Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison keeps making noise at Vikings camp

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about a slow day at training camp with a walk through but some concerns with injuries and then discusses the early returns and what Kirk Cousins had to say about Jordan Addison. Plus a discussion about the Vikings' cornerbacks and what we have seen so far in training camp from that questionable group and a Cousins projection if Addison is very good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome in again to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, live again on YouTube as we've been doing every single night after life in practice. Though today was not exactly a big time practice for learning stuff about the team because it was just a walkthrough. There weren't even fans at the practice and there was nothing to watch. Because when I say walkthrough, I truly mean walk through. They stand out on the field and they line up and they walk slowly through what they're supposed to do. And I remember last year that I think one of the practices was open to fans when they did a walkthrough. And it was just really unfortunate because the fans didn't get to see anything really happening except for just some warm up stuff. So we kind of just stood there politely and waited until the end. And then we had a discussion with the coordinators and I had a conversation with Chris Cooper, the the offensive line coach about Christian Derisoff for an article that I'm doing soon.

And make sure you go check out, by the way, on the newsletter, purpleinsider.substack.com or purpleinsider.com will take you there that I did about Josh Metellus and football IQ, what football IQ means, what they say, you know, Josh Metellus has that's special, how it translates. I asked Brian Flores to kind of define it for me and Jordan Hicks and Josh Metellus himself and came up with some very interesting stuff. And I can say that, uh, there's just a lot of excitement around Metellus and that was a fun article to write.

And then I've got this, uh, one-on-one with Chris Cooper. It's going to be Q and a style for tomorrow about Christian Derrissaw and how his personality has played in to him emerging as a star. So make sure you go check that out. The other thing is that we have a new sponsor and that is underdog fantasy. And so I have my app up here because I, I mentioned for those of you who come on to the stream every night that I was going to have a fantasy sponsor. And this will be the first time that I have played any sort of fantasy football in many, many years, basically put it this way, that when Yahoo Sports was first becoming a thing

on the internet, and this certainly speaks to my age. My brother and I got my uncle and a few other people to be in a fantasy league. And we had no idea how the scoring worked. And if you had a punt returner, it was the best thing ever for you because you got a million points for punt returning. And that is essentially the last time I have been in a serious fantasy football league. but a underdog fantasy has created some interesting things, including these best ball drafts that are perfect for me because you don't have to do anything. And so I am going to do a best ball draft while we're talking here tonight. But of course, uh, if you want to, uh, I'll take you through it, tell you a little more about underdog fantasy at some point in the show.

And I'll probably stop every so often to make a draft pick. But yes, CJ, Josh Cribs MVP era is exactly what we're talking about. But there are more pressing matters at hand. I don't know if I could do these two things at once. Maybe I can try to do a, a tournament here or not a tournament, a draft. I can't see. I don't even know what I'm talking about while I'm, while I'm doing this. Okay. Maybe that's going to be a little hard to do. So I'll tell you about underdog later, and then we'll talk about me getting into fantasy.

But of course I want to take all of your questions. So if you're tuning in for the first time, the way we've done this every night after training camp is Vikings fans throw in what's on your mind. I'll answer whatever questions that you have, as well as talking about some of the things that I have observed and that are going on in Vikings camp. And one of the things that's going on is that there are some injuries happening. We did not see Marcus Davenport today and did not see Andrew Booth Jr. Now, yesterday on the show, we talked about Andrew Booth Jr. and how, you know, this is really

a pivotal point for him if he's going to be anything in the NFL, that he can't have this happen. He's already fallen behind in training camp to Makai Blackman, who has emerged as at this moment, the starting outside corner, Juwan Williams has been relegated back to the second team. But if Andrew Booth Jr. Was going to compete at all, he needed whatever's injury that happened to him yesterday to not be serious enough to keep him out of a walkthrough.

And unfortunately for him, it wasn't. And it's just not a great sign for his future. And it seems like Blackman is their guy. Caleb Evans is their guy. And this is why Kweisi Adafo-Mensa has drafted a bunch of corners in these middle rounds. Because you really have to throw numbers at that position. The Vikings in the past, they put a first round pick into the corner and then they hoped when they drafted Wayans, when they drafted Rhodes and, uh, you know, when they drafted Mike

Hughes and Jeff Gladney, they were just, they were putting big picks into these guys and they were hoping they would work out and then not really drafting too many other guys in the middle or late rounds. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it didn't work because if though, if some of those guys don't hit, then you're just left with this giant gaping hole. So the way that Kwesi D'Affolmenta has gone about it, and of course it gives you a better high end though. There is a positive to it, which is if you get an Xavier Rhodes, that guy comes, becomes a superstar. He's your shutdown guy for several years and helps you lead a number one offense. So there is an upside to drafting those corners high, but there's also an argument to try to draft a lot of them in the middle rounds

like Tampa Bay did a couple of years ago, hope that a few of those guys develop and that it's a weak link system. So if you have, you know, four defensive backs, five defensive backs who are all good, and maybe one guy who's pretty good, then, you know, you're going to be a much better defense than if you have one guy who's great and everybody else who's not very good. So they've thrown the numbers at it. And if they landed on a Caleb Evans and Makai Blackman, it doesn't matter which round they came from. It only matters that they have them.

