Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Joint practice week is full of depth chart opportunities

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison talk about which players have a chance to move up the depth chart or lose ground that they have gained during the first part of training camp. Plus, who gains more yards, Dalvin Cook or Ezekiel Elliott? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Jonathan Harrison. And yes, it is hot routes once again. And for those nightly watchers, I think I'm just going to start messing with everybody, Jonathan, and just do a different studio setup every night. But we're just calling it progress. And what we're dealing with right now is figuring out how not to make my dome look like the light is just reflecting off of it and it's still a challenge so we're working our way

through some things but uh other than that a day off for the vikings they get into the big practices that we've been talking about since day one against the Tennessee Titans here coming up. And then another preseason game, U.S. Bank Stadium. Football will be back. This is an exciting week, I think, for training camp. This is kind of a crescendo of training camp, Jonathan. Absolutely. I mean, this feels like, what,

the old week three of preseason where you get to see all of the starters for at least a half. This feels like that because of the way they set it up with the training for at least a half. This feels like that because of the way they set it up with the training camp and the joint practices. And this feeling like the better team of the joint practices than the Arizona Cardinals, who are clearly very much in tank mode, this feels like you're going to get a better test and you're going to get to see better competition

day in and day out at those practices. So yeah, this feels like a very exciting and big couple days for the Vikings in this training camp. I am calling it moving week because I think that if you are going to change your position on the depth chart, whether that means going from off the 53 to on the 53, or if it goes from second team to first team, or if it goes from first team back to second team that is going to happen this week and I do agree that you know the Arizona Cardinals practices are not maybe as important they are and I'm sure that the team would tell you that's not true but I think that this being their first opportunity to really go against another team in these practices, to have these hard practices, because a lot of the last, I would say, week and a half has been walkthroughs, a preseason game,

a travel day, a player's day off. It's been a little bit since we've had something to kind of put our arms around and say, all right, this is what is going on. By the way, Kevin Seifert reported about TJ Hawkinson that he's had this inner ear infection that has kind of thrown off his equilibrium or something a little bit. So hopefully that's not a long-term problem.

Seems like he's coming back from it. But on a daily basis, we've sort of been wondering kind of what's going on there with TJ Hawkinson. Why isn't he back to fully practicing? So that's what's going on. I'll be curious to see, in part, just who is back because they've been dealing with some injuries, taking some guys slow, a lot of, well, that's precautionary,

that's precautionary, but this is not a week to be overly precautionary when a lot of guys need to, I think, take the next major step of training camp. So they're practicing against the Tennessee Titans, which of course, what else would I be asking Jonathan other than about the Tennessee Titans and your favorite Tennessee Titans of all time? Now, let me make this distinction. This is Tennessee Titans. This is not Houston Oilers to me.

And I know they're going to wear those jerseys and those jerseys are incredible and they're beautiful and they're wonderful, but that's not Houston. In my mind, it's not Houston. It's as much Houston as the Indianapolis Colts are the Baltimore Colts. Like, I don't know. I just, I just, I can't really make that connection for me. At least it was the same jerseys from Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis, totally different jerseys, Tennessee, just not the same from the classic Houston organization. So I am only talking about Tennessee Titans. Let's start off the show talking about some Titans.

Who's your favorite three Titans ever? Well, first off, what's holding them back from going back to the Oilers name? Is this like a Minnesota North star situation where it's just kind of up in the air and no one really wants to pull the trigger, even though everybody says and everybody knows this is a better that's a better name and a better jersey combination? And who are we to care about like team names and how they fit the area? Because we have the Los Angeles Lakers. There's not really lakes in Los Angeles.

We have the Utah Jazz when they used to be from new Orleans. Like, are we, are we really that concerned about them? Not really finding a lot of oil in Tennessee that we can't call them the tenant, the Tennessee oilers at this point, like just go back to the name. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Uh, it's a good, it's a good point. And I don't know, but it probably is a North stars type of thing. Yet, they're going to be able to wear these throwbacks, so why can't they just... And there's already another team in Houston, being the Houston Texans, when they should have just been the Houston Oilers.

And they should have just returned as the Oilers with those jerseys. I don't understand you, National Football League. If Roger and I ever have a conversation, I'm going to ask him about kickoffs. What's the deal there? Are we getting the XFL kickoff? And I'm going to ask him about this whole thing. Why did you bring him back as the Texans? And why did it have to be red, white, and blue? Just so corny and bad with the jerseys. Not the point, Jonathan, three favorite titans uh three favorite titans all right i'll start off with the fullback because i know you love fullbacks i'm going

lorenzo neal and then i'm gonna go somewhere else here which i know you'll love this answer lorenzo neal frank wycheck and kevin dyson why would you do this why would you do this i i give so much to you jonathan i I mostly take, but I give, and you come in with the music city miracle guys. I got so excited when you said, I got so excited when you said this question, I'm like, there was three players on that play. He's asking for three favorite Titans. I've got to go with the music city miracle guys. I mean, it just fits. That's awful. Uh, wasn't, wasn't Kevin Dyson who was just a couple of feet short of the goal line. Was that, was it? I think it was also why he's one of my favorite

Titans because I was in love with that, that version of the Rams. And when he came up a couple of feet short, I was a very overjoyed nine-year-old. When I say, I mean, I think that your picks, even though they were intentional to hurt me, um, were that was a great team. I mean, I liked that team. It was just a forward pass. That's all. But that team was really cool. I mean, the receivers that they had, Derek Mason, Kevin Dyson, uh, Steve McNair is obviously

my number one Titan ever. He's probably everyone's number one Titan ever, but Frank Wycheck was a great player. Lorenzo Neal. Think about, I mean, this guy blocked for LaDainian Tomlinson and Eddie George in, in huge parts of their career.

Doesn't get a whole lot of credit because he's a fullback, but you go back and watch the way the game was played. That dude was vital to their, their offenses. And so that was pretty big. Kevin Mawai was a part of some of those great Tennessee Titans teams. Javon Curse was probably a top three for me. The freak.

