Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Justin Jefferson vs. Randy Moss?

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fans questions, from how they can deploy Kene Nwangwu to a question about Justin Jefferson vs. Randy Moss to the most football-y thing we've ever done 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 episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Pollard here with you and should be some fun times, fun week to talk about the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL because there is absolutely nothing going on in the NFL whatsoever, which means we can do whatever the heck we want. So this week, we're going to continue our series looking at upcoming opponents for the Vikings. Going a little deep into the schedule this week,

we're going to have Kevin Cole return to the show to talk about his all-time quarterback rankings by the analytics, which is a very cool process. And we'll have a lot of fans-only episodes as well. So if you would like to submit your fans-only questions, you can go to purpleinsider.com, to the contact us and that will go to my email and we'll put you in the list and i'll be happy to answer your question also on twitter at matthew collar feel free to send me a direct message as long as twitter is still allowing that i don't

know i saw something that might change but for now the dms are open send me a message any question that you have and uh wide open to any type of football question sometimes if you want to get a little weird on the show and ask questions about other stuff i guess you can i'm not always the best at answering those uh strange questions i don't know if a hot dog is a sandwich or not or if die hard is a christmas movie so don't ask me those but but feel free to send anything else, especially football wise and Vikings wise, my way as we will eventually start to get into training camp previews.

But for now, hopefully you all are enjoying your summer and the shows that we're putting together. Also planning on a special old games, random old games to add to that series as well. And if you're watching on YouTube, yes, I did get a haircut. Yes, that is why I was wearing a hat for most of the episodes recently. I'm also wearing my spam shirt, which I got from the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. If you haven't been, and for some reason you're going down in that direction, then give it a try. Austin minnesota cool place went there with

my colleague chris thomason a couple years ago it was pretty fun anyway uh i won't tell you more about that and ruin the spam museum for you so why don't we jump into your vikings questions this one comes from jesse ca and all sorts of numbers can you talk about the potential idea for kevin o'connell has for kenny wong woo based on his experience using chris thomp thompson as a change of pace back in washington could we see a similar package yeah if you go back to uh chris thompson in washington there was a little bit of a run there I'll call this up where he was a really dynamic running back for them and actually played kind of a long time in the NFL doing it, catching a lot of passes. One year, he averaged 13 yards per reception in 2017 when Kevin O'Connell was there in

Washington. So he mixed in as a running back a little bit. The most carries he had was only 64, but he routinely had somewhere between 35 and 50 receptions at a pretty good clip. So if you're not real familiar with the running back, Chris Thompson, that was kind of his role. I guess we're going to have to find out a little bit as far as Kenny Wong will goes, how good he is at catching passes. I mean, we saw him line up kind of outside at the wide receiver spot a couple of times. I think we've learned by now not to take that too seriously when it comes to OTAs and training camp and so forth,

that if you see a running back lining up at wide receiver, it doesn't always mean that's where he's going to be. But I do remember, I think in 2017, Chris Thompson had this amazing catch over Eric Hendricks on like a go route from the slot or something like that in that game where the Vikings beat Washington. And I don't know if Kenny Wongwo can do stuff like that. But I do know that he is a dynamic talent that Kevin O'Connell, I believe, can find better ways to use than he did last year. And at least what we saw so far in minicamp is that they were trying things with him and having

him be the second running back, at least on the last day of minicamp, he and Ty Chandler were mixing in throughout OTAs and minicamp. I think Chandler is maybe a little more of a traditional running back and Kenny Wong will, could be more of a Chris Thompson type playmaker catch passes out of the backfield, maybe get a toss here or there or an end around here or there. There has to be some creative ways to use a guy who runs a 4-3-40 and is quick and explosive with the football in his hands as Kene Wongwu. A lot of it comes

down to though, how well can you master what they're asking you to do? So if you want Kene Wongwu to play as a wide receiver sometimes or come out of the backfield, even catch swing passes or go upfield a little bit. He's got to be in the right place at the right time. And he really hasn't been asked to do that ever. I mean, not much at all. If you go back to his college days, I mean, I can punch that in to the old internet here as well. Kenne Wongu college stats. This guy has just not played a lot of football, which is really interesting considering how talented he is.

And I'm trying to pull this up now, looking for his college stats, having a little trouble getting them. But I remember he didn't, he did not carry the ball a whole heck of a lot in college. He was much more of the second running back. Now, that was in part because of, yeah, I'm having trouble with the internet finding those. But he was much more of that sort of second running back change of pace, which I think for the Vikings, considering what they have with Alexander Madison, would be really good. But, yeah, to your point, when you have a running back that does have a dynamic ability with the football

that is, I believe, to be special for Kenny Wongwu, and you've seen it with the kick returns, it's not just the ones that go for touchdown. Even when it doesn't, the explosion with the football, the quickness, the high speed, it really is something. And I think that if they are playing their cards correctly,

that yes, something in that vein not necessarily 13 yards of catch which is means goes down the field and lines up in the slot and all that but find a way to get him the ball even like a slot screen I remember they did this one or two times with Delvin Cook where he lined up in the slot and just went on a little bubble screen they threw him the ball quickly I mean that could be an effective play with someone like Kenny Wong Wu's speed. So I think that you're barking up the right tree. There's probably a lot of good ideas there of someone who mixes in, carries the ball 60 times, catches the ball 20 or 30 or 40 times for Kenny Wong Wu to be that type of player. It's just that he has to

