Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Grading Day 3 of the Vikings draft and... the door is still open to a Cousins extension?

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Matthew Coller talks to Vikings fans about Day 3 of the draft, running down all four picks and a comment from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah about Kirk Cousins's status Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome. It is day three of the NFL Draft. Just wrapping up here, Kweisi Adapo-Mensah, the Vikings general manager, just finished his comments to the Twin Cities media and got some interesting takeaways from that. The Vikings, four players. So I've already memorized all of them for a day three, which is not all that usual from past years where there were four draft picks in the seventh round, but not so much with today. So very interested to get your comments,

your reactions on what the Vikings did. We'll run down the picks. We'll go through the most interesting things today. What Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said about the quarterback position the Vikings taking their developmental quarterbacks some big picture takeaways and get into everything uh in terms of the Vikings NFL draft now that it's over and we can all kind of go all right now it is on to your rookie mini camps your otas your mini camps but we can all take a big old deep breath together that the vikings draft is over and you know what since it is the nfl and the

only way to cover it is by giving a draft grade after we've just seen this i think we should talk about that just to get your instant reaction in the comment section here on youtube and then of course we'll talk about all the things that come away from this, including the fact that Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith were not traded during this draft. But for me, I think I would go with a B for what the Vikings did here today. And I understand that a B is not an exciting grade that, you know, if I was giving an A plus, if I was giving an F minus, then I think it would be a much more hot in terms of the take, but I'll go through the things that I liked and the things that I have questions about.

We'll just start with Jordan Addison, that draft pick like that a lot. We've been through it. So I won't go through all those reasons, but Jordan Addison could help this offense be even better in the passing game. Passing is what's going to drive success in the NFL. Setting up for potentially the next quarterback is a big deal for me and to give whoever it is, whether it's Kirk Cousins, and we'll again, we'll get to what Kweisi said said about that or if it's the next guy or if they're drafting somebody or whatever it might be for next year trading for someone getting a veteran Jordan Addison makes that player better so since they did not come away from day one with an answer at quarterback or did not trade for Trey Lance as we discussed leading up and

Lamar Jackson returned to the Baltimore Ravens since all those things were off the table and Will Levis I suppose was the only thing that was on the table for the Vikings they decided to pass he didn't go until the second round so they don't have a future answer at quarterback but they do have a future answer for a person who will make the quarterback better and that is Jordan Addison so like that pick and then uh with Malik Blackman last night the cornerback I I think that there were a lot of other corners that consensus drafts like better that mock drafters and draft analysts like better but when you hear them talk about how important a fit is to Brian Flores and his defense and how they view Blackman as being an inside or outside corner, could play a nickel. And they look at that as part of his skillset. I mean, I think

that drafting the cornerback position is extremely important for them. It was their weakest position and they spent two draft picks on it, you know, because they go with Jay Hall, Jay Ward today. And then, so they go back to back cornerbacks, which I would give a big thumbs up to. And Jay Ward is an interesting prospect because he played a bunch of different positions in college. When you look at how he was utilized, you're going to see nickel safety, outside corner, even linebacker. He was playing all over the field, but that's one of the reasons that they liked him. Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said after the draft today that he sees Jay Ward as somebody who's kind of like Jimmy Ward, who plays for the 49ers. Just coincidence

on the last name, but maybe you start out as a safety or you start out as a nickel, you end up as an outside or you start as the outside, move to nickel. Even look at the way that J. Ron Kirst, after he left the Minnesota Vikings, became this kind of hybrid piece for them. There's not a lot of players that are like that in the NFL. There's also not a lot of players who did that in college. It was very unique and Kwesi said that when they evaluated him different evaluators saw him as a potential starter on the inside or a potential starter on the outside so I don't think the Vikings just drafted a safety here I think they drafted somebody that they can work with and try

to find where he fits best and maybe he does become that guy who blitzes off the edge or maybe he does become a full-time nickel or maybe he is safety depth I don't know but I think it gives you a good chance to get what Brian Flores wants so stacking up those first three picks even though they didn't have a lot of picks but the first few picks being that it's guys from very important key premium positions I mean we've gone over this so many times on the show of you don't draft the safety in the first round or you don't draft a guard high in the second round when you should probably go to free agency and get those things.

And this time around in Kweisi Adafo-Mentz's second draft, and I know they did get two corners last year, but going back to that cornerback well, getting a wide receiver, when that gets high grades for me, even if there were people on the outside who said, we don't love this prospect as much as the Vikings do, I'm not afraid of that in the middle rounds. Now, if you tell me that in the second round, or you tell me that in the first round, if the consensus mock drafters had had Jordan Addison as a fourth round pick, and they took him in the first round, it was some sort of extreme then I would have said okay what's going on here kind of like when

the Raiders a few years ago took the guy fourth overall who most people thought was going to be there at 28 or something if they did that kind of like with Ed Ingram last year where they took someone in the second that was mostly mocked in the fourth. And then it kind of played out that way that he played much more like someone you would expect in the fourth that needs a lot of development, but they kind of forced him into that position because he was a second round pick. That's one of the reasons you don't want that situation. But if the mock draft folks have Jay Ward as being more of a fourth rounder and they take them in the

third round or more of a fifth rounder and they take them in the fourth for either one of these corners. I'm not too concerned about that. There are players that the mock drafters absolutely fell in love with throughout this process. Jalen Jones. And there was another corner, Trice, that these guys went late in the seventh. So nobody saw the same thing as the mock draft universe. So how much do we really trust it? I think there is some data to connect. If you reach big time, you're taking a bigger risk,

but also I would be more convinced by what Brian Flores sees as a fit than saying, well, you overdrafted based on rankings that apply to all teams. So got to give the Jay Ward pick a high score on that one because of the versatility, because of the fit. After that, Jaqueline Roy is an interesting one because it's hard to find sort of the numbers on him that would make you think like, okay, there's something there. Like it was, it was mocked around this, this point and he didn't have a great combine.

