Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Hendon Hooker to the Vikings? The mocks are out of control already

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso joins Matthew Coller to talk about a Daniel Jeremiah mock draft that includes the Vikings picking Hendon Hooker in the first round with the 23rd overall pick. Chris is confused about spending a pick that high but Hooker would have a good setup to wait one year before needing to play. Plus Chris wrote an article that made the masses unhappy and Matthew did a draft sim that Chris loves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso. And Chris, I just want to start off the show by thanking Daniel Jeremiah, who just handed us the show today, the very start of the show with a mock draft. I want to say thank you so much to him for mocking Hendon Hooker to the Minnesota Vikings, because if we didn't have anything to talk about which we do but if we didn't that would have been the whole show easily just given to us so anyway I'm excited to talk about that how are you I'm doing good and it's good that this didn't come out like the morning after we recorded at night because that would have been kind of par for the course for

Purple Insider that breaking news happens or a huge mock draft bomb gets dropped right after recording an episode so yes this was great from daniel jeremiah for content sake and just it's an interesting talking point not that daniel jeremiah just like throws out random stuff there could be some credence to this um and he wrote in his write-up that the vikings are doing a lot of homework on the quarterback class I do feel like we hear that sentence a lot about teams like in the mid-teens into the 20s every year that just ultimately do not pick a quarterback whatsoever but Daniel Jeremiah is not Skip Bayless like he's putting stuff out there that he is very connected with and maybe things could

ultimately happen so I'm definitely glad that this happened the day of recording this podcast. Well, and just logically speaking, I mean, the way that Kirk Cousins' contract sits right now, it is natural for the Vikings to be looking very closely at this quarterback class and trying to decide even if next year's quarterback class would be better to wait for, but then if they were doing it next year,

it might be out of a position of desperation, which you don't necessarily want to be in if you're drafting a quarterback. Usually, if you can ideally set it up, you draft a quarterback a year before you need one. That doesn't always work that way, but that's the best way you could possibly do it. The thing is, though, about Hendon Hooker is,

you know, Chris, you got a touch of gray going on in the beard. I have the fading hairline. Hendon Hooker is, you know, Chris, you got a touch of gray going on in the beard. I have the fading hairline. Hendon Hooker does too. He's as old as us. Should the Vikings be looking at a quarterback who remembers the Gulf War? Should we be talking about a quarterback who had, you know, Michael Jordan's baseball card or something from 1995. Like what? I mean, he is old, right? This is, this has to be a factor in deciding whether you want Hendenhoeker or not. I definitely think it does. And it really just comes down to, you can find analysts on the internet who love Hendenhoeker and they'll say, Hey, it doesn't matter. He's not that much older than Will Levis. Well, that's a problem to me for Will Levis as well.

I wouldn't be ecstatic about the upside of a player who's turning 24 or is already 24, 25 in their rookie season. They should be getting to their second contract at that point. So the age thing certainly matters and we can dive into this further but just a quick little heads up on this or foreshadowing I'm not a big Hendon Hooker fan but based on your intro there that how the Kirk Cousins contract sets up and how we if we're not talking about receiver in the first round for the Vikings for the last like three years we've been like hey they should maybe approach the quarterback spot behind Kirk Cousins from that angle. I wouldn't hate the decision. I just don't like him as a prospect, especially in the first round. And then partly because of his age and coming off the ACL injury.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure that you want a guy that necessarily listened to music on cassette tape when he was growing up. No, no, I'm just, I mean, I'm, I'm mostly kidding, but 25 to someone who's 20 or 21 coming out in the draft is such a major factor that when we're talking about Lamar Jackson here, Lamar Jackson's not that much older by like a year than Hendon Hooker, who's coming out in the draft. And the big thing is that at least from what I've looked at in the past is you usually need about three years for a quarterback. Their first season

is often very rough. Second season, if you get a legend, if you get Patrick Mahomes, okay, maybe he could take you to the Superbowl, but if he's not a legend, it usually takes at least until three years. Someone like Josh Allen took until the third year. That's what Chicago is banking on. And one of the reasons they're not moving on from Justin Fields is they know that the third year is extremely telling when it comes to quarterbacks. If you told me that the quarterback I'm drafting in his third year is going to be 28 years old. I mean, it's not even so much about whether he could be your quarterback for 10 years. It's really about the development curve that when guys are younger, they're going to get better much faster than someone who is more established in his ways. And the other thing is too, how do you evaluate somebody who was like, you know, a college sophomore going back to play against high

school kids or something? I mean, cause that's, that's how this is. How good is he really when it's somebody who is 25 playing against competition that is largely of that age of 20 to 22 years old. And not to mention in a situation that was extremely, extremely favorable. I'm not saying that it can't work, but if everything is an odds play, this one just has a lot of red flags for me. And it doesn't sound like you want to talk me out of that opinion. No, I don't is an odds play, this one just has a lot of red flags for me. And it doesn't sound like you want to talk me out of that opinion. No, I don't. And I've been on a couple of podcasts, a couple of radio spots and just said, like, I'm just not a big Hendon Hooker fan for a lot of the reasons that you just pointed out. It's not just because of, Hey, he's going

to be 28 or 29 when he's getting to that second contract. It's that we didn't see him become this at least debatable top prospect until he was 24 years old. His first couple of seasons at Virginia Tech, he didn't even throw for 1600 yards in either of those two seasons. There were some injuries that played into it, but he was a big recruit. Didn't ultimately take a starting job at Virginia Tech and run with it like a lot of people expected him to so that's another one of my kind of red flags that I have when there's an older prospect especially a quarterback it's like what happened when you were 19 and 20 and 21 and 22 and 23 in

