Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Five blazing hot questions as the Minnesota Vikings open training camp

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

Matthew Coller and WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanic talk about who will become the next Mr. Mankato, how we will judge whether the Vikings' offense is making progress, the most interesting position groups and Vikings camp and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanek. Paul, this is the most important moment of your life in a while. Since really like everything went down. Since there was Coach Search, Jim Harbaugh, Extensions, Dead Cap Space in the future. Like all those discussions have kind of faded. They have drifted into the past and now enter the, uh, the gates are open to training camp this week. So we have a very special five question hot routes to open training camp. Uh, so are you excited? Yeah. I don't know if, if people would be able to tell throughout this,'m just really really nervous about this episode just a lot of pressure i know it's super important if you hear my voice

crack or i start trembling a little bit just know it's the weight of the moment getting to me a little bit so i'm gonna do my best to battle through uh and get people ready for training camp because i know it's it's the pinnacle really of this last however long we've been in and and I gotta be I gotta be great so we'll see how I do it's all about the big moments and I won't make a joke about quarterbacks who don't come through in big moments and stuff that's very big of you yeah you were you were getting very nervous earlier panting heavily but you've gotten it together and now we're ready to go.

So why don't we just kick it right off with our first question or actually, well, I could play the hot routes intro if you want. I can dig that up. Yeah, just, you know, just cause we should. Okay, here we go. There's news in the NFL today and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how hot rock style with our spin on football headlines with a mix of frozen tundra neck roll and grass stained jersey shout out as always to manny hill for that All right, let's begin right away here with our first question.

Paul, who will be Mr. Man Cato, the thing that we all are watching the closest? Which player, if you're not familiar with this, I mean, you should be, but if you're not familiar with this, every year there's a player we don't expect to emerge, and they do, and sometimes they surprise us, including players like Adam Thielen, Stefan Diggs have been Mr. Mankato's of the past. So who will it be this year that we don't expect going in? And then by the end of camp, we're all talking about this player. Yeah, this is interesting because, you know, the ethos of this was someone we're not

talking about. And then I did an article breaking down who it could be and other people break down who it could be. So it loses a little bit of it because it, we're naming people that then don't become as unexpected because we've already talked about them about maybe being unexpected. So I'm kind of going off the board a little bit. Maybe I haven't seen the odds. I don't know if Vegas has had the guts to put these out yet. I'm going to go Zach Davidson as my Mr. Mankato. I'm going to go off the board a little bit. I didn't want to take someone that was drafted. And I think offensive players just have a much easier path to this type of

reward just because their counting stats are easier to see. And I have that. And then I also just have opportunity. What positions are going to have opportunity? And the tight end spot, now that Kyle Rudolph, that eligible bachelor Kyle Rudolph, is off the table. He's picked his destination. There isn't a great, clear number two tight end in this offense. And I think it could be Zach Davidson.

He obviously was a draft pick last year raw super athletic big guy runs fast does all the things you that you want from a tight end flyer and so i think there's a route for him to make the roster here and a lot of the other guys that i was looking at unless i wanted to go like brian asamoah or something like that a lot of these guys just might not even end up making the roster uh and you kind of have to make the roster to win this award and so i looked at who has the most opportunity where could that come from and i wanted to go off the board i wanted to play i didn't i didn't want to play the hits so i think zach think Zach Davidson, if he plays well in a couple preseason games, I assume they're going to, you know, Irv Smith's not going to get like halves on halves of playing time.

Like it's going to be Zach Davis. It's going to be some of their other kind of lesser known tight ends that they have there. And I think he profiles as a guy that you say last year, let's throw it out. Can this guy be our tyler conklin this year uh and make some noise and i think he could so that's where i'm going because i think he actually has the legitimate chance to make the roster i think both tight ends that are eligible for mr mancato are good picks nick muse is another pick and yeah i mean if you're gambling on this in

vegas this is very important information. Usually Chris Reed of Chris Long. I mean, Chris Reed's a guard for the Vikings. Chris Long of KSTP puts out odds. I don't know if he's put them out yet for us to go through, but I think Nick Muse is a guy that should have some hype as Mr. Mankato is a seventh round pick, but a good athlete handpicked by the team. Usually their own draft picks might have more opportunity than the previous regimes draft picks.

