Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Draft night highlights: Vikings land Dallas Turner and final overall thoughts and grade

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

From Matthew Coller's draft night live stream, the reaction to Dallas Turner's selection and the final thoughts on picking JJ McCarthy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and now um so daniel daniel is saying in the comments, so the Vikings are on the clock. Are we seeing something there? Are they moving up? Alex Lewis, or Alec Lewis saying back on the clock, trading with the Jaguars. Oh, wow. Looking into what they are getting,

or what they're trading away for. Look at this. So clearly they have a defensive player that they really, really want. Is that going to be Dallas Turner? So field eight saying the trade is pick seven or four pick 17. The Vikings are giving up 23, 167, a 2025 third and a 2025 fourth. Spencer Rattler is the funniest answer by far, by far, Dan, thank you for that. That's funny.

That's very funny. So they're, they're giving up not a lot, uh, to be able to move up a couple of spots here, right? 23, one 67. Oh, okay. That's almost nothing. And in fact, it shortens my day on Saturday. That's what I'm looking for here.

Uh, I played golf today and I liked it. So I might do it again. Could be Dallas Turner. Could be Terry and Arnold. Could be Quinion Mitchell. I mean, there's so many defensive players here that I honestly have no idea. We knew who the quarterbacks were, but we don't know who it's going to be here at number 17. What we do know is that they really want this person.

And yes, you guys are right. Kweisi Adafo-Mensa is indeed cooking. Normally, a tagline like that, I don't really go for. But in this case, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa has managed this draft. And this is why when Kweisi Adafo-Mensa botches the 2022 draft, we go, hey, like like that's one draft. If he's going to be the GM for a while, let's see more. Let's see more picks last year. They get Jordan Addison. They get Makai Blackman. They get some players to work with, and now they get their franchise

quarterback and move up and get whom we will find out soon as they trade up with the Jacksonville Jaguars, just a couple of spots and not having to give up a whole heck of a lot. Is it going to be a defensive lineman? Is it going to be a court? You could get the best corner Dallas Turner. Is it going to be Dallas Turner? That's what, uh? Is that what Albert Breer is saying? That's what Alec Lewis is saying, is that he believes it is going to be Dallas Turner scrolling up on the Twitter feed, and Albert Breer is saying they are taking Dallas Turner.

Holy cow. There you go. What a first round. What a first round. Wow. What a first round. And to make sure that they moved up a couple of spots to get an edge rusher so now we're looking at someone that was expected to go in the top 10 but atlanta went crazy so he didn't

go in the top 10 he drops into the later part but is still one of the top defensive players off the board so this is the third defensive player off the entire board that the Vikings have landed. You get your quarterback for Kevin O'Connell. You get your Alabama edge rusher who was highly productive for Brian Flores. Now, if we go through the Vikings defense, now it's looking pretty good. Now they still need a shutdown corner. They still need the defensive tackle I ranted about for sure. But getting now another edge rusher, you have Jonathan Grunard, 12 sacks last year. Andrew Van Ginkle for the next couple of years is a versatile player that has worked well with Brian Flores. Josh Metellus is a piece. Ivan pace is going to be a piece for them for a long time. And now you have by probably can buy them will be extended at some point.

And now you add a edge rusher here that was dominant on one of the best defenses in the country. He crushed the NFL combine. He's got everything, stand-up rushing, flexibility, speed, everything. Dallas Turner has everything that, and they're even showing on TV, some of his dropping in coverage and playing a versatile role, which will help with Brian Flores as well. To be able to get the franchise quarterback and also land the third best defensive player, I don't know how you could give this anything less. You give me your grades. How could they not be an A or an A plus? How could they not

be? I never would have expected this. I thought that they maybe could get a very good defensive player, but clearly they thought that Dallas Turner was going to go off the board pretty quickly. So they end up with a great defensive player and the Vikings draft ends in 2024 with JJ McCarthy and Dallas Turner, or first round of the Vikings draft ends, unless they are trading next year's first into the first round too, which is why we'll stay on the air. But this is one hell of a draft for the Minnesota Vikings. And now we restart the clock on the reaction to the Vikings draft restarted again.

Like I was saying, you know, in Hollywood restarted again because we have to go back to the, to the front of the line and react again. Wow. So let's talk about Dallas Turner. I mean, a tremendous talent, a star rusher at Alabama, a highly productive player, has all of the skill of someone who becomes a double-digit sack type of player. As far as his athleticism, his quickness, his production in college, where he went to college, I mean, everything. Everything that you could have asked for.

