Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Did the Vikings win the 2020 NFL Draft?

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

Matthew Coller and Yahoo! Sports draft analyst Eric Edholm break down what Eric missed about Justin Jefferson and whether the Vikings had the best draft of anyone in 2020. Does Ezra Cleveland fit as a guard long term? Does Eric project Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler as long-term quality starters? And is he still thinking about the Vikings as a team that could pick a first-round QB? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here with Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports. And Eric, you have told me that you have a surprise for me and you have not told me off the air what it is. So what is it? Yeah, I wanted to keep the suspense going. Of course, in classic Edholm fashion, I over-promise and under-deliver.

I asked you this morning, are you going to have the camera? Because I had something that I was going to wear and I thought it would be a nice visual for all the Purple fans out there. So let me take you back to kind of the throes of the initial lockdown, the pandemic, something we may have to get prepared for again, for all we know, right?

But, you know, I went on this sort of disastrous binge of bidding on sports memorabilia. And I was, you know, it was destructive and glad I got out of that pattern but one of the byproducts of that was I was furiously bidding on stuff and and anytime I saw a value I jumped at it and I saw an autographed Ron Yerry jersey and it cost me like 37 dollars or something like that I mean it should have been probably, you know, the jersey itself was worth more than that.

But I wanted to offer it up to you in some kind of promotion. You can figure out the details. Any subscriber, any new subscriber from this point on will get an autographed Ron Yerry, you know, Hall of Fame offensive lineman. Come on, let's go, right? I don't have a frame, but I will send you the jersey and the certificate of authenticity and all that. And let's drive that membership level up.

Let's go. You know, we do have a surprising number of fans who would remember Ron Yerry. Of course. Yeah, I mean, who still, you listen to the podcast, people who, you know, they get painted as being a certain generation and not being like dialed into the internet, but they are, I can tell you there's a lot of subscribers. So I love it. That's great. We'll have to figure out some sort of giveaway or something. And like when, when we're going to do

this, I see, I have a kind of a small office. I love it. It's great, but there's nowhere to hang a Ron Yerry Jersey in this office. And I, And I thought, you know, what better place than to give it to somebody who will truly appreciate it as opposed to, you know, look, I love the guy, but I didn't watch him play. You know, I'm not that old, right? So my gift to you and please, I hope somebody will buy buy a membership get a cool jersey and enjoy your content as usual so i'm a little concerned about you when it comes to bidding on things when you get to the ron yeri jersey like you may need to stop and like your wife is leaving you and the family is is just saying you're like one more item one more item i'll be right there uh seven time pro bowler and a six time all pro by the way just call me he played I mean you may have seen him play I don't know how old you are exactly but he played all the way until the 80s yeah I start my football fandom started I would say my family's

from Chicago don't hold it against me people yeah so I I remember the 85 season pretty vividly I was 10 I was I was gonna be 10 at the end of the year. So I was growing up in New England, so it was Patriots were doing well, Bears were doing well. My family kind of split allegiance a little bit, and I was sort of caught in the middle, and I just enjoyed the ride. So that was the first year that I truly remember watching the NFL. Can't say that I was breaking down Ron Yerry tape at that age, though. Okay, one

more thing about Ron Yerry is that he was the number one overall draft pick. Yeah. So how about, how thrilled are Vikings fans that an offensive lineman was the number one overall pick when they have obsessed over offensive line for all these years? It comes full circle. It's a failure

with him. Yeah, right. People who are not familiar with him saying, wait, what? A number overall pick. Tell me more. Yes. All in on Ron Yerry, the next Ron Yerry, right? That's very cool of you. And also, poor Ron Yerry.

You're worth more than that, Ron, if you're listening, which you're not. So anyway, well, I brought you on. I really appreciate that. We'll figure out a way to give that away to a new subscriber or something. And maybe somebody can give it as a Christmas present to their old school Viking fan. I think that would be very cool. Of course, I brought you on because you are a draft analyst for Yahoo, and how about this Vikings draft all of a sudden, Eric? I mean, let's just start with Justin Jefferson.

