Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Guard Dalton Risner visits Vikings, Danielle Hunter is back, rookie CB Blackmon takes first-team reps

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about Day 5 of Vikings training camp, which was filled with news items...everything from a quality free agent guard visiting the Vikings in Dalton Risner to Danielle Hunter's fit with Brian Flores to rookie cornerback Mekhi Blackmon getting some first-team reps... and tons of Vikings fans questions along the way Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. As we look back at another day of training camp, the pads came on. I actually heard a position coach yell, the pads are on and I want to hear them popping, which is just absolutely perfect for us. The fifth day of Vikings training camp. And we have so much to talk about. I mean, just even in the time that I left the facility and drove back here to my studio, the Vikings had a guard visit, which is kind of interesting as well.

So there's all sorts of things to discuss, lots of topics. Daniil Hunter was out there for the first time. Makai Blackman got first-team reps for the first time. The rookie cornerback, third-rounder, as they mixed him in in a drill near the goal line. And so he was in there for the first time since mini camp where he got some work, but had mostly been Juwan Williams. And so I've got notes from today, notes from Brian Flores, notes from Daniel Hunter, who said he wants to be a Viking forever. Does that mean that it's not off the table that he could play through this year and then sign uh brian floris seemed extremely

excited and and brian floris you have to understand is not an extremely excitable guy he is a very straightforward intense man but when he was talking about daniel hunter he could not help himself go a little bit of a grin there knowing that he just got a guy that has 31 sacks in his last 40 games top 10 in pressures last year top 10 in pff pff grade so i also think that brian florist knew that they weren't going to sack just about anybody without daniel hunter there um and yes alexander is right uh Uh, if the Vikings pay him forever, lots of money, then he'll be a Viking forever. But I really think that this man loves being a Minnesota Viking because just kind of taking the temperature of the room, standing around

watching camp today, I was asking different people what they thought like, uh, Andrew Kramer, Dave Campbell, just, you know, writers who have been on the show and things like that, just standing around like, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And, you know, some of the theories about why Daniil Hunter came back on a one year deal were I think he just wanted to play football and just wanted to get going because he could have continued to try to use his leverage throughout the summer by holding in, not getting on the field, knowing how much the coaching staff wanted him on the field and seeing if somebody else was willing to trade for him. It feels more and more like the offers trading for him were not very high, but at the same time, maybe as the summer went along. And I remember us talking about this just the other day, like, Hey, if the summer goes along and some owner is standing on the sideline and he's

watching his team play and he says, you know, I think we could just use that one more edge rusher and then throw a second rounder at the Vikings or something. That's kind of what happened with Yanni King Gakwe or there's an injury around the league, but that was taken off the table when Daniil Hunter did seemingly exactly what the Vikings wanted him to do, which feels like Daniil Hunter wanted to get back on the field. So normally when you hear someone say, well, you know, I'd like to be a Viking forever. Of course, we've heard that a number of times from different players including Kirk Cousins but you gotta figure that with Hunter it carries a little bit more weight that he would like to play through this year and even despite all of the contract

issues through the years want to sign and the Vikings left that door open with this deal they made it so they can't franchise tag him. That is important. And they have to commit. But they did give him a decent amount of guaranteed money, $17 million to start with. Could be as much as $20 million. And if he's not bitter about it and wants to remain a Minnesota Viking, then they could possibly still work out something long-term after this year.

And so I guess I have some belief in Daniil Hunter saying that. So we're kind of, you know, got a lot to discuss here and a lot of questions already coming in about Dalton Reisner, who was in Minnesota on a visit. We'll see if they end up deciding to sign him. He is a guard formerly of the Denver Broncos. We can talk about that. The secondary having a little bit of a change today, but just, you know, sticking with the Daniil Hunter topic, Brian Flores was asked today about how he sees

Daniil Hunter fitting in. And I do want to say that Ed Donatel was not dropping back Daniil Hunter in coverage very often. It was probably 15 times. I remember looking this up. There were not many times where he actually dropped him back in coverage, but Brian Flores made it quite clear. He said, we want him going forward. We want him going at the quarterback. But he did use an instance where in his defense, where if they were committing two blockers to Daniil Hunter and then dropped him back and sent blitzers from the other side. And this is the wheels in the mind of Brian Flores, which I find to be very fascinating as,

as a creative guy that he is. And I'm working on a story on that as well, just about some of his blitzes. And so you could see where Hunter would drop back, but that leaves two guys blocking nobody. And then he sends all these blitzers from the other side. But that was the only example he used of wanting Daniil Hunter to actually drop back in coverage. Another thing that he said was he wants Daniil Hunter to rush. However, he feels comfortable rushing rushing which I think was a little different from Ed Donatel where Donatel wanted it done his way and so when he was asked about stand up versus hand in the dirt he was saying like you know hey whatever he wants to do is what

I want him to do because I want the best version of, you know, Daniel Hunter. So I think that this combination of Brian Flores and Daniel Hunter could be very, very good. And we saw over the years with Mike Zimmer, some of the best years of Daniel Hunter's career were when Zimmer would dial up some blitzes or different looks or send people to the line of scrimmage and would drop them back. And the offensive line would be a little confused. How many times did we see Daniil Hunter lined up against the tight end and all of us would go, wait a minute, how in the world did that happen? Well, the answer was Mike Zimmer being creative with his fronts and his blitzes. And last year, creative was not in the vocabulary of the minnesota vikings defense

this year it will be back and if you're going to have a contract year having one of the most aggressive head coaches i'm sorry defensive coordinators former head coach uh in the nfl is a pretty good way to do it for daniel hunter and now it seems like everything contract wise is behind us with Hunter. We can go forward through this year, see what happens. I don't know how to place a bet on whether he will resign or not. I mean, because it is Daniil Hunter and he just keeps coming back, no matter how unfavorable the contract situation seems. So maybe next year it will be favorable and he'll want to stick around or maybe next year

they'll say thanks for the memories we got you 14 sacks to go to free agency with enjoy all of your money in jacksonville or whatever but brian flores just could not contain how happy he was to have daniel hunter back um alexander asks is hunter already a ring of of Honor Viking? I don't think quite yet, but he's certainly coming close to that, isn't he? I mean, I'd have to look up where he ranks already in sacks. And of course, they didn't count sacks until the 80s. So most of their great defensive linemen were playing, you know, back in the day before sacks were official. But Hunter is probably very very close there's going to be a

lot of guys from that previous zimmer regime who are a hard discussion harrison smith is a lock but what about everson griffin i mean a key viking to a lot of great teams is he in there what about eric kendricks what about i know anthony barr was sort of maligned for the contract and so forth, but, you know, played a lot of years as a captain. So there's quite a few players on that defense, but I think Daniel Hunter does have a chance at it. If he gets another 10 sack year, I can check this real quick where he ranks in Vikings history, but it already has to be pretty high for sacks. Let me check that out. But I think the answer is if he has another great year this year even if he leaves it's probably yes um let's see so pro football

reference does have the old school vikings counted up uh which is uh really cool that they did that huge project where they went back through the film and they counted up all the sacks from like Jim Marshall, Alan Page. So here's how the list goes all time. And let me see, where is Daniil Hunter on this list? Okay. So it's Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, John Randall, Alan Page, Chris Dolman, Jared Allen, Everson Griffin, and Daniil Hunter. And this year, Daniil can pass Everson

