Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Does the Vikings' poor offensive performance against the Colts matter?

Episode Date: August 22, 2021

Matthew Coller and SI's Will Ragatz break down the Vikings' 12-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Does it matter that the first team offense struggled and the backup QBs played poorly? Should they get in the game next week? What does it mean that Mike Zimmer said the Vikings have already decided on who's playing defensive end next to Danielle Hunter? Why has Cam Dantzler fallen off? And the linebackers stepped up to the challenge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another post game podcast that we're doing and we're going to talk about a football game that we saw and things happened Matthew Collar along with Will Raggetts Sam Ekstrom is away and I mean like jealous of Sam Ekstrom for being away for this football game that was 12 to 10 between the Minnesota Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts and I thank you, for taking the time to do this and for working our way through what we just saw. So welcome. Thank you for having me. Yeah, a little jealous of Sam and anyone else who just chose not to subject themselves to watching that mind-numbing game of preseason football. But yeah, let's break it down and all the things that

went wrong and maybe some things that went wrong and maybe some things that went right and if there are any which i think there's a few but um yeah let's do it all right so one thing i like to do is pretend that it really matters and get hardcore like let's dive into everything that happened but i don't want to do that here what i want to do is i want to ask you if any of that mattered because i think it would be fair for fans to look at it either way i think if someone told me look i just don't care what happened wake me up when they're playing cincinnati week one we've seen this movie before where there is hideous horrible pathetic preseason football that does not matter at all and how Kirk played today the offensive line the receivers none of it is going to make a difference when they're really

game planning really scheming and all that stuff and playing all of the starters not just the ones that they're confident are completely healthy I could also see the other side of it that even Mike Zimmer was okay with our friend Judd Zolgad asking about Kirk Cousins not looking great in practice and then seeing what we saw here today Cousins comes out says I felt sharp like uh didn't look sharp um and then we could talk about you know the second team offense the backup quarterbacks and so forth so I guess I just want your opinion on which one of those sides would be more reasonable to say, look, it's worth nothing, or hey, there's actually a lot that we should really be diving into here because this was, again, not an exciting or good-looking football game

for the second straight week of preseason. Yeah, I'm with you in that it could go either way. I think I still lean towards the first one. It just doesn't really matter much. I have some concerns about certain things, and the two that I'll give you are the quarterback situation, which we saw again today, Jake Browning and Kellen Mond just not getting it done, neither one looking capable of keeping an offensive float if Kirk Cousins were to miss time. And as we know, that's a legitimate possibility, not because of injury, but because he could land on the COVID list based on being close contact or testing positive or something like that.

So that legitimately matters. And they might have to go out and get a veteran backup quarterback, maybe bring Sean Mannion back or something like that. But if he gets cut by the Seahawks. But and the other one I'll give you is Rashad Hill getting beat very badly on a sack early on is concerning because he's the left tackle until Christian Derrissaw gets healthy, which seems to be perhaps a little ways away still.

Those two are certainly things that you have to address and take seriously, but for the most part, I still lean with it doesn't really matter we haven't seen Dalvin Cook we haven't seen Justin Jefferson Patrick Peterson Harrison Smith Daniel Hunt like the list goes on even though they played a lot of starters today there were still some key guys who didn't play um on both sides of the ball and even the the offensive start the starters who did play played like a quarter or a little more. So yeah, I would lean towards the first one. I didn't see anything too concerning from Kirk Cousins. They didn't really have him throw the ball much at all. They kind of were just content to run it with Amir Abdullah when the starting offense was out there. And I thought the offensive line outside of that hill sack

looked good. They were creating holes in the run game. The defensive line, we saw the debut of Michael Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson. They looked good. Colts weren't getting anything going in the run game. The defensive line, we saw the debut of Michael Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson. They looked good. Colts weren't getting anything going in the running game. So I wouldn't be overly concerned. I think if you watch this, just try to forget about it for the most part. But with that said, there are a couple things that are noteworthy. So you could go back to with the backup quarterback situation, the famous Tom Moore quote, we don't practice bleeps. And that's why they don't give the backup quarterback situation the famous tom moore quote we don't practice

