Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How the 2019 Vikings draft class will shape the 2020 season

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

What are fair expectations for Garrett Bradbury? Is Irv Smith the most likely player to become a star? Where does Armon Watts and Kris Boyd fit into a young defense?  Plus three schedule questions and a quick look at remaining free agents. Where will Everson Griffen land? Would Logan Ryan make sense for the Vikings?  Make sure you read Matthew Coller's written work at PurpleInsider.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar with you. And I want to remind you to go to purpleinsider.com. That's where you can subscribe to all of my written work covering the Minnesota Vikings. And if you could rate and review this podcast, that would be a major, major help. It allows other Vikings fans to find this podcast when they go searching and type in Vikings in whatever podcast app they're using. If you rate and review, this will be the first one that comes up. So it is greatly appreciated. And we welcome in ESPN's Courtney Cronin. As always, what is up, Courtney? Too much. How are you doing?

I am doing okay, kind of with the rest of the world. Trying to provide a little bit of just entertainment and get away from the frustrations of reality is the best way that I can put it. So I hope that I'm helping with football talk in that way. But we have a lot to talk about, even though it's only early June with the Minnesota Vikings, as we start this slow kind of march toward training camp, which at this point seems like it's trending toward a good possibility of the NFL starting on time and other leagues coming back and things like that. So we continue to cross our fingers that they will and talk about it as if that's

what's going to happen. So I want to spend today talking about the 2019 draft class. We're going to have Brandon Thorne on the podcast as well to discuss Garrett Bradbury and his progress and so forth. But there's a lot of really intriguing players in the 2019 draft class that could take that big step forward that we talk about with rookies struggling a lot in their first year or, you know, just getting acclimated to the NFL. And then in their second year, that's when we figure out who they're really going to be. And with Garrett Bradbury, we had a chance to talk with him on a zoom call last week. And my big takeaway Courtney was Garrett

Bradbury understands that last year did not go particularly well there were flashes of very good games but there were also other times where he got straight out dominated and he went into this offseason with the goal of making sure that didn't happen again yeah and I think that was a very cerebral response to hey how'd your first year go? And what have you learned? Well, now that I finally had some time to slow things down, because like every college player who is going to be a first round draft pick and you have the postseason game, whether it's a bowl game or you're playing in the Senior Bowl or the East West Shrine game,

whatever, you have that, You have training for the combine. You have the combine. Then you have training before the draft, the draft, rookie minicamp, offseason OTAs, minicamp, and then a break. Like, for once in his football life, he has not had that same time frame, time crunch of January through late April where it's not football, it's not true training, it's getting ready to become an NFL player. So it sounds like to him, at least from what he told us, that things finally slowed down. And for the first time ever, he was able to just work out, to wake up every day with a plan of getting stronger, getting bigger, and making sure that

his body is where it needs to be going into year two. And, you know, I tend to think that when you look at Garrett Bradbury, we're going to be relating a lot of this to another offensive lineman who had to play quite a bit in his first year. And the jump that he made in year two was pretty tangible. And that's Brian O'Neill. I mean, I remember when Brian came back last year during the offseason program and we're looking at him saying, man, he's gotten bigger. He looks he does not look like he did when he had to start his first game less than halfway through the 2018 season.

And that to me with with Garrett and just kind of where his mindset is at about. Yeah, it was a really rough year because the NFC North has a lot of really good interior pass rushers that I had to go against. And he got, you know, humbled very, very quickly. You can still think of that first game, you know, with him and Grady Jarrett. And I'm sure that that probably still gives him some nightmares. But, you know, overall, I think all that Garrett Bradbury talked to us about was normal. And that's something that we're going to probably hear from other offensive linemen that the Vikings drafted even this year as they get ready to go into their second year. Because if you're expected to play year one and you're not a top 10 pick at that position, it's probably going to be really tough for you for obvious reasons. And even a lot of guys who were top draft picks, including Bradbury, they struggle in their first year.

The offensive line is the biggest gap, I think, between the competition you face in college and the NFL. Think about if you're a corner, you probably face a lot of very good wide receivers and many who get drafted even when you're in college. And it's still a big jump to the NFL. But in college, defensive line, you might be facing, if you're Garrett Bradbury, two or three guys in your whole career who are as good as the guys who you play each week, you know, week in and week out in the NFL guys like Grady Jarrett or Kenny Clark.

And he really struggled with those. You're not going to see in college guys who are 340 pounds and also quicker than you. That just does not happen from 20 year old defensive tackles plus they are savvy they've been around a long time there's a huge technical element to playing inside and all these guys were so much farther ahead than Garrett Bradbury but now he has a chance to assess where he was at for last year and take big steps forward and I think it's a reasonable expectation for Garrett Bradbury to be an average center this year because I don don't think that it's one of those positions where, okay, get your feet wet. You're all set to go and you're ready.

