Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin talks about a proposed Danielle Hunter trade

Episode Date: April 24, 2021

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin aka Courtney R Draft Scout dive into a Bill Barnwell-proposed trade involving Danielle Hunter, which reminds us that Hunter's name has barely come up in pre-draft rumors. Do we think the trade would be fair? How do we feel his situation will play out? Plus Courtney talks about her report that the Vikings are looking into mid-round quarterbacks and we grade her draft simulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Have you been grinding the tape lately? Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Defensive end at 14. Should the Vikings target that road grader? Use that prototype build that should fit in your zone scheme. Big, athletic. Does that long snapper have quick twitch? Probably long snappers, to be quite honest. Grinding long snapper tape is definitely the right answer for you. Here's Courtney, our draft scout, to break it down.

Boom, this is it. Let's go. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthewthew collar here along with courtney our draft scout courtney cronin from espn as always presented by scout logistics and symbol your stock market for sports courtney we are almost there we are so close We are just days away from finally having NFL draft picks to discuss. Are you excited? You know, I'm excited. This is, this is my favorite time of year. Like I changed my Twitter bio to reflect the time and the, the aura of the moment.

It'll stay like this for another week. So I'm wondering how many people are going to pick up on it. I know you and I were chatting away and giggling to ourselves seeing how long it might take people to realize but my actual name on twitter right now is courtney our draft scout so i'm curious to see how many people are like you have to do a double take you'd be like excuse me what the hell is that but my twitter handle has not changed itself it's still at Courtney R. Cronin because I didn't want to lose my little blue check. So yes. Yeah.

No, that's right. That's good. Yeah, that's good. So we've got a draft sim that you did that I am going to grade. So instead of me doing the draft sim, you're going to do the draft sim. I'm going to grade your draft sim. We'll do that in a second. But I want to start out with this trade that was proposed by Bill

Barnwell in his article where he proposes a draft trade for every team. And some of it's just funny, like, you know, of course the number one picks not being traded, but if there was any, you know, group of players that could get the number one pick, who would it be? So he goes through every team and, you know, I'm scrolling down and scrolling down and looking for Vikings related things. And with the number 10 pick, Bill Barnwell proposes this trade, which made Vikings Twitter very upset. Okay. The Cowboys in this case with the 10th pick would get the Vikings 14th overall pick and they, and Daniil Hunter and the Vikings would get 10 number 44 and number one 15. So if I said that stupidly 14 and Daniil Hunter goes to the Cowboys.

So they swap first round picks. The Vikings get number 10 and number 44, which is in the second round and then a fourth round pick. And it was very clear, very, very clear that Vikings Twitter was not on board with this and was very insulting to Mr. Barnwell for even suggesting this trade but I'm just gonna say I don't think that's a terrible trade for Bill to propose well first off and you and I have talked

about this like do we know if Daniil Hunter wants to be here? Like, that's the big thing, the biggest question I get asked this offseason. So what's up with Daniil? Like, where's he at? How's the rehab? How's his life? Like, sup? And I was doing Mina Kimes' podcast the other day, and I'm like, well, this is what was said by Mike Zimmer on this date. This is what was said by Rick Spielman on this date. And truly, until we hear Daniil talk, I am not buying anything that anyone is saying. And that's not conjecture. That's not any sort of speculation. It's just the fact that literally a year ago in August, we were told this guy had a tweak

in his neck. And I can't believe anything from this point on until I hear it from himself that he wants to be here that he plans to be here that he's gonna stay um with the Vikings I mean fact is when he went on when it was announced that he had the season-ending neck surgery the same day NFL Network the only outlet at the time reported that he did not like he you know he was going to have the surgery and oh by the way he's not happy with his contract so Vikings making the highest paid DE like in the league or let him walk and I was like okay so that's a

that's a double whammy of information right there and then you think to yourself well um could could does he have leverage in this situation no not really um but do the vikings yes potentially because when you look at his cap hit it's the second highest on the team this year at 17.25 million um and you know he's he's coming off an injured season where he didn't even play and yeah we saw the ceiling. We saw the potential. We saw how good this guy could potentially be and has demonstrated himself to be in the first early seasons of his career. Like he hasn't even scratched the surface

