Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Giants star Dexter Lawrence requests a trade. Vikings?!??!!?!

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about New York Giants star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence requesting a trade and why the Minnesota Vikings would make sense and some of the potential drawbacks. Is he worth the price? What would the defense look like with him in 2026 and beyond? Plus we look at Check The Mic's mock draft, which has an interesting idea for the Minnesota Vikings. 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, you know, midway through the day when I was starting to put together, what am I going to talk about on the show tonight? I'm going through mock drafts, everything else, trying to look at what, what have I written recently? What can we talk about tonight on the show? We've got some good space here before the final championship of the college basketball season. So, all right, let's figure it out. It's figured out. and then Adam Schefter comes through for me with a big, big news item that Dexter Lawrence,

defensive tackle for the New York Giants, has requested a trade. So let's get right into Dexter Lawrence requesting a trade, whether it makes sense for the Minnesota Vikings. I've got a bunch of thoughts on this. And it goes to a few different layers where there's, does it make sense? But then does it make sense in a bigger picture and what could it do for them right now? So I'm going to break down all of that. And I would love your guys in the comments, your takes on whether the Minnesota Vikings should be in on trying to trade for Dexter Lawrence. And then any other questions, comments that you have things on your mind, the draft, the off season, the GM search, whatever it might be.

Toss it down in the comment section. And we will have plenty of room for that. Also a very interesting mock draft from my friends over at Check the Mike that I wanted to talk about as well. But let's get into this. So ESPN's Adam Schaefter tweets, sources, Giants, all pro defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence has requested a trade and he will not be yet participating in any of the team's offseason workout program that opens on Tuesday. Lawrence and the Giants have been through two off seasons attempting to negotiate a contract reflecting his value to the Giants over the last. last three years, but there has not been any progress per sources. And I saw that Jason Fitzgerald of over the cap.com, he mentioned that Lawrence is giving up

$500,000 that he gets as a bonus to not show up at the team's workout program that starts on Tuesday, which is, hey, I'm very serious. That's what that sounds like from Dexter Lawrence. Now, 500K, if they were to negotiate a new contract with him, you just toss that on top of the pile. Here you are, sir, because it's going to be many, many, many millions of dollars if he does get a new contract with the giants. But the point is that if you are foregoing $500,000, that means that you've reached an impasse with the team about his future contract. And right now, Lawrence is not among the highest of the highest. paid defensive tackles in the league.

And I think that he does have a fair argument when someone like Jordan Davis for the Philadelphia Eagles, who's pretty good but is not in the ballpark of Dexter Lawrence, is getting paid more than him average annual value. At the same time, from the Giants perspective, they may look at it similar to the Vikings and Jonathan Grenard, where, dude, you're under contract for the next two years. Why do we need to do this right now?

So if they do reach this impasse and the Giants say, you know what, fine, it's time to just bail on Dexter Lawrence, get everything that we can get from him in a trade. What would that cost the Minnesota Vikings? Well, I have an answer for you. From Jordan Renan of ESPN says, quote, asked around the league and the general consensus appears to be that if the giants were willing to move Dexter Lawrence, the return. would be in the range of a late first round pick to a second rounder. So let's go through some thoughts. I have written five thoughts about Dexter Lawrence and his trade request. Number one is that price tag that Jordan Renan reported sounds pretty reasonable and actually

quite doable for the Minnesota Vikings. Now they don't have an early, early second round draft pick, but the 49th overall pick is where I think you would start. conversation and then what else do you have to throw on to that would it be number 49 number 97 i think the 18th overall pick is it's just too much for the vikings to give up considering that they need young talent that can be foundational for them for many years to come and you can get that type of player in many drafts at 18th overall in fact dexter lawrence was 17th overall so that type of player can be found in the middle of the first round.

And I don't think you want to forego a chance to get someone who could be a cheap asset for you and a potential starter at whatever position we're talking about for the next four, you know, plus years. I don't think you want to give that up as a first round pick. A second round pick, that becomes much more of an easier conversation. Because even in a draft where I like a lot of the talent in the second round, you are talking about, and we'll go through some of his numbers, one of the best players in the entire NFL.

By PFF, Dexter Lawrence, 22, 22, 23, and 2024, was either ranked number one or two among all defensive tackles in the NFL. I mean, this is like Miami trading for Tyree Kill, except for because of the circumstances and his recent performance was not good last year, as if anyone's was for the New York Giants, maybe the price tag isn't something like that, or it isn't something like what the Ravens were willing to give up for Max Crosby. It sounds like because the recent performance was down,

tell me if this is familiar to you guys from the discussion we've been having with Jonathan Grenard. When the recent performance is down, the player needs a new contract, the price tag is just not going to be through the roof for potential. return. So if that is true that you're looking at a late first or second round draft pick, then the Vikings would have to consider it. And the reason that I put here on my little graphic, the reported price is reasonable but the but is, well, how many teams just called the New York Giants today? I would have to imagine that there are a lot of teams that

would be interested in the services of someone who ranked number one or two. by PFF over the last several years. And as far as nose tackles go, is the only nose tackle in the NFL that consistently puts up elite pressure numbers has had as many as nine sacks. I mean, you just don't really see that from guys that are pushing 350, 360 pounds,

like Dexter Lawrence. And he's been working over the last few years with Andre Patterson. But last year, it seems that the wheels kind of came off with their relationship. And even though he had six pressures against the Minnesota Vikings, there was maybe not the same motivation there in New York. The culture was clearly a total disaster under Brian Dable.

So there were a lot of things going on. But that does lower the price. I mean, if he was coming off of another season of being a top two or three player defensive tackle, you'd be talking about two first round draft picks. So is this a deal for a team that wants to acquire Dexter Lawrence? or will you end up with, hey, that's the reported price? So then 20 teams call and say, hey, you know, could we get ourselves Dexter Lawrence in here? We've got, you know, the cap space or we've got the assets that we want to trade to you,

whatever number of teams it might be. Could that push the price up? Like, can the Vikings really make the best offer to the New York Giants? And with their draft capital, if you're saying you don't want to give up number 18, and you would only do 49 and something else. Let's say it's 49 and 97. I mean, is that unbeatable to another team or will there be a team that makes an offer that I've been watching

Succession lately that ends the conversation is the way that they put it in the show? Like, does somebody else make an offer to the Giants that just ends the conversation with anybody else and says, all right, we're going to go first round draft pick and then bring him in. and I'm, you know, what team is coming to mind for that is the Chicago Bears with the fact, and I don't know if they can exactly afford it, which is point number two. So point number one is, I think there will be some teams if there's a bidding more for Dexter Lawrence that are willing to go higher than what the Minnesota Vikings can do based on where

their draft capital sits. So would they have to add extra draft picks from day two and day three to make this work out? Would they have to throw something in from 2027? if they wanted to do this because there are other teams that could give up their late firsts and add something on to it and maybe it begins a bit of a bidding war that I don't think the Vikings can win. So there's a little bit of a complexity there. Number two is his contract situation does complicate things because if you trade for a

player, you have to be able to acquire their current cap hit, which is a lot for Dexter Lawrence. I think it's $24 million for Dexter Lawrence. So even to acquire him, even if the plan is to redo his contract the minute that he gets here, you have to be able to acquire him. That means they have to have the cap space to be able to do that. So that complicates things. And then redoing a contract with Dexter Lawrence, that is going to cost you in the range of $30 million per season.

Because that's where Chris Jones is right now. He's about $32 million average annual value. So that is the start of the discussion with Dexter Lawrence. If you trade for him, then he has to be the highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL. Can the Vikings make that work? Now, you can because with the salary cap, the way it's structured, you can make anything work that you need to work in the short term. But in the long term, does his cap hit fit with,

the Vikings because you are going to have a very expensive Justin Jefferson who I'm just going to assume is not going anywhere. They have told us that they're picking up Jordan Addison's fifth year option. That's a pretty expensive player. But they also open up a decent amount of cap space by certain other players leaving. That would be, as of right now, Andrew Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman, Brian O'Neill, all those guys are free agents after this year. And so far, they haven't done any new contracts with them. If that ends up being part of the plan to clear up space with those guys, then you actually could make sense of this.

