Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Matthew Coller leads a game of "How you feelin' 'bout?" with the Vikings now done with OTAs

Episode Date: June 11, 2021

Matthew Coller is back from vacation, so he and Sam hash out some of the big storylines now that OTAs are in the rearview mirror. How does the cornerback group look? Is Kirk Cousins really going to be helpful for Kellen Mond? They also focus on one non-Vikings story: What exactly is the deal with Deshaun Watson's situation? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, at least 10 pounds heavier, possibly more than that, after a trip to Los Angeles and vacation in which I ate everything that the state had to offer. Sam Ekstrom, who is not as sunburned as last time you were out there for OTAs. Did you put on some sunscreen, Sam? You good this time? I did learn the sunscreen lesson and it's ironic because the day I got sunburned, I think it was like 57 and this week it was 97. Yeah. And sometimes when it's that hot, you take extra care. And I've also got a nice base layer going from all the golf we've been playing, but, uh, you actually went to LA to

beat the heat. That's the first time I've heard that from anybody. It was crazy. When I left, it was 90 degrees in Minnesota. And when I arrived, it was 68 in Los Angeles and it got progressively hotter through the next couple of days. And I think when we left, it was 68 in Los Angeles and it got progressively hotter through the next couple of days. And I think when we left, it was something like 77 and 77. If we were going to have a conversation about degrees, like what is the best degrees? 77 has a great case for it. It's warm enough to feel a little bit hot. When you're're out there playing golf you're going to work out a little bit of a sweat but it is not oppressive it doesn't feel like you can't breathe uh you know any less than that okay you could talk me into low 70s i don't love low 70s because as soon as the sun goes down then it gets to be actually cold and i don't want to put on a hoodie

some people love hoodie and shorts that is not my. I want to be wearing a shirt and shorts outside at any given time. So when the sun goes down, when it's 77, you're looking at like 68, which is also very, very nice and manageable. So anyway, it turned out, yeah, it turned out to be a nice break, but then I come back, get off the plane. And as I'm walking to where we had to take a little bus back to where we parked and i look up at whatever tv station is on weather channel or something and it says 99 today in minnesota like come on this didn't this is gonna last longer than this so yeah 99 not the optimal temperature. And I think there's a case to be made for like, do you like 99 or do you like 30? Because you can dress for 30.

You can put on enough layers that you are not miserable. You cannot take off enough layers to avoid being miserable in 99. I still probably go with 99, but I think there is an actual debate there for some people. There is. I think a lot of people would much rather have the colder weather than the warmer.

I am not one of those people. The only problem is I do like to play golf and play basketball and things like that. Once it gets past 90, those things become a little tough. Like you and I played in the morning the other day when it was supposed to be 95, and that's kind of what you have to do. But then everyone plays in the morning so the golf courses are packed yeah that's yeah but but 30 you can't even get out and do any of that stuff anyway and you have to put on a jacket and no um other factor is the dog is not a fan of 99 though

so maybe that would put me over the edge anyway so you were out there for otas and now otas are over and on to minicamp and to quote Brian O'Neill, I don't know the difference between OTAs and minicamp. Same Brian, same. The only thing I know is we get more access next week to the Minnesota Vikings. So here's what I want to do. I kind of want to stop for a second and say, how are we feeling about some stuff going into minicamp and post OTAs. The first thing on the menu, I haven't talked about Rashad Breland myself yet much, but I'm sure you guys talked about it. How are we feeling about Cam Dantzler is something I wanted to ask because bringing in Breland, signing Peterson, signing Alexander, to me, that's a starting group in the NFL. That's pretty

good. If Peterson is better than he was last year and cam Dantzler is not practicing because of an injury after injuries were a big problem for him last year. So he showed this potential when he played and I love his instincts and his IQ and those things, but his weight is a problem. And now the injuries are a problem. So how are we feeling about Cam Dantzler? Yeah, not amazing. And you read the tweets that say, you know, Breland expects to start or compete for a starting job. And that might be coming from his agent but i i think that um dansler would still be the preferred option i think i mentioned to that you know to to andrew kramer yesterday because he is the vikings own draft pick they've got him for the next several years on a cheap contract that's a player you

want to build around but with this all-in on 2021 mentality I think that Breland might actually battle for it. Um, and we haven't seen Dantzler in a helmet yet. He was gone the first week of OTAs doing something. Uh, and he's got a wrap on his right quad the next two weeks. I look at him from afar and I don't know if he looks any bigger. I mean, I know we're like 80, 90, 100 yards away out there, caller, but he looks small to me. Everyone looks small, but Dantzler still looks really small. I don't know if he's added on any of that muscle that was prescribed to him from Mike Zimmer in like the season-ending press conference.

That was sort of the ultimatum. I guess we'll talk to Cam at some point and find out, you know, whether he did put on some weight, but he can't put on too much weight. I mean, you can't take a 175-pound body, make it a 190-pound body, and keep the same mobility. I don't know if it works that way. So the frailty might always be an issue for him, and that is why I'm a little down. I think right now on Dantzler. I think so too, because he was already injured three times last year. Now once was a complete fluke where he just, you know, went for a tackle and that went wrong in green Bay. And then he came back and played pretty well after that. But when you see someone get injured

three times in the same season, when already they're coming in well underweight. I mean, there are almost no players, if not zero of his body type in the NFL. And that's probably for a reason. I mean, there is, there is a reason why we talk about these things around draft time of heights and weights because they matter. There's like a price to play poker here, or you must be this tall to get into the NFL and have success, or you must weigh this much to be able to take the physical punishment that goes along with being in the NFL. And for him to not be able to work in OTAs, it is not the end of the world. It's not the end of his career. But I don't think that Jeff Gladney was the only reason that they went out and signed Bashad Breeland. Now on the Breeland upfront, this was one that, um, I would give an a for a signing.

