Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is there a big target the Vikings should spend their remaining cap space on?

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

The Minnesota Vikings curiously cancelled a press conference for a linebacker they were set to sign and Anthony Barr's contract creates more cap space than expected... so does that mean the Vikings are targeting another big-name free agent? Let's go through the list and decide whether we are in our out on the remaining big names. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you sign up for Symbol, you also get updates emailed to you directly with the trends on which teams are on the rise. So check out SimBowl.app or follow them on Twitter at SimBowlExchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports today. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Symbol, your stock market for sports, and by Scout Logistics, Matthew Collar here, along with Sam Ekstrom. And a curious event, Sam. On Monday, we talked to Patrick Peterson. Things were totally normal. He put

pen to paper and we had a good conversation with him. And if you missed any of that, I pulled the best of that press conference for the previous episode. So make sure you go check that out. But then we were supposed to talk to Nick Vigil, who is apparently a linebacker. And suddenly, Nick Vigil's press conference was pulled. My question was, you know, like, could he not show up? Or, I don't know, because it's a Zoom call, so if he has a cell phone, that should be fine. Is there an issue like there was with P.J. Hall, where maybe Nick Vigil is not in shape? I suppose that's possible, but I don't know if the guy has any injury or, yeah,

injury history or history of just being, like, PJ Hall did, or could it mean, Sam, could it mean that they need the cap space to spend on someone very expensive? What is your theory? Well, we have a friend in our beat writer text thread who theorizes that Nick Vigil is just not a real person. It's like a Manti Teo girlfriend situation. But it does come out at the same time that we hear reporting on Anthony Barr's contract actually carrying a lower cap hit than we thought. So somebody wants to make it clear that the Vikings have cap space available. From what I'm reading, maybe around $10 million. And I know they're getting more from Kyle Rudolph like in June. Can't really spend it now, so it's not useful today.

It might be useful for like Brian O'Neill's extension. But it is compelling. And wouldn't it be just, it would just be so ironic if the Vikings not only gave out one big deal, not two big deals, but found room for a third big deal in free agency a year when we were convinced they were going to play the value game and spread it around. And it might turn into just three big blue chips and a bunch of rookies, I guess, in the draft. So let's do it. Why stop there? Let's keep restructuring people and make

it four or five big names. I don't know who's left to restructure, but they'll find somebody. If they could create $10,000 more to bring in somebody else, they probably will. But that was a twist because we were under the impression that the Vikings were more around the $3-4 million range in cap space. But now that they're up in the tens, I also think that based on what Rick Spielman said, that Patrick Peterson's agent called them, I think that agents around the league with their players might be looking at the Vikings as a team who is willing to overpay because they know they're desperate. And this is not me guessing that they overpaid for Patrick Peterson. When you look at the other deals that were done for cornerbacks of similar ilk, they did. I mean, Kyle Fuller got less money. Xavier Rhodes got less money. Adoree Jackson got a big deal, but it was around the

same amount of dollars per year that they're going to have to pay. And here's the Vikings paying $10 million for Patrick Peterson. So if you are the agent of another team, I'm sorry, of another player who is a free agent that is looking for a team that might give your guy a one-year deal with a lot of money because he knows that the general manager and the head coach are pushing to make this team way better, you are calling the Vikings. So I have with me a list of the top remaining free agents, and I think the guy who is the number one on the list of top remaining free agents might be the guy that they're chasing.

So I want to go through these, and we're going to talk about whether they might be chasing this guy or not. Mitchell Schwartz coming off surgery for the Kansas City Chiefs. I think that that is a realistic possibility that they could be chasing Mitchell Schwartz. Right tackle, if I'm not mistaken. Am I accurate there? I think that there's probably a tackle in their crosshairs.

Like maybe it's Alejandro Villanueva, who somehow is not signed. I think he's probably holding out for a big deal and not getting it. Russell Okung also. Maybe these are on your list. I don't want to jump too far ahead. But I think there's certainly a tackle that they would like to sign. I'd be surprised if there wasn't. Maybe they're playing the value game at tackle, too.

