Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Geno Smith off the board; Should the Vikings draft Jeremiyah Love? (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Matthew Coller and Chris Trapasso talk about how the things in free agency impact the Vikings. Geno Smith goes to the Jets and Daniel Jeremiah has a crazy idea for the Vikings to get a running back. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here. And look who is joining us live, the official draft analyst of Purple Insider. And now the owner-operator of draft guidebook.com, Chris Trappaso, launching the new website, which is awesome. And people need to check it out. Years of your draft analysis, your grades, your breakdowns. The website looks incredible. There's a very cool search function where you can go back and look at all sorts of different stuff. So I'm super happy for you to have launched that.

And, uh, buddy, we got a lot to talk about here tonight, which is why I wanted to go live because we've got Gino Smith News to react to. We've got this very interesting idea that Daniel Jeremiah threw out there yesterday, kind of at random regarding the Minnesota Vikings. We've got, uh, draft implications across the league. So, hi, Chris. How we doing? Yeah.

It's like we're in the throes of NFL free agency in day two, but everything can be spun to the NFL draft. And without the Vikings making a litany of acquisitions, obviously they need to get under that cap before tomorrow started the new league year. I think it makes sense to be looking forward to the NFL draft. And very quickly, thank you so much for the plug. It's draft grade book, not guidebook. What did I say? Which you said guidebook, I think. But just wanted to get it out there, which actually it works out because.

the time that I that you said it and then for me correcting it more people joined this live chat so draft grade book it's all my over 1500 scouting reports from 2021 which ironically I believe that's the year that I first started coming on this show so all of my scouting reports skill and position or skill and talent grades final grades similar prospects there's an AI search there's a horizontal board and I will have a draft mode on draft weekend. I haven't released that yet. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to do that yet, but go to that, not just to see my archive, but also I'm adding in as many prospects as possible for this 2026 class currently. I think I'm going to drop like five to 15 new prospects every Monday and Wednesday, as many as I can watch. Well, I'm not doing

this show. And yeah, let's let's talk 2026 draft here on the second day of free agency. Absolutely. My apologies draft grade book.com. Look, we got to talk about Gino Smith though first before we get into the implications of the Vikings doing nothing, but a lot of other teams did stuff, which all is going to matter for how the draft board falls before number 18. But what did you make of the New York Jets and this decision to trade for Gino Smith? Now, clearly, they only moved a couple of slots in the draft. It wasn't like some sort of epic blockbuster. And I guess credit to the Las Vegas Raiders for getting even the tiniest sliver of value for Gino Smith rather than just eating every bit of his contract. But the obvious way to read this, Chris, is that the New York Jets were concerned that

certain teams, whether it be Pittsburgh or the Minnesota Vikings, would have been able to make a pretty compelling argument to Gino Smith to become their quarterback. And they said, you know what? We don't really want to risk that. Now, Gino in his public statement so far, text to insiders and stuff like that has made it sound like he was cool with it. He was already out there in New York doing his physical when they officially made the trade all set. But you don't do this if you're the Jets. If you were fully convinced that you were going to get Gino Smith. Otherwise, you would have just signed him for $1.3 million. Yeah, I think with a few other teams, the Vikings included still in that bridge veteran quarterback market.

Maybe this is the Jets saying, well, we want that bridge quarterback. We don't, I mean, they were clearly concerned about one of those teams scooping in and saying, and probably being pretty honest with themselves saying, yeah, we're not necessarily the most attractive team for someone like Gino Smith to ultimately just decide on his own accord to sign with. So let's trade for him. It was weird that I think today or maybe late last night, the Arizona Cardinals signed Gardner Minchu. They made him like an early free agent signing.

And I know what you're trying to get into with this, that this is leading to all signs pointing to Kyler Murray, like how many more opportunities or places do you have that can say, yeah, you're going to be the starter if you sign with us beyond the Minnesota Vikings. I think it's an absolute home run for both sides. and we can get into it. But after this, I didn't think we would ever get to this point. But Gino Smith Domino, after that has fallen,

everything is aligning for this Kyler to the Vikings to happen. Well, I definitely want to get your take in how Kyler fits, expectations, what it would mean for J.J. McCarthy, because you're right. I mean, I saw Josh Weinfuss, who has covered Kyler in Arizona for quite some time. He said on Twitter right after this happened, like, yep, the stars are continuing to align. Now, what's been reported for Kyler Murray that he's going to do is he is going to, when he's officially released, talk with each of the teams that are interested in him, which I think we can pretty easily guess the list now.

I mean, Cleveland is going to want to try everything Cleveland can. I don't see any reason for him to sign there, but they should be at least asking, pretty please, is there any chance that you could come to Cleveland? And really, though, the only other team that could make an argument that they could be a competing team and they don't have a former 10th overall draft pick in their quarterback room would be the Pittsburgh Steelers. And when Aaron Rogers comes out and says, yeah, you know, I haven't gotten an offer from the Steelers yet. And I know that Rogers isn't always the most reliable source on Aaron Rogers, but I tend to believe him that the Pittsburgh Steelers have probably

not said, here's what your offer is, because they need to look at all of their potential options as well, including maybe even Kirk Cousins or Derek Carr coming out of retirement or whatever it might be. But the way that I think it's easy to interpret is that he's not going to have that many Zoom calls. There aren't going to be that many teams. And the only one that could sneak in there and be very surprising would be Indianapolis. I think that they can take the tag off of him. I'm not 100% sure. I saw someone say that. I was like, you could do that with the transition tag, I'm not 100% sure on that. But even they've been brought up numerous times about, like,

if they can't get something settled with Daniel Jones, that they could also be an option for Kyler Murray. So is that then, I mean, I can't think of anybody else. How do those teams, even if we, let's just include Indy just because, how do those teams compare to the Vikings in your mind? Because for me, it seems like unless he really doesn't want to be in the room with another guy who was drafted high by the organization, it's pretty clear that the Vikings would be the best spot for Kyler Murray.