Actually, how about this? Let me pull it back and ask you the big picture question all the teams doing all the drafting in 2020 as of this moment in early december are the vikings number one with the best draft and i'll make my case justin jefferson is the best player drafted at this moment he is the best player from the 2020 draft a franchise changing type of player not just hey i guess they hit on that wide receiver, but like one of the best wide receivers in the entire NFL. I think that wins you the draft at this moment. Yeah, I think it does too.

I wrote last week about how the Pittsburgh Steelers had a really nice draft class. They didn't have a first-round pick, but, you know, not even in the conversation there. You know, I think the Chargers did well with Justin Herbert. I know he's coming off a terrible game. They also got a pretty good player in Kenneth Murray. You know, the Browns did really well with Jedrick Wills. You can't really draft or you can't really analyze a draft class for three years.

Now, that said, there are exceptions to every rule, and Justin Jefferson would probably be the exception to this rule too. This is not going to be like – who was the Buccaneers receiver who had like a 1,200-yard rookie season and then probably didn't have 1,200 yards the rest of his career? Gruden drafted him in the early – anyway, Clayton, I think, was his name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael Clayton.

Michael Clayton. I blanked on his first name, yeah. But this is not going to be a Michael Clayton type of deal. I mean, he's right now on pace for about 1,400, 1,500 yards, you know, 10 touchdowns, I would think. And so what a player. I mean, I saw it last year, but I guess I fell into the trap of saying, what about this?

What about this? And just nitpicking all these little things that added up to pretty much nothing. He's special. He is. And what I've noticed about him from the very start, and I'm sure our listeners have heard me say this a number of times, but he loves to learn about routes and releases and all those things. And I remember Laquan Treadwell in his second training camp said he just started learning the details of route running.

And you were like, excuse me, what? And Justin Jefferson came in, attached himself at the hip to Adam Thielen and said, teach me, teach me these routes and releases and all these things. And the guy's attitude I think has made such a difference. But from a physical perspective, here's what's odd to me, is someone like Jalen Rager got all the attention for his athleticism. But when you look at the relative athletic scores of Justin Jefferson, he was a top five wide receiver in terms of his athleticism. He has a natural baller ability with the ball in

his hands. I noticed NextGen has him as one of the best in terms of run after catch, over-expected, so when he gets the ball in his hands, he was incredible at LSU. And I'm going to throw something out there for you. I think if a guy plays in the slot in college, that's actually really good as opposed to outside because you do that a lot in the NFL. Teams are doing that all the time with condensed splits

and moving guys around. Yeah, I think people, you know, and I try not to fall into the trap of saying, like, well, he's a slot only. He played outside the year before when they had a less potent offense. It was, you know, the numbers paled in comparison. But, you know, had Joe Brady been there the year before, had they had Joe Burrow in 2019 form, you know, remember Burrow joined the team like in August, right? He didn't even know his teammate. He didn't know Justin Jefferson's name when he first got on the field with him. So, you know,

there were a lot of factors that suggested that had he played more outside, you know, there, there would have been no issue whatsoever. And they had Terrace Marshall and Jamar Chase. I mean, this is, you know, the only school that's had more wide receiver talent has been Alabama the last couple of years. So, yeah, there were so many factors. I try not to just say, well, he's a slot. Only what I said was his best football has come playing in the slot.