prove he can be that type of player first. That was really Chris Thompson's thing that he established himself over the years. And maybe, yeah, I mean, I like where you're coming from with that because if you're not getting him the ball, you're probably making a mistake. On to our next question comes from Dave here. What about a Josh Oliver lining up in the backfield to help shore up the interior pocket? Three wide receivers, two tight ends. Oliver lines up in the backfield or shifts into the backfield looking for blitzes or helping guards. I don't know how often he's ever done that, but once again, I can see if I could take a look with Josh Oliver, but I mean, it's not a bad idea to do things like that, to have kind of those old school packages, which he may have played in when it comes to last year, because

that's the type of stuff that the Ravens do. I don't know if necessarily moving tight ends into the backfield. I'm going to see if I could take a look at where Josh Oliver lined up last season. Maybe snaps by position. We'll see if we can find this on PFF's website. I'm sure they've got it here somewhere, but you know, he, let's see, he lined up yeah it looks like he was mostly as an inline tight end or in the slot last year i don't see backfield for him sorry if i'm moving the computer around um yeah i don't see backfield a lot for him but i think that you're probably more likely using him to pass block off the tackle and then having christian derissaw or Brian O'Neill help on the inside. If you're using him that way, it's kind of got the same effect a little bit, depending on how the other team goes about it. But Oliver is so big and such has been mentioned

on the show and is such a good blocker that I think he can help in a lot of different ways in that area. So if that does mean the occasional shift into the backfield to either, you know, block on the outside on some sort of pitch play to Alexander Madison or one of the other running backs, or if he's lining up at inline and just adding another blocker on a zone type of scheme, whatever way you're using him, guys like this are really effective. There's a reason why the Josh Olivers of the league are still around because opponents just don't really know how to deal with it. And I think you see that from the Baltimore Ravens from the last few years, they've got that fullback who weighs like 270 pounds or 300 pounds. And they had Josh Oliver

and you've got Lamar Jackson and all these running backs who have kind of come and gone from Baltimore they've always succeeded I know that's not really your question but when you line up with these bigger packages I think that we saw this a little bit with Gary Kubiak and Kevin Stefanski when those guys were here that opposing teams just have a really tough time figuring out what to do because on a week to week basis, you're very rarely facing that. I mean, you every once in a while it's, you know, short yardage or a first down in 10, maybe they send out the big people and hand off, but almost never are you facing 20 times in a game where there's multiple tight ends.

So my question I, is how often are they actually going to do this with Josh Oliver? I mean, how many snaps is he really going to play? It seemed like last year they didn't have a whole heck of a lot of trust in Johnny Munt to be the guy that was out there very often to run those types of packages. But it also could have been one of the goals that they set forth is to try to change up their personnel more often. That is not really a Sean McVay thing. O'Connell obviously coming from the Rams. The McVay thing is more run the same personnel all the time. And the opponent does not know what the same looks like. It keeps you from giving away too many tendencies.

And both of those strategies are pretty good and both have proven to be effective, but you know, Oliver can be, I don't know if I want to say like chess piece exactly because I mean, I guess if a chess piece, if he's used for 10% of the snaps, isn't really that. But we've talked about this kind of in years past with CJ Hamm, where you can kind of fill in some gaps and do a lot of different things and give a lot of different looks. If one of those looks is rotating him into the backfield, and then you can get a good look at is the linebacker following him and lining up directly over him to kind of be in man coverage. You can get coverage indicators from that. It is a hard thing though, I think with the interior offensive line to give them significant help with this. I mean, because you would have to use it pretty often for it to matter a lot.

I also don't know how much teams are sending those blitzes against two tight ends because if you send and that's another thing right you send a blitz against two tight ends and you get a run play and they fly right by you and you get a 50 yard run or something like you don't want to do that if you're an opposing team so again similar to what we talked about with kenny wong woo they have these players who they can become more unique as an offense than they were last year. They were kind of lining it up three wide receivers and going with a lot of the McVay type of strategy, which I'm okay with, but I don't think that they had another gear or another button to push last year. It was sort of like if what they were dialing up from the outset wasn't

working or if it, or if the opponents changed what they were doing, which I think did happen in a couple of games where the Vikings came out hot to start. And then there was a defensive adjustment. I guess you can all remember those third quarters coming out of halftime. And it seemed like, where did they go? What happened to the offense? And that may have been I mean, maybe O'Connell adjusting and adding a little experience can help that but I also think that it had to do with do you have this other way of playing aside from just lining up three wide receivers throw it to Justin Jefferson all the time I mean no receiver is going to catch say they catch 12 passes and it's four each quarter like that's

that's 16 passes by the way but that's that's not gonna happen right I mean it's it's gonna be Jefferson catches three in the first quarter doesn't catch one in the second quarter right so if you were just relying so much with your offense on throwing the same guy over and over again that's gonna have peaks and again, that's going to have peaks and valleys and that's what they had. So it's a long answer to your question, but the answer is, yeah, they can do stuff like that sometimes, but it's not a solution to bad interior line play. I would also add that, that if their interior lineman, those three dudes, there's really no helping them. I mean, that's really the thing

about the interior offensive line. The tackles, you can help a little. And even though they're more valuable and people pay more money for them and they face the best of the best for edge rushers, I think in recent years that guard has become underrated in part because you can have the center block to one guard side a little bit more and leave another on the island you can't have two Garrett Bradbury's helping both guys and there has to be great communication between them so on occasion yeah you can have Josh Oliver assist but what you're really going to need is you're going to need those guys to take a big step forward this one comes from Brian as a well-known watcher of eighties and nineties

NFL games on YouTube. What is the most footbally football thing you've ever done? If you can't decide a top three would be great. The most footbally football thing I have ever done. Hmm. That is a interesting question. Uh, well, since I stopped playing football myself in junior high because I just wasn't very fast, not really fit for that sport, better at basketball and baseball than football.