It is super clear. I think the Colts have somewhat of legitimate candidacy. And this is going to sound silly, but I wonder if Kyler Murray will bring this up. The fact that the Vikings play in a dome and the Colts play in a dome, I think he would probably like that because if you look at his splits between indoor games, outdoor games, they're like astronomically different and obviously playing in Arizona since 2019. And that's what he's used to having that 72 degrees and no wind in every game.

Beyond that, though, I'll harken it back to 2024 when we for a long, long time discussed like, all right, of these quarterbacks, where would these teams, like, where would Drake May, where would Caleb Williams, J.J. McCarthy, Boe, Nix, Michael Pettix even, where would they want to land? And it truly was not because I am just on a Vikings podcast here. We are going to give it straight. It absolutely is the Minnesota Vikings. So I think, and if now that it's a new GM for Rob Rosenzinski to be able to say, look, yeah, I was here when we drafted J.J. McCarthy, but it's a new GM.

And we want you to be the starter. We want to kind of rekindle that Sam Darnold magic of bridge starter turns into 14 game winner right away. I don't see, and I can't imagine that the money is any bit of a factor because of how much money he's getting from Arizona. So it really will be one of those rare, like money's not any type of object for this player. It has to be Minnesota in terms of the overall situation from everything that I laid out. I don't know how maybe Pittsburgh. I don't know how Cleveland can really be in the running.

But I think with Pittsburgh, the expectations for that organization are so high. and you will play in a lot of bad weather games late in the season. So I understand Kyler Murray for the first time. Like, hey, I can test like the market without any money concerns. But it's almost like a formality, I guess, to me, that it should be the Minnesota Vikings because it's not like at the combine when you talk to KOC that he was like, hey, we feel really good about JJ. Like it was more like, yeah, we need to bring in a veteran.

And all of the public comments from the GM and KOC were more leaning toward like, uh, JJ McCarthy needs to have like the greatest offseason of his life to even have a chance to start in 2026. So I think Kyla Murray needs to land in Minnesota and ultimately will. I did double check on that. You can rescind the transition tag. So if Daniel Jones is being, I don't know, way too difficult when it comes to figuring out a contract extension,

which there was an Albert Breer report that, he was looking for $50 million a year. Well, look, I mean, you can look for whatever you want, but absolutely nobody is giving Daniel Jones $50 million a year. And I think that if you're Indianapolis, Daniel Jones is also for that leadership group, a success story in terms of the coach, in terms of the general manager and getting him in there and the way that he fit in their offense, they bring back his deep threat and Alec Pierce, but they moved on from his possession wide receiver and Michael Pittman,

which is not what I would be doing if I was getting Kyler Murray. The more tape that I watch from Kyler Murray, the more times I think this guy with a 10-yard kind of hitch route or an in-breaking route at 10 yards or someone where you go and you find a spot in the zone and turn around and catch the ball, he's great at those. when it comes to actually driving the football down the field, I'm not sure that that's exactly what you're looking for in comparison of Daniel Jones. And we'll talk about some of those things with Kyla Murray and the fit, potentially with the Vikings.

But I think that Jones is exactly who they want in Indianapolis. I mean, they might be compelled, though, by the idea of $1.3 million. And then there's still talent on the free agent market that you could go out and spend on and get. if Daniel Jones couldn't work something out. And then he becomes a potential option for the Vikings, which may be why they haven't spent at all because they don't know how these dominoes are going to fall. The comparison to Pittsburgh, though,

I think that Pittsburgh is a good team, a good franchise overall. You know that they're going to be successful every year in some regard, like over 500 as long as Tom one was there. Mike McCarthy is a total X factor here, though, because in some ways you look at his resume and go, well, you know, Aaron Rogers really fell off at the end of the time with McCarthy there. But then Dak Prescott led some great offenses while he was with the Dallas Cowboys. So you have these two guys who are offensive coaches.

KOC has a real reputation for connecting with his quarterbacks, connecting with his players that I think Kyler Murray might want. But also, you know, that franchise in Pittsburgh, it has a great history. and now has a coach that's been, at least in the playoffs, time and time and time again. I don't know that it's a dead lock that you would say it. And I mean, I think the Vikings have a little bit more in terms of offensive line talent, but it may be more of closer than everyone's made it out to be. I feel like Pittsburgh has barely even been talked about in the Kyler Murray sweepstakes.

And he has been a guy that I think keeps to himself here. It doesn't exactly tell everybody in his entire circle and have it get out what he wants to do. So I mean, while I agree with you that I think it's the best fit and I think it's the best team offensively and I think it's the best coaching staff possible for Kyler Murray, I'm not going to count the eggs until the Ian Rappaport or Adam Schafter tweet comes down that he's actually joining the Vikings. Yeah, I think it will have to be a full court press from the Pittsburgh Steelers organization to sell Kyla Murray on what they can offer as an organization. And to me, I think everything that you outlined is correct.

Like we know the Steelers, the stability that, you know, very minimal new coaches is the fourth new coach since Chuck Noel, whatever, since the late 60s. But I feel like a lot of that, like, I'm not going to say that someone that's as young as Kyler Murray is, like wouldn't care about that. But like, do you get what I mean that it's like kind of, hey, like it would be like, I don't know, like saying, oh, well, our second on our, like at the top of our resume is like, we're really stable. And it's like, okay, like, but I don't really care about what happened in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s with Bill Kauer and Chuck Nolan, like, what is your team off for me right now?

And to me, if I was Kyler Murray, I would be sure, meet with Pittsburgh, see if they can just totally do a 180 on me. But I think in the dome in Minnesota with Justin Jefferson and Hawkinson, KOC, that offensive line. And I think, too, this might be, I mean, maybe he would get this in Pittsburgh. After playing as kind of like the team in the shadow in the NFC West in, in Arizona, I wonder if Kyler Murray would like to be in what has become like one of the most high profile divisions. Like not just because of the history, but in the NFC North with Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson, the Lions resurgence. It seems like this would be the right decision in terms of upping his profile as a former number one overall pick who went to Arizona, not exactly a team that's on prime time seven times a year.

