable and you would think he would be the best guy on the field considering that he's played before, but not trending in the right direction in these games. I think it is time to make a decision and bring in some free agents based on what they saw tonight, because the issue was that they could not operate as an offense.

And you could say, well, Nick Mullins, he's not very good of course that's true but at the same time if you give him time to throw he can find receivers and where i thought they really failed tonight was we weren't able to get evaluations on those wide receivers at all i mean the couple passes that went to Tristan Jackson, he had one where if you were watching on TV, cause we have the broadcast above us and the press box, you just saw him drop it.

But right before he kind of like fell on the turf or slipped and he was trying to get up at the same time and catch it and went through his hands. No excuses. It's football, but that's kind of what happened on that play. But what he got three targets, Jalen Rager got a couple. I mean, we just, we just didn't get any evaluation on those wide receivers. And after this week, it was going to be really interesting with no Jordan Addison. I thought, okay,

this is a night to really find out some things about these receivers. And I leave here feeling no closer to answers on wide receivers than when we walked in here tonight. No. And you look at the stat lines, I think three tight ends had over like four to 30 yards receiving a lot of those just like leaks out of the backfield or right off of the line. And then it's because all the receivers that you wanted to see the routes

didn't have time to develop the, you know, like because of the offensive line and because Nick Mullins had no time to throw, we didn't get to see him throw downfield and in turn see any of those receivers kind of show what they have we saw Colin Thompson catch a couple balls Nick Muse catch a couple balls big night for Nick Muse he's had two very good preseason right practice squad tight end though right yeah I mean they're not going to keep four right like four Like four tight ends. There's no way. But yeah, like you just didn't get to see anything really out of a Tristan Jackson, aside from those few targets. Nothing really out of Jalen Rager, who I think they were hoping, let's try and, you know,

Kevin O'Connell even said tonight, we tried to get him up over the top a couple of times. Those routes just never had time to develop. This was a big week for Jalen Rager. He was playing quite a bit with the ones in practice and those joint practices just didn't really get to see him in a game same with Brandon Powell like Brandon Powell and Jalen Rager fighting for the same roster spot essentially we saw Brandon Powell return some kicks some punts tonight but we didn't really get to see him in you know as far as what he looks like as a receiver all of that all of this is connected and it it goes back to the guys in the trenches.

And, you know, like we keep saying, like you said, it might be okay to, like, this week bring a few guys in or a couple guys in, even if it's just for a workout so you have them in the Rolodex later down the road. But maybe if it's just sign a guy, let's if they the offense can look a little bit different next week see if you can get an evaluation on some of these guys because you haven't really this i certainly have to wonder why reisner hasn't signed anywhere and that has to be brought up that there must be a reason and maybe whatever that reason is is keeping them from doing it but if you're going to do it now's the time to do it and as long as there isn't some injury or some personality problem that they are worried about i think it's pretty clear that

even if chris reed does come back you need multiple players for depth on your offensive line and even if it is too late to have dalton riser compete right now with ed ingram just because we've gone past go you still want him in case, in case you get six weeks into the season and say, this is not working with Ed Ingram, who I assume didn't play today because of the hard practices that they had throughout the week. And Kevin O'Connell more or less said that, but I think there's no one there to compete with him at all if things go wrong. And we've seen that in years past how many

times the tom compton or even last year where they wouldn't put ed or uh they wouldn't put chris reed or ed reed uh in he was not available uh nor does he play guard but they didn't seem to want anybody to compete with dakota dozier when he started a full season and i feel like even though it's a different regime some of these history repeating themselves things are going on uh let's answer a couple of comments here one from uh high times kg please explain koc's obsession with jaylen nailer well i mean for one didn't we all think it was going to be an exciting training camp for jaylen nailer i mean i think one of the hard things about this training camp is there has been so many mysterious injuries of Jalen Naylor. Oh, he's out, but he'll be back next week. Okay. Where is he? I mean, right? Like what,

what happened? Did he get bit by an alligator after the leg injury? And that's the, you know, made it worse. I mean, what is happening here with Jalen Naylor is a great question and there hasn't been any clarity on it and he doesn't have to update us on it because it's the preseason. So he can just continue to say, I don't know, maybe he doesn't, and maybe it's a nagging injury, but the obsession with Jalen Naylor is, I think he's on the team. If he's able to come back healthy because of what he did last year. And he's also probably a better pure wide receiver than Jalen Rager or Brandon Powell and maybe even Tristan Jackson as well. Yeah, you saw what Jalen Naylor could do in OTAs. It just popped off the screen pretty much every day. That's KLC's obsession with him. He saw someone who I think he was like,

that kid can play receiver in the NFL. And we don't have a ton of those guys outside of the big three, outside of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, KJ Osborne. You know, I know Tristan Jackson's had a really good camp. He looks like someone who's getting closer and closer to making the team with the way he performs in practice every day. But we saw that same type of performance that Tristan Jackson's putting forth out of Jalen Naylor all throughout the spring.

