Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Vikings extend TJ Hockenson

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz from Sports Illustrated talk about the Vikings announcing TJ Hockenson has signed a long-term contract extension. They also discuss the importance of getting Justin Jefferson signed before the season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome inside TCO Performance Center. Matthew Collar along with Will Rangets. And guess what? We got ourselves a contract extension, Will. How about that? This is a different regime, man. We never saw this coming on this timing today. That the Vikings would show up at TCO Performance Center, Kweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell for their press

conferences and announced that they have an extension for TJ Hawkinson. And you know, we preached patience, Will. Going all the way back, we said, nobody freak out. And even yesterday, I was saying, oh, it's getting a little closer and my percentages are dropping for this to happen. But we have always been on the side of this is a good idea. And we have always been on the side of this is a good idea. And we have always been on the side of, hey, these things take time. They're going to work it out. And guess what? We've got a contract extension for TJ Hawkinson. So break it down, sir. Your thoughts. Yeah, we going back weeks. I mean, I think of the start of August, even late July, we were trying to come up with

a date of when would be time to panic. And it is August 31st today. And I think we may have estimated, you know, if the calendar hits September, then it starts to get pretty real and starts to become a possibility that this won't happen. And they went right up to the very end of that, but they got it done. As of right now when we're recording this, we don't have the numbers or the exact details, but the wording of some of the reports make it seem like he did not reset the tight end market, did not maybe exceed that $17 million that Darren Waller is getting, but it's probably somewhere in that $15 to $17 range, and if that's the case, I think it's a good move. As we talked about on a few recent shows, I know Kweisi Adafomensa wants to be smart about things and plan things out and have his numbers that he's willing to kind of go

to, but when you have a good player who fits really well in your offense, I just think it makes too much sense to sign that guy and have him be a part of this offense for a long time with what he can do in the passing game with what he means for Justin Jefferson and kind of dictating coverage and taking advantage of all the ways that teams try to stop Justin Jefferson it just worked so well after the trade last year and now it's going to be a big part of Kevin O'Connell's offense for a long time I thought it was really interesting to hear Kevin O'Connell talk about admiring TJ Hawkinson, even going back to his time in Detroit and watching Matthew Stafford film and continually seeing TJ Hawkinson show up on tape.

And I think that he's even been a better fit for the Minnesota Vikings than he has been in Detroit. And clearly one team extended him and the other team didn't. But, you know, we can't lose sight during these negotiations because we always, when there's a negotiation, when someone wants money, we go to, well, how much money, sir? How much money are you asking? You're not perfect. But we can't lose sight of how great of a fit this guy was for the Minnesota Vikings last year. I mean, he comes in right away is excellent in his first game.

And that's the thing that sticks out to you because that's your first impression is, wow, how did he do that? Like without even knowing the playbook, right? Exactly. Or just getting as much of it as he could. But to me, it's the playoff game. The playoff game will forever for a lot of people be about how it ended. And of course, that throw was to TJ Hawkinson. But in that game, the New York Giants sold out to take out one player, and that was Justin Jefferson. And they largely succeeded. But they made them pay with TJ Hawkinson throughout that game.

They had an offensive performance that usually wins you a playoff game. And they were, of course, completely let down by the defense. But I mean, I think that that says a lot about TJ Hawkinson and what he can do when you take out Jefferson in a game and he takes over the game. And I think it was, what, 10 catches on 11 targets in that playoff game. So this is why I've always been on the side of this is a guy that I would want to keep. And another part of it for me, too, is it doesn't feel like he is a player who's reached his peak and that's all he'll ever be or it's going to decline. I think you got him right in at the peak of his powers where he is still ascending or he is going to be at the top of his game for several years of this contract.

Yeah, I believe he's 26 years old right now. I mean, it's about value and it's about fit. And I don't think it has really anything to do with what the Vikings gave up to get him last year. Like that's in the past. They're not extending him because they traded a second and third or whatever it was to Detroit. It's about the way that he fit in their offense. And there were some Lions fans I saw on social media when there were reports about, you know, TJ Hawkinson, his ear infection in his back. And they're like, oh, this is why we traded him. Like, you don't want to pay him and he's not worth it and all that. And for Detroit, maybe that's how they viewed it. It is how they viewed it. They didn't want to extend him and make him a big part of their thing. For the Vikings, it works out really

well. And credit to Kweisi Delfomense. He took a risk in doing it, brought him over midseason, had kind of that second half trial period. And it went about as well, I think, as they could have hoped. So now you use that information and you go into this offseason and you go into negotiations. And if you can find the right number, which clearly they did, you make it happen.

