Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles argues for the Vikings to take an offensive lineman over QB and WR

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

Tuesday Morning Left Guard is back! Matthew Coller and ex-Viking offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles break down the Vikings' options with the 14th overall pick by making Sirles argue against every other position outside of offensive line. Would he be willing to make an exception for a top quarterback? How about if the Vikings could trade down and get a wide receiver? Should they just go best player available? Which spot would he make an exception for? Plus they talk about Garrett Bradbury's 2021 season and the biggest freaks Sirles ever played against. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, celebrate. Symbol, using the promo code PURPLE, you will receive six months free of premium Purple Insider written content at purpleinsider.substack.com. So go to symbol.app, deposit $20 if you're a first-time user, six months free of our premium written content at Purple Insider. If you are not familiar yet with Symbol, it is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks. So as we are fully into draft season you're going to want to get in now with your team before their stock rises here's how it works you buy stock of teams and when your

teams win you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited so check it out symbol.app follow them on twitter at symbol exchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports. What's that sound you hear coming from the trenches? It's former Minnesota Viking offensive lineman Jeremiah Searles. It's time for the Tuesday morning left guard show on Purple Insider. They're too strong, my dog. You're too strong. Yo, Jeremiah Searles, the new intro performed by my friend Manny Hill,

who did all of that editing. Fantastic stuff. Our pre-draft Tuesday morning left guard. What is up, Jeremiah Searles? What's up, Jeremiah Searles? What's up, friends? Good to be back. Awesome intro. Love that. I really hope that we can just be like rocking out after a win on Sunday, like in the fall and just being like so excited because I think we'll have video by then too. We're just like pumping out to your buddy. I love the intro. Nicely done, my friend. Yeah, that was great. So another episode

of Purple Insider presented by scout logistics and symbol your stock market for sports uh and all of our draft coverage is brought to you by victory home team so we're rolling here you're cruising with i know right every week i love it i'm all about it exactly so here's what i want to do on this episode i want to try to convince you that the vikings shouldn't take an offensive lineman the 14th overall pick because i think it was in maybe october where you were like you know who they should really get is penne sewell they should try to get him well they're probably not going to be able to get him but i'm going to run through the potential arguments for not drafting alignment and i want you to argue against them as you want. I'll gladly rebuttal. I will gladly rebuttal every argument that you have.

Why don't you go ahead and start? All right, let's start with this, Jeremiah. What if there is a top five quarterback prospect on the board at number 14? Would that do it for you? No. Do you want him to die? I mean, do you want to draft a quarterback just to watch him get scooped up off the turf over and over do you want to joe burrow 2.0 where he blows his knee out because no one can protect

them terrible choice absolutely not you're you got kirk cousins i think you ride with him i know we've had our ups and downs with our guy kirky but i don't think that you can overlook a first round left tackle or a first round because there's a lot of good offensive linemen early in this draft you just can't say we'll fix it later which is all they've done for the last since i was there in 2015 is we'll fix it later fix it later like it's later it needs to get fixed no you make a good point about that and they have been 32nd in offensive line spending also for the last couple of years now that's going to have to change with brian o'neill extension we'll see what happens down the road

with garrett bradbury eventually they will have to spend money on this thing but as of right now they really haven't and the acquisitions of mason cole and returning dakota dozier don't exactly do it but let me let me push this one though because if you were to move on from Kirk Cousins after this season because you drafted Trey Lance say you would have like 20 million dollars to work with to go out on that free agent market and find yourself some guards to put together with the players that you've been drafting which is is Ezra Cleveland, Garrett Bradbury, and Brian O'Neill? I'm not sold on any quarterback after Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, and Zach Wilson.

After that, I think it's a complete crapshoot, and I don't think either three of those will be there at 14. So, yeah, you can draft Trey Lance, but there's a lot more unsuccessful first-round quarterbacks than there are super successful first-round quarterbacks. So I think that, like, if you're looking – and, and again this is a staff that kind of needs to win now they they need a tristan worse in their life right a guy that comes in plays at a super high level gives you a ton of snaps on the offensive line and i think there's multiple guys in this draft as i've watched some of these guys coming out of college that can do that that can come in and give you 60 snaps a game for 16 games or freaking 18 games now so stupid and allow you

to come in so I think that you have to go offensive line here and then address the quarterback situation later because it's kind of like we've said always like you've made your bed with Kirk Cousins like you lay in it and now you got to build the pieces around him so that if he does now not have success and the offensive line's the best, and because you upgraded it with a young player who's a stud, you've got the best running back in the league, you've got two all-pro receivers, there's no more excuse for why Kirk shouldn't be one of the top five quarterbacks in every category in the NFL this year. So I do think that if, at least from my perspective,

there's a top five quarterback on the board, they have to think really, really hard about that and where they want to go in the future with this. And I think that that is a scenario that they will be anticipating, but I see your point with, if it's not those top three quarterbacks, especially because you can trade down and then you can make the decision after this year, if you want to draft quarterback if you want to even trade up for a quarterback because i think jeremiah it is really important to give whatever young quarterback you have a great setup to start with i mean sam darnold i don't know if he was ever going to be great but the reason we still don't know is because he was

