Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin simulates the draft and PFF's Brad Spielberger breaks down the Vikings' salary cap

Episode Date: February 25, 2021

It's been too long since we simulated the NFL Draft so ESPN's Courtney Cronin drops by to talk about how the Vikings would approach different scenarios. Would the Vikings go best player available and take a safety if some of their best-fit players were gone? What if we demanded that one of the first three picks is a QB? Plus PFF's cap guru Brad Spielberger stops by to explain how things like restructures and June 1 cuts do not always solve cap problems and he shows that it would be difficult for the Vikings to sign a big name. He also explains the two options the Vikings have for Kirk Cousins's future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Acceptance into the program is limited, so get your application in today. To apply, go to bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box for this episode to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. And Courtney, you know, we just have been negligent on our draft simming. So I thought we should just do an all draft simming episode here. Because also we're kind of in this holding pattern.

Like Deshaun Watson needs to be traded for stuff to happen, for implications to be had. After Deshaun Watson gets moved, we'll have a much better idea of who could be traded, where everyone could go, what the draft is going to look like. But for now, we wait. So we draft Sim. Are you down? I'm down. And I actually am very, very proud of my draft Sim today. I didn't think I was going to be when i did my first pick i thought okay maybe this doesn't pan out the way that i want it to but i am honestly i'm freaking thrilled oh wow okay uh you have had some great draft sims in the past there was one very memorable draft sim where you got oh i know what you're talking about orlando brown in the third i think

is the one that i'm referencing deshaun deshaun hand in the fifth i mean that was 2019 that was a good draft sim the famous draft sim i did get uh brian o'neill in a draft sim i think last year i took jeff gladney so a lot of times these turn out but we usually need to know kind of where free agency falls so here was my plan that we do one draft sim that's just we don't know anything yet and here's how we think it might play out, and we'll just draft the best players on the board. And then we'll try a couple more with scenarios. We'll just, like, if they do this, then we'll draft sim with that in mind. So let's start right off with the, okay, whatever, let's just find out what happens draft sim. I got to a very interesting spot in the first round

where I could draft an offensive lineman. There were two good offensive linemen on the board. There was Christian Derrissaw out of Virginia Tech and Rashawn Slater from Northwestern. And those were the best two players. Patrick Sertain, too. But also, I've become interested. You tell me if you are as well.

In Trayvon Mooring, the safety out of TCU, he seems to have a lot of the same things that we were talking about with Antoine Winfield Jr. last year. And the Vikings have an opening at safety next to Harrison Smith. So I decided to do it and go with a safety in the first round. Tell me if that is bananas. No, I don't think it is because this is a position that they haven't I mean typically you don't draft first round safeties um I mean at least not at 14 I mean the fact is like the Vikings had a chance to do that with Winfield he was available to them last year they didn't and he went to Tampa Bay there at the very end so I think it's a smart

play because that's a position that they just typically don't address until like the fifth or sixth round right and that really hasn't panned out for them you need to start thinking too that you know I don't I don't know what's going to happen with Anthony Harris uh he didn't have a season that's going to go make allow him to break the bank somewhere else do the Vikings offer him uh you know a new contract at a very reduced price maybe but he still had a decent enough season that he could probably go somewhere else so to me I don't even factor that in like Anthony Harris I'm factoring in this is Harrison Smith last year under contract I do believe he'll get an extension I believe that he has more left in the tank, certainly, and can play beyond the 2021 season.

But you need to start thinking about that spot, considering your cornerbacks are still going to be a work in progress. And fortunately, this is a draft where there's a lot of cornerbacks. So that's a day three need for me. But drafting a safety in the first round round i don't think there's anything wrong with that especially if you're going like best best player available he was gone for me at 12 um that's what i was saying francisco took him so i think it's and i kind of did bpa too so so uh just my situation here quitty pay and christian barmore went right before travon

mooring which i think speaks to christian barmore's stock rising and he might actually not be there for the vikings which initially we thought this is like the perfect guy i i still like the idea of taking an offensive lineman here they need it for sure but um safety is such a spot that is sort of a now and later position like you mentioned with Harrison Smith that I decided you just need more talent on the defensive side of the ball and if Anthony Harris is not coming back which I don't think that he will be then this is maybe the direction that you have to go but I really was thinking best player available so set me the scene for your first round pick so Christian Barmore that name you mentioned he was available

to me in my draft sim um and i was thinking about it i obviously have seen just like you kind of how quickly he is he's risen as one of those names for defensive linemen of you know top 15 pick he actually didn't go until 25 to jackville. Oh, wow. I think they have LA's pick here in this mock draft that I did on PFF. So he fell all the way to there. But for me, I walked in thinking, all right, this is going to be the time that I draft an offensive lineman early. Well, everybody that I wanted was off the board, and I didn't want to reach.

Christian Derrissaw was gone at nine to the Denver Broncos. One pick before me at 14 was Rashawn Slater, who I think would be a tremendous pick for the Vikings if they could land him there. The next offensive lineman that was drafted, I mean, I'm looking and it's a long ways down. There were only two. Wyatt Davis, the guard from Ohio Ohio State was taken at 34 in the second round there were only two offensive linemen off the board for me in this mock draft which is not terribly surprising I think the opt-outs um you know affect some of that excuse

me there's three there's three I obviously miss Panay Sewell. Oh, sure. Yeah. But he was never even in my mind going to be available to the Vikings at 14. So I think that kind of goes to show you the greater issue of opt-outs, maybe at least just the way that this board fell of guys who didn't play and how that affected their stock. But yeah, so that was my mindset going into it that I'm like, all right, Devante Smith is available to me at 14. You talk about the need for a number three receiver. I think it is incredibly important that they get another receiver, whether it's a veteran,

but we've seen what they've done with veteran receivers in the free agent cycle, usually from like the 75% off clearance rack that's like, you know, winter clothes in the middle of August. Yes. Those don't really work out all that well. But, you know, the Heisman Trophy winner, he was there for me at 14. That's what I went with. I think that, yes, we are looking at an offense that's going to look vastly similar to what it was last year under Gary Kubiak now with

Clint Kubiak taking over but you cannot tell me that you have another playmaker like that a Heisman trophy winning quarter or wide receiver who you know is very very good and very dynamic and probably has a lot of similarities that you see that you'll see his rookie year that Justin Jefferson did, you cannot pass that up if that's available to you, overreaching for a guard or an interior defensive lineman. I think this is also a now and later type of thing where Adam Thielen is expensive and getting into his 30s. And if it was any other player, we would be talking about that. Adam Thielen has had good seasons recently,

so it's not like he looks like he's about to fall off the edge of a cliff, but he is expensive. He is getting into his 30s. And the other point is just doing the lean into the Kirk of giving Cousins everything he possibly can get. For somebody who can really impact the team in year one, if you draft a defensive end, even if it's Quidi Pei and the guy is an absolute freak athlet even if it's Quiddy Paye and the

guy is an absolute freak athletically, or it's Gregory Russo, the scouting report on all of these guys seems to be, yeah, it's a project. It might be like Rashawn Gray, the guy for the Packers, or was it Gary? Rashawn Gary, who is like a really athletic guy, but he needed a lot of development. And we just started to see him in year, what, three, start to make an impact. And I think where the Vikings stand in this world is that they want somebody in that first round who's going to make an impact right away. So in that case, you would have already tried to fill the other spots, the spot on the offensive line. Maybe at that point you are, you know, extending Riley Reif. You're signing a defensive end. You're signing a defensive end.