Hinton Hooker's case that you weren't able to play better than everyone else or win a starting job or become a first round type prospect in the eyes of many. Why did it take you until you were 24 years old? And then just the scout in me is his film. Like you kind of hinted at very favorable situation the past two years under Josh Heupel at Tennessee. Why this splits I've ever seen for wide receivers. The throwing lanes were like avenues in New York city, like gigantic throwing lanes. And then I know like, if you look at the touchdown to interception ratio, he only threw five picks the last two years, which is low. A lot of times when he had to make those difficult throws, or there was an open receiver down the field, he

missed a lot of those. I don't think he really has good downfield ball placement but you see an analytics site will post oh he had 40 completions of 20 plus yards most in college football but he threw it downfield like 200 times like the whole offense was truly an air raid system from a former Oklahoma quarterback turned head coach so So in watching his film, I was excited going in because of the stats and because of two years of quality production. And all I saw was just vertical route, post route, vertical route, post route, dig route occasionally. And the intricacies of playing the quarterback position,

the ball placement, the anticipation, I didn't really see that from him. It kind of felt like a system where i don't want to say any quarterback but any decently talented quarterback could have had similar numbers and that's just adding that into him being older and the injury it's like you're saying there's way too many red flags for me to be like this is someone as a gm i would love to pick in the first round well it is interesting because he could be the first uh prospect to be drafted the same year as his son uh no i'm just i'm not done with this i yeah i'm not you thought i had some real good factoid there didn't you uh so let's but let's just let's let's hold let's just hold the train

though because both you and i have concerns there but um pretty major concerns. But Daniel Jeremiah is mocking him to the Vikings. I see a lot of logic in Daniel Jeremiah mocking a quarterback to the Vikings. If they were to take Hendon Hooker, how could this play out? Like what about his game could play out and the circumstance that would be a success if they absolutely fell in love with him during the draft process. Like, I don't want to make it seem like this guy is just a complete garbage prospect that neither of us can understand. You know, it doesn't matter how many gray hairs that he has coming out of the draft, but what about him would make someone like Daniel Jeremiah think that he could be taken in the first round.

Yeah, exactly. I think we need to explore this because if Daniel Jeremiah is mocking it about a month away from the draft, it could happen. And if it's not with the Vikings, maybe he's kind of getting some rumblings that there will be a team later in the first round that will pick Hendenhoeker. From a Vikings perspective, and this is kind of, you know, it's separate from what I just said about him as a player, like scouting him. It would make sense from the Viking standpoint, because number one, we know all about the Kirk Cousins contract situation. And the fact that Hendon Hooker is probably not going to start the season even available to play. There won't be able to be purple insider listeners, Vikings fans saying we want Hendon Hooker week one. We want him week three. Like he can't play. So Kirk Cousins will be happy with that.

Hey, you drafted a older rookie that's injured who cannot truly threaten me for my job if we start off three and three or whatever the case may be. So from that perspective, I get it. And what we've talked about a lot, dropping a young quarterback in with TJ Hawkinson and Justin Jefferson and likely some younger early-ish round wide receiver with a great offensive line that have two bookend great athletic tackles it's now you're inching closer to not the situation that Hendon Hooker had at Tennessee but a similar situation you're never going to have that advantage with athleticism and

speed with Cedric Tillman and Jalen Hyatt and that kind of air raid offense in the NFL, but you'd be getting pretty close with the Vikings. So you wouldn't have to ask Hendon Hooker to do way too much and throw these passes through a needle or like anything overly complicated early on, it would be get the ball to Justin Jefferson. We're going to stretch it vertically very often. We're going to have a good run game. And they did run the football a lot at Tennessee last season. They had a very good offensive line.

So that from that perspective, I wouldn't totally hate it because you and I always say we're going to get some of these players wrong, obviously. And at least if you're rolling the dice you're rolling the dice at quarterback if you hit you're set especially with the viking situation being that they have these quality pieces superstar pieces on the offense already and hendon hooker if they were to pick him he would really test one of my theories which is that we have no idea which quarterbacks are going to work out and we also don't even know based on the order, if they're going to work out. Like one of the things that you're very good at is present.

You're presenting as a draft analyst, all of the possibilities for players. If it works, if it doesn't work, why it could, why it didn't. But we both recognize on the show. And we've said many times that you really don't know once it happens.

