Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How long before we judge the Vikings front office?

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison talk about enjoying the early part of training camp, how to judge Kwesi Adofo-Mensah so far and look at the remaining free agents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself. Build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Yo, welcome to another episode of Hot Routes. Matthew Collar here along with Jonathan Harrison, our Independence Day version. And I've got my Oakley sunglasses on and yet it is not actually all that nice out today. It's kind of weird weather waiting to see if there's going to be a big storm that seems to be on the way at all times. You know what I can't stand, Jonathan, is when the weather app says there's a 40% chance of the worst weather of all time.

You know where it shows if you pull up the weather app on your phone, it's like, oh, sunny, sunny, 40% chance you'll die of the weather right here. Like, oh, do I like go for a bike ride here and risk that it's 60, 40 that I won't get hit by lightning and a tornado won't come. Like what, what do I, how do you, how am I supposed to handle this? How am I supposed to plan my day? Uh, I got a text from a colleague that they were at a public pool and I drove by there and there wasn't like a lot of people because I think that they probably see on their apps. Well, I don't know if I want to go 40%. So it's always a tricky thing. I need more detail here from these apps. Well, that's been the issue with planning the family barbecue this afternoon is, well, are we going to get to do anything outside or are we just going to be stuck inside all day

and just be all cramped up in a small home? It's like, do we go? Do we not go? Do we just stay at our own place? Because can't really tell with what the weather's going to do because earlier, a couple hours ago, it was pouring rain and just the biggest rain drops that have ever fallen upon this earth were just falling down. And now it's all fine. So it's hard to tell. Yeah, when I woke up this morning, there was a huge rainstorm,

same way, like raining sideways for probably 12 minutes and then it went away but you don't want to get caught in that again and the thunder and lightning and everything else if you're going to go for a jog go for a bike ride or whatever and so uh we just went and got some ice cream that's what we decided to do that's how we're celebrating america anyway uh so this did get me thinking about um not really like anything particularly patriotic about the NFL, but July 4th is we're getting closer folks to training camp. And so I'm thinking a lot more about training camp and starting to formulate how we're going to do our preview content and positional breakdowns and analysis and everything else, uh, to lead you into the beginning of training camp. I really, really enjoy the training camp time of year. Not necessarily every day going out for the

same practice over and over again, which can get a little redundant when you're on practice number 14 and you're like takeaways from this practice. What have I written about? You know, what have I not written about though this year there's going to be two teams coming in for joint practices which should be a little bit more intense but even the joint practices you're trying real hard oh amir smith-marset had a big catch today to give fans something but you know once we get it deep into camp it gets a little bit redundant but the early part when we get the hall of camp, it gets a little bit redundant, but the early part, when we get the hall of fame game, uh, the night practice comes up pretty quickly for the Vikings.

All the fans come out for that. Everything else, the vibes are just so good early on in training camp. And when we get to like that first preseason game, there's a lot of buzz. I want you to tell me what your favorite things slash memories are about the training camp and early portion of the preseason. I guess my favorite, some of my favorite memories from the training camp portion was back when the Vikings used to be down in Mankato, taking the first, taking that first drive ever down there to that and just feeling kind of the excitement, like, oh man, I'm going to'm gonna see a practice then realizing after you're like an hour into the practice like oh this is actually kind of just boring but you were there for the first time as a little kid and just like holy crap my my my

the the players that I'm the biggest fans of are just like right there and getting their autographs and stuff and then a couple years later when you learn to drive and you can go down by yourself with your friends or whatever and just doing that with your taking that drive down with your friends and then probably uh it was the first first or second year that Brett Favre was here I can't remember I think it was the first year because I was still working at Valley Fair at the time and if everybody knows kind of the geography of the Minnesota area Valley Fair is kind of down at the bottom of a giant hill and on top of it is Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. And that's generally where a lot of private planes were going in and out of. And

at the time when the Brett Favre news was starting to break is Brett Favre's flying into town on private jets. So you're thinking, okay, they're still at Winter Park at the time, which is in Eden Prairie. They're going to fly right over Valley Fair. And so you're trying to track the plane as best as you can in that time. And me and my friends were all just like giddy and excited that Brett Favre was going to fly over and that we're just going to be able to see the plane. Like, holy crap, there's the new quarterback. And then he goes into St. Paul and then the airport or all the news stations have their choppers out tracking him down 494 as he's going down the highway and taking the SUVs

into Winter Park. But I think those were a couple of my favorite memories is just being able to do that. And then the Brett Favre mania that took over shortly after training camp ended, after they were back in Eden Prairie, away from Mankato, away from all that. I haven't been to the Egan place yet for training camp. My only training camp memories in person are at Mankato. So it was fun. I know there was a lot of, uh, long memories from the Mankato days, but yeah, those, those are a couple of my favorites. Yeah. I would be a little bit jealous of anybody who was around when Brock Lesnar was in training camp, because I really wish that I

had been able to see that, uh, knowing what Brock Lesnar looks like seeing him in a football uniform, uh, would really be something to see, but, uh, you know, I got one year in Mankato covering this team in 2017. And there was something about it that sort of has the same feel as if you go to a minor league baseball game and the, you know, let's say the outfield wall is still made of wood or something, you know, where it was definitely an outdated feel where the players are staying in dorms and they all have to do the whole move in day and everything else where they're bringing TVs and video games. And there was lots of stories about Adrian Peterson and how he would ship his