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does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Well, they're truly one of the worst franchises in the entire NFL. I mean, if you were just ranking them from 32 to one, you're starting with the Cleveland Browns. You don't have to go far before you get to Arizona from what people there, the players think of their ownership to their history of failure. Well, and how about, I mean, they're coaching. Well, he was there.

Cliff Kingsbury and then Drew Petzing and Jonathan Gannon. Well, I think that Petzing and Gannon did a decent job with what they had. They were there for three years. They got fired. Kingsbury got fired and then goes and is an offensive coordinator for Washington, has some success the very next year he's out. I mean, it's hard to compare that to, and I know that some people in Vikings land think that Kevin O'Connell has no idea

what he's doing. And I guess there's always going to be fans who think that of their team's coach. But his resume is a lot more impressive as a Super Bowl. champion offensive coordinator for Sean McVeigh and having had success stories with multiple different starting quarterbacks. I brought this stat up a few times, Chris, but when either Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnel was starting for KOC, he's 31 and 11 in the regular season. And hey, can he win the Super Bowl?

Can he get them over the hump? Like, that's a, that is a different conversation. There's a lot of success when you have a baseline level of quarterback play, which I think Kyler Murray can give them. Where I think there's a little bit of a misnomer about Murray is that he would not fit in their offense. And this is sort of the, oh, so you haven't really watched Kyler Murray play because here's where I would agree.

He would not fit in the 2024 version of the Vikings offense because that was Sam Darnold using that absolute howitzer of a right arm to throw rockets down the field over line backers dropping it in over the top to just a Jefferson and Jordan Addison. It was insane because he has one of the best arms in the NFL. This would be much more like when Kirk was the quarterback, where it is a lot of completions, completions, completions. So I've been watching back his five games from 2025. And he has, if you remove the drops, the fourth highest completion percentage of any

quarterback adjusted for drops in the NFL. and a lot of them are easy completions that he's making. It's not a lot of tight window. It's not a lot of 30 or 40 yards deep down the field, throwing it out there and letting your guy go get it. It's a lot of this guy gets into a window and he completes it with an accurate throw time and time again, which is very much how Kirk played, except for there's a play against Carolina where a free running linebacker comes right at him

and he goes like this and he dodges him and then he runs right and then he runs around somebody else and he gains 30 yards on the ground. So if you gave, if you gave Kirk rockets in his feet from 2023, that's kind of what this would look like. I think that it has the potential to have a lot of success. I think it has the potential also to be kind of mid. And with some of the injuries that Murray has had, there's a risk there as well. So, well, I like this better than any of the other options.

And now that Gino's off the board, I mean, you're talking Murray, Kirk. Rogers and I know and I know there are people who just hey why don't you just roll with JJ well that's not what they're doing I mean it's clear that that's not what they're doing so we have to live in the world of this is what they're going to do it's hard from a Vikings perspective to see anything that even approaches the caliber of of Kyler Murray for them next year 100% and I think you kind of took the words out of my mouth and I was going to mention if you were to have just asked me like how do I think Kyler Murray fits I was going to say, I think it will be an offense more tailored to the classic Kyle Shanahan-based system that is pretty structured, gets the ball out of the hands of the quarterback in a hurry.

And even though the name of Kyler Murray's offense in college under Lincoln Riley air raid, you think, oh, bombing it down the field, that's a spread-based offense that wants its quarterbacks to make a quick decision, see the first read, get it out to its wide receivers, in space and then let them run after the catch. And I think early in his career and then when he was with Cliff Kingsbury running that offense, that's when Kyler Murray was at his best. And then there's the occasional play action deep shot over the top that's schemeed open where he knows, okay, this is going to be a post. I got to throw it right about here. Again, can't really drive the football a ton.

But I do think, I'm not going to say that I totally disagree with you. I think he has a stronger arm than Kirk Cousins. I think he's like that weird type. and it's why he was the number one overall pick at his size, that he actually has a pretty good arm. Like you think at like 5-11 and 200 pounds, like he would have not an NFL caliber arm. I think because of the baseball background

and just how much inherent talent Kyler Murray has, there are times where if you do need that patented Shanahan, KOC deep dig over the middle on third and 12, and you're going to throw a 15-yard dig, he can step into that throw every once in a while. But I do think the times where Kyler has gotten into trouble in Arizona and was playing kind of mid was when he had to hold the football too long and kind of looked like Mario running around there trying to make things happen.

I love the idea. And this is not, I'm not cherry picking this situation. Now I've said this for five years on this show. I want to see a highly mobile quarterback in this Shanahan McVeigh COC system. There hasn't been one. There almost was one with Trey Lance and then we know how that turned out. I want to see beyond the bootlegs, I want to see, and I'm sure KOC would welcome the challenge of what like back portion of my playbook that is dusty that has cobwebs in it that we've never

open. Can we now open and insert into the offense? Like the quarterback designed run game. I don't think that's how Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, and Sean McVeigh want to utilize it, but I do think KOC is smart enough as a former quarterback to continue to evolve. And he's just, never had a quarterback that's given him that. I think there's actually like hidden upside with Kyla Murray in this offense beyond what I think would be tailor made for him to make those quick decisions in more of a spread offense. And one of the things that he did with Sam Darnold, because Sam Darnold had mobility in a certain way. He did not have mobility like Kyla Murray, as you said, whoa, like all over the world. But he did use a lot of rollouts. And this was also utilized by

Clint Kubiak a lot. And what I noticed watching back the film is that was something that Drew Petzing would pull out pretty often. And when I see people say he's not under center, it's like, that's just not true. He's not under center all the time. And I don't think COC's a big fan of the pistol. So I'm not sure you're going to see that like you did sometimes in Arizona. But he absolutely lined up under center and ran traditional bootlegs where the tight end comes underneath and then there's deep crossers. My issue is not exactly that he can throw. with the velocity because he can create the velocity. It's a lot of he will turn down a throw that's into a little bit of a tight window over the middle

where he would have to tune it up a little bit and throw it as hard as he can to scramble or check down probably more times than I would like when I'm watching his film. And then there's sometimes that it's a little odd because in 2021, the deeper balls, 30 yards and beyond, I felt like he would have a lower trajectory, more of a line drive. whereas when I was watching him this last year, there were more pop flies and floating balls, and some of them were complete, but you were like, I don't know,

should you have kind of let that one go? And I wondered about, you know, is it maybe the ACL and he was dealing with a foot injury? It's a lot harder to drive into the ground for someone of that size. You mentioned baseball. Well, if you're a shortstop, you are creating a lot of that power from your lower half.

