Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles breaks down Donovan Jackson's game

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles to discuss the Vikings' pick of Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson, and how he fits on Minnesota's offensive line.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here and well, wait a minute. I shouldn't call it another episode. This is not just another episode. This is the episode that you've been waiting for for many, many years. Jeremiah Searles Tuesday morning left guard is here. Former Minnesota Viking offensive lineman who is a begged, pleaded, gotten on his knees, reached up to the sky and prayed, draft a guard,

fix the offensive line. And Jeremiah, we made it. We're like the end of Shawshank Redemption where he comes out of the sewer and he's looking up to the skies. The Vikings drafted Donovan Jackson. Can you believe it? My friend? It I didn't at first.

At first I thought I was being punked right. Every I was like, no, no, that he must be a receiver from some school that I've never heard about, right? Like just some perceiver that snuck into the first round. And then as it popped up on the screen, left guard, Ohio state, it really just continued to give me so much more faith and trust in this organization. Right? Kevin O'Connell, after the last game, was so pissed off. He was so mad. More emotion than we may have ever seen from him since his entirety of year. And he knew that the problem was we got pushed around up front. They got to our quarterback. We had an issue. And from that moment on, him and Quasi have had a mission, and it was fix the offensive line. We have the best receiver in the

world. We've got weapons all around. We need to shore up a weak point that I finally wrap my brain around that has become a problem. We're going gonna move on from Bradbury. We're gonna sign Ryan Kelly and Will Fries, and we're gonna draft guy, we're gonna revamp the entire interior of our offensive line, and then we're gonna make a run, and we're gonna go for it.

I love that they stayed on brand, they stayed on message, they continue to have everything going through. There was a lot of shiny toys sitting there at 24 they could have went and grabbed, and they went meat and potatoes and said, no, guy that's played a ton of big 10 football has some tackle flex. If we need them to plug and play starter day one.

So I was investigating offensive linemen who are rookies who come in and start in their first year. And it is a mixed bag. It is a very difficult thing to do to be a difference maker. But the thing for me with Donovan Jackson, we could get into his entire game, what you see and all that sort of stuff. But just from a bigger picture perspective is that every one of those performances comes along with context.

If you are drafting a rookie offensive lineman to just save your bacon, I think that's really difficult for that guy to come in and just be like, okay, the offensive line room belongs to me, but to fix the last remaining hole there. And I also think another part of it too, is when we talk about it, and we do talk about it as fixing the offensive line, but I think that there's a different way to put it, which is creating a difference making offensive line. If you have no clear distinct weakness,

that makes a huge difference right away because there's no player that the other team just goes into is like alright let's attack you know this guy whatever guy it might be on a given year the Dakota Dozier is the Tom Compton's like this is how we're gonna do it last year they they had so many times where we were just watching stunts and twists guys flying up the middle at Sam Darnold. Well, that just became a heck of a lot harder. I think that they really did, even as him as a rookie put a guy into a position where he could succeed right

away and where he can make this at very least an average position right away, which is a massive difference from having one of the poorest performing left guards in the NFL. Yeah. And it's more of maybe fixed. Like you said, isn't that a word of more of an upgrade? Right. And with a left guard that is a rookie, do I think he's going to be better than Blake Randall starting day one? Probably not.

Right. But the upside and the ceiling at which he could become is what you draft a guy at 24 overall for you draft a guy and you go, OK, I'm going to pair this dude next to a top 3 or 4 left tackle in the NFL in Christian Derisaw. I'm going to put him next to a veteran center that has seen all, been through all, will be able to make sure that he is mentally where he needs to go every single play, and then just let him grow. Right? Understand that it's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster at first, as it is with any rookie offensive lineman. But just stay with him. Give him the trust. Give him the ability, because he has all the physical ability to do it in the world. It's just a matter of can he come in quickly, because this is the part

that I don't think the general public really understands. These rookies will not show up for another two weeks. Like they can't, they'll all come in for rookie mini camp and then they'll go home for a week and then they'll all come back. They don't start with the team until the middle, like the third week in May. That's not a lot of time considering they go home the third week in June. Right. They have one month of summer to come in and all the vets have already been there for an entire month. They don't like him because they come

to take your job, right? There's, and you're trying to learn, like, Where do I park my car? Where do I go eat food? Like, there's just so much going on. And then you get this 3-week summer because rookies stay a week late and they repeat a week early. It's just a matter of how fast can he pick up the learning curve? I mean, physically, he can do it. I have no doubt about that. It is so much about rookie offensive linemen is can you put it on between the ears before we get to week one? Well, and I think, uh, so, uh, as far as that learning curve, it is a massive challenge, this is why I've been arguing a lot that JJ McCarthy is not a rookie. They don't say that because he has so many experiences that even though they

aren't on the field, they are getting in the building, knowing your teammates, having your teammates know you as a human being, uh, and knowing how to communicate with you, knowing the offense, not just getting the playbook. I think it is, uh, nine days from now where the rookies are going to show up for rookie mini camp and it is a very compressed schedule for them. Plus from the physical element of getting ready for the combine and to, you know, team like Ohio state went late into the college football playoff to

win the national championship. So there is a lot that this guy is going to have thrown at him. The thing about Blake Brando that's interesting to me is that there are other guards throughout our history of covering this team that the fans have really latched onto and blamed for everything all the time. But Brando's numbers are very similar to a Dakota Dozier to it. Probably worse than a Tom Compton. He really was that weak point. I think it's because the first impression was pretty good.