You're signing a defensive tackle. And then you feel like, yes, we can take a luxury pick, but it's also a luxury pick that could get 50 catches in the first year and make a huge difference. So, I mean, you know I'm on team wide receiver three if someone like Devontae Smith is there. So, yeah, I think that's a great pick, and you have every reason to love it. Second round, we just go right by, unfortunately.

And on to the third round. I mean, if they don't trade back into the second, I'd be very surprised. But, you know, we'll – I mean, 14 is also prime trade back spot. And maybe recoup your second round pick there. They need one because you have three picks and stop inside the top 92 right now but if you're thinking quarterback at any point it needs it has to be on day one or day two in my opinion yes yes you can find a good high quality fourth round quarterback but if we're thinking you know again this is what the whole thing the need for stuff to happen in free agency so we can stop speculating and wondering

if cousins is going to be here or not and what the plan is going to be um like you have to draft a quarterback high but that to me is a second round if you if you know if you're rick spielman and you're looking at 14 it's prime trade background you could get a second round if you if you know if you're rick spielman and you're looking at 14 it's prime trade background you could get a second round pick and use that on a kyle trask or a jamie newman yeah yeah and and maybe newman lasts until the third usually the thing about the nfl is they have guys go bust all the time but they usually mostly know who the guys are who can really play so if someone gets into the third or fourth, I mean, there's only two quarterbacks who passed the third round. I could think of, I mean, maybe three.

Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott. Aside from that, I mean, you almost have to go back to Tom Brady to find anybody. Tony Romo was undrafted. I mean, it's like real serious outliers if you're talking about down the board. So if they want to do it, maybe the second round is where they have to get back into. And then there's draft picks that they can use. And we will definitely do draft Sims where we trade down and try to play around with that.

Get back in the second for this one, just going with the straight draft picks. I went with a defensive end Rashad Weaver out of Pittsburgh for this one because Creed Humphrey, the offensive lineman went right before. And so did James Hudson, who's another offensive lineman. Levi Anzuorke went just before that. That's the interior defensive lineman from Washington.

He looks pretty good. And so I was kind of left with, well, do I take a quarterback, Davis Mills? Do I take the guy out of Stanford who didn't play this year? Do I take Ben Cleveland, who's an offensive lineman? Yeah, I don't know. quarterback davis mills do i take the guy out of stanford who didn't play this year do i take ben cleveland who's an offensive lineman yeah i don't know i just like they really need edge rushers i mean yes so if i've already taken safety and i've passed up on an edge rusher i think i have to take another one here even if in this scenario the vikings had still signed someone you need somebody to be across from Daniil Hunter if Daniil Hunter is even going to be here so I took Rashad Weave

no I like it I think Ed Rusher is a huge you know huge need because think about what they're going to do in free agency at that position you could probably go out there and get um a Steven Weatherly I mean he was just released by the panthers he was somebody that they wanted to keep last year but finances just didn't allow it he was too far down the priority list um you can probably solve some of that position flexibility that they had from from weatherly and obviously a fatty odenabo by having somebody be on the other side of Hunter and strictly maybe even working with a DJ Wanham there, you know, rotate at that other end spot so you can then like free up Odenabo.

Let's say they got, you know, a cheaper defensive tackle that you could improve your pass rush that way. I like it. I think that I went defensive line too with this pick. I have the need, at least in my mind, to bolster the interior first. Davion Nixon, who is an interior lineman from Iowa, who's kind of had some – I mean, his production was shaky. Some of the reviews that I was reading about him were like, okay,

if you watch the Northwestern game, he was great. If you watch his Minnesota game, heern game he was great if you watch his minnesota game you know he could be a potentially a fourth round pick so i think that you know there's a lot of different a lot of different uh a lot of different intel on this guy and at least kind of like what he was good at last year but you know it's gonna you know to me this is a this is a priority for them that they're going to have to draft an interior defensive lineman early on, whether, you know, that's also player. And if you can get that need solved sooner rather than later, then you're not waiting until the sixth round to try to find somebody with very little production. I mean, this guy had played Iowa.

It has a nice body of work to work with. Yeah. I think when you get into the third, you're looking at sort of boom or bust for that position and they have to kind of do that. Right. Like they,? Like they haven't done that recently. Maybe you would think of Armond Watts as that because he was sort of a one-year wonder. But a sixth-round pick, to me, once you get past the fourth, it's just darts at the dartboard and, you know, put a blindfold on and hope that somebody works out like Stephon Diggs. But it rarely does.

So I don't even really consider those. Like every one of them is a lottery ticket. It's boom or bust. But in the top three rounds, if someone has a high upside on the interior, they have to do that. Because I think they've taken guys on the defensive line that some of them do have high upsides. And some of them are like Jaleel Johnson, where you say, well, what can he really become? Like he doesn't have the physical skill to really become a great player. Maybe he's a role player and he really didn't even become that so i i don't mind that i'm going boomer bustin interior

keep banging that drum courtney until they do it you keep banging that year after year you keep draft simming interior defensive lineman they keep not drafting them it's amazing uh for the other third round pick i was at the point where I was kind of just, who's the best player on the board? Do they fit in any way? And I'm actually really intrigued by one of the guys that I took. But this was a tough choice. So I took Trey Brown, who is a cornerback out of Oklahoma,

who has this real playmaker element to him, like interceptions, punt returns. He's an exciting cornerback. And my thought is, look, I know you have two young corners, but you also have uncertainty on those two young corners, and you need to just keep stacking them because coverage is king. And the only thing is Cameron Sample was on the board too, and I thought about him because of I think the senior bowl was where he was standing out the guy from Tulane that he got a lot of talk about the senior

bowl practices and he's another guy that's a bigger edge rusher 6'3 280 so he can do that you know run stuffing element that Zimmer wants also was really good in terms of his PFF grades he was the fifth highest so I thought about Cameron Sam sample there i still went with the playmaking corner and trey brown so all three of my picks are defense and i think mike zimmer would be fist pumping and i think a lot of vikings fans would be like here we go again not drafting guards and that would lead you to believe that they did something in free agency with a guard, right? Yeah, exactly. This is my problem with that rationale and that idea that if you're having guys that are hitting free agency that either aren't getting tagged as offensive linemen or, you know, what are you running into there are you going to run into another Josh Klein situation where the interior pass rush really wasn't that good when he was your second biggest free agent

that year behind re-signing Anthony Barr like you know I wonder how they're going to handle that because I don't I don't know too much about like the free agent guard market I feel like I've been you know too focused on figuring out what they're going to do in the draft, especially with that 14th pick. If they end up going all defense, you've got to think that they addressed some sort of need in free agency, and they did something to try to improve their interior pass protection with a guard. So here's how the offensive line market for the guards works out. The best way I can describe it is Sam Ekstrom

tried to put together a list of bargain free agents and his top bargain guard retired so yeah no I mean it's where we're at very it's a very bleak market from what I've seen so far this year and I don't know you know that's why I feel like if you're going to do this right, you probably are trying to find like a three technique in free agency so you can use that 14th overall pick either on a quarterback or on an offensive lineman. So the kid's kind of slim pickings. I mean, if you can get somebody in the third round, I got Ben Cleveland at 90 out of Georgia, which I was, you know,

