Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Lamar Jackson isn't in play, right? How can Lewis Cine benefit from Brian Flores (A Fan's Only pod)

Episode Date: February 25, 2023

Matthew Coller answers Vikings fans questions -- everything from whether Lamar Jackson could be a trade option if he doesn't sign with the Ravens to why Chandon Sullivan didn't work out to Lewis Cine's future under Brian Flores and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this is another fans-only episode in which I answer only fans' questions from Vikings fans that have been sent to either purpleinsider.com or to me on Twitter, at Matthew Collar. My DMs are open, so you can always just send me a DM there. Or if you just send a regular at mention, just make sure that you say that it's a fans only question for me to answer. And your questions have continued to roll in. I'm very excited to answer a bunch of them here for this episode. And then

it's off to the NFL combine this week, where I don't think we're going to have exactly a lot of resolutions, but we're going to get a lot of hints and ideas of what is next for the Minnesota Vikings direction. Kevin O'Connell, Kwesi Adafo-Mensah will be talking there, as well as the rest of the NFL. And generally speaking, the Combine really shapes what's going to happen through the rest of the offseason, where there will be all the contracts discussed with upcoming free agents, teams meet with all of the agents, and then, of course, all of the prospects as well. And then after they participate in the combine,

we have a really good idea of where draft boards stand. And I even took my time today to read the entire transcript of a Daniel Jeremiah from NFL Network teleconference, where he answered a bunch of different questions from reporters. And he snuck in ever so slightly that the Vikings might look for quarterbacks to, quote, develop. So I don't know exactly what that means, but we will keep an eye on all of the buzz from Indianapolis next week. I'm going to be there starting on Monday and then coming back late on Thursday night.

So that's kind of how the week's going to play out. Look for a ton of different podcasts. And if you're watching on YouTube, videos as well from the NFL Combine, it's going to be fun. So let's get right into your questions. The first one comes from Chuck, and it is coming in blazing hot. Should the Vikings try to trade for Lamar Jackson? Now there was a report that came out on Friday that Lamar Jackson has submitted offers to the Baltimore Ravens and he's his own agent. Remember, which I think around combine time in the year that he was drafted was discussed quite a bit

that he's his own agent and maybe he works with his mom or something like that. But he is submitting his own offers to the Baltimore Ravens and that all of them included more guaranteed money than Deshaun Watson. Now, the thing about Deshaun Watson's contract is it has just sent the entire NFL and the quarterbacks haywire because it was so much more guaranteed money than has ever happened before in the NFL. So with Lamar Jackson, if you're him, you look at what Deshaun Watson did in his career, you compare it to yourself, you look at deshaun watson got and say um what about me i mean i'm as good as deshaun watson i've done just as much in my career and also there are no other problems involved with me lamar jackson so why aren't you going to pay me like him

and i'm sure that the baltimore ravens are saying well why don't we pay you a little bit more like Kyler Murray, who got, by the way, if you forgot, $45 million a year for Kyler Murray. So good luck to Jonathan Gannon with that situation and building a team around Kyler Murray. I mean, he's got to have a better offense than Cliff Kingsbury had, but it's still going to be a tough task with a quarterback that expensive. And the Ravens are generally a very smart team that makes smart decisions and giving the most guaranteed money in history that tops Deshaun Watson might be a steep ask. I still am going to have to see it to believe it as far as Lamar Jackson actually not being there. But let's just talk for a second, just a second. This is the world we live in about the Houston Texans. So the Houston

Texans, they move on from Deshaun Watson. They have a horrendous year. It's awful. It's miserable. And now they're going to draft number two overall. And they're going to pick either CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, or Will Leffs, who are four terrific prospects that they can now build around going forward. Now, I'm not saying that they ever wanted to get rid of Deshaun Watson or that he's not worth any money and you should just always get rid of every quarterback. I think that gets misconstrued sometimes when people talk about that debate with the rookie quarterback contract.