The first couple of weeks were okay when he was with Christian Darasaw. But as the season went along, that was the guy that they targeted week in and week out. And he finished in the bottom five and pressures allowed. So Donovan Jackson to be an upgrade, as you mentioned, does not have to be one of the five best offensive guards in the NFL. He's just got to be hovering around average, maybe even a little below average and you're still making a serious

impact. But then the other point is that Brando had Cam Robinson, who was just coming in, Garrett Bradbury, and the setup for Donovan Jackson is a lot better than him. So I want to give me the nitty gritty on Donovan Jackson's game. I remember we talked about this a little bit a few weeks ago, just going through some of the linemen. The thing that stuck out to me was at the combine when he was just doing drills. I was like, man, this dude really moves like he like fluidly, not not like, oh, just fast in the 40 or something like that. But you look at that. I don't know how to describe it.

Fluidly is the only way like flexibility or just natural kind of athletic skill. I think he's got a lot of that, but you know how to watch these guys better than I do. Yeah, you know Donovan for me, he's a guy that I've actually watched for multiple years now because he started so many games at Ohio State. And he's a guy that fits our scheme. You know, we're talking like a Tyler Booker, right? Can he run? Can he get up on space? Can you do those things? Donovan can do all those things in spades. The thing I love about Donovan's game is his ability to stay in front of people in the pass protection world, right? He is very good at what I call winning with your feet, right? So many times offensive linemen want to win with their upper body, right? I want to strike and I want to grab and I want to just kind of hold on until the ball's thrown. Donovan's a

little bit different in that he is pretty good with his hands. That's something he's going to need to get a lot better with. But his ability to stay in front of people with his feet, understanding, Hey, I'm not going to overextend and lean out here. I'm going to shuffle my feet and get back in front of him. And that goes back to what you saw at the combine of he's a fluid mover in his feet, right? He knows how to move with his ankles, his knees and his hips, keep himself level and not overextend himself. Because anytime an offensive lineman overextends himself with their upper body, that means that their back legs are going straight, and then it's really hard to move. He understands his center of gravity very well. He continues to move and he knows how to not give up his edges. Right? So that's something that I loved about him in his game. You

know, the things that he needs to improve on a little bit are second level blocking, right, getting up on and staying latched. I mean, linebackers in the NFL are much different than linebackers in college. They're really good at shocking and shedding and they're much faster and using their angles. But that's just going to come with time and staying attached. But he is absolutely an upgrade in the pass protection just from an athletics ability with the type of three techniques that we're seeing. He's just going to have to get better and faster with his hands. The relative athletic score, putting him in the 90th percentile at his position, you could definitely see that when you watch him play. And what I didn't really realize as we were leading up to the process, we talked about Booker, we talked about Zabel, probably more than we talked about Donovan Jackson, because I wasn't sure if he was going to be viewed as quite the same level as a

first round prospect or if he was more of a second round guy. But even if the Vikings reached a little, they didn't have a second round pick. So they needed to get him at that point. But what I did not know was just how impressed everybody was with his story of going from left guard to left tackle. I mean, throughout the season where we all watch Ohio state and like, oh, okay. Some other guys in it left tackle and like, he's a freak athlete. Of course you should be able to do it.

They just go do the thing. But when they made that decision, they came to him, they knew he was a first second round caliber prospect at guard. And so Ryan day, his offensive line coach as well came to him. They knew he was a first second round caliber prospect at guard. And so Ryan day, his offensive line coach as well came to him and they said, look, we know that this might mess up your draft status. If you play horribly at left tackle, but would you mind just playing left tackle? I know you've never done it before. You've certainly never practiced it before it.

Oh, uh, Abdul Carter is the next guy you're going to face, but could you just maybe, you know, do the thing. And he said that he took a couple of days to think about it because it's a very serious thing with your future on the line. But by the end of the season, he was top notch in pass protection in the college football playoff playing against the best competition. And he's grading above average. I think in the, in the whole college football playoff, he gave up one pressure in three games. Just explain from your perspective as a gentleman that has played all the positions on the offensive line. Like, how hard is that to do?

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60% off your first box. Tempolemeals.com slash purple insider. Rules off your first box. Temple meals.com slash purple insider rules and restrictions apply. Yeah, you know, hearing that story and watching it unfold in real time, I always get nervous when I watch guys do that. A guy that comes to mind is Isaiah Adams out of Illinois a couple of years ago.

