Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Harrison Smith is back with the Vikings

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about Harrison Smith's return and what comes next with the Vikings' plan for free agency https://surfshark.deals/PURPLEINSIDER Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another emergency episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here, and guess what? Harrison Smith is back, everybody. It's something that has been talked about quite a bit through the off-season by us here on the show. Would Harrison Smith come back? Is he going to return? Is he going to retire? And I'll tell you the truth. At the end of last year, I thought that Harrison Smith was probably going to retire. That's where my bet was laid. And I even wrote an article, if you want to go to my Twitter and take a look at it, about if he retires, then he has made a Hall of Fame case

where I broke down all the numbers on Harrison Smith, talked to the safeties that played with him through the years, Anderson Dayhoe, Anthony Harris, and just tried to capture the total value of Harrison Smith throughout his entire career. And I wanted to do that because I thought this might be it for Harrison Smith. This might be the last time that we see him in purple, but he decided that he did not want to make it the last time that he played for the Minnesota Vikings. So Harrison Smith is back. It is reported by, I actually, I think his agency sent it out that he restructured his contract and it's going to be worth $9 million, which is a great cap hit for Harrison

Smith. Tell you the truth. And I'll pull up some numbers here on Harrison Smith from last year, because I think that the question is probably, what is he going to look like? How good is he still? And in my opinion, I think that Harrison Smith last year showed that he still has a lot of value and also that his value is not entirely just tied in to his physical abilities that his mental part of the game is still extremely strong and extremely important and he could still be one of the better and more impactful safeties in the game so i've got his numbers up he graded a 68.9 by PFF, which is about average. And across the board, he was okay in every category, run defense coverage and so forth. Well, really

stands out. So of course, and I think Harrison Smith would tell you this. It's not the same 2017 Harrison Smith that was now, you know, some time ago in our lives. But I think what really stands out to me about Harrison Smith's data from last year is just the way that Brian Flores used him. And by the way, if you were wondering when opponents threw against Harrison Smith, they had very little success, only a 78.8 quarterback rating when throwing at him. And here's a crazy number. Harrison Smith has not allowed an 85 or higher quarterback rating into his coverage since 2016. How crazy is that? I mean, for a safety where it kind of goes up and down from year to year,

but Harrison Smith has been that consistently successful when he's targeted by opposing quarterbacks. I think that really says something about him that he is able to be consistently successful that way. But what really stuck out to me about Harrison Smith was these numbers, where he aligned last year under Brian Flores. And actually he told us before last season that one of the reasons he continued to come back was that he was really interested in playing for Brian Flores. And I thought that you felt that synergy between those guys really from day one. So I'm guessing that one of the reasons that Harrison Smith is returning is because he wanted to play for Brian Flores again. so here's the alignment numbers he took 185 play reps snaps whatever you want to call it uh 185 snaps on the defensive line so all the way up the d-line 390 as a box safety

151 as a slot corner and 39 as an outside corner and that that's from PFF, those numbers. So he was all over the place last year. And now he continues to do it again. And this has an impact across the board on the Vikings defense. So we're going to go through the depth chart, what it looks like. Of course, I'll answer questions after I'm kind of done breaking this out and sorting it out because it just happened. And now we're on the fly, just breaking this down. So from the perspective of the entire defense, where it really matters is Josh Metellus.

Because my expectation was if Harrison Smith did not return, then the Vikings were going to take Josh Metellus and move him into Harrison Smith's spot, which is a similar type of role. But Metellus plays much more in the box than he does deep safety. And he is more like a hybrid move around type of linebacker than Harrison Smith is, who's more of a pure safety, but comes up into the box throughout his career. But with now Josh Metellus, he can maintain this role on the defense where he can be that guy who's all over the place, the Rover, the hybrid, whatever you want to say. The thing that for years I kind of made fun of because I had never seen a defensive coordinator use it successfully, or maybe only a handful of times

and then you know here comes Brian Flores and proves me wrong that you can have a hybrid safety and have success with them but now Metellus doesn't have to slide around on the defense he can play that same role that he played before and Harrison Smith continued to do what he does it allows their secondary to have a lot of continuity and we'll get to some corners that are still remaining out there uh there's not that many that are really good because corner is a very important position uh but you know mentioned Xavier Howard in the in the comments there he's got previous experience with Brian Flores and was very good under Brian Flores. Quite possibly that could be a name they look at. But when you think about the secondary

in general, you are now bringing back, and I'm going to count Metellus in this, Metellus, Bynum, Makai Blackman, Byron Murphy, presumably a Caleb Evans will have some role on this team. I'm not sure if he's starting again or if they're looking for an upgrade there at corner. I would assume that they are looking for an upgrade, but he's still on the team. And we know that Brian Flores uses every player if he's on the roster. That's a lot of guys to bring back who already know the system and they don't have to really make any replacements there. And just to speak with to Harrison Smith a little bit more, I think that there is a different value that he's brought over the last couple of years as being a veteran that does bring everybody with him. I don't think Harrison Smith is necessarily

a guy who says, I'm going to be the coach on the field. I'm going to teach these young guys how to play. But I think his approach and his intelligence and his ability, I think it just permeates the entire defensive back room. And if there are similar people in that room like him, and I think Metellus is, and I think Bynum is, guys who bring a real intellectual approach to the game, that having him there raises all boats. And we saw that last year, we've seen every safety who has played next to Harrison Smith over his career play really well. And that matters. And we saw Bynum,

I think really took a, a big step forward last year. And, and I think that you could attribute at least some of that to Harrison Smith. So this is important for the Vikings defense, because now if we go through the entire defense and how it's going to look next year,

as it stands right now, they also brought back Jonathan Bullard. So there are improvements still to make. We'll get to that, but they've got Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Grenard as their edge rushers right now, Harrison Phillips and Jonathan Bullard at defensive tackle. Another guy is needed there.

Somebody brought up Sebastian Joseph Day in my email, so thanks for doing that. I think that's a potential guy they could look at. DJ Reader has been brought up by a few of you, so there's still some defensive tackles out there. They need to add another one and have Jonathan Bullard be a role player. They also let Kyrus Tonga go today. So he's out, not a fit, I guess, with Brian Flores.

At the linebacker position, Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace Jr., they need more linebackers because they don't have any on the roster other than Brian Asamoah. Obviously, that didn't really work out last year. Maybe there's a spot for him next year. But the fact that they played Troy Dye over Brian Asamoah tells you that they're going to need more bodies there. Maybe Troy Dye comes back. And then the secondary kind of laid out.

So right now, this starting lineup as a defense is pretty solid. It's only a starting lineup. There is no depth whatsoever, and that's what they have to improve. And at the defensive tackle position, I was going through the list of remaining defensive tackles. And I think the biggest thing I took away is how few impact defensive tackles there really are. I mean, it is just a rare position and a guy who was one of my favorite, which was Sheldon Rankins.

I thought he would have been a good fit. He just went off the board. I literally have the Adam Schefter announcement right here that he just went off the board there. So, you know, I think it's a position that's going to be hard to find a difference maker. They could try to draft one. Some folks have brought up Tierra Tart, who got released by the Texans last year.

I don't know that I'm into that idea, though I think he's very good. I just, I don't know. It seems like there must be a problem there. The only real impact player left at the defensive tackle position is Eric Armstead, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers. Seems like that was a cap casualty for them.

So the Vikings could look at him. That would be a lot of money to spend, more likely than not. He's going to be expensive, but this is a position that they need. So just to reset, Harrison Smith coming back, he's only going to cost $9 million on his restructure. I don't know the exact dollar figures of how that's going to work out. I imagine that in this case, they are going to have to move some money down the road to restructure this, but we'll have to find out. These things usually take a little bit to get in the NFL system and then get on over the cap.com, but he's clearly taking, well, you could call it a pay cut. He really took a pay cut last year. And then it hinted this year, there was a huge cap hit that

was never going to happen. He was either going to rework that or he was going to retire. And those were the only two options. I never saw Harrison Smith playing anywhere else that once he signed his last big contract, it felt like Harrison Smith is either a Minnesota Viking or a nothing. And that's how it appears now, that he is coming back 35 years old. But I think you see from the usage numbers and the impact on other players that he can still be very good. It's not like teams were suddenly targeting him and having a lot of success or anything like that last year. Harrison Smith can still play, even if it's not the same level of impact as it has been in the past. And, of course, one of the questions here, do I see any role for Louis Seane?

I do not. I think that Louis Seane is probably a camp cut at the end of the year and that they will they will move on. So that's just how it goes sometimes with rookies with draft picks. It doesn't work out from time to time. And that looks like that's going to be the case with Louis scene because I do not see any position for him. Maybe they will keep him on the roster because he's under contract as depth. But if they couldn't even trust him and they're also bringing back Theo Jackson, then he's going to be pushed even farther and farther down the list on the defensive or on the safety depth charts. So yeah, there's really no role here for Louis scene. That's how it goes. Sometimes you draft players that don't work out

and they really missed on that one. But the thing is that it's like when sometimes when the draft closes a door, another window opens. I mean, that's Josh Metellus to me is that a lot of you have brought up like, Hey, you know, they should have drafted Kyle Hamilton and no doubt about it. Can't Kyle Hamilton is absolutely fantastic, but by not drafting Kyle Hamilton and having Lewis seen fail, Josh Metellus emerged as a very similar type of playmaking player. And Hey, look, I don't know. Like I, you know, I don't know about the draft and neither does anybody else. Sometimes it's weird, right? Sometimes a player who is amazing at Georgia and is the defensive player, the game for the national championship game fails and a

sixth round draft pick ends up succeeding that, you know, it was kind of a, just a versatile guy in college, but never had a whole lot of buzz and then was cut out of his first camp. Josh Metellus went played special teams and then becomes a really good player. I that's football. Sometimes it's weird like that, but I think it really shows you that, uh, it was, um, it's a, it's an important position for intelligence and for the ability to read and react and study and understand all the moving parts on the field. And nobody does that better than Harrison Smith, but Josh Metellus and Cam Bynum are guys that are built in that similar mold. They just didn't have the physical skills of someone like Harrison Smith or Louis seen. So you just kind of got a shrug.

And the same thing goes for Brian awesome. Wah, where Brian awesome. Wah, doesn't work out as a pick, but Ivan Pace jr. Does football's weird like that. No one would have ever, would have ever seen that coming. I think so. Let me just take a look. If you guys have anything else to say about Harrison Smith, feel free, but my reaction is pretty simple. There's no downside to Harrison Smith coming back. And now that we have seen him for several years in not the same exact level of speed as he had before, and yet still impacting the game, I think it shows you that age for this position.

And look, Ed Reed played into his 30s there's been plenty of safeties who have before uh didn't eric wasn't eric weddle who came out of retirement to play for the rams am i am i making that up um so sometimes you know it's really more about uh the type of things that you can handle intellectually and brian florist could put so much on harrison smith's plate that he was in the right positions he also understands the game so well at this point that as you saw from those numbers or as i brought up with the numbers uh that he only allowed a 78.8 quarterback rating into his coverage the longest completion on him was only 36 yards last year, only 8.2 yards per reception against him, which is extremely,

extremely good for a safety. I mean, this is, this has got to be a very happy day for Brian Flores to know that he's going to get Harrison Smith back. And the fact that it's not going to be a defense that requires its leaders to really change here other than Jordan Hicks. You know, this helps them maintain some of the most difficult parts, which is all these guys that are moving around. So pace, you know, did it last year.

