Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Did Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's Combine comments point to Cousins as the short-term solution?

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sports Illustrated's Will Ragatz talk react to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell's press conferences with the Twin Cities media. Should we read into O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah talking about Cousins going off schedule or discussion of the 2017 draft class and how it relates to this year being a weak QB draft class? Plus how should we view the defensive end class and whether the Vikings would pick one in the first round unlike in previous years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider from inside the Indiana Convention Center at the NFL Combine. Matthew Collar here, and joining me, he covers the Minnesota Vikings for SI.com. Will Raggetts, what is up, Will? Not a whole lot, just enjoying my first time being here in Indianapolis for the Combine and taking it all in. Yesterday was pretty cool. So how are you? I'm doing great. I was going to ask you about your Combine experience so far because I am giving myself full credit for convincing you to decide to come because I think it's worth it for one to be able to sit down in a very small group with Kweisi Adafomensa and

Kevin O'Connell, which was very insightful yesterday, and that's what we're going to talk more about. I know Sage and I discussed it, but we're going to talk more about it. That's part of it. But also just to see sort of the spectacle that is the entire NFL world converging on this relatively small town of Indianapolis. Yeah, it's been cool. So just walking around and seeing all these people in this media area that I recognize from Twitter or that I've been reading for a long time and

walking around the chaos of the interview area yesterday where they had all the TV studios and the radio area. And I think, does our credential get us into Lucas Oil? No, it does not. It does not? Okay. Well, that's too bad, but we are, yeah, we're still here, and it's been interesting so far. Is there anything happening inside Lucas Oil that, like, is worth it? I guess it's just, like, that's where the testing events are going to happen, a lot of them, eventually.

Yeah, and that's the funny thing about it that's hard to explain to friends and family who aren't extreme football fans is yes i'm going no i can't watch them do anything but it's worth it somehow uh and the ways in which it's worth it mostly are in being able to talk with the head coach and the gm in a setting where they're not at a podium. I mean, they are for one of their interviews, but our sit down with them is just invaluable to get to talk in more of like a quiet, just a couple of people. I mean, it's very rare that you get that because usually it's cameras and it's, you know, being in front of the Vikings logo that's sponsored behind them and all those sorts of things. And so it's only really once a year where you're sitting down with, it was just like,

how many of us were there? Five or six? And to be able to really get answers to the questions you want. And this year is a little unique because we're talking so much about the quarterback situation. But I think that that alone is worth it. And then just getting to know a lot of people, like, is there anybody that looks very different from what they look like on Twitter? Oh, that's a good question. Not necessarily. It is interesting to see like more than just somebody's face, like, oh, this person's kind of tall or this person is shorter than I expected. Not, I don't have any names off the top of my head but yeah I think just coming uh to Indy for this whole thing was worth it just for yesterday afternoon

and getting to sit down and uh kind of hear some some answers from from both of those both Kevin and Kwesi uh in a just a more casual setting I mean still on the record stuff and they weren't like giving away any secrets but uh it was it was so much more interesting than that podium session that quasey did yesterday where like he's getting asked about all kinds of random things that aren't particularly interesting to what we're doing so i i thought that was really valuable yeah i think so too i would say brad spielberger is much taller than i expected i thought that brad was probably average height maybe like 5'10 no he's like 6'6 he's like the center on your rec league basketball team so I did not expect that but yeah it's it's usually funny of people you haven't met yet but you follow or talk with on Twitter where

you're like great to meet you I think yeah but we've met sort of and we like does a zoom count as meeting not Not really. So that's kind of a funny experience. Let me quickly tell my three funniest things that have happened to me so far in Indy. You've got time still to have funny things happen to you in Indy. First, the first night I was talking with Chris Collinsworth, and a bunch of people came up and were asking for autographs, which I thought was kind of strange.

For your autograph or for Chris Collinsworth's autograph? Definitely mine. They were like, Purple Insider, what? No, for Chris Collinsworth. Yeah. And I was like, this is weird. I mean, you don't see like autograph people here because everyone is around the NFL. So reporters don't ask for autographs and other football people would not do that either. It turns out that there was a conference here for vets who help pigs. I'm not making that up.

That's the real thing. It was like veterinary people who do work with pigs. And so the pig people were extremely excited to see Chris Collinsworth and he was incredibly nice to them I mean he asked them where they were from he asked them like what they were doing what a pig conference is like everything it was that was super funny which is classic Chris Collinsworth too he really is the nicest person um and so I was not surprised by that this morning way before I was awake I was approached by the Houston Texans team website to ask me wonderlick questions. And I got every single one of them wrong. So there's going to be me somewhere on the Houston Texans website within the next few days getting a bunch of wonderlick questions wrong.

I mean, they were asking things that I was just not prepared to answer. Yeah, like early in the morning and just you're on the street. I don't think I would have done well either. They asked me how many states border Oklahoma. I was like, dude, I don't want to answer this. I have no idea. Like, first, I can't visualize a map. Second, I really can't do it at 9 o'clock in the morning.

