Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin takes the Pre Actual Vikings Practices Happening survey

Episode Date: August 13, 2020

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Matthew Collar here alongside Courtney Cronin. And Courtney, I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm excited. We are about to see some actual football men doing football things for the first time since literally January. It was January in Santa Clara where we watched the Vikings lose the playoffs. And we just assumed, oh, you know what? We'll be right back for OTAs. Mini camps won't be that long.

And then the world collapsed into a giant black hole of COVID. And now it's finally here. We finally get to see it. It actually happened. And I can't wait. No, I'm thrilled. I cannot wait to get out there even though Friday's going to be guys in shorts still because I don't think they can put their pads on until Monday which is the 17th um guys running around in shorts like at half speed I'm thrilled I mean we haven't

seen something that exciting in like eight months I know I. I've been watching NFL Europe on YouTube and things like that for all this time and playing NFL 2K2 for Sega Dreamcast. Like, that's the only football that I've been connected to, aside from writing about it, talking about it, and thinking about it. But now we finally will get things changing. So what I have for you today is the pre-actual camp stuff practice survey is what I'm calling this. Pre-actual camp stuff survey. Did I say that right?

I think yes. So I have five questions for you about what we're going to see and you'll have to make some predictions and then you have to put it down on paper what you think the Vikings record will be and pick every game on this podcast. And then we're going to do this again. You don't have to do a pie chart. Yeah, you do not have to do a pie chart this time. But then in four weeks, right before the season, you will pick again,

and I want to see if they match up. So that's how we're doing this. Just a quick note. Do you think that my pie chart doomed P. doomed PJ Hall before he even had a chance to take the physical? Because let's just clarify last week when I was on the pod, you made me pick the chances of whether he's going to be a starter, whether he's going to be a legitimate rotational player,

whether he's going to be a rotational player who doesn't play that much. It's kind of like, why did they bring this guy in? Or if he gets cut. And I think I put him at getting cut at like 25% or 30%. And it was probably one of my best pie charts to date, to be quite honest. I think I set him up for failure. You did. But your instinct on it was exactly right,

that there was a chance that somebody who wasn't in good enough shape for the Raiders and they were going to cut a second-round pick from just two years ago, that doesn't exactly sound like, wow, the Vikings just traded a conditional seventh for a superstar. So, you know, taking a long shot on a guy with a conditional seventh-round pick screams, yeah, this could be our whatever, you know, Corey Vedvik or Tremaine Brock or George Iloko, where we make a big deal out of it and then the guy is immediately cut. And it was funny to see Vikings Twitter grinding P.J. Hall tape as soon as it

happened. Like, you guys might want to wait a couple weeks to grind that tape because this might not mean anything. Who is the – why am I blanking on this name? This never happens to me. The guy who was a defensive end, he was supposed to be, it was Jones. It was like Devante, Delonte. Dayton Jones?

Dayton, yes. Dayton Jones. This was a Dayton Jones where we said, oh, man, this guy is going to be the interior rusher. And it's like, no, he can't play. Anyway, you did a good job your percentage was right to give it a very high chance I mean if you're saying 25 or 30 percent that means you know one in four the guy gets cut and we got our answer quicker than expected yeah here I actually have

the pie chart here let me I took a photo of it I think I sent it to you because I was so impressed with myself it was great yeah um it a 30% chance that he gets cut, which was my highest percentage that I gave to anything. A 30, another 30% chance that he becomes, or excuse me, I'm reading this wrong. 25% chance that he gets cut, 30% chance that he becomes like a, you know, a nobody, but like is somehow there, just a body. 30% chance significant, like significant rotation player,

which would make sense. I mean, if you really, but here's the thing. They weren't bringing him in. I don't see how that would have worked at nose tackle, just my opinion on it, because he plays the outside shoulder of the guard. That's always kind of where he's aligned, at least in the Raiders defense.

But nonetheless, then 15% chance that he would be a starter. Those are some good percentage. A, it adds up to a hundred b it uh you know it just it works out like i didn't screw it up him failing the physical though like i thought he would get past that part of it and then just get cut later but uh well done good call and you were on it that there's a pretty decent chance this wasn't going to happen. So, all right, let me start the pre-actual camp doing stuff practice survey. The first question for you is how are practices going to look? How will they be different?

