Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Justin Jefferson arrives at Vikings minicamp

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison talk about Justin Jefferson showing up at minicamp and a few rookies getting opportunities with the first team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself. Build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Hey everybody, welcome to another Hot Routes episode of Purple Insider here, Matthew Collar and Jonathan Harrison. And we've got a lot to discuss with the Vikings and a situation worth monitoring in Buffalo. We'll get to all that. And also want to take a stats focus based on our sponsor Oakley, of course, later in the show on some past rusher numbers that have stuck out to me. But I wanted to tell you in regards to the Oakley sunglasses that I am once again, wearing for the show, Jonathan, I was out OTA.

I'm sorry. Mandatory minicamp as always. So I'm out there and I'm looking around and watching what's going on, everything else. And Brian O'Neill walks by me and I look at Brian O'Neill. And I think something looks very familiar about Brian O'Neill. Not the fact that I know him and covered him for a long time or whatever. And I'm like, what is it? What's going on? What is it that I'm noticing about Brian O'Neill? He's wearing these sunglasses, the exact same shades. And I thought, that's right. I wear the same shades as Vikings players out at, well, at least him at minicamp because

he is not working out, though he is expected to be back working out with the team at training camp. So there you go. Purple Insider and Minnesota Vikings players who make $100 million. Same. Exact same. So when do we get the Matthew Collar and Brian O'Neill podcast where you're both just wearing the shades looking at each other and people can't tell who is who you know Brian is a

guy to have on the show I haven't requested many players over the summers sometimes we get players on kind of during training camp is usually a good time I think the summer is uh it's weird because we're out there like one time a week and they're really not in the mode. I mean, they talk to the media in general, but not in the same mode as training camp where you're really building up to the season. But that's a guy that I would love to have on the show. He is one of the best talkers. I think he's really good at explaining football. Last year, I did an article on Brian O'Neill about how he's so good at getting beat, but not giving up a sack.

Like not that he's getting beat a lot, but when everyone gets beat. So what you do when you get beat as an offensive lineman can make the difference between hit or miss. And I had a good conversation with him and a few other offensive linemen about that. And of course you can make your jokes of like the Vikings line is beat every time. Like, uh, but not Brian O'Neill. That's for sure. And his recovery ability is really incredible.

So they're lucky by the way that his Achilles was not completely torn and he wasn't out for the entire year. Vardarian Lowe has been getting some work there. He was a draft pick of the Vikings last year. I would have expected to see maybe only Udo, but instead it's been low, which it's really hard to look into things. I want to make this clear because of course we go out there and we tweet stuff. It's like, well, this guy's getting some time out there and what's going on there. But the thing is that with many camp and OTAs, sometimes they're just

trying to get a look at somebody, a little bit of a look, or they think someone's falling behind. So they try to put them in a situation where they can catch up and coach them up a little bit. It has not always been predictive of what's going to happen during training camp. Really. It's not till the pads come on, but of course we're out there and we're watching stuff.

It's just sort of a reader slash listener. Beware of the mini camp update because sometimes Isaac Frick D has a great mini camp and I and training camp comes and nothing happens there. So just that's the warning. But Jonathan, the place we got to start out aside from my shades and Brian O'Neill is Justin Jefferson was at mandatory minicamp. Daniil Hunter predictably was not as was reported. So here's my question for you.

And of course, viewer participation is always encouraged. Which one of these situations is resolved first, Justin Jefferson new contract or a Daniil Hunter decision? Your thoughts. I think it's close because there's such big deals that have to be taken care of, whether you're looking at Justin Jefferson's mega contract extension, which at this point he's absolutely deserved through his first three seasons, or you're looking at Daniil Hunter and trying to convince him that, yeah, we're not going to give you $28

million, but maybe we'll give you 22 because that's probably more in their price range. Or if it's a trade for Daniel Hunter, those things take a lot of time. We could be here all summer talking about this. And I feel like we might be, uh, and it'll come right before training camp that both of these things will work. It will have been worked out and the official announcements will come like the day before training camp. Cause that's how the Vikings tend to like to work. At least they did under the Spielman regime. I don't know how that changes with the Kweisi regime,

but going off past precedent, it'll happen before training camp with both of these things. I'm leaning more towards Justin Jefferson gets worked out first because there's really only one option there. You pay the man, you're not trading him. You're definitely not trading him. Kweisi's made that clear that he wants to be the Vikings GM as long as Justin Jefferson's here and that's not going to change. Whereas Daniil Hunter, you

have the option to trade him or give him the contract. So there's a little bit more to be worked out there. For me, I think it's Justin Jefferson gets his contract first and then Daniil's traded or given a contract afterwards. But for now, Justin Jefferson has to be priority number one. I think just because he's the star of this team, there's no question about that. He's the franchise player of this team. You want to get him worked out and happy as quick as you can. Daniil Hunter, 29. He's a little bit, he's older than Justin Jefferson. He's on the defensive side. He's not, he's one of your two key players on defense that's left. So is it really that much of a priority if you're completely rebuilding a defense? I don't think so. So I think they'll work out Justin Jefferson first. Yeah, I think that that could be the case. The

only thing is that there is more pressure to work out Daniil Hunter than there is Justin Jefferson. So like Daniil Hunter is holding out. So there is now pressure and there is a push to try to get something done, whether it or an extension by the time we get to training camp or the very beginning of training camp. Now, that doesn't mean they have to. Of course, Daniil Hunter could go through the first couple of get to training camp or the very beginning of training camp. Now, that doesn't mean they have to. Of course, Daniil Hunter could go through the first couple of weeks of training camp

and still be Daniil Hunter. There have been plenty of times before where this has happened, or they could go through training camp, wait till another team gets very excited about their season, and then that other team trades a first-round pick for Daniil Hunter. We have seen situations like this play out. The most notable one recently with a pass rusher being Khalil Mack, where that one pushed all the way to the end of

training camp to the point where he's showing up in Chicago and then playing against, I think it was the Packers a couple of days later or whatever it was, a couple of weeks later, but right at the very end of training camp. And so that could play out. The thing with Justin Jefferson, and I don't expect this to happen, but it could, that it could go all the way to next year. They don't have to do this. He doesn't have to do this.