Can he do other things? It's a question people have asked. And I think we're going to say, yeah, we're going to say, yeah. Yes, we can say yes. You know what the power of Justin Jefferson is something that when you're in college you think well of course they should overpower dudes I mean you see this with tackles and defensive ends like yeah okay someone who's less physically gifted you're gonna run over them but even though he does not have the

height of a Julio Jones he has the power of a Julio Jones. When corners put their arms on him, he runs right through them. When they try to tackle him, he broke a tackle from a linebacker against Carolina at the goal line and went into the end zone. It's like this guy, he has more power in the way that he runs and the strength of his hands when the ball is anywhere near him, he brings it in. I mean, he is the exact, to me me perfect combination of a guy who can do all

the detail stuff that makes the great receivers great and make some less talented guys over achieve but then has the physical gifts that always seem to equate to an elite wide receiver when we're talking about the speed the power the hands and then the ability to track the ball no matter what I mean there's no flaw that I can really find in his game. Yeah, he had a game, and I was trying to, as you were setting up the question there, I was trying to remember what game it was. I think it might have been the Vanderbilt game. It was one of the early season games where he was pretty quiet.

He had a couple big games coming in, and he didn't really have a big afternoon. He may have caught a touchdown. I don't remember, but I was watching the game. And, you know, LSU's up 28 points at this point. It's sort of mid-third quarter or whatever, and he's out there blocking his tail off. And it was one of those things that just stood out to me, and it made me think, all right, now I've got to look and know, and see if this is a common occurrence. And you saw that kind of power translate, you know, in other ways too, not only the tackle breaking, but also blocking when his receivers had the ball or when there was a handoff run blocking. So, yeah, I mean, for kind of a spindly guy, I mean, he was, you know, he's 200 plus pounds,

but still kind of a leaner frame, at least compared to some of the bigger guys. It was impressive to see him do it. He played full tilt, and that's what you loved about him. And they raved about his, you know, they called it, the LSU staff really said his football character was really off the charts. And I think that plays into what you're talking about now. Yeah, and as far as becoming a good teammate, he's got them doing the dance and, you know, he just has this. I've talked to a former coach of his, his high school coach.

I watched tape with his high school coach for an article, and he said he's just got this happy-go-lucky type of attitude. And I think that's the perfect way to describe him. When you talk to him or when you watch him play, he just seems to have a big smile on his face. And, you know, look, I'm all for Stefan Diggs and vicious competitors who burn hot. But if you got a guy who's this good and then gets along with everybody as well, it's just a bonus. I mean, he's a rookie. We'll see how that goes. But, I mean, I think that they should give him more targets, and eventually he'll start asking for them.

But at least for now, the way that he's fit in has been incredible. And I would say this he has been so good and is projects to continue to be this good I think it's a franchise changer I don't think it's just like oh well great you got another good star player I think it should change the way that this team even looks at their next couple of seasons yeah I mean you start thinking about the receivers in the national football league, who've played clearly better than he has this season. I mean, you know, maybe Devante Adams, when he's healthy, you know, some might argue feeling, but I, you know, again, the point is

like the list is not very long. I would say, you know, Deandre Hopkins has been a little quiet lately, but the first part of the season, he was brilliant. Tyree kills his own kind of category, but I I'm not listing more than, than four or five or six names that are, that are bigger sort of difference makers and we're playing at a higher level. I'm DK, I guess was, was at that, that peak, but, but he goes stretches without catching balls. Whereas, you know,

even Jefferson, even if his targets aren't an insane number, he's still producing it at such a high level that I agree. I think he's going to be special. He was my 27th overall player last year. And looking back, I mean, you know, when I read my – before we came on, I read my evaluation. I thought I was more positive on him than the 27th overall player should suggest.

