Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy crushes Vikings joint practice, Day 2 (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Dane Mizutani and then Vikings fans about how JJ McCarthy performed exceptionally well in his second joint practice against the Patriots. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, fresh back from day two of the joint practices. So I know you guys have a lot of questions, and I want to get to a lot of those questions and have a great conversation and bring you some sound and all that sort of stuff. But out at TCO Performance Center, before I left here to come back to the studio, I had a conversation with Dane Visitani, the Pioneer Press. We did basically a post-game show for the joint practices. And I know you guys could see the headline. J.J. McCarthy had a pretty darn remarkable day. So what I want to do is I want to start out by bringing you that conversation with myself and

Dane. And we were just off the practice field. So we were reacting to their reactions. and we had just heard from KOC and just heard from J.J. McCarthy. And I'll just give you a little sneak peek of this conversation. I think everybody was pretty excited about what happened today for the Minnesota Vikings practicing against the New England Patriots. So I'm just going to jump right into that.

And if you are in for the long haul for the Lime stream, welcome, settle in. Because after the conversation with Dane, I'll be doing Q&A as always on the live stream. So I am super happy to have you all here, and it's, you know, a corner turning moment, I think, for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings. So let me dive right in to my discussion with Dane Mizatani, the Pioneer Press, just a couple hours ago right after practice at TCO Performance Center. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, along with Dane Mizatani of the Pioneer Press. And we are inside TCO Performance Center after spending the last, oh, I don't know, two and a half, hours out on the field here watching joint practices between the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots. And I'm not going to spend much time messing around. This was the best practice

of J.J. McCarthy's career, not just this year of his career today. At one point, he completed 13 passes in a row, 11 on 11's Red Zone, two-minute situation. He was nothing short of brilliant in a two-minute drive that was finished off with a really accurate, well-placed ball to Jordan Addison in the back of the end zone. He made good decisions with the football. He threw the football accurately. There were multiple occasions of touch passes. He delivered a, what do you call it, like a swing pass to Aaron Jones that went down the field that went over the top of the defense for a 30 or 40-yard gain. Underneath stuff was accurate. Intermediate stuff was good. The deep throws were good. He was absolutely on point today. And adding to J.J. McCarthy's

big day was the fact that Jalen Naylor got banged up in this practice doesn't sound like it's serious, but there was a lot of Thayer Thomas out there. There was a lot of Lucky Jackson out there, and he was unfazed finding Thayer Thomas on multiple occasions in this practice. But of course, it was T.J. Hawkinson. It was Jordan Addison doing a lot of the heavy lifting, as you would expect. But if you're looking for a reason to feel like J.J. McCarthy turn the corner to being truly a QB1 of the Minnesota Vikings and not just something they're kind of working around on a great roster, but rather someone who could drive their success. Today was your day. If you were a fan that showed up out here and watched this, you walked away saying, whoa. And our good friend Chad Graf came up and said, where do I put my money on the Vikings for the Super Bowl after that practice? It was truly. that good day? Am I exaggerating? No, no. And I think throughout training camp, me, you, most of the beat writers, I would say, who come here every day have said up and down, some good, some bad, oh, today was more good

than more bad, whatever. We're all going to say the same thing today. He was incredible today. And I don't think anything that you hear will be hyperbole because he was that good. I asked J.J. McArthur after practice, what was your favorite throw? Do you have one you're most proud of? And even he gave a little smirk and said, there were a lot of good ones. And there were. You can go down the list. Depending how you take notes at practice, I text myself the notes. Collard texts himself or writes notes on his little notepad. You got to scroll quite a ways to find, you know, where I started today because there were just so many notable plays. I think throughout training camp, there have been days. where it's like, okay, you know, two or three good throws. Today, there were legitimately 15, and I don't think that's exaggerating it. The way the day started, they started on work in the red zone, seven on seven in the red zone. And I thought it was interesting. There was a miss early in the day. Thornton Addison, back of the end zone, he missed it. The ball is there. He overthrows it. It looks like the miss he's had throughout training camp. And I was thinking

to myself, okay, maybe it's just going to be another one of those days up and down, and down. He flipped the switch from that point forward. And like you said, I think people who track stats had him at 13 straight completions at one point, which is pretty unheard of considering it was a joint practice against a team that was invested in seeing their defense and how it would succeed. And it wasn't seven on seven. It was 13 straight passes across seven on seven, across Red Zone, across 11 on 11 in two minute, he really dominated for the span of practice. And I think when you look back on training camp as a whole, you'll point to this day as the one that said, hey, maybe that was the day that he truly turned the page.

Now, he has to do it again. He has to do it again and again and again and for the next two weeks leading up to the season opener. But today was the first day where I thought to myself, ah, like you said, he could maybe drive the success of this team at times. I was feeling more, okay, he's going to manage the game. And while that might still be the case at times this year, I think there are reasons to believe now after what we saw today.

He could be the driver of success by the time this thing is over. There are a lot of people have asked just how his camp compares to Sam Darnold. And I've kind of gone back to, well, it's not really fair because Sam Darnold has just played so much more football than J.J. McCarthy, but if we are going to compare, it was right around this time of year where the light switch came on and all of a sudden we started saying some of the same things last year. And I recall going on radio hits and things like that in other cities. And they're asking, well, how does Sam Darnold look?

And I was saying, guys, I think I'm buying this because of how good he looked around this time of year in practice right before and going into the second preseason game. And this feels like the corner that was turned. it also is a huge confidence moment for J.J. McCarthy. Now, we've never doubted that McCarthy is a confident person, a confident leader. We've been around him now for two years and you see it every time that he's at the podium or when he's running a two-minute drill or how he operates the offense. But every person in existence wonders, can I really, can I do it? Like, is it going to work for me?

Am I going to make this happen? Am I going to become what I think I can be? Every person has that in the back of their head. and for a guy who hasn't played a football game in a really, really long time to go out against a different team and perform this way, to me, is a huge, confident building, yes, I can't. Because the New England Patriots were not playing some vanilla defense. They were not showing up here and saying, well, we're just going to treat this like a light little practice. There were probably four different scrums of guys getting together. It was getting physical out there. It was getting violent out there. We'll talk about the defense in a little bit because I watched a lot more of the defense today than I did yesterday. But it was a game-type atmosphere, only people weren't being brought to the ground.

And my favorite throw of his, I think, was almost every single one on the two-minute drill. The one that he ended the two-minute drill, the back of the end zone, where it's a placement type of throw to Jordan Addison, put the football where Addison can get it. and he mentioned on that throw adapting his arm angle, which is something I think he's been very good at in this camp. But we've also seen him, you know, airmail some throws or miss on some throws when he's trying to kind of flip his hips or throw it a little bit off platform or have to make an adjustment in the pocket. But this one was right on the money.

