Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast: Vikings sign pass rusher Marcus Davenport

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Late on the first day of free agency the Vikings made their first big signing by bringing in pass rusher Marcus Davenport from the New Orleans Saints. Matthew Coller talks about why it makes sense even if his production was underwhelming last year and what this means for Za'Darius Smith and Dalvin Cook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and this is an emergency podcast where we react to the Vikings making a fairly significant signing. They have brought in defensive end Marcus Davenport on a one-year $13 million deal. And I want to put little finger quotes on the $13 million because until we've got all the details on that, it's hard to say for sure if it's actually $13 million or if it's something else with incentives and so forth. But I will jump right into the analysis on this move, talk about what is coming next, which seems kind of obvious that this has to be a replacement for Zedarius Smith, but there could be other things. What's next for tomorrow? Any meat that we left on the

bone from earlier today or things that changed this afternoon? If you missed the analysis of some of the earlier moves, like the Vikings signing a blocking tight end, Josh Oliver, or Patrick Peterson signing elsewhere. If you're watching on YouTube, you can go find that on our page. Or if you're listening on the podcast feed, that was earlier. So just go back like one podcast. So Marcus Davenport, he is fairly young, not that expensive, not locked in very long, and a buy low candidate who's had some injury issues in New Orleans, but also he's a guy that has intriguing underlying numbers. This right here, folks,

is what we call a Kweisi Adafo Mensah move. I think that last year I probably said on a number of occasions, hey, where's the analytics? Where's the moves for the buy low with high ceiling where you could potentially get somebody that might end up turning into a home run pick that looks like a fairly good deal at the moment? This one, I think, is actually that kind of move. Now, I will give you the evidence of that because I'm sure a lot of people are looking at his sack total and going, huh, what do you mean high ceiling? So if I go to his pro football focus page, what you find is that he has been very effective in creating pressures and has graded very high as a pass rusher and his sacks have been inconsistent throughout his years. And part of that is that his playing time has not always been the most in part because

of injuries or he's been in a rotational role. They've had Cam Jordan there, obviously Trey Hendrickson at one point as well. But when you look at the underlying numbers, how he's been graded, and of course, you know, the Vikings look at these, but they also have their own types of grading systems. And then the pressure rate that he's been able to create, it's always been pretty decent. And I think if you're looking for somebody to sign that could potentially turn into something very good for you, but right now does not look like a complete answer as a pass rusher, that would be Marcus Davenport. And this is the type of player that you want to get right now because he's 26. He's going to turn 27. If he finds a really good fit here with Brian Flores, and this is somebody who

was once drafted 14th overall. So we're talking about a high potential for him in terms of his raw skill. And when he came out, he was a guy that they kind of weirdly traded up for, ran a sub four, six, a very physically talented player that if it works out, the answer for him could be a starter for years to come. And we've seen this happen with a number of pass rushers in the past where it just clicks in for them at some point. They show signs and then it works out. There's also a chance that it doesn't, but that's okay if it doesn't. With this offseason where you have a lot of players who are headed out the door, who are long proven type of players, like potentially Zedarius Smith,

but already Patrick Peterson, Adam Thielen, and so forth. And there's no movement at the moment on Delvin Tomlinson. But when you have a lot of those players headed out the door, and you don't have the cap space or the opportunity to go get guys on five-year contracts for $25 million that are proven, what's the other way to do it? Is to take shots at players like Marcus Davenport who might potentially have a high ceiling. And again, this is not someone who has done nothing for his entire career. This is someone who has created a decent amount of pressure. And that's the point is if they're able to at least, at least be able to get pressure on the quarterback. Now finishing is another part of this to get sacks, but just last year, he had a fairly high

sack total in a limited amount of pass rushes. And so fit health, all those things will play into this. But when it comes to the cost, you know, I think that we're going to have to read, adjust our brains when it comes to everything, because even with the Vikings signing Josh Oliver earlier, a blocking tight end, who looks like he's going to play quite a bit for the Vikings. When you look at that initial total three years, 21 million, it's like, whoa, what are we doing here? That's crazy. But the salary cap is going up. Money is going to increase with these players and continue to increase. And somebody like Marcus Davenport, we're talking about now about half of what it is for the top guys. What it used to be is right around this range would be a top pass rusher just a couple of years ago,

but these numbers have exploded. So the top pass rushers in the NFL are getting somewhere in the ballpark of $25 million per year. You take a shot for $13 million a year. If it works out, then you've hit a huge home run and you can sign him to an extension where he gets paid more. And I'm sure that that's what Marcus Davenport is

looking for and why this works for both sides is that he's going to come here motivated to land himself a multi-year deal. But if he fits and he's excellent, then you're happy to pay that multi-year deal. And just to continue in terms of his underlying statistics that I referenced, he was 15th last year among all either starting or situational rushers in pass rush win rate. So again, this sort of ties back into sacks don't always come every single year for For the great, great players, of course, they do. Yeah, for Miles Garrett, for Daniil Hunter, they're going to have double-digit sacks.

But even with someone like Daniil Hunter, you can see some up and down throughout his career with sacks, whereas his totals for pressures have consistently been very, very good. Well, that seems to be the case with Marcus Davenport. Now, you don't expect his sacks to be the case with Marcus Davenport. Now, you don't expect his sacks to go as low as they did last year, but he was clearly winning. He was clearly creating pressure on the quarterback and just did not finish. Now, what is interesting is the size of Marcus Davenport is that he does not really fit into the mold of an outside linebacker type, not a traditional, you know,

245 pound type of rusher. He's more of 260, 270. He's a big guy, six foot six. And also, as I mentioned, runs a sub four six, or at least did when he came out of college, but it wasn't that long ago. It's not that this is an older player that they're just signing up for a year. And last year, I think that was part of the issue with the way they handled it for me in the free agency was not who they brought in. And they hit a home run with someone like Zedarius Smith last year. Overall, the second half was not as good as the first half, but overall Zedarius Smith was a great signing for the Vikings last year. But you knew there was expiration date and that expiration date looks like it's coming pretty soon. But with Marcus Davenport, if this thing clicks and it works, you can have somebody for

five more years after this. And these are the types of moves that they should be looking for all over the board. They should be looking for players who came from bad seasons that had shown in the past that they could create more pressure in the case of Marcus Davenport. But if it's a cornerback that they could be serviceable, but might not have fit in a system, or if it's a wide receiver, they should look for somebody who's shown flashes, but maybe hasn't clicked in the right system. That should be what they're going for is deals and bargains with potential upside, because that's what they're looking for is guys that they can find for down the road.