bleeped yeah and that's why they don't give the uh backup quarterback any reps as opposed to the starter yeah and so from the vikings perspective here uh jake browning and kellen mon clearly cannot play nfl football if they're asked to um i might have been a little high to say four to six wins if either one of them had to play 17 it might be less than that Jake Browning just does not look competent at standing in there and throwing a football in an actual game and as much as he's a likable person and the team wants to rally around him you can't go what was he six for 15 in a preseason game I mean I just saw Mitch Trubisky go like 20 for 28 with 200

and something yards. Like Trubisky is not a good quarterback. He's a clear backup and he's out there annihilating people in the preseason. Our friend Sage Rosenfels has the highest quarterback rating ever in the preseason. And he was a 500 NFL quarterback. Like you should be just destroying fools. And these two quarterbacks just look like they don't even really know how to play. And yes, they should look for Sean Manion to get cut by Seattle or bring in Blake Bortles or whatever it is that they need to do. But you're still bleeped if Kirk Cousins goes out, because if everything goes well, this team still has a tough enough schedule and a tough

enough division that they probably are looking at like 11 and six is maybe the peak of what this team can do. So if you lose cousins for three, four games anyway, there aren't too many backups in the league. Maybe Trubisky, Marcus Mariota, who can even win half of those games at this point. So I don't know that it's something to worry all that much about. And I would say that the NFL knew what it was talking about with Kellen Mond when they drafted him in the third round. And that's what I see out here that when I watch Mac Jones, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, I see the tools and I see the comfort, even though they do

stupid things sometimes in these preseason games, he just doesn't have any of that. And Jake Browning is obviously just not like an NFL quarterback. So I wonder how much we should even be worried about that because even if Sean Mannion was your backup, you're still bleeped anyway, if Kirk Cousins goes down and that has always been the case. And Mike Zimmer said, Hey, it's like, it's a monetary issue, right, you can't pay Marcus Mariota $10 million if your starting quarterback makes $30 million. So it's almost like you just have to accept the fact that if anything happens to that guy, you're just out. You're just not making the playoffs. Yeah, I guess that's a good point.

It doesn't really matter if you bring back Sean Manning. I mean, people will look and say, okay, Manning is better than this, but the last two years people were talking about him. You'd be screwed if, Manning better than this. But the last two years, people were talking about him. You'd be screwed if Sean Manning had to play. It doesn't really matter who it is, Blake Bortles, whoever. So, yeah, I agree with you on that. It's just a little, I mean, Jake Browning had such a high point early in training camp with that practice where he was the only quarterback and he played well.

And it's a good story. But, yeah, I guess these two games have really just served to confirm that neither of these guys are ready. Browning looked really rough, just missing easy throws. Didn't seem to be on the same page with his receivers. And then Mond has a long ways to go. You can see a little bit of the tools there in each of these first two games. He had a nice throw to Amir Smith-Marset that was called back by a holding penalty. I think he had another decent throw to Amir Smith-Marset that was called back by a holding penalty. I think he had another decent throw to Myron Mitchell over the middle. But for the most part,

it's been really, really rough with these two. They're both well below 500 completion percentage, or 50%. So, yeah, I think I agree with you that it's a rough situation, and it puts more of a spotlight on the Kirk Cousins, the vaccination issue, and whether or not he can be out there for all 17 games. Right, and I always think with first-team offenses,

and this goes back to our bigger point of like, so if we're checking off the boxes, should you be all that concerned about the backup quarterback situation? Well, yes and no. Like, yes, because you're screwed if he doesn't play in a game. Kirk Cousins doesn't. But that's almost always the case with 90 of the backups in the nfl anyway outside of chase daniel mariotta trubisky and maybe two or three other guys in the league with previous experience if ryan

fitzpatrick was your backup for example or if jimmy garoppolo ends up being the backup we watch the indianapolis colts quarterbacks put just be a truck fire like well there's their backups they're not any better than yours it's inexperienced guys who have no idea what they're doing jacob eason couldn't throw an accurate pass to save his life sam ellinger just looks like jake browning out there like late round quarterback with no actual chance to play in the nfl like this is the reality so i'm and they actually have to play one of those guys because once is that once is out for a little bit, right? Yeah. Well, depending, I mean, he might be able to come back maybe for like week two, I think is the diagnosis with his foot injury, but we just saw it like, this is how it looks like they're a competent franchise