And will we make it to week one safely without any COVID outbreaks around the country? I don't think we're going to make it to week one without any COVID outbreaks around the country? I don't think we're going to make it to week one without any COVID outbreaks in camp. I think we're going to end up seeing a massive spike once guys are actually hitting each other. Because think about it, they're kind of in like their own little bubbles by position right now. Yes, they're at walkthrough. Yes, they've been at the facility with each other with other guys and moving around but it's all been like at half speed like I said I mean they're

in shorts they're in the conditioning program like doing walk-through practices is very different than when you're actually hitting guys and all of that so I mean when I look at this whole situation I think we will see it but people like it's like don't freak out because that's what you expect will we make it to week one yes but I still have this gut feeling that it's going to be like after week one and week two maybe we get to week three before the league shuts down maybe just temporarily because I just don't see a way as we've seen as I've been following baseball and seeing like all the things there that you know with the Cardinals and the Marlins and you know other teams that have been

affected by COVID-19 you know it seems like it's slowed down a little bit but they've also had to cancel so many games in the process and postpone games so I think the NFL is definitely going to get there but training camp's going to look just so different this year because simply because of the fact that we're kind of like, it's the anticipatory factor that we don't, I don't know, that we just don't know yet, like what to expect. And I think expect the worst and be prepared for it. Yeah. I also think that we do get to week one and that these teams can contain

their players when it comes to training camp, because usually players are contained to training camp because usually players are contained during training camp anyway that's they stay at a hotel or they stay at a facility some teams still traveled far away I don't know if Dallas was still going all the way to Southern California but they had done that in the past for many years for their training camp no one's traveling from my understanding like none of the teams that go to, like, the Greenbrier or anywhere else, that's not happening this year. Yeah.

So, but they're kind of used to that, right? Like, they're kind of used to camp is where I'm away from my family a little bit here and that kind of thing. And so containing it might not be that hard. But when you come to actual travel, when you come to an actual season where guys in the season do have some downtime on you know friday night or something like that are you going to end up with guys who break the rules a little bit the one thing that i think they have going for them is if you look what happened just in cleveland Mike Clevenger, where he broke their rules and he's getting destroyed for it.

And he deserves to get destroyed for it. And I wonder if these players are looking at it from two different ways about breaking the rules and things like that. I mean, one, they'll take your money if you do. If you're not wearing your mask around the facility or if you're going out and doing things that could put you at risk, that could make it so they can take your money. And we know this of NFL players and pretty much anyone. I mean, me too. Like, I don't want anyone taking my money. But NFL players are especially like, that's the big thing here is how much money I'm bringing in.

And nobody wants to lose whatever, I forget what the penalty is, but $15,000 or something because they decided they had to go out. And that that's my hope is that players kind of get it now seeing the, the problems that baseball has had. But I agree with you. I am very interested to see where the testing goes after these guys start going face mask to face mask and, you know, your little plastic shield that a couple of guys are wearing I mean if they even are we'll see if guys are wearing the extra plastic shields that they've been made available but if that's happening

and they can get through that then I'm going to feel more confident if they can get through camp without outbreaks in any of the camps when they've been going face mask to face mask I think at that point I will feel like okay maybe this can work if everybody just does what they're supposed to do in theory you'd like to think so because it'd be like if this team is doing the right thing doesn't have any COVID outbreaks and then it comes together with this team week one so the Packers and the Vikings, if both camps don't have outbreaks and are able to kind of contain everything within these respective bubbles, and then they open the seal of the big bubble and put each other in, you'd like to think that nothing would be able

to get through, but I'm just very skeptical of it. I don't know. I feel like after week one, regardless of if you have two teams that are relatively healthy during the preseason um in training camp obviously you're going to see outbreaks and you're going to see position groups go down and that's going to be like a really interesting thing to see how the NFL is able to adjust to that how teams are going to adjust to that because you know you've seen it like recently just like the changing of the testing protocols on um you know because of what happened with Matthew Stafford and the false positives. And, you know, now they've taken, like they've lifted all the restriction on free agent visits.

Okay. That's one thing, like what's going to happen if free agent gets the entire team infected, you know what I mean? Like by coming in on a visit. So I think they're going to have to like consider amending these rules and amending their policies as they go. And maybe like, I mean, I know they want to do everything kind of uniform and have it league-wide, but maybe it's different than that. Like, maybe they have to go on a case-by-case basis of, like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. We'll see. And I guess we'll just keep our hopes up that they can continue from where they are right now, which seems like we haven't had an outbreak of just people being in facilities and that they could try to create their own mini bubbles. And when they do travel, they can fly in and then fly right back out. My concern is that at some point, if we do run into week four and four or five teams around the NFL are struggling with this,

that we have to shut it down for a month or two months and then create like divisional bubbles or something like that to play enough games to have some sort of playoff that could be considered legitimate. And that's where it gets really, really hairy. Now, how practices actually will look different though, I think they're going to be way more intense when it happens. I think it's going to be a lot more hitting a lot more contact and a lot more situations of 11 on 11 and Mike Zimmer laid this out where coaches are just staying back you guys have to go play we're just going to stay here on the sideline and watch and then we're going to evaluate you after and we're going to coach you during the day because we don't have those preseason situations where we can't help you along. Yeah, I mean, think about it. There's

33 days between now and that season opener against Green Bay. That's, you know, crazy. That's so wild to think about. Like you have to get a team up to speed. And yes, like you would expect them because I think Zimmer and everybody's been asked about what do you think about the quality of the product and I think some people will realistically say it's probably going to be pretty sloppy because think about it the first month of the season is usually not the best games um like at least you know by and large the teams are still trying to figure it out what works what doesn't when they actually go live reps in full speed um I think it's going to be worse than that.