of how good he can be. He was 25 and he was the fastest to 50 sacks ever in the NFL. But is his value at a point now where you couldn't pass up that offer if it was brought to you in the trades format on draft night? I think that that's something that's reasonable because Dallas could probably afford to make him the highest paid defensive end. Like there's got to be stuff going on behind the scenes before they get to draft night to know, okay, this is why they would pull the trigger on sending Daniel Hunter and the number 14 pick

to Dallas in exchange for number 10. Like, what is that? I mean, I don't know if Mike Zimmer would be thrilled about that considering all that they did in free agency for this defense. And yes, you have a, you have a hole there on your, on your defensive line and a pass rush that really struggled to get home last year like that's an area you'll need to address but if you're at 10 you're probably able to go get one of the top offensive tackles because I don't believe any of the three of them will be there at number 14 that's just my opinion but I don't think you can hate the trade for what it is and just the value of what you'd be getting and what you'd be giving up based on so many of the unknowns with Daniel Hunter that we just like truly don't have answers to yet, if that makes sense. So let me put the trade a different way.

And then we can talk about some other things about whether this is realistic, because it's not something that we've discussed at all, really. Like, could they actually trade someone on draft night? And each year we hear about things like this, like the Trent Williams thing was last year. And there was Anthony Harris was also talked about as a potential draft day trade, even going back a couple of years, Kyle Rudolph, and none of these things came to fruition, but I think Trent Williams did get traded on draft day or the day before the lead up to draft day last year. So this stuff does occasionally happen

with a big trade leading into the draft, but let me put it a different way instead of just like, oh, it's this pick in this epic. What if you're talking about trading 14 and Daniil Hunter for Rashawn Slater, Joseph Osai, who's a very good pass rushing prospect, and signing Melvin Ingram to a two-year $20 million deal. So if you came away, if you moved on from Hunter, and you came away with Rashawn Slater, Joseph Osai, and Melvin Ingram, and then even with the fourth round pick, I don't know, like a decent wide receiver or something,

like, does that sound more worth it? I mean, I can understand where people's hesitation would be because what you want, if you're a Vikings fan is to destroy the other team in the train. Like you want to first on everything. Yeah, absolutely. But this is for moving up that many spots too. It's only four, but like, that's the difference between potentially franchise 10 year player and somebody that is not beat in BPA category, which you could get at 14. You might not get it 14. Right. And the difference between 10 and 14 doesn't sound like much. But if you use the chart and now I'm all about using the chart, it's actually a lot.

I mean, it's the same amount of points as moving up from 31 to 21. So going up from 14 to 10, a lot of times, too, I mean, when you look at just historically, most of the value of a draft comes within those top 10 picks. And this is a year where there's a bunch of quarterbacks. So there's also the possibility that 10, there's a quarterback on the board, too. That could be franchise changing for you also, but let's even say it's just Rashawn Slater. And otherwise you can't get Rashawn Slater and you've got to trade down.

I mean, like moving up just that many spots could actually be a really big thing for you, but more than anything, I mean, you'd also get $17 million of cap space. Whoever's left on the free agent market that you want, you could just have. And remember last year, how many players signed late? And there are still guys out there on the free agent market who ended up making a difference for their teams. Like Logan Ryan ended up signing

pretty late with the New York Giants and Malcolm Butler signed late with what Tennessee. And he played pretty well. I mean, there are still guys out there who could make a big difference. I like Daniel Hunter as much as the next person. I would not trade him at all if he wants to stay here. And if that's not going to become a big battle with this contract, but if he wants Joey Bosa money, well, you're also not only saving 17 mil this year, you're saving the Joey Bosa money from, from the future that you're going to have to, to pay him because Joey Bosa is making a from the future that you're going to have to, to pay him because Joey Bosa is making a quarterback contract as much as I liked Daniel Hunter. He is not Khalil Mack and he's not Darrell Revis. That was brought up to that. Revis got traded for a bunch after

an injury, but it was an ACL, which always is fine. And it's also Darrell Revis, one of the great players in history. So let that not over inflate Daniil Hunter to put him up with guys like that. I think that's on a completely different level. So I know that people would be super upset, but when you look at the haul and you just look at it kind of black and white, would you get enough? And you add that cap space into it. I don't, I don't think it's a crazy trade, but I don't think they do it because I don't think they'd win it. And I think this is a, this is another thing I took away from the Thomas Dimitrov interview with PFF