And why are you doing this to me? And I was, you know, like I wanted to help with the content. Like, oh, I know that everybody's here, you know, searching for content, trying to interview people. But I was hoping they would ask me like, what do you think of the event? Should it stay in Indianapolis? And they're like, you know, what's a multiple of 0.08?

And I'm like, come on, come on, stop that. And what was the other one? There was one more thing that was funny that happened to me. Oh, I know what it was. Last night, Steve Palazzolo, who you talk about people who are taller than you expect. I know Steve is tall, but he's like 6'9". Oh, my God. Yeah, he's like towering over the rest of humanity.

And so Steve Palazzolo, we did an entire show once about how much he loved the Jaguars because we were trying to relate like Kirk Cousins to Mark Brunel and are the Vikings kind of Jaguar-ish from the 90s and late the early 2000s and so I'm standing next to Steve talking with him and he sees Mark Brunel and so he's like oh my god it's Mark Brunel and I as I was just saying you're not supposed to fanboy people here but But this is his hero. This is his favorite player. And so he's like, oh, my God, it's Mark Brunel.

And so Mark Brunel just walks by. And I was like, just go say hi, man. Just go say, like, you really enjoyed watching him play or whatever. And he's like, no, I can't do it. I can't do it. So another guy for PFF goes and grabs Mark Brunel. And they come over. And Mark Brunel's kind of like, what?

Why is this giant man, like, approaching me? You know, it was. So he shakes Steve's hand, and it just made his entire life because he just worships the late 90s Jaguars. So those are the things that happen at the combine. That is classic. You're at a middle school dance or something, and you want to talk to this girl, but you don't want to go over there.

So then your friend brings you over there. Not that this has ever happened to me. I'm just speaking hypothetically. But, um yeah those are some pretty good stories i don't have anything too entertaining yet i mean i went out to dinner last night and there was trivia there so me and my friend stayed and did quite terribly um but that's about it but i've just enjoyed kind of walking around the city i was here six years ago this week. I was covering the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament. Oh, yeah. My wife is broadcasting.

Which is also going on right now. And I might go to the Northwestern Minnesota game later. We'll see. When is that? It's like 6.30. Because I have a friend who works in the Northwestern Women's Basketball program. But we're getting way off topic. As one does. Should we talk about the Minnesota Vikings? Yeah,

we can. Yes. Actually, this is, it is funny though, because my wife is broadcasting eight games for the women's basketball tournament on big 10 network. And so we're in the same city at the same time and have not seen each other

yet because she's busy with that. And I've, I was up until like 2 a.m writing last night trying to capture what we heard from kevin o'connell and quesia da flamenca i want to start with you and your interpretive abilities the last thing that i asked kevin o'connell i want your reaction to they they were like okay you, you know, any more questions or whatever? And I just said, did you tell Matt Stafford to throw it no look? And he like lit up, of course.

I mean, he just won the Super Bowl with the guy, but he lit up and he talked for like five more minutes, it felt like, about how Stafford has this crazy ability to do insane throws without like being off schedule like on schedule insane throws and we never talk about that with Kirk Cousins because we're always like saying well when he's on schedule and everything else but something like that is not something we've ever seen from him like uh I ran into a really crazy number about how stafford threw like 12 of his passes and in the middle of the field and kirk cousins through four percent that like the risk aversion goes beyond just hey when he's got a bootleg he'll throw it to that guy wide open or hey when he's under pressure he doesn't do well i think there's so much more to

it i thought that that was really interesting how excited Kevin O'Connell got to talk about it. And as we sort of parsed through what do they know, what do they think, all those kind of things, that moment sort of stood out to me, what he was able to say about why Stafford was so good with the Rams. Yeah, that was an interesting moment because I could tell it was just you throwing out a little one-liner at the end of the press conference. And maybe Kevin O'Connell would be like, oh, no, I didn't. And then we'd be done. But instead, he talks for like three minutes about Matthew Stafford and what makes him great. And a throw like that coming within the structure of the offense is pretty impressive.

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that if you gave Kevin O'Connell the choice of who he would rather have, I think he would take Stafford. Obviously, that is not an option. And I do think he legitimately likes a lot of things about Kirk Cousins. But as you said, one thing about Kirk Cousins is he's not going to really rip those tight window balls over the middle of the field. We've seen it before. I mean, when you play as much football as he has, there are some examples of that. But I wonder if he also feels just – I mean, on the one hand, it's just the way he plays the game,

is processing it, following his reads, taking what's open. And he's really talented at throwing those slot fades to Justin Jefferson on the sideline and hitting beautiful throws within the structure of the offense towards the boundary and I just wonder if he feels like he's been burned a few times over the middle because I think we've seen some of his worse interceptions I think of like Deion Jones on the Falcons in 2020 right over the middle and he had one sort of over the middle against the Niners this past year that was caught by a linebacker I don't know um it's it's just interesting to to think about the difference in styles and and the way those two quarterbacks who have put up very similar numbers over the years uh and Stafford hadn't had the results either until this year just just to see to compare