This could go all the way through the season. Now, again, that's not me predicting it. It's just that when it comes to timelines here, they need to handle the daniel hunter situation very soon they don't need to handle the justin jefferson contract it would just be ideal if they did and i was reading joel cory of cbs and he was talking about potential structural issues that might take time to work out there's also the difference between maybe a three-year deal with a big signing bonus and a five-year deal the vikings difference between maybe a three-year deal with a big signing bonus

and a five-year deal. The Vikings have not done the three-year deal with a big signing bonus type of thing in the recent past. If you've been a rookie contract guy for the Vikings, it's almost a guarantee that you are getting a five-year contract where the last two years restructures potentially cutting you with a limited amount of dead cap space. It's five years technically, but really kind of three years. Well, if Jefferson doesn't want to have those extra years where the team has the flexibility to keep restructuring and so forth like that, which is a smart way to set up the contract if you're the Vikings, but it's not as great when you have all the leverage as Justin Jefferson.

They want you to sign Justin Jefferson. They want you to sign that contract. They want you to sign it now. And Justin Jefferson is going to make his money. He's going to make it in endorsement deals. He's going to make it in a fifth year option. He's going to make it in a franchise tag. So he knows it's coming. I think that the Vikings sort of need it or would want it. I mean, he's going to want it too, because the signing bonus is a huge amount of cash and security. So both sides want it. But I think if there's one that could kind of hang a little bit, it's probably Jefferson. And of course we know injuries happen, but the odds of him having a problem, and I don't want to jinx anything here because it's Minnesota and knees happen, but

receivers just usually have long peaks of success. So Jefferson betting on himself is a pretty darn safe bet if he wanted to go deep into this thing. But I think that the fact that both sides want the same exact thing in the Jefferson deal, and it's just about the money makes it different than the Hunter situation where I'm not sure what Daniel Hunter wants. I don't know. And he hasn't said anything publicly. I don't know if Daniil Hunter wants to be a Viking for life and more than he doesn't care where he goes and just wants the money that he's been deserving of for some time. So that could be a part of it that Hunter might not care at this point if he ends up back with the Vikings. And I've kind of dismissed the idea that there could

be a Band-Aid type of deal where it just makes Hunter a free agent after the season. I suppose that could happen though. I've really kind of washed that out of the conversation, but I suppose that Hunter, the Vikings do have a little more leverage here in the fact that Hunter would have to sit out the entire training camp. He would incur a lot of fines. He would not be playing, not be practicing, all those things. So there is that element that they have that in the CBA that was most recently signed that it used to be you could just wash out all those fines once a deal was done. Now you have to pay them.

That might give them a little more advantage to try to do a Band-Aid type deal. But if he really digs his heels in, they are going to try to do a band-aid type deal but if he really digs his heels in they are going to get to an inflection point soon so i i think that you're talking in a very good case scenario for the vikings that they work it out over the next coming weeks with jefferson and they get it done and bang we're good to go at the beginning of camp where hunter's situation could play out what you're hearing me is not be committal on either one of the sides of this question, because I don't really know. I don't really know which one it's going to be. But I do think that the way that Kevin O'Connell talked, I don't know that he's confident that Neil Hunter is coming back because he kind of called it like a potential

solution, a possibility. I think he said something like a real chance or whatever, like a real chance or a possibility. It doesn't sound like we think that Daniil is going to be here, but reading the tea leaves can be a little bit difficult, I would say, with Kevin O'Connell sometimes. But I want you to put a percentage though on daniel hunter returning because i i wrote about this about the kind of the great daniel hunter debate and i don't know that i've gotten your opinion yet as many times as it's come up jonathan but i want to get your take on what chance there is now that he is finally kind of saying all right foot is down digging in whatever cliche you want to use.

What is that? Digging his heels in would be the thing. What does that refer to? I guess if you're standing on dirt or sand, then you kind of like dig into it to make sure you're in a sturdy position. Is that what is going on there? So he's dug his heels into the sand. He's in a sturdy position to fight for his contract. What percent chance do you think there is that he signs an extension? I think going off of everything that's happened this offseason and kind of how noncommittal it seems the Vikings have been towards offering big contracts to guys this offseason who they don't view as long-term players for this team, I'm leaning towards 45% he's back.

