Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency pod: Vikings acquire LT Cam Robinson

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Matthew Coller breaks down the Vikings' trade for Christian Darrisaw's replacement, Jaguars LT Cam Robinson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to an emergency podcast. The Minnesota Vikings have made a trade and nobody enjoys breaking down a trade on an emergency pod more than this guy. So here we are again as the Vikings make a move, sending draft capital to the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire left tackle Cam Robinson. So we had talked in the last few days, how are the Vikings going to replace Christian Derrissaw? And there were lots of different ideas and none of those ideas were very good. And it seems like the Vikings agreed with that. So they sent, got it right here, from Jonathan Jones of CBS,

they sent a 2026 fifth round draft pick that can become a fourth based on playing time. And they get Robinson and a conditional seventh round pick. This is in 2026. So the draft picks both that are exchanged here, 2026. So a fifth that can become a fourth in 2026 to acquire the replacement for Christian Derrissaw, who was hurt against the Los Angeles Rams and will be out for the season. So your reaction, is this a good move for the Vikings to give up some 2026 draft capital to get Cam Robinson? My first reaction was, okay, well, this is a better option than

anything the Vikings had. Blake Brandel has spent the last two years becoming a guard and David Questenberry has become a nice rotational player if they need him to come into a game and survive for a week or two but not somebody that you would want to start the next 10 games when you're racing for the playoffs or beyond that he's Questenberry is also 34 years old so that would be a lot to. And instead they go out and get someone who has played almost 6,000 snaps at left tackle over his career. Cam Robinson, who for you draft Knicks out there was a second round pick all the way back in 2017 and early in Cam Robinson's career, he struggled. The Jaguars stuck with him. And over the last four seasons, he has become

an above average pass blocking left tackle pretty consistently, actually, in terms of his PFF grades. He's been over 70 graded at left tackle for four straight seasons. And this year currently ranks 32nd out of all the starters, but there's like 65 starters in the NFL. So he has been average so far this year, but is ranked as high in his career as the 16th best pass blocker in the NFL. Now, first of all, we need to say that this is not Christian Derrissaw and we should not expect Cam Robinson to be Christian Derrissaw and we should not expect Cam Robinson to be Christian Derrissaw but when we

go over all the potential options that the Vikings had the different ways they could shuffle some people were suggesting seeing if David Bakhtiari would come out of I guess he's retired and come over and play for the Vikings Bakhtiari's had all those injuries or DJ Humphries. None of the ideas were very good. And this was the best one for the Vikings to make this move for Cam Robinson. And as far as whether we like the move or not, for me, I was waiting to fire up the emergency podcast until I found out what the compensation was. Because my thought was if the Vikings gave up a ton for Cam Robinson, then I wasn't going to be particularly thrilled with it because this is a rental player. He will be playing for the Minnesota Vikings for this year,

this year only, and then moving on. And they will be having Christian Derrissaw come back to be their franchise left tackle next season. And it might be a TJ Hawkinson situation where Derrissaw needs some recovery into the season, but he is the franchise player. They're not replacing him with Cam Robinson. So it is a pure rental. But if we look at the compensation

that they're sending to the Jaguars, a conditional fifth in 2026 for the Vikings to put in a left tackle who can give their offense a chance to continue operating largely the way that it was. And if you look forward, there's not that many tough defensive ends that Robinson is going to face versus what Christian Derrissaw had to go against earlier this year. The Brian Burns, Nick Bosa was on his side quite a bit. Will Anderson, all those good players, Rashawn Gary, they don't face as many of those guys going forward. And Aiden Hutchinson is out for the year. So Derrissaw was going to actually get a break, but he got them through the most difficult part of their

schedule. And now Cam Robinson goes in and should be able to give them reasonable, decent starting caliber left tackle play. Again, you cannot ask anybody to be Christian Derrissaw. There's a reason why Derrissaw has one of the biggest contracts in the NFL out of all tackles in the entire league, because that's where Derrissaw ranks. But Robinson has solidified himself as a pretty solid starting player at that position in recent seasons. It looks like obviously the Jaguars were not going to resign him and give him an extension, which would make you question to some extent, is this somebody who is going to be above average for the Vikings, or is it going to be more of average play? And the Jaguars have drafted some offensive linemen. They look like they've got an answer for the future,

and the Jaguars are also tearing it down rather than keeping players who are going to be free agents. But when we look at the compensation for this, and the Vikings are getting a conditional seventh back, giving up the fifth, could become a fourth, it's really not all that much that they're giving up for a very, very big upgrade at the left tackle position. This is not what I would call some sort of all in chips to the middle of the table, go absolutely wild nuts for Cam Robinson, but it is perfectly

reasonable when the team is five and two. And if you were asking somebody else to play left tackle there, then you could be talking about the offense taking a massive hit. If it's Blake Brandel switching positions, or if it's David Questenberry, or if it's Walter Rouse, who is a sixth round rookie, the difference between a very solid and experienced left tackle and all those other options is humongous. And if all it takes is to just give up a 2026 draft pick that is later on, that's a fifth that could become a fourth, depending on how much he plays. And maybe that has something to do with playoff games possibly. And then also getting back a conditional later round pick as well. We know

that under Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, they are not valuing those later round picks almost at all. And instead have put huge investment into the undrafted free agent market. And that has turned out to get them some players. Ivan Pace is a starter and they have a couple of guys for next year that might end up becoming role players or starters like Gabriel Murphy, Dwight McClothern. So they're putting their efforts into that and using the late round draft picks to acquire players right now. The other thing is that they didn't use any of the fifth rounders from this upcoming season,

which means that they don't have to be done in the trade market, even though they are lacking in draft capital, but they could still get a corner. They could still make a move for a defensive tackle. They could also still use move for a defensive tackle. And they could also still use that first round draft pick. I think that if the Vikings had traded this year's fifths for Cam Robinson, I might've recoiled just a little bit, how much are you going to give up here? But this is a five and two team that by Aaron shots is DVOA, which you guys have heard

a lot about over the years, which is it's a kind of a catch-all statistic to give us an idea of team overall strength. The Vikings are third by that stat in the NFL. The only teams that are in front of them are Baltimore and Detroit, and Buffalo and Kansas City are right there with the Vikings. So some of the underlying numbers are suggesting that in overall quality, the Vikings are one of the best teams in the Vikings. So some of the underlying numbers are suggesting that in overall quality, the Vikings are one of the best teams in the NFL. And when you look through the NFC, there is one team that stands way out and that is the Detroit Lions, but everybody else, you could make a case that the Vikings are even or better than any of the other teams that are

competing for playoff spots. And they've already beat Green Bay at Lambeau Field. They've already beat San Francisco. They have, I think, a better overall team than someone like Washington. Philadelphia is kind of coming along, but the Vikings are right there as far as the best teams in the NFC. So for them to look at this team and say, all right, losing Christian Derrissaw could really take this all apart. Can we go out and use some draft capital without giving up the farm to fill that spot

and allow this offense to still operate the way it needs to? Sam Darnold holds the football. That's not likely to change. They push the ball it needs to. Sam Darnold holds the football. That's not likely to change. They push the ball down the field. That's not likely to change. And if you were asking Brandel or Questenberry, Brandel who gave up seven sacks in 270 snaps or something like that when he was playing left tackle or Questenberry who hasn't played left tackle for any significant amount of time in years. If you were asking those guys to put their season and the team kind of on their

backs and protect Sam Darnold and allow him to still drop back, run those play actions, the deep developing routes, the explosive plays, and also some of the times where he does take an extra second in the pocket to figure out where he wants to go with the football. If you were asking those guys to do it, I think what you're going to get is a lot of sacks on Sam Darnold and potentially an injury, which would really bring this whole thing to an end. So when you put it all together, getting a player of this experience, even though I wouldn't put him up there with one of the best tackles in the league and the Jaguars at times throughout his career have seemed kind of lukewarm on him. But that's been what he has been, which is he's not a difference maker as far as a run blocker.

Derrissaw is maybe the best run blocking left tackle in the entire NFL, depending on Trent Williams and his status. But Derrissaw is up there for elite, elite run blocking left tackles. But as far as a pass blocking left tackle goes, if you're even above average for these final 10 games for Cam Robinson, assuming that he's going to get in there and play right away, then the Vikings offense should not be greatly disrupted. Is it going to be every bit as good as it could be with Christian Derrissaw? Of course not, but it is not greatly, greatly disrupted. And also the Vikings future, their draft capital, all that not greatly disrupted either by giving up a conditional fifth round draft pick.