I thought that Dallas Turner was going to be the first defensive player off the board in the top 10. I never even thought that the Vikings had a chance to land Dallas Turner. And yet here we are with him as the Vikings 17th overall pick. So they trade twice. And to be able to do this for Kweisi Adafomensa to swing this trade and get Dallas Turner and not sit at 23 and wait as all the defensive players went on a run off the board,

Kweisi Adafomensa has hit this out of the park. In fact, this entire off season can be thought of right now. It's over now. I mean, day three, we'll, we'll break it down day two. I don't know. You guys going to hang out? Anybody want to hang out tomorrow? We've got no draft picks. So anybody wants to play golf? We can, but this is pretty much it. The other guys will be drafted on day three. We'll take a look at them and then we'll see if any of them make the team and so forth. But the word Nolan used in the comments, culmination, this is a culmination. It is a culmination of three years of this coming

together for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa on this night for the Minnesota Vikings to plan going into this off season to draft a quarterback and then to do it without having to move up more than one spot without having to give up their than one spot without having to give up their additional first round pick and then at the right moment striking to move up again to take one of the best players on the board one of the best defensive players in this entire draft draft is nothing short of an incredible draft by Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. An A plus, an absolute A plus. I mean, I honestly am pretty stunned that they were able to get Dallas Turner. He was one of my favorite players to watch in college football this year, I assumed that he was being taken by Dallas or by, or I'm sorry, not Dallas, but his name is Dallas by Atlanta at number eight overall.

That was the most mocked thing, probably in the entire mock universe outside of the quarterbacks that Dallas Turner would be taken all the way up in the top 10. And he ends up as a Minnesota Viking at 17. They have now put together in a short period of time, a team that by next year, and this is going to be a bit of a transition season for them, but by 2025, a developed Dallas Turner, a developed JJ McCarthy. This today is officially now completely wholly the team of Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell.

This is no longer any remnants of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer. This is Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell's team. And as we look at it, and as we look at what they have to work with going forward, and we know it's going to be an uphill battle against the other teams in the NFC. We talked about that earlier. But as we look at it, from what they have on paper right now, the bones of a roster right now that belongs to them

with work to be done in the future with the cap space that they have. But this is a premium position that at its best makes $30 million a year that they just drafted the second best edge rusher off the board. How many times would you ever get the second best edge rusher off the board, even at number 10 overall?

And instead they get them at number 17 because that's just the way that the cookie happened to crumble for this year for them to pick this season to do this this offseason to bring this all together was extremely well played this was plotted out and executed and then they took advantage of their moment i'm sure they were surprised that michael pennix went where he went but they took advantage of their moment they traded'm sure they were surprised that Michael Penix went where he went, but they took advantage of their moment. They traded up to number 10 at the right time. They took advantage of their moment, knowing that past number 17, Dallas Turner was not going to be there. And for a lot of people, he was the number one edge player on the board and they move up to be able to get them.

This is better than what I thought could have possibly happened. So I am a little bit surprised by it playing out as well as it did. And this is also why throughout this time that I continually tried to say that, look, I mean, we're going to have to be patient. We're going to have to let it play out. We're going to have to let Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell bring together their entire plan. And then we can judge it. Now we can judge it. Now we can look at the roster and judge it. Looks pretty damn good. This night for them looks pretty damn good. The entire roster right now, if we go through it, Sam Darnold may start week one, but JJ McCarthy is their quarterback going forward.

He has every bit as high of a chance as anybody else drafted because they're all top 15 picks. And he has a better chance than a lot of these quarterbacks because of where he landed. Washington is still a goofball franchise. The Patriots have no players Atlanta. I don't know what the hell they're doing. Undermining their very expensive quarterback. That their plan and now you you give jj mccarthy all lasers pointed at his development from kevin o'connell from josh mccown and building him into the best quarterback he can be over the next couple of years and the next step is to extend justin jefferson so they will have Justin Jefferson presumably extended soon to go along with their first round pick from last year, who we just sort of gloss

over. That was a huge hit for them last year. Oh yeah. They got Addison too. Whoa. That's actually a first round draft pick that has made good on that is now very valuable and important. And by the way, remember when we were talking about, would you give up Jordan Addison to try to move up? Well, instead they didn't have to. So they have him. TJ Hockinson will be better by halfway through the season with his ACL. They need an interior offensive line. They need a long-term running back though. That's really it though for their needs on the offensive side. And then on the defensive side, now we went from last year, it looks pretty dark at times on the defensive side at Now we went from last year. It looks pretty dark

at times on the defensive side at the beginning of the year. Oh man, it looks pretty, pretty rough. And, uh, when, you know, you're talking about the defensive side though, they go into free agency. Yes. They, they had to let Daniel Hunter go. They go into free agency and they land Jonathan Grenard, who is a pretty young player. I think he'll be 26, 27 at the beginning of the season. So that's someone who could be here for multiple years. And Andrew Van Ginkle will be here at least two years. Blake Cashman, can't forget about that one, along with Ivan Pace. And now you add Dallas Turner to that mix. They do need more defensive tackle help. They got some rotational players. They need cornerbacks.

