Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison cited for speeding and a cornerback pie chart

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about Jordan Addison's speeding citation from Minnesota police and then answers questions about training camp. Players who could emerge, a cornerback pie chart, how much agents impact negotiations and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 yes we will be beginning the show reacting to what happened with jordan addison and then i have a lot of fans only questions to get into and we'll continue positional previews and then we're going to hear from players next Tuesday. And then after that, they are on the field practicing, and off we go into training camp. But it wouldn't be Vikings training camp without the surprise story right before camp. Jordan Addison going 140 miles per hour in a 55 zone sighted by police at three o'clock in the morning. He was not arrested. So far, no reports of alcohol or anything like that, but still nonetheless, 140 miles per hour in a 55 zone. And I don't think I have any sort of unique take on this.

I probably have the exact same opinion that every single person has when they read that he was going 140 miles an hour in a 55 zone. I guess I would say this, that the NFL off season can be a bit of an IQ test, right? Like, are you focusing your attention to the right things if you're an NFL player? Like getting better at football, working out, improving your skills, not going 140 miles an hour in a 55, things like that. Not getting in trouble, not causing any issues,

not introducing yourself to a new community that you're joining by putting the citizens at risk of killing them with your Lamborghini. Those things. I think that it is a sign of extreme immaturity, recklessness, a lack of care for anyone around him that certainly concerns me because I'm sure that everyone think again, like thinks this is a bad sign. This is a bad start. And it is. And I totally agree. Henry Ruggs killed someone else doing just this. Jeff Gladney killed himself and someone else doing just this. And this is just, it's not just a youth thing. It's not a, oh, well, you know, kids, kids in their cars. This is stunning behavior by Jordan Addison.

And I think that all you can really say is better figure it out pretty fast because it's not just a one-way ticket to not being in the league of which we have seen a lot of players regardless of talent a lot of players not stay in the NFL because of things that they did off the field and because they didn't have the maturity to hang around in the NFL for every player that got away with stuff and got second and third and fourth chances and everything else. There are lots of others that if you look up first round draft picks did not stick very long because they couldn't figure it out. Jordan Addison has a couple players in the wide receiver room and a wide receiver coach who are ideal role models. KJ Osborne, Keena McArdle, Justin Jefferson. These

are people to follow. The way that they act and the way that they carry themselves is the way you want to go. Not driving 140 miles an hour in a 55 zone and getting cited and being honestly being lucky extremely extremely lucky to have not hurt anyone or himself by doing this so i don't know if there will be repercussions or what those repercussions will be uh by the law or by the nfl or by the vikings few people, of course, asked me on Twitter, like, is this how big of a red flag is this? Oh, it's a big one. Yeah, it's a big one. I don't think you can downplay it. It is a it's a big, big red flag. That's not me saying that his career is over or something. But I think the best way I can put it is if you keep doing this and acting like this and doing other things like this, it's not going to go well for you most of the time.

There are players who have had incidents. Sheldon Richardson comes to mind, a similar with the speeding and more that grew up and got their stuff together and, you know, whatever. Follow that path because you don't want to go down this one. grew up and got their stuff together and, and, you know, whatever, follow, follow that path because you don't want to go down this one. It goes to a very, very bad in a very ugly place. And so, you know, Jordan Addison not getting on the field and OTAs and minicamp. I don't want to conflate that with this because if he had been on the field in minicamp, I don't think it would be better,

but it's a heck of a bad first impression and now he has to go a long way to prove to everyone to minneapolis i mean to the coaches to his teammates that this isn't who he's gonna be uh this is something that i i just i can't this isn't like the old weed guys we used to talk about where you know they would get a bad rap and rap. And then all of a sudden the NFL said, Oh, I don't care about weed anymore. No, this is something, this is something of greater significance. I think when you're acting in a way that has literally killed people recently who are involved with the NFL. And of course killed many, many, many people across the nation speeding like this. And I hope that the message comes in loud and clear, not just for the Minnesota Vikings.

I mean, whatever. If he becomes a good receiver, he does. Or if he doesn't. But how about just for him as a guy? Because doing stuff like this is, I mean, it is a guarantee to be a problem in your life or in someone else's life who has nothing to do with you and doesn't care about your Lamborghini and everything else. But a failure of the IQ test, not a very good start. Can't say I'm all that impressed by Jordan Addison so far. And you hope that he learns from this, I guess is what I would say.

