Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Did Kirk Cousins's play force the Vikings to pick a QB? Why Wyatt Davis was the Vikings' best pick

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk about whether it is Kirk Cousins's fault that the Vikings are in a position to look for a future quarterback. Did they miscalculate or did Kirk simply not come through for them? Plus do we think quarterbacks MUST be mobile in the future or can pocket QBs still win? Why Wyatt Davis was Sam's favorite pick and we look at how some other teams did that shaped the first round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar is back, Sam Ekstrom. What is going on, Sam? Hello, hello. I missed the weekend. It looks like they took double-digit players again for the third straight year. Lots of research that I have to catch up on. I did lose the milkshake bet to Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports though, because I had the over on 11 and a half and it was 11. So yes, there is a lot of research to be done and stories to be written for

purpleinsider.substack.com. And let me say this, Sam, happy anniversary. It is the one year anniversary today as we record this May 4th of the launch of Purple Insider. So I am extremely, extremely grateful to all of you who listen to Purple Insider, who subscribe at purpleinsider.substack.com, and for all the incredible support that we have gotten from Pro Football Focus, from the other beat reporters, and most especially from our listeners and subscribers who tweet us and send us messages and all these things and listen loyally. And I greatly, greatly appreciate it. And just allow me this one second to say that a year ago when I got a phone call saying I no longer had a job in

sports radio, I was hesitant to do this. I didn't know, like, is this going to work out or not? And it could not have worked out better. And that's because of everyone who supports it and listens and subscribes and all those things. So I am eternally grateful. Anyway, and a huge, I think it's just a huge thing for Purple Insider to have you here, Sam, as a part of Purple Insider, which has been absolutely great. So welcome back. Yeah, you're making me blush. You made me nervous there when you said happy anniversary because I thought I forgot my own.

But no, that's next month. But I mean, you worked hard. I'm not surprised at your success and our success because of how hard you worked to build this foundation. It was an easy decision for me to join because of what you did in those first nine months. So props to you. It's not easy to build a company from the ground up. And the listeners and the subscribers, you guys make it happen. And seriously, the engagement that we get to enjoy on a daily basis with all of the mock drafts and the ideas and the Friday mailbag questions. You guys really make this fun. So hats off to all the listeners and everybody involved. Yeah, by far, my favorite part is, like you said,

talking with people on a daily basis who listen to the show, having them react to our opinions. And I know that sometimes people get driven crazy by certain opinions, like the Mac Jones take. But I love that part of it though, that people don't always agree with what I say and it starts conversations that I really enjoy. So why don't we just circle back to that, Sam, because the Vikings drafted Kellen Mond and now we have a flag in the air that they are going to, or at least are thinking about moving on at some

point from Kirk cousins. And then we have reporting from our friend, Courtney Cronin, that they were chasing after Justin Fields or would have taken him at number 14. They decide not to. And I did an article for the website about this, about like, is Kirk Cousins to blame for the fact that the Vikings are looking at other quarterbacks? And before I sort of explain my thought on that, just like, how does that sit with you? When I asked that question, is it Kirk's fault that they're thinking about other quarterbacks? Well, you lay it out brilliantly in today's story, so I'll attempt to sort of answer it in my own way. I think it, and you do a Kirk because he has not established himself as necessarily a candidate to get them to a Super Bowl. And I think the theory that Gary Kubiak

subscribed to was the, you know, keep getting back to the hump theory. Well, as you look around the league, the teams that are sort of flirting with that hump, a lot of them are looking for new quarterbacks too. And I think the Vikings are sort of joining that fray, trying to find the Superbowl winning guy. Now is that Kellen Mond? I have no idea, but is it Kirk Cousins fault? I mean, he, he has had some really rough stretches that have prevented the Vikings from being excellent, from having buys in the playoffs, from having home playoff games. And a lot of those stretches are on him. Some of the late game, you know, failures, I think, stand out pretty greatly.

And I think a lot of those are on him. And obviously, when you sign a quarterback to this kind of money, you expect him to overcome issues around him, stuff that isn't in his control. But he's able to sort of rise above like the great quarterbacks do. And I don't know if he's done that, like, you know, not having a great third receiver. I think, you know, a great quarterback would just find a way to get it to whoever's on the field, finding a way to win games late, win those one possession games, not turn the ball over in key spots. Some of that is on him, and it's why they are probably moving on in the next couple of years.

And I don't think that's a shock. Like, I don't think we expected the Vikings to just commit to him through 2025. I think we saw this coming, whether it was this year or next year. So the question about Kellen Mond being the right guy I think we saw this coming, whether it was this year or next year. So the question about Kellen Mond being the right guy, I think is unanswered, but it does not surprise me that they're in this position with Kirk. And they've gone kind of a different route with an athletic quarterback. And that will, will provide an, a fascinating juxtaposition in the preseason because I mean, we saw it with like, like you know Kyle Slaughter and Taylor Heineke

sometimes athletic quarterbacks can look really good in the preseason when they can just run away from backups on the defense so that's going to create some buzz around Kellen Mond and I think kind of just raise the level of debate about what the Vikings fans want in their next quarterback well I am excited to try and convince people to trust us on our reports from practice more than what they see in preseason. But this will be the most exciting first preseason game that I can remember for the Vikings. Since I've been here.