I think it's one of those where we see guys come into their prime later. And I don't know if anyone's ever looked at this, but even with top draft picks that it might take three, four years, someone like DJ Humphries comes to mind, who's just really struggling early in his career and just got better and now is maybe an average tackle. That might happen with Garrett Bradbury, where if he can be in the ballpark of average this year and continue ascending as he gets older throughout the next few years, you can build a very good offensive line around him. But if he struggles the same this year as he did last year, then you're talking about

a huge miss on a very high draft pick. Absolutely. And I think that Vikings fans got spoiled that first year of Pat Elfline because he was so good, but realize who he had next to him. He had two former centers playing opposite at left guard and right guard and Nick Easton and Mike Remmers. So, you know, he had a lot of help. And I think that the interior presence that the Vikings had last year didn't really do Garrett Bradbury any favors. So that's something that you have to consider. Well, what are the pieces next to him going to look like in 2020? Is it going to be Drew Samia at right guard? What are they going to do at left guard? Are they going to move Riley Reif inside, which would certainly help when you have, you know, a veteran

like that, albeit he has not played the position in a very long time, but somebody who's probably a better fit at guard. How you determine those two positions, those spots, is going to determine how much success that someone like Garrett Bradbury has in year two, because you got to figure that one out pretty quickly. It did not take the Vikings long to move on, essentially, from Pat Elfline at center. It took them two years. They saw two years of it, and then they decided to move on

in draft Garrett Bradbury with the 18th pick overall in 2018. That's probably the same window that they're looking at here, because who else are you going to put there at this point? It's not like you have anybody else that you really want to try in terms of an offensive line combination at the center spot. I mean, the seventh-round draft pick that they got, Kyle Hinton, is the only person I can think of, and Brett Jones, obviously. But, you know, at this point, you might be moving on in a year if he doesn't pan out this year. And like you said, if you can just be average, that's okay, because the trajectory for a franchise center is a lot longer and you don't necessarily have to have that spike that was kind of almost inflated, like the way that we saw Pat Elfline because of what was the byproduct, Elfline was the byproduct of what was around him in a lot of ways.

Well, yeah. And also I think that Elfline could have become very good at the position eventually had he not had setbacks. Had he not gotten hurt. Yeah, I mean, that in its own right, I mean, think about how good he was that rookie year. And it wasn't like the mental stuff. I mean, that obviously was, you know, he was making the calls. He was very, very good at that. That's what he was drafted in the third round to do.

So it wasn't like he was not processing the game fast enough. It was the ankle injury. And then there was, I think, a shoulder or a back injury of something else. And, you know, it all kind of compounded itself. And that's where I think, you know, had he not been injured and not been set back going into training camp in 2018, we wouldn't even be talking about this. But it's a great point about how quickly they'll make a change and when we see it with rookies no matter where you were drafted year two is like there's a target on your back if you weren't great in year one um and with Laquan Treadwell for example it was after year two that we said okay this isn't gonna work like you got the full off season all the excuses gone. The adjustment from being a first round pick to college, to the NFL, all those things,

no more excuses, no more foot injuries or custom shoes or whatever the problems were route trees that you never learned and such. Like, you know, once he wasn't good the following year, we knew this probably isn't going to change. But if Bradbury, like you said, gets to average as a pass protector, I think that he could be well above average as a run blocker. But if he gets to average as a pass protector, then we're going to look at it like this upward trajectory suggests really good things for him in the future that he can continue to grow. But if he shows no growth, then you're looking at it like, okay, well, how much longer do you give him at this position? Because where he was last year was hurting you, not helping you. And even your average veteran that you could have brought in off the scrap heap would have

performed probably better. Your Brett Jones would have performed better in pass protection than Bradbury did last year. That's not something you can have again. Now to Irv Smith, we've mentioned in passing a number of times like, well, Irv Smith will take the next step and so forth. I want to be specific about what we expect from Irv Smith because he is the guy from the 2019 draft class that I could see becoming a star, not just like an okay player, but really elevating himself into a huge role in this

offense because in part, Stefan Diggs is not here anymore. There's only one receiver that you're sure about with Adam Thielen and Kyle Rudolph is getting into his older age. You can move Irv Smith to many different positions. I liked a lot of what I saw from him last year. He can block, he can make plays after the catch. We saw that he could be explosive. He can go down field when you ask him to do. I think Irv has all the tools of a player who can elevate himself to, I don't quite want to say a pro bowl level with another pro bowl tight end on the roster, but maybe like a really solid starter. I mean, maybe projecting in the area of 50 to 60

receptions next year. I think that that's possible. I think it's fair. And if you this offseason, if you read every article of who's primed for a break primed for a breakout season, it's going to be Irv Smith. I mean, I know I wrote about it in January. And the fact is they underutilized the tight end position last year because they had Stefan Diggs within this offense. Diggs is gone now. Yes, you have Justin Jefferson, but he is an unproven NFL commodity. That's just

