Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Vikings release Adam Thielen

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

The Vikings made their second significant cut of the offseason releasing Adam Thielen. What does it say about future moves? Is the roster becoming Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell's? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to our second emergency podcast of the NFL offseason. Matthew Collar here, live on YouTube, and if you're listening on the podcast version, well, then you've seen it pop up in your podcast feed, Emergency Pod. And here we are to talk about something that we already did spend some time talking about because we knew it was going to happen. This is a weird one with Adam Thielen being released by the Minnesota Vikings. Not that the decision is weird, but talking about it is because we kind of already eulogized him on the show once the report came out that Adam Schefter saying yesterday, it was very realistic that the Vikings could move on.

And once you get to that point where you've got the big reporters saying this could happen, I think that that was a way of kind of getting everybody prepared because Minnesota, I mean, this is a special, special player to this state and one of the great all-time Minnesota Vikings stories. And to have it come to an end after the way that the playoffs finished up against the New York Giants in a season that I think was still very good for Adam Thielen, but maybe there were some feelings there between him, Kevin O'Connell, the coaching staff about where his role was going to fit in in the future and all those things. It just seemed inevitable to go along, of course, with the cap hit as well.

And time and money are kind of undefeated and the Vikings needed to do something for their cap situation. So we'll get into a lot of different questions about this, about Adam Thielen being released. What's next for the wide receiver position? What does it mean for their cap space? And we'll also talk a little bit about Adam Thielen's legacy and my experience covering Adam Thielen since literally the day that I arrived in Minnesota. I did want to start off by just talking about that a little bit, that the entire time I've covered the Vikings from 2016 until now, Adam Thielen has been part of that landscape

and part of the locker room that one of my first long stories that I did when I arrived in Minnesota was, and it's become a cliche since, but it wasn't at the time, driving down to Mankato, interviewing his coach, talking about his story as a player who became an undrafted free agent to a star. And one thing that I realized right away was how gracious,

but also competitive Adam Thielen is as a person. And I remember asking him about doing a story about him being a really good basketball player in high school and how that impacted him as a wide receiver. And I remember saying to Adam, Hey, it's a good thing that you chose football, right? You never would have made it in the NBA. And remember he's only six, two, maybe six, three. And he was like, well, you would have said I never would have made it in the NFL. And that always stuck with me because I think it just shows you that he was one of the great competitors that they have ever had here as a Vikings player in general at the wide receiver position. We could go through his skill sets, his great moments.

But from the very start of 2016, when he got his opportunity he showed that he could be a legitimate star wide receiver and gave everything that he could to the organization I think he played through a lot of injuries over the last few years that maybe did slow him down and that was always tough for fans I think and to talk about like is he slowing down is he not the same version how many injuries is he playing through and things like that and I think that uh he kind of was one of those guys who put it all on the line and I know that I'm kind of dabbling in cliches a little bit but that's Adam Thielen for you right and for this to come to an end is really a signal that it is just going to be a new era with Kweisi Adafl-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell.

And I see already in the comments, kind of the first question about this is, does this signal that this is now Kweisi Adafl-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell's team? And I think the answer is probably yes, or getting much closer to yes, because Eric Hendricks and Adam Thielen were staples of this franchise for the longest time. And that goes from every element and not just how much they played. They played almost every game and they were stars and they made Pro Bowls and everything else, but also from a face of the franchise, community effort, all those things, they have cut just within these few days leading up to free agency, two guys that were their Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. This doesn't happen lightly that you move on from people like Eric Hendricks and Adam Thielen.

And so them going this route really does say that there's a lot of rebuilding to be done here on this roster and that it's going to be done in the vision of Kwesi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell. And a friend of mine said the other day, I'll take it from him, but instead of competitive rebuild, it was sort of competitive comma rebuild, like competitive first. and that was last year and now rebuild is coming here and even though that doesn't mean it's tearing apart the entire roster when you're taking off players like this who meant so much this team and franchise that means that it's time for you to go in a new direction that doesn't again mean you have to either be tanking or going crazy saying, bleep them picks and going for it.

