Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Everything Vikings we're looking for at the NFL Combine

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

The NFL Combine is this week and before he jets off to Indy, Matthew Coller answers your Vikings questions and talks about everything we're keeping an eye on this week that impacts the Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here. Figured I'd record one more episode before I head off to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine. Purple Insider will have a little spot there on Radio Row at the Combine. So we'll have tons of guests coming and going. Chris Trapasso from CBS Sports will be on multiple times. Dane Mizutani from the Pioneer Press and whoever else I can get to come on the show. Well, I am there in Indianapolis.

Of course, we'll have time with the head coach, the general manager of the Vikings as well, and all the things that happen in Indianapolis. The rumors that come out, the different insiders that digapolis the rumors that come out the different Insiders that dig up different things while hanging out there for a few days in Indy always an exciting time We usually come away with a lot more information than we go in with So I want to talk about what I'm looking for this week when I am in Indianapolis From the Vikings brass and much more and also answer some questions that I have from Vikings fans as well. So why don't I just give you a quick reminder and then we'll jump right in that purple insider dot football. The purple insider newsletter

is a great place to get my coverage outside of the podcast from the press conferences with quasi dot Foments and Kevin O'Connell, our conversations on the side with Beat reporters with them that happen every year. That's the best place to consume it. Not necessarily social media where they take one quote and try to spin it around to mean something actual coverage from myself and the other beat reporters. Make sure you check that out again.

Purple insider dot football is the written side of my work. So I want to jump in. I made a little quick list of what I'm looking for at the combine, uh, for the Vikings and I guess the rest of the league, but mostly the Vikings, top storylines. Number one is very tough for me to come up with, put a lot of effort and thought into it. I thought, gosh, what would it be that would be the top storyline around the Vikings? And then, oh yeah, the

quarterback situation, any hints that we can get. And I fully expect a choreographed dance routine from Kwesi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell to walk around the issue of Sam Darnold and to present us with enough to feel like we got answers but not enough to feel like we know exactly what direction they are going to go. Very similarly to how it went last year which was felt like we understood the conundrum with Kirk Cousins and his success and the draft class and how strong it was at the quarterback position. But I don't think anybody walked out of Indy saying, for sure I know what they're doing. They showed all their cards on the table.

This team really doesn't do that, but hints, we're gonna be looking for hints. And then also what other people around the league think the Vikings are going to be doing will be of interest as well. They're free agents. Their current group of free agents is pretty robust as we have discussed on the show.

So the fact that they move back those void dates for Byron Murphy and for Aaron Jones, what does it mean? Do they feel like those guys have a good chance to come back? What's their approach? What are they trying to get out of the meetings with the agents for their current free agents? And can we get a sense coming out of the combine of percentages that certain players come back and maybe others end up hitting the free agent market? Also, I have

the free agency approach in general. I am very curious to find out if the Vikings brass looks at this off season as it is go time, it is time to spend big in that free agency or if it's a little more of a modest approach to this year because the free agency crop might not be as strong as it was last year and they do have a multi-year vision at the same time. They just won 14 games. The bar is very high. Where do they want to spend the dollars? Do they want to spread it out?

Do they want to go big fish chasing? We'll see if we can get any type of information on how they view that. I also wrote down the timeline and that plays into it as well. The timeline for do you look at this now as every year from here on out after winning 14 games, getting through the competitive rebuild is it's time to compete for a Super Bowl and it's all in. Of course, every team is going to say, yes, it's time to compete for a Super Bowl. But I think the Vikings more than any other team that you hear out there talking have

been open about what their timeline is. And it's really helpful to understand and at the combine even a couple years ago when Quasidafel Mensa talked to us about looking at two year, three year type of windows when you're roster building and trying to project out players. All that stuff is really fascinating to talk to Quasidafel Mensa and Kevin O'Connell about because I think that they came in with a pretty clear vision of what a competitive rebuild was

and now that they've achieved it and they're sitting on the precipice of the next step. Well, what does that look like? So that's also on my list and their draft options without having a lot of capital this draft. It looks pretty robust. It looks pretty strong.