I was pleased with that pick. I think that a third round guard, it's a perfect spot to – you're not overdrafting. It's a perfect spot to grab one, especially with how the rest of my draft panned out where it was I hit a defensive need to pick the pick before. I obviously hit, like, an offensive need with Cleveland, but I also got a luxury pick.

I got best player available in Devontae Smith, which is why I was happy overall with that. Hey, I want to take a second to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and they reached out wanting to support this show. And I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for perishable, non-perishable, and fragile freight from source to door.

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now I went best player available too with Trayvon Mooring, but you always have to be thinking down the road. And that's kind of where i was thinking i i think the same for you with a guard that wouldn't mean place this guy right in but if you're thinking about how can you have this young offensive line that grows together with ben cleveland ezra cleveland that would get weird um brian o'neill garrett bradbury and then add somebody else then you're all kind of going along together. And your hope is that you have continuity there, which they have not had.

It's always been new pieces every single year. And so I like that from a long-term perspective. And my thinking on a corner is the same way, where it's like, yeah, okay. I mean, Cam Dantzler and Jeff Gladney might both work out. Or what if one of them does not? That's where you need to have more projects that Mike Zimmer is working with. And I like Trey Brown because his highlight reel is pretty fun. So that's, I mean, that's a big part of it, but a playmaking corner is something they lacked.

What did they have two interceptions by corners and both were cam Dantzler last year. So playmaking corner, I think is another part of this. All right. And the good thing is with corners this year, remember how loaded the wide receiver group was in last year's draft where, you know, at this time we're talking about Tyler Johnson being a third-round pick. Well, the guy doesn't go until the fifth because that group was so stacked that you had good players getting pushed further and further into day three. I think that from what I've seen and read, this is going to be a year where you can kind of do the same thing with a cornerback. I mean, sure, if you had a Patrick Sertain sitting there, would you do it potentially, you know, at 14? But this is a year where I think you can get away with more day three picks, which they have seven of i believe now they've got three fourth rounders one from the bears one from the bills uh via the digs trade they've got two fifth

round selections a sixth and a seventh to me you can grab two corners in there three if you really want to because like you said coverage is king and that's still going to be an area that even if Jeff Gladney and Cam Dantzler and hell if Mike Hughes is healthy and comes back from the next thing great but like it's not going to be something that is super necessary early on but you are going to still want to fill out that position with depth it's necessary that way okay let's do one more draft sim only here's the here's the draft sim challenge is the vikings have signed a very good guard and so they're set there but they've spent a lot of money at it and they've moved on from riley reef and they also are dead set on drafting a quarterback with one of their first three picks so there's your kind of challenge laid out. And we'll assume that they've made some other like low level signings that aren't huge difference makers in the draft.

So just go going by those outlines. I have landed in a pretty good spot with my first round pick with Rashawn Slater is on the board. And I, and I think if that is the case that they were to draft or if they were to sign a tackle, I they were to sign a tackle I'm sorry sign a guard move on from Riley Reif then a tackle becomes very very high on the list and they would probably draft Rashawn Slater at that point so I'm just going to push draft on

that one okay so he's available for me too but I'm also looking at this not necessarily thinking that my you know my plan for for quarterback is going to pan out considering i don't have a third i don't have a second round pick right now right maybe you're thinking first round quarterback i'm thinking mac jones so he was 30 he was the 35th best player on the board, according to these rankings that I have on PFF. I went ahead and I drafted him, and you might call that an overdraft. I don't know. But at 14, you're kind of in no man's land, because here's how the quarterbacks went off the board.

Lawrence, Wilson, top two. Six to the Eagles was Justin Fields, and then Trey Lance was nine to the denver broncos that's the top 10 right there and unless chicago is going to find somebody in free agency and sign them i would fully anticipate that they would end up trying to trade into top 13, top 10, or even like maybe a top eight category. Because you're not going to, there's just kind of this no man's land between where the Vikings are picking and like mid second round for quarterbacks.

Right. So I decided to think about, you know, the future. And so I went with Mac Jones, who apparently is a terrible bootleg quarterback, but we'll, you know, the future, and so I went with Mac Jones, who apparently is a terrible bootleg quarterback, but, you know, there's ways around that, I think. Don't work around the boots. You can get to be terrific in the boots if you practice it. So Kyle Trask is really kind of the guy who pops up,

but he doesn't show up in the third. In fact, I'm even in the third now looking around trying to find like, okay, who could potentially even be my quarterback pick and you have to go way down the list. So this makes things more difficult for me. But the guy that comes up here is Jamie Newman. And I don't think I'm going to take him with my first third round pick because he seems to be the one that is on the board pretty late. So I'm actually going to go and stay with the offensive side here, and I'm going to pick Amon Ross St. Brown, a wide receiver out of USC, who's another guy that's kind of hanging around under the radar

because there are so many star kind of wide receivers that this might be. I mean, Terry McLaurin was a third-round pick. There are other guys. DK Metaurin was a third round pick there are other guys DK Metcalf was a late second there are guys every year that everyone kind of sleeps on or just focuses on other positions and then you go wow it's a really good wide receiver in the third round I like that for the Vikings you know we've talked about the first round potential but the third round just seems to be a great place to get very good wide receiver talent. So that's what I went with here.

Yeah, no, I mean, that's, I think it's smart. I think that you're still drafting for need, but it's also finding, you know, a best player available on the board at that point. So I like that. So you've already taken care of the quarterback. So what's next for you? I have to draft a quarterback here. Well, you mentioned with Riley Reeseif, you said he's gone. So they recoup some cap and they're going to sign a guard and free agency. So in my mind, you know, are they moving Ezra Cleveland, the left tackle?

Are they keeping him there? I don't mind taking a tackle here, just giving them the option. If you want to keep Cleveland at guard and not have to move them around again then you could do a number of different things so I went with James Hudson a tackle from Cincinnati good yeah it's not it's a it's a decent pick it's not my favorite um but I think it's a value pick for where I'm getting him in the third round and if they do end up moving on from Reef, I mean, you cannot mess around with that. So I think it's smart.