Let me just take you through the entire two-minute drill because there was something he mentioned after, which really popped to me. So he completed a past Thayer Thomas, which I thought Thayer had a great practice. Honestly, this guy keeps showing up every year. Then on time to Jordan Addison. But then after that, there was a situation where the Patriots clearly won up front. And they got some pressure on him and there was nothing there. He didn't waste any time at all and threw the ball away.

And he said that that was McCown's favorite play of that drive. Stop the clock because the situation was they needed to get in the end zone. It was, I don't know, 21 to 27. 27 to 21 with one minute left on the clock. So time is very important. Right. Time is very important there. He throws the ball out of bounds.

He misses on a throw after that, then comes back and scrambles. But scrambles definitively, like quickly. Protection breaks down, gets a big gain, and then bang, hits Jordan Addison in the back of the end zone. But it was just one smart decision after the next. And I wrote down what Kevin O'Connell said about it. He called his day decisive and with conviction. And that's exactly what I thought of J.J. McCarthy. and it's the accuracy we've sort of been asking for.

And by the way, it's just funny sometimes when, you know, we do podcasts and we're like, well, there was, you know, some miss throws and things like that. And then McCarthy comes to the podium and says, yesterday I missed some throws that I wanted back. But today, it didn't feel like there were very many of those at all. And where we're trying to project him into the season and what can he be, I don't think there's anything that does a better job of projecting quarterbacks than the two-minute drill. because he said and I asked I asked him about that I said you know why is that worked for you and he said it truly feels like a game when I'm out there truly feels like I got the clock I got the pressure and the tension of the moment and the you know the defense everyone's dialed in and it's kind of like a like almost like a boxing match or whatever when they do the two minute everyone's gathered around both sidelines watching every single play intently there is real pressure out there in practice and he looked very calm very

in control and made that great decision to throw it away, a great decision to scramble and then has a chance to throw a touchdown pass. This was, you could sense it in Kevin O'Connell when he talked. You could sense it in J.J. McCarthy when he came off the field, both of those guys, you could not wipe the smile off their face after the day that J.J. McCarthy and the offense had. Yeah, and I think the way to end it, like throwing a touchdown to Jordan Addison at the end of a day to kind of put the bow on it. Now, if they leave meat on the bone and they don't get into the end zone of the two-minute drill, it's still a good practice. But just to kind of put a stamp on it, culminate it with a touchdown throw to Addison, I thought that was really good. Something I thought that was

interesting, what J.J. McCarthy said when he was talking to us is he talked about yesterday's practice. He talked about how he prepared for yesterday's practice. And he said what he did was he went back and he watched the preseason game that the Patriots just played with the Washington commanders. And he, in his head, he thought, okay, is that something I'm going to see in joint practices? I should dig into this film. And he said he came out yesterday and was completely different. So to take what you kind of put on tape yesterday and Kevin O'Connell said they game

planned for today, to take what you put on film yesterday and then apply it to the game plan for today and then for it to look like it did today, I think that's a really good sign. I mean, look, game plans for football games on Sundays are way more complex, but if you really just break it down to the micro, up and down day yesterday, put it on film, watch the film, study the film, game plan for a practice the following day, and then for it to look like that, that is what I would consider something very promising for his ability to take coaching, take a game plan, and apply it in real time. I don't think we've really, I mean, there have probably been times throughout training camp where that's happened, but it has not been explained to us as clear and concise as, yes, we prepared for it this way and then we went out and we did it. That's what they did. You don't really game plan for a practice against your own team. Like I think at times, Kevin O'Connell would love to game plan for what he thinks Brian Flores is going to do. But they really game planned for today based on what they did yesterday.

looked like that. I thought that was a good thing to kind of latch on to. He can take coaching. He can apply a game plan in real time. And it can look like that. Doesn't mean it's going to look like that every Sunday. But I thought it was a good lesson for J.J. McCarthy to learn. Like, you're sometimes going to have to learn things on the fly, apply things on the fly. And he showed really capable of that today. So let's talk about what it means that J.J. McCarthy had this level of a practice. And overall, I would say yesterday, I was talking about maybe a B for a day yesterday, I want to put both days together and give J.J. McCarthy an A and say that he passed the joint practice test with flying colors. And we know

how important this is to Kevin O'Connell in the evaluation. And it was almost hard for O'Connell and McCarthy to hold themselves back and still say, well, you know, we've got things to do here. We've got more progress to make. We got lots of stuff. But really, this is kind of the end of the summer. I mean, there are three practices next week and we'll do breakdowns and we'll have that discussion, but he's not going to play in another preseason game. He's not going to see another team. And really, once the fans are gone, which is after today, they start the process of really installing that week one offense. So this to me does more or less end the summertime and begin the process of preparing for the Chicago Bears week one. And what I think is

putting this exclamation point on a training camp that has had its ups and downs for J.J. McCarthy that has gone on the upswing. I thought he was in control of the preseason game, and then to see him come out of that preseason game, have a very good practice on Monday, then a solid up and down practice yesterday, but then today finish it out like this. I think it's not just big for McCarthy feeling like, hey, I can do this against a team with a lot of talent on their defense, but also it's big for everybody else. I mean, T.J. Hawkinson was talking about how self-critical McCarthy is and was also talking about how he feels like he's got total command of this offense at this point that he's learned

so much and he's applying it extremely well, but they need to see it too. I mean, everybody on the team is human. They're all saying going into this camp, we're going to find out what McCarthy is. They're going to say publicly, oh, yeah, we're very confident, but they need to see it on the field too. And to have a day like this where everyone is standing around watching that two-minute drill, watching him control it, make good decisions, smart plays, and then a great throw into the end zone for a touchdown. That felt like the entire, I would say, organization just went, oh, all right. Like that, again, doesn't mean they're winning the Super Bowl. But I think that

it does have a ripple effect that goes beyond just, hey, J.J. McCarthy had a good day. to everybody on the team seeing that happen and saying, we are so good from top to bottom and we'll get to the defense where they had another phenomenal day. We are so good from top to bottom. If this guy plays well, we're going to go places. And then they just did it against another team. I think everyone walked out of today feeling like, yeah, we can go places.