And the thing with hooker is he could become a really good quarterback in the NFL. We don't know. This kind of tests that, though, because I feel like it is taking a major risk with the odds. The only example that someone might be able to sell me on a little bit, and I'm not even sure that this really is a great example, but Joe Burrow did not play well until his last year. And he was older and he put up ludicrous statistics and everything else that he didn't have the injury coming out that was going to set him back, but he did have all the talent,

all the numbers. And the one question about him was, Hey, why didn't he start doing this until he had Justin Jefferson, Jamar chase and this unbelievable offense and all those things. So those were questions and he's turned out to be a superstar. So there is at least that example, but I think it sort of does lean a little more toward the Chris Winky, a little more toward the Brandon Whedon, where you go like, this is not just kind of old. This is like really old, but I still would have to, if they did this, go back to, we don't really know. And the circumstance matters so much when it comes to success or failure. You cannot offer someone a better circumstance than giving him the best receiver in the league, two of the best tackles in the league.

And presumably if they sign him to an extension, one of the best tight ends in the league, you really do set up any quarterback. So you're talking about, well, he threw downfield to open receivers like well he's gonna have some open receivers specifically one guy in justin jefferson so i couldn't i i have reservations but i could not say oh my gosh what are they doing they just threw the franchise down the tube because we really still don't know even if there are more red flags yeah because i think hedden hooker is to me like a third like second to fourth round pick if you factor in positional value probably closer to the early stages of day two i i'm much lower on him than most so what you just said

certainly makes sense and this is all kind of tying back to a lot of the central points that we bring up almost every podcast, it would also make sense from the perspective of this new regime, Kevin O'Connell, Kweisi Adolfo Mensah, they're not like, hey, let's just tank and be terrible and get a top five pick. Because if they're trying to be competitive again, which we have kind of established that they are, maybe they're not really ecstatic about the idea. Hey, maybe if we're picking at 23, 24, 25 again, we would have to then trade a 2025 and a 2026 pick to move up next year. And there's going to be a bunch of other suitors trying to move up as well. So if you're still trying to be competitive and you don't want to use those extra picks, maybe you do take a quarterback a year early without having to trade that extra

draft capital. And there is some inherent value in doing that when the rest of the league or the rest of the quarterback needy teams in the league are trading up or they're really bad and they have a long way to go to get to your level competitively. So that's the other area where, again, I would not like the player going there, but drafting a quarterback, we haven't talked about it a lot. Hendon Hooker actually kind of makes sense. All right. So also in this Daniel Jeremiah mock, Will Levis is within striking distance, which is very different from mel kuyper's mock which you know look at us look what we're doing uh but you know because nobody knows but it is

really interesting though that these are two that are considered some of the most dialed into how the nfl feels about players and one of them has will levis going to indianapolis at the very top and another one has will levis dropping down into the middle of the first round. Would it be a better idea than picking Hendon Hooker for the Vikings to trade up, even if it took a next year's first, which it likely will if you're trading up for a quarterback, to get Will Levis instead? That is a difficult question because i just kind of outlined the inherent value in not having to trade that extra first um it just

i like will levis a lot more than hendon hooker am i totally enamored with will levis and think absolutely like there's a reality that i could say, Hey, like, yes, I really like Will Levis. They should absolutely do that. I don't feel like banging on the table. If that happened, if it costs a first,

if they could, if it's only, you know, three or four or five picks, usually though, when it's for a quarterback, those, you know,

the team that's trading back does want that first round selection that I would be more okay with it. But I think Will Levis kind of gives you a lot of the same problems that Hendon Hooker does. He's older. He didn't live up to the hype until later in his career. He was a backup at Penn State. And yes, there's the Patrick Mahomes, there's the Baker Mayfields that didn't play right away, Joe Burrow that you mentioned. I don't think Will Levis' film is quite as bad as Hendon Hooker's, but it's not significantly better. And that's weird saying that because people will look and say, hey, look at the touchdowns, the completion percentage.

Go watch Hendon Hooker film. Watch Will Levis' film. The things that the quarterback needs to do, throwing accurately, understanding coverages, making good decisions, those two I just don't think are very good in that area and in today's NFL game and certainly in college you can mask that with screens and just having insane advantages athletically at receiver and tight end and running back and even offensive line than your opponents and I think that was more so Hendon Hooker than Will Levis this past season but if he came within within striking distance, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, Matt, they need to do this right now. I would just play out the Kirk Cousins thing and then figure out what you do with the quarterback spot next year when it's, you know, next March, next April.