And I remember in the Music City Miracle game, he was absolutely crushing a very mediocre buffalo bills offensive line and a quarterback who loved to get sacked in rob johnson but they're him and daniel hunter are the two guys that if you said like who are the biggest just monsters that you've ever seen that make no sense physically that they are also human and i am human uh is those guys, Javon Kirsten, Daniel Hunter, Julius peppers, like the super long, totally freaky defensive end. And for a little while, he was really good. I'll give you another one. Keith Bullock. That was a dude. That was a guy who he was a violent player and really an important player to

their defenses over the years uh some some great tennessee titans along the way eddie george his a football life is absolutely worth watching a really good player i mean if you want to go back to oilers of course and we are being informed that there is oil in tennessee so there's no issue back to the name i mean it it truly does not matter to me if there is as you said there's plenty of examples and plus a lot of teams are like bearcats or whatever like does since does cincinnati is it overrun with bearcats like probably not right but um there's there's a lot of these names that are that way but i appreciate the information that it would be at least correct to call them uh the oilers but a lot yeah a lot of great all-time

of course um some journeyman quarterbacks there carrie collins the other day i was doing an immaculate grid and there was a panthers slash titans there's like a crossover and i thought i was real clever being like oh yeah carrie collins, I'm going to nail this one. And it was like 44%. Everyone thought Carrie Collins. So I was not impressing anybody actually with that, but they had some strange times along the way. And I will tell you, I rooted for Vince young to be great. I wanted that. I mean, you watched him in college and how incredible he was. And I think he just couldn't handle the pressure of the NFL, the expectations that were put on him and so forth coming out of college. But there were moments, the guy was on the cover of Madden and made a pro bowl. Like there were moments with him and he had some big wins for them, including you talk about harassing the bills. Like he had one game where

they came back from a bunch of points and he had a game winning drive. I would even put Vince young as a guy that I really, really enjoyed as a Tennessee Titan. So, I mean, even though they have horrendous jerseys and they stole the Houston Oilers and they cheated to win a playoff game, it still, that's not their great players fault. Um, so anyway, uh, feel free in the comments to drop more of these Daniels, very similar to mine, uh, Kevin Mawai, um, uh, already we're getting the snark about Will Levis, but Hey, look, if they keep drafting guys with huge arms in the second and third round, maybe one of them will be good. I don't know. It's a, I saw Malik Willis is second on their depth chart right now. And I don't think he's going to be any good either, but they might as well just keep taking those shots.

So continue to leave your favorite Tennessee Titans. But it is moving week indeed in these joint practices. could move the most. And this can mean up or down for Vikings players on the depth chart, because I really think that even though it's only two practices and one preseason game, this is a massive part of the evaluation. Yeah. Uh, I think for me, guys who can move up literally any of the court cornerbacks, and we that's the position group we've been talking about the most over this entire training camp because there's just so much room and you don't know outside of Byron Murphy who's going to be starting there. Any of those cornerbacks can really solidify a starting spot within these next couple days because they're

facing for, it seems, the first time this training camp outside of just other teammates. They're facing other NFL caliber talent and starting talent when the Titans come into town and practice them. So I think this is a big week for any of those cornerbacks, Makai Blackman, Andrew Booth, Caleb Evans, any of those guys on that cornerback spot. Any of those guys can really solidify a job this week if they perform well in practice and if they do well enough in the preseason game. But I think for the most part, it's can you go up against those guys, a very physical Tennessee Titans team? Can you go up against them in practice day in and day out and perform well

and live up to expectations of what the defense is asking you to do and play well in those practices? So for me, the biggest movers and I guess fallers could be those cornerbacks, whether it's Andrew Booth. Can he show that he has the talent and Kenny stay healthy enough to go up against some of these guys. Kenny Caleb Evans and McKay Blackman keep impressing like they have been so far through training camp against other first teamers.

But one-on-ones are something to see for wide receivers versus corners. And I think that that plays into it as much or more than the 11 on 11s and i like sloths nomination here with a strong repeat performance naji thompson can go from cb9 to st1 i think that they like the heck out of naji thompson as a special teamer that when guys make plays like they did the other night this is the thing about special special teams is when someone makes a big special teams play, it's not easy to do. Like Matt Daniels brought this up

and he did a whole breakdown as Matt Daniels does. And he was talking about how there's a lot of factors when you make a play like he did in that preseason game where it's the angle that you gotta come in, getting away from the defenders who are blocking you, making the tackle in the right spot so to not get a targeting call. There's a lot that goes into it,

and they were very impressed. And it just seems like that momentum is building for him to be the Dan Chisina or something that makes it as a special teamer. And there was even Matthew Slater's name came up. He's been for a very long time with the New England Patriots. I like that nomination that he can continue to grow in that position. Daniel asks, is it a make or break week for Ed Ingram? If he has a bad joint practice or week, do you see them pulling the trigger

on Reisner? I don't want to go too far and say that. Yes, but maybe I, I think I would go maybe because the Tennessee does have good defensive linemen. If you go back to 2020, when they played Tennessee and they bashed the Vikings offensive lines face in, well, they've still got some of those guys.

And if he goes up against them and they struggle where I really perked up was when Kevin O'Connell was talking about communication. Communication sounds like some sort of, I don't know, vague type of, well, you know, you need to communicate. Obviously you do. But in the NBA playing defense and in the NFL playing offensive line, that communication stuff is half the job is I got to make sure I'm blocking the right dude. So when it's funny, because there was this debate of, well, did he have a good game? Did he not have a good game? Well, of course, you know, he made it's a preseason game and he's a starter.

So he made some good plays and he looked good on some plays. But a communication error is still no less an error than if someone just beats you. You cannot have this happen. And if you're allowing one error every couple of plays on pass protection, it's a big, huge problem. So I think that the communication part will be as big of anything because you have to get it. You have to understand where you're supposed to be and who you're supposed to be blocking.

And it looked like last year that was a pretty big issue. So I guess I would say I do think it is a big week, and he could move himself into a position of potentially being replaced. Ryan asks, with how easy it is for this staff has made it on Ingram to be the starter, why does it seem they've done the opposite with Louis Seen? Cam Bynum stinks, same PFF grade as Ingram, but we act like he's good. Well, let's contextualize the grade though because ingram was okay as a run blocker and one of the worst pass blockers in the entire nfl last

year and as bad of a run or as a pass blocker as we have seen only slightly better than dakota dozier so that's a little different from cam bynum and his overall PFF grade as a safety and safeties are pretty tough to grade because of the limited number of plays that involve them. So if they're involved in coming up to run fill or a pass goes in their way, but the rest of the plays, probably a lot of throws that you don't see toward a safety where the coaching staff would grade because they know what the guy is supposed to do but pff is going to grade when it goes their way so there is something to that so i i don't think that cam bynum stinks i think cam bynum knows

exactly how to play in any defense that you ask him to play and his upside is more limited i think lewis seen in two years with two opportunities does not know what to do. That's what it's looked like. And so if you are a coach and you have an offensive lineman that you think is a few details away from being pretty good because of his upside, you're going to try to run that out there. I don't endorse it entirely, but I'm saying the coaching staff's thinking. But if you have a safety who doesn't know where they're supposed to be, you're just going to get throttled. I mean, that's,

they're just going to take advantage of that all the time. And you saw the lack of conviction that scene was playing with, but do I feel like last year they should have played Chris Reed and, or kept Jesse Davis just in case. Yeah, I do. I definitely do. Cortland Finnegan, a very violent player and well known for his fight. Isn't it funny about football? Like if there's a fight, an actual real fight in football between two guys, we remember it for 10 years in hockey. They just let them fight all the time.