It's about as noncommittal as you were in your last statement there of trying to figure out what was going to happen. It just seems like everything's moving towards they're trying to clear house on defense, and they're going to have Brian Flores do what Brian Flores does and find these talents, find these diamonds in the rough, trying to clear house on defense and they're going to have Brian Flores do what Brian Flores does and find these talents, find these diamonds in the rough and kind of develop guys. And they're going to, they know they're going to have a bad defense. They know that it's not going to be a 13 and four season again. They know that that was kind of a false 13 and four season. They got away with a

lot of things last year that most teams normally don't get away with. So I feel like they are really committed towards kind of tearing it down, but not going full Bears tear down. They're going to tear down the defense and try and find guys, try and play guys that they drafted or they signed over the past couple of years and see what they have there. And they'll try and develop guys in the defense. And it doesn't seem like they want to spend a whole lot of money right now on that side of the ball with all of the players they're going to have to sign on the offensive side of the ball with Derris, with Hawkinson, with Justin Jefferson, if they want to bring KJ Osborne back, which I don't know that they would because they just drafted a first round wide receiver. They've got a lot of guys they have to pay on that side of the ball and figuring out the quarterback situation as well it seems like they're trying to kind of just tear down the defense and just leave

uh Harrison Smith as the lone veteran over there on that side of the ball and make do with that this season and say let's do shootouts 17 games this season so for me it feels like 45 percent that he'll be back and I think that may be a little generous considering what I just said. You know, it's called hot routes. It's really because each question that we come up with is that's the route. It's like there's usually five questions.

And then we try to, the hot part though is lacking here from both of us because I'm at 51% he comes back, but only 51. I'm 51% that he comes back because the only reason is I just think if this becomes a game of chicken, then who is it that's got to blink first? I think it's him because the Viking, I mean, he is under contract with the Minnesota Vikings. And if you hold out and you don't play, then you make no money. And so if they want to really hold his feet to the fire, I think I'm using every cliche possible.

Digging in, game of chicken, blink first, feet to the fire. All those, all those things. Feel free to use them in real life. But if they really want to play hardball, then I'm going to try to cope with every single one. But I think that he loses that game of hardball, right? Because they have him under contract for this year to play. And it's a lot better to make some money and maybe work out a deal to become a free agent in the future.

And if they don't want the defense to be a travesty which i think like you said would be fine i don't have a huge issue with that if the defense has to find out with you know patrick jones and dj want them who are uh the defensive ends today or outside linebackers if to find out if they can play i think is totally fine the other stat that i ran across and i was going to use this for later, but you get it now, is just that when they had 48 or 49 sacks, and it was, I think, top five, top six in the league, Miami did in 2021 with Brian Flores, nobody on that team had double digit sacks. They got sacks from everywhere, from all sorts of different players. And so the Flores factor is kind of an interesting element of this.

I think we would always assume that he wants better players and I'm sure that he does, but they are going to manufacture sacks schematically as well. And if he has a say in this, does he end up saying I can manufacture those sacks?

I don't need them. Like, I don't know. Or maybe he has no say at all. Probably with a player this big, he has no say at all probably with a player this big he has no say at all but i wonder where they factor that in with florist like no i'd rather have you develop players or are they going to say we can't have this be that bad because we could still win the division like they're the lions so there's that and then are the packers that great are the bears that great probably not and we could still end up in the playoffs, which I think, third, and the Vikings send back a fourth. Those are good picks to get for somebody who needs to get paid a ton of money.

I guess the question I have is, what are other teams offering for Daniil Hunter? And if it's a first-round pick, then they probably have to send him somewhere else. And that's okay based on where everything fits. So let's get to a few reactions so we've been talking about here uh aaron says hunter will be resolved first because he's holding out yeah i kind of agree with that that the more pressure somebody puts on the team to make a decision the faster that decision comes also there is kind of a deadline by the time the season starts to decide to do something. You don't want this going into

week four. I cannot imagine this. The Vikings always tend to resolve these things. Even with Delvin Cook, he did the hold in where he barely practiced in 2020, mostly just did individual drills the whole time. And then they signed him right before the season. So they usually deal with these things and don't let them go into the season. And with Jefferson, if it does go through the season, well, he's still under contract and you could still fifth year option him and stuff. So yeah, I tend to agree that Hunter will be dealt with first. From Dustin, JJ contract, I hope Hunter is great, but he has a much shorter time horizon for the Vikings than JJ. Now, this is a hard thing to figure out, Jonathan. And one of the struggles of the great Hunter debates is that how much longer will Daniil

Hunter be great? Because I think the answer could be for a freaking long time. I mean, Julius Peppers, right, is a guy who was similarly freakish to Daniil Hunter. I don't remember what his injury history was. But Jason Taylor, I'm trying to think of just pterodactyls who were outrageously gifted and got a ton of sacks. So like Jason Taylor and Julius Peppers, those guys played for a really long time. Mario Williams played for a really long time. These are 99th percentile athletes who had tons of sacks. And I don't know that it can't last five more years.

Could it? Very much so, right? But it could also not. And then if you're paying $25 million a year and you've got him in year three of this and you're still maybe struggling to rebuild, or even if you have rebuilt but he's not the same player and he's not worth that so you can't go out and get another piece that you want to get or make another move that you want to get but i i also think the 20 20 ish million 22 million which is what bradley chubb makes might not be that restrictive it might also be structure it might also be bonus like there's a lot of factors to go on here, but I, I don't know your opinion on how long his time, his time horizon, if we're using that now, his window to still be player, how long is that for Hunter?

