Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Danielle Hunter signs one-year contract

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Matthew Coller reacts to the Vikings signing Danielle Hunter to a one-year, $17 million contract Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Wow. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, an emergency podcast, as the Minnesota Vikings have given Daniil Hunter a one-year $20 million contract with $17 million guaranteed, and the Vikings cannot franchise tag him next year. And if you're wondering what I look like when I just wake up and what I sound like, now you know because I am going to tell you the truth. I didn't think there was anything to get out of bed early for today. And then woke up, looked at my phone and realized that a lot of the stuff we talked about last of the free agency without doing a podcast that was just immediately irrelevant because the Vikings heard it and decided, well, we really have to

make a move right now. So everything he just did and said was no longer important, but no, I'm just kidding. It was funny though, because if you're a subscriber to the newsletter, you know that it shows up in your inbox at like 815 every morning. So people got an article that I sent reported that Daniil Hunter is back with the Minnesota Vikings on a one-year $20 million deal. And this sort of speaks to what the market was for Daniil Hunter as far as trades go. And something, if you listen to the Kevin Seifert episode from the other day, where we were talking about how other teams were probably looking to get a deal in trying to trade for Daniil Hunter. I think we had settled on if it's a second and a fourth, then that would be a pretty good deal for the Vikings. You can get something to move up in the draft next year if you want to, or just add additional players in a trade.

But if around the league they were looking at it as, that guy wants to be one of the highest paid in the league, so we're not going to offer you very much, and you're in a position where you need to trade him, and we're going to offer you a third, and that's it. Well, then the Vikings did the only thing that they could do by re-signing Daniil Hunter on a short-term deal. I have to say, though, that my reaction would be, I could categorize it as surprised.

Not surprised that it happened right after I did a podcast. That happens all the time. But surprised that it is the term that it is. And, of course, with no franchise tag for next year written in, they can let them go and then they can get their comp pick, which for him will very, very likely be a third round comp pick because the more that the player signs for that leaves your team, the higher the comp pick. So the Vikings will get a draft pick and they will get Daniel Hunter on their football team for a year.

That doesn't seem like a horrendous outcome to in a competitive rebuild and truly taking a competitive rebuild type play here to have him at outside linebacker rushing the passer. It improves their chances of them having a decent defense. I think so far, a lot of the players have really liked what they've seen from Brian Flores and there might have been some impatience from the coaching staff of like hey we really need this guy out here we want him on our defense and so forth but the reason that I was taken aback a little bit to see that the term is only going to be one year, which makes this seem like this is the final year of Daniil Hunter in Purple 99.

That, I mean, it doesn't really fit with the two extremes of this that seemed like the only two options. So it doesn't fit as it's either a huge deal that keeps him here for a long time and he retires in purple or he is traded and you get a bevy of draft picks back. And then you end up, you know, very happy with what you got in return for your extremely good football player. Instead, this is helping out the defense this year and then say goodbye and get a comp pick. And it feels very, very vanilla. I mean, I guess like it's hard to have an extreme reaction when there's not an extreme outcome.

It's sort of a shrug of, OK, all right. Well, I mean, I guess that makes sense. Brian Flores didn't come here to have his defense have zero pass rushers. So I'm sure he's thrilled this morning that he gets an opportunity to coach Daniel Hunter. Kevin O'Connell was probably growing a little bit ornery, not having Daniel Hunter out there. And it is funny because I think with Kevin Seifert in our conversation,

which you can go back and listen to, although half the episode is blown up now. But I think I mentioned that if this was Mike Zimmer as the head coach, that he would have pushed and pushed and probably even publicly pushed to the point where they would have signed him to a short-term deal. And then they did anyway with Kevin O'Connell. And so I don't know if that means that the ownership said, let's do this. If Kevin O'Connell and the coaching staff were really pressing and they wanted this to be done. If Kweisi Adafo-Mensa is feeling like I'm really sticking to competitive rebuild and this is the best competitive rebuild move is to just bring him back for this season and then get whatever comp pick comes, you know, which again is going to be a good comp pick. You know, we'll get to your questions and keep firing them into the comments because I'll get to your reactions in just a minute. But I'm in, you're hearing me in real time,

try to sort this out in my brain of what I think of it because it's an emergency podcast and that's what we do. There's a part of me that wants to sort of shrug and say, okay, well, you know, they, they never aimed to be bad. And I wrote earlier this off season, if they trade Hunter, then it's not a competitive rebuild, it's a rebuild. And so it seems like thematic in the way that it's sticking with the idea from the outset, which is to compete, compete, and try to hit on young players around some of these veterans. Because now with Hunter back, when you look at the defense, it doesn't feel quite as young as it did with Hunter not out there. When it was DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones and Marcus Davenport, that's all guys. Davenport hasn't turned 27 yet so that's all

guys that are like 26 and really Jordan Hicks and Harrison Smith kind of felt like the only older guys but now when you look at it it's Hunter Dean Lowry Harrison Phillips Jordan Hicks Harrison Smith that's a fair number of veteran players on the defensive side and Davenport will be 27. So there's a good amount of experience there. And it just seems less, less rebuild the, even though you have young players at the cornerback position, a bunch of guys fighting for safety and they weren't going to be able to sack the quarterback at all. There was the potential for the defense just being really, really bad. And for these young corners getting throttled by, you know, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow and the great quarterbacks that they're going to play this year. And to have Daniel

