Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Let's mock with CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Matthew Coller and CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso talk about some of the potential holdups with the Lamar Jackson situation that is holding back the league and then draft all 22 picks before the Vikings and debate who the Vikings should take. They have different opinions on Minnesota's pick in that spot... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Dallard here along with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso who has some explaining to do. What is going on, Chris? How are you? Doing good. I know you want to ask about me mocking Hendon Hooker to the Vikings right after I said I do not like him as a prospect, I wouldn't pick him there. But remember, in last week's episode, we did kind of give the other side of that and say from just a positional value and really we don't know anything perspective. It would make sense, especially being able again to plug him into an offense with Justin Jefferson, the offensive line presumed secondary targets outside of KJ Osborne. You have TJ Hawkinson. So that's really more of why I I did it maybe there was a little trolling going on by me I'll admit it but I think like at the end of that

podcast talking myself into the other side saying I could see them just being like let's just pick insert quarterback here we don't like how the board fell and in that mock I didn't love how it fell for the Vikings that's why I went with Hendon Hooker but I'll tell all your listeners I'm not going to end like on april 28th 7th whatever the day of the draft is my final mock i'm not going to give them hendon hooker unless like everyone and their brother is reporting that they're in love with hendon hooker which i don't think is going to happen i don't think it's going to happen either uh but it is funny how all of a sudden the mocks have changed where it was Will Levis going in the top 10.

And then Bucky Brooks has Will Levis going all the way out of the first round, which of course, every commenter says, ah, what a silly mock. But this is a universe where Mel Kiper once bet his career on Jimmy Clausen and lost and kept doing it, which he should, he shouldn't actually retire. But he said if Jimmy Clawson didn't become a great quarterback, he would just retire. And Jimmy Clawson was not only not a good quarterback,

wasn't even a first-round pick. And so that's how silly the universe of mocking can be. But I loved it. I thought it was hilarious that you decided to go Hendon Hooker. It's March still. We've got an entire month until the actual NFL draft happens. So why not go in with your mocks? And then if they actually take him,

it wouldn't be the draft unless you went back and said, I called this back in March folks. Look at me. That's what, that's what this is really about. Look at all the things I got, right. You know,

I'm just kidding. You obviously are one that does not do it that way, but it was a great troll and i got a couple messages from people like hey wasn't chris just bashing this idea so i appreciate that good stuff and we have been promising a intense mock so we were are going to do that where we're going to take players all the way up until 23 and then we're going to debate who the minnesota vik Vikings should pick at 23. And we'll try to play it out as realistically as possible.

So I've got that set up to go shortly, but I mean, the topic du jour in the NFL is Lamar Jackson. So your thoughts on what is happening with Lamar Jackson at the moment. So the take that I've landed on, because I feel like all the other takes, it's like been oversaturated. Like anyone just turned on their tv check twitter there's every take possible out there on lamar and i want to give something fresh my take is that i think what is not being talked about enough is the insanely intense pressure on the bal Ravens that I think not the Cleveland Browns, because they have Deshaun Watson and I've tweeted this out recently, but if you don't follow me,

if you didn't see it, my thought is that the Cleveland Browns, they have their Deshaun Watson deal, 230 million fully guaranteed active desperation. They were told they were out of the running last year. Adam Schefter reported that one night the next day Deshaun Watson was being traded to the Browns and given this deal so it is very easy to sell it from an NFL perspective or an owner's perspective as active desperation by of all franchises the Cleveland Browns it's an aber. We're never going to see something like that again. But now if the Baltimore Ravens, a very stable franchise that has won a Super Bowl under this current owner, two Super Bowls actually, two Super Bowls, and is a perennial playoff team, very well run from Ozzie Newsome to Eric DaCosta. If they give Lamar Jackson anywhere close,

like maybe it doesn't have to eclipse 230 million fully guaranteed, but if it's like 210 fully guaranteed, then suddenly it's not an aberration. It is a precedent where, okay, this is not the Cleveland Browns acting out of desperation. That's why I think it's kind of something that is at the forefront of the mind of the GM, the owner, everyone in the room where maybe there's people that are like, let's do this. Let's end this saga with Lamar Jackson, give him what he wants. But if that happens, it's a precedent. And every other NFL owner, Jim Irsay, came out at the owners meeting and said,

I do not believe in fully guaranteed deals, which was the most NFL owner comment of all time. I think that's not being talked about enough. And certainly Eric DaCosta is not going to say that to the media. John Harbaugh is not going to say that. I think that is kind of a thorn in the side of this situation. Why they just can't do it because there's 30 other owners and we're going to count Mark Murphy as the owner of the Packers saying, you better not do this.

You better not get anywhere close to that because we have Joe Burrow. We have Justin Herbert. We have Trevor Lawrence. If Justin Fields takes a step, he'll be in conversation getting these monster deals. And then suddenly every player is going to want a fully guaranteed deal. So you can have our I mean, we can go deeper into like what we think should happen and who's right and who's wrong. But that is something I think is very much part of this whole Lamar Jackson saga.

