Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Vikings camp excitement justified? (answering fan questions, part 2)

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

Matthew Coller continues his live chat with Vikings fans and talks about why they are feeling refreshed this year as we head into the preseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 uh gary says is turner mainly going up against cd on his reps christian derisaw he is derisaw was taking a little veteran time today but the answer is uh yes yes uh he has done that a lot and it hasn't gone that well for him. And it's going to help him in the longterm because there are very few players like that. Cade says, well, we see more creative ways to get Addison the ball this year. Judd mentioned that they might have a plan to use him a little more. I will get Judd on the podcast at some point in training camp. Every year in training camp, we've done at least one together of my entire time in Minnesota going back to 1500 ESPN. So I will do that to see what is going on in the mind of Zolgad. But to answer your question, I don't think

so. I think that it's the offense, that the offense is designed for three guys, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and TJ Hawkinson. And they are really good. And because you're talking about more of a plan, I think they had to figure out if Addison could play last year and be good. And once they did, then it became a big part of the plan to use him. I think Kevin O'Connell, the number one thing as a coach is his leadership. All right, that's put that aside. But from the X's and O's, the best thing he does is figure out how to get number one and two open. Cooper Cup in Los Angeles, where he came from as an offensive coordinator, look at what they have done with him and puka nakua everybody knows cooper cup and puka nakua are going to get the ball and yet what happens they still get the ball that is just uh

mcveigh it's a matt lafleur finds ways to get wide receivers open everybody knew devante adams was getting the ball matt lafleur there are some guys in this tree that are very creative and of course uh kyle shanahan the same players year in and year out iuk samuel kittle they're open all the time everybody knows it's coming to them but when a player is great and he's schemed well he's going to make play so so yes like they will have a plan and it will probably be creative with alignments you might see bunch sets. You might see more motion. More motion, I think, would actually be a good thing, which also requires a lot from

the quarterback, which may be one of the reasons that it's darn old to start. But more motion. They like to line both guys up in the slot. They use a lot of those high-low concepts to get guys open. So, yeah, I mean, they're going to put a lot of those high-low concepts to get guys open. So yeah, I mean, they're going to put a ton of effort into that. What about Bob? If you were a fly on the wall, what would you hear the Wilfs say to each other about the drafting job done by Quasey in his scouting department, three drafts? I wonder if they have doubts. The reality is with the drafting, I mean, Jordan Addison's a terrific player.

And so far, J.J. McCarthy's returns have been positive, I think, exactly what they hoped they were getting. Dallas Turner looks really excellent. out to be very good and the UDFAs like McLaughlin, like Ivan Pace, who's already a quality player and the signings, if all of those things work, then who gives a bleep about Lewis scene? I mean, truly busts happen. I mean, with Rick Spielman, the guy has a 2015 draft for the ages and the 2016 draft might be worse than 2022 for the Vikings. There wasn't a single player who did anything for them. At least Ed Ingram starts and Ty Chandler gets the ball. I mean, Mackenzie Alexander played for a year and was okay. But aside from that, this happens from time to time. It was the first impression. And this goes for just a lot of things in life

that your first impression matters the most. But Addison, off-field stuff aside, is a phenomenal rookie, 10 touchdowns. And then you have Pace as someone that they found and the two guys who are going to be foundational players for the future on each side of the ball that they've drafted, that if they work out, then everyone's going to be happy. That's what it really comes down to. If JJ McCarthy is good, you will not care at all that they missed on a second round corner. It will seem laughable to even talk about

with Andrew Booth Jr. That's the reality of the NFL. Everything becomes so much easier if you hit on your quarterback draft pick, then no one will care. I mean, Clyde Edwards Allaire was a first round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs. Do you care? And then the next draft or two drafts later,

was it one or two drafts later? They hit on Trent McDuffie. They hit a bunch of guys. LeJarius Sneed when was he taken somewhere in that ballpark they hit on a bunch of dudes uh to play for them Rasheed Rice again off the field driving issues aside another guy who was a tremendous pick this is kind of how it goes like this is just how it goes um Gary says uh what's your take on why scene is well you know uh because he just can't play at this level it you'd like to make that interesting sometimes busts aren't that

interesting you just can't play at this level uh this level requires an unbelievable dedication to what you're doing and when i say I mean, think about whatever you do for a job and then like double it is what is required to be at this level. I'm not disrespecting your work ethic. I'm just saying that it is a, it is a lifestyle to succeed in the NFL. It is study. It is school. I mean, it is, it is going to work every day and studying like crazy in meetings and trying so deeply to understand the game because it is so complicated. It's working with each other. It's showing up on time.

But then you have to go off the field. This is why it's two jobs at once. Then you have to go off the field and work your body like crazy to just be in a position to make plays in the NFL. And I think the first part of that has been an issue, but it doesn't matter what your body looks like. If you can't identify route combinations, if you can't see it coming out of the offense

and you're a safety, you're just, it's not going to work. There's, it's instructive with Theo Jackson and Cam Bynum. These are two guys who are really, really dang smart and work super hard at the X's and O's. They have so much passion for it. I just have never seen that from Lewis scene. And you just kind of shrug your shoulders. There's a lot of, you go through draft history.com. There's a lot of guys drafted in the first round who didn't have it work out. It's not, I just don't think it's all that deep. I think it's the kind of the prime reason that most people fail in the NFL. Flick says anything around Andre Carter the second. I have not seen a ton of Andre Carter

and David says, you know, Andre Carter dying on the vine. This is the hard part about, you know, the NFL. They draft a guy and they say, hey, man, we just want to develop him and we're going to work him and bring him along slowly. Then they get a batch of more players the next year and go, oh, but this guy is actually really more interesting. I've seen a lot of Gabriel Murphy out there. I've seen a good amount of Owen Porter. I've seen some Andre Carter. But as far as is he standing out to me, is he working with the second team a ton to the point where I'm noticing his pass rushes? Not really. And the preseason games might be huge for him and the joint practices might be big for him if he gets