Yeah, and he was a senior bowl guy that stood out. And I just wanted to circle back one more thought on Mac Jones, that even if the ceiling for Mac Jones is not the same as Patrick Mahomes or something like that, there's always, and I know everyone's just going to be annoyed with me continuing to say that, but there's always the thing of having a guy develop for a year and then be on the rookie contract that just is good for you. And if it, if he's not good, you could trade him to someone else who will think he's good. I guarantee someone's going to pay for Sam Darnold who has been nothing but terrible because that someone paid for Josh Rosen.

So you can always recoup that eventually down the road. There's nothing wrong with drafting a first-round quarterback. You will always have the benefit of the fifth-year option, and if he pans out, that's going to be good. I mean, if he's Patrick Mahomes, you're not going to make him play on his fifth-year option. You'll end up giving him that massive contract extension before he gets there. But either way, no harm, no foul, unless the guy is a complete and utter bust,

which, you know, it happens. But I still think it's a better – if you're talking about risk in, you know, cost-benefit analysis, I think it is the smartest play because, you know, if you're really looking to get out from Kirk Cousins at some point and some point soon, that means that you're if you're really looking to get out from kirk cousins at some point and some point soon that means that you're not extending him and trying to get this you just keep kicking a cap number down the road um give him give this guy two years if you're not ready to turn the reins of the offense over to him at that point then at least you have good draft capital because

somebody is going to be willing to take him at some point right and uh so yeah i also think that you can offer a really good situation for somebody like that right away and we saw from the packers that you can still draft someone in the first round and it doesn't like destroy your entire roster because oftentimes your first round picks are only giving you so much in terms of value in their very first year so it's a really interesting situation that if they were to get to that spot and Mac Jones is there, like, do you do it? I guess that would depend on their evaluation of Mac Jones. So I went third round.

Instead of going with Jamie Newman, who I do like for a high upside quarterback, I went Kellen Mond, who was good in the senior bowl. He's got a really good arm. Looks like he needs a couple of years of development. Probably not like looking at a superstar type of starter, but if that is your goal is to absolutely draft a quarterback and you don't take one in the first round, Kellen Mond is a guy who would be interesting because of his arm talent, I think.

Yeah, I think so too. I agree with that. I think you've. I agree with that. I think you got your need. You got a quarterback who you're just bringing into the system to learn the offense, to learn, you know, to be Kirk's understudy to have in the wing should it work out that you are moving on from cousins eventually. And if you can get that guy at day three, somebody who played in the SEC,

you know, had a good season this year, why not? So who's your last third-round pick? I'm actually kind of proud of this one. I want to take a moment to congratulate myself on taking Cameron Sample from Tulane. He's listed as an edge rusher, but he's somebody who probably projects more inside. He's 6'3", 280, but he's somebody who probably projects more inside he's 6'3 280 so

he's not huge but this is somebody who has inside outside positional flexibility which I think is huge if you're trying to figure out where do you play this guy immediately where can he actually help out and contribute immediately he was available to me at 90 because right around that time you're seeing a lot of cornerbacks go off the board, some linebackers. It seems like that's a pretty heavy position group for the third round. But I'm very pleased with this pick. I mean, I think he is, by many stretches, probably one of the better value ones that you would get at the edge rusher position in the third round. Yeah, I think the third round just seems like all these edge rushers are going to be there the way it's played out, that there's a lot of guys with high ceilings, and there are so many of them that you can't pick them all in the first and second, and that's where the Vikings could swoop in and get a very good prospect in that situation.

So I like it. I think you nailed both of your draft sims. Mine, I think, would get questioned by some people for sure. That all-defense one for sure. Yeah, and also if you don't draft the quarterback in the first, you're probably looking at, I don't know, I don't know if it's going to be worth it at all to take anyone past the first. So this was a nice little break from Kirk Cousins' trade rumor conversation,

and I enjoyed it, and we can do it again many, many times, Courtney. So thank you for your time. Hey, everyone. We're in the full swing of winter now, and SodaStick has you covered. If you're a hockey fan, check out the North State Icon shirts or the Mick Goldenlight snowmobile designs, all of these along with great football designs like the Skull Hats, football state beanies and hoodies, and my favorite, the Metrodome Gear.

If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping. Just go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. All right, let's welcome into the show for Pro Football Focus, the cap genius Brad Spielberger.

What's up, Brad? Doing well. Genius, very kind of you to say. That's quite a lofty adjective to start us out with. Well, I think that you're going to sound like one after I tell you about my experience trying to get the Vikings to sign a big-time free agent. So I went to OverTheCap.com, and I started playing around with the cap calculator. And this is like you get to play Rob Brzezinski. You get to play Vikings cap guy. And so I started out with the idea, can I get Brandon Scherff, Sheriff, Schreff, whatever you want to call him, to the Vikings for lots of money? How can I do this? So I started throwing in bonuses and I started throwing in base salary. And then when I looked up at how much cap space I had, it was at negative $20 million.

And I just want to start there with you, Brad, because you are familiar with the Viking cap situation. Not great. And what would you do from there? Because I think that if you're talking about signing Brandon Sheriff, like a big right guard who is going to demand a lot of money, I think interior offensive linemen are getting more and more money each year, especially since there's only two guys that are worth anything in this particular, or that are going to get paid a lot of money in this particular free agent group. Where would I have to go from there if I was trying to make that happen? Yeah, so first, like you mentioned, you know, Brandon Sheriff and Joe Thune, I think, are probably going to become the highest paid left guard and right guard, you know, in the NFL this upcoming offseason.

Not only just because they're, you know, besides them, it's a really thin group at guard, but also just because those positions, as you mentioned, we're kind of seeing the value of interior pressure. And obviously, you know, the counter to that is the value in having a, you know, good pass blocking, but also a solid road grader, you know, run blocking guard. So I think those guys are both going to hit, you know, probably 30 to 14,.25, 14 and a half and share about 15 million per year. I'm not sure what you were cooking the book, what you were giving them when you were trying to make things work. But yeah, the Vikings are going to have a tough time kind of adding a priority free agent.

If they wanted to do that, they would have to probably extend to Neil Hunter just to, you know, in part just to lower that cap hit, probably look to restructure Anthony Barr, probably cut Riley Reif and slide Ezra Cleveland back over to left tackle, and really just make a series of moves, maybe extend Harrison Smith and let Anthony Harris walk. You restructure Adam Thielen. I'm kind of just rattling off moves now.

