Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jordan Addison out as Vikings hold eventful joint practice with Titans

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

Matthew Coller reacts to Vikings-Titans joint practices and Jordan Addison's injury that kept him out. Plus, how did the offensive line perform? Some crazy punts and Lewis Cine with a new role? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And if you're watching on YouTube, welcome to the new studio. I have been talking about it for a while and we just kind of put together some pictures a little bit to try to make it something decent for the last couple of weeks. But now finally, the space is looking good. Got the giant picture of downtown Minneapolis, US Bank Stadium behind me, the book, the Purple Insider helmet, and I finally have figured out how to do lighting and camera stuff. And so now I think we've got it all together and I'm feeling pretty good about it. So enjoy, I guess, not trying to like look at what's in pictures behind me or whatever weird angle I'm trying that day. We got it all together and just in time for maybe the biggest episode of the year here.

The Vikings had a joint practice today against the Tennessee Titans. And I'm going to be honest with you. There are times where I feel like I'm hyping up joint practice too much. Maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just going over the top and talking about joint practice, joint practice. Oh, it's going to determine this and that and everything else. And, and maybe I feel like I am too much as part of the hype machine. And yet, after watching today, I thought, no, no, I'm not. There is a lot to take away from this joint practice against the Tennessee Titans. And I think that this week, especially, it is the correct assessment to say,

this is where everything is going to get determined about this roster and then they are going to go into next week about the you know facing off with the Arizona Cardinals with a bit of a different approach would be my guess that would be more like the fourth preseason game trying to sharpen some things up against Arizona but this is the one where they're trying to figure out all right who is going to be starting on this is the one where they're trying to figure out, all right, who is going to be starting on this football team and where is everybody going to stand? And I think that we've got some interesting observations to be made, but there are a few notes to discuss. Number one is that Jordan Addison was not practicing. And I got to practice today, looked around, looked around, got a text from

one of my friends who was in the stands that said, I don't see Jordan Addison. I was like, wait, no, that doesn't make sense. Right. And unfortunately, Jordan Addison was not out there for today's practice, which you really would have liked to see, but he suffered a concussion. Now, Kevin O'Connell describing this concussion was not the words that I would have chosen for him to describe the concussion. He described it as sort of being light symptoms and minor. But I think that when we assess concussions, it's very hard to decide how strong of a concussion was it. Yeah, I mean, we all know when someone is knocked completely unconscious that that's very bad. But there are small concussions, or at least appearing small, that can have lingering effects. So you have to treat

them very seriously. I'm not saying that the Vikings aren't. It's just that that characterization is probably not one that I would use because it puts an expectation on the player coming back pretty soon. Now it sounds from what Kevin O'Connell said, like it is more precaution to put him in the protocol. And they have been pretty precautionary when it has come to these. They did not play Harrison Smith last year. Remember the Josh Metellus game against Detroit. There was another instance, Caleb Evans. He still argues that he only had two concussions and not three, but that the team was playing it safe with him last year by putting him in the protocol a hundred percent behind that. And this team has, I think a tremendous sports science staff and the sports performance staff that has done a great job with

these players as is evidenced by the NFL PA, but the, the, the survey where the Vikings ranked extremely high. So from that perspective, I think like they are going to handle this properly, but I also don't want to come on and say, Oh, he'll be back guys. No big deal. And it should be fine, whatever, because I don't really look at it that way. And I think that we're not going to see him this week. We're not going to see him in the preseason game. And also it has to be mentioned that this is the second injury this offseason that Jordan Addison has suffered. I am not ever a person to say injury prone, but you know, when you have multiple injuries in an offseason, you take notice and it's something that you think about as you go into the season about Jordan Addison

and the durability element and so forth. And again, I don't want to make it sound like I'm saying he's not durable because he got a concussion that could happen to absolutely anyone. It's just, this is the second injury that he's had. So now you start to look at the wide receiver depth and think about that. And today it was really on display because they are still without Jalen Naylor. And he said, uh, no change in Jalen Naylor's situation without Jordan Addison. So you have Justin Jefferson and KJ, excuse me, KJ Osborne. And then you have a big gap and we saw Jalen Rager. We saw Brandon Powell, and we saw Tristan Jackson, who also

got a little bit banged up today, but I heard him say off to the side that he was doing okay. It didn't look like it was serious, just kind of limped off. But I thought Tristan Jackson had a pretty good practice today. And I think that he has a very good chance if there are injuries to be on the 53 man roster, especially if we don't see Jalen Naylor heal up pretty soon. The fact that Jalen Naylor is not practicing right now makes me think Tristan Jackson has a great chance at making this roster

if he can stay healthy through the rest of this offseason. And he's got the preseason game. It looks like he'll be able to play in. And also, we thought Jalen Rager probably gets cut. offseason and he's got the preseason game looks like he'll be able to play in and also you know we thought Jalen Rager probably gets cut but now you might want to be thinking a little bit like well this guy knows the offense and if you have to use him in a pinch at least he knows how this is supposed to work he's had an entire offseason with it unlike last year And I have been impressed with Brandon Powell, but a wide receiver room that is really deep with talent has looked a lot less so over the last few days, just because of these

injuries. So this is one where we say, you know, take your time, take as much time as it needs because Jordan Addison has learned the offense. He has made plays. He's shown what he can do. There is no need to push him back out anytime soon. But it does leave the door open for a lot of other guys. And it does make you think about all the things that someone like Jordan Addison has to go through in the college offseason and the draft season and everything else to get their body ready to be here and then play a 17 game season. So the depth that this wide receiver position does become important and him getting banged up is a reminder of that. A few other things from today. And then of course, always happy to answer all of your questions and thanks for the compliments guys on the new

background. I really love this picture. I saw this on Etsy. Honestly, I was just scrolling through. I typed in just Minneapolis and this came up and it just popped to me. And so we put some light behind it. And I just I feel really good about it. It's got good vibes, I think, here in the studio. But at practice, and I will get to the punting because the punting was unbelievable. But some other observations first.