He was a right guard. They moved him out to tackle, did not go well. I think he actually fell probably around compared to what he should have got drafted to the Cardinals in two years ago. And so when I watched Donovan Bop out there, I kind of actually fell probably around compared to what he should have got drafted to the Cardinals in two years ago. And so when I watched Donovan Bopp out there, I kind of had that PTSD feeling. I'm like, Oh, I really hope this guy didn't screw himself. But what you saw with him is he got better and better each week at left tackle.

Right. And to switch that position, not during spring ball, not during training camp where it's like, Hey, we'll sprinkle you in there for a few. I mean, that was true. Throw you in the room, light the thing on fire and say, you'll get out or you'll die. Right. It's one of the two things that are going to happen. And I think why he rose to that first round is because you saw the

improvement in his game, week in and week out after he moved out there, which tells the NFL his best football still out in front of him. Right. And if you can draft a guy that goes, man, he was a first-rounder, second-rounder caliber at left guard, he bumped out to left tackle, probably could have been a day two pick at left tackle if we wanted him to. That's the type of guy that has first-round talent. That's how you move yourself up into the first round because you show that the

needle is pointed straight up with your production and your growth. Why wouldn't we want to bring a guy in here? But it's an incredibly hard thing to do from a timings perspective, from a space perspective, right? A guard you're used to playing in a porta potty. I think someone put that in for not a phone booth anymore, right? You're just playing in a porta potty. Everything's close. Also, you got to tackle and you've got space and you're dealing with the edge guys like Abdul Carter and you're like, okay, timing, there's he's five yards away from me at the snap. The ball is not right here. All that just throws a wrench in. But it goes back to my original point. He learns how to win with his feet.

And if you can win with your feet, you can play at any position on the offensive line. Because as soon as they do get within that striking distance, it's just like playing guard. It's just like playing center tackle. Once they get into your vicinity, then it's about winning with your feet in your hands. And once he figured that out at left tackle and he was locking everybody down. You know, I asked him what he learned from that playing in left tackle just about what he can apply to guard because you're hoping is the Vikings that he never has to have any situation where he would play left tackle. There's about four guys that have to get hurt in order for him to do that at this point. But he said that he never has to have any situation where he would play left tackle. There's about four guys that have to get hurt in order for him to do that at this point, but he said that he came to understand pass protection better because of that. And I think guards now have to play like tackles sometimes because you see all these different schemes. I mean, one of them is taking that wide nine guy and just sending him straight

up the field and you're like, where's he headed? And then somebody else is swinging around like another linebacker or something and they're putting the guard in space. And what you see is a lot of the guards, the Vikings will do this with like Blake Cashman or something. They'll send him off the edge and then Grenard gets on the guard. Jonathan Grenard on the guard is uh-oh for the guard, Jonathan Grenard on the guard is, uh, for the guard. Like, uh, what do I do against this guy? And that's how. Granada ends up with 80 pressures last season in part, but for that experience for Donovan Jackson, you can't replace that now having seen what it's

like to take on some guys that are going to the NFL in big time, big game situations with a lot of pressure. And you've got that space around you. So now when teams run that stuff, Adam, I think he's got a little better experience. I also think just in general that if you are evaluating these guys, one of the big things that draft analysts cannot know, and I'm not blaming for this, there's just no way they can. They don't know what the guy's all about and they can guess and they can get told by some

people. Oh yeah, we like this guy's character football IQ. I think you can figure out a little bit from the outside, but when you bring the guy in or you sit down with him and you talk with him about that experience, what he learned from it, what that was like making that decision, who would have blamed if he stayed a guard, by the way, nobody would have said like, oh man, why did you do that? You hate your football team. So you got to protect your future. But I think that that meant a lot because he's coming into a room where he's got dudes who have been in this league a long time. That culture fit to that room.

I don't think there's any more important room in the entire NFL than the offensive line room as far as how they get along with each other, how they communicate and to have the humility to do that. It's a very NFL like thing. It's a very pro like thing that he did and that matters when you need the guy to succeed right away. Yeah, maturity is a huge piece of the game when you get into the NFL and I mean to have the selfish, the selflessness to understand that I am not as big as the team, right? The team comes first.

That matters still in an era of college football where that is not the case, right? That doesn't exist in college football anymore. It's, oh, I'm not getting my way. Well, I'm just going to transfer. I'm just going to hit the eject button or I want more money or whatever it is. The NFL is still looking for guys that love the game of football, right? No matter what, you're going to have to peel me off this field because my body can't do it anymore. You're gonna have to kill me before I get off of here.

