Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ Watt signs and Brandon Thorn breaks down potential Vikings targets in the draft

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Submit your Blue Wire Hustle application here: http://bwhustle.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button.

That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button. Reach for the beer that is made to chill.

Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics and Symbol, your marketplace for sports. Let's talk about the J.J. Watt signing in Arizona before we get to our conversation with Brandon Thorne breaking down all of the offensive linemen in the draft that the Vikings could be looking at. J.J. Watt goes to Arizona. He tweets out a picture of himself in an Arizona Cardinals shirt after a couple of weeks of subtle little hints of where he could go or what he might be

thinking. And the Green Bay Packers were always at the center of that conversation. If you're a Vikings fan, you do have to celebrate J.J. Watt not going to the Green Bay Packers. Because if you think about what that might have looked like with J.J. Watt going to Green Bay, you're adding him to Z'Darrius Smith and Kenny Clark. These guys have already given the Vikings fits over the last few years, especially when you're talking about passing situations, and then they would have been adding another unstoppable piece who can rush from the inside, rush from the outside. That would have been a nightmare for the Vikings to have to face J.J. Watt twice. However, Arizona is not a huge, huge victory. For one, the Vikings have to play Arizona next year, so you're still going

to see J.J. Watt with his new team, and if the Vikings cannot improve their center and guard situation, I think Arizona will move him inside quite a bit. There's also been reports that he will spend more time as an inside rusher after starting his career inside, moving to the outside, now he's going to go back inside. So it puts even more pressure on the Vikings to solve their guard situation, which again, we'll get to with Brandon Thorne. But the other thing about it too, is it sort of points to the reason why I talk about all the time, the rookie contract quarterback, because you're in this conversation. If your quarterback on a rookie

contract looks even halfway decent, it's going to attract players because they'll know your team can overpay, that you can bring them in at a price that is too high and stack up the roster around that rookie quarterback. This is an example of that with Kyler Murray where Arizona is suddenly in a winning window another thing I wanted to mention was the contract with 23 million dollars guaranteed for a guy with his age and his injury history it's a lot and Arizona is taking that risk that would have been the only downside for the Packers is the risk and the amount of money that you're putting into it considering his age. But I think it also says something about Daniil Hunter and what his potential price could be. If a guy with an injury history who is upwards of 30 years old and is in

the twilight of his career is getting this much, $23 million guaranteed. That is more money fully guaranteed than what Daniil Hunter got on his first contract, which I also found to be kind of interesting. So Hunter got very little guaranteed, which means he's going to want a lot more if he's reworking this deal. And you heard Brad Spielberger the other day on the show mentioned that they could make the next couple of years for him guaranteed, and that would be one workaround. But if he wants to say, look, J.J. Watt is great, but I'm way younger, even if he's coming off of the neck surgery, it sort of gives you a baseline to work with.

Man, people are paying out for anybody who can get after the passer, it also speaks a little bit, the amount of teams that were interested in J.J. Watt, to how many teams might be interested in Daniil Hunter and would be willing to bring him in and give him the contract extension that he needs. The Vikings would be looking, I'm sure, for all sorts of draft picks, maybe other players coming back if they were trading Daniil Hunter. But it's a thing that when you see the price getting super high, you have to at least think about. So J.J. Watt goes to Arizona. Another great part of this is it feels like, all

right, all right, we're in action. We've got a free agent signing. Even though free agency can't really start for another two weeks, J.J. Watt was cut so he could sign now with the Arizona Cardinals and we've got ourselves some fun. All right, let's get to my conversation with Brandon Thorne. He breaks down a bunch of different offensive line prospects, so make sure you've got your notebooks out and you can decide which guys you want for the Vikings in the draft. Oh, quick reminder, by the way, if you leave a five-star review and a question for the show, I will answer it. I'll go in, look at those reviews, and respond to your question in the Q&A type of session here on the show. So make sure you do that. All right, here's Brandon.

All right, now we welcome into the show from Trench Warfare. You have heard him on this show many times, breaking down the Vikings offensive and defensive lines. Brandon Thorne, what is up, Brandon? Not too much, man. Excited to be here and joining you to talk about this offensive line class. There is never a shortage of need for your services with this team, with the Minnesota Vikings.