So lots of questions to get to, but there isn't much more to say about it. We'll see what ramifications come from it. We will see how the team handles it. I imagine he will be one to speak as soon as the Vikings players are available. Kweisi Adafomensa, Kevin O''connell assuming that quacey talks to start training camp will have to answer for his first round pick and his behavior and everything else there are very real consequences to things like this of that reckless in nature so uh we'll you know continue to report on what's going on with this as far as you know legal or nfl or whatever imposed penalty if there is one

we'll see what happens and how kevin o'connell handles this because last year kevin o'connell had very little of this to deal with and in a way it's like well you know last year was a charmed life but not every year is for an nfl head coach and mike zimmer certainly knew that as well as anybody and so this is kind of a challenge right off the bat for somebody who is just joining the a year is for an NFL head coach. And Mike Zimmer certainly knew that as well as anybody. And so this is kind of a challenge right off the bat for somebody who is just joining the NFL and how do you handle this and make sure Jordan Addison or do everything you can to get Jordan Addison on the correct path. Because again, this ain't it. This is not the way to go. The NFL's past is littered with lots of guys who had potential, but were fools off the field or had other problems and so forth that did not make it. It's a huge deal,

maturity in making it in the NFL. So it's going to have to learn that pretty quick. I've got a lot of other questions about training camp, though. Excited to get into those. So why don't we just start right out with this question from The Dude. If you had to bet on three players who will surprise us on upside during training camp, who would you pick? Or on the upside. So you mean like who will be on the upswing that are a surprise? Now, here's the thing about when we talk about surprises. So all of you who listen to the show, you know, the roster, your Vikings fans, like, you know, the deal with this

team. So it's hard to surprise you. It's hard to pick someone so deep in the weeds that makes any sense to actually have you go, Oh, really him. I mean, I could do that. I could just take a wild swing at like Thayer Thomas or Najee Thompson, I think is his name, a defensive back that might be a special teamer. There's guys. Tristan Jackson is kind of intriguing to me because last year he was able to beat out Amir Smith-Marset for a wide receiver spot. And I think he's got an opportunity to actually make a roster spot. Those are a little bit too deep in the weeds.

I guess the way I might answer this question would just be by saying guys who are not really expected by anyone outside of Vikings fans who are really deep in the weeds. So for example, like a Kenny Wong Wu or Ty Chandler. Right now, you're not hearing lots of Kenny Wong Wu and Ty Chandler talk all over the NFL. It's not a leading NFL network, but would any of us be surprised if one of those guys actually turned out to be a pretty good player and actually ended up with Alexander Madison now I think that the expectation is that Madison will get the vast majority of the snaps and the carries and the catches but those guys both have an opportunity to show their upside and I think that we've seen flashes

of exactly what you're talking about the upside where Wong was one of the fastest players in the league and is dynamic with the football and then Ty Chandler in this very small sample last season, Ty Chandler was quite good in the preseason and where he goes from here. I guess we'll find out. But you did see the burst that he has a little bit of the vision. It's hard to tell stuff in preseason games where he's playing against insurance salesmen. But still, you know you got a feel for who he could be as a running back so both of those guys are potential surprises i might list jalen naylor as this uh especially if jordan addison gets behind from the beginning of

training camp because he didn't participate in otas or mini camp or again if there's any sort of thing that comes from his incident here, I don't know if the team will hand down some sort of punishment or whatever else. I expect that he'll just be out there practicing, but I mean, they could, I guess, suspend him from practicing. I really don't know, but if he doesn't catch on quickly, Jalen Naylor knows the entire offense and that is the biggest challenge. It doesn't come down to, can you run a route better? Can you make a contested catch better? A lot of times, sometimes it's just, can you know where you're supposed to line up? What route you're supposed to run? What read you're supposed to make? And those things are much more complicated

at the NFL level than they are at college, which is why I'm always hesitant to just say, oh, this first round pick, he's going to be this because you never know what they're going to be. Sometimes, you know, Justin Jefferson and, you know, there were circumstances involved, but he's not the guy coming out of training camp. And then two weeks later, he's going for 175 yards. Sometimes you just don't know. And with Laquan Treadwell, when he was coming out in the draft thought, well, this guy, I mean, he's probably got a high floor because he's a possession receiver and he's strong and he's tough and all that.