Yeah, I think so. I think that's important for his teammates to see it. Obviously, they're the ones in the heat of battle with him every Sunday. day. So I think for them to see what it can look like, that it can look like 13 straight completions against another team is very, very important, is going to be something that does have kind of a lasting impact moving forward, I think, as they prepare for week one. But more than his teammates, and you touched on this a little in the beginning, it's big for him because now I think he can kind of see it. And you mentioned how self-critical he can be

of himself that can be a blessing and a curse sometimes you can be self-critical to the point where you're kind of digging yourself into a hole i think to have a day like this to have your teammates now believing in you probably more than and ever before your coaches the fans that were in the building i think that gives jjad mccarthy probably a little pep in his step and maybe i'm reading too much into body language but he seemed pretty dang happy to talk at the podium today He was carrying himself with the confidence. He always has that, but it just felt a little extra today. So I think, yeah, is it big for the teammates?

Of course, they need to see that at some point. It's big for McCarthy. I think it was big for O'Connell, fan base too. I mean, they get to see it all, too. And then I think it's big for them to kind of see that this guy who I think everybody wants to be the franchise quarterback has it in him somewhere. Now, you have to go out and do it again and again and again to actually realize that, but I think today was a good example of what it can look like. I also think maybe we should note he did his entire training camp without Justin Jefferson.

So the fact that he can end on such a high note, and I know training camp technically still goes on, but it always does feel like the closing of a chapter when joint practices are over. He hit this culmination without the best receiver in football. He went through these ups and downs without the best receiver in football. there were days where the offense looked clunky and we were like yeah is it is it going to function maybe it will look much better when their best receiver in football is out there so i think never will i say it was a good thing for justin deverson did not be on the field and the reps are important i think at times there there will be growing pains because they didn't have a month of reps but in the same vein i think it might be a good thing for jj to realize okay, I did all this and I'm going to get the best receiver in football back.

All of it, I think the culmination of today, the culmination of training camp as a whole is something to feel really good about. And I would be pretty surprised if anyone in that locker room wasn't walking around with a little more pep in their step after what happened today. I also want to move on to some other parts of the offense that I thought were very good. I mentioned the, I think the technical term is a rail route from, Aaron Jones where it goes down the field and this was one where you had to pop it up over everybody and have it drop in the bucket and McCarthy hit that one really well. We could talk about any throw

today. It seemed like McCarthy hit it, but the offensive line, which I did not feel like had a great day in day one. I think they took it a little personal. I didn't see a lot of Derasaw today. I think they're just playing it smart with him. Justin School stood up today to the challenge and especially the interior, the offensive line, I thought was terrific for J.J. McCarthy. Donovan Jackson had a great joint practice. You talk about somebody who needs a confidence boost coming out of that preseason game and someone who needed to make a few plays. I mean, McCarthy was talking about the screen pass that he blocked on yesterday, but I thought today there were just a lot of reps where it's a clear past situation. The Patriots are dial it up and going after him. And I just

saw the right side of the line holding up pretty well. with Donovan Jackson. Will Fries is still getting back into game shape after missing so much time with his leg injury. Ryan Kelly, you could see some of his impact today. I thought they did a terrific job. And I'm really curious about where they stand on these wide receivers because when you see Lucky Jackson, who did have one drop in the back of the end zone during Red Zone, that was a tough one. But Lucky Jackson had a good practice overall. And Thayer Thomas stepped up and he played well. He is clearly the next man up. Kind of remind, I hate to make. this comparison, but he kind of, no, I'm going to go a different direction.

You think I'm going to say Chad Beebe. I'm actually going to say B.C. Johnson as a guy who did not have any particular physical skill that jumped out to you, but just did a lot of things really well and would catch the ball when it came to him. And he did a good job today. But you make a great point. In the NFL, you have to play without your starter sometimes. Guys get hurt. Situations happen. And okay, Jalen Naylor's down. Next man up. And credit to Thayer, who clearly knows the offense inside and out lucky i mean but these are guys who've never played before and he's finding them and trusting them and making plays it was good for their confidence as well i think with the o line holding up and blocking and having their best day i think all camp as a group of blockers

but then utilizing these other pass catchers and i don't know if they're going to go out and get somebody else might depend nailer's injury does not sound serious the way it was framed was kind of we're going to be careful with that and just not like give him an opportunity to hurt himself trying to go up and make a play or whatever. But I think that the receivers have shown something. The depth wide receivers that they might not necessarily have to make some big play for someone. That still remains of interest. But this was a day for them making their case as well. So I think it wasn't just JJ, but it was also a lot of other people, which brings me to a Fandul question of the day, Dane, which is so right now the Minnesota Vikings are plus 120 to win nine and a half games or more

or to win more than nine and a half games so 10 wins are more plus 120 would you guess that they win after what you just saw here out at joint practices 10 or more football games yeah I'm laughing because I think back to the porch pod the almost porch pot I think we did it from your living room with the ports in the background I believe I had him at 12 wins. I'm sure the comments will check me. Maybe I had him at 13. I think it was 12.

So I have to kind of stand on business here and say yes to 10. But I actually would just say, yeah, I think that's a good bet. You can get value on it at plus money. I think that's a good bet. Plus 120 to win 10 games. The schedule is hard. Like, nobody is going to argue that. And no, J.J. McCarthy is probably not going to look like he did today on all.

August 14th, every single Sunday. But I think when you look at the Vikings in the aggregate, the team as a whole, the roster as a whole, and we've been teasing the defense, we're going to talk about the defense, they have so much talent. And really all J.J. McCarthy needs to do is be a game manager. And I think they could win 10 games. And I think today showed that he can be more than that at times. There's going to be ups and downs.

I think the season probably will look a lot more like the training camp as a whole, the ups, the downs, the good, the bad. It probably won't look lights out like it did every single day or like it did today every single Sunday. But I think even if you're up and down, the roster, the coaching, it equals 10 wins to me. It equals double digit wins. So, if I do a question of the day, I would take the value on the plus money and I would say, yeah, bet over the nine and a half.

That's pretty good to me. I'm staying at 11. This is the type of day that makes me want to go to 12. Join me. The water's warm. Go, come on. I'm going to stay in there. I'm going to stay at 11 because, you know what?