And that's why he was ahead. And that's why I think Kevin O'Connell continues to talk about him, because I think it was a thing that you saw this guy, you know, the way he kind of came back throughout the off season, the way he performed in spring drills. I think it was was he was ready to kind of ramp him up and you know give him a role in this offense he's also really really fast so that that's another thing i think kevin o'connell looks at him as a guy who could take the top off

a defense brings a skill that that you know there's fast guys in the room but not that fast so i think that's another reason he likes him but it's getting harder and harder to see how he makes the team if he isn't on the field and and i i really start to worry now at this point like is he going to be available at any point this preseason and and if he's not i think you you might have to cut him folks late summer and fall are always a crazy time for me with football and i have hardly any time for a good meal i'm always finding myself in drive-thrus and running around but that is changing with factor america's number one ready to eat meal kit they can help you just like they're helping me fuel up with fast chef prepared-prepared, dietitian-approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered

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If a guy misses an entire training camp and injuries you can't control, but at the same time, this is football yeah that i mean that's a hard thing if a guy misses an entire training camp and like injuries you can't control but at the same time this is football and a lot of people lose their job to injury i don't know whoever said you can't lose your job to injury but it happens all the time on every team so uh it's a fact here they liked nailer i think also from last year i remember wes phillips mentioning that he was very happy with how he understood the playbook, which is a huge deal to these guys with wide receivers. Can you get lined up correctly? Can you be in the right spots? The problem is if you don't practice at all during

training camp, it's really hard to be locked in from the outset of the beginning of the season. So then you need to keep six if you want to keep Jalen Naylor, because then you have to have Tristan Jackson and Rager and Powell. And I don't think there's anyone behind them that is pushing for a job, but you end up needing to keep him and the extra guys. And if you want to keep five because you have other hard decisions, then who do you cut? Tristan Jackson, who's come and made plays every single day in practice or the guy that was on the sideline i think that that is a very difficult decision for them if he can't get back on the field and again we have no real timeline to be able to say oh well next week he'll be back

and then at least he'll be able to catch up uh how did pace look well i don't first of all i don't know that anybody looked great against the run today i thought that the running game was really good for the titans they went over 200 yards maybe even over 250 yards for them uh but i think that the accumulation of ivan pace and what we heard from the coaches it's just trending more and more and this goes to brian asamoah as well it's going more and more toward ivan pace as your starting linebacker. And the only question is when the games get real and the offensive linemen aren't backup offensive linemen, what's it really going to look like? But I think they got a great chance to evaluate this week against the Titans and they will again against

the Cardinals. My question would be, Pace played a lot tonight. Most of the starters did not. Are you still wondering, is it Asamoah or Pace, or are you locked into Ivan Pace as the starter? I think Ivan Pace, obviously, he's been the darling of training camp. Everyone loves him. Everyone, the undrafted free agent. Mr. Mankato is over.

It's over. Yeah, it's Ivan Pace's ivan pace you ask any coach about him they'll rave about ivan pace so like the hype is real and merited um i don't think it's just something that's been created clearly the coaches feel a certain way about this kid but i i still don't know if he's just your bona fide starter right now i i think asamoah was another guy who had a ton of hype around him this whole offseason. What's he going to look like in Brian Flores' scheme? And now because we've fallen in love with Ivan Pace,

it seems like we've just kind of kicked Brian Asamoah to the curb. I know we just talked about injuries. You can't lose your job for an injury. Yes, you can. Brian Asamoah is in the process of losing his job to injury. But if he does come back this week, if he, if he looks even remotely good in practice, I think we still have a competition on our hands.