and they brought in young guys and they can't really play. So that's always been your reality. So tonight didn't change anything there. And I just never make any conclusions or assumptions about what the offense will be when it's actually playing by how it looks here. I think if you're concerned about the offense, the first team offense, it's because Justin Jefferson did not take a practice rep last week. Like you said, Rashad Hill got destroyed by quitty pay on that sack they only dropped back eight times and got sacked once that's not what you want to see and cousins had to scramble on another one uh and you don't want to see him getting hit in these preseason games either i think adam phelan took a knee to the thigh on his his one target of this game and came out right and that's a reason to never play these guys by the way which is the where i'm at i

think never play the starters i think if you're concerned about the first team offense it's because they haven't looked good in practice and because even a thigh bruise to adam thielen is too much like any injury because smith marset isn't ready osborne's just not a difference maker chad bb you know is small like and can't really do anything outside of run quick routes in the slot like if you're worried about the first team offense it's because of what we've seen through the entirety of camp and the injuries that have gone along with camp not what happened here tonight yeah i mean the the stats are really rough they haven't scored a point in the second half in either of these two games. They don't have an offensive touchdown yet. But like you said, only a quarter of that has been starters

and not even all the starters. So yeah, I think if you are concerned about the offense, it's based on the big picture and what we've seen throughout training camp, throughout practices. There are some concerns. I mean, they're going to get DeeDee Westbrook back pretty soon, I would think, which will help as a guy who is an established NFL wide receiver. K.J. Osborne, I think, still has some upside in that as well, but he hasn't really stood out much in his opportunities here. Smith-Marset at least looks good returning kicks and punts, so that's something. But, yeah, he has a ways to go as a receiver as well. Yeah, I don't know.

Where is your concern level at with with the vikings offense right now i think that it entirely depends on justin jefferson's health when justin jefferson said the word nagging the other day i like an eyebrow shot up can you do the thing with your eyebrows where like the rock where no not really yours yours are connected yeah mine are disconnected so i can have one go up so my and my face also it's really good that they don't show me on the press conferences because i always like react with my eyebrows and face so when he said that i went like with the eyebrow thing because that's concerning if justin jefferson is dealing with a nagging shoulder issue for a

position where you consistently have to catch balls and fall on your shoulder, if he's not like 100% dominant version of Justin Jefferson, you take 10% off. I don't think they're a good offense. I think they can run the ball. Still. We saw them really dominate in the run game tonight. I expect that they have good run blockers, but I think your concern level should be pretty high because you're still talking about a left tackle last year that played great in Riley Reef and now one that's never had to play like this really before. And we haven't seen Derisov put pads on and actually take 11 on 11s. So from that perspective, the fragility of the roster, like we kind of saw that today. We've seen that in practice so i mean

again it's not something we learned tonight but i would say that i'm like i don't know like a seven out of ten overall with those things because until i see justin jefferson 100 healthy dominating i'm still going to be a little bit like oh i don't i don't know what your offense if your offense is going to be as good as it's been the I don't know what your offense, if your offense is going to be as good as it's been the last two years. Yeah, and we already knew this, but these games have really confirmed just the kind of the top heaviness of the Vikings roster. And quarterback is an easy example to point to because there's just such a wide gap between a Kirk Cousins, who gets a lot of hate across the NFL, but is a good NFL starting quarterback, or even just a competent one, there's such a wide gap between that

and the guys that are late-round picks trying to make teams as a second or third stringer, and we've seen that. But that's not the only position. I mean, a wide receiver, it's Thielen and Jefferson, and if either one of them gets hurt, you're playing D.D. Westbrook or K.J. Osborne or Chad Beebe or whoever it is a lot, which isn't ideal. Running back is the same thing. Running back doesn't matter quite as much, but if you lose Dalvin Cook,

