Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Final Vikings draft takes and predictions before the NFL Draft (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Matthew Coller talks with Minnesota Vikings fans about their final takes before the NFL Draft begins. Fans share their predictions and opinions and Matthew reacts. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by Fandul. Nebenwerb, Sadiq, why can't any of you just be named Todd? Sadiq has been more and more intriguing. Lining up all over the place, creating mismatches is tantalizing. I like Sadiq because I could see it working on multiple levels. I could see it working as an underneath guy who turns every, like, think about, like, just a crossing route. Like what comes to your mind if I say like tight end crossing route? Probably like George Kittle coming across the middle, catch the ball, break a tackle,

get 14 yards on a third and six or something like that. You could see Sadiq doing that. But the other thing is the Vikings like to do this from time to time where they run somebody down the seam, tight end down the scene. And Hocketson's been good at it. Sadiq can go up and get it. There are multiple plays on his tape from last. year where it's a high pass and he's just going up and making a play it's a wide receiver type

catch it's just so athletic and then even you know you saw it last year with hockinson where they ran a little out route to t j hawkinson in a big moment against cleveland just pop him the football there's 11 12 yards um you can line them up all over the place that's true but i think he's a willing block or two i think he's a three down tight end i i've talked to people whether it's in the league or if it's, you know, just other draft analysts or whatever, the opinions on him are all over the place. Some people say, eh, you know, I just didn't see it in the same way as with prospect X, Y, Z, and others are like, no, he checks every single box and he's going to be the next star tight end.

So I guess that kind of goes for a lot of prospects. I'm seeing the upside in a KOC offense specifically. I think if you try to build an entire offense around a raw prospect tight end to play, this year, there would be some disappointment. But what if he is, so look back at Irv Smith in his first year, don't worry about what he became and everything else. Just think about like where we were projecting him to go before the injury and all that. And imagine him way faster and way stronger.

And that's what Kenyon Sadiq is. Like if you go compare their combines, Sadiq is way faster and stronger than Rav Smith. They use them as a slot wide receiver at times. they use them in bigger personnel at times. I could see them doing that this year and, you know, running more effectively too. Paul says, Jeremiah just mocked Colton Hood at 18. Colton Hood is a guy that I'm going to be honest. We have not talked about enough because of all the, we've picked apart, you know,

Jamad McCoy, Thineman, Sadiq, and I've probably talked about offensive tackles more than I have Colton Hood. but he has been one that recently has made his way into a lot of first round mocks way more than he did before. I like that pick. Colton Hood is from my understanding, from what I've read, top notch, work ethic, character, all that stuff to go along with excellent athleticism and a very physical nature. That's something that I think is really missing from the Vikings at the cornerback room is somebody who is just a pain for wide receivers.

Byron Murphy can make plays. Isaiah Rogers can make plays. But look what happened when they played Philly last year. They just got bullied by those guys. And I think if you bring in Colton Hood, that doesn't happen. I would give an A for a Colton Hood pick. I think it's probably a shortcoming of the show that I haven't named him a lot because most mocks and boards just didn't have him quite high enough.

And so I thought, all right, well, you know, if he's more of an early second or late first, then I won't target him necessarily for the Vikings. But now that Daniel Jeremiah is bringing it up, if he thinks that he's more of a mid first rounder, then absolutely. Because when I watched a little of him early in draft season, when the first name started to come out in the combine, he had a great combine. I was like, okay, who is this guy? Then the mok starts to trickle. Okay, everyone's seeing him a little past the Vikings. but if he goes there, that's your physical press if you need it, man to man if you need it, corner, who just adds a totally different phase to your defense.

I like it. I like it. Mama says I hear next year's draft is really strong, is that in general or quarterback position, it is in general overall. A lot of the draft analysts have said next year has many more of the projected star type players at the top. And by now you will know about that. Really where I think people can't tell 100% is the quarterback class.

Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're wrong. But it's weird because like last year, this was supposed to be a good quarterback class. And then every guy went down, which is a little bit unusual, actually. Like Drew Aller, Garrett Nussmeyer, every one of these guys that Lenora Sellers that people thought would be good. They all went down. and then the guy, what's his first name from Ole Miss, Chambliss, who played really, really well,

he decides to go back to college. So he might have been a second round draft pick or something, or if he was beloved in the draft process, maybe he's a late first. He decides to go back to college. But I think just in general, it's supposed to be a very good draft. Big Monase, take a safety in the first pick,

defensive tackle linebacker with the second. I'm less into safety than probably most people, but linebacker defensive tackle in the second I'm okay with. There are not that many defensive tackles in general that are exciting to me. Linebacker, though, yes, there are several who in the second round, Jacob Rodriguez does not get to them, I don't think. But Jake Golda from Cincinnati, the prototype Andrew Van Ginkle guy, Anthony Hill Jr., I just don't love that idea.

he is from Texas insane athlete you could totally see him turning into a freak but the instincts aren't there the production isn't there and I kind of think if you're that athletic and didn't produce then you concern me but there's there's a lot of second round linebackers that I think would be pretty good for the Vikings. Phenom imagine trying to draft every or track every trade rumor yeah well the website is called or draft rumor yeah the website is called trade rumors so I guess it's what they do. But I know, I mean, just even my entire Twitter feed is all just Schaefter says this is happening. Field Yates says that's happening. Breyer said, and I'm just like, we need to draft. We just

need to draft some people. And there's clearly some folks that are going to be very right. There's some folks that are going to be very wrong. And we'll try to take a look back at that on the show at some point. The Matt tracker says if there is an offensive tackle left at 18, the Vikings should probably just take him. I've been in that camp as well. If it's the guy that fits, I'm not so sold on Monroe Freeling. Kind of looks like a project to me.

The reason I bring up Fano so much is because it just is a perfect fit of someone who could play guard, but he's super athletic and just has a lot of Brian O'Neill to his game. you know how that's going to work. You know, Maui Noah apparently has a back issue that could cause him to drop, according to some people, but he's like a top 10 prospect, so I don't know if he drops that far. I think Fano is the one that I've got my eyes on. The other tackles, I'm a little less so, like Proctor, I'm just, that's not for me.

I saw him play enough this year. That's not for me. That's a big, big, giant guy who didn't really play that great football-wise and very, very big risk. But if it's, if it's Fano, I'm in. Big Monas or Moynes. The two tight ends who played in front of Sadiq, Oregon were so, so. Yeah, that's been part of the argument.

Yeah, that's been part of the argument. What was it? Terrence Ferguson. Was that his name? Something Ferguson. Played ahead of him and was, yeah, as you said, just okay. So that's been part of the argument. but this year, he was, he was just a good player for them.

The game, I will admit, the game against Minnesota is in my head when I think about Kenyon Sadiq, but it's really about a player who would be ascending. You're trying to catch him at the start of something, not having the complete picture. And that's where the risk is. There is a risk in doing that. I think there's also with him, there is a fairly high floor of, hey, can you just get him the ball? Can you get someone the ball who runs sub 4-4 and can shred tackles like Adrian Peterson? Like, you better be able to.