If we were talking about off season moves that, you know, when we talked about Patrick Peterson and they signed him for $10 million, I remember our discussion was kind of like, shouldn't you spend this money on a couple of different people? Shouldn't you spread this out amongst defensive players to try to get a number of average players and veteran guys who can handle what Mike Zimmer throws at them? And the reality is they've found a way to do both of those things to get Patrick Peterson. And with no doubts, they overpaid for Patrick Peterson based on the rest of the market and what people signed for. But to be able to add Alexander and Breland at such a low price is I think a huge win for them and the exact strategy that they need to take. If like you said, it's all in on improving. And I look at Breland's numbers

and he has not allowed a quarterback rating on throws in his direction over 94 ever in his career, which is, which is very impressive for a guy who would be taking on a lot of good wide receivers, playing a lot of snaps and so forth and at a position that it can go up and down. So now what do we think or how we feel about the cornerback group as a whole, though? So we're not feeling good about Gladney, of course. I don't have to ask you about that. And we're not feeling good about where Cam Dantzler is. But the cornerback group as a whole, to me, is now solidified with Breland as being at least at a baseline average, I think. Yeah. And this was the basis of my article

for Monday after the Breland signing was that they now have the key fourth body, which I think is important because you've got your starters and plus one, you've got an addition who can come in inevitably when someone gets hurt or rotate it. know i i patrick peterson's always been kind of a hundred percent of snaps guy but maybe a little longer in the tooth maybe he comes out a couple series a game uh cam dansler is fragile he'll come out a couple series a game and you have someone you trust that can come in and play um Breeland brings with him playoff credibility, versatility, interception stats, like he knows how to catch the football. If you were on the Zoom call yesterday, a really good attitude and like a lot of energy, positive energy, it felt like.

So he kind of checks all the boxes. A little up and down in his career. You know, he hasn't been someone who's stayed in places a long time. You know, he didn't hang around in Green Bay. Kansas City, for whatever reason, didn't want to sign him. And a lot of Kansas City fans in my mentions yesterday that were a little bitter. They're like, ah, like he took that small deal. He wanted to come back to Kansas City. Why didn't we make this work? So, and sometimes I trust trust the voice of the masses. If Kansas City wanted him back,

okay, cool. I think Vikings fans should be encouraged about that. So now that you've got that important fourth body, I'm a little less concerned about maybe your suspect depth. I think Chris Boyd and Harrison Hand can be your CB5 and CB6 and those, you know, whichever they are, whoever slots in where, I think those are probably pretty good roles for them. And if they were called upon, I would trust them. And then you've got a couple veterans you bring in, the Ty Smiths, the Perry Nickersons. And my theory on that is, okay, they're not phenomenal prospects, but they might sort of fit that veteran practice squad role where you can keep them in the organization and have them be your like Uber emergency policy. So I do like the way it shapes up now.

And, you know, if Cam Dancer can get healthy, I think it's a good first four in that group. So here's my question. We picked the schedule, both of us. we both picked them having a good season yours was a little better i think you had them at 11 and 6 i had them at 10 and 7 does it change anything now that they've added breland to the mix and it feels like there has been a question mark or two, at least for now, because injuries can always change this in a second. There's been a question or two that have been sort of taken off the table.

One of the biggest questions was, is Cam Dantzler going to take another step? Is Jeff Gladney going to play at all? Which this signing to me says, they're not counting on it, would be what this says. And then some of his social media stuff is just what is wrong with you would be if i'm the vikings i'm saying what in the world is wrong with you sending out instagram messages that accuse the accuser of making it up or trying to

ruin his career like come on man you gotta be smarter than that. Um, and so that these things, I cannot imagine rest very well with Mike Zimmer. So if we never see Jeff Gladney again in the field, I would not be super stunned. Um, but still now we're talking about those questions being removed with a guy who's been an average starting corner throughout his career. One guy who's been legendary at his best and another guy who's been average um and and i really look at it as a weakest link type of thing on defense so if these guys are healthy which you know career-wise they have been um all of them there's no super weak link there's no we're definitely going into this game attacking the heck out of chris jones right at least At least looking at it at this moment, would it change any game on your schedule

to have a unit that does not have a question at this moment? No, it doesn't. I think if they would have made a big defensive end splash, Melvin Ingram, that probably would have had a bigger influence on me. Ultimately, this is probably a fourth corner. And I think I picked the Vikings to win a lot of the kind of fringe games. I was pretty generous with them. The six losses, I think they were going to lose those games with or without Rashad Breeland, the Baltimore game, the San Francisco game. I was not optimistic about those. I think I'd be more influenced if like it was confirmed that Aaron Rodgers, you know,