cars there and everything else. Yeah. So there's a, but there was something that had this nostalgia feel of it. And there is a NFL films that begins talking about training camp. And I can't recite it word for word, but it's sort of like, you know, in the summertime, they gather in small colleges to prepare for the NFL season. And then there's just that feel when you would pull up to Mankato. And that year I was moving into the house that I live in now. And we're also moving now, which is why unfortunately I've noticed my audio is a little echoey because

everything is out of this room. And I'm sorry for that. I didn't realize that that was happening until yesterday. But once you take all the furniture and bookshelves and everything else out of the room, all of a sudden it becomes a little echoey. So I apologize for that. That will be changed when we have the new podcast studio that I will attempt to build in our new house. But we were moving into this house as Mankato was happening. So I didn't stay down there in a hotel. I just drove back and forth every day, which was like an hour and a half,

really long days. Also Ben Gessling was moving to the star Tribune and Courtney Cronin was coming in to cover ESPN at the time, but there was a gap in between. So I was filling in some of the gap writing for them because we were the ESPN affiliate radio station. And so it was like the most hectic summer of my life. But I think my favorite part is when you see players emerge, when you start to get the feeling there's something going on here

with this guy. And I remember that so well from Delvin Cook, from Mankato, where just every day you kind of got this sense of, all right, he's taken all the number one reps and guys are starting to talk about him and there's this building kind of hype or, you know, because it doesn't make any difference to me, which way it goes. There is the calamity element as well, where you're, you know, 2018, you're going, I don't know, something's wrong here. And I remember Robert Mays, who I'm sure everybody knows really well does one of the best podcasts in the world on football for the athletic and Robert was visiting and talking with Courtney and I in 2018 like so uh you know this team's a Super Bowl contender

right they're like I don't know man there's a lot that's going on here that doesn't look great and I remember him being like no I don't know But the offensive line was getting hurt and there was tension and it was weird. And so I love how it sets the stage and you start to try to kind of predict, like, I think this guy is going to take this big step this year, or, you know, this guy's really surprising us and there might be something there for the future, or this guy's disappointing and isn't doing what he's supposed to do, where, you know, you go in through this whole off season and have all these conversations about what it could look like, and then finally seeing what it actually does. I will say one of my favorite memories of all time, though, was when they first opened the Egan facility. And you could go back on Twitter and find this somewhere. And so they had a new

security company and everything else. And they were being very, very strict about everything. They really didn't. And I mean, like Paul Blart mall cop level over the top about the new facility. Everybody was kind of amped up. They didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing, who was supposed to be where, what certain credentials meant or anything else. And there were some times where I thought they were going to tase us, like trying to talk to the players. But the funniest moment was, and I have the photo evidence of this. I was walking up a little bit late behind everybody else because I was working in the media room. And when I got to the gate, the person in front of me was

not being allowed in. That person was Victor V Viking and he was on a segue. So again, there's photo evidence. Uh, Victor Viking was in a conflict with security about going into the field and because he's a mascot, he could not speak. So he was, he was staying in character and he was just waving his arms and pointing like, I'm the mascot. I am. I'm allowed to go in there. And he was just standing behind it and snapped a picture of him in this sort of miming arguments with security until someone finally came over and said, yes, Victor Viking is allowed to be in here. And the next day they got him a huge credential. You can go back and look that there's a picture of Victor Viking tweeting it at me

with this huge credential. It has gotten way better with the security. Although in the pandemic year, we were up on the field with all the players when the broncos were here and then when we went down to leave security was like you can't walk by the players bus for the broncos and we're like we were just next to the players on the field and then it was like covid something and i don't even know it's always it's always a little bit strange when they're trying to kind of figure out unique circumstances but it's a fun time and every year when they have that night practice oh i mean the jake browning night practice that goes down in history that's one of the that is one of the all-time uh memories that i'll have covering this team forever is the jake Browning night practice

where he had to take every single rep because there was no other quarterback. The man's arm probably fell off at the end. He must've thrown 400 passes between warmups and first team, second team, third team, same quarterback, every single rep. And they were happy with his performance. And then there was a minute where we were debating, is Jake Browning going to be their emergent? That's Super Bowl up here. Well, AFC champion Jake Brown. I believe he was on the Bengals when they went to the Super Bowl. Obviously, he was not active. That's definitely another one. But every year during that night practice, I think this right here is probably the greatest moment of most of these guys' careers. And I don't mean the successful players who it's another night practice,

another year, the Daniil Hunters or Justin Jeffersons. But when you think about a 90-man roster, how many of those players will walk away from their careers saying, oh, I was a big success in the NFL. 12, 14 at most, even some of the starters come and go so fast. One year we're talking about, will Holton Hill be the guy this year? And then he's quickly out of the league. So I always have that kind of feeling. Anyway, but it's a great time of year, Jonathan. It really is. And I start to get excited about it really after July 4th.