Stephen, I feel like whatever the Rams do will decide what the Vikings do at 18. Yeah, the Rams are, I think they're going to go tackle. But they could go, if I'm the Rams, you guys are going to be shocked to hear this. But wide receiver makes sense because Nakua is, you know, some things there. And Devante Adams is just old and will probably pull his hamstring. So I think that they should try to go wide receiver. I thought it was interesting, though, that they're talking extension with Matthew Stafford. Did Stafford hear that they wanted to draft Ty Simpson was like, nope, you're not doing that.

Stafford's playing forever. Nebbenwerp, Palmer and Ampley put it into my veins. Those guys were awesome. Palmer and Ampley were great. I used to play with those guys on video games all the time because you could throw them the ball. Oops. I hope somehow Emmett Johnson. finds his way here. I'm a big fan of Emmett Johnson, his game. I just like guys who are good at football

from big schools who play against hard competition. The Big Ten was really good this year. Lots of talent he was going up against and he succeeded. And there's no better way to do it if the guy meets athletic thresholds. And by the way, with Emmett Johnson, people act like this guy ran like a four, nine. It was like a four or five. It was. It was. was 0.06 from Delvin Cook. And his 10-yard split was right in line with a lot of the other running backs. He's explosive. He catches the ball.

His characters through the roof. We know that from him being from Minnesota. So we got a sense of that. I like him a lot more than a lot of other running backs in this class. So I'm with you there. Paul says Fano's going to Cleveland at six. I have not seen that mocked very much, but tackles do often go higher than we expect.

that's possible. Jacob, they need to do whatever it takes to get price. Yeah, Judarian Price is the explosive player that the Vikings don't have. And that Emmett Johnson truly isn't. I mean, I think that he's got quickness, but in terms of like crazy explosiveness, no, he doesn't have that. Where Judarian Price has that natural big play ability. And second round for me is okay.

Anything higher than that is not. Truth bomb, Penn State Guard, Vagra Yawani could be great for years, could be a total difference maker, definitely could be a total difference maker. It's just that when I'm talking about the positional stuff and I'm not really big on the idea of taking a safety, it's hard to make a good case for guard twice in a row. Guard last year was fine. And I didn't want to make a huge argument for guard or against Guard last year because one, I think Guard is. increasing in value, as we saw from paying Willfries $18 million. So I think they are getting harder to get. And I think teams are attacking them more and et cetera, et cetera, but doing it twice in a row

and not taking any edge rusher, receivers, corners, like all those cornerstone positions, tackles that, that's a tough for sell for me, even if I think that Yawani will be a very good player. It's a big guy. A lot of, a lot of people, uh, loving David Palmer and Ampley, thank you. Uh, for the win 2021 to your point about okay offensive line. Is that the reason why we scheme so many two tight end sets? I think it's some of it. Yeah, I think it's some of it. Um, I also think that they just love Josh Oliver, that Josh Oliver is one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL and he also can catch the ball. He can help in pass protection, which is, you know, part of it. But really their main issue has been injuries on the offensive line. If you go back,

their 2023 offensive line, and this is the sick irony of the Minnesota Vikings, their 2023 offensive line is really good. It stayed healthy. They had great numbers that year from PFF. I think they were in the top two or three in PFF grade as a team offensive line in 2023 or something like that. really, really high graded. O'Neill stayed healthy and Darrisaw was elite that year. And they held up and they were pretty good. And of course, they didn't have Kirk that year or, you know, another starting quarterback. So, you know, maybe Kirk would have made them look worse by being a pocket quarterback versus Dobbs or Nick Mullins just chucking it like a crazy man.

But the point is like that was pretty good because they were healthy that year. And then in 2020, they were healthy until the middle of the season, and they graded very well as an offensive line. Then Derisaw goes down and all hell breaks loose as Cam Robinson was not good. And Blake Brandl faded down the stretch because he had never played 17 games before. Dalton Reisner, I thought, did a good job that year, but was not the greatest run blocker. And then last year, it was just injury, injury, injury, and they still end up numbers-wise pretty good

because when the starters played, they were excellent. The Baltimore game, the Chicago game, they graded really well when they had even four of their starters. But it didn't happen that often. So that's why you draft, you know, an offensive tackle potentially is because it doesn't happen that often. And I think that the good teams do have another guy or two that they could sub in, even going back to, you know, our friend on the show, Jeremiah Searles.

But like 2017, he popped in a few times at guard and filled in and was solid. they just didn't get that last year from some of their guys that they that they needed to stop in and be solid. I don't know that Jackson could swing to tackle. I think he's much more of a, I think he's a locked in guard. Napster, worst time a year, a bunch of people guessing who's going to be good. Here would be my suggestion. Well, I mean, tomorrow's Christmas Day. So tomorrow's the draft.

We don't have to worry about it. But don't let draft season break you. enjoy the analysis, the breakdowns, getting excited about players, reshaping teams, studying decisions. Because the insider stuff just in general in the NFL, and I may or may not be referring to certain recent events with an NFL insider, boy, you could get pretty cynical about that. And a bunch of people, you know, beating the bushes, asking whatever agent or coach or

whoever that they could get their hands on, what's your draft plan? What about this guy? And they're getting lied to constantly, but they're. putting it out there anyway. It can get overwhelming and it can get frustrating and especially with some of the draft analysts who will tell you that, oh, this guy's generational and then the guy's not even good or whatever. Yeah, you can be pretty cynical about it.

But like pull back, pull back, hey, the drafts tomorrow. And we're going to find out some really interesting things over the next couple days about the Minnesota Vikings, right? So, you know, don't let it drive you nuts. People got to create content. and some do it by having fun chats with you guys and some do it in other ways. Big monaes. McDonald is the man, trade back to the 20s and take him.

If they were to trade back, and I know what you're saying about McDonald getting, he had like three sacks and he graded horrendously as a pass rusher. He's got, there's really no upside there as a past rusher. If they were to trade back a certain amount and then take him but then get another player, Okay. I'm just not really too sold on the idea of, um, of a defensive tackle from this class. I think Daniel Jeremiah had all three guys outside of the first round in his 150 players. So didn't love that. Um, Ryder Mike, I was wondering who you were talking about when you said Fabian. You meant to say Fano. I was like, I don't know who he's talking about. I'm just going to skip that comment.

What did you say? Uh, let's see. Oh, convinced, convinced on Fano. Okay, you're convinced on Fano. I could see it. I could see it. And I would be very supportive of that idea. Get a player who can be here for a long time and be multi-positional right away, but you hope to lock in a tackle long-term.

And even if Brian O'Neill is great and they extend him and you have a long-term guard, two young guards who are first-rounders, a first-and-a-first-round offensive tackle, and maybe you grab Jake Slaughter for the heck of it. That sounds good to me. Tony says only discovered your podcast a few months ago. Oh, you become addicted. Well, that's great to hear, Tony. That's great to hear.

I appreciate that. I enjoy it a lot, my friend. And the reason is because there are so many of you who pop in and have fun and energetic and exciting conversation about things that are going on with the Vikings. So that's my favorite part. I know I said earlier, hey, you know, like, let's keep it to like an hour because I'm going to be doing a four hour show tomorrow, but we're in an hour and a half already because you guys just have too many good things to say. Jack, I don't like swings. I like educated guesses.

