Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin analyzes Kirk Cousins's surreal press conference

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by ESPN's Courtney Cronin to talk about Kirk Cousins's return from the COVID list and his wild press conference which opened up with Cousins talking about room sizes and then went in a bunch of surprising directions, none of which included an explanation for why he isn't taking the vaccination that would allow him to not have NFL protocols. Is this a sign of a very serious divide between Cousins and Zimmer? How does it impact the locker room? How does it impact the long term for Zimmer and Cousins? Plus the offensive line sort of gets Christian Darrisaw back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin and what I hope is the last time we have to discuss Kirk Cousins vaccination status for the entire 2021 season. You know why Courtney? Because Kirk Cousins is going to socially distance, he's going to wear his mask and the Vikings are going to have their quarterbacks in the largest room inside TCO Performance Center. That's how I know that this will no longer be an issue after today. How are you? I'm tired. It's been a week.

Gosh, a really eventful thing. Although, like, when you think about Vikings training camp, it's always something. And especially at the beginning of camp, they don't, like, ease into something. And then there's, like, a story, like, three weeks in, whatever. Like, it's always, and especially at the beginning of camp they don't like ease into something and then there's like a story like three weeks in whatever like it's always like a massive explosion and like this year it's you lose your offensive line coach because he won't get vaccinated and you have a major shift there in who's talking to your offensive lineman and who's coaching them the scheme and that's right before training camp starts and then you know within couple of days, you've got all your quarterback winding up on the COVID-19 reserve list because Kellen Mond tested positive. And I'm sorry, I know a lot of people don't want to hear us talk about this anymore. This is the biggest storyline affecting the Minnesota Vikings

right now. They are on every national sports show, radio and TV. They're being talked about everywhere because of this issue. And Kirk Cousins, I think had a lot of options today of what he could have gone up to the podium and said, he could have, you know, whether he believed it or not, he could have gone up and said, yeah, this was a wake-up call. This was kind of a scary thing. What happened when it was completely out of my control. I just happened to be next to Kellen Mond for an exposed period of time.

But instead, he goes up and blames the size of the meeting room, which I don't think really sat well with a lot of people. Fans that, you know, my mentions are a cesspool. They usually are, but like they're even worse now. I think the excuses with Cousins that he came up with this kind of felt maybe like a little bit of history repeating itself we heard the stuff coming out of games like you're not just talking about Kirk the quarterback who remains unvaccinated and this could happen again I think a lot of this is the personality of cousins that we've seen at different points throughout his four years now in Minnesota so it's a little it's a little troublesome the way that he handled it today,

spoke for 10 minutes only on the topic of COVID-19, the reserve list, what had happened, the meeting rooms, plexiglass, all these other things that are great, I guess, in theory. But the bottom line is, Matt, he remains unvaccinated. And that did not sound like somebody who was going to change his mind at all. Yeah, I thought he made it very clear, in fact, that he will not be changing his mind at the end when he said something to the website purpleinsider.substack.com by the way was that he gave us all the answers we didn't care about and that vikings fans don't care about so the biggest answer that i think vikings fans would want to know as it pertains to a guy who could now potentially miss games because of his vaccination status is why like, help me understand Kirk, help us understand why you don't want to do this. When 90% of your peers have decided to do this,

I have decided to become vaccinated. So they don't have to potentially miss games or cost their team teammates money if they have to forfeit or anything else like that. So 90% are saying, yep, we're going to do this and we're going to try and make sure that the virus doesn't get in the way of this season. And we're going to try to make sure that we're available. And yet you're saying you don't want to do it. Please tell us why. When you say it's a private decision to a degree, you have to respect that as a media member when you're fed that as an answer. But if you don't come out and say what it is, and I'm sorry, you're in a spot, like if you were a normal citizen like you or I and not the most important position on a football team,