And there were some throws where he did let it rip and he threw it high or a little inaccurate. And I was like, I'm just wondering about the health there for last year, which is an issue. And when he plays under pressure, just look to the sky and pray because he either will do the most awesome thing you've ever seen under pressure. And there's a game against Carolina that I just finished up watching. So it's fresh in my mind.

He has that crazy 30-yard run, which is amazing. And then later in the game, they're ahead. All they need is a field goal and you're good. And he tries to do something that's way too much, ends up getting the ball batted, turns into an interception, gives Carolina another chance. Like, you can't do that all the time. And so this is where I always come to. This is not a perfect quarterback.

This is not Lamar Jackson that you're getting. It's not going to be somebody that ranks by PFF, the number three quarterback in the NFL, if he plays an entire season for the Vikings. But what I do think he does is give them a certain level where you can win a lot of football games if those other things are right. And this is a great transition into our next subject. But I want to ask you one question before that. Because I want to get into the running back position, which is just Jordan Mason all by

is lonely there in the backfield with Zay Scott. I don't want to forget Zay Scott, pride of New Hampshire. But when it comes to J.J. McCarthy in his future, I have been making the argument that I can't think of a better thing for J.J. McCarthy than to. develop for an entire year, to be healthy, to have every practice, after practice, film study, in the room, get another veteran quarterback in there as well, and just focus on getting better every single day without the pressure, without the internet mockery of every single thing you do, which I think for somebody who's 30 is tough, but for someone who's 21, 22, getting their first

chance ever and you've gone from being the guy that everyone loves to now the guy that everyone is just making fun of mercilessly every single Sunday. I think that was emotionally very, very difficult for him. I have seen this too many times of quarterbacks coming off the field, watching from the sideline, developing themselves, and then going back and having success. I've just seen it so many times that I think it's the best possible direction for him. Do you think that? I agree and that I think the most important point, you can go very granular with all the things that he could do

to learn from whoever this veteran quarterback ultimately is. But I think the operative term is no pressure to almost like maybe, I don't know if they would say it publicly, but be like, JJ, you're not going to start this year. We want you to be in a legitimate quarterback competition next year and earn it, beat out the veteran that we sign or the, I mean, I guess they're not going to draft someone. like have your site set on 2027.

That absolutely is the best case scenario. And if in 27, if we're going to look that far ahead, if he looks like he's taken the step, he either becomes your guy and it just happened a few years too late, or he looks great and you have, Tyler Murray is just the guy and you trade J.J. McCarthy and you get probably a day two or day three pick for him. Like I think at that point,

that would be the best outcome. Last thing I'll say before we get into running backs, everything that you outlined about Kyler Murray in the system where, you know, his weaknesses, it's different because he's a different athlete and not, he's not the exact same quarterback as Sam Darnold. But what I was going to say is, Kyler Murray needs the Vikings. He needs KOC, just like Donald had a lot of these silly mistakes. And I remember coming on here and I was like, I think he could be good.

But I think eventually in 24, you know, some of those bad habits will rear their ugly head and he'll make some, he'll have some bad turnovers. Now, it happened way later than I thought. And I will ultimately say I was way wrong on Sam Darnold. But obviously, in the game against the Lions and in the playoff game, obviously all the Vikings fans remember that. He did show, though, what, like, he is the ultimate resume builder to me for Kevin O'Connell. And if you're Kyler Murray, now I'm sure you have a reasonably size ego,

you're confident in your abilities. But in terms of the weaknesses that you outlined that you hinted at about bad decisions and reversing your field and taking the sack or getting it badded, a throw batted down. He needs that structure. He needs, I don't even think he necessarily needed his college coach in Cliff Kingsbury to just give him the same offense, play like you did at Oklahoma. He needs someone that's like, okay, it's third and seven or it's third and 11. We're in field goal range.

If the first read's not there, check it down or even take a sack or run back to the line of scrimmage, throw it away, whatever. That's how Kyla Murray, I think, can actually become Sam Darnold 2.0 because that's what Darnold needed. He needed some of that decision-making coaching. So that, again, is another reason why I think it makes so much sense. It's not just that the Vikings need Murray. He needs the Vikings. And you would be surprised at even though he is volatile because of his performance under pressure. He, in terms of interception percentage and sack percentage is much more of a top third of the league type of player. And that could be, and this goes for his completion percentage too, like when you're

throwing safer balls underneath a lot and then trying to make something special happen occasionally. But when you look at how Brian Flores, his defense has performed, if you can stay on the field and have some longer drives and have completions and play with some rhythm and so forth, I mean, that can work out really well for you because Brian Flores' defense is very, very good on the other side. So it's not like you're asking him to score 30 points a game, although they did lose their punter, Ryan Wright, Chris, which is going to be a problem when it comes to controlling, I'm not even kidding because he was so good last year when it comes to controlling

the football. Let's, well, let's do this right before. I promise we're going to get to Jeremiah love. But so let's do a little flow chart here. Okay, Kyler goes. to the Vikings, then we're all set and whoever the other quarterbacks go to is someone else's problem. If Kyler does not choose the Vikings, what are their best options after that? So the reason it's kind of a flowchart is that you have to answer like, well, does Daniel Jones stay with Indianapolis? Or, you know, does Aaron Rogers even want to play? So just give me your your best options. Don't worry about the other dominoes that would have to fall. If it's not Kyler, if you were in the Vikings front office, how would you rank? If you were just making your board of here's