With how it looks like, how well he looks like he keeps, he keeps keeps care of his body or takes care of his body. It looks like he could go on for forever because he's just one of the most freakishly built humans I've ever seen. And yeah, it seems like that neck injury. Yeah, could kind of cut a couple of years off of his time, but he's only 29. He's been playing for a bunch of years now, but he's always felt like, and we've always talked about him as the young kid in the locker room. He's 29 now. He's not that he's one of the few guys on that defense that's nearing 30

years old. So it feels like he could go on, as you said, for another four or five years, if he takes care of his body, right, which he does. And if he doesn't have any more injuries,

which is always the questionable thing in football. and especially if you've had a neck injury like he's at he's had we've seen that end guy's careers pretty dang quickly you look at what Peyton Manning's career ended up being after he had his neck injury and his his career went down pretty quickly after that he came back and had what one good year and then kind of made do and got to the Super Bowl and won it. But it just seems like with that kind of injury and especially the position that he plays, it could be done a lot quicker than anybody would imagine considering what he's been able to do in his career

and how he's been able to take care of himself. So I think four or five years is a good bet. But if you're the Vikings and you're going to have to pay him 20, 21, $22 million a year, do you want to take that risk that it's done in two years and you're still paying him for not productive seasons? I don't know, considering what you have to pay for on the offense. Folks, I've been wearing Oakleys now for a few weeks, and let me tell you, there is a reason that Justin Jefferson and a bunch of other football players wear these things, because they are awesome. I've got the matte black prism sapphire polar sunglasses on, and I've been doing all sorts of summer things with them. I've been

hitting golf balls in the water, jogging, playing basketball, getting sunburned, but my eyes are in good shape. I have been missing out on this experience for a long time. They are so comfortable. I can wear them all day and never get tired of having them on. Oakley is changing the game and it's time for you to discover a whole new world of possibilities with your eyewear. They are suited for everyday eyewear with frames and lenses, allowing you for it to be an extension of yourself, an expression of your personality more than meets the eye. So make a sunglass upgrade now at Oakley.com.

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Try it for yourself. I've worn sunglasses in the past, and I can assure you that Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. I've worn sunglasses in the past and I can assure you that Oakley is the best looking and best quality out there. So go on over to oakley.com for more information today. Oakley, express your style and build a look that's made for you. I think with Manning, it was 2012, 13 and 14 where he was great. And then 2015 is when the wheels came off. So then if, but if I were to tell you that Daniil Hunter, and this is not to really compare the two situations,

but a good example of a player who at first it was like, Oh, he's fine. Yeah. He's back. And then eventually it got to him. Or maybe it was just old age in general, but I think that the accumulation of injuries made it a big problem for him. And if I told you that you could get three years out of Hunter that were still elite, I'm not sure that I'm doing it because I think by that third year, but that may be, you know, I don't know, that might be the argument. By that third year, they could be really good again.

They could have a mediocre year this year, draft a quarterback and be right back up. Here's an example that I did notice in making the case. Cause I flip flop like crazy on this. I mean, I have the utmost respect for Daniel Hunter. I have watched this man sack so many people that, uh, I have, and, and his work ethic is absolutely incredible. His, his locker room presence, everything else. I mean, he's just an eight, a plus across the board, but, um, you know, so that, so there is that. And I noticed that when I was looking at Philadelphia for short-term rebuilds, rebuilds that did not last very long, you could really argue the Phillies was two years and they made the

playoffs in one year, but it was kind of bogus. They had a very easy schedule and went like nine and eight. So you could say that it was a two-year rebuild in Philly. This is the absolute ideal situation where they got rid of Alshon Jeffrey, Deshaun Jackson, a bunch of defensive players and stuff. But there were two guys that hung with them and that was Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox. And they were both in their late twenties, early thirties when they did that. And they came out on the other side and they were still very effective on a team that went to the super bowl and they were still expensive. And I don't have their cap hits right in front of me, but I think they were still

veterans on second or third contracts. So they were still probably a pretty expensive during that time, but you just, you might look at it and say, we can't get rid of everyone. And when we come out on the other side of this, we still want to have good players. So this is the wishy-washiness that I have over it, because I think it is risky and I think it's expensive. And I'm going to pull up another interesting point that is made here in the comments in a second. But I also think, gosh, the biggest problem with getting rid of Daniil Hunter is that you're getting rid of Daniil Hunter. And he's just very, very good at football. This comes from Charlie, though, and this is an interesting point here.

He says that nearly 40 edge rushers had eight plus sacks last year. And that is an interesting point because when you call up that team from 2021 for the Miami Dolphins, Emmanuel Ogba, who was kind of a journeyman situational rusher. He led their team in sacks and then they had drafted Jalen Phillips and Christian Wilkins. So those were their centerpieces. They sort of found someone for a decent price and free agency. And then they drafted two guys. Of course, the Vikings would have to draft somebody. It can't probably be a quarterback at the top top but draft other pass rushers down the road to replace Daniel Hunter but that is a very interesting point that there are a lot of people rushing

the passer these days successfully off the edges and can you cobble together and that doesn't mean with Patrick Jones and DJ Wanham down the stretch, unless they become good, but it means once you have the money, you go into free agency and say, all right, this guy is half the price and we'll get a seven sacks and we'll put together the rest as opposed to playing top, top, top price for somebody for 25.