Because I think TJ Hawkinson, he's more than just kind of your typical tight end that you think of. He is legitimately a kind of pseudo wide receiver two in this offense. I think they obviously still want Jordan Addison to be that. But TJ Hawkinson can be a high volume secondary pass catcher who benefits from what defenses are trying to do to stop Justin Jefferson. He can stretch the seam. He can move from sideline to sideline like this. This guy is a great athlete. I mean, some of the yards after catch stuff is rare for tight ends. You look at how he tested coming out. There's a reason he was a top 10 pick coming out of college in 2019. Like this guy is a legitimately great athlete for the tight end position. And is he the best blocker in the world?

Is he George Kittle? No, but that's why the Vikings brought in Josh Oliver. And I think that the compliment of those two with what you have with Jefferson and Jordan Addison, like to me, the pieces all just are starting to make sense on this offense. And without TJ Hawkinson, it wouldn't have made as much sense because then you're really asking KJ Osborne to maybe do a lot and maybe more than is ideal. Maybe you're asking Josh Oliver and Johnny Munt to take on more of a receiving role

than they're really built for as NFL players. So to me, with Hawkinson extended and kind of a part of this offense for a long time, it all really starts to make sense. Now, we need to see it this year, and we need to see what Kevin O'Connell's offense looks like in year two and what the adjustments are, what they can do to get a more efficient run game, which TJ Hawkinson will be a part of. But yeah, to me, it just at 15 or 16 million or whatever it ends up being, it made sense for this Vikings team at this point in time. And everything is about the offensive setup, the weapons you can give the next quarterback but

also i mean now you get t.j hawkinson back without the ailments and without but without the distraction going into the season of the contract situation no concerns there but i i just the reason i like this for a long-term play is because assuming you can get Justin Jefferson extended, and we'll talk about that in a moment because that one's more complicated. I've always felt like it was more complicated, though there seems to be some momentum building, though on the other hand, anything that's out there in national media about the Minnesota Vikings does not seem to matter. Just as a matter of fact, just as a looking at the scoreboard, it has not really been a regime that is putting stuff out there, telling everybody what their

internal business is going on. And it seems like there's a lot more reaching recently than there was maybe in the past where some people were more dialed in. So that's just something to take note of as we react. And so I thought that with a lot of the fans, when it was out there that he wanted to, quote, reset the market, then there was this like, oh, well, why would he want that? He's not that good and everything else. And I think for just future reference, during negotiations with a player, we need to just block all that out,

like let it play out, which is a really hard thing to do in football. And I'm never one as doing a show to just be like, all right, everybody, let's not talk about it. Let's just wait and see how it plays out. Like wait and see is a boring take. But in some of these cases, wait and see has to be the take. But when you look at how this is set up for the future I think KJ Osborne hopefully he's renting and not buying in Minnesota because there's only going to be so much money to go around that's probably at the top of the list for why they drafted Jordan Addison but when you're looking two years down the road quarterback X gets Justin Jefferson one of the most reliable tight ends in

the NFL and versatile, which Kevin O'Connell talked a lot about all the places he can line up. He actually about 50% of snaps was not at the traditional tight end position. I mean, that's pretty remarkable. And then Jordan Addison, we'll see how he develops as the season goes along, but the early returns are very good. That's a heck of a starting point. And then Christian Derrissaw as well. Brian O'Neill as well. Like these, when we talk about why quarterbacks fail as rookies, there's a lot of reasons, but one reason is that they're usually coming into a team that is not good. And so we're seeing all the hype about like Kenny Pickett. Well, Kenny Pickett went to a good organization with some good players there to start with. I think that now with Hawkinson, it gives whoever is playing quarterback a security blanket to start with that most of the time quarterbacks don't get when they're first coming into the league.

Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, this is about the 2023 season. And, you know, I mean, TJ Hockinson was going to be here either way, but this removes the kind of awkwardness and any potential hold out, hold in situation. The Vikings offense has a chance, I think, to be pretty good in year two of this system this year. All the pieces seem to be there. Health is obviously going to be kind of critical, as it always is in the NFL on both sides of the ball. But it's also about really beyond 2023 and kind of building the foundation, building this house for a young quarterback to come in and be set up for success. And you just said it. I mean, I can't think of much better setups for a rookie quarterback, maybe probably a rookie quarterback could be a young quarterback

that you acquire via trade, whatever it is, they are going to come in with the tackle duo set, one of the best tackle duos in the NFL, Justin Jefferson, the best wide receiver in the NFL, assuming that the Vikings get that done, whether it's this offseason, next offseason, as they are going to make absolutely every effort to do. TJ Hawkinson has the security blanket. I mean, it's a great way to put it. He really is that. And that's kind of a cliche people use about tight ends. But it's true because T.J. Hawkinson can do some field stretching stuff down the seam and be an intermediate and even a deep target in some ways. But a lot of times it's going to be what he can do on eight to 10 to 12 yard routes and short dump offs, even tight end screens in breaking routes,

outbreaking routes, outbreaking routes, all these things. He presents a big target. He has reliable hands. And then he can do some things after the catch when he gets the ball in his hands. So he really is that security blanket. And if Jordan Addison is like 80 or 90 percent of the guy that we are maybe making him out to be after watching him every day in training camp, that's going to be a heck of a football

player, too. And then you just talk about like that is a great setup even kj osborne is maybe gone after this season it's a contract year for him you can have jaylen nailer or you can step in or you can keep brandon powell around you can you can draft there's a million good wide receivers coming out of college every year that you can then have on a rookie contract even if as we learned with kj osborne even if you draft him in the fifth round there's a chance that that guy will hit and become a productive player so it really is just a great setup for this year with kirk cousins and then for 2024 and beyond with whoever the quarterback's gonna be uh struggling to fill the third receiver spot uh is a bit of a

champagne problem which was uh mentioned once by quacey in a press conference but also you're a big t-swift guy i mean i went as well so i had had to throw that out there let's uh let me just one more thing about tj hawkinson yeah is there any is there any counterpoint here because i feel like i've been so strongly on the side of sign hawkinson that i just i took out a magic marker and just wrote it on my face at one point during the podcast like uh you're not going to convince me that it's not a good idea to sign this guy uh is there any counterpoint to this is there any like hey let's hold our horses young gentlemen I'm not so sure uh because I I'm having trouble thinking of one when you extend a player like this and the reason I keep looking at my phone is i'm

waiting um for people who are watching if you're listening you didn't notice at all uh but i'm i'm just waiting trying to get the details before we jump off here of um you know what this is going to be but i think we've got a good sense of the ballpark it's going to be i think you give yourself flexibility when you have when you sign someone to a multi-year contract. That's why the franchise tag, everyone talks about it as, oh, well, you could just tag him, right? But tagging him takes up like 15 million cap hit, whereas Evan Ingram, who just signed his deal, has a $5 million cap hit this year. You can move money around, but just give it a shot. Give it a try, just for fair and balanced here on the

show which is not something uh we ever try to be uh i usually try to argue as hard as i can for my takes but is there a counterpoint yeah we would we were talking about this like i understand why quesadilla fomenta took his time with with this and why this maybe dragged a little bit longer than some people would have liked is because it's negotiations. You have a number that you want to get to. If this was going to be something where TJ Hawkinson's camp was demanding to become the highest paid tight end to break Darren Waller's mark, get $18 million a year, then I could have definitely understood the argument for, hey, we don't really necessarily want to do that. As great of a fit as you are, you have to kind of stick to your plan and stick to what makes sense in your books. It doesn't sound like that's going to be the case.