But it does mean that when we look back at the roster from when Kweisi Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell took over, even to today with those guys gone and look how different it is. And then imagine in the next couple of weeks, how much different it is going to be in the next couple of weeks how much different uh it is going to be that is significant significantly different so it is yes i think with eric kendrick's being cut you could make a case that well they could still do the same sort of stuff they could still restructure contracts they could still kind of work it out so you know most of the group that has been here

still comes back just minus one guy who they couldn't change money around but in the case of adam thielen they could have restructured his contract and it was put out there that they were working on that with adam thielen but could not come to an agreement. And I think that that really kind of says that, you know, this, this is going in a new direction now that they could have tried as hard as they could to make it work. And they decided, you know what, we're not going to be able to deal with this amount of money versus the production versus the role that you want, that those things just did not add up.

And so now it's going to be a different wide receiver next to Justin Jefferson. And that is very, very strange. From Joseph, is it a tank season? I don't think so. No, I don't think that they're going to completely tank. And this has to deal also with what they do with Kirk Cousins makes a big difference. But moving on from Adam Thielen does not signify so much of a tanking mentality, more of living in the reality that you can't keep doing this. And also it tells us, and this was something that we wanted going back to last year of Kweisi Adafo-Mensah to be ruthless because this group hadn't won and it had won regular season games and had good seasons and everything else, but it had never taken them deep into the playoffs outside of 2017. And so be ruthless and come in and look, if you got to make moves that are unpopular or you have to move on for players who are popular, go ahead and do

that because it's your team. Now the last team, the last group had their shot with this roster. And so now you go find a number two wide receiver, which will be a goal. And when you look at free agency, if we want to jump immediately to talking about how they're going to replace Adam Thielen. Free agency might not really be the way here. KJ Osborne might have to take on more of a role, but it puts the limelight onto the potential for drafting a wide receiver. And this is a draft where picking 23rd does open the door for them to potentially get a wide receiver to go along with Justin Jefferson. So there's a lot of thoughts sort of swimming through my head of both

all the times that we've watched Adam Thielen be great for the Minnesota Vikings and the ring of honor level legacy that he leaves behind as one of their best receivers in a franchise that has unbelievable receivers. But also, I think all of us do this. What's next? What's going to happen next? And this from Bulldog13TV here in the comments, the most interesting part is that it is a pre-June 1st cut.

Yes. So Will and I talked about this the other day, that just whether they would pre or post June 1st. And the difference is that if you do it post June 1st, you get more cap space, but it has to happen after June 1st. And also that money gets kicked down the road because the cap space is real and you have to pay it someday. It's just when you decide you're

going to pay it. It is interesting that they did it pre-June 1st, but they needed to get cap compliant. They needed to get under the salary cap now in order to do that. They couldn't really wait till June 1st, but also that means that it doesn't hurt them down the road. And I was thinking about this yesterday as I was writing up the Friday mailbag for the newsletter. And there were a lot of questions about the salary cap and things like this is what their off season goals should be and where something like this cutting Adam Thielen fits into it. So their off season goals are probably not going to be,

let's sign a bunch of players and put together a Super Bowl contender through free agency. That's just not possible. But it should be to not hurt yourself on the salary cap in 2024, because after next season, they could have a lot of salary cap space open up and be the team that goes into free agency with a blank check and signs a bunch of players and bounces back quickly and fills a bunch of spots that way so don't do anything that's going to hurt yourself down the road doing the post june 1st would potentially hurt you down the road and you don't want to do that with the salary cap

they did that last year and now they're living it. Last year, we talked about when they added void years and we kind of went, oh man, don't add those void years because when you get to next off season, it's going to hurt. And right now it's hurting them because they did that. So don't do things like post June 1st designations. Don't do things like void years. And this is a positive step in that direction. I think to, to not be making it harder on themselves later on by the post June 1, just taking the dead cap hit, taking the punch in the face, moving on from a player like this this and just realizing where you have to be as a franchise and I think that's a good sign for them to do something like this as hard as it's

going to be for a lot of Vikings fans to not see number 19 running around out there and making great catches but also this is better for you in the long run, which is a major, major goal in my mind of this offseason. And that is just football for you. I think that when it comes to the nostalgia of football, it's a little more cutthroat because that's how this sport works. People get older and they get expensive and you just have to say, sorry, that's life. You know, right. That's how it works in the NFL. That doesn't mean you can't appreciate everything that Adam Thielen did as a Minnesota Viking.