And Dexter Lawrence is 28 years old. He will turn 29 next season. I mean, that's a guy at a position where you could easily be talking about four or five more years of his prime, considering his physical capabilities and his skill set and his power. And even if he falls off a little bit, he's still likely to be. be a beast into his 30s. So that does become worth it if you're talking about Jefferson and Lawrence being the

expensive players. But there's this quarterback who could also throw things for a loop and it gets a little bit more hairy there. If Kyler Murray were to play really well and the Vikings win 11 or 12 games and he's great and let's say he's like the ninth best quarterback in the NFL, he and KOC, they play call a duty together and they get a long grade and Jefferson gets along great with them. Okay, but that's like 40 something million dollars per year. It's probably a Daniel Jones type of contract.

Then you have this huge deal for Dexter Lawrence. Then you have this huge deal for Justin Jefferson. Are you getting into a space with a lot of money sunk into a couple of guys? And that can be pretty risky to do as we've seen in the past. So it's complicated, but it's not impossible. And if you look at the way some teams do these contracts, I know Rob Brzezinski has talked about not wanting to void years into the future and restructure and things like that because you do have to pay that bill eventually. But if they wanted it to happen, they could make it happen by creating the immediate space to trade for him and then signing him to a contract that had a lower cap hit early on and potentially void years at the end of it. There's a sacrifice to be made there, though.

If you want to have a player like this, who's going to be the highest paid at his position, there's going to be a sacrifice not only in the rest of the team building, but also what you have to do in the immediate to even fit that player on your team. Nothing's impossible, but it would be a little bit dicey. There would be some work there to possibly be done. All right. Point number three is, does it actually fit with the Vikings timeline? and I just alluded to that a little bit with Kyler Murray.

But when we look at the defense, how about this is a thing to consider? Dexter Lawrence has never played over the last four years where he's become an elite player since 2022. None of those defenses for the Giants since 2022 have been above average in terms of points allowed. I know that's a complicated stat. That's certainly not Dexter Lawrence's fault.

But what it does tell you is that one person, and this goes for Harrison Smith played for the 2020 and 2021 and 22 Vikings. Harrison Smith is amazing. One player does not make an entire defense, right? And so when you look at the Vikings into the future, just one year, Van Ginkle, Cashman, Isaiah Rogers, potentially Byron Murphy, Jr., all these guys could be gone. So you'd be talking about having to, all right, well, you better hope that Dallas Turner becomes really good. and goes along with Lawrence. I assume Jalen Redmond is going to sign an extension at some point.

You've got Eric Wilson. Not really sure what happening at safety. And then whoever you draft this year, but your capital is going to be limited because you traded for Dexter Lawrence. You've got a lot of spaces to fill with either extensions or back into free agency. And as much as a wizard as Brian Flores is, and he is great at his job. That's why he's being paid so much.

we've seen it these last couple years. If you're short on players, then you're probably not going to have a great deal of success. Maybe you can get to average. But think about the 2023 Vikings defense where they had, you know, DeNeil Hunter is playing great football in, in 2023. But once they had a couple of injuries,

that defense fell off the face of the earth with Brian Flores calling it. Because, right, there just wasn't enough talent. And how are you going to fill that talent, even if Lawrence is great, if there are other areas, if the coverage struggles, if you don't have good corners, if you don't replace the safety position, at least get a difference maker there. If you have, you know, weakness at linebacker and you're just pasting it together, there's, you can only be so good, even if you have greatness at one particular position. So does it fit the Vikings timeline? line. And I think the answer is yes and no. Because for, and this is point number four, ties into point number four, which is the Vikings front seven would be insane with Dexter Lawrence. It would be nuts to have, I'm assuming Grenard is still around. And I know some of you have said, hey, could you trade Grenard?

They already have Abdul Carter and Brian Burns. So I don't think the answer is yes there. I don't think that they would include Jonathan Granard in any sort of trade. I think it would just have to be. draft picks and you're essentially taking a problem off of the giant's hands and the cap space and so forth. It's probably not a player getting involved in that. But so if they were to keep Grenard and then Lawrence, Andrew Van Ginkle, Jalen Redmond, Dallas Turner, holy cow. Like this would be one of the biggest nightmares to go up against for anybody in the NFL.

And they could blitz all they wanted to, but they wouldn't even have to if they didn't want to because Grenard, Lawrence, these are two of the best at their jobs in the league. Van Ginkle is, you know, a second team all pro. I mean, like, that's a, that's a scary, scary front seven. And here's where it ties into the timeline is when Quasi Adafo Mensa built this team to this point, his concept was that 2025 and 2026 are the win now years that you take advantage of the rookie quarterback contract and you go all in and you and you ride this train all the way down and you see what happens.

And it feels like if Cuiaddafflmensa was in charge of this, we would be like, is this going to happen? Because they made moves like this last offseason. It was more along the lines of signings. But still, they went big on Jonathan Allen. They went big on Javon Hargrave. Those guys had been superstars in their career, but they weren't in their primes like Dexter Lawrence is, but those are the type of win now all in moves, even getting someone like

Ryan Kelly, keeping Aaron Jones, keeping Byron Murphy, all those things that they did last year, they were big win now type of moves. And had the Vikings gone out and got Gino Smith as their quarterback or brought back Kirk or whatever, I think I would have said, all right, well, this is just kind of a, it's a bridge year where you're trying to kind of get right and hope. to be in the playoff conversation. But point number five is does Kyler Murray being here change the thought process? Kyler Murray is a quarterback that meets the threshold where you could believe this guy could

win a lot of games with the Minnesota Vikings. You can win the division with him. He has shown at times in his career that he's good enough to do that. If the 2024 Kyler Murray shows up here, the Vikings can win 12 games or 11 games with this defense if they have some added pieces to it. If Dexter Lawrence was here with Kyler Murray, you're probably talking about a fringe top 10 offense and a top five defense. And that sounds like a very serious contender to me.

So when it comes to the timeline, it is not the best move by any means for the long term. You're talking about serious salary cap implications. You're talking about giving away draft capital. and you're talking about having to rebuild around Dexter Lawrence, kind of with some haste and potentially with some serious limitations if you resign Kyler Murray. But for 2006, this guy can help you win a heck of a lot of football games. And that's where it becomes enticing.

And so I've been thinking about this a lot today about how I have been on board with Rob Brzezinski's approach. and the Wilf's approach to this offseason, which is we're not going to do anything that hurts us down the road. We're not going to set up the next GM, even if it is Brazinski. We're not going to set up the future in some sort of massive hole. Like, we're going to make sure we maintain an eye on 2027 while doing enough to improve

or keep it together, really not improve, but keep it together and then improve at the quarterback position, right? That's what they've done. Maintain the future. keep the core pieces together, which is Hawkinson and Jones, who they could have gotten rid of, or other guys that they could have cut and released that they decided to keep. It's basically the same team as last year, minus two defensive tackles and

Kyler Murray and plus Kyler Murray. It's basically the same team. And minus Ryan Wright, which could matter. So if you're looking at it that way, I've been on board with that plan. Improve the quarterback position pretty significantly. And then if the rest of it, continues to be what it even was last year, or maybe a little better with some better health luck,

then, hey, you're a serious team. Then you can win the NFC North, potentially. You can be right there with the Lions, Packers, and bears, and then we see what happens, right? And then you could make a move right before the season. You could make a move at the trade deadline, whatever, depending on how things go. I have been on the side that that is the right approach for this offseason.

It would be one of the main arguments for Rob Brzezinski, as a GM is like look at the way that he's sort of even handed this thing as much as I wanted free agent signings and we all felt like we were indoors looking outside and all the other kids playing in the street. But those kids are the Jets and the Titans and the Raiders. So all right, let them spend their money like crazy. Handle this in a very responsible way. I'm good with that.

And then something like this comes up and you're like, yeah, but what if you just traded for this guy who's awesome? And that brings us to this. How awesome is Dexter Lawrence? Well, here is Dexter Lawrence's PFF page, and I would like to direct you to a couple of parts of it. 2022, 2022, 2023, and 2024. He graded 92.0, 92.9 and 89.9.9.9. Which is, I believe, first and second in the NFL.

He had 63 pressures in 2025 and 2023. and 36 to go along with what PFF graded as 10 sacks, but nine sacks officially on the, according to the NFL. And he played between 550 and 864 snaps in those seasons and even a down season where he was having issues with the team last year and their culture was falling apart. He still had an 84.5 PFF pass rush grade and 34 quarterback pressures last season. and overall was still a well, well above average defensive tackle. And if you notice up here against the Vikings, six pressures,

he has had four games in his career against the Vikings and has a total of 24 pressures in those games, which would put you in the MVP conversation easily. So this is somebody who has developed as a pass rusher from early on where he was a pure nose tackle to become the best of the best in the NFL. and it's really hard to argue that if the Vikings got this guy, that they would not be one of the best defenses in the league.