you lose a lot of that game-breaking element, and you have to play Alexander Madison or whoever it may be. And that's true on the offensive line at spots as well. I mean, I don't think you'd trust many of these backup offensive linemen out there and don't even know if we can for sure trust some of the starters. So, yeah, this was a good offense last year, but a lot of that was because everybody stayed healthy and that's been a

talking point all off season as if you're looking for a sign of, or a source of potential regression for the Vikings offense, it would just be injury luck because you don't, you don't stay that healthy generally just based on averages in the NFL in back-to-back seasons like that so yeah I think there's there's just an inevitable level of concern there if any of the big players on offense have to miss time that it could look somewhat like what we just saw in these last two preseason games right and that's why even when Adam Thielen bumps into another guy you go ah better you take him out right now and put him in bubble wrap, yeah.

Yeah, or plexiglass. Okay. So now that we've got that sort of out of the way, let's talk about some of the things that did matter for tonight. Steven Weatherly, I thought, played quite well. He was after the passer a couple of times. He may have tipped the ball, might have also been Armand Watts that got intercepted eventually by Troy Dye. I thought it was touched at the line of scrimmage i think it was watts yeah

yeah okay so but they but he got a pressure on that he got another pressure on a couple of plays but after the game mike zimmer said we think we know what's going to happen at that other defensive end position does that mean weatherly wanham or everson like what do you think he was referring to when he said that yeah that's a good question he said we think we know but they don't uh so they're not he's not going to tell us um yeah i don't know i mean maybe it would be weatherly just because of the the veteran experience factor and he did look good. He had a couple pressures. He had a nice spin move to get to the quarterback at one point. But I still think DJ Wanham has more upside,

but maybe they don't feel like he's ready right now. We've seen DJ Wanham do various different things this offseason, including dropping back into coverage. He had a pick six in that practice at the stadium. And, yeah, it could be Everson Griffin as well if they don't feel like either one of Weatherly or Wanham really stood out in this game. So I'm not sure. What do you think he meant?

Do you think that either one of them could have done anything tonight to really change their fate? I thought it was interesting that they were playing with the second teamers into the second quarter and i was trying to interpret that like if it isn't a battle and they're playing with the second teamers does that mean everson griffin is the starter i mean but if so what are you waiting for with Everson Griffin? Like, are you waiting for week two? But somebody's got to be named the starter for week one. Like, because week two is when you can bring in a guy and his contract isn't guaranteed.

So there's a little bit of a difference there. But also he mentioned, as we put together the pieces, the monetary issue of bringing in a veteran quarterback, but they have enough cap space to easily do that right now with Blake Bortles. Unless they sign Everson Griffin then the money becomes a little tighter I guess I was interpreting that as they don't know yet we're going to bring in Everson and he's going to start that's how I felt about it if not it would I guess I would go with Weatherly's going to be the starter because he's more proven. And DJ Wanham has just really not done anything to separate himself, whether it was last year. I think he ranked 101st in pass rush win rate or something like that.

And not that Weatherly was much better, but I feel like maybe they would just be going with the veteran here. But I felt like just their usage was kind of odd if one of them is going to start. Yeah, I like the way you're reading between the lines here. I think it does probably make the most sense to sign Griffin if everything's good in terms of off the field stuff and relationships with Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer and things like that that you can pretty easily overcome for the purpose of winning football games. I think it makes sense. We haven't seen much from Weatherly or Wanham that indicates that they would be a high quality starter at defensive end. They've both kind of flashed at different times. But Everson Griffin, you know what you're going to get. I mean, he's played in

the NFL for 11 years. He's been productive even last year at age 33 or whatever it was. He had six sacks, had the number of pressures he had, I think would have led the Vikings or been close to a Fadi Odenabo. Low bar. Yeah, very, very low bar. I'm a little curious why they wouldn't have just signed him after the workout last week if things went well. I don't know if coming into this game and being like, all right, let's see if Stephen Weatherly or DJ Wanham blow our minds here is the right approach. And in any event,

they didn't. So we'll see. I mean, I think we could hear something early this week, or maybe they wait until week two. But then like you said, who's your starter for week one? You might as well just do it now and get him up to speed on whatever sort of process that would be required to get him get him ready to go so yeah I think that's entirely possible and we'll just have to see and I guess I thought too that if tonight made a difference then Mike would have said well I have to watch the tape back we've got to study everything they did would he decide as a guy who's always saying I've got to watch the tape back we've got to study everything they did would he decide as a guy who's always saying i've got to watch the tape back which i think is true i mean even for us like we have to re-watch the game to sort of categorize how everything went and uh organize what actually

happened because you're watching different things on different plays so if this game was going to make the difference then would it be decided immediately after this game? Unless Andre Patterson came up and said, sorry, it's over Weatherly just looks way better, but that would just not really make sense, right? That they would decide before even reviewing it as a staff.

