Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Ivan Pace Jr. gets more first team work and the Mr. Mankato hype is growing

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about what it means that Ivan Pace Jr. is getting more of the key first-team reps than Brian Asamoah and what happened to the 2022 draft class. Plus offensive line discussion and lots of fan questions ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. Great to have you back with me again tonight. And it is remarkable how every day something new happens that we have to talk about and discuss and have a good conversation about to start the show. And then of course, as always get into all of your questions, have a fun chat here over the next hour or so. A lot of times it does turn into, or so I think when you've also got this week, a preseason game coming up on Thursday night. If you don't follow the Purple Insider podcast feed, make sure you go check that out

because I have a great discussion with Ben Gessling to dive into for you after the show. If you want more Vikings talk, we had a really fun conversation. Ben looked into his crystal ball to talk about Jordan Addison, to talk about the Vikings defense. And then we even went through some old Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks

because that's what we do. So make sure you're also checking on wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, so forth, because some of the stuff from out at TCO Performance Center is just there and not here on the YouTube channel. So anyway, lots to talk about. We've got Ivan Pace Jr. taking more first team reps, which I want to get into. Not just a smattering, but pretty much all of

the important reps today at practice at the starting linebacker position. So I want to discuss that. Also, the Vikings have a depth chart out and it is unofficial. And Kevin O'Connell said, don't you dare look into that depth chart. It's not official. It's not the real depth chart. Nothing's resolved. But you know what? You can't stop me, Kevin. I'm going to look at that depth chart and see what it says.

And, you know, I've never done this, but I am curious to go back and look. And maybe I will at some point to go back and look how much the first of unofficial depth chart going into the preseason game was predictive of the final depth chart and the cutdowns, because I would guess that, you know, probably turns out to be pretty right. That would be my guess. Not 100% accurate, but I would guess maybe 90% or more.

But there's some interesting discussions to have. And yes, I agree. You're not my dad, Kevin. You can't tell me what to do. I will talk about a depth chart. Not only that, I will actually screen share a depth chart. I've already got it ready right here. So we can get into that in just a minute, but a couple more practice notes, including that Daniil Hunter actually took some 11 on 11 reps. Now you are not going to see him in preseason at all. That is a lock guarantee, but at least Daniil Hunter is coming along. Brian O'Neill is starting to come along doing a little bit more each day and TJ Hawkinson. It is an illness. And I have to shout out whoever was on Twitter. I don't have

the tweet in front of me, but when I tweeted, Hey, Kevin O'Connell says Hawkinson's just got a little bit of an illness. No big deal. Uh, someone said he's sick of not having a contract extension, which I thought was perfect. Uh, I don't think that's what was going on, but I, it probably was just that he's not a hundred percent and they didn't want to push it too hard. That's kind of what this team does. They, you know, they are very, I think, diligent and smart about the way they handle the injuries. We saw the results of that last year. We've seen them be fairly healthy, if not completely healthy. Aside from Andrew Booth Jr., who was back out

there, did he practice entirely? I think he did. I think he did do the entire practice. A couple of things stood out to me today. One, for all you Nikhil Harry doubters, last night he made a great catch today in the back of the end zone and then got a big dap from Kevin O'Connell. So there's your Nikhil Harry daily update. Maybe we'll have to do that every day. Like, did Nikhil Harry do anything? Also, the internet got very upset at the idea he could be number 28. It's actually a different receiver that I've never heard of before

that they signed who has number 28. I promise if the Vikings give out number 28, it won't be to a wide receiver and they probably won't give it out anytime soon anyway to anybody. But that is another discussion in itself about the number. They just have to give out numbers to players. They've got 90 of them. There's only 99 numbers and you got 90 players and You got to work this out somehow. They're still giving out number 84. So, you know, you got to give guys numbers in the preseason and whatever. So it's fine if a guy is wearing number 28 in practice and in the preseason, it makes no difference at all.

Nobody's wearing it in the season, but no one has been given number 28 and number 80 is retired for Chris Carter, but number 84 is not for Randy Moss. And that's just kind of weird. I've always been against retiring NFL numbers, unless it is a very unique situation. Not just this dude was great at football retire his number. I mean, maybe if a player like,

you know, like a Corey Stringer situation I don't mean to turn that in a dark way but somebody that you're truly trying to honor their legacy or something like that but just when it comes to players it's it's fine there's so many numbers I don't need Randy Moss's number retired I didn't need Chris Carter's number retired eventually if you keep retiring receiver numbers, there's not going to be any left. I mean, I assume the franchise is going to be around for a really, really long time. Don't retire numbers, put them in the ring of honor.

And that is fine. Same with 28, give out 28. It's fine. It's all right. Adrian Peterson was a phenomenal running back. Now it's time to just move on, give somebody else the number. And at some point you're going to put him in the ring of honor. And that's great. That's the best way that you can possibly recognize somebody of his talent. Totally fine. But let's circle back to, because I think that's most of the notes for today. Let's circle back.

Oh yeah. And Jordan Addison, did I mention that he is going to play in the preseason game, which is a discussion in itself because you could make the argument that Jordan Addison is such an important part of this offense that you really don't want him to get injured in any kind of way. You don't want him to get a little toe injury playing in a game that means absolutely nothing and that the league has de-emphasized and the teams have de-emphasized to the point where past the first couple of plays of it does not matter at all. And then he's going to have to go through multiple layers of joint practices that tend to be very physical. Uh, now I do think that it's okay to play Jordan Addison, but there's a discussion to be had like Kevin O'Connell smartly handled those guys last year, did not play the key players.

And I think that it was smart for them to do that last year, to not play anybody that was going to be important. They came out in week one and absolutely rocked the Green Bay Packers. Preseason means very little, if not nothing. I don't think that one series or two series in a game when the other team isn't playing their real defense is very helpful. I think that the joint practices are actually way more helpful than any of these preseason games.

Not that I won't be enjoying it like you will. And this year, and we're going to go over this probably tomorrow or Wednesday night. Tomorrow's another night practice, by the way. So for the show tomorrow, same deal as last week, going to run home, do it right after it probably be like nine 30 or something. So just if you're a nightly listener to the show, usually it's on at eight, but at eight o'clock they'll be practicing. So I'll be, you know, uh, here as soon as I can be, but I'd look for like nine, nine 30. Anyhow. So I think that with Jordan Addison, it is okay for him to play in preseason games because they do want him to be a key part of this offense.