It's not that you should never pay anyone. It's that you have to be very discerning and you have to have a pretty good plan after you pay that person for how it's going to work to build the roster around him. I think that it's misunderstood sometimes that you just shouldn't pay any really good quarterback. The Baltimore Ravens should pay Lamar Jackson if they want to meet his price and they can build around him and he's good enough. But there also are concerns. I mean, health is the number one for Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens, that they should be a little bit worried

with some of his injuries over the last couple of years. If those accumulate, that was really what this going back a ways. but it's what derailed Randall Cunningham in Philadelphia was that he had a couple of years of injuries in part because he was running around a lot. But this goes for any quarterback that health is always going to be a big deal. So I doubt that they want to give up that much guaranteed money, take up that much cap space to have Lamar Jackson as their quarterback long-term. But if you think about it from the Texans perspective, it was devastating for them what happened with Deshaun Watson because that was their franchise guy forever. And now just two

years later, it looks pretty promising. And if you're Baltimore and you kind of believe in that, you don't have to lock into the same guy forever. They could decide to trade him rather than franchise tag him and try to play out next year. And with Lamar as steadfast as it seems for him to push for this contract, I know that the NFL has made it much harder to hold out, but if anybody was going to do that, it might be Lamar since he's already made a lot of money in his career through endorsements and things like that and being a first round pick. So let's just say all of those things kind of come together. And Baltimore does say, yes, we're going to trade him, which I'm still very, very skeptical

about. The Vikings will make that phone call, I would think. Last year, they made the phone call about Deshaun Watson that it was reported that they were one of the teams that did check in about Deshaun Watson. And I believe the same reporting happened with Atlanta. And that's why Matt Ryan demanded to be traded to the Indianapolis Colts. But Kirk Cousins still signed an extension after that with the Vikings. But this time, if they check in on Lamar Jackson and get the price tag for Lamar Jackson and feel like it

might be worth it, I mean, you really have to consider it because he is an NFL MVP. And when you look at the receivers he's had, Mark Andrews is a tight end he's really the best weapon that lamar jackson has had and then who i mean hollywood brown rashad bateman you're talking about giving him justin jefferson the problem is justin jefferson is about to be as expensive as a quarterback and how are you going to make that work it essentially would be a two-man team going forward. It would be the Lamar Jackson and Justin Jefferson show. And then I don't know how you build the rest of the roster. I don't know how you afford Christian Derrissaw. I don't know what draft capital you're using to build a defense or any other weapons around

those two guys. I just don't know because you would have to give up more likely than not three first round draft picks and maybe change to get Lamar Jackson. And that's another thing that the Ravens have to consider is, is it worth it? And the answer is still probably no. Like if you have one of those guys who every single year they go out there is good enough to put you on the map and put you in the playoffs, then that's probably someone that you do want to pay. Even if you would get draft picks and even if you would get cap space. Sometimes we talk about this with Justin Jefferson. I think in the last fans only episode,

I may have kind of lost it a little bit about people asking if they should trade Justin Jefferson. Like no superstars win Superbowls. It's, you know, cap space is wonderful. And so is draft capital, but you really could use a superstar quarterback to put you in position to win a Superbowl. So it is a difficult equation. I fully understand it. We talk about it here all the time on the show. Um, but I don't know that the Vikings are in a good position to do that, or if they even have enough they have the 24th I'm sorry the 23rd overall pick and then what right like you're gonna give that you can't give them a second for this year and then you're gonna give them next year's draft pick but then what if it's

a tough year with Lamar Jackson coming in for his first season the same way that Seattle you know they got um Balt or not Baltimore, but Denver's pick. And it's going to be really high. And now they're in a great position. So you don't really want to be that team that gives up the farm, has it does not work. And then you are just stuck in purgatory again for a really long time. I don't think the Vikings should try to trade for Lamar Jackson. I don't think it matches up with their timeline and the rest of where their roster is. If they were one quarterback away from the Super Bowl, if we thought they had a stout defense and we thought they had just everything in place to get over the top, then I would say yes. And there are some teams in the league that should

say yes or probably take that swing if Baltimore is going to trade him. I just don't know how the Vikings would make that work. I would say this, though, for entertainment purposes, it would be amazing. I mean, you're talking about two of the most exciting players of the last decade in the NFL. If they did it, they won't get criticized on the show because that would be a real go for it move. And I think one of the criticisms of the Vikings and their management recently

is that there just hasn't been enough go for it type moves really since signing Kirk Cousins. There have been a lot more of let's get another defensive tackle to try to keep the train on the tracks types of moves. So in Imagination Land, that's a pretty fun one, Chuck. In reality, probably doesn't end up ever really materializing to a discussion point with the Vikings. But if it does, that'd be crazy. All right. I mean, they got far once, you never know. Next question comes from Matt. An elite CB1 can change the geometry of a defense. Is there a corner with the ability to do that available? And is it worth spending the money it would take on one?