Griffin and approach Jared Allen. I mean, if he has a huge year, he could pass Jared Allen. It would have to be a really huge year. If he passes Jared Allen all-time sacks, then I think Daniil Hunter is getting his name in that ring of honor. But even if he passes Everson Griffin, he's got a pretty good case for it as being in the top seven all time. So yeah, that's an interesting discussion. We'll have to see how it plays out. But it is funny to think about the stats that he has racked up and what they would have been had he not had a year and a half taken away from him just by those injuries. And I'm sure that that played into this situation as well. And everybody who I was talking to brought that up like, well, I mean,

maybe the league thinks about his injuries more than we do after seeing him play so well last year. So that's kind of where we're at with Daniil Hunter. They said they're going to ramp him up slowly that he did. He was not out there taking the 11 on 11 reps today. He was doing warmups, individual stuff. And then I imagine as the week goes along, we've got a night practice later this week. Maybe he makes an appearance there at the 11 on 11s, no concern whatsoever for Daniil Hunter physically. And again, that's always what brought me back to kind of some questions about why they did this because so soon on his side, I mean, not the Vikings.

I know why they decided to bring him back on this deal, but why they did it so soon is because, you know, Daniil Hunter can be ready to go in two weeks with his physical ability. And trust me, I saw him today. Still very big, still very scary. Yep. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know why they decided to just give away the rest of their leverage in this negotiation on his side, but one way or the other, it works really well for the team, for Brian Flores. And my guess is by next week, he will be up to 100%, taking all the reps with the first team defense.

Then DJ Wanham will get bumped back to the second team, and we'll see about a competition for the rotational rushers, Luigi Villain, Patrick Jones, DJ Wanham, those type of guys. And I think they're also hoping that Marcus Davenport can be in every town, every down player, and those guys can combine to make for a pretty good pass rush. And if Davenport has an upswing year and he gets seven or eight sacks, Hunter gets 12, 13, I mean, then you've got a pass rush. And I think that in the ideal situation, that's what they're looking for. So let's see, just let me circle back and look at a few of your comments here while I've been chatting here from Cameron. Curious what you think the odds are that Flores is here for more than one year, or if you think he's fairly likely to get a head

coaching job after one year here. That's a hard one to know because of just the status with the NFL. When you're suing the league, does someone want to make you their head coach? Is that going to make the other owners unhappy? I don't know if they care what the owner of the dolphins thinks or whatever, but these owners, I think what we've seen from them, whether it's Colin Kaepernick, Lamar Jackson, what they're doing with the running backs right now, when they band together, they can make life pretty difficult on somebody. So if they don't want Brian Flores to be a head coach, they will not hire Brian Flores as a head coach, but you can bet he will get all the interviews so they could say, well, you know, we brought him in for an interview.

You know, you can't add this to your lawsuit, my guy that I could see that situation or just based on his history. Uh, I think that, um, you know, we could also see him get a head coaching job if this defense is good and it doesn't even have to be great. I think it just has to be good. And you see from Brian Forores, you talk to him and you see him at the podium and he just has that kind of presence that you expect from a head coach. He's proven as a head coach, despite terrible circumstances in Miami when he first got there of turning that thing around, getting them to be winning teams. And we also see from the Nate Hackett thing in Denver, and I tend to agree with Sean Payton when he said it was terrible, that it's not easy to be an NFL head coach. And when you can get someone who's proven and is good and is not washed up or, you know, on the older side that you've got a pretty good chance to have a winning organization. I think Flores has that resume and background. If he ends

up with the 15th best defense and the Vikings are in the playoffs, then he's going to get a lot of phone calls. But I don't know if it's a guarantee that he leaves. If he ends up being the Vikings defensive coordinator for multiple years, that's probably a pretty good outcome for the Vikings. I think, I mean, this is just a guy that you can be a lot more confident in than Ed Donatel last year, because he was just recently running one of the better defenses in the league in Miami. And now he comes here and is looking to turn it around. I think in an ideal world, he's here for several seasons. Not that you'd want to see him be bad in the first year, but I think in an ideal world, he's here for several seasons. Not that you'd want to see him be bad in the first year,

but I think in an ideal world, he has a chance to pick out who he likes to go forward with, to develop these guys, to teach them the system to the point where they're learning it more fluently. And he feels like it's his defense as opposed to inheriting kind of half these players and then going from there so that's kind of where we stand with daniel hunter and uh this is this is funny well and we'll talk about dalton reisner in just a second uh well han solo not the actual han solo but someone with that name on youtube uh to know if Justin Jefferson was out for a whole year, would Kwesi and KOC consider tanking? I don't think that they're tanking under any

circumstance, but I think that the football nature of not having Justin Jefferson would force you down into that position, but would they intentionally sell everything off the minute he got hurt? Like, no, I don't think so. I think that they would fight as hard as they could to win. But if that happened in training camp and they ended up going one in five to start the season, my guess is that they would live in reality at that point, which would mean shopping around with cousins and with Daniel Hunter, because those guys are not nailed down. And it would be a similar situation to trading away Yannick and Gawkway where you just have to think about it at that moment.

And there would be phone calls for sure. Uh, on a scale of Laquan Treadwell to Justin Jefferson, how does Jordan Addison look? Well, decidedly better than Laquan Treadwell. That is easy. It's already not even close. And there's just, you know, things that happen every day with Jordan Addison, where you go, Oh, he moves different. He just moves different. And the only way to describe it is what we saw from Stefan Diggs, where it's not a big guy and he's not physically imposing. You would not pick him out of a lineup to be your starting receiver just based on his height and weight and how the guy looks. But as soon as you see the way I can put it is just body control. And I don't think that's a good enough descriptive term, but he can just do things with his body that other people can't. He can make moves. He is shifty. He can make catches that you don't expect him to make. You already see this stuff. That's no guarantee that he's not going to be Laquan Treadwell in these practices that would ever make you

think he was a first round pick. We've already seen a bunch of moves that Jordan Addison has made a couple of catches that he's made where you go, okay, that guy's the first rounder. Although today, today was a laser show from the wide receivers. It was a one great catch after the next Tristan Jackson made one over his head. Thayer Thomas, who is a guy to watch, by the way. Thayer Thomas, keep an eye on him as we go into the preseason games. He kind of catches everything.