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's a very fine line between the two, though, because if your educated guess means playing it safe with a non-premium position, it's actually. not that safe to get a non-premium position because if you get somebody that just turns out to be okay well yeah you played it safe but you actually kind of blew it right if you that's my issue with then him if you get him and he's not great and he's just okay then you blew it because you didn't get a player who was going to be much harder to replace into the future an edge rusher a cornerback a wide receiver so that's what i mean like the and i don't know if that's what you're referring to but playing it safe is not always anywhere near as safe as you might think it's going to be.

So sometimes you do have to take swings on something that has a high upside if you hit on it rather than, you know, thinking you're playing it safe, if that makes sense. I like the golf example. Like, I'm going to play it safe. I'm going to hit an iron. But there might be only a 50-50 chance that you even hit the iron into or, hey, play it safe on a par five. The NFL's a par five, isn't it?

Isn't it winning in the NFL like a 600 yard par five? Play it safe. That's great. You hit it in the fairway, 160 yards, and now you got a long way to go. So that's kind of how I view drafting a safety. Even if you hit it in the fairway, unless you crush your iron and it goes 220 in the fairway, but if you hit it just fine and it goes 160, you're still 400 yards away. I like it.

I'm going to use that more often. Son of beavers has the likelihood of Gernard being traded increased at all. I don't know to tell you the truth. I do not have any idea. The way it looks to me with Gernard is we all know the team that wants him, and we all know the Vikings haven't traded him yet. So it comes down to Howie Roseman. Are you willing to step up?

And I remember it was Thomas Demetrov who said that in dealing with Howie Roseman, and this is when Dmitroff was doing content. He said, in dealing with Holly Roseman, he never wanted to give away his second round picks. And he always wanted to acquire more. So that might be where the rubber hits the road with the Vikings. Paul's still too scarred by Cui's first draft. Give me boring three days.

I mean, I know like the first draft went wrong, but they drafted. Now, McCarthy is a KOC pick, but they draft, every other player they drafted in the first round is good. So I don't really I don't get it. Maybe you're talking about just the trade down thing. Yeah. Like just take a good player and they've done that when they've hit those other guys and they trade it up for Dallas Turner.

So that was probably I see what you mean like the volatility of that like the big move down and big move up. Okay. I get where you're coming from there. But a move from like 18 to 22. I don't think that'll I don't think that's going to give you PTSD draft. or post-quacy traumatic draft syndrome. I don't think that's what's going to happen. Butterfly effect, it's always quacy.

That's funny. Joshua says Falk feels like the perfect pick if someone doesn't fall. I, in watching him, have been much, much more sold on him because he, I think, has the potential to create pressure in the NFL. And I think his size and quickness and movement skills is just hard to match. It's hard to find guys like that. He's huge. But yet he doesn't run huge.

You know, like, you can see a guy who's 275. And when they run, you're like, yeah, that guy's 275. It's a DT. It's like an undersized DT. This guy's 6-6-275. So that's like being 6-4 and 250, I guess. Maybe. Analytics.

Michael, what do you think the odds are? The Vikings trade back in the first round? I really hate to cop out and say like 50-50. But I see a scenario. area where it could happen, where a team gets desperate for a particular player and they want to move up, totally could see it happening. But there's also like a lot of more like, well, let me, let me put it this way. Most teams usually just stick and pick anyway.

So let's go 7030 that they just stick and pick. That's probably where I would land there. Jason, you're hearing that Houston wants to potentially trade up. Vikings would be in that ballpark. If Houston wants to trade up and the Vikings have to go back to the early second round, I will blow up this. No, I'm just kidding. It would be a disappointing evening, I think, for a lot of Vikings fans.

Trading out is not my favorite. Trading out, unless you're getting a first round pick for next year, it is not my favorite. Because the sacrifice is pretty much enormous. That's what happened in 2002. too, that was my issue with it then. The sacrifice is enormous. You draft star players in the first round. And Addison, Jefferson, Darrasaw, I think Turner is at least a rising player in the league.

All these guys are in this same ballpark where the Vikings are picking this year. You'd rather have 18 than move all the way out. And then you're really hoping and praying at that point. Early second does have a lot of talent historically. That is true, especially like cornerback position. But you're passing on a lot of. lot of players who have star potential or high quality starter potential in order to do it. So the return would have to be big.

The return would have to be very big to move all the way back there. There's going to be tons of trade calls, though. How many actually go through that? That I'm a little skeptical about. Evan agree about safety of positional value at the end of the day. Can't argue with a guy B-flow wants and picked for his defense. Well, you can't argue with B-flow, but you can't argue with B-flow, but you can't. can argue with the front office and their use of assets.

That would be how I might look at that is I have no doubt in my mind that Brian Flores, it would love the heck out of Dylan Thineman, and he would probably be the best version of himself. But if we also agree that he's probably going to get the most out of whatever player, then I might prefer a pass rusher if you're going on the defensive side. But they might not like the pass rushers. And then that changes the math because the two pass rushers that are projected there, one is 25.

The other didn't have great production last year. So this draft has a lot of yeah, buts to it. Davis says not exciting, but feels like tackle is a really smart pick in this draft. I don't disagree there. That's been my argument is it just makes a lot of sense to do, even if it feels like taking your medicine.

Jack, I like the 90th grade, PFF grade late round prospects, Bishop Fitzgerald, Red Murdoch, yeah, Gil Howard for. from Texas Tech. I don't know who, I don't know Jack Kelly, but Red Murdoch is from University of Buffalo. Those are what we call in these parts Haley's Heroes

because those of you knew to the program, former intern Haley English, who now works in the analytics department for the Detroit Lions. One of the things that she did as an analytics project for the show was tried to identify late round and undrafted guys, and she actually identified for the Vikings, two of the players that they picked up, including Ivan Pace Jr. So it is a thing that I think the Vikings are trying to really spend a lot on and be good at is those,

well, I mean, late round picks are tough, but like the undrafted free agent types. You just go for production there. Sure, guy has 16 picks in college, just get them. Pay them whatever it takes. Aaron, maybe Jermad McCoy's agent is like Lamar Jackson's mom or his mom like. of Lamar Jackson. Yeah, that didn't go well for Lamar either. But then actually it kind of did because instead of landing with a trash organization, he landed with the Ravens. Midnight, what websites do you have up when watching the draft? How many screens? Well, the main screen will be this one,

because I will be live and I will have the TV over here. And I will have, I think I'm going to make a social media list to put on the screen for you guys, although I don't want to tip picks. I don't like that. When I do the live show, I try to match, I react to the TV. I don't like, and I try to tell the chat, like, hey, don't ruin it for everybody, even if you want to. Like, don't, don't tip the picks because some people are just watching TV and, you know, have a soul. So I'll be doing it that way. And then maybe we'll look at the instant reactions and stuff. But yeah, it'll be, it'll be me here, just here, doing this and watching a TV right next to me. And that's how we're going a role. So hopefully you'll have a chance to join. Joshua wants Casey Concepcion or Omar Cooper Jr.