was he was talking about there are certain moves. If you make them, you absolutely have to destroy the other team or you can't do it because of just how the perception would be. I think a Daniel Hunter trade is that way yes and I mean the hall is everything like could you get another player in the mix there too like is there anybody that the Cowboys would be willing to give up um that could potentially like help your defense at that point maybe you know and you know I know that the trade defense sucked though right yeah that's kind of where that's kind of where i'm at i mean but was it scheme as much as it was like i mean yeah they they offloaded like all of their like defensive linemen so maybe it was a problem of uh talent

versus um you know talent and scheme combines i mean it's not like you're going to get like demarcus lawrence or anything like that but you know i i think you're in a position here if you are the minnesota vikings to to more or less call the shots and and get more of what you want because you know that dallas is probably going you know dallas is trying to to bolster their defense regardless um you know that's why so many people have them taking Patrick Sertain if they end up staying there um at 10 or you know Micah Parsons if if he's there what have you but like the Vikings are on also in a situation too where the reason I could see this not working is because you know they spent all this money on defense and free agency, and you're expecting this marquee piece to come back.

It's almost like you took 10 steps forward, and then you took another 15, or maybe it's not even 15. Maybe it's like another 10 steps back by losing a franchise player in Daniil Hunter. You saw how bad they were last year. They had no pass rush. They couldn't get home. They mustered 23 sacks,

and five of them were for a guy that was on the team for five, six games. So like, it's a big problem. And that's one that I just can't see when we just look at the T read the T leaves about who's really pulling the strings here for a lot of these things that have happened and kind of pushing for Anthony bars contract to get restructured because he's such a pivotal part of this defense for getting Patrick Peterson in here to help fix the defense and fix your young cornerbacks and help them rise to the next level while maybe giving him a second shot at trying to prolong his career all those things that's all Mike Zimmer like I personally can't see this one happening just based on like

reality of what zimmer would be losing like i think you're a lot more likely to see a trade back in this scenario like and there's one that barnwell had uh when you like this whole thing was based on trades so if at 14 he had the vikings trading with the pittsburgh steelers giving um you know moving back from 14 to 24 and then they get a 2022 first round pick that just shows you the value and this is a separate conversation but I think that of how teams overvalue in a lot of respects first round picks because to move 10 spots down from 14 to 24 you pick up a 2022 first rounder in the process. And then you have two next year and then they would give up their 2022 fourth round pick.

I don't know how many of those that they have slated for next year already, but I know that they have a couple this year. So at least I didn't have to give those up. So Rick still gets all of his bites at the apple. Like at that spot, you're probably able to get an edge rusher, or maybe it's an Elijah Vera Tucker and you're not addressing, you know, the immediate need that you would be able to, if you had the number 10 pick overall,

but you're also not in a bad spot to be able to kind of acquire and continue to build and also still keep Daniel Hunter in the fold. Hey everyone. We have a new special offer to tell you about with our friends. It's symbol. If you go to symbol.app, that's S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot A-P-P, and sign up as a first-time user with a $20 deposit into Symbol using the promo code PURPLE, you will receive six months free of premium Purple Insider written content at purpleinsider.substack.com. So go to symbol.app, deposit $20 if you're a first-time user, six months free of our premium written content

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to thread because there are so few teams that have an extra second or something that they would be willing to give you and have a need to move up because other teams have to be looking at this too, that are in the twenties. If you're not desperate for quarterback and saying, Oh, you know, I mean, we can wait for our Aziz Ojolari or somebody else, you know, instead of having to trade up, it would have to be, it would really have to be somebody special on the board to get this to actually happen. So like the trades down in the draft simulators are very easy, but they're not very easy in real life. So the Hunter thing though, I think you're exactly right.

That they want to do everything they can not to have to get rid of to Neil Hunter. I just wonder if like, where do these two sides stand because it sounded to me like no one has talked to him outside of Andre Patterson. It was like, Hey, Hey Rick, have you talked to him? Well, no, but I saw his Instagram. Hey Mike, Hey Mike, have you talked to him? No, but like Andre has, okay. Is Andre negotiating his extension or like, what's the deal here? So that's like,

we just can't really figure out where that's at. Someone has to have an idea by the time you get to the draft, where this stands, because if he's only going to stay here or not hold out or whatever else to be the highest paid player, and it's just going to be this big, you know, kind of ongoing thing, then you have to start sending it around. Does anybody want to talk trade with him? I still think that they fold and that they paid Daniel Hunter what he wants, even if he doesn't have the most leverage because he's coming off a neck injury.

