Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How did JJ McCarthy look at Vikings OTA practice?

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz of SI.com talk about JJ McCarthy playing with the third teamers during OTAs and how Sam Darnold looked. Plus another Justin Jefferson contract PSA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Inside or Inside TCO Performance Center. Matthew Collar here along with Will Raggett of Sports Illustrated. And we have just walked off of the field inside the TCO Performance Center facility here after watching Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy, and the entire Minnesota Vikings perform an OTA practice. And boy, do we have takeaways, maybe dozens. This could be a long podcast. I hope you don't have a lot to write because there is so much to take away from this one practice that we got to see that you might have to write your family. Tell them you're not going to be around for a little while. No, I'm kidding, but sort of not. There's a lot to get to here starting with will the fact that we saw jj mccarthy as qb

three ish three or four working with the backup players well sam darnold and nick mullins worked with the starters today at practice what was your opinion of J.J. McCarthy not working in and out with Sam Darnold but instead Darnold and Mullins being one and two and then on the other side of the field with the threes and fours that's where the rookie J.J. McCarthy was practicing yeah it's kind of a boring take but I wasn't too surprised. I think, I mean, Mike Zimmer did this. Kevin O'Connell's done this. I think basically every NFL coach does this, where you make the rookies earn their way up. And J.J. McCarthy was the highest drafted quarterback in Vikings history, but he's also just a rookie. He's 21 years old. It makes sense to me that if you're grouping of

their four quarterbacks, Sam Darnold and Nick Mullens are the veterans, the guys who have been around for a while. Jaron Hall and J.J. McCarthy are the young guys who still have a lot to learn. That's not to say, by any means, it's May 21st today, something like that, that J.J. McCarthy can't or won't work his way up over the course of the rest of the spring, during training camp, which is where it'll start to really get interesting to monitor who's getting what level of reps is that that's in late July and into August and and we got the preseason games and right now it's just this was our first look at a full team practice for the 2024 Minnesota Vikings and I wasn't surprised to see McCarthy kind of working in as three I think there were a couple moments where they went from 7-on-7 to 11-on-11,

back to 7-on-7. At one point it was Darnold, and then I thought I saw McCarthy as the second guy. But for the most part, he was third behind Mullins and working on the other half of the field with all the young players. Something important to remember is that everyone else is practicing and learning too so if you're asking somebody who's a rookie that doesn't know the offense yet doesn't know the footwork when we talked to Wes Phillips he said that they're teaching him how to have his left foot up in the shotgun as opposed to either spread wide or his right foot up in the shotgun, which he may have done before.

Sorry, I didn't take note of that in the film study about McCarthy, but it's different. Whatever way it was before, it's different with how his foot is being put on the stance for the shotgun, which tells you just where we're at with this process, that it is going to be a long development process over the summer. And it also may go into the season and it may go all the way through the season. We don't really know that yet. As you said, it is very common to have all young players working on the side. Although Dallas Turner was with the top defense right away. So we can throw that out there. Uh, but especially for quarterback,

you want everyone, you want Jordan Addison and we'll get to Justin Jefferson not being here, don't worry. You want Addison, you want Brandon Powell, you want the offensive line, you want all those guys to get a lot out of this practice rather than having to stop and say, all right, JJ, this is how the play works, this is how your footwork works, everything else, where when you're working with the threes and the fours, there's much more time to be able to do that. And it gets him a lot of reps instead of standing behind Sam Darnold and watching Darnold go rep after rep and then Mullins mixes in. Instead, now it's rep, rep, rep. Okay, Jaron Hall gets one, you know, three more passes for McCarthy so he can get a lot more work. But if you were writing out a depth chart today, it would have Darnold easily number one, Mullins number two, and then McCarthy number three, which as you mentioned, doesn't have a lot of significance. And yet at the same time, would not be terribly shocking if that's how week one started, just knowing how slowly they want to take it with McCarthy. I think what we saw today was simply evidence that they were telling the truth that they want to take it slow with McCarthy. Yeah, no, they definitely do. And it's going to be on him. And this is what has been

reported and been said all along. It's going to be on him if he wants to move up that depth. That's not going to be handed to him. It's he's going to have to show that he can meet these certain benchmarks of readiness and of mastering the offense and just timing and rhythm and getting the ball out and um just putting in the playmakers hands because that's what their quarterback has to do in this offense so yeah it could be um a later ota this spring where we see him move up it could be I think that's less likely. Probably if it's going to happen this year, it's sometime later in training camp. It's sometime during the season. I floated the idea that they could trade Nick Mullins because you have four quarterbacks now.

And I don't know where Mullins really fits into. Like, is he just the kind of experienced third quarterback eventually? I don't know what you could get back for him but I think he's valuable to have because you never know if guys are going to get hurt or whatever look at what happened last year and Mullins it was funny we came out and like his first two passes in the OTA today he's just ripping it deep like he's trying to find Brandon Powell and double coverage and it's like all right Nick Mullins he's a

fun guy to have around because he is just an absolute gunslinger. But yeah, I think McCarthy, he looked all right today. You can see some of the things that they're sold on, which is the mobility, getting outside of the pocket, just kind of the zip that he has when he throws the ball. And then there were a couple moments he dropped a shotgun snap for a fumble. There were a couple misses that were just a little high or a little off or whatever it was. And he looks like a rookie, and he looks like a rookie with a lot of upside. But then you watch Sam Darnold, who, I mean, is really kind of getting overlooked in a lot of ways in this process. And Wes Phillips said it. Like, this guy was the number three overall pick in his draft for a reason.

