Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Live Vikings NFL Draft sim (pre-Combine edition)

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Matthew Coller simulates the NFL draft using the PFF Mock Draft simulator and attempts to project what the Vikings will do in the draft and then talks with Vikings fans about what's next for the team this offseason and storylines at the Combine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

warning i've got this condition where i don't feel pain you're a superhero if this is how intense nova kane sounds oh wow imagine how it looks is there more yeah big time nova kane only in theaters march 14th hey everybody welcome to another episode of purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And I know the entire world is are all about football, which I especially can appreciate. So here's the plan for tonight's live stream. The plan is that I am going to do a pre-combine mock draft simulation using PFF's mock draft simulator. And we're going to go through it together, the different options that the Vikings might have. And I're going to go through it together the different options that the vikings might have and i'm going to try to pull off some stuff maybe some trades and we'll have a lot of

fun doing it and really this is my preparation uh kuya asks if i'm going to the combine you betcha this will be let me think how many like my first combine was 2017 and I missed one because of a flight, a flight got canceled and I couldn't get there in time for Zimmer and Spielman. So I just didn't go. And I think I've gone to every other one other than those two. So maybe seventh or eighth NFL combine, but yep, I'll be there along with the other media folk from the Strib, Pioneer Press, the Athletic, and so forth. And the cool thing about that is that we'll have KOC and Kweisi Daffel-Mensah at the podiums. And then they also do a side session with the reporters from the Twin Cities, which

includes myself. So then we'll have additional content coming from that, whatever takeaways we get. And that's, you know, it's a really good time to sign up for the Purple Insider newsletter because the written analysis of those conversations will go over on purpleinsider.football. I will have a ton of interviews with different people. I'm in the process right now of booking different people that I know are going to be there that I'm going to have on. Dane Mizutani for sure. Probably Andrew Kramer from the star Tribune. I know Max Chadwick for PFF. Uh, so there's going to be lots of guests and Chris Trapasso, our draft analyst

here on the show is going to do three shows from the combine. So I'm going to be a very busy over a short period of time in Indianapolis, but it's going to be great. I'm super excited for it. But what I haven't really done so far, because I have been so much invested in what is going to happen with the different Vikings players, the quarterback situation, the free agents, we had the Superbowl, all that sort of stuff. I have not dove super, super deep into this draft class. Like I've got somewhat of a sense for the first round, somewhat of a sense for the strengths, but it really isn't until, see, I'll tell you how it works with the combine for me. I show up on Monday and that's where I go around Indianapolis and meet up with people that I know and start trying to book some guests for the podcast and hoping to do a live stream on Monday. Not a hundred percent sure though. And then Tuesday, that's when Kwesi and Kevin O'Connell will talk. That's when we'll have a reaction with myself and Dane Mizutani, and we'll have written reaction that comes out the next day and all that stuff.

And then on Wednesday, I'll just be doing a lot of podcasts recording Thursday. I'll actually come back home. So when all of the guys are starting to do their forties and everything else, I'll be back here doing a live stream next Thursday night, where I'm talking about all the things that I learned from the combine as the combine events are just getting going. But the first days that's when players are doing interviews. That's when the brass is there. And then it's always been more beneficial to me to watch the drills along with you guys on NFL network, because Daniel Jeremiah has just got so much freaking information that that's how I learn everything about the NFL combine. So I start to get a really, uh, diving in with interviewing people at the combine, seeing what's on their

minds of the different draft analysts that I could get on the show and then listening to Daniel Jeremiah. And then once I'm done with that, that's when I really feel like I'm ready. And then free agency, there's going to be rumors. There's going to be conversation. All the NFL insiders are there and you see them out each night talking to this person or that person. So there's just so much going on over those days. News always comes out. Rumors always come out and it'll be a lot of fun. Uh, Alexander, what am I most interested in asking Kwesi at the combine press conference? So that's another funny thing that usually happens because the beat writers get our one-on-one conversation with the GM and head coach. Oftentimes at the podium, we'll kind of let other people like

the national reporters and stuff come ask questions because we want to keep all that for ourselves rather than having it be at the podiums. It's always a funny dynamics. Like, should we ask him now? Should we ask him later? But there will be some important questions that need to be asked, including about his contract situation. So far, we haven't heard anything. I think I said that I'm going to be a little curious if Kweisi Adafomensa does not have an extension by the combine because, you know, it's still early in the off season. And I think one year Zimmer didn't sign his until right before the season started. But with KOC signed, you expect the same thing to happen

with Kweisi Adafomense. And it may have already, they may have not announced it. Like we don't really know. So we'll probably ask about that. I imagine the quarterback situation will come up. You know, I'm interested in Kweisi Adafomense's thoughts on positional value actually, and how it's changing because we kind of had these ideas about positional value that were locked in like receiver, tackle, corner. Those are the guys. And then things have changed a little and you see Philadelphia has talked about, but it's not just a one-year thing. I'm doing a story on this where the data really clearly shows that over the last five, six years, guard play has declined significantly. Even the best guards are not putting up PFF grades like they used to.

And I wonder if all of a sudden now we're talking about interiors, defensive tackle, guard center as having more value than we thought that they once did when everybody was just paying offensive tackles and wide receivers and quarterbacks and that was it so i'd be curious about that because he's the analytics gm and he's always very thoughtful when it comes to that stuff but there i mean there's a lot of questions that you got free agents byron murphy cam bynum are there any kind of hints? And also the timeline. You know, I'm always fascinated by how teams build on timelines. And for the Vikings, they did this competitive rebuild thing.

And then all of a sudden they won 14 games. So what does that mean? Or what does that say about that? And I asked him something similar to this at the end of your press conference. I asked him about how he sort of processed the results when maybe his expectations or anybody's expectations were not as high as a 14 win season. So I kind of wonder about how a 14 win season fits into the Vikings overall timeline. I personally think that means it's it's go time no matter what happens at quarterback it's go time it's put all the money into the big free agents if you got to re-sign guys and void year whatever they shouldn't have to but if they do whatever chicanery has to happen

when it comes to the salary cap like do it like you got to restructure do it like you're opening a window here that's going to last a couple years with jj mccarthy and his rookie contract again whether it's this year next year we don't know but either way you when you have the players in place the superstars in place the jonathan grenard christian derisaw justin jefferson you guys got those and i I'll throw Blake Cashman in that mix as well. It's time. It's time to do whatever you can to compete for a Super Bowl. Skywalking McCarthy.

That's funny. Says, I know we're so focused on interior O-line D-line, but let's shift to tight end. I like Gadsden day three. He could take over for Hockinson in 2026. Yeah. I mean, one thing I think of, and look, if you're talking about day three tight ends, you're a draft freak. And I appreciate that. And I respect that. I have not looked into the day three tight ends. I do feel like, and they lost, uh, they lost Nick muse who they developed for four years. And then he got picked up by the Eagles that day three tight end is a great place to be

the Tyler Conklin's of the world. They can develop from there. I haven't really thought about who's replacing TJ Hawkinson when, cause I think he's a part of this thing for several more years. So yeah, I guess if you're a roster building and you're thinking about several years from now, what you're going to do at tight end, the other way to approach tight end is to just wait around until somebody else lets their tight end go and sign them or trade for them, which is what the Vikings did. But,. But much, much appreciation for the fact that you are thinking that far ahead on the depth chart and in this draft. Alex says, should we trade down and get a running back with another pick? Okay. This is a great time then to

like, let's get into this draft simulation. Let's not waste any more time and we can start to figure this out and I'll continue to answer your questions as we go along. So let me screen share here. I've got a PFF mock draft simulation started and here's what I want to do. And I know a lot of you will really enjoy this. I'm going to force a trade right off the bat here. And the forced trade is going to be Sam Darnold for the 68th and a 106th overall picks from the Las Vegas Raiders. Sam Darnold, a franchise tag and trade. We are going to force that trade to get the Vikings the 68th and 106th pick. 37 might be hard to get from the Raiders.