So I guess I was thinking that it does mean Everson Griffin, but it may be not. It might have been decided this week in practice and maybe, yeah, I don't know, but I just, I see them as such similar players and neither one is a starter that Weatherly was effective when he was a backup here and that want them profiles that way. Sorry.

Neither one of these guys became Daniil Hunter once again, for the whatever number of time that you drafted a fourth round or seventh round or whatever, who was lanky. They did not become the Neil Hunter shocker. So I guess, like you said, we'll have to wait and see, but I thought it was an interesting comment by Zimmer. What is your opinion on what happened to cam Dantzler who was not out there playing with Bashad Breeland instead it was Chris Boyd and Mike Zimmer said after Chris Boyd's been better. Wow, right?

I mean, Dantzler, I think fans thought after last year, I was skeptical on this. I think you were too about like, oh, is he like the lock dead starter or someone that you feel super confident in? But falling behind Chris Boyd, I would not have projected. Yeah, well, I kind of came into this offseason thinking that way, that he was going to be pretty safe in a starting spot, just based on what we saw in those December games against the Bears and the Jaguars, where he really looked like somebody with the potential to become a very good NFL cornerback, just based on his size and his ability to kind

of play faster than the 4'6", 40 or ran that, that dropped him to the third round. And then they go out and sign Bashad Breeland and you're like, okay, maybe not. I mean, maybe that's just for depth because we saw that they'd lost a lot of cornerbacks last year and ended up having to play like Chris Jones and guys like that.

But that also was kind of an immediate like eye opener that, okay, maybe they don't feel great about cam dancer because bashad breland's an established starting cornerback in the nfl i mean he's had some ups and downs uh if you look at pff and and things like that but he he's been in the league for a long time he can play he can cover so right away that was interesting and then just over time he's just become the guy it's become clear clear. And now it's clearer than ever. And yeah, like you said, Dantzler behind Chris Boyd. And Mike Zimmer just bluntly says that

Boyd's been better, which we're talking about Chris Boyd here, who hasn't had a great first couple of years in the NFL as a seventh round pick. So that's very notable. I don't know what it is. I don't know how do I really identify what's happening with Dantzler. All I know is in the first preseason game, he got beat for an 80-yard touchdown. In this game, he was playing with the third stringers and he got beat for a crossing route across the field. He just looks a step slow. And that was the concern coming into the league for him. He didn't show up a ton less. I mean, early on, he had some struggles, which was understandable. But, yeah, I don't know if it's a mental thing, if it's just physical,

he hasn't gotten better, or what it might be. But it's a big fall from grace for Cameron Dantzler, who was really penciled in as a starter coming into most of this offseason. And now, I mean, I think he'll make the team, but it's a little concerning. He suddenly is on the bubble. And it's interesting how quick this changed because I was even doing the 53

and I accidentally only did 52. And the guy that I added back after I only did 52 was Chris Boyd. Because I thought, well, is there a chance that they pick someone else over Chris Boyd because I thought, well, is there a chance that they pick someone else over Chris Boyd, Ty Smith or whoever, just someone that they like on special teams better or something. And, um, you know, it looks now like he is a lock and then it's Dantzler who might be on the bubble. And that would be really shocking compared to where people thought he was

going to be when they signed Breland, I thought that's a starter. Like, Brashad Breland, I don't think signs anywhere where he's not going to be a starter, which made me think, oh, I guess they're not very confident in Cam Dantzler. But I thought in the same way that they weren't confident in Trey Waynes and started Terrence Newman and then eventually started Trey Waynes. But this is, is wow you are now falling into the category of they might not even want you here so last year it's Gladney Dantzler Gladney Dantzler and it might be nobody uh the way that it looks my theory on this is when a guy