But that's a little bit getting ahead of ourselves because we haven't seen Blackman play in a preseason game yet. We've only seen him in a handful of practices. It is a good sign for him, though. And what they were hoping for was that he would emerge as that starting outside corner because he's not a high end high ceiling, like development type prospect. He's much more of a, we drafted you to be here right away and to play right away. So the fact that Blackman is starting is a good sign for him that he's already pushed past Jawan Williams. It's just that with Andrew Booth Jr., you can't

help but talk about it considering the draft status and the fact that they took a big risk with his health. And no, there isn't any update on him. In fact, I mean, the coaching staff doesn't have to give us any updates during training camp. It's only during the regular season that they have to put out an injury report. And as you may have learned from the Mike Zimmer era, even then, they don't have to tell you what's going on. They have to put out the injury report, but they don't have to say, hey, this guy's out six weeks, three weeks. It's more of a courtesy and is very helpful to us and the fans to understand when somebody is going to be back, but we never really know unless they tell us

or unless somebody else says, hey, he's on his way back, or there's an Adam Schefter report or whatever, but the team doesn't have to make announcements with every injury. So I don't know when Andrew Booth jr. Will be back. I just know that it's really not good for him to fall further behind or farther. Yes. Farther behind the other cornerbacks at this moment, but it does say something good about Makai Blackman that he is emerging. Okay. So I noticed you're mentioning Tristan Jackson yet. It does seem like Tristan Jackson based on what he's put out there. And that's what I mean. They don't have to announce

anything. It's just, you know, but Wes Phillips did mention something. I think I was talking with the offensive line coach when Wes Phillips was at the podium about it not being as bad as it may have looked for Tristan Jackson. And that's really good for him because with a player like that, you often get one chance. You get one camp where things go right for you and it clicks in and you make the team. And then once you've made a 53 out of camp, once you're on a 53, then that gives you an opportunity in the future to either move up the depth chart, get on other teams radar, because there's so many players who are bouncing around as practice squad guys that nobody really thinks twice about. But if you're a guy who was undrafted practice squad for a few years,

and then you make it, then all of a sudden you become somebody that other teams are kind of paying attention to and watching and you, and it can help you have a longer career or you can end up being helpful to this team, which is what matters to you all the most. But just from his own personal perspective, this is like his big shot. He was doing great in training camp. He was really standing out. And so if he's going to be able to come back soon enough, that would be, I think big for their receiving depth as well, but mostly just for his career, because when we saw him go down,

my first thought was, Oh, Tristan Jackson's career is in a tough, tough place here. Aside from that, though, that that's very good news that it seems like it's not going to keep him out for very long. But on the other side of things, we did not see Marcus Davenport today, and that's not great. Yesterday during practice, Davenport was not taking 11 on 11s. And this is a guy who has struggled to play entire seasons. I can pull this up, but I don't believe that he's played more than 600 snaps. Let me see here.

Davenport, how many snaps his career high is. But I don't believe he's ever been a regular full season player. Yeah. He's only cleared 500 snaps once and never cleared even 550. So for Davenport to be out, uh, was not, uh, is not a good early sign for him, even for one practice,

because it's so early that guys shouldn't be getting veteran days after two padded practices or whatever. Maybe it was three, two or three padded must've been two Monday and Tuesday that, that, that shouldn't be happening. Um, I think as we go into, you know, week two and week three of training camp, then of course, you're going to see more players, uh, you know, getting those veteran days and things like that, but it speaks even more to the fact that the Vikings might want to go and look for somebody else who's depth because, uh, I just don't feel like BJ

Wanham or Patrick Jones has done enough for us to say, Oh yeah, well, if Marcus Davenport can't do it, then those guys can, can jump right into the mix. And just looking at the salary cap situation that's updated now on overthecap.com after Daniil Hunter, the Vikings have $10 million in cap space. They could use that, some of it, to push money from a Jefferson or Hawkinson extension, which we're still waiting for into this year.

It's probably not enough to make a huge dent considering it's only 10 million in space, but maybe a couple million, every dollar helps, I guess, for the future. But if there is somebody, and let me call this back up. If there is somebody in free agency, I'm going to take a look who is in free agency from the edge rusher position that they could bring in to take a look at. I think that they should. Robert Quinn is one. Did he, he didn't retire. I don't think, did he? Yannick Ngakwe, I know is still looking for a job. I saw Shelby Harris was brought in somewhere today. He's listed still as a free agent,

but I think he was brought in. Is Justin Houston still out there? Melvin Ingram is 34 years old as well. So there are some guys that are still Vinnie Curry has been a guy who's played a long time in the league. Who's still listed as a free agent. Carl Nassib has played in the league for a long time. They might want to take a look at one of those players depending on their status as a rotational rusher, because it just doesn't seem like you can count on Marcus Davenport to play a full season. And if that's what they signed him for already missing a practice, and I don't mean to make too big of a deal out of it, but when it's somebody with history,

then you're going to be a little more antsy about, you know, when they miss a practice or something like that. Um, uh, was Jalen Naylor back today? Didn't see him out there. Now I'm trying to think if he was. I didn't see him out there today. I think he will probably, my guess is that he'll probably be back next week, but might be back for the night practice, which is something that I wanted to ask you guys