And or Boston. I like all those guys. As you guys know, Concepcion less for me. Uh, doesn't really catch the ball nicely. There is, this is one of those things where with Concepcion, he might be great. And I, I don't know. So I'm not saying I'm way down on him. But I've seen Justin Jefferson. in person and Jordan Addison. And when they catch the football, they own that football. And I've seen a lot of receivers who weren't great catchers, and they kind of swipe at it or it bounces around or you hear it at practice.

They f f f fom, like kind of hits, you know, there's like a sound to a guy who's not catching the ball smoothly. When Jefferson and Addison get it, it's like my football. The strength in their hands is so smooth. They attack it. and yet it lands softly.

That's what I see in Boston. I don't see that in Concepcion. It makes me a little nervous about him. Cooper is very explosive. Slide to place is the fact that everyone mocks Thienem into the Vikings leads me to believe something else is afoot, and the Vikings are perfectly happy with letting everyone think they will pick a safety. Could be.

That could be. That might be, it'll sound like a good theory if they don't pick them. I mean, my thing is for predicting they don't get them is in part because I think Dallas could take him in number 12 and he could just be off the board. John, the podcast with C.J. Ham was amazing. Yeah, if you guys didn't get a chance to check that out, C.J. was great. Yep, C.J. was great. What do you think the thought process is to get another player like he was?

It's probably the same. It's probably looking to undrafted free agency. I wouldn't even be shocked if the Vikings just don't get a fullback. That maybe tight end becomes that with Josh Oliver, because I think the main reason that KOC used CJ Ham was because he just loved him. Like he just loved that he was willing to do anything super intelligent, big heart, toughness. He just wanted that guy in the field. And so he found a way to do it.

What was the four-hour radio show? That was when I started in sports talk radio in Buffalo in 2011. I eventually became the morning show producer and then I would fill in hosts and stuff. So, and I became an on-air part of the show. So we would do a four-hour show every day. And that was a freaking grind. That was like three guest bookings and six in the morning is when the show started to 10. So I was getting there at like five o'clock in the morning.

That was a grind. And when I would fill in by the end of the day, that's where you talk about the vocal cords like pretty tough. Not as tough as when I worked road construction when I was in college, but it wasn't, you know, it was, it was tiring. And then when I was here at 1500 ESPN, I would do three hours pretty often. My show was two hours, but then I would do an extra hour here, there. So I'm not too worried about it. I mean, the, uh, the free agency banas are whatever was a couple weeks ago, I think we went almost four. I'm not too worried. Colton Hood at 18. I like it. I like corner as the perfect in the middle of they need it.

They don't need it right away, but the guy can play, and it's a hard position to replace. How many Dr. I died, Dr. Pepper. There was one year where I was not doing a live show, and I think I went through like a 12-pack in that night. See, Matt, you don't think he's good at blocking. I was just watching. Well, he graded okay.

Kenyon Sadiq, you're talking about not good at blocking. I'm not sure you're right there because he graded. okay and I was just watching a thing on Sumer Sports, another analytics site where they had this roundtable where they have former scouts analyze players, top prospects. If you want to go watch it, Sumer Sports tweeted out. And their scout was talking about thinking that Kenyon Sadiq is a good blocker. He's undersized. So is he going to dominate? Probably not. But I think I think he is like he graded okay. I think he's going to be willing to do it. And you could get better at that. T.J. Hocketson got better.

Evan says, we didn't win a Super Bowl with three deep, so Boston 18 and Chris Bell, four deep. Yeah, well, I mean, that was not the wide receivers fault, now, was it? Josh, love hood, but don't think they'll take a corner? I think they could. It's been high on my list. Matt says, Sadiq does make some sense. They need a yards after catch guy.

They may need a deep clear-out guy with nests. nail are gone, Sadie can probably do both and Hawkinson is on his way out. He's going to go down the field as well as any tight end you're ever going to see. That's why the Vernon Davis thing comes up. Sean says with love back-to-back cornerback picks. Hood or Chris Johnson in round one in Ponds of the second gets some intensity in the secondary. I agree with that part. I don't know about going two of them, but they need, they need some intensity in the secondary.

I totally agree with that. what's more likely trading back at 82 or 97? Probably 97 teams will trade back into day two. And if they do that, I'm going to be angry. Because the 97th pick is late at night. That is always very late at night. And I'll have been talking for a long time by number 97. If they trade out of that, Purple Insight is going to be unhappy.

Because then I'll have one less draft pick to talk about for the night. And it'll be a little frustrating. but I also don't like trading out of day two just in general. The Vikings did that the one year. They kept trading back and then they traded out to get Jalen Holmes, I think, in the fourth. Didn't love that. Deante, biggest impact player you can add in the first has to be a tight end that can run a

4.3. That's probably right for the, for the short end, maybe the long term, outside of if it was a star wide receiver. Or, I mean, if there was a guy who's an edge rusher who you said, yeah, this could be a starting, you know, plus edge rusher. The impact is huge there. But there's not many positions if they click that are going to do more. I do not know.

You're mentioning a guy, Renee Conga. I don't know Renee Conga. Are you making up a name? Because if you could, that's possible at this time of year. There are nose tackles that go deep in this draft, though. That's what you're talking about. There are nose tackles that go very deep. deep into this draft.

Ryder, do you see any angle in the draft where new coaches will get the picks that they want? Well, you mean like, what do you mean the, oh, you mean like a Frank Smith? I think that his input would be in there for what they would want to do at the running back position. That would be the one position with Frank Smith and maybe offensive line that he would have him and Keith Carter. Yeah. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. I mean, offensive, I don't know if they're going to do it just because they hired those guys. But the type of player, I am absolutely certain that those guys have opinions on what's going to fit their new scheme. Definitely. Josh Emmett Johnson is my only certainty the Vikings pick could definitely see it. Not a twerk. I have no idea what team has had the most Heisman winners of quarterback. That I do not know.

Jared T.G. Watching from the start, but I'll answer, hear the answer later. what are the types of players you would want on day three? I like a big run-stopping linebacker, blocking tight end that can play fullback and a fast, wide receiver. Day three, I'm trying to think about what, what is, what have I seen hit on day three? I might go with, you are kind of right about linebacker. If you're trying to get a coverage linebacker on day three, good luck, because they're so

valuable teams are going to take them earlier. Running back on day three makes sense to me because you could get contributors on day three, run stuffing defensive tackle. That would be circled to me. Get that on day three. There's a bunch of them. And hey, Harrison Phillips was a fourth round draft pick. You can get those guys in the fourth round.

Long snapper they don't need. But normally I would make that crack. Wide receiver, a lot of times the pure speed wide receiver just can't play. I actually like the opposite type of receiver of what you're talking about. give me the wide receiver who has no physical talent whatsoever and caught like 700 balls in college give me that guy the blocking tight end is probably necessary those are the ones that have the best chance of being something you could also just swing at bigger uh positions and hope but that usually doesn't work out so it does the safer picks on day three do have a better chance of working out but i

like the the highly and uh somebody mentioned the the defensive back who gets 15 picks in college like give me a bunch of those guys. That was Anthony Harris. Just kind of see what happens. I would go with random production guys. Jay says Thineman won't be available. I could absolutely see him going earlier. Son of Beaver's Pelliserro said the Texans were calling looking to trade up in the middle rounds.