a football team that has a coach coaching for his life and a GM GMing for his life, this wouldn't be an issue. But that's the nature of this. And because he won't say those things, that's going to leave it open to interpretation for a lot of people. There'll be the people who say you're selfish. You just don't want to get it because you don't want to be told what to do. There'll be the people who say, well, your religious reasons are preventing you from doing this, whether you agree with them or not. There'll be others who want to speculate for a number of different reasons as to why cousins will not get vaccinated. The end of the day though, it came across as tone deaf a year ago. Right now,

he made similar comments that came across as tone deaf when he said, if I die, I die. I don't know if he's really learned anything. And that's the worrisome part here. When we pick apart more things than just if they, if he misses a game or whatever or what happens like I think that you got to think long term here if this is the guy that you want to ride with because of the decisions that he's making that it doesn't just affect him like it affects the rest of the team and the way that he spoke today spoke as if he's the only the only thing that he was concerned about was truly his own status. Well, and that's what I mean by help us understand why you are so strongly against this. I feel like I don't want to give Cole Beasley any benefit at all, but I almost feel like Cole Beasley stated his case. At least I don't think it was a particularly compelling way to do it with Cole Beasley tweeting and fighting with everyone on the Internet.

But at least we sort of understood his thought process. And I wanted to come away with some understanding of his thought process. And you could say it's a private decision and I get that. But it became not private when it was out there because you had to miss practices because you had a close contact. The cat is out of the bag. The toothpaste is out of the tube. We all know now. So tell us why it is that you feel this way. And he's just saying no. And I'm going to just go by the protocols. And that is the end of that. And don't bother me about this anymore. And I'm sure if you're Kirk

Cousins, it's the last thing in the entire universe you want to do to have to explain your stance on this. But even when he said the thing about if I die, I die. And we did the same dance where we asked him, well, what do you mean by that? And then it was I'm basically not telling. And then when he talks about these other elements of it and Judd's old dad says, look, I mean, this thing is so dangerous that if you're on vaccinated, it's a good chance you're going to get it. And there's a good chance that you're going to, you know, cost your team games. And he says, agree to disagree. And he says, I'll just, I'll just follow the protocols and it will be fine. We'll meet outside in January and all those things. And it, it, it all,

there was a really there was like a naive sort of element of it. It was like, Kirk, man, if you're paying attention to this world, that doesn't really feel feasible. Even the Minnesota twins guys who took the same stance, they all ended up getting COVID. I'm not saying he's going to get it. I'm just saying that he's, he should understand and doesn't seem to want to acknowledge how much risk he's putting himself at of potentially

missing games. Is it naivete or is it just straight up? I don't care. Honestly, Matt, he's a smart dude. The man has made hundreds of millions of dollars in his career. And a lot of that is, you know, his excellent representation that he has with Mike McCartney. But I have gotten this question on my phone all day. Is Kirk really this dumb? And that's not me saying that that's come into my phone from agents around the league that I've spoken with from other people on other teams I've spoken with today.

And you know what my response is? No, I think he's calculated. I think that this was a calculated risk that he's willing to take because he doesn't have as much to lose as anybody else. He's got a fully guaranteed contract and he has got a $45 million cap hit next year. be a way for the Vikings, if things go down really badly this year, this could be a way for the Vikings to distance themselves. You know, for Rick Spielman to be like, you know, Kirk has this loud exit potentially. If things were to go really bad, if you were to miss games, this would be a serious problem all year.

He won't get vaccinated, whatever. We already know that the coach is not on good terms with him. I don't care what he said today. They had a great conversation, what have you. Mike Zimmer brought that up unprompted the other day, that Kirk does not believe in the protocols. And Kirk, through gritted teeth, said, I absolutely believe in the protocols. That's not, that's something didn't get lost in communication there. That is a coach who was fed up and he said what he said. But I just, you know, I circle back on all of this to think that like, I don't think he's ignorant to the fact. I don't think he's naive. I think it honestly has a lot of selfish undertones to it,

to where you've got to talk about this. Honestly, you, you know me, I will not sugar coat anything on this podcast. And when you and I are talking about any of this, I think it was a very selfish comment. And I think that him talking about, well, I don't care. I'll meet under the goalposts of my team. Did you clear that with the other quarterbacks in the room? Did you clear that with your team?