That's a good selection. Ty Chandler is a guy that when you talk about opportunity, he's not going to get opportunity to take first team reps or probably even second team reps because Alexander Madison and Kenny Wong will, will get those, but where he will have opportunity is the preseason. I don't expect this team to play almost anybody in the preseason. I wouldn't be surprised if Kirk Cousins doesn't throw a single preseason pass. I don't know this for sure, but this is just kind of how the Rams have handled it, where they've said, nope, nobody's getting on the field to get hurt

like Irv Smith did last year in the third preseason game. So what does that mean? That means Kenny Wong Wu, Ty Chandler, these guys are going to get a lot of opportunities. Wong Wu, I don't think qualifies for this. There's always been a debate of, well, if a guy was kind of a backup in year one, but when you return a couple of touchdowns, I think that you're kind of off the table here. So if Ty Chandler is getting lots of chances in these preseason games, he breaks some big plays. He makes noise. He makes the team all of a sudden he's got a chance for Mr. Mankato now on the defensive side. And I'll decide who my pick is here in a second, but on the defensive side, I think the best bet

would be Jalen Twyman because even though he's a sixth round pick from last year, he comes back from having to miss the entire season after he got shot. And so he had to miss the whole year, but he's got the great story to go with it. Like last year, he had this really unfortunate thing happen to him. It was really tough, took away his rookie season. Now he comes back again. Opportunity. You have a defensive line that's set an arm on Watts that's set. But after that, there's really a lot of

openings. So if Jalen Twyman comes in and rushes the passer right away and looks pretty good right away, I think he's going to get a lot of attention there. Brian Asamoah is a great pick because he's going to play a lot in the preseason. And he also is really quick. He's got playmaking potential. You get a couple of big tackles, you get an interception. I think it's a little harder for linebackers, but if he ends up as the number three linebacker by the end of training camp and not somebody like Blake Lynch or Troy Dye or Chaz Surratt, guys who have been on the team for a few years, then we're going to be talking about him. A Caleb Evans is another player drafted in the fourth round, lanky, athletic, like maybe a guy that again, gets a couple of interceptions.

You have to have splash plays, but you're also playing against a lot of backups when you get those preseason games and the preseason games are where all the fans, you know, there's going to be a lot of fans in the stands and stuff, but where the entire state can watch these guys. And that's what ends up mattering a lot. So I think that on the defensive side, there's a lot of potential for playmaking and guys to rise up in the depth chart. One more offensive player that I would mention would be Jalen Naylor, the sixth round draft pick, big play guy at Michigan State. He makes a few big plays. This is a hard receiver room to make, I think. But if he was able to force his way in and beat out somebody like, say, Albert Wilson or Amir Smith-Marset or BC Johnson and get a spot, then we're talking a lot about this emerging receiver, Jalen Naylor. And receiver is one of those spots where you're getting the football all the time in the preseason games.

It's not super hard to shine. It's not like if we're talking about a late round offensive lineman, like, boy, he's just been pancaking everybody. That's a lot harder to kind of point out. So there's a lot of potential guys there. Right. I think you mentioned Jalen Twyman. I think Janarius Robinson could also be a guy for a very similar arc. Fourth round pick, kind of more of a higher caliber player than Twyman was coming out of college. He's hurt all year.

So you have that similar kind of didn't play at all redemption arc for him. And behind Daniel Hunter and Z'Dar zadaria smith there is not much so if someone flashes there especially if they can flash as a pass pass rusher which i think generius robinson has the makeup to do then i think he could be right there with him as well and on offense kellen mond are you gonna get excited about kellen? Come on. I think he's not qualified, though, is he? Does he qualify now? I mean, well, he didn't play at all. I think he does.

I mean, last year I read Chris Long's column from last year. He was the favorite there. So I think just because of how much the fans and people just generally kind of want to see what he ends up being if he plays well in the preseason it's really easy to win as a quarterback just because all eyes are on you so i think we have to we have to mention him in this segment but um it's uncreative i don't like it i don't like yeah no it's definitely not and uh i mean if kellen mon were to absolutely shine uh i suppose you're right he does deserve to qualify because he was a third or later round pick and he didn't play at all last year i hadn't even really considered him uh one more on the

defensive side uh asasia tomowo is a guy with the local angle and anytime you can have the local angle then of course you you need to be thrown in the mix i think i might go with the chalkiest pick though and just go brian as uh, because he's going to get opportunity as a fairly high draft pick that third spot, as far as linebackers go is pretty wide open. It's not a super high bar to jump over. And just like we've said for several players, preseason games, he's going to get a lot of time. He is like a sideline to sideline type of player. He's super quick. He's undersized, but also the speed goes along with that. He get a lot of time. He is like a sideline to sideline type of player. He's super quick. He's undersized, but also the speed goes along with that.