So the answer to your question is I agree with your statement, actually, first, which is that it changes the geometry. I definitely agree with that because, you know, when you think about players, a lot of times we don't really talk about in this sport how they impact each other, like how you make other players better. But if we go back to Xavier Rhodes and the Vikings just a couple of years ago when he was at his peak, if you were Trey Waynes or you were Mackenzie Alexander or you were Terrence Newman, did you ever have to face an elite receiver? Not really. I mean, not very often because it was always Xavier Rhodes who was taking on that assignment. So when you played Antonio Brown, or when you played Mike Evans, or when you played Julio Jones, that was just Xavier Rhodes' job, or Elshon Jeffrey at one

point where they had some really good battles. But that was just always his job and it was nobody else's. So if you're CB2, then you're always taking on wide receiver two because you know Xavier Rhodes has him. Now, the traveling corner, it doesn't happen a whole lot anymore these days. But still, the shutdown corner you saw from someone like Sauce Gardner last year or Jalen Ramsey maybe two years ago, especially how valuable that was. Now, Jalen Ramsey is on the trade block.

There was a report that the Rams are going to trade him. But that's another one where how much can you give up to get Jalen Ramsey? Is it 24 and the third round pick? And how are you fitting his salary cap hit into what you're doing? Plus last year, he actually played a lot of zone. Is he going to be as comfortable playing in the Brian Flores system? It may be, but I don't know that for sure how that's going to fit. That would be a consideration. The team that should really be looking at Jalen Ramsey is actually down the road, which is the Detroit Lions, that they need that CB1 to go along with Jeff Okuda, who's turned out to be a good player,

but it struggled with his health a little bit. They could really improve with Jalen Ramsey, and they actually have the cap space and the assets to make that happen. That's a little bit of the problem when every discussion comes up with these last couple of years in the off season. It's like, and I, and I love getting these tweets, so I'm not criticizing people who send them, but like, Hey, should we have interest in this guy? And it's like, I don't know how you're going to afford that guy. Why is he taking your offer when someone else can top your offer who has the cap space or the draft capital. And that's what the Detroit Lions really have is the draft capital. And that draft capital is a big deal. If you're the Rams and you're trying to get maybe some of those draft picks that you traded away when you said bleep them picks.

So Jalen Ramsey, it's not impossible. His name would be out there. Looking at the free agent corners, somebody who played really well except for one play in the super bowl, James Bradbury is a free agent. Uh, Jonathan Jones played great last year for new England, though. I would always say that maybe should buyer beware a little bit for X new England corners. Sometimes the Belichick magic there, uh, he finds corners moves on from them. If he doesn't want to sign a guy, I don't know, be a little concerned. But there are, yes, there are a handful of corners in the league who are out there who are pretty good buys. Byron Murphy is someone maybe to keep an eye on for the Vikings. That's not exactly the shutdown corner. See, that's the thing about what you're asking is,

I mean, we're talking about someone who is being looked at as the savior of the secondary in a way when you're talking about changing the geometry there's probably five to seven corners in the league who change the geometry and everybody else is just trying to keep the train on the track so there's a lot of guys who are mostly keep the train on the tracks type of players. And some of them are good and have good arguments for why the Vikings should look at them. But they're not the types of players who are going to change your fate really as a defense. They could be the cog in the machine. So they really need to look for cogs in the machine with the money that they have and then try to develop their corners, whether that's drafting one or if it's, you know, signing a couple in free agency,

hoping that there's development from Andrew Booth and Caleb Evans. But if you're going to get a geometry changing player at that position, there's really only one way to get it, and that's to draft it in the first round. And that's just the reality, I think, would be to look at first round corners and take a swing. Look for the best guy you could possibly get and hope that he turns out to be great. And if he turns out to be good, that really helps. Doesn't solve all the problems. But as far as going to free agency, looking to trades, there really isn't that person out there who is going to change the game for you but they should be looking to add at least one or two veteran corners because if they just rely well it depends on what their timeline is like if they're

if they're thinking about this as a reset year then they should just play their young players and draft one but if they're thinking of it as a kind of win now or chips to the middle of the table type of thing, then they need to probably sign multiple corners. So that's one of the positions that will tell us kind of a lot about this Vikings timeline and how they look at their path down the road here. Next question comes from Brett with one T, says, with Brian Flores taking the reins of this

defense, how do you see the development of Lewis scene over the next few years? Yeah, that's a great question. And that is one of the first people that I thought of when they hired Brian Flores is Lewis scene that I think that you can talk yourself into it, making a lot of sense for Brian Flores to be a better fit with Louis seen. And it's not a hard argument. Like Louis seen ran a four, three, seven, and it looks like at least from social media and you know, who knows social media isn't always real, but looks like his rehab is coming along. He sent out a video of him running full speed or what looked like kind of full speed. Again, hard to say, not playing doctor off of that, but looks like he's on his way back.