One is that everything we saw from Brian Flores' defense, we saw against Tennessee, which is they were putting a bunch of people at the line of scrimmage. They were rushing after their quarterbacks like crazy. And in my opinion, had a great day. There was one coverage bust where actually Traylon Burks got hurt on this play. There was a coverage bust and, uh, you know, I think it was Tannehill just let loose and completed a long, what would have been touchdown in an 11 on 11 drill. But aside from that, did not see a whole heck of a lot of success from the Tennessee

Titans side. I don't know if their media counts up his passes and attempts. I've always been kind of like, guys, really, do we do that? Some media does it. Some don't. We have never been a fan. Like, what am I going to tell you new about Kirk Cousins by him going six for 11 today in practice? Probably nothing. Maybe when you have less experienced quarterbacks, it's more interesting to track. So I don't know if they did that or not, but I didn't think it was a good day for Ryan Tannehill trying to solve this Vikings defense. And that says a lot. I think, I mean, they were after him all the time and he looked a little bit flustered at times. They didn't have many completions and the Vikings did get a lot of pressure on Ryan Tannehill from their blitzes.

And there were a few things that I noticed from that. One of them was that they were having, they were doing a lot of Josh Metellus on the field along with DJ Wanham and Daniil Hunter, but Marcus Davenport inside. And I know that I have occasionally brought this up, that it's something that they practice, but they were running this a lot. And even a look where Harrison Phillips was the only defensive tackle. And then they had this look with three outside linebacker or defensive end or edge rushers, whatever you want to call it. But Davenport being the inside guy, then Metellus being up at the line of scrimmage and

it was causing a lot of issues for Tennessee so that was interesting to see and I think that all of the Flores creativity and hype over his blitzes we know that during the regular season there are going to be times where those get solved and there was a play or two where maybe it would have been a sack, but if it wasn't a sack, it was a completion and somebody was open and so forth. But for the most part, it was very impressive to see his defense get after it. And what you could really see when they're going up against another team, particularly one that does not have Justin Jefferson is how physical the outside corners were allowed to be in this defense because they know the ball is coming out quick. And that fits McKay Blackman so well. I thought it fit Juwan Williams pretty well today. And I, and I also think that, you

know, Caleb Evans, it does have that length and that physical element to his game. So I thought the corners had a pretty good day today. I thought Flores had a really good day. And then some interesting stuff on the other side of the ball, on the defense, or I'm sorry, on the second team on defense, where I think,

and it could just be, I don't know, like maybe I'm imagining things, but I don't think it is that Lewis scene was playing a lot more up toward the line of scrimmage today than he has before. And he was playing a lot with Jay Ward on the second team, which is significant because I had to go number 20, number 20. Oh, is that Jay Ward?

So Jay Ward gets a little bit of a boost up from the third team playing alongside Louis scene. But I noticed Jay ward was playing a lot back as kind of the free safety and that Louis scene was up at the line of scrimmage more often. That is something that I think might be a change because I haven't seen a ton of that from Louis scene in that aggressive downhill type of spot. And if that is a change, which I think it might be then, cause I just have not seen this part. I haven't been looking at him on a daily basis going like, Oh yeah, he's going after the quarterback. He's blitzing. He's playing up in the, in the box. It looks like they're making a bit of a tweak there to his role, which I think might be the way to go

with Louis seen because if you ask him to play back and read a bunch of route combinations and all those things that has seemed like it's the issue for Louis seen is that it's very hard to master. It's very hard to connect all the things you're seeing and then play fast. It's what makes Harrison Smith so special. It's what makes Cam Bynum just an NFL player is that he's capable of doing that. But scene is so physically impressive. He is enormous. He is fast. I mean, he does have bursts to him, but we just don't see it a lot. But if he's playing aggressive

and up at the line of scrimmage more often in kind of a strong safety type of role, that might be the solution that they've been looking for. And this is why I have a lot of this is this is just why I have a lot of respect for Brian Flores, because I think Brian Flores is very good at assessing what player strengths are and he's had a little while to do this with Louis scene and then making a change or making a decision hey this is what this guy is going to do best and I think we're even seeing that from Marcus Davenport moving inside that doesn't mean that Louis scene is going to make it it doesn't mean that you know Louis scene is going to thrive in. It doesn't mean that, you know, Louis scene is going to thrive in this role. Maybe he won't. I think playing in the box is also hard. There's nothing that's really

easy out there on defense, but I like that they're doing it more often and I would like to see more of it. Um, so the team is without a weakness. Well, hardly. Uh, I think that they still do have weaknesses, but a good day, a good day today here on August 16th for the defense, which I would say in comparison to what we've seen for the entire camp, it fits. That's what they have been for this camp is an aggressive defense that frustrates the quarterback. And we've seen it from Kirk.

We've kind of heard it from Kirk at times about like, Hey, I need to worry about not just, you know, solving this defense, but thinking about what I'm supposed to do on all the plays. And I thought Ryan Tannehill looked like at times that he wasn't super thrilled with how Brian Flores was coming after. But I also think that that's why Tennessee is here. That Tennessee is here to see a different team,

play a different defense and get some looks. And Brian Flores certainly, certainly gave them those looks. Now on the offensive line, there seems to be some level of disagreement about how the offensive line performed against the Tennessee defensive line, which of course has jeffrey simmons and zline brings it up in the comments here that yes uh garrett bradbury was drafted before jeffrey simmons and that is what happens when you are desperate to fill spots because you're in win now mode okay we got a weakness at center we need his own center here we go like we got to draft this guy jeffrey simmons came in with an injury but everybody knew his his talent. It dropped them in the draft. And also Jeffrey Simmons, a great example of interior pressure and just how annoying it can be in the NFL.

