Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Everything we learned from Day 1 of Vikings training camp

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Matthew Coller empties the notebook on what we saw from Day 1 of Vikings camp, including the depth chart and observations about players. How Jordan Addison was used, what we heard from Trishton Jackson, where Lewis Cine was playing and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, and I'm going to throw a comment on the screen right away here on YouTube from Sloth. We are so back. That is true. We are so back. Minnesota Vikings training camp day one, right here in my notes app. You can't really see it on the stream, but I have all of my notes from today, from day one. We get our first look at what is the Vikings beginning depth chart.

It has plenty of opportunity to change. We also heard from Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, Brian Flores. I talked after practice to Tristan Jackson as well, who had a really good opening practice. So there is a lot to discuss here right off the bat. So if you want to jump in the comments with any of your questions or your takes and so forth, or things that you want to know what I saw out there today or reactions to anything else, feel free to do so. Love to make this a really fun chat and appreciate you Chris for saying that the studio is looking good and I feel the same way I'm thinking about adding a couple of things to it

here there I was experimenting with the idea of putting some football cards in between the pictures that are behind me or maybe some I don't know little lights or something to make it look a little more official. I don't know, but I am loving being in an actual kind of studio space, not in an empty room and having my audio echo and all those things. So that makes me feel good that you said that, but, you know, I'll tell you a little quick story about training camp, just, just to let everybody know that yes, we are officially back. So I was talking to Tristan Jackson and had a good conversation. That's going to be an article that's up tomorrow. So we're having a discussion and I was going through the audio when I got home

to transcribe it. Cause that's how it works. Do your interviews, come home, transcribe it, write it as an article. And I'm'm listen I keep hearing this sound I keep hearing thunk thunk like like every every five seconds what is it and I'm like what is that typing through the article what is that what is that noise and then it hit me and then I realized it was the jugs machine the beautiful sound of the jugs machine in the background of my audio that's how we know that vikings training camp is back so i i want to run down some of the notes that i took from today about the depth charge is what we saw i i think today's not really a day to discuss too many plays because it was a short practice i mean first of all it's like 95 degrees out there. They're not in pads yet.

And so we'll kind of figure that out as we go along. Jordan Addison had a nice catch. Tristan Jackson had probably the best catch of the day. But aside from that, I mean, it wasn't really a day to start analyzing. How did this guy look? How did that guy look? Because it was such a short practice. But of course, the depth chart in itself tells us quite a bit so first of all uh daniel hunter was not doing anything we totally expected that he was not present anywhere

i looked around for him and i didn't see him he's hard to miss because he's enormous but i didn't see him in the weight room didn't see him out there doing any stretching or anything. So he is there. Allegedly we were told, but no evidence that he's there. I don't, I don't know what he drives. The player's parking lot is on the other side of the media parking lot. So it'd be weird if I went driving by their parking lot to, you know, like, is he there? I don't think they would like that very much or he would. So I'll have to take their word for it and assume that he is

somewhere in the building and he is working on just getting the defense down if this is the defense he's going to play on it's a little weird but he wasn't there brian o'neill initially the vikings talked about o'neill being ready for the start of camp and he was not on the pup list, physically unable to perform. So he must be fairly close, but he was not practicing today. He was doing some drills on the side, working on where kind of the injured players work, although he was really the only one today, but just doing work off to the side. So only Udo was the one that was playing with the first team. Um, just some kind of things that stuck out. Uh, the one that was playing with the first team. Just some kind of things that stuck out. Jawan Williams was playing with the first team.

And I think some of you might be like, who won Williams? What? But yeah, he's a guy who was a second round draft pick a few years back out of Vanderbilt and has a Belichick connection because it was New England that drafted him. But he didn't play a whole heck of a lot his first couple years. Really rarely saw time. And then was injured last year. But seems like an intriguing Brian Flores project.

Now in minicamp, I didn't notice him taking too many first team reps. But as of today, he was out there with the starting corners. With Byron Murphy and Caleb Evans. And Andrew Booth Jr. and Makai Blackman were with the second team. So it was not either one of those guys. I was surprised by that. I actually thought that there would be more mixing and matching. Again, this is day one.

So I just want to put a qualifier on everything and say it's only day one. This could have been for whatever reason, but certainly sticks out when it's a veteran that they signed that we didn't really make a big deal of that signing when they picked up Jawan Williams kind of, Oh, okay. I guess he's here. And yet he was with the first team. So right away, that's going to be something to watch. Also, it just feels like from OTAs to minicamp to now that they like a Caleb Evans and that I wouldn't say locked into that spot, but he's in that spot as of right now. And then Byron Murphy, he's going to be a guy who's going to play in the nickel. He's going to be on the inside in the nickel package.