But really, if you go ahead and look at their cap sheet, one more, maybe cut Kyle Rudolph or trade him for a late-round flyer. Really, every move that you look and think they might need to make, if they do want to make a big splash in free agency, they have to go ahead and make it. Right. That's what i had to do in order to get into the cap was i had to make every single one of the moves that you laid out there i'm cutting kickers and stuff i mean i had everything going on and i'm still just barely under it when i tried to sign other positions that they just have to have probably in free agency because they don't have enough draft capital or developmental players at those positions so I was signing you know Mike Boone to

his RFA original round tender for like I don't know two million bucks and I was bringing in Brashad Perriman for probably less than he's worth but just picking kind of a later wide receiver which they've tried to do and have not succeeded with. I mean, this is where it gets tricky. And I want to have your opinion, though, on team building in general, because it has been my opinion that as exciting as it would be to get a big free agent, and maybe if it's Sheriff, it's a huge impact in your wins above replacement because Cousins allows a lot of interior pressure

just based on how he plays but the idea of spreading out what little cap space you have to multiple players that are bargains versus getting one big player I wonder what your thought on those different philosophies is yeah so you know I think there's always context to every move um but I are every roster as well so you know if you're no roster is a piece away, and I know sometimes we poke fun at Vikings fans thinking they're one guard away. There's never been a team in the history of the NFL, and there never will be a team in the history of the NFL that is one guard away.

It's not a thing. But, yeah, so sometimes, yeah, a big splash play, especially on the offensive line, if you have a weak link, and for the most part the rest of the line is solid, and you add a plus player there, it can then kind of rise all tides and make that line a positive as opposed to a negative. And that can obviously have, you know, massive benefits. But in general, my philosophy for constructing a roster is you draft your guys, you draft and develop, you save big contracts for your own players, and you use free agency to supplement spots and bring in mid-tier guys, stuff like that.

You know, one example of this past season where it worked, you know, masterfully would be, you know, the Buffalo Bills. You look at, you know, Darrell Williams at right tackle, minimum signing. Obviously, you know, coming off injury there, different situation, but massive benefit to that move. You know, his surplus value is huge you look you know cole beasley john brown like their additions were all kind of mid-tier um and then they're now going to spend their big money on you know or trade for us to find days but spend the big money on their own guys so in general that's the philosophy you try to follow um you know those big signings often turn out to you know it's hard for a player to live up to a big signing like that.

But, yeah, but no, sometimes, of course, it's necessary. Or if you know a guy is interested in playing for you and, you know, that's not always the case every free agency that a marquee guy wants to be a Minnesota Viking or whatever team. And sometimes it's worth it to make that move. There's also a funny sort of interpersonal element to this conversation with bringing in the one big guy which is the vikings tried to do this last year with the yanni kagakwe trade and he was very expensive like that's a thing that we maybe overlook when we're talking about that is not

only did he cost you a second round pick but he cost you a lot of cap space at that time when there were still other free agents on the market maybe even someone like daryl williams was still there at that time, that you could have filled other spots. And so inside the locker room, it's, well, this guy better be the guy that takes us over the hump because Riley Reif had to take a pay cut. And now you're circling back to Riley Reif saying, hey,

would you want to stay for a contract extension? And I wouldn't be shocked if Riley Reif says only if it includes all the money you took from me last year. Right. I think he would be fair in that. But I did want to ask you about Riley Reif and Kyle Rudolph, because there's a couple of moves that we sort of just assume are going to happen. And the Riley Reif one is I mean, I don't want to call it a foregone conclusion, but I just have a tough time seeing them being able to use any money in free agency without him. He's like the swing guy. You could create a bunch of space with him, maybe like $11 million. And then everyone else is sort of, yeah, if you cut the kicker,

you get a million bucks or something. But everyone else is, hey, if you restructure, then your owner has to pay a bunch of that actual cash out of his pocket. There's like the repercussions. But it's a hard one for me, Brad, because he's good and he's played well, but he's also in his 30s. And I just think that this is one of the sort of classic tough situations that a team like the Vikings gets into when they're paying a quarterback a lot of money. Yeah, I'm completely with you. It is one of those tough decisions where, like, there's no easy outcome. He's right on the cusp of like he is still playing at a high level,

is a positive, you know, on that offensive line that doesn't have a ton of positives. So it makes it a difficult decision. And I know you said it, you know, looks like a foregone conclusion. Obviously teams do do this with frequency, but I think them giving him that, that incentive that he barely missed, blanking on what exactly triggered the incentive, you might know, but, you know, I think he missed the snap count or something like that by like a couple snaps and they still gave him the $1 million. So, you know, kind of a gesture of good faith after, you know,

I'm not going to call it bad faith, what they did with the pay cut, but, you know, after a tough decision last off season, they obviously said, look, we still appreciate your contributions, your value to this team, both in the locker room and on the field, stuff like that. And honestly, you know, I'm sure they were excited and happy to be able to give him that incentive, even though he just missed out. But I do agree with you. It's kind of the linchpin that kind of points the directions of the fork in the road for the offseason,

of kind of if we do move on from him and get that $11 million in savings, trust Ezra Cleveland to be our starting left tackle as we plan drafting him in the second last year. It opens a lot of things up. And then lastly, as you mentioned, I think it's a very important point that I think folks either don't really take into consideration or just don't know is that, yes, restructures are great. Yes, there's no increase in money.

But, yes, the owner is giving a signing bonus and large chunks, millions of dollars of cash right up front, or if not right up front, you know, in a very short period of time. So I think folks are starting to take those for granted a bit this offseason. I mean, every team is going to do a handful of them just by necessity. But, yeah, I mean, you still have to go to the owner and say, hey, can you cut a check for X amount of dollars, which I'm sure is not always the easiest conversation to have. Right. Especially when you're asking in the Vikings case, if you want to make something

like this happen without cutting reef, you're probably asking for quite a few of those checks because there are multiple players. And sometimes it's written into their contracts that the team can do it whenever they want. Sometimes you have to get the player's approval, and usually the player is like, I will accept your money. Sure, that's fine. Like, I get it either way. Okay, I'll take it. But then it has repercussions not only for the owner but down the road.

I mean, it is an answer, but it's only an answer you can do so many times. I think of the same – in the same vein as the June 1st cut. Kyle Rudolph is talked about as a June 1st cut because I believe his cap hit is quite a bit different in terms of dead money from June 1st. You can correct me if you have it right in front of you. But he's the guy that gets talked about as a June 1st cut. Maybe you can kind of explain just like what that is and why we don't see it very often because there are numerous players that if you use overthecap.com and you fiddle around with it and you go, oh, you just cut them June 1st. But the way I look at it as

you didn't need your money after June 1st. You needed your money now to be able to buy what you needed to buy on the free agent market. But I suppose it could be helpful if you were talking about signing your draft class. So exactly right. So you nailed a couple points there. So he is a guy that his post-June 1 versus regular does stand out a bit in terms of the cap space cleared up. All that it does with the post-June 1 is when you traditionally cut a guy, all of his prorated bonus money, you know, signing bonus, option bonus, whatever, will accelerate up to the current year. So Rudolph has about, it looks like, $4.35 million in total prorated bonus money remaining.