He's a really good ball tracker and was a high-quality baseball player, was drafted in the 33rd round in baseball. And I wonder if there's something, too, like tracking a football, tracking a ball on the outfield, because this guy catches pretty much everything that's thrown at him. So I would watch him as well. The receivers have just been great. They have just receivers on receivers on receivers. And I was thinking about that today with Jalen Naylor, not even being in, he's going to come back as well. And this receiver room all of a sudden looks pretty darn deep. But my early take on Jordan Addison, first day of pads, is that he looks like a guy who should be a first-round pick in the NFL and can get open in the NFL and make catches. Can he master every nuance of Kevin O'Connell's offense right away

to be a star? That I don't know. Uh, but early impressions are some, some wow movements from him, uh, from Joel. I got to think Reisner is a depth signing, right? Well, they haven't signed him yet. He just made a visit, but, uh, Dalton Reisner is a very much proven starting guard. I was looking over his career. He has played over 800 snaps every season for Denver and over 900 snaps in three out of the four seasons. His pass blocking numbers are really decent the last two years, over a 70 pass blocking grade.

Why this gentleman doesn't have a job yet is odd to me because you would think that he would be a sought after guard with pass blocking ability. He was a fairly high draft pick. If I'm remembering correctly. Let's see what was it? Yes. Second round pick 41st overall. Seems like the type of guy that you would want to bring in considering that Ezra Cleveland is a free agent after this year, considering that we don't know about Ed Ingram and whether he could take a step forward. Also, Chris Reed has been out and injured. And I have to wonder if Dalton Reisner could be viewed as kind of the Chris Reed, if he looks like he's going to be out a while or is not going to recover anytime soon hey next man up you've got a chance to upgrade with Dalton Reisner and if he's not getting any opportunities to be a starter he could come to camp and battle on a daily basis with either Ed Ingram or Ezra Cleveland I would think it would be Ingram because he struggled so much last year and look if you're

going to competitive rebuild if you're going to try look, if you're going to competitive rebuild, if you're going to try to win, if you're going to bring Daniel Hunter back, you have to look for the best possible options. And I wondered about this with Daniel Hunter. If he came back, would they try to sign some other players and fill up this roster the best they possibly could? And I look at Dalton Reisner as kind of along those lines and that they may even look at some other guys to bring in. Like you've got your stalwart pass rusher back. You're feeling very good so far.

I mean, I think that the vibes of camp so far, if we were doing like a one to 10 scale after Hunter signed, it's probably like a nine and a half. I mean, it just, it's been a lot of good, good looking offense, a lot of good receiver play. I think the secondary is still coming along, but there seems to be a lot of just general energy and excitement over Brian Flores and his defense. And now with Hunter back in the mix, it's like, okay, well, you know, this team looks like they are a team that

competes for a division, which is what we expected. And that's a first day in pads, but that's what we expected is that they would be a team that competes for a division. So I think that you should act like it and bring in Dalton Reisner and have him compete. And if he wins the job, then give him the job. Who cares where you drafted at Ingram? You're trying to block for Kirk cousins. This is the last year of your quarterback. You've got a first round wide receiver who looks like he can play like gas pedal down time, time to start going, uh, and you know, get the best roster that you can possibly get. That's what it would signal to me is that they like what they see and they've got some concerns at guard and they want to make sure

that they have a potential backup option. If throughout the rest of the summer, they don't see what they want to see from Ed Ingram. Uh, from Daniel, anyone else watched Davenport's interviews the guy seems disinterested maybe it's just his personality either way excited to see the hunter and davenport combo yeah i think that um davenport is just a unique guy i wouldn't look into too much of his interviews interviews are also weird at training camp i can tell this, that when I get a chance to talk to somebody one-on-one, so the other day I'm chatting with Jordan Hicks for a story and Jordan and I are having a very good dialogue, good discussion, you know, about what I'm writing about and so forth. But if there were 18 TV cameras in front of him, I think he'd be a different guy. And Hicks is one

of the best talkers. So maybe he's a bad example. But usually when you're talking one-on-one to somebody, it's very much like a good dialogue with them. It's a lot more uncomfortable when you have 11 people around you and they're all pointing cameras at you and firing questions and you don't know them. Like you haven't introduced yourself. He's a new guy here. So he doesn't know these

people so i don't want to make any assessments based on his personality uh whether he you know is disinterested or not um i think so far he has been looking pretty good on the outside and then also moving to the inside and it looks like that's what they want to do with him is make him kind of that inside outside type of type of rusher. And, you know, it's a it's a real chance for him. He's a very talented player. If you see the way he moves for his size, it immediately stands out to you. If he can be that guy who is on the outside, I'm first and second down moves inside. They get DJ Wanham as a rusher on the outside or Patrick Jones, and they rush the passer. Uh, you might have something there. Uh, you might,

and I guess I don't want to, I don't want to make any assessments of Davenport till we see more, but my early assessment of him is this guy really moves different as far as size and quickness from what you usually expect from someone that big someone that big and he's like 260 pounds or something that's like borderline a little like old school defensive end or 10 pounds away from these days being an interior pass rusher and it looks like they're going to kind of have him do both i'm interested to see how that plays out but i haven't taught until i get a chance to talk with him just kind of one-on-one, I can't really get a feel for someone's personality

when they're in front of the cameras like that. How is the young secondary looking? Oh, that is a perfect segue into another thing I wanted to talk about. Well, let me address this part first. A couple other quick questions, and then let me get into the young secondary part. Reisner is not coming in as a backup. Well, I guess I would ask, where is he coming in as a starter in the NFL without having to prove it if he's a free agent at this point? If someone got hurt around the league, maybe, but unless he's got another job lined up or

other offers to be a automatic starter, then he's probably going to have to compete with somebody. Right. And if he is a better player than Ed Ingram and he competes at that position, I think that's what he would be looking to do. And again, he hasn't signed yet. He just visited. I like the idea of bringing him in,

having him compete for three, four weeks against Ed Ingram and best man wins. But I think if you're Reisner and you don't have a job at this point, you're probably looking for just a chance to compete. And the Vikings can offer him that they can say, look, it's, it's you. And he's been a left guard. So it might be about Ezra Cleveland as well. I don't know. Uh, but I'm thinking more of guards can kind of play either side. And so if he came in at right guard and competed against Ingram, if he ends up being better, which his career is a good pass blocker. And I think the Vikings clearly are a pass first offense. They would care a little more about that than

they would necessarily about his run blocking, which by PFF has been pretty average over his career. But I mean, they can't get Kirk hit the same way they did last year. I think we all know that. And if there are no signs of progress to them, and trust me, the only person who knows this is Chris Cooper, their offensive line coach. I am, unless I'm watching him get throttled every day, I'm not going to be confident in saying, oh yeah, oh, he looks great. Or wow, he's not looking good at all if he's getting crushed. So of course I'll be able to tell. But for the most part, I think that there should be competition there and that they can't bet on the progress of a young player who was so poor last season in pass protection.