But there's a lot of risks that go along with it. I mean, if you trade for him and then he gets banged up and he only plays. Now, he's been very durable overall. I mean, actually, he's, his lowest snap count ever was 2024 with 551. And there's no other season below 650. So even last year, he played, uh, 700. 54 snaps. I mean, this guy is on the field and is a dominant player all around. You can't really ask for much more. It's just that it is complex. And there is a lot of layers to whether the

Vikings should make an offer. So that is my question to you. Are you in? Are you in or are you out on the idea of the Vikings trading for Dexter Lawrence? So let's get to that. And your guys' questions and comments and thoughts. And we can talk about other stuff too, but I'm focused on this because it's really interesting. And there's a lot of layers to it. The way that I was thinking about this is it's a little bit of moth to flame with something like this where it's, you know,

all offseason long we're saying, hey, this is actually good the way they're handling it and they're approaching the off season the right way. Then the right name comes up and you go, throw it all away, throw it all away. Like sell the phone. get this guy. And he has terrorized the Vikings.

And there's another part of it, too, that has to do with someone like the Bears is you really don't want, you know, one of your division rivals to end up with Dexter Lawrence. And we also aren't 100% sure that they're going to let Dexter Lawrence go. But if you're the Giants, you're kind of in a rebuilding mode with John Harbaugh, I think they're going to be fairly competitive.

But, you know, it's not like they've been elite, defensively with Lawrence in there. And if he's unhappy, if they won't give him the new contract, then that becomes a huge distraction for the first part of John Harbaugh there. So are you in with making 2026 an all-in year? I think that I'm going to sit on the fence on this one and say, if they do not do something like this, that's fine. That where they've gone with this offseason and maybe there's some late summer ads,

maybe it's a DeAndre Hopkins, maybe there's a Shelby Harris or something who's a defensive tackles played for the Browns and the Broncos and is a veteran or Callais Campbell. I'd love to have Callais Campbell here. Maybe it's something like that, right? And if they do that and that's how they approach the offseason, I think it's better for the long term of the franchise. But if they go trade for Dexter Lawrence, it is freaking on. And one thing we know about the Vikings through their history with the Wilf's.

And I know that there's some of you, you know, hey, the Will. they're always they're always trying to win and you know sometimes they they won't reset or whatever you know those things we have that conversation one thing you could say about them is that over the years they have never shied away from making the big splash move the bring in brett far bring back randy moss and some of these worked out better than others even since i've been here like kirk bringing in kirk with the most guarantees ever after going to the NFC championship. They've never been afraid to go out and make a big move. So will they be interested in something like this?

I do think from a logistical perspective, it's very tricky to actually get Lawrence here and then rework a new contract that somehow fits within the construct of what they have for salary cap space, which at last check I think was $4 million. dollars. They're compliant, but just barely. You could do it if you need to. It would just take quite a bit of work in order to make that happen. But it could be in the mix. Mad Rads is Grenard and a third. That's the hard thing about, you know, somebody like, you know, trade, talking about trading Grenard is that, you know, you know, Grenard is an edge rusher that maybe you'd have to, that they wouldn't want.

I mean, they might, but I probably not. With Brian Burns and Abdul Carter, like they've got their guys. So would you have to trade like a three-way trade where you trade Grenard to somebody else and then bring in Lawrence? I wouldn't want really to do that. And I know that's 1-216 Vivix thing there is to, you know, make a trade for like Granard in a second and get Dexter Lawrence.

but I think you'd have to trade him somewhere else and get some draft capital to then, right, like send that draft capital to the Giants. We see these trades in other sports sometimes, three-way trades, but we don't see it in the NFL very much. And then, yeah, you would plan on having Dallas Turner. But I think it kind of, it doesn't totally defeat the purpose. Like, if you're not planning on having Jonathan Grenard here long term, then, okay, like, make that trade.

But I think it actually kind of does defeat the purpose to trade Granard. for Dexter Lawrence, you're sending out one really good player and draft capital for another great player who's going to be really super expensive. If you're doing it, it's to win in 2026 and push the chips to the middle of the table where I would want Jonathan Grenard to be a part of that. And maybe you just rework his contract to lower his giant cap hit to give you some space. And maybe that's step one. Maybe you give Granard a new contract.

This is where the whole offseason, it could flip on its face because maybe you give Grinard a new contract to lower his immediate cap hit so you can trade for Dexter Lawrence. Like there, there's options there. Hans says without a quarterback, we're just wasting money. But that, see, that's the part of it is that they do have a quarterback. And it's Kyler Murray and he's good. And we don't know if they have Kyler Murray for more than one year because he could play here and decide that he's going to take the highest offer no matter where it is.

He could say, hey, thanks for the memories, Vikings, but it's in his contract that they can't franchise tag him so he could go play for somebody else. You have a quarterback who is capable of winning a lot of football games. I know that it is really hard sometimes to envision this when the guy doesn't have a winning record for his career. But I would direct you to such quarterbacks as Matthew Stafford, who arrived in Los Angeles with the Rams with a losing career record because he played for the Detroit Lions. I think that the Arizona Cardinals are every bit as pathetic as the Detroit Lions were, if

not more so, because at least they had Jim Caldwell for a while and they were fairly competitive, but, I mean, that team was terrible. And the same thing happened with Sam Darnold, bad franchises, finally gets to a good one. and wins 14 games and then goes and wins the Super Bowl with a good franchise. Like this happens kind of a lot. Baker Mayfield gets kicked around. He ends up in Tampa. He's in the playoffs a couple years in a row.

They have a quarterback who is under the right circumstances capable of really winning stuff. And that's why you would do this is because there's no guarantee not only that he's even here for another year, but also that he like wants to stay here or that, you know, you would maybe go sign. him to a big contract and then it gets more dicey. Like this would be kind of an all in on 2026 move. And then you would be trying to rebuild the defense around Dexter Lawrence in the future if you did this. C. Bakes says if I were the bears, I would be absolutely in on this 100%. 100%. That's, I think, the biggest fear that Vikings fans should have when a situation like this comes up is that one of

their division rivals. I mean, this happened last year with Micah Parsons. And yeah, I know the Packers did not win the Super Bowl. If they had Michael Parsons, it might have been a little more interesting into the playoffs and they probably win a playoff game. But it would not be good to have Dexter Lawrence and Micah Parsons. It would be reminiscent of when they traded for Khalil Mack. And then the havoc that that guy wreaked on the Minnesota Vikings for several years before he ended up leaving the Bears as they tore things down, but it would be very similar. And the bears are in a position. I mean, financially, it's a little dicey for them,

but they are in a position where they have the rookie quarterback contract. This is where you move heaven and earth. They've won a playoff game last year. They are in the big spot to do something exactly like this. Patrick says that the Vikings don't try. You bet the bears are making the phone call. Oh, I mean, the bears are 100% going after Decker's. or Lawrence. I mean, you can guarantee that one of those phone calls came from Ryan Poles today

that they went out and attempted to make a contact with the New York Giants because once you have a quarterback who plays like that like Caleb Williams did last year, and I know it wasn't perfect, but shows that he can win, that he could be in the playoffs, that he's the franchise guy you're going to try to build around. I'm not crowning him yet, but I am saying that he showed this is going to be your quarterback for a long time. That's when you look around and say any cap sacrifice that it takes, make this happen on that guy's rookie quarterback contract, and then we'll figure out the rest later.

That's where the Chicago Bears are at. That's a team where if they traded 25 and something else for Dexter Lawrence, that's the exact right move to make. So are the Vikings somewhat interested in part because of that? I would have to wonder if that would actually be an influential factor at all. Pizza Gary says, do our defensive tackles like Flores? Are we sure that we're a good destination for a great DT? Alan has been throwing us under the bus.

And Hargrave did as well. I didn't see, did Alan say something. I know Hargrave did on social media. And 1-216 Vivick Hargrave and Alan seemed unhappy last season. Will Flores scheme be best interest for Dexter Lawrence? So I think that it's very, very different between those two and Dexter Lawrence. And the difference is that Allen and Hargrave are both undersized players. They, I think, I would have bet that neither one of them was even making three bills in terms of their weight last year.