This is just the history of this team recently is they will pay you. If you try to make them almost every time. And sorry, there's coffee, you know, wake up drafts and coffee drafts. Of course my coffee right now. But that's the thing.

Like they've been so like not playing hardball with anybody it's like oh you want to be the highest paid defenseman okay like I don't know if they'll do it with Daniel Hunter I mean Joey Bosa money is absurd like I just don't think that they can realistically do that when you you know are the Wilfs gonna want to do that here's my thing it comes back to like where's the money coming from? Well, it's coming from ownership. Is ownership going to want to shell out right now, considering all that they did last year and what they like between the

coaching staff front office, Kirk cousins and, and, and Dalvin cook. And where that got them effectively. Like, do you think that they're going to be like, all right, sure. Let's just shell out for Daniil Hunter right now when we haven't seen him in a year and he's coming off this neck injury i'm not so sure it's possible but they will continue to find a way to do this thing where they they're not the saints in the sense that they keep backloading all these contracts and like just keep kicking the can down the road like they are they find ways to get it done i think if they were going to do this with hunter it would be one of those like good faith moves that you wouldn't see happen right away. Um,

I just, I just can't see that, but I could, they eventually do it. Yes. I think they could be. I think like once you, you know, if you come to the terms, you're going to move on from cousins and things like that, then you're going to have a lot more financial flexibility to work with there. But you know, it, it just, I can't see, I can't see a situation where they like don't do everything they can in their power to like, try to keep him in the fold because they're, they're a worse defense. You saw it last year. They're a worse defense without him. So much worse.

If you don't have them, then, then what does that yield? Like, I mean, that's where maybe he has the leverage being like, all right, I'm going to, you know, pay me or trade me. Like I'm going to sit out, like, you know, I'm healthy. I'm ready to go. Um, and they could get quite a bit for him. I mean, he could certainly command a hall. And I know that I've probably mentioned this before, but the Neil Hunter made $40 million in cash over the last few years, so he can sit out. I know you have to pay the fines, but the fines, it takes a really long time for them to add up to something that would matter to Daniil Hunter at this point. So I think he actually does have enough leverage to sit out.

And so that situation is going to be one that I think hovers over draft night. I don't expect him to be moved unless somebody comes with some insane offer like two first round picks, which won't happen. So I guess we just kind of wait and see on Daniel Hunter. I just thought it was interesting that his name was brought up by Bill Barnwell when we hadn't seen his name mentioned by anyone anywhere in potential traits. I don't know.

I mean, it has been kind of quiet on the front of like, he still wants to be the highest paid pass rusher in the league, or he doesn't want to be that. He doesn't care if he's the highest paid pass rusher in the league. To me, it's kind of a matter of not now, but maybe later in terms of that, like using that logic for him, because there's just other guys that you have to prioritize over him. Cause he has, I mean, you have the leverage in that sense where he hasn't played and he's coming off a neck injury. You need to see that what you're paying for is worth it.

Right. But from his perspective, he got hurt in the first day of training camp. And so if I'm him, I'm not stepping on the field without guarantees. And that's the, that's the problem is that his guarantees are gone. And so, you know, I mean, if, if your career ends because of this neck injury then you're just out anything and you have no protection for the future which is what his side is going to want uh the middle round quarterback or even the potential of someone dropping i think is very real for the vik And I was told that your report or what you were writing about quarterbacks, that you were barking up the right tree with this team,

looking closely at quarterbacks and not looking at only seventh round quarterbacks, but real quarterback prospects. Yeah. You don't want Nate Stanley. It's like, that doesn't do you any good. And I know that Rick Spielman's theory of more bites at the apple has usually yielded quarterbacks coming on in the sixth seventh round undrafted free agency what have you well like that's great when Kirk Cousins is your guy and you know he's your guy for a couple years but like right now they're in this weird limbo that

like is he the guy beyond 2021 we don't know yet really we don't i mean he doesn't have an untradeable contract i wish that people would understand what the thing about his base salary becoming fully guaranteed on the third day of the league year means it just means that it's it's a guarantee for him like look at what quarterbacks are going for look at what the market. Like guys are moving around all the time. Teams are willing to overpay for mediocrity to above average, to good quarterbacks. You don't have to be elite and great to get that kind of money.