And then on the outside, when they go to the base, that's kind of how things looked. We did wonder if it would be Troy reader or anybody else along with Jordan Hicks at linebacker. It was not, it was Brian Asamoah the whole time. That's a good sign. Reader was mixing in, uh, in mini camp, if not taking maybe even more reps in mini camp, but from the start of training camp, which is obviously what matters more. Brian Asamoah there with Jordan Hicks. I don't expect that to change at any point. Cam Bynum at your safety position alongside with Harrison Smith, nothing different there for Lewis Seen. Harrison Smith did go down for a moment after a really

nice catch by TJ Hawkinson and Lewis scene took maybe two or three reps. Uh, I don't think it was anything serious with Harrison Smith. He just seemed to kind of fall hard. And then Lewis scene went in, uh, you don't want to push Harrison Smith on the first day. So, uh, but Lewis scene still very much safety. Number four, uh, Josh Metellus was doing the same sort of thing in those three safety sets from and he was also a big discussion point over the last two days brian florist talked about how football iq plays in and sort of players who can understand the bigger concepts which really uh you know is josh metellus and harrison smith had a lot to say about him the other day as well. So it looks like as of right now,

Metellus is in, in that kind of package where there's three safeties and Brian floors actually uses that. Unlike in the past where we just kind of heard about it and, uh, can't buy them is the starter and has not been anything except the starter since really the beginning of last year's camp. So we'll see if that changes at any point.

They did use a Marcus Davenport inside and outside. Um, you know, I don't know how notable that is, but he was kind of in a wide nine position at one point. And then when they were doing some different things, kind of like passing situations or like a third down or something like that. And this again is day one, but he was kind of moving around. So I am interested to see if Brian Flores is going to move Marcus Davenport around to some different spots. And you can continue to drop your questions in guys, and I'll run down through them as I, after I go through the notes here. So feel free to think of questions, drop them in the comments, and then we can carry on after, you know, the rest of my notes. Cause I only got a couple more things. Jalen Naylor, uh, was really, uh, I guess if you had to

say who was absolutely wide receiver three, I would say Jalen Naylor for today. Addison did mix in, uh, at times a little later in the practice, but from the very start of the practice, it was Jalen Naylor. The thing with what they do with wide receivers is it's kind of like hockey line changes so kirk cousins works with a lot of different wide receivers under mike zimmer it worked like this a lot less it was really very rigid it was first team versus first team second team versus second team with kevin o'connell it's much more whoa okay uh Okay. Uh, this wide receiver, like Thayer Thomas is out there with Kirk. What's going on? Like there's a little more of every wide receiver getting some reps at least early on in camp. And that will probably change when we get

into those joint practices and things like that, but it's much harder to say for sure. Okay. This guy's wide receiver three, but notable that Jalen Naylor seemed to get more reps with KJ Osborne and with Justin Jefferson than Jordan Addison, at least from the start. Kenne Wongwu mixed in with the first team. I did not see Ty Chandler mix in with the first team. And this is another one where watching closely what Kenne Wongwu and and ty chandler are doing i thought i caught a duane mcbride first team rep but it only would have been like one uh it seems though as of this moment that it's alexander madison then kenny wongwu then ty chandler like one two three as of this moment and we'll see if that changes along the way so those are kind of some of the notes that

i have uh jordan addison and justin jefferson and tj hockinson the way. So those are kind of some of the notes that I have. Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson, the way I would put it, you know, they all talk today and none of them said anything that you would have not expected them to say. So Jordan Addison said once again, sorry for speeding that, you know, it was a mistake. He's not going to do it again. It's a legal matter. So he didn't want to talk too much more about that. Justin Jefferson talked about being here,

kind of making good on his promise to show up, but he really didn't have any leverage to not show up as far as his contract went. And TJ Hawkinson, there's been no noise whatsoever. And he was asked about Cole Komet signing a contract today. Who's definitely not as good as Jordan Addison, but he kind of said like, yep, good for him. Uh, or I'm sorry. Um, TJ Hawkinson, he's not as good as TJ Hawkinson. Really? It's the Evan Ingram deal that the Hawkinson is going to beat, but he is more in the ballpark of, uh, you know, the other guys who are more elite than even Evan Ingram. So like a Mark Andrews, George Kittle, Travis Kelsey, he kind of flies in a different air than a Cole commit.

So it doesn't really have an impact on him, but nobody said anything that made me go, wow. Oh my gosh. Uh, you know, this is a big headline right away and kind of the same with Brian Flores as well. Just talking about his philosophy everybody knows he wants to be aggressive and things like that so I wouldn't say that it was a huge quote day I did have a good discussion with Tristan Jackson after practice about how it's helped him to have come from the Rams and have a good understanding of the offense and being able to you know kind of get an edge from that last year. And right now, if I was making a 53, I think I would have Tristan Jackson winning a final spot. I think maybe keeping six wide receivers, one of them

being a punt returner, but last year, I think they regretted having Jalen Rager as the first guy up. If somebody got banged up, especially in that Indianapolis game where I think he ran a wrong route like twice and it costs them, uh, or almost, you know, cost them that game. I think they'd rather have someone who's more of a true wide receiver. And Jackson is in my mind ahead of pretty much everyone else, except for Jalen Naylor and obviously Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, and KJ Osborne. So that's the starting point. And we can talk about all the other things from there and all of your questions, but at least we got that kind of first look at what it was like. Oh,