wasn't going to be on the Packers for sure this year. That would have been, and I think I had them beating Green Bay twice anyway. So no, I wouldn't go above 11 and six that, I mean, would Bashad Breeland to you, I mean, would that be enough to change your go above 11 and six that, I mean, would Bashad Breeland to you? I mean, would that be enough to, to change your mind? 11 and six, 12 and five. It would not, but it would, I think, increase my confidence in what I picked. So even with Dantzler, like, let's assume that he is the guy that's coming off the bench. Well, you know, if someone does get hurt now, having him fill in is a pretty darn good fill in, or if Dantzler straight up wins the job and Breland is the guy filling in, or there is

a rotation, you just feel much stronger if anything goes wrong. And this has been kind of the thing we've talked about with this roster. And it was absolutely the case last year. If one thing goes wrong, this thing just comes apart at the seams. And now I feel less like that with the defensive back group. One more thing I wanted to say, and then you can throw one at me, how we feeling about. I got a message from our friend, Brad Spielberger, who works for Pro Football Focus. He is their cap expert. And he said that he's been doing some research on suspensions when it, as it pertains to Jeff Gladney.

And it turns out the teams with suspended players get a salary cap credit in the current season for the amount of the suspension. I would imagine that means, so if you're suspended eight games that you get half of the cap hit. And he says that the Vikings could actually get 2021 cap relief for Jeff Gladney. If he is suspended, which opens up the door, which is not a ton, it's not a huge cap hit, if he is suspended, which opens up the door. It's not a ton. It's not a huge cap hit, but he is a first round draft pick, opens up the door for even another move if they learn that Jeff Gladney will be suspended.

And at some point, we're going to find that out. So that could be something to add to the roster later on. And I think I've made this crack before, but like, if the Vikings go to the mall with a hundred bucks, they're spending 95 or a hundred bucks. So I still expect them to use some more of this cap space that they have built up. And we should find out at some point, this thing will move forward and we'll know. And so there you have it. The Vikings will get a little more cap space. So, all right, you go ahead. How are we feeling about for me?

You bet. Well, something we didn't talk a lot about with Andrew Kramer was the Kirk Cousins press conference on Wednesday, where he talked a couple of times about how he's very interested in helping Kellen Mond. And I think we have in our heads that there's going to be tension there, that Kirk Cousins is going to be looking over his shoulder. He's going to be defensive, maybe a little standoffish. And at least in his words, that was not not the vibe that he gave off. He said he wanted to be an open book to Kellen like Rex Grossman was to him when he was coming up. And he said he had been the same way with Jake Browning and Nate Stanley and Nate Sudfeld from his Washington days. And I'm sure you'll agree with this caller. Kellen Mond is different than Jake Browning, Nate Stanley, and Nate Sudfeld.

Nobody would ever expect them to be threats to Kirk Cousins' job. So naturally, he's going to help out those people. Those are like third string quarterbacks who will not even make the roster a lot of times. We'll be on the practice squad. I think Kellen Mond is different than that. And so how are you feeling about Kirk Cousins' honesty level when he says that he's going to be the perfect tutor for Kellen Mond I believe him I fully believe him because just like Jordan Love in Green Bay um Aaron Rodgers was mistreated by Brett Favre really early in that relationship seems like they're buddies now but very early in that relationship it seemed like Brett Favre was not the nicest guy to Aaron Rodgers and was not willing to put his arm around

him and say oh let me teach you a thing or two about the old football right um so it seems as if Aaron Rodgers has taken the opposite approach with Jordan Love where where he said, look, you being drafted here isn't your fault. You didn't pick yourself to come be here. So I'm going to treat you as an equal. And if I get hurt and you have to go in, our team is going to stay in the race because you'll win games because I've helped you. And if you have a long flourishing career, I'm an older guy, Aaron Rodgers. So if Jordan Love, you come here and I help you and you have a great career, well, good for you. Then later on, you'll talk about me as somebody who really helped you the same way Patrick Mahomes does about Alex Smith. I think with Kirk Cousins, it's the same way that with RG3, Kirk Cousins was not ever treated like a priority there. And I don't know

Robert Griffin III, but I certainly got a vibe from him on draft night that he doesn't exactly love Kirk cousins. And maybe that was a little icy too, when Kirk took his job after he had the knee injury. And maybe I'm actually sure of this, that Robert Griffin, the third felt he deserved more, that he deserved more chances after the knee injury or that the organization kind of screwed him over and that Shanahan liked Kirk more than he liked Archie III, which definitely seemed to be the case. So there was bitterness there. There was awkwardness there.

And if you're Kirk, I think you say, again, you didn't draft yourself as a message toward me that there could be some other player who's a quarterback here. Eventually you're my teammate. You have to be the backup and we got to be in the same room a lot. So let's work together. There's no upside to me being a jerk to you. And I also think that Kirk just likes talking about football and it's like his personality that he even likes to explain football to us when we ask him about X's and it's like his personality that he even likes to explain football to us when we ask him about X's and O's or why does it work so well when you run play action or whatever else and I think even at times Mike Zimmer has gotten annoyed and made comments

about how much Kirk says to us about the X's and O's part of it and remember he even did that thing with the younger quarterbacks in the I think the Josh Allen draft where he got with them and made videos about teaching them some things about football. I think he enjoys that part and will not take it personally against Kellen Mon. I think also just one last thing. That's a different feeling from, oh, you drafted a quarterback. And that means that this could come to an end eventually but um other than that there's no real correlation though between rogers love mond i mean mond's a third round pick so i'm sure kirk has seen him out there like we have and gone oh okay i like this is not this is not threatening my job like this guy is a third round pick who has a long way to go if he ever