I mean, since I've been here, preseason games, we're just like, uh, who cares? Right. I mean,

just like, please, no one get hurt. Get us to week one. I don't even want to watch this, who cares? Right. I mean, just like, please, no one get hurt. Get us to week one. I don't even want to watch this, you know? And now all of a sudden it adds a total different layer of intrigue where we're going to be evaluating every throw. Now, let me circle back to the, um, to the cousins point and how much is his fault when they signed Kirk cousins. And I am not, I promise you, I'm not trying to be like, I'm really not.

It, I was not for the signing then, um, all of my tape, uh, my opinions are on tape somewhere, you know, from when I was on the radio. But I mean, the reason I wasn't though, was because of the timeline of the team and how it generally works with a team peaks and they have their shot at going to a Super Bowl and then they usually regress. And I gave a bunch of examples in the article, but 2015 Carolina goes, what, 15 and one, and they would have expected to be in the Super Bowl the next year. They're six and 10. And then I think 10 and six the year after that, Philadelphia wins the Super Bowl. They fall off. Atlanta goes to the Super Bowl they fall off Atlanta goes to the Super Bowl they fall off this happens all the time even like Tampa Bay I'm not sure that you would

bet them for the Super Bowl because even Tom Brady's teams historically have not jumped right back into the Super Bowl all the time after they've gone usually when you get there you slip the next year and even Kansas City got back to the Super Bowl, but with not as strong of a team. And so 2017 was kind of the peak and you sort of missed your shot. And I think they needed to think long term about their quarterback position at that point. But of course, they really wanted to get to the Super Bowl the next year. And so they kind of looked the other way on a lot of things about Kirk Cousins. And here's part of it why I would say

this is not Kirk Cousins' fault that we're here. I mean, of course he didn't pay himself. That contract did not write itself. You know, Kirk didn't, I mean, he didn't go, I'm going to write the contract and then you have to pay it. No, they wrote the contract together and everyone agreed to it. So that's part of it, that he didn to pay it. No, they wrote the contract together and everyone agreed to it. So that's part of it that he didn't pay himself. Like think about if Andy Dalton had decided,

no, I'm a $30 million quarterback. Okay. Like that, that didn't happen. So anyway, that's part of it that he was exactly in Minnesota or has been exactly in Minnesota, what he was exactly in Washington. He is not any different. He has the streakiness that he had in Washington. You go look at his game logs, you see stretches where he's unbelievable and stretches where he really struggles. You see big games that he doesn't come through against good competition. He certainly didn't get faster when he moved to the Midwest from the East coast, you know, it's not like the altitude changed or something, you know? So like he wasn't a great athlete there.

He was not someone that was creative or had escapability there. And here's the thing too. He's played better here than he did there for the most part by like PFF metrics and PFF grades. And yet it still hasn't been enough. So I look at it as saying, if you could know where the bar was for Kirk cousins to really win for your roster around him, and you decided actively not to do some of the things that he needed to get there, which was have good guards and more wide receivers and all those things that he had in Washington.

And some of his best years, you decided actively to keep a linebacker who was really expensive, you know, to sign guys to huge contract extensions like Lindahl Joseph, uh, Everson Griffin was paid very highly in 2019. I mean, so you think about it from that perspective is that they, I'm not saying that like they completely like screwed him over at all. It's just that Kirk has been exactly who Kirk always was and asking someone to be different just because you paid him and said, you should be different. I mean, I don't know. That's sort of like, if you have someone who's well, snoring can be fixed. I was what, what's a, what's a thing that someone in a relationship would do annoyingly. How about

like a bad driver? Like if your wife is a bad driver, your husband's a bad driver, like they're probably, you're probably not going to fix it just because you get them a better car. How about that? Or a more expensive car? Like from that perspective, it's not his fault. Now here's where it is. There's about eight games that just should have been one. I mean, they were right there for you. There's two of them last year against Dallas and against Chicago. You just should have won. And when you didn't, the team is forced to kind of go, OK, well, you played OK in those games and this happens all the time, but you can't quite get the job done.