I don't think I'm ready to call it yet, but I, I, there was a point throughout most of training camp where I thought, no, it's just going to be Brian Osamu. They're not going to really start an undrafted rookie. Are they? Then you hear what Kevin O'Connell says this week I think the exact wording at the end of his his answer where he just said gold stars for Ivan Pace was maybe he can help us from the jump from the jump would mean week one which would mean you are the starter so it's certainly being talked about and entertained I don't know if it's quite over yet but I think Ivan Pace might have the edge right now well and Asamoah's injury is a mystery as much

as Naylor's is because he talked about when they went to Seattle how they were considering playing him and then didn't play him so my assumption was all right well then he's well that was the right thing to do and he'll be back next week But if you miss those practices against the Titans, can you believe how much these coaches talk about these practices? Like these joint practices are everything this preseason game. And look, I think it's a great idea, but they've got other people calling the offense in the second half. They're just like, give it like, okay, why don't you call the offense? You call the offense, get a little experience out there. I mean, that kind of shows you how much it matters or does not matter to them. It's really the joint practices are their biggest evaluation. And he was not there. Uh, Rembrandt Q Einstein

asks, love that. Uh, does this change my prediction of 10 wins tonight? Does tonight change my prediction? Like what tonight doesn't change anything except for, we had a flavor of ice cream that we couldn't identify in the press box and I'm going to go find out and I might eat some more of it. So it did change my opinion on that ice cream, but not on this team at all. But I did want to ask you Dane about how you feel about that, because I went 10 wins from the very outset. The schedule drops. Pick the schedule. 10 wins. That's where I'm at. I haven't moved. Has the camp moved you and the preseason games moved you in any direction from your initial prediction when the schedule first came out?

Not really. I had him at 10 wins as well. I had him fighting for the division. I don't know if 10 wins gets you the division. I don't know that it doesn't. But I had him as a playoff team with 10 wins. There is a world in which they're just kind of meh this year. But I don't know if I'm ready to say, okay, after watching training camp, because really the preseason games don't matter so i don't even want to acknowledge them as something that would impact my decision but after watching training camp do i think my my prediction has changed am i moving off of 10 wins not yet but i i do see a pathway where like if a couple things go wrong like it could get a little bit ugly here so everything goes right everyone stays healthy yeah i'll stick at 10 wins but training campus showed me that like it's pretty fickle we knew

that going in i mean the nfl is a fickle league but if a couple things go wrong with this team there's not a ton of depth um if we just talked about it with the offensive line not a ton of depth there if if there's our or o'neill goes down even if bradbury goes down i know we like how we feel good about schlottman but like there just isn't a ton of depth on this team so i think that's what training camp has illuminated um is that the lack of depth that we kind of thought was there is definitely there. Yeah, I think that as well. And the injuries that have happened have shined a light on that quite a bit. And you can definitely praise what we've seen from the wide receivers in terms of Jordan Addison looking good.

KJ Osborne's had a great camp. And I like everything that Tristan Jackson has done. But that doesn't mean you can trust them in actual games. Even, even at their best depth position, I'm still a little meh because we're not seeing Naylor. And then the other guys, Rager has proven to not be very effective. Powell has barely played receiver in his career. Like you go one layer down on so many spots and you're in a lot of trouble and we've kind of got a little sneak peek at that so if there's is something that takes them down from where i'm at it is exactly that and the cornerback group i mean you see like juwan williams played a lot tonight which makes me think that they think mckay blackman is going to be okay uh and or they just wanted to get more look at a competition

there and i know tom pelissero reported not a major injury. We don't know what that means exactly though. So I guess we're going to find out, but there's a lot of positions where you go, wait, you go down from corner and it's a guy who used to play for the Patriots and hasn't really played much in the NFL. And that's like your next man up. Andrew Booth Jr. is clearly way down the depth chart. So yeah, I think from a big picture perspective and what we've seen in practice and in preseason, that has been on display, especially on the offensive line and on defense. Davey says we make too much about great plays in practice when the game gets real and said player doesn't see the field. Those great plays become moot. Well, so this is the

thing with this team is practice actually means way more than any of these games. And that's very different than it used to be with Mike Zimmer. With Mike Zimmer, this was a big deal, these preseason games. He won almost every one of them that he ever played. He played starters a lot. He played backups. He pushed guys. I think that the way Kevin O'Connell approaches it is just very, very different. And that makes these games harder to react to, even though it's much easier to react when all of us have seen it as opposed to a practice where you and I saw it and the fans who were there.