playing with such a bad team for so long i think you want to set him up with a really, if that's the way you're going to go, with a really good offensive line, with really good wide receivers, with a running game, with a defense, and then you can step that player in and have it feel like the Rams when Jared Goff was going into year two,

or when Carson Wentz had that great supporting cast around him. I think that's what you would aim for if you are going to transition. So I could see where you would say trade down out of that pick to Washington, pick up a second rounder, and then continue to stack around Kirk Cousins for now. Right, and let's not pretend that we're not going to have a decently high pick next year. Let's not sit here and be like, oh, we're going to be picking 28th next year, or we're going to be picking like, realistically, I just don't see it it i don't think we've made enough moves right now in the offseason to say

hey we're gonna jump to a 10 and 7 team or a 10 and 8 team or whatever it might be or an 8 and 10 like i you know how many games there are next year tell me this tell me the truth there's 18 do you know no there's not there's 17 oh i'm an idiot god i'm an idiot hey i'm running on no so i got a three week old i got a nine week old puppy i'm i'm running on fumes here give me a break this is golly i apologize everyone i i'm a professional you're out of the game for two seconds you don't know how many games there are this is tremendous yeah 17 games right is that what it is 17 yes 17 games whatever so because the other eight didn't sound right so when you said 16 and 18 i was like did you were you just averaging them out or i don't know what's

wrong with me i need to get some sleep but anyways so i think that we're going to be picking about relatively the same give or take three spots next year. And there might be some high quarterback picks next year if you decide to move on from Kirk Cousins next year. But again, I think you're right. If you want to say, OK, in two years we have a young quarterback, then is there a quarterback coming out next year that's not as talented as Trey Lance? I don't know. Maybe. Now, I think that it's a very different conversation, like you said, if you're picking one one of those top three quarterbacks because I don't necessarily know looking next year if there's anything that's like those three coming out this year but I think there will be a Trey Lance type caliber quarterback in next year's draft that you could then pick up after like you said you built some good pieces in front of him so that he's better put in position for success than he is if

he were to just jump right in next year so I would still do it because you could sit the guy behind kirk and then have him take over next year but i see your point i mean i think that you make a fair point on trying to get the roster into a better place i do think i need you before i continue to harass you about the offensive line thing expand on what you were saying about their projected record that you couldn't figure out but out of 17 out of 17 because we have not discussed we have not discussed a lot of the free agent stuff you were busy like procreating and adopting animals so we have not gotten back together recently since they added delvin tomlinson added patrick peterson i think that there is a split vikings fan base where some people think, okay, all right, Zimmer has done all these things on defense to fix this,

and the offense should continue to be good, and the NFC maybe isn't as strong, and so you're a contender. But it seems like you kind of feel like they're still in the middle. I just don't see a piece that was glaring enough at us last year. Like one defensive lineman is not going to make up for the lack of pass rush that we had last year um one big time quarterback and then losing gladney with rightfully so the dude not okay um that's gonna hurt too but it's like where where all the sudden was it like okay our defense is back i feel like everyone just thinks we're gonna get back to 2017

2018 like very quickly like that's just not gonna happen you lose departures of eric wilson departures of afadio dingabo like you have some of these departures that they weren't throwing up a ridiculous number as we talked about it they were not world beaters but there was some consistency to that to now there's a lot more unknown now there's a couple michael pierce comes back a little bit of an unknown but you know he'll be back, hopefully, and stuff that middle. Tomlinson, you could tell he sold out to stop the run, right? You could tell that Zimmer's like, okay, I'm tired of watching

running backs running the A and B gap on us. That can't happen anymore. Fine, cool. But the lack of pass rush is still what concerns me, especially when you're playing against Aaron Rodgers, Red Rocket, Andy Dalton now. You got Jared Goff. I mean, they're going to throw the ball around a little bit in the NFC here and so I just don't see the defensive side of all taking a jump from 32nd or 31st whatever they finished at last year to basically back to we're gonna win a bunch of games because of our defense

and not because we're gonna score 100 points hundred points. Cause I think the offense is going to look very similar to last year, unless they hit on some absolute diamonds in the roughs or some studs on the draft. That's really going to bring some differences. Okay. So this takes me to my next position, which is wide receiver. And I have been on the wide receiver three train for quite some time. I think you can trade back and still get a Rondell Moore, a Rashad Bateman and Elijah Moore, guys who could be game changers for you in that wide receiver three position. And even though Kyle Rudolph didn't get a ton of targets last year, you're still talking about a lot of targets when you start to add them up of who a wide receiver three could replace between bc johnson chad bb kyle rudolph like there's going to have to be other guys that you distribute football to even with a team that does not plan on throwing it 700 times next year and if you ask me one thing that could take them to another level even if the defense is average

it's if they improve on offense from 11th to say, you know, top five or fringe top five, I think that makes you much more of a legit contender. It just seems like Mike Zimmer, every time he talks is like, no, no guys, the offense was great. I don't know what you guys are talking about. Like Dakota does. You're fine. Chad BB, like he gets open for six yard gains. Like, right. I gains. It just seems that way, but I think wide receiver three is another answer that's similar to drafting offensive line, except for it can impact right away, where offensive line, I think, takes a little longer to develop. I think that you can find a wide receiver three, like you said, second, third, fourth round. I think that this is a deep enough wide receiver class, and there are some freaking studs.