Well, there's just a lot of hope for every team. I mean, everything resets. Everything has reset now that the draft is done. You've got all this built-up energy. You've been without football for so many months because the offseason just goes on and on and on forever. And training camp comes around. Then you're excited, and then you quickly realize once the games start,

get started, like, oh, this team is either really, really good. They're middle of the pack or they're really bad. But before that, before you get to any of that, there's that excitement and that buildup. And we've had that plenty of times here. And, yeah, it's starting to build again. There's, yeah, it sure is might be the dead period. But you can start to feel there's a little bit of excitement growing towards this season to start because of what could happen, especially with the offense. I definitely think that there are some folks who enjoy the lead up more than when the games actually happen because the games break your heart for so many teams.

And by the fifth week of the season, we're down to about 10 who could actually win the super bowl and happens quick i do have a plan for at some point a minnesota nice nfl analysis where we say something nice about every single team because that what you said is absolutely true where every single city these fans during this time are talking themselves into this is a going to be a great year for us for one year, for one reason or another. But there are some teams where it's harder than others. So that's maybe a hot route at some point to go back and forth and see if we can go 32 for 32, saying nice things about every single team. Next question I have for you, Jonathan, is about Kweisi Adafomensa. So I'm getting a lot of questions about him for fans only, you know, mailbag, things like

that about, uh, I think what everyone wants to know. I was playing golf with some friends of mine the other day. And of course they always ask me about biking stuff. And the biggest question that they were asking is, do you think this guy knows what he's doing? Do you think this guy's any good? And my present answer is that I don't know, uh, because I don't think that any of the moves that they made well, correct toward the direction.

I don't think any of them were hard. And I think a lot of them were forced that, I mean, okay, you didn't necessarily have to get rid of Delvin Cook, but Adam Thielen, Eric Hendricks, these moves were things that you really just had to do. There wasn't a lot of other choice. Even eventually you get to the end of the road of restructuring people's contracts to the point where you can't even really do that anymore.

So a lot of these moves were just, and Zedaria Smith forced his way out of here, essentially saying either pay me way more money or I'm just going to go. So a lot of the moves were forced, even though I think that the overall direction is right. I thought that this year's draft, regardless of the results, was the right process. The positions that they picked, the first round pick, Jordan Addison, I think that was the right position, the right

player to go with. So I think there's a lot to talk about with Kweisi Adafomenta and how we even evaluate that job. And a lot of it, the job is not done even for this off season. Justin Jefferson does not have an extension. Danielle Hunter situation is not resolved. And so there's a ways to go here. My, I have three questions though. When will we know if he's good? How will we know if he's good?

And what is your best guess on whether he will be or not? All right. So I'll try and take them in order. When will we know? I want to say, usually everybody says, give a GM what three, four years before you can tell if they're good or not. And I think that might be right. Maybe four or five years down the road or from when he was hired down the road from when he was hired, you might be able to tell if he was good because at that point, it's no longer the roster that Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer put together. It's completely his.

There's still remnants of the Spielman kind of architecture of whatever this roster is. And Kweisi and Kevin O'Connell are starting to make that their own. It's a process because, as we said, it's a big roster. There's a lot of overturning that has to be done. And they started that their own. It's, it's a process because it's, as we said, it's a big roster. There's, there's a lot of overturning that has to be done. And they started that this season, they had to wait a season because obviously there was the Wilfs wanting to continue winning. Hence the competitive rebuild. They're not going to fully tank like they did in Chicago. And that's why they didn't go with Ryan poles as the GM. They went with quasi because they wanted a guy

that was going to continue on. So I think, uh, the first year might be, I don't want to say a pass, but you might look at it a little bit differently because of what the stipulations that the, the ownership put on it this year, you're starting to see what he can do as a GM to kind of overturn a roster.

And yeah, you, you said it, a lot of the moves were forced because the age and the contracts and everything, players, certain players wanting out and you just not, you don't have a whole lot of cap room. So I think give it another probably two years. And yeah, that's about the length of his contract at this point, uh, right now. And you might be able to tell if he's a good

GM or not. How will we know it? Well, did the competitive rebuild work? Are they Superbowl contenders? Because that's what every team aims for every year is to be a contender in the Super Bowl. They want to win it, obviously. But are they truly Super Bowl contenders? Is it more than just being 13-4 with a negative score differential? They have to be better than that. They have to make a run in the playoffs rather than just getting bounced in the wildcard round.

If they are at that level or if they are at the top of the NFC, which looks to be pretty weak for a little while because all the quarterbacks and all the good players are over in the AFC for the next foreseeable future, I'm going to say if he, at the end of this four years, if they're Super Bowl contenders, then yes, it was a success and that's how we'll know. And my best guess on whether he's good or not, it's really in the middle right now because, like I said, that first year they wanted to compete, so he was limited to what he could do. And sure, it worked.

They were 13-4. You can't really ask for much more other than just winning the Super Bowl at that point or winning a playoff game at that point, which they didn't do, but that's on the coaching staff and the players. He helped put the roster there and get the players in place to do that, and they were successful in that. Now we start to see the rest of his roster-building ability, getting young talent in, which the first draft doesn't look so good. Second draft, we're going to see here.