No question that they need Makai Blackman to become really good. They need a Caleb Evans to take a big step from last year. That may not happen. Byron Murphy, I think, can move inside. Shaq Griffin may not be a long-term player. There's maybe one or two more years left of Harrison Smith, but eventually he's not going to be there. It's not a finished product,

but it has all the bones of a team that's going to be together for a while. And 2025 is the mark where we start of saying, all right, well, that's a, by the way, we're going to have a draft next year. That's nice. Not having to trade the 2025 pick. So we will be doing this next year for all of you have enjoyed the show. Hope you come back next year. Cause we, we, they didn't have to give up that, but what next season is, is a lot of finding out. So last year we found out some things in a step back year about Ivan Pace, about Josh Metellus, about Jordan Addison. And so next year is going to be a real find out year of how far

along is JJ McCarthy? How much development might he need? How good is this defense now what do they need for 2025 to take a step in order to be a contender in 2025 but you can you can see it all laid out nobody ever knows on draft night whether any of it will work the way that you hope it works right that's just a fundamental fact but as far as logic goes, as far as playing it out in the best process you can, the most overused word in sports history is process. Every team that doesn't have answers will just say it's part of the process. But if we judge the process for the Minnesota Vikings of the way they have handled the off season this year, the off season last year, and then this draft, there is nothing less you could grade them than an A, the way that they have handled this entire thing, because they didn't resign those veteran players.

And it was so important to let Thielen go, let Delvin cook, go let Eric Hendricks go and refresh this roster and, and, and overhaul this roster and not extend Kirk cousins. I mean, Kirk cousins, new team,

isn't even buying Kirk cousins and they paid a hundred million dollars for him. I mean, the Cousins' new team isn't even buying Kirk Cousins. And they paid $100 million for him. I mean, the Vikings look pretty good. When do we pick next? I don't know. 2027? No, it's Saturday. Saturday is the next pick in the fourth round.

I'm not sure after today how much they have left but um yes you're right james uh the paul allen screaming jj to jj is going to be pretty epic it's going to break your radio probably but to uh one 108 is the serious answer for when they're picking it's saturday the fourth round but uh as far as and guard is yes everyone's first, but as far as, and guard is yes, everyone's first pick, but as far as bringing the plan together, using a distinct process that they had laid out for years to be able to, to get here is, is an a plus what's up, John, just more reaction to how the Vikings and what the, what the Vikings have done.

Our buddy Chris Trapasso again on the Dallas Turner pick. Hefty price in trade-up, but premium position and sky-high upside rusher. Lights came on in 2023. Stand-up outside linebacker type with otherworldly length. Awesome bend, pass rush moves, still need work, must add strength. Nice get for Brian Flores, grades it a B. Field Yates says, following a series of trades the vikings now have just three picks in the 2025 nfl draft a first round pick and two fifth round picks but you replace kirk cousins and daniel hunter in the first rounds and you didn't have to give up a whole lot to do it absolute win so uh do you have right in front of you again what they did to get up to 17

my brain shut that off the minute you said they got to 17 and I went into Dallas Turner mode. So what was it again that they used to trade up? Do you have that there? I'm pulling it up now. I don't remember off the top of my head. Here we go. Fourth rounder? Yeah.

Fourth rounder, the number 167, eight and 2025, third and fourth rounders to get to move up the five spots. Okay. So it was, it was a lot. Yeah. I mean, when they moved from 11 to 10, that wasn't all that much, but this, yeah, this is quite a bit. Um, so yeah, I guess they sort of blew out next year's draft, but they still have the first round pick for next year and they get a starter at edge, a starting quarterback. They really couldn't ask for much more than that. So let me give, I'm going to assume, I'm going to assume that they have no more plans to draft tonight, because how would that even happen after giving away all of their draft

capital? So how about this? About maybe a half an hour of just sheer reaction, because I'm still kind of Jared verse goes to the Rams, which I thought there was a report by an insider that said that they were guaranteed to take offense. Guess that was wrong. So we'll just go, we'll just go like straight up reaction,

your reaction, my reaction, and we'll go back to the beginning. Let's just circle all the way back because through this entire thing, and I appreciate so many of you following along, I've kind of been over here, over there, laughing hysterically at Kirk Cousins, responding to the trades and trying to break down players on the fly and all that. But why don't we go back to the beginning now that we could take a deep breath? In fact, let me get one of the, let me get one more of these. Only one diet Dr. Pepper tonight. That's how intense this has been.

Let's go back to the start of the draft. Obviously Caleb Williams was going number one. Washington didn't surprise us at all, even though nobody knows what they're going to do. And then they did the thing that everybody thought they were going to do, which is take Jaden Daniels. Number three was where it started to get very interesting because throughout the day, there was nothing that indicated that new England would move off of that pick. And all the way until the last minute, there were reports coming out. New England doesn't want to trade the pick, but maybe

new England doesn't want to trade the pick, but maybe all the way until the Vikings reportedly and the giants called the Patriots and said, here's our final offer for Drake May. And the Patriots said, we're not going to do it. What that meant to me was that the Patriots were never giving the Vikings Drake May, period. That all of their public, maybe we will, was just to make sure that they were a football team and didn't tell anyone who they were picking or what they were going to do. And maybe there was an offer in some magic land where they give up Justin Jefferson or something with where the Patriots would have taken it. But instead the Patriots all along had their eyes set on Drake May and they decided to pick Drake May. I did not

look at that as a failure of the Vikings to make that happen because it just seemed so blatant that the Patriots were full of it when they were saying that for the right price, they might move. No, for no price outside of something totally insane. Were they going to move off number three? And you can look back depending on how far you want to go back in history,

and you can say, look, the Vikings could have gotten up to that range had they not won any games after Kirk Cousins got hurt. And you would be right. And you could say, maybe they could have gotten there if they had the sixth pick, or if they had the sixth pick or if they had the fourth pick or the fifth pick and that's true had they not won a couple of games with josh jobs

