Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Vikings extend Christian Darrisaw

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Matthew Coller breaks down the news that the Vikings signed their left tackle Christian Darrisaw to an enormous contract extension and brought back Duke Shelley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. An episode that I didn't know I was going to do. An emergency breakdown of Christian Derisaw's new contract extension. I'm going to tell you the truth, I did not really have this on my radar. I think all of us assumed that there was going to be an extension for Christian Derrissaw eventually after he has established himself as one of the best left tackles in the NFL. But I didn't know that we were bringing back a tradition from the previous regime, which was a huge contract extension for some star player just as training camp begins. And that is exactly what we have here for Christian Derrissaw.

So if you have not seen the details, I've got it from Adam Schefter right here. It is four-year contract extension, which I would assume starts after this year, for $113 million, 77 guaranteed, and 43.7 guaranteed at signing. That would be the fully guaranteed number. And so I have taken a look at overthecap.com and taken a peek through 2029. Okay. That's what I expected. So I have taken a peek at how this compares to the rest of the NFL. And yes, this does make

Christian Derrissaw the highest paid per year. As long as my iPhone calculator is correct for his four-year extension, four years, 1133 million makes it almost $29 million per year, which tops Laramie Tunsil. And so does the $77 million guaranteed, the total guarantees, which is a little bit higher than the highest in the NFL. And $43.7 million fully guaranteed at signing. If that is the fully guaranteed number for Derrissaw, that would put him at third in the NFL. And this couldn't be better, just could not be better for the Minnesota Vikings

to sign Christian Derrissaw now. This is exactly what they wanted to do with Justin Jefferson last year, and it did not get done. But the Vikings are able to do this with Derrissaw. And one of the things that I'm guessing, Kweisi Adafomensa in the front office sold the ownership on doing this deal, was, hey, the prices only go up if you let this linger

and we wait until next year, then it's not going to get any cheaper than it is right now because Christian Derrissaw has established himself as one of the best tackles in the NFL. It's not like if you wait another season, then all of a sudden, well, actually, the price went down. He's going to be easier to sign. No, I think they found out from Jefferson, if you wait, then you end up paying more. Of course, Jefferson may have wanted to bet on himself regardless,

and that's why the deal didn't get done. Wish we had seen a little more of that in the receiver documentary, but that's not the point. This locks in now the Vikings with two of the best players in the entire NFL on offense at two of the absolute premier positions in football that always have been and always will be a wide receiver and left tackle for the foreseeable future both players in the middle of their prime and both locked in to help jj mccarthy slash maybe sam darnold into the future but really jj mccarthy become the best version of the vik Vikings quarterback that he can possibly become. It has been a huge part of the discussion of how can you let a veteran quarterback go? What are your odds of drafting a successful quarterback? Well, supporting cast always

matters a lot to the success of your quarterback. And it starts with your receiving core and Justin Jefferson, and they've got that locked up, but it also has a lot to starts with your receiving core and just to Jefferson and they've got that locked up but it also has a lot to do with your left tackle the blind side Christian Derrissaw once again 113 total million dollars 77 guaranteed and 43.7 guaranteed at signing so now the Vikings a don't have to deal with this but also don't have to deal with this, but also don't have to deal with this next year or into this training camp. No drama there. But also they can extend him out. And I'm sure they're doing the same thing that they did with Justin Jefferson, where they're going to have some of the lighter cap hits into next year and to the year after that. So they can still add to

this roster over the next two seasons and put as much money into it as they want. And then it will get a little more complicated down the road, but it is most important that you have your franchise caliber players. And if I'm not mistaken, Derrissaw hasn't made a pro bowl yet, which I think after this, maybe people will start to pay attention because if you look at his PFF numbers, the gold standard for offensive line evaluation, the best tools we have, Derrissaw has consistently now over the last three seasons, put himself in the same echelon as the best tackles in the NFL. He is a terrific run blocker, terrific pass blocker, terrific teammate, one of the quietest guys on the team,

but you're never going to hear anything about Christian Derrissaw going wrong. So this is a huge, huge signing for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa to be able to lock up the left tackle into the future. And you can't help a little bit, but chuckle only a little bit because both of these guys that Kweisi Adafomensa and his front office, Rob Brzezinski and so forth are going to be thrilled to hand out the Wilfs dollars to were drafted by Rick Spielman and two of the best draft picks. It's funny. Spielman took, I don't know, 47 defensive players. Josh Metellus might be the only one who's really become a difference maker over the last how many years since 2015, but Jefferson and Derisaw not

being top five draft picks, but eventually becoming the highest paid players at their position i mean what are the odds of that that's not great right i mean normally if you're taking left tackles it's all the way at the top but derisaw turned out to be one of the steals of that draft and has been super valuable to them over the last couple of years and will continue to be so onto the future. And when we look at all the different positions, which are the most predictable year in and year out? Well, offensive tackle, I would put way up at the top of the list. Oftentimes receivers, edge rushers, tackles are pretty darn consistent. And part of that with tackles is that it's not really dependent on anything except for the player and maybe the competition that he faces. Although usually you're facing a good edge rusher almost every single week in the NFL.

But to have Derrissaw locked up to this contract extension, we can start looking now and say with certainty what the future pieces are and how this thing is going to look into next year two years out probably can't go three years out but we can at least say two with the key players and if we go through them guys that are locked in for at least the next two years and then with deris on jeff, probably beyond then you have Derrissaw, Jefferson. Let's assume that Jordan Addison gets it together. He is still a key piece of this. Brian O'Neill, I think, I mean, contract wise is locked in probably again, a tackle who should continue to be good into his early thirties, late twenties. So O O'Neal then you have on the defensive side Jonathan Grenard a four-year contract Andrew Van Ginkle a two-year contract Dallas Turner Ivan Pace is on his rookie

deal for several more seasons Blake Cashman signed a multi-year deal all of a sudden this thing is starting to come together for the key pieces so if you think of it through almost the terms of an NBA team, the Vikings would be like an NBA team that has four starters that are really good and could, you could fight for a championship with, but they need their superstar player. They need their Anthony Edwards and that may or may not become a JJ McCarthy. They need him to be great. And then they need a bench because at the moment they do have positions where you don't have a superstar player and they are going to need to spend that money into next season on the defensive line, defensive tackle, cornerback is a position you probably have to spend a first round draft pick, but knowing that you have at the most important positions, these guys set up for the future

is a very good position to be. And I didn't have any doubt that Derrissaw would eventually sign a contract. I really thought it was going to happen next year because it is unusual that a team would sign him before it's actually time. They picked up his fifth year option, but they don't have to address that until next year. They could have handled it the exact same way as they did with Justin Jefferson, but it really seems to me like they took the lesson of last year. Let's pay this guy the highest paid in the league right now early. Well, we can, well, he's willing. And if you're Christian Derrisson, no brainer. Someone just wrote you a check today for $43 million.

