Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Minnesota Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer breaks down Vikings camp-opening press conference

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Andrew Krammer of the Minnesota Star Tribune to discuss the Vikings' training camp-opening press conference and everything Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said about the 2025 Vikings.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here along with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. And yes, we are inside TCO Performance Center because we just got done listening to Quasi da Fomensa and Kevin O'Connell talk before training camp in their pre-camp press conference. So we're going to talk about what we heard, what we didn't hear, and what we expect to see in training camp. Andrew Kramer, we are freaking back, my friend. We're so back.

That's all we got to say. We're so back. Football's back. We were handling an actual Duke today, the Duke of football, for those of you who aren't initiated. Why does it say that? Do you know why a football says the Duke on it? It was called the Duke way back when,

and that's just kind of what they stuck with. Yeah, I thought you knew. Yeah, and that's why they call it the official one is always called the Duke. I did not know that. I saw one get made at the Super Bowl experience when it was in Minnesota. Very, very cool.

Would highly recommend. But let's get right into these updates and takeaways from Kwesi Daphalmensa and Kevin O'Connell's press conference. I want to start right out with just JJ McCarthy and what O'Connell had to say. I asked Kevin about a comment that was made by Harrison Phillips a couple of weeks ago in mini camp where Harrison Phillips compared JJ McCarthy to Josh Allen. Obviously, he was not comparing it skill set wise, size, arm strength or

accomplishment. His point was that he was in Buffalo when Josh Allen just started his career and he was so impressed by the way he handled himself as the leader and he thought he saw a lot of the same things. And what I wrote down from Kevin O'Connell, the word that he used was presence that JJ McCarthy has that I think sells the veterans because they recognize when a quarterback as a leader has a natural presence. And the other thing that O'Connell said was that

they feel like they have done a great job of putting other leaders around JJ McCarthy. So he does not have to be this entire franchise right from the start, he can be himself. And he's got Aaron Jones, Justin Jefferson, TJ Hockinson, Christian Derisaw, Brian O'Neill, all these guys who have been in the league for some time. But what did you think of what O'Connell said about McCarthy taking over a team that has so many veterans as a young guy and the challenge that's ahead for McCarthy doing that?

Yeah, it's not too dissimilar to what we heard him talk about Sam Darnold last year in terms of a guy new to the system coming in, taking it over. And now JJ has been through a year of not a year of practices, but at least a year of classroom time with this system, but he's managing expectations like a former quarterback and Kevin O'Connell wants to do. He doesn't want people going out there, putting out MVP ballots for this kid quite yet, he needs to play his first NFL snap, which will come a week one in his first NFL game. So to me, he's talking about the presence.

He's not trying to get too far ahead and say, yeah, he can be like Josh Allen in any way, shape or form otherwise. But Harrison Phillips said that very well last spring too and saying it's about the power he understands that he has in this building as such a young person at 22, I believe years old at this point, he's a young person at 22. Harrison Phillips said that very well last spring too and saying it's about the power he understands that he has in this building as such A young person at 22 I believe years old at this point to know, you know I need to talk to the 53rd guy on the roster the 80th guy on the roster

I need to be a galvanizing presence in a way that a franchise quarterback is and so for a young guy to understand that I does think I do think it says a lot and we both have kind of noticed that behind the scenes. Just hearing what people have to say about him who are close to him, hearing what JJ says himself. This kid is very poised and mature for being so inexperienced, both on the football field and in life. And I also thought it was interesting

that O'Connell mentioned game manager. I think it was a different question when he brought up about McCarthy and the whole game manager and how all 32 guys need to manage the game and it feels he's already kind of sandbagging the notion that JJ is gonna be asked to be a game manager. He didn't say that but if that's the case I don't think they're gonna ask him to do too much and I don't think that's the wrong thing. You need this kid to get in there and drive a really really fast car that can go and when you erase you just don't

need him to do too much while doing it. I think it's the most interesting question of training camp in general is just how much ends up on JJ McCarthy's shoulders. Is it the offense that we saw for Sam Darnold? And something that I thought about, and I know he's probably not going to throw downfield as often as Sam Darnold did, which was all the time. But this was an offense that Kevin O'Connell,

Josh McCown, Wes Phillips, they built for JJ McCarthy last year. And it just so happened that it ended up being Sam Darnold that ran it. But this was the offense that he learned last year was the same one that we saw be one of the best in the NFL in terms of explosives, lean on the quarterback a lot, have a lot of Xs and Os,

motions and shifts and adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Like all that stuff was built with J.J. McCarthy here in the building. So I don't think it's going to be a whole heck of a lot different, but I do think that Kevin O'Connell has probably watched television and heard people say, J.J. McCarthy's just a game manager. That's what he was at Michigan.