It reminds me very much of the scene in the office where they have the standoff when they're playing that game and they're all sort of pointing the fingers at each other and it's like who's gonna move first here is it gonna be lamar is it gonna be some owner goes rogue because they all are of course in it together to make the most money they can but also if you're a team that is in desperate need of a quarterback or could change your entire franchise do you just say you know what guys sorry kind of like they did with jimmy haslam with the cleveland browns where he just like i don't care i do not care about anybody else and trust me if the dallas cowboys didn't have a quarterback they would be getting lamar jackson like there's somebody and that's what lamar is i mean lamar is probably hoping for that, is that some owner just says, you know what, forget it.

I don't care about the Bengals. I don't care about the Philadelphia Eagles. I don't care if quarterback prices go up. I'm trying to win a dang Super Bowl today, so come on down, Lamar Jackson. But as of right now, nobody has done that. And then it's gotten ugly to the point where we could see Lamar signing a very reasonable deal with someone else just because he feels like the team didn't respect him enough. And we actually see that all the time where a guy will leave his own team where he actually could have made more money and he'll sign with someone else just to be like, bleep you. I'm not signing with you guys because you didn't respect my value or whatever else.

And then they don't find as much value on the open market. So it's a very complicated situation that it doesn't have an end date for a little while here throughout the summer. So they can continue to point their fingers at each other in this standoff and just stand there and see who blinks first. But I do think that, you know, the Ravens are playing a dangerous game here because then they might not have Lamar Jackson. That's the one thing that they need to remember too because they're in this standoff and they're trying to represent,

as you said, as a very well-run franchise. They're trying to represent the rest of the NFL in this negotiation, knowing how many quarterbacks are coming down the pipe with these deals. But at the same time, who is their quarterback? It's got Tyler Huntley, nobody. I mean, who, what do they do if they end up losing Lamar Jackson like that? That's why I've always thought that this ends up with him coming back, but also how awkward is it? If no one offers him anything, they just completely collude against him. No one negotiates a good faith.

And then he just has to sign his franchise tag and return to the Baltimore Ravens and walk back in the door at $30 million. Yikes. What I found also interesting with this is that today on the Pat McAfee show, or I guess yesterday on the Pat McAfee show, Ian Rappaport said that he wasn't necessarily or is not asking for 231 million fully guaranteed that he just, he does want a fully guaranteed deal, but just closer to that doesn't necessarily have to eclipse that. And it doesn't necessarily need to be five, six, seven, eight years long. He probably wants it it shorter he's only 25 years old so to me i always thought like uh the ravens organization which is probably more so than any other team obsessed with compensatory picks and they're fine with letting guys go that why is this not like a game of hot potato where they're like uh we don't want

to deal with this anymore here we'll trade you to the Falcons and we'll draft Will Levis or CJ Stroud at eight and you figure out the contract. That is what's surprising to me, but I think no one wants the hot potato because of that elephant in the room with the fully guaranteed deal. I think it's going to be a standoff for a very long time. I mean, unless a team swoops in and is able to offer him somewhat close to what he wants, I think a short-term deal is what it ultimately will be. That it would be a two or a three-year deal, fully guaranteed, so that fully guaranteed amount is not eye-popping, like there's not sticker shock, like, oh oh my god he got over 200 million fully guaranteed but is closed in terms of average per year to maybe where the Aaron Rodgers and the Patrick

Mahomes and the Deshaun Watson contracts are that's what I think will ultimately happen but you're right it feels like if everyone is just standing there with the little finger guns at each other it probably would end with all right he's just going to go back to the Ravens play on the franchise tag or just not play at all and then it goes into unprecedented awkwardness level that we've never seen at the quarterback spot right he'll probably show up to the Ravens because he has to and then have a quote injury kind of like Kawhi Leonard making his way out of San Antonio to Toronto was kind of the same sort ofaii leonard making his way out of san antonio to toronto was kind of the same sort of deal like whoops my leg injury and now uh i'm just not gonna play um so you know

athletes can do that if they want to and there this is not something that's never happened before um if you go back through history there's been a lot of contract negotiations and some actually resulted in players missing whole years if you go back to the bobby abare thing and that's a ways back but all the way back to uh i think it was 1990 he sat out the entire season because the saints wouldn't trade him and wouldn't pay him so it is not a first there's been conflicts like this but this one is so much more public with him tweeting and telling everyone what is going on that's sort of up to the ante. So now it also comes down to ego as well,

where it's like, well, if Lamar takes a reasonable deal, then he loses, right? And it sort of reminds me of the Le'Veon Bell thing, where it's like Le'Veon Bell actually took a good deal. And I remember going back and comparing his actual cash, not cap hits, not total that was tweeted out, actual cash versus other running back deals. And he actually did well for himself in that contract.

But the whole media, right, the expectation was set so high by how hard he fought for it. The whole kind of national media was just like, oh, that wasn't worth it and whatever else. But, you know, that's what Lamar is probably looking to avoid because now he's competing with the Ravens over this as well. So we'll have plenty more time to talk about it. Do you like the idea before we get to our mock of the Vikings trying to get Lamar?

I do. I think we've talked about quarterbacks for multiple years now, and I've come on this show and the Vikings quarterback has been Kirk Cousins. They've missed the playoffs with Kirk Cousins. They've been there with him. But we've seen what happens in the playoffs when Kirk Cousins is your quarterback. Again, you can look at the stats and say, you know, Kirk Cousins is a top half of the league quarterback. He's good.