But as you said, we like the idea of this second draft and getting certain types of players in. So I think I'm leaning more towards he's good, but there's still so much that we have. We have to figure out and have to see from him to be able to make that that decision. Folks, I know you have heard me talk a ton about my Oakley sunglasses this summer, but the more I wear them, the more I like them. I went on a little summer vacation and spent a ton of time outside in the sun. And let me tell you, before these, I had to squint even when I had sunglasses on. But these matte black prism sapphire polar sunglasses protected my eyes, and I think I looked pretty great as well.

I was able to stay outside for hours rather than getting beaten down by the sun like I have in the past and now I am confident that when training camp comes around I will be able to keep both eyes on all the positional battles. Oakley is changing the game and it's time for you to discover a whole new world of possibilities. They are suited for everyday eyewear with frames and lenses, allowing to be an extension of yourself and expression of your personality more than meets the eye. So make a sunglasses upgrade today at Oakley.com.

Oakley even offers prism lens technology. What is that you ask? It is a proprietary technology to Oakley and available for everyday settings as well and if you want to know more you can do your own research at oakley.com when you wear oakley there is more than meets the eye try it for yourself i've worn a lot of sunglasses and i can assure you that oakley is not only the best looking but the best quality as well head on over to oakley.com for more information today oakley express your style and build a look that's made for you i caught some of your soccer come out you almost said

negative goal differential i heard you i heard you uh you you get a pass it's soccer season but um so we have 90 000 fans at the Rose Bowl for an MLS game today. That is pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Not anti-soccer on the show. I don't know much about it, but I also don't know much about most stuff that isn't football. So even the other day, our friend Chuck Aoki dropped a fans-only question in, which was a reference to the office. And I completely missed it.

I was like, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll just talk about whatever here. And yeah, it was. But look, man, I don't know. Like references to stuff, history, math, science, anything involved with not football. Probably going to be a little short on it. Anyway, to answer the question, though, that we'll we will be absolutely sure that he is if going into the 2025 season they are considered a top five vegas favorite to win the super bowl that will be oh well of course yes you you did it right you've you've executed the plan that you had from day one. You are a good general manager.

But if that's not the case, there's so much nuance and ambiguity there because you contextualized it very well of taking over for Spielman with a roster that could still win. And they decided to see how much they could squeeze out of it. And look, some of the moves that they made were very good for that purpose, for bringing back Patrick Peterson, one of the best corners in the league last year, signing Zedarius Smith for hardly anything, one of the best pass rushers overall in the entire NFL.

The moves that they made to win now, Harrison Phillips was a quality player for them. They worked and they were able to create a roster that could win the division and be good and go into the playoffs with a chance to go deep. If things went their way, things did not go their way. Their defense played horribly and they lost the Giants, but trading for TJ Hawkinson, another good example of giving yourself a chance to win when you're trying to win. And my thing is, when I try to evaluate a general manager, a lot of it is, does it make sense with your bigger picture? And that's where

the Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer stuff always fell short to me was a lot of this doesn't make sense with your bigger picture, especially the 2019 to 2020, where the bigger picture said, and some of the players left because they had to but to really take the approach of stepping back at that point not necessarily extending Kirk Cousins for example which you know who knows how much came from the top how much doesn't come from the top still they mismanage their timeline they make trades for players like Yannick Ngakwe that there was no reason even last year the desperation of trading or two years ago for uh chris herndon for cory vedvik i mean moves like

that that just said i i don't know overpaying for michael pierce what is the purpose here what are you really chasing are you trying to build a long-term contender or just kind of flailing with hopes uh and dreams that aren't going to come to fruition because your roster is too thin in part because of your quarterback salary. But they also paid a lot of other players that they couldn't work around and weren't producing like they used to. So where they needed to be timeline wise, they weren't making moves that matched up with that. And that was always my biggest criticism at this point for two off seasons in a row they have for the most part done that under quesia da flamenca when the demand is to win now they made good moves to try to win

now and squeezed a lot of blood from that stone and then this year when the timeline calls upon you to tear it down they have been tearing it down now how you build it up this is where the nuance comes in for how we know if he's good or not. You can make a lot of good moves. You can draft a lot of good players, and we'll see how they work out. That you actually do need several years to figure out how good a draft is, but you can make smart signings like Byron Murphy, I think is a smart signing for them. And you can build your roster through the most expensive positions or the smartest positions through the draft positional value. You can manage the salary cap. Well, you can do a lot of things, right? But if you don't get that quarterback decision, right, we will think you are a dope. Like that's

the end of the story and you will fail if you don't get that right. So quasi can make a lot of really good moves and be smart and work with the timeline properly and massage the whole thing to have a healthy salary cap eventually and be set up to be a legit contender. And if they draft the wrong quarterback or they don't end up getting a draft pick quarterback and we are watching Jameis Winston or something play for this team and just lose and struggle, then we are going to say, and then this, the example I've been looking back at is the Houston Texans after Matt Schaub, because they had great rosters and they won like nine games with Ryan Fitzpatrick and with Brian Hoyer. And those are quarterbacks that you usually don't go over 500 with because they have the, you know, JJ Watt and good players around them, but the quarterback made it. So they just couldn't be contenders with those guys and you can fall into