I thought the old line was okay though. Today. I did not feel like Kirk cousins was under pressure a lot. If anything, the winner of the day against Kirk Cousins was the wind because he had a throw or two, one in particular where it was there and it would have been a big play. And I think it was just under thrown to Justin Jefferson. But when I say it was a little windy, it was not just a little windy Tennessee's kicker. And this is, we can get into the punt thing real quick. Tennessee's kicker and this is we can get into the the punt thing real quick tennessee's kicker kicked one from like 50 yards and it just got to the end zone like that's how windy it was like 40 mile an hour winds or something i don't know exactly how fast but it

was blowing everybody's hats off and so you know there was i'll give kirk a pass on that but maybe he needed to put a little more gas on it. Anyway, not the point. I thought the offensive line played totally fine today. I didn't think they got crushed, but I don't get a second look at it. It just seemed to me like when someone takes a sack, they'll blow the whistle. I didn't hear the whistle that often and, or see people calling like, okay, sack, whatever. And I thought he was able to get off the throws he needed to get off, but they didn't have a great offensive performance today. Maybe in part because they're missing a wide receiver, maybe the wind played into it. That's life. The situational drill did not go well. You could tell, I think Kevin O'Connell was not super thrilled with that,

but I'm much less apt to start ripping the offense for a bad day because I think we know what the offense is and we also know what the weaknesses are. So I could say, Hey, I actually thought the offensive line was fine today. That doesn't mean I think it's fine for the whole year. Like, I don't know. I, I think that they're going to have to prove that it's fine for the entire year. And until then, then maybe, you know, maybe, you know, maybe there has to be a change still on the offensive line. But I didn't think you walked away from practice saying, oh man, if this offensive line, this out wasn't 2018. In 2018, I remember watching practices and going, this team can't win with this offensive line, not

at weekend and week out. I haven't thought that in practice. I didn't think that today, but at the same time, like we'll see how that ends up playing out. So that's kind of how that went, but we need to talk real quick about the punter when it's 40 miles an hour wind that can knock down Tennessee's kicker. They put Ryan Wright. I mean, you know how far he punts the ball at the goal line with the wind at his back. This is like me. I hit a driver like 250 to 270 on a great drive, but you put 40 mile an hour wind. I might be able to hit 300.

Well, Ryan Wright punted a football farther than I have ever seen a man punt a football. I mean, 90 yards in the air. This thing went forever. It went all the way to the other side of the field. I've never seen anything like it, but also he was doing a lot of different types of punts and we got a close look at it. It was a lot of fun. And the other thing is that the special teams drills were really interesting as well. And a couple of guys stood out to me. Theo Jackson, I thought was really good we know Najee Thompson's fighting for his job but Thayer Thomas I know very tough debut for Thayer Thomas with the

punt return but did a really good job had a good day today may have made some noise in a wide receiver room that who knows or at least made a case for himself to make the practice squad but it was really interesting to see those battles see how violent they are between the gunners. And, you know, it was like one-on-ones and they're chasing after just hitting a dummy that's like 30 yards away from them. So it's kind of cool to see just different stuff that we don't see on a daily basis.

It was very football out there today. So I think that, oh, the one other thing I would say is that still no Kenny Wong Wu. And, you know, I think we're reaching the point where if he's not practicing, is still not practicing after this week, and this is a big week, that they probably need to bring someone in, whether it's Kareem Hunt or Mike Davis but I don't know what his injury is and he might be out for a while he might be back tomorrow we're gonna find out but he hasn't practiced really hardly at all for the entire offseason and we talk about how important it is for pass protection and for route running and all those details, I think that they really need him back to get those details mastered by the

time they go into the regular season. So not having him there, not having Jalen Naylor there, Brian Asamoah did not practice as well. And after practice, this was another note after practice, Kevin O'Connell said gold stars all around for Ivan Pace Jr. He used that word.

I don't think I've ever heard him say gold stars before, but that's what he said. And he went really in on the praise for Ivan Pace Jr. And I think it's a thing that's happening. I mean, we felt that way for a bit, but just the way that he talked about him and how aggressive he is and his feel for the game, and he also praised, we talked about this the other night,

the green dot, which is just when you get the calls into your headset, praised the way that he handled the green dot situation as well and calling out the plays to the defense. It just, with Asamoah sideline and every day Ivan Pace seems to solidify himself more and more that might be your starting lineup at the beginning of the season so it was a very interesting day folks late summer and fall are always a crazy time for me with football and I have hardly any time for a good meal. I'm always

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like the overall offense did not look great. So I don't know like he caught three passes or two passes or how many reps he was in there for. It was more of a, he's not like out that I don't even remember how many reps that he took against 11 on 11s, but it did not look to me like they were having a lot of success passing the football because they were struggling with the defense sending blitzes all the time but something to continue to take a note on probably tomorrow to keep a little closer eye on with them i was focused mostly on it was actually had a good view because i could look to my left and see the

offense and then look to my right and see the defense i kind of stood right behind everything and so i was trying to take in everything from both. So how many catches he had and that sort of thing, not quite sure, but certainly if we were getting a little bit high on the defense from everything we've seen so far, it didn't knock us down at all from where we were now depth wise, still questions, who's getting the sack, Still questions. All the same questions remain. It's just today, it was a very good day for the defense. Dustin asks, how Harrison Smith looks? Oh, yeah. Does he look like the Harrison Smith we know and love? Certainly, he's doing the old Harrison Smith stuff.