becomes anything this is not a first rounder who has a long way to go. If he ever becomes anything, this is not a first rounder who they traded up for and ignored wide receiver. Like it's a, it's a, it's a different kind of vibe. So do you agree with that? Yeah, I think I do. Um, I think the relationship between Kirk and his backup is going to be different this year than in the past. Um, I think that Sean Manning and Trevor Simeon were brought in to help Kirk. I don't know how much help he's going to get from from Kellen Mond. I mean, unless Mond is savant like and his ability to diagnose defenses on film, you know, it's going to be more teaching on Kirk's plate this year if he wants there to be. And that kind of raises the question, is that his job? Like, cause,

because Courtney asked this yesterday in the press conference and sort of worded it as well as a quarterback, there's sort of this unspoken expectation that you be the mentor, but there's not necessarily that in like other sports, um, or other positions, even in football, where you have to like help the young guys. And there's sort of a, a, an expectation that veterans help, you know, the rookies and, um, you know, can Kirk like not be a jerk and also not be the most helpful guy in the world in the world. And is that okay? Yeah, no, I mean, I don't think that his job becomes, you have to groom, um, your, your, I don't even want to say Kellen Mond is his potential replacement. I am just not going there with Kellen Mond. You're going to have to show me something more than QB four in practice for me to say that Kellen Mond is the next Minnesota

Viking starting quarterback. And he's going to be the successor to Kirk cousins. When we watch those two out there in the practice field, this is not a scenario where you'd walk out there and be like, oh, I'm not sure which one's the starter. Like, no, you know, which one is the starter. It's not remotely close watching the two practice right now. So if you're Kirk, I think you just go about your business as you normally do. And by proxy, Kellen Mond learns how to be an NFL starting quarterback from you. And then you're just going to be discussing these things all the time. Anyway, you're going to be going through with coaches with Andrew Janoko, the quarterback's coach. You're going to be going through these

scenarios and these defenses and everything else. And Kellan Mond is going to be asking questions, but I actually did an article on this. Now it was a long time ago when I was in Buffalo, I asked a bunch of players if teaching other players helped them in their careers and across the board, they gave very specific ways in which it did. It's sort of, I even reached out to a music teacher to talk about, to ask him whether it made him a better musician to teach and across the board, everyone said yes. And I think that you can even learn things about yourself this was what I came away with is that you can learn things about yourself when you're

trying to explain it to someone else as opposed to maybe a Sean Mannion who we know is a really smart guy I mean I think Sean Mannion would not have been taking teaching points from Kirk Cousins he would know it just as well as Kirk, just physically not as good of a quarterback. But maybe there's something to be said for that. Like, I don't, I don't really, I never saw a ton of value as much as we liked Mannion and thought, well, you know, all you saw was a couple of preseason games. Maybe he could be better than this, or they must've seen a lot more in practice. But maybe there is some value to having something different than just like this placeholder cardboard cutout backup quarterback who you never, ever, ever want to see on the field when it comes to Kellen Mond. But I also don't think, because I've gotten this question too,

I also don't think there's anything to like, oh, Mond's going to push him. Like, no, no, I think, I thinkirk kind of lives in his own world don't you i mean isn't it like think of all the things that could have affected kirk cousins to be a different quarterback than he is that that didn't and don't with him i think he is very much horse blinder type of guy yeah i held out some some room in my mind for well maybe this is going to propel Kirk maybe he's going to get ticked off chip on shoulder kind of like Rodgers with Jordan Love and he's going to be better because of it but after having this conversation the more I think about it I think you might be right I think this might just be a blip on the radar for him and maybe not quite

threatening enough of a draft spot to be considered like a huge threat, especially when it's not immediate. Like the Vikings were probably going to have to make a decision on Kirk regardless of Mond's progress this year, right? Like Mond probably won't play. Kirk will get the whole season and then they'll make their decision regardless of whether they think Mond is ready or not. I don't know if Mond is going to determine the future, sort of like Patrick Mahomes did in Kansas City, right? Like Alex Smith would have been fine to continue with if they watched Mahomes and said, I don't know about this guy. He's a little erratic. We don't know if we can trust his arm. They probably would have stuck with Alex Smith. I think it's the reverse here.

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How are we feeling about Daniil Hunter's chances of showing up at mandatory minicamp? I don't, I don't think so. I don't think he will. I mean, I, I, I asked Andrew this in closing yesterday and you know, I kinda, it crossed my mind that he's going for like a 20, $25 million signing bonus right now. Like that's the leverage that he's, he's trying to, he's going for like a 20, $25 million signing bonus right now. Like that's the leverage that he's, he's trying to, he's trying to gain. I don't think he's going to get phased by the workout bonus, especially when he's already made a pretty sizable sum of money in his career. I think you got to have some cojones too, and a holdout. You can't just cave at the first, the first sign. And, um, um you know he knows the vikings