So I think that the rationale and from what I've heard about there being an emphasis on trying to at least work on the succession plan, it's not for now. Like, it's not this like backup, you know, have a great backup for Kirk cousins. Cause you're worried about how he's going to perform in this season and needing to win right now. I mean, like, you know, if you can't get it done with cousins this year, like you're not going to be like turning to the young rookie quarterback who needs a year of development.

And it's not being worried about his durability or anything like that it's literally planning for the future being able to move on and there will be some that argue well if they don't win this year everybody's out anyways what's the incentive for spielman to start building for the next team i think that that could save everyone's job if they already had something in place and then they're able to get creative with moving on from kirk cousins should they want to do that but you know that's the that's the tricky part with where they're at right now in the draft and all the chatter about Davis Mills and where he could potentially go Kellen Mond um uh Jamie Newman like there's other like day two day three guys that

that run on quarterbacks could end up hurting the Minnesota Vikings early day two if they don't get higher than 78 to be able to draft one of them so the guy that came to mind for me that I just feel like what I have no sense for this guy's draft value right now is Kyle Trask because no one is talking about him, but I was, uh, we did a piece at the website about like the most comparable players to each Viking starter, which was pretty fun. And Kyle Trask was actually the guy who hit me as the most similar to Kirk cousins, not because of his size. He's he's bigger than Kirk cousins, but like the lack of mobility or off schedule play, but his really great intermediate passing numbers is really

great. Deep passing numbers at Florida. and the fact that he had a great supporting cast. But if you come to the Vikings, you'll have a great supporting cast. So you could kind of project that in. But the last thing you said, I totally agree with you that if you are Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer, especially, I guess, Rick Spielman, who's really, you know, he's going to be calling the shots with the draft. But when it comes to the quarterback situation, if you can go 10 and seven this year and get into the playoffs and then whatever happens to the playoffs and have another quarterback that you're

telling ownership, no, that's actually the guy who can really take us to the next level. We've got to move on from Kirk and trade it for trade him for a first round pick or something. Like, I think that that, I think you're right, that that is potentially something that could extend their life as GM and head coach is having that guy that they could say, no, no, no, no. He's actually the answer. What we need is this young quarterback on his rookie contract. And then we can add this guy and this guy and sign this guy to this contract and so forth. I mean, I, I, I'm with you on that, that I think that if you're talking about maybe a third round pick as being that guy, it's a little bit of a harder sell, but if Trey Lance is there, of course, I think you have to do that immediately.

But even, even a, even a Kyle Trask, a Davis Mills, a Jamie Newman, as long as they have someone else who they can say is really the guy, if you go nine and eight or eight and seven that you need to be, you know, in the future building around that gives them a shot. I don't know if it guarantees a nine and eight season, if that guarantees they have job security going forward, but I think it gives them a shot to be able to say, no, no, it was actually Kirk's fault. It wasn't really our fault. We built a good roster and we just need this other guy.

And that's the problem with someone like Davis Mills, because everybody is looking at him right now based on potential. Oh, it was only 11 starts for him at Stanford. He's a top rated quarterback in his class coming out of high school in 17. Like look at, you know, the untapped potential, like someone like Kyle Trask, who by most sites I've read uh has that day day three uh early you know round four grade like I don't know how quickly that could change in the next couple days but like look how quickly it changed for someone like Kellen Mond who was very much a day four pick about a month ago and now is apparently could very well be the sixth or seventh quarterback taken off the board um I don't know if that's who you want like my thing is do you want a similar quarterback to