weighs 180 pounds like there is a reason why during the draft we look at everyone's height and weight and length and all those things and we say you know what Garrett Bradbury's arm length this sounds ridiculous but it's incredibly short and maybe that might affect him when he's playing against long arm defensive tackles and stuff and it's the same thing for a corner who weighs 180 and runs a four, six. I am sorry, man. You got to own the four, six. You ran real slow and we haven't seen you run real fast on an NFL field. And it's like most of the corners who are great, who make it Patrick Peterson is a four, three guy who's lanky and he's going to go to the hall of fame. Like that's, that's how it's built. Richard Sherman is the outlier. Aaron Donald is an outlier for an undersized DT. Like there's a reason there's these parameters that usually fit NFL players. And so when they

told Dantzler, you better get thicker, but that doesn't help you get faster. If you now weigh more and you were already not fast to begin with and that's my theory is that the guy spent his off season trying to get to 200 pounds but if you're 20 pounds heavier than when you ran a 4.6 that doesn't make you faster and people just run and buy him at this point is what i'm seeing and so yeah i think that there's not a chance he gets cut, but that the long-term outlook of that position now is, who knows, after right now. Yeah, because prior to, I mean, looking in the future, Dantzler was the only guy you could really kind of pencil in as,

okay, he's going to be here in 2022 and 2023. Because all these guys, Alexander, Breland, Peterson, they're all on one-year deals. So you don't know what the future is with that. But now, yeah, Dantzler's long-term outlook has to just kind of take a hit by everything we've seen not only in these two preseason games but in training camp where he's getting beaten kind of relentlessly by Jefferson and Thielen, which obviously two very good receivers,

but still you'd like to see him win more of those reps. So, yeah, I like the theory. obviously two very good receivers, but still you'd like to see him win more of those reps. So yeah, it's, I like the theory. That's the only thing I could really think of, I guess, is that he tried to put on some weight and that's affected his, his mobility. And if you are, if you're a slow corner, you have to have that technique to like jam guys at the line or, or figure out kind of crafty ways to, to stick with guys, and we just haven't seen that. So I'm not saying to give up on him by any means. It's been two preseason games and a training camp, but he clearly has to do a lot of work to kind of get back

in the good graces of Mike Zimmer and have a chance at seeing the field at all this year. I just feel like the art of the preseason is not what i see necessarily it's what they're telling us that they see because we watch practice and we watch the preseason games and we try to take in as much as we possibly can but the indicator of whether you're seeing it right or not is what they do and yeah when mike zimmer compliments james lynch and says he's one of the most improved players like Like, that matters. I mean, sometimes you could just say certain things about guys because you have to talk about somebody.

But, yeah, when you go out of your way as a coach to either compliment someone or to just bluntly criticize someone, that means more than what we're observing. I agree. And even just from, like, when they play. Like, what tells us the most is when they play. Chris Boyd going out there today is a message to Cam Dantzler, like you're behind. And then Dantzler comes out and gets beat for a 28 yard pass. It's like, well, you're still behind.

And I think with this defense, Adam Zimmer kind of commented on this about zone coverage. Someone asked about playing zone coverage and he said like, well, in our system, zone is still kind of man. And so if you're playing like a cover four kind of thing then a lot of times anything on your side you are staying with that person man-to-man well if that's what is happening uh with cam dantzler is he's just losing these guys man-to-man uh that was supposed to be a thing he was really good at and the whole hey he shut down jamar chase like well okay um but you know he really had two good games last year one was against trubisky the other one

was against glennon so um i i think that was like one of the biggest takeaways though of the night is officially cam dantzler is sliding down the depth chart and that's kind of a big deal for the future there is there is no competition anymore that we like we thought there was between bashad breland and cameron dancer that came dancers competition is now with the chris boyds and harrison hands of the world uh and to to even further widen that gap bashad breland looked like a good nfl cornerback today he he had uh he was in on the in coverage on the troy die pick six and then he broke up a pass on third down in the red zone. He looked like what they wanted when they signed him, which is encouraging. We haven't seen Patrick Peterson yet, but those are the two guys.