That's just not a good bet to make when you're thinking that your team now could be pretty competitive and your offense could be really good. Like, well, OK, then, you know, you need to do everything you can to improve it. I like this thought from Cash Hepper, which is Thayer Thomas, Mr. Mankato. Good chance. Good chance. Because if you track the ball well, the coverage during preseason is not that good. Everyone's going to watch the preseason games. You make a couple of big catches. You got yourself a chance if you're an undrafted free agent.

Okay, let me circle back now to how the young secondary is looking and talk about mckay blackman now the other day i wrote about and there's a tie-in here deniel hunter and how his contract situation was hovering over camp and then he signed just as I posted that article. Unreal. Today, I wrote about Juwan Williams and how Juwan Williams had come along and how he made the most of his shoulder injury by getting better at studying football, understanding the game better and trying to learn and make progress. And it was really interesting to hear him talk about that. And he's been taking all the first team reps. So on the day I publish it, Makai Blackman takes some of his reps. Now he was still out there for the early 11 on 11s, but when they were doing a red zone drill, it seemed like, and I don't want to say this definitively, but just from my view, it seemed like they weren't very thrilled with Jawan Williams

and how he was handling that drill. So Makai Blackman went in and took a bunch of first team reps. I have wondered if Jawan Williams is kind of the Jesse Davis of the program. Like if you guys remember last year, Jesse Davis was the starting guard through a lot of training camp, and then they wanted Ed Ingram to win that job. So eventually Ed Ingram just won that job and they traded away Jesse Davis. It might be the same with Juwan Williams, where they brought him in. He's the veteran. They give him the first team reps, but they really want Makai Blackman to beat him out. And it definitely says where

Makai Blackman stands, which is ahead of andrew booth jr that is no surprise and i think they drafted mckay blackman to start on this defense that uh you know this is a guy that brian florist wanted they were very excited about um you know him when they drafted him and so forth so uh i think that there is a pretty good chance that as it goes along this camp that we see just more and more and more of Makai Blackman starting over Jawan Williams, but it's going to be a daily competition and we'll see how the reps end up getting doled out. But this is what you wanted to see from Makai Blackman is that he starts to get it and he's probably, you know, I don't want to say he's guaranteed more talented player than Juwan Williams,

but Williams has not really caught hold in the NFL so far. Blackman has a chance. So, you know, he could step up here and I think you want to see him take more and more reps and you're comfortable with, um, you know, the possibility of Mackay Blackman taking some lumps along the way early in the season, if they can find a starting corner for a long period of time. So that was kind of a, a little bit of a development today that he's taking that step on the first day of pads. So we haven't even reached August yet, and we're already seeing Blackman end up there. And when they drafted Blackman,

I thought this is a guy who's played a lot of football in his career in college already and is not somebody who's like a high ceiling, takes a ton of development type player. They want him in there right away. And so we saw a little bit of that. All right, let me circle back to your questions here. In case we sign Reisner and move him into the starting lineup,

would Reisner get into Ezra Cleveland's spot or Ingram's? That I don't know. He's been a left guard, but I don't know what they're thinking about Cleveland and Ingram. I would think that the more questionable of the two players is Ed Ingram because of how he played last year. And I think that what they would be looking for is how much work did he put in, in the off season to becoming a really good guard? Because that gap between the first and second year is a big one for offensive

linemen. They go through so much during the draft time. I mean, they have to get ready for the combine their training. They've come off college seasons. A lot of times they've sort of put off surgeries or injuries or whatever else, because they wanted to get through that, that draft, uh, and be ready and be healthy. And so they get pretty banged up in that first year. And then they don't know what they're doing in comparison to veteran players, right? You're learning it all on the fly. And that's why historically offensive linemen have struggled a lot as rookies. And if someone's good as a rookie, even decent like Christian Derusaw was, well, they've

got a chance to really be something, right? And so it's not a shock that he struggled as much as he did. And if anything, there should have been a Dalton Reisner type signing last year. And that person probably should have played. I don't know. Chris Reed was supposed to be that, but clearly they didn't like what they saw from Chris Reed in order to put him in the starting lineup, or they just didn't want to shake things up as they were winning or I don't really know, but it was a liability last year. And if it feels like to those in the building that it's not getting better, then that's where you put in Reisner at the right guard position.

But also let's not act like Ezra Cleveland had a great year past blocking either. I mean, he was also right there. I mean, we focused on right guard the most, they were both in the top five in pressures allowed. And if they feel like, you know, okay, well, you know, Ezra Cleveland was not their draft pick. If they feel like he is not a very good fit, then, um, you know, it, they could decide to put Reisner in it left. I guess I was just thinking that it would be more of the right side. And, um, this is, this is an interesting thing about the PFF grades. Um, man, a Scrogger says, uh, I thought he was a top 15 guard. So this is

the, the, the funny thing about that is, um, that his run blocking was very, very good. Graded extremely well in run blocking, but the pass blocking was not as good. So he ended up with a decent overall grade, even though it wasn't actually a good season because it's much more valuable to be a good pass blocker than it is a good run blocker, if that makes sense. An interesting point from Larry Sullivan. Let's see. Cleveland has hit his ceiling, I believe. Ingram still has room to grow.

If Reisner is signed, it's probably bye-bye Ezra. Very well could be. Yeah, I mean, to tell you the truth, I think either one is on the table. Both struggled a lot last year. Ingram is their guy. Cleveland is not. So you, I mean, you could talk me into that, that it would be for Ezra Cleveland and not for Ed Ingram. I guess I was just thinking that along the lines of Ingram, if he was not showing signs of improving because they always want to leave that door open to, Hey, if this guy is improving, well, then we're going to keep him in and so forth. Uh, but if he's not, then we're going to be concerned and we're going to want to improve there. But either way, I mean, I could see it with either one of them. Neither one of them had a good

year, uh, last year. So yeah. Uh, Ken has the PFF grades for Ezra Cleveland, a very big gap. It was 79.7 in the run and 54.1 in the past. And that matches up with the eye test. I think, uh, Larry also wants to know how Jaqueline Roy has looked since seeing some first team reps earlier in the off season. The reason he saw first team reps was because Harrison Phillips was recovering from an injury, but he has been on the second team regularly. I think someone asked that a few nights ago. And when they first arrived, I wasn't sure. I think he was like mixing in. But recently, these last few practices, I just went back and checked where he was and he was playing with the second team pretty regularly. And that says something when you have rookies playing with the second team, him, Ivan Pace Jr. Like you've got my attention when you're playing with the second team. And Jaqueline Roy definitely does.