And yet the Vikings don't have a lot of picks. So how do they get more? Will they attempt to get more? Do they feel like trading down after doing it in 2022 and not having it work out? Is that something that now scares them to trade down or is it something that in a draft like this they want to do? So we're all trying to put together the pieces of the different commentary and figure out what exactly is their approach going to be for this free agency period and draft or at least their their viewpoints on it. How do they view the opportunity that's ahead of them with the assets that they have, right? That's

all we can kind of ask for at the combine if they're not just gonna You know give us the whole plan how much of the plan can we figure out? I think we've actually been good at figuring out the plan in recent years We thought that they wanted the rookie quarterback. We thought they wanted to go after that draft class We thought they wanted to be big spenders in free agency and all those things came to fruition. The one thing that was a surprise was the Dallas Turner pick and the fact that they got a second first rounder last year. I was going back and looking at my coverage from last year. None of us saw that coming. So we didn't talk about any

other first round players with anybody last year at the combine. So there always can be surprises after the combine happens because everybody goes and they all hash out different ideas with each other. And then we see it in action in the weeks after that. But even just something as simple as how they view the franchise tag as a potential option when Kevin O'Connell has said that Sam Darnold has earned the right to be a free agent. What does that mean?

I mean, that's a common question I get from you guys all the time. Well, what does that mean? He says he's earned the right to be a free agent, but they got the franchise tag. Well, that sounds like a good question for Indianapolis and the brass is going to talk on Tuesday, by the way, Tuesday afternoon, which means that my reaction and Dane Mizutani will very likely be along with me from Indy to the Vikings brass talking will be later on in the evening on Tuesday is when that comes out.

So the last thing of course, from the combine is the rumors and I mean everything who's rising and falling who might be moved Matthew Stafford is now looking like more and more he's going to be moved does that mean Vegas could be in on Matthew Stafford there was a report today that Vegas is very interested potentially getting Matthew Stafford? Does that impact the Vikings chances of trading Sam Darnold to the Vegas Raiders if they're looking at getting Stafford and now that the team has given him permission to go out and investigate the types of trades that he might be able to get that could open the door for Sam Darnold to Los Angeles, right? I mean, there's so many moving parts to this thing. I will be really interested to see what we hear, what the insiders hear as the NFL converges on one city,

essentially everybody in the media and everybody in charge in the leadership in the NFL, all in one place at one time, we're gonna get some rumors and I cannot wait for that. And then I should also include that the intrigue around prospects, what prospects are drawing the most intrigue? Because I have looked at them,

I have started to watch them a little, I've started to look at their data and we're getting going on that draft process, which they don't draft till the end of April. So we've got some time here, but I'm going to have a chance to really sit down with some draft analysts. And I want to learn who I need to know the most

and why I need to know them and how it might change as those players start to actually do these drills. Because the early part of the week is when the brass talks for all the teams. And then the later part of the week is when the brass talks for all the teams and then the later part of the week is where they do all the drills. So a lot of the interviews that I'm going to be doing is before anyone's actually hit the 40 yard dash or anything else. Although it seems like it's just a lot of players who aren't doing as much as they used

to so maybe it won't move the needle as much as it did before, but I'm looking for running backs with explosive ability, defensive tackles who are freaks, offensive tackles that might be guards, because that's another thing we don't really know about. So there's so much in this week that we use as one of my favorite times every year, just to investigate, to go and to be a little gumshoe

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for 60% off your first box. Tempo meals.com slash purple insider. Rules and restrictions apply. So let's fire up your questions, thoughts, and comments. Uh, I figured I better get some answered now before the combine because I'll be doing so many interviews that there aren't as many fan questions getting answered on the show for a week, but you can always reach out to me, Matthew collar at Gmail, feel free to use it. Shoot me a note anytime, uh, ask a question.

I'll get it on the show if you are able to do that. So let's fire it up. This is from Matt D, from Matt C to Matt D here. Any interesting position group trends this year for players going into the combine? Groups of bigger, smaller, faster than previous years. Any groups have more players than average this year? So this is just my understanding. Now we're going to find this out.

And this is one of those fundamental questions because sometimes you go into it and you go, Hey, you know, I don't know how strong that position group looks. And then you come out of the combine saying, Oh, actually a little bit better than maybe we expected or a position group comes out and you go, maybe it's not quite at the level that we thought because some of these athletic ability, trait type of things will check some guys off boxes. Like, ah, well, if you're gonna be a quarterback running a four, seven, it's just not gonna work, right?