So what do you guys think? I mean, do you guys like this move? Not like this move. I think what it tells us is that the Vikings are not looking at this after two losses and saying, all right, we give up white flag. We're just going to ride it out and wait till next year and see if JJ McCarthy's any good. They are still saying as an organization, like we need to do what we need to do to try to win this year because the road is out here for us.

And I think that everything has to be a factor, including the schedule that's coming up where you have three games that are very winnable, probably four games in a row that are very winnable for this team. And if you can get to eight and three by the next four games, you are in great, great position to go down the stretch, make the playoffs, compete for a playoff spot. And when you think about it, I mean, the, the Wilf's philosophy has always been that they want to win now every single season, they are going to endorse the front office doing what it needs to do to build the strongest possible team. And I remember Mark Wilf telling us at the owners meetings in Florida this offseason that the expectations did not change just because they were going to a younger quarterback

and they were a little bit in transition. That their expectations were that Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensa take this team to the playoffs. And if they lose Derrissaw, then they are at risk of this season becoming 2016 if they don't replace them. I mean, if you remember, that's when things really started to come apart for the Vikings team in 2016 is when their offensive line started to get exposed. And then they had a very similar type of quarterback in Sam Bradford who threw a great deep ball, but his opportunities to throw the deep ball pretty much went away when they couldn't block for him anymore. And he wasn't able to get the ball out quick enough or was forced to throw underneath constantly. They don't want to do that. They want this to still be

a down the field type of offense. And Cam Robinson allows them to do that without giving up a ton. So some of the main questions I think from you guys, number one is just, well, are they done? Is this all they're going to do? Now there is another week to go before the NFL trade deadline. And the fact that they have only reached into the 2026 bevy of picks so far to get Cam Akers and Cam Robinson makes me think that they are not necessarily done. Making a move like this says that they are going to look to make additions in any way that they possibly can to shore up this roster. And I'm sure that they've seen that they could use another defensive tackle. I'm sure they've seen that they could use another cornerback with the

fact that their corners right now have not been able to play a whole lot of man coverage and they haven't dipped into the depth at all this season and they've just relied on the same three corners. I think that they will use some of the draft capital that they have from this year to possibly add somebody else. And there's another important factor here as well. As we look at the landscape of the entire NFL at the trade deadline today, Deontay Johnson was traded from Carolina to Baltimore for absolutely nothing. It was a swap of draft picks. And if you think about the prices, including Cam Robinson, a starting left tackle for how many years? What's 2017? Is that seven, eight years in the NFL, a starting left tackle for that long with a recent track record of being an above average blocker goes for a 2026 conditional fifth round draft pick that can turn into maybe a

fourth, depending on how much he plays. That is not very much when you think about the value of a left tackle. And it appears that the Vikings are going to try to take advantage of the fact that there just is not very high prices. It is yard sales all over the league. Teams that are getting rid of players are getting rid of them at extremely low prices. I go back to the Amari Cooper deal and being shocked that it only went for a third round draft pick. And then you see Deontay Johnson today, Cam Robinson. But these teams are in a position where what else can you really do outside of just give away whatever you're not going to use for the future?

And that's how the Vikings end up with Cam Robinson. So my expectations for Cam Robinson are that he is average to a little above average at that position and that they don't have to make major changes with the offensive scheme, because this is another very important element of this trade is if the Vikings were trying to move Blake Brandel over to left tackle and they were trying, or they were trying to use quest and Barry or whatever other option in house Walter Rouse, their sixth round draft pick, then they would have had to have made schematic changes because the roster and the scheme are melded together, right? You build the scheme for the roster that you have. You don't just run plays. You run plays for Justin Jefferson. You don't just run pass protections. You run them with the idea that your left tackle is Christian Derrissaw and he's going to be able

to handle whoever is over there they may have to give Cam Robinson a little more help but not having to give Cam that left tackle position a ton of help not having to shift over there and change the calls for the quarterback change the calls for the center, change the calls for the center, change what the running back has to do. There is a huge domino effect to that position specifically when you build it around Christian Derrissaw. So I think that Cam Robinson now allows them to just play their offense still, and you're going to deal with the fact that Robinson occasionally is going to give up a pressure that Christian Derrissaw would not. It's funny about left tackle because the gap is so minuscule in actual production where Derrissaw had given up 10 pressures and was one of the better tackles

in the league where Robinson has given up 15 for this year and he's more in the middle of the league and that's only one per game but there is a difference but when you think about it that is not so much that the Vikings have to greatly alter what they do if Brando's going in there it's probably five times as much or four times as much what Christian Derrissaw would be planned to give up for the rest of the way. So instead of 20 more pressures, maybe you count on eight more or 10 more than Derrissaw would have given up the rest of the way. So they still will have to help. They'll still have to make some tweaks, but this gives them the opportunity to run the offense that they want to run for a player who knows what he's doing.

That's the other part of it too. It's not somebody who is inexperienced like Rouse or Brandel. This is someone who has been around the NFL for now a very long time and should be able to adapt. And if there's any position that is adaptable, it's probably left tackle because that's one where you're mostly just blocking your guy. Some of the run stuff may take an adjustment and that's where there isn't much you could do about that. Robinson is an okay run blocker, but he's not way above average like Christian Derrissaw. So they are going to have to deal with that fact. Stephanie asks, does this mean Reisner can take Ed Ingram's spot? And that is also another element maybe of the trade consideration. So I don't know if the

Vikings are going to bench Ed Ingram to put in Dalton Reisner at right guard. They haven't announced that. They haven't said anything about it, but it's possible that they look for an upgrade there. And if you can, in terms of that domino effect, if you can put Dalton Reisner in at right guard and have Cam Robinson at left tackle and not have to have Reisner and Ingram on the field at the same time and be moving Brandel out, that does offer an upgrade at right guard significantly in pass protection so where you lose a little bit at left tackle you might be gaining quite a bit at right guard remember last season dalton riser gave up zero sacks as a left guard for i think 11 games that he started and has been an above average pass

protector for his whole career. Whereas Ed Ingram still ranks among the lowest graded players and the highest number of pressures, uh, all season long. So I do think that that allows them to potentially put in Dalton Reisner at right guard. And then the overall strength of the pass protection is about the same. The downside to both moves is that, or well, Darisaw getting hurt's not a move, but getting Robinson, the downside to losing Darisaw for Robinson and for benching Ingram is the run blocking. Reisner is not a difference maker as a run blocker. In fact, he struggled over his career and you could say the same for Cam Robinson. Aaron Jones's job might've gotten harder by a little bit. I also want to see them make a bit of a shift offensively to throw more on first down and they may just have to lean into Sam Darnold on first downs, as opposed to just saying,

all right, Aaron Jones is going to get us five yards to start every drive. And then we go from there with the play actions and so forth. So I think that it does change the makeup a little bit if they do put Dalton Reisner in there. But as far as the overall pressure rate, the amount of time that Sam Darnold can hold the football, the allowing those deep routes to come to fruition, this makes it, especially if they put in Reisner to be about breaking even overall, if you take out Daris on Ingram and replace them with Robinson and Reisner, you probably break even as a total

offensive line when it comes to pass protection. And you are quite total offensive line when it comes to pass protection, and you are quite a bit worse when it comes to the rushing part of it. Blowfishes says, Jaguars only trade starters if they have no intention to resign or they expect to be huge spenders in free agency over the next two seasons. Well, my guess would be not only that they have no intention to resign Cam Robinson, but you also don't know if Cam Robinson would have the desire to return to a team that has struggled so much while he's been there. I mean, I think the guy would like to play in a few more playoff games. So maybe that's a part of this overall is that they felt that Robinson might not resign with them.

And he's, he's not old, but he is experienced. He's been around. They have drafted some other offensive linemen that they might have plans for at left tackle. So I, this, but this is, does not strike me at all as any kind of short or long-term move. It's more of a short term this season, filling that spot to make sure that you can still compete for a playoff position and that you can still try to go deep into the playoffs. Now, if there is a counter point to the deal being, I think reasonable, very reasonable, and the best that they could possibly do with what they were willing to give up. The counterpoint would be, should you be buying at all if you think you can't win the Super Bowl? Let me try to rephrase that better.

Should you be a buyer only if you think you have a really good chance to win the Super Bowl? And I don't know how good of a chance the Vikings give themselves to win a Super Bowl after the last two weeks. That's definitely gone down by quite a bit. And when you look at them in comparison to the Lions, they played them very close. So you might factor that as well, but winning the Superbowl or going to the Superbowl is a very hard thing to do. And if they don't win the division,

then they'll have to go on the road to start in the playoffs. That's also a hard thing to do. And there's this dude named JJ McCarthy coming for the future that they want to have every bit of capital to build around him. So what they're doing here by using draft capital for Akers, using draft capital for Cam Robinson, is they are saying, and they haven't given up first rounders yet, so that's usually the players that are top talents, but they are saying that they believe that there's enough pieces in place, number one, to have a roster going forward without needing a bunch of later round draft picks. They are also saying that they can succeed in the undrafted market, which we have seen some of, but I don't know if that's something you can always and consistently do.