As if that wasn't like two years ago now. And as if he wasn't 20 when he was game managing. That matters the context. And Justin Herbert's still game managing under Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers. But I'm sure that he that sort of maybe stuck in his craw a little bit that, you know, people have looked at McCarthy that way since the time he was drafted. So maybe trying to disp craw a little bit, that people have looked at McCarthy that way

since the time he was drafted, so maybe trying to dispel a little bit of that. And I think it also dovetails into a comment that Quecida-Felmenza made about how he built the team. And he said that we want to be able to win a lot of different types of fights. And now that is something that really stood out to me this off season is I think they saw what got them beat last year by the Rams and went out and attempted to correct every single one of those things that went wrong for them.

And I think they did a really good job of that. So if you are J.J. McCarthy and you're in a game where you're getting pressured all the time, you don't have to just win on nine step drops and you don't have to just win on deep shots. You can win by handing the ball off. You can win on maybe God forbid a screen pass to your running back or to a wide receiver maybe, the way that it's built. I think they really identified what ailed them

and attacked those weaknesses by the way they built the roster around JJ McCarthy. Yeah, they're trying to become a complete team. And they're talking about, O'Connell's talking about where they're at in their organizational journey, not just quarterback journeys. Now we're talking about organizational journeys, but it's true to the point that this whole offseason has been about more is required and becoming a complete team to achieve that spending, spilling money over the bar the way that they did to go get Jonathan Allen, Will Frys,

Javon Hargrave, Ryan Kelly, all these guys, because they were not tough enough on the lines of scrimmage. They were not tough enough in not moving the play style, as Kevin O'Connell calls it. Mike Zimmer would have said, be more physical. Just push it. Be a bully.

Push these guys. Dent people, as Tony Sperano would say. So O'Connell likes to say play style is a soft way to not call us O'Lyman soft. But these guys aren't on paper soft anymore. These are an entirely new interior group that should turn this into more of a run or run balanced offense, certainly not run first, I wouldn't think,

but a more balanced offense in that sense, where they can lean on the run game in all situations, not just between the 20s, inside the 20, inside the 10, inside the five, where they couldn't. And I think all of that is to say that if JJ McCarthy doesn't have to throw 35 touchdown passes like Sam Darnold did, that doesn't make them a failure. It means that they want to win in different ways. And last year, they had to win on Sam Darnold's arm.

And when Sam Darnold couldn't do it in the playoffs or against Detroit, we saw what happened. They lost. Well, it became downright ridiculous in Detroit where they couldn't even hand the ball off inside of the 20 yard line. And there was a very serious attempt to change that now, especially with Jordan Mason in the backfield, but just circling this back to JJ McCarthy and his mentality going into this camp, what I saw from him and OTAs and mini camp,

aside from, hey, guy can still throw football, look, it still goes whoosh right by ya, it's very fast. I saw a lot of confidence from him, even at times where things didn't go that great. We saw, I think, maybe a total of four or five practices, five maybe, in OTAs and mini camp, and there were ones that looked really good. And there were a couple of days that everything didn't click all that well.

But we didn't see signs of frustration from him. We didn't see him compiling bad reps, that kind of thing. And I think that what can guide JJ McCarthy through and he can really find himself here in this camp is more and more of that confidence of like, I got to go prove that I'm the dude every single day, but he can also bounce back from those moments where he's not. And I think there have been other quarterbacks and I would even throw Kirk into this sometimes, like not necessarily in practice, but sometimes Kirk would

kind of let things compile a little bit in an individual game or even in an individual practice, where I'm not referencing the time he threw the ball into the street. But even sometimes in a practice, it would feel like, all right, this is not going well. And he's having a little bit of trouble getting it back on the tracks, where I just don't think that he ever

gets down on himself. And he has a natural energy that you can pick up from, even from watching from the sidelines, that I think will help with the ups and downs. But there is actual adversity through a camp every single year. You know, people get hurt, bad practices, things go tough. It's a hundred degrees out there with 97% humidity and everybody's frustrated and tired. I just think he's one of those in de fatigable type of people that is going to fly through all of that.