And that's why I think Marcus Davenport fits so well for this. As I was even looking at just on Twitter what some of the New Orleans Saints reporters were saying about Davenport and all of them said that he showed flashes of the talent that he has but things just didn't really work out in New Orleans in part because of their health and I think it's a good point from some people who have made here in the comment section or I saw on Twitter is I will call it up on the screen here from Nick. The Vikings are betting on their training staff. And that's true. And also just some players have bad luck with injuries that when someone has multiple injuries or is banged up from time to time. One of the things we immediately do is we call them injury prone and it's football

and I get it why we do that. But that doesn't necessarily mean if someone has had some bad luck with their injuries that they're going to in the future. So with Marcus Davenport, yes, that's what they're betting on. And again, if it doesn't work out, there was no long-term commitment to him with just a one-year contract and they can move on after next year if it doesn't work out. If he only gets one sack again and gets a handful of pressures and can't stay healthy, well then okay. But you took a shot at something that could have been bigger long-term. And you know, there's other teams that do this pretty successfully from time to time.

One of those teams is the Kansas City Chiefs that seems to always be bringing in former first round draft picks to see if there's anything there or their trade for someone like Kadarius Toney that, you know, I don't know, it's debatable whether that worked out until the Super Bowl when they really needed it. So taking those shots at players who you know are highly talented and hoping that they work out is the position that the Vikings are in. And this is not a position that they've really been in in recent years. I mean, if we think about it all the last five years, it has always been pedal to the metal, all in, try to sign whatever guys you can to fill whatever weaknesses you can in a complete panic and then go from there and and hope that everything goes your way

and that you win this offseason at this moment that is not their position especially as zedarius smith made it clear his intentions that he does not want to be a Minnesota Viking anymore and that he wants to hit the market and be released. And when you're pushed up against the wall, having to move on from all these players who are a big part of where you were before, you're just straight up forced into a reset and a rebuild. And I think that on the show, we've tried to talk about this quite a bit, sort of prepare yourself, hold onto your butts.

That's going to get kind of crazy here, kind of get rocky. It's going to be some turbulence, but the way to work yourself through it is to set up for the future. So next year, if Davenport works out, they keep him. And also you might be decent because of it or better because of it. If he's healthy and

plays the whole year like there is good upside for this move and again it's a move from Kwesi Adafo-Mensa where you wanted to see it point to some underlying statistics you wanted to be able to unlike say last year a move for Ross Blacklock who might work out still as an interior rusher, but hasn't so far. But we couldn't really find a ton of evidence to say, yeah, this guy, he's got some underlying stats that point to a higher ceiling and more potential. With Marcus Davenport, we can absolutely do that. From Alex here, do you think that the Vikings will be priced out of Sean Murphy Bunting and or Byron Murphy. The cornerback market is absolutely no joke at this point. We went in not really sure what certain guys were going to

get, but Cameron Sutton was a name that we talked about a lot. And then instantly he was off the market and it cost a lot of money for the Detroit Lions to sign him. And the same thing went for a couple other guys today. I want Jamel Dean was another one that signed. So yeah, there's, I think he stayed in Tampa Bay. So there is a, a lot of attention going to the corners, but one thing that I've noticed in the past, and I see, asking, where are we getting cornerbacks? One thing I've noticed in the past is that there is usually this major run on corners right off the bat. Everybody goes out and they get their cornerback and then nothing, just a malaise sets in where there's a lot of corners who are kind of looking around for jobs and they're not

sure where they're going to sign and they end up three weeks into free agency or just before training camp finding a job and end up working out okay that hasn't always been a great strategy for the vikings bashad breland didn't work out the best so it's hard to count on that. There's a reason why the top guys go first, but sometimes you can really land some nice deals as you go along on corners. That position just has a lot of guys who seem to fit. I saw that Emmanuel Mosley, there was a report that it looks like he's going to get a pretty good dime himself. I thought I was being clever bringing him up earlier because he had had that ACL. So, you know, they will be looking, I think, at corners a little later in the market because they are so expensive and that's going to have to go for a lot of different positions. The center

market still has to be addressed. Garrett Bradbury, there's been no news on whether that could potentially be going somewhere with the Vikings or not. But Bradley Bozeman, who is the center for Carolina, he was one of the top free agents, and he decided to re-sign with the Carolina Panthers. That means that the Vikings have one less person who could potentially sign with them to play center. That position is going to be another one that they have to address. So just to kind of reset the conversation for people who are just joining the feed here

and welcome everybody. Hope you had fun. I saw Shiel Kapadia of The Ringer said that half of his top 50 free agents were signed today. So there was a lot of movement, a lot of things going on today. I hope you had a lot of fun scrolling Twitter throughout the day, as I did, seeing one move come in after the next that seemed like it really did not stop today. And I've got a few other observations to bring up about it, but just as far as the Marcus Davenport move goes, that there will be a lot of people who are going to bring up his

sack total from last year. And that's fine. And that's true. But the thing is that if Marcus Davenport had 12 sacks last year, you wouldn't be getting him right now. He would be signing with the Chicago Bears because they have cap space and you don't. So you need to look for guys as Kweisi Adafo-Mensah and the Minnesota Vikings that do have some flaw or some recent production that went down or some reason why they want to sign with the Vikings to get an opportunity to revamp their career or bounce back. And, you know, as people are bringing up his sack total from last year, they should also bring up his sack total from, you know, two years ago,