And that's actually where I want to start, Brandon. I got a great question on my sub stack about the Vikings offensive line and just why they're never able to put it together, and I know that this is a broad question, but you and I have been talking about the Vikings offensive line since, I believe, 2017, and there has always been a big need, especially at left guard, to discuss, which is great because you're very good at breaking it down. But they have not at any point since I have been covering this team had a good offensive line. In 2017, it was the best they could do, and they were more of mid-pack.

And since then, it has just been year after year after year of not being able to pass protect at an above-average level. And there are some teams that year after year after year are very good at it, and the example that the person used was the Green Bay Packers and how they've found Bakhtiari in the fourth and some other players that were not necessarily top draft picks. Is there something that we can point to for why this has not been able to come together for multiple years now?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a kind of a failure to evaluate, you know, really, really well, at least in the draft. You know, they've hit on a couple guys like, you know, I think O'Neal, you know, was definitely a hit. And I think Bradbury is going to continue to get better and be a long term starter. But, you know, they've, you go back several years, you know, I mean, Matt Khalil, obviously, was a big miss, you know, a guy like TJ Clemmings, Elfline didn't work out. You know, so when you miss on guys like that, I mean, Drew Samia, you know, we'll see what happens there. But those are like fourth round and above type guys.

And we'll see about Cleveland, too. I think he can probably be good eventually. But, you know, it's, you know, if you draft guys in the first, you know, two, three rounds especially, and you have maybe one, maybe two guys out of the last six, seven years that hit, then obviously that's going to put you in a bad spot. And then free agency, you bring in a guy like Riley Reif, who he is what he is. He's like a solid player. He's going to get beat by high-end guys guys and he's going to do well against others. But he's not like a blue chip guy. And it's tough, man.

I mean, some offensive lines are able to get blue chip players in there and some aren't. There just aren't a lot of those guys, obviously. And Minnesota hasn't really had, you know, the opportunity or the, you know, whatever you want to the evaluation ability to land one of those guys with the capital and stuff that they've used. So it's just, I feel like that sort of thing, even though the trend has been kind of like middle of the pack or lower for a while, it can change so quickly.

If they hit on a guy and then all of a sudden it knocks everyone else down a peg as far as like, you know, now you're not relying on O'Neal to be your best guy maybe now he's your second best guy because you hit on a stud and then Bradbury's your third best guy and then Reef's your fourth best guy or something like that you know what I mean it just takes that one guy I think and I think they're pretty close to you know being in that position but they need like a blue chip type guy or at least like a very good or better starter I think and then that could really I think make everything else better and then also you can't have like a bottom two or three starter

at any position to be a high-end offensive line and they had that last year at left guard so you know there's a few different things that they're that are working against them yeah I agree that it's a weakest link type of thing. And when you're weak, link is not just weak, but it's abominably weak. And that's what they've been dealing with since Kirk Cousins has been here. I mean, even his first year, they end up starting Tom Compton. He's much more of a career backup. And then Pat Elfline starts at left guard, which is not his position.

And that didn't work out super good. They had Mike Remmers switching positions, which is another thing that I wanted to ask you about here, is with someone like Ezra Cleveland, he goes from left tackle to right guard, and now we don't really know where that's going to go. Is he going to stay at right guard, or are they going to move on from Riley Reif and then move Ezra Cleveland over to left tackle. I know that this is necessary sometimes when it comes to moving players around, and sometimes it works out great. A guy's a tackle in college, they slide him into guard, and that works better for him than it would have with being a tackle.

But with Cleveland, I just think they put him in such a bad position last year, going from the left tackle to the right guard. And then, hey, guess what? Your first start is against Grady Jarrett have fun my friend so I kind of throw out the numbers that he had last year because it was such an unfair situation but I think it is also a reasonable criticism of the Vikings in general in the last five years of always thinking oh we'll just kind of bump this guy over here and slide that guy over there and we'll see what happens. And I think the Remmers example is a really good one.

