Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jaren Hall on fire in Vikings' final preseason game

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press talk about Jaren Hall's big game and Kevin O'Connell stealing the show on the broadcast during the final preseason game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider and the final preseason post game show. Matthew Collar here with you. Of course, Dane Mizutani of the pioneer press as well. And that's it. Dane, the preseason is over. We'll have cut down day and then we will finally,

finally play real football and we can talk about real football things, but there actually is more to discuss about this game than to tell you the truth i expected starting with jaron hall so i feel like that's the best place to start but we also have to talk about the wide receivers we saw a lot of the guys that we think are competing for spots what the usage of some players could potentially project the highlight of the entire preseason which was Kevin O'Connell on the broadcast really terrific and a fun watch and Will Reichard with an exclamation point at the end of this preseason with a 57 yard field goal so let us begin with Jaron Hall I thought he looked very good today on point from start to finish while the finish was not how you'd want it of him taking a hit that maybe was a little aggressive for preseason but overall the best version of Jaron Hall we have

ever seen in the preseason do you think that the Vikings will keep three quarterbacks or that Jaron Hall's performance today will have any influence on that decision yes i do because yesterday i went into the day thinking there's no way they keep three there's just going to be too many things elsewhere on the roster where you're going to need that roster spot um and you're just going to be able to sneak jaron hall onto the practice squad 24 hours later my tunes kind of changed. And like, I don't want to put too much stock into one preseason game because I think we've been trained or we've tried to train ourselves not to do that. I think Lewis seems a good example why we don't do that, why we don't put so much stock into one game that doesn't matter where oftentimes backups or third stringers or fourth

stringers are playing. So I I'm trying my best not to do that with Jaron Hall, but the way he looked and just the level of comfort he had with the offense, I would just be, if I was the Vikings, a little nervous that someone might use a waiver claim. And if they did, then all of that work you've kind of put into a guy over two years, it's gone and he's on a different team. And then you're, you're searching for a practice squad quarterback elsewhere, or God forbid, you know, Sam Darnold gets hurt. Nick Mullins gets hurt. I don't think if Jaron Hall has to play in NFL football games during the regular season you're going to be in a good spot but I think there's

just enough there with the work they put in and what he showed today I think he was 17 of 25 for 189 yards and two touchdowns looked comfortable progressed well showed a little bit of wiggle in the pocket probably should have got rid of that last ball a little bit sooner than he did but i thought there was enough there today to if you're the vikings say it's not worth the risk let's just put him on the 53 and hope we can sneak a different position onto the practice squad um you know when tuesday rolls around so i thought it was a big day for him i i agree rolls around so I thought it was a big day for him I I agree with you I do think it was a big day because he hasn't gotten almost any reps

during practice which also speaks well of him that in the last game it was a little bit better and then in his sort of big opportunity if you will uh in this one he played the best football we've seen for him. Even last year, during the third preseason game, he had some moments in the first half, but then some also some ugly moments in that game. Whereas this didn't have ugly moments. There was an interception that got called back for a penalty from the Eagles that didn't count. And there was even a really nice throw to Lucky Jackson that if he drags the other toe, that's a highlight real level play. And it was a very accurate throw from Jaron Hall. The real question is exactly what you posed, which is will someone else pick up Jaron Hall? Because he lives in an interesting space

in the NFL that I think a lot of quarterbacks do where he is good enough to potentially go out there and play football for your team without it being an entire wreck. Now it was last year when he played against green Bay, but I think after another year with him that he knows the offense very well, he knows Kevin O'Connell well, he knows this team well, and he has enough talent to throw the ball accurately in the direction generally of where it's supposed to go. I don't think that he would win many football games if he got the chance. And if you had to play him over a long period, you would probably lose almost every game. Don't want him to be in a position where he has to play a lot.

And that's that weird space of does he belong as a backup quarterback? Because usually the way you think of a backup quarterback is could they win 40 or 50% of their games if they got in? Nick Mullins is below that, but at very least against Cincinnati and Detroit twice, Nick Mullins had them in each of those games with a chance to win if one thing goes a little bit better. That's what you expect from a backup quarterback and I think Hall is not at the same level as a Nick Mullins where he could go in and give you a chance to win those games but if you go out and get somebody else if

he were to be picked up by another team that maybe liked him coming out of the draft and has seen him in a couple of these preseason games and maybe they have a quarterback injury and they say well we want our third quarterback let's go pick up jaron hall and bring him in because we loved him back in the draft or whatever we see teams do this then you do lose a couple of years of that development you also lose somebody who knows your system and then you have to bring in another quarterback however we are talking about jaron hall here so if you get to the point where Jaron Hall plays, no matter who your third quarterback is, if it's him, if it's Tyler Thinkpen back in the day, who was poached by the Kansas city chiefs, you're in a lot of trouble

anyway. And when you go through this 53 man roster, there are a lot of players who could end up on the field for this team, whether it's a backup defensive tackle, one more extra lineman, one more extra defensive back. Those guys could actually play in games versus if Jaron Hall plays, you're at extreme screwed levels and it doesn't really matter. So I don't know how they're going to approach it. I think either way, I would understand cutting him or not, because I still feel like if you cut him, teams are always more afraid than they should be of somebody else picking your guy up. How many teams at this point are looking around going, hey, I guess we really need another quarterback. I guess that Jared Hall guy would be great for us. There can't be too many teams that are looking for a quarterback three, and he's not really qualified to be a quarterback

two. I think he could pretty easily get to the practice squad. And then next year you have a legitimate backup competition with him and somebody else, assuming that they move on from Nick Mullins after this year and have JJ McCarthy as their starting quarterback. But I thought today he looked really comfortable and really threw the ball on time and accurately, which is what they've been looking for from him for these last couple of years in developing him. And that, that was just big for him making his case. Yeah. And the fact that we're even having this discussion speaks to how good of a game he had today, I think, and speaks

to kind of how much he's grown over the course of his NFL career to this point. If Jaron Hall came out there and looked like Matt Corral today, then we'd say they're going to cut him on Tuesday and he's going to get to the practice squad. And, you know, there wouldn't be any of that discourse. And the only reason we're talking about that is because to his credit in his big opportunity as we're calling it he balled out he performed really at a high level and we can split hairs and say well he was going up against you know this guy or that guy or whatever Cooper Dajin was out there when when Darren Hall and he was a first round pick I know he hasn't had much training camp, but it wasn't just a bunch of third,