I think both of them play under 300 pounds. that is very different from a guy who goes at 360, where a lot of times what Brian Flores asks his defensive tackles to do, and this was explained to me by Harrison Phillips, is to move bodies. So let's say that he has designed some filthy blitz, and what he needs his defensive tackle to do is to line up in the, I don't know, the A gap,

and then move to the B gap at the snap to, take the guard with him and then hand or to take the center with him and then hammer the guard so he takes up these two blockers and then that's a lane for eric wilson that's a lane for blake cashman to run and blitz through right that's a lot of the job of their defensive tackles and i don't think that jonathan allen or javon hardgrave appreciated that too much because they want to line up one on one right over their guy win that match up and get to the quarterback and they want to get the sacks and they want to get the pressures because that's what they've done for their entire careers. Now, in the second half of the season, Brian Flores did make an adjustment there.

So he was using more five-man fronts to get one-on-one matchups with those guys and they played better. Hargrave played well down the stretch. I thought Alan had his moments down the stretch. But they are not like Dexter Lawrence. This guy is a monster whose job most of the time is to eat up to or something. sometimes even three blockers. That's what a nose tackle often is doing, is driving people back,

or he lines up over a guard and he's going to rush inside, and they know the center's got to help. That's Dexter Lawrence. He not only just overpowers offensive linemen, but he requires two guys to be blocking him at all times because there is no center, no guard in the NFL who can take on a guy who's 360 pounds and fast and has moves and is smart.

Like that's just not something that they can do alone. So they need a couple of blockers. And you've seen, I mean, the Vikings had two guys on him all the time. And if they only had one, he would just win that matchup and get into the backfield. So I don't think that Lawrence has any issue with taking up a couple of blockers as you would if you're Hargrave or Alan, where those guys want to get isolated one-on-one and then win their matchup. So it is quite different. But, I mean, it's a great question.

It's a great question, but it's very different with his role and where he lines up, where he is often right over the center or on the, like, shaded on the inside to the center to try to win that battle if they're doing something like that. But also, and nose tackles, they kind of have to have that mentality no matter what, that you're not always going to get the big star play, that sometimes you have to just plow into people and hold up blocks. It's like the Pat Williams thing. I mean, Pat Williams was amazing, but it doesn't have a highlight reel, right?

So it's kind of there's a lot of Pat Williams in Dexter Lawrence, except for there's a little Kevin Williams in Dexter Lawrence also because he could get after the passer. Orion's belt says Dexter and a 2027 third for number 18. That's the hard one for me would be to give up number 18 because there's so. much value in hitting on that first round draft pick. And over the years, they have hit on some serious blue chip talon around this same area of the draft. It is definitely not a guarantee in this draft that you get a superstar, Jefferson

or Christian Derisaw, those guys were drafted in this range. Jordan Addison was drafted in this range. Even Dallas Turner, who led the team in Sacks last year and showed a ton of progress last season that he could be a significant player for them. If you draft, let's just say that they draft Jermad McCoy, the cornerback from Tennessee with the 18th overall pick, and that guy becomes a top 15 corner in the league. That's worth like $25 million and you're going to be paying the guy five and you really need that and coverage is vital.

I would have a really tough time passing up on the potential of a really good starter that you can get in the first round to get Dexter Lawrence who you have to pay $30 million for. It's a big ask to give up a first round draft pick. When we're talking about a second and maybe a 2027 third or something like that, okay, now you've got my attention. And the downside is that, yeah, I mean, have to pay the guy and he is in his late 20s, you know, there are some injuries there,

even though he's been mostly healthy throughout his entire career, but you take on the wear and tear of that player. When you get to a first, that's where I kind of would have to draw the line and say, like, you really can't sacrifice your whole future for Dexter Lawrence this year. You could sacrifice some of your future, but I don't know that you could sacrifice your entire future. Scamping around, it's a no-go for an interim GM. I mean, with Rob, he's a little bit different, isn't he?

Like, Rob Brzynski has been a major part of contract negotiations, of, you know, trade calls, all these things over his career. And he has the utmost trust from the Wilf's. This isn't somebody who just got here last year. And they were like, hey, can you just like GM for a while while we figure this out? Like, this is a long, long trusted top of the organization. type of person. There are more people in an organization than just, oh, it's the GM. We just don't talk about them a lot.

But Rob is up there. If they went to ownership and they said, look, this is going to take some money. But we can get this guy who has not only murdered us, but has been one of the best of the best of the best in the league. Oh, and by the way, we can keep them out of the hands of the Chicago Bears. I think the Wills, if everybody was on board, if KOC and Flores and they said, we should really do this. And Brzezinski said the numbers work.

I can make it work that they would sign off on it, I think. I don't think that they're going to say, sorry, man, you're only the interim GM. Matt Vrix says I expect them to look into it, but determine the price is too high based on how the offseason has gone with other potential free agent signings. I mean, that I think is a fair view. And it's my expectation as well.

If I were putting odds on it, I might say, I don't know, like 15% chance, especially with all the other teams that are making phone calls to the New York Giants. But it did stick in my mind. And I got a couple of tweets on this and I thought that these these tweeters are sharp that he said, Rob Zitzki said, hey, we don't kick off until September. We want to keep some of the powder dry, which then I had to learn what that phrase meant. But once I learned it, I understood it that he meant stuff comes up. man and we haven't just gone out and spent every dollar that we have so we have no flexibility

or pulled every lever so we have no flexibility we didn't spend bad money that put us in a spot where oh well you know you overspent for Travis A. Chan or something like that it's like they kept their options open for the rest of the summer and hello an option right So I do think that it may have been part of the strategy that they sensed there could be some other players that arrive on the trade block or and you know, we went over the free agent list. There's still some good players in free agency. But the trade block is always something that they may have been keeping the powder dry to potentially address. Bradley says, what's he making per year? So it would be a new contract for him.

Right now he's making, I think it's 20, 22 per year. And I'm sure that that has to go to 32 at least per year. But the structure of it would be very important there for what they could do immediately. They can't fit $32 million right now. That would be another part of it. I believe if you trade for a player, you have to take. I mean, this depends like, because the giants aren't going to take any money. They're like moving on from him.

They're not going to hold on to some cap space for you. So you'd have to have enough cap space to acquire him right now. And he has a cap hit, I believe, with $24 million. So there would have to be shuffling to even begin to have this conversation. Mama says, I just don't see Rob Brzezinski making the move for Dexter Lawrence. He's most likely going to keep the status quo. I think, you know, I think that you're right overall that what Rob has done is when you say keep the status quo, there's also like yeah that's keep the train on the tracks keep them going in the direction that

they set out to go a couple of years ago and don't sell out for the future but you know it's funny because the status quo in Minnesota has often been make the huge move right it's often been make the stephan digs trade make the kirk cousin signing you know let sam darnold go like they've been willing in their history to make moves that are pretty darn bold. That doesn't mean they will do this, but the Steve Hutchinson poison pill, Brett Fav, like this team does stuff all the time that you go, whoa, you always have to have your Adam Schaefter notifications on when you follow the Minnesota Vikings. Let me get you a quick fan dual question of the day and then also a message from our friends

at ZipRecruiter. and then we'll continue the conversation. The Fanduel question of the day is this. Yesterday, I did a power ranking of the NFC. If you didn't see that, I had the Lions as the top team in the NFC North. They are plus 165 on Fandul to win the division. Am I wrong for giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a bounceback? That was the most critiques that I got on my first ever attempt at doing power rankings of the NFC

was, I think a lot of people said, wait a minute, you know, the Lions were last in the division, which I believe they had the highest point differential, though, odd season last year. Okay. I want to tell you about our friends at ZipRecruiter. When I first started Purple Insider, I knew I was going to need a lot of help. So I brought in my friends like Jonathan Harrison and Manny Hill and Brian Murphy to all just give me a hand.

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So just on the matter of, you know, Rob Brissensky making the move like that, I think that overall you're right, that the idea of this offseason was keep it all together, fix the quarterback situation, and give it another shot. And don't screw up the future because this team will be around for. more than 2026 and they've executed that and also keep your options open later into the summer because sometimes stuff changes and things happen and guys come available like oh i don't know dexter lawrence um but i don't think that just him being him means it won't happen remember rob's one of his jobs is not when they give him the interim GM spot they don't just say

all right rob this is your job you just roster okay go ahead head. What his job is is to have meetings and go into those meetings with KOC, Flores, personnel people, scouts, analytics people, and sit in those rooms and say, what does everybody think? And we're going to work our way through this and direct the conversation. And then when it gets to a conclusion, he's the one that can say, you know what, it's still too risky. I don't want to do it. Or he's the one that says, I understand everybody that there's some, you know, dissent in the room, but we're going to do it, and he gets to make that final decision. But what he's supposed to do is be in those rooms forming a consensus. So if you have the director of personnel, KOC, Flores,

they're all, you know, Brazintzzi's on the phone. He says, guys, here's what they want. They want 49 and next year's second for Dexter. And here's what we'd have to do for the cap. And here's how we'd have to void year this thing out. Is this worth it? And the entire room says, yes. This guy could change our franchise. He could be here for five, six, seven more years. We got to do it. I think then he calls the Wilson and says, yeah, we think we should do it. Can we get permission?