if you have things you want me to look for in the night practice, because it's always more intense. It's always ramped up. They try to put on a show for the fans and we get more of a view of where things stand. It's like the, it's, it's sort of like the, um, the, it's not the quarter pull, right? The quarter pull is toward the end, the quarter mark or whatever the quarter mark of training camp. So here it is. All right. Here's your first snapshot

look at where everybody stands in the night practice. And so I'll be watching for kind of updates on the depth chart, how players are being used, the health situation, because everybody always wants to be out there for the night practice if they can be. And if they're not, if they're not participating, then it's usually not a great sign. So whatever's on your mind, feel free to throw it in there. But I also wanted to bring up Kirk cousins today, uh, had his first chance to talk about Jordan Addison. And I wanted to bring you some of that because it feels like there's just a lot of Jordan Addison momentum. If you were listening last night, you hear Will Raggetts talk about how he thinks that Addison is going to pass K.J. Osborne at some point because he's just more talented and he's shining so far early in camp. I might press the brakes on that a little bit, just declaring that just yet. But here's what Kirk Cousins had to say about Jordan Addison making the adjustment to the NFL. It's a process. I think, first of all, you want to let him know that any challenges you feel with the playbook

or even outside of football, moving to a new city, we've all been there before. We all deal with them. So don't feel that you're different or that you're inadequate. You're just fine. And he's handled it well. I kind of have always been surprised at how well rookies transition because whether it was me getting drafted or me coming here in free agency, I felt like it took me a lot longer to learn everything and adapt well to what I observed the other guys being able to

do. But I think he's got a lot of ability and I think he's, you know, we've thrown him in basically with all the complex run game rules and motions and formations and the route tree we're asking him to learn. And I think he's handled it really well. And I think he's shown his athleticism and his ability as a receiver. He's a natural catcher of the football. He tracks the ball well. So I'm excited about just continuing to do more with him and get him involved. And hopefully that can take pressure off of our other guys and just make teams have to defend even more grass. Yeah, I think there's a little bit there from Kirk that is, you know, how I've talked on the show at times about reading in between the lines of comments. And one of the things that you get

to be good at after a while is compliments. Like you start to learn what compliments matter and what compliments don't matter. And I think that the specifics that Kirk Cousins was bringing up there and just talking about his natural ability that he could see, I think that, you know, Kirk is probably, you know, seeing a lot of the same things we're seeing.

Of course, he's throwing in the football. So he's getting a closer view than we are from the sideline. But as a quarterback, you can tell when somebody has that next level of ability. And Kirk was also asked about just what makes a young player stand out to him. And he talked about making catches. He called it at the catch point, which was sort of an interesting way of phrasing it. But he was talking about how nothing comes easy in the NFL. There's not a lot of wide open catches that you get to make. And it is stood out so far that when someone is close to Jordan Addison, he often, if not almost every time is making the catch when there is a corner that he didn't shake

that he's making those plays. And that stood out to Kirk. But of course there is a lot to go. There's a lot of work to go for Jordan Addison. And, uh, Kirk talked about that as well. Yeah. Well, he was here all summer, you know, recovering from his injury. And, um, I think he was able to get a lot done and, and I think Keenan's done a great job continuing to push him and I think he takes pride himself as a player to make sure when he goes out here for walkthroughs and practice that he hears it the first time and knows what to do and you know we're all going to have those occasional mistakes you know I had a big one yesterday in the two minute but you know you just got to believe that you're going to continually get

it to where it's more and more natural. So we just need them in the huddle here in plays getting lined up and keep stacking up those, those opportunities. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, I would say that every day the hype builds a little bit more and more for Jordan Addison. And of course, when there's fans in the stands and they take videos and by the way, the reporters on the sideline not allowed by the rules to take the videos. And so that's why you're seeing them from the fans a lot, which is okay with me. I would rather just be watching the plays and not trying to fumble around with my phone and take videos. But you've seen some of the route running, some of the one-on-ones that the world has kind of gotten a glimpse of

as camp has gone along. So I think the question is, does it change expectations for Jordan Addison? And I would say that it does. It doesn't make me think immediately, wow, KJ Osborne is a wide receiver three and Kirk is just going to roll with Jordan Addison and Jefferson and that's it. I still think that Kirk Cousins has great admiration for KJ Osborne and trust for him. And that there's a lot of easy completions that go KJ Osborne's way, uh, underneath stuff, quick passes, lining up in the slot, uh, that Kirk cousins has always liked that KJ Osborne has been a guy who over the last two years has come up with a lot of huge plays. You can think of them right off hand, the touchdown against Detroit, the touchdown against,

uh, two years ago or no, yeah, no, this year against Detroit to win the game two years ago against Carolina. There was a game two years ago against Pittsburgh where he made a huge catch and when Pittsburgh was coming back. So there's a lot built up between those two that I don't think just disappears because Jordan Addison is emerging. I think what it says though, is just that the overall strength could be much greater for this offense. If you feel like you have three trustworthy weapons for Addison. And so it's not so much, I mean, we've talked about it as a fun debate, but it's not so much for me. Does he end up with more catches fantasy wise, even though we are with underdog fantasy now? Uh, but it's not so much about, does he make more catches than KJ Osborne? A lot of it's going to be, when does he come up with

