Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Fresh NFL Mock Draft ideas for the Vikings (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about how the NFL universe is still mock drafting Oregon S Dillon Thieneman in every draft but a few rogue analysts have other ideas. Who are the most interesting other players mocked to the Minnesota Vikings? Let's have a look and then chat draft and more. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here. And I have been spending all day, maybe all night as well, 22 hours a day, reading mock drafts, leading up to the NFL draft. And every single one of them still has Dylan Thineman as the Vikings pick. So I went on a journey. No, actually, good friends at Vikings.com have been doing this throughout the draft season, where they have been tracking the mock drafts, and I have been reading their article that tracks the mock drafts. And it's actually kind of funny because when you click on it,

the first like 23 moks are Dillon Theonanman, Dylan Theanamon, and Dylan Theonanman. But luckily, we have some outside the box thinkers. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go through the other ideas. And that doesn't mean I have any issue with Dillan Theoneman. I'm just looking for other thoughts about where the Minnesota Vikings could go. So I've made a list of that.

We're going to dive into the list. We're going to go through each player, whether it would be a good idea, whether we think they're a fit and so forth that is outside of the safety realm. There were a few McNeil Warrens as well. And then tonight it's wide open for your questions, comments, thoughts, feelings. Dane Bruegler dropped the beast today, which is his giganto draft guide. So I've got that up and maybe we could talk about some different prospects and what has to say there.

And then what I wanted to do was a little bit different of an exercise where what we've mostly been doing here on the show is draft simming and then we just pick the Vikings. But what I wanted to do is try to mock draft the first 17 picks and then talk about what we would do at 18 if we played it out. So we're going to try to pick the first 17 and then look at the draft board and go, okay, who could the Vikings get at this point? But anything and everything is on the table. So toss in the questions, comments, thoughts. I'm going to go through these players. And then it's right to you guys tonight for a hopefully fun conversation. Anything on the table, big picture, remaining free agency timelines, quarterbacks, whatever, whatever, around the NFL.

we should definitely do some talk about the NFC North and whatever else. So throw those things in the comments and I will get to them very shortly. But let's start out with this list of people who did not mock draft Dylan Theanman to the Minnesota Vikings. So here's the list. You notice it's not that long of a list? We're going to start out with Chad Router of NFL.com in his mock draft went with Florida defensive tackle, Caleb Banks. So here's the thing on Caleb Banks. Maybe what I should do, actually, why don't we combine these mocks with the Beast and we'll read some from Dean Bruegler about each one of these players.

Some of them we've talked about a bit and some of them we have not talked about that much. So let me call up Caleb Banks and we will do a little reading as well about Caleb Banks. Chad Ruter goes with him at the 18th overall pick. I like the idea of Caleb Banks. I like him as a concept. Give me all day long the most biggest, giganticest, tough to blockest defensive tackle. I think it's worth a ton to your team's success, stopping the run, getting after the passer, pushing the pocket.

Interior pressure is a nightmare for quarterbacks. a conversation with Nick Mullins a couple years ago where I just asked them like what's the difference between interior pressure and pressure off the edge. And he said the thing with pressure off the edge is your offensive tackle has a chance to kind of push the guy by you or if you have a little bit of peripheral vision, you could step up in the pocket and you feel like you've got a chance to avoid those guys. But when a defensive tackle wins immediately, he is just right in your face and you have nothing that you can do. It's not like you can sort of adjust your arm angle a little bit or scoot up in the

pocket or just sort of dive forward for a couple yards. That guy is just going to swally up like a big old monster. And with Caleb Banks size and his potential, that all feels like home run. Great. Wonderful. But there's some drawbacks. And whenever I see a player that is physically dominant that does. not have production.

Maybe it's just many years of the DeNeil Hunter thing pinging off in my brain. Oh, yeah, all those prospects that Rick Spielman said were just like DeNeil Hunter, where he didn't have like the Jalen Holmes of the world. Hey, he didn't have that much production. But let me tell you, he's actually pretty awesome. Production correlates really well to success in the NFL. Shocking, right? Being good at football equals being good at football.

So it gives me a little bit of pause there that a man that would be this physically dominant has not had that great a production in his career. And the other thing is too that he had an injury and then another injury. And when it's someone of this sort of size, that's where it's a reminder of like the Caleb Fairley, remember him, where he was a great, great interior defensive line prospect, had some injuries, was never the same. And just ended up kind of busting out of the NFL, despite being. a dominant prospect who was enormous. There's a little bit of that too. And the Vikings, it feels like,

now I think we know this, you know, that they trust their training staff. The NFLPA always, that survey from the players, always gives them pretty high grades for the training staff. But there's only so much you can do to prevent injuries. And it feels like they had kind of made too many bets on injured players in the recent past as a little bit of a hack. like, oh, well, we can get a discount because this guy's injured.

Andrew Ruth Jr. was supposed to go in the top 15, but he's actually got this horrible injury history so we can draft him in the second. I don't love that. I didn't love it last year either when, you know, they were doing that with free agents because every time there's like a saying in the NFL, every time they cut you open, it's like worse after that. So Caleb Banks worries me a little bit.

Let's see what Dane Bruegler had to say. He says that Banks has a rare combination of size, raw power, and big man Twitch, all of which lead to big time flashes and glimpses of his ceiling. However, the absence of a healthy senior season complicates his projection and his draft grade will depend on a team's appetite for risk. Now, he is 6'6, 37 pounds. But appetite for risk does just, ugh, that doesn't sound like something. that you love to hear from a prospect who's going to go with the 18th overall pick.