And they are also saying that they are going to have enough cap space in the coming years to fill out the roster with veteran players that they can bring in at either top talents or players that they can use for depth, which is a little bit on the risky side. But when you think about timelines, and I think about this a lot, you think about timelines for a fifth round draft pick that you're going to take in 2026, is that really going to end

up matching up and being relevant to the timeline with JJ McCarthy? Because by the time that player, unless they are a freak and they're just great right away, by the time that player, unless they are a freak and they're just great right away, by the time that player does anything for you develops into something for you, as we've seen from maybe a Josh Metellus, you are now in the fourth or fifth season of JJ McCarthy. And then you're talking about getting into his, his next contract if he's been really good. So they're trying to maximize a window here of this season has to be in your winning window because you've been winning and your team is good and it's one of the top teams in point differential still and it's one of the top teams in defense

still and has been a good enough offense to get into the playoffs. So you have to maximize this season, next season, and the season after more than when a 2026 draft pick is really going to come to fruition down the road. And it is robbing Peter to pay Paul for sure when it comes to using later round picks for current rental players, but it's not robbing a lot out of Peter to pay Paul. How much is it worth to you? You could put it this way. How much is it worth to you to have a 10, 11, 12 win season this year and go into the playoffs with a chance like everybody else? If we were going in, if we're talking about the Vikings going into the playoffs and their odds to go to the Superbowl, the Lions are going to be number one, if it plays out how we think. So if we're just projecting the Vikings, the commanders,

maybe the 49ers get there, the Packers, these teams might all have the same chance in second place to the Detroit lions and maybe the Falcons as well. They could all have kind of the same opportunity. So how often does the number one team go to the super bowl? All these things have to be weighed into a move like this. And I think if you're going to give any football team a chance to be the second or third highest odds team going into the NFL playoffs, if, if things go right the rest of the way, then would you spend a conditional fifth round pick to help your chances at that, to replace someone of such significance of Christian Derrissaw? I don't know how you could say no. Do I think that Sam Darnold is going to lead the Vikings

to the 2024 Super Bowl? No, because no team's odds are very good, except for Kansas City probably because of where they've gone. But even the best teams go into the playoffs with only maybe a 20% chance of coming away with a Superbowl, but to be in the conversation and replace someone of such significance in Christian Derrissaw that I was talking to Jeremiah Searles earlier, we actually recorded a podcast that I'm going to have to edit this part out and repost a little bit later. But his thing was, if they can't replace Derrissaw,

then they might be a nine win team because the turnovers are going to increase. The sacks are going to increase and they're not going to be able to get on the, you know, the same level as they were through the first six weeks playing offense. And you're going to end up with more turnovers. I agree with that. I don't think Sam Darnold changes his stripes as a quarterback. Who's going to take time to throw the football. I just think he would get sacked more if they were trying to run Blake Brandel over there. And that could be 10 sacks the rest of the way, because Brandel was not a great left tackle to begin with. And then it hasn't done it in three years. Or Questenberry has also not done it in a long time either and is not in the same type of mid-season football shape that Cam Robinson is in.

And even though he's been banged up a little bit throughout his career, he's mostly played big snap totals, 800, 900 snaps. So I'm having trouble punching too many holes in this. I'm more looking at it like you just didn't give up that much and I can have a current player now and he can give the Vikings a chance to run their offense still. Where is the weak point in this? Unless you think there is no chance that this team goes anywhere, 0% chance. And why would you give up anything? That's the only way that you can really get to disliking the Vikings trading for Cam Robinson. Ryan says, do they need to change to some quicker

passes to help the pass protection? Well, they have in terms of the average depth of target over the last two games, they have changed by quite a bit. Still Sam Darnold though, is up toward the top of the NFL in average depth of target. You can't really, and we saw this from Josh Dobbs, you can't really just change an offense around entirely because you lose one player. That would be very difficult to do. And that's kind of what they would have to do if they were playing someone else and they didn't just trade for Cam Robinson. But now I think that they can definitely continue to just play along the same type of offense and assume that Robinson is going to

hold up over there. When you look at his career over the last four years, the grades, the pressure numbers given up, they are not wildly different than Christian Derrissaw. They're not as good, and he's definitely not as good of a run blocker. That's nowhere close, but they're not so crazy different that he's giving up sacks and pressures all the time. He, I think, plays at the level of a starter where you can drop back and he can shut down his guy enough times for enough length to let Sam Darnold play the way he needs to play. So I don't believe that they will need to switch to a different type of offense than they've had so far. Hunter says, I think the team is better. No question about it.

And the trade compensation isn't terrible, but I didn't love it. And it's felt a little short-sighted it. Yeah. I mean, I guess so, but I think about like, what, what are we talking about would be long sighted? Does that make sense? Would long sighted be kind of punting on a season and letting that position just take down the offense and finishing with nine or 10 wins. And I don't mean to make one position seem like it was going to just destroy the Vikings offense. That's not how I felt, but it would make them alter it. And it's already been a little bit rocky so far this season. Is it, is it long sighted?

Is it long-term sighted to keep a fifth round draft pick from 2026, rather than taking a shot at competing this year. I tend to always lean in favor of moves like this because I just feel like the landscape changes so much every single year in the NFL. So this year you've got a chance to be one of the best teams in the NFC, but what about next year? And what if somebody else gets hurt next year? When you're playing for next year, next year, next year, I think you do that with J.J. McCarthy a little bit. I mean, drafting McCarthy, you're playing for next year as opposed to bringing Kirk Cousins back.

But when you get these opportunities to be a competitive team, I think that you have to take them as opposed to taking fifth rounders. And if we go through, no question, no question, Stefan Diggs was a successful fifth round pick. There haven't been a ton of other ones, and there has been some undrafted free agents. There has been Josh Metellus, who was a sixth round draft pick and took several years to develop. So I'm not just, hey, draft capital doesn't matter.

Throw it all out. It doesn't mean a thing, but when we weigh those other factors, how hard it is to be the second or third best team in the NFL or in the NFC and your conference, the fact that they played the Detroit lions very close, you may have a shot depending on how things play out in the playoffs. I don't believe any team that gets the seven seed has a chance, maybe not even the six seed, but if you're above that, then you go into the post season. What was, what were the Rams when they won the Superbowl? You go into the post season. If you're one of those top four or five teams with any opportunity to go into the playoffs, upset somebody, get into the divisional round, get into the NFC championship. It's possible. And for this price, it's hard. It's hard for me to say, oh, well, they should have really been looking down the road

to win to 2028. I mean, if you're the general manager of this team, you can't be any team in the NFL. You can't be too concerned with a player who might, might step on the field for you in a big role in 2028, when you can get a starting left tackle right now. And that's my point about the prices for trades. They are so low that they could spend a few more fifths. And will it eventually come back to bite them? Possibly. But that's where the JJ McCarthy contract being 50 to $60 million different than the top quarterbacks has to be talked about here as well, because that is where you can spend

money to fill out the roster as they've done this year. But this year they still got a ton of dead cap. They could spend even more for next off season. Uh, Marcus said, could this be a move for the future? Even though Robinson is on an expiring contract, I would be very surprised if it was, uh, unless they think that Christian Derrissaw's knee injury is so severe that he might not play next year. And I never want to count anything out because we have seen Minnesota knee injuries really ruin careers. But I think that it's much more along the lines of just a one-year rental for Cam Robinson. They're not moving him to a different position because he,

and he knows this too, that if he goes into the rest of this season and plays well and is in the playoffs as the starting Vikings left tackle and they win a playoff game, Cam Robinson is going to get paid. So there's going to be a lot more motivation for Cam Robinson than there was in Jacksonville over the last couple of seasons, where it's just been a miserable time for the Jaguars. So he's going to try to hit the market and become a top paid left tackle in the league. You're almost guaranteed for that. And not going to replace Christian Derrissaw. This is a one-year, put this guy in there and fill that spot and then go from there. That is the plan and the thought process. I have to say, I was a little bit surprised at how well Robinson has graded the last couple

years. I think the other night I was asked about it and the possibility of Cam Robinson. And I sort of, you know, I don't know, like, is it, is it an upgrade from what they could do? But then when you look at his numbers from this year, the last couple of seasons and how well he's performed. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely an upgrade from where they would have been had they played Blake Brandel or David Questenberry at left tackle. And again, if it does allow them to put in Dalton Reisner at right guard, then it could change the dynamic and they might have to lean into being more of a pass first team.