those catches, right? Like when, when is he making plays? Is it a third down where they're hard to stop because they have a number three wide receiver. And I don't know how many years in a row that we talked about, and this team just kind of needs one more guy. And Osborne was becoming Diggs, Thielen, Michael Floyd. He's going to be the pure deep threat. And it just never really worked out for that to happen. And this is kind of the first opportunity to have three guys in their prime, potentially on the same offense, unless I'm forgetting. The closest that they got really was 2019,

where Irv Smith fit in quite well and was healthy and fit in quite well as that number two tight end, which I also asked, uh, Kirk cousins about. And, uh, I'll just give you his answer. He was talking about how it helps them with the run game, past protection to have Josh Oliver. And that, uh, he said that he feels like Oliver has speed downfield, which is kind of amazing considering the size of Josh Oliver, but it's true. The guy really moves. And he just said that it strengthens all of those personnel groupings, the bigger ones. And I think that's another element to this offense.

So when you start adding it up, if Addison is what he looks like early on, which is someone who can step right in, and then Oliver is an additional sort of change-up weapon who you can throw the ball to, that's a lot of offensive talent. And you can see why they would want to bring back, you know, Daniil Hunter when they're watching this offense and watching Addison and feeling like this thing has a potential to be a top-ten offense again, that they would want to try to improve the defense.

And of course, that's why we're talking about potentially adding somebody else, adding another edge rusher. There was another injury and it didn't seem serious, but made me wonder about in terms of additions, Kenny Wong Wu was a little banged up and I believe he was out there today. Madison was out there today. He was also banged up in practice.

If they bring in a veteran running back, considering that they only have the four guys, and if they don't trust one of them, and then one's a seventh round rookie, or if one of them gets hurt, there's a little lack of depth there. So yesterday was kind of a reminder that injuries happen and, you know, maybe there's some other places on this roster they can still touch up as we have over a month to go before the start of the season all right let me get into your uh questions and comments now so uh alexander who's ready to see kellen mon start tomorrow night yeah i don't know that starting the hall of fame game is quite the honor that you would think it is um Um, unfortunately for, for Kellen

Mond, but, um, he's still in the league and if you're still in the league, you can hang around, but I don't know how much longer before we end up seeing him in the, uh, XFL. Um, yeah, I mean, that's, I thought Kellen Mond was a guy that from the very outset showed that he couldn't really play in the league. And then that's a hard thing for a player when you're over your head and you can't do it. And then you just kind of have to keep trying and trying and trying, but he wasn't able to do it last year for the Vikings. And yeah, now he's starting the hall of fame game, which is usually for a guy who ends up getting cut, but I am excited to just see football. I think we're all excited to see football. You know, I've always watched at least some of the hall of fame game because it feels

like summer kind of is coming to an end and now it's fall. Once the hall of fame game is going now, now we're on, now we're playing football games and the season has really started, uh, from, uh, I guess a Xenocide X. I don't know how to say that or pronounce that exactly. Uh, why hasn't anyone mentioned how NFL officers are using tight ends in interesting ways, such as lining them up on the right or left end of the offensive line, then shifting them to the fullback as a run blocker or pass protector. Yeah. I mean, tight ends have always been that kind of weapon for sure. I mean, it's not super new to be motioning them and moving them around. I think that the trend with tight ends, that's just been, uh, you know, going more and more and more is that they line up at wide receiver. And this is, it ties into the Josh

Oliver thing, where if you run out a personnel package that has Josh Oliver and TJ Hawkinson, the other team has a decision to make. They have to decide, am I going to put two linebackers on this field to deal with those two big guys? Or am I going to leave my cornerback out there to potentially get smushed by Josh Oliver in a run play? But the thing about TJ Hawkinson, and this is why I will continue to bring up over and over again, that I think extending them is it, or him is a really good idea because he is able to play in the slot and the outside comfortably. And TJ Hawkinson even mentioned to me in mini camp that he had worked in Detroit

with Danny Amendola to try to understand the angles and defenses and what you see from the slot to be a better slot receiver. And so it just gives a totally different look to the defense and a mismatch potentially for someone like Hawkinson and who is so good at catching the ball and that when you have good tight ends, I so good at catching the ball. When you have good tight ends, I think opposing defenses absolutely hate it. So you bring up that point of moving them around, motioning them pre-snap. That's something the Vikings like to do. And you're mentioning Oliver in that type of role. Absolutely. I mean, to be able to move him around where you want him to go. And there's another thing too, that it can give you

is, is a coverage indicator. And if Kirk cousins knows the opposing team's coverage, he's pretty darn good. So you move tight ends around and sort of see who goes with them. Like, is it a linebacker who's going to cover a man to man, or does everybody stay put and cover zone? And that's a good coverage indicator. So I always liked and you guys all probably know that i thought very highly of gary kubiak as an offensive mind i think there was a reason why gary kubiak always loved to have two tight ends out there on the field because it just creates mismatches it's something that opposing defenses don't really prepare for when they're usually looking at 11 personnel. From Jim, you make anything of picking up of a tackle like O'Neal recovery, not going as fast