I do think those are some of the intangibles that have led the Vikings to drafting him 10th overall and making him the fifth of those six quarterbacks taken in the first round that year. In his first practice, that rookie mini camp the following month after he got drafted, there was a great story about JJ and the late Kyrie Jackson telling me about how that first rookie mini camp,

JJ is talking crap to him in the locker room saying, I'm going to throw more completions. Or no, you guys won't have three or more incompletions. There's something like that. He said, free balls won't touch the ground today. And when the fourth one touched the ground, Kyrie's talking about how immediately JJ's

looking at the defense, like accepting the crap he's about to take. Like, come on, give it to me. I know I deserve it. Like, this kid was making bets before his first practice. I know it was just against rookies, but he came in with utter confidence that you were joking bets, not, not putting the cash down, not, no, there were no dice being thrown in the corners of locker rooms, but, um, he's

got confidence for being the youngest of those six first round quarterbacks from to walk in there and do that. Kevin O'Connell said to me later on that year when doing a story on Kyrie about how that, that said a lot to me about JJ too as much as Kyrie in that moment. And that this kid is just kind of built and doesn't think that things are too big for him. The lights are not too bright for him. And we're going to get, they are going to get the ultimate test for him when it comes

to Monday night football, soldier field, and then Sunday night football, Atlanta Falcons to open this season. But I think you're right. Everything we've seen up to this point shows that he should have the resiliency to go through a training camp that just naturally will kick you. It'll kick you. It'll send you down. You're going to get intercepted by Harrison Smith.

You're going to get, uh, you know, sacked quote unquote by Jonathan Allen and all these guys over and over again, from what Flores is throwing at you. But he seems to have that resiliency so far. And at least what we've seen from him since the injury would seem to verify and confirm that. I also think that there is something about JJ McCarthy of I always expected to be here, so why would I be in over my head? Or why would I be surprised?

I mean, this is somebody who went to high school in Chicago and won a championship there, and then went to IMG and won a championship there during the pandemic. And then went to Michigan and won a championship there who has designed his life, as he said, since fifth grade to be an NFL quarterback. Like this, walking out onto this field is, yes, this is what I expected.

This is what Jim Harbaugh told me that I could do. I'm sure that maybe part of the decision to go to Michigan was that Jim Harbaugh was an NFL quarterback and is the type of guy who can prepare you with an NFL style offense as much as it can possibly be in college. So every time we've watched him walk out there so far, we have seen someone who's very comfortable

in this environment and very comfortable with other guys who are dogs or other guys who have had a lot of success in the NFL. There doesn't seem to be an intimidation factor to lead those guys. But as you said, this will be an ultimate test of that because it's not mini camp, it's not seven on seven. It does get violent and scary in camp.

And we've seen other quarterbacks in practices who honestly just look terrified. Yep. And then the coaches are yelling at him and the receivers are looking around and the office of linemen are frustrated because you're not getting the calls right and they look bad and then it can all compile. So how he works through that I think will be a challenge that sets the stage for the challenges ahead going to Chicago, playing Atlanta on national TV, playing Joe Burrow

at US Bank Stadium. There is a lot to learn for him just in terms of leadership and confidence to tie it back to the original question. Do you see him playing in the preseason? Ooh, I'm going to say yes. Well, because I think Kirk in 23 played one series. And Darnold played one.

And Darnold played one series. I could see McCarthy playing like four or three series, something like that. The only downside is you're not playing Jefferson. And so, you know, Darasau probably won't be ready for the first preseason game, which is where I would guess this would happen. That's where it happened with Kirk and with Darnold. be ready for the first preseason game, which is where I would guess this would happen. That's where it happened with Kirk and with Darnold.

They played in the first preseason game. How much do you want him out there without his left tackle? How much do you want other starters out there with him? Like, do you want Jalen Naylor out there? Do you want Jordan Addison out there? Do you want Hockinson? Do you tell those guys they got to play, but not Jefferson? That kind of thing. It's a little bit tricky when it comes to that.

Maybe Jefferson would go play a series or two. He showed up at OTAs. He usually doesn't do that. So I don't know. That would be Jefferson's first ever preseason snaps. Because obviously, it came in during the pandemic where they didn't have a preseason, where they canceled it.

And then he never had to play them after being a star. So that would be crazy. I think it's think it's a fascinating question because Kevin O'Connell obviously just does not play his guys in the preseason. We've seen the starting quarterbacks in year one or, or truly, you know, that the first year they're going to start get out there when they're anointed in the preseason, but like you said, the old line isn't going to be together. There's no, I would expect no way Daris is there August 9th against Houston.

I wouldn't expect Will fries to be there August 9th against Houston either. So do you wait until the finale when you might have your whole old line, but then you're only a couple of weeks from the season, like the timing of this will be very interesting to see, because I know we've heard O'Connell talk before about how it's not fair to the quarterback and it's not fair to the other 10 to not put the entire offense out there. No it's a difficult challenge because if you look at the third preseason game that is going to be after joint practices right and O'Connell never has anyone who's a starter play unless he really really wants to see more of you but aside from

that I mean it's been joint practices are treated like preseason games by Kevin O'Connell. They're very physical. They're full speed. And I think that's where McCarthy's going to get the majority of his experiences in those joint practices, especially against a great defense. But I still think you're going to want

him to put on the jersey, go out there. And also, the last time he was out there, he got hurt for the season. Let him go out there, run a series, score a touchdown, come off to the sideline, get that feeling, just get that rep in there, and then the next day be fine. Let him have that happen first before he has to go to Chicago and do it.