That's just my personal opinion. But like when we were talking with people the other day on the Zoom calls, I mean, the specialists, of course, I think it's going to be great because I mean, really like one way or the other, I think it doesn't truly affect, like it affect them in ways that it would the other position groups. And that's just bottom line because what they're doing, they've been able to do and it's kind of an isolated thing anyways you know like

so it actually might work out better for them because there's not going to be any crowd noise um but for other position groups like you know I think that there's really going to be a level of concern just for safety um and you know when you're throwing guys in there and they haven't had the I mean they had this ramp up period but to be able to get them to where they were would be normally at this time of year I think you should just like not expect that like I know some people have said like oh the linemen are in better shape than they've ever been like they're not fatigued at this point of year yeah you because you haven't run the risk of like having injuries over the last 10 weeks 10 11 weeks now uh dating back to OTAs.

But like, I just worry about like kind of that cohesiveness and what that's going to look like because you've missed so much time that you have to anticipate either way. It's going to look sloppy. Even if you did all the virtual stuff, even if everybody knows the playbook inside and out, once you actually get out there with pads on and are hitting somebody else it's going to look different it's going to feel different so I mean I I anticipate like kind of like what you said a lot more 11 on

11 because they have to they have they don't have the luxury of time like to be like okay well you know we're going to kind of like slow play this thing like a lot of goal line situations a lot of red zone stuff like a lot of stuff that situations, a lot of red zone stuff, like a lot of stuff that, you know, truly if you're talking about situational football, you don't have a lot of time to practice it. So I think that that's probably going to be a focal point instead of, you know, remember last year at training camp, we all thought it was because Dan Bailey missed a field goal,

but allegedly it was planned in advance when they were doing like suicide sprints across the field. I don't think we're going to be seeing that this year, but I think the intensity will be there just as much. Get back to the conversation in just a minute, but first I have to tell you about something very cool from our friends at SodaStick. You probably know them for Minnesota sports-inspired hats and shirts and hoodies that are screen printed in Minnesota, but Soda Stick also has artwork as well.

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Go to SodaStick.com. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com and use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. Yeah, I think it has to. It has to ramp up. Now, what I want to see is whether the company line for the players, which is, oh, no, this was actually great. Preseason games are stupid, and we're all in better shape

because we didn't have OTAs. I don't know if that will play out with hamstrings and with little core injuries or whatever. That's what I'm very interested to see is when you don't play any type of actual football for this long and you don't even have those practices to ramp up and those workouts to ramp up as a team, are we going to see guys that have hamstring injuries and things like that, especially since they are pushing it harder? I think every practice in the last week or two will be like the night practice, which feels like a scrimmage because they do so much 11-on-11.

And then Zimmer always tells us, no, it's a regular practice. I don't know what you guys are talking about. And then it's totally not. Yeah, absolutely not. Those are weighed so much heavier in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, definitely. And so I think that we're going to have the intensity of the night practice kind of a lot through those last two weeks.

Next survey question is how will we feel about this team in four weeks? Will we feel they're ready to go play the Packers? Will we feel that it's Super Bowl or bust? Will we feel that this is going to be a disaster? Ben Gessling and I were talking the other day about how, you know, going into the 2018 season, and you obviously know this as well because we were podcasting, like there were problems, and we had a feeling that it wasn't going to be Super Bowl or bust.

It was going to be can you make the playoffs, and that's how it played out. So how will we feel about this team in four weeks? Well, I think it's kind of sad just because you sparked a memory of me um this is the year this is the first year I've been covering a team that we won't have the Laquan is back he's ready to go um you know he's catching passes in the back of the end zone like he's number three receiver like I'm sad because that's you know what you know what it is 2020 the year of change like that's, you know, what, you know what it is, 2020, the year of change. Like that's just another, I got to rip the bandaid off. I don't get my Laquan Treadwell storyline this year.