He makes a couple of plays. He emerges as a guy that they feel like they can believe in right away. And you're talking about a Mr. Mankato there. So Zach Davidson, I think I didn't really comment on your pick is bold because I think that he would be way down on the list of all potential mr mancato's tight ends though they usually take a little time to develop and like tyler conklin sometimes you could be surprised and go oh well i just never saw this coming plus if we remember zach davidson was also a punter in college so he is a tight end slash

punter so if ke Kevin O'Connell, and this is how we'll know if Kevin O'Connell is really legit. If he dials up a play where they snap it to the punter and the punter fakes a pass, but instead he pitches it backwards to Zach Davidson

and then he punts it away. Then we'll know that is a creative offensive mind. That's how we're going to figure it out. It won't be trying to unlock her cousins or anything like that. If he really deploys Zach Davidson, then we know this O'Connell kid, he's got some chops to be able to do this thing. But yeah, no, I'm a guy, when I go to the horse track,

I bet on all the long shots. I don't like doing the favorites. So Zach Davidson stuck out to me, and I think he has the opportunity to do it. But we'll see. We'll certainly see. I guess Amir Smith-Marset has to be one of the favorites too. What about Cousins in a pistol formation? Davidson is behind him.

It's fourth and eight. The opponent is like, are they really going for it? Wow. This O'Connell must be like really football woke. Oh my gosh. Right. Cousins takes the snap, pitches it over his shoulder to Zach Davidson. He punts it away

there's nobody back there it's an 86 yard punt yeah they could do like pooch pump things where they have zach davidson in the backfield as in the shotgun maybe like oh he's gonna be a blocker no no it's just an auto snap to him and we're just gonna do this punt that i don't really know why any college team ever does it but they do do that uh And we, you know, we can bring that in just, just for fun. Just why not? Yeah. I feel like maybe an overlooked criticism of Mike Zimmer, not utilizing the tight end slash punter. All right. Onto our next question. I want you to rank your top three most interesting position groups, Paul. This isn't battles. This is just groups. This is just most interesting group yeah it doesn't have to be a position battle yeah but just has to have intrigue my number one the one i'm just

interested to see what happens in is the safety group um with lewis seen harrison smith a year older but in a new system and what like what they do withynum and kind of the different ways that they deploy him. I'm really, really excited to see where they have Cam Bynum lined up and just in general how Lewis Seen looks, first-round pick, obviously, and how Harrison Smith looks in another year older. He's obviously been a really, really good safety for a really long time. And so that position group doesn't really have any intrigue in terms of who's going to be the number one, who's the number two, who's the number three.

I think there's a clear pecking order between that group, but I think they can be used in different ways. Cam Bynum is a guy that played well last year and you want to see him develop. And I think over the off season, people just get hyped up. And I think Cam Bynum has just naturally gotten hyped up for him playing just decently well so I want to see him back that up but the safety group number one for me is one I'm I'm just really intrigued to see what they look like because it has the makings to be a really good group uh if Lewis seen hits that's a group of depth that's a group with different types of guys in that back end that can do different things. So maybe we can go back and forth with different ones.

But I'm really, really intrigued by the safety group. Okay, I'll agree with you. And yeah, we'll make out the list here of the top three. And then if we have other nominations, we can talk about them. Well, I'm going to stay on the same side of the ball in the same general area and go corners would be number one for me uh because you have cam danzler who had a very poor camp and preseason last year and when you talk about what ifs of last year it's always hey what if it wasn't rule of the fumble in cincinnati what if the field bowl went in or what if you know this player, that play was made at

the end of games and things like that. But how about what if Cam Dantzler had come out in his second year and had a really good training camp and convinced Mike Zimmer that he should be the starter. It was a mistake for Zimmer to stick with Bashad Breeland as long as he did. No doubt about that. But when you come out in your first preseason game against Denver, just get roasted for a long touchdown. Like, I mean, you've got to earn that job when you're going up against the veterans. So his Dantzler kind of learned his lesson where he's got to come in and earn the gig right away. Cause there will be some pressure from behind him. Uh, Patrick Peterson and how he looks won't make much difference to me. Hard to say a lot lot of times, I remember this with Terrence Newman,

a lot of times veteran players look bad at the beginning of camp because they work themselves into the right level of shape. Like they can't be going hard 365. They have to kind of time it out right to be for the regular season as opposed to right at the beginning of camp to like work like crazy to get themselves in the right shape. So that might be the case for Patrick Peterson peterson won't be too concerned about that but andrew booth jr who as we record this still oddly hasn't signed his contract i mean i'm guessing that there's issues

with guarantees and his injury history and everything else that have to get worked out i suspect that it'll get worked out in the next couple days and he'll be there but andrew booth's health and how he looks in comparison to Cam Dantzler and the nickel position. Is there an actual battle there? Shannon Sullivan has numbers that look good and numbers that look not as good for his career, but he has been a starter the last two years at a nickel position and overall has performed okay. So I'm guessing that he'll be that guy, but is there anybody that's going to be able to come for him uh is kind of an intriguing question as well and it's not so much the battle because i think we know who's playing there but it's the idea of can booth be legitimate depth or can

dansler look like he's ready to go from day one and how are we feeling about this position group? Because as of right now, we go into the season, eh, pretty dicey. Like you don't have two veteran players here where you're really confident in what they're going to be. And even because of Peterson's age, you're not a hundred percent of what he's going to be this year. I think it's the one with the most question marks about how good they can play. And that's why I'm most interested. So what's your next one? I'm also going to stick on the defensive side of the ball. And just the entirety of the defensive line is really, really interesting to me.