It sounds like it's going to be in that 15 million-ish ballpark. And to me, it's hard to find, like you say, it's hard to find the reason to argue against that because of the way the tight end market has kind of lagged behind a little bit. And with a player like TJ Hawkinson, like if you think about 15 million a year for a wide receiver, like that is that's just really not that much at this point. Christian Kirk got like 21 million a year or whatever. Like that is 15 million is the tight end market has not caught up to wide receivers. And I get that one is a more valuable position than the other tight ends are not truly like outside of like travis kelsey or mark andrews and and hockinson to some extent going to be those elite route runners and separators and really

driving uh your passing attack but tj hockinson is a good player man and and it at the number that we think it's going to be, okay, I'm really not doing what was asked here. Oh, you've done a horrible job. I'm thinking around it. I think the argument would be maybe you could make the argument that it is the tight end position, and that would be as good as Hawkinson may be, that he's still a tight end, and he's still the efficiency when you look at targeting tight ends versus targeting wide receivers it's maybe not going to be there so to the extent that this could take away from future Jordan Addison earnings or Jordan Addison targets or whatever making him the center kind of

number two if he pans out then it's not as smart I think that would kind of just the positional value would maybe be the argument with TJ Hon, he's not an elite blocker. I think there are maybe some reasons, some valid reasons, why the Lions felt comfortable moving on from him. So that would be my best attempt. I did not do a great job. I'm aware of that. But that's because it's hard for me to do when I do not exactly believe

that this was a bad idea. It's like a D minus. Yeah. But that's OK. This wasn't a game of talk me out of. So but talking about his blocking is kind of like talking about Giannis Antetokounmpo's free throws. You're like, technically, you're right. He does struggle at the free throw line.

But really, I mean, you know, like, oh, so you don't want them. That's the same thing. It's like it's not that TJ Hawkinson comes near someone and falls down. I just think he's not a truly Josh Oliver level super effective blocker, which is why you have Josh Oliver and maybe, you know, he becomes a huge weapon for them. And it's great to have more of those. But I mean, I never thought that they were just going to be like, oh, well, you know, it's OK. You're not a great blocker. We could just move on to Josh Oliver and he'll be our guy in the future. So I don't think that there is a great argument against it. But there is another discussion to be had here which is about justin jefferson i think that if you go down the list of boxes to check for quesia da fomentas competitive rebuild a lot of them have been checked that they had young players emerge their starting corners had good camps and they're young and that's interesting undrafted free agents

made the roster Jordan Addison looks great Makai Blackman so every you know everyone's still upset about the last draft but how about this draft and the undrafted free agents and so forth uh it looks like Asamoah and Pace are both going to play at linebacker so you know maybe there's that as well so I think everything's kind of looking good from their perspective. It's like ideal. They're mostly healthy. Almost, I would like 95% healthy going into the season. But there's this one thing and it's not a little thing. It's a gigantic thing that still rests over this organization.

Can you call it a successful offseason without a contract extension for Justin Jefferson? I think you can call it a somewhat successful offseason. You can call it successful with a qualifier. I think you look at the entire body of what they did and you can evaluate that and call that a success. But there is just that big looming cloud. There's the two most important things. I mean mean the number one thing is the quarterback situation and that remains unresolved and that is just going to be the absolute thing that we talk about until it happens until they get it right is the quarterback thing that hasn't happened yet and that wasn't

going to happen this offseason they made their decision a long time ago to kind of push that to 2024 and that's fine but then right under that I mean as close under that as any other player in the NFL can be that is not a quarterback is Justin Jefferson who is the best wide receiver in the NFL and absolutely makes things so much easy for you easier for you on offense, helps your quarterback, whoever that is. Just the fact that that hasn't gotten done yet and you're about to head into the season and I know that he has another year of the rookie contract and then fifth year option, but if he goes out there and just has another amazing year and do we have any TJ Hackinson

contract details? No, Nathan Peterman. another amazing year and do we have do we have any tj hackinson contract details no nathan peterman i was gonna say you were gonna really laugh at who just interrupted this you're you're going on this this brilliant analysis of the justin jefferson and you're like wait is that the news we're waiting for no that's uh the bears have signed nathan peterman to their practice squad or something no wait it must. It must be their 53. Oh, wow. Wow. Big news. Shout out to Nate Peet. Carry on.

He helped them get the number one pick. He did do that. You've got to give him credit for that. He did do that. But if he has another season, if he has his 2,000-yard season, just every year he's continued up his production, the price just goes up. Justin Jefferson gets one year away from free agency and

one maybe wonders about the quarterback situation I don't want to feed into you know Minnesota fans kind of doomer mindsets right now but it's it's a real thing to discuss that you wonder what Jefferson's thought process is okay they didn't extend me here they couldn't get to the number that my camp was asking for how do i take that how do i feel about that i go in i prove again that i am the best wide receiver in football i'm looking at hitting potentially free agency in 2025 and the vikings could tag him i think that would be a high number but they could do it. But it could just become a situation like, I believe it was Nick Bosa this year who was heading into that fifth-year option year, didn't have a deal. Like, it just could become a thing and more of a thing.