It is very clear that they want Harrison Smith to be all over the field. And that's where he belongs. It's just so clear. He doesn't belong way back in the parking lot. He belongs, well, kind of everywhere at the line of scrimmage, dropping back at the last second, playing mind games with the quarterback, all those things. You know, it's just, I think it's totally different when it comes to the usage and that's going to show and also daniel hunter took a lot of 11 on 11 reps he seems to be making progress the only thing is uh brian o'neill is not and well we've still got time before the regular season but they have brought o'neill

along very slowly he did some 11 on 11s the other day, not many. Ole Udo's getting a lot of work. That's probably good for Ole Udo. I think he's a pretty good swing tackle. Didn't have a great preseason game, but the bigger sample is that he's a decent swing tackle. It's just that when it comes to Brian O'Neal, he is such a huge part of the operation that having him not take part in the 11 on 11s, maybe it is precautionary, but I do wonder about a slow start or some rustiness because he just hasn't practiced the whole heck of a lot during training camp and they really can't afford to have any rustiness on the offensive line when there's so many questions on the interior uh from zleen do you think that nailer

is in jeopardy of getting cut if he doesn't come back soon seems like they really like him and would want to keep him around yeah i i think that he's going to be on the team and that like yeah it's it's it he's going to be there unless he's really injured and then it would be injured reserve and he's going to be part of the five or six, but it has set him back quite a bit. And it is hard to see him being ready. Now they like Jalen Naylor a lot. He was really,

really good in the spring and they liked what they saw from him last year. So I don't think it would be cut. I think it would be more along the lines of, well, they might keep six because he's not really ready to go in week one because he hasn't practiced for a really long time. Or if it's more serious than that, then, yeah, they would make a roster spot by putting him in IR. But I don't think that they really want to do that. Yeah, you are correct.

What about Bob O'Neill said that Oconnell said that o'neill would practice next week yeah that is the plan that is the plan i'm not raising any alarms just saying that i think we expect him to be sort of fully going at this point and they're taking it slow but it's got to ramp up soon and yeah he's likely to be back next week. Although, so far, when it has come to injury timelines, you know, it's hard to be accurate on those as a head coach. And this is why some head coaches, and Mike Zimmer did this for a while, after the Daniil Hunter tweak thing, Mike Zimmer stopped answering injury questions. Because if you get one wrong, then people like myself will be like,

hey, what's going on with that injury you said and so i think some coaches kind of shy away from that o'connell has been usually willing to give some sort of timeline on things but we're not 100 sure but yeah when it comes to o'neill i'm not saying you won't play week one it's just that there's no room for a bad week or a bad two weeks with the way that the schedule plays out. So I want to see what he looks like next week against Arizona. Not again, not, not saying panic button here, just wondering how it's going to look when he gets back to his full work. And if he's going to be like right back in it, I mean, he's a great athlete. I kind of expect that, but I've also seen during training camp, that's what we hear.

Oh, he's going to be fine. He's totally back. And then it takes a couple weeks. Latavius Murray 2017 is kind of that way. Let's see. Matthew says, if this creative style of defense makes it so difficult on the offense, why is the too high style from last year more popular right now? Well, one is that the, uh, the league in 2020

started doing all of these bootlegs and play actions. And of course the Vikings were right in the mix. And what those do a lot of times is they run deep crossers. I even did a story on this at one point where you have a player lineup on one side of the field, run all the way across bootleg, buy him time in the the pocket and then against a single high that works i mean that's the guy running past the safety creating separation make the throw so the team started putting in the two deep so you couldn't run these deep crossers because this safety just lets him go and the other safety is there and unless the quarterback has an unbelievable arm that's a very difficult throw to make with

those deep crossing routes and those bootlegs so so it started to slow those down in 2021 the other thing is too and you see this from the rushing numbers that teams have also decided similar to the philosophy of the vikings last year we're going to dare you to keep running and we're going to dare you to keep completing underneath passes because it takes a lot of them to get down the field and with a Fangio style defense with the two deep a lot of it comes down to personnel because number one and this is why I just wasn't a fit last year number one you need corners who are very smart. That's why Patrick Peterson succeeded. Other people did not. You need corners who are very good at understanding route combinations and there's a million different things that have to go through their minds in order to be in the

right spot. And so I think we saw a lot of guys not in the right spot last year because of that miscommunications all over the field. But if you have two corners and a good nickel who are like, this is the bears thing when they had that great defense. And then if you can rush with four guys, if you have a Keem Hicks and Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd, for example, and you're going to create a lot of problems. If you have Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, you're going to create a lot of problems. Right. And I think that that may be pushed the needle too far for some teams to say, Oh, if you just use the word Fangio and the Vikings fell victim to this a little bit, I think if you just use the word Fangio, everyone goes like, yeah, too deep. But, uh, I think with it's, it's always key always number one, personnel is always everything.

So if you don't have Daniel Hunter, you don't sack people. If you do, you sack people. But also with Brian Flores, it seems like he is a little more malleable to his talent. And I think that all coaching, that is the way that you need to take what you have on your roster and figure out how to use everybody in the best way. We've seen that a lot from Flores so far, because if you don't, then you end up with Ed Donatell, who's got guys like Shannon Sullivan, Eric Hendricks, Harrison Smith, having career worst years when I think it's usage related and not just that they all fell off at the same time. Thank you for asking this, Joshua. Where is the best place for us to buy your new book?