Because let me tell you something about how practice works. He was talking about, well, to his knowledge, the protocols and all of that, they're different for outdoor practices versus inside practices. Why? Because it's a quote aerosol issue, according to what, that's what he said. Well, you're going to be practicing outside in really cold elements.

And I was the pool reporter for this team last year. You remember that during COVID. I was the only one for a while that was allowed inside. It gets really cold here in September at times. You're going to be rolling the dice in September in like week four, if you have to move inside, because it's 40 degrees out and you're just going to be like, you know, wishing and praying and hoping that this thing doesn't pop up.

And like, you end up becoming a close contact again. Like I don't think it's ignorance as much as he, he knows this. He literally said when Kevin Seifert, my colleague at ESPN was like, you're going to all this trouble talking about like plexiglass and, you know, bigger meeting rooms, et cetera, social distancing. When the NFL has said safest way for you to stay healthy. And it's what we're telling everybody get vaccinated. He said, correct. And the league is saying that we should get vaccinated, but then it's a personal, but it's a personal decision. He literally acknowledged that he knows it's the safest decision to get

vaccinated, but he won't. So that to me is not, I'm dumb. I don't know what's going on. That is clear as mud. He knows exactly what is going on. He knows exactly what's at stake here. He is just choosing to do it his way. Yeah. There were several things where he sort of got caught a little bit with that. Exactly what you're talking about. He contradicted himself like three or four times today. I think that that is just – I don't know if he really cares what people think. Honestly, to his credit, he has been criticized throughout his career.

People talk about him being mediocre. People talk about him not deserving the contracts he's gotten. And you know what? He's been able somehow, someway – I don't have enough have enough skin but he does he's able to tune that stuff out and i think it'll honestly be the same with something like this it's not like he's gonna face enough public if he hasn't faced the public pressure or anything like that to get this thing done now not even pressure just like being a you know just the common sense element that comes with this that his head coach has been preaching i don't think it's gonna bother, I think honestly, he can put his blinders up to this and be like, I'm doing me.

I'm choosing my decision for myself and I'm going to stick with this. I'm not going to falter. That's just, that's just, I've covered Kirk the entire time he's been here. That's the vibe I've always kind of gotten from him. And I think it applies to this very much the same way it has other issues. And you mentioned how this is relevant toward the bigger picture. And I think that this, if there were already people who were either on the fence or thinking long-term, this isn't really going to work. You've got to be asking yourselves, how many times can we do this dance where Kirk Cousins is trending on Twitter for something he said in a press conference? Kirk Cousins is showing, not showing up to a big game, not beating a good defense that, you know, needing Delvin cook to run for 150 yards to win games. And you sort of add

this on top of your overall results have not been a success. And we always go back to, I was thinking about this a lot today, how we always go back to, well, Kirk is a good quarterback if, or he's a good quarterback, but, and I think that what we saw today is a major part of the, he's a good quarterback, but, and I'll give you an example of something I saw at practice today. He completed a really long pass down the sideline. Maybe it was to Justin Jefferson in sort of like the seven on seven or one-on-one drills. And there were a bunch of, there were a bunch of guys standing around him. Like nobody did anything. It was like a 40 yard touchdown.

And there was like no reaction whatsoever. It wasn't, it wasn't high fives. It wasn't let's go Kirk. It w it was just like, Oh, okay. Uh, somebody maybe high five him. It's just always felt like it's Kirk. It's the rest of the team. It's this leadership group. It's Delvin cook is the leader of the offense. And it's the defenses, Mike Zimmer's and Mike Zimmer and Kirk cousins are two ships passing in the night. And then we get this comment about how it was such a great conversation, but I'm not telling you about it. And it was like, well,

if it was so positive and so great, like, why can't you share? Oh, well, because we know Mike Zimmer, right. And I think we probably have a sense for Mike Zimmer's feeling toward this and how he would coach it. And I think Mike Zimmer is probably feeling like, man, if you and your protocols end up costing me, I'm never going to forgive you for this. And the fact that he won't do it and he won't explain it.