So if Lewis Seen is on his way back and is able to get into training camp, start the season after that horrific injury that he went through in London, then I think he's got a good chance to get on a path with Brian Flores where he maximizes that 4-3-7 mixed with being, I think he's 6'2", and that downhill kind of play that he was really famous for in Georgia, where he was a guy that when there was a screen or there's a running play to the outside, he was downhill hitting guys and blowing plays up. And that's what I remember from the national championship was how good he was at just finding the ball, like a heat seeking missile. And that works for Brian floors. Um, you know, the other day we talked about it with intern Haley about how the safeties blitz so much more in this defense. Safeties did not blitz at all with Ed Donatel. Well, Lewis seems going to be a guy who's blitzing.

So if he's even good at using that skill, which was his top skill in my mind, just coming downhill and making plays, well, that's really good for him. But at the same time, you have to play the whole position. You can't just be doing that, just being a blitzer, because then you're kind of a bit player. And one concern would be when you start on the depth chart as a rookie fourth at the safety position, you wonder about just getting it, like understanding route combinations, being able to react, being able to play to maximize that speed.

Because there are plenty of players in the past who are late draft picks or who didn't route combinations, being able to react, being able to play to maximize that speed because there are plenty of players in the past who are late draft picks or who didn't work out or top draft picks that struggled that had physical skill, but they couldn't master the details of the position. I don't know which way that's going to go with Lewis. I would never declare after one season, oh, he's never going to get it or whatever else. I just think that's the path, though. That's going to go with Lewis scene. I would never declare after one season. Oh, like he's never going to get it or whatever else. I just think that's the path though. That's what has to happen is yeah. It's great if he's a blitzer, but he really needs to master all of the elements.

So he's got to be able to play deep over the top. You can't just say blitz every time because then the defense is going to know what you're doing. You have to be able to cover. You have to be able to understand all the nuances and have them click in to the point where Brian Flores is going to trust you. So I think it's good. It's very good for Louis scene. It's a better fit for Louis scene, but it's really up to him how he's going to be able to master the defense and just the nuances of playing defense in the NFL. And I think after a year

of learning, even though he wasn't playing, we should see improvement. And it might be hard to tell though, because of the injury, if he isn't in training camp and he isn't ready to go, then maybe the second half of the season is where we're looking for him to come in. This is what I mean with prospects. It can be very hard to know when will we be sure about Louis seen? And I don't really have that answer right now, but I do think that your premise is, is fair that it should be good. Or at least I think that's what you're maybe implying or asking is, is it going to be good for him? And I think the answer is that yes, it should be. Uh, next question comes from at tur itUp. Maybe, maybe that's how it's said on Twitter. We talk about cap space and roster construction. What percentage of the cap

would a team of league average replacement players take up and what record would they finish with? That's a fun question. Well, I think there's a floor in the NFL for one. So the answer is 180 million was last year's floor. And I don't know what this year's is going to be. But whatever the cap floor is, is exactly what you would have to spend on replacement players, which would mean that there's going to be some replacement players who make too much money. Although a replacement quarterback is still going to get paid a good chunk of cash. So you got to make that work by just paying everybody a little too much, pay it by their position. What does a replacement player get here or there? And then overpay, I don't know, the rest of the way, the kicker, a replacement level kicker. Now that's something that Vikings fans could get behind overpaying. But yeah, so I mean, yeah, you would have to overpay people to get there if you were trying to put together. Well, you know, you have replacement level and league average. Now, league average is different than replacement level. Replacement level would get absolutely demolished when you're talking about the record. League

average presumably would end up eight, nine or nine and eight. Right. So I, you know, there's two kinds of different things, but replacement level, think of it this way. The Chicago bears last year were spending no money. And then when Justin Fields got hurt, hurt and couldn't play the last week, then they put in, I blocked this game out of my memory, Tim Boyle and someone else, Nathan Peterman. So that's what it looks like. Like that's what it looks like. That team couldn't beat the Vikings backups. They got pretty much demolished in the first half when the Vikings played some starters. That's what it would look like. It would look like an XFL team trying to play an NFL team and they would get crushed. And that's how you tank, actually. How you tank in the NFL is you get a bunch of

replacement level players who are NFL caliber and you kind of see what you got there and you just let them go play and they'll play their hearts out and they will lose because other teams have superstars and Hall of Famers and stuff. So, but yeah, that, that cap floor forces teams to spend, to make sure that everybody is at least trying to put out somewhat of a competitive product. And in recent years, some teams have tried a lot less hard than others to do that. Next question comes from Zach. Some players clearly lost a step and could no longer keep up linebackers, especially especially I assume you mean last year. Could you discuss whether that's also the case with Chandon Sullivan? Oh yeah, sure. Uh,