Like a way that helps you get more from the purchase. Oh, well, don't worry too much about that. I'll get, I'll do fine when it comes to where, if you buy it, that helps me. Okay. There's no like special way. Amazon is fine. Amazon is the, probably the best way to do it. Just type in football as a numbers game. Or if you go to my Twitter, it's the pin tweet is just the link right to it. And it's on presale right now coming out October 3rd. If you've seen some people tweeting out that they have it, they do. I've shared some

copies that they sent me with some friends in the media. So the other beat reporters have one, Thorin Eystrom, who you guys might know, he asked and I sent him one. So a few of my friends in the media, I've gotten them early copies because they have been incredibly supportive to me along the way. But when it comes to buying it, any way you buy it, any way you read it, tell your friends, buy one for your parents, whatever. That's all supporting me. The better this does, the more happy they'll be and the more happy I'll be. So thank you for asking that. But Amazon is the best way. Or I think if you have a local bookstore that you love, you can go there and ask them to order it for you. If you'd rather give them your money than like Jeff Bezos or whatever. So that's kind of the best way, but yeah, I've

got it. I got it over here and it looks really nice in the light. Anyway. Uh, let's see. JA needs a youth size helmet for a better fit. Uh, Jordan Addison, you mean the bigger they are. Yeah. Jordan Addison, he is small. And I think that is why this comes up a little bit more with him with the injuries when we talk about it is because he is on the smaller side. And if he was a bigger guy, we had a couple injuries, we might be like, oh, it's fine, whatever. But it's hard to know how a guy of his size is going to handle the physical punishment of the NFL. Now, this sounds like just kind of a freak thing. Sounds like he caught a ball, went down hard. That can throw anybody off.

Anybody can get a concussion that way. And it doesn't sound like they believe it's going to keep him out very long. It just kind of ties in to a bigger theme of his off season where he was banged up at USC. He was, I think, hurt in the combine. There was some injury that happened and then did not do a lot of the off season stuff. And when you miss these practices as a rookie, it does put you back a little bit. And KJ Osborne had a good practice today. He's been out there the whole time and it might take a little bit of an adjustment period for Jordan Addison.

Once he does get in games because he's had less practice time going back to the spring than the other guys. And then over a 17 game season, we're going to have to see how it works out with him and health wise, taking the punishment of the NFL. I think that the, the standard becomes higher and you know, there's a guy he should watch and that's Tyler Lockett. There is a, a bunch of video that somebody put together of Tyler Lockett catching the ball and just being like, Nope, I'm down.

I think it's brilliant. Tyler Lockett's like 180 pounds. He knows that if he tries to run through safeties, he's just going to hurt himself. And he's doing, I think a smart thing by just catching it saying, you know what? I might be giving up one or two yards here, but I'm also trying to keep myself healthy. That's part of the NFL that Jordan Addison will have to learn. And there's a few other guys that it's hard to say this because I'm always such an advocate of rest and playing it safe and not going crazy in the preseason or anybody who's listened to the show is known that I used to criticize Zimmer all the time for playing people in preseason too much

and everything else. But guys like Kenny Wong and Brian Asamoah, they're losing their jobs, like not coming back here. And it's been interesting to see that Ty Chandler is here and then the veterans are coming in and Ivan Pace is here taking over. So health is a big factor when it comes to the NFL. High Times KG asks, how was the physicality of practice today? Did the Vikings match the Titans? I felt like they did. Yeah, I did feel like that. And I think that that was one of the reasons they wanted the Titans.

Vrabel is a very intimidating guy. I was at his press conference today. He's very large, former linebacker, but also has an air about him, a very toughness air about him. And he's a Belichick guy and all that. And they have not had a hard camp leading up to this, which again is scientific. And I think intelligent. Let's not go nuts on August 1st when we need to play till January or maybe someday February. So don't go crazy now, but when you start ramping up to the season, all right, it's time to figure it out. Right. And I thought that they were fine when

it came to the physicality. I didn't feel like they were overwhelmed. At times last year, I did feel that way by the 49ers about the Vikings offensive line. Like they were getting steamrolled a little bit and the 49ers ended up with the top defense in the NFL. So that does happen. But this is a good defense for them to practice against and a really good defense to evaluate against. And I mean, I was watching the offensive line pretty closely i thought it was okay i didn't think they had huge problems if anybody had more pressures on the day i think

it was the vikings instead of the titans that's just that was just my takeaway um david says 19 brandon powell looked good today i agree i think that brandon pow Powell has been a guy who's consistently taken advantage of his opportunities. Him and Jalen Rager, I think they are like, you know, kind of like even right now that they're both punt returners. And I don't know if you can keep both unless there's injuries and people are out, then maybe you're forced to keep both, But unless you're forced, you're probably keeping just one of them. And when Naylor comes back, then Naylor is probably in there and one of those guys has to go.

But I think they've both made a good case. Rager was good in the preseason game and is a good punt returner. But I think Brandon Powell has been very good at running routes, getting open and making catches. And they might want that at the bottom of the roster. But if there's these injuries, both of those guys could start the season and it wouldn't be shocking.

They were the first two next men up when Jordan Addison was not there. So it went Jefferson Osborne. And then those two were mixing in with a little bit of Tristan Jackson, who's absolutely deserving. Joshua says the Rams receivers used to do that going down before taking the big shot when they had Torrey Holt and Isaac Bruce. I think it's just a wise strategy, but it's something that you have to like think about and learn to do and

taking care of your body. And just, just to be super, super clear, I am not accusing Jordan Addison of not taking care of his body because he got banged up in this way with a concussion that not saying that just sort of open the door to that discussion about his health in general, as a smaller wide receiver, that there are things that you have to do to stay healthy. That other guys who are 240 pounds do not have to do.

Nikhil Harry does not have to do that. Let's see from Digits here. It is good to face Vrabel with that power rush group because the Vikings must assess how they can hold up against power. Yeah, I agree. And what about Bob asked if Derrick Henry was practicing. He was practicing. Yes, he was practicing.

He was in there quite a bit running over dudes. I don't know if Rabel lets people just hang out. I mean, I think that both of these teams got excited about this. They seem like it. They seem really jacked up. And, you know, especially the punter. But no, I'm kidding. I mean, they both it was a very physical and spirited practice that the defense is clearly won today.

And we'll see how that goes tomorrow. But I agree with you that when you look at this defense, Dean Lowry is a veteran proven guy. But is he special against the run? Probably not. Harrison Phillips is a above average run defender. Kyrus Tonga out there a lot. And I like what I've seen from Kyrus Tonga. He's been on the first team the whole time.