Those are two big picks for them. They are rebuilding. So let's say they're willing to give 68 and 106. Perfect. PFF doesn't like it, but I like it. So let's make that trade. Now, the next trade I'm going to make, even though we did just acquire the 68th pick,

is we are going to trade down. Now, I need to find a partner to trade down with. I don't want to trade down too far. What's Jacksonville got? 36? I like 36. Can we do 36, maybe get the Vikings pick back that they have? They have a Vikings pick.

Oh, the Vikings picks are everywhere. Can the Vikings trade down from 24 to 36 and get number 88 and 105? Okay, PFF likes it. So can we go from 24 to 36 and get 88 and 105? Let's go 124 to make sure that it happens. Both of the Vikings picks coming back. That's funny. I think that this is a fairly realistic trade for somebody like the Jaguars. They might be a little bit desperate. So we are going to do this trade and then we are going to start the

draft. So now all of a sudden, if you look at our picks, we've got 36, 68, 88, 97. So that's now four top 100 picks. Uh, let's see. And react to anything here that you want to react to. Okay. So, oh, I'm sorry. The, the, is the screen. What's are you guys seeing you? Are you guys seeing the whole screen? Are you just seeing me? Tell me, are you guys seeing the PFF are you just seeing me tell me are you guys seeing the pff screen are you just seeing me okay uh let me know so i know if this is going correctly because i haven't screen shared a mock sim in a while so anyway the tag and trade alex likes the tag and trade other alex likes the tag of course you guys like the tag and trade a major 33. What do you think about making a splash at D line and O line,

leaving them to trade back few spots to take best player available? I mean, I think as far as you guys can see it. Okay, good. I thought I was doing it right, but yeah, you know, the other night I was fuzzy for half the broadcast. So things happen as far as making a big splash. doing it right, but yeah, you know, the other night I was fuzzy for half the broadcast. So things happen as far as making a big splash. I assume you mean in free agency. And I think that they could do one or the other. I think it might be hard for them to be able to get the top DTs.

Okay. Everybody's good that thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks guys. I think it would be hard for them to get a top defensive tackle and top offensive lineman at the same time in free agency. Like you might be able to get Trey Smith. You might be able to get Milton Williams or also dig a Zua. It's unlikely that you could grab both. So whichever area you make that play. And this is why doing a draft sim before the combine and before free agency is a little bit hard because we don't know what they're actually going to fill out. If you sign Osa Odigizua to a four-year contract, you're not drafting a DT in the first round, right?

So it does matter, even though you try to take best player available. Uh, Alexander wants Benjamin Morrison, the cornerback from Notre Dame. All right, let me take a look here. What we got. And the nice thing about, uh, PFF here is that you can sort by the positions of need. So we know that the Vikings need a running back. They need interior offensive line. Uh, where's punter. Now they do need it. I think maybe need a punter, but probably wait till later for that and interior defensive line. So I think that covers it, right? Running back. They're not going to draft a tight end here. Receiver safety. Do we throw safety in the mix or does everyone just get upset because of what happened the last time they took a safety? Let's not throw safety in. It's too upsetting to everybody.

So here at number 36 and Alex said, maybe 36 is too far. Is Caleb Johnson on the board? Let's take a look. Is Caleb Johnson on the board? I think he is. Is he? Yep. Caleb Johnson is on the board. Also a guy I'm very interested in omar norman lot from tennessee and travion henderson also on the board he was the guy that daniel jeremiah recently mocked to the vikings which i thought was a little on the aggressive side spending the 24th pick on a running back when they have these other interests or these other serious needs. I don't know about that unless it's like Ashton Gentry or Omarion Hampton, who are supposed to be the two best. If you're talking about taking the third best running back, I don't know about that. Um, skywalking McCarthy says you could get Kinlaw, William Zeitler and sheriff. Yeah. I mean,

those are sort of the second level type of guys for those positions. What I'm talking about for DT and a guard would be if you got like the best of the best, if you were getting Trey Smith and Milton Williams, that's, you're probably not going to, someone's going to go crazier than you. I mean, if they do, wow. Last year, they got a couple of a day one guys, but it's just unlikely to upsetting. I mean, because of Lewis scene, obviously that's the joke. Uh, so I think that they can handle one of those positions with,

I shouldn't say filler guys, but like second level guys in free agency and then possibly land one of the tops. But even if they don't like last year, they didn't land Christian Wilkins and it was better for them that they didn't get Christian Wilkins and they ended up getting multiple other very good players. So the next level down, uh, major says the fact that McCarthy is mobile should help the line a lot. Well, I don't know. I don't know about that. I think what will help the line a lot is being better. I think he is mobile, but we're not talking about Lamar Jackson here. We're talking about if there's some pressure he could scramble. That's not much different than Sam Darnold as far as his ability to scramble and to run. He's a little quicker,

but I don't think that he is like, oh, wow, he'll just be fine scrambling and running away. Like they need to do everything they can on that offensive line for once. So I can have my sanity. So Benjamin Morrison is a great idea. The cornerback go back to the board here. Benjamin Morrison is a great idea. TJ Sanders is the next guy on the list at interior rusher from South Carolina. I'll pull up their PFF grades here, which is just a great feature. And we see from Sanders, he's got my attention. Great pass rush, win rate, great truth pass set pass rush, which means like those pure passing situations, not a big guy. 290 pounds is what he's expected to be, but fairly young.

I'm very interested in TJ Sanders. So now we kind of have to make a decision. Have they in free agency got a DT? Did they land Trey Smith? Because I also see Tyler Booker here, the top guard, maybe in the entire draft. And if you trade down to number 36, I'm having a very tough time not taking Tyler Booker here because I was just talking about the increased value of guards. This dude is enormous. I think he's listed at 325. I doubt he's 325. His run blocking

grade's not that great, but his pass blocking grade is phenomenal. He played for Alabama, might be a player on the rise. This is not an easy decision because the interior pressure is important to me, but rebuilding at guard is the most important thing. We've also got Tyleek Williams, who's more of a nose tackle type. Shamar Turner is another one who I think is more of a, I guess not, not as much of a run guy, maybe a little bit on the run side. Doesn't have great numbers. Cam Scadabo probably wouldn't do that here. Caleb Johnson, same thing. Travion Henderson, same thing. So I think what it comes down to for me is Benjamin Morrison,

the cornerback from Notre Dame's played a ton of football. It's got really good numbers. And I think a top corner is really important. 20 years old, still just turning 21 or Tyler Booker. Oh, I don't know. I don't know what they would do here. I kind of want to go with the guard. But also, I mean, this depends on, did they get a big corner in free agency? Did they get a big corner? Because if they got a big corner in free agency,

like DJ Reed, then maybe they're not drafting Benjamin Morrison. So let's just say that they've got a good situation here, but we're going to go with Tyler Booker at guard and try to shore that thing up and make it. so it's in a good place for a long time going forward. So I like that pick immediate gray. I want you guys to grade the pick grade, the pick. I took the biggest and the best guard that I could find grade, the pick. Do you guys like it? Do you not like it? And we'll move on to the second pick. So remember I traded with Jacksonville traded back and I got 88. I also got in the Darnold second pick. So remember, I traded with Jacksonville, traded back, and I got 88. I also got in the darn old trade 68.

So this is the darn old pick. So we're at 68 right now. And I'm looking at some of the key positions here. I'm going to filter it again to the key positions. Running back. Because I think that in the top 100, you should draft for needs. And then you just go best player available after that. So let's see.

