Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Full NFL Draft Night Coverage

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Listen to Matthew Coller's live show from start to finish reacting to Michael Penix's shocking pick and the Vikings landing JJ McCarthy and Dallas Turner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning. I've got this condition where I don't feel pain. You're a superhero. This is how intense Novocaine sounds. Oh, wow. Imagine how it looks. Is there more? Yeah, big time.

Novocaine. Only in theaters March 14th. Hey everybody, welcome to Draft Night. Matthew Collar here with you for a potentially historic night in Vikings history. We are about 30 minutes away from the NFL Draft and we're going to start right out by bringing in Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press from TCO Performance Center where I would be if I was not here watching the broadcast and waiting for everything to happen and talking with all these Vikings fans to get their reactions to what goes down tonight, Dane. I saw our friend Kevin Seaford talking about what this means, the magnitude of this and what it means to

Kweisi Nafomensa, Kevin O'Connell. How would you describe that? What this night is going to determine for the future, how they approach it, which quarterback they end up with. If there's any chance they don't end up with a quarterback. What is your feeling going into now, 29 minutes from now, this draft night? It's as big of a day as the Vikings have had in recent memory. I tweeted something out today. I said, finish this following sentence.

This is the biggest moment for the Vikings since dot, dot, dot. The answer is that the replies that that tweet got, some said ever, some said 2017 NFC championship game. Some said 98, like this matters to the fan base for sure. But when you look at Kweisi Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, this matters for them. This is their legacy on the line here. I think both of them, and we've talked a lot about this, have been preparing for this moment right now since they got teamed up and hired.

And every move that they've made to this point has been with this draft in mind. I truly believe that. So this night means everything. And the only issue is you're picking 11. You don't have a ton of control with who you're going to get necessarily. You can throw the bag at certain teams and if they want the guy you want well they pick ahead of you so i think that's probably the biggest point of tension tonight is that this means so much to so many people but you're still kind of waiting and

seeing and the word kevin o'connell used all was complicit. You need someone to be complicit to do what you want to do because you want a few too many games after Kirk Cousins went down. So a big night. I'm really excited. I'm really excited to kind of be on here talking with you about it. And man, let's get this clock rolling. It can't come fast enough. I know it does feel like this is not just a thing that suddenly happened to the Minnesota Vikings,

that this is three years in the making that when Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Daffel-Mensah arrived, they pitched, I mean, especially Kweisi Daffel-Mensah and then they make the hire, but they pitched a plan and they pitched an idea. Here's how we're going to get your team in competition for the super bowl and that idea was accepted by the wilfs as the competitive rebuild i don't know that quesia da fomento was ever supposed to tell us that it was a competitive rebuild but he let that cat out of the bag we've talked about it so much since they have really stuck to that including all the way into the free agency period where we were not sure on that first day of free agency, is Kirk Cousins coming back or not? We discussed it over and over again,

all the pros and cons of bringing him back. And it always came down to, I don't think this was part of the plan. Part of the plan was not to give Kirk Cousins 45 million into year three of this regime. It was always to draft a quarterback and i believe them dane when they have said over and over we spotted this quarterback class years out and one thing that i should point out as i've already seen freak out about which quarterback they're going to pick uh before it's maybe like a preemptive people preparing themselves to be hurt again, I suppose, or to not get the quarterback that they want. But it is important to mention that they let Kirk Cousins walk knowing that they were picking 11th, knowing that they were not

going to get Caleb Williams, knowing that it was very reasonable to think that they wouldn't be able to get even Drake May at the top of this draft or even jayden daniels and they still did it with the comfort knowing that maybe it's mccarthy maybe it's nicks maybe it's pennix that there are quality prospects that will be available to them in a very very unique draft so when i look at it as well if they pick this guy or they pick that guy that means that they already identified that they would be comfortable with that person because they knew from the outset that's who they would have end up with that's why i don't like when i see all over the place well they're going to settle they might have to settle i don't look at it that way yeah i don't either and i think the

only reason the fan base looks at it that way is for the last two months they've been trained to kind of think it's been beaten over their head drake may's the guy you pray for jj's the guy that you hope to get in a trade-up situation and they've been hearing those two names over and over and over again that i think anything other than that which is possible tonight which in 45 minutes could very well happen um Drake may could go off the board to three to New England and JJ McCarthy the Vikings could get jumped in line if that doesn't if that happens I think Vikings fans will freak out because for the last two months it's been those two guys are nothing. But I think you're right. Like, this is not something that they've just, and they being Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Dalfamensa,

have just willy-nilly jumped into. They've scouted this class. They've honed in on these guys, like you said, two, three years out. And while they might have their board, they certainly do have their guys that they probably like more than others. They would not have let it rise to this level of needing a quarterback if they didn't feel comfortable with contingency plan A, contingency plan B, contingency plan C. So what I would caution fans tonight is if it ends up being Pennix, if it ends up being

Knicks, this is not a bust of a draft. Whatever quarterback they take, I think we owe it to this regime to let them kind of play it out in the way that they kind of planned a couple of years ago. The only way this night's a bust is if they exit the first round without one. And when I've spent a lot of time looking at all these quarterbacks, listening to everybody I can, reading every draft analysis, and what I come away with is that almost every prospect, there's a split. There's certain people think that Bo Nix could be a really excellent NFL quarterback. Certain people wouldn't draft him in the third round. And this even goes for Drake May.

Certain people have him ranked as QB5 that are analysts or former NFL quarterbacks. Some of them think he should go number two overall to Washington. This applies for every single quarterback. And the reality is that Kevin O'Connell will pick someone that he has met with, that he sat down with, that he has had hands-on coaching with, that he has studied, that he has watched every pass of their career. I promise you that that's happened for a decision like this. The last time we saw Kevin O'Connell, he looked pretty tired, I thought, when he was doing his last press conference because that man has had some kind of month preparing for this decision. And it was not, again, done with the idea that they would get

Drake May or absolutely nothing. It was done with the idea of what would you pay for this guy? And is it okay if we end up with someone else? What's our plan going to be to build around them? And when they say that they love multiple quarterbacks in this draft, all of their actions lead to that. And trust me, you and I, we've covered this game long enough to have BS meters that go off a lot with football people. And mine is not when it comes to this, because it is in so much lockstep with everything that they have done. So what they've said and what they've done have matched up. And so I am much more apt to say, all right, they've got their quarterback.

Now let's see the rest of the plan. Let's see how it plays out. Not we're going to make a decision tonight on saying, oh, this guy they reached on, this guy they settled on. That's just not my approach to this, and I don't think it should be anybody else's either. But what is your take, though, on the idea, as Tom Palacero just reported minutes ago, that the Patriots will stay at three?

Is that something we're going to say, I guess the Vikings didn't want to offer enough, or that the Patriots were never serious about trading that pick. I think if the Patriots end up making that selection at three, and it sure sounds like that's where it's headed in the next half hour, it's because they've always wanted to make that selection at three. I think as a general manager, Elliot Wolfe would have been doing a disservice to the pick, to the asset that he has in his control, and to the fan base as a whole if he didn't at least see, is someone willing to go crazy for this? But I think part of that was a negotiation tactic to a degree, but if they end up making the pick,

I think it's because they like Drake May all along. I don't think it was, well, we didn't get the fourth first round pick from somebody. I think they just throw that out there. And you say, like, as the Patriots, that we're willing to do this. We're open for business. They've said all the right things that you say when you're trying to sell an asset. But if all of that kind of intake and information gets presented to you and the offers come through and on your table and you end up still making the pick, like it sounds like they will. And in taking Drake May at three, I think that's because that's the guy you wanted all along. And I think that you just do the other thing to have your due diligence and say,

we did canvas the market. We did see what was out there, but this was our guy. Yeah. And I think as far as the Vikings have gone, they haven't really tried hard to avoid it, that they have wanted to trade up and wanted to trade up to number three with the Patriots to get into that top three. But if you're new England, it is just very hard to avoid taking someone who could be your potential franchise quarterback. That if you pass up on that and the guy goes to Minnesota and he turns out to be a superstar, everyone's going to circle back and go,

what happened there? Including of course, the owner of the team who is being guided by their leadership. That means that if you're going to take a deal, you also have to have another plan in place for a quarterback in this draft to come away with a quarterback. So it has been thrown out there that maybe New England could move back and then move back up. Do we think that Palacero's report was one last grass bed? All right, guys, if you don't come in with that one last thing or i mean it's also possible that new england was saying all right give us number 11 and um justin jefferson and then we've got a deal and if you're the vikings you just can't go there it i did snip a little bit of that i was like well this kind of feels like something that

someone asks you to put out as like a last minute Hail Mary. Let's see what we can get. We want more than what we've been offered. But I think it probably just that report comes out because they're not getting what they deem enough to move off of it. And I think it probably comes out because an hour from now, or when that was reported, the draft starts. And I think in that moment in that war room, you probably start making plans for like, all right, we're going to do it. We're going to take our quarterback of the future. And it sounds like that's what they're going to do.

Now we do have 18 minutes until the draft and probably 20-ish before the Patriots are on the clock, because even though everyone knows Caleb Williams will go one, they will use every single second of the clock for the drama and then washington will go too so maybe things will change in the next half hour or so but it sure seems like anyone who is a viking fan and was hoping for drake may that ship might be sailing away right now well and there have been previous years where in the moments leading up to the draft, we learned that someone like Trayvon Walker could go number one and then he does.

Whereas today there's been a lot of, it looks like the Pats are taking May. It looks like the Pats are taking May. And so everything has been trending that way with a little bit of hedging. So it would take some last minute craziness to get Drake May. By the way, all of you joining. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is a super exciting night. We've had so much build up to this. Dane Mizutani, the Pioneer Press. We're going to get Will Raggetts popping in, Andrew Kramer, all the Vikings beat reporters

popping in to the broadcast. Also your comments. And I've got my TV over here. So I'll be looking over there reacting to everything that happens. But last thought, Dane, I mean, just let me hear what you think. Like what is outside of Drake May, the best outcome? Give me number one, number two on your board, if you will, for the outcomes that could happen if they are not getting Drake May.

I think in terms of name, like the best next step is probably JJ McCarthy. It just seems like he's a guy who jives with the way the Vikings want to run an offense, the way Kevin O'Connor wants the position to be played. I think getting JJ McCarthy, the best way to do that, the best case scenario is to call everyone else's bluff and say do it trade up go ahead giants take them and hope that he falls to 11 now do i think they have the gumption to do that if they just missed out on another one of their guys who you know if drake may goes three i don't know it might be hard to sit back for an hour and say i hope he doesn't go um But that is probably the best case scenario in Vikings land. I think the next one is probably just trading up,

biting the bullet, getting the guy that you want, assuming it is JJ McCarthy. But I have warmed to the idea a little of, look, you have 11, you have 23, you know,

just take two good guys and make sure one of them is a quarterback. Now, if JJ McCarthy is off the board by 11, I don't know if I'm waiting to 23 to take Knicks or Pennix. I might just pull the trigger there and see if I can get a defensive tackle, you know, or a cornerback at 23. So I've warmed to that idea a little bit just because I think once you get past the first three quarterbacks in the draft, oftentimes the fourth quarterback off the board is no different than the fifth quarterback off

the board or the sixth quarterback off the board. So I've warmed to that idea a little bit, but I think JJ McCarthy probably still is option A if it's not Drake May. And the other thing is we're going to find out exactly who ranked these quarterbacks correctly because we think we know. And then 15 minutes from now, everything could change. So I'll let you go, Dane. You got to go get to work. This is only a few minutes away. Please pass Will Raggetts on.

Have him pop in from Sports Illustrated. He's the next up that's going to be popping in. But I really appreciate it. And I am excited about our post-draft breakdown podcast whenever we do that, so we can talk for our usual 45 minutes to an hour about this team. But thanks so much for taking the time

on a very busy draft night. For sure, for sure. You're killing it, Collin. Keep doing it. Dane Mizutani, Pioneer Press, always one of my favorite people. Every post game, by the way, if you're new to the channel, if you're new to the channel,

if you're new to the podcast, welcome. Appreciate you stopping by. And that's Dane. We do every game from, you know, US Bank Stadium, Chicago, Green Bay, wherever the Vikings are playing. We do a post game podcast just like this with a live broadcast. And a lot of you have watched that at different times. So great to have him on this evening.

We'll get Will Raggetts in here in just a couple of minutes, but I just wanted to say that, you know, when it comes to the Drake may idea, it always made a lot of sense to me that the Vikings would be in a position to trade up and to give away 11, 23 next year's first, whatever else you had to toss on top that wasn't named justin jefferson

if you were going to get a quarterback that could potentially be your franchise guy that is reminiscent of the other top quarterbacks in the league and what i mean is the size the velocity on the football the playmaking ability drake may just seems to have all that and i think that there was maybe some over emphasis on some of his shortcomings is his footwork right does he have you know issues with accuracy from time to time but that sort of throws out the context of drake may so if they pull off a last minute trade here in the final moments before this draft, well, that would be still, in my mind, the most ideal situation that could happen

to the Minnesota Vikings. But I think because of the other quarterbacks in this draft and the resumes that they have, even down to Bo Nix and Michael Penick, so I know a lot of you are not as high on that idea, but if they are drafting QB5, we're still talking about people, quarterbacks who have put up huge numbers,

led college football in passing, all sorts of excellent things that they've done in their careers. Now, Will Raggett's joining from TCL Performance Center. Will, give me your take. Will, we're just going to jump right into it. If it's not Drake May,

then who is it and how? i'm assuming it's going to be jj mccarthy and that's kind of the guy that i've had my eye on for a long time now if it's drake may was the the trade-up target and potentially new england maybe wasn't being super i don't know maybe it was a smoke screen that they were demanding a ton and there would be a way for that to be worked out, but it doesn't seem like it with about 30 minutes or 40 minutes or whatever until the Patriots are on the clock. It seems like that's not happening. So I'm guessing it's McCarthy because all the buzz has been that the Giants aren't really a landing spot for McCarthy. Again, I don't know what to believe.

It's hard to ever really know what to believe. So I don't know if the Vikings feel like they have to get ahead of the Giants or if they can wait and let McCarthy come to them and maybe go up a little bit to ensure that they don't get jumped by Denver or Vegas or whoever. But if it's not McCarthy and they end up with Pennix or Knicks, it's, it's just a tougher sell for me. Uh, I think for the fan base and even if it's McCarthy at 11, there's just a lot of questions about why did you, why'd you do the trade to get the 23rd pick?

If you're just going to stay at 11. So we'll see. I, to me, McCarthy is the guy. Is it also possible that trading for the 23rd pick had to do with how this draft works out? I mean, one flexibility was the word that they have used over and over again. So if the Patriots were open for business, they could be at the front of the line. But even then you've seen a handful of teams have come out with, or at least reports leaked out, well, we only have about 15 players that we think are true first round talents in this draft. Some of them have to be on defense. And if you're drafting 23rd, all these offensive players going early in the draft, I've always thought that it would be a positive outcome for this team, considering where Brian

Flores could take this defense if they were able to stick and pick the other thing too is it makes it hurt less if it doesn't work and I'm not going down that road of oh it's going to be a bust or whatever but if Sam Darnold ends up being your quarterback and 11 doesn't work but you get a star defensive player it doesn't destroy the franchise like it would if you were say you know trading three first round picks for drake may if that didn't work out that's sort of some of my logic of having 23 is still a very good thing for them regardless if they weren't able to use it yeah if you just remove um the the trade up for a quarterback thing which still could happen they could still go up to four or five if they really want to lock in McCarthy assuming that it's Williams Daniels May if you

remove that from the equation like I understand getting another first round pick you get that to your control there's maybe tiers of players in this draft. But in general, I just, I think teams overestimate the, their ability to identify those players. So I would rather have the 42nd overall pick and the second next year than the 23rd pick in this year's draft. Cause you could probably still get a pretty good defensive player at 42 or in that range, but 23rd is certainly higher. Some of these kind of tier one guys that you talk about like Johnny Newton from Illinois Nate Wiggins the Clemson cornerback Latu from UCLA if the medicals if he falls like those are the kinds of guys you can get at 23 that you wouldn't

be able to get at 42 but then again who's to say that they're going to be good and whoever Chop Robinson whoever gets picked at 42 or so isn't going to be good and whoever, Chop Robinson, whoever gets picked at 42 or so, isn't going to be good. I don't know. It's all just a crapshoot that I'd rather have the two cracks added in the second round than the one late first. I think normally I would be on board with you just because, I mean, that's obvious. Two picks that are really good are better than one pick that's excellent but at the same time in this year's draft in particular if you're talking about the difference between a second round draft talent versus someone who is going to be maybe the fifth or seventh best defensive player i i think i'd prefer to get the better prospect um i i also think that when they traded for 23 they thought

we have a chance to package this together and make this work for the Patriots. I imagine that the Patriots said we're open for business. What can you put together? And so they decided to do it. But also it potentially gives them the flexibility to get to number five and pick J.J. McCarthy with the fifth overall pick. That's if they actually like J.J.