Maybe they're trying to see who slips. But Mitchell Schwartz, I can't say that I've done a huge deep dive on Schwartz. I think we did our free agent, like, big piece before Schwartz got released, like one day before. But he is a right tackle. I'm not crazy there, right before. But he is a right tackle. I'm not crazy there, right? Yeah, he's a right tackle. And in that scenario, I would assume that you would move Brian O'Neal over to left tackle,

which is something that they were ready to do before last preseason. Mitchell Schwartz has been, in his career, one of the best right tackles in the NFL. He is not the most athletically freakish guy, but he is a technician. And if you go by PFF grades, one of the best pass blockers at right tackle. And I think that, you know, since we're sitting here talking about the possibility of Orlando Brown in a trade, which also could be in the ballpark here, or the Vikings drafting a first round tackle, I think we also need to talk about Schwartz as a possibility because that allows them to leave Ezra Cleveland at guard that means they only need to

replace one more guard spot which in this year's draft probably the third round you could draft a guard or you could get someone off the trash heap to fill in there they don't have someone really on the roster that you would put in right away but if you had O'Neal at left tackle and Schwartz at right tackle, Cleveland at guard, Bradbury at center, and then left guard X, who's clearly going to be better than Dakota Dozier, I mean, I think you have a pretty darn good offensive line at that point, if Schwartz comes back successfully from back surgery. Yeah, Rashad Hill, you know, continuing to be your swing, I think is probably still a safe role for him, even if we think he might be able to start as is. But having him as your number three is not a bad thing.

You can spin it a little more positively if you have another locked in starter, because as of today, I'm comfortable in one and a half of their offensive linemen. I'm comfortable with O'Neal and mostly Bradbury. I think there's questions on Cleveland, Hill, and starter X. So I think you close the margin there if you bring in someone like Schwartz, who has been well above average in pass blocking every year of his career. And it's a nine-year career, so he has not been a slouch. Only 31 years old. I think tackles can usually play into their mid-30s.

I would definitely endorse that move if they could find a way to get him on like a one year. Okay, I think we need some way to like put a quantifiable angle on this. So maybe give for each one like a absolutely meh or no, no, no, no, no, no. So this would be absolutely then for you. Yeah, absolutely. If I'm choosing between the three, I'm definitely above meh. I think we need something between meh and absolutely. That feels like a big gap to me, doesn't it?

Well, that forces you to be definitive, and I think that's what you're going to have to do going forward. So our next guy on the list. I waffle too much for that waffle too much yes i know that's why i designed it this way uh just right this moment carlos dunlap who had a good amount of pressures for seattle last year cincinnati had run their course with dunlap let him go and he went out there and contributed he is 32 years old but likely based on his history to still command a decent dollar. The Vikings have only Steven Weatherly and DJ Wanham as guys who could rush the passer from the right end position. Presently, Carlos Dunlap.

What do you think if he is the guy that the Vikings could be chasing with top dollar? So I'm probably closer to meh on Carlos Dunlap because assuming that Daniil Hunter returns, I am fairly comfortable with the defensive line if you were to draft somebody. I think that you can get probably more like longer term production for less money if you use your resources to get an edge rusher. Maybe it's Quidipe, maybe it's somebody else. That's the big name I think that a lot of people want to link to the Vikings. But if you go in with draft pick DuJour and Hunter on the ends, Tomlinson and Pierce on the interior, I think that's a decent line. That line can both rush from the edges and stop the run in the middle and, you know, make fun of the double nose tackle thing. But I think that's a pretty decent group with Wanham and Weatherly as your depth.

So I think I'm meh on Dunlap. You can't just put band-aids on everything. At some point, you're going to need to draft and develop. And if his price tag is anything higher than about $5 million, then it would be a no for me. I think he's more of the type of guy that you do give a one-year $5 million deal at the end of his career, but based on his production with Seattle last year, he might be angling for a little bit more, and as you go along, there also might be teams who are desperate for a pass rusher and decide that they have enough cap space to give him that deal. Or if it's a team that misses out on a pass rusher in the draft that

they were really angling for, let's say there's a team that wanted Quidipe or wanted Jalen Phillips, they don't get him. Uh-oh, we need that one last piece. So Carlos Dunlap does not have to jump right into the first team that calls him because you know if you're a pass rusher with a proven history that someone will pick you up at some point the Kansas City Chiefs acquired Terrell Suggs in their Super Bowl run like at the very very end of Terrell Suggs being a good NFL player so there's always going to be that guy how long did Julius Peppers play like 130 years so that they will always be interested in older pass rushers, but I think it would not be a very good idea to spend as much as he's probably

going to want. If he came really cheap, it would be a absolutely. If he came anything less than that, it is a meh at best and probably a no. So I think I'm going to skip corners here because they're all set on their veteran corner. I'm not completely skip corners here because they're all set on their veteran corner. I'm not completely counting it out, but probably not. Let's go to Jadavion Clowney. Do you like this idea, Jadavion Clowney?