Hunter back is a presence for them that there was no way that they were going to be able to replace. And knowing that down the line that they're going to get draft compensation for him eventually even if it's not incredible draft compensation is a plus for them and not spending an absurd amount of cash on him right now and using that cap space that was created by the delvin cook zadaria smith and other moves. So it doesn't destroy their future cap. And from that perspective, the flexibility is important. We talk about that all the time with quarterbacks, that not locking yourself into a player long-term

is generally a good idea when you're not sure what they're going to be year to year. So is this Daniil Hunter's last year of greatness, or will he be great five more years? I think you'd split that 50 50 right down the middle, right? That, that, that, that could go either way. Um, he could have another injury and that'd be the end of his career, or he could, you know, just stay healthy and be fantastic. Like Julius peppers or something all the way deep into his thirties. I think that's extremely hard to predict.

And the Vikings not locking themselves into some sort of five-year, $120 million monster contract for a guy with injury concerns in the past is probably a good outcome for them. So on the plus side of things, you end up getting flexibility in the future. And I suppose they could resign him to that deal next year if they wanted to. It just seems really unlikely with the way that things have gone down. But on the plus side, you get the flexibility in the future, the cap space that will be created after he goes next year. You get a comp pick. On the downside, it doesn't seem like you're going to have Daniil Hunter long-term, so that means you have to replace probably two edge rushers unless Marcus Davenport is really good.

And there isn't a big resolution to this, to me, as a downside. You didn't get a first-round draft pick or a second-round draft pick to really use in a trade if you need to do that in the draft or to really use on a key position because a third round versus a second round is probably the biggest gap in the draft in my opinion second rounders are starters third rounders are long shots and that's just kind of the reality and I think that's why the comp pick started at the third round but that's kind of the reality so you didn't get that back for the future picks started at the third round. But that's kind of the reality. So you didn't get that back for the future. You also have Daniil Hunter for this year.

And sometimes I am a victim, and I realized this the other day when I was talking to Kevin Seifert, that sometimes I am a victim of looking down the road so much with everything when we play armchair GM that I haven't really thought as much about how much this year matters and the opportunity that is here for the Vikings to win the division, be in the playoffs. Justin Jefferson's out there doing special things. Some of the young corners are looking pretty good. You know, a Caleb Evans and Louis scene makes a play the other day and Josh Metellus is emerging. And so I think from, from the way that they're looking at it might be, let's make sure he's back. Let's make

sure that our defense has as much talent as it possibly can see how Brian Flores can coach them up, see how these young players develop. And if a few players click at once and the scheme is good and the offense is good and Detroit's not as good as we all think. I mean, you could be talking about another season of double digit wins, top of the NFC North. And I don't want to lose sight of that, that that is important and get so caught up in terms of what they promised the competitive rebuild. I mean, because, you know, of course they could have taken a different route and they could have moved on from Hunter and they could have said, you know, forget it. It probably also says a lot about some of the guys that they moved on from. They just didn't think that they were going to be good this year based on their projections. Otherwise maybe they would have made more of an effort to keep them.

The one place I don't really understand here is on Daniel Hunter's side, but I have never understood Daniel Hunter's side. I don't understand how his agent views this whole thing. And I mean, maybe Hunter being in the building wants to be out there and that's a big part of it and says, Hey, let's just get something done.

Let's work it out. Take the, and look 17 million guaranteed, but as much as 20 million which he'll probably get that's a lot of money in your wallet so that like you can't deny that but kicking it down the road three straight years and not holding in as long as it took to get a longer deal done or a trade. I don't really understand it. I mean, if I was representing Daniel Hunter, I think I would have said, we've got another month here and you guys have heard me talk on the show. And this is why I am waking up going, oh, really? Because I thought that from his side, they would be saying, we've got another month here.

We can wait and just go day after day after day and make the Vikings watch DJ Wanham rush the passer in pads and hope that they get excited about their defense and get desperate or hope someone else gets excited about their defense in another city and gets desperate. And instead, they just sort of foregoed all that and said, another city and gets desperate. And instead, they just sort of foregoed all that and said, we're all good here. And here's the cash. And 17 million guaranteed is not that much for players of his caliber and not really very much at all. Players of his caliber are getting contracts that are $100 million with 50 or whatever, 60 million guaranteed. They're big deals. And yet for him, he can't seem to get one of these year after year, even when he proved last year that he was completely healthy.