But you're just relying on kind of what we're saying. Let me circle back to the game. Another person that I felt pretty bad for not getting a whole lot of action because of the O-line was Ty Chandler. Where do we stand on Ty Chandler and the running back depth chart? Because Kenny Wong Wu. So it's funny about the hierarchy. The slightly injured players were out there before the game walking around in their jerseys the more injured players were nowhere to be seen and and kenny wongwu was nowhere to be seen so i don't know does that mean he's more injured i'm not 100 sure but like jordan addison wasn't there he's in the

protocol so it was odd trying to identify like what it means that guys were or weren't there but they sign a running back to kick return okay but the running back depth behind madison just does not look good and i don't think they trust chandler and we really didn't get a chance to see him do anything tonight because they couldn't block yeah it's very similar to what we just said about the receivers right like routes couldn't develop so did we really learn anything about brandon power jalen rigger we learned really not much about ty chandler i think a lot of people who look at ty chandler as because there are people out there that just think he's going to be the backup running back are latched onto that how good he looked in the preseason

last year he had a pretty good week against Seattle last week but it wasn't like the most amazing performance I've ever seen I think he averaged four yards of carry and he looked okay at times and he looked like he picked the wrong gap at other times I don't know how comfortable I would feel with him as my backup running back I think it's interesting that they continue to host these visits I don't know if that's to build a Rolodex just in case, or if that's really at some point, they're really trying to just give Ty Chandler every opportunity to win the job. And if they decide at any point that, that he can't,

then they'll they'll bring in one of these guys that they've brought in for visits. But I, it's just so hard to figure out tonight because, you know, at the same time we talk about how we don't make a lot about these preseason games because we see it in joint practices. But there are certain positions where you want to see them perform. And as a running back, running in a preseason game, you can gain a little bit more because those guys are trying to take you to the ground.

They're not in practice. It's a thud and a whistle. So we didn't get to see that out of Ty Chandler. The next chance we'll see is in joint practices this week against Arizona and maybe the preseason game against the Cardinals. But do we have enough data at that point to just say, okay, Alexander Madison, Ty Chandler, that's our running back room. I don't know.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Also the guy that they signed tonight. Do you remember his name? Who's the kick returner guy? Aaron Dykes. Aaron Dykes. He's good.

Yeah. Good for him. You look good, but also bringing in another guy, having him kick return intentionally. That's what this guy does. He was great at it in college. Like, hey, Kenny Wong Wu, you paying attention? Like, it's I believe that they came into this training camp thinking, and this is based

on mini camp and OTAs, that Kenny Wong Wu would be number two and they would continue to develop Ty Chandler and hope that they had three by the end of this year. But I don't think that they think Ty Chandler is really ready to play. If he had to play 60 snaps a game, if Alexander Madison got hurt and what is the staple of running backs in the NFL, they get hurt. It's hard to like, I was talking to Mike Clay, a VSPN who does fantasy projections. He puts every running back down for 14 or 15 games because he knows that they're going to miss a few by being banged up. It's the nature of the position. So who can you trust right now? Wong Wu hasn't been in that guy has almost no carries in his career. And then Ty Chandler

isn't trusted. Dwayne McBride is absolutely nowhere close. I mean, nowhere in the career. And then Ty Chandler is entrusted. Dwayne McBride is absolutely nowhere close. I mean, nowhere in the universe. Dwayne McBride may someday be good. That day is not today that he understands how to play in the NFL. So he's probably on the practice squad. I don't think he is making the team, right? I don't think so. I think maybe they're going to have to sign somebody, but do they keep one of these xfl guys or these you know depth guys that they sign or do they go out and they say all right kareem hunt you got us our depth is bad here's some millions of dollars to play here but uh somebody pointed out earlier i'm sorry it's uh the chat has been scrolling a little fast what a strange camp it has been

because they haven't used this uh sorry i I lost the message because it's just been scrolling on me. But it has been strange because guys have been rolling in and out, you know, from the veterans and the free agent pool. But they haven't signed anybody. They haven't extended Hawkinson, who was not doing any warmups tonight with the starters. The starters did take warmups like they threw passes and caught the ball and stuff. If you come to a preseason game next week, if you want to see Justin Jefferson, you can, but you have to show up like an hour early and you can see him take warmups

and maybe KJ Osborne will throw you a football on the sideline. So I would seriously, my suggestion would be show up way early, get in the gates, see everything that happens before the game and leave after the first quarter and go to the fair. Do that next week. I'm serious. So anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, it's been a weird game. Yeah, right. Weird camp. And the backfield is part of that. Because, I mean, did they think they were getting Wong Wu back earlier? But throughout this offseason, did they not think that there was a chance that neither of these guys could

play right to have somebody ready to come in here and be the backup? Because now that position feels extremely thin after watching tonight and after seeing how they felt about Ty Chandler over this entire training camp. I think you might be on to something with Kenny Nwongwu, like how we talked about Jalen Naylor having such a good spring and they were ready to kind of make him a big part of the offense as a receiver. Kenny Nwongwu had a pretty good spring and was looked to be running back to like RB2.