as we hoped, or is the guy just the backup? Just the backup. Yeah, just the backup with O'Neal. He's been coming along and I expect that he'll be starting week one. And from the way Kevin O'Connell talked, it looks like he's going to be ready to start week one. That was the way that he talked about it. The other thing that I noticed was yesterday, Brian O'Neill had the whole pads on and everything. Now he wasn't participating in the 11 on 11th, but he even had, if you guys have seen the highlights from camp, we call them the Star Wars cap or whatever. It's supposed to limit the amount of head banging, this sort of thing that they put

over the helmet. I'm sure you've seen it. So he even had that on, even though he wasn't participating. This guy wants to get out there and play football. And I think he's pretty close. And it doesn't look to me like there's been any setback, like he's doing more every day and, you know, starting to look like he's going to be out there pretty soon. That's the best I can do. O'Neill has not talked to the media. There's been a couple of times where

we've asked like, Hey, you know, can we talk to you? And he's decided not to, and maybe wants to get back on the field first. I'm sure. But, um, yeah, I mean, he, uh, he looks like he's coming along. I wouldn't be too concerned. I think that if you're referring, I assume you're referring to Bobby Evans, just another guy in camp to compete. Now, if they do sign Dalton Reisner, which I keep sitting here and waiting, cause they just dropped one guy off the offensive line. So I'm waiting to post this podcast. So then right after, uh, of course, Dalton Reisner will be signed probably the way that things usually go with this show. But, um, I Reisner is one who could be significant. I don't think Evans really is, but Reisner certainly

could be, uh, from monster. Do you think that Addison plays a lot in preseason games? That's a really great question. And I am, when I make the like things to watch for the preseason game article, that might be number one. How much does Jordan Addison play? I think he should play the entire first half of every game and you don't want to get them hurt. And I know that. And Kevin O'Connell knows that, but a rookie has to get out there and play in my mind against real competition at real speed. And if he crushes it in the first two preseason games and is having a great camp, then okay, sit him out the third one, make sure he doesn't get hurt. But I think more experience and more reps you can get is important. And when you become a veteran, when you're Justin Jefferson,

when you're KJ Osborne, Christian Derrissaw, those guys don't need any of that ramp up. Maybe they'll have the offensive line play one series together just for the heck of it, but like they did last year. And then just don't play them at all because you can't get those guys hurt. But with Addison, I don't think you can put him in bubble wrap for the preseason because he, you need to see him play against real competition, even just for a couple of drives to get out there. And if there is competition between him and KJ Osborne, which I don't think there is, I think that it's Justin Jefferson and two a and two B for those

other two guys right now. And whoever is open that day is getting the football and that's how it's going to go. But it will be interesting to see who's on the field and bigger packages. If it's Osborne or if it's a Addison, that's the way we can tell which guy is ahead in that race. But I think he should, maybe if you guys disagree, go ahead and make your case. But until you've kind of proven yourself, you probably should at least get some action in the preseason games. And then the rest of the guys that are fighting for these jobs, they could actually have a lot of intrigue in these games.

I mean, the Mackay Blackman's a Caleb Evans, you know, these guys who are unproven Lewis scene has a great opportunity to make some plays in these preseason games. Um, we've just sort of decided Brian Asamoah is good, but I want to see a lot more of Brian Asamoah. So I am maybe for selfish purposes, cause it gives a lot more for us to talk about, but also I just think it's the right thing to do with really young players. I think we need to see some of these guys actually get preseason action. Last year, there were so many veteran players that, and I'm going to check this just to make sure my memory is right. I think Jerry is right. Only ended up with like 17 catches or something that

season. It was just, every one of them was big. Uh, it was 18, 18 receptions and 13 first downs for Jerry is right in 2017. Now I thought they should have kept him, uh, because the following two seasons, he was very solid for Carolina and that was it for his career. But I thought that they should have found a way to keep Jarius right around because he could have been useful in 2018. But yeah, I mean, a guy as a number three wide receiver who can catch 50 or 60 and KJ Osborne was that with Adam Thielen and with Justin Jefferson, but Thielen was not the same as he was at his absolute peak, 16, 17, 18. And I think through the first part of 2019, before he got hurt, he was playing incredible football and it was never really the same. If you guys remember the catch that he made in the back of the end zone against Detroit, deep crossing route, deep post, whatever it was

to the back of the end zone. And he made that diving catch and he got hurt and it was never quite the same. He was still good in 2020, but always seemed to be banged up after that. Let's see. This comes from Joe here. What do you think the odds are that Hawkinson ends up being the number two pass catcher this year? Very, very high. I think those odds are very, very high because Kirk cousins just showed such a trust for TJ Hawkinson last year that I think that's just going to carry over. I mean, if a guy can show up in the midway through the season and earn the trust of his quarterback that fast, that I think that will carry over this year to him getting the football a lot. There will be more distribution to the receivers, I think, or at least logically speaking at this