Here you go. Do it signing. Just write your name right here and you get $44 million. Okay. That sounds pretty good to me. And 77 overall guaranteed that a lot of the time, and I mean, Derrissaw was willing to do this. I think Jefferson last year wanted everything that he could have asked for and more to do it. And they didn't get that done, but maybe the lesson was push that number up a couple of million, make them the highest paid now, give him the most guarantees ever for

a left tackle now. But by the time we get to next year, Amazon will have bought more football games. Peacock will have bought more football games. MySpace will be broadcasting football games. Peacock will have bought more football games. MySpace will be broadcasting football games. We'll have 18-game season. And then all of a sudden, the salary cap and these salaries are going to explode, and you will actually have a pretty good deal on your hands with Christian Derrissaw. And to do this now is very, very good for the Vikings team building. And just from the perspective of Derrissaw himself, this is a player who has never had any question really about him since about, I don't know, the third game that he played. Because the first season for Derrissaw, he came into training camp and was banged up and didn't have a chance to practice really at all in training camp.

I think that he had had offseason surgery and then an issue after that. And so it was a slow start. And of course, at that point, you're wondering, all right, is this going to work out? Is he going to be injury prone, whatever it might be? And as soon as he got in the game, he was such a difference maker. This is one of the best athletes in the game, he was such a difference maker. This is one of the best athletes in the NFL, but also I did a story with him last year and you can go back and find it. But he told me that during the pandemic, when there were lockdowns, that he spent a ton of time

trying to better understand football. He told me about him and a couple of teammates getting together, spending all day, just watching tape, hanging out. You know, there wasn't a whole lot to be able to do outside of that. And then he came away with kind of this love for watching film and understanding football. And he's become a very bright player at that position, loves the preparation, loves the process, if you will. I mean, there is no boxes that you can't check with Christian Derrissaw. The only thing is, and Gazanked, if that's how you pronounce it, says the concussions have been a bit of an issue. He did have the concussion against Buffalo,

and then they brought him back maybe a little too early and then had another one against Dallas in 2022. I don't believe that he missed games last year with that issue, but that was a little bit concerning. Every player, though, that plays on the offensive line is going to have things in their background where they got banged up. There's always going to be that. It's just such a brutal and difficult position. But as far as his overall health, okay, like gizmo, okay, I got you.

But as far as his overall health, it's been mostly solid for his entire career since he missed those first couple of games due to the offseason surgery. But once he came in, if I'm not mistaken, it was maybe his second or third game that he had to go up against Brian Burns and had a very good game in there against Carolina in 2021. They had the win late in overtime, touchdown to K.J. Osborne. And Derisaw taking on one of the best pass rushers. Is Brian Burns one of the highest, top three highest paid pass rushers in the league? And that was his welcome to the NFL. You're starting now.

And right from then, you could tell that Derisaw was just different. And this is a position that when you have it locked in, everything else becomes so much easier to put together when you have this left tackle position set up. I do wonder though, for the future, because I mentioned Brian O' set up, I do wonder though for the future, because I, I mentioned Brian O'Neill. I do wonder about for the future, Brian O'Neill and his salary cap situation.

He is one of their highest paid play. He might be actually their highest salary cap hit now for this year. Is there going to be a restructure at some point in the future and so forth in order to keep this duo together because it's worth it to have great offensive tackle play. And now the Vikings are locked in till 2029 with one of the best left tackles in the NFL. And we've also seen from players like Andrew Whitworth, and this is not a guarantee that he's like this, but they age well. This isn't like running backs where,

oh, the guy got to 27, he's dust. I mean, tackles, they continue to get better throughout their late 20s and into their early 30s. And it's just, there are few players that you would put your bet on more than Christian Derrissaw for signing a long-term contract extension, but it's just an extra bonus to be able to do it right now and have everything locked in for the future.

And now what, what questions do we have going forward with players and contracts? None really. I mean, TJ Hawkinson is set and he'll come back from the ACL. Jefferson and then Derisaw and the other key players. Aaron Jones is a short-term key player. Addison is on his rookie deal. He won't need an extension for a couple years if we get there. And we all hope that we get there if he cleans up the off-field stuff and on the other side of it granard being locked in and dallas turner being on his rookie contract there is a lot here to work with and there is still a lot to improve around it but you have those pillars that

are set in place at some of the most important positions at left tackle, at receiver, at edge rusher. And now you have to look to some of the other ones that maybe are underrated, like defensive tackle, which I think is incredibly valuable. And they have Harrison Phillips, but they don't have a star at that position. And the cornerback spot, which I imagine that they're looking at Makai Blackman as somebody this year who could take a step forward and be more of a key player in this defense. But I'm not sure that Makai Blackman qualifies as the shutdown sauce gardener type cornerback

with his skill set. He can probably be very good and be a key piece if he continues to grow. But he's not someone we're looking at and going, oh, I'll set there, I'll set. So they'll have work to do still. They'll have depth to fill out. They're hoping that Blake Brandel becomes a solid left guard.