And then the entire secondary is all going to continue to be in place. The edge rushers. Now, Ben Ginkle already knows Brian Flores. He's been in this defense before. And Jonathan Grenard is, is a pass rusher. So he's going to be taking on more of a Daniil Hunter type of look. He's not going to be dropping back at coverage.

He's not going to be doing too much. He's going to be running after the passer. So there isn't going to be this learning curve, even though there's new players, except for really Blake Cashman at the linebacker position is going to have a lot to learn. But aside from that, it's not like revamping this defense is requiring a bunch of guys to learn a bunch of new things where the beginning of next year is going to be a mess from the start. And now I think we can start talking about if you add another piece or two,

what are the expectations of the vikings defense next year if they are able to add a piece or two a dj reader or you know another defensive tackle then i think we should be talking about them as an above average defense and now there's more pieces that brian flores has to work with another thing thing I wouldn't mind if they did was bring back DJ Wanham, if there's a reasonable price. The fact that no one has picked up Wanham yet so far makes me think that a lot of teams, wait for it, might not want him. Right. Am I right? Am I right, guys? Right. Want him on him? So maybe the Vikings want him back. But no, I think DJ Wanham was a really good fit for Brian Flores. And in the right role,

he can be an important player, which is to mix and match and be a third down rusher, or he can come in. I mean, he actually did a really good job against the run last year. So now that he's showed that versatility, if there's nobody that's going to make DJ Wanham a starter and a highly paid player, then I don't think that there's any reason not to consider that, right? That they should look at bringing back Wanham to try to fill this thing out because that's really the next step is they have starting positions now finding another difference maker on the defensive line finding someone who could be an upgrade maybe it's legerius need although i saw the latest update on who could trade for legerius need did

not include the vikings i think it was maybe the titans that were looking at it so that may have been a pipe dream they might have to look at somebody more like Kendall Fuller, who's a really nice player, if they're into a spending mood. I was writing down a bunch of guys. Levi Wallace is a pretty good, proven type of cornerback. But Steven Nelson has been around for a while, if they just want to take the entire Texans defense from last year. But there are players that they could still add.

I also think that it's not a bad thing. If the Vikings decided to wait for a little bit, it might be smart for them to wait and see who kind of falls through the cracks and wait till maybe, you know, the next wave of free agency to do a heck of a lot more now that they've spent a lot of money, they've done their restructures and all those types of things. So there you have it. There is your, your full Harrison Smith returns evaluation. His camera might not want them. Good. Okay. Well done. Yeah, that's right. It's,

it spent way too much time over the last few days looking at me, and it really got – it said camera exhausted, and I was like, I get it. I get it. I'm exhausted. What a time it's been, right? That happened to their first draft, yeah, in 2022. That's good. You guys are funny.

So what's on your minds here? We'll see if my camera charges up a little bit um and i can flip back to the normal look but for now this is just fine um so a gas powered camera yeah uh yeah right i'm gonna have to get one from recently okay yeah so this is a this is a good idea right here from uh big grill and dad um about kevin zeitler i was looking at some available guards and kevin zeitler was the name that came to mind for me and i was looking like wait is um you know it is he get is he is he exhausted uh as a player like my camera and uh the answer is no it looked like he graded pretty

well from the baltimore ravens last 71 grade, which was fine among guards. It wasn't too bad. So I think that Kevin Zeitler is a good idea. I'll give you some other names that I wrote down at the guard position. Let's see, Zeitler. Oh, Connor Williams. Now, Connor Williams had played center for Miami, but he's also played guard. And another guy that might be interesting as well is John Feliciano, who's a veteran. He's on the older side, but I didn't want to be seen spelled with a C. That's another good one. So John Feliciano is another guy who played really well for San Francisco last year in his thirties. But this is a situation where if they went out and got an older offensive guard, I think you're good with that because they've kind of, you know, they've they've drafted people and they've tried to throw younger people in their younger guards in there.

Doesn't always work or they've tried the journeyman thing doesn't always work. If they were to get someone who's really experienced, has a long, long track record of starting, then that would be good. So Zeitler or someone like Connor Williams, who has been better as a guard than he was as a tackle. And, you know, I think Dalton Reisner is still in consideration. But the thing about Reisner is when he tweeted out that he wants to sign somewhere or what, I can't remember exactly what he tweeted, but it was something like, hey, come get your favorite guard. That made me think that the Vikings may have told Dalton Reisner that it's not going to happen

and that they might have somebody else in mind. I like Dalton Reisner, but I also think that they really want to have a good running game. And signing Aaron Jones to go along with Ty Chandler would tell bringing back poor run blocking offensive guards is one way to do it. Even if you have a, a really, you know, a really good pass blocker at that position. So it's a balance though,

because you have a guy, you know, in Dalton Reisner who could protect your young quarterback or Sam Darnold, whoever it is, that's important. So I've always kind of gone back and forth on Dalton Reisner because you can make an argument, Hey, having a run game is pretty important. And you can also make an argument that, Hey, you know, uh, pass blocking is more important than just about anything. And when the Vikings did build their offensive lines specifically for the run game,

there was some times where it suffered when it came to the interior pressure, which murdered Kirk Cousins on a number of occasions. You also can't really trust the center or the right guard. Ed Ingram made some progress last year, but was certainly not an above average player. Was still in the top five or bottom five, I guess. Top five in a bad way of pressures allowed and was a non-difference maker in the run game.

So unless they think that he's going to take a step forward, but I can't count on that. I think if he ever gets to average, then he would be in pretty good shape. Let's see. How about Bakhti areas of backup left tackle? I know. I don't think so. I think they're in a good place with backup left tackle. They brought back David question, Barry, good player. He's been a starter in the league before he could play any position. You would much rather have that than somebody who you don't even know is going to play. In fact, I really think David Bakhtiari should just retire. He's missed what, like three straight seasons, mostly. Reg says, wouldn't Flacco have been a better choice than Sam Darnold? I don't know about that. You're going to have to give me your logic on why you think that would be. Joe Flacco got a lot of love last year.

It was really fun story for Cleveland. If you actually look how he played, it wasn't that good. I mean, it was fine. It was like typical type of backup level. Is it because Flacco has just been around longer that we think he's going to be a better mentor to a young quarterback?

I mean, clearly Indianapolis thinks that he's going to be a better mentor to a young quarterback. I mean, clearly Indianapolis thinks that he's going to be with Anthony Richardson, that those two are going to fit together. A lot of arm strength between those two guys. He's a little cheaper than Darnold, but I also think that Sam Darnold, a major part of it is just that there is the possibility that he can be better than he's ever been now that he's with the Vikings where Joe Flacco, I mean, how much longer can Joe Flacco play? Would you really want Joe Flacco starting a season and playing over multiple games or an entire season if he had to? Because if the Vikings draft J.J. McCarthy and they decide that he's not really ready, well then, I mean, they might end up playing Sam Darnold

for half the season or more than that, and I'm okay with that. But I don't know if you'd want to ask Joe Flacco to play much longer. And I also think that Sam Darnold has already been in this role, and he clearly had success with it last year. The role of being a veteran quarterback, even though he's not that old with a younger quarterback

that's still emerging in Brock Purdy. Let me look at Sam Darnold stats versus Joe Flacco over recent years, by the way, because I'm going to guess that it's actually not better. So how far do we want to go back for Joe Flacco? Since he left Baltimore, let's take a look here. Since Joe Flacco left Baltimore, he is 7-15 as a starter with an 84.8 quarterback rating. That is pretty rough. I think we're using maybe some recency bias to think that Joe Flacco is decent. Let's see. Since Sam Darnold left the jets, he has a 77.9 rating and he's eight and 10 as a starter. So you're really not

talking about a whole lot of difference except for one guy has more upside than the other one. And that's really about it. Darnold, maybe a little more mobility, but not really a runner. Either way, you're talking about a backup quarterback. It's just that Darnold, maybe a little more mobility, but not really a runner. Either way. You're talking about a backup quarterback. It's just that Darnold, I think gives you the potential to fit in and perform better than he has before where Joe Flacco, if he had to start more than like five games, I think you might be in trouble there.

Julian says having a good running game would help the rookie quarterback. Totally agree. And I was looking at this yesterday and I'm going to try fixing the camera here in a second. I was looking at this yesterday and I noticed that Jordan Love had a 118 quarterback rating when the Packers were running play action. That is fantastic. The Vikings have not had good play action numbers, or at least great since Kevin O'Connell got here. Really hasn't been all that good since Kubiak. And Kubiak was brilliant at running play action.

That's his thing. Won Super Bowls with that, you know, back in the Denver days. Made Matt Schaub into a great quarterback with all that Arian Foster and play action stuff. So you would expect that, you know, the Kubiak style would be really good at it, but O'Connell has not mastered that. And I think part of it is tying the run in the past together. Yeah. You really could use the run first. I know that statistically you can still succeed at play action without the run game, but man, you can't convince me. It doesn't help to have Aaron Jones. And another thing about Aaron Jones, I ran across that I didn't realize

till yesterday. This guy is the fifth highest yards per carry for a running back in NFL history. History is the same as Barry Sanders. That is wild. I mean, he's like right there with Jim Brown, as far as yards per attempt. I don't know if he's going to be healthy all year or if he still brings that level of play to the Vikings, but you can't tell me that that guy doesn't draw the attention of the defense. Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network? I did not make this up. It is an actual thing. And U.S. Cellular is letting you test drive their network for free for 30 days.

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Test drive, U.S. Cellular's award-winning network for 30 days. U.S. Cellular, built for us. Terms apply. Awards based on OpenSignal independent data. Visit uscellular.com for details. Let's see. No stop says any chance we grab a defensive tackle in free agency. Armstead is 30. So a one-year contract, he probably wants three. Yeah. I mean, they do have to get one for sure. They have to get a defensive tackle. There's no question about it. It's just who they're going to get. They can't run back Harrison Phillips and Jonathan Bullard as the only two.

Again, they have to go out and get somebody a three-year deal for Eric Armstead. Let me take a look at how he played last year. I mean, this guy has been such a beast over his career, but and this is a position that generally ages pretty well. So, I mean, I don't know. It looks like he was still really good, especially in pass rush. 42 pressures last season. 500 snaps, but graded over an 80 by PFF.

So his numbers are pretty good. But I think if you're expecting the Armstead that was playing 800 snaps, that's not who he is. You would really have to be looking at him as much more of a uh a rotational type guy so if it was a multi-year deal i mean we've seen someone like calais campbell continue to be really effective um you know so if it was a multi-year deal i don't think that means that it's going to be a disaster it's just that you're probably getting five to 600 snaps out of him. And in

those 500 snaps, he's going to cause a lot of problems. I mean, he only, he was in for 360 pass rush snaps and had 42 pressures and a number of sacks. So he's still pretty effective as a situational pass rusher, but that's kind of more of what he is now than what he used to be like three, four years ago. You would have to take that into consideration uh are there any young defensive tackles left unfortunately not really and so i i have the list here and i've been looking through it scrolling up and down for anybody that might have some potential still and that's the thing about free agency is free agency is for veterans. It's hard to find anybody on the younger side and looking at anybody under the age of maybe 28, Tierra Tart is really

the only one that I would look at and say, well, that guy's kind of a monster. But Tierra Tart, the fact that he was an issue last year for the Titans would make me concerned. And the other guy that is on the younger side is Ross Blacklock, who, of course, we saw and was super ineffective for the Minnesota Vikings. So there really aren't, which means they should look at somebody like Armstead, look at somebody like Reeder, and go from there, I think. Paul says, would love to know what you think of Sims and Florio thinking the Vikings are dysfunctional because they didn't sign Kirk well you know I try not to get into any sort of like I'm gonna disrespect what other media people say and things like that which is a delicate dance

because a lot of the things that have been said about the Vikings over the last week and their plan have sounded like people that weren't paying that close of attention. But of course, Florio is a Vikings fan, so he should be paying close attention to what they've been doing over the last several years to lead up to this moment. But I don't think that's what he's pointing at. I think he's pointing at Kevin O'Connell said that he wanted Kirk back publicly. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensa has sort of, you know, told the line of like, I like Kirk, but you know, there's a price tag and all that. And they ultimately move on.