Let's say it's one year, $8 million or something like that for him. It's interesting because I feel more of an absolutely with Clowney than I did with Dunlap. Maybe it's the age. I think he's still better. He was better last year than Dunlap was. He's four years younger. And he is still looking for a second act. What is he going to do post-Houston?

Because things haven't really worked out for him that well in terms of finding his next niche. This is a player that deserves to be somewhere for a long time and be a staple with a team. But he wasn't that with Seattle. The free agency thing bit him in 2020, and now it's kind of biting him again. It seems like because of his talent, he's the one who's being overpatient and kind of getting burned by it. So I wouldn't expect it to be more than a one-year deal. This is another reset year for DeDevion Clowney.

I would understand that. But I am intrigued about it. And I don't think it's a Dunlap situation where he kind of needs to get the money now because he's old and he won't have any more chances. I think Clowney knows that he still has good years and can probably sign a long-term deal next year. So if there's a one-year deal available for Clowney, like you said, $8 million, I would be pretty intrigued by that. That would be a fun year to put a 28-year-old Clowney with a 26-year-old Hunter.

I'm on board. Absolutely. If it were anything more than a one-year deal, I would say no, I don't think so, based on his injury history. And he's only played over 900 snaps one time. That would concern me. And last year, it was only 425 snaps with Tennessee and zero sacks. Now he still puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback. This has kind of been his MO is that he's really excellent, even elite at times at pressuring the quarterback, but finishing the deal isn't always his thing with getting huge sack numbers, but he is also an elite run defender at his best. In 2018, he had an unbelievable year, and it's almost surprising that he didn't sign a multiple-year contract after that.

And since then, you're right, he's sort of been chasing this, maybe next time, maybe next time. But the Vikings are that team to put in a position of saying, yeah, okay, we'll do the Sheldon Richardson the one year maybe next time for you, and you could come in and play defensive end, but also a guy that they could move inside on third downs if they wanted weatherly to rush off the edge it gives them some options it allows them to move him inside even just on general passing downs if it's

second down and 12 you can do something like that and he's such a good run defender that he could play in there if you want you can get real creative with him and rush him wide as an outside linebacker. I mean, there are all sorts of things that teams have done with Javion Clowney to where he can make a huge impact. I was looking, even at times, he's had a little bit of coverage statistics because he's done that outside linebacker thing. So I like him that way. I don't think Zimmer would use him as the chess piece, so to speak, very much,

but maybe move him inside a little bit more. I'm very much into that idea, even with the risks that come along with it, because it would be a short-term deal. Now, Eric Fisher is another Chiefs tackle on the market. You mentioned Villanueva, two left tackles. Let's talk about Fisher for just a sec. Another guy who was about to play in the Super Bowl and then suffered a severe injury, I'd probably want to see it first. I mean, this would be one where you sign just before camp when you can bring him in, work him out, see that his Achilles is back to normal. That's not an easy injury to come back from.

I'd probably be out on Eric Fisher for right now. I would too. I don't think I would sign someone off an injury that late in the previous season. If it was like an early season injury where he got hurt in August but was going to be ready for the next year, I have no assurance that he's going to play a snap in 2021. So you're probably not going to spend much on him, but are you going to get anything out of it? I would, I guess, pass unless there's some kind of way where you can sign him for two years and $4 million to ensure you get him for 2022 as well. I think I would have to say no thanks. Yeah, I'd probably say no thanks unless we're talking about the scenario of maybe they draft

someone and then they get that player into camp and go oh i don't know if christian derisaw is ready we need someone else like a jake long type of situation or somebody gets hurt and someone who's coming off an injury has to step into that situation but i mean even we saw what happened with jake long guys who have big injuries like that often you you know, giant human beings with injuries on their ankles. It's just not something that you really want to count on. So very, very little money, I would say yes, but any sort of significant signing, probably not. Now here's an interesting one, T.Y. Hilton, and I'm just going to include and the like. So anybody else left like that? I don't think Antonio Brown is coming here,

but T.Y. Hilton slash any other veteran wide receivers who are out there? Yeah, that one's interesting. I think I'd probably lump Golden Tate in that group. Very similar. I guess, I don't know about Fitzgerald. I think that tate and hilton will still be looking for multiple years um sammy watkins might be in that group um no i as tempting as it is and i do like the names i keep coming back to you can draft one you can draft a wide receiver who can who can be on that rookie deal for