And no, he had a very low floor actually and caught one pass as a rookie. So Naylor's familiarity with Kevin O'Connell's offense could, in a bad case scenario for Jordan Addison, could give him an edge to have some upside and get more playing time than we actually expect going into training camp. And on the defensive side, I mean, Josh Metellus is an obvious pick here for you guys because you know who Josh Metellus is, but I don't think that the Tampa Bay Bucs really know who Josh Metellus is. And it is going on somewhat of a small sample size, a couple hundred plays last year,

and then just an OTAs and minicamp where we saw him on the field quite a bit with the ones, but I don't think that's a mistake based on his history and based on his development over a couple of years. And if you want to go, I guess, a little, I don't know, how much deeper you want to go in the weeds, but maybe somebody like Patrick Jones. I know I'm giving you more than three players to bet on their upside, but kind of going through some of the players that I think are sort of interesting

that may be one opportunity away from emerging. Patrick Jones is one of those guys. We kind of know at this point what DJ Wanham is. This would be sort of a make or break year for DJ Wanham, but Patrick Jones is going into his third year, got a little bit of action last season, made a couple of plays, but also didn't put up like great numbers in terms of pass rush win rate or pff grade or total pressures but you saw just a little bit there there were just a handful of plays where you saw some strength some quickness is there more of that is there development that happened over this last year um to the point where he's going to be a difference maker and oh by the

way you know there might be opportunity to fight for that spot. If Daniil Hunter is not at training camp, then the door is open for everybody else to kind of break it down and prove that they belong in that spot. And I think that Patrick Jones goes on that list. And then, you know, there's some other guys like Luigi Valene, Curtis Weaver.

Curtis Weaver, once upon a time, was sort of a PFF darling coming out in the draft. Luigi Villain was a guy who last year made the team out of camp, I believe, and then ended up playing in a handful of games. Another guy that, you know, sort of caught my eye a little bit during training camp, emerged, got second team reps. And that's always one of the most fun parts. And this year, there's a lot of players that have opportunities to do that. So again, I gave you a lot more than three, but there is, I think, more this year than any other year I've covered of players who have the potential to kind of surprise us or surprise the outside world as guys that they didn't really expect to have big roles on this

team. Next question comes from Alex J. Larson. I think that is. How critical is the talent of wide receiver two for a superstar like Jefferson to continue at his ridiculous pace? I'm thinking about how Randy Moss benefited from having Chris Carter. Yeah, I think it just stands to reason that if you have a number two who causes a lot of problems, you just can't double team everybody. You just can't cloud coverage or whatever, roll coverage to the star receiver every single time

if you are getting demolished on it. It's kind of like in basketball where if you have a star player who's cooking one-on-one and you try to double team him, but he can move the basketball to somebody else who's an additional scorer. I think it kind of works the same way. What they have to do is just make teams pay for it. And certainly we did see TJ Hawkinson in the playoff game against the Giants and in some other games. You know, occasionally here or there, you know, KJ Osborne toward the end of the season, maybe once in a while with Adam Thielen. But did other teams truly pay for it when they went all in on stopping Justin Jefferson via somebody else?

Not really. I mean, I think that if you were going to tell another team hey you know you're going to get 10 catches for t.j hawkinson as opposed to 10 for justin jefferson they would take that all day even if that's a good thing for the vikings too to have that extra weapon that's still not you know racking up 150 yards or something that was the feeling and dicks teams would go into it, they'd double team Diggs, and then Thielen would come away with 150 yards. And 2018 was probably the best evidence of that happening, where Diggs had come off the Minneapolis Miracle. I think that opponents were paying a little more attention, and Thielen just made them pay. Week in and week out made them pay for not double teaming, because you couldn't double team both. And sometimes it was a feeling week and sometimes it was a digs week.

And there's lots of examples of this through history of having that wide receiver too. And PFF a couple of years ago looked at this. And I know that's not exactly your question, but I think of it through a team lens. PFF looked at this in playoff success and wide receiver two and three and found that they were as valuable if not more valuable than wide receiver one is the additional weapons because of exactly what I laid out you have to find ways to make those opponents pay for focusing everything on the

number one and that's exactly what a Chris Carter was able to do. But you see this, you know, lots of different teams, including the Philadelphia Eagles, especially last year with Devontae Smith, with A.J. Brown. Bringing in A.J. Brown was such a difference maker because then it made Devontae Smith wide receiver two. And that is one heck of a wide receiver two. He's a top 10 draft pick and a star in the league, or at least a very, very good wide receiver.

You saw it from Miami where Tua stepped up last year, Tyreek Hill. But if you're covering Tyreek Hill, here's Jalen Waddell to make plays. Joe Burrow, I think he's as great as everybody else thinks, but he's also got three really good wide receivers that has helped him from really day one of his career become a star quarterback because he's always got that other option if opponents are really you know putting a lot of defensive attention onto Jamar Chase so I think you know throughout Vikings history we've seen a bunch of examples of this and I don't know I mean it's this isn't the day I guess to start talking about what Jordan Addison can be because I think everybody pumped

some brakes pretty hard. And I don't mean that as a pun on Jordan Addison and like getting hyped for him in training camp. He could still very much become a great wide receiver. A speeding incident is not going to change whether he's talented or not, but you do sort of wonder about like, all right, okay. Is he going to be able to handle all of this, this whole NFL thing? Because not everybody can, uh, if he does, and if he becomes that wide receiver too, it could be a huge, huge deal. And Hey, nobody knows this better than Keenan McArdle played with Jimmy Smith. Those guys were unstoppable in the nineties with the Jaguars. Um, yeah, I mean, Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens on the same team. Tons of tons of tons of examples through history of how that works.