what it is. It's probably going to take some time before teams are really willing to bet that he's going to disrupt a game and that they're going to try to take attention away from Adam Thielen. They're going to be putting all that attention on Justin Jefferson to start because he has not shown anything yet and he's an easy target, especially if he's in the slot. So I think that that opens up a humongous opportunity for Irv Smith to become part of this passing game even more so than he was last year. I mean, when you think about what he and Kyle Rudolph combining for last year,

just in terms of it took about eight weeks into the regular season before you started to see that uptick. And it really only was until Adam Thielen got hurt that we started to see the tight ends utilized differently. So, you know, in Gary Kubiak's offenses, I know that you and I have talked about this a lot. Typically, your number three receiver is actually a tight end. And that, to me, is Irv Smith's job this year.

They drafted him to eventually replace Kyle Rudolph. Yes, Kyle has a few more years left on his contract. I anticipate him being around. I'm not saying that he's going to be replaced right now, but this is a chance that you like this guy, Gary Kubiak. Every time we talked to him early on in Irv Smith's career throughout training camp and then early into the regular season said that they threw the kitchen sink at him and he was swimming was the word that Kubiak used. But it's not like he regressed at any point last season or just couldn't grasp it. I think that the stuff that he's been asked to do where blocking can be very difficult, putting your

hand in the dirt is all, you know, a lot of this stuff is new for tight ends at the college level as they transition, especially, you know, when you're not talking about a traditional, like, inline blocking tight end. I mean, he can be used as an H-back. He could be, you know, flanked outside. He can line up in the slot. There's a lot of stuff that we can expect them to start doing with Irv Smith that they didn't, you know, particularly early on in his rookie career. And, you know, if there's anybody that you anticipate, you know, from that 19 draft class making a probably the biggest jump, I think it's easily got to be. Got to tell you about a new sponsor for the show.

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We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. Use the promo code PURPLE code purple insider for free shipping. That is S O T A S T I C K.com. Soda stick, the original Minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping. Yes. Right now, if we were projecting, if you told me one player from the 2019 draft class becomes a pro bowler consistently, I would guess that it was Irv Smith and you laid it out really well there, the ability to move him around to different places. You know, I look at someone like George Kittle as a tremendous athlete and a great blocker and a vicious competitor. I really have a lot of respect for him as a player, but there's the other element of being in an offense that loves to highlight a guy that can do all the things that he does.

And the same thing with San Francisco with Kyle Juszczyk, that Kyle Shanahan, who comes from the Kubiak Shanahan tree, obviously he has done a terrific job of using players like Irv Smith. And that's where you trust Gary Kubiak to say, this is a type of guy that you can line up in different spaces and get the ball in his hands. And he's very good after the catch. He had one of the fastest forties of all the tight ends. He's not the biggest guy when it comes to blocking, but he could also be a mismatch player. Uh, if he's blocking a cornerback, say if he's lining up as a slot receiver and he's going up against the nickel corner, you can use that to your advantage majorly with Irv Smith. And I expect to see a lot more of that this year and for him to take that step.

And I also was impressed. I don't know about you, but my interactions with Irv Smith, I just felt like he had a professional attitude from a very young age. I think he was one of the younger players in that draft class. And right away, it just felt like he was a guy that had been around a lot longer. And maybe that comes from just being the son of an NFL player in Irv Smith senior, but I liked his maturity and the way that he stepped in right away and handled himself. And he's playing a position too, that, you know, notably is one of the more difficult

ones to transition to in the NFL from college. And we've talked about that. Think about how many tight ends their rookie year actually make an impact. I know I've been trying to find it as you were talking, and I can't exactly locate it, but I know I wrote a story just about how Mark Andrews from that 2018 draft class was really the only one who did anything out of all the tight ends who had more than 500 yards receiving. It's just not something that typically happens. And had Irv been utilized a little differently early on, I think that he would have been far past where he was, you know,

in the 2019 season. I mean, we didn't really get to see what he does in terms of yards after the catch. I think that that was more of a byproduct of what he did at Alabama. He didn't really get going soon, as soon as I probably would have expected, but that's because the offense had to figure out a way to balance out the run in the pass. And they were a very run heavy team the first eight weeks of the season. And that was his role. I mean, good Lord, do you remember when we would talk to Kyle Rudolph and how passive-aggressive and the undertones of how not thrilled he was about his role at that point? Like, Irv Smith didn't say anything about it because he was a rookie

and you don't talk as a rookie, but that was him too. I mean, he was in the exact same boat. Both him, Rudolph, and Tyler Conklin were blocking tight ends. They, you, they max protected Kirk cousins as much as they could. Um, but you know, the point that he was at, I think I want to say that Detroit game on, I can't remember. I know the Detroit game in week seven was when BC Johnson stepped in when feeling ran into the wall and got hurt. Um, I can't remember if Irv Smith had a big game that game. I want to say he did. He did, yeah.