When you do a post-June 1 cut, the only amount that hits 2021 is just the portion that's set for 2021. The rest will hit 2022. So if you do a regular cut with him, you save about $5 million. is just the portion that's set for 2021. The rest will hit 2022. So, you know, if you do a regular cut with him, you save about 5 million. If you do a post-June 1 cut, it's, yeah, I think it's like 8 million. So it is a substantial difference there.

So, but the second point you mentioned is huge and is very crucial. You don't get the cap relief until June 2nd. So like you said, when you need cap space, you need money to operate, to sign free agents, because of course you have to be cap compliant at all times. That money is not available to you. It is, you know, you obviously have a placeholder for it, you know, it's coming. And a big, a big, you know, often what they do is they kind of say, all right,

this is for our draft class. So our rookies will be signed with this, just like you said. But the final piece too, is you can cut as many guys as you like after the actual date of June 1st. You're only allowed to designate two guys per offseason as June 1st designated cuts, where you cut them on, you know, in March, but then they have the June 1st designation and come off the books, you know, at that date, but they're allowed to sign elsewhere,

you know, starting at the beginning of free agency. So that's also, you know, people say, yeah, well, doesn't make these 10 guys as June 1st cuts. Well, no, you cannot do that. Right, right, right. And the other thing too, you mentioned, sounds like you're also kicking some money down the road. Is that right? Right. So you'll have more dead money waiting in the next year. So it doesn't disappear. It just helps with short-term relief, but that dead money is still waiting you know in the following season right there is no magic potion to this and i'm sure you get frustrated too when you hear it but when people say the cap is a myth i don't know if i've mentioned on the show maybe i've mentioned to you just us chatting but like i asked the vikings cap guy about that once and he laughed at me he's just like

we can't we can't be saying that because the bill's going to come eventually and the bill came last year and guess what you didn't pay off the entire bill last year you still got some of those problems for this year and you will have more of those problems next year if that's what you do with everything so again it kind of circles back to the beginning where yes you can mess around and mess around and mess around, but eventually you've seen the F around and then find out. You've seen that kind of meme, like if you keep messing around, you will find out eventually that this is not like a myth. It's not something that you can just cruise over. Now, let's talk about, before we get to the whole cousins trade scenario type of thing just extensions in general i feel like it falls under the same category of what we were just saying where if you want to extend some

guys like harrison smith that's great the daniel hunter situation is really wonky but maybe there's a reworking of his contract that even results in a lower cap hit right now, maybe possibly. But it all circles back to the same answer is if you do this, eventually their cap hits will be higher, and eventually it will come to get you. So I wonder how much of all of this the Vikings should be doing. They did do it like crazy in 2017, 2018, 2019 in their winning window, but I think this year they might want to be more cautious with this stuff. I think it's very reasonable. You know, first of all, let's put

them into two categories because they kind of fit in good buckets. So Harrison Smith, obviously, it's the last year of his contract. And look, he's still a phenomenal player, but 31 now, I want to say at safety, which is, it's frankly old. And so with him, you definitely would get major cap relief in the first year. And he has a $9.8 million base salary. So, you know, probably has a cap hit around $10 million plus for 2021. You could drop that way down and give him the minimum $1.075 million base salary. And kind of from a cash perspective, he'd make up for that with bonuses and stuff like that. So his situation is where, yes, you're going to take on more dead money

because you're going to give him a bonus and all that, and you're going to extend him out, you know, say three more years, and the odds he's playing at 35 are not very high. So for that one, 100%. You're basically, you're already making that exchange. I'm trading current year cap flexibility, knowing that I'm going to make things more complicated down the road. Hunter's a bit different.

So the best example, if you want to look at Daniel Hunter, would be DeAndre Hopkins' pass off season, where he had three years remaining on his deal and still wanted new money, wanted upfront money. And so what the Cardinals were able to do there is, even though they gave him a nice big bonus, $27.5 million signing bonus, all of that, they were able to reduce his first-year cap hit by a good chunk. And then they just kept his second- and third-year cap hits almost identical to what he was going to make in Houston. The difference being, and how you kind of sell the player on it, or kind of make him happy, I guess, is that money is guaranteed.

So Hunter does not have a lot of salary guarantees left in his deal. So you wouldn't have to raise those numbers. You just would probably go ahead and guarantee fully his salary in 2022 and probably 2023 or maybe half of 2023, whatever. So, yeah, so one of those is the major risk of you're just basically just trading cap space now for not cap space later. The other is more of just a, you know, it's more cash. You're paying the guy a lot.

He still has a lot of years in his deal left. The Vikings also do care a lot about precedent and stuff like that. So you're also kind of signaling to guys, yeah, you can, you know, be frustrated, and even with three years left on your deal, you still can come to the table and say I'm going to hold out or whatever if you don't pay me. And look, that's why DeAndre Hopkins got traded, frankly. There's other reasons, but that was the main catalyst for that deal happening. So those are kind of the two buckets those two moves would fall in.

Well, anytime you could get David Johnson is that you have to make that move. That's what it was really about. No, that's a great explainer on Daniil Hunter. And I think that's what happens because your point is valid about other players coming to them and saying, yo, I know I signed a contract, but how often is that going to happen with someone of this caliber? You don't have too many players. The Vikings have maybe three or four players that are in the upper echelon of their positions. You have Eric Hendricks, Delvin Cook, who's already got his contract,

Justin Jefferson, who's a ways away from that, Daniil Hunter and Harrison Smith, who is, you know, on the older side. But if you're guaranteeing salary to Daniil Hunter, as long as your doctors take a little peek at that neck and say, well, it looks like it should be fine, it's all fused back together. As long as that's the case, I mean, this guy is 26 years old. I mean, he's going to be good for another eight years. So, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense,

and it would not probably go over well with Mike Zimmer to trade his best to Andrew Rusher after a year where they couldn't pressure the quarterback. All right, we've waited long enough. Let's do it. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about the Kirk Cousins trade scenarios and what that would mean for the salary cap. My best understanding is that they, and just to correct me if I'm wrong, is they would still have to pay $20 million on the cap for this year if they did not work out a new deal. And then whatever they were trading for, or whatever they were paying for whatever quarterback they're trading for and so forth but the benefit to trading Kirk Cousins

is that you do not have to get to that point where his salary becomes guaranteed for 2022 and that is the big benefit and why we're really having this conversation because on the third day of the league year that contract gets guaranteed meaning that man gets his cash no matter what. And that is a situation ripe for an extension. So if you're thinking we don't really want to extend him again, then you have to trade him at some point. Fill in the gaps there for me, Brad. Yeah, of course.