You know, can we get the thumbs up? You're calling ownership if you're making a move that big. And that's how it's done. So I think if everybody was in on it, then they would take that swing. I don't think that they want to be giving away future assets based on where they're at. but this 2026 team, I mean, it does feel like it's a Dexter Lawrence and a couple of other depth pieces away from being really, really, really good. So that's where you kind of go back and forth there.

JP says he fits this team with either Kyler or JJ or other quarterback we draft in 2027, depending on compensation they want. We should be all in on him. A 2026 second rounder and 2027 third would be ideal. I think that's about as far as you could go. I think that's a fair deal. The second rounder and then a third rounder in 2027, because there's, even though he's a great player, there's reasons to knock some money off when you're negotiating because of

the recent sack production being down because of the fact that he wants more money. And you're like, hey, we're not going to give you two first round picks or something for this guy. But I think, you know, he fits with Kyler Murray because if you were. sticking with J.J. McCarthy, it's much more of a find out kind of year than anything. And then, hey, if it works, holy cow, it worked, right? But if it was McCarthy, it would be much more of, hey, we're going to learn about this kid. We're going to see if he could get the job done. And if he can't, then we're drafting a quarterback or whatever. The minute you bring in

Kyler, you're serious about winning. If they had had Marcus Mariotta as the option, if they had had Kirk, if they had had somebody else, I would have said they're not really super serious about competing in the division. But you have a quarterback who's been at times in his career, every bit as good as Jordan Love, mostly as good as Jared Gough, like more, certainly more dynamic. Goff obviously is a great quarterback who's won a ton and has had great offenses, but okay. And he's definitely been as good as Caleb Williams before in his career. He kind of has been Caleb Williams before in his career.

So when you bring in somebody that good who could win you the division, then you become very serious about trying to win. Digital planes medias is make the call Rob B. At least to find out what the price really is. I mean, Jordan Renan, you know, he called people in the league and got a sense for it. But what is the, what's the real price matters a lot? Class G says, these are the moments I don't care what it takes. We need the big boys.

This is a guy who is different. It was, I think Steve Pelazolo tweeted this out. Yeah, he did. Maybe he was in like halfway through last year. It wasn't a new tweet, but it was like recent that Dexter Lawrence had like over the last couple years four times as many quarterback pressures as Vita Vaya. And we would all agree that Vita Vaya is. amazing, but there's just nobody in the league like this guy.

There is no other player in the NFL, and this is a reason to do it. There's no other player in the NFL that is 360 pounds and can actually pressure the quarterback all the time. This is like a supercharged Linval Joseph. I mean, you remember how important Linval was to the Vikings when they were an elite defense, this guy can shut down a run game on his own and pressure the quarterback and play seven to 800 snaps. I mean, holy cow, this is a true blue chip, top rate, all pro caliber football player that

does change the math in the same way with the Packers last year. But the Packers are both the success story and the risk. The Packers trade for Micah Parsons. He completely changes their defense, which I think Dexter Lawrence would hear. and then he tears his ACL and they're just like in trouble. But, you know, Parsons is younger, but also very, very expensive. They had to give up a first round pick for him. I don't think that would be something the Vikings would do.

But if they gave up 18, it'd be like, wow, they are really, really in on this. There's an enormous cost and it's very risky when you put it all onto one player. But at the same time, you saw it with Micah. Like, there's probably 10 guys in the league that by themselves, can shift the shape of a defense. Like I'd say Patrick Sartan is one of those players. Nick Bosa goes under that category. Parsons certainly does.

I think this in some ways, Andrew Vengengel does. He shifts what you can do as a defense. There's a trickle-down effect that's enormous. But he's not necessarily a freak show like Dexter Lawrence or Micah Parsons or Nick Bosa. Those guys, Miles Garrett, these are freak shows that are, just not of this world.

And if you have a chance to acquire somebody like that, usually you try to do it. There's a lot of people who think that the Giants, because of this, will step to the plate with Lawrence. But it might, if you reach this point where you're demanding a trade through Adam Schaefter, I mean, it might be, it might be kind of over for them in that relationship. And you're giving up 500K because you don't want to show up to their offseason

workout. Jay said it would cost the Vikings 30 million a year. draft a defensive tackle instead. So I like the idea of drafting a defensive tackle. And in this draft, if you look at Peter Woods, Cain MacDonald, the only guy that's like Dexter Lawrence is Caleb Banks. I have serious concerns about Caleb Banks ever becoming Dexter Lawrence, but he could. Like, that's one of those freak shows who is 6'4.6 and 340 pounds or whatever he is,

325. he's enormous and he's talented, but there's nothing really in what he's done in college that ever suggests he's going to get there. Like Lawrence in college was phenomenal. You remember him and Christian Wilkins together. Those guys were totally, totally dominant. Two first round draft picks there, right?

I think, or was Wilkins second or was he first? So those top guys, right, he was dominant in college. He wasn't as productive in terms of sack. but he really didn't learn how to become a pass rusher for three years. And that might be what you're looking at if you take Caleb Banks in the first round is, yeah, you're going to have to really teach him over a couple years. That might be worth it. It might be worth it.

Katie McDonald, I don't think is, but, you know, he could be like a Vita Vaya where he totally just takes out the middle and stuffs the run by himself. That's great. Nobody in this draft has any hints of being this guy. Now, he was 17th overall. And if you were redrafting, then he would go much higher. So you never know. If you get somebody like, you know, Justin Jefferson, there were folks who thought he was only a slot wide receiver.

And he turns out to be the best receiver in the NFL. You don't really know until the guy is in the building. But in terms of the odds that Peter Woods or Caleb Banks or any of these guys turn out to even be in the shouting distance of a Dexter Lawrence is pretty low. Now, that's with $30 million. That's certainly true. You could make the case that the salary caps going up. You could make the case that it's a premium position. You could make the case that, hey, you know, if you don't pay Kyler in the future,

that you have a lot of flexibility there to spend on the roster. If you're planning on drafting a new quarterback in 2027, I mean, there's a lot of moving parts to this. And that's why it's interesting to, you know, have the, uh, the, the conversation. Cody says I want as many 2027 picks as possible. I think that that is, um, I think that's very reasonable because what you would be doing by trading for Dexter Lawrence is you'd really be pushing chips to the middle of the table for this year and making your life really challenging into the future. I was doing this as I was writing the article for tomorrow earlier today about this.

And I was trying to look into 2027 and say, well, what's the defense look like if Dexter Lawrence is here? Like, what's what is the, you know, what's the defense going to look like? Who's going to be here? And the answer is I'm not really sure at this moment until, you know, maybe Cashman gets an extension at some point. Maybe they draft a safety at number 18 overall. maybe they get a corner, but both corners are in question for the future.

Van Ginkle is in question. He's a free agent. The same with Cashman. I mean, you're really looking at only a couple of guys that you can guarantee are on the defense one year from now. So if your take is, hey, I just, I just want to draft a bunch of defensive players, start the rebuilding process, and here we go. I think that's completely fair.

I think that's a, I think that that is the way less exciting option that is totally understandable and fair. Timothy says I would pass on Dexter Lawrence because of the cost. I don't believe Brzezinski and the Vikings will engage in trade negotiations. I don't really know because of what we were talking about earlier that this has been a franchise that's been very willing to make huge, huge splash plays. That's what they've, they've done in the past a lot of times. They have made big trades.

They've made bold moves. I mean, how even if it wasn't right, how bold was it for them to do what they did last offseason? They spent more money than any other team in the entire NFL in cash, I think over the last three seasons. Like, this is a team that's been very willing to be bold when it comes to moves. I mean, they let DeNeil Hunter go to sign Jonathan Granard. Like, they've taken risks and they've rolled the dice. They let go Delvin Cook and Adam Thielen and so forth. They did that after winning 13 games.