chances in those, but it feels kind of like, I'm not sure this worked. That's how it feels. And most UDFAs don't that, but they could change. Uh, we're going to see that play out, but just from what I've seen so far, I haven't felt like, Oh, this is, this guy's in the rotation or something. It's been entirely Van Ginkle, Turner, Patrick Jones, and, uh uh jonathan granard and then the second team is working a lot of other guys but gabriel murphy so far is the guy who has the most discussion around him and i think with how they went about getting andre carter if that was working we might have heard something about it so far or we might have noticed something, but I can't see everything all at once. Maybe I'm missing something. Man Juice, are all of week one starters on the roster, or do you think Quasey is cooking

up something else? I think so. It depends on health, because then you might look for a defensive tackle. I don't know who's out there in free agency at this point you might look for a trade for a defensive tackle possibly but I think the roster is the roster I don't know that they're going to go out make any trades they always pick up somebody almost every year every team that I've covered somebody gets cut from another team and they pick them up but from there I don't know who I just would be surprised we'd all be surprised that they made some sort of serious trade i think fabian morrow is your that's your offseason signing and to tell you the truth had they signed fabian morrow in may or april we might look at it as like oh okay like a pretty good uh veteran corner who's been okay in the league

he's going to contribute, but when it's under the circumstances of losing Makai Blackman, well, then it feels much worse. It feels like, oh, great, now they're desperate, but that might be the biggest thing they end up doing, but you never can count Kweisi out. He's made some big moves so far. Evan, could we see JJ get in the game in the fourth quarter if they're down by 30 and Darnold has had a terrible game, or do you get the feeling that when JJ plays, he will be starting? Impossible to say. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't. I guess there still remains a question of whether he is going to be the backup on game day.

I think that he, at this point, has shown that he is capable of being the backup on game day, that there's no real reason to have Nick Mullins as number two. And if they got down 30 points, then, I mean, when we were in minicamp, okay, it looked like, yeah, he's going to have to go a really far way. But this is what you expect from someone this young, is to make big progress to the point of the middle of training camp, which we are approaching here. Kind of the dog days of training camp. Assuming that he's QB2, I don't see any downside to doing that, to pulling Darnold.

I don't see any downside to doing it if they're down a couple touchdowns and darn old has had a really bad game i mean they could be down 14 points go for it if he's ready it all depends on his readiness but if he's ready then do it uh let's see uh not a vikies related but it bugs me that you have seattle seahawks on your afc flag side oh sir is this an age problem? This might be an age problem. These Seattle Seahawks used to be in the AFC, and these are from many a year ago. So yeah, they belong there. Seattle belongs on the AFC side. It used to be the case. It also used to be the case that the Vikings were in the same division as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But yeah, yep. The old AFC, my man.

Back in the in the Joey Galloway days, that was an AFC club. Steve Largent going back even farther. Zed 31 been away for a bit, but I see miles Gaskin is back on the team. He is, I'm not sure that I totally get it. Um, I just like miles Gaskin has had some success before and they must like him as a special teamer and they must like him as a teammate but maybe someone with a little more upside possibly than than him he's only played a little in the nfl it went okay one year and not okay another year they must just trust him sometimes when there's somebody on the team that you don't really get it it's like we just trust him that if they had to play him, he would be able to do it, but yeah, he's back on the team. No. And I respect the journeyman guy who stays in the league and earns the trust of coaching staff. It's hard to do and play special teams and is

willing to fight to stay in the league. But if you were looking for, Hey, you got Aaron Jones, Ty Chandler, let's take some more swings at upside guys who could be players for the future. They haven't really done that. And I haven't seen a thing from Dwayne McBride that makes me think that he's going to be on this team. We've seen maybe too much. Can I Wong Wu? Well, I just don't believe as a running back that that room is, is pretty weak after the top two guys. Uh, Nate says, I saw a video on Twitter of JJ changed the play at the line of scrimmage felt like that's impressive for someone who is as young as he is and it's just practice so in the NFL normally

there are multiple plays all the time and you can you know if you see a guy go kill kill kill that means going to the other play they can adjust to a run play this is why playing quarterback is so hard I mean they used to call it audible and is why playing quarterback is so hard i mean they used to call it audible and we don't hear that so much anymore about audibling but that used to be a big thing can he audible at the line of scrimmage uh now it's just every play it's kind of in the way that i play uh video games which is to go up to the line of scrimmage and change the receiver's routes versus the coverage and then you're open every. But that's kind of how it works is you have different choices at the line of scrimmage. So if you can't do that, then you can't play. But what you're saying,

I have seen a comfort playing quarterback with NFL players around him against NFL defenders, whether it's changing the play, whether it's getting people lined up, it's running a two minute operation. It's throwing an out route, throwing a deep pass, scrambling and making a play. He just looks like a guy who belongs as an NFL quarterback in an NFL practice and has a decent idea of what he's doing out there to the point where if he were to play, I wouldn't go, oh, this is going to be really terrible. And that's the first major step to us figuring out how good JJ McCarthy is going to be. So immediately I've moved away from massive, enormous bust who could never play. We're already beyond that. And then we go from here.

Because if he was terrible, then in practice, he wouldn't look like he did today. He wouldn't look like what you saw, which was in charge, in control, and going from there. That's about as far as I can go with that. Sorry, you guys are funny. Wallpapers source zero out of 10. Yeah, the, I don't know what, who brought, who came up with Adam because he threw with Adam Thielen. Was that why JJ McCarthy did?