And some of those runs to Aaron Jones might have to turn into passes. I'm starting to get more sold on the idea of just leaning into Darnold passing the ball on first down and throwing more short passes, but increasing the volume, getting the ball to Hawkinson, getting the ball to Addison. But all of that, it's not impossible with somebody else playing left tackle. It's just harder. It's just a lot harder. So I think this allows us to not significantly change the expectations for the season. If you listen to yesterday's episode with myself and Manny Hill, he picked the rest of the schedule and he came up with 11 wins. If Derrissaw is out for the season,

it changes the dynamic a little bit. And I was talking the other night about how you probably can't have an all in trade. If Christian Derrissaw is out for the season, because it does limit your ceiling to not have the most important position on the field outside of, I think wide receiver one is really the only other position I would put up there with left tackle. That's not quarterback on the offensive side. And now you're in a quality position, not a phenomenal position, but a quality position. So it doesn't have to move our expectations. I think after Derrissaw got hurt and they lost that game, everybody brought their bar down because we all said, including me, I didn't think that they could necessarily trade for Robinson at this price. I thought they would have been held up by the fact that the Vikings only have those

two fifth round picks for this upcoming draft. But the fact that the Jaguars were willing to take a 2026 pick that's conditional from the fifth round, well, I mean, it's hard to turn down if you go into a store and you see something on sale i was just i was just at target a couple hours ago and i wasn't planning on getting diet coke because you guys know that i like diet dr pepper but three for 12 i pick some up that's kind of how the vikings had to operate here conditional Conditional fifth. How can you say no? If that's the best option compared to by a mile compared to everything else. I mean, I don't even like what's second place. What, what, how close is second place for the next best option?

Chris says, how likely is Hawkinson's addition making a sizable difference with a new quarterback throwing him the ball should be significant. And I don't think that they have to wildly change their offense, but if there is a big thing that can help Cam Robinson, as far as him, you know, coming into the mix is that TJ Hawkinson is the underneath option that has been so useful to the Vikings since he got here. And I do believe that Kirk Cousins was a little more apt to check down to TJ Hawkinson, as you all maybe remember. But he had 95 catches last season, nine yards a catch, something in that range, nine to 10 yards a catch.

He can run after the catch. I mean, this is, you know, I mean, this, this right here is a big upgrade to the underneath passing game for TJ Hawkinson. And again, it should help them even out a little bit, the loss of Christian Derrissaw so Hockinson's return they upgrade as a pass protection at right guard potentially if Reisner plays there they plug in the position at left tackle and you can still go in you could still go into the rest of this season feeling like we can play with the best teams in the NFC. And when you think about the fact that there are two losses, one of them is by two points to the best team in the NFC, probably the best team in the NFL, the Lions. The other loss is to one of the best play callers, one of the best quarterbacks, one

of the best receivers. And it's on a short week where they couldn't make any adjustments or fixes, I don't think that the expectations have to suddenly curve off into the ocean because they lost a Thursday night game. I mean, the Baltimore Ravens lost a really bad game to Cleveland. They're not, and they made a trade and they acquired somebody. They're not saying, well, you know, we can't do it. I know the quarterback is a big different factor there, but the Vikings are clearly looking at this and saying, we should be

there at the end of the year in the NFC playoff race. And I think too, for a team that hasn't been in the playoffs much, I'll talk about that in a second. It's, it's hard to turn down. Uh, KFT says, uh, going all in is a mistake. Darnold is taking too long to make decisions. It's not all on the offensive line, giving away picks when they don't have many picks. No disagreement on as far as him taking too long to make decisions, and it's not all on the offensive line. That's absolutely true. Totally agree with that. The other thing about, but giving away picks, we do have to weigh what picks they gave up, which was not a lot in a conditional fifth round draft pick. And then they get a conditional seventh round draft pick back.

Those draft picks do turn into starters every once in a while, but the hit rate has to be factored here by Kweisi Adafo Mensah when he's punching it into his computer and figuring out what can I give up to get somebody who is this good and this experience at left tackle. What are the odds of a fifth round draft pick in 2026 ever helping me as the general manager of the Vikings, not that high. Number one is if you go five and O and then miss the playoffs. Think of it. I mean, you have to think about it from these terms. If you go five and O and then shifting somebody to left tackle, you talk about Darnold hanging on the ball too much. Well, if Blake Brandel's at left tackle, that's going to be a problem. And if you're, if you go five and oh and miss the

playoffs and then next year mccarthy's starting if you don't make the playoffs in his first year because he's developing we might be talking about a different coach and a different gm like there's got to be thought of that as well is it worth hanging on to a conditional fifth to just for a player that might work for you four years from now i i think that's a that the math becomes easy and calling it all in it's definitely not all in giving away that kind of draft pick is definitely not an all-in type of move uh kevin says i'm one of the people that doesn't like this. We are not contenders to make a move like this. We need draft capital to replace free agents. And this is a rental replace 2026 free agents. I mean, that's it's so far down the road, Kevin and a fifth round pick

from 2026. When do they replace the free agents and the starters i'm not saying that draft picks don't ever work out they do sometimes they become stefan diggs sometimes they become really good players but it's just a hard sell when we look at it in a vacuum when we look at it under a microscope rather than just hey i'm anti giving up picks ever okay but. But this pick in particular, I mean, what is it really worth to you as far as, and when does this supposed to make an impact? If the player even needs one year to develop, you're talking about somebody in 2027, helping your football team versus this team right now is five and two with the third ranked DVO a with one of the best point differentials in a conference. That's not that strong. There is not four teams

that are running the conference and the Vikings are going, Oh, well, maybe we'll just barely make the playoffs. No, two weeks ago, it's the best team in the NFL. And then they played the lions and they weren't by two points by one third down and four conversion. And then we're still talking about them as maybe the best team in the NFL. So my view after the last two games didn't change so significantly that I would say, man, you just can't do a rental like this. I mean, I, I just don't see it as being very much. Now, if they had traded a first round pick for Cam Robinson, even if they had done the, uh, the two fifths from this year, then I would say, all right, it's, it's very, it's very different. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick. So I can tell you that Us Days are back at

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Rich says, uh, let's see better something than nothing and kill the season. Have you heard any steam about swapping out Ed Ingram? I mean, in terms of like hearing something, I mean, no one has come up to me and whispered, we want to bench Ed Ingram. So that hasn't happened,

but we can all use our eyeballs and the statistics and figure out here that Dalton Reisner is so much more experienced. He's been so much better in pass protection. They're going to need to make up a little of the difference in pass protection. And Ingram has been an incredibly frustrating player for them over the years. I mean, as far as just missing on details, allowing quick pressures, I think that Reisner should play. It's my opinion that Reisner should take Ed Ingram's job and play right guard for the rest of the season. No one has indicated that to me yet. We don't get to see full practices like during

training camp. So I can't come home and say, oh, he was taking first team reps. We'll probably all have to find out on Sunday if Dalton risers going to play. But if he doesn't, I think I would be a little confused. Why did you move them to right guard during training camp for this whole thing? And why did you bring him back if you weren't going to use them as real competition for Ed Ingram? So I can't say it in the framing that, oh, I expect him to go in, but I can say he should. Steve says, think he plays on Sunday. I do. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. And TJ Hockinson was able to do it and come in and play. This might be one where you have to have the left guard, Blake Brandel, whispering over and telling him, all right, here's what you're doing on this play. But so much of left tackle is, I don't mean

to downplay, their work comes during the week on scouting the guy they're going to go against, but their work comes more on that than it does protection details and things like that. They have sometimes where they shift to a different side as a tackle, but what's the percentage? 90% of dropbacks are the left tackle blocking the right defensive end and that's your job. So I do think that they should be able to play him for this week. It's going to be a little bit tough, but that's what you bring him here for, is to be able to help you win right now. If you can't play him this week, then it reduces the value of the trade

because you need him today, right now. Let's see. Ty D. Skoll says, this pick still leaves open the possibility of getting Ingram on the bench. So you agree that that's realistic there when that's another domino effect of making the trade is not having to plug him in at a left guard rise there. That is, uh, Ryan says, what's your letter grade on the trade? Is this only the beginning? Um, I guess I would say probably, uh, a B plus or an A minus. I mean, this isn't,

you didn't go out and acquire Trent Williams or Anthony Munoz or Orlando Pace, but going out and getting the best possible option. I mean, if we ranked all the options that the Vikings had at left tackle one by one, how big is the gap between getting Cam Robinson and the next best thing? I haven't seen any other left tackles on the trade block. Maybe there's some other guys out there, but most of the guys who are going to become free agent left tackles after this season, they're mostly on good teams who aren't going to trade you their left tackle. So how can I give it less than a B plus or an A minus? And as far as how much they gave up,

it's not a lot. It's not anytime soon. And maybe in the 2026 draft day three, I will look around and go, why don't they have any picks again? Oh yeah, Cam Robinson. Oh, that's right. They got Cam Robinson.