And it's like, they should probably not do that anymore with the hockey fight. Although it's basically, it's basically gone. But if you think about it, two guys push each other in the NFL. It's like, Oh my gosh,

throw them out of the game. Like, but it's probably for the better because if they let them just throw their helmets down and fight, that would be happening every five minutes. Let's see who else has a chance to be a mover and shaker outside of the secondary i would say that the ivan pace brian asamoah if brian asamoah is healthy this week that's a battle in itself right there jonathan i would also go

anybody who is a backup on the defensive line and the depth wide receiver. So Tristan Jackson was back the other day, made a couple of really excellent catches in his first padded practice back from his injury. If he's, if he shines, I think he could make the 53. If he plays really well in some of these joint practices over the next couple of weeks. And depth defensive line, it's not clear. Luigi Villain's been good. Is he ahead of Patrick Jones? There's opportunity there. Yeah, absolutely.

I like that suggestion of the depth wide receiver because you've seen them bring in Nikhil Harry and how he played against the Seahawks. And clearly they're looking for other pieces outside of the top three that they have because they clearly know that they're going to need that later on the top three that they have because they clearly know that they're going to need that later on in the season or as the season goes along if they want to employ bigger or more wide receiver packages so that that's a very interesting one because

there's not it doesn't feel like there's a whole lot of opportunity for movement on the offensive side of the ball outside of maybe running back two in that battle. But right now with Kenny and Wong Wu just being gone, it just feels like Ty Chandler's got that spot locked up, though it doesn't feel like they are too high on him, especially with his pass blocking like you and Rafe were talking about last night. Folks, late summer and fall are always a crazy time for me with football,

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No prep, no mess. Head to factormeals.com slash purple50 and use the code purple50 to get 50% off. That's code purple50 at factormeals.com slash purple50 for 50% off. This is just such a roast thing that I have to put it on here. And it's not personal, but the only moving that matters to me is Ed Ingram out of the state. Ahmed, my man, that was good. I mean, that's just good.

You got to give credit where it's due to the setup. I mean, it's very mean, but that's pretty funny, man. I appreciate that. So 44 Rhino Man says, Vrabel always has a physical team. I really want to see if this team is on par with the intensity and physicality, that is something that you only want so far. It's like, yes and no, in a way, I don't want them to be because you don't want anybody to get injured. And that's what players worry about with these joint practices. We love the joint practices because it's football and it looks the most like football of anything you're ever going to see in practice. At the same time, you don't want to see any sort of excessive battling to the point where they are getting hurt and getting banged up in these practices. I think that players look at this like these are as intense or more intense than the preseason games, especially if you're a starter and you're going rep after rep after rep.

So, yeah, to a point. But my experience watching it last year was that I thought that the Vikings were a little like, whoa, San Francisco, you are on the aggressive side. And San Francisco, in my mind mind has the same mentality as the Tennessee Titans. So I think it's both an, a matter of intrigue and a matter of concern. Like you don't want to see anybody get banged up in these practices, but I generally agree. They're going to have a physical defensive line. They're going to have physical wide receivers, physical cornerbacks, and the Vikings will battle against that.

Daniel says, if Naylor is still out, want to see separation between Rager and Powell. Ken asks, are there refs at the joint practices? Yes, there are. Yeah, there are refs at actually all practices that are 11 on 11, where they're really ramping it up and being intense, and they throw flags and stuff, and they talk to the players. So yeah, they're always out there but i'd like what i'd like to see is nailer back because nailer has practiced but practiced it practiced one time the entire training camp so far and it appears to be some sort of calf thing i I'm not reporting it. Is it just like lower leg nagging? You kind of add that up.

It doesn't seem like they're going to have to amputate. But at the same time, he's not able to get out there because there's concern about re-aggravation. And you don't want that either. But this is where I could see. I think over the years, Zimmer was probably pretty hard on injured players. Not probably. As Sheree Floyd, like too hard on injured players. And he would just, he throttled a kicker once about being hurt.

That was Riley, poor Riley Patterson, who kicked a little in the league. He was like, yeah, well, he's going to have to man up, get out there. So I was like, whoa, okay. Like, there's no reason to slam a kicker over this. They really need things going right for them. It's a violent motion. But the point just being that O'Connell's approach is, I think, very justifiable. And they are at the peak of sports science.

And I give it a ton of credit. I think it's been a massive culture factor for the Vikings. But there's still a part of me, football person. Who's like, come on, bro. You got to get out there. Like, let's go. I mean, like, remember that rant that the guy from Cleveland went on and hard knocks where he was like, it's contagious, bro. It's contagious. I think he was ranting about guys not practicing because they were a little bit nicked up. And Jalen Naylor is a guy that I think needs to get out there and practice at some point soon. Not that I would like to see him further aggravate whatever issue he's having,

but to Dan, to Daniel's point, Rager and Powell, I think Rager is a little ahead at this point and Powell has had a good camp, but I don't think you can keep both of those players. And at some point you're going to have to make a decision on that. Do you think Jonathan, they should keep five or six? Should they keep like the punt returners or just say, we don't need them because they're not good receivers or should they keep Tristan Jackson? Like, I think there's a real debate between five or six. I would probably just keep five. And with, with what you have up top in that,

the top part of the, the, the wide receiver depth chart with how, how skilled the top of the depth chart is in the wide receiver. I don't think you really need to keep that many considering all the questions you have elsewhere along the roster. I would keep just five and allocate more of those roster spots elsewhere to where you're going to, where where you know you're going to need depth, you know you're going to need rotations, where you're not going to have a whole lot of rotation in that wide receiver room. Yeah, that's a good point, and you can usually have these guys

on the practice squad at wide receiver. What about, Bob says, a fan of Nikhil Harry is a big weapon to account for in the red zone. You talk about moving weak at a wide receiver that could use it. Nikhil Harry, he's got a chance here. He's a former first rounder. He is a very large human being for a wide receiver. And you can kind of see the lack of burst for this is the reason why he did not make

it in the NFL. Doesn't have that quick twitch separating ability but uh he's made some catches and i don't know like i don't think that he's got much of a chance to make the 53 because tristan jackson's been so good so if somebody actually does that steps up and takes that extra spot on the 53 it will probably be tristan jackson but maybe nikhil harry can prove that he belongs on the practice squad and he's a guy you trust. This is a big week for him. If he goes up against another team and it's going to be limited reps for somebody like that. So you got to make it count.

But if he does, then there, you know, there, there might be something there for him making the team, but that's his, or, or at least staying on the practice squad. And that's, as far as I could really go with Nikhil Harry at the moment. How about a Sazia Tomolo? Does he have any chance to move up the depth chart? Yeah, that's a good one. A player we haven't really talked about at all. And that's because he hasn't really been taking second team reps or any, even, even coming close to any first team reps until he does. It's not really worth discussing. I thought there was a little bit of a flash last year, just a little bit. But it hasn't come to fruition so far in this year's camp.

And does he have a chance? Yeah. I mean, the defensive line depth, I think, is wide open for anybody to take a step up. Jaqueline Roy is another guy who's been banged up. He's on the sideline quite a bit, so he needs to kind of get back into the action here and give a chance. He's not getting cut, but get a chance to be

a rotational player on this defense, which I thought he might have a chance to from the outset of training camp when he was with the second team. Let's see. Oh, wait. Clicked on the wrong one. Oh, Joshua says favorite Titans. No.