Yeah, it was like, yeah, five catches, 60 yards. It's a pretty good game for him. But you started to see the light bulb click with him beyond that point. And that's because they were down a guy. And now they are down a guy again. It's just going to be somebody all season uh with the you know departure of digs so you know to think of where he could have gone his rookie year had this been something he did from the beginning is pretty remarkable to think about yeah i agree and he was the highest graded tight end of all rookies from last year that got at

least i think 30 targets by pro football focus. And Kirk Cousins completed 78% of his passes when going Irv Smith's way. So there's a lot that points to the arrow is going up for Irv Smith. And the fact that he even handled himself reasonably well as a blocker gets a big, uh, I guess, bonus from me when we're analyzing his game, because as you mentioned, it's almost impossible for these guys to step in and block defensive ends when they've never seen anything like this. And he, I mean, he blocked a little at Alabama, but he was mostly a receiving tight end. Um, let's talk about a few of the other guys. I don't need to say a lot about Alexander Madison, because I think we know exactly what he is. And I don't think that he's going to be different

next year. I think he's good. He's a good, good player. He can come in, he can run people over great change of pace from Delvin Cook. He's a little bit of a different runner. And I would just expect the exact same thing from Alexander Madison. Yeah. Ditto. Like I, until they want, if they decide they want to move on from Delvin Cook at some point, which I don't think will happen. I know that right now everybody keeps asking me, when is he going to get a contract extension? When is Zimmer going to get a contract extension? I think both of those things will happen.

We're just kind of waiting at the moment. I don't know if it's been, you know, at this point it's June. Pretty soon they'd be preparing for mandatory minicamp, which if this was a normal lifetime and a normal year, uh, I don't think Dalvin would participate until he had his extension. But since everything's a mess right now, uh, with coronavirus pushing everything back, I anticipate Dalvin being here. And I, you know what that means? I anticipate Alexander Madison staying in his lane and playing his role. Yep. And he's very good at it. Averaged very, very good. 4.6 yards to carry. I mean, he was terrific when he came in. Yeah, no, I mean, there's, there really is nothing more to

say other than good job. It's probably going to be the same next year. All right. Let me ask you the next couple of players just going through this 2019 draft class and our expectations for them. Tell me which one of these players you think has the best chance at making an impact in 2019. Drew Samia, Armin Watts, Ole Udo, and Chris Boyd. Which one of those four guys has the best odds at being a quality starter or playing a lot of snaps for the Vikings next year? I think it's probably going to be Samia because I know everybody's predicting that already he's won the right guard job and just the way that the coaches have talked about him and utilizing that red shirt year to get him ready to play and how successful

he was playing a guard in an outside playing guard in an outside zone scheme at Oklahoma that to me at least at least they think the trajectory is going to be upward and that they drafted him high in the fourth round, early on in the fourth round two years ago for a reason. So that's probably, I will say he'll play the most and probably have the biggest impact, but behind him, you mentioned Armand Watts. Is that right? Yeah. Yep. I, you know, in talking with Andre Patterson, just kind of about the changes this defensive line room's undergoing currently,

Armand is somebody that they love. And he is a gem that they found in the sixth round last year. And his pass rushing technique has gotten so much better from where he was coming into training camp and you know just being able to you know learn under guys and learn under both um you know shamar stefan and linville joseph he had good you know predecessors in front of him that he's going to be able to make an impact in a rotational role this year i wouldn't be surprised if he ends up outplaying some of the other guys that you expect to be in those third down pass rushing roles, you know, early on in his, in his, you know, second year. I guess I wouldn't be super stunned if Arman Watts ended up playing,

is it Arman or Arman? Do we know? Is this Arman? Okay. Arman Watts. This is going to be like the Robison Robison conversation or the Avian, Avion, Avionte Collins. If he ever plays. Yes, Avion Collins. Anyway, yeah, Armand Watts is a guy that came in last year and didn't play much to start. And then he gets an opportunity to get on the field and just started mauling people. And I think that all of us probably went like, oh, what do we got here? Cause this looks a little bit different. This looks like someone who could actually get after the passer from that position as he did in

his final year in college and be big enough to be a run stuffer as well. And maybe he ends up being that guy, maybe not right away, but eventually who's playing just as much or more than Shamar Stephan. Cause I think that Shamar Stephan in his right role is a first down guy, a second down and short guy, third down and short guy, like he was in 2017 spelling Tom Johnson. I think that that's Shamar's best role. And you need somebody else who leans a little more towards Sheldon Richardson of being able to get after the passer.