As you look around the pro days, there's some fast dudes in this in this receiving corp this year where again yeah you can address that i think that is something that they will address in the draft does it need to be in the first round i don't necessarily think so um because again wide receiver threes are great but if you can't throw the ball to him because you're on your back it really doesn't matter so you got to draft an offensive lineman but i think that you're right if you're going to look at the departures of rudolph who is such a mainstay is herb smith going to pick up that slack is herb smith going to maybe be that hybrid tight end three or tight end kind of maybe the wide receiver three in the big sets right i think they could do some stuff with them and then do they

draft one of those big receiving tight ends right i mean everyone's looking for the kyle pitts which dude's a freak show but i think that if you're looking at that but i think you're absolutely right in the facts that kirk cousins needs a little bit more answers to then just throw into his young animal who again i'm red hot on now started light blue i'm all i'm all red now and then the veteran of adam thielen who's going to be there if someone gets hurt right as they add as adam's getting older like can his body keep up with the longevity jefferson coming off his rookie year like how was his off season how was he able to perform can he stay healthy and so there's a lot that goes into having that third receiver that can jump to number one or number two, if something happens.

So I'm all in on drafting a wide receiver at some point in this draft, not on day one or two or day two, excuse me. Well, especially since they went to the 21 game season, can Adam feel it? I hate you. Can't Adam feel and handle it. I'm such an ass. But, you know you make a fair point that this does have a lot of receivers who are in this draft that if you wait until the third round that doesn't destroy your opportunity to get one i think what it would do in the first round is give you more uh guarantee

on the box that you're getting someone who is a top level prospect does it well it does tread well does it not no not not all first rounders no of course not but you can do that with every position i mean every single position has that issue it's just that you are getting a higher cut of talent if you're taking the first round or you're improving your chances um if you're getting rashad bateman versus if you take a risk on a third round guy how much can they compete right away how much development do they need like those sort of things um I think the first rounder does give you a better chance there and then have your guy for the future so right now and when Adam Thielen is older and has to kind of transition into a third

spot I'm this might be a bad take I don't know but i don't see rashad bateman as a first rounder i i don't i don't see i don't think that with the deep class that this is i don't necessarily think he has all of the intangibles or all of the skill set and i think him sitting out then playing not playing super stellar and then sitting out again i don't necessarily know if teams are going to spend a first round pick on him this year yeah i was talking to somebody recently that thought second round pick is probably i think second round um but even if you had like a ronda more for example that guy can help you in a lot of different ways so i still i still like that as helps you now helps you later helps kirk get the most out of kirk and also takes all excuses off the table for Kirk. But let me circle back to what

you're talking about with Irv Smith, where I just wrote about this the other day that both he and Garrett Bradbury, we have not quite got a full handle on the 2019 draft class and whether it's been a success or a failure so far, it has not worked with either one of them. I mean, 30 catches last year is not enough to say, wow, that was a hit nailed it with Irv Smith and with Bradbury, he's had his issues too. What would it take for the 2019 draft to be a home run in your mind from those two specifically? Cause they're really the ones that determine it, not Arman Watts. Right? No, I think that the big one for, for Bradbury, the big one is like the glaring issues that he's had in the last two years of getting pushed in the pocket. And then the other one of like, just seems kind of like he gets beat in the run game, like slow crossface on his face, right? Like, does he take the jump of year three of being like, hey, this is, this is easier now, right? Like, right? Like this is how things move forward now.

And also he's going to have a guard next to him. I mean, he might be playing guard, so who knows? But I think that the biggest thing here is if you're going to look at Bradbury, is he still improving or has he hit his ceiling? I think that if he's still improving and you can see marked improvement, then you're like, okay, so he's still getting better as a player versus if he's having the exact same issues that he's had since rookie year. You're like, OK, well, this this guy is not getting any better. He's a good player, but he's never going to be the stud first rounder that we thought he was going to be and become the next. I mean, A.Q. Shipley or be one of those guys that just plays forever, right? And then if you look at Irv Smith, you think, okay,

there's no one in front of him anymore, and there's no excuse for while – well, Kyle's tight end one. So give him a break. Like, it's his job to go out there and perform. Now, I think you need to see four or five touchdowns out of him, red zone threat, and then you need to see, I mean, 60 to 80 catches. I think it's something that you can look at and say okay in this system as much play action as we run as much boot outs as we run like he should be getting

five to seven targets a game and what can he do with the ball in his hands because we all know it's no secret he's a little more athletic than what Kyle is with the ball in his hands and a little bit more explosive so I think you need to see that jump from him this year or it's kind of the same thing like he's reached his potential already. So I'm not doing this to you on purpose to continue to beat this joke into the ground, but for all 17 games, I know you need those guys,