He has a high floor. He has one of the higher floors in the NFL. But when you get to crunch time against good teams in the playoffs, he's just not the guy just strictly because of that. I think they should look at it. And because this regime had no ties to Kirk cousins, we hear that all the time in the NFL that when new GMs and new head coaches come in, it's, Hey, I want my own guy.

And even if a player like Kirk cousins or of Kirk cousins caliber, they can be shipped out. They can, I mean, there's times where these guys get cut flat out because these guys, these GMs and head coaches want their own players. So I think you need to, at least as this progresses on,

we'll probably start to hear more teams beyond just the Vikings that kind of wade into the Lamar Jackson waters and say, Oh, Hey, we'll offer you this. Maybe, Hey, like,

are you at the point where you do want to kind of spurn the Baltimore Ravens at this point? And you'll take something where the Ravens will say, Hey, we offered you that or close to that down the stretch. I like the idea. I mean, I would not pay Lamar Jackson close to the Deshaun Watson deal. I don't think he's a unquestioned top five quarterback in the league, but I do think he is a dynamic threat. He would change the Vikings offense quite a bit, and he's still a very good player when healthy, which I know that's a big asterisk, the one healthy part. But yes, they should definitely consider it. If you do not have your long-term answer at

quarterback in today's NFL, I think all those teams should at least be doing their due diligence, as they say on Jackson, as this saga continues to be drawn out. Yeah, I feel like, and I'll probably say this, you know, 50 times before it's over, as long as the Vikings are still in the ring here and haven't been tossed out like in one of those WWE events. So as long as they're in the ring wrestling with everybody else for Lamar Jackson, if, if it blows up, at least you got Lamar Jackson, like at least

you try, at least you gave a shot at really potentially being great in a conference that doesn't have many very, very good quarterbacks. So even with, even if the particulars were kind of a disaster for the vikings i would still say look at you gave you gave it everything you had to try to really win so i have to support that type of move because that's been the biggest criticism against them in recent years is are you doing everything to just be sort of half relevant as opposed to really win and it just dawned on me the vikings have a quarterback that they gave a fully guaranteed contract to. So yes,

Kirk Cousins was not getting 230 million fully guaranteed, but at the time when he signed that deal, what 86 million fully guaranteed at the time, which was like a lot, it was like, Oh my God, is this going to be the new precedent? But because it was not top of the market,

or maybe just because I think the whole NFL realized it's Kirk cousins. It's not a huge franchise altering quarterback that it didn't ultimately materialize into more quarterbacks getting fully guaranteed deals. But I guess you could like, there's a leg, there's ground to stand on and say the Wilfs gave a quarterback a fully guaranteed deal. So it would not be at all unprecedented for them. It's been the norm for the last four or five years. Right.

And they're an ownership that there are some owners that might not have the cash to kind of put up front that it requires to do that. I think it was 84 with Kirk because of course we all threw that in his face a bunch of times after they missed the playoffs in 2018, but you know, it is what it is. So, okay. Well, you know, there is our obligatory and i apologize to everyone this is your summer until lamar makes a decision this is your summer

you're gonna hear more about lamar and as long as he's tweeting his way through it which i guess we all do with life anyway uh okay well let's get into this mock though because this is uh it won't be the last time we do this things will will still change before we get to draft season, but we've gotten through the combine. We've gotten through rumor season, and now we're sort of seeing how things shake out. So why don't we just do it this way? We'll go back and forth every other pick all the way up to the Vikings.

Then we'll have a big discussion, and we'll try to draft two different people for the Vikings, who I would take, who you would take. And we'll try to implement a two-sentence rule here after you take your pick give two sentences on why you did your pick because otherwise you know how you and I are we'll end up talking until you know two in the morning here so why don't we begin with the Carolina Panthers on the clock for you the guest to take the number one overall pick I'm picking anthony richardson uh and my two sentence response is that he has the most upside of any quarterback in this class put him in a

great environment and you will have the best quarterback from this draft class in a couple years a shock right off the bat right off the bat i don't think that there's a whole lot of people mocking Anthony Richardson number one but of course again we never really know uh yeah I don't think that that's a crazy idea with the upside although I am still expecting them to take Bryce Young which is who I am going to take at number two overall to the Houston Texans I think that in the draft room they went to the Texans draft room and they went, what's Richardson. Yay. And they show them high-fiving and celebrating and there's Bill Belichick's dog is there. And then everybody's happy. That's a deep cut reference to the 2020 draft. But anyway yeah. So I think that the Texans are incredibly pleased that they have their future

quarterback. Bryce Young starts right away for them. And that's a, that's it. They're turning their franchise around and that's a great way to do it for them. Before we get to number three, which is the Arizona Cardinals. I want to say like, I hope this year when they show those war room cameras just one time during the first round,

I want to see a head coach like throw his pen down on the table when they make the pick. The only time we've gotten close to that is last year when the Titans traded A.J. Brown during the first round that Mike Vrabel like got up and was really like not happy. And actually, now that I'm thinking of it, there was a time where the Eagles, Tom Donahoe, who was like a senior consultant for them,

forgot who they picked. It was like five or six years ago. They picked someone in the second round, maybe Milton Williams a couple of years ago, and he was not happy about it. I want to see more like, not like, yay, we picked the Hall of Famer, like every single pick. I mean, I get it, but it would just be hilarious

to see like a head coach or a GM be like, damn it, that's not who I wanted. Like right on the air where they show all those 32 teams. All right, anyway, Arizona Cardinals is pretty easy one. I'm going to go Will Anderson, the edge rusher from Alabama. I would probably want to trade back, but he's the best three down edge rusher with the highest floor and some upside in this class. Yeah. Maybe the right before the draft podcast will include some trades beforehand or something. We'll work those out, but okay.