The arm talent's been evident from day one and we watch him and you're talking about just all the zip that he throws with not to overuse that word but the ball really just kind of comes out of uh his his hand quickly and so you see I don't know what I've been thinking about since they signed Darnold is all of the arguments that people make about the environment being so great for a rookie quarterback which is true that also applies to a guy like Sam Darnold who has never been in this kind of system with these surroundings before in his career so to me I mean you you don't you can talk me into especially after seeing him throw live today you could talk me into the Sam Darnold kind of Baker Mayfieldo smith type of year even if it's

maybe not quite to that level um just with the pieces that are around him and with the arm talent that's always been there just to answer the fundamental question of a podcast after an ota practice as far as how did jj look uh in my opinion there were some plays where it was clearly slow in understanding where he was supposed to go with the football. I got yelled at by the coaches a little bit, like welcome to an NFL practice where you're not supposed to be scrambling on a particular play. You're supposed to let it rip into a window. But these are all the things that you've got to figure out. When can you throw that ball?

What's the timing on a particular play? Where was that read supposed to go that you just need a lot of reps so there was a couple times where i thought there was a bit of a delay a bit of a am i supposed to throw it here and then he would let it go or i think i'm supposed to throw it no i'm gonna scramble instead which you shouldn't really be scrambling ever on a seven on seven unless it's really the right either there's no pressure so i don't know what when that is appropriate to do there's supposed to be maybe a clock in your head where all right you get to some point you know you'd have to be scrambling here but the point is that seven on sevens are designed to drop back and throw the ball and there were a few times where he was

rolling or scrambling and it didn't seem like that was what was supposed to happen there was also an out route that was right in front of us that came right into our grills on the sideline from Lucky Jackson. I would say there's about 15, 20 yards down the field where McCarthy dropped back, put his foot in the ground and let it rip right on the money to Jackson, who was coming past. I think it was Lewis scene who got beat a couple of times today and dropped an interception, but we're not concerned about that. Uh, uh was uh nick mullins it was robert tunyon where he really let one go in the back shoulder throwing deep down the field but as far as mccarthy

i thought it would probably look like this i would have been really impressed if it wow it's all on time and he's just dropping back hitting that back back foot, letting it go. It didn't look like that. It probably won't look like that for a while. It almost never looks like that for a new quarterback. So if we get into, think about fans of the Matrix. The first time, you've seen the Matrix? Yes, I have. Okay, so the first time that they're asking him

to jump over the buildings and they're like, oh, he's the chosen one. He's going to jump over the buildings and then he falls. And they're like, okay, so he's, you know, maybe not. I don't know if he's chosen one. We can't decide that today. As far as how Darnold looked, he did throw a couple of picks. It's a practice, you know, whatever.

But there was a rollout play to his left where he had to snap the hips and let it go. And the ball hit Tristan Jackson so hard. We could hear it across the facility. It just went like, boom, like it nailed him. So to your point, Darnold looks pretty comfortable running an offense and his football was coming out pretty darn strong. And if you're comparing the two and how they looked at a practice, you would say one's a veteran quarterback who has a lot of talent and the other one's a rookie and it's not even remotely close right now and i think it's going to be fun to watch how close it gets does it get close in the middle of training camp or do we see him get these number two reps

in minicamp instead of mollins or is he consistently back with the number threes because they're taking it slow hey this is fun we we haven't had something like this in a while we had to cling to like oh the backup quarterback competition between kellen mond and sean manion or whoever it was and uh kirk cousins was always the unquestioned starter and you knew what you're getting out of kirk cousins and um there were varying things with different offensive coordinators during his time and different systems. But now we have a true kind of quarterback competition and a situation to watch unfold. And it was nice to be here today and have the kind of starting point of,

you know, it's tough to really see a whole lot in these OTAs, these 7-on-7, 11-on-11, where they're not going full contact or anything. I mean, they're going close to full speed, but it's not the same level as what it will be when we get into training camp. So it'll be cool to watch that unfold throughout OTAs and mandatory mini camp and then into training camp, which I think the fans are going to be really excited about, just coming out and seeing Darnold and McCarthy and those two primarily and some Mullins and Hall mixed in as well but just yeah how close can J.J. McCarthy

get to really start to make it a potential decision for Kevin O'Connell because I think we're all assuming Sam Darnold's probably going to be the week one starter and and then it's a question of is it McCarthy after the bye coming out and playing the Lions in week six or is it McCarthy sometime in November December is it McCarthy in 2025 and and that'll all depend on uh it'll depend on how McCarthy does more so I think than even what the results are with Sam Darnold like it's if Darnold comes out and he's the Sam Darnold that he's been for most of his career and he isn't very successful, they're not just going to put McCarthy in there

to make a spark or whatever. It's going to have to be McCarthy is ready because they are taking an overhead 5-, 10-, 15-year view of things with J.J. McCarthy, and you don't want to put him out there before he's ready and risk having their hands be dirty, as Kweisi said, and maybe doing anything that's going to mess up his development in any way. And that's probably what happened to Sam Darnold when he was with the Jets and then going to the Panthers and all these different things that he talked about today. There's a lot that

goes into his career and the pressure of being drafted highly. And the Vikings want to make sure that they do right by J.J. McCarthy and give him the best chance to succeed. So I don't know. I think I was impressed in some moments with McCarthy where you're like, okay, yeah, there's the arm talent. You can see that. That out route that you mentioned to Lucky Jackson was one of those kind of wow moments. And then there's a lot of times where, as you also mentioned, he's going to his first read and that's not there and he's going to the second one and I don't know if I can rip that and then you're trying to get to the third and then at this point, like if it were an NFL play, you got to get out of the pocket.