fourth stringers out there either. So he, he performed at a high enough level, but I think your point about if someone's signing Jaron Hall, it's probably not to be their backup is probably a good way to frame this. Um, because at the end of the day, it would be someone poaching him off of your, you know, the waiver claim wire to be their third string quarterback, probably unrealistic

when you break down, cause that would take away another roster spot from another team. And presumably they have players on the back end that they want to hold on to so there probably is something to what you kind of said all along which is teams are more worried to lose their guys than they should be but I think that worry is probably just going to weigh enough with Kevin O'Connell who loves quarterbacks and really values knowledge of his system, I think on Tuesday when it rolls around, probably partially because of this game, but also largely because of just the knowledge he's had,

the growth he's made, I think Jaron Hall will be on the team. Yeah, when I did my 53, I said no to Jaron Hall being on the team, just because I thought they'll be able to get him through to the practice squad with no trouble. And I think I still kind of think that even though he had this game, uh, when there's preseason action, we always want to have bigger takeaways than maybe it is like he was always going to play. And the Eagles, even though they were playing Cooper Dijon, they weren't playing a lot of other guys. But what I thought was really good for Jaron Hall is if we're calling

it, making his case was that a lot of his good throws were legitimately good throws. They were, there was one to lucky Jackson where no one was around and there was a swing pass. He threw to, um, Dwayne McBride where no one was around and he went for like 20 yards, but there were also some very legitimate throws. I think my favorite of the day was when he whipped one to Nikhil Harry down the seam, and it showed a little bit of juice on the fastball when he was able to drop straight back, hit the back foot, throw on time, and hit Nikhil Harry down the seam. That's the type of pass that you would make in a real game.

That ball is open a lot, but it's not the easiest throw to make, and he was able to make that and hit him right there. And I think if Harry had kind of caught it a little bit more upright as opposed to falling backward, I mean, he might have run all the way for another 10 yards or a touchdown. That's a really good throw. The touchdown pass to Tristan Jackson, who we need to talk about, was another really good throw. That touchdown pass to Tristan Jackson, who we need to talk about, was another really good throw.

That's something in breaking across the middle. It's got to be timed out correctly. It's got to be accurate. And I just want to give Jaron Hall, either way, I don't know what they're going to do with him. I just want to give Jaron Hall a heck of a lot of credit for this entire time. Because sometimes when you get brought in as a draft pick, even if you're a late round pick and they talk

about yeah we're going to develop this guy we're going to give him his shot and then he actually gets to start a game that following season and i wondered about this early on in training camp is jaron hall going to be broken by this because they went and drafted another guy they brought back nick mullins they didn't cut him and you're just kind of QB for you are way down on that depth chart. And then his first appearance in the Raiders game, while he did get a game winning drive, it looks pretty gnarly in that first game. So then you get into the next game. He's a little better. And then this game, he was really terrific from the entire time that he was in there playing, not just in the third quarter, not just in the fourth quarter, but against the Eagles guys who were trying to make the team and handling it with that type of

professionalism, the way Kevin O'Connell talks about him. And he went out of his way through the entire training camp to bring up Jaron Hall as a piece of that quarterback room. And I feel like the dynamics of a quarterback room are important to have a kid who's pretty mature. I know that he's only in his second year, but I think he's like 26. So he's mature. He's learned the offense over two years. And those three guys along and McCarthy's going to be in there as well, have done this entire thing together with the offense. And that matters at least a little to trying to keep him around. So whether they do go two or three, I still feel like you could get him to the practice squad. I still feel like

if you get to the third quarterback on any team, you are in deep trouble with your season and it's probably pretty much over anyway, but should he have to be thrown into a random situation? You feel like he could at least execute the offense to some extent and it wouldn't be a complete atrocity and he could play NFL football. But I think we did see him make progression from where he was otherwise. So let's talk about the wide receivers. Interesting enough that they were playing all three of them that I considered fighting for one or two spots, which is Tristan Jackson, Trent Shurfield, and Lucky Jackson, who had a very good game today. Maybe toe tap that one, and we're talking about Lucky Jackson having a great game, a good punt return back there. Are you thinking five receivers?

Are you thinking six receivers what combination of those three guys do you think end up making this team because I don't think we got that answer based on playing time today since they were all out there yeah no I'm thinking six receivers and I've kind of just felt this like we'll just go through the list Justin Jefferson obviously Jordan Addison obviously Jalen Naylor did not suit up today because he's he's wide receiver three just an awesome training camp for that guy and then we get into like Brandon Powell he's making the team too so that's four which leaves spots for maybe one maybe two um I think Tristan Jackson like if he's not making the team what else does he have to do he's had an awesome training

camp all he does is ball out in practice he had a touchdown reception in each game and he just continues to flash and in and he's a guy who knows the system he's a guy everyone loves he's a guy who's had some NFL you know know, spot appearances here and there. Like I have him definitely making the team. So like with everything we've seen and if he doesn't make the team, I would be surprised. And, you know, frankly, a little bit like, what are we doing here? Because we, we take this entire sample size of training camp in the summer.

And if you're just taking that sample size, not many players have performed better than Tristan Jackson. So that's five right there, because if we're going Jefferson, Addison, Naylor, Powell, and Tristan Jackson, five, uh, and I, I I'm landing at six because of the way they just talk about Trent Shurfield, like just listen to Kevin O'Connell talk about Trent Shurfield. Like just listen to Kevin O'Connell talk about Trent Shurfield, just listen to Wes Phillips talk about Trent Shurfield. And, and I think it kind of tells you everything you need to know. They really liked that. He brings a different element to that receiver room. He brings a sense of physicality. He brings the willingness to block. Even Justin Jefferson

the other day said when asked about Trent Shurfield blocking, he said, well, somebody has to do it. And he laughed almost implying, well, I'm not going to do it. JJ is a complete receiver. He's willing to do all those things. But I think Trent Shurfield has a spot on this roster just because he offers something a little different. Um, i don't know how functionally that'll play out during the regular season if like trent surefield's on the field and you know they're running the ball like you better be a hell of a blocker if you're trent surefield because that might be kind of a dead giveaway that it's going to be a run but i've always kind of thought he has a spot too so then we're at six they're not going to keep seven. But Lucky Jackson, man, he he's he's had a good training camp, too.

He flashes during games. He's certainly separated himself from like all the other like conglomerate of random receivers that are also on this team. So like if Lucky Jackson doesn't make it simply because of numbers, it wasn't for like a lack of like good performances on his part. Um, I think even if he taps the toe today, he's probably on the outside looking in just because they can't keep seven receivers. Uh, maybe they'll, they'll shock me and do it. Um, but I think it's six and I think lucky Jackson's probably the odd man out there. The biggest thing with Trent Shurfield, aside from the toughness element that he brings, and he's got a lot of catches throughout his career, and he has played this type of role.