So as you said, top level, most important point is that million dollars is is dead money no matter what you do um that's the remaining prorated money on this deal um 10 million in each of the next two seasons so like you said if you if you go ahead and trade him for another quarterback you can kind of say all right we're paying that guy x plus 20 million you know left behind for kirk but obviously you know he's a 31 million dollar cap hit you know, maybe you don't increase that number too much if you bring someone back in return. But, yeah, so that third day of the league year date is important, more so for a cut because when you do trade a guy,

obviously the acquiring team would take on his salary. But I think, like you said, it's very important. Once that money locks in and is guaranteed, you're either extending him and trying to smooth that out over a number of years. Like, you're not getting rid of Kirk Cousins. As soon as that happens, 2021 and 2022, you're either playing him or trading him. There's no cutting of Kirk Cousins happening. So that is, you know, an important date and kind of a trigger date for this contract.

But, you know, that's obviously been his MO and his focus is on that guaranteed money. And frankly, he's been masterful in his leveraging and understanding how he can always maintain maximum leverage. Obviously, a lot of that was afforded to him before he came to Viking because there's no threat of a third franchise tag with Kirk Cousins. And so that's kind of a blessing for him as well. Teams cannot hold that over him because it would be a gigantic number, obviously, because that transfers. So people didn't know. So first tag, the second tag is 120% of the previous one, and the third one is 144%, or you get, you know, it's massive.

So it's not, you know, we've heard that conversation with Dak Prescott as well. Like as soon as this tag comes down, Dallas has to extend him. Or if they let him play on this tag, he's not going to be a Dallas Cowboy in 2022 because he's not going to sign with them and they can't tag him. So, yeah, anyways, back to Kirk. Yeah, as soon as that day happens, it's either trade or play. And, you know, I think it's going to be tough for them to find a solution there.

I know there's been things swirling in the wind, but at this point I don't know how much credibility there is to that. I think that they're frankly in a tough spot and they know that a restart, like you said, might be the best route for them or might be the cleanest route for them. But at the end of the day, that's why his structure was so important to him um and was so smart from his representation him because he has he's holding all the cards i have a very good accountant but if i didn't i would call up kirk cousins agent be like help do do what you can um the guys i mean he is

the best of the best and the the handling of kirk cousins contracts from when he was in dc betting on himself until now has been from a player perspective uh like you said masterful is the right word but that puts the vikings in a situation where they have to decide do you want this guy to be your quarterback for another five years or something because that's the only way to handle it if you're not going to trade him. But last thing for you on this matter, what do you think the contract means to his trade value? Because I need your opinion on this.

I have not been able to figure this out. Because you look at Jared Goff, and part of the other first-round pick going back to Detroit is that Jared Goff does not have a very good contract. Kirk Cousins has very good numbers and, overall, good performances. I mean, top 10 by PFF and good quarterback rating, yards per attempt, all those things since he's been in Minnesota. So you have the player. There's somewhat of the reputation of not being able to get teams over the top that plays into this a little the how teams evaluate them from a scouting perspective because i don't think

they look at quarterback rating as much as media does as much as what does our coaching staff think of how good this player is so you have all these things factoring in but just take the contract part of it does that mean the vikings in your opinion would have to include a pick for someone to take him or do you think that someone else is trading draft picks because he's talented and maybe they're desperate so I would say on a philosophical level I think the thing we're seeing this offseason that's going to continue to go forward is there's always been this mantra of you can't win with a high price quarterback and I've always pushed back on that because I don't believe it's true. But I do think Kirk Cousins is a perfect example of where he is a good player.

He's been graded PFF top 10, and every other metric you want to look at, he's consistently a good player. But is he a guy that can win in spite of the things around him? Is he a guy that lifts things around him above you know, above what they were going to be? Like, frankly, no. Like, he is, if everything is right around him, he will deliver. He will make, he can make every throw. You know, he's a good quarterback. But, and I think what we're seeing is that teams are no longer of the belief, and they used to be, that if we had everything in place, all we need is an average quarterback, and then we can win. And that may have been the case, you know, in the Eli Manning need is an average quarterback, and then we can win.

And that may have been the case, you know, in the Eli Manning years and in the past, but it's just not the case anymore. And if you look at the last four quarterbacks this year, I mean, Brady Mahomes, Allen, and Aaron Rodgers, those guys elevate everything around them. Those guys, when conditions are terrible, I mean, we saw Mahomes run like a chicken with his head cut off the whole Super Bowl and had the best losing performance I've ever seen in my entire life. But like, that's now what teams realize is, if you're going to pay this much for a quarterback, it needs to be a guy like

that. If a guy that can make, you know, just something out of nothing. And so again, Kirk, I'm not going to say he doesn't deserve this contract. I'm not going to say it's a bad contract or way above his market. But it's one where yes, when a team is going to go take that contract on, then I think it would be justified to say it's going to be hard to build a competitive roster around this big quarterback contract because this quarterback is kind of in that second tier of quarterback. But, yeah, I mean, I still don't think he would be a salary dump where you'd have to throw in a pick as well. I still think a team – no, but, yeah, I mean, I still don't think he would be a salary dump where you'd have to throw in a pick as well.

I still think a team – no, but, again, I think folks may be shocked at what the compensation package would be. I don't think it would be multiple first-round picks just because, look, $35 million that will be fully guaranteed in 2022. So even if a team wants to maneuver that and move that down the line, that money can't – to him that and move that down the line that money can't you know for to him that money is is stamped and and printed in so you already have that built in and then you have to extend him on top of that um and he's not going to view the 35 you know basically he's going to

say whatever you give me you're just giving that on top of the 35 million dollars so that's kind of the component of this is you're still going to have to find a way to have a competitive roster with a top paid quarterback, but that top paid quarterback, isn't a guy that makes everything work around him. It's a guy that in a good setting can, can get the job done. And then, yeah.

And then, you know, it's tough off the top of my head to kind of like guess that, you know, a trade package for him with quarterbacks. It's a lot about, you know, the suitors involved.

If there are multiple suitors involved stuff like that um but no it definitely would not be a salary dump like we saw with jared goff um but yeah i mean i think he'd get a first and change um whereas a couple years ago that might that might sound crazy and say no he's gonna get like two first plus look he's a top you know top half of the league quarterback he's still only 33 which isn't that old stuff like that i now think we're seeing a shift where it's like, no, he would get a first because it's a starting quarterback in the NFL. So, I mean, it's always, you know, market rate is at least a first. But, yeah, you know, his contract's not affording you any surplus value.