I think he was going to be given every opportunity to be RB2. And now when you say it out loud, and I think about where I think they believe Ty Chandler's at, like he's probably having to learn things or get ready to be in a position that they probably didn't want to put him in quite yet. And I think we're starting to see some of that i feel like at this point it is only a matter of time before we see one of these running backs brought in even if it's like a mike davis like that does not much that doesn't do much for me but mike davis has played running back in the nfl before i think if alexander madison went down for two weeks with an ankle i mean i i don't think Mike Davis would move the

needle much, but I think you'd probably feel better about Mike Davis being your running back for those two to three weeks than you would for Ty Chandler at this point. He's a more exciting player because he's young, but he hasn't done it yet. And just the nature of the NFL, having done something in the NFL is so valuable and really hard to teach. So Mike Davis, I know that visit probably didn't move the needle for a lot of Vikings fans in the same way that the Kareem hunt visit did, but Mike Davis is going to be cheaper and he's probably someone who can do a similar job.

I mean, that's one year, 1 million for a guy who's had 500 yards on three different teams or something. And at least he could pass block. Probably that would be my assumption. Uh, let's see. Uh, I'm not sure how to pronounce this exactly. Uh, hear you. I, sorry if I pronounced that wrong. Uh, the depth on this team is concerning. I'm not sure what the front office was thinking, letting it get to this point. I, I actually think I know what they were

thinking and here's where I think it's an inflection point for them. What they were likely thinking is let's leave a lot of positions, open the door for young players to win them. So I'll give you an example. Cornerback. Let's just see who emerges out of these young players. That is what you do in a competitive rebuild. So Makai Blackman emerges and you've got a starter there. Good for you. If you had gotten a veteran, then Makai Blackman's a backup and he's not playing and you're not getting much out of him right away. And he's not developing on the fly and whatever. I think they left about eight positions open for somebody to step up to the

plate. But now we know who has and who has not stepped up to the plate. And now it's probably time for a little bit of action, which is to go out and grab a couple of free agents if they decide they've got enough cap space, considering the problems that are there if you start extending people and moving cap space into this year. Two more things I want to talk to you about. Number one is the depth of

the defensive line. So we've been a little hard on the offensive line, but on the other side of the trenches, aside from some runs, one of which could have been stuffed in a gap by a safety, the defensive line, I thought made some plays. Sheldon Day, the new T.Y. McGill, maybe, but Sheldon Day got a lot of look from them. He's a veteran. He's bounced around. I think he's 29 years old. Asazia Tomowel, the former Gopher.

Maybe some bias here from you on the Gophers. No, I'm just kidding. But he played a lot, and he got mentioned by Kevin O'Connell. But I think that there's some positions here they're going to have hard decisions on. And also, you might be saying, but not even great decisions. I get like Benton Whitley was out there rushing the passer. We've seen a lot of Luigi Valene,

Patrick Jones didn't play tonight. So I'm assuming that he's like good on the roster. All set, I suppose. So it's an interesting night to watch the defensive line and kind of wonder how they fill this thing out. Yeah. The depth is there on the defensive line.

They rested four guys tonight, and they still had guys come up and make plays. They rested Kyrus Tonga, Harrison Phillips, Dean Lowry, and Jonathan Bullard. And they still had guys like Sheldon Day making plays, guys like Asese making plays. I want to see Ja'Kalen Roy. I wish we could have seen him.

Next week, supposedly he's going to be back next week. I thought he's at a great camp. Yeah, and he's someone who I think could have stood out tonight. But that is a position where when we're nitpicking this roster and looking, okay, if this one guy goes down, that position group is screwed. Defensive tackle at least, or the defensive line, however you want to kind of frame that up.