which let's see here. Let me just check. Let me scroll down. Yeah, nine. So nine sacks in 11 games two years ago. I mean, that's pretty good. If that's the version of Marcus Davenport you get and the version that has a top 20 win rates when rushing the passer, it can be a home run move for

them. And it can be somebody that they get to the end of next year. They sign a long-term contract extension. He plays on the end for a long time and creates pressure. That is the best case scenario for Marcus Davenport. Now I want you to go to the over the cap free agent tracker, and I want you to poke around and scroll down and tell me how many other guys that you can find that have the potential of being somebody that gets nine, 10, whatever sacks, if they stay healthy or go find just even in general, someone who's going to sign a short term, very reasonable deal with you that if it works out, that player ends up being a really high quality starter.

There's not that many that the Vikings can actually compete for. And that's why I think that what they've done here with Marcus Davenport is just right on. It's right on what they should be doing in free agency. It's exactly what their approach should be to this free agent period. And all by the way, going to be 27 this year. That is a really important point that a lot of the free agents, and this is why teams that go nuts in free agency, they don't always win the following season, is a lot of times there's a reason why the team let the guy go. And there is for Marcus Davenport. And part of it is that the Saints have no money.

That could also be another part of it. And they've messed with their cap so much that they've gotten to that kick the can down the road point. And that's why they've lost a bunch of players again for the second straight offseason. But I think that when it comes to someone like Marcus Davenport, you'd want to try to find five Marcus Davenports in free agency that are not 30 years old, that are hitting free agency for the first time. And that's not always easy because when you draft someone 14th overall, or take someone in the first three rounds, if they're decent, normally they sign with their own team. Normally it's worked out and it's a success story. Davenport is a bit of the rarity that it did not work out as well as they wanted it to. And he is coming

off a down year and he was asking for a little bit too much of a price, I would assume, and had at least a decent amount of interest, according to Mike Garofalo of NFL Network. All those things together, the Saints couldn't compete for the price and the Vikings end up with him. So to me, this is an A-plus type of move for the situation. If the Vikings were going all in and it was win this year or everyone gets fired, you have to make a desperation signing of someone you really need to rely on. No, this wouldn't be an A-plus signing. We would probably say, really? Looks like that guy was kind of hurt, but we're not in that position. We're not in that position anymore. We are in a position with the Vikings where they are looking to find future pieces as well as people that can help

them right away to improve their defense or replace outgoing players, which is our next thing that we should really discuss here. And that is Z'Darrius Smith. Mike Garofalo, again, who broke this news, he mentioned that Z'Darrius Smith is indeed on his way out, which seems obvious. You don't put it out there in public that you want to leave unless you're going to leave. But think about trading one for the other, replacing Zedaria Smith, who is a great player,

not just good or okay. And you saw it at his peak. He is a great football player. However, he is an older, banged up football player who just a year before this had major back surgery, had a knee issue this year, wants to get an even bigger contract than he was set to make this year with the Vikings. Those are things, and is plus 30, by the way, over 30 years old. Those are things that do not match up with the Vikings timeline. They match up much better to take a 26 to 27 year old early in the season next year Davenport will be 27 with upside that that seems like a much much better idea and let me answer a few of the questions here but I think that that is the obvious next thing to happen the shoe to drop is that by midday tomorrow Zedarius Smith will have his dream and

be a free agent. I've got to think throughout this day, what the Vikings did was explore options. And I don't know this for sure. This is not a report, but I've got to think that they explored potential trade options for people like Zedarius Smith. Let's say a team is desperate for a pass rusher or they miss out. Vikings make a call. But usually when you know a team has to get rid of someone and they've spent enough money to the point where they have to get rid of at least Zedaria Smith to solve their salary cap issues by three o'clock on, what is it? Wednesday the 15th. Yeah. By three o'clock central on the 15th, they have to be cap compliant.

So and taking a big chunk out of that will be Zedarius Smith. But, you know, you try to potentially trade him or call around and see what happens first. If no one will trade for him, then you make that move. But that's how the Vikings can make a signing like this is that they don't have to be cap compliant for a couple more days. So they can play in the free agent sandbox and grab someone like Marcus Davenport as long as they pay the bill before Wednesday. Sorry, let me go back and take a look at some of the questions here. Okay, from Todd, could you see the Vikings drafting a defensive tackle instead of re-signing Delvin Tomlinson. Well, Delvin Tomlinson is almost, if not completely, in my mind.

They could prove me wrong tomorrow. Priced out of the Vikings, though, today. This was one heck of a day if you are a big man in the middle. Huge. I mean, Daron Payne going back, or was that yesterday or today? Whenever that was, huge contract for him. Javon Hargrave got a massive deal to go to the San Francisco 49ers. Was it Draymond Jones?

I'm trying to think of the other names. But yeah, there was defensive tackle market went completely bananas. And I think if you're Delvin Tomlinson, you're pushing for 18 to $20 million a year. So the Vikings are probably pushed out of that market. I would think I could be wrong and they might work something out and sign some long-term deal. If he absolutely wants to stay in Minnesota, there is a possibility that he does because he decided to move back the deadline before the Vikings get hit with that dead cap space to Wednesday. It was actually a few weeks ago and they agreed to move it back. So there was mutual interest on both sides. But if you're Delvin

Tomlinson's agent, how would you not have him going to the highest bidder somewhere else after seeing the defensive tackle market? And I also think, Todd, that signing a defensive tackle at this point is very expensive. And if you draft a successful one, the surplus value becomes close to what it is for an edge rusher. So say that you draft Kalijah Cansey from Pitt and the guy gets 10 sacks a year. Well, that's worth $20 million on the open market. Whereas the 23rd pick, he's going to be paid, I don't know, $5 million. So there's almost the same surplus value, which to me means what the guy would be paid on the free agent market versus what he's paid on his rookie deal. The difference between those,

that surplus value would be so big for that position. It should jump to the top of the list for the Vikings. And I think that after watching the Superbowl and looking at Kansas city, looking at Philadelphia, that a lot of teams have gone. These interior rushers are just monsters. They are a nightmare to have to face. And hey, who knows that better than the Minnesota Vikings? So to your question, the answer is absolutely yes.