He didn't have great statistics, kind of a pocket pusher, but they talked about him having potential upside there, but now we're getting into the fifth round. And when it's the fifth round, you're just taking shots at a player that might have some upside. I thought there may be someone with a little more production in college. If you are going to find something late in the rounds, if you think about the players, the Vikings found late on the defensive line that contributed anything, they were usually guys that were productive in college. Someone like Steven Weatherly, someone like Afadi Adenabo. These weren't stars, but they ended up being productive role players. And so I am a little dubious on this. I didn't have the greatest sport. It kind of has Jaleel Johnson vibes a little bit.

They talk about upside. I think that the position is exactly right though. Interior, getting someone who can push the pocket. Again, you would have liked to seen a little bit more in terms of pressures, a little more in terms of sack production from somebody who played as much as he did, but they talk about him having more upside. I guess we'll see. I don't see the upside in the athletic ability, which does give me some questions about that pick in particular. Again, a fifth rounder. We're kind of nitpicking a little bit when it comes to that. So Jaron Hall now, of course.

Let's have the discussion about Jaron Hall. Do we like the Jaron Hall pick, everyone? I think that the Jaron Hall pick is a guy that they see very much as a super high character player who was great at throwing the ball deep, has a little bit of mobility, and somebody that is mature, 25 years old. Of course, we can make all the Hendon Hooker jokes if we want. Hendon Hooker is so old, he's older than Jalen Hall. I'm sorry, Jaron Hall. That's how old Hendon Hooker jokes if we want. Hendon Hooker is so old, he's older than Jalen Hall. I'm sorry, Jaren Hall. That's how old Hendon Hooker is. He's older than Jaren Hall.

But I think that this is something we talked about leading up to the draft, which was when you're drafting someone in the middle rounds as a quarterback, you're just not really taking somebody that has potential to be a starter. Historically, that's just how it goes. You can go back through drafthistory.com. You can find lots of players that people really like their character or like their deep passing or whatever it might be that just didn't quite have the physical gifts to be a starting quarterback. This kind of reminds me a little bit of maybe a Kellen Moore. When he came out of Boise State, he had great stats. He was a really intelligent, really high character player.

And it takes you about four seconds to figure out when talking to Jared Hall, as we were today, that he is that high intelligence, has a natural leadership presence to him. And I could see why in the room they would be very impressed. And they had great stories that, you know, they asked him about when players made mistakes to see if he would point out the mistakes and make excuses or not. And he didn't kind of put it on himself. And so I think he's a high intelligence, high character player who is severely undersized, not just short, but also the weight wise,

he's severely undersized compared to NFL quarterbacks. And they talk about the ways he works around that, but I don't know that he has those kinds of ways of a Bryce Young or of a Russell Wilson or something like that. I think that there's a reason why a lot of quarterbacks that are undersized have a tough time really competing in the NFL. His athleticism was above average, but not impressive overall. I mean, a four, six is kind of, you know, an average type of 40 for a fairly fast quarterback. And even though he was a good, accurate deep passer, just as many college quarterbacks coming out are one of the big critiques is, does he really have the arm strength to make tight window throws, to push the ball down the field?

And that's why he's drafted in the fifth round. I don't have a huge criticism for it. I'm not going to say to Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, what were you thinking taking a quarterback? Haven't you noticed that most of them fail? I think that it's okay. It's an okay thing to do. You bring them to your team. You have them number three. You didn't waste a super high draft pick on them. That is a difference, by the way, with Kellen Mond is they pick Kellen Mond in the third. And I think the

third actually might be the worst possible round to draft a quarterback because you can still get starting NFL players in the third, except a quarterback. At the fifth, much more of, well, we'll see. And I really liked NFL.com's comparison for him, which was Gardner Minshew. And if Jaron Hall becomes Gardner Minshew, then I think the Vikings have done a tremendous job here. Somebody who is a great backup, fringe starter, high character type of player that can be reliable. You love him in the quarterback room and there's value to that.

But I don't think that anyone is saying, OK, Jaron Hall is the next starting quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. This is decided. We're all set here and go forward. Yeah, I don't think that that is all set, but a decent enough pick if you're going to do it, which I thought they would. I thought that they probably had a guy or two that they were waiting. Hey, if he gets to the fifth, are they going to take him? And you know what? If it turns out that Jared Hall blows them away in training camp and in practice, and there's potential for him as a starter down the road, I mean, that's kind of what Sam Howell has done. I don't know how that's going to work out, but he was a fifth round draft pick and they

want him as the starter in Washington so much to the point that they passed up on Will Levis, which is kind of surprising to me. But if he becomes that, then congratulations. That's great for them. That's an amazing find. And you do better your odds with all these receivers and tight ends and tackles that are good. You better your odds of maybe finding a project quarterback

than if you just had a bad roster and a bad team. But overall, it's just kind of a lottery ticket, and we'll see how it works out. I think he's got a better chance to be a backup quarterback than maybe Kellen Mond did, but we'll see. Sometimes the arm strength just isn't enough. And even when you saw from Zach Wilson from BYU, and I'm not helmet scouting, I'm just saying that there's a lot of open receivers in BYU's offense, and that can sometimes help

push the stats up. But here's the thing, though. When you start looking at Jaron Hall versus Hendon Hooker, it is kind of hard outside of the size. Hendon Hooker is bigger. It's kind of the same picture, though. It's an older quarterback who put up fantastic numbers, who has high character, some mobility,

but the difference between throwing in the pocket when clean and when pressured just completely plummets. I think it was with Hall, a 41 PFF grade when he was not clean and like a 90 when kept clean and a 90 something deep grade. So kind of the same, very similar guy, only you get him much later in the draft. So from that perspective,

I think that they got very good value on him, even if my expectations are probably going to be a backup quarterback. Although, I mean, it is, hey, BYU does have some good quarterbacks. You guys are right. Steve Young, and of course, former Minnesota Viking, Jim McMahon.