They should have just moved on from Mike Remmers when they wanted Brian O'Neill to start. Instead of saying, oh, no, I think you'll be fine at guard. No, you won't. I mean, you're not even a good player at your own position. And then all of a sudden, seven years into your career, you have to change. I mean, I think that there's an element of bad luck when it comes to this but then there's also some just decisions that may have worked on paper but did not work when they tried to implement them

yeah it's I mean the thing I keep thinking about is they're using kind of an approach of just putting like band-aids on the offensive line you know and just trying to move forward that way which you know I think that it's somewhat defendable because in the scheme that they've been running generally you're able to have success that way with you know kind of just plugging in average type guys because the scheme will kind of elevate them to an extent but you know I think it comes back to maybe you can do that but you need that across the board at least at average level and they just haven't been able to attain that yet I think they've just you know they've missed they made some you know decisions that I think even not

in just hindsight weren't very smart really I mean like the rumors thing to me and you know and us at the time when we talked about it like you know moving him inside just you know that I don't know you know I just didn't see the rationale of how that could have worked based on him and his career skill set stuff like that so like it's just there's so many different factors and layers to it I don't think it's really one thing but I think moving forward you have to at least get another average to above average starter minimum at that left guard spot. And depending on if you move on from Reef or whatever, maybe draft another guy. And, you know, hopefully he turns into like a really good player. And then all of a sudden, I think you could see, you know, pretty dramatic

improvement. What is your feeling on moving on from Riley Reif? His contract really sets up for it, but they also like him. I mean, he played well last year, had a good season. He's also in his 30s. I've kind of, even though you don't want to be moving on from offensive linemen, if you're the Minnesota Vikings and you've had so much trouble filling these spots, you did draft a left tackle in the second round just last year. And I feel like it's easier to replace some guards if you do it right and you don't put in somebody like Dakota Dozier, who is a career backup, who has never been a starter for more than maybe five games before and say, go get them for 16 games. And oh, by the way, in the NFC North, where you're going to face, you know,

a couple of beasts at defensive tackle, you'll be fine, my friend. That did not work out. Other teams also figured out that you can blitz the inside as well. And, you know, you'll get some confusion going on there. But I also think that investment-wise for a team that's up against the cap, this is a hard one for somebody who's in his 30s and who is not elite, but is more of a mid-pack type of guy. So it wouldn't surprise me if they moved on. What is your kind of feeling on that? Yeah, I mean, I think there's other

things that need to be answered too in conjunction with reef you know like what are you going to do with cleveland and what are you going to do like is there any of these guys on the bench that you want to have compete for a job next year samia um maybe you know hill or hill's a free agent now right he is he is but i think that um he would come back it's just my feeling on it that he would come back because i've thrown that out there i did the big piece on rashad hill earlier this year where i talked to your friend duke many weather who he's been training with and he is a different looking human being than he was when he first got here i mean he just looks like in so much better shape and played really well the last two years i feel like there's a chance that because they've gotten to see him improve and improve and improve,

that they could go with him instead of Reif. And he's started quite a bit before. He's got that experience. So I think if you're looking for cost saving, that makes more sense to bring back Hill on a cheap, maybe like one year, prove it you could be a starter deal, than it does to pay $8, $10, $12, $15 million to Riley Reif. Yeah, I mean, I could make a case for that, but then it becomes really important, you know, what you do at left guard.

I think either way you need another starter, pretty highly, you know, drafted type of guy, you know, first, second round. I would look to somebody like that. I mean, unless you think you could get somebody in the third, which is possible. But I mean, you, you need another starter, I think on this team and preferably, you know, I mean, obviously I'm biased. I think you should really build the offensive line and, you know, draft somebody with, you know, some really valuable capital there, especially in this class where I think there's a lot of guys in the first two rounds

that can help you. So, and whether that be a guy who could play left tackle or left guard, or maybe there's a couple guys in this class, I think that could potentially do both. You know, so just getting somebody in there to at least play left guard next year for you. And then that can give you some flexibility to make a decision on Hill or Reef for left tackle. I mean, I would lean Reef, I think just, you know, obviously, because he's a much more proven guy who could probably be better than Hill, at least in 2021. So just from that perspective, short term, I would lean Reif if you have that left guard there. And then if not, you know, then it just opens up the floodgates. And, you know, it's like you can think of a hundred different scenarios on how you want to put this line together, you know.