It's just that you wanted to see going into this off season, them make moves like this because what they had been doing in years past was so much of just let's move money around let's restructure deals let's keep older players let's wait until they've finally completely fallen off cliffs or gotten way too expensive before we move on and this is the right time to move on and when you take a closer look i know intern haley broke this down the other day but when you take a closer look I know intern Haley broke this down the other day but when you take a closer look on paper there really wasn't any question about it that making the price match up with the production was not going to be possible with the Adam Thielen situation so let me get into another question here from Cameron does the lack of movement on Cook or Ham mean anything, or are they just giving

more respected guys, EK and Thielen, a full day of coverage out of respect? The Delvin Cook situation, I really don't have a good feeling for. I was very confident going into the start of the offseason that they would be moving on from Delvin Cook. And all the numbers point to, like, it is time to move on from Delvin Cook because once you get to 28 and we've already seen a dip in production, similar to the way we did with Adam Thielen and Eric Kendricks, it's time. A 28 year old running back is like a 33 year old wide receiver. And it's not really beneficial for them to keep Delvin cook, not just because of the salary cap situation, but also because of the production situation,

which we didn't think would be a problem early in the year where it looked like he was still running well. But then as the season went along, as so often happens with guys who have been banged up, we got to the end of the year, and I think his last 100-yard game was actually against Buffalo, which is remarkable, considering Delvin Cook and what he's been in years past, but just was not a very effective running back. So that one, it could be the case. And when you have to make cuts like this,

I agree that it is a class way to do it, to say, yes, put out a statement from ownership, put out a statement from the GM and the head coach, make sure that the guy gets his flowers on the way out. Everyone knows the business. Adam Thielen knows the business and how this was going to work. But at the same time, you can give your respect to someone who has given so much to your organization. I remember when I was young, maybe early teens or something, the Buffalo Bills cut Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, and Andre Reid, three Hall of Fame players. They cut them in the same day. And that was garbage.

It was such a garbage way to do it. And at that time, that franchise was garbage. But it was just such a bad way to go about it. So the way the Vikings are doing it, even if they knew they had to do this by the end of the week, give Eric Kendricks his coverage where people can talk about what he meant to the team. Give it to Thielen, yes. And that might still be the case with Cook. But Tom Pelissero saying he thought Cook would be on the team next year gave me a lot of pause and made me think, oh, maybe I don't know here. And I wouldn't worry

too much about the CJ Hamm situation because he's just not that expensive and they might be able to rework that deal. I think he's still a really valuable special teams player and that Kevin O'Connell might be able to use him more often if they run more effectively after a year of having him in the system. If they keep CJ Hamm, it's not a huge deal to me. That's somebody that I think that they could probably afford. To Dunn Outdoors makes you really wonder why they didn't just draft Christian Watson or Jameson Williams. And this is a great point. Of course, I think it's a great point because I've been banging the drum for wide receiver

for several years, but think about this. So they moved on from Stefan Diggs a couple of years ago, and they moved on from Adam Thielen here today. And neither time did they really have an answer on the team already. They had to go find it. Now they found Justin Jefferson, who is immediately one of the best wide receivers that the team has ever had and is the best receiver in the NFL. So you can't really criticize that exactly.

But they knew that Stefan Diggs going into 2019 was not happy with where things stood. And they drafted a center and a tight end. And then they just let the Diggs thing played out and hoped and prayed that the next receiver they drafted was going to be great. It turns out that he was, but you were one pick away from Jalen Rager, maybe being your wide receiver, as opposed to Justin Jefferson. And I think about the same thing for last year, that you could see the writing on the wall of where Adam Thielen stood and yet did not draft a wide receiver until Jalen Naylor late in the draft and acted like

that position was pretty much set. They didn't even take swings on younger players from other teams. I mean, you know, not that I think Amir Smith-Marset was a great idea for anybody to pick up after the Vikings released him, but it wasn't like the Vikings brought in other guys who were young-ish that could potentially be the replacement for Adam Thielen. And they didn't spend any draft capital at a position of future need. And this again is a spot where they're probably going to have to draft one, either with their first or third round pick or go into free agency and kind of flail around looking for the answer to who's going to be alongside Justin Jefferson. And that's the type of thinking change that you want to see from the Vikings front office. You want to see them thinking a year ahead as opposed to a year behind.