It's not giving you any benefit. You're getting him at a market rate. So you're not going to pay much, you know, on top of that. That's kind of the beauty with, like, a Watson and things like that is, yeah, he just signed a big extension for $39 million per year, but he's 25 years old. In two years, that's going to be a discount deal. You're not getting a discount at any point contractually with Kirk Cousins. You know, the irony of the Kirk Cousins situation is that there is a very rare

situation in which you would want Kirk Cousins situation is that there is a very rare situation in which you would want Kirk Cousins and that's exactly what the Vikings had in 2018 which is where it truly appeared that the final piece was just an upgrade a quarterback and you'll be right back in the NFC championship or the Super Bowl it just didn't work out that way because that's the NFL for you is you often get your one shot unless you have Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. You get your one shot and then you fall back and then you hope for another shot later. There's a reason why the Vikings keep every nine or 10 years going to the NFC championship, because that's how the league is designed for all the stuff we just talked about, the salary cap and everything else. And so it's fascinating that you know here they are now

not in a situation where you would necessarily want this expensive quarterback but they just were and uh so i guess if you're making the argument for what to do if you can't get that trade suitor and also i mean you need to have an answer who your quarterback is because it's not like your roster is trash you need to still win with this roster and good players it really is and this might drive some people nuts but extending him actually makes some sense it really does because not only do you get that cap space to work with again but you also um have quarterback stability that very few teams in the nfc have right now and that and i'm sure there are some people who say yeah that's right and some people who are tearing every hair on their head out, but just don't be shocked, I guess is

what I say. Don't be shocked if they extend Kirk Cousins. I wouldn't be shocked either. Yeah. I mean, that's the nature of the position is that, you know, if you approach that guy looking for flexibility, that's also, I think, again, the genius of him signing his shoulder deals as well is that, you know, 99% of NFL contracts for veterans now have what's called automatic conversion rights, where the team is allowed to unilaterally restructure and convert salary money into bonus money and push it down the line. So that's probably in his contract as well, if I had to guess, but you're not getting much relief because he only has two years left on the deal. And so that's, again, a smart component and aspect of his deal.

So I wouldn't be surprised either if they extend him. This isn't somewhere they've gone yet, and a lot of teams kind of view it as like a taboo thing to do, and that would be void years where you're just adding on kind of dummy contract years on the end of it. So you're only extending him for maybe two more years, but you're adding four on for cap relief. And I would guess that they would try to avoid that by any means necessary.

But, yeah, I agree with you that at this point, if you're resigning to the fact that you're probably not going to trade him, you do have a good roster that you just – look, you just added a superstar wide receiver to that roster. Like, you have reason to believe that, you know, all right, Irv's going to take the next step and maybe Kyle's going to get phased out. But you have pieces in place on both sides of the ball. Hunter's going to come back, like we said, still somehow is 26 years old,

which every time I see, I like my eyes cross. Crazy. Like, there's reason to be optimistic about the short-term future of this team the next, you know, three, four years. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I guess the counter to that would just be, like, try to flush the system and try to just start over. But like you said, quarterback stability is so valuable. And the risk there is you take a bust or something like that, and then you, you know, waste, you know, kind of all that you have.

And then, you know, what's the difference between, you know, from a fan perspective, why not try to make it with an average quarterback as opposed to taking that big gamble and that big risk? You know, we advocate for stuff like that, and we think teams should try to be risky like that, but it's a tough sell to ownership and a tough sell to, I mean, frankly, front offices that are trying to keep their jobs for extended periods of time. What a world we live in, Brad, with this salary cap. I hope they never change it. I mean, it just offers, while you mastering it is a big deal for your career, but also just it makes things so interesting.

And give me one just quick take before we wrap up on what free agency looks like with the extreme haves and have-nots for cap space. I was thinking about this in terms of like, oh, hello, team, without an expensive quarterback. You get to come back to the VIP free agent room and you can look at your Carl Lawson over here and your, you know, your Alan Robinson over here. We've got one of those. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. You have to stay out there and you can buy dumb and dumber out of the bargain bin over there like that. Those are your you know, it's amazing. I think when you look at the who's got cap space, who doesn't.

It's like have or have not. and there's almost nobody in the middle. For sure. No, 100%. And I think what will be interesting to see is that, so, yeah, so your usual suspects, those top teams that have a ton of cap space, you know, Jaguars and Jets, they're going to spend like crazy, as they always do, and that will be a regret in, you know, 18 months. But maybe not as much. They obviously have some turnover in those front offices.

But, yeah, so you're still going to see the top spenders kind of, you know, treat it like normal. What I think will be different and will be interesting is this idea of some super teams forming where some of those mid-tier free agents look at it and say, look, okay, I'm trying to get, you know, I'm T.Y. Hilton. I want to get three years, $30 million. I think I'm worth that. I think know, I'm T.Y. Hilton. I want to get three years, $30 million. I think I'm worth that. I think I can get that on the market.

And all you're hearing is, yeah, we'll give you three years, $21 million for $7 million per year. We just can't make it work. We just don't have the cash budget. We don't have the cash space, whatever. And he says, whatever. I'm just going to sign with the Buccaneers for one year, $5 million. Or I'm just going to, you know, sign with the Cowboys if they get Dak in their contract. You know, insert team here where you say, I'm just going to go for exposure, sign with the Cowboys if they get Dak on their contract, you know, insert team here where you say,

I'm just going to go for exposure because I know this team has a good quarterback. I think they're probably going to make the playoffs. And I think that I'll be seen on national television six times this year and stuff like that. Good coaching staff, you know, stability, all those things. And I think, frankly, it's very possible that we see some of that where, like you said, there's not really a middle. And so I think those middle teams that have like a little bit of castration not a lot aren't really going to be as competitive you know as we think compared to the

teams that are kind of like you know okay so let's say you know the Cardinals are like 12 million 12 million in space and the Vikings have negative 10 so like those are kind of the two like opposite ends of the middle. I don't think there's that much of a difference between those two teams because there's teams that have 80 million in space like the Jaguars, and there's teams that have negative 70 like the Saints. And I think, yeah, like, I agree with you. The middle of the road is kind of, you know, a hodgepodge. And, you know, why wouldn't those guys just instead sign with, you know,

a competitor that they can just, you know, take a one-year flyer and then hit free agency again the following offseason? Right. Pull the Sheldon Richardson like you did with the Vikings. I'm going to come here. I'm going to rush that passer. If they run in my gap, who cares? I'm trying to sack that guy. And I'm trying to make my next contract and it worked for him.

So, yeah. Anyway, Brad, amazing stuff, man. I mean, it's what I love about talking with you every so often is just, it's totally, um, fresh from what we're all trying to guess in the dark of how the cap works. And I think my brain grows every time we talk because you have so much knowledge. So I really appreciate it. People should follow you on Twitter. Uh, you're at, you're one of those people. Now you're at PFF underscore Brad. That means you're the real deal. So now great, great stuff, man. It's always great to catch up. And I think that people are going to have to go back and re-listen to catch all of how everything in the entire salary cap works, which is what we covered here.

Well, thank you so much. You're far too kind. I appreciate it. I'm always happy to come on the show. You're gracious with bringing me on multiple times and pretending I'm a genius. It's very kind of you. But yeah, follow me on Twitter and shoot me questions. I obviously talk a lot of Vikings, kind of NFC North focus. And free agency is coming up, obviously right around the corner

here. Some franchise tag decisions should be coming soon. So it's my regular season at this point.