Now that grade can change depending on the results and the results have to be good. Uh, he has to play at a, at an above average level the rest of the season. And he has to be healthy because if he gets banged up and I know they can't control that, like they couldn't control their saw getting hurt and they can't control any injury. But if he doesn't provide the value, because right now we're projecting, Hey,

he's going to provide a lot of value over the next best thing. But if he doesn't provide a lot of value, this can go from a B plus or a minus idea to an F very fast. If he doesn't play at a high level, but based on the fact that he's got four years of being graded over 70 by PFF, I think that if he is healthy the rest of the year, it should be something like a B plus. Mitchell says, how much salary is going to be for Robinson the rest of the way?

I know the Jaguars, this was reported by someone, Field Yates reported that the Jaguars are going to keep some of the salary. I don't have those numbers yet, but it doesn't sound like the Vikings are paying the rest of his salary. That is another small drawback is carrying over cap space. They were prepared to carry over more cap space. Now it will be a

little bit less than it was. Uh, Mo says, why can't they go all in for Simmons and restructure contracts of guys that will be here to fit his salary? He's a player for now and the rest of the window. Mo, I would be all in on Jeffrey Simmons. If they can give up their first round pick to get Jeffrey Simmons, this is a difference making in his prime type of player that because of their future salary cap position, they can definitely afford. The issue is whether the Tennessee Titans would trade him. When you get a great defensive tackle like that, there's just not that many guys who are going to be able to

do that. So mostly teams keep them. If you draft someone like Jeffrey Simmons and he becomes a superstar, you usually don't get rid of him unless there's something severely wrong there. So with Simmons, it comes to them. I think that the Vikings would do something like that. I think that if it was DJ Reed or if it was Jeffrey Simmons, there's a list of guys that they would be willing to give up a lot if they got that opportunity. It's just that teams don't usually trade great players. They usually trade players like Cam Robinson who are good, but they don't want to pay them in the future. And that's, they've been able to split the difference with a trade like this. Jared says, this means the organization feels we have a shot at the Superbowl. I love the boldness. They must feel like they can get into the playoffs with a

reasonable chance. And when I look at the entire NFC and I ask who has a better chance than the Vikings, I have one clear answer and a couple maybes and that's it. The Falcons have no defense, so I don't think they're going that deep in the playoffs. They can't pressure anybody and Kirk Cousins can't play Tampa Bay every single week. Washington has a great young quarterback, but young quarterbacks almost never go to the Super Bowl. In fact, pretty much never, ever go to the Super Bowl. Philadelphia is a little scary because they've got the line.

They've got Barkley playing great. Their defense is suspect, but they're a little scary. Okay, I'd put the Eagles even with the Vikings after what we've seen. San Francisco is still a little scary because they're San Francisco and their play caller is great, but they also forgot to cover CD lamb a bunch of times the other day for touchdowns. And I'm not convinced that that team is super strong. The Vikings beat the tar out of them in head to head. Can't put them there. Who can we really put in a Seattle? The Rams might be better, but they've still got their problems. Green Bay, even with the Vikings, they played the Vikings fairly close, especially in the

second half. They played them really close. And with Jordan Love at 100%, if he is this season, Green Bay gets to be in the conversation one notch below the Vikings, but probably close to even. Who else? Who else? I mean, not Dallas. So you're talking about if things go the way we think for the rest of the season, going into the post season, feeling like you're the second, third best team in the NFC, depending

on how other things play out, that's worth trading a fifth round pick for. It's not crazy bold. It's not all in. Oh my gosh, they just traded a first for him. But I do think that it has to do with the landscape of the NFC, similar to 2022. They said this in 2022. I remember Kweisi Adafomensa was asked about, does it matter that the rest of the NFC North was down and he said you have to consider something like that when you make a trade for Hawkinson and the Vikings were able to get a home playoff game it might be a similar situation

uh Ty says not to crap on Kwesi but going all in and giving up picks even high picks the way we have drafted lately who cares yeah the draft thing drives me a little crazy because i mean the criticizing of quacey daflamenta's draft number one jameson williams is being investigated again for something by police today and And he's had a bunch of different issues. Kyle Hamilton's really the only player from that draft and McDuffie from the chiefs who have actually worked out every other pick failed that the Vikings could have taken at that spot when they traded down for Louis scene. But that seems to never come up in that discussion. And also who's, who the other guys in the second round

that were better than Andrew Booth and Ed Ingram. There's not a ton of them. It wasn't a good draft. It really wasn't for anyone outside of the very top of that draft. That's not the point. I'm not trying to relitigate a terrible 2022 draft, but they've also only had a handful of draft picks

and we're just saying, oh, he's terrible at drafting. Historically speaking, and no one ever likes to hear this, every team is about the same at drafting. It's really about what you get when you hit. So if you hit and you're Kansas City and you hit on Patrick Mahomes, that's not the same as hitting on a left guard, right? But in terms of the hit percentage, this has been studied many times.

It's about the same, but Detroit drafted a ton of players because they tanked. There's no one way to get to being competitive. You must do this to get there. Having a rookie quarterback contract and a bunch of players that you brought in from other places is one of the ways to do it. Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Francisco. I mean, they did draft some good players, no doubt. Like the Vikings have in the past with Derrissaw,

with Jefferson. I know they weren't drafted by Quasey, but how did they fill out that draft or that roster? Trading for Trent Williams, trading for Christian McCaffrey. Where does Kweisi D'Affelmintz come from? San Francisco. How about Philadelphia trading for AJ Brown? They've made similar types of moves. So I don't think that you look at it and go, well, I can't draft guys. So let's just trade all these picks. No, if they, if they get a hundred years to draft, they would come out pretty similar to everybody else. I think we also know that there's really one guy that matters the most that this team has drafted and that's JJ McCarthy. And we're going to find out about that in the future. But when you have so few draft picks, the Vikings didn't

even draft on day two. I sat home and watched with you guys. I didn't even go to the facility or do a live show because they didn't have picks. One of them got traded for TJ Hawkinson. It's probably a pretty good deal, right? A guy in his prime. So I think that part of it is a philosophy overall that the proven commodity is a better thing to have now than waiting on unproven commodities later. And that might be the part that resonates with Kweisi Adafo Mensah is that you can show on paper, this is what TJ Hawkinson is. This is what Cam Robinson is. So that's why we're getting these players through trades and even Cam Akers. And you can also have them in the middle of a

season where you're going for it, as opposed to looking four years down the road and hoping you're still the general manager because things change so fast in this league. You always have to operate in these tight windows and the Vikings are probably in a three year, four year type of window with JJ McCarthy on the way. But even then, there is no guarantee that McCarthy is good. I think he will be. I think he'll be very good based on what I saw and his work ethic, but there's no guarantee. There's no guarantee that you get another season where you start out five and two and the rest of the NFC is just kind of bumbling around outside of one or two other teams. So I think it's looked at it much more like that than it is like, oh, I can't draft.

It's no, I'm going to compete right now because this is a season that matters. You're going to look sometimes if you're looking so far down the road, you're going to be looking down the road while you're getting axed in real time. And again, I really think if you're the Vikings and if you miss the playoffs after starting five and O, that puts a target on your back for the leadership. Because then, trust me, the last two weeks have been pretty telling. How has everyone reacted when they lost two games in a row? Like the sky was falling, like everyone should be fired.