It's not really a thing right now. It's like he's eligible for the extension, and obviously we've been discussing the fact that it hasn't happened. But there's no awkwardness. Justin Jefferson is focused on going into the season, and he's not too worried about the contract stuff at least from what he says publicly I just think if it doesn't happen this offseason it's probably not gonna happen during the season because like Kweisi Daufman said today like you know players just like to focus on the season once it gets going that's probably not happening if that goes to next offseason the

dynamic just seems to change a little bit to me one year further down the line uh of how jefferson might start to feel about the process and what's being built maybe it doesn't maybe i'm just completely making that up and he's would be totally fine signing uh the deal next year maybe maybe he gets even more money off of it because he has another great season and more leverage in that sense but it worries you just a little bit that if it goes to spring 2024 it could start to be more of a kind of tense thing you cannot understate how important this is like there's no level of hyperbole that that could describe like how important this is this is kevin garnett this is randy moss this is anthony edwards this is joe mauer this is all the most important

kirill kasparov like uh sorry sorry uh there's a chess player named gary kasparov so anyway but um the the importance is so uh through the roof i mean it's it's like vital to minnesota sports like this go this transcends even just the the vikings like he's the franchise he's also like with all respect to kaprizov and edwards and and royce lewis and all these guys right now it Justin Jefferson is the face of Minnesota professional sports. Yes, 100%. Like the superstar of the state. Yes, I 100% agree. And he's also like one of the faces of the NFL.

I mean, he was voted the second best player in the entire league. I'm with you, basically. It's really like that level. It cannot be overstated how devastating it would be, especially when you look at the past history of Moss and Garnett and Ortiz and all these people, if Jefferson is not a Viking for the next 10 years. The thing that we have to remember is that all the NFL rules are set up for him to stay and that the teams always win. So like with Josh Jacobs, team one, Saquon Barkley, team one. I mean, these are big stars for those teams and I know they're running back, so they have even less leverage, but with Nick Bosa, I know who's winning. I know who's going

to get their deal. It's going to be San Francisco because that's the rules. And is it fair? Like, not exactly, but it doesn't really benefit the player to go all the way to the end of the road and end up with whatever kind of contract benefits for missing all of the camp and everything else. It's better to usually just sign the best contract you could get at the market rate. But if you're Jefferson, you have the most leverage anyone's ever had at this position. It's probably even more than Nick Bosa because of what you just mentioned. It's not one edge rusher where we know this. You can have an edge rusher who has 14 sacks and have a bad defense. Hey, we saw it last year.

Their edge rushers were great on offense. If you've got Randy Moss, you're going to be pretty good. It doesn't matter if Gus Farratt's throwing the ball or if it's Dante Culpepper or whatever. You're going to be pretty good. It doesn't matter if Gus Farratt's throwing the ball or if it's Dante Culpepper or whatever. You're going to be pretty good. And it drives the success of the side of the ball that matters the most. So you can't understate just how important he is on so many different levels. The other thing is, too, that Randy Moss had some of his issues and was, you know, oh, we've got it. We've got was, oh, we've got it.

We've got it, folks. We've got it. Okay. So he has a contract for four years, $68.5 million, which is the resetting of the tight end market. It is. So that's more than 17. By 120, you're sharp, by $125,000. Yeah.

He cleared Darren Waller. Wow, okay. 17 with $42 million guaranteed. That's a big number. Highest in NFL history. So does this change your mind at all? That it is the number one contract among all tight ends. I had him myself a little bit lower than that.