McCarthy as much as everyone thinks they do. But having that opportunity wouldn't be there in the same way if they were competing with Denver and Denver could say, well, we can put together the same exact package. Now the Vikings can top Denver if they need to, to be able to move up. Is the McCarthy plan, do you look at that as economically worth it? So if it was your choice between Michael Penix at 11, let's just say, and we had just assumed that O'Connell likes the guy that they're picking, but is it economically worth it to just stick and pick at 11 or trade 11, 23 and whatever else, maybe it's the first round pick from next year but even if

it was just 11 and 23 for McCarthy is the gap between those two quarterbacks enough or the odds you think enough to add in extra draft capital to go get McCarthy yeah it's tough because for me on the one hand it is I think because I'd rather have the 21-year-old quarterback who hasn't lost any games in his career and has a lot of the traits that you look for over the Pennics or Knicks who are 24 and have just, there's a lot of tape of them and a lot saying about the NFL not really knowing how to do any of this and and so I can see the the other side of the argument too which is just if let McCarthy fall if he gets there great but if you don't have a huge separation between them on your board and somebody wants to go trade up and get McCarthy let them and take Pennix or Knicks I I would probably say the thing I guess not the safety thing but it's it depends on your approach but i would go and get mccarthy i think at five or i mean ideally he gets past the giants you can go get him at eight but i would go get him at five if you're able to keep the

the first round or next year and just do 11 and 23 and maybe a future third or something like that do you think there's any chance that they take, like, Byron Murphy, the D-tackle at 11, and wait until the second pick on quarterback? Because that would almost be like, all right, we got this 23rd pick, so now we can wait and get Bo Nix there or something. But then I just feel like that opens you up to the possibility of getting shut out of these top six quarterbacks entirely,

which would be nothing short of a disaster because then your quarterback room is Sam Darnold and Spencer Rattler. And to Jaron Hall. Don't forget Jaron Hall. And Nick Mullins. Yeah, under contract. Maybe Case Cookus will return, but I can already feel the tension from Vikings fans in the chat all day on social media waiting for this moment to happen. Can you imagine if they were waiting until the 20th, the 21st, the 22nd, and these picks are slowly rolling by and they still don't have their quarterback. Is it possible? Yeah, it is possible that they could look around and say, all right, well, nobody else that we could think of is going to have a grade on this guy. That's going to be higher. So we're going to take him. He's the one that we like whoever it is, Nick's pennix that maybe the draft analysts were too high on Nick's to Denver.

And we know he's going to fall so we could get our guy there. But that just seems way too risky to me. And I know that Kweisi Adafo-Menta always wants to pay his price for things. And that has cost them in some ways, like signing Dalton Reisner quick enough. But this is just so much bigger than any of that. This is not the time. This is not the time to draw your lines in the sand. If just for example, you have Kevin O'Connell say, look, I have a big gap between McCarthy and Knicks, a big gap between McCarthy and Pennix, then yes, you trade what it takes. And I would even throw into that mix that you trade next year's first round draft pick. If there is a big gap between those quarterbacks, I don't know that there is. If there's not, then I might look at it different, like wait till 11. Can't wait till number 23 though. I think if they even pick 23, that's going to make this a long and very

interesting night. Before you go though, Will, I want to hear your opinion. I threw it out to Dane Mizutani earlier, just about this thing coming together over multiple years. And I think that it's made their regime look like, for better or worse, we'll find out, but look like they have had a plan and stuck to it and executed it to this moment. And what we're looking for here is to complete the circle of the entire plan. So how do you think that they have executed that up until this point to set themselves up to draft quarterback? I think it's gone well. I mean, we've talked about this in the past. Like they came in with the competitive rebuild thing. They won a bunch of games in 2022. They didn't read too much into

that and they still refreshed the future salary cap stuff last offseason. They didn't extend Kirk because he wanted multiple years. And then last year happened, and they weren't predicting Jefferson getting hurt and Cousins getting hurt, but it set them up as well as it probably can be with the talent on this roster and with Kevin O'Connell and Brad Flores on the coaching staff. It took the quarterback injuries to even get them to the 11th pick and now they're set up well it's just can they complete it and can they execute the final step

this offseason and it just I keep coming back to that trade for 23 like why do that unless you had something else lined up and maybe it'll all work out tonight and I mean however whatever happens they're gonna frame it publicly like this was the plan all along and we'll have to maybe read between the lines of whether we agree with that or not but yeah they're here they've gotten to this point it was always going to be tough when you uh pull out that win against the Raiders or whatever that bumped you four spots back like this would be a lot easier if they were in the sixth or seventh or even eighth spot something like that but the opportunities are there I think the the steam about McCarthy

falling further than people expected it seems real I mean every draft analyst you you look at their final mock draft they had the Vikings taking McCarthy somewhere in 7 to 11, somewhere in that range. So if they can pull that off and ideally you keep the 23rd pick, even if you don't, that to me feels like a win because McCarthy has such a skill set and a mentality. And just there's a lot to like about him and how he would fit in this offense. So if they come out of this night with JJ McCarthy, I will have felt good about the plan up to this place, up to this point, uh, and where they're going to go from here. If they don't, I'll have some questions, but we'll see. I am told that ESPN was just reporting that it's either JJ McCarthy or Michael Penix will be their target

if they cannot make that last second trade up to get Drake May. So we will see. Before you head out, Will, and send Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune in here, what do you think? What do you think is going to happen, man? I think it's McCarthy. I mean, that's probably a pretty safe prediction to make, but I think it'll be McCarthy. I think ultimately they,

they do go up a few spots and I think eight with the Falcons makes a lot of sense just to, cause you know, they're going to get to be getting Nancy up there and not want to fully wait and hope that he gets all the way to 11. So I think they go up to like eight and they get McCarthy and they, I think you can do that with holding on to the second pick. And then they get a pretty good defensive player and it would make sense if they trade up a little bit and give up some mid round draft capital to then

trade back a little bit from 23, unless there's a guy that they really love there. So that would be my prediction trade up slightly and then trade back slightly because we know Quincy loves to wheel and deal during these drafts. I think that scenario with not giving up too much and still getting McCarthy, maybe it's at seven with Tennessee, or if they were to stick and pick at 11 with Pennix, both of those to me would be pretty ideal for the Minnesota Vikings. And I could see both of them being a really good fit I know that there are things about Penix that scare people but I've really been on his train the entire time because of what we saw him do last season and the arm talent you

cannot ignore yeah the way that man yeah I don't want to sound like I'm out on Penix like I think I could talk myself into that I I mean, when I was watching the national semifinal, like everybody else, and thinking about him throwing those deep balls to Jefferson and Addison, I just think there's some things with the age and the injury history that are, those are low-hanging fruit. I think there's some things with his mechanics thrown over the middle of the field, but that can perhaps be cleaned up. I think the upside would still be there if Penix is the guy and it'd be fun to watch for sure.

Yep. And I think personality wise, he would fit well with Kevin O'Connell from what I've seen. Will, thanks so much. Will Raggett, Sports Illustrated, pass along Andrew Kramer into us here on the broadcast.

We'll get him before we start getting into draft picks and reacting. So I really appreciate the time though, man. Thanks for stopping in the time though, man. Thanks for stopping in. Yeah, no problem. Have a good one tonight. Football. And it does feel like a JJ McCarthy momentum is growing here as the likelihood of Drake may at number three overall reduces with every moment that we have not gotten a trade announced.

And if a producer jonathan harrison sees on twitter anything break he'll pop in and give us the immediate news but right now the chicago bears are on the clock about seven minutes left there is really no question who the chicago bears are going to pick that is caleb williams but this right, this pick by the Chicago Bears is very relevant to me as far as the Vikings approach to how they're going to build a complete team. Because when you start to look at how it's come together for the Bears, and I'm sure some of you think that the Bears will never, ever have a good quarterback. And maybe that's true.

They're going to build a stadium with a roof on it. That might help a little bit from all their failed quarterback play. But if Caleb Williams does become a star quarterback in the NFL, then it really matters to the Vikings and what they're able to do here to have a quarterback that can go toe to toe with Caleb Williams, whether that's because he's good enough and talented enough by raw talent standards or whether he has enough around him in the right system and the right defense and all those things to be able to beat the Chicago Bears because what they've done over the last couple of years with going all the way to the bottom, fully rebuilding, and then just falling into a pot of gold with the number one overall pick from

the Carolina Panthers, they're going to be something to reckon with for years to come. If Caleb Williams even becomes a good quarterback, much less a great quarterback, if he even becomes Matthew Stafford caliber of that fringe top 10, then they're going to have a good enough team to be really good. And you talk about the Packers and what they have in Jordan Love, who's going to be there for some time. And then even when you look at where the Detroit Lions are, they are not going anywhere. You know, the Lions, at least for the next couple of years, they're starting to get

expensive, as we saw this week from contract extensions for Aminra St. Brown, Penny Sewell, and it's going to be harder for the Lions going forward, but not immediately. It'll be take a couple of seasons because they've drafted well. And especially that last year's draft gives them so much surplus value with young star players that they're going to be competitive for some time. And Jared Goff's not old. He is not a guy who should age poorly considering how he plays football, which is always from the pocket and not relying on his raw physical skills. So this Caleb Williams pick then put together with assuming they have not selected him on

my TV yet. But when they do select Caleb Williams, it really just highlights what we've talked about leading up to this, which is that the NFC North is going to be a bear, so to speak in the coming years, because all of these teams took different paths there, but they took paths that needed some rebuilding element to it. The Chicago Bears, when they hired Ryan Poles at the same time as Kweisi Adafomensa, and this is why this is so interesting because I wrote on the day that

they hired Kweisi Adafomensa, I think it was maybe a day before that Ryan Poles was hired, that this was kind of a race, a rebuild race of Kweisi Adafomensa and the Vikings that Ryan Poles was hired, that this was kind of a race, a rebuild race of Kweisi Adafo-Menson, the Vikings, Ryan Poles, and the Bears. And they took different routes to it. Ryan Poles said, no, no, no, we are tearing this all up. We are going all the way to the bottom. We're going to get a bunch of draft picks and we're going to tank around Justin Fields and go from there and try to get our future quarterback a couple of years down the road when we go all the way to the bottom. And they did that and then got super stupid lucky with trading with the team that ended up with the number one overall pick. And then when you look

at what the Packers did, that was more of a competitive rebuild where they moved on from Devante Adams and they got younger at certain positions. Well, Aaron Rodgers was still there and waited on Jordan love. And then, you know, in Detroit, they also tank. They just did it a year earlier than Chicago and then quickly bounced back a nine and eight season. And now, you know, an NFC championship team. So the Vikings here, as we've got the pick in and they are showing Caleb Williams as we wait, but the pick is in for Chicago. But, you know, the Vikings took this, this different sort of route than Chicago and then Detroit. And we're kind of going to find out who ended up being right.

And I think right now you might argue that the bears were right because in the competitive part of the competitive rebuild, the Vikings had an entertaining 2022 season. It was miserable in Chicago. It was entertaining here for the 2022 season, but both got them zero playoff wins. And now the bears are set up. They're all hugging and everything else inside their draft room. And they're set up to have their quarterback and built for in inside their draft room and they're set up to have their quarterback and build for the future so the Vikings need to hit on the pick they need

to pick someone that's going to be able to do everything Kevin O'Connell needs to do if they can't get Drake May that puts more pressure on Brian Flores puts more pressure on Kweisi Adaf to build it correctly and to have a defense there is you're going to have to have a defense that is top notch because of surely who you are playing against over what six games out of 17 per season are going against if caleb williams becomes good that three very talented quarterbacks and two of them that'll be the number one overall pick and another first rounder who's six foot four and throws lasers so there you have it caleb williams is the pick and i know that it's a viking show but well done chicago well done chicago to get to this position to take somebody of his caliber as a prospect it might work It might not, but it's the plan that a lot of us were advocating

for, for the Vikings when they were hiring a GM was to try to do something like this. And Hey, remember 17 years ago, when we talked about whether Justin Fields would be the guy and so forth, it now becomes very, very clear with Caleb Williams Williams this was their plan the whole time no matter almost what Justin Fields did unless he became a superstar but instead he threw for like 2,500 yards and they have made the right choice in drafting Caleb Williams number one overall moving on from Justin Fields to which we saw Pittsburgh give up almost nothing for him. And he's got a lot to work with. I don't think it's as good as the Vikings, but Caleb Williams is going to have a lot to work with there.

They went out and got Keenan Allen, another good move by the Bears. All I'm saying is that there's more pressure. When the Bears are doing good things, there's more pressure because they have so often been, they pop up every once in a while with a good defense, but then they go right back into the NFC North closet and they are mediocre and you go to Soldier Field

and weird things happen sometimes. But for the most part, they're a beatable team. Now they might be a serious team under Ryan Pulse. And there will be questions about Matt Eberflus and their offensive coordinator, is that Shane Waldron, and how they can build an offense for Caleb Williams and whether they can get him to play on time and not fumble the football as he did have problems doing.

I have not looked at Caleb Williams as somebody who is a perfect prospect. And now Washington is on the clock as they are expected to pick Jaden Daniels, but this is where the draft starts. And we don't know who Washington's going to pick consistently. We heard throughout these last few days that nobody knows who Washington's going to pick. So the tension really begins now. And the anxiousness really begins now counting down to when the Vikings will draft a quarterback. We don't know when it's going to be. Could be with the next pick. Could be down the road. Jonathan Harrison, do you have news to share?

Just an update on where things stand from a trade perspective. Jeff Darlington, who is at TCO Performance Center, said he met with Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell an hour ago, told him they've worked through plans for every scenario. Separately, sources tell him Vikings are prepared to continue talks with Patriots when New England is on the clock. May is a player to watch, but trade comp is still way off. Okay. All right. Thank you, Jonathan. Appreciate that. when new england is on the clock may is a player to watch but trade comp is still way off okay all right thank you jonathan appreciate that uh jonathan harrison producing and also keeping track of all the rumors for tonight compensation way off if it's way off it means

they didn't want to do it right because the vikings had the compensation that they would need to offer a good package to the new England Patriots with 11 and 23, and they could throw in their first round from next year. Now this will be quite interesting when with the draft gets over and somebody leaks out, here's what the new England Patriots got for offers over there with the patriots they have a lot of reporters somebody is going to figure out or some insider is going to be told yes this is what we got offered and if the vikings did offer less than 11 23 and next year's first then we may have some questions about that. Under most of these circumstances that we've talked about, the potential scenarios,

I've always kind of gone along with, all right, this one makes sense. This one makes sense. And this is probably what they're offering. But if they were not offering next year's first, then I will say, really? Okay. That's a report that likely comes out in a couple of days. You know, somebody ends up asking behind the scenes, they say, well, you know, we've already got our pick who cares. Here's what happened. Or does this get to the last moment? And they finally say, all right, here we go. And something that has been on my mind throughout this entire thing, since they traded for the 23rd pick was that they might want to know what Washington does. Cause I just said that all the reports out of DC are, we have no idea. They're not leaking.

They're not telling anybody they're not hinting. So how can we possibly say maybe the Vikings were not willing to make their godfather offer that they can't refuse until they know what Washington is going to be doing with the number two overall pick which we will find out within the next uh couple of minutes here and I've got my alerts going on we got Jonathan paying attention so we'll find out as soon as we can. But Washington is a total wild card in this draft. We have just been assuming that Drake May is going number three. He could be going number two here to Washington. Jaden Daniels has made the most sense with the tea leaves,

which would be, you know, they bring in Cliff Kingsbury, who worked with a running quarterback before. They move on from Sam Howell, who's close friends with Drake May. They, you know, they go get Marcus Mariota, who's a running quarterback. So a little bit of those things. And then even the fact that the agent was not happy with what was going on with the visits and so forth made you think, all right, well,

would they really care if they didn't think there was any chance that they were going to draft a Jaden Daniels. So now we've got Washington people hugging, which means the pick is in for Washington. And this is where we start to find out how the ball is going to roll. Are the Vikings going to come in in the last second to the New England Patriots and make a huge offer to move up to number two? Will they wait?

Will they get to four? Will they get to five? Or will they sit at number 11 and 23, in which case it could be a very, very long and fascinating night to see that happen. So right now, when we find out what happens with number two, then we'll be able to better say, all right, it's either make that huge offer for Drake May or wait or try to get McCarthy,

but we're going to find out in just seconds here what Washington is going to do. And that really will lay out the path for everybody else. If they shock everybody and take Drake May, well, then that kind of changes everything. And the name that we really have not heard much at all with the Vikings is Jaden Daniels. That doesn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't be interested, but it might change the math if they said we would pay X for Jaden Daniels and Y for Drake May. So, all right, here we go.

The commissioner announcing number two overall pick. And now this is setting up, it seems, yes, with Jaden Daniels in the way that we all expected. Number one, Caleb Williams. Number two, Jaden Daniels. And off we go. So now the New England Patriots are on the clock they have said over and over and over again we are open for business but we also like drake may but we're open for business how much are the vikings going to be willing in this next what do they get how many

minutes seven minutes six minutes i don't know how many they get. 10 minutes, whatever it is, the next few minutes, how much are the Vikings going to be able to push to the middle of the table? And if they are not willing to go all in to the level of a Mike Ditka for Ricky Williams type of trade, then things get very interesting. Then the options start to open up. And if it's between Penix and McCarthy, then the New York Giants, are they going to be willing to move up to get JJ McCarthy? The other point, there is another point to be made here too, that, okay, Adam Schefter says that there is zero chance now the Patriots trade the number three pick.