our other quarterback options, we can go, Gino Smith, off the list, he's not going to be here. Marcus Mariotta, off the list. He returned to Washington. What is your list? I think unless there's a quarterback that I'm blatantly forgetting about, it's going to sign. I mean, either answer has like weird, what's the word, like caveat to it that I think it's either Aaron Rogers or cousins. I don't hate, I think almost the quarterback three that I would insert would be trading for Anthony Richardson. I think he's very, very fascinating, but he's not someone that you're like, hey, you're the starter, JJ, you're on the bench. Like that that's obviously wouldn't be the case. So it would really be those two unless there's someone that I'm totally forgetting. And I think

ironically, this late in their careers, there were stretches where Aaron Rogers did play competent football last season. And late in the year in Atlanta, when I had, had zero expectations for Kirk Cousins after the Michael Pettix injury, I would watch some of those Falcons games back. And I was like, oh, that looks like Kirk Cousins back on the Vikings. Like he certainly cannot move whatsoever. But I think for as weird as that would be, and maybe that would be hyper ironic that Gino Smith back to the Jets, Kirk Cousins back to the Vikings, I think either of those two, they could have landed in this flowchart at a worse situation if it's not Aaron Rogers or Kirk Cousins, but I think those two beyond Kyla Murray would actually be passable

at this stage of the game for the Vikings. The list for me would have to be, I think you're calling to see if Derek Carr is serious about coming out of retirement, which I know feels very bleak. Like, how can you make an argument that that's going to work? But when you look at Derek Carr's most recent performance and his career, you could certainly squint and say, yeah, they could win a lot of football games with him if he's even remotely what he's been during his career and then he gets Justin Jefferson. But I still think that the ceiling with Derek Carr is probably like nine wins. That's the other thing is as much as, you know,

and I've been fighting this fight for an entire month, there isn't a single person that could argue that there's another quarterback that has a higher ceiling to where if it clicked and it all worked that you could win more games than with Kyler Murray. That's available. I mean, sometimes when I talk about this idea, it feels like, oh, do you guys have someone that I haven't heard of? Do you have, like, a secret quarterback? Like, somebody brought up, no disrespect, like Tanner McKee. Tanner McKee may someday be a starter in the NFL, but like, please be serious. Like, this team is looking for with a veteran team and a bunch of talent and a $6 million

dollar defensive coordinator that they just brought back to win a lot of football games. The Wilfs didn't spend all this money to build this team and bring back these coaches and everything to just screw around with somebody else's backup who was drafted in the seventh round. So they're going to get a real quarterback. And they also didn't do it to put all their eggs in the basket of a quarterback who had one of the worst runs of their first 10 starts ever for a first round quarterback that was not drafted in the top five. So again, like, please be serious with the list that we have.

Aaron Rogers, to me, would be insane. It would just like, how is this real? How is this real life? How is this happening? This is far of again. I don't see the ceiling being particularly high there because of the way he played in Pittsburgh. There was a few games that were breathtaking. Most of it was him just trying not to get hurt.

And if you can't even have your tackle, your own tackle bump into you without getting really mad that you were knocked down, like you're probably in your 40s and everything hurts. With Kirk, we know what the ceiling is. There was a ceiling when Kirk was good. So we know what that is. and then the other option being Daniel Jones, which I think if you really put his performance under review for Indianapolis last year, it's not, it's good, it's good, but it's not something that I think is like this is their franchise quarterback, which you would probably have to pay him a significant amount of money way over $1.3 million for Kyler Murray. So everything to me does come together, but now the ball is in Mr. Murray's court. Here's what we know, though, Chris. If the Vikings get Kyler Murray, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, Case Keenham, Brooks Bollinger, it doesn't matter if they don't have a supporting cast, which includes a successful run game. I watched running back after running back after running back go off the board in free agency.

There's a couple left as we speak. But I think the Vikings need more talent in the backfield, even if they were to bring in a Rashad White or someone like that. that's kind of a placeholder who's competent, but is not a game changer. Daniel Jeremiah goes on TV and says, you know, it would be cool as if the Vikings traded up for Jeremiah love. Just giving you that sentence, what do you think of that idea? Okay, there are two ways that I will answer this. One, strictly as a draft analyst, the sentence trade up for a running back. Yeah.

That does not compute in my brain. Like I would never advocate for any team in any situation to do that. Even with as good of a roster as the Vikings have on the offensive side, don't do it. The, geez, the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs, you are not a Clyde Edwardsy layer away from being awesome again. They certainly won Super Bowls after that in spite of making that pick. Like he did not help them win those Super Bowls subsequently. But I have softened.

somewhat on my idea. And I don't know if I've said this on this show. I've been on radio a lot this week. So I'm kind of, they're kind of all getting blurred together. I've softened on my stance of never ever under any circumstances draft or running back in the first round. Because I've, because the league's evolving and I need to have evolved my own philosophies and evaluations of team building and and positional value. I've watched Bejan Robinson. now it hasn't it has not turned into the the falcons even winning their own division but he is a 1,600 to 2,200 yard from scrimmage player every year Christian McCaffrey even well into his late 20s that that same kind of guy now ashton genty didn't ultimately work out last year the

offensive line was terrible the chip kelly was an abomination there the offensive line what was Pete Carrow was like giving his son the, the offensive, like the O line coach job where like the blockers were like practicing by themselves because they didn't want to have to deal with all that because he wasn't a good coach. I just think that there is a little bit of you are getting this player in his prime. It's really unlike any other position if you draft a running back in the first round. And if you can get someone that is like you've said, ding, ding, ding, explosive. you get that with Jeremiah Love. If that's what your run game needs and you look at the rest of the draft class at running back, not very good at all.