And because they need him ramped up as much as he possibly can be to go in week one. You saw a couple of years ago, how much it costs the Vikings offense when Justin Jefferson to no fault of his own had no preseason had COVID. I saw that bouncing around on the internet today. Like, Hey, remember halfway through camp, BC Johnson was leading Justin Jefferson. It's proof that camp means nothing. I don't understand where these people come from. Of course, maybe they just don't cover teams, but where they come from with like camp means nothing or whatever, like what, like all the way through training camp, we are watching developments such as one we're going to get into soon about Ivan Pace Jr. We are seeing players stocks rise and fall teams making huge decisions

for the season. I don't know. Like, I guess this is a thing of people that sort of follow aggregation and the big news item of the day and not like an individual team super closely, because I think you guys know that very well that we're always seeing these things come around and develop. And what happened with BC Johnson and Justin Jefferson was it was a, it was a shortened camp. Jefferson had gotten behind because he had COVID from the very beginning, and there was no preseason. And so he wasn't ready to take on the full load in week one.

Now, maybe you could say, okay, you should have just figured out a way, and that could be true. But the sort of narrative that, like, training camp wasn't predictive, well, that year it wasn't because there was barely any training camp to begin with this. We have a much bigger sample size. So I do kind of go back and forth on the Edison thing. He's got a ton of practices. He's going to have the joint practices, but I also don't have any issue with a couple of series for him to get out there, play against other players. And you just sort of hold your breath with that one as far as his health goes. But I don't think he should play anything

more than maybe a couple of series in the first few games just to get his feet wet. I feel like though I'm not making a very good case for it. And it probably, I mean, maybe I'm changing my mind. I guess until you've proven something in the league, it's fair to say, Hey, this guy should go out there and play, get as much game action, get him on a football field in front of an NFL stadium with other NFL players, just to have a little bit of action to ramp himself up to playing in these games and get used to it. So he's not stepping on the field for the very first time with no experience whatsoever. I get it. I just don't want to see a lot of it. And if he so much as tears a fingernail, no more preseason for him. And they also, I think, have to be a little cautious

when you do these joint practices, because you don't want any injuries between those guys either. And what we've seen from Jordan Addison is trending very much in the right way. And Ben Gessling and I were talking today of just how do we describe what we've seen from Jordan Addison so far? It's that he's just got it. And is he far enough along to make an argument that he doesn't have to play in these preseason games? Apparently not quite, but it is exactly what you would have been looking for from day one, from where he is at the start of camp to now, uh, somebody who looks like they are ready to play in the NFL. He made another catch at the back of the end zone today. That was very smooth. And he's doing that pretty

much every single day so i'm not going to criticize kevin o'connell for playing jordan addison and getting his feet wet but don't do it too much for someone who's going to mean so much to you and who has been banged up a little throughout the offseason don't play him too much in these preseason games and take any sort of risk first two don't play him in the third like they they should have a distinct plan to get just enough experience to where he feels comfortable and nothing more but a lot of other players i think and this is a discussion to have when we go through all of our kind of what are we looking for a lot of other players are in legit battles that That brings us to Ivan Pace

Jr. When the Vikings signed Ivan Pace Jr. as an undrafted free agent, the draft universe was shocked that he was an undrafted free agent and widely celebrated the Vikings for picking him up. Now we've seen this happen before with undrafted free agents. And as you guys know, I'm always the last one to say, you know what, there's something going on here with this UDFA because they're undrafted free agents for a reason. And when I stand next to Ivan Pace, one of the themes of this show that comes up all the time is how huge some of these players are. Once again, Josh Oliver made a good catch today. I was like, how does a man that big catch the football that way? A lot of good stuff from Josh Oliver in this camp. And you know, Jawan Williams is huge.

Daniel Hunter, you got all these guys. And then you see Ivan Pace and you go, linebacker? We sure? Is that a running back? Is that a safety? Lewis Seam looks bigger than Ivan Pace. And yet, all he's done every day is get more opportunity with this team. And today, in all of the key situations, he was playing over Brian Asamoah. Brian Asamoah was almost, I wouldn't say quite exclusively, but mostly the second team linebacker with Ivan Pace as the first team linebacker. So then you're kind of conflicted as well because like, wait, so Ivan Pace Jr., this is good for him. I mean, this is quite a find to even be playing with the first team. I mean,

I've just been thinking like, how, when have I, have I ever seen this before where it's a guy undrafted free agent playing with the first team before the first preseason game and training camp? I don't remember anybody in their first year. Usually it's the second year that they start to develop and so forth. So, uh, to see Ivan Pace jr. Doing it means that Brian Flores must be very impressed or very unimpressed with Brian Asamoah. I don't want to take away from pace because he's looked like, uh, what, like Sonic, the hedgehog out there. Like he's extremely fast. He, he is all over the place. You see him all over the field. And even though he doesn't have the size, he wouldn't be the first linebacker in

history. Eric Kendricks recently to be undersized, have some success. We're going to see a little more. I imagine in the preseason games of how the guy handles real blocks coming from guards and so forth. But I think with Brian Flores, knowing the defense is really the key. And then, you know, doing what you're supposed to do. The guy had great, great numbers in college. And it looks like some of them are translating over. Maybe he's a very bright player. I've only've only you know kind of heard him talk a couple of times but um he's not like one of the more uh what would you call it like um outgoing players he's kind of linebacker mentality but if you're thriving in brian flores's system i imagine that

you're picking it up quickly and he's got a lot of talent for football just pure football aside from the whole height weight size relative athletic score and all that, there is something to this game to be able to just be a ball player, right? But from also Brian Asamoah's standpoint, this was his time. This was his year that they moved on from Eric Hendricks. And Asamoah was supposed to be in line to take over this job and it could still happen. I'm not declaring it done. This is now a battle that I didn't think was a battle. And even Troy Dye was out there getting some reps today and made a great

interception. He looked like a basketball player dunking, like he grabbed it one handed. So, you know, I guess die is still sort of in this mix as a guy who's been around for a while, but Asamoah being dropped to the second team that makes you wonder, like, do they not feel as strongly about Brian Asamoah as we thought? Is he not as good of a fit as we thought with Brian Flores, because I don't know if I did this or just in my brain, like the list of players that we would have thought are the winners of having Brian Flores hired. He would like number one was Harrison Smith and he's having a ball out there.

It seems he laid a hit on Josh Oliver today, or I was kind of shocked that like he hit someone that hard in training camp practice, but they're playing physically. He's having a great time. He's blitzing. He's dropping back. He's doing all sorts of stuff. But I would have had Brian Asamoah really close

because last year's defense just was not friendly to the linebackers really at all. And so to have Brian Asamoah dropping down, again, not 100% to the second team, but more today than it was from the night practice the other night is pretty significant. And you wonder how much of it is that they love pace and how much of it is frustration for Brian Asamoah. Could it be some sort of a message?