Kirk Cousins or do you want somebody that's like got a completely different skill set I know that Mel Kiper called Kellen Mond a Kirk Cousins prototype I don't know if I see that um just based on the mobility like I mean the guy's got a cannon for an arm um and Kirk like you mentioned like the intermediate short passing game that's where he excelled it's like that's like what his bread and butter is and that's why he's you know so effective and why his numbers oftentimes look as good as they do um I wonder it's like would you if you're Spielman would you go the opposite of what Kirk Cousins is then to have options of being like, this is not Kirk, but this could yield completely different results. And maybe not

like in a good way than Kirk. Like if you went with somebody that, you know, like a Jamie Newman, potentially that I think is probably more realistic. Like, let's say they're just staying where they are at 78, probably more realistic that he's there than the other two names that I mentioned. And I think Kyle Trask still a fourth round pick that should be within their wheelhouse, but he could end up going on three as well. If that run on quarterback start and team start panicking on day two. Folks, the football off season is often rolling and SodaStick has you covered with Minnesota sports themed gear. Some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the Chuck Foreman spin doctor gear.

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where were like, where will Mond be available? Cause he screams second round pick to me, maybe even late first, but I think he's much more of a second round pick the way that his draft value seems to have been working. But Jamie Newman, the guy didn't play last year and he didn't look good in the senior bowl. Like he has a really long way to go. So you're talking about taking someone on extremely raw tools if you're talking about Jamie Newman. So can you sell that?

But yeah, I'd love to hear the discussion of whether they say, no, we need someone like Kirk just cheaper. Or if they say, no, no, we need an athlete who can make plays. I tend to think that if it's Mike Zimmer no, no, we need an athlete who can make plays. I tend to think that if it's Mike Zimmer, he would say we need an athlete because, well, one, I mean, his favorite quarterback was Teddy. Teddy is not a freak athlete by any means, but Teddy had this ability to slide in the pocket, to run when he needed to run. I think, you know, there was, I forget the stat, but Teddy had a bunch of first down runs on third downs in 2015. That's something that Kirk Cousins just very rarely does. And I was also thinking about the play at the end of the bears game where they run a bootleg and the bears blow

it up. And Kirk just has no chance to run away from the guy. And if you're like, I mean, we've seen that how many times where it's like, it's not necessarily his fault when there's a breakdown, but a lot of athletic quarterbacks just run away from the defensive player. And that's something that cousins can't. And I wonder if that is something that would stick with Mike Zimmer, but with Newman, I mean, you're having to go back to 2019 tape at wake forest and try to figure out, okay, is there something there? But I do think that because he didn't play well in the

senior bowl, that he might be a guy who is available in the third round. Yeah. I mean, given like the lack of like this year alone with all the opt-outs, like, and how that's going to affect the draft, that that's going to be really interesting. And the lack of tape or the lack of like, you know, post season all-star game stuff that just stuff that didn't happen. I mean, outside of the senior bowl, I do wonder if that's going to cause guys to fall down the board for, for many teams and, and be in a situation where, you know, come draft day,

somebody that you didn't expect to be there later in the third round ends up being there. And not, I'm not saying it'd be any of the top, top guys, um, that you like, I don't know how many big surprises we will get in the first round. I'm hoping quarterback wise that there is some sort of shakeup. Like I've, I've listened to a lot of mock drafts and sometimes I think people are just trying to be dramatic and like throwing like different things out there that like Davis mills will be taken before max jones like that is a literal thing that i heard um on a on a podcast um recently which from actually

kind of reputable person i was like that's kind of a wild ass take but like okay um but i would like to see the shake-up where the opt-outs and the lack of statistical evidence that you are a good quarterback who could project into an NFL starter one day, I want to see that stuff come into play where it pushes guys down the board because I think you could get a lot of steals, especially for the quarterback position, round three, round four. If that plays out the way in my head, it could. Just real quick, a great tweet from someone uh can we get an emergency podcast for another team signing chris jones did

another another team sign chris jones wow chris jones the cornerback chris jones yeah not the good one yeah the good one still with the chiefs as far as I know. Yeah, sure. Yeah, this is it. Emergency pod, Chris Jones. Hard to believe. What was your favorite play that he made last year? Okay, so I think most people would say the Tony Pollard missed tackle, but I'm going to go with the Scottie.