So there you go. That's what he's saying now, that there is zero chance. Well, that is pretty definitive from Adam Schefter. He, I imagine, must have just gotten a text from somebody within the Patriots room that this is not happening. If the Patriots decide to stay and there's no chance, then in my opinion, they were never serious. They were never moving. Of all the times they said we're open for business, they did it to just not tell anybody what they were doing. And it might be possible that they didn't want Washington to get any hints about who they wanted, et cetera. It could just be that the NFL really doesn't want the teams to tell people what they're going to do, that there's always a scenario. It's sort of like if you ask a

coach, hey, could you see this guy playing? And they say, well, yeah, maybe even if there's no chance the guy's actually going to play. Because sure, there's always a world where something can happen. If you were the Patriots, there's always a world where you could see someone offering Justin Jefferson in two firsts and you say, all right, then you get Drake May. But whatever the offer you can't refuse is the Vikings had to walk away from that price because it was simply impossible for them to do and I imagine that that had to and again we're going to find out but I imagine that it had to involve something like either four firsts or Justin Jefferson for the Vikings to not do this for the amount of times that the Vikings talked about wanting to do this, wanting to move up.

Even Kevin O'Connell joking around in the last minutes about, you know, trading up and getting Drake May or whatever, trying to get to, you know, number three with the New England Patriots and his public speech. I mean, clearly the Vikings wanted to do this. It's just that the Patriots, it seems if Adam Schefter is correct, I'm assuming he is the pick is in, I'm assuming it's going to be Drake May and the dream dies there for Vikings fans of getting Drake May. But I don't think that that's because the Vikings didn't try. Everything indicated, and we will soon, I'm sure, find out from Adam Schefter or whoever,

the Vikings will tell Jeff Darlington, who's out there in their facility, what they tried to offer to go up and get Drake May. But the fact that it didn't happen has to mean the Patriots were always taking him. And this is why you tank. Truly, this is why you tank a truly. This is why you tank because these three teams at the top of this draft are joke shows, but now they're getting these great quarterback prospects with an opportunity to go be great. And the Vikings instead did things like keeping Daniil Hunter, keeping Kirk cousins last year, and they end up with now not being able to get their quarterback.

So yeah, like Drake may also, by the way, is a very sad boy today. I would guess that I am thinking that Drake may, it should sit for an entire year because they have nothing to work with in new England. And there have been plenty of quarterbacks who have found a way, uh, after going to teams that did not have a whole lot to work with that, you know, maybe you get a couple of receivers here or there or whatever it might be. And you build quickly. That was Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow went to a very sad down and out franchise, but even someone like Trevor Lawrence, it's been a couple of years now.

They have that one playoff win. They still haven't been able to build up a good enough team. The Drake may is, I imagine quite disappointed that he will not be in purple and instead has to go to a total rebuild situation. But also if you're the new England Patriots. Now I could argue all day long and say to Robert Kraft, hey buddy, you should trade back because you're going to hurt this, the chances.

But if you're the Patriots, who's in your division? Josh Allen. How are you planning to go against Josh Allen for years to come without somebody who has freakish talent? And I would guess that that is the thing that they just simply could not pass up is having a quarterback with that much skill is going to be required in order to go up against the great Miami offense to go up against the Buffalo Bills for years to come. Even the New York Jets have a really good defense and a good defensive coach. It's going to be quite an uphill battle for Drake May. We've also seen teams turn around so fast though. We have, and they now without Belichick running everything and there it is on my TV. I might be a

few seconds behind you guys, but there it is. Drake May to the new England Patriots. Uh, now that Belichick is gone, maybe they, uh, have a better chance to quickly rebuild. And it's probably a good thing that he's not the problem of the NFC. If he has a chance to be as good as we think he could be. Uh, I was going to make a point about that with Jaden Daniels, by the way, that for years, it seemed like the AFC was drafting all the quarterbacks and all the quarterbacks that were becoming great. And the NFC with their quarterbacks, they were getting old, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady with the Bucs. And we've seen a transition a little bit here, but now the number one and number two pick just landed in the NFC.

And even if one out of two of them becomes very good, or if they both become very good, this is just stronger competition for the Minnesota Vikings. And it speaks to their need to get the right quarterback here and make the right quarterback pick. But I look at what's happening here. Now, again, the offer is probably going to come out eventually what the Patriots were asking for. But my takeaway here with them all day saying, you know, I guess maybe, maybe all day, I would guess, okay, now we're also getting from Schefter that the Cardinals are going to stick and pick as well. So five, if they do get either Malik neighbors or Marvin Harrison jr, probably Marvin Harrison jr five, then becomes the spot potentially for the Vikings to trade up. They've got to be on

the phone right now with the Los Angeles chargers, but going back to Drake may not becoming a Minnesota Viking, theings not trading up i look at this much more much more as the patriots were never trading that pick no matter what the vikings offered drake may was too good of a quarterback prospect for the new england patriots to pass because they are a franchise that has always had franchise quarterbacks since the beginning of the nineties with drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady. And they took kind of a middling quarterback prospect and Mac Jones, it blew up in their face. So they are looking for the guy who can compete with the Josh Allen's and the AFC, the CJ Strouds. They know that you're going to need somebody like that.

And they were never going to trade with the Vikings. I'm sure that there will be some reaction that's, well, the Vikings didn't do enough. They didn't make a big enough offer. I look at it as they clearly were just not able to pull the Patriots off of a great quarterback prospect and everything was just pointless smoke screening or not wanting to give away to the fans as the league tells them not wanting to give away what they were going to do. And so you don't end up with an opportunity to take Drake May. Personally, I look at this as not that shocking. I thought that it was in the range of outcomes that New England could look at it like we need a roster. Instead, they don't. They pick their quarterback. And now the Vikings are in a position

where it will be a little more tested about the we're in love with multiple quarterbacks. Which quarterback is it that you're in love with? Are you really in love with J.J. McCarthy? Are you more in love with Michael Penix than JJ McCarthy? There there's a scenario where they trade up a lot to five and get McCarthy or wait till maybe seven to see if the giants take him. Their comfort with the rest of this draft class is going to be put to the test over the next, I don't know, 45 minutes or so as we go through these picks. So now Arizona's pick is in, and we assume that this is going to be a wide receiver. This is another situation, by the way, that it never felt like Arizona, despite again, them saying, oh, look, you know, we'll trade out.

It's fine. We're open for business, whatever that just a note for the future. It seems like that's just what everybody's going to say. But when you have a prospect of the caliber of Marvin Harrison, Jr., someone who is considered maybe the best receiver prospect since Julio Jones, you just can't pass that up. If you're Arizona, especially when they did a full tank last year and brought now they need to send out Deandre Hopkins, sent out Marquise Brown brought now they need to and sent out deandre hopkins sent out marquise brown like they need to bring in a superstar wide receiver whether it is neighbors or uh if it is harrison jr i assume it's harrison jr so uh the vikings now are in a position potentially to trade up to

number five and if they really love jj mccarthy they should be able to offer enough to get the chargers to move back because the chargers have their quarterback already. And there's been weird things that people have tried to sell as far as rumors regarding, um, you know, Justin Herbert, but obviously the reason that Harbaugh went to the chargers was because he's got a franchise quarterback already there in place. So why, why would he move that franchise quarterback? No, he wants to get everything he can around that franchise quarterback. So he can win starting with receiver, starting with offensive line, but with the chargers, they could pick as well with this selection if they want Malik

neighbors instead, as Goodell's up there announcing the pick as we speak here. And the selection, no surprise, is Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Arizona Cardinals. Again, a lot of conversation. We'll move out for the right price. We'll move out for the right price. For these top four picks, they were so clear and obvious that it appears that none of these teams were remotely serious about ever trading out. So the Vikings didn't have the opportunity. And yes, I saw some of you in the

comments talking about this. We will think about it for years with Josh Dobbs and winning those games. We will a hundred percent think about for many, many years to come the impact of that good or bad, because imagine if Drake may doesn't work out as, I don't know, Achilles Smith didn't once upon a time when quarterbacks went one, two, three, and the 11th pick Dante Culpepper turned out to be a great quarterback. We're going to talk about that impact though, because had the Vikings fallen apart entirely after Kirk and lost every game from there, what would the situation be? Would it have still been the same? I don't know that three quarterbacks were going one, two, three, no matter what.

And I think that there will be some reaction though tonight where people will assume that there was an opportunity and the Vikings didn't take it. And I don't buy that. I think that they were willing to put on the table that they were willing to put on the table, uh, whatever it took, right? I mean, whatever it took to get Drake May and they were not going to do it. That's just how I'm viewing this, no matter what they were putting down. So you can blame Kirk Cousins beating the 49ers. You can blame Josh Dobbs winning a couple of games at total random.

You can blame them not tanking and sending out Hunter and letting go of Kirk Cousins and trading him before last year. But I don't believe that you can blame them for not offering enough because every indication was that they were willing to put a lot on the table to move up to the New England Patriots, but it just wasn't going to be enough. So here we sit with the Los Angeles chargers on the clock, a team that would make a lot of sense for the Vikings to trade up. Jonathan Harrison is furiously scrolling Twitter for any signs that that's going to happen. So, uh, but we'll, we'll wait and see if we get a Schefter report, but we have not the last couple of picks. We got a very fast Schefter report that those teams were going to stay and

pick. We have not yet gotten a Schefter tweet that says that the chargers are going to stick and pick. So they may be considering moving out of this. And if they do stay and it's say Malik neighbors, then it comes down to the giants and their love for McCarthy. Do the giants love them enough or do they not? And the Vikings could move up to number seven, potentially number eight. That would be juicy if they moved up with the Atlanta Falcons.

And then the Falcons had the Vikings former quarterback and, uh, you know, the, the Vikings traded with them for number eight. I mean, that could certainly be very interesting. But so far, I mean, we're counting down here, and we have not had news of a move for the Vikings to trade up with the Los Angeles Chargers. So that may mean that they're going to stick and pick as well, and that everybody who talked so much with the media about how, oh, well, you know, we're going to make a trade ended up sticking and picking.

So do we have, do we have some news here? Is there some news that the Chargers are going to trade? What do we got, Jonathan? You may be muted. There you go. There's no news yet on whether the charges are trading yet. Ian Rappaport's tweet or reported that both the giants and Vikings made significant officer offers one last offer before the Patriots took their pick, but obviously the Patriots didn't accept that, but that does keep in mind that the giants did offer so they clearly are interested

in a quarterback still okay thank you jonathan so there you go the vikings tried to trade up with the new england patriots so did the giants and if they wouldn't have traded with either team both teams who had tremendous amounts of draft capital then we've got our answer. Our answer was from the start of draft season, they fooled everybody into thinking it was possible and they ended up instead just taking Drake May. But now we've got, uh, now the Schefter report, the chargers are keeping their pick. Oh boy. Now it gets interesting. The chargers are keeping their pick, which means that JJ McCarthy's availability comes down to the New York giants. And if he does not go to the giants, could the Vikings trade up to number seven or could the Vikings just wait and see if they have an evaluation that is close between

Michael Penix and JJ McCarthy, Who does that come down to? If they get to number 11, which one do they like more? Do both guys get there or would they let Denver trade up over them or the Raiders trade up over them because they're comfortable with both? Or do they have a player between those two that they are way ahead on. And now they're going to be trying to trade up to number seven, but this is going to be kind of the make or break moment here when it comes to JJ McCarthy. If the, if the giants pick JJ McCarthy, then the Vikings are going to be left between Michael Penix and Bo Nix. I mean, that could happen. Or if the Giants were doing all of this research on this quarterback class.

And by the way, Jonathan mentioned that they tried to trade up to get Drake May. So was this for the Giants, a Drake May or nothing? Or was this for the Giants, Drake May or JJ mccarthy or is the jj mccarthy hype just not even real and the vikings will get him at number 11 or michael pennix whoever they like more we are starting to find out at very least here's what we know that everybody who mock drafted the vikings trading up to four or five to get jj mccarthy did not succeed in that, that four quarterbacks did not go one, two, three, four. So we'll keep history at bay there.

And now we're going to find out what McCarthy's draft stock really was, as opposed to people thinking that it was the number four or number five with the chargers that I don't know who they're picking. The pick is in. We'll see here in a second i've thought that either a great lineman or a wide receiver malik neighbors would make so much sense here for the chargers they need a number one wide receiver for their guy they lost keenan allen this offseason they traded him away uh my opinion between pennix and Nix, I have always preferred Michael Pennix. I will argue

about Bo Nix if we want to have the debate that, look, if KOC likes him, then that's the guy. But I have felt like Michael Pennix is well-prepared for the NFL and that when we talk about going up against in the future, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, these are playmaking quarterbacks. That's not Michael Penix, but he has something that does work to his advantage. That is his arm, that his strong arm and his willingness to push the ball down the field,

his ability to throw with anticipation, his leadership and command of his offense from what we saw in college. All of that says you can win with that. And you know who that reminds me of is really Jared Goff. It's very similar, I think, in my mind to Jared Goff, that it's going to be a pocket quarterback. It's not going to be a playmaker, but you can win from the pocket in the NFL, as we've seen from the Rams, as we've seen from the lions and even the Cincinnati Bengals that, that the Cincinnati Bengals with Joe Burrow win from the pocket. I don't think you have to be a running quarterback. Now, Michael Penix runs a four or

five, so he could probably scramble a little bit better than you think. This is, wow. How about this? This comes from Adam Schefter just now. Says, in recent weeks, both the Patriots and the Vikings reached out to the Chargers to see if there was any interest in trading for Justin Herbert. A flat no is what they received. hey they saw your tweets they saw all your tweets that said we should trade for Justin Herbert and they checked in and the answer was no you're not getting Justin Herbert so there you go confirmed that they were never going to trade away the reason Jim Harbaugh went there which is the franchise quarterback so all right roger goodell at the podium now for uh hey how about this local connection joe alt offensive lineman notre dame you know what i gotta say uh the if you weren't doing trades in your mock draft which most of the pff simulations did not do trades for other teams you're doing really well because these top five picks have

gone pretty chalky with no trades happening. So now we're here. Now we're at the pivotal moment. We had pivotal moment number one, which was Washington going Jaden Daniels. Pivotal moment number two, which was the Patriots swatting off the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants and saying, no, you will not trade up for Drake May. He's our Drake May. All right.

Then we get to the Cardinals, not shocking that the Cardinals would take the wide receiver. The Chargers, another moment of, will they actually, will they actually do it? Will they actually make the trade back with the Vikings? They said no. And they decide to go with their offensive lineman. This man is a beast. Good idea for Jim Harbaugh to get an offensive lineman. And now here we are with the New York Giants. This will determine maybe everything for the Minnesota Vikings, which is if they take JJ McCarthy, now we're going to be looking at Pennix or Nix at number 11, or maybe even having to trade up

because you've got Denver behind you. You've got the Raiders behind you. You might have to go to number seven. And I do know that Kweisi Adafomensa and the general manager from the Titans, Ran Carthon, I believe they have a relationship. There's a San Francisco connection there. So there may be something that they can do to move up to number seven but are they going to be doing it

to get jj mccarthy or would they be doing it just to fend off denver to make sure that they get pennix or bo nix uh and why would the Vikings be interested in Justin Herbert seems pretty straightforward to me. I know he's expensive, but he's also excellent. And there have been times where I've wondered, like, is he really great or is he just good? But he's super stupid talented. And if you were talking about bringing him here and putting him with Justin Jefferson, I don't care how much those two costs. That's a good idea. So you can see why they checked in. The Chargers had no interest. They knew they were going to go with their guy. They get Joe Alt. Good job by the Chargers. Get the best offensive lineman. Not a sexy pick, but one that's going to help them rebuild. Now,

as far as the goal to save cap space at quarterback, yeah, well, your goal is to get a great quarterback. And what you're trying to do is get a great quarterback who does save you cap space. But if you get a for a franchise that had any competency, he would probably be on that same list as someone like, you know, I wouldn't put them with Mahomes or Allen necessarily, but the next wave of those quarterbacks. So yes, they tried to at least make that phone call to see. Now here we are with the giants. If they take JJ McCarthy, it comes down to two quarterbacks. What a lot of you will say, I'm absolutely certain, is that they blew it and they're settling and typical Vikings. I am asking you to refrain from that because, number one,

we don't know how these quarterbacks are going to turn out. There have been plenty of times where there's the number five quarterback, but also, too, there doesn't seem to have been an opportunity to make this happen. If they wanted to, then there was just not a chance to do it because everybody wanted to stick and pick. They all treated this like it was a draft sim on PFF where it just picks all the players rather than doing the trades. So let's see if JJ McCarthy's draft stock was as high as we actually thought it was, according to the draft industrial complex, the mock draft universe and so forth. We're going to find out in just seconds here, whether the giants wanted that or if all along now I had thought all along that they would maybe

do it for Drake May but otherwise that they want to prove that Daniel Jones as extension was the right idea so a lot of you are saying it's neighbors my TV is just a little bit behind some of your televisions it uh it happens sometimes with me and the wife if we're in different rooms. The TVs don't match up. So here we go. We're going to get Roger to the podium here in just a second. But if they're picking neighbors, then A, that means that McCarthy's stock was not as high as everyone said. And it also means that now it's going to come down to whether it is Malik neighbors indeed of LSU. So the giants had their chance. They had their opportunity to take JJ McCarthy with their own pick with no trade up.