four years. And I still don't know if Clint Kubiak is going to play them an appropriate number of snaps for their pedigree because you don't sign T.Y. Hilton unless you're going to use him. And I've received no indication that this offense is changing. So, and I think the Chad Beebe re-signing would indicate that, that they are comfortable having a wide receiver three who will play a Chad Beebe appropriate number of snaps. And that's why I don't think it's responsible to give a lot of money

to Golden Tate to be the, like, most little used wide receiver three in the league. This team is set at the top two receiver spots. Whoever they sign as the wide receiver three is just not going to play as much. So make it a draft pick instead. Even though I think you're turning down some interesting names, I'd rather spend that money somewhere else. So I think if T.Y. Hilton or Golden Tate, either one of them tells you,

yes, I would be interested, but you have to assure me that you're going to play more three wide receivers, you say yes, and here's why. Because Kyle Rudolph left, and even though he was not a huge weapon for their offense last year, he still was a weapon for their offense, who made big catches. And Tyler Conklin is a nice player and a hit for them a fifth round hit who turns out to be someone who could be effective but I don't think you can look at him and say he'll give you the same thing as the last two years that Kyle Rudolph was able to give you so I think you want to lean more toward getting a wide receiver three that can help you and adjust your offense to it because you're always running the same schemes. You just have to switch how you do it personnel-wise. And for someone like T.Y. Hilton, the added bonus is that he is a proven

outside wide receiver, so you can move Justin Jefferson inside. You can move Adam Thielen inside. And if either one of those guys gets hurt, you're still good. I think that they have more pressing needs with the way that they have played in recent history. But, you know, maybe they'll be adjusting the defense because they got Patrick Peterson and didn't expect to have him. Right. And I think you would do the same thing with one of those guys. So I'm, of course, as you know, like conductor of the wide receiver three train.

I am in on that idea. And I would just say, just change, just adapt how you're doing this with your personnel. And I'm a willing passenger on this train as well. And I wrote about it on the website about how they very realistically could open up this offense and get more snaps to their wide receiver three. So I want that to be the case. And I think that Irv Smith could kind of take on that role. I know we said this last year that he could kind of be the wide receiver three. I think you make Conklin your number one blocker, like you had with Rudolph. He's the bigger body. He's going to be more content in that role. He's not going to throw a fit or fret about what he's being asked to do. He'll just be happy to play more and then

have Irv Smith have the freedom to run those routes. That could be the internal solution as well. Or, you know, you could just take Devontae Smith too. That works. Yes, you could do that. I don't know that they will, but you could. And, you know, the funny thing about Devontae Smith is that everyone's arguing over his size and T.Y. Hilton would be the good example of a guy who there's no way he weighs more than about 185, 190 pounds

and has had a really good career. That aside, Justin Houston, Melvin Ingram, Olivier Vernon, Ryan Kerrigan. I am bunching them all together as guys who are proven veteran pass rushers, but all have some reason why you would hesitate. Yeah, I'm going to have you go first because you wrote about, I believe, at least two of those guys, Kerrigan and Vernon, in your free agent target section, defensive ends. Tell me what intrigued you about them at the time.

I think that Vernon, he's also coming off an injury, so that one's really tough, and it was a late-season injury. That would give me some hesitation there. Vernon me is the best option even though he has been more of a 3-4 outside linebacker I hesitate maybe still with the Melvin Ingram idea because of the injuries Justin Houston is not a good run stopper at this point I don't think he would fit very well with Mike Zimmer Ryan Kerrigan is actually the one I like the most not not for a lot of money, but if he was a one-year $5 million deal guy, he got pushed to the back burner last year for Washington because they drafted Chase Young and all of their defensive linemen were first round picks. But I think Kerrigan is a good player. And I know that when they went to face

off with Washington, what was it? Two years ago, three years ago, that he was the guy that they were circling that week, that Ryan Kerrigan was the one they were saying, this guy could be the game wrecker on Washington's defense. So even though he doesn't have quite what he used to by the numbers, if he's rotating, if he's playing 500 snaps and Stephen Weatherly's playing 400 snaps and DJ Wanham is mixing in, I think Ryan Kerrigan could be a real bang for buck. I think the other ones are costing too much. Who would I guess this team would go for is Melvin Ingram because he's got kind of more cachet and it's a little bit of a sexier name, but I think Kerrigan

would be the smarter play. I can't believe Ingram is almost 32 years old. That's crazy to me. He wasn't totally ineffective when he was on the field last year. He just wasn't really on the field. Yeah, I I kind of like Ingram. I think Ingram would be the best value considering there was an injury and there's there's a gamble there, obviously. But it's not it has not been that chronic where I think he's just going to fall apart. I think I'd be willing to take that gamble. Kerrigan, though, might be very content in sort of a rotational role, maybe even move him inside just a little bit. Yeah, I think you've handicapped it well. I think Kerrigan has a lot of appeal.