Those are still the guys the NFL wants. He showed that in his actions, right? Anyone can talk about that in the pre-draft process, right? Oh, I love football, right? It means everything to me, right? Well, it's like, yeah, it does it, right? Cause I don't see, I see you tapping out here on third down or I see you, where are you on the here on third down. Or I see you,

where are you on the backside of this block? Why aren't you chasing after the football? Right? But when a guy's tape also mirrors what he talks about, that's when you find those type of guys. And I think Donovan Jackson, from what I've heard from people around the league, he is that kind of guy. And then you cut the tape on and you're like, OK, those two things match. I'll work with that guy. And then, oh, and he's a 99th percent athletic. Great. That's how you become a first rounder. And I do think he was slept on a little bit because he wasn't flashy. He wasn't a really star studded, like this would be an unreal slam dunk pick going into the draft. But to your point, when you get to know the guy and you hear his story and you see what he's been

through, and then you see where he's at. You're like, Oh, that makes total sense why the NFL is able to put the puzzle piece that is Donovan Jackson together and why the Vikings go, Hey, if we don't take him at 24 here, Detroit, Houston, like there's plenty of other teams down the road here that would love a guy like this. And he will not be sitting there for us when we get picking the third round. not be sitting there for us when we get picking the third round. Okay. Let me ask you the, uh, the hard question about draft night though, as it pertains to that, there were a couple of trade downs that, you know, there's five different analytics charts and everybody has their little favorite chart for draft value.

Personally, I think the one that tells the best story is the over the cap chart. That's not exactly how the NFL operates on that one. It's closer still to the Jimmy Johnson thing, but I think it tells a better story about the actual value. The Giants trade up. The Vikings might have had that one on the table. Hard to say about the Falcons, but that was a pretty wild trade for them to give up a next year's first.

And then Tate Ratledge goes, I think, 57. So had they taken the crazy trade, which was the move back for the Rams to 46 and taken Tate Ratledge and got a next year's first. Now I think they would have had to give up 97. So that would probably have been really tough for them. Still a next year's first from a middling franchise that is one Michael Penenex knee tweak away from

giving you a top 10 draft pick. That's pretty hard to turn down. Even the giants deal of moving back 10 spots and you could probably move back again and still get Ratledge is the gap big enough because that was the next guard taken and I don't think there was another one for a little while. Is the gap big enough to make the move back or was it the right thing to take their guy at 24? I think it it the right thing to take their guy at 24? I think it was the right thing to take their guy at 24, because they had put themselves in a position through good

drafting, bad drafting, everyone say it. However they built this team, leading up to the draft through free agency, through rookies, through whatever it is, they had them find themselves in a position of, We don't need that many pieces right now. Right. And we're trying to win right now. Let's just stick and pick our guy, because that's the position that we need. Because if we don't, we move back and all of a sudden our 3 guards get taken off the board, we're going to be pissed. And yes, is the first round next year going to be great? But then what do we do? Are we signing Dalton Reisner off the couch again? Are we, are we looking and hoping that a veteran gets cut at the end because he's a cap casualty and we want to bring him in? Or, you know, you find yourself with more questions than answers at that point, versus the safe thing of stick and pick, get our guy, solidify probably the one or two holes on the roster that are glaring, and let's move

forward with the rest of the draft. I like that because it showed conviction and resolution in their plan that they've had since they lost to the Rams and they had in falter, didn't waiver, stuck with it and go. And as much as the future would look to be great, I love what they did for the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. Well, one thing quasi-dafamensa talks about sometimes is that he can only look two years ahead in the future. And so when people talk about these bigger picture draft plans, if you were doing it in a

theoretical world where you're looking at a five year type of plan, it's better to get that first round pick from the Falcons next year. And it does matter. It's the Falcons. They're just, when is the last time they've been great. And I like Pennix a lot. And I think they could be really good in that division, but it's the Falcons. And so you're taking a chance. You're passing up on potentially, we don't know they got this offer, but you're passing up potentially on a pick for the future that could be really amazing for

you at the same time, these things are not done in a vacuum. They are done in the context of an actual football team. Sometimes I get nervous when it comes to drafting for need. The Garrett Bradbury pick and the Irv Smith pick rather than taking like AJ Brown kind of pops into my head. At the same time, they have done so much here to be in this position that they really do need this guy and the fact that he is a fit for them culture wise, uh, somebody who, when you talk to him, is a really good communicator, mature. Uh,

he talks a lot about his parents and how he was raised and all those things. And like that matters to a team that rests on its culture a lot, uh, as well. So this goes beyond just, Hey, it's a guard. It's a little name on draft history.com. Like there's a context that is behind this pick. So I completely understand it even as an analytics and joyer that would have said, yeah, usually we're looking at the bigger picture, but sometimes in the NBA, you need a mid range jumper to win a game. And even though threes are better, you need to make that play in that moment. I think that that's the way that they looked at this.

So then the question is Jeremiah, how good is the Minnesota Vikings offensive line? I mean, I want to give them top 10 potential. Like I do. I want to give them top 10 potential, but so much of that for me is weighing on how healthy is Darisaw coming into the season? How healthy can Ryan Kelly stay throughout the season? And then what is Donovan Jackson? Right? Cause as always, and anyone who listens to this show knows he's in the blue meter.