He has been the new Delvin Thompson, Delvin Tomlinson replacement. Am I going to read the book on Audible? Yes. And I've been working on that. You know, guys, writing is easy. Reading is hard. That's what I have discovered. Reading aloud. I

talk to you guys for an hour a night here, sometimes more, just having a conversation. You asked me to read like three sentences aloud. A little more spotty. So I'm working on that, though. I'm currently in the process of reading to myself. It's also weird when you're reading your own stuff. So that's a little odd, but, um, I guess you're learning new things you can't do all the time, but I'm going to grind through, I'm going to grind through and, and, uh, it'll be out there for sure in the audible. So thank you guys for asking about that. Folks, we've got a bunch of sports teams here in town. And also for someone like myself, I always like to try to catch a ball game when I am traveling to cover football in a

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tickets lowest price guaranteed uh is rager running a full route tree yeah he is i mean so rager knows the offense at this point and he can fill in just fine for anybody that they need him to fill in for the problem is with jaylen rager i think is just when it comes down to tracking the football i watch Tristan Jackson a lot. And of course, Jefferson Osborne. Jefferson is legendary when it comes to tracking the football. It's hard to describe how awesome it is to watch when he's right in front of you and reaching up and Moss and Pia. It's crazy. And we've seen that from Addison.

You don't see that from Jalen Rager. I think that there's a awkwardness, a discomfort when tracking the ball. I don't think his hands are like those guys. He can run the routes and he could play a whole game if he had to. It's just that, I mean, it's all on scales, right? It's like Jalen Rager can play in the NFL, but you would prefer that you had these other guys probably ahead of him. Because they're just better at some of those things. And I think that there's small details that he was missing last year that he could probably be fine with.

But it's really that when they would try to throw deep to him in Philly, he just couldn't make plays on the ball. So I think that if he has to play, then that's going to be okay, but not for a long period of time. I think he could play a game or two and it would be all right. Uh, and that's assuming he's going to make the team. I didn't think he got off to a good start to the off season, but has come along and, and been much better and was very good in the preseason game. Do I think that Nikhil Harry has a legitimate shot to make the roster? I don't think he has a chance to make the 53, but I do think he has a chance to be on the practice squad. And if he ends up on the practice squad, then he's on the team and he's got a shot to get into games and we'll see. They might pick somebody younger though.

It depends. I mean, he's made some good catches. And he made a good catch, I think, right, during the preseason game. And he's made some good catches in the night practice, which they talk about. Didn't see much from him today. Only a little bit of Jaron Hall out there today. This practice is for Kirk Cousins. I mean, this is like lots of first-team reps, a couple of second-team reps. And, hey, Jaron will let you play along today, too, but not much. This is about getting in the starters a lot. So, you know, I didn't see a ton of Nikhil Harry. The third teamers were not getting a ton of looks. So, you know, that's kind

of how it is. But I think that because of his experience and the fact that he has shown up and made some plays, that he could end up on the practice squad. Probably not much more than that. Get Matthew McConaughey to read the book and split the profits with him. How much profits do you think are going to happen? I don't know if he would be okay with that. Although Hollywood is like on strike or whatever. So maybe he needs work. Hey, if Matthew McConaughey wants to read the book, then that would be fantastic. And I'm not even going to try a Matthew McConaughey impression, but that would be way better than me doing it because he's an actor. So he knows what he's

doing when it comes to reading. I just talk football with you guys. Matthew says, do you ever see Quasey out on the field Or on the balcony or does he mostly stay away From practice no he's on the field yeah he's out there All the time yep for the whole practice I mean I think Spielman was too I don't know how all General managers do it but He's definitely out there very active

Talking to people and watching practice And so forth so yeah he's out there Purple Purgatory Asks any thoughts on Hall starting Saturday night I don't like that Idea I would much rather see yeah he's out there um purple purgatory asks any thoughts on hall starting saturday night i don't like that idea i would much rather see nick mullins start and play a very big portion of the game uh it's nice to develop a backup quarterback and you want a backup quarterback to get in the game get a little work but i i think you need nick mullins to evaluate guys i would rather see

mullins play probably the whole game to evaluate if we're looking at this like the old third preseason game like this is the important one i would just rather see him because it's very clear that he can execute the offense and he can get the ball to the wide receivers and they can decide who's doing what right and not only that he can set the protections to the wide receivers and they can decide who's doing what right. And not only that, he can set the protections. If a receiver's lined up in a wrong spot, he's going to put them in the right spot. I mean, you need somebody to help you understand what is supposed to happen out on the football field, not just, oh, let's develop the fifth round pick. Not that I don't want to see him too. I'm curious too, but he's very clearly the number three wide receiver.

This is somebody that is not ready to play in the NFL. That's okay. Most rookies aren't, but it's, it's got a long way to go. So I'd rather see just a lot of Nick Mullins, even though again, that totally understandable is less exciting because he's just a backup. Yeah. So, I mean, look, Nick Mullins is not going to throw the ball a million yards. And you could talk about his arm strength and you could talk about how he's not that mobile or whatever.

But what you also see is a guy who is able to get the ball to the receivers and let them make plays. He let Nick Muse make a play in the end zone. He let Jordan Addison make a play on the sideline. He, he let, you know, Rager and Powell get open and make catches. I mean, you got to see those things. I mean, you got battles here going on. And so I think you want, you got to get them to check to runs and whatever else. So I don't, I don't think that I need to see a lot of Jaron Hall and he's, he's just got

to develop for probably another year. He can, I mean, I guess he could play the third game, but you only get three. So I would just, I know it's not, it's not a fun take. It's not a fun opinion at all. I just think it's probably better if he plays more than Jaron Hall. Have you detected Cleveland and Ingram stepping up since the Reisner visit? I do wonder if the Reisner visit, because this does happen in the NFL, was a little bit of, guys, you're not the only players in the NFL, just so you know. And it made me think of it because I don't know if you guys saw the Robert Sala on hard knocks. I saw the clip going around where he just went off on his offensive line. It was basically like, we have a great quarterback, great receivers,

great running backs and freaking offensive linemen are going to blow, you know, kind of that thing going after the linemen. And I thought, yeah, you know, there's, there's different ways where coaches can kind of get a message across, and that might have been one of them, or maybe they're still interested. Have I detected them stepping up? I thought they were okay today, and I thought, you know, when I look back at the preseason game, it's only a handful of snaps.

