Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Everything we learned at Vikings minicamp (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the end of minicamp and all the things reporters on hand were able to take in from the action combined with what players and coaches had to say.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kurt says if Hockinson doesn't put up crazy numbers this year, he will he be a Viking in 2026? Well, it depends on what you mean by crazy numbers. If TJ Hockinson has, let's say 73 catches for 812 yards and five touchdowns, Is he going to be a Viking in 2026? Oh yeah, absolutely he will be. And I haven't looked at his contract lately of when you can get out of that and so forth. I think the only way he's not a Minnesota Viking is if it went really bad somehow. If there was another major injury, if him and JJ McCarthy just did not work out at all together and they couldn't figure out their chemistry or something. But when they sign Oliver, there's this a little bit of natural like, Oh, does this mean something about Hockinson?

And the answer is no, because 12 personnel, one running back, two tight ends is a cheat code in the NFL and the Vikings want to use it more. And it's a cheat code because teams want to play nickel. They don't have big linebackers. You want to be able to run play action out of that. You want to be able to hand off to the edges. Like I was talking about and Hawkinson is more of a wide receiver. He can run block, but he's more of a wide receiver.

And he's kind of like an underneath. He's almost like having a traditional slot receiver that they don't really have on this roster. But there's a lot of footballs to go around. I mean, when you talk about the numbers, that's another part that's hard because you start out a season with a hundred plus going to Justin Jefferson. So out of 400 whatever completions, 20 plus percent go to one guy. So then you have to subtract from there. I don't know. He's going to put up the same numbers he did with Kirk who really trusted him.

Now that they have a Jalen nailer, there's more of a wide receiver three there than there was before. Uh, but I mean, I think he's going to be on this team for multiple years. I really, I really was just not down on him last year, the way that some people were. I it felt to me like Sam Darnold didn't look to him as much as he did. Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison down the field. It's not like he didn't catch the ball when it came his way.

It's not like he had a bunch of drops or anything. That's a little bit more fantasy brain for me like fantasy football brain and he was slowly working back into the lineup for a while there, but I'm not down on Hockinson. I think actually with McCarthy, he could be really important. John, thank you so much for the super chat. Shout out to you. Really appreciate that. Says, I don't understand the investment in tight ends, particularly given what was spent on the offensive line, not saying he isn't good, but he costs more than a number two, I assume you mean tight end there for a, if you're talking about Josh Oliver.

So the thing about investing in someone like Josh Oliver is we're going to have to adjust our brains because a lot of us lived in this world, including me in past years, where every move and every dollar figure needed to be scrutinized. It needed to be like, is this the right way to allocate these dollars? We don't live there anymore because JJ McCarthy is taking up $5 million and not $50 million. If JJ McCarthy was taking up $50 million, then I would be with you and say, okay, okay, why are you spending so much on a tight end too, just because you like how he blocks and catches

20 passes a year. But in this instance, this is the time where you spend the extra dollar to get ever so slightly more. Think about it like, like, uh, getting a, buying a seat upgrade into comfort plus on a flight. So if you are not doing so good financially and you're pinching pennies, you're sitting in the very back of that flight. But if you're doing pretty well for yourself and you've got the extra few bucks to spend, then you go up to comfort plus and you're like,

oh, this is good. I like this. And that's basically signing Josh Oliver. Yes, you could have Ben Urasek or Gavin Bartholomew be your backup tight end, but it's not as good as Josh Oliver. And when you're trying to win the Super Bowl and you're in a position to do it,

every single thing matters. So if Hockenson gets hurt again, you have a very clear guy who can come in and play. If that you were not keeping Josh Oliver, then you don't. And if something goes wrong with Hocketson down the road and they do have to cut him or they do have to trade him, it's possible, you never know where it's gonna go. They've got another option who they really believe in.

And as far as like spending on the O line, like that's the point, they can spend wherever they want. They could spend on the O line, spend on the D line. And I know that eventually that runs out, but not really, not really in this window where you're going to also pull every lever and push every button to make cap space in the future to make sure you're keeping this window with JJ McCarthy on the rookie contract open. They know it.

It's what we talked about the other day with Jeremy Fowler talking about the three year window. We've arrived folks at that moment. And it's the thing we've been talking about for a long time. And also Oliver does so many things. I just implore people, if you like film, if you like the all 22, like go, go watch Josh Oliver. I mean, you can see it when you watch him. The run blocking is exceptional. He catches passes when you throw it

to him. I mean, the play he made at the end of the Atlanta game where he catches a pass kind of slams on the brakes and takes off for 20 more yards. He is he's an interesting cat. He's an interesting cat. If I could only keep one tight end, Kurt says, would it be Hockinson or Oliver? I mean, Hockinson's a pro bowler and is one of the best wide receiving tight ends in the league. That's always going to have more value. If I mean, if we're talking about their contracts, but this is the point, we're not talking about their contracts at this point. It doesn't matter if Josh Oliver is overpaid.