Now, maybe he does have Jim McMahon vibes. He seems a little too professional to me to have Jim McMahon vibes, who if a little too professional to me to have Jim McMahon vibes, who if you're a throwback, then you know exactly what I mean, that he was a wild man. And I don't think that's Jaron Hall, but a good enough pick and somebody that I think is going to make them a better quarterback room. And then maybe, I don't know, I would say, I mean, Jay Ward's probably favorite pick of the day because he's just such an interesting piece to me. And I've always been a buyer on the idea that you can find versatile pieces. If you try, if you're Ed Donatel and you just line up everybody the same time,

the same way every time, then you're not going to get anything out of versatile pieces. If you're Ed Donatel and you play Harrison Smith 50 yards off the football, even though he's the best box safety of the last decade, yeah, you're probably going to miss out on some things. But I don't think that that's Brian Flores. I think Brian Flores is much more creative with his types of players. So Jay Ward is, in my mind, the best pick of the day. But second best pick. I think there's going to be an argument for Dwayne McBride, who I have seen. I've done many conference calls with Vikings draft picks, zoom calls or conference calls over the phone. Like it used to be. And I don't know how

many players were happier than Dwayne McBride to be a Minnesota Viking. That guy was really, really thrilled. And it was a good time talking to him. But here's what I like about this, that when you go and look at Dwayne McBride's numbers, and I know it's UAB, but this guy annihilated the UAB competition. He had one of the best numbers of yards after contact, which he said, I hate being tackled. Well, you showed, it showed that you hated being tackled, Dwayne. So he had incredible, incredible numbers in college. And now everybody's highlight reel looks good, but he runs through tackles. And this has been a thing, one of those statistics that projects

pretty well. Yards after contact. I mean, you think about the NFL, you're taking a lot of contact pretty fast. And a lot of times it's, can you get through it? And can you be successful after somebody gets a hand on you? So this is a guy that is like stocky built and I think has just a really natural way of running about him, kind of runs with some desperation. And I like that about him.

And I think that now you look at the running back room and you don't count him out for being in a competition to play. That doesn't mean necessarily start, but that does mean it's possible that he could play. Now they talk about one of the things is that he didn't catch the ball at all at UAB. And I mean, at all, his numbers are hilarious. He has 1700 rushing yards and two receptions. I don't know if I've ever seen that before where they literally did not throw the ball to the running back. But I also think that that doesn't matter as much as we make it out to be. Every year we have seen the preseason or training camp or OTA storyline. Hey, Delvin Cook, he's about to be this wide receiver hybrid this

year. He's about to line up in the slot and do all these things. It never really comes to fruition. Running backs outside of Christian McCaffrey and Marshall Falk are almost always just running backs outside of Christian McCaffrey and Marshall Falk are almost always just running backs and most of their receiving comes from screens so unless the man cannot catch a screen I think he'll be fine normally though uh it's it comes down to can you understand where you're supposed to run the technique of running and also pass blocking is a huge deal. So pass blocking can be so difficult and you don't do a whole lot of it in college. It can be so challenging in the NFL. I would not expect that they just drafted their starter in the seventh round, but if they do move on from Delvin Cook in the coming days, which could happen, I think it almost seems very likely. Just drafting that running back at the end

is kind of another nod to, okay. And Equisie Adafo-Mentz is saying we graded him with some starter potentials, like, okay, I think we can kind of see where this is going. And I want to talk about those trades next, or I should say lack of trades for Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith. Talk about those in a minute, but now the running back room, if Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith. Talk about those in a minute. But now the running back room, if Delvin Cook does end up going, whether it's a trade or if it's being released, then, I mean, it looks pretty good to me. You know, Alexander Madison we know can play.

He's a solid running back. He can catch the ball well out of the backfield. He can pass block. He can be a starter. Ty Chandler was absolutely phenomenal in training camp last year. Had unbelievable numbers in college. Great looking player. And Kenny Wongwu, I think, I don't know. They might be just out on him as being in the mix to be a potential role player.

Because I was kind of surprised last year that they didn't use kenny wong woo really at all uh but you know after that now you have another guy into the mix here in duane mcbride who has pretty high potential to be a starter so he's going to get in the mix he's going to get his chance in preseason i would really like to see the four of them be the running back group everybody kind of gets their role and they go forward from there as a running back group by committee kind of gets their role and they go forward from there as a running back group by committee with Alexander Madison leading the way. That to me is very favorable from Delvin Cook. And even if the Vikings can only get a couple million bucks by releasing him, that's a couple million bucks to add another veteran corner to the mix,

a situational pass rusher to the mix if they move on from Zedaria Smith. So I think that that is kind of a signal, even though a seventh round pick is rarely a signal, but it actually might be today. So let's get into some of the other stuff here. Zedaria Smith and Delvin Cook still on the roster at the moment. There is not some crazy huge rush for either one of them to be gone because there isn't a player. And again, now that, you know, Lamar Jackson is off the table and Odell Beckham is off the table. There is not a player sitting there where you're going to say, oh my gosh, like they have to clear this cap space instantly. And even then they never reworked Brian O'Neill's deal. So I guess they could