So it is a, it is a very interesting situation that I don't know when either one of those guys are going to be resolved. Now, this is another point from Charlie that I don't necessarily agree with. Says, love Justin Jefferson, but I'd let someone else make him the highest paid non-QB in the league, probably 40 to 50 legit receivers in the league. Now, I don't agree with that one, Charlie. I think that's going galaxy brain. There are no Justin Jeffersons. And really, if you want to try to stretch, you could say Devante Adams. He probably was. I don't know if he's going to be in the future. Stefan Diggs is

extremely good. There's AJ Brown. There's really, really good receivers. But the difference between Justin Jefferson and the 40th best receiver in the league is gargantuan. I mean, that is from here to Australia. So I think that let's not go too much salary cap. We're obsessed with the salary cap and money ball and everything else. When you win a championship, you do it with superstar players, right? And I mean, and this is unfortunate because it's like a bad faith argument. How many playoff wins does Justin Jefferson have? I mean, well, look, you could do that for every

player. How many wins in the playoffs does Brian O'Neill have like should we just should you not pay him how many wins does anybody have on the team because well they haven't been good enough as an entire team but how many super bowl wins does another one of the highest paid receivers in the league have uh cooper cup well i don't know he's got one i mean look if you have mahomes you don't need an elite wide receiver because he's mahomes but also it did help for him to have Tyreek Hill to win the Super Bowl, the last one. But A.J. Brown, one of the highest paid wide receivers in the league, seemed to play a pretty darn big role. And when you're going to draft a quarterback, if you'd like him to succeed, it would be a really good plan to give him the greatest receiver on earth. They're not getting rid of Justin Jefferson, Okay. Like they will do anything and everything possible. And look,

you will pay great players when you win. That's the point. If you just get rid of everyone, then you suck. Okay. You have to understand this. Like you're not replacing Justin Jefferson with two receivers. It's not happening. That's not how any of this works. So I think that what you're trying to do is you are trying to draft a quarterback next and give him the greatest receiver on earth and give that man, what you're trying to do is shift the odds that that quarterback succeeds. And let me tell you, Justin Jefferson shifts the odds. Now, if you were making this point about anybody else beyond those top five wide receivers, I might agree with you, but go to free agency. When you tell me it's easy to replace receivers, I call bull because I want to look at Jacoby

Myers and Adam Thielen making money in free agency. Don't tell me it's easy to replace receivers. It's not. You can, well, just draft one. Okay. But there's a lot of draft ones like jaylen rager and laquan treadwell that haven't worked out so if you draft a quarterback and don't give him great wide receivers then you are shifting his odds in the

wrong direction of succeeding and you can't just go to free agency and get one because they're not often available so what ends up happening then what What did the Miami Dolphins have to do? They had to trade for one and guess what they had to do? They had to pay him a bleep ton of money. So you just went around about kind of way that if you get rid of Justin Jefferson, the only way you're getting that guy back more likely than not is getting insanely lucky in the draft, or you are having to trade for someone else's and pay them, or someone hits free agency, which they never do. So I think we've cleared that up. Justin Jefferson, good to have on the Vikings. There's the hot route. Hot routes. There it is. Yeah. But I, but I've heard this, I've heard this take many times now through the off season. And I just like,

if you want to win at some point, you have to have great players and you can't just get rid of all your great players. The Rams paid a lot of people to win and honestly kansas city did too i chris joan they paid chris jones a ton of money to stay like you have to pay people but that's why you can spend to the salary cap but you got you have to do it the right time but you're not you're not moving on from the best player in the world who's not a quarterback uh. Okay. So anyway, put all that aside. Next thing I had written down, there were two Vikings defensive rookies, Jonathan, who were getting first team action today. Makai Blackman and Jaqueline Roy, Jordan Addison, not practicing, but he should be back by training camp. According to Kevin O'Connell, he reiterated that today. So I want you to rank each rookie in the likelihood

that they are a contributor this year. Here's a hot route or hot take. The guy in last place is probably going to be Jaron Hall because Kirk Cousins isn't missing time unless they trade Daniel Hunter and decide to just go full rebuild and trade Kirk Cousins, like we posted in the clip today. It's going to be Kirk Cousins as the quarterback, and that's not going to change because he just

doesn't get injured. And, you know, that's knock on wood because knees and everything around here. But Jaron Hall is going to be last on here. I think Jordan Addison, despite missing the practice time he's missed, will have the biggest impact because they brought him in as a first round pick. They expect a lot out of him and yeah, there's only one ball to go around on the offense and you've got Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson to throw to, but I think receiver is one of those positions that can easily translate from college to the NFL. And we've seen that a couple of times, not, not the easiest to, but they do tend to have some guys who break out a little bit easier, and he's not going to have a whole lot of pressure on him with Justin Jefferson on the other side of the field. So I think Jordan Addison is going to have the biggest impact

of these guys. My second one will probably be Makai Blackman because he said he's already taking first team reps, and there's spots spots, their starting spots in that cornerback room to be had because they got rid of everybody. I mean, barely anybody stayed and Andrew Booth and Caleb Evans were injured last year. So it's not like those guys are penciled in as the starters. Those positions are all up for grabs, especially with the new defensive coordinator. I think Makai Blackman could take one of those spots and get a lot of starting minutes or starting snaps this season. So I'm going to give him second. I think Jaqueline Roy, as you said, also taking first team reps today. And with the amount of shuffling they've done on

that defensive line, getting rid of Delvin Tomlinson, bringing in Marcus Davenport, possibly getting rid of Daniil Hunter. They moved down from Z'Darrius Smith. There's a lot of openings on that defensive line to be had. And there's a possibility that he could find his way in there. If he impresses in training camp and continues to impress in mini camp and OTAs and rookie mini camp and everything. Uh, and then it's Dwayne McBride is, is left and, or Jay Ward and Dwayne McBride are left. I think I'm going to put Dwayne McBride is left, or Jay Ward and Dwayne McBride are left. I think I'm going to put Dwayne McBride over Jay Ward because of the competition in that running back room as well. He could, I mean, watching his college tape,

he's untackleable in that college tape. And yeah, it's college versus the NFL, but still he has one fun college tape to watch. And there's a possibility he could translate that over. We've seen late round running backs across the years make instant impacts. That's the position that you really can just jump straight into the pros and have an instant impact. And yeah, he's a seventh round pick.