But also, if you look at his special teams history, he has played a ton of special teams, whereas Tristan Jackson has a lot less actual NFL experience than Trent Shurfield has. So that toughness element and that strength element shows up in having to tackle people sometimes having to block people sometimes, because if you're not the punt or kick returner, you're doing a lot of the grindy gritty work that Trent Shurfield has been willing to do throughout his career to keep him on an NFL roster.

I think that's been big for him even staying in the league. And that's something that I imagine Matt Daniels is going to want, but it's not like he can't catch the football. I mean, he's had a 30 catch season before in his career. So if they do stuff where they want to run the ball and have Trent Shurfield blocking, but well, they can also throw him the football and we've seen him make a number of

catches to your point about Tristan Jackson. So of course the best camps we've ever seen have come from stefan diggs and from justin jefferson but in this category of the battling for back end it's number one i have never seen a guy have such a good training camp in preseason who's battling for a four or five six spot as tristan jackson and I agree with you. If this doesn't get it done, then this all means absolutely nothing. And they decide before training camp, who's making the team. And I did think it was telling that Kevin O'Connell on the broadcast said that he was somebody that they identified back with the Rams in 2020. And they actually brought him to the Rams. He was on their practice squad. The Vikings ended

up picking him up when Zimmer was here and he survived the Zimmer and all the way to now this guy's been a leak for like five years fighting this fight to finally get his chance. I'd really like to see it happen. He is one of the most liked players on the team. I think he matters to that wide receiver room. They all seem to root for him a lot. Justin Jefferson excitedly talked about him the other day as someone who they're all kind of rooting for and cheering for, but the guy makes plays. He gets open. He tracks the ball. Well, he's somebody that if you had Jalen Naylor go out, no one's going to replace Jefferson. No one's going to replace Addison. Those guys are freak first round draft picks. They're in

a different category. Side note, Kenny Pickett. Wow. You really owe Jordan Addison for that first round bonus that you got because Kenny Pickett is awful. What are we talking about? How was this man a first round draft? Oh yeah. He, because Jordan Addison caught everything that year.

So the little hand quarterback from a pit did not look like a first round draft pick at all today, but Jordan Addison, really good. Aside from that though, what Jalen Naylor does, Tristan Jackson also does the kind of fast downfield guy, ball tracking stuff. And I think that there's different roles there for everybody. So there should probably be six. And I also don't think that lucky Jackson's a guy you would lose to anyone. Uh, he looks like somebody that you could keep around the practice squad, just going kind of through the positions here, the offensive line, um, Tyrese

Robinson, Michael Jurgens. I didn't, I didn't think there was any sort of big takeaway from the offensive line. So you kind of nodded that you agree there. How about on the defense? Lewis seen still out there in the last snap, not exactly the impact game he had against the Cleveland Browns. He committed, I think two penalties missed the tackle in there. It wasn't actually Lewis seen that raised an eyebrow for me that was still playing in the fourth quarter because I expected that. I did not think what he did last week was going to change anybody's mind after a three-year sample of seeing him. Jay Ward, though, playing deep into this game,

that made me wonder if Jay Ward is going to stick around in this defensive back group. Did you have the same thought or other takeaways about the defensive snap counts? Yeah. I guess we'll start with lewis scene like this is kind of a weird very very online like reference but there's this meme with tyra banks like yelling and it's a scene from america's next top model where she's yelling at one of her contestants saying we wanted this

for you we all wanted this for you and i think that's what Vikings fans are feeling right now with Lewis scene because everyone wanted him to string together another awesome performance and as we kind of tried to put water on that fire last week like he would have needed to have like 25 tackles today and three pick sixes to like I think really push himself over the edge I'm only exaggerating a little instead I think he had like two tackles. I'm only exaggerating a little. Instead, I think he had like two tackles. He was basically invisible, had a very like egregious missed tackle, and then followed it up with the pass interference penalty. I think it's done for him. I think we can stop talking about him.

I think your point about Jay Ward is correct. I've kind of felt this throughout training camp, that they're just, they want it for Jay war. The coaching staff wants it to give them every opportunity, bumped him down from safety to corner pretty much exclusively has played corner for the last three weeks. He got a pick today on a tip ball, but like the fact that he's out there,

I think probably means he is in that conversation of, okay, like you tell me which guy like when all the coaches stand on the table and say I need this guy like I think someone is going to need a ride pretty hard for Jay Ward because I think there's other guys out there Dwight McClothern who probably are ahead of him at this point with where they think you know they could ascend to at their point and you know at different points in their career Dwight McLeather had a great game last week and he had a sneaky good play this week it was a fourth down and he just aggressively kind

of comes in off the edge and he and he makes a physical tackle in the backfield to force a turnover on downs I think if you're Brian Flores you like seeing that this guy is a guy that you have talked about who has good ball skills well he's now he's showing the willingness to kind of go up there and be physical at the line of scrimmage I think Dwight McClothern's ahead of Jay Ward and the only other thing I thought that was a little bit interesting was that a Caleb Evans played kind of a lot um um are we sure he's not like a surprise cut candidate because like if you are going through the list of players that are going to make this team at cornerback you obviously have stefan gilmore shak griffin byron murphy jr but like then you start

to get in that group like b Brian Flores loves veterans he loves guys that have proven this Fabian Moreau seems pretty safe to me and then if you're you're you keep going down the list like if it's if you're only keeping five and it's between Caleb Evans and Dwight McClothern well maybe you just take a shot on the younger kid who he thinks a little bit more moldable I would still be a little bit surprised if a Caleb Evans was cut, but the fact that he was playing in the preseason finale, like that stuck out to me a little bit. And I, and I think it's possible that, that it might be the end of the road. We'll see here on Tuesday. And if I saw it correctly, uh, also Fabian Morrow was out there as somebody who has played a lot of football

in his career and they were still putting him out there in this preseason game now i know you have to play someone like you can't they have to play him but they could have started jay ward at corner and just said whatever let's just see how he could play and instead morrow was out there which made me think that they wanted to get a tiny bit of a look at a couple of things with him and maybe how far along he is with the defense. But there is a discussion now in the cornerback group of, is it McLaughlin and Evans or Morrow is McLaughlin still going to get cut. And they hope to get him through to the practice squad because McLaughlin didn't come out there until the other guys were already out there. But that might mean the opposite of what we think because of Caleb Evans being out