Right. Yeah. The way that I've been looking at Riley Reif is he's sort of the linchpin to the whole offseason because if they keep him, they can't make many other moves. If they move on from him, they have cap space to bring in other players, but then they have problems to solve, and that's not something that they necessarily want. Let's talk about the draft because you've been doing for Trench Warfare, and people should go check it out, trenchwarfare.substack.com. You are a top 25 sports substacker, by the way. I realized that the other day.

I'm very proud of you. But you've been doing these awesome scouting notebooks, and I wanted to start with Rashawn Slater because Rashawn Slater out of Northwestern is a guy that anyone who does their draft sims has been seeing that Rashawn Slater is often available when you get to the Vikings. Penny Sewell is not going to be there. I don't see any chance. He is by far and away the number one guy.

And I mean, look, you can dream if you're the Vikings, you never know who's going to drop, but I doubt it. I mean, he looks like somebody that can be a 10-year type of all pro, but Slater is always there in the draft simulations and in a lot of mock drafts I don't know if the Vikings will go offensive line but if they move on from Reef I think there's a decent chance that they consider it tell me about Slater and and why he's considered a first round pick even though he opted out this year right yeah Sewell did as well. A few of these guys didn't play football last year. But, yeah, Rashawn Slater, I think he's one of those really high floor type prospects who is very refined.

And the thing about him that to me stands out the most as far as trait-wise is his body control, contact balance, coordination, and footwork are outstanding. He's able to mirror shifty rushers laterally really well. He can recover from compromising positions well. I think he has really good use of hands. He's definitely a guy I would want in his own scheme, so I can understand the connection to Minnesota and some other know, some other teams as well, because he, you know, as far as negatives, like, I think he's, he has below average power in the run game. He's, he's still, you know, not bad there, but I think, you know, in the, at the NFL level will probably be below average. So being in his own scheme will help kind of mitigate that. I think he has some, you know, technique things, minor things in pass protection that got him in trouble a little bit when I watched him in 2019, especially against AJ Epinesa,

who's with the Bills right now. He has really good use of hands himself as a pass rusher, and he has very good length, 34 and a half inch arms. And that gave Slater a little bit of trouble. I'm not a big like arm length guy, you length guy and putting a lot of stock in that, but I think if you see it show up on film of him, of a player, offensive lineman, not able to deal with somebody who has really long arms well, then you note it in the scouting report. And that's something that I noted when he faced Epinesa. So that could give him a little bit of trouble at the NFL level. But, I mean, you know, he has 26 starts at right tackle, 11 at left tackle. He started 30 straight to end his career.

So he has that experience that you, you know, really value or typically people value in offensive linemen. You know, former, like, track and field athlete in high school. His dad played in the NBA for eight years. But, you know, so interesting background and everything. I gave him a pretty high grade. I think he's kind of neck and neck with another guy for the number three offensive tackle in the draft.

I'm a little higher on a name that some other people aren't, but I think he's definitely a first-round guy, and I think he could probably play four positions on the line, you know, everything but center. So he's a guy that, you know, you could put in anywhere. I graded him as a tackle, but, you know, I think he has that positional versatility and the skill set, I think, to play inside as well.

So if they did keep Riley Reif, they could draft him, put him at guard, and then eventually have the plan to move him out. Because I don't actually think that it's a crazy idea to leave Ezra Cleveland at right guard. If you've put him there and you've decided that that's what he's going to be, then just play him there. And O'Neal and Cleveland on one side of the line, to me, is very good. And you can do a lot of things with athletes like that, that maybe you don't want to change a guy's position again in his second year,

just when he's started to get comfortable with where he's at. But if I'm Ezra Cleveland, my agent is also calling the Vikings and saying, ahem, left tackle, please. That's where I want my guy to be, not right guard. But you mentioned that you had him third. Can I guess, is it Sam Cosme who you have higher than him? No. It isn't.