So does it benefit the star receiver? I think that it does because it at least takes some of the pressure off if you're doing it over and over and over again. So if you just keep going to Chris Carter over and over again, the other team eventually has to pay attention to that right they have to come up with another solution that's not just roll coverage roll coverage roll coverage put a shell on top of it you know like put a defender on top of the safety deep or something they actually have to come up with a solution to try to deal uh with the receivers on both sides of the field. And that is throughout history, pretty darn difficult to do.

You know, you go back to the, you know, even the Pittsburgh Steelers with Terry Bradshaw and the two elite receivers there. Or, I mean, I guess the Steelers would have had this, you know, with Heinz Ward, Plaxico Burris, like those kinds of times as well. So we see it all the time with the value of having that number two wide receiver and

i think it does benefit the number one guy from taking some of the pressure off i don't know if that's in a fantasy context because it takes some of the targets away and it's less forced targets but in a like does he produce in a more efficient manner uh or does it help the team as a whole absolutely i think and this is why I advocated so hard for the Vikings to draft the wide receiver because I just think this is a major, major cheat code when it comes to the NFL. This one comes from Daniel.

Making my first journey to US Bank this fall, any pre or post game must sees or nearby the stadium that you would recommend well number one you won't have any trouble uh finding lots of vikings fans to hang out with and so forth hopefully you're going when it's nice weather but right out in front of the stadium in terms of pre-game it's like music and there's food trucks and there's fans just hanging around and there's little acts going on kind of left and right you almost can't screw it up if you just walk to the stadium so every day

when i get there now i kind of get out of the car walk through the crowd see what you know random jerseys uh that i'm seeing for the opposing team and so forth for their fans but there's just a lot going on pre-game so i guess i would just say, go to the stadium and around it is a very much like a festival atmosphere. If you've got a little free time, the thing that I always suggest for out of towners who are coming to visit U.S. Bank Stadium. And I don't know if you have been to Minnesota before or if you're just coming to the stadium for the first time. But the Stone Arch Bridge is a place to go. The Mill City Museum, Stone Arch Bridge, that whole area, amazing sight lines, the Mississippi River, you just kind of got it all. And I mean, there's restaurants everywhere. There's a couple that I like in downtown, but

it's hard to mess that up. I mean, it's a downtown area with lots of restaurants and bars. You could just walk into some place and you'll be fine probably. If you want to go high end, you got your Murray's and your Manny's, your famous steakhouses where they take players that they want free agents to sign here, although I can't remember that happening recently. And one of those visits, I think Kirk Cousins might have been the last time that reporters, and I didn't do this, and maybe I should have just for the memories, where reporters like the TV cameras find out where the Vikings are taking the guy

and then they go stake it out and they wait until he comes out and try to interview him and so forth. I don't know that that's happened in the last couple of years. I think guys just go to the facility. That's too bad. Bring that back. That was a. Good sport. Also, I think someone would go to the airport and wait till who was it? Eddie Lacey. I remember Eddie Lacey came for a visit, the running back for the Packers,

and somebody went to the airport and found Eddie Lacey and talk to him and just, you know, that was fun. But that's a total aside to your point. It's just go to the Stone Arch Bridge. Make sure you see that. It's a beautiful downtown. Lots to do around that area. If you can make it outside the city a little bit, someplace like Minnehaha Falls is pretty good.

But really, I think if you just go to that stadium and walk around outside of it, you're going to have a pretty good time. They've really got a nice, very, very nice setup around the stadium for game day. This question comes from Bill. Packers and Vikings drafted quarterbacks in 2020 when they didn't need them to win that year. Were there players they passed up on that could have helped them compete more? I don't think so for the Vikings. Now, if you remember on draft night, I was not really hot on the idea of Kellen Mond. And that's not hindsight. It's on tape. You can go listen to it. Third round draft pick quarterback. My thought was either go all in, draft Mac Jones, trade up for Justin Fields,

and give it a shot on this rookie quarterback thing or don't do it at all. And if somebody drops to the third round, we went through this with Malik Willis. Oh, should the Vikings have taken a shot at Malik Willis? Like, probably not. I mean, yeah, I guess Brock Birdie worked out, but at least for half of a season and Dak Prescott and Tom Brady, but there's not many more. So most of the time you're lighting a pick on fire, but look at the rest of the third round. Remember there was a bunch of third round draft picks that year that the Vikings