So Tanner McKee is just out of this conversation though. Cause that's kind of, that's how it seems. It seems like some people were trying to make that happen. And then everyone's like, nah like nah nah it's not happening the one guy that i feel like two or three podcasts ago you asked me like is there anyone worth like qb5 and i was like that like i didn't even mention hendon hooker the one player that i would implore you and purple insider listeners to check out is clayton tune from Houston. He tested really,

really well. And he's not one of those like fake good testers where you're like, how is this quarterback? Like who's the one quarterback that you always mentioned that, that like tested really well. I think it was O'Connell. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Kevin O'Connell tested really well. Tested extremely well. Yes. Yeah. That he tested really well. Tested extremely well. Yes. Yeah. That he tested really well. There was a few others. I think Vinny Testaverde, you mentioned to me, like when we were doing the way back draft comparisons last year, where you're like, wait, Vinny Testaverde, Clayton Toon is athletic on film. Like he runs around a lot. They used him in the designed run game at Houston. He scrambled a lot and ran away from people. And he has some of

those wild throws, the tight window throws, big time throws, whatever you want to call them on film. Now, his film isn't great. There's times where his arm talent is kind of like, oh, where did it go? Like he was running and he could barely get the ball on a 15 yard out. Like he couldn't get it there. But then on the next play, he fires it between both safeties down the middle for a 30-yard touchdown. Clayton Toome would be the only one where I would be like, not necessarily that he's going to rise up to the first round. And I think he's not yet 24. So he's not as old as some of these other prospects that I've watched as I went through the back parts of the quarterback class that I was intrigued in because of the big time throw ability and the athleticism. So he's the only other one, Tanner McKee. I don't know where he's

going to get drafted, but I don't think he's really even worth drafting at any point in the draft. Well, maybe Clayton could be in tune with his quarterback coach or, okay. If the offense plays really well around him, they could carry a tune. I'll stop. This has gone off the rails entirely because of me. But I was just circling back, poking around a Hendon Hooker stat for what you were talking about, about how you can succeed in college versus what you need to succeed in the NFL. And one thing that our buddy Kevin Cole researched a while back was that pressure performance in the NFL is very dodgy from year to year. It can be small sample size. One year,

someone could be better under pressure than another. Usually it comes down to like, did they throw a couple of bad plays or something? But it is a predictive stat with college quarterbacks. And this is insane. So Hendon Hooker, when he was not pressured, was graded by PFF a 91 out of 100. When he was pressured, 43. So I mean, it kind of tells the story. It shows on film too. It's easy to see on film. Can't you also always tell when a guy grew up

not playing backyard football because he doesn't know how to throw when running or something? This guy threw it to a tire standing there throw after throw or to you know was really well coached but you're never coached to just run around and play and so you could always kind of tell when that didn't happen for somebody anyway his arm talent doesn't really intrigue me that much like and that is that ability to make those just backyard football or baseball throws that I think it's not a necessity in today's NFL, but we're seeing more and more of it from the best quarterbacks.

A hundred percent. So I did a draft sim, and I also want to get to your story that you did that made some on the internet upset. I can't believe it. People on the internet unhappy for a first time. The Atlantic is writing about it, but I did a draft sim that I want to get your review on first, and then we'll get to your article that angered people. So I did a draft sim and I traded back with the New Orleans

Saints. This is for the website, right? This is for the website. Yes. So people can go see that purpleinsider.com, read the write-up or i tweeted it too uh and i traded back with the saints so i got the 29th and 71st pick and i sent 23 159 in a pick from next year that's not that important just know that i have 29 and 71 because i think the vikings if they're not taking hendon hooker or a quarterback they will probably trade back and here's what i went with at 29 i took nolan smith the edge rusher out of georgia and let's talk about that first and there were other options there but a lot of good players of course end up getting taken like kalydra can't see who we've talked about the interior rusher um zay flowers

was there emmanuel forbes will will mc Will McDonald seems to be rising in his draft stock and the defensive tackle Smith from Michigan. So there were some other good players there, but trading back, getting one of the best, most freaky edge rushers who didn't have great production. How do we feel about that? How would you grade that just on itself? Well, I'm glad that you told me who else was available

because that obviously plays into it. And that's how we always look back and say, who could they have picked outside of, you know, insert prospect, acts that they ultimately selected. I would love that. Of the guys you listed, Nolan Smith is my highest graded player, which is off the top of my head. What's funny is watching him

on film didn't love him. And this is where I, I, at times I have like trust the tape prospects where like a guy just doesn't test well, or a receiver wasn't that productive. But then I watched the film and I see, you know, quarterbacks overthrowing him over and over again. And I don't really kind of ding him for that. Then there's the other way where I literally will watch a player and I'm like, I don't see this pass rusher. And this is kind of the story of Nolan Smith. I don't see him winning in a variety of ways. He's just really fast around the corner. There's speed to power conversion. And then I saw his combine and I was like, wow, this guy's not just like kind of explosive. This guy's like all time explosive.