have a little cap space stored up um that's that's he's not you know blind to that so i i i don't feel good about it and i don't think it means they don't get anything done i just think it means that the holdout sort of officially begins and we get into like the next threshold of his absence. It'll be very interesting to see if they find him or not. If he does not show up for mandatory minicamp, I don't see any way unless he has a contract that he's doing that. But I also think that just like with green Bay, green Bay has done enough to draw lines in the sand with Rogers, but they were not willing to go to the point where they were going to say, we're going to find you because that would probably be, you know,

going past go like, all right, if you're, if you're finding me, then we're definitely done here. And so not finding Aaron Rogers leaves the door open for the possibility. He comes back. And I think all Rogers really wants is for him to be in his house in la and for mason crosby and davante adams and david boctieri to show up drive up to the house and say come on gunslinger we need you back that's what we need he want i think that's what he wants is for those guys to come to his house and say we want you back do it despite jerry kraus the uh the you

know who he compared brian gutekunst to that's what i think he wants um so maybe that'll happen house and say, we want you back. Do it despite Jerry Krause, the, uh, the, you know, who we compared Brian Gutekunst to. That's what I think he wants. Um, so maybe that'll happen. And the door is sort of still open to that. I don't know what the Vikings will do with Daniil Hunter. Um, but I know that it wouldn't make it better if they find him because they, it seems based on the Roger situation that they have the option to do that or to not do that and if they think that this is getting resolved then you don't find him you just take the option not to and say we'll work through the rest of the summer and we'll figure this out and i still believe that they will eventually work this out because that's just the vik Vikings way with anybody who was

on the 2017 team. And I get messages from fans who I think are smart and thoughtful about this, who subscribe to the website and things like that will send me emails and say, well, is there actually kind of a case to trade them? And the answer is, yeah, there is. But if you sign Brashad Breeland and you sign Patrick Peterson and you sign Delvin Tomlinson, you've made such an effort. And I still think some other pass rusher is coming. You've made such an effort that you, you have to find a way to work this out because otherwise, if you're letting him go and someone else signs Melvin Ingram or Gino Atkins or the other potential pass rushers you could bring in like then what then who's rushing the passer and then you have

this big massive gigantic weakness so I don't think they want that to happen do you agree with that that he won't show up to mandatory they won't find him but as we get into training camp they'll figure this out at some point yes and that's pretty much based on the team's moves in this entire offseason that they didn't really go you know they could have gone like they could have gotten quitty pay they could have gone past rusher in the draft they didn't they could have you know gone hard after our gone hard after trey hendrickson Carl Lawson. They didn't, you know, and they haven't snatched anybody up in late free agency either. What's the story on Ingram? Is he just holding out for more than people are willing to give him? What do you know about that situation? Is it injury related?

Nothing. I haven't seen anything. I've seen absolutely zero reported on Melvin Ingram's situation. My assumption was that he had a price and that no one was willing to meet that price. So what's going to end up happening for him is he gets to the final hour before training camp and hopes that someone will give him a decent deal. And this actually did work out for some guys last year. Wasn't it Jadavian Clowney who waited until the last minute and still ended up getting paid i think logan ryan was a good player that waited till the last minute and still ended up getting paid so maybe ingram feels like he doesn't have to panic now and plus we saw what happened when

there was one injury last year with the vikings and they overpaid for yannick and gawkway with the trade well guess what there will be someone who gets hurt early in training camp or in mandatory mini camp and someone will say oh no now we need to get melvin ingram or this thing will get a little extra hairy with daniel hunter and they'll say oh no we need to do that i don't know if the vikings can spend a lot more of their money without knowing that they've got brian o'neill locked up though so a lot of this stuff i think we'll be sort of chattering about, but won't be moving until we get to the very beginning of training camp. When I assume on the first day of camp,

we're getting one of those press conferences with Brian O'Neill to announce this huge contract. So do you have any more, how you feeling about, cause I want to do a little sort of like rapid fire. How are you feeling about? Why don't we get to the rapid fire? Because I bet you have it more mapped out than I do.

Okay. So how are you feeling about teams that the Vikings are playing this year? Like, so we see reports that come out and we see the hype trains and everything else. And so they're playing the NFC West and they're playing the AFC North and Steelers fans are super mad at everybody who thinks that they're going to be bad this year. And the NFC West, everyone is still slobbering over the Los Angeles Rams, but Russell Wilson seems to have put his problems aside with the Seattle Seahawks. How are you feeling about the schedule still after some OTAs around the league yeah I don't know if a lot has changed for me I'm trying to to be pithy about this I mean the the Packers the

Packers games are obviously the ones that become more favorable to the Vikings in the case of Rogers being gone everyone is uh is hyping the lions though right now. And Dan Campbell and kind of all the zaniness going on there. What if Detroit is just like sneaky galvanized by this new coach? Has anyone accounted for that? The NFL can be weird. I did on talk me into last week with, or earlier this week with, with Eric Eager.

One of his things was talk me into the Lions, and I made my best effort. I do think they will be a more difficult challenge. I don't think they'll be a good team, but I think they'll be a more difficult challenge than Matt Patricia's Lions, who were absolutely steamrolled six times in a row by the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, it was a joke.