Okay. If the Vikings were moving back in the second, back in the second and picking up more capital, I would do that. I love this comp, Sean. Emmett Johnson, Terry Allen 2.0. Love that comp. Terry Allen was not that fast. He's just a good running back.

A rider, if we get a deep O-line room and developing talent, I'm going to send snacks to TCO Performance Center for the fact guys. They have, thank you, slide to play. Really appreciate that. They have done, I think, a lot to try to rebuild the offensive line. They've invested a lot of capital in it. And it feels like they're very close to have. something there.

Not a twerk. Bridgewater draft was crazy. A crazy year went to bed, woke up everyone talking about the new quarterback. Yeah. Yeah, that trading to the last pick is pretty wild. You can never go to bed until that last pick is settled. Usually what the Vikings will do is, let's say they draft 18. They will say in their press conference like, yeah, we're not doing anything else tonight.

Like, that's the, we're all set. And then we can close down the live stream. But you know what? If they draft 18 and we talk for another 45 minutes tomorrow about number 18, we call it a night. And then they trade back in and draft Carson Beck. I don't know. Just making something up.

Then we'll go live again. That's what we'll do. Let's see. Leonard, I began my 66 season at midnight the first day after draft. Wow. That's crazy, man. That's great. 66.

You've seen a lot. Should do a guitar riff when the vote. Vikings are on the clock. I've been putting together little graphics for tomorrow, but I haven't done guitar riffs. Leonard, when the Vikings drafted Steve Jordan in the seventh round, he was the best player available in retrospect. Yeah, I bet. Seventh round became a superstar. Now to twerk, LeQuon Treadwell is a great study in wide receiver draft stock. I don't remember how that one went. I wasn't covering this team yet when they drafted him. I took over covering from Andrew Kramer, who moved to the Star Tribune, I took over at 1,500 ESPN in late August 2016.

So I wasn't quite here for the draft. Road construction, it was not fun. No, it wasn't. Are we still mocking? Yes, we will. Yes, we will. Oh, yeah, I forgot. Oh, yeah, the wild.

The wild, they're going to get going here. So, so I should run. And I got all the way to the bottom of the comments. I kept a show that was supposed to be an hour long to 155. So let's do a quick mock. Let's do a speed run mock here. Why not? We'll blast through this.

And, uh, okay. Let's see who's on the board. Just before the Vikings in our last, very, very last, truly last mock is, oh, and by the way, uh, Benjamin Robinson still coming up on the show. I recorded an interview with him two days ago. And he's talking about the most recent mocks and he does grinding the mocks. I've referenced his work many times. and I have an interview with him coming up still.

So even after we finish this up, there's still going to be more. Hey, man, the draft is fun, right? So Jermad McCoy, who I said earlier on Fan Duels over under was 29.5. In this mock, which is based on the consensus draft board, Jermad McCoy goes 17th to the Lions. Keldrick Falk is off the board to the Jets. Interesting. So we have a choice between Kenyon, Sadiq, Dillon, Thineman,

Akeem Messador, and then we could get the wide receivers if we wanted. Avion Terrell I've brought up is an underrated guy. But let's do, let's do what Daniel Jeremiah said. Let's go Colton Hood. Now, this is a reach compared to the consensus board, but totally makes sense. This guy, this guy's production was great. Coverage grade over 80, only a 70 quarterback rating allowed, 51 allowed in 2024, very physical player true outside corner so let's go colton hood here and we'll see how it works out in

daniel jeremiah's world we'll just stick and pick with all these into the second round so we've got our corner oh d angelo ponds is on the board that's a tough one to pass up eli stowers we've talked a lot about tight end stowers is a really freakish athlete and could be interesting in the second round chris bell big time wide receiver chris brazzle jake gold day we've already got a corner wide receiver, oh, Lee Hunter, also defensive tackle. Do we go corner D.T or corner LB? I mean, I'm having a tough time passing up Lee Hunter. I think he might be the best defensive tackle in this class at the end of the day.

Why don't we go D.T. here and we'll get third round wide receiver and running back. Ooh, we got Sam Hecked on the board in the third round. Daryl Jackson. I actually like J. Sean Barham for the Vikings a lot. Got safety here. Another guy, Keiron Crawford is intriguing to me, edge rusher out of Auburn, Bryce Lance at wide receiver, Jonah Coleman, is a key Wheatley, Logan Jones, ton of ton of talent here.

Jalen Kilgore, kind of a development safety kind of guy. Ooh, this is not an easy pick here, my friends. This is not an easy pick. Let's go center. Let's just get Sam Hacked here and apologize to nobody for getting a potential starting center. now we are on the board at 97. Jake Slaughter was still there, so maybe a mistake. Let's look for wide receiver or running back.

Emmett Johnson. Well, let's go Emmett Johnson. Although Dizond Stribling, wide receiver, kind of makes a lot of sense here. Stribling is very fast. I don't think I could get him anywhere else. Emmett Johnson or Dizond Strimbling. I'm going to have to go wide receiver.

As much as I really like Emma Johnson, I think in this scenario, I got to go stribling. I think he's a really good prospect. Tall, super fast. We'll find out what we can do a little later. All right, now we're into the fifth round. Jaden Candidee, I like a lot. Cornerback from Oregon.

We did already draft a corner, but it's the fifth round. How about we go wide receiver Kevin Coleman, Jr., productive wide receiver out of Missouri? Let's go with him here since we have missed on, no, we got stribling. I'm sorry, never mind. Running back is what I meant to look. for what do we got for running backs did anybody no that's a tight end did anybody drop

adam randall the running back from clenson who is a convert from wide receiver kalen black set mcgowan set mcgowan very explosive running back from kutucky elia hide and rike of course umari taylor do i have to get one of these guys here i could probably wait so let's go Jack Endry's tight end, big blocker, kind of catches everything. I don't know. I'm a little bit held up here. I think I want to go. Nomdi Tucker is a very interesting player because he got to, let's go.

Let's go, uh, uh, Nadami Tucker. And the reason I'm going to Dami Tucker is because he had insane production. He had 14 sacks, 28% pass rush win rate. He might not end up being a good player, but I'm going to, take him anyway. This is swings. This is all swings. Dartboards. Okay, we're going to go. Oh, Carver Willis tackle from Washington, I think is a good player. Let's go with Kalin Black, the running back from Indiana. Oh, Mason Rieger. It's another edge rusher I like. Let's go Kalin Black. And now we have three picks in the 200s. Hydenreich is not making it to the 200s. Sawyer Robinson is a

quarterback who is very productive, but his PFF grades are pretty bad. Yikes. Okay, safety, Cole Wisniewski. I like him. Let's go him. Let's go. I mean, this,

this just does not think Hyden Reich's going high, but I think he will. David Gusta had a really good combine defensive tackle. Let's go him. And in the seventh round, let's go Sawyer Robinson, the quarterback from Baylor, just for the heck of it.