After what we saw from JJ McCarthy last year during training camp, I thought that this was what he would look like someday today. And as we saw it kind of, and there's an old saying about scouting and development is that it's not linear, right? It's not every single day. It gets a little bit better. It goes up two steps forward, one step. back. And that's been J.J. McCarthy. This was 15 steps forward to have this joint practice on the

whole. I mean, if you start doing the math on the whole, he probably completed 80 something percent of his passes. I think he was accurate on overall, probably 80 something percent of his passes. He looked like a franchise quarterback today. He didn't just look like a game manager. I agree. He looked like a franchise quarterback. And I talk a lot on the show during training camp every year about just just the vibe like what's what's the vibe of the team what's the feeling because if it's not going well it's really hard for everybody to cover up and we were talking to jonathan granard after practice we can transition into the defense now uh and jonathan granard has had an intensity about him that i have seen in few other athletes i've ever been around

and even in like a friendly way but just in the way that he talks about their standard for this year. I think that he sees it. I think that everybody sees it. How much talent is on this roster and the opportunity that's ahead. And he was very jacked up after practice. But he was saying that they have this mentality in their room, that it all starts with them in the front seven. And that even when you get a sack, it's not good enough unless you got a strip sack. And then it's probably good enough to their standard. I think Gernard has individually raised the bar for this team that one person, and this is probably how Baltimore used to feel about like a Ray Lewis of just somebody whose energy alone raises everybody. And I feel like that's been Jonathan Grenard in this camp. He

demolished Will Campbell. I mean, I'm sure that he's going to have a good career and he's a good rookie and everything. He's going to walk out of here going, I got a lot of work to do before I face people like Jonathan Grenard. And the guy I wanted to highlight today, because yesterday I watched all McCarthy, but today I stood in a spot where I could. dart my eyes back and forth, one rep over here, one rep over there. And I noticed Drake May threw a lot underneath, through a lot off platform, a lot of scrambles, and made some amazing throws. But there weren't that many of them. And a lot of it was just under pressure, total domination from the D-line.

But the two-minute drill, now they end up converting it on a Hail Mary, which was kind of bizarre. But overall, the Vikings defense dominated, except for just one crazy jump ball into double coverage. that you wouldn't expect to happen very often. And quickly, the jump ball on the double coverage, I think in a real game that gets knocked down, I think you don't play that with the same intensity risking a rolled ankle. Anyway, that's pretty in the weeds.

Keep going. Right. And Josh Mattelis kind of did roll his ankle a little bit on that play. But anyway, I mean, it was just like kind of a lucky thing that happened from Kishon Booty. He made that catch. But the early part was total domination from the D-line. And the guy who was in the backfield was Dallas Turner

that I really noticed. And again, when we talk about guys who needed this, guys who needed to come into camp and were swing players for this, like if J.J. McCarthy looks lost out there, that's a swing player for the whole vibe of camp. Dallas Turner, if he looks like he hasn't taken any step forward, I think they're going to be pretty disappointed. He's looked like he's taken an enormous step forward.

And this is why I was sort of laughing about some of the analysis of his preseason game. Today was what mattered to Dallas Turner, not a game where they're not game planning. and you're trying to avoid getting hurt. He was terrific in the Andrew Van Ginkle role. And I did wonder to myself, I'm not going to throw a conspiracy, but I did wonder if they wanted him to get all those reps and said, hey, it's okay, Andrew Van Ginkle.

Why don't you just chill for these couple of days? We don't want to get you hurt. Why don't we have Dallas Turner take a ton of reps? And he really rose to the challenge. And this is where you start to feel like, can this Vikings defense be that good? I think that as long as that secondary holds up, which was a little,

suspect at times during these joint practices. They were not flawless, but I think the front seven was more or less flawless. They were in Drake May's face this entire time. And I really came away, when you talk about those win totals, I really came away thinking the Minnesota Vikings are just much better than the New England Patriots. Yeah, I think it was interesting, and I'll be honest, I watched mostly the offense, mostly JJ McCarthy, the way that joint practices are set up, one field, offense, first defense, you know, Patriots first team, defense first, Vikings first team offense,

other field, Vikings first team, defense, whatever. So I spent most of my time with J.J. McCarthy, but I would dart my eyes over every so often. Hey, how is it going over there? And I swear, you're not, you're not lying. You're not exaggerating. Jonathan Gernard was living in the backfield. So he is, I think you're right, a floor razor, you know, a guy who can help this team probably reach a new level and the defense was pretty good last year, but not being satisfied. We talked to him after practice day. More is required is something he came up with,

and he's really living that with the way he's kind of carrying himself. But I think when you look at how good this defense can be, it does hinge on other guys. Jonathan Gernard, you're going to get what you get. He's one of the best pass rushers in the league. I think this year, he'll probably even take the step of becoming a household name. He's someone who's still flying under the radar, even though he's one of the best defensive players in the league.

I think you'll start to know more about who he is this year, at least from a national perspective. But you have to be better than just your best players. And they have guys across the board. Yeah, I think you're right that it's just very definitively clear to me that the Vikings are just better than the Patriots. And it's because of not just the Jonathan Grenard's on the defense. It's because of the Dallas Turner's.

We've talked about how important this training camp was, how impressive he looked at times when it was Vikings on Vikings. But these two days were important. How good can you look against another team? Well, I think you can check that box. Dallas Turner, he continues to progress forward. Okay, well, beyond Dallas Turner, what are we talking about? Jonathan Allen and J. Vaughn Hargrave, they're good.

You know what you're going to get up front. A guy that popped today, Jalen Redmond, an undrafted free agent from last year that I think a lot of people just kind of forgot about when you signed Jonathan Allen and Jayvon Hargrave. Well, Jonathan Grenard was talking about Jalen Redmond today. And I think he said something like, I knew he was a dog last year when he got kicked out of practice. But he's a guy who I think adds to the depth. So you start to see, like, it's not just the best players on the defense.

It's the depth players on the defense. And I think the same thing can be said about the offense. We spent some time talking about Thayer Thomas and Lucky Jackson. It's just a good team across the board. but I think that is especially evident in the front seven, especially evident in when you can go from Jonathan Gernard and Andrew Van Ginkl to let's sprinkle in Dallas Turner and Gabe Murphy. Well, those Eddressersers are pretty elite in my book. And then when you can go from Jonathan Allen, J. Vaughn Hargrave, Harrison Phillips up front, and let's mix in a Jalen Redmond. And let's mix in, you know, anybody who, Tyrion Ingram Dawkins who was popped in camp.