Did you guys know Adam Thielen's from Minnesota? That's why he did that. Detroit freaking lakes. Have we not been over this? That doesn't mean you're getting him back. Uh, I guess if they make that trade, then I'm going to have to go back and delete all this stuff. Uh, but I did know, I don't think that that's going to happen. There just doesn't, when you have Naylor playing well, and you've got a number of other young receivers or inexperienced,

like even lucky Jackson, who stood out to me, uh, I think you just let those guys play and don't go looking for an older wide receiver. And also, if you're Carolina, you don't give away a veteran receiver that can help you. If Bryce Young is decent, above average, and takes that huge Jared Goff jump with Dave Canales, then they're going to compete. They want to win. They want to get a winning record. They don't want their owner throwing drinks on people and knocking're going to compete. They want to win. They want to get a winning record. They don't want their owner throwing drinks on people and knocking people's hats off. They want to win. They're not giving away Adam Thielen yet. Uh, flick says I keep

getting more and more excited for this season. A lot of young guys are going to get a chance to shine. The future is as exciting as a Vikings fan. Yeah. You know, Flick here's the thing when you talk about that throughout this entire offseason I would think to myself am I am I like supporting this too much it was kind of my plan for them was to draft quarterback and move on Kirk Cousins spend in agency. That's what they did. Dallas Turner was a player that I was very high on in college. And that worked out pretty well. It seems pretty, pretty good. Like they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. And then when you go out to training camp and you see Jefferson playing well, catching a lot of passes from Darnold, Darnold was on my

list toward the top of players that I thought could be a good bridge quarterback. I thought he was, he might've been my number one in comparison to like Jacoby Brissett, where there's no real upside and you're going to bench him five weeks into the season. This is different. This is a little intrigue here, but also somebody who did a good job as a backup quarterback last year. Okay. And so all of it has made so much sense to me with their approach to the off season and their long-term build with JJ McCarthy. The only question I guess I had was, are you picking a guy who was a little too inexperienced as opposed to some of the other quarterbacks in the draft, but they get McCarthy in, he starts throwing the ball

around. You go, I get it. I see it. I also have no idea who's going to work out and who's not going to. So I can't, you know, again, plant a flag when it comes to that. And then you see some players like Dallas Turner and the way that McCarthy's playing. I think that my whole point is the fans of the Minnesota Vikings over the last several season have gotten tired of the Kirk cousins. Can he make it? Maybe they can get a guard and get them over the top. Oh, they signed a nose tackle. It'll be different this year. And you got a little taste of it in the first half of 2022. And then it just turned back to what it always was. If you take a little taste of it in the first half of 2022. And then it just turned back to what it always was. If you take out that beginning of 2022, where they had everything go right at the

end of games, it's a 500, a little above 500 type of whole time for Kirk cousins there. And I just felt a malaise from the fan base inside the stadium in these live chats we have three times as many people here tonight as we did last year at this time there is a new excitement that's come along with uncertainty and what could be in the future and i'm with you i mean i'm feeling that from you guys and from the organization in general as i'm out there every day and feeling the energy of new players and younger players that they're going to build with over a long period of time if they work out you just get a sense for it and so I agree with you folks U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic we try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's

ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less? Ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. GDP says, are you as tired of hearing the same questions of JJ as the rest of us? We won't know how he's doing for a few months. No, no, I'm not. You know what I won't get tired of? Talking about the first round draft pick quarterback. Man, I will not get tired of that. I'm going to come back here every dang day from

training camp, every practice, and I'm going to tell you how he did. And we're going to talk about a lot of the things with JJ McCarthy, some even multiple times. You know why? Because it's interesting. That's why. Because having a first round quarterback who has won everywhere he's gone, who is a really excellent athlete and who every day, even in setback days, does a little something new and makes a little more progress toward this ultimate goal of finding your franchise quarterback that this team has not had since Fran Tarkenton. You know what, man, I'm not tired of that. I, you know what I was tired of? Hey, if Kirk gets a left guard, then maybe he'll win one more game this year that I was tired of.

I was tired of going into a season where last year you're just like, I mean, it's interesting, but what's the expectations? And here is right. I mean, it just every year we went into it saying, how is this going to be not in the middle? How is this going to be anything different than average that I was tired of this. It's going to take a lot more conversations about the quarterback for me to get tired of that. Thank you for the question. Definitely not tired. Uh, let's see. Caleb says, uh, do you remember how Josh Allen looked in his first training camp? I do not. I was here, uh, in 2018, I was here covering the Vikings. That was my third season. 2016 was my first. 2017 was my first training camp and full season. And then 2018 is when Allen came into the league. One thing I remember, though, is the first game of the season. No, third game of the season was Bills vikings at u.s bank stadium and i'm sure a lot of you remember it for being very sad because it was a terrible blowout but

someone with the bills who i knew i was chatting with about josh allen i said man how's that going like he didn't beat out nathan peterman for the job and this person with the bills said to me he's got it like we already know he's got it he's got the work ethic to rebuild the the throwing motion he's already leading the team like don't worry he's got it i was like oh okay i guess so that was before the game and then he jumped over anthony barr and oh okay i guess he does got it uh and then it was a journey from there to get to the point of now where he's a top quarterback and a superstar. But yeah, usually you can see it pretty quickly. And also I think from the other side, EJ Manuel, when I was there, it was brutal. It was brutal. And that I have a baseline for young quarterbacks who aren't good because i've seen ej manual i've

seen kellen mond and other quarterbacks who have come in that just had no chance and jaron hall honestly like there was you know a couple moments there early in camp when they were in shorts but the minute the pads came on you okay well the the arm is just not going to be enough he's just probably not big enough he seems like a super hard worker, but he's probably a backup. You could tell those things pretty quickly. And I think that the early returns on McCarthy have been very solid. Is he Mahomes? No, but it's, I mean, it's coming along on a daily basis.