But Chad Ruter had him there. There's a lot of differing opinions on where he belongs on big boards. It would be a little bit of a controversial pick, I think, for them and might be viewed as reachy, but Caleb Banks nonetheless, the potential to be Dexter Lawrence-like would be intriguing. All right. Vic Talfour or Tafor of the athletic has them. taking edge rusher, Akeem Messador. Now, this is another one that I would not say I am super duper high on this idea.

Messador was incredible this year, absolutely unreal player. Tons of sacks, great production played on the national championship defense. He was a fun watch. The issue with Messador is that he is older than me. He is 25 years old. That's not older than me, but he's 25 years old. And when a player has their peak performance at 25 years old and then is coming out in the draft, you certainly have to go, uh, is this really just a guy dominating men versus boys?

Because he's playing against guys five years younger than him in some instances. His career does look pretty good overall in terms of sack production. He had in 2022 as a much younger man. man, he had seven sacks, and in 2024, he had five and a half. Those numbers aren't bad from Messador by any means, but being that old is very concerning about whether you're getting tricked there. And he's also had some injury history that's happened during his time in college. Naturally, he's 25 years old.

This from The Beast and Dane Bruegler at the Athletic says he played through a right foot injury in 2022, tried to play through it again in 2023, but was forced to shut things down after two games and undergo surgery to his left foot. Or no, that was a different injury that also suffered torn ligaments in his left foot, which required surgery, had off-season shoulder surgery before he enrolled in Miami and missed one game because of injury as a senior. I mean, that's as a super, super duper, duper senior. That's, you know, that's injuries there that rack up when somebody.

is that old. Edge rusher slash pass rusher slash outside linebacker though does have my attention. I don't know if Messador would be the guy

for me. And the bottom line here from Brugler is Messador won't be universally loved because of his age and injury history but he is a disruptive

force off the edge who is always playing 100 miles per hour. He projects as a three-down NFL starter with interior value on sub-packages. The one

upside to Messador, other than, you know, he could bring you impressive value off the edge if he is good and steps in right away at 25 years old, is that you could have someone who rotates right away. It isn't like taking a Caldric Falk where it feels like Caldric Falk, you have to teach him how to play football because he's 20 years old. But historically speaking, it's much, much better. Like, if you gave me the choice of taking Messador at 25 with his injury history and clear production in college versus Falk, who doesn't have as much production, he's not terrible, but doesn't have as much production, but is 20. I'm going to take the 20-year-old guy because he's going to be in NFL development over a couple of years. But as far as a right-of-way

impact player, that could be Akeem Messador. I do like the idea of an edge rusher. The value is there. average edge rushers, like George Carl Aftus to me is kind of just a guy and he just got a huge contract. And you know, that's something that I weigh pretty heavily is how much these things cost, how hard they are to get. Show me in free agency where good quality starting edge rushers end up as free agents. They mostly don't. So if you draft one at number 18 and he plays for five years for you and he's really darn good, that's a good pick. But I think that's that there's red flags with him. The whole start to this has a lot of red flags.

The next one is Lance Zirlein of NFL.com. I love Lance's work. I cite it often. He has the Vikings taking cornerback Jermad McCoy, who we've discussed maybe a little bit as a potential option. I like corner as a premium position for the Vikings. This is another one where we're talking about some injuries, though, where Jermad McCoy, tore his ACL, did not play.

at all last year and then decided not to participate in the NFL Combine and rather did a pro day, but his pro day, he lit it up and he was phenomenal at his pro day. So everyone kind of went, okay. And then these teams are going to have, I mean, his ACL is going to be glowing by the end of draft season because there's going to be so many MRIs that are done on that thing. But in terms of the actual talent from McCoy from Tennessee, there are some people who think he's the most talented corner in this draft. And Dane Bruegler has him as the second best corner in the entire draft,

other than Delane, Monsour Delane from LSU. If you're talking about the Vikings at 18th overall getting the second most talented corner in the draft, even if he's had an injury the previous year, It is an ACL. Guys tend to come back from that if it was routine. This is one where I'm very much in. Get, yeah, absolutely. Get the top corner.

You start out with having him as part of a rotation. You develop him for a year. Your plan is to make him CB1 the following season. Foundational player, hopeful long term to sign to a big contract extension. That's kind of what the Vikings need. And when we say foundational players, this is what one looks like. foundational player might be Achim Esedor, it might not.

It might be more of somebody who is very useful and is kind of just a good player off the edge. That's how I see him in the NFL, being that you can't project any more upside at 25 years old. Caleb Banks is, this guy could be bad and injured or this guy could be amazing. I have no idea.

I think McCoy is someone that you could project as has the possibility of being CB1 for a long time. He's not a, a super old prospect. In fact, he is not even 21 years old yet. You could develop him. There's a very clear path to him becoming one of those franchise-type players.

So McCoy is my favorite of the list so far of these non-Dillan-Thineman draft picks in different mocks here. So here's what Bruegler has to say about McCoy. He says McCoy needs to hone his discipline to hold up versus NFL competition, but he is a twitchy mover with these spatial instincts and ball-s skills to create plays in coverage. If there are no concerns with his knee, he should be an early NFL starter as a rookie. And, you know, that's, that's a thing, right? We don't know what is coming back from these MRIs. And we found this out last year with, who was it?