There are just players in layers through this defense. They're going to be able to stay healthy, stay fresh. And I think you're starting to see glimpses of that in training camp. We'll see if it translates to the field in games. But the talent is just there. And I think that was really on display when you saw them go up against another team and give them fits. It was sometimes in training camp, we were saying to ourselves, like, is it going to look like this? Is the offense going to function?

is J.J. McArthur. And when you see it really applied to another team, when you see the chaos they were giving to Drake May, maybe you start to have a little bit of, you know, sympathy for what J.J. McCarthy, what Sam Howell, what Brett Rippin, what Max Brosmer have been going through for three weeks leading up to these joint practices. But the defense is really good. I think we know that. And I think we know that probably even more after these last two days. Your point about Redmond, I feel like right now the rotation is probably just going to be Hargra. Although they did something interesting today where they had just Hargrave and Allen in. And then in some second team reps, Harrison Phillips was slotting in with the second team. I think to just make sure that he was getting work along with Jalen Redmond. And I actually wondered if they would mix and match that pair if on some second down and longs where you're just having Hargrave and Allen and then the two edge rushers, there's so much mixing and matching. possibilities but if it's a rundown then you can have redmond and harrison phillips take the other two off the field say it's you know second down in five or something like that where there's a lot of mix and match opportunities it was unfortunate that levi drake rodriguez could not participate in this but i think that there's a there's a four man and then levi drake is after that even though he's had a good camp redmond is pro he's been a pro in another league and shown it and then he came here last year. And then I think Levi Drake is probably going to work in a little bit less so than

Jalen Redmond. But when we talk about this roster, I kind of have been hesitant to go back to the one that I covered and you covered that was the deepest roster this team has had because they went to the NFC championship. I mean, in recent memory. And once you start making that comparison, it's like, oh, well, they better go to the NFC championship then. But when I think about the training camp of 2017 and how we left that camp. It's probably the only one that I would say feels like this where everybody's looking around going, oh my gosh, there is so much talent on this team. We can go position by position by position and go, this guy had a great camp. This guy had a great camp. Even Jeff Okuda, I thought during these days, held his own in that nickel package, which

they didn't play as much. We saw a lot of Jay Ward because Harrison Smith was out of these practices. He had an illness, but it's probably just for the better that he doesn't participate in these. So Jay Ward got a lot of work with Theo Jackson, and they were having Josh Mattelis play a lot of his up at the line of scrimmage like he often does. But then later they moved him back and they put Okuda on the field. There is a flexibility to this thing that they didn't really have last year and they've tried to create it last year with some rotation in the front seven, but they just didn't have the bodies to give these totally different looks. And now they do with even just the way that Okuda has played. And I've been thinking about him

a lot as in he doesn't have to be perfect. And that's kind of the theme of a lot of the players on defense for me is, well, Alan hasn't been the best run defender recently. Hargrave hasn't been the best run defender recently. And Okuda has had his struggles at times in his career. And they're going to ask more from Isaiah Rogers. And they're going to ask more from Mattelis in deep coverage, which I do have some questions about that in playing the football and his long speed. But there's no player on that list that's just going to have to lock down every number one wide receiver or be the entire run defense by yourself. There's always going to be someone else that they can work in and fill in those issues. And I thought we really saw that in these joint practices with some of the different personnel groupings that they had.

And I think even from someone like Van Ginkle, like he's been banged up at times in his career, if that happened. Now Dallas Turner comes in, it will be really interesting to see how they mix and match because you don't want Van Ginkle off the field, but you also don't want him playing 800 snaps again. When we talk about the biggest developments of this training camp, I mean, I just think that a lot of the players we had big questions about on the defensive side have shown us something, whether it's Jalen Redmond, whether it's Dallas Turner, whether it's Theo Jackson, who continues to make plays on the football, Isaiah Rogers, who I thought had a pretty good joint practice. I mean, all of these guys have kind of been the best versions that they could have hoped for so far. And again, none of this guarantees anything, but walking out of this, they dominated the New England Patriots on both sides of the ball in these joint practices. And we know how serious both coaches take the joint practices and how much work they put into them. You know, we talk about studying film. We know that Vrable was trying to simulate the Vikings players in practice by putting pennies on the guys and preparing for some of Flores' looks.

Like, this actually means something a lot more than the preseason, which is not predictive at all for what's going to happen. And it feels like they're in really good shape. And, you know, you go back to that Fandual question of the day, like, if all of the stuff that happened here in these last two days happens there in the regular season, they will blow by the fan duel expectation and in part because of the defense. But let us get before we wrap up, though, Dane, because we are just watching these guys walk off on. cloud nine after these practices. They were so good during these last two days. It's funny that, you know, last year they won 14. We didn't really feel that way coming out of Cleveland last year. We were kind of like their defense can be great. We think Donald's got chances to go deep. But, you know, we'll see. And they end up, you know, playing really

well. We do need to mention punt returning, kick returning. We did see some of that. It's going to be a big deal. There were a lot of guys practicing kick returning today. I saw Felton and Ty Chandler were the first guys out there. I saw Xavier Scott get back there. We've seen Miles Price. We've seen Silas Bolden. And then on the punt returning side, after practice, I saw Ty Felton taking some, but it's been Bolden, it's been Miles Price.

These are, they're going to matter. And everything matters when you're talking about a team with the expectations this high. What do you think happens at the returner positions? I've been kind of banging the drum for Silas Bolden as the punt returner. So I'm going to just kind of double down right now and say, I think he makes the team. I think the UDFA out of Texas, undersized receiver. I think he makes the team because he's the punt returner. I think he will be the guy.

He's been getting a lot of the reps in training camp. So I think he will be your starting punt returner week one against Chicago. I think Ty Felton will be your starting kick returner. They've been doing, you've seen it pretty much throughout training camp. It's not one guy back there. It's two guys back there. I think with the new kickoff row, they're anticipating kind of angling a kick to kind of short of the goal line

and hoping you can kind of pin a team back if you're the kicking team. So you want two guys back there to kind of patrol both sides of the field. I think Ty Felton will be kind of the guy. And if Ty Chandler makes the team, he'll be the other guy back there. If he doesn't, you could see maybe a Xavier Scott is the other guy back there. Because if Ty Chandler doesn't make the team, it means Xavier Scott probably did make the team. What I will say is I'm giving myself an out.

August 26th, I think, is cut down day. Maybe Silas Bolden makes the team on August 26th, but then maybe there's a surprise cut across the NFL. And maybe one of those surprise cuts happens to be a really good punt returner or someone who's done it in the past or even someone like Rondo Moore who has not done it recently but has done it earlier in their career. I could see them looking elsewhere for a punt returner just because, and we've talked about this, you want to talk about it in the weeds, but the swirling winds of Chicago on Monday night football

at Soldier Field where everything wacky happens, do you want a UDFA back there catching a punt? I don't know, probably not. So I'm going to give the nod to Silas Boland right now because he just is the guy. but would it shock me if they went out and went shopping on the open market when there were probably more people available? No, it wouldn't shock me. Does that mean I think they're going to go sign and Odell Beckham because he, no, I think if they go shopping for another player, it will be someone with a very defined skill set, someone like a Brandon Powell who has done this, who you can trust. But right now, I think Silas Bolton is the leader in the clubhouse. I think it's a big

game for him on Saturday and then the following Friday, I think if he performs well, if you see a few punts this weekend and Silas Bolton looks comfortable, maybe that gives him more of a ramp way. Maybe that gives him a longer leash. But on the flip side, what if he bobbles one? Well, then maybe you're looking sooner. So long answer, I think Silas Bolden is your punt returner. I think Ty Felton and whoever is RB3 is probably your kick returner. I think that they have a tendency in the past to let it play out with the players they have and then make a decision. So we saw it with Dalton Reisner, for example, last year where they let it play out. And then they were like, yeah, we better call Dalton Reisner. And I think the same thing goes for the wide receivers.