So we got a quarterback to push the room. And here is our final mock draft. Colton Hood with the first pick, Lee Hunter, then Sam Hecton to Zon Stribling in the second day, and a bunch of guys that I'm throwing darts at, Nadami Tucker from Western Michigan, Kalim Black, the running back from Indiana, Cole Wisniewski, the Texas Tech Safety,

David Gusta, the defensive tackle from Kentucky, and Sawyer Robinson, the quarterback, quarterback from Baylor. There you go. The final, final, final mock. Um, so I'm going to, I'm going to get to, uh, Benjamin Robinson here in my interview with him in just a minute, but I wanted to take a quick moment and just say this first. I cannot thank all of you enough. This pre-draft process has been so fun and so interesting because of you guys, because you watch, because you comment, you got good takes, you're very informed. You're not fighting each other in the comments and saying crazy stuff all the time.

And even the crazy stuff can be pretty interesting to talk about. So I just can't thank you all enough for dropping by these live shows. They have been really entertaining. And I go back to, I said earlier tonight, well, maybe we'll just chat for an hour. Here we are two hours in because of your thoughtfulness, how much you guys love football, how much you guys love the draft. So I hope to see you tomorrow night and in day two. I will be here breaking down every pick from a Vikings perspective.

Of course, I'll have like a board up of each pick. I'll be watching the broadcast. I'm going to match it up with that. So we're not tipping picks necessarily. And, you know, then we'll have an instant, instant, instant reaction to what the Minnesota Vikings do. I am super pumped for it. I've been waiting just like you guys for Christmas Day. And now it's finally arrived.

So thank you so much to all. of you for all of your time watching the show leading up to this, and I hope we have a lot of fun over the next couple days. All right, here is my discussion with Benjamin Robinson from Grinding the Mox. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline, or if you're studying every actor and athlete you see of a certain age to see how they're handling their hair loss, well, maybe it's time to get yourself a solution instead of obsessing over what's happening on your dome,

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prescription required, see website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. All right, we welcome into the show from grinding the mocks. You've heard me reference his work a number of times here. Benjamin Robinson is tracking where all these players are going up and down in the mock draft universe. Ben, welcome to the show. How are you, man? Perfect. I'm happy to be on with the author of Football's and Numbers game.

Let's go. Thank you. Thank you. Listen, here's what I want for. first, before we get into specific players and the Vikings, is just for you to give a little background on grinding the mocks and some of the insights that you've been able to get through it over the years. Because where I've been fascinated is when certain people move certain players up and

down boards and then we see all sorts of jumps and things like that. And what I'm trying to always figure out is, is that what's really happening in NFL buildings? or is that something that is more of people getting some intel and moving players up and down? I'm really fascinated by all the things that grinding the mocks has shown us over the years. Yeah, no, thank you for the question. So, you know, grinding the mocks is all about using the wisdom of crowds, mock drafts, and machine learning to predict the draft.

The two most important things in there are the wisdom of crowds and machine learning. mock drafts, anyone can do a mock draft. But the wisdom of crowds means that I'm sourcing over the course of the year, you know, a couple thousand or so mock drafts from the community online and using my AI machine learning capability to craft these player level estimates. And the two most important things that go into those estimates are when the mock draft was made and who made them. We're getting into the meat of when the weights behind mock drafts are being pushed up

the highest. So, you know, when we get the next Daniel Jeremiah mock draft, that'll be rated really high. And so oftentimes as we get really close to the draft, there's a lot of smoke screen, there's a lot of information. Maybe not even smoke screen is the right word. There's a lot of information out there. Like, you know, I'm just about to publish the kind of biggest risers and followers coming into draft week. And a perfect example of that is Arizona Statewide receiver Jordan Tyson. All I've been hearing throughout the draft process is he's falling, he's falling, he's falling. And then he has, I would call like probably a pretty run-of-the-mill pro day workout this past weekend. And suddenly everyone's saying, the Giants are taking him in the top

10, et cetera, et cetera. You know, I think that sort of thing will eventually fade. And as we get closer to the draft, his slotting will fade, probably get somewhere in between, like not in the top 10, but not in the 20s. So the beautiful thing about this approach is that it's very kind of clear-eyed and evidence-based doesn't tend to overreact to one person. It reacts to the crowd. That can be good or bad. In the draft, we've often seen some players kind of have these very quick last-minute rises that my data can't fully pick up on. You know, for a little while over the past week, for example, David Bailey, the Texas Tech edge rusher, was being mocked number two to the Jets instead of, you know, Ohio State linebacker Arvel Reese. Even then, he still has

hasn't totally passed by Reese. And then today you're hearing, oh, yeah, it's always been Reese. It hasn't ever been Bailey. So these things kind of even themselves out. But in the data, that Wisdom of Crowds approach doesn't really take and privilege any one person's viewpoint over the other. It has to be a bigger change in the overall consensus. So that's the approach.

Yeah, I'm curious about like what your conclusions have been over the years, because now you've been doing this long enough to be able to see how the performance plays out of the players who rise, the players who fall. And I'm always fascinated when we go into the NFL combine. And I know that teams care about the combine. We've seen plenty of players get overdrafted because they ran a 4-3 or they had, you know, whatever type of workout. But oftentimes that really isn't that much of a determining factor.

Yet the outside world will see a certain performance by someone and say, all right, this guy's got to move up a bunch of boards because he went to the NFL combine and he crushed it. So I've always kind of said, beware a little bit of the Combine Riser. But there's also guys who fall because of a bad workout or guys who fall throughout a season. So I guess it's different endpoints. Like there are certain players who are mocked. Peter Woods would be one of these in the top top at the beginning of the college season.

And then by the end of the college season, you could see their chart, you know, going straight down. So I wonder what you've learned about how those players ultimately perform. and if those rises and falls turned out to be predictive in any way. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, one of the things that I've kind of lessons I've taken away from, you know, the combine to kind of answer your first little question there is I think what the combine can do is it can reveal some players like ceiling outcomes. Like, oh man, like Sunny Style coming in, sunny style is the Ohio State linebacker coming into the combine. You know, I think people thought of him as borderline top 10.