When was it that you wrote the huge article about him? Was it 2018? 2018, going into all of this, because he looked awesome. He did, shorts. And nonetheless, God bless. He's going to get a Super bowl ring before anybody on this team probably does in atlanta um i think it's gonna be still so hard to tell like i know that everybody's talking about offensive continuity and the offense is in a place of strength is a place of strength

and what this team like they're gonna expect an offense to carry the defense. But there's so much unknown about this defense, so much unknown. You can't anticipate by the time we get out there on Monday when they do their first padded practice, the cornerbacks, that's not going to look normal, I don't think, this entire year because you missed out on all this time and you have a very young core. So I think, if anything, you're probably going to be like a little bit more on the Leary side of is this going to work out because of just seeing like what you see over the course of what, like 10 or 12 practices

that we'll probably be out there for? Like I definitely am not going into this thinking like, okay, they're going to look great. It's going to look all together. I mean, they just don't – it's not just the Vikings either. Like every team is going to be dealt this hand and yeah it's great for the offense that they have all these guys returning and just a few you know a few pieces here and there but like listen to Gary Kubiak like they don't have the benefit of time

to tinker around with things like it's not just oh the offensive line was so great from last year we decided to keep all four at the same spots it's we don't have time to figure it out so this is the the devil you do know versus the devil you don't. Like stick with what you know because changing it might screw it up completely. And there's no recovering from that at that point. Yeah, that is the way that I was thinking about this when I posed the question is, you know, how much uncertainty will we still have? And I'm thinking it's probably a lot.

And I don't know if Pat Elfline is still going to be playing guard by the end of this next four weeks. That could change. It could be a competition. If you're Gary Kubiak, you get nothing out of saying, well, yeah, Elfline was bad at pass protection last year, so it's up in the air because he might have to be your starter if nobody else can come in and take his job.

But it wouldn't shock me if somebody did come in and take his job. And from the bigger picture, how those cornerbacks look is going to be the biggest thing for me. If they look better than we expect as inexperienced players or young players, if Holton Hill looks great in training camp, then I think I'll feel more confident in what the team can do as a whole. If Holton Hill does not look very good, if someone like Jeff Gladney looks way behind, if they're rotating nickel corners all the way to the last second

because they don't know who's going to play that position, then I'll have a lot more questions. I think at the end of four weeks, we're still going to be saying, you know what, it's going to be one of those years where you could go 10 and six or seven and nine and whether you get bounces or breaks or other quarterbacks get hurt or things like that, that's what's going to determine it. That's kind of how I think we'll end up feeling about it. The next question.

I feel like that's just to touch on that really quickly. I mean, it's, you know, in baseball, what's the big deal now? It's like, well, there's no, there's, you know, there's, there's no uniformity because you have teams like the St. Louis Cardinals who, you know, at one point hadn't played a game since July 29th and had all these games canceled. And, you know, the commissioner is still saying that's why win percentage is so important in determining, you know, spots for the playoffs. Like it's the competitive balance and competitive edge.

That's got to go out the window this year. And coaches just need to accept it. I know everybody's going to be like, well, Belichick's still going to cheat somehow. Well, okay. Like if he wants to cheat in this year, have at it because it seems like it's a really painstaking. You're giving Belichick permission to cheat?

It's just such a painstaking process. And that's what I just think we need to realize that the product is not going to look uniform across the board i mean really you can probably say that with about 20 teams in the nfl it looks pretty darn similar from year to year uh and then there's you know the remaining 12 that are you know experiencing massive turnover that are a disaster in their own right affected by injuries whatever like the product here is going to be, I think, just kind of all over the board. And you just need to expect that going into it and realize it's not going to be fair this year. But it's like half of the stuff that makes it not fair is out of your control. Do you think there will be more or less scoring?

In baseball, nobody's hitting, which doesn't surprise me at all. Like if you have to sit around and not face 100 mile an hour fastballs for two months and then all of a sudden, hey, you got two weeks to just jump in and relearn how to hit those. You know, that's the hardest thing to do in sports, hitting a baseball, and it's really showing this year in baseball. So that's quite different. I don't think that the product is going to look tremendously different on the whole, but I could see more scoring I think yeah I guess I mean I guess I could see that because I mean would you would you do you use that logic just based on how like like the Viking situation with their defense for example like if

they're not going to be probably up to speed by week one, I mean, you have 30 days to do this whole thing. I would anticipate, I would anticipate the defense still being kind of in this rebuilding phase and trying to figure it out and that kind of playing itself out in real time on the field. But beyond that, I mean, what about the, what about the defenses that actually came back together? Do you still think that that's going to be like, are you taking it on a case by case-case basis, or are you saying, like, league-wide? Well, I was thinking league-wide, that overall we're going to see more scoring

because most defenses do end up having a lot of turnover. And it also takes so much communication and sharpness of your assignments and your alignments, by the way. As Andre Patterson and Marwin Maloof reminded us the other day. It's not just the alignments, the assignments as well. But I just think that it takes so much detail to even be halfway decent at defense that there will be these miscommunications that wouldn't be there before because you just didn't have time to have everybody practicing it and