And when he said something about doing his research and then he was asked if he talked with the NFL's doctor and said, no, I mean, all these things add up to, I do what I want. And that has been more or less sort of the Kirk cousins disposition since he's been here from the very beginning, Riley reef didn't block his guy good enough. That's why we lost against Los Angeles. Kyle Rudolph didn't block the nickel back. Like he was supposed to. And that's why I threw a pick six. I mean, he, he eventually sort of moved away from throwing people under the bus like so directly, but this is just kind of Kirk Cousins personality. So even though he's a very

talented quarterback, when you have just these other pieces missing, and then you have the potential for him to miss games because of COVID, it's very hard to say, oh yeah, well this is a person that you really want to lock yourself into for the long term. It's basically, to me, if he doesn't go to the NFC Championship, you're probably talking about a different quarterback here. You know, that's what I'm trying to get at. Like, I honestly think some, like like let's go back to Tuesday. Mark Wilf, the owner of this team, gave Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer a direct vote of confidence for how they are handling the situation with the team and players not getting vaccinated. Mark Wilf said we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and that it's very concerning the vaccine hesitancy with the team that has the lowest vaccination rate in the NFL. You didn't have to look far today. Like if you know the protocols,

which I'm sure everybody on Twitter, all the people who want to yell at us about like baiting Kirk into questions and all this other stuff, you know, AKA doing our jobs by asking questions that are relevant and necessary. But like I digress because this is just exhausting. Anyways, the new protocols that came out last week, the recent ones were that players who were unvaccinated, who are not practicing, have to wear a mask. Saw it with Adam Thielen today.

Saw it with Harrison Smith. You saw it with Hercules Mata'afa, who wasn't given a vet day. He just got hurt yesterday. I was standing right there. I saw it. That's a problem. And Kirk is not the only problem. Like, that's the thing.

He's going to take the fall for it because he's the quarterback. And because he's a polarizing figure, regardless, he's not the only problem. But I think that he would be the problem that would be the easiest to distance yourself from if you're Mike Zimmer and you're Rick Spielman and things don't go well this year, or even if they do, and you realize all the hoops that you had to jump through to get there, but you can go to ownership and be like, whether it good or bad but let's say it's bad this wasn't my fault we didn't know there was going to be a global pandemic and that our quarterback was going to have such a staunch stance against vaccinations and not being vaccinated this is not our fault give us another chance to get it right that to me if Kirk is going to make this as big and loud of

an exit as he can, the way that, you know, honestly, the way that he didn't have to make, he could have gone about this to make it maybe kind of just like tone down the stoke, the stoke, unstoke the flames, make it like a little bit less of a raging fire around this to say, you know, I thought about it. This was really big wake up all, I'm going to ponder all options and consider things. Whether you believe it or not, that's what you say. He's creating this. This is a football team. There is a competitive disadvantage for players who are unvaccinated because they have a better chance of winding up on that COVID-19 reserve list, as we found out with Kirk. He wasn't positive for COVID-19, but because he's unvaccinated,

he was a high risk close contact. He had to miss five days. Had he been vaccinated? It wouldn't have been that long. So it's kind of like the NFL and the NFL PA agreed to these rules, your players association, Kirk agreed to these rules. So if you have a big issue with it, bring it up to them. I'm sure other players have, and whether you get it changed or not, that's one thing. But I honestly tend to think that if this team just is done with, with the charade that this whole thing is kind of creating, and maybe this is the cherry on top of everything else, if they have a bad season, that it probably does make it easier to move on from him. Like now,

now, as far as people are going to ask about like, well, what if he misses games? And you know, if he finds himself on the COVID-19 reserve list and he's unvaccinated, you know, there's been talk out there that that's going to be considered a non-football injury and that players are going to have to miss game checks. Do I think the person who just got a $66 million extension is really caring about missing a couple hundred thousand dollar game check? Probably not.