He's the baby blue meter for me right now. I think he was a fantastic college football player. I think he has the potential blue meter for me right now. I think he was a fantastic college football player. I think he has the potential to be a fantastic NFL player. I don't give a crap. I will know once you get on the field and will measure the meter throughout the year like we did with Justin Jefferson. I think that on paper, it looks so much better than it was last year, right? It just looks so much better with the people they brought in. But also, Will Fries is coming off a five-game season, right? He's coming off a fractured leg. He's coming in off injury.

O'Neill was beat up last year, right? So while everything looks great, so much of what's gonna make this offensive line be a top 10 offensive line next year, potential top five, is the depth they build behind it. Because I would be hard-pressed, and I'm knocking on wood here, trust me, to say that all 5 starters that walk out there on Week 1 are the same all 5 starters that you end the season with. It just rarely happens in this league. So they need to continue to train and build and push that depth because these

starters, some of them are old. They're, they're a long in the tooth and football is a very tough game and a very violent game. But I think if you could tell me right now that it would be Darasaw, Donovan Jackson, Ryan Kelly, Wilfries, Brian O'Neal, if they can stay healthy, you're looking at a top five to seven offensive line. This is where they have something very different. I don't even know if I know how to say the word on the offensive line depth. Is that how it's pronounced? Cause I haven't said it about the offensive line

maybe ever since I've covered this team. But when you look at the group of backups and there's no team that ever plays 100% of the entire season with five offensive linemen all locked in, that just doesn't happen. I think last year there were maybe three teams that even had 75% of the snaps or something like that. So you're just counting on the fact that you're going to need someone else, but

they made some subtle moves on this roster that we haven't really seen since something like 2017 because the cap space was so limited that they couldn't make these good depth moves, but a Justin school who is just a guy and it's not like, and you know, NFL fans around the world were celebrating his signing with the Minnesota Vikings. But if he has to play the first three games of the season before Darasaw is ready to go, he played last year for the bucks and he was okay for them. Those players matter a lot. And now with Blake Blake Brandel I've given him a hard time.

And they did replace him, but this is a guy who has now played a lot of NFL football that you know can step in or even if Donovan Jackson is not ready. I'm assuming he is, but if he's not, then you can start Blake Brandel

for the first four weeks of the season. And it's not like your offensive line is going to crumble. They've developed two players that I think are interesting to them. Michael Juergens who was active over Dan Feeney last year. That says something a seventh round rookie who is active on game day. Again, it's like what they do, not just what they say that matters. And then Walter Rouse is somebody that we've talked about as well who is

developing so I do think for the first time they have a group there, but there are, there are question marks for pretty much every guy across the line. I think the most important is Ryan Kelly and his health, because if he's in there, I think he can help Donovan Jackson a lot. I mean, he's going to be teaching, uh, out there with the quarterback and, you know, young guy next to him, but that's why you brought him here. Will fries injuries should be okay. I mean, he's, you know, 27 years old, that kind of thing, but Kelly has not played a full season the last two years.

And last year was more like a half a season. That's not going to be great if you have to switch to Michael Juergens, who's never done this before at some point, I think you need Ryan Kelly to be healthy and he could be the head of the snake for that entire offensive line. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, he is the tip of the spear, as you want to say, when it comes to an offensive line position, you know, fries isn't more for me about the injury, Matt,

it's more about the rustiness of not playing a full year, right? Like when you get hurt week five, right, that's mid October, right? So you haven't put pads on since October, right? There's gonna be some rust to knock off there. And it's just gonna be how quickly can he knock that rust off? Right? Can he just, okay, I'm back, I'm good, get through camp, get my feet wet back in some preseason games, and then I roll, right? That's just gonna be something to monitor

as we go on that front, but I agree with you. Kelly is the linchpin here, not just for Donovan Jackson before JJ McCarthy, right? When you have a non-rookie rookie, however you wanna say what he is, you don't want to put everything on his shoulders even if you think he can handle it, right? Even if you think JJ can handle it all, you still don't because when the bullets

start flying, crazy things can happen. And so you want, hey, Kelly's going to look back and go, I got you young buck. It's okay. I got protections. You just worry about getting it to 18. Right. That's all you need you to worry about. And then you say, okay, Donovan, I got you. We'll know where we're going. But you put Michael Juergens in, who would be a first time starter in that moment. Then some things could definitely start to get a little squirrely on that front. You know, one thing that I thought the Vikings did really good this year, too, was I thought they crushed undrafted free agency. Like I think they did a really

good job. And obviously, it's a little bit of a shameless plug, but got my guy Logan Brown, but also Joe Huber to combine offensive linemen that it was just a weird year in the draft for offensive linemen. I mean, only 30-some taken. It's usually close to 50, right? They were able to get to combine level who people thought were gonna be drafted offensive linemen in on UDFAs to create competition with guys like Michael Juergens and Walter Rouse, right? That's how you breed great depth. You bring guys in so that everyone is competing for those roster spots. That's how everyone continues to get better. Right.