And so I think what they're trying to tie together is, well, did they undermine their coach by not giving him back his quarterback? But, you know, I think what you heard from Kevin O'Connell at the combine, when he said that Kirk has earned the right to hit free agency, you know, I think that he understood all along that there was a very realistic possibility that Kirk could leave because they didn't negotiate a deal with him the previous year, even though they tried on a short-term deal.

But Kirk bet on himself. And guess what? Kirk won again, as Kirk always does in free agency. But I think that this was something that they had prepared for was like you get to the fork in the road and it might go left or it might go right. It might go, here's the plan. If Kirk returns, here's the plan. If he doesn't on their price and he didn't. So now they have their plan to go forward and draft a quarterback. But we've also heard from Kevin O'Connell about really liking the draft class

and being in the meetings with some of the guys and being impressed and all these things. And you could hear a little excitement in his voice when he was talking about that when we were at the NFL Combine. So I look at it as more of a typical speculation of Mike Florio that he does that a lot with teams where he looks at what's going on from the outside and he offers a sort of speculative opinion. And, you know, that's maybe I don't know if it's rooted in anything or not. But I wondered about it. You know, I'll say that I wondered about it. I wondered if this was the type of thing that could cause some rifting. And I brought it up a few weeks ago with Kevin Seifert. Like, could there be, you know be some butting of heads over this decision? But I think what makes it easier for those two to be on the same page is simply the price. I mean, how, if you're Kevin

O'Connell, could you now look at what they've done on defense and think, oh man, this was bad for us, like what they've been able to spend and likely structure contracts to use cap space from down the road, knowing that Kirk's deal is not going to be there. How, if you're Kevin O'Connell, would you be upset about the idea of finally having a really good defense that you could put a lot of money into? And also, I mean, with Kirk Cousins, you've got to know if you're O'Connell, that if you pay someone that much money, take a look in the rearview mirror at your predecessors who are still, you know, Mike Zimmer still shaking his fist angrily at Kirk Cousins' money and contracts. Like, how would you look at

what happened to the past regime and not say, you know what, some of that was probably because of Kirk Cousins and because of Kirk Cousins' money. So I don't know. To me, it doesn't sound like it was a report. Maybe it's just more speculation because I haven't seen any evidence of this. The evidence sort of suggests that they had a price on Cousins that they were willing to pay, and he went way over that price, and he ends

up with the Atlanta Falcons so I don't know uh but maybe maybe he's talking to different people than I am there could I don't know there could always be headbutting over these things when it's a quarterback decision that is a big organizational decision uh when you have over the head coach and maybe O'Connell thought the price should have been different. I just never got that. I never got that vibe that O'Connell was being unrealistic about it because every time he spoke about it, he said, Kirk knows how I feel about him. He knows I want him back, but you know, but this might not work out and, but he might hit free agency,

but he might choose somebody else and he chose somebody else. So that's how I'm looking at it for now until we have any other evidence that I should have a different opinion. So David says the Texans traded picks 1233 and a 2024 first and third to move up to three last year to move ahead of the Colts who took a quarterback. Do you think that is close to what we would have to give up for the number three pick? So yeah, 1233. So it'd be a first and a second and the next year's first and third.

So this is something that I brought up in a conversation with Eric Eager that's going to run soon on the YouTube channel where he ran through the Jimmy Johnson chart, the, you know, kind of the analytical percentages and whatever the numbers, the nerd stuff about the draft value and what it might take. And he suggested spoiler, something very similar to what the Texans gave up for the Vikings to move up to number four. And now I'm looking at the Arizona Cardinals is I think you have to get to four to ensure yourself to play no games that you get your quarterback there. If they're moving

up, that's what they're doing it for, to make sure they get one of the elite four quarterback prospects. And if they do that, then we'll be sure that they saw a big gap between someone like McCarthy and Bo Nix and Michael Pennix. I don't know that they do right now because they haven't told anybody, but that would sure indicate it if they moved up to number four. And that is probably around the ballpark of what it's going to take. The thing that I'm factoring here is that they are going to have competition and that there's going to be other teams that will want to make a similar trade up so is that what's going to happen where you get into a bidding war

and you end up having to give up more than the texans did last year to move up to number three that is possible but yeah i mean i think that that's a really really reasonable price. Daniel says, do you think that Bradbury gets cut by Saturday before his contract guarantees? I don't think so. One of the things about Garrett Bradbury that I want to bring up, and I wrote about this last year, is his first couple of years were absolutely brutal. There's no way around that.

Really, really tough. First couple of years in the league. Facing Kenny Clark and Akeem Hicks. And I think snacks Harrison all in the same division was pretty tough. And he got whooped a lot of times by those guys. And over the last two years, working with their current offensive line coach in Kevin O'Connell's offense,

I think that Garrett Bradbury has been an average center and by all the metrics he has been, you don't notice him getting forklifted as much as he used to. I know Kenny Clark did it to him again in Green Bay. But aside from that, on a week-to-week basis, Garrett Bradbury has been a pretty solid player over the last two years. Is he a difference maker in this run system? No. In the outside zone, he could be. They really should use him more in the screen

game to get out and some of those screens and use him a little more to his strengths, I think. But he knows the offense inside and out. And the way that he guided Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullins, and I know they didn't win, but they were in really every game except for the Packers game. But the way that he managed the quarterback changes, the offensive line, the checks and changes and all the things that go into that, it has a lot of respect from his teammates. And I think it's really an underrated part of being a center and is very important. So they should just stick with him because you start making changes to center. How much of an upgrade you get and versus a guy who really understands the

offense so when you bring in an inexperienced quarterback to run this offense and you go up to the line of scrimmage you have Garrett Bradbury who understands all those checks and changes he can read the defense and make the protection changes instead of the quarterback that is an important skill to have as opposed to going out and getting who Bradley Bozeman or something like some other guy who some other team let go and then bringing them in and then trying to teach them and the quarterback and offense. That would not make a whole heck of a lot of sense to me. Nathan says upside with Darnold, not happy about the oh, you're're referring to maybe the Flacco thing. Yeah, upside with Darnold is definitely the difference for sure. Not happy about Hunter's loss while retaining Smith.

Love 22, but come on. Hunter was clearly our best player on defense, an all-time great Viking with a lot left. Well, this is not an either or. This is not a situation where you either picked Harrison Smith or Daniil Hunter to come back. Daniil Hunter got basically a fully guaranteed contract for the next two seasons at about $24.5-$25 million a year. I think it was $24.5 million a year. That is a very steep price for Daniil Hunter that the Vikings decided to spread out that money to Jonathan Grenard and to Andrew Van Ginkle rather than bringing Hunter back.

And if it's fully guaranteed, then you risk if there's any injury for next year, that it could become a really big problem because then his guaranteed money is on the books. Then you are, see when you give Jonathan Grenard a multi-year deal and it's around $20 million, that doesn't seem like that much different from Daniil Hunter's 24, but it is in the structure that

you can spread money out. You can push it down the road. You can make it so there's restructures. When someone has a fully guaranteed contract, there's not a whole lot you can do to manipulate that in the future. So great for Daniil. I mean, I respect the heck out of Daniil Hunter, one of my favorite players to cover, an absolute monster, one of the all-time great Vikings. Absolutely.

But it's risky at his age. So they went younger at that position. And it's also more difficult to work around those fully guaranteed dollars. But it wasn't a choice between Hunter or Harrison Smith. You were not getting Hunter back because his price was so high, and it really seemed like he wanted to test the waters and go somewhere else. I mean, just the way that his situation's been handled over years has kind of pointed to him wanting to do that.

So he did, and I think that's okay because they got replacements. But it's hard to replace the Neil Hunter. There's no question. He's a great player. But everything is the economics game. Everything is if you spend over here, then you can't spend over there. And if you don't have this flexibility, then you can't do that. And at Hunter's age with his injury history, you'd be walking a bit of a tightrope there. And as far as,

you know, retaining Harrison Smith, yeah, I mean, he is still a good player. It's not going to cost a heck of a lot of money. So, you know, all good to go. Let's see. Steve says, why does the national media keep pushing Kweisi to trade Justin Jefferson for less than market value. So this is something that I'll try not to go too off the deep end with complaining about. I talked about it a little bit last night if you want to go check that out. But I just think that, so here's how I'll lay it out for you. I looked up a bunch of different contract negotiation players in recent years. And every single one of them had stories about how the negotiation was going badly. They were demanding a trade. There's a problem like Debo Samuel,

demanding a trade, Jalen Johnson, demanding a trade. Those guys both signed huge contracts with their team that this is part of how it goes. And it always has. As far as contracts with really expensive and really great players, that there's always a game that gets played through the media. And the other thing is to, let's be honest, we all love drama. Do we not? We love drama.

We love trades. We love fake trades. We love arguing. Would you do T. Higgins and two firsts for Justin Jefferson? We love that. That's what we do. That's football. And I think that in this case, there's a lot of that. And I saw Tom Pelissero put it out there that Jefferson wants to see what they do first. Well, this isn't really a thing either, I think, because they were probably going to negotiate after free agency and after the draft, as is the general cadence of the offseason

for the Vikings. They've always done it that way. They do free agency, they do the draft, and then they do the contracts, and then they announce them either at the beginning of training camp or a little bit into training camp. Hockinson is about as far as we saw somebody go, but that got done. It is not dramatic. It is not exciting to say, everyone, just be patient. But I have enough drama and excitement with the Minnesota Vikings in many other areas, so I will tell you that. You're just going to have to be patient.

But I think that with every big player who signs a contract extension, we end up with something just like this. Some story about, oh, well, they're they're botching the negotiations and so forth. And like they would have they screwed themselves out of tens of millions of dollars not doing it last year, which I don't think is the case. You know, maybe the price went up a little bit, but we already knew that it was going to be in that 30 to $35 million range. So I don't think it changed a whole lot. Take your deep breaths when it comes to Justin Jefferson and hold tight. And if something changes, then we'll talk about it. But until then, it feels like a lot of reaching a lot of speculation, a lot of, I got nothing to actually report about this.

So I'm going to try that sort of thing. So, uh, Dennis says, uh, don't think New York gave a Darnold much of a chance. They were a horrible team. Yep.

I've got another podcast coming on that with a New York jets podcaster about that. And I think that you're right. That they really did. I mean, they really did. That doesn't mean that if he was a great quarterback at that time, that he shouldn't have made them better. And if you're a great quarterback, you survive that usually rather than getting traded. But to your point, when Carolina traded for him, they traded a second.