Yeah, that's a good point. And the joint practices are a good point because Kevin O'Connell did mention today, too, we heard him say that he's been talking to Vraeble a lot about what those are going to look like. And you know Vrabel is a hard-nosed, tough football coach, does not come from the school of soft knocks. And we're just going to take it easy. These practices won't be that hard. No, I imagine those two might be, maybe he doesn't play McCarthy or maybe he has such a limited view for how they're going to play

him that those two days are going to be pretty intense. Well, and we almost saw the Titans take the Vikings heads off the last time, especially T.R. Tartt got thrown out, got thrown out and had to play in the, in the preseason game. So yeah, I mean, I think that there should be a little bit, but I don't think that there will be a ton of JJ McCarthy. So if you're thinking about tickets to preseason games and you want to see McCarthy, the only one I think you're probably going to see him is the first one. Would be my only guess. That's not anywhere near official.

Let's talk about the injury stuff. Very good news for the Vikings that only two players are on the physically unable to perform list and that would be Gavin Bartholomew, sixth round tight end, and Chaz Chambliss. Get well soon, Chaz, we love your name. Hall of Fame name. It's incredible. For an outside linebacker, perfect. I think he's got a lot of tats. Like he's a Chaz Chambliss. Get well soon, Chaz, we love your name. Hall of Fame name. It's incredible.

For an outside linebacker, perfect. I think he's got a lot of tats, like he's a Chaz Chambliss. But aside from that, the guys who are expected to be starters, Christian Terrasaw and Will Fries, are not on that list, which is enormous for them getting back. Fries, it sounds like is ready to go, but needs a ramp up period, especially learning

about the offense and actually getting out there because he could not do stuff in minicamp yet. And with Christian Derrissaugh, it seemed like O'Connell kept walking up to the line of saying, oh, we're going to get him out there for 11 on 11 soon, and then was like, oh no, I can't say that. I think that maybe. I can't say that. That's how it felt.

And just seeing him out there at mini camp That's something we rarely see if someone is going to miss time in the regular season But of course, it's always possible. It could go into the regular season it's just that O'Connell seemed really excited and reiterated multiple times how pleased he was with Christian Darasaw and his rehab Which made me think that this thing will have a ramp up for sure, but that there is a good chance we see him 11 on 11s. I'm just going to call it sooner than later. That was my impression from Kevin O'Connell. Yeah, I think the optimism

you're referring to is immediately what I thought. Behind the scenes this spring, publicly this spring, and now publicly today with Kevin O'Connell, we've heard people just be really overjoyed about where Christian's at in his recovery. And the fact that he got out there in mandatory mini camp when that wasn't necessarily the idea months prior was great for the team to see. And so now going into this, O'Connell said he'll do individual drills.

He'll work up to the combo, align stuff we do, and then eventually get into team stuff. That all jives with how the Vikings do business when it comes to training. It's July right now. They're going to be super cautious with him. TJ Hockenson came back in, what was it, from that ACL, MCL. He ended up coming back in 10 months, I believe it was,

for Christian Derisaw that puts him right on par with being ready week one if they do the same thing. And so they're not putting that on him. They're not telling Christian you got to be ready for the Bears game. But obviously Christian has to have that. This is me speculating in his own mind of like, I want to be out there as soon as possible. And so they're going to try and hold him back until they can feel comfortable

enough to put them out there. But it's great news because avoiding pup, um, obviously allows him to practice at any point that they want him to, it means he passed a physical, it means that they can start this ramp up period slowly as they want to. And there would be nothing better for JJ McCarthy than week one, having Christian Derrissa block for him. If you're going to play anybody, I'm really not impressed by the bears defensive line, and I think Montez sweat usually rushes from the right side

a lot more than the left side. So, you know know maybe you can survive through that one game but and they went out and got Justin Schoole who's experienced to play a game if he has to but getting him back it's really hard even as a numbers enjoyer to put a number on Christian Derrissa and what he means like we know his BFF grades are great, but it's so much more than that. It's, oh yeah, just take care of that guy. Like we don't have to help you. We don't have to put Josh Oliver over there if we don't want to.