From Cash, Brandon Thorne likes Reisner. That's enough for me. Yeah, Brandon is a good friend of the show. Great, great offensive line analyst. His website is Trench Warfare. You should go check that out. Super, super good insight on offensive and defensive linemen.

And he's always been a big Dalton Reisner guy. I remember talking to him about that draft and should the Vikings take Dalton Reisner and his PFF grades match up from a pass protection perspective. And that's definitely better than being an elite run blocker. Holden asks, how is a Caleb Evans doing? It's been up and down, but that's their guy.

It seems that's their guy. And when Brian Flores was asked about a Caleb Evans today, he was kind of hesitant to go over the top and praising him and said more or less, Hey, uh, he's still learning the techniques. He's still coming along, but they clearly like a Caleb Evans much more than Andrew Booth jr. Evans has taken every single first team rep. He's the starter and who he's across from, whether it's Jawan Williams, Makai Blackman, that seems to be the race right now and not Andrew Booth Jr. being in the mix really at all. Let's see.

I'm just glad they're thinking about positioning and changes. Yeah, I mean, I think that if they're looking at the offensive line and evaluating from what they knew last year what they saw last year and saying we have to be better than this we can't let kirk get banged up in the same way then you sign dalton reisner and you let him compete and if he is better than either one of the guys whoever's worse just play him there um he's probably a better right guard if if you know ed ingram is allowing more sacks than anybody else ever in pff i mean so uh from holden how is jay ward uh doing and jaron hall jay ward is one that i am at very early very early not so confident in at the moment for this year

and the development is going to have to happen. Maybe there's a special teams role for him, but he's been exclusively on the third team. I don't think they really know what to do with him yet, whether he's a safety, a big nickel, what type of position he's been playing. I believe mostly it's safety, but it's kind of just not been a noticeable player yet. And that could change. It could change fast. Guys can start to get it and click in. But I would say at this moment, he is destined for the special teams. They won't cut somebody that they drafted in the fourth round.

That'd be very surprising if they did. That was like a, who was it? Was it Willie Beavers? Was the guy they cut in the fourth round? That's the only fourth rounder I can remember being cut. So I don't expect that to happen. But I would expect that Jay Ward is more of a, this is right now, more of a special teams guy in year one. Now, Jaron Hall actually had an interesting day because Nick Mullins was out for a personal issue, not an injury. Nick Mullins wasn't there today. Jaron Hall got to throw a ton of footballs. I mean, he got a lot of work throwing the ball

around today. Him and Kirk cousins were the only two quarterbacks. And I would say that, you know, he still has such a, like we said, I think on day two, such a look of a quarterback, you know, he's got a nice throwing motion. He seems confident when he's throwing the football, he hits the back foot, lets it go. But today with the pads on, there was a little more of having to kind of pull it down and run with it, which you don't really want to see. Even if he is more of a runner than Kirk, you don't want to see in training camp practices too many scrambles. Even if the coverage is good, you kind of want to see trying to throw it in tight windows. There was an interception there today, but that was on one-on-one drills.

It wasn't too bad. But one thing that he has been struggling a little bit with is just overthrowing people. A little bit of spotty accuracy where he can be consistent for a couple passes in a row and then kind of airmail one it's but you know he's also out on the field with one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the nfl to compare that to but uh you know i i mean what i've seen from jaron hall so far i think has gone well for him. It's not been unbelievable, but it's gone well. I mean, I think he looks like a pretty competent out there and he can probably grow. I just, I do have a little concern about air mailing those passes because I wonder like, is that something that they can fix?

Cause he's done it kind of a lot, um, over the last, um, you know, a couple of practices. From T. Kubler, whatever Vegas has for total passing yards for Kirk in 2023, bet the over. Everything points to the Vikings finally ditching the run, especially if they bring in Reisner as a pass-blocking guard. I mean, yeah, they're going to throw the ball. Kevin O'Connell was not hired here to hand off and run the ball for 2 yards a year. He is here to throw the ball. And look, I mean, Kevin O'Connell does a lot of things the right way analytically. And that's one of them, which is leaning into the passing game and using the run game to set up the pass now where they could really use the run game to

be successful is in the end of games or in like the middle end so let's say third quarter you're up by two scores a lot of times last year and you know defense is at fault here but the vikings would have chance to put a dagger in somebody and they just wouldn't do it. And part of it was they didn't run the ball well. So it'd be minus two yard run, you know, incomplete pass, short throw on third down or safe play and then punt. And they didn't have that ability to just end a team when they were up. And I think that played a role in how bad their defense was and in how many games they also allowed other teams to come back after early leads. And Larry, I mean, I think you have a good take here. Is it a hot take to say that Josh Oliver is the biggest

addition to the Vikings this year? Well, I mean, Jordan Addison could be bigger, but I mean, I think that it's, it's a good take to say that Josh Oliver could be significant when it comes to this offense. And that's where it shows up in my mind is it's the third quarter. You're up 21 to seven, finish this team, end them, send them home. And last year they couldn't do that very often. And part of that is usually if you can run, pound their faces in a little bit, hit a play action pass after they just haven't been able to do those things so far. But, you know, to the point they are going to throw the ball a lot.

I would imagine they're going to throw it a lot. And I still think there will be a lot of high scoring games based on who they're playing from purple haze. You think Kirk has some input on the front line with KOC? I would, I would suspect. So, uh, Kirk has always insisted that he doesn't. And I would say he should, you should go to your quarterback and say, what do you think about this? You know, do we want this other guy in here? Do you trust this guard? Because, uh, Kirk has not had any reason to trust his guards ever since he got here, since he was in Washington, um, from Jason T who looks to have the edge in the second string running back spot may use a fantasy draft pick on that player. That is a great question. When I asked Kevin O'Connell about this the other day,

I did not get a very confident answer from him. He wasn't like, Oh, we're great. They're all set. They don't even worry about it. We're going to have superstars backing up Alexander Madison. He kind of hedged on both guys, Kenny Wong Wu and Ty Chandler. Um, you know, Dwayne McBride's fumbled the ball a couple of times early in camp. I don't think that he is really in this mix as of this moment, the way it looks to me right now is that it is, uh, Kenny Wong Wu is RB two. And he had a run the other day that it was like a horse galloping i mean like you could hear it from the sideline him uh running so fast he is just as quick as it gets so they've got to find ways to put him on the field i think he is rb2 right now

ty chandler's rb3 but there it might not be as fantasy driven as you want it to be. It might be, Hey, we want to give Kenny Wong a little end around pitch and we want to throw a pass to Ty Chandler. And so it depends on, on who's in there. Uh, Madison has looked really good by the way. And this is just, you know, they're not tackling him, but just how he looks physically quickness so forth. He just has had a good look to him so far in camp. I think that he is right now RB one with a bullet and not like, Oh, well there's a combination of three running backs. It's like Mattis is number one. And then we'll see who else gets in the game.