So he's going through some of that, the kind of finding the timing of the progressions, the rhythm, the decisiveness. And yeah, it's May, so we shouldn't expect that to be super well-oiled right now. But you can see the upside with him just from a tools standpoint. So there is a milkshake bet on the board with the quarterback situation between myself and Dane Mizutani. Now, this was his proposal, so I just took it to take it because it's a milkshake bet. Why not? Uh, he, he thinks though that JJ McCarthy will be QB two to start

week one. It'll be Darnold starting QB two McCarthy. And so I took Nick Mullins as QB two. I don't think that it would make sense to trade him because he's the guy that knows the offense and because he has been a backup quarterback.'s won games in the league before i don't love my odds here but i also think as far as developmental quarterbacks go that jordan love was not qb2 right away with the green bay packers not in week one because they felt that whoever i forget who tim boyle maybe tim boyle was more prepared and nobody thought tim boyle was a better quarterback as far as talent goes, but they thought he was more prepared to be the backup for that particular week. Whose side would you take for that bet just today?

And this doesn't have to be definitive. You don't have to lose the bet. I do. But where would you put that money? And then I want to talk more about Darnold. I'd almost be inclined to take your side because I think you can make the case that McCarthy's either QB1 or he's QB3 because if he's ready to play and viewed ready to play,

he could start week one. I don't think that's by any means out of the question. I mean, they gave Sam Darnold $10 million, but Sam Darnold has not lit it up in the NFL, and he's coming into the best circumstances that he's ever had. But it's a bar that I think is potentially clearable by J.J. McCarthy, who, yes, is 21 and needs some development, but there were a lot of things on the tape at Michigan where you're like, oh, that could translate pretty quickly. So I wouldn't bet on him being QB1, but I think if he's not QB1,

it makes more sense to have him as QB3, as that inactive emergency third guy, kind of what like Jaron Hall was early on last season, and not be the QB2 where you're one injury away from being thrust into there. I think that could change if, for example, Mullins were to get traded for a conditional sixth round draft pick or something like that. Then you would probably have McCarthy be the two unless something changes with Jaron Hall. But I don't know.

I think you could make the case where if he's not QB1 and you don't think he's ready, then you don't want him to be a snap away from playing and you don't think he's ready, then you don't want him to be a snap away from playing because you don't think he's ready. So you don't want him to be one injury away from being forced in there and maybe playing before his development suggests that he should be playing. So I could see taking your side where if he's not QB1, and I don't think he will be, I don't know what my pie chart of that would be just yet. But then he maybe is QB3, so there's no situation where he gets thrust in there unless two guys get hurt. But that's probably not going to happen.

So the best part of doing podcasts where we only get one practice a week is I forget what I said the last time. And when we talked about the percentage chance that J.J. McCarthy starts, I don't remember what percentage I said, and I didn't last time and when we talked about the percentage chance that J.J. McCarthy starts like I don't remember what percentage I said and I didn't go back and look after today I was maybe sitting at 25 percent I was I was just gonna say like 20 but but 25 that's that's more around number one quarter yeah I think about one in four i mean with a first round pick who's as talented as jj mccarthy you could see quick development because as of right now it's not close but i wouldn't have expected it to be close with someone who's played so many nfl games as sam darnold who i want to talk a little more about the only angle that really exists on sam

darnold is hey maybe the situation is so good that he won't be bad and he'll play pretty well and they could be competitive. What I saw today was a very confident looking pro quarterback lining people up, throwing it to the right places, you know, even just like taking the snap, rolling out, running a bootleg, throwing it when he's supposed to throw it. It just had that rhythm to it that you expect from someone who's done this many times and i thought he looked pretty good uh today with the way that he threw the football is there any other angle though with darnold because i feel the same way as probably everyone else does which is i like that they brought in someone who is mature we heard from him today you could tell he might what is he 26 he, 26? But, you know, he's a grown up.

He's a veteran pro quarterback the way that he handles himself. I think that's a good guy for McCarthy. They went to a Wolves game together, and it seems like he's very much accepted where he's supposed to be in this world, that this is a last chance for him as a starter. But it's also a situation where he's got someone else that he knows the team cares about their future is there anything else to say about sam darnold other than hey look if he starts he could probably win some games the the darnold case of the the top tier outcome for him being like the baker mayfield thing is i mean they literally were on the same team in 2022 with the Carolina Panthers,

and Baker Mayfield was terrible with the Panthers. And then they went to, like, so Baker started the first six games or something, and then they went to P.J. Walker for a while, and he wasn't very good. And then Darnold played, like, the last five games, and it was a bad team, so you're like, how much does that really matter? But, I mean, they're real NFL regular season games, and he put together the best stretch of play in his career it wasn't he wasn't lighting things up completely but it's compared to what he had done the previous year with Carolina his first few years with the Jets it was like okay he's taking care of the football a little bit he's making some nice throws so