had. If anything, they probably in a very weak draft that year or a very top heavy draft should have just used the third round picks to trade up and taken one player because they took Wyatt Davis. We mentioned Patrick Jones hasn't done much so far. It was just, it was just not a very good third round. If you go through and look, well, who could have they drafted and so forth? We can always play that game, but for that year, there is not much past the first and second round. There usually isn't, but that year was particularly weak because a lot of guys were using their COVID years to stay in college for another year and some of them kind of got like limited schedules and didn't have as much on tape and and decided to

stay in college and come out later so I remember hearing about this from some people just who studied the draft that the very top of the draft still was normal but once you got past the second round or even middle of the second round it was just a complete disaster now i have to look up and you're asking about if the packers threw this up now i think well we're gonna find out as far as whether jordan love becomes some kind of something or not but could the packers have done something to immediately help themselves in 2020, not made Aaron Rodgers angry and added some sort of star player instead? And the answer is not really.

Looking at that draft. So here is who went after Jordan Love. Jordan Brooks, linebacker for Seattle. Patrick Queen to the Ravens, a corner who I'm not sure how to pronounce his name for the Dolphins, Jeff Gladney, Clyde Edwards, a layer T Higgins and Michael Pittman would have been the guy. So in the guys who went in the first round right after, not really, there's not a lot of great stuff there, but if you extend that just into the second round

and say hey they instead should have drafted t higgins or michael pitman absolutely those guys would have been huge for the green bay packers so yeah they probably did yep not with the picks who went right after so if they took a linebacker or something but rogers was contending that they should have taken a wide receiver the next receiver off the board is a star wide receiver. And then the next after him is very good. And assuming that those are the two receivers they like, let me see who else went. Cause this is a silly way to do it sometimes because it's like,

what's the guarantee that they actually liked the next guy off the board. Every team's board is different. So if they had liked LaVisca Ch's board is different. So if they had liked LaVisca Chenault, then no. If they had liked KJ Hamler, then no. If they had liked Chase Claypool, eh. If they had liked Van Jefferson, eh. Denzel Mims, he's a lion now. So really they needed to hit on one of those two guys and it would have helped their case. Now, if you go back to that time, I think that drafting a receiver was probably the right way to go and just squeeze it all the way out. Just go all the way to the end and then draft your quarterback.

Don't try to do it now and develop him and then see what happens. But it was justifiable at the time because rogers was coming off of a year a couple years where he didn't play at that unbelievable megastar level he was still very very good but not this like other universe rogers and considering what kind of dude he is you never know when he was just going to like quit and move to Brazil and live in a tree or something. So I think that it was fair for their front office to try to think more forward. I just in I guess in my shoes, I'm picking the wide receiver and just trying to just trying to get that Super Bowl because they did win 13 games in 2019. And, you know, add another wide receiver alongside Devontae Adams

sounds pretty good to me. So they made a mistake, more likely than not, in doing that. We'll see how it works out for Jordan Love. But they came very close, maybe one more weapon away from a couple of games. They're a pass away against Tampa Bay. They're a pass away from something couple of games they're a pass away against Tampa Bay they're a pass away from you know something big against San Francisco and then playing Los Angeles at home with a chance to go to the Super Bowl that's how tight the margins are so yeah yeah does that I mean that should make

everybody feel better right unless Jordan Love's great then you won't feel better but if Jordan Love is bad and they don't have T. Higgins or Michael Pittman, two very good receivers, and miss their window to win in the final years of Aaron Rodgers, well, that's a good thing for all Vikings fans, isn't it now? So let's go to Scott's question here. The Vikings need to replace 2,900 defensive cornerback snaps. Is that all? Just 2,900?

Is that really true? Is that the number? 2,900? I don't know. That seems like a lot. Is that really true? I feel like that might be true because Patrick Peterson would have had like 1,000 on his own. No one on this roster has played more than 600 yet.

Good luck with that. And can I please get a pie chart? I'm not sure what kind of pie chart you just want any kind of pie chart. Do you want a pie chart of cornerbacks? Uh, I guess I could try to cook one up. Good luck with that is not really a question, but it is a fair comment. And I guess I could try to come up with a little bit of a counterpoint to that and just say yeah they didn't have a whole lot of luck with it last year with those guys I mean Duke

Shelley was pretty good Patrick Peterson was really excellent but the rest of them was a complete struggle Chan and Sullivan not too worried about replacing those snaps Cam Dantzler not too worried about replacing those snaps and what you have is think, players who fit pretty well in Brian Flores' defense. So just because they're inexperienced, I don't want to write them off right now when we haven't seen them play yet in Brian Flores' defense. I think there is a good chance that at least some of these guys could emerge, and they've thrown enough numbers at it. I like Byron Murphy Jr.