I was going to mention as well that DJ Wanham was exclusively playing in place of Daniil Hunter. So if Daniil Hunter does not play for the Vikings this year, at least beginning point, but I kind of expect it to be this way, unless we see Patrick Jones, you know, jump up, uh, in the, you know, throughout the preseason or whatever, uh, that DJ Wanham and Marcus Davenport would be your edge rushers. That's not really very inspiring. So maybe they would go to the free agent market and look for somebody else. And I would say the same for the running back position. If they're not thrilled with what they see from Kenny Wong Wu and Ty Chandler, that's another one that could be a thing. So, all right, let's get into

your questions from Luke is Naylor as good as everyone is saying. Do you think we might not get a definitive receiver number three on the depth chart? Well, um, I don't know what everyone is saying about Jalen Naylor. Uh, apparently I guess people think he's good. Um, but yeah, I mean, so Jalen Naylor is experienced in the offense and that's going to matter early in training camp that he has done this last year. It's a complicated offense for receivers. And I kind of can't say that enough throughout the offseason because I had a good conversation

with Keenan McArdle about it. And he just he told me flat out, this is very difficult for wide receivers to get down all the details. And I asked Tristan Jackson, why is that? And he said, because you have to understand a lot of different alignments and you really have to play a big role in the running game if you're a wide receiver. And you remember that Robert Woods and Cooper Cup were big weapons for the Los Angeles Rams when Kevin O'Connell was out there winning the Superbowl with the Rams. So, you know, I could see that like that, that if you can't get those

roles down, that you're not going to be able to play as much. So Jalen Naylor understands the offense. He's coming back for year two. He's going to be ahead of Jordan Addison in that way because Addison has so much to learn right off the bat I do think he has potential I don't know about if there's wide receiver three potential uh at the beginning of the season maybe that he could be that instead of Jordan Addison I think they want Jordan Addison to win that job okay I don't think that I know that that they want him to win that job, but would I be totally shocked if Jalen Naylor played really well in training camp and ended up starting the season as wide receiver three with Addison mixing in? Of course not. I mean, I think that that's plausible, not ideal,

but certainly plausible. And could he develop into somebody who is some kind of a weapon for them? I mean, how could I deny it when looking at this team? of a weapon for them? I mean, what, how could I deny it when looking at this team? Of course it's possible. I mean, KJ Osborne's done it. Stefan digs, Adam Thielen. Uh, this organization has something for wide receivers, but I don't expect him to hold that job all season long. Uh, I would expect that, that he could by the end of training camp still be the guy that they trust more going into week one and mix in and out with Jordan Addison, going with just what Addison is comfortable with.

But Addison is the more gifted player, and they want him to be wide receiver two or three in this offense and not Jalen Naylor, but rather have Naylor be a depth player. So we'll see. I mean, I've liked what I've seen from Jalen Naylor be a depth player. So we'll see. I mean, I I've liked what I've seen from Jalen Naylor last year at times in training camp, when he got in games, he made plays right away and then mini camp OTAs, he was regularly making plays. So yeah, I mean, there could be some Naylor buzz, but I wouldn't overreact to the fact that he was ahead seemingly of Addison just on day one.

From James, how does Addison look in individual drills compared to Justin Jefferson? That's a hard one for me to really answer. I mean, individual drills. If you can watch individual drills and tell me which guy is better than another, in the NFL, you're good at it. Then you're really good at it. I mean, mostly individual drills. Uh, okay. Except for one-on-ones there was not one-on-ones today. You can watch one-on-ones, but if you're talking about running around cones and stuff like they were today, I don't, I don't know. Justin Jefferson is on a different planet from almost everybody. So I wasn't watching closely on when they were running around little sticks. I was actually standing near where linebackers and safeties were hitting a sled and then tackling a foam pad.

Why wouldn't I be right? So I wasn't watching a Jordan Addison and they have this thing. It's like a metal thing that they duck under and go like juke, juke, juke, or whatever. Again, if you can watch that stuff and figure out how good someone's going to be, then man, you're, you're great. But I can't, uh, I would just say that, you know, Jordan Addison moves really well. Uh, he's got tremendous quickness, uh, even the play that the Vikings put out there on Twitter, if you want to see it, where he kind of had to go in between a couple of defenders and that was on a seven on seven. So that's when you really can't overreact to, but you can just see the body control and we know he's got good hands. We know he's a talented player. That's not really what's going to determine whether he succeeds or not because he has the physical skills of a first round draft

pick, but it's really the details of the offense that are going to mean something. Let's see who was the main guys on the defensive line. So it was Davenport and Wanham on the edges. And I believe what Dean Lowry, Harrison Phillips, there was some Kyrus Tonga, you know, mixed in there a few different guys going in and out with the first team. And I imagine that's how it's going to be. But I think that if they were like the starting four, kinda, if it's a nickel package is probably that it's probably Harrison Phillips, Dean Lowry, Marcus Davenport, and DJ Wanham. If Daniel Hunter is not here and then you can figure why they would want Daniel Hunter to come back because that's not a very good starting defensive line. That's all kind of average starting NFL players and nobody above average. That's going

to scare other teams. That's why you would want Hunter, um, regardless of all the other stuff. And, you know, Brian, uh, Brian Flores talked about, you know, knowing his reputation, knowing how good Daniil Hunter is having spoken to him and everything else. And yeah, I mean, it's pretty straightforward. Uh, if you're Brian Flores, you're probably looking at this D line going, man, I hope we get something worked out with Daniel Hunter. Cause it's, uh, we were trying to figure out like how many sacks they would get if Flores didn't Blitz the whole year like 20 it's it wouldn't be many between this group so but that's how it looks to start uh how fast does Jordan Addison look compared to the others again we're talking about um no pads

or anything else this is this is where I'm really going to be able to figure it out because there is no pad speed. And then there's pad speed with no pad speed. Everybody's really fricking fast. I mean, no pad speed. Look out, look at their forties. I mean, it's all guys who run four, four, four, three, four, five. Like they're all blazing fast. Once they put the pads on and we start to see some physical play from the cornerbacks. See these padless practices. I would hate to be a corner. You just, you're just going to be on the wrong side of the highlight reel every time. So I don't know. I mean, Jordan Addison looks like a guy who was drafted in the first round and can run routes really well and has very quick feet and good body control and hands. And then we'll see about the rest.