This is, I don't think, a great job on his side of really using leverage that they could have created throughout the rest of the summer. They just sort of push the eject button. So, you know, sometimes people will say that a good negotiation is when neither side is completely happy. Neither side can be completely happy with this outcome, right? I mean, I think the Vikings would have preferred to get a first round pick to trade away Daniel Hunter rather than just have one more year of him and then have him go. And I think that on his side, he wanted the big mega deal and both sides said, well, let's neither

one of us get what we want here. So a little bit puzzling from, from, from all that, I guess I just really thought that this was going to play out the whole rest of the summer and on august 30th we were going to either get daniel hunter has signed a five-year contract or daniel hunter has been traded to the jaguars and once again hey you know don't be uh believe in somebody followed somebody on instagram unless and let me leave this open just open-ended because they love to blow up my shows. So I'll try to beat him to the punch here unless they signed him to this deal so they could trade him to somebody and that team wouldn't have to extend him a team that's

looking for a win now one-year player. Maybe I don't think so. I don't think that's the case. I think he's going to play the year for the Vikings and then he will become a free agent next year. And we will kind of go, Hmm. Wasn't there a different way to go about this whole thing? Christian says any idea how the contract is structured? Yeah.

Tom Pellicero put out 17 guaranteed 20 total i don't know what gets it to 20 i don't know if that's incentives so many snaps so many it probably is i would assume so so many plays playoff appearance whatever and that's why again i i just don't see it as a great deal for daniel hunter it gives him nothing for the future, no security whatsoever for the future. And if he doesn't hit those incentives and only make $17 million, then he made a lot less than his friends on all of their contracts for, for edge rushers. I mean, edge rusher is a true premium position and he is a true elite productive

player. It's odd that he has not been able to pull off a bigger contract. Let's see from Ryan. Am I the only one who thinks this might be a mistake unless the Vikings really believe they can get farther in the playoffs? Isn't it better to get additional draft capital than letting him walk? Yeah. Okay. So Jonathan Harrison, a producer of the show informs me that Kevin Seifert is reporting that the incentives are tied to sacks. Okay. So that makes sense. So I mean,

he'll get sacks. So let's assume he's going to get closer to 20 million. But to your question, Ryan, is it a mistake? Is it better to get additional draft capital than letting him walk? The big question there is what kind of additional draft capital was being offered. That's the big question. And we won't know that Jeremy Fowler reported that the Vikings were looking at potential trade options and those options must not have been good. That's all I can come up with.

If other teams were saying, look, we're not going to trade you the world for Daniil Hunter, then this was the only way that they could go and not be locked into him. Where it just doesn't really connect is why then they would turn for just a one-year deal because it would seem favorable to sign him to the longer-term contract, particularly if he was going to do it for a reasonable dollar figure like this. I think if I woke up and told you it was four years, $80 million, we'd all go, wow, that's a really good deal for the Vikings. But I guess what Daniil's side wants is to play another year

and then get a bigger contract. But at some point, that option may be off the table for somebody paying him big. And if he gets hurt at all, again, it's really going to go off the table for him getting paid big. This is from Yoder's Painting. I hope you're having a good summer of painting. I think this is a positive. We've lost so many players this offseason, need to keep some of our core guys. Oh, it's very good for Brian Flores and for the 2023 Vikings. And that's why I'm trying to remind myself out loud not to always think so several years down the road with every single thing that right now at this moment with this defense if we kind of go through it they were not going to be able to

pressure the quarterback and sack quarterback very often if Daniil Hunter did not play and Brian Flores's defense is very interesting and I think exciting to the players the way that they've talked about it. It looks aggressive. It looks like they're going to have a lot of different looks going on as opposed to just kind of sitting back and letting the other team complete underneath passes all day. And Flores is a needle mover. I mean, almost any other defensive coordinator that they hired,

I might've kind of gone, I don't know, but Flores over his career is a guy who can upgrade your defense by proxy of having him. And if some of these young players end up playing pretty well, you could have a good defense, not a great defense because there's just not enough superstar talent, but it could have a good defense, not a great defense because there's just not enough superstar talent, but it could be a good defense. And with the offense that they

have and with the receiver they have and with the quarterback they have, and if the offensive line improves a little bit, I mean, you're talking about a division title again, and the Wilfs want that. Kevin O'Connell wants that. Brian Flores wants that. I think that Kweisi Adafo-Menta always planned for that and talked about it in his press conference is also in line with competitive rebuild. And it's like, sometimes when they've said it, I just can't make that all work. And so I've always thought, well, is this more rebuild? Is this more competitive? Is this more so, you know, so forth losing all the players that they did much more rebuildy, but now keeping him and keeping Harrison Smith and keeping Jordan Hicks,

it hits it right down the middle. And it also, in a competitive rebuild, opens the door for them to not have to keep him for five years and take all that risk and everything else. And so I think for the team, there is some favorable aspects of this. I don't know that it's the most favorable outcome, which was probably a first-round draft pick for next year, but that appears that it was never going to happen. From Joel, does this deal say more about we're running it back or we couldn't find a trade

partner that was willing to give us more than a third? I think it's the latter. I think it is more we couldn't find a trade partner to give us more than a third. I think it's the latter. I think it is more we couldn't find a trade partner to give us more than a third round pick because if someone came with, I think the second and fourth that I kind of tossed out there a number of times as the bar for me to meet, if someone gave them that, I think they would have done it. But I don't know if they expected him to sign the one year contract again. This is what the third year in a row that he is allowed the team to kind of do it. However,

they wanted to do it in a short-term bandaid type of thing. And he hasn't really dug his heels in and said, no, this is it. And it looked like this was it. And that's why I kept saying, Hey, like this was it. And that's why I kept saying, Hey, this might go on forever. It's why I kept writing. It might go on forever because it seemed like this was finally him drawing the line in the sand. And it wasn't, I guess it wasn't.