offenses if you have the same quarterback you're probably plugging in you know this guard over here this receiver over here it's not going to make that much difference because the quarterback is the guy who drives your success on offense but on defense that's an 11 man thing it's it's almost like two different games going on when it's you know your quarterback can if you have Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson if something goes wrong there's a miscommunication they could still make something happen if something goes wrong on the defense it's a touchdown fair point no fair fair point I I think that yeah I think that I can see it absolutely from that I mean even the defenses that are still like, you know, if you look across the league, the one that has,

that have the least amount of turnover, like think about in 2018, going into 2019 with the Chicago bears, like we knew that regression was going to happen on defense. Defense wasn't going to score as much. And that wasn't like a normal year when they didn't lose guys and they didn't have, you know, several players. I think it's what Eddie Goldman, there's somebody else like who bopped it out. But yeah, I mean, I could, I think it's, what, Eddie Goldman, and there's somebody else, like, who've opted out. But, yeah, I mean, I could see that for sure.

And the fact that some of the big guys have opted out, I think that makes a difference. Like, the teams will be able to. It's crazy. Like, it changes. Yeah, I mean, think about it, especially with, like, all the nose tackles that opted out. Like, that changed probably the probability

of what teams are going to be able to do on early downs and not have to run as much. All right. Next question on the pre-actual camp stuff happening practice survey. You keep changing the name of the survey. Nope. No, I think that's been the same every time. Which player will you feel differently about when camp is over than from today?

And which rookie will earn a big role that we did not anticipate um player i think i'll think about differently i probably will stick on the offensive line like i'm really like probably either with like drew samia and ezra cleveland all in there i like if, if they're having him start at right guard right now, because they clearly are anticipating he needs to compete for the spot because we have a hole to fill and that it's not a complete lock for Drew Samia. I think that that's, you know, very telling. Now, will he actually be able to do it considering he's never played guard

before? I mean, we'll see. So it's kind of like I'm going in with the thought of, okay, they must see something here that gives them hope that they can probably get away with doing this this year and not have to move Riley Reif and not have to, you know, cut him or anything like that. I think it's just more of the stability factors. We know Reif can play left tackle. It's keeping the left tackle.

It's not trying to throw you into the fire at, you know, arguably the second most important position on the field. So I'll probably – I don't know. I mean, one way or the other, I'll feel differently about him. Right now I'm intrigued, but this could go very badly, as we've seen in the past. And so, I mean, him and Samia and, you know because I think that those two are Samia had the red shirt year and even last year when you and I were out there watching him like during the season and practices he just got worse and he did not look like the expectations at least in my mind

I don't know that the ones that the Vikings set for him that were so high they'd been the zone scheme before at Oklahoma he played you know guard. Like, they weren't met. So if he doesn't win that job at right guard, then I'm going to think something very different about him than I do now. I think that's a good pick. I am going to go – and just to follow up on that, I mean, last year in camp, Samia, we were talking about, is this another Willie Beavers? It was not going well at all.

He was on the third team the whole time, which you don't really expect for a team that doesn't have a lot of depth in the interior offensive line for him to be that far down the depth chart. And then in week 17, I know that generically people have said, like Rick Spielman, oh yeah, that last week, week 17 was great for all the young guys. Well, I think Ole Udo played really well. I don't think Drew Samia played that well when you look back at it and not enough in any way to give you confidence.

Oh, yeah, this guy is a plug-and-play starting right guard. But if he looks great by the end of camp and he's a different person out there, then, yeah, that will totally change how I feel about him. I was going to pick B.C. Johnson because we've looked at B. B.C. Johnson and said, this guy's kind of a possession receiver. He's just a guy. Like, there's nothing really special there. I think it's possible that B.C. Johnson is ahead of Justin Jefferson at this moment because he knows what to do on the offense. And also, he is such a detailed guy. He kind of reminds you of, and I'm not saying he knows what to do on the offense. And also, he is such a detailed guy. He kind of reminds you of, and I'm not saying he's going to be a superstar like Diggs or Thielen,

but he kind of reminds you of those guys in that his physical skills are not Julio Jones out of this world, but he's very, very smart. He's in great detail with his route running. He learned really quick, and when he stepped in, he did a very good job. I would not be surprised if he's playing outside wide receiver and we're going, oh, he's going to start and Justin Jefferson's going to work his way in at first. And then I wouldn't be surprised if BC Johnson actually turns out to be a good wide receiver. I'm not going to say he's a star, but I think that that chance for him to grow from year one to year two is there.