And that's kind of on you. And there have been a lot of moments like that with Kirk, where you just say, even when you played well it just wasn't quite good enough so we might have to look at other people and then now here's an opinion I want from you do you buy that quarterbacks from now on have to be mobile though because I question this I don't think they all have to be running quarterbacks going forward to win with but I want your opinion because that was another part of what I looked into right so let's look at the top seven quarterbacks in this draft uh Lawrence are we going with mobile on Lawrence I think Lawrence is pretty mobile the run against

Ohio State was unreal so yeah I'm gonna go with mobile yeah um Wilson obviously mobile Lance obviously mobile Fields obviously mobile the only two that aren't are Mac Jones and Kyle Trask Kellen Mond is mobile so that's five out of seven so I think I I do sort of think that um this is just an interesting year like I I don't believe that um Ian Book who is a fourth round pick like i don't think he got docked two rounds just because he's not mobile i just think he's you know a limited quarterback like i i don't think that was uh a discrimination in this year's draft uh look the previous year justin herbert not particularly mobile joe burrow is you know kind of maybe on lawrence level maybe a little less than lawrence yeah i think burrow's less than lawrence yeah yeah i think Burrow is, you know, kind of maybe on Lawrence level, maybe a little less than Lawrence.

Yeah. I think Burrow is less than Lawrence. Yeah. I think Burrow is closer to Mac Jones than he is to Lawrence. And then Tonga Vailoa and Love were pretty mobile. So I think you're, you're seeing more of a split. Definitely. Like it used to be that the mobile quarterbacks were fewer and farther between you might have kind of one in each first round now it's a little more 50 50 and in this year more than 50 50 so i think just more of them are being generated at the college level and and that is appealing to pro teams now does that mean that the pocket passer is extinct no but i think that there's probably a greater bar to clear. Teams are going to want to see exceptional arm strength, exceptional football IQ to sign a pocket passer. They don't want

average, someone who's really a project. They want somebody who is phenomenal if they don't have the athleticism to sort of mask those other issues. And you know what's going to be an interesting comparison to here, caller, like we're all talking about Mond versus Jones. What about Mond versus Trask? Because the Bucks, you know, who know that Tom Brady's not going to be around forever. They took Kyle Trask in the second round, two picks before Kellen Mond. So not only, you know, did, did the Vikings sort of look at Mac Jones and say, Nope, the Bucks looked at Kellen Mond and said, nope, we don't want that. We want the Ben Roethlisberger clone, which is interesting to me. So clearly there is a franchise out there, Tampa Bay.

They valued sort of the immobile project quarterback, and the Vikings took the mobile project quarterback. So there's no consensus right now. We've got to split in the league. We're going to have more and more, I think, mobile quarterbacks sort of rising to the top. And pretty soon we're going to probably have like 16 and 16 where we can say, okay, these are the teams with mobile quarterbacks. These are the teams with immobile quarterbacks.

Let's stack them up and, you know, see who is doing um and and that's just going to lead to more and more data and then that will inform teams decisions going forward folks the football off season is off and rolling and soda stick has you covered with minnesota sports themed gear some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the Chuck Foreman spin doctor gear. You can commemorate Randy Moss's disgusting act on a shirt or a hoodie. And if you're old school, check out the purple people eaters design as well. Go to sodastick.com and check them all out. If you use the promo code purple insider, you can get free shipping on all your Minnesota sports inspired gear. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it.

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a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio, and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights and the best boneless wings in the Metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro and at birdiegolf.com, or you could call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Well, and I think that mobility also is sort of a little bit of maybe too overarching because Justin Herbert does not run for a ton of yards. I think he had maybe like 200 rushing yards last year, but his ability to throw on the move and to scramble and make plays outside

of the pocket is another element of this. Aaron Rodgers does not run very often. I think I had the number in the article nine times Aaron Rodgers took off and ran on a pass play doesn't do it very often, but he certainly moves himself around. And so I think that Kirk is so far on the spectrum towards statue and away from mobile. If we consider it like that, let's say all the way to the left is statue and all the way to the right is Michael Vick. I mean, Kirk is right there with Drew Bledsoe for being like, this guy is not going to go anywhere outside of the pocket very often. I mean, maybe is right there with Drew Bledsoe for being like, this guy is not going to go anywhere outside of the pocket very often. I mean, maybe a handful of times last year, I had this stat as well, that Teddy Bridgewater started 18 fewer games since 2018 than Kirk and has almost as many rushing yards.

And Teddy isn't even a running quarterback, really. I mean, he's like just past the middle on the mobility chart. So there's probably an element of it when they look at it to say, it's not just, can you run like Vince Young and get a bunch of first downs? It's, can you be creative? And that's like with the Tua and where I'm very interested to see with Tua or Baker Mayfield, guys who can move themselves for sure. And Joe Burrow as well, probably a little better than Kirk in some of these cases, but you know, it's the creativity that you're looking for that has

to take you to the next level. And I even think for going way back, like go back and watch Joe Montana highlights and he moves around and make play makes plays outside of the pocket, even though he didn't run. And, you know, John Elway did run, but also a guy who did a lot of things like dodging tacklers and things like that that Kirk Cousins just doesn't do and so maybe what we'll see is the extreme goes away unless that person gets the ball out quickly which Kirk Cousins does not do I mean so like that's that was the thing with Davis Mills that everyone liked is that you know he got rid of the ball quickly so I just think that it's an interesting thought that the Vikings clearly had here is we need someone mobile. But I don't know if even Kellen Mond is like an unbelievable runner who's going to gain you five or 600 yards rushing.