All right. Positions of need still going with the same ones. I'll throw safety in there because there was some unhappiness about that. All right. Here's what we got now. Now, this is interesting. Three running backs are tops on the PFF board, along with Joshua Farmer, who is a pass rushing interior defensive lineman from Florida state. They seem to be good at picking those guys. Uh, we've got

a couple of safeties on the list. Maxwell Hairston, a corner from Kentucky, uh, as a riot Thomas, a corner from Florida state. I'm intrigued by the idea of a corner, but it looks like the best prospects at this moment are going to be the guys at running back. And with number 68, you're still picking a really good running back at this point. Is it Dylan Sampson? Who's just, he's just been really good. 1,488 yards, almost six yards of carry. Great numbers.

Or is it Travion Henderson, who also was just a total game changer, more of a limited use type of back, or more of a duo with Quinshawn Judkins, who's also here. This is hard not knowing. You're not a fan of Samson. I do like Travion Henderson. Okay. Getting a lot of A's from Matt.

Todd's given an A plus. Todd loves the guards. Mustard, sir. You were worried all year about the guards. Now you're giving me a B. That's what I feel like you talked about that every night in the live streams. Henderson here. Get your Delvin Cook 2.0.

Have we drafted an SEC guard in the second round recently? Hey, that's what I'm saying. Like with the safety thing, we can't worry about the past. Also, Booker is not a massive reach, which another SEC guard was a pretty massive reach. So we kind of saw that one coming, but Travion Henderson seems obvious here to me. Seems like one of the 25, 30 best players, his position might drop him a little bit. I am going to draft Travion Henderson as part of a potential duo with Aaron Jones in the backfield. I love that idea. And that allows Travion Henderson to come in and work with somebody else. And is there a conflict with JJ McCarthy because of Michigan?

No, I wouldn't think so. I think they'll get over it. Um, but yeah, I mean, I really do think that running back and finding a dynamic weapon this year in the draft is of importance for this Vikings team in past years. I would have said, don't do that. Definitely don't do that. They don't pick a running back in the top 100, try to get a third or fourth round guy and develop that player or go into free agency and get whoever they're all going to average 4.3 yards per carry. But now is different. Now is different. They really, really need a difference making running back who can punish teams for playing those safeties so deep against Justin Jefferson. And Jones did a good job of it last year. He had a good season. They got as much out

of Aaron Jones as they could have, but cam makers coming in. It wasn't, it was explosive occasionally, but you're really looking for someone who can be a difference maker next year, right away. And then your guy after that to build around a plus is on the pick. You guys love Travion Henderson. Okay. All right. So we've traded Darnold. We drafted a guard and a running back, and now we have the 88th pick and this came from trading down with jacksonville so now we're looking at still i think i want to look at those key positions while running back is off the table interior offensive line we don't have to worry about now corner though defensive tackle potentially safety and i know it all has to do with what they do in free agency.

If Cam Bynum comes back and Harrison Smith comes back, then safety is not something you're going to draft here. I am looking at Dion Walker right away that catches my eye. And I don't know how I would not draft Dion Walker. Dion Walker is a enormous human being, six foot six, 345. He's 21 years old, positive on the side of pass rush, win rate, pass rush grade, and is just a mammoth mammoth person who's played a lot of football, which I like as well. Eight sacks in 2023 by PFFs numbers. It looks like his production went down a little bit in terms of pressures but still was really really good as uh 2023 enormous massive massive gargantuan human being

you would love to see somebody that big next to harrison phillips i think that harrison phillips could benefit from that uh you know darius a Alexander, Alex, you're asking about him. The funny thing about, um, Darius Alexander is my first draft sim. I took him in the third round and then the senior bowl happened. And all of a sudden he was no longer available after I think the second round because he had a really good senior bowl and that upped his attention as a guy from Toledo. Darius Alexander, I think is not quite as big as someone like Dion Walker, but is more of a pure pass rusher type. I can't pass up on Dion Walker. I'm just going to take him and not think too much about it. Although I do like Azariah Thomas from Florida state, kind of intrigued by him as a corner. It's got good man

coverage grade. Is he big? Yeah, he's kind of big. We're going Dion Walker. We're going trenches, folks. We're going trenches here. Blood Eagle says Dion Walker is a monster. If someone named Blood Eagle says a guy's a monster, you draft him. Nathaniel says his wide receiver a need for maybe day three.

Top two wide receivers were solid, but could use another rotational. Yeah. So, uh, the wide receiver position does have my attention a little bit because when you look at like the Vikings, three wide receivers that they ran out last year, they're all kind of the same type. They're more downfield type of players. Like Jefferson can do anything. I think that Addison, they should have used them a little more underneath than they did, but these are explosive intermediate to deep route wide receivers. And then you have Jalen Naylor, who's the same thing. Like he's sort of a one dimensional downfield type receiver. And there were way too many games where Jalen Naylor is just not a factor

at all. So I would like to have somebody who's more quick Twitch, more underneath. And if there's somebody like you're talking about as a wide receiver on day three, that maybe doesn't have the size and is more of a yards after catch type guy, then yes. And I'm also interested in free agency. Greg Dorch is a name that comes up in free agency. Alex has given this an A plus pick getting a lot of high grades here. There are some I'm drafting like the Eagles. That's, that's the model. Just draft the good players. Skywalking McCarthy has to be Dion Walker. He's 120% the size of a nose tackle and the athleticism of a linebacker.

Yeah. I'm into freaks. I'm into freaks. He didn't produce quite as much last year, but I mean, if you're looking at the raw tools there, that's pretty impressive. All right. Our next pick, and this is definitely how you make the draft SIM a lot more interesting than if you don't do any trades is to make the trades so we can make a lot of picks. Uh, we've got number 97. I forget where this one came from. Was this the Sam Darnold? This might've been the other Sam Darnold pick. We're in the third round still. Now it gets kind of interesting because as a riot, Thomas is still on the board. So as Maxwell Hairston, his numbers aren't great this year. We're really good last year. Both guys have some size. I have no idea how to pick between the two having not known what they did at the combine or further information

about third rounders. Uh, let's see this. We are starting to get a little to the area where I would go for a player. That's not a super key position and wide receiver got brought up if it's a really great player. So I'll throw a wide receiver into the mix safety, defensive tackle. Uh, no, I, we could take off defensive tackle, but like linebacker linebackers kind of interesting to toss in there. Edge rusher is probably unnecessary pun Hunter, not yet. Not ever. Okay. I think it's the corners here. There are some interesting safeties.

Mello Dotson is a corner from Kansas. Noel Williams. Jacob Paris. There's a lot of corners. Oh, Troy Horton is actually, or Torrey Horton is actually a good receiver from Colorado state. I've seen him play a few times randomly. He's got some talent, not here though. Not here. There's also a safety named Billy Bowman from Oklahoma, which is hard not to draft Elijah Huzzy. We got some names here, folks. We got some names, but I think this is easy. I think this is either as a Raya Thomas or Maxwell Harrison. I'm just going to go with the better college. Cause I don't know the difference between the two. Maybe one of you draft freaks already has it, uh, has

already studied the third round corners. If you have, then you can have an opinion on this, uh, because I don't know which guy to pick, but I'm going to go with Thomas here at corner. And then we've got another pick at 106. You're welcome, Kwesi. I got you all sorts of draft picks here. And this is where, man, I wouldn't even be against draft in both corners. Maxwell Hairston is also here. He had five interceptions in 2023.

Numbers went down a little last year. Not a very good man coverage grade, which concerns me. They've got a safety, M and Wari, good coverage grade. Safety is kind of interesting here because even if they keep combine them, like we're, we're kind of counting a lot. Major wants NM Wari. We're kind of counting a lot on Theo Jackson to be good. So I'm not against it. I'm not against NM Warry, the safety from South Carolina. We got opinions here.

I'll go, I'll go with the safety from South Carolina. I like that pick. So now we're in the late picks, which means that we can kind of draft whoever. And I've got some, you know, so there's another guy here who's really caught my eye in this process. And you think I'm going to say Willie Lampkin, but I've talked about him a little before. Damian Martinez. He's a running back from Miami. And yes, it would be weird to draft two running backs.