So I didn't do anything football-y on a football field. I can say that. I would say, though, like the most love of the game football thing, I don't know if it pertains to the eighties and nineties exactly. The first thing that comes to mind is just that. And I know a lot of you out there who are gamers did exactly this. When I got the college football game might've been the 2014 version, but I don't remember which version this was. PS3, one of them probably ps3 i went through and changed the names from all the fake names to all the real names of the university of

buffalo bulls and i played several seasons to build up my recruiting to try to win a national championship with i believe I want to say it was Tyree Jackson, who was the quarterback at the time. And if you remember, there's that whole lawsuit thing and the reason we don't have the college football game. And I know I'm muddying my details a little bit on the years and stuff, but the reason is because everybody did that. It was very clearly the actual players, but with fake names, or maybe it was just on one of the games, number 46 or number 32, but you could go through and change the names. That was something I definitely did.

And if you're doing it for a Mac program, that's pretty football-y, I think. Not that different from if you go back, there was a Tecmo football game, the last version of Tecmo football, where it had an off season and you could sign free agents and make trades. My brother and I simulated through seasons to try to get the rosters correct, where we would trade away the players. I would say that's pretty football-y as well. There's another part of two that is just consistently watching games from the 80s and 90s so just the other day or i mean this one's a little more recent but i was watching that they would create these road to the super bowl features for nfl films and so it was like i don't know 11 o'clock

at night and i'm sitting there captivated by youtube watching a road to the super bowl this one was definitely in the 2000s. It might've been like 2006 that they were going through it. And it was the whole season. Trust me, go find these. These are great. If you like football, which I know you all do, but it was going through the whole season and I'm just sitting there going, Oh, I know. I forgot about that. Oh yeah. That guy had that crazy season. Oh, I forgot about that guy. That playoff game was insane. I can't believe it. Oh, it might've been 08 when the Cardinals made the Superbowl because the Cardinals and Eagles had that crazy championship game where I think it was the Cardinals got way

up. The Eagles came back. It was nuts. And that was, let's see, was it Pittsburgh and Indy maybe in the AFC championship game or no Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the AFC championship game. So it kind of takes you through those team seasons, the playoffs, everything else. I think that in the middle of summer, if you're watching something from 2008, which now is longer ago than it feels like. Pretty football-y. Yeah. And I tackled the bus. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. I was trying to think of something like running through a wall, ran through a wall. That's what I did. Probably also taking pictures of the apparatuses at Vikings practice and sending them to friends, including Courtney Cronin, who you all know, like football on a stick they also have

this thing that the receivers have to like duck under and juke like do they not know how to do that I don't know like I always wonder what percentage of those things actually do anything like the offensive linemen are like hopping over these these like pads that they lay on the ground like are they better because of that like I don know. I'm sure football coaches are freaking out. So maybe that's not football, you know. Folks, I know you have heard me talk a ton about my Oakley sunglasses this summer, but the more I wear them, the more I like them. I went on a little summer vacation and spent a ton of time outside in the sun. And let me tell you, before these, I had to squint even when I had sunglasses on.

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All right, well, let's move on before i just carry on talking about that the whole show this one comes from jim uh is mcbride a short yardage back or a grind them down back duane mcbride the rookie seventh rounder i don't know if he's anything yet i mean that's one thing about a seventh round running back is i liked the draft pick a lot. I think if you're going to draft running backs, you do it in the fifth to seventh round, unless it's a really good prospect who drops into the second or third. A Delvin Cook, for example, a Jonathan Taylor. I wouldn't tell teams, hey, don't draft a running back ever, even when it's this amazing player.

You all watch Jonathan Taylor smoke the gophers. You know how good that guy was coming out. So, okay. You can understand drafting players like that high, but if they're not of that ilk draft them in the later rounds and probably don't ever draft them in the first round. But when we are talking about somebody who has taken that late, pretty tough to get a gauge on what they're going to be. For minicamp and OTAs, he was out, I think the first two weeks and then practice, maybe the third week. I'm trying to remember exactly. And he was there in minicamp, but we didn't get a big look at him. Where we were standing is where the starters were playing. And then the rookies, third stringers, fourth

stringers, those guys were playing on an opposite field that we weren't watching. So I can't say, and it's really hard to get a gauge on a running back anyway. Like, wow, that Dwayne McBride blew me away in minicamp. I don't know. I mean, you know, I sometimes see reports from other teams, beat reporters who are like going into these great details about what happened in minicamp i'm like uh guys what are we talking about here but i guess you know the content machine is the content machine the point just being i don't know uh i think that mcbride has the body of a thick dude who runs over people uh and he has very little experience catching the ball, very little experience against high level talent, which is another thing that he's going to have to make a big adjustment for.