It's probably not the case. So let's talk about some of the other picks here and just kind of how they're sitting with us a couple of days later. And then I want to do a little quick, like around the league. Did you like it? Did you hate it for some of these other teams? Because we haven't really talked about how the rest of the league played out except for the NFC North.

But give me your take on Wyatt Davis and where he fits in. And then if you had takes on day three, because I mean, you know, it's day three. Yeah. Um, Wyatt Davis. And we talked about this in a recent purple insider extra video on YouTube subscribe, please. I think Wyatt Davis might be my favorite pick in the whole draft. Um, he fits the immediate need of a big, experienced guard who can pass protect, which I think a lot of people might have expected Davis to go on in round two and to get him with that extra pick you got from the Jets at 86, that's enormous. And you come out of day two having filled your tackle and your guard deficiencies with i think two names that people are pretty excited about and that doesn't guarantee they'll

be successful but um this is that's a huge development and that that alone could make this a pretty successful draft if you just get those two linemen to click right away that's big and honestly davis could play right away too, because he's competing against like Mason Cole and Dakota Dozier. And who knows who else? Oli Udo. I mean, he could be the best of the bunch already, and he hasn't even played a snap in the NFL.

So I really like Davis's chances to be an impact player. What was your question again? Who did I like? Just do you had, did you have takes? Did you have takes on day three? Day three. That's right. Well, I didn't really love the running back, you know, the first pick of round four, mainly because I don't love running backs in the draft at all, but if you're going to take them, take them round seven don't take them in round four uh the Vikings tend to take them pretty highly like Alexander Madison and Dalvin Cook I think that

you're replacing Adrian Peterson that was a an acceptable pick um kind of a franchise changer honestly like you built your offense around him but um when Jalen Darden was on the board, who is, I think, an amazing option as a gadget player who could get going on the jet sweeps. And he'd be a great slot guy right away to ignore him and go after a running back who, in his own right, was overdrafted. And I'm sure we can get the scouting report from Sage Rosenfels. He would probably sing his praises. And I bet he's gifted. I just think you can get the scouting report from Sage Rosenfels. He would probably sing his praises, and I bet he's gifted. I just think he can get running backs anywhere. The Vikings have proven they know how to find running backs,

whether it's UDFA or late day three. I didn't love that pick, and I love the guy they took next, Cameron Bynum. We profiled him in our 72-page draft guide. He can play anywhere on the field. That was one of the big features that I wrote about in his profile. And sure enough, the Vikings are basically going to transition him from corner to safety. And I think that's a super smart pick. I mean, you needed to set up a succession plan behind Xavier Woods and or Harrison Smith.

And I mean, like Derek Klassen, friend of the show, just tweeted out today. He said he was watching Cal tape. He thinks Cameron Bynum was their best defensive player. And I trust Klassen. So I really like Bynum and I don't love the guy that took before him, Wong Wu. I also like Bynum. Didn't discuss this one very much on any of the shows, but his press conference was impressive i mean he just came across as a very impressive kid and i think when mike zimmer looks for safeties it's almost like we could just write down a list of all the things that they want for every position right by now he wants smart for safeties that's super clear with harrison smith anthony harris

anderson dayhole certainly knew his x's O's, sometimes didn't always make the smartest decisions when flying in headfirst, but they have looked for that when it comes to safeties. Xavier Woods is not locked in long-term and someone like Cameron Bynum, very good in zone coverage, very intelligent. Like those are things that I think are very attractive for Mike Zimmer.

And if because he was a little bit of a tweener, you end up getting him in the fourth round, that's a seal for you. That that's a very good draft pick. Now it was still one where draft analysts did not have him that high, but with this one and with defensive backs, I think Zimmer knows what he's looking for. And that one, I agree with you, I think is, is a good pick. Do you want to like, just because we're kind of nearing the end here of draft season, and then we're going to move on to rookie mini camp and everything else. Do you want to have an absurdly hot take on something like something from, from day two or day three, just for fun?

I'll, I'll do one. So for example, I don't know what the Vikings were thinking with this Patrick Jones. What is pit have like seven great defensive linemen. I mean, you're going to take so many of these guys that they can't all be good. Right. It must've been a product of the environment for Patrick Jones. I'm pounding a table right now. He's not even twitchy. His hips, not oily, not oily at all. Hand placement. Doesn't even know where his hands go there you go

was that fun um yeah that's fine here's mine here's mine kellen mond is an absolute superstar in the making and here is why if you watch his highlights he made court Davis look outstanding Courtney Davis the prized UDFA on the Vikings last year who when catching passes from Jake Browning and Nate Stanley was horrible but with Kellen Mond in college he earned himself that position to be like a well-paid UDFA. So clearly, clearly Kellen Mond step up on the backups and he's probably headed for Cousins' job because he made Courtney Davis look good. And Sam, look, the processing. It's all about the processing with Kellen Mond

because I know the whole playbook and every read he's supposed to make. And let me tell you, he made all the right reads to every single player's supposed to make. And let me tell you, he made all the right reads to every single player and his arm strength. I would say at least John Elway combined with Dan Marino and the mobility, this guy next Russell Wilson. I think it's very easy for me to say that, right? If you watch his highlight reel, he completes every single pass. I don't know what they're talking about with 59%. That's right.