It's pretty barren. And I will paraphrase a tweet that I saw from Todd McShay today that said, every GM in the NFL would rather have Jeremiah Love on a rookie deal than pay Travis CTN or Kenneth Walker, those big veteran contracts that they got in. in free agency. And he was just like, hey, that's not a knock on Ken Walker or Travis CTN, but he's absolutely 100% right. If someone were to say, would you trade up for a running back or pay a 27 year old, you know, four years, 52 million, whatever, I would say, well, okay, in that case, give me the young guy that has a lot of tread on his tires that can

be your focal point of your offense and give you that explosiveness. So Jeremiah Love is positioned very well to be a top 10 pick because he's really good. He's really explosive. and the running back class is kind of eh behind him. What I'm curious about now is after the Saints invested big and after the Chiefs invested big, if we take a look at the draft board, so we know that the Raiders are going to draft Fernando Mendoza, the Jets have Breece Hall not really in a position to draft a running back.

The Arizona Cardinals just signed Tyler Algier. I don't think it would make any sense for them. They're tanking. They're also super bad. they're going to play Gardner Minshu and Jacoby Brissette, it seems. What a competition that's going to be between those two. The Tennessee Titans are also in a position that I don't think they should be drafting a running back, but they're the odds on favorite right now.

Everyone is thinking that he could go as high as four to the Titans. And also what I've really learned over the years, oh, sorry, I just hit the totally wrong button that messed up the screen, trying to catch my water bottle. What I've learned over the years is that ownerships have a lot more to do with what happens on the football field than you think. As we all sit here and play GM and draft sim and free agency sim and everything else, we forget that sometimes the phone call comes in from the yacht. You know what I really want is this. And the Tennessee Titans had a lot of success with Hoomst in the backfield, Derek Henry. And in their past, even going back farther, they spent a pretty high draft pick on who.

that would be Eddie George, right? These are two of their franchise staples, and not to mention Chris Johnson in between. They've always had this amazing running back that they build their offenses around. And I think that that matters. I was talking to, and you know Doug Whaley, former Bill's GM,

I was talking to him the other day for a story over at Purple Insider dot football. And he was telling me when they were in Pittsburgh that the ownership had a very clear-cut idea of this is the type of player we want. This is the type of character. This is the type of toughness. And don't bring in anybody that isn't going to be a part of the Pittsburgh type of way of doing

things, which, you know, I think that their boxes were a little ambiguous and probably not that hard to check because if you're soft, you're not getting drafted that high anyway. But the point just being ownership and the top of the franchise can have these ideas. So I wonder if Tennessee, no matter who's running them, is going to get the call. Like, this is how we win in Tennessee with running backs. but if they pass, Chris, if they do not take Jeremiah Love at the fourth overall pick, I mean, the Giants have Scadaboo coming back. They've got a decent enough backfield.

The Cleveland Brown should not be doing that with Quinn John Judkins being drafted last year. Then is it number seven in Washington that would be the favorite if Tennessee does not decide to go with Jeremiah Love? It could be. And he, and Jeremy Love would be an. upgrade over most teams number one running backs. But I would find that hilarious that a very analytics forward team in the commanders that just got awesome value out of Jacori Kroski Merit,

a seventh rounder would then turn around and go, oh, let's pick a running back inside the top 10. Like I can't imagine that that would be the way that the analytics would point them in that direction. I think if he gets, if Jeremiah Love gets passed four, and again, I cannot believe that we're talking. about this, but I, but it, but it does make more sense. If you're telling me that the Vikings need explosiveness and are just like, hey,

we got our super cheap quarterback. Let's like not spend frivolously because you're not paying that running back a lot, but let's add a luxury to this offense that it's been missing for a long time. If he gets past four, I think that opens the door for the Vikings to start making some calls because like you just ran through. I don't really know what other teams outside of the commanders to a certain degree, maybe the chiefs at nine. But,

wait, but they just signed Kenneth Walker. So yeah. So that's totally out. I think they would start calling teams or maybe position themselves before the draft to call those teams from the six range to like the 12 range and say, look, on draft night,

if Jeremiah Love is not picked by the Titans, we want to have deals in place with you to pick Jeremiah Love. Which from a perspective of 2026 would be. stupid fun. I mean, you'd be bringing in someone who is as talented as pretty much any running back to come out. You have to tell me where you would rank him in your grade book, uh, compared to Bejohn Robinson and Jemir Gibbs, but at least from my eyeballs, it's not that far away in terms of the caliber of talent. And you can hit the ground running with this offense. Let's say it's Kyler Murray. That's a lot of explosiveness with Murray and love and Jefferson and Addison. There's a lot to

work with there. At the same time, I've said this a few times during the off season, the franchise will go on after this. And it's great to have that player, but there's only so much impact that a running back can make over another running back. So, you know, you mentioned Kenneth Walker and Kenneth Walker is playing his best football win when he's got great blocking when the Seattle Seahawks built this offensive line with Gray's Abel in there, who's one of the best run blocking guards right away in the NFL. And then all the sudden, Kenneth Walker's having some of his best times and Zach Charbonnet as well. I mean, that's what happens a lot of times is it's dictated by what's going on in front of them. And Ashton Genty's another great example of this.

I mean, I certainly think that the Vikings, with some of the people that they've added to their coaching staff, can succeed. And they have a good enough pass a game and enough threats to get light boxes and deep safeties and all those things as people are terrified of Justin Jefferson. and I don't doubt that it's going to work. I just think that if you're looking at the longer term of the franchise, having a trade down to get more draft capital, to have more picks, to have more players on rookie contracts,

makes a lot more sense to me than it does to go all the way up. But I do want to say it would be fun as heck, and I think that they would have a chance to have a top 10 offense, even if their quarterback play was not perfect, if he's everything that he's supposed to be. Yes, that is hitting the nail on the head. It wouldn't be the best way to allocate early draft capital, but it would be extremely fun.