So I thought they've done a really nice job building the depth in that in that offensive line room. And it's going to be a really fun camp to watch the competitions all the way across the board. Yeah. This show now has to give the disclaimer of bias to an undrafted free agent tackle Logan Brown. That is your guy. That is that's a first. We've never had to do that before. But now that is the case. So any time we talk about Logan Brown, understand we are at least you are biased. There will be no Logan Brown slander tolerated on this.

If there's any criticism for me, you'll probably quit the show. So we'll just we'll work through that. I know where you live. Yes, you do. But if you try to come in my basement, you don't fit because you're so. No, but that's very cool for you. I do think as always, the Vikings spent like crazy and undrafted free agency. And it's a draft hack when you only have five picks. What did you make of the rest of their draft?

Yeah, you know, I thought for the most part, they did a really nice job of they kind of went Raz crazy, right? I think they drafted a lot of the relative athletic score testing guys, which I thought was a bit of a change from their last few drafts where they basically were like, Hey, we're just drafting athletes because athletes usually can make plays and making plays in the NFL is the name of the game. And so as I was going through the draft, it was like Raz 9.4, Raz 9.2. And you're like, holy crap. I see a trend of what you guys did here. Interesting how that'll work out.

Also makes me think there might've been someone a little differently calling the shots in the draft room than there had been in the past because they haven't usually gone that crazy on the Raz score, but I feel like this year they did a really nice job of saying, we're just bringing in really good athletes into the NFL. Also hard to figure out a trend when there's five guys. That could be another thing too. Well, from your point, it's a lot of guys that are going to fit in as wide receiver four or defensive tackle five or tight end three, but have potential to be more than that. So when you draft a wide receiver who's productive and runs a four, three, but maybe he needs work on route running, whatever else it might be. That's somebody who could come in and then try to rise up the chart, the depth chart.

And the same thing goes for Tyron and Grimdalkins, where when you look at his production at Georgia, you go, okay, well, I don't really see a whole lot there. He didn't play a ton of football, but then like you're talking about the relative athletic score. Okay. This guy's actually a freak athlete who, because he didn't get on the field as much with those great defensive lines in Georgia. I mean, maybe if he transfers to Boise State or something, he's got 12 sacks, but instead he stays at Georgia and does not get the same level of production.

But maybe he runs a four eight at 275 pounds. Like this guy might be something down the road that you don't have to force him into a position. That's what it felt like to me is when they drafted someone like Mackay Blackman, you're going, all right, they want this guy to play right away. Ton of football in the past. We know what he is. There's maybe a limited ceiling, but also you can project what he's going to be.

They drafted guys in this class where you're much more like, I don't know what Ingram Dawkins can be, but the best version of it is pretty good. And the worst version of it, we've seen a bunch of times, like the Jalen Holmes and, you know, guys like that. Aaron Lynch. All the next, uh, John, John, no, John, something. So what was his name?

Brett? No. Come on. I just, I just remember Lynch. James Lynch. Yes. James Lynch was, he was the, actually the. Oh, I just I just remember Lynch. James Lynch. Yes, James James Lynch was that he was actually the productive guy, but they couldn't figure out where to play him. They were like five tech and then Zimmer's like, we don't use a five tech.

So three tech, a defensive end nose tackle. And that's what they settled on as a guy who came out at 280 pounds playing nose. And I can't believe it didn't work out but they drafted guys like Ade Aruna and like he's tall and he didn't produce anything he must be Daniel Hunter and that didn't really work so we'll see we'll see with this it might be a little bit of a different situation where he can develop into like a jihad ward where it's a role player uh and add something to your group but probably not right away now here's I want to get a couple of draft takes from

you big picture but I don't just want you to give me a draft take I want you to give me a draft take that you had in the form of roasting someone like so I'll just I'll start and then you can pick up where I leave off like I can't wait to see Colston Loveland get nine yard receptions on third and 13. I mean, I'm just so excited for that 10th overall draft pick to get those check downs and be immediately tackled. Man, that's going to be so worth it for them. The bears, this is your year guys. When he averages 8.9 yards per reception and those fantasy freaks go crazy for PPR, it's going to be a time you just changed your

franchise. Ryan Paul's great work. Yeah, that one was super surprising to me. I, that one, I knew he probably would go first. I did not see top 10. Like I just, I just didn't see that for him from a production level. And I guess it's hard because you watched Michigan's offense last year and you're like, this is, this makes me want to like hate football. Like I don't, I don't want to watch this anymore. Right. And then you'd always see like, Oh, there he is thrown to Loveland again.

Cause no one else could do anything. So the productions there, I think that was a bit of a stretch on that front there. I mean, I'm going to take the easy pickings here and go, Cleveland Browns, my brothers. Why are we drafting Dylan Gabriel and then Chaudhry Sanders? Like, not even that you waited to the six to take Chaudhry or the fifth or whatever it was. Why are we taking the bobblehead midget? I don't understand. I stood next to this dude at the senior bowl and he looks like my five-year-old toddler running around out there with the helmet.