moment, it would seem. But if I were to guess, if you were just to guess like target share, Jefferson, of course, is going to get 150 plus. But then after that, or right, a hundred, yeah, is that right? 130, 150, somewhere in that range, maybe 150 plus is a lot. I don't remember exactly how many targets he had last year, but a hundred plus whatever. But Hawkinson, I don't think is going to be too far behind. It's just with Jefferson, You could push it a little farther down the field, but Hawkinson with that underneath option and the fact that he's quick and catches the ball well in contested situations and runs after catch. Uh, yeah, I think that he's everything that Kirk cousins likes in a tight end. And when you think about in the past,

so he didn't always have the best chemistry with Kyle Rudolph, which was kind of odd to me at times, but, uh, Hawkinson is more of a separation tight end. Uh, he can run routes on linebackers and get open, which when Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis were playing for Washington with Kirk, he was very good at that, uh, as well, like very good at creating, um, or though both of those guys were very good at creating separation. Um, so let's see, uh, from John, how do the cornerbacks look? That one's a little bit hard for me because both corners are so inexperienced that you see their natural skill, their athleticism, especially at Caleb Evans. Well, they're really different between him and, um, Mackay Blackman.

So Evans is long and he's tall and he is really athletic. And you would just be surprised sometimes seeing him run with wide receivers because he's so good at it. And yet there's still like a lot of technical things that have to be worked out with a Caleb Evans because he came from Missouri and not a huge program necessarily. And last year he was just limited in the amount he could play because of some of the injuries. So there's still steps to be taken. And that's the way that Brian Flores talked about this as well, is that there's still steps to be taken from a Caleb Evans. So you see the natural skill with McKay Blackman. He's undersized. He's not somebody that you would pick out of a lineup

to be an outside corner. He looks more like a nickel to me, but I think they liked a lot of things about his tenacity that worked well with Brian Flores. And maybe there's the old Antoine Winfield comp or something, but he's a good tackler and somebody that is physical and makes up for his size disadvantage. But it is noticeable that Blackman is not particularly big. And so Blackman's going to have an uphill battle a little bit as he goes up against some really good wide receivers to start the season. I mean, he starts right off with Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. I mean, that's kind of a big deal, right? To go up against two good wide

receivers. Although I saw from Tampa Bay that it's like neck and neck between Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield. That can't be good for them. So maybe he won't have to worry too much about the receivers getting the football. But Byron Murphy Jr., this poor guy has had to cover Justin Jefferson on a number of occasions. It's just not great for him. But I really like how he fits in as the nickel corner. And then in base situations where he's playing on the outside, I think that Byron Murphy could be finding kind of a second career here where he was okay in Arizona, but he looks to me like he could be a great find for the Vikings.

And they didn't get a lot of fanfare for that signing. There wasn't a lot of hype around it. He didn't sign some massive contract, but sometimes a guy's situation in the past like his was just not good. And then he thrives in the next spot. And so that's kind of how it's looked so far for me, for Byron Murphy. again, everything is a little hard to tell with coverage because there's so much that they're asking of these guys, but I think he just fits in really well with Flores, Flores' mentality. He's always been a good blitzer. He's always been a good tackler. He's a very aggressive corner. It just seems like it's a really good fit for me. So at the moment, if you were to kind of grade, what's the expectation versus

how does it look so far with the corners? I would say that it's above expectation so far that a Mackay Blackman has taken over that first team spot. That's a good sign for them. Evans has looked pretty good to me in the way that he's moving. I think that there's still improvements to be made for him as he comes along. And then Murphy has looked quite good. The safeties haven't really changed, but the Josh Metellus effect is also kind of a big deal that Josh Metellus has also emerged as another part of the secondary. This is from Jason, I truly believe Kirk's new fandom from the Netflix series. We'll do more for his psyche and comfort on the field. And we'll be getting MVP votes this

year. Jason is, uh, drinking the, the Kirk Netflix Kool-Aid. I don't, I don't want to pour too much, uh, cold water on any of that because it's training camp and it's time to be excited. Um, but, um, I think Kirk is Kirk. I think he's the same guy. Uh, I don't know that anything's going to change. I mean, yeah, he wore number 66 in practice and that was fun. Kind of a thing to change things up. And he's out there joking around. He seems like he's a little more loose. He's a little more comfortable. He does have a great group of weapons that are around him and that can help. And the more comfortable he is, the better. And we saw that in a lot of clutch situations last year.

But Patrick Mahomes plays in this league and he's not competing for MVP. So it's just, that is just a simple fact that is not happening, but can they have a really good offense? Yes, they can. And there's no excuse not to, but Kirk cousins will still have the limitations that Kirk cousins has always had. Netflix did not make him faster, bigger, stronger. He's still going to be the same quarterback fundamentally, but how much they can do for him kind of does swing a little bit on Jordan Addison and a little bit on the weapons. So I don't think that he's a different guy. I don't, it's funny because I don't actually think that whether cousins is more or less

comfortable has really mattered. I mean, you could make the argument that he is more comfortable because it's year two and because of whatever the new fandom, if you're talking about that, but you could also say that his team just went out of their way, not to extend him. And maybe he's saying, I, who cares then caution to the wind, whatever. I'm just going to be me because you've already said you want to break up with me. So whatever. But I don't know. I think that there have been every off season, different versions and different reasons to think that Kirk cousins will be different. Oh, they're playing a new offense and oh, they have a different coach and oh, this and that. And he was clearly different in terms of his comfort last year in front of us. Maybe his comfort being a leader.