It just doesn't matter anymore. That's why they spent all the money the way that they did. And that's why I like a move like that. Because in the past, I definitely would have said, I don't know, man, that doesn't really seem like that's the best way to spend it, but we're just not in that space now. So yeah, I mean, I would go with the Pro Bowl

wide receiving tight end, because that's got more value than Josh Oliver, but he's one of those guys that you know, you go into the playoffs and you're trying to run the football and You're gonna need somebody like that they were so bad In the interior that it didn't have as much of an impact But it still did because when they ran to the outside, they were successful last year, so they could at least have a competent running game for most of the year.

I don't know that they would have if they didn't have Josh Oliver, or it would have been as good running to the edges. Others who are astute at quarterback play have said that Sam Howell looked pretty bad. I tend to believe that a lot more than he looks good. Noodle arm, John says. Uh, yeah.

So here's the problem. Here's the problem. I don't think he has a noodle arm. I think that that's unfair. Uh, I mean, he started real games. You can go watch them. You can see what he looked like in real games. So if you want, you can.

I have not been too concerned about the backup quarterback position just in general, whoever they have there, just make sure it's somebody who could win three games if your starter's out for six. And Sam Howell probably can. I don't, I don't agree with noodle arm. I mean, it's not JJ McCarthy's,

but it's an arm that's played in the NFL and won real NFL games and had a stretch during that season where he started. That was pretty good. But if you're expecting him to be a starter, well, I got bad news for you that no quarterback that's a backup in the NFL is a starter, except for what, uh, maybe the giants of Jackson Dart is good. Russell Wilson is like sort of a starter, but there's I mean, or the Browns have no starter at all. But yeah, he's a backup quarterback.

But I mean, I don't think that calling it a noodle arm is fair. It's just it's not an above average NFL arm. He's not throwing rockets. His mini camp was solid. It was fine. His first OTA practice that we saw didn't go very well, but that's the foolishness of trying to make so much out of this stuff.

If you're trying to make a lot out of one OTA or one mini camp practice based on a handful of throws, I just can't say enough how dumb that is. It's just not logical at all because there's so little that we see. But I'm just not gonna spend any time arguing over QB2. It's not not logical at all because there's so little that we see, but I'm just not gonna spend any time arguing over QB2, it's not worth it. People like it, but it's not worth it.

There's just the differences between QB2s are almost nothing. If it's your favorite backup versus your least favorite backup, you know what the difference is? Almost nothing. You don't want them to play. Ray away says, is anyone else concerned with how many times the Vikings media has had to

try and convince us that JJ has a strong arm? So the thing is, I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I'm telling you what I saw with my eyeballs standing on the sideline of a practice for the last two years watching JJ McCarthy or last year, mini camp and training camp. And now, and I am telling you as a matter of fact of somebody who has now covered this team going into 10 years, I'm pretty sure I know what an arm looks like. I mean, what did I say about Sam Darnold last year? Right? And I know, yeah, everybody knew Darnold had a good arm, but I've watched a lot of practices. I've watched a lot of quarterbacks throw footballs.

I know what it looks like. It's not trying to convince you of anything. It's, it's a fact. Every single person who has watched this guy throw the ball, and there's a video of it. If you want to go see it on Vikings.com has seen the velocity. Oh, and by the way, at the NFL combine, he threw like 61 miles an hour or whatever. I mean, it's just a fact of the matter that the guy has a strong enough arm. It isn't some sort of a, it's the,

the Minnesota media cabal trying to convince lie to the world. There's dozens of us out at practice, all seeing the same things, my dude. So that's just, it's just the world. There's dozens of us out at practice, all seeing the same things, my dude. So that's just, it's just the reality. Does that mean that it's a perfect arm? Does that mean it's Josh Allen? Does that mean it's Jeff George or Jermarcus Russell or whatever your favorite, very strong armed guy is? No. Uh, is he as accurate as Darnold or Sam Bradford, who to me is the best thrower of the football I have ever seen in my entire life.

No, Sam Bradford was the best hands down. Darnold's really good, but as far as accuracy, pure throwing, whoa, that's different level from where JJ McCarthy is. But as far as velocity goes, the, the start of the football throw into how fast it gets there, It's very fast. Is that mean he's going to be perfect at dropping the ball in 25 yards down the field? I don't know. That's what he has to work on. But the reason is because national media people keep going back to scouting reports that were from two years ago that say he doesn't have a strong

arm. And McCarthy was asked about it today and he said, look, it's probably because I don't have a big frame. And also because he threw with all of his might all the time in college. And he admits this. And when you, and there's some of it, I watched it. I saw him at Michigan and sometimes I laughed because he would wind up like he was thrown from the outfield to throw like a 15 yard in route. It was unnecessary and he's learning that he's learning those details. I also think that throwing to the outsides, sometimes the ball would sail on him and throwing deep. He didn't have trajectories right. And if you don't have the trajectory right, it's not going to drop in beautifully like NFL films.

It will often kind of just die out if the trajectory is wrong. Those are details. Those are not physical arm strength. Those are details of how you learn to play the position and throw footballs in real games. This isn't some sort of circus where you're trying to put up the biggest number

of how hard you can throw it. There's a lot of details that have to be learned, but as a pure matter of fact, there were people who scouted him off of whatever, I don't know, all 22 or whatever, not, I guess, in person. And it was different then, but that was also a long time ago now. I mean, how much did you grow when you were from 20 to age 22? I mean, for me, probably the wrong way, probably put on a lot of weight the wrong way, but for a pro athlete, there's a lot of growth time in there. And so that's, that's what it really is.