But other guys would. And I just think that globally, do you want that person being the leader in your locker room? Like I asked Mike Zimmer, I know I'm rambling. I'm sorry. I'm passionate. Like I asked him a question about this on Monday or Tuesday, Monday, I think. And I said, do you think it's going to affect the leadership in the locker room? And he's like, not right now, but if we start losing games and there are players around who are unvaccinated and they weren't there because, and we lost a game, that that's probably going to affect it.

So time will tell. I mean, yes, the Vikings could get really lucky and try to somehow get throughout the season by following the protocols, but really more so luck because we know this thing is everywhere right now. Like we're very vigilant of it in the media room ourselves, wearing masks in here and trying to like, we're all vaccinated. Like this can happen at any turn. So somehow if the Vikings get lucky this year, it doesn't mean like, oh, you know, we made a big deal out of something. It just means that they got lucky because this is happening everywhere. It's not just a football

problem. It's a global problem. And you know, when it's all said and done, I'll be really curious to see how they get through it, but also what their view of Kirk Cousins is eight months from now. I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen it yet, you've got to check it out. A couple of my favorite designs are the Duck Duck Gray Duck and the Randy Moss Goat, which you've got to see. All their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies.

You will love it. We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. By the way, use promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code PURPLEINS Insider for free shipping. They were really good about following the protocols last year, and they still missed their starting left tackle for a game,

and they still missed their number two wide receiver for a game. Now, those games were irrelevant against Carolina and against Detroit. But what about against Chicago? What about against Green Bay? I mean, in terms of the relevancy, I don't even think that any of us have to justify asking questions. I mean, that's just, you know, leave that to the peanut gallery to complain about because the fan base, I think right now is extremely nervous about what is going to happen because of the star players not being vaccinated.

And I've probably made the joke before, but even people who are anti-vaccination want their quarterback to be so he could be on the field. And so it's, of course, it's a relevant issue because it could impact where your season goes. I did want to bring up what you said about Mike Zimmer, which was, I think that Mike Zimmer's approval rating has sort of gone through the roof a little bit here, but not just like for the, the VACs in general, but also the way that he has been so straightforward in sort of telling the world how he feels about this. Now I'm sure that there are some people who are uncomfortable with it, but 90% of the messages that I get from people are like,

oh, I didn't expect Zimmer to come out and tell these players to go get themselves in gear. And again, when you're dead last in the league, that means you're way behind what all the other teams are doing and you have a competitive disadvantage because this all ties into the football element of it. And so for Zimmer to come out like this, it's not only sort of made him like

a sympathetic figure in a way, like poor Zimmer can't even, you know, get these players to be vaccinated, but it also does give a little sort of a, what would you call it? Like plausible deniability. If things don't go that well this year, like, well, we missed this guy or that guy for a couple of games. And then we lost this one big game because of our court. You know what I mean? Like, so it's sort of in a way, I also think it's Mike Zimmer hedging a little bit against if this doesn't turn out all that well, you know, I can go back to, well, look, the leader of the team did not get everybody to follow him.

And I heard Tom Pellicero bring this up on NFL network. He said, you know, the connections to the most vaccinated teams seem to be how loud the quarterback is about it. And I'm not saying that Kirk cousins could have convinced some of these guys, but when the person who is the center of your franchise, does anyone question Patrick Mahomes is the center of the chiefs franchise. He's the center of the NFL universe. When he says, come on guys, let's go.