You could put Josh Oliver on Montez Sweat's side and double team him and just leave Christian Darasaw. And I think where it really showed up last year was the run game. We know he's a great pass protector. He's one of the best. But in the run game, I don't think when a tackle is truly freakishly dominant that it gets recognized enough. It's like guards, centers, they get a little more

of that attention for when a team is really good at running. Darasaw is one of the most dominant players in the run game that I can remember. I mean he's like, okay Trent Williams is the all-. And he's right behind that when it comes to dominating in the run game. So they talk about wanting to be able to win fights of different styles. One of the reasons they couldn't win the style of the fight against the Rams

was because they didn't have that guy to run behind or to pass protect. Well, that, as Kwesi said, this offseason, the interior, that's where the run game starts. And if you give up penetration or, or aren't blocking up the middle, the way you should be run plays will just end, even if you're trying to pitch it out wide. And that's why the Vikings struggled so much.

But you're right. Cam Robinson was a lesser player in that aspect. His physicality, Darasauce is just ridiculous for how he can move his feet for how nimble he is. Um, it's just astonishing. And it makes me think of when Danielle Hunter was still here, it would have been 2023, I think, Daniel's last year when these edge rushers, all these positions now do these group things in the off season where they get together, they

share notes, they talk about guys, they go against, how do we beat this guy, that guy? And he said, when guys would get to me and say, dude, what is it about Daris? So like, how do we beat this guy? Hunter be like, I'm not lying to you, man. I would tell them, I don't know. Like, good luck. Here's the moves.

I can have the most success with them, but it only works 35% of the time or whatever, a coin flip, uh, Danielle said. And that's just kind of how it is with that guy's that great. And this was two years ago. And obviously Christian was amazing before he went down midway through last season. And what he adds to this team, it's a force multiplier if you don't have to worry about the other three spots up front. So if you finally have five offensive linemen

you feel good about, if your weakest link is not too weak to where you constantly have to help that side, it allows you to really throw defenses off with doing counters and doing other things and misdirections that you didn't feel comfortable with before. Because, well, with Darasaw, he's always got to help the guard next to him, or we always got to lean CJ Ham to protect in the middle. He can truly be even more of a force multiplier if they can shore up that entire five. Yeah so any

uh positive update on his health is positive for this entire franchise I think and even just when you look at some of the contracts that were handed out this off season, to get his contract done last year was really big for this team as well. Are you interested or not in Rondale Moore? I have become interested in Rondale Moore. But sometimes we've gotten fooled on this type of player in the past. The guy who comes in is, hey, this guy

is going to be wide receiver four. He had 50 catches for some other team one time. But I think this guy's a little bit different than that. Where do you stand on Rondale Moore? Yeah, I'm interested in Rondale Moore in the sense of he can give them something of what they're missing, which is that quick screen game, quick passing game, underneath catch tackle breaking type stuff.

And I had a conversation with Keenan McCardell this off season about Ty Felton. And it kind of bled over into Rondale more because of how similar those two players are. When Keenan was saying, we went into this off season knowing we needed to add speed, but we also needed to add a certain type of speed. We needed an agility, a quickness, a suddenness

that we just didn't have underneath. And so I think when you bring in Ty and you bring in Rondale, Keenan said, those are both guys we brought in in that vein. And Rondale's more ready to contribute now if he's healthy. And that's the key. If he's healthy and he can be what he was at Purdue or early on in Arizona where he scored a 70-plus yard touchdown against the Vikings in a game his rookie year,

they're well aware of what this kid can do. And if he can give you that different element, and especially if Jordan Addison is suspended for the first three games of the season you need somebody to come in there and just kind of mix it up once in a while. I'm not fooled or going to be fooled in the sense of this guy's going to be in every down wide receiver three but get some sub packages in for him do things that you maybe thought you could do with Brandon Powell but he just wasn't that guy. I think Rondale's that much better of an athlete for that kind of stuff. Just to tie this into the press conference,

Quasi at off, Fulmenza said that the National Football League has been in contact with the Vikings, but they do not have a sense for when they will get a ruling on Jordan Addison. And just as it pertained to the roster building, knowing that Addison could miss games, Quacey didn't really go into it. He just said, we're always preparing for the possibility that players are going to miss games. And I think Rondale Moore is the guy that popped

into my head when he said that of, well, this is a guy who, yes, he is a quick guy, like quick game, screen, that type of player, but he did develop over a couple of years into a more complete wide receiver with the Arizona Cardinals. And as a wide receiver three, if everybody gets bumped up a spot, I think with his experience, if he's 100%, which is a huge if coming off a major injury.

He didn't play last year. Right. And he got hurt in camp and wasn't able to do minicamp here. So I mean, you talk about a serious injury to keep you out a full one year. So there is what ifs of, like, does he have the same burst that you're talking about still coming off that injury, because it can change.