Chandon Sullivan, I think might've been a halfway decent fit if he was playing in a different defense. Uh, I don't think that Chandon Sullivan either like really understood where he was supposed to be or how it was supposed to work or maybe nobody did or it was so soft the way that they played in the middle of the field that everything kind of got pinned on chandon sullivan that like teams understood that the vikings were going to allow you to have the middle of the field when they say middle of the field open or closed that usually means two deep safeties or one deep safety. It doesn't matter. The middle of the field was just open all the time. Just ask the Giants in that playoff game. But when you look at how they play

defense, they were playing usually so far off and dropping way back. And the idea of keeping everything in front of you is a good idea in principle. Well, yes, we're going to make them throw a bunch of passes and we're going to shift around the defense post snap and things like that. But a lot of times what it turned into in practice was just people wide open over the middle of the field. And it might've just been difficult for Channing Sullivan to master everything he was being asked to do or to break on the ball as fast as they wanted him to when he was dropping back or maybe it was just the scheme and the thing is about Sullivan when you look at his numbers from Green Bay they are not as bad as

they were this year and like you said he's not out of his prime this is why it can be so hard to evaluate corners because I would not be in favor of them bringing back Channing Sullivan after the year he just had. But if you put him in Brian Flores' defense, it could be completely different results. That's how it works for all corners. So when you look at a cornerback's data from the year before, what was the quarterback rating into his coverage? What was his coverage grade? Things like that. All of them are suspect. And I don't mean that they're tracked wrong.

So I'm not saying PFF or next-gen stats is doing something totally off and wrong. What I mean is they're not always indicative of what is actually going on, like whose fault it really was or what, you know, how the player fit in the system, who he was playing with. You mentioned that, you know, geometry. If Channing Sullivan is playing on the same defense with a monster shutdown corner or Fred Warner is playing linebacker Bobby Wagner. Like, is it different at that point? Is it different if they have better pass rush at that point is it different if they're blitzing more and Shannon Sullivan doesn't have to cover as long like all these things factor in big time into how corners perform so some years you might see a corner and this is a good example with Patrick Peterson

where Patrick Peterson struggled in his last year in Arizona. And a lot of us, including myself, wondered, what's he going to look like in Minnesota? It was great. He was great this year because he was the guy that actually fits because he was great at reading route combinations, breaking on the ball, making plays on the ball. Legendary in that regard. Right.

And super, super high IQ, and the defense fit him. The defense clearly did not fit anyone else in that secondary, and I think that that's partly what happened to Channing Sullivan based on the fact that he had his worst year. That signing just did not turn out very good at all. And I don't expect him to be back. I think they'll go with someone that Brian Flores wants to be here. But is it likely that Channing Sullivan goes somewhere else and is a monster? No, but I do think he's better than the numbers that he put up. The other example of this, too, is Cam Dantzler.

That Cam Dantzler, in a small sample size in 2021 actually had very good numbers. And if you go back and look at his 2021 numbers, I mean, they look pretty darn good. There's a touchdown in Detroit that got blamed on Xavier Woods that maybe could have been blamed on him. And there's some quarterbacks opposing quarterbacks. This is another thing. Opposing core quarterbacks that Cam Dantzler faced when he made his starts instead of Bashad Breeland were just not that great. And that makes a difference. Everything is context with corners and their data. And that's why it's so hard of a position to evaluate. If you're the team that's good at it, figuring out how to parse through all that with what fits

perfectly with your system, you can get a lot out of that. And that's one of the reasons Brian Flores is here, is to be able to understand which guys are going to work best for what he wants to do on defense. But it's a great question. Somebody we don't talk about really at all. This year, we just went like, well, that signing didn't work. That's also the dangerous game you play with no cap space. But you guys already know that. next question comes from at bob vikings who come on i mean what a great what a great twitter handle bob uh with all the vikings discussion this time of year i hear about the wilfs being cheap how much differentiation can you have between teams in the cap environment yeah not much so i've never bought into this when it comes to the Wilfs being cheap because of a few things. I mean, number one, they have one of the most expensive

quarterbacks in the league. I don't know if a cheap team would spend to the absolute apex of the salary cap every year if they were cheap. That sounds like more of an antiquated type of thing, like an old take where there were a lot of owners in the NFL back in when the Wilfs took over, maybe like 2005, that there were owners and the previous Vikings owner could be accused of this who really didn't want to spend and who really pinched pennies. And but the Vikings, they have a huge coaching staff. They have a huge facility that's better than anybody else's in the league. I mean, they have a lot of things that really make a case that they are willing to spend their money to do everything they can.