And it's kind of like, I kind of liken it to with edge rushers. If you are that athletic, bendy and explosive early in your career, as you're learning pass rushing moves, which I think you can kind of learn early on it's the same as like quarterbacks who are just really athletic where I always mentioned that Russell Wilson Deshaun Watson Josh Allen before they like knew what the hell they were doing as passers they're like oh it's third and six I don't like what I see I'm gonna run and get the first down I'm gonna just hit the check down and then run and then run and then run that's what I think Nolan Smith can be early in his career. And to join the Vikings with the Darius Smith with Danelle Hunter. I think that would be awesome for him because, and he reminds me not in terms of his size,

but in terms of his profile of Rashawn Gary, who I did not like because that's how he won at Michigan. He was big and athletic and fast. Didn't have any pass rushing moves, converted speed to power pretty well. Two years in, after learning from some veterans in front of him in Green Bay, before his injury this past season, he was arguably the best young, under 25-year-old or 26-year-old pass rusher in the entire NFL.

So I would love that pick for the Vikings. Is it the biggest need? No, but by next year, it could be a pretty big need. And that's when you would want Nolan Smith to be more comfortable stepping into a like legitimate full-time defensive end role. Yeah. Passing up on Zay Flowers was probably my hardest one because of, you know, the wide receiver thing. I don't have to explain to anybody, but you know, I, I do think that he is a good talent and would be a good fit with the Vikings, but Nolan Smith, in my mind, the ceiling for him is to be a superstar because of his athletic profile. And the fact that you can give him time to develop, I think really matches up nicely that he could be in a three, four. So he's playing that wide type of, you know, alignment and he's not the biggest guy at

all, even by height or weight. But if you're playing that wide edge rusher, then you could survive that way. Yeah. I think that it would be a good fit with what Brian Flores wants to do and someone they can start rotating in and then develop over the first year looking for a superstar. I'm always trying to look a year out when it comes to their needs as opposed to immediately. But I will say the Zay Flowers one was hard because I was like, if I do this, is everyone just going to be mad at me?

Because Nolan Smith is a really, really great prospect. So maybe I'll just take the defensive player here instead of the receiver. Yeah, it would be tough. But again, that would be the prime example that every GM says of sticking to your board that I have Nolan Smith higher than Zay Flowers and some other points with that 3-4 outside linebacker if that's kind of what you're looking for in this Brian Flores defense that's Nolan Smith 2-8 and it would also align with kind of what the Vikings did last year where they picked Louisine and Andrew Andrew booth when they had veterans at

corner and at safety. And so, I mean, we obviously didn't get to see those players very much at all last season, but they kind of went a year out and said, all right, I mean, obviously Harrison Smith is back,

but I think they were like, let's pick these players to ultimately take over as the, the key guy at that position in year two, that could ultimately be the case and probably would be the projected plan for Nolan Smith if he was the pick there for the Vikings. All right, let me tell you about my other picks here. I took Eli Ricks out of Alabama with 71. Remember, I got that pick in a trade back. A.T. Perry from Wake Forest, the receiver in the third round. And think that in this draft second third round receivers there are some nice prospects there so i didn't have a big that was part of the reason i

didn't take zay flowers i thought well you know there's pretty good opportunity if i was looking down the road at the receivers and then dory and williams the linebacker from two lane uh in the fourth early fourth round because i think that they like undersized linebackers. He's got intriguing length for a guy that's not all that tall and has a really, really good PFF coverage grade. And so I thought, well, they have Jordan Hicks for another year, but they're going to move on from him. So that's kind of the justification there. So again, Eli Ricks, the corner from Alabama, A.T. Perry from Wake Forest and Dorian Williams, the linebacker from Tulane. Give it an A-plus or you're off the show. It's an A-plus.

I was just going to ask, did I send you my scouting grade book and you looked at the prospects that I really like or something? Or maybe just because we've been doing this for a couple of years now, you know the kind of guys that I'm really into in the draft. Eli Ricks, I have an early second round grade on and he's a prospect that is flying under the radar because he didn't test at the combine he went from LSU to Alabama super tall like 6'2 super long and going from LSU to Alabama in Nick Saban's defense I thought he was the best like coverage player on that defense last year. He

really suffocates you at the line of scrimmage, got his hands on a lot of footballs with pass breakups and interceptions during his career in the SEC, pretty battle-tested. Like for someone that's, was at LSU and was really good and then went to Alabama and was really good. It's weird how there's not more hype for him. Now the Alabama pro day, I believe is sometime this week I think it's today when anyone would be listening to this podcast so maybe if he you know jumps 41 inches he'll be on the radar but just from the film alone I love Eli Ricks and it would certainly mesh well with what Brian Flores wants in his outside cornerbacks still kind of a need even though they've invested in that position quite a bit the last couple years

um at perry i like um that would be like the lowest of the four grades i'm not i'm a little bit down on like the big contested catch receivers although i do think he's pretty flexible and bendy for being like a six two two and a half six three wide receiver i don't want someone necessarily like in a perfect world that's always just going to win down the field. And I don't really even think he plays to that size. But if you are going to pick someone that is 6'3", or 6'4", at this point in the NFL,