The coordinators no longer know what they're doing. If the Vikings go five and O and miss the playoffs was falling, like everyone should be fired. The coordinators no longer know what they're doing. If the Vikings go 5-0 and miss the playoffs this year, how's everybody going to feel, including the folks who own the team? So you have to think in short-term windows all the time as the general manager. Also, just one other note, and we'll get back to your comments. Kweisi Adafomenta does not do the draft by himself. I mean, there is a scouting department, there's coaches, you know, people are being hard on Dallas Turner. Brian Flores said today that like, look, I am developing Dallas Turner to be good

for years, not seven games into his career, trying to throw them out there as much as I can because we drafted him. And that explanation is reasonable, but it's funny how when they draft Dallas Turner, it's hell Brian Flores got his guy, but if he's not playing, then it's quasi can't draft. I don't know. It's a whole organizational thing. I noticed that with Jordan Addison. Oh, well, Kevin O'Connell wanted Jordan Addison. So when he's good, it was Kevin O'Connell who did it. But when he hasn't been as good this year, then it's Quasey's draft pick. I'm just trying to figure this out. All I know, though, is they have a five and two team with a good chance to compete, and they didn't give up that much draft capital to replace a massive, massive need. And I would not be surprised if they continue to use this philosophy in the coming days to make other trades, because I really think they need a corner. I think they could use a defensive tackle and any other talent that they could bring in here

to take a shot at this thing. And I got off track, but I was going to say, this is a team, by the way, since I got here in 2016, think about how long ago that is. Think about where the hairline used to be. Who has won all of two playoff games since I moved here. Every time they take a shot at winning, I'm like, okay, do it. And I'm consistent here in being a little anti-analytical with this and long, a little

anti-long-term with this. Even when it came to the Dallas Turner trade up to get him, my thought was take shots. The Texans took a shot at Will Anderson, worked out great. No one said a thing about it since but if one doesn't work out then you're the the dumbest GM alive of course but this team has won two playoff games since 2015 shanked kick by Blair Walsh I'm not gonna be the person who says you know what hang on to a conditional fifth in 2026 and let Sam Darnold get ripped down in the backfield time and time again, because you moved a guard over there as opposed to getting someone who could potentially help you get into the playoffs and try to win.

Trying your damnedest to win is not going to get too many critiques from me. There are definitely times that I thought in the past they should have torn it down. They should have tanked, but I've always respected the fact that the Wilfs want to win for you guys. They want to fill stadiums and put out a good product. They want their team in the playoffs, and it probably has at times cost them in the long-term vision. No doubt about that. And they finally kind of came around to that with moving on from Kirk and drafting JJ McCarthy. But when the Vikings make moves to try to win and to try to beat the Detroit lions in the playoffs down the

road, or to try to be able to survive that left tackle position so they can get the most out of their quarterback, it's very hard for me to go, guys, they might be able to draft a fifth round corner in 2026 and by 2028, it could be great. Now, does that mean I think you should trade all your draft capital for just what the heck ever? No, it doesn't mean that, but this is fairly shrewd. It's not a lot for a lot of potential value. How many wins is having a good left tackle there versus a really bad one. And I've always

thought you guys know this too. I've always thought that offensive lines are about their weaknesses. And this is backed up by data research. It's not about your average players. It's about your worst players, which has been Ingram, sometimes Garrett Bradbury struggles in pass protection as well. But if you're talking about an offensive line with three major weaknesses in pass protection going forward, it's going to be hard to overcome for Sam Darnold. Now they can replace Reisner at right guard, put Cam Robinson in, and you really only have one serious weakness in pass protection. And that's kind of a week to week thing with Garrett Bradbury. So from that, from that perspective, yeah, I think that they've made a significant upgrade. Like how many wins is it

worth? Probably a couple every. Every week in this league, you watch those early slate games from Sunday. Every week is a three-point game. It's coming down to the final moments. And that's the gap. It's only this big. And if the gap between Christian Derrissaw and David Questenberry is this big,

as opposed to this big with Cam Robinson, you're probably losing some of those games. Gene says, do you think we have a shot at Dexter Lawrence? Dexter Lawrence's name comes up every day, and I just don't really know why. Has there been an indication for many Giants reporters, insiders, that they would trade him? Because if we were doing all players in the league that are not quarterbacks and you were drafting them, Dexter Lawrence is in the top 10 for me.

So if I were the giants, the giants who gave away Saquon Barkley and who gave away Xavier McKinney. So top running back and top safety in the league, they gave them away. I don't know if they want on their conscience that they also gave away Dexter Lawrence. That's the one thing that they have to, uh, the one thing that they really got a grip onto. Uh, Sean says, if we make other moves, I'd like to see Addison package for a DB instead of a high pick. It seems unlikely to me that they would bail on Jordan Addison. Now, uh, he has attempted to move on from the Instagram post and I don't need another hundred people to tell me that it's his brand and he had a chain. I get it. And we all know

how it's going to be interpreted when you put that out there and we don't have to debate that again. But I just, in a situation like this, where they just added a left tackle, I have a very tough time believing that Kevin O'Connell would say, Hey, you know, that wide receiver that I was obsessed with in the draft and that we picked in the first round and had 70 catches and 10 touchdowns in his first year. Let's send him out of here. The last step being an Instagram post and not the two arrests or technically pulled over for 140 and cited for DUI. But that stuff didn't shake them at all.

But an Instagram post is going to, I don't know about that. I think that they are going to keep Jordan Addison and not try to make any trade there. That would be a big surprise. Anton says, is Gabriel Murphy done for the season? I don't know. I don't know if I want to say this out loud, what I think has happened there, but it feels like they're stashing him and waiting for other players to get hurt and go on IR so they can bring him off IR. That's what it feels like. I'm not accusing the Vikings of doing what baseball teams do, where they constantly put pitchers on whatever reserve they have so they

can bring guys up. I'm not saying they're doing that, but we have gotten so little in terms of updates on Gabriel Murphy, no matter how many times they've asked. I don't know what exactly is happening there, but he was not put on the long-term IR. So technically he is not done for the season. Blowfishes says, Brandel is our line organizer before snaps he would be harder to replace uh it would be harder to replace o'neill than derisaw um yeah i mean i think that it's hard to replace anybody on the offensive line it's extremely hard to replace a left tackle unless you get a left tackle and that's what they were able to do here today. I truly did not think that they had a great chance at getting someone who could star like Cam Robinson. And I'll be honest, the other

night when I was asked about him, I thought, I don't know, is it worth the draft pick? Has he played well enough? And it wasn't until, because I was thinking about that on the fly, it wasn't until I looked into his numbers in recent years that, okay, this looks much more like an average player overall to like slightly above average and pass protection. Think about it. Like when Riley Reif was here, Riley Reif was a guy over there that you could trust to be a left tackle. Sometimes he would get smoked.

Christian Derrissaw gets smoked so rarely that if it happens in a game, we're like, what the heck happened to Derrissaw on that one play? So it's not going to look the same, just like it didn't look like this with Riley Reif here, but it will look a lot better than it would if you were putting Questenberry or moving Blake Brandelove. Trent says, seeing the prices of trades, what do you think is needed for JC horn or a premier defensive tackle still firsts still worth it?

Yeah. I mean, I think that, uh, the prices are going to be different for players that are rentals. So when you trade for Deontay Johnson in Baltimore, that's a rental. This right here with Cam Robinson, this is a rental. If you're trying to get JC Horn, who's having a great season, sadly with Carolina's defense, one guy is having a good season. It's JC Horn. They're going to want the moon and the stars. I thought at one point, maybe they would look at it and say, well, is he worth giving a hundred million dollars to, but Carolina really has no choice, but to try to keep the only talent that they have and the premier defensive tackle.

I'd be really surprised if any of those guys are available. So the price is to get them off of the giants or the Titans. The prices there are going to be really high. Now, can you find a defensive tackle somewhere? I was struggling to find this, but maybe there's one out there who can contribute, who can rotate. They're really using three guys and none of them can get to the passer. Can they find someone who has some impact on getting to the passer? Maybe. Maybe they can. Let's see. David says, I believe this signals that they will make a move on defense

for a defensive back with future years because this move supports that they are still going for it this year while still building for the future. I agree. I agree that this does signal that they are probably not done, that they are probably looking at every other option to move draft capital. And if they can get someone who is under contract into the future, then you could see them using this next year's draft capital, whether it's the first or the fifth rounders. But I mean, based on the rental prices, what can you get for a this year's first? This is sort of like if you went into the housing market and you thought, well, you know, uh, 250 K is not going to get me much. And then you just find a gem that nobody else has seen or all of a sudden the housing market changes

and you go, wait, my 250K all of a sudden gets me a mansion. That's how I feel about this situation with the draft capital and rentals. I was thinking that they'd have to give up two fifths to get a left tackle, not a conditional fifth from next year. So the prices of the market are different. What can you get for a fifth? If it's worth it for a rental, then maybe. But I still think that their targets will be players that they can extend or that already have multi-year contracts if they're going out and get you know getting somebody else let's see uh kevin says until i see coaching adjustments on both sides i remain

a skeptic it's been more than two games of poor play ish i mean ish a half in green bay where you're up by three scores uh a half against the jets where you're up by three scores, uh, uh, a half against the jets where you're up by three scores. And as far as, uh, the coaching adjustments, I mean, yeah, it's just, it's tough, man, because you can only do, and I agree there has to be some, of course there has to be some, but you can only do what your roster allows as far as coaching adjustments. And you can't create out of nowhere, except for maybe a trade corners who play man to man better than the ones they have.