Garrett Bradbury seems like he is set in place as an average to solid center at this point. The right guard's still very much up in the air, but if you look at where the vikings overall blocking grade was last year as a team it was the best in years and a big part of that is christian derisaw you just can't be a really good offense without a left tackle unless you have patrick mahomes or maybe josh allen who are scrambling around all over the place. But this is just, it's just such a big deal for their future because now you have all the,

all the key spots in place and you can work around those parameters and being able to do it now and push some of that money out into the future. They can set this up and I'll be very interested when it comes out. I doubt it'll come out right away, but if any of you sees it, let me know what the structure is with salary cap hits. I think it'll be probably a couple of days until it gets in the system and then people report it for us to know. But my guess is the first couple of years will be pretty manageable. And here's how I know, Jefferson,erson hockinson it's always worked this way and then out into the distant future that's when you get your restructures that's when you get your

big salary cap hits and they will have to deal with it eventually but this team is built right now with some very very good stars who are not yet super expensive and will someday be in Jefferson and in Derrissaw, but won't be because they have these extensions, these long-term extensions for a little while, which does open up that window over the next two to three years to build around these players. And I always think that it's a lot easier. I mean, this is maybe common sense, but it's a lot easier to fill in the pieces than it is to find players like this who you want for a very long period of time. It's a lot easier to go to free agency and add one guy, a Jonathan Grenard type of player. Oh, there's one good player in free agency.

Let's bring him in. Let's overpay him a little while we're in our window. Then it is to draft someone that turns out to be this good. So write your thank you letters to Rick Spielman for picking Christian Derrissaw, one of the best left tackles in the league now set in place through 2029 with this huge contract extension. But of course, you know, I'm going to have to throw this out there. There was another move of significance for the Minnesota Vikings. I got this email and, uh, thought of all the people who were absolutely thrilled to see the Vikings

announce Duke Shelley, returning to town, five foot nine, 176 pounds, but you can't measure heart, folks. Christian Derrissaw, sorry, buddy, you're on the backseat for today. It is Duke Shelley season. Duke Shelley returning to the Vikings to fill out the cornerback room. And we did wonder if they were going to sign another corner as unfortunate as it is to discuss but the cornerback room was left with a big hole in it again that feels very bad to say but it is true that they had a spot there and duke shelly ends up returning he played really well for them two years ago in

2022 didn't get much opportunity last year i know that a lot of people wanted him to come back last year the vikings changed schemes they decided that he was probably better in the donatel style scheme so they didn't bring him back but this is somebody who made plays on the ball a couple of game saving interceptions or tip balls and pass breakups. And I am joking a little bit about the heart thing, but in all seriousness, Duke Shelley plays with a lot of guts. And if there's any team and any fan base that appreciates a player who plays with a lot of heart that's undersized at that position, It is most certainly the Minnesota Vikings having Antoine Winfield in the past. I guess for those maybe a little more OG fans, but Antoine Winfield is that guy that always gets brought up every time

there is an undersized corner who can make plays on the ball and tackle and so forth. I don't expect Duke Shelley to compete for a spot on the starting lineup because they have Shaq Griffin, Makai Blackman, and Byron Murphy in place, which if they all play their best football can be a good group. That hasn't happened for Griffin or Murphy yet or in a while, but they can. And I do have high hopes for Makai Blackman. I think that Blackman can be a very good corner for them, but lacking in depth with a Caleb Evans up and down last year, really down at the end of the season. Andrew Booth Jr., there's not a lot of belief in Andrew Booth Jr. taking that big jump forward. So you bring in Duke Shelley, maybe he can make the team, make the 53, be a special teamer,

and then be trustworthy. And we know that if Brian Flores finds a guy that he likes, he will get him on the field. You won't just sit on the sidelines and watch. So maybe that's Duke Shelley. That'll be something that we add to the list of players to watch during training camp with him returning. But I know he was a fan favorite. So let's get your reaction to Christian Derrissaw signing a massive extension, or if you have a take on Duke Shelley returning. But Derrissaw, $113 million extension, the guaranteed money, 43.7 at signing 77 million total in

guarantees. And we'll get those cap hits for you. Eventually I'll bring them up at some point in the week when they're in the over the cap system. But let me know what, what do you guys think? And also on the eve of the first practice that we get to attend. I will be there tomorrow on Wednesday at TCO Performance Center to watch practice, be doing a podcast tomorrow night, just like this, live on YouTube, and also guests throughout next week and all that that we always do.

Looking forward to that. Try to get a little more sun this summer to prepare my skin for being out there at all times. The weather's actually supposed to be nice, I think. So I'm very excited to get back on the field, watch real football again. It will be most likely a fairly light ramp up, no pads yet, but we will get to see what the lineups are, who's practicing with the first team, who's practicing with the second team, what practicing with the second team what types of reps jj mccarthy is going to get who is wide receiver 345 to start this training camp and where could that go in the future who's rotating in on defense where is andrew booth jr where is lewis seen where is everybody in the first practice and then we'll track them throughout the entire time. But I just

like being out there, being on the sidelines. This will be my, I believe it is eighth training camp because I arrived in 2016 to cover the team for 1500 ESPN before, no, I'm sorry, after camp 2016. So 2017 would have been my first training camp. The last one in Mankato, very memorable. So would that make 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. So yeah, eight training camps. Time flies, but I'm excited to be back on the sidelines. It's always so fascinating. So much happens over these next, whatever, six weeks leading up to the season. Joint practices in Cleveland, really looking forward to that. I've probably mentioned it about 10 times on the show because those are going to be some of the big practices,

but we'll have real-ish football to talk about. Only one home preseason game this year in a year that preseason is going to be quite interesting. All right. Let's get your questions, your comments, your reaction to the Vikings signing Christian Derrissaw. Just bottom line, if you're just popping in here, for me is doing it now will save the Vikings a little bit of money in the future because the salary cap is only going to keep going up, but it's really more about just knowing that this is done. There is no drama into next year, no drama into the rest of this training camp about Christian Derrissaw and his contract. And you can write out the Vikings pillars

and who they're going to build around now with extreme confidence that your left tackle is one of them. And he is just, in my mind, one of the quietest superstars in the entire NFL. When you look at him on paper by the PFF numbers, or I mean, heck, just watch him, then you realize this is one of the best players in the league, very rare talent at left tackle

to be a complete all-around player, tremendous pass protector, great athlete. They could actually use him a little more in the screen game, getting out and moving, does not have a serious injury history. Somebody who has been just a good teammate in the locker room, one of the quieter guys, but very well liked by this entire organization as is reflected in this contract extension. I mean, this is one of the no brainers that you're going