When the Patriots traded Mac Jones, they traded him for a sixth. So there was belief there, even in Carolina. And then he's put together stretches that have been at least indicative of a decent quarterback. And he went eight and nine with Carolina, so not terrible. But even if he's a backup who can go 8-9, if that was your season next year and you're developing a quarterback and you're building a team for the future, I mean, that's not a bad outcome. I've been thinking about this a lot, that all those 8-9 and 9-8 seasons with Kirk Cousins, the reason that they're bad is that the expectations were reached the NFC

championship. And that's where the team was at. And that's the financial investment that you made. But if you have a middling season in route, so think about Detroit, right? Detroit has that nine and eight season where they started one and six in route to being a great team last year. If that's your next year for the Vikings, where you have that with Darnold and he's up and down, it's kind of wild. And some weeks he's great. Some weeks he's terrible.

And JJ McCarthy is developing to be the quarterback 2024, or I'm sorry, 20, it is 2024, 2025. Like that's a good outcome. And, and so our expectations change on where the train is going.

If the train has reached winning window station and you go eight, nine, that's terrible. If the train has momentum toward being a Superbowl contender in the future, then eight, nine is a stop along the way. And I look at next season as a stop along the way that they will be a good team, at least from what I'm seeing so far. And bringing back Harrison Smith is part of that, but not probably a true Super Bowl contender. Skull City Blues says, with a projected range of $135 to $150 million over the cap next year, I assume you mean per over the cap next year,

we must throw caution to the wind with draft picks. Getting three is mandatory. If quarterbacks go one and two personally, I would go all in for number two with a Jaden Daniels from LSU one through four, man. Uh, because it seems like there's going to be a lot. It just seems like nobody really knows, seems like there's going to be a lot of competition for J.J. McCarthy, but they have to ensure that they get one through four that they have to vikings then move heaven and earth do not delay do not mess around don't worry about adding one more second round pick from two years from now you'll figure the rest out uh on defense but you've got to make sure you get your guy or this is a mess um because that's what it all hinges on it you know it all hinges on making sure they get who they want in the draft and if they do

then wow this has been the perfect offseason for them um so far there's a lot more to do so eric kendrick's is signing the cowboys huh that's interesting well look you know money there's money um eric kendrick's knows the. And there's also that, you know, time heals all wounds. Clearly, there was something not particularly great with their relationship at the end of the time where Zimmer was in Minnesota. But the relationship with everybody for Mike Zimmer at that time was not good. Eric Hendricks, I think, can still play. Had a decent season with the Chargers last year and is a much better fit for the system that mike zimmer plays as we've seen so yeah that i mean you know that zimmer was going to bring somebody back his way um it's just turns out it's going to be kendrick's

apparently so uh last thing he says which position beside quarterback in the upcoming draft will be the most important position i've got two uh now that they have edge rushers, it's not that they don't have to get defensive end outside linebacker edge rusher types and they could, but it's probably, well, it really depends if they trade up and they use number 42 as part of, you know, trading up to get whoever Drake may or something, then, well, you know, we're looking at development players from the fourth on, and it's going to be a pretty boring day too, for all of us, we won't be doing a live show for day two. If they trade everything up to get their quarterback, that'll be a lot of just sitting around. Maybe I'll eat pizza and watch the draft on my couch

or something as opposed to doing a show. But if they do, say, stay at 11 and draft a quarterback, then they're really looking at either corner or defensive tackle, in my opinion, because they don't have a difference-making corner. They have a solid group of corners, two solid corners in Byron Murphy and Makai Blackman, but not difference-makers. So they need something like that. And there is not one in free agency. They could get Steven Nelson. They could get Kendall Fuller. Who's a pretty good player. It's 29, but they need someone who's young and who has potential to be a shutdown type of corner, someone that, that they can put

on the opposing team's best player and assume they're going to have a chance. Because in recent years, they have not. So that's who I look at. And defensive tackle, of course, they need a defensive tackle who can get after the quarterback. Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives, you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online

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Use Surfshark VPN. Can't access that one website to buy limited edition sneakers? Use Surfshark VPN. Try try surf shark today totally risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee get surf shark vpn at surf shark dot deals slash purple insider enter the promo code purple insider for three extra months for free you heard me right three extra months for free that is surf shark dot deals slash purple insider. Uh, let's see. Terry says Aaron Jones is a great locker room leader. Year after year, Walter Payton nominee. Yeah, this guy, I mean, he's a, he is as pro as it gets.

He is a pro superstar player. And the only question I have about Aaron Jones is just health. That's the only question I have about him because in everything else, he is just a tremendous, tremendous talent. He has shredded the Vikings. He averages, I look this up, he averages 5.8 yards

per carry against the Vikings in his career. That's like the best Adrian Peterson every time he played the Vikings. I know you guys already know that. Vincent says, what do you think about bringing Anthony Barr back? I think Anthony Barr is probably at the end of his run in the NFL. I don't know that there's going to be more for Anthony Barr in the NFL. Last year, he was okay in a handful of snaps,

but then ended up just not even being active at the end of the year. So Nathan wants Tavondre Sweat. Tavondre Sweat is so much fun. What is he, like 360 and runs a five flat or whatever? Joe says, do we have hopes for Jaqueline Roy? You know what? That's a good question. I haven't brought him up much because I still look at him as a, who knows type of

player. I thought last year watching him in training camp and a handful of reps in preseason that he had, uh, how about this for a football term? Heavy hands, heavy hands. Nobody does like when he lays his hands into the offensive line and you can see that that pushback um but that's a development player that's a guy who probably year two year three you hope that he starts to emerge and show something and i think that it's in there but if you're looking for someone who is going to be a difference maker it's probably going to have to

be you know a first or second round draft pick or a big free agent name. So we'll see on Jaqueline Roy. I like some of it, but then he got, you know, banged up a little bit. So, uh, you know, he had a first year that showed a tiny bit of promise, but not enough to really bank on, I think. Okay. This is funny. Sorry. I gotta throw this up. Not signing Kirk was the first sign of functioning in a while In regards to the dysfunction Yeah, I mean, I haven't Look, I haven't seen

Or felt dysfunction Maybe there's some behind the scenes I don't know, when it comes to this Kirk thing I just It has not at any point During Kweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell Felt dysfunctional it hasn't felt like they have no idea what they're doing they have no plan they're just

throwing stuff at the wall they're making random acquisitions like think about 2022 they sense the moment they trade for t.j hawkinson they sign him to an extension he plays really really well like a move like that. Now drafts, you know, like the 2022 draft cannot be apologized for. It has to be held in regard to the plus and minus of this regime, but the moves that they've made something like, you know, going all in for a Hawkinson or letting certain players go, let's look at the guys they let go and what they did last year. Would any them have made the difference of course not so that was seemed to be smart they seem to be on the same page as that and you know what getting josh dobbs i guess there could be you know some

uh maybe koc wanted flacco who like who knows i mean at the time that might have felt uh bad that it didn't work out with josh dob, but it probably wasn't going to. And then this Kirk decision came down to money and Atlanta gave him so much money that how could anyone in the organization not be on board with moving on when that was the dollar figure that Atlanta gave him? I mean, that was crazy. Cade says, what's the timeline for a draft trade up? Oh, it could happen right now, buddy. Trust me.

I keep Adam Schefter right here on the phone because it could really happen. I'm not even kidding you at any, at any point, when you look at some of these trades, now the Texans did it. They did it on draft night, I think. Right. But when you look at some of these trades that have been for a quarterback in the past, it's been, you know, maybe a month or a month, even and a half early leading up to the draft so i would i would bet that now that the first couple of shoes have dropped that quesadilla fomentas

get on the phone today and get on the phone today and start calling the arizona cardinals and see what they want and try to make that move if that's what your plan is, and it probably should be at this point. So the timeline is go to Adam Schefter's Twitter page, put on that notifications, and leave it there because that could happen at any time. And I think that they're trying to do that. That's a guess. It's not sources or anything, but I do think they're trying to do that.

So let's see. Daniel says, with the free agents left, I could see the Vikings going after a defensive tackle in the draft after we get our quarterback. Yep, same here. That is next on the list for sure. Nathan says they don't have the assets needed to move up unless Quasey is allowed to mortgage the entire future well if you look at you know that texans trade to move up if you look at carolina's trade to move up or even the 49ers uh could you do that yeah i think you could i think you could well i mean they they do have the assets though because it's really about what they have in first and second round draft picks and they have a first they have a, they have their future firsts.

You're not really too worried about, Oh, you don't have a third this year. Like, Oh, well that's not really going to make the difference. Maybe they throw in some, some change there eventually, but you know, it's just like they have the first and seconds to package them all together. And when you say mortgage the future, like that sounds like you have to give up everything you have, but you don't have to give up the cap space that you have. And that is important to mention here that you make up for what you lose in, you know,

what you're losing in a draft capital in cap space and down the road at some point, that could be a problem because you want guys on their rookie contracts. But the way that they have moved all the cap space out for the future, all that old money, all that dead cap will be gone after this year. That opens up the window that you're looking for. And then clearly one of the things that's important to mention too, is that because this organization now scores so highly with players, you can get them. And they just did. They just got three of the top free agents off of the list on, on defense. So, you know, I know that that sound, if they did it, that would sound terrifying, but look at what San Francisco did. For example, francisco traded those firsts and they were still able to acquire christian mccaffrey they were still able to acquire trent

williams that you can trade for guys down the road later with second round picks and whatever you need to do uh down the road free agent signings like you you already have some of the hardest parts of the roster done and if you are to trade up and have a quarterback, two-star receivers, two quality tackles, those are most of the key positions. And now you have two quality edge rushers, a couple of good linebackers. There's a lot to work with now, more than there was just even a couple of days ago before they started filling out the defense. Julian says, do you think with Harrison Smith signing, we won't see Lewis scene? You know,

it's actually not even Harrison Smith that makes me think that it's that they, I think they brought back Theo Jackson. Didn't they like it once they brought back Theo Jackson is like, okay, all right, this is, this is pretty much over. And yeah, that's one of the things about lewis scene that's unfortunate is that there has really been no drama whatsoever with this no intrigue with this it was just like it just never happened just a complete failure to launch he never figured out how to play in either donatel or floris's. And then other guys emerged and they were just better than him. If Cam Bonham wasn't good, then Louis Seane would have got his chance probably. And if I assume so, and if Josh Metellus wasn't good, then maybe Louis Seane, they're trying

him in that box role or something like that. But the Vikings, honestly, they kind of lucked out with that happening, that their other two safeties turned out to be good. So, yeah, I think that the Lewis scene, there is no Lewis scene era. It never happened, and it's probably never going to happen. So that's how it goes. Let's see. Sorry, scrolling down here uh every so often it's funny when there's one person who um like makes

makes a pro kirk argument you're like well you're the first in the room after that price so oh here we go uh this is always good gregor says name a good usc quarterback in the NFL. That's always fun. Well, Carson Palmer was fantastic, so that's one. He was a terrific quarterback. But helmet scouting? What year is it? What are we talking about here? I mean, Justin Fields is bad.