but there is a, there is a key point here through the first 10 games of the year. Garrett Bradbury last year was ranked fourth by pro football focus of all centers. He finished 23rd, I think. And then Irv Smith through the first four weeks was ranked as one of the worst tight ends who stepped on the field in the first quarter of the season. He finishes over the final 12 weeks as a top 10 tight end. But the last time I checked, you got to play the whole season. Otherwise you're kind

of just the guy. And that's how how that's how just guys work out where you know oh this guy had a really good game and then the next week he's not there but the legitimate starters the guys who are pushing the needle and making a difference are doing it for the full season i think that that's what they need to see and with bradbury um well give me your opinion on this the data says the pff study found that centers take their biggest jump from year two to year three why do you think that is is that a positional like challenge is it the mental part of it is it finally catching up to what they have to do to handle guys that are so much bigger than them and what do you think that is i think a lot of it has to do with the mental side of it i mean

your first year is so much of just drink from the fire hose, especially if you're starting as a rookie. Like not only are you trying to figure out how to block these monsters across me, but it's your job to get everyone lined up. And if you don't, like the sixth year guy to your right doesn't care if you're the center, right? Like it's your job, make it happen.

And that's a lot of pressure on a young guy, especially coming in from college where who knows how simple the scheme was. I mean, so many college now, right? You you look to the sideline they're holding a giant rubber duck card and it means the play like you didn't have to read the safeties you didn't have to find the mic point you didn't have to re-mic everything and hot hot hot and oh by the way that's Michael Bennett or that's Cliff Averill or that's some all pro right across from you right I mean there's so many things that go across that so I think that year two you get to slow that down a little bit but you're still kind of like okay feeling it out now and again now having not a

different offensive coordinator but again a different coordinator there's going to be new wrinkles you usually year three you hope that you have the same coordinator at least the same system so you can take that big jump moving forward and the facts of everything's the same mentally so you're not trying to learn everything new again what really screws a lot of guys is if you have different coordinator year after year after year different system different protections different quarterbacks you want that consistency for guys that are in growth so i think that with everything being remotely the same going into 2021 here um that that's where you should see a big jump taken by him folks the football offseason is

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And that's where after this year, we can really judge kind of what they have there. Right. If it's the same as it's been, then it's probably not going to get better. But if it takes a big jump, then they know they've got their guy for a long time. Let me try to convince you on another position. Defensive end pass rusher. There are

some monsters here. You'd like to call them werewolves. There are some werewolves. I was looking at the relative athletic scores of guys like Jalen Phillips and Quiddy Paye. And you can't tell me that Mike Zimmer is not looking at Quiddy Paye and his athleticism and going, you know, that looks a little like Everson. If you squint, doesn't it? A six to guy who I think has like a 98th percentile athletic profile. Somebody like that. Somebody like Jalen Phillips, even, I don't know, Gregory Russo, if they want a really long guy.

There's a lot of defensive ends here. And, you know, Daniel Hunter, let's even assume he comes back. Your other pass rusher, which again is a big assumption, your other pass rusher is Steven Weatherly or DJ Wanham, and you have no Sheldon Richardson to rush up the middle, so it's going to have to come from the outsides. They have to improve that one way or another, and this draft has a lot of guys who might be able to do it. That'd be probably the one position I might be able to level with you on

because is especially if you're looking at the db room going okay you got patrick peterson you lost out on harris right you still got smith but it's like how do we protect some of the young corners and how do we protect some of these guys well you get to the quarterback and so if there's one position where you're like okay well this might be just because i'm an o-line d-line guy i could see going for after a big time pass rusher in the first round. Cause it's kind of like you said, it's the risk. The risk reward is when you draft a guy that high, you usually get pretty good production out of him in year one.

It's not one of those guys where you're like, okay, we need to develop. It's like, Hey, go be really athletic and run by this guy. Right. And you just kind of can do that. And he doesn't have to, he doesn't have to play 60 snaps a game he can play 20 he can play 18 he can just go in on rushdowns and get production and I think that if you're going to look for a guy like that there is a lot in this draft but if you're going to spend the first round pick on a defensive end I worry about where you're going to find another offensive lineman because i feel like as you move down into the second the third there's so many more glaring needs that i don't know if you can justify like hey we're spending a second on offensive lineman who he might be a

third round pick on our board but we just need him because he might not be there in the third round type of thing um i think that if you're looking at it i still say offensive line first but if there's any position it'd be defensive line that i've got i've got one more and then we've got to talk about how this thing is shaking out with now mason cole our savior yes yes right the the trade they'll not hey this is better than trading for a kicker slash punter so you've got to give them that uh here's the last one i've got b p a best player available you don't worry if it's an offensive lineman a defensive lineman a cornerback kyle pitts if he drops in the draft you just take right talent he's not going to drop in the draft i get it but even even a corner

if it if it were to happen uh everything basically but linebacker i'm not really sure you could make a great case to take a linebacker just because of positional value of course not halfback or something that'd be ridiculous but everything that matters best player available and i'll tell you my opinion is that they should actually do this just best player available because you are like you said you're in a position that it doesn't really appear you're ready to compete for the Super Bowl. Your roster is not completely stacked at every spot and you're trying to find the last piece. You just need good football playing dudes. I can get on board with that, especially if unless there's someone that this like whatever reason the staff is absolutely in love with that.