And I think that today is one of those days where they can start doing that. Of course, they still do have to scramble now, but with this off season, they can start thinking a year ahead as opposed to a year behind. From Todd, the end of Kirk era is coming soon, my friends. I am not 100% sure that that is going to be the case, but certainly this is more of a signal that that's possible with Kirk Cousins. And we've only vaguely talked about the idea of potentially trading him. But when you move on from Eric Hendricks and Adam Thielen, that is a really big chunk of star talent that goes out the door. And I guess I think that it does point the arrow toward not resigning Kirk Cousins or a potential trade.

And I was asked yesterday about trade targets. Would anybody actually trade for Kirk Cousins? And I think the answer is clearly yes, as the quarterback carousel figures itself out, that they would. But if you're wondering, does this mean more likely an extension or more likely that he'll play it out or be traded? I guess I would say it has to lean more toward playing it out or be traded because it just

looks like they're refreshing this roster, taking out some of the old, starting to bring in the new and understanding that next year is going to have to be a year where you find out what you have with a lot of players. So you would like to see Jalen Naylor after flashing a little bit in some situations, like you'd like to see Jalen Naylor get an opportunity and show what he can do. That doesn't mean you don't draft one, but you'd like to see some of the defensive players that are young, get their opportunities. And I know someone asked earlier what I thought about Zedarius Smith and his situation. That seems like another thing that's coming to an end, that they've kind of made sure they've signaled through Adam Schefter or local reporting, or even when we were at the

NFL Combine through their comments, there's a lot of these things that could happen and, you know, kind of prepare yourself. And here we are going into free agency, and we've already got two major moves and potentially more moves to come in. So this from 44 Rhino Man, love that name. So the wide receiver free agent market is kind of thin. Does that make wide receiver a high priority in the draft? Find JJ a running mate. Yeah. I mean, I think that what you're saying is absolutely valid that if you look around and this is again, why you pay

Casey at awful Menta is to know this, that you look around at teams that can thrive. Even if the quarterback is not Patrick Mahomes. And what do they usually have in common? I'm thinking of you, Philadelphia Eagles, and you, San Francisco 49ers. They usually have weapons. They have a Debo Samuel, and then they just draft a Brandon Ayuk anyway, because you're allowed to have multiple weapons. And think about this, too.

As the Vikings consider their quarterback's future and what it meant for Sam Bradford and for Case Keenum to have Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen and how effective that was. You kind of have to start looking for that in the future now. Who's going to be yourerson and whoever to be that dominant combination where teams cannot just focus so much on one player and i think last year you know adam phelan might look at it as him not getting a fair opportunity and i understand that view from him he is an all-time great competitor and i i could see where he would get frustrated with another receiver being so

centered upon when he's been a 1A, 1B for a long time. But he didn't make opposing defenses pay last year for doubling Justin Jefferson. And the same goes for Delvin Cook. Delvin Cook did not, from the backfield, make defenses pay for dropping back and playing shell coverage. And Kevin O'Connell mentioned that when I asked him about the running game at the Combine. He said teams were playing these shell coverages more than any against any other team in the league, and yet we couldn't take advantage in the run game. But they also couldn't take advantage man-to-man with Adam Thielen or KJ Osborne. So you need that guy. So you need that guy.

You definitely need that guy. This from Nano Joe here. If they wait until 2024 to draft a quarterback, how will Justin Jefferson feel about it? It may take two years minimum for that quarterback to develop. And this is the delicate dance that they are dealing with at the moment. And I mean, money could solve everything. If you're Justin Jefferson, look, if you sign now, you get all this money. And if you wait, who knows? Like you're already doing well for yourself as a first round pick, but you're talking about signing this off season and getting $35 million a year, potentially 30 to 35 million per year. That's a lot of money to turn down. And you get this kind of, I don't want to call it an

ownership stake, but a decision-making stake with this team. If you're here as part of you, Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell dictating where this thing goes. And that's attractive. I think the NFLPA study also is attractive to say, not every franchise is like this if you want to play it out. But they have, he could wait on this and not sign this offseason and wait to see how it plays out. Wait to see what the future looks like at quarterback. And if maybe they get an opportunity

to trade up this year to take a quarterback then that would give Justin Jefferson a chance to know who's going to be his quarterback in the future but all of these things are tricky I don't think that there's an easy answer to saying well which one will make him happier because if you stay with Kirk Cousins but the roster continues to be taken apart and you don't win but you're locked into a quarterback who is getting older and hasn't won well how do you feel about that or if you're drafting a quarterback and you're having to develop him over a year or two how do you feel about that nothing is perfect but I do know that whoever plays with Justin Jefferson is a lot better at football for playing with Justin Jefferson. So that's part of it as