So this says right here that the draft stock of JJ McCarthy was not as high. And now there could be a chance for the Vikings to get him even at number 11 without giving up their pick or maybe take Michael Penix because potentially they like him more. And I think some of you are right. And this is why it's so hard to believe things during draft season, because the Giants would have every reason to want the Vikings to think they were going to take McCarthy. Oh yeah. Trade up everything, trade up everything, give up all your draft picks, right? Of course they would try to deke somebody in the NFC into trading up all their draft picks to try to get over them. Of course they would, but instead the Vikings did not do it. And now also, by the way, the Vikings look smarter for not trading up with the chargers and rather leaving it to the giants

and saying, we dare you to do it. We dare you to do it. If it comes down to McCarthy and Pennix, I prefer Pennix, but either one is still a good choice. Either one is still a high quality. These are the two quarterbacks that were in the national championship game. Hard to argue. Hard to argue against them. You know what I need? You need a little Diet Dr. Pepper right now. Been talking for an hour and a half here

without a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper. Talk amongst yourselves for a second. We needed to get past that Giants pick so I could take a deep breath here. Although the Vikings could be trading up at any moment because this is where they could try to get ahead of Denver. Hold on. I'm going to take a sip of this. We have some drama here, folks. Isn't this exciting? I know all you guys are losing your minds, but this is fun. This is fun. This feels like, you know, I have the same feeling when I cover

a game at us bank stadium. It's so intense there, right? There's so much noise throughout the game and every single game comes down to a final field goal or drive because it's the Vikings. So that's how it works. And in the fourth quarter, you're always, you're always gripping the desk, right? I'm trying to write. I always write an instant game reaction and my fingers aren't moving right because it's just tense and it's loud and you're anxious. What's going to happen, right? That's the same exact way that everybody feels right now is it's the fourth quarter of a playoff game and you're driving down the field. What's going to happen? So at least by process of elimination, we are down to three out of the six projected quarterbacks. Each one of them has a good case

for becoming a quality Minnesota Vikings quarterback. They all do. People will have their opinions. That's what makes this fun. I think that if you are against their pick, you should work a little harder than just calling them the guy from 2011, that you should flesh it out, talk about it. But this situation is one that we talked about many times where, Hey, the giants didn't take McCarthy. The other teams decided to stick and pick. And now it's number seven for the tennessee titans do the vikings believe here as the clock is clicking down do they believe that they have to make a trade up to fend off denver or to fend off the raiders or are they okay with the the idea that denver or

the raiders could trade up ahead of them. Are they okay with that? Because if they are okay with that, then they could sit at 11. And as it goes longer here, as the pick is now in for the Tennessee Titans, as we go on, it gets more and more likely that the Vikings will not have to give up anything to get their quarterback. And it's because when you get to number eight, that seems like that could be Dallas Turner. And then, you know, you got number nine, Roma Dunzey, like this is kind of playing out, right? Like a draft that has no trades whatsoever, and all hell is not breaking loose in the way that it was talked about so much. And if the Vikings end up getting,

and I've been more skeptical than almost anybody on J.J. McCarthy, if they pick him at 11, wow. Considering what they were talked about with the idea they might have to give up three first round picks to swap with someone in order to get J.J. McCarthy, And now we are looking at dead in the face, the very distinct possibility that they will pick whichever quarterback they like at number 11,

which would be a very favorable outcome. I agree with Carl in the comments though, Chicago at nine could trade with Denver. Are the Vikings afraid of that though? If they have the same grade on JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix, would they let Denver move up and make that trade with Chicago? If they wanted to, they might, or they might feel like, and oh man, the tangled webs we weave. If they trade with the Atlanta Falcons.

I guess there would be no hard feelings for tampering. Hey, by the way, real quick, while we got a second, the pick is in. It looks like it's going to be a lineman. Real quick, allow a little snark here. I thought the Vikings were getting the eighth overall pick. I thought they were, why didn't that happen, everybody? Why didn't Roger Goodell walk up there and announce that he was penalizing Kirk Cousins for texting with a receivers coach? Who sold that heap of crap? That was one of the silliest stories I think that I saw

during all of draft season. Total nonsense that they were going to switch first round draft picks with the Vikings over tampering. They don't care about tampering at all. They're going to dock a fourth round pick in 2029 for the Falcons when everyone's forgotten about it. Are you serious? Who the heck was putting that out there? Total nonsense. Just well, you know, which is what we've got time. Also, I'm still wondering where all the mock drafts are that had JJ McCarthy is the fourth overall. Well, we're snarking, shocking that mock drafts would be wrong. Actually though, I will say this year at the very top of the draft was probably in hindsight, as predictable as it's ever been, because how rare is it that you have three quarterbacks that's going to be at the top? I mean, that almost never happens. I will save,

I will save the big, nobody knows nothing rant for later, but I just wanted to point out that that was such a silly, silly story. It was also silly. The idea that Justin Herbert would get traded. But I do credit the Vikings for at least picking up the phone and being like, could you please, what do you think about just giving us your franchise quarterback? And they said, no, obviously. But now the Vikings not trading with the Titans and the pick is in here. They're going to draft. I imagine when we come back from, um, you know, Eric, that's not true. That's not true. A lot of people thought that the Vikings were going to get this pick swap that was put out there by large accounts on Twitter. Let's just

call it that. And I got a lot of questions about it. I got questions about it every single night. Are they, are they going to swap picks? Are they going to swap picks? No. Cause that's insane and would never happen anyway. So the pick is in here for the Titans. Now we're talking about Atlanta. Do the Vikings call Atlanta and say, Hey, no hard feelings for your tampering. In fact, actually kind of thank you because that's a lot of cap space that we don't have to pay for a 36 year old broken quarterback who has one playoff win um but maybe they don't mention that part as they're making the trade call so they call up atlanta and say how about we just take the number eight pick you get get 11. Then you get to have a defensive player at number 11. We get to get our quarterback at number eight. It seems realistic. Seems realistic. All right.

So now finally the Titans pick is in. Carl, large accounts on Twitter is if you don't know, then you can go find the information yourself if you want for who was putting it out there, but I'm just not going to talk about that person. So anyway, it's JC Latham, fat guy, good for you Titans. You're going to have to run the ball without Derek Henry. Now that Titans team is a wreck. Their offensive line was one of the worst in the league. I am actually curious by the way, uh, with the Titans, if we'll Levis does have a chance at some point to be a good quarterback, because I know for a fact that the Vikings, well, because they didn't pick them and more had no interest whatsoever in will Levis last year. So they passed on them rather than just taking a shot. And now they're going to try to

rebuild around him. Starting with an offensive lineman just doesn't seem like Levis is going to get much of a shake though, with that team that there's nothing to work with their Traylon Burks. I mean, what else now an offensive lineman to the top, they are years away, especially in that division. That's going to be pretty tough. Oh,'m sorry carl my mistake you meant that the account was nonsense okay yeah i got you my apologies when i'm mid-rant it's pretty hard to slow down that train so anyway i just i'm i'm just still laughing at that idea that they that anyone thought that they were gonna swap the picks a day before the draft no that's not what's gonna happen anyway here so here's the falcons stick and pick is just becoming

way more realistic because the pick is in for the atlanta falcons so now you have uh number nine is going to be chicago why would chicago out? All right. I mean, Chicago could pick Roma Dunze. He's still on the board. Every defensive player. We have not had a single defensive player. If you're Chicago that, you know, you could take anybody you want, Byron Murphy, Dallas Turner, the Falcons, the same way here, they could take anybody they want they could take a defensive player uh and then it will go to chicago and and we're gonna see wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute the atlanta falcons are taking michael pennix oh my god what are you serious?

Jonathan, are these people, are you serious? Albert Breer is reporting that the Atlanta Falcons are taking Michael Penix Jr. with the number eight pick. Wow. What? What? The first big draft, one of the biggest draft shocks of the night. Absolutely wild. JJ McCarthy or Bo Nix. I am completely shocked.

That means that they want Michael Pennix to sit on the bench for two years behind Kirk cousins. I I'm at a, I'm at a bit of a loss folks. I am. I am at a bit of a loss folks. I am. I am at a bit of a loss. I understand why now I'm not shocked that Michael panics went ahead of JJ McCarthy. I am not shocked at all. You know why? Because draft analysts told you there was no way. So then I knew it was possible because no mock draft had that. That's how I knew it could happen because as usual, they got the quarterback order wrong because they always do. But Michael Pennix

going to the Atlanta Falcons is truly incredible. And I have to say, I mean, you guys are saying, you know, is it part of a trade now? Okay. Maybe, maybe it's part of a trade. It doesn't seem like it though. If now, if the Atlanta Falcons, that would be like an NBA thing. If the Atlanta Falcons took Michael Penix to trade him to the Vikings, that would really be crazy, but we've never seen that before. They usually just trade picks. So they want Michael Penix. And that means that they think that Michael Penix can be their future franchise quarterback after Kirk Cousins. But what in the blue hell are they doing? I mean, they just signed Cousins to a hundred million dollar. I'm sorry. I'm laughing. Penix

will be 45 years old before he plays. You're not wrong, Tom. You're not wrong. If you are Michael Penix, you got to be completely baffled that they are not just taking one quarterback at a hundred million dollars, but then also drafting one with a top 10 draft pick, which does not help Kirk Cousins win. Uh, wow. Of all the scenarios, this is why we draft. This is why we really do the draft because of all the scenarios, all the draft Sims, all the mock drafts, all the things that I thought that I knew I never in a million years would have guessed the Atlanta Falcons would have spent that much money for Kirk cousins to then draft a quarterback in the top 10. In fact, that's kind of funny because Kirk was that to RG three almost, right? There was like the RG three and then Cousins gets drafted

now Cousins on the team and his old team picks a first round pick. That really means that they think that Pennix can be their future franchise quarterback, they will waste two years of his rookie contract or not because we don't know how well Kirk Cousins and his Achilles are going to hold up. But I am struggling to find the justification for them taking Michael Penix. Aside from just their, I don't know, their management really loved what happened with Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love. Could that be the only thing? I mean, I'm looking now at the TV at these reactions

and everybody seems confused. I mean, Michael Penix is smiling, but he's even gotta be confused. There is no way that he even saw this coming. And now we are sitting here, I guess Adam Schefter saying it was Raheem Morris was just in love with Michael Penix. Now it is either JJ McCarthy or Bo Nix.

And hey, my scouting turned out pretty good. I'm not even a scout. I liked Penix more than McCarthy and that's where they went. Good stuff. Anyway, hey, look, good for Michael Penix, one of my favorite quarterbacks in the draft. I think he would have been great as Minnesota Vikings quarterback.

I think he would have been a great fit. The way that he played, the leadership that he showed last year, and in a couple years, he is going to have a chance. And this could be a great situation for him because the offense they're going to play is a Shanahan-inspired type of offense and he's very good with play action and so forth. It's just clear that they wanted to draft and develop a quarterback in the same way that so many other teams have not been able to do over the years so in two years

we're going to see michael pennix take over for kirk cousins and he's going to have a fully developed type of team with kyle pitt London, and so forth. And this, this is shocking, but also knowing that Michael Penix is worth a top 10 pick and the Vikings not getting him, I think is the first disappointment of the night. What would Tennessee have been willing to trade out? Could they have ever guessed that Atlanta was going to do this? Where the Vikings thinking, oh man, once we get past the giants, no one else is going to draft a quarterback. And now they do. And they take Michael Penix, the great Washington left-handed fireballer who I thought would have been a tremendous pick for the Vikings. This is now the disappointment

of the draft for the Vikings is not getting the actual fourth quarterback off the board, not the alleged, not the presumed. How many times did I say this by the way, through draft season? Don't assume we know. Don't assume we know the order. Don't assume JJ McCarthy is somebody's actual franchise quarterback i mean now if you're the vikings jj mccarthy falls in your lap potentially or you go with bo nicks we've heard no bo nicks connection whatsoever to the vikings uh i don't even know how much that they visited with him. I know they've visited a lot with Michael Penix. And I'm very curious what it looks like in that room right now.

But the Bears, the pick is in for the Bears. The Jets are not moving. And the Vikings will pick their quarterback at 11. Now, I think it's a loss to not get Michael Penix. It is a big loss to not get QB4 when he was almost there, but it is a big win to select your quarterback at number 11 and not have to trade up. And yes, Jeff, you're right. All of us Penix people were right. The people that thought that Penix was a better prospect than McCarthy, like myself, were right that he was drafted higher than J.J. McCarthy but if McCarthy goes to the Vikings doesn't suddenly mean he's a

bad prospect it still means he's a top 11 pick and a quarterback that they'll be able to develop it just tells you that all these people saying that McCarthy was clear cut top four no question we're wrong. Oh, what do we got happening? What's going on? Vikings have traded up to number 10. This has to be on the clock.

Has to be McCarthy, right? I would imagine so. This has to be them backing out Denver, backing out the Raiders. So the Vikings trade up to 10. Thank you, Jonathan.

All right, here we go. Here we go. Like in Hollywood, they go action, action. Here we go. Number 10, Minnesota Vikings. This has to be JJ McCarthy, right? Only trading up for one spot to get your quarterback here is a very big win for the Vikings. Especially if they're getting, as Roma Dunze, the most known pick ever, goes to the Chicago Bears. It's a great pick for them. But if the Vikings go to number only 10 from 11 and they barely have to give up anything to move one selection to take their quarterback. They're using a fourth rounder to take their quarterback,

assuming that's what they're doing here. I can't see any other choice of what they're doing. They're just trying to make sure that they block out Denver and Vegas from getting their guy. This could be a big win for them. If they end up getting their quarterback at number 11, that would be a really, really good way of playing this. I don't think anybody could have seen coming that Michael Penix was going number eight. Okay. So I don't think that there would have been any way you could have as the Vikings sat there and thought, oh yeah, yeah, we'll, uh, we're, we'll get QB five because Penix will be off the board first. No, I mean, not based on any information that was out there. Did we think that Michael Penix would go number eight. So that's pretty shocking. But if you still end up with the person

that you thought you were going to get by trading up to number four, I think you have to feel pretty good about the economics of that decision. Now, wait a minute. So they're not moving up one spot? What's happening, Jonathan? What's happening?

Pellicero reporting that the Vikings traded number 11. They traded their fourth and a fifth round to the Jets to move up one spot and get picked 203. So they did not have to give up 23, but they moved from 11 to 10. Yes. Yep. Okay. So they're still picking twice in this first round. All right. Okay.

So then we're still talking about a defensive player here at 23 and a longer evening for us as we continue to break this one down. The Minnesota Vikings around the clock, folks. This is what we have been talking about. This is what we've been waiting for. This is what we've been discussing for weeks and weeks and weeks since kirk cousins left and now has a buddy in atlanta in michael pennix that shocked the world with that draft pick but the vikings moved up for one reason and one reason only that is to draft their quarterback and i'm

gonna think that it's very likely jj mccarthy and, it's going to be well played. I mean, if they get the quarterback that everyone had them mock draft, move up to number four to get JJ McCarthy and had them giving up 11, 23, whatever else. And it's Jim, it's not stupid because if the Broncos or Raiders came in with a bigger offer, they would have been able to jump ahead and get a quarterback. Yes. Jonathan.

I'm going to spoil the pick here. Go ahead. It is JJ McCarthy, JJ McCarthy. Wow. The Minnesota Vikings land JJ McCarthy with the 10th pick after trading up with the New York Jets, just one spot and not giving up the number 23 pick. And as weird as it was to get to this position, as shocking as it was to have Michael Penix go, of which I will wonder myself for a

long time, did they have Penix or McCarthy higher? I'm sure they'll tell us that it was McCarthy higher. Another team put Penix higher and he ends up being QB five, but QB five was often throughout this draft season placed by the draft analysts and the draft reporters as a top five pick. And the Vikings end up getting him with number 10 without giving up 23. I have to say that the biggest concern for the Vikings and the pick with McCarthy for me was always going to be the price. If it costs them multiple picks, first round picks, it would have been really concerning to have to give up that much for a quarterback like McCarthy, who's going to need time to develop and that they are going to need a great team around him. But instead that is not what happened.

They gave up almost nothing. They move up one spot and they get their future franchise quarterback. Now I will say it is going to take some time with JJ McCarthy. He is going to have to develop and we're going to have to see this thing come together from the first OTA and mini camp through probably 2025 when he is starting to fully develop as a quarterback. But what we know about JJ McCarthy is that he has won everywhere that he's gone, that he has played in NFL style environment with Jim Harbaugh, that he has a tremendously strong arm, that he has a playmaking ability with his legs, and that the Vikings didn't have to give up almost anything for him.

That right there is a big victory for the Vikings. Yes, they landed the quarterback that everybody thought, but not in the way that they thought. And this gives now, I think, a perfect partner, personality-wise, between J.J. McCarthy for Kevin O'Connell, between those two, the perfect partner of someone who is a great communicator, who can execute an offense, who understands the game extremely well, who takes the game very seriously, as you've seen from every article, every feature about J.J. McCarthy. And when people talk about him as a Kirk Cousins type, that's kind of odd to me because he is much more of a playmaking quarterback. He's much more of a natural athlete than Kirk Cousins was.

And you saw that in the drills that he did do at the NFL Combine. So the Vikings have their future franchise quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. And again, without giving up almost anything. And this has to be a dream scenario for McCarthy to be able to go to Minnesota and have a chance to play with Justin Jefferson and have the supporting cast that he's going to have. But they now have to develop JJ McCarthy. It's going to be a process with him. It won't be plug and play as it might've been with say, you know, Michael Pennix. And throughout this time, I have wondered about McCarthy. I've wondered about the hype around him. If it was truly real,

it turns out yes and no, he was a first round pick, but he was not a first round pick that you had to trade up this much for. I am somewhat skeptical about putting a lot of emphasis on certain parts of a quarterback's game that aren't about quarterbacking that are, Hey, he's a great guy. He's a good leader. He won. And for the record, Michael Penix would have been my choice if both of them were on the board. But here's what I know, that J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix and Drake May and Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels, they all have about equal odds of succeeding historically. They're all top 10 draft picks. They were all chosen by NFL teams as top 10 draft picks as the Vikings pick McCarthy at number 10. And the grade for this is the same grade that I told you I would give the moment the Vikings got their quarterback. It's an A. In fact, they didn't give

up any, almost anything. It's an A plus because now, and by the way, I was so close all week. I said, my hot take was that they stick and pick at 11, get McCarthy. I was so close. I was so close. They didn't stick and pick. They did have to trade up, but they've got their guy and he's going to get every opportunity to succeed. If JJ McCarthy is good at all, he's going to have a great chance to succeed.