The guy from Michigan, we found out like, oh, he had knee issues and it wasn't out there because not every single thing is out there when it comes to the medicals and he dropped to the second round. but in this case, if McCoy is good to go, this is my favorite so far. Next one is from CBS's Pete Prisco. He has Peter Woods going to the Minnesota Vikings. This is one of the safest picks I think the Vikings could make. That Woods is a guy that is shown in college that he has power

and that he has twitchiness, so forth, and he is going to be able to bring you a floor. of run defense. Like he's strong enough, he's built the right way, that he can be a good run defender. And then there's some question about how he was used in Clemson and maybe his previous season showed more upside based on the usage. And okay, maybe you get somebody that turns into a DJ reader type

who can get you four or five sacks a season, get you 25, 30 pressures, and you feel really good about drafting Woods. The upside to that is hard for me to see based on his college production. that he could become a superstar. It feels like a keep the ball on the fairway type of draft pick. You're going to use him right away. He's going to probably be able to help you right away. But it's unlikely that at any point down the road,

you're going to be saying, man, we got to make Peter Woods the highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL. It's more like you're drafting to make sure that you get somewhat of a hit. It is a little bit like Donovan Jackson last year. Donovan Jackson was a good draft pick for the Vikings. And he played really well. And I think that he'll develop and he'll have more upside than he showed last year or more consistency than last year as he develops and grows. He's a smart guy.

He's a good draft pick. But it was no doubt it was a safe draft pick. Like they didn't go off the board anywhere. They kind of wanted to make sure you have this very intelligent, very athletic, team player type guy. Let's take no risks. let's just make sure we get a hit here. And that's how Peter Woods would feel to me. I couldn't give it like an F, but it's not a swing for the fences to get a long-term,

big-time type player that you're saying, all right, you got this guy, this guy, this guy, and Peter Woods, and that's who you're going forward with. I just don't know if the upside is potentially there for him. Next one is Yahoo Sports Nate Tyson and Charles McDonald's, and they go with Ohio State's Caden McDonald's. maybe some McDonald's bias there. They go with Caden McDonald, the big old defensive tackle. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't read Peter Woods from the, from the beast.

Let me do that first. So, uh, Dane Brugler wrote this. Woods flashes the ability to win with quickness and strength and hand usage. And the next step in his development is for him to do so more consistently. He offers scheme diversity, although he projects best as a three or four eye technique defensive tackle. So, you know, I think that when it comes to best fits, Brian Flores will just make that work. That's not too much of a concern.

Okay, to Caden McDonald. I really enjoy watching Caden McDonald. And he is Brugler's number one defensive tackle in this class. He is pretty young. He is absolutely enormous, 6 foot 2, 326 pounds. And he is going to stick people in place. and he's got super strong hands. He's tough.

He has a little bit of quickness to him to, you know, move bodies. And I think as a true nose tackle, he would kind of be like Pat Williams-ish. Williams is taller. But Pat Williams-ish, you'd be that type of role where he's going to get eight pressures in a year. Think about Michael Pierce or maybe a Delvin Tomlinson, although Delvin Tomlinson, I think was better at getting after the passer, but, you know, kind of of that realm of Delvin Tomlinson, these players have value.

Teams are running the ball more often. Teams are playing deeper zones more often. But with the 18th overall pick and with four, five, six other defensive tackles who are run stuffers, I just think spending the 18th overall pick on that is not worth it. And maybe it's unfair to make the comparison to Ty Leake Williams, who was taken in the first round by the Detroit Lions last year as a Ohio State run stuffing defensive tackle. But I just struggle with that. The positional value for defensive tackle is there, but for a run stuffing defensive

tackle, like look what, I mean, I think Philadelphia, like way overpaid Jordan Davis, but even he has some pass rush upside. Vita Vaya can push the pocket, but you got to be the best of the absolute best at runstuffing. And if you are any less than that, it's not. worth it. And I still even struggle to think that some of those guys are worth it unless they can create in the pass rush game, which he has not done at all in college. If they take him, I guess I'll kind of shrug like, okay, well, I'm not going to say they wasted a pick. And I think he could be a really good and valuable player on early downs. But spending a first rounder on someone

that you don't want to play on one of the three major downs in football, uh, I just have a really tough time getting my head around that one. Here's what Bruegler says about McDonald. He says McDonald will require time to develop a pass rush identity, but his dominant run game qualities make him immediately useful for different interior alignments. He projects as an early down rookie with a role that should continue to expand. Now, that's the one thing about McDonald, though, that he is on the younger side. He is 21 years old.

so he's not like Messador where he's 25. But statistically speaking, he has, he had three sacks last year. Those are his only three sacks in college and had nine tackles for loss last year, but had not really played as much before. I mean, he was very, he was very good and he's very big and he's got some, some twitchiness to him. But if I told you that you draft Michael Pierce in the first round, are you, are you in?

Like, I'm not sure I'm in. These guys are very available most of the time. This one, I am not familiar with this writer, Gilberto Manzano from SI.com, but he selected Spencer Fanon, the tackle from Utah. I was a little surprised to see anybody else, like, land on this conclusion. I know that I brought it up a few times as something that's not crazy. It's not way off the board or I don't think it's wild because it depends a lot on their future

plans if they're very concerned about Dar esau or even if they're just thinking longer term with Brian O'Neill and maybe if you had in a pinch, like let's say, you know, Will Fries gets heard or something, then you could always have him play guard right away and you've got a lot of talent there. That's a possibility. It gives you depth. We didn't see health from O'Neill and Darisaw. So it gives you immediate depth that would be very valuable in itself.

If let's say that Darrisaw play 700 snaps next year, that's like 400 or 500 that you got to give to somebody else. Well, the first round draft pick and then long term, the guy can become a starter and a potential difference maker. I think that's your 2027 type draft pick if they were really in on thinking about 2027 in the future. I don't think it would be exciting. I think that people would be confused. I think that they would get bad grades. and I would like it a lot. Because I have just never believed that you draft for this year.

And if you're looking one year down the road and saying, what's the best pick? It costs crazy money for tackles, but you should also keep in mind with offensive tackles and why it's good to draft them is they are so rare that there are good ones. There are 20 guys in the league who can play really well at offensive tackle and everybody else is hanging on for dear life. You have to take them in the first round.