They should look at that position for somebody that they could pick in the first round. This one comes from Joseph here. Are the Vikings losing too many locker room leaders? Yes and no. Yes and no. I mean, it's not easy. It's not easy to lose someone like Patrick Peterson. I don't know if I would call Zedarius Smith a locker room leader necessarily. Now, I mean, I don't know as far as how other players viewed him. He didn't really strike me as that kind of guy, like having a huge influence. Like there are some players that have a massive influence on everybody around them. I think Patrick Peterson was one of those.

Patrick Peterson would come in and do extra film sessions with younger players, work with the coaching staff, be one of the real captains and leaders. Zedaria Smith may have been more of a by-example guy, but to your point, when you do have the exit of people like Adam Thiel and Eric Kendricks, veteran players who have done it for a long time, that is a hit for the younger players, yes. But I also think that this locker room shouldn't be void entirely of leaders. Brian O'Neill is still there. Justin Jefferson has an opportunity to step into a leadership role of his own with Adam Thielen now no longer the veteran in the room.

I really like the way TJ Hawkinson handled himself. He's got an opportunity to become a leader with this team that he was just dropping into last year. Christian Derrissaw, same kind of deal, a low key guy, very quiet, calm guy, but maybe a leader by example, and then find your next group of defensive leaders. They're also keeping Jordan Hicks, and I think that that's part of it. There's no reason to be freaking out about Jordan Hicks staying because I think Brian Asamoah being along with Jordan Hicks is okay. So it's never good, but it also opens the door. Wow. How about this? How about this? Just as I was saying, Delvin Tomlinson was going to be too expensive for the Vikings.

He's signing with the Browns. Okay. Thanks for letting me know, guys. I appreciate that. So there you go. Delvin Tomlinson too expensive for the Vikings. But now that leaves a pretty big hole as far as the defensive tackle

position. So you have Harrison Phillips, Ross Blacklock. Yeah, and that's pretty much it at the moment. So defensive tackle certainly shoots to the top of the list. And I mean, what is that per year? Has anybody done the math? I was just saying I was estimating like 18 per year.

Is that close? Somebody else do the math for me for what dalvin thomason got i can't do it on the fly sheldon richardson has mentioned yeah i think sheldon richardson's probably just oh 13 per year okay so even it wasn't quite as much uh as some of the pass rushers but still probably out of the ballpark of what the v could have afforded. I was thinking he would go a little bit higher based on some of the other guys. 40 is the math. Okay. All right. Well, yeah, that's kind of the ballpark for where these defensive tackles are going. The elite pass rushers are 20, and he goes a little bit under that. Is Javon Kinlaw a trade target? He's the type. He is definitely

the type. And I know this too, that teams never forget who sacked them. And Javon Kinlaw had one heck of a sack in preseason last year against the Vikings. But that's just another position to fill and no money to fill it with. And this ties back into Marcus Davenport where go look for more Marcus Davenport's go look for players that might have some type of high ceiling or some type of potential that you can sign for cheap. And then everybody take their shots. And, you know, I, I agree with you, Bradley, we can officially say this is rebuild mode. And isn't it nice? Isn't it welcome? I mean, look, everybody knew, right? When you lost to the New York Giants, it was going to be time. It was going to be time for a rebuild. There was going to be a purge of this roster. And no matter

how much you prepared yourself for it, it still is very strange. The last time we saw this was 2019 to 2020, but they tried to kind of hang on for dear life that year. They kept some players that they could have gotten rid of. They decided to, you know, trade for Yanni Gengakwe, which was one of the biggest mistakes I think of the entire Rick Spielman era. If they don't do that again, like Marcus Davenport is such a better move than trading for Yannick Ngakwe, trading a second round draft pick for somebody who wasn't really going to fit the way you wanted to play. That was a desperate move to try to fill a spot after Daniel Hunter got hurt, where something like Marcus Davenport is not a desperate move. It's a big swing at somebody who could add a lot to your team if they work out. And not all that different, by the way, from what Brian Flores did when he was in Miami and went and got Shaq Lawson. Now that Shaq Lawson never turned into a star, but he was helpful for them for a year and got a handful of sacks and so forth. And if you get Marcus Davenport and it does turn out, that could go very well for you. And if you find a couple other guys like it, and if it doesn't,

then you're not going to win a lot of games and you're going to draft high and you're going to have cap space. And that's where they need to be for next year. This is what had to happen to this roster. They had to let these key players go. They had to make sure that they weren't overpaying a non-premium type of player like Delvin Tomlinson, who is a very good defensive tackle, ton of respect for Delvin Tomlinson. And I know that I've mentioned a handful of guys just from being in the locker room and talking to and what they're like. And you mentioned that leadership element. Delvin Tomlinson is about as high class of an individual that you're going to find. I mean, somebody that was a veteran professional player

who consistently went out there and put together the same numbers year after year improved as a pass rusher a very very intelligent very very intelligent person who i believe was originally recruited by harvard or something before ending up at alabama that's these guys are not easy to just say oh he's gone's gone. You just replace him. No big deal. But they really had no other choice. They really had no other choice except for to move on from some of these guys and help themselves out in the future. Now this does all tie in to what they're going to do at a lot of other spots. You know, this is a really good question here from Boyd. So they're tanking is what you're saying. Not exactly.