to have and to have it done now a year earlier than you even had to just is a cherry on top. And this, I didn't really mention, but in terms of the bigger analysis of the general manager, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, we went into this off season with a lot of questions, right? What are you going to do at quarterback? How are you going to deal with the Daniil Hunter pass rusher situation? Are you going to get Justin Jefferson extended, or is that going to go with the Daniil Hunter pass rusher situation? Are you going to get Justin Jefferson extended or is that going to go into training camp and there's going to be a battle there and a holdout and all those things? I didn't have on my list of analyzing the moves of the general manager, make sure you sign Christian Derrissaw. So that becomes a bonus, but we can officially now, I think, close the door on the off season

the day before they get out there and actually start practicing as a whole team. But we can close the door on the off season and say, this was a very, very successful off season for the Vikings front office in putting this roster together, extending the players that needed to be extended, replacing the players that left, and looking like a team that will be built over the next few years piece by piece, but can also compete this year. A lot of projections do have the Vikings last in the NFC North. That wouldn't be totally shocking considering just how good the top two teams are projected to be. I'm not entirely sold that Chicago with a rookie quarterback starting the whole time is going to be better than the Vikings, but it could happen, I suppose.

But it's really about the competitive rebuild was about setting yourself up to truly compete for a Super Bowl in the future. And having this guy at left tackle, that's a move that gets you closer and not farther away as almost all of the moves did. I would say that if we go through and we ask, did moving on from cousins and drafting a rookie, did that move you closer or farther away? Well, the answer is closer because we already saw what happened doing that simulation over and over and over again. And we've already seen rookie quarterback contracts like Bryce, uh, not Bryce, uh, like Brock Purdy. We'll see about

Bryce young, maybe Brock Purdy, Jalen hurts, Jared golf. when he was on his rookie deal. We've seen this model work numerous times of building a super roster around a very cheap quarterback. They're going in the direction that a lot of teams have had success with over the years. They've put together a coaching staff that rates extremely highly in the NFLPA anonymous survey, which not all coaches do and not all organizations rank as high as the Vikings. They've found some players that were undrafted free agents or that were special teamers that became key pieces. We've kind of actually seen this happen before, not that long ago when Teddy Bridgewater was here where they drafted key players and they were on the cusp of taking it to another level.

And of course, Bridgewater got hurt, but the model is there and they executed that. And then right at the end, they drop in, Hey, one more thing. Let's make sure we keep our left tackle for a long-term as it pertains to this year. this doesn't change a whole lot. Duke Shelley doesn't change probably a whole lot for their wins and losses. But into 2025, 2026, this is a plan that gives them a legitimate chance. None of us know how things will play out till then. None of us know if J.J. McCarthy will be great or not. All I know is about the process that they went about making this decision at the beginning of the era of Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah, and this includes the ownership, how they would go through this, how they would approach it, and where they needed to get to by the end of the offseason 2024, going into the 2024 season. And it has been well executed. That's not without bumps along the way. It's not without misdraft picks

or questionable draft trades or signings that went wrong. I saw Marcus Davenport starting on the pup. There's a shocker. But the bigger picture is they've got a lot to work with here now. And Derrissaw is a big part of that. So there you go.

That is the overall take on And Derrissaw is a big part of that. So there you go. That is the, that is the overall take on Christian Derrissaw and just, you know, some players, when you see the whole progression, someone gets here, they don't really know what they're doing yet. They go through some bumps along the way and then emerge as a great player in the league and then get this huge contract extension. It's a cool thing to see for every team. It's what every team and every fan base wants to see. You draft the player, you develop them. They turn into one of the best players at their position.

You extend them. This is just a home run for the Vikings to have Christian Derrissaw locked up. All right. I wasn't expecting this until a little later tonight, so I wasn't fully ramped up into emergency podcast mode, but at least I didn't do a podcast right before this happened. It's a, the things have been a little different in that way recently. Folks, us cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic we try to put our phones down

for dinner but the menu is on a qr code that's ironic we hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like ironic which is why us cellular created us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started okay let's get into your comments here. I forgot the pronunciation already, but Gizankid says, how long do you think this strategy of paying money to good players will work?

Yeah, well, usually it does. Usually it does. There is always that, oh, now you're going to have to deal with the salary cap implications, and they will, but not for a while. The way that Hawkinson's deal and Jefferson's deal and Derrissaw's deal are set up is pretty manageable and pretty flexible going into the next three seasons.

But if they still had Kirk Cousins, this would be viewed a little bit differently. If Kirk Cousins had signed here for a hundred million dollars guaranteed over four years, I would probably be saying, I don't know, guys, this one's going to get pretty dicey, but JJ McCarthy makes this all so much easier because you don't have. And have you seen what Jordan love is expected to get paid?

You do not have a $55 million contract for J.J. McCarthy. Think about how much different it is now. When you have a rookie quarterback contract, if the top guys are making $55 million and J.J. McCarthy is making $5 million, that is so much different than before where it was 30 million for Kirk Cousins was a lot that has changed so fast in the NFL. These quarterback salaries have just exploded. Even since, you know, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes signed their deals. Now you have Jordan Love who played really well for a half a season poised to become the highest paid quarterback in the league even

the chiefs are probably like ha what this is great but we continue to have our advantage but the vikings have even 10 times that with jj mccarthy on his rookie deal and if he becomes a good quarterback then you have all this money to spend on your superstar players and still other cap space to spend in the future on other positions like cornerback, like defensive tackle, another wide receiver, potentially if nobody pops this year and ends up being a star player. So this type of extension does not harm the Vikings chances in the future and I do want to throw this out there every once in a while we would kind of get one of those like hey um you know are the Wilfs just like not interested in spending the money or something like that and this offseason

they have put down a heck of a lot of money into this roster and And overall, we might say, I don't know if I want to go this far. I'm not sure. We'll see how it works out in the future. When Kweisi Adafomensa took over and talked about competitive rebuild, which I think we're all aware comes from the very top of ownership. That's what they wanted. And Adafomensa and O'Connell said, all right, let's do it. Let's go for it. And they did have a good roster in 2022. It probably wasn't quite as good as 13 wins on paper, but it was a good roster that you could win games with the, with that roster. They chose not to tear it down. And people like myself wondered, is that, is that going to be the right way to go? Or should you rip it all the way down? Well, we're going to find out in the future

if Chicago tearing it down or the Vikings not fully tearing it down ends up working out better. And Derrissaw is a piece of that. Not that they were ever going to get rid of him, but these big extensions that you end up giving out and remaining competitive and so forth was also the competitive rebuild about

getting the salary cap right to be able to manage these things. So they were able to do that, but they were not able to go all the way down to the number one overall draft pick where Chicago is. And I still think we don't have answers on whose rebuild has turned out better, but both teams are looking like they're going to be kind of the teams of the future here in the NFC North. So I think that it probably has been the best version of the competitive rebuild that we could have asked for.