That's great. First to each other. Yeah. No, no complaints there. Arizona is a disaster. They just need football players. The Indianapolis Colts. I mean, I feel like the Colts have to go quarterback here,

but which quarterback is a pretty tough one. CJ Stroud is the better prospect than Will Levis in my mind. So I will go with CJ Stroud, despite the fact that they could do just about anything because it's Jim Irsay's team. But I will take the obvious Ohio State quarterback number four overall. Good pick. That's what I would have done as well. Seattle Seahawks at five. Now I'm not looking at a whole list of prospects, but I am the draft guy, so I should have these guys in my head a little better than you. I will go with Tyree Wilson, the

edge rusher from Texas Tech. He is bigger and longer than Miles Garrett. He's not Miles Garrett as a prospect, but I think the upside will be something that Pete Carroll and John Schneider will absolutely love. And they need an address are really bad.

A totally fine pick. I do wonder, and I don't know if it's just a little bit of playing games with people trying to trade down, but Seattle does seem like they could pick a quarterback here, but I don't think they'll pick will Levis. That could just be my guess. But Pete Carroll, I think he would probably like either Stroud or the other guys first, but they could also be trying to get trade offers. That's very possible that he's like, yeah, we love these quarterbacks.

Why don't you tweet out a picture of us and these quarterbacks when they really just want to trade down? Now, the Detroit lions are a little difficult here because you could make an argument for them to take a quarterback to sit behind Jared Goff. I don't think that they will do that. I also think that they still need defensive players, but I, I just don't know if Jalen Carter is the pick here because of what's happened in sort of off the field. So I might go with a little bit of a shocker here and take Kalijah can't see with the number six overall pick and give them. Yeah, it's a, it's a stunner. It's a stunner. He's moved up in

everybody's boards though. They need pass rush badly. They've gone to free agency for all of their cornerback needs. so they're kind of set right there so i will go with the interior pass rusher for the detroit lions again a shocking pick everyone's going whoa did they just overdraft him no they didn't he's going to create interior rush i like that pick a lot honestly um important distinction here is this what we think will happen or what we would do i should have said that from the outset i have no idea does anyone ever have any idea what these can be yeah i was gonna say sometimes it's like a mix like you're like oh i just like that fit it's a hybrid okay so i have the las vegas raiders with this one i'll do it um what I think will happen I will go with Paris Johnson

offensive tackle from Ohio State I'm a little lower on him than this I don't have him as a top 10 player but you have Jimmy Garoppolo there he's been hurt a bunch you need the offensive line to be very good you have Colton Miller you can play him at right tackle to start uh and it just feels like with a pocket quarterback, it just makes sense to build up the offensive line. There were good offensive lines in New England. This is a lot longer than two sentences, but Paris Johnson to the Raiders at seven. Okay. Another team that could have an argument for taking Will Levis, but he's starting to slip down the board a little bit. The Atlanta Falcons are next.

I don't think the Falcons let Jalen Carter get past them and they will select Jalen Carter number eight. So instead of going number one, as he was expected, some of the shenanigans with his pro day and his off field stuff drops him enough to hurt his pocketbook, but not enough to have him be like a second round pick or something. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense

uh chicago bears at nine i'm gonna go jackson smith najigma and this is more of what i think will happen it's been all about getting talent around justin fields this offseason for the chicago bears trading for dj moore bringing in even chase claypool last year at the trade deadline for what would have been like the first pick in the second round, which seemed a little pricey. I feel like they're going to be like, all right, we need receivers. Let's just pair two Ohio State guys together. I don't think Smith and Jigba caught too many passes from Justin Fields because he was a freshman in Fields' final season. But just the familiarity, I think they'll lean in that direction. And Smith Najig was really skyrocketed up draft boards after he ran the three cone and

the short shuttle. Like before that, it was, oh, he's not a great athlete. And then he runs those two drills and everyone's like, oh, this guy's a top 10 pick. Suddenly he's the next Garrett Wilson. I don't know if he's quite that good, but I could see the Bears being like, let's just get these two together. A familiar piece, like a poor man's version of Joe Burrow and Jamar chase in Chicago with Justin Fields and Jackson Smith and Jigba.