And Watts has a good shot at that. I'm not sold yet on the Samia idea. What we saw in training camp last year was mostly pretty up and down. And then in week 17, they seem to be talking up week 17 a lot with him, but he was not graded very well by pro football focus in that game. And when I went back and watched him, you know, there were his moments. And so he's going to have to have a big step forward in order to be a veteran like Dakota Dozier, who I think right now might end up being the starter. We look at him as more of a journeyman

backup, but maybe he's the Joe Berger of the program. Eventually the other guy, Chris Boyd, very intrigued by this because the door is wide open. If Chris Boyd wants to prove that the way that Zimmer and Spielman have hyped him up, he can do it. I mean, the opportunity is going to be there for somebody to step up and it would be far from the first time that we've seen a cornerback or safety be drafted late. And then all of a sudden they're making an impact after a year or two of special teams. Yeah. And and i mean special teams was his only way really onto the field early on last year but then they started utilizing the cornerback rotation and the fact that there's a clean slate here in that position group really helps a guy like chris boyd probably be able to stand out a little bit more quickly than all of the other rookies that that

came in and i think i remember it was they had four corners under contract before the draft and then after the draft by the time the draft was over they had 11 so it's gonna be probably the most exciting position battle to watch I mean certainly it's it's the most prominent one because you have an entire new group of players back there and really outside of Mike Hughes um who you and I talked about in the last episode just you know the position is set he is probably the nickel corner who are your two outside corners how are they going to do that do they want to use a rotation do they think that you know Jeff Gladney is somebody that you know day one is going to be able to get in there and and go up you know go up

against really good quarterbacks because they face a lot of them in the first half of the season with Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan. I mean, it's going to be tough. So how do you do that? I mean, do you want to try to like split time like in the outside roles and test Cam Dantzler out there with Holton Hill? I mean, I don't know. So that's probably a good why he has probably as good of a chance as anybody at that position, even though he was a late-round draft pick. There's something that they liked in him because they had chances before last year to either cut him or move him to the practice squad to make room when they had other guys coming up on the roster, and they kept him on the active roster the entire time,

even though he didn't play on defense that much until later in the season. So I think he's got a great opportunity. All right. Before we continue the discussion, I have to tell you about bet online. There's no shortage of action going on right now in our exclusive partner bet online NASCAR is back and bet online has hundreds of other games, events, and sports to get in on. You can still bet on simulated NFL, NBA, UFC events 24-7, or you can participate in a $10,000 Madden Bracket Challenge, a March Madness-style NFL simulation tournament that you can enter for free. And live right now on BetOnline's YouTube channel, you can find an exclusive interview with ex-Chicago Bulls Ron Harper, Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, and Craig

Hodges to discuss the Michael Jordan documentary on what they are calling the final dance. Visit betonline.ag and use the promo code blue wire to receive your new welcome bonus and check out all the action. BetOnline, your online wagering solution. And I think that outside corner battle is probably between him, Dantzler and Hill. But the other thing that might be a factor is if they want Hughes to be an outside guy, then maybe Chris Boyd could be the inside guy. It's not like they send out a press release every time somebody's working on a position. I mean, we don't know how much we wouldn't have asked being caught up in, you know, playoff race and everything else. We wouldn't have asked being caught up in, you know, playoff race

and everything else. We wouldn't have asked, Hey, has Chris Boyd ever practiced at nickel corner during, you know, the season or anything like that? I don't recall seeing him a lot there in training camp, uh, but it might be a potential option as well. Someone might emerge at that position. All right. The, the last couple of guys, Dylan Mitchell, BC Johnson, and Austin cutting.

Um, we have very high expectations for Austin cuttingting, of course, because he's a long snapper. So I'd love to give you a huge, long analysis of him. But Dylan Mitchell, any chance that something is still there with Dylan Mitchell? I think with BC Johnson, we know, similarly to Alexander Madison, we know what we have. We have a guy who's a number three or number four wide receiver who is going to be effective. He's smart. He runs good routes, but you're not talking about the next Deshaun Jackson here. Like he probably is very close to his ceiling. Dylan Mitchell is the guy who's more athletic and has a higher ceiling, but couldn't get himself on

the field last year. Yeah. I mean, with Johnson, he is your number, he is going to be your number three receiver or Chad Beebe's going to be your number three receiver. And I think that they're not going to go about it in true depth chart fashion. It's just going to be based on certain matchups and what, you know, what defenses they're facing that specific week. But think about some of the things that were said about Dylan Mitchell last year when he was drafted and kind of some of the skepticism about, OK, like, you know, it's difficult to get this guy in the weight room and everything else like that. Just like not glowing reviews of this guy. And he signed that futures deal to be on the 90 man roster in January. So he was the only one. I mean, he stuck around all season long,

and you just didn't know it because you never really saw him do anything, even in practice. I mean, he's a practice squad guy. He blended in with everybody else among a very deep receiving core. So I'd be curious to see kind of how they want to fit him in the mix. He's like you said, physically speaking, he's 6'11 like he's a big dude so I think that there's there's reason to believe he could be a nice outside receiver it's just how do you want to use him I mean the group is so young Thielen's almost 30 and then it's like the next oldest is Tajay Sharp at 25 so you have this incredibly young group of guys who have an opportunity ahead of them to try to carve out a role.