Like that one's actually pretty deep. Like, I don't know deep with like top end talent. No, but like deep with people who can play in the NFL. Yes. Hard to pick out the 53 on the D line. Yeah. I have no idea like like how they're like a good player is going to get cut from that from that defensive line room just because you're

going to need positions elsewhere you're going to need numbers elsewhere that that whole thing I stand on the table I fight for my like you're only going to get so many defensive linemen on this team so a good guy's going to leave a good guy left last year with T.Y. McGill and he ended up playing he did play yeah he played for the 49ers he did so there there's gonna be a guy from that room because they do have a little bit of depth in there that on cut down day we're saying oh that guy had a pretty good camp and now he's looking for a new team um it's just kind of how it happens Sheldon Day is probably that guy yeah Ross Blacklock certainly could be and another guy who got a koz shout out ross blacklock but hasn't spent any time with the first team yeah and if you're somebody they traded for and

you still haven't spent any time with the first team in this training camp i've got to wonder and they're sitting jonathan bullard so bullard is going to be on the team they really like jonathan bullard and i just feel like asasia tomo is a guy you want to keep because he was your draft pick from last year and is also developing, but his head kind of a slow camp, mostly third round or a third team reps. And then a little bit with the second team last week. But I think even just on the basis of being younger, you would rather keep him than Ross Blacklock, who I think it's pretty decided he wasn't good in Houston. think even just on the basis of being younger you would rather keep him than ross blacklock who i

think it's pretty decided he wasn't good in houston he wasn't good here last year and he hasn't had a good training yeah and he's i think he's just younger like he's younger and he's yours i i get that you probably tried to catch a little bit of lightning in the bottle with ross blacklock try and kind of buy the dip there but like it hasn't worked and i think that's an easy guy to move off of if you have to pick between the two or even you know three other guys around that that same kind of roster bubble spot like blacklock i mean he played tonight but he played tonight so like that that's a thing right like it means he's on the bubble okay so if they have to cut rager and blacklock two guys that quasi adesi Adafo-Mensah traded for,

are you, are you being critical of that? Or is it like, well, it's not like they traded much. Where, where would you stand? I wouldn't really bat an eyelash at it very much.

Like I want a fifth and sixth round pick. I get that. I wouldn't just like fifth and sixth round picks on fire, but I think it was worth the roll of the dice. Like the fifth and sixth round picks don't always turn out. Sometimes they do. I don't think you need to be frivolous with your draft capital. But I think those guys were worth a roll of the dice.

Maybe a change of scenery helps. It clearly didn't for either guy. Like, I don't think at any point we're going to be sitting here a year from now being like, remember when we didn't think Jalen Rigger could be a player. Right. Like I think,

you know, it's kind of written for both of those guys. I don't mind it too much. I think as a strategy, picking up a bunch of first and second round draft picks who haven't worked out for other teams is sound. It makes sense to me. Pick them up for nothing. See if you get one that works out. However, it will fail almost every time.

Yeah. I mean, these guys have already failed with another team. Those teams, what the Philadelphia Eagles didn't know how to value it. Like they did the Houston Texans, maybe not, but I mean, they did. But if you get one who even becomes a good role player for you, if Jalen Rager returns two touchdowns, okay. One touchdown, maybe even 120 yards on a punt return, you get anything, then you've gotten something out of that deal. Still. I really didn't love the idea of trading for Rager, but I mean that to me, it's, if that is a part of their fundamental strategy, which it seems that it is, then I don't think it's, if that is a part of their fundamental strategy, which it seems that it is, then I don't think it's a bad idea.

Okay. Greg, before we get to Jaron Hall's game, Greg, Greg, we need to have a little intervention here. Greg says Chandler's going to be just fine. Barry Sanders couldn't have gained much yards running behind our backup Ola. Greg, Greg, do you remember Barry Sanders? I do. Barry.

That was like his thing. Like the whole Barry Sanders thing was that the O-line could miss any block and he would turn it into something. Let's not. What? Like that's the worst guy you could have used. If you said like Emmitt Smith, I mean, all right, okay, fine. He had a good offensive line.