I think Ingram might appeal to the team. I think you laid that out beautifully. Yeah, not that I would be entirely against Melvin Ingram, depending on how long the contract is always. One-year deals, you could talk me into a lot of people for one-year deals. Somebody who's 32 and might be washed and has some injury history, but you have a little bit of depth there in Steven Weatherly, okay. And if it blows up in your face, it only blew up in your face for one year. It didn't really hurt you in the long term. And that's one thing that with the Patrick Peterson deal,

where we question a little bit where the player is at in his career and bringing him in and relying on him for a lot. At the same time, if it doesn't work out, you are not chained to him. It's not going to hurt your salary cap if you let him go and if he's absolutely marvelous you could keep him for a more few years a few more years and see where it goes i have one more for you and that is eric wilson uh now i know there's you know whatever they brought in someone named nick vigil not yet who might be real might not be right that was the plan he right he might not be real. That was the plan. He,

right. He might not be a real person. I'm still not convinced Chris Jones is a real person. We never met him. Patrick Peterson mentioned knowing Chris Jones, which does, I guess, further convince me that it was possible he was real. But anyway, Eric Wilson would be a bet on the health in part, but also just locking in a position where they really struggled last year, which was the depth at the linebacker spot. And if Eric Wilson went out to the market and said, okay, guys, rain upon me your $7 million deals, and the market went, I don't think so, not with this little cap space.

If Wilson came back, that would be huge for their defense, I think. I'm a little more meh. I don't think you pay for the third linebacker spot. So if there's any kind of like size to that salary, I'm probably going to rebuff that. Wilson was one of the worst tacklers in the league last year. So that's not great when, you know, even if you're a coverage linebacker, still need to tackle people, still need to tackle wide receivers. It's not always running backs you're tackling. It might be wide receivers, but he was not good in that role. I think that that's so easily filled with one of their depth linebackers i think you just let nick vigil if he exists cameron smith blake lynch troy die just have them in like a a four-way battle put them in the octagon and see who comes out alive. That's how I would fill the spot. I guess my thing here is that they flew without a kite or a parachute. Parachute, right? Flew

without a parachute last year in a lot of different positions and got burned. And linebacker wasn't one of them until everybody got hurt. Then it was a problem. But Eric Wilson and Eric Hendricks, for a large portion of the season played really well. And he, even though he wasn't a down-to-down terrific run stopper, definitely was not that. He didn't get any help from the nose tackle or the three technique in terms of holding up guards from getting to the second level. And, you know, I think that having depth at some positions probably is a good thing. Because they have not had that really at any position on defense over these last two years. I think that having depth at some positions probably is a good thing because they have not had that really at any position on defense over these last two

years, because they definitely don't right now. Like if Patrick Peterson gets hurt, I mean, okay, I guess Mike Hughes, you're up. They only have one safety who we know can play and that's Harrison Smith. So yes, they need a lot of different spots still, but if it was like one year, three and a half million for Eric Wilson, and he hoped to hit the market again next year when there's more money, I would probably say yes.

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Okay, let me switch gears with you, Sam, and I want to talk about Mel Kuyper because Mel Kuyper mocked the Vikings to trade up with the Denver Broncos to take Penesul in the second boldest mock involving the Vikings of the offseason, the first being Daniel Jeremiah jumping on the wide receiver three train with Devontae Smith. But Penesul in a trade up, it is bold and I like it and I appreciate you, Mel. What are your thoughts, Sam? Yeah, that would be bold and that would be great for the Vikings. Now, Sewell did not play in 2020. So that would tell me that, okay, he might not quite have the momentum on team's draft boards as some other tackles. I think he's still going to be well regarded, though. So it probably is a somewhat significant trade-up, probably would require a lot of capital.

Although, if four quarterbacks go in the first five picks, that leaves a lot of really good defensive players and skill players available. And I think Kuyper had him going up to number six, which is an eight-step jump. And I get that maybe Sewell would go there, but I don't think he's guaranteed to go there. I could see them maybe waiting a couple more and letting Sewell fall a bit further down. But true left tackle. I mean, that is a plug-in left tackle.