That's how it's felt so far. Let's see. Do I think that they will trade ezra elijah asks no i i don't think so it's not out of the question if they were to sign dalton reisner but you'd probably just rather have ezra cleveland as your backup if that's who they're bringing in reisner to replace they might bring him in to compete with both guys and they might have them try out at both spots and see how he looks and see if they feel like they like it better.

I'm not sure who they would be bringing him into replace, whether it's, or if he's going to replace them, whether it's Ezra or, uh, Ed Ingram, uh, if it is Ezra, I don't know, I guess they could trade him. It just would seem unnecessary when you have somebody who is proven as a starter, or at least is very experienced as a starter that you'd want him as a backup. But maybe he'd be, I don't know. Can guards demand trades if they're unhappy? I mean, I don't know about that. Maybe they would, maybe they would if they feel good about their depth, hard to feel good about their depth though. When, you know, Brian O'Neill's not practicing yet. He's got all you know, over there. He was

not good as a guard, never worked out as a guard. And you have what Austin Schloteman, Blake Brandel can technically play guard. And then Chris Reed, you really just don't have any depth at the guard position behind these two guys. I would think that they would want to keep whoever didn't win the job. And, you know, I mean, when you guys were kind of bringing up Reisner not coming in as a backup, if he thinks he's got a chance to compete and he signs, then he's a backup if he's a backup, right? Or a starter, if he's a starter, he's under contract. But we'll see how that plays out if they sign him. They have not signed him yet. It's just very interesting that they were bringing in someone of his status

that is a proven starter in the NFL. And I would say a quality one over the years that he has been in the league and I mean today was it wasn't at the top of my mind but reminded that the man was still a free agent like really he's still a free agent I guess we're going to go into August that way uh let's see from Daniel who are the running backs playing during the two minute drills curious to see who comes away with the best pass bro yeah the two minute first. Curious to see who comes away with the best pass pro. Yeah, the two minute first team is gonna be Alexander Madison. Everything's gonna be Madison first team. They may mix in other guys,

but at this moment it is clearly Madison and then everybody else. And they do throw in, you know, Kenny Wong Wu has, I think, taken a little more on the first team rep side, but Madison is their guy at this moment. Ezra might be a better tackle than guard. They pushed him inside and it really hasn't worked. I'll never be able to make sense of that, Mark. You're right. I had never been able to make sense

of it. It's possible that he's a better tackle than guard. We never got to see him there, not even for a single rep in practice. They drafted him in the second round, which seemed like he was going to be the replacement for Riley reef. And they never even, never even give him a chance. They're kind of a weird thing for sure. What are the changes this year at training camp so far that are different from last year? Well,

I mean, I don't know if there's anything that is vastly different. I, I did notice that on the schedule, they're not going to have fans out there for a day where they do a walkthrough, which is smart because last year I felt very bad that some days they just do walkthroughs where there's no like hard, you know, pads popping or anything. And there was one day where they had fans in the stands and they just watched them do nothing. And I just like, Oh no, that's bad. They do have two night practices and I've never seen that before. They have one this week and I think one next week. And they also have a joint practices

against two different teams, which I haven't seen them do before, but a lot of it is the same stuff. Uh, you know, I mean, Kevin O'Connell's out there working with quarterbacks and then so forth, like he was last year. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of it's the same. It's the thing that Kevin O'Connell does, and I think this is based on his history as a player. I think that he thinks, how would I have liked this when I was a player? Like, what did I think was the smartest way to practice?

And even though there's not a wild amount of hitting and intensity, there was a little bit of tackling today, a little bit of contact today, first day in pads. But when they do the hard days, they do go hard. And so he's not going to play players in preseason. And you could look at that like, well, kind of being soft on them and so forth. But when they do hard practices, they are physical and they are long and they are intense. And I noticed that last year. And that was kind of like today. Today was a very intense practice. I would expect the same for tomorrow that they really want to ramp these up over these

first couple of days of pads. From Cameron, has Jalen Rager looked any different at camp this year or is about time to end that experiment? Probably the second part. There's just not anything really there. He had a long bomb today. I think it was from Jaron Hall and it, I mean, it was coming in hot, reaches up off the fingertips. He's never really been able to become

any kind of threat in the NFL down the field. And if you can't do that, then it's hard to stay in the league as a wide receiver. Brandon Powell has looked decent. He might be the Albert Wilson of the program. I don't know, but Powell has caught passes. He's gotten open. He is a better or just as good of a punt returner. Historically, I think Powell is here to play and they'll probably just cut Jalen Rager. It just hasn't looked very good so far. He's not running with the ones at all. And I'm going to stick with this, that i still think rager is more of a running back than he is a wide receiver but i'm not i'm not gonna go as hard on that take as i did with uh quarter l patterson once upon a time uh let me switch to this one

let's see from seven dragons what do you think of jordan addison so far, I think Jordan Addison has not been Randy Moss, but he's looked like he was supposed to look at. He's looked like somebody who belongs in the NFL and can get open in the NFL. That's after one padded practice, but you just see the skill in the route running and in the ball tracking and the ability to catch the ball with his hands and reach out and snatch it out of the air. You just see things that belong to good wide receivers in the NFL. That's what we've seen so far. And let's see, do I think he's going to be able to take over the wide receiver to spot that?

I'm not sure. And, and that's where it will be very interesting to see when they start using a little more formations and stuff like that. I wonder who is going to be out there with Josh Oliver, because right now it's KJ Osborne, as you might expect. It's clearly Jefferson, Osborne, one and two. That could change as we go along in the summer, but I still think Osborne one and two that could change as we go along in the summer. But I still think Osborne is the guy that, um, uh, Kirk cousins is going to trust the most from Alexander. How do you keep track of players from a distance when they're all huddled together? How do you train your eyes to do this? Um,

what do you mean huddled together? Like, uh, just like from far away, how do I see what's going on? Um, you know, I mean, I've done this a while, like you're always looking for different things on different plays. A lot of times what happens is, um, or do you mean the players standing in front of us? I I'll find an angle to be able to see through, um, whether it's on the sideline or usually I'll go around to the other side where I can see it. But yeah, I mean, I've covered a lot of practices. Usually what I'm doing on a, on a play to play basis is I kind of try to focus on one thing, one player, one matchup, Hey, let's see Jordan Addison. And then if someone makes a really noticeable play,

then, you know, it'll be obvious to everyone kind of where the ball goes, But I'll look over here, over there, like, okay, we got Makai Blackman versus Justin Jefferson or something. Although Kevin O'Connell does something that has stood out to me, which is he runs the ones versus twos and twos versus ones pretty often. And that is something Mike Zimmer didn't use to do. It was ones versus ones before. Oh, keep track of players and reps. Yeah, that I mean, that's just something that you. Plus there's a lot of us, you know, that, that we talk all the time, they cover the team. Um, you hear them all on the podcast from time to time, Alec Lewis, uh, Dane Mizutani, Andrew Kramer, like we're all standing around will raggets. And so someone might say like, Hey, there's a Makai Blackman's out there. You guys noticed that? So we kind of

help each other because there are a lot of players to watch. Um, even today with Nick Mullins, not being there, like Sam Ekstrom, our old buddy said like, oh, did you guys notice that Nick Mullins isn't there? So it's kind of a group effort when it comes to that stuff. I like this group who covers the team because we do that. It's not like a weird competitive thing. Like I'm not telling anyone I saw Makai Blackman out there. So, you know, so we rely on each other. But normally, if you know the lineup and you check every play sort of just like scan with your eyes. All right. Like everybody out there that's, you know, normal.