Things like that, where there might've been players that they thought were intriguing, but don't really match the specs, that kind of stuff. Yes, it's overrated. Yes, it's kind of crazy that we still do it this way, but there is truth and there's data behind what these events will suggest about players success. So we still do them. Anyhow, that's a main thing that we're looking for coming out of the combine, but my understanding going into it is, and it does benefit the Vikings this way, that the two big positions that are just wowing everybody

in the draft analysis world are running back and defensive tackle, that there are way more defensive tackles that I've been invited to the combine than in previous years. And there are way more running backs who are getting high grades first two rounds first three round type of grades that could be potential starters. That's just based on their tape so far and we don't have these numbers yet, but I was looking the other day at Chris

Trapasso's list of his top 10 at each position, which he and I are going to talk a lot about at the combine. And one of the guys that I liked the most in the draft, Damien Martina is a running back from Miami. He had, it was like the 10th best running back. I'm like, that's how many good running backs are in this draft that this guy at Miami, who averaged six and a half yards of carry and is a beast is not even at the very top of your list. So that's a position to watch the top guys beyond an Ashton Gentile beyond an O'Marian Hampton.

Is there somebody else? Are there other players who were going to have to learn their names? Because so far it's been Caleb Johnson, Hampton, Gentie, and that's been the main guys we've talked about. And Scadabow, are there going to be more who make their case? And Scadabow, if he does everything at the combine will be one of a lot of intrigue. Like, what does he run? How fast is he really is going to be a question? Because I looked at him as kind of a Mack truck out there,

but is he actually faster than we think? So there's a lot of stuff like that, a lot of nuance, but I'd be also interested if some corners make some noise because the Vikings should be looking at corners and really that tackle to guard. Does somebody weigh out more like a guard than a tackle? Because there is, if someone comes into the league as a tackle and gets moved inside, I think there is a lot of success stories of doing that. If someone's been a tackle for several years in the NFL, like a Blake Brandle or an Ole Udo who's drafted late and it's sort of a hope and dream thing, maybe less success. But if someone's a first round talent and they're a tackle, but they go to the combine and they have the shorter arms or not quite the same athleticism as the

offensive tackles, but they could be a good guard because they're talented. Well, suddenly those guys are going to make our list because I've really only been looking at a listener point of this out. It's a smart observation I've really only been looking at the guys listed as guards But that there could be more that are not just guards and the Vikings did this with Ezra Cleveland didn't really It ish kind of worked out but didn't really work out But they did it before where they drafted a tackle and immediately moved him to guard. I thought that was the wrong guy to do that with, but they did do that.

So yeah, I mean what you're asking about there, Matt, is a main subject of the entire week of the NFL combine. Odin Edwine asks, sorry if I'm mispronouncing, you have a budget of 25 to 30 million, how would you fix the interior O line this off season? Well if say Kevin O'Connell came to me and he said, look, I know we need this, I know we need that, but if we're going to compete for a Super Bowl, there is one way and one way only to do it. And that is to build the most stout offensive line that the Vikings have seen since Randall McDaniel.

Like, let's go. Let's make this thing different. Next level. Difference making. Dominating, if you will. Play style. Then I would say, okay, here's how we're going to do it. There's two different ways. Number one would be throw everything you've got at Trey Smith and draft Tyler Booker with your first round pick and just get two super physical beasts at your guard positions and maul some people. And when you get at the goal line and it's third and two at the goal

or third and goal from the two, you can slam it in with anybody. Matt Ossiata can come back and slam it in for a touchdown because we've got those beasts. So there's one way to do it. You're, you got 25 to 30 mil Trey Smith and a draft pick. Another way to do it would be to look at some guys that are proven veterans that are on the older side, but you know what they're going to bring to you. Will Hernandez is one of them. He's coming off an injury, but I've always liked Will Hernandez. Going back to when he was drafted, I know he was a big name,

but he's had a good career and he is a physical player and I think brings a lot to the run game. And then someone like Brandon Scheriff or Kevin Zeitler names that you guys have become familiar with over the years because we've talked about every year. Can you go out and get that guy? Can you go out and get that guy? But the older veteran who is a one year stop gap, but also could significantly upgrade the offensive line and then somebody who you are spending a little bit more on and then adding a center to that mix as well. Now, when I had Brandon Thorne on the show the other day,

he said he didn't feel like there was a difference making center way above Garrett Bradbury in the free agent market, but there might be one in terms of how they play and what their strengths are. If you're looking at it as just overall, I still will maintain that Garrett Bradbury is a positive player for the Minnesota Vikings. When you consider all the things that he has on his shoulders as the center is run blocking his mobility and screens and things like that,