He was the last round. So there's a greater possibility that it doesn't happen. But I think he has a better possibility over a guy like Jay Ward, who's got a ton of guys in front of him. He's got Harrison Smith. He's got Cam Bynum. Lewis Cena's back. Yeah, so there's a lot of guys in front of him and not a lot of spots,

whereas as opposed to Dwayne McBride, there's a lot of opening there because of the Vikings just getting rid of Dalvin Cook and leaving that competition open. So that's my ranking. Okay. I think your ranking is very solid. Let me try to pick it apart because I think that it's the kind of the right way to do it. I think what you just did is the right way to rank those players. It's also very close to where they were

drafted. So let's try to go, let's try to reverse engineer the Jaron Hall one. I'm not going to argue with you at all that, you know, he's going nick mullins there's i don't think there's any competition there whatsoever and uh for the second straight year i get to not talk about any backup quarterback competition because last year it didn't matter because both guys were cut anyway so uh as i tried to tell everybody i remember somebody got upset not that long ago online you'll never believe it they were upset online i know i know they're like yeah you know you know you you said uh last year that the backup didn't matter or something and it's like well look it's not that the backup doesn't matter as if he can't help you or if you have a guy with potential who could eventually be something because every once in a while that happens it's more of that backup competition didn't matter.

It's because I had a pretty good idea that both guys were going to end up getting cut. So, but Nick Mullins is a competent quarterback as a backup. He can run a practice. Jaron Hall is going to need a lot of work. I mean, this guy did not play in an offense that was at all reflective of an NFL offense. And that's not a knock against him. He can't change his offense, but that just means he's got a long way to go.

So, I mean, if Jaron Hall's playing, then you are playing for Drake May and Caleb Williams is probably what's going on there. And well, some people just went, oh. I like that idea. Are we? But so otherwise, let me just try to reverse engineer. So you had Jordan Addison first, and that is natural because he's a first round pick

and the next guy didn't get taken until the third. Let's say, though, that Jordan Addison catches only 40 passes for 575 yards. I think you're making faces. No one could tell what faces I'm making with these shades on, but you're making faces. I don't think that's that bad. I think that if he did that and I'm not saying he will only have that many. I mean,

the fantasy people think that he's going to catch 75 passes and that's possible, but think about the offense and how you have Jefferson is going to take 170 targets or something. And Hawkinson is going to take 170 targets or something. And Hawkinson is going to take a hundred targets and Osborne is a veteran and who has been around. And then you have, I think Alexander Madison, other running backs. You have another tight end that's gotten into the mix that they're going to play two tight ends. And CJ ham is good for at least six checkdowns. Sorry, I had to do it. But let's just say he gets 40 passes

and he is used on 50, 60% of the snaps. He does a good job. He looks good. He has a Jahan Dotson or Trelon Burke season. Maybe he's a little banged up throughout the way. I think that is a fine season to start out with. Then he'll develop and he grows and we go on from there. Justin Jefferson ruined any idea of

everything in progress before like just he was so good right away it was like all rookies should do that all the time but derisaw is a good example derisaw is a wonderful player superstar player first year though banged up banged up in otas they told us no big deal he'll be back like we went through that and uh he ended up having a decent rookie season with some limitations and growing pains and then ended up being great. I could see that. That is a reasonable outcome for him, which kind of opens the door maybe for Makai Blackman a little bit. It does stand out to me that Makai Blackman is getting into these first team reps already. And when the pads come on, then things get really interesting. But Blackman is 24 years old. He is expected to do

this, to be able to come in right away, that he's not a project player. He's a guy that played tons of college football that had really good numbers and everything else and should be kind of ready. And he's somebody that they handpicked and also has and should be kind of ready. And he's somebody that they handpicked and also has a better record of health than say Andrew Booth Jr. And so he's been getting a little more work in there. And I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he became a starting outside corner for them and Byron Murphy was inside. And then if they go to a bigger package, then Murphy goes to the outside, that sounds like what they're going to do. And okay.

So you had your Caitlin Roy. And I think that, you know, it's interesting and stands out that he's getting some work now with that first team. They must like his mind. That was part of the conversation. A lot of times those nose tackles,

defensive tackles. It's not something you really recognize as an intelligence position, but I guarantee you it is because everything happens so fast that if you aren't ahead, if you aren't two steps ahead, you are getting blasted. And so that might be why he's out there. But when they go into putting pads on and everything else, it might be Kyrus Tonga and it might be Harrison Phillips, who by the way, is not really practicing. So Harrison Phillips is going to be in that spot. So it may not be Ja'Kalen Roy.

And Dwayne McBride might end up getting ahead of him in total usage. Jay Ward is a harder one to see because he's more of a kind of mix-it-up type of player and backup. But I think if we're making that argument, I wonder, are we overreacting to Ja'Kalen Roy getting in there right now? And maybe it's Dwayne McBride who ends up getting more work. We'll see, though, because that running back battle is going to be very interesting. But I think it's a good discussion.