that's the most recent time we've seen him in any sort of extended stretch and it was the best play of his career and then last year he goes um and he's the backup or qb3 or whatever um in in san francisco where he's learning under kyle shanahan and he's learning that west coast offense and now he said today i mean translating that over it's new verbiage and and terms and all that stuff but it's a lot of the same kind of formations and concepts. So that year under Shanahan has helped kind of ease this transition a little bit. I think that's the case is a guy who the last time we saw him in 2022 was playing the best football of his career, then had this kind of learning like mid-career redshirt year last year,

and now could potentially come out and take advantage of the best offensive environment that he's ever been around with a great coaching staff. He's getting to work with quarterback coach Josh McCown, who is his teammate, and he said like his best friend his rookie year when he was the youngest guy in the Jets and McCown was the oldest guy in the Jets. So just a lot of the environmental stuff, you can kind of talk yourself into the the absolute high-end outcome being something like what we saw from baker mayfield last year which was a pro bowl quarterback who just got paid what like 30 million a year this offseason there's kind of a question there with sam darnold to be clear i don't think that that

is a likely outcome i just that is that is within the wide range of potential outcomes everything from this team is in the playoffs with sam darnold to we never see him play because jj mccarthy wins the job it's all possible as you mentioned that's what makes this so interesting right now and the most interesting that they've been at this point of the year in a very long time uh but the question kind of comes down to how screwed do you think sam darnold was by the teams that acquired him the jets the panthers i mean obviously not the 49ers i i think it speaks highly of him that he went there won the backup job when i believe they would have preferred it to be trey lance but he was the he was the qb2 that's right you're right and then uh they trade

away trey lance and not to the Vikings. Now, that would have made things really interesting around here had they done that. But I think that in New York, he was epically screwed over going to one of the worst franchises with bad weapons. They immediately turned to one of the worst coaches in the league. And then I just cannot tell you how not prepared for the NFL Matt Rule was. I mean, one of the worst coaching hires of the last 15 years in the NFL. And then goes out to San Francisco. The game he plays in, he looks pretty comfortable.

He throws the ball well. It's a small sample. I think that that screwed percentage is very high. Like one of the most unfortunately placed quarterbacks but now look if it's uh joe burrow he went to a bad franchise as well but he went to maybe better coaching receivers i don't think that you could be so great that you just say screw all that it doesn't matter right but when it's someone like Darnold who could go either way, that environment has an especially large impact, I think, on success.

So what we're going to see, and maybe we already saw with him throwing to Jordan Addison, for example, is this might be the best receiver you've had other than the small sample with DJ Moore. Wow, that's really saying something. Yeah, and that's your wide receiver too, assuming that just Jefferson shows up at some point, which we assume that he will. Get to that in a second. Yeah. No, I, yeah, like, can you think of an example of somebody who's come in

and had, like, that level of poor coaching and overcome that? I mean, was it Adam Gase and Matt Rule being his coaches? I mean, even Trevor Lawrence, who was like viewed as a generational prospect, he was really hurt by the Urban Meyer thing. And that's still, I think, affecting some of the perception of Trevor Lawrence heading into this year. And he, as a number one overall pick and a guy I think is still going to be able to figure it out and has kind of gotten past that.

But he probably would have liked to have a little smoother start to his career. And, yeah, Gase and Rule are right up there almost with – they're not to the Urban Meyer level of dysfunction, but they're not that far off. So it is a tough way to start your career and he just donald just had to be elated by the opportunity to come join this team this year and work with kevin o'connell and work with josh mccown and throw to jordan addison and justin jefferson and t.j hockinson and all these guys and the the two tackles are really good and um it's just like i said everything that we've said about what it'll mean for J.J. McCarthy at some point, whether that's week one or week 10 or next year, that will also benefit Sam Darnold in a lot of ways. So if there was ever going to be a situation for Sam Darnold to resurrect his career, I mean, it feels like

this is the right one. Because, yeah, the other side of it is like all these quarterbacks we see come into the league and have success burrow and zach taylor like mahomes and andy reed cj stroud with demico ryans and bobby slowick like there's just a lot of examples where i mean josh allen and sean mcdermott and brian brian dable yeah brian yeah um just a lot of good examples of if you have good coaching with you, that's going to help a ton. And Darnold up until last year just hadn't had that. I'm interested. After seeing him today, I'm a little more interested because I thought he looked pretty good. Justin Jefferson's not here. Maybe you've heard. Maybe you've seen someone on the Internet swap him in jersey with the new york jets or you saw that some clown

tweeted that he was in new york or something which by the way a player wouldn't do a visit to a team before they were going to be traded there so if you're gonna tweet out a bogus rumor at least make it make sense anyway you can't just while under contract, go visit another team. No, you can't. Doesn't have a key fob to get into the Jets building. Anyway, the point is they're not trading him to the Jets or anybody else. They will sign Justin Jefferson to a contract extension at some point. I don't know when. And that becomes increasingly difficult as we go forward

because we are in Minnesota, and no matter how good the wolves are people will still believe that bad things are just ready to happen to all of these teams but all i can say is once again deep breaths you and i this very same time of year last year had this very same conversation we were like you know next year we could be talking about no contract extension and deep breaths it's still the same way. I'm looking at mini camp as a possibility. If he misses mini camp, then the tension ramps up right now. In my opinion, the tension, it is voluntary organized teams, uh, activities.