But he is a guy that has experience and can be a short type of wide receiver. So it's not just, you're not just talking about, like, oh, well, maybe he's going to spot in here or there. Like he might have to be significant if he makes the team and if it works out. And if he doesn't make the team, then you're talking about Ty Felton or Lucky Jackson

or somebody else having to slot in or going out into the market and seeing if anyone is available. Deshaun Jones was making some noise in mini camp. He was? Deshaun Jones has got many shout outs. And we'll see if catches follow that. Yeah, we'll see. Continuing with the press conference,

Josh Metellus' contract situation came up. And I'll just say it briefly came up, because there was not a lot being said about that from the Vikings brass, which I thought was interesting. There wasn't a wink and a nod. We're going to get it done real soon, my friends. Wink, wink. I even wondered if there would be an announcement today,

because we've had that in the past sometimes, where we show up to the first press conference and they go, surprise. We've got a press. Here's this guy with his new contract. That did not happen. And when asked about whether he would actually participate in everything to start camp I think O'Connell said all the players are here is what he said and accounted for and accounted for so that's good and

Mattel is did tweet something and there was a Mention of not anything bad just about like hey can't wait to get back out there And there was a mention of him being a captain and being a leader. And I didn't know if that was a, Josh, you're a captain, you're a leader, and now I just said it in the media, so you gotta pay attention to that part.

Or if he was saying it as in, yeah, he's going to do everything. But there wasn't a definitive, he's going to do everything in training camp. The only thing I would say is just don't freak out over that because we freaked out over Hockinson once upon a time. We freaked out over Danil Hunter and they got it worked out. Dalvin Cook.

And I still expect that to happen if it's a half practice for Josh Metellus. But it is much better if it's a full practice situation for Metelis. Where do you stand on whether this gets done? And I mean, I think it's just a complicated situation to work through because he's such a unique player. Yeah, the interesting conversation to me

is more about his contract situation and how do they come to some agreement? Because this is a guy who plays so many different positions but isn't necessarily great at all of them. And certainly has strengths and weaknesses. This is the team's evaluation from what we've heard, not just mine, but strengths and weaknesses of what he's good at and what they might not want him to do so often.

So it's not like this is this total Swiss army knife where he can, he's a pro bowler, can do anything. Um, he's, he's great at some things and okay at other things and, and good enough at everything to be a Flores type guy. And obviously Brian Flores loves him, but like Brian Flores, Josh Mattelis only has one year left under his current contract. And I think with Josh, it's difficult because can't bind him. Just got 15 million per year.

And if you're Josh, you're sitting there saying, look, I can do more than him. I might not be as good of a deep say, I don't know if Josh knows this, but he may not be as good of a deep safety as cam is, but he can do it. And then he can do even more up front. He probably wants more than $15 million per year, would be my speculation and guess. The Vikings might not be so willing, seeing as how they haven't got that deal done

to do such a thing. And they didn't want to do it with Cam, because he just left to go sign with Indianapolis. So they elected not to do it with Bynum either. How much do you pay that position when Flores can seemingly interchange them and bring up a Theo Jackson and let a Cam Bynum go? That's a factor in it.

His practice participation is just noise to me. It doesn't matter a whole lot. This guy knows everything about the playbook left and right. He's going to be running through mentally every play as he's watching it while not participating in it. And frankly, Theo Jackson is going to get more work that he wouldn't have gotten. Jay Ward will get more work that's beneficial

and all of these things. I'm sure they want Metellus out there. They always want the full team. But kudos to Josh for taking care of, in my opinion, his own body and understanding that I'm not going to get hurt before getting paid. I think with Josh Metellus, if he showed up two weeks before the season,

like Stephon Gilmore did last year, he'd be fine. And he could play with his team. So it becomes, because it is a little bit on the dramatic side and interesting because it is such a unique type of negotiation. And they, I think they do want Josh Metellus long-term. I think Josh Metellus wants the Vikings longterm, but if they can't agree on a number,

he'll just eventually have to get back to work and play out this season and then become a free agent like everybody else does. I think the only reason it's complicated is because they do like each other because Metellus is important because this organization was the one that gave him a chance and Brian Flores

is the one that gave him a chance and Brian Flores is the one that gave him a chance so usually when both sides want something it ends up working out to get an extension but what I don't want to see any of in comment sections is oh he's greedy or what you know this and that he has signed a contract based on playing 200 snaps and maybe the promise of getting on the field a little bit more. And then over the last two years has played 2000 snaps and has been extremely extremely valuable. And he's a captain. All of that stuff matters. He deserves to be paid more than he is. And they have the cap space to do it. It's just going to be a matter of seeing if it works out. And I do think that that BINUM number makes it more

complicated because I was looking last night at this, Justin Reed made just over $10 million, which I think is probably a comp for him on paper closer to some of the other highest paid safeties. But if you're Metellus, I don't know how you get that out of your head, that your friend who was on the same team, same defense, and you did more in the box, more complicated stuff,

and you end up getting paid that much less, I think that does make it a little tricky. But I don't expect to see a lot of Metellus until this is done. No, I don't either. He did individual drills. He did seven on seven work, but wouldn't do 11 on 11 full team stuff in mini camp.