Favorite Oilers. Yes. Fair enough. I respect that. The only reason they get credibility is that they had Steve McNair. Ernest Givens. Hey, with Jeffrey's Drew Hill. Of course, Chris Dunk.

I mean, what? What a group of wide receivers are Jefferson Osborne,ison, and Phil in wide receiver four better than that? Well, they have the better number one. There's no question that Justin Jefferson was better than those guys, but that is one of the best groups of wide receivers depth-wise that I can ever remember in the NFL. I mean, they are part of the evidence for me coming on here over and over and over again and talking about like, Hey, we need another wide receiver. Don't you

need another wide receiver? Would you like a wide receiver in the draft? Uh, and, uh, they finally did it to get another wide receiver with Jordan Addison, uh, to switch the topic a little bit, Jonathan. So Delvin cook signed and Ezekiel Elliott signed. Which one of them do you think will have more yards this season, Delvin Cook or Ezekiel Elliott? Such a tough one because it seems like Zeke is going to vulture a lot of touchdowns away from Ramondre Stevenson. It doesn't seem like over the past couple of years, Zeke Elliott's been the big change of play running back that he kind of was at the beginning of his career. So I don't know that he's going to be the running back that the Patriots rely on, play in and play out,

down in and down out. That feels like it's going to be Ramondre Stevenson, who had a pretty decent season for them last year. And then you look at what Dalvin Cook, the situation Dalvin Cook is in. They already have Brees Hall with the New York Jets. But we also saw how, for the most part, Dalvin Cook was very famine, famine, feast. I know Vikings fans are very familiar with that saying after the years of Adrian Peterson. And he's no longer needed every down because of Brees Hall being, eventually he'll come back from injury if he's not already back but they already have Brees Hall there he doesn't need to be every down back so how

well does that famine famine feast play for Dalvin Cook if he's not in every play I mean that was part of the reason why he had some of those big plays because he's in there every single play last season essentially and Alexander Madison really didn't get a whole lot of carries outside or outside of a couple of games. So it it's very close for me who's going to get the more yards, but I think it's going to be Dalvin Cook just edging it a little bit, but it's very close because it doesn't feel like either of those guys are being asked to be the down in and down out running backs that they were in their previous locations uh because one they're older two they're farther along in their career and just three the situation that they're coming into i think that it is delvin cook and uh he's gonna have a bigger role to start in

part because i think aaron rogers respects him a lot having seen the things that Delvin Cook did to the Packers. And I think Aaron Rodgers runs that football team and will put on the field who he wants on the field. And that's a fact. And I think he's going to trust Delvin Cook quite a bit. Ezekiel Elliott, I'm not sure what his role is going to be. They gave him a little bit of money. It wasn't a massive amount of money. And Ramond Ray Stevenson is a good running back. I don't really, I mean, I guess they needed it. And I saw the Patriots reporters saying that their depth at running back was really terrible and this was a good move, but they also have a guy who was very, very good last year. That's the difference.

Brees Hall was good at the outset until he got hurt, but he is coming back from an injury. So at the beginning of the season, we may just see more Delvin Cook and he ends up racking up some yards and then, you know, holding off Zeke Elliott to the end. The one thing you do get concerned about a little bit more with Delvin,

of course, is the injuries. Then Ezekiel Elliott, who I don't think has had a significant history of injuries in his career. I don't know it as well as I know Delvin Cooks, but it feels like he's always out there. Is this the week we figure out how they use the majority of the rest of the cap space? I don't know. Maybe. That's kind of the answer to a lot of those questions.

Like, will they bring in Dalton Reisner? I don't know. I mean, they visited with him, so the door is open for that to happen. But there's also the extension element. Will they do an extension this week when they're having the joint practices? I don't know. Maybe that doesn't matter at all to an extension because that's just between an agent and the general manager and the front office. So that has to weigh in. Are they going to get those extensions done? And that might be one thing that they're waiting for in consideration of signing people is if someone like Dalton Reisner wants a decent contract, and I mean like $5 million or more, then you might have to move a little money around if you're also planning on

signing those extensions and using the cap space that you have right now and that these things have to be factored in. So if they're on their way to any extensions, maybe you want to see how that plays out first and then go back to that market. But the clock is kind of ticking here. So yeah, I think that this is a week where at the end of this week, at the end of the preseason game, they should make a call. Hey, are we doing this or not with a bunch of these free agents? Cause they're still out there, but someone will probably sign them. I mean, a lot of these guys, I mean, cream hunt Reisner, even Ron Darby, they've got good enough histories to add to

somebody's team. Uh, sloth saysistian and harry both are leaps and bounds above rager and powell they will figure out something else at punt returner um yeah that is true yeah i mean jaylen naylor was supposed to be in that competition and maybe could have made those guys irrelevant when you trade for jaylen rager do you want him on the team and i think you know matt Daniels was a big advocate of his, but also they had Brandon Powell before. I think one of them makes the team. You want a competent punt returner. I don't know how huge it is in today's NFL, but I think you want somebody who catches the ball and has a chance to make a play. I just don't see Nikhil

Harry's having an actual chance to make the team. But the fact that you can have veterans on the practice squad gives that a potential for Nikhil Harry is at least, at least maybe make the team on the practice squad and then see what happens there. Oh, that's right. Didn't mention that, that the Vikings worked out Mike Davis today. What are the odds on four net being brought in next? It's pretty clear that they aren't happy with the backup running back situation it's very clear and it's because they keep bringing in

running backs that's how it's clear but also the way that they talk who knows what kenny wong who's health situation is that's up in the air as well um do you think jonathan that they should just let this play out or that they should sign one of these backup running back guys? I would rather them use their cap space on the extensions and maybe signing Dalton Reisner rather than bringing in another running back, because obviously the importance of that position has gone down recently. Obviously, you still want someone who's able to do that job, and I feel like Alexander Madison's probably able to do that sufficiently enough. Would you want to give him spells and kind of give him breaks instead of having him be that every down back that Dalvin Cook was the last handful of years? Absolutely.

But I don't think it's absolutely necessary that they bring in someone as a depth piece in that position. I would rather have them use their cap space. I mean, if you can fit it in, if you can find a way to fit in the extensions of Hawkinson and Jefferson and hopefully bring in, hopefully maybe bring in another offensive lineman to compete with or compete or take over at Ingram's spot, then yeah, absolutely. But I would rather them focus on other positions first than bringing in another running back because I think they'll be able to find a way to get by with that running back situation. But yeah, as you said, it's clearly obvious that they're not happy with how it's going right now behind Alexander Madison. And I guess for me, the question to you is, are you surprised with how it seems they feel about that? Because it felt like with the way

Kevin O'Connell had talked about Ty Chandler and what we saw last year and how it seems they feel about that. Cause it felt like with the way Kevin O'Connell had talked about Ty Chandler and what we saw last year and how it seemed that those guys would fit in to his offense. It felt like this was, that was going to be a very positive group. And so far it has been anything but that outside of Alexander Madison. Yeah. You know,

coming out of OTAs and mini camp, I thought this was Kenny Wong was big chance. Like here you are, buddy, this is your shot. And then he gets hurt so quickly in the camp. It's very similar to Jalen Naylor where suddenly you just don't see the guy and they have issues with Ty Chandler picking up blitzes.