Well, and DJ more is great. DJ more is not Justin Jefferson and chase Claypool has some past of success, but we're also not really sure if that's going to work out them trading that second round pick more talent, because if fields is horrendous next year at throwing the football, they could draft high and give whoever DJ more and Jackson Smith,

the jigba and be in really good shape with that team going forward. So I think it's all about setting up their quarterback for the future. I like that pick a lot for the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm going to go Brian Branch, the safety slash nickel, I guess, from Alabama. I think that Philly is kind of a next level thinking team that would like a versatile piece like that. And they've also lost some players out of their secondary this year, although they kept Darius Slay. But Chauncey Gardner Johnson was also, he went to Detroit. So so yep uh i will go secondary

for the philadelphia eagles all right number 11 i'm gonna pick will levis for the tennessee titans uh we talked at nauseam last year about malik willis i was wrong most draft analysts were wrong like all these quarterbacks got picked away later than expected third round for Desmond Ritter and Malik Willis and it just felt like last year at any opportunity that Tennessee coaching staff had to bash Malik Willis and say he's not a quarterback he can't do anything they did it and to be a third rounder yes it's the same regime same head coach but it just feels like they're not really tied to Willis as a long-term answer. And were they expecting to pick Will Levis? No, but now he's here. He's got the big arm. They have two big, you know, physical specimens with cannon arms in the quarterback room.

Ryan Tannehill's future. I don't think, I mean, they've said, oh, he's our guy, but we've heard that from other GMs in the past. He just doesn't make sense for them to keep him on the roster. Will Levis falls to them and they pick him at number 11, the Tennessee Titans. You know, what used to happen back in the day was you could send players to NFL Europe and give them like players who are on your team. I wish you could do the same thing for Malik Willis to the XFL because I'm sitting here watching AJ McCarron and one of the things AJ McCarron said was look I want to play like I wanted to I want to get a chance here as opposed to being somebody's number

three quarterback who's on their practice squad or something I wish Malik Willis could go and play in the XFL for like two or three years, four years. I mean, because sometimes it takes that long because I think his skills could be honed over that time. But basically the way teams have to look at it now is if you need any more than one year to develop, you have to be like a third round pick because they know that that big money decision is coming and you end up in a Jordan love spot where, Oh great.

Jordan loves developed. And if he's good, then you have to pay him. It's like, well now, and the pay is so high that you get in trouble. So anyway, to your point, yes, they do have to look at the Malik Lois thing like, oops, that didn't work out. Go back to the quarterback. Like that pick for sure. Next is the Houston Texans. They need absolutely everything, but especially a wide receiver. So I will stay with Quinton Johnston in Texas and go to the Houston Texans

to replace Brandon cooks who they traded to the Dallas Cowboys. All right. Jets at 13. Now we're going to assume that Aaron Rogers is not going to fetch a first round pick. I mean, you probably more plugged in than I am. Maybe a couple seconds and a player i don't know let's just keep it with the jets i'll go peter skoranski the

offensive tackle slash guard from northwestern uh it's been all about creating this super duper comfy kind of zen like situation for aaron rogers signing alan lazar to what i thought was a pretty exorbitant deal for a player that I really like, but I don't think he's worth the deal that they signed him to get Peter Skowronski. He can be a good guard, maybe play right tackle or left tackle, whatever you want from him. Safe pick here for the Jets. That makes a lot of sense to me. Continue to stack that offensive line. And as far as Rodgers goes, yeah, I don't think giving up 13 is a realistic possibility, although I'm sure that the Packers are trying. But when everyone's

made it clear this trade is happening, everyone's going to have to be reasonable. I will go with the New England Patriots' Christian Gonzalez. I think he's the best corner in this draft. If you disagree, feel free to say so. But I think he's probably the best prospect. There might be some debate between a couple of different guys, but Bill Belichick loves his corners, and he's usually good at finding them kind of out of nowhere. But I also think they need a dude there on their defense. It's probably, if you're going to win with Mac Jones, you're probably going to have to have like a top five defense as well

because they just don't understand how to get wide receivers on their football team or offensive coordinators on their football team. So they're going to have to have a great defense. That's why I went with Christian Gonzalez. I don't, to tell you the truth, I don't know if that's like the right pick of who I really think they'll go with or not. It just makes sense to me that Belichick's always had these great corners yeah absolutely i think he does love them and even though they need a receiver he's not a big draft receivers in the first round to kill harry was kind of a disaster they picked him late a couple years ago 2019 didn't work out green bay packers one that i think a lot of purple insiders listeners are

going to be paying attention to number 15 overall i. I'm going to go with the reverse troll for your listeners. It will be hilarious that the Packers pick a wide receiver right after they trade Aaron Rodgers. They pick one in the first round. I'm going to go Quinton Johnston from TCU. So I have bad news for you. You've just violated the NFL draft rules by taking a player that was already taken. I took Quinton Johnston for the Texans.

Oh, at 12, you did. Okay, well then, fine. We'll go with, sorry. I would totally glossed over the Texans. Sorry for Texans fans. I think. Everyone else has to also, forever. And yeah, I was going to say,

I think like the Texans have just not been in my mind whatsoever. All right. So forget I said that. It was good hearing a reverse troll where the Packers pick a receiver after trading Rogers. Let's go a different direction. Lucas Van Ness, the edge rusher from Iowa, kind of fits what the Packers seemingly like up front, like bigger, longer defensive end, maybe inside nickel rushers. They have some older pieces up there beyond rashaun gary i'll go with lucas van ness after violating the nfl trade rule and i cannot select quentin johnson okay i should have figured out a way to screen share this anyway so you could look at the board at the same time so we didn't

because it's the texans is how you missed it don't ever feel bad about forgetting about the Texans, please. Okay, that makes sense for Green Bay to get another pass rusher. I will go 16, Devin Witherspoon from Illinois, the cornerback for the Washington football team or the Washington Sharks, as we called them for an entire offseason once. Yeah, we did. That was fun. You know, they need a lot. They need a lot of stuff, and cornerback is one of the stuff.