Okay, so who is it? Tevin Jenkins. Oh, okay. Tell me about Tevin Jenkins. All right, yeah, I'm'm big fan of tevin's game uh so i i think you know when i look at these prospects there's some guys that have these trump cards you know there's there's these traits of theirs that are so overwhelmingly dominant and only a few guys in the class have those you know like for slater you could say like his body

control coordination footwork is kind of his trump card trait you know or blend of traits that are all kind of similar and work in conjunction with each other but I don't think it's quite on the level of Tevin Jenkins and the power that he has I mean just straight up dominant a lot of his tape in college and it just I think that's really translatable when you're that strong and powerful and I think that he he reminds me a lot of Jedrick Wills I'll just say that that's kind of a good way to give a snapshot on him but maybe a little less athletic than Jedrick but a little more powerful but a similar type of physical stature and the way that they move I think is similar I similar. I think he has above

average agility, foot quickness, and burst, and he's very experienced in outside zone concepts and moving in space. I think ideally you'd put him in more of a balance scheme so he can have a little bit more of those gap and man blocking concepts, but he can work in zone um he's a very assertive finisher consistently takes guys out of the screen I mean like I said like just I mean you watch him against Texas and Joseph Asai who's going to be probably a day two pick maybe first round I don't know but he's an edge rusher for Texas he just absolutely dominated him um you know and I thought he got better from 2019 to 2020 as well he switched uh from uh he played right and left tackle um each of the last three seasons actually I think he has really good use of hands as far as negatives um you know I think he could shore up some of his angles and his aiming

points in the run game sometimes he can whiff at the second level um just you know I think that that sort of stuff can be cleaned up to an extent. And, you know, I think if he's going against really elite level speed rushers off the edge, he might have a hard time getting to his set point in time to not lose the corner. So, but if you look at the majority of tackles in the NFL, they have some sort of help baked into the scheme, whether it's a tight end, a chip, slide protection over there. So he can really set out there with the guard help on the inside. There's so many different things that you can do to kind of mask that. And I don't think

it's a liability either, but if you watch him close enough, you can see there's a couple times where it looks like he doesn't quite have enough range to get out there. He's a huge dude. I mean, so that's not necessarily his game. What were you going to say? Oh, I just said he's a monster. I mean, 6'6", 320 pounds, and not only that, but just pulling up his statistics, he has not given up a sack since 2018. So, I mean, that's what you want to see, for sure. Do you

think that he's like a later first round? I mean, you grade him higher, but I feel like I haven't heard his name quite as much as some of the other guys for being like a high, high first round pick. Yeah, I mean, I have him really close to Slater and Christian Derusaw. They're all really close, but I give the edge to Jenkins. As far as their valuation, you know, I don't really know how – or in terms of the way that the NFL is valuating these guys or valuing these guys, excuse me. I don't really know. You know, based on reading mock drafts and stuff,

I don't really look at a lot of those, honestly. So I don't. But, you know, I read Twitter and stuff. And generally what I see is, you know, I would agree with you. I don't know if the NFL values that highly, but I try to not allow that to get into my evaluation process at all because I don't really want, you know, that group think type of thing to infiltrate what I'm doing. So I don't know totally how people view him. But for me personally, I think I would probably give him the edge over Slater and Derrissaw, but they're all very close. You know, it's not, I think Sewell is my, he's my only like all pro level grade guy.

And then Jenkins, Slater and Derrissaw are all first round picks in my opinion. You know, you could kind of throw their names in a hat and pick one, but if I had to pick, I'd pick Jenkins. Hey folks, I want to welcome a new sponsor to the show, Symbol. Symbol is a sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams just like stocks, except for it's not as complicated as the shares of professional teams just like stocks. Except for it's not as complicated as the stock market. It works like this.

When your team wins, you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited. Symbol allows you to invest in your team with more than just your heart. So as we get into the team's big offseason moves, you can get in now and then follow your team's stock and earn big when they win. If you're like me and you closely track all the trends across football in the offseason and you know where each team is headed, Symbol is for you. And if you only focus on your team and believe they're headed in the right direction, now is the time to get in.