then you saw the kind of athlete who was and there was like oh well like I think he's definitely maybe top five um I think that might be like his ceiling now and so oftentimes I think it will reveal some players who had really good tape but you didn't necessarily couldn't necessarily see the athleticism or you weren't 100% sure about it or maybe you're really surprised by how much of a athlete he is it'll tell you a little bit more about the player's ceiling maybe like similar to like you know Dylantheneman who's the the viking's most mocked player on grinding the mocks the safety from Oregon. And for other players, it should reveal a little bit more about their floor. If they underperform, you know, hey, like this guy, unless he's like an Uber athlete, you know, it's unclear. The tape will only go so far if you're not a good athlete. So when I look at

how grounding the mocks predicts future outcomes, I think that warrants like a little bit deeper study, but recently our friend Arif Hassan published his consensus, Big Board, and wrote an article beforehand about, you know, who was better at predicting NFL success and who was good at predicting draft order. And grinding the mocks, my expected draft position metric was the best by far at predicting draft slotting across almost all the different parts of the draft. And then when it came to predicting the actual draft outcomes, we finished second relative to the Arifasan Big Board. So all hail the Arifasan Consensus Big Board. But overall, I think by trying to be as close to the draft as possible, we more often, more often than not, are getting

some of these picks right, and then also their NFL futures correlated to that. So I think it's the best public resource out there for, and I'm biased, but now we have a reef confirming that it's one of the best public resources out there for looking at how we think about where players will go. And then, for the most part, how good they'll be as pros. Yeah. And I think, I mean, it just does make sense that this is a thing that's been studied in other type of arenas of the wisdom of crowds. And if you have enough people all getting eyes on it, taking the aggregate of that, will tell you a lot of information. That's why it's so fascinating to look at, you know, where players go and

and who rises and falls. And you mentioned Dylan Thineman. I'm curious what you think of the fact that he is not just, not just mocks to the Vikings the most, but so overwhelmingly that I don't even know what to do with that. Like you're pointing out, and I think that it's right to point out, that this has been as accurate of a tool as it gets, when it comes to what the NFL is actually going to do.

And yet there's a part of me that sits here and says about this, like there's too many people saying Dylan Thedaman, maybe this is, I don't know, psyching yourself out going into the draft. But how often do we see the entire universe outside of a top 10 pick? Because normally, you know, top 10, it's like, okay, Fernando Mendoza's going number one overall, right? But I can't remember too many times in all the years I've followed your work that the 18th overall pick is like a virtual lock to the mock draft community.

Like, what do you make of that? It makes me, I get confused too. You know, I think every year there's probably some player that gets just pinned down as like, this guy, you're this guy. You know, last year, Jalen Walker, the linebacker slash edge rusher from Georgia, was getting mocked a massive amount to the Carolina Panthers. And, you know, I think that people were surprised when they went with Ted Iroa McMillan, the receiver from Arizona, who, you know,

really good season. And so I think you saw that, too, with, like, the Dallas Turners of the world. You know, when the year the Vikings selected him, the Chicago Bears were kind of, like, really digged into him. Or no, it was the Falcons, I think. The Falcons. Yeah. So it seems like we just kind of like dump the player.

Like, yeah, they need an edge rusher. We'll put them there. We need a safety. We're going to give it that. And so to me, that gives me a lot of pause because it just kind of means you're over indexing just on that one thing. And so, you know, 48% of my weighted mock draft shares for the Vikings this year are Dylan Thineman. And so what I've been doing is looking deeper into this consensus data and seeing how good it's been at the past. And it's been pretty good for the most part.

When you remove players who were unavailable to teams when they were on the clock, you wind up with some pretty interesting numbers. You know, about 24 of like round one draft picks are in the five mock players. So like when you're on the clock, like for the most part, you kind of know the general universe of players the teams are going to target. It's not always the most accurate at the top, but when I look at the Vikings, you know, when they hadn't made trades, and that kind of muddies the waters a bit, right? They picked their top option a good number of times. You know, Jordan Addison was their top option. J.J. McCarthy was their top option. when they traded down and picked Lewis Seen that was like unexpected right so he wasn't their

top option when they traded up to get Dallas Turner you know he wasn't their top option and so that you know that changes things but then when you look at last year's draft with donovan jackson the guard from Ohio State it was it was really surprising and so the question is is that philosophy continuing does Rizinski continue that type of thinking well we're basically taking the same group minus Quasi is anything really going to change And so the question is, are they going to hew more to what they've done in the past? If so, some type of safety would be the ideal kind of, that would be the prediction. The question is, are we over-indexing on Thinaman?

Is he going to go earlier than we think? I think there's a decent chance he might go earlier. And if so, then you'd think about the Emmanuel McNeil Warrens of the world. One of the biggest fallers in my data over the past couple weeks is Tennessee cornerback, Jermod McCoy, who's injured, but had a really excellent. season in 2024. He's the kind of guy that like, you know, the Vikings, like when I think about Rick Spielman, it sounds like a Rick Spielman guy, you know, getting the really talented faller, like with Christian Derrissau, for example, who, you know, has turned into one of the best

tackles in the league when he's healthy. So, but yeah, I get, it forces me to be like, hey, like, hey, everyone's saying this. I don't know. That makes me feel a little bit weird. So I think you're not wrong to have your spidey senses tingle a little bit. Like, I think we're over-indexing on the player and thus also the position. Safety's pretty strong class. You know, AJ Halsey from LSU is a day two guy. You know, Manuel McNeill Warren has been a big riser in my data over the past month or so, the safety from Toledo. So yeah, but yeah, I think those are kind of the three guys when I think about who are their targets right now. It's those three.

Well, you make a great point, Ben, about just the fact that they're being operated here by an interim general manager, which is different. And it is true that, yeah, the rest of the front office and the coaching staff are the same. But at the same time, it felt like during Kwayze Adolph-Menz's run, they were often drafting for their biggest need. So if you were saying Dylan Thineman filled the biggest need right now, that's what Donovan Jackson was last year. And a lot of us had a guard because we were looking at it going,

who's playing left guard for the Minnesota Vikings? They better draft somebody to fit that spot. And we were all mocking Gray's Abel over and over. He ends up going. So there you go. It's Donovan Jackson. And Dallas Turner was even sort of in the same range of like they really need edge. It was not as clear that Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkle were going to be all pro level

players that year. So it's like, oh, they're going to need future edge rushing. could see it. It wasn't shocking that they would get like a, a player like that and sacrifice draft capital to do so, which they seem to love doing over the years. This is different because Rob Brzezinski has said on record that they're stacking their board by best players available. They are not stacking their board by players that they need. And while every team will tell you that, but it's a little more notable when the previous GM clearly drafted for need time and time again when it's a talking point of the new guy making the decision of like we might not do that

and that's where i've come to could a receiver could a tackle surprise the world because this is a strong tackle draft and i don't think that it's strong in some of the other key areas that they might potentially need and the thing with safety for me is and i'm curious about what the data has said but usually mock drafters and big board creators are too high on almost every single year, they'll have a safety that is, this guy's a lock in the first round. Nicky Minware last year was considered to be a middle first round player, late first round player. He ends up going in the second. We've seen that with even Derwin James, who was considered to be one of the top players in the draft by a lot of people. So that makes me wonder

if 18 would be a spot. I mean, I think I look this up. There's only a handful of safeties that have even gone in the first round over the last 10 years. it would be pretty surprising if three of them went in the first round this year. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I've, my belief is that, you know, the safety traditionally, you nowadays, you're, you're playing too high a lot. And so you do need kind of two safeties. In the past, I think there was a bit more like on the cover one side or cover three.