That's the point is if we laid it out when they took over, all right, what does a competitive rebuild look like? It probably means a playoff season, then a little bit of a step back, then drafting a quarterback, extending your huge key players, spending money, setting up for the future with the salary cap, and that's what they've been able to do. Digits says, I like this deal for the Vikings. The timing and

the price next year would have been more costly and riskier to wait six years with Christian Derrissaw is good. Good. Yes. I completely agree that doing it right now is a major factor. It's not a huge story that the Vikings want to keep great player at left tackle because everyone would, but to be able to do it right now. And I think from Derrisa's perspective, why not? Why not get this taken care of right now? Why have the anxiety of, of next season wondering, you know, am I going to get the deal? What's it going to be worth? How's it going to go? Why not just lock it in right now? And they were able to get that done before training camp and that's you know that's a really really well-timed situation where he doesn't have to miss any time

there's no holdout there's no debate there's no sources and once again this was another one where they didn't leak out that this was going to be the case they probably could have mentioned it to us the other day at the press conference like hey, Hey, maybe, you know, keep your phone on or something tomorrow afternoon, but well done to get it done right now. Andrew says no brainer, having a wall on the left side gives Darnold and or McCarthy peace of mind to be the best version of themselves. Yeah. Presumably an extension is about McCarthy into the future. Although as we know, you never really know who's going to be the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. But when we look at the history of quarterbacks and success and we go,

is there any factor that could tell us who's going to succeed and who's going to fail. There have been some quarterbacks who have had good supporting casts, Trey Lance, for example, that just were not good and immediately bad. And there's nothing you can do about it. The guy just couldn't play in the NFL, or at least so far, that was the case with Trey Lance, but mostly it's what do they have around them? And if the entire rookie contract for JJ McCarthy has Derrissaw, Jefferson, Hawkinson, Addison, it's a heck of a start. It's a heck of a start to make sure that you have the most important positions around that quarterback, giving him every possible opportunity to compete and be the best version of himself because he does not have to worry about the best edge rushers in the league.

And then Derrissaw gets beat like everybody else sometimes, but by the numbers, he is elite. He is one of the best in the NFL at pass blocking. Last year, there were times, and this does happen, where Nick Mullins held on to the ball too long or Josh Dobbs scrambled into the player that Derisaw was blocking I think everybody got worn down at the end of the year Jaron Hall was tough to block for so some of the pressure and sack numbers were worse for him last year but the grade remained the same which to me said it was probably the quarterbacks that were causing it. And this is one thing that I did notice watching JJ McCarthy is that he's pretty good at getting rid of the football. I didn't see a ton of hang onto it, hang onto it, hang onto it, take a bad

sack every once in a while because he's a college quarterback, but he was pretty good at getting rid of the football. And if you're even pretty good at throwing on time, Christian Derrissaw is going to give you a chance to do that. And we know that the numbers, and this has long been a thing for Jared Goff, long been a thing for Kirk Cousins, that the numbers between unpressured throws and pressured throws are incredibly different. And the more unpressured throws that you can have the better the chance that your guy is going to succeed uh so it is a huge huge help for jj mccarthy i mean that kid walking out on his first practice just look over a left tackle you got to feel pretty good about that and look at look at wide receiver and you got to feel pretty good about that uh andrew follows up with uh spielman was

never a bad gm just out over his skis chasing a championship and that will get you fired every time sometimes yeah i mean if you don't have the quarterback who can drag you there like patrick mahomes and then you have to hit on draft picks and you have to be very shrewd which i thought that Rick Spielman made a lot of good moves. There was really with Spielman and Zimmer, you just have to draw a line, the pre Kirk and the after Kirk, because I didn't think Spielman did a very good job after Kirk in building around him in drafting a lot of positions outside of, of course, Jefferson and Derrissaw, the most

valuable, but on the defensive side, it really collapsed after the 2017 defense was no longer going into 2020, 2021, but building up to 2017 was a lot of good draft picks, a lot of good signings, someone like Captain Munnerlin at one point up to 2016, bringing in Terrence Newman, which I know was Zimmer related, but both of them making a good decision there. Linval Joseph, one of the best signings of that, probably Vikings history, one of the best signings. He was so good in that 2017 season, finding Adam Phelan, Stefan Diggs. They did a really, really good job of drafting, developing players and so forth. And then when they got to win now mode, as you mentioned,

the pressure was immense and you start panicking. You start cutting a kicker when he misses a couple of kicks. You start trading for Corey Ved and chris herndon and doing crazy things because you know that if you miss the playoffs you're fired and anytime we get into that spot you should probably just fire people anyway because they can't do their job to the best of their ability really though that the misses on on defense i think were a major thing that cost rick spielman but what they laid out for Kweisi Adafo Mensah to take the reins where the team was and to build on the good draft picks that Spielman had,

the Christian Derrissaw, the Justin Jefferson, and take all the credit in the world for those guys because they weren't the number one overall pick. And we know how hard it is to draft elite players who are not the number one pick. They certainly lucked out with the Jalen Rager thing. And for whatever reason, the Jets, although I think Elijah Veritaker has become a good player, but the Jets trading up with them and not taking Derrissaw, it all kind of had to have some draft day luck as well for Rick Spielman. But I generally