Most of the time, it was first or second round if they're going to be good. So if they did it, I think they get criticized a lot and not for me. I would be in on it. Spencer Fanow, by the way, is the number one player on Brueglars board at the tackle position. And he writes this. Fanon has the feat, demeanor, and recovery balance of an NFL starting tackle. He also has the knack for losing slowly, which is kind of a Brian O'Neill thing, despite possessing average length and core strength, he has the talent to be an immediate starter

at right tackle or guard. So if someone were to get hurt, he could be, you know, rotational player as well right away and then a future franchise piece. That's if they don't extend Brian O'Neill. As of right now, they haven't. So I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. And I can already feel like if it happens, there's going to be a big old fight within

the Vikings fan, you know, and draft analyst universe. worst, but I'm going to be on the side of this is a good decision. Mel Kuiper Jr. did have Dylan Thineman, but he did a three-round draft where he had one player that we, I don't believe, have talked about at all on the show. And that is because he's wide receiver 11 in, by Dane Bruegler. So, you know, like, that's one of the reasons we haven't talked a whole lot about him. But Mel Kuiper has the Vikings taking Judarium Price in the second round. I think that's a really good pick.

If you're going to take one running back with a high selection, let it be Judarian Price. The more that I've watched him, he's a big play monster. There are some guys that I know what it says at the combine. You can look at what it says at the combine, but I kept thinking about Delvin Cook and how his combine numbers were not perfect, but there's a knack there. I think Judarian Price has it. They put him in a kick returner. He takes kicks back.

He had a crazy, it was like one every, I forget. at one every 16 runs or something. He had one for 10 plus. Maybe it was even less than that. He had one of the best rates or it was like one every 10. It was a great explosive run rate. And I wonder if he hadn't been playing behind Jeremiah Love how that would have looked. But also the wear and tear is not there as it would be for others.

But the guy that we haven't talked about is Dazon stribling in the third round, a wide receiver out of Ole Miss. A little bit on the bigger side. pretty productive, wide receiver 11 third rounder. I really like the concept of the Vikings going third round wide receiver. If they're not going to, you know, go full in on the Purple Insider plan of taking one in the first or second. But this draft has a number of guys that I think could be very interesting in the third round. And Dizan Stripling would be one of them, another kind of project for Keena McCartle.

So there you go. New mock ideas for us. Later on in the show, we will get to, I'm going to go through the first 17 picks and see what we've got. I'll try to mock all of them and see what we can get at 18. But for now, let's jump into the fan chat and see what you guys think. So here's what I want to know from you guys. What is your favorite idea out of those?

So if it's not Theneman, like what's your favorite? idea out of all of those. And let me give you a, uh, uh, fan duel, actually real quick. Let me give you a fan dual question of the day, which is, uh, Arvel Reese is the projected second overall draft pick minus 1.95 on fan duel to go number two overall. What team in the top 10 are you most intrigued by who you can't wait to find out what they do on draft night? What team in the top 10?

That is your fan dual question of the day. and while we're at it, how about a message from our friends at ZipRecruiter? Then we'll get to the fan chat. When I first started Purple Insider, I needed a lot of help. So some of my friends, I got an intern in here, all helped me launch Purple Insider. It was great to have people helping me that had the work ethic and the passion for football. If that's what you're looking at as a hiring manager, you want candidates who are going to be all in for you, who are passionate. It's hard to find that on a resume.

unless you use ZipRecruiter. And now you can, and you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. And its powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly. And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested and most qualified candidates first. So you meet the right people faster. Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter. Four out of every five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate in the first

day try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash audio that is ziprecruiter.com slash audio meet your match on zip recruiter okay now now to the fan chat see what we got what's on your mind and uh by the way you don't have to react to that any anything is up in the air whatever you got uh first first comment from someone named raw dog okay well look you know, it takes all kinds, says, I expect a meat and potatoes draft, not necessarily flashy, more along the lines of high floor players who will technically hit and at worst, becomes solid depth players, helps Brzezinski and company. Yeah, look, I think the same thing.

And if you get a chance, you can go back and watch my conversation with Emily Liker from earlier today, where we ran through a bunch of potential scenarios. and she had the same kind of feeling of if you take the safe route. So let's say it's a Peter Woods. It's Chris Johnson, who's a very good prospect that's likely to go in the second. It's Emmett Johnson, the running back from Nebraska with the late third. And I don't know, whatever, another solid player somewhere in there, Jake Slaughter, for example. Is that a bad draft?

No. It's very solid. and it's not very risky, but it's good. It's what you're looking for if you're the Vikings. I mean, I think there's a lot of different ways that you can go a little bit more on the risky side and potentially land someone really good. I mean, if you take Caleb Banks and it clicks, the guy could be a monster. I don't see Jermad McCoy as being that risky.

ACL, all right, well, there's a lot of guys who've had that and have become great players. So that's not that big of a concern. but, you know, trades up and big swings. I think they're possible because it's the Vikings and they've done stuff like that many times. But is it likely? No, I think that you're kind of right that it's much more likely that they just kind of go very chalky on this. And then everyone walks away and goes, okay, it's pretty good. Mama says, watch all this talk about Thenum and B for nothing.

And we take someone else. I mean, I think that everyone putting it together is totally fair for them putting it together and saying, hey, look, they don't really have a safety position right now that's locked in. Mattelis is kind of a unique character in this defense, but not necessarily like a traditional strong safety. And I also think that most people have never heard of Theo Jackson or Jay Ward, which is fair. Theo Jackson did not have a great season last year with his first year in. And Jay Ward just started to hit the field at the end of the season. But remember, once upon a time, you know, they drafted a safety when they had

Cambinam and Josh Mattelis on the team. And they drafted another safety because they weren't sure or didn't know that those guys were going to become very good players. There might be a thought in the building that, hey, like, Jay Ward is going to be a starter on this team. He did play a lot of snaps in some games. And you could rotate him and Theo Jackson and that could be your two safeties. And then you get a corner instead.