It was almost like there was a disconnect in me writing my report and stamping a grade on him. So, you know, just another back to the drawing board moment for Ed Hold here. Well, I think one thing that is very hard to predict, and I know that Mike Zimmer's talked about this, is just the growth of someone from that year I mean you know you never know which guys are sort of continuing to improve and which have hit the ceiling of what they're going to be I'll give you an example and it's not always age-based but I think when they drafted Garrett Bradbury he kind of was what he was I think he

was 24 years old it's like well if that doesn work, I don't see some athletic ceiling or anything else. But Justin Jefferson with 111 catches was still an ascending player and still getting better. And we've seen that even play out through the season where I think he's gotten better and better as they've gone along. So now let me ask you a philosophical question here, because I think that we're kind of locked into a point where the Vikings bring back Kirk Cousins and that's that discussion is put aside however they went one and five at one point this season they could go on for the rest of the way or one and three they could miss the playoffs all these things are possible especially if he plays like he did against Jacksonville but put put that kind of aside philosophically would Justin Jefferson mean to you,

you should keep Kirk Cousins because he can throw Justin Jefferson the ball deep and they will continue to succeed? Or would you say that if you draft a quarterback, he gets Justin Jefferson and Irv Smith, who's played well this year when he's healthy, and Adam Thielen, who I think will age well because of his technique and it's not based on just pure athleticism. Like you could hand someone a throne of gold if you drafted a quarterback

in the first round. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to obviously see where they land. You know, assuming that Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields go one, two, who knows? You know, Fields may not, but, you know, the point is a third quarterback could end up going somewhere in the top five. Zach Wilson is the name that you hear a lot or whatever. And then, you know, if they're picking in that range where Trey Lance is available,

obviously kind of a local kid there who grew up down the road from you guys. And, you know, Mac Jones, is he Kirk Cousins-ish? You know, is there some overlap to their games? Maybe. I can see it. A little different, but, I mean, you know, similar size and similar kind of, you know, downfield trajectory on their throws, things like that.

So, you know, it becomes a question of fit and whether you like that and whether you think this is a player that, you know, we can sit for a year or wait until Kirk implodes or whatever and then hand off. So, yeah, they're one of those teams that I kind of have a put in that maybe category. And all the reasons you laid out, right? I mean, the weapons that are there, Cook in the backfield too,

all the options you can throw to in that offense, it's pretty alluring. And then the question becomes, do you help sustain what you already have or do you start looking to the future, I think? And the question for me would be, what could you do with the rest of the money if you could get anywhere near the production? The hard thing about Cousins in terms of evaluating him, and this is why it's a fun back-and-forth like a tennis thing of one week he plays great and everyone loves him and the next week it's a fun back and forth like a tennis thing of one week he plays great and everyone loves him

and the next week it's he I mean this game against Jacksonville was his worst game of the year I think and he got away with it because it's Jacksonville and Mike Lennon just said take the ball for me and I'll take a safety or whatever but this was a performance by Cousins to get yourself beat against the worst defense in the entire NFL, and that's what frustrates people about Cousins. And if you think about his supporting casts for his career, they've just always been great. I mean, one year in Washington where it's not, but aside from that, and it makes you wonder, in a world where Carson Wentz went from MVP to the bench

when his supporting cast fell off, I wonder if supporting cast means more to how a quarterback performs than ever outside of three guys outside of like Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, the Sean Watson, that's about it. Right. But everybody else, and is it worth paying 31 million on the cap next year? Or could you rebuild your defense? You know, like all these things, I think have to factor in, even though my guess is they double down on Kirk because he's played well in the second half of the season.

Yeah, I would say, yeah. I mean, overall, I wouldn't say he's been bad this year. You know, the obvious exceptions, you know, like you said, the inconsistency drives you nuts. He plays well one week and all that. And to your equation, I would throw in, you know, system play calling, having somebody in that OC position who knows exactly how to, you know, system play calling, having somebody in that OC position who knows exactly how to, you know, what a quarterback's strengths and weaknesses are. Don't ask them to do things they're not good at. You know, that's sort of part and parcel with, you know, the big targets, the fast targets, the yards after the catch guys, a good offensive line, run game, all those complimentary pieces. But yeah, I would think, you know know obviously that depends on the team depends on the system but

you know it's not exactly uh you know there are quite a few teams whose average target depth is not that big right they rely on those receivers to make the first man miss and gain a couple extra yards and that's a crucial element to the players they draft that position. So yeah, more often than not, unless you have one of those special creators, those guys who can make things happen on their own, it's going to be system dependent. It's going to be talent dependent in a lot of ways.