That would be if they traded Kirk Cousins and signed, I don't know, well, Sam Darnold just signed with San Francisco. But if they had done that, if they had traded Kirk Cousins and signed Sam Darnold, then they would be tanking. I think what they're doing here is they are resetting. Maybe we could put it that way. This is actually a competitive rebuild, right? I mean, this is what a competitive rebuild actually is, where you're too good on offense

to be horrible, but you're not good and you have enough empty spots or spots where you're too good on offense to be horrible but you're not good and you have enough empty spots or spots that you're trying to fill with younger players or high ceiling players that it's unlikely you're going to compete for a Super Bowl but you can be going up without like having to go all the way to the bottom. This is very possible to have a reset year. And Benjamin, you're asking about Odell Beckham, and it does seem that the Vikings are in that conversation, which is a little weird to me, but maybe if Odell Beckham is in for a multi-year deal, then I guess that would make some sense. Or I mean, talk about, talk about a competitive rebuild. They would be competitive and they would put up a lot of points if they

have Odell Beckham, Justin Jefferson, and KJ Osborne and TJ Hawkinson. They still wouldn't compete for a Superbowl more likely than not. But you could still have a fun year while also doing a lot of things that can help you for the future and setting yourself up for the next quarterback to come in and have everything that that quarterback wants. And I guess I would really wonder if you're Odell Beckham, though, are you going to sign at a place where you're not sure who the quarterback is going to be? And I don't know.

Maybe it's just purely about money for Odell Beckham or he wants to play with Justin Jefferson. Those two are friends. So you could see that happening. I mean, the Vikings did go to Odell Beckham's workout and they are in that mix of teams that seems to be interested. But I think what you want to do is whenever they go to the next quarterback, whether it's this year or next year, and those seem to be the only two options at this moment, you want to have that quarterback step into the greatest possible situation that he can. And then assuming that it's someone that you draft, use the money to fill the defense the rest of the way.

So you bring in Marcus Davenport, you sign a handful of other guys, but then next year, when you are rid of Kirk Cousins' contract, then you can play the role of Chicago today and spending all that money on the defensive side. Because what Chicago did last year, and they got rid of Quinn,

they got rid of Roquan Smith, they got rid of a bunch of guys. Khalil Mack they traded last year, and they got rid of Quinn, they got rid of Roquan Smith, they got rid of a bunch of guys. Khalil Mack they traded last year. That was to set themselves up to be huge spenders right now, and that's exactly what they're doing. You know, Bradley, you do bring up a fair point about Odell Beckham. But I also think that Odell Beckham, assuming that he's good to go and ACLs don't ruin careers anymore. I mean, that could be a multi-year deal that you've still feel good about. I don't think that wide receivers start to fade until their early thirties, 32, 33. This has been

studied before, but they're not like running backs who are fading at 28. If you could have him as a wide receiver two over multiple years with your next quarterback, that could be really something. So yeah, I don't think that they have to tank right now or next year and be horrendous. I have never thought that. But I do think that it matters that they're doing these things that are right for the future. And we're just going to continue to get this probably every time this off season that we talk about Marcus Davenport, that he didn't have a lot of sacks last year. That's how you got him. And he had nine sacks before. That's the whole point of getting Marcus Davenport,

that anybody can run in and say, what is Casey doing? But also if you understand kind of how pass rushing works, that every team now, or at least smart teams and Andre Patterson had a long rant about this once is looking at pressures as a more consistent metric to be predictive. So what we would say about Marcus Davenport's sack total from last year, I mean, it's more likely that it was bad luck based on the fact that he had a top 20 win rate and a very good pressure total as a situational rusher. And the fact that he had nine sacks the year before points to a capability of doing that. Those are the types of players you have to swing for. Somebody who has a dip in their performance that allows you to get them and then potentially bring them back up. So there's a lot to still be decided after signing Marcus Davenport, including what's going to happen with Zedarius Smith. It seems that's kind of inevitable, but then what's next? So if you're Harrison Smith right now,

or you're Delvin cook right now, what are you thinking? I mean, are you thinking that you want the team to move on from you that you want to be traded or that you want to be released? And there's a bunch of rumors that are going around about, you know, Delvin cook and where he could be traded and so forth. And, you know, I, I think that it's just something that at this point has to happen. If you've already moved on from these other guys and they tried to keep Patrick Peterson, it seems like it was, you know, they got priced out and maybe it wasn't going to be the best fit anyway. But Peterson said that he talked with the Vikings. The Pittsburgh Steelers came in with quite a bit more money. I think it was over $5 million a year.

Was that right? I mean, that's a big amount of money to be giving somebody when you have no cap space and they don't fit for the future. And you're not even sure if they're a good fit with your current defensive scheme. So you don't want to keep players like that. But since they already let guys like that go, and Thielen and Kendricks, if you're these other guys, I think you're looking at Eric Hendricks going to the Los Angeles Chargers,

got to pick his own location. And this is what I was talking about earlier on another episode, was that if you release guys instead of trade them, you give them an opportunity to sign somewhere else, which is sometimes why players aren't traded for a late round draft pick or something like that. But Kendricks goes kind of championship chasing with the Los Angeles Chargers, right? And if you go to some of these other players like Zedarius Smith, Delvin Cook,

they might do the same thing. That I think is coming probably tomorrow or within the next day that they're going to move on from those guys as well and then have a chance here to really create their own roster and create their own next core of players like the one that we saw from, you know, from the Zimmer and Spielman era. And I wanted to throw up that these are some good statistics of Davenport's career pressure rate, 12.7%. So Darius 12.4, Daniil Hunter 13.2. He is, I would not say the second part, um, out loud as far as him being the same caliber. I don't think he's the same caliber at this moment of Zedaria Smith or Daniel Hunter. I would not go that far because those guys do get the sacks. So I'm not

calling Marcus Davenport, the next Lawrence Taylor or Chris Dolman. I'm saying that taking a swing like this is a really good idea when someone, it's kind of like, imagine that you had a baseball player who was a career 285 hitter and he hit 220 the year before, but you looked at his underlying statistics and saw that he was hitting the ball hard and he was just unlucky. People caught the ball when he hit it hard. You sign that player assuming that there's more in the tank than what you had before. That's what the Marcus Davenport signing is. If he had 10 sacks, he'd cost $25 million and he'd sign with the Bears. Bottom line, you wouldn't have him. So you've got a chance here that he turns out to be something pretty good. I think, um, let's see from, uh, from Alex here, does losing and cutting this many players signal trading back to recoup draft capital and fill more spots.