And considering that their only step to filling left tackle is re-signing Rashad Hill, that wouldn't entirely surprise me. So pretty multifaceted player. I like his size. I like that he's kind of a little bigger. They're not going for, you know, the sprinter or like the hybrid tight end tackle that they got in O'Neal and Cleveland. It's just about what are you giving up to make that move? And I've usually proclaimed that you don't give up massive capital, like multiple first round picks,

unless it's a quarterback. and this would violate that. So that's my only problem with it, but I love the player. Well, we know that they can't give up a second-round pick to move up. Yeah, I just double-checked. It was trading with the Broncos, so the natural connection with George Payton there and Rick Spielman making a draft-day trade. So it's not moving up crazy far, and maybe it wouldn't take a ton of capital if the Broncos didn't have a quarterback there that they wanted and wanted to slide back instead.

Or if it's Mac Jones that they really want, and they know that they can get him in the middle of the first, that's always a possibility for the Broncos. Of course, if you were able to lock in with two of the best athletes in the league at right tackle and at left tackle, you could be good for a very, very long time at those positions. I mean, Brian O'Neill is what, maybe 26? You could be spectacular for a long time. And Penny Sewell is also very young.

I think he might only be 20 or 21 years old. Sort of reminds you of Irv Smith when he was coming out. This guy also moves like a tight end, only he is left tackle size. There are very few left tackles, I think really even in the last 20 years, who move like this guy. He's a special, special, special player. I would far prefer that over something like trading for Orlando Brown, who is closer for me to average, or to

trying to get someone like Villanueva, who's in his 30s, or Eric Fisher, who's coming off of an injury, or Mitchell Schwartz, who's coming off surgery, and maybe will retire since he won a Super Bowl. I think drafting someone with his upside would be the right way to go and would have more of a long-term outlook. That would be a, and maybe this is what points to it, that would be a, you sign back Rashad Hill because he might still play and play half of the year or play the full season and then Penny Sewell takes over. I would be a little bit maybe confused if they drafted a guy

who wasn't going to play right away because it's more raw talent and he didn't play last year than someone who could be a pass rusher used if they drafted a guy who wasn't going to play right away because it's more raw talent and he didn't play last year than someone who could be a pass rusher and fill in and play 600 snaps right away and get five or six sacks and get a bunch of pressures because the free agency moves that they've made have been so much focused on win now, win now, win now, that taking someone to build a really great offensive line with all first and second round picks around it would be the type of move that we were proposing earlier in the off season to, to think about, you know, the longterm and the big picture and not get yourself in trouble with short

term moves. So, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm in on it for this draft because you're right. If you trade up inside that top 10, you're getting more like a top five or top six type of player in terms of their talent. Before we wrap up, Sam, I want to ask you if the Vikings have regrets. And the reason I want to ask you is because of something that Kyle Rudolph said. And this is just classic Kyle Rudolph. It's too perfect.

So Kyle Rudolph, of course, was doing his you know media thing with the new york giants and i'm going to read you the quote here uh give me one second okay he said that uh when the quarterback has the trust in me to throw me the football i'm going to execute it and make sure i catch the ball when the quarterback Sam when the quarterback has the trust to throw me the ball we get it Kyle we get it right like they didn't throw you the ball last year Kirk never trusted you they stopped designing the offense for you we know in fact my comment was now that you play in New York slash New Jersey, you don't have to be passive-aggressive anymore.

You can just say it, like whatever you want. You're not in Minnesota. You don't have to be passive-aggressive. Will they have regrets losing Kyle Rudolph to the New York Giants or to free agency or to not throwing him the ball? Well, maybe the latter. Maybe not throwing him the ball more, but no, they won't have regrets in losing him.

I always sensed that there was a drop-off in trust in Kyle Rudolph or in chemistry from Keenum to Cousins. That was one of the more noticeable aspects of 2018. There was like a 10-week stretch where he got, I think, two red zone targets. That got a little better in 2019. But even then, a few of those were kind of just YOLO passes on broken plays. They weren't designing a lot for him.

And I don't know if Cousins had as much confidence in that back line of the end zone throw that Keenum was so adept at. And there's a lot of ways that Keenum wasn't as good as Cousins. That might have been one where he was even a little better. But I don't think the Vikings will regret that move. That was the most obvious offseason move. And if the Giants get more production out of Rudolph, it's probably because they used him more.