Guys like they are Thomas, Lucky Jackson, they're going to get game action, probably a lot of game action. And they have something to prove in this preseason game, which is the next step for all of us, which is, and my final question for you is just what's the number one thing we're looking for? in the preseason. I wanted also mention that, you know, Max Rosemary had a couple more good throws. I thought Sam Howell had some you like, some you didn't like. He had a really nice throw to, I think,

Miles Price, yes, Miles Price, where he got pressure immediately, but he got rid of the football, threw it up and over, dropped it in Miles and I've liked what I've seen from Miles Price. I don't think we should leave him out of the discussion either, that he was a returner at Indiana and has shown some jump to his game as well and has made some plays. He's the one that caught the touchdown

from Max Brosber. For me, that is a number one by far with a bullet. It is what do these receivers do in this preseason game? And do they do enough to convince the coaching staff in the front office? We're good with the group that we have. We don't have to go out and get somebody else. Or will we walk out of it saying, you know what? Maybe they need to make a couple of phone calls.

Yeah. If you're taking the receivers, I mean, I think that's a good place to start because how do you separate yourself if not on the practice field it's in the games it's in the games that the head coach doesn't even want to play any of his starters so you're going to get a ton of reps and whoever stands out on Saturday against the Patriots or Friday and or and Friday against the Tennessee Titans is probably going to win out in the end or on the flip side of that show the front office that we need to go do something But if you're taking the receivers, I'm taking the quarterbacks. I want to, and I guess they go hand in hand.

You need good quarterback play to even get receiver reps. So the receivers probably care about, are invested in how Sam Howell is going to look and how Brett Rippin's going to look and how Max Brosmer is going to look. But for me this weekend, I'm giving Sam Howell credit for what he did last weekend. But also I want to see it again. Yes, it's still up and down. Yes, there are still times in practice where I'm like, I don't know if I, I don't know if I feel that great about him being one snap away. And then I kind of have to remind myself, nobody feels that good about their backup unless you're one of five teams in the league, probably.

But I want to see him on Saturday, does the offense look good again? Does it look like it can function? Sam Howell is going to get the first kick at the can. J.J. McCarthy is not going to play. What does he do with that? Does he build on last week when he was 11 of 13 for 100. and five yards and consistently move the ball downfield. So that's what I want to see first and foremost.

And then I want to see Max Brosmer. I get Brett Rippin. I understand that. Kevin O'Connell kind of stood on the table today and said, you know, I know his stat line in the preseason game didn't look that good, but if he completes a go ball over the top, we're all talking about it differently. Yeah, that's true. It was a pretty good throw to J. Sean Jones in the preseason game last week.

and if he goes for a 30-yard gain, we're probably not looking at Rippin's stat line, which I think was one of four for like five yards and a sack. But I want to see Max Brosmer. No disrespect to Brett Rippin. I don't really care about his reps, though. I want to see what does the undrafted free agent out of Minnesota look like? Because I think he has an opportunity to be QB3.

I think he has an opportunity to make the team. So after Sam Howell, I will be fixed. sated on Max Brosmer this weekend. Is he going to keep putting together tape that makes it so you cannot cut him? It makes it so if you cut him, you're worried about exposing him to waivers. I think he continues to do enough to keep you interested. I thought he got very minimal reps in joint practices because that's how they're set up. It's for J.J. McCarty, it is not for Max Brosmer.

But it did not mean he didn't stand out. He had a great throw to Tim Jones yesterday and he had another good throw to Tim Jones and another one to Jayshon Jones today. He continues to do enough in practice, so I want to see how he looks in the game. Tim Jones is really... He's someone to watch too. He's made a case for himself.

The last couple of practices coming out of a preseason game where he had a couple penalties that was maybe regrettable for him. But Xavier Scott also, in that backup running back situation, I think it's a very real competition between he and Ty Chandler,

or would they potentially keep both of those running backs because Xavier Scott has forced his work way and the backup offensive line we're going to be looking at as well because Joe Huber coming off of a great game and Michael Juergens I think needs to have he had a clean two practices we should shout out Michael Juergens he had a clean two practices when it came to snapping the football and running the operation with the second team so he did a good job there needs to carry that over to the next game as well so there's a ton to look at in this preseason game and guess who will be there Dane Mizzatani and myself and we'll be there.

right after the game. So make sure you're keeping an eye out for that post-game podcast as well. Thanks everybody for listening. Dane, this was a really, really fun couple of days, joint practices. We hype them up. And sometimes in the years past, it's been like, oh, joint practices. And then you're like, okay, well, man, you know, it's just another practice. That was not the case today. This had all the energy, all the vibe of what everyone hoped it would be at the beginning. And it was a lot of fun to cover. So I will see you again on Saturday and see you all again, soon. Folks, you know that Purple Insider has been growing, and now I've got people who work for me and

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Classes start soon. So enroll today for a limited time. IDEOU is offering my listeners 15% offsite wide. Go to I.D.E.O.U.com slash Purple Insider. That's I.D.O.U.com slash Purple Insider for 15%. off. There you go. There you go. My conversation with Dane Mizatani from inside TCO Performance Center. Got a few more things to get to as we got some sound from J.J. McCarthy, from Kevin O'Connell. And then, of course, I will be very willing to answer your questions.

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But, you know, it reminded me of right before last year his first preseason game where McCarthy just started to come on. And you felt like, all right, you know what? he's kind of getting this this kid's coming along and then if you guys remember kevin o'connell had talked about at some point that he was about to get more first team reps he had played so well in practice and then he had the very good preseason game and it was just trending all that way for j j mccarthy this was better than he looked then this was more in control this was more accurate in today's practice and i started out uh the press conference by asking

asking Kevin O'Connell about all the passes that he was able to hit today. So here's what Kevin O'Connell had to say. Especially today where he had the sequence where he completed 12 or 13 passes. See, this is the one time. It's good that you guys were keeping some stats. I did not know that. No, I just. I'm being serious right now.