I want him to be smaller. I want him to have a more sleek frame where he can get open and separate as opposed to being a big power forward, unless he's like DK Metcalf and is a complete freak of nature, super explosive. So I think that would be a good complimentary piece. He was very experienced, caught a lot of passes at Wake Forest. And then Dorian Williams is kind of like similar vibes to Brian Asamoah last year. I loved Brian Asamoah, undersized, sideline to sideline, actually made a fair amount of plays in coverage um a lot of

pass breakups interceptions at two lane and he is really long he has like offensive tackle length which is crazy at someone that's like 6'1 228 i don't know if there would be some positional or stylistic redundancy picking like two kind of similar undersized speedy linebackers back to back but in today's nfl that's kind of the the archetype for linebackers in general so seriously i hope to give better content so we can be more like first take and i can disagree with you in the future but this is an a plus and i don't know why i would want us to be like first take i completely rescind that comment but it's always better when there's some argument or some disagreement, but truly those four,

I really like like at least three of those guys way more than the consensus. And they would fit with what the Vikings I think need on both sides of the ball. I think what you should have layered into your commentary was LeBron, Michael Jordan and the Dallas Cowboys is what you really needed to kind of fit in there. Yeah. Tim Tebow, Terrell Owens, like fit those in there somewhere and then you'll be good. But yeah, AT Perry was the one I was a little hesitant about, but I did see him in

a game or two this year and he was pretty good. But I also thought it was funny that in college, they listed him at six, five, and he comes out like 6'3 1⁄2". You're like, yeah. I think that they sometimes do the height with the cleats on, and then that's why we have the combine to actually measure the guys. But I actually thought the reason I did this, and I like to kind of look a little bit deep into what might fit, is that A.T. Perry had good numbers against man coverage,

and to me that's a pretty decent indicator. Also, he had a lot more draft buzz before the season, then put up huge numbers and somehow had less draft buzz and then ran like a 4-5. I don't get it. So those players always catch my eye when somebody was initially graded really high, didn't do anything necessarily wrong.

And then, so anyway, uh, wonderful drafting by me, but I think that this is actually very realistic for the Vikings. If they don't draft a quarterback trade back, try to fill one of those, um, other things. So that's that you can read kind of the write-ups when it comes to, um, the whole thing, my thinking on this, who else was available, but I appreciate that, that you gave me good grades. Now you didn't make me upset, but you made the internet upset because of my idea, which is great. And I like that. So you wrote an article, which you write now is, has become a yearly thing where you write about if the draft comps, but if you can only use draft busts for some of the top players.

And we did this exercise on the show and had a lot of fun with it. And I think it's really interesting. It's really revealing, I think, because, of course, everyone does comps to just who's the best, who's the most successful. And yes, your favorite player is going to become this amazing other player, but not everyone becomes that. So I don't know how many of these you want to talk about, but some of them I thought were really apt and

interesting. And maybe a great place to start is the most controversial, finger quote, prospect in Anthony Richardson and your comp to him. Oh, and my phone is reloading. Okay. My phone is melting down. Oh, Vince Young. Yeah. So Vince Young, okay. My phone is melting down. Oh, Vince Young. Yeah, so Vince Young. I think Vince Young is a great comp for Anthony Richardson because even if he can't throw, he could still win some football games with his legs,

but it's probably not going to be a consistent superstar quarterback if he can't execute those things that quarterbacks need to do. So that is a really interesting draft bust comp for Anthony Richardson. Well, I'm just happy that an idea that stemmed from you that was originally aired on the Purple Insider podcast has now made its way to be a perennial article at CBS Sports. My editors like it. I love doing it.

It does seem to get people that don't like to read articles in general all stirred up for no reason. I'm not trying to do that all the time, but it is kind of funny when it happens. Yeah, and it's every shorter quarterback than like 6'2 is going to be the next Drew Brees, right? That's what happens every single year. I've seen the Drew Brees comparisons for Bryce Young. That was the case for Kyler Murray, for Baker Mayfield, for Russell Wilson. They were all going to be, that's not going to happen. We'll look back at the 2023 draft and like half, if not more of the first round picks will be like on their second team in two or three seasons, bust completely, or just not

good NFL players. So we should be a little bit more, And I try to be with my legitimate comps every year. Just a little bit more realistic that they're not going to all become the all pros that are only a few years older than them or, you know, historical greats with Vince Young. It's like he had back-to-back thousand yard rushing seasons at Texas. And you and I remember Hendon Hooker certainly remembers how good he was, how dangerous he was running the football at Texas, winning that Rose Bowl, which to me, I still think is the best national title game I've ever seen. I think people our age kind of feel that, that like we all agree that that game had so much hype and was so awesome.