well, that they have to believe that whoever is playing quarterback is going to be better than their projection because they're playing with him. Does he know that? Yeah, I think he does. So they might have to sell that part too. Like Justin, you're going to make everyone better around you. No matter who we draft, we can change quarterbacks. We can get you more of a playmaker. We can get you someone who will throw into tight windows more often. It's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of Justin Jefferson to understand what he wants exactly to hear, to sign that long-term contract extension. But I think maybe a clear plan at quarterback is really what it would take.

Like you're playing with cousins for one more year, and then we're going to draft somebody, and you'll be consulted, and then go forward. And oh, by the way, here's the most money you've ever seen in your life. That could be potentially pretty attractive. This from Alex, would a lack of a Kirk extension this offseason necessarily mean they're letting the contract play out, or could it be possible we see one next year? If they don't sign one this year, yes, it is still allowed, but it's not likely at all. I would say it goes to being extremely unlikely that if they don't sign a

contract this off season, that they would do it next off season. He's going to want as much security as he could possibly get. And yeah, I mean, I guess there might be some world where he plays great and they win a bunch and overcome the expectations and everything else, and then says, I want to be a Viking for life. But that doesn't seem likely. I mean, Cousins is the ultimate businessman at quarterback, and it's good business for him to try to get a contract extension this year. If he doesn't do it, he's going to just look at the highest bidder, and that's the way he's going to look at it.

And if they go eight and nine, then I don't know how they're going to be the highest bidder. And that's the way he's going to look at it. And if they go eight and nine, then I don't know how they're going to be the highest bidder. This from Nick, a high level tight end is your second option. The passing game is much cheaper than wide receiver too. It is, but it's also not as dangerous. There's a very important element of that when it comes to wide receivers versus tight ends that it is certainly helpful to have a T.J. Hawkinson but I believe T.J. Hawkinson had one reception past 20 yards down the field last year what you need is a receiver to really draw the attention down the field from your from the defense because most tight ends are not even really covered one-on-one.

Most tight ends are covered through zone coverages in the middle of the field, and they work within those zones and catch underneath passes. And TJ Hockinson is really great at this, but he must have only averaged like nine yards a catch. And that's how it's usually going to be with tight ends, between nine and 12 yards per catch if you're Travis Kelsey or George Kittle you've got some special ability that might take you to another level it's great to have that it's worth paying for that if you can find it it's dangerous if you can get it as that underneath weapon or third down and five this guy will get you seven yards that's what TJ Hawkinson was for them. So no disrespect to him as a weapon, but a wide receiver is much more versatile.

They move around Hawkinson a bit, but you do have to keep them in line a lot. You can move receivers anywhere. And the biggest thing is drawing the attention downfield and drawing the attention of good cornerbacks that takes them away from Justin Jefferson is, is very valuable. But if you draft one and the timing works out pretty well to have Jefferson get paid and the other receiver who you just drafted to kind of come along on

their rookie contract. So you don't have multiple expensive wide receivers. This is something Cincinnati is dealing with with T. Higgins at the moment. From Ken, what is the chance we'll see a Daniil Hunter trade talk start, or is it just before the draft? It's possible. It's on the table. With this happening, there's a lot on the table. Delvin Cook, Z'Darrius Smith, Daniil Hunter. I would even toss in Harrison Smith. It is not a foregone conclusion that Harrison Smith wants to stay. Harrison Smith's been with Eric Hendricks and Adam Thielen for a long time. And he could also say, you know what? Everybody's being thrown off this bus.

Throw me off the bus too. And that would be okay for them if that's the way that it goes. And they get to find out who can play safety for them for the future that's okay but we don't really know which way a lot of these things are going to go whether it's players who are here saying all right we want you to be here for a long time we want to be here for a long time like if it's Daniil, if he wants to sign a long-term extension with the Vikings, it would be hard for them not to because he's not in his thirties and he's coming off a great year. So yeah, I mean, Daniil Hunter could decide to stay, but also if you have someone like

Harrison Smith say he wants to go, then does it make sense to put in a ton of money into Daniil Hunter when you've got to rebuild this entire thing? That might be hard to do. But there are so many moving parts that are still happening with this team. Like this is just the beginning. With Adam Thielen and Eric Hendricks potentially or it might be the end I don't exactly know but it's just the beginning of decisions they have to make because we still need to find out what's going on with Cook, Hunter, Harrison Smith where they're going to go in the draft are they going to trade down to try to get more draft capital?