I think that maybe there are different ways that some of that money could be spent that we could argue about, which is in building more of a complete roster and not pushing so much into the quarterback and things like that. But when you hear, here's a good example of why I don't think that the Wilfs are cheap owners. And again, there's lots of evidence here. I mean, just with the facility and the number of people that are hired that work for them. But maybe the best example is when they restructure those contracts, the owner usually just has to give out a big old check in the way that they move money around. And they do that.

They do that to key players. They've re-signed everybody that they've wanted to. If players were constantly walking out the door, yeah, you might wonder, like, why won't they pay anybody? I don't think that that's really the case. So I don't know. I mean, you mentioned, Bob, in the rest of this question, I've cut them down. And I'm sorry, I didn't mention that earlier. I've cut some of them down to a couple of sentences so we can put this on YouTube as well and people can read the questions. But you mentioned Rick Spielman making a comment about something regarding the Wilfs, but I've always heard from people who work with

the team that they're always willing to open up the checkbook. I mean, look at signing Delvin Cook, signing Kyle Rudolph a couple of years ago, the deal that they made for Harrison Smith. It just feels like they are putting up a lot of cash for this team. But this is the NFL now, as opposed to back in the day where you had like your super great owners who were going to spend and then you had your owners who just let everything go into disrepair and didn't care. That's not a thing anymore. Everyone makes so much money. Washington is going to sell for four billion that there is no owner who gets in that door and gets to be in that meeting who's not a mega gazillionaire billionaire

who can just treat this kind of like a game for them, like a hobby most of the time. Like the Mark Davis, for example, in Vegas, that's like a family owner and that's his income and everything else. Like that's not something you see as much anymore. Normally it's the, and I saw, I don't know, there's news about Jeff Bezos, you know, guys like that though, mega billionaires are the ones who are buying football teams. And I, you know, as I don't look at the Wilfs as being cheap, but it sounds like a Twins thing. I seem to remember hearing something about the Twins maybe not always spending the most. Next question comes from at Peter M. Toey on Twitter.

Assuming that the Vikings would like to have more draft picks, which players will fall into the center of the Venn diagram of having trade value and the Vikings being willing to trade them? The list is pretty short. I think the list is pretty short. If they're going to want draft capital, they either have to part ways with someone that they really, really don't want to, like Justin Jefferson. Of course, they're not going to do that. Christian Derrissaw, not going to do that. No way. So they're going to keep those players who are going to be a huge part of their future.

It really comes down to Daniil Hunter. I don't know how much Harrison Smith gets you at this point because he's coming off a year that wasn't his best by his career standards. And again, a lot of that might be the defensive coordinator. But if you're a team and the Vikings are calling and saying, hey, are you interested in Harrison Smith? You're like, well, you know, didn't have as many splash plays as last year. So we'll give you a fourth. I don't know that they are going to make that move. I don't know that there's anything more

than a third or a fourth rounder offered for someone so expensive like Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen, maybe a fifth. Those guys I just don't see because of their contracts. It's a major factor when it comes to the trade market. It's such a big, big part of those trades. It's really Daniil Hunter and maybe Zedaria Smith. But with Zedaria Smith, I still see the league being like, I don't know, second half of the season and aren't you guys just going to cut him? It's a cut

throat out there with the way that uh these gms understand when a team is in a tough spot with their cap and then you see a really good player traded for almost nothing and go wait what the heck why was this great player traded for a fifth well the answer is his contract. Daniil Hunter is in a different situation. He is young-ish and coming off a really good year and is going to cost a lot of money but would be worth it at a very premium position. Maybe another team would give you a first round pick in that situation and then they have to sign him so that's part of it to a big contract extension. But maybe just considering how good he is, his talent level, it would be worth it for another team to trade a first-round pick for Daniil Hunter. He's the only one, though, that I really see as someone who could get back