I think that's very different from saying every man for themselves. Yeah. I mean, I just, I do think that, and I don't know, like, I don't want to speak in hypotheticals because what happened was Mike Zimmer has been incredibly honest about this. Cause it's not just, it's, I mean, yes, it's a public health thing for sure. Like he was talking about the Delta variant it's contagious and like, you know, player health and safety is the thing that this team is going to tout first and foremost itself. It's, it's, it's stance in the community, whatever. There's also football games to be won. This is a football issue. Now, when it,

when it is directly tied to your competitive advantage or disadvantage, whether you have players or not, it becomes, am I going to be employed in a year? So of course, Mike Zimmer is going to set himself up because you know why he didn't have a choice. If you want to remain employed as a coach on this field, like what happened with Rick Denison as a coach on the field,

not somebody that's off in a virtual meeting room somewhere, you have to be vaccinated. The players association protects the players in, in, in that sense, that's off in a virtual meeting room somewhere, you have to be vaccinated. The Players Association protects the players. In that sense, they told them that you don't have to get vaccinated if you don't want to. It's encouraged, but you don't have to. The coaches did not have the same option. And Mike Zimmer is not going to, like, you think a vaccine is going to, like, Mike Zimmer is not going to take a vaccine and that's going to be the end of his career. Hell no. The man's going to die on the football field. Like he is all about ball.

And I could not see him saying no to a vaccine, even at whether he believed in it or not, like because it's directly tied into whether he can live his livelihood and do his livelihood with, with, with football. So, I think there is some of that in there to be like, look, like, you know, I, I told my players like, you know, get vaccinated. It's the right thing to do. It's going to keep you healthy and safe. And, um, it's going to better protect our, the integrity of our team. But he was saying this back in June, that it's going to be more difficult for players this year because of all the things that they're not going to be able to do that vaccinated players will get to do. And beyond that, it's going to affect team camaraderie. He said that at a point where I think he kind of knew what that locker room was like, where he knew there's a lot of players here who are not going to believe

anything I say. Maybe I can try one ditch effort and kind of speak through the media to get to them. I'm sorry. That's just kind of the way that it's lined up right now because, you know, his words have, have hit home. I think, I mean, well, they've definitely gotten a right now because you know his words have have hit home I think I mean well they've definitely gotten a lot of you know they've got a lot of attention because of what he said and just kind of where things stand right now and that doesn't only like you know maybe he said like one or two guys will come it doesn't like you know I mean clearly it's not like getting

guys in droves to come maybe one or two a week, we'll do it and get vaccinated. But if you don't have the majority of your starters vaccinated, which clearly we saw two out there today who are not vaccinated with Adam Thielen and Harrison Smith, now Kirk cousins, that's a big problem. And that, that directly affects whether Mike Zimmer, how Mike Zimmer can do his job. I find it really interesting how different Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins are. They just are at the complete opposites of the spectrum of personality where Mike Zimmer is so much. I will fight to the absolute death. You will have to rip both of my eyeballs out to get me to

stop coaching. And then even then I'll find a way to braille the film. Like he is, will do absolutely anything. This is a guy, if I remember the story correctly, who broke his arm playing football. So he tried to punt just to do, just to do anything to continue to be around football. And so every season for him is so much. I am fighting every single day for my job. And we know Mike Zimmer beginning of the season versus end of the season. It's like a precedent at the start of their tenure. And then at the end of their tenure, how much older they look. And that's Zimmer at the end of every year, when we see him at the combine, it's like, Oh Mike, you got some sleep, huh? I mean, it's, it's sort of incredible. The many faces of Mike Zimmer, because by the end of the season, the guy has given every bit of his soul.

And that doesn't mean that he did everything right. He's manipulated people with how blunt he can be. He's probably done that in this case, even though players will say, oh, that's him for you. But come on, you can't tell me that some of these players don't feel like they've been alienated by their head coach being this aggressive against them. So that's Zimmer and that's how he does it. And Cousins sort of does the same thing, but like in the opposite way. And Cousins has never been thought of as that guy who's going to fight to the death. And that's the one thing I remember D'Angelo Hall saying in 2017 that, you know, we felt like he was a little bit more concerned about his contract than he was

winning for Washington. And I, and I, I think that that's sort of he was a little bit more concerned about his contract than he was winning for Washington. And I think that that's sort of come through a little bit here, that it's sort of how everything just pertains to him. And that's very different from Zimmer, where it's how everything pertains to I win football games and we win football games as a team. So that's not going away. That's not changing. But at the end of this year, you have to go one way or the other, I think with these two, because I'm just not sure how after all of this that they can stay together on the same track. Do you want to talk about anything else from training camp?