I also think that even though Rob Brzezinski has talked about, hey, look, you want to go with your best player on your board. He's got to also understand that when they're, just for example, I was reading, you know, in Dane Brugler's giant draft guide, his. comparison for Dylan Thineman was Justin Reed, who was a free agent just last year and got a decent price and was totally findable in free agency. If that's what you're getting in Dylan Theneman, I just don't think it's necessarily worth it. He'll be good with Brian Flores, I'm sure, and he can cover a lot of ground and he's a great athlete and he's got great instincts and he'll

work hard for you and everything else. But I don't think it's a lock in guarantee. There's also somebody else who might take them slightly above the Vikings, there are some mocks that have that as well. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's almost bizarre how many mock drafts are just, it feels like, you know what it feels like? It feels like, it feels like. That's what it feels like. It's, all right, let's talk about the more interesting teams. Just write them in for the Vikings and move on. Like, let's not think about it too much.

That team, you know, whatever. You got to earn that. You got to earn the relevance. But that's what it feels like right now. It feels a little bit on the lazy side. But then again, if they do it, I guess we'll say, well, everyone saw it coming. I have no major issue with it. I just don't think that it's, like, if you looked at the mocks,

you'd think it was like a 95% chance that they're going to take that guy. I think there's a lot more in consideration than just, well, Harris is not here. So safety. And he is a really good prospect. Bradley says, I think they go cornerback. I think of all the options of who they could go with what position, if you just ask me to rank every position and throw out my extreme bias toward wide receivers,

I would say corner is probably the next on the list based on this draft. The pass rusher position would be my favorite, but looking at the options, Keldrick Falk makes some sense to me. There's a lot of development to be done there, though. The production is not what you would like it to be. but I think that it's not like he was not productive at all. It's just you'd like it to be kind of freaky.

I don't think that the gap between some guys that are talked about mid-first and guys that are talked about in the second round is very different. So I would probably want to wait for edge rusher if it's not the high-ceiling guy in Fulk. That would be my other favorite position. It's really the ones that are the most valuable, which is corner, edge-rusher, tackle, defense. defensive tackle, wide receiver.

Those are the ones that rise above the rest. And that's why the NFL pays them more money is because they rise above the rest in terms of what they're worth to winning and how scarce they are. So those are the ones that I'm going to lean toward. And that's why I like potentially corner. And if you could get the second best one, there hasn't been a bazillion high corners taken in recent years. So I wonder if Jermad McCoy does have a chance to get to them with the number 18 pick.

Cody says that's a no on banks never draft a 300 pound dude with a bad foot it's a 327 pound dude with a bad foot and I tend to agree I know sometimes guys come out with an injury issue and then they turn out to be you know great and you know I don't know but this is multiple times now that's where it's that's really scary uh Brian says out of the top five Safeties in the Beast, which one is the most likely to succeed in Flores' defense? Let's get a look here. Let's get a look here at the Beast and the top five safeties. Let me scroll. Because I didn't memorize who the top five safeties are. Do I have to go over? Where's safeties?

Do I need to extend this out? Where's safeties? Why am I missing safeties? Corners, linebackers. Am I blind here? Missing safeties? Let me scroll down. There's not a link.

Okay. There wasn't a link. here's the top five safeties. Can you guys see that? Okay. We have Caleb Downs, obviously, number one, Dylan Thineman, who is, you know, the, the obvious pick for the best fit, Dylan Thineman, because he is multiple. He has great range. He's quick. He is strong. He was the quarterback of their defense. He checks a lot of different boxes. And right there is the durable and versatile. Like, that's what you're looking for. I still like Emmanuel McNeil Warren. I like him in the second round more than I do the first round. because he's very rangy. They list Keante Scott as a safety. I think he played some corner. Is that right in college? He's the fourth.

So, yeah, he's like, plays like a linebacker and a cornerback's body may give the right team meaningful snaps. I think that the Vikings can always figure it out with somebody who doesn't necessarily fit the traditional, like this is exactly what your guy is supposed to look like at a certain position. but at the same time, I'm not sure on Scott if he was playing corner in college and then he's switching to being like a nickel big safety or something or undersized safety. I don't know.

Anyway, so I'm not as familiar with Keante Scott's potential fit. AJ Halsey, though, I like a lot. The write-up here says has some wild tendencies, but is coachable and skilled enough. I think the safest pick here would be Zaki Wheatley. He's 24 years old, covers a lot of great. ground is not particularly special, but I think would drop in right away and has a high floor because of his performance and how much football he's played. And I've been intrigued with these two guys with Bud Clark, playmaker gets his hands on the

ball a lot, little undersized. And Jalen Kilgore, who I think, you know, the write up here says high risk, high reward. Kilgore has some freaky, freaky tendencies. But his production is not that great. So that's somebody who you're looking at maybe in the third round. It kind of depends. It's like if it's the first round, it's, you know, it's Thinamon. If it's the second round, it might be Halsey.