So I wouldn't be terribly surprised if we don't see a lot of Dwayne McBride or any of Dwayne McBride this year. And even if they get a look at him and they ultimately bring in another veteran running back, because right now it's a little thin with experience it's Madison and nobody else so it you know they might bring in some other veteran to compete or take a job there depending on how they feel about McBride and where he's at with training camp I don't know if you need a short yardage back when you have Alexander Madison I mean he's the exact kind of you know grindy running back the Leroy Horde type that you're looking for. So it's not like they need him to have this specific role. More likely than not, this year is about him getting his feet wet

in the NFL, learning how things work in the NFL, and then we'll see if anything else comes from it. Maybe he becomes a special teamer. I think it always speaks well of someone if they can play special teams right away, maybe inactive on game day type of guy. That's kind of how I see this year for McBride. We could always be surprised. I mean, you know, this happens from time to time where it's an undrafted guy or a late rounder and they're a rookie and they're running back and then they show up and like, wow, okay. But most of the time it's like at least one year where they have to get their feet wet in the NFL. So we'll see. We'll see.

I think though, I mean, best case scenario is he probably is a guy that can, you know, break off some big runs and run over people and be a grind them down type of back. But that's best case scenario. I mean, think of Alexander Madison was drafted way earlier and he's just finally getting his chance. So sometimes for running backs, if you're not like the guy, like a Bijan Robinson or something, it does take some time. All right.

This next question comes from at VickyTuff74 on Twitter. And I think he asked me if I could wear the sunglasses for his answer, but I'm not sure where I put them. Oh, hold on. Right here. Okay. So if you're watching on YouTube, this is for you, VickyTuff74. Included in his question, you wanted me to wear the

sunglasses. If you're listening, I'm wearing sunglasses and they're by Oakley. And you know what? They're awesome. And I look ridiculous in them, but I got another pair that looks more normal. These are like Justin Jefferson level cool, not for me, but for the podcast though, pretty baller. Anyway, here's the question. And it's about Justin Jefferson. Who is better Moss or Jefferson? And what's your guess on Hunter? I think we could get a first rounder. Okay. On Moss and Jefferson. I know that Justin Jefferson is breaking some of Randy Moss's records and he's putting his name up there and the annals of all-time receivers. And over his last three seasons, he has 400 more receiving yards than the next best guy. That is very,

very impressive. And I think if you're projecting out, you would already start to project a hall of fame caliber career because we've seen so many wide receivers. They start out hot, they stay hot, they're great for their whole career, and they are hall of fame level. That at that position, you can be great year after year after year. That is not a position that's generally like worn down by injuries or has a short peak like running backs. It's part of the reason why you can pay wide receivers is because you rarely get totally burned by them falling off the part of the reason why you can pay wide receivers is because you rarely get totally burned by them falling off the face of the earth with injuries. So if you're asking

right now what Justin Jefferson's career is going to look like, I mean, I would say, yeah, he's on a Hall of Fame trajectory. There have been some other guys that have gone cold or had those injuries after great shorter runs. But yeah, that's the track that he's on right now. And that is rare, super rare. The thing about Randy Moss is though, like what Justin Jefferson did last year is also what Cooper Cup did the year before. And what Stefan Diggs has kind of been doing in Buffalo. And again, it's great. It's the best in the league. It's kind of what Devontae Adams has been doing. It's kind of what Tyreek Hill has been doing.

You have an argument for Tyreek Hill last year as having just as good of a season as Justin Jefferson, considering that Hill had some different quarterbacks popping in and out. So there are other guys in the league that are sort of like in his stratosphere. That doesn't mean he's not the best. He's the best. But there are other guys that are kind of are sort of like in his stratosphere. That doesn't mean he's not the best. He's the best.

But there are other guys that are kind of floating around that are in his ballpark. When Randy Moss came into the league, he did things no one has ever, ever, ever, ever done before. And he immediately led the best offense at the time ever in NFL history, that 1998 offense. Who is better is the answer is Randy Moss. Like it's almost always Randy Moss, no matter who the question is, like who's better blank or Randy Moss is almost always Randy Moss. Unless you're talking about Jerry Rice or like quarterbacks, of course, are going to

be more valuable like Peyton Manning or something. But if you're talking receivers, position players, it's almost always him. Like Lawrence Taylor. There's a list of probably five to seven players in history that get put on a completely different pedestal of the most unstoppable, astounding, honored to have lived when they played type of caliber players, that's Randy Moss. And I'm not saying that you lost sight of it or anything. It's an interesting question because of how much Jefferson has been dominating in similar fashion to Randy Moss.

But I think when we consider the year that it's 1998 and Jerry Rice is kind of the only guy that we've ever seen do something like that, you know, greatest show on turf is coming in after that and so forth. So, you know, passing games were starting to explode with that a little bit more, but Randy Moss, I mean, running by people, doing things no one had ever done before. The level of dominance is just, it's so far ahead of the next person at the time. Maybe, you know, T.O. is probably the only one on his level during that time. And I think Moss was quite a bit better.