Could it be that they don't feel that he fits all that good? Or are they just two guys that they like and they're both competing? And that could be another part of it too. Daniel asks, have they played Pace and Asamoah together? I have not seen them together. It's usually been one or the other playing because Jordan Hicks is the guy, he's the starter. Although Troy die was mixing in today, but Jordan Hicks is the clear starter veteran leader. Like he's that guy, uh, on the defense. So, you know, I think that this is a legit battle between those two. And I, you know, I mean, maybe when you look back in hindsight and you see, we really just declared Brian Asamoah locked in, dead set, good to go.

He's the starting linebacker, very exciting and interesting. And maybe we were a little bit premature in doing that. He's a third round pick. He is also undersized. Last year at times, I thought in the preseason, he was very boomer bust. And maybe this is a situation where you don't want somebody who is attacking the quarterback or attacking the ball all the time, but maybe has to be a little more patient than Asamoah who can just be like, go, go, go. I don't know that. I'm just thinking about like,

what could be the reason for this to happen? Or it could just be that Ivan Pace Jr. has been that good. So it's funny to think about, there just couldn't be more stark of a difference between the 2022 draft and the 2023 draft. Makai Blackman is starting a corner. Jordan Addison looks like a budding star. Here's an undrafted free agent. I count those guys as part of the class, I guess. An undrafted free agent stepping up. Andre Carter, I think, was taking some second team reps today, so they must be excited about him, or at least wanted to put him out there and see what they've got. But he's an interesting prospect that they got as well. So they got all these guys. Jaqueline Roy has been getting second

team reps, and he looks like there's some talent there. And then that poor 2022 class Lewis scene, unfortunately today, and look, I don't have a chance to go back. This is the disclaimer and look at the tape. The team does not tweet this out. Okay. But from my perspective, Lewis scene today had a play that, that went down where I went. I don't know. I just don't know if it's going to happen. I just don't know. It was a backup quarterback rep.

So Nick Mullins is in, he drops back throw. He's kind of looking right at Nick muse. That is their fourth tight end, by the way, staring down his receiver, lets it go. And Lewis scene just takes a completely wrong angle ball goes right over him to nick muse it would have been a huge touchdown and i just went that's what is keeping you on the second team and i don't know if it's changing uh there's those kind of moments on a daily basis where you see a little bit of flash from Lewis seen, but there's really no progress there. So such a stark contrast between the two draft classes is really standing out.

But I think that, uh, my headline for the YouTube video that the Ivan pace buzz is real. I'm going to stay with that. I think that the Ivan pace buzz is very much real. Uh, digits says neither Osmo or pace can shed blocks well limited use for both not sure early down deployment oh i i don't think they look at it that way i i don't um and we'll see how they can shed or well i mean neither of them have played really nfl football so it is good like it's gonna matter i think for those guys what happens in the preseason i can't really say from training camp about the shedding blocks.

They're putting hands on a guy, but it's not like they are putting hands on a guy. It's not like a real game how it's going to look. And they're both small guys, for sure. Both guys I thought were not linebackers when I first saw them. That was my first impression is how small each of them are. But I also think that this is part of just how the Vikings are viewing defense in the year 2023, where they're going to have a defensive line that has Harrison Phillips, Tonga, Dean Lowry.

These are like defensive tackles up there Jonathan Bullard and I think the idea is that they're going to try to stuff the run with those guys up front and then you know Daniil Hunter's going to have the edge Marcus Davenport is a huge guy for an edge rusher he's very big he's probably 260 I mean he's a really really man. So they're hoping that that D line can mostly dominate on the run, that they're going to play an extra safety up in the box a lot. This is going to be a lot of cover one. You guys are not going to be used to what you see, I think, when it comes to Flores' defense.

Because Mike Zimmer in the last few years started to go with a lot more cover too, and then last year was all two safeties back with Ed Donatell. There's going to be an extra safety in the box. So the idea I think is yes, they're going to have to shed some blocks, but if they can stuff up front a bit, then they're also going to have an extra body up there playing with the safety in the box and that they can kind of make up for it. And I guess they're going to see what happens, but either one of those guys I think is going to have to be playing a lot. They will use dime packages.

They will use packages that have Josh Metellus in there at a hybrid linebacker, but whoever wins that job is going to play in their nickel package. And he's going to play pretty often from Jared. There's going to be so many dudes rotating in this year missile after missile launched at the quarterback i i do agree with you there that it may not be lock dead just it's pace or asamoah that's a good point it may not be that way. They may use multiple players at multiple positions to rotate guys in. But I think with a nickel package with the two linebackers, it is probably not.

I don't know this, but it's probably going to be somebody wins that job and takes the majority of those snaps. I would assume so in most nickel that I've ever seen. That's how it usually is. Linebacker, I think, is a hard position to just say, all right, you go out, you come in, you go out. D-line, I think, is easy to do that. All right, this guy's gassed, you go out, next guy in. But linebacker, there's so much communication there that I'm not sure it's as easy to just rotate guys in.

But as far as getting more players involved, that's very clear. They are getting more players involved. And Ivan Pace getting a chance here is part of that. From B Frost, why does 28 matter? Ahmad Rashad, forgotten by everyone under 30. No, Ahmad Rashad is a great example of why you shouldn't cancel numbers or not cancel that. What is it? Retire numbers or cancel anyone from using them, whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like, you shouldn't just retire a number, take it out of existence, like let multiple great players have it over the years. And again, eventually you'll just run out of them

or somebody gets left out like Randy Moss. If you just start retiring them, it becomes complicated. The franchise is going to be here a long time. You're going to have a lot of great players. Are you retiring 22 for Harrison Smith? Like, no, but like, what's the standard there? If you start retiring a lot of just really great players, you know, I don't know.

Anyway, yeah, but 28, like 28, I think is an okay receiver number. Ahmad Rashad was 28. I don't know that it's a legal receiver number, but yeah, I'm not concerned. And I just saw, it's just because the internet was talking about it. I'm never concerned when they give so-and-so

such-and-such number. They gave Bucky Hodges number 84. They gave Michael Jenkins number 84. They gave Irv Smith number 84. It's okay. We all remembered Randy Moss. Did you forget Randy Moss after they gave someone else 84? No, I think it was fine.