Let me move on to this, the rest of this draft, which has sort of emerged as we've gone along. I remember the last time we talked, A, we were saying, hey, how about that Zach Wilson? He's kind of interesting, huh? And now he might go number two overall. He were, yeah. But Ezra Cleveland, right guard, just how we all drew it up in training camp.

I remember when we were talking, like, hey, he's not playing left tackle in camp, and they moved him to guard, and what does this mean? But I think it's been a really good fit for him. Every game hasn't been perfect, but for someone to even look competent at right guard after playing left tackle in college, to me is a very good sign for him. Yeah, absolutely.

And if I remember correctly, I think he was a high school defensive lineman that they switched over. He clearly had the athleticism to be an offensive lineman that they switched over. You know, he clearly had the athleticism to be, you know, an offensive lineman, an outside guy. You understood why they played him there. He had the big, long frame and everything. But, you know, he's also, I think, a high school wrestler too.

And that's the kind of skill that allows somebody with his dimensions and his athleticism to move the guard and not be a fish out of water so you know I think his quick feet you know and and I'm I haven't watched him a ton recently but I would imagine that they've worked on his pad level a little bit which at times was an issue in college you know he would kind of get knocked off balance by power people so guard wasn't the first thing that came to mind until I talked to a West coast scout who said they could see him as kind of a, a left guard for, for, you know, like a left-handed running team,

just kick them in one spot to flip them to the other side. Obviously footwork's backward. Everything's different. You know, you've got guys on either side of you. It's in this adjustment. So credit to him. I mean, you've got guys on either side of you. It's in its adjustment. So credit to him. I mean, again, even coming into last year, even though he got good accolades in 2018, I don't think most people viewed him as that high a prospect. It was playing hurt and playing well last year really kind of helped separate him a little bit. And it's been impressive got a great holiday deal to tell you about from soda stick if you use the promo code purple

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That's sodastick.com, Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER15 for 15% off anytime you purchase at least two items this holiday season. I think his toughness has really shown up. He got hurt early in the Chicago game and played the whole rest of the way and had to miss the next two weeks because the injury was pretty serious. And then he comes back and, okay, it's Jacksonville, but he grinds out a pretty good performance. And, again, with not that many reps at right guard,

it feels like one of those, hey, go figure it out, kid. Like this wasn't what you were supposed to be doing, but find a way. And he has found a way. And I think he's significantly improved an offensive line that was still really struggling now for the future though I wonder would you rather leave him where he's been would you rather move him back to left tackle if they let Riley Reif go or should that be the first round target which as I mentioned earlier if the Vikings draft the left tackle early in the draft they will hold

a parade in downtown Minneapolis I mean fans absolutely – they have been so frustrated by offensive line play, though this year I argue it's mostly been fine. And that's a whole different thing. Kirk Cousins makes your offensive line worse. But whole aside, they've been so frustrated by offensive line play. I mean, do you think that they should just draft a left tackle and leave Cleveland to guard? It's a good question, right?

And obviously if you draft somebody who's got a little bit of positional flexibility too, like Rayshon Slater from Northwestern, who I think is going to be kind of a mid-first-round pick, he doesn't have the length that the Vikings typically would seek and tackle the kind of reef Brian O'Neal kind of athlete, right? He's a little different body shape 6'4 3 10 3 15 30 three inch arms maybe it's pretty short for a tackle but it's not unheard of so he's somebody that people think could be an all-pro guard be a very good tackle that makes a lot of sense

Christian Darisaw the kid out of Virginia Tech you know I didn't know a lot about him coming into the year but he's played really, a little bit more of your classic tackle build, I would say. And he's kind of in that, you know, mid-first-round pick, top 25 kind of range as well, I would say. So those guys both make sense, you know, and with Slater, you could kind of – I mean, I think Derrissaw is probably a tackle, right? I don't think there's any reason to move him inside.