So I wouldn't count it out. And now I know a lot of that was under Quasi, but I wouldn't, ownership signs off on this stuff. I would not count that out, that possibility. Grateful Dad says it's a pass for me. I want to see what this trio can do in the draft. I don't think you'd have to be giving up all your draft picks. I think you just have to probably, based on what's being reported as a

price, probably a second and change. And so you don't give up like the entire draft for Ricky Williams. You're giving up probably a second rounder and then something into next year. That doesn't mean that I'm for it. It just means that it's not totally selling your draft down the river. You would still have three top 100 draft picks and a first round pick. Where I would be out is giving up the first round draft pick. That is a lot for for me. Because I think that that's a position where if you draft Jemad McCoy, if you draft Kenyon Sadiq, if you take a player who's foundational for your team at number 18, the benefits are so huge of hitting on that first round draft pick, as we've seen in the past from when they had Derisaw and Jefferson

on their rookie contracts. Like that was very, very valuable to them. So you'd be foregoing that opportunity. But, you know, maybe the quality of the draft plays into it. I think, you know, grateful dad, if they said to you, hey, man, like, I get where you're coming from. But by the time you get to pick 49 in this draft, this is not really what people are saying about this draft, but, you know, just bear with me. Hey, by the time we get to 49, there's just not really starters there. We don't think.

So we're just going to do this to get an elite player. I think it would make sense if that was their perspective as like, hey, you're, you're getting backups and role players this year. It's not a great draft. so we need to go and make the most of this draft pick elsewhere to get someone who's top notch to win with this group. The biggest argument maybe for doing it is that, yeah, the future would be a little bit more in trouble if you did. But we've kind of come to the end of a group that won 14 games just two years ago and was able to get over 500 despite a horrendous performance by their quarterback collective last year between

Wentz, JJ, and Max Brosmer. They're one of the worst teams in the NFL in terms of their quarterback play, and they won nine games. And if you look at it that way, you go, these are the same guys, except for Hargrave and Allen, which you would absolutely be replacing with someone better. These are the same guys who were able to do that. Only this quarterback over here, he's orchestrated top 15 seasons before. He's been a good quarterback in the NFL before, just with a bad franchise.

but he's been really good. So give us that one last shot at it. And then we'll make the most of the rebuild into the future. It's not crazy because we kind of, you know, we've kind of gone on this journey. It's been interesting here on the show with all of you talking about the timeline because it's been so clear what the timeline was. And this was the end of it.

This was kind of the stopping point of, all right, the roster that you know from 2020, 23 and that like tear down to now. It's still here. And is this the final piece to take your one last big swing? I think that's what the Rams would do. I don't know. Should we look at it that way?

The Rams do crazy stuff all the time. But the Rams are doing something like that right now. The Rams have realized that they've gotten to the end of the road with Matthew Stafford. It's over after this year more likely than not. So they went and they trade for Trent McDuffie. It's a bad trade because they, because they gave him a huge contract.

But what do they care? This is the last year of Stafford. I don't think it's exactly the same, but it's kind of the same when you might be talking about the end of Cashman, the end of Van Ginkle. These guys have been so huge for them. Aaron Jones, this is going to be his last year. Jordan Mason is not under contract through next year.

T.J. Hawkinson is, I mean, this really is the final frontier of this unit of Minnesota Vikings players. I think that's somewhat of a case to go do something big. Dumer K.O. says this is exactly the kind of move I've been advocating for all offseason. We have no cap value, no timeline beyond 2026, go all in. But for some reason, I'm extremely hesitant. I think the reason that you are extremely hesitant is because you know it's kind of wrong.

Like, you know, like you want it because of what I just laid out. because I think we all believe that this team could win the division if they have Dexter Lawrence and they would become a very, very, very scary defense that could rank in the top five. And we would expect them to not only that, there might be a couple little small ancillary factors. I would even toss into the all in type of thing, which is they have nine home games instead of eight and they play the NFC South. And the NFC South is terrible.

the when I did my when I did my power rank the other day I'm going to now be talking about my power ranking all the time as if it's some sort of like credible thing but uh when I did my power ranking the highest I could get an NFC South team was like 11th in the NFC and you're playing the NFC South you have more home games you're playing the South you're also playing the AFC East which does have two really nasty teams but also has two pretty pathetic teams so can you win five? out of six from the, what, why am I saying six? Five out of five out of eight.

Can you, yeah, eight. Five out of eight of those games. I think so, right? You can win five out of eight from the AFC East and the NFC South. If you start from that position, you go, you know, actually, if you had Dexter Lawrence and you're blowing up, I don't know, Brady Cook or whatever with the jets and poor Malik Willis is not going to have anybody to throw to. and Tampa Bay has gotten way worse.

Carolina's a little better, but Bryce Young is their quarterback. It's hard to see them winning that game against Flores. That didn't go well the first time he played them. Tua, to a revenge game. And I mean, right? So when you're looking at it that way, yes.

But here's why it's wrong is because if the deal doesn't work, if you pay Dexter Lawrence $30 million, and you trade away your second and third from 2027 and you're giving up, you know, all this cap space and you're having to shuffle because it's not just pay him. It's also move other money down the road or around to even be able to acquire him. Then you're doing a lot of damage to the future and you are looking at, hey, you get to 2027 and go, and if that guy does not play the way that he did in 2024 or 2003 and he's just good, but he's not wholly bleep elite number one.

If then you're kind of in a lot of trouble. So that, that's why I think you're hesitant there. DLM, if we can acquire him without giving up a first and can extend him, he could be a lethal weapon for the defense. We lacked interior pressure. And he's an all pro. I thought they were okay in interior pressure.

The main issue was that the, the Vikings faced the fewest number of passes in the NFL. last year. They were just losing all the time. And it was very hard for those guys to pin their ears back. But what I think they were lacking is take take what you got from Allen and Hargrave in terms of pressure, put it together into one guy and then triple it with the run ability. That's where Dexter Lawrence is such a monster and where this team could use it. And we can't downplay that. Like teams are legitimately running the football more often. And you have good running teams, three good running teams in the division or coaches who want to run first.

If you bring in a Dexter Lawrence to play against the Detroit Lions, hey, congratulations on getting Cade Mays is your center of Detroit. This guy is going to eat them alive. Also, do you know who the center for the Bears is? It's Garrett Bradbury. Dexter Lawrence twice in a season against Garrett Bradbury, I mean, you lock in six or seven pressures, no running up the middle. There's a lot of benefits to this guy.

there are a lot of benefits and that that run defense we saw it last year when teams were able to run on them because of the defensive tackles they had a lot of success and they controlled the game dumer KO I guess I'm not sure going forward if it's still worth all the assets that's the that's the big problem is what it's worth is hard to justify it's the draft capital the salary cap space the other movement that you have to make that's where it's hard to make it work and yet at the same time, it would be pretty darn exciting if it did happen. Ron, I wouldn't want to do it, but I also don't want him to end up in Green Bay, Chicago or Detroit, which, you know, they are calling. Aaron says Joe, Joe Shean is the Giants GM. Anything is possible. That's true. Aaron liking those matchups against Bradbury, Cade Mays, and TBD for the Packers.

The Packers kept their bad center this offseason. I am blanking on his name. But he was not good last year. So, yeah, they would dominate those players. Based, Giron says it would give up number 18 for him. That's where I draw the line. I just feel like I have to draw the line there. I know that this is a draft where there's not an expectation that number 18 gets you a megastar.

That might be your case is like, hey, everyone's saying that this draft is going to get you a corner back to wide receiver two or a run stopping defensive tackle and it's just or an over drafted linebacker and that's not worth it in comparison to training for dexter lawrence i get that and that's a good argument but i also want to be a little bit on the side of caution there of if you draft a successful player at 18 especially at a premium position it is a cheat code at every major position not just that quarterback, I think you need to have that for the future is somebody who you drafted in the first round. But I don't, I don't think you're, I don't think you're insane for wanting to do that.

And phenoms does do whatever it takes. I think that's, I mean, I think it's fair that if you're saying that. If you're saying, hey, give up 18, like go get him. He really is that good. He really, he's not quite in terms of total impact like Micah Parsons, but he's not that far away. when we talk about the biggest impact defensive players in the entire NFL, Dexter Lawrence is on that. He's on that, uh, that card, which, you know, that might be a reason why the Packers decide,

you know, not to do it. That could also happen as well. Uh, Dumer K.O. He's the best player we could get for 2026 on defense, but how much better would he actually make the defense versus signing a veteran run stuffing at DT? Much better, much better. His upside for quarterback pressures in a season. is like the same as Jonathan Grenard.