That's way too. He is so small, Matthew. He is the tiniest person I've ever been around in my life. I don't know how he throws the ball over the offensive lineman. I don't understand it at all. Like when he stood up in the draft room, then everyone got taller than him as everyone else stood up like he is a itty bitty little guy. I don't understand that. And then to just double down and be like, Oh, I guess we'll take a flyer on Shader Sanders as well. What are, I mean, I get, I'm saying, what are we doing? And then I have to remind myself like Browns are going to Brown, Browns are going to Brown. It's just what they do.

It's just how things work. I just did, I couldn't for the life of me understand why they did that beyond even draft it because there's some sort of world where you would just say, like quarterbacks, just take them. I'm not in that camp because they usually don't succeed unless it's a first rounder. Love them or don't love them or play Ryan Fitzpatrick as your quarterback. Those are the options here. Usually. There have been very few success stories past the second round in the NFL recently, especially, uh, Tom Brady though, we found out on the broadcast about 700 times had been a late round pick, which

I didn't know. And I was so shocked to find, I was like, wait, that champion guy, he was a late round pick. No, I, no, I can't. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Uh, I got really exhausted of that. The funny thing about the Browns, though, to me, so two quarterbacks are at some theoretical analytical world. Maybe it's worth it.

But two running backs and a tight end, huh? Again, with the drafting of tight ends, the Vikings did it right. This guy, Gavin Bartholomew, I watched a little bit of him and I'm like, Oh, good athlete could develop into the same guy Colston Loveland will be. And they take the player from a bowling green fan. And I think, and he catches a lot of footballs at bowling green and that's wonderful for him. But what's the impact of that? There were tons of wide receivers on the board. They didn't take linemen

offensive linemen, like their offensive line has degraded over the last few years. They didn't take edge players. They didn't take corners. You're like, you guys need everything. You have nothing on that roster and you're taking two running backs. I just OK, man. OK, good for you.

And even a linebacker, I like that guy. But still, I don't really understand it. The other one that I want to roast, I brought up on the show a couple of times is San Francisco. Yeah, I got there. A few nose tackles are upstairs and they're expecting to be drafted by the 49ers. What are we, what have taken multiple nose tackles? Jonathan Bullard came in last year to the Minnesota Vikings as a four million dollar player ish somewhere in that ballpark and hadn't really played a lot of snaps in his career and was really good against the run. There's a

lot of guys who could be good against the run. You know what? There's not a lot of guys that could sack the quarterback and San Francisco's like I think we need more CJ West. And again, a good prospect if you want to stop the run, but also getting Collins from Texas. I I'm at a loss. I don't really understand what you're doing here. And then they reached like crazy on the edge rusher that they picked. Yeah, that was a strange one too, to follow and just, but again, it's so funny

because you never know every team's so different where do they just quote unquote draft best available on their board? Do they draft for need? Do they draft because some coach got on the table at the 11th hour and was like, I don't care what you, Scott said, I met with this guy and I love him. Right? And like, I just spent six spent six months writing this dude up. Like he's not worth it, but I like my job, so go ahead and take him. But like, it's so funny how all that stuff comes into work on draft day, and then all of a sudden you find yourself at the end,

like, did we, we took two, oh gosh, we took two. Right, like what did we do? Right, yeah, so that was a very baffling one. One of my favorite draft moments from this year was when Reese Davis and Mel Kuyper almost came to blows on the set because Mel is having an absolute conniption fit and Reese is like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like I was, I was crying, laughing, watching that cause he's like, I'm not disagreeing with you.

He's like the NFL hasn't been able to look at quarterbacks in the last 50 years. It's like, you're the same one that told me that you would basically jump off a bridge if Jimmy Claussen didn't succeed in the NFL. So I don't want to hear this from you, Mel. I can't do this with you anymore. I was beside myself watching the coverage and I don't put a

whole lot of effort into analyzing other media people. It's not worth it. What's the point? I worry about who's playing actual football. But this was from a broadcasting perspective, some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen on TV. There are dozens of players getting drafted. Yes. And it's the best moment of their life.

And you could just imagine them being like, let's go back and watch what they said about you on ESPN. And it's like, yeah, yeah, they drafted some fat guy, but she said, and it was just like, what is wrong with you guys? Calm down. And then, and then it became a life of its own where people are making up conspiracies and all sorts of other. Well, they're, they're trying to prove a point about NIL guys. Donovan Jackson has NIL.

You look at his Instagram and he's like, I get meets from this place or something. You're like, every one of these guys has that. What are you talking about? And the explanation is so straightforward and simple, but I think what you saw was some people is so straightforward and simple. But I think what you saw was some people kind of showed their rear end a little bit about themselves as having the ability to analyze actual talent. Because some of the best tape analysts were like, I don't really see it as a first round pick.

And some of the people that maybe didn't watch tape, but have these jobs are like, oh man, he's going to be the top pick because that's the thing that if you weren't talking about on TV, you weren't moving the needle in this draft. It was a very boring draft. And I, but I think the biggest winner of the entire draft is Cam Ward. No one talked about him. Not at all. He's like, what's the amount of pressure going on?