One, just, I don't know if it's, I don't know most teams, like their top two guys have so much unknown and question marks with them and just how they're going to look. We haven't seen Daniel Hunter in a while. We haven't seen Zedaria Smith in for an extensive period of time in a while. And so your top two guys, there's no certainty with anyone on along that position group. So you can see that going terribly, but you can also see them playing well and a couple of the other pieces coming together and that being a really solid

unit so the defensive line is super super interesting to me up and down what does daniel hunter look like will he look like he's kind of ready for another contract obviously was it two training camps now ago that hunter had his neck injury that just kept being, oh, he just tweaked it. And then it just never shows up. So you have that history with him. Zedaria Smith is obviously a new player in a new defensive scheme or same defensive scheme, new one for the Vikings and Vikings fans. How does he look in it? How does Armand Watts look in it? You think he feels like one of the guys that could take a next step. How does Patrick Jones and Janarius Robinson and Jalen Twyman look in it? Because one of them has to emerge for this defensive line unit to be any sort of good. They need depth, and so there's guys that need to step up.

Again, the starters aren't in question, but the way that the depth lines up behind them and the confidence that the Vikings can have with their depth is a really, really pertinent and important point that's going to matter for them and might not just catch you when you're first looking at it. But the defensive line has to play well. We did that whole defensive line pod last week so people can get more there. But I think the defensive line group, up and down, each guy has question marks. Each guy has reasons to be intrigued. And I don't know if anyone's really solidified in their spot other than Harrison Phillips.

Otherwise, there's injury questions. There's just performance questions up and down the line. And that position group is going to matter. And not to mention a new scheme for a lot of the guys that were here before so you're going to see different formations and so from my eye just having watched the Vikings play the same style of defense for so long I'm intrigued to see how they're lining guys up how Daniel Hunter looks like without his hand in the ground like how thing how these things are going work. So I'm really intrigued by the defensive line group.

There's a very good case there. And then the other one is the offensive line group, because wide receiver, you're kind of set. Quarterback, you're definitely set. Running back, you're definitely set. And there's not much to ask there outside of the depth. Even tight end just deserves Smith look like he did last year, but he's young. He got hurt in something that shouldn't have long-term repercussions. I'm sure it'll look probably very similar where he's going to look good, but

the offensive line, I don't know that I'm ready to say Garrett Bradbury is interesting. You got to prove it in real games. After we've done this for a couple of years, it's just got to be in real games. If you're going to show me it's different. He got benched last year. Like I'm not going to be watching practice and be like know he's really battled with harrison phillips like no i'm not doing that but the right guard and the wyatt davis thing and is it going to be jesse davis or chris reed at the right guard position and an underrated one maybe since we've already penciled in christian daresaw as just a good player is whether he looks like he's making progress in his second season and not not only that, but his health as well as, and we talk about players that you would have some concern about their health.

I mean, Christian Darasol was hurt what three times last year. He got here coming off surgery and couldn't, I think, couldn't do OTAs or couldn't fully participate. Then he had another surgery and couldn't do training camp. And then he played a good portion of the year, but got hurt and had to miss a game or two. And only Udo needed to fill in. Is that going to be the same case this year?

Or is he going to be healthy throughout training camp? And we're saying, wow, this is a star at the end of the day. So I think out of, you know, I think my list would probably include offensive line over defensive line. And we agree on the secondary. And we didn't even talk about long snapper. There's no battle. What are they doing?

No battle for the long snapper position? Come on. But, yeah, I think that those rank among the highest. So let me just move on to the next question then. Your favorite camp darling of years gone by Paul years of the past. There have been many players, not just Mr. Mankato's, but players who fans fell in love with throughout the summer. Some of them went on to have success.

Some of them did not go on to have success. So who are your favorite camp darlings of the past? Am I allowed to say Kari Vedvik? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Because Kari holds a special place in my heart. That was the first training camp I was out there at.

People know this story. They listen to the podcast. My job for several days was to just carry a camera around and film every single thing that Kari Vedvik did. Oh, he's going to punt now. Okay, watch it, punt, watch him punt. Wait, now he's going over to kick? Whoa.