And he was the best player on the board, I think. So that's why I took him. On to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. I'm going to go with the Joey Porter connection. They're going to pick Joey Porter Jr. They need a corner. They could use some pieces on offense, but he's super long, 34-inch arms.

They need a corner. And that's pretty much it. And I think the joey porter junior's dad playing for them joey porter that i remember that you remember uh that's kind of the cherry on top for this pick uh like it like it um i will go for detroit with the 18th pick another pass rusher for the lions they are following along the san Francisco 49ers model. They will take Nolan Smith here and continue to stack up. So Aiden Hutchinson, Kalijah can't see Nolan Smith.

They're just getting all the, they want to be a great defense, not just a great offense. So they're going all in on that D line. And that defense was bad last year. Uh, Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 19. He signed Baker Mayfield.

I don't think he's the answer. A quarterback. I'm not going to go hand in hooker here. They could pick a he's the answer at quarterback. I'm not going to go Hendenhooker here. If they could pick a quarterback, they would do it. I'm going to go Broderick Jones. We didn't pick him yet, right? Broderick Jones, the offensive tackle from Georgia. They released Donovan Smith.

They need a left tackle regardless of who the long-term answer is. I don't think he's on the roster right now with Kyle Trask. Blaine Gabbert and Baker Mayfield, probably one of the worst quarterback rooms in football they just go with a high upside guy that might not be good in year one but maybe in year two and year three when they have a more established quarterback that's when broderick jones will be kind of coming into his own that left tackle i will go for the seattle seahaw with Zay Flowers. I think that he is a carbon copy of Tyler Lockett. So they're going to have two little Tyler Locketts, but they also understand that Tyler Lockett is not much longer for being one

of the better receivers in the NFL. They need to develop somebody else to go along with DK Metcalf. So they take Zay Flowers and it is a forfeited Miami Dolphin draft pick. Hilarious. And on to 21, which is the Los Angeles Chargers of Los Angeles. I will go with Dalton Kincaid, the tight end from Utah. He's actually quietly hummed under the radar this draft season because he was injured.

He didn't get to work out at the Combine or the utah pro day i think he would have been remarkably athletic because he looks super athletic on film uh a couple years ago they experimented with jared cook and he was actually pretty good uh i think that's just what's really missing in this chargers offense it's pretty good but needs another weapon uh outside of mike williams Keenan Allen, Dalton Kincaid for the Chargers at 21. So Baltimore is a little bit tough here because if they get Lamar back, maybe they want to get him a wide receiver, but there is also a couple of very good corners, a couple of good defensive players here.

They do like to draft defense high, and they have done it a lot in recent years. So there's a part of me that wants to go Jordan Addison, also a part of me that wants to go Deontay Banks. And part of this is that the Vikings pick is up next. And it's like, well, who do I want to take off the board for the Vikings? I don't think they'll draft a receiver, although Rashad Bateman is unhappy for them. I don't know.

I'm going to go Deontay Banks for the Baltimore Ravens, that they'll go with a cornerback. So that leaves us at the Minnesota Vikings. And maybe you could say I purposefully left Jordan Addison there for myself. But I'm also looking at Will McDonald with this pick, Josh Downs, Maisie Smith. There's Cam Smith. There's a lot of good options here for the Vikings at number 23. How are you feeling about it? So do you want me to just make the pick, or are we going to talk like we're in the draft room?

Let's both make a pick here. We'll not pick the same player. But if you were on the clock as Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and things went just the way we laid them out, which I'm sure there are people who love the draft who are saying this team will never draft that guy you fools and I'm sorry if that happens uh but I think we've laid it out that these are the types of scenarios that could play out for these teams and the possibilities for the Vikings so who you feeling if things played out this way if it played out this way I would lean and

ultimately go with Cam Smith from South Carolina he actually ended up with tabulating everything from the combine pro days film my number one corner I think he's a little bit overlooked in this class because his final season at South Carolina wasn't quite as good as 2021 they just didn't really throw in his direction as much. When they did it in 2021, felt like every game he had three pass breakups and a pick. So I think his big play ability that he at least showed it at one point during his career will kind of give Brian Flores the vibes of Xavier Howard

that he'll get burned occasionally, but he can also have three interceptions in the game or finish the season with six, seven, eight picks. That's the type of player I think Cam Smith is. And going into the combine, and I think in our preview, when we were together in Indy, it was like, is he really that great of an athlete compared to these guys? He tested not quite as big or as long as say Joey Porter or Deontay Banks

or Christian Gonzalez, but he tested through the roof. So I think multiple years in the SEC, big-time productivity in terms of pass breakups and interceptions, man-to-man coverage ability, I think 32-inch and change arms. If it fell this way, a bunch of corners already gone, Deontay Banks right in front of the Minnesota Vikings, I would go Cam Smith from South Carolina. Well, you're a big golf guy.