And he was, the thing is too, he was under contract anyway. And that's part of it. Like he was already under contract for this year. They just needed to give him more money. And it was, they could make that argument for why this makes sense is that like he already had a contract and they just needed to rework it to get him on the field, to get him a little more cash that was reasonable. But I think that this was a fork in the road situation where they went straight. And I guess I would have preferred to see them go either way. But to your point, it is more in my mind of if no one calls with

the price we're looking for, let's just keep them. Let's just compete and try to have a much better defense than we had last year and get in the running in the NFC. And I I've never truly bought into the logic of, well, you know, the NFC is not that good. So you never know because that's usually not how it works out. The Philadelphia Eagles were an elite offense and defense last year. And I imagine there'll be good again. And there will be teams that are in the top five and offense. I think it was six out of the top 10 offenses were in the NFC last year.

And so you really, this doesn't convince me that they're suddenly a Super Bowl contender, but it does say more about being able to actually win the division, which I think is probably their goal, and then sort of to see what happens in the playoffs. I don't always like that approach. And I sometimes think that if you are doing sort of to see what happens in the playoffs. I don't always like that approach. You know, and I sometimes think that, you know, if you are doing this sort of competitive rebuild move,

as Derek says, this is more of a competitive rebuild move that, you know, what draft capital maybe you could have gotten comes to mind. But I also think that not being locked into him long term is on the positive side of this thing. Chucky says, I agree that D.C. may have had a lot to do with this. I mean, Brian Flores, I think he realized 99 is a key to his defense and a one year prove it deal gives 99 a lot of incentive to thrive. Yeah, I mean, Daniel was always going to play. I mean, he's always a professional. He was always going to play and give it everything he got. And that's what I thought as well, as far as why this would take a while to play out.

And of course it didn't, but why I thought it would take a while is because everybody knows that Daniel Hunter could show up on September 4th, work out a couple of times for the team and then, you know, go off and play and be good. And that from his side to cave now and sign this unfavorable deal from his perspective, that's where I, I just was taken aback by this entire deal from Jim. Could they still do a trade? They have a team friendly deal to another team. They could. Yeah, they could. I don't think that that's going to be

something that's on the table. They might do it right after I do this podcast because that would happen. But, but yeah, I mean, yes, they, they certainly could. If another team called them up and said, Hey, look, we want to trade for Daniil Hunter because we're all in on this year but we don't want to deal with this contract hassle if you get it done then we'll give you the second that you're looking for then maybe that that could be something that the Vikings consider but I don't think so I I think they want them back. I think the coaching staff really wanted him back. And Jason makes a point that if we start slow, he says, I could see Hunter dealt at the trade deadline. This is a point. This is a point to be made

that when he only has a one-year deal and could be a rental, if you get to the trade deadline and you're, what is it and you're what is it how many weeks is it is it like eight is there a bye week mixed in i don't know whatever you're two and five and somebody calls up and says you guys aren't making the playoffs why don't you send us to neil hunter for a second the vikings traded for tj hawkinson for a second last year so it that's and that's why i want to say that as far as what everyone always wants to know is like, do you like it? Do you not like it? And I guess I can see a lot of different reasons to like it or not like it. And one reason I would say that I like it is that they

could do something like that. If, if that scenario should come about, because quesia da fomenta is always talking about is like hey uh you know uh we got options for everything we got outlines for everything you know he's he's got that's what he's always kind of saying is we're planning for all these different ways to go about it and if one of the plans was you sign him to a bandaid deal. So you could, if one of the routes that your team goes is we're really not good at the beginning, then you can trade them away and it's easier to do that.

And even one of the other options is if the Neil Hunter is fantastic again and comes to you after the season, he loves playing for KOC loves TCO Performance Center, whatever, and just says, I want to be here and nowhere else. Now that I am a free agent, I want to stay with you guys. Then they can do that if he's got another 10, 12 sacks, his health is looking good. Nobody would know better than them as far as his health.

So it's not even a guarantee that they would be letting him go after this year. So it does give them the option. That's what I'm saying, like having more options for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. So I can see it from the Vikings perspective and from their side of this negotiation that it gets them a short-term player that helps them win now. It gets them flexibility to renegotiate with him later and try to sign him or let him go and get a comp pick. It gives them the option if they're bad to trade him away and get a second rounder or something at the deadline.

That is all good from Kweisi Adafomense's seat, where I understand it so much less is how it's good for Daniil Hunter's seat, where he has to play this year with no parachute for his future. Usually what guys are trying to get is as much guaranteed money as they possibly can, fully guaranteed, guaranteed for injury as they possibly can. And that's why they're signing usually contracts that are multiple years to get that. And I think it was Rick that mentioned he's the eighth highest paid in average annual value. That's true. And that's a good deal for them to have a player who's elite

in sacks to be kind of in that top 10, but not at the very highest point. It is a good deal for the Vikings. It's just not a good deal for Daniel Hunter. B Frost says no security question mark. 20 million is security. 17 million is security. 1 million is security. Well, we're not talking real life, man. We're talking football, but also we're not talking to you and me security. We're talking NFL player, millionaire, whatever. What I'm saying is usually that with NFL players, with people who fly in the air of millions and millions and millions of dollars, that what you're looking for is to maximize if something goes wrong, because this is the NFL and things go wrong with players' bodies, that you have guaranteed money in the future that takes care of you, even if you end up getting hurt.