the way they play the game the question for me is like how clear-eyed are they about cousins and i came away from yesterday thinking very and you know they're complimentary of him but also leave breadcrumbs for you to follow to exactly what they think i mean with at the podium quesiaisi Adafomensis saying like, when you give him favorable circumstances, he's good, whichever everybody knows. But it's also sort of an acknowledgement of the other half of that sentence, which is when you don't, it's not. And the numbers are right there. I mean, he averaged 5.1 yards per attempt when under pressure. That was the third lowest in the entire nfl i mean so when things go wrong like the numbers are right there it's it's not good and there were also comments about

you know going off schedule being different than just running around and let me see if i could grab this from uh kevin o'connell he said kevin o'connell said being able to create off schedule, everybody wants that. And then he said, you're in search of that as part of your offense sometimes because it's the off schedule things that you didn't plan for that can be game changing plays. Off schedule doesn't have to mean athletic ability to outrun an opponent, get on the edge and launch the ball 60 yards. Maybe it's a second window throw or a second reaction type throw which again like those are not really kirk cousins traits and and and so the question is okay are we reading into too much that's just football talk or is it laying the breadcrumbs there to follow to yeah we're very aware that cousins is not a guy that we can stick with long term.

But also, we can't trash Cousins or we can't tell you, oh, we're definitely trading him because we don't know what the offers are. Yeah. And I mean, Quasey said that yesterday. Like he's having conversations with people here, agents like, are you interested in my player? Well, what's the price? It's the case like that with free agents. That's the case with trades. He said, I mean, anything is in play for every single player. And they're in a kind of fascinating position because they obviously know what Kirk Cousins is and also what he isn't. And he's their quarterback right now.

They are almost certainly not going to find anybody better to play the position of quarterback for them this season so from that regard yeah they're not obviously they're never going to trash him they're going to they're going to praise him and um he does all these things well that are a lot of things that that quarterbacks across the NFL want to do well that's something we've heard from from Kevin um but they also know that he has limitations. And so I just, I don't know, I didn't come away from yesterday's sessions convinced like, oh, they're going to sign him to an extension. And those talks are ongoing. That'll depend on the price. I think it's pretty common knowledge that Kirk Cousins is not going to take any sort of pay cut on an extension. He's

going to want to be paid at or above market value and get the most out of it, which good for him. He should. But that's just what makes this spot there in this kind of limbo spot where he has one year left on his deal. They like him. But O'Connell also just came from a quarterback in Matthew Stafford who shines in some of the areas where Kirk Cousins doesn't. So what's the decision going to be? I don't know. They kind of – we heard both sides of it. We've heard both sides of it even in their introductory press conferences,

and I thought the tone was similar yesterday where they're praising him, but they're also – they're hedging a little bit and keeping their options open. I'm going to read another one to you that's pretty good from Kweisi Adafomensa. He said he talked with Mike McCartney, the God agent. Mike represent me. He said, I talked with Mike McCartney in depth. He's a great person to me. We have mutual friends. We had dinner together. Oh, Kwesi having dinner with Kirk Cousins agent. Interesting. But we just talked to generally about the vision for our team

and what we want to accomplish. And look, those conversations are ongoing. I can't tell you anything at the moment. We will do whatever's best for the Minnesota Vikings, and Kirk will do whatever's best for Kirk. And he always does. And so that to me was they're not making it easy on us to just fiddle with this contract or give him an extension. Because I do think that if they said, and this world has never existed, but if they said, all right, like three years, 75 mil, lower that cap hit way down to what you're really worth as the 18th best quarterback in the league or whatever they think of him. I call him the 18th best because that's what the NFL thinks. Cause

that's what, when Mike Sandoe pulled all the NFL people, that's where he ranked. So if that's how the NFL thinks of it, and it was a real scale, a real scale, you would have Rogers making 40 and then on down and making 25 wouldn't be an insult, but it doesn't work that way. And so if you're Mike McCartney, I don't see why you sign an extension either, because there is oil brewing underneath the surface that's about to explode in terms of NFL money a year from now. And this man knows that. And so does Kirk Cousins. They know that that TV money is coming in and the salary cap is going to go up by I don't know 33% if not more over the next couple of years so what

what reason does he have to sign an extension and then Adolfo Mensah also had a comment about next year versus the next five years which I thought kind of pointed to keep Kirk for this year and then draft a quarterback that you want to develop or take a shot on this year whether that's in the first round or second round I don't know but I'll read I'll read another quote because I thought a lot of these were good okay and that's the one you just talked about he said I mean look ultimately to win at the highest level it's pretty hard to do without good quarterback play so So globally that question needs to be answered. Now does it need to be answered this year versus the next five years