And that's what we know about this situation. We don't know how he'll develop. We don't know if he is going to, over the next five years, become one of the best quarterbacks in the league. If he's going to be a middling quarterback, average quality, if he's going to fall apart and bust. We don't know. We don't know we

don't know tonight we won't know tomorrow we won't know when i report at tco performance center from rookie minicamp we will not know in year one when he sits for sam darnold in week one through seven we won't know about whether jj mccarthy is going to be that guy that this organization has yearned for for so many years since Fran Tarkinson. But what we do know is that the Vikings gave themselves a chance to find that. That's what they did tonight. Gave themselves a chance to find that true franchise quarterback. And that when you put everything around him, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, the two offensive tackles, a running back in Aaron Jones, a quarterback coach in Josh McCown, who played for a long time in the league, a head coach as a former quarterback who changed Kirk Cousins, truly changed Kirk Cousins.

He instilled confidence in Kirk Cousins that we had never seen before. And that relationship grew over two years to the point where, and it took two years to the point where he had complete command of that offense. If JJ McCarthy can get to that point of having complete command of the offense, if he can make plays with his legs, if he can deliver the football where it's supposed to go, and then if he can use his ability to throw on the run, which is excellent, his escapability, which is very good, scrambling, escaping rushers, he could be a quarterback that the Vikings went with. And throughout this season, draft season, I kept trying to come up with JJ McCarthy comparables.

And there were many different names that got thrown around. There was Alex Smith, Matt Hasselbeck, I thought of, and that's going back a little bit, but Matt Hasselbeck was kind of like his size, little bit of playmaking ability, strong enough arm, tough guy, good leader, so forth. Won a lot of games under the right circumstances with Seattle. The other one that I came up with was Dak Prescott that, you know, potentially Dak Prescott, you know, can lead a top offense because he throws to the right spot because he's got a terrific arm because he's got enough playmaking ability. And even when you see

the highlights of JJ McCarthy, he's able to make plays out of structure. Can he win the Superbowl? I have no idea because that's going to deter, that's going to be determined by a lot of stuff. But what I also, but I do know and can say confidently about that, about the Superbowl part is that they didn't give up anything. They did not have to go up to number four and give up 23. So if the formula was always, Hey, here's what we'll be happy with.

We'll be happy with trading everything for Drake. May we'll be happy with. We'll be happy with trading everything for Drake May. We'll be happy with trading nothing for JJ McCarthy because we know we can put other things on the field that will help him succeed. Then they landed one of the two ways. It wasn't Drake May because the Patriots were never giving him up. So it's the next best thing,

a quarterback with potential, a quarterback who has won, a playmaking quarterback, and an excellent communicator. This is very important that J.J. McCarthy is an excellent communicator. That will matter because so is Kevin O'Connell. And they're going to build this offense together. I mean, that is an ideal situation. And also what this means is that Kevin O'Connell met with JJ McCarthy and that he worked with him and he believed in him more than he believed in Bo Nix and more than he believed in clearly Michael Penix in a trade up, unless they had no idea that Penix was going eight,

which will be interesting to find out, but enough to make this pick, but they also did not freak out. They didn't panic. They didn't trade the farm to make this pick. But they also did not freak out. They didn't panic. They didn't trade the farm to the Chargers. They didn't trade the farm to another team, to the Titans even, to move up and get McCarthy and essentially got him with their own pick. I mean, I don't care about the fourth rounder.

You know, I was suggesting they draft a punter in the fourth round the other day. So not too concerned about that. This is a big win for them. This is their quarterback who is a great fit. I think that 90% of draft analysts who did their content this year put McCarthy with the Vikings because they felt like it was the best pick. Now, the other side of this, there is another side of this,

which is the things that I've talked about through draft season. This is somebody who's thrown very few passes and it's harder to figure out how good someone's going to be when they've thrown fewer passes. And even if he's played with a winning team, his team was much better than everyone else. That's going to change. team his team was much better than everyone else that's going to change the vikings are not much better than everybody else they're good but they're not

much better than everyone else so he's going to have to be that much better he's going to have to grow he's going to have to develop and become a better version but there is something that i always noted along the way which is when we compare the other quarterbacks, where would McCarthy be in a year? Where will he be in two years? That's what you're really betting on here with JJ McCarthy. This is not a one-year thing and ownership has to be patient. Fans may have to be patient. It's not a, Hey, you're drafting him for next year. But the fact that they can keep number 23 is so vital. Has there been a defensive player? There has not been a defensive player off the board yet. The New York Jets just took for Sean who the offensive tackle from Penn state. There has been no defensive player,

poor defensive guys, but you know what this means at number 23, the Vikings can get a top 10 defensive player. They're almost locked into a top 10 defensive player after these next two picks. Now is Denver going to take Bo Nix? What a fascinating turn of events that the Vikings get their guy at number 10 and now have a chance to draft another player what do we got just some quick reactions to the jj mccarthy pick uh our buddy chris trapass trapasso tweeting out the picks and his grades after every pick saying tools are there for him to be a stellar qb athletic natural improviser arm talent plus accuracy some misses will appear comes up big in key moments young but plenty of experience can be quick liftoff with vikings grade a minus also put out

a poll in the chat uh among 315 votes right now i asked him with how it all played out do you like the mccarthy pick at number 10 89 percent of people say yes they liked how it played out and the pick i am on board with the 89 and you know why because even though throughout the draft season i did a lot of watching of mccarthy a lot of talking to people uh about him and i always have had some hesitation about the idea of trading up for him always wondered if that was really it always Always wondered if he was actually QB4, which he wasn't. He's QB5. But, and you're right,

the 11% are always going to be the loudest. That's how life tends to work, is the unhappiest are always the loudest. But I have questions and I have concerns and we're going to see how that plays out. But I also know that throughout the last how many ever years that I've been doing this, that there have been quarterbacks that I've had concerned about who have turned out to be very good. And, uh, you know, he's turned out to be a really good quarterback. So the college game is just so different than the NFL that you can never really know how someone's going to react to the NFL environment. What I understand about JJ McCarthy though, is that his maturity and his love for the game,

as in his dedication to the game sounds like a match with Kevin O'Connell. When I listened to McCarthy at the combine and he talked with NFL network and he talked with the media, everything said, this guy kind of reminds me of O'Connell just in the way that he handled himself and the way that he talked. And now you also have Josh McCown in there as well. So he is in the hands of two accomplished quarterback minds,

McCown playing for a bunch of different teams, McCown already coaching quarterbacks himself and Kevin O'Connell, who was a quarterback coach, then offensive coordinator and won the Superbowl in Los Angeles, and then comes here and works with Kirk Cousins, excuse me, Kirk Cousins. And sorry, the diet, Dr. Pepper got me for the first time tonight, but so he comes here and works with Kirk Cousins. And even though I didn't think that Kirk Cousins was crazy better than he ever was before. He was a different person when Kevin O'Connell was his coach, when he did not have Mike Zimmer breathing down his neck,

but also Kevin O'Connell clearly understood how to work closely with his quarterback on a day-to-day basis and be in very close contact with him every single day, like in the office, breaking it down, building the offense together, and then leading the team. And that was what I really saw from Kirk Cousins that did not exist until Kevin O'Connell got here. And that's what's going to be instilled in JJ McCarthy is the confidence to lead the team. If you can do that, if you can master the offense, you are most of the way there for McCarthy. He's going to have to learn to put some touch on the football. It can't just be all rockets. He is going to have to learn a little bit that, you know, launching the football downfield is going to have to look a little better. His deep passes were not

perfect thrown to the outside. It's going to have to be a little more, a little better. The footwork is going to have to be adapted and adjusted a little bit better for him at times, but that's everybody, right? It's everybody that is going to have to improve from college to the NFL. The sample size is smaller. That's what makes it harder to know and harder to look at and go, all right, well, look, I can see it because I have two years or whatever. But with McCarthy not having that sample, it leaves the door open for a lot of development that can happen at the NFL level. If McCarthy had stayed in college, they don't really develop quarterbacks in college. Instead, he's going to get it with the Vikings and in a position where he is not

under a lot of pressure to start right away. And this is going to be our next big discussion. I'm sure at some point, it's not going to happen right now, but is you're going to have to with JJ McCarthy, I think be prepared for the idea that he doesn't start week one and be okay with that. They paid $10 million for Sam Darnold for that reason. They picked someone who is younger than everybody else. And that means that he is not as far along as everybody else. And it is the job of Kevin O'Connell. And it is the job of Josh McCown to work closely with him and develop him into the quarterback, the best quarterback he could possibly be.

There's two sides of this. There is the Vikings got their quarterback without having to move majorly up. And then there's how, how does it get done? How does he get from point A to point B to where you could take these raw skills and make McCarthy into what you want him to be. But the quasi-adapta fomenta part of this, any complaints? I mean, what I called this was the completing of the circle of the competitive rebuild, right? Now it's just competitive. Now it's just off we go, right? There's no more competitive rebuild. It's just time to win,

time to develop this quarterback time to win. Next year is a bit of a transition year for sure, but it's time to be in the direction of winning for the Vikings. It's no more competitive rebuild. You've got your quarterback off you go, but the way they handled this from start to finish. If I told you that in 2022, as the Denver Broncos pick is in here, and I think, I know

you guys were leaving in the comments here, but I mean, Bo Nix, wow. Six freaking, it was that good. The quarterback class was that good. Wow. Six quarterbacks in the first 12 picks. That is freaking crazy. And look, everybody gets to be right about their quarterback, at least tonight. If you said Bo Nix was a first round draft, actually everybody except for the big board

people, the consensus big board people were way the hell off on Pennix and Bo Nix. That's not surprising. But if you had an opinion on any of these quarterbacks and you said, I like this guy more than you do. I like this guy more than you do. Y'all get to be right. Top 13 picks on every single one of these quarterbacks. That is freaking wild. So what we can't say is while they should have done this, they should have done that. They're all taken in the same range. And now we get to see how it plays out how about that and you know what i feel good because i liked all these guys and i thought i was i thought i was like out of my mind

this whole time i was saying well i kind of like you know i like pennix i like nicks i like you know i like the idea of mccarthy at a certain price and i was made to feel by the draft analyst like i was nuts for liking michaelix and Bo Nix. Nope. Top 15 draft picks. Guess not. But I like being a real reporter, so I'm not going to switch over to draft scouting anyway. This is, this is really something though. We're going to look at this draft class for a long time and break this down

about how this played out with Penix shocking us by going number eight, Bo Nix, absolutely the day one starter, the Vikings having a chance to pick Nix or McCarthy. They go with McCarthy, interesting choice, someone they can develop a lot more. The one thing I would say for that is that Bo Nix is much, much older. So it's harder to compare them. I'm sure that we would like to look at, Hey, here's Nix. Here's McCarthy. They're on two different wavelengths. Clearly Denver wants their quarterback right away. And the Vikings preferred somebody that they can develop over a couple of seasons, but going back to what I was saying i just got distracted there by the quarterback who was 38th on the consensus big board going 13th because he was actually a much better prospect

than a lot of draft analysts thought um with quesadilla fomenta it if i told you day one when he got the job here's how this is going to play out he is going to win 13 games his first year have a rebuilding year the second year i won't tell you how that happened with an achilles injury and in the third year clear out all this cap space for the future extend justin jefferson's next step got to get that Draft quarterback and acquire another first round draft pick in the same draft of which the Vikings are now one pick away from being guaranteed a top 10 defensive player. If that is what, if that is what I told you that on day one, they would win more games than they ever won before with Kirk cousins have a tough transition year,

but draft their quarterback in the top 10 and then have a hundred million dollars or whatever it is in cap space to go forward. I mean, how could you ever be down on that? What do we got? I'm going to spoil the next pick for you just so to continue this conversation you're going on. The Raiders are going tight end and picking Brock Bowers. There has never been anything like this in draft history. So they will have a guaranteed top 10 defensive player pick at number 23. Wow. Top 10 defensive player in the draft to go along with. And look, even if you say, well, that means they weren't as good at prospects, I guess, but there's a historically good wide receiver prospect and six quarterbacks. So even if we just took that out of it, you're starting with basically the seventh pick and

going to 23. So 23 is like having a top 15 draft pick on defense. This was, this was handled really well. This was handled really well. This was handled really well. If the number one option was never going to be Drake may, which it seems that it was not the number two option for everybody was what JJ McCarthy, but it was mostly JJ McCarthy at five or four. And instead it ends up being JJ McCarthy at 10. And then they get a top 10 defensive prospect. I mean this, you couldn't have drawn it up any better than this. You really could not have drawn

it up any better than this. If you're Kweisi Daffelmense. And this is where you go back to, we don't know how these draft picks are going to work out, but you're allowed to learn and get better at your job. And so when 2022 draft happens for Kweisi Daffel-Mensah, that was a real, maybe learning experience about how to handle the NFL draft because tonight it was handled as well as it could have been. They did not panic. They did not freak out. They didn't trade way up when they didn't need to.

And now they're going to land franchise quarterback and top 10 defensive player. So I guess, Hey, we need to start talking about which defensive player that they are going to get personally. Byron Murphy. The second would be my pick if I could have anybody, but I think we're going to start to see now new Orleans though, could take a tackle here. New Orleans, I think is almost likely to take a tackle because they are in offensive line. Hell their great offensive line is falling apart.

What do we got? Jonathan in Rappaport is reporting that the saints are listening to trade offers. So they could move out and not take a tackle or a defensive player trade up and get dallas turner like i don't know okay maybe now we're getting now we're getting greedy here now we're getting greedy but i mean the the players on the board right now are pretty remarkable for the minnesota vikings it's everyone on defense. Quinion Mitchell, Terry and Arnold, Byron Murphy, Dallas Turner, Leatu Latu.

I mean, everyone. Personally, Byron Murphy would be my number one pick. I like Quinion Mitchell a lot, but Terry and Arnold, I think, is a real Brian Flores type of player. I just, I can't believe how this has played out. I mean, so I guess I sort of can, because that was my, my hot take was that McCarthy was going to get to 11. He didn't quite get there, but, uh, Ken McCarthy play guard. That's yeah. I, that had to come up at some point. You know

what? That's actually a good point. When you draft JJ McCarthy and you're not pressured to play him right away, you can improve the interior offensive line and have it ready for when he is able to play. The other part of it is that he can run away and he's a scrambler and a playmaker. And, you know, that's a big part of it. But Terry and Arnold is maybe my favorite pick outside of Byron Murphy that I think that Murphy is going to go pretty soon at some point here. Dallas Turner definitely wanted to go pretty quick.

Jared Verse, another one. And if they're able to draft a defensive tackle, then you have this opportunity to move around Andrew Van Ginkle. Right now, Andrew Van Ginkle is basically your edge rusher. And I don't even know who the backup is. Is it Andre Carter? Like they don't really have much depth for defensive end. They may have added somebody else for depth at defensive. They added somebody else. So some other guy, whatever outside linebacker from the giants that I'm blanking on right now. But if you were able to get any of those defensive ends, then you can now move Andrew Van Ginkle around.

And Jonathan Grenard's not very old. That means a duo at the edge or a duo of pass rushers. That's pretty attractive. Oh, Jahad Ward. Yeah, thank you very much. That was who iters. That's pretty attractive. I, Oh, Jihad Ward. Yeah. Thank you very much. That was who it was. That's not a difference maker at all. Would I trade up for Murphy? Maybe it's not a bad idea. Now, what do you have to dip into? Is it, I mean, do they have much to dip into at this point? How much could they give up from day three? Not very much. And they don't have the second round pick for next year so trading up

would be pretty difficult at this point but would it be great if they could trade up and get Byron Murphy oh 100 it would be so now more likely than not we're just going to wait here because there's going to be such a good player on the board that there's no reason not to wait um because you're going to be able to get best player available and be able to get someone really good on the defensive side. So this, it just looks like this is all going to be really, really well played out. Jackson Powers Johnson is an option. I don't prefer that. I think if you're getting interior linemen, you should probably draft them

later and try to develop them and then use free agency where you could get proven players on the interior. I agree with you guys that if Terry and Arnold is there, that just, I don't know how in today's NFL, you can really win without having a shutdown corner. And it doesn't have to be the Darrell Revis type of shutdown corner. It can even be like what Kansas city had last year. They had just a physical corner who took on the best wide receivers and made their life difficult and luxurious need. And they also had Trent McDuffie adding to that secondary is very attractive, but also adding to the defensive line is also necessary. Defensive tackle would be my top pick because when you look at all of the best defensive tackles in the NFL, they're almost all first round picks.