Like there's a lot of stuff that are moving parts. And Delvin Tomlinson is a free agent on March 15th as well. They have to make a decision there. So, you know, of course, and the big decision is Kirk Cousins. So all of these things

are still floating in the air, even though we now have clarity on what is happening with Adam Thielen. And just to circle back a little bit to Thielen, because we kind of jumped right into what this means as far as the next move and the off season and what it says about the big picture. But I did, I did want to just point out a couple of things about, you know, Adam Thielen. He's from Minnesota. No, I'm just kidding. But just, just about Adam Thielen and what type of player he was and how hard that will be to replace what he was at one point. Even though there was always kind of drifting in the air, well, this guy was an

undrafted free agent. So maybe Diggs is better than him or Jefferson's better than him. And I think at his best, it was much more, it was very even with both of those guys and Jefferson in his first year and with Stefan Diggs at his best, it was very even with those two. And I think what made him really great from the time that I got here, just observing him, two things that made him a great wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings. Number one was his ability to track the football. I don't think I've ever seen anyone better until Justin Jefferson came along and Diggs was really good at it, but it just blew my mind how many times the football would be traveling through the air from Case Keenum or Sam Bradford or Kirk Cousins.

And I would look downfield from the press box and see where Adam Thielen was and think, nope, that's going to be an incompletion. And he would find a way to make the catch. That is something that I talked with Keenan McArdle about earlier this year. And he said that that was one of the biggest things that he always looked for. And then that's a, another element of this too, having Keenan McArdle as a part of this coaching staff to scout and decide who the next receivers are going to be. But I think of all the incredible catches that he made. And I on the podcast, had a chance to ask him last year about his favorite one of those catches. And we talked about the Minneapolis miracle catch over Marshawn Lattimore. We talked about a catch in Philadelphia in 2018. It seemed at the time like a big game where they were backed up in their own end,

threw it down the field, and he kind of made a whole Superman dive. So one of the best I've ever seen from that element. But I also thought that Adam Thielen's mentality really was one of the most impressive that I've ever been around. I mean, we say competitiveness, but you think, like, what does that really mean? Like, the guy wants to win. Lots of people want to win, but I mean a daily nonstop, never ending dedication to winning that it's sort of a cliche, but it's also true that if you were playing

anything against Adam Thielen, if you were playing ping pong against them, which the Vikings don't have a ping pong table, but you just got the sense that anything he was ever doing, he was pushing to be the best at that. And I always just had a great amount of respect for Adam Thielen from that perspective. So I just wanted to get a few of those things in before we just kind of start moving on and talking about all the other things that, you know, we're going to talk about in the off season to just hit pause a little bit and, and discuss that as well. Just what a great player he was for the Minnesota Vikings and why, since I had a front row seat for it. So we can get back to some of the off season talk and you can continue to throw your questions in there. But I just

wanted to include that. This one from Todd, just imagine a rookie quarterback with our offense. I would think whoever is the future quarterback would be set up to have the best chance for success. And I wholeheartedly agree with this 100% that not every situation is the same. It's when you draft Trevor Lawrence, for example, and he goes to the Jacksonville Jaguars and he's got no receivers. He's got an amateur head coach, a bad organization that apparently according to the NFL PA survey has rats in, in their facility, not a great situation for Trevor Lawrence. And suddenly they bring in Doug Peterson. They get him a couple of wide receivers and Trevor Lawrence starts to look better and he's developing and everything else.

But with the Vikings, you bring anyone you draft into one of the best organizations in football. Now, provably, we can talk about this provably from the NFL PA survey. So you bring in one of the best, you bring in your player to one of the best organizations in football with a former quarterback as your head coach, who can sort of see through your eyes of what he wants you to do. And he could be in your headset and understands how you're processing the offense that he wants you to run. And then by the way, you get the best

receiver in football, at least for now. But I'm still going to stay assuming at this moment that eventually Jefferson will sign an extension. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. And we'll do more emergency podcasts on that. But for now, let's assume that you get in the future that you get a security blanket tight end. You get two of the best tackles in the NFL. This is a great place to start. And then potentially they could draft another receiver. But even if KJ Osborne is your guy, that's not exactly a bad receiver as well.