But there's really no comparison of you and me versus football players really in any way. Do I compare well to Daniil Hunter, human being wise? Not really. Six foot six and can run a four or five and lift 5,000 pounds and throw your car over a mountain. I don't think so. We're different people. But in terms of if you were representing him, though, if you were his representative and you were talking about, well, what do we want to do here? What's our ideal scenario?

If you are Daniil Hunter's representative, what would you be telling him? I would be telling him we're getting this long-term security. We're getting this long-term contract. We're getting the most guaranteed money that we could possibly get over the longest term that we can get, or we're going to sit here. And that would be the only way that I would go about it. And maybe there's factors that I don't understand. And of course, if your client, if you're representing him, if your client says, look, just get it done. I want to get back on the field. I just want to play football and I'm totally fine with $17 million guaranteed then. Okay. All right. Well, let's get it done. And, and let's, you know, let's go forward here. But otherwise they had a whole other month

in my mind to put pressure on the Vikings for a longer term deal or for a trade. And the fact that they did not use the leverage that they had because everything in a negotiation is just leverage. So not using the leverage that they had and they really never have, it seems from Daniel Hunter's side, used it effectively from his first contract to right now. I mean, I guess that's the part that surprises me and things probably played out well for the Vikings that they just didn't have to pay a whole heck of a lot for Daniel Hunter. And then they could also do whatever they want after the season. So they, I think, won this side of it, even though I thought that, you know, trading him for a couple of draft picks would have been also a good outcome for the Vikings. From Felipe, with big positions such as quarterback and edge rushers on one-year deals, is 2024 potentially a tank season?

Yeah, that's a really good question because Kweisi Adafomenta has talked about their three-year timeline, meaning 2022, 2023, 2024, and what that all means when they first got here and how they saw it. But I don't know if 2024 as part of the timeline means timeline to win or timeline to have the team on the upswing or time to draft a quarterback. Like, what does it mean? They planned out three years is what he's saying, but he didn't tell us what their three-year plan exactly was. And that might be part of it, but I don't think tank is ever going to happen. I do think though, that 2024 could be you draft quarterback and there's no expectation that you're a winning team

and everything that year is about the quarterback. Just for example, if you were to sign Justin Jefferson to a mega extension, sign Hawkinson to an extension. So those guys are locked in. You can feel pretty secure in drafting a quarterback, going forward, putting him in a position with Christian Derrissaw, TJ Hawkinson, Justin Jefferson, and you'll find the other guys. You'll find the next Daniil Hunter. You'll find whatever edge rushers. Edge rushers are out there. They are in the draft. Usually you have to draft them high, but they hit free agency. Sometimes you can cobble together a couple of good rushers for a few years while you try to find the next Daniel Hunter or whatever.

That is less of a part of it than the quarterback for the big picture, but it seems there's a possibility that that's how it ends up playing out where they run through this year Cousins leaves and then Daniil Hunter leaves they draft a quarterback and the plan is to win you know six or seven games with this new quarterback or you know barely compete for the playoffs be like the Steelers and have Kenny Pickett as your rookie quarterback you're still competitive you're still a pretty good football team, but you're not necessarily competing for a Super Bowl and then 2025. So that's what I'm always thinking about is exactly what you're asking about

is the big picture long-term. Where does every move kind of fit in? I wonder if they will try after doing this to look at, you know, free agency and add anybody else. And I'll have to look at what the cap implications are of this move and how much cap space that they'll still have. But now that you're bringing them back and now it's not all about young players, it's half the defenses on the older side. Do you consider another veteran corner? If there's one out there, do you consider, you know, a veteran running back to pair with Alexander Madison instead of Kenny Wong Wu and Ty Chandler? Like, would there be some other

potential moves that they would look at to add an interior rusher? If there's somebody out there, probably not, but if there's somebody out there or in a trade or something like that like this this does move our needle to right down the middle of competitive rebuild and then their hope is probably that a lot of the players that they're putting on the rebuild side the younger players work out and develop and maybe through this year Patrick Jones or DJ Wanham takes a step forward and becomes good and then like then you're good at that position. You can move on from Daniel Hunter and have somebody else. That's kind of the hope here. Felipe says,

Kwesi doesn't really like multiple year contracts with players over close to or over 30. Yeah. From the Kwesi Adafo Mensah seat. There's I think a lot to easily understand of why a patchwork deal makes sense. That it gives him more options, more flexibility, more paths, including a multi-year deal next year if they want to do it with Daniil Hunter, even though it seems quite unlikely. And I don't think that it's a disaster at all from the uh from the vikings perspective so um although kevin thinks so kevin says what a disaster every move has been strange and seems like a worst case scenario plan b or c in this regime yeah i don't i don't think that's true or at least not the way that i look at it. Every move has not been strange in my mind. I

mean, every move is matched up with what Kwesi Adafo-Mensah laid out publicly. I mean, if we go through their entire off season and we just kind of take a look at it as a whole, well, we've got a second here on a day off for the Vikings, their first day off of camp. And then, you know, they have to make big news because they're the Vikings. But they moved on from older players who they could not project forward to continue to be good. Delvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Patrick Peterson. These are Eric Hendricks, guys who are right teetering on the edge of retirement. There are a year.