and things like that? It's trying to be smart about how you try to answer that question generally to sustain success in the NFL. But again, he's under contract, Kirk's our quarterback. He's a really good player. I think he's going to play at a high level, blah, blah, blah. To me that screams we're going to play this out or trade him, that there's no extension,

that it's like solve it for next year versus solve it for five years. And I think that can make sense from both sides, because as you said, why would Kirk Cousins and his agent want to take an extension now when they don't know what's going to happen with the salary cap? And we've seen that from Kirk his whole career, that he likes to keep the flexibility. I mean, he took multiple franchise tags in Washington, which like nobody does, especially a quarterback. So he's always, he hasn't been afraid to kind of bet on himself and reevaluate in a year or two. And even his, even his Vikings contracts were like a three-year deal and then a two-year extension and

just kind of keeping that flexibility because they know that that cap is only going to rise. So, well, unless, unless there's a global pandemic, then that causes it to fall temporarily. But, yeah, and from the Vikings' perspective, I've never really been convinced that Kweisi Daufomensa and Kevin O'Connell are going to come in here and hitch their wagon for two or three years to this guy who is a talented quarterback

but objectively has not elevated teams and won games at a $40 million level across playing for the Vikings and different offensive coordinators and playing in Washington and some great assistant coaches that they had there during his time. That just has never really made that much sense to me. So that's why I think the option of keeping the flexibility open, I don't know if they can add void years or whatever to restructure where he's still going to only be under contract for one more year, but lower the cap hit a little bit. I think Cousins and his agent might have to agree to that. I don't know why they wouldn't. But yeah, I think that option of

the one year, keeping the flexibility open has kind of always made sense for both sides. And we even heard a little from Quacey and Kevin yesterday, which I know you've talked about before, that they said, hey, people are saying this is a bad quarterback draft. I think they said that about the 2017 draft with Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes too, where Mitchell Trubisky went second overall. So they had some praise, and they met with the quarterbacks, as you do every year, even if you have a sustainable long-term option. Folks, we've got an even better offer to tell you about from SodaStick.

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These people don't know what they're doing when it comes to the quarterbacks because no one knows what they're doing when it comes to the quarterbacks. No one can guess. And that was really interesting to hear a general manager acknowledge that no one knows what they're doing. And I feel like if you know what you don't know, you can actually make better decisions. And that was really impressive to me that Kweisi Adafomensa said, the draft is random.

That was exact words. The draft is random. So if you follow someone on Twitter who claims to know who's going to be a success and who's not, the general manager of the Vikings who went to Princeton said the draft is random. Okay. Because he studied it the same way that I've read the studies too that probably he has or that he's done by himself. And what that means is you're trying to just find small edges in that and that might be positional value, which you asked him

about. It might be in something that you spot as a correlator to success or something like that. But I think once you sort of free yourself of the shackles of I can pick these guys it helps you make much better decisions especially with the quarterbacks because if you say look I don't actually know then you end up not passing on Mac Jones because you're instead of saying well you know look his footwork is good but he's not fast enough or whatever. Whatever the criticisms were about him, you end up landing him by saying, look, he's a first-round talent, but I don't know if he'll be good.

Boom, just take him. Instead of focusing too much on sort of the forest through the trees type of deal, which sort of gave me some confidence that they're actually looking very close at these quarterbacks and looking at their potential. And you think about the ones that the league has been maybe not so great on. A lot of times it is guys who are great athletes, which sort of points me in the Malik Willis direction. I mean, you think about just like they failed in 2017, but they also failed horribly in 2018 as well. Lam jackson and josh allen would be number one

and number two overall draft picks if you knew anything about what they became yeah and yet instead lamar jackson is 32nd and josh allen even for i think he was eighth but even that's ridiculous compared to what baker and darnell and rosen right compared to what it was like 10th but yeah right compared to what alan became he would have easily been number one or number two overall which again tells you they don't know what they're doing and so i i think that that is actually the edge is in knowing that um because then you can make better decisions around the idea that you can't really know yeah and i i liked you you brought it up to quacey like yeah the draft random. And he agreed that it is random.

He did say, like, what he's trying to do is, well, A, start out with the understanding that it's random and you don't have a golden wand, was the way he described it. But that you're trying to just find these little margins. And if you can do that and stack that up over time, that's going to add up and give you a big edge. And obviously that's much easier said than done, but that's where the data and the methods and the predictive stuff that he's trying to do with what people call analytics, the way of thinking and the processes, they're trying to find that little edge. And he said that there's certain positions that are harder and there's certain areas where maybe that little advantage you have is going to be more important. And that is the first round.