if they were in an emergency situation. But, you know, I think that this could play out along with the Delvin Cook situation over the coming days, or it could be over the coming weeks, or it could be before training camp, or it could be like, I don't have a timeline now that this hasn't happened. And I also realized that I sat in the sun again, which I have a tendency to do here on the show. And then it starts to overtake me. So I'm going to slide over a little. But so, you know, I think with those situations now, it becomes much more likely that the Vikings could just straight up release both of those players. And will it go down as an L? I mean, I guess so because they couldn't get

any draft capital for them. But I also think that's how this usually works. And throughout this entire process, I was always skeptical, no matter how many articles came out or rumors came out. Oh, could the Vikings trade these guys on draft day? I always kept thinking, who's giving up their draft capital for these players? They will for 2024 for Daniil Hunter, but I don't think they will for an unhappy defensive end who doesn't want to be here and an overpaid running back. So we will see how that plays out. But as of right now, some of the biggest questions that we thought leading up to the draft had the possibility of being resolved still remain unresolved. And if we're putting a pie chart on it, I will go

much bigger chance, 75, 80% chance that both players just end up getting released and maybe, you know, 10% that each gets traded and 10% that they end up on the roster. Still, it seems like with a running back being picked and talking about him as having starter potential, there really isn't much chance that he's going to be here. But Zedarius Smith, I think has a much better chance of being here if they could work something out with him money-wise. So that's possible. But just leader in the clubhouse right now

is that both of those guys will just end up getting released. Then it's unfortunate for the Vikings that they can't get any draft capital for him. But that's kind of how leverage works or for both of those guys. Now, the other thing to discuss is the quarterback situation remaining unresolved. And look, Will Levis did not drop so far that we're not keeping an eye on it. Okay. So whatever

he does in Tennessee is going to be all right. I mean, if he turns out to be their starter, he beats out Malik willis he beats out ryan tannahill or they trade ryan tannahill uh after training camp or during training camp if will levis becomes a great nfl quarterback then we will be talking about that one maybe not necessarily in the steph curry johnny flynn way of talking about it for the rest of time but just like with mac jones just like with Kenny Pickett, they decided as an organization, that's not our guy. And we're going to look for somebody else in the future, maybe.

Because today, Kweisi Adafo-Mento, when we talked to him about the quarterback situation, and Kevin Seifert from ESPN was on the call as well. And he asked him once and then kind of followed up like, okay, but you know, the big picture plan where Kirk stands, like what is going on there? And Kwesi talked about in the negotiations and just how, you know, they've tried to be solutions oriented and he did not close the door for going back to the negotiating table with Kirk Cousins and eventually working something out. Now, what I can't figure or tell you without being in the room myself is would Kweisi Adafomenta talk about that in a way that it was still

possible for an extension? Because that's the only way to talk about it right if you say yeah it's over with Kirk and we don't know what's next whoops I mean like that's not gonna go over very well is it but at the same time like is that still actually a thing that's on the table like would Kirk Cousins come back because there were negotiations there were discussions and my understanding is and I believe Andrew Kramer said it on this show a few weeks ago that the Cousins side just wanted a longer term deal and the Vikings side wanted to go shorter term so does not getting a quarterback that they potentially wanted change now how they view about their future with Kirk? That is a question. Because if they went into the draft saying, hey, if Strouder Richardson really drops,

then we're going to trade up and grab him and that's our guy. But then that didn't happen. They didn't want Will Levis. So they might kind of go back to the drawing board and decide that Kirk could be a potentially decent option for them for an extension now that they have Jordan Addison in here. I think that's a little far-fetched still at this moment. I would not call it impossible, though, after what Kweisi Adafomensa said. And I think that that would be a big mistake and an incredibly unpopular thing if they did it. Just because we've seen the whole Kirk Cousins thing play out year after year. We know all that. We've gone through this. But I

think that more than ever, the Vikings fan base was ready for this to change with Kirk Cousins. Just to move on, just to look for that next quarterback, look for those guys to make a draft pick and make it their guy and take their big swing. I think everybody's ready for that. As opposed to just running the same things back over and over and over again. So even cracking that door open has to raise your eyebrows like, wait, what? What? This is still possible? But I also think that you cannot publicly say we're done with him because he's the quarterback next year. And after what just went down in the draft with them not picking a quarterback, he's absolutely the

quarterback next year, barring some crazy Trey Lance trade on June 1st. But I just, I mean, at this point, it sort of goes under the category of all the other trades that we talked about as being possible, but not particularly realistic. So I guess it's not over, over, over, over after today, whereas they did have a chance on Friday night, no, actually Thursday night,

to make it over, over, over by drafting Will Levis. And they decided that that was not what they wanted to do. So I'll take your questions. I guess I went on kind of a bit of a diatribe breaking the entire thing down and haven't gotten your questions. And I know there's one at the start that was in here before I even began and I wanted to get to, and I'll continue sort of sliding away from the sun here. Sorry about that. Let's see. We've got talk me off a cliff from Ryan. Talk me off a cliff. Why is it that the Vikings trade back and go against the consensus every year if there's such an insanely top heavy team depended on the few

draft picks that they have? Well, I guess one is I would say in this particular instance, trading back, you will not remember it today, but they got 2024 draft capital. I don't have it sitting right in front of me, all the details, but they'll get some more for next year. I think trading back is a really good idea if the player that you want want and you only have one draft

pick so you're not just like throwing picks at everyone so you have kind of a guy that you've decided on that guy apparently was mckay blackman that's who we want in the third round that's who we're going for and you're looking at the draft board saying all right well it doesn't look like this team this team this team or this team is going to take him. So we can get the player that we were going to take anyway at 87 back at 102, and we can get more draft capital. Now think about, I mean, think about if Roy turns out to be a really good defense attack. Okay. Well that I, was it that pick one? I lost track. One of those picks came from trading back and getting an extra fifth rounder. And if we go to the draft capital charts this year, the draft capital

charts were in love with what Kweisi Adapomensa did. So, you know, I think that, uh, we have to consider the value that they are able to get and the player that they're able to land at the end of the day. When we talk about the trades, we have to analyze each one in a bubble. I don't think that we can say, oh, well, trading back is always bad because you're always missing out on a better player. I mean, last year, I think that trading back as far as they did was highly questionable and has played out to be highly questionable because it wasn't just Jamison Williams.