Okay, that was fun. I also didn't love the Patrick Jones pick, but I just don't want to make too much of it. It's just like, okay. All right. I think you could have gotten other defensive linemen who were similar. Well, is the pet cat routine just coming up a little empty for you now? Like we're six years removed from from Daniil

Hunter um I I guess you can give him some equity for the Odenabo and the Weatherly development but you know really like those are still those are rotational players Odenabo had a nice year um but are we giving Patterson maybe a little too much credit because of Daniil? I went from hearing that Andre Patterson liked a guy and thinking, oh, well, he must be good then to now being like, oh, well, we've heard that enough times about enough guys. It's, it's become a, it's become on the bingo board of things that you should just, and I'm, I'm just, I'll quote Kirk Cousins forever on this, because this was something that I asked Kirk about player development. And I thought he was very smart about.

He said, look, there's no coach who's going to make you a good player. All right. Like, there's no drill. There's no film study. There's no like, put your hands here, do this, where some coach is going to make you into a great player. It can only be the player who is in control of that and then the coach can help you around the margins and help encourage you and and teach you things whatever like that but it's not like some assistant coach is just has this

like Midas touch for people and I think that that's really played out with their draft picks whether they'll work out I don't know we'll see in training camp I just thought that one was a little high for a position that was around in the fourth round that's all it's I really don't know if his hips are oily or not uh so let me give you a couple of other first round draft picks and then I just want your opinions on them because um we just have not spent a ton of time on the rest of the draft well how about Trey Lance I kind of lost it on rest of the draft. Well, how about Trey Lance? I kind of lost it on the stream when they, when the 49ers pick Trey Lance, because I became so agitated at all of the like, Oh, Kyle Shanahan's going to pick a Mac Jones

because he will look good for scheming Mac Jones. It was also goofy. Um, so what was your reaction to them going Trey Lance? Yeah, I think I and a lot of other analysts felt pretty validated by that because we were on team. It's not it's not Mac Jones. Like we thought there's no way the 49ers would give up that capital to take Mac Jones. And it turned out it was pretty much just a smoke screen. I think PJ Fleck is feeling a little foolish as well for letting this guy get away from the University of Minnesota. I think San Francisco could have something in Trey Lance. And they've got kind of a perfect bridge in Jimmy Garoppolo. Lance doesn't have to play right away. And it

seems like Garoppolo is going to hang around. It looked like he was a goner there for a while. And a lot of sort of this rumored quarterback movement keeps stalling. You know, there's a number of quarterbacks that I think were the whispers are still there, but the further we get into the summer, we don't know what's going to come of it. You know, obviously Aaron Rodgers now is kind of on out there. Um, obviously the, uh, you know, the stuff with Deshaun Watson is kind of stalled for obvious reasons. And, uh, Jimmy Garoppolo looks like he's staying in the Bay area for now. Cause I, we've talked about this. I don't know if Lance is a guaranteed week one starter, but probably long-term I like his, his prospects a lot. He is, he's fun to watch. If you, if you just look at the way that he can uncork the ball and he's got, you know, a ton of mobility,

he can run through people that that's a, that's a quintessential modern quarterback. There's some skepticism for me just based on how far he has to go from where he is right now. But the tools are there and it might be a guy that doesn't even really start to click in until like year three or four, which is interesting with the 49ers timeline. But I mean, if he does in year two or year three and they've still got a strong roster, I mean, you might have a guy for a long time. And I mean, one of the things with Jimmy Garoppolo is just, he's never healthy outside of one year. And that makes it kind of more justifiable to trade everything you got to get a top quarterback. Now, as we sit here, knowing what we know now, they probably could have stayed at number 12 and just jumped up a couple spots to get Justin Fields and between Fields and Lance I don't think any of

us can say which one of those guys is going to be better because they're so similar in their skill set so if you were to do it again maybe San Francisco would not have mortgaged their future for Trey Lance now there's a connection with the Vikings to the Atlanta Falcons which is the Falcons quarterback has not been that great he's a pocket quarterback and they haven't won much lately, Matt Ryan. And they decided to just go all in with the tight end and get the weapon for Matt Ryan and try to maximize his last couple of years of his career. There is a case for the Vikings that if they weren't going to take Mac Jones and weren't going to trade up for Justin Fields, and this is not me saying Kellen Mond will never work out. It's only to say that, I mean, you went sort of halfway all in on