agree with you. I don't think that he was a buffoon general manager. I think that he did a good job working with Zimmer initially and then had some bad luck on the defensive draft picks and also became overwhelmed by the pressure of signing Kirk and desperation to win, which caused them to do some things that were just not very good use of their assets, not very efficient. And at the end of the day, let's really be honest here. If cousins was just, you know, a little bit better here or there then, and it's not all his fault. I know, but if you're going to pay someone huge dollars, and that's the point about signing Darisaw with McCarthy, not getting paid. If you're going to get paid the top dollars, the top cap hits, because you're on short-term deals all the

time, you have to be one of the best in the league. And through those years, he wasn't. So the way that they have dealt with this entire transition out of the expensive, solid, but not great quarterback, and then extending their key players, spending that money, spending on Grenard Van Ginkle. It all just lines up. It all makes sense to me. There were a lot of times during the late Spielman-Zimmer era where we just couldn't make sense of it. There were a lot of moves that we just went, I don't know, you know, bringing back certain players, Anthony Barr with Kyle Rudolph with these huge contracts when we knew they weren't going to be the same versions of themselves, drafting a center and a tight end, two positions that you just really don't want to be spending huge draft picks on when you have these other positions that are

in need, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But lately it has felt like everything has tracked the right direction. And now the hard part comes, which is to add the final pieces, to compete with the Lions, to compete with the Packers over a number of years, the way that the rest of it comes together and the way the quarterback comes together will be the determining factor of how this all ends up working out. But they've put the pieces in place to give it a chance for us to look at the roster on paper and go, yeah, there's a lot of high-end talent here. Now fill out the rest and make the quarterback work. Thomas says most cornerstone positions are locked up, maybe a top flight cornerback next season in

free agency taking full advantage of the cheat code rookie quarterback contract definitely free agency or probably the draft for defensive tackle a corner i mean i don't like to talk about the draft at all until i have to as you guys know uh This year was really fun, but next year, not going to be a lot of draft picks to do those draft sims for next year, but corner and defensive tackle are already all the way up at the top of the list for things that they have to have top-notch positions. I don't think you could be a great defense, no matter how smart your defensive coordinator is, if you can't cover people. And when Byron Murphy got hurt last year and they had to rely a lot on a Caleb Evans,

you saw that, that no matter what they did, Detroit was just tearing them up. And Detroit's a great team, of course, but just tearing them up on the defensive side, they need coverage. That needs to improve for sure. And I am just a big enjoyer of the defensive tackle position. Maybe agency, Kenny Clark signed an extension. We should have done an emergency podcast. Like let's go live to Garrett Bradbury to get his reaction to Kenny Clark signing an

extension. But that's the type of player that if you get that, that becomes a foundational piece and it's a nightmare for everybody you play against. They just don't have that yet. And until they have that, until the quarterback situation is at least above average, until you have the shutdown corner, a little more depth in terms of the wide receiver position, I think, the guards locked up, it's not there yet. When you compare it to San Francisco, when you compare it to Detroit, it's just not there yet. But Derrissaw being locked up is a big step in the right direction. Andrew says, snag a corner in a DT and there won't be a major

hole left on the roster unless Reichardt misses four field goals against the Packers. That's good. The other thing is we just don't know, and this is why camp becomes so interesting, is we don't know who's going to emerge between now and then. So is it somebody who we don't know about, an undrafted free agent that all of a sudden is a key player or a guy who's been developing in free agency that takes a step forward that we didn't necessarily really expect to happen. So that's got to happen. You have to continue to develop these players and find them if you're the Vikings, but usually corner defensive tackle, those are positions you have to spend money or draft picks, high draft picks to get. There's not a ton of those guys that just sort of come out of nowhere and turn out to be great. And that means that's going to have to happen into the future. Janet says, I think the cornerback room needed a guy like Duke Shelley. He's going to play with

all his heart and be tough. I mean, I agree with you that I'm never going to deny someone like Duke Shelley on the team. The way that he stepped in and played in 2022 was nothing short of remarkable. And I don't know how that thing is going to end up playing out the cornerback position because there now is a lot of competition behind the three expected starters. Now you have Andrew Ruth Jr., Caleb Evans, Shelley is in the mix and these guys are battling for a position but I could very much see Shelley making the team and he is somebody that you can rely on if you have to uh you know if you have to have somebody get hurt and he comes in the game or he could be a situational player but players like that guys who are supposed to have no chance whatsoever to make it. And then they do. And then they fight like crazy to be on the team.

I'm always going to be a big fan of those players. And I think that they're good for organizations because they push everybody with the effort, the toughness that you're talking about. There's real value in that. I don't think that that's just like a Rudy, congratulations, good for you, you tried type of thing. Duke Shelley can play and he is going to be focused a ton on in part because it's one of the easiest things to focus on because you can see them running the routes and catching the passes. Sometimes with a defensive tackle might be hard or a linebacker last year, we figured out what was going on with Ivan Pace just because of the reps. All of a sudden he starts getting first team reps.

We go, oh, whoa. Okay. But behind Jordan Addison and just the Jefferson is just a lot of question marks. I didn't really get a great look at Trent Shurfield. Somebody that had a good season two years ago in mini camp had a couple of catches. I've mentioned just Sean Jones as being interesting to me. Ty James is the guy from Mercer. And if you told me that any one of these dudes, Lucky Jackson, Tristan Jackson, anybody just popped up and stole that position and then all of a sudden, whoa, here we go.

We've got ourselves another feeling, folks. Or maybe Chad Beebe. I wouldn't be shocked. I mean, that's just kind of how that position works sometimes is the pads come on, somebody shines and then they get their spot. Or are we going to walk out saying, Hey, Brandon Powell, like this guy's wide receiver three. It's legit. Or this is the Jalen Naylor that we've heard about for so long. Naturally kicking competition, left guard, everybody. This Blake Brandel thing has got my attention.