I think that that is growing for him under Kevin O'Connell, but he's not a different football player. Fundamentally, he has his strengths. He's one of the most accurate passers in the league. He can make any throw. If somebody's open, that guy's getting the football, but he's not going to escape the pocket. He's not going to be fundamentally different.

And it is always a weird thing to talk about his last season because his numbers in a lot of categories were the worst they've been. And yet he's ranked higher in the tier rankings on Mike Sandoz piece in the athletics. So it's, I mean, but yeah, I mean, it's always interesting to see how things go, but a lot of times it's always sort of hinging on what's around him, who's healthy, how the offensive line is playing, which is why you should really be rooting for Dalton Reisner to come here and start, um, you know, how the opposing defenses that they play, which last year they did have some difficult defenses, which may have dragged down his numbers, but there's always this off season.

Imagine if Kirk does, and then he's kind of the same quarterback every year, uh, from drummer Dave. Every year we have unrealistic expectations. Addison will likely get maybe 600 yards. If we go back and look at, um,

and, uh, and it's funny, I was reaching forward for my computer when I had my mouse right here. Anyway, just focused on football, focused on football. So, uh, anyway, um, if we go back and look and I can do this to see what the rookie wide receivers did last year. So let's, let's have a look at what the rookie receivers did last season, and maybe we can figure out what's realistic. So last year in terms of yardage, there were

five receivers who ended up with more than 600 yards. And there were seven that ended up with more than 500 yards. Uh, I totally agree with you that we have a tendency to overrate what we think. Um, uh, when someone is drafted, we immediately put them into the lineup and we just assume they're going to be awesome and so forth. And it doesn't always happen. And when I'm trying to look for a comparable from, from last year, you know, you have a Christian Watson who had 600 yards. Uh, Alec Pierce from Indianapolis was kind of low key.

Good for them. Jahan Dotson is a guy that I think kind of reminds me a little bit of Jordan Addison. And there's always opportunity as well. It's not just fantasy yards, it's opportunity. And there's going to be a lot of, of course, throws going to Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson. So you might be right. I mean, I think that if he ends up with 600 yards, that's a good season for him. That means he probably caught like 50 passes. I think that's a good season. I also think you're being realistic by saying that 600 yards is realistic. Uh, from Alex here, are there any red flags that stand out? Is the corner position as scary as you thought it would be going into

camp? Not at this moment through two padded practices. Justin Jefferson makes everyone look foolish, of course, because he's Justin Jefferson. But the thing that has really stood out to me is Brian Flores and how the players have reacted to his defense and how the offense has reacted to his defense. How Justin Jefferson has talked about it. How, how Justin Jefferson has talked about it, how Kirk Cousins has talked about it. These guys look a little exasperated at the end of some of these practices because Brian Floris is putting the gas pedal down. This man is not messing around

in practice. It is blitz, blitz, blitz. And I did wonder, there was a little bit in Kirk Cousins that made me sort of furrow my brow a bit. What is a furrow? Is it like, do I play with the eyebrow or do I just go like this with it? But it made me raise an eyebrow when he talked about how they won't be facing many defenses like Brian Flores' this year.

So they have to think about just doing things the right way offensively and not just trying to defeat Flores' defense. And it made me wonder, is he saying that he would kind of prefer they back off a little bit? Maybe he is, but I mean, I've just been impressed with Brian Flores, the person, how the players are reacting to him. I mean, it's going to be a complex defense that will ask a lot from these guys and there will probably be huge mistakes at times and they may give up big games or big plays to opposing teams, but they are never going to stop putting the pressure on, which I think

does help the corners as a whole with the amount of blitzing, uh, unless the other team picks up the blitz and then you're one on one. So it's, yeah, I mean, it's, I just think that Flores is a good coach and I like his philosophy. If you're short on talent, be all in on attacking as much as you can, and then see what happens, play the variance game. Um, so I mean, no, it hasn't looked like a disaster. If three guys were hurt, it would look like a disaster. But right now I think the players that they wanted to be with the first team, the young guys have looked like they should be there. Jordan, are they changing up the running scheme for Madison? I'd like to see more variety and more zone running. So I looked back at this the other day. Interesting that you ask. I was kind of intrigued. Like, did they use more gap scheme than, uh, than just the outside zone last year with