you're right they may have been in a better position to get drake may still it seems like there was no world where the patriots were going to move off their future franchise quarterback. So you weren't going to get him. No one else was either. Then we get to four and five and we have this tension of, wait, are the Vikings going to trade up for JJ McCarthy? Is everybody going to be right? Is all the draft analysis, all the mock drafts, are they all going to be right? That the Vikings are going to trade up to get McCarthy at four or five, four comes, they stick and pick five comes, they stick and pick. And then the moment, the, the, the, the do or die moment, which was all right. Are the giants going to do this because the giants have this bad Albatross quarterback and they have a bad roster and they have hot seat head coach and GM very quickly

after a disaster last year. Are they going to put all their eggs in a McCarthy basket? And it turned out all the giants wanted was Drake may, but they did not want anyone else. And they went with Malik neighbors. So we get to seven to the Vikings trade up here. Do they make sure that Denver can't go up and get their guy? No, they stick. Then Atlanta sets the draft on fire by picking Michael Penix at number eight. Totally stunning. Not stunning that Penix was a good prospect, stunning that he went to a team that just paid so much money for Kirk Cousins. So much to the point where Kirk Cousins is immediately telling reporters he's shocked and disappointed. I will hold off my laughter for more podcasts in the

future to keep going through this, but that left me speechless. Absolutely speechless that they drafted Michael Penix while they just paid Kirk Cousins as much as they did. And then we get to number nine. Is Chicago going to trade with Denver and then leave the Vikings with one quarterback option? Nope. They stay. They take Roma Dunze. We get to number 10 and the Vikings say, we want to make sure that we get our quarterback, that we can develop our young quarterback coming off a national championship victory, that he can come in and work with Kevin O'Connell and Josh McCown. And they made sure they traded up one spot and they did not give up very much, but they

moved up one spot to ensure that Denver would not jump them and take the quarterback they wanted, which means that they clearly wanted JJ McCarthy more than they wanted Bo Nix, obviously. So they jump up just that one spot. Don't have to give up a whole heck of a lot with the Jets. They land their franchise quarterback without giving up number 23. Incredibly important. Without giving up number 23, which allowed them then to see more quarterbacks, including Bo Nix, go to Denver. More offensive tackles go off the board. And the third best defensive player in this draft is sitting there.

The Vikings push more chips into the middle of the table. They do reach into their future capital, which is going to be a challenge for them in the future, reach up and get Dallas Turner. So there's how it all played out from start to where we are now. I'm not sure who's picked after this. It doesn't matter. We're only focused on the Vikings. The Steelers are maybe considering acquiring Rick Meyer or some other washed up quarterback because they already have two.

But now we know what the whole picture looks like. And what it looks like to me is the Vikings have now put together a roster that is imperfect and that needs some work still and is not yet in a position to compete for a Super Bowl. But for the first time, I would say since they walked off the field in Philadelphia in 2017. But maybe you could say a little farther. For the first time in a very long time, in many years now, you can look at where they are and you can look into the future and say, I can see it. Because in 2018, when Kirk Cousins signed, you could see it.

It wasn't the right move ultimately, but you could see it. You could say, all right, well, if they're the number one defense again, then I can see it. I could see how they would win and see how they would go deep into the playoffs. But since then, you have not been able to see it. Since that failed, you have not been able to see into the future and say, ah, I know how this could work. I've seen it before.

I know how it could work. And in 2019, when they lost to San Francisco, when they got drubbed by San Francisco and walked off that field, I had no belief whatsoever. And I remember standing inside of the stadium in San Francisco. They have these really amazing photographs of like Joe Montana and Tom Rathman and Roger Craig, you know, like these super cool old like magazine covers and game day programs. And I was standing there on the phone with Judd Zolgad

when I was working in radio. And what I was saying to him is, I think they're going to have to tear this thing down. I don't see any path to this team being competitive again anytime soon. And in 2020, they weren't. In 2021, mildly, but not really. In 2022, they take one last gasp at it and they come up short on

fourth and eight uh atlanta didn't check down tonight by the way atlanta right they took a they threw it down the field with uh picking a quarterback but in 2022 they have a magical season for about eight weeks and then in another typical eight weeks after that, that turned out to be not enough. And when Kweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell got here and they didn't rebuild immediately, I'm going to tell you the truth. I was very concerned. I was very skeptical, extremely skeptical. But when in 2023, in the off season season when players started coming off the roster who were

older and expensive when they when they started chopping off major limbs from that roster when they said no to Patrick Peterson coming back when they moved on from Zedarius Smith rather than paying him all that whole thing that's when it started to appear. Like, I think they've got a plan. I think they might know what they're doing here because they're doing the right things, things that were shocking for a team that won 13 games, things that we've seen almost no one do for when they won 13 games.