You're the first ones to tell me that. I felt like, you know, I thought JJ had a really good day yesterday, but I felt like we came back today with a really good plan. And, you know, we were able to do some things that we would do, you know, in a regular season, game planning an opponent, trying to do some things that make sense from a rhythm, timing, spacing standpoint. But that's all on the players to then absorb that, and specifically JJ to go out there and execute the way,

did. It felt decisive. It felt incredibly, you know, an incredible amount of conviction to some of the decisions he made, location of the football, and a lot to build on. You mentioned location. Is that for the best he's thrown the ball since camp began? Yeah, I think, you know, everything happens faster in the red zone. So I think there's going to be some, you know, throws where maybe you got to squeeze it in a window, put it away from a defender one way or the other. But then there was also some throws where he threw it up and over you know, some guys and found the open grass, you know, with the ability to throw that, throw the football in some different ways, all things we've been working on, you know, all

things he's talented and capable of doing. But to do it in this setting should give him some confidence moving forward. Kevin O'Connell there, using some really great descriptive words, decisive and conviction. I think the most impressive part of what J.J. McCarthy was able to do today was really make a lot of different types of throws. You heard Kevin O'Connell allude to it there where it wasn't just, oh, well, he ripped passes that were 15-yard-ins. And I felt like a lot of training camp, I've been coming out of practices saying, hey, well, the 15-yard dig route, he's been really great at.

And the touch pass has been flying over people's heads. But these one routes have been really good and these one types of passes have been really good. But today, it was not just that. There was an outbreaking route to T.J. Hawkinson where he showed the anticipation that we've been talking about and the anticipation that I thought he showed during the preseason game with the deep out to Jordan Addison, where Addison kind of got held up at the top of the route and had to dive for the ball. But I was just watching J.T.O. Sullivan's

recap of the preseason game for J.J. McCarthy, which is definitely over at the cuby school worth a watch and he pointed out that mccarthy raises his arm to throw that ball about 25 yards and really drive that ball before addison gets out of his break and there were throws like that today kind of all over the field but one specifically stood out to me where hockinson was running an out route and he comes up i'm standing in the end zone so i can't tell you exactly how many yards i'm going to say 12 to 15 yards and hawkinson gives a little shake breaks to the outside and the ball is just there, and it leads him forward to the football. And there were just a lot of throws that were like that today where it needed to be

in an exact spot. The touchdown he threw in the two-minute drill, it needed to be in an exact spot. And he let it loose. And Addison goes down and he ends up getting it. I mean, it was just a very, very, very good performance for J.J. McCarthy. But I don't think that that happens if the offensive line, hadn't had a much better day today, which gave him time to throw and he could be patient and wait for some of those routes to develop.

But then when things broke down in the two minute drill, he took off and he ends up getting a big gain and a first down that set up the touchdown. So there was just a lot of stuff from J.J. McCarthy that I felt like was the high level, the things that they've been talking about, hey, we're working on this. we're working on this and what I really like as far as an evaluation tool about the joint practices is throughout training camp there's so many days and some days they go out there and they go we're going to work on this really specific thing today and that's what we're focused on and if it's bad then it's bad and we're going to keep fighting through it because

we need to do it as part of our offense okay so we'll sit on the sideline and we'll see something going bad and we'll be like, this is a bad day of practice for J.J. McCarthy, but they might have been working on something specifically in that day. During the joint practices, they're trying to win. They were trying to beat the New England Patriots on every seven on seven, every 11 on 11, every single two minute drill, like they're trying to outperform to the point where J.J. McCarthy was actually watching tape of the first day's practice to get a sense for how the Patriots were playing him because he didn't get much out of the preseason game for their defensive structures.

So he came out and he talked about this afterward where he came out, prepared for this practice, prepared for the type of defense they were going to play and then executed time and time again. And I was having a conversation with Stephen Ruiz from the ringer. We were standing together and watching it. And we were talking about trying to figure out what J.J. McCarthy's ceiling might be in his offense if he plays like this. And I think the ceiling is you're one of the best teams in the NFL if he can play the way that he did during the joint practices. I would even put them together. The total grade for me would be an A for J.J. McCarthy. I gave him a BB plus yesterday.

I thought it was pretty good. He admitted to missing a couple of throws yesterday. He didn't miss throws today. He was on point. So if this was some sort of a, you know, a, I, if you called it like a game, like four quarters of situations from yesterday to day, put them together. You've got one full game's worth of throws. That would have been a winning day for the Minnesota Vikings. And, well, you know, not everybody. I see you guys have lots of comments always on different media personalities.

You know, you know my thing on the show. Sometimes national TV hosts that troll about quarterbacks I watch every day do get under my skin. But, you know, here's what I'll give credit to. Anybody who comes out to actually watch and actually talk to people about this quarterback and about this team, I'm going to give credit to. That's why you see Robert Mays show up on this show because Robert has many times come out to practice and made the effort to come see what the Vikings are about and watch practice and talk to people. So Stephen Ruiz, you might not love some of his opinions on quarterbacks, but. He was there standing next to me watching the practice. We're talking about it.

And he's watching JJ go through what he's going through. And then he's going to go back and do his quarterback analysis after actually seeing the quarterback at practice. And I know some of you have pointed out, Diana Rossini was here as well. And credit to Diana Rossini and her show for coming out, sitting down with Kevin O'Connell and watching practice and seeing what J.J. McCarthy looks like in person. Because that's how you really figure it. it out you don't figure it out from grainy camp videos or whatever that's taken from the stands you don't

figure it out from one random person telling you something oh well i heard this or i think that or whatever you figure it out by going and being there and really talking to people and really seeing what's going on so with j jay mccarthy the big picture here is that there's been days where it hasn't been impressive. There's been days where it's been very impressive. But I think that the wheel has always been turning toward getting better and better and better. And even if there's a step back, or even if just for example, in the preseason game, even if there's a missed throw or something like that, he's taken these things and he's always improved. And think about yesterday where we did the live stream conversation. I was talking about some of the inaccuracy and just saying like,

this might be something that happens with him throughout the season, where he might, you know, overthrow a pass. And he might miss, you know, something inaccurately because he's still working on a lot of these different things. But then he comes out the next day and the same throws that he missed, he ends up hitting. And you just go, this is J.J. McCarthy. And let's not forget, sometimes McCarthy has talked about almost like he's some sort of big

swing, like let's just. take a chance on this on this try hard kid or something like j j mccarthy is a five-star prospect national champion in high school michigan starting quarterback at 19 and 20 years old national champion first round draft pick with a year of development under his belt mentally this is somebody who's supposed to have a really high ceiling he did throw the hardest football at the combine. He did run the fastest three. Like, the physical tools here sometimes are talked about with him as if it's like, oh, well, you know, this, this game manager kid. We'll see if he can just sort of try his way through or, or heart and hustle his way through. Like, no, this is a first round

draft pick who was taken ahead of Bonix and right next to Michael Penix in a draft class that's turned out to be terrific. This is where you expected him to be. This is. This is. the bet that the Vikings made is that today he would look like this against the New England Patriots. And you could just sense it as the guys were coming off the field. We talked to Grenard. We talked to obviously McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell and a number of other players, Jonathan Allen. The defense feels it too. They stand there and they watch J.J. McCarthy lead that two minute drive. And what they know is if he does that, we're going to do our thing. And this is going to be a pretty darn good football team. So I feel like this was another one of those, the way that