I don't know, but still have a concern when I see, you know, Ed Ingram having the communication issue. And that's what Kevin O'Connell is talking about. Like there really shouldn't be, if you're the only starter out there, you shouldn't be the one that's having a communication issue. Not if you're the one who is starting like that, that should be the backups and you should be the one correcting them. You should be that guy. Communication is a big deal.

But I thought just as a – they've only had – since the preseason game, they've only had one really hard practice and then today. And I thought today that they did a decent job. But, look, I mean, when you're watching and you see a lineman get beat a little, but they sort of survive and give Kirk a chance to make a play I think when you're playing a really good defensive line that's that's okay but if you were watching it back on video you might go yeah he kind of got beat there and maybe that's not great but that's a lot of what the NFL is gonna be uh Stephanie are they using CJ Hamm much? Oh, yeah. I think this year, you know what? Last year, I'm not sure they really understood how to use CJ Ham.

I mean, Kevin O'Connell didn't use a fullback at all in Los Angeles. And I'm not sure he kind of like tried to get him in there to get him in there because everybody likes CJ Ham and he could be effective. I think this year they are going to do more with CJ Hamm, more intelligently him and Josh Oliver, who I've been extremely impressed with throughout training camp. I think Josh Oliver has been one of the biggest winners of the entire training camp. And I'm very interested to see how much of that actually translates and how much he's used, but he's getting a lot of opportunity with TJ Hawkinson, not, uh, you know, fully participating because of this ear issue, which I don't know I've ever seen happen before, but I guess the inner ear and balance is a really big thing. So I imagine it'll get sorted out, but, uh, that's just given Oliver a lot of reps out there so you know I think that

they will find ways to use this big personnel with CJ Hamm and with Josh Oliver and two tight ends a fullback Hamm is also another thing to keep in mind. Ham is also a great, great pass blocker. Not just good, but great. I mean, he can play tight end if you want to. You talk about someone who knows the offense. They might want to use him for some of these reps for pass blocking if they're getting blitzed a lot. I think we're going to see more of it. Maybe it's not going to be like 50% of the snaps.

But what if it's 30? What if there's some other ways to use cj ham that clint kubiak did a lot in 2021 but o'connell did not carry over maybe enough of that but you know i'm here all night for uh fullback talk from joshua let's see do you still feel there's a good vibe around the team during training camp still good buy-in uh from from the guys yeah oh buy-in from the guys. Yeah, oh, buy-in, yeah. I think there is. I think there really is. I think it has been a very good vibes training camp.

The injuries have brought that down a little bit because some of the guys that were in really key spots have just not been out there, and that's troublesome for them. They want to see Kenny Wong get out there them they want to see kenny wong get out there they want to see brian asamoah those guys need to be evaluated and they're jaylen nailer is someone they were very excited about and they're just not able to do that at the same time like i mean maybe asamoah was going to be important but this isn't big time starters who are missing i mean maybe

that's the silver lining to having some of the injuries. So that's brought them down a little bit. But every camp has injuries. Overall, I think that the team just as a whole has bought into what Brian Flores is selling for sure. There seems to be a lot of excitement over it. And I think Flores is a very, very hard nosed coach. And last year, I didn't feel that way about it, Donatelle. And I think that Flores, when you talk about holding players accountable and stuff,

I don't know if it's for everybody. It might be a little Zimmerish at times. I mean, it's, I think he's hard on guys, but I also think when you have this young defense for the most part on the secondary, and that's where he kind of, for the most part, on the secondary, and that's where he kind of made his bones, his linebacker secondary, that back seven, that's a good thing for them. There seems to be a lot of excitement about that. And on the offense, I mean, with Jordan Addison getting hurt, again, that kind of brings it down a little bit vibe-wise. But the fact that he has emerged and shown what he can do, you see an excitement about that.

Like, oh, we got another guy who can do things here. And maybe that was a little bit of what was missing today. The offense, I didn't think, had a great day. Maybe that was what was missing is just that guy has been a main point of the excitement during training camp. Horsefeathers asks, how aggressive do teams get in joint practice? Do you see anything you would worry about for players getting hurt? Never seen a real practice. So maybe a naive question, not a naive question at all. Horse feathers. No, that's a great question. They are physical. There are guys hitting the ground sometimes not really intentionally, but just

because there's a lot of pushing and it doesn't go so far that like there wasn't any swings or anything like that. There's a little trash talking guys getting each other's faces, but they're doing some drills out there that are really vile. I mean, the special teams drills where you have one guy playing gunner and as I'm punching my microphone, they're getting so football. But, you know, so you have one guy playing gunner and the other guy is trying to stop him. He's whatever they call that. The whatever the defender who's trying to slow him down from getting to the punt returner

and they are going at each other. That is a very, very physical. Like, imagine playing basketball. Only you could do a lot of things that are illegal in basketball to the guy. Like you really put your hands on them. That's what you're trying to do. You're trying to kind of get to the hoop in a way at full speed. And the other guy is trying to push you off your spot, very physical stuff in the trenches, same sort of thing outside wide receivers. So I think that's why it gives them a better evaluation tool. But do you worry about players getting hurt?