And maybe this would be a team that now suddenly is like, we're kind of more concerned with the short term as opposed to what's going to happen in seven years from now. I think that they were in that, which is so ironic that they went 14 and 3 afterward. But in 2024, like, all right, we drafted our quarterback. We're set up for the next three to five.

years at least this guy's going to come in and it be serviceable didn't you know got hurt and then darnal was great and that it was like now they obviously and i think it probably led to quacy being fired like they made that decision let's move on and turn our attention to j j mccarthy with the long view in mind if you sign kailer murray for essentially nothing trade up for jordan love like what you just referenced you're suddenly not really thinking about 27 28 29 we'll figure that out after but this is suddenly a super explosive offense that has just a lot of athleticism that is upgraded at running back and quarterback, two of the guys that touched the ball more than anyone else on that side of the football. And all their other moves have kind of pointed toward one foot in, one foot out, which is they

keep T.J. Hawkinson, they keep Eric Wilson, but they're moving on from the older expensive players, who I think you'd be moving on for, from regardless, you know, Jonathan Allen, J. Von Hargrave and Aaron Jones. Maybe you'd be trying to keep those guys on different contracts if you loved how they played, but your salary cap situation was not in a spot to really go all in. And they've been a little safer with the restructures than they needed to be just to make sure their cap compliant and they could probably add a couple of free agents that are cheap. But if you're Kevin O'Connell, you might be pounding a table when it comes to this because his talent is so unique from what you'd be looking at it, the 18th overall pick.

And that's what I wanted to get to with the Vikings not making any big move. So even if they go out and they sign Nick Cross or they sign Rashad White or they sign whatever, I don't think it precludes them from anything in the draft from where they're at. And when we start adding up the potential needs, we could get to, you know, running back, receiver, tight end with T.J. Hawkinson redoing his contract to make him a free agent. I've tossed out the idea of Kenyon Sadiq. center is something that they probably can't get in the first, but defensive tackle,

if they trade Jonathan Grenard, edge rusher, and there's a lot of positions, Chris, corner, safety, and punter. They need all of those things right now.

So if we look at where they're at, I just pulled up a draft sim with all those needs in mind at 18. I mean, in this draft sim that I ran, Sadiq is off the board and Jeremiah Love ends up going to, uh, the Saints anyway.

with ETN, which I guess could happen. I mean, they could still do something like that. But Sadiq ends up off the board. And we've got players like Cassius Howell, who I think you'd start to have to consider, Omar Cooper, Aviont Terrell, who I've circled, Emmanuel McNeil Warren. But in this one, Dylan Thineman is not on the list.

Is it a trade down situation if some of those top guys are off the board? Also, Caleb Banks here, who, you know, is interesting because Caleb Banks, PFF loves him as a top 20 pick and Daniel Jeremiah has him as like a second rounder. So I'm not sure exactly what to make of that either. But it feels like a position where you should be saying, let's move back and get as much draft capital as we possibly can. So I guess the Vikings are kind of on polar ends.

They're either trading up for a running back. Yes. Or because of all the points that you outlined in all the positions that they need to address, they can't do it in free agency. There are so many needs. Like as you're listing them through, I'm going through, all right, yeah, there's, there's Dylan Theanman, there's,

there's, all right, Kenyon Sadiq. If a lot of those players are gone, those premier players at those need spots, which is most of the defense, then absolutely the other polar end is trade back and make like two or three, but make three or four picks on day three of the draft or maybe just later in the first round.

I would say I'm a huge Caleb Banks fan and I think he would make a ton of sense for a team that or an organization that has routinely had some ridiculous defensive tackles that have been star players that to go back. I mean, and I'm sure there's more that your fans know and you know, but I think John Randall and on, they've seemingly had ridiculous play on the interior.

Kevin Williams, God, there's so many that I don't know if that would be an organizational thing. I would say, hey, pick the deed tackle in the first round. But if Caleb Banks, Dylan Thieneman, Kenney and Sadiq, if either of those three are still there, I would be okay with that selection, but I do think the general thought of, all right, we don't know who's going to be there. It's either swinging for the fences or decided to take the intentional walk and trading back.

I think those pick and choose either end of the spectrum for the Vikings in the first round. So let me ask you your opinions here. And then we'll get to the chat and other things that happened today. Elton Jenkins, your dream died very quickly with him. He signed with the Cleveland Brown. Sorry, everyone. I think, you know, you're a fan of Jenkins as well. I think he's a better guard than he is a center.

So I'm not sure that that would have been the best option for the Vikings anyway, but we could talk about that. So I've been poking around the fan duel odds, Chris, with all these moves that have gone on. And one thing that I notice about the odds makers is that they don't get wowed by a lot of free agent spending. And let me tell you real quick that I saw some people who are enraged that the Vikings didn't spend. I thought we knew this. I thought we knew that they weren't going to,

and I also thought we knew last year that they weren't going to be able to do that this year. So I'm not sure why people are acting totally shocked. Also, the players that they've spent on the last couple years, a lot of them are still on the team, like Andrew Van Ginkle at this moment, Jonathan Grinard, Byron Murphy, etc. So anyway, not the point. I did look last year, and I found an article that did offseason grades for free agency that their number one team was the Washington commanders who are drafting in the top 10 now and had a lot of those free agency moves go bust. A lot, I mean, look, it can work or not. I mean, New England was their second team and they made the Super Bowl, but it doesn't always the day one spending equate to a huge amount of success.

So I noticed that the New York Jets who went crazy are plus 2,000 to win the AFC East, the Tennessee Titans who spent a lot are plus 900 to win the AFC South. The Las Vegas Raiders are plus 2,000 to win the AFC West. It's just not going to happen for any of those teams that spend big. Is there a team, though, for you in the National Football League that you think, you know what? The stuff that they did actually does potentially move the needle. I mean, I think the obvious choice, I'll think for a second, the obvious choice might be