And I just, to go back to my original point at the beginning of the show, I thought it was a big deal that today he came back from a tough practice and played well. I thought it said something about his resilience because that can start to snowball where you got a tough practice, you start to lose some confidence, and then it goes from there.

But instead, it was a really good practice today. Sean says, I read somewhere that Murphy arm length was down on the percentile, relying too much on analytics over eye test. Well, arm length is not, I wouldn't consider the arm length percentile to be too analytical. There are studies of course, that have shown that certain attributes tend to lean towards success a little bit more. And I'm sure that arm length is one of those where guys with certain arm lengths under X, Y, or Z have not worked out. And the same thing probably goes for linebackers where certain height linebackers below whatever,

outside of Sam Mills and London Fletcher have not worked out. But you know, when you're talking about undrafted free agents or late round draft picks, shouldn't you just go on the production and right. I mean, shouldn't you throw out something like that for somebody who, you know, late in the,

in the draft could potentially turn into something for you. Brett says, it always makes me laugh seeing fans want people back, saying Peterson's still out there, both Petersons, Patrick and Adrian, the other night. And do you think we could get Thielen back? Sure, let's get Moss and Carter out there too. I know, I know. I know why people want Adam Thielen back. He's very popular and probably could help them as wide receiver three.

It's just that that's not really a good idea for either team at this moment. Dan says, here's a question. No one cares about how's Jaron Hall looked improved. Not a lot of reps. It's the last part. I got a couple today. I watched other people. It's nothing against Jaron Hall.

I really mean this. He's been extremely professional since the minute he showed up. He has been very professional. It's just, it is what it is. That's it is what it is. That's it is what it is. He's QB for, he probably won't be anything different than that.

That's life. The, the guy who is the IMG five-star national champion, first round pick goes to the front of the line, unfortunately for Jaron Hall. But here's what I think. If Jaron Hall handles this well, that he can have a career in the NFL and he can potentially be their backup if they

move on from Nick Mullins, maybe in a year when his contract, I think his contract is up after this year, then he will still be on his rookie deal and he could still play for this team and be McCarthy's backup. And that could be pretty good for him. So he, he should take Nick Mullins cues and do everything he can out there at training camp to help the other guys and be the best teammate he can be and take advantage of his handful of reps. I did see him make a nice throw. Was it today or yesterday, but that's all he can really do. Uh, Caleb says, I read that McCarthy had first team reps during seven on seven completing to jefferson and month and addison twice true um maybe i uh yesterday he had one rep of 11 on 11s

he may have thrown i'm not sure i remember that on seven on sevens, but sometimes when they're doing seven on seven, well, sometimes when they're doing one-on-ones, they rotate through, maybe that was it when they were throwing to different receivers, not seven on seven, but wide receiver drills, wide receiver versus corner. It might've been that. And they've got on the other side, offensive and defensive line, which I was watching a little bit more. But even, even seven on seven is just kind of a drill. Whereas 11 on 11, when we talk about reps and who's playing with who, it's always 11 on 11 is what we're talking about. As they rotate through wide receivers, he may have thrown to some. I don't remember the seven on seven part exactly, but I look at it when I'm counting reps who's playing with who it's always

when they're doing full team drill uh david says any signs up or down on manoa or tayamani a big is uh the only thing i could say they are large men tayamani is particularly huge those guys are going to have to do it in the preseason because they are not getting a ton of reps just reality you're not getting a ton of reps on this team right now not that I've seen I have to look a little closer for those guys in the middle but probably preseason they've got to stand out to earn some more reps Leon are they going to look for another running back. Now that acres didn't sign, I still don't know what kind of happened there. Kind of curious. I think they should. I wonder if they said,

I wonder if they said with Kenny Wong Wu, like we're going to give you a chance to be RB three and see how it goes. You can always get another running back somewhere, but they should, they should look for another running back because if they don't get to have Aaron Jones healthy the whole year, then you're asking Ty Chandler to do absolutely everything. I mean, they need someone else who they can rely on. And I don't feel like it's Wong-Woon. I don't

feel like it's Gaskin. James says the Vikings were a seven-win team without Kirk, mostly without JJ last year. Feels like people make their cap eight wins, but Darnold should be better. McCarthy might be, and the defense is better. and they might not fumble at a historic rate either it's hard to convince me that this team can be awful because of coaching because of the amount of talent that they have one thing that is working against them though James is that last year's schedule is not this year's schedule. And you just don't know. I mean, last year they played against the Raiders with Aiden O'Connell making one of his first starts and the Raiders wouldn't even throw the ball past about five yards

and they shut them out and they get a win. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, that can happen again, but that's pretty rare. I think for your team to get a shutout because the other quarterback plays so badly. The beginning of this season is a lot of good teams with a lot of great quarterbacks, and it might be a harder track. Darnold can be better than Josh Dobbs or better than Nick Mullins. I don't have any doubt about that. Also, if he's just okay though, or even less than okay, then you're going to get off to a pretty tough start. And then you're playing uphill for the entire season. It might be difficult to get to the same number of wins. I see what you're saying and they're coached well enough to where the defense will keep them in games, but I'm not willing to kind of run past that nine win 10 win at the maximum thing until we see Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy really play and win games against good quarterbacks. Because when you're going

against the 49ers offense, CJ Stroud, even Jordan love much more proven than anyone. The Vikings have, it's, it could be tough. That could be tough right out of the gate and then the Lions and the Jets uh and if Rodgers is healthy and yeah it's a very very tough start to the schedule if they were to get to three and three through the first six games I would believe that they could be a playoff team uh James says how do you think a healthy Naylor compares to KJ Osborne a very different uh skill sets I look at Naylor as a deep threat guy. He's extremely fast. His 40 is just not his football speed.