that they probably don't do enough with him, but they can. And then the lack of help, which doesn't get factored, because if someone gets pushed back into the quarterback, everybody sees it and we go, oh, that guy, he got beat by whoever. But the lack of help over the last few years, actually his whole career on his right and left side. However, I will say that when you have a guy

that is undersized and you want to have a passing first offense, you should really look for somebody who's going to be more of a pass protector first, maybe a Ryan Kelly. And I think if you took a Ryan Kelly, a Kevin Zeidler or Brandon Sheriff, and some other play like Will Hernandez, who is an above average free agent and put those three together for $20 million or $25 million and

then you add them to the experience and talent of the tackles, you've got a pretty darn good offensive line there. And then you still have a Walter Rouse who's developing a Blake Brandle who can play any position on the offensive line You feel pretty darn good about it And I think what they're looking for last year the total numbers show the Vikings is having an average Offensive line in the middle of the season. They were very good overall They were very good part of that was who they were playing though, and then they lose Darasaw

It disintegrates toward the end what you're looking for is a line that moves the needle. It doesn't just survive. So that's either in my mind, that's not getting guys who have been averaged to okay that are in their prime, but their teams letting them go for a reason. You either want to go out and get the biggest of big fish or guys who are experienced that have a baseline of caliber of play at a high level that are veterans that you know are going to be there for you. Those are the ways that I would go about it.

Next question is from Florian says free agents have three main concerns going into their decisions of where to sign. Money, chance to win, and the state of the organization. How about a pie chart on how much those factors are important to them? The hard part about making a pie chart on how important different things are to free agents is that they're not all the same. Not every free agent says, well, look, it's just the biggest dollar figure. I truly don't care where I go. Some might have things that in their life, their family,

they want to go to a certain place because it's closer to family. It's closer to home. It's whatever they might have that. They might have the state of the organization or who the coach is as a super high priority. I mean, if you are a leader on a team, think about that. If you're going to be a captain, I think you want to make sure that you're going to be working closely with a coach who you like. I mean, Jonathan Grenard talked about this Blake Cashman, of course knew it, but the state of the Vikings organization sold those guys last year. Brian Flores had the connection with Van Ginkle,

but someone like Jonathan Grenard, someone like Blake Cashman, knowing what they were getting in their leadership and the state of the organization, the NFLPA survey, which usually comes out around the combine. I expect the Vikings to be number one, number two, somewhere up there.

I don't know how you could do better than they did last year in terms of the treatment of their players and the culture inside the locker. I was just a tremendous, tremendous locker room under Kevin O'Connell. So they're probably going to get a pluses across the board for how good of an organization it is, is my expectation. So the Vikings do have that edge, but that they don't have that edge with everybody. I mean, they might just be how contracts are structured, different agents, different relationships

with agents, with teams of knowing, all right, like this agent likes to do it this way. We like to do it that way. It doesn't really match up. Get is complicated. If I'm going just by your question though, broadly, I would think in terms of where to sign the number one is always going to be money. Now, usually everyone sort of understands what that price is going to be and whether they want to match it or not by the time they get to the table. It's

not like one team, the Giants shows up and they're going to offer a team, a player, uh, $10 million a year. Then another team's got 23 million. Like I think everybody has a good sense these days for where your player stands. We have so much data to compare everybody, where your player stands, where everybody else stands in terms of their contracts, precedents, the different tiers.

So an elite wide receiver is getting 35 to 40, a second tier receiver is getting 35 to 40. A second tier receiver is getting 22 to 26. A third tier receiver is getting 15 to 20. Like everybody knows this intrinsically by how their player compares to the rest of the league. So there's a lot of close offers, I think, but structure, how much money does my guy gets put in his pocket right away? And is the ownership willing to pay up? So money is probably at the top of the list. That's what these guys ultimately are doing jobs for is that to get paychecks,

get generational money and have long careers. And like, that's a big factor. You only get so many shots at free agency and a lot of times for players it's one. So you got to maximize that shot and I don't begrudge anybody forever doing that. So I would put that as probably the highest and I think chance to win in state of the organization are probably a little too close to each other. They're pretty much the same thing, not entirely, but a lot of times if your team is losing, think about the Browns. When the Browns make the playoffs with Joe Flacco, their coach wins coach of the year, wow, they're turning it around.

And then the next year they lose and they're the biggest calamity in sports. Right? It's just kind of how it goes, but state of the organization in general, if you're considering owners, coaches, how stable the coach is, that is probably really important more than chance to win the Super Bowl. So if you're going to a team that say it's like the Pittsburgh Steelers where you know who the coach is, you know who the owners are, you know the history, but you look at it and go, are they really going to win the Super Bowl next year?