No, I agree with you. And that's why I didn't say Jefferson for any of my – he wasn't going to be any of my picks for this part of the survey because I anticipate the rookie struggle for him because of what's on his shoulders. Like he's asked to replace Stephon Diggs, and that's just not going to be realistic for him to do right away. That's why Gary's probably going to keep him in the slot where he thrives.

There's nothing wrong with that. But think about it. Yes, you did run an NFL level route tree at LSU because of your offensive coordinator, your passing game coordinator, whatever Joe Brady's title was. But even still in the NFL and you're doing that against, you know, I mean, you know, not saying he's going to get that they're going to put the best corner on him. Like, they're not going to shadow him right away. Like, I think that that's going to take some time.

But he's, you know, going up against NFL defenders like that, I mean, that takes time to get used to. Like, so I think BC – I wouldn't – you know, if you're saying, like, who's going to be wide receiver two, I still think it'll be Jefferson. But I think when you look at putting BC outside, if you're going to go three wide, use a lot of 11 personnel, Johnson's going to have a pretty significant role there. How about the rookie?

Rookie that you're right now thinking, oh, this guy's probably not going to be too big of a role player for them, who is going to either be thrust into a role by COVID or injury or by playing real good at football? I still think it's Cameron Dantzler, to be quite honest with you. I think that there's so much uncertainty at those cornerback spots, and it's like Mike Hughes is kind of the key cog in that whole thing. Once we figure out where he goes, we can figure out where everybody else goes.

If Holton Hill, I know that coaches said like that he's in a good spot right now like he's focused all that but if he slips up even like one little bit or if he's just like not as good as like comes back year three and just doesn't look that good then that's going to be a really big opportunity for him um harrison hand you know other guys that you know further down the depth chart there are a lot of rookie corners. Like, think about it. There's guys who could crack the, you know, Chris Boyd from last year. I mean, he's somebody that I could see in the mix for one of those spots. Like, maybe they end up kind of going through a rotation at one of the corner spots to figure it out a little bit longer.

And I could see Cameron Dantzler playing a very significant role in that. Because you think about it now, like, he's long, he's lanky, he's thin, but that doesn't preclude him. I mean, he's big in the sense of like just like physical stature, but like not like the, you know, thickest corner. He's not Xavier Rhodes. So I think Zim can work with that. I really do.

I think that that's probably the type he wants to mold to begin with. I really wonder if he's a slot. Like I wonder if that's what happens when someone does not have the great straight line speed to run alongside someone like Julio Jones on a go route, if that's where he ends up working in, that he could get in that competition. I think I'm going to go, and I've probably mentioned it a few times, and I know that on our last episode, Brett Coleman did too. But Kenny Wilkis, I think, has a really good chance here.

Yep. The door is open, the opportunity is there, and Brett put it really well. He said that he thought DJ Wanham was a seventh-round pick and Kenny Willekes was a fourth-round pick, and from what they produced in college, Willekes might have a chance to show that he can play right away and earn one of those rotational spots. And again, I mean, the door is just wide open to do that. So I think he's going to be the guy that I'm watching for. Where does he start out?

How quickly could he potentially emerge? And we can't anticipate injuries, but I mean, if Afadi Adenabo gets a hangnail, who's playing defensive end now? You're right. I mean, that's both he and DJ Wanham. I mean, they benefit from the numbers game, right? Because there's only two of them that are like true, you know, deep playing defensive end. I'm wondering, you know, with Willikees, he played a lot of different spots

over the course of his career at Michigan State. And I think that he might be more of an inside outside player than we realize, like, what else can he possibly do? I mean, if you bring more of that skill set to the table, you're more, you know, you're less expendable. So I think that that could really help him. He's somebody I'm really intrigued by, just because, like, what you were saying. I remember when he fell to them in the seventh round. Like, you know, draft Twitter went freaking nuts.

They were like, I love this guy. Been grinding his tape for a while. He was an early day three pick for me. Vikings got him here, blah, blah. And so we'll get to see if that actually pans out. But I mean, heck, how great of a steal would that be for the Vikings if that's the case? Before we get back to the conversation, got to let you know that Sunday, Sunday, Sundays are coming back in the NFL with NFL Sunday Ticket.tv. You can stream every live out-of-market NFL game every Sunday afternoon on your favorite devices. Plus, Red Zone, DirecTV, Fantasy Zone channels.