I don't even know how it's any sort of argument, how it's any sort of argument when a dozen people are out there watching the same thing and you're like, oh, it must be the media covering for J.J. McCarthy or something. I don't know. It's kind of weird, kind of weird. Anyway, moving on, moving on. It's so odd that, and I saw Judd wrote about it too,

it's so odd that it's a debate. It's really, there's no debate. There's no debate. The guy has a very, very strong arm. It's just a fact. What he does with it, will decide whether he succeeds or not. But it's there enough.

There's a pro day that's on video. There's a combine that's on video. There's a velocity number. There's dozens of practices, there's practices that you can see from fans in the stands taking videos of it. There's a preseason game. Like, what are we talking about here? Is that, this is the most like 20, 25 media thing I've ever heard is there is a bleep ton of evidence of something

and reporters there on the ground telling you the truth about it. And somebody from the outside says, no, I don't, I don't believe it. And then people are like, well, that guy must be right. Okay. Uh, Preston says, uh, so excited about this upcoming season because I want to see what JJ becomes a quarterback, not concerned with wins and losses, but just if he's any good or not. Totally disagree. Totally disagree.

You and I could not be farther away where we're at in that than that for me. And you can feel that way if you like, I'm not being critical of you, but how we feel, I am not close to that. If he had been drafted to this team three years ago, then I would have said, Oh, of course, I totally agree. Even last year we were like, ah, you know, if the roster makes progress and McCarthy gets in, you know, before he got hurt. Uh, okay.

And when Darnold was going to be the starter and McCarthy got hurt, it was sort of, let's just see what happens guys. Who knows? Like we got to go through this season. So let's do it together and have a good time. And then they end up with 14 wins. And we're like, wow, this is crazy. But this is not that year with the, the spending on the roster with the veteran players, with the stars, JJ McCarthy has to produce. He has to win and it's year two. It's not year one. He's not a rookie. There have been plenty of quarterbacks in the NFL who are in the playoffs who

win playoff games. Jaden Daniels was in the NFC Championship in year three. Jalen hurts is in the Super Bowl in year two. Patrick Mahomes is in the AFC Championship. You got to go win like that's their whole timeline. The whole front office is playing for this roster is built around here and now win. Don't just find out what he and by the way, the other thing is too, that if you find out what he is and it's good, you're going to win because the rest of the roster

is, is really good. So if you're just watching to hope that McCarthy is good, while you're kind of then hoping for them to win a lot because it's not like he can be good in the team, not win. If he's good, they for them to win a lot because it's not like he can be good in the team not win. If he's good, they're going to win. David says I don't get the Hockets and hate. He's going to be a beast this year. Darnold sucked at over the middle passing and short stuff. So by the numbers, Darnold was okay by the end of the year.

They just didn't do it a lot. So if you check the numbers, Darnold's short passing when he did it was successful, but he was something like 16th in the league in the percentage of passes that he threw between one and 10 yards and they didn't throw behind the line scrimmage very much. And I just think in general last year with Hockinson having to show up in the middle of the season, it was a little bit harder to get on the same page with him for Sam Darnold because with now I know that happened with, uh, Kirk cousins,

but then when he was really good was when Kirk had him for the entire off season, they really got to feel for each other because a tight end is a feel position. It's looking for space, knowing where you're supposed to be. And if you get to those spots and the quarterback works back to you, because Jefferson's going to be one or Addison's going to be one. So you're almost always two or three if you're the tight end. So he has to work back to you. A lot of times those deep shots were open. And I also think that maybe he just didn't work back in the same quickness

as Kirk Cousins. Cousins got through those reads pretty quickly, sometimes too quickly, and went to the check down and would end up with Hockenson because of that. That's another part of it is that I think Darnold was willing to hang in, hang in, hang in longer, which took away some of the TJ Hockenson throws. My expectation is that Hockinson will have a big season with JJ McCarthy, but I mean, anytime somebody doesn't put up huge numbers that they have in the past, there's gonna be some questions.

I just didn't think that he played badly. I just, I didn't think that Hockinson like dropped the ball or wasn't where he was supposed to be or struggled. It just didn't come to him as often as they were putting up a really, really good offense. And there's so much focus on fantasy numbers and statistics. And like nobody loves stats more than me, but are we talking about like his actual performance? Are we talking about the fantasy numbers that he put up?

Sometimes it feels like that where it's more of the fantasy numbers that are criticized about TJ Hawkinson from last year, because I didn't see that it was any kind of problem. I thought that it just was a guy working his way back in from a very serious injury. So, let's see. Bradley says the Browns have five backup quarterbacks.

I could see a signing one if they are not satisfied with what we have for QB2. Yeah, you're darn right about that. They have all backup quarterbacks. The only one that would be, I don't know, yeah, Because they're probably not going to cut Dylan Gabriel or Shader Sanders. So there's two. Kenny Pickett looks like he's their starter. Could they cut Joe Flacco? They could cut Joe Flacco. Uh, and in that case, if they don't like Howell, then, um, they could pick up someone like that. And that's, there are going to be options. There are going to be options. So, yeah.