That's very obviously what the problem is there. It's not his speed speed it's not how quickly uh he gets going or his physical nature as a runner and we saw that the other night very impressive to me how physically he was running not just like trying to juke everybody but trying to go through some people which you want to see but if you can't trust the guy in past protection in a past first offense well that's kind of an issue, right? And I think that from that perspective, they should just add a veteran. And these veterans should not be very expensive. Maybe Kareem Hunt is going to look at what these other two guys got and say,

hey, give that to me as well. He is a big notch down career-wise in production from a Delvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott. How different he's actually as a running back at this moment. I don't know, but if he views himself as the same ballpark, then no, this is not going to happen. Maybe a Mike Davis says, I just want to play national football league football, and I will take $1 million to do so then I mean, sign the guy up. Cause we just don't know with kenny wongwu there is a part of me in the back of my head that still says kenny wongwu we shouldn't count him completely out and that he could be a good nfl running back potentially as like a spot guy

but he is just completely yet to prove that and if you don't trust chandler then you're giving away that you're going to give the ball to Chandler every time he's in. If everybody knows that he doesn't pass block well. So I do think that a veteran is the right move for them. It's just who and when. And maybe they liked what they saw from Mike Davis in his workout. But again, if you want him to learn all the pass protection, you better sign him. Because you need him here learning a playbook and learning how to play with your offense.

Stephanie asks, does anyone know how our former players are doing in their new camps so far, Thielen or Kendricks? I've seen feature stories on Kendricks that he's exactly what the Chargers needed. I think that that's probably right and maybe a better fit for the defense than he was last year with Ed Donatello, although they have roots in the similar Fangio system. So I'm not entirely sure how he's going to play, but I think they needed a veteran presence out there.

Haven't seen much on Thielen or I know that they're talking up the Cleveland Browns defensive line with Tomlinson as being a huge part of that D line. I've seen Patrick Peterson in a few interviews. Yeah. It's a little weird. Jonathan's like, Oh yeah. Oh,

well you watch a game. It's like, Oh, former Viking, a former Viking, a former Viking. That's what happens when you get rid of half your roster. Yeah.

We're not used to that because when, when under the old regime, when we got rid of guys that there was reasons for it and you never really saw from them, they weren't really good enough to stick around here, which meant it seems like teams understood. Yeah. They're't really good enough to stick around here which meant it seems like teams understood yeah they're probably not good enough to stick around on our roster outside of maybe jayron curse is the only one but outside of that it felt like over the past couple years you didn't really see former vikings go to some places and be featured

like they are now but again as you said that's what happens when you get rid of a handful of starters like the Vikings did and kind of cycle or recycle through some of your your depth pieces here now. Alex asks, does Wong Wu we we all need to work on our spellings here for just pretty much everybody with these comments. But no, I'm just I'm just picking on you, Alex. But does he seem like a guy who could pass block seems slight in the frame? That's the thing about Kenny Wong Wong is he isn't like he's big, but he runs a four, three, two is wild, but that doesn't, but that's the thing. Barry Sanders was a great pass protector and I'm old for bringing up Barry Sanders as a great pass protector, but he was, and he wasn't very big. I don't think that, you know, who was actually really good at this that I saw the other day, former Viking pass protecting was Amir Abdullah. Amir Abdullah was not a very big guy, but man, he's still in the league because he could pass protect to play

special teams. And he was not very big. And I remember talking at camp to him about this. And he said that really for running backs is entirely mental. Every one of them is going to get steamrolled if they face somebody who's too big. It's not really so much size as it is just knowing where you're supposed to be and then being able to get in their way. Lay that block at least good enough.

I mean, if you could stick the guy, of course, that's great. But I mean, Adrian Peterson is a good example of someone who could lift an 18 wheeler off the ground and throw it. He was so strong,

but he wasn't really a great pass protector. And that was in part just because of effort and because uh of how much you know he paid attention to who was coming on the blitz yeah i don't think he was as bad as sometimes we made it seem but um at least by the numbers he was kind of average at it but that's the point right like he was huge and so i think it's really comes down to can you see where it's coming from can Can you lay the right technique? Because if you can at least get in front of somebody, sometimes it's even just redirect them.

Like there are different techniques of, are you helping off the edge? Are you jumping into a linebacker? Like all those things have a lot of different techniques. Joshua brings up an excellent blocker, Mo Williams, big Mo Williams guy. I really respect Mo Williams. I've talked to him a couple of times for different stories, but he was a guy that just kind of grinded his way to having a career, had a good season or two kick returner, special team,

did everything that you know, you wanted him to do. And see, that's funny. Alex has nobody. And then of course's funny. Alex is nobody. And then, of course, he has a spelling issue here, but nobody's spelling. Can a Wong was last name correctly. Not true. If I get if I if they're on the Vikings and I write their name a couple times, they're up here forever.

I can write a Foddy Adenabo. Spelling it out loud is different, but I can write a Fadi Adenabo a thousand times. Like 20 years from now, I'll be like a Fadi Adenabo. Bang. Won't even have to think about it. Like you can give me the most complicated name. If I get it in here, I'll tell you the one that screwed with me was Trevor Simeon. Because one, I didn't write it many times because he's Trevor Simeon.

But the other thing is it was like I-E-E-I or something like that. And that would kind of mess with me a little bit but yeah the steel trap is exactly right i think it's like the the whatever you get it in your hands and then it just stays there anyway this devolved into weird places so let's talk about this uh this hot route so this has to come up. Kyle Shanahan said some crazy stuff about Brock Purdy. Like he would have to fall into the volcano. Yeah, he would have to melt into the earth. And then even if he was still moisture, he could come together and be the starter if he had any solids that he could connect molecules to.

I think it was something like that. It was very strange, but making it extremely clear that unless there's some really crazy thing that happens injury wise to Brock Purdy, he's going to be the guy. Would you Jonathan trade a fourth round pick for Trey Lance? If you are the Minnesota Vikings, that's all you have to give up. They are so done with Trey Lance that they just call up the Vikings and they're like, do you just, can you just give us anything? We just want to be out from under this. He's, you know, we want to go with Brock Purdy. Will you just take them? Would, would you do it?