Cause I have some things. Let's talk some things. There's lots of things. Okay. Okay. We talked to Christian Dersaw for a few minutes after practice today. I'm going to, I'm going to take a whole, let's all just take a deep breath first before I get into that. Okay. Okay. We talked Christian Darasov for a few minutes after practice today. I'm going to, I'm going to take a whole, let's all just take a deep breath first before I get into that. Okay. Deep breath, deep breath, football breaths, football breaths. Everyone take your football breaths. Okay. So let's,

let's talk real football stuff and not COVID. What do you think it would take for Christian Darasov now that he is semi back on the field, not doing 11 on 11s yet? He's an individual. I that he is semi back on the field not doing 11 on 11s yet he's an individual I don't call that back on the field what do I think it'll take half half back on the field what will it take what would the timeline look like if he's going to start at left tackle at some point I just don't think he's going to week one if we're talking week one at some point it's going to be showing that a the groin is healed enough to where because remember mike zimmer said he tweaked it back in um or

there's some little issue with a groin pull or groin strain it was one of those two words that he said back in otas and i asked him tweak from these days he's not saying tweak anymore yeah i asked christian about it today kind of like, well, what happened? You have a SPAC. And he said, like, he really said he didn't pull it. So I don't know what happened exactly. It could just be that he was recovering from surgery and he might have done a little bit too much.

I would worry about that because you're an offensive lineman. Your body's in a very awkward position when you're in pass sets or whether you're run blocking. Like, you crouch down. Your groin's kind of an important part. So if I'm guessing right now or whether I'm making a very educated look at this, I don't think he starts week one. I don't think he's ready. I mean, week one is just over a month away.

And this guy has not had any reps with the first team offense. Like, last time we saw him actually doing like live team stuff if you could even really call it that he was like a second team left tackle back in the spring before he had to miss a couple of days and and all of that during OTA's mini camp but like I think it would take if gosh if you were to we need to know the groin's healthy we also need to see him supplant Rashad Hill like I don't don't think Rashad's going to get you. You're going to get, you know, 17 games out of Rashad Hill. That's not why you have him there. But can he get you through Cincinnati?

Can he get you through Arizona? And then maybe Derrissaw starts week three. I think there's a lot there that you have to sift through. But to me, it's like, you got to start taking live reps against daniel hunter for me to be able to like to determine okay this guy can actually and see how you do with that because it's a pretty vulnerable spot to put your rookie in when he hasn't been practicing and to i mean yeah a month is kind of a long time especially when it comes to training camp but think about it they're not practicing 30 straight days like i think it is a i think it

would be a reach right now he did say that his goal is week one i think it would be a reach right now if you're asking me on august 5th considering we haven't seen him in live 11 on 11 yet with even the second team offensive line like let's not forget he has not even been with the first team unit yet hey everyone summer is here and you're trying to get out on the golf course. But if you're like us here at purple insiders spending all day golfing, isn't always an option. That's why you need to check out birdie golf in Woodbury. I'll give you an example. My wife is new to golf and she's intimidated by the big courses, but at birdie golf, she could come and play without the pressure. You can make golf a family experience at birdie golf,

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attention uh in terms of like you know what the coaching staff saying what everything else um like they've kept him around for a reason I think they really do think he's a better fit at guard. I bet it's Dozier just being the experience as, as right now. I mean, they've could, could only Udo be your swing tackle. Sure. And that's really good depth for somebody who can play left tackle and

then go to right guard. I mean, we talked to him about it. It's not easy to like switch like that on a dime, but I would imagine that if it's, you know, I bet Dozier would start at right guard and then Udo would probably be your swing tackle.

I think that that sounds right. And he could also be like the Ezra Cleveland of this year where he could play tackle, but you have him as a backup guard as well, because Mason Cole hasn't played guard at all. We've only seen him at center. So that feels like that's his role. I might throw out there Wyatt Davis as the starter, because even though you're totally right, that it's closer than you think the start of the season, there's also three preseason games to go.