So just personally, I spend a lot of time with a camera just on the second field while everything else is actually going on on the one field. I'm over there with the specialists as Kari Vedvik's doing some things and then ultimately melting down. So as my own personal favorite, it's Kari Vedvik's doing some things and then ultimately melting down. So as my own personal favorite, it's Kari Vedvik. Otherwise it's just insert veteran receiver that gets cut, but people get intrigued by when they sign them in late June, you know, your Kendall rights, your Jordan Taylor's your this year your albert wilson's uh just those are personal favorites to me too um just because every year and i don't necessarily blame

people for this they go back and they see he's got good stats and they say why not uh but usually he's available that year late into the year for a reason and he's really there as a camp body and a flyer and i don't know if any of them have actually worked out like is there one that made the team and actually did anything you you'd have better knowledge of that than me but i like i guess maybe like michael floyd a little bit but he was a i i don't know they're they really don't exist so that just that faction of fifth and fourth wide receivers you can even throw alexander hollins in there because people plays well and then you get mad so just insert fourth fifth

potential wide receiver here uh that's always my favorite darling guy uh every single year so i know who people want me to say they want me to say kyle sloater and uh congratulations to kyle sloater for joining the jacksonville jaguars after playing in the usfl but i have to say though that i just i didn't enjoy the kyle sloater thing really at all i mean that's because i think that it was a lot of people on the internet trying to like rile up fans about kyle sloater and fight with people for their own attention and i I don't think it was real. Like no one really believed that. And then, you know, but Mike Zimmer dunking on Kyle Slaughter, his dad tweeting people like it became a fiasco. And I don't even know if that's

a darling. I think that that's just like, it got totally ridiculous because everybody was bored for football. Did he make t-shirts? Yes. Yes. yes. He made t-shirts on his own personal website. And I remember people in the locker room being like, really? You're not even on the team, you know? So, and he wasn't and he got cut. But it was a lesson though. It was a lesson about preseason and a practice versus preseason that the practices mean way more than the preseason games, especially late in the

preseason games. And also that, you know, it's just when you talk about like what someone needs to do to be an NFL quarterback, arm strength and athleticism are great of which he had both, but really it's, you know, lining up people, knowing the offense, throwing to your correct reads. And I remember Sage Rosenfels watched one practice and he just came out to practice and we were chatting. He was watching quarterbacks run through the offense and he was like, Oh, Jake Browning is going to be ahead of Kyle Slaughter because Sage ran the Kubiak offense when he played and he could already tell that he wasn't throwing to the right places. And so like the, you know, evaluating quarterbacks is, is tricky when you have good preseason

performances, but I can understand why there was confusion. I just think that it became like a total bleep show and it was unnecessary. My favorites. I mean, for sure. Corey Vedvik, Michael Floyd, you mentioned is a personal favorite because we just wrote so much about Michael Floyd. Courtney Cronin wrote a 3000 or 4,000 word humongous piece for ESPN when he came back. And I think it was week five against Chicago and he caught one pass.

It was like a great catch. And so, you know, he did nothing else the whole rest of the year, but I, I kept saying to her, but like, it was a great catch in Chicago though.

If you wrote that article and Chad graph wrote the big piece about Jordan Taylor, there was a Tajay sharp mixed in. But you know, the thing about those players is so often that they don't even really do anything in camp. And then it's just like, Oh, well, we kind of talked about it. Alexander Hollins though. He must've made 20 great plays in camp and it didn't matter because he was playing, he was playing he was playing

the second and third team and there was somebody else that they wanted to fit in it actually might have been tajay sharp so they really probably should have kept alexander holland's i mean why not uh what would the difference be um there was a trey roberson was a corner who had a couple of interceptions that i think people got a little hot and heavy about he was like a converted quarterback and anytime anybody's changing positions, oh yeah, like that's the good stuff. That's the good stuff. That is the good stuff.

And some of the great campers. Ole Udo's been like a three-time training camp darling. Oh, yes. Three years, yes. Yes, because I remember last year saying on the pod, I was like, boy, if we're talking about Ole Udo playing guard, that's like being lost at sea and considering drinking the ocean water.