I mean, he had a good season overall, especially the second half last year. A great place to start. And then you get the additional money. So if they do try to draft a quarterback this year, and again, I think it's going to be very hard. Imagine though that Will Levis drops to like 12. Can you do that? Are you going to, you know, can you make that happen? And then put him into a situation where he could even wait a year. There's just so few situations in the NFL that I think match up with the Vikings for being advantageous for the next quarterback and losing Adam Thielen and his role is something they're going to have to replace, but you're still talking about a completely quality, if not stacked offense to do that. And I guess where the tie-in is, is whether moving on from Adam Thielen means that they will

really look at rookie quarterbacks in this draft. And I will say Kevin O'Connell was not exactly tipping his hand when it came to this. He was not saying, oh yeah, guys, I'm loving this quarterback draft class and keep your eyeballs out, man, for which guy we're going to take. But he also talked about how every year he's evaluating the quarterbacks. He's at the combine meeting with the quarterbacks. And if they don't come to a decision sometime soon with Kirk Cousins, the chances go way up that they could do something like that in drafting a quarterback this year. I think the most realistic situation is still 2024 and potentially draft another receiver or on the defensive side to build for next season. But it becomes much more possible.

And I agree, 44 Rhino Man, got to help that McArdle running drills at the combine for the wide receivers that they have a greater feel of who they might target. And I think that that's right. And we heard it even last year. I remember when Kweisi Adafomensa was talking about, they had a discussion about wide receivers leading up to the draft in the draft room, like a debate about wherever it was on the draft board. And Keenan McArdle essentially told them,

I wouldn't draft this guy or that guy at that position. And so they were kind of saying how, him being selfless in that way. But it also tells you that Keenan McArdle has a big voice in that room. And that's a good thing. Keenan McArdle has a ton of respect and deserves it as a guy who they could have moved on from in the coaching staff in the past and decided to keep there as someone handling the most valuable merchandise you have

in Justin Jefferson. So it does mean a lot with Keenan McCardle being able to evaluate wide receivers up close and just, it becomes so much more realistic that they would look at some of these wide receivers. Now, personally, I don't really have a favorite because it's hard to say, but Zay Flowers does make a lot of sense for me as someone who can play outside wide receiver, go down the field, make plays deep. But I think any receiver that you're looking at has to be on the outside and can go deep down the field. Somebody like Zay Flowers, that's what he does well, is go deep down the field and, you know, somebody like Zay Flowers, that's what he does well is go deep down the field and make plays on the ball. It has to be someone that is going to draw attention away from Justin Jefferson, but that, yeah, I mean, I think that that becomes a big conversation.

Now, when you do your draft mocks and simulations, putting in a wide receiver will not no longer as of this day make people laugh at me for doing that every year so now it's going to make a lot of sense so i can give some uh if you have any more uh questions for the comment section feel free to drop them in and i'm happy to answer them before we wrap up but just uh as far as a final kind of thought about the Vikings officially releasing Adam Thielen is that I believe that they very much did it in the right way going pre-June 1st to create the cap space now, to get cap compliant,

but also to create at least some to spend in free agency and about $6 million in cap space. But also I think that it does signify a sea change that it is, and this is not to downplay moving on from Eric Kendricks, but more significant in that it's paired with Eric Kendricks to where they are turning over this roster as opposed to last year where we joked around is this a Rick Spielman offseason like this is not right now a Rick Spielman Mike Zimmer offseason officially as of today and where this goes next it could get pretty wild over the coming days and we'll do more emergency podcasts or we could be surprised and there won't be as many moves but i think as of today it really did start to become

quesia dafl mensah's and kevin o'connell's team when you're pulling the plug on a player that has been here for so long and they've restructured contracts and redone contracts and done everything that they could to keep around Adam Thielen. Let me get in Paul's question here. Do you think moves on Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith haven't happened yet because they're working on trade options? Very possible, Paul, very possible. And I think that with Delvin Cook, you just don't really know for sure because whether another team would be interested, there's always going to be some teams out there that look at what a player's legacy is more than look at what he was recently. And if some team says we're completely without a running back, we've got cap space.