And you know, John wanting Joe Flacco. I mean, that's like Joe Flacco, like, look, I mean, last year for Indianapolis, it's not like it was good. Two years ago, he got a Browns with a great defense and they kind of play action their way to a playoff game. And then they got destroyed. And it was a nice little story for Joe Flacco. I mean would I like Flacco a little bit more than Sam Howell?

I guess so, like a little bit more because the history is there with Flacco of success, but how old is he right now? And that's why I'm talking about where almost any quarterback too that you could bring up around the entire league and say, would you rather have Sam Howell or this guy, Sam Howell or that guy? There's not too many of them that you could say where I'd be like, now, wait a minute, let's take that guy. Even with Daniel Jones, the guy's three and 13 and his last 16 starts with more picks than touchdowns. I mean, that just,

there's just not a lot of quarterbacks in the league who are, you're going to watch in a practice and be super impressed by that kind of thing. And yeah, I, I know, uh, and I've, uh, joked around with Judd about the, the Sam Howell arm thing. Uh, I think that, uh, what Sam Howell has is physical traits that are reflective of where he was drafted and that he, when put into a real situation with a team that was not in good shape, his statistics were reflective of what his team was. And if you're talking about Howell being dropped into this situation,

I think he could win some games in this situation because it's way different than what it was in Washington when he started. That doesn't mean I think they would just, you know, be fine with Sam Howell. But I think that also goes for almost any backup. We almost saw Nick Mullins win games. But this is quarterbacks are just so kind of easy to talk about that. Even talking about the backup, like always gets people worked up because everyone's got opinions on quarterbacks.

That's why it's hard for me sometimes because I'm like, I just don't have big takes. I just don't have big Sam Howell takes. I've been impressed with Max Brosmer and I think we all know that if Sam Howell doesn't perform well in camp and in preseason, just like Kellen Maughan and Sean Mannion didn't in 2022, that they'll just make a change and they'll find somebody else and I won't want that player to play either. Right? So, all about champions, give me Flacco and Jalen Ramsey. I think those are a little different. Let's see, Alex says, what will the narrative of this team be if four years of KOC still hasn't won a playoff game. Well, I mean, the word narrative always kind of rubs me the wrong way because I don't know what to do with it.

Like narrative, like is it a is it a narrative of like what the what people will feel about it or what people will be saying about it? Like I don't really know what to do with that word. But if they don't win playoff games this year, then no one is going to be saying that Kevin O'Connell or quasi Daffo Menta should be fired or that it was a mistake for hiring them or anything else like that. Because if they're in the playoffs with JJ McCarthy, that means a lot of things went right for JJ McCarthy.

But we have arrived at the point where you have to win as a head coach. You don't get five, six, seven years to start winning in the postseason. But you also could compare this to Denny Green. And I know didn't win a Super Bowl, but came really darn close to 1998 and was a great NFL coach. Denny Green didn't win playoff games for a while until he did. And that kind of goes for a lot of different quarterbacks and head coaches. And sometimes, I mean, Sean McVay 2017 was knocked out of the playoffs

after he kind of emerged on the scene as this great young coach with this team that he pulled out of nowhere. This year though, in my opinion though, yes, they need to win. They need to win playoff games, or it's going to be a huge disappointment. We can say in the same breath, it's going to be a huge disappointment without saying, well, then KOC can't win in the playoffs ever. But I'm sure that that will start. When you talk about narratives, okay.

That's how I think of narratives. When I think of that word, I think of like unfair overreactive type of statements that don't really cover anything except for like the surface level, the narrative in that way will definitely be the KOC can't win in the playoffs. I don't ever really think that's true about any coach or player. I don't think that there's something in their DNA that they came out of the womb not being able to win in the playoffs. I think a lot of it is matchup based.

The Vikings did not play at home after winning 14 games, which is what I, that's never happened before they faced the, and we went into it saying, this is the worst possible team that they could face. And it was every other team. If they faced Washington, if they faced Tampa Bay, it would have been, I think, a win for the Vikings. But they faced the one team that had the nastiest D line other than the Eagles. And then that D line crushed the Eagles the next week. Sometimes that's just how it goes.

Now the, the Giants loss is a disaster. To me last year, they didn't have the horses to beat that team. The Giants loss was a disaster because O'Connell made a huge mistake, not moving on from Ed Donatelle and keeping the same defense. That's true. But if they, if they don't win a playoff game this year, but this is the hard part. Like we are so far away from that. This is six months away, but if they don't win a playoff game this year, then you are going into the following season. I think with massive, massive pressure.

I think the pressure is already on and to circle back to where we started people like Colin Cowherd wanting to talk about this team. Welcome to relevancy. My friends. It's been a while. Welcome back. It's been a while. 2018.