And then when he got the starting job, you know, of course, a bunch of people were like, oh, see, you know, you didn't know he was going to be a guard. And then immediately it's a disaster. It's like, well, and there you have it, friends. What a wild ride it was for all of us. Stop moving offensive linemen around and they're not positions that they don't play. Yes. offensive linemen around and they're not positions that they don't play yes yes one of the uh longtime listeners of the show sent me because i had made some right guard jokes and he said like you know a right guard walks into a bar or wait wasn't that guy recently a tackle like you know

just just great stuff just great stuff um nostalgic wise just from my childhood uh and probably just because i was 10 and just thought his name was funny. But John David Booty will always have a place in my heart for Vikings training camp. I think he backed up Brett Favre for a little bit. Maybe he was the third stringer there. So, yeah, it was Brett and then Sage and then like John David Booty. Shout out John David Booty. Maybe we need to find

john david booty get him on the show tweet at john david booty and tell him he needs to come on the show if sage can break all this stuff down i'm sure john david booty's got some insight so i mean think think about how good you have to be at playing football to be like a star usc quarterback at that time when usc had this huge program and you're just nowhere close to Brett Favre. Right. That's just the world of football for you. But yeah, there are endless ones. Terrell Sinkfield converted wide receiver to corner, getting some hype. You had Jaleel Johnson once upon a time had, I think in his first training camp, a couple of sacks and in the preseason games. And it was like, well, you know you know this jaleel he could penetrate the offensive line and then just you know absolutely nothing there um not all of those

work that way i mean adam thielen is a good example of somebody who you went hmm you know this guy uh i wasn't here for him emerging as a mr mancato but like is this guy actually good and then all of a sudden he was so sometimes what i'm saying is you're not crazy if you fall in love with the camp darling and it's part of the fun because there's not a lot to debate about kirk cousins and training camp although he'll find a way uh next next question here how can we tell if the offense looks better and this particularly goes along with if they're not playing a lot of starting reps in the preseason. How can we tell?

Yeah, I don't know if there's a great foolproof. I mean, I don't think anything's foolproof, but I don't know if there's an amazing way to tell. I think the way you tell is how they talk about it when we talk to them as media. If it looks like there aren't miscommunications if i mean the biggest thing is if kevin o'connell and kirk cousins look like they're on the same page if they're buddy buddy if they're talking about their film sessions that they ran that they spent three hours on yesterday talking about stuff uh and you have more physically watching players at training camp practices day after day experience

than I do. So maybe you can point to more intricacies that you're going to look for. But for me, it's more intangible. It's more almost like vibes related. Like how are things going? Because we've seen this offense be pretty good despite the vibes of not being great between the head coach and the court and and the uh quarterback and so i think for me i'm just looking like does everyone seem to be on the same page does kirk cousins seem to be like grasping the offense like is he not throwing his helmet in frustration like are things just going smoothly i I think if there's, if they're smooth and there's not a ton to report, I think that's the good that comes with it. If there's, oh, things aren't going well so far and people are struggling to run routes and do certain things, that's when you have to be concerned. So I think silence is more how you know if things are going well than the

latter. I think it's the less we hear about it, the better it probably is going. The in years past, the best indicator has really been body language because success on certain plays, especially early in camp, isn't really the greatest indicator because a lot of times they're working through the kinks.

Like they're trying to get something down, some part of their base offense, and they're doing new things. And every year it's been a new offensive coordinator and how it correlates to week one or the first couple of weeks of the season hasn't really matched up. Sometimes they've looked flustered and then played well. And sometimes they've looked great and not played well.

I thought in 2019, if I remember, it was a pretty bleh camp and they looked pretty much fine. Although I do remember, I do remember Stefan Diggs being upset like in training camp multiple times. So there was that. But you know, then they came out and really struggled in the first couple of weeks and then they got it together later on and turned out to be the best offense since Kirk Cousins has been here. It can be a little tough to judge how everyone's body language looks, how they talk about the offense. Is it going to be where they're like, I mean, guys, we're just rolling out there. We're really getting it. Or will it be, uh, you know, we've got some things to work through and

then you match those things up uh you're tracking the success luckily we're not one of those beats that uh does like kirk was seven for 11 today pass like come on stop that's just ridiculous no one cares about that i don't know i see that everywhere where other uh groups of reporters that cover teams will be like oh dac prescott was i'm just using this example i don't know if dallas does it, was 14 for 16 passing today. Like, was there some question about whether Dak Prescott would complete his passes in practice? I mean, like, right? You know, so is this information that's really going to tell anyone about how the man practiced?

Like, why don't you just tell me what you thought of his practice? Like, was it humming or was it a struggle um there's also the issue of is Kirk getting pressured a lot because in the last few years every year uh since Kirk has been here we could really tell that the offensive line was getting beaten a lot uh by the defensive line and especially as the defensive lines were not as good that became more concerning like if you're getting beaten by Everson Griffin, okay. But now if you're getting beaten by the guys who were there last year, that's not great for you.

And they were. So I think that we're kind of looking for what does the offensive line look like? It kind of starts there. And there's just from watching football for anybody's entire life. You can do this in the stands or on the sidelines. There's a clock in your head. You're like, okay, three there's a hitch ball like ball what throw it like and then

if it looks like that is what's going on which i know can be the experience watching kirk sometimes but if that's what looks like it's going on and then you see people throwing their arms up people looking around and if that happens early on okay if going on. And then you see people throwing their arms up, people looking around. And if that happens early on, okay. If it happens throughout camp, then you're going to go, something might not be really clicking here. And I thought that that was the case to some extent last year that in camp, it just didn't look like everybody was really on the same page.