Of course, it doesn't just apply to football. We've got baseball ready to begin. You can invest in your teams there. Just go to symbol.app, S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot A-P-P, or you can follow them on Twitter at symbolexchange. And be sure to use the promo code PURPLE for a $10 deposit bonus. Hey everyone, we're in the full swing of winter now, and SodaStick has you covered. If you're a hockey fan, check out the North State Icon shirts or the Mick Golden Light snowmobile designs, all of these along with great football designs like the skull hats,

football state beanies and hoodies, and my favorite, the Metrodome gear. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping. Just go to SodaStick.com to get your original minnesota sports inspired goods all of their apparel is screen printed here in minnesota on super soft super comfy shirts and hoodies you will love it that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com original minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping see because i was thinking about um something i mentioned here all the time on the show is being team trade down like it makes a lot of sense if you're in the middle of the first round to trade down into the 20s and try to get more draft

capital behind you especially for a team that does not have a second round pick presently that i'm sure that they want that so let's just just say that Mac Jones is on the board. Somebody's desperate. They want to trade up with you. You trade down, and you can still get a very, very good prospect, and I think Jenkins might be somebody to sort of keep your eyes on. Now, you mentioned Christian Derisaw, and there's also Sam Cosme and two other guys that come up as first-round picks.

You have Derisaw over Cosme. Is that how you have it? Yeah, and I have Liam Eckenberg over cosme notre dame yeah yeah okay why is that eckenberg well just i mean just like uh why do you have them sort of in that order okay well derisaw i have this basically right neck and neck with slater um i'd have him higher than Slater if I, on tape. So when you watch him, you know, closely, I think he has a tendency to coast and kind of get a little lackadaisical. And he gives up some stuff he shouldn't. And that's a little concerning to me.

I mean, maybe as a pro, it won't matter. And he'll just be able to flip a switch and turn into a different guy. You know, that I've seen that happen before, but it still gives me a little bit of pause. And that's probably the biggest reason. And then, you know, there's stuff that's out of that. Like he just becomes a little too reliant on his upper body to move guys in the run game. He could do it at the college level because he's so powerful and he's so talented. So it was able to work for him, but you can also see other times where the competition ticks up a little bit and he just, it looks just sloppy. So those two things to me, I think, are just a little bit, you know, concerning, but otherwise I think he has very good initial and lateral quickness. And to say that for a guy his size is really impressive.

Just his frame and his build, it looks like he's just – he reminds me of Deion Dawkins a little bit. I mean, he has an overwhelming power element to his game where he can latch onto a guy with good hand placement and just sustain and drive them off the ball. He has good range in pass protection as well. You know, so I don't want to question his toughness either. I don't want to make it seem like that. It's more so like focus and concentration, you know, with a little bit better effort. I'd give him the nod over Slater, but because of that,

I have him a little bit down. So, but still a first-round player, in my opinion, just because I think he could be really freaking good. So I'm a huge fan of him. I think he's a much better prospect than Cosme. I don't really – I mean, I like Cosme. I think he could be really good. But I think Eckenberg is above him as well, too, because he's just much more refined than Cosme.

Cosme hasme's you know Cosme has a tendency to play down to competition uh which is a red flag for sure um he gets a little you know I think his footwork and pass protection is suspect a lot of the time um he has kind of a tendency to backpedal uh which is a huge red flag um so he I think he needs a little bit of work with his technique as a pass protector. You know, that's the thing with all these evaluations is level of competition is everything. You know, so, you know, when you see him going against Sunday players, you could see all these issues creep up and pop up, you know.

And then when he goes against guys who are lower level competition, you know, he can dominate them, but he didn't do it as consistently as you would want to see somebody with his talent. And that's why I said he plays down the competition sometimes. So there's some holes in his game, I think. That's why I gave him a mid-second round grade, but he can certainly be a guy who, he has more upside, I think, than Eckenberg, but I'd rather go with the guy who has better technique now than the guy who might be able to have it later. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics, and I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do.

Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America, and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688, extension 232, to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk

and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. I want to tell you about Blue Wire Hustle, a brand new program where you can host your very own podcast here at Blue Wire. Hustle was created to give everyone an opportunity to take your podcast to the next level or if you want to host a podcast and just don't know where to start, Hustle is the perfect place for you. As part of the program, you'll receive personal cover art, Q&As with Blue Wire's top podcasters,

access to our community Discord, and an e-learning course full of tips and tricks. And on top of that, we'll help you get your own show pushed out on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, and all other listening platforms. The best part is you can get this all for just $15 a month, the same rate as any other hosting site would charge you for the initial setup.