there as much as he was raises an eyebrow where you go, this is a guy who's played in the league now for several seasons. We've also seen by the way, uh, this coaching staff and this general manager cut an entire draft class because the was a 2021 class that had kellen mond wyatt davis and uh they they just cleared all those guys out that was the uh amir smith mar set and after camp they just said no you're all gone you're cut it's like the talk about the memes the homer simpson cut cut cut you're cut uh same kind of thing that might be the same with this 2022 class brian awesome was still out there playing a ton of reps at linebacker even though they've got a couple other linebackers that

they could have that they could play more and i still liked uh dallas gant again i think he's a guy that they want to make sure they keep on the practice squad but he's made plays in every one of these games even though he doesn't get a ton of opportunity in the actual practices because you're playing your other guys. I would be surprised that they cut Asamoah, but he sure played a lot. I'd be surprised if they cut Evans, but he sure played a lot today. And we know this from Kevin O'Connell, that that traditionally has not been a great sign for you.

And now with Stephon Gilmore, they have one extra spot there. Somebody's not getting on the boat in that cornerback group. And I'm not exactly sure who it's going to be, but if they cut a Caleb Evans, I would understand it because last year he got off to an okay start was playing all right. But then the way that he collapsed at the end of the season and what we've seen for him in training camp, and I know the type of receivers he's going up against. So it's not fair, but also when you play in the NFL, you play against guys like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Like a lot of teams have them. You're going to face Nico Collins and Stefan digs and tank Dell and Brandon. I, you presumably, and Debo Samuel, you're going to face all these guys. And if you're just getting roasted all the time, as he was throughout training camp,

I guess I would wonder if they saw that and said, you know what? We're just going to try again next time with young corners and stick with all of the veterans. How about Andre Carter was out there a ton. He was getting a sack at the very end. Andre Carter came along with a lot of intrigue last year as the undrafted free agent guy. You know, what else got a ton of work was Levi Drake Rodriguez, but I think it's for different reasons or maybe it's for the same reason because Andre Carter is a development type player who is supposed to be raw and they've brought along Levi Drake Rodriguez needs reps.

They, they praise the heck out of them. I still think he's going to make the team. But Andre Carter, I'm not as sure there was one time where he had a really nice strip sack to start the second half, but there were other times where he needed to stick somebody in the run game and they just pushed him out of the way and kept on moving. What do you think of the backend of that outside linebacker group with Andre Carter playing as much as he did? I don't see it with Andre Carter. I don't see a way or a road for him making the team

just because when you get to that back end of the outside linebackers room, that's like number 51, 52, 53 on the so you're you're kind of splitting hairs between other positions that might take precedent you know over the sixth edge rusher so like i think jihad ward's making the team for sure and i think patrick jones is making the team for sure and i think they might just be content to roll with five there and I've kind of felt that way throughout camp um watching Andre Carter like it is hard in in training camp to kind of decipher like how good of a practice an edge rusher defensive end has had and Andre Carter has made a number of plays throughout the preseason which matters like he was involved today and i think last week he was involved on a on a play that was maybe a safety but it ended up not being a safety

i think brian awesome wall got the tackle in the end zone in cleveland but andre carter generated the pressure he is a guy who kevin o'connell has kind of gone out of his way to praise you heard it on the broadcast today too when Kevin O'Connell was mic'd up he was talking about Levi Drake Rodriguez but he was also talking about Andre Carter and that goes back to the sometimes if you just listen to what these guys are saying they'll tell you so maybe Kevin O'Connell likes Andre Carter I just can't see a way that he makes the team given you know the the numbers crunch that you're going to be under on Tuesday but I do think that he the fact that he's playing so late in the preseason

finale isn't as good of a sign as it is for Levi Drake Rodriguez or doesn't mean the same thing I'm with you with Levi Drake Rodriguez he's a seventh round pick who you know you need to see more of because you didn't see a lot of him at texas a&m commerce and you don't know what he can really do so him getting a lot of reps is not the same as a guy andre carter who you invested a lot in as a udfa last year and it never really materialized and now you're still trying to see what you have in him late in the preseason finale. Those two things don't mean the same thing to me. And,

and I think it might end with Andre Carter getting caught on Tuesday. But I, the voice in the back of my head still thinks like, well, Kevin O'Connell keeps mentioning him. So if he keeps mentioning him, he must like him a little. Is that going to be enough to tip the scales?

I guess we'll see here in like 48, 72 hours. That is always the hard thing to figure out. Why is the guy out there? Is it because he is a developmental player and they think that he just needs these reps and they'd love to see him get some confidence. And if all goes right, I mean, think about the guys they have at edge rusher. Andre Carter's not playing this year. Special teams.

He could play a lot. I've seen him out there on a lot of the kickoffs and things like that, which could be a difference maker. I took it a little bit more the development way, even though I've have felt the same way as you, where I didn't see impact play in training camp all that much, but he has had some good moments in the preseason game. I guess I've got that one circled as I'm interested to figure this out. And then another thing too, is that we all wrote the story about Gabriel Murphy making an early impact as the UDFA and

look, they're doing it again with these UDFAs. And then Murphy gets hurt. We haven't heard boo about him since, uh, and Kevin O'Connell has not talked about whatever injury it is for Murphy. He's kind of deflected that one, which I think is interesting because he's usually, if it's a non-serious injury willing to say, Hey guys, don't worry too much about that one. Or if it's serious, they'll say, yeah, we're pretty sad that this guy's going to be out for a long time. And it hasn't been either one with Murphy, which makes you wonder what's happening there. But that makes me think that Carter makes the team because you would have your, your core four guys at Jihad ward started this game. I still have him on the team. Uh, he was in, in some of their third down packages against Cleveland, which made me think he was just playing to get a few

more reps in there at a certain position that he could even be somebody who mixes in on a certain type of package. And then Carter would be the guy after that. And I'm not sure who else would take that position unless they have a thought on Murphy coming back, but they would have had to have done a lot with very little with Gabriel Murphy, as far as seeing what he brought to the table and then putting him on the 53. But that's one that we're going to be watching very closely. Now let's talk about this kicker. Let's talk about this kicker. Will Reichard had one heck of a training camp and one heck of a preseason. His only miss deserves the finger quote miss because it's not really, it just got blocked when everyone fell down. But when everyone did not fall down, he made every kick and they sent