From Jordan, is the reason for the draft difference more Quasey and new scouts this year instead of rollover from Spielman scouts or Flores influencing in scouting? Well, the first thing I would say is I specifically asked Kweisi Adafo Mensah how he felt about his second draft. And he said that he felt much more comfortable in his second draft with the players that they were looking at rather than just getting hired midway through the process. So he would tell you that he felt much better about the second draft than the first. I don't think we can just pin it on the scouts

though, because when you look at the decision to trade down as far as they did, that wasn't a decision made by Spielman scouts. That was a decision made by Kweisi Adafomensa. And we need to second guess that because it was first guessable that that could go wrong and that they could miss out on some good prospects and not get back what they thought. It was probably not the scouts when it came to drafting andrew ruth jr that was an injured guy and was injured his whole career now maybe when it came to the guard but also taking a guard where you're reaching to try and find a starter that was very spielman-y again the guy calling in the pick i don't think we could say suddenly he just went, Oh, I've got

my scouts. I'm way better at this than I was before. I think that this is what, first of all, I think you learn lessons drafting over the years. So maybe Kweisi Adafo-Mensa leaned in a little bit more to what he thought as opposed to what the room was looking for. That's possible that I would give you a, but you live and learn. Should I just draft to try to get a starter right away in the late second round and at guard? Probably not in the future. Probably not. But that's what they did. You know, when you look at the positions that they took, not a lot of premium positions, injured guy, maybe there's a reason that the league doesn't love to draft players with serious injury history.

So something to keep in mind for the future. But really the positional value was the big difference between the first and the second year. And when your guy was on the board, you just drafted him. You didn't trade down. You didn't get cute. And I thought on the first draft night, I thought it was getting cute. I thought they predetermined we are trading down no matter what. And that's why they did it. I, but I would say, and this is just draft theory for you. As we analyze 2022, 2023, this just tells you how random and weird this thing is because Louis scene is a first round talent. I think by everybody's draft board, he was a missile. As somebody said earlier in college, he's a great player played for a national championship. Defense was phenomenal. Ran a four, three. He's huge. Talk about the size of

the guy. It just hasn't worked out. If it worked out, if he was really good, we'd be like, wow, what a trade down, right? I mean, that's drafting for you. And this year, if Jordan Addison didn't look good at all, we might be like, maybe should have traded out of that pick. It's just that some drafts are great. Some drafts aren't. And you always second guess when it doesn't work out. That doesn't mean I think that you can't like, you know, like criticize

what happened because the logic did not stand up for the 2022 draft. And I think they hurt their own odds with the way that they handled it. So it's not surprising that it hasn't really worked out that great. It's just that, you know, the example of 2015 to 2016 with the Vikings is the one I always go back to best draft of the decade, horrendous draft back to back, same people doing it. I don't know, but this year, this group has been really, really good and at key positions for them, wide receiver, cornerback, et cetera.

So pace has strong leverage. He's 231 pounds bench, 22 reps. Well, he is built. I mean, I use Sonic the hedgehog and I hope that people know the reference. If you played video games in like 1993, uh, but because he is compact is the way that I would phrase it. And there have been smaller compact linebackers who have succeeded. The thing is that he is the literal smallest linebacker in the league if he starts. And that's going to bring some challenges. But as you mentioned, it's not like he got steamrolled in college in the run. The NFL running game, a little bit different.

But if Ivan Pace is a huge difference maker in the blitzing game, if he can make a difference in the coverage game and get that down, and if he could defeat some blocks, but even gets pushed around a little, you can work with that. Like getting pushed around a little bit in the run game is something that the Vikings have decided by this personnel that they're going to be a little bit okay with. And you have to be okay with giving up something. It's like, if you don't blitz, you have to be okay giving up underneath. And if you do blitz, you have to be okay with giving up a big play. And if your linebacker is humongous, you have to be okay with running backs, getting open and getting yards out of the backfield. And if he's tiny, you have to be okay with him getting pushed around every so often. If you're going to give up something, giving up a few extra yards

here and there on a run play where a guard gets out to him. Okay. But maybe look, maybe the height can play into his advantage. We're getting a little ahead of ourselves with into actual games. It hasn't been determined yet, but maybe there is an edge a little bit to being as short as he is in comparison to other linebackers, smaller target to hit. I don't know. I've seen it before. One of my favorite players in the history of the national football league is Sam Mills. So I'm always going to look at a smaller linebacker and go, if you had the guts to get here and the talent to get here already to be playing with the first team, you probably know how to work around some of your height and weight issues. So, uh, it's a very, very cool story for him to be playing with the first team. That's something

again, I don't think I've seen, uh, a UDFA rising this quickly. Uh, is Jaqueline Roy a thing? I think so. I think so. I think we could see Jaqueline Roy, especially consider that, uh, James Lynch is out for the year now with this ACL tear. And that does open the door for Jaqueline Roy. I just see a dude with a lot of strength is what I see from Jaqueline Roy, that when he's going up against the Vikings offensive linemen in these one-on-ones, you just see this power of him delivering his punch into people. And he was another good bet in this draft and has made a strong first impression. And maybe there's an opportunity there. I think they're going to keep Jonathan Bullard. They liked him last year. They brought him in and Kevin O'Connell mentioned him today. He does get first team reps.

Sometimes I think he's a guy that they like. Kairos Tonga is clearly going to be a huge part of that. So does Jaqueline Roy actually get into games right now that I do not know, but will he have a chance to develop into that position? I think so. And that was another late round pick that I think a lot of draft analysts liked when he was taken because they viewed him as somebody who had upside that he could grow into. And it's because of that raw strength that you see. From Daniel here, Flores edition has to be the greatest addition. This team could have done in the off season.