They're like, no, this is our guy, right? Like this is number one. We're taking him. The best player available is not a horrible choice because most likely you're going to need his help on this team. Like, unless it's like you said, unless it's a running back or a linebacker like everywhere else, you could use really high talent on this football team right now.

So I could get on board with the best player available, but I still think that if you're looking to build for two three years down the road you need to have a plan and bpa doesn't necessarily always fit into your plan okay now let's talk about the offensive line oh yes are you taking a guy who is a pure tackle and that's all he is because he's going to be your left tackle and And that's like Christian Derrissaw. I don't think you're getting Panay Sewell, but maybe if you got really excited about him and he dropped to 10, you would trade up or something. I still don't think that that's happening either. But Derrissaw is more of a tackle. Rashawn Slater, Elijah Vera Tucker, those guys are tackle slash guards.

Like, which would you rather see? Or do you have an opinion on you know specific guys if you've seen them yeah you know i like the elijah barrett tucker guy i think that he's one of those guys that he can play tackle um but he can play guard too and i think that the position flexibility in the nfl is really important because you can play tackle in college but that doesn't mean you can play tackle in the nfl now i'm not saying that you can't but those are kind of guys it's like you get them into camp and hey you know what they're pretty good tackle but man these two could be a kick-ass guard right like and those are the

conversations versus you draft a guy that's 610 or like a spencer brown right spencer brown out of northern illinois or northern iowa he's 610 320 like dude's a tackle and say you draft him and he gets in there and he's struggling it's not you can't bump a 6'10 guy into guard um so I like anyone between that 6'6 to 6'8 range because they can play both and everyone's like we've got to have 33 and a half inch arms man it's like no he doesn't if he's a good player he's a good player I think the arm value is a little out of reach yeah there's guys that have like 80 inch arms like tron armstead or tyron smith like yeah that helps but another guy that i really like in this draft is i do think slater is one of the best guys based off the fact that the way he moves um watching his

pro day like his hips and everything are just really incredible a guy a lot of people are sleeping on um is a guy out of north dakota state dylan Raddins I think that he's he's a guy that he really can play absolutely any position on offensive line he went down to the senior bowl he played offensive guard tackle center he's one of those guys that his athleticism really speaks for itself so I think that he's a guy that uh can be really available there too as well and then as far as this the Sewell guy he should be absolutely gone. But I think that it depends where you're doing with Ezra Cleveland. Where are you putting him? Do you think he can cut it at where he's at?

Or are you getting someone to compete with him or someone to help groom him? I'm not entirely sure what their plan is with him. So you watched all the tape of every game last year, and you saw all of Ezra cleveland do you got it you got a take or or how much can you even tell from watching guys play right guard if you can play left tackle that's what i'm saying it's hard to say now you can look at things technique wise and you can look at things like as far as his footwork and whatnot and go does that translate to being able to deal with the werewolves off the left side and immediate reaction is no because when he got

himself in trouble is when the speed rushers moved down inside on him when those guys that are a little quicker and they weren't just going to run into your chest but they're going to work your edges like he struggled he got his hat his head out in front of his knees sometimes made him bend at the waist he threw his hands and just absolutely threw no hitters and when when you're playing at left tackle you can't do those things those are things that you you if you're gonna die you gotta die a slow death right you can't throw the no hitters out of left tackle and love my guy to death tj clemmings but that's really what ended his career early in the nfls because he'd throw haymakers at guys with his hands completely missed them and then they never broke stride and just would smash the quarterback and so if you're

gonna say well that just happened because he was a guard and things happen a little quicker it's like that is true but left tackle you got to be the best player on the field at most of the time because you're going against one of their best players on the field and I just don't know off the sample size of right guard on a guy that couldn't even start the entire season there over Drew Samia is a guy that I'm willing to bet stock in to go protect everyone off that left tackle spot. I just don't trust it right now. So the other options then are to move him to right tackle, which I don't know if that is a lot different than left tackle this day, these days, you'll have to give me your opinion on that, but I'm not sure that it's that much

different when Khalil Mack rushes over both and Von Miller rushes over both and Daniel Hunter rushes over the right tackle. So I think that there's just enough werewolves. Either one has problems, but you could move him there, move Brian O'Neill to left tackle. You could draft your guy, whichever one it is, and have them come in and compete with Rashad Hill, who they were ready to start last year at tackle I mean what's the best option here you know I think the best option is you leave O'Neal where he's at um you let him stay over there at right tackle you have Rashad Hill and you have either your drafter or you bring over um oh my gosh why am I blanking on his name we just talked about him by ezra cleveland golly man

i'm telling you i need sleep wow you bring ezra cleveland over to the left tackle spot and you let those two fight it off because i think at this point we know who rashad hill is right we know we know what he is he's a solid player i think he doesn't get as much credit as he deserves he's come in and played in some big time games for the vikings in the last five years and showed up does he have his problems yeah i don't think he's great in the run game. I don't think he's super strong at the point of attack in the run game, which is why I don't think he's got on the field as much because we're such a run heavy team. But he is really good in the pass protection. He's got super long arms and a really strong punch and he's hard to get around. Now, that being said, you draft a guy and you could let those two kind of figure it out and you start going, OK, Rashad is capable of starting the first five games.