It was Kyle Hamilton. There were other players there. There were other receivers there that turned out to be good players. So that trade back, they passed on a lot of really good talents. Trent McDuffie was taken. George Karlaftis was taken.

Both those guys by Kansas City. In the meantime of them trading all the way back, they missed out on a lot of talent. Is there players between number 87 and 102 that you couldn't live without? I mean, everybody wanted Keely Ringo, and he didn't go till something in the fourth round to the Philadelphia Eagles. And I got asked, of course, like, hey, if the Eagles drafted him, was that a great pick? The Eagles draft as many busts as everybody else.

They just manage their draft capital better than everybody else, which is why it seems like they're always crushing the draft. But if you go back through, there's lots of draft picks by the Eagles that did not work out and turned into total busts. So there really is no reason to freak out over middle round and late round trades. That's usually when a team has somebody targeted that they think is a good fit and they decide, all right, we don't think anyone else is going to take them in these couple of spots, move back, get somebody else who really wants a player here. They want their guy. That's the shuffling. That's the give and take of the NFL draft. But I don't think in the third

or in the fifth that we're talking about, wow, you just really passed on all these great players. So maybe that helps. Maybe that helps get you off the cliff, Ryan. Talk me into Caleb Williams or Drake May next year. I can't. I just don't think those things are possible. I really don't. I mean, you draft Jordan Addison and there's no guarantees on Jordan Addison, right? I mean, because he, you know, could be Laquan Treadwell or whatever. I don't know. But, you know, I do think that they're way too good. They're just way too good. Their offense is too good. Their quarterback is too good. And even though they have a difficult schedule, they're just too good of a football team with a quarterback who always wins between seven and ten games to ultimately um end up as a tanking team and i don't think

they're going to have enough draft capital to trade up unless they're trading justin jefferson which yeah i guess is possible but that seems pretty unlikely to me i think they're still going to do everything they can to work out an extension with Justin Jefferson. So that's the only way that they could get either one of those elite quarterback prospects for next year. Tanking is not an option for this team. It never has been. And I don't think it ever will be unless it is the natural tank. So if Kirk Cousins gets hurt, then okay, possible. But Kirk Cousins also has the best record of health of any quarterback in the entire NFL. So, I mean, the guy just has never been hurt and he wears an absolute suit of armor for every single game. So yeah, I just don't think that that's going to be an option. So I'll take any other questions you

have about like today's, you know, today's potential draft picks and things like that. Just looking through some of your comments. I mean, you know, with the Wilfs, they always kind of get brought up in this conversation. They value tradition and security riverboat gamblers. They are not, I guess I don't entirely agree with that i mean i i i think that when you go back like the context really matters of the thing with the wilfs i mean riverboat gamblers they were here when brett farve showed up right i mean so uh how about kirk cousins was kirk cousins not a humongous gamble that just didn't work out to get a bunch of uh playoff wins like they thought it was going to but the safe play that year would have been to stick with case keenum

right and bring back teddy bridgewater and draft the guy in the middle rounds or something it would have been to stay with the quarterback who had taken him to the nfc championship and yet uh they ended up deciding to go all in on Kirk Cousins. It just didn't work out. They ended, you know, they decided to go all in on Brett Favre and it did work out to go to the NFC championship game. I think that they've taken a lot of gambles. Some of them even just in house when you re-sign players that maybe you shouldn't, or they try to make that big splash signing and it doesn't always work. So I don't know. I don't want to put it that way. I think that after 2015, they win the division every year they've had a good roster. And

there was probably only one opportunity during that entire stretch, one, to really drop back and do a full reset. One. And that was from 2019 to 2020. And because they won a playoff game in New Orleans, they decided not to do that. They probably should have at that point. But that was the only time. So I hear you on the criticism of them trying to be competitive each year

and not taking steps back and not looking deep into the future like maybe they should have. But I just don't know that it's valid to say, hey, that's all they want is to just be average. I'm not sure that I would really agree with that. I just think that they've always felt like their team wasn't that far away from competing and that one year they probably could have dropped back. But this draft, I will say though, this draft right here, let's just say that ownership does dictate the whole thing. And I think that's probably not the case that they listened to Kweisi Adafo-Mensah, Kevin O'Connell, especially after it was such a good year for them winning 13 games, turning

around the culture, getting the high grades from the NFLPA. They look very competent to ownership. If you were the manager of business and that was your whatever next in line manager and the employees were happy and the profits were pretty good and it wasn't perfect and they didn't fix everything, but it was going pretty well, then I think that you'd feel pretty good as ownership. You would trust that manager. But let's just say that instead, ownership had said, go for it, draft Will Levis. You have to draft Will Levis. There's no other choice. You're fired

if you don't draft Will Levis. I mean, is that what we would really want them to do? Because then we would criticize them for that. If it turned out that Will Levis was bad and that it turned out that ownership had pushed that, then we would have said, oh, like, why did ownership do that? They're so crazy. They shouldn't have done that. Why are they so meddling? Right.