that. So how you find the next quarterback will determine it, which is hard because sometimes it's just complete dumb luck, whether you end up getting that guy or not. But I think that your timeline is exactly right. It can't be. And we we're gonna have takes along the way i'm not telling anyone i'm not being one of those draft weirdos who's like don't ever grade a draft ever until 43 years later we can we can now decide if the 72 draft was good like no i'm not talking about that way uh we'll evaluate move by move as we go by but i think that as far as knowing with some level of certainty or a high level of certainty probably doesn't happen until the 2025 season because that's the timeline that they're working with but do you think that skeptics of Kweisi Adafo-Mensah are overreacting or

reasonable? I think they're overreacting to maybe one bad draft and that came on a shortened offseason for Kweisi. Just getting in here, sure he had the draft process. He had the combine and all the scouting that they did in between when he was hired in the draft. But still, it's not the full draft process that he had looking at what the Vikings needed instead of what the Cleveland Browns needed at the time for the entire year. So I think there's a lot of just questioning based off of that and the uncertainty with what they're going to do at the quarterback position. There's a lot there that those are two very important things for a GM to get right. And they're still out there.

Those are still out there to be answered. What, uh, how he handles them and how well he handles them. So I think there's a little bit of overreaction. I wouldn't, it's still what a year, a year and a half in, I'm not willing to say yes or no, that he's good or not. Uh, already it's still very ambiguous as to whether he will, he can get this ship going in the right direction, uh, for the longterm future. So I think there's a lot of overreaction. The biggest decisions being yet to be made matters in the formula to whether we call it overreaction or not. It probably is a little bit.

I think that skepticism is fair. But if you're deciding now, then you're overreacting. If you're saying, oh, he's just not good. Well, okay. There's a lot to go here now if we get into the season though and hawkinson doesn't have an extension jefferson doesn't have an extension and the only thing they could trade daniel hunter for is a third round pick or they end up paying they end up just bending and paying hunter 29 million a year we're going to start asking some questions probably about how this is going. And one of the parts that I am very curious about is this negotiation element. How cheap can you be with Justin

Jefferson? The answer is not at all. You just have to, you have to do what it takes to make that happen. I also think that that's probably the case with TJ Hawkinson, but I mean, if Hawkinson wants to test the market, I understand that it's probably smart from his position, but if you trade for Hawkinson and then it's a one-year rental and he goes somewhere else and is a great fit and is young and could set you up really well weapons wise for the future, letting him slip through your hands would be a pretty tough look. And then, you know, the Daniil Hunter situation, I think if they get back something like a second and a fourth, which is where I've kind of stayed that anything better than that is really good. If they get that, it's OK. If they get less than that, it's not good.

It's going to look like, OK, well, when are you going to make a trade that is favorable for your side? So that's there's a lot to still be decided to still be judged upon and i think we do need to give it time um let me move on to our next question though speaking of general managing there's a list of free agents that pro football talk uh posted that has a lot of actually quite good names on it proven names and this tells you a little bit about where they're viewing this season by the way because they have the cap space to sign some of these players and they're viewing this season, by the way, because they have the cap space to sign some of these players and they're not signing some of these players, at least as of this moment.

But let's say that all of a sudden, Mark Wilf listened to this podcast and he's like, you know what? I'm just going to prove these guys wrong. Look, I own this team. I do what I want. I want to win. They keep saying rebuild.

I hate that word. I want to win. So I dial up Kwesi. Well, let me grab my phone. If you're watching on YouTube, I dial up Kwesi and I say, yo, I want you to get some players for us. I want us to win. I think the bears stink. I think the Packers stink. And I think the lions are overrated and I don't like Dan Campbell's face. We're going to win the division. We're going to sign some players let's go so if you're quacey look at that free agent list and tell me because i think they could afford five players with the cap space they

had now if they didn't use any of it to push an extension for jefferson or hogginson into this year they are top 10 in cap space they've got the money all these guys are desperate for jobs or presumably give me the players that you're signing to make this team as good of a contender as it can be this year off this list. My first, my first call is to Marcus Peters. I need another surefire cornerback who can do a good job. And Marcus Peters has the career that has shown me that I can trust him at that position. Um, and he's, if that's, if there's the biggest, if we're talking about one of the biggest holes in this roster right now, it's that if that's, if there's the biggest, if we're talking about one of the biggest holes in this roster right now, it's that cornerback room because you have Byron Murphy and you don't

know what else you have because you just have a lot of young bodies there. So I'm going with Marcus Peters. He's my first call. I'm going to continue shoring up the defense. I'm going defensive line. What can I get out of Hakeem Hicks? Can I, he's wrecked the Vikings time and time again over his year with the Chicago again over his years with the Chicago Bears. I'm going to see if there's something still there on a one-year flyer deal, and I'm going to add in Robert Quinn because he's a year past having 18.5 sacks for Chicago. Yeah, last season was miserable. It didn't work out for him in Chicago or Philadelphia,

but two years ago, he had 18 and a half sacks. I'm going to see if I can get anything out of there. If I'm keeping Daniil Hunter, or even if I get rid of him, I still need someone to rush the passer and Robert Quinn, get him on a flyer as well. I'm also looking at this list. I'm not looking at a whole lot of offense because I feel like the Vikings are pretty set generally across the board. Though one name does interest me. He's a little bit older coming off an ACL injury. What can Justin Pugh do for me at guard? Can he be a better option at that right guard spot that Ed Ingram was because Ed Ingram was just bad pass, pass blocking

his pass blocking grades on PFF are awful. Sure. Justin Pugh is coming off of a down year for him in Arizona, which might be a sign that he's just aged out and doesn't really have it anymore. But I want to see if there's still something there for a guy who was a pretty decent pass blocker and run blocker across this league for a number of years at that guard position. I'm going to see if he can do a better job than Ed Ingram

if I'm forced to go win now instead of just kind of seeing what I have in the prospects that I've drafted over the years. What's that, three, four? I'm looking for another one. I'm going to go, I think, for a linebacker, shorten up the linebacker spot as well, just to get a little bit more depth there. How can Kyle Van Noy fit into this heavy rush defense or pass rush defense under Brian Flores. Because another name on there is Miles Jack, but looking at his grades last year in the same defense as Brian Flores, it didn't really work.