Barry Sanders. That was his whole deal and i also don't think i think we started the conversation with that by saying we didn't get a chance to evaluate him because the line was bad uh but also their lack of trust in ty chandler is very clear but also greg greg my guy greg come on man gotta do better than that uh all right last thing jaron hall if a third quarterback plays in a preseason game it will be a point of discussion it it's not a rule on the show because i banned talking about kellen mon last year after a while but uh jaron hall your thoughts man i don't know i he looked better than he did against seattle but it wasn't very hard to look better than he did against seattle i thought the best thing jaron hall did tonight was like kevin o'connell said he stole the third down with his legs um play was going nowhere he tucked it he

ran for 10 yards to end up scoring a touchdown it's the only touchdown the vikings scored tonight and the the drive was led by jaron hall there are just still things that it's very clear he played in an offense that wasn't anything close to a pro style offense in college he there are things he just doesn't get yet and that's fine he's a fifth round pick from byu like it's like he didn't he wasn't prepared for this moment. He's even said he has so much to learn. He was a guy who in college would just run up to the line, look to the sideline, get the play call from the sideline. And everyone else would also look in to the sideline.

There was no huddle. There was no him having to call out plays, having to hear something and regurgitate it, you know, to the, to other players on the team. He just looks so green and then you see it in the huddle you see it when they have false starts you see it when he can't pick up blitzes before the snap you see it when he's holding the ball a little too long in the pocket there was a sack tonight where he just held the ball for like five seconds in the pocket and just

got mauled from behind like i feel almost bad for him because i just don't think he's there yet he has a little arm talent. There was a couple of throws that he made where I was like, yeah, it was a pretty good throw. But yeah, he, he's a guy I think you could honestly at this point probably cut and steal

him onto your practice squad. Pretty easy. Yep. I agree. Here's my only thing about Jaron Hall. If you're going to draft a fifth round quarterback and you draft a 24 year old fifth round quarterback, who is not a great athlete.

You saw a great athlete on the other side, Malik Willis. Can he throw? Not really. He could throw it hard, but where it goes, who knows that interception was so hilariously bad, but I never saw the guy.

It just, it was, yeah, he was averaging like four yards an attempt through the first half like malik willis can't read the field or throw the ball accurately it is what it is but that's an upside pick that i respect that the titans made all right fine because if he clicks he's gonna be great right um i don't see what the upside was for jaron hall he's not physically impressive.

He's not that fast. He doesn't have a strong arm at all. And he didn't really know football. Like he seems like a bright guy. We've spoken to him. He seems like a very bright guy, but if you're going to draft that guy, and I know that he was picked before the Vikings,

but Dorian Thompson Robinson is having a good preseason. Again, I, I don't advocate for that. I'm not saying you should have done, you should have traded up for him or something, but at least they took someone who had athletic upside that you could see, well, you know, maybe there's something there in some universe, like a Dak Prescott thing or whatever. I just don't see what it is with hall. And I have no problem for them just cutting him and putting

him on the practice squad, leaving it for a year, replacing him with somebody else. Like that's kind of how it looks. And I, and I know that's cynical and maybe harsh, but after what we've seen these couple of games and in practice, it's just, I don't know where this gets better. And I remember saying that about Kellen Mon and a lot of people were like, no, give him time. And it's like, okay, but it's got so far to go. How does it ever get there when someone's 24 years old? So again, I'm not like destroying a fifth round draft pick quarterback. I just wonder if you're going to spend an actual pick on the same round where you got KJ Osborne and Stefan digs, like maybe just spend it on a receiver I don't know yeah it's hard when like the guy you drafted who is so far behind the eight ball still is also old like he so he's

gonna learn he's gonna feel comfortable being an NFL quarterback in two years and then he's gonna be 26 27 maybe they just drafted him with hopes that he could be a backup for them down the road, but he's still even far from that. I mean, if Jaron Hall has to play at any point this year. Yeah, that, I mean, even if Nick Mullins has to play at any point this year, then we are talking about it being very difficult for them to win. And that kind of goes for a lot of depth. So yeah, it does all tie into, you you know do you change your mind when you see how short they are in certain areas and i think that really was on display in a game where they played all of their backups and it was pretty ugly so uh dane mizzutani the beat reporter for the minnesota

vikings your first year as the guy beat reporter so you've been developing and developing and developing and covering hockey and developing and now you're right you finally got the call up so i'm happy that you are going to join regularly here during the rest of the season on our post-game shows and i hope that all of you wonderful folks continue to join as well and you know what i'm happy football is really back when you guys are fighting each other in the comment section then you know we are really back it's just the preseason folks save your insults for other people for the regular season when this stuff matters uh so anyway thanks so much to all of you for staying up super late with us here for this post game we will do it again in the daytime after the vik play. And then after every game this season here

from the press box, uh, some road games as well. So really fun having all of you guys watch and participate and we will catch you next time. Football.