Cam Ward? Zero people. These people wouldn't recognize him in a room if he was standing right next to him. Who are you? Where should your Sanders? Like that's it was crazy. I've never seen anything like that in particular where the NFL world loses its collective mind over a fifth round draft pick and ignores the number one overall guy.

He's got to be like, this is fantastic. I don't have any pressure at all. Dude, my favorite was like the end of day. I think it was the end of day two and they flashed like, we'll see you tomorrow. And it was the like NFL graphic and it was Travis Hunter, Chedur, Sanders, Will Campbell and Ashton Jenzie. I was like, well, have we learned nothing? Like he's still on the board.

I, I honestly think that a lot of people were just embarrassed. Like that they had put so many eggs in that basket leading up to the draft. There was so many conversations, so many debates on TV and everything else. So many people are like, I'm, I'm on his side and whatever else. And then when the NFL all 32 teams was just like, now, guys, you don't got and that's just the lesson. It's so interesting, though, because on the consensus board, I think 28 out of the 32 players that were expected to go in the first round when the first round, yes, which tells you that it's generally as a group, they understand who the top players are in a draft.

But when it's somebody that's so prominent and so much talked about and you miss on them, it's embarrassing I think for all of those people. And I also think it shows a little bit of how our world works now that hype is just more important than truth in a lot of instances. And this is what I love about sports in a world where the truth is constantly debated of what it actually is.

We have a scoreboard and so it's a, well, they got a second round prospect in the fifth. No, they didn't. They got a fifth round quarterback scoreboard that we have the truth. We have the answer about what kind of prospect he was. So that was, I mean, if we're talking about like the biggest losers of the draft, yes, that was probably it. How about we give just a couple of quick winners of the drafts outside of the Vikings finally taking a card? It's so hard for me to pick winners of the draft because you just never know what these people are going to turn out to be.

It's the idea of like, let's throw a draft grade the day after the draft and be like, oh, that's an A. Like, oh, that's an F. It's like, based off of what? Like, what are we doing? But, you know, looking around the NFL, you know, the biggest winners of the draft were cornerbacks this year because I have never seen more corners and safeties get drafted in my life. I felt like every other pick was like safety corner, corner safety. So if you were a safety or corner in this draft, Godspeed, my man, go out there and fight the Gulag to the death.

I think, uh, the Seattle Seahawks, I would say, probably had the best draft. They picked offensive lineman for Sam Darnold. I love that when they pick Jalen Milro, it's the exact right time to pick Jalen Milro and there's I think they if some of these players click, they're going to be set up to really improve themselves right away and then for the long term. And then I love the Raiders draft because it was hilarious. It was it was like Al Davis came back from the dead. It was just like, pick the running back, pick the fastest wide receiver,

pick some guy from Montana state or whatever. It was, that was so much fun. Uh, the draft process overall was a really good time. And now we move on OTAs, mini camp, all that stuff. Schedule release? Schedule release? Oh schedule release would be a lot of fun. That's a live show for sure. Oh yeah. So let me ask you this before you go. What is your biggest remaining question about the Minnesota Vikings? Doesn't have to be like who they'll add, but just. No, it's. The biggest

amount of intrigue for you as we go into the spring sessions. Yeah, the biggest amount of intrigue going into the spring sessions is, it's gonna be, it's a cop-out answer. It's J.J. McCarthy, right? It really is, because I feel like- You got a hot take button. I know.

Pew, pew, pew, pew. But it's a hot take in a way because it tells you how well every other position has been managed on this roster. Right? Like we're not going into spring and we're not going into training camp with 10 glaring question marks going in, right? And that's just a testament to KOC and those guys of how well they built and managed this roster to this point, that our biggest question mark still going into this is the quarterback that we drafted in the first round last year. Right? That's why, for me, I'm very excited about where the Vikings are going, because you could go position by position and go, Yeah, I feel pretty good about that room. I feel pretty damn good

about that room. That room is going to be really good. Right? And you just go all the way through and then you go, it's really just going to depend who's throwing the football here. Right? You added more in the running back room. Like, I think Jordan Mason is going to be a great player for us. So yeah, I think because of how well the roster is built, the linchpin is going to be health and JJ McCarthy. Well, I cannot wait to follow it along. And hopefully we see you out at a practice as a agent slash legend. I think every doesn't everyone qualify as a legend.

Like we're all legends. Yes. We're all legends in our own mind too. And you know, Chris Carter will walk by. Oh look over there. It's Alan Page talking with Carl Eller and Jeremiah Searles, the legends of the Minnesota Vikings. Well, but hopefully we get a chance to podcast

after you have a look at Donovan Jackson and the next great lineman in Vikings history, the next legend, Logan Brown. Absolutely. We'll, we'll see how that goes, but we will definitely talk very soon. Jeremiah, thank you for your time. Always football, blood ball.