C.J. Stroud is good. Kyle Bowler was bad. Aaron Rodgers was good. There's no university that consistently turns out anything it's hard to be in the nfl it's hard to be a great quarterback so you know that's that's how it works like that's kind of the part as um you know like the jj mccarthy thing like i hope they're not looking at the helmet because you shouldn't scout that way uh but yeah like caleb caleb williams also played at oklahoma now we're gonna get to the point where uh quarterbacks played for like five different universities so you have to have five different uh universities that have never uh pumped out a quarterback but

yeah that i mean that's silly so uh let's see mac attack says trade brian o'neill he's average and i assume you meant to write overpaid uh no i don't like that idea i think you have to give brian o'neill a little bit of a leeway for what happened last year which is at the end of the year he started to fall off but he was playing through a foot injury and he was battling that Achilles that made him miss the entire training camp. And the injuries there, yeah, were a problem, but the Achilles thing is kind of a freak injury. And it's a concern now. It definitely is a concern now that he's had those injuries def a hundred percent. Um, but, uh, I still look at him as a very, very good offensive tackle. I mean, he had, I think more problems this year, later in the year, we still saw when he was playing well at the beginning of the season,

I'm pulling up his numbers here. Um, because I still look at him as a very, very good left tackle. And how old is he? He's 28 for an offensive tackle. 28 is definitely not old. Those guys play until they're 35. Yeah, he's still had overall a 74.5 PFF grade. And let me take a look at where that ranked in the NFL, because that doesn't seem too bad to me.

It's just there were a couple of games there at the end of the year where I think he was trying to play through some stuff, and it just was not great. So, yeah, he was 18th in the NFL. He was just ahead of Deion Dawkins, who got a huge contract with the Bills, just ahead of Laramie Tunsil, Ryan Ramchak. So he was still in the range last year, the accumulation of being a very good player.

And, look, you don't want to be getting rid of an offensive tackle. That's really good. When you're drafting another quarterback, that would be a very, very bad idea. Let's see. Rick tick says, why do I get the feeling? A lot of fans want to keep the same for another one and done season. Oh, you mean keep things? Oh, keep things the same. You mean with done season. Oh, you mean keep things? Oh, keep things the same. You mean with cousins there? It doesn't feel like it.

It really doesn't feel like it. And that may be sample selection that fans of this show probably understand the salary cap better, the draft better, the entire franchise better. And that's I guess I am patting myself on the back, but I'm really patting you guys on the back because I noticed from talking to you guys every night that my audience is extremely well-educated about the NFL and this team. And I see that. And that's, that's sort of funny. That's why I kind of freak out sometimes when there's a weird comment, because you guys are usually generally so on point with everything. And so I think that my sampling of

fans who listen to this show, they really understand why the Vikings would let Kirk Cousins go and that they were not interested in another one and done season. They were not interested in fighting with the Lions and the Packers for, you know, second place or third place and barely slipping into the playoffs. So yeah, I, I don't, I don't think that, um, there are many people in Minnesota who saw Kirk leave and thought, oh yeah, we should have given him a hundred million guaranteed to run back something that's literally never worked. Uh, Terry says Vikings maneuvering the void money this year. We will have top five in cap space 2025 yep that is a major part of why when we talk about the functionality of the franchise that

i believe that they could trade up and i also believe that they've done what they set out to do uh and and you know is there a head butting with a head coach and a GM? Like, sometimes, yeah, that happens. But if the end result is that they've gotten to this point and they have found themselves in a position with the cap space that after they take their medicine this year with the dead cap that they could spend it, then they are in a really, really good position. And it looks like they executed what they set out to do. And so that's where when, you know, there's the talk of, hey, is it, you know, something going

on there or whatever? Like, maybe it is. I'm not sure, you know, but I certainly look at the bigger picture of this team and go, this is what you asked for. Now you are the team that's going to have the rookie quarterback contract with all the cap space. Now you get to be the team that goes into free agency that everybody thinks is going to scoop up all the free agents. And they already kind of started that process because they can have bigger cap hits for Grenard and for Andrew Van Ginkle later on. Marty says, I know it's a long shot, but I get jacked up thinking about the Vikings hitting on the quarterback and the draft, plugging him into this offense. Can't get rid of Justin

Jefferson. Well, of course, yeah, you can't get rid of Justin Jefferson. That's and that's the main reason that none of it makes sense. I like the trade rumors or whatever is you need him to make sure or do everything under his power to make sure that your next quarterback is good. That's his job. That's why you pay for him is to be that guy who your young quarterback can throw to at any time, even hopes and prayers and dreams, and they'll come true. So as long as that player is better than Nick Mullins has more arm strength, which, you know, all four top quarterbacks certainly have that. Uh, as long as that's, that's true is, uh, that the rookie quarterback has the physical skill to get the football in the direction of Justin Jefferson. He's going to up the percentages and we cannot ignore the fact when we analyze Kirk Cousins that he had Justin Jefferson. And this is a reason not to pay Kirk Cousins that is rarely brought up. What's brought up usually is the Achilles, the age, the lack of playoff wins and stuff. But also, he's not the only human being on earth who can huck a pigskin in the general

direction of the greatest receiver in the league. And since we've already seen this play out in NFL history, just even for example, don't even use the Vikings. The Vikings have a ton of this, but don't even use that. How about the Rams? How about the Rams? How about Kurt Warner to landing from the grocery store to the NFL with Torrey Holt, Isaac Bruce, Azahir Hakeem, you know, Marshall Falk, Ricky Prohl. Like there have been a many examples of quarterbacks having great wide receivers and weapons. You don't have to look far. How about Jimmy Garoppolo? How about Brock Purdy? Like there's a lot of these examples in the league. How about Jalen Hurts of quarterbacks who are not

even the highest draft picks, but as long as they're talented and have supporting casts, then you can make the most out of them. So, you know, that I, I think that Jefferson is such a huge part of that, that it's important to mention. Julie says, Hawkinson won't play this year. He will. Yep. He will. It's going to take some, you know, recovery and it might bleed into the season. But it's an ACL. ACLs happen. That's how it goes.

Players come back from ACLs these days. That's modern medicine. Remember Delvin Cook had the ACL, and then the next year he came back and his first handoff was like an 80-yard touchdown in the preseason. Guys come back. Jordan says the national media is saying we need to trade. JJ is like the guy at the party telling everyone to do a shoeie, which is drinking a beer out of a shoe. But he would never do it himself. Yeah, you know, so I think of myself as being that type of person where I come up with a dare and someone else would do the dare.

So like I whatever in a press conference, I dare you to ask Mike Zimmer this question. Right. But I would never do it. It is the same kind of thing. You know, they should trade Justin Jefferson, but if they, there's no way they would do that. You're right. You're right. There's no way that they actually try to make that work. So like to, you know, no, no way that any of the people suggesting it can make that a good idea. Like it's not a good idea you can argue all day long about you know whatever money ball you think you know or whatever but no one can argue like let's go let's go to the tape let's go to the data let's go take a look at what uh this man

has done in the nfl there's no way anyone can tell you that it's a good idea to trade justin jefferson that is a player who is going to make you win, not somebody who you get rid of for draft picks. Terry says, Darnold was very young when he was drafted to a bad team with a harsh media and fan base makes me fear for what might happen to Caleb Williams in Chicago with his soft feelings. Yeah.

I think a little tough on the soft feelings part, but it's a factor. It is a factor for sure that the Caleb Williams is going to have to learn how to manage because there are certain fan bases that are a little bit more on the aggressive side. There are bigger medias where everything you do becomes more of a thing than it probably does, say, like in Minnesota, where for a big market, it doesn't have a huge media, which is kind of interesting. And I also think the landscape's just a little bit different. The culture is a little bit different

than it is in New York or it is in Chicago. So that could be a problem for Caleb Williams. Could be something he has to deal with. I'll agree with you there. But for, for Darnold, I also think that his age was a factor as well. He was so young when he got to the NFL that he should have been a guy that developed, and instead he didn't. So that may be an opportunity, him not having it, I mean, was a factor for why he was never able to really figure it out. And he's been in the NFL now for a few years. And look, Baker Mayfield with that same Carolina team looked done.

And then he goes to Tampa Bay and he looks like a quality quarterback. So we've seen this happen from numerous quarterbacks where it looked like their career was over and then it turned out it wasn't. And for one year, $10 million? Totally fine. I saw people losing it about the price. Are you serious? 25% of what you would give Kirk cousins, except for there's no guarantee past the first year. I mean, I think that's a totally fine price for a quarterback. What are we talking about here? Do I think that Howard would be a good fit for the bikes? I assume you mean a Xavier Howard,

and it depends on how much they think he has left in the tank. That's important. I saw Jalen Ramsey say that he thought Vic Fangio used them wrong last year. That may be true. He was absolutely wonderful with Flores. So yes, I like that fit. I do. I like a veteran, true, proven star corner for this defense. And then, you know, if they get that, we can start talking about like, how good could they

be? Nathan says we had Kirkirk and jj for four years one playoff win uh no that would be zero playoff wins uh between those two guys not even one playoff appearance uh not sure uh jj was on that team yeah right in 2019 that was still digs uh now we start over a quarterback why pay jj the bank uh contract he wants i say trade him now i mean do we have to go over this every night, folks? The contract, how it's going to be structured. I'm excited when it happens to show you that by 2025, it still won't be expensive. I think I've even called up AJ Brown's contract

on the screen, the current highest contract. I could show you Tyreek Hill and how they can renegotiate that deal in Miami. It's not going to be that restrictive and you can pay really great players around the league. Kirk's contract was restrictive because of the guaranteed money and how you couldn't really do a whole lot with it unless you renegotiated it because he always needed it to be fully guaranteed. That's not going to be the case with Jefferson. So yeah, I mean, look, any, any arguments try to trade Jefferson is just insane to me because when you draft a quarterback, the best thing you can give him is a great player. And, and look, the 49ers paid Debo Samuel, the Rams paid Cooper cup. Like did the Julio Jones was making a ton of money when atlanta when they went

to the super bowl aj brown was on his huge contract when he went to philadelphia that that you're and so was aaron donald was highly paid like you can sign great players that's that's actually important to know and then once you get to your winning window then you can mess with the cap as much as you want as the vikings already proved to you you want, as the Vikings already proved to you. The Vikings already proved to you this before, that you could build a great team with paying some of your most important players. They just didn't win with it. But 2018, 2019, they did a lot with the salary cap to extend that window, and it ended up that they still had rosters good enough,

they just didn't get over the top. So let me scroll. Let me scroll. Do I think they're going to trade Louis Scene? I don't think you could trade him for anything at this point. Yeah, just probably not possible that you're going to get anything back from them. Let's see. Road Skull says,

I think Brandel was signed to take over one of the guard positions, cheaper contract, see if he could fill that role. I don't think so. I think Blake Brandel scored. Well, I guess he scored a contract. You could say it that way. He signed a contract

that was consummate with what backups get. And instead of just signing him to, and I'm trying to think how this worked out. There's like a multi-year deal, like 4 million a year. That's what a backup offensive lineman gets. He's a versatile player. He can move around a little bit and you know,

that's what he's going to be. Blake Brandel is not going to be somebody who you just throw in there and say, hey, it's your job. Now they could bring in somebody to compete if Blake Brandel takes a huge step forward, then there you go. He's the guy, but they're not going to look at him and just go, Oh yeah, you're all set. You're good to go. Blake Brandel, you're set. He you're, you're the guard. He would probably be in a competition with a veteran players. It is my guess that they'll wait until the second wave, unless they could get someone like Kevin Zeiler or Connor Williams, but it's probably more of a second wave type of thing. David says, cards seem to be set on Marvin Harrison Jr. Four, I think five is the spot.