in return any sort of big value. I think if the Vikings are going to look for extra draft capital, the answer is the same answer it was last year, trading down. And on draft night, I just want to prepare you guys now. So I'll let you know now, and maybe they'll do this before the draft. So everyone's not heartbroken about not having a first round pick, but I could see myself sitting here or whatever I'm doing on draft night. I don't know if I'm going to be out at TCO Performance Center or do a live show, or I don't know what I'm doing to be out at TCO Performance Center or do a live show or I don't know what I'm doing. But let's just say sitting here in this very seat and talking about how they traded out of the first

and there's no pick tonight and you got to wait till tomorrow and then they're going to own the second and third rounds or something. Let's see that happening to the Vikings, that they're going to have to trade back if they want more draft capital. And I would not be surprised if they do, considering how they handled last year. And I think they believe that their process is right. And in my opinion, trading out of where they were last year was not really a great idea. But trading out of where they are this year probably is.

Yes, you get Hall of Fame players in the top 15. But the back end of the first round is there a huge difference between 23 and say you know 34 like maybe not a lot a lot of that might depend on position who you think you can get what the strongest positions are and so forth but uh yeah i think that's probably the best way they can accumulate draft capital aside from trading Daniil Hunter. All right, next question comes from at Skull227. Who are your two top favorite Viking players of all time? Okay, well, this is a great question.

So just as a general rule, when you're a reporter and covering players, you don't have favorite players. Now, you could say like, oh, well, come on, man, you're human. I bet you do. You have players that you enjoy talking with them for articles more than others. You look forward to their press conferences. And when you spend a little time around them, like Patrick Peterson, for example, he was our media good guy of the year last year. Nobody would say they didn't enjoy covering Patrick Peterson. He's a Hall of Famer. He was really, really affable, accessible. You could go up to Patrick Peterson even when it wasn't his day at the podium. He is one of the best, most media-friendly athletes I have ever been around. And it was great for all reporters to be able to ask a hall of famer, any football question you want. I mean, obviously, you know, within reason and respect for his time,

but any question that you had and he would answer. So love that. So there's players that I've covered. Xavier Rhodes was a really entertaining guy to cover, like really seemed to enjoy the interactions and stuff like that. So he was, you know, a good sense of humor. There's players I've enjoyed covering, but that's probably a different question. Terrence Newman is maybe also a favorite. I guess I'm picking all the corners, but those guys are some of my favorites to cover. Terrence Newman, a highly intelligent person who could really break down football in such a great way that you could understand it

and write it and things like that. So there is that with covering. Now, if you're talking about two favorite players from watching or knowing about through history, well, one of them is behind my shoulder there. If Alan Bage isn't your favorite historical Viking, I don't know what you're doing. I mean, he's one of the greatest human beings that earth has ever produced. Okay. I mean, just, just this page, a goat hall of famer, all time legendary. Like there's a different cut of the hall of fame. And Deon Sanders has talked about this only because of his own ego or whatever, but there's like the hall of fame. And then there's like the 1%. That's Alan Page. He's in the 1% with Randy Moss. And I would say for Randy Moss. So I did see Randy's whole career growing up. And I remember really specifically when I was a kid, one of the things that I would do is listen to

the radio after I was supposed to be in bed. I'm sure many of you did this growing up. I remember listening to the NFL draft that year when Randy Moss was picked on the radio and hearing talk about this guy's character. He shows up to the draft with a pant leg pulled up or some nonsense that they were upset about. And I remember thinking, I hope this guy destroys this league. I mean, just, you know, it felt so unfair. It felt like they were just really nitpicking anything they could come up with to kind of go after Randy. And he did. And I love that. I just love that about Randy that, you know, he he kind of had a lot of criticism coming out. He grew up in a really tough situation and then just blew the league away.

And if Randy Moss isn't in your top two for all timers, I don't know what you're doing. I mean, I don't think this fan base is anything close to what it would have been had Randy Moss not been there. I'm not even sure it's an exaggeration to say it's why the Minnesota Vikings are still here and not in Los Angeles, because the organization was not in the best spot when they picked Randy Moss and that place sold out to see him play football. So even though I didn't grow up in Minnesota, I was well, well aware of the greatness of Randy Moss and enjoyed it as much as anybody. But there's, you know, there's lots of historical players that were really fun to watch. I mean, Dante Culpepper, if you were a Madden player, you were using Dante Culpepper and Randy Moss. Robert Smith was great because he was just so explosive and fast. So there was 90s guys that