There were games where we went into the stadium saying like, I'm already going to write the story because I know exactly how it's going to go. Kirk runs some play action against man cover one and hit some big play action touchdowns to Justin Jefferson. Good night lions. Cause you're bad. And that's exactly what happened. What's really interesting to me is sort of the AFC North and the discussions because the Cleveland hype train is just out of control. I mean, people think they're a legitimate Superbowl team and Baltimore, I feel like is the most consistent. They're just always good. The Pittsburgh thing is fascinating to me because the PFF guys and Vegas are very skeptical of the

Pittsburgh Steelers. And then with Cincinnati, I think it matters a lot to week one that Joe Burrow seems to be on track. If they were going to play, I have no idea who their backup is. Jeff Driscoll. Like, who is their back? I have no clue. Was it Ryan Finley?

Oh, my God. If they were going to play one of those guys, it would be like the biggest giant W you could possibly write in. But with Joe Burrow on track, I mean, I feel like the schedule is hard because of those two divisions. When we looked at it at first, and I think a lot of the numbers people had, it's sort of middle of the pack. But if Pittsburgh even slightly overachieves, the rest of that division is not going to be easy and the west teams are not going to be easy i don't know like i i maybe i'm buying into like ota hype but i feel a little like it's like it's a little stronger than i did at the beginning of

the season so that brandon allen is the cincinnati backup hey by the way, which who I believe the Vikings faced him when he was with the Broncos and they needed like a miraculous comeback two years ago. Yep. That was the J Ron curse game where he broke up the pass at the very end of the game. Yeah. And like six breakups in like the final drive. It was incredible. Uh, I, I think somebody in the AFC North flops. And right now the money would be on Pittsburgh being that team. And then between Baltimore and Cleveland, one of them will probably be great. And one of them will probably be like good, but disappointing for the fans. Because both of those teams probably want to go 13 and 4.

And one of them will go 10-7. One of them will go, you know, 14-3, be the cream of the crop. And then the Steelers will be stuck at 7-10. Okay. How are you feeling about the Vikings special team unit after watching three OTAs? Oh. Oh, man. Did anyone text you about what happened yesterday?

No. Oh, about K.J. Osborne. Yes. Courtney sent me said, okay. The KJ Osborne ran into Perry Nickerson. I don't know how that you guys explain how that happened. Yeah. Let me, let me narrate, let me narrate it for you. This was a, I thought Marwin Maloof was coaching him up because this was a Marwin Maloofian blunder. Um, so KJ Osborne is taking a punt. Oh, okay punt okay cool it's like a live punt drill oh kj osborne must be the you know the punt guy again this year all right this is interesting um i don't know who punted it it was either you know cole quitter rosenberg i think it was cole quit um wobbles it like short and left so osborne is charging charging charging and i i assume he

like gave the fair catch signal or whatever but he like lowers his helmet and blocks perry nickerson with like helmet first and nickerson's wearing a soft shell like nickerson is totally like exposed and they collide and there was like there was such like a hush it was crazy um and I'm guessing Osborne just got like reamed for doing that because that is like huge no-no um but it was like one of the most intense like training camp OTA hits that I've seen so we're assuming that KJ Osborne is still bad, like for the purposes of my next comment. I OK, I'm going to be honest about something, though. He's like caught my eye like three or four times as a receiver in the last couple of weeks.

I don't think he's a good punt returner, but he might be a better receiver than we're letting on. OK, let's just, I'm going to leave that aside. Cause I'm going to, I'm going to need to be proven that because anyone who's behind Chad BB has no case to argue that they're secretly good. Hey everyone. I want to tell you about our friends.

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They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how scout logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company think about the negative value the below zero war of the draft picks that are special teamers. I mean, from, okay. Blair was like good for a year, but you know, misses the field goal that matters. And Jeff Locke was not a good punter. He was a draft pick, uh, Daniel Carlson, Austin cutting KJ Osborne. And, uh, I guess

Kanae Wong Wu you're up next, but even Chisna, you forgot about Chisna Dan. Well, he wasn't, he wasn't a draft pick. I'm sorry. But, but Rodney Adams, they talked about, Oh, this is going to be our next punt and kick returner. He's so special with the ball in his hands. It's just that, I mean, who keeps letting the special teamers get drafted? It's actually negative because they give them chances. If these were just guys who were not drafted and they came in and you saw them play, you'd be like, Oh, well, you're just not on the team.

But when you draft them, you feel like you have to keep them and play them and then they're not good. And then they hurt you. And now they're hurting Perry Nickerson. Come on. We just look for a second. Now the Vikings took Osborne in the fifth round he was selected bear with me bear with me 176 176 all right so on the board at that time he could have taken michael on wenwu on when you line england guard who was the best rookie lineman in the league last year

you know okay all right do you have any or i'll continue the rapid fire go ahead um how you feeling about deshaun watson these days isn't that weird how it was the biggest storyline of the offseason? Hands down. Sean Watson is gone. They are trading him somewhere. Where are they going to trade him? We had Vikings fans like Photoshopping him as a Viking, which was just, you know, I mean, always preposterous, but it was happening.