Probably not. Not unless, you know, Tom Brady comes back or something. There's just not a quarterback out there. Players signed with the Vikings last year, knowing what the over under was, but they made their bet on O'Connell and they made their bet on offers being good and the environment that they were coming into. So overall environment culture, I think, is very, very important. And amenities now is important.

The vikings players come into the facility and go like yes this is what it's supposed to be this reminds them at tco performance center of their colleges where they have. Phil night out in oregon and nike just giving them the best of the best the best and then they go to us. Cincinnati or something. They're like, wait, I'm in the NFL and this is where we're practicing. This is what my facilities are. I think that if you're a free agent, you're really looking at all that sort of stuff.

So there's more than a couple of different factors, but the Vikings have edges on all of them, which kind of leads into the next question from CJ who says, where do the Vikings rank on the appealing place for free agent standings emphasis on impact players looking to win 2025 through 2027 coach of the year, but not just coach of the year. You can win coach of the year and be a jerk. It's probably happened before. I'm guessing. I think with Kevin O'Connell's reputation around the league and the, even just something as simple as a courteousness, like think about this, how many teams

when they added Daniel Jones would have a sit down meeting with all the quarterbacks with Brett Riponen with Nick Mullins, like Kevin O'Connell being a former player and having gone through some things in the league where I think he felt like players were disrespected, including himself on hard knocks. If you go back and watch that when he was cut, it was really mean spirited and I don't even understand why they were so mean about it. And I think O'Connell's had those experiences stick with him of I'm not gonna treat players like that. I'm gonna treat them like adults

I'm gonna communicate with them and that Shows and he has the leaders that can take that ball and run with it If you're a free agent like Trey Smith, for example, and you know, this team has Darasaw. It's got O'Neil It's got good leadership. It might have an offensive line coach that they like. I don't really try to dip into how good is this coach? Like, it's hard to say. It's usually the players, but the coach will have

a reputation around the league. Is this somebody who I want to go play for that's going to make me better and This coaching staff is really strong and it's got continuity and we can pick a part while they should have a run game coordinator They should get a different running back coach or something like that. I don't know like because the running game is struggled but Continuity in a coaching staff if you go to a team and your D line coach or your outside linebacker coach is one guy, it's not going to change more likely than not unless somebody gets another job like a grant you did ski, but it's not like there's going to be coaches churning in and out all the time with

Kevin O'Connell. So there's a lot that's appealing when it comes to that. And the other reasons, the, the environments, the players on the team, but also you mentioned it, those who do look for a chance to win. I think there's most of the time a baseline of, Hey, we, I want to be in the mix and we can only control so much. Right. If I am Trace Smith, okay, if I'm not resigning with my homes, let me just try to get in that mix with another team that I think has a chance to win.

And then we'll see where it takes us over the next couple of years. But when a team wins 14 games when they were supposed to win seven or eight, I think that that does send up a flare to free agents who are veterans thinking I want to go someplace where we're going to have a serious chance to win. They've got a young quarterback, they've got Jefferson, they've got Granard, they've got star players, and they've got a coach who's overachieved now in multiple seasons.

I don't know if it's number one. I mean, I think when you add in all that other stuff, it's got a great chance to be number one, the facilities and the ownership and how they treat players. But if you're really putting that emphasis on looking to win, as you mentioned, I would say if it's, that's the number one thing we're talking about. It's probably like eighth. I mean, Philly, of course, Buffalo, Kansas city, Detroit, and they got money.

Green Bay is going to be in that conversation. I don't know about anybody in the in the West right now in the NFC West, but even a team like Houston, they had a tough season last year with injuries, maybe some coaching issues, but they might be on an even playing field with the Vikings. They're in that second tier mix. The first tier is the Ravens. I don't think I mentioned, but the Ravens, Kansas City, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Detroit are and Washington.

That's another team. So right after that, there's like that five or six teams. And then the Vikings are right there at the bottom of that list of teams that should have a really good chance to win over the next few years. Next question comes from Gary. Gary says, with Sam Darnold probably leaving for richer pastures, we'll see Gary. What are the pros and cons of the Vikings signing Daniel Jones to a one year contract? I'm thinking he would get 10 to 13 million for one year.