So whether you're starting from scratch or have an existing show that you want to grow, Hustle is an open door to leveling up your sports podcasting experience. Acceptance into the program is limited, so get your application in today. To apply, go to bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box for this episode to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. And from a Vikings perspective, I don't think that they want big projects. I mean, I think that they want players

who are able to come in and play right away and be able to at least hold their own rather than saying, oh, well, we might have to sit you for a while or it might be a disaster for a year until you can sort of get up to speed. But to your point, sometimes you just never know, man. I mean, I thought Andrew Thomas was going to step right into the NFL and it was just going to be he's a big technique guy and he's going to he's going to roll and then his first eight weeks he's getting killed out there and then he starts to get it together it's it's very hard there this is another just circling back to our very original point which is why the Vikings haven't been able to put it all together I One reason is they just started drafting guys high a couple of years ago,

and these guys are still developing. Brian O'Neill has finally gotten to the point where I think we know what he is, but Ezra Cleveland is far away from what his ceiling could be. Garrett Bradbury, I don't think that the book is entirely written on him yet. So you're kind of saying, all right, well, these offensive linemen sometimes take three or four years to be who they're going to be. There's some good examples recently of tackles who were just awful early on, Garrett Bowles and DJ Humphreys, who have become really good players after three or four years. And so we don't really have a good sense for where those guys are going to be. And

I think that makes it harder when you're trying to say, okay, well, we'll fix it through the draft again this year. But what is that guy going to give you in year one? I have so two questions off of that. One is who's the most NFL ready guy outside of Panay Sewell, of course. And then give me one name of a third rounder who you think could be an interesting find because I think there's a better shot that the Vikings draft defensive line at first and then try to address the offensive line in the third but this draft seems to have offensive linemen in the middle rounds that could be quite good yeah um so what was the first question again I can't focus so much on the second one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The first question was, who is the most NFL-ready guy outside of Panay Sewell?

So just a tackle? Yeah. Well, I mean, you could go any offensive line spot because it's the Vikings. Because my two of the three highest grades I've given are interior guys. Oh, really? Okay. All right. Yeah, yeah.

So my second highest grade is Landon Dickerson um so I think he's NFL ready I mean I think he's going to be potential pro bowl all pro kind of guy quickly it's just with him you know he each of the last four years have ended in injury so but I didn't you know I still gave him a huge grade. You know, so I think he's ready. I mean, he absolutely dominated SEC competition. He's 6'6", 325, you know, elite play strength. I think he's refined technique. You know, he executed every single block you can want to see from a center.

He slid over to left guard against Tennessee, dominated. He's in his leadership and the kind of teammate he is is renowned I mean just as clean as you can get in that regard um you know obviously team captain but just like above and beyond type stuff you know teammates just love him so he's just so clean of a prospect aside from the injury stuff uh to me I think you know he's he's definitely my second best guy in the draft um and uh there's another inside guy too Elijah Vera Tucker who is my third highest graded offensive lineman I'm very high on him as well but um as far as like a later round guy I mean there's a couple guys that I have graded much later than the

consensus that I've seen you know like you know I had a conversation with uh Daniel Jeremiah on Twitter about a guy that he was very high on that I you know am not uh high on at all that I thought was interesting uh Jalen Mayfield from Michigan um very talented guy. I have a lower round grade on him. You know, he could potentially go in the first round based on stuff I've seen on Twitter. But, you know, he doesn't turn 21 until May. And he has a lot of physical tools. So I certainly get the allure to his game. But I think he's kind of a mess technique wise. And I think it's gonna you know unless there's some little fix that all of a sudden unlocks him I think it's he's gonna need some time uh in a lot of different ways as a run blocker and as a pass protector but when it clicks it is special um