He's very fast and he can leap way up in the air. KJ Osborne was sort of a pickup truck. He was low to the ground. And I guess a pickup truck isn't necessarily low to the ground. It can be though a, a low rider. But you know what I mean? He was a not like a big leaper, not super blazing fast. But when got up to speed, he was powerful, very intelligent player, but not the most

precise route runner I didn't feel like. And getting the ball in his hands was really good. But trying to push it down the field to him and things like that, it just wasn't exactly like running double moves. It wasn't really, uh, that wasn't really his thing. IS says,

uh, question, Matthew, wine, beer, or mixed drink. These, these are my two main things right here.

I'm not a drinker at all. I only drink Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. Actually, it's a fun fact because it's, look at that, nine o'clock, right on the mark, nine o'clock. There's always a weird question. I've never had a drink. Fun little fact. Every night, nine o'clock, you guys get to find out something fun about me i've never had a drink don't have a great explanation for it but it's true uh let's see uh let's see i shot you 99 why don't more journalists do what you do live streams interacting with the fans well one thing is that i was a talk radio host from what year would it have been 2010 uh when i first got hired in buffalo until 2020 so 10 years as a professional

talk radio host and then now on year number four i guess uh season number five of doing this show, I'm pretty comfortable talking for two hours in a row without losing my mind or struggling. If you do it for 10 years, you're pretty okay with it. I don't think there are many beat reporters in the country who have 10 years of talk radio experience. It just happens to be my thing. So that's probably why. I think that a lot of writers would like to do it. And some writers don't like interacting with fans because they think you guys are crazy. But one thing that I find is that some of you are, but not usually. There's a lot more rational fans than crazy, which makes the crazy stand out. That over the years that now that I've had this many interactions with you guys,

most fans have at least a baseline level of rationality about their team. And it's only the crazy people who are, well, one is looking for attention on the internet. People just do that a lot. And people who are desperate for attention and want to come out and be ridiculous and snarky and tell you the media is hating others really enjoy this is that how, how often every once in a while, I put up a silly comment. We've been talking for two hours, not one. There hasn't been a single comment that I've thought was totally ridiculous. Maybe, maybe one. Oh, the one that said I shouldn't talk about McCarthy, but other than that, like, that's it a lot, a lot more rational people. But I think that there's a perception because of social media from a lot of journalists that if you do something like this you're just going to have complete insanity from the comment section and that's not really the case uh leon says is linval still out there all right we're

bringing back pat williams we're bringing shamar stefan anybody uh linval did play last year though so you're not being totally wacky with that one. I don't know how much is left in that tank. It's probably not much. If Jerry Tillery is out, Levi Drake Rodriguez, your next man up. Because if there's somebody who's a free agent who can rush the passer at the defensive tackle position, they have a job. Cup of Joe mama. That's tremendous. That is a tremendous name says we're not stuck in the middle anymore. And that's, what's so refreshing. We could be really bad or really good. You're right. That not knowing the end of the movie is why you go to see it. And that's what JJ McCarthy and Sam Darnold have brought to this season is

so much intrigue. It's going to be a fascinating roller coaster to follow how this progresses over this season. And there's so many different outcomes. And that's why, you know, when the guy did say, well, is somebody already tired of talking about McCarthy yet? No, because there's so many different scenarios that could play out here and so many different moving parts and factors and elements and watching him progress is, is actually, I mean, if he turns out to be really good and then you go back to the season and say, remember when in camp we were doing those live streams and we're saying, I think we kind of see it or whatever, right? I mean, that's the fun part of where they are right now. And I think that it has reinvigorated the fan base. The crowds out there, despite the weather, have been pretty dialed into the team. And I just think that there has been more energy to this thing over this offseason because it's what

everybody wanted. Everyone wanted a new direction, a new life to this team. Paul says, do we think Tillery is done? Oh, I don't know. We haven't heard anything about it. If you guys see anything on Twitter with Tillery, let me know. I so far have not. I guess I thought that it might be a good sign that there hasn't been a report of a season-ending injury because maybe his agent would tell Ian Rappaport or something.

But it just looked pretty, pretty tough. He was down for a long time. When the head coach comes over to a guy who's injured and has a long discussion with him, that makes you concerned. He did stand up and walk and get on the cart, but that also happened with Makai Blackman as well. It's concerning. I don't have any report on that, though. Brett says percentage chance Levi Drake starts on September 8th. I think pretty high. Now, if Jerry Tillery is out and he could be back by the next practice, we just don't know yet it just looked bad but with levi drake rodriguez i mean start starting uh might mean whatever i mean it might mean something like

you know he's playing 12 snaps but it just happened to be the first snap i think that it's possible that levi drake rodrig Rodriguez has a decent role to start the season based on what I've seen so far. We need to see a lot more, but the fact that he's working into those reps, uh, that matters. Uh, let's see. Uh, Sean says it's early in camp, but your worries before camp on holes and roster areas are the fears still the same, less concerned or more worried. Well, the number one was the

cornerback position and it got worse on the first day of camp so that one has got yeah gotten worse and i did an article on this yesterday where i looked at the range of outcomes from the three corners that you would expect to play a lot which is byron murphy fabian Morrow now, and Shaq Griffin, and what they've done, their best and worst performances in their career, the range of outcomes isn't particularly great. The high end is not awesome, and the low end is really bad for all three players. That's concerning, and last year the corners did not perform very well. They gave up almost 100 quarterback rating and eight yards per attempt into their coverage. Are you going to be better than that? I think that's what you're hoping for. If you're Brian Flores is that having three veterans can produce