I feel the excitement. The offense got from KOC last year. We are finally getting back to that for the defense. Hard to disagree with that. Yeah. I mean, that's I, yeah, I, you just see it. You just feel it. Now let's not lose sight of the fact that if one of these cornerbacks doesn't work out, it could be a rough ride. They are very high on a Caleb Evans. I'm going to write about that at some point that they have always liked from day one, a Caleb Evans and what they've seen from him physically and how he's coming along and developed. And I just think that they believe that he could be a strong starter in

the league. Mackay Blackman, we'll see. Jawan Williams had a comeback today. He was bumped down to the second team, but two interceptions today. So Jawan Williams making his presence felt a little bit. The cornerback group is really going to determine this, but Flores has brought something and you see the frustration on Kirk Cousins face throughout practice. And I don't know if that's always a great thing to have your quarterback feeling frustrated and kind of bringing up that like, maybe everybody doesn't run this defense, Brian, but there is a toughness to him. And there's a toughness to this defense and energy to this defense that seems to be sort of galvanizing around their defensive coordinator. And you just like you just get it. Like, why was this man a good coach in Miami? Like, why? Why was he? And even just why was he willing to fight when things went down in Miami in such a weird way. And I think it's just that toughness that he naturally brings with him when he talks to you, you're like, okay, I get, I get it. Like I just, this guy has a natural

presence to him. His philosophy, I think makes a lot of sense. So, you know, I, I think that, uh, you're absolutely right that he has brought something that they really, really needed, especially with a group of, you know, you got some older veterans on the front defensive line, but a lot of young players on that defense, like just, just get them flying around if you can. And that's, it's been very interesting to see because I mean, Zimmer was this aggressive sometimes, but a lot of times with Zimmer's defense in training camp, it was sort of going through the motions because they all knew the defense so well. And in 2020, again, that weird training camp with COVID, we couldn't even tell like, what is this defense? I have no idea. We had like eight practices, right? It just,

you couldn't get a good sense for that. But when Zimmer's defenses were at their best, a lot of times it was like those guys knew that they were showing up to get some practice in to sharpen up, but it wasn't quite the same level of competing because they already knew they were a top defense and they already knew the defense inside and out. This is guys learning, but also guys competing. And maybe that plays into the energy as well. From Michael, what is the approximate percentage you anticipate using 12 personnel? This is something that I asked Kevin O'Connell about. And I think he was talking about, you know, being excited about Josh Oliver's role. And I think that if we're doing the winners

of training camp so far, yeah, Brian Flores is probably number two. Ivan Pace is probably number one at this point. But I also think Josh Oliver is one of the winners of this training camp so far that he has looked like a legitimate player who could catch the ball. And we know what kind of tremendous run blocker he is. And I think he can do a lot of different things, which is pretty helpful. So this, this could be be you talk about the scouting and stuff pro scouting matters too we focus so much on the draft scouting and i understand why but finding pro players to bring in that can make a difference like josh oliver potentially can i think is is pretty important so you know oliver has looked like he's going to be part of it but your your question was the percentage i still don't think it's going to be massive, but I think it's going to be increased by quite a bit. I think it will be increased to maybe let's go with like 24%.

How's that? I think maybe one in every four or five plays is, is where it fits in. But the root of Kevin O'Connell's offense is, and always will be the 11 personnel, three wide receivers. They had a lot of success with them last year. So, you know, I think that it's going to be a tool that they use, but I don't know if it's going to be this, you know, big change. They're not going to just suddenly become Gary Kubiak. Let's see from Zimbardo. Let's teach scene to play outside corner and tell him to play man coverage on every snap. Now he knows where to

play. Uh, I'm joking, but if he never picks up the defense, I'll be sad. Yeah. Um, if only that could happen, but unfortunately he is, I mean, he runs a four, three, seven, but shiftiness is what matters at the corner. And I know you're kidding. So I'm not trying to like, well, I mean, he runs a four, three, seven, but shiftiness is what matters at the corner. And I know you're kidding. So I'm not trying to like, well, actually you, um, I know you're joking, but I've every night someone's like, what about linebacker for Lewis scene? It's what about, he's just going to have to figure it out or not. I mean, that's really how it's going to go here.

It's so far, there was a flash there and there was some excitement there for one practice that went well for him but it just hasn't really resonated in multiple strung together practices of making plays and there's just no sign whatsoever that it's really going anywhere and it might just be the case like this happens or he might need another year. He was a young guy when he was drafted and he's going to probably get an opportunity to watch Harrison Smith play for another year and compete again next year. But at this moment, it's not going in an upward trajectory like we thought maybe that could be the case. From John, do we have any updates on the O-line, the guards? I mean, Brian Flores' defense is creating a lot of pressure. One thing today for me, they were doing

offense-defensive line one-on-ones, but it was on the completely other side of the field, so I didn't get a good look at it. And also, I don't want to pretend that I could be like, well, you know, Ed Ingram lost three out of four reps. Like, come on. I mean, that's anybody who claims they could do that is being ridiculous. But a lot of times you can tell kind of who's getting beat, uh, through, you know, the 11 on 11s based on how much pressure is happening on the quarterback. And I don't think that it's been tragic at all, the interior, the offensive line so far, but I also don't know what they're asking them to do against these blitzes. So that matters a lot. The offensive line coach and the quarterback, they have strategy about how they're going to block certain rushes and how much everybody's

picking it up. Flores' defense is creating a lot, a lot of pressure. So is that on the guard? Is that on the other guard? Is that on the center? It that's a really hard thing to say. I think that you shouldn't be changed at all based on any practice. That's why I'm a little hesitant to say, oh, it's way better. Oh, it's way worse. Uh, no, because I don't want to be swung too much on a few practices with the offensive line. Now I will be interested to see how much they play in the preseason, because if we see a lot of say like Ed Ingram into the second quarter or something, then we'll know. So I'm kind of looking for different signs like that. The fact that they tried to bring in Dalton Reisner hasn't worked out yet. That was a sign. I'm trying to read the other signs a little bit as opposed to saying,

well, you know, he got beat on this rep or that rep, and that means this or that that's that to me is like a little bit overconfidence that I don't want to have when it comes to offensive line. But I would say that what, however confident you were coming into this has not changed. That's the way I would put it. From Daniel, probably going to have to wait for some preseason games, but I keep reading about sacks at practices. Yeah, there has been a lot. But how's the run defense look?

Tell me it doesn't have the potential to be 2020 run D vibes. Well, I think the interior has been good of the Vikings defensive line so far against the run, but they're not tackling them. That's what's hard to figure out that they're not like bringing him down to the ground specifically though, Kyrus Tonga. And we know Harrison Phillips is a good football player. We kind of know what Dean Lowry is, but Kyrus Tonga has just been a dude in there, just taking up blocks. He's, he's kind of a beast. I mean, so his emergence could be a big swing man to this defense, because if, if he wasn't playing well, then I'd be going, oh man, uh, who's going to stop the run. But Tonga is a big deal for him.