I grew up with who's not a John Randall fan, right? They kind of fall into a different category of ones that I really, really enjoyed when I was just watching football in general growing up. And then there's ones that I've enjoyed covering since I've gotten a chance to cover this team. So fun question though. I appreciate that, but I didn't, I didn't pull out like the deepest cut names from that or something like, you know, I don't know, Chuck Evans or something, you know, I, I'm sure we could go through a list of Jim Klein saucers of the world that like grinder players that they had that were really good throughout all the years. Chris Dolman, not a grinder player, but Chris Dolman, uh, Henry Thomas underrated, love the way that he lined up kind of like

sideways and then went after the quarterback. So it's a great history. It's a great history. And if you ask somebody their top two, other than Moss and Page, I mean, you could get all sorts of different lists. So love the question. Next question comes from at ghostly MN10. If the Bears are willing to trade Justin Fields to do the Vikings make the call for him? No. And the reason no is because the Bears would not trade him to the Vikings. That would be insane. Unless they hate him. And if they really hate him, then they're like, here, take this grenade and watch it blow up your franchise.

No, I don't think that they would make that call because if the Bears are trading him, then they know that the Bears don't think that they would make that call because if the Bears are trading him, then they know that the Bears don't believe in him. And if the Bears don't believe in him after two years of having him in the building every day, and then they're going to ask for whatever draft pick, I think Miami, when they traded for Josh Rosen, did the right thing. Why not? We're Miami. Our team is horrendous. And if we find a gem here because they want kyler murray then great but they would not have given away josh rosen unless they had a good idea that josh rosen was just not gonna make it after spending a year around him so that would be a major concern

and then it would just never happen you're not trading a quarterback in your division you might trade draft picks in your division because you don't know how they're going to work out like the Vikings did last year. And even that's risky. But if you trade a dynamic quarterback who then gets Justin Jefferson, can you imagine like that would be the craziest thing if the Bears did that and then just got beat by Justin Fields and Justin Jefferson for years to come? No, I don't think that one is going to be on the table in Chicago. I mean, if you're the Vikings, I guess, but you probably don't even pick up the phone. Like they're not, they're not taking that call.

Last one is, well, another quarterback trade question. If Brock Purdy's surgery is delayed further and he can't start till week 12 or something, could the Vikings finesse the 49ers for trey lance straight up uh this is one that i have consistently said uh i love where you guys heads are at looking for trades so that's fun and we love trades on the show love trade speculation random trade ideas and this is where i always feel bad like sort of shooting them down like i did with the last one with justin fields but i have a tough time thinking that san francisco should do anything but stick with what they have in trey lance and brock purdy it doesn't look great for brock purdy i agree that his surgery being delayed is a major concern and wouldn't that i mean it would just be

awful for this guy if his career was seriously affected by that one play in the playoffs after such a magical end to the season. I would hate to see that for him because that was such a cool story for Brock Purdy. But I think that, you know, long-term over the next few years, he should be fine. So if, or at least ideally for them, he should be fine. And by the medical people who have tweeted about it, that's, that's what I'm going on is that this should work out. Okay. Long-term for him. And they got to find out what Trey Lance is at some point, like this year, they didn't

because of the injuries. They think next year, they should really try to figure that out. Like, is this our franchise quarterback or not? But if they look at it, I'll'll just i'll just leave you with a little credence to this just a little if san francisco looks at it like this is it this is the last year where we are ever going to have a team this strong i don't really believe that because of the weapons they have but let's just say they see it that way we've been so close so many times. I've always wanted Kirk Cousins and nothing but Kirk Cousins. Maybe. I still think that if you're doing something with Trey Lance, that the same

thing goes for the Bears. Are you giving him to another team in your conference only to have him potentially come back and haunt you after you spent three draft picks on him. And now you're trading him away for literally the oldest quarterback in the league. If Aaron Rogers retires the oldest starting quarterback in the league, I don't know, but you know, teams, teams want to go all in. You never know. You never know if you're the Vikings and they call, you got to really think about that one because it could very much be like Detroit with Matt Stafford trading him away. And then maybe Kirk will win a Super Bowl somewhere else.

Do you do you want that? I don't know. I don't think you want that. If you're the Vikings, do you want to give Kirk Cousins to a team that you plan on seeing in the playoffs? And then what if he beats you? How does that look? Pretty bad.

So anyway, I mean, I love where you guys heads are at coming up with trade ideas, and this is the season to do so. So continue to send those and all of your other Vikings inquiries. We're going to have a lot more answers as we go along and a lot of reactions. So as we continue to speculate, feel free to go to purpleinsider.com, send all of your questions, and we will talk to you all later.