Kirk by giving him offensive linemen. I mean, should you just have gotten the best receiver on the board there instead? Just, I mean, that's kind of what Atlanta did is they just said, yes, we could draft Justin Fields here and have our future quarterback, but instead, no, we're going to go with the best weapon that we can possibly give the guy. Yeah, at 14, we might be sitting here today saying the Vikings reached. If they had taken Kadarius Toney, who was the next wide receiver off the board, I can't see a lot of people liking that pick. That seemed like a little reachy even for New

York at 20 well I just mean I I just mean I don't even mean just wide receiver first round I just mean like doing the whole draft for Kirk as like let's give him one last shot let's not bother with all the drama with another third round quarterback like let's just give him everything he needs and then we'll move on later Atlanta's saying look we're not going to bother with the future quarterback let's run this to the end and then move on later that's that's the connection yeah no i see i see what you're saying um and let's see if you break it so 11 picks in this draft and how many were on offense one two and well one of them was a quarterback so that doesn't really count one two three four five The tight end won't do much. I mean, so it was basically a split.

And I think you got him a wide receiver in Smith-Marset who might contribute, no guarantee. Got a running back who might contribute, no guarantee, the way the Vikings use running backs. A quarterback who will threaten his job. And the two offensive linemen. So you can make an argument though, that the two offensive linemen are as valuable as any wide receiver with the needs that Kirk Cousins has on the football field to like make his pocket perfect so he can get the ball out of his hands and not fumble it. But the wide receiver three, you know, is still kind of a question mark. And as of today, still might be Chad Beebe. We don't know like what Smith-Marset's going to do because

we saw a fifth round wide receiver come in here last year. KJ Osborne couldn't play wide receiver. I mean, there was not even a thought to put him on the field at wide receiver he was strictly a a punt returner so if the same comes to fruition with smith marset well then yep chad bb's your guy all right you haven't upgraded your spots zach davidson i don't think he's better than brandon dylan um so he's probably your tight end four you know so the skill positions have not improved in my estimation and yeah i think you could argue that that's a bad move on the Vikings part to sort of take to sort of take that possibility, at least out of out of your roster makeup for this year. Well, and what Atlanta did here, too, they didn't draft any quarterback. And so they just said, or at least not that would in any way threaten Matt Ryan.

I don't know if they took somebody like way late or something, but they just said, we don't want that. Like what's the, from the water boy, like, don't you bring that evil on here or, you know, up in here or whatever. So they're like that kind of thing. Like they didn't want that evil. They didn't want the evil of everyone talking about the next quarterback and the Vikings, they brought that on themselves here with Kellen Mond without getting a clear-cut future quarterback.

So the Packers, they brought themselves the evil last year of everyone talking about Jordan Love and manipulating Aaron Rodgers and all those things. But they did it for a first-round guy who, at least at that time, they believed could be their franchise quarterback. Whereas the Vikings did it for a guy where they're saying, well, he's going to compete for a backup job for now and then we'll see and history doesn't really give him great odds at turning out to be a franchise quarterback so it's just sort of interesting to me that Atlanta said we want nothing to do with that and we will address that later and think about they have a new general manager who could take this approach and say, well, we'll figure this out in the future, but let's lay the foundation first. And the Vikings said, no, actually we are going to bring this upon ourselves with the bleep storm of everyone talking about whether this is it for Kirk cousins.

So that was interesting to me. Now, how about Jamar chase? I'll give you a couple here to work with Jamar chase going to the Bengals instead of Penesul and the Denver Broncos, not picking Justin Fields. How about those two? Okay. So first the Bengals taking Jamar chase, I think Jamar chase is really good. Um, but Joe Burrow is coming off an injury and needs badly to be protected. So Cincinnati in future rounds, they get, you know, they get Jackson Carmen in round two. And I really liked Jackson Carmen. I thought he was like high and second tier offensive tackle prospect. So I'm actually totally cool with what they did there. I think that worked out great for the Bengals.

In terms of Denver, I think you have to acknowledge that Rodgers rumors, right? That Aaron Rodgers and Denver, there might be some flirtation there. Denver, you know, it was obviously pretty brazen to like apparently not take a quarterback, but they're not married to Teddy Bridgewater for a six round pick. Like, of course, they're going to try to improve that position. So I'm not ready to criticize them because I think there might be something up their sleeve. And I think there, there might be something about not being able to make that trade until after June 1st. I don't know if I'm right on that. I think I am. So I I'll withhold judgment on Denver until that plays out. Hey everyone. I want to tell you about our friends. It's Scout Logistics.