Here's a fifth round pick for Delvin Cook. I mean, you have to take it if you're the Vikings. You just have to at this point. A lot of times I look at it and say, if it's anything past a fourth, maybe a fifth, you might as well just cut the guy and allow him to have his options of where he wants to sign. It's more of a classy thing to do than trading him for absolutely nothing. But if there's offers that come in for a running back that cannot project positively in the future, they have to continue to try to take them. And there was the report that there was at least one team calling about Delvin Cook. And I would say, do whatever you can in order to move on from there and start a new,

as far as a running back, the Zedaria Smith thing, I kind of was trying to figure out how to interpret the report that came out with Zedaria Smith. Like, could it be that, you know, Zedaria Smith wants to pressure the team to cut him because he can hit the market and get one more big contract. Or could it be that the team wants everybody to know that he can be had in a trade? And I don't really know which one of those two things that it really is,

to be honest with you. I don't know which one. But both of these roads seem to lead toward Z'Darrius Smith not being here and man if you're talking Kendricks, Cook, Smith, Thielen that is a total reset from where they were with the 13 win team this is taking apart a lot a lot of pieces at that point and it seems like at least one of those feels not inevitable but extremely likely again once the report comes out, hey, everybody, this could happen. Usually it's going down that road. This from Matthew, I believe this is a great sign for the future of the Vikings and that they are no longer going to

hurt themselves down the road for potential short-term gain. Nice to see the long-term vision. And I think I agree. I do want to see the next moves first before I fully agree with that. But I think I agree with that, that if this is an arrow that points toward making long-term decisions, especially the June 1st thing, not just getting the most cap possible, but getting the most cap possible going into 2024, that it could be a sign that they are making more long-term decisions. And I think that that's the right way to go. A hundred percent, that's the right way to go. So, all right. If anybody has some final comments, throw them in there, but I will just finish by saying that having seen the majority of Adam

Thielen's career and watching him make incredible plays over the years, play in big games, come up clutch in a lot of big games. Think about the New Orleans catch in 2019 over his head, still have no idea how he saw it. That should have been one of the first that I brought up, honestly, because the one in overtime from Kirk Cousins where he had to reach back and let it drop in the bucket and make that play, I still don't have any idea how he saw it and made that catch. So he gave us a ton of wow moments, a tremendous story that will never be repeated. I don't know how this would ever happen again, that somebody shows up to a tryout who played at Mankato,

whose coaching staff didn't even recommend them. And they end up becoming a pro bowl level wide receiver. It says a lot about the heart of Adam Thielen, how much effort he put into it, how much he wanted to win, how much he competed and cared. And a guy that look, you know, if he goes on and tries to latch on with a championship contender and it works, then good for him. Good for him because he deserves that with everything he's put into. But I'm sure for a lot of people, it is tough

that he's not going to finish his career with the Vikings. And I think that this is just a sign of how difficult it is in the NFL to have a full career with one team, because when there's even the slightest slip in their production and the price, and this even goes for someone like Patrick Peterson with Arizona, even if you're a legendary player, uh, that, you know, I, I, it always kind of comes to the end of this road. And that's just, that's just kind of how it is. That's life in the NFL. And I think most of you, you know, accept that. But I also think that there are a lot of younger fans who have grown up watching him and it's probably a hard day for, and I want to appreciate that as well, how much people draw these connections with players especially

someone who is from Minnesota and has this story and that you know it does it does matter that um that Adam Thielen is going so it is uh in a way a positive overall for the Vikings organization to make a change in direction and move on but but also, you know, somebody who gave a lot to the organization and to the Twin Cities, and he deserves all the respect for that. So, thanks everybody for joining to this live stream, this emergency podcast, and as news breaks, you know, maybe what we said about Zedaria Smith will be clarified even by later today, and with any news, I have made sure I have cleared the schedule. There is nothing else I'm doing all weekend.

I will be here and honestly into next week with free agency. Here doing the same thing you're doing, which is refreshing Twitter, waiting to see what comes next in the NFL and for the Minnesota Vikings. So we may end up being back here shortly. It might be the end of the night. It might be tomorrow. We'll see what happens as far as live podcasts, but we will definitely be here for you. So thanks everybody again to logging on. Really appreciate all the comments, all the questions it makes going live on YouTube. Super fun. So I appreciate all of you for that. And we'll catch you with the next big news. We'll see you then. Thanks everybody.