Could be. Wouldn't that put us in the driver's seat? No way Harbaugh trades his guy McCarthy to the Broncos or Raiders in the division. Yeah, four or five. Four would more assure you that you get a top five quarterback. So I think four is the place, but you're right about that. That if you're Arizona and you know, three quarterbacks are going first, you do not want to let Marvin Harrison Jr. Get away from you. But now there is another thing though. We don't know for sure if they look at him and say, hey, he's the guy. He's the only wide receiver we want. They

could also look at Malik neighbors and they could also look at Roma Dunze and say, you know what? If we trade down to 11, we could still get one of the top three wide receivers based on what the other teams are going to do. Atlanta is going to go defense more likely than not. Okay. You know, the chargers are probably either going to trade out of that or go with an offensive lineman, the jets. What are they going to do? An offensive lineman themselves.

So maybe the jets could go wide receiver. I guess that's possible, but it feels like they've got good weapons there. They could, they could roll the dice and say say there's three good wide receivers and we'll take any one of them but i agree with you that if arizona's not the team then it would make sense to trade with the uh trade with the chargers and if it's going to be mccarthy you're probably barking up the right tree there that uh jim harbaugh would prefer that McCarthy ends up somewhere else and also ends up in a good position. Because if you compare the Broncos to the Vikings for circumstances going forward, I mean, the Vikings look way more promising. Their coach is not a sociopath.

That's a good place to start. They have receivers, very good receivers, tackles, you know, a competent coaching staff. I think all that stuff matters. Let's see here. David says if they had drafted a better safety, they could have used Hitman's money on Snead. Now, I don't think that Harrison Smith's money impacts LeJarrius Snead. If they trade for LeJarrius Snead,

they will sign him to a huge multi-year contract. It's going to be like five years and $100 million or something that they're going to push out into the future in 2025 when they have more cap space. I don't think that one impacts the other at all. Anybody they sign from here on, if it's a big contract, they're going to push out in the future with the way that they structure it. So I don't think that makes much of a difference. You know, if they had drafted,

or if Luis Cena turned out to be a great player, then we probably just never find out how good Josh Metellus is. And so again, like this is how football works. Sometimes you draft Laquan Treadwell and Stefan Diggs becomes great. Fine with me. Like, I know, I know, like it would have been better if they drafted, although I don't think Jordan Davis is that great. Some people bring him up and like play like 500 snaps. I don't know. Uh, but yeah, you know,

if they drafted Kyle Hamilton, that would have been good. Uh, maybe Jamison Williams someday becomes good. It didn't work out, but yet they lucked into and also brian floris identified josh metellus so is it like a total disaster yeah kind of still that that went wrong at 32 and maybe they could have taken christian watson or something instead i think he was available still at 32 but then they don't draft jordan addison i don't know like this is how this is how the draft goes sometimes but here's the thing thing I know about Harrison Smith, as long as he wanted to be a Viking, he's going to be a Viking. So that was never going to change. If he wanted to come back, he was going to stay here. That never going to change. Brent says, I think the Viking should stick and pick the best available quarterback. You're not helping a young QB with no high draft

picks for the next three years that I don't agree with because they already have the things on the roster. You need to help a young quarterback. You already have two great wide receivers, a great tight end and offensive tackles. So, and then you're spending money on the defense. Like you've, you've already got the things that you need as a supporting cast plus the coaching staff uh but about that i mean yes you'd prefer to have those first round draft picks you'd prefer to have that draft capital for the future no question about that that if you are given your druthers so to speak that yes you would rather pick having the best or the uh the first round picks rather than not. But here would be the issue. So if I tell you Kevin O'Connell wants Drake May or JJ McCarthy,

he does not think anyone else is a first round pick outside of the top four. Are you still picking Bo Nix at 11 anyway? Like, no, you're not. Are you still taking the risk on Penix and his health? No, you're not. Are you picking them in the second round? If you have the option between trading up and picking a quarterback that Kevin O'Connell thinks can be the next great franchise quarterback for the Vikings or just rolling the dice on other guys who he evaluates as second round draft picks, I'm giving up the draft capital. Hands down, I'm giving up the draft capital.

Now, I still think that Knicks and Pennix are good prospects, but just in comparison to those two options, and his opinion is the one that matters the most, far and away to me. I watch these guys. I form opinions on them, but that doesn't matter. As far as decision-making, I want the guy that he thinks is going to be the best, and he can be all in on that guy. Now you guys are funny. John David booty as the USC quarterback, Rodney Pete went to USC, Sean Salisbury. You guys are great with the names of, of the USC quarterbacks.

So it sort of shows you, I got, I got a little behind here with the chat and I apologize for that. Jared says, it's so strange that here I see so much positivity over the direction of the Vikings everywhere else. It looks like the opposite. Vikings are on so many free agency loser lists. Well, yeah. I mean, I think that it's really the difference between and and here is where i would uh apologize for people who are not covering the team because if you think about what i do what dane mizzitani does ben gesling andrew kramer kevin seaford alec lewis the beat reporters who are there every day and uh tomorrow press conference for to announce uh some free agents so I'll be out there doing a podcast with Dane. Excited about that. So I'll be there at the press conference for all these new players.

Very exciting day, actually. I think Sam Darnold's going to talk. I'm not 100% sure, but they're doing a press conference, so that's cool. But anyway, when you're among the group of people that pays very close attention to everything that one football team is doing, you're just going to understand a lot better than the person who works for website X,

who's trying to figure out what all 32 teams are doing. Think about the number of hours that I talk with you guys about this football team. The number of hours that I talk with Kwesi D'Affolmenta, Kevin O'Connell, Vikings players, people around the team. Think about all that, focused on one football team. It's actually kind of insane, right? Versus if you work for, I don't want to call anybody out, but whatever website, whatever national outlet, how much time do you dedicate to understanding the Vikings?

Do you listen to every single press conference? Do you focus on every single move they've made? Do you study their salary cap? Like all those things for every team in the league, or do you just kind of see what they do and you go, oh man, they downgraded a quarterback F like, I mean,

it's not laziness. It's just that it's, it's hard to be like locked in to every single team. I do think that if you're writing an analysis on the Vikings, you could probably pull up an article of mine or Alex or Dane's or somebody else and maybe try to figure it out. So I do think maybe the national audience has been done some disservice by, you know, this team. But, you know, another part of it, too, is when you're relevant, which the Vikings have not been and they're trying to get to be, when you're relevant, then they pay a lot more attention to you. So if anything, I think the analysis shows the irrelevance of the Vikings franchise over the last number of years that when you fall into this malaise

that people don't pay attention to you, then they don't know those things I just laid out. So it's a little bit of that as well. You know, I think all those things have gone into it, but what I notice is the energy from the fan base about what can come next. And that is as important as, as anything is that the fans who pay attention, they know that this franchise has the potential to pick their quarterback and go in a direction that we have not seen in a very long time from the Vikings, really since Teddy Bridgewater in his first contract, that we haven't seen that benefit come to fruition. And of course, Teddy got hurt before it ever really could, but they still built out that team tremendously. So yeah, I think that locally everybody gets it and everybody understands and everybody looks at Kirk's contract. It goes new, no, no, no, no, no. Even Kirk fans look at that contract and go, no, no, no, no. That's too much.

That's too much. You know, that's like, it's like, if you're a fan of whatever, you know, ice cream or something, you go to the store, it's like 10 bucks a carton. You're like, nah, I'm good. I'll just get the, the knockoff version over here, the target version. I guess that's what Sam Darnold is in this case. He's the, the, the, the generic brand quarterback and they're looking for, and now that's where the metaphor ends but they're looking for the the next guy uh as asks any realistic way to get into the top three or four for a quarterback and acquire sneed yeah i don't know what the price is going to be on legerius need uh but yeah i mean it's possible they have to make sure that that doesn't get in the way is it a fourth round pick a couple of fourths for the jarius need or

are there bigger offers for his services or is kansas city just like we don't have to trade him right now we'll wait that could also be the thing as well so um yeah i don't know about that but i didn't think of that really that you know using that draft capital they might need to move up could get in the way of a luxurious needarius Sneed trade. Usually teams want second-round picks. So here's a question. Would you give up? Would you go full Rams? Remember, Quasey says you don't go full Rams.

Bleep them picks. Would you go second-round number 42 overall trade for LeJarius Sneed and this year's first and the next two firsts to move up to number four to make sure you get either Drake May, Jane Daniels, or JJ McCarthy. I think I would. I love the draft just as much as you guys do, but I think I would. I think I would do that. I would give up this year's second to get LeJarrius Steed if that's what it took.

So Jared says, I'm not sure what people are looking at here uh are they only thinking about next season's win total yeah oh for sure that happens a lot yeah definitely that definitely happens a lot as far as like national media analysis is like where is this team right here right now and not trying to look three years into the future uh i don't see how you look at this for more than 60 seconds and find their moves overly negative. Well, I tend to agree. And it's something that I had been accused of from time to time in the past as being negative toward this team. I think until recently, maybe that was a reputation. But, you know, that's what objectivity is, right, is that we call the score as it is and when the team is stuck in the

middle with a expensive okay quarterback and doesn't seem to have any future prospects of competing for a super bowl then we give them an x uh and but when they look like they're in route to draft a top quarterback and build around that guy with a bunch of cap space and stars at left tackle and receiver then we give them a check And so lately we've been giving them a check. If they had brought back cousins, we'd have a different tone. And I bet half of you wouldn't be watching because that wouldn't be all that exciting. Uh, yeah. Some of you still responding to the, the funny idea about the USC quarterback, right? Like all those, uh, Graham Har texas tech before patrick uh mahomes right so you know um paul says i'd trade brian o'neill if we draft one in the top 50 uh which they are

saying is the best offensive tackle draft right but you know look it takes years to develop a tackle brian o'neill is 28 years old he's still in his prime. And the draft capital cannot be going to a tackle. It just can't. It just can't. And I think that we have to give Brian O'Neill a little bit of leeway. And again, he was a top 20 tackle by PFF last year. We have to get a little bit of leeway for a guy that was recovering from an Achilles injury last year. But he still had a good year. This is not somebody who completely fell off. And I'm going to lean on the objective information there more than, hey, look, he had this bad game and I remember him getting beat. Well, okay. So E. Ellison, maybe, says, do you think Kweisi should move up in the draft sooner or wait until they do it in the draft?

I do it today. Just do it today. Jump ahead of everybody else. Do it today and get that draft pick. If you can, that is what they should do as fast as they can try to jump the line, try to get ahead of other teams that are making those phone calls. I imagine that Jim Harbaugh and their GM, as fast as they can. Try to jump the line, try to get ahead of other teams that are making those phone calls.

I imagine that Jim Harbaugh and their GM, their new general manager, and by the way, the GM for the Chargers, I'm trying to think of what his name is, Hortiz, I think, their GM is really known in that last organization in Baltimore where he came from for trading down.

So number five really could be the spot. Could be. Mike says, if we trade the 11th and 42nd picks to move up, what are the typical value choices in the ranges of our remaining six picks? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by like typical value um for the remaining six picks do you mean like how much it's worth how much they have for the remaining draft picks i mean it's look it's all it's all just going to be shots in the dark at that point it's all going to be fourth fifth development prospects nobody that can potentially start uh so you'd have to fill out a lot of the depth with free agent players,

veterans, and guys that you've drafted in the past, which is not really a great list. And that's why it's going to take some time before they could fill out the rest of this roster. That's why it's going to take another year. So AJ says we might not even trade up TBH. I could see us doing the stick and pick and grab jordan travis in the third round do not do that no do not do that that is a that is a terrible idea

uh nope nope nope don't do that no i look i jordan travis a nice prospect but in the position they are in now in the draft that they are in you cannot hang around and hope in the position they are in now in the draft that they are in, you cannot hang around and hope in the third round. That is unacceptable. You have to draft someone in the first round or it is a disaster. Like there's no other way to look at it. I think, I think they will. Yeah.