Any type of advantage you have will be bigger if you can hit it right in that first round with those early round picks. But, yeah, you bringing up Malik Willis is interesting because I think he's going to benefit just from the success of Josh Allen and Justin Herbert. I agree. And that's the thing. There was a mock draft on PFF with Steve Palazzolo, the very tall,

who had him going to the Vikings at 12. And I was thinking, like, I don't even know if he's necessarily going to make it there because I just think some team will see the Allen success, see the Herbert, and just think like, all right, this is the guy in this draft who has the tools to potentially become that. And his tape is, there's a lot of inconsistency and like some accuracy issues. And like, he didn't have to do a whole ton of like first, second, third read processing in Liberty's offense. but i just think that physical upside if you if you think all right i like my coaching staff my player development we

can come in and um i think somebody said it was like players i think it was alconel that like players come in and they're not like finished products like you can come in and you can improve your throwing mechanics and you can improve like josh allen is the great example of that that's not necessarily super repeatable because that was a crazy kind of transformation he made but if you get somebody with the right tools and you believe in your development like they can get better at certain things that are weaknesses coming into the draft so i just the the physical raw upside that he has with both his arm his legs everything i think some team is gonna think that they can mold him into the next allen or herbert and take him in in the first round i don't know where that'll be but

okay i do i do want to talk about some other things that we got because i entirely wrote about the quarterbacks and entirely talked about the quarterbacks because everything else feels ridiculous in comparison it's just like we'll talk about what he said about ezra cleveland but it was like who was sitting next to me maybe it was chad graff and i saw chad write a note after he said that he loved ezra cleveland and i was just like come on chad like what what what difference does it make are Are you writing that, Chad? Are you writing the feature, the athletic in-depth feature about how much they love Ezra Cleveland? I tweeted that quote, but I wasn't going to, like, make a story out of it. But, hey, they think Ezra Cleveland's going to make that jump in year three, which would be a big deal. Yes.

Because Vikings fans know that guard play is important. I actually do think, and this is a total aside and not what I was going to ask you so don't let me get off track but I do think they're going to build a good offensive line I mean this is a thing with Quasey coming from the 49ers and coming from Cleveland where they put a ton of emphasis on that and they did a really great job of building offensive lines and they're not that far away if you quote love Ezra Cleveland which I thought he was fine last year and that's all you need to be like you can't have five superstars unless you're the Dallas Cowboys of the early 90s or even the Dallas Cowboys of like 2016

but that's not going to happen very often five solid with a couple of stars is a great offensive line most of the time and they have two positions that it's like just cratering what they're able to do at center and at right guard but having the tackles filled i mean quacey seemed like really happy uh quacey's smiles go between a grin and like this huge smile that he has and it was like when he was talking about the offensive line and the tackles, he just had this huge smile. That was the same smile he did when Chad asked him if he would be okay with Kirk Cousins playing one more year on 45 million. He was like, define okay.

And laughing. But, yeah, he actually, I was listening to the audio, because I think I was transcribing this part of it, and he was talking about the tackles. He was like, thankful. He was going to the audio because I think I was transcribing this part of it. And he was talking about the tackles. He was like, thankful. He was going to say, thank God. But he was like, thankful that we have these two tackles. Because, yeah, that's such a huge thing to walk in.

And you've got one on a rookie contract in Darasau who looks like he's going to be really good. One who's a pro bowler on a fairly reasonable second contract. So that's a huge thing. What were you going to ask about? I was going to ask. I just ran a PFF draft sim, and it came up with all the quarterbacks being available when the Vikings pick. Yeah.

Which I think will usually be the case in those draft sims, or at least frequently. That was going to be my question is, do you think they will have the pick of the litter? I think the only one that I can see, I mean, this is pre-combine throwing and pro day and athletic testing and stuff. Later in the week?

I think the quarterbacks throw. Thursday? Tomorrow. Tomorrow? Yeah, which is Thursday. Nailed it. Which I guess we won't be able to see because we can't get into Lucas Oil,

which I didn't realize, but it's fine. I've just never been inside that building. I thought it would be cool. But anyways, I think the Vikings, yeah, I think there's a decent chance that when they come up at 12 that all the quarterbacks will still be sitting there. And if one's gone, it's probably going to be Willis. All right, so there are, yeah, other um topics i want to talk about but i was i was going to ask you for a hot take on every single one just just like your hot your pre they haven't

thrown yet and there hasn't been the like rumors and buzz although this this class sort of lacks controversy as in in previous years it was is lamar a wide receiver like there isn't that type of thing and maybe they've learned their lesson to not do that because you end up looking completely ridiculous can you pick its hands can you pick its hands is what i was gonna say probably the only thing they haven't measured yet as we talk right now um but i want you to just give me give me like what is your hottest take at this point in the game on the quarterback class yeah um you have you have a guy it's okay to have a guy and also acknowledge that you might be completely wrong yeah i i like sam howell i mean i'm i'm gonna preface this by saying i'm not

like an expert on this quarterback class who has grinded all the tape. I've seen most of these guys play at least a game or so. But I think Sam Howell is interesting because he is a guy who was really, really good in 2020 when he had kind of a loaded off. He had two running backs that got drafted. He had a couple really good receivers. And then unsurprisingly, when all those guys were in the NFL this past year, he wasn't as good, but he kind of adjusted and made a bunch of plays with his legs, which I thought was impressive.