And at that moment, I don't remember which player it was that they let go Thielen Kendricks, but when they had finally completed lopping off most of the old players from last year's roster, that's when I thought Kirk Cousins was done in Minnesota. And when he said something to the effect of we'll, we'll check in next March with his contract. Okay. That's where it looks like Kirk might be done in Minnesota. And at that point, I remember this, that when we were in a preseason game, Dane Mizzutani and I were in the press box and we were talking about how, where,

oh, I know when this was. This was probably week four. I think it was week four that they lost to the chargers when they lost to the chargers. I don't know which week it was. Was it week three might've been week three. And my comment in week three, after they lost to the chargers was this is the closest moment since Philadelphia in 2017 that this team has been to a Super Bowl. Because they're finally going down to rebuild to go back up again. And while they still ended up with the 11th overall pick, what tonight is, is them finishing that rebuild that they started

in that previous off season that has now brought them closer to being a legitimate contender where they have not been for such a long time, where you cannot look down the road and say, all right, well, if they just give Kirk a guard, I never bought that. You never bought that. No one ever thought that that was true. Oh, they just get him a guard. He'll be better and they'll win. And that was never true. If they were going to have one with Kirk cousins, it would have taken a much better defense. It would have taken a much better offensive line. It would have taken a near flawless football team, which was never going to happen with his price tag.

And this cannot be overstated that at this moment, they have in 2025, like $4 million that go to JJ McCarthy or whatever, 6 million in salary cap space dedicated to a quarterback. That is crazy in comparison to what it was with Kirk Cousins. And that money that they get to spend now can go into the rest of the roster and they can get as close as they possibly can to building that perfect roster that they've been aiming for around J.J.

McCarthy. So it's not is J.J. McCarthy good or not? It's how does he fit within this entire ecosystem that they've created with this entire competitive rebuild roster that they've created? How does McCarthy fit into that? It's not just, is he good or not? He's going to have to be good. No question. But the quarterback is also 98% of the time, also a product of everything around him. And now they can put everything around him.

So you can look into the future and you can see it. And that's my biggest takeaway is that you can see it. And you can also see too, One of the biggest wins of the off season was keeping Brian Flores. And now he gets an outside linebacker type who put up huge numbers at, at Alabama, who has versatility, who has elite athleticism. And that's what you replaced the deal Hunter with another great move because instead of Daniil Hunter, they now have Grenard, Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman. That's a lot. That's a lot to have as opposed to Daniil Hunter, who I just have the utmost respect for, but older and injured. Couldn't have handled it

much better. Truly could not have handled it much better. And now, and now we take off. Now everything becomes interesting. And I mean, this, you know, loaded guitar says best I've felt about this team.

The best that I've felt about this team since covering them as in what are their chances to win within a certain time period just for example 2016 when i first got here teddy bridgewater was the quarterback that looked like a team that was ready to explode and then his knee exploded so it didn't work out but 2017 training camp the way that sam bradford looked felt like it could be a real contender. The way Sam Bradford looked in week one, and then when they started ripping off all those wins, since then, there have been very fleeting moments that you actually looked at this team

and believed that down the road road within the fairly near future, they could legitimately compete. And now you can, and now you can look at the bears and the lions and the Packers and go, are you behind them? Yeah, you are behind them, but you can catch up. You can catch up with a lot of cap space next year. You can catch up with the rookie quarterback advantage. You can catch up. If rookie quarterback advantage. You could catch up if McCarthy becomes a star. Of course, he has the potential to do that. And you could catch up

if this defense ranks in the top five, which with Brian Flores, it has the potential. It's wild to see it come together, guys. It's wild to see it come together. Jonathan, jump in here and tell me what Kirk Cousins agent said to Pete Thamel. Can you pop in here? tell me what Kirk Cousins agent said to Pete Thamel.

Can you pop in here? Do you got that? What's what, what is that? Is it going to make me laugh? Oh, it's going to make you laugh. So I'll just read.

It's three tweets. Pete Thamel says, spoke to Mike McCartney, the agent for Kirk Cousins. He said the only heads up the Falcons gave Cousins about picking Michael Penix was a call while the team was on the clock. He just signed a four-year deal for $180 million, the first two which are fully guaranteed.

There's inherent frustration and confusion from Cousins' camp as they didn't use that pick to help the team in 2024. They instead drafted his eventual replacement before he's even put on a Falcons helmet cousins understands the business of football and was ready to move forward. But there was understandable surprise that coming from Mike McCartney, his agent. You know, I I've always thought about this, uh, Jonathan with sports.

One of the things that I love about sports is that two people can be in totally different parts of the world totally different financial brackets different ages different backgrounds and have the same emotion watching sports me and kirk cousins at the same time being freaking shocked is really funny to think about because my face looked like his face, but then it changed where I started laughing and he started frowning. So that did, that was different emotions pretty quickly, but we were both shocked. We were both shocked. And, uh, I think that, um, uh, Red Star is right. That what his agent actually said cannot be said on this family show. And that's probably true. I mean, look, uh, red star is right. That what his agent actually said cannot be said on this family show.

And that's probably true. I mean, look, uh, somebody else earlier said that Kirk can wipe his tears with his a hundred million dollars. And that's true. But you know, what Kirk can never escape is every team he's on just looking for somebody else. It's really something. It really is amazing how that just keeps happening to a guy who keeps making bank and the teams continue to just look for the next guy after him.