So, you know, I think that it's sort of a kind of a cop out thing, similar to how it used to be with the Twins, where it was, oh, they're cheap, and that's why you can't win, and so forth. Maybe there's some truth to that. Maybe not. Same with this. Maybe there's some truth to that, but I never really look at that as a reason for where they are.

Now we're still asking, after the draft, now that the draft is over, we are still asking about what's going to be next for this franchise. What is the direction of this franchise? Because they are still sitting very much in competitive rebuild mode. Even after making smart decisions in the draft, in opinion versatile defensive backs wide receiver who can be the potential of a great wide receiver too just potential uh they've built a group of weapons they've built tackles that are that are really good they've drafted high on the offensive line that there should be improvement there i don't know if there will but there should be they brought back garrett bradbury like everything. Everything is in place to do exactly what

Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said they were going to do from day one, which was competitively rebuild. So they are in line to be a team that competes for the playoffs right now. The Lions had a very goofy draft, and yet still, if they got some good players, they are in position to win that division. But are we really thinking the Vikings are 100 hundred miles behind of course they're not the Vikings are in that conversation to win the division and because of that where is it going after that it are we are we going to get to a point where they get higher on their team after the draft than they should be and they sign one more player and they decide you know what we, we should just extend Kirk. That'll lower his cap hit. And then we'll sign another player and then we'll be a really great team and we'll win the division because the Lions were dumb and the

Packers kept drafting tight ends. And what are they doing? And the Bears still aren't that good, right? Could we see that? Or could we see halfway through the season, they're playing really well again. And then they extend Kirk halfway through the year because they say, all right, yeah, he's proven that he can win consistently, right? Like not knowing right now still leaves it open to the potential of either cousins coming back or getting to next season and not having an answer. And I think one of the reasons that you draft Jaron Hall today is that you kind of hope that even if you don't have a 2024 answer, you can do what Washington

did and say, oh, we drafted our guy last year. You just undervalued him. He was really great in the fifth round. That's what Washington is arguing about Sam Howell. I don't know if I believe that, but it'll be great for them if he becomes a good player. There was a hundred different guys today who were compared to Brock Purdy. So we might as well just say it together. Maybe he'll be the next Brock Purdy. Say it together in the comments. Maybe Jaron Hall will be the next Brock Purdy. I don't know, right? But you take him because if you get left out on the cold, you can always say we took our quarterback last year, I guess, but the options are completely open is the way that Kwesi Adafo Mensah said it today. Everything is on the table for the future

at quarterback. And that's not going to leave anybody feeling like they are solidified for the future and what it's going to be. Even if you had drafted Will Levis and we had lots of debates over it or drafted Hendon Hooker, we had lots of debates over it. We would at least know and we would at least know what the next year plus is going to look like. I don't know what the next year plus is going to be like. Is it going to be this team goes eight and nine and sits in the middle of the draft and then tries to find a way to trade up? I mean, you mentioned Drake Mayer, Caleb Williams. I guess that there could be another guy that could be at the top that they could try to trade up for, or they could mortgage the

whole future and trade three firsts or whatever, if they do that, or they could find a veteran who gets, you know, unhappy with his team and they decide to sign him. You never know, I guess when the next Aaron Rogers situation is coming, Tom Brady could unretire and decide he loves his Minnesota roots and wants nothing more than to throw to Justin Jefferson. But all the things that we talked about in the lead up, the biggest thing was maybe this will solve that path. Maybe we will be told what this is going to be. And there it was. And they said, nope, we're not going to take that path. We're not going to take the Will Levis path. And so now it's all up in the air remaining for could it be whoever? Could it be a top quarterback for next year?

Could it be Kirk Cousins? Could it be Jaron Hall? Could it be some other free agent? Could it, right? There's so many options still on the table. And I think that there's nothing annoying about their picks. That's the only annoyance that's left over from this, that if you're criticizing, we went through this kind of last night a little bit. If you're criticizing who they picked in the third round, then I'm kind

of out on that conversation. Like, I don't know whether Malik Blackman will be good or not. We'll, we'll see. We'll find out if they think he will be as a good fit for the secondary. They picked the right position. Good with it. Good to go. That's fine with me. But if there's one thing that's left over that is not resolved, it's the quarterback position. The thing that everybody kind of wanted to be resolved, but you can't imagine prospects that you want. Clearly they just did not value Will Levis the way that the mock draft community did. So what an interesting couple of days for a team that has hardly any draft picks. And I know a couple of you have asked

just about, you know, the odds that Delvin Cook or Zedaria Smith go. And I think that the odds are much higher on Delvin Cook after today, that more likely than not, they still would like Zedaria Smith to come back. I think they always wanted that. I think Brian Flores would really like that to have Zedaria Smith, Marcus Davenport, maybe Daniil Hunter, but that one still remains out there.

So all these things that we logged on and we had these long discussions about leading up to the draft, could we know what's going to happen with those guys? Could we see a quarterback picked high? Could they do something else with Trey Lance? All of it didn't happen. All of it still could happen. And so the intrigue continues for the Minnesota Vikings offseason. So I'll take any remaining questions you have about any of these draft picks. But I think overall, it ends up being kind of a quiet, good draft as far as their decisions go, as far as the positions they took. I'm not too concerned about the consensus draft thing.