If it's the third round, it's Wheatley, Clark Kilgore. There's a lot of options there. And that's another reason why I have been hesitant to love the idea of the Vikings going with the safety because there's a lot of players there that I actually like and think that they would be a good fit. domer chaos says defensive tackle with no pass rush upside safety who will be fourth or fifth on the depth chart cornerback who will get three million per year free agent level production hard to decide who the vikis should take in the first rap yeah i mean i know what you're you're saying

there but um you know i think that there's plenty of guys in this draft who have a chance to be productive starters right away it's just that that there is when you draft 18th, always going to be a bit of an asterisk on, you know, a player like that, like Caleb Banks. If Caleb Banks had 10 sacks and no injury issues, he'd be the fifth overall pick. And Jermad McCoy, if he had played all of last year and got seven interceptions, he would be great. You know, when it comes to safety, like, that guy's going to start right away. And one of the major benefits of drafting a safety is the fact.

that you can get production out of that player right away. So if you're looking at historically, the positions that transfer the quickest into the NFL, the safety position is way up there for the spots that are the easiest transition into the NFL. So if you draft Dylan Thineman, you expect, this guy's going to give you a thousand snaps right away. He's going to start.

He's going to play every single down. If you get some of these other guys, there might be more of a development curve. So how much willingness do they have to develop a Caldric Falk or, you know, someone like that over it. Now, when you're, you're acting GM is saying, hey, we're thinking about 2027 as well, then maybe they do have more patience for that. Davis is, I think, I just like trading back for Minnesota. I am not in disagreement with you there, trading back, getting more potential draft picks as we go through these guys. that are on the non-Dillan-Thinemann list,

you could certainly talk yourself into most of those guys. So if you traded back four or five spots, then I think you would still be in a good position to get a quality first-round player. I don't think that the success rate or the potential value of 18 versus 24 is a lot, or 25 or 26. Think if you start getting to almost out of the first round or out of the first round, then yes, four or five players down, probably not in this draft.

If someone else gets desperate for, hey, this perfect player for us dropped, so we're going to go get them, then that might be something that the Vikings consider. And I think that they'll try to do or look into that of what they can get for trading back. Mr. Mayor says, I've never seen anyone make a compelling case for why some team would be willing to trade up to 18. Trading down seems great. you just don't see that there will be a market for it. I mean, that's a completely fair thought. And I tend to agree with you that there won't be a ton of teams that are saying,

hey, we absolutely have to make this trade up. At the same time, it only takes one and it only takes a team inside their building falling completely in love with one player. And look at James Pierce last year. What a crazy thing to do for the Atlanta Falcons. but you know, there's 10 teams in the league that do crazy stuff all the time and seem like they don't have any idea what they're doing. The Falcons are off that board now maybe with an overhaul of their front office. But nonetheless, I mean, there's always somebody who gets nuts on draft night.

And it depends on who drops. If there's another team that's drafting 24th and their intel is, hey, we think that this certain player won't get to this position. but we're going to take him if he does. Throw out Spencer Fanon. If somebody has Spencer Fanon is their tackle one and he's dropping and he gets to 18 and the Vikings are like, well, we're going to extend Brian O'Neill. We brought in Ryan Van DeMarc. Like we're pretty good at tackle.

And another team calls up and says, hey, man, we need a tackle desperately. They're not going to say this to Brasinski, but you're going to know it. We need to tackle desperately. Can you trade back with us? Then there you go. It really only takes that one guy that another team is in love with to try to pull that off. But in this type of draft, it is hard to find those trades of who would realistically want to do that. Bradley said someone to possibly move up to 18 for Ty Simpson, Pitt or Pittsburgh or Cleveland.

I have yet to be convinced that Ty Simpson will be a first round draft pick. I am going to kind of plant the flag and say that I don't think he will be. maybe back end of the first, but quarterbacks like him in the past have just more likely been second round draft picks. There's some that go in the back end. You know, Teddy went in the back end and Lamar Jackson.

So it does happen. Kenny Pick it. But 18 is still in the middle of the first round as a team trading up, not unless somebody is desperate. I just, I look at him. He's barely thrown any passes. He's six feet tall.

He has some really nice. tools and I think he's got toughness. I watched the one game where his offensive line was getting killed and he was getting beat up and I mean, I thought at some points, you should probably take this guy out of the game. He's getting destroyed and he fought, kept his team in the game. Like, I like him. I like Ty Simpson from a tools perspective, but that's not something that you do in the

first round normally is take someone that you only like because he's got some good tools. And six feet tall is tough. if you're not a real running quarterback, it's cool to have athleticism in college and a lot of guys can scramble around and make some plays with their legs, but it's not Kyler Murray. It's not someone who has the potential to run for 5 to 700 yards per year.

So I'm not big on the idea that a team takes him in the first round, but maybe, I mean, Cleveland, what the, what is Cleveland doing? I don't know. No idea what they are doing. Mr. Mayor, even if someone is willing to trade for us, I wonder how much we would get if any surplus value out of it. I mean, my thing would be just a day two, the top 100. I know that I've like banged that drum a lot about top 100 picks and how they just haven't

had any basically over the last few years. But I think anybody in the top 100 you're looking at is someone with the potential to be a starter within the first two years of that contract. Once you get out of the top 100, it's really hard to find too many starters. you got to get an Amin-Ross, St. Brown, as Stefan Diggs, you kind of got to just get lucky. But in the top 100, those are immediate role players, potential long-term starting options. If you can trade back, and I don't, I haven't memorized everyone's trade position or whatever, but if you traded back six spots and picked up another selection that was even in the 70s or 80s,

I would take that. I would take another potential player to move back just a couple spots. But you're right, it does take two and who exactly is actually going to do that. Jay says if we trade back with the Steelers or Eagles, I would like to take McDonald. That might be a thing for me too is if they were trading back. And that's why every opinion kind of has another opinion off of it. If they traded back and McNeil Warren is there, then I'm not going to criticize taking a safety with the first round pick because it's a safety plus. And McDonald would kind of be the same thing, where if you traded back, I just don't love it at 18 because I think that middle of the first round, you should still be drafting starters who can play on all the downs.