Uh, Dustin says I've heard 10 different pronunciations of Jaqueline. It is Jaqueline. Yeah. Uh, Dustin says I've heard 10 different pronunciations of Jaqueline. It is Jaqueline. Yeah. Uh, this has been established. I check this, double check this, triple check this. That is how it's not Jacqueline, even though it's spelled similarly, it's Jaqueline and I have practiced it and now I'm practicing it some more, but yeah, that's how it said. Um, so for future reference, when you're telling your friends about the great fifth round pick, there you go. Uh, from Mark, the only group I'm scared about is the O-line that interior. Yeah. And I think that that's my point is that when it comes to, uh, the interior of the offensive line, however you felt about it coming in, I wouldn't change. Even if they looked great,

you're going to have to see it. They play Vita Veya, the first game. He's one of the best players in the league. So like, you're going to have to see it. I think, um, before we were convinced that it's different in any way. So, uh, let's see. Oh, do you guys want to go over the depth chart? I know I teased that early on and we got lots of great questions and conversation going and, uh, 24% is a good estimation thank you michael i that's i i yeah i don't think that with that 12 personnel or 21 personnel either way if they have cj ham out there i don't think they're turning into gary kubiak although maybe i should use this as an excuse to call gary kubiak and be like hey what do you want you want to talk about some double tight ends gare Let's go.

But let's look, let's take a look at this depth chart. Let's take a look. Okay. I don't know if you guys can see that very well, but I'm trying to get it up on the screen here. Now this is a unofficial depth chart. Once again, this should come with huge warnings. Can I, can I make a banner here? Maybe I can make a banner that says, hold on, just for them, just for Kevin, unofficial. This is a unofficial depth chart. Everybody got that? Should I put some exclamation points on that? Maybe that needs to be more clear that it is not an official depth chart okay uh let's save that unofficial it is extremely not official of a depth chart but it's a depth chart nonetheless and today kevin o'connell was asked so we'll go over it real quick just from top to bottom uh quarterbacks you know in the same order you'd expect cousins mullins jared hall the running backs uh, Kevin Seifert of ESPN asked today, uh, Kevin O'Connell about this Madison Wong Wu Chandler McBride and Abram Smith, the XFL guy that they brought in and O'Connell that's where he said unofficial. Don't look into it. Don't

worry about that too much. Don't look at the depth chart behind the curtain. But his endorsement of Ty Chandler was not inspiring. And Kenny Wong was hurt for the second straight preseason or training camp, which gives you a little bit of concern as well. Dwayne McBride is a rookie who I think has looked okay at times. But, you know, is he like blowing me away in practice? Like Delvin cook did of course not.

But I, I think that they've just got some depth issue. I mean, is it possible that Abram Smith ends up somehow having great preseason games and surprising us that the tie Chandler thing is if you listen to what Kevin O'Connell said today, he talked a lot about seeing the natural skill that he has, but then said, well, you know, there's a lot of times where Curtis Modkins, who's the running back coach has to go over to him after a wrap. And I, I think that Alexander Madison might end up with like 270 carries this year, guys. I that's. That's how it's feeling right now. Number one and only fullback is CJ Hamm, as always.

When it's not someday, that will be sad. Wide receivers, it lists Justin Jefferson and KJ Osborne, naturally, as the starters. Jordan Addison is number three. Again, unofficial, but I would expect that this is the way that they start the season. How long that lasts, we will see. There are debates in the media room of how long that will last. Still, even though Addison has looked good, there is a lot of trust for KJ Osborne. And also KJ Osborne's look great in this training camp, by the way, like no buzz because we

know who he is. KJ Osborne's been phenomenal. He had a long catch again today. He had a long one in the night practice like this. He has so much trust from Kirk cousins and he's out there making plays. Like we need to make sure that we're not treating KJ Osborne and no offense to this guy, but like the BC Johnson of this year, that is not the case. KJ has proven he can play. After that, Jalen Rager and Brandon Powell, my guess is that they are listed on the depth chart after this because they are veteran players. One of them is going to have a job, and I don't know which one. I think Brandon Powell, though, because he can actually play a receiver. Blake Prohl, Tristan Jackson

after that, and then a bunch of guys just enlisted lucky Jackson who didn't practice today. Weirdly, Nikhil Harry, the new guy who's wearing 28, which is Jacob Copeland, Thayer Thomas, and Garrett Magg, who just, or I'm sorry, Mogg. It's not been a good time for Garrett Mogg. Let's just put it that way. It has not, it hasn't gone well. Uh, the tight ends, TJ Hawkinson, Josh Oliver, Johnny Muntz, and Nick Muse, number four. Two other guys that you'll see in the fourth quarter, Ben Sims and Colin Thompson after that.

Offensive line is exactly what you think. It's all five starters. And then Austin Schlotman, the backup. But you can see here why they would be looking at backup guards. Chris Reed has not practiced all camp. Blake Brandel is listed as the backup guard, along with Josh Sokol, who was a practice squad guy last year. I mean, that is just not a good situation with depth from the guard position,

and it stands out on this very, hold on, very unofficial depth chart. If you guys, I'm not looking at the comments right now because I'm looking at this website, but if you guys are saying that this depth chart is official you guys, I'm not looking at the comments right now because I'm looking at this website, but if you guys are saying that this depth chart is official, you're wrong. So just be clear about that. You're going to get blocked if you suggest that this is an official. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Let's go to the defense. Let's see. Daniil Hunter, naturally. Pat Jones, outside linebackers. Patrick Jones, Marcus Davenport, dj wanham those are your guys uh luigi villain and benton whitley curtis weaver andre carter those are guys who are going to be playing you know a lot during the preseason fighting probably for one spot this lists lowry and tonga and phillips as the starters and for the second group bullard tj smith who you

probably haven't heard a lot about, kind of just a guy, Ross Blacklock. But there is opportunity for Jaqueline Roy and for Asasia Tomolo. I have not seen a ton of Asasia Tomolo this year so far. Preseason is where he's going to have to stand out. And this does list Brian Asamoah as the starter, as a linebacker, but it was clearly paced today. And does Troy Dye have a mix into this? Troy Reeder, I saw a little William Kwemku and a guy to keep your eye on just in late

in those games. If you're looking for anybody to watch Abraham Beauplan, it's like a great athlete. I mean, it hasn't gotten a lot of movement or anything in camp, but he is a really interesting athlete, maybe a guy that they stick on the practice squad. And the corners are kind of how we've laid it out. Caleb Evans, Byron Murphy. And actually, no, this is not really how it's been going because Juwan Williams is listed ahead of Makai Blackman. Blackman clearly ahead, Booth getting back so he should be able to play. And then Harrison Smith, Kambina,

Mattel has seen, and Jay Ward has just not had a lot of buzz. So there is your incredibly unofficial once more unofficial depth chart to go through going into the preseason game. And I'm going to go back in the comments and check. Oh yeah, there that's right. I wanted to talk about this.