So you can't really compare it to apples to apples because the Vikings did restrict a little bit his capability. But I also think that's because I don't think he was as effective when he was running routes either. Like his yards per route run were not that impressive. He had comparable routes run in 2019 and then was worse in 2020. So I don't think they will regret it, especially for that. Hey everyone, I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics.

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check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. Yeah, I think there's the past regrets, there's present regrets. You can go with either one for the regrets game. And I think that I would go strongly with you should have some past regrets for not finding ways to work him the ball more often, but it's also just not who Kirk Cousins ever was,

you could say that they should have regrets for signing him to the extension, which is probably where this one lands, is that that's the biggest regret you have with Kyle Rudolph, is if you had known that Kirk wasn't going to throw him the ball, then you wouldn't have extended him. You would have just said, let's find a blocking tight end and fit him in there and work him with the run and then get a third wide receiver instead to take up some of those targets. But they were so big on this. Oh yeah. The red zone, the red zone.

You're totally right about 2019. I think he caught two or three of them one handed after cousins just kind of threw him up. But he did, you know, catch the gamewinning pass to the playoffs. So there is that, the one time that he trusted Kyle Rudolph. Anthony Harris, do they, will they have regrets regarding Anthony Harris? Yeah, this is interesting because the price ends up being uber reasonable. And we had this discussion, I think, last week week like do you actually want Anthony Harris back after the way he played and and I was kind of saying not really like it might be time to move on he didn't respond well to an inexperienced cornerback group and he didn't get quite as as lucky as he was the previous year with a lot of balls thrown his way. That being said, there's no clear fill-in right now.

And, yeah, I think I need to see this one play out. I think I need to see if they land a veteran at the back end of free agency because if a rookie ends up being the starter or Josh Metellus, then you could have regrets there. And I guess we haven't really had to see Harrison Smith play next to someone brand new, like ever. Like he always had just this kind of like innate chemistry with Andrew Sandejo because they were together forever. And he had this chemistry sort of building with Anthony Harris gradually over the years until Harris took over full time. And there wasn't really a drop off.

We haven't had to see what that relationship looks like with someone brand new. So maybe there's more value in the continuity than I'm even anticipating. So jury's out. I don't know if I have regrets. I think the regret is probably not just letting him go and looking for somebody else. And the guy that you would point back to, and I always hesitate to criticize too harshly draft picks that teams make because it's so much of good luck, bad luck. Who knows?

You do the best you can at the time. Antoine Winfield Jr. probably gets taken by this team or should have been or would have been in line to be taken by this team if they traded away Anthony Harris for a third round pick to Cleveland last year. It sounded like the sticking point was a second round versus a third round pick. And I think you'd rather have that third round pick right now and just have more ammo and have had someone like Antoine Winfield Jr. in there. There was a bunch of good safeties though. Xavier McKinney ended up getting hurt, but if he turns into a really good player, there was also Kyle Duggar and Jeremy Chin, the

guy who scored two touchdowns against the Vikings in incredible fashion. That's probably why, because it was such a strong group of safeties in the draft and they elected to pay $11 million there. If you were to redo it and say, pick your safety, your Winfield Jr., and then you go spend the $11 million on X, Y, and Z, you probably would have felt better about where the defense was last year. So that's the regret. In a way, there should be a regret just sort of how you treated Anthony Harris. I mean, franchise tag him so he can't hit the market at his absolute peak. But this was a guy that worked his way up from the absolute bottom of being an undrafted free agent

to the practice squad to being a backup special teamer. I mean, he was the ultimate ladder climber. And a lot of times, and we're seeing this with Anthony Harris now, you get one chance at making a lot of money. He'll never do it again. Even if he gets like five or six interceptions this year, it's unlikely that he's going to get the type of contract he could have last year. So I think that's probably a regret too. I don't think they go out of their way to do things like this to guys. It just happens, and that happened. Afadia Denebo, is he good enough to cause regrets is the question. Because I think in terms of what he's getting paid for the Giants, it would have been a good deal to keep him with the Vikings,

which makes me think they were looking for somebody else at defensive end with that cap space. But will he actually cause them to have regrets? Will he be good enough? Will he be good enough to cause them to have regrets? I don't know about that. But if the Giants use him in the role that the Vikings should have, then there should be a pang of regret because he provides a little pop as the inside pass rusher,

which the Vikings don't currently have with Tomlinson. He could give you a pretty decent pressure rate. I mean, his work last year, though he didn't get home to the quarterback a lot, he was not the sack leader on the team, even though he should have been, you know, relative to his games played and somehow Yannick Ngakwe took that title. But I think that's the player that this team needs. And obviously relative to Steven Weatherly, if Adio Denebo beat out Steven Weatherly, we've talked about this before, like he was the better player hands down in 2019.