I think he's got—this isn't even a hot take, but I think he has a chance to be the best quarterback. I mean, they all have a chance to be the best quarterback. That's not a hot take. Like Desmond Ritter or Carson Strong or whoever could be the best court i mean they all have a chance to be the best quarterback right that's not a hot take like desmond ritter or carson strong or whoever could be the best quarterback out of this this class i mean i don't really see it with pickett um i like how more than pickett at this point uh old takes exposed that nobody's going to come back to me saying that but um yeah i i also this is totally random but i saw a twitter clip of howell talking to reporters this morning and they were asking him him what the weirdest question he got asked by a team was.

And he said it wasn't a question, but that the Eagles made him shoot basketballs on a mini hoop. And he went two for five, so he doesn't think he's very high on their board. What would be the rationale for doing that? What could you gain out of i don't i don't really understand that the the only thing that i could figure out from that is that maybe teams want to see like how much focus you put into something that's just like a ridiculous task because so i heard a competitive aspect yeah i heard this story once about derrick jeter that uh from a scout who worked for the yankees that told me that in batting practice

every day Derek Jeter would have competitions with his teammates and he would try to hit line drives like off the foul line on purpose like in batting practice and it would be first one to do it and I'm sure there was money thrown around and things like that, that Derek Jeter was so insanely competitive about everything that he did that every day, everything was a competition to him. And I think you're looking for that of not, did you make it, but did you focus?

Did you take it seriously? Like they told you to shoot this basketball. Okay. I'm going to try as hard as I possibly can to make this. Or you just sort of fling it at the basket and don't take it seriously. Like Michael Jordan or like Jimmy Butler, just like terrorizing teammates in practice because that's the type of person they are. Yes, and you're not necessarily looking for terrorizing teammates. But no, but that level of being competitive about everything.

You've heard of other stuff that they've done like rock paper scissors or staring contests i will say i think that is completely absurd yeah and makes no sense uh but it's more of they're asking you to do it so are you going to take it seriously and do it because the team is asking you to do it you're not asking them well what do you mean now i think that it's actually good if you have players who ask, well, why would you want me to shoot this basketball? Like, great, I'll explain it to you. I think that's totally fine. I think any of these other things are sort of just silly mind games.

You can't question anything, though, because then you're going to be like the Josh Rosen who doesn't love the game. Yeah, right. Doesn't have the passion. No, but, yeah, I mean, we are kind of all over the place right now, but I would share some breaking news that Kyle Rudolph was just released by the Giants. Oh, you hate to see it. Former Viking.

I don't think he's coming back. Did you think about Kyle Rudolph a single time since he left? The only time I did, well, he, like, scored a, he had, like, a 50-yard catch once, and I was like, oh, that's cool. And then I was at a Timberwolves game the other day, and he was there, and I was like, okay, that's, he's still a Minnesota guy. That's pretty cool. And then I was at a Timberwolves game the other day, and he was there. And I was like, okay, he's still a Minnesota guy. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, I don't mean to say that in an insulting way.

I just mean that when Kyle Rudolph left, we all kind of went like, okay, well, yeah. And obviously then him getting released by a new team a year later kind of suggests that the Vikings made the right call there. Oh, yeah, they definitely did. And the fact that Tyler conklin was good like tyler conklin deserved his chance and showed that he could play uh it's just unfortunate that irv smith got hurt but had he not gotten hurt they would have had the right guy there that tyler conklin is a better tight end at this moment than kyle rudolph yeah so one thing i this again this is just jumping to a different topic one thing i wanted to ask your opinion of because i asked quacey about positional value yesterday and like how

much does do you weigh like the importance of a cornerback versus a safety or a defensive end versus a defensive tackle and just the the ability to impact the game uh and and specifically with quacey i was gonna ask him this but i ran out of time but he when he was at with the 49ers uh it was something like four out of five years they drafted a defensive lineman in the first round i don't know how much impact he had on that but it was like solomon thomas deforest buckner eric armstead off, Nick Bosa. I don't think that was the right order. But, I mean, clearly that was kind of a concerted effort. I don't think that just randomly happened.

And then he also saw in Cleveland the impact of Miles Garrett and Judevion Clowney. So does that lead you to believe at all that for the first time in like 20 years almost, the Vikings could draft a defensive lineman in the first round? Because that was not even ever something they considered under Rick Spielman. I don't even think they, I don't even think, I'm joking, but I don't even think they ever like evaluated the top defensive lineman because they were like, no, we're getting them in the third and fourth round, and Andre Patterson, you're going to like it.