him out there for the 57 yard or bang right through with the 57 yard or, I mean, I think that will Reichard had a dream scenario training camp and preseason when you draft a kicker. I know that all of us, including me said, I don't love it. I know it's a sixth round draft pick, so I'm not going to assault anyone over it, but the history of drafting kickers isn't always great. I think Cade York was a fairly high draft pick. He just got traded. You saw this with Roberto Aguayo. There's been a lot of them that have been drafted and haven't worked out but as of this moment as of this moment he had maybe the best training camp in preseason that I have covered from any kicker start to the very end

with him kicking that 57 yarder today and I don't know where the questions came from about the leg strength because people made him sound like he was late career Gary Anderson if you need a 42 yard field goal you're great but if he has to kick it from far you're screwed that is not what we've seen in practice and that certainly wasn't the case there that one was good from 60 plus. Yeah. 57 yard field goal to cap it off. And he just bangs at home. It's a microcosm of camp so far. And I think the point about never draft a kicker. Like I generally skew on that side and that school of thought as well. Like don't draft a kicker.

You can find one. And Brandon Aubrey from the Cowboys, they just found him. He played soccer, and he's out here kicking 70-yard field goals. But if you're going to draft a kicker, it's really awesome that he had maybe, like you said, the best training camp that you can remember of any kicker. And I think I would agree with that. There's a lot of times, just to set the scene of training camp where we're standing there on the sideline we're watching a quote-unquote kicking competition unfold with whether it was Dan Bailey or Kari Vedvik or you know Daniel Carlson in the past and it's just okay like

some days it's like wow this guy's really good and some days it's like, wow, this guy's really good. And some days it's like they missed four field goals today. I think by my count, Will Reichert missed four field goals in practice, all training camp. It was, there were two missed field goals. What is day Saturday yesterday in the rain? Um, it was Thursday. There are two missed field goals Thursday. They had like a scrimmage type of thing and it was pouring rain. He missed two field goals there. He also missed two field goals like the first week of training camp. They were like 50 yard like bombs that, that he didn't bang home. But other than that, I think Kevin Seifert has been doing like a, like live tracking

of every single kick will records taken. i think he's like 32 of 36 which is significant like that's a big sample size all the kicks he's taking throughout training camp and he's nailing them i do need to see it in the regular season to fully believe it but there's no reason that you walk out of this training camp feeling anything but great about what the Vikings have with them at kicker right now. And you can't say that very often about this franchise. So I think it's significant. I thought it was fitting that the whole thing we got to see culminate with a 57-yard field goal today. I think they have a kicker that is going to be around for a really long time.

And I'm sure if things go sideways, someone will cut this clip up and I will be on freezing cold takes, but I don't care. I'm willing to go there. He's, he's special. I think he's, he's going to be someone who we look at as a guy who could probably have this job for, for job for a while. Trying to figure out based on training camp and preseason, if a guy is going to make 87% or 92% of his kicks is pretty hard.

But I think what we can clear out from an outcome is him making 67% of his kicks. We've seen enough to be able to say this guy is an NFL kicker at very least with just his pure talent for lacing the ball down the middle of the upgrades over and over and over and over again in training camp. His accuracy from 50 plus is exceptional. They should be able to trust him going out there. And the rest is hard to say. I mean, we knew, and Greg Joseph was a fine NFL kicker for the most part. He had some yips on those extra points, but he had a good training camp one year. I don't think it was this good, but it was pretty decent. And he went out and had a pretty average

season. Daniel Carlson, we saw him miss a lot in training camp back in 2018, and that carried over pretty quickly as well. So I'm willing to say that it's not absurd to suggest that Will Reichert can really do this at an NFL level and that they should have some confidence in him. And we're going to see what the gap is between the real games. And now the pressure certainly goes up from the fourth quarter of a game like this against Philadelphia to actually playing in Philadelphia or actually playing at U S bank stadium when everybody needs you to hit a 57 yard or to win a game. But the returns very good on will record and we'll have to see where it goes from here.

They should just walk out very, very happy. Now, uh, I want to get to some questions, comments. So if you want to throw some in, I going to scroll through uh in a moment but we need to discuss the highlight of the preseason oh my gosh hands down best moments of the preseason were today when kevin o'connell was on the mic i thought this was a tremendous idea from vikings entertainment to get him on the microphone and i figured that O'Connell, because he just loves explaining and talking about football and he's really good as a talker that this would be great. But what I didn't anticipate, I thought he was just going to walk away, give the headset to somebody else, just do the interview and answer PA's questions. No, he's coaching the game. I did not expect him to continue to coach the game. And it was just tremendous.

The challenges he's taken us through the hit on Jaron Hall, where he's trying to mute the microphone. We're hearing him talk to the referee. We're hearing him get worked up. And then him saying, all right, guys, this, we got to watch number 47 on the other side, that linebacker 57. He's the one that could blow up this play. Oh, we didn't get that block. Like watch that. I need Kevin O'Connell coaching the game and broadcasting all the time. That was a great idea, super well executed. And I thought it brought us inside the game as much as anything that any broadcast has ever done. It was phenomenal. It was, it was awesome television. And that's not something you say very often in the preseason finale after halftime but I had this that moment circled from the moment it was

announced this week because you just knew he was going to be good he's so good at talking he's very eloquent with the way he can describe football but he even exceeded my expectations with how good he was, you know, at times, because I thought it was kind of a toss up. It's a, you know, this or that debate for which was better. Like, was it better watching him just like call plays in real time, you know, say, Hey, watch what's going to happen here. Like everyone fell in love with how Tony Romo was doing it like when he was kind of the the darling of of media broadcasting

but Kevin O'Connell was like a step further like in the way like the intricacies that he would describe Tony Romo would just guess I think it's gonna be a fade here and then it would be and everyone's like oh my god like Kevin O'nell is giving high level breakdowns of what's happening in real time to people who like will never have this like throughout the season obviously so it was such a cool moment but i thought the coolest moment was probably just watching him interact like with people that are around him in his like actual space like his arena I thought there was going to be like you a moment where he just took a step to the side and said yeah like let's I'm mic'd up I'm gonna hang out here on the 20 like no he was right in his arena the whole time and I thought it was tremendous television

I tweeted it when Jaron Hall got lit up on a play that probably should have drew a flag at the very least it's like don't do that if you're the defender that guy comes in like a missile and and nails him you know in the red zone and I thought Kevin O'Connell was going to swear on camera instead he says give me a second guys basically rips his headset off and goes over and talks to the referee i thought that was really cool it was cool to see it kind of in real time because we see it you know occasionally in practice we can see him get fired up but just like to to get a real peek behind the curtain of what it's like to watch him you know on the sideline you know when we're in the press box

we can see like he looks animated here he's going to challenge this play but we can't hear the discussions that are actually happening so I thought it was it was really cool I would love if they did that like once a preseason I would circle it on the calendar because I thought he was awesome I think that's something they need to continue to try and capitalize on moving forward. You're not going to get in the regular season, obviously. It's too important. But there's a real opportunity there, and he was really good at it.