I wonder if he'll do the same thing or change that. And all these hold-ins take on different forms. Like, if I remember correctly, De Denil Hunter wasn't doing any, he wasn't stepping on the field for seven on seven, 11 on 11. He might just do the warmups or whatever. So these guys approach it different ways. But with Josh, I think it's interesting. He just saw two of his teammates hit free agency

and get really paid. And one of them, obviously, talked about in camp buying them. The other one, Byron Murphy, different position, but secondary player slot player like Josh turned down the Vikings offer before last season and said, you know what, I think I'm gonna have a pretty good year and we'll see if you still want me then now he's got 20 some million a year or 18 million year, whatever it ended up being for Byron Murphy. So Josh sees this. He knows what works.

He knows that these guys, his buddies got paid and he's probably gonna try and do the same thing. Okay, a couple other things to get to. Kevin O'Connell said that last year he ramped up the physicality of training camp from the previous two seasons and that he liked where that was at. So expect a little bit more of a physical camp.

Clearly those joint practices will be the highlight of that, but it was noticeable last year that O'Connell thought, you know what, and maybe after I wasn't happy with the start of the 2023 season and some of the details, going to push the button a little bit harder this year. And that was noticeable. So they're going to stick with that strategy. I think that that's a delicate balance,

because you do have a veteran team. But there's also a lot of players that need experience. There's a lot of undrafted free agents. There's a lot of guys who are lower on the roster that I think need a lot of physical reps to learn how to play, because they might at some point just be in these games if guys end up getting hurt. So it's probably the right approach

to still have that balance for veteran players, like they did with Aaron Jones last year. But the thing I wanted to touch on with you is he, Kevin O'Connell, again, sort of walked up to saying something that I thought he was going to say and then kind of backed off of it. He was asked about the mentality of the team overall and how a lot of the guys came out.

I mean, this was in pre-camp workouts, right? Before even OTAs. And they said to us, like, we're all ready to win here. Like, we've gotten close a couple times. Brian O'Neill said, I don't care if we run or pass 75 times, I just want to win games. I might've cared in the past,

but I certainly don't care now. I just want to win. Jonathan Grenard came out with the more is required kind of thing. They feel it. They feel it. They know that this team is really good. They know that the bar needs to be higher than getting

eliminated in the first round. What did you make of just the way O'Connell phrased that? Because I think he didn't want to say win now. He didn't want to say Super Bowl or bust because he's a smart one. He knows if you say that, old Sports Center is going to be like cut, paste, play, play, play, play, right? So he said, here's the exact phrase, know where we're at in our journey is the way.

Does that not mean it's time to win, my friend? No, it is. And yeah, you don't want to put too fine of a point on it, because then if you give the sound bite, that becomes just the kind of thing they can hang you with if you don't get to that point. And O'Connell knows well enough you can become coach of the year, and then you become Brian

Dable pretty quickly. Did Brian Dable win coach of the year? No, he was assistant. He did. Oh, he did. That's right. He did. Yeah, he did.

2022. Then he became Dable pretty quickly. So he's well aware of that. This is all about managing expectations, much like with JJ McCarthy, but this time for the entire team and for their organization, but we all know this it's it's three years It's two playoff appearances and it's zero playoff wins and O'Connell mentioned that to talking about the playoff success and knowing that that's the next step here for this team and so I don't think they're When they talk about team building and we've heard people behind the scenes and publicly talk about this two to three year window for this team, that is the

eventual goal as the Super Bowl. I don't think you're gonna have anybody quite put those words on it yet at this point for this season and I think it's because of JJ McCarthy. I think it's because no one wants to put that on him at this point. But if you had Sam Darnold coming back, if you had Kirk Cousins, I'm playing well forgive me, but playing well here still, I do think there would be more of that urgency and more of that, like, putting the foot on the gas. But because it's JJ, it is this weird dichotomy of,

we can't put too much on him. We can't say, hey, win now, kid. But also, this team's ready to win now. No, that's right. He doesn't need to add pressure to the quarterback. But I think if he walked in a room, and JJ McCarthy was not in that room, and every other 52 players were there, and he said, guys, it's time to go compete for the Super Bowl for real here.

That's what I'm saying. Not if Netflix were recording. Right. Yeah, right. But then every single guy in that room would not. That's where we're at. They all know. These are NFL players who have been around.

They know when they look across at the O-line, and they see Fry's, and they see Kelly, and they see Derrissa, and O'Neal, like, OK, these guys are good. And then the same thing goes for the D-line. The same thing goes for the running backs. They know the best receiver in the world is here. Like, they know all that.