And, yeah, I don't even know if Cam Dantzler is the number three at the outside cornerback spot. Does not look like it at this point. So let me just run down a few quick things from special teams because that's what we do. Amir Smith-Barsett is your punt returner kick returner i think to start the season he looked great tonight in doing both 41 yard kick return 17 yard punt return he's very explosive he's light on his feet like i think that's a perfect role for him to start his career yeah the stat i like

is that the 41 yard kickoff return and 16, 17-yard punt return, whatever it was, both would have been the longest that the Vikings had all of last season. Their longest kick return was 38 yards. Their longest punt return was 13 yards. So he exceeded both of those. Granted, it doesn't count. But yeah, he looks good with the ball in his hands. The acceleration is a thing that I think like the KJ Osborns and Chad Beebees and Amir Abdulis just don't quite have on the same level. It's too bad we haven't been able to see Kenny Wong Wu, uh, because of the, the injury last week. Uh, but he's another guy with that kind of acceleration. So yeah, I think it's going to be the rookies in the return game. Hey everybody, the season is on the way.

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Everything is screen printed here in Minnesota, and I can tell you that the shirts are comfortable and they last because half of my closet is now soda stick at this point. Again, that's sodastick.com Minnesota sports inspired goods and keep your eye out for our soda stick giveaways. Okay. And, uh, we don't have to spend any time on this.

Greg Joseph went one for two. They were both long kicks. I don't know what to do with that. And, uh, Britain Cole quit. Good for you, bud for you bud yeah he heard the message punted it real far uh give me i have one more thing for you but give me if you have anyone else that you wanted to talk about that stuck out to you or that you wrote about i mean we've covered a lot obviously but if there was just someone or something that you wanted to kind of make a point of. Well, I think all of the backup linebackers were really notable to me.

Troy Dye gets the headlines because he had a pick six, and he almost had another interception. Back-to-back podium games for Troy Dye in the preseason, which was not necessarily something I was expecting. But Chaz Surratt I thought had a good game. He had a big hit on special teams, was around the ball a lot. Yeah, I think he had nine tackles. And then Blake Lynch, who's been like the Anthony Barr replacement that we didn't necessarily see coming, had a tackle for loss on third down. So those guys stood out. Armond Watts, I thought had a good game. The Vikings have gone from last year having

maybe the worst defensive tackle room in NFL history to having a very, very, very kind of talented, deep group. If Watts is your number four this year compared to your number one last year. So, yeah, I mean, we didn't see Pierce, Tomlinson, or Richardson for too long, but they all looked good, and they have looked good throughout camp. And I just thought Watts has had a strong training camp and continued that with a couple pressures today. It's very clear.

Now, that was another one of the 53 where I was thinking, like, will Watts make it or would they go with Lynch or like cutting a fourth-round pick in the second year is not something you necessarily want to do, but how do you fit both of those guys in that room? I think tonight helped Watts' case, even though he, against the run, just has no chance. He just gets moved right out of there. But that has been the case for guys in the past where they've been just a one-dimensional,

like the guy comes in on third down, rushes up the middle. I don't know that there's a big role for that, but that's kind of where he's at right now. He's sort of the Sheldon Richardson backup, like the individual Sheldon Richardson backup. The last thing I wanted to ask you is just what you thought of Mike Zimmer's comment on Anthony Barr. We haven't seen a lot of Anthony Barr playing. We haven't seen a lot of him even just standing around at practice. The other day when he wandered out onto the practice field we were like he does exist still uh and Zimmer is sort of giving the it's precautionary but it's a concern where we're like we have new information here on Anthony Barr still even though he's not saying exactly what it is

what is your feeling on that situation yeah it's it's worrisome. And the fact that Mike Zimmer kind of seems to be taking it seriously and said, yeah, his injury situation is a concern, I think, is news. And we don't know what the injury is. He said it's not the pec, which he tore his pec week two last year and missed the whole season. I'm sorry. Do you think if we just asked Zimmer, is it not this? Is it not this like a process of elimination?