I think they almost can't stay at 23 unless the board hands them someone they can't pass up. Yeah, Alex, I totally agree that it just seems to make sense that they're going to have to trade back and try to fill some spots because once this all shakes out and I don't know after today exactly where they stand for the over the cap. You know, I don't know if they've updated exactly all this for the cap situation, or if they even know, you know, with a contract like, you know, Davenport or Josh Oliver, what the cap hits are going to be for next year. So I, you know, I think that they're going to have to fill some spots through the draft and it makes sense to drop back and to try to get as many players as you possibly can.

The problem is that when I had Mike Renner from PFF, their draft expert on the show a few weeks ago, he mentioned that this draft has probably 25, 27 players who are first round caliber players. And so are you trading out of the first round caliber players? If you move back too far, that's going to be the question because I mentioned the guy that I really like in this draft, Kalijah can't see he's projected to kind of go around where the Vikings are. He might go up after his 40 at the combine, but that's an interior rusher from Pitt who could be something special. And do you want to pass him up to get more players? So, you know, this is, this is, um,

totally understandable why there are questions about the Stavenport move. And I'm trying to work my way through it. Uh, why pay him $13 million when we could have locked up a defensive back or one of the linebackers for the same price. Well, I mean, they have at linebacker, they're going to give Brian Asamoah every chance. The price for linebackers is pretty high. Do you want to do that right now? Do you want to pay a lot of money for a linebacker that does not have as high of a potential ceiling if it goes right? So you sign a linebacker for 13 million

because it's a veteran proven player at a high price or something like that. Are you getting the same that you might get out of a pass rusher if he bounces back from where he was last year? And it's not like he's 32, he's 27. So he's in a range where he could bounce back. And as far as defensive backs go, it's probably wiser based on the day one defensive back prices that are through the roof. It's probably wiser to wait on that position to see what you can get after the first wave rather than overpaying. See, with a lot of the positions you're talking about with corner and linebacker, guys got overpaid today. This with Marcus Davenport,

I think the price is probably just right there. And it is important to mention that this is a highest of premium position is pass rusher. So it's really, really important not to just Brian Flores, but to absolutely everybody. Every team in the league needs pass rushers and it's hard to find them. They're not cheap. They get drafted very high. If they're good in free agency, they get paid, but usually they don't hit free agency. It's not a position that just gets handed to you.

So if you have a chance to find one, you should go after it. There's a lot of linebackers and there's a lot of corners. So you're looking for those for sure. And they need to find them in the future here. But I think it's different from the pass rusher position that is just so difficult to find one of those really, really good players. And this is someone who has first round talent and some production to be able to say that he can sack the quarterback under the

right circumstances. This one from JP, is our defense more injury prone than average? Davenport Hunter, Seen Evans, and the Clemson cornerback, Andrew Booth Jr. Yeah, that is a concern. That is a pretty serious concern. I don't know what's going to happen with Daniil Hunter. They can't really trade him today. If you look at their, well, they could, but they'd have to do a lot of work in the salary cap. That would be later in the summer

if they were going to trade him post-June 1st, or I guess they could designate it post June 1st. That I think just based on what I remember from his salary cap situation, it's not as easy. Like you don't save a lot if you trade him. In fact, I think it actually hurts your salary cap right now if you trade away Daniil Hunter. But yeah, Louis Seane is coming off an injury that he should be recovered from. It's not something that is going to be nagging necessarily, but Evans with concussions is a very serious concern.

And Andrew Booth Jr., I don't know how you could ever expect Andrew Booth Jr. to be healthy after being hurt. I think I counted five different times this year. So that's where they do have to get more players to be healthy after being hurt. I think I counted five different times this year. So that's where they do have to get more players at the cornerback position. And I totally agree with Malik from earlier talking about the cornerback position.

Like, yes, they have to get more corners. They have to get them in the draft and they have to pick up at least some, some one, at least one or two in free agency, but you should probably just wait on free agency because you're not going to be able to pay what other teams can pay right now for the top guys. Let's see here from CRIT0022. Are we pushing ourselves into a corner to take a first round corner in the first round? Um, yeah, well, they're probably going to have to do that no matter what.

Uh, had they even had they signed someone, uh, today who was a corner, it wasn't going to solve all the concerns and all the issues they're going to have to sign someone. I just don't know who, uh, as far as, you know, are they going to take a bigger swing? Probably not. They're going to look at, you know, maybe corners over the next few days rather than trying to go all in today. But as far as first round picks go, there's multiple players that they could really use in the first round. They could use a wide receiver. They could use a defensive tackle that we now have seen Delvin Tomlinson go. They could use another edge rusher because we don't know the future of Marcus Davenport or Daniil Hunter.

There's a lot of positions that the Vikings need going into the draft and there's only one 23rd overall pick. So are they painted into a corner? Yeah, not necessarily, but kind of. They definitely need a cornerback when they go to the draft if they don't sign anybody big over the next couple days, which I just don't see happening. And plus, this is a good draft to need a corner. And that was one thing that when I talked with Mike Renner the other day, he said, if you are moving back into the second round, there is a good group of corners. So it kind of makes sense for them to be able to drop back in the draft and pick up multiple positions.