Is that the last time? 2022 after midway through the season, last year after they beat the Falcons, little sections of time. This whole season leading up to the season. You're going to have every national reporter out in Minnesota trying to report on what J.J. McCarthy looks like. Yes, right. People can show up to practices and cover them and talk about what they look like as opposed to just going on scouting reports two years old. But anyway, If they don't win in the playoffs, then that pressure that's already here now that gets turned up big time and you do start looking at KOC and Quacey and saying, all right, this has to happen. happen. Uh, so yeah, I mean, I think that there is a lot of pressure. That's why I don't look at this season like, Oh, well, you know, as long as the

vibes are good, that was last season for me. I've, I've, I've moved on. The franchise has graduated to, Oh no, you're real, you're a real team and you deserve to be in that spotlight. You deserve to be the team that's having national hosts say idiotic things about you. I mean this is progress This is progress because look at look at the last few years What what was there to say for those hosts what moved the needle for those hosts now McCarthy does that means you matter Bradley says seems that Darnold was always hesitant to throw the short passes over the middle to Hawkinson

So he didn't get a lot of passes therefore McCarthy has a hesitant to throw the short passes over the middle to Hockinson so he didn't get a lot of passes. Therefore, McCarthy has a rifle arm for the short passes. Well, I think McCarthy has vision for it. What I see in the difference between them, and this goes to the cheat code conversation as well, is what I see with McCarthy is his vision for the field. The arm talent, I'm surprised we're even talking about it because I thought we established this last year that he had a good enough arm. But I don't think that Darnold ever had the best vision

for things that were in front of him. I think he was good at seeing down the field. I think he was really good at anticipation down the field. But when it came back to getting back to the underneath stuff, sometimes it just never got back there and he would just hold, hold, hold, and then try to scramble backwards. Whereas I think McCarthy is going to be much more willing to get rid of that ball

and throw it short. Let me take a sip of diet Dr. Pepper, we got some sponsors to tell you about. And I also have something to give away this evening. So hang on just a second. All right. So let's talk about sponsors first. We'll get back to your questions.

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Jim Suhan wrote about it in the newspaper. And I have two copies to give away to you guys. I have three total. One is for me because Lindsay is a great friend and this book is really great for kids. I would say probably age, maybe four to seven or eight would probably be in the range. So look, here's what we'll do. If you want one of these two copies I'm giving away, shoot me an email with a Vikings question,

Matthew Coller at Gmail, put it on the screen. Along with there's how you sign up for the newsletter, but there's my email, Matthew collar edge email, shoot me a Vikings question and then tell me in the email that you're interested in the book. So you could just tell me like, Hey, I'm curious about Josh Mattel is contract and I'm interested in Lindsay's book for your kid. And also I think after taking a look at it, it would be really good for parents to understand their kids as well. So I got two copies to give

away. So be the first couple that send me an email there, matthewcollar at gmail and I will get you one of those. Oh and then I'll email you back, tell you that you won and then we'll get an address from you and I'll send it out. So there you go. And I'm proud of her. She's a great friend. She's worked for the Vikings for a long time. So I know how hard it is to write a book also. Okay, let's get in a couple more here and we'll go from there.

Dusty says narrative is hard in today's world of sports. Journalism has been substituted for hot take artists and debate shows. Yeah. I mean, I think when you look around the NFL, so I, I, I go to all these things. I go to the owners meetings. I go to the combine. I've been to radio row at the super bowl where all the NFL reporters are. And there are dozens and dozens like myself,

Kramer, Gassling, Seifer. There are every team has a group, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller of people who are trying to cover the team in the most honest way they can. They're trying to get information for the fans, fun conversations. Sometimes it's getting caught up in the hype or something like that of big moments and being there and telling people what it was like to be inside the Superdome for a playoff win or at the Minneapolis miracle or something like that, right? And that's what gets us all excited about doing this job.

And so we show up every day to these facilities at 32 different places and we gather information for people like you guys that love every single detail. And it takes a certain type of viewer and listener to want every type of detail. So we're perfect for each other, my audience and me. Like I love diving deep into cap hits and diving deep into who wide receiver five is on this franchise. I've always loved that. And you love that. And that's what we do. But when you're on these bigger platforms that are trying to reach millions of people,

there's a lot of casual sports fans in the world that they're trying to reach with kind of the simplest form of this conversation. And there's nothing wrong with that. I just think when you're talking about the team that I cover and you got details wrong, it's part of my job to also say, Hey, JJ McCarthy didn't throw three interceptions in three practices when there are only two. And also how do you know what his arm looks like?

Why didn't you ask me? And that's what I think that where it does get lazy in some ways is that there's a lot of people who go on TV and have huge platforms that say things me. And that's what I think that where it does get lazy in some ways is that there's a lot of people who go on TV and have huge platforms that say things about players and teams without even asking anybody who's there just because they know it's a hot take or it's going to move the needle or whatever. So it's like, I'm never going to get along really with those people because they do a very different job than me.

It's something that doesn't really interest me of being that person that's really with those people because they do a very different job than me. It's something that doesn't really interest me of being that person that's trying to kind of bring it down to the most possible people. I prefer to be in the mud with you guys looking at every single neck roll that every full back is wearing. And that's why this works for me and I'm happy doing this and I've never wanted to do anything else otherwise I would have quit this a long time ago. Uh, so I get it.