Even they knew the offense, but just with each other. So, okay. Final question. Can I ask you one other. So, okay. Final question. Can I ask you one thing? Oh, sure. Yeah. Is there anything that could happen? Because I think we're operating under the assumption that Kirk Cousins isn't playing

much. Is there anything that if the offense looked really good with the second and third team, like, is there anything the offense could do with Kirk Cousins out of the game that makes you say, oh, okay. I feel like the offense is improving. I feel like the offense is in a good spot, even if Kirk isn't out there. Yeah, in the preseason games, yeah. That would be personnel related, I think, more than scheme

because they're not going to show their scheme. They're going to run base stuff. I think it was the Raiders a few years ago who ran the old splitback pro form set or whatever where you have a running back on the left and a fullback on the right. We just never see that anymore. But if you watch football in the nineties, you would have seen it all the time with like the 49ers or, or the Broncos,

but that's how little they take it seriously and put out there for scheme. But personnel wise, if we were talking about Mr. Mankato's Jalen nailer is just making plays all over the place you're like well okay or you know i expect that the offensive linemen battling for jobs are going to play so you've got you know chris reed and uh jesse davis and we'll see like what wyatt davis looks like and and so forth if the guards and offensive linemen are going to play and jesse davis runs away with this battle and looks really good in all the preseason games, we might go like, okay, well, I think that that's

kind of a big linchpin to whether this offense is successful. Aside from that though, I mean, even if Ty Chandler runs like crazy, like the guy's not really going to play. So the preseason games, these are for entertainment purposes only. And we'll talk about who played well and who didn't, but we can't take them very seriously as far as drawing conclusions about what the season is going to be. Health would be another thing if everybody stays healthy in those games. All right. Last one. What are the best and worst case scenarios coming out of training camp? To me, it's the same thing both ways it's just health is best and worst case at this point they've left training camp like they left training camp two

years ago without daniel hunter feeling great that doesn't necessarily mean it happened in training camp or training camp caused it but i think the worst thing they can do at this point is say we have a new regime we got to get people out there we got to push them and then someone gets hurt that's the absolute worst case scenario doesn't just any player that they have that they're going to rely on at any point that's the worst case scenario them getting hurt um and best case scenario is all the guys stay healthy uh that's i mean that's a pretty easy answer. And that, you know, that's kind of implied that that's, that is the linchpin to all this. You're trying to install the offense. You're trying to get up to speed. You're trying to do all those things, but

a one, you're trying to stay healthy and you're trying to make sure when we get to games that matter that your guys are healthy. So that's the biggest thing for me in terms of other best worst case scenario things. I think it's partially what we talked about. I think you brought Kevin O'Connell in here to be like friends with Kirk Cousins and to be really working well with Kirk Cousins. I think worst case scenario is that relationship doesn't feel like it's progressed past what Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins had. If they don't feel super buddy, buddy, or they just don't seem like a cohesive unit

that's kind of in lockstep with one another, I think that probably has to be one of the worst-case scenarios for your team. Considering you've pushed at least some chips into the table and said, we want to contend this year, the biggest change you've got to make from last year is you've got to be on page with your quarterback and just the synergy has to be aligned like everything has to be good with that relationship so i think that's the other thing

both best and worst case if that's humming well then i think that's a great sign headed into the regular season if it's not that's not a good sign so that those are my two biggest things yeah i think best case scenario is a no news is good news where on a daily basis, we their purposes, you want the lack of drama. I would say the health thing, for sure. But also, one thing that I've noticed that rookie coaches do right off the bat sometimes in training camp is just step on their own feet. They just do something ridiculous Right from day one, like, wasn't it Joe judge making them run laps. And, you know, you just have things like where from an inexperienced coach, and we don't know with Kevin O'Connell, you do something that's really dumb right off the bat. And you get

everybody thinking like, uh, I don't know if this new coach really knows what he's doing. Now O'Connell comes across to me and this is why when they hired him i thought it was a good idea he comes across to me as a very well-grounded gentleman like somebody who played in the nfl has been just a lifelong football player and then into coaching coaching quarterbacks a finicky position and then being a right-hand man to a very positive minded coach and sean mcveigh who never does that like mcveigh one thing that's great about him is he never manipulates his players you never see a headline about sean mcveigh where you go what in the heck is this man talking about you know i mean like just, from day one, like Matt Patricia was putting up film on the screen and just like annihilating his players, his star players, just ripping everything they did. And everyone was like, what, like, what is your deal, bro? That's number one is don't do anything that is going to make your players think that you don't know what you're doing. That would be at the start of it. As far as best case scenario,

we kind of know what the offense should be. But I think on defense, if they look like they're getting it, if it looks like there's synergy and everybody understands the new system, you mentioned it. Eric Hendricks has never had a different system. And Harrison Smith has almost never had a different system.