Thanks for reminding me, Ben, the kicking competition. Is it for real? One of the Vikings.com great guys who works for them, Craig and I were standing on the sideline talking today and we were debating whether, kicks the ball higher and farther than anyone I've ever seen. I mean, just in person, not anyone in the history of ever kicking a football, but in person for all the kicking competitions I've seen. And Daniel Carlson was up there in the very brief time he was a Minnesota Viking. And there should be no follow-up questions about what happened next. But when he was in training camp, he had a very high and long kick.

Podlesny is the same way. And he's made a good amount of them. Clearly, Greg Joseph is getting more kicks. And that would insinuate that he is still the guy as far as the kicker, but, um, we'll see. I mean, we'll see if, but Leslie can go, uh, you know, make a run at it. Joseph missed one today. He missed a couple of the other night. And I think it really comes down to whether Greg Joseph shows signs of weakness. And so far it hasn't been great last Last year, Joseph was aces in training camp and this year it has not been quite as sharp. Whether that actually becomes a thing, I don't know. Let's see. Gizankad, sorry if I don't know how to pronounce that. KJ turning into Jake Reed, solid wide receiver that moves down because number two is a great receiver ahead of him. Do I need to use the screen share to remind everyone of Jake Reed?

I may have to do this. Let's just do this real quick since we're having a good time here tonight. Let's just talk about Jake Reed for a second. I know what you're saying, like a good wide receiver who gets bumped down. absolutely. But let's just screen share this real quick. Let's just take a look at Jay Green. Let's just talk about Jay Green. This man from 1994 to 1997 had 1,000 yard receiving seasons every year and was targeted 161 times, 142 times,

average 16, 18, 17 yards per catch. I mean, Jake Reed was one of the true superstars of the NFL for like four years there until Randy Moss got here. One of the most unselfish players in the history of the league to not try to force his way out, get frustrated. And then, you know, was good with the Vikings in the three deep situation where, you know, it was four, it was like 500, 600 yards for a couple seasons there. And then, uh, he went to new Orleans, but I mean, that guy just, just an amazing receiver. I think KJ Osborne is very good, very, very very good but i know what you're saying like you're saying that like is is he a guy that could be a number two it gets bumped out yes like yeah that that is very very possible but the way i look at it is it seems to me that

it's really a 2a and 2b type of situation uh it did catch my ear that Kevin O'Connell was saying that he was happy with Jordan Addison's blocking, which I thought could keep KJ Osborne ahead of him, but it's much more of a, like a flow chart. Are you Justin Jefferson? If yes, you're getting 160 targets.

If no, it really depends. And we might walk out of this year going, who was wide receiver two or three? Because it may be both of them, but it just cannot be downplayed because it isn't getting a ton of conversation. Everyone's more interested in the rookie. KJ has been mauling people too. He's had a very, very good training camp and I think he's come out and been very competitive. So look, I mean, good problems to have, I guess, is what we say in football, right?

Heard Brandon Powell is getting a lot of punt and kick return action. I haven't seen them do kick returns, and maybe I've just been looking at other stuff. I've seen him do a lot of punts. Here's the thing I don't want to see, by the way. Jordan Addison is returning some punts today. No, don't bother with that. They got punt returners. You don't want him getting hurt returning punts today. No, don't bother with that. You got punt returners. You don't want him getting hurt returning punts. That would be dumb. So don't even bother with

that. He did it a little in college. That doesn't matter. He's a receiver. But Brandon Powell has impressed me on a number of occasions. Now, punt returning is hard because you can't really take a real rep. So it's, can he catch the ball and run sort of the right direction, but he actually catches passes in practice and can run routes. Uh, that makes me think that he's got an edge on Jalen Rager who cannot, um, well, uh, horse feathers. Um, thank you for the compliment that, and you know, I heard somebody the other night, says Matt does his research, and I appreciate that. Pro football reference right on my computer certainly helps. But I actually heard someone on TV the other night say, oh, Horsefeathers. And I was like, oh, I know that guy or woman or whoever,

like whoever you are, Horsefeathers. But I just thought it was, like, funny because we've been doing this enough where I know everybody's names. And I was like, oh yeah, horse feathers. Like I didn't even realize that was a saying, like, oh, horse feathers. Anyway, so I was reminded of you. Okay, let's see.

Back to Zimbardo here. We could be looking at five young guys contributing on defense, even if two or three pan out as halfway decent starters and Addison looks decent. The future is bright. I agree with you. I, I, I really think that this I really, I'm sorry. This is a funny tweet. Pod Lesney missed a crucial extra point in the national championship to keep

the game at 58. Yes, I do remember that, that that happened, but I'm sorry. I got distracted. This is the point of the competitive rebuild is what Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman did year after year was they ran back all the same guys and they tried to just desperately reach to veterans. Here's Bashad Breeland. Here's Sheldon Richardson, the old version, not the good version. Here's, you know, Michael Pierce to stop the run. Here's a lot of money to Michael Pierce to stop the run. They were just sort of flailing and never would kind of lean into let's find players for the future, except for kind of 2020. And when they really didn't even have a chance and, um, when they should have been revamping the whole thing instead of just little parts of it and trading for Yanni can Gakwe. So what they've done here is they've done

nothing to hurt themselves for the future outside of some void years, a little bit on like Marcus Davenport, nothing that's going to crush them for the future. Uh, even if that doesn't work out, it's sort of a short-term thing, but Davenport, if he does work out, could be here for five years. So they've taken shots at guys on all levels on like the highest free agent money with Davenport and Murphy on like the draft and letting some of these guys play like Makai Blackman, just throwing them in Caleb Evans, throwing them in, not going to get a veteran corner. And then on the Nikhil Harry, Jawan Williams, Ross Blacklock, like taking shots at guys that maybe if you find something, it could work out. And that's why I said like last night, Hey, uh, it's okay that they went and got Nikhil Harry.

He might be nothing, but if he's anything, that's a really good find for you. And I think it was, was it Paris Campbell sort of turned into something and he was a bus draft pick, not a great receiver, but kind of helpful. If that's the case, well, that's perfectly great to pick up somebody for no cost. And so I think that they're doing kind of the right things on a few different levels to give people a chance.