So I think when the, considering the deals were the same, you know, you can pretty well compare Steven Weatherly to a Fadio Denebo, apples to apples, and they, they're going to be in similar roles, I think, in their respective teams. So there's going to be a pretty clear path to regret once you see this starting to play out. And my money would be on Denebo doing better. I guess if he recreates 2019, then you've got starting to play out. And my money would be on Odenabo doing better. I guess if he recreates 2019, then you've got a lot of regret. If he gets seven sacks and 600 snaps. Exactly, right.

And I think that's how they're going to use him. I don't think they're going to look at him as being their A number one pass rusher, their prize of free agency, a team that spent quite a bit of money. But they have a really good and deep defense like the Vikings did in 2019. number one pass rusher their prize of free agency a team that spent quite a bit of money but they have a really good and deep defense like the Vikings did in 2019 that might help him succeed their defensive line even minus Delvin Tomlinson is quite good and so let's say they draft another first rounder they rotate they move guys around he could end up with five to seven sacks and then yes I think you do end up having regrets because right now the Vikings are not closer to having more sacks

than they had last season. One last one, and I'm going to tee up for this one, Sam. Mike Boone, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead and say it. The regret will be flowing from here to Denver, down the tips of the Rocky Mountains. That was a woefully underutilized player, and he is going to make Broncos fans – let me put it this way. Broncos fans will love Mike Boone more than they loved Kyle Slaughter in his time there,

because they love to talk about Kyle Slaughter after he left. They're going to love Mike Boone, because I think Vikings fans love Mike Boone. They wanted to see more Mike Boone. And it was like when he kind of didn't do very well in that one start against Green Bay in 2019, the team just kind of lost faith in him, and they didn't give him any more chances. Even in Week 17, meaningless Week 17 against Detroit last year, Amir Abdullah was getting snaps instead of Mike Boone. I couldn't fathom why that would be the case, because Mike Boone is a better runner. He's probably got equivalent hands or better hands than anyone on the roster

at running back. And Denver got him for two years. So Denver's not only saying, well, we want to experiment for a year. They gave him a two-year deal, and they love sharing snaps with their running backs. So I think Boone is going to play a lot, and I think he's going to be really good. And I think Vikings fans are going to play a lot, and I think he's going to be really good, and I think Vikings fans are going

to have so many, so many rueful moments of like, what were we doing wasting this asset? I love it. I mean, you are serious. I mean, you started off sarcastic, but you got serious, and I agree with you that they're going to give him any every chance to succeed for what they paid him and the fact that they gave him a multi-year deal and that it's George Payton who would be very familiar with Mike Boone and how good he can be over five yards of carry as a Viking they just never seem to really want to give him the football or use him as the weapon that we always talk about like the guy to run end of rounds or line up in the slot because he was a former wide receiver. They just never got into that. It was just always

Delvin Cook, Delvin Cook, Delvin Cook, which, I mean, he is one of the best, you know, in the NFL, no question, Delvin Cook. But I look at Elvin Kamara's handoffs and carries, and you go, you know, I mean, it's a lot less than Delvin Cook. And they mix it up. They brought in Latavius Murray to mix it up. And the Vikings just did not do that at all in a 7-9 season. And I guess maybe someday you'll go, was it worth it? Like, was it worth wearing down Delvin Cook as much as you did in a season

that was not one where you were going to really win anything. Led the league in touches, caller. More touches per game than Derrick Henry. Yeah. So to what end? Like to what purpose did that get you when you saw the way he was declining as the year went on? The other thing, too, is if Mike Boone goes to Denver and rips it up, which who knows, right? But if he does, then we might say, we might, because hindsight is our ballgame. Why'd you pay Delvin Cook when you had this superstar, Mike Boone, behind him?

Am I right? So that'll be fun if that happens. Anyway, so Sam, this was fun. This was a good time. And we'll see how it goes with how long this podcast is fresh until they sign someone. We are really tempting fate with this one. I want to put odds on who the name is that we've mentioned today that gets signed. The only question is, does it happen before I post the podcast or does it happen right after?

So I might bet on right after. That's usually how it goes. I think it's a sure thing. Thanks, Nick Vigil. All right. Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Collar.