He played for less, but like way back in the day, if they look like they're mastering it and they are talking confidently about it, then I think that's a best case scenario and kind of the best you could hope for until they play real teams. If there's confusion, if there's people looking around going, wait, I was supposed to cover who on this play past, maybe the first two weeks, then I think that's a worst case scenario that the idea of changing defensive systems, solving some of the problems they had in the past, if that doesn't look like it's coming to fruition, then yeah. And here's another one, give you a low key one just because

we're us. And this is what we do. If Greg joseph for some reason isn't making his kicks that's bad because greg joseph it looks like you got yourselves kicker friends but every time there's always something around the corner for vikings fans so uh he's uncontested going into training camp and he was last year and kicked great um other than you know one missed kick for a game winner but aside from, otherwise was excellent last year. But if it looks like, oh, no, you've got a problem, as you mentioned, to bring it full circle with Corey Vedvik, you don't want to scramble to try to get that kicker at the end of the year because that's just a mad dash and you never know what's going to happen.

You don't want cameras trained on a guy for an entire week because that tells you that it's newsworthy. And if your kicker's newsworthy, it's never a good reason that your kicker's in the news. It's always bad. So if we have to lead a podcast that's like Greg Joseph, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that's worst case scenario for the Vikings. That just can't happen for them. I don't know how many times I'll bring it up, but probably forever.

When Mike Zimmer said maybe he'll kick and punt the funniest just the funniest come on man we were talking about zach davidson punt and think of all the crazy things i know that they could have unlocked with car maybe he'll kick it but he can't do either he is in the cfl though i saw him on a cfl game is he kicking or is he punting do you know in the cfl this is brilliant because there's just a lack of good kickers in the universe i think they were aware that if you just do regular kicking nfl style it's going to be like the usfl where they just missed 28 yarders they give them a t for for field goals yeah so they can kick them from way out

it's a great idea if only only Vedvik had had a tee. A fifth round pick, which the Ravens turned into Calais Campbell. Amari Cooper was traded for the same as Corey Vedvik. And Chris Herndon was traded for even more. I was just going to say, it's like when in the moment. There's one. Sorry, there's a worst case scenario. If you have something happen, do not panic and give away future draft capital.

Do not panic. Don't trade for Yannick Ngakwe. Just keep your guys, man. Ben Ellefson was playing more than Chris Herndon. Yeah, I think the further we get out the the more wild is the fact that they spent a fourth round around chris herndon he was the number four tight end for the new york jets i think the second worst team in football or whatever i think rick just saw that he was on like some fantasy teams for a couple years and

was like well i mean tight ends can fool you for sure like like you'll have a guy like tyler conklin might be this way you look up average depth of target for tyler conklin he was 35th in the league last year it's just catching dump offs and i like tyler conklin but it's uh that's a minnesota thing to do i'm picking up on some things like i like that guy what what no but i mean it's a good story like somebody makes good on being a fifth round pick and he's a good player and we had him on the show one time and he's like super on the show uh so he's an interesting guy and it's cool that he's made an nfl career out of being a late pick but he was 35th in average depth of target

like those receptions were coming from places where almost anybody would have made the catch. And when Irv Smith was on the team in 2020, he was 11th in average depth of targets. There's a big difference there of someone who can actually go down the field. So I guess don't be fooled by somebody who catches 30 passes in a season and say they must be the next best thing and trade a fourth round pick for them years later. Yeah. Anyway, very specific, but it still applies don't yeah if uh if in rick spielman's media tour he ever stops by the show maybe we'll start there but uh paul thanks for your time as always everyone camp is coming we got the fans only

questions which will uh are the episodes which will carry on through training camp by the way i mean i was even considering i don't know how intense I want to be here, but I think like elite level intense, putting out a lot of fans only episodes still to answer training camp questions and maybe even like two episodes a day. So I don't know. I don't know.

We're just going to jam content down people's throats. Well, you mean, yeah. In a good way. In a good way. Surround them like a warm blanket in the winter with training camp talk or like a warm blanket in the winter with training camp talk or like a cool drink on the back patio. That's what we're doing.

Like the second, the fans only episode is like a cool Diet Dr. P as you're sitting next to the lake. So that's what we'll try to provide for you. Thanks for your time as always, Paul. You will be consistently here co-hosting the podcast during training camp and we'll look forward to that and we'll talk to you all soon.