So, yeah, I mean, I look at Moss like the second best receiver of all time. So I don't know if I want to put that type of expectation on Justin Jefferson, but there's only a few people that you could even talk about that are not like headed in that, like that are headed in the direction of where Jefferson is headed. So it's a very, it's very high bar to talk about Randy Moss. As far as Daniel Hunter, my best guess is not a first round pick,

just a guess though, because a team could always get desperate. So my best guess is that he's probably going to, if they trade him, get something like a second and change. A second and a fourth, you send back a next year's fourth, whatever it may be. Is that good enough? Now that's the question. Would you do it for a second and a fourth? That's the question. For me, I think if that's the best you're going to do and the only alternative is to pay him $27 million a year, then I think you just have to take what you can get. And that's leverage and value. That's the hard part of it is that every other team knows that you have to pay him 25 whatever million dollars and those are the only two options so they're not necessarily giving you

a first round pick I think that as great as Daniil Hunter is and we're kind of talking about the levels to this when Khalil Mack was traded for all those picks back you know a while back probably a little bit of a different situation. Mack is younger. He's coming off one of the most dominant starts to a career in history. When Khalil Mack was most recently traded, it got a second round pick.

I think maybe Hunter's worth a little more than just a single second, but considering whoever trades for him has to also pay him, that's where other teams are going to say, hey, we can't give you a first and then also hurt our cap by paying him that much. So there you go. All right. We'll take the glasses off, but you can request the glasses if I can find them here in the room. All right.

Next question comes from LittleGress89. Concerned about Kwesi keeping the scouting department the same as Rick's. Rick's recent drafts had largely been absent of talent outside of JJ and Derrissaw. That is a pretty big, let's just real quick, pretty big outside of a guy we were just comparing to Randy Moss and the second best tackle in football last year.

But I get what you're saying. And I agree with you. I agree. There was a lot of busts, a lot of bad luck. It's one of the main reasons they're here. But it is a funny sort of sentence, like outside of these two unbelievable players. But yeah, I get what you're saying. Rather see Kweisi put his own stamp on it.

So number one, this came up a lot during the draft. A lot of similar questions to this about the scouting department, which what I've always kind of stuck with is it's hard to really say with the scouting department how much impact each person has. If they were Rick Spielman's scout, does that make them bad? But what if they were also responsible for the 2015 draft, right? I mean, we don't know. The Vikings had good and bad drafts during the time Rick Spielman was here.

And sometimes they nailed it and sometimes they missed on it. And the recent misses, especially in the secondary, really hurt them. But there's also another element, too, of, well, how much was it assistant coaches? How much was it Mike Zimmer? How much was it Mike Zimmer? How much, like all these things, there's so many factors that go into a successful draft. What if you were about to draft a guy who was a complete winner, but then someone else took them and you got the not complete winner, right? I mean, all these things. That's why the draft is so much based on kind of randomness and luck and value that we talk about are you

handling it value wise positional wise trades those types of things I also think that a lot of scouts tend to see the same stuff in these players that the scouts put together their reports they turn them in and then the decision makers have to make the decisions based on what they read about the talent of the players, the observations about the players, the backgrounds, all those things. So I have a really tough time saying, I don't think that every scouting department in the league is exactly the same. I do think that a lot of teams are seeing the same things and they're basing their draft boards and their draft decisions based on how they play schematically and, you know,

stylistically, what the head coach wants, what the assistant coaches wants. But with all that said, they actually did just make a pretty big change in the scouting department. They added 10 new people and changed around some roles for others. And I also think this, think about like if you were working, let's pick a job in retail and you were working for a store and then your boss came to you and said, you know what? There's a bigger store that you're going to go work at. Okay. And you're going to manage that store. And this is a bigger jump for you.

It's going to be your first time in like big time management at this store. If you went into the store and fired everyone who worked at the store and then hired other people that you knew from your previous store, I don't know how well that goes over. And also you might be firing good people. So what was it wrong for Kweisi Adafomensa to evaluate what he had in the scouting department, who fits his vision, who doesn't, and then bring in new people? Like, I don't think so.

I don't think that there was anything wrong with the process here. The other thing is too, that this last draft, and we're gonna see, like these drafts are not decided yet. We haven't decided that the 2022 draft is a bust and we don't know anything about the 2023 draft. But I do like the way that they handled their business with limited draft capital in 2023. So I don't mean to completely dismiss this idea about the scouting department. I just don't know. I'm not in the scouting department. So it's

hard to say, were there people... I'm sure if you're going to your new store that you're going to find that some people do need to go. And it looks like that's what they've done. And they've overhauled it in a couple of years, but I think it would have been way over reactionary of Kweisi in his first year to get here and then just fire everyone after one draft. I think getting a feeling after two drafts of who he wants to be there, who he wants to work with is kind of exactly what you're talking about. And I think this last draft showed more of a Kwesi Adafo Mensah stamp on it. And he kind of said the same himself. So yeah, I think they are doing what you're asking. It just probably took longer than what you maybe thought they should have done.

All right, this one comes from Hoag Smash. Vikings should trade Justin Jefferson before having to pay him. The obscene amount he's sure to command will be a problem for the team. Don't see many teams winning rings built around a wide receiver. So two things on that. He will ask for a lot of money.

If you look at the way that contracts are structured with wide receivers or really anyone that signs it, one of the advantages of signing it now is that you can spread out the money kind of however you want to. So A.J. Brown last year did not have a very high cap hit. He signed a huge deal with Philly. AJ Brown this year does not have a very high cap hit. This was the same thing with Josh Allen when he signed his extension. They actually had, I believe it was six years of Josh Allen, because we always talk about that four-year window, but it was really six years with small or very manageable cap hits. So the minute you sign the extension, it's not like his cap hit goes to $32 million.