Oh, great question from Scott was Netflix filming cousins today. Don't worry. He'll edit that out. Like he did everything from 22 that he didn't like in the Netflix special. He had final editing power. So he'll just make sure that's not on there or he'll make a little documentary about it. As he did when he was screwing the Vikings out of more money by using the

jets. That was an odd thing to say. Yeah, this is a family show. I, I have been known to use some foul language in my personal life from time to time, but I don't like it for here because I know that a lot of people of all ages and maybe religion and so forth. So not everybody wants to hear that language. So I, I stick to FCC rules. I got used to it when I was on radio. It's all good. So anyway, if you're Kirk Cousins, man, you gotta be out of your mind right now because the thing that Kirk here's, here's why I couldn't help but laugh is Kirk Cousins never did a post-season press conference

ever. And I don't mean playoffs. I mean, after the season is over, he never did a locker clean out press conference ever until this year. And when he did his locker clean out press conference and I was three feet away from him, he's talking to us so cocky. He's saying, look, somebody's talking to us so cocky he's saying look somebody's gonna want kirk okay like i know my achilles is gonna heal i'm gonna get the dollars but it's what the dollars represent and he's just so into himself at that moment he's like i'm kirk he's getting paid boys

and uh i was like actually wow that's the most baller i've ever seen kirk act that was kind of cool and he goes this off season and he's right and the falcons owner forces them presumably to spend more money than i've ever seen ever go to a quarterback of his caliber crazy stuff hundred million dollars and we all go okay guess we're gonna move on right all the people who said how are you gonna get a quarterback as good as kirk they all saw that 100 million guaranteed and went never mind somewhere else for way less right and so he goes to atlanta he puts on the dirty bird thing that everybody remembers from 1998 and he you know he's doing his whole thing he's doing

this super happy press conference and he's tampering and he's telling everybody he's tampering and he's just really all about himself he's feeling like a total baller and then his team drafts a quarterback boy life changes fast doesn't just, you know, you never know what's next. So anyway, there's several parts of tonight that I guess you could feel a lot of different ways about. You could be super amused by what happened with Kirk in Atlanta, which is where I'm at. But also, as somebody mentioned, and the comments going by so fast, uh, that I I'm sorry if I miss who said what, uh, this is the first time in a long time. It's not the first time since I moved here in 2016 that you could believe this team could

really be something, but it is the first time since they've done what I've wanted them to do. That's the funny part that, you know, in 2018, I wasn't into the Kirk Cousins idea because the concern was naturally that Kirk Cousins wasn't going to be good enough and that he wasn't the type of quarterback to take you over the top at $40 million or whatever it was then 30 million a year. So that was why I was against the move. Didn't like and took a lot of arrows for that from a lot of Vikings fans that really liked it. And then really, really liked it when a certain controversies popped up in 2021,

but it wasn't a success with Kirk cousins. And so that's what I talked about the entire time. Hey, it's not a success. I don't see a path. I don't know how they're going to do this. They're cap constricted. They're desperate. And you could see the desperation playing out in Mike Zimmer and in Rick Spielman. And you could see the frustration from Zimmer growing and he got crazier and it was just a total clown show. And there was just what the entire time I was doing radio, then podcasting, then live streaming. And the entire time I'm sitting here saying, you know, what you guys really need to do is not extend cousins, draft a quarterback and rebuild this thing. Stop pretending you're a contender and rebuild this thing and finally last year they stopped pretending last offseason not just this year but last offseason when they chose not

to extend cousins they stopped pretending and that was the moment that i started to think that quesia da fomensa had a hold of this thing and had sold the owners on, this might take a little patience. And we have to give the owners of this team credit from that perspective that they did not force Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell to hang on to the Adam Thielands and the Eric Hendricks. So when they did that, then, all right, now there is a chance that they could move on from cousins and they could draft a quarterback when they did not extend him last year.

And we talked about this a lot that I can, I'm starting to see it come together guys. And they made some bad signings last year on Marcus Davenport, but those were short term type of things that might've had some upside, but probably not. And it didn't really matter. It was just like, we got to fill out the roster. We'll take some shots at people, whatever. So we go then to this off season and the moment where he signs, where Kirk signs with Atlanta is the moment where it felt real that they could get to a position where they could drop a quarterback

into the best situation for a top 10 quarterback you're ever going to see. I mean, Patrick Mahomes in Kansas city, that's it, right? How many other top 10 teams? Cause usually the top 10 teams are bad. Are this good for JJ McCarthy to start for? So he comes here and now you start from here and now you start to build. Yeah, well, the first corner goes off the board. It would have, we would have still talking about, been talking about defensive players. We're only at the 23rd pick now with the Jaguars.