And I think that I could probably give you more details on his actual play when, well, one, he didn't take a ton of first team reps. So that's one, but also his actual play. When we get into the padded practices, the ones that go instead of just kind of 90 minutes and a lot of individual drills like today, but the real hardcore two hour, you know, blood, sweat and tears practices where it's rep after rep after rep, then we get a real good look. And I think when they go up against other teams, that's where corners and receivers love it. So when they do those joint practices, I mean, those guys compete like crazy and you can really start to get a feeling on how good somebody is.

Let's see off topic. How do financial incentives work for the salary cap? That is a good question that I don't know how to answer, honestly, to tell you the truth. I mean, I don't know how they're built in. I would have to ask a salary cap expert to fully understand how incentives work as far as like cap hits. I think that there is a time when they all like get added in. So there's like the salary cap. And then at some point the incentives, if they're hit, they get added onto the cap after that. Uh, but that, that's like my very basic understanding, but you know, I'll have to ask somebody like Brad

Spielberger on that. If you want to tweet him, he's the, he is the cap expert, uh, from Josh, which player seemed the most likely to be sunburned at the end of the week you could tell at least as of today i did pretty well and avoiding a sunburn i went out there you know i got the little farmer's tan going already but i uh you know i lathered up pretty good wore a hat i had the oakley sunglasses on out there not the ones that are like super cool just kind of a regular pair that were nice, but they did get noticed. So which player, I mean, is James Lynch, not the most obvious one, red hair stuff out there. It's tough out there. Um, all right. From Justin

thoughts and guesses regarding who the starting three interior defensive linemen will be. Sounds like Tonga took a snaps with the first team. It did. Yes. I would say that it's going to be, if it's a base package, which means that there are three defensive linemen and two outside linebackers, which only gets played like 20% of the time. So they're usually in nickel, but if they are in the base package, I do believe Kyrus Tonga is going to

be that guy. And I was really impressed with him last year. When you look up the PFF grades that, you know, kind of matches up, um, from last year, but he actually got after the pass or some, which I don't know was the expectation when they signed him that, you know, I think that a lot of people thought, you know, this is just a big giant man who's going to stuff the middle or never play or whatever. But then he proved his way onto the field. And, you know, other guys like Jonathan Bullard, TJ Smith, Jaqueline Roy, like they're behind him, I think pretty clearly from seeing him get out there with the one. So I think that's what it's going to look like.

Dean Lowry, Kyrus Tonga, and Harrison Phillips across the middle. And that's a pretty good group for stuffing the run. Harrison Phillips, I think, is really good at it. Kyrus Tonga is good at it. And maybe Dean Lowry can get back to what he did two years ago. I did notice in his usage on PFF that Lowry was used a little different last year when he saw some of his numbers drop. So in terms of pass rushing, so maybe that played a role and maybe he'll get back to some of those

numbers this year, but that is not a rush the passer interior D line. That is a let's try to stuff the run interior defensive line, uh, from Hunter. Did they run a lot of two tight end sets with Josh Oliver? Not that I noticed. I think they started out early with a base package out there, but I think most of it was, uh, three wide receivers pretty much all the time. But this is, this is just so early. And I know that I'm excited and you're excited. So, because it's the first day of training camp, but they only probably ran like first team 15 plays or something out of, you know, out of the 11 on 11s and they ran seven on seven and stuff like that. still big, still extremely big, but it will take a little while till we get a feel like,

Oh, they're running a lot of this too tight end stuff. Or now Josh Oliver's just going in with the twos all the time. That's going to take a little while for us to figure out. I would suspect that Josh Oliver is used still sparingly. Uh, I don't know that he's going to be this huge part of the offense where they're playing two tight ends all the time. If I had to guess, I'd say he plays like 20% of snaps. That's as of right now, but also, you know, last year they had a tight end get hurt in Irv Smith Jr. in training camp. And then it was Zach Davidson is like, what do we do? And Johnny Muntz, what do we do? And Johnny months, what do we do? You know, part of it is that position does get banged up a lot.

So if TJ Hawkinson gets banged up, then yeah, you know, you'll see Josh Oliver is depth, but I think he's going to be kind of a counterpunch, a change up, but not their fastball would be my guess. We will see. Luke says that Twitter was full of people praising Naylor after today's training camp. Okay. Um, I mean, there's only a handful of us out there today. Fans aren't out there today. So, I mean, I, I, I guess I, maybe there were some reporters saying he had a good practice. He was out there, but I don't know. Um, I mean, I didn't see

anything specific that made me go, Whoa, Jalen Naylor, what a day for him. Uh, but I mean, yeah, I mean, he's been making plays since OTAs. And I think that, um, in fact, Keenan McArdle told me when I sat down with him in miniicamp that he has kind of a plan for some guys that he had a plan for KJ Osborne and to get him going in OTAs and minicamp and get him, you know, confident and have them out there in a lot of situations to make plays. And, uh, you know, Naylor might be the same thing where he's intentionally going out of his way to give Naylor a lot of opportunities to succeed here because if they have another guy other than just Jordan Addison, another player to be depth,