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That is D-E-A-L-D-A-S-H.fm slash insider that is d-e-a-l-d-a-s-h dot fm slash insider pff had him as a top 100 player and i think that they may have ranked him just as high as james lynch who went in the fourth and i know they had him higher than dj want him so uh he will be a guy to watch their last survey the actual camp practices are happening and we're doing a survey before them, which is the official name of the survey. What's the funniest moment of camp going to be? Last year, I think it's hands down, we would all vote Corey Bedvik's debut. No doubt about it. The buzz, intern Paul, he's interning with Care 11 and he had to keep a camera on cory bedvik the whole practice like that's how exciting it was to bring in the kicker slash punter who could not kick nor punt uh

imagine though think about this how how hard it is to be a professional athlete cory bedvik in that practice lined up a 60 yard kick and nailed it i mean he could punt the ball easily 60 yards in the air, and he's terrible, and they had to cut him. I mean, just – I mean, he gave up like a 79-yard punt. Oh, right. Yeah, no. He turned for a touchdown in Buffalo. Outkicking the coverage is a problem,

and also missing easy field goals is a problem. But it's just like imagine having this level of talent to be able to do that. And like, however close you think as a regular person to pro athletes, like you're a thousand times farther away. This is where you are to Dan Bailey and what he can do. But anyway, give me what the funny moment will be this year. Man. The possibilities are endless do we you know with covid and everything like the cleaning protocols like can they i don't know what it's like because we haven't seen it yet but do they have people like come out there like equipment guys and like clorox wipe the ball

after like every snap do they have to do that to football on a stick um I mean I think just like the unknowns like all these COVID things like back up back up you guys like you know you can't be in a huddle right now because you're you know you're seeing guys trying to like be in a huddle but like six feet apart from each other and just like the absurdity of all of it like a contact close nature sport trying to socially distance during it is going to be, I think hysterical to watch. I mean, they're,

they're trying hard. Don't get me wrong, but I think that type of stuff is just going to get, throw me for, you know, throw me for a whirl. I'll laugh at that stuff. Like audibly,

you know me. I mean, I laugh at football on the stick. I mean, do we still see the donut this year for blocking? Like, yeah, they're just going to have to spray down the donut.

Sanitize the donut this year for cup blocking. Oh, yeah. They're just going to have to spray down the donut after the cup block it, I guess. Do they sanitize the donut after everybody tackles it? Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, do they have to – what about big red ball for the linebacker drill? Does that thing get sanitized? Do they fog it? Like, I don't know.

This is going to be such a joke. Yes, it is. Yeah, I guess I was thinking along the lines of, you know, there's going to be four quarterbacks as always. Like, is the Jake Browning, Nate Stanley competition going to ramp up to where Twitter is fighting about it even though they can't see the practices? Like, you know, can we make that happen somehow? Can we facilitate? Like, I think that – I think this should be our – you know, a couple years ago it was Rock Thomas versus Mike Boone,

where you and I fought vehemently for both sides, even though we knew it didn't matter at all because they had Delvin Cook and Latavius Murray. Well, this might matter. You could COVID your way to the fourth quarterback. Yeah, you can. The Pagans end up keeping him around. I'll let you pick.

Do you want to be Team Nate Stanley or Team Jake Browning? I'll take Team Nate Stanley. Okay. I'll be the president. I'm glad that you picked that. I'm going to go with absolutely Team Jake Browning. I think they both make the practice squad, by the way. I think, yeah.

Well, the numbers are increased. Kirk has not had any injury history in Minnesota that would have prevented him from playing in a game, but this is a pandemic. So I think that everybody across the board is going to look at the quarterback position and be like, yeah, this is one we just can't screw with this year. So let's just not be in a situation where we're trying to figure out who our quarterback's going to be on Sunday because all three of them got COVID by using the virtual reality machine by not spraying down a football or something yes so yeah still I will be team Jake Brown and you could be team Nate Stanley um all right now I want you

to pick the Vikings and I want to do it like rapid fire style. You don't have to give like massive breakdowns of each game. There will be time for that. All right. So heading into camp pre, we haven't seen any practices yet. Picking the Vikings week one at home. There's no fans. Dan can hear the other team yelling at him from the sideline when he's trying to kick field goals. First is the Packers. Do the Vikings win? No, loss because Aaron Rodgers is going to look at those young corners

and lick his chops. I think I actually picked that as a win initially, but that was like in May. So, loss. Rodgers can actually hear the communication or his tackles can hear what he's saying, which I think has really thrown him off being at U.S in the past all right oh and one vikings at colts philip rivers that's a win okay uh this is actually one where your buddy mike clay from espn has one of the lowest percentages for the vikings to go to the colts and win and that's a little surprising to me um at home against the Titans loss okay

one and two start the hot seat is already getting hot as you go to Houston and play Deshaun Watson and they get a win in Houston two road wins two home losses I know it's 2020 it's freaking live everything's upside down I don't know if I even have to ask this next game. At Seattle. Lost. Two and three through the first five games. And Maddie Ice and the Falcons come to town on October 18th. No one has gotten COVID in the whole league. We are celebrating. America's wearing masks.