So I probably won't do it. But look at this dude's numbers. 6.3 yards per attempt, 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons, 91 rushing grade. I'm very interested in Damian Martinez. This is where I would take an edge rusher if he was really interesting. Like Savion Jones or, or Savion Jones has some really good numbers because we're late. This is pick one 24. We're in the fourth round here. Jack Kaiser is a linebacker. I kind of like Tori Horton though. The wide

receiver from Colorado state. I think I'm going to go with that. And then we'll take some shots on corners. Probably maybe, maybe, uh, the suggestion earlier was to get a tight end. Mitchell Evans might get a tight end. We'll go tight end later. I'm going to go wide receiver, Tori Horton here with this pick. And then we'll look for some developmental guys with the last two picks. I can't, I just can't pass up on Damian Martinez. I want more running backs. I'm going to take Damian Martinez. I think, although Riley Mills is a pass rushing defensive interior player from Notre Dame. He's still here. I think he got hurt. Did Mills get hurt?

Kind of interested in that because he's got really good production. Noel Williams is a kick returner specialist who led interceptions. Okay. I should have got him then. I think he's off the board now. I was kind of sold on this tight end idea earlier as getting a guy who could develop into it but they've already got two key tight ends i don't know if we could spend that here got some corners quincy riley's an interesting corner this is this is where it's much more i'm kind kind of guessing, but I really like Martinez.

I'm going to take another running back just to get another playmaker out there in the late rounds. And then for our last pick, I see the first thing I see is an Iowa guard. And I feel like you should just draft Iowa guards. We've got a tight end. Oh, Minnesota's guard, Tyler Cooper. How big is he? It's pretty big. Okay. I'm not going to spend too much time on pick one 60. We're just taking the guard for Minnesota. All right. So we'll show you the entire list here. We'll go through it and you guys can grade how you think that I did on our first live draft sim of the year. So to recap, the first pick was at number 36 because I traded back with Jacksonville and I took Tyler Booker. PFF cannot stand this draft pick, but I think that their grades are still juiced toward the traditional

value of positions. And I'm thinking a little more on what they really need and positions for the future, which are guards are going to be more valuable. We traded Sam Darnold and we got 68 and one Oh six. And we took Travion Henderson running back from Ohio state defensive tackle Dion Walker, and then corner Azariah Thomas from Florida State Nick Emanwari from South Carolina the safety wide receiver Torrey Horton running back Damian Martinez and guard Tyler Cooper PFF is giving it a B plus all right what do you guys think? A plus from major. Thank you. I love this draft. Major says, all right. I'm sorry. I don't know how to pronounce your name, but the person who says I don't love college football

and I'm happy to be along for the ride. Hey, that's how I feel when I get here. I mean, I watch college football, but I don't study the draft much until draft time because that's when I'm covering games and stuff. Let's see. Uh, Alex says, uh, do you think we'll be pissed off in your comments on Thursday night or the first night of the draft when they trade back to 36? No, I think you are reasonable folk. I really do. I think that you guys understand the draft. Let's take a look at how the first round played out. Should your Sanders to the Browns, Cam Ward to the Giants.

Abdul Carter goes to the Patriots in this one. And Mason Graham ends up with the Raiders. Interesting. Who would have been taken at 24? That's what I'm curious. Oh, Darius Alexander. Yeah, you asked about Darius Alexander. His stock is shot up already.

Gray's able another guy. Offensive lineman could play on the interior that would have been available. So whoops, what did I, what did I click? Oh, here we go. Omarion Hampton would have been available for the Vikings. I'm very comfortable with the trade out. I'm very comfortable with the trade out.

So, all right. Let's see. Let me get back to me in the middle here. Questions, comments, thoughts. CJ says, I had an A, move it up from a B plus if PFF recalculates guard value. Seriously, PFF, get it together. Guard value, my friends.

It seems like you guys like that draft. So I think what this really tells you is just how much depends on what they do in free agency. That's my big takeaway here. When I'm making these moves, I'm going, Oh, well, running back is a clear one. No matter what they do in free agency, running back's a clear one, unless they get Najee Harris. But other than Najee Harris, every other guy, if it's Aaron Jones, if it's somebody else, everyone else could be paired with a Travion Henderson. And when it comes to somebody like, yeah, I mean, a V storm says, don't think Booker fits his scheme. I don't know what fits

his scheme. Like Kevin O'Connell scheme is dropped back and throw it deep. Like that's, that's his scheme. And as far as the run scheme, they need to figure that out. And they need some large gentlemen who help them figure that out because I don't think they've had any sort of run identity whatsoever over the last three years. And they need to find that. So whatever Booker does well, I mean, he's six foot five, six, 330, 40 pounds. I don't know. What's the scheme run behind him. There you go. That's the scheme unless he's not a good pass protector, but I think he's a guy that is enormous and you're

trying to develop, uh, over a couple of years to become an elite player at that position. So I like it for that perspective, but there may be nuances to this that I don't know about when it comes to how they want to build their line. I just think that when the head coach of the team comes out after a loss in the playoffs and says, we better get some freaking linemen on the interior that puts it, the, the beams on a big dude like Booker as potentially being the draft pick whenever they go first round or maybe a little later. So I like that. The running back thing I would have been nauseous about in previous years. I didn't even, I mean, Delvin Cook turned out to be a great player for them, but when they took Delvin Cook, I thought, I don't know, that's a second round pick on a position that you can replace. It just doesn't

seem that way anymore that it has shifted. The mentality of teams has shifted. Defenses are winning by having smaller defensive linemen who are rushing all the time and you need to be able to make them pay for it. But if they go into free agency and they get a Trey Smith or they get to a free agent offensive lineman, well, then we're not looking at Booker so much anymore. And then we're shifting our need. And cornerback is a position that I want to know how they plan to handle it. Does the increase in cap space, how funny is this? Like this is classic me podcasting. I did an entire podcast the other

night with a cap expert and then the news comes out that they've increased the cap space more than anybody thought but that might influence the vikings to meet the price of someone like byron murphy jr i still think that you have to be savvy and you have to have your markers but the marker may have gone up for Byron Murphy Jr. So they might bring him back, pair him with McKay Blackman, draft corners in the middle rounds, get a couple of free agents to fill out that spot. But if they don't and they get one other guy and that's it, well, then we're looking at corner as a position where you need to draft. And they do need, no matter what they pay Murphy, if he comes back,

they do need that number one type of guy, because there is a trickle down effect from having a freak at any position, whether it's having one at corner as the true shutdown. We saw this with Xavier Rhodes. It made life easier for everybody else. Once Xavier Rhodes was locking down that top wide receiver, the leagues changed a little bit with motions and stuff like that. But so it's harder to have a lockdown, but even if you take one side of the field, the Jalen Johnson, everything is easy for the other players because you don't have to put as much help over on that side. That's worth taking a look at for maybe Morrison, if he's somebody available, but this already got the, uh, the juices flowing here for the draft. I've been

so kind of locked in on the free agents that really gets my mind working with that. Uh, got a quick ad read and also our intern clay Petri has his five storylines. We've got clay's corner. So I'm going gonna get to that very shortly questions comments thoughts doesn't have to be on the draft could be on anything vikings related throw them in there we'll answer your questions for a few more minutes before we get to clay's five storylines but i have to remind you about our great sponsor rocket money i don't know about you guys but i have an impulse buy problem. I like to sign up for stuff, newsletters. I like to read newsletters or whatever else, services. And then