It seemed to work out that well in Pittsburgh. I'm going with the guy who has a history of rushing the passer, doing a good enough job at it. Let me see what Kyle Van Noy can do for a year in this offense. I think those are the five guys that jumped out to me right away. So Kyle Van Noy also on my list as a guy who could be helpful to them right away. Should they trade Daniel Hunter? I don't know about bringing Anthony Barr back. I didn't actually think he played poorly last year in a limited role. And if you are trying to win right now, I almost wonder if Brian Flores' defense

would be better for Anthony Barr than Mike Zimmer's in some ways. I never thought that Zimmer got that wrong. There were always the discussions of, should he be an edge rusher? I don't think so. I think he kind of moved a little bit like a tank and not like a quick twitch

where he could beat tackles around the edges like a Vaughn Miller or something. So I always thought with his intelligence, his wingspan, his coverage ability at his best, like a quick twitch where he could beat tackles around the edges like a Vaughn Miller or something. So I always thought with his intelligence, his wingspan, his coverage ability at his best that Mike Zimmer used him correctly as that green dot centerpiece of the defense. But in a role where he's moving around a lot, blitzing from different spots, maybe playing four to 500 snaps for a cheap price, I don't dislike that. Give me both of those guys. I agree with your point about Akeem Hicks.

I don't know what Indomitian Sioux is up to exactly, but throw him out there. Jadavion Clowney is always looking for that one-year deal. Now, you made a face, you made a face, but he's always looking for that one-year deal. And if you just use him however however, he wants to be used. You don't have enough talent to say no to however he wants to be used. Right.

So maybe Judea beyond clowny Yannick and Gawkway is probably a pass for me. Justin Houston is not on this list. I don't know what his deal is. Melvin Ingram is actually quite a good player still, and was fairly successful last year. I'm going to just kind of running through more of the list that you didn't bring up. But I almost think any of those guys, Ngokwe, Clowney, Quinn, Ingram, Hicks, Sue, all of those guys could be helpful to this team. Now, I don't know if it's a fit or not for someone like William Jackson

or Eli Apple, because that would really depend on what Brian Flores said about those guys. But it's from their reputations. Peters, Eli Apple, William Jackson, even Logan Ryan, all of these guys could be a potential upgrade. John Johnson's a safety who had kind of a moment there, could be an upgrade. You didn't mention any kickers.

Ryan Suckup, potentially. I was thinking of Mason Crosby, just because of the history there. The Vikings have taken Packers kickers in the past and Ryan Longwell and gotten success out of him. Mason Crosby's just stuck around the league despite having some down seasons, but then coming back and having really good seasons. So he was on my list. If I wanted to move on from Greg Joseph. I actually think that Kareem Hunt is not a bad idea, almost maybe in real life, if they don't like what they've seen. I would definitely do it if it was a win-now type of thing to bring in Kareem Hunt.

He's been a good situational running back, and he can mix 50-50 with Alexander Madison. And I think that there's excitement for Kenny Wongwu. There's excitement for him. There's excitement for Tyanni Kangakwa, or not Yanni Kangakwa, Kenny Wongwu. There's excitement for him. There's excitement for Ty Chandler and what those guys can do. But they're not proven in the way that Kareem Hunt is, and he does not have the mileage of some of the older running backs. That would help them right away. And I've got another one that's a little bit more hot takey

since it is hot routes. Let's say they get into camp a little bit and jordan addison i'm not saying bust but maybe he's just a little behind and they feel like oh it's gonna take a little longer than we thought pick up that phone julio what are you doing are you are you available julio jones justin jefferson, he's only going to play 400 snaps, but that's okay. That's okay here for Julio Jones. Julio, give us 10 games, bro. Sign a contract where you play 10 games or you play like 20 snaps a game.

You come in. We'll throw it deep to you. He still made some great catches last year. Let's go with Julio. How many games would this team win of free agents? Would this team of free agents beat the Arizona Cardinals? I want to say maybe yes. Oh yeah, for sure. Because you just feel like outside of just the roster being not that great, you feel like there's a lot of tension in that building and that as soon as the first thing goes

wrong, that house of cards, as small as it is for the Cardinals, it's just going to come tumbling down and it's just going to be a miserable train wreck of a season. New head coach, new general manager, it's set up for complete failure there in Arizona. I think this list of free agents, if you gave them a couple weeks to practice together, would beat the Arizona Cardinals easily. I mean, Carson Wentz is a bad quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater doesn't really have it anymore, but Teddy, Teddy started for Denver and won like what, seven games or eight games a couple of years ago. I think Teddy's better than Colt McCoy, isn't he? If you, I mean, if he's got, yeah, if he's got a decent running game, Julio Jones is

his top wide receiver. They win at least a couple. I'm not sure Arizona's winning even a couple. So, all right, two more things. We've got, of course, our fill-in headlines. And the game has changed a little bit where you're going to try to guess the actual headline this time. But I asked Google AI to tell me how many games the Vikings were going to win. And Google AI was being difficult. And it was like, well, eight and a half many games the Vikings were going to win. And Google AI was being difficult.