But this kid that we drafted is the future and he's most likely going to take over after the first five or six and be the guy. Let's leave Ezra Cleveland over it. Right. And let him do his thing, because who else is going to be there? Dozier or Mason Cole? Right like you you don't know but you at least can say hey we're giving him a legitimate shot versus doing what the vikings do best is let's change positions let's just put him somewhere new let's let him start from scratch and let him do it all over again and if he fails it's on him and i don't necessarily think that's a good call i think you need to let him somewhere, have a plan for him and then stick to that plan and let it continue. So where does Mason Cole fit in all of this? I mean,

is he just there like swing? They hope to get a Joe Berger or something. They hope to get a Nick Easton or a Jeremiah Searle, somebody who can contribute, who started with another team. It seems like they have done this quite a bit. I think they want him to replace Dozier i think they do i don't know i don't necessarily think he's like wow that dude's so much better than dakota dozier like i just don't see it i've seen him play but he's a center like he's a center he's he's played center that's what he does so there's part of me that's like are they they're not they can't right they're

not gonna go hey bradbury you played guard before right might they might you've done it before right and like let's see what let's see what mason's got at center like we're just gonna see and then all of a sudden it's like man bradbury's looking pretty good out there you can then they just stick to absolutely i can see i can just absolutely see week one you walk out there like oh garrett bradbury's playing left guard or he's playing right guard or he's playing a not center and then all of a sudden you have pat f line 2.0 and we've seen how that story ends it ends with pat going to carolina and getting paid love that shout out to my guy pat f line by the way and i'm really excited for him but i just don't necessarily know why that move didn't make a ton of sense to me i mean i remember i texted you going really like this is this is what we did for offensive line needs as we traded for a backup at best in my opinion well and there was

a handful of guys that the numbers were just significantly better than dakota dojo who weren't even names but just they could get you much closer to average that they were not able to bring in we talked about austin blythe he ends up going to Kansas city for almost nothing. And you bring up the Bradbury to guard thing. I mean, Nick Easton, they did it with, he actually adapted pretty well, but Pat Elfline, that was a very tough transition for him. And I don't know, it's just the thing that they seem to want to do is to always be changing people's positions around, even the defensive line too with james lynch oh he's drafted as a defensive end but now he's a defensive tackle and then he gets demolished by guards because he doesn't know how to play that position like oh well yeah that happens right so

uh i want you i got a little fun questions for you after this but last like serious question okay what is an a in the first three rounds an a for the vikings draft for you what would they have to accomplish i think you address the offensive line you address the defensive line because i mean it's no secret the game's always one in the trenches right it always is you address a pass rusher on the defensive line you draft a tackle and then i think this is gonna kill me you draft a corner um i think i think we need a corner i think right with the departure of gladney um i'm assuming he's not coming back um you have peterson you're betting on mike hughes staying healthy and i wouldn't put a ton of stock into that just based off of past history and then you you lose Harris at safety. It's pretty thin backfield, pretty thin,

pretty thin DB back for there. Yeah. You got your stud and Peterson and Harrison Smith. But after that we saw time and time again of these wide receivers, especially the big wide receivers coming in and bullying some of these guys. So I think you've got to go corner and top three rounds just to solidify that back end yeah i think so too because the future also is just not very clear at the cornerback position and they've been drafting guys in the later rounds you're harrison hand you're chris boyd we don't know what those guys can become i think i think the book is probably written on chris boyd uh so you got to have just more bodies that you can throw at that problem for the future.

And you make a good point about Mike Hughes. Like, I mean, I guess he's got a chance to earn himself an extension, but he's played fewer snaps than Jeff Gladney has in his career. So how can you trust that to stay healthy? Okay. The fun question I have for you is I want, you know, it's pro day season and it's super fun to see the numbers come out and like, Whoa, look at this guy's whatever. Uh, I want you to tell me who some of the freakiest freaks that you were in NFL locker rooms with, like I'll, I'll just start. And then you could take it from here. Rashad Hills hands are the largest hands I've ever seen on a human being i shook his hand his hand took half of my arm with it uh it's just just like what happened there did you have like nuclear

waste that you washed your hands in so take it from there yeah well so the the two of the biggest human beings i ever met was the very first time i ever stepped foot in an nfl locker room the first two people i ever met in the n were for the San Diego chargers and King Dunlap, who was six foot 10, 345 pounds at the time. And DJ Fluker in his second year, who at that time was probably about six, five, about 400. And they both, they, they sidewalled my locker. So it was DJ Fluker, me, King Dunlap.

And I remember sitting there introducing myself like, I'm never going to play in the NFL. I mean, these dudes are enormous. Like you said, like Fluker's hands like shook the middle of your forearm and he'd stand up and his arms hung down to his knees. And King was the same way. Like he could scratch your chin from across the room. And you're just like towering.