competent play. Whereas a Caleb Evans playing last year at the end of the season, kind of melted down there. And they were playing a rookie in Makai Blackman, who was pretty good, but was still a rookie. It's still a major concern. It's an even bigger concern than I thought it was. And it was already a major concern. Defensive tackle, if Tillery's hurt, again, major concern. Left guard is to be determined. I can't definitively say much about the left guard yet. I'd be overreaching and doing that. The major concern, I mean, the biggest worry that everyone would have had was that JJ McCarthy would look horrible. And that worry has been, what was the right word? Quelled. It has been alleviated. He doesn't look bad. In fact, he's looked pretty darn good. And I had a really good practice today. So that one right there is out the window. The other thing would be, you know, how does Jalen Naylor look? Are they going to have a wide receiver three? So far, the offense has

done pretty well in these practices. The backup tight ends have done their job. That would be another concern for you. You know dallas turner what's a rookie going to look like i think it's been pretty good so far so you know there it's a little bit across the board but the big worries have still been the big worries outside of the biggest worry is as pff can't measure mental capacity and decision making speed great tool for physical stuff but it is not the end all be all. Well, I wrote an entire book on it. So I think that I know a thing or two about PFF. So I'm aware of that, that it is not the be all end all. However, what I would say is when you say it can't measure mental capacity,

but it measures performance, mental capacity is such an enormous part of performance. So I think it stands to reason that somebody who puts up really good PFF grades will also many times have the mental capacity to play in the NFL. So while it doesn't have a marker that says mental capacity, we can pretty well discern that if a Fred Warner linebacker ends up with the best PFF grade in the league, probably has pretty good mental capacity or at least the baseline. And then there's something else that's helping them. So no, but there is never.

Oh, my gosh. Thunder and lightning just scared the bleep out of me right now. I'm sorry. I just, whoa. I was like, what just hit my house? I'm sorry. Oh, wow. Okay. Lightning can't come through a live stream, right? That scared the heck out of me. I'm sorry. I was in the middle of a rant, but no, there's not a single person alive who has ever thought that pff's grades are be all end all however uh when you look at somebody like gabriel murphy or someone like ivan pace if you if all i told you was this there's an undrafted free agent who has 90 grades and has the physical baseline as far as a 40, how high he could jump his weightlifting or whatever to be in the NFL. Do you want him to be like, yeah, you mean he played really good?

Yeah. And, and look, if Kweisi Adafo Mensah, and this is not what's happening, but if Kweisi Adafo Mensah is like, Hey guys, there's a UDFA that had crazy grades from PFF. Do we, should we just get them? Of course, of course you should get them. They cost hardly anything. Some of these UDFAs, I mean, you're paying what it costs to get like a couple of secretaries. So I'm sure that the grading, I mean, I know this for having written the book. It's a factor. They look at it.

They pay, a lot of teams pay a lot of attention to it and quesia da fomenta in the way that he made his bones in san francisco that helped lead him here was by using pff's college grades to study them using data science and present them to the 49ers front office it's in the book football is a numbers game i interviewed quesia about it uh so it's a very it is a very useful tool anyway anyway uh what about bob says with all the attrition who is getting the top slot corner reps that would be byron murphy yep uh so they'll put in the two outside corners um maro or evans and well it'll be griffin when he comes back and then murphy will move into the slot is kind of how it works out is says uh ward might be good in the slot he's

played more outside so far uh jay ward has played the outside role jim says how does ed ingram look this year looks just like Ed Ingram looked last year, but if I, if I could, if here's, here's a thing for Ed Ingram, it doesn't look any different to me, but how, how am I supposed to tell if he's going to give up 40 or 30 pressures? If he can reduce how many pressures he gives up from 40 to 30 by mastering a handful of details and be a little more consistent when it comes to the run blocking, he can be good. He can be a,

and I don't mean great, but I mean a good draft pick and successful and helpful to the team, whether he's doing that or not in this training camp would be insane. If I could figure that out from the sideline, it would be amazing. i could figure that out from the sideline it would be amazing uh but i wish i could david says uh purple's future is so bright that you have to wear the oakley oh these the oakley shades yeah i get maybe when i talk about the future i should bring these up i thought this was just for justin jefferson contract negotiations uh let's see cup of joe mama out of the blue question but if the vikings were to go

to the super bowl uh who would you see us going against i mean you could just ask like who from the afc might go to the super bowl that's another question i mean the te Texans would be a popular pick here. The Chiefs. I mean, who else do you want to go with? Once you say the Chiefs, it's kind of over there. The Bills, as long this. I could also see Cincinnati, Baltimore. Those are probably the favorites, but Miami has the weaknesses of Tua in the same way that the Vikings had the weaknesses of Kirk, where there's a lot of strength to the guy, but there's kind of a fatal flaw that he's not really a great playmaker and he's not all that big. And he always has to throw with anticipation, which sometimes results in bad interceptions. But that offense is amazing. And last year they got a bunch of guys hurt on defense that if they're a little healthier, they could be pretty dangerous. All right. Scroll in here. Let's see. Speedy says, is there a chance for a late preseason trade a la Eagles and the Vikings type trade when we got Sam Bradford and the Eagles went with Wentz?