Well, you touched on the con. The con is that he would be expensive. These days the backup quarterbacks are not like they used to be. Let's pay a guy $900,000 and he could just be the backup. Now, if you want a good one, there are so few. If you want somebody who can actually play and actually save your season, you have to pay for it. And they thought they were paying 10 million for mostly a backup in darn old last year. I don't really see any downside other than that, though, is that you probably have to

use some levers to pull with a contract to make sure it's not taken up too much money. Maybe it's some void years or something like that, because if it takes up too much on a one year deal, cause one year deals just don't give you any flexibility. If it's too much on a one year deal, then you might be restricting something else, but not much. I mean, the cap going up 10 to 13 million. It's not too bad, but it's just, it's way more than they've spent on the backup

quarterback since ever, uh ever in recent history. That's the only real downside. I mean, Daniel Jones is a guy who could start and who could play and will be healthy if you need them to save a season, if you need them to start a season because JJ McCarthy isn't ready, he can do that. I have never been super high on the idea of Daniel Jones, but Kevin O'Connell likes him and I'll always say that He's just done enough to prove that he knows quarterbacks pretty well. So Alright, okay

But there's probably other guys out there that maybe would take half of that It's just is it worth it to have a little bit of a guarantee that this guy could start for you for half of a season and you could go four and four like that's always going to be worth something he already has familiarity with McCarthy he already has familiarity with the Vikings what I'm wondering about is not whether it's a good idea it's a fine idea for him to be there back up and there's probably six other guys it's a fine idea for him to be there back up and there's probably six other guys It's a fine idea like Marcus Mariota. It's fine Or even Mac Jones like Mac Jones was playing for a horrific

Franchise last year when he got in and he played like a backup quarterback would what you expect from them I think we view Daniel Jones is a little higher upside because he has that one good season, but there's probably not a huge upside. Mac Jones has one good season. Like there's not a huge upside on any of these guys. Mariotta won a playoff game by throwing the ball to himself and running for a touchdown once. None of them are going to make you think, wow, this guy, if McCarthy can't play, then he's going to be fine. And he's going to win 14 games just like, darn it. Like it doesn't work like that.

So the only downside for this is that they might not be able to keep him as a backup quarterback because a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers, which have been rumored to be interested in Daniel Jones, he seems like a good fit for them. They are a running kind of offense, play defense. They try not to turn the ball over. He doesn't have a lot of weapons there as far as downfield wide receivers,

but they win games and they make the playoffs. And if you're Daniel Jones, you are looking to do exactly what Sam Darnold did somewhere, but you have to be the starter if you're Jones You have to know that you're getting a starting spot unless he's if he's following the Darnold timeline Unless this is his San Francisco year, but with so few quarterbacks out there. This should be his I'm trying to find that I'm gonna go and I'm gonna be somebody's starter overachieve, then get a big contract the following season.

But that whole Daniel Jones dynamic probably throw that in the list of things to ask about at the combine. Kip asks, how many trades back would you like to see Quacey pull off two or three just based on how deep the draft is? Well, I'm really thinking one. I mean, with the first round, and this depends on what kind of draft capital they have. So if they traded Darnold for a second,

then maybe you're trading back from wherever you are in the second to try to stack up more draft picks. But as of right now, because we don't know if that's happening or not, I would really look at it as as probably one. The Vikings have not cared a lot in the Cuecita Flemensa era about seventh round draft picks or even sixth round draft picks. They have cared a lot about that UDFA market and there is a sense that this year

there is more depth than there's been in recent years and that There is more depth than there's been in recent years and that UDFA market is going to be pretty huge The Vikings are big players there and have done a great job bringing guys in from that UDFA market rather than drafting Them in the seventh in previous years. I would barely even look at the UDF phase that they got now I got to wait when I'm doing that day three breakdown to see who they bring in as the UDFAs because they usually get the top guys. So that's gonna be another area where they can try to take advantage of. But I look at the trade down scenario as pretty much,

if you're going from 24 to somewhere between 32 and 36, then that should get pretty good return and it's worth it. If you go past 36, 38, 40, then there's not too many combinations of draft picks that a team can give you in the middle rounds. That's going to add up to the type of player that you're leaving on the table from number 24. So it's very delicate. I think if there was one key mistake that Kwesi Adafo-Mentza made in 2022, which by the way, if you look at the 2022 draft overall, yeah, there's Kyle Hamilton and McDuffie.