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$500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. So cancel those unwanted subscriptions, reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash purpleinsider. That's rocketmoney.com slash purple insider. That's rocketmoney.com slash purple insider. And think about this. If you were to cancel unused subscriptions, you could sign up for the purple insider newsletter folks and get all of my writing from the NFL combine. That seems like a good idea. Purple insider.football purple insider.football best place to do that so all right let me scroll back a little bit uh major says i am i the only one that doesn't want to sign murphy to a 20 million dollar deal since when do you pay that much for a slot corner that gets beat constantly

he can't even play man i don't think that those last two comments are really fair to byron murphy as far as a slot corner like he plays more outside than he plays slot. It's not really even close in terms of his usage. And as far as gets beat constantly, and we, we've got numbers for that. We can look them up. Let's take a look. Let's take a look at how often he gets beat. That's another nice thing about having the data that we can just check on stuff like

that. So let's take a look. Now the six interceptions, here's where I would agree with you. When there's six interceptions by a player in a single season, what's likely to happen is them get overvalued. That's just how it often works. It's taking a minute to load here, but I'll get you, I'll get you these numbers. And I think that if he's going to get paid $20 million a year or 18,

17, based on those interceptions, you would prefer to let somebody else do that. Then the Vikings, uh, let's take a look. So here's what I got. I can actually, uh, re screen share this for you guys and show you the research. Nope. That's the wrong. That is the wrong tab. Okay. Hold on. I'll get it for you. Here we go. So here's our cornerback grades. Take that off the screen from last year, Pat Sertan at the top, no surprise there. And I sorted it by like, let's make sure these guys actually play a lot of football so we can get a fair look at it. And as far as coverage grade last year, Byron Murphy was 18th in coverage grade, just ahead

of Carlton Davis. Now they play different style football. Carlton Davis has harder reps because he's playing man coverage a lot more. And if we go over and we take a look at, let's slide over here and take a look. Where did Byron Murphy rank in terms of quarterback rating allowed, which is going to be, I'm sure bumped up a little bit. Where was he? 15th in the league and quarterback rating allowed. It's bumped up by the six interceptions. He did allow a 71% completion percentage, but only 10.2 yards per reception.

So he wasn't giving up too many deep shots. So I think that the statement about him getting like roasted constantly is probably unfair. He had great numbers last year. Those are great numbers. I mean, those are top 20 corner numbers. The question is, can he do it again? Now, one thing about Byron Murphy, that's really good on his end is that he's been very healthy over the last couple of years, three of the last four years, he's playing over 900 snaps. So you have to factor in that too.

You have to factor in that. He knows the defense. You have to factor in that. He can do a lot of different things. He could play slot. He can play on the outside, but is that a $20 million investment? That is probably where I would generally agree that that might be too much. Aaron says, not sure where Omar Norman Lott from Tennessee goes, but he's an interior D-line. I've heard a lot in the second day. is not sure where Omar, uh, Norman Lott from Tennessee goes, but he's an interior D line. I've heard a lot in the second day. Yeah. He was available with our first pick at 36,

but then was not available after that. So it looks like day two is kind of that mid range for Norman Lott. And I was looking a lot at the defensive tackles and end up with Dion Walker. I was happy with that, but Norman Lott is a guy who gets after the passer. And that is what I'm really looking for here. Let's see. How do you expect Mr. Mayor? How do you expect Blackman's injury affects him long-term? Do corners come back from ACLs?

Shouldn't affect him really at all. I mean, I don't know. I don't have his medicals, but if it's a normal ACL injury, it should be fine. Every position has these running backs, wide receivers, ACL at this point in our medical universe is the easiest, most routine injury, which I'm sure as he was going through his rehab, he would be like, Hey, it was a little harder than you making it sound. But as far as how people come back, usually it shouldn't be a problem. And the best thing that

Blackman has going for him is that it happened on day one of training camp. So he was probably fully healed and ready to start working out by the end of the season. And he'll have a full off season, which really helps him. Age is another part of this. He's pretty young. He's 24, 25. So I don't expect there to be problems from him. And I didn't hear that it was anything more. Sometimes it's an ACL plus something else MCL, but we didn't hear anything like that. So, uh, let's see. Players will expect an increase in salary with the increase in cap. Now, you know know this is true i keep hearing that every time it gets brought up but it doesn't work the same way for all teams like the salary cap increase benefits the vikings more than other teams because they're cap healthy

so they can do more i know what you're saying i know what you're saying it's like oh well it's not going to help them sign somebody but it it might though, because if Byron Murphy had X number of dollars in mind and the Vikings were far away from that, they might be willing to come closer to him. And if he wanted to sign with the Vikings anyway, at a certain price, then he might do it. And I also think that if you're a cap healthy team, it just adds to what you can do. Whereas if you're a mediocre cap team, it doesn't really do a heck of a lot and probably actually hurts you because you're right. Players will ask for more, but I don't think that it's exactly the cap increase is exactly like meaningless for a team like the Vikings.

I think it does have some relevance to it. Let's see. Uh, aside from last year, Murphy has been a bottom third of the league. I, you know, I don't think that's quite true. Bottom third. I think he was actually sometimes, I mean, the PFF data is of course, what I'm always going to lean on and his PFF numbers from last year were not great. Uh, and he probably was in the bottom third if you're going to chop it up that way but i also thought when he went out that they really fell apart so there's more to it than just target numbers and things like that he's valuable he's a good player

but it might just be a little bit on the too high side to invest in somebody that's not going to be a completely dominant. Here is the guy type of situation. So B plus plus I get for the grade from Wayne. What is that just an a minus or what is that? Um, so yeah, no, I don't have a disagreement. I just think, uh, and a major wants to go DJ read. I don't have a disagreement on any of that. I just think we do need to give Murphy his credit that he's been a really good signing for them. And if it was at a reasonable price, then I would want to do that for him. So why don't we, uh, you can continue to ask questions, go ahead. Uh, anything that's on your mind is, is good, but why don't we go ahead and get to Clay's

corner with our intern presently residing at the, uh, university of Pennsylvania, Clay Petri, our intern presently residing at the University of Pennsylvania, Clay Petrie, our intern for this semester. And Clay has his five storylines that he asked me about. We go back and forth and we tie some of them into the Vikings and some of them are just silly and ridiculous and we have a good time. So Clay, first I want you to give me a grade on my draft sim. How do you think I did? And Clay's audio is not showing up. This is, this is intern behavior, Clay. Log out and then log back in and we'll see if we can get you locked in

kids folks what can you do they go to penn they get ivy league degrees and they can't get their audio to work says the guy who earlier had no idea if my draft sim was on the screen it's complicated i'll get back to him in uh just a minute when he pops back in. Yeah. Murphy outperformed his contract. Yeah. Is there anything further in terms of talk of Aaron Jones going to Denver? I mean, I just think that there's a couple of teams that would be really obvious for

Aaron Jones that he wants to come back to Minnesota, which makes a lot of sense. But if you're Denver, you need something. Okay. There we go. All right. We're good. You're leaving me in the backstage. What's up with that? Yeah. Well, that's, that's, you gotta, you gotta sit and learn how to get your audio to work. So anyway, Clay, you got your five stories together and yeah,

Clay is he's, he's ready to be Manny. Yeah, Manny Hill's head freezes all the time. Although we actually did pretty well with Manny's audio and video this year. So it's always a challenge. But you've got your five storylines ready to go. Let me answer a question here from Mr. Mayor. Why do you think people have such a huge variance on the value of Darnold's tag and trade? You think NFL execs are as divided as the rest of us? That's a

interesting thought. I don't really know what is happening inside of the building of the Las Vegas Raiders that is now run by a guy who's 74. That's what's hard to pick up. I think if I'm the Raiders, why would I not make this trade of like, we got two draft picks, right? And why would you not do that for a quarterback who you know can play and can get you back competing for the playoffs? If you're the Raiders, maybe there's a school of thought that teams are not going to be able to will willing to give up draft assets, but for a quarterback, a team already traded a second round pick for Sam Darnold once upon a time. And he was bad. That was after he was really bad. This is, I think desperation. I don't know. Yeah, no, you're probably right though. Mr. Mayor is that there's probably a difference of opinion in each building of what he's worth,

how much they would trade for him, but there's no way they're not discussing at least the possibility of sending draft picks to get Sam Darnold if the Vikings tag him. So yeah, I don't know. All right, Clay. Well, where do you want to start with your Clay's Corner five storylines? Well, I want to start with my grade for your draft. Honestly, I really liked it. The trading back made a lot of sense with Darnold, and I like the Tyler Booker pick. It seemed like you got good grades for that, and I like that pick. Yeah, I like the running back pick with Travion Henderson and then the late pick with the Florida State cornerback. So I think you killed it. I'll give you an A-. Okay.