What Dylan Mitchell's role is, I'm not entirely sure. Is he going to be that straight line speed guy? Is that just like, you know, just come in for something like that given, you know, didn't he run a pretty good 40 if I remember correctly, you know, from the combine? Let me check this out really quick. I think it was in the four fours if I had to try to remember, but certainly somebody who was a major impact player in college and you wonder why that didn't translate to him being a higher draft pick. And I think it's all the things that you laid out there, but they must see enough to want to keep them around in the competition. But just like we talked about with Garrett Bradbury, even if you're a first round pick year two is massive for you. Well, if you're a seventh round pick on the practice squad, this is it. This is your only

opportunity. So if he doesn't spend the off season, taking that opportunity to understand how things work better, get his body and NFL shape. I mean, it's really easy for some of these guys because they don't have a new offense to learn. So if you don't come in knowing every single detail of the offense, that will be an easy cut for them. But if, if not, I mean, if he does, if he does take a step forward in those areas, he has the physical tools to have some sort of role on this team. Yeah. I'd like to think so. And just to, yeah, he ran a four, four, six in Indianapolis, six, one, one 97. I mean, that's a good build.

But what is he good at? Like what do they had a year on the practice squad to determine, all right, how do you fit into this? And like you said, he's got a nice leg up on all of the other receivers that the Vikings have on this roster. A lot of really young guys because he knows the offense or you'd like to at least think he does because you know guys like Courtney Davis and KJ Osborne Justin Jefferson they weren't here last year and it was a very young room last year so he's got to be able to separate himself from that in order to crack the 53 I mean and how many are they going to keep that's the other thing we have to realize like

it's not Kevin Stefanski as the offensive coordinator this year. Yes, he did run Gary Kubiak's offense. But, you know, how many wide receivers do they want on the active roster? Is it going to be four? Is it going to be five? Is it going to be six? I mean, you have to factor in, too, the tight ends. And, you know, just when you have a team that uses a lot of heavy personnel groupings, that might affect the number of wide receivers that you have. So you'd like to think it's probably Thielen, Tajay Sharp, obviously Justin Jefferson,

Chad Beebe, and BC Johnson. That's five right there. Are they going to keep six? I mean, if he wants to edge any of those five guys out, and the reason I throw Beebe in there is because every time somebody opens their mouth about the receiving core, they want to talk about Chad Beebe, and that's cool. Clearly they like what they have with him. He is a true slot receiver, and he works.

He works for what you're doing. But if you're going to try to figure out, well, can they keep six? Maybe. But more likely than not, you're going to have to do something more spectacular than what they've seen with the other guys in order to get one of those five spots, because I don't think they'll keep six and if they were to keep six KJ Osborne being a pure punt returner if he shows that in preseason absolutely almost forgot about

him yeah if he shows that he can make plays as a punt returner because Chad Beebe really didn't and I think fumbled a few and that's just not going to work but if it is you know KJ Osborne then he might push somebody out or push them to keep six. And then somebody like Dylan Mitchell and those other guys you mentioned is the on the outside looking in hoping for another Chad BB injury. Maybe those other guys would be, because I agree with you that they're talking up BB for a reason. They were impressed with him during training camp last year, and he can be that Jarius Wright, third down and five, he gets seven yards for you type of player. All right.

I have three questions for you about the schedule and then one more about free agency before we wrap up. So let me give you these three questions about the schedule. First question is, which game in the first quarter of the season will tell us the most about where the year is going to go? So last year we kept asking, who is this team? Who are they really? Well, usually we get some sort of indication early.

What game is going to tell us the most? So this might be a cop-out, but we're talking about quarters of the season, breaking everything up into four. And I think that where the Houston lands uh is probably going to be the easiest one to judge where this team is because and we've when i when you made me pick the schedule i picked this as a win and when you look at the schedule of what they have to do to get there first yeah there might be some ups and downs because you have green bay at home to open up if you can win that game, then you already have a leg up on your division foe and you're in a good

spot. Then you go to Indy. Then you have the Titans who are a really good team. They come back home. It's home away. Yeah. Home away, home away. So by week four, what does this defense look like? Because you're already going to have faced Aaron Rogers, Phillip Rivers,

and Ryan Tannehill. Three in a row. And those are some really good quarterbacks right there. So how does his secondary look like? What does his defense look like? And then you have, in my opinion, somebody who's going to, again, be an MVP candidate in Deshaun Watson. But that defense for Houston, yes, it's been retooled,

but they still were terrible against the pass last year. They were like 29th, somewhere in there, just in terms of yards per attempt they allowed and completion percentage. So what does that defense look like? What can Kirk Cousins do against that defense? To me, that's going to tell you as they close the fourth game of the season, how much better this team or how much worse this team is going to be as they go into Seattle the following week. And then they come home to finish up, you know, the first half of the season for them with Atlanta before the bye week in, I believe it's week nine or 10.