There's also a lot of guys who didn't work out for other teams that they could have drafted as well. But I think he went down too far, traded back too far. Although if they had traded back to number 20 and they drafted Lewis Seen anyway, because he was considered a top 25 type of prospect, we would end up with the same result. But I think when you trade back,

you always have to consider when does it fall off a ledge? When is it the same caliber type of prospect? And when is there a clear drop down for this? We're going to know that a little better after we get more information, but I think we're also going to have just common sense here and say that if you get to number 40 from 24, it's too far. You've left way too many potential starters on the table. I wouldn't really want to go too far out of that first round.

Early second has a lot of stars historically Past the mid second not so much Am I vikes fan says Where where did Reisner end up in the league as far as pass blocking and run blocking grade would it be wise? To sign him to a two to three year deal as a backup and possibly compete for a starting slot. So Reisner was funny enough in the top 10 in terms of pass blocking grade. I think he's a really good pass blocker.

He always grades well. He does not steamroll people, but he is a guy that played tackle in college. And you can see that he has this ability to anchor. He's a big, strong barrel chested guy that doesn't get run over. He gets pushed back, but he doesn't get run over. The run blocking grade was well below average

as it's always gonna be. Now it actually was similar to Ed Ingram because he had so many bad run blocking reps that they evened out his powerful good run blocking reps of which there were some last year as well. Uh, but if you're looking to be a difference making run team, this is just not really a guy that you could play over a long period of time. That's why he's always available.

Now you're mentioning as a backup. He's been a starter a lot for this team. Is he willing to come back? Is anybody willing to pay him is a question. They have had him in house for two years here and he's done fine if not well considering what they've had in the past for people couldn't pass block at all.

And the pass blocking is going to be more important as being a swing and he also played the other side. So swing right or left guard. I have no problem with bringing Dalton rise their back. I think is a backup type of option that he is as good as it gets in the NFL. But and so I'm glad you said backup option because as a starting option, I need someone who's going to impose their will more and be able to be down at the goal line or be third and short and drive their man backward rather than just not really being able to be down at the goal line or be third and short and drive their man backward

Rather than just not really being able to do that in the run game Another question here from mi vikes fan. It also could be an L I don't know if it's an I or an L looks the same on the keyboard my friend Hindsight being 2020 was trading up for Turner the best value or would it have been better to keep the picks and draft someone like Terry and Arnold, Braden Fisk or whoever else the consensus guard or center. So yeah, with hindsight, I think we still can't really say how this is going to turn out because we just need more information. We need to see how he plays. There's plenty of guys in that range of pass rusher who have slow first years and

then they pick it up. They're not all Jared verse. We've gone over that the age difference, but as far as the best value, it was never the best value. The reason I liked it is a little bit of a dubious stance. The reason I liked it was because I really liked the player. I Thought Dallas Turner was a phenomenal prospect I had seen a lot of them and I had read a lot about him and I had listened to him talk and I thought this is the intersection of high intelligence freakish athleticism and Dedication that often results in superstars.

We did not see superstar right away. We also saw 21 year old player. We didn't see a fully formed Dallas Turner. In hindsight, it may turn out to be a great move. I mean, Will Anderson never gets talked about for this. Will Anderson. Everyone hated that move. Why are the Texans trading

for another first round draft pick? They're giving away their future, et cetera, et cetera. Well, no one complains about Will Anderson because he's a freak. And that's what it often comes down to in hindsight. Right now it was not the best value because there were players like Jared Vse who were drafted later who turned out to be better already

and Jared versus just a star already and he'll probably say a star for a long time. So if you can use hindsight on any draft pick, you can always go, well, they should have taken Michael Thomas and not Laquan Treadwell. Duh. What were you thinking? It wouldn't be so darn compelling if the draft worked that way and we always had hindsight, but it was never a good value. No one ever thought it was good value.

There is a little bit of a nuance when people say, well, they gave up this much for him. They did not acquire that pick. At least my understanding is, or I don't think they did. They did not acquire that pick for Dallas Turner. They acquired that pick from the Texans So they could use it to move up if they had to to try to get the top quarterbacks in this draft They were not able to do that or last year's draft and they ended up only having to move up one spot to get JJ McCarthy, which we'll see how that all ends up playing out. I

which we'll see how that all ends up playing out. I always got the sense that they acquired the second first round pick with the purpose of trying to use it to trade up to the top of the draft. And there were reports all the way to draft night that they were taking final swings, calling the new England Patriots to see if they could get Drake may. They were not able to get Drake may, so they use it another trade up, but they use that pick essentially like well We've got it So we should just use it But of course if you add up all the things that were given up to get to that spot

Then it does not look like a good use the bar would be Megastar or it's not the proper use of value, but I, look, I had Quacey on the show last year. We talked about this. Stars are gonna win your championships, right? It's gonna be superstars that drive, and I know complete teams, of course, but the superstars are gonna drive you to success and you have to find them somehow.