I feel like this is pulling out your four iron and hitting it into the fairway. So you're not swinging for the fences here with a wide receiver. You're not picking Hendon. Yeah, you're not going Hendon Hooker here. Help me on the pronunciation. The defensive tackle, Brian, is it breezy?

Is how you say it? Breezy. Breezy, okay. Well, that it? Breezy. Breezy. Okay. Well, that does help. It's a cool name. Yeah. So on the PFF board that I'm looking at, he's the top guy.

Okay. And then Miles Murphy, also from Clemson, Jordan Addison, Will McDonald, Josh Downs, the guy from Kansas State, who I'm also not sure about how to pronounce his name, Maisie Smith and, uh, Emmanuel Forbes, Cam Smith, who you just took. And then down from there, it's probably a pretty decent size drop-off. I mean, I feel like I have to stay with my brand here and go with Jordan Addison because I I'm not going Hendon hooker here. I just, I just don't want to go with a guy of his age. And I feel like he's more of a backup type of quarterback. And I don't want to go with Tanner McKee because I want somebody who's

actually a playmaker. I like Addison a lot. And where I really like it is route running. If you could tell me that somebody can create separation. And also I got a chance to see this guy play a decent amount. Cause if you watched Kenny Pickett or Caleb Williams, you saw him, he's good. He's good. He's good at football. And to me, it's like a natural sort of feel thing more than it is a size and his 40 and everything else. But give me your take if the Vikings were to have drafted receiver Jordan Addison. So overall, I'm a little lower on Jordan Addison than most because the athleticism, his measured numbers kind of scared me a little bit.

But as you're making the pick, I thought, I mean, I'm kind of on brand with going wide receiver or when in doubt, lean offense, just pick Cam Smith though, because he is my number one corner. With this pick, it is so reminiscent or it would be so reminiscent of when the Falcons in 2018 picked Calvin Ridley when they had Julio Jones and they knew like, okay, this guy's little Calvin Ridley. Go look at his combine figures. They were not good. They were comparable to Jordan Addison's. And he said, Hey, I kind of try to, and it's smart of him to say this. I'm sure his agent probably tipped him off on this to say, Hey, like sell yourself as an ex calvin ridley because this is this smaller 511 170 180 pound receiver that

didn't test well let's become a quality player at the next level i think a big key to why calvin ridley was able to develop into i mean he's not an elite receiver but a good one is that he was able to come into the league and was not seeing number one corners and really a lot of the defenses were like holy crap it's Julio Jones over there we need to focus all of our attention on him that is the type of situation that Jordan Addison would be falling into with Justin Jefferson in the same wide receiver room on the same team as him so if you say a team is going to pick Jordan Addison, he's their number one right away.

I would despise the pick. I have him as like a mid second round guy, but this fit would make a lot of sense. If you're thinking he's the next Calvin Ridley, because he would have a Calvin Ridley type career arc or situation early in his NFL career. I swear. If you mock Jordan Addison and your next mock to the Vikings

after just saying you that you hate my pick, but I'll just throw this out there. I don't think after my personal experience watching some elite wide receivers in front of my eyeballs that the 40 yard dash that even the high jump or whatever that they tell you a whole lot about being a great wide receiver. You go back and look at Stefan digs, go look at Adam feeling. They did it by running routes and make it plays. And the thing about Jordan Addison that I really like is when you look at his production and this is not against the bunch of like, you know, how the Jalen Darden thing got me and I really liked him and he wasn't any good. That was at North Texas or something. I mean, this is at Pitt and USC and we've got 60 catches. We've got a hundred catches. We've got, well,

59 last year played fewer games, but 14 yards of catch, 16 yards of catch, eight touchdowns, 17 touchdowns. I mean, this guy has all sorts of production against pretty good competition. I just think that sometimes we overthink it. cooper cup was an example of overthinking it was like the dude did nothing but just catch ball and and make plays and sometimes that's what it comes down to none of us really know but if you're giving me a choice between a great great athlete or somebody who has made the plays i probably take the guy who's made the plays yeah and this is where like so i i don't think i'm doing the like real-time cbs sports draft grades for the first round this year usually pete prisco does that um and and then starting friday

from round two until the last pick of the draft where my eyes are falling out of my head at the end i do all those picks or all those grades for each individual pick. This is where I have to like, would have to separate like, okay, I have Jordan Addison graded in the forties, but from what I just mentioned, I like the situation for him and that this is a team that clearly prioritizes what you talked about. Separation ability, uh ability uh savviness maybe you're not going to test through the roof i mean i know justin jefferson was but i don't think even last year adam thielen was not one of the most athletic explosive dynamic receivers in the nfl for his entire career intricacies nuances shoulder fakes head fakes changing speeds to get open that's the

kind of stuff that i think j Jordan Addison does do pretty well. So on paper, I would say, Hey, I have a second round grade on this guy and they picked him at 23. That's a bad pick. But then you have to really look at each individual selection and say, who's going to be around him. How much pressure, how much attention is going to be on him. So I would actually like it, even though overall, just from afar,

I'm a little bit lower on Jordan Addison than most. And I think on paper, there are very reasonable critiques of Jordan Addison. There was a decent amount of screen passes, a decent amount of drops. I do like that he lined up in the slot a lot. So he's got that experience as opposed to just being an outside wide receiver. But I mean, for me, it's mostly about the positional value. There are other guys that I passed up on that if they took, I think they'd be doing the right thing. If they took an edge rusher or I mean, Josh Downs is another receiver who's there. Do you like him more than Jordan Addison?