There's practice against Denver Broncos. There's a lot of time for Wyatt Davis to sort of sneak, sneak, sneak up on these guys and show that he can do it. And I was thinking about Pat Elfline in 2017. I don't believe we had Pat Elfline as the starting center until maybe like the third preseason game that he was starting at center, I think. And I, the thing about Pat Elfline was like, remember they never, that offensive line that they started the season with had never, that was not the line that they had in training camp or anything like that. So I could absolutely see a scenario where they have a bunch of, you know, a bunch of different combinations that they still want to work through. And that Wyatt Davis does end up becoming the right guard, starting right guard.

His name has not been thrown into the mix yet. I don't know if that's a coaching point or what is it because drew to me his name's still being thrown in there drew to me hasn't done anything memorable so far this camp he's just a guy so maybe wyatt davis has a good couple preseason games against denver against indy and the chiefs and we are talking something completely different in a couple weeks um he also doesn't really i mean he had the ankle whatever the ankle was uh that he kept him out of Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday returned yesterday and Wednesday, but he, he hasn't had the same sort of injury issue that Christian Darasaw has that's

kept Darasaw out. So I would say that that's probably a better bet. In bottom lines, the offensive line is far from settled. Remember a couple of months ago when we were like, man, two of the top three draft picks spent lines the offensive line is far from settled remember a couple months ago when we were like man two of the top three draft picks spent on the offensive line sheesh it's may they finally got this thing solved they're in the driver's seat for training camp uh yeah that has not panned out that way i and i still think that there's a reasonable possibility that by week three it's just the way that we thought it was going to be. We just took a very round circuitous route to get there. Right. And Mike Zimmer has always been a, you've got to earn it type of guy. And so with Wyatt Davis, you've got to play really well in these preseason games.

You've got to master the offense in order to be there. And I've got to trust you when we get there, but he's more talented than these other two. I mean, only Udo is a sixth round draft pick. Who's trying for the first time ever to play guard. And then you have, uh, Dakota Dozier who has proven that he cannot be a starter. So I'm going to go and lean toward the talent here for right guard, ultimately winning out, but I don't think they ever like to make these things very easy on anyone. Okay. Before I let you go, just give me your, Hey, this is a thing, I guess, of training camp so far that does not involve indictments or COVID or coaches being out of their positions and so forth. What's the thing that you've said? Oh, that's a thing. Um, I mean, one thing that I've constantly talked about is like just some of the things

that we're seeing with them do see that seeing them do with some of their edge rushers, um, finding a more natural fit, I guess, for, uh, you know, Stephen Weatherly was an outside linebacker in college. Um, DJ one and played in a 3-4 at south carolina and he's he's used to like covering he was used to sometimes not all time covering linebackers he can move in space i think that those things that andre patterson talked to us about throughout like the spring and that like they went and studied other people's tape and you know we hear this from them every single year like of incorporating other fronts and things like that like maybe we actually do see it this year i kind of like um i kind of like what the tweaks a scary word i like what the tweaks have been i like that you know you have a starting caliber player in a backup

three technique in sheldon richardson let me see what those nickel packages look like okay let me see what like the you know when you're not necessarily in your base defense with Tomlinson and Pierce next to each other what what does it look like on third down what does it look like in other situations like they have so much depth on the interior of the defensive line right now and that's like you know we're talking about Armond Watts being like I know I'm going really in the weeds here but like you you asked me to pull out something that okay I'm gonna do it so um yeah that that's, uh, that to me is a thing. Um, okay. So a pie chart on how big the room has to be to avoid COVID. I'm just kidding. That's why we're going to end it. I'm not, I'm not going there anymore. Not anymore. Not until it's a thing

then we'll do it again. Cause that's what we do. So Courtney, I appreciate all of your time as always. Next time we talk, it will be, I think we'll be approaching a preseason game and we'll get to just like preview football positions. That's the hope. That's the dream.