And if you hit on enough, then you set yourself up for the future, but you can also win today. That's the needle that they're trying to thread. And I think at least from the theory of it, doing a good job of it so far. Let's see from Ken. I've always wanted KJ to be a number two,

but don't think he's ever really been one. Uh, why am I wrong? Or do you think that that happens in spite of Addison? Yeah. I think that like, like think of it this way, wide receiver two and three are kind of more of a fantasy concept than they have to be like a real NFL concept. That's how I'm looking at this situation. So unless there's a huge gap between the second guy and the third guy, say like Adam Thielen and Laquan Treadwell. Okay. Well, clearly it's a number two and a number three, but if you

have three great wide receivers, this goes for a three deep situation, but it also goes for San Francisco or Philadelphia. There are teams with two or three great receiving options. If you throw Dallas Goddard or George Kittle into the mix, this team could have four because of TJ Hawkinson. But I look at it as there's going to be so much attention paid to Justin Jefferson. Defenses are going to formulate their game plans weeks in advance for Justin Jefferson. That's the guy they circle. That's who they pay attention to.

And Addison and Osborne are two different players with different skill sets. So Osborne is kind of a tank, like he's very tough and he's strong and he can go deep down the field. We saw that today. We saw it the other night. We saw it. We saw that today. We saw it the other night. We saw it against Pittsburgh two years ago. We saw it against Detroit. So he can do that. But on a play to play basis, he's kind of an underneath receiver who you want kind of slamming into people like a little bit of a running back ish where Addison is more of a shifty, like difficult catch kind of guy, like great hands, but he's not going to gain a million yards after the catch. He's going to catch the ball in a lot of harder situations.

So you can have more complicated routes for him routes that at the top, he creates his own separation where maybe you scheme Osborne a little bit more of the ball. So there's a lot of these different ways to use these guys. So I don't look at this situation so much as two versus three. It's two guys who have different skill sets who can be used along with Justin Jefferson two versus three. If we talk about actual receptions, I think it could be Osborne getting more receptions because of his chemistry with cousins.

And because he can get some of the underneath stuff that goes for yards after catch. But I also think the more Addison emerges, the more he's going to press for those receptions because he's going to be open. Stephanie, did I miss the kicking competition conversation? It wasn't a long conversation. It basically went like this. Maybe, maybe there's one. And also pod Lesney kicks the ball really far. That was the other one. So you didn't miss a lot. It's just, I think that it's going to, uh, sort of show itself in these games that they want to find out if pod Lesney he's here for a reason. They want to find out if he could kick in these games. So, um, anyway, uh, from Jordan, I'd like to see you react to Vikings players,

Madden ratings and comment on who is the most and least accurate. Uh, I haven't looked as at the, the Madden ratings. I'm sorry. I don't really know because it's been a while for me with Madden. Um, mostly because of just being busy, but also the game kind of is the same game over and over again. So I'll tell you what, honestly, what I do, if I want to play a quick game of Madden is I will go and download somebody who created the rosters. And just a quick story on this one time I downloaded all the rosters and I was looking through making sure they've got the accurate, like updated rosters. This was from maybe Madden 18 in 2021 or something. And the one difference, there was one small inaccuracy, so to speak. And that was what, that they named Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fitz magic. And I thought that was a great touch

by whoever. And also shout out to that person. Cause you're a lunatic that you spent like all day putting in all the new players and creating players and everything else. But that just sort of shows you how rarely it is that I do the Madden thing. So I wouldn't mind looking and seeing, but I don't like know them to give you kind of an instant reaction. Anyway let me just give you guys a quick reminder on one of our sponsors, which is Grillmasters Club. And then we can close out the night on a few more questions. Our friends at Grillmasters Club, they consider themselves, and I like this,

the Netflix of barbecue. So they're just a great solution to anybody who is looking for ways to kind of up their game with grilling and smoking. For me, it's grilling. I am not extreme enough to do the meat smoking, but I want to someday. They have a team of certified pitmasters at Grillmasters Club that has cracked the code on award-winning small batch barbecue products on whatever schedule works for you. That's the cool thing is that you can have it monthly. You can pause it, update it, like however you want it. It's not as hard to get out of as let's say like a newspaper subscription or something that will charge you to the ends of the earth. It's not like that. They don't want to be that way at the Grillmasters Club. So you can get

themed boxes with different barbecue products and each month they kind of create these recipes that are awesome and tips to provide you with help with your barbecuing. So check it out. It's great. Uh, they sent me a box. It was awesome to work with grill masters club.com. They are a awesome sponsor for the show. And if you use the code purple, then, uh, you can get 50% off your first box. So would highly suggest that give it a try, not expensive. Use the promo code purple, uh, go do that. Um, let's see. So Jefferson officially number two in the NFL top 100. I can't imagine who was number one, Patrick Mahomes, I would guess. Uh, I mean the Justin Jefferson stuff, do you guys ever just

kind of stop for a second and just think, how is it that this franchise got Justin Jefferson of all the franchises of 32 teams, the team that had Randy Moss and Chris Carter and guys going back, Anthony Carter, Ahmad Rashad was mentioned on the show, but like Randy Moss somehow also got Justin Jefferson, the team that had digs and feeling for years that went to an NFC championship with those guys landed Justin Jefferson. It just will never when I watch him in practice and he does things in practice to just blow your mind. His ability, his strength, his power, and his ability to just catch the ball at anywhere it's thrown contort his body, rise up above people. It's just mesmerizing.

And here he is. He's yours. It's just crazy. That's why when sometimes every once in a while someone asks like should we trade jefferson the answer is no no you should not um so anyway it's something to think about the number two player in the league the top 100 is mostly the top 100 is funny to me because it will be like harrison smith 97 some player you never heard of at 43 whose teammates all voted for him and then the the tom brady retired but still gets eighth and then mahomes it's just a very weird list still though

uh we jordan says uh we either get justin jefferson or troy williams and that is true uh and maybe you're right it's karma for uh taking Laquan Treadwell. That could be true. So, all right. Tomorrow night we have a night practice and I will be excitedly there writing and doing my thing at night practice and working on some cool things for you guys. Got an article coming out tomorrow about Jordan Addison. I'm going to work on something on the Caleb Evans. So a lot going on. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, go do that. Purpleinsider.substack.com. Great place to get all the articles sent right to you that I mentioned working on all the time.

So check that out and become part of our little community there. Get your Friday mailbag questions in, all that sort of stuff. And it'll be fun. So tomorrow night, night practice. Wednesday night will be a preseason preview. You know, you want to be here for that. I'm going to make a list of all the things I'm looking for in the preseason. And on Thursday night, preseason game, it will be late, but I know you'll be staying

up to watch it. And afterward, we'll be right here. And then Will Raggetts is going to come on Friday, break down the preseason game. A very fun week for everything this week. So thanks again so much, everybody, for watching. Another really, really fun night with you all. I love seeing a lot of you repeating. And this is going to continue to be a thing, these nightly podcasts.

So thanks, everybody. Much appreciated. We'll talk again soon.