I mean, Delvin Cook is probably got a few years left in the NFL, but we've seen running backs not survive to 30 in the NFL. Adam Thielen looks like he's, you know, an ankle tweaker away from just not being fast enough to be an effective NFL receiver. Eric Hendricks, his production faded. Patrick Peterson was terrific, but older corners don't project well. All of that makes sense. And guys who were not going to be a part of this long-term, all that fits together. They couldn't afford Delvin Tomlinson and they did not break the bank for him, which was smart. Tomlinson is a really good

player. They really like him paying him the type of money that Cleveland did a team. That's absolutely all in to try to win a championship. That would have been a mistake with, with Tomlinson, even as much respect as I have for him, that would have been a massive overpay letting go. Zedarius Smith was kind of a forced move because Zedarius wanted out and wanted new money and they couldn't take the risk with giving, well, they might not have had the new money, but they also couldn't take the risk with somebody who's got an injury history of giving him a big extension or something like that. Um, Zedarius leaving is probably the thing that now feels like it doesn't fit as much. Like

why, if you were going to give Daniil new money, not just give Zedarius new money but it's not you know it's not always easy to balance the books when you're also trying to extend Jefferson and and extend you know TJ Hawkinson as well so if the entirety of the offseason is you refreshed the roster with young players getting opportunities. And I look at Byron Murphy jr. As a young player. So that's the guy you signed someone who's 25 years old and Marcus Davenport has good underlying analytics and still has years in his prime. So that makes sense with what Kwesi Adafo-Mentz is doing.

I'm just struggling to find the part where it doesn't make sense. If they had wanted to run it back as far as the whole roster, that wouldn't have made sense to me is just doing the same thing that was done before. So with this Daniil thing, this does feel a little bit like running something back. But also if you look at what's on the table for, they could do X, Y, or Z and X is sign them to a five-year deal and Z is trade them for not very much. Well, I think Y ends up being the best option, which is the bandaid type of deal. And I think it really tells us that, um, you know, they just were not getting the trade offers that they would have expected, and there's not a whole lot you can do there. Let's see.

E-Felt says the team is better with than without him, but I do agree it's a bit premature. Too many cooks in the kitchen should be just crazy. I don't know about if there is too many cooks in the kitchen or not. I'm sure that the coaching staff was pushing hard for Daniel Hunter to come back. It seemed like Kevin O'Connell was either aware that something was happening when he was talking about how much he loves Daniel Hunter,

or he was trying to push that over the goal line yesterday when we talked about it, that it was like, okay, let's get this done. Looking forward to seeing him back out there and everything else. Um, Felipe asked which comp pick would the Vikings get if the Neil goes to another team in free agency and how does that work? Does it depend on which round the player was drafted? Uh, it depends on how much the player gets paid, I believe. And so if the Neil goes somewhere else and gets his four-year contract for a hundred

million, then the Vikings will get a third round pick. That's the highest that you can get. Alex says more dead cap. This team is not serious about getting to the top. Wilfs don't know what they're doing. Is there more dead cap on this? On this, I mean, I haven't seen the exact complete structure of how they redid this, but a one-year deal that is for $20 million with $17 guaranteed would mean he hits free agency after next year. That usually would not mean there's more dead cap unless they used some sort of void years to this thing, but it doesn't sound like they did. I think he might've already had void years on his contract from the previous situation.

And so I'm gonna have to see the structure, but I don't know that that's gonna be the case, but I'll have to see once it comes out and it's updated in the over the cap system, how that fits. But this to me says that there won't be more dead cap and he'll get 20 million for this year 17 and then get some sacks and get to 20 million and then they will likely move on after that uh as far as the wilfs go i mean this this was the the plan from the start yeah yeah alex it was just um he had uh void from the previous, which is not good.

It's definitely not good, but it doesn't pertain to this one. As far as the Wilfs go, they hired a general manager who was on board with keeping them competitive while trying to rebuild the roster. And they did not hire the general manager who was going to tear down the entire team and build it back up like the Chicago bears. And that decision is one with every single thing that happens that we are evaluating over and over and looking, was that the right way to go? Was it the right decision to hire the GM that was on board with the competitive rebuild rather than the full teardown and build back up. And every year, every season we look at the roster and try to decide how strong is it? Can it win the Superbowl? What are the bears doing? We're going to go back to that, that choice,

because I think that Kweisi Adafo Mensensa was on board with that and said, all right, that's what we'll do. And he is aware that it's harder to do than a full teardown. And he said that. But at this moment, let's talk about competitive rebuild. Has he achieved the goal of a competitive rebuild so far? Has he done things that make sense with that? I would say yes. So even though I would have,

going back to that initial decision, I would have torn it all completely down. I would have done what the Bears did and what implications that would have with Justin Jefferson or so forth are hard to say. But from the outset, that's what I would have done. That's not what they decided to do. So if we look at through the lens of what they decided to do, how this Daniil Hunter

move fits in, how everything fits in, I think it's all thematic. They went all in last year and bringing back Patrick Peterson, keeping all the older players trying to win, and they won 13 games. It was a successful all-in push. They proved that their culture is good, that their coach knows what they're doing. They had a really fun season and the result was kind of what we expected. Okay. So you could look at that one way or the other.