So do you think that's something that's possible, or do you think they might lean towards the cornerback side let me ask this question in return is do you think that they would draft a quarterback in the second round or is it only first round I think it would kind of have to be the first round. Because doing the second round thing, maybe if you really like Carson Strong or Desmond Ritter and they're there at 46, you take a shot at it. Because you know what? You can never take too many shots. But we saw last year that taking the quarterback that's outside of that perceived top tier with kellen mond yeah yep that didn't really do anything because it does not look like kellen mond is going to turn into uh nfl an nfl starting caliber

quarterback maybe maybe once he's free from mike zimmer he will show something i'm skeptical but i think i think you kind of either commit to it and take that swing in the first round or you don't do it at all. But I don't know. Let me draft some. Let me find out. Let me see what it looks like. Did you take someone in the first round? I haven't done it yet.

I just pulled it up to see what it would look like. Let me draft Trayvon Walker. Georgia defensive lineman? Yeah, to see what the second round looks like. Did I only run the first round? Shoot. I only ran the first round. Hold on. Everyone just wait quietly. I'm going to do two. I'm going to do two rounds here and see what the quarterback situation is in the second round. And I will answer your question while I'm pushing buttons, which is I think absolutely they would draft a defensive end,

especially in a great defensive end draft in the first round, because the things that PFF studies and other people study and put out there, Kweisi Adafomensa knows. That's something that we need to keep in mind now, is that any study that's out there that you see that's done by really smart people uh you know that are analytics wizards quesia defo mensa has seen it and understands it and one of the things that keeps coming out when they study defensive ends is you really got to get them high and they have to kind of look a certain way and i think they're going to

know that that drafting guys in the third and fourth round there's of look a certain way and i think they're going to know that that drafting guys in the third and fourth round there's just like a price to play poker size wise quickness wise strength wise all those things at that position specifically that may be even more so than a lot of other positions like wide receivers kind of come in all different sizes and shapes defensive ends do not. And we've talked about this before, but you wonder if they like almost messed up their process for the next five years by drafting Daniel Hunter and having that work out because that's just such a once in a decade type of thing.

And I'm sure it's not repeatable as we've seen from the DJ Wanams and Patrick Joneses of the world. Okay, so there are no quarterbacks. Bradley Zappi. There are no quarterbacks. Bailey Zappi? Bailey, whatever. It doesn't matter what his first name is. So all of the six were gone by pick 46?

Yes. Interesting. I would have thought Ritter or maybe Strong or somebody would be there. Let me see in the drafts where they went. Oh, Desmond Ritter went to Seattle, two picks before the Vikings. Denver picked Carson Strong 41st in this draft sim. So the answer is if they're not picking a quarterback at all in this draft because Kweisi is smoke screening me

and doesn't actually like any of the quarterbacks, then defensive end is number one on my list with a bullet by far ahead of everything else. And part of it is when you talk about value of positions, let's not think about them only in the context of one-year value. What is the five-year and the ten-year value of hitting on a defensive end versus hitting on a corner where with corners they are great but they're part of a unit defensive end can kind of be an independent contractor out there like just one versus one and can make such a huge impact and we've seen this we've i mean how many times have the vikings been on the wrong end of this yeah if the other team

has these monsters on the defensive line it's just really tough to beat and like the Los Angeles Rams became the Los Angeles Matt Staffords and you're like uh they had Vaughn Miller and Aaron Donald Aaron Donald A'shaun Robinson is a great player for them and was spectacular in the Super Bowl um I mean I think that it has to be a top aim to build that, and it starts in the first round, in my opinion. Yeah, it's a good point about between an edge rusher and a corner. It's always like that chicken and egg question, like which comes first, pressure or coverage,

and they're both important and they're kind of married together. But if you're a really, really good corner, obviously that's super valuable that you can like match up against an opposing team's number one receiver but the quarterback can kind of also just like ignore you to some extent even if even if you're moving around he can always kind of find you and say all right unless i really need to i'm not gonna throw to that person or that side of the field and if you're a defensive end who's really really good they kind of can't completely take you out like you can they can double you or they can chip you but that's

gonna then lead to other people having having one-on-ones and and even the great ones like if you double tj watt or aaron donald whatever they're still gonna get through it and make plays and and make things happen so they they kind of can wreck a game and take over a game in a way that corners can't. And there's also schematic ways, as we've seen, to remove those doubles from moving a guy around or shifting the front. So we see this sometimes where there's three guys on one side and just the one guy alone on the other side, and so it doesn't really give them the option so much.'re sending linebackers or rushers in different ways there's stunts twists like there's

lots of ways to defeat those doubles but you're right that it's so clear from cooper cup and davante adams that if an offense wants to decide they're going to throw to their top receiver all the time they will do it and they will succeed that there's no like xavier rhodes was maybe the last guy who shadowed in the league i never see it aside from jalen ramsey i never see it it's like if you get that guy okay yes then i'll agree then you have probably five to seven years of elite cornerback play but that's only one guy in the whole league who does that i mean what's your odds of getting that there are a lot of guys who get 10 sacks. I think that your opportunity to get someone who is a true difference maker