And it was like, well, eight and a half is how much they're expected to win. You AI chat bot, that's not possible. So I wrote back, no AI chat. You can't win eight and a half games. Tell me a real answer. How many games will it win? This is what the Google AI wrote back. It wrote back, the end of the world is coming.

No, I'm just kidding. Skynet is here taking over now. it win this is what the google ai wrote back it wrote back the end of the world is coming no i'm just kidding it said skynet is here taking over now yeah terminator is real uh no here's here's what it actually wrote back it is impossible to say for certain how many games the vikings will win this year there are many factors that can affect a team's performance such as injuries strength of schedule and how well they execute their game plan. However, based on the information that is available, it seems likely that the Vikings will win between eight and 10 games this season. Very fair AI analysis here. What would have to happen for Google AI to be wrong about what it responded to me with? Quite eloquent for the AI to just put it in those, in those kinds of terms,

uh, what would happen for it to be wrong? Uh, you need Jordan Addison, or if it's over, if it's the over the 10 win mark, uh, you need Jordan Addison to be that, be the next coming of Justin Jefferson. So you have two, you have, you have Carter Moss in your wide receiver core, and you're still having one of the best tight ends in the league catch as many passes as he was. And you need Brian Flores to be just a complete miracle worker on that defense because he's not been given a whole lot to work with there. There's a lot of young bodies.

You need his developmental skills to basically be ramped into high gear and come through and make miracles on that defense. And they are a what? Last year they were bottom 20. They were bottom of the league. They had to be like mid-tier, like 15th ranked defense. And they get the same offensive output they had last season. They're winning more than 10 games.

They're winning probably 12, 13 games we're talking about in that range because this offense feels like it's geared up to be really good again. And you just need this defense to just be average, to have a chance at getting over that 10-win mark. If it's worse, well, everything falls off. I don't want to say it. I don't want to predict injuries because that will most likely happen because it's the Vikings.

But injuries happen. You trade away Kirk Cousins and you just lean into the full tank mode and try and get Caleb Williams is what happens. Yeah. I think that both scenarios are possible where their offense is even better in year two and Jordan Addison's presence is a big deal. And especially the offensive line which has the potential if certain players improve to be in the top 10 for the first time by pff since i don't even exactly know when a really really long time in terms of pass blocking and if they pass block well then kirk cousins can perform well behind them with all the weapons that he has the running game could improve last year one of the worst in the league and EPA per rush.

So they could improve there. And on the defensive side, it really takes, I think just the emergence of two or three players. One is probably an additional pass rusher. We don't know about yet. Maybe that's Patrick Jones. Maybe it's DJ want them another step,

but even if the Neil Hunter is here, someone else will have to rise to the challenge. That could be Marcus Davenport who's projected to be that guy, but he's never played 600 snaps and he's been a rotational guy who has been very volatile. But if he has an upswing and a great year and things come together, they could win more than 10. On the other side, it's very easy to see how that happens. We've seen seen it happen we saw it happen in 2020 where the players that you were hoping would step into roles and take big steps forward and so forth the young players they didn't come through and it's really as simple as that and last year's offense

i don't want to i don't want to be like overly critical of last year's offense because the numbers are good but um yeah i think the numbers were fueled a little bit by having a terrible defense this has long been a fantasy football thing fantasy football masterminds are always looking for the team with good offensive talent and horrendous defense because they know the numbers get pumped up and i think that playing in all those games where they were coming from behind in the fourth quarter exactly eight of them that they were coming from behind in the fourth quarter all those take a lot of passing the football and scoring points against defenses that are playing prevent I'm not sure that I want to say that they have a great great offense if they repeat what they did last year if it's the

same thing from last year you know they could go differently because they're not getting eight fourth quarter comebacks. And then they'll just, you know, have those times where they're pretty spotty and win seven games or something like that. And of course, a quarterback injury is always at the top of that list. If Kirk Cousins were to get hurt, or if they start off terribly, like you said, and they trade them away and play Jaron Hall, then I mean, this thing is going down. But how about the chat AI just knowing exactly how to project the Viking season, like between eight and 10 wins? You've been here before, haven't you? You've really been gathering your information off the internet of what people say about this team. So an interesting, an interesting thing. I want to play with that more for content purposes of putting in, um, asking the Google chat, what it thinks of things. And then eventually it will just take over the show and do it for me.

Uh, all right, let's finish off the same way we usually do inane headlines from a pro football talk. And I've created, uh, spaces in here and you have to guess what is being said. So how about this? Devin Allen, who I've never heard of, says he is the blank player in the NFL. I had to Google who Devin Allen was and looking up his pro football reference page, there's no stats there. So I'm going to guess that he says he's the most underrated player in the NFL. That is a great guess. I went with, he said he's the last player in the NFL, the dead last.