Baltimore in trading for Max Crosby. Like if there's one player who could shift a needle, it might be him. Also, I think that the Carolina Panthers, who are now, they've actually moved up. They are now plus 410 to win the South. They're still in last place in the, in the, in the, on fan duel, but they've made it much closer after getting Jalen Phillips and Devin Lloyd. Who did you like for free agency? There hasn't been a team, I think, because a lot of,

what you outlined, we're only like a day and a half in that all these are the most expensive deals. Now, it's, it's, it's for the best players, but I certainly remember, uh, throughout the years that it's a lot of these teams that are not good that are just have a ton of money because they don't have good players on second and third contracts that are giving out all that big, uh, or like, like all that big money. So I actually would like to answer that next week once we get to like, I don't know what we would call that. The second or third way. but I will give you a loser. I actually think the Baltimore Ravens,

to bring in Max Crosby, a pretty similar deal to Micah Parsons, was a little bit of an overpayment. But I do agree, yes, he is a huge needle mover. But they also lost their center in Tyler Linderbaum. They lost Draymont Jones, who's a good interior rusher. They lost both of their tight ends in Isaiah, Likley and Charlie Kohler. It's a team that I think is not putting all their edge.

in one basket, but for a team that's perennially been very good, it's like, yikes. Like they, they, and they signed Aloha Gilman as their safety. Like that's, it to me is like, um, it's a, it's, it's a team that I, or no, I'm sorry, he left to go to the chiefs. I'm sorry, he left to go to the chiefs. I was looking at the list. No disrespect for Alohi Gilman. Gilman. He was one of my top targets for the vice. Yes. That in general, they've lost a lot and not just tertiary. players and they've brought in Max Crosby. And then you're like, oh, okay, well, but they have the draft. They don't have a first rounder this year or a first rounder next year to bring in some of

that talent that can be game changing. So to me, I don't have a true winner yet. I think Carolina that you outlined, they've spent, they have a super expensive and veteran laden defense now. Maybe they're just trying to get over that hump. They were so close to beating the Rams in that wild card round game. I've liked some of their moves. But I want to answer that next week when we see some of these, these lower tier, but legitimately good value signings come in because a lot of the Raiders, Titans, jets that you've outlined, they just have like $100 million to spend when the Vikings were going into free agency over the cap by like $40 million. So the needle has moved ever so slightly.

And if you're wondering, I think the Fandul thinks the Vikings are getting Kyler Murray because they had been since the Super Bowl, they'd been plus 700. now they're plus 600 to win the NFC North on Fandul. But the North is so close. Detroit plus 170, Green Bay plus 175, and Chicago is plus 360. And today we saw the Lions get Isaiah Pacheco.

I think that's a bit of a downgrade from David Montgomery, who's been a really nice ying and yang for Jemir Gibbs. And I think they're looking at past protection probably there because it was such a failure. last year against the Vikings. That game has to be in their head. Both of those games where Brian Flores ate them alive, in part because they didn't have a running back who could step up in pass protection.

And Gibbs really struggled there. But the NFC North specifically, you talk about a team that's lost a lot of talent. I had a tweet. I don't know what I was just, why I was just looking for the tweet. But I'm trying to remember who sent it out about the Packers. They lost like 12,000 snaps or something worth of. of like Elton Jenkins and Kingsley and I'm barre played a lot for them.

They traded away Rashon, Gary. They've lost a lot of talent off of that team, especially on defense. They still have McKinney. They still have Michael Parsons. But it feels kind of a lot like you described with the Ravens. And I guess I didn't really think about it from a Ravens perspective of a complete team or of they got one of the best players in the NFL who can drive a defense. But you're absolutely right to point out that they might be asking.

one guy to do so much, kind of like Green Bay last year when they lost Parsons, they just fell apart. Yeah, totally. And that's like the one concern that if if Max Crosby stays healthy and he's had some injury concerns, but he also has played an insane amount of snaps. He wants to play like 100% of the snap. So to trade for that at what 28, 29 years old for two first round picks and then maybe that costs you sign or to retain some of these core pieces and you don't have two first rounders. Like that's why I don't love it for the Ravens. I do think we will see a lot of quality signings that are a little, a little bit more of a reasonable price over the next couple days and into next week. I totally agree. And my list last night, there's only been a couple

guys checked off it since my list that last night, I felt pretty good about those guys the second wave. And oftentimes that is where you get your better deals. Funny that last year, the Vikings best signings turned out to be Eric Wilson and Isaiah Rogers. Rogers was a first day guy, but he was not an expensive guy. And neither was Eric Wilson, who they thought was going to be a special teamer. And then all of a sudden ends up turning out to be a huge player for them. So it's not always the day one signing that ends up turning out. And I'm just going to be skeptical.

I think the Raiders did a great job. If you're talking about a winner getting Linderbom and then being seriously, there is value when you're drafting the number one quarterback. and you're revamping your franchise, you've brought in a new head coach to just being a serious team, that each week, even if you win seven or eight games next year, each week teams can't just walk into Las Vegas and be like,

ha, that's pretty easy win because this team has no idea what the hell they're doing. I also kind of like Kirk for Vegas. Do you like Kirk for Vegas to be, uh, I do not just because he looks like Fernando Mendoza and the smile. I don't really get that, by the way. I don't really get the comps as much.

I think it's because they both have like the same kind of smile and awkward personality. I don't really think that they're that similar. Mendoza is much taller. He's like two inches taller. Like, stands very tall in the pocket. Maybe it's because he's not a playmaker that everyone just says. I also think Kirk's more more accurate than Fernando Mendoza.

I think his anticipation and accuracy is is much better. But we learn this from Mack Jones that if you are not athletic and have to be a pocket quarterback, everyone will just say you're Kirk. Yeah, that's like the new, like every team in quarterback purgatory was in, it was Andy Dalton. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Like, yeah, so I agree if you're, especially if you're a white pocket passer that doesn't have a strong arm, your Kirk Cousins. Yes, 100%.

Chris Trappaso, draftgradebook.com. I go, go to the website, look at it. It's got so many of your scouting reports. And it just looks great. You did an awesome job on it. And I hope that people go check it out. draft gradebook.com. And every single week on this show, you will be here breaking down what it all means.

We'll be doing more draft simulations as time goes by. The next time we talk, I'm expecting that the Vikings will have their answer at quarterback, which will help us out a lot. There could be some more free agent moves, which will help us out a lot for our next draft simulation. But we've got a lot still here to go leading up to the draft with you every single week. I'm looking forward to that. Thank you so much for your time, Chris.

Of course, football. Football.