The tension should be very, very small at a two. If he misses, you know, mini camp, it's a hundred thousand dollar fine or so maybe it goes up to about five or six and then if we get to starting training camp all right now the pressure's up and now we're really going to have all of our antennas up what's going on here on a daily basis you start to miss practices but we are quite some time from then so we wait and that's all i can really say about it and and just don't search his name on twitter because you're just going to get all a bunch of toxic bogus nonsense yeah i agree i mean i've had people ask me like hey what's what's going on with jefferson what's what's going here and i just there's nothing to report if you we're just going to have to be patient with this one

nothing changed with him not showing up to otas if. If you've been following the Vikings closely, you knew that he wasn't coming to OTAs because he didn't come to OTAs last year. So he wasn't going to come to OTAs this year. He's a superstar. He doesn't need to be at OTAs, quite frankly. Last year, he showed up to mandatory minicamp. So that's the first time this year that we will take note if that's not the case

or if it is the case. I understand why it's news yesterday that adam schefter tweets out because he's justin jefferson and he's the best receiver in football and he doesn't have a new contract so you know what sure it's it's newsworthy that he wasn't here but if if you were following it at all you knew that he wasn't going to be here so nothing has changed we have to wait we'll see if he's here for mandatory minicamp we'll see if he shows up for uh training camp if he doesn't show up for mandatory minicamp maybe he could do the daniel hunter hold in where you come to training camp and then you just don't really do anything but you avoid the fines and you can make up some reason why you're not doing

anything that well clearly it's the contract but you don't know what do you mean like a back injury like tj hackinson last year yeah you don't have to say that it's because of the contract. Yeah, the ear, that was something. So yeah, all I can do is tell everybody that be patient with this. It is a massive contract negotiation situation where he is more than likely going to become the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, making at least $35 million a year, something like that.

And I know people will be like, what's the holdup? There's just a lot on both sides where you're trying to meet in the middle. I think guaranteed money and structure are big things there. And it's just something that's going to take time. And a lot of times you see these big extensions happen closer to the start of the regular season. So, yeah, all I can say is be patient with this one. It just doesn't benefit anyone in media at all to say that. And so we put it 28 minutes into the podcast because it can't lead unless it's a little more dramatic i would say and then so that is i think the 365

nature of football it's the power of social media that uh drama and things like that are always going to move the needle a lot more than just saying well let's just wait and see there is a moment where you can start to say, what is going on here? But that moment is not now. We have not gotten there. And when that moment gets here, then I will say, what is going on here? It will be pretty notable if he doesn't come to mandatory minicamp because that will be different.

It will deviate from last year when he did come to minicamp as they were starting their negotiation process. And that's when the team can find him we've also seen guys with contract issues show up at mandatory minicamp but they don't do anything that could be another option for justin jefferson go to the meetings be involved but it wouldn't make a lot of sense for him to go run around on a field and if there's any potential that someone could get injured as we saw from Teddy Bridgewater once upon a time, it's just not very wise to do.

I don't think at this point it would be a, hey, bleep you team or whatever, I'm playing hardball, as much as it's just not very smart to show up and go out there and start practicing. And it is, to be fair, a different situation than last year where he had the two years left on the rookie contract. Now we are literally going into the contract year, the final year of his rookie contract, the fifth year option. So, yeah, he doesn't have the security beyond that. So there's no upside for him to come and practice until a deal gets done I still remain of the belief that

this is going to get done because the Vikings want to get it done and keep him around as the face of their franchise for a long time you just drafted the rookie quarterback so you can have the the rookie quarterback contract and you can pay Justin Jefferson a lot of money and still fill out your team which is um you couldn't really do quite as well if you had re-signed Kirk Cousins. So like that, you have the ability to make it happen. And I think there's been no indication that Justin Jefferson wants to be somewhere else. Even now that Kirk Cousins is gone, I think he really likes and respects Kevin O'Connell and what the Vikings are building here and understands the vision of what they've done this offseason. And I don't think there's any reason to believe

he just wants to run off and go to New York or Miami or something like that. So I would just tell everybody, deep breaths, patience. I think this is going to get done. There will come a point in time where that might change, but we're not there yet. Yeah, I think everyone could probably, just whether you're watching this for the first time or if you watch the live streams or anything else over the last how many months, sense my frustration with the NFL media machine in general and the social media machine that just churns out things that are completely bogus. Just keep this in mind. There is no indication whatsoever that he's ever wanted to be traded, that he's ever asked to be traded, that the team has ever continued trading him or that anyone has

ever considered on either side, not signing. The fact that they had negotiations last year is much more of an indication that everybody wants this to happen everybody knows that the price is going to be high they just have to figure out all the details to it and yet still every time it comes up it's should they trade jefferson who are they trading jefferson to here's him in a chargers jersey it's just like get a life okay but again that doesn't move the needle i won't rant on it anymore because we've got a very important couple other things to talk about. Number one, we didn't see any kicking today. Very disappointing.

Broke my heart. So no update on the kicking competition. We saw some punting, though. Did see some punting. Oh, yeah, you want to talk about the punter? Why don't we talk about the punter for like 30 seconds? Yeah, that's a good period of time. Is Ryan Wright going to be the punter?

I don't know if he is because Matt Daniels came out today and fully admitted what the numbers show, which is that he was not very good last year. He was great as a rookie, sensation, undrafted guy. He wasn't very good last year, the touchback rate and all that stuff. So they brought in a guy, Seth Vernon, who you probably haven't heard of unless you're following this team extremely closely, and he's the punting competition.