With Slater, there could be a reason. And you can just sort of figure out your best five. If that's the pick, let's say, line them up and say, which quintet do we like the best and who's at what position? So I know that's a little bit of a throw it against the wall and see what sticks approach. But, you know, I'm trying to think. New England Patriots did that a couple years ago when they had, you know i'm trying to think there was the new england patriots did that a

couple years ago when they had you know and it worked so i mean it can work uh also the strength of the tackle draft seems like it's really decent uh for the first round i mean what do you think maybe like five guys in the first round could it be similar to last year yeah let me think about that i i five it's gonna depend on somebody like Allie Vera Tucker, the USC kid who played guard last year. They moved him to tackle. You know, he certainly, you know, I could see him ending up in the, you know, in the top, you know, 40 picks or something like that.

Maybe just outside of round one, maybe round one. You know, that would make sense. Penny Sewell is going to be a top five pick. I think that's a pretty obvious one. You know, Slater we mentioned, Derrissaw. I'm trying to think. Liam Eikenberg from Notre Dame I think has really helped himself. Probably still in that same range where it's like borderline first,

second round pick. You know, I don't exactly know how it's going to all work out, but that's probably about where he goes. The kid from Texas is really interesting, Sam Cosme. He, you know, I like him, but I don't know that he's taken a huge step forward this year. And I got to do a little bit more work on him. The other one who's gotten a lot of mention is Jalen Mayfield from Michigan more of a sort of classic burly you know big

physical kid got a lot of natural ability played pretty well at the end of last year I need to take a little longer look at him and see whether he's you know in that first round mix at all so yeah four would probably be the over under if I said it right now, but it could be five by, by April. This is the best follow-up I have is in a draft sim. I took the guy from Texas. So that caused me. Yeah. If you go back and watch him against Caleb on chase on last year is a great battle. Like they went back and forth. One guy, we went to rep the other way.

There's a lot of stalemates. It was a fun battle. And then there were times when he faced lesser talents and you expected him to kind of blow them off the ball and i didn't see it so i gotta dig on him a little bit he's gonna be an interesting one well i think that um vikings fans would be thrilled uh they're also preparing themselves for the defensive side uh which they did start with by drafting two corners in this year's draft. And this is why I was saying early in the season, whatever you see from Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler, put your hand over your eyes, plug your ears. Just like it, it's going to be bad.

It's been bad for everyone. I mean, if you look at just the PFF grades and sort it by the rookies, they're all getting smoked. The fact that Cameron Dantzler has started to emerge, I think, is very interesting because usually if someone can flash in camp as a rookie, especially a third rounder, there's something there. Like camp matters. Not, okay, this guy's dominating the third team.

When a guy is playing on the first team as a third round pick right away, that means that they think there's something there. And early in the season, there wasn't. I mean, he's getting destroyed. But the way that he's come along these last couple of weeks, it's like all of a sudden starting to take shape, the secondary of the Vikings and what it could look like. And with Gladney, I think he's more of a nickel corner going forward.

And with Mike Hughes, he's been injured just constantly, and it's hard to say what he's going to be. But it's starting to shape out like they could have some pieces to work with here in the future. Yeah. With Dantzler, you know, the combine 40 was the big thing with him. He ran, what, a 4.64 or whatever. And it just, I don't't know i never thought of him

as a fast corner like i never saw him and said wow he's gonna be able to carry you know tyree kill down the field or whatever that said i thought he played like a four or five four or five you know low four fives corner and that was fine for me i mean i i really liked him he missed some games last year but he was hyper competitive. He could tackle, he had good length. There was an edge about him. He, he asked the coaching staff down there, give me the opponent's best receiver. He wanted those opportunities. So, you know, the, the interception production was pretty low, but if you watched him play, I thought, you know, he's a second round corner if he runs poorly or a first-round corner