Madison? And it was kind of like 60, 60, 40 percentage wise that they were, um, using him with zone more often 60 and 40% with a gap scheme. I think we could see more gap scheme for Madison because he is a downhill runner, but he's also, you know, he's also shifty and has kind of come up in this system as well. So I, yeah, I mean, the thing with cook is that he was really a pure outside zone runner and they changed it up a little bit from that, where it was a version of outside zone, but it was not quite the same. And I don't think it ever worked as well for him as it did Gary Kubiak. It was like Gary Kubiak's run scheme was built in a

lab for Delvin cook. And, uh, you know, so I think last year may have hurt him a little, and that may have played into why they decided to keep Madison because maybe they felt like they could do some more things with him. Let's see. Justin Jefferson. Let's see. Those other receivers did not have a guy like JJ to take the coverage away from them. No, that's true. But when we're talking about yardage for someone like Jordan Addison,

you have to consider so many targets are going to Jefferson and so many to Hawkinson that if a guy gets 50 catches for 600 yards, and then you end up with Osborne getting 50, 55 catches, and then a handful go to the running backs and so forth. And they throw 600 times. Like it's a pretty good outcome, but you're, you're not really judging it based solely on the numbers. It's more of when did it happen? How effective was he when Jefferson was getting the ball? Like those things matter a lot more to me than just the fantasy stats. However, this is a good transition. And I realized that I didn't have the app updated for underdog fantasy to like try to draft the team. Although I think that's too much for me at once. What I'm going to do maybe

tomorrow, well, tomorrow's the night practice,. What I'm going to do maybe tomorrow, well, tomorrow's the night practice, but what I'm going to do next time for our new sponsorship with underdog fantasies, I will draft a best ball team and then we'll talk about it on the show because, and then, and you guys can heckle me who are good at fantasy football, because I am, it's weird to say that I am a newbie at fantasy football, but I am. And because our sponsors, it's like with the Oakleys, which I still have here in the studio. It's I had never worn Oakleys before, but then they sponsored the show and now I love them.

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So I wasn't looking at the chat while I was talking about that. And the first thing that pops up is Sarah saying 5,600 yards, 45 touchdowns, nine picks on. Yeah. On Madden. That'll be great. And an MVP vote. Yeah. That'll be great. What is really realistic? If Addison's good. If I love that Sarah, by the way, if Addison is good, um, what do we think? Let's finish the show with that tonight. Cause he looks good. And every we've been kind of talking about it the last couple of days on the show, but it is the biggest development so far in training camp. Number one to me is that Jordan Addison just appears right off the bat to be able to play NFL football. So what's realistic for Kirk cousins? If all these things are, are going well, I do think that Kevin O'Connell is going to push that pass button over and over

and over and look for years, long time listeners to the show know this. And if you're new, welcome to this lean into the Kirk. The whole idea was lean in to the passing game and ride the train. Sometimes that roller coaster will go up and sometimes it'll go down. But at the end of the day, the passing game is how you're going to win in the league. It's how you're going to have a top offense. And even if you go through a few games, think about 2021 with the Rams.

There were a few games, including one against the Vikings where Matthew Stafford was horrible. And yet when he was on the upswing with all those weapons in L.A., he was great and good enough to get them to the Super Bowl. And that that's, you know, that Super Bowl word is scary to bring up. So I don't think I'm predicting that necessarily. But if you're going to get there, that's how you have to do it. You have to be an elite passing offense.

And I believe believe if I'm not mistaken, that the Rams had the top expected points added passing offense or top three that year with Stafford, they just passed the ball like crazy. And I think that's what we're going to see from the Vikings. And Jordan asks is 5,000 yards possible. It's not insane. I mean, they're going to use every bit of what's left of Kirk Cousins arm, I think this season, but it's not insane. If it goes right for the wide receivers and, uh, 5,100 yards, 33 touchdowns, 10 picks. I mean, 5,000 yards is a lot. Uh, that means that you're not running the football almost ever. But Cousins did approach

this once. He had 4,900 yards in 16 games with Washington, and they are absolutely playing lots of shootouts. I know that I was talking about Flores and the defense, but they're going to play a lot of shootouts. And I think if you add, say, an offensive lineman who could pass block or there's improvement in the pass blocking that they have a chance to be a top-notch passing offense because last year even though Adam Thielen had 70 catches they really could not rely on him the same way that they did in the past I think Dave being realistic with this says I I think Kirk will do great. 4,800 yards, 30 touchdowns, 14 picks. Yeah, the interception numbers are just going to be higher

if you're asking somebody to throw 600 passes plus. Like last year, his interception rate was not bad, but his interception total was. You always have to kind of factor that in. So, yeah, I think they're going to throw the heck out of the ball based on what we've seen so far in camp. Anyway, another really fun stream tonight. We'll continue to do this tomorrow's going to be a little interesting because there is a night practice. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe it starts at seven o'clock, which means it will go

until like nine something. And then I'm going to come back here and I'm going to do a recap. So if you are a night owl, make sure that tomorrow night after the night practice, I would guess like nine 30. That's what I'm going to aim for is nine 30 to be on the air. And I will give you the full rundown, tons of notes on the night practice and so forth. And we'll go through the whole depth chart where everybody's at, who shine, plays the you know the whole thing a big old breakdown like it's a football game tomorrow night around 9 30 and of course if you you know have a life and can't stay up and listen to it these stay up you know on the purple insider

youtube page they also go up on the podcast feed along with other interviews from tco performance center that you don't necessarily see here on YouTube if that's the way you're watching. So make sure you go there. Make sure you go to the newsletter, everything else. And I appreciate all you guys watching once again to the stream. It's been great to see this grow and grow each night. Can't thank you enough. So I will see hopefully a lot of you late tomorrow night after the night practice

and uh then we will go from there and then we got a pre-season game coming up folks exciting times we'll talk to you soon