So there may be a game where you have to outscore the other team. But if we're going to look at a five and two team that has a lot of really good metrics and say, well, you know, they haven't thrown enough short passes or KOC's team has gone a little cold in the second quarters of games. So I'm out on this season. That's tough, dude. That means, I mean, that you're basically thinking that they have to be this untouchable team. I mean, we know it's not that we know it's not an untouchable, flawless, perfect roster that just needed this one left tackle or that these coaches are not Bill Walsh and I don't know, Dick LeBeau. That's not the level we're at here. But my question is how perfect do you need to be in a year where there's so many flawed teams? If there were teams right now, if there were two seven and O NFC teams and a couple

other ones that looked unbelievable, I would say, okay, I get looking toward the future. I don't think this takes away from the future personally, but I would understand that approach of not buying and just saying like, I'm not trading draft picks. But if you go onto a live podcast of the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Washington commanders, Green Bay Packers, the Packers might be a little too Homer ish for you to, to handle, but most normal places that do podcasts, uh, making fun of my Packer friends who do shows, but tell me that they're not breaking down the critiques of their coaching staff, their roster shortcomings, the trades they can make that every other one of these teams is having their media and their fans are having the same discussions. Can we really get there?

The coach has done this bad. This draft pick didn't work out. All those things. The only people who are not doing that are in Detroit, in the entire NFC right now. That's kind of the point of why I feel this way. Do I think they're going to win the Super Bowl? I don't. You know why?'re going to win the Superbowl? I don't, you know why they've never won the Superbowl.

So if you can only do it, if you can only do anything, if you think you're winning the Superbowl, then the Vikings should do nothing ever. Okay. Let's see. Ronald says it's a no brainer of a move for the left tackle that you make a hundred times out of a hundred worrying about a 2026 fifth round pick and the situation they're in, I see as a no brainer.

I think that's probably the consensus here is that when you don't. Oh, do we have the do we have the amount of cap space that they're taking when? I mean, when you don't give up a lot, it's hard to be too upset about anything. It's kind of like the Cam Akers deal where it's two conditional draft picks getting swapped. I mean, how upset could you possibly get about it? I kind of feel the same way here.

We have, Kweisi is horrible at drafting still. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Look, they drafted a really good cornerback who tore his ACL. They drafted a really promising quarterback who very sadly passed away before the season. They traded another second round draft pick for a star tight end who might be a top three player at that position. They have another player who is a star wide receiver that unfortunately has not gotten the football enough this year, but we know what he's capable of. They also use the late round pick to find another reasonably good receiver. And they haven't had a lot of draft picks other than that because they've traded some of them

away. They didn't acquire them in previous years, a lot of them. And they also drafted in 2022 for a defensive coordinator that they did not know at the time was going to be completely clueless. And that's life drafting. I can give you all the Rick Spielman drafts and you can show me where there's a consistent record there. There isn't, we don't even have enough. Think about how long it took Josh Metellus and Cam Bynum to be good. We don't even have a sample on these players for a lot of them to say whether they're good or not. And I just feel like that comes up so often when we don't even have a sample size to work

with. Rick Spielman has the best draft ever in 2015, the worst draft ever in 2016. And we also know that drafting, if JJ McCarthy and Dallas Turner work out, then the amount of cap space you save from having those two on their rookie contracts at the same time is astronomical. It's like $90 million you get of cap space to spend in other places. I mean, you know, there's a, there, these things still have a chance to work out in the long run, as far as draft picks, not, not Louis scene and not Andrew Booth jr. And I, I guess, uh, if Ed Ingram gets benched, there's another one did think for a minute there

that, uh, Ingram was going to turn a corner last year, but he did not. So, uh, freedom thinker says if, uh, fans ran the team, they would always go full Rams or Rick Spielman would trade back always. Uh, well, no, no, see, I don't, I don't think that I think that I think a lot of football fans have come to love the draft as much or more than the season. And so when you trade away draft picks, people get irritated because they won't have fun at the draft and they won't be able to analyze the draft picks. And if they don't have draft picks, then they can't say that the GM stinks at drafting and that they would have been better.

So I think, I think there's an obsession with the draft that goes too far when it comes to evaluating these things and what they're actually worth. Let's see. First name, last name says, I don't think KOC and KAM have done anything good or bad enough to separate themselves as a package deal. They are likely going to be extended or fired. Extended is where it's leaning heavily right now. As far as separating themselves, I think that they've done a lot.

Am I not looking at a five and two team with Sam Darnold having 107 quarterback rating. We've gone freaking nuts after these two losses. The way that this is going right now, and they want to keep it going that way by getting Cam Robinson is by far a best case scenario. And remember all the players who came here on the first day of free agency? They didn't do so because they like lakes, guys. In part, they did because they have cap space, which was fixed by Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. I know some of you guys just want him run out of town as fast as possible.

And it had to be killing you when Andrew Van Ginkle was good. But they fixed the salary cap with this general manager and also didn't extend Kirk Cousins with this general manager and this leadership group, which would have been a bad decision going forward for their future and their salary cap. That's how they were able to fill out the team with so much talent and they've coached it well enough to get it to five and two. It was Kevin O'Connell who hired Brian Flores. It's Kevin O'Connell who's completely revamped the culture of the building to the point where players want to sign here on day one. I think they've significantly separated themselves as an organization and a leadership. They don't have a

ring yet. We'll see if it happens. They're taking a shot at it by trying to fill in the left tackle. But sometimes I think think who are we talking about here have have you guys like looked at the colts have you looked at some of these other franchises the jaguars the team they just took a player from i mean the jets can you imagine being that what would this chat look like if you guys were the jets it would be insane they haven't won anything in years the raiders there's all sorts of teams that you wouldn't touch with a thousand foot pole. This team has a chance to win this year and a future franchise quarterback

to build around next year. I'm very sorry, Louisine didn't work out. I mean, I don't know. I'm not crowning them. Trust me, I'm not. And we critique the hell out of them on a weekly basis here. But let us not lose the forest through the trees because they lost two games.

Sometimes it gets wild in here after a loss. Todd says, I'm all for the trade. How long will it take Robinson to be game ready in the Viking system? It should be this week. If TJ Hawkinson was able to play a much more difficult position, uh, in a week, then Cam Robinson should be able to play. And I don't mean difficult as in doing the job. I mean, intellectually the weight of playing tight end is usually a lot. Um, so I think that he should be able to jump right in. Here's another one. Man, the snark is

just too much for me. Now we have an okay line. So Sam could sit in the pocket for 10 seconds. And hopefully if it's enough time to make two reads, he has 107.2 quarterback rating this year. look like i i agree i agree that he is spending too much time in the pocket and if you look at his snap to release when you're running one of these play action type of heavy systems it's going to be more as you see from brock purdy and darnold does like to fancy himself a playmaker, but he has been the best version of Sam Darnold ever by 50 miles. And I think that he's played really good quarterback against a lot of good defenses, and this could get better and more efficient as they go forward. And now, I mean, yes, he took too much time in the pocket on some throws the other night, the last two games, he's played really well bouncing back from a bad game against the jets.

He, he has not been the reason they lost these last two games. He's been good. And Jalen Naylor needs to catch a ball to run into the end zone. This is where I think sometimes like you lose and you just get so angry that you're throwing everything and anything out there that's that's pretty it's pretty uh it's pretty wild in here that we're talking about a trade that i think has made them a lot better and a lot more prepared to potentially compete in the nfc that's the was supposed to be the the main thing going main thing going on here. Uh, let's see. Steve says, uh, will we see LDR play this season? Levi Drake Rodriguez, uh, doubt it development player. It's very clear that Brian Flores is going to develop his young players. Um, Ivan Pace Jr.