These dudes tower over me. And I was like, Holy crap. Like these dudes are absolute freak shows. And then you go meet Dwight Freeney who has the arm length of King Dunlap, but is like six one. And those are the dudes that are really freaky. It was like the Carl Lawsons of the world.

The guy from that cincinnati i think he signed with uh who'd he sign with baltimore maybe i'm not 100 sure but i know that like you watch him on tape and he's got these yes that's right he's got these arms that are just ridiculous long when you see him stand on the sideline you're like dude he's barely six foot tall but those are the kind of like the freaky proportions of these pass rushers that would have and then one of the other guys that is just an absolute freak show is alden smith and it was because you would go to hit him and his body would be somewhere but his arms would be somewhere else they'd be like slapping you across the face and you'd be like how are you over there then you're just trying to like grab him but he

was just like a slinky player like as far as like what you saw from him, I've never in the locker room with him, but being on the field with him, you could just like feel his athleticism and like slinkiness. Hey everyone, I want to tell you about our friends. It's Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends,

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So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how scout logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. You know, who has also huge hands for not an offensive lineman, but has offensive lineman hands is Stefan Dix. Those things he's only six foot tall, 5'11", somewhere in that range. And he weighs,

if he weighs more than 200, it'd be surprising. And yet these hands are just like, they don't, it's like Mickey Mouse, but it's on him. You know, they said that with Rudolph, but it made sense for Rudolph. He's six foot six. It never made sense for Stefan Dix. Yeah. He had mitts. He had like oven mitts on all the time. And that's why he that's why he's phenomenal. Right. He can catch everything. And then another guy, DJ Fluker, the thing that killed me at size 23 shoes. Oh, my God. Yes, they were enormous. They made size 23 shoes. The way I describe it to people is like, I have a pretty long forearm, I could put his shoe in the bottom of my forearm, and it would go all the way to the tip of my fingers like it was ridiculous he had a custom order all his shoes he had like jordans and stuff but they were size 23 shoes and again right next to my locker i'm like i have size 14s like decent size like and this dude's like it looks like i could put my shoes inside of his shoes and he's one of the freakiest humans i've ever been around that's the thing when you and i stand next to each other you are much larger than me and so i have like a size 11 shoe and i'm 6'1 but i look up at you like wow man this guy's huge these guys make you look small which is incredible

how about this the player who you played against who was the strongest because you see the bench press and i always wonder like does that really translate exactly to playing strength that can throw people around and give and deliver a punch so who is the strongest one that you ever tried to block honestly linville joseph 100 percent um linville joseph is one of the absolute hardest people i've ever tried to move and i never had to play him in a game but going against that dude in training camp and going against that dude in practice he was one of the strongest players i ever played against I mean he could throw you down on the ground with a pull he could push you over and he could run I pound for pound Linville Joseph there's no doubt second close second would be Fletcher Cox his ability if he got two or three

steps in the ground before he hits you, there was no stopping him. Like, his ability for his momentum and how strong his upper body was as far as, like, movement forward, you had to get on him early, which is why you see guys have success that, like, jump set him because he's one of those guys you just can't, like, get started. And then third would have to say probably Akeem Hicks. He's just – he was – I don't necessarily think he's super weight room strong, but he's just heavy. And, like, his he's super weight room strong but he's just heavy and like his ability to use his heaviness was like a sumo wrestler like he's kind of all over

the place and he jumps gaps and does things and if he caught you out balance he could absolutely roll you um but he was just super heavy too with uh linval he patted me on the back once after an interview and i'm not i'm not kidding like i lost my balance and it was just like a friendly, like, Hey, thanks for the chat, man. Like, Oh my God. But I was watching. You ever seen Batman where it's like the Bane where he like puts his hand on.

He's like, do you feel in charge? Like what it's like when the light touches you, you're just like, wow, I am not in control of this situation whatsoever. You know, the one thing about the Delvin Tomlinson move that I like is when you have that guy, it makes such a difference. Like if you look at the way the Vikings performed with Linval Joseph on third and short, fourth and short, they were not just the best team, but kind of by far the best team.

And that goes for everybody. But to me, that was Linval that was his dominance that teams would be like oh yeah we'll just run up the middle on fourth and one and he would throw their center aside I was watching a game where this happened from 2015 against the Broncos where just the other day because it was a good game uh and it popped up in my YouTube and I was like man Linval at his best was just moving bodies i mean truly like an elite elite player in his position i mean i think it was 2015 when we were playing st louis rams i believe they were still st louis he had like 16 tackles yes like he had like linebacker number tackles

as a nose guard and i remember watching that game i think it was like my third or fourth game here as a viking like who is this guy this is exactly like you said it was lock out on the center there's the ball throw the center and go make the tackle and yeah i mean he is a dominant player and i think that he's still got a lot of gas left in the tank i think zimmer does usually a pretty good job of letting guys walk before they reach their potential or they've already reached it and they're on the downhill i think we missed by a couple of years with Linval. Yeah. Linval was making so much money that it was kind of a tough thing. He had had some injuries that beat him up, but I looked back, he had,

I think he had more quarterback pressures and he's not even a pass rusher than both Jaleel Johnson and Shamar Steffan combined. Well, I would say, because like I said, if you let him get, if he just decided like, I'm just going to run through you, there was no stopping him. Like all it took was the quarterback not to be able to step up and it's a pressure, right? He was just like, I'll line up straight over the center and just sprint.