And it speaks to your point again, that Anthony Richardson doesn't actually have a low floor because if he doesn't understand anything about coverage or where to throw the football or can't hit the broad side of a barn he can just run and Vince Young did that as a rookie won the rookie of the year with the Tennessee Titans because he just ran he was on the Madden cover I remember playing Madden with Vince Young on the cover after his first season now he doesn't have Anthony Richardson's arm strength and he's certainly not as big as Anthony Richardson and I don't think we ever got Vince Young working out before the 2006 draft but a lot of similarities where if things go wrong with Anthony Richardson maybe there were some off the field character mental concerns with Vince Young too that I certainly was too young to like dive into then. And I don't want to dive into them now

without really knowing, but if he ultimately doesn't work out, I could see him having a very similar, like exciting early part of his career where he just runs a lot and then never fully can understand how to make it work as a passer. Just like what happened with Vince Young, who actually did stay in the NFL for a couple of seasons. Like he wasn't gone in two years and never played again. He, he stuck around, but just certainly never lived up to being the number three overall pick in that draft. You know what I like about this again, other than me coming up with it is that it is, but it is kind of revealing of like what has to happen in order for this not to be the case so what has to happen for anthony richardson is that he has to improve his passing

he needs to give everything he has into improving his consistency and accuracy because that man threw some of the best passes i've ever seen a college football quarterback throw and some of the worst where it would just be like someone five feet away from him and he spikes it or throws it over like Anthony, please. Would you please? I mean, he had games where he dominated throwing the ball. He had games where he was horrendous throwing the ball like all over the place. But one thing we do know is you can improve this. If you are a freak athlete, Vince Young never did that. Vince Young, I don't think put in the time. I think he was kind of entitled coming out.

Like I'm this big superstar from Texas. I'll just do whatever I want. And that was at least my impression. I agree that it was a while back, but that was my impression that he just didn't put in the work. And that's what I like about this, this comp. And a lot of these is where it shows you like your Jalen Carter comp is Marcel Darius. And people were arguing with you, whether Marcel Darius is a bust. He had some good years or okay. And exciting

years getting some sacks, but he was not a long-term success in the NFL in part because of off-field issues. And again, like did not take football seriously enough, quickly faded and fell off the map after some hot seasons. So I think that those two are similar in that way, where it's like, how much do you take what you have physically naturally from here and make it into a big star? I really like another one that, and if you had more to say about that, that's okay. But another one I liked was, was Jake Locker, because one thing that seems to swing back and forth in the pendulum all the time is toughness and a lack of accuracy. And we kind of talk about these things.

And I loved Jake Locker coming out. I thought he was the coolest. He would like run over people and he was super tough and he was fun. And I think it was Mel Kiper who didn't like him, which made me want to like him. And, you know, it just didn't work out. But it really didn't work out because Locker got hurt all the time. And one thing about tough quarterbacks is usually they're getting hit a lot, which is not necessarily good.

So I think that's interesting, too. Like, can Will Levis take NFL hits the same way he did in college? Probably not. Can he be as inaccurate as he was in college in the NFL and succeed? Definitely not. And that sort of lays out the path of how challenging it is for someone like Jake Locker with that similar profile to be an NFL success. Yeah. And I have concerns about Will Levis's accuracy and like, not like ball placement, where on a slant, it's a little bit

behind a receiver where you're really nitpicking, like just blatant misses. And I remember I liked Jake Locker too. The fact that he kind of propped up Washington's program when they weren't really that good. And he kind of kept them in some games or they won some games they shouldn't have. That's kind of how he deals with Kentucky. And I feel a similar vibe as a runner with Will Levis, as I did with Jake Locker. And again, I wasn't scouting Jake Locker in the 2011 draft, but I was starting to get into the writing field and I was starting to pay more attention to it. They just feel very similar college careers, how they kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly, wow, this guy's a really good athlete with a really strong arm that kind

of needs to be harnessed. And we didn't see as much running from Will Levis this past season. But if you watch the 2021 film where Kentucky was very good and they exceeded expectations, there were a lot of those to kind of use another draft bus, almost like RG three ask runs where it was like, okay, well, just walk out of bounds. Don't lower your head at that linebacker or like you can just slide and get this third and sixth first down. Oh, you're going to try to hurdle them and you're going to get hit in midair

and like stuff that was unnecessary for Will Levis to be doing. They're similar sizes. They're not gigantic, but they're big and thick and physical. So yes, being injured certainly will derail any developmental process for a young quarterback. And it wouldn't shock me if once Will Levis gets to the league, he's like, hey, by the way, I can run too. It's not just Anthony Richardson. And he maybe does that a little bit too much. And then as a thrower, the accuracy concerns just never are alleviated like they were with Jake Locker.

It was always a problem for him where there would be that out route from the far hash and the ball would sail five feet over the wide receiver's head more often than it would be drilled into the chest. Right, and that's the thing about when we're talking about accuracy because someone like Anthony Richardson is inconsistent with this, but he has this other part of him where he is literally the best athlete to ever play. So someone with that level athleticism at that position probably has a better chance at making adjustments. And, you know, Josh Allen's going to be the all-time example here, but even Jalen Hurts, these are like the