And I think Roy definitely has some potential there. I wanted to mention this from digits. And then it's a bunch of digits like that. I'm worried about Booth. Yeah, so I struggle with this and you can see, see how much I look like I'm struggling when I have the hat and the glasses. I that's a real, like I'm moving the hat with my struggle. You're trying to hide what your emotions are. Yeah. Yeah. I'm hiding the emotions because I'm having a lot of them in regards to Andrew Booth Jr. Him and Louis seen both are not looking like at mandatory mini camp that they're

going to be the guys, but they have two months or whatever, a month and a half to prove that in training camp, six weeks, whatever. Is that a month and a half? They have time in training camp to prove that it is concerning though, that Andrew Booth Jr. isn't taking like every rep it's a little a little concerning that Louis seen is safety number four they're gonna fight this out though over a long period of time it's gonna be a lot of practices those joint practices you got preseason games there's a lot to happen first so I think you should be raising an eyebrow about booth junior and lewis scene but not going oh i don't know bust there's also the fact that this is a new defensive coordinator he did not draft these people he's going to play who he wants to play and that might not be the recent draft

picks but i think they're going to get every chance so uh any any uh reactions to trying to nitpick away at your list? No, I think you were fair in nitpicking my list. I mean, yeah, I guess I didn't realize Harrison Phillips wasn't practicing all that much yet. So Ja'Kalen Roy might just be filling in for that role. So I think Dwayne McBride might pop up a little bit more on that list, depending on how he does in that running back battle. But with how Kevin O'Connell has talked about Ty Chandler over the past year and a half, it seems like he really wants him to succeed. Obviously, drafting him in the fifth round last year is going to help him in that, and his impressive

preseason games last year is also going to help him in that. But yeah, I think Dwayne McBride has the best ability or the best chance of all those guys to pop up a little bit higher in that but yeah i think duane mcbride has the best ability or the best chance of all those guys to pop up a little bit higher in that in that ranking of those draft picks from this season yeah but i i think if you were picking it right now you probably would say but health is a big thing you would say madison's getting a huge percentage and then chandler and then kenny wong who's been getting a lot of work out there and he's gonna have a surprising prove it as well yeah well they barely used him last year for for now yeah i mean for now um uh digit says and then we're gonna get to the uh sponsored segment in a second here but it'll still be football uh nice shades uh to look cool on the links or incognito on the links well i mean of

course i i don't want uh you know fans to run up you know i'm a subscriber no i'm just kidding i've never had that happen um actually when sam ekstrom was with us he got paired with a random person who was a purple insider newsletter subscriber so it does it does happen but i don't have any celebrity issues uh usually um but uh maybe what you mean is i don't want anyone to know it's me hitting the ball so badly that could be maybe what you were saying uh and i would probably agree with you but they are great for golfing and they're also great for our stats focus which we've been doing uh at least once a week here so it is our more than meets the eye stats focus presented by our friends at Oakley. And all I wanted to focus on, Jonathan,

was QB pressures, okay? So last year, Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter combined for 148 QB pressures. That is what we call a lot. They were two of the best in the NFL. Now behind them though, DJ Wanham was third on the team with 33, which is okay for a rotational rusher. He rushed 345 times. So maybe once every 10 times he's getting to the quarterback. That is not anywhere near the rate of Zedarius Smith,

who is more like once every seven times, but also not terrible. The weird thing about DJ Wanham is that his pass rush grade by PFF was a 54, and his win rate was one of the lowest in the NFL. And I was looking this up on multiple platforms, so PFF's win rate, ESPN's win rate, and both of them had DJ Wanham as one of the lowest in the league. Yet he has had some production, including pressures and sacks. But it seems that when he does not produce something, it is a total and epic disaster, at least according to those metrics, which I think is fair. Like he's not pushing the pocket anyway. Now, Patrick Jones last year rushed 156 times, 13 pressures. So that was even worse than once every 10 and had a pass rush grade of 59, which is about the same.

And the point of the thing is just that, you know, you're losing at least one, maybe two of the best pass rushers in the NFL. And while I am interested in seeing Wanham and Patrick Jones, what the Vikings have to factor here is that ultimately they probably have to get other people that these guys are maybe rotational rushers at best. I would be okay with finding out, but I don't have high expectations based on the small samples. Usually with pass rush,

this is one of the most reliable PFF things because it's so easy to, for someone to grade. So they have graders and, you know, I'll explain it in my book to for someone to grade so they have graders and you know i'll explain it in my book if people want to buy that but there's so they they've got graders they've got cross checkers they've got people who have coached in the league all sorts of things right and but still i think you could grade pass rushers where you just watch and see if he beats the other guy and and so it's just a measure of how much they're beating the other guy. It should show up even in small samples. It should show up. It hasn't really. And if they have to play them, there's going to have to be a lot of

manufacturing of pressure. That's okay to see exactly where they're at, but it's kind of a weatherly and a Dennebo type of situation. Good in certain roles, probably not good anything beyond that. So part of the equation has to be how they're going to figure out who they're going to replace Daniel Hunter with eventually, because it's got to be somebody. So that has been our more than meets the eye stats focus presented by Oakley. Let us close on this, Jonathan. Stefan digs in Buffalo, very mysterious situation,

very mysterious. Is it? Well, a little bit because he was at the facility and then there was something that happened and then he was not at the facility. Now I think they're still in OTAs. I don't know that they're in minicamp. I think they might still be in OTAs. There's lots of teams have different, you have to check on that lots of teams have different uh timelines i'm not sure because i thought i saw someone say he would be there for minicamp which is like wait are they not in minicamp but every team has different timelines it is mysterious in that what could have happened digs is making lots of money and they have won lots of games. But last year it was a more of a struggle offensively and they changed offensive play callers because Brian Dable went to the New York Giants

and they didn't have as much outside of Diggs. So Beasley was either not there, got old and or both. They lost Emmanuel Sanders. Gabe Davis really didn't step up. And so Diggs really became not just the centerpiece, but kind of the whole offense. They didn't run the football very well. I don't know what conflict could be going on in the middle of June regarding his role, his contract seems fine, or what could be going on there. I don't know that like how much I want to speculate about it because I know that you know people go through stuff that is beyond what we can know as sports analysts and Stefan Diggs had things happen early in his life lost his father early in his life and I think that that's affected him for a long time but do we have a theory like what what could Stefan Diggs be unhappy about in Buffalo when it's June?