And I'm not a punting expert, but he was punting the heck out of the ball today. Seth Vernon was getting a huge leg. And Ryan Wright was not really. And Ryan Wright, I mean, he has a huge leg. I don't want to speak too definitively on that because maybe he was trying to do certain punts so that aren't like you're just kicking the heck out of the ball but i don't know punting competition eyes emoji keep keep an eye out that's as much as i'm going to talk about the punting thing other than punting competition eyes emoji uh let's talk about left guard though left guard

a very serious topic of interest from v fans. Blake Brandel is the guy. I don't see anybody else rotating with him. He took every single first-team rep, and then Wes Phillips practically hugged Blake Brandel and named himself Wes Phillips Brandel after the press conference. He was as enthusiastic about Blake Brandel at left guard as we've heard anyone be about a left guard here in a very long time did wes phillips's enthusiastic press conference

regarding the left guard give you more confidence about this behemoth of a man former oregon state tackle than you had before this practice today um not really it's we go to so many of these press conferences and press conferences and it's hard to know what's real because coaches are always gonna talk up their guys especially in May and yeah Wes Phillips had a lot of good things to say about Blake Brandel how he's stepped in for them at various different positions I mean he came in at left tackle for Derrissaw before he's played guard I think he's played right tackle and he's played fairly well and and the numbers and then the tape does support that it hasn't been amazing there's been some inconsistency but the key thing that he

said was that he has earned this opportunity and And that seems to be what the coaching staff believes and what the front office believes because they haven't brought in anybody to even remotely make a case for opposing him and even competing for that spot as of now. So they seem to have the confidence in him. It's hard to know how much of that is, wow, we really think this guy is going to be an awesome starting left guard and how much of it is well there weren't a ton of options out there and we kind of spent our money elsewhere on defense and a few other spots so uh yeah blake brandle um so i don't know we'll see all right the way i would look at it is what they say and what they do if they align then i believe it's the truth yeah and what they did

was they didn't bring in anybody else dan feeney is kind of an austin schlopman type he's clearly a backup type of player he's a center slash guard but you wouldn't be asking him to start at guard for an entire season when he's done that it hasn't gone very well throughout his career brandle is someone that they have raved about for several years now and that makes me think that intelligence wise uh the way that he picks up the offense the techniques the way he fits within the group that all of that is making sense to them as someone who looks like they should be a starter if blake brandle starts and struggles then of course we're all going to go hey wasn't it somebody else that you should have signed and personally look they have enough cap space that you'd like

to see three to four other people compete for this job other than just saying hey it's yours buddy we're big fans it's 17 games that you need this player to play he's played almost three and that's not enough of a sample to be able to tell pre-camp signings i would have liked to have seen them by now this could be it though this could very well be. And he could be left guard number one, but to not see anybody else even going into that position today, made it very clear that they believe that he is going to be a solid starting left guard for them and their interior, their offensive line will remain until we're all dead.

A big question for this franchise. I mean, when will it be the year 2074 so if you have a child today they will see a left guard they believe in in their lifetime uh no i i truly don't know i here's what i do know though about blake brandle is development is a massive deal with offensive line he He's been developing. He's been on the bench mixing in over several seasons. When we see rookies get thrown in, we see that development on the fly, and a lot of times it's really ugly.

My expectation would be then that they've seen this development behind the scenes and they believe in it. That's the best I can do, though. It still is going to be weird if they go into the first week of training camp with nobody else fighting it out with someone who's never started before. And I suppose we should briefly just mention the name Dalton Reisner, who is still unsigned. And just,

I I'd love to know what like the conversations with him and his agent and like other teams have been like the last two off seasons. Cause nobody signed him last year until the Vikings got him for, like, $4 million in September. And then he was fine and did well enough that they were cool trading Ezra Cleveland and pretty solid in pass protection. And everybody loved him because he's a great quote and he runs downfield after the play. He was all right for a starting left guard. And then he's still unsigned this year, too. He's like, I thought he wasn't going to do that again because he didn't he was he was all right for a starting left guard and then he's still unsigned this year too he's like i i thought he wasn't gonna do that again because he didn't

want to do that again just from talking to him but now he's still unsigned so i don't really know what the deal is there i don't think that he's coming back to minnesota unless it's like september again and they're like hey you want three million dollars um so i don't know we'll we'll see what happens there that's just a weird situation to me. I think Blake Brandl, for now, is going to get every opportunity to show that he can be the guy if when the bullets start flying, proverbially, and they start putting pads on and hitting each other and training camp and doing one-on-ones and doing team drills where you've got to go against Harrison Phillips. Well, there's not a lot of great defensive tackles to prove yourself against on this

team and training camp. You should look decent. Really? You should be, you might look fine. Um, but if he doesn't, or for,

for whatever reason, then maybe they, they pivot and they add somebody else. But for now he's going to get the chance to, to be the left guard here. Well, let's talk about, uh,

just some other little notes things that i noticed or you noticed uh andre carter getting work with the ones because andrew van ginkle is still recovering from an injury so he's not out there practicing uh lucky jackson i thought stood out and tristan jackson ahead of him on the depth chart thayer thomas had a good day so that wide receiver battle should be interesting but as far as sorting out the depth chart, Thayer Thomas had a good day, so that wide receiver battle should be interesting. But as far as sorting out the depth chart, Jalen Naylor and Tristan Jackson were more with the starters. Lucky Jackson, Thayer Thomas more with the other guys.