But this might be a year where they just have to find out who can play. It might just be how it goes where, yeah, This might be a year where they just have to find out who can play. It might just be how it goes where, yeah, do you need a corner? Sure. But you're going to play a Caleb Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. until the wheels come off. And by the end of next year, you're going to know if you've got these guys or not, if they're going to be players for the future or not and that is very valuable by the way when

you are backed into a corner as you say in this position of having to reset and rebuild then uh yeah you have to find out who's going to be able to play so you know i think that uh in a way yes they are backed into a corner with some positions but they've also got this opportunity to sit and wait and find out uh who can play and be able to evaluate them for uh for years to come and to know what they have and that's why i see this as kind of a one-year step back as opposed to this complete tank or something like this. Let's see from Bradley. Why are Vikings fans so paranoid of taking a step back for one year, maybe two years to take a giant step forward?

Look at the Jags or Cincinnati. It takes at least three years to build a solid roster. At this point, there is no other real choice, is there? This kind of is what it's supposed to be. Or, you know, probably when they started, Kwesi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell knew that this was going to be how it went. And I remember Kwesi said at the Combine, he said that his job was in part to set expectations for the owners. I asked him specifically about his communication with the owners. And that's what he said. He said, I am here to set expectations

for the owners. And the way that I took that was him saying that he was going to tell the owners, look, this is going to be a tougher year. And now where Kirk Cousins fits into all of this is very interesting and is unresolved at the moment. Whether they're going to let him play out next year and just have a tough year, or if they're going to say, wait until things settle down, wait until they see what happens with the Rogers and jets situation and see if someone wants to trade for him and then go forward from there. Because we do have this pretty big gap between free agency and the draft. And if we go through this free agency period and it ends up that, you know, some teams are still left out of the quarterback situation and are looking to add

a veteran quarterback still, I mean, how would you turn an offer down if it was the right offer, if you're the Vikings? If you could replace, think about the roster that you have right here. If you could replace Kirk Cousins with someone much cheaper and that you're not locked into at all for this year and then draft someone or be set up to draft someone next year. I mean, that's a very favorable spot for them rather than wasting a year of Kirk Cousins and then letting him hit free agency. You would much rather find someone else to take a swing with than that, but there's always the Justin Jefferson element of it. And I think that, you know, if there is real interest in Odell Beckham and they're bringing in Odell Beckham, then you probably have to keep Kirk Cousins. You have to have as good of an offense as you have,

or as you possibly can this year, compete for the division again, and then draft a quarterback after next year. So, you know, I think that they're still in a position right now at the end of day one and might not be completely over. If I have to do another, you know, podcast in the middle of the night, I will absolutely do it. But assuming that we're very close to the end of day one of free agency and nothing else is coming down the pipe, we still aren't really sure 100% how much rebuildy it is. If you were to make a meter out of it, you could say that they're in the orange as far as rebuildy. But if you start hearing the rumors of Kirk Cousins being traded, that starts to get into the red. Or if you see Harrison Smith, Delvin Cook, Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter, all gone, then this is a full and complete rebuild, even if you still have the potential to have a good offense next year. But it could end up being

like what the Falcons were post Matt Ryan. I bet, you know, at this point last year, I don't remember the timeline exactly for Deshaun Watson, but at this point last year, did we think Matt Ryan was going to be shipped out to Indianapolis? Like, I don't remember that if that was the case, I think that was a little later on that he ended up being moved. So how things end up playing out over the coming days could really impact how they feel about Kirk Cousins. As far as what I think they could get for Delvin Cook, I don't think that the price is particularly high. I think that maybe we're talking about a fourth round pick coming back. If they could get a third, that would be a monster return considering how easily running backs are replaced and that he didn't have the best statistics from last year and was

probably costing the offense yards running last year, coming off shoulder surgery, really hard to get a lot for him. Fourth, fifth round pick to the highest bidder is probably where i would maybe look the most uh do i think odell beckham is coming i would say i don't think that but if he does okay i mean it'll be fun if you're gonna have a bad year let it be fun right Right. And look, I mean, it all could be setting up for who knows what, you know, something else as far as drafting a quarterback, doing something else like that. I'm still not entirely counting out the Lamar Jackson thing. It's a very low percentage chance, but you know, you never know with, with things like that. But if you're setting up to have one of the most offensively

talented teams in the league, at least you're going to be really entertaining and really fun, despite not being a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl. But it would be a weird world to exist in. I will say that if they were signing Odell Beckham and letting all their other veterans go, you're still kind of feeling stuck in the middle. But as long as you're not signing anybody that's going to hurt you down the road, I still think that you're in a good place. As long as you're not adding lots of void years, adding dead money, making your cap situation tougher. And a lot of it comes down to as long as you're not extending Kirk Cousins and locking

yourself into him where you can have freedom in the future, you know, then you're in good shape to both be competitive and entertaining and be very rebuilding. Do I think that the Vikings will resign Garrett Bradbury after seeing what some of the interior offensive linemen got today. And I know center is a little bit different. Um, but I don't know. I mean, I, I think that Garrett Bradbury has got to be looking at the market and saying, I should be getting rich, right? Shouldn't he? I mean, if you look at what some of the other guys got, um, you know, I know Chris Lindstrom is a guard and is an elite guard, but that drives up the price for everybody. Even Juwan Taylor, a tackle,

the offensive line prices are just going up and up and up. If Garrett Bradbury wants 10, 12, $14 million a year, I think that the Vikings are probably going to say, just like with Delvin Tomlinson, it's too much. We just can't afford to do something like that, especially for a guy that had a back injury this last year. And you don't know how that's going to impact him in the future. So I guess at this moment, I would probably vote no that, you know, I don't think that Garrett Bradbury will be back. I do think that they like him as a team and as a leader in their locker room.