if he runs really well. He ended up slipping a little, and it still surprised me. Even after he ran well, I think they snuck in a pro day before the pandemic hit. But I'm not shocked he's playing well. I liked him last year. I thought he was real competitive and just a real chippy player who had,

you know, SEC talent in his face every single week and stood up to it. So the fact that he struggled early, like you said, and has come back is really impressive. Gladney, I mean, just his play style was so exciting last year. I was, you know, he was a fun player to watch. He understood, you know, the limitations of the size and everything else. But it was hard not to really kind of root for him and just, you know, hope that he found a good spot. I thought Minnesota would be good.

You know, I mean, does he still need some technique work at times? Yes. I mean, does he lack elite instincts? Maybe that was kind of the question that some people raised. I think it was a fair question. You know, again, like, like Dantzler didn't have a ton of, he actually got his hands on a lot of balls, but I don't think he had a lot of interceptions. So a lot of that was physical in nature. I don't know. He was,

he was one of my favorite corners to watch last year. And as you know, I love the Vikings draft. I gave him one of my highest grades. So, you know, he, I think he'll figure it out and I think you're right nickel feels like a good spot for him one-on-one with wide receivers there's just some technical issues that I'm not sure going to change um they might but there are times where like you said about the instincts where it's like a wide receiver is stemming him out and you know like come on man you just watch the tape I've watched this a million times like the guy's gonna break in he's gonna break in and then he breaks in and you're like oh you didn't see that and i know he's i know he's a rookie but it's happened to him over and over and

over again with the same sort of like the receiver setting you up there's oh and you got b where danzler seems to have a really great feel for that when somebody's setting him up to make a certain move or a cut or turn it's like he sees that coming before it happens and that's why i think with gladney his great tackling kind of makes him a nickel because you're often kind of sitting in zones you're waiting for route combinations to develop and then you're taking a dude down even if they complete 80 of passes in your in your direction if you take the guy down before he gets seven or eight yards i mean then you're pretty good at that job. So it'll be interesting. That's a win right there. Yeah. Right. Right.

And the nickel is more, I think, valuable than it's ever been by far with teams using three receivers. So they're out there, they're out there 80% of the snaps almost, you know, I mean, that's sort of the new base defense. Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, you're seeing guys with little different body shapes than you used to. It used to always be like the pint size guys who And, you know, I mean, you're seeing guys with little different body shapes than you used to. It used to always be like the pint sized guys who could, you know, who couldn't hold up outside or whatever. And, you know, I'd like to see I don't know, have they used them much as a blitz or two? Because they occasionally would do that in college and it was a good little change up plan.

I think that's something that, you know, he could end up being pretty good at. Yeah. And they did that with Mackenzie Alexander quite a bit and a little with Gladney, but I think that that's coming. One of the issues is that they've had to move them inside and outside because there've been so many injuries and you can't really lock them into a position. I think that's what they'll try to do in the future. So I have a couple of just sort of fun questions before we wrap up here. One is what is your theory on why the Vikings must draft a specialist at the end of

the draft? It goes boom in their face every time, every time. They drafted Jeff Locke. He wasn't any good. They drafted Blair Walsh. He missed the most important field goal of the last decade. They drafted KJ Osborne, who is not better at punt returning than you are because you can at least maybe run away from it and not have it be negative plays. There wouldn't be, you know, it wouldn't be any fumbles if you ran away from the ball and didn't even catch it. They cut Austin Cutting and brought in some guy who tore all of his legs off and he's long snapping now. It's like, what is the purpose of drafting these people in the seventh round?