You could look at it as it didn't matter for anything because they didn't go deep in the playoffs, or you could look at it as they won 13 games. It was a super memorable season and we all had a lot of fun with it. Either way, they didn't achieve the goal of legitimately competing for the Superbowl. So it was a, not really a success, but kind of a success like ish half a success for last year. And then this year, have they moved the needle more toward building a complete team and eventually putting a quarterback into place who could win the super bowl and i believe that they have they have given themselves a situation where in the future they will have cap flexibility

and daniel hunter is a part of that that they clearly did not want to lock themselves in to a giant cap hit in the future. So they will have cap flexibility and even to sign Hunter if they want to, to keep their great players. They will have quarterback flexibility to bring in somebody else or to sign a quarterback that becomes available or trade for one or to draft the quarterback high and trade up for one. And those decisions will ultimately determine whether this was right or not. What happens at the quarterback position?

Now, if they get to a point where they sort of bail on this, if halfway through the season, they like how Kirk is playing and then they say, you know what, let's sign up for three more years of Kirk. Then I will look at it as, oh, okay. You became the previous regime because you liked winning and you liked just, you know, sort of staying relevant in the conversation rather than chasing a Superbowl. I don't think I'm ready to decide how this is all played out yet, but along every step with every move like this, we are constantly going back and saying, does this make sense? Does this fit? Is this with what you guys said you were going to do? And so I would say this, this is in alignment with what they said they were going to

do. And also they have a chance with Daniil Hunter to have a decent defense and to have a good offense and to be in those playoffs again. And even if right now, you know, I mean, so did you sacrifice your future here? No, I don't think that you did. Did you give yourself a chance to have a good season? Yes, I think you did. And that's what, what they want to do and uh m sullivan says i'm fine with the deal but want hockinson and jj done right so step one for quesia da fomensa if we were grading this kind of thing is uh like a like a b it's like okay it's a it's all right uh it's not the first round pick it's not the you know somebody that's going to help you get the quarterback for next year in a trade up. And you're going to get Drake may or something because of a Daniel Hunter pick

that would have been good. It's not a long-term deal at 20 million, which would have been really good in my mind. Uh, if they had signed him for four years, 80 million and his cap hits were very reasonable because he's let's not forget really good at football um so it's not the the absolute best outcomes but i think it is still good and uh for where they want to be as a team which is at the top of the division this year and then next year with as much um options and flexibility as they can get uh let me read one more comment here. Now that Daniel is back, we are much more likely to pick around 20. So give us a pie chart for the quarterback next year. First round pick Kirk extension bridge quarterback. And I guess I'll throw in other, other is like disgruntled quarterback. So I will still say, and I agree that, yeah,

if you were to put it down right now, if you were to put down money and say, where will they draft? Where will they draft? Let's have a bet. And you went with number 20, you probably have the best odds of being correct. So I think 20 is fair. You can trade up from number 20 and you're allowed to do that. And there are quarterbacks already getting buzzed. Like I see this Tennessee guy with the huge arm, like Jeff George coming out here for Tennessee, Joe Milton and Spencer Rattler and Michael Penix. Like there's other quarterbacks who are making buzz. So we can't act like there's only going to be two guys and nobody else available. Quarterbacks emerge. I never heard of Joe Burrow before his final season and then he

was unbelievable at lsu like this happens all the time um so i am still going to put first round quarterback at the top of the list and that would be uh let's say 50 maybe 50 for first round quarterback. I'll go bridge. Quarterback is 20% making a big splash for somebody like Kyler Murray is 15%. And now I've lost the math. 75, 85. And do I want to go 15 still with the Kirk extension? Is that too much? Maybe,

maybe that's too much. Maybe it should be first round pick 60% bridge. Well, no 50. Okay. You've really, uh, you, you've really, um, made me do the math here. Let's stay with 50% for the first round pick and go 30% with a bridge quarterback. So then we have 80 and then I'll go 10 and 10 with the kirk extension and the kyler murray i i really was um just like courtney cronin there who used to do the pie charts and struggle with getting them right but 50 30 10 and 10 is how i'll do it and i think that the one fear is just that for people who want to move on in the future at quarterback,

and I think that that's the right move, is that if they start out 6-2 and they have a tough schedule at the beginning and here they go, they're a competitive team again, does Kirk's agent call and say, you know what, what do you guys think? A couple more years of Kirk, seems like it's going pretty good. That is the scenario that is possible and, uh, probably the one you should be afraid of because, uh, but if they stick to their guns here and remain flexible at the quarterback position, then you have a chance to drop a rookie quarterback into a roster that has a lot of very interesting young pieces.