They want Blake Brandel, it seems, to win the job. Dalton Reisner's back. How's that going to play out on the interior? Do we actually see Reisner take any reps at right guard, as they said, as Kevin O'Connell said was going to happen? There's almost not a position that you could bring up that there isn't some interesting storyline. How about tight end? There's a real serious battle at tight end. Is it going to be Robert Tunyon? Like we've been talking about, uh, does Johnny Munt have a great camp and

hold them off? Does Nick Muse show up or Nikhil Harry? Like don't know anything could happen at that spot because TJ Hawkinson is going to be sidelined Trent says with the Vikings potentially building a dynasty maybe we'll just hold on a little bit there with dynasty uh what do the Vikings do if JJ is obviously not a Super Bowl quarterback after playing him in 2025 draft Archie Manning or another top quarterback or sign and trade for a quarterback Trent. That is too far down the road for, for me. Uh, I can get out my goggles and try to look into the future a little bit, but that is, I don't know. I mean, if how bad would it have to be for them to know that he wasn't that in 2025? Probably it'd have to be pretty rough because year three is, is usually the season where we

have a good idea of what a quarterback is going to be. And when we look at all these salaries for Jefferson, for Hawkinson, for Derrissaw, and they've they've got you know first round pick that might be decent next year and cap space like crazy to spend with kirk coming off the books after this season if they set up the entire roster and in year two he is good then you have a chance that he could still take another step because of his age his youth uh But if it's just absolutely horrific in 2025, then people might get fired. I don't know. I mean, there's so many different permutations of this thing, or this is how much you don't know. Somebody else could just be there. It could be Sam Darnold. I have no idea. That's just a really hard question to answer what's going to

happen in the future. But I see your point though, because they're going to have a roster that is ready to win in that little window from 2025, 2026, that's going to be the window that they are expecting to compete for Superbowls. And if he's not not the guy then they're going to have to try to go find the guy but let us see how it plays out first before we start getting to he's not the guy yet like we'll get there at some point uh janet brings up a name i i left out thayer thomas at wide receiver that is a good one to bring up and he might be that guy. I have liked what I've seen from Thayer Thomas. He has natural catching ability. He has some quickness at the top of his routes.

He can kind of dip and make some moves that create separation. We've seen that from him. Is he big enough? Fast enough? I mean, when we talk about Adam Thielen, Adam Thielen was never a four three, but he, four, five in that ballpark. Thayer Thomas, I don't know, runs faster than four, six. He's not that he's not that big. So, I mean, I know I'm comparing him to Adam Thielen, like silly, silly because Thielen became one of the best receivers in the NFL. The point just being like, how good, how high is a ceiling for a player like that? Is it more like a BC Johnson who was a,

a little bit undersized, was not a huge guy, not the fastest, but a good enough route runner and had good hands and was smart and made the team and made some catches. If that's what they are, Thomas's ceiling is, and that's what he could become, then that would be pretty good. Brayden says, biggest priority heading into next offseason is interior lines, offense and defense. Yep, no disagreement there. We'll see how it plays out with Blake Brandel. Maybe they found something.

Maybe they didn't. I'm not sure. We see linemen all the time who are sixth round draft picks and all of a sudden they kind of develop and they start for a long time and you go okay well how about that so that might be Blake Brandel or it might be nothing I mean I don't know we're gonna start to learn that in the coming weeks here about where they stand and I would leave the door open for Ed Ingram he took a step last year. It was a brutal start to the season, but as the season went along, he was an average guard last year, closer to average,

still did allow a lot of pressures. If he can be consistently average, slightly above average, even if it's a little rocky from week to week, that would be a successful draft pick for one. So far, you've got a lot of starts out of him, which is a success to get starts out of a draft pick. But if he is above average next year and takes a step forward, then you feel pretty good about that. And with Bradbury, you know, when I looked, I looked at this not too long ago and I know it's, I know it's stat spinning, but sometimes you have to look at things this way before the end of the season. And one of the games was against Kenny Clark and where he got crushed. And that was when

Jaron Hall started and the whole team got crushed before that Bradbury was sitting around above average as a center. And I think that he has not been under Kevin O'Connell, a liability. I think he's been a good center, not a great one, not, this is not Matt Burke. This is not even Jeff Christie, probably, uh, Joe Berger for, for one year Berger for one year. Uh, maybe not even of that level, but it's been pretty solid and quality leadership, I think from Garrett Bradbury. So it really comes down to those two guards and if they could get those locked in. But you're right.

I mean, no disagreement for me. The interiors, if you can dominate those, then you are gold. Brian, do you think we trade for Adam Thielen? I don't think that the Panthers want to trade Adam Thielen. That's not from any sources from a former guest of the show that now works for the Carolina Panthers. That is just common sense that I know he's going to get paid and he's expensive, but they need everything around their quarterback for Adam Thielen. And I mean, why would you take any veteran weapon away from Bryce Young when

you're looking for him to take that huge step forward? And Thielen was one of the one guys who could actually catch the ball when Bryce Young threw it to him last year. I don't think that would be very smart for Carolina to be just getting rid of him. Uh, as from a Vikings perspective too, it's always fun to bring somebody back who you like. Duke Shelley, for example, he's back. Everyone likes him. At the same time, Adam Thielen is on the older side. You're looking more for someone to show up.

And I talked about this a few weeks ago on the free agent list. I still see people writing about, well, should they sign this free agent or that free agent? I'd rather just have Duke Shelley fill out a spot or get someone who might have some potential off the undrafted free agent list or whatever, and let these guys fight it out going forward and see who shows up at the wide receiver position. I'd prefer that to going out and getting, you know, someone who is on the older side, declining a one-year option. I I'd rather see, let's find out if someone is on the bench that we don't know about yet. Like Ivan Pace was last year. We're going to be bringing up Ivan Pace as the example, probably for many years,

but he's not the only one. Anderson Dayho, Anthony Harris, like these guys have shown up through the years, but they need opportunity to do it. A couple more questions here. Andrew says, does guard guy get a contact high from left tackle signing of this magnitude? Yeah, I haven't seen guard guy in the comments tonight, unfortunately. Maybe he's jealous. Maybe he's upset. I'm not sure. I don't know if guard guy supports all the offensive linemen or he's really just focused on the guards. But that is something we will be looking at for a while is how that left guard position plays out. Because even if Ingram is middling, meh, just the guy, and Bradbury is reliable year in and year out to run the offense, do all the checks

at the line of scrimmage, all those things he's trusted and he's good enough. And he's going to have his bad game where everyone goes, oh my gosh, Bradbury, but week in and week out for the most part, he's average or a little above and run blocking. If you get the left guard to even be average, that is a hell of a line. I don't know if anybody in the league these days has five great players across the line, but if you have two and the center is solid and that's kind of the head of the snake and the guards are okay, then you can be pretty good place. If they have to play Reisner again for the whole year, it's going to be hard to run the football and you still won't have an answer.