Would you have confidence in JJ if we traded Darnold away? If they traded Darnold away and started JJ McCarthy, that would be an incredibly good sign for JJ McCarthy. Meaning that not, that not only were they so confident that he could start, but also so confident they didn't need anybody else even here. That could happen. I mean, the bills did this when Tyra Taylor won the job, they traded away Matt Castle. Where did he go? It wasn't here. It was somewhere. Is Dallas. I think they traded him too castle where did he go it wasn't here it was somewhere is dallas i think they traded him too it's not it's not insane it's not the craziest thing i've ever heard but if they keep playing only sam darno here's the thing about this year they want to

win and i talked about this with kevin sievert the other day they want to win they want to be in the playoffs they they don't look at this year as kind of a throwaway with whatever. And they would have to believe that JJ McCarthy could play 17 games and get him to the playoffs in order to do that. Not impossible, but the time is ticking in order to get there. It would have to be within the next week that they decide, okay, you know what? And someone would have to get hurt also. You know what? Hey, we don't even need Sam Darnold who look great today, by the way,

we didn't even need Sam Darnold. We're going forward with McCarthy. Ton of progress would need to be made in order for that to happen. Apparently this is going to be some nasty weather. Why didn't you guys tell me? Severe thunderstorm. You guys, you have a couple jobs as the watchers. You got to keep an eye on the weather. You got to tell me where you get your rumors. And what's the other?

You got to tell me when somebody's hurt, if you see a report on the internet. Those are the things that you got to do. If I'm talking, I can't look at Twitter. So you got to tell me what you're seeing on Twitter. Uh, Sean says, uh, Ed Ingram based on, uh, uh, what is L Y I don't know what L Y is has fast reflexes sometimes too fast when he's not patient, uh, his, uh, patient with his hands. Don't want to make the first move against edges. Yeah. I mean, the thing is with with that Ingram, I mean, we know already what he is.

It just comes down to a handful more reps that he doesn't blow. And how do you know that that's going to happen or not? Right. That's the difficult thing is trying to figure out if you're the team if he plays like he did last year you can survive if he plays a little better than he did last year you're pretty good and that small gap like the yeah i'm sure those technical issues you're talking about with the hands and this is that like yeah i mean there's always a technical thing but when you get into the game there's those five reps a game where you don't do what you're supposed to do that separates the great from the okay from the bad

and how do we know from watching a training camp if he has reduced those things now if i watch every single rep and not the quarterbacks maybe i could come up with something a little better but i haven't i think the quarterback here's what could say. I think the quarterbacks have had time to throw the quarterback, Sam Darnold, behind the first team offense. That's what I think. So far, there has been time to throw. The tackles are great. The interior does not look like it's just falling on top of Sam Darnold, which we have seen before. And that might be a decent sign for them, but it's just falling on top of Sam Darnold, which we have seen before. And that might be a decent sign for them, but it's really those joint practices. I'm going to watch the old line close. Kumar says, if Tillery is injured, is Andre Carter in the running to play a role and make the roster?

I don't know that he's the next man. I just, I have not noticed him enough to say, Hey, this guy's on the rise. He's going to have to prove that. And maybe he will. Uh, Hunter says, uh, just joining. So you probably covered it. Yep. Sorry, Hunter. I covered it. I don't know what you're going to ask, but I covered it. It's been two hours. I probably did. Where have you been? Uh's see. That was a cool touchdown. Aaron Jones in the back of the end zone. Yeah, it's, you know, it's a little odd for me is when some of you have seen Twitter highlights that fans took from the stands and tweeted out and some of you haven't. So I'm trying to design like describe plays. Here's how it went. Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy today did a really good job with their mobility and making plays scrambling that we just haven't seen from Kirk cousins. And it's hard not to compare when you see Darnold roll to his left, flip his hips, flip the ball up on the run to Aaron Jones. He goes up and grabs it for a touchdown that, Whoa, that's an athletic play. McCarthy had one where he's rolling to his right,

where he let it zip. And there's a ton of velocity behind the ball. Whoa, that's an athletic play. That's one of the reasons you moved on was to get a better athlete at the position because you have to make plays like that to succeed. And Darnold can do it. And McCarthy, I think excels at it. Uh, Matt says, which NFL team do you think will do the worst against projections? Example, the chiefs only win six games. So I don't know. Uh, later this month, I'm going to Vegas for two days to do a show with Circa. And that is probably one of the times that, you know, we'll talk about all the over-unders and do that whole thing. Let me take a look. So I don't know all the over-unders by heart.

I just kind of know basic expectations. Of course, you could see the Jets just being horrible. You know who looks like they're going to be not good is the chargers because that planter issue in my right foot, I have ever so slight planner issue that bothers me a little bit from time to time and it doesn't go away. And it's really annoying. And sometimes I get up walking around like, ah, man, this is really killing me today. Now I'm sure that the medical attention to Justin Herbert's going to be better than it is to me, but, or at least he's going to get any medical attention for his planner issue, but it's not an easy thing to deal with. It's not something that just, oh yeah, it heals up. It's a little broken finger. It heals up. You're good to go.

It's pointed sideways, but you're fine. It lingers. It's a difficult injury. So you could see the Chargers having a very tough time. I know Jim Harbaugh, but it's his first season coming back. That might be one that I look at as being below expectations. Cleveland, for sure. I mean, Cleveland's team is very, very talented, but they made the playoffs last year with Joe Flacco. So now they're thinking, well, we've got Deshaun Watson. We're just, he's going to be back to his old self eventually. And Hey, if we can win with Flacco,

that we can win with doesn't always work that way. Uh, and I'm not sure that they're actually going to be good. Um, I should look at an NFC team who in the NFC would be that team Philly, maybe losing Jason Kelsey, huge deal for them. Center, I think, is a really important intellectual position. Maybe San Francisco, but they should still be really good. Atlanta. Why not say Atlanta? Just say Atlanta.

You know you wanted to say Atlanta. Atlanta, I believe their over-under is maybe 9.5. Wouldn't be surprised if it goes the under. How about that? I mean, Kirk's coming back from a catastrophic injury and everyone talks about how, well, this player is supposed to be a lot better than he is. And that player is supposed to be a lot better than he is.