I had him more in the about 15 to 16 range, a little above Evan Ingram. And they actually went for it and went above Darren Waller. How about that? Wow. It makes it seem like this maybe was what was needed to get it done. And I think that's very interesting. you seem like it makes it seem like this maybe was what was needed to get it done and it i think that's that's very interesting i don't know that it changes really my opinion on it completely uh i think what will be notable to see is first of all the guaranteed money is 42.5 million

um that's not it's not fully guaranteed it'sousins' contract. How it'll be kind of structured, every NFL contract, the way they do it is it's kind of backloaded. So we'll see what the year-by-year cap hits look like, what maybe the Vikings can do with it in 2025, 2026. But, I mean, it's good for TJ Hawkinson. His camp gets to say that he is the highest paid tight end in NFL history by just a tad over $17 million. I don't know that the difference between if it had been $16 million or if it's $17.125 million really swings how I feel about it. I think it adds a little bit of risk. I mean, that is a lot of money for a tight end. That is historic money for a tight end, just mathematically. So, yeah, I expected the number to be a tiny bit lower.

But you're right. This just continues to be a thing where don't listen to the wording of the national media when they say you'll become one of the highest paid. He's now the highest paid tight end in NFL history. So, I don't know. Does it change how you feel about it? No, because – so here's the thing. I did think it was a little bit lower.

And if you were asking me for my valuation, I would have said when you compare him on paper to Evan Ingram, he's probably a little closer to him, and he's better than him. But he's a little closer to him than he is george kittle uh okay but george kittle signed his deal before so let's just even factor for it going up a little bit i still got to like a 15 to 16 somewhere in that ballpark it ends up coming in one million dollars over it kind of sometimes we have so much information that it's bad so it's like well well we can't make him the highest paid and what are we gonna it's like guys it's 1.1 million over what we kind of thought it was going to be or 2.1 million so it's a nick vigil contract they

signed nick vigil by the way he's back to the practice class It's a Nick Vigil contract away from. And that's just in the total dollar figure, which we have to very, very much be careful about quoting the exact dollar figure because it's about the cap hits year over year that matter to this team and how they're designing their roster, the decisions they can make and so forth so it's really about the structure more than it is the aav the average annual value that's the number that they his agent runs to adam schefter with and says get it out there get it out there yeah that meant that doesn't matter at all to quesia da fomenta when he's doing his roster projections for years and his cap projections for years ahead so i think it's it's above what I thought it was going to be, uh, based on just what I think he is as a player. But I also think like, let's not be overly like cap nerds here and just allow that's two, 2 million too much. Come on, come on. Is it you get TJ Hawkinson and he's still a good player. So I I don't think that it changes my mind really at all.

And also when you'd have the 42 guaranteed, what is it for the fully guaranteed? Because this is where it gets really, really wonky and in the weeds. But it is interesting that he was able to get that deal ever so slightly. And my my apologies. I'll just go back and say that we kind of made fun of the reset the tight end market thing. And he did just by ever so slightly that he aimed to do that. And he did. So I rescind my reset the tight end market snark because he did. So anyway, I think we covered that in the Justin Jefferson thing. Kenny Wong Wu doesn't sound good.

Asking Kevin O'Connell about it, and he said it's a back issue. And as someone who's had a little bit of back problems, let me tell you, nightmare, awful, terrible, wouldn't wish it on anybody. If your back seizes up or you've got lower back issues, I mean, you are completely shot it's awful uh but from the way kevin o'connell talked they put him on ir it could be a while he said hope we get him back at some point this season yeah yikes that was that was the interesting wording i mean they they put him on the initial 53 so that he would be eligible to return at some point this season.

He's eligible to return after four games. It does not sound at all like this is going to be a, we need a kick returner for four weeks because Kene Wong was going to be out there in week five. They use the word tricky with the back injury, and that's really kind of what you think of with with back injury lower back injuries is what um kevin said like with a knee or a shoulder or just the most common injuries you see in the nfl it's a pretty clear like all right this is what we need to do to fix this this is how you're going to rehab this is roughly when you'll be back. And more or less, that's usually

accurate. With a back or just anything in that area, it feels less straightforward and it feels just trickier. And especially for a guy who just is such an explosive, bursty, accelerating athlete, like you can't really be dealing with a bulky back. So I would say don't expect Kanae Wongwu anytime soon. If the Vikings get him back at some point in the season, that would be a nice bonus. But really, it's not. I mean, Kanae Wongwu is great. He has three kickoff return touchdowns in two seasons. He was an All-Pro last year.