Right. Like, is it a neck? No, it's not a neck. Okay. Ankle, not an ankle.

I mean, anytime you hear something is precautionary or whatever, it makes you think of like hammy or groin or something like that. Like that's what it makes you think of. But I, I mean this, who knows? Like it's hard to speculate. I just thought it was sort of a funny response of like, I'll that's what it makes you think of. But I mean, who knows? Like it's hard to speculate.

I just thought it was sort of a funny response of like, I'll tell you what it's not, but I won't tell you what it is. Yeah, he hasn't been wearing like a brace or anything that we've noticed that would indicate what it is. So we're kind of in the dark on this, but it seems like his status for week one should be considered to be in jeopardy. I wouldn't necessarily want to put a percentage on it just based on the lack of information

that we have, but it's concerning. I think that is one of the maybe losses that you can survive a little bit, much more than say an Eric Kendricks or Harrison Smith or one of the corners or Denny Hunter, just because like we've talked about the linebacker depth has been pretty good if you have to have Blake Lynch or Troy Dye or whoever play week one week two whatever it may be I you're I think you're gonna be fine you take a little bit of a hit because Barr does the the green dot stuff and calling plays but Eric Kendrick's fully capable of that as we've we've seen and heard throughout this training camp and and preseason so um yeah if he ends up with a tweak or something that causes him

to to miss the whole season that's a big loss um but yeah i'm not i'm not really sure where to be at with that one uh and just the last thing, it sounded like Mike Zimmer wants starters to play on offense against Kansas City. I am 100% against it. I don't see any use for that. If Adam Thielen, instead of a thigh, it's an ankle, it's a knee, it's a finger, it's whatever, and you lose someone important, even an offensive lineman. If you lost, like, Ezra Clevelandveland where are you at with left guard yeah i

mean i see no reason for that but i think they're gonna do it yeah it kind of seems like they might just to get in a rhythm to something i mean they haven't scored an offensive touchdown in two games uh so i guess i sort of understand the logic behind wanting to like feel good about yourself a little bit but maybe just do that in practice yeah and yeah don't risk uh somebody taking a hit that they shouldn't um i will say as a side note that i'm glad there's no more preseason games here this next one is in kansas city i will not be attending same um i will be watching it because it's our job but uh at least we don't have to see the horror in person and i'm very glad that there are only three not four i mean getting to the game traffic parking all those

things in the regular season feels totally worth it like what a big deal this is everything's on the line let's go but it just for a pre-season game feels like not worth it. Nope. And to the point where fans are throwing their programs in the air while doing the wave inside the stadium. Throwing paper airplanes. They just look bored, and I can't blame them. The second half of each of these last two games have just been so hard to watch. If they banned this thing and just said,

no preseason ever again, we'll play 18 games but no preseason, I think the universe would celebrate. like this it's it just it makes everything worse like you get players injured fans are bored like the product is awful most teams are not even playing their starters like what is the use of this thing anymore yeah i will say to be fair i think the vikings have it kind of the worst in terms of like the overall experience and entertainment value and just worthiness of these pre-season games like i've been kind of following on twitter and um i don't have nfl network uh on my on my cable package but i've seen some highlights from other games um and it seems like okay there's interesting things happening and like this rookie quarterback is doing good things or um this like former i don't know people are making plays and there's interesting storylines and stuff and then you get to the these vikings games and it's

just you have two quarterbacks who can't throw like a eight yard out route accurately and it just drags the entire product down with them right when they're going three and out every play and then the Vikings are like all right let's just run the ball with AJ Rose to like keep the clock moving and the other teams are playing Jacob Eason and Sam Ellinger and so yeah it's it's it's been I think particularly ugly these last two uh but preseason football overall it sucks it has indeed but i am glad that you were able to take the time to drop by and fill in for sam ekstrom and so people should follow your work at will raggetts on twitter and at sports illustrated where you cover the vikings so i appreciate your time and uh let's hope that the next time that you're on the show we're not

talking about the worst offensive performances and quarterbacks who can't throw and maybe even just backup quarterbacks ever playing at any time. Yeah. Let's do it. Sounds good. Okay. That's it. Thank you everyone.