I'll give you an A-, yeah. But hopefully that's good enough for you. But I'm ready for these headlines. How are you feeling? Well, just depends on how good of an internship you want this to be. I think if you're giving me an A-, you're fine. Anything less than that, we might have had problems no i i like it for the vikings specifically if a random team took a guard and a running back that needed edge that needed tackle that needed receiver that

needed quarterback or something then i would have said i'm not sure what they're doing but for this specific team when you have je, Derrissaw, Grenard, you just drafted Dallas Turner. That's a pretty clear four or five positions that they really need. If I had a few more sevens, I might've taken a long snapper. That's probably where that extra A minus to A plus comes from. So go ahead with the first storyline. Yep. So the first one, you kind of touched on it earlier, but the league informed teams that the salary cap for the 2025 season will be in the range of 20, 277 and 281 million, which is a big increase from last year's salary cap of 255 million. What do you think about this and how will it affect the Vikings offseason? Yeah, I don't think that it affects the Vikings a ton.

Where it affects their salary cap overall in the best way is that Christian Derrissaw and Justin Jefferson, all of a sudden, their contract extensions look phenomenal. Because if I'm Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, if he signs an extension, uh, those guys are saying, Hey, 40 million for me where Jefferson signs for 35 a year. And then when you really look at his salary cap hits, I mean, they're going to be able to work around that easily, which I may or may not have said, as people were trying to trade him last year, like this'll be fine folks, but especially Derrissaw, they didn't even have to sign Christian Derrissaw last year. And then he agrees to doing it and signs a deal. That's pretty good at the

position. Well, now it looks incredible versus the talent that he has. Jonathan Grenard, same thing, $22 million per year. He's a top five pass rusher, excuse me, in terms of quarterback pressures. I mean, you just couldn't have done better there. Like the free agent that they signed last year, they get Blake Cashman on multi-year deal. Those deals now take up less percentage of the cap. The other part is if they do move on from Sam Darnold, well, that means that JJ McCarthy will have a five million dollar cap it for next year the most expensive quarterbacks are making 50 to 60 million dollars a year and we're just going to keep seeing that grow over his rookie contract the advantage of his rookie contract the the more

those numbers go up it's just bigger and bigger and bigger and better for what the vikings can do so i think that it disproportionately helps the vik not just on, can they go sign this free agent, but in terms of the players that they've already signed and it really justifies their big spending from last off season. I also think that if you're Trey Smith and you are the one difference making guard, you got to be like, let's go, let us go. As far as just in the comments about Sam Darnold having to agree to a trade because he won't sign for a long-term contract somewhere else. I mean, if you're a team like the Raiders

and you're talking about giving up the 68th pick even for a year of Sam Darnold and then potentially signing him at some point, I mean, that seems to be worth the, the attempt there, but, uh, but that's what the combine is for is teams trying to figure that out. If you're a team though, like the giants where everyone's going to get fired, if you don't make the playoffs might be worth trading your second round pick to try and stay alive. And if you're the Raiders and you're bringing in Darnold saying, Hey, you're going

to be the guy we want to build around you. I think you're the Raiders and you're bringing in Darnold saying, hey, you're going to be the guy we want to build around you. I think that that's a situation where you could convince him to sign a contract. So it does have moving parts, though. That's what makes the situation so interesting.

But I'll throw in clay. One thing people don't want to hear, which is that $41 million on the franchise tag is now less than 15% of the cap, which the increase would make it easier for the Vikings to play Sam Darnold on the franchise tag.

I'm just saying, don't shoot the messenger. Everyone do not be angry with me. That's just a fact. Okay. Cause there's been a lot of fear about that franchise tag. And if they were to do it, if they feel they have to have Darnold back,

then it's not as punitive as it would have been otherwise. So there you go. What, uh, do you think teams will do anything differently here with the, uh, increase? Um, I, I think it's a great time to be a top free agent. Like you said, Trey Smith is probably kicking his feet up right now smiling but i think players might get a little greedy this offseason might want to ask for some more money that they might not deserve just because they know certain teams have more money but i don't it really just comes down to the fact everyone wants to improve their roster who's going to pay for the players like it it is it is what it is. Um, I think

we're in for a very interesting free agency though. Um, cause there's a lot of good teams that are cap healthy that can make aggressive moves. And I think this cap boost will probably make them even more aggressive. Well, to your point, those, we were just talking about Byron Murphy and his price, Trey Smith last year, some of the best money spent was on that second level down. It was early in the free agency period. I think it was the first day, but even a player like Blake Cashman is not somebody who you would have said, wow, this is a day one free agent. It was sort of like another good, good potential guy. There might be those second wave, second level type free agents that end up being the

smartest money that gets spent, even if they're not the top guys, because there's going to be so many of those cap healthy teams that are bidding for two or three players for the Milton Williams, for the Trey Smith, for, you know, even, you know, a Chavarrius Ward or DJ Reed, it might be the, you know, down one level where you can get the best possible deals. Yeah. A lot of the top teams are going to be going after the same top guys. So it would be interesting to see how that shapes out. But speaking of Byron Murphy, um, the Vikings agreed with him to push his void date back to March 11th, giving them more time to negotiate an extension. What does this say about Murphy's future in Minnesota? It's not the first time that they've done that. They've done that other times with Delvin

Tomlinson, for example. And what they wanted to do was to see, let him see where the market is. So his agent goes to the combine and his agent has all these conversations with everybody. And if he comes back to the negotiating table with the Vikings and says, yeah, guys, I'm hearing that, you know, Byron's going to get $18 million a year. Are you guys interested in that? And the Vikings go, you know what? Thanks for the memories. He was a good signing for us, but unfortunately that's too much for us. Or they might hear, Hey, 14, 15. And if the Vikings

were to sign Byron Murphy to a four-year contract for $60 million, the first couple of years of that are probably 10 or less on the cap. That's a good deal at that point. And then you could still add somebody else that doesn't preclude you from going out and getting another corner. And so that's why they do that as it's hard to judge the market right now. They haven't met with his agent at the combine. His agent hasn't met with the other teams to judge the value at the combine. So it allows them to do that. The last time it happened was with the Delvin Tomlinson. His value was way too much. And they said, Hey, we'd love to having you, but sorry, got to go. So I don't, I don't see that being a big change, but I think that the cornerback position is a very fickle one. I don't know how you feel about this clay. I feel like trying to track down on a year

to year basis. Who's who's the guy who you need to go get can be very tricky because it depends a lot on defensive scheme. So who's a scheme fit. It depends a lot on just like the guy's health corners get hurt all the time. And some, you know, you look at those guys who make the most money, like LeJarrius Sneed is the hottest name in the league last year. And then he gets hurt and he's like nothing. So I'm always a little bit wary of the big contracts for a corner. Yeah, that makes sense. But I feel like corner is such a important position in the league and the Vikings are in need of corners.