It's not the worst player from just an on-field perspective to have an injury right now. I mean, they're really a pretty healthy team going into this season. And obviously, it's the NFL. Things can change quickly. But they're pretty healthy right now. Kene Wongu, it's hard to have an impact the way that Percy Harvin and Devin Hester and Cordero Patterson could because the modern NFL, you just don't get that many opportunities. It seems like every kicker, sometimes they even have kickoff specialists, like it's the punter or it's a

different kicker they call up from the practice squad or whatever. These guys can just boot it out of the end zone most of the time. So it's hard for Kene Wongwu to make a real kind of sizable impact. He had the one big kick return last year, but his overall average was down a little bit from his rookie season. I don't know. Ty Chandler Chandler by the way apparently is going to get the first crack to do that I figured it was probably going to be Brandon Powell who did who did both for the Rams last year I'm curious to see what Ty Chandler can do if he gets some opportunities I mean he when he's running the football he has some of the kind of Kene Wong Wu traits of like change of direction ability acceleration, acceleration, those things.

I don't know how much he's returned kicks in his career, but it's not ideal. You never want to see any player getting hurt, but it's pretty far down the list of kind of at least starting level or important players getting hurt that affect how I feel about the team going into the season. Yeah, I think the disappointment is that this was his shot like this was his chance to prove that he's more than a kick yeah right exactly the kick return part is good to have and it's a nice weapon

and the less that teams actually get real reps against kick returns ideally the better or the more the advantage of the team that actually always returns. I kind of thought, well, this is a nice, like the tiniest edge, but maybe the, I mean, because teams will spend a whole season, never returning a kick. And then here comes the Vikings, they're bringing it out. So that could be kind of interesting if they still do that with Ty Chandler. But yeah, I just thought Wong will look like he was in line to be RB2 and now it's either Chandler or Miles Gaskin who has not had a good season since 2020 and you know just if you're a fantasy player and you saw this coming early on and picked up Alexander Madison you are pretty

thrilled because that man's gonna play a lot of. I hope he gets a good night's sleep because especially the first couple of weeks, you got to play a hard defense in Tampa Bay and then go to Philly. So that's going to be a lot of fun for Alexander Madison. That could be quite tough. So there was that. The roster as a whole, kind of interesting with six safeties, four tight ends. Do you think it stays that way? The roster as a whole, kind of interesting with six safeties, four tight ends. Do you think it stays that way?

And if Kwesi pulled you aside and said, hey, Will, let me just pull you aside real quick. Let's have a discussion. Okay. What else do you think I should do? Is there something you like? Give me your advice. You know, my head's been in this Hawkinson thing. I haven't even been looking at the roster. What should I do, Will, with this roster that I have now? What change should I make?

Kweisi, I would recommend signing a cornerback who can play football and maybe has played football in the NFL before. That would be just the first thing that jumps out. When they set the 53, there were a few surprises. I think four tight ends wasn't super surprising. I didn't pick that because I'm dumb. But there was a couple of fans who had it in my nightly live streams and thought that four tight ends is a lot. I don't think I've ever seen it before, though. It makes sense, I think. And I should have thought more about just the philosophical shift of what it means to bring in Josh Oliver and play multiple tight ends and kind of use more

12 personnel they're going to use some 13 personnel with three tight ends in in short yardage goal line situations so you kind of need to have that fourth guy um I I get it I thought they could have gotten Nick Muse to the practice squad and then like elevated him on game days or something that was kind of my thinking. Although I guess Ben Sims, the undrafted rookie, did get claimed off waivers by the Packers. But that was a minor surprise. Six safeties is another one where you're like, you just don't really see that in roster construction.

Because most teams, you're playing two safeties. You keep four. Maybe you keep five. Six is just an astronomical number for a 53 man roster at the safety position but when you sort of dive into it it makes a little bit of sense because they're gonna play three safeties a lot they're gonna use josh metellus in a bunch of different ways they have now they now have depth with lewis seen jay ward theo jackson these guys can play special teams they can kind of be like pseudo nickel options, big nickel,

where you're using them in coverage, blitzing. It's not just a traditional safety role for a lot of them. To me, it's like you have six safeties and they kept four corners. You just have ten defensive backs. But cornerback's different. You need more cornerbacks. They kept five cornerbacks, but one of them is Najee Thompson who's only going to play on special teams. So you your three starters Byron Murphy, Caleb Evans, Makai Blackman