The physical element of defensive tackle is so significant for playing that position that you can't just take a guy and hope to develop them. And the other thing is too, that they're hard to get in free agency. They're very, very expensive. And there's usually one or two per year that come out in free agency, but it's not like there's five. And so the Raiders end up landing Christian Wilkins and well, okay. That, you know, then there's nobody else really defensive tackle to go out and get. So if you're going to get those guys, usually you have to get them in the first round of the draft. Um, and you know, like that, that's, uh,

what they might have to do here. And we'll see if they can. So the Saints pick is in, but number one corner is not a bad thing either. Terry and Arnold or Quinion Mitchell too. Quinion Mitchell was a heck of a playmaker, ran a 4-3-40. Arnold makes more sense to me just because he was such a physical player

when you watch him in Alabama. And I did take note of all of these players, these defensive players, uh, in my draft guide for those who subscribe to the newsletter, which if you don't, thank you so much. Um, if you know, if, uh, if you subscribe to the, to the draft guide, then you saw all of the defensive players that I looked at and the possibility that they stay at 11 and 23. And there's just a lot of good ones. Kool-Aid McKinstry is another one. Cooper Dajin is another one from Iowa that's been brought up. But right now, we're kind of talking about cream of the crop.

We're talking about best of the best because these offensive players keep getting taken. And when you guys talk about, you know, what I wanted before the draft, it was always through the same lens as Kweisi Adafo-Mensa talked about it. It was, I thought that it was very risky to trade up all the way to number four for J.J. McCarthy. I liked Michael Penix more than JJ McCarthy. Bo Nix, I thought was a very realistic pick for the Vikings. He ended up going one pick later. And McCarthy is the one that I have the least amount of a sample size on. So it was always the hardest. There's a lot of stuff that I think he needs to be better at in order to be a franchise

quarterback. I wondered why they didn't throw the ball more with him of course all those things don't change those questions don't change but his percentage chance to succeed is very hot with J.J. McCarthy here and his ceiling with Kevin O'Connell with this offense is high. Oh my gosh. Another offensive player. Oh my gosh. They take Fuwaga out of Oregon state. I can't believe this. Indianapolis has to take a defensive player, right? There has never been anything like this. That is just madness that it has been all offensive players. This is playing right into the hands. We're going to find out who's the better quarterback between, I mean, Pennix, McCarthy, and Nix were clearly all equal level prospects because that's where they went. It was, I mean, that's what was proven to us by the league

that they were all equal and the Vikings went with the one that they could develop more. Bo Nix is quite a bit older and you have to wonder how far McCarthy would have gotten in college if he had stayed for three more years and stayed with a great team and maybe he has more raw skill than Bo Nix and so they wanted to make sure at number 10 that they got their guy I have questions about all of them I think we talked about the, the meters just last night about the concern meter, uh, with McCarthy. It was the highest because I have the smallest sample

size on actually watching the guy play. That doesn't change. It doesn't change that there's possibilities of things I think could go wrong for JJ McCarthy, but let's consider how we got here and that they didn't have to trade up to get him and that he has long been considered a great fit, a best fit for Kevin O'Connell and their personalities together. So I said from the start that no matter what my opinion was through draft season i would throw it out on draft night we start anew and i would give an a and we move on and that's what i'm going to do so i'm sure that there's going to be some of you who kind of come back and say well didn't you not love mccarthy oh you're right doesn't matter now he's the quarterback of the team and i'm going

to cover him the same way i would anybody else uh to see where this plays out and i can't wait to follow this journey of jj mccarthy from the first rookie minicamp heck he's going to be here tomorrow at tco performance center to be introduced and i will be there and i'm going to be very interested in that having a skepticism about something how good of a prospect is this really, is not hating on the person. So that's just, you know, we've sort of, that's how we do it as a society. Oh, I kind of, I have a question about that. I'm not sure about that.

I'm not sold on that. Oh yeah, you hate the guy? No, I just have questions. I would have had questions about Bo Nix or anybody else. The only one I suppose I wouldn't have is really JJ or is really Drake may I, if they had traded everything for like, okay, well, I don't have the same level of questions I do as quarterback five, but I don't think that there's any difference in the odds outside of the number one pick. The number one pick historically has pretty much clearly been,

you know, successful more often than not the number one pick that's where, you know, successful more often than not. The number one pick. That's where, you know, you got your John Elway, your Andrew Luck. There's been only a couple of busts and they're super notable. So number one pick has a higher chance

than anybody else because that's the best quarterback in the draft. Past that though, historically, we've never really known. And one clear determining factor has been that, uh, you know, what one clear determining factor has always been the circumstance for a quarterback and the Vikings are going to give the best possible situation for JJ McCarthy.

What's up, John? Kirk Cousins reaction is is coming in from the Falcons drafting Michael Penix Jr. top 10. According to Diana Rossini, the Falcons called Kirk Cousins when they were on the clock to let him know. From what she learned, Cousins understood a QB would be considered, but did not believe his successor would be taken in the first round. I'm told he's a bit stunned is what she tweeted. Jane Slater also said Kirk Cousins is shocked and disappointed about the pick,

not getting off to a good start in Atlanta. It's too good. Football is too good. Who would not follow this? This is too, you couldn't write that any better. He is shocked and disappointed. Sorry, Kirk. That's amazing.

It's what the draft pick represents. I'm going to need a minute. Oh oh boy what else you got our first defensive player is coming off the board it is the ucla defensive end uh edge rusher laitu latu he's good yeah would have taken him yep he's really good at football. That's a good pick by them. Okay. I will stop. I will stop laughing about this Kirk Cousins reaction. But I, I,

you know, I look, I was as shocked as anybody. This is the second time during the show that I have been speechless. And it's usually really hard to get me to stop talking. Ask my wife or Jonathan. He knows that. But this right here, there are twice now the Atlanta Falcons have stopped me in my tracks.

First, by drafting Michael Penix, which is a little strange to tell you the truth, because you usually don't think of a quarterback like Michael Penix as someone that you would draft and develop for two years. He's 23 years old. He's going to be 24. He's much more along the lines of a quarterback that you would. I'm sorry. You guys, you guys are cracking me up in the comments.

Now I can't even get through this. Let me try again. All right. So you just, you never would have thought that they would take a guy who's 24 years old as someone that would be a draft and develop. So I can see why Kirk cousins would be shocked because I'm shocked. Everyone's shocked. It doesn't make any sense to anybody. Why wouldn't you take layout to lot to there or some fat guy and just go from there. Right. I mean, but instead they decide to pick a quarterback that is going to be the

successor to kirk cousins it makes sense from just a philosophical standpoint but if you're kirk you wanted somebody to help you win now and they didn't do it they didn't do the thing that we all thought they were going to do which is get get better defense, get a weapon, get an offensive lineman, whatever, to improve his chances to win. They did nothing to help Kirk Cousins' chances to win. Instead, they picked an older quarterback who will take over at age 26 two years from now when clearly they will be moving on from Kirk Cousins. And right from the beginning of the Kirk Cousins era in Atlanta, here's where it gets so good. They already say, we don't believe in you.

Kirk Cousins. You see? Okay. So Mike Zimmer never believes in him. All right. And then Kweisi Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell come in and they sign him to the shortest extension that they could. And then they don't sign him to an extension showing that they don't believe in him. They have another chance to sign him to an extension.

They don't. They say they don't believe in him. They could pay him what Atlanta paid him. They said, no way. We don't believe in you. Goodbye. We're going to get JJ McCarthy. And then on draft night, their biggest opportunity to show that they believe in Kirk cousins by getting a defensive

player in the top 10 or getting them another receiver. They could have picked a Roma Dunzay. If they wanted another receiver, they could have picked an offensive lineman. I don't know their offensive line, but you know, maybe a guard or something or a tackle. And instead they pick an older quarterback. So it's very clear that they want only these next two years out of Kirk cousins. And then they want to move on to somebody else. else oh boy people have asked me uh you know would you would you do something else would you do you want to be on tv or do you want to be whatever why would i do anything but this this is too good there's no way that tv would let me just sit and laugh hysterically for like 15 straight minutes and what the atlanta falcons have done to Kirk cousins. And the fact that he told people he's shocked and disappointed

is too fricking good because the guy, the guy sat there and said, yeah, it's all about the dollars, what they represent. I want somebody to fully buy into me. And the Falcons were like, eh, for a minute. Hey, do you think he's going to wear the dirty bird chain? Or you think he's going to check down like fricking crazy next year? That guy is protecting the Achilles folks. He's already preparing for the next contract. Kirk's quarterback rating is going to be 128.6 and they're going to go six and 10. Oh man. It's going to be so good. Fourth and eight. No first and 10 check down second and nine check down. That guy is going to make sure he plays to his next contract. And you know what? I bet Kirk, the next team will believe in you anyway. So, uh, there's a draft going on still. And it's layout to lot to one of my favorite players in the draft. Honestly, uh, he goes, he goes off the board to the

Indianapolis Colts. What a pick for them. I mean, the Colts trying to rebuild their team around Anthony Richardson and they get the number one defensive player in this entire draft. So well done Indianapolis Colts. They got to feel like they ended up just getting total gold here with this, you know, hitting the home run with the best player on defense, but that means the Vikings can't get them. That's unfortunate, very productive, tremendous player. So, you know, good for them, but the Vikings are still looking at a lot of defensive linemen or corners. There are two positions that they need the most. And I guess I've, I've got to try to come up with like a quick defensive player draft board of who would be the most ideal, because there are still other offensive players that could be picked here in the next few picks.

But I'm sure that the defensive players are going to start rolling off the board. So who is the ideal? I would begin with Byron Murphy from Texas as the number one player that would be my choice here. He isn't the biggest, but he is a terrific pass rusher, dynamic player. He's something that the Vikings haven't had in some time, but also Johnny Newton from Illinois. He's another one that the same exact situation where he's not the biggest, but has awesome production can get after the quarterback. And that is just has not been a part of what the Vikings defense has had for quite some time. Sheldon Richardson came back in 2021 wasn't the same. 2020, nothing in the defensive line. 2019, remember they argued

that in 2019 that Shamar Steffen was the big technical or something they called him, and he was supposed to have some magical impact that we couldn't see, according to Andre Patterson. Well, we definitely never saw it. And there was no impact there in the middle of the defensive line. 2018 Sheldon Richardson was really good, kind of inconsistent though. So he'd be great one week, kind of a no-show the next week. You know, that just was not maybe ideal for the defensive tackle, but it really hasn't been since Sheree Floyd. We're going on nine years. The big fundamental, that's what it was, not the big technical. The big technical is Draymond Green. But that didn't matter, right? There was no impact. There was no, when the quarterback came to the line of scrimmage, he didn't look right across from him with terror. And that has not happened since really Sharif

Floyd was a budding star in the league and then had the injury issues. Tom Johnson was a rotational player, but he was a really good one in 2017. Of course, it helped that Linval Joseph was having an amazing year in 2017 that boosted Tom Johnson. And after that, the defensive tackle position just has not been the same whatsoever. They could use that for this defense. And I mean, it's a it's a three four in its sort of base, I guess, but not really. They play a lot of nickel. They play a lot of four down. Sometimes they use three guys in the middle, then the two outside linebackers. So it's more of a five man defensive line. They've got that. And you guys are right that

they could potentially trade back. I would not want to see that though. Would not want to see that though would not want to see uh that um would not want to see them trade back because the player that they're going to get is of such good caliber that if you trade back i know it does help you get more draft capital but we've kind of been through that when you can get someone who can be really good just take that guy don't screw around don't get cute don't trade out of that pick unless i mean you go back to 25 oh that's fine as we're kind of slowly approaching that seattle's pick is in at this point if you go back just you know a couple of picks okay that's all right but i would rather them just stick at 23 and decide to do it so byron murphy would be my first choice

johnny newton has been talked about by some people as a first round pick and others as maybe more of a second rounder, but back end of the first round is good with me. It's just such a high impact position. We're also staring potentially in the face, Jared verse and Dallas Turner being on the board and both of them are very productive defensive ends. I really liked the idea of the Vikings pairing someone with, uh, with, uh, Jordan, um, Jonathan Grenard. Sorry. There's so many, uh, JJs and Jordans and Jonathan's, uh, Jonathan Grenard. I liked the idea of Jared verse and Jonathan Grenard on either side, but you can almost sell me on anything here because cornerback is a massive need. And that has not been filled

in a long time either. Xavier Rhodes in 2017 is the last great cornerback play the Vikings had outside of 2022. Patrick Peterson probably went underrated because of how bad the defense was but Patrick Peterson had a really good year and honestly I'm not even kidding the third best cornerback performance that the Vikings have had since Xavier Rhodes is probably Duke Shelley in 400 snaps when he got all those past breakups and interceptions that's how bleak it's been mike hughes struggled and uh you know holton hill they tried to run out there for a little bit that didn't work out they've drafted corners the cam dantzler thing was there for a minute they got a half a season out of cam dantzler. So if they go Terry and Arnold,

Quinnian Mitchell, you want, um, chop Robinson. I could definitely see chop Robinson. Talk about a high ceiling guy, uh, Robinson. He was one that was interesting because he didn't have crazy production as far as sacks, but he really had a ton of pressures, which usually is a better indicator of what someone's going to do in the future than sacks. So, um, you know, uh, I, there's a lot of really good players here. This is actually what happens when all offensive players are taken in the first 15 is you can make very strong arguments for a bunch of different players but Byron Murphy Terry and Arnold are at the top of my list you can talk me into the other guys though because if you like Chop Robinson all right well that certainly is a position of need for them I mean how many positions

like wouldn't make any sense receiver I know there's been some of you that want a three deep situation that would be pretty crazy if they went with Brian Thomas or Xavier Worthy or something. I did no prep on wide receivers in the first round. I got to tell you the truth. An offensive lineman, that's something that Kevin O'Connell could talk about wanting to do. So what do we got? we got uh we got some movement happening here jonathan the latest pick right now uh looks like seattle is going to go byron murphy defensive tackle from texas wow well there goes nothing yet

there goes the guy i just spent a bunch of time on but johnny newton's still there and now um so daniel daniel is saying in the comments so the vikings are are on the clock are we seeing something there are they moving up alex lewis or alec lewis saying back on the clock trading with the jaguars so oh wow looking into what they are getting or what they're trading away for look at this so clearly they have a defensive player that they really really want is that going to be dallas turner so field eight saying the trade is pick seven or four pick 17 vikings are giving up 23 167 a 2025 third and a 2025 fourth sp Spencer Rattler is the funniest answer by far, by far, Dan, thank you for that. That's funny. That's very funny. So they're, they're giving up not a lot, uh, to be able to move up a couple of spots here, right? 23, one 67. Oh, okay.

That's almost nothing. In fact, it shortens my day on Saturday. That's what I'm looking for here. I played golf today and I liked it. So I might do it again. Could be Dallas Turner. Could be Terry and Arnold. Could be Quinion Mitchell. I mean, there's so many defensive players here that I honestly have no idea. We knew who the quarterbacks were, but we don't know who it's going to be here at number 17. What we do know is that they really want this person. And yes, you guys are right. Kweisi Adafo-Mensa is indeed cooking. Normally, a tagline like that, I don't really go for, but in this case, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa has managed this draft. And this is why when Kweisi Adafo-Mensa when quesita flamenca botches the 2022 draft we go hey like that's one draft if he's going to be the gm for a while let's see more let's see more picks last year they get jordan addison they get

mckay blackman they get some players to work with and now they get their franchise quarterback and move up and get whom we will find out soon as they trade up with the Jacksonville Jaguars, just a couple of spots and not having to give up a whole heck of a lot. Is it going to be a defensive lineman? Is it going to be a court? You could get the best corner Dallas Turner. Is it going to be Dallas Turner? That's that's what uh is that what Albert Breer is saying that's what Alec Lewis is saying is that he believes it is going to be Dallas Turner scrolling up on the Twitter feed and Albert Breer saying they are taking Dallas Turner holy cow there you go what a first round what a first round wow what first. And to make sure that they moved up a couple of spots to get an edge rusher.

So now we're looking at someone that was expected to go in the top 10, but Atlanta went crazy. So he didn't go in the top 10. He drops into the later part, but is still one of the top defensive players off the board. So this is the third defensive player off the entire board that the Vikings have landed. You get your quarterback for Kevin O'Connell. You get your Alabama edge rusher who was highly productive for Brian Flores. Now, if we go through the Vikings defense, now it's looking pretty good. Now they still need a shutdown corner they still need the defensive tackle i ranted about for sure but getting now another edge rusher you have jonathan grunard 12 sacks last year andrew van ginkle for the next couple years is a versatile player

that has worked well with brian flores josh metellus is a piece. Ivan Pace is going to be a piece for them for a long time. And now you have probably Kambinem will be extended at some point. And now you add a edge rusher here that was dominant on one of the best defenses in the country he crushed the nfl combine he's got everything stand up rushing flexibility speed everything dallas turner has everything that and they're even showing on tv some of his dropping in coverage and playing a versatile role, which will help with Brian Flores as well. To be able to get the franchise quarterback and also land the third best defensive player, I don't know how you could give this anything less. You give me your grades. How could they not be an A or an A plus? How could they not be? I never would have expected this.

I thought that they maybe could get a very good defensive player, but clearly they thought that Dallas Turner was going to go off the board pretty quickly. So they end up with a great defensive player and the Vikings draft ends in 2024 with JJ McCarthy and Dallas Turner, or first round of the Vikings draft ends unless they are trading next year's first into the first round too which is why we'll stay on the air but this is one hell of a draft for the Minnesota Vikings and now we restart the clock on the reaction to the Vikings draft. Restart it again. Like I was saying, you know, in Hollywood, restart it again.

Because we have to go back to the front of the line and react again. Wow. So let's talk about Dallas Turner. I mean, a tremendous talent. A star rusher at Alabama, a highly productive player, has all of the skill of someone who becomes a double-digit sack type of player. As far as his athleticism, his quickness, his production in college,

where he went to college, I mean, everything. Everything that you could have asked for i thought that dallas turner was going to be the first defensive player off the board in the top 10 i never even thought that the vikings had a chance to land dallas turner and yet here we are with him as the Vikings 17th overall pick. So they trade twice. And to be able to do this for Kweisi Adafomensa to swing this trade and get Dallas Turner and not sit at 23 and wait as all the defensive players went on a run off the board.