another rotational player for wide receiver sets, if they need it to go completely empty here because they don't have to have Delvin cook on the field at all times like before. So if, you know, they can develop another guy and you saw it last year he does have a unique skill for going deep and i don't think his 40 is really reflective of his speed so yeah i could see jaylen nailer emerging but um and sloth says ideally nailer plays well enough to say thank you and good luck to osborne next March, which may just happen regardless, because if you're KJ Osborne, they just drafted another first rounder. So your feeling is probably, well, that means that I'm going to hit free agency. Also look what receivers get

in free agency. If you were KJ Osborne, you'd be thinking free agency as well. Duke to God says we seem to be bringing in a lot of guys on the interior offensive line. Yeah, they signed Bobby Evans as well. What are your thoughts on the O-line coach? It's the key to success this season. Yeah. Chris Cooper, the players responded really well to Chris Cooper. I know that. And they did improve as an offensive line last year overall in their PFF rankings and other people have different rankings, but all of them had them as a better offensive line last year than in 2021 Garrett Bradbury playing significantly better Cooper being a former offensive lineman. Maybe there's something there. Maybe it's just

the fact that they had two of the best tackles in the world. You are right though, when it comes to the offensive line coach is a big deal. And I don't know yet on Chris Cooper. I mean, sometimes it's really hard to say like in the walls, it's a big deal. How can I know is really judging on what they say and the performance and the development. But even then it's hard to pin development on somebody. I do think that the best offensive line coaches though do develop players extremely well. So we saw improvement from one last year in Garrett Bradbury. We need to see improvement from two more Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram. And if you get to that point, you can get yourself in the top 10 as an offensive line because this team has the talent.

So I think that the way they responded to Chris Cooper last year was pretty good. And I want to see more to get a bigger sample size. But if there's one position coach that I would say this guy makes a tangible impact where if you were to say, lose him, that's the offensive line. I think you saw that with, um, new England had the same offensive line coach for a really long time. Uh, there's a few more famous ones. Bill Callahan has been around. He's a guy that everywhere he went, his offensive lines improved. So Cooper is a relatively new to this job. And I really want to see the year one to year two. The thing about training camp is, uh, I think we can get hints. I think we can get

signs, but early is tough because remember last year, I mean, this should be a lesson for all of us about trying to analyze offensive linemen last year, Garrett Bradbury was getting bowled over early in training camp and some one-on-ones, and all of us started talking about it, including Kevin O'Connell. If you remember, O'Connell was kind of like, yeah, that job's not set. There's a competition there. And I think Chris Reed got hurt and ended that competition. And then Bradbury had his best year.

So sometimes with offensive linemen, maybe we focus on one or two reps where they got beat or something like that. But also there were signs in the preseason games that Ed Ingram had that tendency to just get beat quickly. So how much do we take seriously? How much not? I think it's sort of like a proceed with caution when analyzing offensive linemen. But you are correct to say Chris Cooper is a big swing man

here. The best offensive line coaches develop young players. He's got young players to work with. So they should show improvement. From Justin sounds like Ivan Pace Jr. was taking snaps with the second team. Surprised to see an undrafted player getting second team reps already i was not shocked to see that he is small he is definitely small i talk about being wowed by uh joe wan williams and uh josh oliver being big on the opposite side like whoa uh ivan pace looks like a running back and not necessarily a linebacker, but he does, he does move well. I mean, you can see, uh, just the, I mean, again, no pads, I'm just going to put that

qualifier on everything, but you can see that sort of put your foot in the ground quickness and go from Ivan pace. And I think it's a good sign for him, for him just understanding the defense, because that's who they're going to put out there. Even on the second team, it's not a huge surprise when you look at the depth chart though, because the depth chart at linebacker is, you know, Troy die, Troy reader, William Quinku, Wilson Huber, who is actually a teammate of Ivan pace and Abraham bow plan. So is it a big shock? No, because I think this was a guy that they really liked as an undrafted free agent. But I think it's a good sign for them because they think that they got somebody that could

be kind of a steal that the rest of the NFL overlooked because he was small. So I think it is an interesting thing worth noting. And I'm glad that you pointed that out. Some reporters probably pointed that out. I didn't write that in my notes or maybe I did, but I, I should have mentioned it if I didn't, that he was there playing with the second team and something to watch for sure is just how he develops into that role. Like, could he be a special team or right away become sort of an Eric Wilson type? I think that's altogether possible. And

hey, every once in a while, an undersized linebacker, a London Fletcher, so forth emerges. I don't have that high of expectations, but it does catch your eye when an undrafted free agent is with the second team. Yeah, I agree with that. For Matthew, does the offense seem like they're more acclimated to the system now in year two everyone's talking that way yeah and i think that stands to reason does that mean it's going to be better no because circumstances change so it might be the same it might be better it might have injuries it might be worse but uh yes i think that last year there was a lot of sort of, uh, what I say, robotic maybe, or like kind of tentative. Am I doing the right thing? Am I running the right route? There were a lot of reps where