I'm going to go Scottie Miller roasting him for a touchdown against Tampa Bay because that was such a game changer. That was such a like, uh-oh, this isn't going to go Scotty Miller roasting him for a touchdown against Tampa Bay because that was such a game changer. That was such a like, Oh, this isn't going to go your way. Regardless of kicking. Like this is just not Tom Brady's just going to drop dimes on you because he's standing back there all day with no pressure. And Scotty Miller, the fourth wide receiver or fifth wide receiver for the bucks, just running right past Chris Jones. Well, good for you, Chris Jones. I'm glad you get a paycheck this year.

I am too. I would have to say the business decision, though, against Dallas. That was so good. Honestly, I probably would have done the same thing. I can't blame him for that. That's the answer to what would I look like if an NFL player was running at me? Like, nope. Not trying that. No way. I don't want any long-term

injuries. Also, uh, just seen Anderson reported just as we were talking that Orlando Brown trade talk is heating up. So I think that justifies our discussion. So why don't you, before we wrap up, go through your, uh, draft SIM, what'd you do like three rounds? Yes, I did three rounds and I did a trade. Okay. Go through your draft SIM and then i will grade your drafts it okay let me you want some music do do do do do gotta pull it up i like 50 000 your draft sim do all right so here we go scout so i wanted to get involved you can stop singing um i wanted to get involved in some trades because i am honestly very concerned right now that the team does not have a second round pick.

And I've done a lot of mocks recently for a bunch of different entities. I did one for Keyshawn J J Wilton Zubin this morning. And I went with Jalen Phillips. They just did kind of a basic mock draft with all 32 of us. We have one of these coming up uh on NFL live next week and we couldn't do trades we couldn't do anything like that I'm like no I'm gonna do trades and I'm gonna get who I want so one thing that I've wanted to do when I like have looked past the I did a couple of these but this is the one I'll read you because I really like the way that this

turned out um I felt like if you can find a team that doesn't have like an early, early, early third round pick, but kind of like middle of the pack there that you would be in a good position to pick up an offensive lineman that would lead you to like, be comfortable playing him year one at the tackle spot. So like when I was looking through the board, I'm like, well, who would want 14 thinking about the quarterback order? Because I'm not convinced. I know that this is going to be the thing we talk about till we're blue in the face the next couple of weeks

or next couple of days, actually. I mean, I forget the drafts, you know, very, very soon. Would Matt Jones be there at 14? And is there a team that necessarily needs him that would trade up a couple spots and that you could, you know, get a second round pick for? The Chicago Bears feel like that team to me. Like, they really do. And I'm not convinced that Andy Dalton is their guy. I'm also not convinced that they have the power to be able to trade up into the top 10 to get somebody to save their jobs. And I know somebody actually sent me a comment, a really nasty comment the other day, saying like when I was like suggesting that Chicago needs to draft a quarterback and like draft a really good one. Yeah, they could probably take the Viking strategy and use like their second round pick or even like their late you know i don't think they do with their late first round pick but to go get a jamie

newman or a davis mills whatever have them learn under andy dalton any for a year what have you but they could also get mac jones and trade with the minnesota vikings swap picks 14 and 20 and then the vikings would also pick up 52 for which is a second round pick from the you know from from the Chicago Bears so like not a like and I know I said third round earlier it's not what I meant like I meant you know get a middle of like mid-tier second round pick not like early early day two but like you know reasonable so the way that my draft played out when I traded back to 20 Jalen Phillips the top pure pass rusher in the draft was there so I grabbed him so that was my 20th overall pick then at 52 I got Dylan Raddins who was the left tackle for Trey Lance at North Dakota

State like the guy from Stanford was there but he didn't play last year. So I was kind of like, well, if I need somebody to play right now and I'm, I am convinced that like, I, with my offensive line that I'm not moving as a Cleveland, that I want to be able to, you know, that left tackle spot is open for the time being that that's where I'd want to go. So I got radins at 52. Then I got Kendrick green. Who's that guard. I've seen him in a bunch of my draft a lot of mocks like is he better than what you have is he better than Dakota Dozier

is he better than Mason Cole I don't know let's find out because bring him in and have it and compete for one of those left guard spots he's a third round pick like at worst he's probably better than what you have right now let's just put it out there so I got him in the third round pick like at worst he's probably better than what you have right now let's just put it out there so I got him in the third round at um 78 and then at 90 I got Jamar Johnson who's a safety uh from Indiana I've seen him in a bunch of my mocks uh I like the pick there I like the depth that you have with that position Indiana bias obviously obviously. Yeah, obviously. Big 10 bias for me, an Indiana grad. But I think that that's important. I think you need to address the safety position, again, like quarterback before the sixth round. So that is my mock. I did another one, but we don't have