So I feel like you have to consider how much you're going to pay him. My problem is not Byron Murphy as a player. Like you said, it's just how much you want to pay him. Because PFF is expecting him to get like a three-year, $17, $18 million contract. And that puts him right by Lenore from San Francisco and Tyson Campbell from Jacksonville, who both kind of had down years. And then Snead is also there, but he was hurt. So Murphy had a good year. He might look at that and ask for more, more like 19-20, like you said. But that puts him with Jalen Johnson, Marlon Humphrey, and Marshawn Lattimore.

It's like, do you want to pay him that much when he's not a lockdown, your number one type of guy? I think he's a good player, but it's going to be interesting to see what the Vikings decide to do with with him how much money he wants uh mr mayor says getting stuck holding the bag with darnold the franchise tag is still better than trying to put the dumb transition tag on him i still have yet to hear one good argument for it so let me explain the transition tag thing why they would do that because i had the same reaction at first. I was like the transition tag. I haven't heard that name in years. Like what is the, who uses that anymore? Uh, it would be this.

If the Vikings wanted to find out exactly what the market was for Darnold on a multi-year extension, that's how they could do it. So let's say that they transition tag him and nobody offers him a contract. Well, then you've got him for less than the franchise tag. Somebody else offers him three years, 100 million, and he accepts it. And the first year's cap hit is 8 million bucks. You're like, great, this is awesome for us. We'll just match that offer and then trade them away whenever we want to. If somebody offers him 50 million a year, you go, okay. It's like the automatic way of retaining his services if no one else wants him or giving you the right to match. Is it a great

argument? Not really, but that's why they would do that. That's the thinking. What is your next question, Clay? Well, someone who's not getting tagged is Trey Smith. It's being reported that he's going to hit free agency. So I was wondering how aggressively do you want the Vikings to pursue him? Or do you have other guards in mind that you have your eye on? Yeah, I do. I mean, so I go back and forth on this because Trey Smith's good at football. And man, I'd like to cover a team that had guards that are good at football. It has never happened. And, uh, maybe someday it will, but we're talking about Byron Murphy and the price. Trey Smith is kind of the same thing where if you match up Trey Smith with the other

guards in the league, you could certainly make a case that he's really good. You could not make a case that he's transformational or the best. Like this guy is a franchise, absolute freak. He's going to change your entire organization. I thought we saw some of the weaknesses there in the Superbowl, but those weaknesses have been there. Joe Tooney is on a different level than him. And when you see them play, I think there's a difference there. So the money does matter, but also the Vikings are not in a position where they have to be that savvy. It's sort of like if you are car shopping and if you're me, you're buying a Honda Civic, which is what I drive and I like it.

But if you got the money, maybe you decide to go with, you know, Lamborghini or something. You know, you go much bigger. You don't need, no one needs a car that goes 150 miles an hour, but you can. If you're a certain person who can afford it, the Vikings are not quite that good in their salary cap, but they're close. I mean, they have a lot of money to spend and they're set up really well for the future with McCarthy's rookie contract. So you could potentially go out and overspend on the sexy vehicle if Trey Smith wanted to come here. But I'm not really sold on that being the most bargain-friendly type of thing to do.

Yeah, I agree. Trey Smith, I rewatched his film from the playoffs, and he is a ball player. He's very violent in the run game, and I like the way he plays, but he is really expensive. And I know this guy was injured last year, but when there's a guy like Will Fries out there, oh, my God. I was watching Will Fries tape, and he's one of my favorite players now. He is a absolute beast, and his game does not look that far off from smiths but he's expected to get way less money than smith so it is concerning coming off the fractured tibula especially when he already wasn't that athletic but if he could return to where he was

at i think he is going to be like the secret piece in this free agency. This is two shows in a row with the cops outside of your dorm room. And considering some of the concrete walls, I do have questions about if you're actually in the dorm room or prison. But no, and no Aaron, that was not a Jordan Addison joke about the fast car, but you know, if the shoe fits,

I guess there you go. Uh, so anyway, but with Trey Smith, the problem with Trey Smith is that he is physical and you would like to see the Vikings actually, they talked about play style. Oh, we want to have this play style, but then they didn't have that. They just did not have that physical element. You'd love them to have somebody who did, and it's worth paying for. One of the issues is that there are 20 teams who want Trey Smith, and it might just be a little bit better to get several players who can be upgrades all together on the interior than, you know, just one guy.

So that's, that's how I look at it. But I, I mean, I agree though, that when he's not a superstar type player, but he does have a specific style of play that maybe they could actually convert a first down on third and short. Yeah. How do you feel about guys like Tevin Jenkins

and James Daniels? Do any of those guys intrigue you at all? I think I would rather have Brandon Sheriff or Kevin Zeitler for a single any of those guys intrigue you at all? Or I think I would rather have Brandon Sheriff or Kevin Zeitler for a single year than those guys, because I'm just so concerned with Tevin Jenkins health. When someone says back injury, you're like, no, I don't think so. Yeah. And, uh, with James Daniels and I know that Achilles is, uh, are always kind of a discussion. I think he had an Achilles injury. We've seen cam acres come back from it, but that's one of the worst ones you can have. Like that's not great.

And so with both of them, I'm just really leaning toward, I'd prefer to get someone who is healthy than roll the dice. Because if that guy Tevin Jenkins has never played 800 snaps. So you're missing like, what's that? healthy than roll the dice. Because if that guy Tevin Jenkins has never played 800 snaps. So you're missing like, what's that? Like five games or four games that you could be missing every year at minimum. And then it could get worse. Uh, no, I think I'm going to pass on that. I would prefer now, you know, if somebody breaks their leg, they should be okay. Will fries, you should be okay. Um, I don't think that Trey Smith, the way that did the Super Bowl increase or decrease his odds of KC retaining him? I don't know if, yeah, I guess it might

have increased their odds, but the fact that they're not going to franchise tag him, they also have no money. They can make it, they can make it, but they don't have a lot to spend. They've been willing to let guys go a lot. So I still think they're going to let him hit free agency. Yeah. I know you keep mentioning Trey Smith in the Super Bowl. Second half, he definitely did struggle a little bit. But as I was watching the film, I noticed he pulled like early in the second quarter,

took a nasty hit by Nolan Smith. And immediately after he was holding his right shoulder. And that's immediately when he started like grabbing at guys. And that's why he started holding more. So I feel like that performance is a little unfair to him, but yes, he is really expensive. Yes. Linemen are important, but I don't know if you want to, when you have so many other needs that you, that you want to get,

I don't know if dishing out that much money for a guard is worth it but for for my next headline i want to talk about uh quarterbacks because last season the rookie class uh looked really impressive so who do you think will take the biggest step forward and who might take a step back oh uh yeah it's a good question because last year we all would have said that cj stroud's just going to be like the best quarterback right and he was still good considering they had to fire his off as a coordinator and they couldn't block for him and his two of his top three receivers got hurt i thought that he still did everything that he could do for that team to win a playoff game

and you know give them a chance. But same time, it shows you that just because it worked for one year does not mean it's always going to ascend and just go straight up. But I think that if we're using any sort of logic, even trying to factor in what could bring Jaden Daniels down, I mean, I got nothing. That guy, he didn't have a great team this year and he was just the dude making plays, putting together one of the best rookie seasons we've ever seen, commanding the offense. He grew in that offense. He was tough. I mean, just total difference maker.

He looks like the NFC Lamar Jackson. So I think that that's just the skyrocket that's headed up. I'm really interested in Michael Penix because his small sample size was very good. Where I do wonder is, is Bo Nix, is there anything more there? Because if Bo Nix is just this, that's probably good enough to get you to 10 wins some seasons, seven wins other seasons, and you just never really take another step. But if they could put more around him, he did have a good line. It's just physical tools wise. Is there something else there beyond what he did this year would be my question. Clearly with Caleb Williams,

there's major red flags. There's major concerns about Caleb Williams, but we do need to give it more time because rookies don't really tell us everything. Who am I forgetting? Oh, I loved it. I loved what I saw from Drake May. I thought he was a little reckless and a little wild, uh, up and down with a Patriots team. That was a total mess, but he had the vibe of a franchise type of quarterback, like a Matthew Stafford that maybe like early in his career when Stafford would run. I kind of look at it that way with him. All of them look good though. I mean, not just J.J. McCarthy. We didn't see him play, but even when he did in training camp and preseason, it just looks like it's going to be a class similar to 2020 where everybody is good and all the teams have their opportunities to win with these guys.