you know he kind of reminds me like I think high end if he he reaches his, you know, like the best case scenario, he could be like a Jack Conklin kind of guy. But, you know, I I think there's a long way to go between that. But in the third round, that's the place where I would want to draft somebody like that because the talent is undeniable. And, you know, just the size, the athletic ability and the power are all there. And he's young. So some teams may, you know, get tempted to draft him in the first round. I think that would be a mistake. So for me personally, I think third round is like, you know,

the best spot to get a guy like Jalen Mayfield. He'll probably not last that long, but that's where I would stick to for a guy like that. Well, there's an interesting point here just about the Vikings have tried to do this kind of thing. Take the athletic guy who has the high upside like the TJ Clemmings, and it hasn't worked out, but I also think that it's worth taking some of those shots over and over because if you do hit on that guy, then you probably will end up with someone very good because they have the athletic ceiling and the tools ceiling to get there. It's just Vikings fans are frustrated by those types

of guys because you hear like, oh, well, Clemmings, he's got this athleticism or, you know, Drew Samia, he, Oklahoma's offensive line, you and all those things. And then the guy gets in there and you go, oh my, he can't actually play. So that's a problem. Before we, before we wrap up, Brandon, I wanted to quickly ask you about the defensive line for the Vikings. There's so many needs here. And I just wonder in your travels, looking at all of these offensive linemen, if you happen to come across on the defensive line side, anybody who popped out to you where you'd say, wow, I mean, somebody should get this guy. I know that that's kind of a broad question,

but this is also a draft that I think in the third and in the fourth round has a lot of guys, but also the Vikings could be looking at that position in the first round. So the defensive line is way up there with offensive line, which is this is unusual. We never talk about this. If we're talking the defensive line is way up there with offensive line, which is – this is unusual. We never talk about this. If we're talking about defensive line, Brandon,

we've usually been talking about how freaky the guys are that the Vikings have. But this time around, they have at least two position needs there, maybe three. Yeah. Some guys that I've seen that impressed me, this is like a later kind of round guy, probably Quincy Roche from the University of Miami. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's a pretty crafty pass rusher. He has a pretty good arsenal of moves for a college guy.

He's undersized, and I don't like using the cliche term tweener, but, you know, kind of in that mold just because I don't know how much he's going to give you versus the run. And, you know, not a whole lot there, you know, in terms of power. But he definitely is a skilled pass rusher. So somebody that you can get later and have as like part of a rotation. There's another guy, Joe Tryon from Washington. He popped when I was watching tape. I think it was against Panay Sewell in 2019 or 2018, one of those two years where he, I mean, I think he has a higher ceiling than Roche. I mean, he's, you know, bigger guy. There's more tools to work with there. I think that, you know, I don't know really where

he's projected or anything like that, but those are two edge rushers to me that have popped. And then the guy from Georgia who has, you know, probably the biggest name of all these guys is he's Ojalary. Yeah, he looks like a good player too. So I don't know if any of those guys are going to step in right away and be very good or, you know, anything like that. But, you know, maybe above average, you know, a guy guys that you would want to put as part of your rotation who can develop into, you know, a quality starter maybe in the next couple of years. Because this isn't really, you know, I haven't seen like any like stud edge rushers you know in this class but there's a bunch of these type of guys who you know if you get them with the right coaching staff which Minnesota I'd put up there with any coaching staff in the NFL as far as you know developing

defensive players uh these are type of guys that I'm sure they would love to get their hands on and um you know the only thing is I don't know if they're a guy you want to have in there as like a full-time starter. But if you have a rotation of guys, these are a few to me that I think could really step in off the edge and, you know, give you some, you know, pretty good production. Trenchwarfare.substack.com is where you do your writing. I am a subscriber to your work. All right, Brandon, great stuff. As always, people should go find your work, follow you on Twitter as well, because you do awesome stuff. And you have more cool things

and cool announcements that are coming that I'm not allowed to break right now, but they are on the way, which I'm very happy for you. And it's just been awesome for me to see your career, you know, because we got together kind of back in the day when you were just getting started, and then now you're just increasing your platform, if you will. So it's been very cool to see. So happy for that, and we'll do it again soon. I guarantee you we will have more to discuss when it comes to the offensive line, Brandon. Yeah, for sure. I'm going to be excited to see who you guys get, and then we can talk about that maybe. Thank you.