When you have a 15-man draft class, I think you can take a couple of those little flyers, but obviously that doesn't excuse any past mistakes, right? I mean, yeah, it's tough, obviously. You have – you try your best not to just sit there, well, we've got to plug this hole, we've got to plug this hole, because I think, you know, that's bad drafting principle right there. I don't believe in it. I mean, obviously, you have to have fits to what you're doing, right? I mean, if you draft a player because he's high on your board, and he doesn't fit your scheme, that's not good coordination. But at some point, some people say, well, there's this kicker we like, or this punter we like, or hey, this long snapper, everyone seems to love that guy, you know.

And you see it year after year. And sometimes it works out, right, where you land a stud. But, you know, probably the two best kickers in the last 25 years were both, well, three best. Adam Vinatieri, what's his name, Robbie Gold, and Tucker were all undrafted. You know, some of the best punters, same thing. Maybe they're a seventh-round pick. I get that.

You know, drafting long snappers and coverage guys and stuff like that, we're getting into kind of murky waters there. 2020 has already reshaped how we work, and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site according to Comscore. Indeed helps you find quality candidates quickly so you can focus on hiring the person you need to keep business going.

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guy was drafted and that they loved him coming out and all these things and he was a captain at miami you know if you don't know that he has no chance he is returning punts if it's just guy versus guy no way but you drafted him so now you play him. So when he screws up and he misses field goals against the Packers that tie you a game or when he fumbles punts and stuff, that's negative on you for wasting the draft pick and then playing a guy who wasn't capable. You're venting in the right direction, man. I'm 100% with you. When you feel obligated to play a guy because you spent a draft pick on him, whatever, bad things happen because of that, absolutely.

Okay, I want you to rank these before we wrap up here. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Tua, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow. How would you rank the last two classes of first-round picks? Okay, so I admittedly, I had Herbert as my number 18 overall prospect. It's hard for me to unlearn what I've already learned, that he was probably better than that, even though he played pretty terribly last week. But, yeah, I mean, I would say, based on what we know at this moment,

you know, Tua's, you know, he's been okay. I just, I don't know. He hasn't shown those Herbert-like flashes. Burrow was good to fine. You know, obviously the offensive line really held him back. So I would say probably Lawrence first, Herbert second, just based on, again, his peaks that we've seen glimpses of so far. And then I would probably say Burrow, Fields, Wilson, and Tua.

They're different, but I would sort of put them on that same level of performance. And then, you know, after that, obviously, if you like Trey Lance or Mac Jones or Kyle Trask, we'd build it in the rest. But I think that's how I'd have it now, knowing what we've seen this rookie year from them. Poor Mac Jones gets to be the, well, you know, Mac Jones. I like him. I just, you know, he's like, he's always going to leave you wanting a little more, but I think you can do all right with him. I think that Justin Herbert has a lot of the Carson Wentz sort of, you know,

ups and downs, high end and low end. No doubt. That would concern me. His rating under pressure was like 120 through the first five games. Like, well, that's not going to continue when the league average is 80. And he's sort of come back down. And I think that the problems that existed in college will still exist. So I'm not as high on Herbert because of this small sample.

I think I would put all three guys from this class above all the other guys. And I will still take Tua as my number one quarterback from 2019. You know, there are people. Look, his college record was, you know, pretty unimpeachable on the field anyway. I mean, he was tremendous except for a little bit of a YOLO ball there in 2018. But, you know, he threw some balls up for grabs knowing he had insane athletes out there. I'm not down on him. I just think that this point we've only seen, you know,

maybe 60%, 70% of what he can do. Eric at home, make sure you follow him on Twitter and at Yahoo Sports, one of my favorite people to read. And you know Vikings fans always get jacked for the draft like everybody else, but I feel like there's a little extra juice with Vikings fans every year. So make sure you follow him. We'll get together again, of course, soon, and we'll figure out how to give away that Ron Yerry jersey, man.

I'm looking forward to it. Hope somebody is a big Yerry fan and a big fan of your work as well. All right. Thanks, Eric. All right, buddy.