probably has played the last two years because he's a different kind of cat. And also they had to, and he was the one that fit the best for what they wanted to do with a lot of the blitzing. But aside from that, Flores has not played young players. And he said today, he used Cam Hayward in Pittsburgh as an example. We're going to develop our young players. And then eventually you might see them down the road, the Dwight McClother and the Levi Drake Rodriguez. We fall in love with players in the draft in training camp. And then when they don't succeed right away, it's like, ah, there's another bust. But you see from Metellus, you see from Bynum that these guys

do take time to develop when they are later round players. And that's probably going to be the case for Levi Drake Rodriguez. Mark says we should spend the move on defense. Defenses are bread and butter. Offense isn't going to randomly get better. Well, it should get better. Actually, when you look at the defenses they've played so far versus the defenses they're going to play, uh, there is a pretty significant margin there. So I think that they actually should be better than they have been offensively, but even if they're not there, they don't have to be done with this trade deadline. The trade deadline is next week, not today. So they can still, by not having given up their fifth round picks, they can still, uh, end up using something on defense. Um, so let's see. Yep. Yep. Uh,

horse feather says, Matthew, don't let them bait you into draft talk. It happens almost every, every, uh, live stream because if the team is because if the team is five and two and things are going well and they just made a good trade what do you have to be mad about well you have to go back to a draft from two years ago um so uh derrick says why not trade one of the nine safeties they have for a corner running back, whatever, you know, the, the next frontier maybe will be in the NFL is player for player trades. We just don't see a lot about, uh, that in the NFL,

we, we don't see, um, player for player trades too often. And I like them. And I think that in a logical world it does make sense i'm not sure which guy you're giving up though metellus i i know they have a lot of safeties but theo jackson isn't getting traded for anything you're not trading harrison smith you're not i mean you could trade cam bynum, I guess, and put Theo Jackson in, but Cam has done a really

good job with this defense over the last two years, and that's really upsetting the apple card of the defense. So you don't really want to do that. Running back, I think they should be okay at if they're going to play Cam Akers and not run Aaron Jones into the ground. Akers, as long as he's healthy, has been a good running back for the Texans was fine for the Vikings last year. So they can use him. Uh, but the player for player trade thing in the middle of the season, especially, but even just overall, it's not like the NBA where we see that constantly where it's like, and I'd love to see it. If it happened, I would love to see it. Three players traded for one guy, that kind of thing. It just doesn't happen too much. Uh, Benjamin says, Matthew said he won't talk about

next season unless they lose the next two games. Keep up the Madden play for now. That's, that's really it. That's really it. Ben is that, uh, or Benjamin, I don't know if you like Ben, we are in the middle of a season right now where the Minnesota Vikings have at this very moment, only today, a legitimate chance to seriously compete in the NFC. So I'm not looking at free agency next year. I'm not looking at the draft next year. I'm not, I mean, I always look at the big picture, but not as much. I'm really looking at the opportunity that they're going to have to play

and compete this year with anybody in the NFC and nothing that happened today, I think destroyed their future. Of course, it's a conditional fifth that didn't destroy their future. But even then, I like the idea much more of thinking about how this resolves a current problem to help them play against the Colts, the Jags, the Titans. I have to book my travel to Jacksonville, which I've been putting off and I've got to do soon. Like I'm thinking about that. And as for today, this move helps resolve a major problem without giving up major compensation. JJ says, I agree with the previous comment

about Addison cryptic tweet aside. It was an Instagram post. His talent isn't utilized and Naylor has twice as many looks we need a defensive tackle to compensate for the blitz while Cashman is out Cashman I think we'll come back this week but to your point Addison needs to have the ball more they can't have 50 snaps and I asked uh Wes Phillips about that today and he talked about how they're still very excited about Jordan Addison. He felt he had a very good game against the Rams, but didn't get the football sometimes. And they only had 50 plays.

I would like to see them on first down, throw the ball more often to their playmakers to get them involved, get them rolling and not always have to rely on bigger plays or everything going to Justin Jefferson. Uh, it's gotta be tough to be Jordan Addison and run 20 yards down the field over and over and over and over again. I mean, his average depth of target is something like, I don't know, 17 yards. His average depth of target should be like 10 yards and then occasionally hitting him down the field. I would like to see that adjustment as we go forward. David says the connection with Cleveland's front office to me says a guy like Craig Newsome, Newsome or Denzel Ward. I like that idea. So, you know, I really

think that that should be still on the table as making a trade for somebody that can be on this team over multiple years is a good move. Uh, while he says what's DJ reads contract. I think that DJ read, I'm going to have to think if I can remember this without looking it up, somebody might have to tell me, I thought he was, is he a free agent after next year? Is he still under contract for another year? But they have somebody coming up behind him who can play. I'll have to check on that. Reid's name has come up.

So maybe he is a free agent after this year. But his name has come up. And if they could make a trade for him, he is one of the best players, I think, at his position in the league. That's why I wonder if the Jets are going to be willing to do that. But they have Sauce Gardner, and Gardner's going to get a lot of money. But why would they think long-term? I mean, they just need to fight every week, right? They can't go selling parts, I don't think. Evan says, how much would Christian

Gonzalez, Tyson Campbell, Martin Emerson, or Denzel Ward cost? Could we get anyone for a second, third, fourth? They would have to dip into 2026 for that. It's probably high to get younger players like that. Denzel Ward would be the one with their cap space situation in Cleveland that I think you could potentially trade a first round pick to get Denzel Ward or maybe not even a first round pick to get Denzel Ward because they need to reduce their cap space. Jacob says, I like Delvin Tomlinson for a fifth rounder problem solved for defensive tackle. Keep next year's first. Tomlinson is not a pass rusher, but he is a good player at that spot. An upgrade from anybody they have.

Phillips and Tomlinson would be good enough because both of those guys can create some pressure. They can create push. They can't be Dexter Lawrence and just destroy people, but they can create push and create the occasional pressure. Uh, the other night, Harrison Phillips had three pressures. I mean, if you get three or four pressures from both of those guys, then it's a big upgrade from what they're getting now, which is the occasional Harrison Phillips pressure and not a whole lot else. Um, Jonathan Bullard is a fill-in type of player, but is not somebody who you really

consider to be a starter playing 40 or 50 snaps a game. So someone else to be able to put into there, uh, that could be one of the things they do for a fifth round pick. Yeah, I agree with that. Uh, let's see. Uh, Rick tick says a great franchise is winning the Superbowl and nothing else matters until you do that. Um, well, yeah. Uh, I mean, I don't know what to say to that. Like only one team wins the Superbowl and it's usually the team with the best quarterback in the league. That's the history of football. That's why you draft J.J. McCarthy, to give you a shot at that, because you weren't doing that with Kirk Cousins. The way I look at it is, if you have people in charge

who are doing everything they can to put your franchise in a position to have a shot at that, then that's good leadership. And I don't mean just trading for a left tackle. I mean, the culture of the building, how you're coached, how you're schemed, what your player decisions are, the health of the franchise, because look, look at Pittsburgh. You're going to get more chances if you're Pittsburgh than if you're the Jets because of their ownership, because of their coach, because of their management. That doesn't mean they're going to do it all the time, but Pittsburgh is trying to win the Superbowl every year and they compete every year. Doesn't mean they're always going to do it. And I do think that there is,

is a mentality from a lot of people that until the Vikings win the Superbowl, that everything they do is wrong, no matter what. And that's tough to work around because we have this day-to-day thing where we're analyzing every game and every week, but if they're, we can't hold, what is it? 60 years of play from them against them after every Thursday night loss. And that's what felt like kind of happened this week. Honestly, that's what really felt like happened this week is that people took all of their frustrations from all the times that they have been disappointed by this team and threw them out there this week. So maybe what we can do is, okay, DJ Reed is under contract for 15 million next year. All right. I would do that. I would definitely do that, but I think we need to bring

ourselves back. And if they lose to Indianapolis and Joe Flacco, I think that I am getting more on board with some of the rage that you guys have been thrown around this last couple of days. And if they lose the Jacksonville, if they lose the Tennessee, and this thing is just coming apart, then all right, then that's what happened. And everybody was right. But I don't like to get there until we're actually there. If they beat the Indianapolis Colts 27 to 13, and then you're going to Jacksonville and you're going to Tennessee with chances to beat two really bad teams, then onto Chicago for a rookie quarterback, there's an opportunity to get this train back rolling and have one of the best records in the NFC in short order. That would have been harder to do without Cam Robinson. Now they have him and it makes sense for the trade. So anyway,

an interesting day nonetheless. And we will go forward with the trade deadline coming up next week and opportunity for the Vikings to add even more to this. And the rest of the week, we're going to have plenty of preview of the Vikings and the Colts. Uh, yeah, there's a, there's a game. It's not just all trades and moves. So thanks everybody for watching the emergency podcast and the portion of the podcast where we talk about, um, Anthony Richardson getting benched that I did with Jeremiah Searles earlier than, uh, that, that will be published fairly soon, but now we kind of need to edit out the parts where we talked about what they're going

to do at left tackle. So thanks everybody for joining on an emergency basis. I really appreciate that. And thanks all of you for all of your commentary for the most part. And we'll see you all very soon. We'll be in another live show tomorrow night, a chat after I go out to TCO Performance Center. Okay. So DJ Reed is a UFA. Okay. I thought that. I thought that. So thank you for the correction, Dr. Truth. You're doing what your title says, Dr. Truth, that it's a, it's voided for next year. So he is going to become a free agent. So there you go. That makes sense to me, but I don't know if you can get him for a fifth. We'll see. Thanks again, everybody. And we'll talk to y'all soon. Football.