Just not that worried about it when it comes to the later rounds. And I can give you a bunch of examples of where guys went who went way, way later than the consensus draft because it's just an outline, a basic outline that usually if you reach too much, you're taking a bigger risk. That's all it really says. But that doesn't mean that taking someone in the third when it says they're going to be in the fourth is a much bigger risk. So I think that's the only thing you could really be upset about. And some people certainly tried to be yesterday. But aside for that, I think what you are left with is a really good situation around the quarterback for next season. Expectations for Jordan Addison to produce right

away, fair when it comes to a first round wide receiver. And a lot of cornerbacks that they're using numbers to throw at it, which I think is the absolute right approach. I think throwing middle and second round corners, this is actually, you go back and look at Tampa Bay with the guys like Jamel Dean, and there's a few more, what Carlton Davis that they got Antoine Winfield Jr. They rebuilt their secondary mostly through the second and third round with cornerback draft picks. It's really what the Vikings have done here is that they have tried through Andrew Booth Jr., Caleb Evans, Jay Ward, and Malik Blackman.

Now you have four guys who are very young who are drafted somewhere between the second and the fourth round. Take a bunch of shots, see who comes out of that competition. Byron Murphy, by the way, is not old. I think he's like 25 so you have a bunch of young players that they're taking shots there Lewis seen as another young

player even uh you know Cam Bynum if Lewis seen doesn't work out for this year to start Cam Bynum is still a young player so they've got a young secondary outside of Harrison Smith to build with Brian Flores I think that that's good process. I mean, they desperately need people who can cover to stop the pass at some point. They had a good offense last year and could not stop anyone. So you're going to have to do that in the future. I think that they've made pretty good bets there. So if there's, you know, if there's, if there's anything to criticize there, I don't really know what it is. I mean, maybe looking for a pass rusher, but I mean, there were some on the board. Once you get past the third round, I just, I don't know if those are bad choices.

I mean, I kind of like this way of breaking it down. They didn't do anything dumb. I agree with that. Did they do anything that blew your socks off? No, not really. I think they picked the right guy for wide receiver, but they didn't do anything that blew your socks off? No, not really. I think they picked the right guy for wide receiver, but they didn't do anything that was wild, but they also didn't do anything where you went,

what? Like kind of last year. And maybe that was a little bit of more experience or just the way that things worked out. From Hunter, I don't understand people losing their minds about this draft. They didn't have many picks to work with, but I'm pretty content with how they use them because that opinion right

there, Hunter, is a very common reasoned opinion, but that is not what we show up for sports for, right? Especially not football. And this is the last frontier of hot takes. This was the last day. It was like the last day of school. You're not going to class. You're not behaving on the last day of school. You are skipping. You are running amok in the halls. You're shooting off fireworks outside. It's the last hot take day of the football year. I mean, it starts in training camp when you start to tell people Alexander Hollins is going to make it and Kyle Slaughter is QB1. And then it goes from July all the way through today. And then you're off for the summer.

You just sit around and watch baseball, two hour baseball games, by the way. It's wonderful. But I think that the draft is always that last chance for everybody to get super pumped about what's going on with their team before the summer. And this draft did not give you that opportunity to go buck wild with an opinion. So I think what we got was a lot of people who wanted to, and that happened a little bit last night. So,

you know, anyway, I'll continue to answer some questions here. Let's see. I wonder if hall would have been drafted, where Hall would have been drafted if he was 6'3 instead of 6'. Yeah, higher. Because even though the Vikings director of college scouting and Hall himself both had very good answers to my questions about being an undersized quarterback,

at the same time, it matters. It's not like Bryce Hall being undersized or Kyler Murray. These guys are tremendous prospects. I mean, just like checking off every box, especially Bryce Young is super intelligence, playmaking. Kyler Murray's arm is absurd. His mobility is all time great Great. I mean, he's one of the fastest players in the NFL, not just a quarterback. And so those guys get taken at the top when they're small. Now, maybe in past years they wouldn't have, but somebody like Jaron Hall who runs a four, six, it's pretty good. It's okay. Who had good numbers, 3000 yards, 30 touchdowns, I think five picks or something,

but not absurd through the roof Heisman numbers or something. Like he was just a good prospect, but probably would have gotten a little more love if he was 6'3", but I don't think there's anything there that we would have been saying, wow, this guy is a first round pick if he was 6'3". I don't think so. Let's see from Jeffrey here. Think Hendon Hooker is a legit possibility for the Vikings to start, or not for the Vikings, for the Lions to start over Jared Goff. No, no, no, no. He's got the ACL injury,

so he's not even going to be ready for training camp. And Jared Goff led a top five offense last year. I mean, I think the reason that they're doing that by taking Hendon Hooker is one, they had a gazillion draft picks. So if you're the Lions and you have a gazillion draft picks, well, okay. I mean, this quarterback fell, let's take a shot at him. But also, I mean, Jared Goff at some point, he might Kirk, right? He might be. And this is something that the Vikings did not do outside of Kellen Mond, but he might end up being a Kirk situation. And he did this in Los Angeles. He got them only so far.

And they decided, you know what? We either need somebody cheaper or somebody better. They went somebody better. A lot of times teams go somebody cheaper, right? So I think that they might look at Hendon Hooker as what if he is a version of Jared Goff, who's a little faster, but a lot cheaper when he's on his rookie deal eventually down the road, or if he's just a good draft pick, right? I mean, he also could be a good draft pick, but as far as like this year, next year, the Detroit Lions, it appears, are completely in on having Jared Goff as their quarterback.