And so you ended up with maybe only needing one safety. And so, yeah, why would you play this guy? You know, why would you pay that high of a price? draft this guy. Or, you know, it's kind of like a little bit more of a special position. And so teams would be like, okay, like, I think they needed a safety. This is my top ranked one. And so, but yeah, you're right. I think there is something about safety that teams just like don't value as much. The question is, has the paradigm shifted? Yeah, Nick Emunwari and Malachi Stark went in the first round. Last year, well, Nick and Mori went in the second round. He was projected to go in my data in the first

round and you know was a huge contributor to the seahawks winning the super bowl and so the question is does that shift the paradigm and the question is are either of these guys like nick emunwari i don't know no i don't i don't think so i don't i don't see that i mean downs you could see it a little bit but not i mean mcneill warren's not enough of a freak athlete and thenaman is a free safety to me yeah pheneman has like a really great profile like the athleticism is really good much better than people thought, and the production was great at similar levels of competition. So I think he has a pretty good profile, but you're right. Like, it's not all safeties are created equal.

And so it's not like similarly with quarter quarterback, right, cornerback, sorry, where you have the outside corners and inside corners, right? In the positionless world of NFL defenses, like, what do you need? Right. You need a guy who can kind of be very multiple. And you're right. like I don't necessarily see that with Thineman and McNeill Warren. And so, but yeah, I think offensive tackle is really interesting.

I think that's like under discussed. But yeah, on my top five positions in terms of my weighted mock draft shares, safety is really big, but we know that's kind of played in here. Cornerback, I think is an option. Defensive tackle is kind of like an interesting option. You know, last year, Ty Leak Williams from Ohio State was drafted by the Lions. kind of like in a later first round slot this year. I don't really see a really good defensive tackle.

Like I think Caden McDonald is the kind of one who might end up in round one. I don't think any of the defensive tackles have really spotless profiles. But yeah, I think last year was a big surprise. I don't think anyone saw the Vikings going guard in the first round. And so to me is, I don't know. If that's more of an outlier, then yeah. But in terms of their needs, they don't have one need right now. Right. So what's the order passed Dylan Thineman?

Yeah. So in terms of what? The most mocked players to the Vikings. Yeah. So it's Dylan Thineman, Emmanuel McNer, McNeil Warren, Jermad McCoy, the cornerback from Tennessee, who I had mentioned. And then I think this is kind of like more of an artifact of some of the previous players who were there. Because of how much Thineman is mocked. It's just not as much oxygen in the room with some of the other guys. Avion Terrell.

cornerback from Clemson and Peter Woods, the defensive tackle from Clemson, who are now both kind of on the bubble line for first and second round. So as the most valuable data continues to come in this week, I'll be continuing to monitor. But yeah, I think right now it's just kind of like safety or bust in round one mocks, which like you said, like that doesn't really feel right. And so it gives me a lot of pause. And so, you know, when you look outside of the first round of mocks like positions that come into focus a little more like running back and and center like those are not first round positions edge rusher you know i think is a really interesting one in my personal mock draft that i did is an exercise to get out my uh like bad draft takes a week or two

ago um i gave the the vikings um aburn edge rusher caldric fogg who i think is a really interesting case of a lot of preseason hype um still really young um did not produce at the levels that you want, but is, like I said, very young. It has a lot of potential. That is a guy that I think would be an awesome fit in Brian Flores' defense. I like Heldrick Falk a lot, too. And when we mentioned the production, the 2025 production was down. But 2024, he put up a good number of sacks and not to mention that he graded extremely well against the run, which I think we have to look at, too, because that's defeating blocks of offensive tackles and making plays. It's not just rushing the passer and now teams are running a little bit more than they used to.

So I think setting edges actually matters more than maybe we would have factored that before. If you have a player who's great at setting edges and stopping the run who gets six sacks or you have one that gets 10 sacks and doesn't do anything against the run, I would rather have the six sack guy all day long. So the Vikings might feel the same way. So Ben, tell me the most interesting two or three players in terms of wide range of opinions. risers, fallers, like ones that you're going to be sitting there and draft night going, I don't know based on the data

where this guy's going to go. Who's the most interesting to you? To me, one of the most interesting is another pass rusher Akim Mesidor, the edge rusher from Miami. Both Miami edge rushers are interesting for different reasons for sure. You know, Rubin Bain, I think that's going to be something to watch pretty closely. It's kind of clear now, I think, that his ceiling outcomes are not as high as we had thought pre-draft. Messador is really interesting.

I think that he is new to edge rusher. He is pretty old for a prospect. He's going to be 25 at the start of the season. And he was really productive. So if I was thinking about an edge rusher, that's like red flag, like, oh, man, like, I would be a little bit, you know, the tape is pretty good from this year, undeniably really good. And yet, I think there's a lot of concerns. So to me, Messador is really interesting. The Alabama offensive tackle, Caden Proctor, I think also really interesting.

There's been a lot of talk about him being a late riser that I'm not seeing materializing my data, but he's an outlier in terms of his size and weight. It's really big. And so it's unclear whether or not that's actually going to be in his favor also pretty young. But yeah, if that weight being an issue, it could be something that teams might have some pause about. the player who's been the one of the bigger risers is i mentioned Arizona state wide receiver jordan tyson it had been kind of pretty common to see carnell tape be the wide receiver one

I don't think that's going to change for a bit mackay lemon the wide receiver from USC the blitnikoff award winner was that second wide receiver and now people are kind of throwing Jordan Tyson back into the mix after this like private workout that I mentioned he did get like an all clear, like no news came out after the combine about his medicals, which is a big thing for him. So when I hear that, I usually think that's good news for him. Like, no news is good news. So he's somebody I think will be really interesting. The injury concerns are real, but it's not like it's the same recurring injury that you'd maybe be more worried about. There's been lots of,

like, different injuries that aren't really necessarily related to each other. So is that worth a risk? I think it is, given his profile, early breakout age, really productive. So to me, like those are some players that I'm really interested in. Obviously, Ty Simpson, the quarterback from Alabama, I think there'll be a lot of talk about because he's still in my top 32. I think he ultimately lands outside of round one. If you're only going to be drafted in round one via trade, something's got to give there. And so my sense is he's more of like a day two guy. But that's something that a lot of people want to talk about.

That's one of the things that will make this draft a little more predictable is that there aren't all these little quarterback. bombs that people are having to drop. Like last year, people had expected that there would be three quarterbacks in the first round. You know, Cam Ward, Shadrador Sanders, and Jackson Dart, and something had to give. And, you know, when the players are being mocked to the same teams, it usually doesn't mean that both they're going to go. It usually means only one.

So the Michael Pennix bow next year was a little more of the exception than the actual norm. So, but yeah, it'll be really exciting first night and all weekend of the draft. there's just some players that I'm paying close attention to. It always is my friend, and I encourage everybody to go check out grinding the mocks and see all the other players from other teams that their mocks have a wide range rather than the Vikings with one player. But it'll be very interesting, as always, to compare where players were expected to go

versus where the Minnesota Vikings end up drafting them. And we actually have draft picks to break down this year, Ben, unlike the last couple of years where they were all traded away and they had five picks. So very interesting stuff. Love all your work. Love the data that you bring to the table and the insight that goes along with it. Thank you for joining the show, my friend. No problem.

Thank you. Appreciate it.