Kweisi Adafomensa has hit this out of the park. In fact, this entire offseason can be thought of right now. It's over now. I mean, day three, we'll break it down. Day two, I entire off season can be thought of right now. It's over now. I mean, day three, we'll, we'll break it down day two. I don't know. You guys going to hang out? Anybody want to hang out tomorrow? We've got no draft picks. So anybody wants to play golf? We can, but this is pretty much it. The other guys will be drafted on day three. We'll take a look at them and then we'll see if any of them make the team and so forth. But the word Nolan used in the comments, culmination, this is a culmination. It is a culmination of three years of this coming together for Kweisi Adafo-Mensa on this night for the

Minnesota Vikings to plan going into this off season to draft a quarterback and then to do it without having to move up more than one spot, without having to give up their additional first round pick. And then at the right moment, striking to move up again, to take one of the best players on the board. One of the best defensive players in this entire draft is nothing short of an incredible draft by Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. An A plus, an absolute A plus. I mean, I honestly am pretty stunned that they were able to get Dallas Turner. He was one of my favorite players to watch in college football this year.

I assumed that he was being taken by Dallas or by, or I'm sorry, not Dallas, but his name is Dallas by Atlanta at number eight overall. That was the most mocked thing, probably in the entire mock universe outside of the quarterbacks that Dallas Turner would be taken all the way up in the top 10. And he ends up as a Minnesota Viking at 17. They have now put together in a short period of time, a team that by next year, and this is going to be a bit of a transition season for them, but by 2025, a developed Dallas Turner, a developed JJ McCarthy. This today is officially now completely wholly the team of Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell. This is no longer any remnants of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer.

This is Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell's team. And as we look at it, and as we look at what they have to work with going forward, and we know it's going to be an uphill battle against the other teams in the NFC. We talked about that earlier. But as we look at it, from what they have on paper right now, the bones of a roster right now that belongs to them, with work to be done in the future,

with the cap space that they have. But this is a premium position that at its best makes $30 million a year that they just drafted the second best edge rusher off the board. How many times would you ever get the second best edge rusher off the board, even at number 10 overall? And instead they get them at number 17 because that's just the way that the cookie happened to crumble for this year. For them to pick this season to do this, this offseason, to bring this all together was extremely well played. This was plotted out and executed.

And then they took advantage of their moment. I'm sure they were surprised that Michael Penix went where he went, but they took advantage of their moment. They traded up to number 10 at the right time. They took advantage of their moment, knowing that past number 17, Dallas Turner was not going to be there. And for a lot of people, he was the number one edge player on the board. And they move up to be able to get him. This is better

than what I thought could have possibly happened. So I am a little bit surprised by it playing out as well as it did. And this is also why throughout this time that I continually tried to say that, look, I mean, we're going to have to be patient. We're going to have to let it play out. We're going to have to let Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell bring together their entire plan. And then we can judge it. Now we can judge it. Now we can look at the roster and judge it. Looks pretty damn good. This night for them looks pretty damn good. The entire roster right now, if we go through it, Sam Darnold may start

week one, but JJ McCarthy is their quarterback going forward. He has every bit as high of a chance as anybody else drafted because they're all top 15 picks. And he has a better chance than a lot of these quarterbacks because of where he landed. Washington is still a goofball franchise. The Patriots have no players Atlanta. I don't know what the hell they're doing. Undermining their very expensive quarterback. That was their plan. And now you give J.J. McCarthy all lasers pointed at his development from Kevin O'Connell, from Josh McCown, and building him into the best quarterback he can be over the next couple of years.

And the next step is to extend Justin Jefferson. So they will have Justin Jefferson presumably extended soon to go along with their first round pick from last year, who we just sort of gloss over. That was a huge hit for them last year. Oh yeah. They got Addison too. Whoa. That's actually a first round draft pick that has made good on that is now very valuable and important. And by the way, remember when we were talking about, would you give up Jordan Addison to try to move up? Well, instead they didn't have to. So they have him.

TJ Hawkinson will be better by halfway through the season with his ACL. They need an interior offensive line. They need a long-term running back. That's really it though, for their needs on the offensive side. And then on the defensive side, now we went from last year, it looked pretty dark at times on the defensive side at the beginning of the year. Oh man, it looks pretty, pretty rough. And, uh, when, you know, you're talking about the defensive side, though, they go into free agency. Yes. They, they had to let Daniel Hunter go. They go into

free agency and they land Jonathan Grenard, who is a pretty young player. I think he'll be 26, 27 at the beginning of the season. So that's someone who could be here for multiple years. And Andrew Van Ginkle will be here at least two years. Blake Cashman, can't forget about that one, along with Ivan Pace. And now you add Dallas Turner to that mix.

They do need more defensive tackle help. They got some rotational players. They need cornerbacks. No question that they need Makai Blackman to become really good. They need a Caleb Evans to take a big step from last year. That may not happen. Byron Murphy, I think can move inside. Shaq Griffin may not be a long-term player. There's maybe one or two more years left of Harrison Smith, but eventually he's not going to be there. It's not a finished product, but it has all the bones of a team that's going to be together for a while. And 2025 is the mark where we start of saying, all right, well, that's a, by the way, we're going to have a draft next year. That's nice. Not having to trade the 2025 pick. So we will be doing this next year for all of you

have enjoyed the show. Hope you come back next year. Cause we, we, they didn't have to give up that, but what next season is, is a lot of finding out. So last year we found out some things in a step back year about Ivan pace, about Josh Metellus, about Jordan Addison. And so next year is going to be a real find out year of how far along is JJ McCarthy? How much development might he need? How good is this defense now?

What do they need for 2025 to take a step in order to be a contender in 2025 but you can you can see it all laid out nobody ever knows on draft night whether any of it will work the way that you hope it works right that's just a fundamental fact but as far as logic goes, as far as playing it out in the best process you can, the most overused word in sports history is process. Every team that doesn't have answers will just say it's part of the process. But if we judge the process for the Minnesota Vikings of the way they have handled the off season this year, the off season last year, and then this draft, there is nothing less you could grade them than an A, the way that they have handled this entire thing, because they didn't resign those veteran players. And it was so important to let Thielen go, let Delvin Cook go, let Eric Hendricks go and refresh this roster

and overhaul this roster and not extend Kirk Cousins. I mean, Kirk Cousins new team, isn't even buying Kirk Cousins and they paid a hundred million dollars for it. I mean, the Vikings look pretty good. When do we pick next? I don't know. 2027. Uh, no, it's Saturday. Saturday is the next pick in the fourth round. Uh, I'm not sure after today how much they have left, but yes, you're right, James. The Paul Allen screaming JJ to JJ is going to be pretty epic. It's going to break your radio probably. But to one 108 is the serious answer for when they're picking. It's Saturday, the fourth round.

But as far as and guard is, yes, everyone's first pick. But as far as bringing the plan together, using a distinct process that they had laid out for years to be able to get here is an A+. What's up, John? Just more reaction to how the Vikings and what the Vikings have done. What's up, John? length. Awesome. Ben pass rush moves still need to work. Must add strength. Nice get for Brian Flores grades at a B a field. Yates says following a series of trades, the Vikings now have just three picks in the 2025 NFL draft, a first round pick and two fifth round picks, but you replace Kirk cousins and Daniel Hunter in the first rounds. And you didn't have to give up a whole

lot to do it. Absolute win. So, uh, do you have right in front of you again, what they did to get up to 17? My brain shut that off the you again what they did to get up to 17 my brain shut that off the minute you said they got to 17 and i went into dallas turner mode so uh what was it again that they used to trade up do you have that there i'm pulling it up now i don't remember off the top of my head uh here fourth rounder yeah fourth rounder the number 167 8 and 2025 third and fourth rounders to get to move up up the five spots. Okay. So it was, it was a lot. Yeah. I mean, when they moved from 11 to 10, that wasn't all that much, but this, yeah, this is quite a bit. Um, so yeah,

I guess they sort of blew out next year's draft, but they still have the first round pick for next year and they get a starter at edge, a starting quarterback. They really couldn't ask for much more than that so let me give uh i'm gonna assume i'm gonna assume that they have uh no more plans to draft tonight because how would that even happen after giving away all of their draft capital so how about this uh about maybe a half an hour of just uh sheer reaction because i'm still kind of jared verse goes to the rams which i thought there was a report by an insider that said that they were guaranteed to take offense guess that was wrong uh so we'll just go

we'll just go like straight up reaction, your reaction, my reaction, and we'll go back to the beginning. Let's just circle all the way back because through this entire thing, and I appreciate so many of you following along, I've kind of been over here, over there laughing hysterically at Kirk cousins, you know, responding to the trades and trying to break down players on the fly and all that. But, uh, why don't we go back to the beginning now that we could take a deep breath? In fact, let me get one of the let me get one more of these.

Only one diet Dr. Pepper tonight. That's how intense this has been. All right. Let's go back to the start of the draft. Obviously, Caleb Williams was going number one. Washington didn't surprise us at all, even though nobody knows what they're going to do. And then they did the thing that everybody thought they were going to do, which is take Jaden Daniels. Number three was where it started to get very interesting.

Because throughout the day, there was nothing that indicated that new England would move off of that pick. And all the way until the last minute, there were reports coming out. New England doesn't want to trade the pick, but maybe new England doesn't want to trade the pick, but maybe all the way until the Vikings reportedly and the giants called the Patriots and said,

here's our final offer for Drake May. And the Patriots said, we're not going to do it. What that meant to me was that the Patriots were never giving the Vikings Drake May, period. That all of their public, maybe we will, was just to make sure that they were a football team and didn't tell anyone who they were picking or what they were going to do and maybe there was an offer in some magic land where they give up justin jefferson or something with where the patriots would have taken it but instead

the patriots all along had their eyes set on drake may and they decided to pick drake may i did not look at that as a failure of the vikings to make that happen because it just seemed so blatant that the patriots were full of it when they were saying that for the right price they might move no for no price outside of something totally insane were they going to move off number three? And you can look back depending on how far you want to go back in history. And you can say, look, the Vikings could have gotten up to that range. Had they not won any games after Kirk cousins got hurt and you would be right. And you could say, maybe they could have gotten there if they had the sixth pick or if they

had the fourth pick or the fifth pick. And that's true. Had they not won a couple of games with Josh Dobbs, you're right. They may have been in a better position to get Drake May. Still, it seems like there was no world where the Patriots were going to move off their future franchise quarterback. So you weren were going to move off their future franchise quarterback. So you weren't going to get him. No one else was either. Then we get to four and five and we have this tension of, wait, are the Vikings going to trade up for JJ McCarthy?

Is everybody going to be right? Is all the draft analysis, all the mock drafts, are they all going to be right? That the Vikings are going to trade up to get McCarthy at four or five? Four comes, they stick and pick. Five comes, they stick and pick. And then the moment, the do or die moment, which was, all right, are the Giants going to do this? Because the Giants have this bad albatross quarterback and they have a bad roster and they have hot seat head coach and gm

very quickly after a disaster last year are they going to put all their eggs in a mccarthy basket and it turned out all the giants wanted was drake may but they did not want anyone else and they went with malik neighbors so we get to seven do the v Vikings trade up here? Do they make sure that Denver can't go and up and get their guy? No, they stick. Then Atlanta sets the draft on fire by picking Michael Penix at number eight. Totally stunning. Not stunning that Penix was a good prospect, stunning that he went to a team that just paid so much money for Kirk Cousins. So much to the point where Kirk Cousins is immediately telling reporters he's shocked and disappointed. I will hold off my laughter for more podcasts in the future to keep going through this, but that left me speechless. Absolutely speechless that

they drafted Michael Penix while they just paid Kirk Cousins as much as they did. And then we get to number nine. Is Chicago going to trade with Denver and then leave the Vikings with one quarterback option? Nope. They stay. They take Roma Dunze. We get to number 10 and the Vikings say, we want to make sure that we get our quarterback, that we can develop our young quarterback coming off a national championship victory, that he can come in and work with Kevin O'Connell and Josh McCown. And they made sure they traded up one spot and they did not give up very much, but they moved up one spot to ensure that Denver would not jump them and take the quarterback they wanted, which means that they clearly wanted JJ McCarthy more than they wanted Bo Nix, obviously.

So they jump up just that one spot. Don't have to give up a whole heck of a lot with the Jets. They land their franchise quarterback without giving up number 23. Incredibly important. Without giving up number 23, which allowed them then to see more quarterbacks, including Bo Nix, go to Denver. More offensive tackles go off the board. And the third best defensive player in this draft is sitting there. The Vikings push more chips into the middle of the table. They do reach into their future capital, which is going to be a challenge

for them in the future, reach up and get Dallas Turner. So there's how it all played out from start to where we are now. I'm not sure who's picked after this. It doesn't matter. We're only focused on the Vikings. The Steelers are maybe considering acquiring Rick Meyer or some other washed up quarterback because they already have two. But now we know what the whole picture looks like. And what it looks like to me is the Vikings have now put together a roster that is imperfect and that needs some work still and is not yet in a position to compete for a Superbowl. But for the first time, I would say since they walked off the field in Philadelphia in 2017. But maybe you could say a little farther. For the first time in a very long time, in many years now,

you can look at where they are and you can look into the future and say, I can see it. Because in 2018, when Kirk Cousins signed, you could see it. It wasn't the right move ultimately, but you could see it. You could say, all right, well, if they're the number one defense again, then I can see it. I could see how they would win and see how they would go deep into the playoffs. But since then, you have not been able to see it since that failed you have not been able to

see into the future and say ah i know how this could work i've seen it before i know how it could work and in 2019 when they lost to san francisco when they got drubbed by san francisco and walked off that field i I had no belief whatsoever. And I remember standing inside of the stadium in San Francisco. They have these really amazing photographs of like Joe Montana and Tom Rathman and Roger Craig, you know, like these super cool old like magazine covers and game day programs. And I was standing there on the phone with Judd Zolgad when I was working in

radio. And what I was saying to him is I think they're going to have to tear this thing down. I don't see any path to this team being competitive again, anytime soon. And in 2020, they weren't in 2021 mildly, but not really.

In 2022, they take one last gasp at it and they come up short on fourth and eight. Atlanta didn't check down tonight, by the way. Atlanta, they threw it down the field with picking a quarterback. But in 2022, they have a magical season for about eight weeks. and then in another typical eight weeks after that that turned out to be not enough and when quayse adolfo mensa and kevin

o'connell got here and they didn't rebuild immediately i'm going to tell you the truth i was very concerned i was very skeptical extremely skeptical but when in 2023 in the off season when players started coming off the roster who were older and expensive when they when they started chopping off major limbs from that roster when they said no to Patrick Peterson coming back when they moved on from zadarius smith rather than paying him all that whole thing that's when it started to appear like i think they've got a plan i think they might know what they're doing here because they're doing the right things things that were shocking for a team that won 13 games things that we've seen almost no one do for when they won 13 games. And at that moment, I don't remember which player it was that they let go Thielen Kendricks, but when they had finally completed lopping off most of the old players from last year's roster, that's when I thought Kirk Cousins was done in Minnesota.

And when he said something to the effect of we'll, we'll check in next March with his contract. Okay. That's where it looks like Kirk might be done in Minnesota. And at that point, I remember this, that when we were in a preseason game, Dane Mizzutani and I were in the press box and we were talking about how, where, oh, I know when this was was this was probably week four i think it was week four that they lost to the chargers when they lost to the chargers i don't know which week it was was it week three might have been week three and my comment in week three after they lost to the

chargers was this is the closest moment since philadelphia in 2017 that this team has been to a super bowl because they're finally going down to rebuild to go back up again and well they still ended up with the 11th overall pick what tonight is is them finishing that rebuild that they started in that previous off season that has now brought them closer to being a legitimate contender where they have not been for such a long time, where you cannot look down the road and say, all right, well, if they just give Kirk a guard, I never bought that. You never bought that. No one ever thought that that was true. Oh, they just get him a guard. He'll be better and they'll win. And that was never true. If they were going to have one with Kirk cousins, it would have taken a much better defense. It

would have taken a much better offensive line. It would have taken a near flawless football team, which was never going to happen with his price tag. And this cannot be overstated that at this moment they have in 2025, like $4 million that go to JJ McCarthy or whatever, 6 million in salary cap space dedicated to a quarterback. That is crazy in comparison to what it was with Kirk Cousins and that money that they get to spend now can go into the rest of the roster and they can get as close as they possibly can to building that perfect roster that they've been aiming for around JJ McCarthy. So it's not, is JJ McCarthy good or not? It's how does he fit within this entire ecosystem that they've created with this entire competitive rebuild roster that they've created?

How does McCarthy fit into that? It's not just, is he good or not? He's going to have to be good. No question. But the quarterback is also 98% of the time, also a product of everything around him. And now they can put everything around him. So you can look into the future and you can see it. And that's my biggest takeaway, is that you can see it.

And you can also see too, one of the biggest wins of the off season was keeping Brian Flores. And now he gets an outside linebacker type who put up huge numbers at Alabama, who has versatility, who has elite athleticism. And that's what you replaced Daniel Hunter with another great move because instead of Daniel Hunter, they now have Grenard Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman. That's a lot. That's a lot to have as opposed to Daniel Hunter, who I just have the utmost respect for, but older and injured. Couldn't handle that much better.