So I say Houston. I think that, I mean, that's, it's a road game. It's a perfect time to test just against a team that you don't really know what's going to happen, a game that you should't really know what's going to happen, a game that you should win because they gave away their best receiver, and they're kind of leaving all of this on Deshaun Watson's shoulders. But how Kirk performs against that defense and how that defense is able to at least try to limit somebody's dynamic is Deshaun Watson's going to be very interesting to watch.

Yeah, I totally agree with this, that that is a great test game because it's a team that you should be if you're going to be good, but they're good enough and their quarterback is good enough to give you some problems if your defense isn't figured out. Like you could see week one, rookie corners, you know, Aaron Rodgers has a good game against you and maybe you do okay against Rivers and Tannehill, but Watson is a top five quarterback in the NFL. There's no Rogers is washed. If you play well against him or Rivers is washed or Tannehill was a one-year wonder last year. Like this guy is legit. He's great. You're on the road. You're in his building, but you can also beat them because you should be a stronger team. So that would have been my answer too. All right. Next question, which second half opponent that we think, uh, that we have certain

expectations for, they're going to be really good. They're going to be really bad. We'll be stunningly great or terrible. I think Dallas and look, I've probably said the exact same thing last year. Cause I could say Tampa Bay is going to be stunningly great, but I already bought the hype so nobody wants to hear that on Purple Insider like they want to hear something different um Dallas is going to be stunningly great next year they have the quarterback situation figured out have they paid Dak Prescott no they haven't will they yes they will and that receiving core is really really good they've got one of the best running backs in the game yes they couldn't figure it out against the Vikings last year, but I'd like to think that with a new coaching staff and, you know, some new ideas, albeit like, let's see what

Mike McCarthy learned in a year away. Like, I think this team could be one of the best in the NFC. And I always tend to buy into the Dallas hype around this time of year. I mean, call me in August. I'll probably be, you know, I'll probably be over the top about it. But I think that they will be the team of the second half opponents that will be stunningly great and stunningly terrible Chicago. I think that that's the easiest one to answer because I don't think it's going to take till the second half of the season before we realize they are stunningly terrible. So I like your answers. You know, the, the Cowboys are a team that right now I would pick at like 11 and five, or maybe even 12 and four, because I think that they can run away with that division, potentially with a new coach last year, they're one of the best offenses in the entire NFL.

And they don't make the playoffs because their coach botched so many decisions. And also because they missed a ton of field goals, their defense was, you know, sort of spotty, but now they've added additional weapons. If they get rid of this, you know, contract issue with Dak Prescott and sign him, there's no reason to think that that offense is going to be worse, but I think the decisions can be better. Mike McCarthy though, is not a guy that you really, really trust when it comes to in-game management. Um, the guy that I think Aaron Rogers once had to pick up a red flag for him because he couldn't challenge a play, but, uh, I think he'll coach it a little bit better than Jason Garrett and just by regression. Like you can't miss that many field goals again, Something has to change there. So I like that answer for a team that will sort of be surprisingly really good.

I had a tough time thinking of which team would be stunning. Yeah. I mean, Carolina is an easy answer. Do you want to say them? Yeah, because. Or do you think that they're going to be like trap games? Something like that for the Vikings. Yeah.

I mean, that's it's a, but it's also like they, it's a long shot for me to say that they're going to be horrible. You know, like they have enough talent to be a six and 10 team. Stunningly bad would be like three and 10. I like your Chicago answer. It's probably the Panthers because nothing would surprise us with the Jaguars being stunningly bad. Maybe, maybe, maybe Carolina would be the team that you would say could be stunningly good. Like if Bridgewater is just great and maybe Brady isn't as good as we think, maybe Breeze isn't as

good as we think. And then, um, you end up with Carolina stepping up and going nine and seven or 10 and six with a very young defense and maybe some other weapons and Christian McCaffrey, you know, I don't know, because last year there was a little section of time where Kyle Allen had them looking fairly relevant. And so, you know, maybe they're a little bit better. I don't project that, but that would be a team that you'd circle and say, maybe there'll be stunningly not bad at all. Um, all right. Last question is which game will Kirk cousins have his best performance of the entire schedule?

I say it's either the Titans or Dallas. And the reason I think it's Titans B is he'll be coming off of, um, I can't remember if I had them at one and one at this point. I think they have, I think I have them starting out two and oh,-0 with wins against Green Bay at home to open the season and then going to Indy and beating the Colts. I don't know if they'll win this game, but I could see this becoming, not to the degree that the Rams-Vikings game was in 2018 where it was a complete shootout. But, you know, Tennessee's defense opens a door, a window, for Kirk Cousins to have a very, very good game there. And they're really good against the run.