I don't think that a second rounder means in a draft where they had a million draft picks. I don't think it means that they are sure that they drafted their backup or something. So, but, you know, it was a really interesting draft in the NFC North. I think if you're the Vikings, that you're looking at what Detroit did, and you're probably seeing a lot of the criticisms for Detroit. But I would also keep in mind for Detroit that those guys are going to play. Yeah, were they the best draft value picks? Probably not, but they're going to play and they might be decent. And so it's not, it's still not great for the Vikings that they got a playmaker who could

score touchdowns for them or a linebacker who has the potential to be very, very good. And I had my eye on maybe if the Vikings traded back and Jack Campbell, he's got great numbers and everything else. But I think that the Lions didn't crush this draft in the way that we maybe expected based on what they had. They didn't get the most value, but they may have gotten some pretty good players. So the Lions, I think did get better as a team. The Packers, maybe, I mean, Lucas Van Ness could be a good pass rusher. The multiple tight ends is kind of weird. I just am not a fan of drafting tight ends. They usually end up taking years to develop

if they ever become anything. It's pretty rare. I mean, how many good tight ends are there in the league? Like five? And some of them were drafted in fifth rounds like George Kittle? I don't know. That's always a really questionable one for me.

So I don't think that Green Bay set themselves up. They did draft a receiver. I think what in the second round, I don't think that Green Bay set themselves up for a great situation for Jordan Love or way, way better than Jordan Love or for Jordan Love in the future. And I'm just getting crushed by the sun right now. I think we got to go back across the room this way. Oh, oh, oh, we're back.

Here we go. There we are. Sorry, guys. So, yeah, I mean, I think that Chicago obviously got a lot better. I mean, they just had a ton of picks. I don't think they're quite there yet, but they had a ton of picks. And so they have a chance in a year, I think to be a much better team, but probably not this year. Let's see. It's a good question from Matthew, better prospect Kellen Mond or Jaron Hall. It's not close. It's Kellen Mond, but that doesn't mean that

the results will be worse. Kellen Mond was a much better prospect than Jaron Hall coming out. He was, I mean, first of all, bigger, stronger arm came from a pro style system that was supposed to project. And I'm talking about what kind of prospect he was, not what he became in the NFL, just how he was evaluated. There were evaluators in the NFL who thought that Kellen Mond should be a fringe first round draft pick. And he went in the third round, which is two rounds higher than Jaron Hall, which to me says that the NFL believed in him a lot more than they did Jaron Hall. And part of it, I think, was the upside because of his size. But, you know, look, I mean, it didn't work out. It didn't work out at all. Not even a little bit

for Kellen Mond. And Jaron Hall strikes me as a very mature guy and a high class dude who's got a very good arm at throwing accurately. But I don't think he has the arm strength that Kellen Mond had. I don't really think it's even close for the raw arm strength, which would matter a lot in this conversation. The problem with Kellen Mond was that he just could not translate from what was on the whiteboard to what he needed to do in practice. And in the preseason games, it was just moving too fast for him. and he couldn't make decisions quickly. And it doesn't matter what you have physically. And I watched Kellen Mond in warmups and I watched him sometimes in practice where he

would unleash a pass that you were just wowed by. Whoa, this is, I mean, that's a rocket. It's got a strong arm, had physical tools. He was fast, but he just couldn't really put it together. So, you know, I think, uh, I think that with Jaron Hall, you're looking at somebody who has a limited ceiling, more likely than not. Could he be somebody that in an absolute best case scenario was a case Keenum where he has a year or he has a moment that he steps in and it works out probably. But if you're expecting much higher than that, you know, I don't really know if that's possible. So anyway, I mean, that's another year, guys, another year, the Vikings have made their draft.

There's still a lot up in the air for the future. We will continue to talk about what is next quarterback position and Kweisi Adafo-Mensa not shutting the possibility down of the Vikings extending Kirk Cousins also raises a lot more questions whether that's a good idea I don't think it is I don't think most of the fan base thinks it is considering how it's gone for the last five years but not I mean just kind of offering that up that, you know, that has, uh, might be something that they could go back to the table is a little surprising on a day where they drafted a quarterback, but you know, maybe it was just

kind of a way of speaking to say, Hey, who knows everything is on the table. So anyway, uh, great time talking to you guys throughout this entire draft process. We will continue all of our coverage here on Purple Insider, as always. Again, I think for them, they did not do anything to screw up. And that's a good draft for the Vikings. And now we wait to find out what these players are like. But overall, I would say that they had a much better go at it in terms of positional value, what they needed players for the future, building up the defense, getting another weapon on offense. I think these were all really positive things for them. Oh, and someone asked

about the trades. Um, I thought they were fine. Like I think you have to really be working hard to get upset about trading back when you're not trading back that far and you're grabbing an extra pick and it's in the middle rounds where it's all completely random. Just I implore everyone, go to DraftHistory.com, scroll through fourth and fifth rounds and circle the players that worked out. Totally random. Totally random in the fourth and fifth rounds.

All kind of the same caliber of prospect. I think those are the perfect places to move down. And if you love the analytics charts, they were very high on what Casey did. So I thought that this draft was handled well and that we had a lot of fun and we'll continue to have a lot of fun speculating. I've got some good guests coming up this week and the big one, the big show to watch out for Chris Trapasso,

who has been leading up to this entire draft doing mocks, draft sims, breakdowns, comparisons. He's going to give us his much more informed grade after watching these prospects and doing his job at CBS Sports. So that's going to come up, I think, probably Wednesday. It'll end up in your feeds, but I've got some Jordan Edison background, some other hot take artists coming on. So it'll end up in your feeds, but I've got some Jordan Edison background, some other hot take artists coming on. So it'll be a fun time. Thank you all so much for joining throughout this process. I think we had a lot of fun leading up,

speculating, mock drafting, draft simming, all those things. So you guys are the best. And this, these chats, all your great questions, your comments, they're what makes it fun to log on and do it this way. So thanks so much. And we will see you all on a live broadcast

here on YouTube very soon. Thanks guys.