You rank all the players, Devin Allen, dead last. That's what he's at. The last player here, last player in the door. The correct answer is he said he's the fastest player in the NFL, which could be true, I guess. I don't know if it is or not. There's a lot of guys who think that is what i what i do know for sure a lot of guys think that they're the fastest but um i had never heard of devin allen before is he the one who does track for the eagles on the eagles i don't know does he play for the eagles i i mean i've never heard of this man in my life on his pro football reference page it says he's an

eagles player so i guess but okay there's there's no stats on his page whatsoever so that's why it I mean, I've never heard of this man in my life. On his pro football reference page, it says he's an Eagles player. So I guess, but there's no stats on his page whatsoever. So that's why it throws me off. Terrell Sinkfield is maybe the fastest player I've ever seen until Kenny Wongwu came around. Whoa, okay. This guy is incredibly fast. But Terrell Sinkfield was a camp body who was a wide receiver who then became a corner.

And he jumped like derrick rose i he had the highest you know elevation i've ever seen anyone jump up couldn't really play football but just i mean remarkable remarkable athlete so this does happen and uh back in the day there's a great story if you go to youtube I'm sure that you can find it. That the Dallas Cowboys, they drafted a track runner who became a good wide receiver. I can't remember who it is. I'm sure old school fans remember this guy. And so they kept doing it then.

And they drafted Carl Lewis. Now the Olympian, the all-time great Olympian. In like the 12th round, they actually drafted Carl Lewis. He never played for them or even went to training camp or anything. But it just proves that being great at a lot of things does not equal great at football. So maybe, yeah, that could be it. Maybe he is the fastest player in the NFL. I'm not even going to doubt him.

All right, here's the next one. CJ Gardner-Johnson chimes in on the Super Bowl blank. Now, this isn't fair because scrolling through Reddit this morning before you sent the questions, I did see that he was commenting on the playing surface. So I'm just going to say, I'm going to guess that he commented on the Super Bowl turf. Grass or yeah, the turf is correct.

Yep. Or I don't know actually which word it was. I have to look, but you are correct. He commented, oh the turf is correct yep um or i don't know actually which word it was i have to look but you are correct he commented oh grass is correct yeah um we're all over it it was an embarrassment to the nfl oh yeah absolutely i did not feel like coming away from the super bowl that it was delegitimized because we have watched packers and Bears games at Lambeau or at Soldier Field. And I can tell you that not all playing surfaces are the best, but the games still count. And the results are what they are. It is what it is. Sorry, pal, that happened. Both teams are playing on the same surface. You can't really use it as an excuse. I mean,

the Chiefs were playing, the Chiefs offense was playing on the same field as the Eagles offense. My answer is sushi, that he commented on the Super Bowl sushi, that it just, you know, it really wasn't up to the standard he thought for the big game. It really ruined their chances. All right. Mike Vick's advice for Tua, bulk up and blank. Slide. That is close. That is very close. Oh,? It's a bulk up avoid hits. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that's good advice for a guy who is knocked out a couple of times. You want to bulk up slide or just get a really big helmet because it hasn't gone well for him.

The Mark Kelso have a helmet. You ever seen you ever seen that um yeah it looks like a super mario i'm not surprised it didn't catch on remember when baseball very briefly was trying to prevent guys getting hit in the head and that one guy wore the helmet got rose or that yeah it got roasted really much you just stopped yeah he would rather get hit in the freaking dome then he would look like that that's a fair trade-off um i went with i went with eda arby's bulk up that's what i went with there was a bunch of things i thought of that were crude and you could fill in those but um you know bulk up eat at arby's bulk up and eat at taco bell because they brought the crispy chicken tacos back oh really yes discover

that this weekend that is some big news in my world all right last one we know what callers for independence day dinner i literally ate at arby's today so that influenced the uh the poor people who have to work at arby's there's nobody there who's going to arby's on independence day except me and so it's like all right well you gotta you gotta hold on your chicken tenders because no one's here why would we have chicken tenders made uh last thing richie james who vikings fans know well for beating them last year with the giants andy reed is the smartest and blank coach you could ask for what is the answer there most jovial uh that's good uh the answer is greatest the answer is greatest i went with largest i you couldn't help i just couldn't help

it you can't help it yeah he is both the smartest and largest head coach that you could ask for the smartest and best barbecue expert coach you could ask for. The smartest and best barbecue expert coach you could ask for. It was right there. It was right there. The yeah, the best culinary coach could have been the answer. He is the smartest and the best culinary coach in the entire NFL. Charles McDonald, who's a friend of the show, has a great story of him sharing macaroni and cheese recipes with Andy Reed. I think he ran him to him in a airport or something and then, and then brought it up at the super bowl. So, all right, well, a happy independence day to you, Jonathan.

Hopefully you watch the movie independence day and have a good time today at whatever you're doing on the Twitter account. Oh yeah. Live tweeting it. Yeah. That is a, yeah. That what a clever idea. That's one of the, one of the reasons we don't want Twitter to die is stuff like that. Cause it's just too funny. So, uh, hope everybody has a happy and safe day and we will talk to you all again very soon.