Oh, there's someone else out there. Or like I was talking about with Addison, a specific formation i'm looking for is it osborne or is it addison because that's going to tell me whether he's the wide receiver two or three so little little tricks of the trade there but it's mostly us just helping each other out keeping an eye on stuff uh from daniel are we starting to see the scene lewis scene hype train in motion i seem to see a lot of positives lately with practice reports or keep pumping the brakes until joint practices. No, I think, I think it's very much, um, off to a good start for him. I do. Uh, it's not, not just the interception the other day, but what Brian Flores said actually had a great quote. Uh, Brian Flores said what he really loved was that when lewis seen had his interception the other day that there was a lot that went into it before him just making the play on the football

that a lot of the technique was right or at least he made it seem that way in his comment that he did a lot of things on that play to set him up in position to make that play, which is really the key part of that. And then when he intercepted the ball, his teammates went crazy. That was notable to me as well, because it just looked like they're rooting for him. And that's also important when, when the team doesn't like a guy you can kind of tell, or when they don't believe in him, you can kind of tell that it's more of a muted response but it seemed like legitimate that happiness to see him make that play because he has had such a long journey from the start he is being talked about as well he's the first rounder who's not starting and all those types of things and so with him making that

play then um you know people were excited for him and that play, then, um, you know, people were excited for him and that matters. So it matters if the rest of the team is behind him, if they're seeing that growth and they want to see him make plays. So I think that as of right now, things are going in a good direction with Lewis scene. And if, and if Lewis scene, look, if Lewis scene comes out of this camp and is not the starter, but he has a really good camp, then I think we're going to wait and see on him. And we're not going to declare it because Bynum is a good player. Metellus is a good player.

So we don't want to just call it yet and say, ah, you know, bust or whatever. We don't, we don't want to do that. And if it just keeps rolling in that direction, then I, then that's very good for his future. Even if he doesn't, you know, start just yet, um, from Lance, who are the three down linemen in the three, four. Yeah. It's been, uh, Dean Lowry, Harrison Phillips, and Kairos Tonga. Let me tell you Kairos Tonga looks good. That guy is big and he is pushing people around in the middle. Uh, when

they've run handoff plays, there's guys getting pushed backwards or stuck at the line of scrimmage because of Kairos Tonga. I think he's like a Jerry ball. I mean, he's just a big man in the middle and they might've found something there. I think they really might've found something there. Uh, who's been more in the slot and 11 personnel. I'm not, I I'm not sure reps wise, like who's taken more because they all move. Jefferson will move into the slot from time to time.

Osborne Addison. They want everybody to play all the different positions. And we've, we've seen that from seven dragons with scene working with the second team and not with the first team do you think it's because of his injury or just not adjusting well to the nfl i don't think it has anything to do with the injury uh it was a slow adjustment for him last year under ed donatel that did not go very well really at all and uh it took him a long time to, I think, just understand how to play defense

and also the effort and work that it takes to play defense in the NFL. And I don't want to just say because he's gotten off to a decent start, like, oh, it's going in the right direction, folks, all set here, but at least we're seeing some positives. Last year, there was basically nothing to write home about.

It's also because the two other guys are pretty good at football. It's not like they got two jokers out there. I mean, it's Josh Metellus and Cam Bynum. Bynum played like 1,100 snaps last year. Clearly he's good, or they like him and think he can master the defense. So I think that he sets a high bar for Louis Seen to get over. Seen has more physical ability, but that's more of a smarts position, I think that he sets a high bar for Lewis seen to get over seen has more physical ability but that's more of a smarts position I think I think it's all those things combined that

he hasn't caught on the injury did set him back but he's also been out there since OTA so there's really no excuse when it comes to that we'll see how that one goes that one's going to be a daily what's Lewis seen look like and how's it playing out? I also think that publicly a lot of people have interviewed him and he talked again today. I think he's just had the right and I've always felt this way about his personality that he's had the right approach of, but maybe last year he had to learn how much goes into being an NFL player. And sometimes that happens, how much you got to

prepare, how much you have to work, how much film you have to watch. You can only say it out loud, but when you watch the quarterback documentary, it is like that for every position, not quite as much on quarterback, but some version of that for every position, uh, from JP Theodoro. I think it's how you say it. If you had to guess who'd be wide receiver five and wide receiver six right now, I think they bring Powell in as a returner and might have Thomas as a slot wide receiver right now. I would agree with you on Powell.

And I think I would say Tristan Jackson, but Thayer Thomas is, is in the mix for this. He's just made a lot of catches and it might depend on how they feel he's a fit or whatever. And also the fact that you can put him on the practice squad, call him up at any time. Right now he'd be winning a practice squad spot. I don't think it's Rager.

Tristan Jackson also made a great catch. He is a guy who tracks the ball. Well, this team's just got receivers. They're just all over the place. That's how I would have it right now. Tristan Jackson and Brandon Powell. They might also only keep five and then cut a couple of guys and put them on the practice squad, which we could see. Um, let's see. How's Kelvin Avery doing love that question christian is he moving up the depth chart at nose tackle not so far but i love the question of how's kelvin avery doing he's he's a 340 pound absolute monster bowling ball beast uh just this huge huge person. I haven't noticed him getting bumped up. It's been, let's see, TJ Smith and Jaqueline Roy a lot on the interior. And I think Avery is on the third team. So we'll see. He's going to have a chance in the preseason games to be that Kyrus Tonga backup.

It's a very hard room to make though. When you look at all the guys who are in there, Jonathan Bullard is in there as well. He's getting a lot of first team and second team reps. It's hard to make a defensive tackle position at the moment. Does Kirk's velocity seem on par with last year? Yeah, I haven't noticed any issues. In fact, it might look a little bit better than it did at this time last year. I was kind of asking some questions like, does it, is he not putting as much juice on the ball, but he's, you know, he's never going to have this rocket. It's never going to get better than it has been before. But, uh, you know, I mean, it's, you see him throw next to the other guys, clearly better, clearly an NFL starter. Uh, let's see. How about Ivan Pace Jr. running with the second team every day?