I get it. But those people have the biggest blow horns and I do feel like you have some responsibility to at least be accurate and at least be genuine. And that's what's missing sometimes from the conversation. If you're going back to some random person scouting report on a quarterback from two years ago Versus all the information about right now and what's happening from people that are there on the ground seeing it That's not being very genuine, I don't think Sean says TJ Hocketson missed the first seven games of the season and took a few games to get up to speed

So over half the season was over. Uh, and he continues that comment. Where's the rest of the comment, Sean? Okay. There's the rest of the comment. Uh, one of his best attributes is his speed. He's quick off the snap and can separate giving the QB a target. Yeah.

I think quickness, but also intelligence. separate giving the QB a target. Yeah. I think quickness, but also intelligence. That's, that's what I think is that he really understands space. He understands defenses. He sees the game really, really well and can get into spaces where the quarterback is going to be able to find him. But to your point, that's why I'm not really doing much to judge TJ Hawkinson's last season because I thought he was fine I also thought that he had to ramp back up after missing a big part of the season and that is hard to do Even Delvin cook. I mean not everybody's Adrian Peterson Delvin cook came off of the ACL and had other injuries and

struggled in 2018 at times. A lot of players do coming off ACL injuries. And I didn't think that he struggled, but the burst was not the same. And the conditioning goes on over the entire year. So you're trying to get conditioned up to the point where you can play 60, 70 snaps. I mean, it's hard to do in the middle of the season. Um, so these aren't excuses because I, cause I thought he was OK, but I do think we're going to see the best version of Hockinson this year.

Dusty says, you all see that the Steelers are looking at Jair Alexander. Well, why not? I mean, the Steelers are a team that should be desperately trying to look at everything and anything they can now that they have Aaron Rogers, just doesn't feel like to me right now that the Vikings are going to do that, that they're going to do that or Jalen Ramsey. I think they're going to let it play out and then they're going to see. And I know this for a fact, an absolute 100% fact that the Vikings care a lot about the human beings that they bring in to the building. And they know that culture is delicate and it's only as good as the people you have.

KOC can ra-ra all he wants, but if you have one guy that can poison the whole well, then you might not want that guy. And I don't know Alexander or Ramsey because I haven't covered either one of them, but they both have reputations in that way. And if it's a delicate situation that looks really, really good right now with the team gelling really well and you bring in somebody that doesn't, it can be problematic. And any of you who have ever had a job would know that if you got a good media room or if you have a good even just section of where you work

inside of, I used to work at a grocery store. So we would have, I was a cart guy and I was a stock guy and we would have a crew. And if we hired somebody that didn't fit, I mean, it was a problem. And so even on any level where there are people in an environment, it matters. They care about this, I think, more than almost any other team in the league. They think deeply about if you're bringing in somebody, make sure it's John Grenard, make sure it's Aaron Jones, like make sure it's guys that have this A plus Blake Cashman, A plus reputation that you're bringing in and not guys who could

upset the apple cart. So they will think about that when it comes to Alexander and Ramsey. I don't feel like it's imminent for either one of those guys to be here. Maybe we'll see if it plays out through the summer if Ramsey gets cut and not signed right away or I don't know. Or maybe Stefan Gilmore will be back or maybe none of them will cause they'll

love what it looks like. I think they really want to see it in action because. Blackman was so good for them or showed a lot of signs of being good for them in 2023. Didn't play a million snaps, but was good when he did. And they love Rogers. They really, really, really like what they see for Isaiah Rogers. Byron Murphy. They've spent the money on him to show how they feel about him. Really for me is if you take one of those guys, let's say it's Blackman and you bump him down on the depth chart.

And then all of a sudden you're talking about Ramsey and Rogers along with Murphy. And if someone gets hurt, which they often do, your next man up is really good or just even rotate a 30 year old corner. That's really good. That's, that's how I look at it is the upside is that instead of kind of walking this thin line of kind of hoping Jeff Okuda is something which they've praised and they've liked him or hoping that Dwight McClothern is something instead you just have excellence in Jalen Ramsey. Jair Alexander is a little more dicey to me. But so I'll continue to bang the drum for that. I just don't get the feeling that it's something that's going to happen. Alex says, Have you been able to glean anything from Javon

Hargrave and Jonathan Allen in camp? Or is it fairly hard to judge with no contact? I mean, I know what those guys look like as players. Because of the sample size they have, I think what we're going to see here is something that I've kind of rolled my eyes about in the past. Cause every once in a while, someone will say, well, I prefer a three, four or a four, three. And my answer for years was, well, look,

I think this started to change about 2016. I was like, what base is nickel now? Like just there's three corners all the time. That's a base defense now. There's not the three, four anymore. Well, I think there might be. I mean, I honestly think that Alan Hargrave and Phillips might be a three, four looking defense where you have the two edge rushers kind of hanging over like they do like Kevin Green and Greg Lloyd or something or Ricky Jackson back in the day. And then these three guys in the middle for a lot of these downs and then your

two linebackers in the middle, I think they're going to have that in the bag and otherwise probably rotation. But I mean these, yeah, we you can't tell anything at mini camp cause there is no contact, but these guys are really talented players. Like I haven't even looked for them out there because we're really just watching. I mean, O'Connell has called it a passing camp. It's true.