I mean, it's a little bit of a common sense thing here with McDonald. I mean, this guy doesn't have any pass rush upside at all. And he's only in there for first and second down. And he only plays 470 snaps a year. That's not a first round draft pick for me. I would much prefer the safety who plays a thousand snaps and is fairly replaceable or a corner who is going to really drive success for your team and be a big part of your future.

So I don't know. Like I just I still, even with, even with like the 24th pick, I would struggle with Kade and McDonald. If they do it, uh, okay. I guess that'd be about the safest pick you could make. But I, I'm just having a tough time with the value. And that's, you know, Tycoon says best player available. But it's, it's best player available plus positional value for me.

Because if you just take the best player on your board and it's a defensive tackle who doesn't sack the quarterback ever, that's, I just have such a tough time with that. Justifying it. Like, what is the real value versus somebody that you can just bring in? We saw them bring in Jonathan Bullard and he was good against, he was a top 20 run defender is by PFF, just off free agency for like three million bucks. Those guys are around. I mean, they didn't pay Harrison Phillips that much money and he was good at it.

You can find them. Let's see. Tycoon says, I need you in the warm room on draft day. Well, you know, I think that Rob has done it a few times and should be fine. But I wonder, I do wonder, though, with Rob and Flores and. COC and kind of the guys who've been there for a long time. I do wonder about where in the conversation in the actual Vikings draft room, that positional value is being tossed out there.

This was supposed to be a Quasi Adopo-Menza thing, and it just wasn't, really? There wasn't much evidence that the Vikings chased after certain positions more than others, I mean, but they didn't even chase after having draft picks in general under Quasi Adolfo Mensa, but his first draft, the first pick is a safety in the first round. And I remember getting kind of hammered by some Vikings fans that night for making this very same point that I'm making about Dylan Thineman and about Emmanuel McNeil Warren is that even if Lewis Seen turned out for your average hit, if he was just an average hit safety

in the late first round, that's not that hard to find in free agency. that's a position where you want to take still, I think, looking for those positions that are harder to find. And that's why you draft them because this is your opportunity. If you want Dexter Lawrence, you have to go pay a huge premium for Dexter Lawrence to another team to get him. If you want to draft the next Dexter Lawrence, he's just right there for you. He was a great prospect. And I don't know if he's in this draft, that level of player. But that's a way that the league just presents you with.

an opportunity to get these players. And by drafting a safety who might just turn out to be kind of a guy, like a good, good, good player, but maybe not franchise changing. I just think that you're passing up on an opportunity to get one of those players that everyone else would be begging to get off of your team. If you draft Caden McDonald five years from now or four years from now, if he's negotiating a contract,

are you getting 30 offers from other teams because they would dream to have him? I'm like, I just don't know in the, in the best, best, best case scenario, yes, but usually, I mean, he's only played one year totally as a starter and didn't have that good of production. It's like, who's who's dying for that versus what you can find? Um, I'm not sure. But they don't need me in the draft room. They do need someone, though, to speak up on those matters or have at least that voice in the room of like, is it worth it versus the day. that's why you can't just take best player available in my opinion. Kyle,

like to see his trade with Cleveland and picks number 70. Yeah, that'd be great. If they could trade back to 24 and get 70, that'd be phenomenal. In terms of the Fanduel question of the day, the chiefs are very interesting. Dumer Chaos says chiefs by default. Yes. Yes.

They were mocked Jeremiah Love a million times before free agency. And then they go out and get Ken Walker, probably assuming that Love would not get to them. So did they just go top receiver? Do they go defensive line? I mean, they kind of need to rebuild their defense. Do they pick Mansour Delane because they need corners after the Rams just took their corners? They have a lot still to rebuild on.

And the other day, I did my NFC power rankings because I am now trying to be a power ranker. I think, you know, thought it could be a fun thing to do for the show. if I was forced to do AFC, I don't even know what to do with the Kansas City Chiefs. Mal Holmes is coming back from the ACL, so is he going to play in week one? And you look around the rest of that roster and go, is it great? No, they just lost top corners. They have Rishie Rice and Xavier, Xavier Worthy.

Okay, that's two guys who can run with the football in their hands, but do they have complete wide receivers who get open all the time? I don't think that they really do. offensive line is still a bit spotty. Defensive line has Chris Jones and kind of question marks. Like it's just still not a great team. So where they go is totally interesting. Coltrane says an outside the box idea is taking Jordan Tyson at 18.

All in for me. All in. Yep. Wide receiver. He was compared by somebody recently to Stefan Diggs. I'm like, okay. As long as some of the demeanor might be a little different. But yeah, look.

wide receiver is one that I'll continue to bang the drum for. I don't think it's that realistic, but I think it's smart. I think weapons, no matter if it's Kyler or they draft a quarterback, long-term weapons, you don't know where you're going to be with Jordan Addison in a year. It looks like T.J. Hawkinson's going to be gone. You like to play 11 personnel. And number three wide receiver, it doesn't have to be like fantasy football. It can be just throw to guys who are awesome at getting open.