is just higher and their long-term value is higher on the defensive line, even if the positional value analysis tends to lean toward corners. But one thing you'll find is if you look at PFF and what they've done with wins above replacement, how much someone was actually worth, a corner might be worth almost a full win by themselves if they have a great year and almost nothing if they don't. And you'll see good players that have great reputations and make Pro Bowls have both throughout a career. And it's very rare that you find someone who's super consistent from year in and year out. And those guys are the great players who make the Hall of Fame. That's tough to get with the 12th overall pick.

So let me ask you before we wrap up. Do you have any thoughts about the top of this draft? Because it seems like just about the most boring top of a draft. In a really long time, like I just did the draft sim and Kayvon Thibodeau goes number one. I still think he's going number one, by the way. Okay. I think he's been, I've been seeing him slip down mock drafts a little bit for various concerns. I just feel like this is the, I don't know.

Oftentimes we sort of get too caught up in what happened in the guy's senior year or whatever else. But he's the freakish talent that's coming off the edge and they need that but maybe i mean i could be completely wrong he's not the odds on favorite to go number one yeah well i was just my friend who i'm staying with uh in indianapolis is actually weirdly enough a jaguars fan and he was asking me yesterday about who i think will go one and i think as as tempting as it would be for the Jaguars to take Thibodeau or Aiden Hutchinson, I think they kind of have to go with the tackle just because you have Trevor Lawrence in place and everything you do needs to be about protecting him and maximizing him and getting over that kind of ugly rookie year that started with urban meyer and uh was was just a mess uh

and putting doug peterson in place uh i think was a good a good step in that direction but i think they have to take um either neil or or aquanu one of those top tackles but like yeah it is it is kind of boring when a tackle goes number it's like the 2013 draft right where like eric fisher and um luke jekyll or whatever were the top two picks at tackle and that that's kind of the counter argument to the 2017 thing where like i think in 2013 everyone was like these quarterbacks suck and uh they were right the quarterbacks did suck so it can go either way when it's perceived as a bad or when it's perceived as a good quarterback draft and the top guys are don't become very good that's really the point yeah is that you just don't

really you just don't know the one thing about the 2013 draft is that none of those guys were considered first round talents like one guy got picked in the first round right it was just one it was just ej manual i think so and going into going into it, I don't remember anyone even saying E.J. Manuel was a first-round talent. You're right. And what the numbers have found is the more you reach, the more likely it is to be a bust, and that was a humongous reach. In fact, I think the Bills even traded down

and still ended up reaching on E.J. Manuel. So that's kind of the point is if someone is a first-round talent, then you don't know, but E.J. Manuel was not a first round talent and they just like Ponder wasn't and they reached and Mike Mayock had a conniption on TV that night so yeah I'll say there's a lot of interesting guys in this draft it's a it's a deep edge rusher draft um where I think the Vikings would have even I mean Hutchinson and Thibodeau are going to go very early. I think George Karloftis, the Purdue guy, might be gone as well. He might not.

I'm not sure. But like Trayvon Walker and David Ojabo, and there are a bunch of guys who are intriguing. Jermaine Johnson went to Eden Prairie High School and was really good at Florida State this past year. There's a lot of interesting guys like that. There's also, I don't want to make it sound like we were like trashing the corners or anything because I think Sauce Gardner is awesome and I think it's looking more like he's not going to be there at 12. I think he's been like the most mocked guy to the Vikings, him and Derek St Stingley the LSU corner who's kind of slipping a little bit um if one of those two guys is there they would be awfully tempting just

because the Vikings need corners and it wouldn't be just drafting for need like those guys are really good and have a ton of potential and that is a very important position so um they're gonna they're gonna have a lot of options and and the quarterback thing is is is going to have a lot of options. And the quarterback thing is going to be a part of that that we discuss going forward as well. Yeah, I don't want to trash the corner idea either because they need that really badly. There's just something that sort of pops in my mind about corners where if it doesn't go super well with an edge rusher,

they can still contribute in some way. Like maybe the guy's a situational player or something. He didn't want him at eight sacks. wasn't they weren't valuable don't even go there uh but uh with a corner if the guy's bad you just can't even put him on the field yeah like there isn't situations or let's use his athleticism for this or that like no it's just that they'll attack some horror show yes corner playing time over the past two years all right uh well we could just keep talking football forever but we've got things to write and things to do and one more kevin o'connell press conference to cover and uh so we'll uh we'll get to that but i appreciate your time

we'll follow will on twitter at will raggets which is r-a-g-a-t-z-s-i.com yeah is where you cover the vikings i'm glad you got to come, man. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. Thanks for pushing me to come and thanks for having me on the show.