If Caleb Williams figures out how to get rid of the football gets better coaching couldn't have much better receivers last year but it really comes down to that like is he going to figure out how to not take sacks all the time yeah and he's going to have the opportunity to do so with Ben Johnson coming in and then creating the offense around him it should lead to improvements will it who knows but it should lead to more improvement and then I think the more important not more another big hire for them was Antoine Randall L I feel like he's gonna be really important for Romo Dunzey and I don't think they're hanging on to Keenan Allen so he should get more looks and attention too.

So I feel like Caleb Williams definitely is primed to take the biggest step just because what transpired last season. But this class is so special. I think they have the potential to go down as one of the best ever, and it's really hard to look at any of these guys and be like, yeah, I don't believe they're going to be as good and they're going to take a step back. I really believe in all of them, even like he's a Penix and McCarthy. I think they're going to step up and make sure that they're not forgotten when

people talk about this class, but I want to touch on Bo Nair. I kind of agree with his physical abilities. I don't know how much more is there, but he had 29 past touchdowns and really his only weapon was Corlin Sutton. So if they can build more around him, he could be, who knows what he could be, but yeah, that's, that's how I'm feeling. Yeah. I think what we really saw is if you get one of these guys that lands with a

good coach, that you're going to be in a pretty good position. And that was with Bo Nix. I mean, when he goes to play with Sean Payton, you had to figure he's going to get every bit out of this guy that is there. And that's what he was able to do. They do need to add weapons. They had a good line, but they had basically no running game. Their running game was half Bo Nix.

So you're right. I mean, he was always talked about as a limited ceiling type of player because he's not six, four. He doesn't run a 4'3". He doesn't have that next level Josh Allen or Lamar tool. But what you see is that these quarterbacks in the right circumstances can succeed in a limited amount of time. Like think about Brock Purdy where he's got everything two years ago

and he could succeed and he could get that team to the super bowl if you give that to bo nicks then he's got a chance if you don't though is he going to be the one to elevate to take you over the the next level probably not which is why he was drafted more in the middle of the first round than he was at the top. Yeah. The team you go to as a quarterback is so important. And we see that every single draft, which is why I'm looking forward to this draft and cam ward and should door. There's been a lot of videos of them working out together.

Do you think they will actually go back to back at a pick one and two? And which one do you believe has more potential in the league? I, yeah, I don't know because I don't really like cam ward that much. Now I see other people talking about him, his tools, his arm strength, his playmaking.

But when I actually watched him play, when I actually watched the games, I thought there's a lot of screwing around here and not a lot of playing quarterback now. Okay. I guess you could say that for my homes, but my homes had one of the strongest arms ever and put up what 6,000 yards or something when he was playing quarterback. Okay. That that's fine. I just not really sure about the guy who after what five years of playing college football still doesn't really play quarterback that concerns me Shador has great accuracy anticipation but he has limitations physically

and when I look around at a Jalen Hurts Lamar Josh Allen Caleb Williams in the league you know Jane Daniels you go the best quarterbacks have a next level athleticism. If they're not going to be, I mean, even is there any flawless straight back passer? Probably not in the league right now. I mean, Justin Herbert might be as close as it gets to like that true peer for that conversation, but, but not a runner at all. Like he just drops back and throws who's who's winning doing that. Like who's winning with just straight drop back. And that's kind of gotta be sure. Sanders. I don't think he could run away from anybody. Baker may now Baker runs. So I, yeah, I don't know.

I think both of them in a rational world are mid first round draft picks late first round picks by their talent. But when we look at the top of this draft tennessee cleveland new york the raiders the jets the jets just told the aaron rogers to screw off there's a lot of teams there where it would just make too much sense to draft a quarterback and they probably will but we have been fooled before you know there were draft analysts who thought malik willis was going number two overall there you go back and find. There are mock drafts that have Malik Willis going number two overall goes a third rounder. The one thing that I have learned is when it comes to the quarterbacks, sometimes we're really, really right. And they nail it.

And sometimes we are way off. I mean, last year, a lot of draft analysts had the Vikings needing to trade up to like number three or number four to get JJ McCarthy. And then they had Michael Penix as a second round draft pick and he ends up going eighth overall. So just because these two guys are in the news doesn't necessarily guarantee that they're going to be drafted where people think. Yeah. I, I kind of feel bad for them because like you said i feel like they're more like mid first round to late first round picks um i think if they had a year or two to sit behind a season vet then that would be really beneficial for them but like you said the top teams just need quarterbacks and i don't think either of them any of them are ready to handle a quarterback like the

tennessee i feel like they're still a long way away but out of the top three i think they're probably the closest maybe new york because of their d line um but all these teams just have so much so many holes to fair it would be unfair to just throw a quarterback in there and be like fix this um so it it's not looking good for them. But I think, I don't know about one and two, but I'm assuming the Titans will take one. Cleveland, if they get rid of Miles Garrett, I'm thinking Hunter, Carter.

And then Giants, something in my heart just tells me they're going to end up with one of these two guys. Well, what you never want to do is, uh, you never want to have a kid to save the marriage. And I think if you're the giants, that's what they would have been doing. If they draft one of these guys, like the bears have done this several times, they draft a quarterback to save the coach's job. It doesn't work. Then you fire them. They've done it three times. And I think the giants want to avoid that mistake. But the problem is who else are you bringing in? Russell Wilson? Are you bringing in Carson Wentz or something like who else are you getting Kirk cousins? So they almost have to draft a quarterback, but then that quarterback, these guys are going to be ready. Shoulder

Sanders. And I mean, Sanders might be a more so, but I mean, when it comes to Cam Ward, he's not going to be ready to be a difference maker in one of the toughest divisions in football. You're just asking Brian Dable to draft a quarterback. He's not ready. He gets fired. And the next guy inherits a quarterback. He didn't draft. It's a bad model. Uh, so I wish them the best. Yeah. I've, I've seen the bears go through that way too many times and it would it would be unfortunate for cleveland fans have been through too much to go through that and same with the giants it it would be interesting for them to to get a turnaround when joe flacco was running with the browns i was like this is finally browns finally has some success and then they plummeted

right back down to where they were so i'm'm, I'm rooting for them. They have good fan bases, so hopefully they can figure it out. All right. What else you got? Is that it? Is there another one? No, that was fifth and final headline. Oh, okay. All right. I was sitting here. We're just rolling. Matt D I see you in the comments. Trust me, the headlines are coming as the off season. Oh yes.

The he, he wants it to be called clay's queries because there's more questions. Well, yeah, that is the thing. And we talked about this, that right now there's not a lot of big headlines, but there certainly will be as we go forward.

So clay, great job. Thank all of you for playing along with our draft simulation, taking the time to watch slash listen to the show. We'll see about Monday night. I'm a little unsure because I'm headed to the combine about whether I'm going to have a chance to go live from the combine, but there will be so much, so many interviews, so many conversations, at least three podcasts with Chris Trapasso, CBS sports draft analyst, our conversations with Kweisi Adafomensa, Kevin O'Connell. We're going to break

all those down and Dane Mazzottani will be on the show for the Pioneer Press. I mean, we're just loaded with outside guests, local guests, everything going on in Indianapolis. I cannot wait. So thank you all for watching slash listening. Thank you again, Clay, for your contribution and we'll catch y'all next time. Football.