But you know, like it's, it's a, it's a disaster if they don't draft someone in the first round for sure. Let's see. The press conference is tomorrow afternoon. I'm not exactly sure what time let's see. Digital says, Matthew, could you look into your crystal ball and tell us which pick the Vikings use in the first round and who they take? Well, yeah, I mean, I would say the fourth or fifth pick and they take JJ McCarthy if

I'm looking right now or Drake may because I, you know, we're all assuming that every team has Drake may over JJ McCarthy. They might not. I mean, doesn't the Patriots organization scream JJ McCarthy, Tom Brady went to Michigan, didn't have the best stats at Michigan. Right. And then he was a winner. You could see that.

You could see Drake May being the guy who ends up at four, and that would be a massive home run. Grant says, you sound optimistic that most of the quarterbacks in the draft will pan out. Well, one thing I know, my friend, is that you never know. But the 2020 draft has had every quarterback pan out. The 2021 draft has had only one of the five quarterbacks pan out. And you can go year to year. You can look at statistics. You can look at trends. You can look at NFL combines. You can look at scouting

reports. There is nothing that you can point to and go, ah, this is the way to pick out which quarterback is going to succeed. But here's what I know, my friend, is that if you don't pick one, you won't get one. You will never get Josh Allen. You will never get Patrick Mahomes, who, by the way, were not the first quarterback taken unless you take them, unless you pick them. So pick one. Here's another thing I know is that supporting cast matters.

Organization matters. Coaching matters. Receivers matter. Offensive line matters. And those boxes, check, check, check, check, check for the Vikings. They have a coaching staff that is very good, and they added Josh McCown, who should help quite a bit uh former quarterback who worked with kirk cousins and got a lot out of him they've got an offensive line or at least the

bones they still need to improve there but they've got the most important positions two great receivers excellent top five receiving tight end in the nfl if you can't succeed with that situation. Well, then that's, then that is what it is. But when we try to factor like percentage chance for each guy to work out, so let's base it on at his level, like Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, whatever. Let's just say. I don't necessarily agree with that, but let's just say that. All right, he's got a 60% chance to work out for prospects that were great at his level. And Drake May has got a 50% chance. And J.J. McCarthy's got a 45% chance, right? But what are their chances if you give them Jefferson, Addison, offensive line? Does that go up to instead of 45%, 60%? Because we've seen a lot of flawed prospects with great circumstances do really well.

And that's what they're really banking on. High Times KG brings up that cornerback play is sporadic. Good one year, terrible the next. Yeah, I agree with that. And well, I am a big fan of LeJarrius Sneed. You make a valid point. Like you shouldn't be looking to trade a ton for LeJarrius Sneed because that is possible that it can go up and down. He is a particularly good player, but I'm not going to say anybody's different from one year to the next. JC Jackson can look like a superstar and then look bad. So probably drafting one is a good thing. Uh, let's see. Let's see. Uh, grinders, Bo Nix film today. I assume you mean grinded to Bo Nix film today. Vikings better draft this dude

in the first round and get that fifth year option certified dime dropper. Yeah, look, I mean, I've been more, I think, interested in the Bo Nix idea than other people. And it seems to be that there is a lot of different opinions on Bo Nix where Dan Orlovsky is losing his mind over his pro day, which I watched his pro day. And I was like, okay, well, you know, it's fine. I mean, it looked like he didn't just overthrow all his own receivers running in shorts. So, okay, sure. When I watch him play, which I have a number of times, but myself and Chris Trapasso are going to do some stuff where we go back and we watch a game and we talk about it and things

like that. And, you know, QB schools out there doing his thing, analyzing these quarterbacks. There's a wide range of opinions on Bo Nix. Draft analysts tend to talk about him as if he's more of a mid-prospect, like a second rounder, like maybe a Derek Carr type. But he can win with Derek Carr in a rookie contract. They won 12 games one year. And then, you know, Kurt Warner and Dan Orlovsky and Chris Sims, they love the guy. So, you know, I don't know. I've talked to some people who professionally analyze players who really like them. And then there are others who really don't. So it's, it all comes down to what Kevin O'Connell thinks. I like what I see

from Bo Nix, but if he's drafted in the second round, I'll just shrug and say, well, guess not. I mean, really? I was like, well, all right. Okay. Because that's how it was with, you know, other quarterbacks like Malik Willis, for example, like, all right. I can kind of see what people like about him. Oh, he's a third round pick. All right. Nevermind. Throw that out. Will Levis, same thing. I didn't really love Will Levis. I didn't understand it. And then, you know, it turned out to be second round, but I also didn't really understand the Josh Allen hype and he's become the second best quarterback in the NFL. So my thing is always play the lottery and also believe in the league. The league is good at evaluating quarterbacks,

so if they let someone drop, then they're right. Then they're almost always right. They're not always right. They're wrong on Lamar. They were wrong on Jalen Hurts. But I think we're going to see Jaden Daniels picked high, and the NFL's kind of figured out, oh, yeah running is a big deal and we can develop some other stuff. Tyler says, if we, I'll bet if we stay at 11, one of those quarterbacks will be there.

Everyone thought that you'd have to trade up into the top five for fields and he went 11. The Pats had to trade up for Mac Jones until they didn't. Right. No, good point. Yeah, you're right about that. And that is an example of what I was just kind of saying, which is that you don't really know how anyone feels about the quarterbacks until draft night, until the cards are put on the table. So that's just how we find out.

It's almost grading the graders, like grading the analysts is what happens on draft night. Let's see how close they were to the real professionals. You know, um, it's, it's almost like if you, uh,

we're in a singing contest and you sing the song and then, uh, Celine Dion comes out and sings the song and they go, yeah, you know what? You were, uh, really far off or wow.

You can sing like her. It's kind of like that with the draft analysts and quarterbacks like, oh, wow, you guys were right on. You really got it. And some years they have the 2020 year. The draft analysts were really close on, I think almost all the quarterbacks and where they were going to be drafted. And then in recent years, they haven't been close.

So I'm kind of wondering wondering are they going to nail this and they are perfectly right about mccarthy and and nicks kind of being a back of first round and pennix being a second rounder or are they mis-evaluating this and you won't know again until that night uh chet says at least signed dalton risiser. Not against that. Not against that. I think that that's okay. If they do, I think they could look for someone a little bit better. But I do think if they bring him back, he was a good pass blocker, and that's a great place to start. Chet says, when was the last time the Vikings drafted a franchise quarterback?

It should have been Teddy. It was going to be Teddy, and it wasn't Teddy because of the knee. Before that, it was for Dante Culpepper in 1999. And that's a funny story, though, about 1999 in that draft because quarterbacks go at the top and Akeely Smith is taken ahead of Dante Culpepper. And so he was considered a much better prospect than Culpepper. And so he was considered a much better prospect than Culpepper. And Denny Green was criticized a lot for not drafting a pass rusher, little sort of Vikings history for you if you weren't around, that they thought that they should draft Javon Kearse, who turned out to be a great player. instead they went with the quarterback of the future rather than looking for just a pass rusher to help them right away and dante call pepper was

again knees but um you know knees are always a problem in this history but they went to an nfc championship they he put up mvp numbers in 2004 had one of the great seasons in NFL history at the time, and the accumulation of Dante Culpepper's numbers. And this is why numbers change so much. If you go back and look, and I did this one time for an appreciation piece of Dante Culpepper, from the first time he started in 2000 to, and hey, look, they let him develop a year imagine 2000 to 2004 so five seasons and you compare that to Peyton Manning it was neck and neck now he was not as good because he fumbled the ball more than Peyton Manning fumbled the ball and there were turnovers

and it wasn't perfect and some of the numbers were pumped up by bad defense so he constantly had to win every game by throwing didn't have much of a running game, kind of dealing with the Randy Moss drama stuff. Randy was helpful for sure. But even in 04, Randy was banged up and he still had his incredible season. So sometimes you pick the fourth quarterback in the draft or the guy who's not considered to be the best of the best. And he turns out to be really, really really good and that was kind of the story of Culpepper but they have not drafted many quarterbacks in this team's history and that's one of the reasons that they are in this place Shadow Wolf says McCarthy won't get past the Giants pick whether they take him or trade the pick is irrelevant if you want McCarthy you

have to get to five minimum and nixon penix are not falling out of round one uh well i don't know about the nixon penix thing because it depends on who you talk to some people think that they're going to get picked right there in the first round and uh some people think that you know they could fall out of the first round and i don't know because i am not a even though i have the ball, I'm not actually a fortune teller. Sorry for you guys to find that out. Although I did say that Kirk was going to go to Atlanta, so you've got to give me that.

But to your point about the Giants, that is the team that swings this whole thing. That is the team that you're trying to get up ahead of if you want to get J.J. McCarthy or Drake May or whoever it is. We just can't assume it's McCarthy. It sort of seems like that. But yeah, you're probably right, though. You need to get to at least five to get ahead of the Giants.

And if you could get to four, that would be ideal because then that locks you in to getting one of the top four quarterbacks. Matthew says, I go back and forth on whether Knicks or Pennix would be a preferred option for a KOC. Pennix has a better arm for deep throws. Knicks brings the ability to make off schedule throws. So I guess I'll just go with Drake may. Yeah. Drake may is probably the best. And I, one thing I have to say about JJ McCarthy is that Kevin O'Connell is a communicator. Maybe you guys have noticed if you watch his press conferences, he is going to want a quarterback who communicates really intelligently with him. And I think that Knicks and Pennix can do that. But I hear that from

McCarthy as well, that that is his thing. And you saw it in the interviews at the combine. He's just a really good talker. And he probably has been taught more NFL stuff than most, you know, most quarterbacks coming out of college because of who he worked with. So, you know, there's between the two, if it was Nixon Penix.

Sure. Yes. Either one. I mean, you can make a case for either one because Nick's was known for executing the offense. And then Penix has the arm strength. I would prefer, I think Penix a little bit because you want sick throws to Justin Jefferson. But you know, probably both of them are going to end up being sort of second fiddle type choices.

Let's not do the Teddy argument again. It's all, it always goes bad for the anti-teddy people trust me every time doesn't go good for you so we'll just uh we'll just not worry about that and uh matthew says what is with the uh teddy hate on here late it's all there's always been that way it's all it's always going to be that way there's always going to be one person who comes in and tells you kirk cousins is a top three quarterback and tells you that teddy ridgewater was terrible because facts don't matter in our society anymore, I guess. I mean, but it's the internet. There's always one person saying everything you ever, you ever see the, uh, the tweet where somebody said at any given time, there's someone saying on the internet, Steph Curry can't shoot.

And it's like, that's right. There's always some person in every comment section who says that Teddy Bridgewater was bad. Like, okay. Okay, pal. Everybody here watched the Minnesota Vikings at that time and understands where that was headed and how good the 2015 season was understands the receivers understands the run first mentality. And here's a fun little stat for you.

I got a good Teddy stat for you. This is one of my favorites because the league has changed, by the way. This is what I'm saying about looking up quarterback ratings from like pro football reference. The league quarterback rating has changed massively even since 2015. So that's one thing to keep in mind. Here's my fun stat for you. When Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota Vikings went to the playoffs and won the division in 2015, they produced points. So percentage of points versus drives. When did they score versus how many drives?