We're just watching JJ McCarthy the whole time and receivers and corners. And that's really it for mini camp. Brad says, any good news on our backup linebacker, Eric Wilson? The only good news on Eric Wilson is Eric Wilson. Like he's back. And I think that is a really good sign for the Vikings depth.

Last year, the depth was not very good. Kamu Grigé-Hill tried his best and made a couple plays, but it was not somebody that he could be out on the field for very long without getting exposed. And he did. And that's why he ended up not playing a whole heck of a lot. Eric Wilson could play every down if you need him. be out on the field for very long without getting exposed. And he did. And that's why he ended up not playing a whole heck of a lot. Eric Wilson could play every down if you need him. And the other thing is too,

and this is like a classic football thing, but the other day, Eric Wilson is last guy off the field and is working with young players, trying to help them with some special team stuff. Like he is, I think a person that a lot of people really like in this organization from when he was here before. He is going to do anything that it takes for

them. And I think they could even have sort of a mix and match type of role for him where he rotates in a little bit. I think that's what he could do. So I'm, I'm, I'm big on that signing. I am big on that sign. Plus, you know that pace and Cashman will get banged up at times. Alex says, when are the podcasts on the porch coming? When the weather gets nice, man. What the heck? I have been so disappointed with this lack of summer recently, but the porch podcasts are coming. We've already got Dane Will and Dave Campbell from the Associated Press are all already, they're already in. I've asked all of them, PorchPod, because this is the PorchPod time of year.

And we'll get Ben Gessling over to, that's what I'm aiming for. I'm aiming for four PorchPod casts by the time we get to training camp. Dusty says, missed the beginning of this. I assume Mattel's comments were touched on. Talk about high character, even in a contract situation. No wonder he's a captain. Well, first of all, Dusty, let's not be missing any other minutes of the show.

Okay. No, I'm kidding. But well, that, and that's part of the reason that I think Mattel is, will get this worked out and it'll be fine because, and it's going to take a little work and it's going to take some effort, but he is a really important part of this locker and we're talking about how delicate it is.

He's a major, major part of it. A captain, a dynamic player, somebody that everybody rallies around, but he's also really, really smart. And that's, that's what I have to give credit. And it shouldn't be surprising. You know, quasi-adaphal Mensa is the guy who went to what, uh, Princeton and, uh, did he go to Stanford or something too? I don't know, but like the Ivy league guy looking for intelligent players and KOC, who is dad's background is in something like the FBI or whatever. They, I think have, and Brian Flores is a really, really super sharp guy. I think they have a great idea of who to latch onto that has the intelligence.

And even if there's physical traits that aren't perfect or something, guys can elevate past that with toughness and intelligence. And you can always say you want intelligent players. No person's ever going to be like, you know what I want? Really dummies clueless fools. That's what I really want. You know, but instead I think it's really about, can you actually identify them? Can you actually identify who is the intelligent players and which type of IQ is applicable? Josh Mattel is

is a great example of he's really smart in real life, but he's also really smart in football as well, and he's crazy enough to be able to play linebacker at 205 or 210 pounds. He's a rare a rare person that you run into in this League. There's just not a lot of Josh Mattel is so they're not going to let him go. A hydratiq set of metal band name. Sounds cool. Any chance to see Ingram Dawkins? I know Coleman is high on Brett Coleman. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, not actually in a way that I could tell if he's good at football or not,

but what I can tell you is that he's out there and he's mixing in quite a bit when the first team is playing on offense and they're mixing and matching, which just tells me that he must be doing something behind the scenes to earn that. That he's not earning it by wrecking people or something in practice, but from in the meetings, is he getting it? Is he coming along? Like that's the type of stuff they can really figure out. And then they're looking for micro technical stuff. Like is somebody playing something the right way in a walkthrough, but in the walkthrough they start out and they kind of like do a little bit and you can get a

sense for, okay, are you in the right spot in this walkthrough? Are you in the right spot in the seven on seven? Are you doing this drill properly? Because this sport is so detailed that if you go left, when the play is right, you might give up a 50 yard touchdown. So you got to know everything. You got to know all the details and almost nobody is freakish enough not to. So that's another player. I mean, we spent a couple of minutes talking to Ingram Dawkins.

You're like they did it again. They found another really smart guy. So we'll see how he develops from there. Wicked Storm about to hit Bloomington. Well, that's kind of close to me. I don't want that. Why what is the deal? It has been like just sort of like spring just won't let go.

Very irritating. As a golfer, am I right? Very annoying. Sean says, I wonder if they are more willing to ride with the cornerback room for now, maybe make a trade later or deadline edition. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right.