Not for a fourth? No, I think that's still too high for a guy who's thrown, what less than 700 passes from high school to the pros at this point in his career. I, and clearly can't even beat out the last pick in last year's draft for the starting spot when it seems like everything should be in his favor to do that. I don't, I don't think I'd trade a fourth, maybe a fifth. And I still feel that might be a little high because of how everything is, how he's kind of flamed out in San Francisco and how they moved on so quickly from a first round pick that they traded up to get, like they went out of their way to go up and get this guy. And already they're moving on from him. That sends up a whole lot of

red flags for me. And that's not like just the fact how they, how they're treating him throws up all the red flags. And that's not even looking at the fact that he's thrown less than 700 passes from high school to college to pros. There's just it feels like the project status for Trey Lance is very long down or just a very long stretch to that becoming or coming through. And just, I don't know that any team is going to be able, is going to want to give up a fourth round pick or even a fifth round pick for something that they know they're going to have to put years and years into. And with him coming up on the end of his rookie contract here pretty soon, I don't know that teams are going to want to give up that much because you

can still use, especially if the Vikings are looking for a quarterback next season and they want to trade a bunch of draft capital and move up in the draft. Those fourth round picks are going to be or the fourth round pick is going to be more valuable than than a fifth or sixth or seventh so i if if they're willing to go for something less like a sixth or seventh then maybe but i don't think i would trade a fourth or fifth for him folks we've got a bunch of sports teams here in town. And also for someone like myself, I always like to try to catch a ball game when I am traveling to cover football in a different city.

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So make sure you get those tickets today with Game Time, a no stress experience download the game time app create an account and use the code insider for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem with the code insider for twenty dollars off download the game day app today last Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. It seems that they have a disdain for Trey Lance, which makes you really wonder. And I'm trying to think maybe you can think of somebody here off the top of your head, but is there any quarterback in the last 10 years? Cause I can go back a little Steve young. But is there any quarterback in the last 10 years?

Because I can go back a little. Steve Young. Be like, look, guys, Steve Young was bad as a Tampa Bay Buck. What are you all talking about? Is there any quarterback in the last 10 years, though, who has flamed out so quickly to the point where they just never even did anything? Total failure to launch. And then they showed up and were pretty good.

I mean, even like Rich Gannon was a pretty good NFL starter for the Vikings. Like, you know, maybe the 15th best quarterback in the league, 20th. And then so him showing up and being the MVP is pretty wild. But that's like 2002. It just does not happen. Vinny Testaverde. Vinny Testaverde was so horrendous when he started i think he threw like 40 interceptions in a season oh okay kyle's got one gino smith gino smith is that guy does that make you think a little that gino smith just did that he was horrible he was horrible i looked at this i looked at this last year. I did an article about how, like, was there any signs that Geno Smith could be this good? And the answer was, oh, God, no. It was so bad. And does that change your mind a little? little further down into or further along in Trey Lance's career I mean this is what year three or

four for him so right now no but if it's a if it's a couple of spot or a couple of stops on the way then maybe yeah then I then I'll think maybe he has something there there's something there's some kind of bounce back story there but right now I it just doesn't feel like he's got that Geno Smith story in him because Geno was a starter for a couple of years and yeah, he wasn't good, but he actually had, he actually played week in and week out for a couple of teams for a couple of years. Whereas Trey Lance just hasn't been able to do that since his junior year in

high school is senior year in high school. It's been so long for him since he's had a full season of play. That is just, I don't know. I just, I feel like his development has has kind of been stunted a little bit because of how how his career has gone you mean you had the COVID year in college and he decided to go into the NFL off of that off of playing what the one the one game and just took his talents and and the prospect status and was drafted really high because of it but then he got injured and just hasn't been able to be on the field.

So I don't know. It feels like that's a little bit different of a story than Gino Smith because Gino Smith started for a couple of years, whereas Traylan's hasn't. Oh, wow. I can't believe I forgot the Oakley. Oh yeah. That's a, what have I been doing tonight?

They're over here. Okay. Yeah. Wow, what a mistake. Now it feels like hot routes. This just tells you how my brain has been all over the place here. I'm sorry about that. For a topic such as this, they should come on. Yeah, now it is truly hot routes, and I apologize. But, yeah, with Trey Lance, I probably would give up a fourth-round pick for him.

But the thing that would hold me back is not what I'm giving up. Because look, do you want to go through the fourth-round picks? I was actually just looking. I mean, the Vikings' fourth-round picks. I have smudged the heck out of these glasses, by the way. So I'm having to hold them up to look. But the Vikings' fourth-round picks, can you think of one that's been great way. So I'm like having to hold them up to look. But the Vikings fourth round picks. Can you think of one that's been great?

I mean, OK, Stefan Diggs was a fifth. KJ Osborne was a fifth. But I don't think it's ever tragic if you're giving up a fourth for something. And maybe Kyle Shanahan has had a grudge with the guy because maybe he was pressured to draft him. I don't know that. But, you know, you never because maybe he was pressured to draft him i don't know that but i'm you know you never know was he pressured to draft him and that's why he has not really wanted to buy into him or is just brock purdy really a good nfl quarterback i don't know i was looking at the last 10 years of drafts and i could not find anyone other than geno smith who showed

up later and my god did he show up a lot later? It was not like, Oh yeah, he failed. And then with the next team, he was great. It's Darnold. It's Josh Rosen. It's Tim Tebow. It's a, you know, a lot of quarterbacks. Yeah. Paxton Lynch just never played. And he showed up in these side leagues and was horrendous in those leagues. And he was a first round pick as well. Sometimes guys just stink. And, but the thing that would actually hold me back is probably the distraction element, because that's going to be a big story. Oh my gosh, they traded. They're looking for the future quarterback, you know, whatever. But there is just that little part in the back of my head that says this guy has played no football. Now you're using against him but i think if you're making one tiny little case one tiny case you're saying he's played no football

and if he did maybe he could come along and maybe there's an argument for an x if you miss out on drafting a quarterback you could be like oh that's why we got trey lance more likely than not though you're just the panthers trading for darnold or the dolphins trading for josh rosen it's a total shot in the dark and probably completely unnecessary got to restart the show yeah it is harder for me to see the comments uh i would be more willing to to listen to that argument that he hasn't played any football if it wasn't at the quarterback position, because it is the hardest position in all of sports to play. And so much is asked of those guys. It, that the fact that he has played no football concerns me so much that you're asking him to do this at the professional level, where even guys like Kirk cousins have their moments

where they struggle. And you're asking this guy to be a top, a top 10 pick and succeed on a level, uh, on a team right now where he's at that has Super Bowl aspirations. That's dang near impossible. And then a team wants to trade for him and bet their future on him. That's almost more pressure on him. So yeah, the fact that he has played no football is a huge weight against him. If it was a different position, if it was like wide receiver or defensive line or something, I'm not taking anything away from those positions. But if it was a different position, if it was like wide receiver or defensive line or something, I'm not taking anything away from those positions. But if it was a different position outside of quarterback, then I would be willing to listen to that argument more. So it isn't really his fault that he hasn't played that much, but he probably needs a lot of development.

And you have to worry about the injury thing. I mean, if a guy gets injured this often, is that going to be just a problem all the time? Um, Ryan Tannehill's name brought up here and Tannehill, what sort of falls into the same category as somebody who had his moments as a Miami dolphin, got them to the playoffs, uh, had a couple of bad luck ACL injuries. And you're right. The coaching did transform him and and i guess i wouldn't entirely count it out with trey lance but there is the part of i think he's a couple years into that rookie contract maybe i would just rather draft somebody else and who knows that could end up turning out to be a bad take someone should take a shot on him i don't know if this vikings team

is the right team i think you can make a philosophical argument that they are, because if you don't have a quarterback under contract, you should always be trying to take shots. So I think I wouldn't want the distraction for a team that I believe can compete for the division, but maybe philosophically it's the right thing to do. Alex asking, let's say you're Ryan Poles. What does Justin Fields have to prove to stop you from drafting a quarterback next year? Is there a win total? It's hard to do the win total thing when I've never heard of any of their defensive linemen and I refuse to learn them.