At the seventh best rate in the NFL. So when they had the ball, they produced points. Blair Walsh, for most of the season, kicked pretty well. But they did not turn the ball over very often and they scored a lot of points in per drive. They played at a very slow pace though. They ran the football a lot. You know, Teddy Bridgewater was not going deep shots. It was not explosive offense. It was an offense that was really designed to maintain possession and play well on defense. But they

produced points when they had the football. In 2022, the Vikings ranked 17th in the percentage of drives where they scored points and were 11th in punts that year. So sometimes stats can lie to you. Sometimes stats don't really tell the whole whole story And that's why we talk about football so much Because we try to contextualize all those things But I don't think Look in the stands you still see tons of Teddy Bridgewater jerseys Mike Zimmer is one of the best Player evaluators

That I have ever been around in my life And love Teddy Bridgewater The teammates The players They won games and he was on the ascent. We all know this. We don't have to redo the whole history of Teddy Bridgewater, okay? We know where that was headed. And year three, year four was headed in a really good direction,

and it is a complete tragedy that it didn't work out that way. Shadow Wolf says the rules changed after that oh four season patriots defensive backs mugged colts wide receivers in the afc championship call pepper oh four seasons still one of the all time greats yeah the uh the patriots they understood that the referees were not going to flag them every time but yeah the oh four season is one of the great seasons in nfl history um bron fricking solo says they should have kept Jeff George as the starter for one more season, then rolled with Dante. No, no.

Dante's first season was amazing. What are we talking about here? Come on, people. Do we have to do history every night? Do we really have to? This is what we're going to do. In the summer, we're going to go through these things. I'm going to put together packages for you. I'm going to put together packages for you.

I'm going to put together stats information. We're going to go through these things. So we got it. All right. 2000 Dante call pepper went 11 and five led the NFL in touchdowns, had a 98 quarterback rating in a league where the quarterback rating wasn't even close to that and made the pro ball through for 250 yards game. They should not have Jeff George went to Washington and then like flamed out.

We got, we got to use pro football reference more. We got to, we got to watch old NFL films a little bit more. That's what we need to do here. That's, that's our homework assignment. Big grill. And dad says, why not trade 11 to San Diego? Love the usage of San Diego until they win in the playoffs, they're San Diego. Let's be honest here.

Then Harbaugh can draft McCarthy at five. Well, Harbaugh is not drafting McCarthy, but I think I know what you're saying. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, trade to San Diego and then draft McCarthy at five. Yeah, I think so. That is a good plan for would be. Man, you got man, we got we just what is it about like the certain mark of the podcast where the just very, very bad historical attempts here.

It's Teddy honesty, not Teddy hate. No, the honest thing about Teddy Bridgewater is that he's a Blair Walsh kick away from winning in the playoffs as a second year quarterback whose entire offense was built around a running game because they had no wide receivers. Because Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen were not there yet. Norv Turner was a hundred years old and because they had a

great defense. So they played to that defense, but overall throughout that season, he played well. He graded well by PFF. They produce points as an offense. They won a lot of football games and he was only improving. It's the only way to look at Teddy Bridgewater. There's no other way. There's no other, there's no other retelling of like, you only threw so many touchdowns. It's the only way to look at Teddy Bridgewater. There's no other way. There's no other, there's no other retelling of like, you only threw so many touchdowns. That's because Adrian scored all the touchdowns. Like,

what are we doing here? We can't do this every night where we get this horse crap about Teddy Bridgewater from eight years ago. What are we doing here? Skull city blues says, watching Darnold highlight reels, a quick evaluation, his mechanics,

pocket awareness, mobility, all things KOC loves. So did the Vikings stumble onto a possible Kurt Warner story? So all of that is a problem of what you just said. His pocket awareness and accuracy have been major problems during his career.

And as far as Kurt Warner, there is nothing similar about those two people. Sam Darnold was a highly touted super talent who busted in New York, where Kurt Warner was an indoor football league quarterback with no chance to ever make the pros and became one of the greatest quarterbacks in history. Darnold has had accuracy and pocket awareness issues through the roof during his career. It's one of the major reasons why he has not been a successful quarterback.

The thing that you're really hoping for with Sam Darnold is that coaching supporting cast will mitigate some of the issues he's had. And also players can get better. That's another thing you're looking for is that over a certain amount of time, players can improve. And he is only in his mid twenties now. So you're just starting to hit your mental peak as a quarterback. A lot of times the way that it works is a quarterback's physical abilities,

take them in the early years. And Patrick Mahomes has even talked about this. And then their mental abilities uh is they come along eventually and that's what has maybe happened with Sam Darnold that the Vikings are trying to bet on that after playing for um Kyle Shanahan that he's had that year to develop and to sit back and to look at his game and to get better. And then he comes here and maybe he has a chance. But that's not a likely thing that he becomes a great quarterback. Honestly, it's just not.

If it was, they would have paid him a lot more. But the reality of Sam Darnold is that the worst case scenario is still good. The worst case scenario for Sam Darnold is that he's a quality backup quarterback. He's probably one of the five to seven best backup quarterbacks in the NFL in the worst case scenario. And he's been around. He's been through this. He's had the pressure of being a top quarterback.

He is a high character player. They wouldn't have brought him here if he wasn't. And Josh McCown knows that. And he wouldn't have been in San Francisco if he wasn't. He wouldn't have won the competition if he wasn't. Jamie says, why is it the same crap here every night? It's not. It's not.

It's not. You know what it is? It's 98% great questions and awesome stuff from everybody. And just I think people try to tweak me with nonsense. That's all. Oh, you were watching USC highlights. OK. OK. Now I got you. You're watching USC highlights. Yeah. I mean, look, if there's always I shouldn't. After two hours and I just scroll the, you know, down and then I'll just, you know, grab some stuff to talk about. So sometimes I grab some trolly comments and I, and I shouldn't, when it comes to the Teddy stuff, because everybody knows that everybody knows like Dante Culpepper was great, but there's always going to be one. That's what I'm saying.

There's always going to be one person who tells you that like Barry Sanders was over was overrated or randy moss wasn't good or you know i don't know scotty pippen was better than michael jordan there's always gonna be one person that has stuff like that so that's how it goes uh this is funny uh jordan says um the giants shouldn't be allowed to draft a quarterback at six if david stern were still alive he would veto them that's like a deep cut uh reference there but uh you're right like stop allowing the giants to draft quarterbacks they just don't know what they're doing i don't know there's the the giants are the fear but everything that the giants have done kind of points to that like they clearly are done with daniel jones they've looked into other quarterback

options so you know i i think that the giants are a real threat to draft a quarterback, which is why I said, Hey, like get on the phone right now, uh, get on the phone right now and go try to move up to make sure that they can't draft your quarterback. Um, that he says, I think it's dangerous to assume we can trade back into the first round. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. Yeah. I mean, you can't just go from 42 for sure and hope that everybody else passes because you also have to remember that Seattle is there and there's a connection with their offensive coordinator for Pennix.

There's the Raiders. There's the Broncos. There's QB needy teams. And you'd be really banking on that those QB needy teams are just going to let those guys fall and that the Raiders are going to go with Gardner Minshew or something. So yeah, you're right about that. That it's a good idea philosophically to like get your defensive tackle,

trade back in, get a prospect in the first round. But that is very risky and they really can't risk missing out on a quarterback because if they go into the season with Sam Darnold, I take it all back. I really do. I really, like I take it back.

Like the goal is here to draft quarterback. And I think they're going to do that. Uh, no one is talking about our offensive line had a blip of a good year without improving personnel. Not sure we can expect the same next year. Yeah. I think that the PFF grades were a little bit, maybe kind to them because they were a good pass blocking unit. Uh, but I think

maybe more kind on the running game than they needed to be. They were a bad running team. They need a left guard. I think you can survive at Ingram maybe with some competition with somebody else. That's like a Jesse Davis for a few years ago, or Chris Reed that you bring in to compete with him. But you probably cannot survive in just like Blake Brandel left guard. They need to go out and spend money on the left guard. It's a very important position for the draft, or not for the draft, for free agency, because they won't have a draft pick to be able to spend there. I odin says i heard eber flus spelled hilariously which i love uh because it's what a weird name uh was the only coach at nix's pro day so yeah i

don't know what that means i don't know um if that means something or not like that the one thing is that it's so close to the combine that maybe teams met with him there and or maybe they think he stinks or maybe everybody uh thinks that pro days are overrated i i honestly don't know i i don't know i haven't seen any reason why uh there was such a lack of attendance of head coaches at the pro days um maybe the vikings don't want to tip their hand, or maybe they know what they're going to do and trade up and so forth. Why do I think Reisner is not being signed? I think it's the same reason for last year, that guards and run blocking are a big deal. They are really the driving force of a run game. And when you have a guy who cannot run block effectively at all, as a bottom 10 graded run blocker last year and every year that he's been in the league that they're not going to pay up for him. So if he's looking for a big contract, he's just not going to get it. Marty asks, how much do teams know what other teams are going to do with their picks? It's a good question. They all, I think, are doing the same thing that you're doing. In fact, I remember hearing, I think it was Tom Telesco,

the former GM of the Chargers, said that he used the PFF mock draft simulator in the same way that we do, but he was using it more to fill in the picks the way that he thought it was going to go as kind of like a whatever. But I'm sure he ran some simulations as well. Nobody really knows till draft night,

but I think teams do have a really, really good sense by analyzing their opponents, what they're going to do. Don't trade up now in case the quarterback blows his knee at the pro day. Okay. Now that would be the most Vikings thing ever. They're all in on JJ McCarthy and that he blows his knee at his pro day. I guess that can't happen. A lot of you really want a better center.

Left guard is a thing that they can improve on for sure. Center is not something I think they need to change right now. And I would really not change it when you're bringing in a new quarterback. That is an important point that Bradbury is okay now. He's fine. So, you know, I, I,

he's not great, but he's fine. And you need his intellect, which is more important at the center position than anything else, unless you have some, one of those absolute freaks. So yeah, you're right.

Bradford, Bradford gave hope and then his knee went out. It happens all the time. So anyway. All right. Tucker says, don't we need to get to number four? What if we jump to five and the Giants or Denver gets a four? Yeah, I feel the same way, Tucker.

I do. Yes. I agree with you on that, that five seems to make a lot of sense. But for sure, I agree with what you're saying, that four is the safest one because then you are locked in to make a lot of sense, but for sure, I agree with what you're saying that four is the safest one because then you are locked in to get a quarterback. Yep. So, okay. Uh, anyway, so, uh, this was fun. This was really fun. In fact, I had only planned to talk for like, you know, half hour or so about, uh, Harrison Smith. And then we had camera issues and everything else. And look at that.

You guys, you guys hung with, I'll make sure that I charge the battery. Sorry about that. Tomorrow going to have some new Vikings introduced out of TCO performance, performance center. I will be there. Dame is a tiny and I are going to do a podcast. Eric eager also coming up on the show. So keep an eye out for that. Cause that one's going to premiere on YouTube very soon. I know

you guys are waiting to hear what Eric Eager has to say. So I've been stacking up all the podcasts I can, which killed my camera. But next time we'll have a little bit better of a look. But thanks so much, everybody, for watching, hanging out, chatting football, as we've done so many times. A lot of fun this week. So thank you so much. Yep, back to the diet, Dr. Pepper. I've got to write about Harrison Smith coming back. So make sure you go to purpleinsider.com.

Check out the newsletter there. I notice some of you have signed up for that. Really appreciate that. And stay tuned because Eric Eager is going to come up on the channel. So keep an eye out for that. Thanks, everybody. Catch you next time. Football.