Thanks for moving up, Kweisi. Now we can just talk about it for all this time. But to put it all together tonight. Um, yes. So your comment is the first time in a long time that there is a, a view and a belief that they could make something out of this and with JJ McCarthy, you know, throughout the, the draft season, uh, I was skeptical that he was going to be picked in the top five. I didn't think that he would be, um, believe that the giants probably would not pick a quarterback. They didn't, which gave the Vikings an opportunity. And you have to give credit that the Vikings didn't panic. They didn't freak out. They didn't fly up to the top

of the draft and trade three picks. And instead we're patient and let the draft come to them. They didn't get cute. They didn't get crazy. They didn't lose their minds. They had at least enough Intel to say, look, if we can't get May and it appears that they would have been okay with Penix or McCarthy from the report before the draft, that if they couldn't get made, then they were going to go with one of those two guys. So there was clearly an attempt throughout the league somewhere to try to get the Vikings to trade up. They didn't buy it. They didn't fall for it. And instead they let it come to them. And at the right moment, they made sure they got their guy. Clearly they liked McCarthy more than Knicks. Those were the guys on the board. They take

McCarthy. They're both good prospects and McCarthy is a lot younger and maybe a better fit for Kevin O'Connell and this team and where they're at with next year as really the year that they could have a chance to win. So there will be a lot of conversation about McCarthy. There will be some people who don't like McCarthy as a prospect and think that it was a bad draft pick because they just weren't a fan of him in college. And I think you can live in two worlds though, that if we look at this rationally, you can say, Hey, you know, throughout this draft process, I just really wasn't thinking that McCarthy was a top five prospect and there are deficiencies in his game.

There are things he's going to have to get better at. He didn't throw a lot of passes in college. We also have to wonder about that and also look at where he's at now and how they got him and go, well, what more could you ask for? If you weren't getting Drakeke may which you never were what more could you really ask for so yes uh i'm sure that jeremiah searles for regular listeners to the show um maybe a little down on this i haven't gotten a text from uh yet he was not a fan of the mccarthy idea maybe it's a little bit different though uh in taking him in the top 10 so here here we go. The next thing is, uh, the next thing is that, oh, and yes, uh, he threw very fast at the combine. His football went traveled very fast. It was like 62 miles an hour. Second fastest at the combine. But, um, when it comes to, uh,

McCarthy's tools, that's important to focus on. He, he is got speed. He's got arm strength. He's played for a very tough coach before with an NFL environment. All of these things are going for him. So even though I was on the skeptical side, even though I do think that there is risk involved, I also have said from the entire time, he's a great communicator. Clearly he seems like he would be a perfect fit with Kevin O'Connell personality wise. And that might be the biggest thing that it comes down to with this pick. So you can live in both worlds. You can have wanted Drake May. You can have these very sad. You didn't get Drake May. You can even like Michael Penix more as a quarterback and, and think that Penix was a better

prospect. He has an unbelievable arm. He's definitely more mature than J.J. McCarthy because he's been playing football for a long time. But you can't deny that McCarthy, even if he does not get to super mega star status with this team, has a good chance to win a lot of football games. And that is the key to tonight. And now we go forward.

And so let's talk about that before we put a wrap on it for tonight, because I think I'm going to safely end the show before the end of the first round, because it's late. And also they have nothing to trade back in. So, you know, no reason to do that, but let's look forward a little bit tomorrow. JJ McCarthy will be introduced and I'll have a podcast from TCO performance center about JJ McCarthy's first comments. I'm really excited to hear from him about being a Minnesota

Viking and about his experience all the way through. And then we go to rookie minicamp and OTAs and minicamp. And for McCarthy's sake, the Vikings really should put down the cash that's required to get Justin Jefferson into training camp, into minicamp even. We saw Amon Ross, St. Brown, and A.J. Brown agree to deals. It's time. Whatever it costs, make it happen. You're going to have the cap space going forward, whatever it takes, make it happen. That needs to be done very, very soon because McCarthy and Jefferson need to get on the same page from the start. And through training camp, all of a sudden it became very fascinating because you have Sam Darnold here. He's going to set a good bar. This is another wise move that Sam Darnold has been through all the things that JJ McCarthy is

going to go through as a young quarterback arriving in the league, except for the difference is McCarthy will have time where Sam Darnold was just thrown to the wolves. What we're going to see is Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy compete for that starting spot. But if Sam Darnold wins it, I'm already preemptively saying it's okay. You didn't draft JJ McCarthy for right now. You drafted JJ McCarthy to be a long term quarterback for you to compete for a Superbowl within his rookie contract and then beyond. That's why you picked JJ McCarthy. But that's going to be fascinating.

Every OTA, every minicamp, we get to go out, reporters, once a week to OTA's minicamp. There's access once a week in those things. That practice is going to be like, must see, must report, must podcast from. And then training camp every day, following JJ McCarthy's process, listening to him talk, seeing how he acts each week and how he develops and where he goes from there. I mean, that's, that's, that's interesting stuff. That's exciting stuff. It's stuff that you haven't had in quite some time. And this counts, right? When we say that the Vikings have never drafted a top 10 quarterback and he was 10th. So now they have, and where do you get the quarterbacks who usually win top 10? So the Vikings got them. I don't care that he was QB

five. I care that he was a top 10 draft pick. He was worth the selection for the Vikings. And now they will build around him. And every single thing that is done and said suddenly ramped up in intrigue and no longer were we going, eh, you know, we'll see what happens. We'll see. Maybe they'll get a guard. They do need to get a guard.