Kirk cousins and Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen were kind of looking at each other. Like, was that, was that you, was that me? Was I supposed to go there? And that kind of thing, as they all were figuring it out together now. And this is where, you know, someone like Jalen Naylor does have an advantage. Now they understand all the details for the top three guys and, uh, the other ones who are returning like Tristan Jackson. We'll see if Jalen Rager gets a legitimate chance. Brandon Powell understands how this offense works having come from Los Angeles, but I mean, first day, who knows, uh, as far as the ease throughout training camp, I would expect that though. And that's definitely the way that they've been talking is that,

yeah, like we're, we're a lot more comfortable in this offense and, uh, it makes sense. So, you know, I kinda, I would like to have like very concrete, you know, I kind of, I would like to have like very concrete, you know, kind of like, this is what was happening today. But we're just gonna, you know, we're just gonna see how things emerge. What I like about today is it's the snapshot first impression. Okay, here's where the depth chart stands. And then now let's find out where it goes, uh, from pudding Tane. Um, hopefully that's, um, you know, uh, FCC approved name. Uh, we could, uh, actually be a better team with the worst record. Yeah, possible. Um, because of just the schedule when you, you know, our first place team, you could end up as a better

team with the worst record because you're playing more difficult, uh, you know, opponents and more difficult quarterbacks and so forth. I, I am when I watched the defense play, and this is total hindsight because we know how it played out. But even last year, when we were looking at the defensive training camp, there was some element of, so this is how they're going to play, huh? They're just going to sort of line it up and go, oh, okay. I guess I can buy it. I guess I could buy the theory. We gave a lot of benefit of the doubt last year because of Vic Fangio, because Ed Donatel worked with Vic Fangio. But when you watch this defense and how it operates,

and it was more intense today than it was mini camp or OTAs, there's just a lot happening. There's a lot of movement. There's a lot of players come to the line of scrimmage and then dropping back. And I just imagine as a quarterback, it's more difficult to identify. And Mike Zimmer liked to do a lot of that same stuff. And even just the defensive coordinator, we were talking about how the offensive line coach can have an impact. I think the defensive coordinator is the same way that the defensive coordinator can have a huge impact on what your defense does as long as he has enough talent. So can they get some of these guys to emerge like a Caleb Evans? Who's clearly

getting a big chance here, like Byron Murphy, who was an average player with Arizona, but can he take another step? He's still only 25. And if someone like Joanne Williams or if Mackay Blackman or if Andrew Booth jr, this is playing the numbers game, but it does look more aesthetically interesting and more like i'm used to from covering mike zimmer training camps of the defense uh moving around flying around to the ball and things like that um but they could yeah they could play better defensively and win fewer games because they just don't get the same luck that they did last year and so forth. That's definitely true. Uh, from Dustin, what's your favorite training camp practice tool, Judd jugs, helmets on sticks, et cetera. Anything else odd that you could think of? Uh, they have these sticks that look like javelins. I mean it like it's, it's fluorescent

and it's like six feet long. And if you threw it at somebody, you'd kill them and they stab it into the ground. And then guys like hop around them, make like quick movements around them. That's pretty good. I mean, a helmet on a stick is a bad idea. I don't like that at all. The helmet on a stick. I remember last year in one of the practices what i think the point is is to try to knock it out of somebody's hand so like they hold it in their hands and then you hit the

ball with the helmet on a stick but it's hot it's like why would you do that you could hurt somebody and and they they caught delvin the wrong way on his hand last year and he was like shaking his hand and that's a bad idea use something softer he's not gonna forget how to carry the ball i promise i think the same thing about tackle you got harrison smith slamming into a tackle dummy like i don't think he's gonna forget this uh hunter s assuming justin jefferson is still a good football player uh still good at football yes as far as i could tell first day but as far as i could tell you know it but as far as I could tell, you know, it, uh, I think that Jefferson being here fully participating without the contract and everything else. And the way that he has made aside from not coming to OTAs, no noise about it. He hasn't

been tweeting about it or Instagramming or X-ing or whatever LinkedIn posts. Uh, And when he's talked to the media both times, it's been very much, we're going to work that out. We're going to whatever, I'm here to play football and so forth. I think that he's handling everything the right way when you're up for an extension. And, you know, that's good for him. I think that it would be the wrong way to go about it to start saying things in public and everything else and becoming a distraction.

He was out there also, I mean, fully participating, running every route, everything else, not, you know, taking half the reps and then standing off to the side. So as expected from Justin Jefferson, just going about things in a way that I'm sure the team is very happy with. And then we'll see what happens in terms of the contract from Jim. Anyone ask about Louis scene still behind Metellus and Bynum? Yes. As far as I can tell. Yes. So there was a situation where he went in when Harrison Smith got a little

banged up and not too bad or anything serious, but just took a couple of plays off and scene did go in with the first team. And Metellus seems to have a specific role. Um, you know, so we've got the depth chart. Yes. And I imagine that if Bynum was to get hurt or Harrison Smith, that Metellus would probably start at safety because he's notably able to understand a lot of different roles, but it seems like he has his own specific kind of hybrid role. Or I, I talked about calling it like the Joker role or something where he's a third safety in a certain package. And, you know, again, where Brian Flores is doing things with a little mixing and matching, which most people do at defensive coordinator, just not really at Donatello. But as of this moment, yeah, as of day one,