So, I mean, that's going to rely on Kirk to shoulder a much heavier load. And then I think Dallas would be another candidate for that, just the way that Kirk played them last year. I mean, yeah, they ran the ball a ton. And that's not what you were expecting like them to be able to do with uh Dalvin Cook against that defense but they also utilized him in a screen in the screen game and on short passes and making him you know successful that way so I think that probably those two are the two that stand out to me because you know that the easy answer would be, oh, let's just pick one of their weakest opponents. He'll light up a stat sheet.

No, they'll probably take the ball out of his hands just like they did against Atlanta last year. Like, you know, I don't think that I think if they're in a situation where they're playing an opponent and they get up big, you're not going to see much of a change from the way it was last year. Yeah, that sparked some controversy among the team, but I think that's just like because it's the safest bet with who you have. So yeah, Dallas or Tennessee. I think I'm going to go with Indy. It just feels like a classic Kirk Cousins game to have a noon game that is not really on anybody's radar at inside of a dome and just have him go crazy against the defense that maybe isn't that great. And a Phillip rivers led offense that I don't know, turns the ball over a

couple of times and gives Kirk Cousins some easy shots at touchdowns. That that's the one that I'm going to pick because obviously Jacksonville and their rebuild defense would be the obvious answer. So I'll say right off the bat. And usually, usually he's got one of these big games in them early in the season. So we'll go, we'll go with the Colts. All right, before we wrap up, I'm going to give you five best remaining free agents and just tell me who's getting signed first. Is there a team on your radar that you think any of these guys are going to Jason Peters, Everson Griffin, Jadavian Clowney, Larry Warford, and Logan Ryan. What do we make of the remaining free agents?

Well, let's start with the one that everybody knows on our podcast pretty intimately is Everson Griffin. And from what I've heard, we've been asked, is he coming back to the Vikings? Could he potentially sign after the COVID stuff dies down and he wants to take visits? I don't know how good of a chance Griffin's going to have to come back here. He's already said his goodbyes. I do not believe he wants to take a pay cut because he probably already would have to stay around. He has one more chance pretty much in his career to go out and make another big dollar. If that Arizona rumor is true, it makes a ton of sense.

He's from there. That's a team that has cap space. I don't know what kind of role he plays out there, though, because it's a team that has Chandler Jones and, you know, they've got a pretty good defense already. So does he have to become a rotational guy out there? I don't think he wants to go anywhere where that's going to happen. But it kind of seems like an ideal fit when you think of like the optics like i mentioned that's where he's from it's a new you know if you want

to start over fresh starting over at home um you know i think that you know he'd probably be able to you know when you think about like what their defense is there are three four right like i'm trying to think it's like zach allen and cory peters at the end spots and then they you know they rush a lot from their from their outside linebackers so maybe that would be a good fit for him um i don't think he ends up back in minnesota though yeah i don't think so either i don't think so either and i would just add that uh logan ryan might be intriguing for the vikings if he just can't find it yeah where it's just weird like nothing's happened with him i know that he thought he was going back to Tennessee. And that's a name that I had heard floated around because some of the corners that have signed in the last five, six weeks, it didn't really seem like the Vikings had much interest in any of them.

It wasn't like, oh, man, they missed out on so and so. But Logan Ryan's one that's been on my radar. He's been on my radar for quite some time now. And I don't know if it's just the pandemic that's got everything slowed up, but it just it feels like that would be a smart move because there's two positions of need that the Vikings really should bring in a veteran player offensive line in with your cornerbacks because right now I mean your offensive line in terms of the guys that are positions that are set that's fine but you have two interior spots that could really use an upgrade and it would not be the worst thing if you got a Gabe Jackson via trade or if you got a Coletti Osemaly or somebody who's sitting sitting out sitting out there right now in free agency um to come in and compete for those jobs and and same thing with cornerback I mean

heck find a find a nickel corner somewhere there's got to be somebody that's still out there in free agency that could come in at least as competition and training camp. Yeah, I could see definitely one more corner and looking at some offensive linemen for sure, because they left a couple of roster spots open, I think with a reason, but you know, things have really slowed down and maybe they don't want to sign guys so they could get a look or till guys like Logan Ryan are desperate. I think he thought he was going to make $10 million a year. So that will be something to keep an eye on.

Courtney, great stuff as always. And we will talk to you again next week on Purple Insider. Hey, this is Megan Rapinoe and I'm Sue Bird. We've decided to turn our crazy IG live show into a podcast for your listening pleasure enjoy the show a touch more new episodes of a touch more drop tuesday only on the blue wire podcast network be sure to subscribe to the show on spotify apple or anywhere else you listen to podcasts