And then all of a sudden the spigot just turns off the minute that, I don't know, 700 masseuses come out and say, yeah, the guy's doing weird stuff to us. It seems like he's going to get suspended maybe indefinitely until this is figured out. It feels a lot like the Antonio Brown situation where maybe there's just a lost year there and then it's settled or there's some sort of, I don't know, case that goes, I don't know. Does it go to trial? I have no idea. Banned for life seems very unlikely though, to me still. After what Ben Roethlisberger did, after what Jameis Winston did, there have been numerous players. I mean, Ray Lewis, there have been a lot of players who have done some bad things and they have returned to play. And I expect that Deshaun Watson will, but I mean who's he gonna play for when's he gonna play would anyone want him now

like yeah what's up with that it's all very icky to me like i don't i don't like thinking about the number one the the allegations i don't like thinking about that. And I don't like thinking about teams having to make the choice. Like, are we going to give up a, let's say that his price is now dropped significantly to like a third round pick. Teams having to make the choice like, well, like, is it worth it to give up a first round pick for a serial like harasser? Or is it like worth a first round pick for a serial like harasser or is it like worth a fourth round pick um that's just an unfortunate situation for teams to be in and you know they're talking about denver like watson wants to go to denver well does george payton want that to be his first big move i wouldn't want it to be um so i i think that this needs to get settled in a court of law i would i would hope or settled

which is probably what watson wants and if it gets settled then that probably hushes up more details because the details that have leaked do not make watson look good and i think that if any like one of these cases kind of like you know like it are it already went too far but if it went further with Watson and some of the you know the the allegers or the accusers you know that then we're dealing with some pretty serious pretty serious stuff and it's already serious so um yeah it just makes me like squirmy kind of talking about it and like and just having to think of teams making business decisions about something that's kind of this, this severe.

Well, think about the bucks in the Browns, the Browns pick up Kareem hunt and he's good. And the bucks pick up Antonio Brown and he's good. And he helps them win a super bowl. And this has long been a thing. And Jerry Jones, I feel like was ahead of the curve on this. If you either just wait till the storm passes on these things everyone moves on uh and and that's exactly what pittsburgh did

with ben roethlisberger as for a few weeks it was really rough and everyone was talking about it and then everyone just forgot and then roethlisberger got married so everyone decided oh he must be fine like it just like wait a minute let's go back and talk about what he was accused of. Um, and the, the same thing goes for even Jeff Gladney, where people have asked me, why haven't they cut Jeff Gladney yet? Well, part of it is salary cap reasons. Um, but the other thing is this is a tough spot because if you have a guy who is troubled, let's just use that word in some way, and you cut him, someone else picks him up. And then it's like, oh, well, he's getting his second chance in the league.

And no one seems to talk about it. Even Philadelphia with Mike Vick, where they weathered the storm. Then he gets in the game. He plays pretty well. And everyone is behind him all of a sudden. I think the same thing would go for Deshaun Watson, where as soon as he was traded to the Broncos, everyone would go, oh, okay, well, I guess all that's in the past now.

And they'll talk about it on some broadcasts for maybe like the first two weeks. But you know, the NFL is whispering in their ear. Let's not spending too much time on Deshaun Watson and touching masseuses and stuff, right? Like that's just what the nfl does they clearly quell some of these things and even with the rothasberger deal i remember a lot of sort of both sides isms from the broadcasts and from the media with rothasberger that was really gross and i would imagine you're going to get a lot of the same talking around it tiptoeing a little bit and then moving on quickly.

By week six, they no longer mentioned Deshaun Watson was accused of all of these things. And truthfully, I have never, and you can tell me how you feel about it. I have never found a good spot where I feel confident in talking about what the NFL should do with these things. So for example, I feel very confident the Vikings should not run on second down and 10 very often. Like I'm very confident and feel solid in saying that should the NFL ban people for life? I don't know.

Should they like, how much should they punish people to get the message across? How many times of doing something should it be? How should fans feel about these players? Because everyone becomes outraged when fans cheer for players on their team who have some sort of troubled past. It's like, should I watch a Kevin Spacey movie or not? I really don't know. And that's not to forgive anyone for doing this or saying that you're not responsible, because if you do something to embarrass your company, they might fire you. But we're also dealing with a very different type of standard here with rare skill sets for people. So I don't know how you feel about I've never known how to effectively write about it, talk about it, or even exactly think about players who have these type of things off the field. Yeah. I mean, even right now, like my gears are turning,

just thinking about how to communicate my confusion about it and the NFL attempts to set up, you know, policies to sort of make it an even playing field so that, you know, everyone gets, I guess, their opportunity to, you know, serve a suspension and then potentially come back. And if you're a repeat offender, it's a longer suspension. But, you know, there does sometimes seem to be an unfair dichotomy where, like, you know, a substance abuse thing is treated, you know, the same or harsher even than like a violent crime, a crime against somebody else. Whereas, you know, if you're taking steroids, that's just something you're doing to you or, you know, something that's very, very like, you know, if somebody committed a heinous act once versus someone committing something like multiple times, like Watson, who appears to be a serial whatever it is, you know there's no video evidence, there is enough ambiguity that I think human nature is to forget it. Cause we, we don't have the image. We don't have the

images that we've seen there. They have not been implanted and human nature is also probably a little bit that, you know, the show must go on for our entertainment as unfortunate as that is. And the wheels just keep turning. And I don't know if I can make any like final judgments on how Gladney should be treated. Just that it should be like taken very seriously. And like he should, you know,

whatever happens to him legally, you know, should that, that should take precedent. And then the league can make a judgment, you know, should that, that should take precedent. And, um, then the league can make a judgment, you know, from there, but as long as it's all taken like seriously and stuff isn't swept under the rug, I think that's the first place to start. Which I feel like is exactly the NFL. The most NFL thing ever to me was writing end racism in the end zone. Like, Oh, nailed it.