Kevin O'Connell has talked about it is checkpoints. To me, it's same sort of thing. Like you have a checklist of what did you want to see and when for J.J. McCarthy. So if he has a non-padded practice where he's throwing inaccurately on the fourth day of training camp, as you guys have watched the show every day, no, I'm saying, okay, it wasn't a great day. Here's the details. Here's what he's going to have to work on, but we're not doing this thing where we try to call it the third day into camp. And this is why, because of the amount of development and gains that McCarthy has made. And for all intents and purposes, this is the end of training camp. And now they begin looking at week one with McCarthy in a very good and a very confident space. Now,

there are some other things that I want to talk about. You guys have mentioned Dallas Turner a couple times. And just like with Diana Rossini or just like Stephen Ruiz or whoever else, you guys might have opinions on, you know, certain talk hosts and things that different people say, you know that these are people I know. So I'm not going to say, well, this person is this or this person is that. I'm only going to ever tell you what I see. Okay. What I saw today out of Dallas Turner was a guy who wanted to show something. Do I know that that's going to translate to 10 sacks? Of course I don't in the same way that I don't know if J.J. McCarthy's great last two days are going to translate. All I know is that it's what you wanted to see. That Dallas

Turner, when he came out today in the two-minute drill, rocketed by the right tackle of the New England Patriots for a sack. And what I'm talking about is Drake May takes the snap, takes a step to throw the football, and they call the play because Dallas Turner got there so quickly. And I know that he's going to be a guy that is in the spotlight and is going to get a lot of discussion with every single game. If he doesn't have three sacks in the first game, there's going to be criticism and everything else. But he played a certain role on the team last year. They finished in the top five as a defense. His role is going to elevate and they are going to need him to take steps forward as a defense to be better than they were last year to face the

competition they're going against this year. And what I've seen from him in training camp, and I'm only talking about training camp. And you guys like to get into, well, is this person saying that because they know something or whatever? And all I've heard about Dallas Turner from Jonathan Granard, from Jonathan Allen today, and all I've seen from Dallas Turner is growth. And Dallas himself, who I spoke to early in camp, about his approach this year.

He took the right steps this offseason by working out with Jonathan. Jonathan Grenard. He was the first person back with Grenard in the building to start the off season. And I think that he's learned a ton and has made physical developments, mental developments, and looks like he can be an impact player. Those are, those are my observations about Dallas Turner. Again, no guarantees for anybody. Those are my observations about him. And the defensive line just dominated this whole thing. And it's funny, too, because I felt like last night there was a lot of hey was j j better than drake may and a patriots podcast said drake may was better and things and look you know i don't know uh what i know about drake may and i was able to watch

a lot of the defense today i know you guys asked for that so i stood in a spot where i could see both uh i just put one eye to the right and one eye to the left no luckily it would be like a rep over here and then i could turn back rep over there and still see everything uh my observation about Drake May is that he is off the bus incredibly impressive. I mean, he's a huge guy and that some of the throws that he made today just whoa. I mean, like tight windows or drop it into the bucket or jump throwing. Like he did a couple of jump throws over rolling out or whatever. But the thing is that Drake May doesn't have very good sporting cast. And there is some concern, I guess, now from the Patriots with their media talking about whether Stefan Diggs is going to be ready

for the start of the season because of his lack of participation in some of the drills today. So I don't know exactly where that's going to be at for him. Kishon, Booty, and Mack Hollins were guys that were getting a lot of targets. Their offensive line is not that great. But what I thought you saw from the Vikings defense is making them look not great. And all those times that we've heard time and time again, about, hey, you know, it's harder to go against Flores' defense than somebody else. McCarthy made that look right.

McCarthy made that look right today, that it was easier for him to go against the Patriots' defense than Brian Flores. So whether the defense's performance as a whole is going to be more important to me than whether Dallas Turner gets X number of sacks because I tend to evaluate the football team on their wins and losses rather than how many. draft hits they get, but I know some people do it differently. I just look at what Dallas Turner has brought early on. And these two practices were huge for him because Van Ginkle was out. So Turner got a ton of work, ton of experience and had a lot of really good reps.

The thing is, I mean, on the other side, you're seeing Jonathan Grenard have one of the best training camps I've ever seen a defense event have. 2017 Everson Griffin looked like this, just a man on a mission. And Grenard looked at that way. too. This was, this was domination from the Vikings overall. There were some great plays by Drake May. There were some good catches that they had. And actually, you know, who looked really good was Josh Dobbs. Josh Dobbs had a pretty darn good day for the New England Patriots with their second team.

And there were, I would say there were a few reps from the second team secondary where I kind of went, ooh, you know, with someone like Zamaia Vaughn, there's still going to be some work that has to happen there. even though I think he's got a good chance to make the team. There was a past breakup, a nice play by Mackay Blackman. Maybe he could have picked it off, but he broke up a play. And I saw that there was a video. See, here's the thing about videos from training camp in these joint practices.

And you guys were talking about a video of Diggs cooking Jeff Okuda. I mean, Diggs has cooked a lot of people. So that's going to happen. But especially if they're doing the one-on-ones, I mean, the corners get cooked almost every time when they're doing the one-on-ones with wide receivers. Jordan Addison's one like every single rep. That's not usually how football works as a whole. But, you know, it's definitely something to keep watching.

But through these joint practices, Okuda took all the work. And I also saw a lot of Josh Mattelis in different places, which was interesting. Jay Ward got a lot of work in these joint practices. And I think that was probably good for his development because Harrison Smith was not active during these two practices. So I also wanted to bring you a couple of quotes, though, from J.J. McCarthy. We have talked about all the different plays that he made and Dane Mizatani estimating that he had 15 good throws today. That might be a little on the high side. But Dane asked J.J. after practice about his favorite throw of the day.