I refuse. I've told Courtney this, Courtney Cronin, who's covering the Bears now. I'm not learning your defensive linemen until they make me learn them. Until they do something, until they sack Kirk Cousins, I'm not learning it. Then I then I'll, I'll decide, but there's a bunch and they got a bunch of nobodies on defense and that's pretty hard to, to win, even if you have a good offense. But I think that if you are into the top 15 as a total offense, as the bears with Justin Fields,

how you got there matters a lot less to me, but the price to play poker in the NFL, if you want to be a team that competes for a Superbowl is being in the top five in offense. If you're not in the top five, I think the Rams were maybe seventh and they had like this weird, bad stretch. But if you're not in the top five and you go into the playoffs, I'm not ever going to believe that you can actually reach the Superbowl because that just doesn't happen much anymore. So if they were to take a big step into the top 15, I would think, okay, maybe another year, more money invested, more playmakers. There's a chance here, but, uh, you know, that, that is, that's, that might be steep

for them. If it's not there, then I have to consider drafting a quarterback next year, because if it's not there, they're going to be horrible. So that's another part of it as well. Let's see, Matt asked, do you think that they will trade for a wide receiver or guard? Seems like we have too many to keep. Or, or do you think, Oh, Oh, trade, trade, trade them out of here. Oh, I see, a wide receiver for a guard, not a wide receiver or a guard.

I'll get this. I don't think that anyone is giving you a guard if they have one. That's always the trouble, right? And sometimes this happens where it's a player for player, but I think the trouble is that they most teams if you've got a good depth guard you're like we're keeping our good depth guard and i have liked tristan jackson in camp but no one's saying we're going to give you a player

for tristan jackson that's not it's just not how it usually works so i mean i think that you could try to make some phone calls and see if it's like a depth guy for depth guy, but that just seems a little, it seems a little unlikely, I guess. Yeah. I mean, the Vikings aren't the only team in the NFL with offensive line problems. That's a problem across the league. And so if you have a good offensive lineman, no matter what position it is, you're holding onto them and finding ways to keep them. So yeah, I don't know that any team is going to give up any guys who they, that,

that a team feels can start for them. There's not, there's not anybody, anybody going to give up an offensive lineman who can start somewhere else for a depth wide receiver at most. Cause you're not trading any of the top three for sure. And beyond that is just depth guys. So you're not going to get a starting guard for any of those guys that are

still fighting for a position on this roster. Prayed Osborne for a guard. Seems like an email I would have gotten like five years ago. I, you know what I will say, we do these chats every night and they're so good. And you guys are so good. And since I started covering the league,

football fans know so much more about football than they did. And I used to get the craziest stuff i mean can we trade treadwell for a starting guard can we you know like things like that just the the wildest trades the craziest ideas and there is a part of me that misses that because most of you are so rational in the comments so it's like that's a thing i would say what you're saying and so we they're like oh yeah i think we're having a conversation here and that's fun but there's no there's a lot less like total psychotic why don't we you know trade this bus receiver for a first rounder or something so um anyway yeah no matt always happy to answer

anybody who asks questions on the show i try to answer every single one if I can. Sometimes there's too many of you and I lose the questions. But this is a fun scenario from Jordan. Niners lock up a playoff seed, play for nothing. Trey Lance throws for five touchdowns. This is how the Bills ended up with Rob Johnson. He had an insane game for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the bills traded a first form. And then he had an insane game against the Indianapolis Colts in week 17 before the Minneapolis or not the Minneapolis, the music city miracle game where we started the show. Cause you hate me. And then they started

him like Doug Flutie started the whole year. Can you imagine this happening now? Flutie started the whole year and then they benched him because Rob Johnson had a great week 17 game. And the owner said, we're, we're starting him. Wade Phillips was at, um, Wade Phillips was at practice the other day and I saw Wes and I was like, that's so awesome that your dad's still coaching the XFL. And he was like, yeah, my dad's out here looking for players. And I mean, and uh so anyway i i was just saying to west like it's so awesome that he's still coaching the xfl but the poor guy was forced to play rob johnson and you know like who knows how history goes if doug flutie starts that game then we never would

have had you see like the the butterfly flaps its wings and then you got fired here tonight by me because you ranked the top three titans as the players who are involved in the music city miracles you never would happen when i was looking up the players involved in the music city miracle on wikipedia the first the first thing about the music city miracle was doug flutie and and the rob johnson uh controversy was the first paragraph about that game so i just yeah yeah it was it was quite the controversy but rob never got his credit for actually leading an awesome comeback and uh the game-winning drive and just never got that's how silly game-winning drives are he led a game-winning drive and just never got it. That's how silly game-winning drives are. He led a game-winning drive, and they kicked it off short, and then it ends up being a touchdown.

Rob Johnson never got his credit for a playoff win and a game-winning drive there. Too bad. So, anyway, so the only other thing I wrote down for tonight was just that someone asked the other night if I have changed my win total for the Vikings. I've stayed at 10. I'm not changing from 10.

Based on what I've seen, there's been no injury or development that I think has changed my mind. And that's where I'm at. Do you think or how about this? Why don't you talk me into changing my mind on the Vikings at 10 wins one way or the other, either, either way that you want. I think the easiest way to talk you out of it is that cornerback room. It's been the question all C all off season long. If it's as bad as, you know, some, some past Vikings cornerback rooms have been, um, I think in 2013, maybe one of their worst, if it's as bad as that season, or if it's, if it's not,

if the defense isn't improved from what we saw last year, I don't know how much more you can ask this offensive to do to keep carrying this team. Yes, they did it last year and they got by, but they also had a lot more veterans on that defense than they do this year. So you're asking a lot of young guys to install a new offense that hopefully will help them a lot better, pressure the quarterback and just be a better defense overall but if it doesn't work out they're not going to be getting near 10 wins because they have one of the tougher schedules in the conference in division so yeah it's it's all up to how that cornerback room and the the secondary can do if they can be mediocre then yeah they can get towards they can get closer to

those 10 wins but if they are bad and it's not good and they're bringing in uh veteran free agent cornerbacks to try and just fill gaps and get them through the season then they're not getting anywhere near 10 wins okay this is a exactly correct point right now i feel okay about where they're at based on what i've seen from mckay blackman and caleb evans but if it's joan williams and andrew booth jr yikes i'm not i'm not picking 10 wins for that uh i i do think secondary is the most determining factor because the 2021 defense had a good defensive line for half the season and they were still a bad defense last year they had two of the top 10 pressure guys in the league and Delvin Tomlinson and they're a bad defense. I think it always rests on the guys in the back end and how well you cover. And right