to get into it. I actually kind of liked my other one too. I went different route with that one. But I like that I was able to get value for getting the second round pick like that to me is going to be like the most critical thing to watch next Thursday. Can Rick Spielman get a second rounder? Where would it be? And what do you do with that position based? Like we'll know by the end of night one, where they're going if they can get a second round pick by what they do at you know to me 14th prime trade back territory i do not think you will like i don't think the vikings will take elijah vera tucker at 14 i don't think the value is there because spielman's

gonna look at that and be like guard overdraft no way i can get him probably later in the first round or i can and i can trade back and or i can get like a defensive end and I'll still get a second rounder in the process. Like that could have gone either way. I could have gone Jalen Phillips or I could have gone Elijah Veritaker, but I went Phillips because of thinking to Neil Hunter, like that's just a scenario that played out in my head. Your defensive line is set, like literally don't address the defense for the rest of the draft until

Jamar Johnson. But you know, that's, that's where my head's at. What do you think? Well, I think that Phillips is really good. I mean, I know that there are concerns about his health and everything else, but just as a player, I think that he's the best, this is just for me, he's the best prospect in the draft at the defensive end position for me. So obviously I like that a lot and being able to get, you know, a guard a little later on who could be an immediate upgrade. Like this sounds like what will happen is like my interpretation of this. And maybe, I don't know if the bears make a trade with them, but trading down into the twenties, trying to get another draft pick in the second round,

being able to pick someone else up like a rad andance i also love i i think that's a great pick like that that is to me that's just another brian o'neill um you know if you watch the way that that he plays he's very smooth and he's really great athlete so i i've picked him a lot of times in draft sims as well so i think you did a great job of doing exactly what is very likely for them it wasn't like a um it wasn't one that would make people go, you know, throw a parade in the middle of the streets where you're drafting Trey Lance or something like that, but it's, it's, it's likely it's probable. So, um, you know, and if they did that, I would probably give them like a, you know, a B plus and I'd say, good job. Like you got the needs that you had and offensive line, defensive line, you stack them up and well done. Well done. You didn't

change the trajectory of your franchise tonight, but you did what needed to be done is how I would look at it. Yeah, no, I mean, that's, I don't know if you're going to get like a sexy outcome from this draft where you have the guy that everybody's like, wow, like a Justin Jefferson skill guys, cornerbacks, like in the first first round that's going to yield probably a lot more excitement offensive line defensive line are necessities and you know if you can find a good offensive lineman like if I mean I'm just saying if one of those tackles is available to you at 14 no brainer but I just don't see that situation panning out but this is also a team that doesn't draft a lot of first-round edge rushers. You'd have to go back way, way, way, way, way back.

I actually have it open right now. The last time that they drafted a first-round defensive lineman, our good buddy, Sharif Floyd, in 2013. And that's a tackle. If you have to go back even further to find an edge rusher, I'm going all the way back, way, way, way, way, way back. Erasmus James in 2005, that was the last defensive end that they took 18th overall.

They had two first round picks Troy Williamson. We all know how that worked out with the first round pick. And then that was pick seven. And then Erasmus James, I don't know if they, what the trade was to be able to get a scenario but they had two first rounders there but yeah uh you have to go way back to do that so it's like it makes complete sense to us looking at it on paper that like it points to a first round defensive ender first round offensive lineman they're much more apt to going the first round offensive lineman route but i much more apt to going the first round offensive lineman route, but I just can't see at 14, them sticking with somebody who's probably a guard if the top

three tackles aren't there. So, uh, on draft night, we will be together again. Uh, and, uh, you're going to pop in to our broadcast. That's going to be happening on WCCO streaming channels. So to be like on Twitter, on Facebook, that's where I'm going to be hosting my live draft coverage. You'll be jumping in and I can't wait. I just, I think it's going to be great. Maybe, maybe we'll do a pre-draft one. I know Spielman's going to talk on Tuesday. Yeah. I'm very excited about that. A lot going on next week. Should be good. Thank you for all of your time is draft scout. You are welcome.