Truly could not have handled it much better and now and now we take off now everything becomes interesting and i mean this you know loaded guitar says best i've felt about this team the best that i've felt about this team since covering them as in what are their chances to win within a certain time period, just for example. 2016, when I first got here, Teddy Bridgewater was the quarterback. That looked like a team that was ready to explode.

And then his knee exploded, so it didn't work out. But 2017 training camp, the way that Sam Bradford looked, felt like it could be a real contender. The way Sam Bradford looked in week one. And then when they started ripping off all those wins, since then, there have been very fleeting moments that you actually looked at this team

and believed that down the road, within the fairly near future, they could legitimately compete. And now you can, and now you can look at the bears and the lions and the Packers and go, are you behind them? Yeah, you are behind them, but you can catch up. You can catch up with a lot of cap space next year you can catch up with the rookie quarterback advantage you can catch up if McCarthy becomes a star of course he has the potential to do that and you can catch up if this defense ranks in the top five which with Brian Flores it has the potential it's wild to see it come together guys it's wild to see it come together uh Jonathan um jump in here and tell me what Kirk cousins agent said to Pete Thamel.

Can you pop in here? Do you got that? What's uh, what, what is that? Is it going to make me laugh? Oh, it's going to make you laugh.

So I'll just read. It's three tweets. Uh, Pete Thamel says spoke to Mike McCartney, the agent for Kirk cousins. He said the only heads up the Falcons gave Cousins about picking Michael Penix was a call while the team was on the clock. He just signed a four-year deal for $180 million,

the first two which are fully guaranteed. There's inherent frustration and confusion from Cousins' camp as they didn't use that pick to help the team in 2024. They instead drafted his eventual replacement before he's's put on, or before he's even put on a Falcons helmet cousins understands the business of football and is ready to move forward. But there was understandable surprise that coming from Mike McCartney,

his agent. Well, you know, I I've always thought about this, uh, Jonathan with sports. One of the things that I love about sports is that two people can be in totally different parts of the world totally different financial brackets different ages

different backgrounds and have the same emotion watching sports me and kirk cousins at the same time being freaking shocked is really funny to think about because my face looked like his face but then it changed where i started laughing and he started frowning so that did that was different emotions pretty quickly but we were both shocked we were both shocked and uh i i think that um red star is right that what his agent actually said cannot be said on this family show and that's probably true i mean look uh somebody else earlier said that kirk can wipe his tears with his hundred million dollars and that's true but you know what kirk can never escape is every team he's on just looking for somebody else.

It's really something. It really is amazing how that just keeps happening to a guy who keeps making bank and the teams continue to just look for the next guy after him. Oh, great question from Scott was Netflix filming cousins today. Don't worry. He'll edit that out. Like he did everything from 22 that he didn't like in the netflix special he had final editing power so he'll just make sure that's not on there

or he'll make a little documentary about it uh as he did when he was screwing the vikings out of more money by using the jets uh that was a an odd thing to say. Yeah, this is a family show. I have been known to use some foul language in my personal life from time to time, but I don't like it for here because I know that a lot of people of all ages and maybe religion and so forth. So not everybody wants to hear that language. So I I stick to FCC rules. I got used to it when I was on radio. It's all good. So anyway, if you're Kirk Cousins, man, you gotta be out of your mind right now because the thing that Kirk here's, here's why I couldn't help us laugh. I'm going to start again. Here's why I couldn't help but laugh is Kirk Cousins never did a post-season press conference ever. And I don't mean playoffs. I mean, after the season is over, he never did a locker clean out press conference

ever until this year. And when he did his locker clean out press conference and I was three feet away from him, he's talking to us so cocky. He saying look somebody's gonna want kirk okay like i know my achilles is gonna heal i'm gonna get the dollars but it's what the dollars represent and he's just so into himself at that moment he's like i'm kirk he's getting paid boys and uh i was like actually wow that's the most baller I've ever seen Kirk act. That was kind of cool. And he goes this off season and he's right. And the Falcons owner forces them presumably to spend more money than I've ever seen ever go to a quarterback of his caliber, crazy stuff, a hundred million dollars. And we all go, okay, guess we're going to move on,

right? All the people who said, how are you going to get a quarterback as good as Kirk? They all saw that a hundred million guaranteed and went, nevermind somewhere else for way less. Right. And so he goes to Atlanta. He puts on the dirty bird thing that everybody remembers from 1998. And he, you know, he's doing his whole thing. He's doing this super happy press conference and he's tampering and he's telling everybody he's tampering. And he's just really all about himself.

He's feeling like a total baller. And then his team drafts a quarterback. Boy, life changes fast, doesn't it? You just, you know, you never know what's next. So anyway, there's several parts of tonight that I guess you could feel a lot of different ways about. You could be super amused by what happened with Kirk in Atlanta, which is where I'm at.

But also, as somebody mentioned, and the comments going by so fast that, I'm sorry if I miss who said what. This is the first time in a long time. It's not the first time since I moved here in 2016 that you could believe this team could really be something. But it is the first time since they've done what I've wanted them to do. That's the funny part. That, you know, in 2018, I wasn't into the Kirk cousins idea

because the concern was naturally that Kirk cousins wasn't going to be good enough. And that he wasn't the type of quarterback to take you over the top at $40 million or whatever it was then 30 million a year. So that was why I was against the move. Didn't like, and took a lot of arrows for that from a lot of Vikings fans that really liked it. And then really, really liked it when a certain controversies popped up in 2021, but it wasn't a success with Kirk cousins. And so that's what I talked about the entire time. Hey, it's not a success. I don't see a path. I don't know how they're going to do this. They're cap constricted.

They're desperate. And you could see the desperation playing out in Mike Zimmer and in Rick Spielman. And you could see the frustration from Zimmer growing and he got crazier. And it was just a total clown show. And there was just what the entire time I was doing radio, then podcasting, then live streaming. And the entire time I'm sitting here saying, you know, what you guys really need to do is not extend cousins, draft a quarterback and rebuild this thing. Stop pretending you're a contender and rebuild this thing. And finally, last year, they stopped pretending. Last offseason, not just this year, but last offseason,

when they chose not to extend Cousins, they stopped pretending. And that was the moment that I started to think that Kweisi Adafo-Mensa had a hold of this thing and had sold the owners on this might take a little patience and we have to give the owners of this team credit from that perspective that they did not force Kweisi Adafo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell to hang on to the Adam Thielens and the Eric Hendricks so when they did that then all right now there is a chance that they could move on from cousins and they could draft a quarterback when they did not extend him last year and we talked about this a lot that

i can i'm starting to see it come together guys and they made some bad signings last year on marcus davenport but those were short-term type of things that might have had some upside but probably not and it didn't really matter. It was just like, we got to fill out the roster. We'll take some shots at people, whatever. So we go then to this off season and the moment where he signs, where Kirk signs with Atlanta is the moment where it felt real that they could get to a position where they could drop a quarterback into the best situation for a top 10 quarterback you're ever going to see. I mean, Patrick Mahomes in Kansas city, that's it, right? How many other top 10 teams? Cause usually the top 10 teams are

bad. Are this good for JJ McCarthy to start for? So he comes here and now you start from here and now you start to build. Yeah, well, the first corner goes off the board. It would have, we would have still talking about, been talking about defensive players. We're only at the 23rd pick now with the Jaguars. Thanks for moving up, Kweisi. Now we can just talk about it for all this time. But to put it all together tonight, yes, to your comment, it is the first time in a long time that he was going to be picked in the top five.

I didn't think that he would be. Believed that the Giants probably would not pick a quarterback. They didn't, which gave the Vikings an opportunity. And you have to give credit that the Vikings didn't panic. They didn't freak out. They didn't fly up to the top of the draft and trade three picks and instead were patient and let the draft come to them. They didn't get cute. They didn't get crazy. They didn't lose their minds. They had at least enough Intel to say, look, if we can't get May and it appears that they would

have been okay with Pennix or McCarthy from the report before the draft, that if they couldn't get made, then they were going to go with one of those two guys. So there was clearly an attempt throughout the league somewhere to try to get the Vikings to trade up. They didn't buy it. They didn't fall for it. And instead they let it come to them. And at the right moment, they made sure they got their guy. Clearly they liked McCarthy more than Knicks. Those were the guys on the board. They take McCarthy. They're both good prospects and McCarthy is a lot younger and maybe a better fit for Kevin O'Connell and this team and where they're at with next year as really the year that they could have a chance to win. So there will be a lot of

conversation about McCarthy. There will be some people who don't like McCarthy as a prospect and think that it was a bad draft pick because they just weren't a fan of him in college. And I think you can live in two worlds though, that if we look at this rationally, you can say, Hey, you know, throughout this draft process, I just really wasn't thinking that McCarthy was a top five prospect and there are deficiencies in his game. There are things he's going to have to get better at. He didn't throw a lot of passes in college. We also have to wonder about that and also look at where he's at now and how they got him and go, well, what more could you ask for? If you weren't getting Drake May, which you never were, what more could you really ask for?

So, yes, I'm sure that Jeremiah Searles, for regular listeners to the show, may be a little down on this. I haven't gotten a text from yet. He was not a fan of the McCarthy idea. Maybe it's a little bit different, though, in taking him in the top 10. So here we go. The next thing is, uh, the next thing is that, oh, and yes, uh, he threw very fast that the combine, his football went traveled very fast. It was like 62 miles an hour. Second fastest at the combine. But, um, when it comes to, uh, McCarthy's tools, that's important to focus on. He, he is got speed. He's got arm strength. He's played for a very tough coach before with an NFL environment. All these things are going for

him. So even though I was on the skeptical side, even though I do think that there is risk involved, I also have said from the entire time, he's great communicator clearly he seems like he would be a perfect fit with kevin o'connell personality wise and that might be the biggest thing that it comes down to with this pick so you can live in both worlds you can have wanted drake may you can have be very sad you didn't get drake may you can even like michael pennix more as a quarterback and and think that pennix was a better prospect. He has an unbelievable arm. He's definitely more mature than JJ McCarthy because he's been playing football for a long time. But you can't deny that McCarthy, even if he does not get to super mega star status

with this team, has a good chance to win a lot of football games. And that is the key to tonight. And now we go forward. And so let's talk about that before we put a wrap on it for tonight, because I think I'm going to safely end the show before the end of the first round, because it's late. And also they have nothing to trade back in. So, uh, you know, no reason to do that, but let's look forward a little bit. Tomorrow, J.J. McCarthy will be introduced, and I'll have a podcast from TCO Performance Center about J.J. McCarthy's first comments.

I'm really excited to hear from him about being a Minnesota Viking and about his experience all the way through. And then we go to rookie minicamp and OTAs minicamp and for mccarthy's sake the vikings really should put down the cash that's required to get justin jefferson into training camp uh into minicamp even we saw him and ross st brown and aj brown agree to deals it's time whatever it costs make it happen you're going going to have the cap space going forward, whatever it takes, make it happen. That needs to be done very,

very soon because McCarthy and Jefferson need to get on the same page from the start. And through training camp, all of a sudden it became very fascinating. Because you have Sam Darnold here. He's going to set a good bar. This is another wise move that Sam Darnold here. He's going to set a good bar. This is another wise move that Sam Darnold has been through all the things that JJ McCarthy is going to go through as a young quarterback arriving in the league, except for the difference

is McCarthy will have time where Sam Darnold was just thrown to the wolves. What we're going to see is Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy compete for that starting spot. But if Sam Darnold wins it, I'm already preemptively saying it's okay. You didn't draft JJ McCarthy for right now. You drafted JJ McCarthy to be a long term quarterback for you to compete for a super bowl within his rookie contract and then beyond. That's why you pick JJ McCarthy, but that's going to be fascinating. Every OTA, every mini camp, we get to go out reporters once a week to OTAs mini camp. There's access once a week in those things. That practice is going to be like, must see, must report, must podcast from, and then training camp every day, following JJ McCarthy's process, listening

to him talk, seeing how he acts each week and how he develops and where he goes from there. I mean, that's, that's, that's interesting stuff. That's exciting stuff, stuff that you haven't had in quite some time. And this counts, right? When we say that the Vikings have never drafted a top 10 quarterback and he was 10th. So now they have, and where do you get the quarterbacks who usually win top 10? So the Vikings got them. I don't care that he was QB five. I care that he was a top 10 draft pick. He was worth the selection for the Vikings. And now they will build around him. And every single thing that is done and said suddenly ramped up in intrigue and no longer were we going, eh, you know, we'll see what happens.

We'll see. Maybe they'll get a guard. They do need to get a guard. They do need to build around him. But if 2024 does indeed, uh, as it's in the comments belong to Sam Darnold? Well, that'll be interesting as well. And then we'll go from there. But it'll be everything as ramped up in the intrigue going forward. So there you go.

There is the complete and full takeaway of tonight's action and really kind of a recap of everything that brought us here to this moment. One of the things I, two things I want to say before we wrap up one is did it not deliver? Wow. I mean, all of us get so frustrated and annoyed by draft night,

especially me like, man, if I see one more mock draft and it really came through the draft, because this feels like when you walk out of the stadium after a game winning touchdown or something and you just look at your friends and go, can you believe what just happened tonight? Wow. What did I see? Or, yeah, as people are mentioning the Wolves. I mean, after Anthony Edwards goes crazy and you have that feeling of that, that energy, that intensity, like, wow, what did we just see?

That's how it feels tonight. What did we just see? With, I mean, shock twist turns and the Vikings walk out of here with the third best defensive player on the board. And oh, by the way, the quarterback everyone thought they were going to have to trade up for. Instead, they essentially used their pick. Couldn't have played it better, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa.

The belief in this regime should be very high because they have handled this extremely, extremely well, including just playing it to a tee tonight. The other thing I wanted to say is just a massive. Thank you to all of you who watched played along, commented, laughed at me as I was laughing hysterically at Kirk cousins through this draft season.

We've seen so much more growth with the YouTube channel, with the podcasts. The energy is felt over here from all of you. And the support is greatly felt by me, by all of you throughout this draft season. And it means a lot to me. It really does, because it's a really fun time for the Vikings. And I like to be here narrating it. But it's not any fun if you're not there. And we're not playing along with this together.

And if I'm not getting your responses and your snark and your jokes and your comments and reactions and feelings and everything else. You guys are what give me energy to do the show the way that I do. And it makes it great. So I cannot thank you guys enough for watching tonight. You guys could have watched anything, any other podcast, any other show, any channel, whatever you chose here. And I, I just thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was so fun. Just so fun. This is some of the most fun I've had covering the team. And so we got, we got some news, Jonathan. No, I was just listening to Kevin O'Connell's press conference that is going on right now. A couple of notes, obviously happy with how it all played out.

He did mention that it kind of confirmed what everybody thought uh in when they chose to trade up for Dallas Turner that they didn't think he would be around so they had to make that move um says the best football is ahead of J.J. McCarthy when asked about the the lack of uh I guess throws that he had in college, his, he specifically started mentioning his ability to move and extend plays and extend, uh, and get these long third downs that they may have from time to time because of his mobility and his ability to extend plays. He did key in on that and spoke a lot about that. And then he said a goal of his was to land the quarterback of the future in this draft.

Thank you, Jonathan. And, uh, by the way, while you're here, because I'm wrapping up. Great job. Thank you very much. You were on top of this all night long. This can't happen without you. Nothing in Purple Insider can happen without Jonathan.

Just so everybody knows that, that your role is incredibly vital. And it was fun to do this with you again. We did this last year together and it's been so much fun working with you. So thank you for everything tonight, popping in, kind of being our correspondent, if you will, and producer. So thank you. Thank you. It's been fun. It's been a blast hanging out with you, hanging out with

everybody in the chat, all thousand people that have popped in and in and out throughout the broadcast throughout the three and a half hours while we've been doing this. Cause it's been awesome. Awesome caller. Well done. For sure. For sure. Again, one of my favorite nights. Uh, and since someone in the chat asked where to buy my book, here's the book football is a numbers game. Uh, Amazon, just go there, search football is a numbers game. You can find it. I mean, Hey, if you give me the chance, I'm going to promote the book. But no, seriously. So thanks, everybody. And look, tomorrow's a new day. Tomorrow's a new day. It's just like, you know, we completed the story.

If you love Netflix show, this was a season. And tomorrow starts a new season because we've got the introduction, press conference. We've got more to talk about. It'll be a week from now when we got Rookie Minicamp. Something else, Jonathan, or did you accidentally bring yourself back in? Uh, the lions are taking Terry and Arnold. Oh, okay. Lions traded up to 24 to take the their cornerback. That's a good move. That's a good move for them. So continue to make good

moves. Yep. Yep. It's a, it's going to be a battle guys. And that's what makes it so interesting. It's going to be a battle. We might need to have a correspondent for just the nfc north so tomorrow keep your eyes out youtube channel there will be a breakdown of jj mccarthy's introductory press conference from tco performance center thank you to will raggetts andrew kramer dame mizzitani those guys for popping in and uh make sure you subscribe like the channel tell your friends whatever we're to have a lot of fun breaking it down. And if you want to support the show, some people will ask, Hey, could we do a super chat? Whatever. The newsletter is the best way to do it. Purpleinsider.com.

Just click on any of my articles and go sign up for the newsletter there. And that will show up every morning, including tomorrow morning. I got to get working on an article. So again, my deepest, deepest, sincerest thank yous to everybody for watching tonight. Huge crowd and I loved it. And this was a lot of fun. So thanks. And we'll see you tomorrow.

Football, everybody. Football.