The only feedback I would give them, and I would have done the same thing, so this is not a criticism, but once it was going the way it was going, don't even ask him questions. Yeah, stop talking. Yep. Just let him do color analysis down from the sideline just just call the game and then let him talk because trying to mix in hey what do you think of tristan jackson what do you think of matt corral i thought that made it

he couldn't really get a complete answer out because there was always something popping up and that's what i mean i didn't know he was going to be continuing to coach the game, but him coaching the game and just talking you through what he was seeing. He took us through how it works when there's a challenge that he's talking to Ryan Cordell, who's their past game coordinator and their game management specialist, I think is his official title. So he's up in the box and Kevin says over his headphones, Hey, what happened there? Was he, did he get there? And then Ryan Cordell is saying down to him, no, you know, he didn't get there. We got to challenge it, throw the flag. So of course we always are criticizing coaches for their decisions on throwing the challenge flag, but this is a full coaching staff effort of how they go about it.

And I think that's one of the things that a lot of people make their brands on criticizing coaches and stuff like that. And we all, we all do this in games, but you see how much of an effort for the full coaching staff it is. You also got just a little taste of the chaos that's going on because he's talking about, and I loved every moment of this, by the way, he's talking about these, what Ivan Pace is like out on the field, get them off the field. Like where's our, where's our coach. That's supposed to keep these guys off the field. There's so many things happening.

And for him to be able to hear the calls in one ear, hear PA in the other ear and focus on both things was so impressive because I don't know how you do that. I can, I could not do that. I mean, my wife who does play by play, she has a producer pop in her ear while she's doing play by play, tell everyone to go to break and stuff like that. I don't even know how she does that much less to hear the actual broadcast and Wes Phillips and be able to say, all right, here's what Wes is calling here. Here's what we're trying to accomplish on this play. You know, those types of things. That was something that I've never seen before on a broadcast. And I think that the Rams did it.

I just didn't catch it with McVay, but it, it offered a window into all the things that are happening at once. All the people who are coming over and saying something to KOC, here's what we got going on different guys. They're trying to get in the game. Different things they're accomplishing. And I even love the part where he said, you know, I'd really like Ryan Wright to be able to pin him down there. Because possession matters and ball position still matters. And I also thought after Ryan Wright shanked one that it might have been on his mind. I'd really like you to bounce back here because I think they're still on shaky

ground with the punter. And I also wonder if they're going to look at any other punters who get cut down, but that type of stuff is there's only one person who can give it to you. And it's the head coach of the team, this type of insight. And for them to be able to pull that off, the audio was good,

which I wondered about. Sometimes you see coaches in in-game interviews and you can't hear them or they're not paying attention. And so for him to do that, and it seemed like he was putting in the effort, like I'm going to actually take you through what's happening here. It was just great.

But like he would even, like when asked about Levi Drake Rodriguez, immediately steer it back to football. Like he was steering us back to the good stuff on, you know, in real time. And one, I think that's probably how his brain is wired, like during like the actual game. Like when he has calls in his ear and he has questions being asked, like the calls take precedent. So he probably wants to talk about what's actually going on in his brain. But I thought it was cool just watching him totally be willing to like, let the guard down and give us that insight. And I thought it was if fans haven't seen it, like it's literally worth going back and watching the entire third quarter,

because it was that good. And I don't think we ever say that about these on-the-field interviews that happen during games. No disrespect to Harrison Smith, but you didn't have to go back and watch him talk to PA last week when he was on during the game against the Cleveland Browns. Kweisi Adafamensis, same way. Justin Jefferson, same way. They caught him in a cool

moment in week one where he got to watch his best friend catch a touchdown but other than that it wasn't high level like we you need to go back and watch Kevin O'Connell's was and I I'll stress it again like they got to figure out a way to do this again like next preseason every preseason game like Kevin O'Connell doesn't care about the preseason like he does but I'm saying that a little bit tongue-in-cheek but like I think you could get him to do this I think you could convince him to do it because I think he enjoys this a little bit like he's giving play calling duties to Wes he's obviously coaching the football team but I think there is like an avenue to make this not just a one-off thing. I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did because I want to see this again.

And, uh, I think it matters to Kevin O'Connell and he said this before. And I, I think I know this to be true that it matters. Hit the connection between the team and the fans. And I think he felt like this is an opportunity for me to bring the fans who are watching a little bit more inside of my world and inside the game. And every coach is going to say, we love our fans, but when you do something like this and put in the effort and not just try to

blow off PA and answer stuff off of whatever cue card or whatever, you know, really do it though, really engage in it. I think it does say that he cares about the fans feeling like they have that connection to the team. So a plus across the board. That's I think that they should absolutely do that again. Let me get to some questions, comments for about 10 minutes or so. I think it would be absurd to go more than an hour on a preseason game when it's 85 degrees out and the fair is going on for everybody so but look at this talk about the fan we have a huge audience here right now which is amazing

how jacked are every single one of you about football it's almost here it's almost here we're almost there but we're but i i can't make you stay for more than 10 minutes on a nice day like this that would just be wrong. So let's get a few questions in or comments. Sean says, I lean toward letting Hall go to the practice squad. Would suck to lose him, but there are too many defensive end, interior D, or even wide receivers that need to be protected. That's my point, Dane.

No disrespect to Jaron Hall. I think he was great today and he's handled this like a complete pro, but there's just too many other guys that I could see either developing that you want to keep around or just making an impact this season. Yeah, I agree with that. Like my takeaway of like, do I think he's going to be on the roster is kind of through the prism of like, how do I think Kevin O'Connell is going to think? If I was putting together a roster, I would just take the risk because I agree. There are people in that tier of player where you are cutting down between, you know,

52, 53, 54th man, like that could probably make a bigger impact now and later for the, you know, this franchise as a whole. So if I was choosing, I would put Jaron Hall, hope to sneak him onto the practice squad. I just think that the head coach at the end of the day, loves his quarterbacks, loves and values knowledge in the system. And so that's why I'm going to have him on. Zoomer Kev says, do preseason wins speak more to coaching or depth?