So that's where we stand there. Brandon Powell, Trent Shurfield, a lot of guys mixing in. Yep, yep, a lot of wide receivers running around. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Jordan Addison still looks very good. He does. Yeah, he had a couple of nice plays today. I assumed that he was going to be good at football still.

Anything else? Anything else to you? Any other notes? No, I mean, it's hard, again, where it's not a whole lot of – like, I can't tell you much about trench guys or anything like that because they're not making contact today. Or like the running game where it's like every time they hand off, they always sneak through and run the whole way.

And it's like that. I don't know if that was a big gain or if that was really a two-yard gain. They were averaging 40 yards a carry out there. It was insane. And that's how it always is throughout training camp. And I understand why they do that. We were over by the outside linebackers, kind of where we were

situated watching practice when they were going through their individual drills and Dallas Turner looks the part that he is a large human with long arms and I don't know yeah you mentioned it he was mixing in a little bit with with some of the starting defense just seems to me like he's a guy who especially maybe with Van Ginkle missing a little time this offseason like Turner is going to hit the ground running and have a really big role and then also Gabriel Murphy was standing next to him the undrafted rusher out of UCLA and you're like oh he looks good but his arms are like a foot shorter than Dallas Turner's and you understand that's like the one reason why this guy didn't get drafted. I still think he has a chance to be not necessarily Ivan Pace level,

but a steal of an undrafted free agent with just the tape and the production. But it's going to be a real litmus test of like, how good can you be in the NFL when you have very short arms for the edge rusher position. So we'll see if he can overcome that. I have short arms. I do too. I'm like that. I'm a short-armed person.

We're not outside linebackers. No, we're not. I don't think there's any football position that I could actually do anything in. But a couple other things I thought of. Harrison Smith, we talked to him for the first time since he returned. And when we talk about Brian Flores Flores and the reverence for him it's real I mean it's one reason that Harrison Smith said he came back he said we speak the same language working with him he learned a lot about football which

at this point how much can Harrison Smith learn about football that connection between Flores and Harrison Smith is something meaningful there that they built last year and that he's really enjoyed working with Metellus and Bynum, and that unit's going to come along. Shaq Griffin I thought looked pretty good out there. I mean, whatever, you know, talk about a practice. But he looked like a player out there. He hit a pick on a deep ball. He was out with the ones a lot, Makay blackman on the outside that rotation if griffin plays with the

first team and then you have blackman and also byron murphy on the inside could be kind of interesting and we'll end with this matt daniels and i have something in common that both of us are very excited about the return of the kickoff he pointed out that years ago maybe only 10-15 years ago 80% of the kickoffs were being returned and last year was like 20% now Kenny Wong Wu could be a star as their kickoff returner they could use multiple guys they're teaching this on the fly and I can't wait to see it even in just the first preseason games when we do our what to watch in this preseason game number one will be if jj mccarthy plays number two will be what does this kickoff look like for me that's going to be my

thing i i'm extremely intrigued this is going to change the nfl and just how the game begins he called it ceremonial and that's a great word for it now it's a play and the vikings have one of the best guys at doing this yeah it's gonna be fun to watch um i assume most people know we're talking about that they've adopted the the xfl kickoff where like your guys start was 10 yards away from the other guy so you're not running down and and um hitting each other and getting the same level of of those injuries that happen on those plays and so it changes a lot where it's when you're covering, you need guys who can get off blocks.

And when you're setting up, you need guys who can make those blocks. And there's going to be a lot of strategy going into it. And I think the Vikings having Kene Wongu, who has obviously proven himself to be a great kick returner, but being a running back and some of the things that go into that position with the way that this is going to translate, I think that's valuable because you have to read the blocks and and set them up and be able to explode uh past them so yeah that's that's gonna be fun to watch i think the harrison smith uh press conference today was an interesting one um that people could go watch where he's

talking about the decision to come back for another year and now he was just kind of chilling and then he was like oh wait yeah free agency's coming up i should i think i'm doing this and he restructured his deal and he's excited to be back with with flores and metellus and bindham and all these guys um and then the one other thing that i just popped in my head was uh west phillips saying uh that they really like robert tonian and oh yeah he was exactly he wowed them at their workout and they all looked around they're like yeah let's we Oh, yeah. He was exactly Robert Tunyon. He wowed them at their workout, and they all looked around. They're like, yeah, we're signing this guy. He looked good to me.

And he talked to him. He did look good today. He had a nice back shoulder catch from Mullins. And the way Wes Phillips talked about him, I'm almost like, is he going to be playing a lot while TJ Hawkinson's out, like more than Johnny Munt maybe? He's a catcher. He's a pass catcher.

He's a pass catcher. He had pass because you had 11 touchdowns uh back in 2020 playing with aaron rogers and um yeah i think that is a guy to watch for not only making this team but maybe having a pretty decent role in the four to six to eight games that we're anticipating tj hockinson's gonna miss also know, Wes kind of saying the quiet part out loud about Hawkinson's not going to be back for week one. I think we're getting a very clear indication of that. I think the earliest is probably after the bye, which is in week five. There you have it.

From TCO Performance Center. Lots to discuss every time we get out here for an OT. And the Wolves are in the Western Conference Finals. They are? Yeah, they are. Oh, I haven't noticed. No one in Minnesota has mentioned it. I did write an article, by the way,

about all the things the Vikings should take away from the way the Wolves were built. Why don't we do just your connection? I wrote an article about it, so I thought of all the things that there's connection. Get two number one overall draft picks. Well, tanking works. Vikings fans told me it doesn't, but I don't know.