I think he's probably going to have the best year of his career if, you know, assuming he's healthy and everything else, just because of the fit and the defensive coordinator and the organization. It's not this total lost in the woods organization. We know how much of a difference that makes. It's not a horrendous defense like it was last year, or at least we don't think it's going to be that horrendous maybe it will be maybe it will be and and he'll be a victim but I just think he's going to be a better fit so at least we know he could be an average corner so that's you know a major upgrade in the nickel spot from Channing Sullivan and then they need some one-on-one cover guys I think this is a little bit simpler for these cornerbacks because they can

just lock on to their guy and play. And I know that, you know, they've talked about, well, you're going to have to move around and you're going to have to understand the defense. So I don't want to simplify it because everything is complicated in football, but a lot of situations in Brian Flores' defense are corners just having to be good at covering man-to-man and you have three guys who were really known for that uh caleb evans andrew booth jr and mckay blackman um i gosh i just don't know how to turn this into a pie chart though of like how how screwed are they yeah how about a how screwed are they in the secondary pie chart do we like that or in the cornerback group i'll go with let's see we could go with like a like not screwed at all a little screwed sort of a lot of screwed and completely

screwed so not screwed at all i will go like 10 i think there's only about a 10 chance that this secondary and this cornerback group is just phenomenal. And Patrick Mahomes is walking off the field saying, where do these great corners come from? Probably not. I will go with 40% that they are a little screwed, meaning that some guys are good and some guys are not. And I mean, I think that's probably going to be the case that we're going to find that Byron Murphy Jr. is pretty good. And one of these guys emerges, whether it's Blackman, Evans, Andrew Ruth Jr., somebody will. And I would put that under

the category of little screwed. So that's 50%. And then I'll split it down the middle at 25 percent of more more screwed than not 25 and then completely screwed where the whole thing blows up it's just awful they feel like they have no corners uh it's a pretty equal distribution it's a pretty equal distribution but i think the most likely scenario is out of the four guys battling for spots, two will probably be good and two will probably not. And I don't know which two I'm guessing because of his experience, the Byron Murphy jr. Is going to work out.

I don't know that for sure. When they signed Bashad Breeland, I was like, Hey, yeah. Okay. That's not a bad signing for late in the off season. Wrong, wrong,

very wrong. I, when Mackenzie Alexander came back in 2021, I was like, okay, well, you know, he was pretty good here before. No, Zimmer's defense should be all right. It was not all right. It was very bad. So, you know, these things can be hard to predict.

It's a volatile position. Guys get hurt all the time. Matchups matter a lot. Fit matters a lot. So if I were to guess guess i would kind of lean toward it's like 50 50 between being in pretty tough shape and maybe having it work out and that's why we cover camp so we can start to get an idea of that the biggest pro football contest in las vegas is back again for its fifth year with 14 million in guaranteed prizes only at Circa Sports.

Enter in Vegas, play from anywhere with two ways to win and no rake. Play the million pro football contest with quarterly payouts and 100% payback. Pick a winner with the survivor contest. Select one team each week with no point spread. Get your share of 14 million in guaranteed prizes. Pick a winner with the Survivor Contest. Select one team each week with no point spread. Get your share of $14 million in guaranteed prizes. Visit CircusSports.com today for details. From John, is there any chance they asked B.C. Johnson to come in and be a camp body, at least?

Did B.C. Johnson sign somewhere? I thought B.C. Johnson signed somewhere. Let me look. I thought he signed with the Patriots or something. I thought he followed Chad Graff there. Let me see. B.C. Johnson is now it says a free agent on Wikipedia and Wikipedia is always right. I thought that somebody like brought B.C. Johnson in for a workout. Maybe it was just a workout. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, two ACLs, that's pretty tough for a guy who wasn't fast to begin with. I think you want to just look for younger talent. I mean, Brandon Powell is going to be that guy. He knows the Ram style offense, so he'll be able to fit in pretty fast.

They've still got Jalen Rager who was here last year. I don't have any confidence in Jalen Rager, but at least he can do something with the football if you give it to him. That ship has probably sailed for B.C. Johnson. I mean, it's unfortunate. I was always very impressed with B.C. Johnson. Very, very intelligent guy. Very hardworking guy. Really fit in quite well with the team.