Like that doesn't have to work that way. And you can set it up so you can move money around later when you're in that winning window and you can use some of those advantages. Again, it wide receiver contract is not going to, it's going to be big and it's going to be something you have to work around. There's no question about that. So I'm not saying that it's not something you have to work around. The thing is though, that you want to have greatness on your team. You don't win without greatness on your team. You can trade Justin

Jefferson for draft picks, but those draft picks could turn out to be, we were just talking about all the failed Spielman draft picks. It's, it's sort of like the family guy, what's in the box thing. Like what's in the box. I hope, you know, it's another box. Like if I, if you trade Jefferson's like, I hope it's another elite receiver who can't be stopped and is one of the greatest players to ever step foot on an nfl field like the thing the other part of this too is um when it comes to the super bowl thing that's look trent dilfer's not better than dan marino so we really can't do the what about the ring stuff but even if you want to,

the Chiefs won with Tyreek Hill, widely considered a top three wide receiver in the league. We agree on that top five. Let's see. Cooper Cup had a historically good season. And in the final drive of the Superbowl, who did Matthew Stafford throw the football to? Cooper Cup. So that is kind of part of it. Oh, by the way, the teams that lost the Super Bowl, A.J. Brown, they scored 35 points in the Super Bowl with A.J. Brown. Again, widely considered to be a top five receiver in the league. The Buffalo Bills weren't any good until they got Stefan Diggs. I wouldn't look at the Bills trade for Diggs and go like,

ah, who needs those receivers? I think they needed the that receiver you can go back all i mean jerry rice rand randy moss had a 16 and 0 season and a 15 and 1 season now he didn't win the super bowl but i think i would take the 1998 vikings team again wouldn't you um gosh i mean greatest show on turf is Isaac Bruce, Torrey Holt, elite receivers. We can go through any era. John Stallworth, right? I mean, every era has great receivers that are playing in Super Bowls.

I mean, the Bengals were one drive away. And if they win, then Jamar Chase has a Super Bowl ring. Instead of Cooper Cupp, both teams had elite receivers. Julio Jones was up 28 to3 on the New England Patriots. I don't think that Julio Jones plays defense. I mean, that's just not really a well-researched comment, I guess. I mean, your question about Justin Jefferson and the paycheck, I think, is valid. And they have to, this is important. If they sign him to an extension, they really have to plan very well around what he's going to make.

So that is absolutely true. The what about receiver rings thing? Sorry, that's just not factually accurate. But when we're talking about like Jefferson's contract, this is why there could be some conflict because the Vikings might want a five-year deal that allows them to spread out the money we're talking about like Jefferson's contract, this is why there could be some conflict because the Vikings might want a five-year deal that allows them to spread out the money a little bit more how they want to. But if Jefferson wants a shorter term deal, that's going to be hard.

So, you know, there, there is something to that, but there's no universe where you take the best players in the world and trade them. You don't do that. Not in any sport. Like, you know how many draft picks LeBron could have got the Cavs? A lot, but you don't trade LeBron. And football, I understand, is not exactly like basketball, but it kind of is in the way that, yeah, if the Patriots had traded Brady, they'd be getting a lot of draft picks. Or how about like Peyton Manning before he won a Super Bowl? Like, I would trade that guy away. Who needs him and not winning Super Bowls with him? Like, usually you need Cooper Cup, Aaron Donald, Odell Beckham, Vaughn Miller, Andrew Whitworth, like a lot of great talent to win a Super Bowl. And, you know, last year, I mean,

there's the Mahomes exception of course there is they also the Chiefs have a really expensive awesome defensive tackle Chris Jones who they paid money so there's like there's kind of this like what would you call it like a twisted money ball idea of don't pay anyone but you know a lot of time I mean, Moneyball is great and changed everybody's life. But the Yankees and Red Sox were the ones who won, right? So usually it's the teams with the best superstar talent who are driving championships. I wouldn't get rid of a guy like that for pretty much anything unless you were giving me another guy like that. All right. This one comes from John too quick for me. Let's see. What's the possibility that

no one in the NFC North reigns Supreme and we have a four team nine and eight division standing. I suppose that's possible. Now I did look this up. I did. I usually try no research, but this was also in the, I included this one because I thought it was a great question. It was also in the written version of the mailbag. So if you get that and you're a subscriber to the newsletter, go subscribe, purpleinsider.substack.com or just purpleinsider.com. You can find it from there. But I thought this was hilarious. So I wanted to bring it up on the podcast as well. This almost happened in 2011, where three teams in the AFC West went eight and eight and one team went seven and nine.

I could be what we're looking at. We could. The one thing is though, that holds me back from that. And I, it's just so hard because they are the lions, but when you compare all the teams rosters together and you lay them all out on paper,

let's say it's like that meme with the guy who's connecting the yarn all together, whatever the lions have a better roster. I think I, I just think they have a better roster. They have a really good offensive line. They've got weapons. They've got a great receiver.

They have just stacked up on that defensive side with high draft picks and free agent signings. I think that they could do better than nine and eight. But if you told me that all these teams finished somewhere within 10 and seven and eight and nine, I would totally believe you. I mean, it's, it's just very possible. Every one of these teams has a pretty serious flaw. Now for Detroit, it was the defense. So it's going to have to depend on whether they can fix that defense or not. But I mean, we don't know what Jordan love can do. There's some flaws on that team. You know, their weapons still are not maybe exceptional Chicago getting to nine and eight. It's funny how the perception of all these things would be different though, right?