I guess you can't cheer for the Wolves to win then because they had to get number one picks. We could have a whole conversation about would you rather been the Vikings over the last 20 years where you get to some NFC Championship games but never win anything, but they've won basically – they win at least seven games every year except for like the one leslie frazier year in 2011 or would you rather be the wolves where you were horrible for the vast majority of the last 20 years but now you're in you've reached the round that minnesota sports teams have stopped at since 1991 and you look to have the best chance that anyone's had since the 2009 Vikings to get past this hump and get to an actual championship series or game so I know I think he'd rather be

might rather be the wolves but I don't know they were real bad for a while I don't think that anybody ever straps on the cleats or the shoes the the jordan basketball shoes or turns on the lights in the arena or goes into their office to grind the tape with the goal of winning eight games or with the goal of winning 30 games or whatever or being just just good enough for people to come to your games and for you not to collapse as a franchise, they do it for championships. So no matter what means it took, no matter how long it took to get to the point where you can legitimately be on the doorstep of a championship means so much more to me. I would throw out every single Vikings first round playoff season where it was kind of fun. I would trade them all for two win seasons for one chance to go to the super bowl

and have a real chance that's the way i look at it not everybody does but i just think that you exist to try to compete for super bowls or nba finals like you don't do it uh to just sort of be around and exist for people to go to your games i agree and we've been talking about that for a while and that's why i think we both were very on board with the decision to let Kirk Cousins move on and to take some swings here because it's hard to compare those sports where the Timberwolves got two number one overall picks and those guys can have such an outsized impact on a basketball game. But there's a slight similarity when you're talking about trading up one spot for J.J. McCarthy as the 10th overall pick. And then Quasey's take the Clark Kent glasses off quote about trading some of those future picks and

going to get Dallas Turner and an impact guy who you think you can build around. And maybe he could be the Jaden McDaniels of the draft class to J.J. McCarthy's Anthony Edwards. I don't know. But, yeah, I think that approach of not settling for just being right in the middle anymore. And the Vikings might be pretty bad this year. But then, you know what, they kept their first-round pick next year. And so they could use that again. But that's part of the point, right?

I mean, I would be totally fine with a season that doesn't go very well for this team right now if the long term is them being much better down the road. And one of my biggest takeaways, I'll just give you two of them real quick. One of them was you got to sense the moment. And Tim Connolly for the Wolves, he sensed the moment. This is my time to go acquire a star player that is going to give us a chance to compete with the denver nuggets and they did i mean you talk about a plan coming together they end up playing the nuggets they end up having the right combination of players to slow that offense

down just enough for one half of basketball in game seven to win to go to the western conference finals but that trade was not looked upon favorably favor that trade was not looked upon favorably. It was not looked upon favorably for a year. But they took their shot. And I always think if you fail taking your big shot, I'm okay with that because you tried, rather than just sitting around and hoping that a miracle happens. The other thing I like about the Wolves is that they're built different.

And I think being different in sports is good. It gives you an edge. And I did wonder what about this team would be different. And I don't have an answer. I want to see them come up with an answer. But the Gobert Towns thing is very different from anything we see in modern NBA basketball. What is it about this team

that's going to be different it's got to be you got to find something the vikings yeah you got to find something that makes you different standing out schematically roster build wise whatever from everybody else well i think give you a chance i think brian flora's defense is quite i like that it's different i like that that. They blitz more than anybody. They drop eight more than anybody. I like that. So that's the one that jumps out. I mean, I think having the best wide receiver in football gives you a little bit of a different edge to your passing game.

But, yeah, I think the Wolves are unique. Like, not every team has to be kind of zig where others have zagged to win at a high level. But the Wolves have done it, and it worked really well. And it helped that they found Nas Reid as an undrafted free agent. That's their Ivan Pace Jr., I suppose. And then they absolutely fleeced when they got Mike Conley and Nikhil Alexander-Walker in a trade for D'Angelo Russell.

But now I'm just getting too far into the basketball side. I don't have a football comparison for that. But if you can fleece teams in trades, do it. There's a final piece element to Mike Conley, though. There's a culture element, there's a chemistry, all that matters. As far as being different, though, I think we can go look at some of the construction. Sometimes it's just your star is different. Jokic is different

Giannis is different you don't have answers for those types of players and with Flores yeah I like that answer is what's most different about them right now the fact that you can have a number one wide receiver catch a hundred passes but average 16 yards of reception or whatever Jefferson averages 15, 16. That's different that the, the amount that they can push him downfield versus a lot of other top receivers. You just,

there's almost, unless it was the teams with LeBron, but outside of them, even how different was golden state when they first blew up on the scene with their ball movement and their three point shooting and all those things. So that's what are the football equivalents? The Viking safety room is is different they play the three safeties and they and they use all those guys and um they have these complementary skill sets so i think yeah i think the brian

flores hire has proven to be a great thing but in basketball football and whatever sport it's your stars and they need JJ McCarthy ideally to become that guy if they're going to kind of have a championship ceiling and they think that it's possible so that's why they drafted him well they're not there today but we're gonna watch them progress including next Wednesday when we're back out here for another OTA but there will be lots of podcasts in between. So make sure that you keep it locked to this old channel here. So thanks everybody for watching. Thank you. We'll we'll catch you next time, sir. Football.