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company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable non-perishable FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Now, if Denver traded for Jimmy Garoppolo, even that's not bad. That gives you a pretty good situation to have Teddy and Garoppolo battle it out. If, if they do stay with Teddy though, I think they have a foundation of a really good roster

there and they can win 10 or 11 games, even with Teddy Bridgewater. Like I think that because people don't pay close attention to Carolina, they don't maybe realize how bad Carolina was as a team last year, especially without Christian McCaffrey, but they had two decent wide receivers. Neither one's a superstar and then nothing on the whole roster. They drafted a long snapper though. So that's cool. Yes. Yes, they did. That was awesome. Except for he wasn't our guy. Carter Cheeseman didn't go the first lot, a long snapper though so that's cool yes yes they did that was awesome except for he wasn't our guy carter cheeseman didn't go the first lot a long snapper off the board too bad that's a shame um so the the only other one i want to ask you about is the vikings decided to trade down and they got great value for it um i saw a lot of people for their first round

graded them an a or a plus for getting the value and a first round player. But all the defensive ends sort of went off the board there. Jalen Phillips went off before Christian Derrissaw, which makes you wonder, would they have taken Jalen Phillips if he got there? Quidipe went off before Christian Derrissaw. Heather had the shot at the fourth, is he fourth, fourth offensive lineman off the board or the first defensive lineman off the board with which the Vikings missed on by trading back. I think it was fifth offensive lineman. Yeah. Cause because Leatherwood snuck,

no one thought Leatherwood was going to go. That's right. The Raiders kind of did a Colton Miller and, and, you know, just jumped the line, but, uh,

so, okay. so fifth offensive lineman which I think you can make the case might have been you know third offensive lineman in a lot of people's boards and I do believe the Vikings valued Derrissaw more than they valued it's believable that he was above Leatherwood on their board and believable too, that he was above Vera Tucker. We don't know for sure, but clearly, um, they were okay. Like risking losing Vera Tucker who went at 14. Um, so I think they really did have their eyes on Daris. I believe them when they say that they did say though, on Thursday night that there were, they had several guys on the board that they would have been happy with. Caleb Farley was there too. I don't know. I mean, they didn't, they didn't exactly attack cornerback later though.

So maybe they weren't really interested. Quiddy Paye and Jalen Phillips would have been pretty intriguing and considering they did get two defensive ends later and rumored to be interested in like high end defensive ends in free agency, I think those are probably the guys that they wanted. So to answer your question, if Phillips, Pay, or Derrissaw had been on the board, I think they might have gone defensive end. Because Spielman set this up for potentially getting that offensive tackle on day two.

And if they hadn't had the tackle going on into Friday, then I think they're much more willing to part with that, those third round picks and move up into the second round. I think the fact that they had the tackle kind of gave them a little freedom to sit back in the third and see what came to them instead of parting with those additional picks. And, uh uh and to be honest with you i think it kind of worked out because they were able to get some guys for this year some guys for the future and they kind of got to cast a wider net in that third round instead of surrendering the two extra picks to move up into the second do you know what player will be watching for a long time who is the yanni kingakwe trade oh so like who'd the ravens get in the second uh the um

no the uh the jaguars oh the jaguars no i'm sorry i lost my mind there so the walker little walker little we'll be watching walker little for a long time he is the yanni kingakwe trade so there you have it uh i agree with what you said i think that if it was jalen phillips or quitty pay they would have taken them first before christian derisaw the reason i think that is because it seemed like rashaun slater was the apple of their eye and i believe courtney reported that they did try to trade up to take rashaun slater away from the los angeles chargers because everybody in the world knew that he was going to go to the Los Angeles Chargers so they did try to trade up for him the fact that they just didn't take Derrissaw like if he was really their guy I think they would have

just taken him there because a lot of the projections were that he was there not that they came away with a bad player at all it's just interesting to think about that maybe they traded back in mind of not getting Derrissaw but instead having one of those two defensive ends. And then they had to kind of, OK, let's change that around. So last thing for you is there's a handful of free agents still remaining that are good. The Vikings actually have cap space, about 10 million dollars in cap space after they sign their rookie class and then get to the June 1st thing. Now, some of that might have to be dealt with with a Daniil Hunter thing, but I don't know. I think an extension for him might lower his cap hit, so I'm not sure how that'll all work out.

What do you think they do with it? You know they're not sitting on it, so what are they going to do with it? Is Melvin Ingram going to be a viking there are a number of pretty good free agents left um i believe on the defensive side of the ball too is is a little more stacked but the vikings have addressed defense so thoroughly already like i guess i guess edge rusher would would like you know an ingram like someone that can come in and just jump over patrick jones dj want him steven weatherly um i wouldn't rule it out now i'm just i'm getting re-familiar with the list here um gino atkins is out there. Kawan Short, Jarrell Casey, Sheldon Richardson. You could go and get a veteran three tech, but you've also got Dalvin Tomlinson. A lot of those big names aren't really,

they're going to get buried on your depth chart. So I don't know if I have a good answer for you. I mean, I think the Vikings have done a good job sort of filling every perceived need they had in some way. The only one that doesn't have like an excellent name behind it is that second defensive end spot. So that'd be the one area. And if they do clear up some space, more power to them if they do. But with the O'Neill extension and the Hunter stuff,

they are going to need to spend some money here. So I'm not convinced they're going to have a ton remaining, but let's see how it plays out. I think no matter what you think you have, you should get more of it because, well, I mean, wide receiver, especially that Danny Amendola is still out there. Get someone at wide receiver to compete. Even Marvin Hall, who's just like a speedster and hasn't really stuck, but at least he gives you more than Chad Beebe in terms of talent. Alex Okafor is a guy that could be a situational rusher. I wonder if Steven Weatherly is our guy, if they signed someone, if he's our guy that we thought like, oh, he's just locked into a spot, he's good.