now I feel okay about it, but if it goes in a bad way, they're going to lose a lot of games. Okay. So you guys have really tried to ramp up the heat for me for hot routes. James Harden for only Udo here. You want to ever see something funny is if you see like a football player staying next to a basketball player. So when you watch James Harden, you go, Oh, he's a guard. He's like a, you know, pretty big size guard. And then he's as big as the offensive alignmenteman i mean he's as tall he's like six six in the nba like oh he's like a six six guard you know not too bad or whatever

and then you see him in real life oh my god he's huge like he's standing next to an offensive lineman and they're looking each other in the face and harden is a little husky himself so he probably weighs like 250 260 pounds it's so funny anthony edwards would be like deniel hunter he's like six six crazy wingspan like on the nba court he looks like a relatively average sized guy but um i don't think they could pull off that trade and honestly i'd rather have only udo yep james harden is my least favorite basketball player. I just cannot stand this guy. I just, he's the Aaron Rogers of the NBA. If he never won that, if he never won that super bowl, him and Kyrie Irving, just, just forget me with those guys would never trade.

Wouldn't trade a third round pick for either one of them. It, I mean, Harden, maybe like five, six, seven years years ago obviously when he was really great early in his career but both of those guys have just turned into weirdos who i wouldn't want anywhere anywhere near my team i'll just have only udo i'll have offensive line depth rather than one of the top scoring guards ever uh what was the other uh there was some other oh here was of course this is a good one and. And I used to get these Adrian Peterson is a physical freak, best shape of his life going for 3000 this year. I wrote that the Vikings were right to move on from Adrian Peterson.

It was like the least hot take of my life when they did. And I got a couple of emails from people. You would have thought that I had said the worst thing to them uh that like just adrian peterson single fan uh fans were really wild uh they were they kind of remind me of derrick rose remember how derrick rose had very strange and abusive fans yes absolutely um so anyway uh i do want to see this why are you streaming instead of watching the John Boyce History of the Vikings? I haven't seen any of it yet. I really like John Boyce's work, so that's worth checking out.

It's just been camp for me. Camp is everything. It's like if I didn't respond to your text message, family member, camp. If I didn't remember to do the read on the show, which I going to then uh camp camp is the reason that's why um remember when people said lebron james could play tight end in the nfl he he might he yeah he might i i mean i think that when it comes to crossover sports stuff there's very very few i could ever be talked into but one time jalen ramsey said if he tried skating for two years and he did nothing but commit himself to skating he could play hockey

in the nhl and i'm like people lost their minds i mean you again like you would have you thought you said the worst thing but i thought there is no athlete in the NHL like Jalen Ramsey. I don't know if he could figure it. I mean, it's not like ice skating is right. It's not like there's a height requirements. Like if anyone says they could play in the NBA, they can't. Absolutely not. The dead last guy on the Clippers roster is a thousand times better than most, almost anybody in the NFL playing basketball.

So of course, no, you can't as basketball or as NFL players think they could play in the NBA, but an NBA player, we've seen it though. We've seen like a Tony Gonzalez. We've seen basketball players become NFL players. We've seen players who didn't have much experience playing football find a way. So I don't know i think lebron it's like the greatest athlete of a generation might have if he had started playing football and only played football been able to make a roster there's also there's 32 teams the third tight end the vikings have the best third tight end according to kevin o'connell most teams don't so there's that could have found a way anyway oh yeah the read i forgot about the

read uh underdog fantasy folks this is the way this is the way so like i was just talking about training camp and how i am completely just taken over by training camp writing features doing these shows everything else that nothing else in my life is getting done because of it. But you know, what can be done is best ball drafts with underdog fantasy because they take like very short period of time. All you have to do is just draft on your phone with the awesome underdog fantasy app. And you have a team. You don't have to manage the team. You don't have to go in and switch your lineups. You don't have to make trades. You do whatever. That's why best ball is so great. And so if you've heard people talking about best ball, that's all it is.

Draft the team and then you've got a team and you go forward and you can win prizes. And the best part to me is that I don't believe in myself at all when it comes to fantasy. I believe in myself in my good looks when I wear these sunglasses. But and the jump shot and spelling a fatty adenabo's name i believe in myself for those things not when it comes to fantasy but you don't have to because you can get in leagues that are relatively cheap just a couple of bucks and if you want you can go and use the signup code purple insider, and they will double your first deposit up to a hundred dollars. This could get you in,

I don't know, like 10 leagues or something. If you put in a, well, is that excess? No, that's right. You could get in like 10 leagues and just be doing a bunch of drafts and

then see what happens. If you put in your cash, they'll double your deposit of $10 or more. So you could try it at a very, very low price. It's a fun app and I've been toying around with it. It's been a good time with underdog fantasy. So yeah, give that a try folks. And, um, if you do that, it supports our show as well. So that's always good. We got kind of one

of them deals with them anyway. Oh, that's right. Adrian Peterson tried the boxing crossover. That was horrible. Hey, now that's a sport you don't try. Don't try that. If you're a running back in the NFL, do not think you can box. Nobody can box. You will get your face beat in. Should not do that. Just because YouTube streamers do it and do it mildly successfully doesn't mean everybody can.

Yeah. The other thing is podcasting, man. I mean, it's just so hard. You got to be elite. You got to look good. You got to understand lighting, which I don't still. Anyway, Purple Insider

Spelling Bee. Give me one, Jonathan. Give me one. I'll see if I can spell it. I want to hear a Fade Adenabo. Come on. Let's do it. Okay. But I get to type it out. It's I-F-E-A-D-I-O-D-E-N-I-G-B-O.

Never would have guessed the G in there. Yeah. It's in there. What else you got? Got anybody else? do doug doug minkovich but that's not in your repertoire here no i don't know that one yeah i never covered him i would say put him in the comments but you can't because then you'd be spelling their name put it put it in the comments but spell it wrong no that's now we're going too far all right you got to come up with at least like one or two more and see if i can get them can you do only udos

longer i have never tried i've never written that yeah give it a shot i can see how close you get i could do no i actually don't even know his full last name i've only ever written only um but i can do uh kenny wong which is k-e-n-e-n-w-a-n-g-w-u yeah double w-u i've typed like you said i've typed that one enough in like seo stuff for another job that i understand like as soon as i'm starting to type it i know how to type it perfectly trying to say it out loud. I will fail every time, but typing it out, I can do it perfectly. Like, like you said, yeah. Alexander wanted more. It's boring. I don't know if I ever wrote more. It's boring because he was the 2016 draft pick. Yeah. I think he was in camp for 17, but it was over pretty quick. So anyway. All right. Yes, when we've reached the point that we're spelling names at the end,

but it was relevant to the show, then it's time to call it a night. But you know what? Tomorrow night, we're going to be here, and we are going to have a full breakdown of everything that happened in the Vikings joint practice. So I will go. I will take extensive notes, we will discuss it anyway. Thanks everybody for coming.

Thank you, Jonathan, for your time. Really, really, really fun tonight, guys, as always.

And we will catch y'all later. Football.