And oh yeah, their defense is terrible, but don't talk about that. It's like, well, maybe they're actually not that good. First name, last name i think uh uh let's see a darn old trade would have more to do with what the trade compensation is than anything else see i don't think so i think it's entirely about their comfort uh yeah if someone comes to you with a first round draft pick that would be pretty hard to deny as the vikings once did with sam darnold or I'm sorry, Sam Bradford when they offered that trade to the Eagles. So maybe you're right about that. If some team said, we'll give you a first, that would be insane though. So that's not going to happen. But if, if it's even a third, which is more realistic, then you're probably only doing it if you feel really good about McCarthy.

And the reason the Eagles did it, yeah, it was smart from the perspective of a draft pick, but they did it because Wentz looked really good. And they thought that he was going to be a franchise quarterback, and he certainly looked like that for some time. David says, vikes and bills loser leaves town super bowl matchup darnold goes down with an injury uh and here comes jj mccarthy well that sort of happened with uh jeff hostetler and philip sims phil phil sims uh in what year was that when they beat that was in 1990 that je Jeff Hostetler had to come in for Phil Sims and then played Hostetler went on to the Raiders. Yes.

I was telling a Viking player today that I was interviewing for a story about Ray Buchanan. That's okay. It's okay. It's all right. It's just all knowledge, not being old. It's just all knowledge uh kade says

rams over i'm with you i think the rams will be great this year i think they will be really good that that has been one of my takes as well uh let's see uh bob says uh what happens in vegas stays in vegas especially your money i have a great time in vegas because the not drinking thing always helps and uh you know i i i like going to the places and seeing things uh there's a lot of sites there i mentioned to someone the museums i had been to in vegas they're like seriously you go to vegas and see the museums but yet yes i'm a very chill Vegas, a visitor. What did that one? I always have a good time. I got in, I may have told this story when I was in Vegas, but I got in a, I was doing radio row at the super bowl, promoting my book football as a numbers game. Uh, and I got in

a, um, an elevator really early in the morning. So I had to go over to Radio Row to go on shows that start at six o'clock in the morning. So it's 530 or something. And I get on with a guy and he's looking pretty rough. And he says, how'd you do tonight? And of course, I've been in bed. I'm just waking up to go over there. And I said, yeah, I'm good. And he said, it broke me.

And then he just walked off out of the elevator. And I'm like, man, this'm good. And he said, it broke me. And then he just walked off out of the elevator. And I was like, man, that's tough. I'm in better shape than that guy. Be responsible. I'm sure that's what Vegas wants on the big sign outside of Las Vegas. Las Vegas, be responsible. Follow Purple Insider's advice. Don't go crazy. Not not here i don't think that's what their thing is but it's circa it's cool uh that's our sponsor uh mike says i have few expectations for 2024 except for we should see a more complete version of what the vision of the offense will look like this seems like a glimpses uh season of glimpses not hope um season of glimpses would be a great nfl films from back in the day when they did the yearbooks season of glimpses minnesota vikings fans saw jj mccarthy start to come into his own. I agree with you that sort of, like yes and no. I go back and forth on this

because this is not a team with just a bunch of young guys who is sort of here for the vibes to try to develop over a season. Harrison Smith, Jonathan Grenard, Blake Cashman. These guys are veteran players. Andrew Van Ginkle, Justin Jefferson, TJ Hawkinson when he comes back, Darisaw O'Neal. These are not young players, and these are stars. Really good players. You should win games. You have one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. This former NFL quarterback who worked for McVay is supposed to be a great coach offensively. You should win. If you lose a bunch of games, it's not good for you. It's not just vibes and glimpses.

You should win. Sam Darnold should play better than he's ever played if he's in there. J.J. McCarthy should look like an NFL quarterback if he's in there, because that's the expectation that you set. But that doesn't mean I expect them to win 14. It's just, I also think that if they're awful, I'm not going to go, ah, you know, it's fine. I can't imagine myself on the post games saying, ah, you know, it's fine. They have expectations of how they're going to perform. But I think we can all also live in a position where we understand 2025 is more realistic for them actually winning. Todd says, how is Jaqueline Roy doing? Have not seen a ton of impact from Jaqueline Roy.

It's going to have to show up if it's going to be there. Only a little bit from him last year. It's not somebody that I have on my short list of players who have popped the most, and that's going to have to happen at some point in order for him to be a difference maker. He may make the roster. I guess we'll see on that, but I have him very fringe right now on the roster. All right. I'm running out of voice. I wanted to do a long one tonight, though, because no show tomorrow with the fact that the Vikings are just having a walkthrough.

There's no media tomorrow. Monday night will be a night practice. Oh, to answer Sean, your question, are you going to be in Cleveland? Absolutely. Yes, I will be there. Booked my flight, booked the hotel. We're good to go. I'm excited about Cleveland. Uh, we'll be doing a show from there. I'm thinking about getting a mobile internet thing to make sure that I can do the live stuff, but either way, a lot of fun tonight though. Look forward to that.

Look forward to the night practice. And what I was going to say for all of you is that I will be there at the night practice. As soon as it ends, I will come right back here and do a live show and recap it for you in depth, in stupid amounts of depth for the night practice on Monday night. So look forward to that. It'll be a late live show and I am excited about that. So I am going to make sure that none of my trees or house got hit by lightning and we'll talk very soon and there will be a lot to discuss. Check out purpleinsider.com, the articles I have over there and that I've tweeted out. Make sure you give them a read, consider signing up for the newsletter. Make sure you go check that stuff out.

I've got some fun features coming out on the written side as well. So thank you all so much for a really fun show tonight. And I will talk to you all very soon. Football.