That'll do it. You know, like, come on guys, you blackballed Colin Kaepernick. And then you're going to write end racism in the end zone. I just, the most half-ass type of see, we did something. So we're good here. We're good here. And that's exactly, remember after Ray Rice, they had like Eli Manning do a PSA about how you shouldn't hit women. Like we're good now. Right? Like Eli Manning said, don't hit the ladies. We're good. Like, come on, man. We suspended him.

So it's fine. We're all set. But I also don't know how much responsibility the NFL should have toward these people when there is a legal system. So that's another part of it that I've always gotten into. Like there is a case to say that it is not the NFL's problem, like that, that it's not the Minnesota Vikings problem.

If Jeff Gladney has an off the field issue, that's Jeff Gladney and the law. Now that's kind of callous and it makes it sound like I don't care about society, which I do care about society. I just don't know how much responsibility the NFL should carry for this. And you mentioned the drug stuff.

Like at some point here very soon, they're gonna declare that weed is totally fine for players to use. Remember when they're suspending people right and left for using weed? It just is like outrageous. And a lot of it seemed to make them look worse by suspending someone that for things that are legal in their state, you know? So I think that sort of the,

the moral thing is so much more of the NFL trying to look like they care for their PR reasons and not actually ever really caring, but just doing sort of a half measure and then trying to like move on as quickly as possible. And that's what I expect to happen with all of these issues. And, um, you know, I don't know, like it's a callous view, but I think it's also probably accurate that Deshaun Watson in 2022 is playing quarterback for somebody. Uh, I just, I mean, I don't know if that's going to happen this year or next year or how it ends up playing out, but I would guess that he probably ends up getting suspended for like a year and then he's back. That's, that would be my estimate. So anyway, we took

a long time on that. So I just want to ask one more, which is how we feel in about the greatness of Ryan Fitzpatrick after he went viral on multiple occasions, including once for having a giant bug in his beard. Uh, and the other one was, he was holding up a sign that was saying like, you know, like your kids would go into school first day of school type of thing. And he said, my friends are Curtis and Terry Curtis, Samuel, Terry McLaurin. Uh, my love for Ryan Fitzpatrick is not just because of the stuff that you see on the internet, but he was in Buffalo when I was in Buffalo when I first started my career. He's every bit as awesome as it seems is the reality to this.

Just the players will tell you that the reporters who cover them will tell you that. And I would love to see Ryan Fitzpatrick go like 12 and five or something with football team and just have this one magical last hurrah. Like when Vinny Testaverde went 12 and one as a starter for the jets, I'd, I would just love to see it. So give me a, how you feeling about like, you love to see it so far in the off season, because I love to see Ryan Fitzpatrick sort of getting his flowers as the great, the all time great journeyman starting quarterback. Yeah, it would be the best.

Now, do you know what his career winning percentage is for someone like as celebrated as Ryan Fitzpatrick? Oh, it's terrible. It's terrible. It's like, uh, I guess like he's probably maybe 56 and 74 or something. Right. It's, it's horrible. Um, yeah, it's even worse than you guessed. It's 59 and 86 and one. So he's got a four Oh seven winning percentage. So percentage so um so that part to me is funny but like how do you not like

the guy you know seventh round harvard goes everywhere has the beard guys with beards are just likable i mean that that's why kirk did better in 2019 i think because he grew the beard out um but but i'm all for it i'm in and And I think Washington is in too, right? I mean, do they have anyone else kind of climbing up the ladder there besides Heineke? No, I don't think so. It's Fitzpatrick's team. Yep. Yep. I think with Fitzpatrick, the reality of him is he's kind of like, this would be for older fans, like Chris Chandler, where he was usually brought in to just kind of take a space. Like he was a good enough quarterback to be a starter, but never better than like the 25th

best quarterback in the league and always to be the bridge to somebody else like he was with Tua. I mean, if he's playing with the Miami Dolphins right now, he could probably go 10 and six, but they never use him for that. Everyone always uses him to be the guy who is the bridge to the next quarterback and the teams that have tried to make him their franchise quarterback, the bills, the jets at one point brought it back. It just doesn't really work for a long period of time, but he showed with the jets. And I think once with the Texans that one year of Ryan Fitzpatrick gunslinging down the field

every so often can just catch fire. And I think it'd be super fun. That division is kind of garbage. So I, I would love to see it for him. Appreciate you as always Sam and enjoyed the conversation and we'll do it again very soon. And I'm supposed to catch up. We'll see if this happens, supposed to catch up with Courtney Cronin as she is in between flights. This is her promise. We should keep tracks of when Courtney promises to podcast because she claims that she is going to record for Monday in between flights.

And I have done this before. I have interviewed people like that. I've had to call back for interviews or something in between flights, but I'm not seeing it happening. So we'll see. Yeah, I'd lay down five spot on that. Okay, all right, bet then. Milkshake.

Milkshake bet that Courtney podcast, if she does podcast, even though I brought it up, if she does podcast with me from an airport, then I get five bucks. And if she doesn't, then you get five or no, a milkshake, then you get a milkshake. All right. We've got this worked out and we'll catch you all tomorrow. Then maybe we'll see.