And Courtney has promised, by the way, that she will come on the show soon and mess up another pie chart. So she's covering the Bears, got a lot going on there, but we'll definitely get her on to do worse than I just did. Billy says, if you're running the Vikings, would you prefer consistency? And maybe there was supposed to be more to that sentence but um I I imagine you're going to say like consistency in like year to year what your uh expectations are or quarterback or I not sure where what I but consistency is impossible to find like everything is changing all the time and you have to just go along with whatever is happening in that way. So the competitive rebuild thing is where they laid out the path to start and then how it goes from there, a lot can change and where that all goes,

we'll see. But right now they're on that competitive rebuild path and with this move it was very much that and so i do feel like it's going to be a little um maybe annoying to say those words over and over and over again but it is truly what they're doing is they are a good team right now and they believe they can win the division. And then after this year, they have a lot more cap space without signing Hunter and a lot more opportunity to go out and handle the edge rusher position the way they want to or extend him if they want to. And for in that way that they they got what they wanted here, I think. Where do we rank in the NFC with Hunter Beck is a good question. Well, I would decidedly put Philadelphia and Dallas at the top. And I know that nobody likes Dallas or believes in Dallas and they're always kind of a mess and you hear about them all the time on ESPN and everything

else, but it was pretty good football team. After that, I would less confidently say San Francisco because of their quarterback situation, though it doesn't always seem to matter. The team that I'm really thinking could take a step forward from last year is Seattle. Now, maybe Geno Smith was just lightning in a bottle last year. Maybe he'll stink and they'll win six games. That's a very good football team, though.

They had a competitive rebuild season last year and are on the upswing now with a lot of young players around geno smith he's got great wide receivers they took jackson smith the jigba their offensive line is good and the and p carol is still a pretty good coach i might put seattle ahead of the vikings but i really think it's a two team like these teams are obviously better than everybody else then Detroit and Seattle are a little bit down from that and after that that's probably where the Vikings are so I don't want to call them a third tier team because that sounds weird but it's kind of clear who has the best rosters in Philadelphia and Dallas and San Francisco is hard to know where to put them so because they don't Francisco is hard to know where to put them.

So because they don't have the quarterback situation resolved, I would put them below with Detroit where it's like really good, but I have questions. And then the Vikings right underneath that, because the Vikings have a roster that could upswing, but if a few things go wrong, it could end up being an eight win team. So anyway, well, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks for waking me up, guys. And of course, a diet Dr. Pepper at 10 o'clock in the morning is always what you need for an emergency podcast. So thanks, guys, for jumping on. And thanks to the Vikings, of course.

Doug says you think Detroit is better than Minnesota. LOL. Well, I'm not the only one. I mean, literally, like, every sportsbook does as well. So I don't know. I mean, if you go to the win totals, the division champs, the projections, I mean, their roster is more mature. They drafted number two overall and got a superstar next year. They had a better offense than the Vikings did last year.

I mean, there's not a lot of evidence that the Vikings have a better roster, but, you know, it's not a perfect team in Detroit. That's why I think that Detroit has nine wins. Look at the schedule. Minnesota has 11. Okay. Doug Stradamus,amus i guess knows how many games the teams are going to win um but yeah i don't know maybe that could happen but i don't i

don't think that um any projections have the vikings better because the detroit has a better roster from top to bottom a more proven roster yeah we'll we'll see exactly so uh let's see jim says uh watched a few of these on my tv after the fact uh you looked a little bit blurry might want to see if the camera setting is off or something oh okay well i'll definitely check that out um maybe yeah i so just a little like behind the curtain trying to get the internet set up. So it's directly plugged in. I haven't been able to do that yet. So it's in 720 and not 1080. So I know that you want to see me a little bit cuter, but in 1080, it slows it down a little bit.

And so I don't want to have like a jogginess until I can get that set up. So we're still making progress in the new studio and I'm hoping to, you know, improve a little bit on the background and add some different things and maybe some lighting and everything else. So we're working on it, but anyway, thanks everybody for coming on here for, I mean, watching on a Sunday morning. I

really appreciate it. And you know, this Daniel Hunter thing is now resolved, so it doesn't linger over camp. And I have to say, just to put put a bow on it that the beginning of camp has had a very good vibe I mean it has had a very energetic feel from the young players the competition that's going on Brian Flores seems to have injected a lot of confidence into them about the defense versus where they were last year and Justin Jefferson and TJ Hockinson being out there despite contract situations. I mean, they have been just fantastic in these first few days of training camp. And it's kind of injected maybe a little bit of belief into this team and a good feel into this team, which may have led to them deciding like, Hey, we want to get this Daniel Hunter

thing done as soon as possible because everything is going well in training camp and the team likes where it's going. So let's get him back on the field. And they were able to do that without locking themselves in long-term, which is a win overall for the Vikings. So anyway, thanks again, everybody. Enjoy your Sunday. We'll be back tomorrow night, Monday night, with a recap of that practice, Daniil Hunter's first practice. We'll see how much he does. We'll see if Jalen Naylor is back after his leg injury and what the Vikings have to say.

Of course, we'll recap that as well about Daniil Hunter signing. So, again, thanks so much, everybody, for joining, and we will see you again very soon.