And it's either pay them a ton or draft them or get stupid lucky like Adam Thielen or something. Well they took their swing at trying to get a superstar and he still very much has that potential. We saw those flashes. It's not like he didn't play and it's not like he didn't flash. He did play 25-30 snaps a game and he did flash There just has to be a big jump from this year to next year one more here one more D

T and a bunch of numbers Says you've always said that not being a fan of the team means you can be objective Is there a team in any sport which you couldn't do that about for whatever reason? Oh, be objective. Is there any team? I mean, if I was playing on one, I mean, I played summer basketball with Dane Mizutani and a couple of my friends one summer. And I was, I was biased about our team.

So I, if I was part of it, if the Vikings said, we want you to be part of our team, then I would be, of course not objective. And I would try to help them win. Right. But as long as I'm covering a team, I mean, this has just always been me and how I look at sports. When I was growing up reading about sports and listening to it, I didn't really wanna hear

the broadcaster or the writer be like rah rah for the team. I wanted to hear what the truth is. And I think that's why a lot of you guys like the show is because I'm a journalist. It's what I went to college for. It's what I got hired for in the business. And so I've always taken a journalistic objective sort of fact-based. I always look at it as like my other career,

if I had ever had one, probably would have tried to be a lawyer or something, right? Putting together cases. That's kind of what I do here. It's like, why would this work? Why won't this work? Well, it's all just cases. And so I like that part of it.

That that's what makes me get excited about sports. So even like the Minnesota links, I have link season tickets and I have some shirts, I have like a Simone Augusta shirt and. And in the playoffs, man, it was exciting. I wanted them to win. That's probably as close as it gets. I wanted the links to win when I went to their home games. I was not sitting in the stands being like, well, you know, hopefully both teams have a good time.

Like I wanted to see the crowd go crazy and them to, you know, I'm there with all the fans in the stands and stuff. So I guess that's probably as close as I get at the same time, if they get outplayed, I'm still going to look at it like, all right, let's break it down. Why did they, like, what was the lineups? What was the, with the shot selection?

What was the, like, I'm still, even last year, as I was going through that, going to all the games, going through that playoff run with the Lynx, I was still writing for herhoopstats.com because I love those guys' data over there. If you like women's basketball, go check that out. Herhoopstats.com, I was writing columns for them, reacting to the games, and I was doing it

in the same sort of objective manner. So, you know, it's just how it's always been. This is the result of growing up in an area where the football team missed the playoffs for 19 straight years. This made me think about the whole league all the time. And I always was like, you guys always wanted to be in the GM seat. Always wanted to talk about, did they make the right draft picks? Did they make, did they spend the money the right way?

Franchise the right player? Always kind of second guessing. Did the coach make the right decision there? Did they spend the money the right way. Franchise the right player. Always kind of second guessing. Did the coach make the right decision there? Did they have the right scheme? All that stuff. I've always liked that about sports. That's what gets me excited about it. That's different for everybody.

And how much you guys love the team is also great for me because it's a different perspective when you ask questions and we have conversations and stuff like that. So I think it's a different perspective when you ask questions and we have conversations and stuff like that. So I think it's a good dynamic we have. So there you go. All right. I'm going to go and I'm going to get on a plane or two planes and make my way out to Indianapolis. Got a radio row spot there allegedly waiting for me. Got that email the other day. So that should be pretty cool for the purple insider inside first time i've had a radio rose spot there which i'm excited about and will bring you all of that this week i just can be more pumped

about it i hope you are too to follow along so again the newsletter purple inside football and i just highly suggest the athletic is gonna be there the. The pioneer press, the star Tribune, myself, all of us have the places where these things will be originally reported. So there's aggregation, there's random accounts on social media that steals all this stuff, takes away from the people who are doing the actual work. So sign up, even if it's not me,

even if it's not purpleinsider.football, but watch the show, Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, the athletic, we're all gonna be there. Make sure you follow the people doing the actual work. It's just my suggestion. So thanks a lot, everybody. And we will talk to y'all soon. Football, from Indy, football.