If the Lions go 9-8 at this point, it's a disappointment. And if Chicago goes 9-8, it's a huge probably celebration. We made the right decision on Justin Fields and all that. But what you're saying is not absurd, and it is a hilarious notion that we would have four teams with the same record, and then it would be all stupid tiebreakers for who goes into the playoffs. All right, this is from at Zen Kid. I think Kweisi Adafomensa, or do you think Kweisi Adafomensa will get better at being a GM negotiator based on the deals given to Thielen and other free agents and trades. One has to wonder if

they know the Vikings are easy prey. Well, I mean, the Thielen thing last year, they were in a position where they were trying to win going into last year, which meant that they needed to do everything they could, which meant handing out some contracts that weren't really favorable. And on Thielen's side, they did have the advantage there, knowing that the Vikings were running it back and trying to win. And so giving out that reworked contract to Thielen was a negative. I thought that the trade on draft day, the trades on draft day, his first draft definitely dropped down too far.

I don't know how hindsight will play out with that, but that was my opinion at the time is that you dropped out of the area. We were just talking about if you get a superstar, like that's where the superstars are drafted. Usually Jefferson wasn't, but usually they are. And you trade out of that area. You take a risk of getting a, you know, a much worse prospect than you would at the top. So there's that.

That I was not overly impressed with. I don't know if that's a negotiation, but not getting a first round pick when you drop back that far. You know, we've kind of litigated that over and over again. But if we're just kind of making a scoreboard here, pretty good trade for TJ Hawkinson. Really good player. We'll see if they extend him at the right time. They were going to win the division. They were rolling. They had a chance to do something in the playoffs. Make that trade. Get a player who could be long-term part of your team for a second round pick. He's young. Tight ends can go into the early

30s, if not mid 30s, if they're lucky with injuries. Yeah, that's pretty good trade for a second round pick for a player of that caliber who Detroit drafted at the very top of the league. I like what they've done so far this offseason where they've set boundaries and basically said they're not going over them. They went to Thielen and said, well, we'll give you this pay cut to come back and then said like, all right, well, if you're not going to take that, we'll see what they're doing with Daniil Hunter. I guess we'll see. It's also when we talk about negotiation, it's also not a one man band.

It's not one dude who sits alone in his office while everybody else is just existing. And then he's calling up people and saying like, this is all I'll give you. 33 million hangs up the phone. Like that's not really how it's working. They have an entire front office. So like he's working with Rob Brzezinski, who's been part of this team for a very long time. So he's working with other people in the front office to determine like what these trades are, what these contracts are and so forth. I do think there's something to, I wouldn't call it easy prey. I don't think that's it. I think that there's something to relationships in the NFL. And so when you are a first time new

general manager, it takes time to build up relationships, make trades. And I'm sure that, you know, the sharks see blood in the water when it's a new GM and they know he wants to do a certain thing. And maybe that was the case in the first draft. I don't know. They decided not to trade down and draft Jordan Addison. That was a good idea in my mind. We're going to need a much bigger sample on this, I would say. I don't want to dismiss what you're saying.

I just don't think there's enough. I mean, trades. Like, well, he makes the biggest one was good. The trade down was not. Ross Blacklock, Jalen Rager. I don't know. Like I didn't like either one of those, but we're talking about, you know, late round draft picks and conditional picks and stuff like that. So I don't know. I think we need a lot more how this Jefferson thing gets handled. That is going to tell us something for sure.

But I don't think there's really any leverage there to bring Jefferson's price down. It's going to be what it's going to be, but like they need to get it done. They need him to be a Viking for a long time. So, you know, that's going to say something. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, with the way that they handled like the Kirk situation, at least so far, it sounds like from some of the reporting has been done. Andrew Kramer mentioned it on the show that, you know, Kirk wanted multiple years and they didn't want to go there. And they kind of held the line and said, all right, well, then we'll play this game of chicken with you. I think that's good negotiating. I don't know.

Like it's there's there's a ledger here and there's been some good and some bad, and I'm not ready to say, Oh man, this guy, he's just been being eaten up by everybody. Definitely don't want to say that. Um, but I think we're just going to have to find out, uh, after a while. All right. Uh, let's get in two more gone on for a while here. Um, probably cause I ranted on a few of these. So I'll go rapid fire for these last three questions. This one's from the Crowbar at the Crowbar on Twitter. What position group is most likely to outperform their expectations into the season?

Most likely is probably the corners. If you listen to the last show that I did with Eric Eager, talking about those cornerback numbers, the expectations on the corners are as low as it gets. I mean, mine too. I have no expectations aside from I assume Byron Murphy is going to be a pretty good player. But we don't know what to expect at all with these corners. When you look at the previous years, it's been so rough.

If they can be average-ish uh that would exceed expectations i think the expectation right now is that the vikings are going to have one of the worst secondaries in the entire nfl and if that is not true they will have exceeded it but not only that have set themselves up pretty well for the future if that can be the case so i think that's the position group most likely to probably running back as well. To go around the fantasy world. I don't think there's a lot of people saying Alexander Madison's going to run

for 1200 yards. Maybe you will, or maybe like where we started. Can I Wong will be this chess piece that ends up being a huge part and they could have a very good running game. I could see it. Those are probably the two. And then offensive line. I mean, right now we're very cautiously saying,

yeah, maybe, but things come together in the middle of that line. They could exceed expectations. It'd be quite good. From at bro, you lame. Oh, bro, you lame. That's good. I like that.