And then they bring him back and it just doesn't look like it really fits as a starter i wonder i mean every year there's someone that we talk about oh they signed this guy and he's going to make a big difference dayton jones and then that guy doesn't end up sticking around so i wonder who that might be but last year they foregoed opportunities to fill out depth in multiple positions and they got burned by it so So I think they should do that again. And that includes defensive tackle like Gino Atkins. Can you play 40% of snaps? I mean,

I think a rotation there where he's playing something like 30 or 40% of snaps would be pretty good. So if you're giving me the choice between one Melvin Ingram and four guys who are average players, I'll take the four guys because I just think that they have almost no depth still on this roster at most spots. Well, let's talk about corner too, because they kind of ignored it in this draft. We don't know what's happening with Jeff Gladney. And I think you could still use one more piece. If Gladney is out, um, maybe it's Brian pool, who I believe

is still on the market, even though he's one of the best slot corners in the league. I'd keep your eye on corner. And again, that was the position group last year. That was so maddening to watch because there were good veterans getting signed for three, four million dollars and then contributing. And I think the same could be true. I don't know if you'd go after a Richard Sherman, but there are some pretty big names still out there that I think the Vikings could flirt with. And, you know, Nickel Robey Coleman, that's a million dollar guy. Why wouldn't you want someone like that on your team

just for the depth? The only thing that might get in the way there is just convincing the guy that he would be able to play. And so that would kind of maybe be a holdup. But you know, there are guys like this, like Ross Cockrell is always out there. Like who cares about Ross Cockrell. Right.

But then he'll be somebody's death. Bershad Breeland is another one where it's, I mean, no one is throwing a parade for Bershad Breeland, but he played for the Kansas city chiefs in the super bowl. So, you know, I think that one of those guys,

you're right. One guy who is struggling to get a job and you bring them in for whatever, and you add them to your depth. I think that's a good idea. So, all right, this feels like draft season is kind of over, Sam. I mean, it is. It's like, I'm a little sad. It's a lot to talk about. I'm relieved. I'm relieved. Yeah. I'm going to miss it. No, I'm taking a deep breath. I'm going to play some golf. You want to play with me? I want to have I'm relieved. Yeah. I'm going to miss it. No, I'm taking a deep breath. I'm going to play some golf.

You want to play with me? I want to have some skins matches. I love it is a long snapper. They didn't take a kicker. We didn't talk about that. They didn't. They resisted the urge. I know.

To take a kicker. That's unbelievable. They're going to get a veteran. I mean, they're not going to go with these two guys, right? They're going to get a real kicker. Come on. They're not going to go with Riley Peterson or whatever his name is. So you're telling you're telling me it's going to be a three man kicker competition.

That is even for the Vikings. That's unprecedented. Should be. It should be right. Like if you well, why not make it a four or five man kicker competition my gosh get it right get it right davidson uh place kick i know he can punt no he can only punt he's only a tight end slash punter i heard on the on the podcast with courtney i drew a place for him where he lines up a punter he takes the snap he pitches it to kellen mond and

then he goes for a pass i'm so excited i know it's gonna be great uh oh chances that we see zach davidson punt at least one football in rookie minicamp hi would you say yeah okay remember when brian o'neill was like running past routes or whatever yeah with the tight ends it's great yeah yeah that was that was fantastic what is it with um with the v the Vikings and small school tight ends? That's becoming a thing. David Morgan, Texas San Antonio, Brandon Dillon, Marion, the Marion Flash, and now Central Missouri State guy. I want a milkshake from Chip Scoggins, which he's never paid up on Brian O'Neill over under one half a touchdown in 2018.

Chip was convinced that Brian O'Neill was going to score a touchdown. There's they're saving it. That's great. It's gotta be in the playbook. Yeah. Over under one career punt for Zach Davidson is a great, a great bet. So emergency punter, emergency putter. Yeah. Or emergency long step. Okay. So I guess we'd go with, all right, here's the bet. Over under 0.5, long snaps, punts, or kicks held for Zach Davidson.

Career, no matter where he plays, anywhere. So not necessarily with the Vikings? No, it doesn't have to be with the Vikings. So if they cut him and he punts for someone else. Because I still don't think, I think he's a long with the vikings no it doesn't have to be with the vikings so if they cut him okay because i was gonna say under because i still don't think i don't think i think he's a long shot to make the roster i think uh i'm gonna say just for the heck of it over but not with the vikings we'll be tracking this one forever okay now now we're done now we're done talking