I mean, his, his peak has was 65 quarterback pressures in his career. Now, that's not, that's not every single season, but that's what he's done. That is more than Andrew Van Ginkle had when he was an all pro. That's how much of an impact this guy can make in the pass rush

and shut down the, the run game himself as well. So it's, I mean, how much of an impact is it versus science? running, you know, run stuffing DT in June, uh, giganto, enormous, huge, massive, massive, massive difference versus versus that because he is one of the best. That's why it's so crazy. That's why he's so crazy of a player is because he is good at both of those things.

Normally guys fall into one category or another. And even like a Derek Brown where he can push the pocket and get some pressures, this guy gets to the quarterback. Like he wins. He has moves. We saw them. Ask Ezra Cleveland. 2002 checkdown.

He beats Ezra Cleveland to force that checkdown. Guitar person, what would they give up? I don't know what the ceiling of what the how high the Vikings would go. I think what's fair is a second and a 2027 third for him, considering all the hoops you have to jump through. But is there not other teams that might be willing to go there as well? Hunter says if the chargers don't get A.J. Brown or Lawrence, I don't know what they're doing. They should be number one at the top of the list for the teams going after Dexter Lawrence.

This is the hard part about making it happen is, you know, can you really beat out some of the other potential offers is the problem. Forrest says, I don't trust Flores to use Lawrence to his strengths. board and jihad ward made an impact opening lanes for rushers i don't know if laurence wants to do that oh no he does he does this is this is a different this is a different monster there is nobody that the vikings had that you could compare in any way shape or form to dexter lawrence there's just nobody this is like combining the powers of harrison phillips but add 40 pounds to harrison phillips along with jvon hargrave but add 60 pounds to jay and on hard grave.

Like, this is, this is not a guy who needs you to do a certain thing. Well, you can only use him this way. He's only going to be able

to handle that. If Brian Flores wants to run blitzes through lanes by opening up gaps, Dexter Lawrence can do that better than anybody that we've seen do it

because he's not just going to move body. He's going to move him back toward the quarterback. He's going to take up two blockers every time the guy lines up. That's how dominant he is.

and then he could still win anyway. You've seen the Vikings play against him. They try to double team him the whole game. So that, I mean, that's a dream for Brian Flores. That's what I mean is, like, I get that Hargrave is salty. I get that because Hargrave has always been a guy who's been isolated on a guard and he wants to win. Also, did you notice the Vikings had a lot of pressure in sacks last year?

It does work. But Lawrence is a totally different thing. He's a nose tackle. Like, he is not a three technique who's, rushing the passer with his quickness. And this isn't like Jonathan Bullard. Jonathan Bullard was strong enough to stick somebody in place and move them. And that was great and helpful.

But Jonathan Bullard also had like three pressures. This guy will get potentially 50. It's just not even, it's not even the same discussion. There are no players like Dexter, none. There's no one else in the league who you could say, oh, he's just like him. Not on both sides of the ball. Chris Jones is a great rusher, and there's certainly other great rushers, but nobody that's this size. That's why it's so crazy.

DLM on the Fandul question of the day, don't think it's crazy to call the Lions the favorites. They still have a ton of talent. They just need to stay healthy. The last play schedule will help them. I agree. I agree. That's one of the reasons I put them there as the top team. Dumer K.O.

Lions are the worst team in the NFC North. but deservedly favored to win the North because of their Cupcake schedule. Are you ranking best teams or most wins? Good question. I was really ranking it, I think, best teams. Who is the best if we laid them all out there right now? The Lions also, I mean, am I wrong that they had the best point differential in the division last year? Because I think they did.

So that would also play into it as well. Like, I think offense travels the most from year to year, and they have the best offense. DLM, Banks has lower body issues. Yeah, the foot injury. And when you weigh 300 plus, it isn't a good sign. It's not just 300. It's like 320 plus and a foot injury. That would scare me for the first round.

Scamping around, I suppose the rarity of this opportunity is worth whatever, doing whatever it takes with only one year of Kyler guaranteed. That's the best argument for it. Yep. That's the best argument for it. The Christian Wilkins thing, I feel like I just don't want to even want to touch. If nobody in the league wants to go there with a player that talented, there must be something really wrong. And I don't know what happened. Jay, Matthew, if you're the acting Vikings GM, what player would you trade up to get in the draft?

Oh, that's a good question. Let me see. Let me answer that question just a minute, Jay. keep that in mind because I have a mock draft that I wanted to get to that was from Check the Mike. So let me get to that in just a second. I want to do that before we wrap up because college basketball championship is happening. And I know that I'm sure you guys want to watch that.

I definitely do myself. 12 is it Malatu? He has minimal sacks in his last 22 games. He's worth a fifth. That I think is, I would totally disagree. I mean, his pass rush win rate from last year, his pressures from last year, his PFF pass rush grade, they were all really good. It's similar, I think, to Grenard, where you can have a season where you just don't get the sacks. Even without the sacks, this guy is worth a lot, even if he doesn't get the sacks because of the pressures and because of his run game dominance.

But the upside to his pass rushing, he's only 28. So it's not like he's 35 and declining. I think it was just a bad, bad, bad team last year in a bad situation that was pretty uncomfortable for everybody and didn't work out. But their defensive coordinator got fired before even the end of the season. It was, it was a mess. Biswulfur, I could see AJ for it. But if the giants aren't willing to meet us halfway, forget it.

I don't know, who do you mean AJ? Um, not worth it right now. Okay. Oh, you mean like Aaron Jones? Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't think that anyone's taking Aaron Jones in a trade now, probably not. I would not think that they would. Uh, making you feel optimistic tonight. Well, look, I mean, they have the Vikings, even without the moves, they have a good team.

When you look over top to bottom, what they have is their starting lineup. That doesn't mean they have enough depth to be a Super Bowl team probably at this moment. I think they need to make additions. They do have a good amount of draft capital where if you get two legitimate players out of your first four picks and then you have Kyler Murray throwing to Justin Jefferson, I just every once in a while want everybody to go to pro football reference and look at Justin Jefferson's career to remember what this man is capable of. They have a quarterback who can get him the ball.

The division is kind of meek, I think. It's not what it was last year. Every team is flawed. And even if you don't get Dexter Lawrence, just a couple of additions and you're looking around going, there's no reason you can't be at the top. It doesn't mean they will. But there's no reason based on the lions, the Packers and the Bears. The Bears lost a lot of their secondary.

They have still no pass rush, really, to speak of. And they lost DJ Moore as well in a trade. So they, you know, they're not perfect either. Luis, this could work if they trade Grenard. and his presence would make Turner look even better. It would make everybody look better. Dexter Lawrence's presence, 100%. He's just that big of a draw for the offensive line because you can't have one person block him.

And he's on the inside, so you can't have a running back block him. You need to have two offensive linemen block him, which helps everybody. If they trade it, because, look, just because he demanded a trade today, doesn't mean it has to happen tomorrow. you could move Grenard to create the cap space to get Lawrence. I think that hurts a little bit there because it feels like robbing Peter to pay Paul. You'd prefer to have both. But maybe they extend Grenard or give him a new contract to afford that the moving parts of this make it difficult.

Make it, you know, Bisible versus plausible. It becomes it becomes plausible if they make a single move to signal that they're in on it. if they restructure a contract, if they make a trade, if they, you know, whatever it might be, extend somebody to lower a cap it. Then it's like, oh, send the flares up. Something might be happening here. Learn to swim, says, a yolo trade and sign. Let's do it.

There's certainly a case there to say chips to the middle of the table for this year. I mean, I know, I know what you're saying, 12 Milatu, that he hasn't had the sack production. But at the same time, if you have a guy that size who has that many pressures and has still a top-notch PFF grade with the giants, with the giants, this terrible, awful team that had an atrocious defensive coordinator. Like, do you think, if I wish we could make a bet right now on this, that if Dexter Lawrence gets traded, how about we do this? if Dexter Lawrence gets traded to the Vikings, come back and we'll make a bet that he gets at least 1.0 sacks. How about that? I think you and I both know he's going to get more than that and that sacks aren't the whole story. Hadfield barbecue trade the first instantly becomes the best player on the defense. That's the argument for it. I have trouble getting there myself,

but that's the argument for it is he would be a foundational piece for the future when you need to rebuild. But at the same time, he was a foundational piece with the Giants and they never had great defenses when he was there. Forrest, as I understand his strengths, he's in a different universe. Seems like Flores system doesn't require a guy like him. Well, the reason it feels that way is because he kind of made chicken salad out of stuff with, not that Phillips is a bad player, but like he used Phillips to his best and he used Buller to his best. But, that was basically looking at their skill sets and saying, all right, well, this is what we've got to do with you guys. And then with Hargrave and Allen, those guys are three technique.