And we are almost there, everyone. And that is going to be a win. Okay. Three and three. This is about what they should be taking into Green Bay at Lambeau Field and that will be a win too oh wow okay you've got them winning at Lambeau but losing at home so the corners have figured it out well I mean they had eight weeks to figure it out I mean that might not be that much of a time we may be seeing a cornerback rotation but it's better than week

you know 30 days between like Monday and the day of the game no I don't think it's going to be figured out by then, but by week eight should be. Bonus question about November 8th against the Lions. Is Matt Patricia still the coach of Detroit? Yeah, probably. I mean, I think COVID actually could be on his side in terms of job security for now of at least making it through the season.

I know, it's wild. That will be a win against Detroit at home. Five and three start, and the Vikings are looking at the NFC North, the top of the NFC North, and saying, we could win the division, but we have to go to Soldier Field now. And it's going to be a loss. Five and four. I did a whole article about this.

You cannot pick the Vikings to win at Soldier Field. I think they're four and 16 at Soldier Field in the last 20 years. Cowboys coming in with their very, very good offense and Dak Prescott on the franchise tag. So you're 5-4 in a big game. That would be one of those national TV 325 games against the Vikings. I will say that's still – I still think that's a loss. All right.

A 500-ball club facing Teddy Bridgewater, who returns to town November 29th. Win? You got to go win there. And the Jaguars also win. Yes, thank you. Thank you. No debate. You can carry that for me.

All right. Yep. So 7-5 heading into this very difficult end of the season against the Tampa Bay Bucs. That is going to be a loss on December 13th in Tampa. So Brady is looking spry by then. Yes, and Gronk is too. All right. So 7-6.

We are really getting into tight playoff races now as they go up against the Bears at home. At home, that will be a win. Bonus question, who's the quarterback of the Bears at that point? That will be Nick Foles. That will be Nick Foles. He's going to be the quarterback from day one. Yeah, I agree. I think that Nick Foles plays the whole season for them.

They go to the Saints at 8-6. And you know what? They'll win that game too because why not? Because it's wild. It's 2020. They're in the Dome on Christmas Day. That's their gift. They win against the Saints because, I mean,

are we going to see a decline in Breeze this year? It's possible, yeah. We've seen it a lot. He can't throw the ball down the field anymore. But, you know, can've seen it a lot. He can't throw the ball down the field anymore. But, you know, can they get away with that? I mean, I think the Saints are probably the second best team in the NFC right now. But at that point of the year, will we be saying the same thing? So 9-6 heading into Week 17.

Let's assume the playoffs are on the line as they head to the Motor City to face Detroit. Matt Patricia coaching for his job. Matt Stafford has led the Lions to being relevant, and let's say they're 9-6 too. Winner gets the division here because the Packers fell off and Rodgers just quit. I'll give the edge to the Vikings. I'm getting them with a 10-6 finish.

They win the division, and they do it in Detroit. I mean, Detroit, for me, though, probably already disappointed me in all my expectations I had for them by, like, week five, just being realistic here. Yeah, yeah. The Detroit thing is going to be one that I'm watching very closely because if you are a potential head coaching candidate, you have to be looking at Detroit and being like, okay,

just screw this up, Matt Patricia. Because if I take over that team, if you're a really smart offensive mind or if you're just the – I mean, their defense has actually been the problem the last couple years. So if you're that person, who's the guy from San Francisco, their defensive coordinator, who didn't get a head coaching job? I forget his name. Robert Sala. Okay, if you're him, you're looking at Detroit being like, please screw it up, Matt Patricia, because I can get this job and then Detroit will be legit as long as Matt Stafford stays healthy. So, okay, a 10-6 season is a huge success I think considering what they're facing absolutely

like this year like I've said all along they're built for 2021 and if they win this year it's not inconsequential but it's but it's like they're already they don't have to win this year nobody's jobs are on the line now because all of the extensions have been taken care of except for Dalvin Cook uh which I don't anticipate happening anytime soon, which is weird. But nonetheless, like, even if he doesn't play, which I think he will, but he doesn't have the leverage not to, like, I think that they're still going to be able to, if it's Cook, if it's Madison, whatever it is, they'll be fine this year. And I think the offense really will become the strength of this team.

We started to see the tide shift last year. And I'm not saying the defense can't get back to where they were, you know, in 2017, but become the strength of this team at tides we started to see the tide shift last year um and i'm not saying the defense can't get back to where they were you know in 2017 but that's the product of a lot of time and a lot of luck that goes along with it so yeah all right well this is fun and our next podcast will be after actually seeing football so wow so excited we're there all right courtney great stuff as always. And we'll talk to you again soon. Sports are coming back.

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