Let's see. Will Kirk have another season of showing leadership qualities Bro, you lame. Oh, bro, you lame. That's good. I like that. Let's see. Will Kirk have another season of showing leadership qualities, or was Kirko changed more likely a product of having a camera crew following him? Yeah, there's that Netflix thing coming out. No, I don't think that was it. I think that it's a product of them winning games. Most of the time, most of the time, all these things that we talk about with, well, this guy's a leader and this coach is this or this. Usually it's just reverse engineering the narrative to fit the

win loss record. I mean, let's be honest here. They only play so many games and we get a lot of time to talk about it. I'm not saying this show is part of that all the time, but for the most part, you're only as good in your locker room as your win-loss record. And I will give you an example. In 2016, the locker room could not have been worse. I mean, just the second half of that season, wreckage. Mike Zimmer's eyes falling out.

The cornerbacks are going rogue. I mean, it's just a mess, right? No one was happy. Terrible situation. Going to 2017, they go through adversity. They lose key players, but they're winning games. And they came together like nothing I'd ever covered before with that group, teaching each other, making each other better. Teddy's helping Case Keenum behind the scenes become a better quarterback for that team and receiver group. And even though Zimmer had his moments where players I'm sure weren't happy,

it's a lot easier to get over it when you win and you win and you win. And that's what it often comes down to. The reason that Kirk Cousins has not had that type of year as a leader before is because while one has his coach didn't believe in him. So that permeates and people can say it doesn't, but a lot of those guys had been with Zimmer and they had won 13 games and they knew, right? So they had a trust level and a belief

level in Zimmer. And he pretty much made it clear to everybody that he never wanted Kirk Cousins. So how are you going to get the whole team to buy into him as a leader when the head guy is pretty much saying, I never wanted you? That's pretty tough. That's a pretty tough situation. And then when you make as much money as he does, and guess what? These other players, they know what you make. And you don't come through in a lot of situations, which he didn't. Last year he did, but in the previous years he didn't. That's who they're going to look at. And it's a lot harder to get everybody else following you when that happens, when you're not coming through in some of the biggest moments, which again was an issue where they had a lot of games where they were close 2020, 2021, and they didn't win them. So there was a lot, you know, there's always

the finger pointing when a team doesn't win. And then when they do it's, oh, he's a leader now. He's been leading us. Well, yeah. I mean, it's easy to jump on anybody's bandwagon when your team is 13 and four. But, and then you could say, well, you know, real great leaders are there when the going is tough. Now, usually they leaders are there when the going is tough. Now, usually they just replace them if the going gets tough. So even if you're the greatest leader in the world, if your team goes five and 12, you're not going to be leading anything. So it's a it's a funny world we live in, isn't it? Last one. This one comes from Swedes Skull. If the Vikings end up not being able to trade up for a quarterback while also losing Kirk to free agency, which veteran one-year stopgap quarterback is destined to be the next Vikings QB. That's I this team. You know, I looked back in previous years at other teams who kind of went through a transition like this.

And the one that was kind of scary was the Houston Texans before Deshaun Watson. They had like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer. You can kind of get into that like where Denver was when Teddy was starting the whole season. And funny, he played better than Russell Wilson. But Russell Wilson is still kind of an ideal scenario where it's some unhappy quarterback or team is moving on from their quarterback. They join your team.

Your team's been built up to win. That's an ideal scenario. The Vikings could look into that, but I don't know. I mean, are we talking about, you know, Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton? You just don't want to be in that range, but also if they do have a down year, they can't really have another one because if you have another one, then things start to get a little dicey. And you talk about leadership, tension, culture. It's going to get real tense if you don't have a quarterback that can take you somewhere,

or at least is showing the potential to take you somewhere if you do move on from Kirk Cousins. And then especially if Cousins has a good year and then they move on, people will second guess. It's not easy running a football team, folks. Not easy at all. But that right there, what you're describing that's some scary stuff it's yeah Mitch Trubisky right or bring back Teddy I don't know I don't know

maybe Teddy's not going to play anymore anyone but Carson Wentz how about that for an answer so I don't know but that is something that they don't want to get caught into is not being able to find that quarterback but that's you know it's a very real scenario what you're describing it's a very tricky game they're playing if they move on from cousins but i also don't think they have a choice i mean he's staying with cousins also kind of locks you into a future that you already know where that's going and he's probably not getting better with age so this is the only choice you have is to kind of go down that road of the unknown uh but yeah you don't you don't want to get caught up with the like the i mean

the raiders they're getting jimmy garoppolo and then it's jimmy garoppolo's hurt and you know they don't even they put something in his contract that they can like move on from him because he's hurt or you get to the carolina thing that we were talking about the other day with Julian Council. Hey, maybe it's a good idea for us to trade for Sam Darnold. That's not good. Yeah, you don't want to get caught up into that. So a very scary situation to end the podcast, but it's only late June. So let's not lose our minds just yet about what's going to happen next offseason but very real very real situation all right thanks for all the questions everybody and uh go to purpleinsider.com hit me up at matthew collar on twitter anytime and i will put your questions in the queue and make

sure you get on the fans only episode so thanks everybody for listening and i will catch you later