But injuries ruin a lot of careers. And unfortunately, I mean, last preseason game and he tears that ACL, just tough. I mean, he was making the team and he was, I think, in line to be a part of the offense in some way. And then it just went down the drain. So unfortunate for him. Maybe he'll get another shot at some point. But gosh, even when people come back pretty well from ACLs how much can you take when you already

weren't that fast to begin with and you were already a seventh round pick and I don't know what his deal is if he's still trying to play in the NFL sometimes guys have those injuries and decide you know what it's time for me to just hang it up but I think that they're in a good place to just have everybody battle it out you You know, they've got their pretty clear top three. You've got Jalen Naylor there. And then a couple of guys battling behind those spots who are sort of long shots that we've seen every once in a while. Somebody show up and win Mr. Mankato and become a guy like we saw from Adam Thielen or KJ

Osborne or Stefan Diggs. So that is very much a you never know type of position. Even BC Johnson showed up kind of out of nowhere at one point. Next question comes from Thomas. To what extent are negotiations affected by prior dealings and relationships between agent and representatives and general managers? Probably similar to how it is with your coworkers or people that you work with, where you have to get your job done, even if you don't like someone. And so, for example, let's say that the Vikings don't get along with, and this is not saying this is the case, but let's just say, like a Daniil Hunter's agent.

Even if they didn't, even if they were in a bad spot with him, even if they were frustrated with a player of that caliber, if they wanted them back, they would have to work through that to figure it out. I promise that there are situations with free agents or with guys who, you know, are maybe on edge of, do we bring this guy or not back? Can we replace them or not in free agency and the agent if it's bad might be the swing towards saying you know what let's just find somebody else

but when it's a player of star caliber so if it's justin jefferson it's daniel hunter even when they had to negotiate with delvin cook you just had to bite the bullet and figure it out and and that just goes across any industry. I think there's always going to be people that you like working with. There's going to be people that you don't like working with people that you click with or connect with that sort of see things the same way. And then even in your fantasy football league, I imagine there's guys who send you notes and say, Hey,

how'd you feel about trading this receiver for that running back or something? And you go, what? I'm not making that deal. So you probably run into that in all walks of life. I cannot say with any degree of certainty how those things are affecting the Minnesota Vikings right now with those negotiations

with Daniil Hunter or with what happened with delvin cook which i think was predetermined from the very start of the offseason that they were cutting him i don't think that had anything to do with anything other than old running back who wasn't a great fit last year for kevin o'connell's offense or may have lost a step or whatever but they just wanted to move on and they signed a they signed Alexander Madison pretty much day one of free agency because of that. It's clear from the outset. So picking those things apart is really, really tough. But I've heard of relationships between GMs and agents or whoever is negotiating.

It doesn't always have to be the general manager negotiating the details that are very bad and very ugly. And yet, at the end of the day, the fans expect that player to be back on the team. The team wants that player back and they have to just hash it out over however long. So if there's a holdup for any of these, I wouldn't, I don't, I just don't think you can pin a player's agent on anything, but I can say for sure if it's player A versus player B and they're very similar on the free agent market and one of them is repped by a guy that you don't want to deal with, yeah, you're probably calling the other guy first. This one comes from SkullViking44.

Where do you think the running back compensation issue is headed? I think it is headed nowhere. There is a collective bargaining agreement that's not going to be changed. It's in place for a very long time. And every position works this way. I understand, you know, it's July and things become kind of the topic du jour on social media. And they sort of spread like wildfire. And everybody starts sharing their ideas. What if we did this sharing their ideas. What if

we did this for running backs? What if we did that? And you know what? There's some good ideas in there, but none of them are getting implanted. None, zero. I would be blown away. And you know what? You can go back and find this audio. If in two years, they make some massive change for running backs to help them out, but I don't think they're going to. I think that they are going to stay with this. And we're just always going to have these conflicts with running backs and with holding out and the franchise tag and everything else. And the franchise tag is $10 million. I'm not saying that it's completely fair for star players, but $10 million is kind of a lot. And one of the issues is that these running backs have just not proven it wrong. I mean, Delvin Cook did not prove it wrong. He got

cut before his contract was up. Even Derrick Henry had a drop-off year last season. Ezekiel Elliott did not complete his contract. There's a ton of examples of guys getting paid within the last decade that caused this. It wasn't analytics people that caused it. Analytics people studied what was happening. They studied the trends and wrote their findings, but the NFL has known this. They have taken note of this, that so many times when you pay a running back, that contract ends up going belly up the same as when you draft them in the top five a lot of times because they get banged up and um you know they fall off at a certain age that is pretty clear historically where that is and and so that's how the position works but this is also how every

position works it's just that these guys are popular that's the only difference. Name 12 centers, right? Just like in your head right now, name 12 guys who play center in the league. That's a lot harder for you than naming 12 running backs because they are fantasy football guys. They score touchdowns. They get highlights. You know who they are, but let's compare. Left tackles are going to make close to $30 million. What does centers make? Look at Garrett Bradbury's deal. Centers make almost nothing. And yet, if you got a good one, it's really helpful, just like running backs.