It's just if the guy gets a call for 12 to 14 million dollars a year, how could you justify paying Garrett Bradbury, who had one good year and was banged up and just one year ago was benched for Mason Cole. How could you really justify paying him 12 to $14 million? But that does leave another hole and another player that you got to bring in. That's going to be new. So, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of difficult choices that are having to be made. And that's why, you know, the Vikings, when we talked about what they did last off season, kicking the can down the road gets used all the time, but they kicked it down the road. Now it's here. And we're seeing the impacts of that. Let's see. Do I think that Zedaria Smith and Delvin Cook could be packaged as one trade to the bills. Do I think Ezra Cleveland

would be traded or cut? I don't know about Ezra Cleveland. Is there some Ezra Cleveland buzz for him to be moved? I guess I haven't seen that. He is going into the last year of his deal. And if he's completely uninterested in signing a long-term extension, I suppose they could try to trade him. That's possible. I think that he's been a really good run blocker for them and not a great pass protector. They should be looking to put together an elite pass blocking offensive line as they set up not only for a fun year next year, but whoever their next quarterback is. And I don't think Ezra Cleveland fits that bill. We've also seen guys develop in their third or fourth year, even Garrett Bradbury. I think you'd want to see it

first with Ezra Cleveland. As far as do I think they could package Zedaria Smith and Delvin Cook, the problem with doing something like that is Buffalo doesn't have any cap space either. Buffalo is in tight themselves. And that's why there were some rumors and things like that about, you know, Delvin Cook to Buffalo, but it just doesn't, just doesn't fit with their cap situation. They did move some money around today. I think they restructured Josh Allen and Vaughn Miller's deals. So I suppose that it is possible that they could be moving cap space around to make some sort of move.

That is an all-in type team. I don't know why if you're Buffalo, you would go after Delvin Cook, aside from his brother plays there. If you are a team that passes the football all the time, I know Sean McDermott wants to run more. I don't know if you want a running back who is really one-dimensional. I don't look at Delvin Cook as a top-notch pass protector, and he's definitely not a receiver out of the backfield. Every year, we discuss that about, you know, could he catch more passes and everything else? And every year, the answer was pretty much no, that he was a pretty limited to screen type passes was not somebody that was going to run a whole lot of routes and catch balls down the field or anything like that. So Buffalo would

be really looking at a one-dimensional older running back who's faded and banged up for a lot of money. That just doesn't sound like Buffalo to me. I mean, that's one of the smarter front offices. If they do it, I'll be very surprised. Is trading Zedarius Smith an option? Haven't heard much of that, but seems tradable more than others. Yeah. I think that once the cat is out of the bag that the guy wants to go, that one of the problems is that everybody knows that. And so you call up another team and you're like, hey, you seem like you should be in the market for a Z'Darrius Smith.

And they're like, yeah, I heard he wants to be cut. And then when he gets to his other team, what does he say? I want a new contract. You guys gonna give me a new contract or what? You know, that's not a situation that teams want to make a trade for usually. And that might be the holdup is that they're making phone calls all day, trying to find a trading partner for Zedaria Smith, because I agree with you on its surface. It does make sense. He's a very good

player. He played really well last year overall, but everybody else, the other teams, they know what you know. They know that he wants to get a new contract. They know that he was banged up in the second half of last year. And that's not something that is going to be some sort of surprise to another team. So they'll probably just wait until he gets cut. How do I feel about Delvin Tomlinson to the Browns? Well, I feel like it's good for the Browns. That's a good move for them because they have lighter linebackers. So they want to get bigger on the defensive line

and the interior. But the price was just not something the Vikings should do. And it's a good thing that they didn't do it. The commitment was too long. I mean, four years and something above $14 million a year. That's just not a deal that the Minnesota Vikings should be doing for somebody who is more of a run stuffer. I was impressed that he caused pressure at times last year, but he's more of a run stuffer and their run defense was just okay.

It wasn't great. It wasn't like when they had Linval Joseph at his peak, where I would have said, you need to keep that man because he is a one-man wrecking crew in the middle of the defensive line. I never really looked at Delvin Tomlinson that way. A consistent, excellent player. One of my favorite players to deal with. I mean, you could ask him anything. He's very, very intelligent. I think he was loved in the locker room, but this is a defensive

market, defensive lineman market where people are just getting money and good for him. Delvin Tomlinson getting another big contract, his second of his career. So that's, I mean, that's great for him as a person and as a player because he's an ultimate pro. He's somebody that you'd rather have on your team than not. But this team is just not in a position to be paying a luxury type player that's more of a run stuffer, that kind of money for that kind of commitment. So, wow, so much happening today and so much more to come.

I have a feeling that we're gonna be doing one or two of these tomorrow as well with emergency podcasts with more to go. Still, you know, things sometimes in Viking land don't always go by the nine to five o'clock. So as we saw, Dalvin Tomlinson signing late here, the Vikings signing Marcus Davenport. Very interesting times. That's what I would say. Very, very interesting times for the Minnesota Vikings. And it's only going to get more interesting and how it connects

to the timeline, how it connects to the quarterback. Odell Beckham's being talked about. Lamar Jackson's still out there. So much to still be resolved, folks. So I thank you so much to still be resolved folks so i thank you so much for joining and all of you have great questions in the comments and everything else uh i am sweating after after this long day of free agent talk and excited about what's next so um love that so many people came and joined this live stream and we will absolutely be doing it again no matter what happens tomorrow night we'll be here right around the same time right around 9 30 10 o'clock we'll be doing the same thing for sure but if anything happens if you wake up tomorrow you scroll your phone oh they did something big keep your eye on this channel because i'll be going live with every big thing that happens so thank you thank, thank you again for everybody who watched here late into the night.

Luckily, you guys gained an hour from the clock moving forward. I'm just kidding, okay? And someone asked about Greg Joseph. I don't know that they'll bring Greg Joseph back. I'm sorry that I didn't jump on that question, but he was below average last year, has never really been above average.

So I don't know. I think they should be looking for better options. But anyway, thanks so much for everybody watching. Really appreciate you. And keep your eye on Purple Insider because we will be doing it maybe a lot this offseason with these emergency podcasts. Thanks so much, everybody. And we will definitely see you again very soon.