And Brian Flores was talking about how some undersized players just find a way and that he's going to have a real battle with the bigger guards coming and the pads are going to prove a lot because he's clearly very fast. And he's also going to have a lot to learn with dropping into coverage and things like that more than he did in college playing zones and whatever, just, you know, the details of being a linebacker, but you know, I mean, I think it's very notable that he is playing with the second team and a Holden wanted to know about Andre Carter. He hasn't practiced yet. He had a outside the building injury and he's still working out on the injured field.

So we haven't had a chance to see Andre Carter. My guess is if you're set back as a rookie like this, probably end up on the practice squad or, you know, end of the roster because they don't want to cut you. And they think that, you know, someone else is going to pick you up from austin with josh oliver uh will josh oliver have more of an impact in pass protection or run sport from what camp shows i don't know from what we've seen in camp but just logically speaking i think what they want him to do is be a terrific run blocker but also play into the play action game. So if he's on the field, let's say you have Josh Oliver, TJ Hawkinson, Oliver is in line, Hawkinson playing in the slot.

It gives you a lot of different options. You can motion Hawkinson in, you can put him in line. You can run bootlegs and have Hawkinson go down the field. You can, you know, slide Oliver underneath. They insist that Joshiver can catch the ball and that he can make plays i mean if he's catching the ball making plays at his size is going to be kind of scary uh so you know i i mean i think that it just gives them an extra weapon to use to where they can go in it's kind of like this. So in golf, uh, my friend, Brian Murphy, who I play

golf with all the time contributes to purple insider. He has this little thing that he uses to putt off the green. It's like a chipper. I don't know if you've ever seen one of these, it's not a putter where it's straight on and it's not like a wedge that's sort of flat. It's like a chipper and it's just something he pulls out when he's eight feet from the green and he just, you know, dink so that you couldn't get it through the grass with a putter, but you can do it with a chipper. I think that's Josh Oliver where he's a club that you pull out. Uh, Alexander, I checked, it's not an illegal club cause I bought one. Um, you can use this thing. I think I checked on this. I think there are certain kinds of them that might be illegal, but I think it's legal. You'll have to tell me. You'll have

to look it up. But either way, that's him. He's not you're not going to use it all the time. You're not going to use it like 220 yards away. But situationally, if it's the right thing to use at that time based on the matchup, then, you know, it's something that can be very good for you. Very effective. Brian's great at using it. So I hope Josh Oliver as a putter chipper makes sense metaphorically. From Elijah, any word on Asamoah? Yeah, he's taken all the first team reps and that's about the best I could do. I mean, it's linebackers talk about positions that are hard to figure out if you were ranking them

quarterback is the easiest position to watch in training camp does it look like it all makes sense and he's completing passes and looking on time very easy to figure out that's the whole Kyle Slaughter thing from years ago if you you watched a single practice, you knew that wasn't going anywhere. But linebacker might be the hardest. Is a guy in the right position? Is he making the right reads? Is he communicating out there? These are all things the coach can evaluate that we really can't. So, yeah, there you go, Alexander.

A legal club. I thought so when I bought it because I didn't want to have like some goofy nonsense. I mean, I want to play at least fairly legit. I use the foot wedge every once in a while, but try to be legit. Try to count the balls that go in the water. At least, um, from Matthew Vegas has over under for the Vikings at 8.5 realize you don't gamble, but is this a fair line for where the team is at? I think there's a, there's a growing excitement around the team that you can sort of feel on a daily basis. And that might change, but it, at least that's been my impression so far. There's just a momentum going on right now. And you know, I, you, you guys know I've covered it all. I've covered the most tense training

camps. I've covered camps where tons of guys get injured 2018 where the office of coordinator and zimmer weren't getting along and so forth this is one so far of the most like energetic guys are moving to where they're supposed to be a lot of uh excitement on the sidelines with plays are getting made. Kirk seems very comfortable. The offensive players seem comfortable in what they're doing, but it still is fair to say eight and a half. When you look at the roster in general, the number of players who would need to improve greatly or the number of players who are completely unproven that's where if you're making bets it's hard to say oh yeah let me bet on five or six guys working out but i mean i agree with uh purple haze that says hunter signing upped it by a half a win that's probably right i mean i i

think that they are a 10 win team is where i've had them. And that's where I'm going to stay with until something happens that changes. Uh, I was very 50, 50 on Hunter. That would have moved me back probably a win, maybe to an eight or nine win team if they couldn't rush the passer at all, but we'll 10 get them in the playoffs. Like probably would it get them a division title? I don't know. Uh, that's where I see them right now. There's enough weaknesses as I watch. Cornerback. I mean, if Juwan Williams is your starter or Makai Blackman,

that's a big question mark right there. And a Caleb Evans. We haven't just decided he's great. Brian Asamoah, we haven't just decided he's great. And can they stop the run? Can they rush the passer with anybody else uh these brian flores blitz is gonna work or are they going to give up a million yards you know things like that all right so this is how i know it's the last question of the night and we're

going to do this all week all week guys um until thursday because i have a wedding to go to on Saturday. So I will not be at that practice or broadcasting afterward, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday, they have a day off and they'll break news on that Friday. So we'll probably see you then.

But this is the last question of the night. We'll have a hot routes episode slash recap tomorrow. Will raggets is going to join tomorrow live. That's going to be awesome. And a lot of exciting things coming on the channel by the way we're going to relaunch the hot routes brand we're going to be broadcasting here now that i got the studio all the time looking to do it through the season maybe every night like this so make this appointment viewing uh to come on and participate that's That's the plan.

And to do it after every training camp practice, after the preseason games, all that stuff. So you're going to want to keep an eye on this channel. But here's how I know that the night is over for a question is how do I think Najee Thompson or do I think he gets Najee Thompson gets cut or is on the practice squad? I would say Najee Thompson has actually had a few splash plays, a couple of interceptions past breakups, and he seems to be like a practice squad guy. And, uh, he's interesting. I mean, but not really an athletic freak or anything, but he is quite a ways down in the depth chart. I practice squad at absolute best.

So anyway, well, lots of exciting things on the way. We will be here tomorrow night and that'll be one. You don't want to miss where we've got a will raggets myself. Jonathan Harrison will be here. We'll have some hot routes, but also answering your questions.

We'll get Will's perspective. So you don't just have to hear me talk about it all the time. And you guys are the best every night.'s more people here more engagement uh don't get a headache reading the last question no no i mean naji thompson someone i actually had my eye on so i i did have something there because he made a few splash plays it's it's not a silly question he actually has made a few plays but anyway well thanks so much we'll be here tomorrow night and every night this week. Really appreciate you guys. And we'll talk again soon. Football.