So and I don't think that they should run away from that at all because of JJ McCarthy. I just think there's too many young quarterbacks who have won recently to be like, oh, well, you know, tip toe around this situation with him. It's like, buddy, you got drafted in the first round. He knows this. Like he's, he won the national championship.

Like he knows you were drafted to come win. You weren't drafted to slowly develop. That's other teams have done that when they tank or something, that's not what this team did. And he watched them last year. He's aware of where the bar has to be. Last thing is what question or thought were you having during the press conference that didn't come up or the or that nobody asked that you thought, well, you know, I would have been a

little interested to hear more about that. That's a good question. Brian Flores' future. That would have been a great question for O'Connell, for Quacey, about this guy to our public knowledge. And I believe my knowledge and what I believe is public knowledge that he is not under contract beyond this year.

Why is that? This is a guy that purportedly everybody loves behind the scenes. And publicly, everybody loves what he's done with this defense. He's gotten head three head coach interviews last year, despite suing the NFL for racial discrimination and their hiring practices. Um, a good question would be for them that we didn't get to would be, why is he not under contract at this point?

What is his status with the team? Because he's a free agent after this year. Yeah, that is interesting. And then also, you know, Wes Phillips got his contract extension. So did Quasey. So did Kevin O'Connell. And I've thought that it might just

be that Brian Flores' worth is unique to this team, which might cause a little bit of a, almost in the same way we're talking about Cambynum, defensive coordinators are paid X, right? But there's almost a defensive coordinator plus type of thing to this. It's like, I don't want to say assistant coach, they have an assistant coach,

and there's no question who is in charge. It is Kevin O'Connell, he runs this organization. Like that's the, so I don't want to say co-coach, it's not that way. It's more of like artists or, do you notice that like he is shaping the roster as well as the scheme. So he's not just, Oh, I'm like drawing it up, but he's also saying this Andrew van ginkle guy, this Blake Cashman guy, give me my Isaiah Rogers, give me, he's like putting the pieces together on the board. This Andrew van Ginkle guy, this Blake Cashman guy. Give me my Isaiah Rogers.

He's like putting the pieces together on the board. And Quasiadapf-Lamence, of course, this is how it's supposed to work with collaboration, is getting him the groceries that he wants to get, and it's working, and you've built it. And that might cause a little bit of, like, hey, I'm a little more valuable than a guy that just goes into a room and draws up a scheme and then has my assistant coaches

Teach it and there also might be another part of it too that like everybody's a businessman He might look at it as if I hit free agency as a defensive coordinator We don't see this very often but what if you have a top five defensive line or a defensive defensive unit and you end up going to the NFC championship game based on your defense. And then you're a free agent. Like how much money can you get from some other organization to turn around their defense? I mean, you, you gotta have that in the back of your mind at least.

Yeah. He's talked about how he loves Minnesota though. He's talked about how he beat, he said at least that he loves it here. His family loves it here. Doesn't want to move them just for anything. And so for him to take those three head coaching interviews this off season shows an interest. He obviously still wants to be a head coach again someday.

I think that's his goal. And so to hit free agency and become a defensive coordinator would be interesting to be, to become a DC again, would be interesting if that's the route it takes, I will say this though, when quasi-Odofimensa got his deal done, it was no coincidence that Ryan Grigson and Demetri Demetrius Washington got promotions right after that. It was because quasi helped get his buddies promotions within his negotiations. Kevin O'Connell's word carries heavily in this organization.

And it's just interesting. I wonder how much he wants Brian to get resigned beyond this season. Um, because if he really, really did, I would have a feeling that this might be done by now. And I don't know. And that's the unknown at this point, which is why I wish I would have asked that question at this press conference. Well, we toss a little drama right there and at the end.

Give me in 15 seconds your favorite position battle in this training camp. Ooh, defensive line. The defensive line interior will be so hard to pair down to the 53. Not just, obviously we know what the starters will be, but the second wave, how much will there be a rotation? Who's going to get cut when you add Tyrium Ingram Dawkins to all the guys that you had last year, Taki, Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake, Rodriguez.

It's going to be a fun group to watch. I struggled with it in my 53-man projection, so we will see how it turns out. Andrew Kramer, Star Tribune, make sure that you are reading that every single day at startribune.com. .com. It still is. We have a website.

Yeah, that's on the internet. We print Birdcage Liner sometimes. Yeah, and you also have YouT YouTube's and podcasts access Vikings. So you need to check all that out. So thank you for your time, sir. And, uh, I will see you out there with all sorts of sunscreen on. We'll see you then. Thanks everybody for watching slash listening.

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