But I also feel like I know that I hammer away at this. It should be the easiest fan base to sell because of the number of times that drafting wide receivers, the most famous one being Randy Moss, has worked out for this team. Every once in a while, it doesn't. Dumer K.O., should we actually not extend Brian O'Neill? Seems like the biggest no-brainer to extend him, but I might be biased. He's my favorite Viking. That is the tough part about Brian O'Neill.

when you look at how he's played the last couple years, he's been great, just phenomenal. There is a little bit of injury history that's starting to pile up on him the last couple seasons. He's either playing through something or he's even missing time. And what I know about Brian over the years is if he's missing time, then whatever he's ailing with is awful because he will battle through just about anything. And that will impact your performance at times, which it has over the years. but still when you look at where he ranked last year, pressures allowed, sacks allowed, especially the PFF grade that's going to tell us a better story on that

because you can give up a sack where you blocked perfectly for five seconds and then the guy got the quarterback. But O'Neill has been such a great player for them. He is a borderline guy that you put up in the rafters, you know, that like a Ring of honor type of player, captain, pro bowler. he is great in the locker room. You just couldn't ask for, I mean, talk about a home run draft pick in the second round. Maybe the wrongest I've ever been about somebody was, not that I didn't like Brian

O'Neill as a prospect, but I thought when I first saw him at a rookie mini camp, I was like, that cannot be the player they just drafted to play offensive tackle. No way. He had to have weighed like 275 pounds. I was like, what, are you serious? and then he put on weight. He came in. He wasn't really ready to play,

but he fought his butt off way back in 2018. And he's just, he's got a lot of heart. He's a super tough guy. Hard to let somebody like that go. Those are guys that you try to have become Vikings for life. So you're not being biased by saying, hey, this is somebody that I'd like to see them extend. Here's the trouble.

Is the economics. It has nothing to do with Brian as a player. what he's done or even projecting him for the next year or two. It's really the economics of it is, are you going to pay Brian O'Neill $27 million, $25 million to be a top right tackle in the league? It's expensive. You're already paying Jefferson. You're already paying Christian Darrasaw.

I think if Dara saw is okay, then that contract looks great. But if he's not, then it's a little spotty there. But you're paying Daryasaw already. now you're talking about having to pay your right tackle even more money and if he's not going to play a thousand snaps a year for you he's a little older in the tooth it just becomes tricky to make that entirely work if you could draft spencer fano with 18th overall and then you know let o'neill hit free agency and put in fano and then off you go in the harsh black and white uh spreadsheet version you don't extend brian o'neal in the hey it's actually what if you know

that tackles not a hit or something. And then you don't have to draft the tackle. You could draft something else if you already have Brian O'Neill locked in. The sure thing of O'Neill is really good to have and is worth paying for. So I don't know what they'll do. I think that they want to extend O'Neill. I think he's a Harrison Smith. Like, I don't think he's going to the Hall of fame.

But I think that they view him like that. They view him like a Harrison Smith of as long as this guy wants to be a Viking, he'll be a Viking. But there is always a price to these things. Mr. Mayor, do you think that it's worth drafting 21-year-old players in the first round, unless they're ready to start? I don't. With surplus in mind, I hate the idea that they might not break out till year three or four. So when it comes to a 21-year-olds, here's the ironic thing about that is back in the day,

and what I mean is five, six years ago, all the draft picks were 21. almost all of them were 21 or 20 years old. DeNeil Hunter was 20 when he came out. Some guys were 22. But a 23-year-old prospect, I think it was a Fadi Adenabo who was maybe 23. And we were like, yeah, okay, okay, let's be serious. Go get a real guy. Because everything changed with the COVID years and the NILs and guys wanting to stay longer.

And medical red shirts four or five times, it feels like there was some guy in college. football last, I think it was last year. There was like 28. What, bro, get a job. What are we talking about here? So now 24-year-old prospects feel like, I think they feel like, oh, that's safer. The guy will be maybe his ceiling is limited, but it'll come in. He'll be more ready and that kind of thing.

And I don't know if that's actually true or not because we don't really have data to know that well if someone who's 24 and is, or 25 and is taking the first round is going to transition to the NFL quicker or if they need development too. I would tend to think that they would need some development at least. And usually year three or four, it's usually by about year two that our expectation, even with Dallas Turner, like by his production took a big step in year two. I would prefer 21 year old players because you're looking for longer term foundational guys to be a huge part of this thing going forward.

You're not just looking for filling spots this year. I think if you are looking for failing spots this year, then sure, take a key messador and whatever. But I'd prefer to take someone who's 20, 21 and develop them in an NFL system. And maybe it does take a little bit longer, but the upside is much higher. So also if you are, here's another thing too, if you're playing well enough in college football to get drafted at 20, 21 years old, there's signal in that too. Like if you never, if you were a guy that came into college football and didn't really play until you were 20 or 21 and then it took two more years, three more years to get to the point where you're actually draftable, I think that's a lot different than, hey, a guy shows up on the scene and he's immediately good. Like that, like a Caldric Falk is playing a ton of snaps at 20 years old. So even if he's not quite there yet, he is showing something there that he proved to his coaches that he belonged down the field.

So I would prefer the younger players. Mr. Mayor, it's great to draft for potential upside, but if they don't become a star until they have to get paid like a star, what's the point? That is, that is just rarely the case, I feel like, with young players. I mean, year three, sure, but year three and four are still rookie contract years. And I really don't think, I don't think that just because someone comes in at 25 that their hit rate is going to be a lot higher and that the floor has to necessarily be higher. I get the logic on that, but they're also making a jump from college to the NFL just like everybody else. So they don't know either what it's like to play in the NFL.

Just because someone is four years older doesn't mean that they have trained with NFL players. They have learned NFL defenses. It might actually even be harder. This has been an argument. I know my friend Aref has made this argument before about older players that even just like you're learning curve as a human where you are able to pick stuff up fast. I don't know, he's brought this up before, like neurologically or whatever as a younger person. There might be something there.

I don't know if there actually is, but that is somewhat of a thought process. But my point is that the jump is the jump. Like, whether you're 25 or whether you're 21, you're still having to go from college to the NFL. I would much rather have someone that in year two is going to start ascending in year three, they're a star, than have a limited upside because the guy was just dominating 20-year-old player. So I think we see it a little bit differently.