I don't think anything has changed, uh, with Lewis scene. Any chance you think Mattel us ends up being the first team safety jumping past Bynum. I don't know about that. I, you know, I think that that is possible, but I'm not sure. I mean, when we talk about Josh Metellus being smart, I mean, Cam Bynum is as well. Bynum might have a little more quickness to his game as a former cornerback. I think at the moment, it looks like it's going to stay the way it's going to stay. And Bynum made a nice play in practice today. He just seems to be a guy who's really on top of his assignments and everything. So I think that they have kind of an idea for what they want everyone to be. Harrison Smith is going to be the Harrison Smith that you used to know,

not last year's weird version that didn't get to do anything. And then, you know, Cam Bynum is kind of that free safety that's going to be, you know, playing back a lot, probably of that free safety that's going to be, you know, playing back a lot, probably coming up to the line and then dropping back and playing deep a little bit more. And then in certain packages, certain situations, there's a plan to have Metellus out there. It looks to me like it's the sort of third down clear pass situations to have three safeties in one linebacker. And that's a new type of uh look

that i don't think that they used almost at all last year i could be wrong but i think that they were always having two linebackers or almost always having two linebackers on the field maybe a little bit mixing that in in sort of a dime package but zimmer never did that it was always two linebackers so kind of interesting there. I guess at this moment, I would be surprised. It seems like there is a specific idea that Flores has for that safety room. But I mean, Metellus, he's an emerging guy on this team and just seems to be sort of gaining momentum really from last year. And I was just going back and reviewing that cause I was going to write about it. And I mean, last year he played 78 plays in that debut and played extremely well. So, you know, we'll see from Chris Kirk is going to redo his deal to take a pay cut,

to help the team get better players at certain positions. Nope. Uh, and that has has that ship has just sailed. It has gone over the horizon and it is no longer visible. That's just not going to happen. No, not going to happen because his next contract, he's going to try to get the absolute most that he can get, as he always has, but he already actually did redo his deal in a restructure. So they did redo that. But as far as like an extension, that's going to lower his cap hit and so forth. That's not looking like it's going to happen. And I just don't think Kirk Cousins, because the thing is his restructure, he didn't take less money. They just move money around for him to lower the cap hit and push that dead cap into next season. So he did do that. Uh, but, um, there's, I don't think there's

anything more to be done here. If he signs another deal, it's going to be a huge deal and it's going to be long-term, but you know, Kirk, I've always looked at it with that, by the way, as it's not his responsibility to take a deal for less. It's the team's responsibility to not sign a quarterback like him to that much money is the way I've always looked at. I've never blamed Kirk just because Tom Brady did it. Justin Herbert didn't seem to take much of a pay cut, so I've never looked at it like that. Uh, are you sponsored by Oakley's like JJ? Here's the Oakley's right here. Uh, you could see how Justin Jefferson would look cooler in those than me. Uh, we were this summer that we had a couple of month deal over the summer with, uh, Oakley's and that was great because it resulted in me getting a pair of them and, or two pairs, which is awesome. So there are benefits sometimes to doing this. Uh, how's Ed Ingram looking bigger? Well, he's already big. That was not the problem.

Ed Ingram size was not an issue. It wasn't like a Brian O'Neill thing where he had to put on weight and Ingram, a big part of drafting him like off the bat was that he's pretty huge. How's he looking? Hmm. A handful of reps without pads on hard to say. I mean, it's hard to say for a whole summer when you're talking about a guard, but especially, uh, you know, just today and we'll see. I think that there's a big benefit though. When we talk about Ed Ingram to having this continuity think about this the last time the vikings went from one year to the next with the same guards a same five offensive linemen was 2012 to 2013 and that's wild that no two years have been the same starters from year to year for a decade and now they get to be um so you know ingram should be the beneficiary of that and if he's not then we kind of will have a sense like wow i mean you got to come back with all the

same guys no excuses same offensive line coach i i just feel like um you know he should make progress this year and it doesn't have to mean make progress to be the final version of himself. It just has to be progress. Cut the sack total in half and you are in really good shape. If you're at Ingram, uh, James wants to know the practice schedule the rest of the week. Oh, someone else asked about when they put pads on. I'm going to tell you the truth.

I'm not sure which day it is. Uh, it'll be, what do they usually have? Like three or four padded unpadded practices. And then we start popping the pads and people go to the podium and they're asked by reporters. Is it good to get the pads on there? Start making some physical contact football and the play. Oh yeah. Can't wait to do that. Um, so that's like a camp staple that that gets said people talk about uh players saying they're in the best shape of your life i don't know that i've actually even ever heard a player say that directly to me but the number of times players have been asked about pads popping and have to go up there and say oh yeah it'll be fun to get the pads pop

i mean that one that's a worse camp cliche. If we're ranking camp, camp cliches, uh, just like joint practices, it'll be pretty exciting to hit somebody else because what else can you say? I hate this. I mean, I think that's pretty good. So, uh, anyway, uh, let's see. Um, so, uh, from purple purgatory growing up near Detroit football was a non-starter moved to the twin cities in 2014 and watched salty grizzly grow growling Mike Zimmer in the press conference after the loss to Denver. And I was hooked. Okay. Very good.

Very good. Good to have you. Thanks for showing up. Uh, we got a little bit of a different situation with the press conferences now with Kevin O'Connell than we did with Mike Zimmer, that's for sure. And you know what? It is something to think about last year because the vibes are so good at the moment. And I think everyone's really interested in how this is all going to play out. But with Mike Zimmer, what a journey it was. And I think that even just Jordan Addison, his whole speeding incident, almost none of these

things happened last year. And you know me, I've covered this team long enough that it's in the back of my mind. Does Kevin O'Connell find out what it's really like to be a Vikings coach this year? I guess for his sake, we, we'll, we'll just say, I hope not because that goes along with some pretty wild stuff, but I'm sure if you were Mike Zimmer, you know how there's stories of like the former president leaving a note for the next president in the desk or whatever, like Mike Zimmer, if he was like this franchise, bro, you never know what's coming. Uh, so we see. Nothing so far other than that incident. From Steven, Nick Muse or Johnny Munt?