and then if any of them has to miss time as of right now it would be Andrew Booth Jr. getting thrust out there who just hasn't showed a whole lot since being a second round pick you can't really count on him to stay healthy and we just haven't we just haven't seen much high level performance from him on the field even in preseason games there's been flashes in training camp and i still think he has a chance to become a solid player if he can stay healthy but man they absolutely need they addressed running back they addressed the offensive line depth they signed a tackle to their active roster who has played before they've signed a bunch of offensive linemen to their practice squad like they have some some depth and some versatility there with with guys who can play tackle and guard the one that just

stands out really strongly as needing to be addressed before the season starts is cornerback just bring in a guy who like has 20 starts in his career like Jawan Williams was the second most experienced guy he's now on the practice, so you can elevate him and have him there, and that's the bare minimum of what they'll do. But I would feel a lot more confident if they upgraded at that spot. And Juwan's a great story, but I don't know. Kweisi, go get a corner. It doesn't have to be a starting corner.

I think I'm okay with the three starters they have. You just need some depth because, as we've seen with with this team specifically cornerbacks just seem to always get hurt will you have convinced me all right i mean i feel the same way yeah i just i mean juwan williams is going to be on the practice squad but the thing about juwan williams is he's not that experienced either no i mean he's all the most snaps he's ever played in a season is still under 300 and that was in 2021 so he hasn't even played since then uh that's not exactly um the most reliable depth and yeah okay you get a person hurt during a game and you could shift byron murphy outside or something but i think that there's an element to of, of having experience in the room. But also, I mean, outside corner, you brought in Byron Murphy to play nickel. He's done nothing but nickel except for in the base package where, of course, you want him on the field.

You want to leave him there. You don't want to have somebody get hurt and it's like, oh, you know, you were playing nickel the whole training camp. It's what we signed you for. But now you're outside again. Where does that sound like? Sounds like Arizona. Sounds like what they were doing. This guy's a great nickel corner in a defense where that matters a lot like that's something that you want to keep and carry on with i'm i'm

going to finish the show with this though will adam schefter brought the heat maybe you saw me make a face i did see you make a face because i was oh god this is not something that gets done usually when adam schaefter tweets it's this guy signed this guy's cut this guy whatever he tweets tj hockinson's ear infection and back pain which limited his practice this summer is feeling much better today my gracious that's a real tweet that that is that that it came up in my notifications that is snark level of this show oh my god what welcome to purple insider played adam schefter well played i don't i mean that's a walk-off for him that's great that's great we we've been i don't know how much we've done it on the show but maybe off camera we've been alluding to like yeah you you you've brought you've brought it i have jokes about such things it was just

there's a reason we asked these questions and you never you were never going to get the answer of actually this is about his contract but just the ear infection and the equilibrium word maybe that was real to some extent but then immediately transition into lower back stiffness, it all just had a strange feel to it. And we were talking about how it's probably going to feel a lot better today and TJ Hawkinson will probably be out there practicing and talking to reporters and a big smile on his face. So I appreciate that snark from Adam Schefter.

I mean, when Hawkinson talked to us last, he kind of had a smile on his face anyway. He was sort of like, I don't know. I guess we'll see. I think if I had to guess, I would say the ear infection was probably real. Yeah. And maybe even the balance thing at first. But then it was probably fine. And, you know, he just didn't want to come back until he got the extension done.

And snark aside, full support for players doing whatever they can to get their deals because, hey, look what happened. No, we're not blaming TJ Hawkinson here. We're just kind of making poking fun at the path that was used to kind of shroud this. Certainly. Well, one night on the show I made a joke that it's going to be gout next, and then people who have gout informed me that that is not a joke to make. I remember you mentioned it.

I'm sorry, everybody. I should I should have just gone plague. But, you know, the plague could always come back. And the show is over. Will Raggett's Sports Illustrated. Always a great get the raggets roundtable is going to return this year. Yeah. Your weekly appearances are going to continue.

But we're going to get back to next week, the hardcore Raggetts breakdown, which I'm sure people have missed from last year where we just go through the whole thing, break down the whole matchup before week one. I'm excited for it. I know you are as well. So thanks everybody for listening

and we will talk to you all again soon. Hope your equilibriums are good.