The answer for me is neither. I have never cared about a preseason record. I never will care about a preseason record. When they went 13-4, I think they lost every single preseason game. And had they lost all of of these i would not have even brought up the score i think did we even bring up the score so far today it doesn't matter at all this is entirely about what the preseason says about the certain players and it's about confirming things that you see in camp like reicher kicking field goals when he's been very good in training camp and maybe trying to figure out and unearth what they're thinking

about certain guys for cut down day. But it's not about results very much for me. Definitely not at all. And I don't think that it says anything really about whether you have good coaching or depth. I that's just the preseason is so meaningless to so many coaches, including we're talking about Kevin O'Connell being on the broadcast. Like, is he trying to win the game? I guess like he was trying during the moments he was on, but if he had lost, I don't think he would have been heartbroken to have lost the game. I've never seen him upset after a preseason loss before or any other coach. These are exhibitions to try to get a look at some depth and i also don't think it speaks to depth because the first line of defense all of your starters they will determine whether you win or lose all

the football games in the regular season and your second line are not even playing that much in these games those guys will also have some role and it's it's a smaller one but some role in how you play in the regular season but those guys are only getting a handful of snaps during these situations. Actual meaningful backups like Jalen Naylor, who is a role player, wide receiver three, that guy's sitting today. So I just can't take any part of this seriously from a results perspective. I kind of usually like to focus on what it means about a player to like we've talked about with Jaron Hall.

Yeah. And I think Jaron Hall is a good example of why preseason doesn't matter. Like do the Vikings like the fact that the score was 26 to three? Did they like that they won the game? Yeah, I'm sure they were happy, but if Jaron Hall looked like he did in the first half and Matt Corral came in and threw nine pick sixes and they lost by 50, I think they'd still walk away feeling pretty good about this preseason game because of what they saw from Jaron Hall. So does not matter. I think everyone within that locker room would agree does not matter. Who cares about the preseason results? And all that matters is what you see on the field in the exhibitions that we talk about. A couple of things regarding the wide receivers. Janet says, can sure field take a tight end spot? Um, Chris says maybe trade Powell and gets draft. He says draft picks. That would be incredible if they got draft picks for Brandon

Powell. And, uh, zoomer Kev says, I assume they want Thayer Thomas to stick around. So just in order there, they could put TJ Hockinson on IR to return. This is something new that you can do. You used to have to have the guy on the 53. Then you could put him on the shorter term IR. Now you can do it on cut down day so you can keep him. It's like having a 54th player. They're going to do that, I'm almost sure, with Hockinson. So in a way, Shurfield does sort of take up a tight end spot, having six wide receivers,

and they can push that decision on the receivers down the road. I would not trade Brandon Powell. I like Brandon Powell. We ran into this a few years ago when Madison was Cook's backup, which is the right role for him, where he, people wanted to trade him. I don't know like what we think we're getting back for trades for a guy like that, but you'd rather just have a veteran player who's good and who can play for you. It could be your punt return, or he could be a wide receiver in certain situations. You're not getting anything for him. A conditional seventh players like that are everywhere across the NFL. And as far as Thayer Thomas practice

squad is a possibility, I know they talked about him quite a bit. I didn't see much from Thayer Thomas this year that made me think, Oh yeah, you have to find a spot for this guy really anywhere, but maybe practice squad ends up being the thing for him. Yeah, I could see Thayer Thomas sneak into the practice squad. You don't even have to sneak him to the practice squad ends up being the thing for him. Yeah, I could see Thayer Thomas sneak into the practice squad. You don't even have to sneak him to the practice squad. You could cut him and sign him to the practice squad without anyone putting up a fight. I think they like him enough. I think he could stick around.

I think Lucky Jackson and Thayer Thomas would be a couple of good practice squad receivers for you. It could give you a nice look, but i don't know how strongly they actually feel about a guy like that i think they like him but i don't think it would break their heart either to kind of just say like thanks for the past two years buddy um going back to brandon powell real quick i think fans just like the idea and this probably comes from like the culture of playing madden growing up or 2k like where you just think you can trade guys that you don't want for like assets in the future. I do this sometimes like on when I would play 2k, I'd be like,

well, let me trade my 10th, 11th and 12th man for a first round pick in 2026. And then the computer AI is so dumb. They would say, yeah, that sounds great. Um, real humans are smarter than the Madden video games we play. No one's giving you anything of value for brandon powell and if they're willing to give you a seventh round pick like brandon powell is probably more valuable than that conditional seventh round pick based on all the things he does so yeah if someone was like we'll give you a third round pick for brandon powell i think they would rush to the phone and make the deal, but that's not possible. Okay. Let me ask this though. If there is a position where they look for help, whether it's

picking up somebody else's player that they drop or look for some sort of trade, what position do you think that would be at? Offensive line. I think that if there is a surprise cut interior lineman who's played a little bit of football or has some experience under their belt, I think they would bring that guy in to compete with Ed Ingram for that right guard spot. Ed Ingram was playing football last week against the Cleveland Browns. I think they want to like Ed Ingram. I think they've put a lot into Ed Ingram with hopes that he could develop into something. But I still think that there are question marks about Ed Ingram. So if I don't know, I couldn't name you a guy.

But if a guy with X amount of games started under his belt gets cut on Tuesday, I could see them deciding to at least, you know, do some recon on the guy, maybe consider bringing him in because I still think the interior offensive line needs a little bit of help. It always needs a little bit of help. It's a recurring theme for this franchise pretty much since I've lived here over the past 15 years. And it's a theme once again this year. So yeah, offensive line is probably where I look if they decide to bring in a guy that gets cut on Tuesday. On day one of training camp, it looked a lot better for the depth of the offensive line than it does right now. Because you thought that, oh, well well dan feeney and dalton reisner will be solid veteran backups

who will maybe push ed ingram but reisner and feeney both banged up and we just didn't see a whole lot of either one of them and then the backups in tyrese robinson has had his moments michael jurgens i think has looked okay out there, but may not have the strength at this moment to play in the NFL for more than a game or two. That's going to need to be developed over the next couple of years. They're very short at that position, especially if you need a backup center. And if they're going to cut Feeney or even if they keep him around, but he's still banged up because we saw him at training camp,

just kind of walking around, not doing anything, uh, wasn't in the padded practice. So are you, you know, is he healthy enough to play week one? Is it just a precautionary thing or are they happy with him as far as a

backup? That's hard to know. Reisner does not feel like he's going to be here going forward. That is kind of a fall from somebody we thought's going to be here going forward that is kind of a fall from somebody we thought was going to compete for a job and never did and Ingram his two preseason games were nothing short of horrendous and I don't know that that projects to the regular season we were just talking about how little they care maybe he was annoyed to be playing out there but that's just a fact of the matter through two games i believe he was the lowest graded pass blocker by pff through those two games at guard which kind of tracks with the

whole rest of his career yeah it i totally agree they need to look for somebody uh okay just real quick have to throw this one out here from sizzleman stop with the kicker hype gary anderson made every kick until it mattered. Wait, what happened? Wait, can you explain this to me? The great kicker, Gary Anderson? He had made every kick until when? That didn't happen. I don't know what you're talking about.