I mean, I, I, I just, I can't really put my finger on what it could be. I can't figure it out either. And that's that. I think that is the mystery and, uh, of this whole situation. My best theory is that he just, he gets kind of restless. He's a restless soul and just wants to kind of move around. And he's had his time in Buffalo. He had his time in Minnesota, wanted to move on.

And now he's had his time in Buffalo and wants to move on from there and try something new and see if the grass is greener somewhere else. That's my best theory about what's going on. And I can't really think of anything else because he has the offense that he wanted here in Minnesota. It's pass-first offense. He is the guy in Buffalo that Josh Allen relies on. Could he be upset that they're not going after DeAndre Hopkins?

They're not getting a secondary option to help him out a little bit better in this offense to give them a better chance? I don't know. But there's also cap limitations there, especially with Josh Allen's contract coming up and all that and what that's going to do to their salary cap situation. It's hard to say what's going on inside of the head of Stefan Diggs because we saw it. We saw here firsthand that whatever he puts out on Twitter it it's clearly not real life and there are definitely other things going on uh with him and so my best theory is that he just wants to he wants to move somewhere else and try something else because he doesn't like to stay in the same place for a long time that's that's the best I've got caller I think that of course the Vikings fan

base is all making the same comment of like oh look at that and you know I kind of joked about the with my friends in Buffalo about the it was a back to the future to where the guy Biff or whatever his name is like this looks familiar or whatever you know that's a very old very old reference and I am sorry for that if you are young but uh that was the gif i chose but i always do want to have compassion for digs and in part also because i know that he is a very very smart guy i mean he is really really intelligent and it's not about money and it's not about receptions and it's not about targets because last year he was third in the nfl and receptions third in uh targets third in pff grade actually and had more touchdowns than the two guys ahead of him he had an incredible year last year statistically uh he but when he is difficult he's very difficult and you saw that in minnesota of course 2019 he had his meltdown and he left practice and everything, and then came back and had a phenomenal season in 2019 and help them

drive their way to a playoff win and a play on divisional weekend. And he was the main target that season is, uh, you know, it kind of carried them because Thielen was banged up. I don't think that this necessarily means that he's done in Buffalo or he's demanding a trade or something, but there are, there are things going up on social media that kind of make it looks like he believes that somebody wasn't honest with him or that things that they're saying in public about him aren't true, or I don't know. I mean, these things do tend to follow him. But I also understand that his desperation to win is usually what drives these things. And I know it did here. And I also know that he, I think that dishonesty bothers him. I think lacking communication bothers him. And I'm not saying that you should

like work your whole organization around one player and whatever else. This is just like what we talked about with Justin Jefferson. This is not a player that you usually can normally replace. Now the Vikings had the luck of all luck, the luck of all luck that Jalen Rager was picked by the Philadelphia Eagles and the fifth best wide receiver turned into the next Randy Moss. But usually that doesn't happen. So I,

I like to approach these situations with a little more trying to understand with digs as opposed to just doing the, oh, he's a diva or whatever else. I think that's just a I think when you label stuff, then you miss all the nuance to it. When you say he's a diva, you just like, OK, whatever. You just are ignoring a lot of other stuff that might be playing into it and i do think that the fact that they had a different offensive coordinator might play into it i'm not sure it's a situation to watch though uh because if they end up in a conflict with him that they're gonna they're gonna find out how tough it is to replace him because before he was there josh allen you know was not the same and uh josh allen has leaned on him quite a bit but it seems

like there's that same look in everybody's eye that there was in minnesota when he did the truth tall rumors thing so i don't know i mean for my friends in buffalo what a uh my media friends anyway like what a storyline to be dropped. It's kind of like us where they're potentially trading Hunter and cutting Cook. It's like, is that June? Does this league ever take a break? So I guess they're having the same thing. But that's all I can really say is that I guess we'll just see

what happens there and maybe they'll clear it up. But it also is, here's what I know. It is so hard when you come this close. We saw it here. It's so hard when you come that close, uh, to keep everybody coming back and doing it all again. And that's the reason why teams that do not have elite quarterbacks. And I ran those numbers the other day, teams that don't have elite quarterbacks do not repeat those 13 win seasons or those 12 win seasons. And of course, Buffalo has an elite quarterback, but that just shows you how hard it is to do it year after year after year. So we'll keep an eye on it. That's basically the theme of everything

this week is kind of like, well, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see about Jefferson. We'll see about Hunter. And we'll see one more OTA practice. And I'll have some interviews out there with Dave Campbell and Will Raggett's breaking it all down. I've made a very long list of things that I've observed during OTAs and minicamp to get to in the next couple of days. So thanks for your time, Jonathan, as always. Thanks for everybody for watching.

And if there is breaking news, here will be. This is where you will find us going live on YouTube as always, thanks for everybody for watching. And if there is breaking news, here will be. This is where you will find us going live on YouTube as always. So thanks everybody for watching and we will catch you all later.