But why is it that centers make almost nothing in comparison? And there's maybe like two guys who actually make money at center. Because there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them there's a lot of them who are pretty competent at their jobs just like there's a lot of running backs or there's always the next running back coming up but you know the centers aren't doing a thing on twirl pay centers like every position kind of works this way where there's a finite amount of dollars that NFL teams can spend and are allowed to spend. Now, you could say that's wrong and you might be right.

I don't know. Like you're limiting how much the players can make, which is what the NFL owners love. So there's that. But it is negotiated by the players union. So they signed on for this. But the whole point just being that there's a finite amount of dollars in this system that can be used. And so what you're going to do is you're going to decide what's worth it to you. It's the same as if you build a house, like what's worth it? Is a walk-in closet worth it? Is it worth it to have a second story? But if you're only working on a budget, you have to prioritize. And if receivers and pass rushers are driving success and not running backs in the same

way, then what are you supposed to do if you're the team? Say, well, you know what? He's a great guy or he's like really fun to watch. So let's pay him up. It's just the reality of how I think all sports work. I mean, even in the NBA, you know, you could be a great defensive seven footer, but is that really worth it only to the wolves?

Then you trade away your whole future for that. But is it worth it to anybody else? Probably not. So I think it's going nowhere. I think we're going to have these holdouts occasionally. And until running backs start breaking this mold and start playing well into their 30s and justifying you know second contracts and things like that this is the way it's going to be and it's going to be a discussion every offseason would be my guess uh one more here

from jonathan did the netflix series quarterbackins more likable? I have a newfound respect for him after watching it. It didn't really change anything for me other than it was really cool. For me, NFL films, behind the scenes, that stuff is just the best. To be able to take you where you've never been before in the car with Kirk Cousins after the playoff loss. How will you ever see that in any other way than NFL films? So the access and hearing what the coach was saying to the quarterback, these are just things that are impossible to know for any of us, no matter how close you are to the team. So that is really cool. For me, it didn't really change anything because I think I feel like I knew most of this stuff. I mean, I didn't, I wasn't in the ice bath with him, but I

knew how much punishment he was taking. I've known since I've covered him that he takes a lot of hits, finds his way back on the field, that he shows a remarkable amount of toughness for sure. I mean, I've always thought that about Kirk Cousins. He's on the field every week, and that is incredibly, incredibly hard to do. There are very few quarterbacks who have been as durable as him, and that comes along with toughness, but it also comes along with a heck of a lot of commitment to rehabilitation, preparing your body to take these hits, all these things. And I've always felt like Kirk Cousins got 100% out of 100%

of what his absolute maximum was. This guy has reached his ceiling by putting everything into playing quarterback that he possibly could. So, you know, I mean, these aren't things we didn't know, but maybe things that weren't as appreciated as they should have been, and they are when you get to see them up close, maybe, you know, seeing humanizing anyone with a documentary is, you know, seeing their perspective a little bit better. That's the whole like walk a mile in somebody's shoes kind of thing. And

behind the scenes documentary like this gives you a chance to kind of walk in his shoes a little bit, understand his perspective a little bit better, understand him as a guy a little bit better. And I think that makes him more likable for sure to a lot of Vikings fans. You know, when I talked to Vikings fans about the documentary, I think everybody said they came away with a ton of respect for Kirk Cousins or maybe a better understanding of what he does. I don't know if it changes anything, but I think that you're not like crazy at all to come away with it and say, wow, this guy is not a top 15 quarterback because he just showed up to play today, hucking around the old backyard.

No, it is more than a full-time job. It's a full-time job for his entire family. And you got to see that as well, which is another angle that you don't get to see very often. So I enjoyed it a lot. Really interesting stuff. And if people haven't watched it, they should check it out. Perfect timing for Netflix to drop it right before camp

when we got nothing else to watch, but we're really ready for football. So good stuff, everybody. Well, thanks for all the questions. I'll have another fans only episode slash continue our previews of positions. And then off we go onto training camp next week. So I will look forward to discussing that with you all.

And also hopeful that there are no more stories like Jordan Addison's anytime soon. And maybe, just maybe in the coming days, we'll see extension news, trade news, contracts. If it is, guess who will be here? That's me. Anyway, real quick, sign up for the newsletter, purpleinsider.substack.com. A lot of questions now coming through the chat function that we're using, which is kind

of like our own little Vikings Twitter, only it's not insane. Everyone's rational there. So even if you sign up on the free side, you can still be a part of that chat. So go check that out, purpleinsider.substack.com. And I will see you guys all later.