So there is still work to be done there. Uh, Anthony says we have some of the top dogs in the league at key positions and Darisaw Jefferson, O'Neill Hawkinson, but yet most of NFL America sees our team as a non-factor. So ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, um, for this season, it's really about the quarterback position is why I don't think that it's about anything else other than that, other than just if you're if you're Vegas and you're setting your odds and you're setting your lines, who are you going to start with? Where are you going to begin with a franchise? You're going to begin with a quarterback. And if you look at Sam Darnold's past and you look at JJ McCarthy's inexperience, it would be really difficult.

If you were having to put money down and you didn't care about this team to say, put my money on the over Sam Darnold. Here we go, baby. Who's in his division? Oh, the number one overall pick and a guy who's about to become the highest paid quarterback and also the team that went to the NFC championship. That doesn't seem great. That's why the point is really about the future and what they have that all those guys you just mentioned are in for the future of building this team. And if McCarthy clicks, then they're going to be in excellent, excellent shape. And I also think though, to your point, when I picked the schedule and I try to do it as

objectively as I can, uh, you know, I came up with them being in the mix at the end of the season, eight wins, nine wins somewhere in that range, because I do believe in a few things. One is star talent matters more than anything else. That's one. Number two, coaching matters a lot. And they have one of the best defensive coaches in the NFL and an offensive

coach who, when Kirk cousins was playing, they were a top 10 offense from the time they started in 2022 until Kirk got hurt in week eight. I think last year in that time span, thanks shout out pro football reference. They were one of the best offenses in the league, not the best, not up there with Kansas city or, you know, some of the better teams, Dallas or the lions, but they were well above average. I think it was seventh or eighth in scoring. Uh, so I do believe that they have the coaching to be in the mix for a playoff spot

with a little bit of an uncertain quarterback position and some other weaknesses on the team. Uh, but Paul brings up a good point here that the schedule is also hard. I don't know what the strength of schedule people are saying about the Viking schedule, but when you go quarterback by quarterback, there's a lot of talent that they're going to face and they're playing Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy. We just don't know what that's going to look like. And that's why the range of outcomes on the high end, it's not super likely that it's going anywhere over 10, but the low end is probably five or six. And this is the widest range we would have had going into a season in a very, very long time, which makes it interesting that we don't know how the

quarterbacks are going to play. But also if you're outside of Minnesota and you're just looking at this team going, well, they're kind of rebuilding. They're kind of, you know, a team that has some talent, some star players, but the quarterback position's not settled. How, how am I going to talk about them as a division winner with someone in Sam Darnold, who has, I think a 21 and 35 career record, 70 something quarterback rating. Like these aren't things that you normally connect at the quarterback position to a team overachieving, but if they do, it will be because exactly what you said, they have the superstar power in order to do it. Uh, Seth points out Christian Derrissaw versus Brian Burns week one. Yeah. How about that?

The same guy that he went up against. And I think it was his first start against Carolina and his second game. Maybe he had gotten in against Cleveland 2021. Is that how it went? So Evan says they're tied for the 16th toughest schedule. Strength of schedule is always such a weird thing to bring up because we just haven't seen anyone play yet. And we don't know what quarterbacks are going to get hurt. We really only know strength of schedule in the rear view mirror after the season is done. It's, I think it's a fun exercise. Maybe that's kind of what you expect, but I don't know that it really actually tells us how hard it's going to be the way that I've always looked at it is opposing quarterbacks. Who are you playing on your schedule? And all right, Daniel Jones,

he kind of owns you, but I, you know, I don't think he's that great. And then you go after that. You got Brock Purdy, CJ Stroud, Jordan Love, Jared Goff on the way. We'll see what Aaron Rogers is, but if he's good, then that's a problem. It's a hard, it's a hard schedule. It's a hard schedule. And I don't want to make it seem like I don't care about the record this year or you shouldn't care about the record because of course you do. And this team should try to fight as hard as they can to be in the playoffs.

And they have way too much star talent to just sort of go, I don't know, let's all have a good time. But if we're living in reality and talking about that range of outcomes, where does the bar hit in the most likely, like, where is it most likely that they're going to end up? It's probably not above 10 wins, 10 wins is possible, but it's probably not the most likely outcome.

Most likely is more in the seven, eight, nine type of range, but that could end up being a promising season. If they end up having a lot of the star players play well, and then other players that we don't expect emerge into these positions. But then by the end of the year, we'll know, Hey, they're going to have to spend here, here, here, and here to get to the top. We'll also know how good Jordan love is, how much longer the Lions are going to have, how good Caleb Williams might be, and where the Bears are going to stand. So there's so much to find out throughout this season. And that starts for me and all of you tomorrow when the Vikings hit the

field for the first time. Couldn't be more excited about it. And and by the way if you're watching live here this every practice that i cover the night of the practice i will be here sitting in this seat come home from tco performance center i'll record some podcasts with the other beat reporters out there as well but we'll do a live chat with you guys bring you the notes of the day get all your questions comments and we'll definitely have lots of time for how's JJ looking. And you can ask how anybody else is looking as well, because I'll see it from start to finish every single practice this year. Just, just thrilled about it. So make sure you like subscribe a go over to purple insider.com sign up for the newsletter because that's where my written work is going to be features daily analysis press conferences all those things uh it's just going to be a great time

and i'm going to provide as much possible content for your face that i can it's going to be all football all the time from now until well i mean always on the channel, but we're starting football and we will be with some type of football, practices, preseason games, regular season games until February. That's a good feeling. That's a good feeling, friends. So thanks everybody for watching this emergency podcast

talking about Christian Derrissaw and his contract extension. And I will see you guys tomorrow night with plenty of reaction from the first Vikings training camp practice. Let's go football. Thanks everybody.