Absolutely you do, because this goes way beyond an 11-on-11 practice in terms of physicality. It's way beyond that. So you do worry about that. But I also think that everybody talks about going into this. Like, here's the deal, everyone. If you mess around too much, we're going to end this thing. And this is how they go sometimes.

You'll practice over there. We'll practice over here. We'll just call this. So everyone knows the deal. If we want this to work, nobody can get out of pocket. Everybody's got to play by the rules that they lay out. So, you know, Kirk Cousins running with the ball, you can't just deck him. Or somebody's going up for a catch, you can't undercut him or anything like that.

I think that they did a really good job of towing that line today. It was a very physical practice. From Hunter, I'm curious to know what the numbers you use to evaluate offensive linemen. Obviously, there's the eye test and PFF grade. What other numbers are there out there to indicate line performance? The PFF grades, having written that book, I know a lot of the process behind them. And I had a conversation with one of the best offensive line coaches ever, Paul Alexander, and talked to him about PFF grades. And the interesting thing is that Paul was in part behind, he coached for Cincinnati,

behind the shaping of the PFF grades with offensive line play. I think that's pretty believable. Maybe the best thing they do because corners, safeties, linebackers, whose fault was it, stuff like that, it's very hard. It's hard for NFL teams to figure out which corner was supposed to be on a receiver if they don't know the defense. But offensive line, you get a pretty good look at it. It's not perfect. He wouldn't say it's perfect. No one would say it's perfect.

I focus a lot on those numbers because I trust their validity, knowing how they're done. And I also know some of the shortcomings as well. One of the issues with offensive line grades is they don't evaluate who you go against. So if Garrett Bradbury goes up against Jeffrey Simmons and he gets picked up and thrown into the hot dog stand, well, it was Jeffrey Simmons. I mean, the guy's one of the best players in the league, but if he plays another guy who's a replacement level player and struggles, he's going to get the same grade, but that's quite different. Right. Or if he's great, does it matter as much? And that, you know, so they have weaknesses and everything else. Um, and of course I go back and watch every game. I take a look at it. I compare it to the grades, ask people about it, you know, try to kind of try to kind of

check off a lot of boxes. Coaches talk about it, listen to what they say. Um, talk to offensive line people, our guy, Jeremiah Searles, who's on the show. He breaks down a lot of stuff for me, whose fault something was, he can figure it out way better than I can. So I would say that it's always an accumulation, but the people who are in that offensive line, Illuminati, whatever the people who understand offensive line play way better than me, do look at those PFF grades as being like a pretty legitimate metric. So I look at that as well. But I also look at all the pressure numbers.

I look at who they played. I look at the trends of consistency. Like, you know, you can never just use one thing. I mean, nobody ever claims that, right? When it comes to any stat, you can never use just one. Great question, though. From Matthew, my guess is Quasey looks at what running backs get cut at the end of training camp rather than trying to add Hunt

or another free agent worked well for Kyrus Tonga and Duke Shelley that is a good point um you guys are funny with the the the only cure is a contract solution yeah i i don't think that's it i i really don't but it might be i don't think that's it i i it seems to me like hockinson is dealing with an issue here what like that's a weird thing to make up isn't it i have an inner ear like who couldn't you just say an ankle well what we wouldn't know the difference just drag your leg a little like why would he come up with that i I don't think that's it, but I still think they should extend him to your point, Matthew. I think that if Kareem hunt wants the same money as Delvin cook got, no, absolutely not. Nope. Going to pass on that. Uh, but someone like Mike Davis has been around and he has done a pretty

good job as a secondary running back for a couple of teams throughout the years. Maybe there is a veteran situation like that. But you're probably right that when it comes to the veterans, like seeing who gets cut, seeing what guys might be out there, you know, going and going from there. So anyway, yeah, I, I, yeah, I think that what they'll do with the running back situation is pretty straightforward. I mean, if Kenny Wong who doesn't come back soon and prove that he is the number two running back, or at least can be trusted, then what we're going to see is them get someone else.

I think that's how it's going to go. The question is, would they just cut him or would they continue to have him as the kick returner? I tend to think they would continue to have him as the kick returner, but then what do you do with Dwayne McBride? Do you cut him, put him on the practice squad? What if someone else wants to pick him up though? And you like him? I don't know. I, I,

I think that there is a little bit of a, a difficult decision there to be made if they're not happy with Kenny Wong. So we will see. But, uh, tomorrow, guess what? We got another one of these and guess what? We're going to be here again with this beautiful, bright studio that actually, I don't know. I figured out how to light up a studio. So I'm very happy about that. I felt like we're talking about the camp vibes. My vibes. My vibes were very good. Reminder to everyone that later in the month, actually, it's about a week from now uh i am going to be in las vegas for the biggest pro football contest

in las vegas which is back again for its fifth year 14 million in guaranteed prizes only at circus sports enter in las vegas play from anywhere with two ways to win and no rake play the million pro football contests with quarterly payouts and 100 payback pick a winner with the survivoror Contest. Select one team each week with no point spread. You get the share of $14 million in prizes. Visit circa, C-I-R-C-A, sports.com for details. So that will be, what is that?

Is that next week? Something like that. I'm going to be out there. Also, be tune in tomorrow. We are going to be doing what I'm calling a football jam tour or something. There's a couple of events where we're going to record the podcast in public, which we can do. And I'm going to tell you about that. Well, we'll say tomorrow about where we're going to be, how you can come meet us. I say us, it's me. And that'll be fun as well. So I'll tell you about that tomorrow and how you can sign up, show up and

listen to a live version of the podcast, but like in person and not just looking at me here. So make sure you tune in for that. All right. Thanks everybody. A lot of fun tonight, as always. Tomorrow, another padded practice. I will have my notes app out and ready and we'll have a lot of fun tonight as always tomorrow another padded practice i will have my notes app out and ready and uh we'll have a lot to talk about then thanks everybody football