They do one thing really well and that's it. But what Flores was saying is, well, Eric Wilson is crushing it as a blitzer. So I need you to rush a certain way to create lanes for Eric Wilson and it was working. Those players are not a fan of that. They've never really done that in their career. Dexter Lawrence has definitely done that in his career. Like, that's one of the things that you are trained as a nose tackle to do. Like moving bodies is your thing.

So he can, yeah, I'm third down. You can leave him in and he can go beat somebody one on one. But if it's, if it's first down, it's kind of a run blitz. Then him moving the center and the guard one way. So Eric Wilson can come in. That's not something Dexter Lawrence is going to be unhappy with. It's just something that's not going to show up necessarily in the box score. Kivon you don't argue with the cost of an elite player he's a top 20 player at his best yeah

I don't think he was last year but I think at his best he has been a top 20 player but you have to argue with the price when you have to pay him a new contract and you have to shuffle around other things to make it happen that's where it gets yeah like I know there's a lot of people like throw anything at it that's where you can't throw anything at it because then you're sacrificing too much of your future. Young cringe with the recent news of PFF, I've been creating my own draft site. Oh, okay. Well, that's interesting.

Send me a DM on it or an email. Show it to me. I'd be interested. Dirty Mike, people talking about sacks in 2026 is cringe. Well, look, I mean, sacks are important. They're a big deal. If you could get sacks as a defensive tackle like he did and was it 2024 when he had nine sacks.

I mean, that's, that's terrifying for an offense if you could get that many. But Sacks do, as we have discovered from years of research, they do go up and down. And pressure is the thing that sustains. And that's where Dexter Lawrence was still getting a lot of pressure. Dumer, did he fall off or was it the terrible Giants defense? I thought he didn't look good last year. He did not look the same. He still graded okay.

He was not the same. And what I was reading from Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News, I was reading that last year he had an injury that he was recovering from. And maybe there was some unhappiness with the team and the contract and they were kind of going back and forth on it. And things just never really got off the ground. Yet still he was in terms of PFF pass rush grade, one of the better ones in the league. But that team was so bad. They were so bad. Their defensive scheme was awful.

It was a mess. last year. You can't totally discount that. And that's why you're not giving up two firsts. That's why you could go to the table with starting with a second. But I don't think that looking at what he did last year, that I would be afraid to still give him the biggest contract in the league. This is a good comparison, DLM. He's Casey Hampton with Chris Jones past rushability worth way more than a fifth. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Chance is what do you think about Emmanuel McNeil Warren and how would you feel about taking him in the first round? Totally comfortable with that.

I don't love the idea of a safety in the first round, even though those are the guys that are getting mocked to the Vikings. Just because I think that their long-term needs are all over the field, pass rusher, defensive tackle, for sure, cornerback, even wide receiver, even tackle, which, you know, some people have been a little annoyed at me saying tackle. But one year down the road, like Brian O'Neill's not under contract. They may give him an extension, but if they don't, then what are you doing at tackle? So there's some very, very valuable positions that they could use into the future that would be worth spending a first round pick that I think are harder to find than safety. But having watched Emmanuel McNeil Warren, the way that he moves, natural playmaker, like great instincts, covers a ton of ground. probably hasn't been talked about enough because everyone's focused on Thinaman so much.

But McNeil Warren has the talent to be, I think, a star. Not exactly Kyle Hamilton, but that kind of player who just covers a ton of ground, can play in the box. He forced a bunch of fumbles. Like, he's just kind of a natural football player that I think would fit really well with Brian Flores. Let's see. Eric says, as long as we still draft Mike Washington, Jr.,

you know, I get, I'm a little less sold on Mike Washington Jr. than other people, I think, because somebody made this comparison to me about in the comments the other day when I brought him up about Michael Bennett. Like there have been a lot of crazy fast running backs in the NFL. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll be great. And he was at Buffalo and then he was at New Mexico State. And then this was the first time that he had ever really played well in college football. last year with Arkansas. They also had a freak quarterback that could run a lot too.

So I'm a little hesitant. Like there's a difference between football fast and track fast. And I watch Emmett Johnson and I look at his decision making or I watch Jonah Coleman and I look at their decision making how they read blocks, their natural instincts for running. And I go, that might be that might be faster on a football field than a four, three guy. Not that I don't think he deserves consideration into the middle rounds, but I think we can get lost in combine scores sometimes.

Actually, watch the guy play and think that, you know, like how, like how, you know, fast is he really on the field versus how fast he is in shorts. Grid grinder. We should go after Dexter Lawrence, but only for the right price. Kyler Murray will fail. Okay. Well, I'm glad you went forward in the future. And discovered that. Dirty Mike, we're just not even going to talk about Justin Jefferson being overrated because that's absurd.

That's just preposterous. Let's see. Okay. Well, it seems like we've reached a good time. Oh, trading T.J. Hawkinson. I don't think so. I don't think anybody's trading T.J. Hawkinson. We mocking tonight.

Well, I was going to bring you, because I wanted to wrap up because we have. so let me bring you this. I wanted to wrap up because the NCAA championship is starting and I want to watch it. And I'm sure you guys do too if you're college basketball fans. So I wanted to bring you a mock. I want to do a lot. I still want to do a lot of my own Sims, but I also want to bring you other people's mocks as we get closer.

And this one is from my friends over at Check the Mic. And I thought this was an interesting approach because what I've talked about a lot on the show since the owner's meetings was, well, if they are going to pick up the fifth-year option, for Jordan Addison, then that probably means that the dream of the Vikings drafting a first round wide receiver is out of the window. But not in this mock. In this mock here by Sam Monson, he has the Minnesota Vikings taking Omar Cooper Jr., the wide receiver from Indiana, and he has them passing up on Dylan Thineman and a couple

other potential players that they could take there, Caden McDonald, who's been talked to about. Caleb Banks has been discussed. Avion Terrell, uh, I think might end up falling in this draft a bit after some things that have been out there recently about like his speed. He's got Jacob Rodriguez being taken high. Kenyon Sadiq them passing up. If they were to take a wide receiver at 18th overall, I think a lot of people would be like, are you serious? Because they need defense. They need other positions. I will still, I will still stand by it. And maybe in Sam's view, the fifth year option just doesn't mean that much because it's kind of obvious to pick up people's fifth year options if they're even in consideration for a long-term deal.

I think that wide receiver has been a little bit signaled by the Vikings as a day two draft pick and I think that they will. But if you watch this guy, man, the fit would be great. Like with the fact that Kyler Murray does throw underneath a lot, ball in his hands, tackle breaker, shifty, bouncy. I mean, Cooper is a very exciting player. And if they were to go that direction, in a draft where we've talked about, there's not a lot of potential total game changers on the defensive side.

There are more of good players. Take a wide receiver who could step in right away and catch 50 passes and get tons of yards after catch and then potentially take over for Jordan Addison. I'm into it. The rest of this mock draft, though, that's who the Vikings were taking. The Lions have to take a tackle. They end up getting Monroe Freeling in this deal. Arvel Riesco's second overall.

I guess Sam is buying Ruben Bain is a really high pick. Jeremiah Love at 7. One thing I keep thinking about is where is the lowest he could get to. And I saw today that Jeremiah Love was meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals. So could he end up getting to? to Cincinnati and would the Vikings maybe make a phone call to the chiefs? That's something we're going to do tomorrow, by the way. Christopher Paso and I are going to go over some trade ideas that were floated by Bill

Barnwell. So something to think about there. We're going to go over those for tomorrow. So keep an eye out for that. Also, if you miss the, the Fanduil question of the day, that was yesterday I did an NFC power ranking and had the Lions as the top NFC North team. people were not necessarily thrilled with that,

but they are plus 165 on Fanduil to win the division. They are the favorites. Am I wrong for putting them there? Make sure if you're watching this back to answer in the comments and go enjoy yourself some college football. I really had a fun time with this Dexter Lawrence discussion. So thank you to Dexter and to Adam Schefter for creating a very interesting conversation for tonight. We'll see what happens.

But a lot more to come. and as was proven today, you never know when news is going to drop, but you do know, the old Purple Insider will be on top of it when it does. So thank you guys. And if you haven't subscribed, subscribe. And we will probably, uh, Chris Rapaso show will be on tomorrow night here. And then Wednesday will be in for another long, uh, Q&A. So thanks everybody for your time as always.

And we will talk.