If the record was Gary Anderson, that would be good. That would be good. One of the greatest kickers of all time. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it, Vikings fans. I get it. gary anderson that would be good that would be good greatest kickers of all time yeah if i get it i get it i get it i get it vikings fans i get it ptsd with the kickers but we can hype up a guy like this guy looks like he's legit and i'm sure everyone will say like i told you so if he's not told you i'm willing to stand on that i think he's going to be a really good kicker in the league if he was gary anderson vikings fans would be so lucky uh yeah it's one of the best ever um but also by the way

just gonna toss this out there you could be born after that happened with gary anderson and rent a car it's just that's how long it's been you are old enough to rent a car. That's how long it's been. You are old enough to rent a car. Will Reichard was born five years later when this happened. I'm not saying let it go because I know that all of you will never let it go who saw it happen in 1998. And oh yes, I do actually know what happened in 98 for any of you who didn't

pick up on the sarcasm there but but you know who doesn't until you tell them is anyone who's 30 years old even you would have maybe not even been old enough to remember it at this point having actually seen it because i was only 12 so if you were if, if you were 30, you'd be four. That's, uh, that's where you'd be right now. I, I understand how something hurt you, but it doesn't really project anything about Will Reichardt, uh, or have any impact on Will Reichardt unless there are, um, multiple dimensions. And one of them had something happen in another dimension that twisted Vikings kickers to make them miss at the biggest times. You know, what's funny is when Greg Joseph makes a 60 yard game winner or Kai Forbath makes one in the Minneapolis miracle to

allow it to be possible. Everyone's like, who cares? We don't think about those. The clutch kicks since Blair have been fine, I think. And, uh, you know, I just don't think it has any impact on a kid who's maybe 23 years old, who has had a really good training camp. Let's do this. Put the final word on preseason and training camp. It's over. It's all over. We're going into cut down day. There's not that much intrigue of cut down day as in big names that could be gone or big trades that could be made. So we have a 95% confidence on what this team is. So give me your total takeaway of all of it. You said final word. I'm going to say four words. Thank God it'm gonna say four words thank god it's over like thank god it's over and i mean that like because thank god september 8th will be here before we know it but also like

thank god the past two months are over because this has been like an incredibly trying time for this franchise and i think once games start like you can kind of start the process of, of turning the page on all of it. And I'm not saying like, let's forget Kyrie Jackson this season. Like, let's let him like his memory live on. Like, let's like celebrate him throughout the year. But I think like, thank God it's over is what I'm going with because I am excited for us to actually be able to turn the page and not talk about how hard of a training camp it's been. And I think the Vikings deserve credit for the way they've navigated this really, really hard training camp, which started with unspeakable tragedy. But I think like now we get to kind of move forward in a way that you get to start kind

of seeing the fruits of your labor for all the hard work you've put in and all the things you overcome over the last two, two months. So thank God it's over September 8th. We'll be here before we know it. And I cannot wait for that. That's a really good summation. I'll put it this way. The tragic thing that happened with Kyrie Jackson started off training camp in such a way that you could feel everyone carrying that. And I think through the entire season, they still will be carrying that with them. And then I don't want to put them in the same category of just say this happened and this happened and this happened, right? Because a player passing away is in so much of a different life space for everyone is

so much more of an impact thing to everyone's psyche and everyone's emotion. When you meet a guy who's joining your team. He's an exciting young player. And then to have him pass away the way that he did, that's something that will shake you to your core. Unlike an injury where you go, all right, the guy's coming back. So put that one in its own. It's it's just on its own. The other things that happen, Mackay Blackman getting hurt, JJ McCarthy getting hurt. Those also would have a real shaking element to everybody inside the building. And those will be remembered as these bad things that happened during training camps. Like, oh, then they lost Blackman and then they lost JJ McCarthy. And that was supposed to be your top corner. And that was supposed to be

your quarterback who was going to come in and be so exciting at some point during the season. And that left a black cloud over the entire thing, but a lot of other things for them. So this is kind of like saying outside of Gary Anderson's kick 98 went fine, but this is, this is true that many other things for them went the best way they could have gone. And I mean, the way Sam Darnold performed during training camp, his connection with Justin Jefferson, Addison's banged up, but it's not maybe that serious. The players that we saw emerge, how Dallas Turner looked, how some of the players on defense looked, being able to add someone of Stefan Gilmore's caliber at the last moment and feeling like

Ivan Pace might be ready to take another step. The interior of the defensive line, getting Levi Drake Rodriguez, but also Jerry Tillery had a very good training camp and seeing someone like Theo Jackson emerge and seeing someone like Will Reichert emerge. A lot of players have had really good training camps and they are maybe in the best possible position outside of Blackman and outside of JJ McCarthy. But McCarthy wasn't going to swing the win-loss record, I'm guessing by a lot.

And Gilmore replaces Blackman. Aside from that, you have about the best version of your team that you were going to get for week one. And then Jesus take the wheel after that so we'll see what happens but it was kind of a a two-pronged thing if we put kairi jackson understandably aside like yeah that the injuries were to two of the players you would have said please don't injure that player uh take anyone else's ACL or anyone else's meniscus, but not those guys. And that's how it turned out.

But the rest, a lot of very good things happened for this team that bode well for the immediate and for down the road as well. So that's how I'm going to leave it. And then Tuesday when there's the cut down day, it is Tuesday. Yeah. Then we'll do a reaction.

And I think Thursday is when the brass is going to speak. So we'll react to that as well and chat with all you guys have plenty of interviews and different things this week. So it is an exciting time to be ready for some football. Dane Mizutani. Thank you so much. Please go do something with your day. That isn't talking about a preseason game.

And I suggest all of that for you guys as well. So thanks so much for watching slash listening, and we will see you all very soon. Football.