They do need to build around him. But if 2024 does indeed, as it's in the comments, belong to Sam Darnold, well, that'll be interesting as well. And then we'll go from there. But it'll be everything as ramped up in the intrigue going forward. So there you go.

There is the complete and full takeaway of tonight's action. And really kind of a recap of everything that brought us here to this moment. One of the things, two things I want to say before we wrap up one is did it not deliver? Wow. I mean, all of us get so frustrated and annoyed by draft night, especially me like, man, if I see one more mock draft and it really came through the draft, because this feels like when you walk out of the stadium after a game winning touchdown or something, and you just look at your friends and go, can you believe what just happened tonight? Wow. What did I see? Or, uh, yeah, as people are mentioning the wolves, I mean, after the,

after Anthony Edwards goes crazy and you have that feeling of wolves, I mean, after the, after Anthony Edwards goes crazy and you have that feeling of that, that energy, that intensity, like, wow, what did we just see? That's how it feels tonight. What did we just see with, I mean, shock twist turns and the Vikings walk out of here with the third best defensive player on the board and oh by the way the quarterback everyone thought they were going to have to trade up for instead they essentially use their pick couldn't have played it better quesadilla fomenta the belief in this regime should be very high because they have handled this extremely extremely well including just playing it to a tee tonight. The other thing I wanted to say is just a massive. Thank you to all of you who watched played along,

commented, laughed at me as I was laughing hysterically at Kirk cousins through this draft season. We've seen so much more growth with the YouTube channel, with the podcasts, the energy is felt over here from all of you. And, uh,

the support is greatly felt by me, by all of you throughout this, uh, draft season. And it means a lot to me. It really does because this it's just, it's a really fun time for the Vikings. And I like to be here narrating it, but I can't, it's not any fun if you're not there

and we're not playing along with this together. And if I'm not getting your responses and your snark and your jokes and your, you know, comments and reactions and feelings and everything else. You guys are what give me energy to do the show the way that I do. And it makes it great. So I cannot thank you guys enough for watching tonight. You guys could have watched anything, any other podcast, any other show, any channel channel whatever you chose here and i i just thank you from the bottom of my heart it was so fun just so fun this is some of the most fun i've had covering the team and uh so we got we got some news jonathan no i was just listening to kevin o'connell's press conference that is going on right now a couple of notes uh obviously happy

with how it all played out uh he did mention that kind of confirmed what everybody thought in when they chose to trade up for Dallas Turner, that they didn't think he would be around, so they had to make that move. Says the best football is ahead of J.J. McCarthy. When asked about the lack of, I guess, throws that he had in college. He specifically started mentioning his ability to move and extend plays and get these long third downs that they may have from time to time because of his mobility and his ability to extend plays. He did key in on that and spoke a lot about that. And then he said a goal of his was to land the quarterback of the future

in this draft. Thank you, Jonathan. And by the way, while you're here, because I'm wrapping up, great draft. Thank you, Jonathan. And by the way, while you're here, because I'm wrapping up, great job. Thank you very much. You were on top of this all night long. This can't happen without you. Nothing in Purple Insider can happen without Jonathan.

Just so everybody knows that, that your role is incredibly vital. And it was fun to do this with you again. We did this last year together and it's been so much fun working with you. So thank you for everything tonight, popping in, kind of being our correspondent, if you will, and producer.

So thank you. Thank you. It's been fun. It's been a blast hanging out with you, hanging out with everybody in the chat, all thousand people that have popped in and in and out throughout the broadcast, throughout the three and a half hours

while we've been doing this, because it's been awesome. Awesome caller. Well done. been awesome. Awesome caller. Well done. For sure. For sure. Again, one of my favorite nights.

And since someone in the chat asked where to buy my book, here's the book football is a numbers game. Amazon. Just go there. Search football is a numbers game. You can find it. I mean, Hey,

if you give me the chance, I'm going to promote the book, but no, seriously. So thanks everybody. And look, tomorrow's a new day tomorrow's a new day it's just like uh you know we completed the story if you love netflix show this was a season and tomorrow starts a new season because we've got the introduction press conference we've got more to talk about it'll be a week from now when we got rookie mini camp something else jonathan or did you accidentally bring yourself back in uh the lions are taking

terry and arnold oh okay lions traded up to 24 to take the their cornerback that's a good move that's a good move for them so continue to make good moves yep yep it's uh it's going to be a battle guys and that's what makes it so interesting it's going to be a battle we might need to have a correspondent for just the NFC North. So tomorrow, keep your eyes out YouTube channel. There will be a breakdown of JJ McCarthy's introductory press conference from TCO performance center.

Thank you to will rag it's Andrew Kramer, Dame is a Tani, those guys for popping in and make sure you subscribe, like the channel, tell your friends, whatever. We're going to have a lot of fun breaking it down. And if you want to support the show, some people will ask, hey, could we do a super

chat, whatever. The newsletter is the best way to do it. Purpleinsider.com. Just click on any of my articles and go sign up for the newsletter there. And that will show up every morning, including tomorrow morning. I got to get working on an article. So again, my deepest, deepest, sincerest thank yous to everybody for watching tonight. Huge crowd and I loved it. And this

was a lot of fun. So thanks. And we'll see you tomorrow. Football, everybody. Football.