Last last point about this, because we talk all the time about guys coming from college to the NFL and making that transition. And the one reason that I never judge how a draft win or whatever, until I really see them on the field practicing is because nothing could prepare you for Linval Joseph, nothing. There's no one in college football who will ever prepare you for facing that fricking guy. And also you got,

not only just can you match him for strength or whatever technique but you also got to have the guts like did you i i feel like i see this but tell me about how what it's like on the field with this where you see guys who came in who are like oh yeah my parents really proud i'm here got picked up as a udfa like they're tweeting instagrams or whatever tweeting instagrams how old am i you're like me you're like me yeah i know i know but you know like uh you know what i mean they're like oh look i got my jersey and all this whatever they put those pads on and it's over it's just instantly over you're not an nfl player pack your stuff yeah i i've seen it multiple times i think i told the story of my roommate

from san diego that didn't make it two days did i tell you that story no no no so i go undrafted san diego right so we have rookie we were there for like three days and then we had rookie minicamp like we came in and his name is ian something i can't remember he's out of boston college and we come in we go right into rookie minicamp and you immediately be like yep this dude he don't got it like he just he just doesn't have it and we had been kind of talking like man did they cut guys after this like because he was a preferred free agent and like there's some guys there that played better than him and actually one of my buddies i i didn't not my buddy at the time but i was like this guy named craig

watts i was like dude you played really well like out of west texas a&m he's like yeah they're sending me home i was like oh that sucks man like best of luck we go through the weekend i come in the lift on monday and we're lifting together me and ian and he's like hey i gotta take and so he goes to go to the bathroom and then i'm waiting i'm waiting i'm like where the hell is this guy it's been like seven minutes like screw it i'm lifted so i finish lifting and i go to meetings ian's not in meetings i'm like oh this is weird go back to the go back to my hotel room there's a little note it's like hey man thanks for everything they cut me today sent me home like best of luck with everything and then in comes walking craig watts into my hotel room i'm like oh hey craig he goes

oh hey man what happened where's ian i go oh you're in like like and so yeah it definitely absolutely you're right guys come in that think they played good college ball and they just come up with these guys and they just don't have it yeah and it's not a knock on them like it's just football's not for everyone and the nfl isn't for just don't have it. And it's not a knock on them. Like it's just football's not for everyone. And the NFL isn't for everyone. It's really, really hard. And it's sometimes that quick. It can be over that quick or your career can jumpstarted that quick.

Right. And so you're absolutely right. You can't judge guys off of their first few at bats in the NFL because there's no training program for the NFL. It's, it's lived by the fire, die by the fire completely. And you can put that for any position, right? No receiver has gone up against a Richard Sherman or gone up against a Patrick Peterson ever before in their entire life.

So I think you do have to give some grace to these rookies. And it's only going to get harder and harder for these rookies because I do think OTAs are just going to slowly fade away as a thing of the past. Yep, yep. I agree. Um, and for us, for reporters making our little 53s, uh, week three or four of when pads are on, they were like, Oh, that guy. Nope. He, yeah, he was like, he, you know, came out of the gate pretty well early on and flashed into a couple of practices, but three, four weeks into those practices, if you don't got it, it's really going to show up you you can usually mark the first 53 with after the first week of practice like at

least the first 45 the first 45 after the first week of padded football practice and training camp you usually can be like okay he can play he can play he's got no chance i'm excited for camp already we're not into the draft yet. I'm just excited because I don't have to do it. Yeah, right. I bet. Well, for us, it's nice. We stand outside.

We hold notepads. You guys got the best camp, too. I'm telling you, man. Spartanburg, South Carolina for the Panthers training camp is the most miserable place on earth. Mankato was beautiful. Loved training camp in Mankato. Absolutely would do that over and over again this year now that there's not covid protocols we can just go into our nice little cool house and then we can come back out watch for a while go back into our little well the the media room because now

it's a tco performance center so now we can go into our media room and be nice and cool that used to be the tent yes but now it's now it's a room? Yeah, now we got a whole room. And you guys say Zimmer hates you. I don't think he built the whole facility for that. Or at least they didn't tell him. They didn't tell him, yeah, actually, Mike, we're adding a media room to this. Because it's way too nice for him to have anything to do with it. He's probably bugged.

Oh, yeah, there's no question. Yes, that is something that we are sure of. So when we make our jokes, we make them loud. So anyway, Jeremiah, great stuff. Great to get back together. Go back to raising your child and your puppy and we'll get together soon. I don't know when, but we'll make sure it's soon. You're going to be popping on occasionally through the off season. Yes. And I mean, if we do anything,

we'll make sure we'll catch that week 18 game together yeah i mean that's going to be really exciting to watch week 18 i hate myself i mean that's you know that's a big fantasy football week week 18 all right goodbye jeremiah