For now, they're going to let this play out and then decide. And that's okay. They can do that. I would prefer when you get a chance to get a Jalen Ramsey that you get them. Because when the Rams were pushing the gas pedal down, and I know they were more like an all in one year as opposed to two or three,

but Ramsey is under contract for a couple of seasons. But they went out and got Jalen Ramsey, and they went out and got Vaughn Miller, and sometimes you just have to do those things. And I know that then later on, you might go, Oh, we could have used that whatever draft pick or all this cap space is problematic or something. But with someone that good, and with a defense this talented and an offense, this talented and coaching this good,

to me the juice is worth the squeeze to add one more to add one more guy. Somebody was asking me in the Friday mailbag at purple insider dot football. They were asking me about like if I would change the win total because I mentioned the other day that I'm changing my wins for the Vikings and we're going to do this on the porch at some point, we're going to pick every game again after mini camp and before camp from 10 to 11 that I've got him as an 11 win football team right now after I've seen McCarthy look good and competent and strong and

all that and healthy. And they said, well, would you move it up to 12? If they got Ramsey, my answer is no, but my confidence in my pick would be higher. My confidence in 11 games right now is call it like 60% confident. I'm like, I'm, I think that's probably what they can do. If they got Ramsey, I'd go up to like 75 confidence because my, one of my concerns is just what's this secondary really going to look like when it gets out there. And they play so many good receivers. They play so many good quarterbacks that if there's a single weakness, it's going to be an issue. Uh, so I would be more confident. I still think that Blackman and Rogers and Murphy can be good and they could be

better than what they were last year with Griffin and Gilmore. It's just Ramsey's the type of guy that makes that very solid, very predictable. He's been on the field every year. He's put up great numbers every year. Like that's somebody that you know what you're gonna get from. Sean says, when does our shared practices happen? That's what I'm looking forward to. See how our O-line holds up DT's look in corners.

So one of them is locked in and is official and that's with the Patriots. And that's right before the game where they play the Patriots in the preseason. The Rams talked about it and had mentioned it at the owners meetings. I think publicly that they wanted a joint practice with the Vikings. I have not seen an announcement about that yet, but I'm thinking that they want to have two joint practices.

Um, this year. And you're right. That's what's really gonna tell a lot of stories. That's gonna tell a story about the corners. That's gonna tell a story about the interior D-line because those really, those go hard. Those are very serious. And last year, look, last year,

it didn't tell the whole story because the offense struggled against the Browns defense. At the end of the day, the Browns didn't have a special defense and the Vikings had an awesome offense. So, you know, at the end of the day, but the issue was still offensive line and interior line and they created pressure and Darnold under pressure eventually kind of snapped in some of those practices. But we did learn last year in the joint practices how good the Vikings defense was going

to be. So we do learn a lot from those. I'm curious. I'm going to have my friend Chad Graf who covers the Patriots come on the show soon and we'll do like Drake May versus JJ McCarthy and that kind of thing. Seldom seen says, are we worried all about the run defense taking a step back with all this new pass rush Bullards gone? Yeah, I think so. I am. I am. I think that they have really good tacklers behind the d-line. So that helps cashman. Ivan pace is an elite run defender

Among safeties if you call him that Josh Mattelis is an elite run defender Harrison Smith can still do the job I think Rodgers is actually for a guy who's not that huge has been good as a tackler Blackman when he was coming out it was a main thing for them that they loved his tackling. So they have a lot behind it and Harrison Phillips can still do the job. But I do think that it is a bit of a concern that that's not going to be the same as it was last year. If you're asking me about give and take though, I would take a little bit back against the run to get a lot more against the pass. But is it, is it a concern? I think so. When you talk

about the teams that they're going to play Ben Johnson's offense right off the bat and then Atlanta can run the ball extremely well. They have a good run blocking offensive line. They have a good run block or a running system. Bijon Robinson. So you get a couple of guys right off the bat and then you got to play Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington with the running quarterback. So it's something that is going to be really hard to figure out in training camp or something like that

because the runs, the handoffs in training camp, they take the first couple steps, nobody hits them, they move on.. We're going to have to basically find out in the season if they don't like what they have behind this group to rotate in, then I don't know. Maybe Jonathan Bullard ends up coming back. We've seen stuff like that happen in the past. So there you have it folks. The entire full complete breakdown of mini camp. I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly did. We had a lot of good conversations. And if you missed any of those podcasts from TCO

Performance Center with Dane Mizzittani or with Alec Lewis, make sure you go check those out as well. Those are fun, in-depth conversations about what McCarthy looked like and a lot of other subjects. So, but you guys are great and we're gonna continue to do Monday and Thursday live shows. And I'm open for ideas for whatever else you guys are thinking for the next few weeks. I think there's a lot of opportunity to have some fun, to have some themes.

I was thinking about breaking down the divisions that the Vikings are gonna be playing, like going in depth in the NFC East, like getting a lot of stats, off season moves, matchups even, stuff like that. You know, we're always into doing a little history stuff on this show, so we can have some fun getting ready. And then we'll do hardcore position by position,

camp previews, what we're looking for, all that sort of stuff. It's a long time, it feels like, a till camp and yet it's also right around the corner. But I know you guys will be here because it seems like Vikings fans are super pumped for the season. So I will be here for you as well. And if there's any breaking news, this is where I'll be. So thank you all so much for watching. Make sure you check out the newsletter.

Got some really cool stuff coming over the next couple of days and next week purple insider football and Make sure you like and subscribe just went over 12,500 subscribers, which is I'm really really happy about and Feel so blessed to have you guys as the purple insider community. So thank you guys so much and we'll talk to y'all very soon football