No, I don't. I think he's way more. I think he's more limited. He's more like underneath, like strictly a possession slot receiver. Occasionally made a few plays down the field, but I don't think he's going to be that type in the NFL. Amazing laterally, but to pick him in the first round, I mean, again, having Justin Jefferson is such a nice kind of luxury to have

if you're going to go receiver that they definitely will be the number two to start i between addison and downs i would lean jordan addison um because like what you mentioned inside outside down the field dig routes kind of does everything where to me another small receiver in josh towns is more of a just that chain mover from the slot i think that if they want someone like downs or add Edison that has limitations, that trading down might be the way to do it. Like I took them because we weren't doing trade downs and maybe we can do another one later that's like that. It was either him or the interior rushers. I still think the interior rushers are very, very important for the Vikings to look at. It's just that for me, it's similar to what we talked about with the bears how can you

set this situation up so whoever takes over quarterback in the future is going to come in and sit on a golden throne of wide receivers tackles maybe whatever they do at running back but you know i want that player to be set up as well as he possibly can uh be but there were other options here that i think would be good for them. Two things. One, just to kind of wrap up on Jordan Edison, I kind of view him closer to Sterling Shepard than Calvin Ridley. And I think if you plug in rookie year, early career Sterling Shepard with Justin Jefferson in this offense, with Kevin O'Connell calling the plays,

you know what you're getting from Kirk Cousins, I think Vikings fans would be happy with that. Maybe you would ultimately say, oh, first rounder was a little early, but you would get good returns on that early on for him. Question for you, though, what do you think is most likely for the Vikings? Is it too early to tell because this is only this regime's second draft like you think they'll lean defense or there's no way they're picking 170 pound receiver do they love these corners like how do you think is the the uh way that they would ultimately go like

what's the most likely scenario here oh you know so I forgot to bring this up and I'm glad you reminded me because a scenario that came through my head and I know that we were doing no trades, but when Will Levis made it to the Philadelphia Eagles, and I would not suggest but, but the Philadelphia Eagles picking at number 10 have every reason to want to trade down. If the Vikings were going to give something up to go up and get Will Levis, that would be another thing. And I, I mean, I think that there's just too much smoke, not to be some fire when it comes to all this stuff, the Lamar Jackson stuff we talked about, the mock drafts that keep giving the Vikings these quarterbacks. I'm not guaranteeing that. It's just so obvious that their quarterback situation is not resolved, that it is up in the air totally after this year.

So that was the other thing I thought of. I mean, of course, you can make a great case for interior rusher, for corner, of course, because they spent a lot of draft capital on it last year and nothing has really come to fruition yet. But nothing is more important than solving that issue. So if it were a trade-up, or even with Chicago, they like to trade up within their own division, but especially Philly, maybe if they didn't want him to get to Tennessee,

they might pull that off. Yeah, I'll just wrap with this. I think that point is a good one to bring up that during the draft process and I think it's obviously the case with free agency as well that if nothing happens of substance for the Vikings at the quarterback spot from here until the draft or during the draft they don't pick a quarterback they don't trade up for one that doesn't mean that they weren't trying to like there are teams every year in the draft where five years down the road when the GM gets fired we hear oh we were really trying to trade up for that Patrick Mahomes but we couldn't do it and do it on the

clock you ultimately have to make another decision so you're right I think in that there's a lot of smoke here maybe this is not just put out there with any agenda. That's really the Vikings are doing a lot of homework just in case a scenario like a CJ Stroud or a Will Levis falls or Lamar Jackson's price drops. So even if it doesn't happen, I think it's important to keep that in mind that they probably are doing a lot of homework on every quarterback option to look for that long-term answer after Kirk Cousins. And I do know, I mean, again,

it seems decently likely that they could do it, but Kevin O'Connell always meets with all the quarterbacks. Like he's a quarterback. He said he always comes to the combine, always meets with them. And the year that they didn't with the Rams, he hated it because he wants to get to know all the quarterbacks. You never know when you're going to need one down the road, a backup. He even brought up guys joining coaching staffs and getting to know them.

So that is something when you say, oh, well, they're doing their homework. Like, well, they're going to do their homework all the time. And I think most teams probably do on the quarterbacks. But this is really fun, Chris. And we will definitely do it again at some point for the draft. We will go all 32 teams. And I am proud of us that we made it through this without getting fixated on one pick before the Vikings and debating it for like 20 minutes and then going way over the time that we

expected. So we, we did it. We did a great job with this. Uh, in, in my opinion, all my picks were horrendous. Yours were good. And, um, you know, you hated my Vikings draft pick, but that's okay. We'll try it again sometime and I will, I will make you happy. No, I'm just kidding. But thanks for your time as always, always fun to get together and we will do it again next week. Thanks, man. Thanks, Matt.