best of the best athletes. And I don't think that will Levis reach that threshold of being the best of the best. So also if you have to rely on dropping back in the pocket, setting your feet, firing into tight windows, like that's how you succeed. That's not how Anthony Richardson succeeds as a whole. Like that's not his entire thing. That's going to be a big percentage of his thing, but it's not his entire thing that's going to be a big percentage of his thing but it's not his entire thing where you can make up for some of the shortages by getting first downs with your legs but we know this if you want to run in the NFL you usually have to be a great great great athlete unless it's Daniel Jones who's like a pretty good athlete but that's weird that doesn't happen very often that someone runs as much as Daniel Jones did this year. Shout out to Brian Dable for that. So it is, yeah, it is very revealing. Now, what I have to ask you about,

though, that was on your list is Sam Bradford as a comp to CJ Stroud. And I really like this because as people on the show know, I have never been so impressed in my life by someone throwing a football as Sam Bradford. Never, never. So fast, so accurate, just so quick, the release. And then here's CJ Stroud looking almost the same. But with Bradford, the entire reason the guy failed really had to do with injuries. And I think with Stroud, that's what's interesting is he probably does have the highest floor of all these guys, unless he completely can't figure out football because he does throw the ball so excellently that he could, even if he, I mean, the only way that he's not at least some kind of quarterback is that he ends up like Bradford where he just gets injured a lot.

Yeah. And like everything that you just said about being just so impressed with Bradford seeing it live throwing the football it kind of sounds like what Daniel Jeremiah was saying during that throwing session of CJ Stroud's at the combine like it was the best throwing session he said he had ever seen or you know seen live while he was commentating um for the NFL combine and that's really when you watch CJ Stroud's film there's certainly some misses and there were misses for Sam Bradford at Oklahoma but but there are few and far between. And there are so many more pinpoint accurate throws between layers of coverage over safeties,

corner routes to the sideline above the underneath corner, but in front of the safety ranging from the deep middle, like a lot of those layered touch throws, throws with zip. They're both pocket passers. And I wrote in the article that we just talked about how maybe Will Levis could run too much and be too aggressive as a runner. And that is dangerous. You probably know this. And it's, I think it's good to always bring up during the pre-draft process that there's

kind of a long-standing idea that the mobile quarterbacks, the guys who run, they are more apt to get injured. But in reality, it's the guys who can't avoid getting hit in the pocket. The Tua Tunga-Vailoa, the Carson Wentz, who I, for being like a bigger kind of athletic quarterback, Carson Wentz, I think he has pretty sluggish feet sometimes in the pocket. A lot of the quarterbacks that we've seen in this era are the ones who are getting injured because they can't move. They can't get out of the way. And that's what happened for Sam Bradford at Oklahoma with his shoulder injury before he entered the NFL. And I don't remember all the

instances of when he got injured in the NFL, but I do remember that he wasn't that mobile and he wanted to pass from the pocket. I feel similarly about CJ Stroud. He's probably more athletic and more apt to move than Sam Bradford was. But if you're adjusting for era, I feel like they're kind of the same because when Bradford came in, quarterbacks weren't really running at all. CJ Stroud can maybe,

you know, roll out to his right a little bit and throw it away, but he's not going to be running a ton, certainly not in the designed run game, or you're not going to lean on him to pick up third and eights on a regular basis with his feet in the NFL. So you're right. He's going to be impressive in practice, just like Sam Bradford was. And when he's healthy and when it's a clean pocket, you can have CJ Stroud maybe lead the league in completion percentage like sam bradford did in 2016 but then again he's kind of one where he didn't really bust he threw for over 19 000

yards in the nfl but like there was like all-time hype like i remember todd mcshay saying that he was the highest grade he had ever given and this guy's going to be hall of famer and it never really materialized he played on a bunch of different teams so I could see it wouldn't be crazy if CJ Stroud has a similar path in the NFL. If things don't work out well to what we saw from Sam Bradford. Yeah. I think the whole of CJ Stroud is not very dynamic play that that was very similar to Sam Bradford is if he was standing in there and throwing it, oh my God. But if he wasn't,

he could throw on a bootleg, but it had to be a design bootleg. He was not going to make it up on the fly. And one thing that was worth being critical of Bradford for was when they would get to end of game situations where they needed him to make a play. A lot of times he would make the like quote smart throw, but he would smart throw them right out of time and they would lose the game. I mean, and, and cousins got better at this. I think as the years went on, maybe enough people criticized him over it or coaches told him he needed to be a little more risky, but it is kind of the fourth and eight check down by Kirk cousins that happened a lot with Sam Bradford.

And that could be the case with Stroud. Like he's really well wired, but it's, can you kind of turn that next notch? I thought he did that in the Georgia game, but it's only one game. So is it like, is it, was that just a fluke or is that something he really is developing? I don't know. So really, really great and insightful about these prospects and how they need to actually succeed. So we can explain that to the internet if they're upset, kind of the meta of the thing. So anyway, follow you by the way, on Twitter at Chris Trapasso. You definitely want to go see all of your work from draft season. And of course we're doing this every week. So more to come, but i think next week so we kind of teased that we would do a mock and we did not get to that to that today because we got too enthralled with hendon hooker talk um but uh next week i promise we will do that chris so thanks so much for everybody for watching and really appreciate your time as always thanks matt