Yeah, I went with Nick Muse when I did my 53, but not confidently. Because, I mean, they must like Johnny Munt for a reason. He's still here. They had him last year. And I didn't think he was bad for a backup tight end. Thought it was fine that he did his job. But when they bring in another guy who does exactly what you do, I think it's on Nick Muse seventh round tight end to do some stuff, to show that he belongs more than the veteran. And then he'll win the job if he can't because they drafted him and he's got

some potential. He made some plays during OTAs in mini camp. That's, that's a, that's a little like low key mini battle to keep an eye on. I mean, you guys are good. You guys are good. You guys will go so far deep in the weeds and there are actual weeds out there. If you've seen any of my pictures, we stand behind them sometimes and you guys are in there like deep in the weeds, looking for possible angles. Um, is there a true kicking competition? I know how much you love those. I think kicking competitions are super funny because we all line up like reporters. Okay. You know, throughout the practice, we're strewn about, you know, this guy's over there, a couple of guys over there,

this piece of people over here, TV people over there. We're just kind of everybody's around. Then the kicking competition happens. Like everybody freeze kicking competition. Here it comes. Everybody write it down. This guy went two for three. Where's it from? There's somebody's yelling. Is it from 35 yards or 40 yards? Like, it's very funny. It's very silly, but, um, no, I don't think it's a real kicking competition, but they do have a kicker here. So, I mean, I guess it's not until it is, I might've said that to you last year about Ryan, right? I thought, well, I don't know. I think Jordan Barry's the punter. And then there's just sort of this other guy. And then, um, it turned out to be, there was a real kicking competition. So I'm excited for that.

I am actually excited for that. We'll see how it plays out. So what a fun first day. We're going to have a lot of stuff going through the week. Expect it at some point to have Matt Daniels on the podcast. So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you're also paying attention to the podcast feed because that will be just on the podcast feed only.

So make sure you pay attention to that specialty. I can ask that. I can ask him the special teams coordinator when I talk to him later in the week. So that'll be great. And, um, you know, we're going to have a lot of good, you know, other people popping in beat reporters, a couple outside guests as well. It'll be very exciting also i'm gonna have a um a fantasy um sponsor coming up in august and i have not played fantasy football in a long time

so we're gonna talk about that quite a bit when the fantasy sponsorship starts because i don't know what i'm doing so i'm gonna need some people to help me out. And speaking of that, got to remind you about Circa, which is in Las Vegas and also is where I'm going to be staying when it's Vikings and Raiders. But more importantly, at the moment, they have the biggest pro football contest. It's back in Las Vegas for its fifth year, 14 million in guaranteed prizes, only at Circus Sports. You have to enter in Las Vegas, but you can play from anywhere with two ways to win. No rake. Play the million pro football contest with quarterly payouts and 100% payback.

Pick a winner with the survivor contest. Select one team each week with no point spread. Get your share of $ million dollars in guaranteed prizes that's circus sports.com for details c-i-r-c-a circus sports.com for details uh so let's see eric says any chance of getting one of those st hats from coach no no no you got to be in the building i i nope gotta gotta be in the building gotta be, I, Nope. Gotta, gotta be in the building. Gotta be a player. Gotta be on special teams. I would never, I would never ask for one. It's kind of like how as a reporter, I have seen reporters before touch the Stanley cup. No way. Absolutely not. If the Stanley cup was near me, I would look at it, but I would not touch it. Only the people who are allowed to touch it.

It's the same thing with this. Only the people who are on special teams get the special teams hat. I would not accept it. Even if he said, hey, you want an ST? No way. Only the guys who have to run full speed at somebody and get slammed into on special teams. They're the ones who deserve the special teams hats. The other thing is when I did play by play for radio,

for a minor league baseball team, I always said that I wouldn't take the ring. Like if they, if they won the championship, I would just be like, nah, I don't want the ring. I think most play by play people do take the ring,

but that's, that to me is for the players, for the sales people that make it happen, that put the butts in seats and the sponsors, everything like who get the sponsorships and work like to make it all happen. The operations people, not a radio person. So I've always been,

I've always kind of had a standard when it comes to that. But it is, it is interesting though, that they have this special teams coach who I think is a rising star in coaching in general, in Matt Daniels and a lot of young players. So last year he benefited from having a lot of, um, you know, players that had had experience before when it came to special teams. And now I think he's going to have a lot of younger players and that will be an interesting

challenge. And I'll try to bring that up with him as well. So day one in the books, and I'm going to try to make this a regular thing as regular as we can here on the show, a lot of you tuning in. So that's kind of a sign to me that you like this as going over what we saw at camp, having nightly discussions on the feed. I like doing this a lot, love talking with you guys. So if you guys show up, I'll keep showing up here and doing nightly streams, uh, after training camp, cause, uh, I'm really loving it and excited to see how this all develops as we go forward.

So thanks again for another great stream tonight and we'll, we'll keep doing it, uh, as long as it has momentum. So really appreciate you guys. And we'll talk again soon. Thanks everybody.